Summer Reading

Anything by Armisted Maupin is always a safe bet. Ralph

Thought Life of Pi was a bit boring once he was on the life raft. Sombrero Fallout is excellent (a big influence on me) but Confederate General from Big Sur is infinitely better.

I love everything by Brautigan but Sombrero is my fave just because of its preposterous begiining. A sombrero falls mysteriously out of the sky into the middle of a street in a small Mexican town - from this incident in no time at all, all hell breaks loose. It's just so funny and inventive. An all time favourite!

Yeah, I'd agree with that. The beginning is ridiculous but the bits with the Japanese girl's hair was a bit too sentimental. I like the frogs in Confederate General who are only quiet when Lee Mellon screams Campbells soup. Or when he ties rocks on to the legs of the frogs and throws them off the cliff and then the frogs make their way back up. Do you like Spike Milligan too? His stories are consistently absurd and funny. More and more this is what I want from fiction, something that is constantly different. I've just read the beginning of Pukoon where the protagonist has an argument with the narrator for writing him such a poor pair of skinny legs. 'Maybe I'll develop them with the plot,' Spike writes. Back to Brautigan there are a lot of his books I can't get hold off - The Hawkline Monster - which sounds fab. Any ideas?

Drew - I am jut about to go and lie on my hammock with The Lodger.

I'm reading 'My Name is Red' by Orhan Pamuk. Anyone else read this? I'm on the first page...

Liana - well i hope you enjoy it.

page 157 - great stuff Drew. Love it!

Ah yes, 157 that was a great page. I remember it well. Seriously, thanks Liana. (btw I booked a holiday to Prague tonight. Going on Boxing day. One of my friends is getting married and is going to be a dad. And I will get to meet again the real Honza.)

Thats fantastic - will you be there at New Year too? *deeply envious*

yes - for five days! I haven't been there since 1995. The filght was only £40 from East Midlands - which is a local bus ride from my house. (oh and I'm going to Copenhagen in August - this one was a free flight.) Being a very cheap person I love cheap travel.

lol - i've just realised that I'm not there 5 days at all. I'm there until 4th Jan. On the second I'll be 33. Birthday in Prague. I hadn't realised that either. It was very spur of the moment. (I just sold another story and I'm at bit dizzy). I used to go on the bus to Prague and that used to cost £50 one way and took 24 hours. I also once went on the bus to Greece and that took over 2 days. And finally I once went on a bus from somewhere in Mexico to Washington DC and that took 4 days. I wrote a diary of that time. It was Summer. I used to read it out to the people I was travelling with. That was my Summer reading. *hastily trying to get back onto the theme of this thread*

I'm reading History of the Kelly Gang by Carey. I vaguely recall Tony liking this one last year. I'm also trying to finish Life: A User's Manual by Geoarges Perec. Both are very good, but the later is better...and longer. I've also read a non-fiction book The Wisdom of the Enneagram, which describes personality types and their ranges of behaviors, healthy, average, and unhealthy. It's wonderful, highly recommended. Once you identify yourself, this book will explain a lot.

Drew - I loved it, read it in less than two days, and it made me snigger several times. Tell you what though - you are a better writer now IMO.

Drew I'm a massive massive Brautigan fan and have mostly everything (a couple of the really early poetry collections are impossible to get yr hands on but - I've got all of the fiction) - if you want to know how to get hold of copies or you just want to borrow, drop me a line and we'll work something out.

I also have all the fiction - and read Drew's the Lodger on holiday - on what was purported to be the gay beach on the Venice Lido. It wasn't. At least the missus and I found it not to be so. How defensive can a heterosexual get? But I loved the book - found it had too much gratutious sex but it was published by gay men's press - but loved the scenario, the characters, the plot and most of all the writing. There is much to come of this man Drew and we are here to help!

I don't go to beaches much but I like to sleep out in the middle of nowhere, so here are the books I most enjoyed reading al fresco. Our Mutual Friend (the best Dickens in my opinion): Brecon Beacons. Alice of the Five Towns (Bennett): Pennine Way. Riceyman Steps (Bennett): Spain (cried my eyes out). Dharma Bums (Kerouac): Tuscany High Meadows. Watership Down (Turkey). The Buddhist Scriptures (Suffolk and Norfolk). There's nothing better, in my opinion, than finding some glade in the open, after a hard day's hiking, and sitting among the gnats reading books till the sun goes down. d.beswetherick.

Our Mutual Friend: I read it in Cornwall d! Not on holiday though. Reminds me of the grimness of Redruth in winter. My favourite Dickens was Martin Chuzzlewit because it made me laugh so much through the ridiculousness of it all. I got a third of the way through My Name Is Red before I gave up. Too turgid for me. I would be interested to hear what you make of it, Ema. The Lodger! I bought it Drew but not started reading it yet. Currently it's drying out from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Greece I read two Carl Sagan books - not fiction but they made a huge impact on me - Billions and Billions (collection of essays), and The Demon-haunted World. While it rained in Italy I found one of the Quiller thrillers - The Warsaw Document. Enjoyed that. My favourite ever holiday book was Huckleberry Finn. By the way has anyone read an essay by Mark Twain called The Awful German Language? It's hilarious and brilliant. I notice you can read it on the web: http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html

I'm reading some Raymond Chandler stories, presursors to the Phillip Marlowe stories we know so well. And I ran across drew on amazon.co.uk, not his book, but his loopgarookid suggested reading list. It popped up as a sidebar while I was searching for a couple of relatively obscure things, so I looked at it and lo and behold, similar tastes! Not identical of course, but very similar. Expected, I guess, otherwise it would not have popped up. Some of y'all might take a look at one or more of the novels of Michel Houellebecq: Plarform, Atomised, Whatever...and there's a new one but it's very short and i've not read it..a kind of precursor to Atomised. I think this guy is great, but his stuff certainly would not appeal to everyone. You can probably find atomised and platform for sale cheap in a store or the Bookplace (ahem).