Strip Cartoons
part 4
They're books eventually ok
Schulz-Peanuts
A sustained marvel if occasionally repetitive. More subversive than it's anodyne rep suggests. In addition so many themes you see elsewhere were there first. "It's fair weather today Charlie Brown" "So where are all my friends"

Darby Conley- Get Fuzzy
There's a strip this good, this well drawn and no english paper will syndicate it? The independent has the dreadful "As If", the Fail continues with Fred fucking Basset, which is to humour what haemorrhoids are to theology. (A mildly obscure allusion to the fact that Luther was a lifelong sufferer from piles. Which may account for the dour humourlessness of much protestantism. It lends itself to a good pun though- "Luther, Luther", his co-religionists would call whilst the old anti-semite was at stool "No, Tighter", his strained reply.) Other lazy strips could also be named but enough digression.

George Herriman -Krazy Kat
A founding father of the genre. Not always funny but the sheer invention and beauty of the artwork is breathtaking. Unpopular with almost all editors but sustained by the surprising and long term support of William Randolph Hearst.

Stephan Pastis- Pearls Before Swine
You are online ergo you already know this poorly drawn but scabrously funny delight.

Bill Waterson- Calvin and Hobbes
Well drawn and funny even if it owes Schulz a bit.

Honourable mentions to Boondocks, Dilbert and brickbats to Garfield.

Not including web-comics but if I were then XKCD, Cat and Girl, Cyanide and Happiness and Quantz would be here, as would Goats if it ever got going after the crash a while back
(unclestinky, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 1:17, 13 replies)

I've only written
reviews for two novels on the internet. It's not that they were the most profound novels I have ever read, but more that these were the only times that I could be bothered. One's good, one's bad, the novels anyway.

John Fante - Ask the Dust

I finished reading this on the tube. At the last word I looked up at the empty seats opposite, then looked back and read the last page again. I felt as though I had been punched in the balls. Damn you, Camilla Lopez.

Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (excerpt, applies to Millennium Trilogy in general)

Larsson seems to have three rules that his characters obey without fail:

1) A character may only be competent if they are either female or a feminist male, and a poor view of women is always the preserve and excuse of the mediocre male
2) Any character that is a "bad guy" is also a sex criminal,
3) All the female characters sleep with Blomqvist.

After 3 books, watching a group of cookie-cutter PC liberals run rings around a group of sadistic misogynists, barely hampered by whatever chauvinistic deadweight their team has to carry, reads like either a utopian fantasy or a bad gender studies essay, or maybe both.
(cs1ca, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 1:04, 2 replies)

I've just finished reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin
and (slightly overlong depressing ending* aside) I found it to be a damn sight better than I was expecting. Humorous and touching with believable, likeable (and dislikable) characters, I really never thought it possible that I could chuckle out loud at a novel about the second world war. I reckon anyone who considers themselves "a reader" (and God knows the stigma attached to that these days) should give it a go. The fact that the very first paragraph refers to "an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful enema" should tell you all you need to know.
As for shit books that are supposed to be good, I tried reading Porno (the sequel to Trainspotting) and found it to be completely fucking incomprehensible. I made it through about 50 pages and gave up. Also, I found Cloud Atlas to be really annoying. It was a great idea (six different narratives nestled inside one another like literary Russian dolls, all of them somehow linked to their surrounding story) and I raced towards the ending, and then... then... it ended. There was no twist (SPOILER!) there was no clever resolution, there was no underlying reason as to why or how everything is linked. Bastards.
Oh, and I really enjoyed _House Of Leaves, pretentious as it was, but that corpse is picked over elsewhere on these pages. You should still read it though.
*And no, it wasn't the "they all die and the ones that don't live unhappily ever after" kind of depressing.
(Paolo Nutini's Bikini Better than Frederick Fleet's optometrist, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 0:54, 3 replies)

"The Third Policeman" Flann O'Brien
(again, can't be arsed to ctrl+f through the previous)
Fucking Brilliant. Funny. Clever. Short. Perfect novel.
(the 'best of Myles' is a top too)
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 0:08, 1 reply)

Harry Potter
I know there is an absolute hatred of the Harry Potter books amongst your good selves, but at least hear me out.

I know they are not brilliant works of fiction, or works of anything most of you with give any credit to, but they have such a special place in my heart.
My Brother and his wife live in Edinburgh, and as such, they heard about the books very early on. They sent mini-me the first one in 1998 when he was 7 and I was just moving on my own with him from Liverpool to Bristol to go to university.
Even at that age he was a voracious reader, and he bleated on about the book day in day out, ‘Mum, MUM, MUM, MUM you HAVE to read this’ until one day on the train going back home to see my mum, I reluctantly agreed.
I will never forget his little face as he sat, all blue eyed and blonde curly haired desperately awaiting my approval on a story that he had thrown himself into wholeheartedly and was so excited about. I have to admit I was hooked.
I loved it, I loved the idea! But I especially loved that he loved it too.

From that point on, every new book that came out turned into a fight…Who ever bought it first, and yes, he did on one occasion go to the midnight opening of Waterstones (even with my sneering) to buy it first, got to read it. We would wrangle and flap and bribe each other as to who would get to read it one evening or the other, one chapter at a time. Desperately trying to remember which bit each of us were up to as to not give anything away for the other, but SO wanting to talk about where we were up to.

They grew up together, their lives were intertwined, the experiences, loss, love, friendships, maturing, responsibility and all that it contained touched mini-me and me as we lived what happening from the page. We talked about it for hours, giggling at the humour, upset at the disasters, and ever excited at what would happen next. Although their ages were slightly different, there was a feeling of growing up together that he wasn’t aware of, but I was.

The last book came out 10 years after our adventure started, and as I read the closing chapter, laying on the sofa, on my own, I struggled to finish it, I’m not ashamed to say, I cried, like a baby. This part of our lives together had come to a close, life had flown by quicker than I ever could have imagined it could.

At the end of it all?

After all those years of torment, angst, struggles, heartache, fun, crazy emotions, loss of parents, and everything that a boy could cope with, he had grown into a man. He had cemented his future, one who could stand on his own two feet and was confident to face the world as an adult. He was an independent man, not a boy anymore, someone who had made his mark in the world and someone who his mother, would be very, very, proud of.
( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 23:54, 14 replies)

On harry potter.
Loathed by many on here I see.
Im guessing you were all adults when the books first hit the shops.
I remember reading the first when I was 11 up till the last one came out when I was sixteen.
I loved them, I thoroughly enjoyed them. I read each of the last three books within a day of them being released.
It was exciting and as a writer shes good at setting scenes so you felt like you were in this fictional universe.
Its trashy yes, and poorly written. A book for people who don't like books. I can't think of a more embarrassing guilty pleasure to be frank.
(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Sat 7 Jan 2012, 23:50, 6 replies)

Im actually looking forward to digging my future reading list from this QOTW but
I will give you my personal recommendations. Currently top of my favourite books list are:
Anathem : Neal Stephenson (or anything by Stephenson for that matter)
American Gods : Neil Gaiman
Incendiary : Chris Cleeve
Miss Smillas feeling for snow : Peter Hoeg

Does anyone have any ghost story recommendations?
(gearanach #wankwankwank, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 22:52, 6 replies)

Art
Part 3

In general a subject too divisive to recommend much without reservation but the world would be spared a lot of dull and ignorant arguments if everyone read this-

E.H Gombrich- The Story of Art
was originally written for a teenage reader. It is a painless way of understanding what drove the changes that constitute progress in art. Starts from cave paintings and ends circa Jack the dripper. A minimum requirement for anyone who wants a clear grounding in the Western tradition (and with a few excursions further afield.). Anyone who falls into the "All modern art is rubbish" should definitely read it. You'll most likely feel the same afterwards but at least you will know what various movements thought they were attempting. At the least you'll be a much better informed philistine with a better arsenal to use in debates. (As someone who thinks most conceptual art adds very little new after Duchamp I can get a bit that way myself sometimes so not having a go really.
(unclestinky, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 22:21, Reply)

relatively unknown and strongly recommended (Likely to remain so judging by the lack of comments it seems)
part 2

Tillie Olsen-Tell me a Riddle
Sometimes I think this may be the best thing I have ever read. Four loosely connected short stories. I can't read the last one in public because of the undignified bawling which ensues.

Richard Brautigan-
Beatnik novelist. Almost any but start with "Dreaming of Babylon" or "Sombrero Fallout". Not many currently in print but the three novel compendium is still available quite cheaply. Probably a bit Marmite. If not quickly entranced stop and back away slowly.

Peter Reich-a Book of Dreams
Think the Kate Bush video for Cloudbusting if Wilhelm Reich means nothing to you. Or for you Hawkwind fans Orgone Accumulator (Although as it's a metal coated wooden box I very much doubt it "will make you feel greater" unless you have agoraphobia.) Another one which will be hard to get too unless money is no object.
(unclestinky, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 22:10, 2 replies)

George's Marvelous Medicine
Best book by far for me because when you think about it it's a story about a kid experimenting with drugs and giving the concoction to his bitch of a grandmother to take, thank fuck it wasn't an inspiration for me to do (as i love my nan). I actually would go to see it if they turned it into a film.

Edit: first post in a long while, where does the time go?
(Claude Speed was a Roman called Claudius Speedicus, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 20:35, 2 replies)

Mini militant
When I was little, I loved reading books and hated sexism. Actually, that's still the case; however, it's been a while since I defaced a library book from fury at its gender stereotyping.

I created a few unique special editions, but I remember the first one the best - not what the book was, but the fact that its main characters were a brother and sister. He was brave, strong, good at climbing trees and amateur sleuthing, and played the violin (which = cool, ok?). She was cowardly, weak, always worrying about getting her clothes dirty, frequently in need of help or protection, and played with dolls. I took tipp-ex and carefully went through it, swapping their names, every him/her, and every she/he.

Take that, patriarchy.
(Turangalila, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 17:41, 24 replies)

Steeleye And The Lost Magic.
•
My first taste of choose-your-own. Plus, the illustrations were amazing and a few of them were pretty scary for a children's book.

Also: Richard Bachman's (yeah alright, Stephen King's)The Running Man. Fuck that dire Arnie film, the only similarity it has with this book is the name of the protagonist. The film is a generic action flick with an upbeat ending, the book is a scathing social commentary with, without giving too much away, an ending which is curiously prophetic when compared with recent history ...
( drimble he'd been white, he'd been black, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 17:23, 1 reply)

Revelation
Having avoided Harry Potter like the plague since he first appeared I am now listening to the first book read by Stephen Fry, given as a Christmas present to the smallest person with whom I live.

It really has been revelatory. How can such a stinking pile of shite have done so well? Slow moving, badly written, turgid crap. Enid Fucking Blyton wrote better school stories and a bit of tedious magic doesn't improve things. For children I suppose it's barely acceptable but how can any self-respecting adult be seen reading such this bollocks?

Oh Christ. It's on again. Hours of the fucking stuff to go. I've already told him there are no more books in the series, though, because if the rest of this crap comes in the door I'm going to have to live in the car for the next few years.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is the only book I have ever encountered which could be improved by a rewrite from Dan Brown.
(ubergeekian, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 16:37, 9 replies)

Almost forgot...
One of the best has got to be Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.

Not the easiest book to read due to the lack of punctuation and paragraphs, but genuinely emotional and rewarding.

Tried some of his other novels (The Room and Waiting Period) but got bored with them and never finished them.
( Sculpture of Man Putting a banging donk on it since, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 15:38, Reply)

Roll a six,
Turn to page 57.

"You are in a dark cave surrounded by the sound of flapping wings. Do you, keep your head down and blunder on through (turn to page 91), or do you run screaming from the cave with your arms flailing back and forth (turn to page 18).
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 15:22, 11 replies)

Shhhh!!..
Books, reading, a hobby I took part in, on a regular basis - when I was a child that is..

It's bizarre how you read loads when you're a kid is'nt it?

Yeah I know there are those of you who still read on a regular basis, but there are people like me who only read when travelling long distances, checking out the Christmas telly, or simply because we've given up hope on trying to figure out how the DVD player works and finally resorted to taking reference from the instruction manual.

One of my favourite places was our local library, I was a resident bookworm there - it was my little sanctuary from the real world when I was in junior school, and I read everything and anything that took my fancy at the time, be it fiction or even the world atlas, just to see where these great places were that you only hear about in movies.

I have fond memories of reading the 'Create Your Own Adventure' books, Asterix and Obelix, The Adventures of Tin Tin, and Charlie Brown just to name a few. I loved encyclopaedias, books on magic, books on drawing (a hobby that I still have a passion for - as any of you who've seen my previous posts will be more than aware of) and the old Commando comic series.

Survival manuals kept my imagination ticking over with adventures in jungles, surviving earthquakes and setting traps for all manner of wildlife - even if the closest to the reality was probably catching a slug in an old paint can filled with beer.

I was the kid who never returned a book on time, always borrowed more than was humanly possible to read within the 3 day lending period, and the one who sat in a corner chuckling to myself like a loon whilst reading 'Professor Branestawm' by Norman Hunter. I loved Roal Dahl's 'George's Marvellous Medicine' and 'The Twits'

I had a thing for pulp fiction horror novels too - usually followed by nightmares containing huge spiders, man-eating ants, and haunted houses. Scary for any 10 year old, believe me..

Never got into Terry Pratchett - Why, I don't know..

Then I discovered my main library - the local Town Centre library where 'the big books' are kept, the Reference section on the top floor, shrouded in secrecy with it's 'Absolute Silence' rule and huge shelves containing historical records, old plans of the town and musty smelling books with leather covers containing nothing but lots of really complicated words that I could never pronounce.

Then, for some reason I simply stopped going.

I think the last time I was in a library was when I was about 15 years old. I'm 36 now, and only the other month I was walking my son home from the park when I happened to come across a small library in our village, if you blinked you'd miss it, but it caught my son's eye regardless.

"What's that daddy?" he asked.

"That's a library son" I replied, "What's it for?" asks the boy..

"It's a place, where few go, but many have been, It's a place where knowledge is kept within it's shelves and adventures are born.." says I.

Right there, right then, I was ten years old again, my curiosity to the buildings contents entered my mind, and my desire to search through their shelves for an unread adventure book was reborn, and those images of huge maps of lands far away returned.

"Can we go there?" asks my son, "Sure, we'll go this weekend.." I reply.

I keep trying to get round to taking my son there, but the fucking thing's never open..
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 15:05, 1 reply)

lots of ww2 stuff here..
So I will add Black Cross Red Star,
Those who know will probably have read it, those who don't know, probably won't be interested.

My daughter has just picked up my copy of Who Made Stevie Crye.
If you're in your teens, go get it!
(lordy lordy, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 13:25, Reply)

Shattered Sword
This is a new re vison of the Battle of Midway, and is utterly fascinating, and really well written; not just about the decisions that were made, it puts a very "human" face on the battle. Also it's a change to read about it from the Japanese Point of view. The decription of the mortally wounded carrier Hiryu fleeing, on fire, and then reading the details of the engine crew seeing the paint begin to flake of the roof, then the bare steel start to glow as the deck above them became to hot is chilling.

Anything by Bill Bryson is devoured, often repeatedly (Ive read "Short History..." about 5 times and I still love it.

Worst? At school we had to read "The Bell" by Iris Murdoch; what a bunch of poorly written toss.
(kitescreech still here, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 12:43, 3 replies)

There Should Have Been Castles, by Herman Raucher
My dad's favourite book, and long out of print. I loved it, couldn't put it down but never wanted it to end - fantastic. I've got a copy of my own now, read it every year or two - still enjoy it every time. It's just a story of two people who become a couple, chapters written alternatively from his and her point of view. Sound familiar? Yep, The Time Traveler's Wife employs a similar device - I loved that, too.

The Talisman, by Stephen King & Peter Straub. Wonderful, from cover to cover. Wolf is one of my favourite characters in fiction anywhere and my heart breaks every time I read it.

And one to avoid: Black House - by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I had such high hopes for it, a follow-up to The Talisman, that's got to be awesome, surely? Slow, ponderous, 99% of the book is preamble and build-up, followed by "then they knocked the tower down and killed everyone, and the kingdom was vanquished, the end".

Talking of slow and ponderous, Insomnia by Stephen King is great, but it takes some getting into. Once the three little guys appear, it's fantastic!
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 12:27, 2 replies)

Books
From my youth anything by Roald Dahl and TinTin.

I like Bill Bryson, his travel books and A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Nowadays I prefer non fiction, Freakanomics, bad science and I am currently reading Outliers.

Next on the list is Ray Mears Bushcraft.
(BiggestNizzy your company name here pm for rates., Sat 7 Jan 2012, 11:30, 9 replies)

Thrillers
Authors my Dad introduced me to as a kid;

Desmond Bagley - all are top drawer but Running Blind is a particular belter
Alistair MacLean - ditto, Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, enough said

and books I have discovered/rediscovered since I had kids;
Charlie Cooks Favourite Book
Stig of the Dump
A Squash and a Squeeze
(arnie2703 is sick of this damn French keyboard since, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 11:30, 2 replies)

Non Fiction
I do love to read - if all I have to hand is a cornflakes packet I'll read the sodding barcode if there's nothing else to look at - but I will confess to being a more 'factual with pretty pictures' than a literary sort. I know what the classics are, just never appealed to me. Mind you, for similar reasons I can't watch black and white films either so not sure what that says about me (probably that I'm a nerd)..

So with that caveat two non-fictions I have really enjoyed in the past year that stand out from my bookshelves..

Shadowplayers - The Rise and Fall of Factory Records (James Nice). Even if you are not a fan of New Order/Joy Division, the Mondays etc.. the Factory records story is still hugely entertaining and this is one of the best books about it that I have read to date. (Slightly O/T but did anyone go to see NO at the Troxy beofre xmas? Great stuff).

Racing the Beam (Montfort and Bogost). Early Atari story for those who know what a raster scan is.
( DeadEyeDick, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 10:45, 1 reply)

Robin Hobb
Writes fucking amazing fantasy.

Just absolutely beautifully written. Astonishing character development and very plausible 'magic and dragons' concepts.

If you're not into magic and dragons, don't let that put you off - it's only a small amount of the whole and if you want a good yarn with believable characters, pick up a copy and give it a go.

She writes epic trilogies and generally the first book in each set is a bit slow as it's introducing and setting the scene for the other two. But if you in any way like fantasy, start at the beginning with "Assassin's Apprentice" and get hooked.

The latest book is due out in April! *wiggles in delight*

(sorry for lack of lols, I am a Hobb Evangelist)
( Seventh is somewhat subdued, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 10:37, 3 replies)

Sod all these high brow books, sci-fi nonsense and kindle/paper back debates
The Tiger that came to tea.
Now that's a fucking book and a half.
And if you don't like it then you're quite clearly a cunt.
( monkeyboyalpha jumping on the bandwagon since, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 10:37, 2 replies)

lets end this now ;)
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/06/literary-events-2012?newsfeed=true
(gearanach #wankwankwank, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 9:39, Reply)

Miracle technology
For most of you, an ebook reader like an ipad or kindle is a fancy new piece of technology, an advance and, for some even, an abomination. For me, it's been the best invention ever.
I'm partially sighted. I always loved reading when I was a child but because my eye issues are degenerative, reading was a thing of the past for me a few years ago. Now, with kindle on ipad, I can read again and you've no idea what it's like to gain back a much-missed hobby if you've never experienced a loss like that.
I can invert the colours (white font on black pages), enlarge text, dim or brighten the page according to my needs. It's a fecking miracle for someone like me. So next time you, or someone you know, bangs on about how such machines are killing 'real' books or whatever, spare a thought for someone like me who's had their life changed by them.

As for books, I love most styles. Favourite author if I had to choose though probably has to be Paul Auster, especially The New York Trilogy, Moon Palace and Mr Vertigo. His collection of real life stories (think the title is Stories of American Life but it escapes me right now) are also a fab read if you only have time for snipppets.
..
(The Apeface Cherub is not a cunty-uber-cunt, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 9:12, 14 replies)

Actually good...
Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake / After the Flood / waiting for the third bit of trilogy - this is where literature and impeccable research does the post-apocalyptic future, first book more sciency, second about religeon, startlingly good books and you walk away feeling like you haven't been patronised.

John Le Carré - been going years, but spy stories where the characters are 3D and have real believeable motivations

World War Z - nice idea, it is a selection of interviews with survivors of the zombie wars which engulfed Earth. Being made into a movie, but read the book first, it's better.
( 0nyx, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 7:33, Reply)

Childhood's friend
Must have been about 30 years ago, a few of us who'd just met that weekend began a conversation about favorite authors from their teens (we were in our early 20s) and SF came up as a genre.

A couple of the guys couldn't remember the most ripping author's name and everyone else gladly chimed in to help them out: Heinlein. Robert Heinlein.
( Squilliam but . . . . *I'm* the one with all the talent!, Sat 7 Jan 2012, 3:20, 5 replies)