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Deaneus!

Deaneus!

We Await Silent Tristero's Empire
Veteran 10k Posts RIP Sensible Type Mount Buller Demons - Sweet F.A. Chess Club Member A Star Wars Fan
Nov 24, 2007
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As an avid reader, this pleases me.

I recommend they try The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A man and a boy journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, finally arriving at a destination that offers nothing but disappointment, serving only to reinforce the futility of the efforts they expended in arriving there.

Could be read as a metaphor for the history of the Adelaide Football Club after 1998.
 

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dogs105 said:
Can we have an Adelaide Bigfooty book club please deaneus ?
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We do, and this is it.

I haven't read The Road, but he's fantastic, I happily recommend No Country for Old Men Consolaçao

I'm a bit of a snob, I tend to stick to older titles.

On my bookshelf right now:

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon -
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Surface Detail, Iain M Banks
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Candide, Voltaire
Watchmen, Alan Moore
The Crying Of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
The Man In The High Castle, Philip K Dick
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Against The Day, Thomas Pynchon
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Sea Of Rust, C Robert Cargill

I own a myriad more books than this, I will have to find them. Luckily I am doing a clean-out of the back room...
 
deaneus said:
We do, and this is it.

I haven't read The Road, but he's fantastic, I happily recommend No Country for Old Men Consolaçao

I'm a bit of a snob, I tend to stick to older titles.

On my bookshelf right now:

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon -
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Surface Detail, Iain M Banks
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Candide, Voltaire
Watchmen, Alan Moore
The Crying Of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
The Man In The High Castle, Philip K Dick
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Against The Day, Thomas Pynchon
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Sea Of Rust, C Robert Cargill

I own a myriad more books than this, I will have to find them. Luckily I am doing a clean-out of the back room...
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I didn't enjoy Catch 22, though I kept thinking I should. My wife loved it though.

I am always looking for book recommendations. I'll check out some of those. Thanks.
 
deaneus said:
We do, and this is it.

I haven't read The Road, but he's fantastic, I happily recommend No Country for Old Men Consolaçao

I'm a bit of a snob, I tend to stick to older titles.

On my bookshelf right now:

Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon -
Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Surface Detail, Iain M Banks
Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Candide, Voltaire
Watchmen, Alan Moore
The Crying Of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon
The Man In The High Castle, Philip K Dick
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Against The Day, Thomas Pynchon
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Sea Of Rust, C Robert Cargill

I own a myriad more books than this, I will have to find them. Luckily I am doing a clean-out of the back room...
Click to expand...

Some good ones there...
Infinite Jest is a piece of absolute genius. I’ve been meaning to read Thomas Pynchon’s stuff. What’s a good one Of his to start with?
 
Consolaçao said:
Some good ones there...
Infinite Jest is a piece of absolute genius. I’ve been meaning to read Thomas Pynchon’s stuff. What’s a good one Of his to start with?
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Start with The Crying of Lot 49.

It's short, so you can get a feel for his style before trying one of his big ones (like Gravity's Rainbow or Mason & Dixon)

I've bought his last two books, Bleeding Edge and Against The Day, but I haven't finished them...
 
I’d recommend to anyone who loves the Simpsons to read “The Time Machine Did It” by John Swartzwelder. He wrote a lot of the old classic Simpsons episodes.

It’s about a bumbling detective and probably the funniest book I’ve ever read.

Drugs Are Bad Mackay? I’m not sure if you can read or not, but I’d say it’s worth trying to learn for this book. I think you’d dig it.
 
I picked up a book called Ducks, Newburyport which would be great for the AFC book club. The only problem would be that I can see someone like Tex getting so deeply into it that he'd lose track of time and miss training.
It's basically 1000+ pages of stream of consciousness... an American housewife's internal monologue. I'm 30 or so pages in, and given most clauses (seriously) begin with 'the fact that', and that I've been reading the same sentence for 20 pages or so, it's actually surprisingly readable. deaneus, I reckon if you're into David Foster Wallace, this'd be up your alley.
 
Consolaçao said:
I picked up a book called Ducks, Newburyport which would be great for the AFC book club. The only problem would be that I can see someone like Tex getting so deeply into it that he'd lose track of time and miss training.
It's basically 1000+ pages of stream of consciousness... an American housewife's internal monologue. I'm 30 or so pages in, and given most clauses (seriously) begin with 'the fact that', and that I've been reading the same sentence for 20 pages or so, it's actually surprisingly readable. deaneus, I reckon if you're into David Foster Wallace, this'd be up your alley.
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Interesting. I will look it up.

Also, I wanted to share the news... today I was wandering in a bookstore and I found...

A FIRST EDITION OF WILLIAM S BURROUGHS "NAKED LUNCH"

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I couldn't afford it on the spot but... I'm seriously thinking of going back and getting it.
 
I'm currently reading The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. I've had it sitting there in my pile of books for years, but seeing the trailer for the HBO miniseries a couple months back reminded me it was there so I decided to get onto it.

This is one of the things annoying me most about the COVID situation. I usually do most of my reading on the bus to / from work. Now I've been working from home for the past couple of months (and probably the next couple, too, by the sound of things) it's taking me a lot longer to get through a book. I still read a bit at home, but losing that ~30-40 minutes of reading time a day is really slowing my progress.
 
Jarman3 said:
I'm currently reading The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. I've had it sitting there in my pile of books for years, but seeing the trailer for the HBO miniseries a couple months back reminded me it was there so I decided to get onto it.

This is one of the things annoying me most about the COVID situation. I usually do most of my reading on the bus to / from work. Now I've been working from home for the past couple of months (and probably the next couple, too, by the sound of things) it's taking me a lot longer to get through a book. I still read a bit at home, but losing that ~30-40 minutes of reading time a day is really slowing my progress.
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Thoughts on it so far?
I've got the tv series lined up ready to go but haven't started yet.
 
Drugs Are Bad Mackay? said:
Thoughts on it so far?
I've got the tv series lined up ready to go but haven't started yet.
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It's not bad, I kind of like that "what if" factor you get with alternate history novels in general. It would be interesting to see a broader view of things, though - the perspective (so far at least) remains pretty tightly fixed on just the experience of the narrator and his family / neighbours. Despite the parallels with what's going on in America these days, it was published in 2004 so can't be viewed as a reaction to the Trump presidency.
 

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Jarman3 said:
It's not bad, I kind of like that "what if" factor you get with alternate history novels in general. It would be interesting to see a broader view of things, though - the perspective (so far at least) remains pretty tightly fixed on just the experience of the narrator and his family / neighbours. Despite the parallels with what's going on in America these days, it was published in 2004 so can't be viewed as a reaction to the Trump presidency.
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Hang on, is it an alternate history, or is it based on the actual plot against America from the 1920s/1930s?
 
deaneus said:
Hang on, is it an alternate history, or is it based on the actual plot against America from the 1920s/1930s?
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Alternate history. Basically Charles Lindbergh (a noted Nazi sympathizer prior to the US joining WW2) defeats Roosevelt in the presidential election (running on a campaign promising not to get involved in the war while claiming Roosevelt would) and signs an understanding with Hitler to not get involved in the war in Europe, anti-semitism grows more and more rife in the US, etc. I'm not quite halfway through it so I'm not sure how it pans out ie if the Japanese still bomb Pearl Harbour and history kind of corrects back onto its original track or not. I guess I'll find out eventually when I get that far into it.
 
Hey all.. For those looking for a topical read, I’d suggest Silent Invasion by Clive Hamilton. I read it a few months ago, pre-COVID. Basically it outlines the various ways in which China is trying to leverage its economic power for political ends in Australia. Touches on awkward relationships between CCP-linked ‘businessmen’ and Australian politicians, the theft of IP, economic blackmail, and more.
The book was heavily criticised when it was released (last year from memory) by former politicians who are very much pro-China including Rudd, Bob Carr and Keating. I think if it seemed on occasions a bit far fetched (and it did, just because it jarred so much with the mainstream China narratives), it’ll seem far less so now.
The other interesting thing about the book is that the author (if you haven’t heard of him) is very much a progressive - he’s written plenty on the problems of capitalism and the need to address climate change for example.
 
Only really got into reading this time last year starting off with a recommendation from a friend which was Magician by Raymond E Feist, Read that series and that got me hooked. Read the next 3 part arc by him before trying a few other books but would love to get back to it - 30 odd books so there's a heap to read.

Moved to a couple of biographies in Open (Andre Agassi) and Shoedog (Phil Knight - Nike). Open was fantastic, Andre's support crew were amazing, especially his trainer and it was pretty interesting to read how he talks about himself vs how he was portrayed, or at least felt to be by the media. Shoedog was also fascinating to read how a company that we all know lived month to month for as long as it did, even when it grew pretty big and to have the balls to just live on that thin rope for as long as he did - again, had some true believers with him that helped get Nike to where it is today.

Currently back to fantasy, reading Oathbringer which is part 3 in the Stormlight archive by Brandon Sanderson. The detail in this series is insane, I'm only just starting to wrap my head around some of the groups/races/factions etc. Little bummed out that I realised how long it will take before it finishes. It's meant to be a 10 part series and he's writing one every 3 years (along with plenty of others so Sanderson appears to be a champion in pumping books out) but that still means I'll be waiting another 18 odd years before it finishes it up...

Undecided whether I'll go to one of Sanderson's other series or maybe read Ali which I've also got sitting on my shelf ready to go.
 
Hello everybody,

My contract was due to finish at the end of June, and I'd quietly let the office manager/mother hen that "sure, you could get me a card and a voucher, but if you go here and talk to this guy..." and so since I had to finish early, I received this on 28/5:

IMG_0251.jpg

IMG_0252.jpg

...so that's insanely cool, i will start reading it tomorrow i think!!!
 
Deaneus! said:
Start with The Crying of Lot 49.

It's short, so you can get a feel for his style before trying one of his big ones (like Gravity's Rainbow or Mason & Dixon)

I've bought his last two books, Bleeding Edge and Against The Day, but I haven't finished them...
Click to expand...

This thread’s been quiet lately. My Reading Pile is currently as big as it’s ever been.. 18 high!

I did finally get around to reading the Crying of Lot 49. I can appreciate it, but didn’t love it. Did Pynchon drop lots of acid in his time?

For those looking for their next read, here are some reading highlights from the past couple of years:
  • Childhood by Shannon Burns (memoir of a brutal life in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, but also so much more than that. Filled with wisdom)
  • Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (has helped me put the phone down a bit more)
  • Crossroads by Franzen (love everything this guy’s written)
  • the Great Experiment by Yascha Mounk (an excellent political philosopher - good podcast too)
- the Odyssey (a classic, literally)
  • The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn (if you’re interested in cults and religion, this is a cracker)
  • Blindness by Jose Saramago (cool premise, really well written)
  • We need to talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver (brutal and sad)
  • No country for old men by Cormac McCarthy (I love the way he writes in this stripped back way. Reminds me a bit of Hemingway. His Border Trilogy is there in my Reading Pile)
 
Consolaçao said:
This thread’s been quiet lately. My Reading Pile is currently as big as it’s ever been.. 18 high!

I did finally get around to reading the Crying of Lot 49. I can appreciate it, but didn’t love it. Did Pynchon drop lots of acid in his time?

For those looking for their next read, here are some reading highlights from the past couple of years:
  • Childhood by Shannon Burns (memoir of a brutal life in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, but also so much more than that. Filled with wisdom)
  • Stolen Focus by Johann Hari (has helped me put the phone down a bit more)
  • Crossroads by Franzen (love everything this guy’s written)
  • the Great Experiment by Yascha Mounk (an excellent political philosopher - good podcast too)
- the Odyssey (a classic, literally)
  • The Road to Jonestown by Jeff Guinn (if you’re interested in cults and religion, this is a cracker)
  • Blindness by Jose Saramago (cool premise, really well written)
  • We need to talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver (brutal and sad)
  • No country for old men by Cormac McCarthy (I love the way he writes in this stripped back way. Reminds me a bit of Hemingway. His Border Trilogy is there in my Reading Pile)
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The Border Trilogy is fantastic. I think The Crossing was my favourite of them.
 
Anzacpaul said:
Great thread, I've long been keen to read/see classic books and films, though I continue to put it off. (Though I did finally watch Citizen Kane last week).

Outside of the required reading in high scholl (Of Mice and Men, Great Expectations etc), I haven't read anything noteworthy.
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That’s great.. I’ve been meaning to watch Citizen Kane.

Do you read much? If can recommend anything, get a hold Shannon Burns’ book. Unbelievably good.
 
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