what books are nearest your bed, if you read in bed

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the book of mormon, hughes book on american art, a collection of pre war german satire about the nazis, a collection of bruce of la post cards and a small book of emily dickinson poetry.

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Right now a couple of issues of Broken Face and some other magazines. Oh, and Crucible of War.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:06 (twenty-three years ago)

broken face?

― anthony easton (anthony), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:09 (twenty-three years ago)

the invisible man by ellison

canto general by neruda

sutree by mccarthy

a coffee table book of paul delvaux's paintings

the second boondocks collection

the collected emerson

the two towers by tolkien

the altering eye by kolker

― mike (ro)bott, Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

None at the moment. I've cleared all the shelves off as I'm on the verge of rearranging the room. It's usually more magazines than books though.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:25 (twenty-three years ago)

a p.g. wodehouse, wallace stevens' opus posthumous, a picador "catalogue of knowledge"(?), and some mysterious capote book i have never seen before in my life

― jones (actual), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:25 (twenty-three years ago)

this is a bit embarrassing but 'pimp' by iceberg slim

― minna (minna), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Why Minna, you cad. ;-)

broken face?

Swedish psych zine.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:36 (twenty-three years ago)

'babies, how to survive and enjoy the first year.' a bit of light relief at the end of my day. also 'eeyores birthday' and 'puppys' games'..lucky arent i.

― donna (donna), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:47 (twenty-three years ago)

um...Sinclair Lewis's Main Street and Heller's Catch-22.

― liz! (liz!), Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:50 (twenty-three years ago)

'Pet Shop Boys, Literally' and today's lame Observer magazine - exactly how uninteresting were Cobain's diaries? I liked/was surprised by the slightly comedic adverts for it though.

Just finished Pete Waterman's autobiog - despicably arrogant man but a legend all the same - and Ronnie Spector's autobiog too. I had to hold back the tears when reading about how Phil would write love songs and give them to her for her to sing back at him, also the oh-so sweet depiction of her sleeping with Phil for the first time while listening to 'Do I Love You' (greatest Ron's track, easy).

― Ian SPACK, Sunday, 20 October 2002 22:57 (twenty-three years ago)

two college guides

the lady or the tiger

godel, escher, bach

usually a notebook or two

a tribe apart

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 20 October 2002 23:12 (twenty-three years ago)

the culture of sewing, frock rock, sexing the groove, the sociology of housework, women and subjectivity in popular music, familiar exploitation. its all for school and i am very much looking forward to next friday when i can READ FOR LEISURE again. (and piece my highly strung self back together).

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 20 October 2002 23:24 (twenty-three years ago)

it's not my fault ned, my sister gave it to me for my birthday so i have to read it!

(as to why she decided 'ah yes, minna would like that' when she saw iceberg slim's mug on the bookshelf well that's another question)

― minna (minna), Sunday, 20 October 2002 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Flaubert's Parrot has been bedside for months because I immediately fall asleep when I try to read in bed.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 21 October 2002 00:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Manon Lescaut, Fathers & Sons, Secrets of the Flesh: A Biography of Collette, my own diary which I've not written in since the Anime debacle between me and the ex so it might as well get thrown out, A History of Western Philosophy, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and, erm, The Talented Mr. Ripley (in German). Very exciting and sensual collection.

― Ally, Monday, 21 October 2002 02:17 (twenty-three years ago)

anthony which hughes book?

not by the bed per se but scattered randomly about the apartment: wake the town and tell the people, a very dry if informative book on dancehall; space is the place: the life and times of sun ra; the new(ish) brian ralph comic i forget the name of right now; the magic whistle #6; and a few dozen of nancy's textbooks with hilarious titles like economics and ethics.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 21 October 2002 02:51 (twenty-three years ago)

without taking into account the height of the stack, the nearest ones are: the complete poems of emily dickinson, ludwig wittgenstein - philosophical remarks, theodore gracyk - rhythm and noise, samuel beckett - three novels, epictetus - the encheiridion. (taking height into account, the emily dickinson is the sole book nearest my bed.)

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, Anthony likes to read, kewl! Right then, Ward 6 & Other Other Stories, Chekov; Platform by the one and only (Houellebecq)--I got it! From England! No thanks to you lot!--Cleo Birdwell, Amazons (ghostwritten by Don DeLillo for those out of the loop) Voltaire, Micromegas and Other Short Fiction, Shoichi Aoki's Fruits and Horomix Works.

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:10 (twenty-three years ago)

A couple of MSAT study guides, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Farina & Richard Farina, a book of Tolstoy stories--"The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and others, Andrew Loog Oldham's Stoned, my friend Kristian's sister Nina's fantasy book Past the Size of Dreaming. Hate that title, it wasn't her idea, apparently.

― Arthur (Arthur), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:13 (twenty-three years ago)

On the bedside table: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon, Modern Bridge Conventions by William S. Root & Richard Pavlicek and the Manhattan Yellow Pages

On the floor by my bed: Boring Postcards by Matin Parr and Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

In my bed: The Accidental Evolution of Rock 'N' Roll by Chuck Eddy (Mary, shh) and my portfolio. I'm kind of a slob.

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:15 (twenty-three years ago)

not that it has much significance, but physically right now:
Norton Anthology of Western Music vol. 2

― A Nairn (moretap), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:19 (twenty-three years ago)

the new copy of shift, some old wire mags, "a whore like all the rest", a book about holographic theory and, oddly enough, the latest copy of vice

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Maus, The Book of Lists, An Equal Music, and some other crap that I can't remember.

― rainy (rainy), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Eat My Words: Reading Women's Lives through the Cookbooks They Wrote Janet Theophano
Reading the Vampire SlayerRoz Kaveny
The Golems of Gotham Thane Rosenbaum
Jump the Shark: When Good Things Go Bad Jon Hein
Five Points Tyler Anbinder
Burnt Bread and Chutney Carmit Delman
Republic of Dreams Ross Wetzsteon
Square Meals Jane and Micheal Stern
Real American Food Jane and Micheal Stern
The Great Fire of London Neil Hanson
Monarch: The Life and Reign of Elizabeth II Robert Lacey

and a bunch of back issues of Bitch are on my floor.

― rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 21 October 2002 03:39 (twenty-three years ago)

From near to far: Haiku's from Basho, Buson, and Issa, which is sitting on Ashberry, who is just cornering Sandlin's Western Swing which is the last book I ever take into a bar because now it reaks of smoke. Beyond that is The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. Under the mattress: Juggs.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 21 October 2002 04:05 (twenty-three years ago)

What a heavy stuff ppl read in bed!
I envy ppl who can read Wittgestein in bed!

Mine are a couple of magazines: Black Book (the onewith Beck on the cover), a french fashion mag Numero, a scandinavian art mag Nu, a Frieze issue,

oh, and a dutch novel Held van beroep (Hero by profession?) by Adriaan Jaeggi abt a 15-year old boy and his family of eccentrics, I love that.

How long do you read in bed before you fall asleep then?
What's your record?

― erik from holland, Monday, 21 October 2002 08:47 (twenty-three years ago)

A book about GIN entitled thee much lamented death ov Madame Geneva and a book on FAIRY STORIES by Diane Purkiss! On the floor there is a Guardian WEEKEND magazine from years ago. This is probably due to laziness rather than anything else. Er the other book that was by my bed has now migrated to the BOG - it is TRIGGER HAPPY and about pooter games.

And down the radiator in the bathroom is a copy of an Ursula k Leguin book (happy birthday marm) that I CANNOT GET OUT.

Sigh.

― Sarah (starry), Monday, 21 October 2002 09:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Sick puppy by Carl Hiassen and a pile of old music magazines which Ihaven't got round to dumping/filing.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 21 October 2002 09:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Under lots of tissues next to my bed there is "Forgetting Elena and Nocturnes For the King of Naples" by Edmund White, "Motherstone" by Maurice Gee, "Homely Girl, A Life and other stories" by Arthur Miller a couple of other Maurice Gee books, a book for teens in the 60s about love and the facts of life and also a few zines. My bedside table is a mess. I just found a hlaf sucked cough lolly there too, ew.

― Elisabeth (Elisabeth), Monday, 21 October 2002 09:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I think "Finn Family Moomintroll" is nearest my bed.

In my desk at work I have "A wild sheep chase" by Murakami.

Next to me is: "Too high a price: injuries and accidents in London: Executive Summary September 2002"

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 21 October 2002 09:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Lets have a look...
- Eric Hobsbawn Interesting Times
- HJA Hofland Op Zoek Naar de Pool Collection of veteran Dutch political commentator's articles
- Dutch dictionary
- Large pile of various newspapers, current affairs + football magazines.
- Gathering dust under the lot Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri Empire which I'm pretending to read.

― stevo (stevo), Monday, 21 October 2002 09:24 (twenty-three years ago)

if the bookshelf right above my head fell off — not impossible as i put it up myself — i wd be killed by the semi-complete works of henry james and rudyard kipling (also a vast stack of CDs)

the books at the foot of my bed, on my mantlepiece, all relate to tolkien, children's literature, illustrations in children's literature, the gothic and the history of education (this whole section is newly invented and as yet unused)

the proper (five level) bookcase near my bed makes the complete sherlock holmes and the satanic verses (still unread) actually the closest to my head

on my bedside table at the moment — ie technically further from my bed than sherlock holmes — miss smilla's feeling for snow, the adventures of uncle lubin, a bright shining lie: john paul vann and america in vietnam and the penguin atlas of world history volume one

i'll do the floor later

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 October 2002 10:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Bnw: Are you reading the new Ashberry, Chinese Whispers? But aren't you really reading, I know what you did last summer, the complete history of the WB?

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 21 October 2002 10:21 (twenty-three years ago)

i tidied yesterday so right now there's just one book by my bed. it's one of those best of the year anthologies of science fiction short stories, i can't remember what year or what publisher though.

― angela (angela), Monday, 21 October 2002 10:28 (twenty-three years ago)

around my bed: piles of Donnald Duck magazines, Tintin books, old newspaper articles, two Butt-magazines, and a TV guide as my televison is the closest to my bed.

I think I only read for only half an hour before I fall asleep, regardless of what I read

― percipitate, Monday, 21 October 2002 11:07 (twenty-three years ago)

''the satanic verses (still unread) actually the closest to my head''

i always whether what they said abt satanic verses: that it was unreadable piece of garbage.

beside mine: a few books from the local library: a couple of philip K dick books (scanner darkly which i finished this morning and do androids dream), a couple from william burroughs (soft machine, naked lunch and junky, the latter has an attrocious introduction by will self) and anthony burgess' a clockwork orange.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 October 2002 11:13 (twenty-three years ago)

when i wz at nme i wz given a proof copy of satanic verses, which they had decided not to review — as it was printed so that the es and the cs were indistinguishable it WAS unreadable

but i lent that copy to someone and then lost touch with them

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 October 2002 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

fact: i am just now arranging a bank loan to pay for at least 100 feet more of book-shelving in my bedroom

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 October 2002 11:33 (twenty-three years ago)

''but i lent that copy to someone and then lost touch with them''

that person was prob offended by this book.

all my books are under the bed actually. don't have many of them tho'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 October 2002 11:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Let's see... I just finished reading Marian Keyes' "Rachel's Holiday," so I need to go shopping!

But for now, on my bedside table:
* The Erotic Life of an American Wife by Natalie Gittelson
* A French workbook (so I'll be ready for my trip)
* 2 NYLON magazines
* A VENUS magazine

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 21 October 2002 11:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Will Friedwald, Stardust Melodies; The Cartoon Music Book, edited by Daniel Goldmark and Yuval Taylor; Energy Flash (UK ed.) by Simon Reynolds

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 21 October 2002 12:41 (twenty-three years ago)

american visions, i love hughes, because he is acerbic and his comments on mid 80s ny art amuse.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 21 October 2002 12:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Eat My Words: Reading Women's Lives through the Cookbooks They Wrote Janet Theophano

tell me about this.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 21 October 2002 12:52 (twenty-three years ago)

also, i only read in bed, i also enjoying eating supine.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 21 October 2002 12:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I honestly can't answer this. I thought at 28 I'd have got over myself a bit viz embarrassment at personal taste, but I realise I'm wrong.

*hides*

― Mark C (Mark C), Monday, 21 October 2002 14:33 (twenty-three years ago)

it's not my fault ned, my sister gave it to me for my birthday so i have to read it!

This is when the art of skimming turns out to be your salvation. ;-)

I thought at 28 I'd have got over myself a bit viz embarrassment at personal taste, but I realise I'm wrong.

Tsk, Mark C, it's only the Daily Telegraph.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 October 2002 15:54 (twenty-three years ago)

At present the only books in the bedroom are ones I am getting rid of. When I go to bed I'll take the novel I'm currently reading, Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 21 October 2002 17:39 (twenty-three years ago)

This weekend I finally made the trip to Argos to get a bookcase for my new room - I have now shelved all the poetry and most of the novels. Still need another case for assorted prose/biographies/crit though. Fugitive books unshelved or unboxed include: 'Gravity's Rainbow' (I wanted to look up the Evensong episode last night), 'Ada or Ardor' (50 pages to go after 3 months), 'Type and Typography' (for a college course), 'The invisible dragon: 4 essays on beauty' by the terrific Dave Hickey and 'The Magician's Doubts' - Michael Wood's book about Nabokov's adventures in style.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 21 October 2002 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Mary: I haven't seen Chinese Whispers out yet. The book I have is a selected poem collection. I think I have it out because Anthony asked me to "explain Ashbery" and I had no good answer. I haven't read any WB books yet. Although I'd love a 7th Heaven choose-your-own-adventure. That show is one of the funniest things on tv.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 21 October 2002 18:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Some WH Smith special called "TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF ROCK!!!" from about 1979 or so. It's there because it's large and it's hardbacked, and it makes a good mousepad. Not because there are really cute pictures of Gram Parsons in it or anything...

― kate, Monday, 21 October 2002 18:45 (twenty-three years ago)

The Political Economy Of Latin America is right by the top of my bed.

Carlyle's The French Revolution in two volumes is at the base.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:11 (twenty-three years ago)

threads like these are why i feel stupider than the majority of ile.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:14 (twenty-three years ago)

jess- do you feel stupid for not liking undie rap?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:16 (twenty-three years ago)

yes, it's obv my second secret shame.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a pile of pretentious dad and surrealist books, and some great stuff like Queneau and Giradoux. That said, I think the bed is a bad place to read. Too conducive to falling asleep.

― g (graysonlane), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

'pretentious' is good g.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I forgot :
Pink Think Lynn Peril
How to Make a Good Airline Stewardess Bill Wenzel and Cornelius Wohl
Petals on the WindV.C. Andrews
Zingers from the Hollywood Squares
Dernieres nouvelles des etoiles Serge Gainsbourg

― rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:27 (twenty-three years ago)

pretentious dad and surrealist books

My dad wasn't at all pretentious, but he didn't write books either.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:30 (twenty-three years ago)

T.E.D. Klein's "Dark Gods"

That book by that bloke about the 1930s ("The Dark Valley"?)

A pseudo academic book about Batman.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 21 October 2002 19:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh shit, you've just made me realise what a mess my room is in. There are loads. Looking around I see

A biography of Gore Vidal, Ted Hughes' Birthday Letters, A Kestrel For A Knave by Barry Hines, a book called Eucalyptus by Murray Ball which I haven't read yet and A Practical Introduction Guide To Management Science.

There are more out of view. Must tidy.

― Ally C (Ally C), Monday, 21 October 2002 22:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I haven't seen Chinese Whispers out yet. The book I have is a selected poem collection. I think I have it out because Anthony asked me to "explain Ashbery" and I had no good answer.

I've seen it in galleys cause I'm so cool. Ha! No, I think it's out--there was a review in the VLS, I would love for someone to explain Ashberry to me! So what was the Vivian Girls all about then? Besides the nice art on the cover. And no I understand the Darger connection, I just don't understand Ashberry!

"I haven't read any WB books yet. Although I'd love a 7th Heaven choose-your-own-adventure. That show is one of the funniest things on tv."

Who knew bnw was a closet WB fan! We'll have to start our own thread so we don't confuse/annoy the uninitiated, can't be bothered...

― Mary (Mary), Monday, 21 October 2002 22:23 (twenty-three years ago)

i think based on his posting history and the secrets divulged in this thread that i'd like to have coffee with jerry the nipper.

what versions of juneteenth is everyone reading ? as far as i know none of them are legitimate, that is to say authorized.

― mike (ro)bott, Monday, 21 October 2002 22:47 (twenty-three years ago)

the version i am reading is written in blue crayon in three exercise books held together with a rubber band, and has "this = korrekt versh yrs evah ralfy elison" written up the side of the first page

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 October 2002 22:50 (twenty-three years ago)

most current scholars privledge the fingerpainted permutation actually........

― mike (ro)bott, Monday, 21 October 2002 23:55 (twenty-three years ago)

kathryn harrison's the kiss, kurt cobain's biography, cassavetes book and a book on rock writing.

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 09:26 (twenty-three years ago)

(anthony is that the same hughes who wrote culture of complaint? he is good if so)

As for me - bloom shakespeare book, a book by max perutz my brother lent me, wodehouse golf stories, dictionary (wanted to know what a niblick and a mashie were.) Oh and Guns Germs And Steel which is beginning to get a bit arduous.

This is an unusually heavy bunch of books for me. (But otherwise I wouldn't post to the thread)

― Sam (chirombo), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 09:33 (twenty-three years ago)

i still havent moved much of my stuff into my new house yet, so the only books i have on my shelving thing near my bed are:

boring postcards usa
thomas pynchon - v
dimitry bakhin - reasons for living
time out guide boston
rough guide washington dc
rough guide new york
rough guide usa

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 09:39 (twenty-three years ago)

although, some books i have at work that i shall be taking home tonight are:

boring postcards uk
paul auster - the music of chance
haruki murakami - hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world
a-z manchester
postcode a-z london
berlin street map
iain sinclair - lud heat and suicide bridge
rough guide berlin
dennis potter - blackeyes
william gaddis - carpenters gothic
antonio tabucchi - the missing head of damasceno monteiro
frank kafka - metamorphosis
the london underground: a diagrammatic history

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 09:44 (twenty-three years ago)

and cees nooteboom - the following story

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 09:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Just tidied the room up so the only bk remotely near my bed (actually in) is The Guinness Top 40 Charts which I was looking at yesterday to work out when "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" had been a hit, and for whom. Other than that the nearest-by-tape-measure bk to me is The Arcades Project which is about a metre away from my right foot.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

ooh Gareth what's that Tabucchi like? I loved "Declares Pereira".

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 10:28 (twenty-three years ago)

tom are you using the benjamin to prop up your bed or something?

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 13:40 (twenty-three years ago)

gareth have you read that murakami? i thought it was his best book, and one of the very few books doing an alternating chapters thing that actually worked. i still didn't think it was great, but...

― toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 14:01 (twenty-three years ago)

havent read it yet toby. tim, the tabucchi isnt bad, its ok, nothing amazing though

― gareth (gareth), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

lots of shit i havent read

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

i bought boring post cards germany today, i have them all.

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 15:44 (twenty-three years ago)

julio: of course. though it reads a bit odd since i typed "dad" instead of dada".

― g (graysonlane), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 19:17 (twenty-three years ago)

hehe...i read it as dada but i didn't notice the 'a' because you put 'surrealist' after that.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 22 October 2002 20:44 (twenty-three years ago)

On bedside table at present:

You Have Been Warned Fougasse & McCullough

The Christian Centuries Francis Gumley & Brian Redhead

Céline: The Crippled Giant Milton Hindus

Sons and Lovers D H Lawrence

The Road Less Travelled M Scott Peck

The Best of Saki

Five Victorians (Eminent Victorians/Queen Victoria in one vol) Lytton Strachey

A 1923 anthology of English prose

& some poetry pamphlets by a friend

― Rex, Tuesday, 22 October 2002 21:23 (twenty-three years ago)

The Juneteenth I'm reading is edited (i.e. extracted and composed from the masses of pages RE left) by John F. Callaghan and published by Random House (in the US) and Hamish Hamilton (UK). There can be no authorised version - he died with thousands of pages, not completed or formed into a complete book (or possibly trilogy, it is suggested). Callaghan has extracted sections that seem, he says (I've not finished it yet), to form a single coherent work. It's reading very well indeed so far, but I'm just short of halfway, so whether it will hold up structurally or conclude satisfactorily is yet to be seen.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 10:46 (twenty-three years ago)

tom are you using the benjamin to prop up your bed or something?
Well, Josh, did you finish your copy? Or should I say half-read it? heheh

The Kiss by Harrison is giving me WEIRD dreams.

― nathalie (nathalie), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 11:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Yikes, 'Boring Postcards' completists ahoy. I only have the UK one, boohoo. But on my wheely IKEA bedside thingy I do have

a spanking new book about BEER that I was given for my birthday
'Madoc' by Paul Muldoon (mmmmm) likewise presented
'All Families Are Psychotic' by Douglas Coupland, ditto
'Watchmen' by Alan Moore etc. for which see other current threads and ditto again
'An Unsocial Socialist' by George Bernard Shaw
'Dubliners' by James Joyce
a random Karl Hiaasen
I love Islington Central Library, because what spare cash I have goes on BOUZE and trips to Portsmouth and not on shiny new books. Which is why it's grebt to get them as presents.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 11:37 (twenty-three years ago)

what bed is that?

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 11:45 (twenty-three years ago)

at the moment i'm about 2/3 of the way through franzen's "the corrections" which is slightly arch but i still like it a lot. have also started on michael moore's "stupid white men." these days i seem to be doing more writing than reading, which is no bad thing :-)

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 23 October 2002 12:07 (twenty-three years ago)

these days i seem to be doing more writing than reading, which is no bad thing :-)

This is my particular goal. :-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 13:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Carey Harrison's 'Cley', which I just finished.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

The Invisible Man by Ellison
Fury by Rushdie
and The Story of O (blush)

― nory (nory), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

talk to me about fury.

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 23 October 2002 21:39 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

Henry IV, The Sex Revolts (Reynolds/Price), Maldoror, Dialectic of Sex (Shulamith Firestone), first two Narnia books, Naked Lunch, a bunch of old Peanuts paperbacks, and Look Back In Anger.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 2 December 2002 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

The Fraser bio of Marie Antoinette, a bio of a 17th century English female writer (name escapes me, but the story looked interesting), a recent Chet Baker bio and that study of the French-Indian War I'm still plowing through...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 2 December 2002 16:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I just tidied, but before that it was probably: Only Children by Alison Lurie, BIWHM by David Foster Wallace, Dances Learned Last Night by Michael Donaghy, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and To Have and to Be by Erich Fromm (Matt was reading this last one).

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 2 December 2002 16:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Love in the Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude, as well as a collection of Pablo Neruda's poetry - I'm feeling all sorts of romantic-al these days...

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 2 December 2002 18:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Lanark -- Alisdair Gray, The Well of Loneliness -- Radylff Hall, Vanished Speldor, A Memoir -- Balthus, Passages -- Ann Quin; all unread!

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 02:17 (twenty-three years ago)

walter benjamin's illuminations.

― nathalie (nathalie), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 08:46 (twenty-three years ago)

at the moment it is The Silmarillion (spent last night blubbing about Beren and Luthien), a ginormous book abt vegan nutrition which i will finish one day, a book about aromatherapy, various LotR books, early Virginia Woolf diaries, copies of the latest Vegan, Empire and Soil Association magazines, The Dove Of Venus by Olivia Manning. and up until Sunday when i finished them and had a big tidy-up there were The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns, and One Way Of Love by Gamel Woolsey. ooh and also there is The Good Shopping Guide.

― katie (katie), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 08:58 (twenty-three years ago)

lawrence durrell's Bitter Lemons and "The God Beneath the Sea" a childhood fave i just found and am rereading. a retelling of the Greek myths for kids with some disturbing (in a good way) artwork that seems odd for a book aimed at kiddies.

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 10:01 (twenty-three years ago)

The Bang Bang Club by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, Byron poems, Fight Club, PG Wodehouse Greatest Hits (or whatever it's called).

― Sam (chirombo), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 10:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Is The God Beneath The Sea by Leon Garfield, possibly with someone else, H? (And are you THE H?)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, thas it Leon G & someone else. will check when i get home. Umm, who is THE H (don't know if i am or not...)

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 13:28 (twenty-three years ago)

I hoard my favourite books behind my bed.

Don't know why that is.. probably some subconscious reason! My favourite book to read when I want to learn and think is Liam Hudson's "Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy" - if I was an English schoolboy in the 50s/60s [when the book was written I think] I would be a Diverger, apparently. I also have a book my lovely friend sent me: a french copy of Sartre's "La Nausée" which I'm working through.. and then in a pile there's "Decline and Fall" by Evelyn Waugh, Simone de Beauvoir's "She Came to Stay".. Francoise Sagan "Aimez-vous Brahms.." ..Henry James' "Roderick Hudson", a Penguin book of Fifteenth Century French verse, along with a French grammar book which is gathering dust, then "Prints of the 20th Century" and a huge, gorgeous, hefty Saatchi & Saatchi book called "I Am A Camera".

Books really must say a lot about a person. I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to literature. And studying french at school. So it follows I'd be influenced by that within my reading material.

I'm finding it interesting seeing what other people read.

― Nico, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 13:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
Media Events, Daniel Dayan and Elihu Katz
500 French Verbs

all on the big chest next to my bed

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 14:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I never leave books by the bed, instead they are scattered over my living room and kitchen table.

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 14:52 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.specialtycareshoppe.com/images/7U_bedtray.jpg

― dakatin, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 17:21 (twenty-three years ago)

actually it's:

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/covers/all/0/1/0140287310L.gif

and er...*impossible to translate*

http://web.verfaillie.com/bib/sun/kinders.jpg

― dakatin, Tuesday, 3 December 2002 17:39 (twenty-three years ago)

There is someone called H who was in top pop group Steps until he and another member of the group named Claire broke away as Claire and H, or H and Claire. I don't remember. Were you in Steps at all, H?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 18:46 (twenty-three years ago)

(nathalie - me too. i'm going to revive the old WB thread soon and demand some straight answers)

― jones (actual), Tuesday, 3 December 2002 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Nope, never been in Steps but think i've heard of them. Was asking 'coz i have a friend also called H in London and keep meeting ppl who know her. and "God Beneath the Sea" was Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen with illustrations by Charles Keeping.

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:38 (twenty-three years ago)

poe-related pic by charles keeping:

http://freespace.virgin.net/michael.hutchins/V3.gif

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:45 (twenty-three years ago)

i had that book, H: it wz supersexy and fairly scary also — however i don't know where it has gone

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 5 December 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The Dave Gorman book - I have read it, but my room is a 'hole at the moment, and I've forgotten how to use shelves...

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 5 December 2002 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Mona Lisa Overdrive, Moving Pictures, Boy in the Water, tons of daft books about 'learning assembly and c++' which never seem to get finished. Sandman books occasionally get a glance when trying to get a kip.
again, scattered all over the place as organisation is non existent in Fuz-Town.

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Thursday, 5 December 2002 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I have the Garfield/Blishen book too.

Is anyone else reminded, by that pic above, of Berni Wrightson's Swamp Thing. When does Keeping date from? Earlier than ST, I assume?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 5 December 2002 19:10 (twenty-three years ago)

the vintage anthology of new scottish fiction, the penguin anthology of british verse edited and publihed last year, a readers guide to Pounds Cantos, Pounds Cantos, a new yorker and two issues of honcho.

― anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 5 December 2002 21:05 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't know the date of that pic martin: it's kind of from a before and after sequence though, so i doubt the in-between stage (which that is) is copied off something extraneous

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 5 December 2002 22:03 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

haruki murakami and the music of words, wittgenstein's ladder, metaphor, jokes, learning from las vegas, watt, art as language, gilles deleuze's time machine, the complete poems of emily dickinson, jacques derrida, fearless speech, a common humanity: thinking about love and truth and justice, difference & repetition, the book of questions, melancholy dialectics, the penguin russian dictionary, the head game, philosophical remarks, deleuze and guattari's anti-oedipus, russian stories / russkie rasskazy: a dual-language book, the complete short prose 1929-1989, wittgenstein: a religious point of view, the noonday demon, the dream songs, notes from underground, zen buddhism, the oxford russian dictionary

― Josh (Josh), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 07:16 (twenty-three years ago)

what do you think of the noon day demon ?

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 07:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Burn Collector: Collected Stories from One Through Nine

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 13:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Collette's Vagabond.
How to be good (next on my reading list).
All my journals.
Lots of magazines too, as per usual.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Right now...

my journal (almost full...will be the first journal I've ever "finished")

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Half-Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins (best novel told in second person EVAH!)

Schroedinger's Cat by Robert Anton Wilson

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce (SOOOO much better when you're REALLY high!)

Critical Path by R. Buckminster Fuller

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 14:34 (twenty-three years ago)

And I will say this...

Iceberg Slim's "Pimp" really truly is one of my all-time favorite books. There was a time when I read that and the Tao Te Ching, and that was it. For, like, TWO YEARS!!!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

gareth have you read that murakami? i thought it was his best book, and one of the very few books doing an alternating chapters thing that actually worked. i still didn't think it was great, but...

yes, i liked it, the alternating chapters thing did work. i probably preferred it to wind up bird chronicle. the only thing about murakami is, i cant help thinking its all a bit of fluff really, but its enjoyable i guess so i probably should banish such rockist thoughts

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 5 January 2003 11:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Caesar: De bello Gallico
Catullus: Carmina
Horatius: Opera omnia
Woodcock: A new Latin syntax
Cornell & Matthews: Atlas of the Roman World
Bartók: String quartet scores

This probably gives you the impression that i HATE FUN!

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 5 January 2003 11:30 (twenty-three years ago)

six months pass...

hmm i only seem to answer this thread when i'm reading scary sex things. right now i'm trying to dislocate my reading of 'the story of o' from bed (which is where i usually read novels) because i would rather not associate my bed with this book. unfortunately despite this divorce i still can't stop thinking about it and my brain flashes feelings of dread at random intervals. hopefully they'll go away when i start reading something else.

― minna (minna), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:30 (twenty-two years ago)

though I haven't read it in a while, closest to my bed as I sleep is Hammer Of The Gods the Led Zep bio. Though usually a phone is resting on it so I'm not likely to start reading it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 2 August 2003 17:33 (twenty-two years ago)

What the Butler Saw -- Joe Orton
A Taste of Honey -- Shelagh Delany
Hurlyburly -- David Rabe
The Smiths Songs That Saved Your Life -- Simon Godard
Morrissey's Manchester -- Phil Gatenby
Lonely Planet England
Loney Planet New York New Jersey and Pennsylvania
John Betjemen -- Collected Poems
London -- Peter Ackroyd
The Wildwoods in Vintage Postcards
Wonderful Weekends from New York City -- Marilyn Wood
England's Dreaming -- Jon Savage
Pyrates -- Daniel Defoe
Learning from New Jersey, Robert Smithson and Elsewhere
No Lease on Life -- Lynne Tillman
Gone -- Elisabeth Sheffield

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 2 August 2003 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Truthfully? Well, literally (hah bad pun) within reach are:
_Holy Bible_
_Codependent No More_
_Vita: A biography of Vita Sackville-West_

There is a bookshelf but I can't reach it from the bed. This oddly isn't a representative sample of what I read in general, but nevertheless there it is, within reach of the bed.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 3 August 2003 03:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The Story of Philosophy - Will Durant
PHP and MySQL for Dummies

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 3 August 2003 03:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Cortazar poems,
Jonathan Safran Foer,
and Stairway to Hell

― Haikunym, Sunday, 3 August 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

The Essential Lenny Bruce
Harold Bloom's Shakespeare: Invention of the Human
L. Bangs's Psychotic Reactions
Chuck Eddy's Stairway to Hell
Meaty, Beaty Big & Bouncy (collection of pop articles edited by Dylan Jones)
Kafka's Metamorphosis
Dan Clowes's Caricature and 20th Century Eightball
a bunch of old UNCUTs, Rolling Stones, Spins, Qs, et al

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 3 August 2003 03:50 (twenty-two years ago)

looking over that list it's no wonder I have such bizarre dreams.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 3 August 2003 03:50 (twenty-two years ago)

The Silmarillion. Puts me out everytime!
Besides that there're lots of car and computer magazines, issues of GQ and Vanity Fair, Microserfs, Neil Peart's Ghost Rider, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West, and most importantly, The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock.

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 3 August 2003 03:56 (twenty-two years ago)

bruno nettl's theory and method of ethnomusicology, and a stack of books about feminist performance art which i probably won't have time to read cos i changed my mind about my essay topic.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Sunday, 3 August 2003 04:53 (twenty-two years ago)

alan candlish - the revised waite's compendium to natal astrology
let's go middle east 2002
bernard lewis - what went wrong
english-hebrew conversational guide
isabel fonseca - bury me standing
jack olsen - salt of the earth
annie besant - h.p. blavatsky and the masters of wisdom
andrew boyle - climate of treason

― Freedom Dupont, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

From memory since I'm at work.

History of Western Philosophy, Russell
Manon Lescaut, Prevost
Fathers & Sons, Turgenev
Spring Torrents, Turgenev
Der Talentiere Herr Ripley (??? I'm not sure why I bought this particular book in German, it's not even a post-Matt Damon edition, probably was high)
A photo album
The Logic Book
poss. Crime & Punishment since that was the last book I finished reading
Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote

― Ally (mlescaut), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Jasper Fforde - Lost in a good book (no longer! as it's my currently carrying around book)
Diary
Philip Pullman - Northern Lights
Philip Pullman - The Subtle Knife
Various: Some book of Sandman-inspired prose
and as always, G.K. Chesterton - The Napoleon of Notting Hill.

Mary - are you building a small fort? Also you rock.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 16:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Right now, on my bedside table, I've got The Old Testament, the New Testament, the Necronomicon, Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley, the Bhagavad Gita, and Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger. The book I'm currently hooked on, however, is Tom Robbins' Villa Incognito, which is in my backpack right over there (points somewhat left and down).

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

On top of my bedside table: several issues of Tape Op magazine.
Inside my bedside table: Dhalgren by Sam Delaney and the Wire book, Everybody Loves a History, both of which I've already read but have been too lazy to put away.
On the floor by my bedside table: volume one of the Nabakov biography, which is what I'm actually reading right now.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

waiting to be started
"Hard Times" Studs Turkel
"Woody Guthrie: A Life" Joe Klein

currently re-reading "Decolonizing the Mind" Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and feeling let down as it isn't as good as i remembered it.

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a new book/magazine-rack next to my bed, and so:

Mary Doria Russell (or is it Maria Doria Russell? You know who I mean), Children of God, which is not as woo-inspiring as The Sparrow but is a perfectly okay sequel so far;

Stephen Pinker, The Language Instinct, which is alternately interesting and so smug I want to punch him square in the jaw with Hal Jordan's emerald fists of fighting;

An X-Treme X-Men collection by Chris Claremont, which is entirely incomprehensible when it isn't aggravatingly boring, and totally failed to satisfy my brief mutant craving.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I read like 3/4 of that Pinker book, then got sick of it. I don't know if it's because (like I said earlier) I've gotten back into the habit of reading solely for pleasure, not for education, so as soon as I got sick with the topic I stopped reading it, or if the smugness finally got to me. I have positive memories of it though.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I think half the problem is that I had just read a blog entry (via languagehat.com, but I don't remember the blog) bitching about Chomsky, and Pinker pretty much opens the book with "everything you know is wrong because Chomsky says so." I love some of Chomsky's ideas, but the more I read in linguistics the more I'm starting to shift them from "that must be so!" to "interesting idea, might be bullshit."

There's also a certain amount of condescending which seems to be common in linguistics-books-for-layfolk, which I think is fallout from the prescriptivists having won the war in the public eye.

I'll keep reading, though, cause the good stuff is good.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Also The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 05:54 (twenty-two years ago)

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