The Book Thread! All opinions welcome!

[seraph7]

A bit of a while since I've posted in the thread...

Recently I've been dipping in and out of 'Red Carpets and other Banana Skins' by Rupert Everett. I think it's like an autobiography of his life and impressions of people he's worked with that kind of thing. I quite enjoyed it . I can't say I am a fan of his possible because I can't remember that many of his films and if I've watched them or not but he's witty and the book was quite a page turner.
I suspect this is my tabloid journalist trained gossip maven side coming out. A bit of scandal always goes down well.

 

[C.]

Yes, I was going to say, isn't he a writer too?

I'm still working on the Sean Russell books; I just haven't had much time for reading as of late.

 

[Melusina]

Haven't had much time to read either, so last time I was at the library I headed straight to the teen fiction section they always have fun little fantasy books that I can bust through in a couple of hours I particularly enjoy authors that have taken well known fairy tales and put at twist on them so I was particularly pleased when I found one of my favorite authors growing up, Jane Yolen, has a new series out written with her son called Rock 'n' Roll Fairy Tales all of the books include fairy tales that deal with music and fictional modern day musicians through out the book there are lyrics written by the fictional musician about the fairy tale. The first one was call Pay The Piper about well what else the pied piper and the second was Trollbridge that was sort of a combination of the Three billy goats gruff, the twelve dancing princesses and the scandinavian guardian of waterfalls Fossegrim.

Stupidly easy reads, but highly enjoyable I thought.

 

[seraph7]

Melusina have you read 'Beauty' by Robin McKinley? I just thought of that following your last comment. It's like a retelling of 'Beauty and the Beast' and is an amazing book. I first read it when I was 11 or 12 and then spent years trying to find it again. I was well happy when I found a copy in WH Smith.

 

[C.]

Mel: Those sound like interesting books. I may have to check those out too.

 

[Teleute]

i'm curious, has anyone read the "Twilight" series? I hear/see so many people talking about it or referencing it, I'm wondering is it worth looking into or not?

 

[seraph7]

Yeah, started reading the books about the time I started the thread.I didn't enjoy them very much I have to say as I found Bella and Edward extremely annoying. I was going to buy 'Breaking Dawn' but after reading the first chapter I decided not to bother frankly.
Are the book immensely popular in the United States because it doesn't seem that way over here in Britain? Most people I'd met haven't heard of them. Even at work when I was explaining that the 'Twilight' movie was probably going to replace 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' on the winter 2008 slate most people hadn't a clue and didn't even think the movie was going to do that well in comparison.

 

[C.]

I've never heard of those books. Then again, the only books that ever get mainstream attention in the U.S. are books made into movies, or books written by celebutantes.

 

[seraph7]

Right now, I'm reading 'In the Company of the Courtesan' by Sarah Dunant which is really good. It's set in Renaissance Italy and it's all about a whore and her servant who escape the sack of Rome and make their way to Venice to earn their fortune.

I may try to re read 'Brideshead Revisited' before we get the film. I remember trying to read the book years ago at college and getting bored. Maybe it's worth trying again as the film looks quite good.

 

[C.]

Cool, let us know how it is.

I'm going to L.A. this weekend for the Nightwish show, maybe I'll have time to stop by the bookstore and get something good to read.

 

[seraph7]

Couldn't find 'Brideshead Revisited' but I'm still watching the film.

Right now I'm reading a book called 'The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV' by Anne Somerset. It's research for my NaNoWriMo novel which I'm going to start in roughly a month. The book is absolutely fascinating, I can't believe some of the stuff these people got up to! It's going to make a exciting novel , I bet.

 

[DemonXeno]

i currently addicting to a book callled middlesex! its a book we have to read for school, it took me a month to stat reading it but i finally did and its just awesome so far! but there are alot of words that i dont know what they mean....>< and its the first non fantasy book/horror/comic that i love and the best book i had to read for a english class

 

[C.]

Still working on the same books as before. I really need to get it together.

 

[Melusina]

Still working on the same books as before. I really need to get it together.

I know what you mean, I started back to school and now I get no reading done!

 

[Zellie]

oooo awesome! I need some new books to read

Anyone recommend any steampunk or urban fantasy? I've suddenly developed an interest!

Oh, Stardust... I LOVED the movie but couldn't get into the book. I was 1/3 the way through and he was still in town bleeh. I want to read Gaiman's other novels though. I love his visual stuff.

I just read City of Bones and am not sure I liked it or not. It was fun but it was a little too much like reading Buffy fanfiction with Jace as Spike. Most of the book was how fun it is to ruffle Jace's feathers which is funny but...but.. I felt like the plot didn't really go anywhere for how many pages it was.

I just started on a translated book called The Dream Merchant that I LOVE so far...about a kid who becomes a salesman in dreams and he sells ideas.

and of course... I'm still working on my own stuff XD I've got a website now, www.zellie.info and I'm querying agents for my first book while working on the next.

 

[seraph7]

Very cool about your website, Zellie . I hope it all goes well.
Just bought two books as NaNo novel research (er, kind of!) 'Love and Louis XIV' by Antonia Fraser which is all useful background knowledge on Louis and his women. I'm still frantically trying to weave more and more of this into my notes as I've got to start next week.
I also bought 'Prince Rupert : The Last Cavalier' by Charles Spencer because he's always captured my imagination and I just couldn't leave the book in the shop! He really was a bit of a Renaissance man, a artist, scientist, adventurer inventor , soldier and admiral. I would say they need to make a film of his life, but thinking about the hash Hollywood would made of it maybe it's just as well they haven't.
I'm going to our reference library to try and find more books for research. I want my novel to at least be decent!

 

[C.]

Good luck with that Zellie; I have been writing for most of my life but am afraid to take that next step and look for a publisher. In honesty, I don't feel I'm mature enough yet to write about believable characters. Like I don't have enough life experience. I just turned 30, and I'm starting to think that if I don't have any life experience by now, I never will.

So I finally finished the Swans' War books. I'm going to take a break on reading for a while, because I want to get the "new" Tolkien book, Children of Hurin. It's being advertised on TV as "the newest Tolkien book in over 30 years", but I'm pretty sure it's just a concise, organized version of the Hurin/Turin notes that are in so many of his Lost Tales books.

Either way, I usually start re-reading the LOTR series during the holidays (I start on Thanksgiving and my goal is always to finish on Christmas Eve, so I can watch the movies on Christmas Day), so Children of Hurin would be just the thing to kick off my LOTR holiday.

 

[seraph7]

Just read 'The Secret Countess' by Eva Ibbotson which I really enjoyed. I'm going to look for more of her books if I can. I also want to reread 'I capture the castle' and some Noel Streatfeild books.

C, that Tolkien holiday sound like such a good idea. I really need to rewatch the films very soon as I haven't for a while. Maybe when NaNo is over?

 

[C.]

What is this NaNo? I see references to it all the time on Nightwish forum but have no idea what it is.

Anyway, I think I started my LOTR holiday tradition when the movies were first released. They all came out around Christmastime, so I would re-read the books before the movies came out so I would be absolutely sure which parts were omitted from the movies! I have always re-read the LOTR series at least once a year, but now I pretty much keep it to a schedule. So after the movies all came out, I just kept it going. Last year I spent Christmas in the hospital so I could only read my books. The movies were shown on TV, but it will be nice to see them again without commercials, at home, with tasty treats of my own choice.

 

[Teleute]

I started The Neverending Story, having grown up obsessed with that movie, but I'm just not feelin it right now for some reason, I think I'll need to go back to it at a later date when I'm in the right mood... so for now, hmm, what to read?... I guess I'll stick to articles in Seed/Discover until a new muse finds me.