As everyone‘s doing it…I had FOMO😬 . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/best-books-21st-century.html

After reading contemporary fiction I need a few gos to get into the flow and classic style of Poe. Once I lock in, it‘s so beautifully crafted and satisfying to read. Sometimes I wish we all still spoke how Poe writes. His language is just so expertly crafted and meaningful. I read this because my local cinema showed Corman‘s adaptation a week after he passed. That film only shares a title with its source but it‘s a work of art in its own right.

This novella openly declares it‘s influenced by Borges‘, The Library of Babel (I didn‘t know it) & turns his notion of an impossibly huge library into a philosophical exploration of life, love & religion. A man dies, goes to hell and is put in a huge library with one task that guarantees freedom. Perhaps silly, it has a horror/sci-fi feel & I couldn‘t put down. As with philosophy, questions raised go unanswered, but the story ends satisfyingly tho

As a series opener, this novel isn‘t too bad. I‘m just not sure, this close to completing it, if I liked the Shardlake character enough, though. Despite the casual pacing, it is an easy enough read, but I didn‘t get enough immersion into the period from the writing alone, feeling I did a lot of the visualisation work myself. I wasn‘t wholly convinced by the whodunit denouement either. Good, but not amazing, although I sense the series grows.

There‘s a panel on page 54 which shows a contemplative Captain Haddock looking out of cell, holding onto the bars. It‘s simple enough but so perfectly captures its desired meaning that, as always, I marvel at Hergè‘s artwork. He‘s not underrated by any means, but he lounges comfortably and unquestionably at the?of the pile of the world‘s great contemporary artists. Shame the story is pedestrian compared to this adventure‘s previous instalment ?

Monk isn‘t likeable. I skipped his horrible Foucault paper- It gave me flashbacks to my degree. He had great ideas, just often impenetrable and pompous. The same with this book..it‘s so painfully post post-modern it disappears up its own arse. For the same observations but without the self conscious irony, Chris Rock‘s movie CB4 is very funny. The blurb on the back has one person gushing that the novel is “seminal”. Maybe when it was released.

Prog-rock‘s light blazed for a few years in the 70s. Ironic that its death knell tolled when the faux-anarchism & primitivism of 3-chord punk rockers like the Sex Pistols situated themselves as a push back against the (sad but sometimes true) accusation that prog was self-indulgent keyboard noodling for male dweebs. The final nail in the coffin was Spinal Tap‘s bass player getting stuck in his plastic pod. Prog‘s story is eminently readable fun!

My penultimate AI themed #tuesdaytunes. I asked for Minnie Riperton (Worst likeness of all AI pics I‘ve had generated) reading The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes; Carlos Santana reading Call of Cthulhu. I specifically asked for Genesis era Peter Gabriel reading Jane Eyre. Chick Corea reading James and the Giant Peach. Obviously Kate Bush would read Wuthering Heights and Elvis Costello doesn‘t want to go to Chelsea so reads Fever Pitch instead.

#tuesdaytunes Just how intelligent is artificial? Actually that question doesn‘t work. Here‘s this week‘s AI meets musicians meets literature. I asked for: Syd Barrett reading Alice in Wonderland; Marvin Gaye reading Spider-Man; David Axlerod reading The Bible; Patrice Rushen reading Men In Black; Bobbi Humphrey reading 2001 and Robert Fripp reading Psycho.

Bonus AI mash-up #tuesdaytune shenanigans. For my brother from another mother, @Bookwomble , I asked AI to give me David Bowie reading Maigret. 🥴

Good news pop pickers…It‘s that #tuesdaytunes mash-up series that no one asked for: Literature meets the musical greats via seven fingered AI. This week I asked for…James Brown reading 50 Shades of Grey. Bob James reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Looks like AI took that literally). Barry White reading The Joy of Sex. Wendy Carlos reading Catch 22. Flora Purim reading “Stories” and Herbie Hancock reading House of Usher.

#tuesdaytunes I asked AI generator to do me the following. Jimi Hendrix reading Wizard of Oz. Nina Simone reading Dune. Cal Tjader reading Foundation. Roy Ayers reading Marx. Rick Wakeman reading Legend and Donna Summer reading The Hobbit. ☺️ More shenanigans next week!

I was reading Tintins before I read “proper” books. The 7 Crystal Balls was the first really enjoyably creepy story I remember reading. Herge is well into his stride, his comic art was peerless. To me, only he and Kirby finessed movement and action. The cast are all really engaging and wonderful characters and I‘ll argue with anyone that Captain Haddock is one of literatures greatest. The cover is iconic and one of my favourites.

Achebe titled his book from a line in Yeats‘ poem, The Second Coming, which imagines what he apparently saw as the Christian “epoch” coming to an end. It‘s an ironic title as, ultimately, Christianity, in the form of missionaries, “slouches” towards Africa, and things start to “fall apart” for the people of Umuofia. From history, we know what‘s coming but we get a poignant story of life‘s fragility on a smaller scale with our protagonist Okonkwo.

Quiet descended upon the crowd at the Sheraton-Cleveland as Asimov sliced open the envelop containing the name of the winning novel of the Hugo Award on a warm September day in ‘66. Big Frank sprayed a mouthful of red wine over the back of Ellison‘s neck as he heard his epic, Dune, would be SHARING the prestigious award with Zelazny‘s slim, dry, Earth-based, This Immortal. He stormed out & missed Rodders‘ premier showing of his new Star Trek pilot

Got to 70%. I guess, with such a short book, I could have carried on but, you know what, I just didn‘t care. Across 3 pages in this dull romance, a scene was, I think, set on a beach, then suddenly they were in a room. I either missed the transition because I was bored or it went surreal. That made me think it was going to be “all a dream” or the narrator is in a coma or some such rubbish. If it‘s neither, I predict the novel fizzles out.

White supremacy, puritan hypocrisy: It‘s the rational for colonising & wreaking havoc on an indigenous people & nature. But, as we recklessly devastate the planet over generations, there flickers ephemeral lives. Here, humans can have poignancy & pathos. Lives are brutal/beautiful. They‘re also relentlessly privileged. Yes, survival of the fittest exits in nature, but we add vulnerability & imbalance. This book is a love letter to trees & nature.

There‘s A LOT of hate for Herbert Jr‘s entries into the Duneiverse. Perhaps because he collaborates with someone whose penmanship is not even close to Dad‘s cerebral, intricate plotting. The two guys don‘t seem to be able to weave threads as confidently as Frank. However, I think they know this so don‘t try. They go down the pulp sci-fi route & In that respect, it‘s a rattling good read. If anyone deserves to squat in Herbert‘s worlds it‘s his son

Having a spring clean in my man-cave/office/studio/library and found my old technical college books. Made my blood run cold I tell ya! I never did want to do plumbing when I left school but we can‘t always get what we want. F Hall (his name always caused snickers in class) was the supreme wizard and plumbing mafia, don gorgon for college text books. Hated the books but love the hand drawn illustrations in all of them. He made a crapper vibey af

I only just found out Frank‘s son did a novel that fills the gap between Dune and Dune Messiah. Also, I booked tickets for the 2nd Villeneuve movie. Those are all the excuses I needed to re-read this masterpiece. This book is so imaginative & evocative. I love Lynch/Villeneuve‘s films but honestly, there is a beauty & depth to this novel that just can‘t exist outside of the page. The phrase is mis/over-used now, but this is proper “world-building”

Some criticisms of David Lynch‘s Dune are that it‘s bloated and gaudy. This book, with its 500 page word count and metallic red edges is close to being the literary equivalent. I don‘t debate with anyone about Lynch‘s Dune. It‘s a weird, beguiling masterpiece that actually stands outside of the novel as a work of art in and of itself and you either like it or you don‘t. This deep dive on the making of this ambitious flop is probably for fans only.

Picked this up on a whim thinking it was going to be a salacious, who‘s who of cancelled celebrity wrong-uns and their crimes. It‘s better than that. It‘s about fandom & the sticky problem “separating the art from the artist”. We see how artists/men behaving badly are given a bye due to their “genius”, while female counterparts are labeled “monsters” for different reason. It‘s all done through a post-modern, Marxist-feminist lens. A great critique

Part 2 of this Sci-fi invasion trilogy set in Nigeria, 2067. Thompson‘s novel is so gloriously African-centric that America has annexed itself from the rest of the world so there‘s no chance of them “saving the day” or some other “world-police” nonsense. Like book one, wild ideas pack this novel. There‘s action, violence, body horror, aliens and espionage, but this time, none of the chronological jumps that made book one so confusing.

Entertaining essays that analyse every story in Jon Pertwee‘s tenure as the 3rd Doctor. The pieces straddle socio/political, academic writings and playful critique (which stops the whole project being too dry). This is the first Doctor I remember & I got a Britbox subscription so I could simultaneously watch and read this book. I realise now my reverence of Doc 3 is based more on the great Target novelisations I read as the show was pretty naff.

QT‘s not even half as annoying in written form as he is when interviewed. Whatever the literary equivalent of over-enthusiastic babbling is, this isn‘t it. It‘s palatable nerdiness, focused on what makes films interesting to QT. He makes them interesting to me too: Mostly 70s action films - their stars, directors & producers. You have to take what QT says seriously because he‘s a genuinely successful and this sets it above standard movie critique.

After the exciting build-up of Secret of the Unicorn, the sequel is a bit of an anti-climax. For the first time, we get every famous character associated with Tintin as Professor Calculus makes his debut. It‘s a bit reliant on slapstick but the dialogue, specifically Captain Haddock‘s, is funny. There‘s no disputing the artwork, it‘s glorious as always.

1st time round, I wasn‘t ready for the “deconstructed” superhero novel. Since it was released, & now I‘ve just reread it, I think The Boys & Kickass made the concept more enjoyable. It starts compelling & has some interesting parts (I support Moore‘s politics) but it sags in the middle & loses its way until Moore pulls it back with the climax. His characters are interesting & the art is great but the backstory segments between parts are often dull

It‘s 410 BC & Xenophon leads a 10k strong army of Greek mercenaries, retreating from a failed attempt by their Persian paymaster, Cyrus, to seize the throne from his brother after their father dies. As they make their way back to the Black Sea & eventually Greece, they battle hostile natives & hardships caused by the terrain. Granted, it‘s a classic but it was a bit of a slog. It‘s repetitive & monotonous but, like Xenophon, I got there in the end

I read this because my wife felt aspects of this book put into words her own experiences as a WOC. Think pieces interrupt a fictional story(but never the flow) & read like open wounds festering on an author/protagonist‘s already bruised skin.Thus,smart critique weaves into a harrowing tale of obsession. The myth of equality & Neoliberalism is dismantled via Critical Social Justice ideology & paralleled with a WOC‘s exploration of intersectionality

It‘s probably polite to call this GoldenAge SciFi. In reality, it‘s massively antiquated. Eurocentric men smoke cigarettes & argue aggressively about politics, resources & a pseudo-religion, created to pacify colonies. The 1st female doesn‘t appear until page 183. Planets replace countries & spaceships, aeroplanes to qualify it all as SciFi. Herbert finessed the hell out of these themes 15 years later with Dune. However…I enjoyed it immensely!🚀

Profound storytelling at its most beautiful. On a casual level, a compelling story of a couple‘s pilgrimage, set in a fantastical, Arthurian time: A tale that‘s assured and confident in its ability to hide as much as it tells. On a deeper level it‘s about how enduring, yet troubled, relationships (not just marriage) can last because of, or despite, the hurt we can cause each other. Does memory/healing affect the “prize” at the end of the journey?

If satire was poetry, these collected articles show Lee has the comedy writing equivalent of a poet‘s beautiful turn of phrase. Surreal and bizarre humour dismantles the absurdity of British politics while trolling unsuspecting Guardian readers. However, being roughly 10 years old, it‘s quite distressing & no longer funny to see clowns like Cameron, Gove & Johnson, went on to oversee the Brexit & Covid disasters: Killing the people and the country

Although the MC starts off as a pretty heavy handed representation of the “lumpen” (both physically & within Marxist theory) I don‘t think this tale is truly committed to being allegorical. It‘s satire, with targets that range from pulp sci-fi to religion, the machinations of corporate capitalism & the bizarre pageantry of the upper classes. The bigger message is the destructive nature of revenge. This would have made a good Python/Gilliam movie

Due to building work, I don‘t have a kitchen at the moment. It‘s not stressing me but it‘s unsettling and consuming my time. Therefore my reading had dropped right off. However, I wanted to finish Dracula today because I‘m taking my daughter @she_she to see Browning/Lugosi‘s 1931 movie at the Prince Charles Cinema this afternoon. Not much I can say about this glorious, gothic classic that hasn‘t been said already.

Ripley,full of self loathing, ashamed of his social standing & frustrated with his inability to fit in where he wants to the most, finds some happiness entertaining others at social gatherings with his impersonations & mimicry of others. The chance to actually steal the identity of another is this sociopath‘s natural progression. The tension built as the net tightens and his subterfuge could be revealed is what powers this tight, smart novel along

Tony Chew gets psychic visions when he tastes/eats something. As an FDA agent, investigating murders, you can work out the kind of things he eats to solve crime. You could say Vol 2 of this bat-shit crazy series jumped the shark if it wasn‘t for the fact that Vol 1 already rode the back of 2 sharks on a lead like Poseidon and his dolphins. This is superb and I‘ve got 4 more volumes to look forward to. TW: Massively, disproportionately drawn women.

I guess, when some random bloke on a book app says that an author with nearly 50 years of worldwide success writes bloated, boring books, it‘s a bit like an out of shape footballer on Hackney Marshes saying he doesn‘t rate Lionel Messi. But the facts are,although I didn‘t bail (Like It) I skimmed. I wish I could “get” King but I think his best ideas are always reinterpreted better by movie makers. Tobe Hooper made ‘Salem‘s Lot iconic. This is dull

We‘re in Lovecraft Country; Spell-books written in blood; Mountain top rituals & tentacled beasts. Also, undertones of Barker‘s Hellraiser films. Well crafted characters battle KKK monsters. All good fun and action packed. My gripe: We are led through a linear story like a survival-horror video game. It‘s also too reliant on dues ex machina, even for a fantasy novel. Definitely a solid YA novel with powerful imagery and a rich, evocative setting

I‘ve had this now sadly faded curiosity since I was a kid. Luckily the sun is out so I read it in the garden. It‘s a shame it will probably never be re-released in all its glory. Neither will Kirby‘s ten issue run that expanded Clarke‘s story. It‘s a strange addition to 2001‘s visual media; the original, languidly paced film, in the hands of the greatest comic book artist ever, becomes, characteristically, action packed and full of Kirby-Tech.

I‘ve seen the film twice before and read the book twice too. But this third reading was the first time that I‘ve read it days after seeing the film which, incidentally, was the first time I had seen it at the cinema. They compliment each other so well. Both are simply beautiful works of art. I‘ve now become slightly obsessed.

Well, I didn‘t bail so credit to this collection for keeping me entertained. One too many stories are so-so but as Sherlock Holmes pastiches go, the majority of stories were good yarns. There just wasn‘t enough of that rich, cosmic horror and weirdness that I found in my recent, personal discovery of Lovecraft. A couple of stories came close, but the best of the batch were the ones that capture Doyle‘s penmanship rather than Lovecraft‘s surrealism

My great-grandmother came from Ireland in the 1800s and settled in Marylebone. Across the road was a work house; close to where Madam Tussaud‘s is. She had a hard life growing up. She eventually moved to the Cally in Islington. I used to visit when she lived in the flats next to Pentonville prison. She often told me how kindly Mr Holmes would give her and her street-urchin friends a shilling to run some errand or follow some rascal, up to no good.

I found this after reading LaValle‘s reworking https://litsy.com/p/QXZMQm54VGg4 To use Lovecraftian parlance, I nearly fainted at the indescribable terror that awaited me as I climbed over the cyclopean walls and into the land of Ra‘Cism.This isn‘t in the Cthulhu Mythos,but as it starts where LaValle‘s cosmic tale ended,it‘s a good retrofit. LaValle doesn‘t attack the racism of this story,he presents what it‘s like to be at the end of such bigotry

LaValle is a black author and his novella is a modern take on Lovecraftian, cosmic horror. It‘s a decent reimagining which he dedicates to Lovecraft, “with all my conflicted feelings”. The sentiment is profound: for any sensible reader, Lovecraft‘s work is wildly imaginative but his jarring tone exposes some bonkers & racist attitudes. LaValle does a good job of subverting HP‘s racism and putting a black (anti)hero into the Cthulhu mythos

“The Horror in the Museum” & the “The Mound” fit into the Cthulhu Mythos & bookend a collection of terror tales. I enjoyed these less than the last HPL collection that I read as I think I prefer his “cosmic” horror. However, the tales are “revisions” of stories from HP‘s “clients” (early fan fiction?) The best, “Winged Death”:stunningly racist yet intriguing detective/Cthulhu mash-up. I‘d read a Sherlock Holmes meets Cthulhu if such a genre exists

I don‘t have a cat but here‘s Randall, my daughter @she_she ‘s lizard. Finally completed the trilogy. It has its highs and lows. I think it suffered from that 2000‘s scourge of unnecessary trilogies. Padded stories designed to sell 3 books when one would easily do. A LOTR cash-in. This isn‘t nearly as epic as the author thinks it is. The last quarter of this book picks up the pace and shows what could have been done if the tale was tightened up.

Snagged 7 HP Lovesauce books for (dd on ebay. @Bookwomble Thoughts?

I‘ve not seen the film for years but I recently saw Kurosawa‘s Yojimbo upon which the movie, A Fistfull of Dollars, is based. A mischievous cowboy rides into a Mexican town that‘s in the grip of 2 rival families. He sets to work pitting them against each other and his machinations spark a brutal adventure that‘s a quick and easy read but is no Blood Meridian. Besides the filmed “Dollars Trilogy”, theres 5 other novels, if you like Westerns.

I mean, if you‘re a serious bookworm, you could spend hours in this dusty joint looking for a gem or two but it was just a bit too overwhelming for a casual browser like what I am. Imma just stick to eBay.

I‘m left intrigued by what defines “gothic”. All the images in my mind about gothicism are more appreciable when I watch a Corman movie. This is only my 2nd Poe, though. Either way, it‘s beautifully evocative & a pleasure to read such assured wordsmithary rather than something more contemporary & anodyne. I thought this tale might be analogous to the aristocracy‘s fear of a dying bloodline but a Google search reveals a fascinating real-life event