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Whats everyone reading?

Started by Paul faplad Finch, 30 March, 2009, 10:04:36 PM

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JamesC

I'm currently reading Locke and Key which is excellent.
I'd never gotten around to reading it because I'd been put off by the artwork. The 'big shiny eye' aesthetic always turns me off. I shoudln't have been so silly though - now I've given it some time I can appreciate how good the storytelling is and how much work and talent has gone inot the design of the architecture, the keys, the characters - everything really. The writing is top notch - I felt like I knew (or at least 'got') the characters after just a few chapters and some of the story ideas are fantastically creepy and imaginative. I'd quite like to try some of Dan Hill's prose novels after reading this.

Theblazeuk

Joe Hill's short story collection, 20th Century Ghosts, is great. Heart-Shaped Box is one of the best ghost stories I have ever read and is my favourite of his full-length works. Then N0S4R2 (great audio version read by Cpt Janeway + good comics) and Horns (ignore the movie) - didn't really like The Fireman unfortunately.

His co-written credits with his dad are pretty good too, particularly Throttle.

JamesC

Thanks for the recommendations. I really like short story collections so I'll definitely give 20th Century Ghosts a look.

Link Prime

Quote from: JamesC on 04 April, 2018, 02:34:27 PM
Thanks for the recommendations. I really like short story collections so I'll definitely give 20th Century Ghosts a look.

20th Century Ghosts is a very fine collection indeed.
The opener, 'Best New Horror', being the pick of the bunch for me.

I'd also rate his first novel Heart Shaped Box very highly.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: JamesC on 04 April, 2018, 11:27:26 AM
I'm currently reading Locke and Key which is excellent.


Yeah I've read Locke and Key for the first time recently and agree with everything you've said. Superb series.

Smith

Book related this time,Elric of Melnibone.Its good.

Apestrife

Alpha king. By Brian Azzarello and Simon Bisley.
A beer brewer gets drown/cooked in one of his brew cooking pots by monster, who takes his girlfriend captive. He then wakes up in 90:s-MTV-sque bizarro Tolkien-land. It's inhabitants hails him as Alpha King, and he then starts brewing fantastic beer in order to amass an army to save his lady from the Rice king.
Fairly insane and fun fantasy book. Especially when you realise that every character is modelled after a beer by Chicagoan micro brewery Three Floyds. I really like Bisley's art, but the script by Azzarello isn't as clever as I'd hoped. Could'v done much more with the beer-theme. A fairly juvenile amount of cursing. Probably a book one should flip through for a bit before buying.

BUG! The adventures of Forager. By Lee and Mike Alldred.
Forager is most likely dead, but also on a path to new godhood. Travelling between dimensions has him meeting a everyone from The Losers to OMAC.
One big dreamy Kirby-esque Kirby tribute by the Allred brothers. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The writing as well as art. Fun and fantastic. With Mister Miracle still being in the making of a worthy follow up to Kirby's 4th world, I think this is a story which passes on the baton. I'm hoping the Allreds creates more similar fun books with such a breezy tribute to what came before it. (Would love it if they took on Wonder Woman :)). With that said. Perhaps a bit too confusing book for some, but I can't help it to recommend it :)

sheridan

Quote from: Smith on 18 April, 2018, 08:29:00 PM
Book related this time,Elric of Melnibone.Its good.
Just good?  Are you tempted to read anything else by Moorcock?  Outside of Elric, I'd recommend the Corum books, the Hawkroom books and Captain Oswald Bastable's proto-Steampunk adventures.

The Legendary Shark

Obedience to Authourity, Stanley Milgram, 1973. Based on his famous electric shock experiments, Milgram's book explores the mechanisms and consequences of human obedience and is both terrifying and encouraging in equal measure.

It is terrifying how many ordinary people will subvert their own morality,  to the extent of inflicting pain or even death, when ordered to do so by a perceived legitimate authority.

It was encouraging to note, however, that one of the experiment's variations took the authority figure out of physical contact with the subject, allowing the majority of the subjects to inflict the minimum "pain" whilst pretending to be inflicting much higher levels.

A fascinating book that should be required reading in any education. It also casts light on an audiobook I'm listening to while I work in the woodland;

The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn. Stories of oppression in Russia, of being arrested for no logical reason, interrogated about fantasies and imprisoned without question. A marvellous book filled with horror and the darkest shades of humour. (It's not a million miles away, stylistically, from the recent film, The Death of Stalin, which I also enjoyed.)

This is one of those books I'd never have considered reading because it would be "too hard," whatever that means, but I'm so glad I'm giving it a go.

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TordelBack

Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 10 May, 2018, 07:31:54 AM
The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn. Stories of oppression in Russia, of being arrested for no logical reason, interrogated about fantasies and imprisoned without question. A marvellous book filled with horror and the darkest shades of humour. (It's not a million miles away, stylistically, from the recent film, The Death of Stalin, which I also enjoyed.)

This is one of those books I'd never have considered reading because it would be "too hard," whatever that means, but I'm so glad I'm giving it a go.

Fantastic read alright - I found it abandoned in a Youth Hostel common room many years ago when I'd run out of things to read, and couldn't put it down. 


Tjm86

I'll second that on Gulag Archipeligo.  Also worth reading, and much much lighter / shorter is A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Been studying Milgram's experimental work recently as well.  I know what you mean about the implications and how disturbing they can be.

For my sins I'm currently working through the Dune novels.  Currently on Children of Dune.  Thought I had read these before but I think I might have only got through the first one.  It's a fascinating dissertation on tradition, religion, power, ecology, prognostication ....

von Boom

Quote from: Tjm86 on 10 May, 2018, 06:00:02 PM

For my sins I'm currently working through the Dune novels.  Currently on Children of Dune.  Thought I had read these before but I think I might have only got through the first one.  It's a fascinating dissertation on tradition, religion, power, ecology, prognostication ....

I've been rereading the series for the umpteenth time and am up to God Emperor of Dune. Many people struggle with this one, but for me it ranks nearly alongside Dune.

The Adventurer

So I've embarked on an insane plan. To read roughly 500 Marvel comics from between 1997 and 2004 (aproximately the time between Onsaught/Heroes Reborn and Avengers Disassembled/New Avengers. A period I like to call one of Marvels absolute best, but honestly I didn't get to read a good chuck of it at the time. So with a brand new Marvel Unlimited subscription I'm going to be reading, in approximately the order they were released in originally (app makes this really easy to do actually...)

Thunderbolts 1-75
Captain America 1-50
Avengers 1-45
Thor 1-79
Black Panther 1-62
Inhumans 1-12
Avengers Forever 1-12
Captain Marvel 1-36/1-25
Marvel Boy 1-6
The Sentry 1-5
X-Force/X-Statix 116-129 /1-26
New X-Men 114-154

Including a few other odds and ends (Annuals mostly), this is a ton of comics to get through. And I'm even skipping a few things, like Iron Man, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil. But these are the books that I always though looked really interesting at the time, but I didn't really have access or money for then.

Most of these are runs by single creative teams or a single writer switch mid run (Busiek/Nicieza on Thunderbolts, Waid/Jurgens on Captain America), and are insanely long by modern standards.

I'm currently about 15 issues into Thunderbolts, and 5 each of Captain America and Avengers, taking me to about mid 1998. Marvel Knights starts up very soon in the timeline. So I've got quite a bit to look forward too.

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Colin YNWA

Arh man you gotta get a thread telling us about this stuff. There's some of the comics that got me back into comics during that time. Specifically the Avengers stuff, that was such a fun run. I later caught up with the X-Force / X-Statix stuff which is a fav of mine, Milligan at his best.

But if you haven't read them consider adding the Daredevils to that list. While Bendis' run is no Nocenti or Waid it is bloomin' good.

This sounds like such a fun project!

The Adventurer

I've been trying to come up with a way to document it. Seems like a waste not to. Maybe I will make a thread and treat it like a blog.

The World's Greatest Comics Project

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