The Book Thread! All opinions welcome!

I think I saw the first movie when I was a kid, but I can't remember too much about it. I do remember the "Neverending Story" song that was on the soundtrack (?) and how annoying it was. Maybe this is why I never made an effort to watch the other movies.

OK, so I decided to not take a break from reading after all. I just can't go that long without reading! So I decided to keep going on the Sean Russell theme and started reading Initiate Brother again. I guess this would be a good cue to look for the second book on eBay. :D
 
@ C
NaNoWriMo is an online thing where people try to write a novel of 50,000 words or more in 30 days. I started one way back in 2002 or 2003 but never actually finished the bugger so I thought I'd have a crack at it this year and see if I can actually finish something for once. I've really got into it as I'm quite inspired by my story and now I'm attempting to write two stories! Depending of course on how well I do, of course!
The link to my profile and the information on my novel is all in the link under my all too familiar pink and lilac signature. I need all the encouragement I can get frankly because I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to writing and it takes me an age to complete anything. I'm pretty determined to win the challenge this year, so I might be around a bit less in November.
There's a small bunch of people from the Nightwish boards who are doing it this year so we're all buddying up to encourage each other.
 
Hmm, that is very interesting. I've never counted words before, but at my most active writing period, I pounded out 5 short novels that went together in a series, all in about a 6-month time frame. That was before I got my severe writer's block in '97 that has never really dissipated. :(

So I caved in and finally got a copy of Gatherer of Clouds on eBay! Yay! :D
 
I won Nano 2008 at 96k instead of the expected 50k but I haven't actually finished the novel yet. It turned into a ruddy epic.
I'm going to start 'The Rival Nightingales' after Xmas. I decided to concentrate on the one novel eventually as I found it difficult to concentrate on two to be honest.

Sorry, back on topic! I'm reading 'I, Claudius' and 'Claudius the God' by Robert Graves at the moment. I've read 'I, Claudius' before which I enjoyed thoroughly, but I haven't read 'Claudius the God' until now for some reason.
I also got a cheap copy of 'War and Peace' which I may plunge into later on a day or two off. I'm not really working that much this week as there's not many big films out and I'm not doing that many shifts.

For Xmas I'm planning to start my collection of the 'Angelique' series by Sergeanne Golon. They're a historical romance series written by a french husband and wife team called serge and Anne Golon set in late seventeenth century France.
I used to read these avidly when I was a teenager, only now they're out of print and hard to get of. I managed to read 'Angelique and the King', 'Angelique: Marquise of the Angels' and 'Angelique: The Road to Versailles'. and loved them. Recently I found that you can get second hand copies on Amazon so that's my little mission. Yep, you can call me an 'Angelique' fangirl.

EDIT: Two new books for the reading pile. I really must stop buying so many books!
'Who Runs Britain?' by Robert Peston which is a really interesting book about the financial crisis in Britain and how it happened. I never thought I'd be interested in hedge funds and sub-prime mortgages but he makes it quite a story.
I also bought 'Little Dorrit' by Charles Dickens which I saw a bit of on the telly and thought I'd read as the book was cheap in Tesco. I'm not a big Dickens fan but so far it's not too bad.
 
Congrats on your win! I really need to take the time and read your novel.

So I got Children of Hurin a couple of weeks ago and read it in about a day's time (right before Thanksgiving). Like I expected, it was just a polished version of the Hurin/Turin notes that Tolkien compiled throughout his lifetime, with only one brief note from Christopher Tolkien about how the story of Mim the Dwarf had two versions, and why he ultimately chose the one he did for the final novel. The Turin story is among my favorites of the Tolkien tales, so it was great to have the whole thing in one book from beginning to end, without having to read bits and pieces throughout other books.

So on Thanksgiving morning I started reading Fellowship, and I'm already to the Flight to the Ford chapter. I think I need to slow it down a bit if I want to make these books last until Christmas!

Also, my Fellowship book is falling apart from years of being well-loved and well-read. I've bound and rebound it many times, but it has finally just had it. I'm loath to part with it, as I saved this book from a fire and that was how my love of Tolkien and LOTR began, but I think it's time to put this one out to pasture and buy a new copy. :(
 
I might dig out my copy of the 'Silmarillion' and have a reread of that soon. I haven't read any Tolkien in ages.

'Little Dorrit' is a bit of a slog. I knew there was a reason that I wasn't keen on Dickens; it's just that I periodically forget and think that I OUGHT to be reading Dickens.

My brain is demanding trash after the slog of Nano so it may be time to dig out the Jilly Cooper.
 
Silmarillion...much as I love Tolkien, that one is always a bit of an ordeal for me to get through. Maybe it's because so much of it is scattered, and Tolkien does have a tendency to use a lot of characters and names, and you spend so much time trying to figure them out that by the time you learn who these characters are, you've forgotten what else you're reading. I love that Tolkien is so detailed, but I think with the Silmarillion he spends so much time on details that some things about the plot or narrative are lost in the translation.

I have a similar problem, but in reverse, with The Hobbit. It's a good book, but oftentimes I skip rereading it because it's just too simplistic. Not the same kind of action as LOTR. And I know The Hobbit was meant as a children's story, and maybe that's another thing, the narrative is just too "kiddy" for me.
 
i finished reading the first book in the twilight series and i thought it was a good read , gona start the second book...eventually.
 
I must admit I wouldn't say avoided, but I really had no burning interest to read the Twilight books. My roommate had them so I figured why not I won't be out any money. They were alright, I am not so sure what the huge hype about them is and the movie was terrible. I will give the author credit though even if I wasn't a huge fan of the style I had the need to know how the whole thing ended. Honestly though if they had not been sitting around my house I wouldn't have felt liked I missed anything by not reading them.
 
C. said:
I've seen some bits and pieces of the movie, and it really didn't spark my curiosity to check out the books (though I see them everywhere). I guess I'm just not really into the vampire genre. Anne Rice definitely killed any inclination I might have had to have an interest. :lol:
Click to expand...

See I love vampire novels and I think that is why I wasn't all too into Twilight I couldn't take it as a vampire story it was teen love story.
 
I haven't read a great deal lately, because I'm still slogging through the epicness of 'The Poisoned Veil'. I'll be glad when it's all over and I can get on with something else.
I managed to read an interesting tale called 'The Lady in the Tower' but I can't remember the author offhand which is a shame as it was very good. It was all about this girl whose mum was locked up in a tower by her cruel father and how they tried to rescue her.
At the moment I've been trawling the Project Gutenberg site for out of print classics. It's surprising what you can dig up and download for free. I'm planning to catch up on reading some Dumas and I'm looking for a book called 'The Secret History of Henriette-Anne, Duchesse d'Orleans' by the Comtesse de la Fayette. I'm thinking of basing the prequel for 'The Poisoned Veil' round it. I had the idea of writing it a bit like a Wilkie Collins novel, with lots of multiple narrators , letters , diary entries and memoirs. Should be interesting.

EDIT: The Lady in the Tower' is by Marie-Louise Jensen. Well worth a read
 
Double Post!

I've been reading some of the Celebrated Crimes series by Alexandre Dumas from Project Gutenberg while I've been off work with the flu and I think I'm a tad addicted. It's all about historical crimes , murders and things like that very sensational and melodramatic. Needless to say I love it! So far I've read 'The Marquise de Ganges' , 'The Countess de Saint-Geran', 'The Marquise de Brinvilliers' (research for the novel and what started me off on the series) and 'The Cenci'. I think they're currently out of print but they should do the complete collection in a book. I would totally snap that up for sure.
I also downloaded some Sir Walter Scott, 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' by Anne Radcliffe and 'The Ordeal of Richard Peverel' by George Meredith. What I'm planning to do is donate to the Project Gutenberg fund and maybe volunteer proof-read for them if I get the chance. I've been missing my classic literature and if there's a economic way to enjoy it then that's all the better!
 
Sounds like the season for reading!

Well, Christmas was fruitful for me in that I did get some reading material, I finally got a paperback of the 6th book in the Outlander series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. And since it's been about 2 years since the last time I read the series, I decided to read the whole thing from the beginning. I'm currently on the second book, Dragonfly in Amber. It's always nice to go back to books you've read before (even if it hasn't been too long since you last read them), it always seems like you remember something you hadn't before or a part you once thought was boring becomes interesting, etc.
 
So far I'm really enjoying the Dumas novels and I've started downloading lots of Wilkie Collins as well. I've always liked 'The Moonstone' and 'The Woman in White' so that's my reading sorted for the next month. I think I'm quite obsessed with Project Gutenberg at the moment.
I also found a copy of a novel about Minette which I'm kind of reading for research called 'Royal Flush' by Margaret Irwin. I wouldn't say it's a great book, it's a bit boring in places, but it's giving me some ideas for the 'Secret History of Minette' book I'm planning.
 
I got the Nightwish book after the London gig in March. I'd be interested to hear what you think of it,C. While I enjoyed reading about one of my favourite bands I did have quite a few issues with it in all honesty. Not least that I paid £20 for my copy , but I distinctly remember being very unimpressed with the proof-reading in my english edition! I'll wait until you finished it to discuss it further.

I've just read 'The Favoured Child' by Phillipa Gregory as I'd found for £2 in a charity shop. It was a gripping story, and usually I love her books but this one was frankly a bit weird. It's part of a trilogy about an 18th century family and this is the second one. There's two children brought up in a house unaware of their family legacy. The boy was a horrible character and the girl, Julia just exasperated me. But I think the story jumped the shark when they grew up. I noticed a theme of incestuous relationships in her novels and it just got a bit too much in this one. You know I love a bit of melodrama , but this was for me a bit much.
 
Oh yeah, we will definitely have a discussion about the Nightwish book after I'm done reading. It still hasn't arrived, although even if it did I'm still on book 5 of the Outlander series, The Fiery Cross. It was the book that started me on this series; I found a used copy for only 25 or 50 cents, and after reading the first chapter I realized that it would do no good to go on unless I read the other 4 books.

Other than buying the Van Halen book last year for my boyfriend as a birthday present, I have not read too many band bios, so it will be interesting to read the Nightwish book. I know that the End of Innocence DVD came about through the interviews for this particular book, so I realize a lot of it will be stuff that has already been seen in the DVD. I worry more about the tone of the book, I hope it will not have a sensationalized, tabloid feel just because of all the drama that happened at the end. As long as none of the bandmembers are painted as the second coming of Christ or the Antichrist themselves, I should be OK with it. :lol:

I paid $23 for my copy with free shipping, which is a fair price since if I were to buy it at the bookstore I'd probably be looking at the same price, maybe even a few bucks more.
 
seraph7 said:
I got the Nightwish book after the London gig in March. I'd be interested to hear what you think of it,C. While I enjoyed reading about one of my favourite bands I did have quite a few issues with it in all honesty. Not least that I paid £20 for my copy , but I distinctly remember being very unimpressed with the proof-reading in my english edition! I'll wait until you finished it to discuss it further.
Click to expand...

Was the Nightwish book actually sold at the gig itself? If yes, I wonder if the book is sold at the US gigs? (C. will have to answer the second one)
 
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