QUICKLY, FLIST

[fahye]

Okay, I have a 3 for 2 voucher for Borders and one of the 3 is going to be a present for a friend's 21st but the other two will be ALL MINE and I am feeling dangerously self-indulgent about it.

LIMITED TIME ONLY* OFFER: TELL ME A BOOK I SHOULD BUY!

Or else get vehemently yes/no about something on my current list of possibilities, which is as follows:

- Beyond Black (Hilary Mantel)
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)
- The End Of Mr Y (Scarlett Thomas)
- The Little Friend (Donna Tartt)
- A book of short true stories about AIDS in Africa

*Due to me having a lecture in half an hour, and then being flat-out until this afternoon when I have to run into the city to buy said books.

Comments

[agonistes]

THE KITE RUNNER

BY KHALED HOSSEINI

FOR SRS

[rimestock.livejournal.com]

Go with the AIDS book! Truth is stranger than fiction!! You like horrible communicable diseases anyway!!!

Oh god save me the exclamation marks are multiplying!!!!

[not-in-denial.livejournal.com]

I vote for "Beyond Black" because it's the name of a gay men's sex/dance club here in Melbourne, and the book of short true stories about AIDS in Africa because that sounds like a fucking amazing read.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

Hee! I think it is actually about a medium who...uh...actually I am hazy on the details other than the fact that it's a sophisticated ghost story, but I adore Hilary Mantel.

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

Mistress of the Art of Death by Arianna Franklin. One-sentence plot: CSI: Medieval Cambridge.

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters!

Or Affinity, same author.

[setissma.livejournal.com]

Um, hi, His Majesty's Dragon. *FLAILS*

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I already own that one :D

ALSO: HI.

[setissma.livejournal.com]

Well, rats.

Hi, for when you are back from Melbourne! :*

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

- The Little Friend (Donna Tartt)

Nearly everyone I know is mad about this book.

[fahye.livejournal.com]

I am torn. I LOVED The Secret History so I am sure this one will be great also, but I am prejudiced against it because...it's not about elitist murderous classics students? Er. It's all rather irrational.

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

Input: The Little Friend is almost unbelievably better written, but on the whole is not as interesting (or satisfying) as a book. For me, anyway. The most damning-yet-apt review line I've found for it is:

"For most of its length, The Little Friend lacks the drive of a book that needs to be written, even if it offers the considerable pleasures of being the work of someone who knows how to write."

- Guardian Unlimited (http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,819847,00.html) (the rest of the review is less apt, though)