Today Kelley brought home the best haul from the library in an age. I’m itching to get stuck into this pile of reading:
- Human Chain, Seamus Heaney (I can’t remember the last time I read some good poetry.)
- A Taste For Death, Peter O’Donnell (Why is it so hard to find the Modesty Blaise books? I want to own these, but the only place I could find it was the library.)
- On Writing, Stephen King (I don’t normally read this kind of thing but I’ve heard such good things about it I think it’s time to gracefully give in.)
- The World of Trees, Hugh Johnson (Ooh, big luscious pictures of trees.)
- The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years, Sonia Shah (Because, y’know, disease is interesting.)
Also on my TBR pile:
- Woodlands, Oliver Rackham (Just started this: excellent analysis of how woodland works. Also not a library book; I just couldn’t resist it.)
- Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay (Read the sample chapter on Kindle, fell in love, and begged for a free copy from the publisher–it’s on its way. Read something about it here.)
- Queen of Kings, Maria Dahvana Headley (An advance reading copy. Which, again, I begged for–because, hey, monsters, witches, battles, magic, Cleopatra…)
The eagle-eyed among you will see a movie in the spread: Star Trek. After reading poetry, woodland analysis, and all about Plasmodium falciparum, this will, I think, be a nice change of pace. (Here’s my review from opening day).
Anything you’re looking forward to reading?
Nicola Griffith 
You'll love the King – it's one of the best books on the subject I've read. The final part, about his accident recovery, is riveting. It made me flat out love the guy.
I hope you like Aerotropolis. I just reviewed it for Booklist – very interesting thoughts in there and so many lines I flagged to try and put in my review! (Which at less than 200 words couldn't take most of them but still….) It's kind of odd how it's credited to both authors but only one seems to have written it – the other is the origin of the whole idea. Still, intriguing stuff!
Colleen, Kelley loves King. As for Aerotropolis, yes, I found the voice rather odd, “I am Greg Lindsay…” But the idea is great, and so is the writing, so, hey, a little weirdness is okay.
I liked King's “On Writing”. I didn't agree with a couple of his thoughts on the subject, but as a whole it was really good and I review it occasionally when I feel myself slumping through my own writing. It has a sort of revitalizing effect.
Because of this book, I will be getting Strunk & White's “The Elements Of Style” at some point down the line when I've got the money.
Also reading king's 'On writing' at the mo and waiting in the wings is Val McDermids latest. The latter I very much would have preferred to buy as an ebook but when released as a paperback, it remained on kindle at the hardback price. I am not sure why what is obvious to readers isn't to the big publishing houses – neglect ereaders at your peril.
A delight to see that you still use libraries – a huge number of local govt managed and funded libraries in the UK are due to be closed with the rest farmed out, at much lower operational budgets to another managing org. It breaks my heart.
The King book is now the one I give young people when they tell me they want to be a writer. The sections about The Life are the meat of it and he's exceptionally truthful.
Anon, yes, it's awful to watch such beautiful systems being dismantled, even from this distance. And I'm looking forward to Val's latest, too.
Love the Modesty Blaise books. You are right, they are tragically hard to find. Titan Books has been reprinting all the newspaper strips (the news strips came before O'Donnell started writing the novels) for several years now.
Anyway, you can't go wrong here–Modesty is a kick-a** heroine, one of the first, if not the first!
Win, oh yep, I love these books! (I talk about them more here