And you've prompted me to read We again. I should really lend it to my housemate, Chris, as he idolises Aldous Huxley and I'd like to show him where he, allegedly, got all his ideas from.

I got some luvverly matching silver editions in Borders - top stuff!

I also noticed 'Slumdog Millionaire', which is weird because the novel used to be called 'Q & A'...

Has this happened before?



Renaming the book to match the film adaptation?

It has happened with The Siege of Trencher's Farm, which has been republished as Straw Dogs in recent years since the name of the original novel is not all that well known (to people who don't listen to Hot Fuzz commentaries). That seems to have happened recently, though, rather than at the time that the film was released.

That's the only other instance I can think of, mind.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.

It certainly kept my interest from start to finish, though I wasn't keen on some of the main characters and the writing style semed a bit simple for an adult book. Other than that, though, I liked it.

I remember the short story "Who Goes There?" was released as a paperback and re-named "The Thing"

I was wondering about that. I've got a collection of Joseph Campbell's short stories that is called ''The Thing From Another World''.

I've seen "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" published as "Blade Runner".

Really? Not just with "Now the major motion picture 'Blade Runner'" (or similar) as a subtitle?

That's shocking.

'Northern Lights' was republished as 'Golden Compass' wasn't it? Because of the film.

Why on earth did they rename that anyway?

It was called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Filmed as: Blade Runner", but the first words were really tiny and the movie logo was used, complete with Ford and the city of LA as the cover.

Here it is:

Spock Must Die! by James Blish
Fun little Star Trek novella which touches on the spirituality of using a transporter - as it takes a finite amount of time to dematerialise/rematerialise, what happens to the person's soul? And how better to illustrate that than by having two identical Spocks?

EDIT:
And shocking it may be, but at least it's a way to get the novel read by a wider audience. The casual reader won't go out of their way to pick up a book called "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", but seeing a "Blade Runner" novel might make them grab it.

I'm not saddened by a movie rebrand, at even though the film title is much bigger, the original title is still in place. I've seen that a few times I think.

On the 'Slumdog Millionaire' cover, Q&A doesn't appear at all. They've actually changed the name of the book.

Very odd.

There is no good reason for omitting the original title. Unless it's a re-adaptation, of course.

But that would be silly.


ETA: Incidentally, they did that with Dr Strangelove.

Golden Compass was the American title of Northern Lights so when the film was released it had that title. Rather than rename the film over here, they just released all movie tie-in stuff bearing the film's title.

I read 1974 by David Peace during my flying visit to London, then The Stranger by Albert Camus on the train journey back.

1974 is fantastic, a really violent, dark and seedy novel set in and around Leeds in the year of the title. It's heavily indebted to the work of James Ellroy in terms of content, the serial killer story and the somewhat rushed finale both have shades of 'The Black Dahlia', and stylistically has a bit of William S. Burrough's to it. Peace's writing is very fluid and carried me along at a fantastic pace and he creates a vivid world of a corrupt police force, clandestine partnerships and 70s culture.

The Golden Compass is a better title, anyway.

It fits in with the other two books being named after important items within the book. Though yes, the aelithiometer isn't a compass, I know...

I much prefer 'Northern Lights' as a title. There's something enigmatic about it and that sense of mystery was what drew me to the books in the first place; I didn't know what they were about and really wanted to know what the significance of the Northern Lights might be.

Early Tolkien work to make debut.

Could be interesting, but you do tend to wonder how many more manuscripts they can piece together to turn into a book.

This sounds brilliant. Cheers for the recommendation.

I've torn through the second and third books in the series, 1977 and 1980, and they were even better, especially since they really get into the meat of the story by detailing the investigation of the Yorkshire Ripper murders first from the view of a policeman and journalist, then through the eyes of a policeman sent to investigate the investigation. In fact, they have enriched 1974 considerably since I now realised that the ending, which I mistook for rushed, was just setting up plot threads for the subsequent novels. It's all murky and labyrinthine, with an interesting use of Biblical imagery throughout, particularly in 1980. I'm coming to the conclusion that David Peace may be one of the best, most interesting novelists around.

A bit more info; three of Peace's novels (1974, 1980 and 1983) have been made into films which are being shown on Channel 4 next month and star a host of fantastic actors, including Paddy Considine, (hello to) David Morrissey, Rebecca Hall, Maxine Peake, Peter Mullan and Sean Bean. I'm very excited.

Oh, and following the mention of it a few weeks ago, I re-read We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which is still one of the most arresting dystopian novels I've ever read, especially now that I've read a few more of the books that it has influenced. Set against the backdrop of a city constructed entirely out of glass, the tale of people trying to break out of the regimentation of their society has been done by so many people since but Zamyatin's take is still hugely imaginative.

Bloody hell - that's some of my favourite actors there. I am excited too.

I'm going to have to look into those books too.

Finished 1983 the other day, thus completing David Peace's Red Riding Quartet, and it was a great and satisfactory ending to a superb series of books, even if I liked it slightly less than I did the previous books. However, I'm willing to cut him some slack since he had one book to wrap up three books worth of plot strands in one, whilst still having to advance a whole new plot and introduce a new character (well, an old one who is pushed to the fore). Anyway, it was very good. Split between the viewpoints of three characters (as opposed the usual one or two), it covered events from the previous books from new directions and wrapped things up nicely.

Read Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore the other day and, as with the rest of his books, I loved it. It's a tad less refined than his later books but he still manages the sublime balance of absurdism and empathy that makes his work so marvelous.

Also, after it was mentioned here, I finally read my housemate's copy of Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott, which I enjoyed hugely. An intriguining mixture of fantasy, satire on Victorian mores and maths lesson, it tells the story of a square who lives on the two-dimensional world of Flatland and discovers the existence of the Third Dimension. Abbott's descriptions of daily life in a world in which people consist solely of lines of varying depths and within a stringent class system is very funny.

Triple post! I clearly have too much time on my hands.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty was my most recent read since we're showing it at work soon and I felt that I should investigate the source. Incredibly good storytelling and a really interesting take on the supernatural as Father Karras spends the majority of the novel trying to prove that nothing supernatural is happening and that an exorcism isn't necessary. Like the film, probably more than the film, it's about a man struggling with his lack of faith in the face of overwhelming evil as much as it is about a girl being possessed and doing very naughty things with crosses. It's also a lot funnier than I expected; you can tell that Blatty was a comedy writer since the exchanges between the characters and the timing of their conversations are very witty.

It's got to be the worst proof-read book I've ever read, though. There are so many spelling and formatting mistakes in the novel that at several points I had to re-read whole sections to work out who was talking because two characters' lines had been molded into one or because I had come across phrases like ''tap recorder'' that made me laugh. It's just quite annoying that things like that could be allowed to creep in and take the reader out of what is otherwise a terrifically entertaining read.

I finally bought myself a copy of Good Omens (the one in my library apparently disappeared after I gave it back because I haven't seen it since). I forgot just how much I loved it, especially Aziraphale and Crowley! I'm sad that only one of my friends has read it though. The rest don't know what they're missing out on.

I've just finished It wasn't me by Chris Addison. Nice light read about why you're not to blame for anything the state of the world today. It's written very much in the same style as his one man shows are delivered so if you like those you'll like the book. I'm going to read The Little Friend by Donna Tartt next.

Finished The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett yesterday which was excellent, but I couldn't help but read and think, ''Oh, so that's Gabriel Byrne, that's Albert Finney, that's John Turturro...''

Read a few recently:

One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Not what I was expecting, really. The genius of Solzhenitsyn's writing is that he manages to put you completely in the mind of his eponymous hero (a stand-in for the author and his own experiences in a gulag) so that initially mundane activities and small victories become herculean tasks and triumphal conquests by the end. Rarely have I felt so elated at the thought of someone getting a second piece of bread.

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

Once again, Murakami wows me with his ability to write so musically and to delve so deeply into the mysteries of human emotions. A sad but beautiful musing on the sheer power of love and lust, it's more straightforward than a lot of his work but it's all the more potent for it.

K-PAX by Gene Brewer

Interesting philosophical sci-fi in which a man named prot (rhymes with 'goat') is taken to a psychiatric hospital claiming to be from the planet K-PAX, a utopia in which everyone exists harmoniously, no governments or religions exist and ties that humans would view as essential (family, race, country) are ignored. Written as a series of interviews between the patient and his doctor, it's a wry and funny book that also asks questions about humanity. Good.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Despite being obsessed with vampires for most of my life, I've never actually read Dracula, so it was very interesting to see how it fits in with the mythos that has since arisen. It's really compelling and, even though I knew a lot of the plot points from various adaptations I've seen, it still managed to be quite creepy in place (particularly the description of Dracula's first journey to England).

The only problem I had with it was the sheer level of misogyny in the book, particularly regarding Mina Murray. Maybe it's because I know her more from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, in which she is a strong, dominant female, but I just kept getting distracted by how she was portrayed and it often took me out of the book.

I've just read Scott Pilgram 5 by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Uzamaki (Spiral into Horror) 1-3 by Juni Ito and just started V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. I especially loved Uzamaki, dark, interesting and quite topical. I've been going through a bit of a Marc Ellerby phase too recently. I'll return to reading Louis Theroux and Iain Banks later though.

Finally finished The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - it was a lot longer than I expected, and parts were a little unnecessary (as with all Dickens novels, I've found), but it is a lot lighter than many of his other works and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He manages to deftly bring in some pointed social and political satire on the society of the 1860s without getting too heavy-handed, and his description of the debtor's prison and Pickwick's time in it was both funny and poignant, especially knowing that Dickens had been in a debtor's prison as a child. Enjoyable!

I'm now starting Middlemarch by George Eliot, the next in line of classics that I managed to avoid during my degree. I love Eliot, so I'm looking forward to this one.

I read Twilight over the weekend, and I almost cried at the thought of thousands of people thinking it's an amazing book. It's not. It's not even kind of close.

The writing itself was terrible, with so many words having a "look-at-me-I-used-a-thesaurus" feel to them. Certain words and phrases were overused ("snickered", "eyes narrowed", "perfect", and "scowling", to name a few), the conversations were circuitous and the pace was all over. Then there were the characters. Bella was indeed the biggest Mary-Sue I have ever had the misfortune to read about, and Edward was no better. The way Bella claimed to be in love with Edward after only a handful of conversations with him was quite worrying.

This was all topped off with terribly cheesy moments like the heart machine stopping when Edward kissed Bella in the hospital near the end. I had thought the ending might redeem the story slightly, but I was sadly mistaken as it was a complete cop out.

I do believe this is the first book I have ever actually hated.

I should re-read that. I loved it, and I haven't picked it up in 10 years or so.

I should probably read some Eliot, if only out of a sense of loyalty to the town of Nuneaton, where I spent some time in my childhood and where seemingly everything is named after her.

The Graduate by Charles Webb

Kind of hard to read it and not think of the film, but it's still an insightful account of early 20s aimlessness and ennui.

17 by Bill Drummond
Ex-KLF man writes about his attempts to form a choir to make music as if music had never existed or had been heard before. Yeah, not exactly an easy task. The book itself is actually more than a journal about his quest but also about his experiences/career in the music business (and what a career - he was in the band Big In Japan with Holly Johnson, Ian Broudie, Budgie & Jayne Casey; formed Zoo records and signed, managed and produced Echo & The Bunnymen & Teardrop Explodes; "discovered" The Proclaimers; helped Stock Aitken & Waterman get their careers off the ground; recorded a highly acclaimed solo album - all before The KLF), his childhood, his "art" projects etc. Quite disappointed to find out he was lined up to be on the Jade/Shilpa Celebrity Big Brother, but pulled out because he thought his kids would be angry if he was on it. Turns out they were angry with him for not being on it.
Not quite as good as the previous book "45" but an interesting read nontheless.

I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

Bill Drummond gets up to all kinds of interesting stuff damn him.
If you've not read it i recommend 'Bad Wisdom' by Drummond and Mark Manning off of Zodiac Mindwarp, about a trip to the north pole to sacrifice an icon of Elvis Presley, great chapter titles like - ' Nazi kung fu sex bitches with rottweilers' or 'The blind chainsaw fishermen of Finland' Genius!!

He would have destroyed people in there.

Working my way through 'How The Dead Live' by Will Self at the moment.

It's very good, if a bit hard going in places.

Not long ago I read Great Apes by Will Self. As you say quite hard going, I had a dictionary close at hand, but very imaginative and stimulating. Also read some JG Ballard shorts and A Confederacy of Dunces which was hilarious and brilliant. Currently reading The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. Slow to start but the book deals wonderfully with fascinating ideas.

That's my very favourite book.



I might have to tackle that at some point. I understand that it's quite similar to We by Zamyatin, and I really like that book.

I've been holding out for one of the early editions of Bad Wisdom but they are so rare now I might just get the paperback. There is a chapter in "17" about the fake Finnish bands they created on the trip, recorded but sadly never released. He has boxes of the 7" singles at home. They must be worth a fortune.

It has to be up there for me too.


I'd never heard of Zamyatin or We before but after reading a little about him he's definately someone I'll look out for. In recent years I've taken to mostly buying books from second hand shops. Searching through endless copies of Tony Parsons (there is one in every charity shop) for hidden gems is an enjoyable hobby. I think I've got about fifteen different Philip K. Dick books this way. It's very rewarding and addictive.

they should put out limited edition Cd's from the masters just to stir interest then auction off the singles, *kerching*

Read Let The Right One In after seeing the film and I was suitably impressed. The difference between the two forms is surprising and it was fun reading it and seeing why certain plot strands and characters had to be removed in order for the story to work as a film. All in all, I'd say that the book is a much richer and deeper offering than the film since it has a much larger world and can expand upon the histories of the characters and their relationships. I definitely felt that the finale benefited more emotional from the build up in the book that, for various reasons, isn't in the film.

It's a bit like L.A. Confidential, really. Both the source and the adaptation are brilliant, but they both make use of their respective mediums.

Moby Dick

There really aren't words to describe it, or if there are, I can't think of them right now. A colossal work that is exciting, funny, intelligent, allusive, elusive and just gargantuan in its scope. Is it about whaling? Is it about writing? Is it about life? It's all these things and more. I loved it.

Most importantly, though, it's about being yourself.

Edit: Also, I remember reading recently that Timur Bekmembatov is directing a new version of Moby Dick. I hope it happens since not only is it the most unusual collision of source and filmmaker I've ever heard of, but I bet that he opens the film with Moby Dick, thereby completely ignoring one of the central conceits of the novel.

The Book Thief

Absolutely brilliant. I was hooked from beginning to end.

It also washed away the mental stain left by Twilight.

I think this is one of the best young adult novels to come out in years.

Read Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman in just over a day. After Moby Dick, which was a bit of an endeavour to finish, even though I did love it, this collection of Gaiman's short stories was just the right counterbalance. As with Smoke and Mirrors, the quality does vary from one to the next, the longer ones are pretty much always better than the one-page poems, but they are all hugely fun and imaginative. 'The Monarch of the Glen' was probably my favourite, though that's more because of the American Gods connection than anything else.

I've now started Gaiman's ''The Graveyard Book'', which is so far proving to be fun, creepy and sad.

Finished it at work (it was a very quiet shift). Brilliant, as usual. I love Gaiman's ability to mix darkness (the book opens with an entire family being stabbed to death) with whimsy without it being jarring or one outweighing the other. There's the usual mix of myths, dreams and humour and a fair degree of heart to it as well. A stronger overall effort than Coraline and up there with Neverwhere as one of his best. It's got some excellent names in it, too.

Finished The Scar by China Mieville the other day, an undertaking so large that I took a break from it for a day to read another book (The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, which was okay). Set in the same universe of Bas-Lag that his 2001 novel, Perdido Street Station, was, this time Mieville sets his story aboard the floating pirate city of Armada, amidst a society comprised of castaways, exiles, prisoners and zealots.

The story unfolds after Bellis Coldwine escapes from New Crobuzon and tries to seek refuge in a colony under an assumed name. Along the way, she and the rest of the passengers of her ship are taken prisoner and released into the society of Armada. Bellis quickly finds herself caught up in a world of political in-fighting, thaumaturgy and extra-dimensional beings.

Mieville proves once again that he is one of the great contemporary writers of sci-fi. His complex and complicated worlds are a joy to dip into and he uses them to explore deeper, richer themes of existence, government and nationality whilst still managing to give the reader plenty of action, sex and excitement. Brilliant.