Books - What are you reading?

Some real cinematic potential in those books.

Yeah I read them recently, very good.

Currently reading Chickenhawk, about a Huey pilot in Vietnam. Very interesting and well written.

lol yeah, I reckon you could get at least 3 decent films out of them in the hands of the right director

Does anyone want the Southern Reach Trilogy for the cost of postage?

Enjoyed first, second was dire, third was enjoyable, like the chapter approach. Still not 100% sure what happened at the end...

I’m interested in finding out more about the history of the enclosure of common land in the UK. Hs anyone read a decent book on this topic that they’d recommend?

A couple I am aware of but haven't read

Guy Shrubsole - Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Green and Pleasant Land, and How to Take It Back

Andy Wightman - The Poor Had No Lawyers (on enclosure in Scotland)

reading this at the moment, includes quite a bit of history on enclosure. It's good. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/10/the-book-of-trespass-by-nick-hayes-review-a-trespassers-radical-manifesto

I've read the Shrubsole book, it doesn't really cover the enclosures in any detail, but it's pretty interesting. Thanks for the Wightman book tip, that looks right up my street.

Thanks. That looks a good addition to the list.

I'd get stuck into the LRB archive as a rough map. It's exactly the sort of area where academic praxis meets lefty dogma.

Not sure if any of the links at the bottom of this page are any good for you (Diggers/Levellers):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers

You might find Tom Johnson's "Law in Common: Legal Cultures in Late-Medieval England" interesting as context. It's a more general book on how the English commoners and peasantry engaged with the legal system and how aware they were of their rights (the answers are "vigorously" and "a lot"). Mentions in passing the Great Rumour of 1377, when a large number of serfs went on strike and and to court, to argue that the Domesday Book proved that they didn't have to offer feudal service to their lords. It's mostly about 15th century England, so predating the period you're interested in by three centuries, but there's a whole chapter on land/forestry rights and how attempts at enclosure had been a growing struggle between commoners and the nobility since the 13th century.

It's mostly interesting for a picture of how assertively ordinary people pursued their rights (which most people today seem to assume wasn't an option for their distant ancestors) , and also how the legal system of the time prioritised the de-escalation of disputes and attempts to bring both parties to a peaceful accomodation. But that's also an account of a system of rights and balances that was being comprehensively destroyed in the 18th century.

Boy's life by Robert McCammon.

Best description of a bike's relationship with its rider akin to the Third Policeman.

Read his book Swan Song which parallels King's The Stand.

This is better

Anyone else finding The Count of Monte Cristo a bit of a slog?
Seemingly endless descriptions of etiquette, not enough plot driving going on for my taste. I’m halfway through though, so, fight on…

Like a lot of authors at the time, his books were serialised in magazines. It tended to create a "paid by the word" approach in writers and he's particularly prone to embellishment of both descriptions and dialogue.

What was he like?

What? You want me to tell you what he was like?

I think I've been asking for the last hour!

Then I will tell you what he was like.

And so on. You just have to adjust. Some modern authors deliberately recreate that style in some of their books; if I like the author and the stories, I'll adjust. In the case of Patrick O'Brien, his Aubrey/Maturin books - recreating a slightly different style - just made me want to dig up his corpse so I could brain him with a hardback copy.

Hah, thanks!

Just wanted to drop back in to let you all know we've had some excellent news (and this seems like the most appropriate place to share it) - we won our region in the longlist of the Best Indie Bookshop at the British Book Awards this year!
Next step is the proper awards shindig in London in May - so at the very least we've got ourselves a nice dinner out of it!

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Congratulations!

Nice work!

Great stuff! Always nice popping in, albeit very infrequently!

Finished the lord of the rings, re-read the Hobbit (didn’t remember half of it from when I last read it as a kid), now am 2/3rds of the way through Neuromancer. Never read any William Gibson before, not sure why tbh. Pretty good so far, let’s see if he sticks the landing. Got the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy arriving in the post today, love a bit of Moorcock (lol).

Have already read more books this year than the whole of last year. Just leaning in to my love of sci-fi and fantasy and not trying to con myself that I any longer have the attention span to get through any proper literary fiction, seems to be paying dividends in actually enjoying having my face in a book again.

On that note, if anyone has any recommendations for proper sci fi blockbusters and fantasy novels that aren’t part of a 500 book series then I’m all ears. I’m contemplating Hyperion next.

Dune - the first book is superb, don't bother with the sequels

Any of the Iain M Banks Culture books work as standalone novels. Try Consider Phlebas or Use of Weapons first. Against a Dark Background is also a favourite of mine, which ia a standalone book not in the Culture universe.

Read Robert McCammon' Swan Song.

https://www.robertmccammon.com/novels/swan_song.html

Similar to King's The Stand, better imo.

Now reading another McCammon, Boy's Life. A wonderfully gothic magical tale from the pov of a young boy growing up in The Southern US

Agree Dune 1 is the best however the consequences of the battles and victories described in the 1st book play out in book 2 as a very relevent Metaphor of today's bonkers world.

Sci-fi and fantasy recs:

I really enjoyed Hyperion! Raced through the entire series, actually. I liked the literary references throughout and found the world-building and characterisation really well-formed.

Roadside Picnic - been mentioned in this thread recently, quite literary sci-fi (by which I mean the prose feels considered rather than functional, must have been a good translator!) - love the premise and the ambience created.

Iain M Banks - I just fucking love the culture novels so much. Granted, there are lots of them (which is a good thing!) but they're pretty much all self-contained, discrete works, just set in the same world. Proper 'space operas', the world building is insane, and the books properly rattle along like thrillers. The advice seems to be mixed on whether there's much value reading in order - if you just wanted to dip your toe in to see if you liked it, my favourites are Player of Games, Excesion and Use of Weapons.

Asimov's foundation series is also amazing, much better than the rather confusing tv series is spawned on Apple recently. It was my gateway into sci-fi; so approachable, really good fun and some nice philosophy woven in too.

Fantasy - The Name of the Wind is unbelievably good, but the kicker is that it's a purported trilogy for which we've been waiting ~10 years+ for the final installment. Still, the first two books are incredible as they are and I still recommend them to people even with the likelihood of ever receiving the final instalment seemingly in the balance.

Empire of the Vampire - new-ish series by Jay Kristoff, it's very gothic, you're sort of in the world of Victorian horror but with a bit more magic. The construct is that you're hearing this story retold to a 'biographer' which gives some interesting layers to the story, but it's well-written and a great fucking romp with vampires and magical 'silversaints'. Not proper literary fiction by any stretch, but a cut above most generic fantasy stuff and massively enjoyable. Proper holiday read. Or something to smash on a commute.

Broken Earth trilogy - actually quite beautifully written, the social commentary is thinly veiled but doesn't detract from the story being told and I thought it was a really interesting and nuanced take on the genre.

Oh God I could go on...