I Just Finished Reading...

bendk

bendk

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I like to see what other people are reading, so I thought I would start this thread in hopes that others would share some thoughts on other books and authors out there that they have read recently. In the past couple weeks, I have read two novels:

The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. I enjoyed this novel very much. This book is usually high up on those "Best Existentialist Novels" lists. It was also made into a famous movie. Abe was influenced by Kafka, which is a plus for me, as well. It is about an entomologist that goes looking for a beetle in a remote area and meets with a few unforeseen complications.

Head Injuries by Conrad Williams. I remember someone mentioning this book on the Grimmest Horror thread. It is pretty bleak stuff. It is about a group of friends experiencing some weird visions. They get together to try to figure out why. This novel was highly praised by Ramsey Campbell. I liked it. I have enjoyed some of his short stories more, though. This is a contemporary horror author that I am going to read more of.
 
Today I finished American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. This novel is a first person narrative about the life of a wall street professional in Manhattan who also happens to be a maniacal serial killer. As good as the film adaptation was, it really pales in comparison to the book. I was really shocked at the brutality of the murders in this book! The images conjured by Ellis describing the sick homicidal fantasies acted out anti-hero Pat Bateman really stick with you. I honestly wanted to put down the book, at times...it is so disgustingly over-the-top graphic.

Next up: Word Virus: the William S. Burroughs reader.

"There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there."
 
American Psycho is probably one of the greatest American novels written within the past 30 years. The meticulousness...everything. It's basically a "how-to" book on character development. absolutely ridiculously amazing
 
Great topic, bendk!

Just finished reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. I'm glad I found some time to dip into it so as to be able to compare it with the film. I have to confess that I am one of those persons who wasn't entirely satisfied with the adaptation. I would need to go into details and spoilers if I wanted to explain my point. So, all I want to say is read the book before watching the film!

Next: My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due. It was nominated for a Stoker Award in 1998. It'll be the second time that I'm trying to delve in to it - my last attempt was thwarted by lack of time.
 
The final volume of the Sinister Forces trilogy by Peter Levenda. I posted a summary elsewhere, but it really is quite something: a three-volume history of mind control and the occult in America, as it relates even beyond the simple cloak-and-dagger. Hot stuff.

Also, Fletcher Hanks' I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets, which is a batshit collection of old comic books about a delirious superhero battling equally delirious supervillains.

I've also been reading the short stories of Alfred Bester, Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, and Stanislaw Lem, to distract myself from my studies, which have lately been about the Politics of Administrative Law. There's something relaxing about immersing oneself in political nastiness and the superficial appearance of order, thence to escape to philosophical whimsy.
 
My girlfriend warned me off of American Psycho. She said it went into too much boring detail about consumer products or something like that. Its been a while. I remember bidding on a British hardcover edition that had a really cool cover. I lost, of course. Shallow pockets. But that was years ago when it was just out, so I may try again.

I haven't read McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, but I did see the movie. I liked the film, but I obviously can't compare the two. I am always in a quandary as to which to do first: read the novel or see the movie. My experience has led me to believe that for the movie to stand a chance, it should be viewed first. But then that may spoil the novel. Who knows? I think that each should be judged separately, if possible. The movie did fine at the Oscars. I don't know if this counts as "reading" but I did listen to an unabridged recording of his book The Road. This is new territory for McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic novel. I liked it a lot. It has one thing in common with the rest of his work - it is bleak as hell.

I still haven't read much Burroughs.

Sinister Forces trilogy by Peter Levenda sounds interesting. It sounds like something that might have appealed to the late conspiracy theorist, John Rev. R.I.P. I read a book years ago (I don't think I ever finished it) called Imperium by Francis Parker Yokey. It was also a massive conspiracy-type book, though nowhere near 2,000 pages. I think that dealt more with politics and race.
 
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Plowing the Dark, by Richard Powers. Not a Ligottian writer. At the bottom of Powers's vision is a recognition of the icy bleakness of things, but on top of that are layers of sentimental humanism, political idealism, and fascination with science and technology. I share the fascination with science and technology but find the mushy sentimentalism and aching political idealism to be dubious. However, these provide much of the emotional fuel for his plots; and since I am quite in thrall to this novel and to another of his novels, The Gold Bug Variations, I'm probably responding to this stuff more than I'd like to admit. What I like best about these two novels is their prose style, which could be called "geek baroque." The intellectual brilliance is couched in a knotty, allusive, aphoristic, polysyllabic style. Some of his other novels are written in a flatter, plainer style that (for me at least) isn't as effective. There is a famous science fiction story from the 1950s by Tom Godwin called "The Cold Equations." Richard Powers writes about the cold equations and our desperate projects to re-engineer them.

The Strange Case of Edward Gorey, by Alexander Theroux. A character portrait of the writer/illustrator Edward Gorey by the novelist Alexander Theroux, who knew Gorey personally. I have long been amused and intrigued by Edward Gorey's works but now have a new appreciation for them after reading about the odd and unique man who dreamed them up. I really envy Gorey's solitary, independent, stubbornly-eccentric lifestyle. Me? I go to work every day. A good book to peruse along with this one is Elephant House, which contains photographs of Gorey's run-down, two-story house taken a few days after his death in 2000. The house as he left it was very cluttered, with thousands of books, old furniture, many strange objets d'art, a hidden room, and a few complacent cats. Again, I feel envy (although I could do without the cats). These are interesting books to look at for anyone who is plotting a later-in-life retreat into solitude, aestheticism, and misanthropy. Sounds like a plan.
 
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gveranon said:
The Strange Case of Edward Gorey, by Alexander Theroux.
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Alexander Theroux seems to be an interesting writer. I know Darconville's Cat is often praised, but what about the others?

I just finished Kundskabens Bog (The Book of Knowledge) by Ernesto Dalgas. It was the last book he wrote before killing himself, putting it together from various essays and notes in the summer of 1899. A philosophical suicide note, essentially, and a summation of his attempt to reconcile scientific positivism and religious belief. The argument is not very good, however, which makes it all rather sad.
 
Viva June said:
Alexander Theroux seems to be an interesting writer. I know Darconville's Cat is often praised, but what about the others?
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I haven't read any of Alexander Theroux's other books. I know that he has a reputation for using a lot of arcane words, as Nabokov does. There is certainly an expansive vocabulary on display in The Strange Case of Edward Gorey. I had seen most of the words before but a few were new to me. Asynartesia? Obol? Aposiopesis? Fraticellian?
 
bendk said:
Sinister Forces trilogy by Peter Levenda sounds interesting. It sounds like something that might have appealed to the late conspiracy theorist, John Rev. R.I.P. I read a book years ago (I don't think I ever finished it) called Imperium by Francis Parker Yokey. It was also a massive conspiracy-type book, though nowhere near 2,000 pages. I think that dealt more with politics and race.
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How funny - I've just started reading Dreamer of the Day, which is a biography of Francis Parker Yockey! It's quite excellent. Yockey sounds like one of the most elaborate little villains the world has ever seen.
 
I just finished "The Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen. It's the first time I've read any Machen and I was surprised. It was good, but not quite I expected.

I read it as background research for a review of Brian Keene's "Dark Hollow" which I'm reviewing for a journal.
 
Read more Machen! The Inmost Light, The White People and The Three Imposters come highly recommended - actually, with Machen's weird tales, as with those of M.R. James, William Hope Hodgson, Hanns Heinz Ewers and R.W. Chambers, I would pretty much recommend them unreservedly. His non-weird fiction I cannot comment on.
 
Mr Intolerance said:
Read more Machen! The Inmost Light, The White People and The Three Imposters come highly recommended - actually, with Machen's weird tales, as with those of M.R. James, William Hope Hodgson, Hanns Heinz Ewers and R.W. Chambers, I would pretty much recommend them unreservedly. His non-weird fiction I cannot comment on.
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I completely second more Machen!! My favorite story of his was the Three Imposters as well as Great God Pan and White People. I was in the middle of reading Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker. I just finished The Maltese Falcon by Hammett, as well as The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard. Other books that I am reading are Teatro Grottesco by Ligotti, Moby Dick by Melville and the entire Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer series starting with The Prisoner of the Horned Helmet.
 
I just read "the cat inside" by William Burroughs.It is a little book about his feelings
towards cats and some other topics.It was quite a surprise to see such tenderness (!) inside a man we all know as a bad ass.Although its best sentence brings back the Old Bull Lee I always loved.

"My past is an evil river"

It´s a very short book but very powerful.

NEXT: The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares.
I tried to read this one before the WB book but I didn´t really connect to it.I am going to give it another chance...
It is the first (and only) time Borges qualified a book as "perfect".I think I can trust Borges...
 
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'The Virgin in the Garden' by AS Byatt.
This is a very strange and wonderful novel.
It also has a great last line:

"That was not an end, but since it went on for a considerable time, it is as good a place to stop as any."
 
Two books I just finished reading are:

Fungi from Yuggoth and Other Poems by H.P. Lovecraft, with illustrations by Frank Utpatel-- This is a substantial selection of Lovecraft's poetic work. My favorite pieces are the "Fungi from Yuggoth" sonnet sequence and "Psychopompos," a narrative poem about a werewolf. In addition to poems with fantastic and horrific themes, there are samples of humor, like "To Mistress Sophia Simple, Queen of the Cinema," and nostalgia, like "Old Christmas."

Selected Stories by Joseph Conrad-- This contains eleven stories by this master storyteller, including such vaguely creepy stories as "Karain" and "The Secret Sharer."

I'm currently reading Short Friday and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. It is described in a Newsweek blurb on the back as a "witches brew of Poe, Gogol, the Gothic novelists, and the Chasidic fabulists." It should be a very interesting read.
 
I just finished Chaosium's first volume of Arthur Machen short stories, The Three Impostors. The title work was very good, especially "The Novel of the Black Seal" and "The Novel of the White Powder." Machen's "The Inmost Light" and "The Great God Pan" are also included, but I'd read them before. Still, a re-read of Machen is always pleasant, so I was glad to go through the collection cover to cover.
 
I recently finished Aleister Crowley's Diaries from Tunisia in 1923, a selection of stories by Robert Aickman, True Hallucinations and Food of the Gods by Terrance McKenna and reread Zos Speaks, a collection of correspondences between Kenneth & Steffi Grant and Austin Spare, plus some previously unpublished writings. Come to think of it, I reread all of the above.

I'm currently struggling through Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. This is my second reading, since the first time around I got lost three quarters of the way through, after which my attempts at understanding the text would not surpass the half-assed.

Other projects include Erdmann's History of Philosophy and then perhaps Kant.

I'm a voracious rereader of literature, likely due to the fact that I'm neurotic about reading books in pristine condition (there are exceptions, but...). I buy most of the books I read, but since I'm often too sick to hold down a regular job I reread the books I own.
 
Secret Hours by Michael Cisco. A fine collection of short stories by the author of The Divinity Student. One story in particular, which Cisco dedicated to our one and only TL, has been haunting my wine-addled brain for days: "The Ice Age of Dreams". It is highly reminiscent of Ligotti in Lovecraftian mode, ie. "The Last Feast of Harlequin".

Here is a passage (ellipsis is Cisco's):

"Well ... I've been exploring the idea of fossilized dreams, some traces ... These would be ancient dreams, that were caused to solidify over time ... completely independent, material dreams ..."

There was a longer pause.

"... I'm calling to report ... I've succeeded ..."

I heard a car pass.

Hennel explained. He had been digging in a spot not far from town, screened by rock outcrops and heavy timber. I never learned the precise location. Shortly before sunset, he had found them.

"They were buried in what appeared to be rows ... like the terracotta soldiers in China ... a series of small mounds apparently in rows ... I had to work quickly--the sun was going down ... I uncovered the first of the mounds ... I did some digging and then worked with the brush ... I found myself brushing a smooth ... and slightly pale ... surface ... marked with ... a few fine grooves ... I cleared more earth away ..."

For anyone who needs a Ligotti fix, this might do the trick, but don't quote me.
 
few people reading cormac mcarthy here. love this guy. read two of the border trilogy (outstanding), the road (absolutely brilliant post-apocalyptic story of father and son on a journey they know not where – father's feeling about his son could make you cry), and the best of all a western called blood meridien. this one's special – really haunting and violent, and it stains you – ie it stays with you for weeks after you've finished reading it. can't recommend this book highly enough.
also been reading a japanese guy called murikimo (can't remember his first name). also impressive stuff. check out the wind-up bird chronicles and kafka on the shore.
machen, hanz heinz ewers, hodgson, schulz, lem, grabinski et al are all a given.
the tenant was excellent (roland something) (new edition with ligotti introducing it).
you've also got to check out thomas bernhard. this guy rants like an angel.
one of my fave novelists is the english writer rupert thomson. brilliant stylist and weird enough for anyone. check out five gates of hell, the insult, soft, divided kingdom, dreams of leaving…
and i second the aickman recommendation – bought those tartarus collections – worth every penny.
sorry to blather on: once you start it can be hard to stop.
 
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