It's February Already! What We're Reading...

[iansales]

Finished The Butterflies of Memory, another fine collection of short stories by Ian Watson. Have started a "sort of" re-read -- it's The Mating Cry by AE van Vogt, which is an "adult" version of his novel Undercover Aliens (vt The House That Stood Still). So far, it seems much the same as the original version...

 

[j d worthington]

Well, I've not posted in here for a while so... Recent reads:

The Death of Vishnu, by Manil Suri (a beautiful, beautiful book; richly textured, funny, wistful, sad... just a joy to read)

Poems, by Alan Seeger (there's a reason Seeger isn't remembered the way Rupert Brooke is, but it still made for very interesting reading, nonetheless)

Lovecraft (graphic novel -- mixed feelings about this one; the art is often absolutely amazing, the ideas are quite interesting... but I have severe problems with the distortions of the "facts" they tout so much, which are often seriously off....)

And am now working on:

The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore (have gone through his Anacreontics and am reading his juvenile poems... Moore had quite a wicked sense of humor at times....)

Bulfinch's Mythology (all three books: The Age of Fable; The Age of Chivalry; and Legends of Charlemagne... I've been meaning to reread the first one for years, and I've never read the other two, so....)

 

[Pyan]

Bulfinch's Mythology (all three books: The Age of Fable; The Age of Chivalry; and Legends of Charlemagne... I've been meaning to reread the first one for years, and I've never read the other two, so....)

Read any Robert Graves, j.d.? The books, I mean, not the poetry.

 

[j d worthington]

Yes, though it's been a very long time. Read I, Claudius and Claudius the God almost 30 years ago (jeez, has it been that long? ), and at least one volume of a two-volume set (I think it was) of his rendition of the myths... though I never got around to reading the whole of The White Goddess, I'm afraid (actually, I wonder what ever happened to my copy of that one.... )

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The Orphan's Tales In the Night Garden. I'm enjoying how each story leads into the next one.

Yes, I enjoyed that, too -- although it did tend to tie my brain up in knots.

 

[Pyan]

Yes, j.d.,it was the Myths sprang to mind when you mentioned Bulfinch. I read them years ago, for the stories (took me ages to work out the meaning of the phrase "laid with".....) and then went back a lot later for the "origins and roots" footnotes.Worth persevering with, though, and deeply enjoyable.
The White Goddess I found a bit later - was hooked by the Battle of the Trees and the Roebuck in the Thicket - stayed hooked ever since.
The Song of Amergin still sets my pulse racing, literally!

I am a stag: of seven tines, I am a wind of the sea,
I am a flood: across a plain, I am a wave of the sea,
I am a wind: on a deep lake, I am a sound of the sea,
I am a tear: the Sun lets fall, I am a stag of seven tines,
I am a hawk: above the cliff, I am a hawk on a cliff,
I am a thorn: beneath the nail, I am a tear of the sun,
I am a wonder: among flowers, I am fair among flowers,
I am a wizard: who but I, I am a boar,
Sets the cool head aflame with smoke? I am a salmon in a pool,
I am a lake on a plain.

I am a spear: that roars for blood, I am a hill of poetry,
I am a salmon: in a pool, I am a battle-waging spear,
I am a lure: from paradise, I am a god who forms fire for a head.
I am a hill: where poets walk,

I am a boar: ruthless and red, Who makes clear the ruggedness of the mountains?
I am a breaker: threatening doom, Who but myself knows where the sun shall set?
I am a tide: that drags to death, Who foretells the ages of the moon?
I am an infant: who but I, Who brings the cattle from the House of Tethra
Peeps from the unhewn dolmen arch? and segregates them?
On whom do the cattle of Tethra smile?
I am the womb: of every holt, Who shapes weapons from hill to hill?

I am the blaze: on every hill,
I am the queen: of every hive,
I am the shield: for every head,
I am the tomb: of every hope.


Pass me my spear.........!

 

[Nesacat]

Just started reading Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It's a memoir about an absolutely offbeat but very close family. It's a veru quirky read thus far and I'm enjoying it.

 

[dwndrgn]

Just begun Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality with On A Pale Horse. So far I'm interested, but I'm not even through the first chapter yet.

 

[Stormpirate]

Decided that The Coming Storm does not lend itself to sitting for hours and reading, so picked up A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison instead.

 

[Talysia]

Planning to re-read Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey.

 

[iansales]

I spoke too soon. I said I'd not been able to tell the difference between van Vogt's Undercover Aliens and its "sexed up" version, The Mating Cry. After posting that, I read some more... and the femme fatale leapt into bed with the hero. That certainly doesn't happen in the original!

 

[nixie]

ok I'm too lazy to check if I've already posted this .Re-reading Erikson's Midnight Tides

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Just begun Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality with On A Pale Horse. So far I'm interested, but I'm not even through the first chapter yet.

I did like that series but he stretches it a little too far at the end, the 7th one seemed to have been squeezed in had it for years but have not managed to get back into that series the 1st five I liked.

The latest I am reading is a humorous one by Robert Rankin.

 

[Avoiding Reality]

After reading a few non-fantasys I'm now starting Stephen King's The Gunslinger.

 

[iansales]

Finished The Mating Cry by van Vogt. An odd experience - reading a much-loved novel, but with all these extra scenes added to sex it up. It's funny how you interpret characters differently when they jump into bed at every opportunity...

Now reading Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg, one of the SF Masterworks series.

 

[ravenus]

Now reading Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg, one of the SF Masterworks series.

Ah that was one story I totally loved, also floored by Book of Skulls.

 

[iansales]

I'm not liking Dying Inside as much as I liked The Book of Skulls. I'm not a big fan of Silverberg's novels. The best of his I've read is A Time of Changes... which bizarrely was in Gollancz's original Classic SF series but doesn't appeared to have been picked for the SF Masterworks series...

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Is it [Blood Bound] good? I really liked Moon Called!

Yep, Dsmith, Blood Bound is as good as Moon Called. I enjoyed it and had fun learning more about the characters.

I'm now reading Edgar Pangborn's Davy . . . slowly and dutifully, without real joy.

 

[murphy]

Now reading Patricia Briggs Blood Bound. The second of her books about a shapechanging car mechanic. (She changes into a coyote at will.) It abounds with werewolves, vampires and in this book a vampiric sorcerer. It's better than her first book and an enjoyable urban fantasy.

 

[Nikitta]

I've put the books I was reading aside to read The Disposessed. It makes such an impression on me that I just had to put it first, even though I just bought it.

I find myself stopping and reading certain passages more than once, just because of the way they feel. I don't think I've ever read a book like that before.