Bought a book recently?

[Thenop]

I hve tried reading it more than once in English, and even though I am quite well equipped to read English literature (and do so regularly), this book was too challenging even for me to really have it sink in:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

Some months ago I heard it would finally be translated into Dutch for its 30th anniversary, done by a small publisher (which explains the 50EUR pricetag), so I pre-ordered and it was delivered today.
1168 pages lie ahead (of which over a 100 are just footnotes - if you know anything about DFW you better not skip those or you'll miss half the story.

It's one of those books I always wanted to read and fully grasp, now I can. 

[pxr5]

I've just finished the 3rd in Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Memory. Thankfully, the next book - Children of Strife - comes out later this month.

Back to a bit of horror next - Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven. It's a great idea for a story this one; and it's told in interview style, much like the very good World War Z:

"FantasticLand has been the theme park where "Fun Is Guaranteed!" for nearly forty years. After the hurricane, detectives and others who make it to the survivors more than a month later discover a scene out of a nightmare. Evidence of grisly murders are all over the park. Yet the only ones who could have committed these savage and horrible acts were the college-aged employees. What drove them to such violence?"

[Nickslikk2112]

Just finished reading Gironimo - Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy by Tim Moore

In which our middle aged hero rides the route of the 1914 Giro on a period bike with wooden rimmed wheels, corks for brake blocks and two gears, which you change by turning the wheel over.

In 1914 80 odd riders started and 8 finished. Unlike them he takes four days over each 400km stage which the riders started at midnight. Like them he suffers horribly. I'll spoil the ending by saying he ends up inadvertently at the workshop of a bloke who used to build bike frames for Fausto Coppi and Eddie Merckx.

Now started The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton in which he spills the beans on his career as someone who tolerates pain - rode the Giro with a broken shoulder, grinding 11 teeth down to stumps and a Tour de France with a broken collarbone - and who also was a serial doper.

Written in 2012 when Lance had been outed but was still denying everything.

[pxr5]

Finished Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven last night. It would make a great movie and there is a slight possibility this might happen. I thought there maybe a sequel too as there is a lot more to explore in those few weeks. There isn't but the author has written another, similar novel called Come Knocking. This time it's based in an immersive theatre experience in LA:

"In a ground-breaking theatrical experience gone horribly wrong, a deadly night reveals the dark consequences of blurring the lines between performance and reality.
When Come Knocking came to Los Angeles, the interactive theater production that took over six floors of an abandoned building was met with raves, lines for tickets, and reviews calling it the "must-see experience of a generation". After dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured during one bloody night of chaos during the show's run, the nation was captured by one inescapable question: How could this happen?
As the dust settles, investigative reporter Adam Jakes is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the massacre. Through a series of gripping interviews with survivors, cast members, and witnesses, Jakes pieces together the chilling reality behind what was supposed to be the ultimate theatrical experience."

It's done in interview style too. I enjoyed Fantasticland so I grabbed this to read next.

[pxr5]

I've just grabbed a copy of Derek Shulman's Giant Steps book. I'll be reading that after Come Knocking.

[R6GYY]

Not bought exactly, but my Amazon Prime membership allows me to listen to 1 audible title, and you can change the selection once a month. Unlike an audible subscription though you don't get to keep access to the book if your Prime nembership ends.

Anyhoo - I have just changed my current selection to Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary.

[pxr5]

Finished Come Knocking - good but not as good as Fantasticland. Just started Derek Shulman's Giant Steps last night but the 4th in The Children of Time series (Children of Strife) was released today, so I either bomb through Giant Steps first or bin it for now and start on the next Children of Time book. Hmm, not sure yet.

[dom]

Couple of very good and searing critiques of neo-liberalism.

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine

George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison's The Invisible Doctrine. 

Fascinating reading (well listening)

[pxr5]

I finished off Derek Shulman's Giant Steps: My Improbable Journey From Stage Lights To Executive Heights, last night. I did enjoy parts of the book - the early years were enlightening with the build up to Simon Dupree and the change in style to Gentle Giant. But it skimmed over the albums and didn't give enough detail about the songs themselves or even much on the band members of both Simon Dupree and Gentle Giant. The latter albums when GG went more mainstream were barely mentioned with some odd excuses as to why they didn't catch on. The rest of the book is about Derek's work with corporate record labels, which, while somewhat interesting, didn't pull me in as much as the Gentle Giant parts. Let's face it Gentle Giant were never a massive band but did inspire a cult following that continues to this day. If you didn't know much about GG beforehand, you'd think from this book that they were on a par with Genesis or Black Sabbath and duly he comes across as a bit too conceited, singing his own praises quite a lot; the more he states that the band were not pretentious, to me it smacks a bit of desperation.

I think a decent biography would make a better read, but with death of Ray Shulman potential information from the band members is diminishing. But I love the first 8 Gentle Giant albums and reading about them first hand from a band member really is a treat.

[pxr5]

Just Started the 4th book in The Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Strife. More animal antics abound.

[Slim]

I've started Fighter, Len Deighton's history of the Battle of Britain, first published in 1977. Deighton is best known as a writer of thrillers but this is immaculately researched and detailed.

He goes into the background and personal histories of the aircraft manufacturers, for example. And there's an explanation of the development of the monoplane, and the developments in the technologies that were needed to make it work - higher octane fuel, lighter alloys, new engine designs and so on.

Loads of detail on the various aircraft and how they came to be designed, right down to the guns they used. The Oerlikon cannon that fired through the nose of a Bf 109 was a modified Swiss anti-aircraft gun. Fascinating stuff.

[pxr5]

Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Strife, my favourite of the series so far. 

Now on to David J Haskins'  - Who Killed Mister Moonlight? : Bauhaus, Black Magick, and Benediction. Bauhaus have been one of my favourite bands from when I first started to listen to music seriously. My 3 main friends as a teen had such different tastes - one was into Genesis/Rush and that rubbed off on me, but the other 2 were mainly into punk/goth so their influences added to my listening too, particularly Killing Joke and Bauhaus. I've not really listened to much 'Love and Rockets' or 'Tones on Tail' either so that's something to look forward to.

[Slim]

Northampton's finest! I used to see Daniel Ash occasionally in the pubs in Northampton when he was in Tones on Tail.

[R6GYY]

Working my way (midway through no.3 at the moment) through the (so far!) 8 volumes of Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl books on Kindle.

[Fishy]

Reading Kings's Some Like it Darker.. short stories.. bit hit n miss.. so far