What are you reading

[pentd]

The Noise of Time (novel about anxious Shotakovich and his relationship with the Soviet union. Was really enjoyable altgough really short)

thanks for the reminder!

[cantle]

somehow I imagine the hunt will have been more worthwhile than the prize, but nevertheless I'm hoping it lives up to the hype. Shall post my thoughts on it soon.

It was for me...

[david lloyd jones]

Finally managed to track down a copy of David Britton's Lord Horror for a reasonable price after seeking it out for years - somehow I imagine the hunt will have been more worthwhile than the prize, but nevertheless I'm hoping it lives up to the hype. Shall post my thoughts on it soon.

i preferred the comics to the book

[cantle]

The hunt was more fun- a slight sense of anticlimax on reading the book. Like David I find that the comics are more fun.

[F_c_O]

Pierre Guyotat - Eden eden eden

One of those books which seem cool when you hear of it but once you get it you really cant get into it. Its a lot of sex, theres lots of murder but that is it, basically. There are no characters, there is no real place, no story, nothing with which you could make any sort of emotional connection to the things happening in the book. As such, I find myself struggling to go through it. For me it ends up being 'He puts penis in the boys butt and grabs the boys arms and then he spurts jissom (the translation knows only one word for sperm, jissom)' and so forth. Also, the translator uses only single word for single thing, like I mentioned in the parenthesis, making it even more of a bore to read. I am not completely sidelining him as an author but when I get around to it, I think I'll read some of his later material.

Hubert Selby - Last Exit To Brooklyn

On other hand, this is the kind of book I find very hard to put down. Extremely well written stories of violence, sex, degeneration. Life in brooklyn at the outskirts of society and all that entails with it. Pages packed with every sort of loser you can imagine and their dismal lives that revolve around drugs, sex and violence. His writing technique is fucking excellent and makes it a joy to read.

Jean Genet - Thieve's Journal

I think I need to get the Madonna of Flowers because this one feels much too meandering to my tastes. Lots of descriptions of criminal in Genets worshipping matter but then nothing much happens. Genet wanders around the europe, thieving and begging yet despite that, there isn't much anything interesting happening in his life. Lot's of flowery descriptions of things but those do little to help. I had much higher hopes for this work. I still admire his philosophy and his approach to life in its complete blasphemy. I just wish that he would done better job at evoking it in this writing of his.

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian

Book that I will probably re-read until I die. Nearly perfect novel. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said about it yet. Anyone into reading fiction should read this one.

[absurdexposition]

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian

Book that I will probably re-read until I die. Nearly perfect novel. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said about it yet. Anyone into reading fiction should read this one.

Been meaning to get more into McCarthy for years but never seem to find his books in the used shops (other than The Road).

[bitewerksMTB]

"The Demon" by Hubert Selby Jr is very good from what little I remember. As is "The Room" (very violent). I use to have a very early, beat-up paperback of "The Demon". I wish I had kept it. 

I'm currently reading Barker's "The Hellbound Heart".

[F_c_O]

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian

Book that I will probably re-read until I die. Nearly perfect novel. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said about it yet. Anyone into reading fiction should read this one.

Been meaning to get more into McCarthy for years but never seem to find his books in the used shops (other than The Road).

Personally looking to read Outer Dark by him next. Saddly, its one of his less popular books so for hardcover you have to give your arm, leg and sign a 30 year slave contract. Sigh.

"The Demon" by Hubert Selby Jr is very good from what little I remember. As is "The Room" (very violent). I use to have a very early, beat-up paperback of "The Demon". I wish I had kept it. 

I'm currently reading Barker's "The Hellbound Heart".

I am definetly going to read more selby in future. Currently my to buy list has other books on it but The Demon and The Room are on must read list.

[absurdexposition]

Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian

Book that I will probably re-read until I die. Nearly perfect novel. There isn't much to say that hasn't been said about it yet. Anyone into reading fiction should read this one.

Been meaning to get more into McCarthy for years but never seem to find his books in the used shops (other than The Road).

Personally looking to read Outer Dark by him next. Saddly, its one of his less popular books so for hardcover you have to give your arm, leg and sign a 30 year slave contract. Sigh.

Incidentally I saw that one (in paperback) while on tour, but didn't pick it up.

[HongKongGoolagong]

Thoughts on Selby. Sorry about the formatting, cut and pasted from a pdf of my o/p book Consumer Guide.

LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1964) – episodic and picaresque
horror stories of interlinked doomed NYC
characters with a style influenced by Miller and
Joyce which finds its own new and unique voice.
Everyone remembers the horrors of party girl
Tralala’s chapter but Harry the uptight union man
and his secret life is the devastating tour de
force for me.

THE ROOM (1971) – extremely bleak and harrowing
novel about a man with few redeeming features
railing against the injustice of being locked in
a police cell, and when you realise how unpleasant
a person the narrator is after spending some time
in his head it becomes a book that addresses the
human condition and the nature of sin or evil.
Amazing piece of work but not something you’d want
to revisit often.

THE DEMON (1976) – a tale of sex addiction which
really didn’t do much for me and included some
uncharacteristic nods towards populist and mainstream
writing. Maybe I’ll try it again sometime
but for now I’d say this is the only one worth
avoiding.

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (1978) – back on track with a
magnificently written and I think for the first time
explicitly Christian novel documenting human
frailty when it comes to addiction to opiates. The
lost love is almost unbearably poignant. Marion’s
turning tricks now? Oh God no. Great subplot with
the hospitalisation of the mum who’s too fond of
mother’s little helpers, a brilliant and accurate
evocation of developing psychosis, and a clear and
brutal view of the abuses of which institutional
psychiatry is capable.

THE WILLOW TREE (1998) – this is my favourite
Selby novel and one which seems to have been
ignored most unjustly. A tale of extremely raw
human suffering, with an old Holocaust survivor
trying to look after some troubled street kids
and reliving his own loss and pain, and wondering
how we survive the pain of this world. This is
very much rooted in Christian ideals. I’m not a
Christian myself but appreciate the great art that
the religion has inspired, from El Greco’s paintings
to T.S. Eliot’s poetry. I don’t think I’ve
ever wept harder at anything else I’ve read. Very
highly recommended. And a very kind book.

WAITING PERIOD (2002) – and he ended his career
with a completely unexpected and uncharacteristic
comic novel of dark mischief and malevolence which
was like a cross between Muriel Spark’s Memento
Mori and American Psycho. Extremely amusing book
and a thoroughly bizarre thing for him to suddenly
come out with. What a writer. What an oeuvre.

[Kayandah]

Tend to read non-fiction pretty much most of the time. Just finished "A Line In The Sand" by James Barr which basically reiterates, with a lot more detail from declassified documents, how the french and english played underhand games against each other, constantly seeking revenge and in the process completely fucked up the middle east

[david lloyd jones]

kathy acker, 'blood and guts in high school' now reissued as a penguin modern classic.
just bought .
read on original publication, will see if holds up.

[absurdexposition]

F&V spring 2017 zine, nice extensive interviews with Caligula031, Sick Seed, Scatmother, etc

[slugbait]

F&V spring 2017 zine, nice extensive interviews with Caligula031, Sick Seed, Scatmother, etc

Where did you get this and where can I get this? 

For the record, I've been reading a lot of Ann Rule lately.  I can't really defend this choice especially as I used to rail against people who read for escapist reasons and now, well, it looks I'm doing the same.  If literature were a meal, Ann Rule is a bag of Gummi bears.  But if you want to know why Dr. Debi Green burned her house down in Prairie Village, Kansas, killing two of her kids in the process, I guess I'm your man.

I recently finished reading Peter Vronsky's "Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters" and that was terrific.  A grisly, grim, no holds barred dive into the minds of some of the great killers of the modern age.  Some known, some lesser known. 

I also recommend "The Other Hollywood" by Legs McNeil.  A great, sleazy ride though the porn business.

[absurdexposition]

F&V spring 2017 zine, nice extensive interviews with Caligula031, Sick Seed, Scatmother, etc

Where did you get this and where can I get this? 

It was sent out for free with orders from F&V and other distributors.