I've finally managed to start reading again. Just finished The Fourth Bear (Jasper Fforde) which I rather liked.

Today I picked up I Am Legend (Richard Matheson) and The Toyminator (Robert Rankin)

I'd forgotten how relaxing reading is.

I've tried a few Rankin and can rarely get through them. It's as if he thinks of the title first and then the story.

I've only tried the one (something to do with Jesus's sister Christina and a time travelling sprout?). I can't remember what it was called, but it didn't inspire me to read any of this other books.

Has anyone ever read any Tom Holt? His books appeal in passing, but I've not dabbled yet - is he worth it?

Just started Achtung Schweinehund!. It's about the author's childhood obsession with playing "war" with his friends and with toys, and how it has spilled over into adult life. Might stick with it or go to Borders at lunch and see what's on offer. As books involving WWII go, it's not quite Atonement.

buy more McEwan.....

I recommend 'The Child in Time'....

Who said that?

I might. I rarely read the same author twice in a row. May get an A M Homes or Murakami (I think he has a new one out). Alex James' book is tempting too.

I'm popping home this weekend, so I'll pick up 'Music for Torching' and send it to you.

You're a star.

He does. It's called ''After Dark''. I haven't got around to reading it yeat but I've heard good things.

You can get a headstart here:

Chapter One, courtesy of the NY Times.

What have you tried? His books are getting sillier and sillier (although still good) but the early stuff, especially the Brentford books, are excellent.

Finished Market Forces, which ended a bit meh, and I'm now on Black Man. It's started well...

I know the one (or was it two?) I read were Brentford books. I think the first in the series. I thought it was OK but gave up on the second one.

The Antipope and The Brentford Triangle? If you didn't particularly like them then he's probably not for you.

Just finished Accelerando by Charlie Stross, after blasting through his Glasshouse and The Atrocity Archives on holiday. Absolutely mindblowing stuff, and a must for any science fiction fan.

Just bought

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman - Haruki Murakami
Hello - Leslie Phillips autobiograpghy

Will try and pop into Smiths on the way home as they do offers on "back catalogue" stuff.

I believe someone here recommended What A Carve Up and The Child in Time, so I might get those. Or some Jeffrey Archer.

Was that Zoe? I'm not sure . . .

Finished I Am Legend today and I absolutely loved it. A great sci-fi story which took a fresh approach to the vampire mythos and which kept me guessing throughout, right down to the end. By turns scary, thrilling and incredibly moving.

I've now started Generation X by Douglas Coupland. It's my first taste of Coupland and it's good so far.

Girlfriend in A Coma is a Coupland worth trying next. Has a lot in common with I Am Legend too.

I convinced my sister to buy that when we were on holiday in America on account of it being her favourite Smiths track. However, she took ages to read it and has now buggered off to Uni with it. Damn her.

Re-read that recently - superb book. The Coupland is great.

My friend has just lent me Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. I'm a hundred and fifty pages in already - haven't been able to put it down.

The End of Alice, A.M. Homes


Anyone who’s read 'American Psycho' will know the peculiar pleasure of reading the story of a monster in the first person. It allows a rare insight into a world we would rather stay one step removed from. In 'The End of Alice', A.M. Homes goes one step further than Ellis. The sexual violence of 'American Psycho' is all accounted for, but this time we’re treated to a trip inside the mind of a paedophile.

Of course this isn't really a book about paedophilia; it wouldn't be much of a book if it were so simplistic. We learn some of what created this monster; sexual and emotional abuse in his own childhood being the most obvious factor, and we see and hear about his fascinations, perversions and crimes. But 'The End of Alice' is no trashy pseudo-biography or voyeuristic crime novel. Homes builds a bridge between us and her warped protagonist, often very directly and even once rather offensively. The narrator assumes a shared understanding with the reader which puts us in the position of confidant, worse than that we become complicit, Homes makes us a confederate. Being unable to answer back, we have no choice but to go along with it.

Few readers are going to be guilty of the crimes of the novel's disturbed narrator; but none of us are perfect. Yes, the offences here are specific and unimaginable, but Homes uses them to force us to confront the worst parts of ourselves, of human nature. The narrator is the epitome of selfishness, he exhibits an utter lack of empathy, extreme narcissism and a foul air of superiority. It is these crimes we are all guilty of, and as you share headspace with a man so representative of human weakness you are left wondering about how often you put your own pleasure above everything else and to what effect.

The story itself centres on the day to day horrors of our narrator's prison life and a sub-plot told through correspondence with a 19 year old girl - you could even say a fan. We are told of her clumsy seduction of a local 12 year old boy, and here we see a different, but equally shocking, side of this most disturbing of desires. No one would suspect a mild mannered, nineteen year old, babysitter and tennis coach of having such designs on a boy, in a way that makes her sexual obsession even more troubling. The eponymous Alice represents another thread of the story. We are only treated to glimpses into the past of our protagonist, merely snippets of his crimes and what may have led to them. This is something to be thankful for, but with Alice we get the whole story. This is the one element of the novel that didn't really work for me. I don't understand Alice, or what she is supposed to represent. She is certainly nothing like any 12 year old girl I've ever met. I was left unsure about whether we are supposed to presume the unreliability of our narrator. Perhaps his memory has altered to justify his actions, perhaps his recollections of Alice's behaviour are supposed to reflect what we hear time and time again from paedophiles - that the child seduced them and not the other way around. But Alice seems so forthright, such a clear figure, it seems hard to believe she is an invention of a fevered mind. It leaves you uncomfortable and confused - which perhaps is Homes intention - but I demanded a little more clarity after going through so much.

This is a very well written, complex and emotive book. It is a great achievement on Homes' part - I would say specifically as she is a female author. The transformation that occurs through her first person prose is complete and utterly convincing. The novel touches on many aspects surrounding paedophilia, including the distasteful media and public fascination with the subject, the double standards of society's judgements, and issues of rehabilitation, punishment and retribution. More than that thought it covers moral ground that relates to us all and trashes the myth of the passive female gaze.

Recommended - but be warned.

Has this been mentioned before? There's a new Alistair Reynolds book, The Prefect. http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1965177...ct/Product.html Set in the Revelation Space universe in the Glitter Band with hyperpigs galore.

Tough book, but well worth reading.



That's certainly how I read the whole Alice part of the book - if I recall correctly there is certainly a difference between what is relayed by the narrator and what is read out at the probation hearing.

I would have liked more clarity on the matter - it is very important to my enjoyment of the book. It's not like Alice's actions or dialogue were open to interpretation, they would have had to be entirely created by our narrator as a justification for his actions - but that didn't seem to sit with the prose style of that particular section of the novel. He was drugged up and hazy in the present of the probation hearing, but his recollection of the titular 'end of Alice' was crystal clear and very detailed. I worry about what we're supposed to make of Alice, is she a device to illicit sympathy or empathy? If she is a real character, she is a very disturbing one.

A very negative, but interesting review from the New York Times can be found here (with some spoilers).

And a fairly lengthy except, if anyone would like to judge for themselves, can be found here

Alice was a very unbelieveable 12 year old. I think that was a major factor in my decision that Alice and the events involving her were more fantasy than fact. If that isn't the case, and Alice is how she is described, almost giving him an ounce of justification for what he done, Homes is a much braver writer than I initially thought.

She is a totally unbelievable 12 year old, but she's the way she's presented is totally realistic. Therefore, it's a pretty big assumption on Homes' part that everyone who reads the book will read her as a product of our unreliable narrator's imagination, if that is indeed her intention.

I might have to read the end again...

If I get the chance tonight I'll see if I can find any interviews with Homes herself on the subject.

I'd love to sit in on the discussion of a book group that had just finished End Of Alice.

Homes talks here about End Of Alice quite a bit. No conclusions about Alice herself, but still interesting.

(check out the list on the left, there is a McEwan interview)

Didn't know it was banned by W H Smith! (Not anymore, that's where I bought it)

I'm reading The Dreaming Void at the moment, and am certainly enjoying it, but I keep on being pulled up by the punctuation - PFH keeps using commas where he should be using dashes or semicolons. Is this a case of slipshod proofreading to get the book out as quickly as possible, or has sold enough books that he can refuse to be edited?

I didn't notice it myself, although to be honest I would probably only really notice commas in the wrong place or spelling/word mistakes. And also, I'm willing to forgo a few cases of sloppy grammar, especially as commas, semi-colons and dashes are so interspersed now, to get the book a month or two earlier.

I finished it last night. I did really enjoy it - it had the typical PFH cast of thousands, Technicolor sex and violence, cool technology and intriguing mysteries. I'm very much looking forward to the next one. But the proofreading was appalling - the punctuation was all over the shop, and nobody seems to have spotted that weary does not mean wary. It threw me off on several occasions. Tell you what, Pete, send me a copy in advance and I'll sort the next one out for you.

So, I've bought Watchmen, and I'm starting to read it. Quite enjoyable so far. Also bought Elric. I've never heard of it, but it's in the Fantasy Masterworks collection and it's the first two books in one, so the value for money offset the cost of Watchmen a bit. Anyone else read it before?

It's schlocky swords-n-sorcery from early Michael Moorcock, the sort of thing he'd dash off at breakneck pace to pay the bills. Not as serious or as well-written as his later work, but more fun. It has the status of a classic because it set the tone for a lot of later fantasy writing, but it's pretty lightweight stuff.

Finished Generation X by Douglas Coupland and loved every bit of it. Incredibly well written and I found myself really identifying with it. The terminology used throughout was also very funny.

I've now started Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore and am thoroughly enjoying it. Like any decent religious satire it has clearly resulted from a lot of research and thorough understanding of the Judeo-Christian belief system on the part of Moore. That it is also very broad in comedic terms and focuses just as much on the slapstick and witty dialogue as the theology adds to the fun immensely.

Doh! Well, it'll be nice to read some more trashy fantasy as the last few books I've read have been heavy on clever story and light on exciting bits. Especially Snare.

Finished "Die Kunst des stilvollen Verarmens." Which was more pleasent than I expected it to be. It's about getting happy without being rich.

Today I'll start "Darkly Dreaming Dexter." I'm looking forward to it.

I think you're going to like this, Crutch. I bought the third book in the series (Dexter in the Dark) yesterday.

Reading Fahrenheit 451 at the moment, it's a good book. Dystopian literature often is a bit creepy, but thats what you expect.

It's also the best literature.

Has anyone read Pratchett's latest yet?

I'll be picking it up on Friday, probably have it finished by monday.

Having seen Night Watch and Day Watch, I've started reading Sergei Lutyanenko's novel Night Watch, from which the films were adapted. It's very good so far, with the same mix of magic, hard-bitten dialogue and incredible pacing that make the films such a joy. Though the fact that things are explained a bit better and I have a bit more time to digest things makes it a tad better than the films.

I finished TDV last week. You are right about the comma-abuse. There were tons of typos too. It's a much more engrossing tale than the bloated meandering of the Commonwealth Saga. The action sequences (mostly concerning Aaron) rivalled anything in the Night's Dawn trilogy.

After a slow start, even Edeard's world became just as interesting as that of the far future outside the Void.

Any thoughts on who Aaron is, you guys? Net speculation says Morton, but his dreams seemed to point towards a former life as a Knights Guardian on Far Away...

Morton, as in the guy who killed his wife and was dating Melanie? No idea. I'd have to read back through the Commonwealth again to pick out a likely candidate. Plus, the Kinghts Guardians are pretty open about what they do, as in they don't wipe their agents minds it seems, so why would Aaron have lost his memory. I like the odd network of spies, the Delivery Man, Aaron and the one whose name I can't remember.

After numerous recommendations on here, at meets and from my lovely girlfriend I have finally read some Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere to precise, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I have gotten to know London a lot better over the past year which I think was probably a good thing as reading this book without at least some knowledge of the city would cause some of it's magic to be lost.

I am now reading Sandman and so far so good.

Finished it yesterday - the book was great, but the typos were annoying. I hadn't thought about who Aaron might be and that's going to annoy me now. Morton might be a good call, actually.

Now I have to find something shortish to read while I wait for Play to deliver my copy of the new Coupland.

I know it's not Chaucer or Dickens, but, if I continue to read Richard and Mindy Hammond's book 'Richard Hammond - On The Edge: My Story', my eyes will dry up and I will die of dehydration.

It is an amazing book and 'The Hamster' skips over 'that crash' quite briefly, after an extremely tense build up, so as to give you as much of an insight into the actual crash as he has.

The book really steps up a gear in chapter 7, when 'the Hamster's' lovely wife Mindy takes over. Never have I cried so much in the first couple of pages of a chapter ever, and I doubt I ever will.

She starts off her first chapter talking about how happy she is with her family, her new horse and her life in general and then it just happens. She's off to Richard. She tells her journey to her husband's side quite erratically, yet at the same time very structered and gripping.

I'm only on chapter 13 and 'the Hamster's' back at the helm, clearly quite disoriented and unable to remember what happened in the weeks or so after 'the crash'. Already, he is talking about being able to hear his wife shouting at him while he was in a coma and being moved to Bristol in an air ambulance.

So far, this book is astonishing. It's both heart-warming and -breaking, whilst being a story of true love, which would usually repulse me, but it is so amazing and gripping and true that you can't help but lose yourself in it.

Now that Stephen Fry's finished on BBC2, I'm going to finish it so I can start on Jeremy Clarkson's new book, Don't Stop Me Now.

I've read the first 70 pages of Darkly Dreaming Dexter. It's a fantastic read. I haven't read thrillers since my teenie Stephen King reading days. And I'm surprised over the really well-crafted ad sharp language that's used. Lindsey's really more than what I expected from a seriel-killer-thriller-author. And I think, the show adepted the book really well, especially the casting fits what I read so far.

Just finished Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines by Anthony Bourdain.

I thoroughly enjoyed it . . and now am dying to go to some of the places he's been to and just eat my way through the days and nights . .

Just put in a pre-order for Kevin Smith's My Boring-Ass Life. I don't expect it'll be selling out when it comes out on the 10th, but I can't be bothered walking into town just to get it, and I would like it on release day (as it was supposed to be out a month ago nearly).

It's going to be my "quick 5-minute glance between lectures" book, because it's essentially just diary and blog entries, so it should have lots of little short sections I'd imagine.


Ordered a few more Discworld books too, for when I get round to finishing The Light Fantastic