Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[Julie]

Just read up on this, sounds very good. I may have to check it out at some point.

I thought it was wonderful. I read it on vacation and the friend I was there with was a little frightened as every so often I would properly gasp in shock. It was a great read.

[sweetbutinsane]

Angels and Demons

I wasn't really supposed to read anything during the exams, but I couldn't help myself.

I kept comparing it to the film and found several things that I'm annoyed the film left out and several things that I'm quite glad were left out.

[Serafina_Pekkala]

Angels and Demons

I wasn't really supposed to read anything during the exams, but I couldn't help myself.

I kept comparing it to the film and found several things that I'm annoyed the film left out and several things that I'm quite glad were left out.

All I can think of is the Mark Kermode review that trashed the movie saying it basically involved "explaining the plot whilst running around".

Dan Brown probably has a big gold-plated room stuffed full of money and jewels (like Scrooge McDuck) in which he wanders around in a kaftan and rubs his body with various currencies and laughs about the stupidity of humanity whilst eating peeled grapes.

It sexier when I imagine the above with, say, Ralph Fiennes and just as equally true.

[GundamGuy_UK]

I've read Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code, but seen neither film. I intend to keep it that way.

I finally finished Guards! Guards! earlier, and I've moved on to Men at Arms now, which so far I'm enjoying more. Pratchett always seems to need a book or two to get into a new story arc.

[maian]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

My, my, but is this a violent book. I mean, just ludicrously so at times, which can only be expected from a story about scalp-hunters in 1840s Texas and Mexico, but it's underpinned by McCarthy's familiar bleakness. A violent and poetic book about the creation myths of America (violent 'heroes' in the form of the scalp-hunters), the revisionist school of thought (violent 'villainous' in the form of the Indians and Mexicans) and the nature of the country itself. Brilliant.

[mcraigclark]

I think it's the most violent book I've ever read. Are you going to move on to All the Pretty Horses? It's beautiful, brutal, and tragic.

[Zoe]

I think 'We need to talk about Kevin' is trying to annoy me now.

[maian]

I think it's the most violent book I've ever read. Are you going to move on to All the Pretty Horses? It's beautiful, brutal, and tragic.

I've got Suttree lined up as my next McCarthy, then I'm going to take a crack at the whole of The Border Trilogy. Before that, though, I'm reading Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I've just got to the point where he writes himself into the story, and the way he writes about his mother's suicide is quite disquieting.

[mcraigclark]

...I'm going to take a crack at the whole of The Border Trilogy.

You're going to be left with a very gritty, very lonely sense of the American Southwest after all this. It's totally worth it, though.

[Sostie]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
Better in theory than in execution. Jane Austen's novel with additional zombie/ninja action/background inserted. Not especially funny or exciting. If you've read the original novel don't bother. If you have no interest in reading the original, don't bother.

[Jimmay]

Just hit the halfway point of The Road and part of me wants to stop reading it while its on an up so I don't have to end up putting it in the freezer.

[widowspider]

It's an amazing book, Jimmay, but by gum it's bleak. Worth the read though.

I've been doing a lot of reading and studying about my buddhist practice recently - a little spiritual education. Some favourites that anyone (non-buddhists or buddhists) would find incredibly inspiring: The Buddha Next Door and One By One: The World is Yours to Change. Both amazing.

[sweetbutinsane]

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding.

I wasn't supposed to read this until after the exams had finished, but I couldn't resist it. Anyway, I just finished it this morning and I absolutely loved it. Such fun to read!

[Jimmay]

Just hit the halfway point of The Road and part of me wants to stop reading it while its on an up so I don't have to end up putting it in the freezer.

Finished it on Saturday. And its really rather good. It was strange, and I feel like a bit of an idiot saying this, but whenever I stopped reading it, part of me felt like they were just sitting there waiting for me to pick up the book again and they could carry on travelling. However, it did sort of peter out a bit towards the end and it wasn't quite as devastating an ending as I had expected. I'm not really sure how I feel about how it ended really.

[maian]

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

I read a review which described it as ''Richard Matheson meets Stephen King meets Michael Crichton'', and that's a pretty damn good summation of it. Del Toro and Hogan's vampire novel is a creepy and engrossing tale that treats vampirism as a disease that spreads from person to person, altering them so that they can spread and spread and spread. The meticulous descriptions of the effects of the virus and the way in which the authors apply scientific reasoning to myths of vampirism are reminiscent of I Am Legend, though theirs is a much less philosophical work and they are more concerned with the horror aspects of the story. My one complaint would be that there are a few too many sections detailing how people ''turn'', and this slows the middle of the book down noticeably and distract from the central human characters who find themselves caught up in fighting the epidemic. Other than that, it's very good and sets the scene for what promises to be a very interesting trilogy.