The BOOKS thread... what you reading?

[orlando]

Mmm..... Stephen King on film has a somewhat shite record  Mind you perhaps with Mcgregor in it the budget might be big enough to do a good job

That's true, although I quite liked the "It" movie last year. Also, there will soon be an Anthology TV series called "Castle Rock", produced by J.J. Abrams and Stephen King  the trailer looks quite terrifying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyiu5PGsc-I

[Anna Woman von NRW]

Ooh that looks good 

Castle Rock is in many of his books and that trailer seemed to reference quite as lot of books too 

[dilla]

Hugh Cornwells auto biography "A Multitude of Sins" from 2004.Can't believe I missed it when it came out.
Also Max Hastings - Catastrophe (Europe goes to war 1914)The incompetance of the hierarchy is unbeleivable

[Master Ray]

Seeing as there's a lot of mention of Mr King here, I just dug out my copy of Cujo, re-reading it right now and damn, what a good read it is.  One thing I love about Mr Kings books is how much time and how many pages is spent on normal people with normal lives and the things they do, good or bad... before the horror kicks in.  Makes the bad stuff kick harder when you read it.  This one is no exception, so much stuff about people in bad relationships that you can relate to (with a few brief mentions of the big dog turning rabid in the background)... before, damn, throats are getting ripped out.

Also, I love the way that the book manages to find sympathetic moments for a rabid animal... not many writers would think of that (unless it was Mr Kings way of addressing how utterly f ucked up on drink and drugs he was when he was writing it... apparently he barely remembers writing this book...)

[Whirlwind]

Just finished "The Rape Of Nanking." A highly touted historical work...did not live up to the accolades the book has received. I found it far too fleeting. Such a powerful subject and the book read like a magazine article.

[Whirlwind]

Presently reading a classic bit of pulp fiction from the 1950s: "King's Ransom"



Big, rich shoe mogul, and kidnappers are after his child. Oh, they do kidnap the child...but the wrong one. They mistakenly kidnap the chauffer's child. Kidnappers still demand money from the big rich mogul. What do you do if you are the mogul (who is actually experiencing financial distress)? Great little plot, and if it seems familiar to you foreign film fans, it is. Kurosawa made a film of 'King's Ransom." He called it HIGH AND LOW.

[Master Ray]

Small Man In A Book - Rob Brydon.  Very funny.

[orlando]

and have fun with finderlohn, i think it's even a an increase in tension and story compared to mr. mercedes.

Just finished Finderlohn, the second book in the Bill Hodges Trilogy. Also very good, but in my mind just on the same level as the first one. I had the impression, that the build-up was very long and the final act comparatively short, although well worth it. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend it to everyone who hasn't read it, not only Stephen King fans, as it is a solid Thriller with no supernatural elements (yet? ) I am looking forward to the third book and the increased role that a certain hospital inmate 

[cthulhu]

well, finderlohn was the first part of the trilogy i read, so maybe this has something to do with it. so i wish you a thrilling read about that certain hospital inmate;-)

do audiobooks also count? at the moment i'm thrilled by Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Its an epic tale, weaving together several characters and timelines, the main topic is about encryption, mathematics. this sounds not so thrilling but what i love about this book is the writer's style to combine seamlessly the past to the now and at the beginning you only have some characters and you don't know where this is really going, but it's a constant weaving together of the timelines and i'm now in the last quater of the book and all of the storys now are building up on each other.

[pjevac]

I love reading, always have... For the last 7-8 years I've developed great love for Norwegian prose. It started with Knut Hamsun and I still love to get any of his books in my hands, but it went further, so now in my local library everyone of the staff knows that when some book from Norway gets published  I will be the first one to get it!

[cthulhu]

hey pjevac, i would love to read more about your passion. especially what it is that attracts you about norwegian prose and what makes the difference to others.

[pjevac]

I couldn't really put my finger on what is it exactly, but I guess there's so many different writers that I came across that have a different approach. What seems to be consistent in these books is that, although I've only been reading translated texts, they all have some sort of virtuosity in the style. Maybe that's also because there's not a lot of books that get translated from Norwegian to my language, Croatian, so the ones that do get their  place here are really the good ones...  But still, for a country that has something less then 5 million citizens they do have a great number of fabulous writers, past or present... Just to mention the few that I liked a lot, Per Petterson, who's novel "Out stealing horses" initiated my passion in some way, Lars Saabye Christensen, Frode Grytten, Dag Solstad, Knut Faldbakken, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, or some past ones, first of all Knut Hamsun, of course, but also Trygve Guldbranssen, these are all great writers!

[Whirlwind]

I love reading, always have... For the last 7-8 years I've developed great love for Norwegian prose....

Have you tried Swedish prose?

One of the greatest novels ever written is by Par Lagerkvist: "Barabbas." Yes, Mr. Lagerkvist received the Nobel Prize in Literature for that novel, but don't go by that alone. Take it from me, Whirlwind, that the brief little novel "Barabbas" is just about the greatest book you will ever read.

[pjevac]

Thanks, if I find it I will read it! I have read a few Swedish books by now, mostly crime novels, like Millennium trilogy...

[Master Ray]

Popcorn, by Ben Elton.  A nice, quick read that is obviously influenced by Mr Tarentino...