The Books/Reading Thread

[EspaDa]

I'm currently reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez. I got into it quickly, but after half of the book it bored me a bit. Now I'm expecting a nice ending to a great book. Then I'll go with Ulisses as I got it as my birthday gift from my friend.

 

[CF87]

I picked up a book at the library earlier called 'The Servants of Twilight' by Dean Koontz, hopefully it is good. I guess I will find out.

 

[EspaDa]

I took up Orwell's Animal Farm as I am a little tired with One Hundred Years of Solitude now, so I put it aside for a while.

 

[JontRevolting]

Thought I'd share a few pics of some really nice big coffee table size photography and art books etc I got recently. I especially love the Taschen books (Hieronymous Bosch and Magic) massive and beautiful.

 

[unknown]

Nice haul there

So I've been chewing my way through Laird Barron's The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, and it's fantastic. Imagine if Arthur Machen grew up in the northwest, drank a lot and watched westerns and mafia movies. It's a wildly original take on weird fiction but there are plenty of arcane rituals, sacrifices, and big city folk finding themselves in small towns they shouldn't be in. Good stuff

 

[JontRevolting]

I started reading that, well I think it's that a while ago...one of his books anyway where he he's in Japan or something staying in the apartment block? Great author.

 

[JontRevolting]

Ah must be a different one...sounds awesome though.
I've gotta start reading his stuff again, I've got a few of his books I haven't read yet. I love the sound of that one.
When the new year comes, I'm going to retreat into all these incredible books I've brought over the last 12 months..no more partying and shit apart from a few beers every now and then and tbh I'm looking forward to it.

 

[unknown]

yeah he has a couple other collections and a novel or two I think. Looks like I need to gobble them all up. I almost feel bad neglecting to read him for so long. I felt the same way after finally reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. I knew I would enjoy it, but it took me for fucking ever to finally pick it up. I like to deny myself things I'll enjoy

 

[Funerary_Doom]

When I get my time management under control, I'll have to start reading more.

A friend recommended me this book called The Necrophiliac written by a French woman in the 70s. It was actually pretty good, though for some reason I thought it was going to be poorly written. Such a weird book, but her writing is really engaging. It's impossible to find so I got the e-book version of it. You don't really want to be seen reading a book called The Necrophiliac anyways, so that works out. It's a really short read, about 100 pages. But for all the people into horror stuff, she eloquently writes about sex with dead people.

 

[no country for old wainds]

wanna buy some books with my xmas money. anyone got any recommendations for some emotionally intense/complex genre fiction? i especially love bruised, scarred, world-weary stuff, but i'm open to anything as long as there's a strong undercurrent of feeling. doesn't matter if it's fantasy, crime, sci-fi, whatever. some narrative intrigue is always helpful too, not really looking for anything too experimental or 'literary' atm. i'm also open to graphic novels of the same ilk, i've hardly read any and i really wanna get into it.

i've also been looking for some lonely, desolate sci-fi for a while now. would be perfect for these winter nights. any suggestions?

 

[Anom@nder Rake]

i've also been looking for some lonely, desolate sci-fi for a while now. would be perfect for these winter nights. any suggestions?

have you read The Martian by Andy Weir? i haven't seen the film but i read the book a few months ago. apparently it is scientifically accurate but anyways it's about a scientist that was believed to be dead that gets stranded on Mars and is forced to survive on his own until a rescue mission is set into motion. it's got witty humor and is a quick read.

The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollack

this reminded me a lot of early Cormac McCarthy. a bunch of shitty people living out their hopeless, depressing lives.

 

[SentinelSlain]

 

[EspaDa]

I've acquired Siddhartha by Hesse yesterday. It should come to me next week.

 

[The Butt]

Was debating buying Star Trek Voyager: Atonement today, but then I remembered I haven't even finished Acts of Contrition yet. Oops.

 

[JontRevolting]

I scored a couple of other really amazing books recently, Brian May from Queen apparently has an interest in old stereoscopic images that have been uncovered in various places. These two books 'Diableries : Stereoscopic Adventures In Hell' and 'A Village Lost And Found : an annotated tour of the 1850's series of stereo photographs "Scenes In Our Village" ' are incredible large coffee table size books that each come with their own 3d viewers that allow you to view the images in 3d. I've never come across anything like these books before.

 

[EspaDa]

Finished One Hundred Years of Solitude and now I think I'll go with something much simpler and relaxing like The Little Prince as I haven't really read it never before.

 

[requiem]

Finished One Hundred Years of Solitude and now I think I'll go with something much simpler and relaxing like The Little Prince as I haven't really read it never before.

Have you read 'Love in the Time of Cholera' by Marquez? I found that a lot easier to read than 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' as it contains more of a narrative (and without the same bloody names over and over again).

Right now I'm reading 'Farenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury as, miraculously, I haven't bothered to read it until now. I'm glad I picked it up though as it's great (obviously I guess).

Before that I spent a lot of time reading the first half of the Conan stories by Robert E Howard. I'm hooked. Pretty much everything I enjoy about fantasy with a large dose of 1930s machismo. Very Lovecraftean too in many respects - they exchanged letters for years apparently. I hadn't realised the Conan stories were actually really good due to brainwashing from the foolish films. Anyone looking for some excellent, rather literary, fantasy short stories in a really interesting world (10,000 years before the present day and before massive earthquakes or something reshaped Europe) then check out The Complete Collection of Conan by Robert E Howard.

 

[EspaDa]

^ I didn't but I certainly will read it. Now I think I'll make a break from Marquez. I loved the ending of the book but it was really hard to get throughout the book to ultimately reach it.

 

[Cronopio]

I really want to get that Penguin edition of Ligotti's first two story collections, but since I'm low on cash and already have the The Nightmare Factory (1996) I can't really justify getting it at the moment ... but I love that cover artwork. And TNF omits "Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story" and "Professor Nobody's Little Lectures on Supernatural Horror".

 

[EspaDa]

I took up Steppenwolf by Hesse.