Literature

[slycat]

Just a quick note to say that I finished reading Koushun Takami's Battle Royale today, which as many will know was made into a film. I had only seen half the film but knew what it was roughly about. However, the book pads out the story and the characters much further than the film ever touched on. It's excellently translated from it's native Japanese, in fact would be hard to imagine that it started out in anything other than English if it wasn't for the Japanese named characters. Great suspense, great suprises, great gore and a great twist! I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys alternative views on the future but also doesn't mind a bit of ultraviolence along the way :)

Now I'm on to one of the books I bought in a recent Amazon order, the latest from Red Dwarf co-creator, Rob Grant called Incompetence. A story based in the near future where governments have passed legislation that no-one can be prejudiced from employment due to incompetence. I'm 2 chapters in and it seems rather silly, in true Rob Grant style. Things seem to go wrong everywhere due to the general incompetence of everyone. Seems rather unfeasable but I'll give it a chance.

In other paperback related news, as I'm a frequent visitor of London Waterloo where marketing companies tend to give out stuff free to busy commuters to help increase awareness of their products, I have been able to sample the two new weekly mens magazines, Nuts and Zoo Weekly (who thinks up these names?). Anyway, Nuts came first last Thursday which turned out to be an entertaining mish mash of quirky stories, silly photos, gadgets, girls, film and TV reviews. Thought it wasn't bad and would check out the following weeks issue. Zoo Weekly came out yesterday and was disappointed to find that it was primarily football and tit photos. It still had some silly photos and reviews but the emphasis was definitley on football, something I have no interest in what-so-ever. What clinched my opinion on the two magazines was their review of Big Fish. Zoo gave it 2/5 while Nuts gave it 5/5. From that, I much respected Nuts' opinion over Zoo.

Doubt many people care about this new weekly mens magazine business but I picked up the new issue of Nuts today and again was entertained by the content and didn't feel like I was just having football and tits shoved in my face. I guess they are in fact aimed at different target audiences with different people preferring the different magazines. Zoo is quite frankly aimed at the townie stereotyope while Nuts treats it's readers with more respect for their intelligence... even if it does have a shit name (while at the same time not being as odd as 'Zoo').

Comments

[lazerus101.livejournal.com]

Its never fun having football and tits shoved in your face at the wrong moment.... :D

[slycat.livejournal.com]

I suppose I should have worded that a bit more carefully :P

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Things seem to go wrong everywhere due to the general incompetence of everyone. Seems rather unfeasable but I'll give it a chance.

On the contrary.. case in point. I'm always left amazed at how the individual involved manages to remain employed, despite.. well, you can see for yourself. (I'm equally amazed the writer's avoided throttling her with a mouse cable)

Hm. I may have to see if Nuts has anything much by way of a website.. sounds vaguely like a much more broadly-based Fortean Times. ^_^ I may have to see Big Fish.. I gave it a miss initially, but rumblings from various quarters seem to've been quite positive, and Tim Burton's never really released a bad movie - simply some (Mars Attacks, Batman Returns, Beetlejuice) better than others (Sleepy Hollow). I'll forever be thankful to him for making MA.. it proved to be the antidote I so sorely needed after unwitting exposing myself to Independence Day, about the only film I've ever been tempted to walk out of, save for the matter of it being a company outing, and thus potentially a little unwise. ^_^ (The only other occasion was fairly early in Fierce Creatures; the exact spot should be obvious. *grin* Yep, hook, line, and sinker..)

I still need to locate a good quality image of the lemur costume from the latter.. now there's the kind of movie merchandising I'd like to see more of. ^_^

Do these giveaways mostly happen during commute hours? I'm (very) occasionally in Marylebone and Paddington (Amtrak could only wish for stations like that!), but the closest I've come to a train-related freebie was a copy of Mojo someone left on a Valley Lines train one night, and subsequently handed to me by the conductor.

[slycat.livejournal.com]

I'm always left amazed at how the individual involved manages to remain employed

Hmm, good point, our manager for example...

Tim Burton's never really released a bad movie

You've obviously not seen his awful "re-imagining" of Planet of the Apes then ;)

I still need to locate a good quality image of the lemur costume from the latter

Hehe, yeah it was cute. A friend, enigmafox178 made one himself, not to far from the one in that film. See pics here

I'm (very) occasionally in Marylebone and Paddington

You are? I thought you lived in America... Anyway, the handouts don't happen every day so you just have to keep an eye out. I don't think they happen at all the major London stations either but you may get lucky. The handouts always happen during commuting hours (8am in the morning and 6pm in the evening) as this is when the greatest volume of passengers pass through the station. I've picked up many a great thing in the past ranging from energy drinks to cough sweets :)