In reply to tuna55 :
I know Koontz sells a bazillion books, but I've never really gotten into the handful of his books I've read.
In reply to tuna55 :
I know Koontz sells a bazillion books, but I've never really gotten into the handful of his books I've read.
Just finished Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca. Overall, a good thriller, but a little overlong. Too slow in the beginning, and too rushed once things actually start to heat up.
The protagonist is a naive young woman who is very much out of her class and depth. She is far from stupid, but given to flights of somewhat paranoid imagination, which are described at length and in excessive detail. These could have been shortened a bit to move the story along better.
Stick with the 1940 Hitchcock movie version, which is pretty faithful and keeps the tension building.
I read "Shop Class as Soul Craft" a while back. Interesting read. It took the author about half way through the book before he calmed down from his "Doctoratease" and it got a lot more enjoyable to read.
Currently reading books on near death experiences. Not intended to sound as somber as it does....
The other night I started “Adventures of the Batman.” I think I picked it up in the ’90s–no dust jacket so less than $3. It’s a collection of short stories featuring the Caped Crusader.
The first short wasn’t great. It used memos to tell a story. I get the gimmick, but it didn’t really hold up.
The second and third featured Robin.
I figured I’d give it one more, and that’s when it turned dark. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Currently 3 at once. Since I just finished Old Man's War and Prelude to Foundation I started Foundation and Starship Troopers. The third is a modern fluff thriller that I've already forgotten the title of.
apparently last year I read 19 books on my phone. Never thought I would do that to be honest.
I just finished Walkaway by Cory Doctorow. Definitely recommend.
Last month I started reading the Starship Mage series by Glynn Stewart and I'm in the middle of the 4th book now. There are 14 books in the series so should keep me occupied for a little longer.
So curiosity hit. Since July 20,2021 I've read 116 books on my kindle. It also turns out good reads only records a book if you give it a rating, so o had to figure out of the hard way. Since the first of the year, I've completed 6 and am most of the way through a 7th.
Currently finishing the Random Encounters series by Donald Hanley. It reads like a weird Japanese cartoon, but its certainly kept attention.
The last good series I've finished was the Solar System Series by Brandon Q Morris. Really well put together hard science fiction. I ran through all 8 books fairly quickly.
Jenny Schwartz series The Adventures of a Xeno Archeologist was ok, but got really long and drawn out through books 4 and 5.
Reading "The bearing of recent discovery on the trustworthiness of the new testament", which is absolutely fantastic. Recent, in this case, is arounbd 1900. It's also just downloadable.
The Hunt for Red October. I really loved the movie and decided to read the book many years later. I know that screenplays and books are VERY different things, but it is amazing to see how different the two are in this case. The movie is very good at being a movie, and the book is very good at being a book. Both are enjoyable, but are very different things.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
Always liked Clancy even if he was a bit..... dry. Red Rabbit was really good.
Jurassic Park, my goal this year is to read a book a month and decided to start it off with one that one of my favorite movies is based on. The book and screenplay diverge in many ways but its an enjoyable read.
I just finished "Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best."
It's a well told tale of the dynamics of racing in Europe during the 1930s. Learned a lot. I have a newfound respect for Lucy Schell, Delahaye and the racers that competed during that time.
ChrisTropea said:Jurassic Park, my goal this year is to read a book a month and decided to start it off with one based on one of my favorite movies.
I believe the movie was based on the book, not vice versa?
Just started to read a book of Shirley Jackson short stories. You know her; she wrote The Lottery which we all had to read in 6th-8th grade English class. She also wrote The Haunting of Hill House, which I have not read, but may in the future.
Duke said:ChrisTropea said:Jurassic Park, my goal this year is to read a book a month and decided to start it off with one based on one of my favorite movies.
I believe the movie was based on the book, not vice versa?
Just started to read a book of Shirley Jackson short stories. You know her; she wrote The Lottery which we all had to read in 6th-8th grade English class. She also wrote The Haunting of Hill House, which I have not read, but may in the future.
I am pretty sure the books was first. That author is famous for writing screen plays which were disguised as books. I never did enjoy them much.
tuna55 said:Duke said:ChrisTropea said:Jurassic Park, my goal this year is to read a book a month and decided to start it off with one based on one of my favorite movies.
I believe the movie was based on the book, not vice versa?
Just started to read a book of Shirley Jackson short stories. You know her; she wrote The Lottery which we all had to read in 6th-8th grade English class. She also wrote The Haunting of Hill House, which I have not read, but may in the future.
I am pretty sure the books was first. That author is famous for writing screen plays which were disguised as books. I never did enjoy them much.
Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment bought the movie rights before the book was published, but the book was released in 1990 and the movie hit theaters in 1993.
ChrisTropea said:tuna55 said:Duke said:ChrisTropea said:Jurassic Park, my goal this year is to read a book a month and decided to start it off with one based on one of my favorite movies.
I believe the movie was based on the book, not vice versa?
Just started to read a book of Shirley Jackson short stories. You know her; she wrote The Lottery which we all had to read in 6th-8th grade English class. She also wrote The Haunting of Hill House, which I have not read, but may in the future.
I am pretty sure the books was first. That author is famous for writing screen plays which were disguised as books. I never did enjoy them much.
Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment bought the movie rights before the book was published, but the book was released in 1990 and the movie hit theaters in 1993.
Exactly.
If you want to be more of a Chrichton critic, read The Lost World, and then read The Lost World by Doyle from 1912.
ChrisTropea said:Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment bought the movie rights before the book was published, but the book was released in 1990 and the movie hit theaters in 1993.
Still struggling to see how that makes the book based on the movie. But it's not really important.
Crichton is hit-or-miss. Some of his books are excellent and some are stupid, particularly the later titles. But yes, the "hardcover screenplay" criticism is entirely valid.
In reply to Duke :
Fixed the wording im my original post, the movie was based on the book.
In reply to Duke :
Prey was pretty good IMO and so was Next. The others were... Meh? Congo was OK. JP and TLW were alright. Andromeda strain was odd but it was also written in 1969. I liked Timeline, but I wouldn't call it a literary masterpiece.
If you enjoy sci-fi, The Old Man's War series from John Scalzi is really good. I have not read the last, The End of All Things, but I've read the other 5. Ghost Brigade is amazing.
"The Fall of the Ottomans" . A great deal of today's middle east strife can be traced back to things that happened in the 1880's to WW1 when the Ottomans had internal turmoil from a large faction that wanted a democratic government instead of the old autocratic rule they had for centuries. (This allowed the rise of Cemal during this period, who became Anaturk and ruler of Turkey). At the same time England and Russia were pushing to make the Ottoman Empire a prize in "The Great Game" to take over that middle east asian landmass ( Read Kim by Rudyard Kipling) . Because of this the Ottoman's turned to Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany to become allies in the resistance to The Great Game. Germany lost WW1, the Ottoman Empire was broken up by Sykes/Picot, Anaturk became the leader of what is now Turkey. Subsequently the Balfour Declaration set aside the Palistanian region of the defunt Ottoman Empire as a new Jewish homeland.
140 years later we are still fighting the lead up to WW1. Makes the 100 Years War between France and England look like child's play.
In reply to bobzilla :
I didn't really like Prey, and I don't think I liked State of Fear but I can't really remember. Timeline was pretty stupid. I didn't read Next or Lost World. I did like:
Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man, Congo, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and Airframe. I liked the original JP. And, I guess, Sphere was OK.
Duke said:In reply to bobzilla :
I didn't really like Prey, and I don't think I liked State of Fear but I can't really remember. Timeline was pretty stupid. I didn't read Next or Lost World. I did like:
Andromeda Strain, Terminal Man, Congo, Rising Sun, Disclosure, and Airframe. I liked the original JP. And, I guess, Sphere was OK.
Haven't read Terminal man or Airframe. I think Airframe is in the bookcase.
In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :
Herriot also wrote "Dog Stories" about his time in the Dales, makes me smile.
It's good. I wish I had half of whatever quality it's called where you just go attempt things without thought of failing. It's all through this thing.
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