What are you reading these days?
- Thread starter windhoek
- Start date
paulfromcamden
Baffled
The Vinyl Detective: Flip Back. It can be a bit cheesy but I really enjoy this series - a middle-aged record dealer who spends his days trawling charity shops with his improbably glamorous American girlfriend gets drawn into solving unlikely mysteries. Lots of nerdy references to Garrard turntables, Quad ESLs etc. It's a little bit like Jonathan Creek but with records.
Amazon Link
Amazon Link
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Darkagesound
pfm Member
I started Ulysses by James Joyce on Friday. Planning to read one chapter a day. Reading it alongside Harry Blamires' The New Bloomsday Book. Pretentious, I know, but it has sat on my shelves for many years and this year marks the centenary of its publication, so it's now or never!
paulfromcamden
Baffled
I read it years ago to coincide with one of the anniversaries. When I bought it the woman in the shop raised an eyebrow and said "Good luck!". I got about halfway through before I invested in the Cliff Notes to guide me through.
Good luck!
vince rocker
pfm Member
I went to Dublin for Bloomsday back in the mid 80s with some friends who were studying Ulysses. We went to the Martello Tower to see an actor from the Abbey Theatre perform parts of the book as a monologue, and afterwards I found it helped me to make sense of the words if I read to myself in a very poor attempt at a Dublin accent. Getting the rhythm was the key for me, it made the prose much more readable.
mjw
pfm Member
Darkagesound
pfm Member
Ulysses has had to go on hold for the moment (4 chapters in) as I realised I have to read our next book group title: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis by early November. Four chapters in on this one and the jury is still out.
This sounds intriguing - I'm hoping to see the Cezanne exhibition too, so I will need to check it out.
This sounds intriguing - I'm hoping to see the Cezanne exhibition too, so I will need to check it out.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
The Fancy - a wartime novel by Monica Dickens, about a group of women (and a few blokes) working in a aircraft factory near London. It's interesting partly from a social history point of view (eg I hadn't realised that 'milk bars' and jukeboxes were around as early as the 1940s) and partly because my mother worked in an aircraft factory during WWII.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
I was chuffed to find I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol by Glen Matlock in the Cats Protection charity shop yesterday.
narabdela
who?
That brought back memories!
I remember reading, and enjoying, a few of her novels about forty odd years ago. Interesting to note also that she was Charles Dickens' great-granddaughter.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
I've never read any of her books, and was only vaguely aware of her because my older sister used to read her books about horses. Then we were clearing out some of my daughter's books recently, and Mrs H found a Monica Dickens book among them which she thoroughly enjoyed, and has started reading through her novels and autobiographical books. I'm picking them up as she finishes them!
Guitar Beard
pfm Member
Just finished reading 1984
One of those books I never got round to reading until now. I found the book chilling in its use of 'fake news', manipulation, threat and fear of others, all put together in a society designed solely to give power to a small elite with no accountability.
I never realised it was actually the Brexit manifesto - albeit written 67 years before the vote.
Well worth a read although I found the writing style a bit ponderous at times and would skim the odd page of waffle, flashback and overly described concepts. For those reasons I did find it hard going and would probably have stopped reading it half way through if it wasn't for the fact British politics seem to be currently modelled on it, and I wanted to get to the end
One of those books I never got round to reading until now. I found the book chilling in its use of 'fake news', manipulation, threat and fear of others, all put together in a society designed solely to give power to a small elite with no accountability.
I never realised it was actually the Brexit manifesto - albeit written 67 years before the vote.
Well worth a read although I found the writing style a bit ponderous at times and would skim the odd page of waffle, flashback and overly described concepts. For those reasons I did find it hard going and would probably have stopped reading it half way through if it wasn't for the fact British politics seem to be currently modelled on it, and I wanted to get to the end
davidjt
pfm Member
Tbh I'm struggling with (and skipping) some of his ideas - still an authority worth reading though for fresh insights, food for thought and ways of seeing. Clark is no Robert Hughes, and the complete absence of ego of, say a John Berger would be refreshing. Academics frequently seem to focus on tenure and reputation rather than their audience. So, the latest but maybe not the last word on Cezanne (and Matisse.)
