READ THIS. READ THIS. READ THIS. AND THEN READ *THAT*.

[penguin2]

This is a public service announcement. A justifiably loud public service announcement.

READ LITTLE BROTHER BY CORY DOCTOROW. READ LITTLE BROTHER BY CORY DOCTOROW. READ LITTLE BROTHER BY CORY DOCTOROW.

JUST DO IT. BUY IT, BORROW IT, SNAFFLE IT, BUT PLEASE, PLEASE, JUST READ IT. SERIOUSLY. PLEASE....really. Not only is it fantastically well written

Comments

[paradigmshifty]

I posted that 6 months ago :-)

[penguin2]

Yeah, but I just read the book over the course of the past two-and-a-half hours today :D

I have to admit that I'd been avoiding it for months, simply because I do almost no fiction reading for pleasure (since there are only about a dozen published novelists out there in the world who IMTAO are good enough to deserve being published in the first place, and I long since got sick to the back teeth of trying recommended novels and ending up either slapping them down to the accompaniment of eye-rolling and heavy sighs or tossing them across the room in disgust at the poor quality of the prose). But Himself bought Little Brother on his latest donation run - yes, he actually did buy some stuff for our household too - and I was in need of a break from my own work, so I picked it up. Expecting to put it down rapidly. And found that I couldn't put it down at all until I'd finished it :-)

[penguin2]

I raise my tea as a toast to them!

Mmm, tea and toast...

[bekscilla]

Does http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ help in getting people to read it sooner?

[penguin2]

Oooo, good call! And of course, being Doctorow, it's out in the wild under a Creative Commons licence. But that said, I still want to encourage people to buy the book in a more physical form too ;-)

[bekscilla]

Well, yes, definitely :D

[penguin2]

Hee. I've added your link to the post now, thx!

Also, forgot to tell you that I found the Beatles movies. Might get Himself to sit down and watch Help! with me tonight :-)

[payroll_rat]

*in zombie mode* must... purchase... book...

I'm heading into town now, shall pick up a copy from Borders on the trip; you are one of a very few, whose recommendations literary and otherwise, I take seriously.

I stumbled across a literature review blog written by a highly sarcastic & pun-prone British SF/Parody author the other day, I think you might enjoy his ramblings: The Valve I especially enjoyed his piece on The Wizard of Oz. Even the folks who leave him comments are generally witty.

[penguin2]

Yay! I think you'll be pleased. And also furious, if the book has its intended effect! Like Pratchett's Nation, it's an any-ages novel masquerading under the Young Adult title :-)

And thx for the link - I shall explore now...

[payroll_rat]

...page 22 and I'm rather enjoying myself. :-)

Public Service Announcement:

Borders, Melb Ctrl - is sold out
Angus & Robertson - do not stock it at all
Readers Feast, Bourke St - have three copies on the shelf ($22.99)

Why I didn't go to Readers' first I don't know.

The Sold Out at Borders annoyed me & made me rather detirmined to find the sucker.

Imagine how much I wanted it when the counter-fellow (a lovely beared geek) at A&R confided that - they have a "do not stock" note on it & the authors' name is blanked out of the system...

[penguin2]

Excellent on all counts!

The "do not stock" thing is...interesting. I wonder if it's because the author is a proponent of copyright reform and has released Little Brother under a Creative Commons licence, making the full text available online for free download. Of course, it could just be A&R being wankers. As an old soldier from the frontlines of the music business, 'A&R', which stood for Artists and Repertoire (a division of every record label), was generally known to us as Arseholes and Reptiles...so that's very appropriate :-S