Filling My Head With Rock, Laughter In Carthage, With Aristotle And Dante Discovering The Secrets Of The Universe

Introduction

When I was in Leakey's bookshop in Inverness, I bought two hefty Michael Moorcock tomes that I was unaware of, which is not unusual, as he has written a lot of books. These were volumes two and three of a quartet, which weigh in at two and a half thousand pages of very dense text, which is taking a long time to read.

I am two hundred pages into "Laughter In Carthage", and this is like reading a book by some Russian writer like Tolstoy or Dostoevsky crossed with JG Ballard, and while I wouldn't have picked a book by the first two, Moorcock and Ballard are two of my favourite authors.

This is from the Amazon page:

Maxim Arturovitch Pyatnitski, that charming but despicable mythomaniac who first appeared in Byzantium Endures, is back. Having fled Bolshevik Russia in late 1919, Pyat's progress is a series of leaps from crisis to crisis, as he begins affairs with a Baroness and a Greek prostitute while undertaking schemes to build flying machines in Europe and the United States.

The books are not easy reading, but they keep you turning the pages and wanting to know what happens next. I document my reading on my Seven Days In blog with just a few words on where I have got up to and what has struck me about the book:

Filling My Head With Rock With Aristotle And Dante Discovering The Secrets Of The Universe

I am a member of an LGBTQ+ book group at work, and usually miss the recommended books. I have read one, but I loved the sound of "Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe", so I ordered that and the follow-up, though I see now there is a third book to pick up as well.

I did not want to plonk it in the Pyat pile, and then I thought, I can read it while listening to records (which I do a lot), so this morning I pulled out "Fill Your Head With Rock", put on side three and read fifty pages of the book. I included "The Garden of Jane Delawney" as the song as that beauty appears on the album.

It is a very easy read, but obviously I haven't finished it, but compared with "Laughter In Carthage" it is a literary breath of fresh air.

This is from the Amazon page:

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison.

Dante is a know-it-all who has a unique perspective on life.

When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they develop a special friendship – the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about the universe, themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Conclusion

While this is one more book that I am reading (I also have Clive Barker's "Imajica" that I have on permanent read on my Kindle), reading while listening to music is a great way to enjoy both the book and music.

Thank you for reading, and I think that many of you will enjoy "Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe"