Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

nil

enjoy that one. it's probably one of the most awful books i've ever read (and i mean that in the best sense of the word.)

i'll have to go with "head injuries" by conrad williams.

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

Hmmm...Here's a partial list of the ones I remember off the top of my head...

Horrorish:
TAROVFAOGT, Purity, The Town Manager, and Across the Border: More Tales of Corporate Horror - TL
Alone with the Horrors - Ramsey Cambell (Not quite finished yet)
Divinations of the Deep - Matt Cardin
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
The Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Stories - HPL (there were a few of these I hadn't read before)

Other:
The Crying of Lot 49 - Thomas Pynchon
A Man Without a Country - Kurt Vonnegut
Mirrorshades (Cyberpunk Anthology) - ed. Bruce Sterling
The Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Snow - Orhan Pamuk
Prime - Poppy Z Brite

Re-Read:
A bunch of TL and HPL
Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

I've read quite a lot this year (once again...), here's what I remember most vividly:

- L.P. HARTLEY – “The Collected Macabre Stories” (great, with some stories tickling the best)
- Robert AICKMAN – “The Model” (very enjoyable, and quite different from his short stories) – “The Attempted Rescue” (I'm not really into biographies, but this one makes me want to find the second part “The River Runs Uphill”) - and re-read some shorts (I can't help it: I need my fix!)
- William SANSOM – “Various Temptations” (Mixed feelings about this one, some stories are really fine, some bored me to death...)
- Arthur MACHEN – “Tales of Horror and the Supernatural” (enough said, some were actually re-reads)
- Rhys HUGHES – “A New Universal History of Infamy” (re-read the original by BORGES at the same time, one chapter of each alternatively, and Hughes stories didn’t suffer from the comparison, yes, it’s that good IMHO!) – “Worming The Harpy” (deliciously funny, but I enjoyed it a bit less than his other, more recent books)
- Reggie OLIVER – “The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler” (great, as his first collection)
- Quentin S. CRISP – “Rule Dementia!” (and yes, it rules!)
- Elizabeth Jane HOWARD – “Three Miles Up” (very nice read)
- Peter CANNON – “Forever Azathoth” (not at all up to my expectations…)

Re-reads :
- Walter de la MARE – “A Première Vue” (don’t know the original title of this novella, it’s about a young man who cannot raise his eyes, so only sees the “lower half” of the World. Brilliant)
- Most of Jorge Luis BORGES short story collections (enough said)
- TL – IAFTIAFL – TAROVFAOGT – “Sideshow and Other Stories” (no need to comment on these either…)
- Jan POTOCKI – “Le Manuscript Trouvé à Saragosse” (I had to re-read it some day, a thread on TLO made me do it : thanks Slawek !)
- Mark SAMUELS – “The White Hands and Other Stories” (you have to read this book if you haven’t already!)
- Michel HOUELLEBEQ – “HP Lovecraft : Contre la Vie, Contre le Monde” (already discussed here)
- JRR TOLKIEN – “The Lord of the Rings” – “The Silmarillion” (yes, I know…)

Currently reading…
Ramsey CAMPBELL – Alone With The Horrors (not very original when I read the previous posts, but thanks to Matt for providing me with this one!)

I almost picked up that one the other day. Blood Meridian was really good...harsh, brutal stuff. Now reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

Ender's Game: Great choice. Hope you don't know the "ending."

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

Okay, I'm a bit late with this and I've forgotten half the stuff I read now but never mind.

Killing Floor by Lee Child. First of Child's Jack Reacher thrillers about an ex-military policeman who keeps getting into trouble. Looking forward to reading more.

Havana by Stephen Hunter. Most recent of Hunter's Swagger series with Earl Swagger dispatched to fifties Havana to carry out a political assassination.

Sacred by Dennis Lehane. One of his Kenzie and Genarro private eye series. Fun but not as good as I'd been led to believe.

Comics:
Ultimates: Gods and Monsters. Mark Millar's 21st century re-invention of The Avengers. Blockbuster superheroics and political satire graced with Bryan Hitch's beautiful artwork.

The Punisher: In The Beginning. The first of Garth Ennis's Punisher stories on the Max imprint. Cold and vicious. Great fun if that's your kind of thing.

The Punisher: Mother Russia. More OTT and soft-centred than ITB but but great fun if that's your kind of thing.

Disappointments:
Prince of Deadly Weapons by Boston Teran. Stripped down prose marred by pompous philosophising. Like James Ellroy writing fortune cookies.

Zero Option by Chris Ryan. Non-thrilling thriller by ex-SAS soldier.

Last Man Standing by David Baldacci. Decent thriller buried beneath bloated page count, dull action scenes and paper-thin characterisation.

Re-reads:
Promethea. Alan Moore's mystical superheroine. Tantra, tarot and kabbalistic road trips abound.

Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter. The first of Hunter's Swagger series featuring Earl's son, Bob, a former Nam sniper who gets caught up in a high level conspiracy.

Rational Mysticism by John Horgan. Brilliant overview of modern day mysticism featuring interviews with scientists, philosophers, theologians, mystics etc including Huston Smith, Ken Wilber, Terrence McKenna, Stan Grof and Michael Persinger. Reads a bit like a real-life Borges story.

Various Alan Moore interviews.

Preacher. Garth Ennis's modern day Western/road trip. Throw in angels, demons, vampires, pre- da Vinci Code religious conspiracies and the shade of John Wayne and mix well. Flawed but fun.

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

I've certainly read some great graphic novels in past years, but none at all for a while. Alan Moore's Watchmen -- great. Frank Miller: Oh, that's right, I did reread some of the series since the movie came out last year!

I continue to love the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. Couldn't get into the Chandler stuff Tom likes cuz I figured it would take too long and there's too much else. But it was good writing. After Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder, then T. McGee, I've got all the detectives I need.

I can't reiterate enough a 2005 read: Company, by Sam Beckett. It's a short prose paperback. 1980. Highly recommended. You wouldn't believe how spare and beautiful the language we have can get.

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

SwansSoilMe/SwansSaveMe, mentioning Chandler just reminded me I read The Big Sleep at the end of last year. (Actually, I've still got 30 pages to go. I got waylaid before reaching the end and still haven't got around to finishing it.) As you say Chandler's a good writer but I had two main problesm with the book. One, I kept thinking of the Bogart film. Two, so many people have ripped Chandler off over the years that the novel felt derivative. Although intellectually I knew that Chandler got there first with most of the PI cliches I kept responding to the novel as though he was the plagiarist. :?

Re: Best Reads of 2005!
 

Swans and Stu, although I am a crime fiction enthusiast, I must confess that I am a Raymond Chandler failure. Eloquent prose. Agreed. Elegant imagery. Agreed. But story? I tried, and gave up. I hope I'm to blame by trying to read the wrong thing at the wrong time. However, Mr. Chandler's drunken foray into Hollywood did give us his collaboration with Billy Wilder on the screenplay for Double Indemnity, the best film noir ever made.

Perhaps if I do a Chandler, Lumley, Chandler, Lumley alternation, I can get through some of this stuff I've paid so much money for over the years....