Friday, December 05, 2008

"The Neuromancer" and other "classics"

One of my favourite books is "the Neuromancer" by William Gibson. It is meant to have been the first science fiction book dealing with cyberspace and the first cyberpunk novel. It won the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the Hugo Award and made it to one version (and I don't know which one. I don't even know if there are several versions) of the Times 100 best English-language novels written since 1923.
I like the book overall but one of my favourite part about it is its first line: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." which in winter, and particularly today, I can really relate to.

Today I went second-hand-book shopping and I saw a copy of it. I must have bought at least four copies of it over the years. I did not buy another copy today. I cannot find it on my shelves and I am nearly sorry that I didn't buy another copy. But I bought a few other "classics":
I decided to forgive Joseph Conrad for having written the book that haunts me but that I cannot read and bought "Almayer's folly".
I bought two Graham Greene (always a mild source of surprise and embarrassment to me that I should be a fan of Graham Greene) "The Human Factor" and "Monsignor Quixote".
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen...and I am no Jane Austen fan, but I thought I should give it a try.
Rudyard Kipling, "The Light that Failed" just because one cannot read "The Just so Stories" again and again, and I had never heard of this book before.
"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman just because the cover says "Heaven to read, and you'll laugh like hell" and I wouldn't mind having a good laugh.

Now I just have to decide which of these I will take with me to work this Sunday.