Taken from The Sun, Friday April 30, 1976:

You knew it was good if Mary didn't like it, though apparently she endorsed Walk This Way (Aerosmith/Run DMC) so I think she got a bit confused sometimes

Thanks for that I've just finished The Fey and about to start the next one.

After watching Jack Reacher, I decided to download the first book One Shot via Kindle. Only through the first chapter and there's so much more than what happens in the film.

I've read Killing Floor before any news of the film. Absolutely loved it!

Tom Cruise really didn't suit my image of Jack though. Lol!

Have a read of my review in the Film Reviews thread. He just doesn't have the presence to be intimidating.

It's not the first Reacher book though

Oh balls. What's the first one? I assumed that since the film was based on One Shot, that's where I should have started. Where should I have gone for the first book?

EDIT: Turns out it was Killing Floor. Are the novels disparate or should I have started from the beginning?

Killing Floor. To be fair I've just read The Affair which is a new one yet set just before the events of Killing Floor so they don't necessarily run chronologically book by book. Gone Tomorrow was actually the first one I read before going back to the beginning.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
Interesting read.

Got a sh1tload of samples to test, including Simon Mann's book on his failed op. with Mark Thatcher

I've just finished reading 'Secrets Of The Conqueror: The Untold Story Of Britain's Most Famous Submarine'.
The most revealing bit is how corrupt politicians were prepared to ruin the lives of some of the crew to cover up for thir own lies.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cry-Havoc-overt ... 360&sr=1-1

I couldn't even finish the sample, it's hilariously bad. It's a mixture of video game script and even more ridiculous posturing


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008 ... s_o00__i00

Currently reading this, absolutely excellent so far. Doesn't mess about asking if it can ever be justified, just gives you the facts.

1st one reads like a Garth Merengi script. Blood. Blood.

A few years ago a good friend of mine moved to Japan leaving me as custodian of his massive SciFi book collection. Since then I have been working my way through 1000+ books and I'm currently approaching the one third mark...

What I have found. For me nearly everything written before the mid 80s (pre Gibson's Neurmancer) really hasn't aged very well. There's some fantastic ideas, but they are mostly poorly executed. I've just finished "The Forever War" which is a brilliant concept - fighting a war with an enemy light years away where your intelligence is always at least 10 years out of date, and your soldiers have no idea how technologically advanced (or not) the enemy might be when they actually reach the convict zone. However the story telling itself is pretty average and the human interest sub-plots are either dull or simply don't ring true.

On the other hand I have discovered Walter John Williams. Everything I have read by him is great. Go out and read some today. If you can find a copy start with Metropolitan - one of my favourite books I have read in the last 10 years. AFAICS only his three most recent novels are currently in print and he's currently working in what I would call present day SciFi which takes technology that's currently still in development and assumes it's working and out there (in the same way that the most recent William Gibson Books have done). You do need to read them in the right order or you'll be even more confused that the main character in the last book by what is going on - start with "This Is Not A Game".

So what am I currently reading? "Perfecting Sound Forever" by Greg Milner. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of recording and recorded music in particular. Then I have a couple of recent SciFi books that I got for Christmas before it's back to my friends collection to see what other gems I can unearth.