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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16000
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| Posted: 27 September 2021 at 8:02am | IP Logged | 1
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Quickly re-read Christopher Hitchens' final book Mortality. Hitchens' writing remained clear-eyed, objective, unsentimental, entertaining and formidable to the end.
Edited by Peter Martin on 27 September 2021 at 8:02am
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Valmor J. Pedretti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 October 2011
Location: Brazil
Posts: 786
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| Posted: 28 September 2021 at 3:38am | IP Logged | 2
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Non fiction: Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher.
Ficiton: Cuba Libre by Elmore Leonard.
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16000
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| Posted: 28 September 2021 at 11:19am | IP Logged | 3
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Found myself starting to re-read Stephen King's Dr Sleep while at the same time kind of watching it in bits and pieces on Netflix, which is an interesting side-by-side comparison.
The brevity of screentime means the film breezes past the squalor of Dan Torrance's alcoholism early in the book. Not a bad thing, as it helps make him a more sympathetic protagonist (also helped by Ewan Magregor). Rebecca Ferguson is a great fit for Rose the Hat.
I'm surprised the film kept one of the truly nasty elements of the book.
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Rebecca Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 February 2018
Location: Canada
Posts: 4635
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| Posted: 28 September 2021 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | 4
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After a bio of The Everly Brothers (Walk Right Back, Roger White), I'm about to plunge into a massive one just published on The Hollies (Riding The Corousel, Malcolm C. Searles)!
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Terry St Jean
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 July 2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 25
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| Posted: 28 September 2021 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | 5
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Stephen King's IT. I tried to read it many years ago but only got about 1/4 of the way through. I'm determined to get it finished.
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Petter Myhr Ness
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 July 2009
Location: Norway
Posts: 3932
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| Posted: 29 September 2021 at 12:25am | IP Logged | 6
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I love King, but couldn't get through IT either.
And speaking of King, that's my current read: BILLY SUMMERS. His latest novel. It's good.
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 896
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| Posted: 08 October 2021 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | 7
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Just finished this one earlier today. For those of you who can recall actor Robert Shaw's speech about the USS Indianapolis in the movie JAWS, this book does a superb job of informing the reader what occurred before, during, and after that horrific event, which is generally viewed as the worst wartime disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy.
The book also provides insights as to how the Navy brass made the ship's captain the scapegoat for the catastrophe rather than admit to the multiple operational and intel failures that put the ship on its deadly trek and left its survivors stranded at sea for four full days. Charles McVay III became the first captain in the history of the U.S. Navy to be court martialed for having his ship sunk by the enemy.
This injustice would not be corrected until the Indianapolis survivors and the U.S. Congress pressured the Navy to exonerate McVay shortly before this book was published in 2001. Unfortunately, McVay had committed suicide back in 1968 after being tortured by his memories of the event and the hate mail that had been sent to him over the years by the families of his lost crewmen who blamed him for the ship's sinking.
Edited by James Best on 08 October 2021 at 7:25pm
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7860
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| Posted: 16 October 2021 at 11:28am | IP Logged | 8
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The Lord of the Rings.
Not read this in decades. I know things were changed, but it is shocking
to realise just how little of the film has so far been as in the book.
Characters act differently (choose plenty, but Mr Maggitty is a good
example), scenes play out differently (choose plenty but see the
crossing of the Bucklebury ferry), descriptions pertaining to why
someone acted in one way to illustrate their character play out the
exact opposite (choose plenty but Gandalf NOT letting off fireworks
early for the children is one example), whole lengthy scenes are
excised & have been replaced by new scenes not in the book (way too
many to mention)
& I’m only on page 110, with them just getting to Frodo’s new home
(which doesn’t exist in the film).
& I’m not even going to start on the age of Frodo.
How can the films be such a labour of love, have so much of the spirit
of the story, but contain so little of the detail?
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16000
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| Posted: 16 October 2021 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | 9
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Picked up a hardbound second-hand copy of King Lear for 4 bucks, so I am reading that at the moment. The 'historical' Leir, if he existed at all, is thought to have ruled around the time of Elijah the prophet, eight or nine hundred years BC. Makes me wonder what clothes they wore and what buildings they lived in in Britain that long ago.
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 896
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| Posted: 03 December 2021 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | 10
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Now starting THE NIGHT MANAGER by John Le Carre’. This is a stand-alone thriller novel published back in 1993 that is not part of the author’s famous George Smiley espionage series.
It was made into a TV series back in 2016 that starred Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander, Olivia Colman, and Elizabeth Debicki. I thought I would read the book before possibly sampling the television adaptation.
Not having read any previous books by Le Carre' this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Wish me luck.
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Wallace Sellars
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Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17701
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| Posted: 04 December 2021 at 10:56am | IP Logged | 11
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I'm rereading Space Team: The Wrath of Vajazzle.
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Brian Floyd
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Joined: 07 July 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 8654
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| Posted: 04 December 2021 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | 12
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Not reading, but currently listening to, John Sinclair: Dark Tales, Volume 1. Its an adaptation of a book series, but rather than being an audiobook, its done like an old radio show, with a cast and sound effects. There are 6 stories (each a separate book), and I am currently on the 4th. I signed up for an Audible trial, and chose that as my free audiobook to keep.
(John Sinclair is the name of the lead character, not the author.)
They took a long-running (48 years so far!) German book series about a British police detective who investigates supernatural cases, got an American author to write new books based on some from the German series, and had a British cast adapt those into audios a few years ago. 2 volumes, 12 stories in all. I've already ordered the second volume.
Highly recommend it.
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