Books What Are You Reading or Listening To?

[Bloodporne]

On 9/14/2018 at 6:37 PM, SFLUFAN said:

Hey @Bloodporne - I found a book for you that combines your two favorite things: punk and East Germany

 

Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Already ready it my man haha. Ironically, I'm not a huge Punk Rock fan beyond the very early pioneers, or what would be called Proto I guess, like Stooges, Patti Smith, Television etc. 

 

I really love those bands but have a weird distaste for what the UK iteration of it all did. There's some good music in there for sure but I have a total disinterest in political lyrics and that ridiculous snotty Brit attitude. 

 

On topic though: I enjoyed that book. There's a very interesting movie that captures that period well called Richy Guitar. I don't even know if it was ever subtitled but I loved this as a kid:

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090381/

[Chris-]

Just grabbed 'Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out' by Josh Noel from the library.

[gamer.tv]

Atonement is just not speaking to me.  I just can’t find the magic despite it actually featuring aspects of literature I enjoy.  I’ve ended up buying a book called The Chalk Man which reviewed well on the cover but at roughly the half way point, it isn’t blowing my mind.  Next book just needs to be a solid 10/10

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

On 9/14/2018 at 5:55 PM, Nokra said:

Lastly, I'm reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. It won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2011 and I can see why. A thoroughly engaging and educational book on cancer, "its history and its future" as the author says. 

If you really enjoyed the book, then I suggest reading his follow-up The Gene: An Intimate History

[gamer.tv]

Chalk Man was shit, so I've started 12 Years a Slave (after finding it for 50p in a shop) so we'll see how that goes.  I think the next one will just be a generic best seller of some description.  

[Nokra]

On 9/20/2018 at 2:33 PM, gamer.tv said:

Atonement is just not speaking to me.  I just can’t find the magic despite it actually featuring aspects of literature I enjoy.  I’ve ended up buying a book called The Chalk Man which reviewed well on the cover but at roughly the half way point, it isn’t blowing my mind.  Next book just needs to be a solid 10/10

How far into it are you? I think that the real "magic" happens later, IIRC. 

 

17 hours ago, SFLUFAN said:

If you really enjoyed the book, then I suggest reading his follow-up The Gene: An Intimate History

 

Thanks, I may do that. Have you read both of these (Emperor of all Maladies and The Gene)? I'm just wondering if the writing style is similar; I enjoy his style a lot. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I gotta get back to my books or else I'm not gonna hit my goal of 50 for the year. I've been sitting at 45 for 11 days now.

[gamer.tv]

@Nokra I think roughly 140 pages or so, if it gets better I'll return back!

[Brian]

Finished Oathbringer. Slow beginning but otherwise an enjoyable read. A good end for the first 3 books especially since the next book will be a prequel. 

 

My next book is a study guide for the CPA exam 

[Greatoneshere]

I just finished re-reading Frank Herbert's Dune and Dune Messiah after a very long time - both are still fantastic reads and I do plan on reading Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune soon enough.

 

Next I think I'm going to read The Girl with All the Gifts though. 

[rc0101]

War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwall. Uhtred is back!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

On 9/26/2018 at 3:20 PM, Nokra said:

Thanks, I may do that. Have you read both of these (Emperor of all Maladies and The Gene)? I'm just wondering if the writing style is similar; I enjoy his style a lot. 

The writing style is identical.

[MarSolo]

I just finished Bob Woodward’s Fear and now I’m plowing through Marc Maron’s Attempting Normal.

[Nokra]

I finished Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, which was an excellent recommendation from @SFLUFAN. The very beginning didn't really grab me but after a couple chapters I was really into it and read it pretty much any free moment I had. With the (very condensed) history he presents, he makes a fairly strong case for America having always been the land of fantasy, connecting the many dots over our nation's history. Trump is only the latest exhibit, and this book is far more interesting than just ragging on him, though there is a bit of that too. It makes a larger point about the necessity for shared facts; if we can't even agree on those, we'll just continue to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. 5/5

 

I'm still working on The Emperor of All Maladies but I have the desire to read a classic, so I'm thinking I'll read either The Picture of Dorian Gray or For Whom the Bell Tolls. I read The Sun Also Rises a couple years ago and wasn't that into it but maybe I've matured more as a reader now and can enjoy some more Hemingway.  

[CastlevaniaNut18]

The Picture of Dorian Gray was one of my favorite books from high school, @Nokra. I highly recommend it. 

 

[Nokra]

50 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

The Picture of Dorian Gray was one of my favorite books from high school, @Nokra. I highly recommend it. 

 

Have you read it since to know if it still holds up?

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Just now, Nokra said:

Have you read it since to know if it still holds up?

No, but I've been pondering it lately. Have a copy sitting on my shelf. I think this thread has inspired me to go through it again.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I finished An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones yesterday. Now I'm changing gears and reading Pet Sematary, by Stephen King. 

 

I've only ever read two Stephen King books, Cujo and Dreamcatcher, both back when I was in high school. I liked the former, not the latter. So far, Pet Sematary as grabbed my attention.

[Rev]

Has anyone here read The Witcher novels? Thinking about grabbing the audio books.

[EternallDarkness]

6 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I finished An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones yesterday. Now I'm changing gears and reading Pet Sematary, by Stephen King. 

 

I've only ever read two Stephen King books, Cujo and Dreamcatcher, both back when I was in high school. I liked the former, not the latter. So far, Pet Sematary as grabbed my attention.

 

please please please don't judge King's work by Dreamcatcher.  Pet Sematary is a classic, though I honestly think his writing has come a long way since then, but the story is quite disturbing. Just reread it earlier this year. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

14 minutes ago, EternallDarkness said:

 

please please please don't judge King's work by Dreamcatcher.  Pet Sematary is a classic, though I honestly think his writing has come a long way since then, but the story is quite disturbing. Just reread it earlier this year. 

Yeah, I've already been given the lecture about Dreamcatcher. 

 

I've never been big on horror, though I won't totally write off the genre as a whole. Just depends on what it is. I do want to read a few of his other works, though it's all the old stuff, like IT, Misery, Carrie, Salem's Lot. 

 

I also started watching Castle Rock and I really like it so far. 

 

So far, I haven't wanted to put PS down. It's hard for me to stop reading, but alas, I have to work for a living. 

[EternallDarkness]

12 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

Yeah, I've already been given the lecture about Dreamcatcher. 

 

I've never been big on horror, though I won't totally write off the genre as a whole. Just depends on what it is. I do want to read a few of his other works, though it's all the old stuff, like IT, Misery, Carrie, Salem's Lot. 

 

I also started watching Castle Rock and I really like it so far. 

 

So far, I haven't wanted to put PS down. It's hard for me to stop reading, but alas, I have to work for a living. 

 

 

It's a shame that King has been saddled with the 'horror' writer label. I understand it because so much of his work especially his early work is horror, but he is so so so much more than that.  

[gamer.tv]

The more I think on it, I may walk into the city tomorrow and pick up some new books and re-buy Pet Semetary after all this talk.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

6 hours ago, EternallDarkness said:

 

 

It's a shame that King has been saddled with the 'horror' writer label. I understand it because so much of his work especially his early work is horror, but he is so so so much more than that.  

I don't really know what else he is. Sci-fi? I'm really not into the aliens and shit, which is probably part of the reason I didn't care for Dreamcatcher. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Goddammit, wrong thread.

[EternallDarkness]

4 hours ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I don't really know what else he is. Sci-fi? I'm really not into the aliens and shit, which is probably part of the reason I didn't care for Dreamcatcher. 

 

He does have a few sci-fi, as aliens play a role in others, such as Tommyknockers (avoid that one). I suppose 11-22-63 would be sci-fi as well since it deals with time travel. 

 

He wrote an incredibly underrated fantasy for his children. Eyes of the Dragon.

 

The entire Dark Tower series is a mix of western/fantasy.

 

The post apocalyptic classic The Stand

 

Bag of Bones is one of my favorites, it's a love story/ghost story.

 

Thrillers like Misery or The Dark Half (though unlike Misery, The Dark Half has a supernatural angle to the story)

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Finished Pet Sematary at work this morning. I was thinking about another Stephen King book, but I need a bit to process that one. In the meantime, I'm gonna read The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. I've had it on my shelf for a bit. I'd like to see the movie after I finish the book.

[Scott]

On 10/4/2018 at 1:50 PM, Nokra said:

I finished Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire, which was an excellent recommendation from @SFLUFAN.

My copy of Fantasyland just arrived in the mail. Looking forward to starting it. @SFLUFAN, you should probably be getting some sort of referral bonus 

 

Also, I try to read something from the horror genre every October. This year I've chosen The Haunting of Hill House. I like "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and have heard nothing but great things about this classic horror novel. Looking forward to it.

 

I just finished "The Force" by Don Winslow. It's nearly 500 pages long and feels like it's 50. If you're in the mood for a gritty, corrupt cop story, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than this. Feels like a novelization of The Shield.

 

Also, before that I read "The Godfather," which was amazing. Just... check it out if you haven't.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Haunting of Hill House is a classic. I finally read it last October. 

[thewhyteboar]

3 hours ago, Scott said:

My copy of Fantasyland just arrived in the mail. Looking forward to starting it. @SFLUFAN, you should probably be getting some sort of referral bonus 

 

Also, I try to read something from the horror genre every October. This year I've chosen The Haunting of Hill House. I like "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, and have heard nothing but great things about this classic horror novel. Looking forward to it.

 

I just finished "The Force" by Don Winslow. It's nearly 500 pages long and feels like it's 50. If you're in the mood for a gritty, corrupt cop story, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better one than this. Feels like a novelization of The Shield.

 

Also, before that I read "The Godfather," which was amazing. Just... check it out if you haven't.

Don Winslow is one of my favorite writers. The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are fantastic reads. The Savages is incredible as well.

[Nokra]

For our October meeting, the book club I go to is reading The Narrow Road to the Deep North , a story about Australian POWs in WWII who were slave laborers under the Japanese, working on the notorious Burma Railway (aka the Death Railway). The book is generally well-written, very emotional, but brutal. It tells the story of a medical doctor who first has an affair with his uncle's wife, is then shipped out to the war and is captured. He then experiences the horrors of building the railway in the jungle, watching so many of his fellow prisoners die from physical abuse, disease, malnutrition,  etc. and even as a doctor being unable to help them (around 60,000 POWs worked on the railway, of which over 12,000 died), and the entire time he is haunted by his affair... it's not exactly a light book, but it has certainly been memorable. Apparently the author's father actually was a POW on the Death Railway. The book won the Man Booker Prize for 2014. 

[Scott]

6 hours ago, thewhyteboar said:

Don Winslow is one of my favorite writers. The Power of the Dog and The Cartel are fantastic reads. The Savages is incredible as well.

Nice! I've read Savages and The Death & Life of Bobby Z. Loved both of them.

 

Really excited to start The Power of the Dog and The Cartel. I watched the sequel to Sicario last night, which put me in a mood to read more about the cartel.

 

Ridley Scott's adaptation of The Force should be coming out next year, IIRC.

[Bloodporne]

Currently reading M Train by Patti Smith and Baudolino by Umberto Eco.

[EternallDarkness]

20 hours ago, Scott said:

 

 

Ridley Scott's adaptation of The Force should be coming out next year, IIRC.

 

 

The Don Winslow novel? I have that sitting on my shelf. I need to get around to it one of these days. 

[Nokra]

I finally started on The Picture of Dorian Gray, @CastlevaniaNut18. I'm only about 30 pages in so far but enjoying it.