What Book Are You Currently Reading?

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PPE is basically an apprenticeship degree for aspiring political hacks.

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If it's any consolation Thompson, at least, is a good read. Weird book: in some respects not just ahead of its time, but ahead of what is written now; but he also repeats some arguments and theories that were pretty much discredited by the 1960s, even going out of his way to defend one of them. But then that's Thompson for you.

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Well, most work produced as part of the History from Below movement was pretty dreadful.

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Anyway, that brief summary isn't entirely true as it omits the influence of (grossly misunderstood and badly applied) poststructuralism in the 1980s and 1990s, out of which much of the current emphasis on culture, identity and so on emerged. Oh yes, that is indeed the original sin of the currently dominant historical 'parochialism' (i.e. excessive specialism, an over-focus on aspects of history that seem marginal to outsiders, etc). But then it's difficult to argue that it's seriously worse than the ten-a-penny crude Marxist screeds that were so characteristic of the 1970s.

Essentially what good stuff there is tends to be produced by people who are at least a little out of step with dominant trends.

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Finished Down and Out. Interesting read, although I did sort of mind the racism and anti-semitism.

Something he was himself quite mortified by in later life.

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Continuing my survey of modern Irish poetry by mainlining MacNeice and Heaney;

What dost thou think?

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Umberto Eco's The Book of Legendary Lands. Beautiful book and a lot of fun as well.

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The Spectre of Alexander Wolf, Gaito Gazdanov.

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I'm looking to finally get into some le Carre. Is it useful or helpful to read them in order?

Tinker Tailor should be read before Smiley's People or The Honourable Schoolboy (because otherwise they won't quite make sense), but other than that, it's not really essential. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold can certainly be read stand-alone.

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The Spectre of Alexander Wolf, Gaito Gazdanov.

Finished this ages ago. Anyway, it's a brilliant book and I would recommend it to anyone. Some of our more fashionably radical members might balk at first, given that the author - and so also the first-person narrator - fought for the Whites in the civil war and that the whole book is set in the White Russian émigré community in Paris, but they should look beyond that.

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Various things (as is usual), but the important one is Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death which is brilliant and something that everyone should read but which - due to the subject matter - is not exactly easy reading. Heavily recommended.

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The Valley, Richard Benson. Fantastic.

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'Socialist' 'Realism' was effectively the kitschification (for glorification of political power) of the Russian Realist tradition, which - as bad luck would have it - was actually one of the most interesting and artistically accomplished of the various 19th century Realist tendencies. Rather delightfully, the American Realist tradition was also pretty accomplished and dynamic, and it also suffered the fate of kitschification-for-politics in the 1930s... though (mercifully) to a less extreme degree.

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Simon Schama's Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations). A glorious piece of A+++ trolling.

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Bought two books the other day and am reading them both. One is The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco), the other is The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BCE-1492 CE (Simon Schama). Having already eyed up the former, I noticed that the latter was now out in paperback. I'd been carefully avoiding buying the (rather expensive) hardback of it for a while. These things happen. I'm also occasionally skimming through a lovely edition of Pushkin short stories and poems and recently read the Very Short Introduction to Writing and Script for the sheer hell of it.

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I just finished Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping which has been on my 'to read' list since forever. It may well be the greatest thing ever set in Idaho.

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Volume one (of three; the others are not just published) of Stephen Kotkin's biography of Stalin. Very, very good. Also reading Hertha Müller's brilliant The Land of Green Plums, which is extremely (intentionally) distressing so is only really something to read when you're in the right sort of mood...

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Citizens, a milestone in the history of trolling (and also in the historiography of the French Revolution).

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Have you seen Michael Haneke's adaptation of The Castle?

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Recently finished H is for Hawk. It's amazing and you should all read it.

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and most of the Chester Mystery Plays.

An excellent choice of reading material. How are they to read from an American point of view (i.e. in terms of language)?

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Which, among its many virtues, did a pretty great job of making me feel nostalgia for all the tennis I watched and played (very, very badly) in my youth.

It's a lovely book isn't it? As someone who also grew up in the country but not to a farming family the essay on the Illinois State Fair spoke so truly to me...

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Amongst other things, I recently finished Lila. Marilynne Robinson can really write, can't she? A remarkable work that everyone should read.

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Ah, yes. The Sassoon book is really very, very good.

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Open minds tend to fill up with rubbish, which probably explains your support for fascism.