What are you reading now?

[Number45]

Man, I knew this would be difficult to read, but:



It seems the format is off in this translation (and the translation itself is far from ideal it seems!). Is anyone able to recommend a different translation? I'm going to look it up now, but if someone knows of a specific version that's at least legible it'll be appreciated.

[Stoppy2000]

Finished Apartment 16 a few weeks back. A horror (supposedly) about an apartment in a plush block in Lowndes Square London which is inhabited by 1930's demonic painter in the mirrors. The premise sounds great but it's very very boring. It has nods towards graham Mastertons "Mirror", but isn't as good. Infact, its about 500 or 600 pages and its about 400 pages too long. The middle drags that slowly because of the totally unneccessary padding that i found it incredibly hard work to get through without my mind wandering with boredom.

Then read Clive Barkers: Books of Blood 1 & 2. I read these about ten or fifteen years ago and decided to read them again after the banality of Apartment 16. Both books have to rank as possibly the best collection of horror stories i have ever read. They are absolutely brilliant and easily stand alongside the collections of Stephen King, Ray Bradbury and Lovecraft.

The stories are so varied and fantastical, its hard to believe the films made of them are so crap. I also like his books but tend to prefer his early stuff like Weaveworld and Cabal.

Also read about 4 Brian Keene books. City of the Dead, The Rising, Take the long way home and Castaways. All very good page turners which are generally along the lines of post apocalyptic'ish settings with zombies etc. Castaways is about contestants who have to survive on a desert island with some murderous creatures.


Next up is The Passage and then the Day by Day Armegeddon books as i have heard they are excellent.

Day by Day Armageddon is ace, just read the sequel which is less good but still a captivating read.

[vanpeebles]

Finished Apartment 16 a few weeks back. A horror (supposedly) about an apartment in a plush block in Lowndes Square London which is inhabited by 1930's demonic painter in the mirrors. The premise sounds great but it's very very boring. It has nods towards graham Mastertons "Mirror", but isn't as good. Infact, its about 500 or 600 pages and its about 400 pages too long. The middle drags that slowly because of the totally unneccessary padding that i found it incredibly hard work to get through without my mind wandering with boredom.

The HP Lovecraft short story The Trap sounds a bit similar.

[Charlie]

Breaking Open the Head by Daniel Pinchback



'As mind-expanding as the chemicals it chronicles, "Breaking Open the Head" is the most artful and provocative investigation of psychedelia since Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception".' Stephen Johnson, author of 'Emergence' 'I much admire "Breaking Open the Head" for being the account of an authentic quest for enlightenment in jungles, up rivers, in deserts, and hardest of all to access, the human mind and heart via the one of the oldest thoroughfares on earth, mind-expanding drugs. This is a serious and illuminating journey.' Paul Theroux 'By the end of this highly readable report, Pinchbeck's head has been broken into so often -- by ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, DMT and other drugs -- that you might expect him to install hinges. Yet there is a seriousness behind his self-experiments and while the drug tales are gripping, and funny, he is at pains to put them in the context of his search for meaning.' Guardian 'A modern Odyssey, a search for spiritual revelations, a success.' Independent

Definitely one of the better books I've read in a long time and evidence, in my opinion, that the inner regions of the mind are as exciting and far flung a frontier as the outer regions of space.

[Number45]

I don't know if I'd be able to read something like that, but I might try - only one way to find out I guess.

I've given up for now in finding a good Kindle compatible translation of The Divine Comedy, so I'm starting Heart of Darkness today instead.

[Charlie]

Providing you're interested in drugs, spirituality, consciousness or the nature of reality, it's a straightforward read. Here's an excerpt from the book (skip to 6:20):



And here's the kinda thing he talks about in visual form courtesy of the stunning ayahuasca trip scene from the movie Blueberry:



I dunno, for years now it's surprised me that folk go to so much time and expense and energy to seek out a little excitement or beauty or spirituality or wisdom in their lives when all they need do is take a little drug that changes their consciousness and they'll lay witness to the most beautiful, most hideous and the most incredible things they could (n)ever imagine.

[Number45]

I've done my time experimenting with mind altering substances. :-)

I'm just in the mood to try different things on books at the moment (hence The Divine Comedy, I usually stick to modern horror).

[randombs]

Fellowship of the Ring.

It's been quite boring but is picking up now at the council of Elrond bit.

[abigsmurf]

As much as it's a classic piece of writing, LOTR isn't an easy read. It tends to get lost in the details and insane numbers of names to remember, you go into text scanning mode and find you've accidentally missed something important .

[NemesiS]

Agree with Smurf. All three books are very boring with waaaay to much detail, people and nonsense to remember. The Hobbit on the other hand is absolutely brilliant.

If you like fantasy, i would ditch LoTR and read Raymond E Feists Magician series, or some of David Gemmell's books which are surperb. Also, Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series is pretty good.

[Number45]

I've realised while reading it, that Heart of Darkness forms the basis for Apocalypse Now. Awesome.

[Darwock]

All three books are very boring with waaaay to much detail, people and nonsense to remember.
....
Also, Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series is pretty good.

The first line applies more to the Wheel of Time series than it ever did to LOTR (imo).

I loved the Wheel of Time in my younger days, but by book 6 I was struggling to stay focused. I remember endless descriptions of people's clothing.. by book 7 I came to the decision to stop as he was never going to end it (I assumed he was too reluctant to kill of his cash cow). Turns out he never did either, went and died and left that job to someone else. Great.

This is what I was nervous about with the Song of Ice and Fire series (as mentioned on the thread in the TV forum), but as I approach the end of the third book I can tell you that George R.R. Martin is clearly not afraid to kill off anything or anyone :P

It's actually wearing me down though, it's just one injustice after another... despair follows disaster - needs a little counterbalance.

[prinnysquad]

Don't be daft, lad. The world of GRRM is a bitter and vicious place, with hate and pain ****ting from every arse. But at least you're always braced for the worst

[NemesiS]

The first line applies more to the Wheel of Time series than it ever did to LOTR (imo).

I read to about book 10 in his series before getting totally bored. Thats why i said pretty good and not excellent. Talking of milking a cash cow tho, Feist is doing exactly the same thing with his Riftwar/Serpent war series. The initial first 5 books and the next few after that were absolute stonkers (along with the 3 Servant, Mistress and Daughter of the Empire series), but now he's just churning out books for the sake of it with no real direction. Pity as it was brilliant..

I must admit i still love reading Conan. Robert E Howards style of writing was just sublime and pretty much all his Conan stories were superb with his book Conan the Avenger just outstanding and the best conan book in the series by some distance. But you must read them in order to appreciate the later books to understand what they are on about as Conan is called different names through his life by the different people he meets at various stages in his life in the books.

The closest to Howard imo is Gemmell. His Druss, Skillgannon, Waylander and Jerusalem Man stories are amazing. He's also done some cracking standalone stuff as well. A real shame he died as he was a fabulous fantasy writer.

[Darwock]

I dunno, for years now it's surprised me that folk go to so much time and expense and energy to seek out a little excitement or beauty or spirituality or wisdom in their lives when all they need do is take a little drug that changes their consciousness

Revisiting this comment - when I read it a few days ago I thought it was a joke, but Charlie's similar comments on another thread reveal that he was actually serious. All they need to do is take a little mind-altering drug??? Come on mate, no... I have a lot more respect for people who exercise their own imagination/appreciate beauty without chemical assistance.