I'm reading the forum, bad day.

I'm reading Pavane by Keith Roberts, which is an alternate history where the Catholics assissinated Elizabeth I, thereby paving the way for the Spanish Armada to sack England and set up a Catholic state, keeping all of Europe in the Dark Ages well into the 20th Century.

It's part of a group book read on this Science Fiction message board that I am one of the Admins for. We do the group reads every couple months.

Let us start off on the right foot by making some wrong decisions.

'If I'd read this book ten years ago, I'd be Prime Minister now.'
Gordon Brown

fear and loathing in las vegas.

Highway to Hell: The Bon Scott biography.

i am reading highway to hell: the bon scott biography
im living in a nightmare shes looking like a wer dremn quote and reply reply page 22 23 norma j what are you read page 23 sonic youth gossip mozzial fire dox

jean-paul sartre - the wall

Sounds like a good one. I need some good sci-fi at the moment. Although I suppose that one isn't really sci-fi. Historical fiction? I suppose it's what you call 'speculative fiction' but that's a term made up by cunts to appeal to pricks. Sci-fi for people who are afraid of liking sci-fi. (ok, rant over)

I am reading The Final Journals of William Burroughs then I have Ghost of Chance by Burroughs to read and The White Guard by Bulgakov after that.

I just finished reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

Its horribly depressing.

Have any of you read it?

classics;)

What the fuck?

yes. very depressing.

"Speculative fiction" is kind of a broad term to include all of SF, Fantasy, Horror, and all points in between. I don't have the same chip on my shoulder about it that you do, but I do agree that the broadness leads to ambiguity. Pavane, and other alternate history books such as PKD's Man in the High Castle or any number of Harry Turtledove's books, are essentially a sub-set of Science Fiction. However, Pavane in particular borders on Steampunk and Science Fantasy as well. It's pretty good, a look at the thread in our message board will find me having somewhat mixed feelings about it (I use the name ljim2000 therebouts). Overall, it's quite well written, however.

I do reccomend the Author Central forum from the Science Fiction board as a great place to get all kinds of conversational reccomendations of SF to read since you say you're looking for that.

James Blonde enjoyed today Ronald David Laing's book "Knots".


http://www.oikos.org/knotpageen.htm

I'm reading William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury".

Next I'm going to read Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

I'm about to start JA Froude's Life and Letters of Eramus.

"Howl"



Got it for a Christmas gift

and
The Man In The High Castle

(also a Christmas gift)

Thanks...

My upset with the speculative fiction term basically boils down to the fact that it seems like a cheap ploy to dress up sci-fi and make it acceptable for people that think sci-fi is for geeks. Same with graphic novels, it's a comic for fuck sake. (although I must admit I will use the term graphic novel...I am a prick)