Surprised to see this thread wasn't up yet. Someone is usually faster than me. Still half an hour from Feb here anyway but what the hell.
I finished Apathy and Other Small Victories yesterday. Great fun book! I think it eased off on the laugh-a-minute pace towards the end but still very, very good.
Next up Praise Of Motherhood by Litreactor's very own Phil Jourdan.
El Sicario: Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin, by Charles Bowden
Ordinary People, by Judith Guest
Gomorrah, by Roberto Saviano
I'm about halfway through The Crime Studio by Steve Aylett. I'm loving it. Now I want to buy up everything that he's written. I'm really looking forward to scooping up his Accomplice collection.
I am considering trying to really push through The Stand this month. I've tried like four times, but can't past the 300 page mark.
Finishing Foundation And Empire tonight, probably. I've put off reading the Foundation series for years, finally decided to get into it and I'm digging it a lot.
Then, not sure what I'm moving onto, I guess I'll see what samples on my Kindle spark me. Thinking Mark Twain's autobiography.
R.Moon - The Stand is excellent. But the thing, for me, that made it excellent was the length. You really get to know the characters. They all have such individual voices and personalities. Not sure if they would be so well developed in a shorter version of the story.
rereading Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti. It's the foundation of my understanding of sociology. Also, it puts hockey riots and raves into perspective (even though he published it in 1960). I recommend it to everyone. Yes, you too.
[deletion of a double-post]
I've read The Stand approximately 9 times, 4 times I read the original 800+ publication and 4 or 5 times the 1000+ page 1990 publication. I remember my first reading, I had to put it down for a week or two for a break...
These past few weeks, I've read: The Living Great Lakes by Jerry Dennis; The Violence Of Our Lives by Tony Parker; Up In Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard; Midnight's Lair by Richard Laymon; The Waste Lands: The Dark Tower III by Stephen King; Bossypants by Tina Fey; and 7 Dirty Words: The Life and Crimes of George Carlin by James Sullivan.
Currently reading A Social History of Madness by Roy Porter and Wizard And Glass: The Dark Tower IV by Stephen King.
Yeah, I gave up on Stephen King in the early 1990s, and picked up on him again @ 2008. I had read and loved The Gunslinger and The Drawing Of The Three. Friends of mine raved about The Dark Tower series so I gave it a go. Always love Stephen King's writing but I have come to accept that he misses the mark in ending his novels in a satisfactory way (my guesstimation is that King blows the endings of his novels 75% of the time since the early 1980s. Later, when King's battles with his addictions was made public, it all made perfect sense...but now that he's clean and sober, explain the ending of Under The Dome?!?)...
@Pomo - That book sounds good. I'm gonna check that out. If you're interested in sports thuggery in general, I'd recommend Among the Thugs. It's a journalist who spent a year with soccer hooligans in Britain. Really good.
Boone: Under the Dome was so good too! Except for the ending that came out of nowhere...
I totally agree with you when you say he blows 75% of the endings. I liked the endings of maybe a handful of the books by him that I've read.
@ Pete - I love Stephen King but not unconditionally...I love him enough to criticize him. The thing is, with the exception of the four of Four Past Midnight, King has an incredible body of short stories with satisfactory denouments. King has the first seven or ten novels with satisfactory endings. Can't touch those, but at some point...maybe at the point he lost an excellent editior? Because a worthy editor would have tossed many of these novels back with the suggestion that the ending match the previous 500-to-800 pages...
The "explanation" for the events of Under The Dome is so lame, it would have been better to leave it unexplained....
On The Stand - I agree that the length makes that book. You know the characters so well that you almost kno with certainty what they are doing even after the end of the book. And I felt for those people more than I have for a lot of real people. ha.
So much character development really makes the last few hundred pages come to life. When things happen to those people, good or bad, you care, and you understand.
Usually, I think the accusations aimed at King's endings are harsh. I'll give you Under The Dome though, that was a massive letdown after so many pages of excellent build-up.
I'm going to take everyone's word on The Stand. When I tried reading it before I wasn't writing. I think now, as a writer, I can appreciate it more. Anytime I tell a King fan that I haven't read The Stand, they all say it's his best work. Maybe my mind will change, but as of now, I stand by either Carrie or The Shining. I can't decide.
cheers Popeye.
@Boone - given your experience with the Stand - I read the original years ago (decades... egads). would you suggest I reread the original (which is my leaning) or try the redux? I've heard less than flattering things about the latter.
Anytime I tell a King fan that I haven't read The Stand, they all say it's his best work. Maybe my mind will change, but as of now, I stand by either Carrie or The Shining. I can't decide.
In keeping with my general "disagree with everyone" streak, I gotta say:
1) The shorter version of The Stand is better. The extra pages add more boredom and fluff than character development and the original, edited version is really a much tighter work.
2) I love The Stand (both versions), but it really isn't his best work. It's his most epic, but The Shining is better and the Dark Tower Series is the best of his oeuvre.
Moon: I love all three of those books for different reasons.
Carrie is one of the tightest debut novels. I feel like it was way ahead of its time. Now, people write like that. But back then...
The Shining is just a great story. He got everything right with that one too.
I can't say I have a favorite King book. Mainly because I can't decide between Carrie, The Shining, and The Stand.
the Dark Tower Series is the best of his oeuvre.
- I've heard this too. But, I also heard that the last couple (not sure how many is in the series) were hard to get through. A friend told me that her favorite is Lisey's Story. Anyone read that one? I have it, but haven't read it. It's strange, but I haven't read that many King books, but out of all the authors on my shelves, he takes up the most space. I think it's because I can get a hardback at Half Price for $2 on the clearance shelf.
Carrie is one of the tightest debut novels.
- Agreed...
I read Carrie well after a lot of his later stories. I thought afterwards that if he'd written it later, it would have been three times as long.
@ R.moon
Lisey's Story is one of my favorites. I loved that book. It;s a very strange story. Boo Ya Moon!
Re-reading Trainspotting.
@ Dakota.
- That book gets me every time. Not a wasted page. Gives me the shakes in some places. Also, the part where Renton breaks and goes back on the gear, that is one of the most crushing chapters of any book I've read. Even on a reread when I know it's coming, it still gets me.
Too fucking much of that book is familiar to the town I live in. Too much by far.
I love that I seemed to have wandered into a Stephen King discussion ;)
I'm using Feb to read 11.22.63 and if I have the time I'm considering a re-read of The Dark Tower series because Wind Through The Keyhole is out in April and i'm pretty excited by it (despite also not looking forward to it at all).
I have to admit for me personally King is my all time favourite writer - his ends are never the best admittedly (really Under The Dome - that's how you want it to end!) but for me he's just right up the top of my list of amazing writers. (i am aware there are others out there who would agrue with me!)
I'm also aiming to finally find the time to sit down and read The Sandman despite having it on the laptop for about 3 months!
I love that I seemed to have wandered into a Stephen King discussion ;)
I'm using Feb to read 11.22.63 and if I have the time I'm considering a re-read of The Dark Tower series because Wind Through The Keyhole is out in April and i'm pretty excited by it (despite also not looking forward to it at all).
I have to admit for me personally King is my all time favourite writer - his ends are never the best admittedly (really Under The Dome - that's how you want it to end!) but for me he's just right up the top of my list of amazing writers. (i am aware there are others out there who would agrue with me!)
I'm also aiming to finally find the time to sit down and read The Sandman despite having it on the laptop for about 3 months!
Next up Praise Of Motherhood by Litreactor's very own Phil Jourdan.
I hear he wrote it in three hours, in between work shifts!
Attacking The Sorrows of Young Werther for research in personality disorders and their contagiousness. Not sure if I'll have the guts to get to the end.
Feeling Sturm and Drunk already
I'm going to finish up Rules Of Attraction, which is taking me ages to read for some reason. Then polish of Praise Of Motherhood and then maybe go for a quick read.
I'm also aiming to finally find the time to sit down and read The Sandman despite having it on the laptop for about 3 months!
Not on the laptop, me boy. That's one you need to read in the paper world. And get on it already! It's a piece of literature well worth the time.
Lisey's Story is quite good. It's not for everyone though. Boon, the end.
I'm reading Room right now, then I'm not sure what's next. I'll have to go on a search.
The word is "bool".
@many of you: you complain about the ending of Under the Dome (admittedly a big ol' piece of shit) but not the horrible cop-out, slap in the face, made me want to set his house on fire ending to the 500 hours we devoted to reading the Dark Tower series? God damn it. That made me furious. I sat there for like an hour after I finished it trying to convince myself it was art. But I couldn't do it, no matter how drunk I got. It wasn't art. It was fucking cowardice. King put 20 years into that series, got to the end and thought (as I'm sure he always does), "How do I finish this?" And instead of thinking about it for the fifteen minutes it would have taken a less lazy writer to come up with something that didn't suck, he just turned around, dropped trow, and took a steaming dump on the last page. Fuck Stephen King. I read that crap like two weeks after it came out and I'm still friggin angry. What a fuckin--
I'm done with that.
@Boone: There's a place about fifteen pages from the end of the 7th Dark Tower book where he basically says, "If you liked these books, you should stop reading here." He's right. Do yourself a favor and stop reading there.
Last month: Had a false start on a book that just bogged down. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. I spent about a week between pp 200 and 215. Had I been less lazy I might have pushed through. But I have Skyrim in my life. I stopped reading that and read Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. Great book. Full of buried guns. Just full of them. They're all psychological and symbolic, and one of these days I think it would be the shit to have a reading group devoted to it so I'll have an excuse to really dig out all the motifs in it and what they mean. I am really impressed with Kundera and I will probably read his body of work.
This month: Pop 1280 by Jim Thompson. I really like the first chapter. Also, just ordered By the Time We Leave Here We'll be Friends by JDO, and Warmed and Bound by, I guess, everybody. I figured, since February is a short month, I should read some stuff that hits like a hammer that I can really blast through
Finally, and I can't stress this enough (I say this because he's one of my favorite writers and I almost feel like he's a personal friend, like Tom Waits or that guy that sings for Five Finger Death Punch): Fuck Stephen King.
You're right - it is 'bool'. I apologize.
I liked the end of The Dark Tower. For which I also apologize.
@Jamesy and Avery--I created a Dark Tower fan thread since everyone is getting all dark towered up. I found some cool fan art and shit online. Check it out!
Grrr, when is Praise Of Motherhood being released? I'm getting jealous seeing pictures of people holding a copy.
I was just thinking the same thing Dakota. ha
I honestly have no idea. I'm switching back and forth between Survivor, Naked Lunch, and Imperial Bedrooms.
I can't seem to focus on one particular novel this week. I even read the first ten pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before tossing that aside too. I need a new author or something.
Praise of Motherhood is out in May I believe.
I got my copy of by going to Phil's house, breaking in, and stealing it. I would be doing things like this more often but most of you guys live too far away.
I hear he wrote it in three hours, in between work shifts!
I can believe that. Nah, kidding, I have five or six chapters left to read and it's been very interesting so far. I've enjoyed it.
Praise of Motherhood was rather good. Honest and intimate without being too soppy or long-winded. Kudos, Phil.
Next up is where I come clean on something I have been keen not to mention. Never read any Hemingway. Don't know a great deal about the man, next to nothing actually. Oh, tell a lie, didn't he write that six word story about baby shoes? I read that. This is why I have pointedly avoided any discussion here that involves him as I hardly feel qualified to comment.
So I am finally going to do something about it. Picked up a copy of A Farewell To Arms a couple of weeks back and made a start on it today before work. Havent got very far yet, but I am going to read this over the next few days. By the time I've read this I'll know if I want to read the rest of his stuff.
I once convinced someone that A Farewell To Arms was about a guy who gets his arms blown off in war.
A Farewell to Arms is very good, but For Whom the Bell Tolls is better - in my opinion.
I hope you like it.
You can't go wrong with A Farewell to Arms, but I also preferred For Whom The Bell Tolls. Also, The Old Man and the Sea is my favorite book and I re-read it every year. It's short, so pick it up even if you didn't like A Farewell to Arms! Also, his short story Hills Like White Elephants showed his mastery of minimalist writing and is a great, short read as well. Ah hell, just read everything by Hemingway. It's all good.
Finished The Crime Studio. It's definately not for everyone, but it was perfect for me. I loved it.
Started Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp. He sent it to me years ago, but I was swamped with tons of books I HAD to get to and personal problems and then, honestly, I forgot all about it. So overdue to be read. I wasn't going to start it, but I was going through books I have transferred recently to my "to-read" pile. I read the Prologue (hmm, pretty good) and decided to read the first chapter (hooked!). So yeah!
I'll most likely still be reading A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin. If do finish it, I'll resume reading the second volume of The Complete Sherlock Holmes that I'm currently about half-way through.
Finished The Crime Studio. It's definately not for everyone, but it was perfect for me. I loved it.
- I looked up The Crime Studio on Amazon and it sounds good. If you had to compare Aylett to another author, who would that author be?
Thanks, Rian
I'm not sure I could compare him to another author.
He's kind of like Grant Morrison I guess. His style pretty minimalistic. He also uses a lot of metaphors and epigraphs. They can get tiring sometimes. He really packs a lot into very few words.
The Crime Studio is marketed as a novel (maybe it's not, but that was my assumption when I picked it up). It's really a short story book. His stories are all 4-6 pages long. They're short. But they are really full of a lot of ideas. I think I could pick that book back up a reread it and discover so much more in it.
I read Slaughtermatic (I think that's how it's spelled) years ago and, at the time, I just thought his writing was ok. But now, I really enjoyed his style.
Cool, thanks Pete. I'll be checking it out.
Hey no problem!
@ postpomo: everyone here answered your questions exactly the way I would have answered...
@ rmoon: the Larry Underwood parts of The Stand were the most uninspired, IMO. When I did all those rereads of The Stand (does it go without saying that this is my favorite King novel?) I skipped the Underwood stuff. I love his character's actions in the last fifth of the novel - it's just that I didn't find him that interesting as far as backstory and his regrets...
I've switched off from first-person histories of the insane to Peter Straub's Houses Without Doors....
"Peter Straub's Houses Without Doors"
I love this. I will be interested to know your thoughts. I don't want to spoil any of them for you...
Just started reading The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon and so far it's pretty damn exciting. If you 're into a good creative non-fic type book, it's worth checking out.
