(stuff I read in '22)
Richard Lloyd Parry “Ghosts Of The Tsunami”
Harrison Ainsworth: “Old St Paul’s: A Tale Of The Plague And The Fire”
Helen McCloy: “Through A Glass, Darkly”
Somerset Maugham: “The Magician”
Tom Vague: “Harrow Road” (1)
Fred Vermorel: “Queen Victoria’s Lovers: Erotomania & Fantasy”
Rafael Sabatini: “St Martin’s Summer” (2)
Genesis P-Orridge: “Non-Binary”
Anon: “Spring Heel Jack: The Terror Of London” (3)
Ted Lewis: “GBH”
Alan E Nourse: “The Blade Runner”
Muriel Spark: “The Bachelors”
Muriel Spark: “A Far Cry From Kensington” (4)
Peter Vronksy: “American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years 1950-2000”
Alison Rumfitt: “Tell Me I’m Worthless”
PKD: “Eye In The Sky”
PKD: “Valis”
PKD: “The Divine Invasion” (5)
Alexander Trocchi: “Thongs”
Harley Flanagan: “Hard Core” (6)
George Reynolds: “Mysteries of London Vol 1”
George Reynolds: “Wagner The Wehr-Wolf”
Ian Bourn: “B”
Anon: “The Official DVSA Theory Test for Car Drivers”
Goethe: “Sorrows Of Young Werther” (7)
Eliza Parsons: “The Castle Of Wolfenbach” (8)
Tim Wells: “Shine On Me”
(1) In which Tom Vague adds Duffy’s “Warwick Avenue” to the Clash/Aswad/ Mutoid Waste Company/Centro Iberico ‘Wild West 11’ continuum. Genius.
(2) Swashbuckling hokum, but I enjoyed it. Some of the paranoia/double-crosses remind me of Jim Thompson. Must get round to reading Sabatini's non-fiction book on Torquemada.
(3) Sadly, despite the title, this mostly takes place in Surrey. Convinced ‘Batman’ ripped this off.
(4) Spark getting cranky in her old age? Written as a barely disguised ‘fuck you’ to a caddish ex, much of this came across as a snarky rehash of the earlier (and miles better) “Girls Of Slender Means”.
(5) And then, that was that: some vague idea, around March 2020, to check out a bit of PKD beyond Ubik/High Castle/Androids turned into a full-blown 2-year obsession, burning through the back catalogue (give or take two or three) right until the last page of “The Divine Invasion”. The trip had to end with this one, IMO: but don’t hark me, I’m in my own parallel universe. “Ubik” probably IS the best thing he did, but what’s so brilliant about PKD is you can work backwards and he’ll still sock you in the third eye, time and time again, until the whole concept of ‘best’, or which one you read first, becomes irrelevant. I’m gonna miss this guy.
(6) Don’t like the Cro-Mags (or NYHC, really) but if you want a grimy look at runaway 12-year-olds showering in burst fire hydrants in the Bronx in midwinter, junkie corpses, gang/police violence and possibly more stabbings and beatings than you'll find in any other muso biog (by victim no. 25, he might as well be discussing bass pickups) this is worth a look. The later chapters – where he discovers Hare Krishna and falls out with his bandmates – not so much.
(7) Incel shit.
(8) Apparently, Parsons knocked this out in a rush to avoid losing her house, and it shows: starts off all ‘spooky ghost tale’ then becomes a farrago of toffs wailing and throwing themselves to the carpet at the slightest inconvenience (a swoon per page at one point, I ain't lying). Awful: would strike this from the goth ‘nuum.
Richard Lloyd Parry “Ghosts Of The Tsunami”
Harrison Ainsworth: “Old St Paul’s: A Tale Of The Plague And The Fire”
Helen McCloy: “Through A Glass, Darkly”
Somerset Maugham: “The Magician”
Tom Vague: “Harrow Road” (1)
Fred Vermorel: “Queen Victoria’s Lovers: Erotomania & Fantasy”
Rafael Sabatini: “St Martin’s Summer” (2)
Genesis P-Orridge: “Non-Binary”
Anon: “Spring Heel Jack: The Terror Of London” (3)
Ted Lewis: “GBH”
Alan E Nourse: “The Blade Runner”
Muriel Spark: “The Bachelors”
Muriel Spark: “A Far Cry From Kensington” (4)
Peter Vronksy: “American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years 1950-2000”
Alison Rumfitt: “Tell Me I’m Worthless”
PKD: “Eye In The Sky”
PKD: “Valis”
PKD: “The Divine Invasion” (5)
Alexander Trocchi: “Thongs”
Harley Flanagan: “Hard Core” (6)
George Reynolds: “Mysteries of London Vol 1”
George Reynolds: “Wagner The Wehr-Wolf”
Ian Bourn: “B”
Anon: “The Official DVSA Theory Test for Car Drivers”
Goethe: “Sorrows Of Young Werther” (7)
Eliza Parsons: “The Castle Of Wolfenbach” (8)
Tim Wells: “Shine On Me”
(1) In which Tom Vague adds Duffy’s “Warwick Avenue” to the Clash/Aswad/ Mutoid Waste Company/Centro Iberico ‘Wild West 11’ continuum. Genius.
(2) Swashbuckling hokum, but I enjoyed it. Some of the paranoia/double-crosses remind me of Jim Thompson. Must get round to reading Sabatini's non-fiction book on Torquemada.
(3) Sadly, despite the title, this mostly takes place in Surrey. Convinced ‘Batman’ ripped this off.
(4) Spark getting cranky in her old age? Written as a barely disguised ‘fuck you’ to a caddish ex, much of this came across as a snarky rehash of the earlier (and miles better) “Girls Of Slender Means”.
(5) And then, that was that: some vague idea, around March 2020, to check out a bit of PKD beyond Ubik/High Castle/Androids turned into a full-blown 2-year obsession, burning through the back catalogue (give or take two or three) right until the last page of “The Divine Invasion”. The trip had to end with this one, IMO: but don’t hark me, I’m in my own parallel universe. “Ubik” probably IS the best thing he did, but what’s so brilliant about PKD is you can work backwards and he’ll still sock you in the third eye, time and time again, until the whole concept of ‘best’, or which one you read first, becomes irrelevant. I’m gonna miss this guy.
(6) Don’t like the Cro-Mags (or NYHC, really) but if you want a grimy look at runaway 12-year-olds showering in burst fire hydrants in the Bronx in midwinter, junkie corpses, gang/police violence and possibly more stabbings and beatings than you'll find in any other muso biog (by victim no. 25, he might as well be discussing bass pickups) this is worth a look. The later chapters – where he discovers Hare Krishna and falls out with his bandmates – not so much.
(7) Incel shit.
(8) Apparently, Parsons knocked this out in a rush to avoid losing her house, and it shows: starts off all ‘spooky ghost tale’ then becomes a farrago of toffs wailing and throwing themselves to the carpet at the slightest inconvenience (a swoon per page at one point, I ain't lying). Awful: would strike this from the goth ‘nuum.
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