Whats everyone reading?

[Colin YNWA]

I foolhardishly attempted to re-read Gravity's Rainbow and quickly found myself in that familiar Pynchony quagmire.

I'm ashamed to say I jumped ship on this one a few years back, not many books I give up on, but this one beat me to a confused pulp.

[Frank]

I foolhardishly attempted to re-read Gravity's Rainbow and quickly found myself in that familiar Pynchony quagmire. I was in no mood to just look at the pretty words as a set of vaguely related vignettes a second time

I'm ashamed to say I jumped ship on this one a few years back, not many books I give up on, but this one beat me to a confused pulp.

Now that seems like the throwing of a gauntlet  "foolhardishly" (sic) to the floor. Let's see who among us can put up with the greatest amount of meretricious literary wankery ... to Amazon!

[Roger Godpleton]

Well, Pete Campbell was reading The Crying of Lot 49 the other week and he didn't seem to mind. Are you squarerer than Pete Campbell?

[Frank]

Well, Pete Campbell was reading The Crying of Lot 49 the other week and he didn't seem to mind. Are you squarerer than Pete Campbell?

I don't have Sky, so I'm going to have to wait until the box set arrives to hit back with a zinger that references anything more current than where BBC4 left off. "Once again, Dr Jones, we see there is nothing you can enjoy watching which I cannot take away", see also e.r., The Sopranos, Buffy, Friends, Lost, (although I think he did me a favour there) ...

Please insert the customary reference to Jocasta here.

[judgefloyd]

Pynchon's V was fun.  A bit of a quagmire, but fun.
  Me, I've just finished a re-read of almost all of Garth Ennis' Hitman.  It's so much fun, I'm tempted to try to get hold of the lot some time.  Great characters, good mimicry of superhero tropes*, action, violence, Batman........it's dead good.
  Now back to the Mars books



*his Satanus send-up is a hoot

[dracula1]

Just purchased and read Frankenstein alive,  alive which see's the return of Wrightson to his beloved visual creation. All l can say is by grud!   .... Read it and see of yourselves. Enjoyed the first episodr even better as l had Drokk the sound track on my headphones while reading it and they seemed to marry up perfectly. Can not wait till issue two ... It's alive ...alive!

[Satanist]

Just finished Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre. Its DOOM set in Scotland. Army experiment goes tits up while nearby kids are on a trip to help get over a murder that happened at their school and all hell breaks loose. Its stupid, funny and gory. I got fed up with Brookmyres schtick a while back and this isnt his best but its nowhere near his worst.

Imagine it would make a good read on yer hols.

Now onto Dance with Dragons. Be back in a few months.

[Syne]

Just about to start reading "Moonchild," a Pat Mills story drawn by John Armstrong and originally published in Misty back in 1978. I'm curious to see how Mills wrote for a young female audience.

[Roger Godpleton]

"STOP BEING A GIRL."

[TordelBack]

"STOP BEING A GIRL."

An interesting choice of reading material.  Has it helped any? 

[shaolin_monkey]

Talking of girls, I gave my daughters The Judge Dredd Mega Collection to read.  We now have Judge Baby Rosy, Judge Mouth and Judge Death patrolling the living room. My eldest split apart her nunchakus from her ninja outfit to turn them into Daysticks, and promptly started beating me around the head with them. I very nearly sentenced her to bed with no supper.

[Syne]

Talking of girls, I gave my daughters The Judge Dredd Mega Collection to read.  We now have Judge Baby Rosy, Judge Mouth and Judge Death patrolling the living room. My eldest split apart her nunchakus from her ninja outfit to turn them into Daysticks, and promptly started beating me around the head with them. I very nearly sentenced her to bed with no supper.

You need to make yourself a SJS uniform 

[Syne]

"STOP BEING A GIRL."

But it feels so good. . .

[Syne]

Moonchild is a lot of fun. Most obvious difference from the stuff Mills was writing for boys back then is the lack of carnage: there's only one death, which, while it is quite violent, is depicted in a flashback set decades before the main storyline. There's one quite freaky moment, early on, when the main character's telekinetic kicks in: her eyes are shown "doubled," like the irises and pupils have become detached and are floating in front of themselves. This only occurs once, which makes me wonder if it was deemed too weird an image to be repeated.

The strip has really made me think about issues of originality though. People nowdays are so eager to accuse writers of plagiarism, yet ripping off tv shows and movies was standard practice for Mills and his fellow creators. Moonchild is, of course, based on Carrie, and the main character is named "Rosemary," a blatant lift from another iconic horror story. If Mills pulled a stunt like that now, the outraged shrieks of readers would be echoing across the internet.

[Roger Godpleton]

How to Not Be The Guy Who Won't Shut Up About His Dumb Kids.

A very informative self-help book, it has an interesting introduction written by Professor of Roads David Knight.