vodkafan

2/3 through At Home now. But have had hardly any time to get on here and talk about books last week or to look at other's book blogs..

I am going to see John Wick 2 next weekend!! It's going to be a brainless action flick I know but I'm not going for the plot.

Hi Kay, five pages in already and I am only just saying hello this year...I can't keep up but I will try and look in more regularly. Olive Kitteridge looked sort of interesting...why did she get under your skin if she was so obnoxious? Will I like it? I owe you one for reading Blue World by Jack Vance...should I read this one in return? or something else?

He wrote lots...about 100 I think, but only about half of those were SF or fantasy

Thanks Bobblybear. I wish you a good one too. The book is At Home. It's about his home but also about what everybody else has done at home throughout history.

Reading me some Bryson at the moment...

Welcome!

Welcome Sazed, glad you are enjoying the UK.

Sure help yourself to any of those. Before or after you have had a P

It doesn't surprise me. Jack Vance has actually always been very popular in Holland and France. His stories must appeal to something in the national psyche!

Hi Hayley, That is very kind of you. I have heard of it but never read it. I will take you up on that. Perhaps I might have something you are after and we can do a swap?

All of those are awesome Chrissy. My own quick thoughts: Book Alien Phrase Evaluator Literal Alchemist Bibliothetical Explorator or any catchy combination of the above.

I have this one Janet! I knew I had read the name Winifred Foley before and then your review explained it: I have it as the Full Hearts And Empty Bellies version. I am reading it in between other things. I haven't got to the part where she goes off to London yet.

The Screaming Staircase sounds great!

Hi fiction, welcome to the forum. What genre is jij zegt het? What does the title translate to in English?

I just finished Night Lamp. It was typical Vance, with lots of flitting about between strange planets, a dash of romance and the parts of a mystery that is resolved near the end. Also at 380 pages, I was grateful that it was not over too soon so I could enjoy it over a few days.

That is very kind of you Chrissy! But I have never seen any Jack Vance books in any charity shop, and I have been looking perhaps 20 years! Why this is I can only speculate. Apart from Space Opera, the only ones I know of are some anthologies of his short stories, which seem to be extremely rare. Jack Vance seems to be a marmite author. People who like him REALLY like him, and those who don't get him don't read past the first few pages. Ah, such is life. But I am happy for myself that his work exists, and it has given me much pleasure and inspired my own efforts to scribble a bit.

This year I am making a big effort to get hold of Jack Vance SF books that I have not yet read. To my surprise there are still a few. I got hold of Ports Of Call and now am half way through Night Lamp. There is another I haven't read called Space Opera . I also have obtained copies of the Demon Princes novels and one of the Cadwell trilogy called Throy I have been after for a long time. ( I have read them all on kindle, but also wanted treebooks for my shelf). Some of the rarer titles on ebay have been and still are crazy prices (Like £300 for an old paperback!) but I have had a bit of luck and managed to fill in all the gaps inexpensively.

Hey yes that is good news

Ayn Rand looks pretty interesting. I might add her books to my wishlist.

Hello Putnam, welcome. Your books sound interesting.

Wow that takes me back. I remember a very young Laurence Fishburne as a punk in the second film I think?

Acculturation. It's a fascinating subject. At one end of the continuum: total integration into the host culture. At the other extreme: alienation, detachment, mental illness. And myriad degrees and shades in between. You have a businesslike and focused TBR Angury! How did The Scarlet Letter read? I have that on my TBR too, I think that would be an excellent read after the Becker Outsiders book.

Hi Angury, I didn't think anybody would be interested in this! Pass me your address I will send you my copy. I found it useful, and it was probably a landmark study at the time, but things that were then regarded as deviant are now considered part of the normal spectrum of human diversity. It is also American-centric. However, all that to the side, the central planks of his theory are pretty sound and it made perfect sense to me. It's another tool of looking at the world that I didn't consider before. It will be useful to me for my characters in my novel, who as time travellers have to disguise their differentness.

Thank you! I will replace my kindle soon and Jasper will be right at the front of the queue.