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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
A lot of Napoleonic prisoners were kept here in Plymouth and then Princetown on the moor. Napoleon himself was kept prisoner on a ship anchored in Plymouth Harbor for a while too.Originally Posted by Freedom
You don't need any prior knowledge of the battle to enjoy it. It covers everything.
The movie Waterloo is very good, it goes well with the book.
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What a fantastic book that was, the story was simple enough, Tim Sunblade (as he is now known) has been working a shitty job on an oil rig he finishes work and gets himself a prostitute, she ends up staying with him for a few days and although he wants to he can't seem to shake her off, she is quite honest about her interests and motives 'once the moneys gone, I'm gone' but neither of them can stay away from the other.
Its a pretty volatile relationship, certainly of the love/hate variety, she tries to steal him money, he gives her a bit of a beating, she fights back, he realizes that against his better judgement he has fell in love with her and she is just the right person to help him carry out an armed robbery that he has been planning since he was inside.
Virginia is certainly a restless type of girl, the mundane life doesn't agree with her, Tim Sunblade knows what he wants, he doesn't know why he wants it just that he does.
Fantastic book I'd recommend it to anyone, I can't wait to get the chance to pick it back up and re-read it.
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Really enjoyed this, it seems like its been a while since I read a bog standard exorcism horror, this ticked all the boxes apart from one, it wasn't scary at all.The lives of the Barretts, a suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia. To her parents despair, the doctors are unable to halt Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls the terrifying events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories begin to surface and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed.
There are three different narratives in the book, Merry when she is 8 years old describing things as they happened, Merry 15 years on when she is being interviewed for a true crime and finally a random blogger who describes things as seen in the TV docuseries.
The influences in the book were obvious, almost too obvious, the lead character Merry is basically an extension of Merricat from Shirley Jacksons 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' she is playful and naive and doesn't fully understand what is going on around her (An 8 year old girl trying to deal with her 14 year old sisters schizophrenia/demonic possession) and whilst she doesn't have that twisted sense of mischief that Merricat had but the whole of her narrative had the almost exact same feel (the author actually admits after the book that this was his inspiration but it was painfully blatant. He did however manage to keep it entertaining and enjoyable, sometimes books written from a kids perspective can be cringe worthy but he managed to avoid this.
Paul Tremblay really did try to drag the dated exorcisms into today's world of Wikipedia, iPods and reality TV, it didn't always hit the mark though, the actual 'horror' side of the book suffered from this, the exorcism almost took the backseat for the descriptions of the TV show's cast and crew.
There is a nice little section after the book where the author gives a break down on each chapter describing where his ideas and influences came from, and he has a little chat about his favourite horror films and books etc, I like that sort of thing, it gives you an idea into how their mind works.
It certainly isn't the greatest of books but it was certainly a cracking little page turner.
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I think I'm going to stick with the whole 'horror, demon, exorcist' shizzle for the minute and start this tomorrow
Now I have no recollection of buying this at all, I just got home from work one day and there it was on the floor as I walked through the door, I have either hit the 'one click buy' button on Amazon without realizing it or I have made another of my drunk purchases, I really have no idea, usually if I am buying books when drunk I'll get 4 or 5 delivered sporadically over the course of a few weeks, its actually quite good fun not having any idea of what it could be, I've stumbled across a few gems that way.In a peaceful Vermont courtroom, humanity will be called to trial by endless evil. Ancient and implacable -- armed with sensuality, delusion and horrible death -- it will join itself to human weakness in an unholy alliance.
Not since The Exorcist has there been such a powerful novel of demonic possession as Son of the Endless Night.
Anyway, if its shit I'll put it down to the 'once click buy' button, if its good then I'll chalk it up to drunk batman being out of his noggin on Stella or Rum.
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OK then as the year is drawing to a close I thought I'd post the full list of everything I've read this year, I'm hoping to get another one or two done before the year is out but I'm feeling a bit burnt out now so we'll see how I get on.
J.Sheridan Le Fanu - Uncle Silas - 1864
Charles Portis - True Grit - 1968
Albert Camus - The Plague - 1947
John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men - 1937
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood - 1965
Ian Rankin - Knots & Crosses - 1987
Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle - 1962
Oakley Hall - Warlock - 1958
Ian Rankin - Hide and Seek - 1991
Shirley Jackson - The Birds Nest - 1954
Ray Celestin - The Axemans Jazz - 2014
Zecharia Sitchin - The Lost Book of Enki - 2001
James Herbert - The Rats - 1974
S. Elliot Brandis - Young Slasher
Ian Rankin - Tooth and Nail - 1992
James Hogg - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - 1824
Margaret Atwood - Oryx & Crake - 2003
Charles Bukowski - Post Office - 1971
Jim Al-Khalili - Aliens: Science asks: Is there anyone out there?
Lauren Beukes - Broken Monsters - 2014
Graeme Macrae Burnet - His Bloody Project - 2014
Stephen King - It - 1986
Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian - 1985
Stefan Grabínski - The Dark Domain
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita - 1955
Michael Connelly - The Crossing - 2015
Charlotte Dacre - Zofloya, or the Moor - 1806
Vladimir Nabokov - Bend Sinister - 1947
George Orwell - 1984 - 1949
Steven Hall - The raw Shark Texts - 2007
Stefan Kiesbye - Your house is on fire, your children all gone - 2011
Elliott Chaze - Black Wings Has My Angel - 1953
Paul Trmblay - A Head Full of Ghosts - 2015
Max Ernst - Une Semaine de Bonté - 1934 (this is a bit of a cheat because its just pictures)
John Farris - Son of the Endless Night - 1985
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
That is a lot of books! Pace yourself and enjoy them. It is not a race.
Do not let success go to your head and do not let failure get to your heart.
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meh, its less than a book a week, I'd rather read than sit down watching the telly constantly.
It's a nice (mostly) cheap hobby and it keeps me out of trouble.
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Hey I just started the Stephen king book about kennedy. Most of what I read is history, philosophy and and theology along with a smattering of economics. I'm looking foreword to this nonfiction.
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I just read Napoleon's Russian Campaign by Count Philippe-Paul De Segur.
GREAT book, the author was a young aide-de-camp to Napoleon during the campaign. You get a feeling of what it was like to be there from reading this.
Last edited by Freedom; 12-19-2017 at 12:46 PM.
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That is an awful lot of fiction. If you were on the same bus as Bill Hicks, God knows what the "We got ourselves a reader" bloke would have made of you. Books are good..m'kay. Well done . I would buy you a pint but you live miles away. Merry Crimbo oh caped peruser
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
@Beanz I can add another 2 to that list nowThat is an awful lot of fiction. If you were on the same bus as Bill Hicks, God knows what the "We got ourselves a reader" bloke would have made of you. Books are good..m'kay. Well done . I would buy you a pint but you live miles away. Merry Crimbo oh caped peruser
cracking book, I don't know why I'd never read it before now, its very much a book of morals and whilst it isn't shocking or controversial in this day and age if you like fiction from this era then its definitely worth reading, I'll definitely revisit this in the future.'The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty'
Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succès de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at unspeakable sins, and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde at the Old Bailey in 1895.
Just a bog standard horror this was, I've read Adam Nevill before but never realised he was a Brummie himself, it was strange trying to read about a haunted house in Handsworth, I just couldn't imagine it, he also mentions how Perry Barr is mainly populated by Asians but the Eastern Europeans are taking the area over, the main character actually works in the bull ring, it was pretty nice to see Birmingham get the full on horror treatment.Darkness lives within ...Cash-strapped, working for agencies and living in shared accommodation, Stephanie Booth feels she can fall no further. So when she takes a new room at the right price, she believes her luck has finally turned. But 82 Edgware Road is not what it appears to be. It's not only the eerie atmosphere of the vast, neglected house, or the disturbing attitude of her new landlord, Knacker McGuire, that makes her uneasy - it's the whispers behind the fireplace, the scratching beneath floors, the footsteps in the dark, and the young women weeping in neighbouring rooms. And when Knacker's cousin Fergal arrives, the danger goes vertical. But this is merely a beginning, a gateway to horrors beyond Stephanie's worst nightmares. And in a house where no one listens to the screams, will she ever get out alive?
Its certainly pretty bleak for the main part, its kind of like Jack Ketchums 'The Girl Next Door' with elements of Eden Lake and Martyrs thrown in for good measure.
This was delivered today, I'm really looking forward to getting started on it tomorrow
Bram Stoker Award Winners Bruce Boston and Alessandro Manzetti combine their poetic and narrative talents in a poetry novella that blends the genres of horror, surrealism, crime, and noir. Set in a large America city, Sacrificial Nights follows the lives of some of those who inhabit its late-night streets: prostitutes, pimps, a thief, an arsonist, a police detective, a psychotic killer, and more. Their tales and the tale of the city itself are richly complemented by British artist Ben Baldwin’s striking illustrations. This is a dark read with some explicit graphic content.
“Original, intelligent and exquisitely rendered, Sacrificial Nights is an absolute tour de force, a richly layered Chinese Box of sorts, where each part is as important as the whole. In a world of cookie-cutter plots and tired poetry, Sacrificial Nights is a shot of cool night air, shadowy, dangerous, and addictive as sin.” —Greg F. Gifune, author of The Bleeding Season
"When a book is both lucid and hallucinogenic, the effect can be shocking, luminous … transgressive. The collision of talents in this extraordinary work practically establishes a new genre – macabre noir." —Robert Dunbar, author of Willy
“Populated by denizens who straddle the line between salvation and damnation, Sacrificial Nightsreads like a flashlight exploration of the darkness lurking behind closed doors and down blind alleys. Boston and Manzetti deftly navigate the shadows where human monsters dwell.” —Michael McBride, author of Subterrestrial
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I'd really like to get Simon Sinek’s book 'Together is better'
They live, We sleep
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I'm doing something that I never do at the minute and I'm reading 2 books at the same time.
I'm re-reading Inferno, I've got two copies of it the little paperback in the picture above and the whole Divine Comedy in a big leather bound hard back with some glorious animations, I'm alternating between the two of them, paperback at work and hard back at home.Welcome to Hell.
One evening, Dante finds himself lost in a dark and menacing wood. The ghost of Virgil offers to lead him to safety but the path lies through the terrifying kingdom of Satan, where Dante witnesses the strange and gruesome sufferings of the damned.
Written while Dante was in exile and under threat of being burned at the stake, this dramatic, frightening and, at times, sardonically humorous vision of Hell still has the power to shock and horrify
After reading Son of the Endless night a few weeks back it got me to realising how much I used to love this genre, this takes a look through them, I'm hoping it'll help me unearth a few cheap gems on Amazon.Take a tour through the horror paperback novels of the 1970s and ’80s . . . if you dare. Page through dozens and dozens of amazing book covers featuring well-dressed skeletons, evil dolls, and knife-wielding killer crabs! Read shocking plot summaries that invoke devil worship, satanic children, and haunted real estate! Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby. It’s an affectionate, nostalgic, and unflinchingly funny celebration of the horror fiction boom of two iconic decades, complete with story summaries and artist and author profiles. You’ll find familiar authors, like V. C. Andrews and R. L. Stine, and many more who’ve faded into obscurity. Plus recommendations for which of these forgotten treasures are well worth your reading time and which should stay buried.
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A few I've read lately
Brilliant book, I really enjoyed this one, it was a real slow burner and only picked up in the final 20 or 30 pages but that didn't bother me.After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, where three Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. Two of the houses are habitable, while the third is slowly and mysteriously being buried beneath an enormous dune of blindingly white sand. But though long uninhabited, the third house is not empty. Inside, something deadly lies in wait. Something that has terrified Dauphin Savage and Luker McCray since they were boys and which still haunts their nightmares. Something horrific that may be responsible for several terrible and unexplained deaths years earlier — and is now ready to kill again . . .
The characters were great as well, the Dad who actually treated his daughter like a human being rather than the stereotypical father who raps his pride and joy up in cotton wool, then there was Odessa who was stereotypical, the black maid who loved the family and would go to the ends of the earth for them.
A real good book that I will no doubt revisit in the future
Decent paint by numbers horror, kids play with a Ouija board which promises to lead them to masses of treasure, they go on a camping trip and shit gets real.At a party, six college kids play with a Ouija board - that same one that Professor Dalton swore never to touch again - not after Jake's death. And now a spirit is telling the students about a vast fortune, hidden in the mountains. But surely they won't be stupid enough to head off into the wilderness on the say-so of a 'toy' ... would they?
The one thing that grated on me though was the constant talk of sex, it just got boring. The dialogue was clunky but fun and the entire story is bizarre but actually really good
A young woman is having strange dreams and notices a lump on her neck which starts growing at an alarming rate, she goes to the doctors about the lump and goes to a 'fraudulent' psychic about the dreams, the two things are quickly connected and things move along at a breakneck speed.It only grows at night. Karen Tandy was a sweet and unassuming girl until she discovers the mysterious lump growing underneath her skin. As the doctors and specialists are puzzling over the growth, Karen`s personality is beginning to drastically change. The doctors decide there is only one thing to do, cut out the lump. But then it moved. Now a chain reaction has begun and everyone who comes in contact with Karen Tandy understands the very depths of terror. Her body and soul are being taken over by a black spirit over four centuries old. He is the remembrance of the evils the white man has bestowed on the Indian people and the vengeance that has waited four hundred years to surface. He is the Manitou.
Anyway she ends up giving birth (out of her neck) to a fully grown 600 year old red Indian, that's when the battle commences.
Its completely bonkers, if you are prepared to leave your brain at the door you will have good fun reading this.
I wouldn't say its a classic but its certainly enjoyable.
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Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading ?
I'm reading The Greatest Salesman in the World by OG Mandino; Wired That Way by Marita Littauer; Murderers Row by Springs Toledo.
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