What are you reading right now?

[costa_oscura]

I recently finished Agency by William Gibson.  It was good, but I didn't like it as well as the first book in the series, The Peripheral.

Currently reading both Tad Williams' Empire of Grass, the second book in his Last King of Osten Ard series, and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  I think I started The Secret History when it was first published back in my college days and didn't finish reading it because it never really hooked me.  My memory could be off, though, and I might be remembering a different book.  I like The Secret History well enough so far, so I'm continuing with it.  Apparently the book has accrued cult status popularity with the dark academia crowd, of which I was unaware... so, hey, look at me, trying to appeal to the 'edgy' subculture bunch. 

[Lisnaholic]

^ Books and authors both, I'm afraid I recognise absolutely zero of those names you mention, costa.

Actually, I'm here to continue a chat about Anthony Trollope, on which score, I owe AT and Marie something of an apology:-



I'm halfway through this book which I first read in about 1993, and this time round I am more sympathetic to old AT. He was clearly a decent guy who had a tough start in life, and by his own efforts overcame difficult circs and a sense of inferiority. All that is to his credit, of course, but in doing so, he turned himself into a bit of a stuffy bore, imo.
From about 100 pages in, he is mainly describing his life as an established literary figure: books writ, fees received, clubs joined (The Athenaeum, etc.), magazines contributed to (The Pall Mall Gazette, etc.), literary friends (Thakeray, etc.).  For relaxation/excitement he liked to go fox-hunting, and his other main topic is his work for the Post Office, which remains a little mysterious - not in an intriguing way, but in a not-properly-explained way.

So, a bit of a stodgy read, imo, although let me make clear 2 things in defense of AT's autobiography:-

i) I haven't read any of his thirty-odd novels, so AT's little glimpses behind-the-scenes of his inspiration were of limited interest to me. (And yes, in connection to the stuff Marie and I were talking about, almost every novel mentioned is introduced with info about how much he sold it for.)
ii) the Autobiog was not so much written for publication as it was written for the benefit of his son, as a kind of record of "this is what your dad did". One effect of this is that some of the big chunks of Trollope's more dramatic adventures (overseas, for example), are dismissed with the phrase "which I have written about elsewhere".

TL:DR: If anyone is tempted to read Trollope's Autobiog, don't expect some scandalous kiss-and-tell blockbuster confessional, ok ? - which, come to think of it, you can probably work out for yourself from a glance at the book's cover !

[SGR]

^ Books and authors both, I'm afraid I recognise absolutely zero of those names you mention, costa.

The only one I recognized was Donna Tartt, but that's only because my brother is a big fan of her. Just to irritate him, as a good older brother should, I always refer to her as "Donna Fart" 

[Janszoon]

The only one I recognized was Donna Tartt, but that's only because my brother is a big fan of her. Just to irritate him, as a good older brother should, I always refer to her as "Donna Fart" 

You should've gone with "Gonna Fart".

I love her books by the way. 

[SGR]

Still plugging away at this biography of Grant. I'm ~350 pages in, and it's been mostly a joy to read so far. One of the things that really caught my eye is how bloody and gruesome the Civil War could be. It almost feels like a distant or fading national memory - I think part of how we still remember how bloody and awful WW1, WW2, Vietnam, etc were is because we had a large amount of photos/video, and in terms of cultural influence, we've had many, many shows and movies made about them, but not so much about the Civil War. Here's a passage from the Grant biography I found equally compelling and disgusting - it's describing the Battle of Shiloh, during the first night (after a battle had been waged):

In this nightmarish landscape, thousands of wounded men lay writhing and moaning in drenching rain, their contorted figures lit by sporadic lightning. The ground was slick with blood and carpeted with torn limbs and decapitated heads. Wild pigs rooted among petrifying bodies, their snorts audible to the dying soldiers...many soldiers died of exposure that night while the living found no shelter as they slept in puddles. "This night of horrors will haunt me to my grave," swore a Confederate soldier.