Kylie

In Cold Blood Truman Capote Rating: 10/10 Published: 1966 Number of pages: 336 Summary (taken from blurb): Controversial and compelling, In Cold Blood reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible, yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative. Comments: In Cold Blood is a terrific blend of journalistic skill and creative writing. Capote begins the story by introducing the reader to all of the main players: the Clutter family (the victims), and Perry Smith and Dick Hickock (the killers). We get to know them very well - their personality traits and quirks, their views on life, and basically all of their background stories. Other characters, ranging from local gossips to detectives, are introduced equally vividly. Although the reader knows what's going to happen, Capote masterfully builds up the story and draws out the suspense, leaving the reader with numerous questions as to the 'why's and 'wherefore's of what's about to happen. Of course, they're all answered in time, but it's an intriguing journey and well worth the read. The story is never dull, and I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a work of fiction. Truman Capote worked tirelessly to gather his information (along with the aid of his friend, Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird) and put it together meticulously to create this incredible, true story. It's chilling and scary, but absolutely terrific! Highly recommended! Started: 31 January 2008 Finished: 17 February 2008

Never mind keeping the list for the kids, I'm keeping this one for myself! I've read 21 so far, with about a dozen others on my TBR pile. Thanks Janet!

I saw one called Nevermore today. It's based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and includes The Raven and several other stories of his. Looked pretty interesting.

Hmm, I agree with nothing on this list! For the purposes of replying to each point, I'll just copy the entire list below. 10. With the internet, video games, movies, porn, iPods, 500 channels on satellite TV, manga, magazines, graphic novels, etc., all vying for people's attention, books are a hopelessly antiquated way to spend your free time and they simply can't compete. I don't think books are antiquated at all. That's just a lame excuse people use when searching for answers as to why they think people don't read books anymore. And there are always ebooks and audiobooks if people have a hankering to download something. 9. Why pay $20 or more for something that you will only read, and therefore only use, once? Speak for yourself! I regularly re-read books and people who don't have any intention of re-reading books could always borrow them for free from the library. 8. You can't download books in the same way you can download music, movies or video games. Er, yes you can! Ebooks and audiobooks are obviously very popular, judging from the number of websites dedicated to them. 7. Books have no buttons or flashing lights. Well, what can I say to that? You could always string some fairy lights around your bedroom if you need flashing lights And ebook readers certainly have buttons! 6. If you watch a good movie, play a cool video game or listen to some kick-ass music, talking about it is a good way to connect with your friends. If you read a book, who the hell are you going to talk to about it? The Book Club Forum of course! And there are thousands of online blogs and forums dedicated to discussing books. There is a whole world full of people who love meeting others to discuss books! 5. Books require too much of an investment of time. I invest a lot of time in reading, but for me and all others who love reading, it's well worth the effort. 4. There are so many bad books out there, that it's a good idea to let Hollywood filter out the good from the bad, and watch the movie versions. Lazy! If you're worried about bad books, read some reviews of the book before you buy it. There are many more good books than there are bad I think. And don't get us started on Hollywood's versions of books! 3. Libraries and bookstores aren't exactly the coolest places on the planet. Name me one place that's cooler! This is obviously not a person who enjoys reading as a past-time! 2. People's imaginations have been turned into mush by video games, movies, TV shows and YouTube videos. Absolutely true. But I'm not sure how that links to people not reading books? Even people with the mushiest of brains will pick up a book sometimes. 1. Four words: no more Harry Potter. True, but JK Rowling has by no means ended her writing career. And in the meantime millions of children have been inspired to pick up other books and start reading them!

I thought you all might be interested to know that HarperCollins is going to publish several authors' works online for free, for the period of one month each. A lot of you will be pleased to know that Neil Gaiman is one of these authors and you can vote on his blog for which book you would like to see online. American Gods is in the lead, followed by Neverwhere. For any fans of Paulo Coelho, his book called The Witch of Portobello is currently available on their website. This link will take you directly to it. A bit more info can be found in this NY Times article.

Thanks for the offer Icecream! I've seen a copy of it in our staff library at work so I might just borrow that when I get around to it. Goodness knows I should start borrowing books instead of buying more! Thanks anyway!

I'm going to Panarottis for dinner with a group of girls. Pizza, pasta etc. Yum! Looking forward to it.

Of those titles you listed, Andy, I've only read The Trial, and I have to agree that it's not very dystopian. I think some people may have gotten 'dystopian' confused with 'sci-fi' or other such genres when they were adding books to the list (not referring to The Trial of course).

This book came very, very close into being made into a movie a few years ago. It was going to star Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush and Russell Crowe, and everything was set up (sets built etc) and ready to go and then suddenly there were conflicts with the script or something and the project was abandoned and everyone went home. Pity.

Welcome aboard my dystopic friend! This is also my favourite genre and I find this Wikipedia list indispensable! I've set myself a small challenge to read 5 dystopian novels this year; so far I've only read I am Legend by Richard Matheson - it's in Wikipedia's list, but I don't think it's such a dystopian novel. Still, it's a very good read. Parts of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas are dystopian in nature. Ayn Rand has written a couple, although I've only read Anthem, which is a short novella. A Clockwork Orange is one of my favourite reads. Anthony Burgess also wrote another one called 1985. It's partly a collection of essays regarding George Orwell's 1984, and partly a dystopian story of what society might be like in 1985 (it's not a sequel though). I believe this book is out of print but I recently tracked a copy down on ebay and can't wait to read it! I have a lot of dystopians on my TBR pile but obviously I can't comment as to their merit. However, some others I've heard about include Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes, The Long Walk and The Running Man, both by Richard Bachman, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien (aimed at younger readers).

I've finally decided on another good challenge to do...reading books that have been banned at one time or another. The issue of book censorship is something that's close to my heart so I think this will be a worthwhile challenge. I'm going to base my choices on a list I found at a Canadian public library's website (here's the pdf file). I've updated this post with the new challenge details. It seems I have quite a lot of banned books on my TBR pile already!

Wow Poppy, they're lovely! Looks like you live in a beautiful spot (Why am I not surprised? Is there a part of NZ that's not breathtakingly beautiful?)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice I also love the first sentence of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, which begins "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" (I won't post the whole quote because it goes on for quite a bit!) And although this is a thread for first lines, I just can't help posting the best ever last line of a book, again from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. I don't think I have ever been so moved by a line in a book. I was bawling "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Went to Chili's last night for dinner. Very nice, but HUGE meals. I wish sometimes that they would give you an option of a half-size serve! I had monterey chicken (grilled chicken topped with BBQ sauce, bacon, cheese and tomato) with a side of mashed potato and fries. Yum!

That's an admirable goal Gelfling! How many have you read so far? I love looking at those lists to see how I compare. There are quite a few on that list that I've read and many more that I have on my TBR pile. I probably wouldn't aim to read all 200 myself, only because I couldn't be bothered tracking down the books that I've never heard of when I have others on my TBR pile waiting to be read. But I may change my mind about that one day. Best of luck to you and keep us updated on your progress!

Gelfling and look no further! I don't have many people to talk to in 'real life' about books so I love this forum! You'll fit right in!

Matt! You won't have to fear about waiting a long time for responses here! It's a busy little forum (strange really...you'd think we'd be too busy reading to be posting!)

Nine more books added to the teetering TBR pile today! Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart Albert Camus: The Outsider Albert Camus: The Plague Truman Capote: Breakfast at Tiffany's Cervantes: Don Quixote Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings John Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea Patrick Suskind: Perfume Lynne Truss: The Lynne Truss Treasury (With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed, Tennyson's Gift, Going Loco, Making the Cat Laugh) In Cold Blood is going very slowly, although I'm loving every minute of it. Unfortunately I've had a lot on lately and as a result I've been so tired I could barely read a few sentences without falling asleep. Things are looking up a bit now so I'm hoping to get much more reading done in the next few days.

I love chips and chocolate but have been quite healthy at work lately. I usually have a banana for morning tea, but this week I've switched to yummy red apples.

I've heard good things about Motley Crue's autobiography. Even though I'm not interested in their music, I'd love to read it. Our staff library recently got a copy of it which I keep eyeing off

Hello and welcome Lucy! I spend far too much time here and not enough time reading but I'm having a great time!

Nice review, Echo. I have this on my TBR pile along with The Glass Bead Game and something else by Hermann Hesse (the name escapes me at the moment). I was enjoying your review until you compared it to The Alchemist. Ack! One of my least favourite books of all time! But if the writing is, as you say, 'intelligent and evocative', then I shouldn't have a problem with it, as the writing style was one of my major gripes with The Alchemist. Looking forward to reading it!

I bought the following books recently: Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game Jonathan Safran Foer: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Matthew Pearl: The Poe Shadow Marisha Pessl: Special Topics in Calamity Physics Peter Temple: The Broken Shore Hunter S Thompson: Hell's Angels And I added a few more books to my wish list: Lois Lowry: The Giver Lois Lowry: Number the Stars Jacqueline Susann: The Valley of the Dolls Oh dear!

Yes indeed! Please remember to use spoilers because not all of us have read it yet! (Maybe I don't need to now.)

That's what I was wondering, Oblomov. Don't leave us hanging Kitty! Give us some hope that these things happen in real life