2226 replies to this topic

[jwheels]

Starting to read Never Send Flowers. I know I'm in the minority, but I really enjoy the last three Gardners (Never Send Flowers, Seafire, Coldfall). Though that may be because those are the three I first read of his, same thing for The Man With the Golden Gun.

[Jackanaples]

Finished reading two books this past week:

ENIGMA by Robert Harris - Bletchley Park and the brilliant men and women who worked at cracking the Nazi codes are some of my favorite bits of WWII history. Harris takes the setting and milieu and uses it as the backdrop of a thriller. I found that it moved a bit slow at times, though that might have been due to my mood more than anything else.

STAR TREK, a novelization to the movie by Alan Dean Foster - This filled in some gaps not covered in the movie and made me wish the film had been longer. Good for what it set out to do.

About to read:

THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss - This was probably one of the biggest debuts in the fantasy genre for the past several years. Many friends have read and recommended it.

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK by Mike McQuay - The novelization to the John Carpenter directed movie. I don't have a thing movie novelizations -really!- but I picked this up months ago at a used bookstore and decided that it might be nice to read about Snake Plissken this week.

[MkB]

I recently finished Jake's Thing, by Kingsley Amis.

Although there are many parallels between Lucky Jim and this one, I must admit I enjoyed Jake less than Jim. Of course, Amis undoubtedly knows how to write, and every page is worth reading. When Lucky Jim was about an angry young man's struggle against a drowsy world, Jake's Thing is about a boring/bored old man who thinks everybody else is a bore.
I guess what disappointed me most was the topic: Jake, a former womanizer of 59, can't "get it up" anymore as a sex therapist puts it, and goes through through the ordeals imposed by doctors and shrinks. It was new in the 70s (when the novel was written), but well now it's so cliché and old...
Still, the writing is worth the time spent reading the book!

[Kilroy6644]

I'm rereading Lone Wolf and Cub. I'm currently on volume 5, so I've got a long way to go yet.

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

Just finished Double or Die today! Wow, what a great read that was!

[Tybre]

I don't even know any more. So many unfinished books on one shelf alone. I really need to learn to read one book at a time. Okay. Starting now. Gonna finish Eisenhower, then Christopher Lee.

[jrcjohnny99]

Am reading "Map of Bones" by James Rollins; kinda average...

just finished "Fountain Society" by Wes Craven (the director) which was quite good...

best books of the last year or so

The Terror; Dan Simmons absolutely LOVED this

The Ghost; Robert Harris terrific and being filmed with Brosnan right now..

[bond 16.05.72]

In the process of reading Christopher Brookmyre latest A Snowball in Hell. Although he has a new one out in August but will be waiting for the Paperback like with this one, it came out last year but just got my hands on it.

Usual Brookmyre standard sharp as a tack and funny as hell.

[Manticore]

Baa Baa Black Sheep.

[Aris007]

About 2 hours ago I was reading "Literature", because I'm taking a test tomorrow! Really boring stuff! Couldn't they have Casino Royale among the others!

[Jim]

In the process of reading Christopher Brookmyre latest A Snowball in Hell. Although he has a new one out in August but will be waiting for the Paperback like with this one, it came out last year but just got my hands on it.

Usual Brookmyre standard sharp as a tack and funny as hell.

Yes, is jolly good although one is beginning to see the tricks coming now.

Could do a spectacular Bond.

[Four Aces]

Currently reading Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway.

[AgentBentley]

The script for Ronin.
Completely different ending than the movie, but still one of the best action stories ever.

[bond 16.05.72]

In the process of reading Christopher Brookmyre latest A Snowball in Hell. Although he has a new one out in August but will be waiting for the Paperback like with this one, it came out last year but just got my hands on it.

Usual Brookmyre standard sharp as a tack and funny as hell.

Yes, is jolly good although one is beginning to see the tricks coming now.

Could do a spectacular Bond.

Your so right Jim!

Brookmyre would be a dream writing Bond, would need to tone the language down but his sharp wit and talent for good plots would be tops.

I think it's All Fun and Games till someone loses an eye where he reference Bond quite a bit.

I can't understand why Channel 4 or BBC hasn't commisioned a TV film or a series from his books. ITV should leave well alone, their butchering of One Ugly this Morning was a travesty, making Parablane irish and James Nesbitt to add insult to injury.

I see what you mean about the plots, Unsinkable Rubber Ducks was very clever but the big reveal was a little too obvious.

I thought A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil was fantastic, one review decribed it as Agatha Christie on Manky Crack, the way he writes about those kids at school and the story reveals itself is superb.

I'm very much enjoying Snowball, the Simon Cowell, Stock Aitkin & Waterman combo with the Music Mogul is hilarious, your just egging Darcourt on to do his worst.

New book in August, I can wait for the Paperback though!

[Jose]

Flowers for Algernon.

Wow. The more I read it, the more I dislike myself. Is that weird?
That's not to say that I dislike the book, or how it's written or anything like that.

Edited by Jose, 12 June 2009 - 06:54 AM.

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

I'm still in the middle of High Time To Kill (Chapter 14/15ish). Very good read!

On top of that, I've finally started Watchmen. It's pretty good so far. My only complaint is the little "newspaper" clippings at the end of each chapter. I find them distracting and, honestly, pointless.

[00Twelve]

Just finished "The Road" (2006) by Cormac McCarthy. It's a hauntingly beautiful work, tense and bleak while also intimate and hopeful. Probably the best book I've read in a good long while. I highly recommend it.

Next, I'll be moving on to another McCarthy work, "Blood Meridian". Will report on that one in several days.

[Tybre]

Heading out to Borders shortly with intent of buying The Ghost. We'll see if I pick up anything else.

[Harmsway]

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
CENTURY: 1910
by
Alan Moore

This recent entry in the LEAGUE series is a curious one. It's the first part of a three-act, century-spanning epic, so it does not tell a complete narrative. It feels much like a prologue, even if it is fairly engaging on its own merits.

But unlike some of the other LEAGUE narratives, CENTURY: 1910 is fairly obscure in its dominant references. Unless you're a big fan of Brecht/Weill's THREEPENNY OPERA, you're not going to be one of the insiders with whom Moore is conversing.But for those of us who do know THE THREEPENNY OPERA, it's a delightful little riff on a great work of theater, and even if Moore's attempts to have characters sing their dialogue does not always play just right, it's an interesting device nonetheless.

As much as this is not a complete journey, CENTURY: 1910 is my favorite of the LEAGUE series. I can only help the next two installments (the first of which is set in a swinging, psychedelic 1969, and the latter of which is set in present-day London) are as sophisticated and interesting.

[OmarB]

Watch out for George Smiley showing up in LXG.

[Ambler]

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

One of my dutiful reads - I try and balance the classics and the trash.

Not sure which one this is ...

[jaguar007]

"What are you reading?"

Currently I am reading the forums on CBn

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

High Time to Kill: I FINALLY finished Part One of the Union Trilogy. It was good (considering that this is only my first Benson Bond novel read). However, it had slow moments and took a long time to describe certain elements of the novel. But it was good, because it explained a lot and made it very detailed. I can't say that part one was good without reading parts 2 and 3 yet. Overall, though, good read.

Watchmen: The drawings were very, VERY well done.
Just one complaint:

Spoiler

When Ozymandias 'wins' at the very end of the novel. I hate a story where the villain's plan works. At least, if the villain does win, the protagonist(s) need to eliminate the villain. Unfortunately, that's not what was written/drawn in the book.

Otherwise, I thought that it was a great read. THe characters are very well developed, and I kinda liked how they would take quotes from the comic and use them in the panels themselves (to illustrate what's going on in the story).

As for what I'm reading now, I'm reading both Dreams from my Father by our current President, and I'll soon be starting Skeleton Key.

[Tybre]

At this exact moment, something a friend said to me on MSN.

In terms of books, nearly halfway through Licence Renewed. Also decided to re-read the short story collection today; got through most of it, and am nearly finished with Property of a Lady.

[00Twelve]

BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy. It's proving to be a wonderful and difficult read.

[Scrambled Eggs]

Last night I started reading The Chivalry Of Crime by Desmond Barry.

Was given this at Christmas on the basis that A ) I quite like westerns (films anyway) and B ) Its by a localish author. It sat unread until yesterday.

It's absolutely fantastic. Tore through the first half at a rate of knots. It's a wonderful dark, slightly surreal depiction of the West. It also keeps bringing The Assasination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford back to me.

The second half might turn out to be rubbish, but I really recommend this.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

Finally got around to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The first half is rather overlong and a little uneventful, but the second half is much, much better. Felt a little sad ending a series of books I started reading around ten years ago.

[Captain Tightpants]

TREASURE by Clive Cussler. It had been recommended to me ages ago and I've only now had the chance to pick it up. It's not as good as it had been made out - right now, I think INCA GOLD and DRAGON are both better - but it's certainly a class above and beyond some of his later works like VALHALLA RISING and ATLANTIS FOUND.

[jwheels]

On the last 100 pages of The Bourne Supremacy. It's been pretty good, although for some reason, and the same thing with Identity, it's taken me forever to finish it.

After I'm done with that, I'm going to start Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain. Yes, it is about vampires, but of the evil horrific deadly kind, not the 90210 kind of Twilight, True Blood, and countless others

[Single-O-Seven]

On the last 100 pages of The Bourne Supremacy. It's been pretty good, although for some reason, and the same thing with Identity, it's taken me forever to finish it.

Identity I read through quickly, but both Supremacy and Ultimatum were stop-and-go books. I'd read a few chapters, read another book, then go back and read a few more chapters, etc. A lot of Ludlum's books have this effect on me. I enjoy them and want to finish them, but there's just something about them that makes me take a break partway through, refresh with another book by another author, then go back. Strange, I know.