TPQ: What are you currently reading?
JD: One of my favourite reads is Straw Dogs by John Gray. It’s perplexing and confusing, but pushes many interesting buttons about what it means to be human. I also really enjoy the books from Feral House (the late Adam Parfrey’s publishing company). He released many of my favourite books from the 90s mixing occult, conspiracy, esoteric ideas, extremes, Satanism etc. I love the Apocalypse Culture books, both 1 and 2. The worst book I’ve read? Not sure. I try to avoid things I don’t like.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
JD: I didn’t read many novels as a child. I was obsessed by horror, fantasy and sci fi and the visual. So my most cherished book was probably Horror Films by Alan Frank. I’d read about films that I wasn’t able to see and also get very excited by the images
TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?
JD: Didn’t really have one. I joined the library and took out many books, but because I was young I gravitated towards horror trash and blood and gore, so I read things like James Herbert’s The Rats or The Fog or I started reading the Star Wars sequels before they came out at the cinema
TPQ: First book to really own you?
JD: The first ‘texts’ to own me were the liner notes, pamphlets and fanzines surrounding Anarchist punk. Notably the band CRASS, who created a sonic landscape but with political outpourings about freedom, autonomy, living outside of the current system, ecology, anti-war etc. Not books per se, but literature that shaped my thinking as a youth.
TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?
JD: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins for my partner.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
JD: I’m not sure it would make a good movie, but I’ve often toyed with the idea of making a documentary or movie based around David Myatt and his autobiography Myngath. Mainly because he is a shadowy figure, unknown to many, an oddball and outsider, but also somebody who seems to have lived a really extreme life and influenced murder and destruction. To see a skinny ginger haired man in tweed riding around Worcester on his bike, but in the background being an evil ‘genius’ is fascinating to me. And obviously the redemption angle makes it even more perplexing / interesting.
TPQ: The just must - select one book you simply have to read before you close the last page on life.
JD: I have two books that I keep trying to read but since having a family, can’t seem to get anywhere with! Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. Both fascinating and stimulating, but for those I’ll need some quiet time. Thanks for your questions.
⏩Formerly of Doom and Sore Throat, Johnny Doom is currently a DJ at Kerrang Radio and makes a racket with his bands Police Bastard and Rainbow Grave.
JD: The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. Both witty and philosophically interesting…
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
TPQ: Best and worst books you have ever read?
JD: One of my favourite reads is Straw Dogs by John Gray. It’s perplexing and confusing, but pushes many interesting buttons about what it means to be human. I also really enjoy the books from Feral House (the late Adam Parfrey’s publishing company). He released many of my favourite books from the 90s mixing occult, conspiracy, esoteric ideas, extremes, Satanism etc. I love the Apocalypse Culture books, both 1 and 2. The worst book I’ve read? Not sure. I try to avoid things I don’t like.
TPQ: Book most cherished as a child?
JD: I didn’t read many novels as a child. I was obsessed by horror, fantasy and sci fi and the visual. So my most cherished book was probably Horror Films by Alan Frank. I’d read about films that I wasn’t able to see and also get very excited by the images
TPQ: Favourite Childhood author?
JD: Didn’t really have one. I joined the library and took out many books, but because I was young I gravitated towards horror trash and blood and gore, so I read things like James Herbert’s The Rats or The Fog or I started reading the Star Wars sequels before they came out at the cinema
TPQ: First book to really own you?
JD: The first ‘texts’ to own me were the liner notes, pamphlets and fanzines surrounding Anarchist punk. Notably the band CRASS, who created a sonic landscape but with political outpourings about freedom, autonomy, living outside of the current system, ecology, anti-war etc. Not books per se, but literature that shaped my thinking as a youth.
TPQ: Favourite male and female author?
JD: One of my favourite male authors of the last twenty years is definitely John Gray, the philosopher and contrarian. As for female authors, I don’t think I could pin point one favourite although I do obviously read a lot of women’s work. My book shelves look a little patriarchal!
TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?
JD: Fact definitely. I rarely read anything based in fiction or fantasy anymore. I enjoy philosophical works, biographies, crime, comedy etc. I also have many books on the occult as I spent much of the 90s researching and enveloping myself in esoteric ideas and communities. I have a preference for books that deal with the convergence of Satanism or the Occult with fascism and extreme behaviour…
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?
JD: Probably Myngath; Some Recollections of a Wyrdful and Extremist Life. A little known text (available online for free), it’s the autobiography of a strange guy called David Myatt, from Worcestershire, who as a young man wrote hundreds of racist and extremist nationalist texts. He also eventually ended up spreading his hateful Nationalist vitriol via underground Satanic groups (Order of the Nine Angles) and in a strange move, he then joined the Taliban to fight a holy jihad. It’s a fascinating book, because Myatt is eloquent and educated, but obviously travelled down a destructive path of racial violence and National Socialism. The book also becomes an interesting story of regret and redemption, which is what makes it special and interesting. You, as a reader are faced with looking at the life of someone extreme and possibly psychopathic, but in a tale that has warmth, beauty and love at its heart.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
JD: Not really, but there are plenty of things that don’t interest me.
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?
JD: It would be probably be a book about trash cinema of the 70s and 80s or horror exploitation movies (Nightmare USA by Stephen Thrower), as that is something that has interested me from a very early age and I still enjoy. I also like thinking about the complexities of life and tearing down preconceived notions of what makes reality and humanity, so John Gray again. I also like the playful and hedonistic, so maybe a little Anton La Vey (The Satanic Bible) for good measure…
JD: One of my favourite male authors of the last twenty years is definitely John Gray, the philosopher and contrarian. As for female authors, I don’t think I could pin point one favourite although I do obviously read a lot of women’s work. My book shelves look a little patriarchal!
TPQ: A preference for fact or fiction?
JD: Fact definitely. I rarely read anything based in fiction or fantasy anymore. I enjoy philosophical works, biographies, crime, comedy etc. I also have many books on the occult as I spent much of the 90s researching and enveloping myself in esoteric ideas and communities. I have a preference for books that deal with the convergence of Satanism or the Occult with fascism and extreme behaviour…
TPQ: Biography, autobiography or memoir that most impressed you?
JD: Probably Myngath; Some Recollections of a Wyrdful and Extremist Life. A little known text (available online for free), it’s the autobiography of a strange guy called David Myatt, from Worcestershire, who as a young man wrote hundreds of racist and extremist nationalist texts. He also eventually ended up spreading his hateful Nationalist vitriol via underground Satanic groups (Order of the Nine Angles) and in a strange move, he then joined the Taliban to fight a holy jihad. It’s a fascinating book, because Myatt is eloquent and educated, but obviously travelled down a destructive path of racial violence and National Socialism. The book also becomes an interesting story of regret and redemption, which is what makes it special and interesting. You, as a reader are faced with looking at the life of someone extreme and possibly psychopathic, but in a tale that has warmth, beauty and love at its heart.
TPQ: Any author or book you point blank refuse to read?
JD: Not really, but there are plenty of things that don’t interest me.
TPQ: A book to share with somebody so that they would more fully understand you?
JD: It would be probably be a book about trash cinema of the 70s and 80s or horror exploitation movies (Nightmare USA by Stephen Thrower), as that is something that has interested me from a very early age and I still enjoy. I also like thinking about the complexities of life and tearing down preconceived notions of what makes reality and humanity, so John Gray again. I also like the playful and hedonistic, so maybe a little Anton La Vey (The Satanic Bible) for good measure…
TPQ: Last book you gave as a present?
JD: The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins for my partner.
TPQ: Book you would most like to see turned into a movie?
JD: I’m not sure it would make a good movie, but I’ve often toyed with the idea of making a documentary or movie based around David Myatt and his autobiography Myngath. Mainly because he is a shadowy figure, unknown to many, an oddball and outsider, but also somebody who seems to have lived a really extreme life and influenced murder and destruction. To see a skinny ginger haired man in tweed riding around Worcester on his bike, but in the background being an evil ‘genius’ is fascinating to me. And obviously the redemption angle makes it even more perplexing / interesting.
TPQ: The just must - select one book you simply have to read before you close the last page on life.
JD: I have two books that I keep trying to read but since having a family, can’t seem to get anywhere with! Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. Both fascinating and stimulating, but for those I’ll need some quiet time. Thanks for your questions.
⏩Formerly of Doom and Sore Throat, Johnny Doom is currently a DJ at Kerrang Radio and makes a racket with his bands Police Bastard and Rainbow Grave.
I remember picking up the James Herbert trilogy on Rats while the hunger strike was still going on. We were reading a lot of novels at the time given the complete dearth of reading material for years during the blanket protest. They were good reads. Those were the days of Stephen King and James Herbert.
ReplyDeleteThe Girl On The Train was one I did not enjoy as much as the hype led me to feel I would.
Hoping to get to Sapiens one of these days.
A lot of stuff in the above that I am not familiar with.