June 2018: Reading Thread

[HareBrain]

Finished The Last of the Wine. What started as a largely personal story became very involved in the politics and events surrounding the end of the Peloponnesian War, about which I knew nothing before. Some of the less pleasant traits of the politicians involved seemed awfully familiar.

 

[Anthoney]

I was gifted a set of books called Apocalypse Trails. It's another EOTWAWKI series I hope to pound out by the end of the month. 100 books a year is all I ask.

 

[Randy M.]

A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (a.k.a.: The Mask of Dimitrios)

This book has been ransacked by so many later writers (particularly, I think, for film and tv) that the story will seem familiar and may not hold any surprises for some readers, but Ambler's prose is fine, offering an amused if critical skepticism about the time, place and characters, and his dissection of the character of his characters is ruthless, his eye for their flaws and modes of thought exact, and his contemplation of the corruption of governments and the politics of the time seems in 20-20 hindsight rather spot on.

Mr. Latimer is a writer of detective stories. Between novels he becomes aware of the machinations of a recently deceased low level independent operative named Dimitrios. Fascinated, and wishing to exercise and stretch the powers of detection he writes about, he begins to follow the trail Dimitrios left behind. What he finds leads him to people who knew Dimitrios, and then his search becomes personally dangerous ... and even more fascinating.

Written and published in the looming shadow of World War II this seems like a warning from Ambler to his fellow Brits that the cloistered, secure world of the English detective story -- which he briefly satirizes -- is an antiseptic fantasy in a much darker world than they were accustomed to acknowledging.


Randy M.

 

[Hugh]

I’ve now finished Humphrey Carpenter’s “The Inklings”. I was actually a little disappointed in this book because I had thought Tolkien would be very much the central figure, whereas the book actually revolves around C.S.Lewis, and, sadly, I did not find him that sympathetic an individual through the eyes of this biographer. However, I still enjoyed the account of the times very much, and feel that I have a much better understanding of the loose group that made up the Inklings. I had also never heard of Charles Williams, and found it very interesting to read about this charismatic figure.
In an unusually fatuous moment I found myself irreverently comparing the core Inklings (The two Lewis brothers, Tolkien, and Williams) to the male characters in the Big Bang Theory, in that both sets are very very clever and pursue their own cult interests, while being somewhat idiosyncratic in their relations with women. (This is not meant as a put down of either group).

I also enjoyed “The Tolkien Family Album” by John & Priscilla Tolkien: just around 77 actual pages, but with at least one illustration on every page. I’ve seen only a very few photographs of the Tolkien family before this (my reading on Tolkien is limited), and I very much appreciated the number of photographs of Edith.

At the same time: Jack Vance’s “Trullion: Alastor 2262” and “Wyst: Alastor 1716”. I found “Wyst” tedious for Vance, maybe because it's a bit of a mockery of socialism. I think I'm right in saying that Vance was on the "right" in his politics.

 

[Guillermo Stitch]

I've just finished a couple of Ross MacDonalds. Of the two, I enjoyed The Galton Case more than The Goodbye Look but they were both excellent, and really masterful in some ways. He isn't Chandler (his plots are better for a start...) but he does deploy wit - some real zingers.

I'm reading The Chill now which, so far, is up there for me with The Galton Case.

I've also got Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice on the go, which to be honest is a bit of a schlepp at times, but I'll persevere.

 

[Randy M.]

Macdonald is an old favorite of mine. It's been too long since I read The Goodbye Look to recall details, but I remember enjoying it a lot. I read The Moving Target and The Galton Case within the last year or so and liked both, but I think it's his later novels, after The Chill, that really work for me.

I've just started Banquet for the Damned by Adam Nevill, which looks to be an updating of the antiquarian ghost story.

Randy M.

 

[The Judge]

Earlier this month I was holiday. When I go away I try and match my reading to my destination, which this year was up the Norwegian coast and into the Arctic circle. So when a few months ago I saw a novel called Ice by Anna Kavan, an author I didn't know, I had to have it, and the same with The Idea of North, a kind of extended think-piece by Peter Davidson about the meanings and emotions we ascribe to northern latitudes.

Fortunately, I didn't have a lot of time for reading while I was away.

If anyone wants to have a definition of a Literary Novel, Ice, written in 1967, is it. Some wonderful imagery and turns of phrase, but no plot; set in a never-identified or identifiable world, peopled with characters without names or personalities, with things happening without relevance to the non-plot, dei ex machina forever cropping up to allow more things to happen, other things happening which didn't happen but were only imagined or envisaged or hallucinated or... well... I've no idea. The first person narrator spends the novel pursuing -- and alternately wanting to love and to hurt -- a vulnerable and pathetic (in both senses of the word) woman who is repeatedly lusted after, hurt and abducted by other men, while the war-torn world around them turns to ice, and everyone and everything is doomed. It's doubtless all very allegorical and clever -- the cover quotes praise from Brian Aldiss and JG Ballad -- but for me, simply wanting a good read, it was akin to listening to a poetic bore re-telling his latest nightmare. Impenetrable and baffling; its only saving grace its brevity, at a scant 180 pages.

So far -- which isn't very far at all as I can't get on with it -- The Idea of North is no better. Basically, it's a long-winded rummaging through a lot of writings, ancient and modern, seemingly quoting anything with the word "north" in it, or which is written about or by someone in or in any way however remotely connected with, northern countries, no matter how contradictory in tone or content with the other quoted extracts, and with way too much self-conscious and self-indulgent musing interrupting the few interesting bits. As ever -- and as with Ice -- I was beguiled by a beautiful cover and some admiring quotes. One day, I'll learn that if the Guardian praises something, it's likely not anything I'll enjoy.

On getting home I returned to and finished Land of the Headless by Adam Roberts, and I've done a short review of it here.

 

[Hugh]

I’ve just finished Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull’s “J.R.R. Tolkien, Artist and Illustrator”. I thought this a truly excellent appreciation of Tolkien’s art, with a wealth of illustrations.

Also: Tolkien’s “The Father Christmas Letters”. I’d never read these before: I’d have loved receiving these when I was growing up in the 1950s.

In addition: two large paperbacks of various artists, including Alan Lee, John Howe, and Ted Nasmith: “Tolkien’s World: Paintings of Middle Earth” and “Realms of Tolkien: Images of Middle Earth”. I’m not that keen on multi-artist publications, but there are several paintings that really stand out, even if the rest are often more mundane. “Realms” includes four paintings by Cor Blok that do not fit the usual artwork that I associate with the LOTR genre, and I really liked them. When I looked Cor Blok up I found that he had actually met Tolkien in 1961 and Tolkien had even bought two of his paintings.

 

[nixie]

The Long Mars Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.

 

[biodroid]

I got to 71% in Christine by Stephen King and just can't carry on. So much rambling in that book, so I have moved onto Midnight Falcon by David Gemmell, good so far, hope it stays good

 

[Parson]

Just finished New Threat by our own Nathan Hystad. It is the second in the The Survivors series. It picks up where book one left off. The story is clear, but it takes some unexpected turns along the way. Overall a satisfactory follow up to The Event. I already have book three New World.

I'm have a bit of a surprise. I am now retired and am not reading as much. What's up with that anyway?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have been reading the original plays from which the movies in the American Film Theatre series were adapted, except for those I had already read. (Three Sisters, The Iceman Cometh, Rhinoceros, Galileo, Lost in the Stars, A Delicate Balance.)

To wit:

The Homecoming
Luther
Butley
In Celebration
The Maids
The Man in the Glass Booth

Mostly quite short, maybe the equivalent of a novella each, so I'm going through them quickly.

I also have the sheet music and English lyrics from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Since that "play" consisted entirely of songs, that should be the equivalent.

 

[dask]

Decided to read some modern stuff so I won't feel so out of step with everyone else:

 

[Danny McG]

I'm reading Dreadnought - the second book of the B.V. Larson "Lost Colonies" trilogy.
Standard blood and thunder among the stars fare, enjoyable.

 

[martin321]

This month I've read Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee, which was very good and is quite different from most other military SF / space opera books (it's the sequel to Ninefox Gambit), also Smith of Wootton Major by Tolkien (an amusing fairy story).

As far as non-fiction goes I've read Tolkien Treasures by Catherine McIlwaine (highlights of the Bodleian's Tolkien archive, although more or less a subset of the next book) and then Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth by Catherine McIlwaine, which I found tremendously interesting.

 

[Guillermo Stitch]

On a real Ross MacDonald kick. Almost finished The Chill. Any recommendations with where to go next with him welcome.

 

[Hugh]

As far as non-fiction goes I've read Tolkien Treasures by Catherine McIlwaine (highlights of the Bodleian's Tolkien archive, although more or less a subset of the next book) and then Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth by Catherine McIlwaine, which I found tremendously interesting.

Aha! You decided to buy "Maker of Middle Earth"!

I'm now a few pages into it. I'm hoping to savour it slowly.

A couple of questions....

Is most/all of "Tolkien Treasures" contained in it?

Is most of the Bodleian Exhibition illustrateded in it?

Many thanks....