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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Very short recommendations thread

  
  

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All Acting Regiment
12:20 / 18.09.06
So this thread works like this. I say:

"So, Book X, is it worth reading?"

And you can say:

"No, reactionary balls" or "Yes, lovely".

So to start: Rabbit Run, by John Updike.

Continue.
 
 
Sign of Qalyn
13:49 / 18.09.06
Dull.
 
 
Miller's Angry Noir Jawsus
(prev. The Poisson of the Christ)
15:23 / 18.09.06
Stephen King's The Dead Zone
 
 
Whisky Priestess
15:27 / 18.09.06
Like the film. Haven't read it but all the King I have read is shit, so:

Watch the film instead.
 
 
pointless & uncalled for
15:46 / 18.09.06
Jeff Noon - Vurt
 
 
pointless & uncalled for
15:53 / 18.09.06
By which I actually meant The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini.

I know Vurt is good and was my first thought when reading the abstract rather than the post. There was this annoying delay in getting a coherent signal to my fingers and all went down hill from there.

So

Kite Runner

Subway fiction du jour or inspired genius?
 
 
Orange
21:40 / 18.09.06
Kite Runner

I liked it.
 
 
eirdandfracar
21:46 / 18.09.06
Steven King. Not good
 
 
eirdandfracar
21:47 / 18.09.06
The Fountainhead?
 
 
Orange
21:59 / 18.09.06
Gleeush. Certainly not for pleasure, although it's interesting enough to keep reading, I suppose.
 
 
Sign of Qalyn
23:16 / 18.09.06
Stephen King is often good, you nids. The Dead Zone is good. Pet Sematery is good. Dolores Claiborne is good.
 
 
Tsuga
23:31 / 18.09.06
Ayn Rand is a freak, sorry. Or, rather, a total monkey-style hierarchist freak. Again, sorry.

How about "The Abortion" by Richard Brautigan.
 
 
Tsuga
23:34 / 18.09.06
I hasten to add, though, Ayn Rand is not a bad writer.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:57 / 19.09.06
Which Burroughs to read after I've finished Naked Lunch and Soft Machine?
 
 
Time, Please!
(prev. 5 Days Clean)
15:06 / 19.09.06
Cities Of The Red Night: detective noir, pirates, identity shifts, drugs, weapons, disease, virus control, hangings and gay porn. It's like The Illuminatus! Trilogy for people who are cool.
 
 
Stoatie's power level is >9000
15:14 / 19.09.06
Yes, Red Night is your best move.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
16:04 / 19.09.06
Ah shit, sorry, forgot to say I've got that one...so, apart form that one then.
 
 
Mick Mak Mok
16:55 / 19.09.06
Would it be too obvious to say "Junky"? Less of the cut-up excesses found in "Nova Express" and oddly touching, for my money.

So, Jung: Where to start?
 
 
eirdandfracar
18:59 / 19.09.06
Richard Brautigan is good. The Hawkline Monster is arguably his best. I do not endorse Ayn Rand.
 
 
sorenson
07:26 / 20.09.06
Apart from anything else, Ayn Rand is insufferably boring. Don't bother.
 
 
JOY NO WRY
19:55 / 20.09.06
Apart from anything else, Ayn Rand is insufferably boring.

This is far from true. Personal opinions on her philosophy aside, she's worth reading both for the quality of her thought and her writing.
 
 
sorenson
23:54 / 20.09.06
Ah well, I guess it's a matter of personal opinion then. I didn't find her writing to be anything special at all, and I was so bored and irritated by the characters and storyline in Atlas Shrugged that I really struggled to finish it.
 
 
Shrug: Butcher Boy
(prev. Green My Eyes)
12:44 / 21.09.06
House of Leaves, the print is fun, words in ever decreasing circles, dotted, jabbed around the page, etc. A po-faced Poe-esque horror story.
 
 
Mick Mak Mok
13:06 / 21.09.06
Um, I repeat...Jung?
 
 
ghadis
13:45 / 21.09.06
Jung - His autobiography, 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections'. A good starting point i feel.

Modern Arabic literature?

Any suggestions apart from Naguib Mahfouz who i've already read.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
16:43 / 21.09.06
Hmm. I suggest people read M/F by Anthony Burgess. It's good.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
16:44 / 21.09.06
Urm, not Arabic, mind. Just generally.
 
 
eirdandfracar
20:33 / 06.10.06
The Piano Teacher?
 
 
Miller's Angry Noir Jawsus
(prev. The Poisson of the Christ)
20:52 / 06.10.06
Not bad. Defo worth a punt.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:43 / 07.10.06
Maldoror?
 
 
ghadis
14:55 / 07.10.06
Beautifully sexy.
 
 
Stoatie's power level is >9000
16:05 / 07.10.06
Maldoror rocks.
 
 
RFR, Airwolf style
13:00 / 08.10.06
With Burgess, I'd say Earthly Powers. Tremendous book, in more than one way (weighs about a kilo, for example).

Burroughs: If you can get your hands on Burroughs live : the collected interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997 / [edited by Sylvère Lotringer], do so. It's not his writings, exactly, but it is him as a human, which is interesting.
 
 
Miller's Angry Noir Jawsus
(prev. The Poisson of the Christ)
19:46 / 08.10.06
What do people think of Tobias Wolff's Old School?
 
 
Alex's Grandma
21:02 / 08.10.06
LR,

'Exterminator' would be your best bet, I think.

The collected Letters (for the most part written to Allen Ginsberg, and just before 'Naked Lunch' got off the ground, when on a number of levels Burroughs was in a fairly bad way,) are excellent also.
 
  

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