Bought a book recently?

[Thenop]

Purchased the Spirit of Talk Talk some 3 years ago. Great book with lots of interviews, insights in their studio work and alternative art.
Lovely companion piece to the tribute of the same name with great artists giving their interpretation of Talk Talks catalogue.

I recommend both (book and CD) if you ever come across them.

[pxr5]

I've just finished Stephen King's Danse Macabre - a Non-fiction book about horror fiction in print, TV, radio, film and comics. Some of the books he mentions in it sounded intriguing (though SK's book was written in the 80s so well out of date now), so I'm going to try a few. I've started with Ramsey Campbell's - The Doll Who Ate His Mother from 1976. I've read a lot of books over the years and only 2 I gave up on: one was a Ramsey Campbell novel (can't remember which one) and the other Gorky Park. I do recall the Ramsey Campbell one being dull, but this one I'm reading now seems pretty good after a few chapters.

[Slim]

Just bought the entire works of George Orwell, "Novels, Memoirs, Poetry, Essays, Book Reviews & Articles" as a Kindle edition for 99p. Always fancied reading The Road to Wigan Pier properly. I did read a chunk of it a couple of years ago.

1984 is the only book I've read three times, I probably won't make it a fourth anytime soon. I read Animal Farm at school. And a few years ago I read a short essay called (forgive me) Not Counting Niggers, simply because I was intrigued by the title.

Other than that the rest is all new to me I think.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08VDBR74J

[Red Lenses]

Holiday pool side reading....

Stuart McBride - Now We Are Dead 8/10
Richard Osman - The Thursday Murder Club 7/10
Richard Osman - The Man Who Died Twice 7.5/10
Vince Flynn - Term Limits 8/10

[R6GYY]

I just got a couple of audio books in a free Audible trial.

The Talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub.

I've read the book a few times - definitely one of my favourites but fancied trying an audio version.

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. Narrated by John Lee.

Reynolds returns to "Revelation Space" in a direct sequel to Absolution Gap. I haven't read this one, and am listening to it now. Narrated by John Lee, who I am familiar with from his work on Peter F. Hamilton's incredible Salvation trilogy.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Is there any update on when Geddy's memoir might be released? All I can find online points to Autumn this year.

[R6GYY]

Is there any update on when Geddy's memoir might be released? All I can find online points to Autumn this year.

According to Classic Rock, it is now looking like Spring 2023, although I haven't seen any definitive news on it.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/geddy-lee-on-beer-rush-20-and-his-friendship-with-alex-lifeson

[Slim]

Not something I've bought recently, but I started reading a graphic novel I was given as a Christmas present in 1988, The Dark Knight Returns.

It's set in a dark and dystopian Gotham City beset by gang warfare and lawlessness. Batman hasn't been seen for ten years. But late one night, after days of oppressive heat, a storm breaks - and Batman returns.

[pxr5]

Based on very good TV shows I've watched in the last couple of months: I've just finished reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and now reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes.

[pxr5]

I received Time Flies: The Story of Porcupine Tree for Christmas 

[R6GYY]

I received James Hoffmann's How To Make The Best Coffee At Home for Christmas ('twas on my wish list), along with another I had wished for: New European Baking by Lauren Kratochvila.

The next mention isn't for purchases as such, but I've just started a Kindle Unlimited free 3 months trial and I have just grabbed Simon Haynes' Hal Spacejock series numbers 4 to 10. I've got the first 3 as an audio book omnibus and they are very entertaining indeed.

Of course with Kindle Unlimited you never own the books, they are on loan. I don't think I will continue after the free 3 months - but it will be handy to try out the features whilst I've got access.

[pdw1]

The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller

A story of 2 atrocities commit 22 years apart in Iraq and how they affect 2 western men who were there.
It is a great read but very hard going in places. The author worked in International affairs so knows his stuff about how international aid works in particular in Iraq. The sheer madness of it all places it near Catch 22. It is full of black humour and some how humanity too.

I think his latest dystopian book Radio Life would be right up a lot of people's street.

[Slim]

I've just started The Man With The Golden Gun, one of the Fleming 007 novels of course and a book that I read in my teens. This was the last novel that Fleming wrote before his death in 1964. He only got as far as the first draft.

For a long time I'd thought that Kingsley Amis had finished the book off on behalf of the publishers but more recently I've read that his suggestions were rejected. So as far as I can tell, it's just been edited from the first draft. Wikipedia asserts that "Much of the detail contained in the previous novels was missing" but honestly, I'm not seeing that myself. All the usual information about what particular sort of clothes Bond prefers at any given moment, the obectifying lavish description of the women and their clothing; exactly what he orders for breakfast - it's all here.

This is one of the best 007 novels for me, a massive improvement on the faintly ridiculous You Only Live Twice with a much more down-to-earth and grittily realistic plot. It's also a million miles from the Spy-fi film of the same name. No secret base with henchmen in boiler suits, no solar energy beam weapons. In the book, Scaramanga is a brash and vulgar young assassin, very highly prized for his exceptional skill with a pistol who does contract work for the KGB and the Mafia.

[Thenop]

A Perfect Silence by Ben Wardle, the Mark Hollis biography.

[dom]

Ben Elton - Identity Crisis

Middle aged police inspector trying to make sense of modern norms. Just started but finding it entertaining