A curmudgeon writes.
Time for the first in a number of catch-up posts. Since I last wrote the reading has continued apace even as the reviewing has fallen off the cliff.
Fear not, though: I’m not going to subject you to dozens of recaps in one go. I figure five will be more than enough to be going on with (at least until I write up the next five, right?)
Right.
Continue reading “Book review: recommendations, rereleases and revision”Returning from the Northern Hemisphere to home where a feels-like temperature of minus nine is more common than not? A bit of a rude awakening, I must admit.
What’s positive about this state of affairs, though, is that I have continued to plough through the books. There’s nothing better to do in winter than hunker down with text, and I’ve been enjoying it greatly. Even if I have to wear a beanie throughout.
Continue reading “Book reviews: post-trip reading”I’m back. Not from outer space, but from the other side of the world where a nice holiday was had, and I purchased some eau de toilette that smells like a David Lynch movie or a murder weekend:
A calm yet confrontational scent that traces your neck like a sharp cold blade with buchu sulfur, metallic bloody notes and cold aldehydes. There is a feeling that something is going to happen with burnt rubber, cold cedar notes creating a concrete effect, combined with birch tar, leather and bay oil. Dying out on a cold, damp cellar smell with cedar atlas, dark musk and moss.
I also bought two dozen-odd books from across the UK, lest you think I would be caught slacking on the purchasing front. In particular, I must laud Halcyon Books in Lewisham (£2 per book! Any book!) and Criminally Good Books in York (a murderer’s delight).
In addition I can recommend staying in the Bram Stoker-themed room at La Rosa in Whitby, close to the spot where old mate came up with Dracula. (It’s suitably atmospheric, and the proprietors are lovely.)
On with the reviews!
Continue reading “Book reviews: holiday reads”We’re about to go overseas for a month, and so I’m hoping that the next post here will be a recap of all the things I get through during fifty-odd hours of flights and however many hours of sitting in gardens.
HOWEVER that means that I need to clear my backlog of books read before I place myself at the tender mercies of security at the international terminal.
So let’s get to it, because fuck knows I’ve got a lot of pre-trip packing and organisation to get through.
Continue reading “Book reviews: pre-flight five”So I’m back on the five-books-per-review thing because let’s face it, a dozen-ish (as per my previous entry) is a bit much, even if you’re into the kind of stuff I write. Or the books I read. Or me, really.
On with it.
Continue reading “Book reviews: carnies, conspiracies, despots and degenerates”It’s a mixed bag. I’ve had a lot on since I last updated here, and reviewing books has fallen by the wayside, surprising no-one.
What is surprising, though, is that I’ve kept up the reading! I’m up to about thirty books for the year thus far, which is why you’re getting a baker’s dozen (plus a few extra) in this post. I had some enthusiasms make themselves known through this brace of books, as you’ll see. It’s, uh, a lot. Hopefully there’s something in there to pique your interest. And if not, hopefully you’ll heed my low-scored warnings .
Continue reading “Book reviews: rich guys, cult leaders, schlock horror, debt and architecture”Well, another five books have come and gone, so it’s time for my thoughts on the same. They run the gamut from experimental fiction to weird memoir and scientific history to gothic fantasy, so you can’t accuse me of being particularly genre-monogamous in the last little while, if that’s even a thing.
Anyway, let’s see what I read. Or heard. Or both.
Continue reading “Book reviews: sharks, serendipity, ‘splosions, snapshots and spooks”This five-books-then-review idea seems to be working pretty well. Pressure’s off and I’ve a little more time to gather my thoughts. Will I still write too much? Probably. Will you read all of it? I’ve no idea.
But join me, won’t you? For a coffee break-sized meditation on books that, for some reason, seemed to concern mass destruction and mass production, along with some nice tunes.
Continue reading “Book reviews: nukes, noise, nature… and hot dogs”In an attempt to get the year off to a snappy start, I decided to begin this reading trip with some lighter works rather than launching into frog eating from Day One. (The frog, in this case, is Finnegans Wake and so there is a lot of Kermit-chomping action to go.)
Anyway, I knocked over five books in roughly as many days, which was a pleasant change from some of the, uh, involved tomes of last year. What were they? I’m glad you asked.
Continue reading “Book review: Crowley and the Café”New year, new list of things to help me avoid book decision paralysis.
(Good luck with that.)
Yeah nah. 