About seaweed

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• Comment on mishalibrarian's answer…

  0 0 Doctors and Nurses is my favourite (and the most recent) Lucy Ellman, by the way. Varying Degrees of Hopelessness is also top-notch. seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on mishalibrarian's answer…

  0 0 Thank you - will check out Mrs Caliban and Last Night in Montreal. Mister Sandman is GREAT - even better than the short stories, I think. Go read it! seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on Randal 's answer…

  0 0 Yes, good recommendation, thanks, I've read it (a while ago, not just now!) and it was great :) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on David Wright's answer…

  0 0 Yup, really enjoyed the Verissimo. It's on the shelf of books to be kept (see comment on another thread) - which, incidentally, is my solution to the will to possession. I have one bookcase, which takes about 100 books, and if I read a book I want to keep, one of the existing 100 has to go to the charity shop. Brutal. One day it will be perfect ;) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on David Wright's answer…

  0 0 Okay, I'm not sure I know either - but let me have a crack at it... In terms of Lydia Davies, Saramago, Foster Wallace and Calvino (the IDEA of whose books, in summary, always sound fantastic), there is something about a dryness in them. They lack _juice_ for me, somehow. I realise this could be fully levelled at Borges too, but there you go, I'm a contrarian. Mievielle (sorry China) feels a bit prolix. For Gaiman, Confed. of Dunces and Kurkov, they are all things that on paper, I should love, but the _tone_ of them, I think, just misses what I want. For sheer juiciness, Tom Robbins (almost) every time. For tone, which can tell me very quickly whether I am going to like a book or not, Muriel Spark and Kurt Vonnegut totally hit the spot. With Paul Auster, it's also something about tone. I don't know about self-importance - maybe. It's definitely not the meta, NOTHING CAN BE TOO META, as long as it's also juicy (Borges excused from juiciness for reasons unknown, but you know what, he does have no self importance at all - maybe that _is_ something to do with it. Oh God, the library, I know, I am lazy and bad. My local library hasn't seen me for years, it's so badly stocked - and that is because people don't USE it, I know, I know. *Chastened* seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on Sphinx's answer…

  0 0 Yup, Ray Bradbury big tick. Read a couple of JCO novels I quite liked, so shorts a good next move. Yeah, quite liked Middlesex, although it didn't make my cruelly small 'books I am keeping' shelf. Charity shop won that one. Thanks :) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on ruach's answer…

  0 0 Not come across Ligotti, thank you, I'll give him a go, although I am a total feartie, and tend to avoid scary business ('Lunar Park' nearly finished me off!). I've seen the movie of The Woman in the Dunes, I should probably go to the source. Thanks :) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on Abby Bass's answer…

  0 0 I just finished Lethem's 'As She Climbed Across the Table', which was pretty good - will do some more of him, I think. This is the nth time that I have come across recommendations for Mr Yu, so I am going to take the hint now. I'm from the UK, and only heard of 'The Lottery' last week (I'm waaaaay past school), but it sounds like my kind of thing. Am blown away by the rich list of leads I have here - will keep me going a year, at least! Thanks so much :) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on David Wright's answer…

  0 0 No apology necessary, nice to have so much info! Saramago is clearly quite brilliant, but I can't help feeling I'm eating my greens when I read him. Still never finished the Jesus book (can't remember the name). What a terrible philistine! I didn't feel the love hugely for Death and the Penguin, either. AND I forgot to mention I'm not a fan of historical settings, and I usually don't much enjoy kids as main characters. I am so fussy! However, there are definitely some treasures on your list that I have never come across - to the second-hand internets bookstore this moment! Thank you :))))) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

• Comment on slackerina's answer…

  0 0 Have read Geek Love, and did enjoy it, you're right. Didn't get on too well with the Bloody Chamber or Passion of New Eve, but I'm willing to give Ange another shot :) seaweed commented about 1 year ago

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