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The Day of The Triffids
The Day of The Triffids (audio) by John Wyndham Published: 1951 Narration: Samuel West The Chrysalids was one of my favourite books as a teenager. It was assigned reading in one of my classes, and I expected it to be dull, but it really took me by surprise. For some odd reason, though, I never looked into any of Wyndham’s other books and eventually just forgot about him. I knew of The Day of the Triffids purely because I had heard it was an inspiration for both The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later. I watched the old BBC series when I first got Netflix (holds up quite well actually…
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How’d you like that?
“S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunk house and play rummy ’cause you was black. How’d you like that? S’pose you had to sit out here an’ read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody – to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick.” — John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
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The Unwritten, Vol. 3: Dead Man’s Knock
The Unwritten Vol. 3: Dead Man’s Knock by Mike Carey Illustrated By: Peter Gross Format: Trade Paperback Comic Published: 2011 Publisher: Vertigo This is one of my favourite comics going right now. Imagine if J.K. Rowling based Harry Potter after her son of the same name and then disappeared before the last book had been finished, and her son then grew into his 20s as a bitter Harry Potter Con regular living off his fame as a muse. That’s essentially how this series began – Wilson Tayler based his incredibly popular series on his son Tom Tayler, and Tom was drifting through life on that fame until the stories around…
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Book Sale Loot
You may remember that a month ago I vowed to stop buying books for the rest of the year. Well, it will be no surprise to anyone who knows me and my will power, but I caved. I found myself at a massive used book sale this afternoon, which was like a freshly reformed alcoholic stumbling upon Oktoberfest. I came to an hour later, covered in books and feeling slightly ashamed. I restrained myself somewhat, and I did last over a month, so I’m going to take those as a minor victories. Without Feathers – Woody Allen An Innocent in Scotland: More Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters – David McFadden…
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Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter
Richard Stark’s Parker #1: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke Format: Hardcover Graphic Novel Published: 2009 Publisher: IDW Publishing When I ordered The Hunter, I didn’t realise this was originally a noir crime novel from 1962, although in retrospect the title probably should have been a clue. That book also has three film adaptations, including Payback starring a pre-meltdown Mel Gibson. All I knew was that this was on a lot of random people’s best of the year lists for 2009, so I figured I’d check it out. The main character is Parker, a criminal in 1960’s New York City, who was betrayed and left for dead by his partner and…
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Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men (audio) by John Steinbeck Published: 1937 Narration: Mark Hammer I’ve always associated Steinbeck with overly descriptive, boring storytelling, but having not read anything by him, that opinion was formed from listening to people bitch about reading him in high school. I know that most teenagers will hate any book their teachers assign them, no matter its merit, so I feel a bit stupid for having essentially listened to high school students over the Nobel prize committee. The central characters are George Milton, a quick-witted man, and Lennie Small, a large mentally disabled man (and possibly the original huge guy to be ironically named Small?). They’re close…
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The Minority Report
The Minority Report (audio) by Philip K. Dick Published: 1956 Narration: Keir Dullea I’ve been meaning to read some Philip K. Dick for years, but I never quite got to it. A friend of mine at work had this audio file kicking around on his computer, though, so I figured I might as well start here with one of his most famous works. I can’t remember if I enjoyed the film adaptation of Minority Report or not. I never could stand Tom Cruise (even before everyone else caught on), so that may have tarnished my experience, but all I really remember from the movie was the awesome, but probably impractical,…
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Pax Romana
Pax Romana by Jonathan Hickman Format: Trade Paperback Comic Published: 2008 Publisher: Image Comics I’ve been hearing about Jonathon Hickman since I started getting back into comics. He’s was touted as a wonder child in the indie comic scene and has now been brought into Marvel. This is the first comic of his I’ve read, and I’m looking forward to picking through the rest. Pax Romana begins 40 years in the future, when the Catholic church has lost most of its followers. The Vatican has finally embraced technology and have managed to unlock the secrets behind travelling back in time. They decide, in typical churchy fashion, that they know enough…
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The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife (audio) by Philip Pullman Published: 1997 Narration:Philip Pullman, Full Cast This was my first full cast audiobook, and I didn’t think I’d like it at all, but it really worked. The voice acting was all great, apart from the guy voicing Lee Scoresby sounding like he was trying to do a bad impression of John Wayne. The also started each chapter with ear-piercingly bad music, which I assumed was BBC stock music from the 70s, but it was apparently composed just for this book. Those are minor gripes, though, in what was otherwise a great production. The story starts with a new character – Will, a boy…
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Ian Fleming Interviewing Raymond Chandler
Here’s a cool interview someone dug up from from 1958. It’s Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond novels) interviewing Raymond Chandler (author of the Philip Marlowe novels), and it’s apparently the only recording of Raymond Chandler’s voice. It takes place one year before Chandler’s death and six years before Fleming’s death. It’s fun listening to two friends and authors, who will both still be widely read over fifty years later, discuss their insecurities and disect their protaganists. They mainly praise each other, but Chandler does tease Fleming a bit on a couple decisions he made with Bond. It’s especially interesting to hear them reference future works when we now…