I read "Cod" a couple years ago. Not only did I really enjoy it, but I've been hinting to my wife ever since that I'd be happy to be her guinea pig if she wants to try any of the recipes. In other news, I am near finishing "Signal to Noise" by Eric Nylund. Very compelling, in a Neuromancer-ish kind of way.
--I am currently reading the back of a lot of bottles. I really enjoy trying to say Bunnahabhain, especially if I've had a few. But in actual book-reading news...reading the second Lynley/Havers Elizabeth George mystery Payment in Blood. And I'm looking for books by Scots or about Scotland, to stick with a sort of theme. Any suggestions?
It's funny you say that as I'm reading "Let It Bleed" by Ian Rankin. He's a Scottish crime fiction (to be precise it's police procedural), but you can't find a better painter of the picture of modern Scottish life. I've read about 10 of his books so far and they are flat out amazing. The earlier works are not as accomplished as some of the later ones, but I recommend them all. Now can I have a hit off of that bottle. Islay, sweet Islay. BTW I'm off to Scotland in a little over a month!
Excellent suggestion, thanks! You can only have some Bunnahabhain if you can pronounce it. Where in Scotland are you going? I've spent most of my too limited time there in and around Edinburgh but it's one of my favorite cities so I really can't complain. I went for the first time right after I'd graduated from high school on a trip with classmates and I dragged about 5 people to the Scotch Whiskey Heritage Museum at around 9:30 in the morning. They explain how it's made and they have this ride in a whiskey barrel through the history of scotch...but the good part is the end where they have the free samples, that none of the other kids I was with wanted. 18 and drunk in a foreign country. Life was good then. If I go to see DC play in 2 weeks, maybe I'll take a little train trip across the border...
Boon - nah - hay - vin from the island of eye-luh. Now dish. I should mention that I'm a Laphroaig man myself. I'm actually going to Ireland and Scotland. I'm gonna be in Galway - Dublin - Edinburgh - Glen Coe. I've only ever been to Glasgow in Scotland so I'm really looking forward to the capital. I've done Ireland before but never Galway, so that should be a treat too. BTW the train trip from London to Scotland is a bit longer than you think. As far as the Ian Rankin, I bet you'll love it. "Black and Blue" and "the Falls" have been two of my faves. You don't have to read them in order, but it's kind of fun to do.
Damn. I mean, you've got yourself a drink! And I don't think I can say Laphroaig!! The shame of it all.... I've never been to Ireland, it's on the list. My very long list. And, yes, of course the train ride is long - I wasn't thinking. I took the sleeper train last time I was there and shared a room with a cellist in the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra who put me on the guest list for the next night. But books: yeah, reading them in order might be tricky the early ones seem to be out of print or unavailable or what have you.
For all you folks with kids who read, my 11 year old is about 200 pages into The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke, and says it's the best thing he's read since the last Harry Potter book.
Acutally Minotaur Press (it's a St. Martins imprint) has them all in print now as mass market paperbacks. The printing quality really sux, but they're all out there for about $6-7 a pop.
Sorta simultaneously reading Tad Williams' "Stone of Farewell" (book 2 of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn) and Michael Crichton's "Timeline."
I actually know very little about Scotland, but... Well, if you're in the game for fiction, I'd recommend Irvine Welsh. The short fiction in The Acid House might be a good place to start, and of course, Trainspotting. And if you want to read a novel told from the mind of a real drunken yob, there's How Late it Was, How Late, by James Kalman (or maybe it's Kelman). Canadian writer David McFadden has a good travel book called An Innocent in Scotland that is worth a look (much better than his book about Ireland). And of course, if you want to read about the life of a part-time, second division Scottish footballer, you can't do any better than Des Mckeown's Hold On To Your Day Job.
Re: I actually know very little about Scotland, but... I just read about this book actually. The author looked very forbiddingly German in her picture, but it sounded interesting. Not that I'm, you know, 11. Has anyone read the Philip Pullman books The Golden Compass and so on? I'm curious about those. Never read Wodehouse, which my mom badgers me about. Excellent! Thanks! I have read the David McFadden actually, and a short story or two of Irvine Welsh, but never Trainspotting for some reason. I was revisiting Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson, too. (Nothing wrong with tradition...) I will look for the Kalman book and Des Mckeown.
On the fiction front, I'm reading a lot of short fiction for the creative writing class I'm teaching (Andre Dubus kicks ass) (the deceased Andre Dubus, not his son Andre Dubus III). Just finished Robert Parker's The Widow's Walk. As far as I'm concerned, there's not much better than a Spenser novel. I've been skimming a book called Poets on the Peaks: Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen and Jack Kerouac in the North Cascades, by John Suiter. It rocks. I'm reading Gazza Agonistes by Ian Hamilton. Next up on the fiction list will be Roscoe by William Kennedy.
About The Golden Compass (followed by The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, to complete the His Dark Materials trilogy). These are beautifully written books about and for children. They explore complex themes and are loaded with fantasy and adventure as well. However, they can be quite upsetting (I was reading the second one to my younger son and he asked me to stop because it was too frightening and because some major characters die.) More important, perhaps, is the basic theme. Pullman seriously questions ("attacks" might be a better word) religion. I never finished reading the series (because my son didn't want to) so I don't know what his final judgement is (for example, was he just attacking the politicization of faith or was he taking a more atheist stance?). I would recommend pre-reading for any parent, if only to prepare for the inevitable questions. Pullman's other books, especially including the Sally Lockhart mysteries, are very high quality stuff and much less controversial.
As I can't limit myself to one book at a time, I now read three. I have categories of what I read and limit myself to one of each. I take one book on religion, one on history and one "other." Current reads and upcoming ones: History: "A Short History of Ned Kelley" an in depth look at the notorious Australian outlaw. Religion: I'm just finishing up "Conversations with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I" the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. After than I'm starting a book on Shinto. Other: Finished Gita Mehta's "Karma Cola" last night. A book about how when east and west meet religiously it often turns into marketing. Pretty interesting book. I'm starting "Ambience: 20th century music from Mahler to Moby" The title of that one is pretty self explanatory.
Just started 'Singer from the Sea' by Sheri S. Tepper. Every year or two, she cranks out another beautifully written, complicated novel about love, sex and death, although they typically get consigned the genre ghetto that is science fiction and fantasy. The first of her's that I read was 'Beauty' in which Sleeping Beauty time travels to present day Chicago and a nightmare future about 3 centuries from now, deals with the Black Death, gives birth to Cinderella, gets caught up in the lethal politics of the land of the faerie, and saves her grandaughter, Snow White, from the evil witch. I would highly recommend any of her books.
I just started reading "Return of the King". and just finished Two Towers. getting ready for the movies.
"Memoirs of Service Afloat during the War Between the States" by Raphael Semmes. Fascinating stuff from the radical southern perspective, written right after the war. Definately a different angle.
Semmes spends alot of his time defending himself against accusations of piracy, which can get tedious; but the interesting bits to me are his rather detailed opinions and descriptions of the USA as a corrupt, bankrupt nation. He sounds quite a bit like our current detractors in the Middle East, in fact. The book is, as far as I know, still in print, from the Louisiana State University Press.
--So I've spent the last 2 weeks locked inside my apartment studying, so of course I have instead been reading everything under the sun except actual study materials. Started Ian Rankin. Very gritty, very dour, very bleak and therefore so very, very Scottish! I am loving it. Picked up "A Short History of Ned Kelley" roughly 50 million times at the bookstore and keep putting it down. Should I pick it up and keep walking with it towards the registers? Also: now that I am officially going to London D) I'm directing my reading in that direction. Any suggestions? You guys often rock at that. Thanks!
Yes, get it. I like what I've read so far. I'm a huge Midnight Oil fan and they have a song referencing Ned Kelley, that's how I got interested in him.
--Still plowing through Jane Austen. Not that I don't like it, it's just my read-if-I-don't-have-lunch-plans book. --Also reading Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave because somehow I missed it at 13. --Also still reading Ian Rankin and Elizabeth George mysteries. Both are so good, I am really enjoying them. --I think I'll finally get around to picking up Blind Justice (who here recommended it?) and the Ned Kelley book to read on the plane.
I just picked up "Singing Archaelogy" a book about the Philip Glass opera "Akhnaten," which is based on the historical figure.