July Reading

I thought I'd finally post again, with my July reading list. And yay, it's looking much more impressive than those of the last few months. :D

Neonomicon - Alan Moore
A birthday gift which has been on my wishlist ever since it came out. Combines The Courtyard (which I already own) with its follow-up, The Neonomicon, in one volume. I probably shouldn't have read it right after I received it (ie starting at 2am in the morning), but how could I resist? I admit that The Courtyard by itself is much more dense, intense and chilling than the new story, but I enjoyed some more in-depth information on the Lovecraft stories and how the story played with my own prejudices (yes, I do have some, but at least I'm aware when I encounter them, and then immediately tell myself I'm being silly).

The Gift (1st Book of Pellinor) - Alison Croggon
Birthday gift for my boyfriend, but I had to read it as well. The first chapter got me hooked, but sadly, the first few chapters are also the most exciting ones. A lot of ideas are packed into this without much explanation, some things are mentioned ones and then never again, there is a lot (and I mean A LOT) of landscape description which, at the beginning, was rather charming, but later added only very little, and sadly, it wasn't really offset by an equal amount of action/story progression.
I really wanted to like it, since some of the ideas sound great, but I'm not sure yet whether I'll get the other 3 novels. I could probably hope that some of those neat ideas strung up in the story like a beadnecklace find actual practial use and more in-depth explanation in the coming volumes, but who knows?

Y: The Last Man 1-10 - Brian K. Vaughan (+ various artists)
Oh wow. Complete love. :D
I started reading this a couple of years ago. I only got myself the first volume out of interest, read that several times, then got the second one, and then bought the rest in one fell swoop some time last year, I think. I read up to volume 3, then stopped. Why? I have no idea. This time, I read them all within a few days, and, well...wow. Very unexpected things happening all the time. Nothing that I could have foreseen. Awesome ending. Lots of food for thought. Amazing characters. I have to admit, right through reading and especially the few days after finishing I had a lot of love for Yorick. I will read them all again soon, look more closely at the details, and I think I'll find a lot of new stuff (as it happened with The Sandman books...just volume 1 was amazing when read several times...).
Highly recommended, if you have any liking for graphic novels at all.

Quite ugly one morning - Christopher Brookmyre
Now, I don't really read mysteries/thrillers/whatever, and I don't really watch them, either. I'm not really sure why. I used to blame it on one miserable reading experience in my early teens, which was just bland and silly and offered nothing (I only remember the strangely executed sex scene somewhere in the desert?), and since then I've basically avoided the genre, except for one seminar at uni dealing with detective fiction (Poe, Christie, etc) which I enjoyed. Again, I have no idea why I didn't read more after that course. I mean, I even managed to write two decent short stories after that course, and I had never even thought about writing detective fiction before.
Anyway, one of my friends from university has repeatedly said how much he loves the books by this author, so when I visited him last summer, I borrowed this one, the first. As is usually the case, it languished on my bookshelf until recently, but now that I've read it? Yes, I understand why he likes them. Nice characters, interesting case, social criticism, very good dialogues...very nice indeed. When I visit him the next time, I might just borrow some more. ;)

The Songs of Distant Earth von Arthur C. Clarke - so ein Oxford Easy Reader mit 5 Kurzgeschichten
Something short after the The Last Man intensity/insanity. Not really all that exciting.

Gamekeeper - Guy Ritchie (Andy Diggle, Mukesh Singh)
Nice graphic novel which, after first finishing it, I was really disappointed with (how could it end like that?), and then, when I learned that a second volume is actually in development, forgave completely. Short, intense, brutal (it's Guy Ritchie...of course it is), very nicely drawn, too...I really hope that second volume comes out some time soon.

And then I started Kraken, and had to take a break from that after some chapters, because, phew, it's a little intense. And with all the freelance work, job hunting, house cleaning in progress right now, I couldn't really take it. And somehow, I still can't. So it's waiting patiently beside my bed while I read stuff on clutter clearing and simple living for the xth time, and comics. Heh.