AR Book Club

[Pharass]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.


On another note, I'm currently reading The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. Its the first book by Oates that I've read and makes me wonder why I haven't checked out her work before, because this is really good; a mix between historical fiction and Gothic horror with a wide cast of interesting characters (some of them based on historical figures, others fictional).

[gunswordfist]

Thanks you, Pharass.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So The Shepherd's Crown will be Terry Pratchett's last Discworld novel. It'll be really bittersweet when I'll get to reading it.

[Spark Of Spirit]

There was no one like ol' Johnny. He will be missed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm reading The Once And Future King by T. H. White because X-Men 2 reminded me that it existed.

[Pharass]

I'm reading The Once And Future King by T. H. White because X-Men 2 reminded me that it existed.

Now there's a book I haven't read in a long time, I remember liking it a lot though.

As for me, I'm currently reading Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac. I have to say that out of the (admittedly few) books I've read by Balzac so far, this is my favorite. The intrigue is strong and the characters are well-drawn, especially the two female villains, one of which is the titular character.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, it's pretty excellent. So far I've only read The Sword in the Stone, which is such a classic children's fantasy story, but I have yet to start on any of the other stories due to being busy. Still, it'll be interesting to make the transition into the more mature and complex stories of the other three parts of the book.

[Avaitor]

So after I finish rereading the first 3 Rurouni Kenshin volumes (and I might order more in the coming weeks, if I'll have enough in between rent), I plan to go through

-A reread of the first 5 Song of Ice and Fire novels
-The First Man in Rome
-The Deptford Trilogy
-The Count of Monte Cristo (I actually read the first handful of chapters a few years ago, but I had to remove the app I downloaded it from and never got back to it)
-A couple of Hugo winners
-A reread of Jurassic Park

Nothing like a good read during the summer.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I could go for a re-read of a bunch of Michael Chrichton books, myself. I don't care if his characters are usually dicks.  The guy wrote really interesting and compelling stories.

And I've been re-reading select parts of the ASOIAF books ever since I first caught up with the books. GRRM is so good at hiding clues all over his text that it's kind of mind-blowing how poignant his pros can be on a re-read.

I'm also in the minority of people who really enjoyed AFFC and ADWD. They aren't quite as strong as the first three books, but to say that they are too slow and nothing happens in them is, to me, completely missing the point of this series to begin with. The big pay-off events are only satisfying because if all of the political maneuvering and nuanced character developments that go on in these books, and the last two books were full of that.

[Avaitor]

I do think AFFC is the weakest of the books thus far, at least for my tastes, but I'm excited to get through them all again. I told myself that I'd do this after this season of GOT ended, and it'll be a good refresher on the odd chance that GRRM finishes The Winds of Winter before the next season.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, while I stand by the opinion that this season was still great television, it was definitely weaker than the other seasons, in my eyes, and the thing that scares me is that the weakest parts were the story-lines that completely deviated from the books (in this case, Dorne and Brienne's mission).

I know that it's not possible to include all of the story and characters from the books in just 10-episodes per season, but the thing is that all of those are important, and I'm worried that an overly condensed version of the final act of the story will lead to a lot of contrived writing on the show's part, which is why I'd still rather see it go in its own direction rather than loosely trying to line itself up with George's story, which seems almost pointless, now, IMO.

But to be fair, the pros still far outweigh the cons, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

But yes, I'm super pumped for TWOW. In the meantime, I'll be picking up A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in October to hold me over.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been reading Stephen King's It, lately. I'm roughly a third of the way through. You know, for as much as some people like to shit-talk about this one (especially the Walker brothers and their fans), it's very well-written, has fully fleshed out characters, and is very addicting and hard to put down, with an interesting mythology built around the creature and the town of Derry. This also doesn't have most of the problems that the TV mini-series had.

And yes, while I haven't gotten that far yet, I am aware of THAT notorious scene....and yeah, I doubt that reading it in context will make it any less fucked up....but honestly, it'd take a lot more than that to ruin the whole story for me.

I'm also aware of the cosmic turtle....but, IDK, that actually comes off as pretty awesome in how out there it is as a metaphysical concept to me, personally. This genuinely interests me more than any conventional plot device would.

I mostly like this book because it has a lot of heart to the core characters, and I love the strong sense of comradery that builds between them. I'm a sucker for stories with good team-work, and this feels sort of like a smaller-scale, horror-themed version of 20th Century Boys.

Anyways, I'll probably read The Stand after I finish this.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I have a copy of It, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm skeptical of a lot of his later work for being overwritten with boring plots and concepts, but his early stuff from when he had fire in him are good reads. Specifically The Shining, Salem's Lot, and The Stand.

Anyways, I'll probably read The Stand after I finish this.

I'm fairly certain you'll really like it. It has influenced a lot of good stuff for a reason.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I kind of do tend to think of It as part of his earlier career, myself, being a mid-80's book. Though he has published books since the 70's, so he was well-established by that point in time.

[gunswordfist]

1. Does Stephen King have a popular movie adaptation that DOESN'T also have a tv series?
2. I will always love him for co-writing Skinner Sweet's origin.
3. Hmm, I wonder if Netflix has It..