@Krispee 6th or 7th re-read. I've read lots of his stuff, but never my dad's favorite, "Circus". Guess I'll jump on alibris and find a copy.
I haven't heard of Circus, although my memory of his titles has disappeared and I'm thinking of some of the books they made into films. I do remember reading an article about Maclean, how he died mysteriously, not unlike his novels. I'm sure they have his books on Amazon.
I read Shawshank a couple of years back. I forgot about that one. This other though sounds exactly, one hundred percent what I was looking for. I'm just sad there's no audiobook. I'm going to have to read actual text.
I haven't picked this one up yet, but I love Grady Hendrix. I especially loved My Best Friend's Exorcism.
I have only recently discovered Raymond Chandler . The book I have started with is The High Window . Hard boiled crime fiction is not something that has interested me in the past . The writing is very good . It is rich and thick . Highly descriptive and enchanting . His style is distinctive , an education , a master class of skill in the art of writing . Some books have a captivating story Chandler is a captivating writer .
The Writer's Lexicon, Descriptions, Overused Words, and Taboos – Kathy Steinemann. I just got into it a bit and I think it will add to my limited skills.
"Tactics" by William Balck. Trying to get back on track for reading for both a, or so I dream about it , series set in the Russo-Japanese War and an RPG of my own design.
Just finished Joe Abercrombie's newest installment in his current trilogy, The Age of Madness. Part II. The Trouble with Peace. Excellent. Dang. Now I have to wait till the third and final installment comes out. At least Abercrombie does actually produce work at a reasonable pace. In my opinion, The Age of Madness trilogy is as good as his first one, The First Law ...with a few of the same characters in it as well. VERY satisfying.
Hmmm, im almost at the end of the blade itself but it’s taken me a good while to get through it. Undecided if i will buy the rest of the books yet.
Don't force yourself to keep reading if you're not enjoying the series. Life is short. So many books. So little time....
Life is too short...that's exactly right. If you're supposedly reading for fun, why on earth would you keep reading if you're not having fun? Life's too short for that. Life's too short to not do stuff that you enjoy when you have a choice. Too often you don't even have a choice.
I don't know. I reflect a lot, and I find that a lot of the stories or books I hated when I was younger come back around and I appreciate them in a much softer light now. I do find value in struggling against something difficult to understand because there's likely elements at play I don't really understand quite yet. Now, of course, a bad series is a bad series, but I've started looking more into why I don't care for a particular text and I'm establishing grounds where the work kicks off for me or where it doesn't. I guess I just tend to get all the way through a book even if I don't care for most of it because a lot of authors take a bit to kick off. But if the style is something I just can't get used to, then I get close to tossing it out, at least after the first book in a series. But I'm in more of a learning mindset than just strict enjoyment. This may skew my mentality heavily.
Actually, that's a very good point. I was being a bit facetious in my reply above. It's absolutely true that I've gone back to books I stopped reading earlier, because I found them less engaging than I'd hoped. I then either enjoyed them the second time around or certainly learned from the second encounter. A good example is a recent Forum Book Club selection, Watership Down. When I started reading it back in the 1970s, it just didn't grab me. I don't know what I thought it would be like, but whatever that was, it didn't grab me. This time, when it came up as the selection for the Club, I sighed, started again ...and was totally moved by and engrossed in the book. In fact, it's now a favourite of mine. So you're right. A classic book does certainly warrant a bit of extra effort, and a second chance! An open mind and a willingness to learn are good character traits to develop, aren't they? I think that attitude probably applies more to classic 'worthy' books than frivolous ones though. I'm not likely to re-read a Mills & Boon romance because I didn't like it the first time, and hope I might change my mind about it.
I’m in between books at the moment. Browsing between A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Son of Rosemary by Ira Levin and The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. We’ll see which one catches my fancy very soon!
Just started Our Child of the Stars by Stephen Cox. So far it's heartwarming. Not my usual read, but I'm glad I picked it up.
For what it's worth, The Picture of Dorian Gray is my favorite book from that entire era. It's so good.
I hate leaving a book unfinished. There are only two i have ever done that with, one by Barbara Erskine (so corny I couldn’t take it any longer) and one by Donna Tarrt (The Little Friend). Having said that I was gifted The Goldfinch last Christmas and persevered with that one, took me the longest time though. Not because of the length, because it was so bogged down in detail!
I also started The Goldfinch, actually after I watched the film adaption. Never got that far with the book, but maybe I'll come back to it.