How can it be July already? What we're reading this month...

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I finished October 1964, which might be one of the most interesting sports books I ever read. A fascinating look at a sport/country struggling to come to terms with its racist past, chock full of utterly fascinating characters. I loved it.

Now I can't decide what to read next. I have Child 44, a serial killer thriller (not my thing) set in Soviet Russia (always been intrigued by Russian lit... but it's a British author). It sounded good but I'm not so keen on it now. I could finally read 'A Feast for Crows' but was kinda holding out for ADWD first... or I could buy something totally new when I go to borders this evening ;)
 
Tower Hill by Sarah Pinborough. Slow but intriguing start, builds up really nicely. The ending took me by surprise, simply because I was expecting a different type of ending, There was almost a deus ex machina to make the happy ending, but that was after the bad guys had been dealt with, so not interferring with the story. Surprising number of typos in this edition (if I'm spotting them, it must be bad). A fine horror.
 
ktabic said:
There was almost a deus ex machina to make the happy ending, but that was after the bad guys had been dealt with,.
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Never quite grasped what deus ex machina is all about. Literally,which is how I tend to see things,it would mean something like god outside the machine or vice versa. Anyone care to explain it in plain English?
 
It comes from the Greek plays, where a god would literally descend onto the stage and save the hero of the story.

Generally it means some kind of event, or twist, or something like that, that swoops into the story and saves the characters; something which would probably be implausible, not within context of the story, or just really a little too easy, as it were...
 
God out of the box - I forget the details of the hardware but, in ancient Greek plays, they would sometimes pull a god out over the stage to resolve the play. It's come to mean any sort of authorial fiat that fashions an ending that wouldn't just naturally occur.

-- Hoopy beat me to it. Ah well, two for the price of one. ;)
 
soulsinging said:
...or I could buy something totally new when I go to borders this evening ;)
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People still go to those..."book store" thingies? How quaint.

Kind of like going to a drive-in movie; walking over to your television to change the channel; or churning your own butter or something :D
 
MontyCircus said:
People still go to those..."book store" thingies? How quaint.

Kind of like going to a drive-in movie; walking over to your television to change the channel; or churning your own butter or something :D
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Oh you can't beat going to a bookstore. Well you can,going to a book store with loads of money! ;)
But even better is a second hand book stall or book market. Lovely!
 
MontyCircus said:
People still go to those..."book store" thingies? How quaint.

Kind of like going to a drive-in movie; walking over to your television to change the channel; or churning your own butter or something :D
Click to expand...

AE35Unit said:
Oh you can't beat going to a bookstore. Well you can,going to a book store with loads of money! ;)
But even better is a second hand book stall or book market. Lovely!
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And besides, it helps the economy by keeping all those clerks employed. ;)
 
And you can pay cash and not get your credit card number stolen over the net. And see the condition of the thing you're buying. And thumb through any of the pages you want. And not have to wait for the shelves to load. Not have broken links. And not pay shipping and handling and have to unconditionally wait for it to arrive. Etc.

Speaking of sometimes having to and being willing to wait, I got really annoyed last time I went to a "new" bookstore. I wanted them to order a book they didn't have and they told me I had to order it online. If I'd wanted to do that, I don't think I'd be in the damned store in the first place. So they lost a sale - more really, as I haven't been back since. Been to the used book store quite a number of times, though. They can't special order me anything, but they have a better selection at much better prices with much nicer folks working there, at least.

But yeah - as long as I have it, I'll take the "brick and mortar" option.
 
I used to love visiting the various book fayres when I lived down south. I'd go with my brother and occasionally my sister too. But the best place was Hay on Wye. Every shop there,and I mean EVERY shop sells books! (Even this tiny cafe in some little alleyway) And they have a 3 floor converted library or somesuch,all wall to wall books. Oh god what a place!
 
And to steer the thread back on topic....:rolleyes:

Having finished Flaubert's Salammbô, I have now moved on to the earlier version(s) of his The Temptation of Saint Anthony -- basically the same sort of thing, but radically different in many ways. Along with that, I'm trying to get my Lovecraftian reading back on track (with various changes at work and other things, that one has been put on hold for about 6 weeks, which does not tend to make me a happy person)....
 
Myself have just started reading EZRA CAINE BY JOSEPH SMARTS as well as The Tiral by Franz Kafka .
 
Finally getting around to read 'A Feast for Crows' by Martin. It's pretty good so far, though I can see why is frustrated people that waited 5 years for it and were blindsided by the absence of certain characters. Reading it for what it is has been plenty pleasant for me though.
 
Finished the alternate version of The Temptation of Saint Anthony, by Gustav Flaubert. Though basically the same tale, there are numerous differences here, and this version is, if anything, even more like a horrific yet at times farcical phantasmagoria than the later version translated by Hearn. The latter could, at times, be a bit too erudite, ending up sounding like a catalogue of heresiarchs and ancient deities at times, while this version maintains the narrative a bit better in spots (though less polished). It also has an ending that reminds me a bit of Marlowe's Faustus, save that here the horror has a strongly ironic tinge to it; a very sardonic ending completely different from the final version of the piece.

A bit difficult in spots, but I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves a panoramic romp where the imagination is allowed nearly total free rein; there are also some magnificent passages which, for sheer fantastic coloring, are very difficult to beat.

And now I've moved on to Baudelaire: His Prose and Poetry, an old (1919) Modern Library collection of various pieces, including (of course) a large selection from Les fleurs du mal, as well as various prose poems and other works. Parallel with that, I'll be reading Clark Ashton Smith's translations of The Flowers of Evil as well....
 
I'm reading:

- The Magician's Apprentice by Trudi Canavan
- Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures by Walter Moers
- King of the Murgos by David Eddings
- Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
- Treason Keep by Jennifer Fallon
 
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