Time for another "what book are you reading?" thread...

[EL COLORADO]

Halfway through...

EC

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Well, apt to this site, I just finished The Postman Always Rings Twice and started 1919 by John Dos Passos. Also, on audio, some nonfiction series called Central America.

 

[matei]

What? People still read? Is this for real?

What great news! What a great thread! It comes at an opportune time, as there is a "no tv" rule in the house because my wife is studying for some exams. I needed something to whet my appetite for some good literature.

I recently finished "Kafka On The Shore" by Haruki Murakami, as well as "Heart of a Dog", by Mihail Bulgakov. I like Murakami's work - especially "The Wind Up Bird Chronicles".

I'm about to start a book called "Mystery of the Templars" ("Misterul Templierilor"). I don't know who gave us this book, but it appeared on our shelf one day. Hmmm...

A friend happened to be reading "Red Harvest", by Hammett - and I liked that one a lot. I think I'll give it another go.

 

[Salv]

I'm almost at the end of Crete: The Battle and the Resistance by Anthony Beevor, then I'll be moving on to either Robert B. Parkers Double Play or Geoffrey Households Rogue Male. Also in my 'to read' pile are Stirling's Men by Gavin Mortimer ("The inside history of the SAS in World War II) and The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw ("One small town's D-Day sacrifice")

For pulp and noir fans I can highly recommend Hard Case Crime. They specialise in reprints of long out-of-print classic crime fiction, as well as new specially commisioned novels as well. So far they have published about 18 books with more to come over the course of this year. The covers are all new artworks in the classic pulp style, such as this cover for Day Keenes Home Is The Sailor which had been OOP for 37 years:

The complete list of published titles is as follows:

GRIFTER?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢S GAME by Lawrence Block
FADE TO BLONDE by Max Phillips
TOP OF THE HEAP by Erle Stanley Gardner
LITTLE GIRL LOST by Richard Aleas
TWO FOR THE MONEY by Max Allan Collins
THE CONFESSION by Domenic Stansberry
HOME IS THE SAILOR by Day Keene
KISS HER GOODBYE by Allan Guthrie
361 by Donald E. Westlake
PLUNDER OF THE SUN by David Dodge
BRANDED WOMAN by Wade Miller
DUTCH UNCLE by Peter Pavia
THE COLORADO KID by Stephen King
THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block
THE GUTTER AND THE GRAVE by Ed McBain
NIGHT WALKER by Donald Hamilton
A TOUCH OF DEATH by Charles Williams
SAY IT WITH BULLETS by Richard Powell

...and the following are scheduled for publication at the rate of one per month, starting in April, until December this year:

WITNESS TO MYSELF by Seymour Shubin
BUST by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr
STRAIGHT CUT by Madison Smartt Bell
LEMONS NEVER LIE by Richard Stark
THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
THE GUNS OF HEAVEN by Pete Hamill
THE LAST MATCH by David Dodge
GRAVE DESCEND by John Lange
THE PEDDLER by Richard S. Prather

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Cheerful Todays and Trustful Tomorrows by Margaret Sangster, one of my favorite Victorian Era writers of spiritual advice.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Finished The Historian, which I highly recommend. I also read the latest Anna Pidgeon mystery by Nevada Barr, Hard Truth, and, now that I am snowed in, will start the next two Hillerman mysteries, The Sinister Pig and Skeleton Man, both out in paperback.

karol

 

[Feraud]

Finished The Historian, which I highly recommend.

K.D. Did you find The Historian to need a bit of editing? My wife was reading it and stopped. She commented to me it could have easily have been half the pages. She also had issues with the plot structure.
Thanks.

I am currently reading The History of the Five Indian Nations by Cadwallader Colden.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Feraud -- it was a very long book and could get convoluted at time with three searches going on simultaneously, I sometimes had to struggle to keep the searches separate in my mind.

Am not sure what plot structure issues your wife had, I have those issues with just about every book I read. I am now at the point where I try to ignore them unless they are really awful. I know, in this book, I had some difficulties with the believability of how easy it was for the researchers to link up, I thought maybe the chance encounters would be explained away in some way, but it never was, unless you just assume that there was a supernatural element at work there.

For years, when I was young, the one horror creature that actually could scare me was the undead. I identified with King Kong, werewolves and even poor hapless Frankenstein. You could feel sorry for them, and I did. Then, along came Anne Rice and suddenly the scare was gone for vampires -- her books made you want to be a vampire or at least drink red wine and pretend it was blood. I was no longer scared of them. I am hopeful that books like this one may return the undead to the realm of horror they once inspired.

I guess what rivited me was the subject matter and the research into the history of Vlad Dracula. I am now reading a book, Vlad the Impaler: In Search of the Real Dracula. I like to know the origins of things, real or imagined.

karol

 

[Feraud]

Feraud -- it was a very long book and could get convoluted at time with three searches going on simultaneously, I sometimes had to struggle to keep the searches separate in my mind.

This is exactly what she was talking about. She felt it was too long and could be cut by half and there was too much non essential info going on. You mention the three simultaneous searches. I was told there is no smooth transition between them. My wife mentioned not realizing the plot had changed and needing to go back to find where it switched!

Then, along came Anne Rice and suddenly the scare was gone for vampires -- her books made you want to be a vampire or at least drink red wine and pretend it was blood. I was no longer scared of them. I am hopeful that books like this one may return the undead to the realm of horror they once inspired.

Great comments! I feel the same way about monsters and vampires in particular. How bad could being undead be if according to the Rice novels vampires have cool "superhero" like powers. I dislike films that give the fiend.."baggage"! I do not want to identify with my monsters. I want 'em bad and killed off at the end of the film! lol

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I recently finished "Kafka On The Shore" by Haruki Murakami, as well as "Heart of a Dog", by Mihail Bulgakov. I like Murakami's work - especially "The Wind Up Bird Chronicles".

I loved The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. However, Norwegian Wood I didn't like as much and kind of gave up reading all his books. I'd heard Kafka on the Shore was disappointing. Can you tell me otherwise?

 

[Dis]

Recently read: Great Expectations, Jane Eyre and Dracula. GE was new to me. I'd read the other two books before. I'm the sort who will reread a book if I really liked it. I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice. I love Austen's books and have read them all a number of times.

I also do semi regular Bible reading from a facsimile of a 1611 King James. It's the one in Gothic Black Letter. I just love reading a piece of history and linguistically it's very fascinating to me. (Got my degree in Linguistics long ago)

 

[G. Fink-Nottle]

Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine.

 

[Slate Shannon]

Then, along came Anne Rice and suddenly the scare was gone for vampires -- her books made you want to be a vampire or at least drink red wine and pretend it was blood. I was no longer scared of them. I am hopeful that books like this one may return the undead to the realm of horror they once inspired.

I guess what rivited me was the subject matter and the research into the history of Vlad Dracula. I am now reading a book, Vlad the Impaler: In Search of the Real Dracula. I like to know the origins of things, real or imagined.

karol

Interesting enough, I just started reading Bram Stoker's "Dracula" a couple of days ago! I've never read it before, but of course, I've seen lots of vampire movies. I haven't read any of Anne Rice's vampire books, at least not yet.

 

[Pilgrim]

I think you folks will like this one...

I'm reading a 1938-39 edition of Rudyard Kipling's "The Light That Failed".

Kipling is one of my all-time favorite authors, but I haven't read much besides the Jungle Book, Rikki-tikki-tavi and a few of his epic poems. So I recently hit an antique bookstore and picked up The Light That Failed, a book of his poetry and one or two other odds and ends.

The Light That Failed was made into a movie starring Ronald Coleman in 1939, and the edition I bought has the original dust jacket in marvelos condition, with artwork showing a heroic Ronald Coleman laying about him with a sword.

By doing extensive internet searching, I found a page that has an image of the dust jacket on my edition.

Unfortunately, since the edition I have is an inexpensive hardback published as a cross-promotion with the movie, it was printed on pulp-style paper that's not acid-free. The pages are quite yellowed and brittle already, so i have to be careful with them.

It has re-established my appreciation of Kipling...including such earthy poems of his as "The Young British Soldier", which includes this prophetic final verse, nearly foreshadowing recent developments....

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier _of_ the Queen!
---Rudyard Kipling

 

[matei]

I guess what rivited me was the subject matter and the research into the history of Vlad Dracula. I am now reading a book, Vlad the Impaler: In Search of the Real Dracula. I like to know the origins of things, real or imagined.

karol

The real story is much more interesting than all the vampire stuff. Is that book by Florescu / McNally? That book isn't too bad. Tepes is a national hero in Romania. The country could use someone like him today!

In Romania, no one refers to Vlad Tepes as "Vlad Dracula". People would say either "Tepes" or "Vlad Tepes". Tepes (Tzepesh) means "impaler"... Ah - but you probably knew all that!

That being said, "Dracula" is a good read. If your're into vampires, "Carmilla", by Sheridan Le Fanu, is an excellent story.

 

[matei]

I loved The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. However, Norwegian Wood I didn't like as much and kind of gave up reading all his books. I'd heard Kafka on the Shore was disappointing. Can you tell me otherwise?

I didn't like "Norwegian Wood" at all.

"Kafka on the Shore" isn't bad at all. It isn't as good as "Wind UP Bird Chronicle" - if that were a "10", this would be a "7.5".

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I didn't like "Norwegian Wood" at all.

"Kafka on the Shore" isn't bad at all. It isn't as good as "Wind UP Bird Chronicle" - if that were a "10", this would be a "7.5".

In that case, what is your second favorite?

 

[matei]

Emmm... I liked both "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" were both very good, a tie for second place.

Oh - I that reminds me - "Death and the Penguin", by Andrei Kurkov was very good, I recently finished that as well.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Emmm... I liked both "A Wild Sheep Chase" and "Dance, Dance, Dance" were both very good, a tie for second place.

Oh - I that reminds me - "Death and the Penguin", by Andrei Kurkov was very good, I recently finished that as well.

Ever read any Viktor Pelevin? He reminded me of Murakami a little. "Chapaev i Pustota" (something like that) was the Russian title. British I think was "The Clay Machine Gun" and American was "Buddha's Little Finger."

I'll look up Kurkov.

 

[Feraud]

I have to recommend Band of Brothers by S. Ambrose. A great read for the history readers! When you finish the book get the HBO miniseries. It is great!