Currently Reading

[jbud1980]

Hello all, and happy playing. I've never started a new topic, but I was genuinely curious as to what you are currently reading (assuming the vast majority of you are wordies/bogglers and enjoy reading). I'm currently reading the last installment of The Strain trilogy by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo Del Toro.

I gravitate toward the horror/forensic science/true crime/sci-fi genres, but I also enjoy reading or re-reading text books.

Any recommendations?

I'd highly recommend The Gunslinger series by Stephen King. It is by far, the best series I've ever read.

[bwt1213]

Right now, I'm writing and not reading, but I like all your selections. I read The Gunslinger when it appeared as a series in The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction nearly forty years ago. It was okay, but no more than that. I liked The Stand, The Shining, and Carrie better. I would recommend Asimov's The Foundation Trilogy (or ALL of his robot stories), or Heinlein's The Notebooks of Lazarus Long or Time Enough For Love. Frederick Pohl is always good -- try The Midas Plague. And then there are the other masters -- Theodore Sturgeon (Baby Is Three), James Blish, Alfred Bester, Clifford Simak. There are so many -- the names are on the tip of my fingers and I can't remember them. There was a series called "The Humanoids" by Jack Williamson about what would happen to humanity if really compassionate robots were invented. Perhaps I'm old, but I think all the really thoughtful science fiction was written fifty or sixty years ago, or maybe even earlier. After that, it began to disintegrate into shoot-em-ups, variants of knights-on-horseback, and soap operas like Dune and Game of Thrones. Those were maybe entertaining, but not nearly as thoughtful.

[dannyb]

I too have been writing. I've written eight short stories since the beginning of the pandemic, including the first science fiction piece that I have ever written (though my son calls it more post apocalyptic/dystopian). I have also working on a memoir in comic book form (earliest memories until the week before my 16th birthday).

I am currently re-reading Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America".

[Naboka]

Don't know if it was Clifton Fadiman who said something like, "read anything and everything; taste will come later."

Personally, I've loved the vulgar and loved the refined.

Genres of books, like genres of music go through stages. Most have something to offer. Being a purist dampens the ability to appreciate what's good outside that mental prison.

I love mysteries. CJ Box, William Kent Krueger, John Sanford, Robert Crais. Reading a series in order helps you avoid spoilers in later works. If you've read Robert B Parker, you'll see his influence on much of today's works.

I used to absolutely love Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, but that lost some of it's magic when greed cast a 5'6" 160lb flake in the role of a 6'5" 250 lb force of nature. But, then again, Lee Child's motivation for writing was always monetary rather than an act of love, so who am I to nurse a petty grievance. The courts would toss my claim for lack of standing. And being a Reacher purist made it difficult to appreciate the movies on their own merits.

If you haven't, read everything by Malcolm Gladwell. A couple of books to help you understand your fellow man: "Rethinking Narcissism" by Craig Malkin, and "The Sociopath Next Door" by Martha Stout.

Since learning is crucial to getting better at anything, try "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waitzkin. He was a child chess prodigy, the subject of "Looking for Bobby Fisher,"
and a world martial arts champion. Not very often you run across a world champion in chess and martial arts.

I have acquaintances who consider reading anything that doesn't stimulate the mind to be a waste of their time. The irony, in my experience, is that people with amazing mental talent tend to have minds racing all the time. My most creative friends have minds constantly bombarded with ideas. If anything, they need something to de-stimulate their minds and relax. "Needing something to stimulate the mind" seems more an indictment of mental weakness than a claim of mental superiority.

Which is why I'm an advocate for reading utter trash if that suits your fancy. Pleasure can just get sloppy. And who needs silk when you're lying naked in the sun?

[onrust]

I'm currently reading the autobiography of my brother's 90-year-old flight instructor, Ron Holden... what a fascinating life!

[2cute]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

I have seen all the films many times. I enjoy them and am happy if I can find them available to watch yet again. My fav being The Half Blood Prince.

When I was @Kohl's the other day I saw these available in paperback @ the end of the register, so I decided to give the book a try. I wondered if maybe the book would have elements that would explain the films better. Nope. What I found though, there's lots of extra details left off the films but really didn't add more to the story. I'm more than half way through & I think the films are better than the book. She removed elements from the book that really weren't necessary in the films. I also like the way she improved Hermione's character in the film. She's an equal member of the friendship instead of the whiny classmate. Plus Harry's more mature in the film than the book. He complains about things in the book that were never added in the film. Of course the best part is when I read a line in the book that's exactly as was portrayed in the film. Certain elements are exactly the same, it's just how the character comes about that experience, is what changes.

[quyxyz]

As a US-American, I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Canada but was not able to get the "correct title" for the movie.

[Spike1007]

Just to bring a couple of topics together, one of the last books I read was on string theory. (The Elegant Universe, kind of a history of the transition from classical to quantum physics (emphasis on string theory) written for a general audience. I picked that because I'd read an earlier book criticizing modern theoretical physics, which has gone pretty far beyond what can be tested by experiment, and, according to the author, now seems to focus on the elegance & beauty of the mathematics involved.)

Currently I'm reading Fuzz, a book by Mary Roach about when animals break the law. (It's really more about human/animal conflict, what's done about it, what works, what doesn't, etc.) If you've never read Mary Roach, I highly recommend her. She writes highly entertaining & well researched books about off-the-wall science-related topics. Her first book was Stiff, all about what happens to your body after you die.

Mostly though, I read detective/crime fiction. I'm about 3/4 of the way through Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. (I sprinkle those in with some of my other g0-to authors.) I wasn't really as put off as Naboka was by the Tom Cruise portrayal. (I watched the first movie again last night.) I don't think that Child was too thrilled either though. I read that he was trying to put together a new project that was more faithful to the character. I'm looking forward to that if it ever happens.

[Naboka]

Just to bring a couple of topics together, one of the last books I read was on string theory. (The Elegant Universe, kind of a history of the transition from classical to quantum physics (emphasis on string theory) written for a general audience. I picked that because I'd read an earlier book criticizing modern theoretical physics, which has gone pretty far beyond what can be tested by experiment, and, according to the author, now seems to focus on the elegance & beauty of the mathematics involved.)

Currently I'm reading Fuzz, a book by Mary Roach about when animals break the law. (It's really more about human/animal conflict, what's done about it, what works, what doesn't, etc.) If you've never read Mary Roach, I highly recommend her. She writes highly entertaining & well researched books about off-the-wall science-related topics. Her first book was Stiff, all about what happens to your body after you die.

Mostly though, I read detective/crime fiction. I'm about 3/4 of the way through Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. (I sprinkle those in with some of my other g0-to authors.) I wasn't really as put off as Naboka was by the Tom Cruise portrayal. (I watched the first movie again last night.) I don't think that Child was too thrilled either though. I read that he was trying to put together a new project that was more faithful to the character. I'm looking forward to that if it ever happens.

There will be a TV series on Amazon, scheduled to air Feb 4, starring Alan Ritchson. Child is thrilled with the casting.

The Cruise rendition wasn't bad--if you hadn't read the books or you could disassociate the diminished size from the character. Part of me could, part of me couldn't.

It would be like Kevin Hart playing Michael Jordan. Might make an entertaining film, but you'd be watching the whole thing with a certain inability to suspend disbelief. And the entertainment from movies stems from our ability to suspend disbelief. We have to accept "the reality" of what's occurring on film.

I'd lived for years with the "reality" of Reacher embedded in my brain. And what I saw wasn't even close. Hart as Jordan? Come on.

Cruise is a big star for a reason. His characters are mostly all the same, just as Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Wayne and a long list of actors became huge stars playing basically the same role over and over.

Die hard fans of the book were furious with his casting. Furious. The character was such an icon in the genre. The casting was an insult. A sell out.

Cruise did a typical Cruise portrayal of the character, but really didn't have that complex aura of menace and altruism about him that Reacher has in the books.

If I saw Tom Cruise in a bar trying to be menacing, I'd bust up laughing. He's got a temper, for sure, and he's in excellent shape and always has been, but the only menace I ever saw in him was his star-power ability to get others in trouble for not following his desires, amplified by an unrelenting narcissism. I've actually been around him. He's not physically imposing. And the ferocity of his anger can seem intimidating to someone who's not comfortable with a person who's absorbed in their own rage. But, if you're comfortable with anger, he just comes off as self-absorbed and petulant.

He certainly lacks the altruism of Reacher, who goes out of his way to help others, even at the risk of his own life. Being around Cruise is an exercise in a person demanding that everyone give him attention. Helping others? Not likely. Unless it was help that got some attention--as in "see what a wonderful person I am?"

It was simply a matter of realities crashing against my suspension of disbelief.

[Naboka]

Just grabbed the latest three Jack Reacher novels. Think I've already read the last one he wrote solo. He's teamed with his brother for the others.

[2cute]

As a US-American, I got Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Canada but was not able to get the "correct title" for the movie.

If I can remember correctly, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published in the UK & the title wasn't changed until it was published in the US. So there isn't a film of that title, only the original UK publishing of the book.

In the US we are celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the first film release in 2001 - So she wrote 4 books before the first film was released (Order of the Phoenix was the first book published after the first film was released in the US).