What are you reading now?

[wakka]

Have you read Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION]? Could be your type of thing. I really liked it. Also Suddenly, A Knock At The Door by Etgar Keret might be good for short stories!

I'm currently reading Metzger's Dog by Thomas Perry, a quirky comic thriller from the 80s. My partner got me this for my birthday in a really cool original print hardback edition, and it didn't click with me at first, but I came back to it and it's a really fun read. It's similar in style to Carl Hiaasen.

I really ought to read more 70s and 80s pulpy stuff like this - I watch loads of films from that era but read few novels from it. Might read a bit of William Goldman next, 'Heat' sounds like it would fit this category quite nicely - something to do with an ex-marine who works security at a Vegas casino who gets drawn into a caper.

[Golgo]

Half way through Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I'm finding it horribly over-written, always reaching for poetical affect, to the point where it derails the narrative and characterization almost completely. The style works to a degree in the almost hallucinogenic action sequences, e.g. the

->Open Spoiler<-

Mr.Cooger/Electro resurrection scene or the Dust Witch attack

, but in 'down' moments, e.g. the

->Open Spoiler<-

bittersweet exchange between Will and his father as both acknowledge that Will is no longer a child

, it comes across as literary noise - the author simply refusing to get out of his own way. Basically it reads like Shirley Jackson doing a really bad Dylan Thomas impression. This is the first and probably last of his novels that I will read, and I can't wait for it to be over.

[Deuteros]

Half way through Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. I'm finding it horribly over-written, always reaching for poetical affect, to the point where it derails the narrative and characterization almost completely. The style works to a degree in the almost hallucinogenic action sequences, e.g. the

->Open Spoiler<-

Mr.Cooger/Electro resurrection scene or the Dust Witch attack

, but in 'down' moments, e.g. the

->Open Spoiler<-

bittersweet exchange between Will and his father as both acknowledge that Will is no longer a child

, it comes across as literary noise - the author simply refusing to get out of his own way. Basically it reads like Shirley Jackson doing a really bad Dylan Thomas impression. This is the first and probably last of his novels that I will read, and I can't wait for it to be over.

I read this just a couple of months ago and, while I agree with everything you said, I came out feeling very glad I'd read it and looking forward to reading more of Bradbury's work, specifically The October Country.

The prose couldn't be more purple which made reading it feel very laborious at times. After a while, I adjusted to it and felt it complemented the surreal atmosphere that permeates the town's inhabitants and the carnival's freaks perfectly. It's as heady as it is magical but Bradbury taught me there's things you can do with words I didn't knew were possible. The description of Will and his father climbing the rungs leading up to his room were the first thing I ever felt I had to highlight on my Kindle in more than a decade of using it.

[Golgo]

I read this just a couple of months ago and, while I agree with everything you said, I came out feeling very glad I'd read it and looking forward to reading more of Bradbury's work, specifically The October Country.

The prose couldn't be more purple which made reading it feel very laborious at times. After a while, I adjusted to it and felt it complemented the surreal atmosphere that permeates the town's inhabitants and the carnival's freaks perfectly. It's as heady as it is magical but Bradbury taught me there's things you can do with words I didn't knew were possible. The description of Will and his father climbing the rungs leading up to his room were the first thing I ever felt I had to highlight on my Kindle in more than a decade of using it.

Fair enough. I do admire high and pyrotechnical style and you are right, it well suits the carnival(esque) theme and atmosphere. I guess my main beef here is Bradbury's seeming inability - or unwillingness - to modulate. The style can be extremely effective, but everything - even the most mundane moments - are captured in the same feverish, over-saturated way. Anyway, I'll certainly persevere.

[Deuteros]

The style can be extremely effective, but everything - even the most mundane moments - are captured in the same feverish, over-saturated way.

Exactly! Like saying:

"Somewhere a vast animal made water. Ammonia made the wind turn ancient as it passed."

Instead of just saying some beast had pissed and it stank.

[Golgo]

Exactly! Like saying:

"Somewhere a vast animal made water. Ammonia made the wind turn ancient as it passed."

Instead of just saying some beast had pissed and it stank.

And this is how trains pull up in Bradbury:

"The train itself appeared, link by link, engine, coal-car, and numerous and numbered all-asleep-and-slumbering-dreamfilled cars that followed the firefly-sparked churn, chant, drowsy autumn hearthfire roar."

[Anpanman]

Judge's List by Grisham, very good with a slightly different writing style for Mr G. Enjoyed very much as I've not read one of his for a while.

Followed with a couple of the short stories from No Middle Name of the Jack Reacher series which I'm going through in chronological order.

Now just started one of another series I'm working through, The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri, one of the Inspector Montalbano series. Again going through in order, it's excellent and probably the best yet.
When I finish one I watch the drama on iPlayer.

[QualityChimp]

This morning I finished a book that I thought was pretty poor "Across The Sand", which I really struggled with as it seemed to expect the reader to just accept that the post-apocalypse world is covered with sand and the survivors have this tech that lets them "dive" beneath it. There's barely any backstory.
Looked on Goodreads to see if I was the only one who didn't enjoy it, only to find it's a sequel and I'm guessing a lot of stuff was covered in the first book!
Still a dull read, though and I persevered to the end (I hate a DNF).


Next up is The Violence, which has been nominated in a few Book of the Year lists.

[Atticus]

After reading The Gunslinger I picked up The Talisman. Bit of a starter and main course. The thing that put me off The Talisman all these years was the fact it's a collaboration. Not sure why that's offputting but it just kind of is. But it was highly recommended. And the colab happens to be two writers I love (King and Straub). It's actually really good. About a kid whose mother is terminally ill. They're staying in a hotel on the New Hampshire coast and he meets a guy in the fairground who introduces him to a new way to travel ... and possibly a cure for his mum. I'm really surprised it's never been adapted to screen. Although it might cost a few quid to do it justice.

I really shold have then moves on to the second book in The Dark Tower series. I enjoyed The Gunslinger. It's a short, relatively simple introduction to the world and main character(s) but it's really good fun. But instead of continuing that I picked up Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski. I was after something different and remembered how brilliant Post Office is so thought I'd give it a go.

[Finsbury Girl]

I knew I shouldn't have done it, but I went and read The Kingkiller Chronicle books by Pat Rothfuss. I knew this bloke had taken a GRR Martin amount of time between books but I was curious and couldn't help myself. And the worst thing is, is that they're really bloody good!

LOL can't believe it's been 3 years since I posted in this thread and whatdayaknow, still no effing Doors of Stone

[Golgo]

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I've previously read her We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and the skill of her characterization is just amazing. These are properly creepy books, but nothing overtly or obviously creepy seems to happen in them - it's all generated through her incredible skill in giving suggestive insights into the - often seriously warped - perceptions of her characters.

Also read a coupe of novels by Patricia McKillip, who died quite recently. Ombria in Shadow and the The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. High fantasy stuff, both winners of the World Fantasy Award. I confess I'd been put off McKillip simply due to the overly winsome covers of many of her books, which usually feature swooning Pre-Raphaelite maidens in dreamy soft focus. These books were stunning, though. Her gift for formal and informal dialogue is incredible, and the plots are beautifully wrought, unpredictable and strange. Tonally they're rather minimalist and reserved - rather poetic, but nothing is over-stated, unlike John Crowley's highly mellifluous writing for example. So when moments of direct action and violence and horror do emerge they are incredibly impactful. I'm not much of a connoisseur of high fantasy, to be honest, but McKillip was clearly great.

[Atticus]

I finished Ham on Rye and am reading Post Office again now. With most of Bukowski's books being semi-autobiographical it does tend to make the tragic parts even sadder ... even moreso with Ham on Rye as based around his formative years and into young adulthood. The humour still shines through but the brutal honesty of a challenging and twisted childhood hits hard at times, without ever a hint of pity. His books present a glimpse into a low-lifestyle that is embraced. I recently clocked there's a film about him called Barfly which I should get round to seeing ... although I can't believe they cast Mickey Rourke to play him ... way too handsome, surely.

[wakka]

I just read The Listeners by Jordan Tannahill, which I can thoroughly recommend. It's about a woman, a schoolteacher and mother of a teenage daughter, who begins to hear a persistent hum that seemingly no one else can. She can't ever stop hearing it. It keeps her awake at night and gives her nosebleeds. But it's when she meets others who claim to hear the hum too that things get really weird.

It's a compact, pacy, intriguing read that for me really delivered.

I also read Trust the Plan by Will Sommer recently. This is a non-fic. Sommer is a journalist for The Daily Beast that I enjoy following the work of. His beat is the the extreme rightwing and conspiracy theorists in the US. This book is specifically about QAnon, which he writes a lot about and which I've long had an interest in, and which maintains that the world is run by a shadowy cabal of paedophiles and only Donald Trump is fighting against them.

I enjoyed this - if you don't know much about QAnon and are interested, you will probably get a lot of out of it, but for me I felt in places it went too readily over information that I was already familiar with. It's also got a bit of that 'first book by a journo' feel, where it's kind of like a set of articles strung together more than a really cohesive single story. But it's a good read, and I do like Sommer's writing style.

[QualityChimp]

The Listeners sounds great, thanks!

[wakka]

Yeah, if you give it a read, I hope you enjoy it. For me it avoided the trap of being excessively built around a single enigma, packing the middle with filler, and then disappointing with the solution (the sort of stuff Crichton did way too much of, for example). There are multiple strands within the story, dealing with the protagonist's daughter, husband, and one of her students, that take the emphasis off just wondering 'What is the hum?', to the book's infinite benefit.

Do post if you read it as I'd be interested in your thoughts.