Seat68 Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 I read James Pattersons Jack and Jill last week, was struggling for something to read and tend to stick to biographys, wanted fiction and prefer it to be an easy read. Must admit I enjoyed it, I had seen along came a spider but hadnt read any of the Alex Cross books. Now on the 4th in the series Cat and Mouse and again, very enjoyable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 (edited) Are you planning on reading the whole series? There's a few books that tie-in with the seven books in the series that I would recommend reading as well. Yes, although i'm far more intrigued at this point by the world building rather than the story which seems a little one-note. Although i'm sure it will get fleshed out a little more as the books progress. Which are the other books? I was a huge fan of King until around the time of Geralds Game (urghh) so if it's anything before that i've probably read it. I believe this is the reading list I went off: The Dark Tower Book I: The Gunslinger The Dark Tower Book II: The Drawing of the Three The Dark Tower Book III: The Wastelands The Dark Tower Book IV: Wizard & Glass It The Eyes of the Dragon Night Shift: Night Surf The Stand Rose Madder Night Shift: Jerusalem’s Lot ‘Salem’s Lot Night Shift: One for the Road The Wind Through the Keyhole The Talisman Black House Hearts in Atlantis Everything’s Eventual: Everything’s Eventual Insomnia Skeleton Crew: The Mist Everything’s Eventual: The Little Sisters of Eloria The Dark Tower Book V: Wolves of the Calla The Dark Tower Book VI: Song of Susannah The Dark Tower Book VII: The Dark Tower I didn't read everything on the list, however. I skipped out on most of them and only read The Stand, Salem's Lot and The Wind Through the Keyhole. Most of the additional books feature characters that eventually come into The Dark Tower series and gives a back story on them, but you don't need to read them all to understand what's going on. The Wind Through the Keyhole is considered an additional book to the seven DT books but it features in between books IV and V. As far as being connected to the overarching story, it's not all that important but it's a good read either way. Edited April 2, 2014 by Ginko 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer1 Posted April 2, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted April 2, 2014 A bit of a guess re.The Gunslinger but... Is The Man in Black in fact Randall Flagg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 My fave McCarthy is Blood Meridian. Toss up between that and 'Suttree' for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 A bit of a guess re.The Gunslinger but... Is The Man in Black in fact Randall Flagg? So you've read The Stand then I won't say yes or no because The Man in Black is an interesting character and full of mystery. If you decide you don't wish to carry on with the series then you can find out all about him on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer1 Posted April 2, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted April 2, 2014 A bit of a guess re.The Gunslinger but... Is The Man in Black in fact Randall Flagg? So you've read The Stand then I won't say yes or no because The Man in Black is an interesting character and full of mystery. If you decide you don't wish to carry on with the series then you can find out all about him on the internet. Yes, i've read the Stand, but it's more that he has a resemblance to Flagg in Eyes of the Dragon (the cloak basically tipped me off). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted April 2, 2014 Share Posted April 2, 2014 Ah, I haven't read The Eyes of the Dragon so I couldn't comment on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 David Foster Wallace film being made. He's being played by Jason Segel (I don't know who he is.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted April 3, 2014 Share Posted April 3, 2014 Are you planning on reading the whole series? There's a few books that tie-in with the seven books in the series that I would recommend reading as well. Yes, although i'm far more intrigued at this point by the world building rather than the story which seems a little one-note. Although i'm sure it will get fleshed out a little more as the books progress. Which are the other books? I was a huge fan of King until around the time of Geralds Game (urghh) so if it's anything before that i've probably read it. I believe this is the reading list I went off: The Dark Tower Book I: The Gunslinger The Dark Tower Book II: The Drawing of the Three The Dark Tower Book III: The Wastelands The Dark Tower Book IV: Wizard & Glass It The Eyes of the Dragon Night Shift: Night Surf The Stand Rose Madder Night Shift: Jerusalem’s Lot ‘Salem’s Lot Night Shift: One for the Road The Wind Through the Keyhole The Talisman Black House Hearts in Atlantis Everything’s Eventual: Everything’s Eventual Insomnia Skeleton Crew: The Mist Everything’s Eventual: The Little Sisters of Eloria The Dark Tower Book V: Wolves of the Calla The Dark Tower Book VI: Song of Susannah The Dark Tower Book VII: The Dark Tower I didn't read everything on the list, however. I skipped out on most of them and only read The Stand, Salem's Lot and The Wind Through the Keyhole. Most of the additional books feature characters that eventually come into The Dark Tower series and gives a back story on them, but you don't need to read them all to understand what's going on. The Wind Through the Keyhole is considered an additional book to the seven DT books but it features in between books IV and V. As far as being connected to the overarching story, it's not all that important but it's a good read either way. Look at this! A Stephen King conversation and I haven't even said a thing. Until now ofc. The additional ones I would suggest would be 'salem's Lot, The Stand, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, plus the 2 stories mentioned above from Everything's Eventual. As for others, well, yeah they reference DT, some of them quite heavily, although I don't see why you would make up a list like that and include, for example, The Mist and not From a Buick 8 - the reason for the events in both is the same and closely linked to DT. Wind Through the Keyhole, though, is a bonus story more than anything else. You could read it in sequence after Wizard & Glass, but don't need to, then you could also read it after the last book if you enjoyed the series as a nice little return to the characters as they used to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Just ordered The Kids Are All Square, Medway Punk and Beyond 77-85. Cant wait for this bad boy to arrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted April 10, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted April 10, 2014 Wrapped up The Border Trilogy the other day. Cities of the Plain finished strongly. Felt much shorter and shallower than the previous two books and I think I'd have liked a bit more back story into how the characters came together, but it's a minor point. Enjoyed the whole thing though. Now moved onto the much-maligned-by-VT sports biography. "Nobody Ever Says Thankyou" (Brian Clough) Wouldn't normally have gone for a biography, especially one about Clough, but I'm a big Jonathan Wilson fan so that was enough for me. It'll keep me going for a couple of weeks anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Just subscribed to razzle. Can't wait. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 I noticed that Richard Hoggart has died, aged 95. His book, The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working Class Life, was a set text for those studying social science in the 1960-70s, and offers some fantastic insights into how the Northern proles live/lived. He set up departments for Cultural and Media studies at Birmingham University where that lovely chap Stuart Hall (often seen on the OU) joined him, and who also died this year. I am not sure anyone wrote better about working class life than Hoggart but I am not sure either if anyone did much beyond count the poor's saucepans In York (Rowntree) before that. Although I thought Hoggart's lamentations about the loss of working class culture were sentimental, his description of his working class upbringing in Leeds, will be delightfully familiar to brummie's of certain age. Until I read his book, I didn't realise that the Sunday 'high tea' which I had always considered a singularly brummie thing, is a particular and peculiar practice of the whole of the North. When I quizzed my cockney chums, I had it confirmed. It is a great book which explained so many of the family values and mores, I took entirely for granted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Anybody read any Chris Cleave books. Incendiary The other hand Gold The first one was made into a film starring Michelle Williams and Ewan Mcgregor Very funny while they were shagging on the tv "1 nil to the Arsenal"... Then the bomb which wasn't funny of course..... But all three books are great reads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Just belted through two Falladas. Now I'm boring my way through a borefest of a scandi-crime thing. It's no Mankell, but I always finish a book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted April 12, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted April 12, 2014 I noticed that Richard Hoggart has died, aged 95. His book, The Uses of Literacy: Aspects of Working Class Life, was a set text for those studying social science in the 1960-70s, and offers some fantastic insights into how the Northern proles live/lived. He set up departments for Cultural and Media studies at Birmingham University where that lovely chap Stuart Hall (often seen on the OU) joined him, and who also died this year. I am not sure anyone wrote better about working class life than Hoggart but I am not sure either if anyone did much beyond count the poor's saucepans In York (Rowntree) before that. Although I thought Hoggart's lamentations about the loss of working class culture were sentimental, his description of his working class upbringing in Leeds, will be delightfully familiar to brummie's of certain age. Until I read his book, I didn't realise that the Sunday 'high tea' which I had always considered a singularly brummie thing, is a particular and peculiar practice of the whole of the North. When I quizzed my cockney chums, I had it confirmed. It is a great book which explained so many of the family values and mores, I took entirely for granted. Shamefully, I've never read TUoL - been meaning to ever since I was at school. I'd better get to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pelle Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Just belted through two Falladas. Now I'm boring my way through a borefest of a scandi-crime thing. It's no Mankell, but I always finish a book. Which one is it? I don't read that genre very often, but I've read most of Mankells and a few others. Arne Dahl is actually quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyShears Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Recently read 'The Son' by Philipp Meyer (American Rust) - epic story about a family in Texas starting in the 19th century. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy quite a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Just belted through two Falladas. Now I'm boring my way through a borefest of a scandi-crime thing. It's no Mankell, but I always finish a book. Which one is it? I don't read that genre very often, but I've read most of Mankells and a few others. Arne Dahl is actually quite good. It's a Hakan Nesser. Not one the best writers of that Genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pelle Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Ah, never read those. The missus reads a lot of crime books, both swedish and english and some norwegian, and Nesser's not one of her favourites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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