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Wizard, – A Perfect Storm – a terrific book. We visited Gloucester (US) last year – the book really connects you to the place (and vice versa).
<br>Cormack, I’m glad you enjoyed Pobby and Dingan. If it’s a first edition you’ve got, I’d hang onto it.
Quote: from Sal on 12:31 pm on Mar. 3, 2005[br]Love Three To See The King by Magnus Mills – not as keen on the Restraint of Beasts though. ÂÂÂ
I remember enjoying Unbearable Lightness, and some Kafka, but strangely can’t recall much else about them.  Have the Mind Police been at work?<br>
<br>I enjoyed "The Scheme for Full Employment" by Magnus Mills, his own bone-dry swipe at the obsession successive governments have with the notion of (as close to) 100% rates of employment (as possible) by whatever means. The basic premise is that van drivers are employed to drive vans all over the country, all of which contain…. the parts needed to repair other vans at the various terminal depots, which can then be driven around the country delivering…. you’ve guessed it, more van parts. This self-sustaining exercise in pointlessness works fine, until some insubordinate drivers decide to use the vans not to deliver van parts, but cakes instead.
A shame, then, given his talents, that when I escorted Mills for the day at an Author’s Day at the library where I used to work, he proved to be duller than dull pudding and harder to get two words out of than a slug with a throat infection. Imagine Richard Digance but with a vocabulary of about eight words. The "Meet the Author" session was a hoot, as you can imagine :biggrin:
Kafka, meanwhile, was responsible for my favourite work of all time, Die Verwandlung ("The Metamorphosis" ). Having parents hailing from two different countries, and having never felt entirely at home in either, the trials of half-man, half-beatle Gregor Samsa are pretty much my life writ large – except there is no obvious immediate prospect of someone taking an apple and squishing me alive with i….
[thud]
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(Edited by graysonscolumn at 10:04 pm on Mar. 9, 2005)
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
If interested, check out ‘The Modern Library – The 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950’ by Carmen Callil and Colm Toibin. ISBN 0 330 37657 8
I managed just over the 100, and have taken a couple of years off, but will return at some point in the future…..
Just seen your post there grays about Metomorphosis, that is a great, great book … on the same theme have you ever read ‘A Voyage to Acturus – David Lyndsay’ ??
Alas no, Dave – author and title duly noted for further investigation, though.
Ta muchly!
Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I stumbled across a copy of Pobby and Dingan in Paris WH Smiths today. The book also included another story by Ben Rice, "Specks in the Sky", even shorter but on a similar vein of not believing in appearences.
I found this page when searching to see if he had written any other books, so we may soon "see" Pobby and Dingan on screen.
When I was reading Pobby and Dingan I remember thinking that it would make a great film. The copy I got also had ‘Specks in the Sky’ which is quite surreal and bizarre but quite enjoyable if you’re into that sort of thing, which I am.
I did a Google search for Ken Bruen forum, guess what I found? me! reccomending him on this forum! :angry:
Ismail Kadare recently deservedly won the International Booker Prize. I would recommend ‘The File on H’ and ‘The Three-Arched Bridge’.
I would recommend Richard Morgan (Altered Carbon / Broken Angels) for any fans of hard edged sci-fi. Definitely to the fore in modern science fiction writing.
Been out in the sun with a book quite a bit this summer and am in the middle of Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz which is going rather well having just read Trace by Patricia Cornwell which doesn’t really live up to the earlier books in the series. Also Jeremy Clarkson’s latest was boring as hell and the Susan Hill debut had a naff start and a naffer ending.
Frankly, I’ve not been impressed by much of late! Quite like the style of Lyndon Stacey though, she’s got John Francome beat easily, although admittedly that’s not really a job of work is it?
Just dragged this up from the basement to say I’ve just read Kazuo Ishiguro’s "Never Let Me Go", and thought it was terrific.
How it failed to win the Booker prize is beyond me. And I haven’t been a big fan of Ishiguro in the past. I certainly tend to prefer Julian Barnes, but, much as I liked his Booker contender, I found Ishiguro’s on a different level altogether.
I don’t think the way it’s being marketed (as a kind of sci-fi/horror tale) does it any justice at all. There’s some decent reviews on amazon.
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Quote: from tooting on 12:23 pm on Oct. 26, 2005[br]Just dragged this up from the basement to say I’ve just read Kazuo Ishiguro’s "Never Let Me Go", and thought it was terrific.<br>
I haven’t read Never Let Me Go (I’ll wait for the paperbook), but The Remains Of The Day is one of my favourite books: I find it sad but extremely funny (especially the main character’s confusion over "that very strange activity of ‘banter’ that so many people indulge in’, and his subsequent dire attempts at telling jokes).
Otherwise, I recommend: anything by Daphne Du Maurier (particularly I’ll Never Be Young Again, which is like The Catcher In The Rye with its stream of consciousness prose, and theme of youthful disillusionment, but superior in every way, and Rebecca, her masterpiece), and anything by The Brontés (particularly Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre).
Other favourites, albeit some of an acquired taste, include: A Clockwork Orange, My Summer Of Love (Helen Cross), Brighton Rock, Junky (William Burroughs) and London Fields (Martin Amis).<br>
I’m slightly scared by Dean Koontz to tell the truth…
A few months back he started a trilogy loosely based on the Frankenstein story, the first one was, surprisingly, quite good.
Of course Koontz is very easy to read and therefore I finished it in two days and though I would have to wait a year for the second book in the series to find out what happens….then he brought out Life Expectancy….and Velocity…..and then probably not four months later, the second book in this trilogy…
….this guy must be a publisher’s dream. How fast can one person write?!
The problem is whilst he has great ideas (The Taking for example was a great idea), his characters and plot progression start to be slightly formulaic…..so as Velocity is in HB still and I have nothing to read, has anyone read it and is it worth the money?
‘The DaVinci Codes’ is an excellent read, full of nice twists in the plot. Very informative book too, full of interesting facts especially on the religous theme. You’ll file your copy of the Bible under ‘fiction’ after reading this.
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