Say, Mr. Bone, do you happen to have read past the three "Books of the North"? There are the Books of the South, and the Books of Glittering Stone, 6 in all with more apparently forthcoming. The first trilogy didn't grab me hard enough that I was in a rush to continue, but I liked them well enough that it'll always be on the table. It's funny. Now that I'm talking about them and thinking about them, I'm remembering entire characters and scenes that I'd forgotten. And you know, I like what I'm recalling.
I've got to be careful not to hint at any spoilers, but no I haven't. Though my reason for not continuing on with the series was because I loved the trilogy so much, specifically the ending of book three. Another words, for me, there's nowhere left to go but down with the surviving characters. For my money the Company (especially Croaker and the Lady) had the perfect journey and arc. Cook stuck the landing so wonderfully that I don't want to see more of any of them. It would be like GGK writing a sequel to Tigana. No thanks. Not for me. Don't mess with perfection. That said, so long as the characters from the original trilogy aren't involved I'd be up for reading another book in Cook's series.
I read a couple of those, remember having mixed feelings, but I really liked Cook's Garrett, P.I. series (Cold Copper Tears, Sweet Silver Nights, Adjective Metal Noun). Basically Nero Wolfe in a fantasy setting, and there are a lot of them. Can't remember which I read and which I didn't, but I found them to be enjoyable light reading. I get it, but that's a sin. Last year or two I checked out Bernard Fall's Hell in a Very Small Place from my university library. According to the card, the last time it had been checked out was in 1996, which is approximately the first time I read it. As a university student
Yeah, I dont like doing it. I can justify it if the book is old and yellowed, or the pages are frayed. but a nice conditioned book.... it hurts my soul! And, I've discarded a whole series before because it hadnt moved in quite some time. almost a week later, I had a guest come in wanting to reread the ENTIRE SERIES! So I had to reorder it (another reason why i hate discarding books... you never know when it will become popular again... like The Witcher....)
I hear she's good. I've had the Earthsea Cycle on the back burner for a couple of years. I just haven't been in the mood to start a series lately. I've been exploring new authors too frequently to commit, I guess, but she keeps coming up in conversation. Maybe I should dive in. That and Dune. It's driving me a little crazy that half-way through my quest to finish 500 books and audiobooks in five years, I still haven't tackled Dune. I just finished Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss. There's been a lot of discussion of writing manuals lately, so I thought I'd mention it. It was cute, but it reminded me of a long blog entry more than a professional grammar guide. I also finished The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More as well as George's Magic Medicine both by Roald Dahl. Henry Sugar, by the way, is not a kids' book. I'm so sad that I've just about run out of Roald Dahl. What am I going to listen to while I fall asleep next? Oh well. I am slowly rereading some with my son, which is even more fun. We read Fantastic Mr. Fox and we're several chapters into James and the Giant Peach.
Reading the Dresden Files Book Two: Fool Moon. I liked the first one well enough, figure I'd give another a shot.
Have you read any of his autobiographies? He’s written two. The first one is about him when he was a little boy. I think they begin from when he was 7. The second one is more about his adulthood from the moment he leaves school. Those ones would be categorised as more advanced reading for children. If you haven’t read them yet, you really should. Both of those books are just... excellent.
Boy and Going Solo. Yes, I loved them. They're two of his best, especially Boy. The antecedent short story that spawned them both (was that redundant?) is included in the Henry Sugar collection I just read. It's heavy. It features much darker versions of the school discipline and terrifying war stuff. There's no candy shop shenanigans or fun stories about snakes in that version. It's the best story in the collection though. One of the last Dahl books I haven't read is call My Year, and apparently it includes an essay or two about becoming a writer (which was also covered in that short story) and married life. Apparently between the four sources, you get almost an entire autobiography in fragments. My favorite thing about reading Boy was coming to understand why so many of the villains in his books are adult authority figures abusing their power over small children.
I’m going to have to look for that book because that is one I haven’t yet read. I thought I was giving you suggestions and now you’ve ended up giving me one. *chuckles* Matilda was one of my favourite books as a child. I felt like I related to this character in many ways. The abusive authority figure in that, of course, is Mrs Trunchbull who was absolutely diabolical. I remember being frightened of her as a kid. I think Dahl’s voice on corporal punishment was very progressive for his time and if it wasn’t for writers like him, we may not have seen the end of it. I feel so thankful I never had to go to a school with that sort of system. Thanks to writers like him. I feel like I read all his books as well but most of them quite a long time ago and they probably deserve a re-read. But as an adult, those autobiographies really stuck with me and I saw how he ended up becoming a children’s writer. Did he actually like children, though? I heard a rumour that he wrote for them but didn’t get on with them very well. Don’t really know if that’s true, however.
Both are really good. Dune should be read, if for nothing else, then for a sense of Herbert's eclectic genius. It's really a weird book, but it works so well. The sequels are another matter, however I liked the second book, but the third lost me. I like Earthsea; I think the second book is the standout. It's not really your stereotypical fantasy. It has a certain mood, and I think you have to be in a certain mood to appreciate it. Orsinian Tales is incredible, my favorite short story collection ever, although I don't read a huge amount of them. Highly recommended, and pretty short.
So far, my favorite short collection is Untouched by Human Hands by Robert Sheckley. My god, the brilliance of that man before the drugs took it all away. What a shame. At least that's what Neil Gaiman said about him, and his later stuff really is mostly terrible.
On short stories, if you can find these two books, they have interesting stories. "With Friends Like These...." And, ".....Who Needs Enemies?" By Alan Dean Foster. They are two separate books in paperback but perhaps he has a collection of short stories in one big volume? One of the stories is an astronaut that crash lands on a planet, lies there paralyzed and is helped by the alien insect life form that he ends up inspiring to develop a civilization. It was my absolute favourite short story for years and years. I didn't have the money to buy the books when I was a kid so I was borrowing it from the library over and over again.
Charles Todd's A Divided Loyalty. Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge solves mysteries in post-WWI England. A really interesting look into a time and place I knew nothing about.
Stefan Aust's Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F., translated by Anthea Bell. It's research for my WIP, and I'm about halfway through. It reads well and it's giving me a clearer picture of the motivations and dynamics of the group and its members.
I read Dune a long time ago and then re-read it recently and found it was as good the second time as it was the first. But I've also heard similar things about his sequels; it put me off to be honest. Yeah, I had a similar reaction. To be fair I really shouldn't be looking for other books to read, I just can't help it.
The second one's good. I kind of liked the third one, but I just couldn't get through it. I'm gonna go back and reread those someday.
Nah, they're not bad books by any stretch of the imagination; I think they're just more esoteric and introspective.
I stopped tp read The Silmarillion for a while. Now I'm reading the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
