Whats everyone reading?

[Rara Avis]

"I'm with the band" - Pamela des Barnes

Just awful; so many really creepy and disturbing things happening casually from one page to the next. This is tempered somewhat by some genuinely lol moments but overall just WTF?

I understand she is now a creative writing teacher and the mind boggles that a woman who teaches people how to write never passed beyond writing like a teenage girl. I had initially thought she was going for an 'Artist as a Young Man' vibe where Joyce's writing improves as he ages but I was very wrong on that count. Her prose is insufferable. I'm not finished yet but I don't see it improving.

This is a book that seems to be written without a single shred of self reflection, examination or criticism 0f herself, the men she associated with or the times and their impact. Maybe I was expecting too much.

[Barrington Boots]

I read this too and I felt exactly the same as you: the writing style is very basic, and there's no 'second act' where the author comes to any kind of self-realisation or evolves.
It may be that we're looking at this through a modern lense where we're expecting that to happen, when really the whole thing is self-realistion, ie. she just wanted to shag rockstars and have a laugh, and therefore this book just wasn't for me. I found it all a bit grim in a way though, because to my mind most of the men in the book treated her like crap.

Would not recommend!

[Rara Avis]

You're probably right about that but it's such a cop out. Whatever about the 60s but I'm sure her recollections of the 70s have not incorporated any of the feminist thinking that was prevalent at the time.
It's a rock and roll version of 'Pray, keep sweet and obey' or whatever that Netflix documentary was called.

So far I've read about teenagers giving adult men hand jobs, adults watching girls as young as 12 perform sex acts on each other, the casually mentioned death of a 3 year old that happened in her presence that's simply never referred to again, the possible sexual assault of a young woman in a public place, two of her friends are on heroin and she's almost been sexually assaulted three times (she hasn't even turned 21).

Yeah it's all very peace and love except she seems to spend a lot of her time crying over guys that use her for sex and move on and not an ounce of introspection in sight.

[Barrington Boots]

Yeah, it's definitely an awkward read, to put it mildly.

As part of my lightweight commute reading programme I've been reading some James Herbert - specifically Domain, or Rats 3. I was a bit sneery of James Herbert going in as I've ranked him with Guy N Smith and Shaun Hutson as very Garth Merenghi-ish and whilst the book was very generic, Herbert's a much better writer in some aspects that I gave him credit for. What he's best at is being able to very quickly create a character and make them sympathetic, so when they meet their inevitable demise a few pages later it's like a little punch to the heart. Now I'm an older reader I can see that the people in these little vignettes have enough normalacy in them that it doesn't take much of a stretch for them to equate to people I know and love, so their grisly fate seems crueller.
He's also very good at tapping into scary stuff. Giant crabs attacking a pier isn't scary, but there's something quite primal about the concept of being trapped in a flooding underground tunnel with a bunch of flesh-eating rats, and I say that as someone who likes rats. And the writing lurches from one horror to another without ever flagging.

The book does have it's problems, not least a late 70s / early 80s whiff of racism, sexism and main character who is an utterly generic and bland tough middle-aged white guy, presumably so all the middle-aged white guy readers can sort-of-imagine he is them. Basically it was rubbish, but I couldn't put it down.

[Dark Jimbo]

I tore through all my Nan's James Herbert books at a rate of knots when I was younger. They were very much a gateway drug to more esoteric horror stuff. I can see the flaws in his work now (he certainly has some) but god help me, I think they'll always occupy a special place in my heart. Ghosts of Sleath and '48 may still rank somewhere in my personal top thirty horror novels, where I ever to bother to sit down and work out such a list.

I don't think I've ever actually read the Rats novels, though. Possibly the first one - was there a section where an underground train breaks down, and the passengers have to start walking through the darkened tunnels?

[JohnW]

and main character who is an utterly generic and bland tough middle-aged white guy, presumably so all the middle-aged white guy readers can sort-of-imagine he is them. Basically it was rubbish, but I couldn't put it down.

'Rubbish, but I couldn't put it down,' is just about the finest tribute that can be paid to a work of trashy literature.

And whatever happened to all the middle-aged white guy readers? They were what kept the market for pulp going. I always suspected that it was the advent of the VCR that steered them away from reading, but I dunno. I was too young for that stuff when it was still around, but the books were everywhere, and I was fascinated by the lurid covers. Bikini babes, flash cars, nameless horrors, automatic weapons – it was all there.
I've only ever read one James Herbert. Forgotten the name, but it was about the aftermath of a Nazi-created plague. Wasn't tempted to come back for more.

[Rara Avis]

I'm determined to read two books a month this year.

Jan has been a success - finished the Pamela des Barres book (meah) and read 'The Driving Seat' by Muriel Sparks. It's a very strange book by a woman about a woman who gets murdered on holiday.

On to 'A long way to a small angry planet' now ..

[wedgeski]

I've just started Wheel of Time, so that's 2023 sorted.

[broodblik]

I've just started Wheel of Time, so that's 2023 sorted.

I just finished book 4. It is a wonderful series so far, my only gripe is that most of the books I have read only really takes off in the last quarter

[M.I.K.]

And whatever happened to all the middle-aged white guy readers? They were what kept the market for pulp going.

*Broadly gestures towards most of forum...*

[JohnW]

Fair point.
*Licks nicotine-stained thumb and turns the page of dog-eared Wilbur Smith paperback*

[Jim_Campbell]

whatever happened to all the middle-aged white guy readers?

...They got an ice-pick, that made their ears burn. :-)

[JohnW]

...They got an ice-pick, that made their ears burn. :-)

I'm not going to be rereading all those Shakespearos at this hour of my life.

[sheridan]

I don't think I've ever actually read the Rats novels, though. Possibly the first one - was there a section where an underground train breaks down, and the passengers have to start walking through the darkened tunnels?

Either that, or the (first) sequel, Lair.

My copy of The City cropped up recently (the Ian Miller illustrated comic sequel to the trilogy of Rats novels), so next time I come across the preceding books I'll have to put them aside for a re-read (most of my books are in boxes, scattered throughout the house and piled upon other boxes, mixed up with boxes of comics, etc, so it's anybody's guess where any particular comic or book is at any given time - other than my progs and megs, which have pride of place against one wall).

[Barrington Boots]

I beleive it's Rats where the underground train breaks down, yes.

My late father in law was one of those pulp readers: he'd read anything with a bloke hijacking a submarine or something like that in it. My parents, on the other hand, saw it all as a bit beneath them: I was raised on more 'inspirational' literature which of course meant as soon as I could buy my own books I went headlong into pulpy trash. Horror, fantasy, anything with lurid artwork on the cover. Even now I'll buy a book if the cover has any two of the following on the front: a monster, a spaceship, swords or guns being waved about, a lady in a bikini, a jungle, a temple, a vehicle exploding or a giant wolf / crab / snake / lion etc.

I'm determined to read two books a month this year.

This is a great idea. Document them on here!