Into the final quarter of the year, and back under the lockdown thumb. Roddy Doyle was definitely the happy surprise of this month. Though the Westlake book prompted me to start reading his fiction. As always, re-reads are marked with an asterisk (*). But you knew that...
Last Page First by Allan Fotheringham. Several decades’ worth of columns, with a fair amount of recycling involved. Found it more entertaining than the previous Foth book, possibly because some of the columns were more recent than 1981. (1 October)
Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris by Edmund White. What can I say? I find the man’s style (and forthrightness) charming. This one’s more about him (and his friends) than about Paris, but if anything it’s more entertaining than The Flâneur. (3 October)
The Getaway Car by Donald E. Westlake. At Lorna’s recommendation, a collection of non-fiction by a very prolific writer of “detective stories”. Mostly entertaining (and at times funny) but there’s a flintiness at base that I suspect confirms he wouldn’t have been all that nice a person. (6 October)
Two for the Road by Roddy Doyle. To my surprise I laughed while reading this. A lot. Most definitely out loud. A simple idea (that ought not to work, but does), brilliantly executed. (7 October)
Listen Up! by Mark Howard. Canadian recording engineer/producer gossips about equipment and people he has worked with. Very odd. Shallow, not much depth… almost as if it had been dictated rather than written. (8 October)
Nemo: The Roses of Berlin by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Read this out of order, and a lot of the dialogue is in German (fuck off, Moore) so not as enjoyable as it might have been. (8 October)
Get Real by Donald E. Westlake. One of the later Dortmunder novels. At first I wasn’t sure, but even if the satire is a bit clumsy overall it’s funny and very well written (10 October)
Ghost Stories by Walter de la Mare. Took me weeks (months?) to wade through this. Some good tales, but the style isn't for me. (11 October)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Tempest by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Supposedly the last installment of the story, and Moore’s farewell to comics. Increasingly inclined to go up its own ass, I think, and the 3D stuff was painful to try to read. Still a fair amount of nasty, if self-indulgent, fun. (12 October)
The Fledglings by John Harris (or Max Hennessy). Apparently YA fiction about WWI pilots. Picked up on a whim. Not great, and rather dark for YA in 1971. But I’ll keep reading the rest of the series, I think. (14 October)
War Planes of the First World War: Fighters vol. 2 by J. M. Bruce. At long last, the Sopwith Camel! (Also the various peculiar Royal Aircraft Factory designs.) Don’t know why I love this stuff, but I surely do. (15 October)
War Planes of the First World War: Fighters vol. 4 by J. M. Bruce. French fighter design philosophy was very strange, it turns out. (16 October)
War Planes of the First World War Fighters vol. 5 by J. M. Bruce. Very frustrating that this excellent series just stops with this volume. (17 October)
Pioneer Aircraft: 1903-1914 by William Munson. Not really very well organized, but lots of intriguing info. Much more personality-based than any other books in this series. (18 October)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Not sure if Tempest would have made any more sense if I’d read this first. All in all though I like this volume much more than vol. 4. I’m inclined to be unimpressed by a piece of art that only makes sense if you have somebody annotating it, but perhaps Moore just makes me cranky these days. (19 October)
*Monty Python’s Big Red Book by Pythons. A reminder that they weren’t just about TV and movies. Pretty flimsy reminder, but what the hell. Wanted distraction, got same. (20 October)
*The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Vol. 1 by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Re-read just to confirm to myself that the first volumes really were much more accessible… and entertaining. (21 October)
Nemo: Heart of Ice by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Not really sure what the point of this one was. (22 October)
Nemo: River of Ghosts by Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill. Not bad as a wrap-up of the Nemo-Robur family saga. (22 October)
The Hot Rock by Donald E. Westlake. First appearance of Dortmunder, and a comedy of frustration, well done. The ending’s a bit abrupt but I liked it. (23 October)
The Professionals by John Harris. Second pseudo-Biggles novel starring Martin Falconer. Reasonably accurate but somehow never gripping. (24 October)
The Victors by John Harris. Another quick read, with next to no staying power. Seems fairly serious for 1970s YA, but still not very deep. (24 October)
Stranger in the Shogun’s City by Amy Stanley. Fascinating detail about life in 19th-century Japan. Tsuneno does not sound at all likeable, but hats off to Stanley for taking a fairly small amount of source material and spinning it into a most engaging book. (24 October)
*Edo, the City That Became Tokyo by Naitō Akira (ill. Hozumi Kazuo). Re-read in order to enhance my enjoyment of #260, and enjoyed it much more the second time around. Lots of useful information for a fantasy world-builder. (25 October)
Mr. Straight Arrow by Jeremy Treglown. The career of John Hersey… who wrote a lot more than I realized, including novels I knew of but didn’t know were by him. He may not have been an easily knowable person; this book doesn’t tell me much. (27 October)
Down These Strange Streets ed. Gardner Dozois & George R. R. Martin. Fantasy or New Weird short stories. A higher hit-rate than I was expecting (the Harris and Gabaldon pieces were serious disappointments). Maybe even some inspiration here. (29 October)
A Curious History of Sex by Kate Lister. Funny on the surface, but a lot of the history she retails is quite horrific. Men are shits; I’ve thought so for a long time. Will try to remember the amusing bits of this instead of the nasties. (31 October)
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