well wuthered

[adelaidesean]

I've also been reading in recent weeks. Here's what. Thanks to everyone who suggested titles or sent them as trades. All of them so far have been terrific!

• Necropolis: London and its Dead, by Catharine Arnold
• A Book of Endings, Deborah Biancotti
• Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Bronte
• Into the Silence, S H Courtier
• The Mystery of Rosa Portland, Diane Fahey
• The Nimrod Flip-Out, Etgar Keret
• Laughing Buddha, Daniel G Lanoue
• Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman
• Deaf Sentence, David Lodge
• Wild Surmise, Dorothy Porter
• The Shrieking Pit, Arthur J Rees
• Writers of the Future XXV, ed. K D Wentworth

I can't believe it took me so long to read Wuthering Heights.  It was awesome, in a terrifying way.  (Still can't believe it wasn't intended as a satire, and I still can't tell if that it makes more or less a brutal experience.)  I was thinking of Sense and Sensibility next, or maybe Cranford.  Any other suggestions?

Comments

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. You've probably read it already.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Never read a word of Atwood, apart from the opening of Alias Grace, which Amanda was teaching a couple of years ago (it was okay but didn't drag me in). From what I've heard of O&C, I reckon I should try something else by her first. I'm open to suggestions...

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

Her early work is good but nothing special -- it's her later work that kicks serious butt. I think Oryx and Crake is the right book for you to start on because of its hardcore science aspects married with clarity and quality characterisation. An easy read that you can't get out of your head.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I'll put it back on my maybe list, then. What I heard about the science kinda put me off, but if you say it's okay I'll happily reconsider.

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

Trust me on this one. I think it's a fracking masterpiece.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked Necropolis> I'm about to order a copy of her new book Bedlam: London and its mad...

I'm currently trying to go down with another cold (again), and test-reading a friend's novel (very good), and The Colony also very good (about the early days of the Sydney Settlement).

I seem to be on a history kick.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

I have BEDLAM sitting here, so thanks for the tip. :-)

History is fun!

[random-alex.livejournal.com]

I love Wuthering Heights despite loathing every single character.

Have you read _Northanger Abbey_? Actually is a satire, and a hoot.

I agree with the _Oryx and Crake_ rec. There's always _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_ ...

[snorefish.livejournal.com]

I agree. I loved Northanger Abbey.

Any of Katherine Mansfield's short stories....

Steve

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Not sure I'm ready for the Zombified Austen, but I did enjoy the trailer for Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Northanger Abbey is up there. Good pick!

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

While i'm sure I've been spruiking Dorothy Porter just a little too much, I'd think Wild Surmise is a particularly good read for an SF writer, or anyone else who is very intellectually evolved with both literature and science.

I've only just started it, but I'm quite enjoying The Rest is Noise, a big book about 20th century (mostly) classical music by Alex Ross.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Agreed re Wild Surmise. I don't think it's possible to spruik Porter too much. She is terrific.

Is The Rest Is Noise the same book you blogged about recently?

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was the one with the anecdote about Sriabins music that was intended to end the world. I'm enjoying it, but I keep being distracted by things like fiction.

I'm also wishing I hadn't missed a lot of our annual new music festival here, including a chance to see a Stockhausen piece performed.

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd love to hear something by Stockhausen. What piece was it?

I'm really interested in music that's found or contains chaotic elements, partly because it means they can be performed many times without repetition. It's doubly a shame, then, when they're hardly ever performed. :-(

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

It was Kontakte. I went to see a pretty good solo set by one of the performers last night, a guy named Pimmon, and now I'm regretting missing it even more.

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Howard Goodall's Big Bangs about the five things that changed music for ever. What to guess what they are?

[seanwilliams.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Good question. Two would have to be musical notation and the synthesiser (or electronic musical instruments in general). Maybe Pythagorean tuning. The birth of Frank Zappa? :-)

[murasaki-1966.livejournal.com]

Your answers are more creative than the actual answeres.

Which are:
The creation of musical notation
The creation of opera,
The creation of equal temperment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament)
The creation of the piano
and
The creation of recorded music.

[snorefish.livejournal.com]

>>Howard Goodall's Big Bangs about the five things that changed music for ever. What to guess what they are?

John, Paul, George, Ringo.... and, um... Jimi?

;)