Monday, March 16, 2009

77, 76...

Two more for the pile.

Kill Your Friends: John Niven -Billed as the best English novel since "Trainspotting," "Kill Your Friends" reads more like a knock-off of "American Psycho" starring Ricky Gervais. Set in the behind the scenes of the British pop music industry, the action revolves around an A&R man, a kind of talent scout for a record label. He does drugs. He fucks people over. He has weird (but sort of dull sounding) monkey sex with everyone from hookers to his secretary. He kills a guy. In between he name checks everyone from Pink Floyd to Robbie Williams to Simon Cowell. It's not a bad read. It just ain't "Trainspotting" or "American Psycho."

Wittgenstein: P.M.S. Hacker -Short, dull book giving a very basic overview of the philosopher's ideas. Wittgenstein, evidently, attached the difficulties of philosophy, of understanding who and what we are, existence... life, the universe and everything... as being largely an issue of language. Intriguing, but some of the points the author illustrates are repetitive without actually getting anywhere. Some of what I read made me think of Plato's stuff about the cave.

Anyway, I didn't get enough from the book to satisfy whatever craving for philosophy I'm having. I'm off to the library tomorrow to reload.

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