Books and Stuff

A regularish update of my book news.

What I've been reading this week...

I seem to have very little time to read these days, but this week I had to sit in a waiting room for an hour and a half, so I managed some more of Men Whose Fathers Were Men.

The problem I've had with this is that it's uncut, so I've been reading it in bed and found myself stymied when I've come across uncut pages.  I did take a paper-knife with me to the hospital, and it wasn't until I got there that I realised that I might have awkward questions to answer!

What's sitting by my bed half-read...

This is a very annoying habit:  I start a book and after a while get distracted and leave it, starting another.  I must make an effort to polish these off..

 

What I've bought...

Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle - £2.81
Diana Wynne Jones, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci - £2.80
Stanley Martin, The Order of Merit: One hundred years of matchless honour - £6.01

 

This was a nice illustration of the pitfalls of buying second-hand copies through Amazon.  Howl was fine and (as described) like new, but the Chronicles was a very dog-eared ex-library copy I wouldn't have bothered with if I'd seen it.

Depressing book news....

Is that Iain (M) Banks is dying, as the whole blogosphere is aware now.  Given what he's always said about about his 'genre' writing being ignored, it was ironic that the coverage the BBC gave it only mentioned The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, although the reporter was standing in front of a table piled high with his 'M' books.