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Slayed said:
Peter Straub is a stunning author in his own right, very adept at creating atmospheres. His last two are fantastic, "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" and the follow-up "In The Night Room" (which messed with my head).
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Messed with your head, eh? Sounds inruiging, shall have to borrow/theif :p

Just started reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and, aside from the difficult language of the first character segment, it's an interesting read!

Also 1/4 of the way through American Gods which is easier to read, and equally as interesting, though, not that much has actually happened yet...

Finished some more Darren Shan inbetween both, again a very easy read, and its wonderful JUST how much horror he manages to get away with in books that ten year olds buy (Picture this: The series is about demons and how people deal with them/fight them ect. One particularily graphic monster, instead of straight off killing you [which evidently isn't as satisfying], the monster, which has a giant scorpion's tail, stabs out your eyes, lays eggs in the hole, which burst, filled with maggots, which eat slowly into your brain...)

Other than that I've not done much on the reading front. Shall post once I've finished either book, or started another.

Oh, and I've STILL not finished "Are you Dave Gorman" even though its a great book!
 
My favourite King book is still "Misery", although "The Shining" is probably the scariest. And the film version of "Apt Pupil" was a travesty, the written version is original horror of a highly disturbing nature .
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I love Misery! Never read the book, but if I ever come across it I definitely will. The movie remains one of my favourite movies of all time though. Gotta love it!

I'm about fifty pages into my book (Dolores Claiborne) right now, and it's pretty decent so far. For anyone who may have read it, I'm at the part where the lady ****s her bed all the time and such.
 
^I really liked Delores Claibourne. The movie was actually pretty good, too, with Kathy Bates as Delores.

^^American Gods is a great book. Probably one of my favourites.

Since I'm so high-brow, I've just finished Hollywood Husbands by Jackie Collins. Complete and utter trash of the highest possible caliber. She's ****ing great.

I'm about 100 pages into "Merrick," the 342nd vampire chronicle by Anne Rice. I don't know why I keep reading her books, since they're all so bloody similar.
 
gavin said:
I'm about 100 pages into "Merrick," the 342nd vampire chronicle by Anne Rice. I don't know why I keep reading her books, since they're all so bloody similar.
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I've read a couple, Interview was a must apparently, and it was alright.

I think the other one I read was The Vampire Lestat? It's the one based in Renaissance Venice. I only read it because it skirts the period of history I'm interested in.

Currently reading the Bernard Cornwell "Grail" trilogy. It's three books based on the life of an archer at the start of the hundred years war. It's very early for me (my period being post hundred years war really), but it's still damn good as a silly adventure story with some good historical facts.

End of the first book was the battle of Crecy, which is cool because I've re-enacted it on the anniversary of the battle, paid for by the French tourist board. So it's cool to relate the battle we actually did with a description of it in detail in the book, and the book is very close :)
 
Just finished reading a book for school, it's a Swedish one, translated to "The Succestrap" by Lars Weiss. It's a true story about a TV-company chief who gets a strange burnout with all kinds of symptoms, yet doesn't want to reveal it to his colleagues and family etc. It's a good book, was interesting to read about the stressy life of company chiefs and quite well and interestingly written considering the guy is not a real author.

Also, finished reading The Shining, about a week ago.

Best Book. Ever.
I had seen almost the whole Kubrick movie when I was 13, which meant that I knew the plot in general (I know that that film is majorly different from the book), which I expected to be stupid, but it never got that way luckily. The atmosphere is really great, I got into it a bit too much at sometimes I think and it's so well written and nicely 'spooky', just amazing. No doubt, my favourite book so far.
gavin said:
^I really liked Delores Claibourne. The movie was actually pretty good, too, with Kathy Bates as Delores.
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Yeah, only seen the movie, but I agree with you it was pretty good, better than I expected and I agree with LFTL that Misery (the movie) is also great, also thanks to Kathy Bates.

btw. My dad got Cujo and Hearts of Atlantis for free, a few years ago. They've been dusting in my shelf, so I wonder if anyone has read any of them, are they 'good'?
 
Never read Cujo, but it's set in Castle Rock, so that's a plus :)

Hearts in Atlantis is a great book of stories too :)
 
Cujo's really good. But, as is typical with King, the end is a bit ****.

And some parts are so disgusting. It's a great piece of horror.
 
^^ The Historian. Eugh.

Great concept, but really dull to read. I wrote about it somewhere in this topic ages ago. I just found the whole thing a bit smug in the way it was written. I hate it when writers have to try and prove how intelligent they are.
 
furie said:
Hearts in Atlantis is a great book of stories too :)
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The first story is the star one, and unbalances the book a bit, but it's still good (it's more a drama than a horror/thriller). But NEVER WATCH THE FILM, unless you really want to lose 2 hours of your life; it sucks like a thousand toothless septuagenarian prostitutes from Rue Saint-Denis :?.

gavin said:
I hate it when writers have to try and prove how intelligent they are.
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I had exactly that problem with Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. He's an awesome writer but I don't need it rammed down my throat every other paragraph!

Finished F Paul Wilson's Bloodline (good but lacking the usual "supernatural" elements), Garth Nix's Drowned Wednesday (fun, it's a good series), now onto James Patterson's Double Cross, which is actually quite good for a Patterson thriller, it almost has some prose :p.
 
Currently reading Derren Brown's "Tricks of the mind". I can now amaze people with my wonderful memory techniques.

I might try hypnosis again now actually, I've managed it once before... :)
 
I've just finished The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Even though the English is a bit dated the story is great.

I've now started Inca-Cola. I've only read the first few pages and it's very funny and interesting so far. I'm going to Peru on expdition next year, so I'm gripped on reading it.
 
Karen said:
The historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

My god it's hard going. So tempted to say sack it!
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Got to page 150 and it getting easier now shes not going so over the top with the detail. Just gonna have to keep on at it I thinks. Slow n steady!
 
I picked up a copy of Rob Grants "Incompetence" from the airport for cheap on the way back (along with some other books)

.. Read the other books - not great.. Got to this the other day, and am reading it at every opportunity.

Loving it. Very very funny. And a great read.

Based in the near future where the european union has passed a law stating that people cant be fired for any discriminatory reason whatsoever. Be it race, sex, size, iq or incompetence.

Basically meaning you cant get fired from any job. And due to "positive discrimination" being bad at your job actually means your more likely to get promoted.

So you have airline pilots with vertigo, etc etc. Wont spoil too many of the jokes here.

Plot follows the story of an undercover agent trying to solve a series of strange murders in this world.

Great EASY read.. well recommended for flights/train journeys/on the toilet reading.
 
I've still not finished Dolores Claiborne because I haven't had the drive to pick up and read but I'm nearing the end, and I have to say, it's a very good book. It has some very good imagery, and the events that happened, well, they were interesting!

So, I'll rate it 8/10 so far. Not nearly as good as The Green Mile, but it's decent!
 
I've read a couple in the last week or so.

Kenneth Anger: Hollywood Babylon

This was, apparently, a huge underground hit when it was first released in the '70s. It's basically just a load of true scandals from the classic Hollywood era (1920s-1950s). I really enjoyed it becasue that whole period in Hollywood fascinates me, but if you didn't know the people involved I imagine it would be quite dull.

Martin McDonagh: The Pillowman

Ok, I used to read loads of play scripts, but haven't touched one for years. This BLEW ME AWAY! It's the best thing I've read in years. Hands down. No question. Just amazing. Really, really dark, but really funny. Reading scripts isn't to everyone's taste of course, but if you can over that, then I can't recommend this one enough.
 
mrclam said:
I picked up a copy of Rob Grant's "Incompetence"...
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Loved Incompetence! Apparently it nearly killed him writing it as he suffered from severe writer's block, and it does feel a bit disjointed at times, but it's still funny as hell.

Wait 'til you see the ending :p.

I just finished Douglas Coupland's JPod, which is a satire on working as a developer for a giant game studio. Utterly mad and fantastic to read, even if it doesn't really have a plot.

I've not worked for a game company but I have worked in a cube farm as a developer in giant corporations, and oftentimes Coupland's prose is deadly and hilarious :D.
 
I'm reading "The Secret of Crickley Hall" by James Herbert at the moment. I used to love his incredibly violent, badly written, cheese fests. Just gore wall to wall, or over the top scarings.

This is just so bland and tedious. It's obvious right from the first chapter, and the narrative isn't slightly engaging. I've had a poor run of books recently between this and Lisey's Story :(
 
Finally finished Dolores Clairborne! It took me like, forever, because I haven't had the will to pick it up and read for some reason.

So yeah, I actually really liked the book. It was different, and it kept me interested. I'd give it about eight out of ten, because it's not as good as The Green Mile, but it was still good.
 
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