Micky C on BBC...

Michael Chabon wrote one of my very favourite books, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY. A novel I did not want to end. A big, chunky novel to get lost in. A novel like a duvet, to wrap yourself in when the world outside is cold and hostile. It's a glorious book and I cannot reccomend it highly enough. Nor for that matter his novel WONDER BOYS (the film of which is actually as good, though the things I like best about one are not what I like best about the other - thus making them mutually loveable and yet totally distinct), or his 'Sherlock Holmes' novel (though he never quite identifies our hero) THE FINAL SOLUTION.

Quite frankly, all of his work is worth your time, and his most recent book - MANHOOD FOR AMATEURS is being read on Radio 4 as 'Book Of The Week'.

It's a nonfiction collection. And, like all his writing, it's wonderfully evocative.

Do yourself a favour and give it a listen HERE.

And,if you like what you hear, well, why not pop in and buy some. Chabon never lasts long on our shelves because he's one of the safest bets for me when someone asks me to recommend them something GOOD.

But we can order new stuff as well... What's that? you never realised!? OH YES! WE CAN ORDER NEW BOOKS FOR YOU TOO!!! AND USUALLY AT 20% OFF THE COVER PRICE! (end of advertising voice).

Really though, if you've never read any Chabon, I can't recommend him highly enough.

So, if you want something worthwhile to read when you're sitting in the sun (now that it's here), or even something not so worthwhile - we've got some very diverting/entertaining trash in here too - why not pop in on your way to wherever it is you're going?

Are you a Junky for the written word?

I've been playing with some images for the shop of late. Thought I'd let you see...

One is overtly an advertising image. The other just image I thought I might use in the shop, but loking at it, I reckon it could be reworked as advertising.

If you've any comments or ideas, feel free to let me know. Also, since we're a small shop on a miniscule budget (advertising budget? what's that!?) please also feel free to print them off and put them up in your place of work, on the notice board at your local library or communtiy centre or where ever else might take your fancy without getting me in trouble with the Law!



I really like the above image. It's Preston Sturges by the way - and if you don't know is films, you SHOULD. He was a contemporary of Frank Capra (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) but produced probably more consitently brilliant film comedy. Rent or buy a copy of SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS and check him out. You'll thenk me. It's where the Coen Brothers got the title O' BROTHER WHERE ART THOU from.

Anyway, looking at it again as I preview this before posting, I like it all the more. Keeping it simple, I think I'll just replace Chesterton's name with READ & RETURN BOOKSHOP and our info.



Don't think I've quite cracked this one. It sort of works though. What d'you think?

THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS GO ONE STEP BEYOND!

I've just finished reading another book by Graham Joyce, who you may remember I was heaping praise on in an earlier post.

As well as writing for adults, he's been quietly writing the kind of children's/teen books that make me whoop with joy. The kind of children's books that I think rank up there with David Almond. But Joyce is darker.

TWOC and DO THE CREEPY THING were urban tales of supernatural happenings, while THREE WAYS TO SNOG AN ALIEN took on the eternal mystery that are Girls. Read this book and remember just how fascinating and strange these creatures seemed to your teenage eyes (and quietly admit that nothing has changed since - they still don't make any sense, even when you live with them, but by god they make out lives interesting! ;-P)

Joyce's most recent book for children is another supernatural tale, THE DEVIL'S LADDER. This one dealing with Sophie and James, two fourteen year olds from different schools (one posh public school the other a local comprehensive) who are both 'savants'. They can see things other people can't. They have weird dreams, that aren't quite dreams, Sophie calls them 'shimmers', and they have direct meaning in the real world. And they can see demons. Hanging around people. Sapping the life from them.

Now, I could go into the plot here, but I'm not going to. In part because, it's actually quite slim and I don't want to give it away. It's delicate, and like much of Joyce's writing, so much of the joy is in the surprises. In finding things out for yourself. Finding things out about the characters that you don't expect, being caught off guard.

And you will be. I've no doubt. I was. In a scene I should have seen coming. But didn't.

What's wonderful about Graham Joyce is how he keeps turning the characters and situations. Just when you think you've got it nailed, he twists the knife. Reveals something new. His characters are constantly surprising.

And his writing is so deceptively simple. You almost don't notice it's there. There's nothing in his style to get in the way or draw attention to itself. You almost don't notice that you're reading. You're just listening to a voice inside your head, telling you a story - or more likley SHOWING you a story. Because, at the top of his game, you're right inside there. Right inside the action, right inside the characters, feeling what they feel, seeing what they see... it's incredibly immersive.

By the end of THE DEVIL'S LADDER I was itching for more. And indeed it sets up the posibility of this becoming a series, leaves the possibility that we will see more from Sophie and James. I really hope we do.

By the end of this book it's like Joyce has set up the possibility of a series that is - in many ways - John Silence/Thomas Carnaki for kids. If you don't know those two names, put them into google, because you're missing out. Let us simply say that in their particular supernatural sub-genre, they are THE MEN to beat.

A couple of minor quibbles. Firstly, Faber should really think about re-doing the cover art. It's lacklustre at best, cliched and a little dull at worst. C'mon Faber, you're better than this. A good cover reallly makes the difference. It's the doorway to the book within (see earlier posts for more of my thinking). It grabs your attentiona and it sets the tone. This current cover isn't doing much of either.

Secondly, I had a weird time with the first few pages. Maybe even the first chapter or so - it felt a little underwritten. And having said you don't notice Joyces style (which is it's brilliance, it's deceptive simplicity - indeed the reason that the emotion of the writing hits so very close to home, I did notice a little here at first. Maybe it's me, maybe I need to take another look at it, but it almost felt like I was reading a detailed outline at first, that the story took a little while to settle in and find it's voice. I could be wrong there, it's just a feeling... and to be fair, by the end of chapter 2, I was hooked. If it took a little longer to get it's claws sunk deep in me - well, I'll forgive it that. Because when it's claws came out, they sank deep, gave me a tangible shiver, and wouldn't let me look away until the end.

All in all, THE DEVIL'S LADDER is good strong stuff. Genuinely unsettling. Genuinely dark, with a genuine edge of danger. Not for the faint of heart. Give it to kids with gumption.

SEASON OF MISTS...

October. Autumn. The smell of wet leaves rotting...

Time to embrace the little chill that makes you shiver. Endulge your dark side with a spooky tale or two.



Whether you love the classics: M.R. James (as good as it gets), J.Sheridan Le Fanu (there's a lovely copy of Unle Silas in the window at the mo'), William Hope Hodgeson (we've got The Ghost Pirates in store), Bram Stoker (never forget that Dracula still works as a novel - no film has ever quite lived up)...

Or something more contemporary: James Herbert (we've got an awful lot of him in store, and I don't think he's as valued as he should be), Kim Newman (clever and entertaining and weird), Peter Straub (perhaps the great classicist of contemporary horror), Ramsey Campbell (still one of the best),

Graham Joyce (we've got a copy of The Tooth Fairy in the window, and it's a bloody good on, the kind you don't shake off for days), Ray Bradbury (king of the October Country - a collection we don't have at the moment, but I'm looking for - but in the mean time there's always Something Wicked This Way Comes or Dandelion Wine) or good old Stephen King...

We've got something to cater for all tastes.

Hell, why not have a laugh and try some Guy N. Smith - The Slime Beast anyone? Or Night Of The Crabs!?

C'mon, get in the mood. The Ghosties and Ghoulies, and long-leggity Beasties are roaming the streets this month. Huddle up inside where it's safe. Read up on how best to defeat them if you need to. Enjoy the danger from the safety of your own home. The devil has all the best tunes... but the pact of a horror novel is that at the end of the day we know he'll put down his pipe, so we can stop dancing and return to our lives in safety.

"There is no delight the equal of dread." So says Clive Barker.

Enjoy an exquisite shiver.

Blavatsky meets Vonnegut

While the progeny of Madame Blavatsky and Dennis Wheatly remain on display, they've piled up into the corners to make way for a selection of Kurt Vonnnegut - although five minutes in Slaughterhouse 5 has already gone.

Vonnegut - who died this year - was one of the great minds of SF (although the literary estblishment might claim he wasn't anything so low; like Margaret Atwood's claims for Oryx and Crake at which we shake our heads and smirk a little, eyebrow's raised).

Slaughterhouse 5 seems to have found its way onto many a sylabus these days, and so is fairly widely read - it was made into a fairly decent film as well if memory serves, directed by George Roy Hill, who directed BUTCH & SUNDANCE...

But I digress.

We've got some of his other stuff:

GALAPAGOS, CAT'S CRADLE, DEADEYE DICK, SLAPSTICK and GOD BLESS YOU MR. ROSEWATER are all currently sitting in our window. Why don't you come and take a peak, pull a tooth as I like to think of it, since when a book sells from the window, it leaves a gap... buy a book, put it under your pillow and make a wish. You never know what might happen...

Let Your Mind Off It's Leash...

Okay, so the Horror display didn't quite come off... but it might yet.

I got distracted by some of the rather wonderful SF & Fantasy coming in to the shop. Not the avergage Dungeons & Dragons/Lord Of The Rings type rips offs, nor the Star Wars/Star Trek Space Opera's either. I'm talking about the kind of writing with IDEAS. The kind of writing that doesn't forget the human element in SF/Fantasy...

I'm talking Harlan Ellison's SHATTERDAY - one of the most amazing collections of short stories that I;ve ever read, and which doesn't pull it's punches in confronting you with all your weakest least admirable qualities. A book that confronts you and tells you to grow the hell up. I honestly think it made me a better person.



I'm talking about J.G. Ballard - may he rest in peace - who until recently was by far one of the finest writers on the planet, and certainly that this country has ever produced.

I'm talking about Richard Matheson's THE SHRINKING MAN - made into a brilliant B-Movie by Jack Arnold, but the book is A+ writing. Man's place in the universe stuff, but as exciting and emotional as anything I think I've ever read. Certainly as good as his other classic I AM LEGEND (which no film adaptation has yet come close to getting right, unless you count Night Of The Living Dead, which enters the ball park).



I'm talking Michael Moorcock, one of the most prolific and richly entertaining minds in British SF/Fantasy...

I'm talking Ray Bradbury's THE HALLOWEEN TREE - which really is perfect for October (coming soon), and even though it's a children's book, really, it's a wonderful read.



Enough. I think you get the picture.

Don't just take your body for a Holiday this year... send you mind out somewhere special. Let your imagination off it's leash. Let it see the sights in far off lands, the like of which your eyes may never see.

A book is a dream that you hold in your hands...

Start dreaming.

Children's Books & Dave McKean...

Dave McKean is one of the finest graphic artists working today. His remarkable work with Neil Gaiman on The Sandman, Mr. Punch and so on earned him a legion of admirers.

Recently he's been most visible in the UK doing children's book covers and illustration. And god, do we ever need him - check this one for David Almond's book THE SAVAGE...


Great, itsn't it? Full of emotion. Full of mystery. Beautiful, and slightly threatening at the same time.

Remember when children's book covers were dark, tantalising, spooky things that drew you in and made your wary of them at the same time? I do. Those covers were part of the texture of my childhood. Covers that graced the bookc of Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and others... you can expect an ongoing thread to crop up on this blog about it, as I bemoan the current state of illustration and cover design.

But for now, let's take some solace from one of the good guys. The outstanding Mr. Dave McKean... he's just done a set of stamp designs, based on British Folklore and Legend, with tiny stories/descriptions by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman.



Fantastic aren't they? They'd make you excited to receive some mail. But I can't help wondering what might happen when you give the things a lick...

Available at your local Post Office right now.

Coming Sooner...

Everything you can see here is me testing things out, playing around with format and background, finding out what I can do with blogger.

Nothing is permanent as yet... I'm just seeing how things look. Having some fun with textures and light and so forth.

If you're visiting - sorry there's nothing much to see. Not yet anyway...

But there will be. Soon.

In the meantime, the shop is open and running. Why not pop in. Take a look around.we believe in browsing. Have a look around... get carried away...



There's sackloads of good stuff inside!