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

The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell, for the second time.

Is that as good as his other stuff? I've read most of the Sharpe novels, plus the Grail Quest trilogy. They're all pretty good.

"American gods" by Neil Gaiman. Being a big fan of "Neverwhere" AND finding an unabridged Audio version at Half Price Books, I went for it. So far (less than a quarter into it) its pretty good. So Gaiman is looking at us Americans, now ...

well I like the king arthur books by Cornwell, Bernard Cornwell said they are his favourites. The christians are the baddies in the books lol, makes a change.

I've just bought the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Not so heavy as it looks!

I got a lovely old copy of a children's Shakespeare, I'm hoping to interest the Gruesomes.

the third part of the Arthur trilogy (the Cornwell one) sorely disappointed me for some reason. Perhaps I need to read them again in quick succession.

I've just finished Do Not Pass Go by Tim Moore. It's about the streets/whatevers on the Monopoly board. Not as interesting as I thought it might be, but an entertaining read nonetheless.

Terry Pratchett - Thud

Just finished "Keeping it real" by someone. Good start to a series.

The Elf Queen of Shannara - Terry Brooks

I've finished 'White City Blues' by Tim Lott. It turned out to ne very, very, *very* good - far oustripping the Hornsbysque LadLit that I feared it might turn out to be.

As ever, my rate of buying books at charity shops far outstrips my reading speed. My weekend trawl:

More language textbooks, to add to my collection - Portuguese, Greek and Danish.
'The Road To Wigan Pier' - George Orwell (read it, of course - but it was there)
'The Moon Is Down' - Steinbeck
'Rabbit, Run' and 'Couples' by John Updike.

I was thinking of starting one of the Updikes next. Shamefully, I haven't read him. Any suggestions? Or have I bought the wrong ones?


There was a peculiar illustration of Britishness in one of the shops. Someone had just left a couple of carriers of books. I rummaged through them and found some I wanted. But the woman serving told me I couldn't have them, because they '...hadn't been checked and priced.' I interrogated her a little further about what they had to be 'checked' for (they looked in decent nick to me!), and offered to pay a similar price to other books on the shelf, but she kept insisting that she '...just couldn't.' Eventually she wore me down and conceded that one would be £1 and the other 50p. I insisted on paying the £1.50 each that I was going to offer.

(the woman who'd just left the bags was in fits of laughter during this performance)

'The Road to Wigan Pier' by Orwell. Great book, especially the first half. Certainly well worth a re-read.

Updike? - I wonder. I tried a couple of those but didn't get very far. Good for insomnia I should think.

As an aside: "What PAPER are you reading at this time?"

"Reporters without Borders" has listed USA 53rd in their latest list and BRITAIN 27th. Quite disturbing isn't it?

All is not gloom - CONGRATULATIONS to IRELAND on joint-1st.!!!

Moreover...most British newspapers aren't worthy of the name.

I should have mentioned that the list is based on how much censorship is going on.

On the book front I'm about 2/3rd way through The Information by Martin Amis. Gwyn Barry, the famous author is now on an American book promotion tour. Richard Tull, rival book a flop, is now going to interview Gwyn for a Sunday newspaper supplement. As part B of his plan Richard wants to make Gwyn's wife pregnant. As for part A of the plan: to get Steve Cousins (Scozzy) and his sidekick 13 to rough-up Gwyn Barry failed miserably because in the dark Richard was mistaken for Gwyn. So far, so good!

I'm currently reading Flashman and the Redskins by GM Fraser.

More Bernard Cornwell here: Rebel - it's about a yankee fighting for the South in the American Civil War. Enjoyable so far.

Re-reading 'Born to be Gay' by William Naphy. It could be retitled 'How Homophobia Conquered the World'. Brilliant. And it's not just for gays, it for everyone!

What's not just for gays?...oh, right - the book

Now, read it!

Stangely, I can't find a review...but his other stuff sounds rather good:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,6121,845479,00.html