Roo Reynolds - What's Next?

Recent Reading

Posted by Roo - 03/01/08 at 04:01:18 pm

Continuing the monthly-ish series of reading-list-as-minimalist-book-reviews. What actually happens is that they build up on the bedside table until its time to move them, at which point I take a photo. Like this.

• Roger Zelanzny, Lord of Light – initially very tough going, but once it started having fun with its own style I soon got into it. Thanks to Kyb (who has introduced me to some great books) for the loan.
• Noam Chomsky and Edward S Herman, Manufacturing Consent - seriously dry and beginning to show its age, but a classic and well worth a read if you want some classic Chomsky.
• Nick Hornby, How to be Good – I’m not convinced by the female voice here. Hornby writes men incredibly well, but the female narrator was harder to believe. Nevertheless a pretty good read. Even managed to make me cry a little bit, which is always a good sign I think.
• Mil Millington, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - if you’ve never read his excellent webpage do yourself a favour and give yourself a giggle. The book is not a direct translation of the page, but is of course heavily influenced. The plot farcical and silly (think: Tom Sharpe at his best) but the dialogue is absolutely brilliant.
• H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds – always wonderful to re-read this. I’m still annoyed by the ending, but it’s increasingly interesting as an exploration of social Darwinism as well as a late 19th century cultural reference (you can’t read it without noticing how much has changed. Horses as transport, for one thing).
• Like Rhinehart, The Dice Man - I mainly re-read this because it gets mentioned in ‘How to Be Good’. It’s not incredible writing, but an interesting theme comprehensively and sympathetically explored. I quite enjoyed it, even the second time around.