General Reading / Book Thread for 2019

reading high rise by ballard. i like his short stories, thought I’d give this a go. enjoying it altho the prose is a little clunkier than I’d have expected after reading the shorter stuff.

concentration city is a pretty big influence on music i make come to think of it.

I had a hard time with Ballard and I think it’s just that his type of prose doesn’t work for me, at all.

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lots of things like this: “it was, to be sure, now that he thought of it, and quite contrary to what they told him, last week, just after sundown, prior to the arrival of the police, who arrived within ten min…”

JUST GET ON WITH THE SENTENCE MAN JFC

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:laughing:

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I think it’s probably his best one but I don’t like his novels as much as I think I should.

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I keep meaning to read this as many of the bands are ones I like, or at least know.

There are a couple of decent fiction books about bands/music. Where you can tell the author knows their stuff. Powder by Kevin Sampson and Kill Your Friends by John Niven.

I have on my bookshelf Dial M for Merthyr which is non-fiction account of following a band around. I love her other books and this is supposed to be good.

It’s not, it’s just that the American pronunciation of Cuthbert is an absolute fucking state. File alongside how they manage get Crete into Cretin.

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Have you read Danny Sugarland’s Wonderland Avenue? I seem to remember really enjoying it but that would have been almost 20 years ago now.

Is this still good now? It felt like a fiction written for an alternative universe where the music industry kept on going as it always had after 2000 although I enjoyed it enough.

One for the Wheel of Time Fans:

No, but I’ll put it on the list, thanks

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I hope that’s a scene from the Amazon series where they write a book about the events of said series and then call it ‘The Eye of the World’ in a knowing and highly amusing way.

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Good point. Yes and no. I read it when it came out, when everything about it was relevant and how things worked. So it’s of it’s time. When I reread it, it does almost feel like a period piece to be honest. But it’s still decent enough. As he worked in the industry you can really tell as it feels so real.

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I enjoy those Oral History type books;
Please Kill Me for Punk
Everybody Loves Our Town for Grunge
Meet Me in the Bathroom for The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs etc

There are also good books about The Replacements (Trouble Boys) and Husker Du (called Husker Du I think) and a Bob Mould autobiography (See a Little Light with Michael Azerrad) if you enjoy Our Band Could Be Your Life and want to read more about those bands.

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I read Dial M For Merthyr off the back of a Twitter recommendation. I can’t remember who it was now. It’s good, but it’s not a particularly cheery or uplifting book. Quite bleak really, but it feels very accurate.

My favourite fiction about music is Hard Core Logo by Michael Turner. It’s the story of a Canadian punk band getting back together for a few gigs that turn into a tour. It’s all told in poetry and photos, and it’s amazing. I also think it’s where the band Billy Talent got their name from, but don’t hold that against it.

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Rachel Weiss I think, or is she an actress? I heard about it because I loved one of her fiction books.

I was a bit surprised at the writing style of ‘High Rise’ and admit i found it hard going, for a relatively short book it was a real slog to get through. Long time since i’ve read them but from memory crash, concrete island, and the drowned world were much better books and the writing style wasn’t nearly as blunt. I did think at the time it must have been a deliberate choice for him to write ‘HR’ in that manner. Funnily enough, despite not liking the book all that much i did think it would make a good film. Unfortunately i found it as exhausting as the book.

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idk, i think uncle stevie says kewthbert is canon. i agree with you like.

is the film much cop? i like weatley’s other stuff like kill list, field in england etc

I mean he only says that because he’s an American. Surely Cuthbert is, like ‘Anthony’ one of those names with a singular US vs UK pronunciation I think (as in US say the ‘th’ sound in Anthony but in the UK you’d only ever say it like ‘Antony’).

I don’t have a go at French people because they say Theo like ‘Téo’.