Not a problem - my own fault for being tardy, if anything...

I've got about 14 hours of train to look forward to over the next few days, so I picked up the late and great Michael Crichton's Airframe while I was in town.

Thanks Rach. Those were two points that really stuck in my head, yet contradicted in he book. The differences are interesting

According to the book Bonneville did stay with him during his last months, but Paine was actually looked after by a woman called Hedden. Also the site of Marie's Crisis Cafe was not previously Bonneville's farm but that of a friend of Paine's law partner. Seems she was a bit of a hinderence to Paine - having promised to look after her and her children, she refused to help out at his farm, look for work, and decided that she'd rather live in the city, so had Paine pay for her to stay in one of New York's top hotels. She almost bankrupted him!

The question of his US citizenship wasn't mentioned either. Except when he was in prison in France where there were questions over whether he was a French or US citizen. Paine fought to be considred a US citizen - the reason he was sent to prison!

Guess no one will know what really happened..

Aye - I think our info comes from several sources but you can never really know what is 100% factual.

I'm reading Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov. It's amazing, but is making me feel slightly uneasy.

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking that Jpod would be a good one to read next as I did enjoy Microserfs a bit more than Girlfriend.

Better finish LA Confidential before I pick it up though...

Can anyone recommend any good animal photography books?

Not books on how to take photos of animals, just a picture book in essence. But a good one.

I flicked through this sitting on a friend's coffee table and it was very impressive. It's not just animals though, but encorporate all of nature including plantlife.

This one, although not solely a picture book, includes stories by the photographers themselves about the images they took. The pictures in there are particularly superb but it’s really interesting to hear the story behind the image, which I found just as interesting as the photograph itself.

---

Reread Jospeh Conrad’s The Secret Agent as I hadn’t read this since school. It’s the book that really got me into reading literature critically and it’s still just as compelling and brilliantly written.

I love this one. I've given it as a gift at least 5 times.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. It's a bit tricky to find books like that on Amazon. I'll have a look around Waterstones tomorrow, I think...

Finished The Intruders by Michael Marshall yesterday and it was pretty entertaining, all in all. I still wish he'd go back to straight sci-fi, rather than awkwardly crafting supernatural elements onto otherwise straightforward crime thrillers. He's still a clever and skilled enough writer that these problems end up being negligible in terms of my overall enjoyment, but I did audibly groan when I realised what was going on.

Ivy by Julie Hearn. It was a strange story, but a very good read and quite funny in places.

When my dad was getting Christmas stuff out of the loft yesterday, I got him to pass down a showbox that I'd filled with all of my old Ally's World books. I was flicking through them this morning and it's weird how much I remembered about them (and I own twelve out of fifteen of the books, as well as having read another two of them when they were in the local library). They used to be my favourite books when I was about 12-14 so they made me feel really nostalgic.

I think I might try and find the other three books now, if they're still available.

'Other People' Martin Amis

Baffling tale of amnesia and identity. Ultimately unsatisfying, but ingeniously written - like a lot of Amis' work - as our protagonist struggles to describe the world around her with no frame of reference.

'Digging to America' - Anne Tyler

Warm, witty, wonderful - another immaculate vignette of family life. It's not the most groundbreaking of contemporary fiction, but it's truthful and very well written, like all her novels.

'Restless' - William Boyd

Great concept (English grandmother reveals herself as WWII Russian spy through memoirs handed to her daughter), but less than engaging. The daughter's story is boring, she's an unlikeable character, with an unbelievable child, and her mother's story of espionage, though interesting, is too slowly relayed in bite-size chunks that irritate rather than create suspense. It's a dual narrative that doesn't really work as one side is far more interesting than the other, much like Louise Welsh's 'The Bullet Trick'.

'Once in a House on Fire' - Andrea Ashworth

Far from your standard childhood abuse memoir, this reads like the best novels and is completely devoid of self-pity. Ashworth re-tells her childhood from a completely convincing childlike perspective and with the skill of a great descriptive writer.

'

I remember losing interest towards the end, but those first few chapters in particular were extraordinary and challenging.

The Gone-Away World- Nick Harkaway

A nameless soldier/narrator shepherds readers through a post-apocalyptic tale that I'm struggling to categorise; partly because my schedule meant it took me two months to get through it, and partly because it is a blend of just about every fiction genre out there. It's not a difficult read by any stretch, but Harkaway's scatterbrained style demands some dedication. Anyway, I really liked it.

That's what I'd wanted to read right now. But then I bought Infinite Jest and couldn't resist this fat motherfucker sitting lying on my table. I've fought my way throught about 80 pages of story and 15 pages of end notes thus far and I friggin' love it. There are not many books like that out there.

Engleby by Sebastian Faulks - I think this is his only novel to date that isn't set in a different time period to our own. It was definitely a departure for Faulks, but an interesting one - Mike Engleby is the protagonist and narrator of his story, which starts out as a sort of memoir of his life as a working class boy who, through his intelligence, ends up at a traditional boys' public school (complete with bullying and quasi-sexual events with other boys) through to his time at an unnamed university (which is clearly Cambridge). Then the whole piece switches gear after a girl who Mike was friends with goes missing, and becomes a kind of thriller. However, that doesn't really describe the style of the piece - it is almost langurous in its descriptions, and Faulks really toys with the reader in terms of giving you a one-sided perspective of the world through Engleby's memories, which are not always truthful. I half-loved it and half found it weird.

I've just finished that too, my Mum recommended it to me and I quite enjoyed the Cambridge aspect of it as it's where I live. I'd say it's worth a read but Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris is better and in a similar style.

Long Way Round

I was given this for my birthday and only just finished it last night. I don't normally take so long to read a book. Anyway, I loved it despite feeling that McGregor was sometimes acting like a brat. Made me miss my motorcycle a little.

The thing I liked about the book was that they left in all the stuff when they were arguing, or one of them was being a prat. It seemed to be a pretty honest account of a long trip.

Firestarter by Stephen King.

I ended up spending most of Sunday reading it because I couldn't bear to put it down. Very good indeed.

I agree. There's no way I wouldn't be at someone's throat if I travelled like that either.

Quite. I did a one-month trip in Uganda with a group of people, and even in that short amount of time there were plenty of bust ups.

I think that I need to read Haruki Murakami's books in one or two days at the most, since otherwise I seem to take weeks doing so. Anyway, after a few weeks, I finished Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World the other day and, as ever, it was terrific and strange. Murakami effortlessly blends two parallel, seemingly unrelated stories, one a vaguely sci-fi/Kafka-inspired tale of a man with an altered brain trying to piece together a mystery, the other a fantastical fable about a town surrounded by a wall at the end of the world, to form a surprising, coherent tale about the mind. There are moments of real tension and suspense in it as well as large doses of gentle whimsy, a combination that in anyone else's hands wouldn't have worked, but which most definitely does in Murakami's.

Also, his description of Bob Dylan's voice as being 'like a child looking out a window at the rain' really is about as perfect a description as I've ever read.

Reading Richard Herring's Bye Bye Balham - it's interesting re-reading his blog entries years later, with the additional background information as well. Must read Talking Cock again afterwards.

The Steel Remains

Richard Morgan – author of hardboiled SF thrillers Altered Carbon and Black Man – embarks on his first foray into Fantasy, determined to bring the his brand of grit and violence to the flabby sword-and-sorcery genre. At first glance, it seems as though the same conventions are present – sword-wielding hero, exotic and long-winded titles, dragonslayers – but these conventions are soon stripped down and beaten to a pulp as the complex political story and bursts of steel-edged violence turn the pages.

As someone who has read all his novels, Morgan's laconic dialogue and outlandishly cocksure characters grated a little in the context of the otherwordly setting, but to someone new to his material and used to mock-courtly speech of stereotypical Fantasy will see this as breath of fiery fresh air.

Now I've started The Quiet War by Paul McAuley, as recommended on fellow SF author Alastair Reynolds's blog.

Even Market Forces? I hadn't realised he had this new book out. I can imagine it being a bit like the Stath in A Dungeon Siege. Surly cockney skinhead hardmen don't really fit into swords and sorcery environs. Would you recommend it though? I like Morgan and I like different Fantasy too. In that vein, if you haven't already, read Tad Williams War of the Flowers. Odd post industrial revolution fairie land setting.

ETA: Ooh, it's book one of a trilogy.

ETA: Ah, just read that Michael Moorcock was one of RMs influences, and it apparently shows. I've only read one of Moorcock's books, his most famous, Elric, and I thought it was terrible. Unlikeable, intractable characters who fell into saving the world whilst trying to actually run away from it. More destiny than personal choice going on there. In fact Elric would probably have let the world go to shit if he'd had a choice.

I don't know whether you;ve read any Ken MacLoed either, I certainly hadn't until recently, but I've just finished Learning the World and previously read Newtons Wake. Both are a sort of first contact scenario, written from both sides. And they're both standalone novels, although he has a couple of trilogies which I'll plow into next. Learning the World is probably my favourite of the two, with two very different and not entirely informed or unbiased viewpoints on the situation that eventually unfolds. Newtons Waks is a bit more all over the place, having to fill in a lot of background to explain some of what's happening nerer the end, but some of the factions - expecially the 'bloody Carlyles' and the Demokratische Kommunistbund are realised brilliantly.

Ha!

I enjoyed it, although I though that the ending was a little bit rushed - I was starting to wonder how he'd fit everything into the last few dozen pages.

I don't know where you get the 'cockney' from! Main protagonist Ringil is certainly a tough guy - with the necessary dark past - but his brusk attitude is appealing in the same way Takeshi Kovacs's is. I would certainly recommend the book to you as a fantasy reader, if only to see how the genre subversion works for you.


He has passed across my radar now and again, but I always have something else to read, and without a recommendation I have not ventured to put him at the top of the list. I will bear your comments in mind when I'm next looking though!

After The Quiet War I'm probably going to read Sean Williams's Astropolis, which sounds large.


It did seem rushed - especially with the inclusion of the epilogue - although that may have been deliberate. Maybe in the context of the trilogy Andy mentions above, the end is actually just a short respite before the cabal and the Dwellers reveal much bigger and more dangerous plans, and Ringil's dark destiny plays out...

Is he a bit famous? He did the Force Unleashed novelisation. Nice guy.

I meant Jason Statham in Dungeon Siege (the movie) in that he is a character who is a bit incongruous in a Fantasy setting, similar to how Morgans grit and noirish-ness may not sit so easily.

I would definately recommend. Try out a standalone to see if his writing suits you, but I'm sure it will. I always see his name next to Alastair Reynolds, Iain M Banks and Peter Hamilton but for some reason never read any of his books.

In fact, as others here seem to like that strand of new british Sci Fi as much as I do, here's a list of authors considered to embody the genre as taken from Wikipedia:

Iain M. Banks, Stephen Baxter, M. John Harrison, Alastair Reynolds, Paul J. McAuley, Ken MacLeod, Peter F. Hamilton, and Justina Robson.

Also, authors included in a shot story anthology from 2007 on New Space Opera included (I've bolded the ones I've read, and I'd reccomend them all, and I've italicised the ones that are in the previous list as well, so there's plenty more authors there to explore)(I notice Paul McAuley makes both lists so you'll have to tell us if he's any good Adam):

Gwyneth Jone
Ian McDonald
Robert Reed
Paul J. McAuley
Greg Egan
Kage Baker
Peter F. Hamilton
Ken MacLeod
Tony Daniel
James Patrick Kelly
Alastair Reynolds
Mary Rosenblum
Stephen Baxter
Robert Silverberg
Gregory Benford
Walter Jon Williams
Nancy Kress
Dan Simmons

Also the anthology was endorsed by Charles Stross, Orson Scott Card and Joe Halderman, all authors I'd recommend as well/

I ploughed my way through Ken Follett's World Without End during the Christmas trip to TX, and I really enjoyed it. It's actually a sequel to The Pillars of the Earth which I haven't read, but it works as a standalone book very well.

Set in the early 1300s in Kingsbridge, a small medieval city, it starts with a group of children witnessing a murder in the forest one day. Throughout the rest of their lives, their destiny is somehow shaped and influenced by that day and that action. The characters are wonderfully real - among them are the scheming Godwyn, who dreams of becoming prior of Kingsbridge Cathedral, then archbishop; his unscrupulous assistant Philemon; Caris, the modern woman stuck in a medieval time; Merthin, her long time on-again-off-again love; his brother Ralph, a violent and brutish character; and Gwenda, the landless peasant who dreams of bigger things for her family.

It's a huge book, and has a long and complex plot, but it hangs together beautifully and you never feel lost or confused. I think there are different protagonists for the reader depending on who the reader is; for me, it was all about Caris and her struggle with medieval attitudes about medicine and women, and her longing to be more than just a wife and possession of her husband. But I think many of the characters could be seen as the 'main' character, and that is where it can have a broad appeal.

In all, I highly recommend it, and will be getting the first book too.

JPod, by Douglas Coupland.



After reading Microserfs last year, I've had this sitting in my "to read" pile for a while, and it finally got its turn last week.

I can see why people are selling it as Microserfs 2.0 or Microserfs Plus, as it is essentially the same formula just updated for today's IT culture, but at the same time it is also a lot more surreal, and I'm not sure I really took to that aspect of it.

There is a lot to enjoy - some very insightful observations, and some great humour - but as the book went along I couldn't shake the feeling that Coupland was being a little to clever for is own good - especially when he starts to appear in the book himself.

I didn't dislike it, but it's not as good as I hoped it would be, I'd give it an uncertain 4 out of 5, where Microserfs was a solid 5 out of 5.

I'm currently re-reading Day of the Triffids for the first time since I was about 10. I'm pretty sure that the first time I read it I must have skipped over a lot of the wordy bits as there's no way I would have been able to understand, let alone appreciate a lot of the social commentary going on within it.

It's amazing that a book that's over 50 years old is so timeless, which I presume is deliberate. The only telling signs are the very strange attempts at pro-feminism which seem very 50's in their arguement and also one simple line which describes "a short avenue lined with elm trees". It's quite amusing to think that with all the effort that Wyndham clearly went to to ensure that his novel remains in an obscure time period a completely unprecedented event like Dutch Elm disease can place his book quite definitely before a particular moment in time.

Good, isn't it?! (If you like it I'd recommend The Kraken Wakes as well, it's not as good as Triffids, but it is still a cracking story none the less!).



It's solely the fault of the BBC version of Triffids that I can't imagine the story set at any other time in history than the 1980s, even the fifties are a stretch, although there are plenty of references to collecting coal from station yards etc!

The "Sex is my Adventure" part of the book hasn't aged well*, and whilst it is amusing to read in some ways, it's certainly my least favourite part of the book. Still, it wouldn't be a Wydham novel without some kind of comment on a woman's place in the world!

*Nor have the songs he includes either!

I've never seen the 1980's BBC version actually so that wasn't a problem with me. He did mention horse and carts being around every now and again though. I shall have to check out The Kraken Wakes as I tried reading that when I was a kid as well but couldn't get into it, nor The Trouble With Lichen.

I've just started reading Post Office to see what Bukowski is like and so far it's a very easy read but I haven't read enough to pass any judgement yet.

Oo! Watch it, it's very good adaptation (if a tad dated!).



I still need to read The Trouble With Lichen and The Chrysalids, both of which are on my list for this year (I didn't want to read them all at once!).

I'm reading free ebooks at the moment, all legitimately published under creative commons agreements. I found one called Ventus by Karl Schroeder first, which was ok, and got me going. Then I tried Earthweb by Marc Steigler, which I gave up on quite quickly. Then read Down on the Farm by Charles Stross, I've read some of his books before and enjoyed them and this was a short (novellette?) on recurring lead Bob Howard called Down on the Farm.

Now I'm reading Blindsight by Peter Watts which was a 2007 Hugo nominee and very enjoyable so far. It's quite hard sci-fi and it seems to be building towards a horror story. 5 crew and a resurrected vampire for a commander, plus their sentient ship, investigating a myserious object that's appeared in the solar system. It's talked, it's threathened and the character who we are following as seen things out of the corner of his eye, bony things. It's a bit cliched but I'm certainly enjoying it so far.

If anyone is interested in getting some legitimate books for free this is a good resource. http://www.freesfonline.de/index.html There's a lot of shorts and novellas, but also a bunch of full novels as well. Just a pity they aren't categorised or rated at all, although you can browse by Award.

One of my Mum's favourite books is Chocky so I might give that a go at some point as well. Any opinion on it?

I do, as I read it last year!

Like all Wyndham, it has an interesting premise at its core, but I would have to say, of all of his books that I have read, this has probably dated the worst. The relationship the father has with his children is particularly amusing, he keeps referring to his son as "old man" and he has no time at all for his daughter, who is constantly being told to shut up!

Overall I'd say it was an interesting read, but it's not one of his best.

Let The Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist

Vampire "child" moves into a Swedish suburb and befriends the young boy next door. There are some parts that are understandably not included in the film adaptation, and a few additional plot threads and a not as bloody finale as in the film. A pretty fine read and the big screen adaptation certainly does it justice.

Just started reading 17 by Bill Drummond. Has what has become one of my favourite opening lines in a book - I can feel a book coming on. You know, like, when you get the first inclinations you might need a shit.

Over Christmas and the last few weeks, I've read George Pelecanos' DC Quartet (The Big Blowdown, King Suckerman, The Sweet Forever, Shame The Devil). Fans of The Wire may recognise Pelecanos' name as being that of one of the chief writers on the show, and there is certainly something similar between the scope of that show and the aims of the Quartet. Each book takes place in Washington D.C. during a decade, starting with the 1940s, then going on to the 70s, 80s, and 90s, following the fortunes of the Karras family (father Pete in the first book, son Dimitri in the subsequent ones). Pelecanos' skill is in creating a sense of his city and the atmosphere of the eras in which the books are set; his use of music, in particular, is very effective and helps to place his work in a very specific time and place. Each of the books also has a compelling mix of sex and violence thrown into the mix, so whilst they are all interesting, they're still exciting and fun.

I also read Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut, which was simultaneously an hilarious satire on attitudes towards those involved in the Nazi party and a sobering tale of the effect that the main character's actions have on his soul.

Expecting Someone Taller - Tom Holt
Malcolm Fisher accidentally becomes Master of the World when he runs over a badger (actually Ingolf, last of the giants). Based loosely on German mythology (Wotan, Valkyries, Rhinedaughters, etc) and funny with it. I'll be looking around for some more of his stuff.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami



Japanese author Haruki Murakami writes about running, writing and life in general.

There's something about Murakami I can't quite put my finger on.

His writing style is very lyrical - almost poetic - and to a point it doesn't seem to matter what he is writing about, it is just a joy to read his prose. Perhaps that explains how I came to read a book about running, something I have personally detested since I was forced to do cross country at school.

The book covers a two year period in Murakami's life, and mainly details his preparations for the 2005 New York Marathon, and then a triathlon in 2006. During the course of the book he also looks back over his running history and how it has affected his life and his writing.

Throughout, the book has a gentle, self deprecating sense of humour, and Murakami himself is incredibly modest when talking about his works, but the thing I liked most is that it has given me an insight into the mind of an author whose works I am only just beginning to discover, but am thoroughly enjoying.

Finished Blindsight now, which was a great little sci-fi horror. Great tension in the small isolated group, very reminiscent of The Thing, Solaris, Sunshine, that sort of thing. Not my normal Sci Fi read, but I'm glad I did. Now I'm halfway through Accelerando! by Charles Stross, which has been quite engaging despite the ridiculous number of long, technical words and economic and legal theory thrown in there. Plus just started The Execution Channel by Ken MacLoed, which I can't say much about yet other than it's started at a fair old near-future clip. More speculative fiction than science fiction.

Took a few days longer than I thought it would but I managed to finish Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, which I loved. Burroughs' writing, in its disregard for conventional structure and delight in the cadence of language, even when describing absolutely macabre and nauseating sequences, is a delight and constantly surprising. A staggering work of genius that had me enthralled.

It's my friend's birthday tomorrow, and in response to her bibliotherapy at the School of Life I'm going to Borders before work in the morning to get her a couple off her reading list. Namely 'We' by Yevgeny Zamyatin and 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley (I know how to show a girl a good time). Has anyone read the former? It sounds really interesting.

I want to be a Bibliotherapist.

I had to read it for University (I say 'had', it was mentioned so I went out and bought it. I was a bit too in to Russian history) and really liked it. The translation renders some of the prose a bit clunkier than it may have been originally but it's a great piece of dystopic fiction.

Suh-weet

They'll make a nice double-bill for her then.

I still want to be a Bibliotherapist. My force-lending of books must almost count...

"You like that? You'll love this, and this and this..."

Not counting all the shouts of "that's not a real book!"