Other Books you are currently reading?

46 years old and only just found the delights of Neil Gaiman. Consider myself an enlightened heathen!

Norse Mythology
Sandman
American Gods (plus the two Shadow Moon stories)
Neverwhere
Stardust

Have just ordered Preacher by Garth Ennis... loving the TV show and, again, fallen for the bravado of Joseph Gilgun as Rudy in Misfits never thinking he would fill Robert Sheehan’s comic relief shoes as Nathan - then reading that, as Cassidy, he steals every scene and when Seth Rogen was casting, felt that the role was written for this Lancashire lad! Joyous!

 

Neil is one of those authors you can read anywhere and be entertained. He's not such a great singer as I found out when he was pulled on stage by his wife whose show I attended some years ago.

 

That's funny - I recently watched a doc about him on Prime - his softly spoken musings are extremely good and I was quite taken with his attitude.

 

Oh yes, his Norse Mythology book is awesome, had so much fun reading that even if all the stories are basically the same: something happens, probably Loki's fault, threaten to kill him just in case until he fixes it...

 

You forgot Thor eating and drinking everybody else under the table.

 

I'm nearing the end of Ant Kind, the debut novel from Charlie Kaufman, which has been exactly as crazy/weird/funny/philosophical as you might expect. It's almost impossible to describe, but I really recommend it to anyone who's a fan of his films.

An elevator pitch might describe it as Synecdoche New York meets A Confederacy of Dunces meets Anthony Burgess' Enderby Trilogy meets Marx Brothers. It's as happy going high-brow as it is lamping you with dumb puns and slapstick tomfoolery. There's existentialism, science fiction, horror, social commentary, political commentary, film criticism... Just so many aspects all working in tandem. It's been a such long time since I read and enjoyed something this unique.

 

Gave "We should all be feminists" a read yesterday lunchtime which was good and now hoping to read "Stonelifting".

Really got out of the habit of reading so hoping to get back into it.

 

Finished the book and loved it. Just like everything else be Sylvain Neuvel he strikes a perfect balance of adventure, humour, science, and politics for me.

Next up.... probably Red Widow by Alma Katsu, once it arrives. To bridge me over I'll finally read The Three Jokers.

 

Never heard him sign but I do like his readings. I have listened to audio books of N.G. reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Stardust.

 

You're not really missing out. And while I can't get into audio books at all I definitely agree he has a nice reading voice.

 

Splinter Cell Blacklist: Aftermath. I think I enjoyed the book as much if not more so than the campaign in the game!

 

The Walking Dead Saga: 6/10

I started collecting the Walking Dead volumes (32 in all) back in about 2016 when I started watching the TV series - I haven't actually watched the series beyond meeting Negan! To sum up such a long story is a bit presumptuous, but I'll give it a short summary.

The saga starts off well enough, and I'd say meeting The Governor is the first highlight: if you haven't read the comics, let's just say the TV show's version is very tame in comparison. Negan is great as well, and his character arc comes to a nice conclusion I think. However, the story goes off track in the final stages when the survivors meet the Commonwealth, a large community that is focussed on resurrecting 'the old ways' where there was a class system (which just seems silly given the state of the world), which in my opinion betrays the author's political agenda. There's also a growing focus on non-heterosexual relationships towards the end, and I'd approximate about a third of the main characters are gay or lesbian.

So, overall, good until about 3/4 through. Could've been a 7/10.

 

I actually did finish The Three Jokers (good to very good, but not up there with the best for me) and Red Widow (good to very good agent thriller with some flaws that keep it from fulfilling its potential).

Now I'm contemplating what to read next, have four or five comic books (the last chapter of Gideon Falls is one of them) and several books (The Terror by Dan Simmons and Later by Stephen King among them) waiting for me.

 

PSA - Today is Towel Day - Time to re-read "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

 

Finished Later by Stephen King (a really good read, albeit not not supernatural as I'd have expected given it's a Hard Case Crime release) and The Terror (so much longer, weirder, deeper, and overall better than the TV series adaptation, but that's no suprise TBH). I also finished all of my comic books waiting around apart from Batman The Last Knight which I started on yesterday.

Next books: Natasha Pulley - The Kingdoms, followed by Metro 2034 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, then maybe the new Jordan Peterson.

Fun side story (it is to me, at least): I finished Terror and at the back of the ebook (I love paper books, but the ebook was almost free and reading a 900+ pager on a Kindle is quite convenient) there were some recommendations what to read next. Both The Hunger and The Deep by Alma Katsu, which I can definitely recommend as well, and then a list of other books by Dan Simmons. Funnily enough I'd read one of his books years ago when I lived in the UK (the strange and beautiful Song of Kali in the Gateway Essentials release below) and had completely forgotten about it until I read the title and went "wait a second, that does ring a bell somewhere deep in my mind...".

 

I love to read Jules Verne

 

Who doesn't?

 

Finished Natasha Pulley (it's good, but there are parts of the story I found tiresome). Now reading Metro 2034 and the first Death Standing book. Can't make up my mind which one I prefer.

 

Just finished First Light by Geoffrey Wellum

A rather good memoir of a WW2 Spitfire pilot, not at all what I expected and made a tad more poignant as I finished the last few chapters whilst being blasted by the sound of 4 × Rolls-Royce Merlin XX V-12 at full chat.

Also polished off 2 more Jack Reacher books

 

Please elaborate!