What Are You Reading?

[TheeUndyingFan]

Oh yeah.
The series kind of dried up towards the middle, I lost a little interest at times. Then towards the end after his accident in real life, it came back pretty damn solid.
The ending was really ingenious. It is the only real ending it could have had. It wraps up nothing and everything at the same time.

I couldn't agree more, now it's time for Hollywood to take it and blow it up. McConaghey as Flagg and Idris Alba as Roland... No thanks.

 

[airtime143]

I couldn't agree more, now it's time for Hollywood to take it and blow it up. McConaghey as Flagg and Idris Alba as Roland... No thanks.

King is my favorite fiction writer... but good god some of his movies are hideous... nobody can catch the tone they need.

The notable recent exception is "The Mist". That is a case of the movie ending way better than the book. I almost fell off my couch laughing.


If you dig King, McCammon is pretty similar.

If you read "The Stand" and liked it, then check out "Swan Song" by Robert R. McCammon. Outstanding book- but time consuming. around 1000 pages.

 

[DMelt36]

Big King fan here, has anyone else read through The Dark Tower series?


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Oh yeah.
The series kind of dried up towards the middle, I lost a little interest at times. Then towards the end after his accident in real life, it came back pretty damn solid.
The ending was really ingenious. It is the only real ending it could have had. It wraps up nothing and everything at the same time.

Finished them up a few years back. Like airtime said, the ending was simultaneously infuriating and perfect. It was amazing to me how much just about every other book King has written weaves in and out of the world created in that series.

I can't recall exactly what number it was, but the book that featured the flashback into Roland's past was my favorite of the series. Although Wolves of Calla (Book V, I believe) was a close second.


As for right now, I'm catching up on a few classics that I somehow never read: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.

 

[DMelt36]

I couldn't agree more, now it's time for Hollywood to take it and blow it up. McConaghey as Flagg and Idris Alba as Roland... No thanks.

Yeah, I don't know if any movie could ever match what I saw in my mind as I read through that one. Plus they'll need about a 6-part series to cover everything.

King is my favorite fiction writer... but good god some of his movies are hideous... nobody can catch the tone they need.

The notable recent exception is "The Mist". That is a case of the movie ending way better than the book. I almost fell off my couch laughing.

If you dig King, McCammon is pretty similar.

If you read "The Stand" and liked it, then check out "Swan Song" by Robert R. McCammon. Outstanding book- but time consuming. around 1000 pages.

Loved The Mist. Huge King fan myself, read a few dozen of his books. Started with Salem Lot in high school and just got hooked from there.

 

[airtime143]

Finished them up a few years back. Like airtime said, the ending was simultaneously infuriating and perfect. It was amazing to me how much just about every other book King has written weaves in and out of the world created in that series.

I can't recall exactly what number it was, but the book that featured the flashback into Roland's past was my favorite of the series. Although Wolves of Calla (Book V, I believe) was a close second.


As for right now, I'm catching up on a few classics that I somehow never read: 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.

I am actually planning on reading 1984 again soon. My lady and I were chatting about it a few weeks ago- how social media and cameras everywhere kind of fills the role of Big Brother- except people invite it and willingly contribute to it rather than fear it.
For a couple likes, those with compulsive social media give everything to "big Brother".

 

[airtime143]

I have to admit, to my shame, I really enjoyed the first few Vampire chronicals by Anne Rice. They eventually went laughably off the rails.

What I found most interesting about them is how transparent the connection between her real life and the books was.
A psychologist would have a field day with them.
Her daughter dies of a blood disease, she writes vampire books.
She is an athiest, and the immortal vampires are the only afterlife.
She goes back to religion, the vampire-I shit you not- goes back in time and feeds off of jesus.
The entire arc of the books follow lockstep her real life.

 

[TheeUndyingFan]

I got 600 pages into The Stand and just dropped it cold, I just couldn't do it any longer. I have the extended version though that wasn't very well received so that might have something to do with it. The Myst was a great movie and yeah, one of the only good King movies. I'd love a King cinematic universe if they got the tone right but I won't be holding my breath on that.

 

[airtime143]

I liked the original release of the stand much more than I liked the extended version. Not much extra there that needed to be in the story. Sometimes editing is good.

 

[remydat]

I have to admit, to my shame, I really enjoyed the first few Vampire chronicals by Anne Rice. They eventually went laughably off the rails.

What I found most interesting about them is how transparent the connection between her real life and the books was.
A psychologist would have a field day with them.
Her daughter dies of a blood disease, she writes vampire books.
She is an athiest, and the immortal vampires are the only afterlife.
She goes back to religion, the vampire-I shit you not- goes back in time and feeds off of jesus.
The entire arc of the books follow lockstep her real life.

Vampires aren't the only afterlife. You should read Memnoch the Devil where the Vampire Lestat meets an entity claiming to be the Biblical devil. I thought it was one of her better books and you can tell it is written by someone struggling with her faith.

 

[DMelt36]

I got 600 pages into The Stand and just dropped it cold, I just couldn't do it any longer. I have the extended version though that wasn't very well received so that might have something to do with it. The Myst was a great movie and yeah, one of the only good King movies. I'd love a King cinematic universe if they got the tone right but I won't be holding my breath on that.

I liked the original release of the stand much more than I liked the extended version. Not much extra there that needed to be in the story. Sometimes editing is good.

Yeah, many of King's books tend to ramble on from time to time. If he writes a 1,000 page book he'll set up something dramatic for 950 pages and then have a 1 or 2-page resolution of the conflict, and then a brief conclusion to wrap it up. Sometimes that build-up is so good that you can't put the book down, though. Under the Dome was exactly like that, to me.

 

[airtime143]

Vampires aren't the only afterlife. You should read Memnoch the Devil where the Vampire Lestat meets an entity claiming to be the Biblical devil. I thought it was one of her better books and you can tell it is written by someone struggling with her faith.

Yeah- I read the whole series, and it was wild how the narrative tone changes.

I also enjoyed the mummy book, but she never continued with that as far as i know.

 

[BaBaBlacksheep]

I used to read non-stop as a kid. Sadly I haven't found an author that interested me in years.

 

[botfly10]

Man, gotta say, King's older stuff is pretty great (It, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, early Dark Tower Series... etc) but imo he has gotten progressively worse. His shit is so formulaic now. It's like he is a caricature of himself.

He is masterful at creating identifiable characters and letting them just sort of inhabit a world. But the stories are have become so derivative. And his writing has never been good. Pretty far from it. His actual writing craft is kinda bad imo. He writes popcorn novels now. His books now are more like young adult pulp. Its hard for me to keep praising him when actual literature in america has gone through a sort or renaissance recently.

I mean we are talking about authors now like:

Eugenides
David Foster Wallace
TC Boyle
Chabon
Eggers
Palahniuk
Cormac McCarthy
Tim O’Brien
Philip Roth
Jonathan Franzen
Richard Russo
Pynchon

Those are some heavy hitters and King doesn't get anywhere near that conversation.

 

[airtime143]

Man, gotta say, King's older stuff is pretty great (It, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, early Dark Tower Series... etc) but imo he has gotten progressively worse. His shit is so formulaic now. It's like he is a caricature of himself.

.

Have you read 11/22/63?
That is newish, but fantastic.

 

[remydat]

Yeah- I read the whole series, and it was wild how the narrative tone changes.

I also enjoyed the mummy book, but she never continued with that as far as i know.

Yeah I missed your reference of Lestat going back in time and feeding off Jesus as that's from Memnoch the Devil.

Yeah there was no sequel to Ramses. She also had the Wolf Gift chronicles that was pretty good (it's about werewolves), then 2 books on the life if Jesus (a third was put on hold), and the the Songs of Seraphim series which were 2 books about an assassin who meets an angel that gives him a chance at redemption by helping to save lives by traveling through time to investigate various alleged crimes.

 

[airtime143]

Yeah I missed your reference of Lestat going back in time and feeding off Jesus as that's from Memnoch the Devil.

Yeah there was no sequel to Ramses. She also had the Wolf Gift chronicles that was pretty good (it's about werewolves), then 2 books on the life if Jesus (a third was put on hold), and the the Songs of Seraphim series which were 2 books about an assassin who meets an angel that gives him a chance at redemption by helping to save lives by traveling through time to investigate various alleged crimes.

I have been out of the anne rice loop for so long, I missed those. I will absolutely give the wolf and seraphim ones a shot, Thank you.

 

[botfly10]

Have you read 11/22/63?
That is newish, but fantastic.

Yeah, I read it. Was definitely entertaining, but I still get hung up on the writing.

 

[policeman]

I used to read non-stop as a kid. Sadly I haven't found an author that interested me in years.

Two trilogies that might pull you back into reading:

Joe Abercrombie- The First Law Series

Bernard Cornwell- The Warlord Chronicles

If you don't like either- **** off.

 

[Aesopian]

[video=youtube_share;4yiCyjRgXw0]https://youtu.be/4yiCyjRgXw0[/video]

 

[winos5]

Tigers in Normandy -Wolfgang Schneider

Great in depth analysis of tank warfare in Normandy.