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William Gibson's "Sprawl trilogy" (neuromancer, count zero, mona lisa overdrive) are books that I just recently got into a couple of years ago and they're great if you're into the whole cyberpunk thing. I like Sci-fi so the Dune novels are definitely on my list. I'm also into recent history, so I have a great book called "The Berlin Wall: A World Divided" that I have read twice already because the Berlin Wall and former Eastern Bloc fascinate me, but it's history so it's pretty dry at times. I'm also into punk rock and hardcore, so "Please Kill Me" and "American Hardcore: A Tribal History" are also books that I've read.

Unsurprisingly, "Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult" by Dayal Patterson was a fascinating and informative read for me when I got it as a gift last Christmas.

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The best music book I have is The Devil's Cradle (the history of Finnish black metal). Highly recommended. I also like Blood, Fire, Death and Choosing Death. Really looking forward to the Bathory book Chris Black (High Spirits/Nachtmystium/Professor Black) is working on.

The Decibel USBM book is fucking garbage. Avoid that one like the plague.

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The best music books I have would be a toss up between Paul Dianno's bio and David Lee Roth's bio. Until I read those books I had no idea that between the two of them they invented everything in the world. Not only that we all exist because of them. They both stop short of explaining how they became our gods, but honestly neither of them have to because well because they are just both so awesome!

 

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  • 1 year later...

 The writing thread seems more geared toward things written by the poster. Commendable, but, things being as they are, I will require a thread to spout off about the joys of reading. Please feel free to post what you're currently reading, and thoughts on it, or give your opinions on literature or books in general. Fair warning though, classic literature is the only passion of mine I would rank above music, so my posts here may run long and frequent. I've got thick skin though so if you think I'm full of it, or just want me to stop cluttering up the thread, by all means do so.

 

Currently reading Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Wonderful so far, but it probably won't dethrone Crossing to Safety as my favorite of his. Stegner's narrative voice is almost always distinct, if not hugely variable. It's more a case of him knowing what he's good at then any lack of strong characterization. The author he reminds me most of is Steinbeck in his later years; think Travels With Charlie. He's much more openly reflective and openly reminiscent than Steinbeck, though. His framing of the narrator as looking back on what some would call a mundane life and pondering whether such a life would be worth writing of at all is almost heroically tragic, but his deeply felt exultant victories and bitter failures are contagious. By the time we've fully immersed ourselves in his stark and gentle prose altering it for the sake of drama and adventure would be like putting lots of explosions into a movie like Babette's Feast. The worth is self evident.

 

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Don't care for literature classic or not so classic, I'm not intellectual enough to read that stuff.

I do read 5 or 6 books a month, some from known authors some from unknown authors self publishing their waffle just like I did for a while. Most of my interest sits in horror/thriller, spy, crime, and I do tend to read quite a bit of Aussie fiction. But I also read bios, some true crime and I've even been known to read a bit of science, maths and physics related books when the mood hits me.

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26 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

Don't care for literature classic or not so classic, I'm not intellectual enough to read that stuff.

I do read 5 or 6 books a month, some from known authors some from unknown authors self publishing their waffle just like I did for a while. Most of my interest sits in horror/thriller, spy, crime, and I do tend to read quite a bit of Aussie fiction. But I also read bios, some true crime and I've even been known to read a bit of science, maths and physics related books when the mood hits me.

Have you tried Reload fan fiction?  They really flesh out the whole Reload universe and give it some depth. Immersive, almost like being there.

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Technically in my case it’s audiobooks. Recently read The Fall of the house of Usher by Poe, I enjoy the bleak atmosphere, even if I find Poe overindulges at times. It irks me too that he forced a happy ending in the pit or the pendulum where it really didn’t fit. Still a talented author despite my minor gripes.

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Personally, I read on an e-reader. I'm short of space for books, so I have a few paper ones that I keep jealously because they're beautiful or rare, but otherwise, a Kindle PaperWhite and that's it.

I love crime novels (in France, we have authors like Frank Thilliez, Karine Giebel or Damien Leban who excel in this field).

I love Zombie books (PariZ, Necropolitains and La nuit a devoré le monde are my favorites in the genre, French authors here too, sorry!).

In Fantasy, I love Joe Abercrombie's work. His novels, while not revolutionizing the genre, are succulent, packed with action and very engaging characters.

I read mainly in French because my English is average (thanks DeePL for chatting with you here!) but every now and then, I try a Bizarro novel in English. Mainly, novels by Carlton Mellick III. I really like what he does and it's a good read, even for me.

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On 6/5/2023 at 10:44 AM, Nasty_Cabbage said:

My bad. Lack of observation on my part. Thanks for the assist.

No worries, thanks for resurrecting an old thread.  I am still intermittently reading Helen Guerber's "Tales of Norse Mythology", only been at it about a year and up to page 73 of around 400 so pretty good progress by my slow standards.

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53 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

No worries, thanks for resurrecting an old thread.  I am still intermittently reading Helen Guerber's "Tales of Norse Mythology", only been at it about a year and up to page 73 of around 400 so pretty good progress by my slow standards.

 Nice. One thing I often tell people who don't talk about their reading that much is don't be afraid to be a slow reader. It's not like speedrunning a video game, and nobody's life was ever changed by speed-reading Crime and Punishment. Also, to the person that spoke of not being intellectual enough to read much classic literature, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as you read. I would say don't let the erudite tone people take when they've read some sort of high end classical stuff intimidate you. Believe me they're just putting on airs. I'd say don't even be afraid to turn some of their own techniques against them by bringing the books you enjoy into the conversation and seeing what direction it takes. I was in the middle of a discussion once about Salman Rushdie with someone at a coffee shop, and a third party managed to very deftly bring his favorite Warhammerr 40K books into it, and the deer in the headlights look the other guy made was absolutely priceless.

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       So, here's a question for the group: Have any of you guys become way too paranoid that, with the glut of catastrophic remakes reboots and adaptations we've seen lately, that eventually they'll come for one of your own childhood favorites? If Disney were to buy the I.P. for the Redwall series I would be absolutely mortified. It seems like silly to worry about something so trivial, but I loved those books when I was younger, and so far, I've been lucky enough that no one has decided to butcher anything I truly hold dear, which some how makes my paranoia worse.

     I was never big into comic books as a kid and I have no nostalgia attached to them (aside from occasionaly laughing at just how bad that Howard The Duck movie was). I loved both the Ian Flemming James Bond books and the movies, but the books and the movies had long been established as two completely different things by the time I got to them.

     I also loved Arthurian legend as a child, but despite Hollywood's best efforts for decades now, they still have yet to produce anything even close to being a definitive Arthurian movie that I can tell. I don't even think it'd really be possible to adapt La Morte d'Aurthur. True, The Once and Future King has been turned upside down and inside out and mercilessly flogged for all it's worth, but it's clearly just a jumping off point for most writers simply because of how numerous the "interpretations". It'd be like getting upset over The Lion King because it's not accurate to Hamlet.

     Just don't tell them about Earthsea. Actually, better not let them know about LeGuin at all. They Really don't deserve her.

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I loved the Redwall books too. Especially the first few. I have no idea how I'd feel about an adaptation even if it was done well, though. There were lots of little things that stuck in my head, that added up to make the first book special, like descriptions of smells and food, feelings of hunger and embarrasment, the little aside where Cluny shows his rats how to clean their teeth with pointed sticks so they don't lose them, all the horrifying vignettes where characters die alone in pain. Some books don't really lend themselves to adaptation. Dune was another childhood favorite, and after rewatching the newest movie I think they mostly did it as well as they could, but at best (if they don't beef the second half) it's an alternate version, something to appreciate on the side. Same with LOTR. I liked the Earthsea books but gosh, I don't remember them at all. It's been like 35 years since I read any of them.

I guess it comes down to whether the source material lends itself to that kind of treatment and whether the adaptation gets the time and money and talent it needs to thrive. The new Sandman series is great so far. I thought they did a great job with the streaming series for His Dark Materials, too, although maybe I wasn't as picky because I didn't read those books until I was all grown up. Wheel of Time is watchable so far. I'm a huge Roger Zelazny fan and I think I'd be stoked about an Amber streaming series in the right hands. I am also not a good target audience; if I'm a fan of a book, I want the details, all the character development, the kind of things that would probably make newcomers turn it off out of boredom.

 

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Sadly I’m all too aware that Hollywood love their Stephen King adaptations, so I have to accept they will both happen periodically, and mostly suck. Fortunately Hollywood seem almost entirely unaware of Ray Bradley, have forgotten Poe, and in the current social climate likely won’t touch Lovecraft.

 

As far as series go if they’re done well I can get behind them, just stick the landing, no one wants GoT 2.0

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