Reading anything?

[Sleepyskull]

A few days ago I read Robert Englund's memoir/autobiography Hollywood Monster.
It took me about 2 days to read it. 
It was very interesting and Robert seems like he is a very nice and down-to-earth person.

I borrowed it my from my local public library.

[Rev. Powell]

"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Famous Tales" by Robert Louis Stevenson

I've never read "Dr. Jekyll" or any Stevenson at all, so this should be interesting.

[ER]

Edward Hollis' The Secret Lives of Buildings which discusses about a dozen famous landmarks, from the Parthenon to Notre Dame to Gloucester Cathedral to the Las Vegas Strip and talks about, well, their sometimes shocking hidden histories. Sounds better than it is because except for the part about Manchester's Hulme Crescents*, which always fascinated me, the book is a letdown.

*I went a couple years ago to where the Crescents used to stand and was asking a gentrified local we met what would've happened if I'd wandered in there back in the day. He told us, "They used to eat Americans alive in there." So I said, "What if I'd said I'm Irish?" He said, "Then they'd kill you first, then eat you." Heck of a place....

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es.

The "Graphic Classics"

As of 2004, there were . . .

bierce, doyle, london, lovecraft, poe, stevenson, stoker, twain, and wells.

I read . . .

bierce, lovecraft, poe, stevenson, and twain.

A short intro. A brief bio. And then the author's short stories, poems, novels, etc.

And while the author's works are sometimes abbreviated and/or adapted by the illustrator, you always get the gist of the author's writings.

And, having tried to read many of these, without the illustrations, believe me, the illustrations help immeasurabely in trying to understand what the author is trying to say.

Also while each author's best known works are included, some of each author's lesser known works are also included. And these, I often find, are as interesting or even more interesting than the author's better known works.

A good introduction to each author.

Next time: "Rod Serling's 'The Twilight Zone'"

[Psycho Circus]

I was reading this excellent book until I found out they're making a film adaptation with that jackass from Twilight. It's about a 90+ year old man, who is wheelchair bound recounting important parts of his life, mostly from his time spent in the Benzini Bros. travelling circus. There's plenty of romance and revenge, violence and a fascinating insight into the circuses of America's past. Water is a big recurring theme within the book, used as a metaphor for many situations.

[Joe the Destroyer]

I was reading this excellent book until I found out they're making a film adaptation with that jackass from Twilight. It's about a 90+ year old man, who is wheelchair bound recounting important parts of his life, mostly from his time spent in the Benzini Bros. travelling circus. There's plenty of romance and revenge, violence and a fascinating insight into the circuses of America's past. Water is a big recurring theme within the book, used as a metaphor for many situations.

My fiancee has that book, and I've wanted to read it for a while.  I'll probably do that and just ignore the fact that there's a film being made.

[AndyC]

I was reading this excellent book until I found out they're making a film adaptation with that jackass from Twilight. It's about a 90+ year old man, who is wheelchair bound recounting important parts of his life, mostly from his time spent in the Benzini Bros. travelling circus. There's plenty of romance and revenge, violence and a fascinating insight into the circuses of America's past. Water is a big recurring theme within the book, used as a metaphor for many situations.

My fiancee has that book, and I've wanted to read it for a while.  I'll probably do that and just ignore the fact that there's a film being made.

My wife read that one a while ago. Sounded interesting, but not really my cup of tea. I'll be interested in hearing what you guys think.

By the way, Circus, how was the Slade?

[jimmybob]

The Shining. Finally read it.

It makes the movie look like it sucks.

-Jimmybob

[Psycho Circus]

By the way, Circus, how was the Slade?

Great Andy, and thanks again. It was nice to be able to read one of those creepy short stories each night. Slade's got a really interesting way of putting images into the mind and building good suspense even when there's not much of a real conclusion to each story. I found myself creating a whole backstory to one short in my head and further endings to others.

[AndyC]

Sure you've got the right book? I don't remember any short stories. Or do you mean the different scenes where he switches from one killer to another? Those are kind of self-contained.

[Psycho Circus]

Sure you've got the right book? I don't remember any short stories. Or do you mean the different scenes where he switches from one killer to another? Those are kind of self-contained.

That's what I meant. Everything is cut up at the start before Chandler is introduced fully. I got a bit confused and treated it mostly as seperate stories that were slowly interlinked.

[AndyC]

Sure you've got the right book? I don't remember any short stories. Or do you mean the different scenes where he switches from one killer to another? Those are kind of self-contained.

That's what I meant. Everything is cut up at the start before Chandler is introduced fully. I got a bit confused and treated it mostly as seperate stories that were slowly interlinked.

That's the way a lot of his books are. They follow a few different threads, past and present, that all gradually come together. Half the fun is trying to figure out how they fit. The style has evolved somewhat over the years, and Jay Clarke has written with a number of different partners under the Slade pen name.

If you liked Ghoul, you'll probably like Headhunter. A little less complicated than Ghoul, not quite as dark, but still an amazing book. It was actually the first of the series, although it and Ghoul were written as self-contained stories. Headhunter introduces Chief Superintendent Robert DeClercq, who then gets teamed up with Chandler in the third book, where it starts to focus on Special X, which becomes sort of the elite branch of the mounties. Chandler settles in as DeClercq's subbordinate, and continues to be the action guy.

If you want, I'll keep an eye out for a copy of Headhunter.

[lester1/2jr]

this  looks interesting. 1984 type dystopian novel written in 1921. new translation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)

[Jim H]

I just read Maus: A Survivor's Tale.  It's biographical/autobiographical comic book by Art Spiegelman.  Most of it is his father's true account of surviving the Holocaust.  To say the least, his father had a rather harrowing tale - as all survivor's did, of course, but his is one of the most detailed and filled in I've read.  It's also one of the few where the person telling the story ever had any control of what was going on around him - in a limited way, of course.  This story is interspersed with bits where Art deals with his father, who is aging and in failing health, and how their relationship struggles.  The whole thing is illustrated in a simple style, with all Jews depicted as mice, Germans as cats, Americans as dogs, Poles as pigs, and so on.  It works remarkably well.

Well worth a read.

[lester1/2jr]

I'm "reading" this. listening to it anyway at this moment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU3c7Qfb1jY

describes how central banks inflate currency to pay for wars while also hiding those costs.  inflation shuld rightly be seen as synonomous with debt and taxation, instead it's seen as this bizarre naturally occuring phenomenon.  It's just printing too much money, always and every time: too much money chasing too few goods