191 replies to this topic

[Mark Peyton]

I'm personally looking forward to the new edition of Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman due to the brand new 'novella' which threatens to be longer than the original book. Also very much looking forward to the third Peter Grant book by Ben Aaronovitch as the first two have been lots of fun. I'd imagine there will be more Chris Woodling and Jim Butcher as well.

Currently though finishing off Iron Jackal by Chris Woodling and starting on rereading Victorian Cities by Asa Briggs as part of research for a script I'm writing.

[Ben the Obiwomble]

I'm not that bothered if Tim hasn't read anyone on that list (I think the loss is more his than mine there, but each to their own tastes), nor if David thinks they're all pretentious wankers. There are plenty of people on that list whose writing I enjoy, some that I love, and I posted the list as one with books that I was looking forward to because I thought others might be interested too. I don't think it's a particularly esoteric or rarefied list of authors.

The impulse to do down things that other people enjoy, seemingly just for the sake of it, is one I always struggle a bit to understand. There are plenty of things that people on this board like that I either dislike or am ambivalent about but, in the main, I'm happy that people enjoy what they enjoy. It doesn't, in general, do me any harm if people like things that I don't; they can like what they like, I'll like what I like, and I'll carry on getting excited about it too.

And keep posting about such stuff too I hope! As invariably it is someone else's joy over something that'll see me likely give it a try.

Books for 2012? Hard to say, I'm not following many authors in the way I used to, but that means I may get around to checking out some of the recommendations made here, like Carey's Castor books for instance. I may return to the non-fiction stack of history and politics I've got to read, it's just hard to be motivated due to the torpor that's been afflicting the country for the last 18 months.

Did finally finish Erikson's Malazan series, started the reread in April (of vols 1-8) and 10 books later, have got to the end.

The problem I have with The Crippled God is that it doesn't really seem to be as conclusive as I expected it to be, it leaves some major plots hanging and I'm lacking confidence they'll be addressed despite the need to do so. There's also a move that comes out of the left field that doesn't gel at all well with the previous books, I'm left going: Well, if this was the aim then why do X in vol Y? It's shaken my sense of confidence in the author. I love series for the sense of involvement, seeing plots build on each other to deliver a bigger kick and overall impact, but it only works so long as the spinner of the story knows full well what they're doing and I'm no longer sure that's so with Erikson.

[Nicholas Taggart]

I am looking through this list of the best selling books of the year in the UK:
http://www.guardian....lsen?intcmp=239


The first book on the list I have read (in full anyway) is Never Let Me Go at 43, and the next isn't until number 80, The Gruffalo.

The sales of One Day are pretty amazing.

[Christian U]

The sales of One Day are pretty amazing.

Waterstone's sold it for like three bucks if you bought another book, in the summer. I have a copy, too, because of that.

Hmmm... in the top fifty, I've contributed to the UK sales of One Day, When God Was a Rabbit, Snuff and The Slap this year.

[Ricardo_C]

Picked up three Stephen King novels over Christmas: The Shining, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and Bag of Bones. Just got started on The Shining. I've always preferred Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 novel to Kubrick's film, so I'm curious to see how one master stacks up against the other on this one. I know King didn't enjoy the film much, but his own TV adaptation wasn't particularly well received either, so we shall see.

[Rory Abel]

Picked up three Stephen King novels over Christmas: The Shining, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and Bag of Bones. Just got started on The Shining. I've always preferred Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 novel to Kubrick's film, so I'm curious to see how one master stacks up against the other on this one. I know King didn't enjoy the film much, but his own TV adaptation wasn't particularly well received either, so we shall see.

I honestly, think that film is the better of the two. It's not a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination but I think that the book doesn't come together nearly as well.

[Christian U]

The thing that bothered King about the film is that, Jack Nicholson being Jack Nicholson, you're thinking This guy is crazy! pretty much from the get-go. Whereas the point of the book is that this is a perfectly normal family man that the reader can identify with who slowly turns insane. He has a point about that one, I think, it's just that the film does everything else so very well.

[Nicholas Taggart]

The thing that bothered King about the film is that, Jack Nicholson being Jack Nicholson, you're thinking This guy is crazy! pretty much from the get-go. Whereas the point of the book is that this is a perfectly normal family man that the reader can identify with who slowly turns insane. He has a point about that one, I think, it's just that the film does everything else so very well.

If Jack Nicholson's character in the film hadn't lost it and tried to kill people after a while in an isolated hotel that would have been much stranger than what actually happened.


I like the film a lot but I agree with Stephen King's criticisms of it even if I don't think they kill the film like he seems to. If the main character had seemed more sane and sympathetic what happened to him would have worked better, as would the family falling apart element. I find Nicholson to be a really menacing presence right from the start. I don't think it was all down to the casting, I think the script and direction share the blame. Nicholson probably could have played the role sympathetically if that had been what he was asked to do.

[Mike]

What folk were reading in 2011:

The US Top 10 Fiction

Adult Fiction
1 "The Help" Kathryn Stockett (Berkley Publishing Group)
2 "The Help" (Movie Tie-In Edition) Kathryn Stockett (Berkley Publishing Group)
3 "Water For Elephants" Sara Gruen (Algonquin Books Of Chapel Hill)
4 "Cutting For Stone" Abraham Verghese (Vintage Books)
5 "A Dance With Dragons" George R. R. Martin (Bantam Books)
6 "The Confession" John Grisham (Dell Publishing Company)
7 "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" Stieg Larsson (Vintage Books)
8 "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest" Stieg Larsson (Knopf Publishing Group)
9 "The Litigators" John Grisham (Doubleday Books)
10 "Room" Emma Donoghue (Back Bay Books )


And the UK list:
1 One Day Nicholls, David
2 Room Donoghue, Emma
3 Help,The Stockett, Kathryn
4 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The:Millennium Trilogy# Larsson, Stieg
5 Confession,The Grisham, John
6 Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest,The:Millennium Trilogy# Larsson, Stieg
7 Girl Who Played with Fire,The:Millennium Trilogy# Larsson, Stieg
8 Brightest Star in the Sky,The Keyes, Marian
9 Game of Thrones,A:Book 1 of a Song of Ice and Fire# Martin, George R. R.
10 Family,The Cole, Martina

In the UK combined charts, Terry Pratchett is at 32 with one of the best performing fiction hardbacks of the year (almost 200000 copies sold, nearly £2m brought in)

No work of fiction sold a million copies in the UK last year (One Day was closest, with 935000).

[Nicholas Taggart]

Huh, other than an unsuccessful attempt to read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I haven't read any of those books.

[Paul F]

Huh, other than an unsuccessful attempt to read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo I haven't read any of those books.

I've read Room, A Game of Thrones, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. One Day has been on my shelf for over a year.

[Mike]

It's best left there.

[David Chapman]

What folk were reading in 2011:

The US Top 10 Fiction

Adult Fiction
1 "The Help" Kathryn Stockett (Berkley Publishing Group)
2 "The Help" (Movie Tie-In Edition) Kathryn Stockett (Berkley Publishing Group)
3 "Water For Elephants" Sara Gruen (Algonquin Books Of Chapel Hill)
4 "Cutting For Stone" Abraham Verghese (Vintage Books)
5 "A Dance With Dragons" George R. R. Martin (Bantam Books)
6 "The Confession" John Grisham (Dell Publishing Company)
7 "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" Stieg Larsson (Vintage Books)
8 "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest" Stieg Larsson (Knopf Publishing Group)
9 "The Litigators" John Grisham (Doubleday Books)
10 "Room" Emma Donoghue (Back Bay Books )

Odd that more people read the third Millennium book than the second.

Nicholas: A Song of Ice and Fire needs to be on your reading list.

[Russell H]

Unless there's a significant difference in content, why would they separate the two editions of The Help?

[Nicholas Taggart]

I just finished reading That Is All the ending was quite wonderful and not what I expected.

Nicholas: A Song of Ice and Fire needs to be on your reading list.

I might try and read the first book before the second season of the tv show starts in a few months.

[Mike]

Russell, it's a sales list more than anything else, so they're differentiating between the original edition and the movie tie-in edition.

David, the sales are for 2011. The implication would be that people who bought the first two books before 2011 went on to buy the third in 2011.

[Paul F]

I just finished reading That Is All the ending was quite wonderful and not what I expected.

Yeah, that was fantastic. I love how much of the mythology he'd built up paid off towards the end of the series. For a book of fake trivia, it was a damn good apocalypse novel.

I see Sky Atlantic are showing the TV adaptation of Tim Winton's Cloudstreet starting next week. Is the book worth reading? Breath is the only Winton I've read, but I liked it a lot.

[Christian U]

It's best left there.

That's the second time I've heard somebody say something like that about One Day.

I suppose I'll leave it on the shelf, as well, then. Still, it was only three pound, so.

[Mike]

Oh, you might enjoy it, clearly lots of folk have; I just found it a tad on the saccharine and obvious side. I'm not a great fan of the author in the first place though, and only picked up One Day because it was getting so, so hyped, to the point I wondered whether his writing style had changed. It hadn't.

[Nicholas Taggart]

The only thing I have read by David Nicholls was a short story about learning to play piano, and I liked it.

Yeah, that was fantastic. I love how much of the mythology he'd built up paid off towards the end of the series. For a book of fake trivia, it was a damn good apocalypse novel.

I thought it was also fun to see the stuff he has been doing in his appearances on the Daily Show, on his podcast, and in other media appearances feed into his book. Like he started talking about sports a lot over the past few years which was obviously because he was developing his Jock-Nerd Convergence thing.

I am disappointed to see that Nick Mangold's Twitter avatar is not the drawing of him wearing a leather top hat and goggles that was in the book.