Koi's Notebook

( Review: Dead Sky, Black Sun by Graham McNeill )

This book is:
* - huge in scope and vision
* - above-average in quality of prose
* - fourth in a series

This book is not:
* - done any services by the disparity between scale of ideas and quality of prose
* - at all comprehensible without reading the other three books first
* - slow

( Review: Heartbreak & Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story by Shawn Michaels and Aaron Feigenbaum )

This book is:
* - mediocre
* - 50% whitewash
* - 25% nausea-inducing born-again Christian fluff

This book is not:
* - a good conversion of Mr Michaels' communication style from television to text
* - detailed in any sense
* - worth reading unless you're a colossal Shawn Michaels fan with no critical faculties whatsoever

( Review: The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez )

This book is:
* - fast, easy summarisations of crazy situations
* - Messers Alvarez and Reynolds putting the boot in on those they blame for the downfall of a company they loved
* - as biased as two donkeys

This book is not:
* - going to explain its data
* - going to reveal its sources
* - going to give the reader a remotely balanced view of anything

( Review: The Chalice by Phil Rickman )

This book is:
* - too long with too little action
* - contained of good, realistically human characters
* - about how Glastonbury screws people up

This book is not:
* - interesting enough to finish
* - living up to its potential
* - Mr Rickman's best work

( Review: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman )

This book is:
* - very good
* - one of my favourites
* - about the unification of opposites

This book is not:
* - specifically like anything else out there
* - exactly a book for the young adult market
* - all that far about young adult market

( Review: Are You Ready? The Unauthorized History of DX by Triple H & Shawn Michaels with Aaron Williams )

This book is:
* - short on pages, shorter on content
* - corporate product
* - a tape transcript of two guys sitting in a hotel room rambling about things they did ten years ago

This book is not:
* - shocking, revealing or even surprising
* - going to tell you anything you didn't know if you already know anything about DX
* - literature, or indeed anything related to literature by blood, marriage, divorce, lawsuit or breaking-and-entering

( Review: Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories, ed. Roald Dahl )

This book is:
* - to be read around about Christmas
* - contained of many gentle ghost stories
* - contained of a few good ghost stories

This book is not:
* - scary
* - as good as Roald Dahl wanted it to be
* - in print

( Review: Books of Blood volume III by Clive Barker )

This book is:
* - short
* - sticky
* - okay-to-pretty good

This book is not:
* - refined intellectual horror
* - Mr Clean White American versus The Scary Dark Thing
* - the work of an author who has reached the height of his abilities

( Review: Have A Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley )

This book is:
* - the autobiography of a man who gets hurt for money
* - well-written
* - not for the faint-hearted

This book is not:
* - ghostwritten
* - compromising on ugly details
* - short

4/3/10 - 13/3/10 - Ill
14/3/10 - 2390 words on Rick-Rack
15/3/10 - Ill
16/3/10 - 2458 words on Rick-Rack
17/3/10 - 747 words on Rick-Rack
18/3/10 - 1223 words on Rick-Rack
19/3/10 - 21/3/10 - Ill
22/3/10 - 28/3/10 - Holiday

( Review: The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson )

This book is:
* - deranged
* - sexist
* - awful

This book is not:
* - a good example of anything
* - sure what genre it is
* - to be read