I am a sucker for series of books rereleased in handsome matching trade paperback editions, and Orbit Books seems to know it, because that’s what they’re doing with Iain M. Banks’ science fiction novels. Another one of my foibles is that if I am presented with such a collection of books, I have to start […]
Another entry in my list of books that have been languishing on my shelves for ages that I’m reading this year. This was kind of tough. It’s written throughout in a style that I would say is reminiscent of Joyce, although apparently (from reading other people write about it) if I had ever read Faulkner […]
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Well, this is book 4 of at least 6 in a fantasy series, so it’s a bit silly for me to describe this one on its own to an audience that mostly hasn’t read any of them. Anyone who did get through to the end of the Prince of Nothing trilogy probably thought it was […]
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
One of my projects this year is to read a bunch of the books sitting on my bookshelves that I have heretofore ignored. I never buy a book I don’t intend to read, but often something else takes precedence and I never get around to reading it. Until this year, that is, I guess. I […]
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Well, that was something. The quick context is that Bolaño was a Chilean writer who died in 2003; this novel (basically finished at the time of his death) was published posthumously to great acclaim, and when the English translation appeared in 2008 it was immediately hailed as a masterpiece and made every critic’s top 10 […]
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
I’ve read most of the Jack Vance that’s in print in the US, and some that isn’t, which means that in order to read more I have to either track down out-of-print books or read his grade-B material. This is the latter. It’s published as two novels, but it’s really one novel ripped into two […]
Can I call them the Spewers? I seem to have a knack for coming up with derogatory names for groups I like. Anyway, going to sleep last night I remembered a name that fits in that group perfectly – William Vollmann. He passes every criterion, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately I’m not actually […]
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I discovered Robert Pollard (the guy behind Guided By Voices) around 1996. His music seemed boring at first, but after a few tries I recognized his genius and since then have acquired most of his recorded output (I own 67 CDs of his by a quick count). I discovered SF author Jack Vance a few […]