Magical. Is it good??

'My **** Life So Far' keeps distracting me from Lord Of The Flies :P

I have just finished reading 'How I escaped my certain fate: The life and deaths of a stand-up comedian' by Stewart Lee.  I have to say that I really enjoyed it although I am not a massive Stewart Lee fan.  By his admission, his comedy is elitist in nature and not for everyone.  In this respect, I like lot of what Lee enjoys (The Fall, The Dream Syndicate, Simon Munnery and Daniel Kitson etc) but I just don't find him that funny as a stand-up.  There are also points in the book when he eulogises about other comedians such as Johnny Vegas and David Baddiel who I think are overrated; one part when he defends an incident when Vegas touched up a female punter as part of his routine was a bit unsavoury- an example of viewing every action in the world through a vague comedic camera obscura.  However, as an insight into the world of stand-up I thought it was fantastic.  It reminded me a little of reading 'Bad Vibes' by Luke Haines.  I really really enjoyed this book but cannot stand the music of Luke Haines.  Like Lee, Luke Haines is also an unashamed snob who admits to being bitter at the success of what he perceives to be less talented bands or people although at the height of Brit Pop I never thought a band like The Auteurs stood out from the rest of the dross that was around at the time.  The Auteurs just annoyed me (and amused me) because they seemed to think that they retained some sort of cerebral higher ground that was never backed up by the lyrics.  Anyway, that is only my opinion and nonetheless I enjoyed both books.  I am off to check The Auteurs back catologue to see if indeed I was right or wrong all that time ago. 

just finished Animal Farm... phew.

Borrowed this off a guy at work:



*tries to choose between all the obvious jokes*

*falls into coma*

Anyway, I'm only one chapter in but this book seems pretty hilarious. The guy writing it is clearly a total dick. My favourite book genre is definitely 'appallingly written hagiography of tragic heroine written by lovestruck man'.

Wow.

Imagine putting a quote from Tony Parsons on your book.

*tries to choose between all the obvious jokes* 



*chooses one*

Funnily enough, I spend most lunchtimes reading a Thomas book:

This month i finally got around to reading W.G. Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and, what a fantastic thinf to read it is. 
pretty much an account of the author's walking holiday along the Suffolk coast, from Lowestoft, via Southwold and on to Bungay...the author/narrator does not seem much to care for Suffolk greatly but, this does not matter as the book is really a series of digressions on subject such as love and loss, silk worms, Joseph Conrad, fishing Fleets, the dark secretes of Orford Ness and much more...fantastic it is, best this i have read in a long time, find it in the fiction section

by way of light relief, also read a conspiracy action thriller called The Chosen One by Sam Bourne...the twist here being Bourne is really Guardian writer Jonathan Freedland so the ludicrous plot has a left wing twist; the shadowy secret society bent on world domination are infact a global network of international bankers...this also is in the fiction section

Reading To Kill A Mockingbird for the 170th time, one of those books which is really comforting to read because you know it so well.

Nothing To Envy - Real Lives in North Korea.