December's Diabolical Deviations (what are you currently reading?)

GOLLUM said:
Is that a old/recent novel or short story/novella? I don't seem to have that in my McKillip oeuvre, which is well...disconcerting to say the least....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
I'll wager it appears in the next GOLLUM book haul update :rolleyes:
 
It's her most recent novel, Mr. G.

I somehow had overlooked it myself, until amazon recommended it as something I might like to read. And of course it was.

I thought plot and characters were her most engaging in a long time, though the language was less poetic than her recent offerings. Still quite lovely in spots. A book well worth adding to your collection, I'd say.
 
Just finished A Place of Execution by Val McDermid and starting the Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell.
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
It's her most recent novel, Mr. G.

I somehow had overlooked it myself, until amazon recommended it as something I might like to read. And of course it was.

I thought plot and characters were her most engaging in a long time, though the language was less poetic than her recent offerings. Still quite lovely in spots. A book well worth adding to your collection, I'd say.
Click to expand...
Thank you for bringing it to my notice.

As Ravenus suggests it will definitely be a part of one of my new hauls for 2011...:)
 
My wife and I were reading at one of our favorite coffee troughs this afternoon and if she didn't pester me to hurry up and wrap it up I would have sat there who knows how much longer burning up the pages. What was I reading that so absorbed me? VATHEK! It got suddenly real good. It took what struck me as a genuine Vancian turn and I didn't want to stop. Boy, Beckford can turn it on when he's so inclined.
 
dask said:
My wife and I were reading at one of our favorite coffee troughs this afternoon and if she didn't pester me to hurry up and wrap it up I would have sat there who knows how much longer burning up the pages. What was I reading that so absorbed me? VATHEK! It got suddenly real good. It took what struck me as a genuine Vancian turn and I didn't want to stop. Boy, Beckford can turn it on when he's so inclined.
Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed it. Now, when you have a chance to get to them (and these are more like the latter than the earlier portions of the novel) I'd be interested in hearing your comments on the "Three Episodes"....
 
I think Dask is the third person on these forums (including me) to discover and enjoy Vathek this year. Does that count as a craze?

Still reading The Ulysses Theme, which is absolutely fascinating. Odysseus/Ulysses was always the most compelling character in Homer for me (and evidently many others including Dante, Joyce and Dan Simmons) and this overview brings out the contradictions and delicate balances that set him apart.
 
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy said:
I think Dask is the third person on these forums (including me) to discover and enjoy Vathek this year. Does that count as a craze?

Still reading The Ulysses Theme, which is absolutely fascinating. Odysseus/Ulysses was always the most compelling character in Homer for me (and evidently many others including Dante, Joyce and Dan Simmons) and this overview brings out the contradictions and delicate balances that set him apart.
Click to expand...
I think so, you've got to take small victories where you don't get large ones.
 
Finally finished Shaw's Vertigo- very good. Just took me ages thanks to the flu!
Next up a re read of Clarke's Childhood's End. Read it years ago but not sure i understood it all back then. This will probably be my last read of 2010!
 
AE35Unit said:
Who is this Vathek fellow you all praise so highly? (Well 3 of you anyway...) and Beckford?
Click to expand...

Well, it's not really the person Vathek who is worthy of praise but those "beneath" him who try to overcome his crazy/stupid ways. The emir with the foxy daughter is the one who has my admiration --- for the moment at least.


j. d. worthington said:
Glad you enjoyed it. Now, when you have a chance to get to them (and these are more like the latter than the earlier portions of the novel) I'd be interested in hearing your comments on the "Three Episodes"....
Click to expand...

There was another edition of VATHEK at the second hand bookstore I bought my copy with something about "episodes" on the cover. Without looking too closely I just figured the copy I was going to buy had those stories. I went back a week or two ago to take another look thinking no one would want it. Well, guess what? It was gone. If I come across it in the future I will pick it up. The same thing, by the way, happened with THE MONK. The bookstore across the street had a perfect condition used copy from the publisher you recommended with an introduction by Stephen King and some dork got to it before me --- again! Well, even used I couldn't afford it at the time but if I ever come across it again I'm not gonna let it slip by.
 
AE35Unit said:
Who is this Vathek fellow you all praise so highly? (Well 3 of you anyway...) and Beckford?
Click to expand...

Vathek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A fascinating, bizarre, sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, and sometimes powerfully weird piece of writing heavily influenced by the Arabian Nights, and which in turn had a major influence on the development of both certain aspects of the Gothic, horror, and fantasy fiction. A book which had impact on several of the major writers in each of these fields....

On the "Three Episodes"... as I said, anyone interested can find "The Third Episode of Vathek" on the site devoted to Clark Ashton Smith (The Eldritch Dark), where it includes CAS's completion of the tale (left unfinished by Beckford).

My own reading: I finished both A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales by Hawthorne... charming books, even with the alterations in the myths which Hawthorne (or his narrator, Eustace Bright) invent. It has the same sort of fancy as one of my favorite Hawthorne tales, "Feathertop", albeit these (along with his The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair) were intended for younger readers....

I've also been continuing my reading of Joshi's I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft. I find this edition to be even more absorbing, as Joshi is able to go into a lot more of the background behind the tales, as well as having more space for examinations of the works, and a good deal more of his own responses (which can be quite humorous at times, as when he dryly remarks, following a recounting of one of the young Lovecraft's high school escapades, "That Lovecraft was a smart-aleck would be a considerable understatement". Fascinating book....
 
dask said:
There was another edition of VATHEK at the second hand bookstore I bought my copy with something about "episodes" on the cover. Without looking too closely I just figured the copy I was going to buy had those stories. I went back a week or two ago to take another look thinking no one would want it. Well, guess what? It was gone. If I come across it in the future I will pick it up. The same thing, by the way, happened with THE MONK. The bookstore across the street had a perfect condition used copy from the publisher you recommended with an introduction by Stephen King and some dork got to it before me --- again! Well, even used I couldn't afford it at the time but if I ever come across it again I'm not gonna let it slip by.
Click to expand...
I did this to someone else recently (Zafon's Prince of Mists), lamentable but it happens.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
GOLLUM December's Daring Descent into Dynamically Divergent Documents Book Discussion 99
GOLLUM December's Delirious Descent into Dittological Dissections of Documents Book Discussion 96
GOLLUM December's Deliciously Delirifacient Dabblings Into Fictional Diversions Book Discussion 135
H December's Photo Challenge Technology 59
Pyan December's here! And you're reading....? Book Discussion 241

Similar threads


Back
Top