7 books you will psyche on and should totally read: What Youth
I'm working my way through The Battle For Spain. Antony Beevor's history of The Spanish Civil War. A compelling account of mass bastardry! I will definitely try Bukowski again I think there are a stack of his cheap reprints around at the moment.
You bought Bukowski at a bake sale??? That's a story in itself.
Yep, $10 in the tin for the Austinmer Christian Society, bought Bukowski, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and Hunter S. Thompson, plus a jam scone. Not so long ago the same mob would've been burning those books.
Narrowing the focus (lest I forge into Borges' LIBRARY OF BABEL territory), here is a list of 7 bloke-works for the goldfish attention-span types among us. They're all short, sharp & sugar-shit sweet:
1. Where I'm Calling From/Raymond Carver.
Short stories stuffed with the stuff of life, and as mysterious and sweetly bitter and monumental. Alcohol involved though not needed.
2. A Smart Cunt/ Irvine Welsh.
A novella that rings true for all smart cunts & arses everywhere. His most autobiographical work? Who gives a shite. Pish involved though not needed....recommended with other class As, but.
3.The Lives of the Saints/Edward Berridge.
Australian short stories from the other side of the Aust Lit super-highway. Back alley stuff. Rare in Aust Lit then & now & forever. Last I heard he was working on a film script about Bikies.
4. Pansies &/or Nettles/ DH Lawrence.
Pithy and pissed-off poetry (!) that's a fucken hoot! Believe!
5. Breakfast of Champions/ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Hilarious, great structure, and strange pics. Experimental and accessible? Somebody stop him!
6. The Gay Science/ Friedrich Nietzsche.
Nietzsche can't write?! Surf, yeah, nah...but these aphorisms and poetry of a kind and bits n bobs will keep you up at night pondering the imponderables.
7. The Good Times/ James Kelman.
Glaswegian short stories about blokes being blokes and trying to work out what the fuck that even means. Alcohol involved though not needed...by you, the reader...maybe. Ditto alcohol referenced fiction above.
8. Foreskin's Lament/ Greg McGee.
A play by a New Zealander about rugby. Seemingly. The final rant is fucken up there!
9. Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader/ Harry Crews.
The real deal. Short bits n bobs by a true Southern redneck ex-marine who was also a Uni professor.
Whoops, that's 9. Fuggit.
then again, if that shit is too arty-farty spazztastic, try this reading list, dudes:
http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/01/31/40-books-to-read-before-you-die/
"Snowblind" and 30 years later "Smokescreen" by Robert Sabbag I think more fact than fiction his tales of dope smuggling.
For complete escapism and epic fantasy adventures:
The whole Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E Feist. I just checked and its 30 books - don't be daunted, just have a crack at the first trilogy if inclined which is The Riftwar Saga as I did and if it sucks you in then continue. It grows exponentially in scope. Absolutely epic (the genre is actually "epic fantasy"), I've followed it since high school days late 80s and it only just concluded with the final book in 2013. I've reflected on why I enjoy his writing and I think partly its because there's an underlying theme of how different aspects of human character respond to intense situations and social complexity. Also most other writers in the genre lack the depth and internal consistency of Feist. Not everyone's cup of tea but its definitely colourful and a wildly imaginative ride.
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. He was or is a journo I think but seems to go on tangents - he also wrote Men Who Stare At Goats which was made into a film. This book is interesting as it discusses the theory that the world is largely run by people with psychopathic tendencies. Makes sense when you see how fucked up things can be. No empathy, low/no remorse, ruthless strategies to achieve their goals. But these can also be useful traits in surgeons and leaders. So....psychopathy is doubled edged in terms of damage vs benefit to society. Lots of specific informal case studies of a variety of individuals.
A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking - mind stretching ideas about the universe and everything. Needs a couple of reads to even start to do it justice, unless you have a masters in physics in which case you've probably already read it 10 times...
Did anyone mention Douglas Adams? Funny dude, did Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but there were 4 or 5 books in that series. All tied up pretty neatly, wrapped in a healthy dose of dark wit and cynicism.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde; and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Still great reads.
This is going to have to be 7 authors not 7 books, but no 7 is:
The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr Norman Doidge, all about neuroplasticity.
mundies wrote:This is going to have to be 7 authors not 7 books, but no 7 is: The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr Norman Doidge, all about neuroplasticity.
You ever read 'The Shallows' by Nicholas Carr? All about brain neuroplasticity and how the internet is effecting deep thinking. In parts an amazing and scary book 'cos, well, here we are on the internet, very easy to relate to the examples/analogies used in the book.
Hi Stu, No I haven't read it but I've read other work suggesting that the shorter grabs and content in online media does not develop sustained and focussed attention anywhere near as effectively as old school pastimes such as reading a novel or doing a woodwork project. Part of the problem with this is that research has shown (sorry blind boy, haven't had time to cite sources!) that auditory attention is the main cognitive function that, if trained up, results in global improvements in cognitive function across the board. So... if you are engaging in activities that decreases or minimised auditory attention (and attention in general) then hypothetically there could be a global effect on the majority of cognitive function in an individual. Interesting stuff. Personally I feel there'll be a backlash by the next generation (i.e. the next one after Gen Y) against social media, or it'll transform into something else. Cos Gen Ys can be a real pain in the arse...
Shatner'sBassoon wrote:4. Pansies &/or Nettles/ DH Lawrence. Pithy and pissed-off poetry (!) that's a fucken hoot! Believe!
Just noticed! And what a coincidence, I stood outside Wyewurk this morning. No pansies in the garden either.
Animal Farm-takes me back to year 9. Its gotta be an outstanding book to get me in, I'm more of a magazine man, but a couple I couldn't put down over the past 20 years until I'd finished have been Hemingway's 'Old Man of the Sea-a classic for a fisho, and Winton's 'Dirt Music', especially for a west aussie, great soundtrack too!
Just passing through.
Stu, the internet is effecting deep thinking? Wow. Clever internet. I'm deeply affected.
Mundies: tried to finish your post, but forgot why I started reading.
Anyhoo, someone just Insta'd me.
Ooorooo.
Just keep passing through then, nothin' to see here
whaaaat wrote:Just passing through. Stu, the internet is effecting deep thinking? Wow. Clever internet. I'm deeply affected. Mundies: tried to finish your post, but forgot why I started reading.
*boom, tish*
Speaking of neuroplasticity and internet age, did anyone come across this article and give the app a try? Average reading speed is about 220 words per minute and the app can train you to read upward of 500 words per minute with some users reporting 1000 words per minute. Its interesting to see how your brain adapts to the increase in speed but as with speed reading there is definitely a loss in apprehension.
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/speed-reading-app-spr...
There have been a great many good suggests above.
I nominate two books only; but are highly recommended.
Strumpet City by James Plunket.
A very powerful book that tells the story of capital v labour during the 1913 union lockout in Dublin. Guaranteed to get you angry if you have a social conscience. Having read the book I then managed to get the very rare RTE TV DVD box set direct from the Sinn Fein bookshop in Dublin no less.
THe Adventures of Goodnight & Loving by Leslie Thomas.
A great yarn about an Englighman who fucks off from his middle-class snobby misses and travels the world on the adventure he always wanted. Out of print now but I got my copy 2nd hand from a UK bookshop after the book itself had travelled from the Orange County Library in the US!
Good luck finding these books they are certainly worth it.
Forgot to mention that the story told in Strumpet City would give That Unholy Trinity (Abbott, Reinhart & Murdoch) such a priapismic episode that it would be life threatening.
stunet wrote:
Shatner'sBassoon wrote:4. Pansies &/or Nettles/ DH Lawrence. Pithy and pissed-off poetry (!) that's a fucken hoot! Believe!
Just noticed! And what a coincidence, I stood outside Wyewurk this morning. No pansies in the garden either.
Re-read DH Lawrence's KANGAROO recently, mainly to review the references to the underground fascist organisation in the tale (the leader of which is the man known as KANGAROO).
On first reading the book many years ago, I had always thought that this part of the over-all tale was its weakness. A sort of unnecessary page-turning element that didn't ring true for the novel or the times.
HOWEVER, after reading a book called DEFENDING THE TUCKSHOP: Australia's secret army intrigue of 1931 by Michael Cathcart, I had to revisit Lawrence's tale again in light of what was unearthed.
From the back-cover of Cathcart's book:
"During the Great Depression, groups of armed men began forming vigilante organizations throughout Australia to combat the threat of socialism. Some advocated the overthrow of democracy, others extolling the virtues of fascism. Most were simply afraid. [Yikes, sound eerily prescient?]
Behind these noisy groups were two top-secret armies with a combined membership of over 60000 respectable citizens. Their leaders included a top general, a future Supreme Court judge, conservative politicians and senior businessmen." [the IPA today???]
Weird, but apparently John Winston Howard's old man was a member of this organisation in it's hey-day. Fruit doesn't fall far from the tree or what??
Gotta love the name of the shack too. Why work indeed?
"Labour is the one thing a man has had too much of.
Let’s abolish labour, let’s have done with labouring!
Work can be fun, and men can enjoy it; then it’s not labour.
Let’s have it so! Let’s make a revolution for fun!"
Glad someone mentioned Cormac McCarthy, the plains trilogy, especially All the pretty horses, hauntingly beautiful at times, violent and disturbing sometimes. Also worth a read, No country for old men and The road.
Irvine Welsh- Trainspotters
Tom Robbins- Even cowgirls get the blues, very funny.
Chuck Palahniuk- Fightclub
Luke Reinhart- The Diceman
John Irvine- The world according to Garp, Hotel New Hampshire, A prayer for Owen Meany
Karen Blixen- Out of Africa
Paul Theroux- The misquito coast
Martin Amis- London fields, Money
Tim Winton- Dirt Music
J.G. Ballard- Crash, Empire of the sun
Stephen R. Donaldson- The Gap cycle, 5 book sci fi, awesome
Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy are good reads if you like crime.
Everybody dies..The thing is, to have a life before we die.- John Irvine quote
You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget- Cormac McCarthy
Awesome thread - this has definitely put a few on my to read list.
A few of my favourites are,
John D McDonald's Trav McGee series. They are written in the first person and the character goes off on so many insightful tangents about people and the world. Such an awesome character and so well written - can't recommend them enough.
Steinbeck - Cannery row and The Winter of our discontent. Steinbeck's the man.
Cormac McCarthy - I think they've been mentioned, but the border trilogy. Once I got my head around sentences that went on forever, I was blown away.
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5 and cats cradle. Wit and insight.
And, pretty cheap throwing this in with those writers, but Wilbur Smith's Sean Courtney series. Bloody big characters.
Cormac McCarthy and Wilbur Smith, that's some wide reading their RD.
I've just finished a couple of books. The first was 'Billy Lynne's Long Halftime Walk', which on the cover was said to be a modern version of 'Catch-22'. I almost put it back on the shelf right there. Took me a few moments to get past the reviewers hyperbole (he probably just wanted to get his name on the cover - mission complete).
Set in one afternoon, Billy Lynne and his squadron are accepting bravery awards and a rest from the Iraqi insurgency. He struggles to equate what he sees in Iraq with the pop and confetti way the war is portrayed in America. It's a great insight into how the war is sold to the American people. Good book, but no 'Catch-22'.
If it wasn't for a few faults, 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers could lay claim to a place in the canon of dystopian novels. It borrows from Brave New World (even has a Noble Savage character), 1984, and Farenheit 451 with its theme of controlling information. The Circle is a fictional company, an amalgam of Facebook, Google and Apple, it's the largest tech company in the world and there's a cult of personality surrounding its leaders (think Steve Jobs, Zuckerberg et al). Eggers has a ball satirising our relationship with social media and modern technology.
The Circle have created a software product that unites the internet and hence the company is concentrating more and more power; rabid followers adopt the technology without question, governments begin to follow suit. The public's fears are preyed on and the populace willingly allow themselves to be tracked, the end point of everyone's data is in The Circle's cloud.
The story then morphs into a thriller though dissappointingly never rises above the level of topical pot boiler. The end scenario is stretched, a concluding metaphor is mere ham-fisted symbolism. A highly recommended read despite those shortcomings.
Eggers is good! 'You shall know our velocity' was a good read.
I haven't read The Circle, but I am a sucker for a dystopian future. It's always a bummer when a great concept isn't paired with a solid storyline though.
I always thought The Stand was a bit like that, as though King got a hard-on for describing the fall of civilization, then he realised the story still needed an overarching plot. The change in feel from the first half to the second half was really noticeable. I guess it isn't really any different from any post apocalyptic story - All the zombie shows run into trouble once the characters escape the fall and life becomes just another soapie.
I'm not even going to wait to finish this one before I put it on the list. " The Savage Detectives" Roberto Bolano. Who would ever have thought a novel about Mexican poets would be compulsive reading? Even better the paperback is a $10 special!
http://www.nietzschefamilycircus.com/ Good Friday beckons!
Just revisited Bukowski after twenty years and had the opposite opinion Stu. Used to love him now can't see it. That was Tales Of Ordinary Madness. I think it was the end of his career and he was confusing getting pissed and acting like a cunt with a life more lived. Maybe he was right and my mate that has been banned from the bowlo for life for skulling other peoples drinks has nailed this existential nightmare we are destined to endure.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jarod Diamond.
Dry yet compelling thesis explaining the direction each race in the world took and how this was based mostly on environment.
The Future Eaters by Tim Flannery
Similar vein to Guns, Germs and Steel , a comprehensive overview of Australias geological , biological and anthropological history. Should be compulsive reading in Oz classrooms.
Know we are not just talking books with surfing but Kem Nunn is really good. Cormac McCarthy is a stand out. In crime Australia's Peter Temple [Jack Irish books and others] is as good as anyone in this genre, especially The Broken Shore. James Lee Burke too. Non fiction Bill Bryson for sure. and 1984 still amazes me.
Here's a few good reads I can recall from the last few years, both fiction and non-fiction:
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency - Ioan Grillo
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey
Chronicles of the Area Man - The Onion
No Dying Race - Charles Duguid
floyd wrote:There have been a great many good suggests above.
I nominate two books only; but are highly recommended.
Strumpet City by James Plunket.
A very powerful book that tells the story of capital v labour during the 1913 union lockout in Dublin. Guaranteed to get you angry if you have a social conscience.
Just finished this and must concur. A feckin' epic. Perfect for Cactus, the Bluff etc etc. I'm getting copies for my Hibernophile father-in-law, my old CFMEU mate in Melbourne, and myself.
Thanks for the recommendation Floyd. Must check your other one.
These are the books I will encourage my kids to read.
Flanagan (Richard). The Narrow Road to the Deep North - This was fantastic, and my favorite from a writer of enormous empathy. He, in my mind, is one of the greatest living Australians. Gould's Book of Fish also gets in too.
Flanagan (Martin), The Game in the Time of War - to teach my children the importance of football. On a deeper level, the importance of joy and laughter and self reflection and how to be a thinker.
Patrick White, The Tree of Life - this is for me the quintessentially Australian novel. For me it evokes the same 'Australian-ness' as certain songs, like Wide Open Road by the Triffids or Streets of your Town by the Go Betweens.
Farish A Noor, Quran and Cricket - to remind them that despite the greatness that is home, there is a shitload more going on outside of our little corner of the world. It's a book that inspires me to keep learning, to keep writing and to keep traveling.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind - an epic of sorts, a tale of love and loss and all in between set in early Indonesia. Part of a quartet and a truly brilliant story.
Nick Clements, The Black War - I've only read snippets of this as it is not out until this Friday. A groundbreaking work of history it seems, telling the tale of the Black War in Tasmania, from the perspective of both whites and blacks. From what I have read, it will change the way we view war history in Australia.
Kazantzakis - Report to Greco - one of those books that just speaks to you. Beautifully yet manically written - about place, love, life, God and everything else men worry themselves with.
Today I read the speech War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler.
Butler was America's most decorated soldier and General in the US forces and wrote this speech (1934) along with several other essays and books on the subject of war and the massive profits war generates for a select few, and why we will always have war in the capitalist state. As long as Gordon Gecko's words are sustained, Greed is Good, young men and women will be sent to war for profit.
The next book I have just begun is Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.
Excerpts:
"Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."
and
"It is one part of the struggle for world domination and the dream of a few greedy men, global empire. That is what we EHMs do best: we build a global empire.
We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations subservient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks. Like our counterparts in the Mafia, EHMs provide favors. These take the form of loans to develop infrastructure — electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco. Despite the fact that the money is returned almost immediately to corporations that are members of the corporatocracy (the creditor), the recipient country is required to pay it all back, principal plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations
votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money—and another country is added to our global empire."
Sounds familiar...Ukraine is the latest to join the money / debt merry go round. When it can no longer meet its debt obligations, I'm sure we'll see another US military base installed closer to Russia and the bleeding of Ukraine's natural resources to the highest bidder.
If I were to be cynical, it would appear that there is an EHM play going down right now in Australia.
A Time to Betray - Reza Kahlili (pseudonym)
The true story of one man's betrayal of Iran's Revolutionary Guard by becoming a CIA operative during the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini, and subsequently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
This book gives real insight why radical islam is at it's current boiling point, with complicity from many western / eastern nations through duplicity, the pleading of ignorance or direct support. All of which may or have not been used for domestic and/or international political advantage depending on the machinations of the times.
At times one of the hardest books I've read, not due to language but the brutal honesty of situations recollected.
Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War by Megan K Stack.
In the words of M. Stack.
"Only after covering it for years did I understand that the war on terror never really existed."
This is the writings of Stacks journalistic travels post 911 through Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, etc.
The one thing we are left with from this book...the futility of war at the expense of all. There are no winners, only losers. Even those that think they are winning end up just as lost as those they oppress.
This book is the a modern extension to Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, one man's story of the hell that was the Vietnam War.
Author of FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON, Daniel Keyes just died. Great book, some say better short story, even the film CHARLY was powerful. Highly recommended. Jeez, even thinking about the tale almost brings a tear to the eye...almost.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/jun/18/flowers-for-alger...
Shatner's B, forgot that one. Brilliant book. A great read.
Another short book that touches on life themes, 'The Education of Little Tree'. Simple and sweet. A page turner that you'll smash in a day.
Damm that book floored me.
For an insight into the war in the pacific from australia's perspective - Touched with fire, Land war in the South Pacific : Bergerud
plus, the airwar sequel is fantastic, I could rave for hours about them and often do.
On the war theme, fiction this time(?) - Anything by the author Sven Hassel.
More verse style, hard reading, Eye Scream- Henry Rollins or Black Coffee Blues are good starts.
I liked some of Stunets recommendations that were listed very early in this thread.
freeride76 wrote:Damm that book floored me.
Which book?
I'm guessing 'Flowers for Algernon'.
Such a sweet book and what a clever little mouse that Algernon was.
How to Think about Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age by Schick & Lewis. This book is especially relevant in this day, age & political/cultural climate...and required reading for many, if not all, of the posters on the forums here, there, & everywhere. Highly recommended by David Icke...
Sounds good SB, good enough to visit Amazon and read a bit more about it. However I was a bit put off when Amazon told me people who bought this book also bought "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens."
It may be a good book but it ain't keeping good company.
Me, I'm reading the Norwegian wunder-hit, My Struggle - Book 1, by Karl Ove Knaussgard. It was a recommendation from blindboy who usually has impeccable reading taste and, well, 450,000 Norwegians can't be wrong can they?
100 pages in and I am struggling, ironically enough. It just hasn't got me the way I thought it would, and lofty references to Proust aren't helping either, serving only to raise expectation.
Blindboy, would you care to step into the room and give me a wee bit of encouragement? I could use it.
er, I was joking about David Icke aka the lizard king's recommendation. He and some of his conspiracy-nut followers would be, I daresay, what something like the "Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens" book, and the aforementioned Schick effort, address in part. The same belief/mind-set. The far from unusual story of people, feeling abandoned by traditional belief/faith systems, bereft of much meaning in their day-to-day lives, looking for it in all the wrong places. Be it new age this or conspiracy theory that, or even being kidnapped by otherworldly lizard beings!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005775
Apologies for getting low brow here gentlemen, but I came across the story ( fictionalised yet apparently historically accurate ) of Genghis Kahn in the Conqueror series by Conn Iguldenn.
I'd always heard of Genghis but was never up to speed on his origins or achievements. Whether you think what he achieved was right or wrong , there is no denying it was grand in scale.
Wolf of the plains is the first book.
Stu it is not the easiest read but I think it is worth the effort. I am onto the third volume which is much easier reading for whatever reason. My suggestion is that on e you have a clear idea of the characters, since there is no plot there is no hurry. I often just read a few pages at a time rather than great slabs.
If all else fails and you want something more digestible, have you read the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn? You can get the first three in a single volume.
I thought I would say a bit more about Knausgaard Stu. Comparisons with Proust are legitimate in terms of literary quality but misleading in terms of the perspective. I haven't read all of Proust but in what I have read he is concerned with an aristocratic level of society and writes with wit and humour, qualities noticeably absent in Knausgaard. He is focused as much outward as inward and is at least as concerned with portraying society as he is with revealing himself. Knausgaard writes about the middle class and, it is fair to say, is self-absorbed. This is about Karl Ove, what he does, what he thinks and what he feels and Karl Ove is not your average well balanced individual. He is an outlier. He is gifted and damaged to almost equal degrees. Take the title, My. Struggle, seriously. This is a person to whom nothing, except perhaps isolation, has ever come easily.
If you think about that opening sequence, he opens up with a description of death and decay, contrasts our treatment of the reality of death with its portrayal across a variety of media and then segues into an incident from his childhood, before 20 pages later, landing in early middle age with a second wife and three children. For me this is key to understanding where he is coming from. This is existentialism, a philosophy that has deep roots in Norway. In effect he is saying, this is it, this brutal ordinariness is everything. We are embedded in it, bound to it, and in the end there is only ever death and decay.
There is nothing exceptional in this point of view. It is probably how most of see things now. The exceptional thing is his ability to let us inhabit his point of view so totally; to be brought inside that damaged individual so completely that we begin to understand and anticipate, to feel the visceral fear of his father that has so distorted his emotional development. He achieves this through the most brutal and factually accurate self-portrait in literature. Everything he writes is true to his memory of the events he describes, often painfully so. Early on he refers to a self-portrait by Rembrandt, late in his life, and comments on the honest portrayal of the damage life has worn into his face. He is engaged in a similar project with his own psyche as the subject. Brutal honesty may not always lead to great art but it is Knausgaard's chosen technique and I think he has succeeded. Bring on Volume 4!
Knut Hamsun .. Hunger.
John Birmingham .. Dopeland
Murray Bail .. Eucalyptus
Tara Moss ... Just kidding
MCarthy has lost it .. and Suttree was his best Stu, many say.
I'm a further 200 pages into My Struggle and no longer struggling BB. Quite the opposite now. Think it may have been something you wrote in your previous post: "....since there is no plot..." Of course there's no plot but amazing how being told that, being conciously aware of the lack of pretense during my next sitting, changed my response to the book. Rather than looking to be entertained with typical artifice: plot, narrative, storyline, typical literary tools, the enjoyment is - as you say - occupying his world. Going wherever he goes and not expecting each step to be part of an unfolding structure.
Personally I think he's at his best when trying to make sense of cerebral matters so I'll gladly allow him to indulge pages of text while drilling down into the meaning and matter of art, quality, language, etc.. Reminds me of the 'chatauquas' in "Zen and the Art of..." Chasing thoughts to wherever they may lead. Knausgaard's isolation and vocation as a writer has allowed him to deeply contemplate thoughts that would be fleeting in others.
I'll be moving on to Book 2 shortly.
Roberto Bolano! Read anything by him. I think I mentioned The Savage Detectives before. Just finishing The Skating Rink and I picked up Monsieur Pain and Amulet at the same time. Ten dollar Picadors and an absolute bargain. A seriously great writer!
Paul Valent- In Two Minds- amazing , educational and confronting. Genghis Khan series by Conn- very good, so is book about Persian King-Cyrus The Great- author? Jean M Auel Clan of the Cave Bear series good- excellent factual research.
Lands Edge by Tim Winton, but only the original WA version. Not the one with the irrelevant photos from the East Coast involved. Captures the true heart of West Oz. My favourite Aussie writer. Maybe my favourite writer full stop. But only his non fiction really gets under my skin.
Also the photographic quarto " Smalltown " with the 30 page essay/ Forward by Winton. The fucker nails Australia's ability to make a bad time worse through our made environments in WA.
In memory of Gough, check this book, THE CRIMES OF PATRIOTS -- A TRUE TALE OF DOPE, DIRTY MONEY, AND THE CIA by Jonathan Kwitny. It's available here in its entirety. Chapter nine is specifically about the dismissal, but the whole thing is pretty mind-boggling. And well-researched. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried?!
Here's a list that gladdens. What Youth and "7 books you will psyche on and should totally read."
http://www.whatyouth.com/2014/02/14/radical-class-2/?id=16859
I often bemoan the fact that good writing is a dying art. It ain't necessarily true but it sometimes feels that way. The yoof, it always seemed to me, could buy a Canikon for a couple hunge, flood the 'net with images, and call 'emselves artists - easy! But unlike photography there's no shortcut to good writing: no autofocus, no colour correcting software - it's hard fucken work. And the first step toward it is to read lots and lots of great writers. So yeah, glad to see the yoof - What Yoof! - spruiking seven good books. Bit limited in scope and style but a good list nonetheless.