read any good books lately...

Quite a disturbing but fascinating read. The story has many twists and turns, and the two main characters (two women) as well as their relationship are definitely unusual. I really loved it, but I can certainly understand why some people who read it hated it; it is definitely a weird story and not for the faint of heart.

I need to get around to reading more Zelazny one of these days, though I don't read anywhere as much SF/F as I used to  - being more into the crime/horror genres now. I mean, he's after Michael Moorcock probably the author who's inspired the most Hawkwind lyrics...

Done with Calvino's Why Read the Classics: That book's biggest asset to me has been discovering a lot of classic Italian literature from the Middle Ages to now that isn't as well known in Northern Europe as the "usual suspects" of Ariosto, Boccaccio, Dante etc.

Right now I'm reading:


Very different from the popular image of the Frankenstein story - I think out of the film adaptations, it's only Kenneth Branagh's 1994 version which sticks that much to the novel and I can already tell even that one is way Hollywoodized. Like a lot of Victorian-era British literature, it's overflowing with philosophical considerations and bombastic prose constantly taking plot twists into completely different directions and "narrative within a narrative within a narrative" framing devices. Then consider how short the novel is, and reading it becomes quite the experience.

I also noticed how Mary Shelley spends much more time on the moral and philosophical implications of what's going on than the actual details... how the monster is brought to life isn't spelled out in detail very much, but there is way more getting into both the heads of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created in order to explain why they make the decisions they do than in any film adaptation.



A biography of the band written by two roadies who were with Black Sabbath from back when they were still called Earth: There's not so much information about the recording processes of their classic records, but there's plenty of so-embarassing-they're-hilarious anecdotes from touring as well as plenty of revealing insight into the cultural landscape and internal divisions in the UK rock scene back in the 1970s.

Edited by Atavachron - January 04 2016 at 00:22

Aldous Huxley, the biography by Nicholas Murray.  A very interesting and intriguing book, recently completed.

I just finished Atlas Shrugged, but now moved away from fiction and reading a book for computer certification.

BaldJean wrote: dr wu23 wrote: Toaster Mantis wrote: I need to get around to reading more Zelazny one of these days, though I don't read anywhere as much SF/F as I used to  - being more into the crime/horror genres now. I mean, he's after Michael Moorcock probably the author who's inspired the most Hawkwind lyrics... I'm a fan of his and have read most of his novels though I did this over 30 years ago so I thought I would reread the 9 Princes In Amber which is considered one of the all time great fantasy series. I did not know that Hawkwind used any Zelazny ideas. "Damnation Alley" from "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" is based on the Zelazny novel of the same name. an excerpt from the lyrics: "I've got the serum and I'm going to take it all the way to Boston, oh I've got to get through. the going won't be easy but I'm going to make it, it's the only thing that I'm cut out to do. ... no more Arizona now, Phoenix is fried up, Oklahoma City what a pity it's gone, Louisiana delta where the Mississipp's dried up, no more Chattanooga, Cherokee, Lexington ... thank you Dr. Strangelove for going doolally, leaving me the heritage of Damnation Alley"

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Ialso liked Foucault's Pendulum a lot. A novel I enjoyed that you might like, if you havent read it already, is The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I actually saw a movie based on it called The 9th Gate before reading it.

Description from amazon:

amazon wrote: A provocative literary thriller that playfully pays tribute to classic tales of mystery and adventure Lucas Corso is a book detective, a middle-aged mercenary hired to hunt down rare editions for wealthy and unscrupulous clients. When a well-known bibliophile is found dead, leaving behind part of the original manuscript of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers , Corso is brought in to authenticate the fragment. He is soon drawn into a swirling plot involving devil worship, occult practices, and swashbuckling derring-do among a cast of characters bearing a suspicious resemblance to those of Dumas's masterpiece. Aided by a mysterious beauty named for a Conan Doyle heroine, Corso travels from Madrid to Toledo to Paris on the killer's trail in this twisty intellectual romp through the book world.

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