Bookmemething

[zotz]

1. Total number of books owned?

No idea. Too many. Enough to fill several sets of shelves.

2. The last book I bought?

All fun and games until somebody loses an eye, by Christopher Brookmyre.

3. The last book I read?

Billie Morgan, by Joolz Denby.

1. With pictures?

100 Suns. Actually, though, that's all pictures, pretty much. Currently 15 quid from Transreal.

2. Nonfiction?

100 Suns, I guess.

4. 5 books that mean a lot to me?

The book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
If this is a man - Primo Levi
My friend Mr Leakey - JBS Haldane
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Dan Dennett
Scenes from the lives of the great socialists - Martin Rowson and Kevin Killane

5. 5 folks I'd like to see answer this meme (assuming they haven't already)?

Errr . . . well, anybody who wants to, really. No pressure.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

Scenes from the lives of the great socialists - Martin Rowson and Kevin Killane

I've not heard of this -- sounds interesting. Care to say a little more about it?

[zotz]

Sure.

It's a book of Martin Rowson's cartoons from the New Statesman in the eighties. Kevin Killane added a short commentary on each one (sometimes serious, sometimes not) at the back. Many of the cartoons are based on truly dreadful puns. This is what the cover looks like - you should be able to identify Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Trotsky and Guevara there. They all feature heavily inside.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Ah... thanks for that. (To my shame, I'd not recognise Engels except for by a process of elimination).

[zotz]

He's not as distinctive, is he? He doesn't get as many good lines in the cartoons either.

[steer.livejournal.com]

And only he and Guevara don't get an "ism" to their name.

[zotz]

He didn't get a romantic biopic made about him either, poor lad.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

How's the new Chris Brookmyre? I was being tempted in Borders the other day.

Was it George Bernard Shaw who gets wallpapered over? I always forget...

[zotz]

Was it George Bernard Shaw who gets wallpapered over?

By William Morris, yes.

The Brookmyre's good, so far, but I'm not spedning a great deal of time reading at the mo, so I'm not far into it.

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

What did you make of the Joolz novel? I found the first two highly enjoyable.

[zotz]

Great. I'm going to have to chase up the first two myself now.

[bighairydave]

The book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

What a great choice!
Have you read the books of the Long Sun and Short Sun? I thought the latter was one of the most wonderful things I have ever read, and have been trying to force it on others. Some seem to balk on the fact that they need nine prequels for context, but it's their loss.

[zotz]

I have, but only once. I have to find time to reread them.

A friend of mine read Short Sun and said it was one of the best things he'd ever read, and as he's a degree in English Lit I assume he's read some terrific stuff in his time. And this after saying a few years previously that he thought Citadel of the Autarch could safely not have been written as it didn't advance things.

Oh yes. Fine stuff.