What Are You Reading?

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grin willard

"Keep the change, you filthy animal!"
Feb 21, 2017
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I meant All The Pretty Horses. ;-D I must have been listening to the Stones when I posted that.

Not me. I saw where the nytimes called it his most accessible book. But still avoiding the commas semicolons and colons and all that old bunch of doo doo I suppose. And I just did it here. I'm a stylist! But I doubt I could keep it up for a whole book. Unless money was involved that is. So yes I could.
 

RichardX

Well-Known Member
Sep 26, 2006
1,737
4,434
There is a new Haruki Murakami book just released in Japan. I didn't see any details on an English translation but this is good news. I consider him the greatest living fiction author:

"Kishidancho Goroshi," or "Killing Commendatore," is a two-part story about a 36-year-old portrait painter and what happens after his wife divorces him and he moves into an old house on a mountainside west of Tokyo.

Japanese fans rush to get Haruki Murakami's 'Killing Commendatore' - Chicago Tribune
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
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There are some wonderful stories in Norse Myth! But there exists different versions of several myths. Among them ragnarok. I guess i have to find Gaiman to satisfy my coriousity. They really are worth a retelling! The Greek myths have been retold time and again but the Norse myths, that are just as good, have not. Ok, they made a superhero out of Thor but otherwise they seem to have escaped. Were the Apples of Idun there? I like that story.
Yes, it was! I do think that I'll search for a good book of Norse myths, as I don't know much about them, aside from what Joanne Harris retold in Runemarks and The Gospel of Loki (her other book, Runescape, wasn't published in the US that I know of), and what Gaiman used in Odd and the Frost Giants. My favorite (aside from Ragnarok) was the story of how Thor got Mjolnir. Or maybe about how he tricked a giant out of his beer vat. Or maybe Balder's death. Heck, they were all good! Gaiman did point out that the stories had different versions, and that modern culture has idealized Thor a bit (he's sometimes pretty dense in the myths--lol). I kept seeing the last bit of his Ragnarok story with the actors from the Thor movies--seeing Idris Elba (Heimdall) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) battle it out at the end of the world would be EPIC! I loved that Thor and Odin both fell before those two. :)
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
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No fljoe0, my prince of a blue boy, you aren't the only one. A friend of mine, an unrepentant Bukowski fanatic, gave me Blood Meridian to read about 3 yrs ago. (A guy who horked -- borrowed without giving back -- one of my Leonard Cohen CD's, but gives me lavish praise on fb for introducing Leonard to him, so fine, he can keep it. I'm uncommonly susceptible to praise.) And I still don't sleep so good. DAMN IT WAS ROUGH!!! So I haven't managed to crack another McCarthy title so far.

I'm still afraid to use a port-o-potty, because the judge might be inside. Dressed in only a huge flank of meat! You'd have to read, or have read, the book to know what I'm babbling about.
Blood Meridian is my favorite of McComac's books (of those I've read) :)
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
I started The Burning World this evening. So far so good :) It's a follow up to Warm Bodies, which I liked. That was a unique update of the Romeo and Juliet story (R and Julie, get it?). The Burning World takes the story in another direction, and it's not so light. It will be interesting to see if Marion can keep the story fresh and quirky now that he doesn't have Shakespeare's story to to guide the storyline. It would be easy to fall into the 'dystopian trilogy' tropes (as I understand this is to be the second of a trilogy). I hope he can keep integrity in his story. I'm blowing town at the first sign of a love triangle.
 

Kurben

The Fool on the Hill
Apr 12, 2014
9,682
65,192
59
sweden
Yes, it was! I do think that I'll search for a good book of Norse myths, as I don't know much about them, aside from what Joanne Harris retold in Runemarks and The Gospel of Loki (her other book, Runescape, wasn't published in the US that I know of), and what Gaiman used in Odd and the Frost Giants. My favorite (aside from Ragnarok) was the story of how Thor got Mjolnir. Or maybe about how he tricked a giant out of his beer vat. Or maybe Balder's death. Heck, they were all good! Gaiman did point out that the stories had different versions, and that modern culture has idealized Thor a bit (he's sometimes pretty dense in the myths--lol). I kept seeing the last bit of his Ragnarok story with the actors from the Thor movies--seeing Idris Elba (Heimdall) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) battle it out at the end of the world would be EPIC! I loved that Thor and Odin both fell before those two. :)
Two that has a good rep are The Viking Spirit by Daniel McCoy and The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland. Both are accessible and are meant as introductions. Both have good retellings of myths but Mccoy also puts them into context more than the other one since the myths were only a part of their religion and how they viewed faith and afterlife and things like that. Then of course there are more scholarly books about the subject. I personally havent read these. My books on the subject are swedish and not translated plus the primary sources, the two Eddas (the Poetic or Older Edda and The Prosaic or Younger Edda) and the icelandic sagas. What would Wagner and Tolkien have done without them??
 

grin willard

"Keep the change, you filthy animal!"
Feb 21, 2017
1,144
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Blood Meridian is my favorite of McComac's books (of those I've read) :)

Well ski-milf deux, you're made of sterner stuff than I am. It was harsh! And the native American killings disturbed me. Possibly because I am one/16th Lakota Sioux! But that's open to speculation. Anyone have a password for ancestry.com?
 
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carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
25,651
NJ
I've just got it! The book i've read that it has a vague resemblance to, in that it too reminds me of a fable more than anything else, is Momo by Michael Ende (german). Its about a girl of mysterious origins that lives in an amphitheatre and how she helps the people to get time back that the mysterious time thieves has stolen. Same guy that wrote Neverending Story (The book, not the song). Not as flawless as Ocean so far but interesting. Written in the 70-ties.
I've written before about how I just do not like Gaiman and was especially let down by The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I feel the author David Almond does this type of story much better (and before Gaiman did it) with such books at Skellig (1998) & Heaven Eyes (2000). I'm in the minority though as it seems most people on this board love Gaiman.

From Wikipedia:
Like most of Almond's other young adult books, Heaven Eyes focuses on the balance between fantasy and reality, all within a quaint and eccentric but mysterious and somewhat unsettling world. Other major themes include spiritual healing and family (particularly mothers, as many of the main characters long for a mother they have never known or have known but tragically lost).
 
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AchtungBaby

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2011
3,856
15,540
I've written before about how I just do not like Gaiman and was especially let down by The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I feel the author David Almond does this type of story much better (and before Gaiman did it) with such books such at Skellig (1998) & Heaven Eyes (2000). I'm in the minority though as it seems most people on this board love Gaiman.

From Wikipedia:
Like most of Almond's other young adult books, Heaven Eyes focuses on the balance between fantasy and reality, all within a quaint and eccentric but mysterious and somewhat unsettling world. Other major themes include spiritual healing and family (particularly mothers, as many of the main characters long for a mother they have never known or have known but tragically lost).
No, I'm with you. I don't like Gaiman. It's funny-- he constantly pops up in my social media feeds, despite my not following him. I just have so many bookish friends who adore him and share his posts. It's like I can't get away from the guy.
 

carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
25,651
NJ
No, I'm with you. I don't like Gaiman. It's funny-- he constantly pops up in my social media feeds, despite my not following him. I just have so many bookish friends who adore him and share his posts. It's like I can't get away from the guy.
My problem with him is that I read so much of the types of stuff he writes for years before he came on the scene that I can pretty much point to a book that was published before he came on the scene that did it first or much better. He just seems so derivative. And despite skimom2's very respected opinion (I almost always agree with her) about his writing, I think it's ho-hum.
 

muskrat

Dis-Member
Nov 8, 2010
4,518
19,564
Under your bed
Face it, tiger, I just hit hit the jackpot.

Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus vol. 2! Oh yeah...loving it. Jazzy Johnny Romita Spidey all the way. Issues 39 - 67 in one door-stopping volume? Yes, please. Wowza. Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm a Ditko fanaddict, but with this volume we get the more mature Peter Parker, we get the more modernized Spidey...and we get (finally) the downright delicious Mary Jane Watson! Ye Gods, is it possible to be in love with a secondary comic book character from the sixties? Apparently so. Mm-Mmmnnn!
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
Face it, tiger, I just hit hit the jackpot.

Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus vol. 2! Oh yeah...loving it. Jazzy Johnny Romita Spidey all the way. Issues 39 - 67 in one door-stopping volume? Yes, please. Wowza. Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm a Ditko fanaddict, but with this volume we get the more mature Peter Parker, we get the more modernized Spidey...and we get (finally) the downright delicious Mary Jane Watson! Ye Gods, is it possible to be in love with a secondary comic book character from the sixties? Apparently so. Mm-Mmmnnn!
1maryjanefinal.jpg
 

twiggymarie

Daughter of One
Mar 17, 2011
332
1,911
Texas, United States
Finishing up reading It, then going to start re-reading some of Tom Knox's books. While his actual storytelling is a bit formulaic, and often I can guess what might happen, the subject matter and historical subjects he has tackled are so interesting and thought-provoking that I'll forgive him his underdeveloped prose. With titles the The Genesis Code, The Babylonian Rite, and The Lost Goddess, (among others), the history geek inside me gets happy! I found him completely by accident, mainly because I was bored waiting for the kids to finish looking for discounted games at a Hasting's closing sale. I'd already grabbed all the King books, a few Koontz titles, and two Johanssons I'd been able to find and I saw The Babylonian Rite for 50 cents. I'd highly recommend him if you can find him.
 

Haunted

This is my favorite place
Mar 26, 2008
17,059
29,421
The woods are lovely dark and deep
After I pick up Faye Kellerman's latest at the library and finish her husband's Heartbreak Hotel I am swearing off of the library and have forwarded my reserves until August. The TBR is out of sight and I must get to it! I need to finish Dracula vs. Hitler and Freedom of the Mask. Then I have Mr. King's Hearts in Suspension, The Nix, The Shroud Conspiracy and Mississippi Blood.
 

AchtungBaby

Well-Known Member
Dec 5, 2011
3,856
15,540
After I pick up Faye Kellerman's latest at the library and finish her husband's Heartbreak Hotel I am swearing off of the library and have forwarded my reserves until August. The TBR is out of sight and I must get to it! I need to finish Dracula vs. Hitler and Freedom of the Mask. Then I have Mr. King's Hearts in Suspension, The Nix, The Shroud Conspiracy and Mississippi Blood.
The Nix was my favorite novel of 2016. Certainly in my top 5 favorite books of all-time.
 
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