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.Lanark: A Life in Four Books (Canongate Classics)

by: Alasdair Gray

May 31, 2007
At times brilliant, at times maddening in its self-indulgent opacity, this felt too much like an exercise in literary virtuosity, likely to be more satisfying for the author and his literary peers, than a book for the general reader stoically soldiering on, trying to make sense of it.

The author acknowledges his debt to Kafka; I suspect there is not a little of Aldous Huxley in there as well. In turn, I am sure he has inspired the likes of David Mitchell. I read an article on A.L. Kennedy where she nominated this book as this one of her most influential reads.
I can see it as one of those books which would appear as prescribed reading on literature courses; fine, if that's your thing.

Not one I can see myself ... Read More:
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Used Price: £4.85

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.Measure for Measure (Heinemann Advanced Shakespeare)

by: William Shakespeare

June 22, 2000
The actual annotations around the text were great which boosts the books rating up to a 2- shame it was all in the wrong order! Acts were in the wrong places, pages were missing and the contents page was somewhere about a fifth of the way through- waste of my money!!
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Used Price: £2.00

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.Travel with Kids (Footprint Handbooks)

by: William Gray

November 09, 2007
Like a lot of people we used to travel a lot before having kids. Now with children aged one and three we've been trying to work out the best way to holiday as a family i.e. how the kids can be happy, we can get a well deserved relaxing break, and we can have fun as a family. Not an easy thing to do. I've picked up a few of these books and they've never really got the balance right, they're either not practical enough, or they're so practical they take the fun out of the idea travelling with young a family.
This book gets it just right. It's beautifully produced, which makes it a pleasure to read. The advice and guidance is full of practical stuff, but delivered in a way that's meant to give you the inspiration and confidence to get on and book ... Read More:
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Used Price: £8.82

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.Lanark: Life in Four Books (Canongate Classics)

by: Alasdair Gray

August 28, 2002
i can't say that i completely understood it all, and at times i was bored, but when i was captivated it was astonishing. in some parts it felt like a history of the world in a few short words. no mean feat by the author. four stars awarded only because of my own intellectual limitations. i am hoping a future read will elevate the rating. the lush boxed-set packaging makes it a treat to own.
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Used Price: £1.50

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.Selected Poems of Thomas Gray, Charles Churchill and William Cowper (Penguin Classics)

by: Thomas Gray, Charles Churchill, William Cowper

February 26, 1998
Cowper's a hard poet to place. Walter Shrewing, the translator of the Odyssey in the Oxford World's Classics series, says (in an interesting afterward to that translation) that he thinks Cowper was the English poet best suited to translate the Odyssey, but that Copwer messed it up by trying to be Milton. (None of that translation is included here, but it's reprinted in full by Everyman paperbacks.)

Cowper had a great love of Milton's poems; but arguably there is no English poet who has written poems less like Milton's. What are perhaps Cowper's best poems -- certainly the most enjoyable -- are easy to read, and make you want to use Eighteenth-century terms of approval like "easy". At his best his poetry manages to be dignified, humorous and often ... Read More:
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.Lanark (Canongate Classics)

by: Alasdair Gray

April 30, 2001
i can't say that i completely understood it all, and at times i was bored, but when i was captivated it was astonishing. in some parts it felt like a history of the world in a few short words. no mean feat by the author. four stars awarded only because of my own intellectual limitations. i am hoping a future read will elevate the rating. the lush boxed-set packaging makes it a treat to own.
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Used Price: £13.95

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.Ansel Adams: Our National Parks

from: Bulfinch Press,U.S.

January 01, 2001
i can't say that i completely understood it all, and at times i was bored, but when i was captivated it was astonishing. in some parts it felt like a history of the world in a few short words. no mean feat by the author. four stars awarded only because of my own intellectual limitations. i am hoping a future read will elevate the rating. the lush boxed-set packaging makes it a treat to own.
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Used Price: £0.20

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.Promethea: Book 2

by: Alan Moore

2003-02
Issues ten and twelve in this collection are amazing. The conventional superhero narrative is discarded. Even panels are forgotten. You are left with pure ideas on a page (courtesy of Alan Moore) and brilliant images (thanx to the artist/s). Those two issues justify the purchace of this book.

Unfortunately, the other less revolutionary issues (or is it chapters?) are a bit of a let down. The superhero action in Promethea fails to exite as much as the psychedelic theorizing. Issue 11 in particular suffers from being between the two genius issues. It's a story about Promethea saving the world from crazy goo.
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Used Price: £6.41

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.Promethea: Book 1

by: Alan Moore

2001-07
Having been blown away by 'Watchmen' and 'V for Vendetta', I have been trying to absorb the rest of Alan Moore's backlist. After being slightly disappointed by 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', I hadn't really held out much hope for the first in the unsung Promethea series but since I'd bought, I thought I'd better read it.

I'm certainly glad I did; it's wonderful. The pictures are bold and faintly retro, tying in with the central idea that Promethea has existed in fiction for many years. The story frankly is mind blowing. Promethea hails from a world just beyond ours, a world created by the imagination; The Immateria. The story focuses on Sophie, Promethea's latest Avatar as she tries to come to terms with her new alter-ego.

The text is laden ... Read More:
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Used Price: £17.00

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.Zambia and Victoria Falls (Globetrotter Travel Pack)

by: William Gray

April 27, 2007
Having been blown away by 'Watchmen' and 'V for Vendetta', I have been trying to absorb the rest of Alan Moore's backlist. After being slightly disappointed by 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', I hadn't really held out much hope for the first in the unsung Promethea series but since I'd bought, I thought I'd better read it.

I'm certainly glad I did; it's wonderful. The pictures are bold and faintly retro, tying in with the central idea that Promethea has existed in fiction for many years. The story frankly is mind blowing. Promethea hails from a world just beyond ours, a world created by the imagination; The Immateria. The story focuses on Sophie, Promethea's latest Avatar as she tries to come to terms with her new alter-ego.

The text is laden ... Read More:
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Used Price: £3.81