News Of The World

Like an ever increasing number of people, I don’t buy a daily newspaper. Between the internet, 24 hr news channels and mobile apps, I don’t really have the need to thumb through the same stories in a paper-based format.

Online I tend to gravitate towards the BBC. If I’m on holiday the World Service is pretty essential, though France 24 will do admirably well as an alternative. I use the Sky and CNN mobile apps, the latter being great for international breaking news.

I read The Spectator on my Kindle for some broader commentary, which is also very reasonably priced in its electronic format. I will also flick through The Metro on the bus/train whenever I see it, but then it does have the best cartoons 🙂

 

Elementary

Currently I am reading Gaslight Grimoire, an anthology of speculative tales that depict the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in supernatural and fantasy adventures. Fans of the classic books may not be enamoured with everything here and some of the stories don’t do justice to the depth of the original characters. However, with my tongue slightly in my cheek, I am enjoying this alternative take on a well known series.

 

Weird West

Coincidentally, just as I started reading a new steampunk western novel, I noticed that the steampunk western movie “The Wild Wild West” was showing on TV over the weekend. Will Smith’s film (unlike Tonia Brown’s Railroad series) is unreservedly awful, which is a shame because on paper it has all the right elements to make a good fantasy adventure. Maybe it’s the horrendous dialogue, the cringe worthy attempts at humour or perhaps it’s just that bloody theme tune… the total is worse than the sum of its parts. Not to worry, the channel is easily changed and my Kindle is fully charged.

 

Last Brick Laid

After a lazy weekend spent (mostly) sprawled on the sofa, I’ve now finished “The Bricklayer.”  Apart from a lull in the pace about two thirds of the way through, I enjoyed the book.  The villains of the piece were a little weak, for the most part they remain tucked away in the shadows.  When they do come out from hiding, there isn’t much exploration into who they are and why they’re doing what they’re doing.  Things are wrapped up bit quickly in the final act as well, but not so much that I put the book down feeling as though I wanted my time back.

With this over now, it does leave me having to pick my next book to read.  I’ve got a pile of books waiting to be read, though being on my Kindle this is only a metaphorical pile rather than a physical one.  As a treat I think I will re-read one of my all time favourite sci-fi novels, “Dune” by Frank Herbert.  Every few years I find myself travelling back to Arrakis and I reckon that time has come round again.  Now where did I leave my stillsuit…?

 

Half a Brick

I’m about halfway though “The Bricklayer” now and, so far, I’ve been finding it a very easy book to read.  Being written by an author with genuine FBI experience should give it a degree of authenticity, but the characters are colourful and larger than life so it’s tricky to take the plot with anything other than a fistful of salt.  Having not been in the FBI myself, I suppose I can’t say what is realistic and what isn’t.  The book hasn’t broken any moulds so far, but that’s by no means a bad thing.  It probably suffers from comparisons to other similar thrillers, but life’s short and this is a quick action fix that will lift a grey weekend.

 

Kindling

The year before last I set myself a new year’s resolution to read more and thanks to my Kindle I can certainly say that I’ve done that. I’ve consumed my fair share of cheap rubbish on my e-reader but then I don’t believe that reading always has to be an intellectual exercise. At the moment I’m working my way through the kind of gung-ho thrillers that I’d never watch at the cinema if they were movies. They even take up more of my time in book form. Perhaps I’m just a little more forgiving when I can’t see Chuck Norris and I have to use my imagination.

 

Starting “The Bricklayer” by Noah Boyd