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[Repenter]

i can't seem to escape cormac mccarthy.

i've always been a sucker for southern gothic. i come from a rural, religous background... and though i'm from the north, the bloodsoaked west and rabid religiosity of the south really enthrall me. i've read a lot of flannery o'connor and william faulkner, and mccarthy is the modernday torch bearer of that type of prose. currently halfway through 'blood meridian'. i was in iceland last month, and the desolate, desert-like landscape brought reading the book even more to life.

nick cave's 'and the ass saw the angel' is also a great piece. it isn't the most thrilling narrative, (it was his first novel), but it's beautifully written, and is drenched in the old testament, bloodyminded violence that informs all his music

[rivethead]

Originally Posted by Repenter

nick cave's 'and the ass saw the angel' is also a great piece. it isn't the most thrilling narrative, (it was his first novel), but it's beautifully written, and is drenched in the old testament, bloodyminded violence that informs all his music

I bought that in First Edition HC/DJ mint for .75 at a used book barn something like 15 years ago. Last I checked it was selling for more than $100 on ebay.

rh

[Repenter]

the first editions are very hard to track down, and the only time you get them for less than that is when the owner (usually a discount, used bookstore) doesn't know what it is.

i cheaped out and bought a softcover reprint on henry rollins' publishing company for $20

[Rise]

So all this talk about actual books what about the original suggestion of a book forum any chance of that happening ?

[rivethead]

Originally Posted by Rise

So all this talk about actual books what about the original suggestion of a book forum any chance of that happening ?

I'm poking around V-Bulletin to see how to do it. I haven't had much time to do so, and I'm massively ignorant--about more than just V-Bulletin.

It'll happen, I'm just not sure when.

rh

[Rise]

Originally Posted by rivethead

I'm poking around V-Bulletin to see how to do it. I haven't had much time to do so, and I'm massively ignorant--about more than just V-Bulletin.

It'll happen, I'm just not sure when.

rh

Great thanks

[rivethead]

As far as true crime stuff, I read a lot of the stuff about Whitey Bulger/John Connolly fairly recently. If you haven't done any reading on it, you might want to start with Valhalla's Wake. It's a great book about the IRA and the connection with South Boston...but it was written as a red herring so that Bulger wouldn't kill the rest of McIntyre's family...pretty killer idea, in retrospect.

Then read Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob for details about the connection to the FBI that inspired the Departed and other films, and see if you can get through Kevin Weeks' Brutal; My Life Inside Whitey Bulger's Irish Mob. If you're interested in the struggle in Northern Ireland and the IRA, you should also check Patrick Nee's A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection. Nee grew up about an hour and a half away from where I lived in Ireland.

There are a ton of other books on the subject, but I haven't gotten back to it. I do remember being surprised that so many in Southie were advocating freeing Whitey after he was finally arrested.

rh

[Thamob]

Just finished Day by Day Armageddon. Pretty good zombie book. Just started the second one.

[CRisCO]

I've been reading the historical fictions of Conn Igulden lately.

I've read his first Genghis Khan and first Caesar half way through the second and it's pretty fucking entertaining.

[rivethead]

Steven Saylor has a pretty killer historical fiction series set in ancient Rome. The main character is a bit like today's private detective archtype, but dealing with the daily routine and political scene in Rome. Exhaustively researched and very, very well done.

I've read a few of them, the only title I can remember is Murder on the Appian Way.

rh