[r-man]

The beeb put that on the radio some time ago. I heard a chapter about Orwell's time working in Parisian restaurants - describing the various characters he encountered. It was very good.

[Falling Down]

Finished Meades' "An encyclopedia of myself" this afternoon.  It spans his childhood up and briefly when he moves to London in his late teens.  It's brilliantly written as you might expect and delivered in the same manner as his essays, other books and TV documentaries.  An avowed contrarian and master of letters he's always entertaining and educational whether the subject is post-war culinary practices, porton down LSD experiments, the connection between new-age paganism and blood & soil fascism or simple family life.  It's a good insight into lower middle class life in the 1950s and had I not spent a weekend biking through Avebury, Marlborough, Salisbury and Devizes a couple of weeks ago, perhaps some of it would have been lost on me not knowing the area at all until a few days ago.  Childhood memoirs are not really my thing, but, this is easily redeemed by the fact that it's Meades and his willingness to slaughter any sacred cows however close to him.  The next volume I think should be even better but I'd read Museums Without Walls, Pompey and watch all his documentaries before reading this if you're to get the most from the read.

[DaveC]

And any recommendations for books on the French resistance....

Not an area I know a lot about myself but I know somebody who has pretty much everything on the subject. A couple of currently available suggestions below:

As a personal account try "And There Was Light" by Jacques Lusseyran, a blind resistance leader who survived the last 15 months of the war in Buchenwald.

As a general history "For the Glory of France, A History of the French Resistance" by Maria Wilhelm.
Much harder to get hold of but allegedly very good, is "Maquis: An Englishman in the French Resistance" by George Millar which is a personal memoir with a different perspective.

[fried]

Cheers Dave. Ill give them a look

[Falling Down]

Thanks for sharing Dave...

I read the second volume of the Edward St Aubyn "Mellrose" novels yesterday.  Strewth... So good.

[andy popp]

I love the Melrose novels!  Never was black comedy so dark or so funny.

There have been some great recommendations on here recently.  I'm just coming to the end of All Quiet on the Western Front having read Henri Barbusse's less well known Under Fire the other week.  Both remarkable pieces of writing.

[DaveC]

Erndt Junger's Storm of Steel is another extraordinary personal WW1 memoir. A challenging counterpoint and companion to Remarque's book.

[Falling Down]

Andy - the second one is exhausting.  Felt like I was OD'ing myself... Absolutely brilliant.

[andy popp]

Andy - the second one is exhausting.  Felt like I was OD'ing myself... Absolutely brilliant.

You're going to read the rest aren't you? They're just as good.

[andy popp]

Erndt Junger's Storm of Steel is another extraordinary personal WW1 memoir. A challenging counterpoint and companion to Remarque's book.

Thanks Dave. I don't know how you do it but you seem to know exactly what to read, no matter the subject. Just picked up Hans Fallada's Iron Gustav. I didn't plan to but I seem to be getting into a WWI groove.

[Fiend]

Andy Weir - The Martian

Very nice book this. Basically "Gravity, on Mars, written by a droll blogger" - easy to read, witty in places, and grounded with lots of logic and scientific procedure - probably enough to satisfy even the most boring pedant who prefers nit-picking the science rather than enjoying the fiction. Well recommended.

Other than that I have been reading a lot of Robert Charles Wilson recently, Blind Lake and The Harvest being highlights, almost as good as Darwinia and The Chronoliths.

[psychomansam]

Accelerando http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando

Follows 3 gens of a family through a technological singularity (a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Brilliant stuff if you're into that kind of thing.

[Fiend]

I am! Will give it a look.

[Falling Down]

That does sound good.l

[psychomansam]

That does sound good.l

I'm enjoying it a lot even though It does sometimes make me want to go live in the woods. It was recommended by an old tutor who does some work in the area (philosophical interest in the possibility of changes to the human condition). Partly as a result of his influence, the piece I'm currently writing will suggest transhuman alteration as a possible mechanism for moral enhancement*, specifically by (perhaps partly) doing away with our dispositions to reactive attitudes - attitudes of e.g praise and blame which we have in response to others**. These RAs underpin desert and I'm claiming that they should be undermined so as to do away with the evils of desert (e.g retribution and pseudo-meritocracy).

In Accelerando they don't seem to actually abandon reactive attitudes and take an objective stance towards others, but they do use biotech to tame their reactive attitudes! which is quite interesting.

*julian savalescu has a TED talk on the subject which is quite entertaining
** Sir PF Strawson, Freedom and Resentment

[Rocksteady]

Accelerando http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando

Follows 3 gens of a family through a technological singularity (a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Brilliant stuff if you're into that kind of thing.

Sounds very good, like a highbrow version of these (which I nonetheless quite enjoyed)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Milieu_Series

[DaveC]

Been on a bit of a golden streak of late and just finished two more that I'd thoroughly recommend:
1. Martin Gilbert's 'First World War' is an ambitious attempt to string the whole war into a single chronological narrative and for the most part it works really well. Gilbert weaves a lot of war poetry (some well-known, some not so much) into the story to good effect and combined with Gilbert's own excellent narrative prose, this makes for a great read. I'd go so far as to say this would be a great first read for somebody looking to brush up on WW1. I will shortly be diving into his similar book on the Second World War, it will be interesting to see if he can find similar material to support his narrative as he found for the earlier conflict.
2. Bending Adversity, Japan and the Art of Survival by David Pilling is an account of modern Japan centred on the great earthquake and tsunami of 2011 and the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed on. Pilling was the FTs correspondent in Tokyo a decade ago and he returned in 2011 to chronicle the country's recovery and response. One of the most enlightening books on modern Japanese culture and politics I have come across, it is well written and blows holes in many western assumptions about the country, it's people and it's culture.

[Fiend]

Accelerando http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando

Follows 3 gens of a family through a technological singularity (a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Brilliant stuff if you're into that kind of thing.

Read this. The style was hugely annoying at first with a relentless barrage of the trendiest of cyberpunk cliches (obligatory rise-to-power of insignificant countries / cultures / fashions, liberal kinky sex, "meatspace", "wetware", obscure internisms etc etc), and basically made me wish the world had stopped before William Gibson was born. BUT it moved entertainingly enough and the characters were likeable enough that I kept going and it got better and more captivating throughout. The whole economics-ish aspect and some of the terminology still grate a bit, but the scope of the story, the way it progresses (especially as technology advances) and in particular intertwines the different perspectives and characters is rather good. So thanks for that!

Edit: Just started reading the Wiki out of curiosity, I think the book's origins as short stories explains my main flaw about the early aspects (ramming the world / culture down your throat), but also one of the main positives of the book overall (interesting snapshots covering a substantial amount of time).

Just started Wolves (on a UKB recommendation tip at the mo), quite bleak so far...

[Falling Down]

It gets bleaker 

[Fiend]

I had a small bet with myself you'd say exactly that. Should suit my mood at the moment, not sure if that's a good thing.

[psychomansam]

Accelerando http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando

Follows 3 gens of a family through a technological singularity (a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Brilliant stuff if you're into that kind of thing.

Read this. The style was hugely annoying at first with a relentless barrage of the trendiest of cyberpunk cliches (obligatory rise-to-power of insignificant countries / cultures / fashions, liberal kinky sex, "meatspace", "wetware", obscure internisms etc etc), and basically made me wish the world had stopped before William Gibson was born. BUT it moved entertainingly enough and the characters were likeable enough that I kept going and it got better and more captivating throughout. The whole economics-ish aspect and some of the terminology still grate a bit, but the scope of the story, the way it progresses (especially as technology advances) and in particular intertwines the different perspectives and characters is rather good. So thanks for that!

Edit: Just started reading the Wiki out of curiosity, I think the book's origins as short stories explains my main flaw about the early aspects (ramming the world / culture down your throat), but also one of the main positives of the book overall (interesting snapshots covering a substantial amount of time).

Just started Wolves (on a UKB recommendation tip at the mo), quite bleak so far...

How dare you blaspheme against Gibson!? But yes, some of the language is a little too obvious. For me it would be interesting as separate stories, but as you say it's the connections and scale of the whole work which really works.

On a totally different note, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Great and very readable little book. The writing style is interesting - it's a monologue - but it all just about works. Despite the subject matter, it's very easy reading. It doesn't throw things in your face. It hints, alludes, intrigues and gives you a good story along the way. The potentially weighty material of the book is never explicit, and the book is all the richer for letting you fill in the details with your own intuitions.
I assume the film totally murders it.

[Jaspersharpe]

Fourth: Trainspotting I've seen the film a few times but never read the book before. I'm sure it's a challenge for non-sots to read, but I think it's much better than the film in many ways. I sometimes find it hard to figure out who the main character is at any point though...

In the book there isn't really one. Mark Renton is portrayed as the main charcter in the film, but I don't think there really is one in the book. I just finished Skagheads the prequel to Trainspotting, and thought it was a better book, worth checking out if you want a long read.

I read Skagboys (get it right Chris!) on holiday recently. I agree, it's really good. I think it might be the best of IW's books about the same characters (Trainspotting, pr0no and to a lesser extent Glue). Started rereading Glue to find out as I always thought that was the best thing he'd written.

[a dense loner]

Jasper where have you been? I've been worried

[SA Chris]

Fourth: Trainspotting I've seen the film a few times but never read the book before. I'm sure it's a challenge for non-sots to read, but I think it's much better than the film in many ways. I sometimes find it hard to figure out who the main character is at any point though...

In the book there isn't really one. Mark Renton is portrayed as the main charcter in the film, but I don't think there really is one in the book. I just finished Skagheads the prequel to Trainspotting, and thought it was a better book, worth checking out if you want a long read.

I read Skagboys (get it right Chris!)

D'oh! 

[Rocksteady]

Stuff I've read this summer:

Sybil - Benjamin Disrael - more of a polemic/political diatribe than a novel, some 'stock characters' in there. But actually quite enjoyable tale, interesting insight into nineteenth century politics and history, and depressing that many of the injustices/flaws in our social structure and political system are entirely unresolved.

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick - thought this was good. Wasn't half as 'sci fi' as I was expecting, just a few little elements. Otherwise more an investigation into drug culture, the drivers for it and the damage it causes. Personal to the author and it shows. Recommended.

The Alchemist - Paolo Cuelho - didn't expect this to be what it was, which is not really a novel but a parable, and quite a Christian one at that. Rather less moving and intellectually sophisticated than 'The Little Prince' in my opinion.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke - had seen the film, never read the book. Essentially the same, but I enjoyed it more as I found the slow sequences of the film and the music intensely irritating. As a book it's OK. Amazing that it was written before the moon landings.

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts - some friends of mine described this as amazing and unputdownable and the best book they'd read for ages. I quite liked it. It was very engaging. But I just didn't quite buy it. The guy's trying to sell it as a sort of true story - then why has he made it into a novel? Some bits ring true, others don't. I felt like he was trying to justify himself to me. The main character is depicted as being pretty unlikeable, and doing some pretty unlikeable things. What I don't get then is why everyone seems to like him so much.

Hard Times - Dickens - another book that's more a polemic than a novel, but with some good observations of characters and damning depiction of Industrialised Britain. I liked it, will have to read some more Dickens again now and give him another chance after writing him off as overly sentimental in the past.

The Republic - Plato - glossed over this at Uni and now am reading it properly. Enjoying it very much so far. The sophistication of thought and the dialogue blows me away since it was written circa 380BC. Not sure I'd like to live in Plato's ideal city though. Interesting to read back to it the influence on many other books I've read.