Course work reading out of David Richter's The Critical Tradition. Jaques Derrida and Cleanthe Brooks among the essays selected. Blegh. This first week has been brutal with the density of learning contemporary literary theory. The next three weeks will only be worse I assume.
I'm currently reading - "Unfinished Tales" by J.R.R. Tolkien. (edited by his son Christopher Tolkien)
The Book of Dede Korkut I just meant to do some research on Turkic cultures but ended up reading an epic instead.
Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero - 1st in the Heroes of Olympus series. Nearly finished this one, I've got the rest (bought job lot second hand) but I'll probably dip into something else for a bit before I reach for those. I've not read his Percy Jackson series so he's a new writer to me. Though I've been aware of his stories for some time. It's a kids story, but I like it. It's got a driving pace, lots of escapades, vivid characters and strong description, I can see boys just loving it. At first I was put off by the slightly cringey conversational style with lots of slang sides by the author. But I got past that pretty quickly, now the language doesn't stick out any more. However I suspect it may read dated in the long term.
That may be because those books I think are aimed at YA, correct me if I'm wrong. Have you tried his Tres Navarre series? He doesn't write them any more, don't think so anyway, but they are more grown up and entertaining.
I started 'South Seas Vagabond,' 75th anniversary edition.. 'This book changes lives...' intro ... Enjoyed the first chapter where he gets sacked, builds a ship from litter, but technical section now is more of a quagmire + drawings. Also fearing Kiwi humour possibilities/possible potential...7/10 so far, early pages, pg 25.
Currently finishing up Papillon by Henri Charriere; I love it! Any story about a prison break is almost guaranteed to pique my interest.
I finally got around to that one a couple of months ago. It was great. I actually had an idea for a sci-fi novel while I was reading it. What other prison break books would you recommend?
Awesome! I'll admit, I haven't read any other prison-break books besides Papillon and The Count of Monte Cristo, but it's a subject I'm bound to jump on if I hear about it! I also read an interesting book about a serial killer while in jail, but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was called. But that's another story. And no, I didn't break out. For better or worse.
There's also the beast of Revelation that rose from the sea, having the body of a leopard the paws of a bear, mouths of a lion, was scarlet in colour with seven heads and wearing ten crowns on its ten horns.
Floating in the endless blue My seed of doubt I leave to you Let it wither on the ground Treat it like a plague you found
I used to do that too. Slowed down in the last ten years. Read it for the first time when I was 13 and I'm 41 now, so it had a good run.
The Woman In The Window by A. J. Finn. It’s a crime thriller with a few twists and turns. I recommend it to anyone who’s in the mood for an easy read.
Reminds me of my LP of Rastaman Vibration with a rough paper gatefold that was perfect for rolling herb on.
Yay! Joe Abercrombie's new book (start of a new trilogy) A Little Hatred is out on Kindle today. Okay, I'm abandoning all my other responsibilities to get reading it. I have Phillip Pullman's second book in The Book Of Dust series to look forward to in October as well. Both of my favourite (living) Fantasy authors putting out books this autumn gives me something to look forward to besides Brexit.
Brexit? Well, who isn't looking forward to that I did look at Book of Dust but Pullman has never really grabbed me; Abercrombie has though, just haven't got around to delving, literarily (is that a word) speaking.
Exciting! I've got it pre-ordered on Audible. I'd probably have skipped work if I thought it would drop before I got home. Maybe I'll get lucky and develop a nasty cough by tomorrow.
