A Maze of Death by Philip K Dick

My first PKD book.

Strange cover completely unrelated to the story.

Oddly brilliant.

Finished Reading: King City by Brandon Graham

I already own the original first volume of King City and wanted more after finishing it so this was a must! I adore Graham’s style, his character designs and his complex science fiction city. The cat master is such a good idea/device and the sheer amount of puns had me laughing out loud. As a story the book is flawed and not as engaging as it could be, but in a way that doesn’t matter. The world, the characters and the story itself is such an enjoyable mess and assault on the senses it’s hard not to be pleased by every new page.

Check out Graham’s site. I drop in every now and then just to overload with visual stimulation: http://royalboiler.wordpress.com/

Finished Reading: Marked for Life by Paul Magrs

A strange, difficult, enjoyable and flawed read. Great story, really well written but suffers from the main character being the least interesting of the ensemble and an awkward genre gear shift near the end.

Finished reading: Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami

Took me a little while to get into but by the end I didn’t want it to finish.

I sometimes find it difficult to express how much I enjoyed a book without going into endless details. But seriously, this book is still with me even though I’m halfway through another.

Finished reading: Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

I adored the Time Travellers Wife (don’t get me started on the film) and I adored this just as much. Beautifully written and completely absorbing characters/story. Very elegant.

Finished reading:

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

I adored this book. The way Chandler writes is incredible. He packs so much information about a place, a person and their face into so few words, yet somehow manages to paint a detailed emotional picture every time.

He seems to have a thing about eyebrows. And rain. Oh, the endless rain!

A must read for anyone writing screenplays where you have to convey a lot with very little.

I’m probably going to end up reading lots of Chandlers books.

Finished reading:

Habibi by Craig Thompson

I actually finished this months ago. A beautiful, complex and engrossing book.

Finished reading - The Castle by Franz Kafka

This book was frustrating. Then intriguing. Then even more frustrating.

I know it’s a classic and all but not even Kafka wanted it publishing. The latter chapters especially tend to veer into one character rambling on endlessly in pure dialogue. I got a little something out of it though, the dynamics between the castle class and the village class, the weird unspoken rules and trust, the impossible bureaucracy of the castle system. But not great over all.

Finished reading: The Call of Cthulhu and other weird stories by H.P Lovecraft

Thoroughly enjoyed these short stories, which still feel fresh and without cliche. All of the stories are essentially written in the same way, first person, usually in media res, often telling us that the story may be the work of over active imaginations and may not be accurate, building the tension and teasing horrible things. Great stuff.

Finished reading - Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski

There’s a quote on the back of this book that sums it up perfectly: “In an age of conformity, Bukowski wrote about the people nobody want to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad.”

I went to see The Tree of Life shortly after I started reading Ham on Rye and the two stories collided in my head as they both tell a full tale of life. Ham on Rye tells the story of Henry Chinaski (Bukowski) from a very early age right through to his mid 20s. During The Tree of Life I couldn’t help but wish I was watching an adaptation of Ham on Rye instead.

Finished reading: Chuck Palahniuk - Snuff

I actually finished this a while ago - Dirty. Funny. Disturbing. Super tight. All the things I’ve come to expect from Palahniuk without the book descending into a cover version of his own style of writing. He really is the master of jump cut writing. The way he writes certain scenes forces your brain into editing the images together. Sometimes fast and frantic.

He’d probably make a great film editor.