What are you reading?

[Jinsai]

Hillbilly Elegy

totally fucking with my head

[allegro]

Hillbilly Elegy

totally fucking with my head

Ugh, I have that in hardcover, it's next on my reading list.

[theburningreptile]

Can anyone recommend some good fantasy or mystery books? Thank you!

[eversonpoe]

Can anyone recommend some good fantasy or mystery books? Thank you!

if you want something a little different, i would recommend The Mapmakers Trilogy by S.E. Grove (The Glass Sentence, The Golden Specific, The Crimson Skew). i liked them so much, my last album was inspired by them.

[Louie_Cypher]

lot of Hunter S Thompson, during this time, especially" fear and loathing the campaign trail 72", wonder what hst would think of trump and all the bs currently going on in American politics now
-Louie

[Boots]

Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

[eversonpoe]

Ransom Riggs - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

i love love love all three books but actually kind of refuse to see the movie for a multitude of reasons (i'll tell you why when you're done with the books)

[muse-lyre candy]

M.C. Escher; His Life and Complete Graphic Works

[Tyson]

Started reading Less Than Zero last night. Had it for ages. Never read it. I don't know if I'll finish it.

[Boots]

The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

[eversonpoe]

the left hand of darkness by ursula k. le guin

i can't believe this was written in 1969

[Boots]

I'm reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. I find it very inspiring.

[Jinsai]

to prep for the movie release of IT, I started reading the novel again... and it's gutting me. There's stuff in here that just flew over my head on first read. The whole scene where Ben Hanscom responds to the phone call to return, and goes to a bar, squirts lime wedges into his nose and then guzzles down a pint glass of Wild Turkey... Holy shit...

I don't know if I'm ashamed to admit it or not, but that made me break down in tears. I just read it realizing, in my head, "I'm Ben in this book." In his transformation, positive and negative. Nothing I've ever read in literature has fucked me up as much as that chapter in a book I'd already read 3 times.

[[parasite]]

not read anything in over a year I think?
I find it difficult since my medication has been upped, but I thought I would give this a go. before watching the TV show.
and yo be honest I'm quite getting into it




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[allegate]

Read Alas, Babylon.

Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank (the pen name of Harry Hart Frank)^[1] It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list (which groups together short story collections and novels)^[2] and has an entry in David Pringle's book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the fictional small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora, Florida.^[3] The novel's title is derived from the Book of Revelation "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come."

That's probably the scariest depiction of a nuclear attack that I've read, and I can't really even say what unnerved me about it the most.

[muse-lyre candy]

Read Alas, Babylon.

That's probably the scariest depiction of a nuclear attack that I've read, and I can't really even say what unnerved me about it the most.

^i guess i just added another book to my 'to read list...'

Just picked up:
The Boy Who Painted Fire by JS Bird
He's an art teacher in Eugene, OR.

[Boots]

I'm reading Insomnia by Stephen King.

[elevenism]

i'm finishing up "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana" by Anne Rice and lamenting the fact that she will likely never finish this trilogy

[Boots]

Now I'm reading Origin by Dan Brown.

[Sister Midnight]

Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter Isaacson

[Mantra]

I think what I love most about this book is the sense of PLACE. Yeah, it's all about the Clutter family murder, but for me it's really just a book about some town. I love the panoramic, wide lens perspective. This'll probably sound weird, but it kinda reminds me of those fantasy books where the writer invests a lot of time into the world-building before actually diving into the plot, making sure that reader is totally immersed in the setting. This is like the true crime version of that. And this is how we're able to watch the whole community of Holcomb, Kansas respond to the violence. So many books and movies tend to flatten "the public" or "the community" into this homogeneous, singular entity, but this one shows how disparate and complicated a place can be, even a small rural town in the 50s. There's a whole gamut of emotions and reactions, and they argue with each other and contradict themselves. And the town actually evolves as the years pass instead of remaining static.

So to me, Holcomb isn't just the setting of this book, it's almost like a character in its own right. It kinda reminds me of The Wire in that sense, cause the "protagonist" of The Wire is really just Baltimore itself. By the end of that show, you almost feel like you can see how the entire city functions as a whole, and In Cold Blood leaves you with that same feeling. It's so rare to find a piece of art that provides its readers with a the sense of place in this way. I just love that systemic, sociological, zoomed out perspective.

And also just in terms of pure craftsmanship, this book is fucking FLAWLESS. The sparseness and the clarity of the writing, this shit is perfect.

[allegro]

God I read that AGES ago but now you’ve inspired me to visit it again.

I’m watching an old (2005-ish) BBC production of Dickens’ “Bleak House” on HULU, OMG is it good, it reminded me of you. I have to read that next.

[Mantra]

God I read that AGES ago but now you’ve inspired me to visit it again.

I’m watching an old (2005-ish) BBC production of Dickens’ “Bleak House” on HULU, OMG is it good, it reminded me of you. I have to read that next.

Oh, I've heard great things about that one!

Not too long ago I watched the BBC miniseries for Little Dorrit, which I was a little nervous about because I loved the book so much and was worried they'd screw it up, but I was so impressed. It wasn't 100% flawless, but I still really loved it. I was surprised by how good all the cinematic "craftsmanship" stuff was, like the cinematography and the music and set design. Seems like most adaptations of classics tend to be kind of sparse and toned down, but this was quite stylish and just an incredibly enjoyable experience in every way.

So anyway, I read that a lot of the people who made Little Dorrit in '08 had also done Bleak House a few years earlier and apparently it was super popular in the UK, so it made want to check that one out. I'm glad to hear you like it. The only reason I've been waiting is because I've actually never read Bleak House, so I keep telling myself I need to read that soon so I can watch the BBC show.

[allegro]

Oh, I've heard great things about that one!

Not too long ago I watched the BBC miniseries for Little Dorrit, which I was a little nervous about because I loved the book so much and was worried they'd screw it up, but I was so impressed. It wasn't 100% flawless, but I still really loved it. I was surprised by how good all the cinematic "craftsmanship" stuff was, like the cinematography and the music and set design. Seems like most adaptations of classics tend to be kind of sparse and toned down, but this was quite stylish and just an incredibly enjoyable experience in every way.

So anyway, I read that a lot of the people who made Little Dorrit in '08 had also done Bleak House a few years earlier and apparently it was super popular in the UK, so it made want to check that one out. I'm glad to hear you like it. The only reason I've been waiting is because I've actually never read Bleak House, so I keep telling myself I need to read that soon so I can watch the BBC show.

Yeah, I remember we discussed BBC's "Little Dorrit," which I LOVED, too. I can't look at Claire Foy in "The Crown" without thinking of her as Little Dorrit.

I see in my Hulu list of "recommendations" that BBC also did Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" so I have to put that on my watch list, too. Edit:
I've read about two chapters of Bleak House, but this really brings it alive so now I for sure have to read the book.

We had to read "Hard Times" in my Victorian Lit course and I fucking HATED that book; LOVE Dickens, hated that book.

[Mantra]

Yeah Hard Times is not easy to love. I enjoyed it, but I totally get why a person would not care for it.

I'll have to check out that Sense and Sensibility adaptation too. Out of curiosity, what do you think of the Sense and Sensibility movie from the 90s, the one with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet? Have you seen it?

[allegro]

Yes, I did see that movie; I remember liking it at the time, I guess enough that my Mom bought me a hardcover copy of the book. But, I was just going to watch it again sometime because I don’t remember much of it. Lol.

Maybe I should give Hard Times another chance, beyond the influence of my Victorian-loving Prof (who was also my advisor for my English Lit major, as well as the chair of the English Dept., and I couldn’t STAND her ... she fucking LOVED Blake ... but she DID do a really cool reading from Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” at our Sigma Tau Delta induction). I just remember not connecting to ANY of the characters.


DUDE ... DAN STEVENS in GONNA BE IN THIS DICKENS BIOPIC!!!

[allegro]

@Mantra , have you seen the 2005 BBC "Pride and Prejudice" with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy? HOLY SHIT, that's good. It occasionally strays from the book, like this scene, which I have watched about 500 times oh my GOD ...

[Mantra]

@allegro Ha, that Dickens movie looks really fun. That's such a cool concept for a movie. I'm surprised no one's ever done that before where they depict a writer's creative process like that. I actually don't know very much about Dickens' personal life, so it'll be interesting to see.

And actually, the 90s Sense and Sensibility is the only Austen adaptation I've ever seen, so no, I haven't seen that Pride and Prejudice adaptation yet, but I hear it's good. That said, is that scene in the book at all? I swear I don't remember anything like that. Not saying it doesn't look like a good movie, I'm just trying to figure out if it's completely added or if my memory is just totally shot. I re-read all of Austen's stuff almost two years ago, so I feel like it's pretty fresh in my memory. Have you seen the Kiera Knightly one? If so, do you have a preference between the two?

[allegro]

And actually, the 90s Sense and Sensibility is the only Austen adaptation I've ever seen, so no, I haven't seen that Pride and Prejudice adaptation yet, but I hear it's good. That said, is that scene in the book at all? I swear I don't remember anything like that. Not saying it doesn't look like a good movie, I'm just trying to figure out if it's completely added or if my memory is just totally shot. I re-read all of Austen's stuff almost two years ago, so I feel like it's pretty fresh in my memory. Have you seen the Kiera Knightly one? If so, do you have a preference between the two?

No, the swimming in the pond scene isn’t in the book (an example of my saying that it occasionally strays from the book, although not too much); in the book, Darcy does suddenly appear at Pemberley while Elizabeth is touring it with her Aunt and Uncle, but not half-dressed and hunky like Colin Firth hubba-hubba lol. In Austen’s day, Darcy probably had a powdered wig bleh. Anyway, I’ve seen *several* film adaptations of P&P and the BBC Colin Firth one is my favorite, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Scholars are fairly certain that Austen’s Pemberley is really Chatsworth:



It was featured in film versions of P&P which is really cool:

https://www.visitbritainshop.com/wor...and-prejudice/

Note too that in the film adaptation of Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” Mark Darcy is played by ... COLIN FIRTH!!

Because, of course, Mark Darcy IS Mr. Darcy!!



The Kiera Knightly one is TERRIBLE, GAH! But, if I see it’s on I’ll watch it anyway because even bad Austen is better than no Austen.

[Mantra]

lol, the funny thing is that, as tame as it is, I thought to myself, wow, this scene strikes me as a bit more openly sexual/erotic than you typically encounter in austen, which is why i was sure i'd have remembered it if it was in the book. i'm guessing the producers thought it would help to spice the movie up just a tiny bit. lol.

i kind of like the way sexuality is so submerged in her books, and yet you still sense that it's there in all the characters without it ever being stated openly. there'll be some scene where they're just walking together, but she writes it like it's the most ecstatic thing ever. or i remember a part in, i think northanger abbey(?), where the dude helps her into the carriage and she gets all flustered and it says something like "he had placed her there WITH HIS VERY HANDS." it's not only that i find that stuff kind of funny and charming, but also i can't help admiring the talent it requires as a writer. it's the most successful and impressive demonstration of a person indirectly writing about sexuality that i can think of. it's probably a contributing factor into why she was so popular.