| Anyone read The Goldfinch? 00:22 - Jan 4 with 2985 views | RoyKeanesDog |
Next on my list. |  |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:04 - Jan 5 with 669 views | gordon |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 18:27 - Jan 5 by nodge_blue |
im not sure what pretty flabby really means. But i dont think that is long for long's sake. the story keeps going throughout and i thought was pretty absorbing. Im currently reading "a little life" by Hanya Yanagihara. Thats had amazing reviews as a great modern american novel. But Ive found it depressing so far. I abandon books these days in a way i wouldnt have years ago. |
A Little Life is f*cking massive. The title was definitely a piss take. I wouldn't worry about abandoning that one, I made it about 2/3rds of the way through, nicely written but where on Earth was it going?
I meant that I thought that there was lots of unnecessary descriptive passages in the Goldfinch which slowed it down for me. |  | | |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:12 - Jan 5 with 662 views | Darth_Koont |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 18:01 - Jan 5 by Superfrans |
Must admit, I can't help feeling there are more great authors/ novels and more choice than ever before. As in music, the digital revolution has given so many more people access to both the tools to create and to distribute what they've created, there's more choice than ever. Plus, just as I could up Spotify and listen instantly to any piece of music that has ever been recorded (pretty much) I can also access Amazon / Kindle and order any book I could possibly have heard of (again, there are exceptions, but pretty much). The challenge is separating the chaff from the wheat.
Although I buy almost all my books for Kindle (first editions and signed books being the exception) I'm always browsing in bookshops for ideas. I work a Ten minute bus ride from Hatchards and Waterstones in Piccadilly, which are cathedrals to books and reading and pop in at least once a week. I do find that the chains tend to promote the same books in all their stores, which is a great shame.
But, thanks for the podcast recommendation, I'll try that out. I'm sure it'll be a great help. |
Yes, give it a go. Great book recommendations but they've also lucked out with a really entertaining discussion too.
On the back of that I need a Kindle just to access a few of their tips. |  |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:14 - Jan 5 with 657 views | Superfrans |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:12 - Jan 5 by Darth_Koont |
Yes, give it a go. Great book recommendations but they've also lucked out with a really entertaining discussion too.
On the back of that I need a Kindle just to access a few of their tips. |
Kindles are a revelation - and so cheap now too. If you have anyone else in your family with a subscription, or who wants to go in with you, you can share the books too. My wife and I both buy books and can both access them all, as well as my teenagers who are now getting to the stage where they are reading grown up literature too. |  |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:19 - Jan 5 with 654 views | chicoazul |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 17:37 - Jan 5 by Darth_Koont |
That's nonsense. Most of the interesting English writing in the past 100 years has come from the US.
Stands to reason as they're the largest English-speaking population. Plus the US creates an incredible source of material. |
Oh you may well be right there about English writing although plenty of Irish will disagree. But hardly any of that American tosh comes close to the best Russian or French literature of the last 100 years. |  |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:31 - Jan 5 with 640 views | Darth_Koont |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:19 - Jan 5 by chicoazul |
Oh you may well be right there about English writing although plenty of Irish will disagree. But hardly any of that American tosh comes close to the best Russian or French literature of the last 100 years. |
Like? | |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:35 - Jan 5 with 631 views | gordon |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:19 - Jan 5 by chicoazul |
Oh you may well be right there about English writing although plenty of Irish will disagree. But hardly any of that American tosh comes close to the best Russian or French literature of the last 100 years. |
Let's have some recommendations please then. I've read Modiano, Camus, Sartre and Houllebecq from France, more ideas would be welcome. Love Modiano, don't really like Houllebecq. And I don't think I've read any Russian writers of the last 100 years. | | | |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:36 - Jan 5 with 626 views | chicoazul |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:31 - Jan 5 by Darth_Koont |
Like? |
Bulgakov Nabokov Solzhenitzin (sp), Proust Sartre Camus off the top of my head. To say nothing of people like Joyce and Oscar Wilde in Ireland. | |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:40 - Jan 5 with 621 views | chicoazul |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:35 - Jan 5 by gordon |
Let's have some recommendations please then. I've read Modiano, Camus, Sartre and Houllebecq from France, more ideas would be welcome. Love Modiano, don't really like Houllebecq. And I don't think I've read any Russian writers of the last 100 years. |
The Master and Margarita, The Brothers Karmazov, Lolita, those are the ones i'd start with. Sounds like you will have read The Outsider. I dont like Houllebecq either haha although to be fair I only read one of his books, absolute filth. | |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:51 - Jan 5 with 608 views | gordon |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:19 - Jan 5 by chicoazul |
Oh you may well be right there about English writing although plenty of Irish will disagree. But hardly any of that American tosh comes close to the best Russian or French literature of the last 100 years. |
It's difficult and largely pointless to compare the literary output of different cultures though; literature will reflect aspects of the culture. I'm not particularly interested in the American Dream whatever that is, and lots of American cultural reference points are lost on me. As such, lots of American literature doesn't resonate with me, and I don't enjoy it much. This doesn't mean that it's objectively bad literature, though.
Equally, when I read books written by English men of a certain type and the charming, lazy, gifted protagonist goes off to Oxford to read History/English Literature, the novel falls a bit in my estimation - presumably if I had gone to Oxford to read history/English Literature I would feel differently.
However, what is true to say, is that some novels address universal themes, and so transcend all cultural reference points - I would reckon (though I've no idea if it is the case) that writers from smaller, less significant countries are more likely to produce such writers, because they may venerate the culture that produced them less than your average American, English or French writer, and be more outward looking and big thinking.
And that is why Jose Saramago is the best novelist of the 20th century. | | | |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:54 - Jan 5 with 604 views | Darth_Koont |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:36 - Jan 5 by chicoazul |
Bulgakov Nabokov Solzhenitzin (sp), Proust Sartre Camus off the top of my head. To say nothing of people like Joyce and Oscar Wilde in Ireland. |
Great writers but you don't think there's an equivalent in UK or US writing? And you're going back a century in several cases.
I don't compare writers as there's ultimately no point. But the volume of good writing that's come out of the US is undeniable. | |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 20:09 - Jan 5 with 588 views | chicoazul |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:54 - Jan 5 by Darth_Koont |
Great writers but you don't think there's an equivalent in UK or US writing? And you're going back a century in several cases.
I don't compare writers as there's ultimately no point. But the volume of good writing that's come out of the US is undeniable. |
Errr no I dont think that, thats pretty much what I said. | |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 20:11 - Jan 5 with 585 views | chicoazul |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 19:51 - Jan 5 by gordon |
It's difficult and largely pointless to compare the literary output of different cultures though; literature will reflect aspects of the culture. I'm not particularly interested in the American Dream whatever that is, and lots of American cultural reference points are lost on me. As such, lots of American literature doesn't resonate with me, and I don't enjoy it much. This doesn't mean that it's objectively bad literature, though.
Equally, when I read books written by English men of a certain type and the charming, lazy, gifted protagonist goes off to Oxford to read History/English Literature, the novel falls a bit in my estimation - presumably if I had gone to Oxford to read history/English Literature I would feel differently.
However, what is true to say, is that some novels address universal themes, and so transcend all cultural reference points - I would reckon (though I've no idea if it is the case) that writers from smaller, less significant countries are more likely to produce such writers, because they may venerate the culture that produced them less than your average American, English or French writer, and be more outward looking and big thinking.
And that is why Jose Saramago is the best novelist of the 20th century. |
I feel when you read Bulgakov you will change this opinion. | |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 20:43 - Jan 5 with 573 views | Darth_Koont |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 20:09 - Jan 5 by chicoazul |
Errr no I dont think that, thats pretty much what I said. |
"But hardly any of that American tosh comes close to the best Russian or French literature of the last 100 years."
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 20:50 - Jan 5 with 560 views | gordon |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 20:11 - Jan 5 by chicoazul |
I feel when you read Bulgakov you will change this opinion. |
If you mean about Saramago, I was joking. How could I or anyone else possibly make such a statement with any seriousness? do like him though. Discussions about books/literature inevitably end up with absurd comparisons, claims and statements being made, and that is why Orwell is surely the finest satirist of the English language since Swift. | | | |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 09:24 - Jan 6 with 517 views | artsbossbeard |
I'm currently reading the Cruncher autobiography, "Shooting from the Hip-swich"
There's a lot of vitriol and hand drawn cartoons over the 3 pages but well worth a read. Critics love it:
"There's bile within the hatred, there's hatred within the bile. It's a daring book, most would have used a proof reader at some stage" - Sunday Times Book Club
(In Vinny Jones voice) "This is the definitive Man Up book of 2017. Must read stuff" - Taximan
"This" - Benters |  |
| Please note: prior to hitting the post button, I've double checked for anything that could be construed as "Anti Semitic" and to the best of my knowledge it isn't. Anything deemed to be of a Xenophobic nature is therefore purely accidental or down to your own misconstruing. | | Poll: | Raining in IP8 - shall I get the washing in? |
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| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 13:49 - Jan 6 with 482 views | WeWereZombies |
| Anyone read The Goldfinch? on 09:24 - Jan 6 by artsbossbeard |
I'm currently reading the Cruncher autobiography, "Shooting from the Hip-swich"
There's a lot of vitriol and hand drawn cartoons over the 3 pages but well worth a read. Critics love it:
"There's bile within the hatred, there's hatred within the bile. It's a daring book, most would have used a proof reader at some stage" - Sunday Times Book Club
(In Vinny Jones voice) "This is the definitive Man Up book of 2017. Must read stuff" - Taximan
"This" - Benters |
Seconded
Strutter (in Danny Dyer voice) - 'Proof readers! Them slags!!'
Glasgow Blue - 'Wait and see, it will win the Booker in 2017' |  |
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