Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

"The bitch is dead now"

I've been wanting to read this for some time & finally have gotten around to it. Very exciting & gritty. Of course, it's better than the recent movie. However, the movie does it great justice.

As unbelievable as it may be, the torture scene is more brutal & disturbing than on screen. My brother asked how a carpet beater could be worse...it is.

The book handles the last third much better than the movie. While it was a tad boring in the movie, the tension is still there during Bond's recovery & his love affair.

I could only imagine what it must have been like to read this at the time it came out. No wonder it's so popular.

Yay! My local branch of the New York Public Library finally got an edition of The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde, which I'm now ploughing through. Enjoying it so far! I'm glad that Prometheus is in another Fforde book, he's a great character.

I finished an advanced copy of You Suck! by Christopher Moore a few days ago. It was good, and typical Moore in places. Still, I didn't think it was as strong as A Dirty Job.

I'm now about halfway through The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It's very good, but I hope the ending isn't predictable.

Picked up Susanna Clarke's new book The Ladies Of Grace Adieu and other stories. It's a collection of her short stories, at least one of which features Jonathan Strange, and I look forward to delving into it after I finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is taking me longer than anticipated.

What's the British cover look like? We've got pink flowers on a grey linen background. I didn't just love Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell, but I picked The Ladies... up anyway.

Meant to mention Mountain Man Dance Moves. It's a compilation of McSweeney's books of lists. Not familiar with McSweeneys? Go here.

The book has gems such as-


Adjectives Rarely Used By Wine Tasters

Chunky

Wine-a-licious

Supercharged

Alcoholy

Pondy

The British cover is the same as the American one, as far as I can tell from your description. McSweeney sounds interesting, may have to check his stuff out once the ''too read'' pile gets a little lower.

Got two new books for christmas...

First, the one I'm reading at the moment - Ringworld by Larry Niven (always think it's by Leonard Nimoy). It's in the SF Masterworks range, and as far as being a first you can't fault it. There'd be no Halo, no O's in Iain M Banks books etc without Ringworld, but so far it's falling a little flat. The Pupeteers are interesting but the Kzin are barely believable, the cliched warrior race, except maybe again this is where the cliche came from. Still, how would a race so hell bent on killing each other and anyone else ever get into space in the first place. There's a clever twist to their society but that comes after the fact.

Also got Pushing Ice by Alistair Reynolds. Havn't had a chance to start it yet but I will as soon as one of the other books I'm reading is done with. Still reading Into a Dark Realm by Raymond E Feist - more because I've read so many before it rather than because it's any good, and I'm 2 thirds of the way into Robin Hobbs Farseer Trilogy, so I need to get to the third one of those as well soon.

I spent the last few weeks reading The Great War For Civilisation - The Conquest Of The Middle East by Robert Fisk. It is the antidote to the news/propaganda we get daily and should be read by everyone.

Finishing up Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman - a book of 'short stories and wonders' as he puts it. Some is great, some makes me go 'huh?' and some is ok. A typical Gaiman mixture of fantasy, magic and reality. Next up is Anderson Cooper's Dispatches from the Edge.

Do you know if that collection is available outside of the US? I liked Smoke and Mirrors, one of his other collections, and know that there are one or two others floating around but can't seem to find either.

What did you think of the American Gods "sequel"? Damn him for making it so short.



I have GOT to pick this up. Best title ever.

Strontium Dog: Fistful of Strontium by Jaspre Bark and Steve Lyons
Johnny Alpha and Middenface McNulty chase Identi-Kit Jones to the planet Miltonia, where most of the inhabitants are mutants, and norms are the minority. The trouble is, Kit has the ability to steal other mutants' identities.

A bit of a novella, really, it wasn't taxing, and I read it in an evening, but it was highly enjoyable, and grist for the mill. Hopefully my own Strontium Dog novel will reach fruition soon.

Just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It took me much longer to read than the other works of his that I have read, primarily because it took me quite a while to get into it. Once I did finally start reading it solidly I thoroughly enjoyed. Much like his other books I feel like I have read something brilliant that has had a deep impact upon me, yet I can't help but feel that the entire book was completely above my head. Still, wonderful book even if I prefer some of his others to it.

I have now leapt into The Devil In Amber by Mark Gatiss which is proving to be a great read and seems to be a bit more sombre in tone than The Vesuvius Club was.

Please tell me you've included the Gronk. I loves the Gronk.

It's early days yet. So far I only have a prologue, something approaching the pre-title sequence of a Bond film...

I've got an advance copy you're welcome to, although the finished copy has a kick-ass unicorn on the cover.

LOL - much as I appreciate a good horn, I'll take the advance copy if you don't want it

I'll send it to you on Friday.

You are a literary pimp. Of the highest quality.

Thanks. I gots to keep my bitches circulating.

"...tryin' to make the money for the rent..."

ETA: One of our staffers writes sometimes for McSweeney's, I should have hit him up for a copy. Nahhhh. {{{Craig}}}

I don't know - I got my copy from the library. Sorry.


I don't know if I actually got to it as the copy I had was a 1-week only loan with no renewals and I didn't finish all the stories. What was it about/called?


Damn straight. I'm buying a coffee table just to display a 6 foot book he sent me.

Well in Waterstones sale I've just picked up the late lamented David Gemmell book Troy:Shield of Thunder, and Raymond E Feist's Into a Dark Realm.

Both books were half price.

Let's pretend you never told me that so I'm not so jealous of him.


You know, that book could easily be converted into a table. Some legs, a coaster or two and you're all set.

"Monarch of the Glen" - short story about Shadow's post AG adventures in Scotland. Great stuff, really leaves you slavering for more stories in that particular universe.



He sent you "Garth Marenghi: The Complete Ouevre"?! Doesn't that come with a wall mount?



Oh, but you'd be in good company. I'm jealous of the bastard, too.

Ah, no I never got to that one. I'll have to take it out of the libery again!

Heh - no, it's this AMAZING book with panoramic photos of Tibet. Gawgeous.

This Christmas period has seen me being all educated and reading The Crucible and Or Mice and Men. Mainly because I had to for Uni.

I'm sure I did The Crucible first time round at Uni but I couldn't remember any of it. I'm assuming that what I actually did was by the book for my shelf and watched the film instead. Anyway, once Miller stopped bloody interrupting I got right into it.

My boy's been out and bought a few books today and I'm thinking of nabbing the Linda Smith one to read in bed.

Beyond Black Hilary Mantel

A wonderful combination of the supernatural and the mundane, the chilling and the comic.

Mantel's hints at the horrors in the world beyond this life are seamlessly intertwined with the banality of the motorway service station or toby carvery.

Only disappointing in its very end as the richly plotted, brilliantly modern ghost story promised something more than the standard contemporary novel denouement.

Growing Pains Billie Piper

My first celeb autobiography, and though I won't be making a habit of it I enjoyed the faintly voyeuristic thrill of hearing her personal anecdotes and she's had a genuinely interesting life.

I liked that they left her spelling mistakes in.

I found Anansi Boys to be a tad disappointing because the ending trailed off so much to a meanwhile all the characters were happy and got married and had babies which is okay but not the Gaiman i love.

Once i get through a pile of books, I will look into Fragile Things as well as Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Mianly because i like the cover of the latter. I still haven't finished Mr Norrell ... as i hit a wall but i may go back to it.

Sefi x

Any mention of when she walked past me after she switched on the Xmas lights in Leeds in 2000?

Finished Ringworld and Into a Dark Realm as well now.

Ringworld - Incredible ideas - The Artifact itself, the vulnerability of the civilisation, the Birthright Lotteries, the meddling Piersons puppeteers, the consequences in terms of weather/resource/requirement of living on a ringworld BUT where was the story. It seemed to move from one story to another, first about the Ringworld, then about the aliens, then about the 'luck of Teela Brown' and never settled. The ending went nowhere at all. Sadly dissapointing.

Into a Dark Realm - Another Feist book full of continuity errors, spelling and grammatical errors and rushed/pointless bits of story. The big twist at the end was far too obvious. I'd have been more pleased if i'd been proven wrong, even if it would have introduced yet more characters into the fray. Also sadly disappointing.

Now reading Pushing Ice. So far I am REALLY REALLY enjoying this. No 30 gee acceleration, no ship fields and AI sorting everything out. The ship can manage half a gee at a push and bits start falling off. The crew really drive the ship, it's more akin to a modern day sub than a normal sci-fi ship. Reynolds has created a tangible atmosphere aboard the ship, I can almost imagine being among the crew. At the same time he's weaving a pretty interesting story around the characters and situation. Accidents, a death, a murder, conspiracies, mystery. Excellent so far.

Received Mountain Man Dance Moves from Craig. Not finished yet, but I have to observe...




So far, "Names for Tough Unicorns" is my favorite.

Drill Bitch.

Just finished PUNK ROCK - An Oral History by John Robb. Of all the books I've read about the original punk explosion this was certainly one of, if not the best. On par with the (apparently) seminal England's Dreaming by John Savage.

This is the one that's just about the British punk explosion, yes?

Good stuff matey. The characterisation was also my favourite thing about the book; it proves his critics wrong, not that I agreed in the first place.

I just finished American Gods. What a disappointment. I was expecting a meandering story given Gaiman's introduction, but what came after was so uneventful it was nothing but an anticlimax.

I have no problem with a slow-burner whatsoever, but even the tallest story needs to be punctuated with action. And I don't mean T 'n' A. Over 100 pages in and there was an exciting glimpse of where I hoped the story was going - Shadow, our hero, sees the Gods in their true forms - but this was all but eschewed for Shadow's own personal development right until the end. Even then, the climax was low-key. The irony of that ending was not lost on me, but after long periods of boredom spanning 600 pages, I was desperate for something to grab my attention.

It is. It's made up of interviews with major players and fans of the time. It doesn't focus much (if at all) on the New York or Detroit scenes a few years earlier, only when they are talking about the music they were listening to before punk. Though very few seem to be inspired by solely Iggy, New York Dolls etc but more by the Pub-rock scene, Mott The Hoople, Bowie, Roxy Music and dub reggae. etc. It focusses just on the UK scene and after, which was very different to the US scene.

Finished Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell today and, apart from the first and last parts Ewing's journal which I found a bit tough to get through I thought it was a wonderful read. The various different parts were all handled very well and it was fun spotting the links between them.

Next up is The Affirmation by Christopher Priest.

Not to pick on your opinion, but this is just a general heads up to everyone who read it.
I don't understand why anyone enjoyed it. I didn't, maybe I didn't get it although I thought it was easy enough to read but felt it pointless, lacking depth, strung together like play-do and matchsticks. I did however enjoy the individual stories which were entertaining in their own right.

I mean, am I such a hardened reader that I cannot see the softness of the seperate characters? Or did I simply not get it? I am frustrated by it because everyone I spoke to raved on like it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Anyhoo, it's not that a big deal, just a little niggle I get over this particular book.

I'm not sure what you mean by the ''softness'' of the characters but I thought that all the characters were very well realised and that the use of different presentational techniques for all the stories really helped to convey their particular story. I also felt that the book worked well as a collection of stories but it could also work as a whole piece about interconnectivity, reincarnation and all that jazz.

Well, whatever floats your boat really.

By softness, which I didn't convey properly (never were good at communikatin') I think I meant "Empathy". But I never was good with all that emotional type stuff either.

The Call Of The Weird- Louis Theroux. A very good read so far!

I don't read manga much, but I was sent a copy of Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi last month and I only just got around to reading it. It's very different to modern manga. The art is more realistic and the subjects of the stories (Abandon... is a collection of short stories) deal with more banal plots than its modern cousins. Tatsumi wrote and drew the stories back in 1970; his work has only recently been made available outside of Japan and he's apparently considered the godfather of manga, so if you read manga often you might want to check this out.

From Richard K Morgan.com

So it's done. Black Man is complete – delivered, line edited and polished to a high gloss. Waiting now on the copy edit and galley proofs. Editorial comment runs to “ your best book so far by some margin.” Which I confess I'm quite relieved to hear. It'd be pretty mortifying to spend two years on something, pile delay on delay, and come out at the end of it all with some weak-assed shit that's a step down from previous work. I think it's safe to say I gouged more out of myself to write this novel than anything else I've worked on so far.

I'm reading Generation X by Douglas Coupland.

I'm actually really sad that it's the last book of his I haven't read. I don't know what I'll do without him!

More good news for SF bods:

A few weeks back I picked up a second hand copy of Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and I started reading it the other day. Haven't been able to put it down since, really fantastic book.

Pies And Prejudice - In Search Of The North by Stuart Maconie.

Stuart travels all over the north of our country and tries to discover what the truth is, and how true some of the cliches are.

Stuart's love for the region shines through and it's an easy and very funny read.

I'd recommend it to anyone, especially anyone with a knowledge of the area. It'll only increase your passion.

Currently reading The Player by Michael Tolkin.

I then have
Day Of The Dogs (Andrew Cartmel)
Get Shorty (Elmore Leonard)
Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)

and quite a few others I've been neglecting (Don Quixote, Down and Out in Paris and London, The Castle, the Boat, the Godfather, War and Peace)

That's good to hear. especially as I've already ordered my copy.

I've read The Time Traveler's Wife. It was SO beautyfully written! I have cried from somewhere at page 200 to the almost end regularly... I really love this book and I'm so happy that it fullfilled all the expectations, that I had from what I've read about it on this board. For a person I really love, and for whom I gave it as a christmas present, it appeared to be also a touching book. Thanks for giving me the hint, that this book is SO grrreat....