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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Too many books, not enough hours in the day.

Lyra

01:14 / 14.11.03

I've been concentrating on uni related stuff for the past few weeks and my 'to read' shelf is filling up with many many books. My poor brain is going into overload and I can't figure out how to prioritise my fiction reading. So, in no particular order, I can choose between:

The first book in the Darksword Trilogy - Weis & Hickman
Norweigian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Tithe - Holly Black (Dark fairy tale looking fluff)
War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
The Kingdom By The Sea - Paul Theroux
The Sepent Mage - Greg Bear
The Ruby in the Stone - Philip Pullman
Virtual Light - William Gibson
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Dead Air - Iain Banks
Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut
Coming up for Air - George Orwell
The Ebony Tower - John Fowles

I know this will teach me not to go trawling through second hand book shops without due care and attention but I need help. The books are sitting on the shelf staring reproachfully at me. I need to choose. And soon.

Char Aina

04:26 / 14.11.03

if you have never read any of them, go with war of the worlds.
and my friend mike would disagree and tell you to go with norwegian wood.
i would avoid life of pi as long as you can, but only because one person i know loves it, and loves it iin a way that makes me just know its bad.

Jack Vincennes

06:19 / 14.11.03

Looks like a good bit of second hand bookshopping there... even though I've only read one of them (and hence am going to recommend it), there's not much on that list that I don't plan to read at some unspecified point in the future.

It's another vote for Norweigian Wood from here -it's haunting, well written, and odd. Alternatively, when I have too much to read, I usually go with whatever looks easiest first. This has served me well for the past three years, but may be catching up with me now as I find that there is a fairly substantial volume of Chaucer on my bookshelves, which is going to have to be read once all the less difficult stuff is gone...

The Strobe

08:34 / 14.11.03

Another vote for War of the Worlds. You can rip through it, it's marvellous, and informs most of the sci-fi you'll have read written after it. It's a wonderful, wonderful book.

Norwegian Wood is pretty good, too.

I'd avoid Dead Air. It's pretty terrible... certainly hasn't been viewed favourably by most people I know.

rizla mission

19:52 / 14.11.03

Man, I've got, like, five times that many books in the unread pile..

My vote though would be for Timequake. Predictably.

Whisky Priestess

21:01 / 14.11.03

Timequake's Ok but for me it's a rather meuh example of Vonnegut's work - not his funniest, not his finest, just his.

Ebony Tower is pseudoacademic and quite interesting structurally so you'll feel like you're sort of working while you read it (if your conscience needs that sop)

Coming up for Air on the other hand is very well written and interesting stuff - and people will be impressed that you've read an Orwell that isn't 1984.

Virtual Light, in comparison to all the above, is pure fluffy trash tinsel, so read it if you really want to switch gears and get the brain out of academic mode.

Mourne Kransky

11:02 / 15.11.03

With such a welter of choice, you can pick one up, try Chapter one, then just put it down for later and move on. Life of Pi is really good but you need to find the book that catches your mood at the time, I guess. I'm in the same boat because I'm stockpiling books to take on holiday with me and trying hard to avoid reading them before then. I've read several Chapter ones recently and then went no further.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:17 / 15.11.03

Go with the Gibson. Fluffy trash tinsel it is indeed, but it's beautifully written fluffy trash tinsel. It kind of marks the point where his prose started to match his ideas in terms of quality. Laconic yet poetic- I'm wondering if this was when he first started reading Iain Sinclair?

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