I'm really enjoying Joe Boyd's White Bicycles.

I just finished my annual reading of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I picked up a whole stack of books recently, ranging from Paul Auster's New York trilogy to Rose Madder by Stephen King and some good old swords and demons fantasy by Glen Cook. Wasn't sure where to start, but I must be cruising on fantasy mode, because I went with Cook. I like his use of gritty realism amidst all the fantasmagoria.

I also picked up a couple of collections of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. On nights when I like to unwind with bong hits, I'm usually a bit too fuzzy to read myself to sleep, which is my usual habit. I find graphic fiction the perfect semi-brainer in those circumstances.

sunlore wrote:Currently, Richard Meltzer's A Whore Just Like the Rest, an anthology of Meltzer's writings on rock music and such. I imagine most people are familiar with his stuff here.

Awesome book! Very inspiring, in that you can feel the passion articulated through the weird syntax and typography. Very funny fellow, too.

Ty Webb wrote:Paul Auster

I am completely moony about Paul Auster. I would read anything he wrote, even if it were a package of corn flakes.

Continuing the John O'Hara mission, last night I read 'The Farmer's Hotel' in one sitting. Gripping and tight and another nicely hidden twist. He doesn't so much construct plots as plant mines for you to step on.

It has a great cover too, and at the end of the book is a mostly blank page, save for an arrow and the words 'TURN THE PAGE FOR A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

Over the page is a double-page advert for a paperback edition of 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley. 'IT'S COMING!'

Chapter Two wrote:I just read 'Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell' by Suzanne Clarke. It just came out in September, but she's been writing it for ten years. all about the return of magic to England in the early eighteenth century after its absence for three hundred years, and the fact that England is built upon magic. and about its real king.

I just found out that Suzanne Clark has a new collection of short stories out, The Ladies of Grace Adieu. So that's me sorted for the next however long it takes.

I made the above post about Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2004, and I've since had a conversation in which I was asked to name a favourite book and I said that one. I really recommend it. It's a beautiful piece of work. Jane Austen on mushrooms. So beautifully written, so wonderfully imaginative, and funny as fuck. It's a big book, but once you begin you'll be glad that it's so big. Read it now before the film is completed, because - as is the way of these things - the film won't do it justice. Honestly, read it, you'll love it.

-Harry Partch biography

-Morton Feldman Says

-Thomas Bernhard, Frost

Although busy writing papers, I've been finding the time to switch between Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers and Darwin's The Descent of Man

I'll finish them over the Christmas break and then be able to comment.

Just finished:

David Sedaris's Naked

Now reading:

Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting

and

Lee Jones's Winning Low Limit Hold'Em

chopjob wrote:-Harry Partch biography

-Morton Feldman Says

-Thomas Bernhard, Frost

Let's have a drink sometime.

I'm currently reading a book that I somehow never read earlier: Paul Bowles's The Sheltering Sky.

This book was clearly written by a young man, for the edification of other young adults.

I find all the characters in this book to be insufferable. But I'm sort of okay with it. The book isn't badly written.

"Port" and "Kit" (female). The names of the main characters in this book are stupid.