's Blogs
What do you read? How do you read? Where do you read?
Usainindia's blog of gay historical novels, plus my own natural interest, made me curious about who here reads.
If so what do you read? Prefer fiction or non-fiction?
If it's fiction, is it nicely digested entertaining, thrilling stuff or do you quite like weighty, thoughtful tomes with philosophical undercurrents and rich prose?
If it's non-fiction then what's your intellectual tipple?
When do you read? Every day or just on Sunday mornings?
Where do you read? On the loo, in the bath, in bed last thing at night, just while travelling on a bus, train or plane?
Are you like me and used to read a lot more, but now find yourself clicking on news and politics articles as often as picking up a book?
Do you actually pick up a physical book any more or do you read on a kindle device?
Never want to bump my own threads but in this case decided to. Partially because any new responses still interesting to me. Partially because I've just re-read "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris, not having read it since I was in my early 20s when it had a real impact on me. Now it has spun all kinds of new thoughts.
I always think this is a book all gay males should read. Although it's sexual focus is about the male-female thing between the new savannah ape creatures who would eventually become us, there is LOADS in this book that will make all guys, if they think about it, revisit their gay male experience in a new, and possibly interesting, way.
Wish I could write the books I've been working on for years, but I've no laptop or computer. Only a tablet. Not good to write with.
I have just finished the last of Cormac McCarthy's minor novels with one remaining. Each one has left me breathless, I mean really short of breath! The cultural storylines of the hills of eastern Tennenssee in the '50 and 60's and the use of idiomatic dialog and the brutual violence, the novels would be considered cheap pulp fiction, but for the masterery of the dialog and visual construct of the real Southern Appalacia of the period. Awesome storytelling. I'm speaking of Child of God, Outer Dark and the Orchard Keeper.
My last reads were; "Gulag Archipelago" - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "Mein Kampf" - Adolf Hitler, "Communist Manifesto" - Karl Marx, "Beyond Good and Evil" - Friedrich Nietzsche & of course I read Scripture daily.
Definitely a fan of traditional bound books, although my iPad library is pretty full of books for when there's nothing around.
We have a TV which is only used for NES and some selective PS4 gaming.
Where? Anywhere comfortable: clothed or not :)
Can anyone speed read?
What's the most books you've read in 1 year?
and how many books do you own?
can i wheel him home
Apart from these blog posts, I don't read for pleasure..................However at work, thats another story. I have to read all kinds of crap.
Cher Monsieur Tournier,
Il se trouvera bien l'un de vos compatriotes de langue, soit de notre vieux continent, soit outre Atlantique, pour traduire ma prose que je préfère écrire dans la langue de tous ces écrivains français dont je viens de lire le nom avec une satisfaction gourmande qu'il m'a plu de relire ici.
Votre nom tout d'abord Tournier m'évoque l'un des tout premiers livres que je fus obligé de lire. Pour la classe, et en entier s'il vous plaît. Mais quel régal, si jeune, de découvrir qu'on pouvait n'être que deux sur une île. Je fus longtemps amoureux fou de Vendredi et fasciné par cette vie. Dire que l'on devait surtout plaindre cet homme isolé sur son île et moi, secrètement, qui l'enviait de cette relation particulière, obligée presque, de vivre avec un inconnu, et sauvage ! Avant, il y avait bien eu la série des Oui-oui ou la Comtesse de Ségur. Qui m'ont sans doute donner goût à la lecture. Et des livres que je prenais en cachette à la bibliothèque de mon quartier sur les choses que les petits garçons ne devaient surtout pas lire. « ça, non, non, non, mon grand tu ne peux pas l'emprunter. Où as-tu trouvé ça ? », me disait la vieille dame qui veillait sur les rayonnages. Combien de fois fus-je obligé de laisser derrière moi des livres que j'avais mis des heures à trouver. Comme autant de batailles perdues. Marguerite Yourcenar attendrait.
Plus tard, il y a eu les romans, les polars, la science-fi. Les auteurs gays comme Peyrefitte ou Fernandez. J'ai dévoré – souvent aux chiottes - des auteurs entiers. Pour ce membres qui ne comprend pas qu'on puisse lire pendant des heures aux chiottes, je dois dire qu'il ne connaît pas cet instant où personne ne viendra jamais le déranger dans ce lieu insolite et où les lectures trouvent à mes yeux tout le silence et la concentration nécessaires.
Depuis quelques années, les livres me chagrinaient. Et Internet est arrivé. Au gré de mes déménagements, je ne supportais plus ces cartons chargés de livres. Lourds et encombrants. Un jour, j'ai décidé de tous les prendre, charger ma voiture et les expédier directement dans une déchetterie. Tous ! Ras le bol ! Oust ! Dégagez ! Quelle liberté retrouvée. Mes déménagements suivants furent un bonheur. Juste l'essentiel. Depuis je n'ai plus de bibliothèque dans mon salon mais je me précipite sur celles des autres.
J'ai tout de même sauvé quelques rares bouquins dont je ne citerai que les Chroniques de San Fransisco. Anna Madrigal est un bout de femme qui m'a tenu compagnie des nuits entières et m'a fait hurler de rire, tout seul, la nuit. Pour ces moments jamais retrouvés, je consens à la transporter encore.
Depuis plusieurs années, quand je ne télécharge pas des films de cul, je télécharge des livres. Des collections complètes. Des fichiers .rar que d'aucuns ont mis un soin particulier a compiler. Souvent dedans : des pépites. J'en emprunte aux copains, aux copines, toujours en format numérique. Je dois en avoir des milliers que j'ai classé. J'ai aussi mis la main sur plusieurs rentrées littéraires successives. Et je télécharge des romans, des essais, au grès de leur « publication ». Leur mise en ligne devrais-je écrire.
J'ai donc découvert la lecture sur mon Iphone. Dans le train, dans une salle d'attente, dans mon lit, en mode paysage ou en mode nuit, en variant les polices de caractère. Plus gros quand je suis fatigué, plus petit quand je veux être discret. Tout cette évolution est pour moi complètement magique. Je suis fasciné d'avoir des milliers de livres qui tiennent dans le creux de la main. Je choisis Agatha Christie, Patricia Cornwell ou Jim Harrison, Ellory ou Larsson Stieg au grè des envies. Le Trône de fer de temps en temps, des prix « romans noirs » parfois. J'adore ma nouvelle bibliothèque que je mets un soin tout particulier à laisser classée. Le pauvre Stephen King doit me maudire.
Ai-je pour autant délaissé les classiques bon vieux bouquins qui puent ? Eh bien non, dans notre bonne vieille région, outre les librairies et les bibliothèque, on trouve aussi des lieu totalement gratuits où les gens déposent gratuitement leur livres pour les autres. La règle : on les prend, on les rapporte si l'on veut, on les garde ou l'on en met d'autres. Pour se débarrasser, je trouve cette solution complètement magique. J'ajouterai que pour mon plus grand bonheur : il m'est arrivé dernièrement d'en trouver deux, d'un auteur islandais ou finlandais, sur un banc public. Un genre de Millenium. Merci anonyme.
Alors, je lis de tout : j'ai une grande préférence pour les thriller, les policiers et les romans. Et si les garçons y ont une place, alors je les dévore. Je lis aux chiottes, entre deux rendez-vous, dans les salles d'attente, partout pourvu que j'ai de la batterie !
Vous me faites un immense bonheur avec ce post. Tous. Je redécouvre l'envie de lire, de reprendre un livre abandonné, l'envie de trouver de nouveaux auteurs. Et pourquoi pas un « Daniel » Tournier ?
Cordialement,
Wow! Who would have thought that GBT could become such an enlightening literary salon? Thanks again, Daniel.
So many people recommending good gay authors. I thought I'd add one who I only mentioned slightly. Michel Tournier. Won the Prix de Goncourt. AMAZING writer. Almost any book of his can be heartily recommended but 'The Erl King', 'Friday' and 'Gemini' are particularly good. His soaring imagination, fantastic humour, intellectual breadth and incisiveness as a gay author is unmatched in my opinion.
Last book fully read: "Space Chronicles" by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. If you do not know who he is, just google him. Best modern-day science "presenter" we have. My opinion, anyway. Which, when I get right down to it, is the only damned opinion that counts. To me anyway. :-)
I love to read and do it every day, or should I say every night because I always read before turning out the light. It helps me relax. At the moment I am re-reading "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" by John LeCarre, one of the best novels I have ever read. I am a big fan of Tom Clancy and enjoy going back over "The Hunt for Red October". Something a little more literary, I think "Dr. Zhivago" is one of the best books of the 20th century. I also very much enjoyed "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote. Seamless writing, so well done for the book that ended his career. I enjoy history, adventure, every once in a while a gay novel like "Maurice". I loved the original Ian Fleming "James Bond" novels, they are quite different from the movies. Science fiction is fun too, like "Ringworld" by Larry Niven. Those are some of the things I enjoy reading...and always books, I don't care for Kindle. That's just me!
@mrbillboard I hear what you're saying viz. the tactile joy and smell of a real book. I suppose I've been so used to my own books being almost completely read in kindle form from Amazon that I'd started to assume most regular readers used kindle as much as hard copies. It's a bit dismaying, tbh, to realize that most people commenting on this thread eschew kindle. As some of you know, I've been working on my first gay erotic full length novel, which I'll probably publish within the next couple of months. Just as other writers post their erotica on here, or links to it, I was planning to do the same with mine on Amazon when it goes up, since it will be free for the first week or so. But that's only in kindle version. If no one here uses kindle I'm not likely to get many GBT readers, lol.
I had to work Saturday, so I am now catching up on this thread. Thanks, Daniel for posting it. What are people reading at the moment? I am reading The Guide by R.K. Narayan.
It usually looks like everyone here is too busy jerking to boy porn to read, but I guess comments count.
Read constantly, mostly non-fiction, political/current events/social commentary, as essays and columns, mostly at night, plus in the morning while pooping. All physical copies.
Stuck in middle of a John Irving novel and Pynchon novel.
What an amazing bunch of excellent responses to my thread. Thanks so much everyone!
mrbillboard, you said something in one of your comments that I found so interesting I decided to make this separate comment on it.
You said "I tried to read Jean Paul Sartre book "La nausée" - "revulsion" twice but each time I had to quit after the first half because I couldn´t stand it."
Being unable to finish a book, because of a kind of bad reaction to it, despite repeated attempts, is an intriguing idea and I wonder if anyone else has experienced this? I definitely have. When I was 9 I first tried to read Lord of the Rings, and the first part scared me and gave me nightmares so i had to quit and only read it all a few years after that. On the other hand, I read Sartre's 'Nausea' when I was 20 and it had a huge effect on me, a completely different one than you mrbillboard.
Yet I have had exactly the kind of issue you describe, with Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra". I tried 3 times to read it before I could actually finish it, which had never happened to me before as an adult. I just felt like it was imposing a huge existential responsibility on my consciousness while ripping the ground out from under my feet. The first two times I tried to read it, it actually just pissed me off but I was drawn back to it, for further attempts.
Immediately after that, I read Carl Jung's two volume 'seminar' commentary on 'Zarathustra', which allowed me to process it more evenly. Carl Jung is a thinker I could read all day long. Not just as a thinker. His writing style is really a pleasure to taste.
Great thread! I tend to binge read alot. I'll discover an author and become obsessed with his style and subject matter, until I've read all I can find. Recently, I've gone through several like Cormac McCarthy ( The Road, Border Trilogy, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian) , Benjamin Alire Saenz - most with realistic and honest portrayals of gay Latino youths (Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secret of the Universe) . Tim Dorsey, Carl Hiaasen just for a few.
ill take him
A good question is, does anyone re-read books? Or just read it once?
I read on my breaks and lunch at work, My co-workers know not to talk to me while I'm reading. I generally don't read at home unless it's a really good book. I never read in bed, bath or on the toilet. I read mostly fiction. I try to alternate popular fiction with "literature". Have you ever read any Wilbur Smith? What about Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry? Also Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I didn't read at all until freshman in high school. I got started with science fiction and especially Arthur C. Clark and rapidly expanded to other types of fiction. I always have a book to read.