December Reading Thread

[Elentarri]

An acquaintance came to the conclusion that Wuthering Heights made more sense if you consider the characters to be vampires.

 

[HareBrain]

I think I see what they mean, but the characters feel very human to me. Where Bronte seems very clever, at least in the early section, is setting up a complex web of clear relationships.

 

[Toby Frost]

Rereading The boys from Brazil by Ira Levin

I've really liked all the Ira Levin stuff books I've read, but I thought that this was the weakest. Still good, though.

Declare was very good. The king in the desert is really quite sinister.

 

[Rodders]

I finished listening to Alistair Reynolds The Prefect last night and i really enjoyed it. Much better than i remembered.

Now on to Elysium Fire, which is also read by John Lee.

 

[Danny McG]

I've really liked all the Ira Levin stuff books I've read, but I thought that this was the weakest. Still good, though

It was a mistake on my part TBH, I had a half remembered film in my mind, after the war and Nazi hunting.
I thought it was the Boys from Brazil so I got it and began reading, partway through I was thinking "yeah, I've read this, but it isn't the one I was thinking of" anyway I plodded on and finished it.

Google tells me I was actually wanting The Odessa File by Frederic Forsyth, again after the war and Nazi hunting.
I read that many years ago as well, after watching the film.
I've got it now as an ebook for future reading

 

[Toby Frost]

I think the best of all of those is the novel of Marathon Man by William Goldman. Apparently he wrote a sequel, which sounds really weird.

 

[Danny McG]

I think the best of all of those is the novel of Marathon Man by William Goldman. Apparently he wrote a sequel, which sounds really weird.

I can't remember the sequel title but it had android little kids who like chocolate, they act and look really cute but their entire purpose is to get near heads of state and then they explode!

 

[HareBrain]

Declare was very good. The king in the desert is really quite sinister.

He's one of the strongest memories from my first read 20-odd years ago, and I'm looking forward to getting back to him. He's been mentioned a couple of times to pique interest (something Powers does a lot in this book, and really well).

The same figure cropped up in a graphic novel I read once, so he must come from an actual legend of the region. I'll try finding out more when I've finished the book.

 

[Rodders]

I can't remember the sequel title but it had android little kids who like chocolate, they act and look really cute but their entire purpose is to get near heads of state and then they explode!

Marathon Man 2: Lap of Honour.

 

[Danny McG]

Marathon Man 2: Lap of Honour.

It's called Brothers, I found a bit of blurb online:-

The final invention is exploding children made to kill important politicians and scientists to goad major world powers into attacking each other so the United Kingdom, left standing, could rule the world. Beverage had already sent exploding children, but they largely detonate prematurely and the mutual retaliation fails to materialize. Babe's wife, Melissa, has been hired by a facility in England ostensibly to fine-tune speech of amusement park props - in reality, the exploding children.

 

[Randy M.]

Taking a break about half-way through Tim Powers's Declare, not from any fault of the book (which is brilliant) but from a sudden desire to have another go at Wuthering Heights, despite finding nothing but negative opinions about it recently and dropping it instantly when I tried it a few weeks ago. For some reason I got straight into it this time, and about a hundred pages in am hooked.

For what it's worth, I enjoyed Wuthering Heights when I read it way back when. It seemed somewhat Faulknerian, with heightened emotions and larger-than-life characters, as I recall.

 

[Toby Frost]

Brothers sounds almost as crazy (and bad) as the Geoffrey Household novel about giant weasels in the jungle. Now I think of it, the "league of assassins" element of Marathon Man was its weakest element, and the film did well to cut it out.

 

[HareBrain]

For what it's worth, I enjoyed Wuthering Heights when I read it way back when.

I remembered enjoying studying it at school (unlikely as that seems) but bounced off it when I first tried to reread it recently. I think now that might have been because of Lockwood's voice in the first few pages, which was perhaps not meant to be endearing (a bold stylistic choice if true). Once it settles into Mrs Dean's narrative, it becomes a lot more readable.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I should mention stuff I read at home when I am away from the computer, which alternates with my reading at work.

The Complete Maus (1991) by Art Spiegelman, the famous graphic novel about his father's experiences during the Holocaust.

A hardback collection of all issues of the "little" (in all senses of the word) literary magazine The Lark (1895 to 1897; the two small hardbound volumes we have date from about that time, also.) A very eccentric publication, heavy on humor. (It's where the famous poem "The Purple Cow" appeared.)

I am also deep into Selected Works of Stephen Vincent Benet Volume Two: Prose (1942); I don't have Volume One: Poetry. It has famous stories like "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By the Waters of Babylon," as well as a bunch of other stuff. I am currently reading Spanish Bayonet (1926), included in the collection, a full-length novel set in Florida at the time of the American Revolution.

 

[Rodders]

Finished Dan Abnett's Blood Pact, which is just superb. This is the third time i've read them and the sense of risk is still there, even though i know how they end.

Now on to Salvations Reach

 

[AE35Unit]

An acquaintance came to the conclusion that Wuthering Heights made more sense if you consider the characters to be vampires.

All I can think of is Kate Bush

 

[Hugh]

I've been continuing with Earthsea....
The Word of Unbinding (Anthologised in "The Wind's Twelve Quarters")
The Rule of Names (Anthologised in "The Wind's Twelve Quarters)
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Tales from Earthsea
It's interesting to re-read those first two anthologised in "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" given that they were the first two Earthsea stories published (in 1964, four years before A Wizard). The ending of The Word of Unbinding has a striking similarity to the 'Dry Land' confrontation at the end of The Farthest Shore, while The Rule of Names gives the backstory to Ged's showdown with the Dragon Yevaud on the island of Pendor in A Wizard of Earthsea.
The Rule of Names is also memorable for showing that even great writers can use the ideas of others as raw material. It features a somewhat eccentric character, Mr Underhill, a little fat man of fifty who waddles around with his toes turned in, who lives in a cave on the side of a hill above the village. He's said to have treasure hidden there and is also good with fireworks. Presumably this gave Tolkien his inspiration for The Hobbit. (OK. Joke.)
In the spirit of obsessive completism I've now bought a copy of the all-inclusive Saga Press edition The Books of Earthsea illustrated by Charles Vess, as this contains two stories that I have not read as yet, as well as a 1992 lecture by Ursula le Guin. I've only looked at it briefly so far.

 

[Dave Vicks]

VISIONARY.By Graham Hancock. 2005,2021.
Psychedelics and Evolution.

 

[Foxbat]

Just finished The Man Who Invented The Twentieth Century.
I first heard of Nikola Tesla when I went to college for my apprenticeship but I wasn't aware just how much of an incredible impact he had. I think it's fair to say that almost every person on Earth has been affected by his inventions and discoveries and yet, amongst the general population, he remains relatively unknown. This is a historical travesty of epic proportions.

 

[Vince W]

Starting The Genesis Machine by James P. Hogan. His second published novel.