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Jan 2021
10:39pm, 5 Jan 2021
44,140 posts
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LindsD
The Reader on the x.xx. McG didn't like it, right? My Mum gave me a copy.
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Jan 2021
7:53am, 6 Jan 2021
48,014 posts
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McGoohan
How much did I hate The Reader on the Shit:27? Let me count the ways.
1. It's a bit like the joke about old ladies in the restaurant. ("The food is terrible here!" "Yes, and such small portions!") It's a novella in disguise, padded out to novel length with giant type and pages with paper as thick as slices of bread. The cover is basically a cardboard box.
2. It was one of those pile em high and sell em cheap discounty things that Waterstones do from time to time - a fairly rubbish book hyped by their own superlatives. (See also, particularly, Grief is the Thing With Feathers).
3. And that's without getting to the book itself. It. Is. Rubbish. By about half way through, I wanted to throw it across the room for its utter stupidity.
In retrospect, I think it was an attempt to be all quirky like Zazi dans le Metro or Froth on the Daydream. I don't know whether to blame the author or the translator but I mostly blame myself for listening to the bloke in Waterstones saying 'This is brilliant!'. I bet they get a commission...
In short ... you should read it. It'll take two or three hours. I might even be wrong. 
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Jan 2021
8:18am, 6 Jan 2021
124,585 posts
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GregP
I thought everyone raved about GITTWF, not just Waterstones?
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Jan 2021
8:46am, 6 Jan 2021
44,141 posts
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LindsD
Hm. Thank you. I think.
In quirky news, the subject of my phd worked on Zazie dans le metro.
What books on grief and dying *do* we recommend? I was thinking of reading one.
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Jan 2021
8:55am, 6 Jan 2021
48,018 posts
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McGoohan
Are you thinking Fic or Non-Fic?
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Jan 2021
9:01am, 6 Jan 2021
56,383 posts
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Diogenes
I didn’t like GITTWF, I think I left it on the station book shelf in exchange for a Jake Arnott I’d enjoyed. It’s strange, because I’ve heard Max Porter interviewed a few times and enjoy listening to him.
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Jan 2021
9:39am, 6 Jan 2021
48,019 posts
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McGoohan
So, Linds. I have been thinking a lot about 'Books on Grief' recently.
The Discomfort of Evening - winner of the International Booker - is touted as a 'study of grief' and I thought it was a fairly rubbish book. As is the whole concept of 'a study of grief'. Essentially, it allows authors to just depict grief in whatever form they choose without actually saying anything of use or interest.
Soooooooo (NSS) a couple of things around the subject.
1. Waiting For The Last Bus - by Richard Holloway. He's the former head of the Anglican Church in Scotland. The book is a series of essays and lectures on approaches to death. It's very much written for both the religious and atheists and everything in between. It's an incredibly comforting book too.
2. Ordinary People - by Judith Guest. The book from which the Oscar-baiting movie was made in 1980ish. Haven't read this for a while but head and shoulders above say, The Disco of Eve. This doesn't just depict grief, but properly considers 'survivor guilt'. The characters are well-drawn despite also representing the different shades of response to a death.
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Jan 2021
10:47am, 6 Jan 2021
124,591 posts
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GregP
I have a Bad Book (Cibola Burn by James S A Corey, since you ask) - it goes from page 43 to page 500-odd then repeats the last 100 pages or so over and over. I bought it from Amazon. Not sure what happens next. If I'd bought it from Waterstones in normal time I'd take it back and it would be the cause of amusement and celebration.
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Jan 2021
10:51am, 6 Jan 2021
48,021 posts
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McGoohan
And he's definitely not being super-post-modern?
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Jan 2021
10:55am, 6 Jan 2021
124,593 posts
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GregP
They, and apparently not.
I'm sure someone should have mentioned John Irving re your quest. Not sure why, the name popped into my head unbidden when I read your 48,019.
Perhaps a group re-read of TWATG or THNH is in order.
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