Mid way through Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space - haven't read any of his stuff before, and I'm really enjoying this. I think I'll be getting a few more of his books, especially since I can get a 70% discount on Gollancz stuff.

the invaision of the body snatchers - jack finney...

good not literary perfection but it'll do for an afternoon. perfered it to the last book i read (the word for world is forest - ursula k. le guin)

Having now finished this, I have to confess I was disappointed. Veeeerrrryyyy slow opening (could have edited the first 100 pages and lost nothing). Some clever twists and turns but not until very late in the book and then there were too many to keep up.

As for being set in Edinburgh, which had been a key selling point, this was seriously overhyped, almost as though the author had never actually been to Edinburgh and had done only fairly basic research. It could - and should - have been so much better.

Can't see why the likes of Ian Rankin gave it a good review, to be honest. His stuff is far superior on so many levels.

It was certainly no Case Histories.

Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian.

This is the second book in the Aubrey-Maturin series and is at lease just as great as the first. I am a book snob and books have to be really great for me to give them a chance. Thank goodness I have found a series to keep me occupied for quite a while.

I've not read that - is it good?

Good news! I recommend 'Chasm City' (next in the series), and his two standalones, 'Century Rain' and 'Pushing Ice'.

I liked it. It's got intertwining storytlines so it's like three books in one.

Want.

Futility or The Wreck of the Titan by Morgan Robertson

The impetus for getting this book was that it had scary similarities to the actual Titanic disaster even those this book was written about 14 years before. However, that is a lot more hype than truth.

If the ship in the book didn't have an almost identical name, there might not be such a comparison. Sure, they were similar in size, they both hit icebergs in April in the North Atlantic, didn't have enough lifeboats & were touted as unsinkable. But the Titanic was an obvious accident waiting to happen & Robertson could see that like science fiction writers of the last century could predict the Big Brother state that were living in now.

Besides the comparison issue though, it's a very good book aptly named Futility.

I still haven't read Chasm City. I'm not sure how I managed to not read an entire book in the series and not actually miss anything. Of all his books, I like pushing Ice the most, although I never could grasp the timeframe by the end of it. In fact, Adam you've read it, can you PM me what you thought had happened?

You could never read them though, it would be such a shame to break the cellophane. Heart of Darkness does look tempting.

That is not essential to the 'Revelation Space' plot arc, despite being set in the same universe. It's like a spin-off, which fills in some interesting detail about Yellowstone and Sky's Edge. And it's a riveting read.

Regarding the timeline, you've really confused me with your PM!

Sorry about that. I've confused myself. Suddenly the book doesn't make sense.

Read a few books over the last few weeks:

Blood Fever (Young Bond 2)
Double or Die (Young Bond 3)
Jurassic Park
The Lost World
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

And I'm now working my way through Robert Falcon Scott's journal, after going to see the ship R.R.S. Discovery last week, which he used in an earlier expedition.

I'm currently reading Samurai William by Giles Milton. It's about a merchant adventurer called William Adams who, stranded in Japan in the late 1500/1600s, made a life there and was accepted by the Japanese as one of their own.

It's really good, so far, and based on truth, so it has some very interesting anecdotes from Elizabethan sailors about the dangers of voyaging and exploring the world at that time.

Water for Elephants - an enjoyable read, the story centres around a young vet who ends up joining one of the circus/freakshows of the early 30s. It's mainly a love story, but with some well-written characters and nice pacing - I ripped through it in a couple of days and was really absorbed.

The Road - a stunning novel from Cormac McCarthy. A man and his young son travel through a post-apocalyptic America, trying to reach the coast and head south. I read it within a day without even meaning to - I was completely gripped by the relationship of the father and son.

Have you read any of McCarthy's other books? The book he wrote before The Road, No Country For Old Men is amazing, a really blistering and thrilling read.

I've just started on How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, borrowed from my flatmate. Only read a few short chapters but it seems like it'll be cringeworthy, amusing and somewhat astonishing in equal measure.

The first comment I got from someone at work who saw me reading it was that Simon Pegg is much too good looking to play Toby Young who, apparently, looks like a potato.

If he makes himself up to look like he did when they were making Big Train, pudgy and without a beard, he'd be pretty suited. As he is now, though, he does seem a bit too good looking.

Finally just started The Well of Lost Plots. (Had to have it shipped up from Edmonton, because there's only one book store in Cold Lake and there's about 40 books in it). Quite enjoyable.

Very good. I read a slightly abridged version. However, the photos included in the book compensated for the loss of text (Which was probably a lot of not-as-important stuff). The best book to read on the Terra Nova expedition, though, is Cherry-Garrad's Worst Journey In The World. I don't think I have read a better non-fiction book than this.

I haven't, but I'm certainly going to look out for his stuff now.

I have Chasm City lined up as soon as I finish the PJ O'Rourke I'm reading, and Robert Rankin's new one.

Spotted a little Jasper Fforde feature in the current issue of SFX while flicking through earlier. I wouldn't normally think anything of it but I just immediately thought of here when I saw it so thought I should mention it for those who might be interested.




He is!

Probably, he does mention a lot of details on things that are interesting but don't really have much to do with anything. It's a great version I have though, the original 1914 publication, complete with original appendix and then another one written a couple of years ago to go over old terms, locations etc that the reader might not know, as well as a big summary of his life and the expedition, and debates into things they could have done differently that might have saved their lives.

So, I wandered in to Waterstones yesterday as I had 10 minutes to kill and I haven't really had a proper book to get into for a while. I was thinking, maybe I should ask the assistant if they can recommend something, how would I ask though? Well, what about something like Peter F Hamilton...? What do I see almost first book? The Dreaming Void, big shiny new hardback from Peter F Hamilton. And it had £4 off. So I bought it there and then. I'm reading it at the moment.

Saw and bought The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Things to Do today. True, I already have most of it in the form of the original larger book, but it's still nice.

Fans of the books might be interested to hear that a Yearbook is coming in September, arranging activities and facts into seasons and dates, and including completely new material (as Things to Do and the coming Things to Know are essentially reprints of the original in 2 volumes, with a few new bits).

What? When was that released? Why was I not informed? Why did the Waterstones downstairs from my work not tell me?

I totally missed it as well, but it's out and I've read the first 150 pages. And I like it!

Who Stole the Funny? Robby Benson

This is a satire based on a week in the life of an American sitcom. The week from hell starts when director J.T. Baker, who's long left Hollywood behind, is drawn back into the rat race when he's contracted to direct three episodes of the number one show on TV.

I will never watch 'Friends' in the same way. Benson directed several episodes of the everyone's favourite mainstream sitcom and his lambasting is far from subtle. The show J.T. is brought in to direct is called 'I love my Urban Buddies' and the actors include 'Betty Ballz' and 'Janice Hairston'... hmmmm. They're also all monstrous, as is the entire world of American TV (apparently).

The prose isn't great and the characters are as one-dimensional as you'd expect in a satire of this type, but it is a fascinating and pretty entertaining insight into a world most of us (thankfully) will never be a part of.

J.T. is unfortunately a less than sympathetic protagonist, if he's a representation of the author I can only presume that Benson is a superior prat. He pulls it back a bit by bringing J.T. down a peg or two before the book's conclusion, but he's very hard to root for throughout.

Then again, this is a satire (not as it claims a 'novel about Hollywood') and we're not really supposed to like anyone in it, even our hero. Gulliver comes to like horses more than people, the idiot.

This is a real eye-opener, almost depressingly so. Thankfully Matthew Perry doesn't appear, I always knew he was the good one.

Cynical, amusing, revealing and very interesting.

Thanks Craig.

You're very welcome. I hoped you'd like it, so I'm glad you did.

I'm working my way through Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States at the moment.

It's very interesting, so far. Zinn presents his perspective well. Certainly, it's one among many, but he's got plenty of sources to back up most of his statements.

All told, it's somewhat depressing, but no less fascinating, and certainly compelling.

Whilst looking at the 3 for 2 pile in Waterstones this afternoon, I picked up a book called Succubus Blues, a comedy-horror(?) novel by someone called Richelle Mead.

The premise is that of a modern day succubus who plies her trade at night and by day works in a book shop. Anyway, she apparently has no social life - and that's a bit tough when you're basically meant to shag for a living - and then there's the small matter of this big nasty stalking the streets of Seattle.

I couldn't actually believe someone had published a book with this premise, so when I saw it in another book shop for £3.99 I ended up buying it in a kind of road accident mentality.

I've got to the end of the first chapter, and although it's not great, it is better written than I though it would be, and the sleaze factor isn't as high as you would expect (I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not, just yet!). There are also a couple of interesting ideas, but whether they will carry a full novel is another matter entirely!

I just finished The Dreaming Void. I kinda wish I hadn't now, as it means I have the big long wait for the next book looming up ahead of me.

That's just reminded me, I've been meaning to check out Hamilton's books for a while but don't know where to start. Can you recommend a good one to start with?

Today I finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison which was really quite terrific and offered a real insight into African-American life in the 1920s and 30s. It also made me very glad that I studied African-American history at University or I would have missed a lot of references to important people in the black community at the time.

I've now started reading The Child In Time by Ian McEwan now, having picked it and Amsterdam up in a two-for-one deal. Very good so far.

Try Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. Although I'm fairly sure Adam will disagree with me and recommend the Night's Dawn trilogy.

He disagrees with everyone, though. You don't know you're right until Adam says you're wrong.

I'll be sure to check those out. My too read list is a bit long at the moment, but I'll be sure to bump them up it.

Well, I'd definitely side with you on this one if it came down to a fight.

There's a treat for a future Meet.

I'm reading 'Bad Blood' by Lorna Sage, which is an autobiography so good it makes you wish you remembered you own life in such beautiful and poetic detail.

I only really posted this to say, I just learnt that after the ban on the relatively mundane 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' was lifted, it sold 3.3 million copies (UK only I think) in the first two years proceeding - outselling even the bible.

I now plan to write a book so filthy it gets banned - then thirty years after my death, sit back and reap the benefits.

The End Of Alice by A M Homes
Anyone who has read This Book Will Change Your Life, do not read this and expect more of the same. Where This Book.. was a light, sometimes funny, sometimes uplifting book, Alice is the opposite.
A story about a convicted child killer and his correspondance with a 19 yr old girl who wants to seduce a 12 year old. It is sometimes a little confusing, with the story jumping between reality, fantasy and memory. It is also very very explicit - violently and sexually - probably the most explicit I have ever read.
I don't know how I feel after reading it - it was sometimes difficult to get through, it was an unpleasent story - yet I'm glad I did. Does that make sense?
What I do know is that after only two books that I have read by her I have found Homes to be, at least, a very interesting writer, and to take on this subject the way she has, a very daring one.
Not recommended and recommended in equal measure.

*hands up*

Please can I borrow it?

I'll swap you for 'Music for Torching', which was bleaker than 'This Book will Save your Life', but apparently not as bleak as 'The End of Alice'.

I'll put it your next parcel. Trust me nothing is as bleak as Alice. Or with as much disturbing sexual violence. Moreso than American Psycho. But what Ellis did was construct a great book shifting between mudanity and horror...the violence was almost necessary. Alice is evil expressing his desires and relaying his experiences. It's sometimes too real.

This could have either killed or enhanced Homes' career, and I can't think of many books that would do that.

Today I bought some textbooks:
The Avid Digital Editing Room Handbook
The Avid Handbook
Flash 4
D.W. Griffith: The Years at Biograph
and The Color Purple.
All for 50 pence.

Yesterday I bought the Dragonlance Chronicles: Volumes 1-3 for 60 pence. I can't help feeling I've been had.

Dragonlance, dragonlance.. Does that include Dragons Of Autumn Twilight? Or os that the Dragon...something else chronicles.

Yeah, them's the ones: Autumn Twilight, Winter Night, and Spring Dawning. At the same jumble sale they had loads of Dragonlance sets.
It's probably a little early to tell, but it seems a little corporate-written so far.

I bought myself The Twilight War (Act 1 of the Broken Sky series) by Chris Wooding today with money I got for doing well in my exams. I'm already three-quarters of the way through it - I haven't been able to put it down!

Just read His Dark Materials. What can I say but "wow".

My sister brought them to me to give me something to do while I was in hospital, and I ended up reading all 3 in practically 1 sitting. They'd been on my "I really should read...." list for a long time, and now that I've read them I really wish I had done sooner.

At least I got them out of the way before seeing the film, or indeed really hearing about the plot in the media, so I won't be influenced by it when it comes out. I'm not saying it'll be bad, in fact it looks quite good, but I always like to imagine things myself rather than be influenced from seeing a film imagining of it.

I also want a model alethiometer. Now that so many companies make professional movie props of all sorts of things, I'm sure one can be made easily enough (though obviously not working).


I'm also about halfway through The Da Vinci Code now. I can't see the problems everyone I know seems to have with it. It's a real page-turner, albeit one that tends to lecture a bit at times.

Finished The Child In Time by Ian McEwan yesterday. Wonderful book which was spellbinding from the very beginning. Much more experimental than the other books of his that I have read and all the better for it. I really loved it.

I'm now on to The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. A good change of pace.