Been a while since we discussed books, so I thought I'd kick off by saying I'm reading one of the 'Sci-fi Masterworks' series, 'Non-stop' by Brian Aldiss.
Its pretty good. The intriguing premise is that a virus on a massive intergalactic starship kills 99% of the crew. The ship continues thru space on auto-pilot. A thoudsand years later and the humans on board basically have completely forgotten that they are on a ship at all (and have no idea how to operate the ship even if they did). Its quite a cool set-up. The writing is functional at best (strangely it reminds me a lot of a 'Doctor Who' type script) but I can't wait to find out how it ends !
What's everyone else reading ?
Look to Windward, Iain M Banks.
Latest Culture book, still fairly indescribable at the moment, although basically, a species is which was involved in a civil war in which the Culture intervened is trying to get one of it's dissidents to return, for some reason. Centred round a Culture Orbital, where the light from suns destroyed towards the end of the Idiran war has just reached (8000 light years). Much to be revealed yet. Same kind of thing as the other Culture books, same dark humour, more amusing starship names.
Strangely enough, it's dedicated to "The Gulf War Veterans"
Grand, it's lunchtime, off to read some more :o)
Muhammed Ali: The Glory Years.
Big, lavish, glossy and filled with pics.
The book. Not the boxer.
- Trout
I just gave up reading "Bored of the Rings" on account of it being a bit crap really.
It's just a crapper, abridged version of Lord of the Rings but with dumb names & un-funny jokes.
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson.
Bizarre. Drugs, booze & a big red car.
Shaft has a Ball - Ernest Tidyman
I've lost track of how many times I've read this. I never get tired of it though. I'll need to try and get a new copy soon as it's getting more and more knackerd.
"What kind of man commits suicide by shooting himself in the genitals?"
I am currently reading the Doorstop known as "Window2000 Active Directory Services" its very dull and utterly Pointless Server2003 is released this summer.
On a fiction front Im reading Dead Air (Iain Banks) which Ive recently restarted.
Yer Slippo
Just finished Mortal Engines, a 'young adult' novel by Philip Reeves.
It's set in a post-apocalyptic future where huge cities trundle around the desert, eating smaller mobile towns and suburbs, while sky pirates zip about in dirigibles. Very Gilliamesque and highly recommended.
Just Finished the first of the SF masterworks, The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Good stuff!
Lemme see...
Just reread some Robert Anton Wilson books to see how I relate to them now I'm a seasoned bitter Software Engineer living in the Real World(tm) rather than a daft student who was abit too fond of psychedelics who hangs out with a bunch of hippy weirdos. A lot of his assertations seem a little silly now, but yet again I am plagued by the number 23, which is cropping up in unlikely places in the same wierd cosmic coincidence type way.
Other than that I've been rereading enormous great chunks of pulp literature from the 1900s to the 1940s, including Clark Ashton Smith, Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgeson and Robert E Howard.
I'm currently on the first Conan volume in the Fantasy Masterworks series and I must admit I'm finding it quite a slog. I'm presuming that they're scooping together just about everything Howard wrote with Conan in it chronologically, including unfinished pieces and outlines for stories that never got written, and that its going to get better once he learns to write better, otherwise I might ditch it.
"Look to Windward, Iain M Banks"
Damn good book, that.
Just started James Burke's 'Connections', an old book that accompanied an early 80's BBC series in which Burke (who used to present Tomorrow's World) investigates the conincidences and leaps of logic that connect ancient inventions to modern ones. Old, but not as dated as you might imagine (except for the safari jacket with dangly belt that Burke is wearing on the cover).
Three cheers for Pokesdown junk shops - Hip Hip!
Nigel
Darn italics.
There we are.
lets try that again.
Not been reading much lately and nothing interesting for the forseeable future. But if and when it comes out in paperback I quite fancy The Devil In The White City, a non-fiction parallel account of the staging of the 1893 World's Fair and a serial murderer who ran a hotel purposely automated to imprison and kill the guests.
Recently: Richard Zacks' excellent Captain Kidd biography, THE PIRATE HUNTER; IGNOBEL PRIZES, the story of the 'alternative' nobel awards held yearly at Harvard; YOU ARE BEING LIED TO and EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG, two collections of pieces from www.disinfo.com; and, finally, Chris Brookmyre's ace THE SACRED ART OF STEALING (roll on the new one, F**K THIS FOR A GAME OF SOLDIERS).
J-Bo-1,
Still running out of stuff to read on the Oxford Tube
The 1893 World's Fair also features quite heavily in Chris Wares "Jimmy Corrigan".
Jamie B, is that really Brookymre's next book? Having read all his stuff, it could be!
Non-fiction, I'm currently reading Berlin:1945 by ANthony Beever. It's all about the attack on a capital city by a hugely overwhelming ill-trained army led by conflicting generals who report to the unhinged leader of their country. If you think that sounds familiar - there are even stories of friendly fire!
Fiction wise, I have just finished Dead Air and stared Tad Williams' Otherland on the train this morning.
Oddgirl bought me Alan Moore's Tom Strong (Book 1) yesterday, so I'll be reading that after I've finished this Meg.
Ain't she great?
I'm reading an unbelievably thick instruction book for the home cimema thing the wife just came home with, then I'll be reading the colour coded ends of the 500 metre cables that came with it as I turn the house into a spiderweb.
kris
t4e
According to brookmyre.co.uk, the next one's called "Be My Enemy"; I'm sure I read different, though. Amazon have it as "Be My Enemy" too - here's the synopsis:-
It was a junket, a freebie. A 'team-building' weekend in the highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, specially solicited for his renowned and voluble scepticism - Jack Parlabane. Amid the flying paintballs and flowing Shiraz even the most cynical admit the organisers have pulled some surprises - stalkers in the forest, power cuts in the night, mass mobile phone thefts, disappearing staff, disappearing guests: there's nothing can bring out people's hidden strengths or break down inter-personal barriers quite like not having a clue what's going on and being scared out of your wits. However, when the only vehicular access for thirty miles is cut off it seems that events are being orchestrated not just for pleasure . And that's before they find the first body. Thereafter, 'finding out who your colleagues really are' is not so much an end product as the key to reaching Monday morning alive.
Heh heh heh!
J-Bo-1
Just finished reading Effendi by Jon Courtney Grimwood... the middle book in a loose trilogy I think.
Alt history set in the middle east. A bit cyber-punky. Main story is about a massacre in a war so highly topical...
Unfortunatly it doe'snt really hold together, I wish it could have been better. Bit of a struggle to get through it, took me ages reading a few pages a day.
Previously I demolished a Rebus book in about two days. Already bought the next one and will read it soon...
But I'm currently reading through some mags I'd had in a pile for ages including a Punk Rock special from I think Q
If I ever find the time to read a book again (and I didn't in my six months away from work), top of my list are:
1) LOTR because I'm ashamed to say although I've read the Hobbit many times, I've never read LOTR all the way through.
2) strangely enough, Future Shock by Alvin Toffler, yet another of the many books that I've started reading but never finished (and it was so long ago, that I'm going to have to start over).
When I used to buy books for myself, I was never able to buy just one book, so I always ended up with a couple, and only ever seemed to read one of them. My book shelves are filled with ? read, and never read books.
I reread Lord of The Rings recently. Fellowship was a bit of a slog but I perservered and was glad I did. Make sure you find time to read it in big chunks because it takes time "to get into the language" whenever you open it and if you only get ten minutes a day you'll feel disatisfied. Once I got an hour a day on the train I fair flew through it and thought it was great (especially imagining how certain scenes are going to look on screen come next Christmas).
Just read Stephen Ambrose D-DAY where the Brits are all tea-swilling cowards and should be grateful to the US of A.
Read a SMALLVILLE novel; DRAGON by ALAN GRANT but wasn't mightily impressed.
But at the moment I've nicked and am enjoying my daughters HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy
Despite what I've just put above I hardly ever read SF or FANTASY these days.
Not reading anything new at the mo. Just flicking through various things including Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies and See No Evil: Banned Films and Video Controversy.
Look to Windward is brilliant, if you take a step back and look at the plot, it's about the gulf war.
I'm reading 'The Shining', never read it before, it seems to be going well.
After reading a 'heavy' book, I always find it good to rest my head with a doctor who novel or something like that.
"Oddgirl bought me Alan Moore's Tom Strong (Book 1) yesterday, so I'll be reading that after I've finished this Meg.
"Ain't she great?"
Hell, yes! Treasure her, Odds.
My birthday's coming up and I'm dropping serious hints with the wife about 2K mugs.
I hope the Empress can measure up to Oddgirl in the kindness stakes!
- Trout
The Making of Miles Davis' "A Kind Of Blue" by Ashley Kahn.
Ed
I'm reading one that belongs to my landlord called 'Perspectives on Death', which isn't morbid, gothy shite like you might expect but actually a very interesting collection of essays about religions and social groups.
Has anyone read 'Gulliver's Travels'? It's feckin' excellent, like Tales of Telguuth 'cept with a different ending for each chapter.
have to agree that look to windward is an excellent book... but then most of Iain M Banks' books are
I also read the excellent walking on glass by the same author without the middle initial.
I've just finished the stars my destination - considering it's 60 years old, it's aged very well with some interesting 'ahead of it's time' concepts
look forward to jaunteing into tharg's office to see what he gets up to
Janet and John fly a kite.
Idiots guide to screenwriting....
I'm gonna make it in the movies ma!!!!
I've a few ideas for films and just wanted to find out how to go about it, and it seems much easier than writing a book!
William Goldman said the same thing. He got to write Butch and Sundance with clever dialogue and great scenes and didn't have to bother researching what kind of saddles the horses would need and what they ate and how often like he would have had to do if he'd written a book.
... it's a slippery slope boys, before long it'll be congflagration and grenades and monster trunks
Michael Moorcock's Book of Martyrs, whenever I can find the time. A collection of short stories of varying quality.
That said, I've got quite a backlog of comics to read, including The Invisibles Book 1, the 'new' Marshal Law collection, a load of Metabarons and a bunch of Sandman back copies. Oh, and 3 weeks worth of 2000AD.
Hell, yes! Treasure her, Odds.
My birthday's coming up and I'm dropping serious hints with the wife about 2K mugs.
I hope the Empress can measure up to Oddgirl in the kindness stakes!
It wasn't even my birthday or anything - she just feels guilty spending that* much money in H&M on her self without getting anything for me...
She also got me a darned cool t-shirt of a hedgehog with boxing gloves saying "LETS RUMBLE". Ace!
* you don't want to know how much.
Forgot to say the other thing:
I also just finished re-reading Lord of the Rings.
My favourite chapter is "The Scouring of the Shire" right near the end. Return of the King is a strange book - the climax is about 1/2 way though & then the rest is like slow fade out.
Dunno how that's going to work in the film - they'll probably just cut most of the end, or skim it really quickly - which will be a shame as the Scouring of the Shire deserves a good healthy chunk of time devoted to it (possibly worthy of it's own film even!)
s
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They've pretty much said that The Scouring of The Shire won't be in the Return of The King - they decided that it was too much of an add-on afterthought to the main story.
This slightly worries me because I thought a lot of the point of it was about Hobbit's standing up and being capable of great acts on their own without the backing of Wizards and Kings.
I even enjoyed reading some of the Appendices (especially the Timeline one)
I'm looking forward to seeing the bits at the battle of Minas Tirith where Gandalf squares up the witchKing of the Nazgul.
and the charge of the riders of Rohan.
and Shelob.
and the poor little hobbitses going up Mt Doom (I was nearly crying).
Please, please don't let them balss it up. (There were worrying signs in The Two Towers...)
book wise l.o.t.r return of the king graphic novel wise nikolai dante the romanov dynasty (reads better collected i.m.o) comic wise jsa 46 (just in time for 47 next week)
Sword and Citadel, the second half of Gene Wolfe's Book of the new sun. And the first volume of Mickey Spillanes "Mike Hammer" books. And Im picking over The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith.
Yay!
Agree that the 'Scouring' is one of the best parts of the novel... in the directors commentary on Fellowship the man himself says it ain't in (subsituting the scenes in Galadrial's mirror)
Pitty, removing that AND Tom Bombadill ;-)
That sounds great, I should check that out...