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read any good books lately...
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 65259 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Atavachron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 18 2018 at 12:04
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

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Neat, sounds like an interesting read, and all that controversy around who actually invented the game.
Not quite half-way yet but, indeed, an interesting read.  It has some D and D reenactments that are a joy to recall.  A boy with a great imagination born of the pulp fiction his dad brought home to him.

Don't know if you played David, but the original Gygax modules from the late 70s were the best....the ones that had his personality and the somewhat less flashy, muted color drawings.  The later ones with the highly professional, flashy art just didn't have that same "basement" feel I loved. 

I would love to play again, but I'm just too afraid to take on the massive timesuck it entails if you catch the bug. 

Oh for sure, those old Guides & handbooks were the best, funky as hell.   And I remember a good set of rounded polyhedrons was essential because the die you'd get with a box were usually cheap and rough-cut, didn't roll well.   And those lead figurines were a blast.
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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Points: 16913 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 15 2018 at 17:12
"The Sicilian" - Mario Puzo
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Points: 6343 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote omphaloskepsis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December 16 2018 at 03:02
This autumn I reread three of my favorite novels.

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Sound and Fury by William Faulkner

Kristin Lavransdatter may be my all time favorite novel. Sigrid Undset won the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature largely the strength of her novel Kristin Lavransdatter. I've read the two prominent English translations, however I recommend the Tiina Nunnally translation.   


 
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Points: 4776 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Squonk19 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2019 at 12:56
Managed to get through 'In A House of Lies' by Ian Rankin (the latest Rebus mystery) - during the festive period, before lesson planning for next term kicks in. Not the best in the series - Rebus is increasingly a peripheral figure in his retirement (and not enough IPAs being drunk in the Oxford Bar these days!) - but a pleasant enough read all the same. Rankin is Rory Gallagher fan, so he can do no wrong in my book! 😄

Can I recommend James Oswald's Inspector McLean novels? Of course you can, Squonkie! 😀   They have a sympathetic lead character and there is a touch of supernatural to the Edinburgh murder mysteries too - which might appeal to any murder mystery forum members!
“Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.”
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Points: 15 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dobbie03 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2019 at 13:02
I'm reading Swan Song by Robert McCammon on the Kindle, so far it is very reminiscent of The Stand by Stephen King but I am only just getting in to so hopefully it won't turn out to be a rip-off :D
Metal \m/
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Points: 20623 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 05 2019 at 14:21
Reading all of the 'Bryant and May' books by Chris Fowler.....two detectives in London in the Peculiar Crimes Unit...cases that are a bit too strange for the Met.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Points: 16913 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 10 2019 at 13:07
This was a gem. BOC was very much a songwriting collective. It was not the Bloom/Buck show as perhaps some would think. The other three gents (Bouchards and Lanier) were integral and important members of the band, more than they will ever get credit for. 

I can see now how the sacking of Albert was a blow to everything that followed.  This book is a decent examination of the band's material much more than a tell-all gossip book. Recommended to BOC fans. 

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Points: 20623 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 11:43
I'll look for that BOC bio....I'm a fan of the band.

Getting ready to read the Gormenghast trilogy by M Peake.
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 12:39
Originally posted by dr wu23 dr wu23 wrote:

I'll look for that BOC bio....I'm a fan of the band.

Getting ready to read the Gormenghast trilogy by M Peake.
That was a wonderful series.  Enjoy!
"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Points: 20623 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 13:43
I've been meaning to read it for a couple of years now....a 'lost fantasy classic'.

I enjoy older 'weird and esoteric' books like that......I also really like various modern series like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden Files, Sandman Slim series, and other quirky detective series that have supernatural elements.

I'm open to suggestions for 'weird fiction' novels  that one can get lost in.
I recently read The Magicians by Grossman which is the basis for the recent tv series on sy fy channel.


Edited by dr wu23 - February 11 2019 at 13:45
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 14:00
I was reading a lot of sci fi and fantasy when it came out (the Gormenghast books).  Have been reading a lot of it again (stuff I missed along the way).  I loved Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow  and also John Crowley's Little, Big.  Have been recommending Alan Moore's Jerusalem in other places here, stupendous in many ways.
Joyce Carol Oates also wrote some fun takes on Gothic novels, Bellefleur, A Bloodsmoor Romance and Mysteries of Winterthurn.

I will check into The Magicians.


Edited by Snicolette - February 11 2019 at 14:01
"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Points: 24429 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Raff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 14:57
I have to admit I started reading Gormenghast, but left it halfway through. It occasionally happens to me, though I don't like leaving books largely unread. Nickie, if you are into fantasy (as I am), I can warmly recommend the Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb (9 volumes altogether, completed two years ago). It is epic fantasy with a setting reminiscent of medieval Europe, but with very strong, interesting characters and an intriguing magic system.
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 15:12
Sounds wonderful, Raff.  Thank you!
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Points: 24429 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Raff Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 15:17
Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

Sounds wonderful, Raff.  Thank you!


Smile

I forgot to mention that Robin Hobb (real name Margaret Astrid Lindholm) is also from the West Coast. She's originally from Berkeley, CA, but lives in Washington state. Here's a link to her Wikipedia page:
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 15:40
Thank you for the added info...sounds like a really good series.  Smile
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Points: 20623 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 15:52
Originally posted by Snicolette Snicolette wrote:

I was reading a lot of sci fi and fantasy when it came out (the Gormenghast books).  Have been reading a lot of it again (stuff I missed along the way).  I loved Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow  and also John Crowley's Little, Big.  Have been recommending Alan Moore's Jerusalem in other places here, stupendous in many ways.
Joyce Carol Oates also wrote some fun takes on Gothic novels, Bellefleur, A Bloodsmoor Romance and Mysteries of Winterthurn.

I will check into The Magicians.
I've heard of The Sparrow...will ck it out again.
I've read Little Big and one other of his...can't recall the title.
Read several Oates novels in the past...over 20 years ago...can't recall which ones either....but thanks for the titles.
My favorite 'fantasy' series of all time is Nine Princes in Amber by Zelazny. 
Favorite sci-fi series is  The Culture series by Iaan Banks.....brilliant space opera.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 15:59
Mary Doria Russell also wrote a sequel to The Sparrow, Children of God.
John Crowley has written a LOT of books.  His latest, Ka Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr is also quite good.
Oates' writings go all over the place, from topical fiction to mysteries, as I mentioned, the takes on Gothic novels.  The one thing that I find to be true for all of them is that she really explores the interior of her characters, you enter into their minds and patterns of thinking as she tells their stories.
Will also check into The Culture series....How I see money flying out the door and books and music flying in.  Smile
"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 16:17
Additional info on The Sparrow, which may intrigue or not, depending:

From Wikipedia: Nancy Pearl, a reviewer at Library Journal, felt that this book was mistakenly categorized as science fiction, and that it is really "a philosophical novel about the nature of good and evil and what happens when a man tries to do the right thing, for the right reasons and ends up causing incalculable harm".[3]

I just thought it was an excellent and thought-provoking book.  Smile
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Points: 20623 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dr wu23 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 16:25
Now I remember...I did read The Sparrow.....I'm getting old. I also read a similar book called A Case Of Conscience by Blish....which is mentioned on the Wiki page for The Sparrow btw. Both were excellent .
It's hell getting old....I have forgotten some of the books I've read over the years. I'll be 68 this July. :)
I read Aegypt by Crowley...but not the later ones in the series.
BTW...while looking at Crowley's books I recall an excellent series I read many years ago called The Deptford Trilogy by Davies.

So many great books...so little time to read them all...
;)
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
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Points: 6039 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Snicolette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 11 2019 at 16:29
I have also found sometimes that I thought I hadn't read a book, until I started it and then remembered that I had, after all, read it before.  And I'm only 60.  So you're in "young company."  Smile

I saw that they'd mentioned the Blish book also, I have not read that.  I read the whole Aegypt series, but still like Little, Big the best.  I loved that he mentioned the Old Mother West Wind Stories, by Thornton Burgess, which I grew up with from my mother's library, along with Ernest Thompson Seton and Albert Payson Terhune, amongst others of that era.

Yes, I have stacks to read already.  But lately I've had a lot of time to read in the evenings, I've been getting through a book a week, about, if they are a normal sized book.  I hope I don't end up like that Twilight Zone episode, finally enough time to read and then break my irreplaceable glasses.  Cry
"Into every rain, a little life must fall." ~Tom Rapp
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