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I've finished a few and moved on to new ones. Great Expectations was wonderful and well worth a visit or re-visit. Transcription was good, but not exactly a spy thriller in the traditional vein.

I'm currently reading Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in hard copy, and doing Frankenstein on audio. Liking the former, relatively bored by the latter.
 
Frankenstein picked up at the end. It's worth a read, but anyone who picks it up thinking that they're going to get a telling of the story we're familiar with from the Boris Karloff films will be disappointed.

I'm doing The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin on audio now. It's the final book in her 'Broken Earth' trilogy, each book of which one the Hugo award for Best Fantasy Novel. The whole series really is remarkable, and one of the most original things I've read in years.
 
I read Frankenstein in HS. I really enjoyed it and it had WAY more depth than i expected. There have been a few made for TV movies that actually did a decent job on it too.
 
uacowboy said:
I read Frankenstein in HS. I really enjoyed it and it had WAY more depth than i expected. There have been a few made for TV movies that actually did a decent job on it too.
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Yeah. It's not about the monster at all. I mean it is, but it's more about the consequences of demonizing people and things that are different. It's as relevant today as it was 200 years ago.
 
I read Frankenstein in College part of my Romantic Literature class. The one thing that gets me every time I see a movie or show about Frankenstein's Monster is that they all get it wrong. He wasn't this grotesque being that barely resembled a human. He was more akin to a handsome man than the green things we make him out to be. And yes. The book is less about the physical Monster and more about the people who are the actual monsters. The Romantic Period is one of my favorites in literature.

Okay time to geek out...

When it comes to the Romatics, I was more about the poetry than I was about the books. "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti is among my favorites! Big fan of William Blake (I mean who isn't) especially his "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience." I guess not technically a Romance Author...Still I absolutely love Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her work "Aurora Leigh." But if I had to pick a book/novel I would have to pick Don Juan by Lord Byron! The Romantic Period had so many great authors!
 
Same teacher in HS also has us read Cyrano de Bergerac. We read it as a class with assigned rolls and it was probably one of .y favorite things we did that year and the story was Fantastic
 
beginish said:
In preparation for the launch next week of the Good Omens series on Amazon, I am taking up a re-read.
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I thought about doing that too...but as slow as I read, even if I start it now I'll still finish the series before I finish the book! 🤪
 
Bob @beginish I don't know if you saw it in my journal or not...but I recently listened to a podcast where Neil Gaiman was interviewed on the Tim Ferriss Show. It was a truly amazing interview. One of the (many) things he talked about in his podcast is about how he writes his books. Evidently, he writes all of his books in a notebook or bound book in fountain pen. He also uses two color inks when he writes a book. Basically he alternates colors with days. One day he will write in black, the next day in brown. Anyway...I thought this was really interesting!

Here is a link to the podcast on his website...though you can find it on just about any podcast app...

Neil Gaiman Archives - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

tim.blog tim.blog
 
Yes, I read that in your journal, but haven’t gotten to listen to the podcast yet. Gaiman is very interesting. A tremendously successful writer in all media (books, graphic novels, films, TV, adult and kids), who has avoided mainstream media in large part throughout his career. He’s a master at social media. The Guardian just published an excellent interview with him this week.
 
I have just begun again to read 1776 by David McCullough . Tried a long time ago to read this one and then hen life happened and I haven’t had much reading time!
 
I finished Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It, along with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, may be the best spy novels ever written. John Le Carré has the same sort of skill that Stephen King has to pull the reader along to the point that with about 100 pages to go, the story is like a runaway locomotive. You just can't put it down. It's a rare skill.

I'm moving on to 'The Prisoner of Heaven' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's the third in a series called 'The Cemetery of Forgotten Books' based in Barcelona. They are literary thrillers with a touch of the supernatural to them.
 
beginish said:
I'm moving on to 'The Prisoner of Heaven' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's the third in a series called 'The Cemetery of Forgotten Books' based in Barcelona. They are literary thrillers with a touch of the supernatural to them.
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Nice--I very much enjoyed The Shadow of the Wind, but never picked up any of the sequels.
 
JWS VII said:
Nice--I very much enjoyed The Shadow of the Wind, but never picked up any of the sequels.
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I found The Shadow of the Wind to be a bit slow and if I put it down for too long, had a hard time picking up the thread again. The Angel's Game was much better at pacing and keeping the reader engaged. I liked that one quite a bit.
 
This summer I will be reading a chapter or two of Melville's Moby Dick to the wife, my two adult sons and their sig others sometime after dinner during their weekly Sunday visit. It is a family tradition to light the candelabra and read aloud a book piecemeal until completion. We take turns being the reader, but the same reader recites for the entire duration of the book.
 
beginish said:
Yeah. It's not about the monster at all. I mean it is, but it's more about the consequences of demonizing people and things that are different. It's as relevant today as it was 200 years ago.
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Just like Mary Shelley,
Just like Frankenstein,
Clank your chains and count your change, and try to walk the line.
 
August West said:
This summer I will be reading a chapter or two of Melville's Moby Dick to the wife, my two adult sons and their sig others sometime after dinner during their weekly Sunday visit. It is a family tradition to light the candelabra and read aloud a book piecemeal until completion. We take turns being the reader, but the same reader recites for the entire duration of the book.
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Moby Dick is on my list this year. I've never read it, and am thinking of tackling it by a pool.
 
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