The following Dodgers have been smited by the JDK for their crimes against Jam:
All the girls! for picking on the JDK and damaging his already delicate self esteem!
The Basserd Who Nicked Copper's Stuff For the offense of nicking Copper's stuff. You are a tw*t, whoever you are and we all hope you get run over by a tram in Nottingham. Or Liverpool. Or whereever else they have trams!
Copper For the crime of playing with her Wii instead of her Jammie pals!
As an alternative to movies, sometimes I read a book. Or listen to an audiobook (I'm in the car for an hour and a bit every day; may as well use the time productively!)
These are some of the books I read (or listened to) so far this year. The ones I can remember, anyway.
Kraken by China Meiville One of those Urban Fantasy type novels that are so common at the moment, but because is by China Meiville, it's not quite as by the numbers as most of the others and is also awesome.
Neuromancer by William Gibson I'd been meaning to read this for years but only just got round to it. The classic Cyberpunk novel. It's a little bit dated, but still pretty damn good.
The City & The City by China Meiville I just can't get enough of me old China. This is quite simply the best book I've read in years. It starts out a standard, noirish, crime procedural and then quickly descends into weirdness as Meivill introduces the concept of two cities existing in th e=same pysical location. And there's no magic or alternate dimensions or nonsense like that. There's just two cities. In the same place.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovictch One of those Urban Fantasy type novels that are so common at the moment, but unlike China's earlier in the list, this one is fairly by the numbers. There are a couple of nice ideas in it and it's well written and fun. I'll read the sequel at some point.
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest Not so good. It's a steampunk zombie novel set in turn of the century Seattle. It was painfully predictable and that's about all.
I shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett For some reason it's taken me ages to get round to reading Pterry's latest book. As always it was pretty good, but I can't help thinking that he's done the whole young witch learning her trade thing a couple of times before, so there was nothing actually new in it. The Wee Free Men are always fun though. I'm looking forward to his next one though, out in a couple of months!
Embassytown by China Meiville China again. This is his latest book and pretty damn good it is too. Set on a distant planet where the aliens have a unique form of communication. It's kinda hard to talk about without giving too much away, but although it has a bit of a slow start (I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be the first Meiville book that just left me feeling 'meh), the trademark weird concepts are cleverly introduced and, when the action kicks in, it suddenly becomes awesome. Awe. Some.
I'm currently about two thirds of the way through the Agent To The Stars audiobook by John Scalzi, which is turning out to be a thoroughly entertaining tale of an alien civilisation that wants to use a Hollywood agent to make it's debut on Earth. And it's narratyed by Wil Wheaton, which is cool!
In my stack: Supergods by Grant Morrisson the Half-Made World by Felix Gilman The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
This is a thread I can get into...Since retirement, I've had time to start (or re-start) and finish the many books that caught my interest and were purchased over the past 40 or so years...I started with all the 200 or thereabouts Louis L'Amour books (even the essays and poetry)...As a student of WWII history, I've now completed Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Crusade in Europe, John Toland's two volume Adolph Hitler, The Arms of Krupp, The Bunker,Inside the Third Reich (again), Final Entries (from Joseph Goebbels' diaries) and I'm just now finishing Albert Speer's second book he wrote in captivity, The Spandau Diaries...
I didn't read them all this year but I've gained a new insight on what drove the world to war for the second time in the same century...Next I'll probably start reading Colonel Roosevelt......Ben
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"It must be mounted on a tripod!...It must be mounted on a tripod!" - Cmdr. Frederick Mohr
Hmm, ok, well, guess I'd best calibrate the scale first, so...
9 - Snow Falling on Cedars (David Gutterson?) 8 - any of Paul Theroux's travel writing 7 - books by Ian Rankin/Patricia Cornwell/Janet Evanovich 6 - decent chick lit; Freya North, Marian Keys 5 - children's classics; The Wombles, Winnie the Pooh, Paddington 4 - 3 - 2 - travel writing by Bill Bryson (international whinge bag) 1- the fiction writings of AA Gill and Stephen Fry
Oh this is going to be a long list... I'll have to think some. I only know of the last couple of books I read which were all of the Song of Ice and Fire series, the first two Outlander books, a book by Laurell K. Hamilton and my school books... I'll have to check out my goodreads account and see what I've got on there lol
I've considered BB's history one, but I just really felt with his travel ones that he goes to different places around the world purely to moan about them, so a bit scared about trying anything else he's done? He did however introduce me to Paul Theroux, so I can forgive him much.
your fellow jurors are probably sitting there wondering what's wrong with you because you're not laughing at your funny book. They probably think you have no soul.
After only 40 years or so, I've finished all the books I put on my list about the war in Europe...Started "Colonel Roosevelt" and only 700 some odd pages to go...
Maybe I should check to see if anything new and important has been written about WWII since 1967...Nah, impossible...Besides, there's always the Pacific war......Ben
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"It must be mounted on a tripod!...It must be mounted on a tripod!" - Cmdr. Frederick Mohr
your fellow jurors are probably sitting there wondering what's wrong with you because you're not laughing at your funny book. They probably think you have no soul.
Oh, if anyone was looking they'd have seen the broad grin & occassional shaking & known I was either supressing laughter or having a fit; no one came to my aid.
I just finished 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' by Steig Larson.
I have to admit that I thought it was going to be shit. In my experience, books that get as much attention in the popular media as this one has and sell as many copies as this one has are usually shit, poorly written, derivative nonsense. Just like Harry Potter or The DaVinci Crud.
And after it's slow start, I wasn't expecting to think differently about this one. But it was a freebie, so I thought I'd give it a chance. And then, about a third of the way in, I sudden realised that I was really enjoying the expertly crafted characters and the Fleming-like attention to detail. And the not-entirely unexpected conclusion to the mystery was still quite satisfying.
So there you go. Good 'un. I'll be looking for the sequels.
I hear the 2009 movie is pretty damn good too. I may hunt that out. It's also being remade by Hollywood right now, which doesn't sound so good... Although it does have a pretty good cast.
That book was agonizingly slow in the beginning. I almost didn't make it through, but a friend told me that it got better, and it definitely did. I was surprised by how into I got. I have the other two books in audio book format, and as soon as I'm done with school I'm going to listen to them. Right now I'm stuck in Updike hell.
Having exhausted my library of WWII histories, I pulled "Doomsday: The Science of Catastrophe" off the shelf and started it...I've had it at least 20 years and finally got around to it...The first several chapters deal with much varied theories of our beginnings but now toward the end, I can see the author start pulling them together...It's getting more interesting......Ben
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"It must be mounted on a tripod!...It must be mounted on a tripod!" - Cmdr. Frederick Mohr
Have just finished the Horse Whisperer. The A&E waiting room was possibly not the best place to start it, it does have a very sad beginning. Enjoyed it, but have to say the end was not nearly as strong as the start, a bit like the authour had an "arghhh, how do I finish this from here?" moment.
...Ben
...Ben
...Ben
