thebookgarden

It's sometimes hard to pigeon hole Barkers writing style, so much is fantasy, dark fantasy and horror. If you are a horror fan, the "books of blood" are a must, a collection of truly spine chilling short stories. Fantasy, as has been already said - Weaveworld - absolutely awesome. Dark Fantasy - The Great and Secret Show is a real epic of this genre All his books are somewhat dark, but one of my favorites has to be "the thief of always" as a great introduction to Barker as it's pretty short compared with many of his others and as the "Great Grey Beast of February" is upon us a very seasonal read.

All these Pratchett recommendation's and not one mention of Strata or The Carpet People! The Carpet People - From the Back Cover Strata -From the Back Cover Neither of these books are discworld books as such, though Strata does introduce the concept of the disc world. I'd also highly recommend the Audio versions of Pratchett's books, often narrated by Tony Robinson, if you're looking for the audio books don't get the abridged versions!

I have caught a few wild books! Though as I bought them amongst small lots of books bought for resale, I have put them up for ransom! I did assuage my guilt at this by registering their wherabouts on book crossing though! Does this make me a bad person?

You could always get amazon to deliver it to your place of work! They're currently advertising the ability to pre-order and get it delivered within the uk on day of publication! Though they won't tell you till you get to the payment confirmation page that you have to pay more for this delivery option, but on the plus side they are offering it at 50% of the RRP at the moment!

Hi Kell, thanks for the welcome! A very good choice there of some hardbacks to put by by for the future. If you can get hold of first editions of them even better (makes note to see if there's a thread about identifying first editions). These may well be a nice little investment. Also, if you are into the aesthetics of bookshelves they can look very nice lined up, though you may need a large bookshelf for Pratchett! Car boot's and Charity shops are very good places to find these for under a fiver, but be wary of the charity shops placing a HP in a glass case and pricing it at £30 and saying it's a first edition, it's more likely the 16th impression of the first edition!

It's been a while since I read a hardback. The last was the John Peel auto/biography which I came across ridiculously cheap, I was waiting for it to be published in paperback, but couldn't resist it at the price I got. It was very heavy and big, not particularly comfortable reading, but looked great on the bookshelf. Otherwise I'd say about 95% of the books I read are paperback, purely down to being a skin-flint! I confess that I haven't read the entire thread, being a newb to the forum and wanting to share my opinion. But I have seen a few mentions of Large Paperbacks, and wonder if there is really a demand for the huge "C" format paperbacks, which are usually the size and weight of a hardback, are they produced instead of a hardback? Otherwise I really see no point to them

Hey Matt, I've been reading a few of PKD's books lately and am enjoying them immensely! The short story collections are very easy for a newcomer to get into. Am looking forward to getting hold of a copy of a biography about his life - I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick by Emmanuel Carrere Synopsis This is an unforgettable biography of the visionary grand master of science fiction, Philip K. Dick. Emmanuel Carrere follows Dick's strange odyssey from his traumatic beginnings in 1928, when his twin sister died in infancy, to his lonely end in 1982, beset by mystical visions of swirling pink light, three-eyed invaders and messages from the Roman Empire. Drawing on interviews and both published and unpublished sources, Carrere traces Dick's multiple marriages, paranoid fantasies and dizzying encounters with the drug culture of California. As disturbing and engrossing as any novel by Philip K. Dick himself, Carrere's unconventional study interweaves life and art to reveal the maddening genius whose writing foresaw - from cloning to reality TV - a world that looks ever more like one of his inventions.

Like This? Birthday: Yup! Every year whether I need one or not! Age:30+ years of being young, with many more to come! Starsign: Pyrex Single/Married/Other? living with the most amazing and lovely woman on the planet! Children? A long story, 1 day I'll maybe write about it! Where do you live? Bristol Do you work? Not as hard as I should! Favourite author? Philip K. Dick (at the moment) Favourite book? Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy (all of them!) How did you get here? I was googling for a book and found this place. Cool!