Home sick from work. Chillin and reading in bed all day.
2 Likes
Keep going 
I’ve been into his work too, this past year. Check out “Morning and Evening” and his short story collection “Scenes from a Childhood”. “Aliss at the Fire” was good too. Definitely a captivating writer.
I finally got “The Empusium” by Olga Tokarczuk and am excited about the Mike Campbell memoir called “Heartbreaker”.
2 Likes
Genesis P-orridges autobiography called non-binary. It really does go through all of the bands (Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV) and movements and experiences of their well lived life. Highly recommended.
3 Likes
The Horde of Counterwind by Alain Damasio
I have almost only been reading essays, philosophy and technical books for the past 10 years, and it feels really good to read a novel.
Damasio is extremely creative with words, rhythm and ideas.
1 Like
I’ve been reading a lot of history lately. At times it is both horrifying and comforting to realize that the worst things happening today were simply every day life a few hundred years ago. And at times it is deeply troubling to see history rhyming.
3 Likes
Selfie - an interesting concept for immortality presented in this book (although this is a fiction novel). The consciousnesses of Newton, Einstein & Stephen Hawking are resurrected based on their past creative works (or selfies). Now their mission is to resurrect the greatest genius of all time - Leonardo da Vinci…
So, guys - stop GASing, stop complaining about gear and start creating music. Just imagine this becomes reality and you will be “immortal” just because you left enough creative work 
1 Like
The theme is also treated well in Stross’ Accelerando, though the conclusion may be a bit different. Available for free from the author’s website:
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html
2 Likes
Been feeling a bit rough so been binge listening to The Magnus Archives podcast to keep myself entertained. It’s a really good anthology horror show with an overarching narrative, and I highly recommend it.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
To keep it out of the hands of the wife and servants.
4 Likes
Thanks for the link, the comment got me interested enough to click it and read the book sleeve (which is quite eccentric in its own way).
From the author “if you can’t buy this book, you have to steal it. This sci-fi novel far surpasses any fantasy… You have to steal it”.
…I might buy it, that’d piss him off…
1 Like
Paul Lynch “Prophet Song”
I read because more and more countries are slowly slipping into fascism
WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023
WINNER OF THE 2024 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 * SHORTLISTED FOR THE STREGA EUROPEAN PRIZE * SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR’S CHOICE
AN AMAZON TOP 10 BOOK OF DECEMBER 2023
A Book of the Year for 2023 according to the Guardian, FT, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Sunday Independent, Economist, Big Issue, Daily Telegraph, Irish Times and Waterstones
‘A CRUCIAL BOOK FOR OUR CURRENT TIMES… BRILLIANTLY HAUNTING.’ OBSERVER
The explosive literary sensation: a mother faces a terrible choice as Ireland slides into totalitarianism
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.
Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling.
How far will she go to save her family?
-----------------
Paul Lynch is the author of the novels Red Sky in Morning, The Black Snow, Grace and Beyond the Sea. Grace won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018 and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 2018. The Black Snow won France’s Prix Libr’à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and was a finalist for the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize). He lives in Dublin with his wife and two children. His website is www.paullynchwriter.com
1 Like
if you just read one book this year, consider this one…
Feeling dragged down by the state of things, both personal and in the larger world, so self-medicating through quality escapist reading…
I’ve been going through the works of Eric Ambler for the first time—20th century spy stuff, but with zero macho content, just flawed civilians caught up in the middle of intelligence situations. It’s all sort of Graham Greene-ish, except Ambler apparently did it first. When real life becomes chaotic, I find staid British novelists comforting.
Also been reading/rereading Jimmy McDonough’s holy trinity of big music biographies (Neil Young, Al Green, Tammy Wynette). The Young book in particular reads like good fiction. McDonough inserts himself into that book more than some people like, but to me showing the author’s interactions with his subject is part of the larger theme (how Young treated people, good and bad). In his defense as a biographer, McDonough always pulls his weight when it comes to chasing down interviews with everyone who was ever in his subject’s life—Al Green’s road musicians, Tammy Wynette’s hairdressers—and he lets them speak their minds.
No, I haven’t read any intellectual books lately …
May 29 Update: On to translated 20th century Japanese novelists: Oë’s PERSONAL MATTER and Abe’s WOMAN IN THE DUNES. Something about them suits my mood, bleakness beautifully described.
1 Like
Just making my way through an old SF phase - quite interesting so far. Demons are going to be let loose on the earth…
I just finished Robert Silverberg - Downward To Earth, which was absolutely brilliant. Supposed to be loosely riffing on Heart of Darkness (haven’t read and Apocalypse Now is my only point of reference). I can see that to a point but definitely veers off on its own path. I enjoyed the alien life (the main race being Elephant like beings) and myriad of ideas.
2 Likes
Missed this one when it came out, was aware of it but didn’t check it out.
I often overlook contemporary award-winning books due to a subconscious bias or snobbery (maybe not so subconscious). while this can be a valid path for new music without missing out on too much, I am beginning to suspect that it is less so for books.
1 Like
I cited the nominations because I think that when they’re made from so many quarters, it underscores the importance in this case. We “post-war children” in Europe have had so often to deal with the history of Germany (and before it Russia) falling into totalitarianism; now we’re experiencing it “live” in countries we never imagined it would happen, and I therefore think it’s important to read this book. This isn’t just rereading “1984”; this is real and happening now. And it’s happening on so many levels, considering technological developments. I hope this isn’t too political, but I consider it a civic duty to be aware of what’s happening right now.
3 Likes
Yeah, it’s easy to just ignore the slow-motion car crash that’s happening outside all our windows in real time.
I live in Dublin so this should be a must-read (it is now!)
1 Like
Hold onto your hat re the Blish … IIRC things get extremely ripped up in that story …
DTE is one of my favorite Silverbergs from that era, he was on a roll then, really writing as well as he could. There seems to be a common theme in several of those works, along the lines of: “Unhappy decadent people wandering around, seeking meaning and behaving badly.” Dunno what that’s about. BORN WITH THE DEAD is another good one in that set.