[books 2013] Catching up again
42. Common Sense and Agrarian Justice by Thomas Paine
Tom Paine on how we don't need kings, and why the American Revolution should succeed. The first of these is still relevant, and Paine's arguments still stand up. Agrarian Justice is an early plan for a universal old age pension.
Slightly less excellent than The Age of Reason, but a short, easy read on important subjects.
Part of the reason I love Paine so much is that, while I do care passionately about the history of ideas, for the most part I'm too stupid to read the primary texts and have to rely on later analysis. With Paine I can easily read the original.
43. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
This month's Bibliogoths book. I've only read one Carter book before (The Passion of New Eve), which I really disliked. So I was pleasantly surprised that I did quite enjoy this one. I don't claim to have caught even 25% of what is going on in there, but it's a very entertaining and thought provoking story even if some of the symbolism and subtext passes you by.
I've always thought I have issues with magical realism, but I might have to reconsider that too.
44. Joyland by Stephen King
I haven't read a Stephen King book since Needful Things, but Neil Gaiman wrote positively about him recently (ish), so I thought I'd give him another try.
I *loved* this book. It's a coming-of-age story about a 21 year old college student who takes a summer job at an amusement park in North Carolina. A few years previously a woman had been murdered at the park, and is said to haunt it. The mystery and supernatural stuff is secondary to what is going on in the main character's life for the first 3/4 of the book.
Couldn't put it down. The writing is incredible. King made me cry on the bus. Some years ago he wrote a memoir on writing, and I need to check it out. Come to think of it, I can't remember what I did last week, yet I can remember his description of the pain of arthritis suffered by a character in Needful Things.
I said some time ago that half of King's stuff that I read bored me to tears. I'm beginning to think that I just came to it way too young (I was 12 when I started reading his work), because the only books that I really rated were the ones that I read when I had got to university (It, The Tommyknockers, Needful Things).
45. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Another really good read. A sort of sequel to Oryx and Crake. The third book in the trilogy is out soon. I need to re-read Oryx and Crake (Not that I remember anything that long ago anyway, but I read in on the plane back from Argentine - not ideal conditions).
Although it's set in a dystopian near future and then humanity is mostly wiped out, it's not so much science fiction as a study of what people would do in those situations. Really well developed characters.
Tom Paine on how we don't need kings, and why the American Revolution should succeed. The first of these is still relevant, and Paine's arguments still stand up. Agrarian Justice is an early plan for a universal old age pension.
Slightly less excellent than The Age of Reason, but a short, easy read on important subjects.
Part of the reason I love Paine so much is that, while I do care passionately about the history of ideas, for the most part I'm too stupid to read the primary texts and have to rely on later analysis. With Paine I can easily read the original.
43. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
This month's Bibliogoths book. I've only read one Carter book before (The Passion of New Eve), which I really disliked. So I was pleasantly surprised that I did quite enjoy this one. I don't claim to have caught even 25% of what is going on in there, but it's a very entertaining and thought provoking story even if some of the symbolism and subtext passes you by.
I've always thought I have issues with magical realism, but I might have to reconsider that too.
44. Joyland by Stephen King
I haven't read a Stephen King book since Needful Things, but Neil Gaiman wrote positively about him recently (ish), so I thought I'd give him another try.
I *loved* this book. It's a coming-of-age story about a 21 year old college student who takes a summer job at an amusement park in North Carolina. A few years previously a woman had been murdered at the park, and is said to haunt it. The mystery and supernatural stuff is secondary to what is going on in the main character's life for the first 3/4 of the book.
Couldn't put it down. The writing is incredible. King made me cry on the bus. Some years ago he wrote a memoir on writing, and I need to check it out. Come to think of it, I can't remember what I did last week, yet I can remember his description of the pain of arthritis suffered by a character in Needful Things.
I said some time ago that half of King's stuff that I read bored me to tears. I'm beginning to think that I just came to it way too young (I was 12 when I started reading his work), because the only books that I really rated were the ones that I read when I had got to university (It, The Tommyknockers, Needful Things).
45. The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Another really good read. A sort of sequel to Oryx and Crake. The third book in the trilogy is out soon. I need to re-read Oryx and Crake (Not that I remember anything that long ago anyway, but I read in on the plane back from Argentine - not ideal conditions).
Although it's set in a dystopian near future and then humanity is mostly wiped out, it's not so much science fiction as a study of what people would do in those situations. Really well developed characters.