October Offerings - What tantalising tome are you reading?

[Brown Rat]

(Someone borrowed Bead's Pickle? Wow, that's cool. )

Still rereading Kim Harrison's novels, in order to write reviews.

[Stenevor]

Finished Feersum Endjinn - Iain M Banks and half way through 1984.

[dwndrgn]

Originally Posted by Brown Rat

(Someone borrowed Bead's Pickle? Wow, that's cool. )

I think it's cool too! (though it means I have to wait to read it now) She's not generally into scifi but she wanted to check it out anyway. She normally reads whatever books come her way (she doesn't work a lot of hours and spends most of the time at home with her 8 month old baby boy) and quite often it is her MIL's old romance novels and whatever I've got to hand...she was tired of romance so decided to see what kind of pickle Bead was in. She was also especially keen since you are part of this website - she has liked all of the books from Mark and Teresa so far.

[Culhwch]

I've just started Madeline Howard's The Hidden Stars. Only one chapter in so far, but I'm liking it... Puts me in mind of Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King, particularly the landscape. Oh, and opening with a birth probably helps.

[ravenus]

King Rat - China Mieville

Chanced upon this little gem and picked it up immediately and it's a grimy gory fun read. While not up to the emotional depth and visual scope of works like Perdido Street Station, this has a lovely superhero graphic-novel kind of style. The protagonist is an obvious variant on existing superheroes that have a problem with their heritage, like Hulk or Man-bat or Swamp Thing or others of that ilk. While the characters cannot be described as particularly layered or empathizable (which renders their deaths not as poignant as the ones in PSS), none of them are annoying and the story, which takes a clever spin on a certain fairy tale, moves at a brisk clip and provides a satisfying if never really surprising conclusion.

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Went through a few more EA Poe stories, including another incredibly boring Dupin story called The Purloined Letter (I've decided that I strongly dislike all the Dupin stories and find him to be a verbose irritant), but mostly pleasing ones like Masque of Red Death, Cask of Amantodillo, Imp of the Perverse, Pit and the Pendulum, Island of the Fay. One can definitely see the sort of stuff that inspired a certain Mr. Lovecraft and made him such an ardent Poe devotee.

One of the more droll stories was The system of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, set in an insane asylum, which was nice but the joke carried on for too long and this story was much better adapted by Robert Bloch in one of his collections.

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Apart from this also read the very arresting play The Fire and The Rain by noted Indian playwright Girish Karnad which puts forth very interesting moral dilemmas drawing from minor incidents from the Indian mythological epic Mahabharata.

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Also re-read most of Stephen King's mind-blowing tear-jerking novella The Body

[Lirineth]

Well let's see, so far

half way through The Persian Boy Mary Renault

And to start next

The Spook's Secret by Joseph Delaney (third in the trilogy of the Spook)
A vampire trilogy by Charlaine Harris (a need a good laugh)
Melusine by Sarah Monette (no idea what I'm going to find)
A Book with 4 short stories (horror + vampires)

and still looking and brousing around in sites like this one, where i can always find something good

[mosaix]

How To Loose Friends & Alienate People - Toby Young.

[Adasunshine]

Well I recently re-read and finished all of the Harry Potters, I'm now almost finished with Mercedes Lackey's Joust and I have no idea what I'm starting next.

In the mood for light reading, as you may have guessed.

xx

[Nesacat]

Ravenus ... will be in India next month and am going to try and find The Fire and Rain. The Mahabharata has been a long-time favourite and I'd like to read this one. Girish Karnad is a fine writer and I've read some of his work.

Glad to see you liked King Rat. I read it recently as well. My second introduction to China Mieville. Really loved his very vivid descriptions in this book.

Am reading The Diary of Renfield by Tim Lucas right now.

[Ozymandias]

Right now I'm reading Shiloh and other stories by Bobbie Ann Mason and up next is Budding Prospects by T.C. Boyle. After that I will reading Londonistan and then Will Durant's 11 volume epic The Story of Civilization.

[j. d. worthington]

Durant's epic is indeed the way to describe that (though I recall Ariel also working with him on the later volumes, didn't she?). I began it but, due to moving around a good deal, never got to do more than begin the second volume. But it's an impressive achievement, as I could tell even from that small a portion. I'd be interested in your thoughts...

[Ozymandias]

Yeah his wife co-wrote it with him. I've also read his "The Story of Philosophy" and reccomend that, especially if your'e just getting into philosophy (though I'm sure you are probably already well acquainted with philosophy) Thought it was great book. Well written and very informative. Though I met a philosophy professor while in rehab who was totally against it for some reason. He said it disregarded epistemology, which was what all modern philosophy was based on or something like that. I don't quite remember.

But anyway I got lucky because the library has the complete set! I've heard it's pretty hard find anywhere else.

[j. d. worthington]

Yes, Durant didn't care much for epistemology, which has indeed become one of the cornerstones, if not the very foundation, of modern philosophy. Still, it was intended -- and quite openly stated to be -- a general guide, a doorway to philosophy for the layman, not for the student of philosophy as such (though no few of them were highly impressed with it until an entire spate of such books on different topics made their apperance, much like "How To" books today -- same thing that happened to Wells' Outline of History, basically). But I agree, it's a very good general introduction, and quite meaty in parts... I periodically go back and reread sections of it, as it's quite well written.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Nesacat

Ravenus ... will be in India next month and am going to try and find The Fire and Rain. The Mahabharata has been a long-time favourite and I'd like to read this one. Girish Karnad is a fine writer and I've read some of his work.

Glad to see you liked King Rat. I read it recently as well. My second introduction to China Mieville. Really loved his very vivid descriptions in this book.

Am reading The Diary of Renfield by Tim Lucas right now.

Oh this is interesting, will you be in Mumbai/Bombay for any part? Recently I got the entire set of Girish Karnad plays published thus far in 2 hardbound volumes by Oxford Press for a pretty reasonable price.
Diary of Renfield sounds interesting although I doubt I have read anything by this person Tim Lucas.

[nixie]

Fortune's Favourites by Colleen McCullough