What are you reading?

[kimahri]

Wow, almost a year and nobody has read anything? Incredible

I can't remember all the Volumes of Manga I've read.

Uh yeah. At the moment the biggest thing I'm trying to chug through is Grant Morrison's 'The Invisibles'. It's really really **** weird. I don't really know how to explain it. It's loosely similar to The Matrix with the whole "The world you're living is a lie, so we're making you see how it really is" thing and what this world really is is a bunch of time travelling freaks such as a dude who like fetish clothing, clubs and murdering people, A transvestite who also happens to be a shaman and summons demons and ****, some lass who beats the **** out of people, and Loony girl who is a psychic and some twat from Liverpool (or I could have just said average liverpudlian).

Anyway, the Comic is really messed up. I heard about it on cracked which said it was a copy of the matrix with interdimentional being against people with reality bending powers and that's how I went into it... nothing **** like it, at all. It's full of madness and old dudes spround confusing **** and kids getting raped followed by time travel back to the french revolution to pick up some well known dude and bring him back to the present and then he goes off and hits on everyone. I have no **** clue what's going on and that's just the first volume and that covers about a 1/10th of the book.

I'd reccomend it only if you want to commit to tracking down the single volumes in paper back or are willing to dish out the £90 (possibly more now) for the omnibus and you're fully prepared to see what happens when a possibly insane perverted genius is let loose on what he wants to do.

I've also Re-read through what I have of Q Hayashida's 'Dorohedoro' again. I love it, it's my favorite manga, ever. It's such a grimy, dirty horrible manga that is just filled with characters that have piles of innocence and likeableness... It's got it's simple Japanese manga plot but the way it ends up playing out and progresses is so much fun and it's wicked albiet goofy black sense of humor is well timed.

<3 Dorohedoro.

 

[furie]

I recently finished Stephen King's The Shining.
Was a beautifully written, imaginative and well thought out book. Took me very little time to read it as I just couldn't put it down. It was nothing like the film, but in my opinion, better than the film. Towards the end of the film, they throw a man in a dog costume. In the book he's much more involved and actually makes it creepier. There are hedge animals instead of the maze, which I thought was much more creative. The book was much more supernatural and personally I liked it much more for that.
Before that I had finished Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot.
Before that Stephen King's The Tommy Knockers.
Before that James Herbert's Haunted.
And before that Stephen King's Pet Sematary...

No shame for my love of horror.
By the way, I've read all of this since the start of July. And I've also nearly finished Game Of Thrones.

I loved The Shining when I first read it (first "horror" book I read, followed closely by Survivor by James Herbert when I was 14 or so), and again the second time. I bought it though recently and re-read it and I thought it was pretty bland actually. That's old age for you :lol:

'Salem's Lot I really like actually in a "this is cheesy fun" way, but it's badly written.

The Tommy Knockers I read when I was doing my GCSEs and it almost drove me mad. I spent months afterwards thinking everything with other thoughts in brackets afterwards :lol:

Haunted I loved, one of Herbert's better books (his early stuff is very badly written and just trash (though great fun) and he seemed to have learnt English by that point AND managed to produce a good story. Ghosts of Sleath the follow up is quite good too.

They're doing an adaptation of "Secret of Crinkley Hall" (I think that's what it was called) for Halloween this year, that was a good book, very much in the style of Mark Morris though, who is like James Herbert only actually really good. Both Toady and Stitch by Mark Morris are stunningly good, and The Secret of Anatomy is also excellent. Longbarrow was VERY James Herbert and there's another I can't think of the name of just at the moment that was very Olde English Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins that was worth reading. Hunt him down.

Also, if you can find them, try and get hold of Dan Simmons' horror works (Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night in particular (there is one chapter of Summer of Night that made my blood run cold, fantastic).

Clive Barker is also an obvious move next, with The Hellbound Heart, Cabal, Weaveworld and Imajica being very strong and accessible.

Then as a real outsider shot, and his stuff is difficult to find now - Robert R McCammon. He lost it in the mid 90's and decided all of his work was worthless and asked for there to be no reprints or new prints of any of his work. He then spent 20 years or something "doing some ****" :lol: I dunno, but...

Swan Song is the best book Stephen King never wrote. The Wolf's Hour is the best ever werewolf novel ever (it's about a Werewolf who is working for the British secret service in wartime Germany - it's brilliant, believe me ). The Thirst is a fantastic and cheesy Hollywood Vampire novel and "Stinger" is a brilliant alien invasion book. Again, like something Stephen King would write only he knows how to end a story

If you're into American horror, then early Dean Koontz stuff is pretty good, but it tends to be let down by "the scientific explanation" at the end. Even so, Phantoms is one of the most suspenseful books ever written (for the first half or so) and Lightning is a heart wrenching and exciting book, akin to Terminator.

There you go, some food for thought (I had to read something when I'd finished most of Herbert's and King's works )

 

[BBH]

I just started reading Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Thank God for education. :lol:

 

[furie]

I've considered A Brief History of Time a few times, but always felt like it would seem like I was being all pretentious, so I never bothered. I'd rather read the latest scientific journals

Finished Frankenstein, which was a mix of chore and mega-chore; but actually worth it.

It reads like Shelly's travel itinerary and is just full of descriptions of places visited by the pretentious knobs at the time.

Frankenstein himself is a moaning, miserable, fainting git. You've never once wanted the protagonist to finally pop his clogs so much - he makes the characters from The Blair Witch Project look like great choices as room mates. He spends the majority of his time being pathetic, which is supposed to represent his guilty conscience at the unholy abhorrence he has unleashed upon the world. However, you just want to slap him and tell him to man up and "two years in bed feeling sorry for yourself is NOT acceptable behaviour".

So it's a travel brochure, with the **** main character ever. It makes 90% of the book an act of tedium.

Then there's the creature (and this is where it becomes worthwhile reading). He's a complex thing, and nothing like either the Universal monster, or even the monster of the HBC Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. The problem is, you never know what his motivations are, or how you're supposed to feel about him. It's not as clear cut as "poor monster, created and abhorred by his creator, rejected by humans and exacting revenge on the world". He's all "like, dude, it sucks being me, must go on murderous rampage" one sentence, then "I am of deep intelligence and ever deeper conscience and feeling -- do you not understand the sweetness of life and the gentleness of the human condition and how I desire it so much?" the next and then back to "must. kill. humans." and back again to "to have a lover and to live in the remote in calm and peace is all I desire, will you not help my as my creator and God?"

You feel sorry for the monster, then Frankenstein is all "Awwwww, but I hate you so **** you for no good reason, well, there si a reason but I have to faint so can't explain". So the monster gets annoyed and Frankenstein just continues to be a complete arse about the entire thing - probably because Shelly can't decide if you're meant to be horrified by the monster or feel sorry for him. There's probably some allegory there I missed, but I think it's actually just piss poor writing and that she spent too much time with pathetic, fainting arse-holes in Geneva.

The reason it's worth reading though is to put to rest all the fallacies regarding the creature. Nowhere in the book does it explain that that monster is created from body parts (there's a very vague hint, but there's no grave robbing or stitching together of murderers or anything). It's simply that he has worked out how to "make a man". Likewise, electricity is hinted at as a power to perhaps bring things to life, but there's no description of the "reanimation" process (or animation, as it may not be dead flesh).

It's good to understand the source and it's well written. If you like descriptions of 19th century Europe the knobs will have seen and want to find the root of Frankenstein if you're interested in "horror" then it's a must read. Just expect a lot of Frankenstein in bed and wilting heroes and heroines.

Now I'm making my way through The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft. Yes, I'm a masochist...

 

[kimahri]

I'm reading D.Gray Man :3

YAY manga!!

 

[Brookes]

The books I've read this year are Theme Park Design and Building a Better Mouse by Steve Alcorn and The Number Mysteries by Marcus du Sautoy.

Theme Park Design was a pretty interesting read. It covered what goes on from the initial conception of an idea for a ride through design and construction up to opening. If you haven't heard of the author, he worked for WED on the electronics at Epcot particularly on American Adventure, the story of which is described in Building a Better Mouse. Both books are very informative considering their relatively short length. The style is of an acquired taste however, written in a conversational way with some very short chapters. Personally I prefer a more formal style but I still enjoyed reading these books and they are definitely good fun for enthusiasts and anyone interested in theme parks or Disney in general.

The Number Mysteries was a fascinating book about (unsurprisingly) the mystery of numbers. It explains how numbers appear in our everyday lives from the lottery to the protection of credit cards over the internet. I learnt a hell of a lot whilst reading this book and you don't have to have a great deal of prior knowledge to read it, it's just a really interesting read. If you've seen du Sautoy's TV series "The Code", you'll notice some of the things in the book which are also shown in the series. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about how certain things work.

I've just recently started reading The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski. I've read one of his books before, Pushing the Limits, which was really good. From what I've seen, his books are composed of articles he has already written and brought together to form an overall document. The Essential Engineer covers the differences between Science and Engineering, and how engineering is necessary to solve the world's global problems. I really like the style with which Petroski writes and I'd also recommend his books to anyone interested in engineering.

 

[furie]

Gave up on Lovecraft after about 7 or 8 stories - how's that going for you Kim?

Madame_Furie bought me reprints of three Sherlock Holmes books for Christmas so I started those under duress.

Well kind of. I used to love watching the films and programs when I was young, and I still watch stuff now - but it kind of feels a bit trite to read the stuff if that makes sense? The fact I don't like reading detective stories and have suffered enough 19th century writing was putting me off, but I dug into "A study in scarlet" anyway.

Actually, really really good. Doyle is a very straightforward story teller, with very plain use of English. There's little in the way of flowery and romantic wording, few people faint or have to lie down (it does happen, but mostly it's okay) and the Watson and Holmes characters are actually really superb. It's frustratingly good. You get drawn into the interesting Victorian world, but it's written in an almost contemporary manner, it's very good indeed.

I've now inhaled A study in scarlet, the first collection of short stories, the Sign of the Four and I'm halfway through Hound of the Baskervilles (which is a story I feel is done to death and films and TV series cover it so much, but it's still excellent to read the original and it's got something really gripping about it).

I've got all the others on the Kindle (for free), so I'll absorb them in the next week or so. Really shocked by how they've taken me in.

Also reading The Weirdstone of Brisingaman (by Alan Garner - I've mentioned it here before, a "post-Hobbit LOTR lite set in Alderly, Cheshire) to Maxi-Minor_Furie at the moment a chapter or two a night. I've never done "real book" reading with him, and we're both enjoying it, though I suspect he's getting more from it than me, as I'm mostly getting a sore throat :lol:

 

[kimahri]

Gave up on Lovecraft after about 7 or 8 stories - how's that going for you Kim?

Ain't even started yet. Still got a big backlog of books to get through including Hellboy.

 

[kimahri]

I'm onto volume 3 of The Goon. Yaaaaaay.

 

[peep]

Bloomin' hell, can't believe the last time anyone posted in this topic was a year ago.

I finally finished reading Treasure Island (started about October last year and had a large break from reading December/January).

I really enjoyed reading the book, there were some odd phrases used occasionally from times gone by which occasionally threw me off and I had to try and work out what was going on lol. I felt like everything was wrapped up at the end almost too quickly though. I did thoroughly enjoy reading through the adventure despite knowing what will happen next from seeing the countless films based off it.

 

[furie]

I keep on thinking about reading it, but I've not quite got around to it.

I ploughed through a load of books the week I had off over Christmas. Tales of the Towers, Smoke and Mirrors (the Alton Haunted House book) and "The History of Ocean Software" which was a kickstarter project about my favourite 1980's software house (and an excellent book it was too).

I also made my way through the last of the Sherlock Holmes books, 1356 by Bernard Cornwell about the battle of Poitiers and The Hobbit (finally got around to reading it). All were excellent "light" reading.

Since this topic was last posted in, I've also made my way through:
- The entire Game of Thrones books (see the GoT topic for more detailed analysis)

- The Adventures of Mr Maximillian Bacchus and his Travelling Circus - a collection of out of time/place tales about a circus/freakshow and their journey to some kind of heaven/haven. Just my kind of thing actually. Not a great deal happens, but it's a really great little kind of setting and old style story telling.

- Doctor Sleep - the "follow up" novel to The Shining. If you're a King fan, you'll recognise "starts brilliantly with great potential and fizzles badly to the end". It could never match The Shining, and it's probably his best book for a long time, but it still suffers from "can't end a story".

- Finding Evil by our very own Slayed. It's quite a rushed novella (it was written for a competition to write a story in 24 hours or something) in the style of Dean Koontz or Mark Morris (it's a bit of a mix of the two) and while it's far from perfect, it's interesting. The biggest problem is that it's obviously constrained, and you can tell Mark wanted to explode the entire world he was creating, but was limited by the time constraint. It's only pennies on Amazon and would support a fellow goon. Finding Evil by Mark Slade

- The Raven. Got it free and read it to MMF who thought it was quite cool. I'm not a big Poe fan, but really enjoyed it

- War of the Worlds. Another book I've meant to read for years, but never got around to it. Brilliant. I wasn't expecting it to be so very different to all the other retellings it's had. So the actual story was a surprise . Well worth a read, especially if you live in and around London and recognise the places.

I think there are a few others hanging around I can't remember at the moment, will look through my used book pile later on maybe.

I've loaded the Kindle with The Picture of Dorian Gray and three collections of ghost stories by M.R. James. I'm not really in a reading mood at the moment though so haven't got around to them yet beyond the opening chapter/story.

 

[gavin]

^Dorian Gray is brilliant.

 

[furie]

It's one of those where it's hard to start reading because you know the story - or think you do.

Like Dracula, War of the Worlds and Frankenstein though, the actual writing is what makes the difference and in reality, the stories aren't what you were expecting from the hatchet jobs films have done over the years.

It's just getting over the initial "I know what I'm getting" hurdle I seem to prejudice myself with :lol:

 

[gavin]

It's not the story anyway; it's the dialogue. It's so, so sharp.

 

[furie]

Yep, I know. I'm constantly frustrated by my own piss poor attitude towards reading. I'm an avid reader, but I always go for the lazy "same old **** " option when it comes to actually getting stuck into a book. I have no problem with getting stuck into a book from an author/genre I know I won't have to make any intellectual effort to get into.

I love reading though, and once I get into a book I think "will be challenging" I of course find it isn't and really enjoy it. It's just that really bad habit I have of making excuses for not reading in the most mindless way possible. It's overcoming that, but I shall and I shall read it and then rave about it

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

I'm thinking of reading Creating My Own Nemesis by John Wardley.

 

[BBH]

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. Excellent book for the hyper nerds.


Posted while reading your mind.

 

[Hutch]

I'm reading The Odyssey for my English class. A bit challenging, but I love Greek Mythology!

 

[rollermonkey]

Does listening to Terry Pratchett's Dodger on audiobook count?

 

[tomahawk]

Re: RE: What are you reading?

I've been reading the Divergent series as I like to read a book before it comes out in theaters. It's utter trash. I have three books going, the third one in that series Allegiant, just garbage but I'm forcing through it. Then im reading a book called No Easy Day written by a SEAL who was on the bin Laden mission. Finally just got a book by Tony Dungy, former NFL coach, that will be the one after I finish the trash.