Whats everyone reading?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

Finally got round to reading Alan Moore's Swamp Thing Saga. Got the first two volumes for Christmas, now I'm annoyed I didn't read them earlier. Crackin stuff. I knew it would be, but bloody hell, I enjoyed it even more than I thought possible. [spoiler]The man weaves sci-fi, body horror and mythology together seamlessly, and as a result, ye care about what happens to this inhuman lump of sentient cellulose.[/spoiler] The few criticisms I could level at it are nit-picky and not really worth mentioning.

Now I'm going back to the present my dad got me. A job lot of 73 pulp fiction books he got for me from ebay. Mostly Sci-Fi and Horror stuff. The blurbs on these things alone are priceless, words like 'incredible','astounding' and 'fantastic' are used in abundance. I think I'll read 'The Glory Trap' now, sounds dirty

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Reread Joe Haldeman's All my sins remembered. Even more sarky & cynical than Stevie remembered it. Cracking stuff.

[Michaelvk]

Just bought Anthony Beevor's D-day..

Outstanding stuff.  I'm not much of a one for the military histories, but everything about D-Day, and Beevor's account, is gobsmacking. 

Stalingrad and Berlin were also awesome pieces of writing, describing how unfathomably grim those battles were...

[gurnard]

Chew 3.  Love the quirky artwork in this real kind of comic book art if you know what I mean.

[Mikey]

A bit of a round up from me...

I finished 'How to Survive in a Science Fictional Universe' by Charles Yu. I didn't like it much, it seemed a bit earnest and without conviction as to what sort of book it actually was. It's basically about his relationship with his father, which is generally a yawsome prospect in my opinion. Time travel and literary theory are thrown together too, but dont gel in any meaningful way.

Also finally read 'Wilt', the last 100 Bullets book! Woo, and quite literally, hoo! Thought it was a great finish that kept me guessing right up to the last few pages - a superb series of comics without a doubt. I felt a bit disappointed the minute I put it down, but I realised that was probably down to the fact there's no more to come.

Current read is 'Surface Detail' by Banks. So far, so good - the main players are in place, SC are playing a role, the ship names are making me chuckle and it's ripping along without a care in the world. I never know what's going to happen in the Culture books, I think because I usually just get absorbed by the characters. Looking good...

M.

[Keef Monkey]

Finished 'The Strain' last night, thoroughly enjoyed it. The tension in the first half was more to my liking than the more action-packed second half (it gets a bit more Blade 2 than Chronos towards the end) but it still works really well. The treatment of vampirism in it is really grimy and satisfying, none of the romance, just the nasty reality of a horrendous viral outbreak.

The second book is on my pile, but I'm gonna space it out by jumping onto the Simon Pegg biog next.

[Noisybast]

Finished 'The Strain' last night, thoroughly enjoyed it. The tension in the first half was more to my liking than the more action-packed second half...

Are we talking about a book here, or did your constipation finally clear up?

[Keef Monkey]

Finished 'The Strain' last night, thoroughly enjoyed it. The tension in the first half was more to my liking than the more action-packed second half...

Are we talking about a book here, or did your constipation finally clear up?

You can't see me, but I'm giving that comment the slow clap it so richly deserves

[Kerrin]

Current read is 'Surface Detail' by Banks. So far, so good - the main players are in place, SC are playing a role, the ship names are making me chuckle and it's ripping along without a care in the world. I never know what's going to happen in the Culture books, I think because I usually just get absorbed by the characters. Looking good...

Really enjoyed this. A return to form with the Culture novels after the relatively disappointing (to me) 'Matter'.

[HdE]

I'm ploughing through a couple of instalments per night of Judge Dredd: Mean Angel and IDW's Metal Gear Solid comics omnibus.

We all know the Dredd strip, I guess. But the MGS comics are quite neat. Art's by Ashley Wood, and after an awkward start the writing is pretty good. Metal Gear is total bunk story-wise, but that's half the fun!

[Noisybast]

You can't see me, but I'm giving that comment the slow clap it so richly deserves

No love for the toilet humour?

[Keef Monkey]

You can't see me, but I'm giving that comment the slow clap it so richly deserves

No love for the toilet humour?

Ah, you misunderstand, I found it very, very funny, and felt a slow clap was the only way to give it the respect it deserved. Am I mis-using the slow clap? Maybe this is why no-one ever joins in.

[SquashedFly]

Tis the Tinternet, the sarcastic slow clap and the non-sarcastic are indistinguishable in some circumstances. 

[TordelBack]

Just finished G. Hernandez'  High Soft Lisp, a collection I picked up from the library ages ago and haven't got round to reading, just endlessly renewing while I wait for New Stories 3.  I didn't dive straight in because while I'm a huge fan of the Palomar stories, I'm perhaps not quite so keen on the characters' adventures in LA, and less so again when it comes to the more 'idealised' big-boobs-and-giant-willies fantasies that Beto sometimes wanders off into.  I suppose I imagine that I prefer the more grounded stuff, in so far as that ever applies to Palomar.  

As usual Beto utterly confounds my expectations with some very funny and exquisitely drawn stories that work really well together to cast a whole new light on Fritz, and more specifically her ex-husband motivational speaker Mark Herrero and his many, many other ex-wives.  Yes, there are some ludicrously large boobs, and a particularly odd version of Pipo, but it was firmly in the unputdownable category.  Now I feel the need to re-read all my Palomar books again.

With the proviso that I have a great weakness for Beto and Palomar, highly recommended.

[Mikey]

Really enjoyed this. A return to form with the Culture novels after the relatively disappointing (to me) 'Matter'.

For shame! It was a bit of an abrupt finish...

M.