What books are we reading at the moment ?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I might have done, but they let me have an adult library card when I was 8.

I think the day I got an adult library card might have been the happiest day of my life so far.  I don't remember how old I was, definitely still at primary school.

Listening to some H H Monro stories and enjoying them. I'm not sure if you can tell from listening, but he certainly sounds like a prose stylist.  Maybe it's the skill of the reader.  It seems as if the style is perfectly suited to the short story form - too pithy, cutting, and arch for anything longer.

I wonder if he called himself Saki because he's a wry swine. (Sorry).

I like Saki. We read "The Lumber-Room" in English class at secondary school and I loved Nicholas's "aunt"  being so certain there wasn't a frog in his bread and milk. And I had lots of those big hardback short story compendiums, and one of them had Sredni Vashtar in it, which I also liked. I have a collection of Saki short stories now, which I re-read every now and then. I like Clovis.

Never trust a reading challenge that mentions Mt Kilimanjaro.  If they only read their Hemmingway properly, they'd know it was simply 'Kilimanjaro'.

Rising like Olympus above the Serengeti...

Finally finished Skagboys. It was ok, but it feels like it was written just to milk the cash cow rather than to tell the story. I've just started Chocky, then I'm going to read The Trouble with Lichen.

[Juan Martín]

I love Saki stories. When I was at sea I once took the Penguin Complete Saki and tried to make it last the entire trip by reading one story each evening. I still cannot think about ‘The Unrest Cure’ without laughing. The story involves Clovis enlivening someone’s life by convincing him that pogrom is to be arranged in the village of Tilfield (near Slowborough). There are a couple of lines that I remember regarding Boy Scouts helping as auxiliaries: ‘when they understood there was real killing to be done they were even keener than the men.’ And later:  "The Boy-scouts mistook my signal, and have killed the postman. I've had very little practice in this sort of thing, you see. Another time I shall do better."

The Schartz-Metterklume Method and The Toys of Peace also recommended.

Of course, the stories are very much of their time; Edwardian I suppose, and have fairly errr…unfashionable themes (see pogrom above). But then I think that many of the short stories were written to be ‘disgraceful’.

I wondered about nominating him as a prose stylist in the other thread but thought perhaps that these days it would be dismissed as just being smart-arsery’

[fuzzy]

Just finished a revisit of Hoghfather and have started 'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton and Dan Coyle.

Only half way through chapter two but it has so far proved to be easy and absorbing reading. The style suits me.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I still cannot think about ‘The Unrest Cure’ without laughing.
The Schartz-Metterklume Method and The Toys of Peace also recommended.

The Unrest Cure is wonderful from start to finish. I don't know The Toys of Peace; I don't think it's in my collection.

[tonyh]

Within the week I will myself be Dr M & Mr B

Off-Topic, but...

Big congrats Dr M!

[T42]

More Simon Raven, n° 4 in his Firstborn of Egypt series: the upper crustacea moving crabwise and scavenging in filth without getting visibly dirty. "He's an honourable man. He's allowed to devise dishonourable schemes as long as he himself does not carry them out." Quite enjoyable in a small way.

[tonyh]

Another William Boyd: "Waiting for Sunrise". I missed full comprehension I fear, but still enjoyed it.

[tiermat]

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan

Complete change from the book I read before (see upthread).

It is very good, so far, one of those books you really don't want to put down, no matter how tired you get.

[Nuncio]

I still cannot think about ‘The Unrest Cure’ without laughing.
The Schartz-Metterklume Method and The Toys of Peace also recommended.

The Unrest Cure is wonderful from start to finish. I don't know The Toys of Peace; I don't think it's in my collection.

I don't think I've read or heard any of those, but my aural pleasure yesterday afternoon was enhanced by Tobermory, the talking cat, which I recognized from somewhere.

[Juan Martín]

Collections of Saki with these stories are available to download free from Amazon, and presumably elsewhere.

[T42]

Dear Lord, but Simon Raven is delightful. The modern evil: "egalitarian aggression and sanctimonious drivel". Oh very yes.  And a country run by "touts and rabble".

[Vince]

Just finished Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwall.

Its really just more of the same.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Collections of Saki with these stories are available to download free from Amazon, and presumably elsewhere.

I will check the Nook shop.

[Nuncio]

At about the time you wrote that I was downloading something called, very gratingly, 'The Saki Megapack', for £0.38, from the Nook shop.  '140 Classic Novels and Short Stories'.  Couldn't resist searching out 'The Unrest Cure' and reading it last night.

[interzen]

My re-reading of Iain Banks' (RIP) 'Culture' novels is nearing its conclusion - finished 'The Player Of Games' a couple of nights ago and enjoyed it immensely; probably the best of the lot so far, with "The Hydrogen Sonata" and "Excession" following closely behind.

Now trying very hard to get into "Use of Weapons" but it's hard work.

Kind of bums me out that there won't be any more Culture novels  (unless his estate allowed someone like Charles Stross to take up the mantle in which case there'd be a serious risk of Awesome)

[interzen]

Raising Steam

The first Pterry book that has made me laugh in a while.

I thought it was a bit 'meh' to be honest; far from his worst, but a long way from his best too - but then again, Going Postal and Making Money were always going to be pretty difficult acts to follow, the latter in particular.

I like it!  Especially as the engineer, in my mind, sounds just like Fred Dibnah.

Word Of Pterry is that it's quite intentional
The same character also first appeared in "Reaper Man" (Word Of Pterry, again)

[mark]

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy, by Eric Hotta. An account of the events leading up to and the reasoning behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, from the Japanese perspective.

[citoyen]

Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

Not sure why I had this one on my list, tbh. I must have read a review or heard something about it on the radio, but the story isn't something that I would normally imagine appeals to me: 40-something woman, Laura, living in a flat in Bayswater with her octogenarian Hungarian mother in law and mil's two sisters, plus 16yo daughter, Marina, who has left her state school to attend sixth form in a posh public school and is discovering a) she hates it, and b) boys. Then absentee father reappears on the scene...

Anyway, it's really good so far (I'm about halfway through). Charlotte Mendelson can write. And it's the writing that saves it from being an otherwise fairly unremarkable story about relationships and discovering what's important in life and blah blah blah... It doesn't seem to have anything particularly profound to say and I think I can guess where it's probably heading, but that's not really important, it's just a good read.

And funny too - the scene where Marina's boyfriend first introduces her to the delights of an erect penis are cringeworthy and hilarious in equal measure.

[interzen]

The Universe Versus Alex Woods

Recommended by someone on here, I don't recall who.
Kind of like Adrian Mole but with assisted suicide and more weed. Enjoyable enough that I read it in a single sitting (finally getting to bed at dumbass o'clock as a result) and I'd probably read it again.

[fuzzy]

Just finished a revisit of Hoghfather and have started 'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton and Dan Coyle.

Only half way through chapter two but it has so far proved to be easy and absorbing reading. The style suits me.

Just finished. My copy includes the post Oprah revelations afterword. A cracking read.

I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

[tiermat]

Just finished a revisit of Hoghfather and have started 'The Secret Race' by Tyler Hamilton and Dan Coyle.

Only half way through chapter two but it has so far proved to be easy and absorbing reading. The style suits me.

Just finished. My copy includes the post Oprah revelations afterword. A cracking read.

I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

Me too, after I read that book.

[citoyen]

I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

For the better or worse?

My initial reaction on finishing the book was to feel more sympathetic to what he went through, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a clever piece of manipulation on his (and Dan Coyle's) part. Ultimately, I felt Millar displayed more genuine remorse and less in the way of making excuses for his behaviour (though he too is quite manipulative in the way he presents the facts in his book).

Still, utterly compelling. I want to read both Millar's and Hamilton's books again.

[fuzzy]

I may have experienced a slight shift in my opinions of Mr Hamilton.

For the better or worse?

My initial reaction on finishing the book was to feel more sympathetic to what he went through, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a clever piece of manipulation on his (and Dan Coyle's) part. Ultimately, I felt Millar displayed more genuine remorse and less in the way of making excuses for his behaviour (though he too is quite manipulative in the way he presents the facts in his book).

Still, utterly compelling. I want to read both Millar's and Hamilton's books again.

I would say for the better.

I'm not blind to the fact that this is a history book written from a participants perspective and therfore will show Tyler in a better light than a full disclosure truth by Lance or Johanne but, bearing that in mind, I feel more ambivilant towards him than I perhaps did before.

Another thing that makes me see hime in a more favourable light is this- he may not have been the main protagonist but, it was early confessors like Tyler that were responsible in part for the subsequent investigations that led to the reasoned finding and the Oprah show.

[Andrew]

Morrissey's Autobiography.

There are no normal chapter divisions and he is very fond of adverbs, adjectives and metaphors.  He really didn't like school.

All true. I've just finished it.

There are though three very broad divisions you can make; life before The Smiths, the Smiths years and the court case, and life after The Smiths.

The first part (pre Smiths) is a great read and almost poetry, Morrissey showing all of the same lyrical skills in his prose. A line that sticks in my mind is about a 'corn plastered swimming pool'. I suspect he took a pleasure in the construction of this section, honed it, refined it, shaped it. It shows. The book's worth a read for this section alone. If he continued in a similar vein until the book's end then it'd be arguably a contender for a modern classic. Sadly, it doesn't and, so, isn't (imho).

The second part of the book can only be considered a whine, a diatribe, a big sulk. He goes ON AND ON about the court case and I must admit to just flicking through page after page of his outpourings of injustice until I could be assured that the noise had stopped. Suffice it to say that I'd agree with Judge Weeks' description of 'devious, truculent and unreliable'. Though I'd add 'petulant' as well. Morrissey's time with The Smiths themselves goes largely unmentioned btw, excepting the odd mention of recording sessions. Most disappointing from my perspective.

The final section (the Morrissey solo years) is for the most part dull, inane and lifeless autobiography. A simple recounting of events and dates. It could be, without disrespect, footballer's prose.... (with notable exceptions, I'm sure). That said, his descriptions of both Julie Burchill and James Maker are sensitive and moving, I'm sure I'll read the latter again at some stage. Overall, in this final section, I got the sense of him trying to justify himself to both himself and others. We're treated again and again to tallies of people attending his concerts, to 'the love' coming from them. This is probably true but it's presented  others as a kind of 'who needs The Smiths' yah-bo sucks. If the sight of 1200 brawling Mexicans brings him happiness then who am I to say anything.

I came away from this book with an entirely new impression of Morrissey. I now think him not so much as a sensitive innocent but more aware, more manipulative and controlling, particularly where money is concerned. Still, there is no disputing his gift with words and it's for that that I admire him. Just a shame he wasn't able to exercise more control and illustrate that skill throughout this book.

[Gus]

This is Africa made by a co-rider from last years TdA trip