So what are reading these days?

[i.am.sladist]

Hey Buddy!
I am reading nothing because I don't have a new book. I could read an old book ...
I was going to re-read Swastika but then I realized I only have two copies.
And they are both first editions.
And they are both signed.
Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a new one ...

[Judy]

Well . . . while I am waiting for our leader to finish his latest tome . . . I've been delving into Val McDermid's collection and finished the audible version of FEVER IN THE BLOOD and am currently listening to BENEATH THE BLEEDING. With an audible book spelling is irrelevant . . .

[Hydebound]

Recently finished The Academy by Bentley Little and started The Deluge by Mark Morris...

[jellybelly]

Whilst waiting for Burnt Bones to arrive i started Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson which has been on my bookshelves, unread, for a good few years now.

[Slade]

It's fun (and fills in gaps) to return to classics. When you finish, watch this:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/kid ... index.html

A fascinating combo is to read HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad, then watch APOCALYPSE NOW.

Also, if you've never read Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN, do...then watch a couple of the filmed versions. That's really moving stuff.

And if you get hooked on print into visual, read Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (a very seductive book)...then watch the TV series that made Colin Firth, followed by the Keira Knightley movie.

Slade

[jellybelly]

It's fun (and fills in gaps) to return to classics. When you finish, watch this:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/kid ... index.html

A fascinating combo is to read HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad, then watch APOCALYPSE NOW.

Also, if you've never read Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN, do...then watch a couple of the filmed versions. That's really moving stuff.

And if you get hooked on print into visual, read Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (a very seductive book)...then watch the TV series that made Colin Firth, followed by the Keira Knightley movie.

Slade

Sorry for the late reply, just finished Kidnapped, beautiful book, not just because of the characters but because of the setting, i adore Scotland, me and my wife had a holiday in Fort William a few years back.

I was going to ask if there where any worthy adaptations of the book and you answered first, thanks.

Haven't read Of mice and men but remember seeing a film, goodness way back in my school days, wasn't John Malchovich in it, Gary Sinese ? Mind you if we saw that in school then i dare say we'd have read it too...

Still waiting on Burnt bones i was reading some reviews of it (couldn't help it) and i found out some of it's set in Scotland, also Hadrian's wall, which again we visited way back in school.

Lastly i read something that angered me and may well anger you too although everyone is entitled to their own opinion, someone said your books are only fit to read in between better books the cad, blasphemy i say !!

[SickThing]

A fascinating combo is to read HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad, then watch APOCALYPSE NOW.

(Shudder) In my Honors English class in college, we had to write a paper comparing and contrasting those two. I would never have known Apocalypse Now was based on Heart of Darkness. It was without a doubt the most horrific and tedious paper I had to write during my college years. And I had to write it twice because my professor knew I could do better (I got a B the first time; after my rewrite, I got---a B+). To this day, I shudder at the mention of either of those.....

And if you get hooked on print into visual, read Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (a very seductive book)...then watch the TV series that made Colin Firth, followed by the Keira Knightley movie.

Those are both great, in different ways!

Hunter

[jellybelly]

Started reading The Chinaman by Stephen Leather, read it a few years back but seeing as i am STILL waiting for Burnt bones...

It seems that most of the books from Burnt bones onward will are only available to order from America, hence the long wait, hmmm maybe an Ebook or whatever they are called may have to be the easier option now...

[EZ Rhino]

I had to write it twice because my professor knew I could do better (I got a B the first time; after my rewrite, I got---a B+).

What the Smurf? Where did you go to college where an instructor would allow you to submit a paper twice?? Granted, it's not a privilege because you had to do the work twice...but still...

[SickThing]

I had to write it twice because my professor knew I could do better (I got a B the first time; after my rewrite, I got---a B+).

What the Smurf? Where did you go to college where an instructor would allow you to submit a paper twice?? Granted, it's not a privilege because you had to do the work twice...but still...

It was an Honors English Literature class at Western Kentucky University that a friend convinced me to take with him. On the first day of class, there were only six students who showed up. I was relieved, thinking that the class would be canceled, but the professor came back from the office and said, "Well, normally they won't let us have classes this small, but since it's an Honors class, I talked them into letting me keep it. And since there are so few of us, we won't have any tests. Instead, your grade will come exclusively from papers." I was screaming inside, and if I could have strangled my friend and not had five witnesses, I would have.

Consequently, every single paper I did that semester landed me with anywhere from a B- to an A-. For each B, he'd give it back and ask me to see him after class. After class, he'd talk to me about how disappointed he was with my paper, and he'd say, "I know you can do better than that. Rewrite it and turn it in next class." And rarely did my grade go from a B-whatever to an A. I ended up with a B in the class, a burning hatred of compare-and-contrast papers (and Heart and Apocalypse in particular), and no desire to ever take another Honors class again. Oh, and I never took another class with that friend.

My professor was hung up on hidden meanings and symbolism in literature, specifically phallic and yonic symbols. I thought he was full of it 99% of the time, but he insisted that's what the authors intended when they wrote whatever. I had a discussion about this with Rick McCammon once. He said a lady had written a journal article about all the symbolism related to Edgar Allan Poe that existed in McCammon's Usher's Passing, which is a followup to Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." (You can read the article here.) He said that almost all of the stuff she pointed out was not intentional. I wanted to take him with me back to my old professor as proof that he (the professor) was full of it.....

And yes, that was the only college class I ever had that allowed you to re-do assignments to try to bring the grade up. He wanted six A students in his Honors class, but he didn't get it.

Hunter

[Slade]

SickThing,

Having just spent 10 hours teaching today as writer-in-residence, your post has me laughing. Four of the classes are Psych, and the prof gave them an assignment: "Why is Michael Slade speaking to this class, and what three questions do you want to ask him?"

Now I've got 50 pages of psychoanalysis that seems to conclude I'm one sick puppy indeed!

Hilarious!

Slade

[SickThing]

That's awesome, Slade!

Hunter

[jellybelly]

STILL...AWAITING...BURNT...BONES
...so i had a walk down to my local library with my little girl, no Slade works at all...in the end i came out with Red dragon by Thomas Harris, and yes i have read it before...

[Brooster]

just started "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo"

[Mbwun]

Hey Brooster! Long time no see. Welcome back!

I'm currently reading Stacy Shiff's biography CLEOPATRA.