Books!

{{Its a very sly humour Wells has, he isn't a make them laugh out loud sort or a prat falls man or even big on puns or clever word play, but he is fond of the subtle dig, the satirical comment, social observations and in the sending up of those who set themselves up as higher or better than others based on some man made authority- whether thats political institutions or the church or the scientific community (who in WoW

Spoiler:

And these are the people Wells likes! }}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{Horror wise have you tried anything by Clive Barker? If not The Great and Secret Show is a long and weird read but if you'd rather short stories then his Books of Blood is a good place to start for a collection.
James Herbert is worth a read too- favourites of mine there are the Jonah, The Fog and the Dark.

If your going the Discworld route you have some choices as it were- you can read them in order as Halfy suggests, some are connected some are not, and the writing and world mature and change quite drastically between first book and later books, or you can read one of the 'collections' such as the Witches or Guards collections- which contain all the Discworld books in order pertaining to those groups (for example if you want to treads the guards books you start with Guards, Guards, Guards! and then Men at Arms and so on through all the Discworld books skipping all the stand alones or those concerning non guard characters.

In a sort of similar vein I also like the first few Robert Asprin Myth series of books, not so keen on later ones though- but I'd recommend the first two certainly for fun light reading with neat ideas and concepts.

Scifi wise have you reads HG Wells? In the Days of the Comet is an odd quirky little sci-fi read, and of course WoW. Or Wyndham- Day of the Triffids or the Chrysilids. Or some Orwell- 1984 is very appropriate in these days of 'alternative facts'!
I also really like the Heechi saga, Gateway ect from Pohl- good solid old fashioned sci-fi concepts. }}}

I'm not familiar with Clive Barker, I'll look into it. I've read War of the Worlds when I was younger. I remember there being very little dialogue, which I thought was odd. I've read 1984, and I find dystopia, even early pioneering works in that genre, to be very cliche. It's such a tired genre at this point.

{{You might know Barker from his Hellraiser film, which he adapted from his own novella The Hellbound Heart }}

Every HG wells book has a different feel to it. For humor, you need to go to Food of the Gods. Won't find it in War of the Worlds.

Though I'll have to make an amendment to my previous comment. Fahrenheit 451 was the only dystopian story that I enjoyed and felt compelled to revisit more than once.

A Canticle for Liebowitz is also dystopian with a gentle humor to it. Ending was stark, but it was mostly uplifting.

Figgsy did you hear? Phillip Pullman is writing a new His Dark Materials trilogy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38978023

Thought I'd give The Wheel Of Time a go I'm in the mood to tackle a new fantasy series, just bought a cheap copy of The Eye Of The World off Amazon, I've read mixed, but generally very positive things about the series...yes, I'm aware the early books have been accused of ripping off rather than paying homage to Tolkien though I don't think that would bother me much, as long as the story is interesting/exciting enough, can always bale after the first book anyway, just thought I'd check it out due to the hype...

The most recent Fantasy book I've read was the scriptbook for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (which doesn't really count I know) which sucked i.m.o...so things can only go up from there...

Read a few Clive Barker books. Very good.

Like the one where a whole world is hidden in a rug. Hiding from some evil menace or worse.
Its been a while.

malickfan wrote:Thought I'd give The Wheel Of Time a go I'm in the mood to tackle a new fantasy series, just bought a cheap copy of The Eye Of The World off Amazon, I've read mixed, but generally very positive things about the series...yes, I'm aware the early books have been accused of ripping off rather than paying homage to Tolkien though I don't think that would bother me much, as long as the story is interesting/exciting enough, can always bale after the first book anyway, just thought I'd check it out due to the hype...

The most recent Fantasy book I've read was the scriptbook for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (which doesn't really count I know) which sucked i.m.o...so things can only go up from there...

I read The Colour of Magic recently, that's about roundish stuff (Discworld), and Wheel of Time always makes me think of the other series.


By the by, I was looking up my ZIP code (e.g. my postal code), and quite by accident my eyes fell across the book whose 10-digit ISBN matches the complete ZIP code for my address (that is, a 0, followed by the 5 numbers and the following 4 that noone ever pays much attention to and most people don't know).

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/nov2005.html

It's an odd one, some kind of satirical work about an enormously fat grocer named John Jorrocks who changes careers and becomes the Master of Fox Hounds for the town of Handley Cross, which is the title of the book. The author is R. S. Surtees, and the illustrations for it are by John Leech, who is apparently a notable illustrator of the time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leech_(caricaturist)

Anyway, I thought it was amusing. As soon as I heard "plump grocer" I couldn't help but think of Bilbo Baggins of course!

malickfan wrote:Thought I'd give The Wheel Of Time a go I'm in the mood to tackle a new fantasy series, just bought a cheap copy of The Eye Of The World off Amazon, I've read mixed, but generally very positive things about the series...yes, I'm aware the early books have been accused of ripping off rather than paying homage to Tolkien though I don't think that would bother me much, as long as the story is interesting/exciting enough, can always bale after the first book anyway, just thought I'd check it out due to the hype...

The most recent Fantasy book I've read was the scriptbook for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (which doesn't really count I know) which sucked i.m.o...so things can only go up from there...

Just started reading the series myself! Only about 20% into the first book so far (Kindle edition), but from what I've read it looks promising. A friend of mine recommended it, and I trust her taste in these things (most intelligent person I know - how can I not ). I like it, and I hope it stays that way - I miss fresh fantasy pageturners.

Hmm... now I feel like I should give it a try.

But first I have to finish It.

I've been starting to consider what sci-fi/fantasy to choose as beach reading for this year. Camping reading would probably be more accurate since I do most of the reading at our campsite in the state park rather than on the beach itself. In 2014 I read Dune (which was fun to read while actually sitting on sand dunes ), then Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in 2015, and the first half of the Harry Potter series last year since I decided to re-read the whole thing. The most recent fantasy I've read was Howl's Moving Castle and its two sequels; Baingil recommended I try the book after I mentioned having seen the movie during my Ghiblipalooza last month.

I tried reading The Eye of the World several years ago but didn't get very far in. Might be worth another try, but the length of the series (and everything I've heard about the middle volumes) has always made me hesitant.

Forest Shepherd wrote:

malickfan wrote:Thought I'd give The Wheel Of Time a go I'm in the mood to tackle a new fantasy series, just bought a cheap copy of The Eye Of The World off Amazon, I've read mixed, but generally very positive things about the series...yes, I'm aware the early books have been accused of ripping off rather than paying homage to Tolkien though I don't think that would bother me much, as long as the story is interesting/exciting enough, can always bale after the first book anyway, just thought I'd check it out due to the hype...

The most recent Fantasy book I've read was the scriptbook for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child (which doesn't really count I know) which sucked i.m.o...so things can only go up from there...

I read The Colour of Magic recently, that's about roundish stuff (Discworld), and Wheel of Time always makes me think of the other series.


By the by, I was looking up my ZIP code (e.g. my postal code), and quite by accident my eyes fell across the book whose 10-digit ISBN matches the complete ZIP code for my address (that is, a 0, followed by the 5 numbers and the following 4 that noone ever pays much attention to and most people don't know).

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/nov2005.html

It's an odd one, some kind of satirical work about an enormously fat grocer named John Jorrocks who changes careers and becomes the Master of Fox Hounds for the town of Handley Cross, which is the title of the book. The author is R. S. Surtees, and the illustrations for it are by John Leech, who is apparently a notable illustrator of the time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leech_(caricaturist)

Anyway, I thought it was amusing. As soon as I heard "plump grocer" I couldn't help but think of Bilbo Baggins of course!

These are just the sort of sketches I enjoy. They look alive & honest, as tho only just done in the moment. And they are so expressive. I'm quite tempted with that book

The Eye of the World is not all that indicative of the Wheel of Time-series as a whole, even if it does have suspense and atmosphere in droves. My biggest gripe with it, (I can forgive the Tolkien pastiche of the opening for what it is, a homage and merely a starting point) is that it simply tries to do too much in one book. The series as a whole has some really strong books though, particularly early on. And it has sme really nice worldbuilding and concepts. Give it a go at least until book 4 and 5, I'd say. (Which are my favourites)

I've recently been going trhough the Expanse-series, by James SA Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franks (the actual guy who built GRRMs DOS computer)) which turns into quite the series by book 7, where it is currently. (Maybe something for your beach hike, Eldo? )

In liue of more books in that series, (next one is out in December) I've been rushing through Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. Which is a really good basic epic fantasy story, although it turns overly to the bleak at times for me. Was thinking of giving Ursula Le Guinn's Earthsea series a go next. (It was particularly mentioned by Daniel Abraham.) I've seen the Ghibli move, but by all accounts it was a dreadful adaptation and telling of the story in its own right. (While rather pretty, as all Ghibli movies.)



I'd be interested to read the sequels in the Howl-series. I've only read the first, adpated one, so far, which I liked. (Although, the differences from the movie are supprosingly large, part considering that they both work so well.)

I have been rather enjoying the Earthsea-cycle. A bit limited by the YA audience at least the first books were aimed at, but that doesn't limit some nice world building and story telling too much. A more than decent fantasy story and world.

Have also been reading Hemingway's first bestseller, The Sun Also Rises. Rather an emersive read. Has wet my appetite for some more Hemingway reading, although I am not sure we altogether share the same view of the world.

Hi Blue, good to see you back!
I love Hemingway's writing. He was one of the few authors I found I could read when I was working 100+ hours a week in the Alaska fish canneries. The words and sentence structures are simple enough to enter a sleep deprived mind, but the images and thoughts they bring with them can fill your starving soul, I found.

halfwise wrote:A Canticle for Liebowitz is also dystopian with a gentle humor to it.  Ending was stark, but it was mostly uplifting.

Must find this book again. I read it a long time ago and was very impressed by the first part. From memory it was in three parts, Halfy. I can remember nothing of the latter parts, but the early part sticks in my mind. No doubt, I'll read it again and find that I actually remember little and have filled in the gaps since. Nonetheless, I should read it again. I remember being impressed - especially the first part. (Maybe I didn't get through the next parts??? Can't remember...)

The first and second parts are similar in feeling, but the first part has a bit of origin story to it, which is usually memorable. The 3rd part was 'modern', so not as memorable.

Bluebottle wrote:I have been rather enjoying the Earthsea-cycle. A bit limited by the YA audience at least the first books were aimed at, but that doesn't limit some nice world building and story telling too much. A more than decent fantasy story and world.

Have also been reading Hemingway's first bestseller, The Sun Also Rises. Rather an emersive read. Has wet my appetite for some more Hemingway reading, although I am not sure we altogether share the same view of the world.

I should imagine not.

I mainly remember the portion in which the friend goes on about how his face is a good face, "a face mothers should tell their daughters to go West with", and then he finishes by remarking, "God what an awful face."

Lots of that kind of chit-chatter in the book. The characters are usually sarcastic and droll, or at least trying to be. Oh, and they are often unable to "Catch up" (in getting drunk) with others in their party.

As Dave and I had earlier remarked, for some unfathomable reason, Hemingway's images stick with you. It doesn't seem like great writing; almost childlike in fact...until you realize the images and stark dialogue are lodged in your head and won't shake free.

And there's nothing to recommend the damn things. Why can't I forget mixing pork and beans with spaghetti in Big Two Hearted River? I even tried it once and it was horrible.

Sounds pretty good to me.

I finished It, finally, so now I can go see the movie I guess when it comes out.

I thought pork and beans mixed into spaghetti sounded good too. Genius even.  That's why I tried it.  It's really surprisingly bad.

Actually in the story it may have been a can of spaghetti-Os.  Which oddly enough may work better than good plain honest spaghetti.  Less of a culture clash.

halfwise wrote: That's why I tried it.  It's really surprisingly bad.

Those are exactly the sorts of discoveries for which hot sauce was created.

 It was only decades later that I was an audience member in The Chew (cooking show) and was gifted a crate of Tabasco products.  Having that around might have spurred the proper salvage operation.  But it didn't occur to me back then, and I dully suffered through two meals of the stuff (a whole can of beans doesn't disappear so easily, especially when mixed with an equal quantity of carbs).  I think I tried cheese the second go-round.

Edit: I'm not the only one that was captivated by this. http://www.pbs.org/hemingwayadventure/recipe8.html