Book suggestions

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It does feel a bit like we are all trapped inside some kind of Ballardian dystopia right now.
 
Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger.

it's the memoir of German officer Ernst Junger experiences on the Western Front during the First World War. It was originally printed privately in 1920, making it one of the first personal accounts to be published. The book is a graphic account of trench warfare.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240485.Storm_of_Steel

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason.

Chickenhawk is Robert Mason's narrative of his experiences as a "Huey" UH-1 Iroquois helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War. The book chronicles his enlistment, flight training, deployment to and experiences in Vietnam, and his experiences after returning from the war.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63699.Chickenhawk

I would say this one is worth reading just for the story of his helicopter training (how they made them train for night flights) alone.

Because where they were flying in Vietnam had zero lights they needed to train in pitch black. To do this they would wear a helmet that basically made them blind. They would then take off from a training centre in the morning with a navigator, fly to about 6/7 different locations landing/refuelling and taking off, they would then finish and head back to training land in the same spot and only then would he be allowed to remove his helmet. He said it was weird flying for 8-10 hours a day without being able to see anything he was doing
 
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Last summer, I don't know why, I got on a ‘jag’ (as the Americans say) to do with elite high-altitude mountain climbing. I should say that I've only once done any climbing at all (in a valley in north Wales, around Llanberis), and I was terrified all the time, even though I was roped. And I've never had any interest in climbing, especially not Alpine level.
I think it was because it was so bloody, unbearably hot that I wanted to ‘go’ somewhere really cold. Virtually speaking, that is. I got kind of obsessed with what serious climbers call the eight thousanders. That is, people who climb the peaks of 8000 metres and above. Which is apparently very hard to do, and extremely dangerous (the highest I've been is a mere 4000 metres, in the Bolivian Andes, and I felt really weird most of the time). I think it started with reading a depressing article about how Everest base camp is now basically becoming a bear garden for all sorts of charlies who just want to take selfies to say they've been there. From there, I chanced across a documentary on Youtube about the disastrous ascent of Everest in 1996, in which many climbers lost their lives. One thing led to another (there's a lot of good stuff on Youtube, an excellent documentary on the climbing of Annapurna's south face by Chris Bonnington and his team, fascinating interviews by Geoff Powter (who is both a high-altitude climber and a psychologist of climbing). Etc., etc.
Anyway, I got really interested in K2, which is the grail for climbers, and a killer mountain, for all sorts of technical reasons which I won't go into. If you don't have time for fiction, and if you want to surprise yourself by reading a book on a subject that, on the face of it, you would normally have no interest in, read K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain. Viesturs writes well, he organises the book around a series of studies of ascents of K2 over the twentieth century. He's especially good on what went wrong (when it did go wrong, which was often). I found it an utterly gripping read. It took me right out of myself. Might be a very good book to read in these strange times, when there is really only one subject on the table.
 
Try "My Bit" a Lancashire Fusilier at war... George Ashurst. Just a story of a working class Northern guy in WW1. Hes not George Orwell but it's a good read .. and short ..
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Last summer, I don't know why, I got on a ‘jag’ (as the Americans say) to do with elite high-altitude mountain climbing. I should say that I've only once done any climbing at all (in a valley in north Wales, around Llanberis), and I was terrified all the time, even though I was roped. And I've never had any interest in climbing, especially not Alpine level.
I think it was because it was so bloody, unbearably hot that I wanted to ‘go’ somewhere really cold. Virtually speaking, that is. I got kind of obsessed with what serious climbers call the eight thousanders. That is, people who climb the peaks of 8000 metres and above. Which is apparently very hard to do, and extremely dangerous (the highest I've been is a mere 4000 metres, in the Bolivian Andes, and I felt really weird most of the time). I think it started with reading a depressing article about how Everest base camp is now basically becoming a bear garden for all sorts of charlies who just want to take selfies to say they've been there. From there, I chanced across a documentary on Youtube about the disastrous ascent of Everest in 1996, in which many climbers lost their lives. One thing led to another (there's a lot of good stuff on Youtube, an excellent documentary on the climbing of Annapurna's south face by Chris Bonnington and his team, fascinating interviews by Geoff Powter (who is both a high-altitude climber and a psychologist of climbing). Etc., etc.
Anyway, I got really interested in K2, which is the grail for climbers, and a killer mountain, for all sorts of technical reasons which I won't go into. If you don't have time for fiction, and if you want to surprise yourself by reading a book on a subject that, on the face of it, you would normally have no interest in, read K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain. Viesturs writes well, he organises the book around a series of studies of ascents of K2 over the twentieth century. He's especially good on what went wrong (when it did go wrong, which was often). I found it an utterly gripping read. It took me right out of myself. Might be a very good book to read in these strange times, when there is really only one subject on the table.
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I've read a few accounts of the Everest 1996 disaster, including the Krakauer and Boukreev books. I've also read a number of Ed Viesturs' books and agree he is an excellent writer. Like you, I have no interest in taking part in mountaineering, but I really enjoy reading about it. I'd endorse your recommendation of Viesturs' books.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
Just noticed that this has been reissued.

blade-book.jpg


From one of the reviews:

'There was a similarly titled autobiography published by Cherry Red in 2006, now out-of-print, but this is a new, updated, longer version of the story. More photos, 10 by 7 inch hardback and funnier and more outrageous than ever. Rotten, Strummer, Scabies, Shelley, Weller, Idol, Sid… everyone makes an appearance… and Blade pulls no punches.

Despite what every other punk rock writer and critic will tell you, this is the best book about punk rock in England 1976-78. No question.'

More here:

https://louderthanwar.com/outside-v...a-teenage-punk-rocker-andy-blade-book-review/

I have the older edition and can vouch for the reviewer's claim. It's a superb evocation of the times and very funny. It may be expensive to acquire but is definitely worth £20.
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Seconded, a fantastic, hilarious book. Matched by the documentary, DOA. Here's a snippet:
 
Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Last summer, I don't know why, I got on a ‘jag’ (as the Americans say) to do with elite high-altitude mountain climbing. I should say that I've only once done any climbing at all (in a valley in north Wales, around Llanberis), and I was terrified all the time, even though I was roped. And I've never had any interest in climbing, especially not Alpine level.
I think it was because it was so bloody, unbearably hot that I wanted to ‘go’ somewhere really cold. Virtually speaking, that is. I got kind of obsessed with what serious climbers call the eight thousanders. That is, people who climb the peaks of 8000 metres and above. Which is apparently very hard to do, and extremely dangerous (the highest I've been is a mere 4000 metres, in the Bolivian Andes, and I felt really weird most of the time). I think it started with reading a depressing article about how Everest base camp is now basically becoming a bear garden for all sorts of charlies who just want to take selfies to say they've been there. From there, I chanced across a documentary on Youtube about the disastrous ascent of Everest in 1996, in which many climbers lost their lives. One thing led to another (there's a lot of good stuff on Youtube, an excellent documentary on the climbing of Annapurna's south face by Chris Bonnington and his team, fascinating interviews by Geoff Powter (who is both a high-altitude climber and a psychologist of climbing). Etc., etc.
Anyway, I got really interested in K2, which is the grail for climbers, and a killer mountain, for all sorts of technical reasons which I won't go into. If you don't have time for fiction, and if you want to surprise yourself by reading a book on a subject that, on the face of it, you would normally have no interest in, read K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain. Viesturs writes well, he organises the book around a series of studies of ascents of K2 over the twentieth century. He's especially good on what went wrong (when it did go wrong, which was often). I found it an utterly gripping read. It took me right out of myself. Might be a very good book to read in these strange times, when there is really only one subject on the table.
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Yes, Life and Death is a great book; Anotoli Boukreev's The Climb is in the same genre; his account of the Everest disaster - he puts straight some of the facts he contests that were written in Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" again, another great book.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
Songs They Never Play on the Radio is the best book I have ever read on music (though Julian Cope's Head On comes close to claiming the prize spot).

Peter Hook is also an excellent raconteur when it comes to music business anecdotes and observations. Have only read the Joy Division book but must watch out for the others.



This Is It and The Way of Zen are also good. I was surprised to discover that Watts seems to have become an alcoholic in later life, in spite of his espousal of the Perennial Philosophy.



That's the Johnson novel that I haven't read. But I enjoyed Christy Malry's Own Double Entry (a wonderful novel about Accountancy of all things) and House Mother Normal.

Would be interested to know more about the Mailer. Why is it so long, for example?



A terrific novel. Is IQ84 worth the bother?



I have both of these but haven't got around to them yet.

The most recent book that I read was this.

Untitled_design_20_1_789329db-051a-485f-94f3-b9f3d4d0b512_500x.png


It comes with an endorsement from Yuval Noah Harari.

This isn't a publication that would ordinarily attract my curiosity as I have no interest in ingesting this type of substance (or didn't until I got to the end of this). However, I have been intrigued by reports on the most recent clinical trials suggesting that psychedelics can help with intractable, treatment-resistant depression, addiction, and the angst that accompanies terminal illnesses.

"Many of the people I'd interviewed had started out stone cold materialists and atheists, no more spiritually developed than I, and yet several had had 'mystical experiences' that left them with the unshakeable conviction that there was something more to this world than we know - a 'beyond' of some kind that transcended the material universe I presume to constitute the whole shebang. I thought often about one of the cancer patients I interviewed, an avowed atheist who had nevertheless found herself 'bathed in God's love'. "

The author (and most of the main researchers) nevertheless maintain an agnostic and pragmatic view of the experiences reported by the recipients of the entheogens they are working with in the clinical trials. For more on this, see here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/09/trip-treatment
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The Unfortunates by Johnson is utterly amazing; you really should get a copy; it's written in such a unique way, I won't spoil it!
Mailer - my favourite author (just pipping Clive James) Executioner's Song won him the Pulitzer Prize. It's long; it's spellbinding. It delves deep into the mind of a murderer, holds a flame to the feet of American society and is just such a damn good read. Oswald's Tale, Naked and the Dead, Tough Guys Don't Dance, The Fight, the list is (almost) endless. Mailer was a lexical genius as well as being a pugilist, a womaniser, a drinker, a foul-mouthed ranter. He could argue with his own shadow. But what arguments!
 
johnnytapia said:
The Unfortunates by Johnson is utterly amazing; you really should get a copy; it's written in such a unique way, I won't spoil it!
Mailer - my favourite author (just pipping Clive James) Executioner's Song won him the Pulitzer Prize. It's long; it's spellbinding. It delves deep into the mind of a murderer, holds a flame to the feet of American society and is just such a damn good read. Oswald's Tale, Naked and the Dead, Tough Guys Don't Dance, The Fight, the list is (almost) endless. Mailer was a lexical genius as well as being a pugilist, a womaniser, a drinker, a foul-mouthed ranter. He could argue with his own shadow. But what arguments!
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The Fight is a beautiful book about one of the single most fascinating events in sporting history. My problem with Mailer is that he seems such an obnoxious individual on so many levels. I know that that's neither here nor there — Shakespeare might have been a bastard, for all I know or care — but it sort of does get in the way of my wanting to read other stuff by him. Anyway, must try The Executioner's Song some time. Armies of the Night was supposed to be one of the better books on the anti-Vietnam movement in the U.S. Yes, must go back to him and give him another try.
 
Been reading Kevin Keegan's latest autobiography

As a kid he lived near a funeral home and sometimes secretly looked at the corpses

And he had a job as a porter in a 'mental hospital' to supplement his Scunthorpe wages

Is he related to Savile???
 
johnnytapia said:
The Unfortunates by Johnson is utterly amazing; you really should get a copy; it's written in such a unique way, I won't spoil it!
Mailer - my favourite author (just pipping Clive James) Executioner's Song won him the Pulitzer Prize. It's long; it's spellbinding. It delves deep into the mind of a murderer, holds a flame to the feet of American society and is just such a damn good read.
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Thanks for the heads up. I've actually got both of these titles but have never got around to reading them.Must rectify that. The manner in which The Unfortunates was published was a wonderful idea but I didn't know much about the Mailer. Just saw it going cheap a couple of years ago and snapped it up because I remembered the old song about Gary Gilmour by the Adverts.

Jonathan Coe's biography of Johnson is worth a read too.

Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Ballard! Now you're talking. Cocaine Nights. Super-Cannes. Crash. One of most underrated British writers of the last eighty years or so.
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His older novels are good too. My personal favourites are High Rise, Concrete Island and Crash.

Ballard's shorter fiction is also wonderful. Here's a link to one of his best stories about someone who wilfully self-isolates.

http://sculpture307.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-enormous-space-by-jg-ballard.html

Just click on the pages to enlarge them.
 
PinkFinal said:
Been reading Kevin Keegan's latest autobiography

As a kid he lived near a funeral home and sometimes secretly looked at the corpses

And he had a job as a porter in a 'mental hospital' to supplement his Scunthorpe wages

Is he related to Savile???
Click to expand...

Its not the Twitter parody, is it? Intergalactic Keegan.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
His older novels are good too. My personal favourites are High Rise, Concrete Island and Crash.

Ballard's shorter fiction is also wonderful. Here's a link to one of his best stories about someone who wilfully self-isolates.
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You're preaching to the converted, mate. I have his collected short stories (and it's my ambition to have all his novels, sooner or later), although I've known them from way back. “Thirteen to Centaurus” is a masterpiece. So is “The Garden of Time”. Either of them would be a great way into Ballard's world, for anybody who doesn't know him, and is wondering whether to read him or not. Either of them would take about twenty minutes or so to read, at most. I've read both over and over, obsessively.
The problem was, people just lazily pigeonholed him as “a science fiction writer”. Like all the best science fiction writers, he's more than that, of course. He's writing about a world that's just round the corner. That, in some respects, is already here. He would have written something amazing about COVID-19, and its effects on society throughout the world, I'm sure of it. He would have also perfectly understood the Black Mirror series, and where Brooker is coming from. He was a national treasure. I gave Cocaine Nights to my brother, who lives not very far from Marbella, and that kind of world. He was blown away.
Ballard fans are diehards, but he never won any of the big prizes that he should have done.
 
I agree with your estimation of Ballard as a 'national treasure'. Once went to a book reading he did when Blackwells had a branch on Tottenham Court Road. He was wonderfully genial.

What's still needed is a proper biographical study of the guy. I didn't take as much exception to John Baxter's alleged hatchet-job as some did but it was definitely sensationalistic (from what I recall) and he deserves something better.

On edit: if you haven't seen it, the movie of The Atrocity Exhibition is worth trying to get hold of. It's an unfilmable novel but there's a commentary on it by Ballard and the director that makes it worth the bother.

Wouldn't pay over the odds for the DVD, though.
 
ZenHalfTimeCrock said:
On edit: if you haven't seen it, the movie of The Atrocity Exhibition is worth trying to get hold of. It's an unfilmable novel but there's a commentary on it by Ballard and the director that makes it worth the bother.
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Interesting. Didn't know that had been filmed. Of course, it gives its name to one of our very own Joy Division's songs. As I suppose you know. (I say our because they were Mancs, and Ian Curtis was by all accounts a blue. Something that I'm absurdly proud of, if it's true).
What did you make of Cronenberg's Crash? I had my doubts. Wasn't too bad, but Ballard is probably unfilmable, by nature. Why? Because his imagination is already filmic! He runs the reels in your head. No need, at that point, to put anything on celluloid. He pre-empts it.
 
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Lovebitesandeveryfing said:
Interesting. Didn't know that had been filmed. Of course, it gives its name to one of our very own Joy Division's songs. As I suppose you know. (I say our because they were Mancs, and Ian Curtis was by all accounts a blue. Something that I'm absurdly proud of, if it's true).
What did you make of Cronenberg's Crash? I had my doubts. Wasn't too bad, but Ballard is probably unfilmable, by nature. Why? Because his imagination is already filmic! He runs the reels in your head. No need, at that point, to put anything on celluloid. He pre-empts it.
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Am typing on my mobile and therefore a bit impeded but I think ‘Crash’ is the best of what are actually a set of fairly mediocre film adaptations of Ballard (though ‘Empire of the Sun’ wasn’t bad).

Didn’t like ‘High Rise’ and the commentary on ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ is better than the actual film.

As a Joy Division fan, I am also pleased that Ian Curtis was one of us.

Back to the subject of books, the most Ballardian novel I have read by an author that wasn’t Ballard is Shohei Ooka’s ‘Fires on the Plain’.

It’s not a work of imitation and the translator (Ivan Morris) is very accomplished. Beware of the reviews on Amazon UK, though, as they give away too much of the story.

Another Japanese author who reminds me of Ballard is Kobo Abe, specifically ‘Woman of the Dunes’.

I liked your point about Ballard’s imagination already being vividly cinematic. I think another problem is that his writing is often about inner rather than outer space. Maybe that also makes his work difficult to bring to the screen.
 
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