The Literature Thread

[Dowbocop]

I finished Dracula I actually really dislike the book. I ended up hating most of the characters and the whole book being found documents kind of killed the any sense of jeopardy.

I enjoyed the first part in the castle. After things move back to England it's boring as hell apart from a few parts. It's not surprising that none of the movies have ever really accurately followed the novel without heavy adaption.

Late to the party on this, should check this thread more often!

I don't know if you guys read the same book as me because I thought Dracula was an incredible read. Full of tension and I realised about a third of the way though that I'd never actually watched an adaptation of it so I had no idea what was going to happen. I would recommend a version with a glossary of some of the now archaic language and terms because that can be a barrier to enjoyment. I agree the bit where Mina Harker mingles with all the northern common folk on her holidays is a bit boring, but after that it really gets going, and there was real jeopardy throughout in my opinion.

I can see why it doesn't work too well on screen. I actually think it would be perfectly suited to a radio serial/podcast.

[Memento Mori]

Just finished The Killings at Kingfisher Hill the new Poirot book by Sophie Hannah. Agatha Christie sometimes repeated plot points but she wrote over 80 books. Sophie Hannah has only written four Poirot books in total so how does an editor not notice she's repeated the same murder twice? It's so similar I guessed the murderer correctly because I'd read it before.

Major spoilers for both The Killings at Kingfisher Hill and Closed Casket

In both of these books the murderer's girlfriend disfigures the victim post-mortem by beating their face in so it can't be identified.

[Lex-Man]

Just finished book four of the Horus Heresy, the flight of the Einstein. Really enjoyed the book but there's a lot of stuff that doesn't seem clear. There are currently 56 books in the series and I think I'm going to push through at least until book 7 as that's meant to be a really good one.

[Zilnad]

Just finished reading The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and would wholeheartedly recommend it.

I bought it for 99p in a Kindle daily deal without knowing much about it but it's a fantasy tale of an elderly, married couple, travelling across King Arthur's England to reunite with their son in another village.

It was really quite sweet and very life affirming. It perfectly captured the comforting feeling of growing old together through both the good and the bad. Exactly the kind of story I needed right now.

[poshrule_uk]

Just read Coffin Road by Peter May

Really enjoyed the book and really could imagine the setting (Outer Hebridies)

Good story as well on top and I liked how it switched between different characters as the story progressed

[Alx]

I was given the Five Nights at Freddy's books as a 'joke' christmas gift last year, so I read the first one and honest to god, I thought it was pretty enjoyable. If you go in expecting, like, Homer's Odyssey or a really breathtaking, thought provoking yarn, you're obviously gonna be disappointed, but I always quite liked the story of the games anyway, and I love how it fleshed out the story and the way the story progressed. If you're looking for an easy read, I think I'd recommend it.

[Ironhide]

Just started listening to Pandoras Star (Peter F Hamilton) and the last bit of the prologue made me laugh out loud.

Manned mission to Mars lands safely only for the astronauts to witness a physics student in a homemade spacesuit step through a portal from a lab on Earth

[jiggles]

Potentially weird request, but can anyone recommend some basic-ass crime/thriller page-turners?

I’ve been reading a lot of hard SF and fantasy lately and I need something to flush my brain out a bit. I’m a bit overloaded with fantastical settings so I just need something exciting that’s more grounded and that I can read at a good brisk pace. Like some Dan Brown-esque airport lit but but, like, good.

With all these mega-successful authors pumping out detective series with 20+ entries with movie/TV deals I figure some of them must actually be worthwhile, but no idea what to commit to.

[Tomous]

Potentially weird request, but can anyone recommend some basic-ass crime/thriller page-turners?

I’ve been reading a lot of hard SF and fantasy lately and I need something to flush my brain out a bit. I’m a bit overloaded with fantastical settings so I just need something exciting that’s more grounded and that I can read at a good brisk pace. Like some Dan Brown-esque airport lit but but, like, good.

With all these mega-successful authors pumping out detective series with 20+ entries with movie/TV deals I figure some of them must actually be worthwhile, but no idea what to commit to.

Linwood Barclay may fit the bill. He predominantly writes crime thrillers set in small town America. No Time For Goodbye was the first of his I read and I think I finished it in a day or two on holiday-definitely a page-turner with nothing too complicated going on.

[Rex Kramer]

Potentially weird request, but can anyone recommend some basic-ass crime/thriller page-turners?

I’ve been reading a lot of hard SF and fantasy lately and I need something to flush my brain out a bit. I’m a bit overloaded with fantastical settings so I just need something exciting that’s more grounded and that I can read at a good brisk pace. Like some Dan Brown-esque airport lit but but, like, good.

With all these mega-successful authors pumping out detective series with 20+ entries with movie/TV deals I figure some of them must actually be worthwhile, but no idea what to commit to.

My wife has been reading a metric fuckton of Agatha Christie books recently. Not really my bag but there must be some of them that are decent (I hear good things about And then there were none).

[Memento Mori]

Potentially weird request, but can anyone recommend some basic-ass crime/thriller page-turners?

I’ve been reading a lot of hard SF and fantasy lately and I need something to flush my brain out a bit. I’m a bit overloaded with fantastical settings so I just need something exciting that’s more grounded and that I can read at a good brisk pace. Like some Dan Brown-esque airport lit but but, like, good.

With all these mega-successful authors pumping out detective series with 20+ entries with movie/TV deals I figure some of them must actually be worthwhile, but no idea what to commit to.

My wife has been reading a metric fuckton of Agatha Christie books recently. Not really my bag but there must be some of them that are decent (I hear good things about And then there were none).

My favourite Agatha Christie:

And Then There Were None
The Murder of Roger Aykroyd
Death on the Nile
The ABC Murders

For a completely different tone, James Ellroy's LA Quartet and then Underworld USA series are fantastic crime books but incredibly dark.

[Xeno]

Get some le Carre down you. Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy. The Honourable Schoolboy and Smilies people, along with The spy that came in from the cold.

Just started listening to Pandoras Star (Peter F Hamilton) and the last bit of the prologue made me laugh out loud.

Manned mission to Mars lands safely only for the astronauts to witness a physics student in a homemade spacesuit step through a portal from a lab on Earth

Such a good series of books. Hamilton is a bit wordy by the audio book is well read.

[JCDenton]

I'm not much into books.

[Zilnad]

Started reading Neuromancer tonight, as the Cyberpunk 2077 release had me in the mood, and so far it's great.