Do you know, I bought and read that book and gave the copy away. Years later I saw it on a shelf, I couldn't remember the plot. I love Ian M Banks, so I bought and read it again. For the life of me I can't remember what it is about.
Nice find. I've loved the Maupassant I've read and keep meaning to grab his collection at the library. But whenever I remember to go get it someone's already taken it out. His stuff has a nice range and elegance to it.
I just started The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's the first book I've read by him and so far I'm already wrapped up in the bleak, hostile world he's created. I can already tell I'll be sad when it's over. I intend to read Blood Meridian and No Country and others, further down the road... haha. I'm reading it on my kindle. I'm also reading Lost Gods by Brom, in hard cover. Really into it, and only see it getting better. I like the premise: Dante's Inferno with a gleaming new face-lift. The guy has many talents.
This is the best post I have read on a forum in years. @Iain Aschendale - I took your recommendation and am now almost finished with The Player of Games. Getting pretty into the universe now so I think I'll keep on after this and try to read the whole series.
Reading Beyond the Truth, the newest John Byron novel from Bruce Coffin (is that a great name for a murder mystery writer or what!).
Just finished reading The Haunting of Hill House. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, but I did enjoy it quite a bit.
Finishing up the last volume of the Divergent trilogy by Virginia Roth, enjoyed the first one, second one okay, finding the last one a bit boring. Might be because I'm tired of that universe, the concept feels kind of stretched thin now. Have got Christopher Paolini's Eragon to get into next, bought the four volume set from The Works for a tenner with some left over Christmas spendies. It looked pretty.
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. This one's fantastic. So damned funny. Oscar's just a lovable incel. A very unusual character. I'm trying to think of another literary character that fits the mold, but I can't come up with one. Maybe Ignatius Reilly, but he was a gross, pompous know-it-all. (Not that I didn't love him for it.) Oscar is a kind soul. I never though I'd read a Pulitzer that mentions Three's Company, Blacula, Akira, the Shaw Brothers, and then rolls 4d6 for damage. It's surreal.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries was given to me by my business mentor, so I'm reading that with Joe Abercrombies: The Blade itself on the side. I was reading his other book which I mentioned awhile back, but it mentions characters and places from his First Law trilogy, so I stopped and brought the first book miles away from my local bookstore.
A book on Wiccan meditations. It's all about creative imagination exercises. I already occasionally chat to my characters to find out more about their world. Or at least I've done it a handful of times now. The idea was inspired by an exercise in a writing book which suggested you should interview your characters to deepen your insight into them. It's focused daydreaming basically.
Just as I juggle projects i`m juggling a few books. All for different purposes. Ebooks, are "How to Make a Living as a Content Writer." I ended up with a free pdf copy of it, and figured it`s free and potentially useful. "The Gryphonwood Collection" which I got free from a newsletter of a publishing company. Need to pull the email up on here (laptop) to download it. I do email on my phone. An old public speaking textbook to prep for somethings, "Code of The Samurai Bushido: The Soul Of Japan." by Inazo Nitobe fore research and "Framework" by Nicholas A. Dinubile" a health and exserice book. Also for very different research i`m research i`m rereading my collection of Conon the Barbian comics.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. I usually read several books at once, but this one has taken all my available reading time. The prose is brilliant. There's a lot of casual but graphic violence in this, for those who like it. I'm only a few pages in, but it's kind of awesome so far. Marlon James writes so well it's scary.
The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rapoport Bird By Bird and a trashy novel that's so bad I won't name it, except for one thing: It's written in close 3rd with alternating POV, and the author does it so effortlessly you never see the switch. The characters are annoying, the story is meh, and one of the sex scenes made me laugh out loud when I wasn't supposed to, but the author has the POV thing down.
Depending on which English dialect you're speaking in, that one has the potential to be rather raunchy as well.
Wouldn't that be Bird On Bird? LOL It's the book about writing by Anne Lamott, but I'm terrible at remembering author names and I was too lazy to go into the living room to check. (Titles, character names, what he or she wore on page 126, I can remember. Who wrote the book? Nope.)
I've been knocking this one back down the TBR list for a while now. Maybe I should finally crack it open. Also on my short list. Some time this year for sure. Finished Eye in the Sky and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick. I loved them both, but I'm not sure why Stigmata is considered one of his best. I didn't think it was. Read Time is the Simplest Thing, my first Clifford D. Simak novel (read the short collection City last year). Wow! Right up there with PKD and Robert Sheckley. Just started in on The Book Thief, and I'm semi-blown away. I wish I hadn't seen the movie first, but the narrative framework is so different, I don't think it will matter.
Weaveworld by Clive Barker. I really like it so far. Finished the A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy by Richard K. Morgan. I almost gave up on this series during book two, but I'm glad I didn't. Book three was far stronger, and really fleshed out the setting in some interesting ways. As for what comes next after Weaveworld, I don't know, but I think I need something that isn't Fantasy and/or Science Fiction. Some literary classic, I guess.
How 'bout a rice cooker instruction manual? I've read one. It wasn't very good as a piece of literature, but it came with a free rice cooker, so there's that.
The Player of Games is an excellent novel to start with, if you're going to read his Culture series. It gives you a fairly clear idea of the 'world' he's created.
