What Are You Reading?

[caruso_stalker217]

I never meant to deceive anyone. I am truly sorry.

Now I'm wishing Peter Falk did write a novelization of POPEYE.

[Fievel]

Now I'm wishing Peter Falk did write a novelization of POPEYE.

Only if he did the audiobook - as Columbo.

[Wolfpack]

Peter Falk... William Faulkner....

...and I thought caruso was being serious.

Now everyone laugh at the silly mouse! Laugh at the silly little mouse-man!!

[caruso_stalker217]

I've read my first Octavia Butler book, Fledgling, which was her last because she is dead.

The book is full of typographical errors.

It is a book about vampires. Specifically a 53 year old vampire who looks like a ten year old girl and has full blown sexual encounters with adult humans and whatnot. Which can be uncomfortable for people.

There are themes and so forth that are interesting. I like the demythologistization of the vampires and how Butler handles/handled (she is dead) familiar tropes like, well, familiars by making the vampire/human relationship a symbiotic one.

Vampires are racist too.

The story became fairly repetitive and talky. I suppose structurally this thing barely rises above Twilight standards, but there are fewer adverbs so you know Butler knew her shit. She doesn't know anything now. She's dead.

This thing smelled like the first in a projected series, but the aforementioned dead author died not too long after this book was published. I expect she will remain dead for the foreseeable future, so I guess I'll have to check out the other books she wrote before she stopped being alive.

This was a review.

[TheBaxter]

I've read my first Octavia Butler book, Fledgling, which was her last because she is dead.

she's not dead. she's just researching her next book.

[caruso_stalker217]

Here's what I read last month:

Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy
Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
Glitz, Elmore Leonard
Freaky Deaky, Elmore Leonard
Fledgling, Octavia E. Butler
Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Djibouti, Elmore Leonard

I see going to the library really bumps my numbers up. This was the first time I'd checked anything out since January. I've gone through just about all the Elmore Leonard they've got. Gonna be dipping into more Faulkner and whatever Cormac McCarthy stuff they have. I'm reading Child of God right now and there is more necrophilia than I was expecting, but to be fair I wasn't expecting any so it might not be as much as I think.

[caruso_stalker217]

I've read my first Octavia Butler book, Fledgling, which was her last because she is dead.

she's not dead. she's just researching her next book.

PedoZombies.

[TheBaxter]

just finished reading A Game of Thrones, and figured i'd follow it up with a little light reading.
so now i'm reading a book about four people who befriend each other while attempting suicide.

[SilentBobX]

About 90% done with A Dance With Dragons and if I manage the time well, I'll pick up The Nixon Tapes. I saw a news piece on CBS' Sunday Morning and some of the tidbits of Nixon's anti-Semitism were a bit disconcerting to say the least. Anyone else thinking of getting this or read it already?


Mahalo

[caruso_stalker217]

Here's what I read last month:

Child of God, Cormac McCarthy
Road Dogs, Elmore Leonard
Light In August, William Faulkner
Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard

I've just finished The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard and Joyland by Stephen King. I have about a hundred pages left of Suttree by Cormac McCarthy and I just started Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard. Next up is Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. It's about boats or something.

[Ribbons]

A little light reading, I see.

I'm on Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It's pretty dorky but I'm into it.

[Fievel]

A little light reading, I see.

I'm on Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It's pretty dorky but I'm into it.

I listened to the audiobook of Ready Player One a few years ago based on recommendations here in teh zone. Wil Wheaton read it and he was perfect. That book was so overhyped on the main site that I didn't want to read it. But.... I absolutely fell in love with the story. I hope you enjoy it as well.

I'm in the final book of The Strain trilogy (The Eternal Night). The series as a whole has been entertaining.

[minstrel]

I'm reading Nova, by Samuel R. Delany. I read this when I was about thirteen, but none of it stuck with me. It turns out Delany writes some pretty advanced prose for a sci-fi writer, has a brilliant sense of imagery and isn't afraid of a massive scope. The characterization is a bit weak, but that's par for the course. He is clearly trying to blow my mind, though, and I appreciate a writer who takes on that challenge.

[Ribbons]

I am generally not into audiobooks because of my poor attention span, but I'm currently listening to Tina Fey read her own Bossypants on tape. Funny stuff.

[caruso_stalker217]

I am reading Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian and try as I might to picture Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, all I keep seeing is Hugh Laurie in full on Prince George mode.

[Al Shut]

Does that make the book better or worse?

[caruso_stalker217]

Too early to call.

[minstrel]

I just picked up a book called Little, Big by John Crowley. I've heard good things about this. It's pretty long and dense, so it'll take me a while to read, but I hope it'll be worth it.

[caruso_stalker217]

Here's what I read in August:

The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane, Robert E. Howard
Joyland, Stephen King
Cuba Libre, Elmore Leonard
Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian
Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
Dirty Money, Richard Stark

I started reading The Stand last month, but set it aside to beef up my August reading with Sharp Objects and Dirty Money, both of which I read over three days. Sharp Objects is Gillian Flynn's first novel and the first of hers that I have read. It's pretty good. She's a terrific writer. I'm reading her second novel Dark Places right now which apparently has been made into a movie that may come out some day starring Charlize Theron, which is a terrible casting choice. I'm picturing more of a Kate Mara type for that character, or anyone who isn't eighty fucking years old.

[TheBaxter]

if you haven't read Gone Girl yet, make sure you read that one before the film comes out.

[caruso_stalker217]

I haven't read it yet and I've been debating whether to or not before seeing the film. I try not to read books too soon before seeing the film because I find it difficult not to compare the two while I'm watching. But I am liking her writing, so I'll probably read it after Dark Places.

[TheBaxter]

i have a strong feeling the plot developments in Gone Girl will work better in written form than in film form. seeing the film first would spoil a lot of the fun of the book, whereas the film will probably work fine if you've already read the book.

[caruso_stalker217]

I burned through the last 170 pages of Gone Girl last night. This is the best book I've read in a long time. I'm am even more super looking forward to the film next month.

I've heard complaints about the book's ending, but I thought it was perfect and I hope the film's supposed different ending isn't some bullshit.

[caruso_stalker217]

What I read last month:

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
Touch, Elmore Leonard
The Stand, Stephen King

Kind of a puny list this time around, but considering that The Stand is longer than the first three books on that list combined I think I can give myself a pass.

[Spandau Belly]

Jim Henson: The Biography
by Brian Jay Jones

Jim Henson was an entertainer whose work I always admired. He died when I was a kid and I remember his death having a big impact on me at the time. I didn't really ever know much about him, though. His status as one of the world's greatest entertainers was already cemented by the time I was born, so it's not like I watched him develop and grow. His characters were just an accepted part of pop culture by then.

I chose to read this biography because it was well-reviewed for being incredibly well researched, and I must agree that it is. The level of detail that Jones gets on Henson's life is amazing. Jones had access to Henson's personal diary and interviewed Henson's family and colleagues. The interviews provide excellent insight into Henson's character, but also the development of his projects and many fun anecdotes (Henson dropping acid). Frank Oz is by far the funniest, any quotation from him is usually hilarious.

The book paints Henson as a man who struggled a lot with his image. He never wanted to be a puppeteer, and once he became known as a puppeteer, he didn't want puppeteering to be thought of as children's entertainment. His original vision of The Muppets was a lot more along the lines of SOUTH PARK, in that he hoped he could use puppets to deliver shocking comedy and social satire that would be too edgy for any live performer to do.

The most interesting part of the book was all the projects Henson could never get off the ground. At one point he tried to reinvent himself as a disco owner. He had a vision for a futuristic disco designed like a cave made of crystals in which themed film footage would be projected on the walls and live performers would enter the dance floor through trap doors. He also had a lot of ideas for tv shows that never got picked up. Some of which were Muppet spinoffs and he also had a FRAGGLE ROCK spinoff that never happened.

He was always trying to do something new, never just coasting on the beloved characters he created early in his career. And so, people never knew what to expect from him, or what to make of it. Reading this book, I discovered that many of Henson's works were poorly received, especially in his homeland of USA. This book informed me that LABYRINTH was a critical and commercial failure in USA, but a success virtually everywhere else. This hit Jim really hard, seeing as he felt a lot of that movie was an effort to learn from the criticisms levelled against THE DARK CRYSTAL, but the result was even more poorly received than the lukewarm reception to THE DARK CRYSTAL. Henson would also have a very draining feud with Roald Dahl, who hated the Henson-produced film adaptation THE WITCHES (Nicolas Roeg directed it).

The book is definitely not a sleazy tell-all. It is written to honour Henson's legacy. The book mentions, but defintely glosses over Henson's womanizing. I tend to believe this book's account of Henson as a good guy with no real "dark side", but maybe that's because I want to. If you're interested in how Henson built his career and his creative process, this is an excellent read.

[caruso_stalker217]

October reading:

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien
The Return of the King, J.R.R. Tolkien
Dolores Claiborne, Stephen King


I finally read The Lord of the Rings all the way through. Wooo.

Currently revisiting The Talisman.

[TheBaxter]

in preparation for the new Anne Rice book Prince Lestat, i re-read the first 5 vampire chronicle novels (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil). it was a reminder of how good the books can be at times, but also how far up their own asses the characters and Rice's writing is able to get sometimes. also apparently i need to read a few of the non-Lestat vampire books because at the end of Memnoch, Armand walks out into the sun and lets himself burn up but in Prince Lestat Armand is still alive and well and no longer a pile of ashes.

anyway, just started Prince Lestat, hopefully it will be good.

[so sorry]

October reading:

I finally read The Lord of the Rings all the way through. Wooo.

Thoughts?

[caruso_stalker217]

October reading:

I finally read The Lord of the Rings all the way through. Wooo.

Thoughts?

I liked it quite a bit and have even been reading all that bullshit in the appendices.

The Two Towers is my personal favorite.

[Ribbons]

Seeing as that's the only one I finished, I'd be inclined to agree

[so sorry]

October reading:

I finally read The Lord of the Rings all the way through. Wooo.

Thoughts?

I liked it quite a bit and have even been reading all that bullshit in the appendices.

The Two Towers is my personal favorite.

Cool. I'm not a big reader, but I count LoTR series as my all time favorite, warts and all. If you feel like reading more Tolkien I suggest Children of Hurin, which is way darker material.

[TheBaxter]

2 things i've learned while reading Prince Lestat:

1) iPhone is the official smartphone of vampires everywhere
2) anne rice has learned to use "air-quotes" literally... i can practically see her making the air-quote sign with her fingers whenever a portion of text is inexplicably put inside quotation marks, though i still can't quite picture how she manages to do that and still type at the same time.

[TheBaxter]

PRINCE LESTAT

aka ANNE RICE GOTTA EAT
aka ANNE RICE GOES ALL STEPHEN KING AND STARTS WRITING ABOUT IPHONES AND SHIT
aka ANNE RICE GOES ALL GEORGE RR MARTIN ON STEROIDS AND PUTS ABOUT A THOUSAND NEW CHARACTERS IN HER BOOKS AND GIVES EACH ONE THEIR OWN CHAPTER
aka ANNE RICE GOES ALL GEORGE LUCAS AND STARTS OVEREXPLAINING VAMPIRES MIDICHLORIAN-STYLE
aka ANNE RICE GOES ALL TOLKIEN AND WRITES A BUNCH OF APPENDICES AND SHIT TO MAKE HER FICTIONAL WORLD SEEM EVEN BIGGER AND MORE COMPLEX
aka ANNE RICE GOES ALL (insert modern-day YA author name here) AND INVENTS HER OWN BRAND OF VAMPIRE 'LINGO' AND OVERUSES IT THROUGH THE ENTIRE BOOK

i was excited when i found out anne rice was writing more Vampire Chronicles books. i went back and re-read the first 5 VC books (the only ones i'd already read, and that i heard this book was a direct sequel to those 5 books specifically). what i learned re-reading those books is that there's just as much moping and self-loathing as i remembered, but not quite as much story as i thought. Interview had the most stuff happening of all those books. i stopped reading after Memnoch cause it seemed like Rice was just going back to old characters and repeating herself. apparently stuff actually does happen in those later books, since the new book refers to characters and events that happened in them, which was a bit confusing. anyways, despite their flaws, i do like those early VC books. sure the mopey vampire is a cliche, but Rice invented the cliche so she gets a pass.

Prince Lestat is really a disappointment. as mentioned, the vampires suddenly figured out how to use technology, and Rice overdoes the tech references. at the same time, unlike King, she doesn't really seem to understand her own references as well so they are more vague and repetitive. she also, as i mentioned, felt the need to create a massive new cast of characters (so massive, there's a 3-page long bio section at the end explaining who each person is) and in true GoT style, titles each chapter after one of these characters (but unlike GRRM, instead of only using 6 or 7 characters with repeated chapters, she gives most of these characters a single chapter and moves on). the most disappointing thing, i think, is the quality of the writing. Rice has always been a flowery writer, too flowery at times probably. but still it always had an elegance to it. not here though. the writing is pedestrian and shaky. Rice seems a bit rusty. it probably doesn't help that she decided to invent a series of terms (summarized in a glossary at the book's beginning) to refer to various aspects of vampire life that i believe (though i can't say for sure, not having read some of the later VC books) are completely new, or that maybe were used once or twice before but here become codified into an entirely new vocabulary. and then she rams those terms down your throat on nearly every page of this book. suddenly a vampire's ability to fly is called the Cloud Gift, and the ability to set someone on fire is the Fire Gift, and the root of vampire power that resides in the oldest vampire is now the Sacred Core (everything is dutifully capitalized in this way). all these things existed in prior books (at least the 5 i read) but not in Capitalized Letter, used-by-every-character form. the idea that the vampires all suddenly decided to use the same lame terms for their powers and such is distracting, and the need to shoehorn those terms into nearly every page of the book results in prose that is clunky and obnoxious.

the story itself is ok. a bit of a retread of Queen of the Damned, and most of the plot points (the identity of the mysterious Voice, the ultimate way in which this character's threat is dealt with) are predictable, but towards the end there are some interesting things going on. it's just it takes too long to get there, with too many new, pointless characters introduced along the way (some of which i'm sure will become more useful in the future books Rice says she has planned), and distracted by too much stupid crap like a vampire doctor who's researching vampire biology. at least by the end of the book, the vampires are not mopey any more though. well, not AS mopey i guess.

Rice says she had so many new ideas she had a hard time deciding what to put in or leave out. it shows. so there's more VC books on the way. i don't know if i'll read them. i can't exactly say i'm thirsting ( ) for more.

[so sorry]

So what is Lestat "Prince" of?

[caruso_stalker217]

So what is Lestat "Prince" of?

Of being a vampire. DUH.

[TheBaxter]

So what is Lestat "Prince" of?

Of being a vampire. DUH.

that's pretty much it.
he starts out as the prince of whining and mopery.
he ends up prince of the vampires.
which is straining credulity as it is, after reading his antics in the previous books why anyone would want him to be their ruler is hard to figure. and the fact that it is pretty much the one and only thing that the vampires can all agree on unanimously, is a little hard to swallow ( ) as well.

[caruso_stalker217]

I've been reading The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. It's a well-known major Lord of the Rings rip-off and it's not all that well-written, but I'm almost 200 pages in and probably too late to toss aside.

[so sorry]

I've been reading The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. It's a well-known major Lord of the Rings rip-off and it's not all that well-written, but I'm almost 200 pages in and probably too late to toss aside.

Oh man I remember reading that when I was around 14, at the height of my D&D days. Don't remember a damned thing about it though.

[Peven]

oh man, that book is so lame, I read it back in the mid 80's and even though I was a rabid fantasy fan I had no interest in reading any more books in the series or by Brooks. try The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson, starting with Lord Foul's Bane. great books

[caruso_stalker217]

The only other Terry Brooks books I've read are Running With The Demon (which I recently re-read and it's not bad) and Star Wars Episode I novelization (which also is pretty good, I recall).

And maybe a bit of Magic Kingdom For Sale--Sold!

I've been curious to try out the Thomas Covenant books. I've got a long fucking line of shit to read, though.

[caruso_stalker217]

Here was my reading from last month:

Nobody Move, Denis Johnson
Running With The Demon, Terry Brooks
Revival, Stephen King

I finally quit The Sword of Shannara around the 400 page mark. I had much better things to do.

I recently bought a stack of Elmore Leonard books, so I think those should carry me for the rest of the year.

[Wolfpack]

Reading (for the first time) "Dune." I'm liking how much ol' Frank thought through the "living on a planet with extreme water scarcity" concept. I saw the movie when I was a young'un, but all I remember is the guy from Twin Peaks with a lame haircut riding giant worms.

[so sorry]

Reading (for the first time) "Dune." I'm liking how much ol' Frank thought through the "living on a planet with extreme water scarcity" concept. I saw the movie when I was a young'un, but all I remember is the guy from Twin Peaks with a lame haircut riding giant worms.

I read Dune shortly after the movie came out, at the young age of 14. Went well over my head. I should revisit it.

[Ribbons]

Hell, I only read Dune a couple years ago and a lot of it went over my head. All the stuff about race consciousness and "terrible purpose" in the second half makes me wonder if some of Herbert's ideas weren't a by-product of an acid trip. That said it's a pretty cool book. I never read any of the sequels but I love the world and its characters.

Fear is the mind killer.

[TheButcher]

Hell, I only read Dune a couple years ago and a lot of it went over my head. All the stuff about race consciousness and "terrible purpose" in the second half makes me wonder if some of Herbert's ideas weren't a by-product of an acid trip. That said it's a pretty cool book. I never read any of the sequels but I love the world and its characters.

Fear is the mind killer.

The little death.

[Al Shut]

Instructions For British Servicemen in Germany 1944

I'm especially fond of the indications of pronunciation in the words and phrases section.

Shprisht yaymant english?

[Wolfpack]

Off to be the Wizard by Scott Meyer

I found out about this book because Amazon said "Because you liked Ready Player One...."

It's about a hacker who finds out reality is a computer simulation and stumbles across a .txt file that allows him to alter anything about reality he wishes. This includes his bank account and as you expect he gets carried away, The Man finds out, and he escapes by changing his time and location to Dover, England in 1150. Suffice it to say he is not the only person who knows about the file. Hijinks ensue.

[caruso_stalker217]

My reading for December went like this:

Bandits, Elmore Leonard
Valdez Is Coming, Elmore Leonard
Split Images, Elmore Leonard
Cat Chaser, Elmore Leonard
Unknown Man #89, Elmore Leonard
City Primeval, Elmore Leonard
LaBrava, Elmore Leonard
The Hunted, Elmore Leonard
Stick, Elmore Leonard

As you can see, lot of variety there.

I also went through the list of books I read in 2014 and came up with these numbers:

Amount of books read: 68
First-time reads: 53
Most-read author: Elmore Leonard (25 books)
Stephen King: 15
Cormac McCarthy: 6
Gillian Flynn: 3
J.R.R. Tolkien: 3
William Faulkner: 2
Richard Stark: 2

I almost read seven McCarthy books, but after a long and valiant struggle Suttree finally broke my will, somewhere past the three hundred page mark. I may have to try it again this year.


Best books I read in 2014, in the order I read them:

Getting Mother's Body, Suzan-Lori Parks
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Twelve Years A Slave, Solomon Northup
The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy
Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brien
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

[justcheckin]

Wow… I'm going to list 1 book that I am about to start reading. hahaha

Perdido Street Station by Chine Mieville

Anyone read this yet? Someone told me it was a good one and I think it is the start of a 3 book series.

[Ribbons]

Can't say I have, although I've been meaning to dig into Mieville at some point