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redjel January 16 2009, 19:43:17 UTC
Did you like death and the penguin? I am adding Khushwant Singh to my list! What was Changing Planes like?

38 books, not bad, not bad at all!!

Hope you had a lovely holiday!

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darknessrisible January 16 2009, 20:19:12 UTC
I liked Death and the Penguin up to a point, but as the penguin featured less and the girl featured more I became less interested. I liked the ending. I've got another Kurkov book kicking around somewhere, but haven't started it yet.

I like Khushwant Singh, but would recommend the books of his which I read in 2007 more. Those were Train to Pakistan (a book about the partition of India), and Delhi, in which the not-very-likable narrator compares his relationship with his home city to his relationship with a transsexual prostitute(!).

Are you in Manchester at any point soon?

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darknessrisible January 16 2009, 21:43:37 UTC
Oops, missed a bit! I liked Changing Planes. It's a travelogue of non-existent places, with each locale occupying a different chapter. It's occasionally patchy but some chapters are excellent, such as the description of an airport which opens the story: "Luggage-laden people rush hither and yon through endless corridors, like souls to each of whom the devil has furnished a different, inaccurate map of the escape route from Hell".

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redjel January 16 2009, 21:52:36 UTC
My computer is misbehaving - i just wrote a reply! I'd love Ursula Le Guin, I'd love to read changing planes!

I read such a random mix over the year, I shall nick lots of yours for this year!!

I don't ever plan my trips to mcr, they're so random - when are you next there and free to say hello?

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urwen_sakurafu January 16 2009, 20:04:07 UTC
We must give you back the other Arkady.

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Glen Duncan - I, Lucifer gold_dust84 January 16 2009, 21:55:41 UTC
I read this a few years back and loved it.

I'll lend you Weathercock, that's another of his.

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icanus April 3 2009, 09:47:44 UTC
"Monday begins on Saturday" is not really an attempt at science fiction and falls somewhat out of what Strugatsky brothers were writing. It's a joke that was so relevant and good when it was written, that people back home couldn't stop laughing at it (at least the target audience). Without the background (which even most of the young Russians no longer have), I am afraid, the reader is in danger of missing the point entirely.

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