Book Chat Fiction - What Are You Reading Now?

WorldbyStorm wrote:

Ah, thesaturdayboy, graphic novels and me sort of fade in and out of view. Watchmen, genius... and indeed anything by Gaiman. I still like Hellblazer. But then I tend to think I need the whole series of something to actually delve into it.

Missed the Graphic novel comment, but Sandman, excellent.

WBS, I take it you have read Good Omens?

WorldbyStorm wrote:

Kate P wrote:

If you like Stephen King you HAVE
to read his memoir 'On Writing'. The first half is about his life and -
surprisingly, it will make you laugh until you're sick - or people turn
to stare at you on the Luas, which is where I started reading it. It
also deals with his relationships and how damn hard it is to make it as
a writer.

The middle bit is about writing fiction, nuts and bolts stuff and the end is about his very serious accident.

It's a pretty inspiring read - and great fun.

Didn't
he also write a great non-fiction book on horror. I hate horror, but
this was brilliant. Can't recall its name. He's actually a better
writer than often given credit for... but not necessarily a great
writer.

Danse Macabre?

I loved the story The Mist recently a film but I can't remember the book - the skeleton crew?

We could turn this in the SK appreciation thread. The Girl who loved Tom Gordon was crazy too - the last one i read of his.

WorldbyStorm wrote:

Ah, thesaturdayboy, graphic novels and me sort of fade in and out of view. Watchmen, genius... and indeed anything by Gaiman. I still like Hellblazer. But then I tend to think I need the whole series of something to actually delve into it.

Graphic novels come in waves for me. I went through a sandman phase about 10 years ago and then stuck to 'serious' fiction for a long time. Picked up the Dark Knight Returns last year for some holiday reading (good, but dated and probably over-rated) and then finally got round to Watchmen, which is as you say, genius.

WorldbyStorm wrote

Quote :

Didn't
he also write a great non-fiction book on horror. I hate horror, but
this was brilliant. Can't recall its name. He's actually a better
writer than often given credit for... but not necessarily a great
writer.

He's a great storyteller - that's a different thing entirely...

Kate P wrote:

WorldbyStorm wrote

Quote :

Didn't
he also write a great non-fiction book on horror. I hate horror, but
this was brilliant. Can't recall its name. He's actually a better
writer than often given credit for... but not necessarily a great
writer.

He's a great storyteller - that's a different thing entirely...

That's very true and I hadn't thought about it that way.

Auditor #9 wrote:

WorldbyStorm wrote:

Kate P wrote:

If you like Stephen King you HAVE
to read his memoir 'On Writing'. The first half is about his life and -
surprisingly, it will make you laugh until you're sick - or people turn
to stare at you on the Luas, which is where I started reading it. It
also deals with his relationships and how damn hard it is to make it as
a writer.

The middle bit is about writing fiction, nuts and bolts stuff and the end is about his very serious accident.

It's a pretty inspiring read - and great fun.

Didn't
he also write a great non-fiction book on horror. I hate horror, but
this was brilliant. Can't recall its name. He's actually a better
writer than often given credit for... but not necessarily a great
writer.

Danse Macabre?

I loved the story The Mist recently a film but I can't remember the book - the skeleton crew?

We could turn this in the SK appreciation thread. The Girl who loved Tom Gordon was crazy too - the last one i read of his.

Yeah, that was it.

MikeW wrote:

WorldbyStorm wrote:

Ah, thesaturdayboy, graphic novels and me sort of fade in and out of view. Watchmen, genius... and indeed anything by Gaiman. I still like Hellblazer. But then I tend to think I need the whole series of something to actually delve into it.

Missed the Graphic novel comment, but Sandman, excellent.

WBS, I take it you have read Good Omens?

As it happens, no I haven't. And that's odd because I went through a Pratchett phase a while back...

I finished McGahern 2 nights ago. Really good stuff, I'm sorry it's finished.

Nothing that terrible happened in it, that John Quinn fella was a bit of a gobshite though.

I never knew that about laying people to rest facing East !

SO what now, EVM? Any more fiction or straight into Collapse?

I might read 'Noise reduction techniques in Electronic Systems' again.....not.

I'll have a look for Collapse at the weekend if someone here tells me it's good.

I was in my local bookshop this morning and spotted a new book by Lee Child, another by Linda Fairstein and a new one by Harlan Coben. They're the kind of books I'd read one after the other like my mother-in-law lights one cigarette off the last one. I wouldn't get off the couch until I'd finished them in one sitting.

And I bravely walked away, realising that Collapse is sitting on the table here, and I have duties to the MN Book Club.

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

I finished McGahern 2 nights ago. Really good stuff, I'm sorry it's finished.

Nothing that terrible happened in it, that John Quinn fella was a bit of a gobshite though.

I never knew that about laying people to rest facing East !

What McGahern was it? I had to read Amongst Women for college when I was 18/19 and found it the most turgid shite but I'd say I'd appreciate it now. I got much more out of Jeremy Rifkin's Entropy. A copy of Richard Douthwaite's book, The Growth Illusion arrived yesterday but like Kate I'm going to try to do my duties to MN but if we are putting a list together of possible next book club books then I nominate that one. I'm 10 pages into Collapse and it's full of sex and death already but I'm not going to recommend it until I get to 70 pages - normally my rule for a book - if it's shite after 70 pages then bin it. Maybe give it 80.

I also bought America featuring Judge Dredd.

Halfway through rereading "The Drumbeat of Jimmy Sands". Also
"God's War - A New History Of The Crusades" and "The Somme". Finished
rereading "The Hunt For Red October" the other day as well. I guess I
don't read intellectual books. I read books because I enjoy reading
books.

Regards...jmcc

jmcc wrote:

Halfway through rereading "The Drumbeat of Jimmy Sands". Also
"God's War - A New History Of The Crusades" and "The Somme". Finished
rereading "The Hunt For Red October" the other day as well. I guess I
don't read intellectual books. I read books because I enjoy reading
books.

Regards...jmcc

Hunt for Red October - based on a true story?

cactus flower wrote:

Hunt for Red October - based on a true
story?

On two of them if I recall correctly. One was where a
frigate or minesweeper made a dash to try to get to Sweden. The
political officer was the one who led the mutiny/barratry. The Soviets
stopped it though. The other was where a nuclear sub had a reactor
malfunction off the coast of the USA in the 1980s.

Regards...jmcc

You read spy books then jmcc? Have you read all the bourne, ludlum, Fallback, Alfred Coppell .. ?

[quote="jmcc"]

cactus flower wrote:

Hunt for Red October - based on a true
story?

On two of them if I recall correctly. One was where a
frigate or minesweeper made a dash to try to get to Sweden. The
political officer was the one who led the mutiny/barratry. The Soviets
stopped it though. The other was where a nuclear sub had a reactor
malfunction off the coast of the USA in the 1980s.

Regards...jmcc[/quote)

Just found this link on a very Red version of Red October.

Very Red October

Auditor #9 wrote:

You read spy books then jmcc? Have you read all the
bourne, ludlum, Fallback, Alfred Coppell .. ?

Nope. I don't
concentrate on any particular genre though if I like an author's work,
I tend to buy most of their books. The real spy stuff is far more
fascinating. The counterbalance to Clancy's gung-ho, boyscout spies was
the biography of the KGB handler of Aldrich Ames.

Regards...jmcc

Any interest in Leon Uris?

Auditor #9 wrote:

Any interest in Leon Uris?

Read Exodus as a child and converted to Judaism.

(Before I discovered Palestine)

cactus flower wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Any interest in Leon Uris?

Read Exodus as a child and converted to Judaism.

(Before I discovered Palestine)

3/4's way through "Lords of the Bow".. Conn Igguldens historical fiction book about Genghis Khans conquering of China.. easy reading.. should be reading my media studies texts more though

rockofcashel wrote:

3/4's way through "Lords of the Bow".. Conn Igguldens historical fiction book about Genghis Khans conquering of China.. easy reading.. should be reading my media studies texts more though

Do I remember hearing that something like 3 out of 4 of us have Ghighis Khan's genes? It must have been a good bow.

It sounds like a good read. Do you recommend it?

Sebastian Barry is talking on RTE the dark areas in paintings and how important they area, and about joining armies to defuse bombs. It is wonderful talk, but he needs to cut the umbilical cord, or he will never be a great writer.

'Years of Rice and Salt' by Kim Stanley Robinson was a good bit of
alternative history based on a Europe without Europeans and
Renaissance. A bit strange though. I'm not quite sure about the Gengis
Khan genetic legacy thing though - especially in Ireland.

Regards...jmcc