Reading anything?

[lester1/2jr]

[Frank81]

You don't need that  book in NYC, here people  are  used  to p**sing ON the public.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

"Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!" edited by Otto Penzler.

Something of a companion volume to his short story collection "Vampire Archive."

The stories in this one contain action, horror, humor. Are commentaries on the political, religious, and social issues of the day. And contain everything that makes life worth living, namely, nudity, profanity, sex, and violence.

What they do not contain is the quality of the stories in his previous volume on vampires. That is not Penzler's fault, as he includes the best zombie stories he can find in the pulps, but the quality of the writers does not reach the level of the other volume.

Also you do not get the variety of locations you get in the other volume, as vampires seem to be universal. Here the locations mostly seem restricted to Africa, Haiti, the U.S., and for some strange reason the U.K.

This volume does contain the first zombie story "Dead Men Working in the Canefields," which was published in 1929. There were zombie stories before that, but the zombies were called "the lving undead." This story seems to be the first time in a story that zombies were called zombies.

And there is an 1-page bio on each author, which I enjoy reading, unlike some people.

Now, I'd like to see a collection of wereanimal short stories. Not only werewolves, but also, as there are . . .

werehyenas and wereleopards in Africa.
weresnakes and weretigers in Asia
weredingos in Australia
werebears and wereboars in Europe
werecoyotes and wereeagles in North America
werejaguars in in South America
and weresharks in the South Pacific.

Only Antarctica, which was uninhabited much of the time, seems to lack wereanimals. And, frankly, werepenguins do not seem to cut it.

[InformationGeek]

Animal Man Vol. 1 by: Grant Morrison



Buddy Baker is a former c/d list superhero known as Animal Man who decides to get back into the game.  However, things won't be easy, even on his first assignment involving a research lab and a bunch of monkeys.  Even as he has to deal with those things, his family also deals with their own issues as well.

When DC relaunched 52 brand news titles in September 2011, one of them was Animal Man.  Out of curiousity, I decided to head to the character's first series and most iconic run ever.  It's a solid superhero story, with some mystery that is hiding itself in the background at first and very solid character development.  Heck, I don't even mind the flat coloring in this comic like I normally due with old comics from the past.  The only problem I find with this is that it feels very heavyhanded and trying to push an agenda, that while is good, comes off as very annoying (even to some of the characters in the book).

It's an interesting start to a famous run, but has yet to revealed what make it so special so far in my eyes.  I'll keep reading, but it's going to have impress me more than it did so far.

[Mofo Rising]

Animal Man Vol. 1 by: Grant Morrison



It's an interesting start to a famous run, but has yet to revealed what make it so special so far in my eyes.  I'll keep reading, but it's going to have impress me more than it did so far.

It, um, changes considerably after the first paperback collection.

[RCMerchant]

Shirly Jackson-Novels and Stories



I can't think of any authour that I like better...maybe Charles Fort.

GO DOWN TOGETHER

Wow.

Just f**king wow.

[Vik]

Finished reading 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho today. It was pretty good? Not sure what the big deal is, honestly.

Now reading this:

[InformationGeek]

Animal Man Vol. 1 by: Grant Morrison



It's an interesting start to a famous run, but has yet to revealed what make it so special so far in my eyes.  I'll keep reading, but it's going to have impress me more than it did so far.

It, um, changes considerably after the first paperback collection.

Oh I know.  The Internet has sadly spoiled a lot of the run already for me so I know already of what is to come.  Volume 3 is going to be much different.

[Mofo Rising]

Animal Man Vol. 1 by: Grant Morrison



It's an interesting start to a famous run, but has yet to revealed what make it so special so far in my eyes.  I'll keep reading, but it's going to have impress me more than it did so far.

It, um, changes considerably after the first paperback collection.

Oh I know.  The Internet has sadly spoiled a lot of the run already for me so I know already of what is to come.  Volume 3 is going to be much different.

Yeah, you really lose a lot in not being there when it happened. At the time, this was really revolutionary stuff, but now it's normal. One thing, if you can ignore what you know now, pay attention to what an incredibly tight narrative Morrison accomplished. Remember, there was nothing out there like this when he was originally writing it.The next two volumes of Animal Man are fantastic.

"The last enemy that shall be defeated is Death."

It's really a great run, and you don't need the meta-fiction stuff, it's really good.

[Frank81]

Animal Man Vol. 1 by: Grant Morrison



Buddy Baker is a former c/d list superhero known as Animal Man who decides to get back into the game.  However, things won't be easy, even on his first assignment involving a research lab and a bunch of monkeys.  Even as he has to deal with those things, his family also deals with their own issues as well.

When DC relaunched 52 brand news titles in September 2011, one of them was Animal Man.  Out of curiousity, I decided to head to the character's first series and most iconic run ever.  It's a solid superhero story, with some mystery that is hiding itself in the background at first and very solid character development.  Heck, I don't even mind the flat coloring in this comic like I normally due with old comics from the past.  The only problem I find with this is that it feels very heavyhanded and trying to push an agenda, that while is good, comes off as very annoying (even to some of the characters in the book).

It's an interesting start to a famous run, but has yet to revealed what make it so special so far in my eyes.  I'll keep reading, but it's going to have impress me more than it did so far.

I'm not a  Grant Morrison fan, mainly cause of his animal 'rights' views in tis series.

[alandhopewell]

     I first read it in '76.

[InformationGeek]

I'm not a  Grant Morrison fan, mainly cause of his animal 'rights' views in tis series.

I think the he is pretty good and definitely nowhere close to as preachy as he was in this run.  However, I suspect of him taking lots of drugs.  There is no way he wasn't on something while writing Arkham Asylum and Batman R.I.P.

Yeah, you really lose a lot in not being there when it happened. At the time, this was really revolutionary stuff, but now it's normal.

That's probably why I'm not in love with like Watchmen or Sandman either, both series being very meh for me.  On the plus side though, Hellbazer by Jamie Delano is pretty damn awesome so I suppose there is a classic series from the past that I can love.

[Doggett]

Im just following the cool kids...



Its great.
Books with female leads should be more like this and less like Twili... Ah, that other popular female lead teen book.

[FatFreddysCat]

Carrying over my current James Bond obsession from films to books, I'm currently reading Roger Moore's autobiography, "My Word Is My Bond"

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es!

Darren Shan's "Cirque du Freak" (in graphic format)
v.08 Allies of the Night
v.09 Killers of the Dawn
v.10 The Lake of Souls
v.11 Lord of the Shadows
v.12 Sons of Destiny (final volume)

There are beginnings of a good writer here, but this isn't yet. You need to be a good writer to cover the time span in this 12-volume series, and he wasn't that good yet. He needed to tighten up the time covered for it to be better. But you can see what he was to become.

Robert K. Elder's "The Film that Changed my Life"

There are few better at disecting a director's film, then another director. And here's proof of that.

The only name you need to know is Edward Rowe Snow for books on the subjects of the sea and/or New England. And here's his . . .

"Tales of Terror and Tragedy"

He had almost a hundred books published on those subjects, and maybe because he was so successful, because many of the stories he tells began on his radio program, where you had to be clear, concise, and interesting. And this continues into his books.

William Hoffer's "Saved the Story of the 'Andrea Doria' the Greatest Sea Rescue in History"

Another sea story and probably next to the sinking of the "Titanic," the greatest passenger ship disaster of the 20th century. For a number of reasons.

(1) The passengers included actress Ruth Roman, songwriter Jerry Stoller, the mayor of Philadelphia, etc.

(2) It happened just outside New York City, or the media capital of the world at that time.

(3) And I believe it was one of the first sinkings captured on film and broadcast on TV.

It does have a number of other similiarities with the "Titanic."

(1) A ship going to fast for the weather conditions.

(2) Passengers left to their own devices by the crew, which led to a needless loss of life

(3) And lifeoboats, too few in number, or could not not be lowered because of the list of the ship.

Fortunately, there were a couple of reasons the loss of life was not as great as the "Titanic."

(1) The weather and seas were calm.

(2) Because it happend just outside New York City, there were alot of other ships that came to the rescue with their own lifeboats. Freighters, naval vessels, other passenger ships, tankers, etc. From many countries.

(3) And it took along time for the ship to sink, which gave time to get everyone off that was still alive. Actually, everybody was surprised at how long it took the ship to sink.

Next time: because this is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, a couple of books on the subject with a slightly different slant on the subject.