New now reading

[Darkness_Fish]

Just finished

Which was brilliant and spellbinding.

Really? I thought it was hopeless. I mean, the man can write beautifully, but the plot is such a badly contrived waste of time. Like Ian McEwan, he has the technical skill, but he has seemingly no idea about how human beings interact.

[Tactful Cactus]

I've just finished 'Open Up and Bleed' which was pretty extraordinary. I thought I knew a lot about Iggy Pop, but I think the extent of a lot of it surprised me.
Now I'm starting Hemingway's 'Across the River and Into the Trees', which is already quite beautiful and I'm only 30 pages in.

I loved it -- especially his crazy Haiti hiatus in the 1980s

That was INSANE. I was crying with laughter.

Trynka's Bowie bio is a good companion.

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

Brilliant, informative, and very funny in places:

[Diamond Dog]

A fairly devastating takedown of the NFL - from a guy who clearly loves/loved the sport. And read by a guy (me) that still loves it. Almond's case for the NFL being shutdown (primarily because of the concussion 'scandal' brewing in the game, but also around the tax free status, the alleged racism and sexism... amongst others) is very persuasively presented.

[Minnie the Minx]

I loved it -- especially his crazy Haiti hiatus in the 1980s

That was INSANE. I was crying with laughter.

Trynka's Bowie bio is a good companion.

Yeah that's a great book.

[harvey k-tel]

About halfway through this one. Despite some unsubstantiated claims that got my hackles up, a very fine read...

[Darkness_Fish]

[Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman]

Riveting:



...to be followed by:

[clive gash]

The fake Googamooga posts, riveting stuff.

Thank you Sherlock Hodgson.

[echolalia]

A recent discovery, for me. Lambert co-wrote Nicholas Ray’s Bitter Victory among many other things. He was an insider and simultaneously an outsider, perhaps on account of his sexuality. This was his first novel except it’s really a collection of unconnected short stories with recurring characters – oddballs and waifs and strays that the narrator meets as he drifts aimlessly around the place. He sympathizes with them but in the end is always unable to help them, because there’s always this nagging awareness that to help them would be to destroy them further. Creeping erosion is the leitmotif that binds it all together – of land, integrity, the future etc. I liked it a lot.

So I’m now on to



and about 30 pages in. The prologue takes place at the Tomb of the Unknown Starlet, which an oddball teenager visits every day to wallow in grief/self-pity. So he’s the first of the Goodbye People. I’m looking forward to reading about the others!

[Darkness_Fish]

This really was a bit shit. I've enjoyed some Gladwell, he's normally a quite engaging writer, but this seems such a lazy collection of anecdotes as pop-science, and even then it struggles to define the point its trying to make.

And onwards onto:

[Minnie the Minx]

I've got three on the go at the minute.
Hemingway's 'Across the River and Into the Trees' which although beautifully written, is not 'connecting' with me in the same way as his other works.
Russell's 'A History of Western Philosophy' which has type so tiny that I can't see it in a dark room, which is my fabourite place to read. At this rate I'll be reading it on the shitter and finishing it in 2019.
Kerouac's Desolation Angels, an absolute cracker.

[Deebank]

About halfway through this one. Despite some unsubstantiated claims that got my hackles up, a very fine read...

Yes, see above. Fascinating stuff. There's a lot of unsubstatiated 'claims' but I think most of it holds up. What in particular pissed you off?

I bought his Homo Deus but haven't started that yet.

It reminded me of James Burke's Connections TV series from the 70s. I used to love that.
This clip is especially relevant:

[KeithPratt]

I've got that lined up but I generally steer clear of books like it that try to shoehorn a thesis into a grand narrative..Will give it a go though as several others have recommended it.

[Deebank]

I've got that lined up but I generally steer clear of books like it that try to shoehorn a thesis into a grand narrative..Will give it a go though as several others have recommended it.

I don't think he really has a single concept or thesis as such. His views are quite balanced - that is why I was asking Harvey what in particular he disagreed with. I suspect you may quibble with his analysis of capitalism perhaps.

There's an element of the argument that knowledge and technology bring a degree of liberation but on the flip side he also suggests that things like the agricultural revolution were a very bad deal for humanity as a whole compared to the 'Eden' of the hunter gatherer lifestyle (as a single example).

[harvey k-tel]

Yes, see above. Fascinating stuff. There's a lot of unsubstatiated 'claims' but I think most of it holds up. What in particular pissed you off?

I don't remember now, but he basically stated as fact a few things that occurred before recorded history, and it seemed to me as though there was certainly room for different interpretations. I probably won't go back to find examples, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

[Deebank]

Yes, see above. Fascinating stuff. There's a lot of unsubstatiated 'claims' but I think most of it holds up. What in particular pissed you off?

I don't remember now, but he basically stated as fact a few things that occurred before recorded history, and it seemed to me as though there was certainly room for different interpretations. I probably won't go back to find examples, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Fair enough.

You've reminded me that his take on the agricultural 'revolution' is challenged by experts like Francis Pryor who see agriculture developing gradually wherever there are people. For example there's evidence that nut trees were deliberately 'cultivated' at Starr Car in NE England, a very early hunter gatherer settlement.

[Snarfyguy]

I don't know anything about this; someone left it behind when she was done with it. It's good enough, I guess.

[harvey k-tel]

Sold! I'll take a dozen!

[FOR5]

Got these two out from the library last week, read The Mixer, really good. Not started No Hunger in Paradise yet, though I have got The Nowhere Men by the same author and it was a brilliant read.