Reading anything?

[Joe the Destroyer]

Still taking my time with The Stand.  I only ever seem to read when I'm at work, on a slow day.  I've only got something like 120 pages left, so it shouldn't be too much longer. 

[AndyC]

Just starting on "It" while I wait for the next Michael Slade book (Cutthroat) to arrive on interlibrary loan.

Of the Stephen King books I've read, I have to say that It starts out pretty interesting, rather than taking a while to set everything up. Kind of encouraging, what with the length of the book. It's very Lovecraftian, which I like.

[Psycho Circus]

Just starting on "It" while I wait for the next Michael Slade book (Cutthroat) to arrive on interlibrary loan.

Of the Stephen King books I've read, I have to say that It starts out pretty interesting, rather than taking a while to set everything up. Kind of encouraging, what with the length of the book. It's very Lovecraftian, which I like.

I'm just at the bit where Bill is having a flashback, just before they all get back to Derry. I've had a hard time reading it this time round, as I've just been completely exhausted after work.

[AndyC]

I'm at the part where Stanley's wife is recalling their years together, leading up to his recent bath. The significance of the bath has only been hinted at, but having seen the miniseries two or three times, I know what's coming.

What I'm really enjoying is the extra detail. I don't think the miniseries gave quite the same feeling that Derry itself is a bad place, that there is an evil shadow hanging over the whole town that some people can sense and most locals have learned to ignore. That really comes through in the book.

[Psycho Circus]

I'm at the part where Stanley's wife is recalling their years together, leading up to his recent bath. The significance of the bath has only been hinted at, but having seen the miniseries two or three times, I know what's coming.

What I'm really enjoying is the extra detail. I don't think the miniseries gave quite the same feeling that Derry itself is a bad place, that there is an evil shadow hanging over the whole town that some people can sense and most locals have learned to ignore. That really comes through in the book.

Wait 'til you get to Mike Hanlon's compiling of the town history. The whole backstory King has written for Derry in that section is superb, not to mention very creepy. 

[Derf]

I just finished Gregory Maguire's Wicked. I HATE THIS BOOK! It is even worse than Philip Jose Farmer's Barnstormer in Oz, which I thought had to be the worst take on Oz I would ever see. I grew up with the Oz books (both the Baum series and the Thompson series after that). They hold a very special place in my heart, even though they are dated and cheesy. Wicked takes the mythos, throws it out, makes the bad guys the good guys and the good guys the bad guys, ignores well established facts (okay, fictions) in the books, and just does its best to ruin the story.

I don't have a problem with someone trying to flesh out the characters a bit, or even with making the Witch more of a misunderstood person than someone truly wicked, but to make her the heroin and the Wizard into an evil despot was just unnecessary. I bought the sequel, Son of a Witch before I bought the original, and I was so disappointed with the first that I don't think I will even read the second. I know I'm overreacting a bit, but the Oz mythos is a sacred part of my childhood. Oz was my Harry Potter, and I was every bit as big an Oz fan as any rabid HP fan has ever been (well, I never wrote fan fiction; I wouldn't sink that low  ).

[AndyC]

I just finished Gregory Maguire's Wicked. I HATE THIS BOOK! It is even worse than Philip Jose Farmer's Barnstormer in Oz, which I thought had to be the worst take on Oz I would ever see. I grew up with the Oz books (both the Baum series and the Thompson series after that). They hold a very special place in my heart, even though they are dated and cheesy. Wicked takes the mythos, throws it out, makes the bad guys the good guys and the good guys the bad guys, ignores well established facts (okay, fictions) in the books, and just does its best to ruin the story.

I read Wicked a few years ago and thought it was a really interesting book. I can't say I liked everything in it, but I thought it was fun to approach the story from the point of view that history is written by the victors. And I don't think it reversed the good guys and bad guys as much as it blurred the lines between the two, and made things a little less black and white. And to be fair, Dorothy and her friends were still the good guys. Of course, I don't have any special attachment to the stories, apart from memories of watching the movie on TV at least once a year as a kid.

[Derf]

I just finished Gregory Maguire's Wicked. I HATE THIS BOOK! It is even worse than Philip Jose Farmer's Barnstormer in Oz, which I thought had to be the worst take on Oz I would ever see. I grew up with the Oz books (both the Baum series and the Thompson series after that). They hold a very special place in my heart, even though they are dated and cheesy. Wicked takes the mythos, throws it out, makes the bad guys the good guys and the good guys the bad guys, ignores well established facts (okay, fictions) in the books, and just does its best to ruin the story.

I read Wicked a few years ago and thought it was a really interesting book. I can't say I liked everything in it, but I thought it was fun to approach the story from the point of view that history is written by the victors. And I don't think it reversed the good guys and bad guys as much as it blurred the lines between the two, and made things a little less black and white. And to be fair, Dorothy and her friends were still the good guys. Of course, I don't have any special attachment to the stories, apart from memories of watching the movie on TV at least once a year as a kid.

To me, it's a bit like the movie Titanic: a mediocre story that wouldn't have made it had it been set anywhere else. And while it did leave Dorothy and her friends as the good guys, it most definitely made the wizard out to be hateful, and it also very clearly made Elphaba the only honest and truthful character outside of Dorothy and her immediate friends (who play a very small part in the story). Elphaba's friends and family are presented as either weak-willed, weak-minded, or corrupt in some way. Glinda has become a society dame and general airhead (not stupid, but one who refuses to use her intellect whenever possible). Ozians in general are weak followers, and the Oz society is presented as cruel or indifferent. This just isn't Oz, any more than Australia is the Oz of Baum's imagination.

I don't really mean to argue with you, AndyC, but, as I said, the Oz mythos does have significance to me, and I tend to get a little worked up over bastardizations like this. Wicked is more an exploitation of Oz than a rethinking of it; it seems that Maguire couldn't sell the story on its own, so he set it in Oz to give it a "hook."

[sideorderofninjas]

While back, I have read Wicked and wasn't impressed with it.  Taking the Oz ideas and standing them upside down is one thing but having all the characters changed completely is a totally different thing. 

I just finished the Looking Glass Wars which was an alternate take on Alice in Wonderland.  This alternate take on Wonderland doesn't leave the bad taste like Wicked's take on Oz. 

[Pilgermann]

Just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  I started it Sunday morning and I've read it in a few long sittings.  Quickest I've gone through a book in a while, and now tha I've gotten a taste of his writing I need more!

[Mofo Rising]

Just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  I started it Sunday morning and I've read it in a few long sittings.  Quickest I've gone through a book in a while, and now tha I've gotten a taste of his writing I need more!

I'd go straight to Blood Meridian.

I checked out Pilgermann on interlibrary loan due to your recommendation on this board from quite a while back. Hopefully I'll get to it soon. I'm currently trying to finish up The Satanic Verses (so-so), Memoirs of My Nevous Illness (interesting), the Letters of John and Abigail Adams (oddly fascinating), and the Living Dead (zombie stories!).

Also I'm halfway done with George R.R. Martin's fourth book in his Song of Ice and Fire. Great series, but can we be done with this Cersei character already?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Did you know that we got the word teetotal because of a speech impediment?

One of the first founders of the teetotal movement stuttered, so when he said "totally abstain," it came out as "t-t-totally abstain," and so the word was born.

From Iain Gateley's "Drink" subtitled "a cultural history of alcohol."

The Good
It's a fairly complete history of the 10,000 year history of alcohol from China in 7000 B.C. to the United States in 2006.

The Bad
It's a Westernized history of alcohol. While the author does cover the history of alcohol in Asia and Africa, most of the book is given over to its history in North America and Europe. And by that, I mean western Europe.

The Ugly (or, what is neither good nor bad.)
The author is English, so you get a viewpoint of America that might be a little bit different from that of an American. Which viewpoint I always enjoy.

[InformationGeek]

I've wrapped up my reading on Fahrenhiet 451, but I am still working my way through Ghost Hunt and The Drifting Classroom.  I've also just read Case Closed Vol. 28, which was a pretty good mystery comic book.  It's a very long series, but I enjoy it none the less.

[Torgo]

I have began to re-read Clive Barker's "The Great and Secret Show".   I just finished up "Baal" by Robert R. Mccammon.

[flackbait]

Finished re-reading Catch 22... man I never knew a book that could depress a guy and make hime laugh at the same time.

I think next I'm going to try to read Nam-a-rama, from what I hear its an interesting book.