rich_jacko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rich_jacko) wrote2013-12-30 10:57 am
rich_jacko) wrote2013-12-30 10:57 am
Entry tags:
Books - second half
Possibly by way of making up for the lack of films, I seem to have read quite a lot of books in the last six months:
Discworld books:
Moving Pictures (book 10) through to Hogfather (book 20) (Terry Pratchett) - Pratchett's satire on politics, religion, human nature, life, the universe and everything continues to be wonderful. It's true that the books get a bit samey after a while, but I'm still really enjoying them. I deliberately paced myself so I'd be reading 'Hogfather' over Christmas, which turned out to be festive genius :o)
Books recommended by friends:
Angelmaker (Nick Harkaway) - Steampunk fantasy with spies and a doomsday weapon involving mechanical bees. Recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fayeautumn. Now I need to read Harkaway's other novel...
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - A future dystopian classic I'd never got around to reading. Recommended bysan_valentine as an interesting companion to Orwell's 1984 (which it is!).
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) - Fun, fast-paced, cyberpunk craziness, featuring virtual reality, religion, cryptology and courier deliveries. Recommended bygrok_mctanys.
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or, 2,000 years of upper class idiots in charge) (John O'Farrell) - A more detailed/grown-up version of 'Horrible Histories'. O'Farrell occasionally slips into guardian writer mode but it doesn't spoil the book too much. Recommended bysandra_lindsey.
Books picked up in Barter Books while on holiday:
Sheffield in the Sixties (Peter Goodman) - A collection of vintage photos of local landmarks and life in the Sixties.
The Bayeux Tapestry (Eric Maclagan) - A Ladybird book from 1943 with pictures and descriptions of the entire tapestry. Also a fascinating piece of history in it's own right - The introduction talks about Goebbel's "current" attempts to use the Tapestry for propoganda purposes.
Scottish Ghost Stories (Elliott O'Donnell) - My Hallowe'en read. 19 short stories. Atmospheric but a bit samey - most are in the mould of "move in to new house, spooky goings on in the night, learn about a tragic death in the house's history".
Who Goes There (Travels through strangest Britain in search of the Doctor) (Nick Griffiths) - A diary (and accompanying website) of trips to various Doctor Who locations. A bit mundane, not least because I've done the same thing myself.
Books I re-read because of films coming out:
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) - Children go to war. In space! A book I've read many times, packed with fascinating ideas and characters.
The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Anderson) - An epic yet personal fairy tale of one girl's quest to save her playmate. Bears no resemblance to 'Frozen', but I'm glad I read it again anyway.
The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) - A childhood favourite, still brilliant. Much better (and shorter!) than the films.
Books from the Chivers' bookshelf:
Legends of Zita the Spacegirl (Ben Hatke) - The second Zita graphic novel, in which our young heroine encounters a robot duplicate. A well-told adventure with a simple yet charming visual style.
The Littlest Shoggoth (Stan!) - Lovecraftian silliness. A Christmas story with a surprising twist near the end. Made me laugh.
The Very Hungry Zombie (Michael Teitelbaum / Jonathan Apple) - Less good, but still an enjoyable parody. Matches Eric Carle's original quite closely.
Others:
Le Morte Darthur (Sir Thomas Mallory) - Heavy going and a bit daft (How many escapades where allied knights end up duelling because they don't recognise each other?), but it was interesting to finally read the "definitive version" of the Arthurian legend.
Shadows in Flight (Orson Scott Card) - The fifth in Card's increasingly misnamed "Shadow Trilogy". Nothing much new, but a good little space adventure nonetheless, which finally brings some much-needed closure.
Cold Days (Jim Butcher) - Takes a while to get going, but Butcher's still got it. Harry Dresden continues to wing it from calamity to catastrophe in appealing Buffy-esque style.
Transformers: ongoing comics series (James Roberts / John Barber) - Still surprisingly complex, combining snappy dialogue with themes of love, loss, politics, betrayal, etc. Also inspired silliness, such as spiking Ultra Magnus's drinks then dropping him repeatedly on the floor to try to get him to transform. Michael Bay take note: This is how it should be done.
The Cuckoo's Calling (Robert Galbraith) - J.K. Rowling's first crime fiction, although the Potter books were also whodunnits so she's had practice at this sort of thing. Small scale, but with a clever mystery and likeable duo of lead characters.
Blakes 7 Omnibus (Gillian F Taylor / RA Henderson / MG Harris) - I don't really know Blake's 7, but I still enjoyed this very accessible collection of short stories. Particularly as one of them's written by Gillian :o)
Discworld books:
Moving Pictures (book 10) through to Hogfather (book 20) (Terry Pratchett) - Pratchett's satire on politics, religion, human nature, life, the universe and everything continues to be wonderful. It's true that the books get a bit samey after a while, but I'm still really enjoying them. I deliberately paced myself so I'd be reading 'Hogfather' over Christmas, which turned out to be festive genius :o)
Books recommended by friends:
Angelmaker (Nick Harkaway) - Steampunk fantasy with spies and a doomsday weapon involving mechanical bees. Recommended by
fayeautumn. Now I need to read Harkaway's other novel...Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) - A future dystopian classic I'd never got around to reading. Recommended by
san_valentine as an interesting companion to Orwell's 1984 (which it is!).Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) - Fun, fast-paced, cyberpunk craziness, featuring virtual reality, religion, cryptology and courier deliveries. Recommended by
grok_mctanys.An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or, 2,000 years of upper class idiots in charge) (John O'Farrell) - A more detailed/grown-up version of 'Horrible Histories'. O'Farrell occasionally slips into guardian writer mode but it doesn't spoil the book too much. Recommended by
sandra_lindsey.Books picked up in Barter Books while on holiday:
Sheffield in the Sixties (Peter Goodman) - A collection of vintage photos of local landmarks and life in the Sixties.
The Bayeux Tapestry (Eric Maclagan) - A Ladybird book from 1943 with pictures and descriptions of the entire tapestry. Also a fascinating piece of history in it's own right - The introduction talks about Goebbel's "current" attempts to use the Tapestry for propoganda purposes.
Scottish Ghost Stories (Elliott O'Donnell) - My Hallowe'en read. 19 short stories. Atmospheric but a bit samey - most are in the mould of "move in to new house, spooky goings on in the night, learn about a tragic death in the house's history".
Who Goes There (Travels through strangest Britain in search of the Doctor) (Nick Griffiths) - A diary (and accompanying website) of trips to various Doctor Who locations. A bit mundane, not least because I've done the same thing myself.
Books I re-read because of films coming out:
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card) - Children go to war. In space! A book I've read many times, packed with fascinating ideas and characters.
The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Anderson) - An epic yet personal fairy tale of one girl's quest to save her playmate. Bears no resemblance to 'Frozen', but I'm glad I read it again anyway.
The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) - A childhood favourite, still brilliant. Much better (and shorter!) than the films.
Books from the Chivers' bookshelf:
Legends of Zita the Spacegirl (Ben Hatke) - The second Zita graphic novel, in which our young heroine encounters a robot duplicate. A well-told adventure with a simple yet charming visual style.
The Littlest Shoggoth (Stan!) - Lovecraftian silliness. A Christmas story with a surprising twist near the end. Made me laugh.
The Very Hungry Zombie (Michael Teitelbaum / Jonathan Apple) - Less good, but still an enjoyable parody. Matches Eric Carle's original quite closely.
Others:
Le Morte Darthur (Sir Thomas Mallory) - Heavy going and a bit daft (How many escapades where allied knights end up duelling because they don't recognise each other?), but it was interesting to finally read the "definitive version" of the Arthurian legend.
Shadows in Flight (Orson Scott Card) - The fifth in Card's increasingly misnamed "Shadow Trilogy". Nothing much new, but a good little space adventure nonetheless, which finally brings some much-needed closure.
Cold Days (Jim Butcher) - Takes a while to get going, but Butcher's still got it. Harry Dresden continues to wing it from calamity to catastrophe in appealing Buffy-esque style.
Transformers: ongoing comics series (James Roberts / John Barber) - Still surprisingly complex, combining snappy dialogue with themes of love, loss, politics, betrayal, etc. Also inspired silliness, such as spiking Ultra Magnus's drinks then dropping him repeatedly on the floor to try to get him to transform. Michael Bay take note: This is how it should be done.
The Cuckoo's Calling (Robert Galbraith) - J.K. Rowling's first crime fiction, although the Potter books were also whodunnits so she's had practice at this sort of thing. Small scale, but with a clever mystery and likeable duo of lead characters.
Blakes 7 Omnibus (Gillian F Taylor / RA Henderson / MG Harris) - I don't really know Blake's 7, but I still enjoyed this very accessible collection of short stories. Particularly as one of them's written by Gillian :o)