we got a film and music so why not, list your favorites or what your reading, or talk about something totally off topic.

reading now:
The End Of Faith by Same Harris

Currently reading “Dawns of Thunder” and it’s about the British retreat from Burma in World War Two. Pretty interesting as it’s not some ‘stand offish’ historical account, it’s all taken from guys who were there and did the fighting.

Got it from South Bank book market.

i go to that market all the time, but have never found anything... should probably lock the bike up and give it a proper sort through one day

ahhh kool a bookie threadie.(gee doesnt that piss you off all them 'ies' after everything.

any bukowski.

reading glamourama right now brett easton ellis.maaan this book chews your mind up n spits it out.but i like it.

joesph heller is great.cant remeber the book title but in one of his books he talks about being a messenger in NYC on his fixed wheel and one day he gets all these green lights in a row.

he also tells the story of a man from jamica bringing a new shipment of track bikes fresh from the bushy hills of the caribean mon.

somewhat predictably: currently reading 'The Escape' by Matt Seaton

am also being advised to read 'Bringing up Boys' by some bloke...it's about bringing up boys apparently.

I am currently reading an A level textbook and wondering what to teach tomorrow.

@3rdworldsuitcase - you sure that's joseph heller?

Just finished "Wildwood: a journey through trees" by Roger Deakin. Part travel book, part study of trees. A lot of folk history, natural history, sociology and environmentalism. All about trees obviously. Really good read.
Just starting "The Matter of Wales" by Jan Morris. I'll let you know.

which part?

sorry, things here at the observer are pretty manic and i just dont have the time to get my sheeeit correct. ; )

Down and Out in Paris and London by Mr Orwell.

Half way.

GB84
david peace

"if i was threatening you, you'd be tied up, watching your wife eat your dogs' cock"

np... didn't recongise the subject matter as being heller (not that I've read all he's written), but your description sounded like something I'd like to read... if it comes to mind when things are less hectic let us know, cheers

Just reading Bob Dylan - Chronicals Vol 1
Just finished Tim Krabbe - The rider
Favorites include - Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and Bruce Robertson's The Peculiar Memoirs of Thomas Penman

dave4 i was just messin about and relating to a previous post reguarding a poor attempt at writing in The Observer.

the book is Now and Then Joseph Heller im 80% sure he was a messenger in his younger years.

Re-reading

J. D. Salinger, For Esmé – with Love and Squalor
It shouldn't take too long.

Michel Houellebecq, Atomised

and Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

I've read them all before and really need something new.

Time for Sylvia Plath?

Have you read his previous book, "Waterlog"? If not, then I'd recommend it.

I'm reading the True History Of The Kelly Gang (Peter Carey, 59p.) - Was kinda embarrassed to tell my friends I was basically reading a Dad book when this girl I know whisks it out of my hands and before I can cover it with an i-D or something, declares,"Oh I love that book, I love that pure, rugged masculinity! I've read it twice! It's ace"

Who knew?

Man that book is a load of pretentious wank. What do you think Hammo, or are you yet to start?

Reading now: Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Just finished: The Grass is Singing by Dorris Lessing

Fav new book of 2007: The Little Girl and the Cigarette by Benoit Duteurtre - I seriously recommend this guys, damn fine novel. Rips the heart out of everything we hate in contemporary society, and makes you laugh.

All time fav authors: Hemingway, early Auster, early McEwan, Vonnegut, Robertson Davies, Philp K Dick, David Foster Wallace, Siri Hustvedt, McSweeney's.

rad that in november, so good

currently reading Berlin by antony beevor and i have mao bu jung chang waiting in the wings.... both books i meant to read for ages, infact have bought them both for other people as presents too, just didn't have time to read them 1st!

On my third Kurt Vonnegut book, The Sirens Of Titan. Also read Breakfast of Champions and Deadeye Dick. Will soon be reading "Mother Night".

"The Fuck Up" by Arthur Neresian is good, as well as "Chinese Takeout"

Anything by Charles Bukowski, and I also hear Henry Millers, "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn" are not to be missed as well, but I have yet to read them.

Oh and anything by Haruki Murakami (Norweigan Wood is a great start).

just started: the printing revolution in early modern europe (e. eisenstein)
just finished: minimal art a critical anthology (g. battcock)
aaahhhhhh!!!

Tim Krabbe "the rider" is a decent read.

Same guy who wrote "the vanishing"

Bloody hell, you've been at my book shelves haven't you.

:( I can't argue that it's quite pretentious but then I thought i'd missed something, so i'm giving it another go. I've got so many half started books, i picked up af 1950's copy of 7 years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer in a pub and snuck off with that the other night. Maybe i should finish this instead.

his other novels are much better, I like the one about the Banker Herr K (cant remember the title) and America.

Meant to add Ian Sinclair,
Lights out for the territories, Downriver and London orbital, not really fiction and difficult to get into but if you have any interest in London, you might enjoy them.

Also looking to whip through Aldous Huxley, Don DeLillo and some Stoppard plays in the coming months.

(And i will finish the Bell Jar, if i can just keep the rope from my neck and the pill bottles away for five minutes.)

It feels like i'm re-reading all my art-school books at the moment, i'll check out his others as i can't remember what i've read and what i haven't. Found myself in the kitchen the other night with a copy of a Susan Sontag text. That was pure college. Ah.......Ray's jazz, a coffee and a book.

What happened?

Thanks for the recommendation. As a fellow 'Dickhead', I'm happy to act on it - despite the use of the word 'guys' which I can't tolerate whether it's used genre-specifically or otherwise. But I'm allowed my idiosyncracies, I hope.

I'm currently in charge of the fiction section at City & Islington 6th Form College's library, so I'll order one and get it on the shelves (after being the virgin borrower).

reading London: The Biography: Peter Ackroyd. good read but then i like history n stufff like...

Ahh, books, yes virgin books.......

Pretentious? Maybe. Wank? No way, damn good book, damn good writer,

Haven't read Waterlog, but will add it to my list. Thanks! Roger Deakin died last year; I'm going to dig out everything he's written.

Probably the most interesting book I've ever read. Enjoy!

Fred Vargas - Have Mercy On Us All.
Great noir crimmy based in Paris.