What Are You Reading?

[caruso_stalker217]

Haven't heard of that particular book or author.

I'm currently trying to read an entire Peter Straub book that wasn't co-written by Stephen King. It's been slow-going.

[justcheckin]

Haven't heard of that particular book or author.

I'm currently trying to read an entire Peter Straub book that wasn't co-written by Stephen King. It's been slow-going.

Which Straub book?

I read Magic Terror by him, it's a grouping of short stories. I thought they were pretty good.

[caruso_stalker217]

Shadowland. I've tried several times to read Ghost Story and failed. I don't have a problem with his writing style or anything. I just have trouble getting into his stories, I guess. Even The Talisman, which is one of my favorite books, took me several tries to get into.

[justcheckin]

The Talisman has a great deal of character development and back story before you get to the core of the journey. It's probably one of the things that makes it good but also hard to get into.

I tried reading Gravity's Rainbow and every time I try, it kills me. I usually go to something else.

[Al Shut]

Dreamsongs Volume I

a collection of George R.R. Martin short stories, reaching back unto his time writing fan fiction in high school.

[caruso_stalker217]

I'm currently reading Dune for the first time. Enjoying it so far.

[Lord Voldemoo]

I've been on a haunted house kick lately. I think it started with rereading Salem's Lot around Christmas, which I think of as like 50% vampire story and 50% haunted house story. Since then I've read Matheson's Hell House (which I can't believe I'd never read, and really enjoyed), and a novella prequel called Return to Hell House which was written by another author with permission. It was just ok. Too short for the slow burn that makes haunted house stories great, and mostly just a redux of Hell House. Now I'm reading yet another one called "Haunted" by Tamara Thorne that came out last year. Good so far. She borrows from others before her (King and, significantly, Matheson) but not so blatantly or irreverently that it bothers me.

I'm going to have to branch out after this one, though. I can only do so many bumps in the night in a row before it gets old.

[caruso_stalker217]

The books I completed for the month of January:

Shadowland, Peter Straub
The Homesman, Glendon Swarthout

So that's lame.

I've been reading The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard and I've been slogging my way through Dune for the last three weeks. But it's been a good slog and I'm almost finished.

I'm also listening to Frank Muller's reading of Gold Coast by Elmore Leonard.

[Lord Voldemoo]

I'm also listening to Frank Muller's reading of Gold Coast by Elmore Leonard.

I love Muller. That might be my next audiobook.

[caruso_stalker217]

I'm digging it so far. It's the first book I've listened to that I haven't already read myself.

[Peven]

caruso, I am going to send you a bill for all the time I have lost mesmerized by your sig

[caruso_stalker217]

I found myself staring at it for an obscene amount of time yesterday.

[caruso_stalker217]

My reading for February:

Dune, Frank Herbert
Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Edge of Dark Water, Joe R. Landsdale
Sula, Toni Morrison

Edge of Dark Water is my first foray into Landsdale territory, won't be the last.

Just finished Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon which was pretty damn good. I'm about a hundred pages into her fourth novel, Tar Baby. I'm gonna go through all of her stuff chronologically. Really liking it so far.

[Al Shut]

The sixth part of Sergei Lukyanenko's NIght Watch series, don't know what it would be called in English.

I'll have to finish it fast because I also bought The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones. Damn that thing is huge, it actually doesn't fit in the same shelf as my other Ice & Fire books.

[so sorry]

I'm re-reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo. A great example of the film version GREATLY outweighing the source material.

[Al Shut]

Dreamsongs Volume I

a collection of George R.R. Martin short stories, reaching back unto his time writing fan fiction in high school.

Apparently the two English Volumes Have been split in three for the German release so now I'm reading Volume 1 1/2. Not so keen on the fantasy stories but I really liked the science fiction and/or horror strories.

[TheBaxter]

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.

you mean casting a 6' tall blonde south african woman to play a sub-5' tall red-headed kansas girl is a bad idea?

i just finished this book today. i really liked Gone Girl and i also read a short story by her i liked, but Dark Places disappointed me. book was a bit slow in the beginning (especially the early flashback scenes) but the part that really got to me was the incredible amount of coincidence the plot depended on. Gone Girl strained credulity a bit, mostly in believing that such a complicated plan could succeed so well, even down to the tiniest detail, but it's really only after you've finished reading that you realize how unlikely it is that so many things that had to go right could go right for it to work. the book is so well-written that by that time, you're already caught up in the thing. but in DP, the coincidences just hit you over the head. as the book ends, you learn not only that the initial crime happened as a result of a rather unbelievable set of coincidences, but then she piles on the added coincidence of having BOTH killers be discovered, completely independently of each other, on the SAME DAY. it's so implausible that it really just ruined the whole book for me.

[caruso_stalker217]

It's a silly book, but I enjoyed it.

As for my monthly reading, it's pretty fucking sad. Last month I completed two Toni Morrison books, Song of Solomon and Tar Baby. Song of Solomon is really good. I also read most of Beloved, but I got sidetracked with other stuff and haven't finished it yet. I'm almost through Jazz now. I'm about forty pages from the end of Children of Dune.

[caruso_stalker217]

Here's what I read for April and May:

Jazz, Toni Morrison
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three, Stephen King
The Waste Lands, Stephen King
Paradise, Toni Morrison
Another, Yukito Ayatsuji

I don't think I'll be setting any record for number of books read this year.

[justcheckin]

This month I've been reading the last two of The Strain trilogy by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I read the first one a couple years ago, well before the TV show (which I like). I finished book two, The Fall and am almost finished with The Night Eternal. They have been really good. I was a little concerned that I wouldn't like the direction of 2 and 3 after reading the first one and seeing the overview of 2 and 3 but I think they are really good at tying in random things (like the Holocaust and a bible story that I will not spoil) to a modern day epidemic of vampirism.

[justcheckin]

Here's what I read for April and May:

Jazz, Toni Morrison
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Gunslinger, Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three, Stephen King
The Waste Lands, Stephen King
Paradise, Toni Morrison
Another, Yukito Ayatsuji

I don't think I'll be setting any record for number of books read this year.

Gunslinger, one of my favs. I liked The Wastelands also but I usually skip The Drawing of the Three when I reread those.

[caruso_stalker217]

I haven't been reading as quickly as usual lately, so I'm still trudging through Wizard and Glass.

Why would you skip Drawing of the Three??

[thomasgaffney]

Currently reading: The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

So far so good, but I'm not far along in it. Not as much time to read as I used to have. Only got through about 13 books last year and only 2 so far this year :/

Anyway, KCBC recommended I stick with it and said he considers the second book to be the best of the three. I usually agree with KCBC's tastes in books, so I'll pick up the remaining books of the trilogy after I finish this one.

[Spandau Belly]

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
by T.E. Lawrence

This was the memoirs upon which David Lean's film LAWRENCE OF ARABIA was based, and it might be the longest single book I've ever read (it's hard to tell with these e-books). I always loved the film, but never bothered to really dig deep on the real man until now.

It was really interesting. It starts with an introduction telling you that Lawrence is full of shit sometimes and not to believe everything he says. There's a scene in the movie where Lawrence gets captured and gang raped by Turks. I was always kinda shocked a scene like that was in a movie in the early 60s. That's in the book, too, but apparently everybody agrees that he made it up. The speculation is that it was his way of putting his S&M fetish out there. The forward informs us that upon his return to Europe, he would routinely hire young boys to spank him and so fabricating this portion of his memoirs was a way of attracting other S&M types.

The film follows his memoirs surprisingly closely. Many characters are trimmed and a couple incidents are combined, but all and all a pretty faithful adaptation. The guy he rides back into the desert to save is not the same guy he had to execute to cool down a tribe feud.

They do change a few things. In his memoirs he frequently expresses guilt about lying to the Arabs about England's intentions. He knows the superpowers are going to carve up the Middle East into spheres of influence but continually tells the Arabs that once they've won the war, the English will leave. In the film, I think he is depicted as slightly more oblivious to this and not as deceptive.

His memoirs also spend a fair bit of time talking about the various illnesses and aches he endured, which obviously wouldn't have made for great cinema. He was frequently bedridden with dysentery and had very bad back aches from riding camels for weeks at a time. There's a lot of good survivalist stuff in there, too. He describes the many difficult climates of the Middle East and some talk about dealing with snakes.

Lawrence is very eloquent, his writing is very witty. It's a good read in many respects (war strategy, inter-cultural relations, survivalist stuff). But it was a tough slog, and I'm glad to be blazing through some easy reads now. It felt like I was reading this thing forever.

[caruso_stalker217]

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA is incredible. A grand achievement in cinema and easily one of the best films I have ever seen. Having said that, it could have easily benefited from more scenes of Lawrence violently shitting himself.

[justcheckin]

I haven't been reading as quickly as usual lately, so I'm still trudging through Wizard and Glass.

Why would you skip Drawing of the Three??

I'm not sure why exactly. I just always do.

[Ribbons]

[TheButcher]

SPOILERS!
All My Friends Are Still Dead

[Al Shut]

And now I've reached the third volume of Dreamsongs. So far I don't like to read scripts but the two Wildcards stories were interesting enough that I might look into the series at some point into the near future.

[TheBaxter]

i just read TKaMB for the first time, in anticipation of the release of GSaWM (i love acronyming things!). somehow i got through school without ever being assigned to read that book. probably a good thing, it's the kind of book i would've hated in high school but which i can appreciate now. it really does live up to its reputation.

that said, atticus finch becoming a racist? well, i'll have to read it to figure out exactly how that happens. but on the surface, yeah, it sounds pretty... far-fetched.

Well I'll anxiously wait here for your detailed review...

so i finally got to read Go Set a Watchman. is it good? ehhhhhhhhhhh.......
it's not To Kill a Mockingbird. whoever the editor or whoever it was that told Harper Lee to rewrite the thing and make it about them as kids, and the trial and all that stuff, was a smart person. the biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't really have a plot. i mean, the story basically amounts to this: scout goes home, finds out atticus is a racist, gets really upset, they have an argument, things get hashed out, touchy-feely, blah blah. i mean, there are themes and stuff, and ultimately the story is more about children learning to see their parents for who they really are, and accept people's faults, and promoting understanding between different viewpoints, and like i said, blah blah blah. some of that stuff is good. but it's a slog getting there. because up until the end, really, pretty much NOTHING HAPPENS for the whole book. characters talk and then scout gets upset and walks around the town stewing, another conversation, more stewing. it gets tiresome. TKAMB had, like, scenes, and plot points, and things that make stories a bit more enjoyable to read. i guess i'd say the GSAWM themes are maybe a bit more mature and complex, but TKAMB is a lot more effective. if it had been this book that she released instead, no one would remember it 50 years later.

this book is an interesting time capsule. TKAMB has its anachronisms, and language that wouldn't fly in a book these days, but this book takes it a lot further. at the same time, though, there are parts that show how little really has changed since these were written; portions of this book sound like they could be lifted directly from the comments section of any Yahoo news article about Obama (or any Yahoo new article at all, for that matter). the difference i guess is that people in the book aren't shy or embarrassed about saying those kinds of things publicly, as opposed to writing them anonymously through the internet like they do today. and even the people on the "right" side of the civil rights issue in this book themselves spout off opinions that would make even a Tea Partier blush: atticus gets scout to agree that the black race is "backwards" for example, and everyone in the book seems to agree that interracial marriage is a bad thing.

ultimately, i think the book is interesting from a historical perspective. i don't think it's really a very good book though, and lacks the timeless quality that makes TKAMB, even despite some of the dated language and ideas, still relevant today.

[so sorry]

i just read TKaMB for the first time, in anticipation of the release of GSaWM (i love acronyming things!). somehow i got through school without ever being assigned to read that book. probably a good thing, it's the kind of book i would've hated in high school but which i can appreciate now. it really does live up to its reputation.

that said, atticus finch becoming a racist? well, i'll have to read it to figure out exactly how that happens. but on the surface, yeah, it sounds pretty... far-fetched.

Well I'll anxiously wait here for your detailed review...

so i finally got to read Go Set a Watchman. is it good? ehhhhhhhhhhh.......
it's not To Kill a Mockingbird. whoever the editor or whoever it was that told Harper Lee to rewrite the thing and make it about them as kids, and the trial and all that stuff, was a smart person. the biggest problem with this book is that it doesn't really have a plot. i mean, the story basically amounts to this: scout goes home, finds out atticus is a racist, gets really upset, they have an argument, things get hashed out, touchy-feely, blah blah. i mean, there are themes and stuff, and ultimately the story is more about children learning to see their parents for who they really are, and accept people's faults, and promoting understanding between different viewpoints, and like i said, blah blah blah. some of that stuff is good. but it's a slog getting there. because up until the end, really, pretty much NOTHING HAPPENS for the whole book. characters talk and then scout gets upset and walks around the town stewing, another conversation, more stewing. it gets tiresome. TKAMB had, like, scenes, and plot points, and things that make stories a bit more enjoyable to read. i guess i'd say the GSAWM themes are maybe a bit more mature and complex, but TKAMB is a lot more effective. if it had been this book that she released instead, no one would remember it 50 years later.

this book is an interesting time capsule. TKAMB has its anachronisms, and language that wouldn't fly in a book these days, but this book takes it a lot further. at the same time, though, there are parts that show how little really has changed since these were written; portions of this book sound like they could be lifted directly from the comments section of any Yahoo news article about Obama (or any Yahoo new article at all, for that matter). the difference i guess is that people in the book aren't shy or embarrassed about saying those kinds of things publicly, as opposed to writing them anonymously through the internet like they do today. and even the people on the "right" side of the civil rights issue in this book themselves spout off opinions that would make even a Tea Partier blush: atticus gets scout to agree that the black race is "backwards" for example, and everyone in the book seems to agree that interracial marriage is a bad thing.

ultimately, i think the book is interesting from a historical perspective. i don't think it's really a very good book though, and lacks the timeless quality that makes TKAMB, even despite some of the dated language and ideas, still relevant today.

Interesting, or rather, not to interesting. My initial moral outrage has been tempered by the fact that even thought this is a "prequel", it sounds more like a first draft, that she refined (and changed quite a bit) into To Kill A Mockingbird. And thus, I can just ignore it!

[TheBaxter]

yeah, you can read it as a sequel, but TKaMB obviously rewrote the history this earlier book was based on (and made it better). the mockingbird trial has a completely different outcome, and entire characters and plotlines from mockingbird (boo radley, dill, the attack on the kids) are barely mentioned or left out entirely. to interpret this as a true sequel, you'd basically have to assume that atticus was a closeted racist all through mockingbird and was just really good at hiding it.

[TheButcher]

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

[caruso_stalker217]

IN July:

Forty Lashes Less One, Elmore Leonard
Hombre, Elmore Leonard
Wizard and Glass, Stephen King
The Gunslinger, Stephen King

I also read most of Love by Toni Morrison but haven't finished it yet.

I read The Gunslinger two months in a row because I've started reading the series to my unborn child.

[Wolfpack]

Just finished up John Scalzi's Redshirts, now working on Apocalypse, the last novel in the Fate of the Jedi series. These Star Wars novels have been getting kind of repetitive. I'm glad they hit the reset button on them. I was growing weary reading about this character or that protagonist feeling the almost palpable dark side energy suffusing the area. I get it. Evil is afoot.

[so sorry]

Just finished up John Scalzi's Redshirts, now working on Apocalypse, the last novel in the Fate of the Jedi series. These Star Wars novels have been getting kind of repetitive. I'm glad they hit the reset button on them. I was growing weary reading about this character or that protagonist feeling the almost palpable dark side energy suffusing the area. I get it. Evil is afoot.

So when the new books come out, you going to be able to erase your brain of all the previous novels that have now been rendered moot?

[Wolfpack]

Just finished up John Scalzi's Redshirts, now working on Apocalypse, the last novel in the Fate of the Jedi series. These Star Wars novels have been getting kind of repetitive. I'm glad they hit the reset button on them. I was growing weary reading about this character or that protagonist feeling the almost palpable dark side energy suffusing the area. I get it. Evil is afoot.

So when the new books come out, you going to be able to erase your brain of all the previous novels that have now been rendered moot?

Nope. There's plenty I won't be able to forget, like Thrawn and Mara Jade, the Karen Traviss novels, the Yuuzhan Vong destroying Coruscant, etc., but some I will just naturally forget because they weren't anything special. There's only so many unique ways you can have the Dastardly Sith of the Week test Our Heroes' commitment to the light side.

[TheBaxter]

Just finished up John Scalzi's Redshirts, now working on Apocalypse, the last novel in the Fate of the Jedi series. These Star Wars novels have been getting kind of repetitive. I'm glad they hit the reset button on them. I was growing weary reading about this character or that protagonist feeling the almost palpable dark side energy suffusing the area. I get it. Evil is afoot.

So when the new books come out, you going to be able to erase your brain of all the previous novels that have now been rendered moot?

Nope. There's plenty I won't be able to forget, like Thrawn and Mara Jade, the Karen Traviss novels, the Yuuzhan Vong destroying Coruscant, etc., but some I will just naturally forget because they weren't anything special. There's only so many unique ways you can have the Dastardly Sith of the Week test Our Heroes' commitment to the light side.

it would be funny if the new film made some reference to Thrawn's home planet having been destroyed by "red matter" a la the Star Trek reboot.

[TheBaxter]

just finished reading "Childhood's End". it's been on the TO READ list for a while now, but figured i better get it done before the SYFY miniseries comes out. now that i've read it, i'm not so sure i have much faith that the miniseries can possibly do justice to the book. it's possible is 'spose, but i don't have that much faith in syfy.

[caruso_stalker217]

just finished reading "Childhood's End". it's been on the TO READ list for a while now, but figured i better get it done before the SYFY miniseries comes out. now that i've read it, i'm not so sure i have much faith that the miniseries can possibly do justice to the book. it's possible is 'spose, but i don't have that much faith in syfy.

That's the really depressing one, right?

[TheBaxter]

i think you could interpret it as being really depressing, or really uplifting, or both.

[Wolfpack]

I'm reading Foundations in Pharmacokinetics, the heartbreaking story of what happens to a drug when given to a patient. Plus, there's math!

[Ribbons]

I'm completely baffled and intrigued by this description

[Al Shut]

I'm reading Foundations in Pharmacokinetics, the heartbreaking story of what happens to a drug when given to a patient. Plus, there's math!

Spoiler: If you break the patient's heart, you're doing it wrong.

[Wolfpack]

I'm reading Foundations in Pharmacokinetics, the heartbreaking story of what happens to a drug when given to a patient. Plus, there's math!

Spoiler: If you break the patient's heart, you're doing it wrong.

Dammit! Who knew pharmacokinetics could be so complicated?

[caruso_stalker217]

August reading consisted of Dark Tower stuff and the first two Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch westerns Appaloosa and Resolution by Robert B. Parker. I hadn't read any Parker stuff before, but I really like Ed Harris's adaptation of Appaloosa and it turns out the books are really good stripped down yarns about professionalism and unspoken bonds and friendship and people getting shot. So I've been getting into this Parker guy who wrote the books those Tom Selleck T.V. cop movies are based on.

[Wolfpack]

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Think Canterbury Tales....IN SPACE!!!!

Actually, it's pretty fucking awesome. It won the Hugo, which some might say is a good thing.

[Ribbons]

I read Hyperion. I can't remember if I ever talked about it here.

You know, I'm not totally sure what to think about it. There's so much going on that's never really explained -- the nature of the Shrike, for example, or even what all these Time Temples or whatever they're called actually look like. But it does get under your skin.

It completely changes format in the sequel, The Fall of Hyperion.

[caruso_stalker217]

I'm eventually going to finish Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy. Very dense. Rewarding.

Currently also reading Lost Boy, Lost Girl by Peter Straub. A much quicker read.

Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker is next.

Then probably some more Ellroy.

[minstrel]

Just finished Dawn, by Olivia Butler. Kind of disappointing, given the reputation she has.

Next up: some essays by Loren Eiseley from his book The Star Thrower. Then Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen.