Jump to content

ian

Advanced Member
  • Posts

    1,974
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ian

  1. Lack of space in our house has come to my rescue with my TBR pile, which is now largely virtual. Ruth has co-opted our bookcase for our DVD collection, so other than reference and cook books there are very few "actual" books on there. No room means that physical books have a tendancy to be read and passed on to charity shops or friends. For the most part I'm happy with that arrangment, although I have salted away a few favourites here and there. Then some genius invented e-books and my problems were solved! Having said all that, if someone gave me a new bookcase (and somewhere to put in in our house), I would happily fill it!
  2. The Quiet Earth sounds just the kind of thing I like!
  3. Great review - I have to agree about the detail in these books. For me, it's always been a positive thing, but I can easily see that it can become a negative. I haven't re-read these since I first got them, so I think a re-read of all of them is on the agenda. Particularly as this fourth book will be published soon. Still not sure how I feel about that, but I know I won't be able to help myself!
  4. The only instance that immediately comes to mind is that of Jack Torrance in The Shining. In the book he is a basically decent man who is an alcoholic. This is used against him by the malevolent spirits in the hotel to their advantage, turning him into a monster. In the Stanley Kubrick film, he's pretty much crazy from the first minute; he just gets worse. I've not seen the more recent mini-series, but presumably that is much closer to the book.
  5. I gave up on Clive Cussler quite some time ago; not because of the sexism admittedly, but because they are poorly written and have unbelievable plots. I have to agree with Sousa - I find it disrespectful to call people just by their surname - it's the kind of thing done to servants. It would be something that would bother me in a book, unless it was an older book in which case you have to make allowances for it being " of it's time", or of course if the sexism (or racism or anything-ism) is part of a characters make up and part of a plot device. (many of the characters in "The girl with the Dragon Tattoo" for instance) Fortunately, there are enough good writers out there that we don't need to read those that do this.
  6. I've cheated a bit and slipped a couple of series in. If that's not allowed I'll restrict it to the first book in each series, which I've written in, and book 3 of HP below) Most of these are subject to change, so ask me again in 6 months time! Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien Different Seasons - Stephen King Life of Pi - Yann Martel The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini Saga of the exiles (Book 1: The Many-coloured Land) - Julian May Pride & Predjudice - Jane Austen Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte It - Stephen King The Wind in the willows - Kenneth Graham Harry potter series - (...and the Prisoner of Azkaban) JK Rowling
  7. I forgot to say - I also as a result of both of the last two books, downloaded the entire works of H.P Lovecraft. I've not read anything by him up to yet, and I was able to get them for free as a European (who said being in the EU is a waste of time!). The books are still subject to copyright in the US. I want to read them now, but part of me is saying I should save books like this till the depths of winter. The thought of reading good, old-fashioned horror on a dark, snowy evening is almost too good to resist. It all depends whether my willpower will last that long now they sit on thr Kindle saying "READ ME"!
  8. The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen The Great God Pan is a novella written by Arthur Machen. On publication it was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of its decadent style and sexual content, although it has since garnered a reputation as a classic of horror. Machen's story was only one of many at the time to focus on Pan as a useful symbol for the power of nature and paganism. (From Goodreads) My Thoughts At the beginning of Revival by Stephen King, this book is cited as one of the influences, saying something like " a book that has haunted me all my life". well, I couldn't let a comment like that go unexplored, so I found it on Guttenberg project and downloaded it onto my Kindle. It's a very short book, so I was able to read it quite quickly. There are huge quantities of atmosphere in this; Gothicness (if such a word exists) just drips off the page, and I lapped it up. I was surprised that this was considered degenerate at the time of publication; the "sexual content" is only vaguely hinted at.(unless the version I was reading has been cut). The story jumps around a little between several different narrators, all of whom know some of the story, but not it seems all of it. This helps increase the sense that something horrifying is happening that most of us know nothing about. There are some really obvious parallels between this and "Revival" and I presume that the beautiful valley that is described at the start of this, is the inspiration for a similar valley that appears towards the end of Revival. 4/5
  9. I'll happily admit to being biased when it comes to Stephen King, but Doctor Sleep is excellent!
  10. Same question from me! Great review!!
  11. Revival by Stephen King A spectacularly dark and electrifying novel about addiction, religion, music and what might exist on the other side of life. In a small New England town, in the early 60s, a shadow falls over a small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a striking man, the new minister, Charles Jacobs. Soon they forge a deep bond, based on their fascination with simple experiments in electricity. Decades later, Jamie is living a nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll. Now an addict, he sees Jacobs again - a showman on stage, creating dazzling 'portraits in lightning' - and their meeting has profound consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the Devil's devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings My Thoughts. The thing that I like about Stephen King is that unlike a lot of horror writers, he doesn't just write to scare us. He writes about life, using horror themes to talk about them obliquely. His books have become less horror over the years and have strayed more into the territory of Dean Koontz (but without the dogs). This book could seem quite slow - it tells the story of Jamie Morton's life, from the time he meets his new minister in the 60's to the present day. As always, King breathes real life into his characters. Charles Jacobs is probably one of the most sympathetic "baddies" he has ever written. The fact that the story is, for the most part, so slowly developed and ordinary makes the ending more shocking. It did for me anyway. I know that the ending has left a lot of people feeling short-changed, but I loved it. Stephen King has never given pat endings with all the loose ends tied up... why would he start now? 5/5
  12. Well, while you're on George Orwell, there is always Animal Farm, which I know won't have athe realism that you wanted, but as it's allogorical......? Also Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury & The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick. I would also recommend The Long Walk and The running Man - both written by Stephen King under the psudeonym Richard Bachman
  13. I always find it interesting to read author interviews about books I've read. It gives you an added dimension - a bit like poking around under the bonnet of a car and seeing how it works. I wasn't wholly convinced by The Girl on the Train when I read it earlier this year, but there was certainly enough to encourage me to read her next book. I did note that she says that she "can" pay her father back the money she borrowed and not "has".
  14. I checked - it was "Pushing Ice" and "Terminal World". I enjoyed Pushing Ice except for the ending, but I thought Terminal World was amazing.
  15. I'll be very interested to see what you think of Popcorn; I've read a few Ben Elton, but not this one.
  16. Rebecca is a great book - as is just about everything Du Maurier wrote IMO - glad you liked it!
  17. Hmm. Now I know I've read some Alistair Reynolds along the way, but I forget which. Pretty sure it's none of these though. I'll have to check this out!!
  18. Thanks, Gaia. It feels good that I've done something positive towards it - and I'm too old at 45 for teenage angst anymore!! I think I just needed a push in the right direction again, and that book did that for me. I'm now reading "Revival" by Stephen King - my birthday present from my brother
  19. Getting up this morning and seeing the back garden looking a little bit tidier after my efforts yesterday. It's still Weed City out there, but it does look slightly better!
  20. Beating Anger: The 8 point plan for coping with rage by Mike Fisher We all feel angry at times. It can be an uncomfortable emotion. Here is the perfect book to help anyone from 16-75 years old to beat their anger—or help anyone else to do the same. It explains what anger is, what triggers it, the various different types of anger, how to heal emotional aggression, and the 8 Golden Rules of Anger Management. My Thoughts I got hold of this book, as I was fed up of leaving work most nights with a raging headache and in a really bad mood. I'll be honest, I don't usually find self-help books to be terribly helpful myself, but there is always some hugget of wisdom inside that does get me thinking. I found that with this book. I can't complain - it cost me 1p on Amazon! Reviewing books like this is difficult - they are either going to help you, or they aren't. I guess it all comes down to your favoured learning type. For me, there were too many exercises that I had to do that I felt I didn't have enough information on beforehand. At it's best, it did give me a few pointers on the roots of why I am often so angry. Knowing that enables me to take a step back. 3/5
  21. I've only seen "wonderful life" & "Galaxy Quest", but I have to say that, after reading the article, I want to see all of them! I agree with what's been said above; a lot of family movies have a lot to say about human existance. What makes the best examples of this is the fact that because they usually do so in an entertaining way, we don't feel like we are being preached to. And not just films: I aways think of that episode of the original series of Star Trek that was about racism. The population of a planet destroyed each other simply because one half were black on the left-hand side on their faces, white on the other. The other half of the population were white on the left hand side, black on the right. That, for me has always been one of the appealing aspects of sci-fi: it's ability to act as a metaphor or parable of real life.
  22. The Flood by Ian Rankin Mary Miller had always been an outcast. Burnt in a chemical mix as a young girl, sympathy for her quickly faded when the young man who pushed her in died in a mining accident just two days later. From then on she was regarded with a mixture of suspicion and fascination by her God-fearing community. Now, years later, she is a single mother, caught up in a faltering affair with a local teacher. Her son, Sandy, has fallen in love with a strange homeless girl. The search for happiness isn't easy. Both mother and son must face a dark secret from their past, in the growing knowledge that their small dramas are being played out against a much larger canvas, glimpsed only in symbols and flickering images - of decay and regrowth, of fire and water - of the flood. My Thoughts This book is a re-edition of the very first book that Ian Rankin wrote. It comes with a very nice introduction from the author, explaining where he was in his life at the time. He does explain that he is slightly embarrassed by this first effort at writing a full time novel. I can partly see what he means; there are a lot of literary devices used in this book, which while clever, did tend to detract from the story, as they stopped me from reading by reminding me that I was reading a story, if that makes sense. It's not bad, but perhaps it spends too long trying to be abstract rather than just getting on with it. The ending is seriously abrupt, I actually thought my copy was missing a few pages at first. 3/5
  23. I quite liked the ending, I thought it was saitisfyingly ambiguous
  24. I've just finished reading this. I gave it 3/5 and there were some things I didn't like about it. But the second half picks up and considering this is a first time writer, it's not too bad
×
×
  • Create New...