Author Topic: Fave Books / Currently Reading  (Read 947320 times)

B_Buster

  • Tattoo Addict!
  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 1164
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1440 on: October 19, 2010, 03:11:35 PM »
Just finished Jernigan by David Gates and enjoyed it so much that I'm already into Preston Falls. Great stuff!
See God, Kai

gravy boat

  • Achilles Tendon Bursitis
  • Posts: 898
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1441 on: October 19, 2010, 05:50:02 PM »
Just finished Jernigan by David Gates and enjoyed it so much that I'm already into Preston Falls. Great stuff!

His short story collection has one of my favorite lines -- in the long run, isn't it always about the short run. 

Rick in Salt Lake

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 355
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1442 on: October 21, 2010, 11:09:01 AM »
So I'm thinking of reading something by Terry Pratchett, but he has so many books I'm unsure where to start. What is either a good place to begin or the book which is his best work?

The Discworld series is written in such a way that you can pick up any of them and have a reasonably good idea of what's going on, but they are chronological. So it'd be best to start with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Or if you want a non-Discworld offering to start you off, there's Good Omens, the biblical apocalypse novel he wrote with Neil Gaiman. It's quite good because he keeps Gaiman's worst excesses in check and vice versa.

I shall keep all of those in mind. I recently turned on my KIndle and saw the first volume of Mark Twain's newly released autobiography, so I'll be spending time with that. But I'll definitely peruse through the Pratchett you kindly recommended and pick on.

I've never read Gaiman's novels, but I used to read "Sandman". I assume he's a bit overindulgent. I did however meet him when he gave a "Sandman" signing here in Salt Lake many years ago. At the time the comics illustrator, Mike Dringenberg, was living in the area so that might have persuaded him to come out here...
"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now. Only much, much better."

"This heaven gives me migraine."

colonel panic

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 374
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1443 on: October 21, 2010, 04:07:07 PM »
there's Good Omens, the biblical apocalypse novel he wrote with Neil Gaiman. It's quite good because he keeps Gaiman's worst excesses in check and vice versa.

I just read this and it was a joy. This was my first foray into Pratchett but it sounds like I should start w/ the Discworld stuff.

not that clay

  • Achilles Tendon Bursitis
  • Posts: 572
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1444 on: October 21, 2010, 07:17:53 PM »
I'm currently making my way through a large number of short story collections from the "weird fiction" genre which, at its best, merges psychological horror with metaphysical horror. While the term "weird fiction" is mostly used for writers like Poe or H.P. Lovecraft, there are now quite a few contemporary practitioners of this artform. The granddaddy of them all is Thomas Ligotti who, sadly, has become much less prolific as the years go by, due to a combination of mental and physical problems. Ligotti, much like the Best Show, is one of those cultural artifacts you may not understand the first time around. I'd tried to read his collections The Nightmare Factory and Noctuary in the past and they left me blah, but last year I revisited The Nightmare Factory and it hooked me. This year was his most productive in some time, as it saw the release of both his newest original work, the nonfiction treatise The Conspiracy Against The Human Race, and an extensively revised edition of his first collection, Songs of A Dead Dreamer. I find reading them in tandem works as a sort of thematic decoder ring for Ligotti's more abstract ideas, since Conspiracy is Ligotti's dour personal philosophy laid bare.

I'm also reading work by folks who were inspired by Ligotti and, in his absence, have carried the torch of the contemporary weird- Joeseph S. Pulver, Sr., Quentin S. Crisp, Mark Samuels, Matt Cardin, and Laird Barron, just to name a few. A great many of these authors have either new work or reprints of rarer work forthcoming from Chomu Press, which Quentin S. Crisp founded after he became dissatisfied with being "ghettoized" in expensive hardcovers most people can't find and/or afford (due to its status as a niche genre, many weird fiction authors appear exclusively in small press publications).

As soon as I get my "to read" pile finished I'm going on a China Miéville binge.

Steve of Bloomington

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 2262
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1445 on: October 21, 2010, 10:41:42 PM »
So I'm thinking of reading something by Terry Pratchett, but he has so many books I'm unsure where to start. What is either a good place to begin or the book which is his best work?

The Discworld series is written in such a way that you can pick up any of them and have a reasonably good idea of what's going on, but they are chronological. So it'd be best to start with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Or if you want a non-Discworld offering to start you off, there's Good Omens, the biblical apocalypse novel he wrote with Neil Gaiman. It's quite good because he keeps Gaiman's worst excesses in check and vice versa.

I shall keep all of those in mind. I recently turned on my KIndle and saw the first volume of Mark Twain's newly released autobiography, so I'll be spending time with that. But I'll definitely peruse through the Pratchett you kindly recommended and pick on.

I've never read Gaiman's novels, but I used to read "Sandman". I assume he's a bit overindulgent. I did however meet him when he gave a "Sandman" signing here in Salt Lake many years ago. At the time the comics illustrator, Mike Dringenberg, was living in the area so that might have persuaded him to come out here...

Tell us how the Mark Twain is. That's the book he didn't want published until he'd been dead 100 years, right?

Shaggy 2 Grote

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 3892
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1446 on: October 21, 2010, 10:45:28 PM »
OK, so this GbV book is growing on me.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Rick in Salt Lake

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 355
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1447 on: October 25, 2010, 08:45:48 PM »
Tell us how the Mark Twain is. That's the book he didn't want published until he'd been dead 100 years, right?

In the words of Phil Hartman, "yes! You are correct, sir!"

I shall let you know how it turns out. It's only the first book in a porojected three volume series that ius planned to be released over then next three to five years...
"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now. Only much, much better."

"This heaven gives me migraine."

Rick in Salt Lake

  • Tarsel tunnel syndrome
  • Posts: 355
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1448 on: October 25, 2010, 08:47:31 PM »
Just finished Jernigan by David Gates and enjoyed it so much that I'm already into Preston Falls. Great stuff!

I prefer "Baby I'm-a Want You"...
"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now. Only much, much better."

"This heaven gives me migraine."

Chris L

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 2780
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1449 on: October 26, 2010, 07:38:10 AM »
Having often seen her name but not knowing anything about her, I picked up Alice Munro's Runaway and am loving it so far.  Will definitely work my back through some of her other collections.

Omar

  • A Recapper/A True Star.
  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 2007
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1450 on: November 08, 2010, 09:10:27 AM »
Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock by Andrew Earles.

Glorious.

http://www.amazon.com/Husker-Du-Noise-Pop-Pioneers-Launched/dp/0760335044

With his great Jay Reatard piece for SPIN in early 2010, washing away some of the more unseemly chatter re JR's passing, his consistently great reviews for Dusted's "Still Single" feature, and now this tome, Mr. Earles has emerged as the premiere rock music scribe.
"Let's have a device-a-thon, just you and me." -- Montgomery Davies

CaptKarl

  • Policemans heel
  • Posts: 66
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1451 on: November 08, 2010, 11:22:03 AM »
Having often seen her name but not knowing anything about her, I picked up Alice Munro's Runaway and am loving it so far.  Will definitely work my back through some of her other collections.

She is one of my favorite writers, the Canadian Chekhov. If I were ranking living short fiction authors, she would probably be number one. Sarah Polley directed a really good movie based on one of her stories called Away From Her which is really worth seeing. I would like to recommend some singular "best" collection, but she is the rare breed that your favorite book is the last of her's you've read. Sounds corny, but it is true.

Shaggy 2 Grote

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 3892
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1452 on: November 08, 2010, 04:35:33 PM »
Having often seen her name but not knowing anything about her, I picked up Alice Munro's Runaway and am loving it so far.  Will definitely work my back through some of her other collections.

She is one of my favorite writers, the Canadian Chekhov. If I were ranking living short fiction authors, she would probably be number one. Sarah Polley directed a really good movie based on one of her stories called Away From Her which is really worth seeing. I would like to recommend some singular "best" collection, but she is the rare breed that your favorite book is the last of her's you've read. Sounds corny, but it is true.

Also recommended: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.
Oh, good heavens. I didn’t realize. I send my condolences out to the rest of the O’Connor family.

Chris L

  • Space Champion!
  • Posts: 2780
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1453 on: November 09, 2010, 01:14:55 AM »
Having often seen her name but not knowing anything about her, I picked up Alice Munro's Runaway and am loving it so far.  Will definitely work my back through some of her other collections.

She is one of my favorite writers, the Canadian Chekhov. If I were ranking living short fiction authors, she would probably be number one. Sarah Polley directed a really good movie based on one of her stories called Away From Her which is really worth seeing. I would like to recommend some singular "best" collection, but she is the rare breed that your favorite book is the last of her's you've read. Sounds corny, but it is true.

Also recommended: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.

Yeah, that one's next after I finish Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang, which I just started.  Didn't know Away From Her was based on Munro, will have to check it out later. 

Cotton

  • Achilles bursitis
  • Posts: 164
Re: Fave Books / Currently Reading
« Reply #1454 on: November 09, 2010, 08:48:31 PM »
Just finished Greg Rucka's The Last Run, which is a conclusion of sorts to his Queen & Country series.