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

Currently poring over Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King.

Finished it. Was OK.

Still reading 'The Bourne Identity' and 'I am legend'.

Started to read John Wyndham's 'Out of the deeps', an alien invasion story.

Question: My sister goes through books like I do cheeseburgers. She liked Out and someone's number series (each title had the corresponding number -- unlikely detective woman solving murders accidentally, I think). She read the entire Harry Potter series in about a week or two, and is looking for another series like it (really long, intricate stories that she can really get into). She also liked Dune and is forever a fan of Douglas Adams.

Anything you'd suggest for her?

A lot of people like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. If she's into fantasy, there are, like, six or seven books out. Harry Turtledove also has a shitload of alternate history books out. One deals with the confederacy winning the Civil War. Another is a series about aliens invading during the middle of WWII. It all depends on her taste for sci-fi.

For long, intricate stories, I'd recommend F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series (mystery/crime-solving plus supernatural elements) and John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels (found in the mystery section, and you're not beholden to starting with the first one and reading in order, though you can). Andrew Vachss' Burke stories are self-contained but reference past novels, so you'd be better off reading them in order.

I'll tell her about Wheel of Time series, but she's a Historian and hates 'what if' books.

Cool, thanks.

James Patterson.

Not that I've read any of them, as unlike his earlier stuff, Patterson has long given up on writing anything interesting or entertaining.




JM beat me to the punch, but Vachss' series is excellent and dark. I would also reccomend Stephen King as his books are usually a couple hundred pages ( anywhere from 500-800) and are creepy and good - though, try his earlier stuff as it is better. Bag of Bones - is a favorite that has a twist than the usual horror fare.

So, spent a fortune on books yesterday. Picked up The Book of Illusions, by Paul Auster - I really enjoyed Brooklyn Follies so I figured another book by Auster would be good. Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert; Mass Market by Andrew Vachss - another book in the Burke series; Patriot Games, by Greg Rucka - I dig his comics, so want to see how he does without the pretty pictures; Brave Story, by Miyuki Miyabe. Not gonna lie, the cover of Miyabe's book totally reminded me of the Harry Potter stuff which caught my attention and its a fantasy in the same vein, so I picked it up. I've also been digging the Japanese-translated-to-English books, so...

And finally, I picked up and finished Crooked Little Vein, by Ellis. I...kinda liked it. He is a mad, psychotic genius and there are paragraphs of sheer brilliance and hilarity here, but I felt like I was reading a bunch of short stories that were thinly connected at best. It wasn't as good as I had hoped for, and given the fact that I am a fan of his comics book writing I thought I would enjoy it as much as that, but I didn't.

I'm reading my own story.

I am an egotistical motherfucker.

Actually I'm trying to work out how best to adapt it to screenplay form for Gooz's website.

Am starting Frederick Buechner's Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale and Aristotle's Poetics.

Finished the first Harry Potter book today. It was better than I expected.

I finished Cyril M Kornbluth's 'The Syndic', a mix of utopia and dystopia about a new American society ruled by a benovelent mafia.

Still reading:

The Book of Ptath by A.E. van Vogt (science fantasy)

Fear by L. Ron Hubbard (psychological horror)

Modesty Blaise: Sabre-Tooth by Peter O'Donnell (spy thriller)

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett (thriller)

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum (spy thriller)

I'm part of a bookclub at school and we just finished reading, "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. I learned a lot about the circus. It was a fascinating read with some over-the-top sex parts but it was well written.



We also read Jeff's favorite :P, "Angry Housewives eating Bon-Bons" which is a cute book it's just a really long read!

BUT my favorite book the past month was John Grisham's latest book, "The Innocent Man" which is a nonfiction book based on a trial in Ada, Oklahoma. It is really, REALLY good. I read the whole thing in about two days. I love reading a book that is well written and really educational. Definitely pick this one up if its, Wal-mart, target, or even at amazon!



What he says about the book: Dear Reader,

Writing nonfiction has seldom crossed my mind—I’ve had far too much fun with the novels—and I had no idea what I was getting into when I started writing The Innocent Man.

This story, and the research and writing of it, consumed eighteen months. It took me to Ada, Oklahoma many times, to the courthouse and jail and coffee shops around town, to both the old death row and the new one at McAlester, to Asher, where I sat in the bleachers for two hours and talked baseball with Murl Bowen, to the offices of the Innocence Project in New York, to a café in Seminole where I had lunch with Judge Frank Seay, to Yankee Stadium, to the prison in Lexington where I spent time with Tommy Ward, and to Norman, my base, where I hung out with Mark Barrett and talked about the story for hours.

With every visit and every conversation, the story took a different twist. I could’ve written five thousand pages.

The journey also exposed me to the world of wrongful convictions, something that I, even as a former lawyer, had never spent much time thinking about. This is not a problem peculiar to Oklahoma, far from it. Wrongful convictions occur every month in every state in this country, and the reasons are all varied and all the same—bad police work, junk science, faulty eyewitness identifications, bad defense lawyers, lazy prosecutors, arrogant prosecutors.

In the cities, the workloads of criminologists are staggering and often give rise to less than professional procedures and conduct. And in the small towns the police are often untrained and unchecked. Murders and rapes are still shocking events and people want justice, and quickly. They, citizens and jurors, trust their authorities to behave properly. When they don’t, the result is Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.

Ada is a nice town, and the obvious question is: When will the good guys clean house?

Just picked up Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund; I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, about the reign of Queen Elizabeth I as told from her POV; and I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. I am actually looking forward to the movie, so I got curious enough to pick up the book which I want to read before I see it.

They had Rhett Butler's People which just came out and given that I am a die hard fan of GWTW I wanted to pick it up, but I read the first chapter in the store and just couldn't get into it. Maybe another time. CJ, I know you love Scarlett & Co. as much as I do - are you planning on picking this up? If you do, let me know what you think...

I just finished Vachss' Terminal. It was a lot more preachy than past novels, but still pretty good. I'm about halfway through Infernal by F. Paul Wilson, which so far is easily the weakest of the Repairman Jack novels. Prior to these two, I read Elmore Leonard's The Hot Kid, which meandered and took its sweet time resolving, but was still damn good. He just wrote a nonfiction book on writing, which I'll be starting once I've slogged through Infernal.

I ordered I Am Legend and it should come any day now in the mail. Can't wait.



Actually, watching Scarlet about ten years ago pretty much left such a bad taste in my mouth I have no desire to read any other GWTW books. I'm content with the original. Which, come to think of it, I haven't read in like eight years. I think it's time to reread...

Recently finished Jeremy Clarkson - I know you got soul.
Currently reading Jeremy Clarkson - The world according to Clarkson.

Started reading Nikki Sixx - The Heroin diaries, a month or so ago, but couldnt get into it.

I do have a whole pile of books to work through though.
Chris Jericho - A lions tale & Chris Walker - Stalker, are probably top of the list though!

I've gotta see if those are available over here.

I read Fight Club one night last week. Quick read. I liked it better than the movie, personally. There's less exhibitionism in the book and one can focus on the main point of the story. It's a romance, definitely. And Tyler Durdon's a total gasbag. I don't get why so many people want so desperately to be him.

I didn't like the book. I thought the movie was a much better version, more coherent and it made more sense.

Palahnuik even says in the commentary that the movie is the better version.

Just finished re-reading Jimmy Breslin's The Church That Forgot Christ and I'm about to start Harold Coyle's The Ten Thousand and Ian Fleming's Goldfinger.

I don't care. I enjoy the book more.

I think if I read the book first I would have liked it more but the movie was so damn good its the one that stood out more for me.

Yeah the movie stands out more, but the book, IMO, has better flow. More stream-of-consciousness type of event hopping.

and the ending is better, too.

After watching the movie I heard that they ruined the ending, I went to a bookstore and read it and thats what made my read the book.

The movie ending is the very definition of a Hollywood ending.

exactly. whereas the ending of the book feels more. . .real and true.

Yes.

Owner of a Lonely Heart.

I finished Legend last night. Spoilers ahead.

There is just no fucking way that Hollywood is going to go with the ending in the book (which explains the title). I was really enjoying the story - the concept is nothing new (though at the time of its publication in 1954, it prolly was a fresher idea) - an apocolypse of sorts wipes out the world's population and one man is left alive. Well written, and the idea of explaining why people became vampires, and why garlic affects them, etc. was interesting - unfortunately, with Smith at the helm of the movie, I'm afraid this is going to turn into a standard horror movie instead of looking at the psychological impact that the end of human kind has on the protagonist.

That said, as much as I enjoyed it, I can't say that I liked the ending all that much. It explained the title, and it certainly was a twist I didn't forsee, but it was a little depressing as well. I would still recommend this book, though, as reading Neville's outlook in this new world was interesting and entertaining.





Never saw/read Scarlett - once I heard that in that book she had Scarlett sell Tara (!?!?!?!?!) I knew the writer had absolutely ZERO concept or understanding of the character and I lost any interest in reading it.

My translated edition must have been abridged: only about 150 pages, and for some reason "vampires" is replaced with "werewolves" (the latter doesn't change much, I hope). Does Neville or another character say something directly about Neville becoming a legend?

I'm reading old Valiant trades along with Cliffird Simak's Way Station and their awesome

The English edition is only 170 pages. Unfortunately, the edition I picked up failed to mention that its I Am Legend with a bunch of short stories, which ticked me off, as I was expecting more to the story.

How did they trade in vampires for werewolves? There's a whole section about how Neville is trying to understand why garlic affects them so, and the fear of crosses, etc - all things that people relate to vampires, not werewolves. Odd.

Neville is the one at the end who makes the connection that he is their boogeyman. In fact, the final line in the story is "I am legend," which is what Neville thinks as he realizes that he will be the nightmare story that people will pass on down for generations.

I hope those stories are at least by Matheson. I have quite a bunch of his short stories, and his novel 'The Shrinking Man' (in the same TPB series which published my ed. of 'I Am Legend' and Hubbard's 'Fear' which I mentioned).



Beats me. The publisher, B. Wahlström, seems to have specialized in abridging books in popular genres. (Same company published Mickey Spillane and other hardboiled detective authors. Spillane's books don't seem to be abridged, but Mike Hammer speaks a dialect from Stockholm. I guess the translator wanted him to speak in a manner familiar to the readers.)



I see.

In my ed., the title is "Varulvarnas natt", 'Night of the werewolves'. So instead of letting Neville think "I am legend", he is in his final rest, knowing that "the night of werewolves is over".

So, the translation changed the very point of the novel... Sigh.

(At least I know this now so I can buy the US edition with good conscience.)

I suppose a fair comparison is how Jules Verne has often been treated when translated to American English, but at least today, Penguin makes all their English translations complete (though without illustrations).

I did the same thing today at work! I'm like on page 168, and thinking, 'how much longer can this go on?' And then, bam, there's the ending. So apparently half the book is other short stories.



I kind of liked the ending. It had some bite (bad pun, bad pun). Have you see The Omega Man? Because that ending is also pretty quick -- there's a whole different emphasis in that movie, but Neville ends up dying in the end too.

The same writer did tha episode of The Twlight Zone with Shatner as the guy on the plane. So I'll think I'll check out his short stories.

The rest of the stories are good - the one with the killing doll creeped the fuck out of me! I actually got goosebumps...I was lying in bed when I was reading that, and I was tempted to check under the bed before I fell asleep!



No, what's that?



The ending has grown on me. It was a bit abrupt, which I didn't like, but it makes sense. I will totally be surprised if that is the ending that Hollywood goes with.

Omega Man is the second adaptation of I am Legend on film. it stars Charlton Heston. Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price is the first.

Omega Man is also probably the reason Charlton Heston was president of the NRA.

Although I prefer Ben-Hur Chuck:



That man could wear a toga like no one's business.

Wow! The link works again!