The Hit List
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
McMurphy, a brawling gambler, descends on an otherwise peaceful mental ward and unleashes chaos as he tries to reintroduce the inmates to a taste of normality, much to the outrage of the authorities controlling the hospital. forget the film, this is a wonderful book about rebellion and standing up for yourself in the face of ignorance and is funny and tragic in equal measures in the kind of way that makes reading worth doing. get it, that is not a request, it is a command!
McMurphy, a brawling gambler, descends on an otherwise peaceful mental ward and unleashes chaos as he tries to reintroduce the inmates to a taste of normality, much to the outrage of the authorities controlling the hospital. forget the film, this is a wonderful book about rebellion and standing up for yourself in the face of ignorance and is funny and tragic in equal measures in the kind of way that makes reading worth doing. get it, that is not a request, it is a command!
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
Of Mice And Men
OF MICE AND MEN - John Steinbeck
george and simple-minded lennie are drifters roving the land in search of work and the impossible dream of finding their own place that will make their hard lives all worthwhile. after signing up for more unrewarding labour at an isolated farm, lennie is subject to degrading cruelty that george can only try to stem for so long before his friend unleashes the power of his physical strength and innocent convictions, dooming their relationship to tragedy.
does this title sound familar? it should do, steinbeck is one of the greatest american writers of the last century and this for me is his best work.
george and simple-minded lennie are drifters roving the land in search of work and the impossible dream of finding their own place that will make their hard lives all worthwhile. after signing up for more unrewarding labour at an isolated farm, lennie is subject to degrading cruelty that george can only try to stem for so long before his friend unleashes the power of his physical strength and innocent convictions, dooming their relationship to tragedy.
does this title sound familar? it should do, steinbeck is one of the greatest american writers of the last century and this for me is his best work.
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
I kind of wish we'd read the above at school instead of Macbeth, but we didn't really get the choice. I've brought my school books of Macbeth and The Crucible back with me, complete with margin notes and everything. Coolness.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
My annual NYE song
My annual NYE song
Re: Of Mice And Men
I don't know if I have put Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck on here but I will do again as it is one hell of a book and is for me, is on a par with Of Mice and MenFez wrote:OF MICE AND MEN - John Steinbeck
does this title sound familar? it should do, steinbeck is one of the greatest american writers of the last century and this for me is his best work.
It is the story of the great migration of thousands of homeless families fro the dust-bowl of Oklahoma to California. It traces the fortunes of the Joad family who, lured by the promise of unlimited work, pile their belongings onto a dilapidated truck and head for the 'Golden West', the land of plenty - only to find their hopes shattered as they encounter bitter poverty and oppression.....
It is a truly depressing and slow book but that is how it is intended to be written. It is unbelievable in places. It is incredible in places. It is ''slit-your-wrist-this-is-slow'' in places. That is how it is meant to be written. The final ending is so appalling it actually moved me - it is that well-written and dramatic. The only other dramatic ending that comes anywhere near it, is Brave New World by Huxley, and even that is not as shocking.
Arthur C. Clarke - The City and the Stars
The novel's main character is Alvin from the city of Diaspar. Diaspar is technologically advanced. Eternally-running machinery provides everything the people need. The people of Diaspar live for one thousand years, before they are absorbed into the city's Memory Banks. Many years later they will emerge again, with a fully formed adult body, but with twenty years of "childhood" during which their previous memories gradually return to them. The people are essentially immortal. But the utopian place has become vaguely stagnant, and Alvin constantly wonders if it is true that there are no other people left on Earth outside the city. He wants to venture out.
Other adventures obviously happen to Alvin but I won't tell you them - read it, it is good.
I studied this book at degree level and it was fantastic. It was my most favourite book to study on my degree course and actually fostered my love of SF. I still have my notes on it which is a tremendous complement to the lecturer seeing as I binned most of them. I loved the whole concept behind this book - that mankind is afraid of what it doesn't and needs to venture out to understand it. However, when mankind understands it, there is then something new that is opened up to them that they don't understand and they're scared to venture out to it, etc, etc, etc.
The novel's main character is Alvin from the city of Diaspar. Diaspar is technologically advanced. Eternally-running machinery provides everything the people need. The people of Diaspar live for one thousand years, before they are absorbed into the city's Memory Banks. Many years later they will emerge again, with a fully formed adult body, but with twenty years of "childhood" during which their previous memories gradually return to them. The people are essentially immortal. But the utopian place has become vaguely stagnant, and Alvin constantly wonders if it is true that there are no other people left on Earth outside the city. He wants to venture out.
Other adventures obviously happen to Alvin but I won't tell you them - read it, it is good.
I studied this book at degree level and it was fantastic. It was my most favourite book to study on my degree course and actually fostered my love of SF. I still have my notes on it which is a tremendous complement to the lecturer seeing as I binned most of them. I loved the whole concept behind this book - that mankind is afraid of what it doesn't and needs to venture out to understand it. However, when mankind understands it, there is then something new that is opened up to them that they don't understand and they're scared to venture out to it, etc, etc, etc.
JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE - Robert A Heilein
Alec has a problem. the world keeps changing around him without any obvious reason, catapulting him from one misery to the next, and if that wasn't bad enough he is deeply concerned about his lover's immortal soul - especially as judgement day is creeping closer. just like the alterations occuring all around him, the end arrives without warning and he finds himself in heaven raised to the position of saint but without his beloved anywhere to be found...at least, not in paradise.
Heinlein's early books are, to be blunt, mindnumbingly stale, suffering from a strange affliction of a concentration about science-technical fact that would bore the pants off even the most annally-obsessed engineering student. however the later stuff, of which this is a good example, display an interesting zest for weird science and a gentle wit that makes the characters engaging enough to make this worth while for people who have no focused interest on science-fiction.
much like 'stranger in a strange land' and 'the cat who walks through walls', you have to pay attention as the narrative can shift unexpectedly which might put some readers off, but it is worth the effort especially once the conspiracy begins to unravel toward the end and even then not everything is always explained. you have to be careful with heillein's work because some of it is great, and some of it isn't worth bonfire fuel, this is one of the good ones.
Alec has a problem. the world keeps changing around him without any obvious reason, catapulting him from one misery to the next, and if that wasn't bad enough he is deeply concerned about his lover's immortal soul - especially as judgement day is creeping closer. just like the alterations occuring all around him, the end arrives without warning and he finds himself in heaven raised to the position of saint but without his beloved anywhere to be found...at least, not in paradise.
Heinlein's early books are, to be blunt, mindnumbingly stale, suffering from a strange affliction of a concentration about science-technical fact that would bore the pants off even the most annally-obsessed engineering student. however the later stuff, of which this is a good example, display an interesting zest for weird science and a gentle wit that makes the characters engaging enough to make this worth while for people who have no focused interest on science-fiction.
much like 'stranger in a strange land' and 'the cat who walks through walls', you have to pay attention as the narrative can shift unexpectedly which might put some readers off, but it is worth the effort especially once the conspiracy begins to unravel toward the end and even then not everything is always explained. you have to be careful with heillein's work because some of it is great, and some of it isn't worth bonfire fuel, this is one of the good ones.
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess.
15 year old Alex likes robbery, rape, the old ''ultra-violence'' and Beethoven. Along with his droogs (Pete, Georgie and Dim), Alex is a menace to society. When during an attempted robbery he commits the ultimte crime of murder, Alex becomes prisoner 6655321 at state jail number 84F, sentenced to 14 years. However, when Alex volunteers to undergo the experimental 'Ludovico Technique'1 in order to reduce his sentence, he is unaware of the consequences that are to follow.
This has got to be one of my favourite books. I loved it from start to finish. It is much better than the film and I thought that was a good film as well! The ending is different in the book and much better as well. The way that Burgess manipulates the language of the book is stunning - his use of Russian words - Droogs, vidied, tolchocked, etc - just transport you further into the pysche of this brilliant character. You have just got to read it.
15 year old Alex likes robbery, rape, the old ''ultra-violence'' and Beethoven. Along with his droogs (Pete, Georgie and Dim), Alex is a menace to society. When during an attempted robbery he commits the ultimte crime of murder, Alex becomes prisoner 6655321 at state jail number 84F, sentenced to 14 years. However, when Alex volunteers to undergo the experimental 'Ludovico Technique'1 in order to reduce his sentence, he is unaware of the consequences that are to follow.
This has got to be one of my favourite books. I loved it from start to finish. It is much better than the film and I thought that was a good film as well! The ending is different in the book and much better as well. The way that Burgess manipulates the language of the book is stunning - his use of Russian words - Droogs, vidied, tolchocked, etc - just transport you further into the pysche of this brilliant character. You have just got to read it.
The Drowned World - J.G. Ballard.
In the 21st century, fluctuations in solar radiation have caused the ide-caps to melt and the seas to rise. Global temperatures have climbed, and civilization has retreated to the Arctic and Antarctic circles. London is a city now inundated by a primeval swamp, to which an expedition travels to record the flora and fauna of this new Triassic Age.
This is a damn good book - a really good read that makes you think. It is a current global problem but it is the characters of Kerans and Strangman and the language that Ballard uses that make this book for me a pleasure to use. It is not incredibly action-packed but I think that this is where the beauty of the book lies. It is, for me, a page-turner because I want to know when it is going to happen - there is a gradual build-up of events that is expertly constructed by Ballard. If you want to do nothing else than read stunning descriptive language, then read this.
My one annoyance with this book is that it should have ended earlier. I won't put it on here because I will spoil the ending and no-one would bother reading it. If you want to know where I think it should have ended then pm me and we can discuss.
In the 21st century, fluctuations in solar radiation have caused the ide-caps to melt and the seas to rise. Global temperatures have climbed, and civilization has retreated to the Arctic and Antarctic circles. London is a city now inundated by a primeval swamp, to which an expedition travels to record the flora and fauna of this new Triassic Age.
This is a damn good book - a really good read that makes you think. It is a current global problem but it is the characters of Kerans and Strangman and the language that Ballard uses that make this book for me a pleasure to use. It is not incredibly action-packed but I think that this is where the beauty of the book lies. It is, for me, a page-turner because I want to know when it is going to happen - there is a gradual build-up of events that is expertly constructed by Ballard. If you want to do nothing else than read stunning descriptive language, then read this.
My one annoyance with this book is that it should have ended earlier. I won't put it on here because I will spoil the ending and no-one would bother reading it. If you want to know where I think it should have ended then pm me and we can discuss.
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS - Ernest Hemmingway
at the height of the spanish civil war, an american spanish teacher joins the resistence as a dynomiter and is sent into the wooded hills to use his skills on a bridge prior to a major offensive against the facists. he works with a mixed collection of spanish rebels, some still loyal to the cause but others, particularly their leader, who have lost the will to fight. surrounded by this courage and cowardness, robert johnson - roberto to the rebels - falls in love with a young girl who was subjected to rape at the hands of the fascists and whose family have been murdered. the story follows the four days leading up to the attack on the bridge and the subsequent attempted escape.
ernest hemmingway is quite rightly regarded as one of america's best writers, and be warned before hand that he did not believe in happy endings. not as good as 'farewell to arms' [see earlier entry] but still worth a read.
at the height of the spanish civil war, an american spanish teacher joins the resistence as a dynomiter and is sent into the wooded hills to use his skills on a bridge prior to a major offensive against the facists. he works with a mixed collection of spanish rebels, some still loyal to the cause but others, particularly their leader, who have lost the will to fight. surrounded by this courage and cowardness, robert johnson - roberto to the rebels - falls in love with a young girl who was subjected to rape at the hands of the fascists and whose family have been murdered. the story follows the four days leading up to the attack on the bridge and the subsequent attempted escape.
ernest hemmingway is quite rightly regarded as one of america's best writers, and be warned before hand that he did not believe in happy endings. not as good as 'farewell to arms' [see earlier entry] but still worth a read.
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
THE MARTIAN TIME-SLIP - Philip K Dick
emmigration to mars has hit a low as the colonists struggle in the harsh environment, and the boom in shipping resources and people that the UN had hoped for hasn't happened. a repairman can make a decent wage there as the colonist have to rely on what they've already got to keep going, and the trade unions are beginning to weild more influence. in the middle of this the head of the water union [the most successful] stumbles on a move by the UN to jumpstart a fresh wave of emmigration but a rival has seemed to have beaten him to the profit. could the key to getting success lie with an aultistic boy who may have seen the future?
Philip K Dick was some sort of genius whose breath of sci-fi ideas makes most other writers seem clueless by comparison. not the best of his work, but a good place to start for the uninitiated.
emmigration to mars has hit a low as the colonists struggle in the harsh environment, and the boom in shipping resources and people that the UN had hoped for hasn't happened. a repairman can make a decent wage there as the colonist have to rely on what they've already got to keep going, and the trade unions are beginning to weild more influence. in the middle of this the head of the water union [the most successful] stumbles on a move by the UN to jumpstart a fresh wave of emmigration but a rival has seemed to have beaten him to the profit. could the key to getting success lie with an aultistic boy who may have seen the future?
Philip K Dick was some sort of genius whose breath of sci-fi ideas makes most other writers seem clueless by comparison. not the best of his work, but a good place to start for the uninitiated.
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
Philip K Dick is brilliant. He is a stupendous writer who has produced some fabulous books.Fez wrote:Philip K Dick was some sort of genius whose breath of sci-fi ideas makes most other writers seem clueless by comparison. not the best of his work, but a good place to start for the uninitiated.
This is how good he his - Gollancz are currently doing a SF Masterworks series - they are reprinting 1 title every month of the best SF ever. They have got fellow writers to contribute etc. There is some classic SF on here. Some great titles that are worth checking out. Out of the 66, Dick has about 10 books, maybe more and Martian Time-Slip is one of them.
UBIK - Philip K Dick
glen reciter is dead. or is he? someone died in a planned explosion by reciter's rivals, but was it the boss that was killed or his employees, because as they begin to prepare for his funeral weird messages from reciter begin to appear and the world around them is starting to warp and regress to an earlier age. only when the regressions have been reversed will the threat to them all be withdrawn, but as soon as it is, who will find out that it was them who were killed in the explosion?
one of dick's best, certainly better in terms of plotting than martian time-slip, and the confusion involving who is real and who is being artificially kept alive keeps you guessing right up until the end.
as far as the sf masterworks goes, avoid valis [also by dick] which revolves around a spiritual awakening / mental breakdown he had toward the end of his life where the story deals with metaphysical theories and spiritual weirdness that is trying to read and ultimately unrewarding. however...
glen reciter is dead. or is he? someone died in a planned explosion by reciter's rivals, but was it the boss that was killed or his employees, because as they begin to prepare for his funeral weird messages from reciter begin to appear and the world around them is starting to warp and regress to an earlier age. only when the regressions have been reversed will the threat to them all be withdrawn, but as soon as it is, who will find out that it was them who were killed in the explosion?
one of dick's best, certainly better in terms of plotting than martian time-slip, and the confusion involving who is real and who is being artificially kept alive keeps you guessing right up until the end.
as far as the sf masterworks goes, avoid valis [also by dick] which revolves around a spiritual awakening / mental breakdown he had toward the end of his life where the story deals with metaphysical theories and spiritual weirdness that is trying to read and ultimately unrewarding. however...
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE - Philip K Dick
in 1945, the axis powers of germany and japan were victorious in the war and north america is now divided between these two ruling powers. the defeated americans struggle to live in a militeristic state where their freedoms are severely curtailed and they cannot even find employment without permission from the local district of the nazi party. but in a neutral buffer area between the japan and german halves of the country, an author has written an underground cult novel which details a different future where the allies won, stirring some hope in the downtrodden populace. but what was the man in the high castle hoping to achieve by doing it?
i loved the idea of this novel, and wasn't disappointed by the way dick handled this alterative view of the modern world, it is not only plausable but unnervingly realistic.
i'm reading the three stigmata of palmer eldritch at the moment too, i might write it up here but it hasn't been quite as engaging so far. watch this space.
in 1945, the axis powers of germany and japan were victorious in the war and north america is now divided between these two ruling powers. the defeated americans struggle to live in a militeristic state where their freedoms are severely curtailed and they cannot even find employment without permission from the local district of the nazi party. but in a neutral buffer area between the japan and german halves of the country, an author has written an underground cult novel which details a different future where the allies won, stirring some hope in the downtrodden populace. but what was the man in the high castle hoping to achieve by doing it?
i loved the idea of this novel, and wasn't disappointed by the way dick handled this alterative view of the modern world, it is not only plausable but unnervingly realistic.
i'm reading the three stigmata of palmer eldritch at the moment too, i might write it up here but it hasn't been quite as engaging so far. watch this space.
I came, I saw, I bought the T-shirt
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper, and the gentle butt of everyone's jokes, until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental transformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.
Charlie is a wonderful central character and the way his complex character is opened up to the reader is engaging, touching, humorous and thought-provoking.
Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper, and the gentle butt of everyone's jokes, until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental transformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary.
Charlie is a wonderful central character and the way his complex character is opened up to the reader is engaging, touching, humorous and thought-provoking.