Reading, beer and today.

Let me set the scene. It's a grey day outside, chilled but my jacket warms me. Mother and sisters watching the TV, seated deep into warm cushions or heated bu the fire's glow. I'm one beer into lunch and Sound of Music is on the TV.

So it's perfect sitting down with a book, or writing. I chose writing, can you tell? Writing about reading though. Normally, when I read, it's on the train or bus to wherever I'm headed. Usually uni, though now uni is finished for me, hopefully forever (cheers, ta). That means now I get to count less on reading whilst in transit, and have to find time to read instead.

Years ago I'd read before I read to bed, the current novel of choice beside my pillow. Now, with technology, I have my laptop and phone to contend with. I can call my significant other, or cruise the internet for videos of things I'm interested in, or even read 101books.net, which I suggest you do too.

The in-home combatants don't really matter, considering it's Foxtel. If it's not Mythbusters I'm not too easily distracted. So with all the above to take into consideration, you'll find I read quite a lot but feel like I never read much, and write in-my-head a lot more than I write down here, or in my book.

I will admit that almost every time having a drink is a mistake. It makes the mind swim too much, even one, so that writing is harder to discipline.

Anyway onto the books! I am currently reading Possession, while I have just finished MONEY by Martin Amis. I'll go over Money first, because it's an amazing read.

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So, 1984. Wait, what? No seriously, I need to start with 1984 first. It is THE book I suggest to everyone, ever, when they ask What's the next book I should read? Or if I could only have read one book in my life, that'd be it. George Orwell writes far too well and too realistically for this to be taken anyway but seriously, and I have never read a book that made me sympathise with the main character, Winston Smith, so well. I mean utterly. Completely. I hadn't felt like I was holding a characters hand in any particular scene until I read 1984, and we got to the end of 1984. It's the best book I'm ever going to read, and that includes my own if I ever get them published. Now to money.

MONEY, by Martin Amis, is the same, but for money. It takes us by the hand and whips us along with John Self, our simple-named main character. He's a writer, and porn director, who's been enlisted to shoot what promises to be a good movie, that'll really make his name, and get everyone MONEY. The entire book is about money, how it works, what it makes you do, how you can get more, how everyone wants, no one has it, and everyone who does spends it like it's a toy, in a manner that the rest simply can't.

The biggest similarity between the two books is Big Brother and money. Both have a simple and utter control over the story, the world, the main characters. There's nothing they can seem to do that gets them out of the water, into greener pastures. Even when you think they're on top of things, there's still that sniff of trouble, worry in the air.

I wont go further into it because I don't want to ruin the plots, or twists, or amazements, or moments, or revelations that both books have, but saying that Money even comes close to comparing with 1984 is quite a big thing, coming from a fan like me. Certain books you know you'll reread once you're done with them, and this is easily one of them. John Self shares his everything with you, much like Henry Miller in Tropic, and the same trap is set that must be lived through.

There's a definite difference between a character that shares a lot with you, and one that shares everything with you. The former kind of book doesn't really get its point across, because it never makes the right connection. It's stilted and you don't feel quite so close to the action, the heart and mind of the main character.

It's worth it to note that Martin Amis puts himself in the novel. Quite a bit. It's not a small bit, but quite a large part, where he ends up talking with John Self and helping him to figure some things out. Normally when a writer puts themself in the book. The only other comparison I can think of is Clockwork Orange, where Burgess shows up in the book, as does the book A Clockwork Orange, but not as he himself and with no real secret knowledge of things that are going on. In Money, Amis shows us and is quite quick to help John Self suss out the kind of things that are going on, being hired as a writer himself to help with the movie's script. I don't know any other writer who's put themself so much into the book that they couldn't be taken out for fear of severe damage.

So it's certainly unique, and certainly engaging, and certainly "looking over your shoulder" style reading, so it's my favourite of the books I've read thus far, from the List. This doesn't include the original 9 books that I had read before I ever found the list. I'll talk about those books next, because it's always interesting to see which books people had read before the list, much like it's interesting to see how they pick their next book from the list and whether they go off what other's have said, or just off the title.

Myself? I try and go off title alone.