Chuck Klosterman IV
A loose collection of artist profiles, opinion columns and random other bits of writing. Klosterman is a very readable writer but can take some very annoying positions on popular culture.
He's got a whole more broadminded than thou thing going on, combined with a popular is good except when I don't like it stance. Like I say, annoying.
Breakfast At Tiffanys
Capote's novella is famously the basis of a much sanitised hollywood film version. In this, the original work, it's pretty blatant that Holly is a hooker of sorts and she's portrayed as even more of a creature of impulse and criminal tendencies that she is in the film.
I got the impression that Holly was something almost feral yet so glamorous that the narrator loved her from a distance in his way but never really understood her.
Not my usual kind of thing but it's a pretty good read and is definitely worth seeking out if you've only ever seen the film version of these particular characters.
Under Old Earth and Other Explorations
This collection, as with the majority of Cordwainer Smith's work, is set among the worlds of the Instrumentality - his vision of far future humanity. Smith was primarily a short story writer - only writing one novel - and this book contains some of his finest work.
For much of this collection I found it a chore to finish the stories.
Smith had some fantastic ideas, with some very astute insights into the future of humanity, the milieu is superbly realised with every nuance thought through, but his writing can be as dry and unexciting as cold toast.
(As an aside Smith's real name was Paul Linebarger, and he was a professor of Asiatic Studies and an expert on psychological warfare. I suppose I could blame his writing style on this background, but I'm clueless when it comes to literary theory)
Highlight for me would be the story of the deposed ruler, who instead of coming back to his kingdom with an army, sneaks in and saves his people by subtly altering the mind of the dictator who replaced him.
This is worth a quick read if you have a keen interest in the past giants of science fiction, or if you are particularly keen on short
story collections. It really wasn?t my kind of thing.
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