Just bought that Skagboys on Kindle. I do like Welsh.

I hated the Mhybe, thought it was a rare misstep for SE, she's just too whiny for me to give a shit about.

Bauchalain and Korbal Broach are awesome, their spin off series of short stories is worth getting at some point in the future. Finish first though. You must finish.

It's so hard to pick a particular Malazan book because they all feature pivotal, often heart wrenching moments.

I find that the difference between SE and GRRM is that when SE kills someone off, he's crying whilst he does it but I always got the feeling that GRRM punishes his characters out of jealously/sadistic pleasure.

@stormy - Most of it seems to be derived from Latin or Scandinavian. I found it hard to follow at first, he does some very interesting stuff with Kellhus.

I find Frank O Hara a pain in the tits and have done for several years. I know I'm in the minority here though.

Yeah, try to resist, it all comes together nicely. Especially the way it gradually reveals the different layers of history. I liked the way he handled the use of magic, always difficult to balance and write in fantasy.

Neuromancer
Do I need to read this? I hate anime, love Blade Runner, matrix.

The Little Sister had probably the best ending of any of the Marlowe novels I have read, which is all but Playback. Probably the most vulnerable Marlowe has been in any of 'em. Maybe my favourite, although the Long Goodbye is hard to beat.

I finished Without Feathers by Woody Allen. The high point was "What If the Impressionists Were Dentists?" or "The Whore of Mensa." First is ridiculous, ridiculous, funny. Vincent Van Gogh falls in love with the mouth of a patient, which is beautiful, but not too perfect. Ends up cutting his ear off due to some dentistry mishap. Second is send up of Chandler and the rest of the Hardboiled Detective crowd. Fertile ground for silly jawing, of course, but done very well. Makes me want to watch Play It Again Sam again.

I am a hundred pages into Women by Bukowski. It is not tickling my humour centre as much as the past two, but it has a serious track on making all of these crude realities feel good. I particularly like the blackhead paragraph.

Facewon wrote:

I've been slowly making my way through The God Debates, by John Shook. It's a very mixed bag. Some of it excellent and clear, other bits, in trying to lay out the arguments using formal logic. P1 P2 P3 then C etc. Tend to just either confuse things, or, on a couple of occasions misrepresent what people generally mean by the argument. And in general it's the supernaturalist/believer side that's coming out the worse for wear.

Shook is himslef an atheist, although one with a fair bit of beef with those who would call themselves New, but it's not a good look when I can see some unfairness in his characterisation of the supernaturalist arguments.

Anyhoo, as I say, some sections are better than others.

Still, next on the list is a book on the foundations of our morality from the wider animal kingdom, who's name eludes me right now. Looking forward to it.

Gave up on God Debates. Was doing my head in. on to The Origins of Virtue, by Matthew Ridley. Early days, but it's fascinating so far, and not dry at all. Really engaging writing so far. Keep up the good work, matt, please.

My holiday reading arrived - Billy Lynn's Long halftime Walk. Was given a very favourable Guardian review at the weekend, placing it as some sort of modern Catch-22 (note, it won't be a modern Catch-22).

Don't know much of anything about it, so intrigued!

Brooks wrote:

three1ne wrote:

Neuromancer Do I need to read this?

Absolutely not.

You don't need to, but its an entertaining read while you do.

Started reading 'The Blade Itself' by Joe Abercrombie. Its not what I expected it to be. Was expecting grim-faced fantasy epic, am getting knockabout fantasy larks. Readable enough though.

It really does, that trilogy improves so much.

How is his standalone stuff? I've never read them but I would like to.

Kow wrote:

Women is Bukowski at his crudest and most unpalatable. A lot of people find it a difficult book. It can certainly feel like he's deliberately challenging you at times, which is entirely possible.

Yeah, I'm nearly finished it and it is extremely crude, extremely violent and unpleasant. I am not going to look into how close this relates to his life, as it is a book of terrible and compelling honesty. But I am not looking forward to whether he really felt being so terribly violent towards women is excusable / laudable or a provoker of much insight. It's certainly a case of wishing to provoke his audience, but I wonder to what end. I'm also finding it far more repetitive than the last two. Bukowski detailing how great a writer he is robs him of his best comedy weapon from the previous two, being the number of strange situations he gets into as a result of needing to work to get money for beer.

ChattinWithChet wrote:

Kow wrote:

Women is Bukowski at his crudest and most unpalatable. A lot of people find it a difficult book. It can certainly feel like he's deliberately challenging you at times, which is entirely possible.

Yeah, I'm nearly finished it and it is extremely crude, extremely violent and unpleasant. I am not going to look into how close this relates to his life, as it is a book of terrible and compelling honesty. But I am not looking forward to whether he really felt being so terribly violent towards women is excusable / laudable or a provoker of much insight. It's certainly a case of wishing to provoke his audience, but I wonder to what end. I'm also finding it far more repetitive than the last two. Bukowski detailing how great a writer he is robs him of his best comedy weapon from the previous two, being the number of strange situations he gets into as a result of needing to work to get money for beer.

It's a book which is better in hindsight. In a sense it seems to be the book he was building towards, completely unrestrained. I see it as Bukowski ripping humankind down to the basest of levels, daring other writers to come anywhere near him.

I felt like I'd been gut punched. In fact, the last hundred pages or so were read in a state of bewilderment.

Same, Erikson excels at those kind of scenes. Kallor is still a cool character though, SE is also great at generating sympathy for villains.