currently reading?

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Watchmen (I think, I'll need to read it twice)

Breaking Dawn (I know, I talked total trash on this series. Gotta find out what happens in the end, no?)

The Dirt - Motley Crue

[stimpee]

Finished Slam pretty quickly and so i picked up a book thats been on my shelf a good few years and believe it or not, ive never read it....

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Aaaaarghh Jim-lad. Excellent swashbuckling stuff so far. Fifteen men on the dead mans chest! Yo-ho-ho and a rottle of rum!

[holden]

"Galapagos" by Kurt Vonnegut. I do most of my pleasure reading while travelling, so this one got polished off waiting for airplanes. Vintage Vonnegut mix of sci-fi and social commentary.

[Sardo]

Howdy good ppl.

I only come to Dirty these days to get more book recommendations unfortunately (but well done for that fact!). I last came and learned about Murikami and have just read/listened to (i drive a lot so audiobooks are my ideal form of travel entertainment) The Wind Up Bird Chronicles and Kafka On The Shore.

I really enjoyed Kafka as my first exposure to HM and was fairly satisfied with the conclusion. Talking to cats, passing out on expeditions in the woods (I was sure this was going to be caused by some UFO interaction but they never mentioned it which confounded me), Mr Nakata and the guy with the Dragon baseball hat were all very interesting. The story thread behind the young lad who ended up being Johnny Walker's son was a bit slack and I zoned out a few times with these parts. Closing the stone and entering the wood-land was a crock of shit tho. Overall it was a very interesting insight into Japanese life and has inspired me into directing my love of snow skiing towards Japan in order to explore the place further.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles prolly should have been preceeded by something other than more Murikami, but I had d/loaded two by the same author. I won't do that again. It started to frustrate me with its unanswered and dead end story lines. I thought it had some great moments. The Brother in law was a great nemesis but wasnt focussed on as much as Id have liked. I love the idea that people can start to get paranoid that some others are manipulating their lives. This was a strong thread. I have many questions about the rest of the story though. The red vinyl hat? The mysterious event that hurt Cretacano? WTF? Maybe I need to stop reading stories that rely on so much wishywashy thought/dream/altered reality?

I also scored a copy of The Talisman by Steven King. Like Janie says, King is an easily consumeable writer. This story was full of that altered reality plane stuff but you expect it with him and its all very easily explained. There are some great scenes and it flows very easily along. I havent read much King so cant compare it to those classics you guys have mentioned (It, Misery and The Stand etc). I have read that Dragon one that is fantasy based and loved that and read it while I was into Feist and Eddings to which it measured up well.

From reading this thread I am now interested in McCarthy's stuff. Maybe getting into The Road before the flick comes out. Im tossing that up with Iain M Banks after being told tha it is the king of current Sci-Fi - better than Hamilton and Simmons. I havent heard much from you guys about him or his alter-ego Iain Banks (I think when he drops the 'M' he writed Non-Fiction but am not sure this is true..). I know some of you guys have read him. What are your thoughts please? Where is a good starting point and should I go him with or without his 'M'?

Howdy to those members who Ive shared music with via cd swaps and of course you, BeautifulBurnout.

Croz

[matt]

Originally Posted by Sardo

Im tossing that up with Iain M Banks after being told tha it is the king of current Sci-Fi - better than Hamilton and Simmons. I havent heard much from you guys about him or his alter-ego Iain Banks (I think when he drops the 'M' he writed Non-Fiction but am not sure this is true..). I know some of you guys have read him. What are your thoughts please? Where is a good starting point and should I go him with or without his 'M'?
Croz

Iain Banks is worth checking out both with & without the 'M'. Basically, he uses the M when he's writing science fiction and drops it when he's writing 'normal' fiction. Think he's only written one non fiction book but could be wrong. His Culture novels are phenomenal and I recommend you check out Excession and The Player of Games. I'd say he's on a par with Dan Simmons for sci-fi excellence and that both are absolutely streets ahead of Peter Hamilton who, IMO, writes overblown space opera that is in dire need of a good editor.

His fiction work is worth checking out too and my faves include The Wasp Factory, Whit, Complicity and The Bridge (the latter could almost have been written using the M)

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

This Watchmen shit is kind of scary in an ironical twist of paradoxial(sp?) WTF? How did...? way.

1/2 way through it.

[gambit]

Oh, it only gets better, jOHN.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Originally Posted by Sardo

Howdy to those members who Ive shared music with via cd swaps and of course you, BeautifulBurnout.

Croz

Crozza! Good to see you gracing the boards again. Don't be such a stranger!

[GforGroove]

Im reading a little book with no author named CALL.

i think i just realized a few pages ago that is an actual communist manifesto. and is so wonderfull. Oh i love this book.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

A biography on Arnold Schwartzenegger(sp?).

The fourth of the Twilight Series.

and

a book on the history of gothic in fashion, art, architecture, etc.