I've got a few. There's a Morrissey biography called 'Scandal & Passion' by a guy called David Bret that's pretty superb. I also like Bukowski's 'Post Office' a lot, aswell as a Clash biography by Pat Gilbert called 'Passion Is A Fashion'. My others would probably be Shelagh Delaney's 'A Taste of Honey', Charles R Cross's Kurt Cobain bio 'Heavier Than Heaven', 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and 'Touching From A Distance', the book which became the film 'Control'. I'd probably pick 'Post Office' as my favourite if i was pushed.
Looking for reccomendations...
The Power And The Glory - Graham Greene
because i am predictable.
the dharma bums
I might get this.
I see Penguin have released it. Penguin & Wordsworth Classics are two of my favourite things. There used to be a garage near me that stocked the entire ranges, all for 99p. They seem to have had a bit of a makeover since then, and are now £2, but AMAZING value.
yeah really get it
alternatively, as a morrissey fan (though knowing this you might have already read it) you should read brighton rock, also by Greene. It's also completely amazing and morrissey goes on about it a lot.
I've read it referenced in a Morrissey book, i think.
I've honestly never heard of Graham Greene. I'm a whalley.
the quiet american
by greene is also a very good read. don't know about any musical connections though...
It's only really morrissey i've heard reference Brighton Rock
Oh apparently pete docherty likes it too
Whenever i think of Pinkie from brighton rock i cant help but think of
"The boy with the thorn in his side
behind the hatred there list a murderous desire for life"
It just fits him so perfectly. I'm almost certain it's a reference by moz.
the hungry caterpillar
True tales of american life
edited by Paul Auster.
Basically a collection of amazing stories from America.
if you like post office
have you read ham on rye? another Bukowski and it's brilliant.
ham on rye is brilliant
the only bukowski book that i've ever been into
I haven't yet, but i'm planning on doing.
I always assumed Bukowski was some 17c Russian philosopher/novelist for some absolutely stupid reason. Post Office is an absolute joy, it's so simple and brilliant.
well then you should definitely check out ham on rye
factotum and women are ok but get a little repetitive i think.
also check out his short story collections: the most beautiful woman in town & tales of ordinary madness.
they're a bit hit and miss in places but there are some brilliant moments in there.
our band could be your life
is a current contender. just really inspiring and interestin.
then prozac nation by elizabeth wurtzel is one of the few books that i have read twice...
atonement by ian mcewan and midnights children by salmon rushdie both have some of the most amazing writing evah!!! but i dont quite love the books as whole...
Naked Lunch
I'm re-reading it at the moment and had forgotten just how great it was. Has anyone read any of Burroghs' other cut-up stuff? I liked Junky but it's not the same level as Naked Lunch
i tried to read naked lunch
but failed. :( epic failz on my part.
nowt to be ashamed of
It is a bit hard work in places, but well worth it.
I've failed epically on books in the past, I must have tried to get into Gravity's Rainbow at least three times now
Naked naked naked...
I am half way through Naked Lunch and whilst reading it at Starbucks the other day some guy dropped a napkin on my table which read:
'You do know Borough was on Smack when he wrote Naked Lunch, and when it was being published the printers mixed up a few of the pages and no one noticed.'
Does anyone know if the pages thing is true? Or was that just a sad pick-up attempt?
On that note, in the dedication section of Ginsberg's 'Howl' Ginsberg says to Borough: 'To William S Borough for writing Naked Lunch, and confusing the shit out of everyone.'
Classic!
not quite
He was doing a lot of heroin, yes, and rather than an ordered manuscript there were a whole load of pages and different sections lying around his room. Ginsberg (and I think also Kerouac) put them in order for printing. In light of it being an episodic piece of writing, and Burroughs' interest in cut-up techniques and deliberate estrangement, it seems like a fitting way for the book to have been put together.
If it was a pick-up attempt, the bloke might have been better off actually talking to you.
Er, yes
That was the entire point. It was the first expression of Burroughs' "cut-up" technique, the idea that chopping things up into smaller and smaller parts and rearranging them in different ways would lead to greater insight into whatever you were analysing (it's actually like a very crude version of deconstruction).
Burroughs wrote it in Tangiers. He was mostly on hashish and opium at the time, but then he was one of the world's most famous users and abusers of drugs, even up until his death.
He'd written it out by hand, and got Kerouac to type it up for him, and Ginsberg read it and acted as proof-reader (they were visiting Tangiers at the time, and staying with Burroughs in his flat).
The entire book is an series of nightmarish sequences which are meant to parody aspects of traditional American life, and take them to extremes, thus revealing their absurdity. It deliberately doesn't have a real narrative (the only real connections between the sections are the occasional recurring characters like Dr Benway), and so Burroughs pretty much threw the papers onto the floor, gathered them up, and sent them off to the printers. There was no point in trying to come up with a rational order when the book is so doggedly anti-rational.
And the dedication reads, "to William Seward Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, an endless novel that will drive everybody mad." Because it did and still does...
Oh, and if it was a pick-up attempt
1) It's not a good method
2) He seemed to be saying it in a critical way, which is pretty pointless, as it's like criticising a painting for being made with oils. It's what makes it what it is.
The order isn't entirely 'random'
As said above there isn't a real narrative, but the way certain concepts are introduced and then expaned later on (e.g. the latahs in the mental hospital and then the latah riot later on) suggests some method in the chapters were pieced together.
The Soft Machine
is mostly frustrating and repetitious, The Ticket That Exploded and Nova Express too. Occasional flashes of sense.
The stuff before the Nova Trilogy (Junky, Queer) and the stuff after (Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads) are much more enjoyable reads, more coherent, whilst maintaining that completely left field madness.
I've been meaning to read Scandal & Passion for ages.....
I've got Mark Simpson's 'Saint Morrissey' which is great, it isn't po faced like a lot of rock biographies, indeed it's not really a biography in the true sense, very funny book.
Everyone will take the piss, but my favourite book is Watership Down (wait, hear me out!), it has EVERYTHING....friendship, loyalty, betrayal, love, hatred and bunnies, lots and lots of bunnies.
S&P's probably the most balance Moz bio.
Definitely a good read. David Bret stays just short of fanboydom in parts, but in a healthy way.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is number 1
then an unordered rabble of Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban,
Lanark by Alasdair Gray,
1984 by Orwell,
Complete Short Stories by JG Ballard,
The Invisibles by Grant Morrison,
New York Trilogy by Paul Auster,
The SAS Survival Handbook by some SAS man,
The Usborne book of Science,
The massive 10001 Beano joke book.
did you ever have those
huge 'bumper' joke books when you were a child?
I had about two and I had those long thin ones as well. I used to memorise all the jokes in order to be funny.
Can only remember ONE now, and it goes:
what do you get if you drop a piano on an army camp?
a flat major!
yes those long thin ones
1001 good jokes
1001 more good jokes
1001 even more good jokes
Seriously this Beano book is incredible. It is Man's Daddy standard all the way through. I would have loved to work in the Beano joke book company.
Haha! The SAS Survival Handbook
was written by John Wiseman. He's a family friend, really lovely guy.
Just about every guy in their mid 20s-mid 30s has a copy of that book lying about somewhere!
that's ace!
I actually have two copies. The big fat one and the Collins Gem version, which is presumably more practical to fit into hand luggage on every journey. It would be pretty pessimistic to take a big reference book on survival on every trip.
I work on this book, how cool am I?
You should look out for the new version which is coming out in the summer. It's bound in army-print material and has a compass embedded in the cover with two chapters of new material.
I'm such a corporate bunny!
wow
the compass sounds like a gimmick to me though. I doubt it will stand up to the rigours of the Amazon basin.
What are the new chapters on? Surviving not being able to get on to the internet?
All Quiet On the Western Front
or Catch-22, or A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. But there are so many.
or The Great Gatsby or For Whom the Bells Tolls or The Godfather
This is actually quite hard.
I just got Catch-22!
I'm fucking excited.
I've just remembered I never finished like the last 2 chapters of All Quiet. It was good too; I really liked it. I just didn't get round to it for some reason. I still have the school's copy though, I think, so it'll be no trouble getting that done.
....
erm, The Asiatics by Frederik Prokosch but I haven't read in years so it might not be so good.
Z.Z.Packer's collection of short stories 'Drinking Coffee Elsewhere' is great
Boringly, Douglas Coupland's Generation X - he's a 'natural' storyteller, and I love it for being full of marketing spiel, but also being so relentlessly honest in its earnestness
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
My favourite book changes all the time, so I think to truthfully describe something as my favourite book, I need to re-read it every year
1. Ulysses - James Joyce
2. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
3. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
It's hard though...too many to choose from. I've probably read the great gatsby more times than anything else though
A Perfect Sky by John Le Carre
*Spy even
also: Underworld by Don DeLillo
and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
Lanark by alisdair gray
or gormenghast by mervyn peake, i like big epic surrealness and thus in no way got post office. It just left me completely cold and i have no idea why it appeals, im gonna read it again and see if owt clicks
i'm getting tired of hearing myself
tell people about how wonderful Franz Kafka is and how everyone should read everything he wrote and stuff. A lot of it is really funny and not as heavy as you would think. I tend to stick to reading classics because i know i'll like them. Stuff that comes to mind that people might not know of: Jorge Luis Borges is worth reading and really interesting, but he didn't write any novels. Jean Cocteau Les Enfants Terribles is really short ...I don't know if you would like the books i like though. Are you looking for any book, or things like the ones you mentioned?
The Empire of the Sun
as it has been for the past 5 years or so...
^ great book
The Book of Proper Names
by Amelie Nothomb. I'm not completely sure but it was a brilliant book. Completely charming but sometimes sinister. She's got an incredible style
Kinski Uncut by Klaus Kinski
The most insane biography ever written
http://www.salon.com/sneaks/sneakpeeks960802.html
and Temple of the Golden Pavillion by Mishima
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Temple_of_the_Golden_Pavilion
I really wish I'd read this as a teenager.
the hobbit
I realy like brighton rock alot though.
Brighton Rock's definitely up there for me.
"Comet in Moominland"
I'm only half joking.
tove jansson!
I really want to read her short stories! I loved the Moomins - I wished I was one for ages...
:D
You NEED to read Who Will Comfort Toffle, it's magic.
Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
or The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells. The former for being about a situation I can relate to and down to earth, the latter for being... thoroughly out of this world and fantastical. Unexpected ending too!
Something newer, uh... probably Stark by Ben Elton, I must have read that six, seven times through when I were younger, possibly Slaughterhouse Five, maybe even Junky by William Burroughs.
Catch 22
just hilarious.
i like post office a lot
but maybe Women more...
Tom Robbins should also be read more. Jitterbug Perfume is superb.
I love Tom Robbins.
"Skinny Legs and all" is my favourite of his that I've read, though I also loved Fierce Invalids...
skinny legs
is great. found it dipped in the mid section but was kind of amazed by the ending...
still life with woodpecker is also a favourite. it's all just so mischievous.
oh
an got fierce invalids next in my reading pile. the man i bought it from was vibrating with enthusiasm!
notes from underground - dostoevsky,
really amazing. the main character is a true anti-hero and i love the way the second part of the book is set before the first, and explains how he ended up like he is. he is really repulsive but it's a compelling read. love love love it.
Notes... is brilliant
Have you read Journey to the End of the Night by Celine or Hunger by Knut Hamsun? I read all 3 books last year and they're similar in tone.
no i haven't
i'll add them to my list. have you read albert camus's the outsider? that's probably my second favourite book. i seem to relate to lone male protagonists. no idea why...
I have read it,
and I can see the appeal. It's similar to the Mishima book I mentioned up there^ somewhere. I love these books with a central character railing against society and perceived injustice.
<3 Notes From Underground
i was thinking
i've read this more times than any other 'adult' book so Notes for me too
or slaughthouse five
girlfriend in a coma (fuck the haters)
or norwegian wood
I do love Norwegian Wood
& Wind up bird chronicles
^
both these, but pushed to pick one I'd go for Wind up as my favourite book
the Third Policeman
The Third Policeman
seconded! Also Crime and Punishment for the relentless tension.
these are my favourite too!
I'm currently re reading The Third Policeman for the 7th time. Always a pleasure.
I think the last favorite book I had
was Ella Enchanted, when I was 8. I couldn't pick now. Also, I read mainly non-fiction lately, and I don't see myself gaining a favorite book that's non-fiction, much as I might enjoy them.
Crime & Punishment - Dostoevsky
I just realised I haven't read this in a while. It has words which have power, which is why I like it so. I think I shall go and read it again...
also ace. i'm a dostoevsky fan.
have you *attempted* the brothers karamazov? epic but deals with some big things.
It's my favourite by him.
The section with Ivan's devil nightmare is so so good.
Not yet
I keep getting halfway through The Idiot before getting distracted. If I leave it more than a week before reading sessions then I tend to forget the mass complication of things that have occured, and need to start again. I must've started that book at least a dozen times...
Brothers is awful
so very tedious. Nothing happens for about 500 pages! Crime and Punishment is brilliant though.
get out doc
it's a bit of a sturggle for a coupla hundred pages, but it picks up. The grand Inquisitor is an immense chapter
Spy novels and various thrillers
Anything by Len Deighton.
Tinker Tailor by Le Carre.
Family Trade by iForget.
Charm School by Nelson DeMille.
The Day of the Jackel by Forsythe.
Mortal Fear by Greg something.
When it comes to spy novels I'm easily pleased...I like lots and lots.
ive always had the impression
john le carre is pretty awesome, ive only read the smiley books though, are any of the others good?
I always forget something in these lists, but in no order
Lanark - Alasdair Gray
Coming Up For Air - George Orwell
Selected Stories - Katherine Mansfield
The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Bravo Two Zero - Andy McNab (gets better with every read)
i bought a new copy of infinite jest last week!
I dropped my last one in the sink and it became TWICE as large! But I haven't finished it yet.
Katherine Mansfield? I really think her writing is technically superb, but she always makes me feel a bit sullied...like reading the features in the Daily Mail. She's such a misanthrope! Have you read Patricia Highsmith? They're kind of similiar, I think
Andy McNab...is that an Alan Partridge reference?!