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defrog
Because you can’t have too many book reports on teh Internets. I’d do a book wall like puffdoggydaddy if I knew how.JUST FINISHED
Sin-a-rama: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties, edited by Brittany A. Daley, Hedi El Kholti, Earl Kemp, Miriam Linna, Adam Parfrey
Enjoyable exploration of the softcore porn book publishing business of the 1960s, which is interesting to me for a few reasons: (1) the great cover art, (2) the fact that one of my all-time favorite novelists, Lawrence Block (who, oddly, is collaborating with Wong Kar-wei these days), used to write them for a living (though I’ve never read any of them) and (3) the fact that the modern legal definition of obscenity in the US (the famous Miller test) stems from a case involving these types of books. Which is why we can write sex scenes with naughty words now. Anyway, the book is mostly a collection of cover art, so some more history or anecdotes or book excerpts would have been nice, but it’s still a great book for anyone interested in pulps and/or retro porn, though be advised that by modern standards, 60s sex novels are so tame, it’s amazing to think people really went to jail for writing, publishing and/or selling them. One thing of note: Lydia Lunch is listed as a contributor, but I didn’t see anything inside with her name on it. Just so you know.
JUST STARTED
Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Further Tales Of The Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson
Because it’s been years since I read RA Wilson, and I need to top up my paranoia – it’s an election year, after all.
RECENT TITLES
Dead Men’s Boots by Mike Carey
The third of Carey’s Felix Castor novels featuring exorcism in early 21st-century London. Like the others, a bit needlessly convoluted but still pretty enjoyable, and a great character. I thought this might be the last book, but there’s a fourth one in the works, so I guess Carey wasn’t thinking in terms of trilogies. Which is nice.
Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov
Sequel to the excellent Death And The Penguin that tackles the theme of redemption as Viktor atones for his actions at the end of the first book. He also ends up in Chechnya for some added sociopolitical commentary. I like Kurkov’s dry humor, and I like penguins, and haven’t really been disappointed by any of his books to date – and I’ve now read all of the ones that Vintage has translated to English thus far. Hopefully there’ll be more.
The G-String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee
Part of the female pulp fiction series of reprints, and apart from the 40s slang and the behind-the-scenes life of burlesque, I didn’t get that much out of it. As mysteries go, it’s pretty average. But I learned a lot about burlesque, which was cool.
A Touch Of Death by Charles Williams
A Hard Case Crime reprint of a classic pulp thriller in which a guy in need of money gets a chance to get some by stealing it, and gets in over his head with the femme fatale. The story’s okay, but the best part is watching the guy become unglued by paranoia in the end.
The Lust Lizard Of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
In which a sea beast named Steve causes a small California town to get horny. Great fun. How many times have I told you already to read all of Moore’s books? Not nearly enough, evidently.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
I like trying authors I haven’t read before, and all I knew about Lehane was that one of his books, Mystic River, was made into a movie I didn’t see and didn’t want to. But this one, about a US marshal who goes to said island (home to an asylum for the criminally insane) to help locate an escaped patient sounded worth trying for the $2.00 I paid for it. In short: not impressed. Even the twist ending has been done before.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
Like Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, I didn’t know what to expect apart from what Disney had done with it, and thus got something different, which was good. That said, most of the trip involves scientifically classifying all the fish they see during the trip, and apart from things like finding lost sunken continents and fighting a giant squid, it was pretty boring. Unless you love classifying fish. I think that’ll do for my Verne explorations.
Dead Men’s Boots by Mike Carey
The third of Carey’s Felix Castor novels featuring exorcism in early 21st-century London. Like the others, a bit needlessly convoluted but still pretty enjoyable, and a great character. I thought this might be the last book, but there’s a fourth one in the works, so I guess Carey wasn’t thinking in terms of trilogies. Which is nice.
Penguin Lost by Andrey Kurkov
Sequel to the excellent Death And The Penguin that tackles the theme of redemption as Viktor atones for his actions at the end of the first book. He also ends up in Chechnya for some added sociopolitical commentary. I like Kurkov’s dry humor, and I like penguins, and haven’t really been disappointed by any of his books to date – and I’ve now read all of the ones that Vintage has translated to English thus far. Hopefully there’ll be more.
The G-String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee
Part of the female pulp fiction series of reprints, and apart from the 40s slang and the behind-the-scenes life of burlesque, I didn’t get that much out of it. As mysteries go, it’s pretty average. But I learned a lot about burlesque, which was cool.
A Touch Of Death by Charles Williams
A Hard Case Crime reprint of a classic pulp thriller in which a guy in need of money gets a chance to get some by stealing it, and gets in over his head with the femme fatale. The story’s okay, but the best part is watching the guy become unglued by paranoia in the end.
The Lust Lizard Of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore
In which a sea beast named Steve causes a small California town to get horny. Great fun. How many times have I told you already to read all of Moore’s books? Not nearly enough, evidently.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
I like trying authors I haven’t read before, and all I knew about Lehane was that one of his books, Mystic River, was made into a movie I didn’t see and didn’t want to. But this one, about a US marshal who goes to said island (home to an asylum for the criminally insane) to help locate an escaped patient sounded worth trying for the $2.00 I paid for it. In short: not impressed. Even the twist ending has been done before.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
Like Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, I didn’t know what to expect apart from what Disney had done with it, and thus got something different, which was good. That said, most of the trip involves scientifically classifying all the fish they see during the trip, and apart from things like finding lost sunken continents and fighting a giant squid, it was pretty boring. Unless you love classifying fish. I think that’ll do for my Verne explorations.
Finding Nemo,
This is dF
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no subject
on 2008-01-20 08:31 pm (UTC)At least, now, I know, it wasn't just me.
no subject
on 2008-01-21 03:29 am (UTC)