There’s more to life than books you know (but not much more!)

Miscellaneous

stack-of-books(2)

Can anybody remind me how I ended up Book Editor of Culture Vultures?

True, I’ve read a few. I own even more – so many I’m trying to get shut of the excess on Amazon and the temporary book shop at Temple Works. I’m certainly not short of reading material. Have enough for a lifetime. And several reincarnations.

(Microsoft Word; I know when I’m using a sentence fragment. Choice. Is good. Wobbly green underlining, bad. Feck. Right. Off!)

Much more rewarding would be food editor. I can always do with dinner. And booze. Have you ever heard me refuse a drink? My lack of discrimination in regard to alcohol possibly prevents me from being a truly generative, considerate editor, and I’d probably want to keep all the assignments to myself. Call me ombibulous. Drinking is my forte and my passion. I consider myself a drinker with a reading and writing habit.

Not the same with books. I may own more than is decent or rational, and I’m what people would regard as well read, but my knowledge, tastes, and interests are not exactly wide. I’ve never read a thriller or a crime novel. Romance leaves me cold. Historical fiction I consider an abomination. Science fiction is just ludicrous, and please don’t talk to me about graphic novels – anyone the wrong side of puberty reading a book with pictures needs incarcerating. Show me the reading list of most book clubs and I’d shrug and look for the nearest exit. I pride myself on the fact that nobody for a hundred miles has even heard of my favourite author (Gilbert Sorrentino, anyone?) or the Dalkey Archive Press. I’m genuinely that obnoxious.

So, book editor may have been a rubbish decision. Blame Emma.

I’m going to have to rely on the good, but misguided, readers of Culture Vultures to supply the reviews then. Right now there’s a couple of crime novels up for grabs (Leeds noir, no less!) and a Mills and Boon, written by a crack team of CV romanticists . . . Broken Shackles (great title, applause to the towering genius who came up with that one!) No doubt I’ll be inundated with offers from publishers after this post so get in touch if your literary tastes are dubious, warped or infantile and I’ll attempt to fix you up with your latest read. Obviously the bribe involves a blog post. How hard can that be?

My email’s phil@philkirby.net.

I wish I could say I was looking forward to hearing from you but I’m too busy reading proper literature. Thanks for reading.

18 comments

  3. Hi Phil

    Have you had a look at Maus by Art Spiegleman – might change your view on graphic novels. I’ve sent you one of those new fangled twittery thingies about reviewing the odd book.

    Cheers

    Ian

  6. Hi Phil

    It’s been fascinating to grab a cup of tea and scribble down a few books that I think come under the sci-fi genre and that are simply great books, many of which I’ve returned to again and again over the years.

    When we first started our book club there was a vocal minority that went along the lines of “I’m not reading sci-fi” which always struck me as odd, after all in my mind some of the greatest books written would fall under that banner. Like many things much comes down to definitions and how people would characterise a sci-fi book. For example one of the most stunning, affecting and imaginative books that I’ve read over the last few years has been The People of Paper by Salvador Plasencia. Most people would however class this as magic realism, a genre that I struggle to get to grips with what it is exactly so the book does not feature on my list. A Clockwork Orange however I would class as sci-fi although it does not feature in my top sci-fi books, great as it is. Like any list of course it is totally subjective and, although I tried to self edit and come up with a top 10 I couldn’t and I also suspect that if you asked me again tomorrow my list would be different.

    So the best sci-fi books that I’ve actually read (in no particular order other than it was how they were written on a scrap of paper) are :

    • We – Zvgeny Zamyatin
    • Brave New World – Aldus Huxley
    • 1984 – George Orwell
    • Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
    • High Rise – JG Ballard
    • The Man in the High Castle – Philip K Dick
    • The Road – Cormac McCarthy
    • Neuromance – William Gibson
    • Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
    • Handmaids Tale – Margaret Atwood
    • Day of the Triffids – John Wydnham
    • War of the Worlds – HG Wells
    • Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C Clarke
    • Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

    Clearly plenty of obvious ones in there but they are all worth a read I’d say

    Enjoyed that gauntlet

    Cheers

    Ian

    1. I’m impressed . . . couple there I’m ashamed to say I haven’t read.

      This is almost a blog post rather than a comment. Would you care to do your suggestions justice and make it into a separate piece?

        1. well, maybe just expand it a bit, why you choose those particular books, why others weren’t in the list, that sort of thing.

          Maybe plug your book club . . .

          Email me, I’ll post it as a proper piece on it’s own. If you can be arsed.

  7. Bit obvious some of these and borderline sci-fi in many cases.

    For instance, is The Road really sci-fi?

    So my gauntlet is to introduce us to works that are more obviously sci-fi..Phillip K Dick, Iain M Banks etc.

    1. Agree that many are obvious, which I said, but not many are borderline (Frankenstein and The Road perhaps?). I’ve included Philip K Dick but not Iain M Banks as I’ve not read any. I was not attempting to come up with a list of the best sci-fi, simply accepting Phil’s challenge to come up with some examples that would hopefully show that sci-fi is not ludicrous (although I agree that much of it totally is).

      The Road is an interesting one, thrown in on purpose. Many people who turn their nose up at sci-fi rave about The Road but any book set in a post apocolyptic world where organised society has collapsed is sci-fi to me. All comes down to how you define things.

  8. Ian, good points and I think sci-fi gets a bad press.

    I see your point re: The Road although what i think is most interesting thing about it is that the nature of the apocolypse is never made clear. Beautiful book although the film is only ok.

Comments are closed.