What are you reading in 2021

[Mike Campbell]

I'm currently using an audible credit to listen to Stephen King's quasi biography "On Writing." I've discovered you get a lot of weird looks when you start cracking up and your answer to the question "What's so funny?" is "This Stephen King Book."

[Matt D]

An old friend of mine wrote a Weird West novel and self-published it. It's polished, actually is the sort of thing I would have liked to get an opinion from John on, because I think he would have been supportive. It's just a few bucks on Kindle and past supporting a friend, I honestly think a lot of people here who would be into an arcane western with a noir-style first person narrative would enjoy it:

https://www.amazon.com/His-Ragged-Company-Testimony-Testimonies-ebook/dp/B0976H4BNL/

[Mike Campbell]

On my father's recommendation I'm reading "The Friends of Eddie Coyle." Dad and I have both become big fans of Law and Order: Organized Crime, and during one of our text conversations about it, he told me to check it out. I was really taken aback by how short it appears to be. My e-reader tells me it's only 141 pages, and after going through the title page, other works by the author, the usual extra pages that nobody reads, and then reading the intro, I'm already 11 pages deep.

[Mike Campbell]

One of my work buddies and I were watching a video of a dude ranking all of Stephen King/Richard Bachman's novels, mostly for him to decide what he wanted to read next. He wound up choosing "The Stand." More than a year ago we listened to the audible version of "IT" (narrated by Stephen Weber, and made us laugh our asses off), and he hasn't read anything since that has really stuck with him.

 

During that video, I saw a book that I'd never heard of called "Mr. Mercedes" which I'm currently reading and absolutely loving. I've always been a big fan of murder mystery and private eye stories anyway, so this is a match made in heaven for me. I understand that this is actually the first part of a trilogy, but I'm gonna wait a bit before I dive into the second book, just because I'm loving this one so much and really want to take it all in.

[J.H.]

So, is The Thorn of Emberlain  ever coming out?

James

[Matt D]

45 minutes ago, J.H. said:

So, is The Thorn of Emberlain  ever coming out?

James

Nope, nor the Doors of Stone.

I have The God is not Willing to read though.

[Liam]

On 12/2/2021 at 2:27 AM, Matt D said:

Nope, nor the Doors of Stone.

I have The God is not Willing to read though.

Is The God is not Willing due to be another extended series? Might be worth getting in on the ground floor, I guess.

[Matt D]

1 minute ago, Liam said:

Is The God is not Willing due to be another extended series? Might be worth getting in on the ground floor, I guess.

It’s supposed to be a trilogy, I think.

[odessasteps]

Getting the Mel Brooks bio sometime this week. Need to see if he read the audio book. 

[J.H.]

5 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Getting the Mel Brooks bio sometime this week. Need to see if he read the audio book. 

Now you put it in my head he might not! Like Mel decides to fuck with us and have Michael Caine read his bio

James

[odessasteps]

I checked. He is reading it.

[J.H.]

15 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I checked. He is reading it.

Well now I'm bummed it isn't Michael Caine because that would be amazing!

James

[J.H.]

The Wife got me Phil Schneider's Way of The Blade 100 0f The Greatest Bloody Matcches In Wrestling History for Christmas and I am hungrily devouring it. Understand, I've been reading the DVDVR since 95/96 and jumped on the board day one it launched in the old Green and yellow thread format. So when one of the DVDVR Founding Fathers releases and actual book for me to read, I'm going to do him the honor of buying said book and read said book.

I like  the fact that it is presented chronologically for each match and I'm reading it thusly but is pretty much formatted so you can just pick it up, open to almost any page and read Phil's take on a selected match. I let Phil know The Wife got me the book and he let me know he can point me where to find each match online, something I will more than likely  be taking advantage of.

I get to the Terry Funk v. Harley Race match and suddenly Sandra Violet, my ever inquisitive 3 year old sits on my lap and demands "Read to me Daddy!". I love her wanting me to read to her but kind of try to steer her to her copy of Freddy The Farting Snowman that hr Grandmother got her for Chanukkah. Sandra Violet would not hear of it. She wants Daddy to red to her from Daddy's book.

So I begin to read her the tale of Terry Funk trying to regain the NWA World's Heavyweight Champiosnhip from Harley Race, the man who took it from him. Sandra Violet sat there quietly, taking in every word that she could. I get to the climax of the match, reading about Funk trying to get Race to give to the spinning toehold, while getting busted open by Race over his eye and gushing blood. We get to the end of chapter and Sandy sits there for a moment before looking at me and saying "That no good Daddy, Tewwy Hunk should be winner!".

First, I have to smile because now Terry Funk will be "Tewwy Hunk" from this point forward in the Harris-Kowalski household. Secondly, Phil captured Sandra Violet's imagination for 4 minutes. I can hardly wait for her to to actually watch the actual match in question!

James

   

[Swift]

Finished up The Iliad (Fagles translation) at the weekend. I had started probably 2 years ago and got as far as Book 6. Bookmark sat there all that time, so last month I decided to just commit to a book a day and made it through. Far more violent than I would've imagined, though at points the battle scenes get dull and repetitive. Although I've read some early Greek plays, I initially thought I'd be pushing through this just to say I'd read it, but I actually really enjoyed it and plan to move on to The Odyssey at some point in the new year.

After that I've decided to round out the year with some lighter stuff. Just over halfway through The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, where four oldies in a retirement village meet each week to discuss cold cases but suddenly have an actual live case to investigate after a local builder is murdered. Apparently Spielberg bought up the rights to the movie and it's set to be directed by the guy who wrote the Exotic Marigold Hotel movies. It's that kind of gentle British comedy.

[JLSigman]

I'm probably going to end up short of the 60 I wanted to read this year. Been in a depressive slump the last couple months where I just can't concentrate. Finally started reading NK Jemisen's "Far Sector" collected comics and some random translated manga.

[odessasteps]

This might be the best place for this. We all love Sir Pat but here’s Tim Curry reading A Xmas Carol

 

[Swift]

On 12/23/2021 at 3:17 PM, Swift said:

After that I've decided to round out the year with some lighter stuff. Just over halfway through The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, where four oldies in a retirement village meet each week to discuss cold cases but suddenly have an actual live case to investigate after a local builder is murdered. Apparently Spielberg bought up the rights to the movie and it's set to be directed by the guy who wrote the Exotic Marigold Hotel movies. It's that kind of gentle British comedy.

The Osman book was only ok in the end. I didn't care for the reveal and some of the following actions didn't make a ton of sense.

I read a P.D. James short story collection over Christmas (The Misteltoe Murder and Other Stories) and loved it. I'd only read one other work by James (The Part Time Job which ranks as one of the finest short stories I've read) but so far I absolutely adore her writing, it just seems so effortless and yet is intricately plotted.

Finished up the year with All My Sons by Arthur Miller for a quick read. I'm anal I guess in that I like to end a book before the year is done rather than dragging it into next year and muddying my Good Reads stats.

Speaking of Good Reads stats, 49 books read and 11,000+ pages which are both records for me. I figured the page count might be the case as I'd made somewhat of an effort to not be put off by longer books when choosing what to read next, but surprised by the amount I got through. It was a good year for reading after a somewhat slower, mentally interrupted 2020.

Best book - The Club by Leo Damrosch, a biography of the aforementioned club of writers, artists and thinkers who would meet regularly in London to eat, drink and discuss topics of the day. Mostly focuses on Johnson and Boswell, but also has short biographies of Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon and Joshua Reynolds (all some of the foremost individuals of the day in their respective fields) along with others in their orbit. I could eat this stuff up.

Worst book - Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker. A sort of prequel to Dracula - what if Bram Stoker experienced some supernatural events for real and wrote it into his famous novel? I had wanted to love this - an interesting premise, and set in familiar neighbourhoods of my hometown - but I hated it, and actually just gave up on it halfway. Poorly researched nonsense with obvious errors in geography, local history and local speech with modern Americanisms thrown in for good measure.