What Are You Reading Now.

Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Writing Forums Staff, Feb 22, 2008.

  1. Seven Crowns

    Seven Crowns Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    He doesn't always know the answers and he's not some sort of super ninja. You get the feeling that he's defeatable. He is pretty suave though, and the ladies do love him.

    Like in Casino Royale, for instance, he doesn't outright win. He's defeated in the early part of the movie and the book and the American (Felix, I think?) helps him out so that he can rejoin the poker game. (He's trying to bankrupt the villain, for those who haven't seen this.) The other movies make him more of an unstoppable force doing Annie Oakley trick shots. That's fun and all, but they lost who he was. He's much more human in the books.
     
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  2. w. bogart

    w. bogart Contributor Contributor Blogerator

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    In other words Daniel Craig took Bond back to his roots. :superlaugh:
     
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  3. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I got to thinking, and actually David Niven did play a much more realistic Bond (IIRC). Been a long time since I've seen it though.
     
  4. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Just finished Mansfield Park. I quite enjoyed it--I'm a fan of the other Austen works I've read as well. Her writing style and use of language is great fun.

    Before reading this one, I heard people complain that unlike other Austen novels, the main character in this one, Fanny Price, is weak. I didn't take that from the story at all. She's introverted and I think by today's standards she'd be viewed as having a fairly serious anxiety disorder. Nevertheless, even when everyone she knows and loves is arrayed against her, she holds fast to her principles and desires. That's a strong character. Arguably, stronger than when a strong-willed character holds up against opposition.
     
  5. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I'm still happily plowing through Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer and finished listening to Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks on my trip home this week. The latter was a good book other than the purple prose sex scene. Slipping two pages of detailed erotica into a non-erotic novel reminds me of musicals where the plot regularly stops for three minutes so everyone can sing and dance.
     
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  6. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    My dad used to read some SF books by a guy named A. Bertram Chandler called the John Grimes/Rim World series. Like clockwork, every single book had one fairly (I was in elementary/junior high school when I was reading whatever he'd just finished) graphic sex scene in it. Probably about as detailed as a Bond film but her shirt came off before things faded to black, but the man had his formula and his fans...
     
  7. EFMingo

    EFMingo A Modern Dinosaur Supporter Contributor

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    Been working through The Lord of the Rings. I do mainly audiobooks because I work so much, but it's honestly been a real treat. Andy Serkis is by far and away the best reader I've ever heard. Someone who truly cares about the source material. I'm just about done with The Two Towers, and look forward to The Return of the King by the end of the week. He just brings so much life to the characters and song in the series. Dense and slow as they may be, I quite enjoy his pacing...even in the chapter Treebeard which is quite painful.

    Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind is next in my line up afterwards. I've read it before as well, but never farther in the series. And I always liked that one. No idea why I never continued further in that colossal series.
     
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  8. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    My two best grad school pals were devoted to LOTR. One owned a dozen beautifully detailed watercolors depicting scenes from the books. The other said he didn't need pictures because the world lived so vividly in his mind. I couldn't make it past Tom Bombadil and the River King's Daughter. I considered therapy, but spent the money on Elizabeth Peters and Ian Fleming novels instead.
     
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  9. EFMingo

    EFMingo A Modern Dinosaur Supporter Contributor

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    It's tough honestly to get passed the Old Forest in the first book. I very much dislike some characters like Tom. Out from there though it goes to the Barrow Downs and really gets moving. The second book is plaqued by Fangorn's dullness, but that too passes. I find all that is far easier when done through audio books.
     
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  10. Friedrich Kugelschreiber

    Friedrich Kugelschreiber marshmallow Contributor

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    Tolkien was a vast genius but it's possible his work required a bit of pruning. It's been a long time since I've read the LOTR though, so I don't want to say that for certain. I thought the Silmarillion was a lot more gripping and tightly written. I haven't met anybody who shared that opinion.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2023
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  11. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    All I remember of Tom was that he could dodge raindrops, which I thought was pretty cool. Last time I read the books was when the movies first came out, first time was long before I found odd hairs sprouting in new places :)
     
  12. B.E. Nugent

    B.E. Nugent Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    It's been over 30 years since reading. I do recall it took me a few goes before getting into The Hobbit, and didn't make it past "eleventy-one" birthday on first few efforts with LOTR. Read LOTR books in a week between second last and last exams in college in 1989, bit of a man-crush on Strider, though didn't care so much for Aragorn. Go figure.

    I read The Silmarillion around the same time, and remember that I enjoyed it but can only properly remember the opening creation story that is the best I've ever come across. I must check that out again.
     
  13. dbesim

    dbesim Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    It’s probably better to read the Hobbit before LOTR because it’s like a prologue to this series and you get to discover where this ring was discovered in the first place. The POV is different to LOTR. Also the Hobbit is considered to be a children’s book whereas LOTR is not. That fact itself is unusual because the story is based in the same world and maintains similar characters.

    Also I read Animal Farm and that book starts off like it’s a kids book based on the POV of animals but it quickly turns somewhat political and sinister and that’s when you realise that a book like that is also intended for the adult genre. Some books are somewhere between the kids and adult genre. I don’t mind reading a kids story myself once in a while. Some are very beautifully written and you get cute happy endings that don’t leave you in a sour or distressful mood afterwards.
     
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  14. Dogberry's Watch

    Dogberry's Watch Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    Finished The Moon is a Harsh Mistress a few minutes ago. I liked it better than Stranger in a Strange Land, but there are still some things I disliked about it.

    Next up is House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday.
     
  15. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I loved that book when I read it decades ago. Time to reread, I think.
     
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  16. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    I feel sad for Mike though.
     
  17. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Just started The Great Witch of Britanny by Louisa Morgan. So far, so good.
     
  18. Dogberry's Watch

    Dogberry's Watch Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    Done with this, which take my total of books read in January to 10 (not all were listed in this thread, but I'm making note of the books I read in my offline journal).

    Next up is Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft.
     
  19. Bone2pick

    Bone2pick Conspicuously Conventional Contributor

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    Finished three books.

    (1) Night in the Lonesome October, Richard Laymon. This teenage horror story has a very simple premise that I was unabashedly up for: the freakiest of freaks come out at night. And while the book started well enough, it unfortunately took too many wrong turns during its second half. Ah well, I knew it was a risk. Rating: 2.5 stars

    (2) The True History of the American Revolution, Sydney George Fisher. This oldish text, published in the early nineteen hundreds, has quality information and an interesting framing concerning the United States’ struggle for independence. But at times the book doesn’t flow well, and its author’s delivery is frequently unmemorable. Rating: 3 stars

    (3) The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand. A genuine tour de force. This is now one of my top ten all-timers, along with other masterpieces such as Fahrenheit 451, The Catcher in the Rye, 1984, and The Once and Future King. I do, however, have a bit of bad news to report: I suffered a helluva book hangover after finishing Rand’s novel. Such is life. Rating: 5 stars

    It was Peter Keating’s third year with the firm of Francon & Heyer. He carried his head high, his body erect with studied uprightness; he looked like the picture of a successful young man in advertisements for high-priced razors or medium-priced cars.​

    He dressed well and watched people noticing it. He had an apartment off Park Avenue, modest but fashionable, and he bought three valuable etchings as well as a first edition of a classic he had never read nor opened since. Occasionally, he escorted clients to the Metropolitan Opera. He appeared, once, at a fancy-dress Arts Ball and created a sensation by his costumer of a medieval stonecutter, scarlet velvet and tights; he was mentioned in a society-page account of the event—the first mention of his name in print—and he saved the clipping. ~ The Fountainhead
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2023
  20. Dogberry's Watch

    Dogberry's Watch Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    Finished this. Very dark fantasy with a vague steampunk vibe. Kind of a bit of everything with it, really. I don't have the second one in the series so I'll be reading some other things before I can purchase it.

    Next is either Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand or Broken Harbor by Tana French.
     
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  21. Iain Aschendale

    Iain Aschendale Lying, dog-faced pony Marine Supporter Contributor

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    Good luck with Rand. That's the longest fiction book in the English language. I've read it several times despite not being a fan :)
     
  22. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Haha. Jesus. Longest book ever, not a fan, and multiple reads? Sounds like fun!
     
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  23. Dogberry's Watch

    Dogberry's Watch Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    I read Fountainhead a long time ago, and got Atlas Shrugged started, so I'm prepared for the rambling. I don't care too much about the philosophizing but the underlying story is what kept me going with it. I don't remember why I stopped reading Atlas before, but I think I'll get that done over the next couple of days.
     
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  24. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Maybe it was when the story stopped for a 40-something page rant by John Galt?
     
  25. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    I read We the Living several decades ago. Lord, that was depressing. Well-written, but depressing. I remember thinking it should've been called We the Dying. I haven't been inclined to read anything else she wrote.

    Lately I've made several false starts on books but nothing has caught my attention for long. My car audio book is A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. I've read it several times and always enjoy it.
     
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