What are you reading right now?

[Saul Goodman Fan]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

 

[Devout Muslim]

Many years ago, I had to write an essay on Jewish Incest within Usher for a gothic module.

Many years ago I read a short story which involved Jewish (I think) incest, if I recall correctly.

The basic plot involved a young boy in upstate New York (visiting?) having a fever and being confined to the attic. At one point, his aunt or cousin molests him or has sex with him or makes his feel her up. Anybody have any clue what I’m talking about?

 

[Jewthulhu]

I put Lucifer's Hammer on ice since I was having trouble picking it back up after getting maybe a third of the way through. I was enjoying it, but for some reason my brain has started to shut off trying to read it. I have read Dostoyevsky's Dream of a Ridiculous Man and am halfway through Notes from Underground since then, though. The more I read Dostoyevsky the more I fall in love with his work; he seems to understand and put to words an aspect of the human psyche (or at least my own psyche) that I rarely see acknowledged by others.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

IIRC he had one or two duds for me, but I tended to really like his books. I'd say Sphere is pretty good, while my two personal favorites outside of Jurassic Park are The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

And for once IT references are on point.

 

[Adamska]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

I mostly enjoy his books, but he does have a bit of a habit being a preaching jack-ass at times.

Sphere is pretty good. Also his take on Lost World was unsurprisingly superior. I will plug Andromeda Strain; it's a bit clunkier than his newer works, but it's a fun read.

 

[Hazel Motes]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

I find it funny the guy who wrote Jurassic Park also directed the original Westworld. Themes park going wrong must have been a real interest for him.

Many years ago I read a short story which involved Jewish (I think) incest, if I recall correctly.

The basic plot involved a young boy in upstate New York (visiting?) having a fever and being confined to the attic. At one point, his aunt or cousin molests him or has sex with him or makes his feel her up. Anybody have any clue what I’m talking about?

I'm looking back. There is surprisingly a lot, but is it Oedipus in Brooklyn?

There also some novels by Henry Roth dealing with this. Man, if I wasn't such a philo-Semite I'd think Jews really want to bang their mothers for some reason... Israel loving Evangelicals must be on suicide watch when (if ever) they read this stuff.

 

[Power Glove]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

I thought The Andromeda Strain by Crichton was freaking brilliant. The Lost World is pretty good, but can't really hold a candle to the original Jurassic Park, one of my favourite books still to this day. Airframe and Sphere were pretty good too, so I say, delve into his other work and see what you like.

Currently reading: Imajica by Clive Barker.

 

[glass_houses]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

Jurassic Park blew my tiny mind when it first came out, and later the Lost World, because of the combination of cutting edge technology and research with narrative. I recently reread them both and felt disappointed, because their science and archeology has become so outdated that they did not hold up well. I'll give them another twenty years and maybe by that stage they'll seem like a quaint speculative snapshot in time.

You might want to try Congo. It skews more towards the horror angle but it's certainly a unique concept.

 

[RollerGator]

I just finished this old werewolf book from the 70s. Really enjoyed it.

 

[Hugbox Kommissar]

Now moving to "Hardwired" by Walter Jon Wiliams.

That's some good cyberpunk right there. I think it's aged incredibly well, let me know what you think.

Currently reading  Attacks by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Kind of a combination of memoir and tactical guide based on his experiences in WWI and WWII.

 

[Andrew Neiman]

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I

I loved, loved, LOVED "Timeline" when I was a teenager. Take that for what it's worth. Same for "The Andromeda Strain" and "Congo."

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

That's some good cyberpunk right there. I think it's aged incredibly well, let me know what you think.

Currently reading  Attacks by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Kind of a combination of memoir and tactical guide based on his experiences in WWI and WWII.

I'm after one-third. Really good so far. Figures if CDP Red took inspiration from the scene of driving that panzer transporter.
So far it checks the cyber-punk's to-do list alright. Characters are relatable. It's no William Gibson prose so far, but solid. Will finish.

 

[Kerr Avon]

I’m halfway through Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and it’s unputdownable. The combination of science and suspenseful storytelling is really great.

For those who have read them, are his other books as good? I’m thinking of picking up Sphere after I finish JP.

Not science heavy but the Great Train Robbery is solid stuff. Had a decent movie too with Sean Connery too.

Currently reading Scottish crime fiction. The local joint had it on a shelf labeled tartan noir but that sounded pretentious as fuck.

 

[Caligura]

I'm actually reading Harassment Architecture. Every page makes me laugh, though probably not always for the reasons the author intended. Every once in a while there's some gem that makes the book worth reading for more than just the laughs, but it's mostly the musings of a sociopath who spends too much time on /pol/. The author, Mike Ma has actually been mentioned a couple times here, but aside from a brief encounter with Laura Loomer, he's been able to keep himself out of any drama, so no thread of his own (yet).
The writing is okay, as he's able to convey thoughts clearly, but he goes off on weird tangents every few pages. In the preface, Ma invites you to go read something else if you're expecting good writing and a coherent plot, so my expectations were low to begin with. Ironically, it's against modernism in art and philosophy but the style reminds me of some of those 20th century modernist authors that rejected plots and told the story through the character's internal monologue.

I know this is a old post, but checked out Gothic Violence? I wonder how that one is, iirc even Mike admitted HA was too edgy and he said GV is more 'matured' this time around.

 

[Commander X]

Having read some of the short fiction of horror author Mer Whinery, most of it in his setting of a corner of Oklahoma dubbed "Little Dixie" where, well, weird and unpleasant things happen I finally got around to reading his debut "Weird West" novel, about a trio of bounty-hunting siblings.

A frontier town in peril!
The savagery of the hungry damned!
An unholy trio their only salvation!
Southeastern Oklahoma of the 1860s:
Little Dixie to some. Hell to others...

In the chaotic years following the end of the Civil War, Little Dixie is a brutal no-man's land where life and death are dictated not just by gangs of lawless thugs, but by far more sinister things as well. Shadowy beings that walk the line in the dirt separating Jesus from the Devil, writing their names in blood, terror, and human suffering.

Such is the woeful condition of Coffin Mills, a town cursed by a history of dark arts and shameful secrets. Something wicked has been stealing the town's children, something not of this world, or even the next.

Salvation arrives in the form of a trio of mysterious gunslingers known throughout the South as the Haints, a legendary band of bounty hunters specializing in tracking prey of a supernatural variety. They kill monsters, plain and simple.

Haunted by a violent past that will either deliver or destroy them, will they emancipate Coffin Mills from its otherworldly predator, or will all be lost to something far worse than even eternal damnation?

It also came with it's own Italo-western style soundtrack by some outfit called Mississippi Bones, the cover art alone gives one an idea of where Whinery was going with this - also little hints like the siblings being named "Bava", and one of the locales in the setting of the Little Dixie stories is Fulci Hollow

 

[ArthuriusMartyrius]

Bought Dan Brown's Origin for sale to read on a particularly long commute and I still feel ripped off. I don't know if maybe my taste has become more refined or something but Brown seems to have actually become worse as a writer. I only ever read Angels & Demons, half of The Lost Symbol and Deception Point but I swear that even they weren't this bad. The "science-y" plot twist at the end was some of the dumbest shit I've ever read and that's saying something.

 

[lady stoneheart]

last night i read all of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in one sitting. what a fucking awesome book, i was riveted the entire time even tho on its face it’s just a story about this one guy in prison doing kind of menial stuff. makes me want to branch out and read more Russian literature, in the past i have been intimidated by plebs calling all Russian lit boring and too long or hard to understand but now i really want to see for myself.

i’m also partway into The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, and i just picked up a copy of Memory’s Legion by James SA Corey which is a collection of all the short stories set in the Expanse universe, i plan to speed thru both of these in the next week as well since i finally have some time off work

Having read some of the short fiction of horror author Mer Whinery, most of it in his setting of a corner of Oklahoma dubbed "Little Dixie" where, well, weird and unpleasant things happen I finally got around to reading his debut "Weird West" novel, about a trio of bounty-hunting siblings.

View attachment 3267608



It also came with it's own Italo-western style soundtrack by some outfit called Mississippi Bones, the cover art alone gives one an idea of where Whinery was going with this - also little hints like the siblings being named "Bava", and one of the locales in the setting of the Little Dixie stories is Fulci Hollow

View attachment 3267624

this looks fucking cool as hell

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

"Hardwired" finished. Next one from my paperbacks backlog: Michael Crichton's "The Terminal Man". Cyberpunk from what I can remember. I have good feelings about this one.

 

[RollerGator]

Just finished a book called Eat Them Alive by Pierce Nace. It's about a man named Dyke who was castrated and left for dead by fellow members of his teenage gang after they make a 2 million dollar score. A couple of Mexicans find him, nurse him back to health, and smuggle him south of the border to hide from the law.

He grows into a rugged hunter who lives on a sailboat, one day while sailing he comes across an island experiencing and earthquake which cracks the earth open springing man size praying mantises! They begin eating the island natives. Dyke finds that this is the first time in years he's actually felt something, he feels alive again!

Now Dyke has something to live for, he's going to train these man-eaters to obey him, he's going to track down the men who stole his manhood, and he will have his revenge. He concocts a mixture to rub all over himself so foul the giant bugs won't eat him. He trains the biggest bug on the island to be his loyal protector, paints it red, and names it Slayer. Slayer keeps the other bugs in line as Dyke moves his army to the mainland and begins carrying out his mission. But will the bugs turn on their master before the job is done?? Read it and find out!

 

[Hazel Motes]

It's took me about six years to muster the courage to start and finish this but I have faith that this is the last time.

Nevertheless, I think this is a book I want to like more than I do. I want to be sucked into and feel the passion, but I simply don't. Some moments are brilliant:

What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable Will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield:
And what is else not to be overcome?
That Glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me.

That's powerful and emotional stuff. As is:

The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater?

These moments, both from Book One, feel too distant from one another. The first book has this listing quality which distracts me. I am not smart to follow instructions.

Something like this from Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, itself primarily written in Blank Verse and what I believe Milton based the second quote on:

Meph. Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think’st thou that I who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of Heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,
In being depriv’d of everlasting bliss?
O Faustus! leave these frivolous demands,
Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.

This is found throughout and keeps you engaged. It is a perfect play and in its poetry and does less with Milton's more. Verbal pacing is important to a long poem as much as it is to theatre or film. Poetry is an oral medium and requires a lot more than a novel because of the certain rules and restrictions of the voice and mind.

I will conclude my thoughts once I have read it fully. It may win me over. It may require studying certain sections.

edit: I understand Paradise Lost is an epic poem. I am simply asking if it should have been. I really like Milton's Samson Agonistes and I do not think that is an uncommon opinion nowadays. It is shorter and still conveys a grand biblical story. You follow it because it feels it has pace and so Samson as a characters captivates. It has drama for that reason.