The Reading List

I'm on a fiction kick at the moment. Currently reading Robert Gaves' superb I, Claudius and Claudius The God. Also Valerio Massimo Manfredi's latest historical adventure, the enjoyable The Lost Army, a number of 10th Doctor novels, and working my way through the Bond novels as time permitting and the mood takes me.

What about the rest of you scallywags?

I've got some book called Shadowchaser to read...looks a bit rubbish, really.

~Currently reading:

Azincourt - Bernard Cornwell

Very good it is too.

As I get older, I find myself enjoying fiction less and less, although I think much of this is to do with me being over-familiar with themes and ideas that are expressed, and less to do with the quality on offer. For that reason, though, I find it harder and harder to finish books nowadays. Which is a shame.

One such was the Quite Girl by Peter Hoeg, writer of Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow. It's very much in the same vein, but I gave up after around 50 pages, as the narrative was so staccato that I was loosing sense of what's going on. I strongly suspect that it's one of those books that need the first 100 pages reading as quickly as possible to fully cotton onto the plot involved.

Meanwhile, I'm still working my way through the complete Sherlock Holmes, although I'm currently only on The Sign Of Four (my favourite of the novels, mainly because Watson gets a wife, and Holmes degenerates further into cocaine addiction within its pages). While not, strictly speaking, cannon, I intend to round out the Doyle novels with Michael Chabon's The Final Solution, which reads simultaneously as the final Holmes case, as well as his greatest failure, given that he solves part of the mystery without ever realising the greater inhumanity that caused it (the clues in the title!)

My current Reading list includes Caversham, Woodley and Prospect Park.

Nick Barlow wrote:I've got some book called Shadowchaser to read...looks a bit rubbish, really.

But it makes a really, really great prop for wobbly table legs.

Sid Seadevil wrote:But it makes a really, really great prop for wobbly table legs.

I can confirm that fact.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:

Sid Seadevil wrote:But it makes a really, really great prop for wobbly table legs.

I can confirm that fact.

Thank you for the confirmation, old chap. I always find multifunctional items that much more satisfying in the long run.*

*except when Kate unexpectedly chucks a copy at my head, naturally*

On a bit of a classic fantasy kick right now. Alternating between The Hobbit and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

If only I had a wobbly table right now...looks like I'll actually have to read the thing instead.

Nick Barlow wrote:If only I had a wobbly table right now...looks like I'll actually have to read the thing instead.

I can always saw a bit off one of your table legs if you're really desperate.

Sid Seadevil wrote:

Nick Barlow wrote:If only I had a wobbly table right now...looks like I'll actually have to read the thing instead.

I can always saw a bit off one of your table legs if you're really desperate.

Is this code for 'I've already got the money from the sale, I don't care what you do with it now?'

Nick Barlow wrote:Is this code for 'I've already got the money from the sale, I don't care what you do with it now?'

No. This is code for "I couldn't feed a hamster on the money I still haven't received from the sale, but it made a halfway decent punchline".

Actually, since as far as I know, nobody whose read it has actually gone insane/blind/thrown themselves from a very high building, I think it's safe to say I hope you enjoy it - Even if only as a table prop.

The Co=Ordinator wrote:My current Reading list includes Caversham, Woodley and Prospect Park.

How could you miss out Tilehurst! Anyway, I've just finished 'Dalek I Loved You' by Nick Griffiths which leaves me nipping between the following...

Non-fiction -
Gothic Television (Helen Wheatley, Manchester University Press)
Big Ideas (James Harkin)
Torchwood Series 2 Guide - Something In The Darkness (Stephen James Walker)
Shock Doctrine (Naomi Kline)
The Ode Less Travelled (Stephen Fry)
The Meaning of The 21st Century (James Martin)

Fiction -
Exilium (Richard Evans)
Shadowchaser (that Seadevil fella)

As I'm off to Bristol for the weekend I should polish off 'Shadowchaser' quite easily. I'll use it to wedge open one of those irritating train doors that always attempts to slice your arm off as you go looking for your seat on the train.

Frank wrote:As I'm off to Bristol for the weekend I should polish off 'Shadowchaser' quite easily. I'll use it to wedge open one of those irritating train doors that always attempts to slice your arm off as you go looking for your seat on the train.

There you go. Yet another far-sighted chap who realises the worth of a damned good multifunctional book.

Sid Seadevil wrote:There you go. Yet another far-sighted chap who realises the worth of a damned good multifunctional book.

I'd negotiate a higher fee for the next one. Its use as a door stop and table prop was obviously not included in the last contract.

Frank wrote:I'd negotiate a higher fee for the next one. Its use as a door stop and table prop was obviously not included in the last contract.

Of course you're oh, so correct. I realised that such would probably be needed the instant Kate recognised it's potential as a "Weapon of Really Massive Destruction".*

*I still have the lump to prove it

Sid Seadevil wrote:

Frank wrote:I'd negotiate a higher fee for the next one. Its use as a door stop and table prop was obviously not included in the last contract.

Of course you're oh, so correct. I realised that such would probably be needed the instant Kate recognised it's potential as a "Weapon of Really Massive Destruction".*

*I still have the lump to prove it

The veritable 'blunt instrument'. I've often heard the qualities of my own prose being described as such. Not sure if that's a compliment or an insult....

Sid Seadevil wrote:

Frank wrote:I'd negotiate a higher fee for the next one. Its use as a door stop and table prop was obviously not included in the last contract.

Of course you're oh, so correct. I realised that such would probably be needed the instant Kate recognised it's potential as a "Weapon of Really Massive Destruction".*

*I still have the lump to prove it

So the next one will only be released in the new 'cushionback' format?

Frank wrote:The veritable 'blunt instrument'. I've often heard the qualities of my own prose being described as such. Not sure if that's a compliment or an insult....

Your writing a "blunt instrument"? What nonsense.

Still, I'd take it as a compliment, old chap. Next time you're updating the blog simply imagine your prose as being a type of Daniel Craig type burly action man.

Blunt instrument...

*shakes head*

Nick Barlow wrote:So the next one will only be released in the new 'cushionback' format?

Either that or I'll press for the inclusion of an airbag.

Currently I am rereading Perdido Street Station, which is a favourite novel.

I am doing this because I cannot afford to buy any new books, which is a damn shame.

Perdido Street Station is fab because it is Everythingpunk.

I haven't read Shadowchaser yet. Perhaps I shall ask for a copy for Christmas.

Lucy McGough wrote:I haven't read Shadowchaser yet. Perhaps I shall ask for a copy for Christmas.

<Obi-Wan Kenobi>You know it makes sense, young Padawan.</Obi-Wan Kenobi>

Anything that means I don't have to spend any money of my own on books makes perfect sense.