There are now nine people in the world who have walked on the moon, and unless something dramatic happens [...], it won’t be long before there are none. That might not mean anything to a lot of you, because you are, I am led to understand, young people, and the [...]
The Fortress of Solitude Jonathan Lethem
Like a match struck in a darkened room.
There was something in those simple eight words for me. Some image. Some sense. Some rhythm. Something I still can’t identify, but something that instantly said to me this is a special book. As I read that line aloud now I can [...]
Watchmen Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 J. Michael Strazcynski and Mike McKone
It’s been sometime since I’ve read any graphic novels or even comics. I read Watchmen because I knew the movie was about to open. I’d previously enjoyed both of the V for Vendetta comic and movie, but I wish I’d read it before [...]
The Complete Polysyllabic Spree Nick Hornby
This is the first work of literary criticism I’ve ever read, and after reading this I can’t see what everyone complains about. This wasn’t dry, inaccessible or self-involved at all. Well, actually, it was pretty self-involved, but in a highly engaging way.
Unlike some of my friends, I am something of a [...]
Slumdog Milionaire Vikas Swarup
A book club book. My reading has slowed down a bit recently: it seems that three out of my last four books by this stage have only been for the book club. It’s keeping me reading though. That seems worth it to me.
Slumdog Millionaire was a very enjoyable, easy read. I sat down [...]
I’ve been falling very far behind on my book reviews. I have actually been reading, I just haven’t been reviewing. And, well, once the backlog of books gets more than about four high it’s pretty hard to write proper reviews.
I’m cheating. I’m going to catch up by writing short reviews of all the books I’ve read in the last [...]
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
You would have heard of the movie for this one. It achieved some fame when the two Afghani child actors had to be smuggled out of Afghanistan for their own protection. Apparently, acting in a rape scene put their lives at risk. I haven’t seen the movie, I’d be interested to hear what people thought of [...]
Neverwhere Neil Gaiman
Like Wrath of a Mad God this is fantasy too: but this is a completely different proposition. This is good, very, very good. Good enough that I will recommend this to non-fantasy reading friends. Ahhh… A breakout hit – the dream of fantasy authors the world over. Well, here’s a tip: instead of sucking, try writing high quality, original, [...]
Wrath of a Mad God Raymond E. Feist
Pure crack for fantasy geeks and about as high quality. I’ve been reading Feist since a friend recommended Magician to me when I was nine years old; in grade four, back in 1988. My friend’s name was Paul Reid and that was 20 years ago now. It’s also long since I realised that [...]
Yes, this is one of those irritating posts. Where a blog that you thought had quietly retired suddenly reappears with a post. A post that says basically nothing. A very self-indulgent post just promising that there will actually be real work worth reading reappearing soon.
Why couldn’t the blogger just leave us all in peace? Why this attempt to appear [...]
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