What Book Are You Currently Reading ?

[Batman]

A few I've read lately

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 . . .

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.
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

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?

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.
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

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.

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.

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.

[greynotsoold]

I'm reading The Greatest Salesman in the World by OG Mandino; Wired That Way by Marita Littauer; Murderers Row by Springs Toledo.

[Batman]

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

Kind of a strange one to have lumped in the middle of a load of horrors, my mate borrowed my copy of Stephen Hawkins 'A Brief History of Time' and then moved to the other side of the country (he also took The Stand and Turn of the Screw as well the bastard) anyways I had to replace it but thought I'd go for this, not much to say really, if you are interested in this sort of shit its well worth a read although I preferred Brief History of Time.

'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils... and found instead a new unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.

All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.

First time I'd read this in about 15 years, it is what it is, Vampires as they should be, none of this twilight bollocks.

Its strange how everyone in the town seemed quite happy to embrace the idea of a vampire breakout in the middle of their little town, it seems like everyone seemed to just accept that this mythical creature had decided to take up residence in The Lot, if i remember correctly there was only one person who thought the very idea was preposterous and he died around 5 minutes later.

Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. In the midst of adolescence she senses a creeping darkness in her life, which will spread among nightmarish parties, poisonous college cliques and the manipulations of the intellectual men who surround her, as her identity gradually crumbles.

Inspired by the unsolved disappearance of a female college student near Shirley Jackson's home, Hangsaman is a story of lurking disquiet and haunting disorientation.

Just finished this today, I love Shirley Jacksons books and this one was really good, it sounds like a bog standard coming of age book, its anything but, some of the writing was really clever, Jackson omits certain things in order to drive her point home and she works it in such a way that as the main character starts struggling to differentiate between what is real and not the reader has exactly the same problem, it did get confusing as fuck towards the end but I think that was partly intentional to try and convey how much poor old Natalie was struggling as well.

Next up is this, I don't know whether to start it tonight or just stick a film on

It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!

The book that became Blade Runner, I've been wanting to read this for years but for some reason never got around to it.

[X]

I've just reread Charles Dickens 'Tale of Two Cities'.

Did you know that all of his books were originally serialised in newspapers, and they only were put together into books later on?

The two local papers that this book was first printed was the Biscester Times and the Worcester Times.









I suspect that's one for the Brits here, as Americans murder the pronounciation of those places to such an extent they wouldn't get the joke. Having said that, most of you Brits on here are illiterate chavs, so you wouldn't get it either but for a different reason.

It is a joke for cultured Scandinavians, clearly

[hfahrenheit]

I'm a huge Phillip K Dick fan, good on you.

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

Kind of a strange one to have lumped in the middle of a load of horrors, my mate borrowed my copy of Stephen Hawkins 'A Brief History of Time' and then moved to the other side of the country (he also took The Stand and Turn of the Screw as well the bastard) anyways I had to replace it but thought I'd go for this, not much to say really, if you are interested in this sort of shit its well worth a read although I preferred Brief History of Time.

'Salem's Lot is a small New England town with white clapboard houses, tree-lined streets, and solid church steeples. That summer in 'Salem's Lot was a summer of home-coming and return; spring burned out and the land lying dry, crackling underfoot. Late that summer, Ben Mears returned to 'Salem's Lot hoping to cast out his own devils... and found instead a new unspeakable horror.

A stranger had also come to the Lot, a stranger with a secret as old as evil, a secret that would wreak irreparable harm on those he touched and in turn on those they loved.

All would be changed forever—Susan, whose love for Ben could not protect her; Father Callahan, the bad priest who put his eroded faith to one last test; and Mark, a young boy who sees his fantasy world become reality and ironically proves the best equipped to handle the relentless nightmare of 'Salem's Lot.

First time I'd read this in about 15 years, it is what it is, Vampires as they should be, none of this twilight bollocks.

Its strange how everyone in the town seemed quite happy to embrace the idea of a vampire breakout in the middle of their little town, it seems like everyone seemed to just accept that this mythical creature had decided to take up residence in The Lot, if i remember correctly there was only one person who thought the very idea was preposterous and he died around 5 minutes later.

Natalie Waite, daughter of a mediocre writer and a neurotic housewife, is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. In the midst of adolescence she senses a creeping darkness in her life, which will spread among nightmarish parties, poisonous college cliques and the manipulations of the intellectual men who surround her, as her identity gradually crumbles.

Inspired by the unsolved disappearance of a female college student near Shirley Jackson's home, Hangsaman is a story of lurking disquiet and haunting disorientation.

Just finished this today, I love Shirley Jacksons books and this one was really good, it sounds like a bog standard coming of age book, its anything but, some of the writing was really clever, Jackson omits certain things in order to drive her point home and she works it in such a way that as the main character starts struggling to differentiate between what is real and not the reader has exactly the same problem, it did get confusing as fuck towards the end but I think that was partly intentional to try and convey how much poor old Natalie was struggling as well.

Next up is this, I don't know whether to start it tonight or just stick a film on

It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill.
Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment--find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!

The book that became Blade Runner, I've been wanting to read this for years but for some reason never got around to it.

[X]

[Batman]

The last few books I've read

Shocking and controversial when it was first published in 1939, Steinbeck's Pulitzer prize-winning epic remains his undisputed masterpiece. Set against the background of dust bowl Oklahoma and Californian migrant life, it tells of the Joad family, who, like thousands of others, are forced to travel West in search of the promised land. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and broken dreams, yet out of their suffering Steinbeck created a drama that is intensely human, yet majestic in its scale and moral vision; an eloquent tribute to the endurance and dignity of the human spirit.

Not a lot needs to be said about this one, its a classic for a reason, its fucking fantastic, it isn't the fastest paced book, the characters just tend to trudge along with a reluctant acceptance of their situation and the pace reflects that, it isn't the most uplifting of books and whilst the characters are faced with constant upheaval and problems the book doesn't become a drag to read, all of the characters were fantastic and it was easy to warm to them all.

If times were really that difficult back then, I'm glad that I missed them.

A decade ago, teacher Nathan Brookes saw four of his students walk up a hill and vanish. Only one returned: Olivia, starved, terrified, and with no memory of where she'd been. Questioned by the police but released for lack of evidence, Nathan spent the years trying to forget.

When a body is found in the same ancient woodland where they disappeared, it is first believed to be one of the missing children, but is soon identified as a Bronze Age warrior, nothing more than an archaeological curiosity. Yet Nathan starts to have horrific visions of the students, alive but trapped. Then Olivia reappears, desperate that the warrior's body be returned to the earth. For he is the only thing keeping a terrible evil at bay.

this was just batshit crazy from the very fucking start, 3 kids go missing in Sutton Park (which is 5 minutes away from where I live) and from there on in ensues alternate dimensions, multiverses, time travel, time shifting, primitive tribes, monsters, warriors, you name it, its there somewhere.

A decent quick read this was, I quite enjoyed it although I won't be in a rush to re-read it.

The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. "Power and haunting," and "nights of unrest" were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery:" with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jackson's remarkable range--from the hilarious to the truly horrible--and power as a storyteller.

fantastic collection of short stories, some are basically people living their lives and nothing truly exceptional happens in them whereas others are pretty sinister, as much as I enjoyed this I think I'm done with Shirley Jackson for a while.

A score of centuries has passed since the First Apocalypse and the thoughts of men have turned, inevitably, to more worldly concerns...

A veteran sorcerer and spy seeks news of an ancient enemy. A military genius plots to conquer the known world for his Emperor but dreams of the throne for himself. The spiritual leader of the Thousand Temples seeks a Holy War to cleanse the land of the infidel. An exiled barbarian chieftain seeks vengeance against the man who disgraced him. And into this world steps a man like no other, seeking to bind all - man and woman, emperor and slave - to his own mysterious ends.

But the fate of men - even great men - means little when the world itself may soon be torn asunder. Behind the politics, beneath the religious fervour, a dark and ancient evil is reawakening. After two thousand years, the No-God is returning. The Second Apocalypse is nigh. And one cannot raise walls against what has been forgotten...

Well this just throws you in and doesn't really explain a helluva lot at all, I found that I really had to concentrate in order to try and put the pieces together, the characters were pretty strong and the writing style is good but for me it doesn't stand up to the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, I'll read the next in the series but I've got a few books to get through before I get to that point.

[Batman]

The next books that I have to pick from are

From Mark Z Danielewski, author of the cult bestseller House of Leaves, comes the astonishing Only Revolutions, a shoot-from-the-hip American road novel about Sam and Hailey - two wayward and wild kids who magically career across the American mainland and from the Civil Rights Movement to the Iraq War and beyond.

Powered by an ever-evolving fleet of cars, these two teenagers never age and never stop. They crash parties in New Orleans, barrel up the Mississippi, and blast through the Badlands, cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself.

And where this journey takes them is what sets the pages, even the actual book, turning. Alternating between Hailey and Sam, this kaleidoscopic novel spins the strangest, most gripping and lyrical love story published in more than a generation.

House of Leaves was a fucking mind bending book and this one looks just as bizarre, the book starts from either side so you have to keep switching it back and forth to get each perspective, the only problem is that it doesn't tell you when to flip the book around, from what I have read you are best to read about 8 pages then turn it over and read the same 8 pages from the other side.

Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going to die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.

Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.

a nice bog standard horror for me to get my teeth into, I think I'll probably get stuck into this one next.

A race for survival among the stars... Humanity's last survivors escaped earth's ruins to find a new home. But when they find it, can their desperation overcome its dangers?

WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?

I'm gunna buy this when I'm back at work next week, I don't know anything about it but I haven't read anything like this for absolutely ages so I'm going to take a punt on it.

[Batman]

Haven't been reading as much just lately, I'm always more of a winter reader but I have really took my foot of the pedal over the last few months

Anyways the here's what I've been reading



I bought this and I was expecting it to be quite an understated story of a haunted house...I was wrong.

Understated is certainly not the way to describe this, yeah its a tired story in that an old rich bloke gets a few people to stay in a 'haunted' house to investigate the chances that there is life after death.

Of course you have the unbending sceptic, the unbending sceptic who refuses to believe in anything other than science, you have the strong hearted head strong spiritualist who's belief is unwavering, the third member of the party is one of the world’s greatest mediums, though he is tired and hasn't practised in years, he visited Hell House before and it damn near killed him, finally you have the sceptics insecure wife who tags along because she can't bear to be on her own whilst her husband is off chasing (or disproving) ghoulies.

As for the actual 'haunting' there is a little of everything and it doesn't take long until things escalate massively, it starts off with rocking chairs moving on their own, bed sheets being thrown over nothing only to unveil the shape of an invisible presence, not too long after that you get all the twisted demonic horrors that you can imagine, it certainly doesn't pull any punches and is a lot more in your face than I expected (I thought I was going to get something more in line with The Haunting of Hill House)

A fantastic read and one that I would highly recommend if you want a good straight up horror story.

We follow Esther Greenwood's personal life from her summer job in New York with Ladies' Day magazine, back through her days at New England's largest school for women, and forward through her attempted suicide, her bad treatment at one asylum and her good treatment at another, to her final re-entry into the world like a used tyre: "patched, retreaded, and approved for the road" ... Esther Greenwood's account of her year in the bell jar is as clear and readable as it is witty and disturbing.

Esther Greenwood is a young girl who seems to have the world at her feet, she is whisked off to New York on an internship and is really living the high life, she aligns herself with two other girls, one called Doreen who is off the wall and always ready to break the rules and the other is Betsy who is a straight up book worm who gets everything done as it needs to be done on time without fail.

The problem is that Esther doesn't feel enthused by the high life, she feels intimidated by it, to say that she disliked it would be wrong, it is quite clear that she just feels completely neutral to it.

I have read some people saying that her descent happens all to quickly but if you read the book you will see that her depression didn't suddenly come on over night, there were little clues all over the place, I really appreciated this, it wasn't too in your face but once you have spotted it you can feel it growing slowly.

Once it really has her in its grips Esther is constantly thinking of suicide, the thing about this section is that it is handled in an almost light hearted way I thought, Esther didn't seem as if she actually wanted to go through with it, this was a fantastic piece of writing because you can feel Esther's confusion at this point.

A really good book, very similar to Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson but this is actually a kind of thinly disguised autobiography by Sylvia Plath



A great book well worth a read.

I don't really tend to go towards the sci-fi genre.

This is an all out sci-fi thrill though, from time space travel, terraforming planets, biologically altering life forms via a virus, war, gods, technology and giant spiders, it really does have it all.

Best thing about it is that all the way through the book you don't know who to route for, the ending was fantastic and really well done.