What book are you reading right now?
Posted by: Chillkram on 23 May 2010
I am currently reading Suetonius, 'The Twelve Caesars'.
How about you?
For the fourth time since reading it first as a teenager.
Haim Ronen posted:
For the fourth time since reading it first as a teenager.
Just started this one today. Looking forward to a good read.
Classic photography book:
Their Mortal Remains, published by the V&A as part of the exhibition. Hardback with lwenticular cover:
He's got this one wrong. Not very entertaining really, not awful either. If anyone is going to read it I'll try and avoid too many spoilers but...
The key issue for me is that this is about an aspiring and then career photographer and one would think maybe he would have put some research into this, however he hasn't. For instance, to go on at length about taking pictures discretely in dimly lit Berlin nightclubs with an early 20th century camera shows he hasn't really bothered. He also drops the imagined pics taken by the main character throughout the book and they're appalling, like rubbish snapshots taken by someone who doesn't care with no thought of composition, I mean really bad. Now if this was just some kind of sub plotline or diversion, it's really not that important but this is the main character's biography and it's just hopelessly lazy.
Winds me up incredibly when I read things by people who can't be arsed to research their basics.
I have just started reading this - latest choice for my book club.
20 pages in and I'm not yet hooked. Hopefully, it will draw me in soon...
JamieWednesday posted:
He's got this one wrong. Not very entertaining really, not awful either. If anyone is going to read it I'll try and avoid too many spoilers but...
The key issue for me is that this is about an aspiring and then career photographer and one would think maybe he would have put some research into this, however he hasn't. For instance, to go on at length about taking pictures discretely in dimly lit Berlin nightclubs with an early 20th century camera shows he hasn't really bothered. He also drops the imagined pics taken by the main character throughout the book and they're appalling, like rubbish snapshots taken by someone who doesn't care with no thought of composition, I mean really bad. Now if this was just some kind of sub plotline or diversion, it's really not that important but this is the main character's biography and it's just hopelessly lazy.
Winds me up incredibly when I read things by people who can't be arsed to research their basics (*).
I understand. When I see films about music performers and they move their hands badly it takes away credibility in an instant. The two opposite points in my experience were Woody Allen's Sweet and lowdown, in which Sean Penn moves his hand on the guitar so badly you would believe he's never ever put his hand on a guitar, which is virtually impossible.
The other example is The Concert, an overrated film in my opinion totally rescued by the splendid Melanie Laurent who has evidently practiced a lot and is perfectly believable as violin player safe for the most pedant expert; while her mate, the former conductor, is so bad at 'conducting' that I couldn't believe my eyes. But then, how many films have we seen about geniuses of painting, and their masterworks in the film look like having been done by first year's students?
Sorry, perhaps off topic.
(*) Agree heartedly and completely.
Haim Ronen posted:
Inspired by watching the excellent film 'The Swimmer' based on one of Cheever's short stories.
Thanks, this reminds me I promised I would find and watch the film.
M
Philip Roth is one of theose authors - like Jane Austen - I have read very little of. A few months ago I read The Plot Against America and was gripped. So I'm trying this:
JamieWednesday posted:
He's got this one wrong. Not very entertaining really, not awful either. If anyone is going to read it I'll try and avoid too many spoilers but...
The key issue for me is that this is about an aspiring and then career photographer and one would think maybe he would have put some research into this, however he hasn't. For instance, to go on at length about taking pictures discretely in dimly lit Berlin nightclubs with an early 20th century camera shows he hasn't really bothered. He also drops the imagined pics taken by the main character throughout the book and they're appalling, like rubbish snapshots taken by someone who doesn't care with no thought of composition, I mean really bad. Now if this was just some kind of sub plotline or diversion, it's really not that important but this is the main character's biography and it's just hopelessly lazy.
Winds me up incredibly when I read things by people who can't be arsed to research their basics.
Jamie,
I haven't read the book but I know exactly how you feel. I loose the trust for the story teller who doesn't do the minimal research to portray events realistically and the fun of reading kind of gets lost. I remember years ago reading an action book where the hero inserted a banana clip into his Uzi submachine gun and knowing that the weapon takes only straight clips (since I carried one for three years in my service) I wrote to the writer and enclosed a picture of the Uzi but never got a response.
It was worst going through a history book of the Six Days War and seeing a description of Israeli F4 (US made) Phantom jets attacking Egyptian airfields which was impossible since in 1967 the Israeli Air Force flew only French jets. Again, my letter to the writer was left unanswered.
I really enjoyed reading William Boyd's 'A good Man in Africa', 'An Ice-ream War', 'Brazzaville Beach' and 'Armadillo'.
I sometimes like a book that's not easy reading. Sometimes the sentences are so dense and thick and not easy flowing, where rereading over and over again is needed to understand what's written. Sometimes you might get lucky enough to find a book that mirrors life in its difficulty to understand, or profoundly describe those difficulties.
Deep Blues - Robert Palmer.
A concise history of the birth of the blues .................. a good read for anyone wishing to learn how, and where, it all began.
A slim volume for less than a tenner over on The Rainforest.
For the second time.
Haven't read this in decades, but after an excellent BBC adaption I thought I would revisit this fascinating work by one of my favourite authors.
Richard Dane posted:I have just started reading this - latest choice for my book club.
20 pages in and I'm not yet hooked. Hopefully, it will draw me in soon...
Well, by page 50 it had me, and I finished it off in a couple of train trips. Recommended.