7 books you will psyche on and should totally read: What Youth

@stunet ... I agree about RF. Have read The Sound of One Hand Clapping & The Unknown Terrorist with the former being a much better read that the latter. 1/3 of the way through The Narrow Road to the Deep North and I'm still wanting for the magic to happen. Its dedicated to his dad who was a prisoner of war on the Changi railway and the 1st 3rd of the book only touches on this topic so I'm hopeful of a darn good last 2/3rds.

Give me a week or so.

can you help me,-has anyone read a book about a bloke who was in a maximum security prison then goes to India and has all these wild adventures-based on true story- shambatar or similiar?

Dave,

Shantaram- Gregory David Roberts.

thanks zen, subarushi, you are a legend. did u like it?

I read it about 5 years ago, it was ok. It wasn't a page turner for me, kinda picked it up, read a bit, left it for awhile. The guy that recommended it to me raved about it though. I can tell by his writing that he holds India very dear to his heart.

I'm one of those people that read books 2 or 3 times. I might have another dig.

I just finished a book called 'Mao's last Dancer' by Li Cunxin. True story about a peasant boy growing up in rural China and had been selected (against his wishes) to be taken away and trained as a Ballet dancer and his rise to fame and subsequent defection to the US. Man life was/is hard for people in China. We're so lucky to be Australian.

A lot of people have mentioned Douglas Adams as a favouurite author so a little lightheartedness for a Friday night by the man himself.

(Thought I'd put it here than start a new thread)

A witty, fairly accurate and strangely informative essay about Australia .

AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIANS

The following is by Douglas Adams of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy" fame.

" Australia is a very confusing place, taking up a large amount of
the bottom half of the planet. It is recognizable from orbit because
of many unusual features, including what at first looks like an
enormous bite taken out of its southern edge; a wall of sheer cliffs
which plunge into the girting sea Geologists assure us that this is
simply an accident of geomorphology, but they still call it the "Great
Australian Bight", proving that not only are they covering up a more
frightening theory but they can't spell either.

The first of the confusing things about Australia is the status of the
place. Where other landmasses and sovereign lands are classified as
continent, island or country, Australia is considered all three.
Typically, it is unique in this.

The second confusing thing about Australia is the animals. They can be
divided into three categories: Poisonous, Odd, and Sheep. It is true
that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9
of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most
poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. However, there are few
snakes, possibly because the spiders have killed them all.

But even the spiders won't go near the sea. Any visitors should be
careful to check inside boots (before putting them on), under toilet
seats (before sitting down) and generally everywhere else. A stick is
very useful for this task.

The last confusing thing about Australia is the inhabitants -

A short history: Sometime around 40,000 years ago some people arrived
in boats from the north. They ate all the available food, and a lot of
them died. The ones who survived learned respect for the balance of
nature, man's proper place in the scheme of things, and spiders. They
settled in and spent a lot of the intervening time making up strange
stories.

Then, around 200 years ago, Europeans arrived in boats from the north.
More accurately, European convicts were sent, with a few deranged
people in charge. They tried to plant their crops in autumn (failing
to take account of the reversal of the seasons), ate all their food,
and a lot of them died.

About then the sheep arrived, and have been treasured ever since. It
is interesting to note here that the Europeans always consider
themselves vastly superior to any other race they encounter, since
they can lie, cheat, steal and litigate (marks of a civilized culture
they say), whereas all the Aboriginals can do is happily survive being
left in the middle of a vast red-hot desert, equipped with a stick.

Eventually, the new lot of people stopped being Europeans on 'extended
holiday' and became Australians. The changes are subtle, but deep,
caused by the mind-stretching expanses of nothingness and eerie quiet,
where a person can sit perfectly still and look deep inside themselves
to the core of their essence, their reasons for being, and the
necessity of checking inside their boots every morning for fatal
surprises. They also picked up the most finely tuned sense of irony in
the world, and the Aboriginal gift for making up stories. Be warned.

There is also the matter of the beaches. Australian beaches are simply
the nicest and best in the world, although anyone actually venturing
into the sea will have to contend with sharks, stinging jellyfish,
stonefish (a fish which sits on the bottom of the sea, pretends to be
a rock and has venomous barbs sticking out of its back that will kill
just from the pain) and surfboarders. However, watching a beach sunset
is worth the risk.

As a result of all this hardship, dirt, thirst and wombats, you would
expect Australians to be a dour lot. Instead, they are genial, jolly,
cheerful and always willing to share a kind word with a stranger.
Faced with insurmountable odds and impossible problems, they smile
disarmingly and look for a stick. Major engineering feats have been
performed with sheets of corrugated iron, string and mud.

Alone of all the races on earth, they seem to be free from the 'Grass
is greener on the other side of the fence' syndrome, and roundly
proclaim that Australia is, in fact, the other side of that fence.
They call the land "Oz" or "Godzone" (a verbal contraction of "God's
Own Country"). THE IRRITATING THING ABOUT THIS IS THEY MAY BE RIGHT.

TIPS TO SURVIVING AUSTRALIA

Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any reason WHATSOEVER.

The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you
think it is.

Always carry a stick.

Air-conditioning is imperative.

Do not attempt to use Australian slang unless you are a trained
linguist and extremely good in a fist fight.

Wear thick socks.

Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are
people nearby

If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you
at all times, or you will die.

Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is
always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.

HOW TO IDENTIFY AUSTRALIANS

They waddle when they walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount
vouchers stuffed in their wallet or purse.

They pronounce Melbourne as "Mel-bin".

They think it makes perfect sense to decorate highways with large
fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.

They think "Woolloomooloo" is a perfectly reasonable name for a place,
that "Wagga Wagga" can be abbreviated to "Wagga", but "Woy Woy" can't
be called "Woy".

Their hamburgers will contain beetroot. Apparently it's a must-have.

They don't think it's summer until the steering wheel is too hot to
handle.

They believe that all train timetables are works of fiction.

They all carry a stick!

That's fucking unreal Zen. Nice one.

stunet wrote:

Anyone read Richard Flanagan's 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'? It kinda feels like a bandwagon I should jump aboard yet I've been burnt... or more precisely, bored, by Flanagan before. His book 'The Unknown Terrorist' left a numbing impression.

So, da Man Booker winner...anyone? BB? Shatner?

Haven't read any of Flanagan's fiction. Read some of his non. Also saw his film. I don't want to damn him with faint praise...er, but I just have, I think. He's an Aussie who cares for his environment and has won a Booker! Fair dues.

Hmmmm, The Booker! Unbelievably, James Kelman won one once. Tad controversial. NOT an easy read for the atypical Booker consumer, in structural nuts n bolts terms certainly, but also for the cultural milieu in which the protagonist does his thing.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/14/booker-club-james-kelman-ho...

Personally, being a massive admirer of Kelman, I wouldn't recommend this to the uninitiated as an introduction to his work. It is a difficult work on many levels, though a rewarding one...a true work of art that demands time and close reading. Rather, start off with his short story collection THE GOOD TIMES and see how you go. Then perhaps, A CHANCER...and onwards & onwards if he speaks to you. His non-fiction is grand too.

"In an occupied country indigenous history can only be radical. It is a class issue. The intellectual life of working class people is ‘occupied’. In a colonised country intellectual occupation takes place throughout society. The closer to the ruling class we get the less difference there exists in language and culture, until finally we find that questions fundamental to society at its widest level are settled by members of the same closely knit circle, occasionally even the same family or ‘bloodline’. And the outcome of that can be war, the slaughter of working class people."

Here is what I said re; Narrow Road in April:

"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."

On it before the bandwagon! I still think of it as being one of my favorite books. Some scenes/themes in particular stick out for me: taking the epic grab at the start (football tragic), hot stickyness by the beach after adulterous lovemaking, the light and the mud in the jungle. I found it to be brilliant.

Gould's Book of Fish and Death of a River Guide are also in my top ten reading experiences. Sound of One Hand is okay, but the Unknown Terrorist seems to be an experiment of sorts, or an attempt to quickly push out some fiction to make a statement on a topical issue. I would never recommend that to anyone.

The politics of RF play into my respect for his books, certainly. He is fearless. In Tassie he stood up to the most powerful on many occasions and was almost chased out of the state. When Lennon was Premier he publicly stated that Flanagan was not welcome in "the new Tasmania". It takes a lot of guts to say and do some of the things he has in the past, and for no personal gain. Tasmania is small enough to feel the effect of having someone like Richard around. It's worth listening to some of his speeches, or his interview with Richard Fidler.

(Disclosure: clearly a massive RF fan)

Flanagan's entry for another award (excerpted from The Narrow Road to the Deep North):

Whatever had held them apart, whatever had restrained their bodies before, was now gone. If the earth spun it faltered, if the wind blew it waited. Hands found flesh; flesh, flesh. He felt the improbable weight of her eyelash with his own; he kissed the slight, rose-coloured trench that remained from her knicker elastic, running around her belly like the equator line circling the world. As they lost themselves in the circumnavigation of each other, there came from nearby shrill shrieks that ended in a deeper howl.

Dorrigo looked up. A large dog stood at the top of the dune. Above blood-jagged drool, its slobbery mouth clutched a twitching fairy penguin.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/poll/2014/nov/12/literary-review-bad-se...

but then there's this:

http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/article/the-decline-of-love-and-the-...

hey Stu, have now finished reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North and I would recommend it. As I said in an earlier post I struggled with the first part of the book but it did improve greatly in particular in telling the horrid plight of the soldiers forced to work on the railway. I have read other books on this subject and Richard Flanagan tells the tale like no other; with brutal detail, wit and humility. Telling the tale in a way only an Australian could.

zenagain wrote:

I read it about 5 years ago, it was ok. It wasn't a page turner for me, kinda picked it up, read a bit, left it for awhile. The guy that recommended it to me raved about it though. I can tell by his writing that he holds India very dear to his heart.

I'm one of those people that read books 2 or 3 times. I might have another dig.

yeah zen, i agree, he loves india and his detail is wonderful. but i was not really captivated. i can see how others may like it though.

I just finished a book called 'Mao's last Dancer' by Li Cunxin. True story about a peasant boy growing up in rural China and had been selected (against his wishes) to be taken away and trained as a Ballet dancer and his rise to fame and subsequent defection to the US. Man life was/is hard for people in China. We're so lucky to be Australian.

zenagain wrote:

Some good reads there TR.

I could go on for ages but a few books that have stuck with me over the years:-

The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men: Steinbeck, Kane and Abel: Jeffrey Archer, The Stand: Stephen King, Black Sunday: Thomas Harris, 1984: George Orwell, Watership Down: Richard Adams, Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Thomas Hardy, White Swans: Jun Chang, Siddartha: Herman Hesse, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Roald Dahl, The Godfather: Mario Puzo and on and on and on.....

Another good page turner and an insight into regime change, British and US imperialism and generally why the world is fucked up over oil, read 'All the Shah's Men' by Stephen Kinzer. Great book.

Catcher in the Rye is always rated as a classic, it was ok for me but far from the most enjoyable book I've ever read.

Sorry, but just can't rate anything by Dan Brown and Bryce Courtenay. The Da Vinci Code and Power of One bored the shit out of me.

Anything by John Grisham is pretty cool.

The gRpes of Wrath and Catcher in the Rye are 2 of my favourites. I would also add 'The New Earth' and 'The Power of Now' and 'Tuesdays with Morrie' as my other fav reads

James, take some time to read through the rest of the thread. I'm a literary lightweight in comparison to some of the other blokes here. There's some serious bookworms out there and I'm really happy to see it.

You mentioned Tuesdays with Morrie and it (somehow) reminded me of a book I read a few years ago 'Confessions of a Yakuza' by Junichi Saga. Real page turner on how an impoverished small boy post WWII rose up to be a high level gangster and how a man who regularly visits him in his twilight years coaxes his story reluctantly out of him. I really enjoyed it and I reckon you might.

hey stu, currently reading Patti Miller's The Mind of a Thief - How do you belong to a stolen land. Recommend it, won the NSW Premier's History Awards in 2013.

Yeah the unknown terrorist I believe was always a cash in exercise but he seemed to have pre empted the current political situation. But fortunate enough to have had a young guy buy into a local 2nd hand bookshop and stocking g a few new reads a couple in particular have stood out "the thicket" by Ron Rash you can always see where it's going. But the way he gets there makes it all worth while. And another one a Japanese novel "in the miso soup" by ryu murakami, his trip into the human psyche in the back end of the book pretty incredible. This day and age any Brautigan fans out there?

The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
A book every Australian should make the effort to read.

I haven't read it and probably won't after this review

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n24/michael-hofmann/is-his-name-alwyn

The Narrow Road To The Deep North

Christ , that review was hard work.

True Blowin' but it was a very serious take down of a work that has pretensions to a high literary standard so the review had to be pitched at that level.

He certainly doesn't seem to enjoy the book.

I thought the writer of the review could string together a sentence well but-

Meow!

He certainly doesn't Blowy.

blindboy wrote:

I haven't read it and probably won't after this review

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n24/michael-hofmann/is-his-name-alwyn

The Narrow Road To The Deep North

Don't let one review of a book ruin it for you, especially when the review includes the fact that it has won multiple awards and is almost 'universally adored'. I find Flanagan to be anything but pretentious, in person and in writing.

I'm halfway through Winton's newest at the moment and I am enjoying it, though not really sure where it is going.

In the last few months in the hills I've got through a ton of books. Some great Australian reads including;
The Woman of the Inner Sea - Tom Kennealy
Return to Stone Country - Alex Miller
The Garden Book - Brian Castro
Cloudstreet (re-read, still great)

I've knocked off some other goodens too;
Freedom and Death - Kazantzakis
The Ramayana
The History of the World Since 9.11 - Streatfield
Ka: Stories of the Minds and Gods of India - Robert Calasso
The Black War: Fear and Sex in Tasmania - Nick Clements
Varieties of Javanese Religion - Beatty.

It's be a great few months without much internet. I fully expect to not read anything but Twitter and Facebook for the next few weeks, despite best intentions.

Winton nailed the state of play in WA at the moment in Eyrie.

Annie Proulx has been lighting my fire.

I have to admit my reading has slowed a bit lately with other commitments eating up my time but I picked up The Typewriter Is Holy by Bill Morgan, which is a history of the Beat Generation; Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs. I have always found their lives and their social impact much more interesting than their work though there is good stuff amongst it. This is probably the clearest view of the whole scene we are ever likely to get and well worth the $5.50 I picked it up for on the remainders shelf. I am now on "Stoner" by John Williams which is not the story of a Gen Xer gone astray but a wonderfully well written novel in which nothing beyond the ordinary happens. A great reminder of the courage it can take to lead an "ordinary" life.

Just started Bill Bryson's 'At Home- A Short History of Private Life'. And bang from the get go in Bryson style, hooks you straight in.

Recently read 'Sacre Bleu' by Chris Moore. Funny book about the lives of the painting set in late nineteenth century Paris and surrounds. Delves into the lives of Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh, Monet and others interwoven with fictional characters and their rapacious desire to secure small quatities of the 'Sacred Blue' the rarest of colours present in many of the great masterpieces over the ages.

Funny, educational mix of non-fiction and fantasy. Liberal sprinkling of sex and swearing but not for swearings sake. Just adds to the colour (no pun intended). A great read in my opinion.

Love a bit of Bryson , Zen. Recently read Life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Class stuff. Eyeing off a copy of " One Summer" as I type this. Have you read " Down Under " ?

anyone read Earth Based Psychology by Arnold Mindell- interesting stuff there, wingnut i think u may find it quite intriguing-unique perspective i must say

"How to make gravy " by Paul Kelly. Over 400 pages of lyrical analysis and endless digressions relating to the life of the touring artist, artistic and sporting influences and an autobiographical ode to the grandeur of this great south land ? Fuck that .

Actually turned out to be the defining read of a recent desert sojourn by this happy reader.

If you liked Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy you should try Butcher's Crossing John Williams. It may not be in print locally but you can get it as an ebook.

About a week ago I busted into John Birmingham's blog and got up the nose of just about everyone there, which, of course, was deliberate. They are sycophants of the highest order, very similar to the Tara Moss mob - where I unashamedly caused great angst earlier this year. I do this blog raiding in fond remembrance of a lad named Stuey, from old Real Surf days .. in any case, Birmingham has just released a book called Emergence, I bought a kindle edition this morning and read 6 pages, then clocked onto Amazon and gave it a review. I won't link the Amazon Kindle Birmingham Emergence link. Does anyone here rate his work highly?

I liked " He died with a felafel in his hand " years ago when it came out . Never got into his international thriller deal.

That wasn't a big book, neither was Dopeland, but now he's writing a 400 page book every 18 months, what is it with these bulk deliveries of words? Most of the recommendations in this thread are for much smaller books ... When does a writer start dumbing down?

Do you mean the shorter books are dumbed down ?

No, the longer ones, like the writer has a commitment - so he writes books as big as bricks - and they get dumber and dumber, but you still have to pay $30 plus for them.

I like it when books are dumbed down. Makes it easier for a person like me to comprehend and digest.

I think authors try too hard sometimes and over complicate their English which does nothing to add to the imagery.

I like your writing pete, but you leave me hanging too much sometimes:)

Dialogue - that's got to be the beginning and the end of a good book. Peter Temple (South African) handles Australians talking like he was born listening to old cops sharing memories. Then you get this attempt by an Australian author (John Birmingham) at putting words into an American mouth.
The American is a (female) pilot of an oil company helicopter, she's talking to the protagonist of Emergence - Dave Hooper - he's going back to work on an old rig after a weekend of "blow and hookers."
He's hungover, she says:
'Oh, Lord, no! Bump uglies with you Dave? I think not. I mean, y'all are purdy. In a grizzly wore-down kinda way. But the way you tomcat around, I wouldn't let that penile biohazard of yours anywhere near my unmentionables. Probably just about ready to fall off by now, I'd reckon. I shoulda made you leave it back on the grass with your breakfast, or dinner, or whatever that nasty-looking mess y'all upchucked was. You know the company rules about flying with hazmats.'
How the fuck does this guy get away with it? How do any of them get away with it, don't they read the words they write?
Shearer, where's he writing these days, and DC Green?

John Birmingham is a fine writer. His personal taste with his writing was to mainly write non-fiction. His books changed when he had 2 kids and gained a large mortgage. He had to start making more than $12000 a year. Various Australian writers acquaintances, the handful that actually make a decent living, advised him to start writing genre fiction for the overseas market. This he now does, amongst other things. Big Sci-fi action entertainments aimed primarily at the American market. They are designed to be fun entertainments for primarily middle aged males - his airport novels, as Birmingham called them. His new book, Emergence, about Dave vs the Monsters, is just designed to be a comic action roughhouse adventure romp. An entertainment for those that like that sort of thing, i.e. tired adults who feel like some escapist fun.

John Birmingham WAS a fine writer Wally, he's forgotten that, and that's the shame of it. Word churning isn't writing, and the starving writer doctrine went out with Knut Hamsun.

With no waves about in Sydney I am racing through Bleeding Edge and, big call, it may be the best thing Thomas Pynchon has ever done. More accessible, clearer plot line but somehow just as weird as ever. Now I just need to see Inherent Vice the movie!

I know its not 7 but Here's 3 that i recommend to anyone who asks.

When the lion feeds - Wilbur Smith

IT- Stephen King

The Power Of One- Bryce Courtenay

Reading this at lunchtimes at work...when I'm there and able. Timing was impeccable in light of the Charlie Hebdo affair. So far, noble, interesting, arresting, problematic...and the jury is still out at this stage for mine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/books/review/habibi-written-and-illust...

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/16/habibi-craig-thompson-review

Between The World And Me

Ta-Nehasi Coates

Compulsory reading.

goofyfoot wrote:

A Fortunate Life by A. B. Facey.
"Amasing" book about early Australia and the struggles people had to go through back then.

You must be trolling goofy I hated that book had to do it for HSC even tried to read it again later still hated it not someone who i would ever want to have a beer with

Susan Casey
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wave-Pursuit-Rogues-Freaks/dp/0767928857