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What are you reading?

Aerith said:
Yet again, Kerrang.

In this weeks issue in the Lamb Of God review you can see me in the crow lol. Well my hand at least.

I started 1984 by George Orwell this morning because I have wanted to read it for a while but just never got round to it.

Oh and Ben, is that an English translation of Mein Kampf? or are you just really good at German :wink: . I must read that at some point too.
 
^There is a translation, lol... I didn't get very far, it was ****.

A Clockwork Orange was amazing though <3

And now, I'm re-reading IT. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I first read it when I was about 14, and it took me a year to read it. Now I've been at it a bit over a week, and I'm more than 600 pages through <3

It's so freaky and disturbing xD
 
There was a flea market in town last weekend. I never go to town, but when I did -it was there. They had two King books I've not read for a quid each! :)

How handy!

Almost finished Christine - much better than I thought it would be. Not King's best, but better than I was expecting after the, erm, wreck of a film ;)

Danse Macabre next :)
 
Can You Keep a Secret?

It's by the author of Shopaholic and it's the longest book I've read in one sitting probably, at four hundred pages. The book lived up to what I thought it'd be like and although the main character has a lot of personality traits similar to the main character in Shopaholic, the book was still hilarious and had an interesting storyline.

Girly, but that's a good thing for me :p .

9.5/10
 
Mentioned this in the Now Showing topic.

I'm well into Danse Macabre now. It's a little frustrating that King hasn't updated the book, but I guess it would be hard. There are some glaringly bad bits now where it shows its age (for instance, suggesting Wes Craven is forgettable and dreadful, yet bigging up John Carpenter - soon after the book was published I'd say the two had a role-reversal, especially after Nightmare on Elm Street came out).

Essentially, the book is tracking the history of "modern horror" (modern being from the fifties to to 1980). This is in all its forms, book, radio, film and TV. It does step back a little earlier as a background, but mostly focuses on both trash, and superb horror from the times.

I'm finding it superb, as I have seen most of the stuff he references, and read a great deal of the work he mentions. It's a great reminder of when I was young, watching the monster movies in black and white on holiday afternoons and Thursday evenings. I was a similar age to King when he saw these too, so it's a really great moment of connection.

For the horror fan, it's a great reference work. If you can get to see maybe half the films he mentions, you'll be a much better fan :) He also makes the distinction between dire "junk food" horror, and good works. It's interesting to see him justify and put down being a fan of the genre in such a simple and jolly kind of way :)

There are also some fantastic references to his work to come. Little bits here and there you will recognise from his later books, books he hadn't written when this was (in truth, he'd only had half a dozen or so released by the time he wrote Danse Macabre).

If you like horror, you really need to read this book, absorb it, and learn from it :)
 
good books

i don't realy read as much as i used to but i have read the entire series of 'Artemis Fowl' which had me glues to the pages for days on end (i was a slow reader).

i would recoment them to ayone who enjoys fantacy
 
And now, I'm re-reading IT. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I first read it when I was about 14, and it took me a year to read it. Now I've been at it a bit over a week, and I'm more than 600 pages through <3

It's SoOo confusing, I stopped reading it like 70 pages in.

I'm about halfway through Lord of the Flies right now for English. I didn't like the first three or four chapters but it is actually getting pretty interesting now, although I do know what happens/who dies.

Pretty good so far though.

I'll also be erading the Undomestic Goddess soon, another one by Sophie Kinsella.
 
I'm 180 pages away from finishing Gone With the Wind for English II Honors. I hate it so much, but I made a pact to finish it by the end of the week.

Spoiled brat Scarlett is.....
 
LiveForTheLaunch said:
And now, I'm re-reading IT. I LOVE THIS BOOK. I first read it when I was about 14, and it took me a year to read it. Now I've been at it a bit over a week, and I'm more than 600 pages through <3

It's SoOo confusing, I stopped reading it like 70 pages in.

Biggest. Fail. Ever!

70 pages in and you're only just scratching the surface. You've had what? Stan slitting his wrists, and the queer bashing at the canal? Georgie killed of course...

It's really very simple. You have two stories.

One is set in 1984, the other in 1957/8. The book flips between the two tales, and they parallel each other. One is the tale of the children in 1958, the other their adult selves in 1984. The 1958 side is told as flashbacks in the adult's memory. Generally each adult is taken in turn to tell their bit of the tale.

When you reach the end of the book, the whole story is complete and you see the big picture.

It's actually even simpler than that. It's a very simple book, but brilliantly written, and you really care for each of the characters as you see them as kids.

Such fail Taylor...
 
^ I don't like when stories switch between time frames, in fact, it's one of my biggest faults alongside too many characters to follow which was one of my problems with the book as well.
 
I'm lost for words Taylor...

I did actually finish it again, *proud*

FANTASTIC book. I think it may be my favourite of King's.
 
^ Sorry haha, I'm just TERRIBLE at following time frame jumps. Absolutely horrible, and I'll admit it.

I have the movie though, it's just super long and I never got around to watching it. Although not as good as the book most likely, is it decent?

P.S.- Ben, Green Mile = Kings best work IMO.
 
^First of all I haven't read IT... but I saw the 'movie' a week ago. It's not 'that' great, but still quite exciting and at times a bit disturbing imo, and quite interesting, worth watching imo.

Few books I've read:
2 noir crime novels by Ken Bruen, called Priest and Cross, they were both enjoyable, a bit too sad at times, but had a great atmosphere, dark humour, and was interesting, although the plot was a bit 'easy' but then again it seemed like they focused 90% on the characters and the rest on the actual plot, so it didn't feel like it was hastily done.

Ian Rankin's "The Falls". Never read any of his books before, this was great, good plot, exciting, nice atmosphere and a nice array of characters.

Right now I'm reading Christine Falls by John Banville writing as Benjamin Black, I've got ~60%left. It's been wonderful, great pacing and almost incredible atmosphere with old-time feel, with very believable characters. One of my very favourite books so far definitely.
 
I'm biased towards the film of IT just because I LOVE the book so much, so I just like sitting there going "in the book they do _____ and this happens then, and that happens now" sort of thing. So, don't ask me for my opinion and expect it to be unbiased! But, watch it! At least that way you'll get a glimmer of why the book is such a masterpiece.

Although, it obviously does not compare!

I do LOVE Green Mile as well, but, it's behind The Shining and The Stand for me.
 
^ I've never read Shining, but the movie was really good. I don't know what The Stand is about either, though I have heard of it.

Maybe I'll watch the movie, because sometimes I find that if I watch the movie first, it'll help me understand the book better.
 
The Shining is utterly fantastic and blows away both films of it.

The Stand is a BIG ****ING BOOK! Be prepared to set out to battle with it. It's essentially about a disease that wipes out the human race... Well, most of it... Then a fight between good and evil with the remaining people. There's a mini-series version, but it really doesn't do it justice.

It, the film, is even worse than 1408 - no doubt it will go straight to your number one spot :p

Me, I'm still reading Danse Macabre. Onto the books section. It's hard going because the book really is showing its age. Still, lots of little Stephen King tidbits, and some good suggestions of things to keep an eye out for :)
 
Woosh! The sound of Taylor missing the point... I've heard a lot of that sound recently :p
 
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