Books 2nd Edition, Foreword by m0r1arty Options

[maian]

Partly because I'm looking foward to the film version and partly because the author was on the writing staff of The Wire, I've just finished reading Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane, and a great book it was. It starts with the kidnapping of a four year-old girl from her home whilst her alcoholic, drug-taking mother is out and only gets darker, taking in child molesters, drug dealers and vicious killers, all the while being told through Lehane's entertaining and wonderfully written prose. I'm still thinking about the ending, and that doesn't happen a lot with crime novels.

[Sostie]

Who Goes There? by John W Campbell
Apparently this is one of the most printed SF short stories ever! Took me long enough to find a copy of it. The story that inspired The Thing. Very impressive considering it was first published in 1938. Can't believe how wrong Howard Hawks got his film version, and how great a job the John Carpenter version did in expandng the story.

Now I need some advice from the SF buffs here. This is in a large book of collected SF stories I bought. Can anyone recommend any of these that are also in the collection

C.L. Moore, "Shambleau"
A.E. Van Vogt, "Black Destroyer"
Lee Gregor, "Heavy Planet"
P. Schuyler Miller, "Spawn"
Ross Rocklynne, "Quietus"
Chester S. Geier, "Environment"
Arthur C. Clarke, "Rescue Party"
Theodore Sturgeon, "Thunder and Roses"
C.M. Kornbluth, "The Only Thing We Learn"
Wyman Guin (writing as Norman Menasco), "Trigger Tide"
Jack Vance, "Liane the Wayfarer"
Fritz Leiber, "A Pail of Air"
Michael Shaara, "All the Way Back"
Poul Anderson, "Turning Point"
Robert Ernest Gilbert, "Thy Rocks and Rills"
Tom Godwin, "The Cold Equations"
Fredric Brown, "Answer"
Robert Sheckley, "Hunting Problem"
L. Sprague de Camp, "A Gun For Dinosaur"
Isaac Asimov, "The Last Question,"
H. Beam Piper, "Omnilingual"
Robert A. Heinlein, "The Menace From Earth"
Gordon R. Dickson, "St. Dragon and the George"
Christopher Anvil, "The Gentle Earth"
Murray Leinster, "The Aliens"
Rick Raphael, "Code Three"
James H. Schmitz, "Goblin Night"
Keith Laumer, "The Last Command"

[sweetbutinsane]

Today I was reading a bit of The Fade by Chris Wooding. I haven't read it for a few months and it feels like I'm reading it for the first time all over again. Nice!

[Crutch]

I've read Rant. I hell of a read and even if the genre of oral biography makes it quite hard to get into a reading for the first 50 pages I was thrilled from start to finish. I think this book is the best attempt of Palahniuk to merge the story itself with the way it is told. Some of the twists are pure genius in my eyes. It's probably the most thrilling fun I've read in ages.

Now I'm reading In search of Captain Zero. Much deeper than I expected a book about a surfer trying to find his friend to be.

[maian]

Not a book, as such, but over the last few days I read Stephen King's novella The Mist in preparation for watching the film this weekend. Very good, probably my favourite thing that King has written (that I've read). Succinct, thrilling and damn creepy, as well as being pretty bleak.

[Sostie]

Not a book, as such, but over the last few days I read Stephen King's novella The Mist in preparation for watching the film this weekend.

Oh you are in for a real treat.

Very good, probably my favourite thing that King has written (that I've read).

If you haven't read them Running Man and Longest Walk might well change that.

[maian]

Oh you are in for a real treat.
If you haven't read them Running Man and Longest Walk might well change that.

I've got the Bachman Books to read (and a pre-Columbine version at that, complete with [I]Rage[/B]) so I'll get around to them eventually. I've still got to finish The Stand but I'm currently reading The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster in my brief breaks at work. My first Auster and I'm enjoying it immensely.

This post has been edited by maian: May 30 2008, 07:37 PM

[mcraigclark]

I'm currently reading The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster in my brief breaks at work. My first Auster and I'm enjoying it immensely.

I'm re-reading this now! I love it. I just finished Oracle Night and it made me want more Auster. He's got a new one out in August.

[ella]

If you haven't read them Running Man and Longest Walk might well change that.

Seconded. The Longest Walk is my favourite King.

[beatoswald]

Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

A conversational, ghost-assembled, auto-biography of the Fall frontman. He is the Nietzsche of pop. Provocative, fiercely idiosyncratic, severe, arrogant, hilarious, mabye wrong but brilliant. The two also share a prophetic and poetic inclination. With Smith's Diogenes stance his sharp take on things is amusing and interesting. However, much like Nietzsche, he doesn't much attempt to explain his remarks which thus function as scornful observations expressing his unquestioned prejudices. He rarely develops his thought to the extent which would illuminate his cranky, enigmatic persona. It's a very funny and brief read, limited by Smith's reluctance to argue his position.

[maian]

I read some of that in Borders the other week. As soon as I read his attack (there isn't really any other word for it) on the former members of The Fall who quit during an American tour, I knew it was going to make for interesting, if shambolic, reading.

Any fans of Michael Marshall Smith might want to look out for an interview with him in a writing magazine that's out at the moment. Can't remember which one, but he's on the cover and the interview is a nice little insight into his inspirations and writing.

[maian]

I'm currently reading The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster in my brief breaks at work. My first Auster and I'm enjoying it immensely.

I'm re-reading this now!  I love it.

I finished this today and I also loved it. So funny, intelligent and it maintained the perfect balanced between real emotion, well-drawn characters and absurdist comedy. There were several moments where I really wanted to cheer the characters on in their successes and their setbacks were quite heartbreaking. I could see the ending coming, in one form or another, given the setting of the book, though the actual unfolding of those events did surprise me in the end. Absolutely wonderful and I can't wait to sample some more Auster.

[maian]

Following Terry Pratchett praising them in a radio interview, I've been tempted to check out the Earthsea series by Ursula K. LeGuin. Can anyone else second the recommendation, as I can get the first 4 books for a fiver on play.com and it's very tempting.

[Chapman Baxter]

Following Terry Pratchett praising them in a radio interview, I've been tempted to check out the Earthsea series by Ursula K. LeGuin. Can anyone else second the recommendation, as I can get the first 4 books for a fiver on play.com and it's very tempting.

I love the trilogy. The fourth book is a much later addition. I've not read it, but it's supposed to be a feminist reaction against what Le Guin considers to be the sexism of the earlier books. Definitely worth it for the first three, anyway.

[maian]

Cheers, Chappers. I really like the sound of the series so I think I'll give it a go.