Your favourite authors, and why?

[Gary Childress]

'just a few chimpanzees' sounds a lot like 'whataboutism' to me.

Not my intention. Sorry for the miscommunication.

[accelafine]

'just a few chimpanzees' sounds a lot like 'whataboutism' to me.

Not my intention. Sorry for the miscommunication.

I'm afraid that apology isn't anywhere near grovelling enough Gary. You are off form of late. Make sure you do better next time

[Walker]

Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, by Henry Miller.

Henry and June by Anais Nin

Les Enfants du Paradis, by Marcel Carne

The Idiot, by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Mara (A Henry Miller Story)
Short film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUHehYbA8Zo

“Hasn’t anybody ever treated you right?”

*

Long ago I read a do-it-yourself horoscope book. I found out that people have major and minor personality aspects. I did the horoscopes of a number of people. Most of the people I horoscoped have 3 to five major aspects, influenced by the minor aspects. Henry Miller had 26 major aspects. Very complex person, always "merry and bright."

[Walker]

In youth we were whole and the terror and pain of the world penetrated us through and through. There was no sharp separation between joy and sorrow: they fused into one, as our waking life fuses with dream and sleep. We rose one being in the morning and at night we went down into an ocean, drowned out completely, clutching the stars and the fever of the day.

And then comes a time when suddenly all seems to be reversed. We live in the mind, in ideas, in fragments. We no longer drink in the wild outer music of the streets, we remember only. Like a monomaniac we relive the drama of youth. Like a spider that picks up the thread over and over and spews it out according to some obsessive, logarithmic pattern. If we are stirred by a fat bust it is the fat bust of a whore who bent over on a rainy night and showed us for the first time the wonder of the great milky globes; if we are stirred by the reflections on a wet pavement it is because at the age of seven we were suddenly speared by a premonition of the life to come as we stared unthinkingly into that bright, liquid mirror of the street. If the sight of a swinging door intrigues us it is the memory of a summer's evening when all the doors were swinging softly and where the light bent down to caress the shadow there were golden calves and lace and glittering parasols and through the chinks in the swinging door, like fine sand sifting through a bed of rubies, there drifted the music and the incense of gorgeous unknown bodies. Perhaps when that door parted to give us a choking glimpse of the world, perhaps then we had the first intimation of the great impact of sin, the first intimation that here over little round tables spinning in the light, our feet idly scraping the sawdust, our hands touching the cold stem of a glass, that here over these little round tables which later we are to look at with such yearning and reverence, that here, I say, we are to feel in the years to come the first iron of love, the first stains of rust, the first black, clawing hands of the pit, the bright circular pieces of tin in the streets, the gaunt soot colored chimneys, the bare elm tree that lashes out in the summer's lightning and screams and shrieks as the rain beats down, while out of the hot earth the snails scoot away miraculously and all the air turns blue and sulphurous. Here over these tables, at the first call, the first touch of a hand, there is to come the bitter, gnawing pain that gripes at the bowels; the wine turns sour in our bellies and a pain rises from the soles of the feet and the round tabletops whirl with the anguish and the fever in our bones at the soft, burning touch of a hand. Here there is buried legend after legend of youth and melancholy, of savage nights and mysterious bosoms dancing on the wet mirror of the pavement, of women chuckling softly as they scratch themselves, of wild sailors' shouts, of long queues standing in front of the lobby, of boats brushing each other in the fog and tugs snorting furiously against the rush of tide while up on the Brooklyn Bridge a man is standing in agony, wait to jump, or waiting to write a poem, or waiting for the blood to leave his vessels because if he advances another foot the pain of his love will kill him.

- Henry Miller, Black Spring

[Maia]

Funnily enough, I'm currently reading a novel called The Bridge by Janine Young, in which the Brooklyn Bridge features quite prominently.

[Maia]

I'm still reading The Bridge, which is ok, but probably won't be one that I'll want to come back to. The author, Janine Young, who I hadn't heard of before, seems to have some sort of fetish for the idea of relationships involving one woman and two men. That's how, for example, the aliens in her story always do it, and it's also how the human protagonists in the story did it, too, at least until two of them died. I suspect that the dead ones are going to be resurrected somehow, as aliens, at the end, given how the story is unfolding. I've just read an icky section where a 13-year old girl, the daughter of two of the protagonists, was being seduced by a much older man, until she bit his arm, and turned out to have lethal venom in her saliva, as well as three alien brains growing in her spine. So, yes, it's quite weird, and not necessarily what I was expecting, but well written enough for me to carry on till the end.

[promethean75]

"until she bit his arm, and turned out to have lethal venom in her saliva, as well as three alien brains growing in her spine."

Now that is how to fight pedophilia in society.

All female's upon turning 3 years old will have three alien brains implanted in their spines and venom ducts implanted in their teeth.

If doing this would cost taxpayers less than running the National Sex Offender Registry, it's got my vote.

[attofishpi]

I don't read much fiction - mostly non-fiction.

However, it never ceases to amaze me how often I pickup any random book - second hand dirt cheap, or at the airport - which is when I tend to do most fiction reading - long trips from Oz..and I am so engrossed!!

Actually Matthew Reilley books, a rather acclaimed Ozzy author - pfff - one book was going pretty good, then all this stuff starts kicking off on the Amazon river, I remember a boat or jetski being flung up the wing of a large army seaplane into a helicopter and this ridiculous clear attempt at conversion to a Hollywood shit movie went on for AGES..I think I was two thirds the way through the book, and at that point, I could not give a badgers arse how it ended.

One of my favourite books in the early 90s for cyberpunk - was William Gibson's - Neuromancer - mostly because of the stuff to do with cyberspace - an actual virtual world (long before the Matrix etc) at some point this guy is living on a virtual beach and he is nourished by tins of beans etc being washed ashore..

Some elements of his concepts are in my cyberpunk book Alpha Two FREE here: https://www.androcies.com/p_PHP/m_Alpha ... erpunk.php

[Maia]

"until she bit his arm, and turned out to have lethal venom in her saliva, as well as three alien brains growing in her spine."

Now that is how to fight pedophilia in society.

All female's upon turning 3 years old will have three alien brains implanted in their spines and venom ducts implanted in their teeth.

If doing this would cost taxpayers less than running the National Sex Offender Registry, it's got my vote.

I think they would probably just cut corners and only implant one alien brain, which obviously wouldn't work.

[Maia]

I don't read much fiction - mostly non-fiction.

However, it never ceases to amaze me how often I pickup any random book - second hand dirt cheap, or at the airport - which is when I tend to do most fiction reading - long trips from Oz..and I am so engrossed!!

Actually Matthew Reilley books, a rather acclaimed Ozzy author - pfff - one book was going pretty good, then all this stuff starts kicking off on the Amazon river, I remember a boat or jetski being flung up the wing of a large army seaplane into a helicopter and this ridiculous clear attempt at conversion to a Hollywood shit movie went on for AGES..I think I was two thirds the way through the book, and at that point, I could not give a badgers arse how it ended.

One of my favourite books in the early 90s for cyberpunk - was William Gibson's - Neuromancer - mostly because of the stuff to do with cyberspace - an actual virtual world (long before the Matrix etc) at some point this guy is living on a virtual beach and he is nourished by tins of beans etc being washed ashore..

Some elements of his concepts are in my cyberpunk book Alpha Two FREE here: https://www.androcies.com/p_PHP/m_Alpha ... erpunk.php

I always have at least one book on the go, sometimes more than one.

[attofishpi]

I always have at least one book on the go, sometimes more than one.

Yes, well apparently ladies can multitask.

I just checked my bookcase and most of my fiction books are missing, quite surprising how few are left. They're supposed to be boomerangs.

PS. Happy Days - booked my flight to Manilla this morning for April - maybe you could recommend a book?

I like near future sci-fi. I wouldn't mind reading a fantasy book, I think you are writing in that genre?

[Maia]

I always have at least one book on the go, sometimes more than one.

Yes, well apparently ladies can multitask.

I just checked my bookcase and most of my fiction books are missing, quite surprising how few are left. They're supposed to be boomerangs.

PS. Happy Days - booked my flight to Manilla this morning for April - maybe you could recommend a book?

I like near future sci-fi. I wouldn't mind reading a fantasy book, I think you are writing in that genre?

I was planning to write a young adult fantasy about an elf, but wasn't all that happy with what I wrote, to be honest.

If I were to recommend a book it would be Caedmon's Song by Peter Robinson. Admittedly, it's neither sci fi nor fantasy, so may not be what you're after, and is described as a psychological thriller. I read it a few months ago, and by the end of it I was crying, quite literally. Without giving away the twist, it's difficult to describe the plot to any great extent, although, to be fair, the twist in question was obvious almost from the start. This in no way detracted from the story, though, and indeed, I suspect it was deliberate by the author. The character of Kirsten is truly compelling, and I really felt for her. A large part of the book is set on the Yorkshire coast, an area that I know well, and he's captured the feeling and atmosphere of those seaside resorts very well, I think.

[attofishpi]

I always have at least one book on the go, sometimes more than one.

Yes, well apparently ladies can multitask.

I just checked my bookcase and most of my fiction books are missing, quite surprising how few are left. They're supposed to be boomerangs.

PS. Happy Days - booked my flight to Manilla this morning for April - maybe you could recommend a book?

I like near future sci-fi. I wouldn't mind reading a fantasy book, I think you are writing in that genre?

I was planning to write a young adult fantasy about an elf, but wasn't all that happy with what I wrote, to be honest.

If I were to recommend a book it would be Caedmon's Song by Peter Robinson. Admittedly, it's neither sci fi nor fantasy, so may not be what you're after, and is described as a psychological thriller. I read it a few months ago, and by the end of it I was crying, quite literally. Without giving away the twist, it's difficult to describe the plot to any great extent, although, to be fair, the twist in question was obvious almost from the start. This in no way detracted from the story, though, and indeed, I suspect it was deliberate by the author. The character of Kirsten is truly compelling, and I really felt for her. A large part of the book is set on the Yorkshire coast, an area that I know well, and he's captured the feeling and atmosphere of those seaside resorts very well, I think.

Mmm, not sure I want to cry at the end of the book! Is it happy crying or sad crying?

What time period is it set within?

Suggest another, a fantasy book, i've always wanted to read one ever since reading something a friend of mine pulled out that he wrote the start of on a few pieces of paper whilst in high school, I wanted to read more!!

One with a dragon would be nice - not Tolkien tho.

[Maia]

Yes, well apparently ladies can multitask.

I just checked my bookcase and most of my fiction books are missing, quite surprising how few are left. They're supposed to be boomerangs.

PS. Happy Days - booked my flight to Manilla this morning for April - maybe you could recommend a book?

I like near future sci-fi. I wouldn't mind reading a fantasy book, I think you are writing in that genre?

I was planning to write a young adult fantasy about an elf, but wasn't all that happy with what I wrote, to be honest.

If I were to recommend a book it would be Caedmon's Song by Peter Robinson. Admittedly, it's neither sci fi nor fantasy, so may not be what you're after, and is described as a psychological thriller. I read it a few months ago, and by the end of it I was crying, quite literally. Without giving away the twist, it's difficult to describe the plot to any great extent, although, to be fair, the twist in question was obvious almost from the start. This in no way detracted from the story, though, and indeed, I suspect it was deliberate by the author. The character of Kirsten is truly compelling, and I really felt for her. A large part of the book is set on the Yorkshire coast, an area that I know well, and he's captured the feeling and atmosphere of those seaside resorts very well, I think.

Mmm, not sure I want to cry at the end of the book! Is it happy crying or sad crying?

What time period is it set within?

Suggest another, a fantasy book, i've always wanted to read one ever since reading something a friend of mine pulled out that he wrote the start of on a few pieces of paper whilst in high school, I wanted to read more!!

One with a dragon would be nice - not Tolkien tho.

It was written in, and set in, the 1980s. The author references the events in it in a much later book that he wrote called Friend of the Devil, which, in a sense, continues the story, though it's a very different sort of book. The crying was both happy and sad. To say more, of course, would be to spoil it.

I'm not sure I'm able to suggest a fantasy book other than Tolkien, who is one of my favourite authors. You could maybe check out the Abaloc series by Jane Louise Curry, the first of which, Beneath the Hill, I read when I was little. Though intended for young adults it's by no means childish, and involves Welsh-speaking elves who live under a mountain in Ohio. There are no dragons in it, though.

[attofishpi]

I've decided...I think I'll just check wots at the airport - probably just go with a magazine and watch the inflight entertainment.

Thanks anyway Maia.

You lovely people of the forum got very lucky - I got WIFI on da plane, so I'll be able to annoy you all when really really drunk at 20,000 feet.