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Saturday, May 23, 2009

Short reviews; bad language; my friend on Twitter


Last one first. My friend and workmate, George, joined Twitter this week, here http://twitter.com/dbfn

I take full responsibility for it, and you should all go check her out. She's funny, politically incorrect and has an awesome cat. But don't tell her I told you.
On to the short reviews. I finally, finally!!!! finished Slash, and Brideshead Revisited. I wasn't doing much reading last week, what with the Idol result bringing me way down, man; but I fought my way through. Worringly, my fan-girl obsession with Adam Lambert has not abated. My inner 15-year-old is now ascendant. Sigh.
This time on to the short reviews, really.
First, Slash, which he co-wrote with Anthony Bozza. It's a real rock n roll ride, and there's no way of writing a review of this somehow, without saying fuck. However, unlike in real life at the moment, I'll try and limit the bad language.
Here's the thing. The book is really fucking cool. It just … is. It's this incredibly wild ride and slide into the world of rock n roll, and the heyday of Guns N Roses who were, as I remember (I was a teenager at the time) THE biggest rock band. So the stuff towards the end of the book, which isn't gone into heavily, about the legal wranglings and the fights and such, is a real shame. Not only is my inner 15-year-old ascendant at the moment, but my inner (okay, dormant) rock chick is also demanding to be heard now that I've finished the book. Unfortunately, my iPod doesn't run to rock much _ I have two Led Zeppelin songs (and one of those is the one Adam Lambert did on Idol) and some scattered Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Sigh.
Oh, right, the book. It's really well put together; cohesively written, and obviously very personal to Slash. If rock music is your thing, or autobiographies, or hell, just a really great story, then I can thoroughly recommend picking it up.
Switching gears, the other book I finally finished this weekend was Brideshead Revisited. And I no longer have the urge to swear, but put on a dress, sit up straight and have tea and cucumber sandwiches. It's a lovely read but it's starting to fade a little bit, already. Insubstantial, perhaps.
It's all about memory, and perception. Charles Ryder gets drawn in to the Flyte family, first by second son Sebastian, who has Demons on his back, then daughter Julia, who doesn't know what to do with her Demons.
It begins during World War 2, and Charles is in the British army. His company has just requisitioned (or whatever you call it) the stately manor of Brideshead, which leads him back over his time with the Flytes and the profound effect they had on his life. It's a stylish read, I think, but perhaps not as deep as I wanted it to be.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really want to read this book!

Joanne ♦ The Book Zombie said...

Oh god you're so right - GnR was THE band! Even though we listened to the other hairbands (Poison/Slaughter) and the other heavy metal (Metallica/Megadeth) it was always GnR that got the most play *sigh* good times.

I'm reading Off The Rails right now, the Ozzy bio. But now I really want to give Slash a go :)