Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

With ebooks I think we will have to say... King really knows how to write a screen tapper... or is that screen swiper?

BOb

LOL, yes.

[Latinandgreek]

I've just started 'Babel no more', a non-fiction book about polyglots. Fascinating stuff. I'm also reading the Diviners, which is scary enough that I don't like reading it at bedtime. The Dragonbone Chair was good, but I will wait a bit to read the sequel.

[ReneAZ]

I have been reading the Leo Waterman series by GM Ford. LOVE these! Great stories and laugh out loud moments. He's a PI in Seattle WA. Kind of reminds me of the Andy Carpenter series (by David Rosenfelt) which is set in New Jersey.
Highly recommend both writers.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The Weapon from Beyond by Edmund Hamilton

An interesting start to a series. A few too many timing coincidences, but interesting characters and a good read.

Next: Beauvallet by Georgette Heyer. Another of my purchases from earlier this year. Her 9th novel.

[Kevin8or]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I read Neil Gaiman's wonderful Coraline. Terrific book! Imaginative. Happy. Funny. Scary Here's what Gaiman himself said about it:

"It's the strangest book I've written, it took the lingest time to write, and it's the book I'm proudest of.'"

I see why he feels that way.

I liked the film but am hesitant to try the book. My first experience with Gaiman was "American Gods," and it bored me. I enjoyed the film "Stardust," also based on a Gaiman book IIRC.

How do these other books compare to "American Gods"? Should I give Gaiman another try, or is "American Gods" a reliable indicator for me?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

With ebooks I think we will have to say... King really knows how to write a screen tapper... or is that screen swiper?

BOb

Screen swiper sounds good to me since I swipe to turn pages.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

I liked the film but am hesitant to try the book. My first experience with Gaiman was "American Gods," and it bored me. I enjoyed the film "Stardust," also based on a Gaiman book IIRC.

How do these other books compare to "American Gods"? Should I give Gaiman another try, or is "American Gods" a reliable indicator for me?

I really liked American Gods, but I don't find it similar to Stardust or Coraline. These are the two books from Gaiman I liked most. They're both quite short so if you end up finding they don't appeal, they're probably over so quickly you wouldn't notice.

Coraline is a surprisingly creepy children's story that should be over in one sitting.

Stardust is a quirky fairytale that is possibly my favourite of all of his books. And I found that it just flowed quite quickly from start to end.

I have both of these books signed by Neil Gaiman himself to give an indication of how much I liked them.

I didn't like the movies of these as much as the books - although I guess that's not an unusual sentiment.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Next up is the literary book club read for this month. We by Yevgeny Yamyatin. I've been eager to sink my teeth into this one since a work colleague recommended it. The grandfather of dystopian fiction? Of course I want to read it.

Finished this one. Good book. I sometimes found it difficult to follow the thoughts of the narrator, but overall it was satisfyingly dystopian, gloriously dark and worth the effort.

Now I'm reading a pulp western called The Shopkeeper by James D. Best. This is basically to ensure that I've read at least one book from the western genre as one of my book challenges this year.

[Fbone]

Started Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. The first Miss Marple book. Picked this up free somewhere last year.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Kevin8or

I liked the film but am hesitant to try the book. My first experience with Gaiman was "American Gods," and it bored me. I enjoyed the film "Stardust," also based on a Gaiman book IIRC.

How do these other books compare to "American Gods"? Should I give Gaiman another try, or is "American Gods" a reliable indicator for me?

I found "American Gods" to be hard work, both times I read it, and I'm still not sure exactly what I think of it. I certainly wouldn't let it put you off trying his other books. It's very different to his other work - then again, all his books seem very different to one another.

I didn't like Coraline that much, okay but nothing special. My favourites of Gaiman's include Neverwhere, Stardust, and The Graveyard Book, all very different from one another but all wonderful tales.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by gmw

I found "American Gods" to be hard work, both times I read it, and I'm still not sure exactly what I think of it. I certainly wouldn't let it put you off trying his other books. It's very different to his other work - then again, all his books seem very different to one another.

I didn't like Coraline that much, okay but nothing special. My favourites of Gaiman's include Neverwhere, Stardust, and The Graveyard Book, all very different from one another but all wonderful tales.

I, too, find all of his books to be very different from one another. I warmly recommend his Sandman comic book series, it is fantastic. Even the different story arcs of the Sandman series differ substantially from one another.

[Kevin8or]

Thanks for the replies. They're food for thought, and perhaps I will indeed try a new Gaiman story.

[tecweston]

Just Finished:

- 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King - not bad. The ending was kind of anticlimactic, but overall it was enjoyable. When I started reading it, a lot of people told me it was the scariest novel he ever wrote, but I didn't find anything about it scary in the least. Still fun to read, but no way is it scary.

Currently Reading:

- The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Web Weaver by Sam Siciliano (81%)
- The Passage by Justin Cronin (second time) (47%)
- Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie (23%)

[Quexos]

I just finished "The Gates" by John Connolly, will continue with a couple of Lovecraft shorts then some full novel but I haven't chosen one yet.

[tecweston]

Just Finished:

- The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Web Weaver by Sam Siciliano - booooring. Boring.

Currently Reading:

- The Passage by Justin Cronin (second time) (47%)
- Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie (23%)