I've downloaded the entire Sherlock Holmes collection, currently reading A Study In Scarlet. Very good so far!
A friend gave me a collection of, apparently, some of the best American short stories post-1945 called the "Granta book of the American short story". I've read 7 or 8 excellent ones already some written by the famous authors Flannery O'Connor, Kurt Vonnegut, Donald Barthelme, Tobias Wolff, Raymond Carver and others. Sometimes I think I prefer short stories to novels. They're fascinating to read. Every one of them seems to have unique insight, something very peculiar to that story and not others.
Reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. 30 pages in and Im already unsettled by the mood the tone and the absence of many commas. But damn is it unsettling in a good way.
Woman with Birthmark, by Hakan Nesser. The Dogs of Riga, by Henning Mankell. Ebook The City and the City, by China Mieville. MP3 Death of a Fool, by Ngaio Marsh. on CD.
What a great month this has been for bad novels! First Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, where my mouth would need to literally drip sarcasm before I could say it had a plot, and now Inferno by Dan Brown. Mind, I think the Dan Brown book might actually be a brilliant comedy novel; there is real howler on almost every page, I've been exploding with laughter while reading it. The Inferno book (I have the first edition) is really pretty though, I always respect Bantam Press's production value, but ... oh wow this book is dumb.
About to start Jose Saramago's "Blindness," and for the in between moments, I've started reading a collection of Twain's short stories. I know nothing about Saramago, so I'm excited, yet apprehensive, but I love Twain. Ridiculously clever and funny.
I just started reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. I'm normally not big on YA, but I needed something 'easy' to read for during the exams.
Excellent book, though his style is hard to get used to at first (for example, you'll be shocked at the way he formats dialogue). Still, if you put in the effort, I think you'll really enjoy it. I sure did.
Not a recommended book at the very least. But then again, I'm a big Dante fan. I studied him at university, did my dissertation on the political comments and themes in his famous epic poem. I'm clearly not the intended audience, quite the opposite as I apparently know this stuff better than Dan Brown does.
Trackers, by Deyon Meyer. The Casual Vacancy, by J K Rowling. on CD. The Inspector and Silence, by Hakan Nesser MP3. Reality 36, by Guy Haley. E-book.
I remember reading The Da Vinci code and Angels and Demons when I was about 15. At the time, I thought they were great! Exciting. Not so sure I would feel the same now though... I just ordered House of Leaves off Amazon today too. Really excited about reading this. Should be arrived by next week. I finish my Uni exams on Monday so I'll be completely free
I'll be the first to say that I snubbed this book for so long because of the very nonstandard formatting of dialogue and sentence structure. I had placed it in the category of "things people pretend to understand and like, using them as a badge of academic elitism" like drinking red wine and pretending to enjoy and understand it's complex flavors and oaky notes when really you think it tastes like ass but you don't want to appear to be a low brow philistine.... Anyway, I got over myself and read it. It was beautiful. It was haunting and disjointed and lost and broken... beautiful.
Did I recommend that to you? I don't remember. I hope you like it anyway. House of Leaves is a bloody good book!
If you liked The Road, you should check out some of McCarthy's other stuff, especially Blood Meridian.
It's the horror aspect of it that I'm looking forward to the most. I love the concept of the house with different dimensions on the inside than outside. I hope it will seem like I'm stepping into another world Yes, you did! I'd heard good things about it before but you convinced me haha Anyway, I've just finished A Confederate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan. It's a short book, only got it yesterday, and I'm finished already. If anyone likes Charles Bukowski, Raymond Carver, or authors like that they'll love this. It has a sort of minimalist, to-the-point style; it's very funny in parts. It had me grinning like an idiot at the bus station and on the bus yesterday
Story: Substance, Style and Structure by Robert McKee (it's a screenwriting book but I find it is very helpful for writing novels/fiction as well) and A Whole New Mind (about how using the right side of our brains is becoming increasingly important and the power of creative thinking). Both are great reads.
Be careful with McKee. I found him to be too prescriptive, almost to the point of strangling creativity. Maybe what he has to say works for screenwriters, but novelists need a lot more freedom - our form requires it.
I'm currently reading The Martian by Andy Weir. I've almost finished it and sadly have to say its incredibly overrated.
I read A LOT of young adult fiction...mostly because that is the genre I write in. And...it's a guilty pleasure! =P But at the moment, I'm reading "Beautiful Creatures." I'm not sure about it yet but, hopefully it'll pick up!
Kraken by China Mieville. It's... well. I don't care. I don't care what happened to the kraken. Or what's happening to London. I don't even care about the end of the world! I'm only finishing it because I don't want to remember it years later and wonder how it ended, and then read it again. The problems: I don't understand how his magic works, the underground societies are loosely woven and barely coherent, and I think urban fantasy is the most boring thing evar. If you like urban fantasy, you'll probably have better luck than me. Un Lon Dun was great, though. It's not him, it's just this book. I think it's this Alice in Wonderland-ing I keep seeing--random nonsense is cute atmospheric detail in some stories, and distracting extraneous minutiae in other stories. Has anyone else been seeing a lot of this lately?
I recently finished 'The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry' by Rachel Joyce and I could not put it down. Not that I need reminding but it was one of those books that make you think "this is why I love reading!". Beautiful writing and characters I didn't want to leave alone. Considering it was a book I was unsure of when picked up from a charity shop It was a fab surprise. I received last thursday the new Tim Willocks book 'Twelve Children of Paris', the second book in the Mattias Tannhauser trilogy. 'The Religion' was released seven years ago and it was amazing! It took seven years to make and the second part took seven years also. I was a little nervous, hoping he hadn't lost his edge and thank God he hasn't, it was well worth the wait. Constantly amazed how the man can write about the darkest of subjects and make them beautiful with lines you cant help but repeat to yourself. Annother book I cant put down. Haven't ate or drank since Thursday, maybe I should finally sleep and have a shower also haha.
Currently relaxing my reading for this week with a very short collection of Basho's Haiku. Only 100 pages or so, so this should be read in about an hour I guess. I'm putting it here anyway.
