h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Maybe I should read LoTR at bedtime. On second thoughts, maybe not. I'd be up all night spitting venom at how poor it is.

What should I read after 'Black Swan Green'? I've half a mind to tackle either Beevor's 'Stalingrad' or Alan Bennett's last one. Both somewhat chunky.

Ed have you ever read Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker?

I am reading run baby run by nicky cruz

>>Ed have you ever read Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker?

No...and I'd not heard of him until now. I'll confess to a light allergy to Magic Realism, but I'm always willing to take recommendations/raves.

I see from W***pedia that there's some significance to yellow paper in his books. Stevie Smith wrote 'A Novel on Yellow Paper'. She also wrote the famous lines:

"I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning."

Probably the single best poem in the english language, imho.

Not reading very much atm (Other factors have led to a shortened concentration span and thus inability to read a narrative) so still hammering away at the backlog of graphic novels lying around. Read recently Brubaker and Larks 'Devil inside and Out', which was ok, and Adam Warren's 'Empowered' which overcame it's somewhat dubious origins to be witty and well done.

On the stack next 'Walking Dead Vol 6', 'Kurasagi Corpse Devilery Service Vo 4', 'Adam Strange Archives Vol 2' and Moore and Campbell's 'From Hell', which has been there for a while waiting to be re-read.

I must dig out my Collected Stevie Smith at the weekend. She was as mad as a coot, and a mad coot at that...but I've always found madness to be an attractive trait.

which is the only reason I can put up with your at LOTR

Run Baby Run - I read that when I was about 14, right before I read The Cross and the Switchblade. I'm feeling all nostalgic for Boarding School now - so I'll get my LOTR and read a bit more to complete the feeling

i read the cross and the switchblade recently so when i saw run baby run in the shop i had to get it!

I think we discussed it here too, didn't we?

We may have done!

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis. It's interesting how inaccurately he managed to describe space travel a mere three decades before it was actually possible. Being in space is apparently hot and bright because of the sun. You weigh very little, but if you put on a weighted belt you can walk around normally (gravity being towards the centre of your ship, except when you get near a planet, then you'll be walking on the wall facing the planet).

reign of hell

sven hassel (must admit it's not quite laugh a minute stuff)

In fairness to C.S. Lewis I doubt the 'science' of space travel was of any interest to him. It was a means to an end.

Because of the synchronicity of Pedro having mentioned it and then finding it at Oxfam...JK Galbraith's memoirs. So far I've barely picked it up, but it has a killer opening line.

And speaking of Canadians (more synchronicity), I also found ten old hardbacks by Stephen Leacock. I'm planning to flip them on ebay and donate the proceeds back.



I finished 'Black Swan Green' by David Mitchell. It was rather compelling and very insightful. It didn't *quite* work as a literary experiment. I could kind of see what he was trying to do (basically, metanarrated recursive intertextuality ), but he didn't quite pull it off. Still - I'd recommend it.

>>In fairness to C.S. Lewis

No, let's not be fair. In his apologetic writings, he tries to pull off sleight of hand tricks to 'prove' Christianity. Clearly the man had no familiarity with the empirical process, and this is reflected in his lack of interest in/ understanding of science.

(Although bad science doesn't necessarily make bad SF. Take Ray Bradbury. Science isn't important to him. The whole point is the romance of space.)

My comment wasn't a blanket defence of Lewis, merely an observation. You forget your 'roid cushion today?

Although I will say that The Screwtape Letters is a great book, and he has my undying admiration for interupring Tolkien's reading of LOTR to their literary circle with the observation 'Not another ***king elf'.

Well, yes, he has that in his favour.

Still...I could hardly pass up the opportunity to attack a solipsist who regarded other peoples' agony as having the intended purpose of bringing him personally closer to god. It beats me why he's so admired by Christians. Mind you...so was the evil Mother Theresa.

Screwtape Letters rocks, if only for the fantastic ending.

Made a mistake at the weekend - decided to have another go at LOTR. Not doing that again. Dull, dull, dull, and will you please stop fxxking singing. What are you lot, trapped in a musical?

Well, yes. In the West End now.

Mind you, if you think the beginnings dull, it's clear you never got to the end...