What are you reading now?

[Joseph K]

last night I started Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine. Despite the fact that it was published in 2007 it still sounds very up-to-date - much more up-to-date now than would have been recognised in Britain at the time, I'd say - with its depiction of capitalists & the ruling class seeing disasters as opportunities to enrich themselves and their friends.

This is turning out to be a very good & interesting read indeed. While I had a recollection of much of the material which Chomsky has covered, namely, how neoliberalism has been brutally foisted on countries largely in the Global South and particularly in Latin America, these things from what I recall occur passim in several books of Chomsky, while here in Klein's book she documents the history of how it all came about in great detail. It's also very interesting and eye-opening how the opposition to these brutal authoritarian regimes in Latin America seems to have come from the same source that supported them in the first place - and how this opposition myopically ignored the fact that the torture, mass state murder and imprisonment was necessary to implement the desired economic policies. So I feel Klein ties together in a satisfyingly coherent and rigorous way the various threads I'd found in Chomsky.
Klein's book could be called 'A History of Neoliberalism' - and, compared to David Harvey's book which is almost called exactly that, Klein's is the more satisfying read. I can't remember much of Harvey's book, but I know that he doesn't go into the kind of historical detail and depth that Klein does (I was somewhat disappointed by Harvey's book and think Klein's is everything his book should have been, although I think he has mentioned Klein's book in more than one of the bibliographies of his own books).

[LMcD]

Currently chortling/giggling/guffawing/smiling my way through Richard Osman's 'The Thursday Murder Club'. Some people might think its a Pointless exercise, but I find it helps to fit in something light between more serious reading.

[teamsaint]

Currently chortling/giggling/guffawing/smiling my way through Richard Osman's 'The Thursday Murder Club'. Some people might think its a Pointless exercise, but I find it helps to fit in something light between more serious reading.

A very well edited book apparently.......

[french frank]

Hermann Hesse, Peter Camenzind. No mention of capuns or maluns but takes me back to my favourite corner of Switzerland (as does the "faff" of cooking maluns).

[Sir Velo]

George Borrow: "The Bible in Spain"

Despite the dull as ditchwater title, a rattling good yarn, as our hero tries quixotically to disseminate the good book throughout the peninsula. Borrow is an uncategorizable writer; part historian; (large) part storyteller, part philologist (his own description), he explores the 19th century in a way few others ever ventured or dared to do.

[french frank]

George Borrow: "The Bible in Spain"

Despite the dull as ditchwater title, a rattling good yarn, as our hero tries quixotically to disseminate the good book throughout the peninsula. Borrow is an uncategorizable writer; part historian; (large) part storyteller, part philologist (his own description), he explores the 19th century in a way few others ever ventured or dared to do.

I agree - Borrow was a fascinating character. I read his Wild Wales a couple of years ago (he spoke Welsh, of course! while he was travelling). I also have a copy of Romany Rye which I couldn't get into (I think I only persevered for about three pages).If I spotted a £2 copy of Lavengro anywhere, I might snap it up.

[vinteuil]

.If I spotted a £2 copy of Lavengro anywhere, I might snap it up.

abebooks has some cheapish copies (the cheapest perhaps not very attractive)



.

[french frank]

abebooks has some cheapish copies (the cheapest perhaps not very attractive)
.

There's a JM Dent 1930 copy for £2.19 - curiously entitled L'Avengro which I've never seen before..

[jayne lee wilson]

New Scientist Essential Guide No.6, "Evolution"......update your understanding here!

Jan Swafford's stunning biography "Mozart: The Reign of Love" - such perfectly precise yet wonderfully poetic writing.... and about as much enthralling detail as anyone could wish for across 800 pages....

Still delving back into "The Power of Robert Simpson" by Donald Macauley....so much to say about UK then and now, where and how the dilution of Radio 3 principles began, Simpson's protests against such....Keller, Cooke and many other figures... and of course, great music so fascinatingly described, evoked and reviewed (for good or ill) by its contemporaries....

Bedside, among the John Berryman Dream Songs again... always meant a great deal to me...

[Petrushka]

Jan Swafford's stunning biography "Mozart: The Reign of Love" - such perfectly precise yet wonderfully poetic writing.... and about as much enthralling detail as anyone could wish for across 800 pages....

This looks a must read but I see that some Amazon reviewers are complaining of poor production values eg a half dust jacket, thin paper and pages falling out. Would appreciate it if you could share your own experience before I take the plunge and add it to the mountain of books yet to be read.

[LMcD]

Just about to start 'The Places In Between' by Rory Stewart. This will be followed by 'Slough House', the latest offering from the peerless Mick Herron.

[Sir Velo]

I agree - Borrow was a fascinating character. I read his Wild Wales a couple of years ago (he spoke Welsh, of course! while he was travelling). I also have a copy of Romany Rye which I couldn't get into (I think I only persevered for about three pages).If I spotted a £2 copy of Lavengro anywhere, I might snap it up.

Romany Rye will definitely make more sense after reading Lavengro; it is to all intents and purposes part 2 of his "gypsy" saga, but with more digressions. Borrow did rather have a thing against the Church of Rome and this rather affects his writing for the worse. The best thing to do is to skim these episodes. It should be added that, depending on which edition you have, "Romany Rye" contains one of the most astonishing appendices in all literature as Borrow attacks every sacred cow going, from national heroes to the temperance movement, as well as a career breaking diatribe against publishers!

[french frank]

Romany Rye will definitely make more sense after reading Lavengro; it is to all intents and purposes part 2 of his "gypsy" saga, but with more digressions. Borrow did rather have a thing against the Church of Rome and this rather affects his writing for the worse. The best thing to do is to skim these episodes. It should be added that, depending on which edition you have, "Romany Rye" contains one of the most astonishing appendices in all literature as Borrow attacks every sacred cow going, from national heroes to the temperance movement, as well as a career breaking diatribe against publishers!

The edition of RR I have (secondhand price £2, a battered Collins Clear-Type pocket edition, with illustrations, no date: seller's estimate. c. 1916) has 11 appendices. I think Borrow was typical of the High Anglicanism of the time - antagonistic towards "Popery" and derogatory towards the Nonconformists. He was certainly a gent with very decided views! I don't think one reads him to discover wisdom, but as an example of a man of his time, and an idea of the places he visited at that time.

[jayne lee wilson]

This looks a must read but I see that some Amazon reviewers are complaining of poor production values eg a half dust jacket, thin paper and pages falling out. Would appreciate it if you could share your own experience before I take the plunge and add it to the mountain of books yet to be read.

No problems here at all (pages falling out?! What ARE they doing with it....? Some people, etc...)...... except it is a bit heavy to lug up the stairs to bed every night! Easier coming down next day of course.... terrible thing, getting older.

Yes, there is a "half-sized dust jacket" (the black part with the famous Mozart portrait on it) but so what? It is a well-produced, very solid volume anyway. And what wonderful writing!

[Petrushka]

No problems here at all (pages falling out?! What ARE they doing with it....? Some people, etc...)...... except it is a bit heavy to lug up the stairs to bed every night! Easier coming down next day of course.... terrible thing, getting older.

Yes, there is a "half-sized dust jacket" (the black part with the famous Mozart portrait on it) but so what? It is a well-produced, very solid volume anyway. And what wonderful writing!

Thanks Jayne. I'm a bit obsessed with keeping my books as pristine as possible so I did wonder if other people were mishandling them. I'm afraid I do find weighty tomes difficult to cope with as age increases, especially on the wrists, but this looks too good to miss and an upcoming birthday might well be the time to spend those Amazon vouchers on this.