Whats everyone reading?

[TordelBack]

When she was good which is by far my favourite Philip Roth book. Blistering stuff.

What other Roth stuff do you recommend, Roger?  I read a some of his lighter stuff (Portnoy's Complaint etc.) for the rude bits when I was a teenager, but I haven't been back since.

[Roger Godpleton]

I'm not really an expert, just more of a fan, so I've not read everything (prolly less than half). I'd say that Plot Against America is the one really essential book that deals with broader themes of time and place (it does get a bit silly though) and that Portnoy is the one really essential character study. I'm not a huge Zuckerman fan, but they're good entry points, particularly Exit Ghost.

Basically I enjoyed all of the following:
Letting Go
Exit Ghost
The Dying Animal
The Human Stain (The characterization is piss-poor in this one, but Roth's editorializing and lectures on art are still quite compelling)
When She Was Good
Portnoy's Complaint
I Married A Communist
The Ghost Writer
Everyman

Indignation is appalling and so is The Humbling (I've heard). Nemesis is dull, especially if you've read Camus.

I'd generally say that I prefer Updike, but Roth is the most accessible (for want of a better word) of the big three US post-wars.

[TordelBack]

Nemesis is dull, especially if you've read Camus.

I should be okay so.

Thanks very much for that list, I've only read two of those (Letting Go and (I think) The Ghost Writer), so I might grab another from the library this week.

Similarly, with Updike I've only read the first three Rabbit novels and The Witches of Eastwick.  I seem to have stopped reading contemporary novels entirely some time in the mid-90s, and I can't even blame this one on Mark Millar.

[willthemightyW]

True Grit. Yes, I'm one of those much hated people who's only reading a book because they've heard a new movie is coming out about it. Still, let's hope the new film is better than John Wayne's one, although I think it was the only film he won an Oscar(I think) for, I didn't like it that much, although I did see it a few years a go. It was alright, but apparently the new one is more like the book, which so far is good.

[Mardroid]

Locke and key: Welcome to Lovecraft

I bought the collection a short while ago. First purchase* for the PSP.

I've only read issue one so far, but this is very promising.

*Apart from the single issue freebies

[Mardroid]

Bit of an update on Locke and Key: I've read a few issues now, and it really is cracking, intriguing, all round highly enjoyable stuff!

From an age point of view it's in a weird place. On one hand it's about kids and going through magic doors which open different possibilities, stuff that should appeal to kid readers.  On the other hand there are large levels of gore and some genuine horror too, and a sexual scene (although that is disguised somewhat. It's the sort of thing an adult would get straight away, but a kid might not quite understand what's going on...) so on that level it's really not one for the youngsters. (Although they'd probably love it for that reason.) Rather a 17+ story I'd say.

I'd highly recommend it anyway.

[TordelBack]

Just read my first of Rick Geary's Victorian Murder comics, The Beast of Chicago.  I can honestly say it's one of the most disturbing things I've ever read. The style is fascinating (panels used akin to a slide show rather than a conventional narrative comic, with lovely page designs, cartography and isometric drawings thrown in), but the case it describes (1890's serial killer H. H. Holmes, estimated to have killed anywhere between 50 and 200 people) is simply astounding.  Recommended.

[HOO-HAA]

Almost finished Andy Remic's KELL'S LEGEND and I must say I'm most impressed! My ghoulfiend remarked how she's never known me to read a book so quickly (I'm a ridiculously slow reader).

I'll be honest, I was worried that all fantasy books involved detailed maps and pages and pages of world-building. But Remic focuses more on the action and the characters, with some really unique ideas; such as vampire/ machine hybrids that run in a semi-steampunk fashion.

Already picked up the second in the series. 

[BPP]

I'm not really an expert, just more of a fan, so I've not read everything (prolly less than half). I'd say that Plot Against America is the one really essential book that deals with broader themes of time and place (it does get a bit silly though) and that Portnoy is the one really essential character study. I'm not a huge Zuckerman fan, but they're good entry points, particularly Exit Ghost.

Basically I enjoyed all of the following:
Letting Go
Exit Ghost
The Dying Animal
The Human Stain (The characterization is piss-poor in this one, but Roth's editorializing and lectures on art are still quite compelling)
When She Was Good
Portnoy's Complaint
I Married A Communist
The Ghost Writer
Everyman

Indignation is appalling and so is The Humbling (I've heard). Nemesis is dull, especially if you've read Camus.

Thought Nemesis was excellent - a return to his 90s form. When She was Good is a classic - in many ways a precursor to American Pastoral. Nemesis invokes the spirit of the age so beautifully (much like Toibin's Brooklyn)and is merciless on the 'hero' whereas the Plot Against America was some counter-factual indulgence. Surprised no The Breast and Our Gang on your list. The library of America edition that contains these as well as When She Was Good and Portnoy's Complaint is an excellent introduction to Roth.

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Raymond Chandler collection.

[House of Usher]

Lady Usher is currently reading Frank Herbert's Dune. She's almost a third of the way through. I think she both brave and patient.

Me: "Is it good?"
Her: "Not really."

[strontium_dog_90]

Just finished the new Dean Koontz book. Thankfully, it's a great return to form. Not quite up there with "Velocity," but I'm not sure he - or many other people - will be able to top that one.

[TordelBack]

Me: "Is it good?"
Her: "Not really."

I've been reading a Steven Erikson novel that was recommended to me by a rather sensitive colleague in the very strongest tones, mixed with pure disbelief that I had not already been converted, and subsequently forcibly pushed into my hands.  On returning it, the best I could manage by way of a review was:  "that was pretty grim!".  Thankfully it was taken in a sense entirely opposite to the one that deep down I was intending, but now I have to find ways to refuse a loan of the dozen-or-so sequels.  "Sorry, I'm gouging out my eyeballs this evening", maybe?

[exilewood]

Just finished re-reading some Dickens (great as ever) & Johnny Cash's & Keith Richards' autobiographies - both shot through with glimpses of brilliance.

But right now I'm reading Stephen King's 'IT' - odd, because I really dig SK and have read almost all his novels, but for some reason I'd never got around to this, one of his most famous books. I saw the TV film when I was about 18/19 (that's 18/19 years ago) but I was 'heavily sedated' at the time & consequently remember very little of the story. Anyway - it's a brilliant piece of work, as I'm sure many, many of you already know. As it's a 1000 pages-plus novel that I started a couple of days ago - I'm just over two-thirds of the way through, which says a lot.

[strontium_dog_90]

"It" is awesome - I first read it when I was a teenager, and that and "Salem's Lot" got me into horror for life.