Category: Books

  • Things what I have bought and are good

    The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Bleak! Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for the Xbox 360. Fun! On The Wealth of Nations, by PJ O’Rourke. Witty!

  • This book is brilliant

    I’d never read Joseph Wambaugh before, but a cover blurb from James Ellroy persuaded me to buy Hollywood Station. And it’s brilliant – like the best bits of NYPD Blue crammed into a single novel. Funny, too. [photopress:1847240240.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V38703916_.jpg,full,pp_image]

  • Dead trees

    One of the great things about the Xmas holiday is that it gives you the chance to catch up on your reading. I finally got round to reading two books I’ve been meaning to get for ages: Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion and Michael Bywater’s Big Babies. The former is an intemperate rant against religion,…

  • Waterstones

    …has a new site, and it’s really rather lovely. Not particularly interesting, but true.

  • The perfect Christmas gift

    [photopress:masterbation_cover_m.jpg,full,pp_image] Successful people are not addicted to the habit of masturbation simply because they spend their time in what is important for them and their loved ones and not in masturbation. Are you willing to take the action and stop the habit of masturbation which keeps you from success? or Will you allow this habit…

  • Little thoughts

    …none of which justifies an entire blog post: * I traded in a bunch of 360 games at the weekend: PDZ (because it sucks), Ghost Recon (because it’s too difficult) and Far Cry: Predator (because I’ve already played it on Xbox and can’t be bothered with the new mission). Result? Nearly sixty quid, which I…

  • So you want to be a book cover artist?

    One for the artistic types: a good look at the do’s and don’ts of creating artwork for SF and Fantasy books. It seems that spherical breasts and mullets are no-nos. [Via MetaFilter]

  • I am Richard and Judy

    Haven’t done this for a while – a quick round-up of reasonably interesting books that you may or may not like. [photopress:0316730106.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg,full,pp_image] First up: A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil, by Christopher Brookmyre. He’s been described as the Scottish Carl Hiassen but up until now I’ve always smirked rather than belly laughed…

  • So you want to be a novelist?

    Fancy becoming an author? Then don’t give up the day job. BoingBoing links to this survey of novelists’ advances, and it’s clear that writing books is hardly a licence to print money: The range was from $0-$40,000 for an advance on a first novel. The average was $6363. The median advance is $5000. The median…