I’m most certainly an avid reader. My problem is I’m a slow reader, so I don’t get through books as quick as I’d like to. This post won’t be very long, but I’d like to share with you the books I have been reading.
I’ve been meaning to read this book for about ten years. My older brother recommended it to me when I was a teenager. I’ve read The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, but Dorian Gray is very different. Journey back to Victorian England into the world of the Dandy aristocracy. Morbid self love seems to be possessed in some measure by many of the characters, including Lord Henry, Dorian’s friend and hedonistic supporter. Dorian, however, takes narcissism to a macabre level, giving up his soul in order to have eternal youth. It’s frightening to realise how dreadfully sociopathic he’s becoming. No evil deed seems to taint his visage, instead the ugliness of sin is transferred to his once beautiful portrait, now becoming ever more grotesque and deformed. This Penguin version also features contemporary reviews of the novel. Rather interesting to read as it seems that prejudice against Wilde was so strong at that time, that the brilliance of his prose was completely demonised, no matter what the subject.
This book is really a good read. I recommend it completely. It’s full of wonderful epigrams that are so very ‘Wilde’ in their expression.
This is the humorous prequel to to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. We see the Bennet girls three years younger and their first encounter with ‘The Dreadfuls’ in the form of their now un-dead neighbour. Mr Bennet, we discover, has been secretly trained in ancient martial arts and fought in an earlier war against ‘The Dreadfuls.’ He sets about trying to rid his daughters (under much protest), of feminine weakness and Regency manners and instil warrior fighting skills. The results are slapstick at best with Lydia hitting herself and Kitty more than the training dummy, and bursting into fits of tears about getting her frock dirty. Of course, this book is rather silly, but it’s not taking itself seriously. The humorous self-referential nature of the novel works well. It’s a light read and will be well liked by Austen fans who don’t take things too seriously and have a penchant for zombie slaying.
The new book I’ve just started was recommended to me by one of my fellow Sci Fi adoring friends. It’s called The Broken God by David Zindell. As I’m only 80 or so pages in to this 800+ page novel, I can’t tell you that much about it. It seems like it’s about the main character returning to his real home after everyone in his village is killed by a plague. It seems this ‘Unreal City’ has trans-human elements, which interests me greatly. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’ll take me a while to read it!
