Books finished in December 2011
Dec. 28th, 2011 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vivdunstanNow catching up with my blog about books finished this month.
First up was Terry Jones's new collection Evil Machines published by Unbound. As a subscriber to this I got a lovely hardback edition, but I also got the ebook versions, and read it on my Kindle. The book is a collection of short stories about machines with evil intentions. I enjoyed it a lot, though felt it lost its way about halfway through, as the plot evolved a bit. But still a worthy read.
I'd seen The English Village: History and Traditions by Martin Wainwright in my local supermarket, so snapped it up when it was available low-cost for the Kindle. It's a mix of social history, each chapter looking at a different aspect of village life. Curiously, given the title, it also cites some Scottish examples along the way. A bit of a mixed bag, but enjoyable overall.
The Future of Looking Back by Richard Banks was an O'Reilly ebook I picked up cheaply. I hoped that it would be more about archival issues now and in the future, so for example how to handle digital photographs, digital accounts and so on. There was some of that, but it was more about the author's theories about the changing ways in which people will relate to mementoes. Which wasn't what I was looking for at all, so although it was erudite I was ultimately disappointed.
Carrying on with my Tolkien reread I read The Two Towers. This isn't my favourite part of the trilogy by a long way, but I enjoy it. It's a while since I last read it though, and on rereading I was surprised by how many differences there are from the movie version. To be honest I think the movie version improved the plotting quite a lot. I'm also not convinced that splitting a book (or at least a third of a bigger book) completely down the middle into two very separate narratives was wise.
A book I bought some time ago and have been meaning to get to is 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. This is the true collection of letters to-and-fro between a writer in New York and an antiquarian bookshop in London, between 1949 and 1969. It was lovely, although the New York writer was a bit too witty for me in places - she grated after a while. But the core of the book was superb: recommended for any bibliophile.
Paw Tracks in the Moonlight by Denis O'Connor was an account of his rescuing a near-death kitten and their life together, in the 1960s. It was warm and sweet, and I fell in love with the cat. I knew there would be an ending I'd sob my eyes out at, long before I got there. I mean the book was recalling events from the 1960s: the cat must have died by now somehow. And I did, sob absolute buckets. But I'm very glad I read it. Just not sure I can read the follow-up any time soon though.
Last year the BBC published an 11th Doctor novel written by Michael Moorcock. They have plans for a future one by another acclaimed writer, Stephen Baxter. This year's novel in the same vein was Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By by Dan Abnett. It features Ice Warriors, on a cold wintry snowy planet, and has the 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I'd hoped. And, to be honest, I'm not sure that it really merited the higher cost of one of this range: I could easily have seen it as part of the normal release of three Doctor Who novels every few months. But I'm still glad I read it, and especially around Christmas time. Each chapter had as its title a line from the carol "In the bleak midwinter", and the snowy wintry atmosphere was well captured.
The last book I finished in December was another Helene Hanff book, this time The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, her account of her visit from New York to London in 1971. I was slightly dreading this because her writing had started to grate with me in 84, Charing Cross Road. But she came across much better in this followup: an American visiting Britain, and London, for the first time, experiencing quite a culture shock, and keeping a detailed record of her experiences.
Now I'm reading lots of books again, but won't finish any before the New Year. My main fiction read is Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. But I also have a number of short story collections on the go, such as Fables from the Fountain, and Wildthyme in Purple. I've also been taking advantage of Amazon UK's current festive sale (many down to 99p) of ebook titles. Quite a few of them were on my Kindle wishlist already, and I'm finding new titles I'll enjoy. For example I've just started The Etymologicon, which is about words in the English language, and connections between them.
First up was Terry Jones's new collection Evil Machines published by Unbound. As a subscriber to this I got a lovely hardback edition, but I also got the ebook versions, and read it on my Kindle. The book is a collection of short stories about machines with evil intentions. I enjoyed it a lot, though felt it lost its way about halfway through, as the plot evolved a bit. But still a worthy read.
I'd seen The English Village: History and Traditions by Martin Wainwright in my local supermarket, so snapped it up when it was available low-cost for the Kindle. It's a mix of social history, each chapter looking at a different aspect of village life. Curiously, given the title, it also cites some Scottish examples along the way. A bit of a mixed bag, but enjoyable overall.
The Future of Looking Back by Richard Banks was an O'Reilly ebook I picked up cheaply. I hoped that it would be more about archival issues now and in the future, so for example how to handle digital photographs, digital accounts and so on. There was some of that, but it was more about the author's theories about the changing ways in which people will relate to mementoes. Which wasn't what I was looking for at all, so although it was erudite I was ultimately disappointed.
Carrying on with my Tolkien reread I read The Two Towers. This isn't my favourite part of the trilogy by a long way, but I enjoy it. It's a while since I last read it though, and on rereading I was surprised by how many differences there are from the movie version. To be honest I think the movie version improved the plotting quite a lot. I'm also not convinced that splitting a book (or at least a third of a bigger book) completely down the middle into two very separate narratives was wise.
A book I bought some time ago and have been meaning to get to is 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. This is the true collection of letters to-and-fro between a writer in New York and an antiquarian bookshop in London, between 1949 and 1969. It was lovely, although the New York writer was a bit too witty for me in places - she grated after a while. But the core of the book was superb: recommended for any bibliophile.
Paw Tracks in the Moonlight by Denis O'Connor was an account of his rescuing a near-death kitten and their life together, in the 1960s. It was warm and sweet, and I fell in love with the cat. I knew there would be an ending I'd sob my eyes out at, long before I got there. I mean the book was recalling events from the 1960s: the cat must have died by now somehow. And I did, sob absolute buckets. But I'm very glad I read it. Just not sure I can read the follow-up any time soon though.
Last year the BBC published an 11th Doctor novel written by Michael Moorcock. They have plans for a future one by another acclaimed writer, Stephen Baxter. This year's novel in the same vein was Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By by Dan Abnett. It features Ice Warriors, on a cold wintry snowy planet, and has the 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I'd hoped. And, to be honest, I'm not sure that it really merited the higher cost of one of this range: I could easily have seen it as part of the normal release of three Doctor Who novels every few months. But I'm still glad I read it, and especially around Christmas time. Each chapter had as its title a line from the carol "In the bleak midwinter", and the snowy wintry atmosphere was well captured.
The last book I finished in December was another Helene Hanff book, this time The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, her account of her visit from New York to London in 1971. I was slightly dreading this because her writing had started to grate with me in 84, Charing Cross Road. But she came across much better in this followup: an American visiting Britain, and London, for the first time, experiencing quite a culture shock, and keeping a detailed record of her experiences.
Now I'm reading lots of books again, but won't finish any before the New Year. My main fiction read is Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. But I also have a number of short story collections on the go, such as Fables from the Fountain, and Wildthyme in Purple. I've also been taking advantage of Amazon UK's current festive sale (many down to 99p) of ebook titles. Quite a few of them were on my Kindle wishlist already, and I'm finding new titles I'll enjoy. For example I've just started The Etymologicon, which is about words in the English language, and connections between them.