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The GOT Book Club

Yeah, I don't think I'm after a masterpiece in any book (and I certainly don't go into any book with great expectations) - I want to enjoy it, which is ambiguous as everyone likes different things. What I've read about it online is that it's pretty good and it is genre-defining for Cyberpunk, which is just a damn cool concept and as far as I know it deals with a drug/'virus' of sorts, which we're close to making in reality! Yay! It's also how I learned of the book.

I'll bump it up on my list :) Thanks mate!

Bleak and/or dystopian is basically all of Russian/Eastern European literature mate. Sci-Fi is more Russian though, we just deal with normal, every day, tragic bleakness :lol:

The brothers apparently have some much better books than Roadside Picnic - I've not read any obviously, but a friend said he enjoyed a few others more. I might ask for recommendations hah.

I'd happily recommend some of our own literature too but we don't have a lot of it translated into English, and the ones we do are mostly about a very specific period of time - Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov is an all-time great book but suffers a bit from having to know the period and people/regions well to truly understand it - it paints a picture of the most troubled times for our nation - the Ottoman enslavement - and the preparations for the eventual Uprising and freedom fight. It's also the most translated Bulgarian book and essentially Magnum Opus for Vazov himself, who is since known as "the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature" because of it (and other very time-set pieces).

We have an author - Georgi Gospodinov - who won some awards with his book Time Shelter a few years ago, but I met him and he's a knobhead in real life so I'm putting off reading anything by him :lol:
I've just started Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu, a Romanian author. I see @sdk mentioned it on this thread earlier.
Has a very high reputation, got a recent English translation. Only a few chapters in so early days.
 
I've just started Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu, a Romanian author. I see @sdk mentioned it on this thread earlier.
Has a very high reputation, got a recent English translation. Only a few chapters in so early days.
I've never read anything by Romanian authors, but honestly my bias is more skewed to Western/American authors anyway - I've lived most of my life in our depression, daily, I don't need to read about it :lol:

That said, might check it out at some point if I'm in the mood :)
 
View attachment 266720

The life story of Klaus Barbie.

It’s fantastically well written and up until he escapes and settles in Bolivia, is a fascinating read.

The second part of the book covering his life and crimes in Bolivia, lacks detail and the writers obviously had trouble accessing info on his time there.

However, the passages covering his rise from lowly Nazi clerk, to the Butcher of Lyon are meticulously written and give a clinical portrayal of Barbie as the psychopath he became.
Just watched the video where he gets caught

 

51Vx9bA1CnL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


I've had Butchers Crossing by John Williams sat on my shelf for a bit after a recommendation from one of you lot, but I've opted to go for 'Stoner' first due to the crazy amount people I've heard recommending this. The general consensus is that lot of people really like this book, but very few can actually explain why.

It's about a guy called William Stoner who is born on a farm in the US during the late 1800's and is destined for a life of toil working for his dad, tilling the fields and slopping out the pigs etc. In 1910 his parents send him to University in Missouri to study agriculture so he can better help his fathers business, but ends up falling in love with literature and ditching his course to take on an English Lit degree and ultimately becomes a tutor at the Uni.

The book follows his life from his Uni days in the 1910's to the end of his life. We are told from the start that he lives an unextraordinary life. There's no major twists, reveals, showdowns or happy ending. Just a story about a very mundane man who has accepted his lot and just seems to be a passenger in his own life.

Despite the lack of a real plot or any sort of stakes, I was absolutely hooked from the start. The writing is just so good and the characters have a realness about them. Stoner is a very socially awkward man and some of the scenes, especially when he meets his future wife's parents for the first time, are excruciating to read in their cringe-worthy awkwardness.

He's also very passive, life just kind of happens to him and he allows a lot of people to just walk all over him. I found myself getting angry and frustrated on his behalf, but it made me think a lot about times in my life when I've also not spoken out when I should have. I think this book's appeal maybe how relatable Stoner is in some respects with his apathy (at times) that it can be like holding up a mirror to your own faults... The power of reading, eh? :D

Anyway, I can't recommend this enough and I'm definitely going to jump into Butchers Crossing next month!
 

51Vx9bA1CnL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


I've had Butchers Crossing by John Williams sat on my shelf for a bit after a recommendation from one of you lot, but I've opted to go for 'Stoner' first due to the crazy amount people I've heard recommending this. The general consensus is that lot of people really like this book, but very few can actually explain why.

It's about a guy called William Stoner who is born on a farm in the US during the late 1800's and is destined for a life of toil working for his dad, tilling the fields and slopping out the pigs etc. In 1910 his parents send him to University in Missouri to study agriculture so he can better help his fathers business, but ends up falling in love with literature and ditching his course to take on an English Lit degree and ultimately becomes a tutor at the Uni.

The book follows his life from his Uni days in the 1910's to the end of his life. We are told from the start that he lives an unextraordinary life. There's no major twists, reveals, showdowns or happy ending. Just a story about a very mundane man who has accepted his lot and just seems to be a passenger in his own life.

Despite the lack of a real plot or any sort of stakes, I was absolutely hooked from the start. The writing is just so good and the characters have a realness about them. Stoner is a very socially awkward man and some of the scenes, especially when he meets his future wife's parents for the first time, are excruciating to read in their cringe-worthy awkwardness.

He's also very passive, life just kind of happens to him and he allows a lot of people to just walk all over him. I found myself getting angry and frustrated on his behalf, but it made me think a lot about times in my life when I've also not spoken out when I should have. I think this book's appeal maybe how relatable Stoner is in some respects with his apathy (at times) that it can be like holding up a mirror to your own faults... The power of reading, eh? :D

Anyway, I can't recommend this enough and I'm definitely going to jump into Butchers Crossing next month!
I have added this one to my reading list. Thank you for the recommendation.
 

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