koth's reading log

Delirium

Supergods - Grant Morrison

Supergods is your opportunity to join one of the great figures of modern comics on a mind-bending journey into the world of the superheroes. In 1938, the first superhero comic ever published, Action Comics #1, introduced the world to something both unprecedented and profoundly familiar: Superman, a caped god for the modern age. In a matter of years, the skies of the imaginary world were filled with strange mutants, aliens and vigilantes: Batman, Wonder Woman, the Fantastic Four, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and the X-Men – the list of names is as familiar as our own. In less than a century they’ve gone from not existing at all to being everywhere we look: on our movie and television screens, in our videogames and dreams. But why?For Grant Morrison, possibly the greatest of contemporary superhero storytellers, these heroes are not simply characters but powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: through them, we tell the story of ourselves. In this exhilarating book, Morrison draws on history, art, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this alternate universe to provide the first true chronicle of the superhero – why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are.

Delirium

Grave Peril (Dresden Files Book 3) - Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden's faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you're the only professional wizard in the Chicago area phone book.
But in all Harry's years of supernatural sleuthing, he's never faced anything like this: the spirit world's gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble--and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone--or something--is stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn't figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself . . .

Delirium

Summer Knight (Dresden Case Files [book 4]) - Jim Butcher

Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can't pay his rent. He's alienating his friends. He can't even recall the last time he took a shower. The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man. And just when it seems things can't get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can't refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him - and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen's right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen's name. It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything ...

Delirium

Death Masks (Dresden Case Files [book 5]) - Jim Butcher

Meet Harry Dresden, Chicago's first (and only) Wizard P.I. Turns out the 'everyday' world is full of strange and magical things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Harry Dresden should be happy that business is good - makes a change. But now he's getting more than he bargained for: a duel with the Red Court of Vampires' champion, who must kill Harry to end the war between vampires and wizards; professional hit men using Harry for target practice; the missing Shroud of Turin (less missing than expected) and a headless corpse the Chicago police need identifying ...Not to mention the return of Harry's ex-girlfriend Susan, still struggling with her semi-vampiric nature. And who seems to have a new man. Some days, it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. No matter how much you're charging. Magic - it can get a guy killed.

Delirium

Screen Burn - Charlie Brooker

'These days, watching television is like sitting in the back of Travis Bickle's taxicab, staring through the window at a world of relentless, churning shod . . .' Cruel, acerbic, impassioned, gleeful, frequently outrageous and always hilarious, Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn collects the best of the much-loved Guardian Guide columns into one easy-to-read-on-the-toilet package. Sit back and roar as Brooker rips mercilessly into Simon Cowell, 'Big Brother', Trinny and Susannah, 'Casualty', Davina McCall, Michael Parkinson . . . and almost everything elso on television. This book will make practically anyone laugh out loud.

At the turn of the millennium, Charlie Brooker created the notorious website TV Go Home. More recently, he co-wrote Channel Four's Nathan Barley with Chris Morris. Prior to become the Guardian Guide's TV critic, Brooker worked as a cartoonist, a journalist, and a TV and radio presenter.

'Charlie Brooker doesn't so much go for the jugular as decapitate his targets altogether.' Jim Shelley, Daily Mirror 'He watches these things so we don't have to. Bless him for that.' Graham 'Father Ted' Linehan 'This belongs on everyone's bookshelf. With a big spotlight pointing at it.' Julie Burchill 'The funniest newspaper columnist in the world.' Racing Post

Delirium

bossypants - Tina Fey

Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon -- from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy

Delirium

Animal Farm - George Orwell

From amazon.com

Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has rivaled Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as the Shortest Serious Novel It's OK to Write a Book Report About. (The latter is three pages longer and less fun to read.) Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy. --Joyce Thompson

Delirium

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

The story centres on Charles Marlow, who narrates most of the book. He is an Englishman who takes a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa. Heart of Darkness exposes the dark side of European colonization while exploring the three levels of darkness that the protagonist, Marlow, encounters: the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the Europeans' cruel treatment of the African natives, and the unfathomable darkness within every human being for committing heinous acts of evil.[2] Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time of writing the Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River, was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. In the story, Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region.

Delirium

The Neil Gaiman Reader - Darrell Schweitzer

Neil Gaiman's talent is so vast that any exploration of his work can only be described as a beginning. Here is one such beginning, an examination of the creative genius being The Sandman, American Gods, Coraline and so much more. His prose fiction has achieved enormous acclaim and popularity. Now leading scholars provide insights into the Sandman universe, its mythological underpinnings, Gaiman's technique and his relationship to other masters of the fantastic imagination. Two extensive interviews with Gaiman are included, along with a thorough bibliography of his work to date.

Delirium

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) - George R.R. Martin

Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin’s stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

Delirium

A Religious Orgy in Tennessee - H.L. Mencken

Collected in print for the first time is Mencken's scathingly honest and fiercely intelligent coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial, with his perceptive rendering of the courtroom drama, piercing portrayals of key figures Scopes, Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, and his ferocious take on the fundamentalist culture surrounding the case. It also includes his withering coverage of Bryan's death just days after the trial, as well as a complete transcript of the trial's legendary exchange: Darrow's blistering cross-examination of Bryan.

Delirium

I am Legend - Richard Matheson

Plot outline: The main character is Robert Neville, apparently the sole survivor of a pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism. It is implied that the pandemic was caused by a war, and that dust storms in the cities and an explosion in the mosquito population have resulted. The narrative details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease, to which he is immune. Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks.

Delirium

Anno Dracula - Kim Newman

In an alternate history of the nineteenth century, Queen Victoria has married Vlad Tepes, better known as Count Dracula, leading to a reign of terror, while, in Whitechapel, Silver Knife, a murderer of vampire girls, threatens the new regime.

dead one

I think books will vanish in next few centuries due to rapid change in technologies... I mean hard books not soft books.. but it amazing to see some people still read these books..

Delirium

we need to talk about Kelvin - Marcus Chown

Look around you. The reflection of your face in a window tells you that the universe is orchestrated by chance. The iron in a spot of blood on your finger tells you that somewhere out in space there is furnace at a temperature of 4.5 billion degrees. Your TV tells you that the universe had a beginning. In fact, your very existence tells you that this may not be the only universe but merely one among an infinity of others, stacked like the pages of a never-ending book. Marcus Chown, author of "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You", takes familiar features of the world we know and shows how they can be used to explain profound truths about the ultimate nature of reality. His new book will change the way you see the world: with Chown as your guide, cutting-edge science is made clear and meaningful by a falling leaf, or a rose, or a starry night sky.

Delirium

The Art of Choosing - Sheena Iyengar

Every day we make choices. Coke or Pepsi? Save or spend? Stay or go?

Whether mundane or life-altering, these choices define us and shape our lives. Sheena Iyengar asks the difficult questions about how and why we choose: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? Why do we sometimes choose against our best interests? How much control do we really have over what we choose? Sheena Iyengar's award-winning research reveals that the answers are surprising and profound. In our world of shifting political and cultural forces, technological revolution, and interconnected commerce, our decisions have far-reaching consequences. Use THE ART OF CHOOSING as your companion and guide for the many challenges ahead.

Delirium

for the win - Cory Doctorow

A provocative and exhilarating tale of teen rebellion against global corporations from the New York Times bestselling author of Little Brother -- a call to arms for a new generation. Not far in the future! In the twenty-first century, it's not just capital that's globalized: labour is too. Workers in special economic zones are trapped in lives of poverty with no trade unions to represent their rights. But a group of teenagers from across the world are set to fight this injustice using the most surprising of tools - their online video games. In Industrial South China Matthew and his friends labour day and night as gold-farmers, amassing virtual wealth that's sold on to rich Western players, while in the slums of Mumbai 'General Robotwallah' Mala marshalls her team of online thugs on behalf of the local gang-boss, who in turn works for the game-owners. They're all being exploited, as their friend Wei-Dong, all the way over in LA, knows, but can do little about. Until they begin to realize that their similarities outweigh their differences, and agree to work together to claim their rights to fair working conditions.Under the noses of the ruling elites in China and the rest of Asia, they fight their bosses, the owners of the games and rich speculators, outsmarting them all with their unbeatable gaming skills. But soon the battle will spill over from the virtual world to the real one, leaving Mala, Matthew and even Wei-Dong fighting not just for their rights, but for their lives!

Delirium

the soft machine - William Burroughs

The first novel in William Burroughs’ anarchic ‘Cut-Up Trilogy’.

A world populated by hanged soldiers, North African street urchins, addicted narcotics agents, Spanish rent boys, evil doctors, corrupt judges and monsters from the mythology of history or the laboratories of science – Burroughs was truly the Hieronymus Bosch of the twentieth century. In this surreal, savage and brilliantly funny novel, his famous ‘cut-up’ technique, the slicing and random folding in of words, transforms the narrative into an extraordinary, unequalled new form of prose poetry, taking us deeper into the dark recesses of Burroughs’ imagination.

Delirium

the bad place - Dean Koontz

Frank Pollard awakens in an alley, knowing nothing but his name and that he is in danger. Over the next few days he develops a fear of sleep because when he wakes he finds blood on his hands and bizarre and terrifying objects in his pockets. Distraught and desperate, Frank begs husband-and wife detective team Bobby and Julie Dakota to get to the bottom of his mysterious, amnesiac fugues. It seems a simple job, but they are drawn into ever-darkening realms where they encounter the nightmare, hate-filled figure stalking Frank. And their lives are threatened, as is that of Julie’s gentle, Down’s-syndrome brother, Thomas.

To Thomas, death is the ‘bad place’ from which there is no return. But as each of them ultimately learns, there are equally bad places in the world of the living, places so steeped in evil that, in contrast, death seems almost to be a relief...

Delirium

the underground man - Mick Jackson

Victorian England's most famous eccentric, the Duke of Portland was renowned for both his enormous wealth and for the elaborate series of tunnels he had built beneath his massive estate. The Duke, who is a fountain of nineteenth-century knowledge and curiosity, faithfully records in his journal the events that make up his days. His research extends into the fields of chiropractic medicine, and the study of auras, archaeology, and phrenology in a series of hilarious episodes that echo the New Age exploits of our own era while revealing the Duke to be a true naif: wonderfully humane, painfully shy, and untouched by the power his great wealth affords him.

As the Duke's enthusiasms gradually turn inward to the working of the mind and memory, he slowly slips into madness. The natural end of his journey of self-discovery gives The Underground Man its horrifying and unforgettable climax. A brilliant comic and tragic creation, Mick Jackson's Duke of Portland is one of the most memorable and heartbreaking characters to emerge from recent fiction.

Delirium

the hellbound heart - Clive Barker

Clive Barker is widely acknowledged as the master of nerve-shattering horror. The Hellbound Heart is one of his best, one of the most dead-frightening stories you are likely to ever read, a story of the human heart and all the great terrors and ecstasies within. It was also the book behind the cult horror film, Hellraiser. In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia are having an affair. Not your ordinary affair. For Frank it began with his own insatiable sexual appetite, a mysterious lacquered box- and then an unhinged voyage through a netherworld of imaginable pleasures and unimaginable horror! Now Frank- or what is left of Frank -waits in an empty room. All he wants is to live as he was before. All julia can do is bring him her unfulfilled passions!and a little flesh and blood!

Delirium

snuff - Chuck Palahniuk

In the crowded greenroom of a porn-movie production, hundreds of men mill around in their boxers, awaiting their turn with the legendary Cassie Wright. An aging adult film star, Cassie Wright intends to cap her career by breaking the world record for serial fornication by having sex with 600 men on camera—one of whom may want to kill her. Told from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, Mr. 600, and Sheila, the talent wrangler who must keep it all under control, Snuff is a dark, wild, and lethally funny novel that brings the presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction.

Queen-Mise

Was snuff - Chuck Palahniuk any good Koth? The spiel is really interesting

Delirium

Queen-Mise wrote: »

Was snuff - Chuck Palahniuk any good Koth? The spiel is really interesting

I'd be somewhat biased as I haven't read a book of Palahniuks that I didn't like.

Like all his books, I couldn't put this book down. I would recommend it if the blurb I posted reads as a book you might like.

Delirium

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Steven Sherill

Five thousand years out of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur finds himself in the American South, living in a trailer park and working as a line cook at a steakhouse. No longer a devourer of human flesh, the Minotaur is a socially inept, lonely creature with very human needs. But over a two-week period, as his life dissolves into chaos, this broken and alienated immortal awakens to the possibility for happiness and to the capacity for love.

Delirium

Lex - James Mylet

Lex is all but finished growing up in Clifden, Connemara, where he runs a radio station from his bedroom and makes plans to go to university in London. As he shares his views on life, music and Michelle, the best girl in town, Lex is absurdly acute and brilliantly entertaining. Michelle is not only older than Lex, but she's dating the town thug, someone Lex would do well to avoid, but where's the fun in that?

Surrounded by his adoring family and constantly taking the flak for his crazy best friend, Davey, he's caught between modesty and an edge of cool. But he finds himself in trouble when a friend uses Lex's own radio station to announce to the entire town that Lex is still a virgin and asks some nice young girl to help him out before he heads to London in the same state... Especially when Lex accidentally lets slip he'd like that nice girl to be Michelle.

Being seventeen is the stuff of rollercoasters - from one period of angst to boundless joy and on to another crisis - and Lex's summer is set to be typical. He's organised a major music festival in Clifden, or so he's told his favourite band, Toots and the Maytals. But when Davey's mother gets sick and he loses his temper one too many times, Ireland's answer to Glastonbury may not happen at all.

With all his dreams falling around his ankles, Lex is determined to go out with a bang, leaving the town reeling with his loss. And he will, but it might not be quite what he had in mind.

Delirium

Angel Time - Anne Rice

Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades with this new novel -- the first book in a new series called "Songs of the Seraphim."
Angel Time is a dark, suspenseful novel about angels, reluctant assassins and a journey of redemption.
Toby O'Dare -- a.k.a. Lucky the Fox -- has fallen far from grace. He is a contract killer who carries out violence whenever and wherever he is told, a soulless soul who takes orders from someone he calls "The Right Man." When a mysterious stranger comes into Lucky's nightmarish world and offers him a chance to save lives rather than destroy them, Lucky seizes the opportunity to escape the darkness. He is lifted in (angel) time and carried back through the ages to the primitive and treacherous world of thirteenth-century England, where Jews live an uneasy existence. He begins a journey that leads him from the medieval villages of England to the cities of London and Paris as his quest becomes a story of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love.

Delirium

how to be a woman - Caitlin Moran

Caitlin Moran puts a new face on feminism, cutting to the heart of women's issues today with her irreverent, transcendent, and hilarious How to Be a Woman. "Half memoir, half polemic, and entirely necessary," (Elle UK), Moran's debut was an instant runaway bestseller in England as well as an Amazon UK Top Ten book of the year; still riding high on bestseller lists months after publication, it is a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Now poised to take American womanhood by storm, here is a book that Vanity Fair calls "the U.K. version of Tina Fey's Bossypants....You will laugh out loud, wince, and--in my case--feel proud to be the same gender as the author."

Delirium

Stephen Fry in America - Stephen Fry

Britain's best-loved comic genius Stephen Fry turns his celebrated wit and insight to unearthing the real America as he travels across the continent in his black taxicab. Stephen's account of his adventures is filled with his unique humour, insight and warmth in the fascinating book that orginally accompanied his journey for the BBC1 series.

Stephen Fry has always loved America, in fact he came very close to being born there. Here, his fascination for the country and its people sees him embarking on an epic journey across America, visiting each of its 50 states to discover how such a huge diversity of people, cultures, languages, beliefs and landscapes combine to create such a remarkable nation.

Delirium

Moonwalking with Einstein - the art and science of remembering everything - Joshua Foer

Foer's unlikely journey from chronically forgetful science journalist to U.S. Memory Champion frames a revelatory exploration of the vast, hidden impact of memory on every aspect of our lives.
On average, people squander forty days annually compensating for things they've forgotten. Joshua Foer used to be one of those people. But after a year of memory training, he found himself in the finals of the U.S. Memory Championship. Even more important, Foer found a vital truth we too often forget: In every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.


Moonwalking with Einstein draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of memory, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human remembering. Under the tutelage of top "mental athletes," he learns ancient techniques once employed by Cicero to memorize his speeches and by Medieval scholars to memorize entire books. Using methods that have been largely forgotten, Foer discovers that we can all dramatically improve our memories.

Delirium

Philosophy for Life: And Other Dangerous Situations - Jules Evans

Philosophy for Life looks at how people use ancient philosophy today, to cope with adversity and build flourishing lives. It explores the direct influence of ancient philosophy on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Positive Psychology. It was described as 'something of a revelation' by the Observer, and as 'a wonderful book, beautifully written' by Lord Richard Layard of the LSE.

Delirium

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, # 2) - George R.R. Martin

A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. Two great leaders--Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon--who hold sway over an age of enforced peace are dead, victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Delirium

How to outwit Aristotle: and 34 other really interesting uses of philosophy - Peter Cave

Philosophy might make you think of dusty statues in togas or Zen masters meditating, but the philosophical world has far more to offer than ancient men in beards: it can also tell you everything there is to know about life, love and death.

In a series of highly original, entertaining and often extraordinary scenarios, How to Outwit Aristotle brings to life 35 key philosophy concepts in a way that anyone can understand. From the realm of the unconscious to the principles of logic, the 35 bite-sized chapters in this book will not only help you understand our world, how we find meaning in life, and how we think of right and wrong, they'll help you win arguments, learn the art of seduction, and even get one up on Aristotle. Easy to follow and impossible to put down, this book will not only help you to think like a bat – it will have you thinking like a philosopher.

Delirium

Dolores Clairborne - Stephen King

Suspected of murdering the crippled widow for whom she worked as a housekeeper and companion, Dolores Claiborne has a story to tell. But it isn't the one the police are expecting to hear. It's a little darker, a little stranger - and a lot more horrifying.

Delirium

The Lonely Dead - Michael Marshall

A guilty man walks alone into the cold mountain forests of Washington State, aiming never to return. What he finds there starts a chain of events that will quickly spiral out of control.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles a woman's body is discovered, sitting bolt upright in a motel bedroom. She is dead, and her killer has left his mark. It soon becomes clear he has something to say, and a lot more work to do.

And Ward Hopkins, an ex-CIA agent recovering from the recent shocking death of his parents, is on the trail of his past, tracking down the men who destroyed everything he once held dear, and the murderer whose face he sees every time he looks in the mirror.

These three are ominous strands in a web of deadly secrets, roads to a dark history that should never have been told. There are people who will do anything to protect it. Anything at all. As in life, it's not a matter of who dies.

Delirium

The Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound - Jack Huberman

Surprisingly, no book of quotations on God and religion by atheists and agnostics exists. Luckily, for the millions of American nonbelievers who have quietly stewed for years as the religious right made gains in politics and culture, the wait is over. Bestselling author Jack Huberman's zeitgeist sense has honed into the backlash building against religious fundamentalism and collected a veritable treasure trove of quotes by philosophers, scientists, poets, writers, artists, entertainers, and political figures. His colorful cast of atheists includes Karen Armstrong, Lance Armstrong, Jules Feiffer, Federico Fellini, H. L. Mencken, Ian McKellen, Isaac Singer, Jonathan Swift, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Virginia Woolf and the Marquis de Sade.

Delirium

and the ass saw the angel - Nick Cave

Cave’s only novel to date takes on the southern gothic in this bizarre baroque tale. Born mute to a drunken mother and a demented father, tortured Euchrid Eucrow finds more compassion in the family mule than in his fellow men. But he alone will grasp the cruel fate of Cosey Mo, the beautiful young prostitute in the pink caravan on Hooper’s Hill. And it is Euchrid, spiraling ever deeper into his mad angelic vision, who will ultimately redeem both the town and its people.

Delirium

Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing - Larry Brooks

What makes a good story or a screenplay great?The vast majority of writers begin the storytelling process with only a partial understanding where to begin. Some labor their entire lives without ever learning that successful stories are as dependent upon good engineering as they are artistry. But the truth is, unless you are master of the form, function and criteria of successful storytelling, sitting down and pounding out a first draft without planning is an ineffective way to begin.

"Story Engineering" starts with the criteria and the architecture of storytelling, the engineering and design of a story - and uses it as the basis for narrative. The greatest potential of any story is found in the way six specific aspects of storytelling combine and empower each other on the page. When rendered artfully, they become a sum in excess of their parts.

You'll learn to wrap your head around the big pictures of storytelling at a professional level through a new approach that shows how to combine these six core competencies which include: Four elemental competencies of concept, character, theme, and story structure (plot)Two executional competencies of scene construction and writing voice The true magic of storytelling happens when these six core competencies work together in perfect harmony. And the best part? Anyone can do it.

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Your Creative Writing Masterclass - Jurgen Wolff

If you dream of being a writer, why not learn from the best? In Your Creative Writing Masterclass you'll find ideas, techniques and encouragement from the most admired and respected contemporary and classic authors, including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Anton Chekhov.

Jurgen Wolff, bestselling author of Your Writing Coach, helps you translate these insights into action to master your craft and write what only you can write.

From Robert Louis Stevenson to Mary Shelley, Alice Munro to Stephen King, Your Creative Writing Masterclass guide you through:

* finding your style
* constructing powerful plots
* generating story ideas
* overcoming writer's block
* creating vivid characters
* crafting your ideal writer's life

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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in the vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 - and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery.

There is a reason why Stephen King is one of the bestselling writers in the world, ever. Described in the Guardian as 'the most remarkable storyteller in modern American literature', Stephen King writes books that draw you in and are impossible to put down.

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Write - The Guardian

Writing a novel can be a slow, painful and lonely process. Many writers never manage to achieve their goal. This inspirational book will help you to rediscover the joy of your craft and rekindle your creative fire. Leading contemporary authors offer you support, guidance and encouragement as well as a fascinating insight into the craft of writing: Jill Dawson - getting started; Andrew Miller - creating characters; Meg Rosoff - finding your voice; DBC Pierre - convincing dialogue; Adam Foulds - description with meaning; Kate Mosse - the importance of plot; Mark Billingham - creating suspense; ML Hyland - revising and rewriting. Learn the do's and don'ts of great writing, from: Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Roddy Doyle, Geoff Dyer, Anne Enright, Richard Ford, Esther Freud, Neil Gaiman, David Hare, PD James, AL Kennedy, Hilary Mantel, Michael Moorcock, Andrew Motion, Joyce Carol Oates, Annie Proulx, Ian Rankin, Will Self, Helen Simpson, Colm Toibin, Rose Tremain and Jeanette Winterson.There are unique insights into the making of modern classics, by the authors themselves: Martin Amis on "Time's Arrow"; Sue Townsend on "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole"; Susan Hill on "The Woman In Black"; AS Byatt on "Possession"; Edna O'Brien on "The Country Girls"; Hanif Kureishi on "The Buddha of Suburbia"; Iain Banks on "The Wasp Factory"; Charles Frazier on "Cold Mountain"; Andrea Levy on "Small Island"; Terry Pratchett on "Unseen Academicals"; Margaret Drabble on "The Millstone"; Mohsin Hamid on "The Reluctant Fundamentalist"; Douglas Coupland on "Generation X"; Jim Crace on "Quarantine"; Zoe Heller on "Notes On A Scandal"; Irvine Welsh on "Trainspotting"; Russell Hoban on "Ridley Walker". And a few final tips - not all entirely serious - from Blake Morrison, Charlie Brooker and Hilary Mantel.

Delirium

Understand Ethics - Mel Thompson

This book is the essential introduction to the history of Western thought. Covering all the key thinkers, both ancient and modern, and all the major branches of philosophy, it will give you new insights about the world we live in. Packed full of examples and clear explanations, and with key terms defined and explained, it is ideal whether you are student looking for a quick refresher or just want to explore this fascinating topic out of personal interest.

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The Productive Writer: Tips & Tools to Help You Write More, Stress Less & Create Success - Sage Cohen

Take Control of Your Writing Life
The creative process can be treacherous, even for the most experienced writer. Facing the blank page, staying inspired, sustaining momentum, managing competing priorities and coping with rejection are just a few of the challenges writers face regularly.

"The Productive Writer" is your guide to learning the systems, strategies and psychology that can help you transform possibilities into probabilities in your writing life.

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The Hammer of Darkness - L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Martin Martel is an exile in trouble with the gods...

'You know about the gods, Martel. The ones like Apollo who can kill with a gesture, manipulate your feelings with a song, throw thunderbolts if they feel like it...'

Are the gods really gods? Or men and women with larger-than-life powers playing god over a planet that wasn't really a planet?

Whatever the answer, Martin Martel must battle the gods for his life, love, and the fate of the galaxy.

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Father Brown Stories - G.K. Chesterton

Immortalized in these famous stories, G. K. Chesterton's endearing amateur sleuth has entertained countless generations of readers. For, as his admirers know, Father Brown's cherubic face and unworldly simplicity, his glasses and his huge umbrella, disguise a quite uncanny understanding of the criminal mind at work. This edition includes seven tales from a number of G. K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" books.

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Losing the Head of Philip K. Dick: A Bizarre But True Tale of Androids, Kill Switches and Left Luggage - David Dufty

Probably the Strangest Story You Will Read This Year In 2005 a group of young robot designers and computer scientists dreamed up a fantastic, audacious idea: to build an android modelled on Philip K. Dick, the iconic sci-fi guru. After countless hours tinkering with fake flesh and animatronic motors and turning the writer's opus into a computer brain, the android was brought eerily to life. It would watch people as they approached, recognize their faces, answer their questions in Dick's own words. Then, things went horribly wrong. A roboticist on his way to Google HQ for a special presentation left the android's head on a flight to Las Vegas. The head of Philip K. Dick was lost. In a story that could have been lifted from one of Philip K. Dick s celebrated novels, which have been made into such films as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and The Adjustment Bureau, David Dufty brings to light the incredible but true events surrounding the android s creation and disappearance. Along the way, he explores how the science of robotic resurrection will soon meet our very real future.

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How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One - Stanley Fish

Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. Stanley Fish appreciates fine sentences. The New York Times columnist and world-class professor has long been an aficionado of language. Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving readers an instant play-by-play.

In this entertaining and erudite gem, Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure, skills invaluable to any writer (or reader). How to Write a Sentence is both a spirited love letter to the written word and a key to understanding how great writing works; it is a book that will stand the test of time.

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Altar of Bones - Philip Carter

Siberia 1939. Lena Orlova plans a daring escape from a grim Soviet gulag to the one place in Russia's icy wilderness she knows is safe: a cave concealing the legendary Altar of Bones.
San Francisco, Present Day. Zoe Dmitroff discovers that she is the last in a line of women who have been entrusted with a secret so great many have died preserving it.

SHOW NO ONE

Propelled into a dangerous quest to discover exactly what she was born to protect, Zoe is soon running for her life from those wanting to harness the Altar's powers. Only ex-Special Ops soldier Ry O'Malley can help her survive, but with time running out and the web closing in , Zoe has a devastating choice to make.

TRUST NO ONE

The ultimate thriller of our time, Altar of Bones spans the generations, crosses continents and unearths the dark secret behind one of the world's biggest unsolved conspiracies.

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Reading Like A Writer - Francine Prose

Long before there were creative writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose.

In READING LIKE A WRITER, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writers––Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov––and discovers why these writers endure. She takes pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breath–taking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's MIDDLEMARCH. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue, to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail, and to James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield who offer clever examples of how to employ gesture to create character. She cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which literature is crafted. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, READING LIKE A WRITER will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.

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Thinking of Answers: Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life - A.C Grayling

In his acclaimed columns in the London "Times "and "Prospect," A. C. Grayling often responds to provocative questions posed by editors and readers. These questions serve as the basis for the essays in "Thinking of Answers," among them searching examinations of the following:

· Are human beings especially prone to self-deception?
· If beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality?
· Are human rights political?
· Can ethics be derived from evolution by natural selection?
· If both sides in a conflict passionately believe theirs is a just cause, does this mean the idea of justice is empty?
· Does being happy make us good? And does being good make us happy?

As in his previous books on philosophy for the general public, including "Meditations for the Humanist "and "Life, Sex and Ideas," rather than presenting a set of categorical answers, Grayling offers suggestions for how to think about every aspect of the question at hand and arrive at one's own conclusion. Nobody can read "Thinking of Answers "without being fully engaged, for Grayling challenges with his intellect and inspires with his humanity.