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Seance wrote:

coldbrightsunlight wrote: Something I read recently that really grabbed me and from the same era is Stoner by John Williams. Really wonderful quiet but powerful book.

I read that not too long ago. Felt like a slow-build, but it takes you along.

Have you read Reuben, Reuben by Peter De Vries? It isn't about academia
exactly, but a section of the book takes a satirical look at a poet making the
rounds. Which for whatever reason Stoner made me think of.

No! Yet more for the list oh no.

Just about done with the 4th potter book (w my son) and yeah...did that turn dark fast! We've got about 50 pages left, so we'll be done with it in a few days. He's loving it though and it's kinda nice that it is normalizing death and blood a little bit for him since he gets so freaked out by those things. We ordered the next 3 books and looks like this won't be the longest book I've ever read, but the 5th potter book clocks in at 800 something pages

Daughter is now on the train that she wants to get in on the nightly reading too. It would be nice to read a little something for myself though I do enjoy these potter books.

IIRC after 4 they do turn darker still so just something to be aware of. Certainly the last one (or two?) is getting into stuff I would think is potentially not OK for (most?) 7 year olds (I remember that right?). But of course, you know your son and what he can handle, and I don't know him! Just another warning that this isn't quite as dark as they get.

Reading with the kids sounds very wholesome anyway

coldbrightsunlight wrote:IIRC after 4 they do turn darker still so just something to be aware of. Certainly the last one (or two?) is getting into stuff I would think is potentially not OK for (most?) 7 year olds (I remember that right?). But of course, you know your son and what he can handle, and I don't know him! Just another warning that this isn't quite as dark as they get.

Reading with the kids sounds very wholesome anyway

Yes to every statement in this post.
From book 5 it gets a lot darker, so be prepared, probably it's not stuff for the youngest one - I know it's not a good thing to do if you want to enjoy the books for yourself, but maybe just take a look at the plot before starting those, so you already know how things will move.

Also very agreed that reading with kids is awesome.

Just ended re-reading the Naked Tourist by Lawrence Osborne. Fun and interesting trip starting from the most luxurious tourism destinations and ending in one of the most isolated corner of the world.

Yeah, I remember reading them as they came out, roughly getting older at the same pace as the characters. The last couple of books are probably a bit more aimed at teens? That being said, your kid might still dig it even if he doesn't relate to everything that goes on.

I plan on reading Childhood's End soon. Never gotten around to it before, and I need a fix of that old school sci-fi fun.

Eivind August wrote:Yeah, I remember reading them as they came out, roughly getting older at the same pace as the characters. The last couple of books are probably a bit more aimed at teens? That being said, your kid might still dig it even if he doesn't relate to everything that goes on.

I plan on reading Childhood's End soon. Never gotten around to it before, and I need a fix of that old school sci-fi fun.

Yes I very much felt at the time like the content in the books "grew up" with the characters. Personally I felt I grew up a bit faster and I didn't love them by the end but that's a separate discussion haha.


Childhood's End is great! I'm sure you'll love it.

Eivind August wrote:Yeah, I remember reading them as they came out, roughly getting older at the same pace as the characters. The last couple of books are probably a bit more aimed at teens? That being said, your kid might still dig it even if he doesn't relate to everything that goes on.

Sounds about right.


All this book chatter has made me do an inventory (plus I finally finished Lanark and Black Coffee Blues, by Rollins) and I think this is what's percolating around the old reading space these days:
I'm currently balanced between finishing: From Hell and Against The Day.

Rereading: Utopia, and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy.

On the docket next: The Savage Shores, Perdido Street Station, and re-reading Gravity's Rainbow (unearthed during the move, I thought it was in the States )

After that it's Day Glo (a book about Poly Styrene), Just Kids, and Please Kill Me. Then... at some point... I should really sit down and finish Who The Devil Made It, but since it's necessarily episodic I don't feel too bad about leaving it on the shelf for years.

2020 has made me realise how much I read during holidays and how little time I read otherwise.

Ah Tristram Shandy... Another classic that I haven't got round to yet but will at some stage.

The Tristram Shandy movie with Steve Coogan is pretty delightful

I have heard very good things! I have been avoiding it till I read the book, which I have... been.... avoiding?

The fact that there's a movie continues to baffle me, although I basically understand that the plot of the film is how to tackle creating a film out of an "unfilmable" novel, which TS qualifies as, for sure.

Any book that births a pair of words like Shandean and Cervantic is worth reading.

Never got around to Shandy, the book or the abominable swill, but Lanark...Lanark is the freaking dog's bollocks

The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature - Sue Stuart-Smith

Tristram Shandy is great.

Without spoiling anything, I don't think it would ruin the Tristram Shandy movie if you tried the book and temporarily gave up on it. See it anyway. It's not a straight up adaptation.