Whats everyone reading?

[TordelBack]

Is it too late to write an alternative series of follow-up novels, in which the Witch returns from the Northern lands, triumphant, and slaughters all the elves and fawns and satyrs, wades through their dismembered bloody corpses and stabs that bloody lion with a big sword?

White Queen aside, isn't that more-or-less what happens in The Last Battle?  

I think you have to first read Lewis at an age where you're unaware of the sermonising to enjoy him at all later on - and The Magician's Nephew isn't a great one, suffering as it does from prequelitis.  That said, if you can't stand pompous allegory and Blytonesque kids, it may be better to find out after just the one.

Personally I like Lewis a lot, but then i was a religious little spode when I first encountered him, and despite subsequent evangelical atheism I even enjoyed a reasonably recent re-read (well, before the first film version came out).

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

I remember reading the Chronicles of Narnia when I was but a lad. And I didn't enjoy them all that much. I had just finished Tolkien's Opus, and my Father (a devout Born-againist), recommended I read these next, and I just didn't like them. I haven't read them since, and I couldn't really say why I didn't like them. But, since I started them, Magnus Magnussen style, I had to finish. And then I read Treasure Island, a book I make a point of reading at least once a year. My Favourite Book Ever.

Currently reading The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft. I hadn't read anything by this Author before now, so far I've only finished At the Mountains of Madness, and I'm bloody loving every sentence. The letters in 'ye olde inglishe' are a delightful  challenge. I think if I had read his works when I was younger, I might not have enjoyed them as much.

[TordelBack]

And then I read Treasure Island, a book I make a point of reading at least once a year. My Favourite Book Ever.

A truly amazing book - wrongly pigeonholed as solely a children's book, it's just a fantastic adventure story.  

Yeah, I can see how Narnia would be very disappointing after finishing LotR.  Certainly should be read first.  That was always my problem with Tolkien - I seemed to waste a good few years casting around looking for the next great fantasy book, ending up with fare like Thomas Covenant, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or the Belgariad.  Fun books in their own right, but, well, really not the same.  Things improved when I discovered Moorcock, Wolfe and Vance, but at some level I've never really recovered from my early disappointments with fantasy as a genre.

Just read a superb steampunk short by Paul Cornell, 'One of our Bastards is Missing'.  Enough ideas and characters for a novel in about 20 pages.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Yeah, I can see how Narnia would be very disappointing after finishing LotR.  Certainly should be read first.  

Well, considering that Stevie abandonned LoTR uncompleted because Yes, The Worldbuilding & Prose Are All Very Nice But It's Not Exactly Gormenghast, Is It? then that the Narnia books well & truly erased from the geolgical stata of his To Read Pile.

However, add his voice to the resounding chorus of Screwtape Letters Is Fucking Ace SBT. Quite simply put it details the advice of a senoir Demon to his nephew on how to corrupt a Christian & as such Stevie is sure that your boys would find it thoroughly more edifying as bedtime material.

[JOE SOAP]

Well, considering that Stevie abandonned LoTR uncompleted because Yes, The Worldbuilding & Prose Are All Very Nice But It's Not Exactly Gormenghast, Is It?

Is it supposed to be?

[Mikey]

Well, considering that Stevie abandonned LoTR uncompleted because Yes, The Worldbuilding & Prose Are All Very Nice But It's Not Exactly Gormenghast, Is It?

Is it supposed to be?

Stevie speaks the truth. I actually read the Gormenghast books before LOTR (I was a bit late, I was in my 20's!) - a much more rewarding fantasy and no mistake.

Speaking of Narnia, last night I read the sublime Nick Lowe's film review of 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader', where he describes it as 'Pirates of the Anglican Communion.' LOL-OCAUST!

M.

[SmallBlueThing]

However, add his voice to the resounding chorus of Screwtape Letters Is Fucking Ace SBT. Quite simply put it details the advice of a senoir Demon to his nephew on how to corrupt a Christian & as such Stevie is sure that your boys would find it thoroughly more edifying as bedtime material.

I have a copy of the Screwtape Letters knocking about somewhere actually, unless I left it out for the gypsies in my last wife-directed clearout. I only read them The Magaician's Nephew as eldest had been making vaguely interested noises regarding the concept of Narnia, after playing the tLtW&tW game on the ps2 (and I think, his religious nutter teacher mentioning it in a lesson). I basically wanted to see if youngest could handle a whole book that wasn't just a series of gags. The good news is, he could, but neither of them particularly enjoyed it and we certainly won't be reading any of the rest anytime soon. (Next up: Scream Street 2: Blood of the Witch, or whatever it's called).

As for Gormengast and Lord of the Rings- both just bore the absolute tits off me. Dreadful old shit, the lot of them. I have fond memories of reading The Hobbit as a kid- but that's more to do with the circumstances around how I read it; in a classroom with a teacher I really liked, than much to do with the book itself. To be honest, I can't really remember much about it and it's not a book I'd read out of choice as an adult.

Treasure Island, on the other hand, is brilliant and I love it to bits. Along with Moby Dick, and several other books about pirates and maritime legends it forms a very special section of my library devoted to "the sea".

Away from novels, I'm ecstatic to report that my eldest has fallen in love with Calvin & Hobbes. This surprises me greatly, as it never struck me as a strip with a particular appeal to seven year olds, but what do I know, because he's carrying them around like a... well, like a boy carrying a stuffed tiger, and keeps making me read bits that make him laugh. Quite obviously the Transmogrifier and the Snow Goons are his absolute favourite.

SBT

[Richmond Clements]

Fans of Treasure Island may be interested in this: http://hiexcomics.blogspot.com/2011/03/long-john-silver-vol-1-cinebook-review.html

[Ignatzmonster]

Fans of Treasure Island may be interested in this: http://hiexcomics.blogspot.com/2011/03/long-john-silver-vol-1-cinebook-review.html

Holy Fucksticks that looks cool. Did not expect anything that good when I clicked on the link, Clement. Love Stevenson like any sane human being, and Treasure Island is a revelation. Read it in my 20's and it floored me. I'm a firm believer That Long John Silver is Stevenson's best meditation on good and evil, much more so tha Jekyll/Hyde.

[The Legendary Shark]

I'm reading, and thoroughly enjoying, The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) by Edward Abbey.

The book's four main characters are ecologically-minded misfits — a Jack Mormon river guide (Seldom Seen Smith), a surgeon (Doc Sarvis), his young assistant (Ms Abbzug), and a rather eccentric Green Beret Vietnam veteran(George Washington Hayduke). Together, though not always working as a tightly-knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of what they see as the system that pollutes and destroys their environments, the American West. As their attacks on deserted bulldozers and trains continue, the law closes in.

Here's an extract I just read that made me smile (the book's full of 'em!):

***

     "You had your chance, Hayduke, and you blew it. Now sweat."
     "Sweat? I never sweated over any woman in my life. I never knew a woman that was worth the trouble. There are some fucking things more important than women, you know."
     "If it weren't for women you wouldn't even exist."
     "I didn't say they weren't useful. I said there are some things more important. Like guns. Like a good torque wrench. Like a winch that works."
     "Good God, a whole nest of them. I'm surrounded by idiots. All three of them would-be cowboys. Nineteenth-century pigs. Eighteenth-century anachronisms. Seventeenth-century misfits. Absolutely unhip. Out of it, nowhere, just simply nowhere. You're obsolete, Hayduke."
     "Like a decent valve job. Like a decent - well, I mean, like drawing trips to a pair. Like-"
     "Unhip. Unhip. An old man at twenty-five."
     "-like a good coon dog. Like a cabin in the woods where a man can piss off the front porch - wait a minute - where a man can piss off the front porch anytime he by God fucking well feels like it!" He stopped, unable to think of any more withering similes.
     Abbzug smiled her specialty, the scornful smile.
     "History has passed you by, Hayduke." With a fling of her wonderful hair she turned her back on him. Crushed and silent, he watched her walk away.
     Later, crawling into his greasy fartsack under the blinking fiery stars, he thought (too late) of the right rejoinder: Today's hip is tomorrow's hype, kid.

***

[I, Cosh]

I have tried several times, starting around the age of twelve, to read the Gormenghast books but I've never managed more than two or three chapters before the ponderous weight of the overwrought prose completely anaesthetises me and the book slips from my nerveless grasp to the floor where it lies for another five years.

That was always my problem with Tolkien - I seemed to waste a good few years casting around looking for the next great fantasy book, ending up with fare like Thomas Covenant, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or the Belgariad.  Fun books in their own right, but, well, really not the same.

Sadly, I have paddled my canoe down that river too.

Just started C by Tom McCarthy. The first chapter was full of the sort of florid over-description which makes my teeth grind, but there is hope for better to come.

[Dandontdare]

When I got stuck into one of those "SF & Fantasy bookclub" deal years ago, I bought the Gormenghast trilogy, cos they were classics,  but I have still have never managed to read them. I thought the TV version may help, but no - why does this established 'classic' not do it for me? I've read LOTR 4+ times, so is it just me?

[Ignatzmonster]

When I got stuck into one of those "SF & Fantasy bookclub" deal years ago, I bought the Gormenghast trilogy, cos they were classics,  but I have still have never managed to read them. I thought the TV version may help, but no - why does this established 'classic' not do it for me? I've read LOTR 4+ times, so is it just me?

No no no lots of people go up against it like it was a brick wall. They're not at all similar, so there's no reason why you should like Gormenghast. Personaly I love it but I could see why other's wouldn't. The characters are more exaggerated in appearance and in character and very few are "likable." The world is more boxed in and gothic. And there is waaay more intrigue and back-stabbing between the characters, very different from the good and evil world of LOTR. Which is why I can never get through LOTR. Where's all the crazy decriptions of unlikable characters wrecking each other's lives I ask you?

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

... Where's all the crazy decriptions.....

Yeah

I haven't read Gormenghast in ages but I seem to remember Peake taking two whole pages to describe an event which took place in a split-second

Madness

But the cool-crazy-uncle type of madness, not the painting-your-nightmares-with-your-own-faeces-and-then-eating-the-painting type of madness

[SmallBlueThing]

I haven't read Gormenghast in ages but I seem to remember Peake taking two whole pages to describe an event which took place in a split-second

Madness

But the cool-crazy-uncle type of madness, not the painting-your-nightmares-with-your-own-faeces-and-then-eating-the-painting type of madness

An ex once bought me Gormenghast, in some lovely special edition thing, and inscribed it "You will walk these halls for the rest of your life". Sadly- or not- I stuck my head round the door, took a look at the sort of people already in there, and didn't even unpack my bags.

SBT