What are you reading now?

[Number45]

If it's any help, I hated The Road. If you want something a little lighter in terms of page count (But still very... barren in tone) then The Gunslinger is a much smaller book. Of course it leads to far heavier books too.

He's not known for writing small books.

IMDb suggests similar movies, Last.fm suggests similar bands, is there a website that suggests similar books?

Preferably something user driven, rather than Amazon, for example.

www.bookarmy.com. I've literally just started looking at this, but seems like exactly what you're after.

EDIT: This is me.

[Atticus]

Another vote here for The Stand (the extended edition). It's really nothing like The Road ... different kettle of fish entirely. It's a fab read, and one of the few books I always want to go back to.

[Soundwave]

Just Reading the second Gears of War Novel - Jacinto's Remnant

It's bloody brilliant...nicely ties up some of the second game & a lovely follow on from the Aspho Fields novel which incidently is freaking awesome & easily one of the best books I've read in a long time.

As you can tell I dont really like heavy going books & these types of story are perfect for me nice easy pick up & put down stuff.

Next on the list is World War Z & then I think I'll re-read the Transformers G1 Novels.

Neil

[abigsmurf]

hey everyone, I need some recommendations from people about Stephen King novels.

You see, after the recent release of Alan Wake I have felt like reading a Stephen King novel, and I wondered if there is any standout books by King that are in a similar vein to Alan Wake? However, I don't really want to read something like the Shining, as i've already seen the film.

I've never read a King novel, so it would be interesting to hear if there is any particular novels that deserve my attention?

'It' is my favourite of his (scary clown monster terrorising kids)
The Stand is also great (apocalyptic good vs evil)
Desperation doesn't get much recognition but it's worth watching (wiped out ghost town). Regulators is kind of the other side to the story but isn't as good.

The Dark Tower is more a hybrid fantasy/western than a horror (although it has horror elements). Be warned it's a long series of fairly weighty books. It's a pretty massive book.

Just read the Hellbound Heart (Hellraiser). Was pretty enjoyable, if a bit short.

[Dirty Sanchez]

Working my way through the Millenium series (Dragon Tattoo etc).

Like the style and pace of the books, 3/4 of the way through the second one. Shame there is only the one to go.

[NemesiS]

Going through Clive Barker's Books of Blood at the moment. Quite enjoying them.

Are the films of Books of Blood and Midnight Meat Train any good? Not sure how well the former would be stretched out to 90 minutes.

The Books of Blood are excellent and possibly some of the best and most inventive horror short stories i have read. Forget the films tho

hey everyone, I need some recommendations from people about Stephen King novels.

You see, after the recent release of Alan Wake I have felt like reading a Stephen King novel, and I wondered if there is any standout books by King that are in a similar vein to Alan Wake? However, I don't really want to read something like the Shining, as i've already seen the film.

I've never read a King novel, so it would be interesting to hear if there is any particular novels that deserve my attention?

The Stand (Awesome story telling..Mooooooooon)
The Talisman (Just a fabulous story, but don't read the follow up The Black House, its crap)
The Bachman Books (4 Collected Novels, The Long Walk and The Running Man are simply superb)

Far and away the best 3 (or is that 6) books he has ever written imho.

I've read just about all his books and of the rest i would advise on reading his early stuff as i don't particularly like his writing of the last 10 years or so, although a lot of people on here will have different opinions, personally i find his writing now incredibly boring and drawn out taking 30 pages describing something or setting a mood when 5-10 will do.

On the other hand his short story books are very good, in particular Nightmares & Dreamscapes and Four Past Midnight.

If you like horror, read Robert R McCammon's books. I've said it a few times on here but his novels are unbelievably good. In particular:

They Thirst (Vampire novel that shats all over Salems Lot)
Swan Song (Similar to The Stand but better)
The Wolfs Hour (Probably the best book i've ever read for pure page turning about a werewolf)
Stinger In fact, Kings latest, "The Dome" looks to be a straight rip off of Stinger.

[smouty]

Working my way through the Millenium series (Dragon Tattoo etc).

Like the style and pace of the books, 3/4 of the way through the second one. Shame there is only the one to go.

The saddest thing is that there will never be anything else from Stieg Larsson
Great series though.
Just started the 3rd in the Safehold series - By Heresies Distressed - as I'm well and truly hooked.

[k0pp0]

'IT' <-- Excellent

The Stand - read this not long ago and loved it (again)

Dark tower books are very very good imho.

'It' is my favourite of his (scary clown monster terrorising kids)
The Stand is also great (apocalyptic good vs evil)
Desperation doesn't get much recognition but it's worth watching (wiped out ghost town). Regulators is kind of the other side to the story but isn't as good.

The Dark Tower is more a hybrid fantasy/western than a horror (although it has horror elements). Be warned it's a long series of fairly weighty books. It's a pretty massive book.

Just read the Hellbound Heart (Hellraiser). Was pretty enjoyable, if a bit short.

[teenagewasteland]

My lecture notes on topology. Fun times.

I have so many books I want to read. Something else always seems to get in the way though.

[abigsmurf]

Gah I'm getting really tempted to write this novella/short story I've got floating around in my head. Just paranoid I'd spend 10 or so hours writing something that is unreadable rubbish.

Maybe I should just write an opening chapter and check out some writing forums for a bit of critique.

[randombs]

Working my way through the Millenium series (Dragon Tattoo etc).

I was at Waterstones a few days ago to get some new books as I'd just finished Children of Dune (I'm still reeling from how good the Dune books are. I realise now I probably should've just carried on with the next three books but I think I'll pace myself a little).

I got The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Between the Assassinations (Aravind Adiga), and Nocturnes (reading now - short stories by Kazuo Ishiguro).

Can't wait to start Girl, as I haven't seen the film yet so I'll get to use my imagination for once (I couldn't do that in Dune until I got to the later books because I've seen the film a few times).

[Hombre]

Eight Lives Down by Major Chris Hunter.

Excellent non-fiction book about a bomb disposal expert stationed in Iraq.

[dataDave]

I thought The Stand was ok... I expected better for the amount of time I pumped into it though. ;p

This probably sounds incredibly uneducated but I don't usually 'get' books that much. My imagination is good enough to picture things as if I'm watching a movie, and I even re-read parts if I'm not happy with the pictures I'm composing in my head, although I can think of better ways to entertain myself.

There are some awesome parts in books... but as a whole package I've yet to find a book that grabs me by the bollocks from start to finish, probably the closest to do so would be The Rats trilogy by James Herbert, the first book I caned in a single sitting from midnight to 6am.

[NemesiS]

Herberts okay, but i just find his stories, much like Koontz's kind of wither out towards the end. The stories are nearly all the same in that respect, I know whats going to happen and I start getting bored as it always seems that i've read it before.

Again like King, his early stuff is excellent, The Fog (not to be confused with the silly fims of which it bears no resemblance), The Spear, Sephulchure, The Rats, Survivor etc are cracking reads. His more recent stuff isn't bad but's its certainly not brilliant.

Read McCammon if like horror. They Thirst and Wolfs Hour are stonking.

Franks Herberts Dune series is fantastic as well as someone above has commented. Nothing like the crappy film with Bowie.

[Charlie]

'Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom' by Andy Letcher.

A good read, amusing and informative. Anybody interested in altered states of consciousness, perception, cognitive function, mysticism, religion or spirituality would enjoy this.

Forget safaris, bungie jumping, white water riding and beach holidays, a single mushroop trip can lead to 12 months of happiness - it's official damn it! You gotta love how it's taken science an estimated 8000 years to confirm what our ancestors knew.