October 2022 Reading Thread

[Dave Vicks]

Currently Dean Koontz novel WATCHERS.
And Shirley Jackson stories.

Up next probably IT by Stephen King.

 

[Parson]

Reading my 6th? time through "The Honor of the Queen" by David Weber. I'm following along a Pod Cast which is reading and discussing the main line of the Honor Harrington series.

I've always loved the first books of this series. But reading them now I not only see why I liked them so well, but how really well they were written and how much the settings appeal to me. Negatively, I find myself less tolerant of the later Weber books in this series.

 

[Danny McG]

Today it's a re-read of The Killing Star

Good stuff

 

[Randy M.]

Note: it was the book I downloaded, not the film

By the way, it's Paul Gallico, and while Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris was pretty well known in its day, he was even better known as the author of The Poseidon Adventure. And among the kiddies of the time, he may have been better known for Thomasina, which Disney filmed.

On the whole, a very commercially successful writer. I vaguely recall reading The Zoo Gang in my teens but not being impressed enough to track down more of his work.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans (2021) by Garrett Ryan, which is exactly what the title suggests: a scholarly but informal collection of questions and answers about the topic, intended for interested laypersons. The appendix, "A Very Short History of the Classical World," is a good place to start for a nonexpert like me.

 

[Danny McG]

By the way, it's Paul Gallico

Correct, it must have been an auto text thing that I never noticed

 

[Raincloud Man]

I'm still reading Century Rain, It's been a slow few days since I've had a bunch of work and been working on achievements in Guild Wars 2. I'm almost done though, it's pretty good.

 

[Rodders]

I spent two weeks in France to see my bestest friend in the whole wide world, so reading has stopped. I'm still on Tade Thompson's Rosewater and I hope to finish in the next few days and then I'll get back to reading the Judge Dredd books.

 

[Raincloud Man]

Well, I am done now. I'm usually not very good at reviews but I felt the ending was a little rushed, he tied everything together very quickly and the book is begging for a sequel.
I immediately started Blue Remembered Planet, I've heard mixed things about this series as well but I have high hopes.

 

[hitmouse]

By the way, it's Paul Gallico, and while Mrs. 'arris Goes to Paris was pretty well known in its day, he was even better known as the author of The Poseidon Adventure. And among the kiddies of the time, he may have been better known for Thomasina, which Disney filmed.

On the whole, a very commercially successful writer. I vaguely recall reading The Zoo Gang in my teens but not being impressed enough to track down more of his work.

Gallico is possibly best known for the novella The Snow Goose, a tearjerker about the Dunkirk evacuation. I used to have a record of Spike Milligan reading the story.

 

[Quokka]

I enjoyed Time and Again by Jack Finney its not action packed but its a pleasant read and it was interesting to learn a little about the Dakota building and 1880s New York.

SF Masterworks -> Crime Masterworks -> Fantasy Masterworks worked out pretty well and so I think I'll try another loop.

Next up The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein.

 

[Tenebrae]

Moved cross country two years ago and I'm just now unpacking most of my books, and I just couldn't resist when I pulled out the Gaea trilogy by John Varley. So, right now I'm about halfway through Titan (for at least the fifth time). <3

 

[Danny McG]

Now the looking glass war by John Le Carre

 

[smellincoffee]

Just finished Survival City, a bit of ...historical, military-focused, Cold War tourism. The author visited extant sites relating to nuclear war/fallout-oriented infrastructure, including a defensive array in North Dakota called "Nixon's Pyramid", and interviewed people about more inaccessible sites, like a school built underground in New Mexico to double as a fallout shelter. It was an interesting read, but not as in-depth as I expected. I was particularly interested in "Atomic Survival Town", and didn't realize how small a project it was. I was expecting something more along the lines of that fake town in the neo-Indiana Jones movie where Indy escapes a direct nuclear blast by...hiding in a refrigerator.

 

[Elentarri]

I finished: Himalaya: A Human History by Ed Douglas. Horribly written book. In my opinion, this frustratingly erratic hopscotch "history" is not a particularly useful or coherent introduction to the Himalaya. Every single 1 and 2 star review on GoodReads is valid.

Last night I finished Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey. A horror novel apparently. The pacing was a bit too slow, but I wanted to know what was behind the creepy stuff going on in the house. That part was different.

 

[Dave Vicks]

OT: BLADE RUNNER TV show supposed to be out 2024.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Currently reading Eugene Ionesco play RHINOCEROS.

 

[KGeo777]

I finished THE LAST MAN by Mary Shelley.
Took a while to read because I was doing it in small increments and it was a hard book to get through.

There is a lot of things in here which turn up in familiar post-apocalyptic stories. A dog as companion, a religious fanatic who manipulates people with scare-mongering about the plague, animals left to wander and Nature taking back the ruins of cities, etc. Did she invent the post-apocalyptic genre?
Knowing some things about the author's back story, when reading the book I could sense which characters were inspired by people the author knew.

I can see why it doesn't lend itself to a film interpretation. It's not plot-driven in a way that would fit any movie scenario and it's rather grim (Pride and Prejudice and the Plague)--there are a few moments of pathos but this was not a fun read, especially in our current state of affairs, yet some of it definitely has relevance to now.

Putting on my thematic analysis hat, to compare this to Frankenstein, a story about someone creating a new humanoid creature without divine intervention, and this is the opposite--it is about the ending of all humanoid life without divine intervention. An appropriate companion topic for Mary Shelley to explore.

 

[Vince W]

Just did a quick reread of The Peripheral by William Gibson ahead of the Prime series. Gibson is still one of my favourite authors.

On to Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It’s one of those books I meant to read earlier but then got so hyped I put it off.

 

[Foxbat]

I enjoyed most of the stories in the Fritz Leiber Megapack.

Now moving on to Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant. Bought on the spur of the moment after reading the blurb and a few reviews. Now, upon reflection, not sure if it will be for me but you don’t know until you try.