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Post by darknessfish on Mar 15, 2017 8:45:08 GMT
Just finished Patrick DeWitt's strange underweight fairytale, Undermajordomo Minor, and now onto weightier matters of the heart:
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Post by Marv on Mar 15, 2017 14:14:31 GMT
Mr Mercedes by Stephen King...I've really only just started it. I think I'm on page 20 or 30 but so far it's pretty interesting. Opens up with a crowd of people standing in a parking lot at a convention and a Mercedes plows into them killing several and driving off.
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Post by Matthew the Swordsman on Mar 16, 2017 0:03:13 GMT
Today I read issue 24 of The Phonogram, published April 1902. It isn't very good, to be honest. I've read far better issues of the magazine. But hey, it's public domain, so if you want to read it, it's here: archive.org/details/Phonogram24
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2017 2:23:32 GMT
Just ordered the first three books in the Dune series, so have decided to push the Gene Wolfe four volume series 'Book of the New Sun' that I was going to read back a bit.
To fill the time besides, Cosmic tales of Horror, which is pretty good, I like the Ambrose Bierce selections, smart and a little scary, been also reading through this funny and pretentious classic 'Single' by legendary screen-writer Harriet Frank JR.
edit,
Done reading through Cosmic tales of Horror and starting 'The Best of IF' magazine volume III has shorts by Issac Asimov, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, these shorts collections are great when your bored and looking for a quick read.
Managed to get about 400 pages into Will Durant's 'The Age of Faith' only 800 more to go, will take a breather and get back at it later as I will be starting a couple of Book series next month.
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Squelchy
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Post by Squelchy on Mar 21, 2017 15:29:51 GMT
Started The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness this morning. That was one of the worst things I've read for many years. Started Springsteen's biography (imaginatively titled Born to Run) this morning but I'm thinking I might read it alongside something else.
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Post by darknessfish on Mar 21, 2017 16:03:17 GMT
A French crime-fiction prize-winner, featuring a narrator who is a blind and dumb quadriplegic, only able to raise her index finger. A 7 year old girl has told her the details of a series of murders, and she has no means to communicate the information (or even that she has information) to anyone.
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Post by louise on Mar 21, 2017 18:26:14 GMT
i'm reading Death of a Gentle Lady by M .C. Beaton, one of her long series of Hamish Macbeth muder mysteries, set in the dcottish highlands.
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shield
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Reading is to the mind what excercise is to the body
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Post by shield on Mar 21, 2017 20:53:28 GMT
Reading: David Weber - "At the sign of triumph" (Safehold-serie) Listening to: F Paul Wilson - "Fatal Error" (Repairman Jack-serie)
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karryon99v2
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Post by karryon99v2 on Mar 21, 2017 22:09:46 GMT
i'm reading Death of a Gentle Lady by M .C. Beaton, one of her long series of Hamish Macbeth muder mysteries, set in the dcottish highlands. Have you read any of the other books in the series?.Currently reading Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie.
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Post by Matthew the Swordsman on Mar 23, 2017 6:27:00 GMT
Today I read an issue of Edison Phonograph Monthly published August, 1909. The is public domain, and PDF files of collections of issues can be found online.
The magazine includes a biography of one of the artists recording for Edison Records, a list of new records for the month, a description of new Mexican records for sale, a description of the Edison Fireside phonograph, and interestingly stresses to dealers that the immigrant population of the U.S. could prove to be very profitable for them.
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Post by fangirl1975 on Mar 23, 2017 20:36:20 GMT
Shadow Of The Wind
IT
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2017 2:07:19 GMT
My books on Angkor and the Khmer culture arrived and the two books, 'Angkor Heart of an Asian Empire'- small but highly informative and 'Angkor The Hidden Glories' by Micheal Freeman & Roger Warner are both superb choices. Angkor The Hidden Glories is a fairly large book 9"x12" and is filled with fantastic photographs that span over the entire history of the site from it's initial founding and I really like the way this book is laid out, it begins with pictures of the sites discovery and then it examines all the major temples, their architectural development and the meaning behind their decorations and changes in style while filling in the history of the Khmer empire's rapid rise and decline. It's interesting that because of the sudden abandonment of the sites, the forest quickly took it over and it was protected from intense erosion by the forest canopy. Also about halfway through Gene Wolfe's 'The Shadow of the Torturer' part of the 'Book of the New Sun' series that I have been meaning to read for ages, extremely hard to describe this book, it is probably one of the best Sci-fi/Fantasy book that I have read in years. You would think that a novel that starts out involving the life tale of an apprentice torturer would be rather gruesome but this is only a vehicle to build a completely original reality where the themes of life and death, light and dark are just one of dozens alluded to while setting the main character off on a fantastic journey deeper into the unknown as you unravel this decaying world that revolves around a fading sun. Hope this series can sustain this level of high quality over the next 3 books. Reading the Shadow Claw- 2 volume versions which is a great deal.
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Post by howardschumann on Mar 26, 2017 6:10:09 GMT
March Reading
Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo Infinite Awareness - Marjorie Hines Woollacott The Lost Continent of Pan – Susan B. Martinez A Field Guide to Getting Lost – Rebecca Solnit The Stevensons – Jean H. Baker
Now Reading
Fatelessness – Imre Kertesz
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Post by Matthew the Swordsman on Mar 26, 2017 16:33:26 GMT
Today I read issue 25 of The Phonogram, published May 1902. Lots of fun. The magazine was issued by Edison Records, an early record label. I found it interesting that the magazine said that music while working improves productivity, and the article about automatic announcements at a train station was also interesting. The magazine is public domain and can be read here: archive.org/details/Phonogram25
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Post by politicidal on Mar 26, 2017 18:13:24 GMT
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca
The Trojan Icon by William Dietrich
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chasallnut
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Post by chasallnut on Mar 27, 2017 11:28:09 GMT
Reading this. Excellent book so far, and almost finished.
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Post by FilmFlaneur on Mar 28, 2017 13:42:58 GMT
Upstairs: The Devil Rides Outside John Howard Griffin
A successful (first) novel in its day, by the author of Black Like Me but less provocative, or general in appeal.
Downstairs: Mark Rutherford: A Biography of William Hale White Catherine Macdonald Maclean
A study of the Victorian writer who, rather confusingly, wrote a fictional, didactic biography of himself under a pen name.
E-reader : Cinema at the Margins Wheeler Dixon
Interesting studies of some lesser-known aspects and personalities of film and TV history such as Jack Webb, Lucio Fulci and Sam Newfield.
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mrdanwest
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Post by mrdanwest on Mar 28, 2017 16:21:09 GMT
Finished the following this month:
The Circle by Dave Eggers - Liked it, but didn't love it as I found parts of it didactic and the metaphors were a bit obvious and on the nose. It did move well though and the ending paid off well for me. Eggers is one of those writers that I I appreciate and really want to love (sort of like Jonathan Franzen), but their execution never quite matches up to my expectation of it.
The World According to Garp by John Irving - Part of this I absolutely loved and other parts left me a bit flat. Over all I would rate it highly. It is the first book in a long while that actually made be shed tears.
Warlock by Oakley Hall - One of the best Western novels that I have read. Not quite Lonesome Dove, but close.
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers - I grabbed the audio book from my library when neither of the others that I have on reserve had arrived yet. Like with other Eggers that I have read, I liked the ideas and the writing, but the characters are flatter than I tend to like. The Circle is better.
Huck Out West by Robert Coover - I absolutely loved this. It picks up Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn from where Twain left them at the end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Funny and in places profound. Coover does a great job in catching Huck's voice. Made we want to go back and reread the earlier Twain books, which I last read over 30 years ago.
Still Reading:
The World of Wonders by Robertson Davies - The final book of Davies' Deptford Trilogy. I should finish this tonight and am still not sure what I think of it. The narrative technique that Davies uses for this one (the characters revealing themselves through backstory exposition) is a bit irksome at time. The trilogy as a whole is strong but this one is the least strong.
But What If We're Wrong? Thinking About the Present as If It Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman - About 40% through it and, so far, entertained. Klosterman has some neat ideas about but those in the future might view our present. but I am not sure I buy them to any great extent. Will hold off final judgement until I am done though.
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Post by darknessfish on Mar 30, 2017 7:52:44 GMT
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Squelchy
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Post by Squelchy on Mar 30, 2017 12:26:37 GMT
Started Springsteen's biography (imaginatively titled Born to Run) this morning but I'm thinking I might read it alongside something else. When that got a little cliched or clunky I just had to remind myself he's not a writer, exactly. Overall I thought it was candid, interesting, entertaining and very moving. Loved it. Started John Steinbeck's Cannery Row this morning. I started and gave up on it this twice before, dunno why really, I've loved everything else I've read by him.
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