Whats everyone reading?

[Paul faplad Finch]

Cheers for the responses everyone. I shall descend upon the library with that wikipedia list and see what I can scoop up.

I have to admit that I've been chuckling away at these a lot more than I expected to. I suppose if I'm honest, my reasons for picking them up were about 50/50 nostalgic/ironic. Really did have the idea that they were quite childish. Had no idea they were held in such high regard.

[Colin YNWA]

Well they are children's books so its not a bad assumption. That of course doesn't mean they are not magnicient and incredibly clever.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

It's those open minded, non judgemental Space Marines once again in A thousand sons, a Horus Heresy book by Graham MacNeill.

Grab your Bolter and get blastin'! [oh er missus!]

[House of Usher]

I've just read Nevermore, an indie graphic novel anthology adaptation of 9 Edgar Allan Poe stories, published by SelfMadeHero in 2007.

It was an impressive little book. Six out of the nine stories have very polished scripts, and the contributors are a mix of professionals and semi-/non-professionals, including big names like Jamie Delano, Steve Pugh, John McCrea and Edgington and D'Israeli.

Dan Whitehead and Stuart Tipples' adaptation of The Raven is deftly paced, and the visuals keep the situation in view when the words alone might run away with the reader, causing one to lose sight of where they came in.

There are imaginative updates of The Pit and the Pendulum, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Heretical as it may be to say so, I'm grateful to Edgington and D'Israeli for doing The Murders in the Rue Morgue in a mere 10 pages!

The real highlight for me was The Oval Portrait, adapted by David Berner and Natalie Sandells. It reads like only the cream of the crop of strips published in a 1970s edition of House of Secrets, which, if you read a lot of them in series, is a very patchy read. David Berner's writing is fantastic, and Natalie's drawing style evokes a certain vintage, specifically DC's end of the eighties Wasteland horror anthology.

A bit expensive at £12.99, but cost me nothing to borrow from the library. A nice little travel-sized volume, it helped pass the time on a long coach trip.

[TordelBack]

I recently started reading Asterix the Gaul to my 4-next-week boy, but found myself chuckling at the puns in almost every panel, and then being forced to explain (at length) what I was laughing at - we barely made it to the second page.  Excellent stuff, and just as good as I remembered - just much, much funnier (if you share a love of supra-Abnettian puns).

[CrazyFoxMachine]

A absolute spudload of sources for my dissertation about Sheffield's buildings. What I have learned: people hated Sheffield's buildings.

"The old buildings of Sheffield are something of a joke. In style after style there is the demure and the second rate" Ian Nairn

"Architecturally Sheffield is a miserable disappointment" Nikolaus Pevsner

"It has a population of half a million and it contains fewer decent buildings than the average East Anglian village of five hundred" George Orwell

Sigh.

[House of Usher]

"It has a population of half a million and it contains fewer decent buildings than the average East Anglian village of five hundred" George Orwell

The WJEC exam board presented Orwell on Sheffield as a comprehension piece in its Higher Tier Paper 2 English exam in June 2006. I think it was an inspired choice!

[nev]

Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty.

[Peter Wolf]

"It has a population of half a million and it contains fewer decent buildings than the average East Anglian village of five hundred" George Orwell

Sigh.

I shouldnt think that Sheffields architecture is that much worse than any other Northern town/ city that expanded rapidly during the Victorian era.

[Zarjazzer]

"Line War" by Neal Asher an AI heavy book but fun despite the mostly non-human cast.I think it would have helped if I'd started with the first book in the series as it can get a bit confusing between dragons, draco-men, polity AI's, Golems and  killer arachnid gun platforms.

Also just got "Kull the Conqueror" by Robert E Howard. Never read any Kull and as they're mostly re-hashed "Conan" stories I'm looking forward to seeing how they stand up.Some excellent illustration work in there too.

[Paul faplad Finch]

Earlier this week I finished the 5th Felix Castor book, The Naming of the Beasts. I meant to come on here and rave about it sooner. Suffice to say, it was fecking superb.

I've enjoyed all the books in this series but this one was just in another league. By halfway through the book I was convinced half the cast were for the chop and was genuinely distraught at the prospect, while the final confrontation between Castor and his Demonic nemesis is just an incredible, all-in, last ditch desperate struggle for survival that is absolutely gripping from start to blood soaked finish.

Highly recomended. Carey is gonna have to really go some to match this with book 6.

[Colin YNWA]

Just finished 'A pirate of Exquisite Mind' a biography of William Dampier who if you've not heard of him was a buccaneer who did some incredible studies to the natural world, helped develop travel writing, inspired Jonathon Swift and Charles Darwin, sached Spainish towns and coined the word avocado amongst many other things. If that's not a life worth reading about I don't know what is. Fantastic book.

[HOO-HAA]

I'm reading two fellow Snowbooks authors; MANEATER by Thomas Emson and GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN by George Mann. You couldn't get two more different writers! Emson writes with a style so economic, it feels as if it's been relayed to you by some guy on the run. Mann's style suits his steampunk tale; comic-book, campy and fun. Bot enjoyable reads.

[wild-seven]

A biography of Beau Brummel - influence for 'This Charming Man' FACT!

[Mike Gloady]

Not really a sci-fi/fantasy reader (not outside Tharg's Emerald Organ anyway), heck I'm rarely a fiction reader - but I'm on the last throes of China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and it's really rather good.  Very outside the norm, which is nothing but a good thing for me.

Now if only I wasn't too tired to read it tonight.