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Now Reading & Books

Off Topic » Now Reading & Books (Posts 91 to 110 of 110)

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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeJun 9th 2017
    I recently finished Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book". It was excellent, and my first book by Gaiman.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
  2. Wind, Sand and Stars (1939) - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

    In German translation. A book that I meant to read for long time. Following that probably

    Lost Horizon (1939) - James Hilton

    I'll read those successively due to some thematic similarities. I was unaware that both books were published in the same year.

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
  3. Caliburn wrote
    I stopped reading books when I got a TV in my bedroom ages ago. I now started to dabble into audio books and that REALLY works for me. I am now in my second Dark Tower book. I missed Stephen King, he was my favorite writer when I stopped reading.


    I have little vampire thing going currently. I re-read Stoker's Dracula, then read King's Salem's Lot and then Rice's Interview with the Vampire.
    King's take on the vampire genre left me somewhat disappointed as I have that aristocratic concept of vampires. [spoiler]When things get viral the book turns into a zombie story IMO.[/spoiler]
    I'm no King expert. I am familiar with Night Shift, Pet Sematary, Rvival and Salem's Lot. Also a few film adaptations. I'm no horror fan in general.
    So far I always found Kings prose lacking proper characterization and character development. He knows how to trigger your primal fears for sure, but his prose never really connected with me.

    smile Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    Captain Future wrote
    So far I always found Kings prose lacking proper characterization and character development. He knows how to trigger your primal fears for sure, but his prose never really connected with me.

    smile Volker


    That's interesting, because for me it's the exact opposite. As a teenager and young adult, I swallowed King because of the horror and suspense elements; the stories themselves. As did most other young guys.

    But he's continued to be my favourite author in adult years as well, and I think a lot of it has to do with the prose. The way he uses sentence tempo to add suspense -- in climaxes, they get shorter, and sometimes there's just a single word. The way he spends time on exposition before the action takes hold, and then when it DOES take hold, it moves swiftly. The way he goes into the characters' minds and describe the turmoil the way very few of his film adapations have managed.

    In fact, I'd say his prose is very much close to my own when I do (or rather did) fiction. A huge inspiration, at least.
    I am extremely serious.
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      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    I never had any problem connecting to King: he REALLY knows how to get under your skin, and I find his characters mostly compelling (and very believable).

    I hear what you're saying about his take on vampires, but you have to remember this was WAY before the 'zombie outbreak and variations' craze that we've been seeing these last twenty years or so: his feral vampire was something really quite new, and it absolutely scared the shit out of me when I first read it back in the eighties.

    Interview With The Vampire to my mind is probably the only worthwhile entry in the -hapily fairly shortlived- 'moody, emo, sulkingly sultry, and ultimately interminably boring vampire' phase. I kinda get what she's trying to do, but GOD, it gets on my nerves. It just goes on and on and on and on. Ugh!
    The film is not much better.
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
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      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    Martijn wrote
    Interview With The Vampire to my mind is probably the only worthwhile entry in the -hapily fairly shortlived- 'moody, emo, sulkingly sultry, and ultimately interminably boring vampire' phase. I kinda get what she's trying to do, but GOD, it gets on my nerves. It just goes on and on and on and on. Ugh!
    The film is not much better.


    But WHAT a score!
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    I ain't disagreeing!
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
  8. Rice's Interview I found intriguing. She uses the whole vampire thing on a metaphorical level. And that is what I call a character study! I thought, wow, this is like Herbert's Dune: She takes genre fiction and elevates it to a whole new level.
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    Yeah, I could never stomach Herbert either.
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
  10. I love him, but I have jet to read his non-Dune work.
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    For me I'm reading abou Lincoln Rhyme (The Bone Collector movie starring Denzel Washington). The author is Jeffrey Deaver.
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2017
    I just picked up a book called THE RECOGNITIONS. I'd heard a lot about it, and the passages i'd read were spectacular! People call it extremely difficult, but I read the first 21 pages, and apart from keeping track of several flashbacks, it was not bad at all. And extremely beautifully written.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
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      CommentAuthorDemetris
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2017
    Thor wrote
    Martijn wrote
    Interview With The Vampire to my mind is probably the only worthwhile entry in the -hapily fairly shortlived- 'moody, emo, sulkingly sultry, and ultimately interminably boring vampire' phase. I kinda get what she's trying to do, but GOD, it gets on my nerves. It just goes on and on and on and on. Ugh!
    The film is not much better.


    But WHAT a score!


    love the score, is amazing. the movie, nah at all. hate the whole gay emo 90's phase, very glad we are finally over it with the all-dead horrible twilight saga being the sad tombstone of all of this smile
    Love Maintitles. It's full of Wanders.
  14. I have zero interest in that Twilight vampire stuff.

    I today started reading The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
    It seems quite promising.

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2017
    I too enjoyed the score
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2017
    I'm reading the Lincoln Rhyme novel
    listen to more classical music!
  17. I just finished reading Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. Gripping stuff, hard to bear sometimes, as it should be. Excellently written. Recommended!

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2017
    Captain Future wrote
    I just finished reading Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. Gripping stuff, hard to bear sometimes, as it should be. Excellently written. Recommended!

    Volker


    That's on my reading list. Thanks for reminding me!

    Right now I'm reading a masterpiece called "Against the Day" by Thomas Pynchon, essentially chronicling an alternate history of the world in the years leading up to World War I. Not easy reading, but a deliriously enjoyable and profoundly moving combination of drama, science fiction, and mathematical fantasy.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2018
    I have read several incredible books recently: Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow", Matthew McIntosh's "theMystery.doc" and a few Don DeLillo books.

    I also abandoned a novel; something I haven't done in a while. Sorry Virginia Woolf, but "The Waves" was far too monotonous and gloomy for my taste.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
  20. Earlier this year I read the German novel Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann. Till Eulenspielgel is a trickster character of German folklore. He supposedly lived in the 14th century but Kehlmann places him in the Thirty Years War (17th century). A very good read.

    following that I read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronté. This classic left me somewhat disappointed. There are fragments of love stories here, hints at social criticism and something of a character study. But non of this is really seen through to the end. Or so I think. The novel is written very well though.

    I just started reading the science fiction novel Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Seems quite promising.

    smile Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2018
    Wuthering Heights has been described as the “Twilight” books of the 19th century
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
  22. Well, the supernatural element is there. (As in many stories of that era, not just in gothic tales.) But that too remains a stub. Has Heathcliff cursed Katherine? Was she dammed to wander the moores? (But why?) Did the curse backfire on Heathcliff? Or did the narrator just dream that initial gothic apparition? confused
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeFeb 13th 2018
    Captain Future wrote
    Well, the supernatural element is there. (As in many stories of that era, not just in gothic tales.) But that too remains a stub. Has Heathcliff cursed Katherine? Was she dammed to wander the moores? (But why?) Did the curse backfire on Heathcliff? Or did the narrator just dream that initial gothic apparition? confused


    ambiguity, man
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeFeb 14th 2018
    I've also been reading Michael Chabon's novel "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" which takes place in an alternate universe where Jews were relocated to Alaska to avoid the holocaust. It's a fun story, but it's highly derivative of the (much better) style of Thomas Pynchon.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
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      CommentAuthorsdtom
    • CommentTimeFeb 17th 2018
    I'm reading a part fiction part truth called "Dark Invasion," about a German terrorist cell in 1915. Good bargain book.
    listen to more classical music!
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeFeb 17th 2018
    sdtom wrote
    I'm reading a part fiction part truth called "Dark Invasion," about a German terrorist cell in 1915. Good bargain book.


    looks interesting, I added it to my "to-read" list.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.
  27. I just finished reading Bernard Schlink's The Reader in preparation of a class project. I read the 200 paged in two days. I leaves me ambivalent. I read it a long time ago an now had to refresh my memory. I'm curious what assessment my students, who also have to read it over the Easter break, will give the book.

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
  28. Have you seen the film?
    http://www.filmmusic.pl - Polish Film Music Review Website
  29. I did. In I will again soon. Actually the project is about both, the novel and the adaptation.
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
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      CommentAuthorAidabaida
    • CommentTimeMar 26th 2018
    I've been reading James Joyce's Ulysses.... Love loves to love love.
    Bach's music is heartless and robotic.

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