What Are You Reading 2

[Catch-up]

I've put aside The Woman Who Died A Lot to read An Apple for the Creature, the new collection of short stories edited by Charlaine Harris. Really good so far! I've only skipped one story.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I picked up a copy of that when I was at the Worldcon but I have not started it yet but it looked pretty good, what was the story you skipped. :

 

[Catch-up]

I skipped Golden Delicious by Faith Hunter. The rest were good!

 

[Tiffany]

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. Re-visiting my childhood. Originally published in 1946, though I must have read it in the early 1950's. Actually it seems to me, re-reading it, that it was a fairly grown up book.

 

[Quatermass]

Anyone else read "Apocalypse Cow"?? won the pratchett award which is why I bought it, that and it looked totally silly! It was and really enjoyed it

I thought it was very good - a nice mix of zombies and humour

I liked it, but it seemed rather average, as far as my tastes were concerned.

I actually just finished reading a not dissimilar, and better, book, by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame. It's called Jam. It's what happens when carnivorous strawberry jam suddenly appears and swamps Brisbane. I am not making this up. Funny book, very dark comedy about what people's reactions to an unexpected apocalypse may really be like.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

I bet Del had something to do with it!




Private Games - James Patterson/A.N. Other.

 

[Quatermass]

I bet Del had something to do with it!

You wish. As the book goes, both Del and myself probably would have been eaten by the jam. :|

The book also works much better if you live in, or have spent time in Brisbane. You can even spot the names Yahtzee has written around.

Anyway, it's more to spoof the post-apocalyptic scenarios done in fiction. Apocalypse Cow played many elements straight, just exaggerated for comedy reasons, whereas Jam actually deconstructs the genre. I mean, the main group of survivors consist of an unemployed slacker who is the bland and sometimes stupid narrator, a musician whose reaction to an apocalypse is rather too enthusiastic (it means he gets opportunities he wouldn't get otherwise), an obnoxious journalism student, a video game designer with anger management issues, and two American agents who take implausible deniability to a whole new level. Oh, and a birdeating spider. I am NOT making this up.

Actually, now that I come to think of it, I wonder how much Yahtzee was inspired by the Brisbane floods a year or so ago? :think:

 

[Sister Jennifer]

^ You're messing with my head. But I know you're not, I just googled Jam. Good reviews. Have put it on my 'to read' list.

I did like it but I skimmed a few bits of Apocalypse Cow.

 

[Quatermass]

^ You're messing with my head. But I know you're not, I just googled Jam. Good reviews. Have put it on my 'to read' list.

I did like it but I skimmed a few bits of Apocalypse Cow.

I forget, do you live in or near Brisbane? There's a really good bookshop there called Pulp Fiction, near Central Station. It specialises in science fiction, fantasy, and crime novels. It happens to have a lot of Terry Pratchett books there (I purchased Blink of the Screen at the same time as I purchased Jam), and lots of other good stuff too. And it has, last time I was there (and I did purchase these books some time ago from this store), Apocalypse Cow and Half-Sick of Shadows. If I do win the TP Prize, I hope to have MY book there...

 

[Bouncy Castle]

According to Google, Sister Jen lives quiiiiiiiiiiiiite a drive away from Brisbane.

 

[Quatermass]

C'est la vie. :|

 

[Sister Jennifer]

Brisbane is about 700km away. It seems far Bouncy, but not for Australia. We drive or sometimes fly regularly to Brisbane, my oldest child lives there, (Teneriffe, Q). I know that comic shop.

 

[Quatermass]

Brisbane is about 700km away. It seems far Bouncy, but not for Australia. We drive or sometimes fly regularly to Brisbane, my oldest child lives there, (Teneriffe, Q). I know that comic shop.

It's not a comic shop. It sells books. There is a comic shop in Brisbane, but Pulp Fiction sells only a few graphic novels... :|

 

[Sister Jennifer]

It's not a comic shop. It sells books. There is a comic shop in Brisbane, but Pulp Fiction sells only a few graphic novels... :|

Yeah?

 

[Quatermass]

It's not a comic shop. It sells books. There is a comic shop in Brisbane, but Pulp Fiction sells only a few graphic novels... :|

Yeah?

http://www.pulpfiction.com.au/

There it is.

 

[Sister Jennifer]

Groovy, I know where you're talking about now. Looks like a good shop. Will be in Brisbane soon, definitely check it out. I think the place I'm thinking about is in ELizabeth St. Around the corner from Dymocks. I could be wrong, again, though.

 

[Quatermass]

I think Comics Etc left the spot you're thinking of a few years back.

There used to be a brilliant science fiction shop called Fan Attic. Loved that place, but it shut down years ago...

 

[Bouncy Castle]

Fan Attic - great name! :clap:



Anyhoo, as well as reading the Paterson book, I'm also reading Sourcery on my Kindle.

 

[pip]

Feckin Kindle.
Nearly finished a Blink of the Screen. Currently on The Sea and all the Little Fishes.
Then I'm going to start Stephen Baxter , Flood

 

[Dotsie]

You're reading a feckin Kindle? Never thought I'd see the day