Lord Napsack

If you are into graphic novels at all then I can really help you. Some of my favourite stories ever are in comics. V For Vendetta by Alan Moore is simply amazing. If you've seen the film then don't worry because the comic is totally different. Watchmen by Alan Moore is also amazing and has often been heralded the Citizen Kane of comics. Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan is possibly my favourite comic series. It's about a world in which all male mammals on Earth have died mysteriously apart from two males: a man called Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand. The story takes place over a few years as he journeys across the world in search of his fiancé. The series looks in depth at what could possibly happen in such a world, focussing upon a multitude of characters and showing how they have coped in a male-less world. Don't think it's misogynistic, as if women can't cope without men: they do. But the dystopia forces some to do things that normal society would not allow. The manga Ikigami also has fairly dystopian trends to it, set in Japan after a government mandate has made it so that a select amount of people are scheduled to die at some point in their lives. This is to attempt to get people to live their lives to the full. People are given death papers 24 hours before they die in order to let them do as they please, to leave a final impression on the world. Every person goes about this a different way, some being peaceful, others not so much. Really good read. On the side of short stories we have one of my favourites: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. The story follows five characters who are made immortal by a rogue supercomputer who wishes to torture them for all eternity after the bombs have dropped. Well written and very chilling, I really recommend giving this a read. For books, well, as previously mentioned A Clockwork Orange and Battle Royale are both amazing, though stick away from the Battle Royale manga. Can't really think of anything else at the moment. Hope you've got a good list now, though

It does seem to be a rare thing. I don't think I've met anyone who has read A Spot of Bother but so many people have read Curious Incident, often being surprised that he wrote more. I do think people didn't notice the name attached to the book, so didn't notice when more of his stuff came out. Also, as I said in the review, I think the time spent between books was too long for some people to remember him. The Red House isn't as laugh-out-loud funny as the others, being a bit more dramatic, but it still had moments where I couldn't help but giggle a bit. Not to be advised when you're on a train, though. People look at you funny.

Read it. Seriously. I've heard a few people struggle through the opening part - though I personally loved it as it really gets you to know Pi - but after that it is so enjoyable. For a plot that is confined to a small area (The boat, not the sea. The sea is huge) a surprising amount happens and it gets very tense at times. Can't wait to see the film version of it when it finally comes out (Oh yeah, they're making a film. *squee*)

Hmm, well, there is some cliché in there, but the four adults and child are not privy to that. The teenagers are slightly, but I can only suppose it is because Haddon is having to write about modern day teenagers. Writing one teenager is hard enough but he has to pull off three. No easy task, I tell you. He seems to pull them off well enough though, by which I mean I swear I knew those people in secondary school and college

The similarity comes purely from the book having a more family dynamic. There are a couple of strands of similarity, but the story as a whole is very different. For some reason I always felt A Spot of Bother needed to focus more on the child, but what I loved about The Red House is that it did just that. It looks into the thoughts of the 8-year old.

Reading through The Song of Achilles at the moment and I was interested to find that despite the language feeling more like the language in a children's/young adult novel, it is incredibly engaging. The simplicity is actually rather effective, and I feel Madeline Miller knew it would help people be able to read her book easier. I've read The Iliad and The Odyssey, as well as a variety of Greek plays, and if she kept to the language style in those poems I feel it may have been too hard to write or even read. The story itself appears to be enough to keep the reader interested, and some flavour is given to the period of time to help the reader understand. I suppose what we have to consider is whether the language suits the book and narrative flow. If the text reads as more modern but it suits the book and style then that's absolutely fine. It's understandable as it allows the book to be read by a wide variety of people.

Alan Wake seemed to be a bit in love with Stephen King, so might want to check out some of his books to see if they have a similar style. Well, not that I've read much Stephen King but I have heard he has a bit of a thing for having authors being main characters. I have 'Salem's Lot sitting here waiting to be read and it appears to be about a writer. I know the collection Four Past Midnight has a novella of his called Secret Window, Secret Garden, which is about an author, so you could check that one out.

It's not a book, but a play. Equus. That... that's really about loving horses. Saw a performance of it earlier this year and it was amazing. As I said, not a book but a horse does seem to get a fair share of the 'action'.

Battle Royale was a really good book. Some errors in the translation, but overall they translated it well. If any of you who read it like it then check out the film version afterwards. It's not entirely accurate, but it does well to put the story into film format. But please, oh please, leave the manga version alone. It's just horrendous. Some of my favourite books have to be Animal Farm by George Orwell. It's short (my copy is 90 pages long) but it is incredibly well told and poignant, too. Probably my favourite book. I also recommend another fairly short book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Hopefully you haven't seen the film as the book seems to be far better if you haven't seen the film. The language is difficult at first, but you grow to it (learning new slang appears to be a focus of the book for the reader). Another incredibly easy book to get in to is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Almost impossible to put down and so engaging. The narrative structure is pretty interesting and helps you get into the book more. Definitely another book to read before watching the film (at least, my friends who saw the film first tell me). The Saga of Darren Shan are also books you should read. Everyone should read them. I'm probably biased as they are dear to my heart and kicked off me reading when I was younger. There are 12 books in the series but getting through them is no great feat. Great story, great characters, really well written. Also, it's good to have a new take on vampires that doesn't seem to completely ruin vampires. If you end up liking them also try out Darren Shan's Demonata Saga, which has a different focus: Demons. This series is nothing on his original saga, but they still tell a good story, with Bec being on of my favourite books. I could keep going, but I don't want to overload you. These books all come from a variety of genres, so if you check them out, along with books already mentioned, you might understand what genre and writing style you prefer

No problem. I've gotten used to this reviewing lark over the last couple of years writing reviews of films and games, so writing a review of a book was actually kind of difficult for me. Thanks for the encouragement If you've never read Haddon's work before then definitely pick up Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as that book is just brilliant on so may levels. Other than these two books and A Spot of Bother his only other work is in children's books. No idea what any of those are like though, but I might end up reading those just to see how he fares as a children's author as his books can have very grown-up themes.

I read this book when I was in Year 7, so I was about 11/12 then. I loved it back then, read it a few years back after reading A Spot Of Bother (also by Mark Haddon and a book I love) and it's still good. Really interesting to see how his narrative techniques have developed over the years, too. As I just mentioned I read A Spot Of Bother which has a completely different feel to it, and I'm currently reading The Red House, which is also very different with an extremely different writing style. Like after reading A Spot Of Bother I'll probably end up reading Curious Incident again. It's just so re-readable...

pontalba, I saw Men in Black III a few weeks back. Can definitely say I enjoyed it, but only to an extent. Did like all the backstory and such, but it didn't strike me as doing anything new. Not that it had to. It was a fan service film. I can say that if people liked the other ones they will enjoy this one. Plus, Josh Brolin was great as Tommy Lee Jones, I thought.