This tag was originally created by Ellyn @ Allonsythornraxx. This is my take on the same set of questions, and I am tagging you to do the same should you wish too.
1) What are you currently reading?
The Late Greats by Nick Quantrill – Joe Geraghty, a Hull born and bred Private Investigator is hired to baby sit pop band New Holland, who are making a come back, he thinks it’s going to be a boring and cushy job. However, he couldn’t be more wrong as he is soon finds himself embroiled in a maelstrom of violence and desperation.
2) What’s your favourite “can’t leave the house” activity?
Well, other than eating copious amounts of biscuits I have enjoyed having more time to write, and spending time with my fiancee.
3) A book you’ve been meaning to read for forever?
The Bastard Wonderland by Lee Harrison – In a land not too far away and a time yet to be decided, one man and his dad embark on an epic journey of war, peace, love, religion, magnificent flying machines and mushy peas. Centred around a deeply touching father and son relationship, The Bastard Wonderland is a magnificent epic steam-punk fantasy that leaps over genres and pisses on them from a great height, takes in war, religion, mushy peas and magnificent flying machines and will make you laugh, cry and think – often in the space of a single page.
4) An intimidating book on your TBR?
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace – Somewhere in the not-so-distant future the residents of Ennet House, a Boston halfway house for recovering addicts, and students at the nearby Enfield Tennis Academy are ensnared in the search for the master copy of Infinite Jest, a movie said to be so dangerously entertaining its viewers become entranced and expire in a state of catatonic bliss
5) Top Three Priority Books on your TBR?
The Aeronauts Windlass by Jim Butcher – Since time immemorial humanity has lived inside the Spires, habitats towering for miles over the dangerous, monster-inhabited surface of the world.
Captain Grimm of the merchant airship, Predator, was dismissed from Spire Albion’s military in disgrace – now his ship and crew are all he has, and he’s fiercely loyal to both. When the Predator is severely damaged in combat Grimm has only one choice – take on a clandestine mission for Albion’s leaders, or stay grounded for good.
And even as Grimm undertakes this perilous task, he will learn that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake .
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murukami – When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.
Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes – Set in the Scar, where the magical, decadent Imperium battles the upstart, technologically-savvy Revolution, SEVEN BLADES IN BLACK follows the exploits of Sal the Cacophony, the most famous and dangerous of all the rogue mages.
6) Recommend a short book.
The Vegetarian by Han Kang – Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye’s decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister’s husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming – impossibly, ecstatically – a tree. Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
7) Recommend a long book.
Shogun by James Clavell – A triumph of research and plot over character and subtlety, Clavell’s historical novel about an Englishmen who goes native with the first Japanese shogun is the first among equals of the James Michener era of middlebrow informational epics.
8) Something you’d love to do while stuck at home?
Bite the bullet and finally start writing the novels I have been planning for 5 years, just need to take a deep breath and take the plunge.
9) What do you plan on reading next?
The Thousand Names by Django Wexler – Marcus d’Ivoire, senior captain of the Vordanai Colonials, is resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost, when a rebellion leaves him in charge of a demoralised force in a broken down fortress. Winter Ihernglass, fleeing her past and masquerading as a man, just wants to go unnoticed. Finding herself promoted to a command, she must rise to the challenge and fight impossible odds to survive. Their fates rest in the hands of an enigmatic new Colonel, sent to restore order while following his own mysterious agenda into the realm of the supernatural.
Between|the|Blurb 