We haven't done this in a while....- Page 2

[DBillyP]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 11:42am

I am reading the same one I was the last times this was asked, though, I had just started it then and I have also taken uop a second as well.

I am reading THE LINE OF BEAUTY by Alan Hollinghurst, which is excellent, and FLORENCE: A DELICATE CASE by David Leavitt in preparation for my trip to Italy this October.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 1:06pm

The Face - Dean Koontz

Creepy and exciting. Much better than The Taking so far.

[Mamamia Sammy2]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 1:23pm

I am reading "You Have to Stand For Something or You'll Fall for Anything" by Star Jones. Needless to say, it is a page turner.

[ScottInLA]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 2:32pm

"Friday Night Lights". Enjoyed the movie when it came out last year, and picked up the book then--finally getting around to reading it.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 2:51pm

DGrant - Interestingly enough, there was another film with the exact same story as Gothic (but not as good) released two years later called Haunted Summer with Eric Stoltz, Alex Winter (of Bill and Ted fame) and Laura Dern. I remember seeing Gothic in the theatre and loved it. Remember the bizarre Thomas Dolby score?
Haunted Summer

[Jacques_Clouseau]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 3:07pm

Matt, I enjoyed The Face more than The Taking, but The Taking did make me think after the very end, when I picked it up off of the floor where I threw it. I'd love to hear your thoughts when you finish it. (Assuming you haven't.)

I just finished Dean Koontz's Frankenstein. I really enjoyed that book. I'm considering reading it again to tide me over until the second in the series of 4 is released. It's a "contemporary" continuation of the Frankenstein story with a dash of crime novel/science-fiction.

[orion59]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 3:39pm

I've tried to read Dean Koontz a few times and was only finish one of his books "Intensity"

The others I found difficult to get into because I found the characters annoying. One in particular takes place at a Vegas nightclub where a show is being produced called Magic. The characters were very unlikable. the same is true for another of his books where it starts out with a man throwing his wife off of a watch tower in a state park.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 3:46pm

I've read a few Koontz books and they can be hit or miss. One interesting thing is that he usually carries the action through up to the very end. The climax normally occurs somewhere in the last 3 pages. My favorites were Lightning, Intensity, Soul Survivor, Mr. Murder and Tick Tock.

orion - Try Lightning. It was the first Koontz I read that I simply could not put down and I liked the characters quite a bit.

[orion59]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 5:31pm

I just read a few pages of Lightning online. It actually looks pretty good. maybe I'll try it....in fact, I may already have a copy of it that I never read and just stored away in a box.

The Corner Of His Eye was the one with the woman trown fromthe tower which I could only get thorugh a couple chapters of. I can't reacll the name of the Vegas show book and can't even find it listed online under any list of his books....maybe it wasn't even Koontz.

[taboo17]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 7:27pm

DGRant & MM - I saw that 2-part Frankenstein with Leonard Whiting, quite awhile ago. I've always enjoyed it, especially being a fan of Zefferelli's R&J. I have a soft spot for Gothic as well. Ken Russell is quite a director. I saw Haunted Summer and agree it wasn't as good. I read, recently, there is a play Off-Off-Broadway about this subject called The Frankenstein Summer.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 9:03pm

I just finished re-reading 'The Fountainhead'. And am now re-reading 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Howard Roark and John Galt. Such interesting characters.

[gettinhep]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 9:09pm

Just finished 'The Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fforde. It's a wonderful bit of postmodernism. Very humorous if you know your literature.

[Ellie3]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 9:10pm

Anyone read Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes? Chick-lit yes, but quality chick-lit!

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 9:13pm

orion59--LIGHTNING by Dean Koontz is my favorite novel. It is the only book that I have read more than once (I have read it three times and counting)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 9:16pm

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The flyleaf says it best...

"It is known as one of the greatest literay archievements in the history of English letters. The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857, took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825 precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of this creation is a fascinating and mysterious story--a story of two remarkable men whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this historic undertaking...

Thus the two men, for two decades, maintained a close relationship only through correspondence. Finally, in 1896, after Minor had sent nearly ten thousand definitions to the dictionary but had still never traveled from him home, a puzzled Murray set out to visit him. It was then that Murray finally learned the truth about Minor--that, in addition to being a masterful wordsith, Minor was also a murderer, clinically insane--and locked up in Broadmoor, England's harshest asylum for criminal lunatics..."

[Unknown User]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 9:47pm

Faithful by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan: they wrote a wonderful chronicle of the amazing year the Boston Red Sox had from Spring training to the World Series. As a lifelong and diehard Red Sox fan, it's a wonderful account of the 2004 season.

[oxdreaminxo]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 10:56pm

In school we are reading To Kill A Mockingbird, I'm on like, the first page but I hear it's good.
For pleasure I just finished reading Wicked: The Life And Times of the Wicked Witch of the West for the 2nd time *blushes* and I am now reading some book about a virus...called The Med Center or something.

[Jwei123]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 10:58pm

I'm reading "A thousand Acres" by Jane Smiley, and "Oleanna" by david Mamet for School, and "Brighton Beach memoirs (for the millionth time) for fun. I'd like to read "How I paid for college..." soon.

[Britt0913]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 11:30pm

I just finished reading "Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood". Pathetic, i know, but once i get into a book and then the author comes out with sequels, i gotta read them.

In school I'm reading "The World's Religions". And for fun, I'm re-reading Faggots by Larry Kramer. I'm almost finished with it again, so I gotta find something else to read.

Any suggestions?

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 11:34pm

Look at Addy reading Ayn Rand! Great stuff. I love it, too.

I just finished rereading the Chronicles of Narnia. Wow. I remembered them being much better as a kid. They're just so...dry...and British...and short.
I'm on a fantasy kick so I also just finished Eragon. Cool, fun, straight-forward fantasy fare. Great climax too.
Now I'm reading Grendel by John Gardner. I'm a fan of the new translation of Beuwulf that Seamus Heaney did a few years back. So I figured this would be a good followup.

[Songs4aNewWorld]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 11:35pm

NYadgal- I LOVE Ayn Rand. I read Fountainhead back in junior year of high school. I have been trying to read Atlas Shrugged since this summer, but haven't been able to find time to do.

I have been reading a lot of short stories for my English class, but the last book I read was Jasper Fforde's Somthing Rotten. Great series of books, especially if you love reading.

[nztheatreluva]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 11:39pm

Just finished Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and am now reading a fantasy novel called The Usurper's Crown. Plus I should really get around to finishing Wuthering Heights at some point.....

[NYadgal]

Posted: 2/16/05 at 11:58pm

Great reading suggestions. I'm going to print this thread out and take it to the library with me!

Jose - loved that book! Fascinating subject...

BBW and Songs - I've really enjoyed re-reading Ayn Rand. I hadn't read the books in YEARS, but a re-visit many years later has been very enlightening.

[Angel Dumott Schunard]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:03am

DAYS OF GRACE
Arthur Ashe's memoir

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 2/17/05 at 12:05am

I just finished one of the most incredible and real fantasy novels I've ever read: "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susannah Clarke. Utterly fascinating. It was a massive novel and I ripped through it.
Now I'm reading the altogether different "At Swim, Two Boys" by Jamie O'Neill. Utterly fascinating in its own right...and what a beautiful love story.
Up next, I'll begin re-reading the works of one of my favorite post-postmodern authors, Brett Easton Ellis (for the over-everything crowd).