Books finished in February
Mar. 4th, 2006 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
perlmongerI’ve not posted anything for a while - lacking time, energy, brainpower at the moment - but I will at least carry on listing my books read. Also (¬G)IP: I’ve been meaning to give myself a book-related icon for a while, and this turned up on the first page of a most interesting “library” tag search on flickr. I’ll quote the creator‘s text here as he requests:
Anyhow. To my books...
» The Zero Stone - Andre Norton
An old friend, re-read after [mumble] years. It’s not one of her best, certainly not her best writing, but it still contains the elements that helped form my thoughts as an adolescent and, indeed, helped me keep a tentative hold on functional sanity. That Murdoc Jern ends the book as alone and alienated from authority as at the start, that neither the legitimate (the Patrol) nor the extralegal (Thieves’ Guild) organisations portrayed in the book are benign or trustworthy in other than very specific circumstances and on their terms, helped validate my own distrust of authority as a child and helped me accept my own isolation.
» Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel, Sheila Ravenscroft
An account of John Peel’s life that is almost as eclectic and disorganised as his programmes were wont to be. I could criticise the book for it’s frequent anachronisms and diversions, for the massive dislocation in writing style where Sheila takes over from John (and the initially dodgy quality of her writing too), for the bits missed out and those skimmed over... But to do so would be boorish and unfair: this isn’t a conventional (auto)biography, it’s ultimately a celebration of the single most important figure in 20th Century popular music. It’s fascinating, deeply personal and if you haven’t got a copy yet, why not?
» The Marzipan Pig - Russell Hoban
I’ve yet to read anything by Hoban that I don’t love. This slim volume is a replacement for the copy that I read to Rhiannon when she was quite small, between picture books and venturing into wordier realms like The Mouse and His Child or The Hobbit, and that stayed with her when the last channels of communication between her mum and me finally closed; I must ask her if she still has it.
It’s an enchanting little book that exhibits the joy in language and the surreal that informs so much of Hoban’s work - parts of it feel almost like a prefigurement of Kleinzeit. It’s OOP (it’s good: of course it’s OOP), but it’s well worth seeking out a copy, and for Quentin Blake’s illustrations quite as much as for the words.
» Looking for Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville
A dark and fascinating collection of stories. China is uncategorisable; there’s fantasy, horror, sf here, all mixed up and with a tasty inclusion of social and political commentary. There’s not a single piece of writing in the book I don’t like, though a couple left me a little frustrated: I want to know What Happened Next in Looking for Jake; what the underlying realities in Familiar are. I guess that’s up to me to create from the meeting between the text and my own reality, my own imagination.
It’s good to finally have Dead Tree copies of An End To Hunger and ‘Tis the Season (I’ve lost the URL to that one) too. They articulate my own anger about the cynicism of corporate greed, and the continuing enclosure of what was once the Commons respectively far better than I am able to. Unfashionable as it may be, the man cares, and that he combines that caring with political and social analysis and still ends up with hugely readable and enjoyable work is something to celebrate. Thank you China.
Book Banning is such an awful thing,... parents who want to care for their kids challenge books and then... they perhaps ar banned... Banned Book week is a great celebration... celebrate freedom of speech and press is what they want to say... and these parents who “care” for their kids i cant understand them... they let them watch tvtvtv and play violent videogames but books shall be difficult? weird ^^
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” --- Benjamin Franklin
“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” --- Benjamin Franklin
“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.” --- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
Anyhow. To my books...
» The Zero Stone - Andre Norton
An old friend, re-read after [mumble] years. It’s not one of her best, certainly not her best writing, but it still contains the elements that helped form my thoughts as an adolescent and, indeed, helped me keep a tentative hold on functional sanity. That Murdoc Jern ends the book as alone and alienated from authority as at the start, that neither the legitimate (the Patrol) nor the extralegal (Thieves’ Guild) organisations portrayed in the book are benign or trustworthy in other than very specific circumstances and on their terms, helped validate my own distrust of authority as a child and helped me accept my own isolation.
» Margrave of the Marshes - John Peel, Sheila Ravenscroft
An account of John Peel’s life that is almost as eclectic and disorganised as his programmes were wont to be. I could criticise the book for it’s frequent anachronisms and diversions, for the massive dislocation in writing style where Sheila takes over from John (and the initially dodgy quality of her writing too), for the bits missed out and those skimmed over... But to do so would be boorish and unfair: this isn’t a conventional (auto)biography, it’s ultimately a celebration of the single most important figure in 20th Century popular music. It’s fascinating, deeply personal and if you haven’t got a copy yet, why not?
» The Marzipan Pig - Russell Hoban
I’ve yet to read anything by Hoban that I don’t love. This slim volume is a replacement for the copy that I read to Rhiannon when she was quite small, between picture books and venturing into wordier realms like The Mouse and His Child or The Hobbit, and that stayed with her when the last channels of communication between her mum and me finally closed; I must ask her if she still has it.
It’s an enchanting little book that exhibits the joy in language and the surreal that informs so much of Hoban’s work - parts of it feel almost like a prefigurement of Kleinzeit. It’s OOP (it’s good: of course it’s OOP), but it’s well worth seeking out a copy, and for Quentin Blake’s illustrations quite as much as for the words.
» Looking for Jake and Other Stories - China Miéville
A dark and fascinating collection of stories. China is uncategorisable; there’s fantasy, horror, sf here, all mixed up and with a tasty inclusion of social and political commentary. There’s not a single piece of writing in the book I don’t like, though a couple left me a little frustrated: I want to know What Happened Next in Looking for Jake; what the underlying realities in Familiar are. I guess that’s up to me to create from the meeting between the text and my own reality, my own imagination.
It’s good to finally have Dead Tree copies of An End To Hunger and ‘Tis the Season (I’ve lost the URL to that one) too. They articulate my own anger about the cynicism of corporate greed, and the continuing enclosure of what was once the Commons respectively far better than I am able to. Unfashionable as it may be, the man cares, and that he combines that caring with political and social analysis and still ends up with hugely readable and enjoyable work is something to celebrate. Thank you China.