The Reader’s Nook - The N&G Book Thread

I finished Doctor Sleep, the sequel to the Shining, last night. I enjoyed it, thought it was pretty good and did a good job as sequel. King has always been hit or miss for me but I think The Shining is great and was happy the sequel was solid. Been making pretty good progress catching up with my coffee table piles and next up is going to be We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen or Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson. Only concern with Deadhouse Gates is that it's book two in a series that I haven't read for a couple years.
 
Finished my first book of the year a few days ago, Hunter S. Thompson - The Rum Diary.
I really enjoyed it as a light holiday read, but I can see why he shelved it. I think by virtue of being a novel its a bit light on the gonzo style that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels so interesting.
 
BoilerRhapsody said:
Finished my first book of the year a few days ago, Hunter S. Thompson - The Rum Diary.
I really enjoyed it as a light holiday read, but I can see why he shelved it. I think by virtue of being a novel its a bit light on the gonzo style that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels so interesting.
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Oh man, I can't like this post enough. The Rum Diary is my favourite book and one of three books that I repeatedly read every year. I have a first edition of both the UK and US versions, although it was only released in 1998 so not quite as rare as his others. I also have a beat-up reader copy that I read each year and scribble a tally on the front page, the current count is 9 I believe.

One of the reasons that I like it is because it was written at the start of his career, just before Hells Angels and 10-ish years prior to Fear And Loathing. You can really see from the writing how he begins to see the evils in the world and the worst in people, which kind of set the foundations for his whole career. Whilst the Gonzo style is less apparent with the Rum Diary, I actually imagine a lot of it is based on Thompson's early life. I'm sure you know, but the cover shows him sitting on a beach with a glass of drink in one hand and a pencil in the other, with a new hotel in the background. It's pretty easy to imagine it being Paul Kemp rather than Thompson.

Here are the copies I have with the cover photo I was referring to.

IMG_2900.jpg
 
Selaws said:
Oh man, I can't like this post enough. The Rum Diary is my favourite book and one of three books that I repeatedly read every year. I have a first edition of both the UK and US versions, although it was only released in 1998 so not quite as rare as his others. I also have a beat-up reader copy that I read each year and scribble a tally on the front page, the current count is 9 I believe.

One of the reasons that I like it is because it was written at the start of his career, just before Hells Angels and 10-ish years prior to Fear And Loathing. You can really see from the writing how he begins to see the evils in the world and the worst in people, which kind of set the foundations for his whole career. Whilst the Gonzo style is less apparent with the Rum Diary, I actually imagine a lot of it is based on Thompson's early life. I'm sure you know, but the cover shows him sitting on a beach with a glass of drink in one hand and a pencil in the other, with a new hotel in the background. It's pretty easy to imagine it being Paul Kemp rather than Thompson.
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Wow, I did not know he wrote it so early, for some reason I had it in my head that he wrote The Rum Diary after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas during the realisation that he couldn't really be a gonzo journalist anymore, trying out a novel.
It makes a lot more sense as a development of gonzo than a fading away of it. I wonder why he never fleshed it out and published it then?
The whole time I was thinking Paul Kemp is just a watered down Raoul Duke, which knowing this now makes it feel like that is absolutely true, but in a good way.

Nice set, I got the same edition as your beat up reader copy.
 
BoilerRhapsody said:
Wow, I did not know he wrote it so early, for some reason I had it in my head that he wrote The Rum Diary after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas during the realisation that he couldn't really be a gonzo journalist anymore, trying out a novel.
It makes a lot more sense as a development of gonzo than a fading away of it. I wonder why he never fleshed it out and published it then?
The whole time I was thinking Paul Kemp is just a watered down Raoul Duke, which knowing this now makes it feel like that is absolutely true, but in a good way.

Nice set, I got the same edition as your beat up reader copy.
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It was a surprise to me as well when I first read it. I really can't understand why he never released it during his lifetime, it really is a great book.

The story goes that Johnny Depp found the manuscript when clearing out Thompson's office after his death. Quite the find. I don't know whats more bizarre, the fact that they were friends or the fact that Thompson's will stated he wanted Depp to fire his ashes out of a cannon across his estate (no joke).
 
BabiesAreWorthlessDiapers said:
I remember quite enjoying The Rum Diary as a book - and with having read Fear and Loathing and Hell's Angels (great reads, too).
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I think what's really interesting about all three of those is how different each one is in my opinion. The Rum Diary reads as being believable without the more outlandish elements from Fear and Loathing. Hell's Angels is much more of a study of the gang overlaid with Thompson's own accounts. Pretty incredible really.
 
Selaws said:
I think what's really interesting about all three of those is how different each one is in my opinion. The Rum Diary reads as being believable without the more outlandish elements from Fear and Loathing. Hell's Angels is much more of a study of the gang overlaid with Thompson's own accounts. Pretty incredible really.
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Fun Fact: While Thompson was out researching Hell’s Angels he partied with Tom Wolfe who was researching Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test with the Merry Pranksters. The 60s musta been wild.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Fun Fact: While Thompson was out researching Hell’s Angels he partied with Tom Wolfe who was researching Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test with the Merry Pranksters. The 60s musta been wild.
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He does mention toward the end of Hell's Angels about going to the Merry Pranksters parties at Ken Kesey's house, and how the angels didn't really fit in. I often wonder if he encountered Manson while they both lived in Haight-Ashbury too.
 
Book One of 2022.

Adrift in Melbourne - Robyn Annear

6BE6D901-DCD8-49C7-8581-EC8A2A34EED0.jpeg
A history of Melbourne and it’s people through 7 walks. Australian city centres are more business and shopping centres than anything (they are called CBD’s for a reason), so this is a good way to find the forgotten and knocked down history of the place. Once my wife has read this, the plan is to do the walks in stages.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Fun Fact: While Thompson was out researching Hell’s Angels he partied with Tom Wolfe who was researching Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test with the Merry Pranksters. The 60s musta been wild.
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A friend (who is an ardent feminist) just told me about Joyce Carol Oates and Connie Schultz are getting into Twitter beef because Connie Schultz found out and is outraged by Norman Mailer having stabbed his 2nd wife in the 60s. Schultz's reaction is a very reasonable "WHAT THE FUCK" and Joyce Carol Oates is beefing with her because she knew Mailer and her reaction is a kind of blasé "yeah, that was Norm, he was just kind of like that, nbd"

So yeah, the 60s were wild, even in the casual moments.
 
Started the year with The Boys in the Boat and just finished my second book of 2022: The Anomaly. Both very solid reads. I was a little disappointed but the Anomaly because I had heard incredible things about it, but overall it was a fun page turner with some interesting ideas.

I was also very excited to learn yesterday that Hanya Yanagihara has a new book that just came out today. Her first book was good but A Little Life is one of my absolute favorites. Anyone else going to be picking up her new book soon?
 
ayayrawn said:
Needed to share this somewhere where someone might be as hyped as me, Cormac McCarthy dropping 2 new novels this year, his first since 06.

www.theguardian.com

Cormac McCarthy: two new novels coming in 2022, 16 years after The Road

The Passenger and Stella Maris will be published in October and November, marking McCarthy’s long awaited return to publishing
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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I’ll see your McCarthy excitement and raise you Werner Herzog’s first novel ever.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

The Twilight World by Werner Herzog: 9780593490280 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

The great filmmaker Werner Herzog, in his first novel, tells the incredible story of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who defended a small island in the Philippines for twenty-nine years after the...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
 
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