2226 replies to this topic

[George Kaplan]

Just finished two reprinted Shadow stories by Walter Gibson (writing as Maxwell Grant) "The Murder Master" and "The Hydra". Wonderful 30s pulp hero stuff.

[SilencedPPK]

tonight I'm going to pick up "The Secret". A friend of mine was mentioning how wonderful it is, and how it's a bit of a life changer. She sold me on it, and after work I'm going to pick it up at Barnes & Noble!

[Roebuck]

''Vulcan 607'' by Rowland White. With British nuclear subs patrolling a Maritime Exclusion Zone around the Falkland Islands, the runway at Stanley Airport became the major landing point for Argentinean troops and supplies during the '82 occupation. Obviously it had to be taken out, but the only RAF aircraft capable of the job were antiquated Avro Vulcan B2's that were literally headed for the scrapheap. Facing the old warbirds were 80,000 miles of flying with a devastating anti-aircraft battery at the end of it.

While keeping respectful to the people involved on both sides, White fills this real life story with all the war movie daring-do of those Alistair MacLean adaptations we used to enjoy on Bank Holiday telly. At the same time he manages to solidly frame the raid on Stanley within the larger context of events leading to and during the Falklands Conflict. Great stuff.

[mrsbonds_ppk]

Two books actually. Casino Royale 7 chapters so far. This book is full of suspense. I couldn't put it down. I have one thing to be thankful for so far and that's... that they somewhat changed the way Vesper Lynd is portrayed from the book in the movie. She's much stronger in the movie. In the chapter called L'Ennemi Ecoute Bond is displeased that there is a woman coming to team up with him thinking:

Women were for recreation. On a job, they got in the way and fogged
things up with sex and hurt feelings and all the emotional baggage they carried around. One had to look out for them and take care of them.
'Bitch,' said Bond, and then remembering the Muntzes, he said 'bitch' again more loudly and walked out of the room.

Man talk about a temper tantrum I was amazed...not really, but that was funny.

I'm also reading Roger Moore's James Bond Diary which is very entertaining. It's from Live and Let Die and it's the only one he wrote. I wonder why he didn't do another one? It gives some good insight into what was going through Rog's head and some behind the scenes info. It's funny too.

Edited by mrsbonds_ppk, 13 April 2007 - 02:37 AM.

[Qwerty]

Just starting Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

[Jericho_One]

Just finished I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

[Bondfiend]

I'm re-reading Dr. No and am noticing how palpable Fleming made the feeling of danger. I don't remember feeling this in his earlier books.

[Roebuck]

Just finished ''The Secret Agent'' by Joseph Conrad. There are two great strengths to this book. The first is that you could take the core plot (a foreign embassy stages a bombing in London in the hope the British government into taking a harder line on radicals) and relocate it to the present day with little more than cosmetic changes. The second is Conrad's grasp of the heavy human cost of these political games. A century after it was first written it still works.

In my desk drawer is ''The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes''. Apologies to the CBn Sherlockians, but as I haven't read any Conan Doyle since school I hadn't appreciated the brilliant architecture of his short stories. The way he can set up a mystery, essay the characters and bring the whole thing to a satisfying conclusion in twenty-something pages is astounding.

[Byron]

Just finished I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

Did you like it?

I think the movie version is coming out in December with Will Smith in the lead role.
Definately not who i had in mind for Robert Neville.

[darkpath]

Mac OS X Server Essentials (Schoun Regan)

The Spiritual Practices of the Ninja (Ross Heaven)

[Joyce Carrington]

The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri.

[Jericho_One]

Just finished I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

Did you like it?

I think the movie version is coming out in December with Will Smith in the lead role.
Definately not who i had in mind for Robert Neville.

Yes, I did like it very much. I appreciated how Matheson deviated from what would be a common horror story to focus on the psychological aspects of being the last man alive.

I am curious about the movie version with Will Smith, but I remind you there were already two previous movie versions, starring respectively Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth) and Charlton Heston (The Omega Man). I liked better the one with Price. In Heston's version the vampires are turned into some weird looking mutant-undead-albinos following a cult. Too much seventies for me.


The one I'm reading now is Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and my Long Trek Home, by Nando Parrado, one of the 16 survivors of a brutal plane crash on the Andes mountains in 1972.

[RogueSpy007]

I'm just finishing re-reading Cad: A Handbook for Heels, which was edited by Charles Schneider.

[Byron]

Just finished I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

Did you like it?

I think the movie version is coming out in December with Will Smith in the lead role.
Definately not who i had in mind for Robert Neville.

Yes, I did like it very much. I appreciated how Matheson deviated from what would be a common horror story to focus on the psychological aspects of being the last man alive.

I am curious about the movie version with Will Smith, but I remind you there were already two previous movie versions, starring respectively Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth) and Charlton Heston (The Omega Man). I liked better the one with Price. In Heston's version the vampires are turned into some weird looking mutant-undead-albinos following a cult. Too much seventies for me.


The one I'm reading now is Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and my Long Trek Home, by Nando Parrado, one of the 16 survivors of a brutal plane crash on the Andes mountains in 1972.

It is an amazing story. They were Rugby Union players weren't they?

BTW Congrats to Portugal (Lobos-Wolves) for qualifying for the next Rugby World Cup!

[killkenny kid]

My late birthday gift from my ex, Colonel Sun.

[Jericho_One]

Just finished I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

Did you like it?

I think the movie version is coming out in December with Will Smith in the lead role.
Definately not who i had in mind for Robert Neville.

Yes, I did like it very much. I appreciated how Matheson deviated from what would be a common horror story to focus on the psychological aspects of being the last man alive.

I am curious about the movie version with Will Smith, but I remind you there were already two previous movie versions, starring respectively Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth) and Charlton Heston (The Omega Man). I liked better the one with Price. In Heston's version the vampires are turned into some weird looking mutant-undead-albinos following a cult. Too much seventies for me.


The one I'm reading now is Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and my Long Trek Home, by Nando Parrado, one of the 16 survivors of a brutal plane crash on the Andes mountains in 1972.

It is an amazing story. They were Rugby Union players weren't they?

BTW Congrats to Portugal (Lobos-Wolves) for qualifying for the next Rugby World Cup!

Yes, they were. And this story never fails to inspire me over the years.

About Portugal,thank you very much for that! They're most probably gonna get their seriously kicked in the first game - they're even playing against the All Blacks - The All Blacks! - but it's a first one, and it will go down in the history of this sport in Portugal as a very fine moment.

[Roebuck]

My late birthday gift from my ex, Colonel Sun.

None of mine still speak to me. You're obviously a man of rare charisma.

[Byron]

Just finished I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

Did you like it?

I think the movie version is coming out in December with Will Smith in the lead role.
Definately not who i had in mind for Robert Neville.

Yes, I did like it very much. I appreciated how Matheson deviated from what would be a common horror story to focus on the psychological aspects of being the last man alive.

I am curious about the movie version with Will Smith, but I remind you there were already two previous movie versions, starring respectively Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth) and Charlton Heston (The Omega Man). I liked better the one with Price. In Heston's version the vampires are turned into some weird looking mutant-undead-albinos following a cult. Too much seventies for me.


The one I'm reading now is Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and my Long Trek Home, by Nando Parrado, one of the 16 survivors of a brutal plane crash on the Andes mountains in 1972.

It is an amazing story. They were Rugby Union players weren't they?

BTW Congrats to Portugal (Lobos-Wolves) for qualifying for the next Rugby World Cup!

Yes, they were. And this story never fails to inspire me over the years.

About Portugal,thank you very much for that! They're most probably gonna get their seriously kicked in the first game - they're even playing against the All Blacks - The All Blacks! - but it's a first one, and it will go down in the history of this sport in Portugal as a very fine moment.

You never know, i am sure there will be an upset or 2 throughout the tournament.

I mean if Ireland and Bangladesh can beat superpowers Pakistan and India in the cricket world cup there is always hope for the smaller teams!

Best of luck to Portugal, as well as to my favourites France and Argentina.

[0024]

I just finished "Casino Royale" and it was great. A really awesome book. Now, I'm ready "Cell" by Stephen King. Very scary so far.

[Roebuck]

''Dhalgren'' by Sam Delany - Gets a derogatory name check in The Bourne Legacy, perhaps because the central figures in both books are amnesiacs.

Following some unexplained catastrophe the city of Bellona is cut off from electronic communication with the rest of the USA.
All but two-thousand people have evacuated, the remainder choosing to remain in a city where the street plan changes overnight and time (for some) is no longer linear. It's a setting in which Delany explores the social tensions brewing inside 70's America in sometimes uncomfortable, uncompromising terms . A terrific piece of literature from the decade before science fiction slipped into it's second childhood.

[DaveBond21]

Bag of Bones - by Stephen King.

It was OK. It's not as good as some of his others, and goes over old ground really. It was during his "not-so-good period" of the mid-late 90s.

[Kilroy6644]

Still chugging along on Seven Pillars, but I'm on the last section now. Less than 100 pages left to go.

[darkpath]

Car and Driver comparison between:

• Ford/Shelby GT
• Nissan 350Z
• Audi TT
• Mazda RX-8 GT

I found the observations and conclusions intriguing.

[YellowDetective]

Currently reading "For Special Services," which i've been working on for far too long. I need to start MAKING time to read, because it's not really there.

[Kilroy6644]

I finally finished Seven Pillars Of Wisdom. Now I have no idea what I'm going to read. I can't decide between rereading the Bond novels, or James Clavell's Asian Saga. I can also read Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey, and there's a couple of le Carr

[Qwerty]

Think I'm going to finally get going on Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.

[Kilroy6644]

I finally settled on A Princess Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

[Keir]

Don't normally read non-fiction but finished "While I Disappear" by Edward Wright, an atmospheric detective story post WWII LA featuring a former actor who's now an ex-con, blacklisted by the studios and living day to day. It's definitely noirish in tone- there's a lot more wrong than right in this world. The hero himself is flawed, but also appealing, like those around him as they make up a believably real, evocatively depicted world with lots of depth and detail and at times lyricism. Even the secondary characters are memorable, solid, and human: real characters both literally and figuratively. I certainly enjoyed spending time in their company and highly recommended the book.

[Mollaka]

Ben Bova - The Weathermakers

[Byron]

The Diamond Smugglers by Fleming. Picked up a cheap old Pan paperback copy.

I am enjoying it, a nice change of pace from his Bond novels. Again a certain interest in the subject matter does help.