Reading, listening, watching...

As you know that I have some time to spare throughout my day here is an update and reviews of the things that have helped me fill some of it...


Currently reading or finished recently:


(Read) This I believe by Carlos Fuentes (Essays): This is a collections of essays in various different subjects. He uses the alphabet and has an entry for each letter and his thoughts about it. I really love his writing and truly wish I had read this particular book in Spanish. Carlos Fuentes is a Mexican national treasure. I can only recommend him so highly and enjoy his books. They are a very good insight to Mexican life and culture and to the culture clash between Mexico and the USA (some of them). I would recommend The crystal frontier, The years with Laura Diaz and Old Gringo.

(Read) Archangel by Robert Harris (Fiction): This is a fantastic book that restored my faith in him. Fatherland was priceless and gripping, everything that Enigma wasn't. Archangel was read recently when I was mainly reading historical novels or historical/research books. I might not sound like the kind of person that indulges in this, but it is a damn good read. The pace of it and all those things I didn't really know about Stalin (will read more about him now). The best thing was the ending. Though it was obvious, the beautiful touch of stopping right there and then. You know what is going to happen... and then the screen goes black and the credits roll, if it were a movie, of course.

(Read) The dark tower (VI) by Stephen King (Fantasy): I have read all the previous one and I think I enjoyed as far as number V. The new one makes, in my own opinion, too many references to Tolkien. He mentions a few times about this being an epic so much so that I was put off by the pushyness of it all. I will read the last book of it, just like I watched the second Star Wars trilogy. Hoping that it can redeem itself and go back to the good thing that it was and it could be.

(Read) Broken Angels by Richard Morgan (Sci-fi): This is the second of a now trilogy (Altered carbon, Broken Angels and Woken furies). The first book is fantastic and it made me think, whilst reading it, that this could have been the new Bladerunner. The second book is brilliant but it is a slower read to begin with. Too much back history trying to explain things that are not relevant to the story, though they might build a better picture of that time and events, possibly for a long series. It is a good book and it is fast paced when it takes off the ground. Some brilliant concepts and spot on descriptions.

(Reading) Dead air by Iain Banks (Fiction): I have only just started this but it is shaping up. It reads OK but like most Iain Banks' fans I think that it is now trying to be controversial to keep up with himself rather than the story just developing in such way. The Wasp factory was as fantastic as it was twisted and gripping. That story was trying to break through throughout the whole book. Sadly most of his other books that I've read (of the fiction, not the Sci-fi ones) it feels that he is pushing a square peg of controversy in to the round hole of a lame story. To my opinion his best book by a mile is The Crow road which I would highly recommend every time.

Currently listening:

Many things, mainly podcasts and old albums.

Podcasts:

Ricky Gervais of course, but I am afraid I over played them and the laughter begun to run dry. I am taking a break from them at the moment, but they are brilliant. Three more to come in between now and the end of the year.

Adam and Joe. I am surprised at how few people remember them or now of them in the UK. They are very funny and they are all quite brief.

The Pub Landlord, Al Murray. This are mainly taken from a show he is doing on Virgin radio. He is brilliant at the simplicity of his humour and I've been cracking up all week listening to them. They have a meat raffle and people calling in to tell them about drunken injuries or their Sunday lunch food.

Music:

Mainly albums that I have bought over the years and not play often enough. Nick Cave and the bad seeds, Pink Floyd's back catalogue, Radiohead, Muse, Lee 'Scratch' Perry's Arkology and some Beethoven.

Watching:

Neighbours the ill fated and boring Australian soap opera that pretends to have one foot on reality.

Lead Balloon with Jack Dee. A sitcom that he has written that so far has left me hoping for more. He has apparently been signed and is currently writing a second series. Hopefully they will get rid of the american bloke that makes me angry and of the token 'awkward' character that runs the cafe.

Spooks. MI5 series from the BBC that has actually disappointed me. The previous four series were good over all and with a bit of an edge. Now they seem to have jumped in to the innuendo writing and shit acting bandwagon. One of the big mistakes? The leader of the unit shags the babysitter and tells her he is a spy because she threatens to call social services because he doesn't spend enough time with his kid. For fuck's sake.

And finally... That Mitchell and Webb look. A brilliant sketch show. Here is one of the highlights for you to enjoy too...