Just finished England's Hidden Reverse, a badly-written book (by David Keenan) about three groups: Nurse With Wound, Current 93 and Coil. Worth reading for the bits about Steve Stapleton (who is Nurse With Wound), the other major characters (John Balance of Coil and David Tibet of Current 93) are twits, but Stapleton seems to know what he's doing and is an extremely interesting and largely unsung figure in the English art music underground. About to embark on John Szwed's biography of Miles Davis, So What, and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy (read the first one many moons ago, never got round to the other two). -- Ian
Ah, RDD, I saw the same programme - well sort of, i was half asleep, and missed the ending - hence why i hunted down the book. S.Winchester also wrote The Surgeon of Crowthorne, which i haven't read, but the main protagonist in this book, also features in the OED one. This chap made quite a hefty contributon towards the project from his cell in Broadmoor (life imprisonment in said asylum for murder). He also chopped off his own penis, though i am not sure how relevent that is.... cheers Ian, http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0940322501/qid=1075744255/026-9817611-1807631 I haven't ploughed through all of it. Thus far it makes for good piece meal reading in between the kettle boiling, and i'm not raving as much as the reviews, but i'll hold judgement until its finished.
Yep, sounds like you were in the same state as me :SLEEP: Well I've just ordered it now, here's to a good read!! Might give his other books a read at some point to, they all sound appealing. Cheers, Rick
Can anyone provide links to decent book resources on the web. Reviews, chatter, magazines etc. merci beaucoup I'm just finishing off the last 20 pages of Musil's TMWQ, sweat dripping from my brow (the book weighs a ton)
Hmmmm... I will take issue with you about John Balance. I'm not a great fan of his music but he has great taste in art. He collects (as do I) pictures by Austin Osman Spare. In fact one of my drawings is from his collection.
Interesting. You should probably read the book if you haven't, there's some stuff about Spare, who I'm only vaguely familiar with. I'm sure Balance has taste. Just not sure he has many interesting musical ideas... -- Ian
Just reading a short history on everything - bill bryson An amusing view of sciences discoveries on how life the universe and everything works, maybe more but ive not finished it yet
Another Ian Banks fan here, currently reading Whit. His regular fiction seems a little OTT in terms of morbid gruesomeness and relentless downbeat-ness, although I did think Complicity was very good. Must say on the whole I prefer his sci-fi as Ian M Banks though - Look to Windward, Use of Weapons and Player of Games are all superb. I think I'm going to read Excession next, which I'm told is great too. Recently read Orwell's Down And Out In Paris And London, which I found really dreary - I guess that's the point but it is a bit tedious and the narrator (who I guess is Orwell himself as it's allegedly autobiographical) is a bit irritatingly credulous and small-minded. 1984 it's not. Have read almost all the Discworlds AFAIK, short of Thief of Time and Carpe Jugulum.
Just finished Jung's 'Modern Man in Search of a Soul'. He concurs that whether it be the external fact of double blind tested cables which are all the same, or the thought that million dollar cables are gateways to the audio gods, that both are happenings of psychic reality. Now ordered the Upanishads following the advice of both Carl Gustav Jung and Sideshowbob.
Jung got the idea from me, you know. Once you've read that I strongly recommend the Epic of Gilgamesh. I could probably live with just those two books if I had to. ATM I'm reading Mojo magazine, how embarrassing. Excellent cover CD is my excuse, "Raw Soul": Esther Phillips, Solomon Burke, Ray Charles, etc etc. All excellent stuff. -- Ian
Ian, I've now got 467 items in my Amazon shopping basket! (honest). Now 468. There's not enough time :cry: I'll try and fit the Epic of Gilgamesh in before the summer, once i've got the Upanishads out of the way. I've also just started (again) the sytematic study of 2000 years of Western philosophy. . (Although i won't be getting marked for my efforts this time, its purely for kicks). And i haven't even heard any Wagner! Is that sacriligious? I knew i shouldn't have spent 22 years learning how planes get in the air (does anybody know? ) and getting pissed. Oh well, maybe now is the time to start Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy'. But i've also got 24 cans of Kronenbourg 1664 in the fridge, so i might polish those off first and then worry about it...
The lager plan sounds like a sensible one. I often understand everything in the universe when I'm pissed. Can never remember any of it the next day mind you. -- Ian
Thought i should make a serious effort to get to grips with this knowledge malarky, so i'm reading Steven Pinkers the 'Blank Slate' at the minute, in order to get myself up to date with current thinking, and maybe perk myself up a little. I suppose it is what is termed 'popular science', but anything more scholarly at this junture might terminate my journey before it has gained momentum. Anyway, i am finding it a jolly good read, certainly more flowing and gripping than his 'The Language Instinct', which i read a while back, which IIRC i gave up reading two thirds of the way through due to the tedium of repeated mundane illustrations. I think i'll make it all the way through this one though, so long as he desists in sniping at his opponents every other paragraph. Any other recommended science reads, that aren't :SLEEP: ?
Just finished Kerouacs "On the Road". Started it many a year ago, but never finished it. Flew through it this time and very much enjoyed it. So much so that I've just started "Big Sur"
just bought i will fear no evil by robert a. heinlein and walk this way - aerosmiths biography. was half way through the bourne identity but got bored and gave up on it i'll try again maybe. cheers julian
Just demolished two of Dan Browns books, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons , both very interesting and thought provoking. Seem to have inadvertently read a lot about the Illuminati of late, hmmm gonna have to look into them a bit further. Currently Ranulph Fiennes book on Captain Scott and the Antartic.
REcently read Da Vinci Code which I thought was quite good. Followed it up with DEception Point which I must confess I thought was some interesting techno stuff but plot was signposted and predicatable.
