What have you read recently?
Homegrove The Dead Zone, book and film, are in my top five for SK books and film adaptations. I agree that Walken was a weird choice for the main character, but he actually works well in that role.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Despite some of the awful things in it (the coming to America-chapter that deals with slavery especially) this book is what I call a really good hang. My first reread since the “started great, quickly went to shit” TV version of 2017, and every moment I spent with this book was once again a very happy one.
This book is also easily in my top 5 all time novels.
Lol!
After Frankenstein I knew I had to read Bram Stoker’s Dracula again too. It has been 20 years or more for me. An interesting look at Victorian sensibilities that’s very badly paced. The beginning and the end in Transylvania move at a fast pace (the end especially), while the middle set in England takes the majority of the book, and is an absolute slog. Lucy takes a hundred pages to die. Then again the beginning in Castle Dracula is so good that anything after that is bound to disappoint.
Lisa Tuttle - Riding the Nightmare (2023). Last book of the year read, and it was amazing. 223 pages and I read it through within a 25 hour period. A short story collection, 12 tales, pretty much all dealt with sex and or death, and were all unsettling in one way or another. Highly recommended.
All in all I read 59 books this year, 36 which were first reads. That’s one more than I read all together last year, so I am happy to be again a real reader. I still think that for next year I will set myself the same reading challenge as this year, one book a week, 52 in total. Don’t want to make my hobby seem like work.
Currently on this this:
Christopher Clarey
The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer. Decent biography of arguably the greatest ever.
Stephen King - Holly
Given to me as a gift for Xmas. I am obliged to read his books as I have read all previous ones bar two, however I knew going in that this character is his worst ever so I didn’t have high hopes.
It turned out to be ok, quite a grisly tale done in the usual King style. However the book should have been called ‘Covid’ as I’m pretty sure it was referenced on every page. It became quite tiring …we get it mate, you hate anti vaxxers.
There was also the obligatory Trump bashing that has been in his last few books. Again very tiring.
Not as good as Billy Summers but way better than Fairy Tale that’s for sure. That was my 25th for the year which I’m happy with as there were many weeks I wasn’t reading
@Homegrove you read this one?
I reread Dune, and the read Dune Messiah for the first time in preparation for Villeneuve’s Dune Part 2. Messiah was a sort of an epilogue to the story of Paul Artreides, set 12 years after Dune. You can see how it influenced George RR Martin with the Game of Thrones-books. It was 300 pages of people scheming and plotting against each other with no action, and exactly one worm.
Blake Crouch - Dark Matter. It’s been made for Apple TV+, premiering in May, and starring Joel Edgerton with Jennifer Connelly. A multiverse scifi, with a lot of WTF moments, and will probably make a very entertaining TV show, because it was plotted very well. But the writing was pretty bad. I’d compare it to DaVinci-code in terms of the language. That was the book I was most reminded of when reading this.
Am reading Champion Thinking by Simon Mundie.
Mainly because I was his best man.
I just finished Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. Probably not his best and takes a while to get going but worth it when it does.
4.5 / 5
Also finally got round to Infinte Ground by Martin MacInnes - super weird
2 / 5