i need something cheery to read, suggestions?

Any of Stephen Fry's books.

thankies good fellow

Theoretical Psychoanalysis: Jacques Lacan, Sigmund Freud, Jacques-Alain Miller, Slavoj Žižek (Zizek for foreigners ), Mladen Dolar and the Ljubljana school.

Literature: Guillaume Apollinaire, Henry Miller, Marquis DeSade, Bertold Brecht.

My fave is probably Apollinaire's The Eleven Thousand Rods (Les Onze Mille Verges) - short, but fucking relentless, and The Exploits of a Young Don Juan (Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan). The language is phenomenal, at least the Slovene translation is over the top, so the original can't be any less good.

I'm reading "secret societies and subversive movements" by Nesta H Webster

Next is Chuck Pahalniuk's 'haunted' fuck I can't wait for that one

i'm reading motley crue - the dirt

not a fan of the band but a smashing read non the less

anything by robin hobb or katherine kerr. recently read 'fear and loathing in las vegas' after seein the film and i like the book more. fantastically written.

Zizek. Prolific guy.

You catch his piece on Abu Ghraib?

"Are the Abu Ghraib tortures not, therefore, part of the Code Red rules? Abu Ghraib was not simply a case of American arrogance toward a Third World nation: in being submitted to these humiliating tortures, the Iraqi prisoners were effectively initiated *into American culture*; they got a taste of its obscene underside, which forms the necessary supplement to the public values of personal dignity, democracy, and freedom. No wonder, then, that it is gradually becoming clear how the ritualistic humiliation of Iraqi prisoners was not an isolated incident but part of a widespread practice, including videos of rape and murder..."

I liked that viewpoint; hazing, high school, rites of passage, a culture of violence and submission inheirent.

Dude, I love the way his head works, he's so full of insight it's unbelievable. Majority of intelectuals here in Slovenia don't get him at all. Hahaha, at one point he was the official candidate for president of Slovenia! He explained it wasn't serious, it's just that liberals were not yet ready to take power so he agreed to lend his name for candidacy. But if he won, he'd have to resign immediately because he was already booked at Paris Sorbone for the next semester. He once tried to explain this to a right wing interviewer and the guy was just dazed, haha.

I don't know if you know, but http://www.lacan.com has shitloads of his texts taking on current events in the world. He's a relentless worker, his work is his pleasure and his pleasure is his work.