What are you reading?

[Faust]

Just finished Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami, bizarre and very enjoyable. Waiting for Babylon by Viktor Pelevin to arrive, the premise is intriguing, though I've never read anything from him before.

I wonder how Pelevin holds up in translation, as I was just recommending him to AKA*NYC

[Kœnig]

I wonder how Pelevin holds up in translation, as I was just recommending him to AKA*NYC

I was introduced to him from reading Andrew Meier's book Black Earth, in which he mentions Generation P, which for some reason is titled Babylon for English readers. Meier is fluent in Russian and I myself am not, so I hope I don't end up reading a bastardised version of the work.

[Faust]

Another possible level of complexity - Generation P, as is most other Pelevin's work is very much period literature. Not sure if any of it will stand the test of time.

[bukka]

Nabokov is crazy. I'm in love.
He's buried 20 minutes from where I live, I'll have to visit his tomb and pay tribute.

[HugAndWug]

Just finished deathwatch and I'm working on the Lovis Trilogy which is awful to get through at the start.

[Faust]

Finished Generation Kill - a fantastic non-fiction book about what went on on the ground during the Iraq war. Highly recommended.

Picked up It All Adds Up, a book of Saul Bellow's essays. I am surprising myself with this nonfiction kick.

[imblurredout]

It's solid, like most of Sontag's writing. She was no genius, but an acute observer and she had the ability to put things in order. I admit that I put it down half way and am now totally engrossed in Generation Kill. Will pick Sontag back up once I'm done with that.

I also began rereading Camera Lucida by Barthes, but for some reason it's just fucking annoying. Intellectual masturbation.

Second half of Camera Lucida is much better.

If you liked Sontag, check out Hannah Arendt's "On Violence" if you haven't already

[bukka]

Finished Lolita today. I'm feeling nauseous. I'll give a proper review later.

[PoubelleMaBelle]

Whatever you do, DO NOT spend doleful days in dumps and dolors...

slippery slope.

[bukka]

^hey, thanks. No worries, that's what literature is supposed to be.

[beyondthemeans]

(info)

Picked this up recently, finished it last night in one go. Thought it was quite interesting. It's a bit tumblr/hipster at times, but some thoughts in the book are very interesting and entertaining.

[YTheLastMan]

Been trying to get through 'My Struggle' by Karl Ove Knausgård. Though his prose is quite pleasing (even in translated form), it never seems to go anywhere. Anyone else have any experience with the series?

[MJRH]

The fellow's book makes him seem a latter-day Sisyphus

[Faust]

It's so hyped that I don't want to go near it. Which is, of course, not to say that it's not good - I have no idea if it's good or bad, but the hype is nauseating. Besides, who wants to go through 4 books of autobiographical masturbation? If I'm going to read 4 (well, 7) books of anything, it will be Proust.

[MJRH]

who wants to go through 4 books of autobiographical masturbation?

An exceptionally dedicated Onanist.

I dunno. I've read two pages of this and that was quite enough. I've read two chapters of Proust and that decided me I'll one day read it all. Maybe this one's just poorly translated, who knows.