What are you reading? 📚

[B4’s Sister]

41 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

I read it as my first Banks, probably 20+ years ago, and I also felt it overhyped. I've gone on to adore his Iain M. Banks scifi books about a humanoid galaxy-spanning civilization called the Culture, and many of his non scifi books. The Crow Road is one of my all-time favourite novels and one I'd recommend. I didn't want to leave those characters and that world - that horrible feeling when the pages towards the end of a book are running out and you know it's almost over and you'll soon have to return to reality.

I love it when a book makes you feel like that. Will add it to my TBR list 

[Gaspode]

I've read  all the Iain Banks (and Iain M. Banks) books. I loved them all - with the exception of the Wasp Factory.

The Crow Road surely has one of the most memorable opening lines of any book: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.” - if you're not hooked after that, you should stick to reading the Sun....

As a slight aside, one of my school friends (originally from Littleover) was Bank's press officer for over 10 years and he dedicated his book Inversions to her - she wrote a lovely obiturary to him after he died in 2013:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/16/iain-banks-obituary-michelle-hodgson

[Leeds Ram]

On 15/08/2024 at 16:14, B4’s Sister said:

I have just finished reading The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. I didn’t find it lived up to the hype and it wasn’t a comfortable book to read. Very similar feel to The Catcher in the Rye. Has anyone else read it? What did you think? 

I read it as a teenager and loved it. Probably the best of Banks works for me. Very atmospheric, morally conflicted and the prose is spot on for the work i think. Not overly flamboyant but sufficiently descriptive. 

The question over Banks is whether he got lucky... a lot of his work is c- fare with very few of his novels reaching the same benchmark. He was going to quit as a novelist if he wasn't published by 30 and the wasp factory just made it by this date. 

Edited August 29 by Leeds Ram

[Leeds Ram]

finished Stoneyard Devotional by charlotte wood, one of the favourites for the Booker, and it was beautiful. Highly recommend a read! Just started Mark Haddon's new series of short stories, his first release for some years following his heart attack and long covid. Hope they live up to his last great work! 

Also read metapolitics by Alan Badiou which I'd recommend avoiding and why read mill today by John Skorupski which was a delightful short work for experts and layman alike. 

[Crewton]

6 hours ago, Leeds Ram said:

finished Stoneyard Devotional by charlotte wood, one of the favourites for the Booker, and it was beautiful. Highly recommend a read! Just started Mark Haddon's new series of short stories, his first release for some years following his heart attack and long covid. Hope they live up to his last great work! 

Also read metapolitics by Alan Badiou which I'd recommend avoiding and why read mill today by John Skorupski which was a delightful short work for experts and layman alike. 

Mark Haddon's short story collections are on my list.

[Crewton]

Finished two books in recent weeks - Lessons by Ian McEwan and Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry. I 'enjoyed' both books, although each have the tricky subject of historic child abuse at their core, which may be distressing for some readers. McEwan's book is wider-ranging and overall a less troubling read, whilst the cases that form the backdrop to Barry's book, even when only hinted at, are both upsetting and moving at the same time - avoid if you're prone to depression or if the subject matter might distress you. Despite all that, I thought both books have passages of truly beautiful writing (Barry's especially) and I can see why they both were highly regarded by critics.