Week Thirteen: American Gods

Since I had finished the disturbingly bad book so quickly, I had more time to read something longer and something much MUCH better.

Definitely a good read and recommended, even though it's a bit hard to follow as reality bends and twists to encompass ideas over plot, and metamorphosis over reality.

Full of heavy imagery and occasionally challenging to get through, the shocks and sudden lurches in plot, violence and character all work. It feels like 5 books in one, a journey, a mystery, a scam, a legend and a memoir all within the realm of fiction, fantasy and excellent writing.

Worth the effort. Been on my list, started twice before and never got round to getting past the first 100 pages, glad I did finally.

Week Twelve: Something is Rotten

Nope. I've written post-it notes better than this. As much as it pains me to make the obvious joke, The Rotten Something ... is this book. Two nights of my (reading) life I won't get back.

I feel really bad sometimes, especially when I criticise other writers work, because it makes me think that mine must have similar issues or tonal problems and I just can't see them. Like these two authors, who openly pose as a fictional author of a work of fiction, which contains another, worse, work of fiction within it. I get the idea, a play within a play, a book within a book, so much Hamlet!

Every character spouts exposition in long dialogues, there's a weird fascination with baths and showers, and hair. The story is ridiculous and the characters with less depth than cardboard cut outs.

Two good things, if this can published surely anything can? And it was short, mercifully so.
 

Week Eleven: Modern Romance

Another winner, easy to read and mostly digestible without leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Most 'relationship' books fall into one of three categories: Funny (and can't be taken seriously), Academic (and dry and divorced from actuality) or opinionated claptrap selling a franchise of ideas as a silver bullet once you accept the authors patented approach to it all.

Modern Romance is the only one (I've read) I can recall that is both of the first two in that list but with none of the third.

Funny and erudite, it does a lot to fill in the gaps on human behaviour while backing it up statistically and anecdotally with real world examples. Mostly drawn from his time on the road talking to the wider, younger public (who go to his shows, so that demographic anyway).

Another highly recommended read.

Week Ten: The Buried Giant

A book full of symbolism, allegory and recollection. So it's not an easy read, even if you're just trying to follow the plot. It whips back and forward ever so slowly, but each transition is jarring and yet gentle.

A book of contradictions, beautiful language and plot delivered inside dialogue. Often Ishiguro will recall conversations between people and events, so you jump to a new chapter and there are people and things that were not there before, then a character will recount how that happened. Occasionally hard to follow, worth the effort though.

Never really sure where it would end up, who was important and who was not, and what it all meant. Until the Buried Giant is revealed and the Ferryman remains unpaid.

Week Nine: MegaTokyo Vol 01 to 03 Datapack

Weirdly a long hard read even though it was originally an episodic web comic.

I used to really enjoy reading this online, but in a collected volume like this it really suffers, OR, it was bad and seeing it all in one go highlighted that?

Hard to know, starts well but seems to lose it's way with plotting, character and the underlying themes somewhere after the 3rd year or more.

I've had this for ages and struggled to finish it and it's close to 400 pages of pure storyline before all the special features kick in.

Unless you're a fan or ... well only if you're a fan I think.