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The Book Thread

Lori Marie Loud

Lori Marie Loud

Giga Poster
Obviously the next step up from Music, TV shows or plays - books! Specifically, I want to both recap them, discuss them....and MST3K them.

My first MST3King of a book (which will become part of a series, named "Storytime with Friends with Lori and Friends") will start tomorrow or possibly later tonight. It will be Jack Bickham's Twister, a book about tornadoes destroying a bunch of stuff. Surely it can't be that bad?
Screenshot 2022-08-10 at 20-51-20 Twister.png
Oh, alrighty then. We'll be skipping over that scene when we get there...

Anyways, until I start my MST3King of Twister, what books have you read recently? And what did you think of 'em? Discuss!
 
Here we are. Twister, the first 11 pages.
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Now usually there'd be a nifty cover. Except there isn't. Because it's a hardback.
The cover would be this BTW:
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Instead...
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...we have this.
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So beautiful.
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I cannot possibly see how this will overperform.
So the novel begins with the NWS forecasting some ho hum storms across Texas. Only problem is they forgot a detail or two, as you'll see later.

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The Awesome Weather Forecasting Center in KC is at threat of being budget cut out of existence! Oh no! Whatever shall we do?
We begin with some blahing from Ed Stephens, he's one of the dudes who forecasts these whirling death tubes. This dude named Tatinger axes every division that doesn't impress him. Guess what he's going after now.
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We cut to Killeen, Texas, where Average American Family 1 is doing Average American Family things and whining about the roast. But OH NO! A TWISTER! The description of the twister reminds me of a description of the May 1985 Corbetton tornado. Radio girl on duty thinks false alarm. It's not.
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Well. Page 7 and an entire family has been sent to the Promised Land. Cheerful beginning.
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More technobabble.
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New character, Kensington. I think he's also a storm tracker. Apparently that unwarned Killeen tornado killed 17 people. And it was the one tornado in the country that day. Stephens was playing handball during the tornado, apparently.

And that will be all for Pages 1-11 of Twister. Tune in sometime soon for Pages 12 to 21!
 
Nice thing you are doing though this might get long as a MST3King.

I don't really read that many novels but I listen to loads of audiobooks. Audible is my best mate on trains and I get through at least a book per month.

I just finished "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Ego. Incredible book, especially if you are fascinated by religious history. This is a night and day difference to the pathetic DaVinci Code.

Currently, I am working through "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. I tried reading this previously but it frustrated me how detailed the descriptions are and how overall slow this book feels but a friend of mine recently recommended it strongly so I have given it a second try.

When I'm done with Moby Dick I am undecided where to turn. Either, I will read Guy de Maupassant's "Bel-Ami", or, if I feel like travelling more, I will read Ibn Battuta's "A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling". If I choose Bel-Ami I might try it in it's original form, it's been a long time since I used French.
 
ChristianPalsson said:
Currently, I am working through "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville. I tried reading this previously but it frustrated me how detailed the descriptions are and how overall slow this book feels but a friend of mine recently recommended it strongly so I have given it a second try.
Click to expand...
It's rare I give up on a book, but I just couldn't get on with Moby Dick. Like you say, it's just too slow. It's incredible in terms of a kind of day by day description of the times - I can understand why it's such an important book, but... So boring :D

I tend to bounce around genres and "talent". I like nice, easy reads, and the occasional thing that is unusual just to keep things fresh.

I've been trying "classic sci-fi" over the last 2 years, which is something I've never really liked. Also, Game of Thrones has opened up a world of near historical fantasy.

Let's see for this year:

"Serious":
Midnight's Children - hard going, but beautifully written.
A Farewell to Arms - really weird prose, bit all over the place. I think I'm missing something :D
The Bonfire of the Vanities. This took me ages to read. Political and lawyer dramas aren't really my thing. Not a single character is likable either. They're all real people (which is why I guess it's so highly regarded). It was clever though, and turns into a real "what will happen". I hated what happened :D
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Rachel Joyce): I loved "The Unexpected Journey of Harold Fry", so I had to read this, which tells the same tale, from the other side. It was a bit obvious, and tried too hard to tug on your heartstrings, but it never felt anything other than pragmatic. Not as good as the first book, but it scratched an itch.

Fantasy:
Neverwhere - I'm slowly becoming a Neil Gaiman fan (it's taken about 15 years). Really enjoyed this.
The Wolf and its sequel The Spider (Leo Carew) - Told from the view of a giant race living in Scotland, against the humans who live in the South. Probably an allegory or something, but it's good blood, swords and betrayal type of stuff.
Nation (Terry Patchett): I never really liked Pratchett. I didn't think he deserved to be the "cultural icon" he was in the early 90's. His writing was messy and unoriginal (His first many books are just Shakespeare in a Lord of the Rings type setting). However, as his work goes on, he becomes really good. The satire is biting, and he create characters with real heart and personality, rather than just "amusing shadows" of someone else. Nation is not his typical work, and it's excellent. It's still a bit messy here and there, but its captivating and a wonderfully crafter little tale. It's meant for "Young Adults", so it's lite, but still worth it.
The Blade Itself (Joe Abercrombie) - A pale Game of Thrones imitation, that works because it scales the story down to a handful of meaningful characters, that don't get lost in a plot so huge, it's overwhelming even for the author! Well written, and good fun.

Sci-Fi:
Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy - the last book of the Thrawn prequels. They've been... Okay I guess. I love Thrawn, but so much this 9th or something book I've read about him.
After Atlas (Emma Newman): Odd Cyberpunkish, English manor murder mystery. I really enjoyed her first book in this series, and it's a great meld of sci-fi and real people, with real problems.
Ringworld (Larry Niven): The book that Halo gets its idea from. Also, lots of things Douglas Adams reused in Hitch-hikers. It's got some great concepts, but the story just gets lost. Very typical 60/70s male crap as well - the women are there to serve the men as they smoke their pipes kind of stuff :D
Foundation (Asimov): Kind of really enjoyed it. Again, it's dated, but still huge in scope. It's amazing that sci-fi has changed so little. Asimov set the ground rules and they're still pretty much intact.
 
I recently finished reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I have technically read it before, but my last read was 6 years ago and I had little to no memory of it upon opening the book again, so the book was effectively as good as new to me.

I must say, it’s not a bad read, but if I’m being honest… I found it a bit confusing. How much of this is down to it being written as a play script, I don’t know, but I must digress that I found Harry Potter and the Cursed Child had a story that was somewhat hard to follow at points.

Essentially, it uses Time-Turners (time travelling devices within the Harry Potter universe) as a central plot device, and with them constantly jumping between alternate realities, I found it a little hard to keep track of which reality the characters were in and how they’d gotten to that reality in the first place…

In summary; it’s a good read, but somewhat confusing, and I definitely think I prefer the original 7 Harry Potter books myself. Perhaps I’d like the story more if I saw the play in its intended theatrical format…
 
Okay i'm a book nerd, so i want to add to this. The best book i have ever read was Derren Brown's "Happy", this book really made me question deep topics like religion, the harsh reality of death, and the sheer impact of money has over happiness. I reccommend giving it to a read to anyone, it is a book that applies to all people.

In terms of interests, travel and being a coaster enthusiast go hand in hand don't they? I read the pretty hilarious "How not to travel the world" by Lauren Juliff, this actually inspired my own book, which i'll link if any travel interested people are reading this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BPT6XMDQ

Other good mentions for me would include "Call Me By Your Name", and In the Darkroom is a brilliant book too.
 
Not a whole book but an amazing short story: All Summer in a Day written by Ray Bradbury in 1954.

The story is about a group of children who live on Venus, where the sun is only visible for one hour every seven years. The kids are in class, and that day is the day they'll finally see the sun. They're excited, as none of them can remember what it looked and felt like. Well none of them except one girl, Margot.

I read it two days ago and it hasn't left my mind since then. Later today I will be watching the 30-minute television adaptation that is available on youtube.
 
I´m a book nerd and my favorite book series is the inheritance cycle, and my favorite book in that series would be the third one called; Brisingr
 
Just finished all 9 of the main The River of London series. Really enjoyed them.

Think they might just about fit in your wheelhouse @furie. Quite light reading and pretty light hearted but the story clips along nicely. It's about a copper in London who discovers magic is real and gets taken into London's magic please force (2 blokes and a ghost who insists on serving breakfast Victorian style) very random but I ripped through all 9 main novels in 2 months.

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Another recent love for me was The Name Of The Wind. Im not a big fantasy epic kind of guy but this really drew me in. If you like game of thrones, lotr etc etc I imagine you might get in with this. It's less epic in scope and more follows the life of one guy who lives in a middle earth kind of land during a time of war but it's really well written and a proper.page turner.

The only problem is it's a trilogy and he's still not released the 3rd book. But fingers crossed it's coming.

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Finally a bit of a weird one but Shades Of Grey (no not that one) is a book I really loved set in a (more) dystopian Wales where your social status depends entirely on your perception of colour and the manufacture of spoons is illegal. It's funny and bizarre but a well written romp through forbidden love in a society gone a bit mental.

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I want to bump this topic because I've recently gotten back into reading since I have way too much time on my hands, and I want to see if anyone has any recommendations! Lately, I've read:

In the Heart of the Sea- I had a friend tell me about this and it sounded intriguing. For people who didn't like Moby Dick, this is in a different league, and instead of mostly fiction, it tells the true story of Moby Dick and the whalers' fight for survival. It's definitely more PG-13 than Moby Dick since there are themes of starvation, sickness, and cannibalism, and I found myself pretty invested and immersed in their journey.

The Pilot's Wife- I found two books at the thrift store, one of which was this one and the other was called the Aviator's Wife. I guess the wife is never the pilot, but that's a gripe for the feminists out there. Anyway, the book kind of sucked. It said the wife would uncover secrets about her husband's secret life after he died, but the entire book was literally just her grieving and lightly flirting with the investigator until maybe the final three chapters in which she does uncover a few secrets, and then it ends.

Currently reading Seabiscuit and I'm about halfway through and loving it.
 
I've been recently reading Osamu Dazai's books. I've read No Longer Human, and just finished reading Schoolgirl. His outlook on life is really depressing and I've had to step away from No Longer Human a few times. I love books that deal with the human psyche, and his books are great for that. I'm currently finishing up The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I have to say it is my favorite book yet. Wilde does great with description of scenery, one of my favorite aspects of gothic literature. Next up I'm going to read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
 
Seabiscuit- Loved it. Sometimes there were a lot of names to keep track of, of horses and people, but I thought the way the book was written was really good with how they told the stories of each individual main character, and then how their lives converged. The ending got my emotional, too, and it's always good when a book can do that. Gonna watch the movie tonight.

Next on the list is Carnie King, which is the story of how the Conklin Carnivals came to be.
 
Finished Carnie King. The history of the Conklin Carnivals from the time of Patty Conklin's parents in the late 1880s all the wslay through to the present day was pretty all-encompassing and impressive, but I found a lot of the book a bit dry at times. Pulled out some interesting pieces but I struggled to get through all 500 pages.

6.5/10

Starting The Last Doctor now.
 
The Last Doctor- Was a good book, not written in a super sophisticated fashion, but had some really touching and also candid stories of patients the doctor performed assisted suicide on.

From Here To Eternity- Another one not written in a sophisticated way but it was a good glimpse into death culture of various countries, and I enjoyed it. Some of it was quite surprising and shocking, but it's cool to see how different our cold death culture is versus some that are so personal, yet a bit "weird" by North American standards. I'll probably read more of her books.

I'm reading Trick or Treat now, the history of Halloween. Seems okay so far but I hate the material of the pages so I'm struggling to read it. And I'm talking about the literal material the pages are made from haha.
 
Matt N said:
I recently finished reading Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I have technically read it before, but my last read was 6 years ago and I had little to no memory of it upon opening the book again, so the book was effectively as good as new to me.
Click to expand...

Yes, I enjoyed that one. It's really an excuse to show the best scenes on stage, isn't it? But I did enjoy it.

I re-read the Sherlock Holmes stories, so I'll review them as a block, if I may:

A Study in Scarlet (1887). The first Holmes story. Whilst the first half is remarkable, the book as a whole highlights Conan Doyle's struggle to pace a full novel. The second half of the book is a flashback that doesn't involve Holmes or Watson (the latter of which is the usual narrator). As such, it doesn't engage as much and is a rather difficult read.

The Sign of Four (1890). The second novel is a huge improvement on the first. Once you've got into it, it's quite gripping and there's action all the way. The eventual flashback is only one chapter and a lot easier to get through than the previous book. The 2nd-best Holmes novel.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). The first and second collections of short stories are essential. Stories like The Speckled Band and The Final Problem are as good as it gets. The latter is the only story in which Moriarty appears, but made such an impression, the character is thought of as his nemesis. It could be considered that the stories end here, but...

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). Conan Doyle was under pressure to bring Holmes back, so wrote this prequel. Set in a misty Dartmoor, the book is spooky and fast-paced. There are no lengthy flashbacks apart from Holmes filling in a few details at the end. The perfect Sherlock Holmes novel.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). The true return of Holmes has a lot to offer. Whilst Conan Doyle may have wanted to leave the character in the past, this collection does give us classics such as The Six Napoleons. Well worth reading.

The Valley of Fear (1915). The final Holmes novel follows the same structure as A Study in Scarlet, and as such, to be frank, is painful to read. Most of the book has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes at all. On the positive side, it does have a good twist.

His Last Bow (1917) and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1927). I've grouped the last two sets of short stories together because the post-War stories had a different, more modern feel. Conan Doyle had endured personal tragedies in his life, and his writing was less gentlemanly than in the past. Some of the stories are quite unpleasant, with offensive moments. That said, the stories are not without merit, and I'd rather re-read them then the two lesser novels. These ones are strictly for fans who want more.
 
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