Be Excellent To Each Other

There are a few book threads but they're all ancient so this is a new one.

What are you reading currently? Any good? I'm reading Lolita. It's... It's good I think. It takes some effort to get into every night. Not because it's overly complicated. It's superbly written. It just takes a few pages to get over the subject matter and sort of ease into it. Should have it finished by the weekend.

And now, the real reason I started this thread:

Lovecraft. What, would you lot say, is his essential work? I'm sure he has a fair few that you'd consider essential - I know he's well loved on here - but I want to start somewhere. What should I go for?

Apparently, it's the 75th anniversary of his death today, hence my being reminded to investigate him further after seeing this on reddit:



Yes, Zardoz, I deliberately said "get into every night" and "ease into it" about Lolita.

There's an interesting article on him on the BBC News site today too.

At the Mountains of Madness.

77p!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/At-Mountains-Ma ... 990&sr=8-6

Or free! All his work is in the public domain. Fuck publishers repackaging it every few years.

Fuck.

Is that the one by Ron Jeremy or Linda Lovelace?

Just started reading The 10th Man by Graham Greene. Only a couple of chapters in, so I haven't made my mind up about it yet.

Just finished 'A Small Town In Germany' by John Le Carré. Quite good, considering nothing much happened except some bloke goes missing from the British Embassy in Bonn along with a number of secret files and a security bloke from Blighty is sent over to investigate. This all happens in the 60s, of course, "against a background of concern that former Nazis were returning to positions of power in West Germany."

I pinched these while clearing the house of a friend who was preparing to sell it. Therefore, also free.

Heh. I was reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold at some point last year but I never got past the first few chapters. Not for any particular reason - I just forgot I was reading it I guess! It was shaping up to be pretty decent as well. Will go back at some point.

This is a steal: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Necronomicon-We ... 0575081562

Unless you like reading onto your Kindroid.

I'm currently enjoying this:



http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesw ... e/6176293/ - £2.99!

Agreed. I'm a Kindletard of the highest order but this at 12 quid is a shining example of why one should pay for a nicely packaged bit of stuff. It won't revolutionise hardback publishing but if you want the works, nicely put together, in one big nasty volume, it's a steal. I bought it with no intention of re-reading his ouvre anytime soon, but it enhances any bookshelf.

Pickman's Model, Call of Cthulhu, Shadow over Innsmouth are all favourites.

As you're skint, get the free-e-book. Then if you like what you read at all, get the hardback.

As for me, I'm reading MEtro 2033 by Dmitri Glukhovsky. The game was derived from it, and at 70-odd percent through I think it's a fine, fine book. Hero's journey plot, obviously, but it reads like a walk through the stoic and the crazy in Russian culture in microcosm. Very clever, rather gripping in places and somewhat terrifying in others, I just wanted to crack it out before playing the game, in case the game spoiled the book for me, but I think it will be a certain re-read for me over time and a bit of a favourite.

It has a touch of the Gateway feel about it. The world's gone and that which made it under Moscow after the end carry on not dissimilarly to how they did before, just on a much smaller scale, while above, things dwell, though it's all quite matter-of-fact. I love Frederick Pohl's Gateway series and there's a good write-up on the first book here:

http://io9.com/5659500/gateway-by-frede ... go-winners

There's a book which rips your heart and guts out, I love it like few others.

Prior to this I was on the Ice and Fire series, which pwned from start to finish with a few lulls along the way which will improve with the re-reading. I'm sure to do before the next volume comes out. Plenty of time then. I segued into McCarthy's 'The Road' halfway through, which is the opposite end of the post-apocalypse from Metro 2033, a truly nasty and somewhat unnecessary environment for even a fictional character to be placed in. The death of a world in almost pornographic slow-mo. You've got to read it though, and it's mercifully short.

I think I also slipped Clarke's "Childhood's End" in there, another brisk read, and one of the better sci-fi books ever.


As you can see, I like sci-fi and a very small amount of fantasy, on account of reality doesn't require reading about.


We should all get together on here:

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5572 ... rnmentyard

I am reading Game of Thrones and the Stig's autobiography. Both are fairly good, although I expected to like GoT more.

I've been big into my nonfiction recently. The last four books I've read have been 'Bad Science' by Ben Goldacre, 'A Brief History of Time' and 'Grand Design' by Stephen Hawking, and most recently 'Why does E=mc2: (and why should we care anyway?)' by Prof Brian Cox.

I think next is going to be the novella 'Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions' by Edwin A. Abbott.

Reading Sherlock Holmes Volume 2.

But have a lot of Audibooks on the go (do they count)

I'm halfway through Clash of Kings. Very gripping despite not a huge amount of stuff actually happening. I fear s2 of the tv show may suffer for it.

Goodreads, the social network for readers, is excellent at this sort of thing, BTW.

Freakonomics. It's quite interesting, although a little smug at times.

Yeah, I was quite pleased when GY posted the oink a fee posts up.

I know a few people like that...

Mr Dave?

I think i've read every Lovecraft tale and my favorites are "A Shadow over Innsmouth" and "The colour out of space". I thought "mountains of madness" was a bit boring actually.

Last night i dreamed about "Blood Meridian" again. I read it about 2 years ago and as you can see it left quite an impression. It's not the best fiction source for dreams, though.

One of my favourites too that.

Here's Mark E Smith reading it:

Isn't Mr. Dave the opposite of Governmentyard?

He's the Laurel to Dimrill's Hardy.

It was more a comment on the atrocious typing.

"Posting the oink" sounds like really dirty slang for a very odd sex act.

It's when you draw nostils on your John Thomas and paint the ladys bottom pillar box red.

Hah! That's what I get for speed reading.

Anyway, I'm on Goodreads too, add me if you like. Can't remember my username. Probably my twitter name or my real name. </SuperUseful>

I logged into Goodreads with my Twitter account and added some folk. I'll get to updating it soon.

Currently I'm finishing off the last book of Julian May's the Saga of the Exiles Series 'The Adversary'. It must be the sixth or seventh time I've read the whole series. This time it's taken much longer than normal as I was interupted by reading the Game of Thrones books after watching the first series.

Corking series of books, as were the others associated with them.

I am currently reading 'Empire State' by someone or other. It is about a prohibition bootlegger in the 1950s, and also about a private detective. And also parallel universes. And superheroes. And gas masks.

It's not quite as good as it sounds, but entertaining enough.

I am currently reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth' series. They are bollocks, don't read them. They are appallingly written, the characters are hateful and idiotic and the entire thing is riddled with plot devices and series extending bullshit. That said, I want to know what happens so am 5 books in (of 13 ). it is kind of like Lost, in that you can anly hope there is a solution that is good because otherwise you have wasted so much time.

Goodkind is worryingly obsessed with rape.

Isn't he just. One of the things I most remember is him describing a raider breaking open the skull of a village "idiot" in the third book. Hollow thuds. Like a coconut.

you are correct. the only decently written section in the first book is the bondage section. the only decently written section in the second book is the bondage section. guess which the only decent bit of the third book was.

Your Mum.

Bobby - won't Wikipedia have a synopsis, or maybe there's a wiki for the whole thing? I've no problem reading these for shite books with a hint of curiosity as to how it all pans out. I do it with films as well.

Ice and Fire's quite rapey too, I suppose. It's not entirely without purpose, for that is the sort of world it's set in, and the punishment for those not of noble birth caught at it is knob off or go to serve at the Wall. Plus certain interventions in said circumstance serve to effectively redraw characters and add depth. Mostly it's (mostly) women being threatened with it... and I suppose that makes a better dramatic tension ratcheter than yet another 'certain death' peril scenario. Plus you've got flaying, beheading, burning, drowning etc so it's just one of the many horrible colours Martin paints with.

I like how every book spends 500 pages about Richard not knowing how to use his sword, then at the end he knows how use it for a while and fixes shit, then forgets.

That's Lolita done. Thoroughly fucking excellent, but a tad creepy at times. Wouldn't read a paperback edition on the train.

Now to try some Lovecraft, I guess. I intend to start A Game of Thrones at some point soon but it's dauntingly long.

Quite. Goodkind appears to do it because being an author gives him the ability to make people be raped. Often.

I'd say get the first book done, most people tend to do it at a canter because it's excellent. Get it read by April 1st and you can pick up with the second series on telly, then read that.

Good shout!

Yeah, it is annoying because the other sections are okay, but anything with Richard and/or Kahlan in seems to be appalling.

My favourite book of them was the one where Richard was taken away to Hogwarts to learn shit, but the nuns were all evil and he had to kill them. Was it Temple of the Windy Bottoms? Can't remember. I gave up on Goodkind at around book 5 or 6. Hell's Bells has read them all though.

Can you ask her if they get any better?

Answer: "No."

Thanks, time to give up, I think.

If you haven't already, read the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. Some of the best books I've ever read. Blarted like a twat at them, too.

Thanks again, I was just about to ask for recommendations!