#243

What sort of age-range for the kids book? Happy to test them on my kids (ages 2, 3.5).

My novels were/are: a hard sci-fi take on a potential route towards AI and the singularity, overlapping with genetics, and a more young adult fantasy world type of thing. Yours sounds fascinating, could be really special if done well.

#244

there were actually two for 2-5 year olds, kind of funny, surreal, nonsense stuff and the more sophisticated one was kind of a techno moral tale which might interest any kid from the age of 3 to 11 I guess. Can’t do illustrations though and they all need illustrations if they’re going to go to market, though I think at least one of the nonsense ones works without

yeah, I’ve talked through the novel with a few friends and acquaintances in much more detail and they’re like ‘shit man, you need to do this right away’ so yeah, I probably should

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#245

is this the real book thread or the other one?

#247

i added everything from the other thread to the goodthreads so lets go with that one
nothing in this thread actually happened
we’re all in here now The Book Thread Of Year '19

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#248

Read a couple of Dashiell Hammet books. Did ‘The Thin Man’ first. Some memorable scenes and very quirky characters in a story that cracked along at a fair pace (seemed a bit odd having a goth kid in a 1930’s crime thriller :smiley: it worked though). Despite the violence it was a bit lighter and frothier in tone (mainly due to nick & nora’s relationship) than your description led me to believe. Very fun book though so i followed up with…

‘Red Harvest’. Yes, this was definitely everything you described Hammett as being! Truly horrible characters, shocking violence dished out very casually, and a staggering body count with none of the deaths apart from Dinah really mourned by anyone. Not sure anyone deserved to survive it and they damn near didn’t. Personville itself is brilliantly depicted, a venal malevolent force that drags people down it’s level and despite the ending it seems as though personville is just doomed, the relative peace at the end merely temporary

Thanks for the recommendation I’ll defo be checking out the rest of his work, especially the continental op books.

He was right about ‘the postman always rings twice’ too. Cain doesn’t fuck about, no backstory for the characters, no scene setting, just plunges weak, morally questionable characters (but with just enough humanity to make you care) into difficult situations of their own making and watches them slowly choke. Brilliant!

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#249

I read The Wise Man’s Fear - Patrick Rothfuss for the third time. Fucking love that book so much.
I think the only other book I’ve read three times is Watership Down so it’s in very good company.

Read Undermajordomo Minor (Patrick DeWitt) in three days. Well good. As NickDs suggested it’s almost like reading a Wes Anderson film. But much grimmer, funnier, more thoughtful and generally better.
Could totally see Mark Rylance as Mr Olderglough too.

Just started Dune. Seems fine

#250

I’ve not read ‘The Thin Man’ - I think I might have to though as I’m struggling to imagine Hammet doing light and frothy! ‘Red Harvest’ is such a brutal book, I like noir best when it feels like no one is redeemable and that’s probably the best example of it I’ve come across. I definitely need to get on ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ based on that description as it sounds like exactly what I’m after. I remember seeing the film many moons ago and being a bit underwhelmed but I suspect it’ll work better on the page. And thankfully it’s so long ago I can’t remember anything about the plot!

Of Hammet’s I’ve only read ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and ‘The Glass Key’, both of which are excellent. I’ve been meaning to get round to the rest of his stuff myself to see how many more bitter wee classics he wrote. Glad you’re enjoying his work so far!

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#251

Finished re-reading The Subtle Knife last night.
Can’t decide whether to crack straight on with TAS (which I never finished in my youth!) or break it up with a library book?

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#252

Really upset at the lack of respect you’re all showing to shrewbie

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#253

I always think the book thread of '19 is like an awards thread which is probably why I keep missing it.

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#255

I have used my ‘Regular’ user levels power to update it. It’s not elegant though

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#256

About 1/3 of the way through Derren Brown’s ‘Happy’. Waaay more academic than I expected it to be, feels like an introduction to philosophy (which is good as I know shit all about it) so far, with some takedowns on faith healers and ‘stay positive’ MH con artists for good measure.

It’s really excellent, its the first book in the vague category of ‘self help’ that has cut through to me. I think he should have released it under a pseudonym because of lot of people will dismiss it just cos he’s on the telly, which is a shame

#257

@moderators can we move the action to this thread General Reading / Book Thread for 2019

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#258

@Scunner:

Also @Scunner:

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#259

Never said I’m not a hypocrite

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#260

Presses F to pay respects

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#261

The “light frothiness” is relative to ‘Red Serenade’ tbf. Not sure someone who hasn’t read the latter would describe ‘The Thin Man’ as such!

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#262

Really getting into this Henry James collection. I’m slightly down about the fact that, with any book I’m reading now, my attention is sometimes taken by other concerns or work tiredness throughout the week and all that; but I really enjoyed the story I most recently read.

I’m now onto Turn of the Screw now as well.

(also found in the pages the receipt I was using as a bookmark when I had the book during uni about nine years ago – one of the items being a Terry’s Chocolate Orange that I probably ate in one day because I don’t understand how the hell crazy my diet was as an undergraduate)

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#263

Inspired by a recent 30th year anniversary documentary that assessed the uproar the novel created in certain sections of the Muslim community at the time, I’m reading Salmon Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Other than Midnight’s Children, which I think is one of the greatest novels of the late 20th century, I’m not a huge fan of Rushdie’s work, but I’m intrigued by what got people hot under the collar. Haven’t got far enough yet to have a literary opinion, however.

#264

@moderators can we close this so chat goes here

General Reading / Book Thread for 2019

Possibly move the last few posts there.