Kenny_Shovel

Reading List 2008 January: Nothing February: Nothing March: 01 - Planetary Volume 1 - Warren Ellis - ***** 02 - Planetary Volume 2 - Warren Ellis - ***** 03 - Strontium Dog Agency Files Volume 04 - Wagner/Grant - ***** 04 - Planetary Volume 3 - Warren Ellis - ***** 05 - Jedge Dredd Volume 09 - Wagner/Grant - *****

Books Purchased in 2008 January: 01 - Haunts of the Black Masseur:Swimmer as Hero - Charles Sprawson 02 - The State Counsellor - Boris Akunin 03 - The Chain of Chance - Stanislaw Lem Febuary: Nothing March: 04 - Planetary Volume 1 - Warren Ellis 05 - Planetary Volume 2 - Warren Ellis 06 - Planetary Volume 3 - Warren Ellis 07 - Strontium Dog Agency Files Volume 04 - Wagner/Grant 08 - Judge Dredd Volume 9 - Wagner/Grant Read book

Only four 5 star books this year, but lots of others that were well worth reading: Summer in Baden-Baden by Leonid Tsypkin Bleak House by Charles Dickens Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo

Just finished: Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The jewish inhabitants of a small Polish town in the 17th century turn to a false prophet and unleash hell on earth. Reminded me of the old Ken Russell film "The Devils". Next up: One of three. Either The Trial, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova or Fred: Portrait of a Fast Bowler by John Arlott. I'll probably end up reading a fourth option instead...

Put me in the pro CoD camp. But meanwhile the Bloomsbury GoodReadingGuide to World Fiction suggests the following for the South of the USA: Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Ballard of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers The Color Purple by Alice Walker Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty Property by Valery Martin A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren The Moviegoer by Walker Percy The Awakening by Kate Chopin Modern Babtists by James Wilcox A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J Gaines Tourist Season by Carl Hiaason Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe Regards, K_S

I know what you mean. I like Murukami, but he does tend to overshadow other writers from post-war Japan, which I'm not sure is all that healthy. I'd personally say that Mishima, Endo, Oe and Kawabata were all at least as good in thier time. I'm sure there are even more that could be added to that list.

Satan in Goray by Isaac Singer seems to have leapfrogged The Trial somehow. So far, so interesting...

I think there are at least two film versions, but I've not seen any of them.

The reason it's taken so long to get round to The Trial is that this will be a re-read, having got through all of Kafka's stuff about ten years ago. Although this is the first time I've read it since realising how much humour Kafka believed his writing had. Interesting to see if that puts it in a different light.

Just Finished: Wonderful Fool by Shusaku Endo. Kind-hearted French simpleton travels through the seedy, and morally corrupt, side of 1950's Japan, effecting all those he meets. Similar themes to his later novel Silence, and just as brilliant. Challenges Bleak House for my best book of the year. I'll review it in full on my blog later. Next Up: The Trial by Franz Fafka. My contribution to the Penguin Classics review blog.

Just finished: 'Malvinas Requiem' by Rodolfo Fogwill. An interesting, and to Argentinians, important book, as it is set amongst a community of conscript Agentinian deserters during the Falklands War. The back covers comparison to Catch-22 is wide of the mark for my money, as Fogwill simply isn't as good a writer as Heller; but the message of the book is similar.

Just Finished: 'The Old Capital' by Yasunari Kawabata. Precise, delicate, steeped in meaning, not all of which is apparent to the Western eye. Perhaps to the point were the undercurrent of emotions and restrained reactions of the characters could be misinterpreted as being almost clinical. A kind of literary equivalent of a Japanese Tea ceremony I guess. Impressive stuff. Next up: Not totally sure yet, but probably 'garden, ashes' by Danilo Kis.

I have friends in Odessa, so I'll put that on the old Amazon wish list. *remembers drunkenly falling over on Pontemkin steps*

He is? Cooool.

Under construction (but getting there: http://feedingthepigeons.wordpress.com/ Just finished Naive. Super by Erlend Loe. Really liked this book, review to follow...

Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz (translated by Kenneth R. Mackenzie) So begins

'Solaris' is probably the only one of his books you have a chance of purchasing 'off the shelf'. I'm not sure I'd call 'Solaris' an exception. It doesn't have the same humour running through it, but is covering a similar theme to 'The Futurological Congress', the perversion of reality. I've not seen the recent film starring George Clooney, so can't really comment. But we'll have to agree to disagree about Andrei Tarkovski - a director in my opinion who couldn't make a rubbish film if he tried. His version of the Strugatsky Brothers wonderful novel 'Roadside Picnic' - filmed as 'Stalker' - is another example of a sci-fi film at the polar opposite to what is produced in L.A. Regards, K_S

A word of warning about Laxness, I've read a few of his books and they're hard going at times, with events and characters appearing as if from nowhere out of his prose. A lot of this appears to make more sence if you have a bit of a grounding in Icelandic folklaw, so I decided to wait untill I'd got through a few Norse Legend's before attempting 'Independant People'.

Stanislaw Lem

They're mostly reproductions of favourite strips from my childhood. The late 70's, early 80's was a bit of a golden age for British comics, so they're well worth re-visiting. I've also had difficulty motivating myself to read this year, so alot of the books I've been going through have been comfort reads (cricket, Graphic Novels, Wodehouse) in an attempt to 'keep me going'. K_S

Books Purchased in 2007 Janruary: 01 - Calling the Shots - Micheal Vaughan 02 - Spun Out: The Shane Warne Story - Paul Barry 03 - Zimmer Men - Marcus Berkmann 04 - Beyond a Boundary - C.L.R. James February: 05 - Third Man to Fatty's Leg - Steve James March: Zippo! April: 06 - Special Assignments - Boris Akunin 07 - Wisden Almanack 2007 - Various 08 - The Cricketer's Who's Who - Various 09 - Fred: Portrait of a Fast Bowler - John Arlott 10 - When Eve Was Naked - Josef Skvorecky 11 - The Big Ship - Gideon Haigh 12 - The Dream Life of Sukhanov - Olga Grushin May: 13 - Parkinson on Cricket - Micheal Parkinson 14 - Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut 15 - Pelagia and the Black Monk - Boris Akunin 16 - Chronicle in Stone - Ismaile Kadare 17 - Five Plays - Anton Chekov 18 - Four Major Plays - Henrik Ibsen June: 19 - Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 20 - War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy 21 - The Complete Works - William Shakesphere July: 22 - Sketches from a Hunter's Album - Ivan Turgenev 23 - On the Eve - Ivan Turgenev 24 - The Captain's Daughter - Alexsander Puskin 25 - Bleak House - Charles Dickens August: 26 - Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 27 - Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 28 - Nine Fairy Tales - Karel Capek 29 - Ring For Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse 30 - Red Cavalry and Other Stories - Issac Babel 31 - Herman - Lars Saabye Christensen 32 - The Spirt of Prague - Ivan Klima 33 - Wonderful Fool - Shusaku Endo 34 - Novel with Cocaine - M. Ageyev 35 - The Assault - Harry Mulisch 36 - The Silver Dove - Andrey Bely 37 - A Tomb for Boris Davidovich - Danilo Kis 38 - A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens 39 - The Silent Cry - Kenzaburo Oe 40 - Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake 41 - The Good Woman of Setzuan - Bertholt Brecht 42 - The Discovery of Heaven - Harry Mulisch 43 - Garden, Ashes - Danilo Kis 44 - The Sound of the Mountain - Yasunari Kawabata 45 - Pan Tadeusz - Adam Mickiewicz 46 - The Man Without Qualities - Robert Musil September: 47 - Selected Poems - Osip Mandel'shtam 48 - Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett 49 - Satan in Goray - Issac Singer 50 - Much Obliged, Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse 51 - The President's Last Love - Andrey Kurkov 52 - Agamemnon's Daughter - Ismaile Kadare 53 - The Procedure - Harry Mulisch 54 - Judge Dredd: complete Case Files V1 - John Wagner/Pat Mills 55 - Judge Dredd: complete Case Files V2 - John Wagner/Pat Mills 56 - Judge Dredd: complete Case Files V3 - John Wagner/Pat Mills 57 - Sin City: That Yellow 'person of dubious parentage' - Frank Miller 58 - St Petersburg - Andrey Biely 59 - Headcrusher - Garros/Evdokimov 60 - A Hero of our Time - M Lermontov 61 - The Samurai - Shusaku Endo 62 - Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse 63 - Guilty - Anna Kaven October: 64 - Futurological Congress - Stanislaw Lem 65 - Strontium Dog V1 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 66 - Strontium Dog V2 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 67 - Strontium Dog V3 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 68 - The Inimitable Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse 69 - The Code of the Woosters - P.G.Wodehouse 70 - Carry On, Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse 71 - The Mating Season - P.G.Wodehouse 72 - Charley's War V2 - Pat Mills 73 - Judge Dredd: complete Case Files V4 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 74 - Judge Dredd: complete Case Files V5 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 75 - Judge Dredd: complete Case Files V6 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 76 - Quicksand - Junichiro Tanizaki 77 - Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to World Fiction - Nik Kalinowski 78 - Naive. Super - Erlend Loe 79 - The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett 80 - Poem of the End - Marina Tsvetaeva 81 - Joy in the Morning - P.G.Wodehouse 82 - My Man Jeeves - P.G.Wodehouse 83 - The Old Capital - Yasunari Kawabata 84 - Charley's War: Vol 3 - Pat Mills (Signed) 85 - Charley's War: Vol 4 - Pat Mills 86 - To Uranina: Selected Poems 1965-1985 - Joseph Brodsky November: 87 - The Abyss and Other Stories - Leonid Andreyev 88 - Malvinas Requiem - Rodolfo Fogwill 89 - The Complete Fictions - Bruno Schulz 90 - The Complete Poems - Anna Akhmatova 91 - Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson 92 - Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files V7 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 93 - Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files V8 - John Wagner/Alan Grant 94 - Three Comrades - Erich Maria Remarque 95 - Scum of the Earth - Arthur Koestler 96 - Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 97 - Letters to Olga: June 1979 to September 1982 - Vaclav Havel December: 98 - The Black Obelisk - Erich Maria Remarque 99 - Imaginary Magnitude - Stanislaw Lem 100 - Journey by Moonlight - Antal Szerb 101 - How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life - John Fahey 102 - Sunflower - Gyula Krudy 103 - Incidences - Daniil Kharms 104 - The Year of the Hare - Arto Paasilinna 105 - In-House Weddings - Bohumil Hrabal 106 - Dawn of the Dumb (Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline) - Charlie Brooker 107 - The Railway - Hamid Ismailov 108 - Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson 109 - The Box Man - Kobo Abe 110 - The Bridge on the River Kwai - Pierre Boulle 111 - The Wine-Dark Sea - Leonardo Sciascia Read book

I've only ever read Gridlock. Worst. Novel. Ever.

Reading List 2007 January: 01 - Summer in Baden-Baden - Leonid Tsypkin - ***** 02 - Moscow 2042 - Vladimir Voinovich - ***** 03 - The Engineer of Human Souls - Josef Skvorecky - ***** 04 - Calling the Shots: My time as England Captain - Michael Vaughan - ***** 05 - Spun Out: The Shane Warne Story - Paul Barry - ***** 06 - Confession of a Murderer - Joseth Roth - ***** 07 - Zimmer Men - Marcus Berkmann - ***** 08 - Beyond A Boundary - C L R James - ***** February: 09 - Third Man to Fatty's Leg - Steve James - - ***** March: Zippo! April: 10 - Parkinson on Cricket - Michael Parkinson - ***** May: 11 - Selected Poems - Marina Tsvetayeva - ***** 12 - Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut - ***** 13 - County Cricketeers Who's Who 2007 - Various - ***** 14 - Chronicle in Stone - Ismail Kadare - ***** 15 - About Love and Other Stories - Anton Chekov - ***** 16 - Four Major Plays: Henrik Ibsen A Doll's House - ***** Ghosts - ***** Hedder Gabler - ***** The Master Builder - ***** 17 - Five Plays: Anton Chekov Ivanov - ***** The Seagull - ***** Uncle Vanya - ***** Three Sisters - ***** The Cherry Orchard - ***** 18 - Wisden Cricket Almanack 2007 - Various - ***** June: 19 - For the Good of the Cause - Alexsander Solzhenitsyn - ***** July: 20 - Pelagia & The Black Monk - Boris Akunin - ***** 21 - Special Assignments: Boris Akunin ____The Jack of Spades - ***** ____The Decorator - ***** August: 22 - Bleak House - Charles Dickens - ***** 23 - The Absolute at Large - Karel Capek - ***** 24 - The Home of the Gentry - Ivan Turgenyev - ***** 25 - Trans-Atlantyk - Witold Gombrowicz - ***** 26 - Love and Garbage - Ivan Klima - ***** 27 - Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - ***** 28 - The Assault - Harry Mulisch - ***** 29 - Herman - Lars Saabye Christensen - ***** 30 - Songs of Innocence and of Experience (illustrated) - William Blake - ***** 31 - The Good Woman of Setzuan - Bertolt Brecht - ***** 32 - A Tomb for Boris Davidovich - Danilo Kis - ***** September: 33 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V2 - John Wagner/Pat Mills - ***** 34 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V3 - John Wagner/Pat Mills - ***** 35 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V1 - John Wagner/Pat Mills - ***** 36 - Sin City: That Yellow 'person of dubious parentage' - Frank Miller - ***** October: 37 - Selected Poems - Osip Mandel'shtam - ***** 38 - Strontium Dog: Agency Files V1 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 39 - Strontium Dog: Agency Files V2 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 40 - Strontium Dog: Agency Files V3 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 41 - Much Obliged, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** 42 - Charley's War V2 - Pat Mills - ***** 43 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V4 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 44 - Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** 45 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V5 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 46 - The Futurological Congress - Stanislaw Lem - ***** 47 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V6 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 48 - Carry On, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** 49 - Charley's War V3 - Pat Mills - ***** 50 - Charley's War V4 - Pat Mills - ***** 51 - The Inimitable Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** 52 - My Man Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** 53 - Pan Tadeusz - Adam Mickiewicz - ***** 54 - Naive. Super - Erlend Loe - ***** November: 55 - The Old Capital - Yasunari Kawabata - ***** 56 - Malvinas Requiem - Rodolfo Fogwill - ***** 57 - Wonderful Fool - Shusaku Endo - ***** 58 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V7 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 59 - Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files V8 - John Wagner/Alan Grant - ***** 60 - Satan in Goray - Isaac Bashevis Singer - ***** December: 61 - Dawn of the Dumb - Charlie Brooker - ***** Ongoing: ?? - The Oxford Shakesphere Complete Works - Edited by Wells & Taylor The Two Gentlemen of Verona - ***** The Taming of the Shrew - ***** Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Titus Andronicus Henry VI Part 1 Richard the Third Venus and Adonis The Rape of Lucree The Comedy of Errors Love's Labour's Lost A Missummer Night's Dream Romeo and Juliet - ***** Richard the Second King John The Merchant of Venice Henry IV Part 1 - ***** The Merry Wives of Winsor Henry IV Part 2 - ***** Much Ado About Nothing Henry V - ***** Julius Ceasar As You Like It - ***** Hamlet Twelfth Night Troilus and Cressida Sonnets and 'A Lover's Complaint' Various Poems Measue for Measure Othello - ***** All's Well That Ends Well Timon of Athens King Lear - ***** MacBeth Antony and Cleopatra - ***** Pericles, Prince of Tyre Coriolanus The Winter's Tale Cymbeline The Tempest Henry VIII The Two Noble Kinsmen ***** - Excellent ***** - Very Good ***** - Good ***** - Average ***** - Poor ***** - Ben Elton

Reading List 2006 January: 01 - The Wine of Youth - John Fante - ***** 02 - The Master of Go - Yasunari Kawabata - ***** 03 - Total Fears - Bohumil Hrabal - ***** 04 - A Doll’s House - Henrik Ibsen - ***** (Poor Translation) 05 - Confessions of Dan Yack - Blaise Cendras - ***** 06 - Being Freddie - Andrew Flintoff - ***** 07 - Under the Glacier - Halldor Laxness - ***** 08 - Three by Perec - Georges Perec - ***** February: 09 - The Successor - Ismail Kadare - ***** March: Zippo! April: 10 - True Grit - Charles Portis - ***** May: 11 - The Dog of the South - Charles Portis - ***** 12 - White & Red - Dorota Maslowska - ***** 13 - Dreamers - Knut Hamsun - ***** 14 - Ideas That Changed the World - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto - ***** 15 - Scenes from the Bathhouse - Mikhail Zoshchenko - ***** 16 - Eats Shoots & Leaves - Lynne Truss - ***** 17 - Soul - Andrey Platonov - ***** 18 - The Helmet of Horror - Victor Pelevin - ***** 19 - A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess - ***** 20 - Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe - ***** 21 - Pelagia & The White Bulldog - Boris Akunin - ***** 22 - Playing for Keeps - Alec Stewart - ***** June: 23 - A Man of the People - Chinua Achebe - ***** 24 - Rough Crossing - Simon Schama - ***** 25 - No Longer At Ease - Chinua Achebe - ***** 26 - South of No North - Charles Bukowski - ***** 27 - The File on H - Ismail Kadare - ***** 28 - The Sickness unto Death - Soren Kierkegaard - ***** 29 - Envy - Yuri Olesha - ***** 30 - War with the Newts - Karel Capek - ***** 31 - The Hunting Gun - Yasushi Inoue - ***** 32 - The Red Laugh - Leonid Andreyev - ***** 33 - Toward the Radical Centre - Karel Capek - ***** 34 - The Party & other Stories - Aton Chekhov - ***** 35 - The Doorman - Reinaldo Arenas - ***** 36 - Henry V - William Shakespere - ***** 37 - The Compromise - Sergei Dovlatov - ***** July: 38 - The Red Commissar - Jaroslav Hasek - ***** August: 39 - The Soccer War - Ryszard Kapuscinski - ***** September: Zippo! October: 40 - One Man's Justice - Akira Yoshimura - ***** 41 - Monumental Propaganda - Vladimir Voinovich - ***** 42 - Corksucker - Dan Fante - ***** 43 - Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata - ***** 44 - The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat - Ryszard Kapuscinski - ***** 45 -The Night In Lisbon - Erich Maria Remarque - ***** 46 - Poems - Anna Akhmatova - ***** 47 - Jeeves in the Offing - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** 48 - Doruntine - Ismail Kadare - ***** 49 - The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett - ***** 50 - The Sea and Poison - Shusaku Endo - ***** 51 - My First Loves - Ivan Klima - ***** 52 - Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit - P.G. Wodehouse - ***** November: 53 - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - ***** 54 - Casino Royale - Ian Fleming - ***** 55 - Should You Be Laughing At This? - Hugleikur Dagsson - ***** 56 - Live and Let Die - Ian Fleming - ***** 57 - Selected Stories - Julian Mclaren-Ross - ***** 58 - General of the Dead Army - Ismail Kadare - ***** 59 - Silence - Shusaku Endo - ***** December: 60 - The ThreePenny Opera - Bertolt Brecht - ***** 61 - Collected Plays Vol 7 part 1 - Bertolt Brecht - ***** 62 - Scandal - Shusaku Endo - ***** ***** - Excellent ***** - Very Good ***** - Good ***** - Average ***** - Poor ***** - Ben Elton

Personally I'd say Kurkov was closer to someone like Voinovich, Pelevin or even Zoshchenko than Bulgakov, but there you go. It helps to know a little about post communist Russia/Ukraine to really get the flavour of what he's up too. Anyway, he has a new novel out at the moment 'The President's Last Love'.