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What Did You Read Today?


RoyWill Rumble

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Consider Phelbas by Iain M. Banks. Ugh. It's not... bad, but it's very, very hokey. Also Banks does this thing that William Gibson does in Neuromancer where he delivers up the poetic description too late, so it'll be like "He was walking up in front of the wave. The wave that towered over him as if it were a Times Square skyscraper made of blue-green water and he were merely a tourist who had come over from Tokyo on a stop in his American tour." It's like dude, you missed your shot, move on. That is also the sort of cheesy "I'm such a writer" description Banks would use. It's very off-putting.

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I have recently finished Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. Definitely a great story collection and people who have liked other stuff by him should check it out. They are a really quick read too!

Currenctly I'm reading the latest A Song of Ice and Fire novel and Lester Bang's Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung: The Work of a Legendary Critic. I'm about halfway through the first one and I'm enjoying it so far, after I didn't really like the fourth one. Read two of Lester's artictles and that man was just fucking amazing and everyone interested in music should read it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just finished Junky by William S. Burroughs. It was a quick read and quite a good book, ending on a rather falt note though. I have Naked Lunch by Burroughs lying around, but i decided to wait with it for a while. Instead I started on Martin Amis Money: A Suicide Note. Right now I'm about 50 pages in and completely hooked, Amis storytelling and characters are really great. Right now I'm considering purchasing London Fields, but i'll wait and see how Money turns out first

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Mum's been pestering me for ages to read a Jo Nesbo thriller, so she's leant me The Snowman. About halfway through it and really enjoying it. As a chunky hardback it's a bit too much hassle to take out and about with me unless I'm already taking a bag; so I've also just started George R R Martin's Fevre Dream to take out and about with me. Only read a few pages of that so far.

Have also just ordered a few more books of Amazon, as if my to read pile wasn't big enough to begin with.

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I started reading a Jo Nesbo novel called 'Redbreast' or something but I couldn't get into it. Admtitedly I had a lot of other reading to do round that time but I'm also guessing it's not the right book to start with. Plus I'd read a few contemporary novels that were looking back at the war in a row and was getting quite fed up with it.

Edited by Vamp
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Finished the Michael Chrichton novel Micro. The end felt a bit rushed, but given that it wasn't Chrichton actually writing the end, I'm not too surprised. It's a good read, but typical of the author - take something that would sound kind of cool, and make it horrifying instead. It's basically Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, with a lot more death and violence, and a lot more bio-science.

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I have powered through Mikael Niemi's "The Man Who Died As A Salmon" these last few days. I had no idea that a crime-drama could catch my attention like this. It might be because it is only a crime/police story for a few chapters and then turns much more personal and about the war between Swedish and Finnish culture, in the northern most part of Sweden. It sounds incredibly boring but the way it is written, the character development and the amount of intelligent commentary on the whole situation in the book is fantastic. I wouldn't recommend to anyone outside of Scandinavia, though.

However, all this prompted me to immediately order Niemi's most lauded work "Popular Music from Vittula", which is about a boy and a girl stuck in Pajala (an area surrounded by forest, pretty much a small local community allround), who want to start a rock band.

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I am reading The Italian Job by Gianluca Vialli (yes, that Gianluca Vialli). It's an observation on the cultural differences between England and Italy, as well as how that affects the footballing philosophies of each nation. And you know what? It's surprisingly good! Plus, I never thought I would read a book by a footballer which references the work of Descartes and Macchiavelli. But, as Vialli says, it's only actually in the UK that players are all thick. :shifty:

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Let's see:

Finished 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' by Haruki Murakami. Despite wanting to grab the main character and slap him around a bit, it's a really good book about time and regret. Murakami can struggle with characters at times but I find his themes one of the reasons he's one of my favourite authors at the moment.

I'm about halfway through 'Exquisite Corpse' by Poppy Z Brite. It's decent enough, written fairly well; it's just not making me want to continue on as I'm bored of the romanticisation of serial killers.

Today at work, since it's quiet, I've started on 'Have A Nice Day' by Mick Foley. Only about 15% in (pardon the Kindle 'page' count), and the tale of how he started is familiar territory so far having read Jericho and Bret Hart's books. Fully expect it to pick up at any moment though.

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So yeah, started on "Popular Music From Vittula" and apparently, it isn't about a boy and a girl, it is about two boys who want to start a rock band (although the rock band thing hasn't materialsed yet). It is, of course, lots deeper than that and has a very poetic language and is filled with little fun things about being a young boy, growing up and stuff. Can't wait to get further into it.

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I'm plodding my way through The Firm by John Grisham at the minute. To be honest I picked it up on a whim last year for a flight and never got around to reading it, it's sat and sat so I decided I'd get it started. I'm enjoying it, but I just don't have much time to read so it's taking a while. I'm also working on Fate/Zero light novel but that's more for the anime thread than here I'd imagine.

I've been reading quite a bit more than I used to, in the past year I've read the Hunger Games trilogy, the Girl... trilogy by Steig Larsson, all 7 Harry Potter books in about 17 days, then some of the classic stuff like 1984, Animal Farm, some short stories by F Scott Fitzgerald including the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I haven't decided what I want to read after The Firm, maybe some more Grisham but also John Le Carre novels perhaps like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold or Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but I'll see what I'm in the mood for when I get to that stage. I also want to read a few more of the classics that I need to, but haven't decided which yet.

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Currently reading "Dial M For Murdoch"; I don't generally bother with books that deal with things presently in the public eye, as they tend to be populist cynical cash-ins, but I couldn't resist; I just love the idea of watching Rupert Murdoch squirm.

Only a chapter in so far, so it's nothing earth-shattering, but it's fairly interesting, and a quick and easy read.

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Finished 'Popular Music From Vittula' last night, it had a beautiful ending. I really loved how living and organic the story actually was, this might be the book that rekindles my interest in reading again.

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Finished The Snowman last week. I really enjoyed it overall, moreso the investigation than the more conventional thriller that the last seventy or so pages became; but I'll certainly be heading back for more Jo Nesbo. I'll either read the first book available in English next, Redbreast, or the newest, The Leopard.

I'm about forty pages off the end of Fevre Dream and on the whole I've enjoyed it. A few times I found myself getting bored, but it always picked up quickly, save for one fifty/sixty page section 2/3rds the way through. As a whole thought it's been atmospheric and detailed with two well drawn lead characters and its become suitably meloncholic as its gone on.

After Fevre Dream, I have no idea what I'll take to reading next. Either one of the Jo Nesbo books, or one of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, or James Clavell's Shogun. I also got Let The Right One In for World Book Night, and I'm dying to read that too, But I'm not sure if I want to read two vampire books (however different) back-to-back.... Too much choice on my hands here!

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