#337

Really enjoying this right now, it’s a thick door-stop of a book, but it’s a collection of Berger’s shorts -columns, letters, excerpts and essays on painters, their work, lives and social conditions that surrounded their works. I read one piece a day over breakfast and coffee. It’s a good art-history refresher course, and like an art history intro text, it’s arranged chronologically starting from cave paintings going up to modern and contemporary art. If you’re familiar with Berger (See: Ways of Seeing ) his observant, sharply critical but warm style is present on every page.

1 Like
#338

“Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness”
peter godfrey-smith

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#339

matt damon audiobook is surprisingly great!

#340

I ordered a second hand copy for £4.70 from Amazon and Goldsmiths College Library’s copy turned up, which made me a bit sad.

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#341

Mona Lisa Overdrive.
There’s so much to the Sprawl trilogy that isn’t “cyberspace”.

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#342

This is stunningly good, though I can’t find any book reviews that do it justice. The simple plot summaries are misleading - it’s a book more about the enjoyment of life (and language) than death. I immediately started to re-read, after finishing.

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lincoln

#343

Currently reading 1Q84 by Murakami.
I also enjoyed these books from René Barjavel :
Le voyageur imprudent (Future times three)
La nuit des temps (The Ice People)
Le grand secret (The Immortals)

#344

Dipping in and out of this thoroughly mainstream 90s Pullitzer prize winner etc. Quiet life of a Canadian woman growing up through the 20th century. I’m really enjoying it. I find it kinda interesting to check out majorly acclaimed books from >20 years ago.

1 Like
#345

I think it’s that “Withdrawn” stamp that marks doom (or obsolescence). Still, great you could find an affordable copy

#346

Re-reading The Idiot - Dostoevsky…always been fascinated by this idealized and archetype of a character … Almost a decade since I read it first time. I wanted recapture it before it fades from my memory.

2 Likes
#347

just finished Stoner by John Williams which is just jarringly moving and wonderful.

now onto To Live and Think Like Pigs by Gilles Chatelet which is just a whole other can of worms…

#348

noiseattali

My summer fling that’s soon coming to an end. Highly recommend.

4 Likes
#349

i haven’t read this book, but i don’t think i would be able to take anything seriously from J. Attali, especially about music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZhoiCX2Dk4 :smiley:
Plus its general career record as a typical opportunist is enough to make me cringe. Probably amongst the colossal amount of bullshit he pronounced in his life there are some pertinent things, but well, i’ll pass on this one.

1 Like
#350

Paul Hegarty’s study Noise/Music - a history, though not great, isn’t half bad, if you’re after the noise itself, and less of the meta. I’d agree with some of the reviewers tho - sometimes listening to this stuff feels better than reading about it.

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#351

I understand your approach and totally respect it. I didn’t really go into reasons why to read Noise, but for knowing Attali’s opportunism, and his approach to the history of music production thru out society, is itself telling of a cultural moment we’re within. I would never advocate supporting this person’s politics-- I read a lot of people I don’t agree with because knowing how the other side thinks is important.

#352

I love Carol Shields, such a great book. I saw her read along with Michael Oondatje way back in the 90’s. She was much loved here in Canada (edit/oops, I don’t live in Canada anymore!) and I remember the wave of sadness in the CanLit world when she passed away in 2003. If you’re looking for more, I recommend “Larry’s Party” and the “Dropped Threads” anthologies.

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#353

Reading Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference by David Harvey currently.

Here’s a quote on art and scientific inquiry he quotes from Science, Order, and Creativity (Bohm and Peat, 1987).

“What is crucial is that in some sense the artist is always working from generative source of the idea and allowing the work to unfold into ever more definitive forms. In this regard his or her thought is similar to that which is proper to science. It proceeds from an origin in free play which then unfolds into ever more crystallized forms.”

It’s nice when my academic field of study (urban planning + geography) overlaps with my creative interests.

9 Likes
#354

love this. def gonna check out

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#355

Just as a little cross-pollination, should anyone in this books thread have enjoyed Robin Sloan’s novel Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. This week’s Disquiet Junto project was inspired, with Sloan’s blessing, by a series of prime numbers that resulted from a contest he ran in advance of the publication of his new novel, which is titled Sourdough. You can check out the prime-related Junto project here:

3 Likes
#356

ardor
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Took about 6 months on a tropical island to finish but thats how it is hehe…
To anyone interested in ancient India and Vedic literature, unless you read sanskrit I would recommend this guy. He gets it.
Confusing and contradictory(thats just how it is). Deep insights into Mind, ritual, sacrifice, eroticism, how life is a debt you repay and the enigma of Soma…

3 Likes