Reading Record 2022 - Uniquely Portable Magic - The Bear and Badger

acemuzzy

Raiziel wrote:

I’m still digesting the whole thing, and it’ll take a while to get my head around it. Do you remember what you took away from it? My early take was that it’s about mental illness, which is a theme that my own fiction is deeply focused on. I want to dig around and see if there are any interviews with Ishiguro regarding the story, but I need to let it settle first.

I think it was ~15 years ago when I read it, so I can't really remember tbh. I remember feeling the character's confusion. But can't recall too much beyond that. I'd be interested to hear of you find out more though!

ShabbyMcCrabby

Raiziel wrote:

I don’t know man, I thought this… …was something that made me pick up Weaveworld in the book store way back when.

Well I bought it because I liked Barker and definitely not because of the cover. Here with my Hellbound Heart to show a good one. I have those Cabal and Great and Secret Show ones.

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davyK

Wow.

LivDiv

5. Alice in WonderlandA classic. I love that it doesn't attempt to make sense or have a moral or any real arc for Alice to go on. Its just a bunch of mental shit happening.

Cos

I'm about halfway through So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson but I just can't stick with it. It's the first of his books I've read after enjoying hearing him on radio and podcasts but it's quite disappointing. There's no real insight so it just feels like a series of slightly connected ramblings, and he comes across as quite naive in his dealings with some of those he interviews. There are actually a couple of references to his potential naivety but he never really examines it or recognises it might be colouring his view. Feels like he is quite easily taken in I guess.

Anyway, it's actively annoying me so I can't be bothered wasting another four hours on it. I'd be interested to know if this is a common style for him or if any of this other books would be worth checking out at some point.

poprock

LivDiv wrote:

5. Alice in WonderlandA classic. I love that it doesn't attempt to make sense or have a moral or any real arc for Alice to go on. Its just a bunch of mental shit happening.

Ever read any Jeff Noon, Liv? He wrote an unofficial ‘trequel’ called Automated Alice, which I really like. It sort of mixes up his own psychedelic sci-fi mythos with the Alice myth. Hard to delineate where one stops and the other starts. I’ve no idea how it would land for someone who isn’t already a fan of Noon’s work, but it might be of interest.

It’s the third book in Noon’s Vurt series, but it’s also a third book after Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-glass at the same time. It’s … unusual.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Automated-Alice-Jeff-Noon/dp/0552999059

LivDiv

I have not but Im up for having a look.
I semi hoped someone might chime in with a recommendation off the back of AiW.
I bought the complete works so half way through Looking Glass.

For £3.50 delivered Ill give it a go. Im getting quite a pile of reading shame at the moment but its nice to have options.

I've just given up on The Portrait of Dorian Gray. I juts can't get on with the overtly descriptive writing style. I guess he was a poet more than a novel writer which shows. Just not my thing as well done as it is.

poprock

Fair. Dorian Gray is a great idea badly written, if you ask me. Better off with a movie adaptation.

davyK

I remember finding Dorian Gray challenging. It's more than just a story which is what makes it more difficult.

LivDiv

It took a long time to get going. I think the first instance of the portrait changing is over halfway through the book.
That was followed by a chapter where little of anything happened, I largely skim read that.
I'll finish it one day , its not a long book but its a bit of a slog.

Some will love how Wilde pores over details but not myself.

LivDiv

6. Alice Through the Looking Glass
Enjoyable if not quite as much as Wonderland.
It jumps suddenly which fits the dream structure but as a boom feels more like a selection of loosely linked encounters than a full journey.
There are some great parts though. Joyous word play and Humpty makes it into the top list of Alice characters, I like when Carroll's characters are obtuse or stubborn to the point of being rude, the Caterpillar in Wonderland gets a shout.

davyK

Reread A Clockwork Orange after many, many years. >30
It's a technical marvel. It is so readable with all the beautiful phrasing and linguistic gymnastics. It is hard after seeing the film to not overlay its imagery but thats fine. It shows how good an adaptation it is as well.

Still a classic. I read the 50th anniversary edition which is a handsome presentation with a clutch of extras. One tidbit from it is the author wondering if a reference to Elvis should stay in as it wasnt clear he would remain famous and date the book.

Raiziel

9. Dead Moon by Peter Clines.

This is the third book in the author’s Threshold series. Each one is a self contained story with new characters set in the same universe. This one is a bit of a departure from the first two, which have contemporary settings. The title’s a big giveaway; it takes place two hundred years in the future and is set on the moon. And it has zombies in it. Zombies…on the moon. Not a fan of the idea, not gonna lie, and had I known it before going in I might have skipped this one. I liked the first two books in the series because they had decent mysteries to pull me through the narrative. They were pulpy too, but fun. This one doesn’t bother with a mystery. There’s an intriguing prologue that promises a lot more than the story ever delivers. All you’re ultimately left with is a sci-fi action movie in book form, and if that’s all you’re really after then this will probably float your boat. I already own the fourth book, Terminus, and I’ve been reading one of these a year, so I’ll probably get around to that at some point and hope Clines gets the series back on track.

Wookienopants

Raiziel wrote:

9. Dead Moon by Peter Clines.

This is the third book in the author’s Threshold series. Each one is a self contained story with new characters set in the same universe. This one is a bit of a departure from the first two, which have contemporary settings. The title’s a big giveaway; it takes place two hundred years in the future and is set on the moon. And it has zombies in it. Zombies…on the moon. Not a fan of the idea, not gonna lie, and had I known it before going in I might have skipped this one. I liked the first two books in the series because they had decent mysteries to pull me through the narrative. They were pulpy too, but fun. This one doesn’t bother with a mystery. There’s an intriguing prologue that promises a lot more than the story ever delivers. All you’re ultimately left with is a sci-fi action movie in book form, and if that’s all you’re really after then this will probably float your boat. I already own the fourth book, Terminus, and I’ve been reading one of these a year, so I’ll probably get around to that at some point and hope Clines gets the series back on track.

Thanks for the review, Dead Moon was next in my list having finished the first two in the series. Really enjoyed both 14 and The Fold but I think I'll skip this one now. I'll go straight to Terminus

LivDiv

7. Maus
Wanted to read this for a long time but was prompted by the recent 'merica stupidity.

Just excellent. Such a detailed account is hard to come by and really puts across the holocaust in a way the larger scale numbers and zoomed out stories we usually see cant.

poprock

It’s a staggering piece of work. Ironically I read it at school.

davyK

I have it on my bookshelf beside Anne Frank and Primo Levi.

The second copy I bought after I lent it to a nephew who never returned it.

LivDiv

The way he portrays himself and even more so his father in not always the best light adds a huge amount of authenticity to it.
It would be very easy to skip past some of his father's stereotypically Jewish traits or his own selfishness or lack of patience at times but the book would have been so much weaker for it.

Wookienopants

Tony Parsons - The Hanging Club

Another fun London based police thriller with DC Wolfe on the hunt for a group of masked vigilante killers who kidnap and then hang people they deem to have escaped justice.
Really enjoyed this

Wookienopants

Make Love The Bruce Campbell Way - Bruce Campbell

A fictional story in which Bruce somehow gets cast in a fictional Hollywood A list movie opposite Richard Gere and Renee Zellwegger and all sorts of hijinks occur.

Very silly, very stupid but made me smile and laugh plenty. I imagine it's probably pretty shit if your not a fan of Bruce's B movie shtick

Raiziel

10. A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

This is a Mass Effectian space opera where a dormant godlike intelligence is woken up by a group of human scientists which then sets out to either wipe out or subjugate all life in the galaxy. I liked the sound of this one, and it won a Hugo back in 1993, but I was left rather cold by it. There’s lots of really interesting ideas here—in fact I’d say it’s an ideas-first book, with story coming in second and characters last—but I just wasn’t a fan of the execution. There’s a large part of the story that takes place on an alien planet where civilisation is only at a medieval stage, and while the aliens there are very creative, I was just really switched off by the story that takes place there. Also, some of the made up words sounded like they came straight out of a Rick and Morty episode. Clearly this book has its fans, and it’s an award-winner to boot, so it’s not a bad book. It just wasn’t for me.

Gremill

8. In Plain Sight (Ross Coulthard)
The first non-fiction book i've read in ages is an account of the UFO/UAP phenomenon from the 1940s to present day by an award winning Australian investigative journalist. I really enjoyed it - he tells a good story of the changing attitudes towards UAPs from initial straight reporting in the media to the highly skeptical approach towards modern sightings. Great presentation of the facts, figures and who said what/who met whom gives way to some conjecture and leaps of logic later in the book but overall a great read.

9. Spares (Michael Marshall Smith)
Brilliantly written mash up of surreal horror, dystopian future technology and pulpy noir detective story. Loved it, will definitely be checking out some of his other books.

Moot_Geeza

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

I'd never read this. The film was superb and definitely held up on a fairly recent rewatch, but there are multiple additional layers of grime, grot and cuntery to most characters in book form. What an 'orrible bunch and what a brilliant novel. It's almost a collection of short stories, which I wasn't aware of. Might read Porno at some point.

Gremill

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

I'd never read this. The film was superb and definitely held up on a fairly recent rewatch, but there are multiple additional layers of grime, grot and cuntery to most characters in book form. What an 'orrible bunch and what a brilliant novel. It's almost a collection of short stories, which I wasn't aware of. Might read Porno at some point.

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when I read it - the language and dialect used really hammers it home too.

acemuzzy

It's great. Try Filth, toppest tier too. I ought read more of his, the ones I've read have all been bangers.

mistercrayon

I like how you can slowly understand the gibberish after a while.

Moot_Geeza

It was oddly infectious by the end, I caught myself thinking the word likesay a few times.

The Daddy

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh I'd never read this. The film was superb and definitely held up on a fairly recent rewatch, but there are multiple additional layers of grime, grot and cuntery to most characters in book form. What an 'orrible bunch and what a brilliant novel. It's almost a collection of short stories, which I wasn't aware of. Might read Porno at some point.

Make sure you give Porno a shot, it’s a great follow-up.

poprock

mistercrayon wrote:

I like how you can slowly understand the ~~gibberish~~ Scots after a while.

Fixed that for you.

Aaroncupboard

Forgot to update this the other day so two to mention here:

Book 2: The Wisdom of Crowds Joe Abercrombie

Bloody hell I loved this book and this trilogy. It is such a good ending for this particular story and a fitting ending for many of the characters. It also wasn’t the story I was expecting, very early on I realised that things were not unfolding in any way I thought and I initially struggled with that a bit, it almost made the second book slightly pointless. But once it settled into the story it was telling, it was utterly compelling, riveting and heart breaking. There were one or two tears by the end I will admit.

Book 3: The Wasteland Stephen King

Onto the next in my expanded The Dark Tower read through. I haven’t read these before and after initially being cold on The Gunslinger, this book (and The Drawing of the Three) was a great read. I’ve grown accustomed to the slight mental ness of the the Dark Tower world and happily went along with the ride. I was rewarded with a thrilling book that actually gave some real forward motion to the story. I’m also starting to really, really like the characters in this and it had a surprisingly good ending.

Next up, The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne which I am stupidly excited about.

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