What we're reading in August...

[murphy]

There's nothing you can say in 1000 pages that you can't say in 500. Unless you're Tolstoy.
But then, even the old Count could have done with a little editing. Just a little.

Yes. War and Peace is in my TBR pile. Maybe this time around I'll be able to keep the names straight.

 

[Addy]

Yes. War and Peace is in my TBR pile. Maybe this time around I'll be able to keep the names straight.

Just keep a name log.
You can use that to gear up to the unabridged version of Gibbon's The Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire.

 

[Fried Egg]

"The Gods of Pegana" by Lord Dunsany

 

[Connavar]

Geez, tell me about it. I have a few 1000-plus pages beasts waiting for me to work up my nerve, and dig into them. I'm all too happy lately to stay with the old 200-page science fiction standard length. Good days.

About King, I'd venture to say that the best introduction to him would be through his short stories. I rather prefer them to his novels.

Really? Which short stories do you mean? Or you mean his writing works better as short story?


I think he is at his best medium long Novel like The Dead Zone,The Lot.

Short stories he is good also but not better than his better novels.

 

[Addy]

Really? Which short stories do you mean? Or you mean his writing works better as short story?


I think he is at his best medium long Novel like The Dead Zone,The Lot.

Short stories he is good also but not better than his better novels.

I think his short stories are a notch above his novels in general. Some of his novels seem to me like they'd be great short stories, but he decided to develop them as novels.

I can understand why you like his novels better. He does have a knack for building up the tension, and he's pretty good at rhythm, and he can't explore that enough in short stories. But I tend to get thrown by the longer novels. Maybe the shorter/medium ones like Thinner and The Shining are a happy meeting point. Or even the novelettes, like The Mist, Shawshank and The Body.

 

[Nesacat]

... and he's got this whole spider thing that tends to spoil the endings of perfectly wonderful books like IT ... and then there was the whole hand og God business.

Just finished Never the Bride by Paul Magrs. Very odd book but interesting. ave no idea how one goes about pronouncing Magrs.

 

[Locksmith]

Just settling into Pedido Street Station by China Mieville. About 100 pages in, and it's okay, but I can't say I'm hooked yet.

 

[j d worthington]

Fried Egg: Does this edition include the Sime illustrations? I've always found that Dunsany and Sime go very well together -- and not surprising, as they often inspired each other.... Hope you enjoy it, whichever way it is.

Well, I've once again been balked at getting much reading done on the LeFanu by the way the week has gone, but I'm into this one enough to know that it already has some interesting atmospheric levels... I've not read much in LeFanu besides a couple of collections of his short stories before, but I'm developing quite a taste for his novels as well... and he has that odd blending of the grotesque, homely humor and the horrific (or perhaps terrific in its original sense) that is so much an Irish trademark....

Also read a bit in The Occult Lovecraft... interesting... Lovecraft's article (as usual) very thoughtful, and the others provide some interesting insight....

 

[Fried Egg]

Fried Egg: Does this edition include the Sime illustrations? I've always found that Dunsany and Sime go very well together -- and not surprising, as they often inspired each other.... Hope you enjoy it, whichever way it is.

No illustrations. I'm reading it as part of the "Time and the Gods" volume in the Fantasy Masterworks series. I didn't read the whole six books at once, but have taken a break in between each book. I enjoy them more that way.

"The Gods of Pegana" is placed at the end of this volume which seems strange given that it was actually written before "Time and the Gods". I think it would have made more sense to place it at the beginning...

 

[j d worthington]

I would tend to agree... that one sets up his entire theogony, so it does seem odd. Perhaps they did so because these are early tales, more in the nature of simple little fables or legends rather than more complexly developed stories? Nonetheless, they are quite pithy and actually are rather complex in their own way, if less elaborately developed....

 

[K. Riehl]

Just finished Regeneration by Julie Czerneda. The last in the Species Imperative trilogy. I recommend it for a Cherryh like treatment of aliens and human interaction. More thoughtful and less action oriented than a Cherryh style human/alien tale.

On to my just arrived ARC of The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Due out in the US Sept. 2007.

 

[Sathai]

I'm reading The Merlin of St. Gilles' Well by Ann Chamberlin.

 

[Rothgar]

Yesterday I finished Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. My favorite line from the book was his commentary on TV - "No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges - absorbing but never creating." And that was written in the 50's. He thought 3 hours of tv watching a day was a lot.

I'm now working on Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man.

 

[Fried Egg]

He thought 3 hours of tv watching a day was a lot.

That is a lot, isn't it?

 

[j d worthington]

That is a lot, isn't it?

The last statistic I saw (several years ago) is that the average here is about 5-6 hours a day.....

 

[Rothgar]

The last statistic I saw (several years ago) is that the average here is about 5-6 hours a day.....

I figured it was at least double. 3 hours a day is probably a lot to most people at chronicles. I wonder if he knew how prophetic his words would be?

 

[Fried Egg]

The last statistic I saw (several years ago) is that the average here is about 5-6 hours a day.....

I wouldn't even have time to watch tv for 3 hours a day. I have an hour or two at most. Although that's probably down to the fact that I have children and work full time.

I can't even imagine how children find that much time to watch tv...shouldn't they be at school? What about homework? Don't they do anything else...

 

[Siberian]

That probably includes time when TV is on but in background like when you're eating and watching TV. I used to watch a lot more TV as a kid (althought probably no more than 3 hours a day) but now I'm an Internet addict

 

[Connavar]

The last statistic I saw (several years ago) is that the average here is about 5-6 hours a day.....

Sadly i was atleast 6 hours a day before i started reading more.


Nowadays if i watch 3 hours tv thats surprising since tv gets only worse with all the crappy reality tv and i have too many books,mangas.



Weekends though im like any other sport freak. 10-15 hours on saturday+sunday thanks to Football(real football what you americans call Soccer )

 

[j d worthington]

Well, we do seem to have drifted off topic.... "Ramblin' Man" indeed....

Fried Egg: From the various studies I've seen over the years, I'd say that's a conservative estimate... especially where children are concerned. Come summer time, far too many really do turn into couch potatoes, either watching tv (whether it be scheduled programs or dvd/vhs), or playing video games. And the majority of adults, it seems, turn on the tv as soon as they get up, leave it on until they go to work (watching while cooking/eating breakfast, etc.) and turn it on again when they come home, only turning it off when they either leave the house or go to bed... sometimes not even doing so with the latter. Very little conversation... which might tell you something about why relationships are in the state they're in these days.....