What are you reading now?

[Number45]

I've finished both Heart of Darkness and Rime of the Ancient Mariner recently. I realise some of the books I've been reading recently are getting on (to say the least) but I'm finding myself a little disillusioned with the Kindle formatting - in both of these books the poor formatting (line breaks all over the place in the case of the poem, and incorrect spacing in the book) really ruins the ebb and flow of the text and makes them a much more difficult read than they should be because of it.

And The Divine Comedy was almost (entirely) unreadable.

[kryss]

Cycles of Time.

Me pretending to be smart again.

[Number45]

Continuing with my completely random sequence of books, I'm now reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

[Number45]

Finished, what an utterly insane book. I don't know whether I'm more confused by the book itself, or the fact that the most confusing elements of it are all supposedly linked to the study of maths.

Will start the follow up next.

[Ady]

The Sociopath Next Door.

Apparently, 1 in 25 people are sociopathic and can do anything at all to you without feeling guilty...

[Number45]

I finished Through The Looking Glass (even more bonkers than the first, haven't had a chance to read up on it yet), and have started A Game Of Thrones so that I hopefully don't get too behind with the TV series (else I'll never catch up!).

Nice to have a Kindle book with page numbers.

Odd request, can someone post a photo of the first page in the "CATELYN" chapter for me (page 22 according to the Kindle)? I want to see if I can get the Kindle display (and thus page number) to exactly match the book. Not sure if this might be an issue with different versions of the book, or if changing the font/size/spacing affects the page number or not.

[JazzFunk]

After 15 years of owning it and curiously never reading beyond the first few pages, finally caved and started reading Burroughs' Naked Lunch for the first time this afty. As work was pretty busy, only packed in about 50 pages but it made the rest of work a distraction, I couldn't stop thinking about how infinitely badass it is. F*ck me, it was like I was starving and suddenly get offered this incredible Sunday dinner and also discover that A. I now have an infinitely capacious stomach and B. that the Sunday dinner is also infinite. I know I'm only about a quarter/a third of the way into this book but it feels like I could re-read what I've already read over and over and over and over, sense this book will be a constant in my life from this point on in. Word usage and dosage is f*cking incredible, it's a blast and way more than just that. Not only that, it's funny. Not in a "5/5 ***** 'I laughed heartily at this book, it was -frankly- hilarity embodied' - The Guardian"-type of way, more in a jittery, funk-based, organic way, you just f*cking *laugh* at the beautiful eccentricities of his sentence-formings and knack of selecting exactly the right words and the way there is absolutely no boundaries to its subject matter, no fear there, so its humour is not borne of any form of people-pleasing, just the deranged, brilliant, deadpan typings of a seriously addled psychonaut that somehow work incoherently as a fantastically unique cohesive whole.

I think 15 years back, I was dipping my *just* post-adolescent toes in all things 'Beat'* and subculturey, identity-seeking, read Post Office and Factotum by Bukowski back then and loved them, they're raw but pretty accessible books, I was expecting 'Beat' stuff to be all along similar lines, yet this I found this scarily impenetrable and I kind of mentally ran away from it and felt great inner shame. It's great, there's a lot of bad stuff about getting into your thirties but there's also a heck of a lot of unexpected good stuffs, I sooooo am in such a better place to read stuff like this now.

(*I am aware 'Beat' writing is a very fluffy and flawed way of categorising certain subgenres of literature, but at that point in time I kind of lumped Burroughs, Bukowski, Kerouac etc. all into that same pot.)

EDIT: PS: @ Charlie, cheers for the heads up on Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchback, I will deffo seek that one out, love stuff like that (speaking as a former salvia divinorum mindscuttler!)

[monel]

I just saw Naked Lunch (the film) last night, I can't wait to read the book some day soon.

I hardly read anymore, sadly, but will be reading Philip K Dick's Man In The High Castle soon due to it's topics of what is real, etc etc although I've heard the ending is a bit abrupt.

[Darwock]

Odd request, can someone post a photo of the first page in the "CATELYN" chapter for me (page 22 according to the Kindle)? I want to see if I can get the Kindle display (and thus page number) to exactly match the book. Not sure if this might be an issue with different versions of the book, or if changing the font/size/spacing affects the page number or not.

Hereyougo:



Sorry I couldn't be bothered changing the orientation... you can see the last line though, that ought to be enough right? It is page 22 by the way.

I finished reading the fourth book last night, only to discover it was in fact only half the story, with the other half to be published later this year (6 years after!). It makes me wonder if he hasn't fallen into the Robert Jordan trap after all, because this book lost the fast pace of the first three and felt rather bloated. It was all people travelling from one place to another to no particular advancement of the plot.. surely it could have been streamlined to fit it all into one novel.

[Number45]

Thanks dude, I'll confirm later - daughter is reading Alice on it at the moment.

[importaku]

Been reading this, god help anyone who spoils the ending for me

[EvilBoris]

Harry Potter dies by the hand of the caterpillar

[Sam The Man]

Been reading this, god help anyone who spoils the ending for me

The Very Hungry Caterpillar man that brings back memories of infant school!!!!!!!!!

Anyway i am about to start reading Michiu Kaku's Physics Of The Future. Im not a big reader but cant resist this.

[smouty]

I've just started '1000 years of annoying the French' which is a lighthearted look at Anglo-French relations since 1066 ish.
Interesting and easy to read.

[charlesr]

Just started reading "The Compound Effect". All stuff I know already, but good to be reminded.