Some Books…

I just finished “Love Remains” by Glen Duncan. A master piece!

Another great book I recently did read (and which I can greatly recommend) is “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. Despite a great story it gives very interesting insights to the people from and their life in Afghanistan.

On my way back from Heathrow Airport to Southampton, a friendly man sitting next to me suggested me “The Shack” by William Paul Young. I have not started to read it yet, but will so soon…

War of the Worlds

Recently I stumbled upon Jeff Wayne’s musical version of the War of the Worlds, a novel written by Herbert Wells did write more than a century ago in 1898. Wells’ book is one of the erliest novels which is about an alien invasion on earth.

I first came in touch with this storry in summer 2005 when a friend of mine and I was looking for shelter from a big rain shower in the evening when we were on our way home. We went to a nearby cinema to watch Spielbergs adaption of the novel. We did not expect anything great at all, just to be safe from the pouring rain; which was then precisely what we got, a silly movie and a dry way home afterwards. But anyways, I digress.

I won Jeff Wayne’s concept album, a lovely double LP with a 15 pages booklet inside. Very interesting music indeed! And as an outcome I looked forward to read the original novel which I am doing at the moment. It is just plain fascinating to read old classic stories.

Books: A New Discovery for Me

Recently I stumbled on a book by the French author Michel Houellebecq: Atomised. A very interesting book on some aspects of society. Definitely worth a read! Next on the list of books I want to read is Platform by the same author.

More to Read, More to Listen to…

After having read Coraline my next book from Neil Gaiman is The Graveyard Book, which is an adaption of the famous The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. Having finished the book I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan and liking it a lot I began also to read his novel Death of an Ordinary Man. From a review on Amazon:

“Man dies, gets to hover around and check out what the family is up to. In the latest example of our recent obsession with a nonsectarian afterlife, Duncan (I, Lucifer, 2003, etc.) takes your ordinary recently dead schmoe, Nathan Clark, and puts him in the ectoplasmic ether, floating through the lives and thoughts of his family and friends. In a well-rendered but confusing start, Nathan requires considerable time to get his bearings and figure out why all those people are staring at his grave. It takes some time for the reader, too, to get acclimated inside Nathan’s head, which is, not surprisingly, buzzing with questions but also seems to be meshing with the thoughts of the people he’s watching.”

What else? A new LP from Miles Davis: Saturday Night In Person at the Blackhawk, Volume 2. And the vinyl Live! at the Village Vanguard (1961) by John Coltrane.

More Books…

In lose order:

• I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan
• Slob by Rex Miller
• Coraline by Neil Gaiman
• Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck Palahniuk

Having read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk I got interested in more of his works. The novel Diary then hooked me completely. Survivor was the next of his novels I did finish (caution: the novel starts at the last page with chapter 47 and ends on page 1). Next to read is Invisible Monsters, and I am waiting for the books Lullaby and Haunted to arrive in a few days by post…

Grey Dull Sunday…

…but a good day to buy more books: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. Yes, indeed, nearly all of them inspired by movies I have seen…

Recent Reads

William Goldman writing under the pseudonym Simon Morgenstern: The Princes Bride.The original book on which the classic cult film with the same title is based on.

Aldous Huxley: Brave New World. A classic written in 1932 and another view on the possible future society. More gentle than 1984 by Georg Orwell, but still frightening.

Again by Simon Morgenstern, that is William Goldman: The Silent Gondoliers.

Peter S. Beagle: A Fine and Private Place. A gentle love story about two ghosts which learn together “the boundaries of life and death, and the extraordinary gifts of love”.

The Seven Days of Peter Crumb. The debut novel of Jonny Glynn. A dark and tense story about the schizophrenic Peter Grumb, writing down in words the last seven days of his life which turn out to leave a random but very bloddy mark on humanity. Definitely worth a read.

The Naming of Cats

“The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have three different names.
First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, or George or Bill Bailey -
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
But the cat himself only knows, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.”

(T.S. Eliot: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats)

A Growing Addiction

Amazon’s marketplace becomes an increasing addiction to me. Providing access to cheap offers for new and used books at fixed delivery rates (2,75£/book for books ordered through the UK Amazon’s marketplace, 3€/book for books ordered through the German Amazon’s marketplace) it makes buying … gathering … hunting interesting books a joy and growing addiction for me (my friends will hate me for this addiction when I will move the next time!).

Recent bought books include:

• Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
• Sten Nadolny: The God of Impertinence
• Homer: Odyssey, The Iliad
• Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea
• Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Idiot, Karamazov Brothers, The Possesed
• Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
• Michael Ende: The Neverending Story, Momo
• Herman Melville: Moby Dick

When shall I read all this? Hey! Who said books are only for reading?!