The 2nd "What are you reading now" thread

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Just started colombiano by rusty young
Not a true story like marching powder but he uses his time in colombia and his interviews with former child soldiers to create this story

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Just started:

Kafka On the Shore - Harukai Murakami
Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path - Rudolph Steiner
Consider the Lobster - David Foster Wallace
 
Onto Stasi Wolf. The second book in the Stasi child series.
Great insight to East Germany in the 70's as well as the secret polices activities.


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2017 List

1. "Dirt Music" by Tim Winton
2. "Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy
3. "The Sellout" by Paul Beatty
4. "Vernon God Little" by D.B.C. Pierre
5. "Main Street" by Lewis Sinclair
6. "Thursbitch" by Alan Garner
7. "number9dream" by David Mitchell
8. "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres
9. "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
10. "The Red Queen" by Margaret Drabble
11. "Invisible" by Paul Auster
12. "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman
13. "The Busconductor Hines" by James Kelman
14. "Hawksmoor" by Peter Ackroyd
15. "Americanah" by Chimanada Adichie
16. "Between The Assignations" by Aravind Adiga
17. "Jake's Thing" by Kingsley Amis
18. "Big Brother" by Lionel Shriver
19. "The Clerkenwell Tales" by Peter Ackroyd
20. "Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem" by Peter Ackroyd
21. "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood
22. "Half Of A Yellow Sun" by Chimanada Adichie
23. "The Thing Around Your Neck" by Chimanada Adichie
24. "Anthills of the Savannah" by Chinua Achebe
25. "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline
26. "The Voyeur's Motel" by Gay Talese
27. "Stanley and the Women" by Kingsley Amis
28. "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
29. "Take A Girl Like You" by Kingsley Amis
30. "Difficulties With Girls" by Kingsley Amis
31. "The Lambs of London" by Peter Ackroyd
32. "Eva Luna" by Isabell Allende
33. "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
34. "The Rachel Papers " by Martin Amis
35. "The Brooklyn Follies" by Paul Auster
36. "Daniel" by Richard Adams
37. "A Golden Age" by Tahmima Anam
38. "House of Meetings" by Martin Amis
39. "The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood
40. "The Music of Chance" by Paul Auster
41. "Leela's Book" by Alice Albinia
42. "Zorro" by Isabel Allende
43. "The Pregnant Widow" by Martin Amis

I love Auster. Music of Chance was incredible. I still think about it weeks after I finished. The simmering tension was incredible as you really thought about the characters and what they would do. This was brilliant. I recommend this to everyone. Brooklyn Follies was good, but I had a real problem with the dialogue of the young girl. Consider this passage;
"No, sir. That ain't the way it is. Please, Uncle Nat. Don't ask me anymore questions about mama. She's all right, and one day she'll come back to me. That's what I know, and that's the only thing I can tell you. If you keep it up, I'll just go back to the way I was when I first came here. I'll clamp my lips shut and won't say a word to you. And where would that get us? We have such a nice time when we talk together. As long as you're not asking me about mama, it's about the best fun I have. Talking to you, I mean. You're such a jolly old soul, Uncle Nat. We don't want to spoil a good thing, do we?"
- I just hated that passage as it didn't feel authentic coming from an 8 year old girl, but overall the book was good.

The Robber Bride was well written, but I was really disappointed in the three main characters; three strong women who bent to the will of another woman and it felt like I didn't get the cathartic ending I wanted.

Martin Amis is a very divisive author. I like him, but i can understand others not enjoying his work. House of Meetings was ok. A bit too obtuse in some ways. It's about two brothers in a Soviet gulag. It was okay, but didn't quite get me there. Read Alexander Slzhenitsyn instead. Pregnant Widow was okay, as well. I can see why people hate it.

Leela's Book is about a complex Indian family and it was actually decent after I got into it.

Allende always write fast-paced books and this was pretty fun.

Daniel was interesting. About a black slave from America who went to England to help abolish slavery. It got a bit bogged down in the second half.

Golden Age was ok, story about the Bangladesh civil war. Needed a bit more rising action from it.
 
Have one of those hectic xmas to nye weeks ahead of me, so none of those late December reads. I've almost certainly completed my last book of 2017, so time to publish the year-end ranking of first time reads;

1. Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
2. Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)

3. Mysteries of Pittsburgh (Michael Chabon)
4. Vineland (Thomas Pynchon)
5. Post Captain (Patrick O'Brian)
6. Joe Cinque's Consolation (Helen Garner)

7. Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami) - started Dec 23 2016
8. The Red and the Black (Stendhal) - started Nov 2016
9. Will you please be quiet, please? (Raymond Carver)
10. The Price (Arthur Miller)
11. Falling Man (Don DeLillo)
12. Blue Skies (Helen Hodgman)

13. South of the Border, West of the Sun (Murakami)
14. Cosmo Cosmolino (Garner)
15. Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
16. Black Spring (Henry Miller)
17. Man in the Dark (Paul Auster)

Also reread my DeLillo favourite (The Names) and Master & Commander (which made me an Aubrey-Maturin addict, something which will no doubt dominate my 2018 reading). Including Moby Dick, I did about 1500 pages of sailship seafaring reading in the second half of the year, which on reflection (childhood faves) may just be my ideal sub genre. Glad to tick off some biggies in Moby Dick, Lolita and Catcher in the Rye. Fairly quiet year for non-fiction, with Joe Cinque's Consolation the sole example. Likewise, just one short story collection and play.

Nothing bad. The top 2 are welcome all-time fave inclusions. The next four are formidable but not to all tastes. 7-12 are excellent. 13-17 were all solid, occasionally brilliant, but more minor, flawed, semi-successful experiment or held less riches.
 
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Armada by Ernest Cline, not a patch on Ready Player One but still a very easy read that helped pass a long plane flight. I know Ready Player Two is up next but it'll be interesting to see if he can do more than pop culture references or at least weave them into a more original story.
 
Since I last posted ive read the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (from during the original series of Twin Peaks), it was ok but only for the die hard TP fans

The Coach about the 1977 Kangaroos side but ostensibly about Barassi (a fantastic read, must read for any footy fan)

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon who spent a year inside Baltimore Homicide Dept (average 2 homicides every 3 days) in the 80s and went on to create The Wire. Homicide: Life on The Streets was also based on this book. A really interesting if not brutal read, can't imagine doing the job those guys do. How do you just switch off when you go home?

The Dismissal Dossier one of the Short Black series was a good one to whet the appetite and make me want to do some further reading on Whitlam, the Dismiss and Fraser

Cypherpunk Revolutionary another Short Black book by Robert Manne giving some background on who Julian Assange was before Wikileaks broke in 2010. I thought it was very good but I could understand how Manne may come off as a bit of a fanboy with some of the language he uses at times. Although I think Wikileaks is a great and necessary development so those who don't will probably see it differently.

A Christmas Carol the Dickens classic, have seen thousands of variations of the story but never read the original. It's a classic for a reason, will read again next Christmas

Currently started on Recollections of a Bleeding Heart a biography of Paul Keating by his speechwriter Don Watson during his time as PM. Only 40 odd pages in so too early to comment but I'm looking forward to getting into it.

Also got a couple of books for Xmas 11.22.63 by Stephen King, Born Standing Up by Steve Martin and Paper Lion by George Plimpton who spent a season with the Detroit Lions (NFL) in the 50s or 60s and was the inspiration for The Coach which I referred to above.
 

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Just finished my 34th and final book for the year.

Here's my entire 2017 reading list:

1. The Final Detail by Harlan Coben
2. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
3. Darkest Fear by Harlan Coben
4. Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do by Michael J Sandel
5. How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter by Sherwin Nuland
6. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F@#k by Mark Manson
7. Crime & Punishment by F. Dostoyevsky
8. Promise Me by Harlan Coben
9. The Monk and the Philosopher by J.F. Revel and M. Ricard
10. John Rawls: His Life & Theory of Justice by T. Pogge
11. The Fight by Arnold Zable
12. The Australian Moment by George Megalogenis
13. Live Wire by Harlan Coben
14. Long Lost by Harlan Coben
15. Animal Liberation by P. Singer
16. Flourish by M. Seligman
17. Reclaiming Patriotism by T. Soutphommasane
18. The China Study by T.C. Campbell and T.M. Campbell
19. Practical Ethics by Peter Singer
20. Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner
21. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
22. Home by Harlan Coben
23. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
24. The Blank Slate by Steve Pinker
25. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
26. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
27. No More Mr Nice Guy by Robert Glover
28. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
29. Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
30. Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
31. The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
32. One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
33. Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
34. A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman
 
Currently reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, historical fiction set during the American slavery years when they would use a secret railroad to escape to free states and Canada.
Very good would highly recommend.

Also reading Yellow and Black: A season with Richmond.
Best book ever:cool:
 
I don't read much during the year, as a uni student I'm more inclined to giving my eyes and brain a rest after a day of study, but since around the start of November I've read the following:

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis
The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a * by Mark Manson
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
The Things That Make Us by Nick Riewoldt
Special Deluxe by Neil Young

Currently reading A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, and plugging away at Love All The People by Bill Hicks

The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, Coming Up for Air by Orwell, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson are next on the 'to read' pile
 
So far this year

The Minds of Billy Milligan - Daniel Keyes. Loved it, fascinating and well-written.
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis. Page-turner
 
Didn't think it warranted an RIP thread so thought I'd just mention it here. Was sad to hear today that Ursula K Le Guin died earlier this week, aged 88.

She was a fantastic author who (along with many others) helped to show readers that science fiction could be more than aliens and laser beams. She wrote intelligent, questioning stories that just happened to sometime use specualtive ideas (fantasy, sci fi etc) to explore them.

When I was a kid I first read her A Wizard of Earthsea story and then the sequels Although I'm only finding out now she wrote a fifth Earthsea story that I am sure I have not read, so they'll be at least one last new Le Guin story for me. Then years later when I had widended my reading from fantasy, I came across more of her work, Lathe of Heaven is still one of my favourites and The Dispossessed a fantastic read with a great opening page (a simple idea about a wall holding the universe inside of it but I remember reading the page and just stopping for a bit to think about it).

Anyone who has ever done an introductory ethics course at uni or elsewhere has probably heard of her short story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas and the whole collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters is well worth the read. I have to admit that I started but never finished The Left Hand of Darkness and it has been on the to-be-read pile for way too many years.

RIP Ursula K Le Guin and thank you for your stories.
 
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