• General

  • What have you read recently?

JonQPublik It’s defo worth it, but be warned, I think it’s the last in the series, rather than the trilogy we were promised.

      Operation Chastise (The Dam Busters)

      Incredible war time story, Barnes Wallis was some inventor

      Finised Tai Pan last night. 4 and a half months. Fucking hell. Bought the next one in the saga (‘Gai Jin’) but it’ll be a while before I pick it up.

      2 months later

      Stephen King has a new short story collection out, that has a sort of sequel to Cujo in it, so I thought it best to reread said novel, as I’ve only read it once, and it was 30 years ago and in Finnish. Jesus Christ I’m struggling with it. King’s worst book, and I’ve read Roadwork and Thinner. Just 304 pages, and it’s taken me 4 days to get halfway through it. He famously has said he can’t remember writing it, due to being REALLY into drugs and booze at the time, and it shows.

      Not seen the movie ever, it’s apparently held up pretty good for a movie where the rabid dog is a man in a suite half the time.

      • Amps replied to this.

        Homegrove held up pretty good for a movie where the rabid dog is a man in a suite half the time

            Amps it’s apparently a bit better than that. 😂

            Problem in the 80s was that the dog kept wagging his tail while “attacking.”

              11 days later

              Stephen King - You Like It Darker. A collection of short stories, likely his last released while he’s still alive. He’s 76, and releases one collection every ten years or so, so another one yet after this one would be pushing it a bit. Some repetition of his earlier works, but still damn good. Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream is one of the best things he’s written in a while. Also the longest in the book, almost a novel at 150 pages. It’ll get bought for an adaption soon I’m willing to bet.

              Robert Sapolski - Determined.

              WE HAVE NO FREE WILL!

              Interesting take on free will, or lack thereof by a neuroscience professor and its consequences particularly referencing differences in penal systems and how/whether you punish those that can’t be culpable. There’s a very good bit in the middle debunking chaos theory, quantum randomisation and emergent complexity as ways of introducing a random conscious generator into the equation. Agree with him or not it’s a thought provoking read.

              9 days later

              Finally read Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 after buying it ten years ago. I can understand why it’s a classic, but not why it had to be so long. 519 pages of the same thing all over again. Maybe I just don’t like satire in novel form (I love it in movies), struggled with Don DeLillo’s White Noise too.

              • Dan replied to this.
                8 days later

                Paul Tremblay - A Head Full of Ghosts. A very fine horror novel. I bought it years ago, then put it down almost right away because it was giving me too much anxiety. A great twist on the excorcism subgenre, the ending managed to surprise me twice.

                The most dangerous man in Brighton - Martin Webb. A crime fiction tale of a big Brighton gangster Billy Murphy takes on a college dropout Buster Brett who rises to second in command then one day he decides to steal a load of cash from his boss and goes on the run.
                It’s an easy read and a half decent story with a few twists and turns.

                James O’Brien - How they broke Britain.
                If you listen to his radio show then you’ve heard him banging on about it every chance he gets. I’ve only just finished the second chapter after the long introduction but the detail on the first two chapters is outstanding as it’s about Rupert Murdoch & Paul Dacre. I’m already lived and I haven’t got onto the politicians yet. So far it’s very good.

                2 months later

                Anyone read Resolution, the final book in Irvine Welsh’s Crime trilogy? Fucking hell, it’s brutal.

                  Euro 88 by Steven Scragg, who is a thoroughly overrated football writer.

                  2 months later

                  I reread Jeff Vandermeer’s Area X-trilogy (Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance) because he’s got a new Area X-novel coming out next month. It’s one of my favorite books ever (I count it as one, as it’s all one story really, and I own it as an omnibus-edition), just really good deeply unsettling stuff. Garland’s movie adaptation of Annihilation has almost nothing in common with the book, except the fucked up mood and female characters. But I love the movie too. They are just two completely different things.