Book Talk discussion
What Are You Reading?
1. The guy who created Facebook and is worth a bazillon dollars.2. Me too! But they are like potato chips---you can't have one. You have to have minions--plural. Having only one minion would be low rent and sort of sad. Not to mention stressful to the poor little guy who has the shoulder the burden of your quest for world domination all by himself.
3. No, you are reclusive....that is different. Reclusive implies some sort of cool eccentricity or mad genius. Anti-social is your basic old fart standing there in a smelly old bathrobe telling the kids to get off his yard.
4. Hopefully they will be out soon. Hard to imagine that I am looking forward to a new zombie novel, but I am.
Does it seem to you like I have had too much coffee? Just curious. No reason.
Chris wrote: "1. The guy who created Facebook and is worth a bazillon dollars.2. Me too! But they are like potato chips---you can't have one. You have to have minions--plural. Having only one minion would ..."
1. Why?
2. If I had more than one minion, I would already have the world on it's knees.
3. True, but sometimes I like to play GRAN TORINO.
4. Me, too. And I hate zombies.
Nope.
1. Why what?2. Hmmm. If it is less than 2 minions then you really just have a side-kick, an underling or a toady. It would be cool to have a toady. If you can't have minions, that is. But villains who only have a toady never get to be A-list villains. They are stuck in the Dastardly and Muttley stage.
3. I would just get my butt kicked. I ain't no Clint Eastwood.
4. Any idea when it is coming out?
Good, because I am getting another cup.
1. Why is he rich? What did he do?2. I'm more in the Vlad the Impaler/Dr. Doom category. Y'know, twisted but generally right. Can I have an Igor?
3. Just turn on the sprinklers if it's winter. In summer, use pesticides.
4. Not a peep from Glen yet.
Go for it!
1. He invented Facebook, got millions of people to sign on and put all sorts of information about themselves, and then sold all the private information to advertisers.2. I don't know....are you a mad scientist? The Igor model is only available to mad scientist villains. Otherwise you are stuck with a wheezing dog or a guy who eats bugs.
3. I guess I could just use my dog--spray the bad guys with meat and let her go.
4. Note to self. Stalk Glen.
Already did.
1. I wanna be rich. I have good ideas. How come I ain't rich?2. My master plan involves mass sterilization and involuntary organ donation. That's AMA approved, right?
3. There ya go.
4. He's hard to catch. He lurks.
I just started my second pot.
1. One of the great ironies of the universe is that you are not rich and Brittany Spears is.2. It will be if Romney wins the election, so there is hope. Sure you don't want the Renfield model? He comes with the "calls you MASTER in a creepy voice" upgrade....
Pretty soon we'd better switch to beer. Too much coffee is bad for you I heard.
1. That's just wrong.2. For the sake of our friendship, I'm gonna ignore that particular brain fart on your part. Gotta be an Igor.
Piffle.
1. I agree.2. But you said you were a Vlad type so I thought you might like your own personal Renfield....oh well. The previous Ygor model is now the new Igor model and it comes with the hump upgrade free of charge. Enjoy!
Chris wrote: "1. I agree.2. But you said you were a Vlad type so I thought you might like your own personal Renfield....oh well. The previous Ygor model is now the new Igor model and it comes with the hump u..."
1. Good. You can be a toady.
2. Igors have more personality. I don't care who he humps....
Charlene wrote: "I'm almost done with [book:Rosemary's Baby|228296. It's surprisingly good!I love the author's sparse use of language. No word is wasted. As a result, this book goes by FAST! Plus there's the feeli..."
Ira Levin is a fantastic writer. The book is quite subtle and insinuating. Even silly stuff like The Boys from Brazil is pretty gripping, the way a talented writer like Levin can write it. I'm not at all surprised you're enjoying it. Such a great movie, too.
I can't remember if I ever read ROSEMARY'S BABY.Didn't like the movie. The lady who played Rosemary gave me the creeps.
Um... a little bit of an update for those who have wondered:http://glenkrisch.wordpress.com/2012/...
1. It is a shame that Britney is richer than anyone at all.2. I would like a toady, minions and Zuckerberg at my beck and call. Am I asking too much?
There is no 3. : )
Marc wrote: "Charlene wrote: "I'm almost done with [book:Rosemary's Baby|228296. It's surprisingly good!I love the author's sparse use of language. No word is wasted. As a result, this book goes by FAST! Plus ..."
Marc, I have to agree. As an author, he isn't writing anything that adds to atmosphere, but the story has atmosphere anyway, if that makes sense. There are no real descriptions of scenery or much of anything, other than the apartment. No mood setting. No dark corners, shadows or anything.
Just the bloodless telling of the tale.
I love it!
I never much liked Mia Farrow either. But she was good in the role, and it's one of the best horror films ever made.
He implies a lot of things elliptically, like Hemingway or Carver. But that makes him a lot of fun to read closely.
Glen wrote: "Um... a little bit of an update for those who have wondered:http://glenkrisch.wordpress.com/2012/..."
Glad you're back, without the back pain and writing again, Glen.
We've missed you, ya big lug.
Thanks, Glen! I'm glad that you're feeling better and that the words are flowing again.
I am so glad that you are feeling better and that you can write again. It never ceases to amaze me how whatever plans we have can be put aside in an instant. Thank God you were able to overcome it and get back on track.
reading glens blog, ray garton's facebook posts about his health problems, and the recent brain surgery of Tom Picirilli and subsequent chemo an cancer treatments has me worried sick. geez you guys take it easy! the flu, back injury and cancer followed by heavy med's and writers block, lack of health insurance and 15 grand for monthly treatments - this is the true horror of life! i can handle the zombie apocalypse, hordes of flesh eating insects , ancient sociopathic gods and your friendly neighborhood cannibal no sweat, but give me a dose of that harsh reality and i lose sleep at night. could my favorite writers please be more careful?id like to smack Mia Farrow in the head with something blunt and wooden, but her sister Tia Farrow has done some wonderful italian films including Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE.
after finishing Joe Hill's 4th and 5th locke and key books i just got THE TWELVE from amazon, my sister is already done with her copy and complaining it will be two more years until book 3 comes out.
I'm in the same boat because my social life involves reading. I won't give up coffee, but my sister got me eating better and I make a point of walking between 2-5 miles every day.
Sorry to hear of everyone's health problems. I think I had a very lucky childhood as far as almost no one being sick for long, or dying. As you grow older, that starts to change.
Reading "Exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" by Corey Olsen. I need a better grounding in fantasy, so I might as well go to the modern motherlode by going through Tolkien. Haven't actually bought the Tolkien books yet; may wait till a library copy is free. Meantime, this book is actually quite a fun read even without having read Tolkien, as it gets very nicely into analyses of character development, theme, and setting. Olsen is a very straightforward writer, so the book isn't turgid in the academic fashion. It's actually pretty entertaining in and of itself.The writer has a website up in which he does podcasts, thetolkienprofessor.com. I downloaded a few, and will go through them after I've finished the book.
Read it in high school. I loved some of the "wizard-training parts" especially, found other parts slow-going. I probably won't read it again. But I always marveled at its imagination. I knew when Harry Potter started becoming successful that they sky was the limit for Rowling, because the wizard-training themes and action in The Once and Future King were note-perfect for a kids book and addressed an enormous market need that for some reason wasn't being met and hadn't been met for a very very long time.
True.The only other suggestion I can make is Charles de Lint, who wrote some wonderful books based on the old fairy tales, like Jack the Giant Killer, moving them to modern urban settings. Also some based on other old sources, like Rom (gypsy) magic.
Thanks. I don't think I've ever read any de Lint.Ellen Datlow has edited a whole series of short story collections in which the old fairy tales, or at least their monsters or themes, are reworked, often into modern settings. They've got some really interesting opening essays sometimes too, which I love to read for free via the free sample.
There is more out there than there will ever be time to read!
I wouldn't have it any other way.
I just started David Wellington's PASS/FAIL on my phone. It's a totally different sort of thing for him, but really fun so far.
I'm a huge Wellington fan. He has that great mix of good writing that reads really quickly without being forgettable.
His book FROSTBITE is a good werewolf-ish story.
Any books that I would like to read?
Just started The Terror by Dan Simmons.
Jon Recluse wrote: "True.The only other suggestion I can make is Charles de Lint, who wrote some wonderful books based on the old fairy tales, like Jack the Giant Killer, moving them to modern urban settings. Also s..."
Charles de Lint is a fantastic modern urban fantasy author. Mercedes Lackey is good, too, but definitely for a younger crowd.
OMG Sharon, The Terror is SO good. Those early explorer dudes were out of their freaking minds.
I like to read all kinds of books
I am glad that you think it was good. I bought it last year but I look at something over 800 pages long and I am only willing to make the plunge if I am pretty sure that I am going to love the book. I love stories set in or that involve the arctic---or where there is a blizzard.
Charlene wrote: "OMG Sharon, The Terror is SO good. Those early explorer dudes were out of their freaking minds."It's starting off rather dry but I know Simmons won't disappoint.
I am reading McCammon's "They Thirst." It isn't as literary and Bradburyesque as his later stuff but it sure is a good traditional horror novel. Sort of like Salem's Lot but on a grand scale.
Christine wrote: "I like to read all kinds of books"Christine, who are some of your favorite authors?
Kealan wrote: "The Terror rocked my socks off."Mine too. Plus, I learned a lot from that book.
Like that those explorers were CRAZY! Imagine being on a boat, frozen in the water, not moving for months, if not years on end. Crazy.
I loved They Thirst. Enjoy it! And I agree, Charlene-those men were braver than submariners!
You got that right, Kealan! Good one.
Finished The Toll. Liked it a lot, very Poe-ish. Great job, Kealan! Will be starting Nemesis very soon.
Picked up Nemesis today. I need to scan the first 4 parts before I read. My memory isn't what it used to be!
Picked up the Vandermeer collection of "The Weird ..." Trying not to spend money, but it's way too good. It has a great one by Michael Shea called "The Autopsy" that is among the best horror/sci-fi stories I've ever read. It plenty of classics and something like a million words. It has the story I asked people on Amazon about but nobody could seem to trace -- "The Spider," another of my favorite stories, in which a man thinking he's watching someone commit suicide finds out that actually ... well, maybe it's better I don't say. But it's masterful and deeply chilling. So darn many good stories!And I'm also still plowing through Dracula, though certainly not at a rapid pace. I am committed to finish, but more out of a sense of obligation.
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Oh.
Didn't his stockholders lynch him?