A Man of Shadows

Jeff Noon, 2017

(January 2018)

Nocturnal noirish nonsense with Noon. I still remain enamoured of the Noon of Pollen and Vurt I read in my late-teens, the dislocation of the familiar that seemed so startling when one first encounters it, which means I can forgive him a lot. I do find myself agreeing with this Strange Horizons review, however, in that the atmosphere is brilliant, but I’m not quite sure what the point of the rest of it is. I’ll still be buying the sequel, though.

Call for the Dead

John le Carré, 1961

(October 2017)

I’d not read any le Carré before, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. A satisfyingly unthrilling thriller about downbeat spies in 1960’s suburbia. An amateur dramatics society plays a significant role. A supporting character keeps bees. The main character spends much of the time in bed. The espionage equivalent of a cosy catastrophe, which is exactly what I needed on a four-hour train ride through rural Japan in the pissing rain.

Political Order and Political Decay

From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalisation of Democracy
Francis Fukuyama, 2014
(September 2017)

Well, quite.

Locke and Key, Vol. 1 and 2

Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft, Vol. 2: Head Games

Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, 2008-2009

(June 2014)

We interrupt our scheduled programming for a spot of light relief. Well, I say ‘light’. It’s more, erm, ‘horror’. And it’s not especially relieving, either, what with, y’know’ the horror and everything. It is an interruption though, so at least there’s that.

Valentine

Today is St. Valentine’s Day, as you know. This is celebrated in Japan by teenage girls giving chocolates to their friends because they like that sort of shit, and adult women giving chocolates to their colleagues and co-workers because something something obligation something sexist antediluvian throwback stagnant society something bumblefuck something, as you also know.

One Star

One-star reviews. They’re great. Not for the authors, obviously, but for everyone else they’re an unbridled joy being as they usually are completely unfair, ill-founded, incoherent, and irrelevant. I don’t generally like panning books here (though that’s not wholly true; I just don’t like reading books which are likely to deserve a panning), but sometimes there can be something quite cathartic about just letting loose whatever ill-formed brain-vomit is frothing about at the top of your head. So here are a few one-star reviews from Amazon, some of which are genuine, and some I’ve fabricated myself.

Look, it’s either this or bang on again about the continued shit-fountain that is the NHK board of governors*, and I don’t think my will to live can survive much more of that unscathed.

Metaphors We Live By

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, 2003 [1980]

(June 2013)

So this is clearly something I’m kinda into.

2017

Olga Slavnikova, 2006 [Marian Schwartz, 2010]

(May 2013)

“Tanya wasn’t late yet, but from her mounting absence Krylov realized she certainly would be.”

Redemption in Indigo

Karen Lord, 2010

(March 2013)

I really enjoyed this.

  

TV Tarento I Don’t Hate

This will be short.

Piercing

Ryu Murakami, 1994 [Ralph McCarthy, 2007]

(October 2012)

Funny.

69

Ryu Murakami, 1985 [Ralph F McCarthy, 1993]

(March 2012)

I deserved this one. After a Japanese novel in translation – which was dire – and a short book about a teenager – who was suicidal – I end up reading a short Japanese book in translation, about a teenager. Fortunately it isn’t dire and the protagonist actually seems to want to live.