RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media What Are You Reading?

Frank or Haggart was your favorite?

I was sad when Hermione lost her virginity and it wasn't with Harry.

Does harry get glaucoma?

I finished Spare Change today. Was a good read though was too smooth and'nice' for a homocide book. It was too much of a paper version of that rape and kill a girl show without everybody winning in the end. I Usually like Robert B. Parker's stuff. Think i'm gonna pick up Sleeping Doll and Happpy Endings this week.

Finished:
Players of Null-A by Alfred Elton Van Vogt.

Hector Servadac or Off on A Comet by Jules Verne. Some anti-semitism but otherwise a classic SF story by the master.

One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane. Mike Hammer hunts down commies. Classic.

Begun:
Day of the guns by Mickey Spillane. About Tiger Mann, secret agent working for a private sector agency that do what the official organisations can't pull off. Very Cold War-ish.

A for Andromeda by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot. Plot similar to Carl Sagan's Contact, but written decades earlier. Aliens sends blueprints to a supercomputer to Earth.

Stjärnpesten (="Star Plague") by Denis Lindbohm. A tiny fraction of mankind hides under the Earth waiting for the mysterious and lethal plague on the surface to disappear. A plague that kills everything, including bacteria and virus. The people is forced to live under dictatorship.

I finished Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows just about 10 minutes ago, Harley.

I can say that, in spite of a bit of filler, I love the book and enjoyed it very much.

I put it in with the other hardbound Harry Potter books.
I'm sorry to see the series end, but all good things..

And it need not end.. the books can be re-read.

I found Hallows to be quite suspenseful. I read it in 5 days, about 150 pages a day, which is a lot for me as I read rather slowly.

I agree with CJ - that the deaths were terrible. That is how life is. The ones you grow to know and care about die.

Fictional characters can seem so very real to us.. more so than we care to admit, sometimes.

No spoilers here - but it was a damn good book. Questions were answered. Mysteries were solved, and much was explained in great detail.

I give the book 5 out of 5 stars.

I don't mind terrible deaths. It just seems like half of them were done just for shock value.

Don't get me wrong. I love Lupin, he's my favorite character, I love werewolves, he rocks, and I was semi-okay with his death. The fact that he was dead, and no one saw him die, I'm not so hot with that. Besides, he made the stupid mistake of naming a godfather before jumping into mortal peril. First, you just into peril, then name your kid's godfather. Lupin clearly never watched any mafia movies.

And I'm sorry, but there's got to be a rule against going into mortal peril...what, three or four days after giving birth? Like I said, Lupin's death was okay (it was fitting for Mooney, Padfoot, and Prongs to be reunited). But Tonks? What the hell was up with that?

In other news, my coworker loaned me Hannibal.

Please, if you value Red Dragon and Silence Of The Lambs, just give that book back. Give it back to your co-worker, give the non-commital "It was okay" when asked what you thought, and go read another book. Do not read Hannibal. I'm telling you this as your friend.

I'm reading Cornell Woolrich's Phantom Lady and Lawrence Block's Lucky At Cards.

More Potter spoilers below...




I disagree. They were basically at war, and death is par for the course. When you first said that you're fav'rit was killed, I was trying to figure out who you meant, but Lupin? His death didn't suprise me at all - when it was announced that he was going to be a dad, I knew he was gonna take a dirt nap. A way to make things more tragic and whathave you. The only death that took me by surprise was Fred's. I didn't expect any of the Weasley's to go. His and Snape's death saddened me. Especially when you realized that Snape had done what he done because he loved Lily so much.

This was ok, but I felt it plodded - a LOT. The 80 or so pages when all they were doing was moving around and living in a tent? Nothing happened! Damn, all of that could've been edited significantly.

Four still is the most exciting of the books.

cause harry gets a handy?

Judging by the movies (I've never read the books), Ron gets the handy from Hermione, and Harry gets all the credit.

I guess the off-screen deaths just sort of bothered me. I'm not a big Moody fan by any stretch, but I thought he got a raw deal too. As for the redheads...well, there are so many of them, I figured one of two was bound to die...



Having never read Silence of the Lambs or Red Dragon and after only watching bits of the movie...I'm enjoying it.

Finished it. Short but exciting.

Started with Beowulf retold by Robert Nye. Good so far.

Finished it. Like I said, I have nothing to compare it to but the first movie, but I enjoyed it. The brain scene at the end was pretty disturbing...in a cool way.

Is the old 'Manhunter' movie any good? I'm kind of curious seeing Brian Cox as Hannibal.

Manhunter, which is adapted from Red Dragon, is a surprisingly underrated gem of a movie. By the way, you should read Red Dragon - it's the best of the series.

I've just started Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour. I've been enjoying his TV show (the new season started last night), so i picked this up. If I enjoy this I may start picking up the mystery novels he's written.

i roll with all that was said here...

I drove my Cadillac to the library, baby, and read the, uh... last ten pages of an Agatha Christie book.

Well, sorta. I read the last ten pages. After reading the preceding 265. And Then There Were None, also printed as "Ten Little Indians." It was alright, nothing really challenging about the read. It is simply for entertainment, whodunnit mystery, nearly unsolvable until she gives up the ghost after the epilogue. And by ghost I mean that one key piece of information not supplied in any form earlier. Otherwise an astute reader would have caught it. And I do mean myself.

You see, baby, you can do anything you wanna do! Live and let live: that's the essence, the summit, the very cornerstone of my philosophy. And baby, baby you know, baby you know you gotta, you gotta be! You gotta BE what you're going to BE!

(song ref. is "The Blues Song" by The Dead Milkmen)

Just finished reading Carl Hiassen's "Nature Girl" - I've mentioned before that I am a huge Hiassen fan - his stories are crazy, funny an entertaining, but while this was cute, it wasn't nearly as much fun as his other books...

It was also called Ten Little Niggers, when it was still OK to use the n-word. Heck, my translated edition from the 80's has that title translated almost directly. (Translated "back" it's Ten Little Negroe Boys".)

Finished Beowulf. Good read.

Finished "Day of the Guns" and started "Bloody sunrise" which takes off where the first book ended. I guess I'm a Spillane junkie now.

I'm re-reading the entire Harry Potter series, and have just started book one.

About halfway through Atlas Shrugged (again). Still enjoying it but the slow parts seem even worse now.

After that I'm gonna tackle the Harry Potter books.

reading The Scarlet Pimpernel, never have before

Then why start now?

I'm actually enjoying it. plus, with all the hero/superheros it has inspired, I figured it's a bit of history.

Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof

Rereading my Microbiology and Chemistry textbooks to prepare for a promotion test...

I wish you success, CJ!

Have finished "A for Andromeda" and started with its sequel "Andromeda Breakthrough", both written by script writer John Elliot and astronomer/SF-author Fred Hoyle. As I've said before (here or some other place) the books have similarities with Carl Sagan's "Contact", but part from the concept "first contact with alien species through radio telescope" it's a different story. The books are actually novelizations of two BBC-series written by the same authors, but it's not a bad thing; compare with Arthur C Clarke's "2001" and "2010".

Have also finished "The Legion of Space" by Jack Williamson. It's a classic space opera with characters inspired by "The Three Musketeers" and "Falstaff" (by William Shakespeare). Despite that not THAT great, but a good pageturner.

Reading "Galaxy of the Lost", first novel in Gregory Kern's (nom-de-plume for E.C. Tubbs) Kap Kennedy series about a secret space agent. Decent pageturner if you don't mind "simple" entertainment.

Started yesterday with Alexei Tolstoy's "Aelita: Princess of Mars". Classic SF about two Soviet Russians who are the first men on Mars, discovering an ancient civilisation which suffers from a civil war (compare with the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution) and ruthless capitalism.

When I was a kid, I thought that The Scarlet Pimpernel had existed for real.

Break a leg!

I mean, good luck.

Read Last Sons by Alan Grant (the Lobo book). Totally worth it. A bit of fun between the covers.

I just finished Warren Ellis' Crooked Little Vein. I plan to write a review but, for now, let me say this: Go get it and read it. NOW. Don't even wait for my review.

That's on my list to get.

Just finished 24 Carat Kids - fluff, junk-food-for-the-mind book in the vein of The Nanny Diaries co-written by a pediatrician who caters to the wealthy UES clientele. Cute, funny and damn if the doctor doesn't completely nail the sense of entitlement that permeates the Upper East Side like no where else in the city...

Now reading Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper. I read his book called The Book of Joe a year or two ago, and it was laugh out loud funny and brilliant. Changes is just as entertaining...I think Tropper is becoming one of my new favorite authors...

Started with a juvenile mystery novel by Enid Blyton, titled "U-boat nest". Some kids takes a trip with a boat and gets caught in a storm. After landing on a small island they discover a threat to England (it takes place during or before WWII, so it's easy to get who the enemy will be).

Re-started Douglas Adams' Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide. Hopefully, I'll actually finish it this time.

read it last month. damn funny.

Gonna go pick this up this afternoon if I have the time.

Just finished Little Children by for Tom Perrotta - it was made into a movie with the beautiful Kate Winslet who IIRC was nominated for an Oscar for her performance. Started off as a good read, but the last 30 pages just ruined it for me. What a let down. Bleh.

Make the time. It's so worth it!

I'm currently reading Crisscross by F. Paul Wilson. Another Repairman Jack novel. Good stuff.

Oh man if only I had the time! I need a vacation!



Hmmm...I'm always looking for something new, so mebbe...

Oh, and run and get books by Jonathan Tropper - he is one funny bastard and I think you might like his style.