What are you reading?

[jcnporter]

Not sure if this has been mentioned on here yet....

https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2018/07/16/mark-z-danielewski-house-of-leaves-tv-show

[Mexicola]

Yeah. I'm dreading this. Horrible feeling it'll be shite. Hope I'm wrong. Surely only Lynch could get close though?!?

[jcnporter]

It doesn't sound like it's happening yet, although it seems that Mark Danielewski would be the writer and wants to keep full creative control, he's just looking for the right collaborator, so that's all fairly positive. Imagine if Lynch took it on....

[Lancer21]

Right now I'm overdosing on articles about the German real estate market (I'm undergoing an in-house formation at my job so that I may get a promotion later on so I'm binging things like this, not that I can invest or buy in Berlin myself), but I'm counting the days until it's over because I've laid my hands on the memoirs of the Soviet general A.I. Rodimtsev about the Spanish Civil War, and this sounds like it's fascinating.

[jcnporter]

'K-Punk' is a hefty tome, but the one I'm most looking forward to. I'll probably start it tonight. Already started 'Ocean of Sound'.
Re-reading House of Leaves as the moment too.

[fujee]

Ooh Ocean of Sound looks good. Very good reviews as well – thanks for the recommendation. I always sit up and take notice when you post in here jcn!

[jcnporter]

Thanks! Ocean of Sound is good, it takes a very different angle of approach (in fact a number of angles) to ambient music than other books I've read on the subject.
I have to say I absolutely love 'K-Punk' so far - I've read Mark Fisher's other books, but had never really got stuck into his blogging, which forms the bulk of the book - it's amazing stuff, the sheer outpouring of ideas was incredible, usually taking a pop culture reference as a start and using it to delve into philosophy, critiques of capitalism and so on. It seems that almost every second paragraph starts with 'Zizek says.....', which, if I remember rightly, would be right up your street and that of a few other posters?
Some of the philosophy references are over my head, but Fisher's writing is a constant reminder and inspiration to go and investigate other writers and thinkers, and I love that.

[2020k]

You can find Mark Z Danielewski talking about what happened RE: The House of Leaves TV show if you do a little digging in the HoL Facebook group. I'd gladly invite a visual representation of that novel into my life, but only if it was done correctly.

Highly experimental
Gritty
Intense plot
confusing as fuck

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HouseOfLeavesBookClub/

Also, I'm reading Dorian Grey and Interview With the Vampire.

[rick7487]

Hey was curious if any of you have read “Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents” by Octavia E Butler? Everything going on in that book seems to be taking shape in America right now, it blew my mind. The main character tries to start a religion called Earthseed while the entire country collapses from lack of oil, water, and education. In the sequel her people get captured and forced into slavery by the new President. The book even says the President ran on a “Make America Great Again” campaign, and it was published in 1998! For anyone looking for a book that pairs PERFECTLY with Tomorrow’s Harvest this would be it!

[2020k]

I've heard SO many things about Octavia E Butler, but don't know where to start. Is Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents a nice starting point?

I'm slowly working my way through Hillary Clinton's What Happened. I got the audiobook and it's 16 hours long. It's either feast of famine with this one...I want to listen to it or I want to tell it to be quiet and find a way to time travel into the past and find a way to create a future in which we don't have a Trump administration instead.

Currently working my way though Matthew Shepard's Mom's book about Matt and the hate crime that took his life. I don't know if it was big news outside of the states, but it happened in the late 90's and was the first time I'd ever seen anything associated with the word gay attached to it, which is quite traumatic for a 9 year old. It's a cathartic, but heartbreaking read.

Finished Interview With the Vampire as well. Another read where I was either into it or didn't want to deal with it on any given day. That book keeps going and going and going with the details and the vampires moving around the world until it all comes together in the last 70 pages or so and RIPS YOUR GUTS OUT. Taking a break from this series, but will be moving to The Vampire Lestat sometime in the foreseeable future.

[Jonse]

^ paragraph two

I'm (just) afraid of Americans.

[jcnporter]

Had the great fortune of reading two astounding books over the last few weeks, both picked separately, which turned out to be quite complementary to each other. Moreover, I happened to read them in exactly the right order -





Leonard Mlodinow makes a case for more of what he calls 'elastic', or intuitive, thinking - the random connections that our brain architecture allows us to make that lead to great ideas, insights and creativity.
Which then leads nicely to a man whose entire career - exemplified by his Gaia hypothesis - is one long example of intuitive thinking.
Mlodinow makes the case that the next stage of AI is replicating such thinking - Lovelock makes the same point, going further to speculate that the future of AI is the future of our planet and indeed will lead to our 'successors' in the universe.
'Novocene' in particular is exhilarating to read - a series of huge leaps of intuitive thinking from someone who will surely be celebrated as one of the great minds of our time (he wrote the book during the approach to his 100th birthday).
Lovelock's theory/speculation (essentially his Gaia hypothesis) that humans are the current evolutionary peak of life (as the first beings with awareness of the world) and that it is the existence of life on our planet that has allowed the planet to maintain the conditions - (atmosphere, temperature) for life is so simple and revelatory to read. What he comes to next is quite mind-blowing to absorb and contemplate - if it comes true.

[Josh]

Recently finished Dark Territory -- The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan and Where Wizards Stay Up Late -- The Origins of the Internet by Matthew Lyon and Katie Hafner. The former provides some excellent background that provides context and insight on a lot of what we've been seeing in news headlines for the last few years. We're at only the beginning stages of what has become a theatre of warfare, as this book makes abundantly clear. The latter is a very detailed history of the people who built the Internet and what their motivations and intentions were for what has become completely integrated with our daily lives. I highly recommend both.

[jcnporter]

Second book out from the 'A Year in the Country' project.

I know hauntology is probably seen as a bit old hat these days, but as someone who grew up, lives and works on the border beside a city and the countryside, it still feels very relevant to me and 'A year in the country' continues to do a great job of exploring the many cultural paths around hauntology and beyond. I believe one or maybe more folk on here contribute to the musical side of it as well.

Actually, from the political perspective that the late Mark Fisher often explored, hauntology still feels topical to me in the sense that it's still good to be reminded that there was a time when the future looked positive and progressive.

[turquoise70]

Last book I read was Five Nights At Freddy's: The Fourth Closet

[b0qurant]

Just finished The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, a thorough history of the 1918 influenza pandemic (killed tens of millions and affected every country during WWI) ... also served as a general history of American medicine/the influence of science in medicine and WWI propaganda. A gripping read and (as you can imagine) is influencing my interpretation of COVID-19 and current cultural/political response.

While reading the above I've also been re-reading the entire Series of Unfortunate Events (currently on number 11, The Grim Grotto) ... was a huge fan of these as a late elementary schooler/middle schooler ... they influenced my sense of humor and interest in literature greatly (it's sort of like postmodern lit for young adults) ... revisiting it in my late-twenties has been pretty great. Sort'f becoming ready for it to be over at this point (it's been a journey, though I've been tearing through them) -- but they definitely get better as they go on. (Sort of like the Harry Potter series.)

Has anyone here read Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things? Read it for the first time within the past year and it's one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Profound and harrowing.

[fujee]

This. It's hard work, in a good way...

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/110/110 ... 23479.html

[A_Northern_Soul]

Billy Connolly's "Tall Tales and Wee Stories"

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tall-Tales-Wee ... 1529361338

Essentially some of his stand up routines transcribed. He always comes across as such a lovely guy...

[2020k]

I'm slowly working my way through Hillary Clinton's What Happened. I got the audiobook and it's 16 hours long. It's either feast of famine with this one...I want to listen to it or I want to tell it to be quiet and find a way to time travel into the past and find a way to create a future in which we don't have a Trump administration instead.

LOL, I just finished this. I put it off almost right after I made this post because it was really insightful, but overbearing at times. I picked it up when I started commuting to a new job.

Reading The Girl on the Train right now. It's a really easy read, for once.

[jcnporter]

Really enjoying 'The City and The City' by China Mieville, really interesting concept and incredibly well done.