T.D. Posted October 11, 2008 Report Posted October 11, 2008 Some time ago, I read Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux (one of my favorite authors). He traveled (essentially) by bus, car and train from one end of Africa to the other (Egypt-S. Africa, with an understandable gap in the middle). In the mood for more exotic travel, I recently heard about Jeffrey Tayler, and read his Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Boat, Bus and Camel. Not bad, and I'm going to read more of his books, probably some Siberian ones next. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted October 13, 2008 Report Posted October 13, 2008 Started F.M. Busby's The Breeds of Man. I've been carting this book around for about fifteen years now; Busby was someone I wanted to try at some point in life and I just never got around to it. I remember him being fairly highly touted back at that time, but I'm completely out of touch with the SF world of today; anyone know if he's still read? Or still writes? According to Wikipedia he passed away in 2005, stopped writing in 1996 or so. Sounds like a "no"... I never remember him as being 'big', just as 'up and coming'. Having read the book now, I'd say he's very good, but not great. Certainly worth reading. Quote
ejp626 Posted October 21, 2008 Report Posted October 21, 2008 I have been on a fiction jag, after slogging through some academic books on urbanization (some were good to be fair). I read Murakami's After Dark. I can see why it got lukewarm reviews. It is about two sisters, one of whom does nothing at all for the entire book, and could easily have been omitted. Except for the fact that nearly all of Murakami's books seem to contain dualisms and switch back and forth between times, narrators, characters, etc. The other thing is that of the Murakami I have read, it sort of peters out and there is no real resolution. This one was an exagerrated version of that with 3 or 4 threads left hanging. I still enjoyed the half about the active sister (and her budding friendship/romance with a trombone player!), but it certainly isn't top-rank Murakami for sure. Then I read Kramer's A Handbook for Visitors from Outer Space. This came out in the mid 1980s under Vintage Contemporary, as part of a push to mainstream literary (as opposed to easy reading) fiction. Some of the other well-known books in this imprint are A Visit from the Footbinder and Clea and Zeus Divorce. Well, I finally got around to reading this one. This is sort of a fable about soldiers waiting for war, as well as about family secrets (and incest), but I just didn't care for it. It was too flat. Too many people acted in ways that were completely unbelievable. Generally not much happens until 30 pages towards the end, but then they pull short of any real resolution. I would probably have liked it more 10 years ago. Finally, I read Jesse Bell's Samedi the Deafness. This got raves in several book review circles. I was more like, meh. There are certainly echoes of Kafka, but only a handful of reviewers have picked up that the entire book is a riff on G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. I really dislike Chesterton, as I think he is a religious prig. So I didn't like the source material, and I generally am not that impressed by books that are that open about their source material. So really I only liked one-half book of the last three books I've read. It looks like I will be reading Oscar Wao pretty soon (borrowing this one from the library), and I hope this is the one to break the streak. Quote
king ubu Posted October 22, 2008 Report Posted October 22, 2008 read some Kurt Vonnegut for the first time - Cat's Cradle, now finishing up Slaughterhouse 5. Very good reading! Cat's Cradle was hilarious, has been some time since I read a book that amused me as much! Quote
sal Posted October 22, 2008 Report Posted October 22, 2008 read some Kurt Vonnegut for the first time - Cat's Cradle, now finishing up Slaughterhouse 5. Very good reading! Cat's Cradle was hilarious, has been some time since I read a book that amused me as much! You're entering a world of great reading, ubu! I'm currently reading "Welcome to the Monkey House", a collection of his shorter works, in between chapters of "The Great War for Civilization". That book is just too long and intense to read straight through....so the Vonnegut stories are working wonderfuly as intermissions. Quote
BruceH Posted October 22, 2008 Report Posted October 22, 2008 Just re-read The Mind Behind the Eye, a rather obscure 1971 science fiction novel by Joseph Green. Didn't really mean to re-read the whole thing, but it's got a high pulp-readability quotient. Once more, I'm amazed at how much Green managed to cram into such a short space. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted November 6, 2008 Report Posted November 6, 2008 My revisit to SF has led me to some books that I always meant to read, but never did. Books that I've been carrying from home to home over the years, but for some reason or other, never got around to reading. Last week was Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake, which was good if not great. Now I'm reading Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17, and I am completely hooked. It's taking a while to get through; I keep going back and rereading parts. (I think I've covered Chapter Four about eight times so far.) Awesome writing. And to think, Dahlgren (which I've carried around for only few less years) awaits! Quote
Elissa Posted November 6, 2008 Report Posted November 6, 2008 Just polished off this beautifully written little novel in about a day, as would anyone interested in the diaspora out of Germany in the 30s. Quote
BruceH Posted November 6, 2008 Report Posted November 6, 2008 My revisit to SF has led me to some books that I always meant to read, but never did. Books that I've been carrying from home to home over the years, but for some reason or other, never got around to reading. Last week was Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake, which was good if not great. Now I'm reading Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17, and I am completely hooked. It's taking a while to get through; I keep going back and rereading parts. (I think I've covered Chapter Four about eight times so far.) Awesome writing. And to think, Dahlgren (which I've carried around for only few less years) awaits! Babel-17 is the only novel of Delany's that I've ever been able to finish! It was back in high school, when I was reading sf almost constantly; I remember liking but not loving it, but don't recall many specifics. I've never been able to get far with Nova or Dhalgren or any of the big ones. Some swear by them though. You might want to give the early stories of Roger Zelazny a try, too. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted November 7, 2008 Report Posted November 7, 2008 Believe me, I've read my share of Zelazny. Now there's an interesting writer. Or writers, as it feels at times... There have been a few times I've thought to myself "wait a minute; this can't be the same guy that wrote such-and-such." Quote
BruceH Posted November 7, 2008 Report Posted November 7, 2008 Believe me, I've read my share of Zelazny. Now there's an interesting writer. Or writers, as it feels at times... There have been a few times I've thought to myself "wait a minute; this can't be the same guy that wrote such-and-such." Indeed; some of his early stories ("For A Breath I Tarry," "The Keys To December," etc.) were so good that I could hardly credit some of the hacky novels he cranked out later. Quote
BillF Posted November 7, 2008 Report Posted November 7, 2008 Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said Quote
Big Al Posted November 7, 2008 Report Posted November 7, 2008 (edited) Bouncing back and forth between Stingray Shuffle by Tim Dorsey and Prayer: Does it Really Matter? by Philip Yancey. I owe my Dorsey obsession to Dave James, who recommended Florida Roadkill sometime back. I haven't had this much fun reading since I was rifling through all of Christopher Moore's books (man, I hope his next book is better than the last one which, literally, sucked). Edited November 7, 2008 by Big Al Quote
jazzbo Posted November 7, 2008 Report Posted November 7, 2008 Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said I think this will be the next PKD I re-read! Quote
BillF Posted November 7, 2008 Report Posted November 7, 2008 Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said I think this will be the next PKD I re-read! Good choice! (My first reading.) Quote
BruceH Posted November 8, 2008 Report Posted November 8, 2008 Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said I think this will be the next PKD I re-read! I remember really enjoying this back in the day. (Gateway too, for that matter.) Quote
BruceH Posted November 8, 2008 Report Posted November 8, 2008 How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein Quote
Big Al Posted November 9, 2008 Report Posted November 9, 2008 Literally? Well, okay, maybe I was being a tad facetious. However, trying to get through it was a draining experience, so.... Quote
Jazzmoose Posted November 9, 2008 Report Posted November 9, 2008 Literally? I'm tempted to look for the book... Quote
Jazzmoose Posted November 9, 2008 Report Posted November 9, 2008 Philip K Dick, Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said I think this will be the next PKD I re-read! Hmmm..I finally finished Babel-17 and this one is on the shelf... Quote
BillF Posted November 9, 2008 Report Posted November 9, 2008 James Blish, A Case of Conscience. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted November 9, 2008 Report Posted November 9, 2008 Then again, so's that! I've got the Between Books Blues... Quote
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