Thursday 2 December 2010

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

We met on Wednesday 1st December 2010 at The Poets' Corner which worked very well as a venue.  I expect it may be sometime before we get the added bonus of snow flakes falling throughout the entire meeting again, or indeed the opportunity to indulge in a snowball fight afterwards, but it's still seems like a great venue for a cultural debate.  Talking of which...




BOOK: "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

...we discussed "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.  It's about a father and son who have survived a catastrophic event that appears to have wiped out most of humanity and most other creatures too.  Some of the other survivors have turned to cannibalism.  

To one degree or another everyone, even Don, who came into the discussion via speaker phone to give his review, heralded the book as a masterpiece.  Phrases like "the best book this group has ever done" were bandied about.  Some of us, whilst acknowledging the book's many attributes, felt we never wanted to read it again, such was its bleak and harrowing content. 

The scores on the doors (out of 10):

Nick 9
Hamish 10
Robin 10
Tristan 9.5
Don 8.5
Nigel 10

Overall 9.5/10

MUSIC: "Living With War" by Neil Young

Nick was unimpressed with the music.  I can't remember what everyone else said.  Must have been the Harveys.  I think Le Noise, Neil's latest, is very fine.  

Hamish was interested in the album for what it symbolised - the apparent lack of anti-Iraq War protest amongst younger musicians that prompted Neil to do it himself.  Neil Young toured the album with CSNY, and the documentary film of this tour 'Deja Vu' (recently shown on BBC4) is well worth watching.

So another supremely enjoyable gathering came to an end with snowballs followed by a snowy journey home to our beds.  

Thursday 21 October 2010

"A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin" by Chris Mullin

The meeting on 20 October 2010 was notable for the second coming of Lloyd.  Fabulous to see Lloyd back in the book group.  Nick and Jason were - alas - unable to attend.  

BOOK: "A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin" by Chris Mullin

Nick (via e-mail) was very positive about diaries generally, and also this particular diary.  

Hamish felt the diaries were irreverent, dull and not worthy of publication.  

Lloyd unfavourably compared the diaries to Alan Clark's political diaries.  Clark's were "unputdownable", Mullin's "putdownable".  

Robin was captivated.  Robin saw Chris Mullin give a talk and he was "really engaging in real life".  

Tristan referred to his only other experience of diaries - The Diary of Adrian Mole, and felt Mullin was "a decent bloke".  

Don was unimpressed.  So much so that - with a memorable flourish - he reached into his ruck sack and pulled out a supermarket carrier bag containing the shredded remains of his copy.





He then read out a poem called 'Ode To Nick'.  Referring  to the size of the book: "And down the long and winding street, the DHL man with shattered feet, wanders aimlessly dreading the book club's next literary treat".  Referring to Nick: "You are essential to the book club, it's you we adore".  

I like diaries, and share Nick's enthusiasm for those by Joe Orton and Kenneth Williams.  I am not interested in party politics and so was less taken with Mullin's diaries.

We discussed how the New Labour experiment had started with optimism and public goodwill, and ended in relative failure and ignominy.  

The scores on the doors (out of 10):

Nick (guess) 9
Hamish 5
Lloyd 6
Robin 8
Tristan 6
Don 2
Nigel 5

Overall 6/10

MUSIC: 'Barking' by Underworld

Only Lloyd and I managed to listen to the album, though most had heard the single on Spotify.  Lloyd enjoyed it when he cranked up the sound.  I felt it was pleasant enough but not up to the calibre of their early work.

TELEVISION: Mad Men

Don hasn't seen Mad Men and resolved to put this right having heard the rest of us - to one degree or another - rave about this excellent TV series.

It's not all books

In addition to books we sometimes add in some music and/or a film or TV programme. We've found it harder to remember the music, films and TV programmes.

Here's some of the films/TV:
  • Aliens dir by James Cameron
  • Annie Hall
  • Dead Man's Shoes
  • Don't Look Now
  • Harold & Maude
  • Kiss Me Deadly
  • Land & Freedom dir by Ken Loach
  • Let The Right One In
  • Mad Men - watch a few episodes
  • Memento
  • New York Stories
  • Old Boy
  • The Big Lebowski dir. by the Coens
  • The Crazies
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  • The Vampire Lovers
  • The Wall
  • The Wicker Man
Here's some of the music:
  • !!! 'Louden Up Now'
  • Afrirampo 'Kore Ga Mayaku Da'
  • Animal Collective 'Merriweather Post Pavilion
  • Billy Joel 'The Stranger'
  • Bob Dylan 'Highway 61 Revisited'
  • Bon Iver 'For Emma, Forever Ago'
  • Dan Bárta - three albums on Spotify
  • Dead Kennedys 'Holiday In Cambodia'
  • Elbow 'Leaders Of The Free World'
  • Elvis Presley 'Sings Gospel'
  • Hot Chip - The Warning
  • Marvin Gaye 'What's Going On'
  • Michael Jackson 'Thriller'
  • Nick Drake 'Bryter Later'
  • Pink Floyd 'Dark Side Of The Moon'
  • Surfing The Zeigeist compilation
  • The Birthday Party 'Live 1981-82'
  • The Decemberists 'The Hazards of Love'
  • These New Puritans 'Hidden'
  • Underworld 'Barking'
  • Vampire Weekend 'Vampire Weekend'
  • Various Artists - Mali Music
  • Violent Femmes 'Violent Femmes'

What we've read

I am not sure if this list contains all the books we've read but it's got all the ones we can remember. I'll republish it from time to time with new additions.

The books:
  • Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons 'Watchmen'
  • Alice Sebold 'The Lovely Bones'
  • Arthur Conan Doyle 'The Sign of the Four'
  • Arthur Miller 'Death Of A Salesman'
  • Audrey Niffenegger 'The Time Traveler's Wife'
  • Bram Stoker 'Dracula'
  • Carol Anne Duffy 'Rapture'
  • Carol Shields 'Larry's Party'
  • Charles Dickens 'A Christmas Carol'
  • Chris Mullin 'A View From The Foothills: The Diaries of Chris Mullin'
  • Daphne Du Maurier 'The Scapegoat'
  • David Mitchell 'Cloud Atlas'
  • David Mitchell 'Ghost Written'
  • Evelyn Waugh 'A Handful Of Dust'
  • FM Dostoevsky 'The Gambler'
  • Frederick Forsyth 'The Dogs Of War'
  • Graham Greene 'Brighton Rock'
  • Gustave Flaubert 'Madame Bovary'
  • H Rider Haggard 'King Solomon's Mines'
  • Haruki Murakami 'Dance, Dance, Dance'
  • Haruki Murakami 'The Elephant Vanishes'
  • James Lee Burke 'Burning Angel'
  • JM Coetzee 'Youth'
  • Joe Boyd 'White Bicycles: Making Music In The 1960s'
  • Jorge Luis Borges 'Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings' (2nd book we discussed)
  • Jose Carlos Somoza 'The Athenian Murders' (1st book we discussed)
  • Kurt Vonnegut 'Slaughterhouse-Five'
  • Laurie Lee 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'
  • Louis de Bernières 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'
  • Lynne McTaggart 'The Field'
  • Lynne McTaggart 'The Intention Experiment'
  • Machiavelli 'The Prince'
  • Markus Zusak 'The Book Thief'
  • Martin Amis 'Money'
  • Marx & Engles 'the Communist Manifesto'
  • Mikhail Bulgakov 'The Master and Margarita'
  • Naomi Klein 'the Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism'
  • Olive James 'Affluenza'
  • Oscar Wilde 'The Harlot's House'
  • Oscar Wilde 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'
  • Peter Ackroyd 'Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem'
  • Peter James 'Dead Simple'
  • Professor Richard Wiseman '59 Seconds'
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson 'Self-Reliance'
  • Richard Yates 'Revolutionary Road'
  • Salman Rushdie 'Midnight's Children'
  • Steve Biddulph 'Raising Boys'
  • The Bible (Birth of Jesus)
  • The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
  • Thomas Hardy 'Far From The Madding Crowd'
  • Toni Morrison 'Beloved'
  • William Golding 'Lord of the Flies'

In the beginning...

This book group was founded - so far as I can work out - in January 2005. It was Jason's idea. Our partners had started an all female group, and their group inspired this all male group. The first book, selected by Jason, was Jose Carlos Somoza 'The Athenian Murders'.

The composition of the group has changed over time. Jason, Robin and I have been ever presents.

Nick, Tristan, Hamish, Don and Lloyd are the other current members.

Lloyd left to go and live in Berlin, couldn't live without the group, and recently returned to Brighton and Hove to rejoin.