What's Everyone Reading At The Moment?

I think mental illness would have probably been diagnosed, but it is possible. You're absolutely right that he was ill-prepared for his journey - a 10lb bag of rice and other oddments is woefully inadequate for surviving in the wild. The imdb story is very interesting, I've never heard of that. The extras on the DVD are very good, his parents and family were on set for part of the filming, as were some of his friends, so I reckon much of the film was as authentic as possible. All of the filming was shot in the actual places he visited. I'm not sure if he had a death wish, though. He did try to leave the wilderness, but the river was too dangerous to try to cross. Shame he didn't keep his map, and tragic that he ate the wrong plant seeds. At least he tried.

Actually the plant seeds weren't how he died. That is wrong in the movie. I don't know why Penn took such liberties.
 
I'm re-reading for around the third time "Adam's Breed" by Radclyffe Hall. It possibly has the honour of being my favourite book of all time, and I've read many many books. Readers of Hall always acknowledge her novel "The Well of Loneliness", but I've found that a drab old read. This is much better.

The copy I've borrowed from the library has old date due stamp and borrower's card record in the back of the book. Of course library books are all bar-coded for issuing these days, but it's nice to find reminders in today's world of a pre-silicon chip that it wasn't always like this.

Ah I really like The 'Well of Loneliness', though it did take me a while to read, going in and out of it over several months. But each to their own, I think I'll give 'Adam's Breed' a read though. Hall seemed such an interesting and brave person.

I'm currently reading 'The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath' which is very well written despite all the ties that bind the author back (copyright issues, darn you Ted Hughes).

I also downloaded a load of Charles Bukowski's work, which I'll be sinking into once I get some free time.
 
Just got done reading "The Hunger Games".....starting "Catching Fire" tomorrow
 
I'm reading 'The Uncommon Reader' by Alan Bennett. It is a novella, so it's slim and I'm trying my best to not hurry through the pages as I am enjoying it.
 
I'm reading 'Meetings with Morrissey' by Len Brown. I'm enjoying it so far. My twin sis says he tries too hard to prove Moz is still relevant today. He'll always be relevant even if he stopped recording. There's no need to convince me anyway.

I just finished 'Wait for me!' by Deborah Mitford. I found the first half of the book to be lovely and the last half but the inbetween name dropping of famous people did get tedious. I like Elizabeth Bowen for example but that she went over to her house for a party or two wasn't needed. I liked the Nancy and Jessica stories the best. I didn't agree with all of her views but as the youngest [alright I'm a twin so I shared the spot] of four siblings I could relate to trying to catch up to the older ones.

Two great but different views of England for sure.
 
Finished reading "The Search For The Perfect Pub : Looking For The Moon Under Water" by Paul Moody and Robin Turner. The authors go searching around England for the mythical perfect pub as described by George Orwell's "Looking For The Moon Under Water".

It's a great read on a subject close to my heart. There is a interview in the book with Pete Wylie and James Dean Bradfield where they talk about what their favourite pubs mean to them. Would have been great to have had Morrissey talk about The Vauxhall and why he liked it. Although Moody used to write for the NME, so there might be a grudge there.

It's heartening to see that there is a swing back to pubs without Euro fizz on tap, overly loud music, pub quizzes and gastro pubs.
 
Finished reading "The Search For The Perfect Pub : Looking For The Moon Under Water" by Paul Moody and Robin Turner. The authors go searching around England for the mythical perfect pub as described by George Orwell's "Looking For The Moon Under Water".

It's a great read on a subject close to my heart. There is a interview in the book with Pete Wylie and James Dean Bradfield where they talk about what their favourite pubs mean to them. Would have been great to have had Morrissey talk about The Vauxhall and why he liked it. Although Moody used to write for the NME, so there might be a grudge there

It's heartening to see that there is a swing back to pubs without Euro fizz on tap, overly loud music, pub quizzes and gastro pubs.

Sounds just my cup of tea.
 
"The Cold Eye of Heaven" by Christine Dwyer Hickey. This small novel has been picking up some good reviews, and rightfully so. Farley (the protagonist) collapses by his toilet. Unable to get up or get help he replays scenes from his life. His employment, loves, his marriage, friendships, childhood. It's all beautifully written. The novel set in Dublin reads like a modern day "Ulysses" as Farley moves around the city. I love the rich Irish dialogue in it. Those lovely Irish phrases, "Your man there", "ouldfella" "Ah Jayus, no. That's terrible". It's a bit like listening to Mrs Doyle off "Father Ted"

I remember reading or seeing somewhere that Morrissey doesn't read much now. This is one he should pick up. I'm sure he'll like the language and settings of Dublin. This is one of the best books I've read in the past year.
 
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I have a friend who is reading this for a bookclub and another who I helped with her wedding who swears by it, reads it once a year. And it's getting a lot of hype here in America with the movie coming out. The last time I read a novel that was turned into a movie was The English Patient, I kinda want to go into the theater and compare the two. OH WAIT, that;s not true, all the Harry Potter books I suppose. ANYWAY, I was looking for something easy to keep my brain occupied and nurse myself back into reading real books instead of conversation. So far so good, the first three chapters are interesting. Being a teen book it's a quick read. I used to stock it constantly when I worked at the bookstore and supervised the kid's section, never thought to read it.

CORRECTION: This book was published way after I worked at the bookstore. Hmmm, I think I'm confusing this with another book my second friend reads every year.
 
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Hunger Games trilogy is really fun. I might be in the minority who liked the last book Mockingjay though.
The Capitol reminds me of Moscow during the Soviets.

I just finished Jessica Mitford's memoir 'A Fine Old Conflict'.
She is a much better writer than Deborah but her book was really irritating at times. I can't get past how she rationalized the Soviets killing the Hungarians in the '56 revolt. Ugh. Totalitarian government is never good.

To me the Soviets and the Nazis [of which her sis Unity was infatuated with Hitler and even stalked him] are too much alike to see her as rebelling from the family.
The family bits were the highlights but she was tedious, self righteous and down right naive when it came to her politics. You can't surely expose our prison industry as money making business but hold up the Soviets who also used forced prison labour as the ideal. Both were bad.
I adore Nancy Mitford. She's so mean but hilarious and was the highlight of both sisters memoirs. I'm sure when I start Diana Mitford's memoir 'A life of contrasts' I'll be super creeped with her unrepentant fascism. The Mitford sisters are entertaining.

I'm currently reading Christopher Browning's 'Ordinary Men' about the Secret Police Battallion 101. I refuse to read Daniel Goldhagen's book on the same events which lays claim that Germans are simply racist and evil.
Browning's book goes more into detail why some officers chose to kill all those Jewish people in Poland despite being given a chance to opt out.
It's a combo of peer pressure and authority a la the Stanley Milgrim experiment. The holocaust was not the only genocide in history and Goldhagen is grossly prejudicial to claim this could only happen once. I mean look at Pol Pot. Browning is supposed to address 'Hitler's Willing Executioners' in his book.
 
I brought about a dozen pieces of fiction(William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, Umberto Eco, Albert Camus, Caleb Carr & Margaret Atwood)
Some of these I had already read, but it had been years, now they are all read, so I am onto my non-fiction, first up is:
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after that some Derrida and then, I don't know, I'll have to look, I know there is a "Marx reader" in there somewhere and the Bible, of course.

ps: 1/2 of my big suitcase was devoted to books!
 
Kim Woodburn's autobiography...jesus, I bet Morrissey's autobiography won't be as half as depressing and sad as this!
 
Der Einfluss Nietzsches auf Herman Hesse by Lászlo V. Szabó.
 
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books wit no pitchers but not much more just fuck off literary ponces long live books more to life than books nerds n squares obscurer and obscurer shakespeare is smart
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