Books / Literature

Just finished 'Things That We Believe But Cannot Prove'. Basically its snippets of opinions from leading "thinkers" concerning ideas / concepts they believe (or currrently think to believe) but cannot prove. Enjoyable book.

I'm now reading 'The Makings Of A Philosopher' by Collin McGinn.
 
I've started Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, a story about an ordinary guy who discovers an underground world beneath the streets of London. I've heard comparisons with Franz Kafka, Terry Pratchett and can even see a resemblance to Philip Pullman in there but in truth it's a piece of seriously original writing. Funny, dark, full of dry wit and imagination - a damn good read thats been brightening up my lunch breaks no end this week. :)
 
Martin said:
I've started Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, a story about an ordinary guy who discovers an underground world beneath the streets of London. I've heard comparisons with Franz Kafka, Terry Pratchett and can even see a resemblance to Philip Pullman in there but in truth it's a piece of seriously original writing. Funny, dark, full of dry wit and imagination - a damn good read thats been brightening up my lunch breaks no end this week. :)
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Sounds interesting, i've never heard of it before, i will have to look out it :)
 
Charter_Mage said:
Martin said:
I've started Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, a story about an ordinary guy who discovers an underground world beneath the streets of London. I've heard comparisons with Franz Kafka, Terry Pratchett and can even see a resemblance to Philip Pullman in there but in truth it's a piece of seriously original writing. Funny, dark, full of dry wit and imagination - a damn good read thats been brightening up my lunch breaks no end this week. :)
Click to expand...
Sounds interesting, i've never heard of it before, i will have to look out it :)
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Neverwhere is a totally amazing book, read it in one day couldn't put it down the characters are so well thought out. I wish there was a London Below, it'd be cool to check it out. Loved the ending too and the characters of Mr Croup, Mr Vandemaar and of course the ever impressive if not devious The Marquis De Carabas.

Check out Neil Gaimans and Terry Pratchets joint effort 'Good Omens' about the story of Damien the devils child.... if he was brought up by ordinary people. There was a rumour of this being turned into a movie at one point with Johnny Depp as Crowley (Dark Angel responsible for the M25). One of the most original and well put together books I have read and believe me I've read this over and over again and never gotten bored of it.[/b]
 
Reading a book called Unspeak, a non-fiction piece about how terminology is used as a weapon and a way for politicans, corporations and parties with agendas to try and get their ways with things.

For example, if you look at the two contrasting view points in regards to abortion, people who favour it often use "pro-choice" while those who believe it to be morally wrong use "pro-life".

Now by setting out these definitions, a precedent is set by that if you oppose those who believe that abortion is a right women should have, you can be dumped into the anti-choice category (in other words, freedom of choice becomes something challenged because you oppose the right for them to choose). The same applies to those who don't believe in abortion. If you oppose it, you are opposed to pro-life.

Its a lot, lot more complcated that (and clearly not as simple as that either), but I believe it has a strong degree of truth. "Freedom of speech" is a good one too (something I learnt a while ago is that just because I have some opinions on certain issues, I won't express it just for the sake of it.).

Its interesting stuff. Only in the second chapter. All to do with "climate change". The first chapter was to do with society. Amazing book.
 
This weekend I will be sat at work boohoohoo, but I will be re-reading NEVERWHERE as this thread has really made me wanna start it all over again
 
Been making an assault on the books of Haruki Murakami via the convenience of the local library.

I remembered that I had borrowed and read a couple of his from a friend years ago – now with new found Japanese interest I figured the time was ripe to explore some more.
Read South of the Border, West of the Sun and had an increasing sense of déjà-vu as I made my way through it. Once through to the end I managed to conclude that this was indeed one that I had read already :roll:. Not to worry; it was certainly no hardship and at just under 200 pages didn’t take too long. (I think the other book of his I read previously was Sputnik Sweetheart)
Went on to Norwegian Wood, followed by, and intermingled with The Elephant Vanishes, which is a collection of short stories.
Now have Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World waiting for me.

I’ve avoided trying to describe any of them because I think I’ll tie myself in knots - suffice to say I find his writing has a kind of clarity and beauty in its simplicity at times; he doesn’t seem to get bogged down unnecessarily verbose descriptions of things, just cuts to the chase about what the characters are doing, thinking or saying - gives them an ease of flow that makes them a pleasure to read, even if they can get a bit melancholic at times – just don’t necessarily be counting on happy or neatly drawn together endings!
His short stories are a lot of fun in general; often mixing the mundane lives of everyday Japanese characters with bizarre, absurd or surreal little episodes and incidents that he describes with a real dry wit as if they were nothing to be too surprised about.

Anyway, I certainly recommend trying one of his books – one of his short story collections is probably a good way in – I think they tie in nicely with anime & manga and exploring the Japanese way of story telling in the larger sense of things.
 
Haruki Murakami is one of my top five writers - Norwegian Wood is his most accessible I think but if you're into his weirder efforts Hard Boiled Wonderland..., A Wild Sheep Chase and the effortlessly brilliant Wind-up Bird Chronicle are all worth reading (I have pretty much all of his books now!).

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is his latest short story collection - the final five or so are pretty recent and the best of the bunch. After the Quake is another compilation in which the stories are all related, however tenuously, to the Kobe earthquake of '95.
 
I finished reading Eragon last weekend, it was excellent. And i have to say i'm glad i've read it before the movie comes out, because now i've read it i can see how much they've changed for the movie, heres hoping it's not going to be as bad as i think it will be.
Heres where i should have started reading Eldest, but i chose to start reading Sense & Sensibility, and it hasn't been very easy getting into it, i'm hoping it will improve as it goes along like Mansfield Park did, but i'm my current state of unwellness i'm not sure i can be bothered
 
Ah...Martin...excellent, another Murakami fan! - I think he is fast becoming one of my favourites too; there's something a little addictive in his style of story telling, don't imagine it will be too long before I make my way through the rest of his books one way or another.
I was considering putting Sleeping Woman on my christmas list - santa might just oblige...

As for Sense & Sensibility - I think that was the first Austin novel I picked up and read - really struggling to remember what went on - all her novels seems to blend into some period-romantic-blur after time - I do remember finding it suprisingly entertaining, there's definitely a timelessness to her writing once you get past the horses & carriages, stately homes and ballroom dancing.
 
Currently reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, thankfully prolonged exposure to japanese names (yay for anime) means the crazy russian names arent so intimidating, so its quite an easy read. Its a very good book although im not so far into it, the descriptions are fantastic and characters are so well built up its impossible not to empathise with them, well worth a read.
 
It was bound to happen…finished Murakami’s Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World…possibly just contradicting most of what I said above based on the books of his I had read up to that point.

This was much more of a fantastical adventure/mystery kind of story, some would call it sci-fi – its probably a love-it/hate-it kind of thing; the same narrative voice is still there that I enjoy, but too much time is spent (and lost imho) explaining the ins and outs of the complex scenario – some will most likely love the mind-bending imagination of it all, I just found it hard to keep caring about what was going on.
I think I tend to prefer his more human stories, ones that focus more on the ins and outs of the character relationships, not to say I mind it when he throws in the more bizarre and unlikely events into a what would otherwise be a fairly straight forward plot line – perhaps just a question of emphasis.

Not perturbed though – I’ll certainly be seeking out his other works so I can make a more thorough judgement
 
Right now I'm reading "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson - it's an odd sci-fi story about a man who is covered in radioactive gloop and begins to shrink. It may sound like a cheap story, but the characterization is quite fantastic and deals with the titular man struggling with his life and family as he grows smaller than his wife and even his kids. I mainly bought it because Stephen King named it as his favourite book, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it anyway.
 
I'm continuing my Neil Gaiman phase with Anansi Boys, a tale of an ordinary guy who discovers that his estranged (and embarrassing!) dad has recently died and as a result he meets Spider, the brother he never knew he had. A great story of family relationsips...except the old man was Anansi the spider god so things get very weird and very funny. Gaiman's my favourite writer at the mo without a doubt.
 
Started reading Next by Michael Crichton. Its all about genetic engineering and the like. Only read the first chapter (only bought it today) but so far its already very interesting.
 
Today while i was in the city, i got Memoires of a Geisha, so i shall be reading that starting tonight. It will be the first thing i have read fully in a while since i haven't always been the biggest reader really.
 
Just started reading 'Cities' by John Reader. It's about how cities emerged, how they are shaped and how they change our lives. Since I am in absolute awe of cities, I thought this would be interesting. Currently reading an interesting chapter talking about old civilisations and apparently the samarians believed that the Garden of Eden was not an actual garden but a city.

Fascinating stuff...

M.G xx
 
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