Gray's Sports Almanac

Game of Thrones

Just finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (hey, it's summer!)

Not sure what next, maybe Power Without Glory, it's been only sitting on my bedside table for 3 years.

I just finished the latest Matthew Reilly book, 'Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves'. It's like chicklit for dudes, super trash, super awesome. Finished in a day.

Next up I'm gonna read the new Harlan Coben, then all the Jasper Fforde books all over again.

The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB

Superb!

Whilst waiting for Mrs.C to finish reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I'm re-reading Charles Bukowski Post Office

keen readers:
i have to buy a gift for someone. they are extremely (EXTREMELY) well read and i feel a little out of my territory. they are also a writer. i'd like to get them something nice, does anyone have any suggestions?
something with a similar format to murray bail's notebooks. i like the idea of publishing a writers notes.

i finished Slaughterhouse 5. good stuff.

i haven't read a political book at all this year,

this year so far:

What if you read half a book in 2011 and the other half in 2012. Is it on your 2011 or 2012 list? The book in question is Shantaram, such a long slog. I am enjoying it, but less so as it goes on.

2012, without a doubt.

I'll have to check out that According to Doyle book.

Yeah, count it in whatever year you finish it in.

I've read a bunch of books already this year - Peggy Frew's House of Sticks was pretty great, while Helen Garner's Monkey Wrench was kind of disappointing. Everything else falls somewhere in between.

Simon Reynolds Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. Compelling stuff, just the right mix of theory, history and music analysis to keep the pages turning quickly.

I finished The Angel Esmeralda: 9 Stories, my first Don Delillo book, the other day. Anyone else read it? I'd have probably done better to start with one of his more well-known books but I bought it on impulse.

For me, the title story was the most memorable and affecting whereas the others where either mediocre or just plain dull. Although, I wouldn't rule out reading one of his full length novels based on this collection and would be curious to see how he explores his pet themes in a book like 'White Noise'.

White Noise is great, and Underworld has some pretty wonderful moments. I dunno, some of his books (Ratners Star, Great Jones St, The Body Artist) have just put me to sleep, but Libra, Underworld and White Noise really dragged me along. Even though it's not like any of them had particularly compelling plots.

Im in the very early pages of Infinite Jest

anyone else read it?

infinite jest is in the top 10 unfinished books.

me, too, Bertram. I feel like I need to take a running start every time I sit down with it.

and

Finished Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan. Good collection of essays from a writer who has stirred an interest in me for pre-war American Blues, southern writers, and rekindled my love of dancing like this -

I'm a bit sad that Will Self didn't win the Booker TBH

Hey, so you read some Self? I remembered you asking about a good place to start in his thread. What did you read/enjoy? I still have Psychogeography, Psycho Too, Great Apes and Walking to Hollywood saved for later on the shelf, jeez actually I need to get into one of those! But Umbrella does sound like all his stars aligning, Booker or no, it would have been a nice recognition of a pretty outré writer but no doubt he would have sneered at it, god love him...

At the moment: 'Bismark: A Life' by Johnathan Steinberg. biography of Otto von Bismarck. I'm about a quarter of the way through it; so far, it's really well researched but the armchair psychology on the part of the author gets a bit irritating at times.

I have a whole stack of books to read though. Especially looking forward to reading Underworld by Don DeLillo.

Especially looking forward to reading Underworld by Don DeLillo.

masterpiece.

masterpiece.

Agree. I'd love to read that book again for the first time.

Just read Denis Johnson's novella 'Train Dreams'. Superb. Will read again (and again). So haunting and evocative.

Now stuck into Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' which I'd previously abandoned at least a handful of times in the last few years. Cautiously optimistic thus far.

Agree. I'd love to read that book again for the first time.

It is my favourite thing when someone says this about a book. I like DeLillo but haven't read Underworld, though I guess I should pick it up.

Finished Joan Didion's Blue Nights and found that it wasn't quite as harrowing as Year of Magical Thinking, and I just started Lucky Jim by Martin Amis and it is hilarious.

Oops. I mean father Kingsley Amis.

Now stuck into Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' which I'd previously abandoned at least a handful of times in the last few years. Cautiously optimistic thus far.

Holy shit I LOVE that book. Loved it to the extent of not wanting it to end, sneakily reading it while at work, etc.

I find ''The Handmaid's Tale'' has dated reallllly badly. As in, I found it a bit of a cringeworthy read at times. An important read, no doubt (and I do like Margaret Atwood's work, for the most part -excepting the novels that came about later in her career, which are DREADFUL) but yeah. It's dated.

ocelotl - I've still only read a handful of Self's short stories! Lazy, I know. My to-read list is enormous, and I still haven't read a good third of what I actually own. I need to work on this.

Umbrella is pretty high up on the list, though.

I finished When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris last night, fuck I laughed so hard when he was talking about the beastiality magazine that he and his sister were looking at.
Also recently I have finished Dead Famous - Ben Elton, Cat's Crade - Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon The Well of Lost Plots - Jasper Fforde and Post Everything - Luke Haines (singer of the Auteurs) which was also hilarious

I do like Margaret Atwood's work, for the most part -excepting the novels that came about later in her career, which are DREADFUL

What, like Oryx and Crake? I really liked that, though I haven't read her earlier stuff.

No, like Alias Grace & The Blind Assassin. woeful.

I started reading Three Plays: The Father/Julie/Ghost Sonata by Strindberg. I read the first play in a flash and went ''Yeah. Now I'm gonna go read Edgar Rice Burrough's Caspak novels again and forget about that''.

Before that I hadn't been reading much, really. Can;t get into anything, but would appreciate recommendations.

Can't seem to stay away from short stories lately, attention span being what it is… but I discovered someone amazing, this guy Jim Shepard, when I saw his collection You Think That's Bad, as a ''Staff Recommended'' book at Readings. Liked the cover, liked the blurb, sat down and read the shortest story in the book - just amazing. The speed with which this guy can create a finely-detailed character is incredible. Don't know why I hadn't heard of him before, but will be seeking out more. I've tried to find one story online to prove his awesomeness, but can't, so just trust me.

Books Read 2012

Novels = 69
Andrew Doyle – Michaelmas Draft One
Peter Temple – Truth
John Le Carre – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Julia Leigh – The Hunter
Philip Roth – American Pastoral
Frank Moorhouse – Conferenceville
Will Self – Dorian
Nicolo Ammaniti – Me And You
Thomas Pynchon – Vineland
Carole Morin – Lampshades
John Lanchester – Fragrant Harbour
Peter Carey – The Chemistry Of Tears
Karl Marlantes – Matterhorn
China Mieville - Kraken
Justin Cartwright – In Every Face I Meet
Lars Iyer – Spurious
Martha Gellhorn – A Stricken Field
Colm Toibin – Brooklyn
Richard Yates – Revolutionary Road
Mireille Juchau – Burning In
Miles Franklin – My Brilliant Career
Joseph Conrad – Heart Of Darkness
Frank Moorhouse – Grand Days
Steven Carroll – Spirit Of Progress
John Jay Osborn – The Paper Chase
Sam Lipsyte – The Ask
Ernest Hemingway – A Farewell To Arms
Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
Hisham Matar – In The Country Of Men
Peter Carey – My Life As A Fake
Andrew McGahan – The White Earth
Franz Kafka – Metamorphosis
Kate Jennings – Moral Hazard
John Lanchester – Capital
Javier Cercas – Soldiers Of Salamis
Dick Morland – Albion! Albion!
Majok Tulba – Beneath The Darkening Sky
John Tesarch – The Philanthropist
John Flanagan – Brotherband 1 / Outcasts
John Flanagan – Brotherband 2 / The Invaders
Don DeLillo – Cosmopolis
Andrew McGahan – Coming Of The Whirlpool
Carson McCullers – The Member Of The Wedding
Ed O’Loghlin – Toploader
David Abrams – Fobbit
Alan Bennett – The Uncommon Reader
Evie Wyld – After The Fire A Still Small Voice
Andrew Croome – Midnight Empire
Ben Fountain – Billy Lynn’s Long Hafltime Walk
Kasuo Ishiguro – Never Let Me Go
Kevin Powers – The Yellow Birds
Hisham Matar – In The Country Of Men
Teju Cole – Open City
Julian Barnes – Sense Of An Ending
Andrew Doyle – Michaelmas Draft One
Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Jeannette Winterson – Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Justin Cartwright – Other People’s Money
Robert Cormier – The Chocolate War
Joe Meno – Office Girl
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Chronicle Of A Death Foretold
Graham Greene – The Quiet American
Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time
Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist
Ken Kesey – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Andrew Doyle – Arctic Draft One
Albert Camus – L’Etranger
Kurt Vonegut – Hocus Pocus
James Bradley – The Resurrectionist

Short Stories = 6
Kazuo Ishiguro – Nocturnes
Isabelle Carmody – Metro Winds
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – That Thing Around Your Neck
Aldous Huxley – Brave New World
James Joyce – Dubliners
Alice Munro – The View From Castle Rock

Poetry = 1
John Kinsella – Peripheral Light

Plays = 7
Timberlake Wertenbaker – Our Country’s Good
Jack Davis – No Sugar
William Shakespeare – Macbeth
Ray Lawler – Summer Of The 17th Doll
Bertolt Brecht – Life Of Galileo
Arthur Miller – Death Of A Salesman
Reginal Rose – 12 Angry Men

Non-Fiction = 48
On Utoya
Tristram Hunt – Frock Coated Communist
Stanley A Hawkins – Missing Presumed Dead
Tony Judt – The Memory Channel
Alan Moorehead – Eclipse
William Shirer – Berlin Diary
Antony Beevor – The Battle For Spain
Javier Cercas – Anatomy Of A Moment
George Crile – Charlie Wilson’s War
H.R. Bruce Lockhart – Memoirs Of A British Agent
Peter Mitchell – Compassionate Bastards
Louise Bryant – Six Months In Red Russia
Arthur Ransome – Russia in 1919
Roland Chambers – The Last Englishman
Bertrand Russell – Practice And Theory Of Bolshevism
Bessie Beatty – Red Heart Of Russia
Tony Judt – Reappraisals
Arthur Boyd – The Australian Ugliness
Nick Tosches – Hellfire
Alice Pung – Her Father’s Daughter
Christopher Isherwood – Goodbye To Berlin
Simon Reynolds – Retromania
James Sheehan – Monopoly Of Violence
Tony Thompson – Shakespeare: The Most Famous Man In London
Julie Salomon – Devil’s Candy
Michael Pearson – The Sealed Train
John Hirst – Shortest History Of Europe
Ian Kershaw – Hitler Hubris 1889-1936
Patti Miller – The Mind Of A Thief
Craig Nelson – Thomas Paine
Christopher Hitchens – Hitch 22
Eric Hobsbawm – Age Of Empires
Lily Chan – Toyo
Megan Stack – Every Man In This Village Is A Liar
Michael McGirr – Bypass
Erik Larson – In The Garden Of Beasts
Julia Blackburn – The Emperor’s Last Stand
Bernard Bailyn – The Ideological Origins Of The American Revolution
George Orwell – Down And Out In Paris And London
Elie Wiesel – Night
George Orwell – Essays
Anna Funder – Stasiland
Ernst Junger – Storm Of Steel
Leonard Schapiro – 1917
John Garnaut – Rise And Fall Of The House Of Bo
Jill And Jeff Sparrow – Radical Melbourne
Watkin Tench – 1788
Edward W Said – Orientalism

Collections = 11
Best American Non-Required Reading 2011
Paris Review – 198
Paris Review – 199
Granta 117
Meanjin Vol.70 / No.4 / 2011
John D’Agata and Jim Fingal – The Lifespan Of A Fact
Sharon Rundle – Alien Shores
Best Music Writing 2011
Best Creative Non Fiction Vol.1
Best Australian Essays 2011
Overland 209

Graphic Novels = 10
Art Spiegelman – Meta Maus
Emmanuel Guibert – Alan’s War
The Beats – A Graphic History
Brett Lewis – The Winter Men
Harvey Pekar – Ego and Hubris
Mark Millar – Red Son
Mandy Ord – Sensitive Reading
Alan Moore – V For Vendetta
Posy Simonds – Tamara Drewe
Dave Sim – Church And State

69 + 6 + 1 + 7 + 48 + 11 + 10 = 152

I've been a bit disillusioned by some of the books I've read this year. Some of the crap I've read for school has been dire, with the worst of the lot Alice Pung's second memoir. One of the worst thing's I've read in a long long time. I've got a review of it that would stop me from getting anything published in Australia for the next 100 years.

Having said that I've read some corkers. The two Iraq war books, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Fobbit made the savage invasion of Iraq and murder of thousands into ironic comedies. Martha Gellhorn's novel about Czechoslovakia in 1938 was prescient and spooky. John Lanchester's Capital was a perceptive look at contemporary Western society. Frank Moorhouse's Grand Days was a ripper too.

For non-Fiction I'd recommend any of the Russian Revolution stuff, many of which were just memoirs observing it (I wrote an article for the History Teacher's Association about Journos in the Revolution). The Alan Moorehead, William Shirer and Stanley Hawkins was great too.

Next year I'm looking to do more of my own reading, and less junk for work.

Any questions?

Yes. Were a chunk of those re-reads for work? Quite a few 'classics' I would've presumed you'd read long ago!

Also, you listed the first draft of your own book twice. Just sayin'.

I'm just starting Nick Harkaway's first novel, 'The Gone-Away World'. Can't remember why I wanted to read it - not because of his parentage, that much I can recall...

All of the re-reads were for work. The Dickens and the Bronte were new to me. I missed out on loads of classics when I was at school and University.

Yes, I did re-read my own work a few times. I'm a narcissist.

i finished kingdom of fear, the hunter s. thompson autobiographical book. it's pretty good, but i think it wouldn't be much fun if you didn't know much about the doctor beforehand.

also finished ''The God Problem'' by Howard Bloom. makes me feel good about living in a godless universe.