Reading Tab

I usually have two or three books going at the same time.

Car/audio - Lord of the Rings, Return of the King. Read by Robert Ingles. It is fantastic.....can't say enough.

Home - advanced readers copy of Holy Fools by Joanne Harris. She wrote Chocolat....

Work - Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. Pre Da Vinci Code.....when he was still a veritable unknown from New Hampshire. USA. Where I live.
(Got his autograph on a Da Vinci Code. )

__________________
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons.....for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.

Absolute Friends
by John le Carré

__________________
www.esotericrabbit.com

Me too! About reading Digital Fortress that is.

I was pretty torn about it...all in all, it isn't anything great. It's a nice light read, and it does have an awesome twist. The best character dies on the first page!

So...I'll give it a , albiet not a strong one.

Also...

The Alienist-(1st time) Great book. For anyone that's interested in history or in crime, this is a must.

__________________
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" - Howard Beale

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000

My favorite science fiction novel of all time. It's a shame that L. Ron Hubbard was not alive when they made it into a movie because he would never have allowed that bastardized version they spewed out to ever happen. It should be a mini-series put out by HBO or Showtime. Then it would get some production value and be able to be told in a more leisurely pace. I mean, c'mon, the end of the movie is only about 350 pages into the 1,100 page long book. Plus they changed those first 350 pages into a completely different story that didn't follow the book at all! I hate the movie, but adore the book.

__________________
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

I agree about Digital Fortress.....I would give it about a B.

Have you read Caleb Carr's book Angel of Darkness? I thoroughly enjoyed that as much as The Alienist. You might also want to look at The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. Its his first novel, and its great. The book is a historical thriller set in Boston during the late 1800's. The greatest literary minds of the time must solve a series of murders based on Dante's Inferno.

I am just starting Grisham's latest, The Last Juror. We'll see......

I haven't yet read Angel of Darkness, although I own it and will soon.

Thanks for the heads up on The Dante Club. It actually caught my eye in the book store the other day, but I decided not to get it at the time. I'll check it out.

I totally agree. The book is so amazing and when I saw the movie I was pissed at what they had done to it!

__________________

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde By Robert Louis Stevenson

Very different to all the movie adaptions that we are all so familair with nowadays.

__________________
Pumpkins scream in the DEAD of night!

In the Blink of an Eye (Revised 2nd Edition) by Walter Murch

Absolutely incredible. Not only for film theorists and filmmakers, but also just for film-lovers in general. Murch's theories regarding cinema [namely why and how it actually works] are just remarkable. And for filmmakers, or at least for me, life-alteringly profound.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Incredible. People tend to think that this book is made for kids, but it isn't. This book is so much deeper than I thought it would be. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the fun adventure novel while Huckleberry Finn is much, much more.

Recently Read

Miss Garnet's Angel
(Salley Vickers)

A satisfactory read which finishes well. I wasn't really bothered about it but at the time I didn't have much about so was mildly surprised by how charming it was to read.

The Wasp Factory
(Iain Banks)

This was a fantastic read. I couldn't put it down. I recommend this to anyone looking for something devilishly funny. Honestly, it's brilliant.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
(Hunter S Thompson)

I really couldn't get into this from start to finish. It just didn't appeal to me at all. I haven't seen the film.


Currently Reading

The Catcher in the Rye
(J.D. Salinger)

__________________
instrumental rock band that I am in.

Wasp Factory is indeed a great read. Incredibly dark and quite bizarre. i read this about 3 years ago but i still am very fond of some of the images i recieved from reading this book. Little girls being tied to kites and flying off into the distance. Little boys exploding....aah the memories.

I'm currently reading an autobiography on J.D Salinger. its very interesting indeed.

Notes / on the Making of Apocalypse Now by Eleanor Coppola

The Picture of Dorian Gray
1890. Oscar Wilde

The Total Works of Poe
1800s. Edgar Allen Poe

The War of the Worlds
1898. H.G. Welles

Hey Slay, Wanna finish off my degree and do some of my coursework for me? Due in at the beginning of April ok?

I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Grey next week for my degree. is it any good? It sounds quite interesting.

Had to read Poe in the first year, really enjoyed it. got a bit tied up with the language in some places but over all thought they were really good stories. My favourite was The Black Cat

And War of the Worlds! Easily one of my favourite novels of all time. H G Wells rocks. Love reading about the martians invading all the places along the Thames, theyre only down the road to me and used to scare the poo poo out of me when i read it when i was younger. Did you enjoy it? If you did i highly reccommend The Island of Dr Moreau by H G Wells or The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, both excellant novels with a hint of apocalyptic insecurities.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was simply O.K. to me. I understand it is a classic written by an honored author, but I found it to be a bit tedious and tiring. I really thought that it could have been told in a short story rather than a 200+ page book. An example of its boring nature; after Dorian accepts his predicament of immortality, he roams the countryside trying to find pleasures in all different manners of things. For twenty pages, Wilde focuses on things like embroidery, from Afghani wool, to Chinese silk, and on and on and on…he does that with pottery, weaving, etc. Like two pages each! It really had nothing to do with anything other that giving the reader a migraine and a sense of time expiring in Dorian’s world. I didn’t hate it, but I’ll take either Bronte sister over it, any day.

War of the Worlds is so completely different from the movie that they are incomparable. I enjoyed it, but it also was kind of boring to me. Maybe I’m just tired and need a break from the nineteenth century reading binge I’ve been on. I’ve actually read 5 H.G. Wells books during the last three months. The Time Machine, The Day of the Comet, The First Men in the Moon, The Island of Dr Moreau, and War of the Worlds. I planed on reading 2001 next, but perhaps a break is in order.

As far as Poe goes, some are great and some are snoozers. It was a book with at least 60 shorts, I don’t remember all the titles off hand, though I do remember that for some reason, The Raven wasn’t included.

I have Edgar Allan Poe - Mystery and Imagination which is a compilation of some of his best work, tis very groovy.

LS, go get that Iain Banks book if you need a change!

Yeah ive heard its like that, i'll just have to skim the book when it comes to those parts, have to read the whole thing in a week!

The movie is totally different from the book, but thats why i preferred the book. maybe i enjoy it more becuase of how real it seems with all the English towns he names as the Martians attack. Did you like The Island of Dr Moreau? I absoloutly loved it, thought the end ing was brilliant. The Time Machine i enjoyed as well. Unfortunatly theyre the only H G well's books i have read. Whast your favourite out of the ones you have read? Reccoment a good one? I totally understand what you mean about the reading of these 19th century novels, they all invlve the same themes. A lot og H G Well's novels involve his theories on the degredation of society and the degeneration of the human race, its all really interesting learning about it. i could do a Golgot and start rambling about it but i can imagine it would all seem quite boring so i decline

I love The Raven. Have you got the Penguin edition? becuase that one includes it

I actually read The Wasp Factory a long time ago. I had a love/hate thing with it. It was wonderfuly imaginitive and unique, but I didn't enjoy it.

I mean, one brother likes to set fire to live dogs and sheep, while the other likes to kill small animals and little children, what's not to like?

Obviously, the subject matter isn't something to derive real pleasure with, but like I already said, it is an exceptionally imaginative story.



Blibly: I understand how reading a story set in your own stomping grounds is exciting. I know when I see movies filmed in Portland (Drugstore Cowboy, The Hunted), I get all tingly inside.

I honestly think my opinion of it is because I really was tired everytime I set down to read it. I often would cat nap throughout the reading. I read early mornings on the train, and after work on it as well. I'm tired at both ends.

I also don't remember which rendition of Poe works I had, I got it from the library.

I may not be much of a book reader but recently I finished re-reading JOSE SARAMANGO's BLINDNESS.


This book is an allegory of today's society, how we have turned a blind eye to those who really need our help; How we can easily forget the problems of others without realizing it can happen to ourselves.

The book celverly never names its characters which is symbolic that tragedy can befall anyone. It starts as a man awaiting the turn of a traffic light suddenly becomes blind and all those who come to his aid are also blinded. As this mysterious epidemic spreads, the more fear gets the better of society (us) and the blind are relocated into isolation. However we learn that it is not some freak virus that has contaminated this particular group of people as cases around the world with similar "networks" of blindness are spreading and soon society's blind outnumber the seeing and even reaches epidemic porpotions that ALL of society is blinded. However, brilliantly the author allows one person for the entire novel to retain the ability of sight to withness the burden of the many through which this novel is told. It explores the possibility that society has failed to fight the worth-while causes together and now it ultimately faces greater odds as it tackles the delimma as individuals.


I apologize if my book review "sucks".... But this book is really a great read, it is emotionally stirring, a thought provoker, not to mention the narration, story line and the strong imagery that reflects our society today.

__________________
And like that .... he's gone