What I Read
A Note Or Two For The Vocal Book Club Community
Introduction
This is my dip into the new Vocal Book Club Community which you can find out more about here.
I've included The Charlatans' "Tellin' Stories" because these books tell us stories.
Twenty years ago I started a blog, Seven Days In, that has gone through many phases and is now a diary of the books that I am reading, and you can check it out here and join the five thousand robots a day who also seem to find it interesting. Note you need to digest it quickly as the is a meta redirect that sends it to one of my Vocal pages after about ninety seconds, though on older pages it is sixty seconds.
So this week I finished "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald and was not too enamored with it although there were many memorable and quotable lines in it. Check here for a list
âAnd I like large parties. Theyâre so intimate. At small parties there isnât any privacy.â
It did remind me of "Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger, just in the feel and the language and characters.
Although the book left me cold I was impressed by the film "The Great Gatsby", the mansions and party scenes were absolutely stunning and i was mightily impressed with Gatsby's car, a Duesenberg like the 1929 Model J.
Feel free to check my blog to see what I have been reading.
My current book is "The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy (A Trilogy In Five Parts)" by the sadly missed Douglas Adams, and I am thoroughly re-enjoying it, an antidote to "The Great Gatsby".
Favorites
My favorite author is JG Ballard, often his prose is almost like poetry, but he was a master of making ordinary life threatening and frightening.
Two examples of this are Concrete Island about a man who crashes and some wasteland on an intersection and he can't escape, and High Rise about communities regressing and turning in on themselves with disastrous outcomes.
He is a definite influence on my dystopian pieces, along with Kafka and to some extent Orwell. This story was influenced by Ballard.
Although Ballard is my favourite author, my favourite book is "Imajica" by Clive Barker. What I love about it is the circular nature of the story. It is about 1200 pages so I bought a copy on Kindle and when I finish it I just start it again.
I wrote a Vocal piece on it here
Conclusion
I hope I have given you a little food for thought and a few books to possibly read.
Thank you so much for reading.
About the Creator
Mike Singleton đ Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
Join & Share In VSS
Creationati
Call Me Les â„ Gina â„ Heather â„ Caroline â„
Keep reading
More stories from Mike Singleton đ Mikeydred and writers in BookClub and other communities.
Comments (5)
Some good reads! I personally enjoyed reading Gatsby, as well as Hitchhikerâs⊠although both were a good ten years ago.
Yes! I never think a film is better than the book itâs based on, but with The Great Gatsby that was the sad truth. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was such a fun read in high school. I need to re-enjoy it too. I havenât read the other books you mentioned, but youâve certainly made me want to read Imajica!
Interesting selection. Douglas Adams has long been a favorite of mine. I, too, loved the movie of "The Great Gatsby". Haven't read the others, but sound interesting.
I have never really understood why so many people think that The Great Gatsby is good. I read it a couple of times and really can't find anything memorable in it. I'll blame it on my strange tastes. lol
I agree with you about Gatsby. Movie was way better. And I hardly say that