February 2011 and I am reading...

I'm reading Jizzle, a book of short stories by John Wyndham. I'm reading one or two a day, putting off starting a novel whilst I wait for the damnable postman to bring my copy of Out Of Touch. When that gets here I'll be reading that.

I am reading 'Still Missing' by Chevy Stevens. I am really enjoying it so far then I will finally attempt to read 'the stand' by Stephen King. Never read King before but I will finally give him a go.

I'm almost done with Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand, which is so, so great.

Simultaneously reading story collections by Brian Evenson, Michael Shea and Joseph S. Pulver. Those would be, Fugue State, The Autopsy and Other Stories, and Blood Will Have Its Season, respectively.

Im always on the look out for new short story collections. If they are good report back here and I will wishlist them.

Short stories by HP Lovecraft and Poe, and still reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which is so good I don't want to finish it.

The Evenson is very cool. A quiet uneasy and literary kind of horror.

The Michael Shea collection is great so far but it's a very expensive limited thing and most of his earlier, affordable story collections are out of print and hard to find.

Joseph S. Pulver's work is amazing -- sort of a high-octane poetic assault -- but probably not for everyone. I love it but I wouldn't recommend it unless I knew more about a person's tastes.

A book I'm finished with, but which is my favorite short fiction collection of the last several years, is Occultation by Laird Barron. He's one of my favorite newer writers.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (and it is SO damned good).

Irina, Cloud Atlas is probably my next-up, so your enthusiasm for it has me really looking forward to it.

Currently reading The Contortionist's Handbook Clevenger

I have the audiobook version queued up on my iPod ready for my commute later in the week.

Cuckoo's Nest is so wonderful. I remember when I lived in Eugene, walking past the near-campus house that Kesey stayed in and thinking... the guy who wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is in there!

Handling the Undead - John Ajvide Lindqvist

Oresteia by Aeschylus. In high school I hated to read Greek plays, but I'm actually enjoying this one. It's of course a little boring because a speech can go on for eight pages, but I like it regardless.

I've put Moby Dick on hold. I'm too busy with school right now to really concentrate on it.

Have you read Sometimes a Great Notion? It's a little more difficult, but the payoff is so worth it. It's one of my favorite books.

Making nice progress through The Three Musketeers - thank you, Kindle!

Also started on Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned. Still in the intro. The man takes 60 pages to say, "you're not gonna believe this, but..." But his style's real fun.

i started reading TRACKS by louise erdrich, and i decided mid-way that it was terrible, and told in about 90% exposition. probably wont finish it. it's a little too over-sexualized for my taste, anyway.

im now reading THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO FIST-FIGHT IN HEAVEN, it is much better than erdrich.

The Night of the Gun: A reporter investigates the darkest story of his life. His own. by David Carr

I haven't read that, but I might have to now.

Finished Cuckoo's Nest - it was the first novel I've read on my Kindle! Prior to that I'd only read anthologies and other short story collections on it, so it was cool to read a full length novel in that format.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka. It's not great so far, but I'll keep reading.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I literally had no idea what this was about when I started it, and I'm really loving it so far.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

It's not the sort of thing I'd usually pick up but someone left it behind at my work. I also live a stone's throw away from the book's setting and I'm curious to read about the history of my area (post Jack the Ripper).

Down to the Dirt by Joel Thomas Hynes.

I just finished Down and Out on Murder Mile by Tony O'Neill. I read the whole thing in one sitting. It's like 250 pages, and it was really good. That dude can write. I read his first book - Digging the Vein - a few years ago and I've had Down and Out just sitting on the shelf since it came out. It was really good. Heroin stories are kind of depressing, and I tend to not read them so much because I'm around heroin addicts all day at work, so I hear all the same stories there.

But I don't really know what I want to read next. I'm kind of in the mood for some nonfiction. I've been slowly picking through Vonnegut's Palm Sunday. I might go with Hell's Angels by HST

Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Just started it, but I like it so far.

Cathedral by Raymond Carver

ARC of Godspeed by Baer

Seriously?

Jealous?

Yeah - but I wish you weren't a liar.

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

Pete, I wish I wasn't a liar, too. Oh, how it would be amazing if I was being truthful.

I sort of am, though. See, I had a dream about WCB last night. And, in that dream, he gave me a copy of Godspeed, that was almost finished and was over 1000 pages long. And the cover was like a dirty, coffee-stained colour.

It was a bizarre dream. Considering I've seen like two photos of Baer, I'm not sure how my mind's eye developed such a vivid image of the man.

haha - You shouldn't have woken up until you finished reading it.

Then you could have finished the book for him!

I'm reading Comsic Puppets by Phillip K Dick. Wierd little story.

IMO Dick was a master, his scifi is always so easy to read, and he was good at putting psychological slants on his characters.

-Still waiting for Out of Touch, I got an email from the publisher saying there's been a delay, so may have to wait a while for that yet. On the flipside however, my copy of Transubstantiate arrived today! I thought that would take longer. Postal services are wierd. I'll finish Cosmic Puppets tonight, and start Trans tomorrow.

That would've been a hell of a sleep, like putting myself in a coma.

It was a beautiful dream though.

There's a short story in there somewhere.

You fall asleep and dream about reading your favorite author's never published book (that has become a myth). You call said author and tell him how to finish it.

Oh, don't worry, I've already thought about it.

One day when I'm bored, and have a couple of hours spare, I'll probably get all fanboy and bash out this fan-fiction thing. But I've only read a very little bit of Godspeed. Excerpts. But it's probably changed since they were written.

Fucking great dream. Kind of wish it didn't end.

I've had them before. But usually they involve some nymphomaniac that's down for anything. haha

Yeah, they're not a bad dream to have, either. Until washing day comes around.

lmao!

PKD is one of my favorite authors in that specific genre, and while I think his short stories are easy to read, some of his novels make my brain spasm. I had a hard time with Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, and The Man in the High Castle (especially that one - at the end I wasn't exactly sure what had happened). The Crack in Space is one of my top 5 PKD novels (it'd be a kick ass movie, I think).

I read Darkly Dreaming Dexter and it was just like season one of Dexter only not as good as the show. I think the show benefited from introducing the brother earlier on and having him establish a relationship with Deb instead of saving him until the very end. Other than that, it's beat for beat.

Am now about 50 pages away from being done with Stay God by Nik Korpon. It's a pop culture/neo noir junkie's wet dream of a novel.

Out of the Dexter series, that's about the only one that's even close to being the sane storyline as the show. It's much better as a TV series than it is a series of books.

I know what you mean when you say he can make brains spasm, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich is probably my favorite Phillip Dick book and that is frankly mental. (The Man in the High Castle is another of my fav's, apparently the BBC are going to film it, should be interesting)

However my comment about him being easy to read was probably directed more at his writing style and language use that it was his plotlines. He flows well . Probably that's how he gets away with such insane storylines in shorter books, other writers of the time would have turned books like Palmer or High Castle into 600 page monsters that kept none of the impact.

(edit) p.s. have started Transubstantiate now. Interesting so far.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I've been working on Richard Stark's Parker novels.

I read The Hunter a few weeks ago (I think I posted that one).
I just finished the second one last night The Steel Hit (or The Man With the Getaway Face).
And last night I started The Outfit.

They're easy to read. And I'm just really liking the same character and just following along with this guy.

Due to the Economic meltdown in Ireland and the shop being quiet I'm on book number 6 this month. The Terror of Living by Urban Waite.

The Human Stain - Philip Roth