[books 2009] various
Apr. 19th, 2009 07:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro20. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Last month's Bibliogoth selection, and a re-read. My copy has my scribbles in places, so clearly at some point I meant to write in a Serious Academic Context about it, but buggered if I can remember why. There's very little to it (so little that I debated even counting it, but considered that as Anathem is still sitting on my desk, these things balance out) and I really enjoyed discussing it as it made me feel as if I have a brain for the first time in a very, very long time. It's one that I enjoy dissecting more than I like reading, which is truly unusual for me.
21. Raw Spirit by Iain Banks
Banksie drives stupidly over-powered cars round the distilleries of Scotland. Although I love Banks, the concept put me off when it came out. My loss - this is a really funny book, and only minimally about whisky production. There was more about cars than I really needed to read, but his lifetime's worth of Funny Anecdotes makes it all worth it.
I did not know that Banks went to school with Ken McLeod, whose book Cosmonaut Keep we are reading this month for Bibliogoths.
22. 20th-Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
This is the guy whose novel, Heart-Shaped Box I loved so much recently. This is a collection of his short stories. Like Heart-Shaped Box, there's a lot more to most of them that you at first think there should be. Some of them don't even have a supernatural or horror element. My favourites were "20th-Century Ghost" and "Best New Horror", and there wasn't a dud among them.
I am an out-of-touch idiot who only found out yesterday he's Stephen King's son. I'm pretty neutral on the subject of King (he has written some good books and some really dull books, and a whole bunch I've never read), but Hill is in another league altogether.
Last month's Bibliogoth selection, and a re-read. My copy has my scribbles in places, so clearly at some point I meant to write in a Serious Academic Context about it, but buggered if I can remember why. There's very little to it (so little that I debated even counting it, but considered that as Anathem is still sitting on my desk, these things balance out) and I really enjoyed discussing it as it made me feel as if I have a brain for the first time in a very, very long time. It's one that I enjoy dissecting more than I like reading, which is truly unusual for me.
21. Raw Spirit by Iain Banks
Banksie drives stupidly over-powered cars round the distilleries of Scotland. Although I love Banks, the concept put me off when it came out. My loss - this is a really funny book, and only minimally about whisky production. There was more about cars than I really needed to read, but his lifetime's worth of Funny Anecdotes makes it all worth it.
I did not know that Banks went to school with Ken McLeod, whose book Cosmonaut Keep we are reading this month for Bibliogoths.
22. 20th-Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
This is the guy whose novel, Heart-Shaped Box I loved so much recently. This is a collection of his short stories. Like Heart-Shaped Box, there's a lot more to most of them that you at first think there should be. Some of them don't even have a supernatural or horror element. My favourites were "20th-Century Ghost" and "Best New Horror", and there wasn't a dud among them.
I am an out-of-touch idiot who only found out yesterday he's Stephen King's son. I'm pretty neutral on the subject of King (he has written some good books and some really dull books, and a whole bunch I've never read), but Hill is in another league altogether.
