Hello I am new to Goodreads

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

I am an avid fan of spy novels and also movies. I am pleased to find this. I also enjoy detective stories that are not overly gruesome. I do not care for murder mysteries.

I would appreciate being directed to anyone's favorites you think I might enjoy!

[Michael]

www.spymastersguild.com

[Feliks]

I've done my best around Goodreads, to promote all my favorite classic spy, thriller, action, and adventure titles. Reviewing them, and discussing them.

Here's a good, compendious, discussion.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...-

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

I read the link and your reviews and the discussion and loved it! I added several books to be read.

Thank you for the link.

Question: How do you get your book titles to open the Goodreads books so that it is so easy for me to add to be to-read list? I do not any one else's post with book titles to be linked.

I am grateful that yours were. Made it a "that was easy" button for me!

Thanks again.

[Feliks]

Atop every little white box where--on a Goodreads page--you want to write a comment as you just did, there is a little phrase which reads 'add book/author'.

Click on it, search for the book or author you wish to 'make a link' to, click again on the name when it appears in the search...and close the search-box afterward. The link is created automatically!

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

I see it! Thank you so much. Very cool. You are very kind to take the time to answer questions.

Now another question: Is there a group here on Goodreads.com that recommends or discusses spy movies? I would like to join it if there is one.

[Feliks]

Suƶie wrote: "Is there a group here on Goodreads.com that recommends or discusses spy mo..."

Noooo..I really doubt it very much. You can go to the 'Groups' master-page (where all groups are listed) and do a 'search for a group' like that. I have done so, and turned up nothing.

Goodreads--if anything--frowns on discussion of movies; there's a running debate on whether to even allow people to discuss movies-adapted-from books. Its rather silly. How can one not mention a James Bond movie in its relationship to a James Bond novel? Nevertheless, it causes upset around here.

Thus, you will only see such remarks contained in people's 'conversations', rarely in their 'book reviews'. The 'Tinker, Tailor' thread is where I've inserted some spy-movie-references; but that's because I rebel against regulations as a matter-of-course!

cheers
FD

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

Yikes! Thanks for the heads-up.

And as you figured out, I was wondering what others might say about the book, the movie, screenwriter relationship to the author, that sort of thing.

I can understand Goodreads position, however.

Mum on movies here now.
:)

[Feliks]

Len Deighton's novels made for the best spy movies, I would have to say. But the all-time greatest spy movie ever, though? Easily, John leCarre's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold directed by Martin Ritt, adapted by Paul Dehn/Guy Trosper (not his usual team of Irving Ravetch & Harriet Frank Jr.) and starring Richard Burton, Oskar Werner, and Claire Bloom. I can't think of anything else which even comes close.

[Feliks]

Aha! Suzie, I am on to you. I see what you've added to your 'books to read' shelf. There's no eluding my scrutiny.

Deighton and LeCarre, great--but it doesn't appear to me, as if you're intending on reading LeCarre in chronological order! Shame on you! You haven't added his early works first! This is the golden rule. You need to start with Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality, then The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and The Looking Glass War. Next, read A Small Town in Germany before Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy. Finally, finish up with Smiley's People.

Here's the page to refer to:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/1014...
Trust me in this matter...

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

Trust duly given, Feliks. My to-read bookshelf is now properly amended.

Tomorrow afternoon I am manning the Friends of the Library Cafe at our new county library. I plan to sneak away at some point and begin, chronologically as you say, with LeCarre's Call For the Dead on your confident recommendation.

:)

[Feliks]

hurrah! attagirl!

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

Okay, they have the second "A Murder of Quality" but not the first. I will have to do an inter-library loan.

Should I start the second anyway.

[Feliks]

Hi Suzie

Sure, its not a big deal to swap the order of those two particular books. Feel free to do so. It won't cause any conflicts.

'A Murder of Quality' is not a true spy tale after all, its more of a mystery; but it does show a bit of Smiley's personal background and does paint a nice portrait of the English class system and its schools.

But you're not missing out on anything even though it is not specifically, espionage. Since George Smiley is one of the most well-rounded and finely-drawn characters in modern fiction, it certainly won't hurt to include this detour in rest of the saga.

Also many of these early leCarre books are 'short reads' as well, so there's that.

And of course, reading leCarre from the beginning gives one the added pleasure of watching him develop his writing craft. I should say that the stage where you will really have to bear down and pay close, slow, attention begins with 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'. Every title after that, you will find dense, absorbing, and as subtle as chamber music.

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

I just inter-library loaned the "Spy Who Came In From The Cold" book and movie, too!

I'm on a roll.

[Feliks]

You are the Napoleon of Inter-Library loans! You rest like a spider in the centre of a web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and you know well every quiver of each of them." [borrowing from Conan Doyle here]

:D

[Feliks]

Will you have TSWCIFTC long enough to read the other earlier works (which precede it), in order?

As for book vs movie..both are supremely well-done..one of the few instances where a movie stands-up to its source material. It almost doesn't matter which one of the two, you sample first. But I would suggest going with the book, just the same.

[♕ Suƶie ♘]

I finally got the movie! It followed the book and did fairly well with the moments of tension. The actors and actresses were well portrayed. It could have been worse such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in which I was disappointed except for the portrayal of Ricki Tarr, which I thought was the only character they got right in that movie and the actor played correctly.

[Feliks]

Which movie Suzie? Which did you view?