What are you reading at the moment?

[Bramblethorn]

Re-re-reading Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart". One of these days I'll get around to watching the movie (although probably not the infinite sequels).

 

[PayDay]

Re-re-reading Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart". One of these days I'll get around to watching the movie (although probably not the infinite sequels).

That game Jericho that he wrote is pretty good as well, even if the ending sucks and it's wholly grotesque.

I finally started The Civil War, Vol 3 by Shelby Foote a couple of days ago. Hopefully I'll finish it in less than a month

 

[topace]

"Avalon: The Return of King Arthur" by Stephen R. Lawhead

and

A Twist of Destiny Bk. 01 by nightshadow here on Literotica.com

as well as

various fan fiction stories at FanFiction.Net

 

[desertslave]

The Vanishing by Bentley Little

Have you ever read his book The Store? <shiver> It was sneaky-good, though it might have affected me more profoundly because our very own Wallyworld was being built not 1/2 mile away at the time. (I'm still a Wally virgin. Ha!)

I finished Redshirts, still giggling. Just started Five-Twelfths of Heaven by Melissa Scott. Very interesting take on deep space travel.

 

[PennLady]

I love Mr Penn so much I let him take my Kindle on his business trip. So I picked up Life Itself by Roger Ebert and resumed reading.

 

[rot_teufel]

This thread

 

[trysail]

...The men of Milan were known for their singular reluctance to marry. "In Italy marryage is indeede a yoke, and that not easy, but so grevious, as brethren no where better agreeing, yet contend among themselves to be free from marryage." Distrust of matrimony was common enough in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, especially among the upper classes, to have provoked many such comments from visitors. Italian humanists, including Petrarch and Leonbattista Alberti, had railed against marriage as a distraction to the intellect and a potential cause of economic ruin. Nowhere was the misogynistic cult of celibacy stronger than in Lombardy. It did not necessarily entail sexual abstinence, merely a refusal to be yoked to any single woman. The rate of celibacy among Milanese aristocracy reached unprecedentedly high levels in the second half of the seventeenth century, so much so that it has been calculate that more than fifty percent of all high born males in the city had never married at all. Caravaggio would never marry either, although it is impossible to establish whether this was another example of the painter imitating aristocratic mores, or simply the result of his restless temperament...
​

-Andrew Graham-Dixon
Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane
New York, N.Y. 2010.




Surprisingly few people are familiar with Caravaggio though they would instantly recognize several of his paintings. He certainly lived a tumultuous life.

Graham-Dixon knows his man.

 

[Handley_Page]

Terry Pratchett: Dodger.
[just arrived!!]

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Just finished reading ALL THE PRETTY HORSES by Cormac McCarthy, a violent tale of an American teen in a Mexican prison. WE GOT NO EXECUTIONS IN MEXICO, YOU UNDERSTAND, BUT THAT DONT MEAN WE GOT NO EXECUTIONS. COMPRENDE? One of the American boys is walked into the woods and shot.

Reading STALINS FOLLY, a tale about Stalins plan to attack Hitler. From January 1941 to June 22, 1941 Stalin assembled the armies and stuff to launch a surprise attack on Germany, but Hitler hit first. American perfessers, for decades, bellowed and blabbered about what a fool Hitler was to attack Russia. Hitler knew what was up.

Reading INSIDE THE THIRD REICH by Albert Speer. It along with Tolands Hitler bio gives a complete presentation of the real Hitler. Hitler was ruthless with enemies, abusive and contemptuous of bureaucrats, and indulgent with old friends and the best performers.

 

[lovecraft68]

Reading the first issue of DC Comics House of Mystery, 1952 it's DC's first horror comic and it came in the mail from the dealer I bought it from last night.

The stories are cheesy by today's standards, but fun and the smell of old comics is my favorite scent next to..... never mind.

I'd been hunting for this book in this grade for a long time(even e-bay has rarely had one listed) and got a call from a dealer I'd left my want list with three years ago.

I'm a happy camper as it was even a good price Although it was a little hard to convince the wife that $900 for a comic that has a subscription crease is a good price

 

[visioneer]

Just finished rereading Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles; currently reading Bradbury Stories (a collection of 100 of his short stories). Rediscovering and appreciating Bradbury's mastery of the short story form.

 

[PayDay]

I'm a happy camper as it was even a good price Although it was a little hard to convince the wife that $900 for a comic that has a subscription crease is a good price

I'm so fucking glad I'm not married

Seriously though, that's like that whole 'Direct Edition' BS or misaligned printing.

 

[trysail]

...Starvation's not an uncommon fate in District 12. Who hasn't seen the victims? Older people who can't work. Children from a family with too many to feed. Those injured in the mines. Straggling through the streets. And one day, you come upon them sitting motionless against a wall or lying in the Meadow, you hear the wails from a house, and the Peacekeepers are called in to retrieve the body. Starvation is never the cause of death officially. It's always the flu, or exposure, or pneumonia. But that fools no one...
​

-Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games
New York, N.Y. 2008.





Whilst stranded on an island and having finished the book I'd brought with me, a friend thrust this into my hands. Finding it necessary to distract my attention from the discomfort of the flight home, I polished the book off in three hours. It's pablum requiring serious, conscious suspension of disbelief. Don't bother.

 

[PennLady]

Reading an Amazon freebie I found called "Father Mars, Mother Earth," by (I think) Bobbi McCutcheon. It's a good read, I'm enjoying the story -- the only thing I would "fix" is getting rid of the serial killer story line. So far it's added nothing to the overall plot, although I imagine it will all tie in somehow.

 

[TinyBeth]

The Tower and the Dream by Jan Westcott about Bess of Hardwick, the second most powerful woman in Elizabethan England. An excellent read. Anything by the same author is fantastic, my favorite being The White Rose.

 

[topace]

Star Trek Excelsior: Forged in Fire and various updates to fan fiction stories besides the occasional story from here at Literotica.com.

 

[PennLady]

Nearly finished "Father Mars, Mother Earth," but also reading "The Phantom Tollbooth." Because it's fun.

 

[trysail]

Nearly finished "Father Mars, Mother Earth," but also reading "The Phantom Tollbooth." Because it's fun.

This was one of the most memorable books of my childhood; time has neither dimmed its appeal nor its cleverness.

http://media.npr.org/assets/artslife/books/2010/09/the-odious-ogre/tollbooth_custom.jpg?t=1283548039&s=12​

The Phantom Tollbooth
By Norton Juster
N.Y., N.Y. 1961.

Chapter 1. Milo

There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself — not just sometimes, but always.

When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd bothered. Nothing really interested him — least of all the things that should have.

"It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," he remarked one day as he walked dejectedly home from school. "I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February." And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all.

As he and his unhappy thoughts hurried along (for while he was never anxious to be where he was going, he liked to get there as quickly as possible) it seemed a great wonder that the world, which was so large, could sometimes feel so small and empty.

"And worst of all," he continued sadly, "there's nothing for me to do, nowhere I'd care to go, and hardly anything worth seeing." He punctuated this last thought with such a deep sigh that a house sparrow singing nearby stopped and rushed home to be with his family.

Without stopping or looking up, Milo dashed past the buildings and busy shops that lined the street and in a few minutes reached home — dashed through the lobby — hopped onto the elevator — two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and off again — opened the apartment door — rushed into his room — flopped dejectedly into a chair, and grumbled softly, "Another long afternoon."

He looked glumly at all the things he owned. The books that were too much trouble to read, the tools he'd never learned to use, the small electric automobile he hadn't driven in months — or was it years? — and the hundreds of other games and toys, and bats and balls, and bits and pieces scattered around him. And then, to one side of the room, just next to the phonograph, he noticed something he had certainly never seen before.

Who could possibly have left such an enormous package and such a strange one? For, while it was not quite square, it was definitely not round, and for its size it was larger than almost any other big package of smaller dimension that he'd ever seen.

Attached to one side was a bright-blue envelope which said simple: "FOR MILO, WHO HAS PLENTY OF TIME."

Of course, if you've ever gotten a surprise package, you can imagine how puzzled and excited Milo was; and if you've never gotten one, pay close attention, because someday you might.

"I don't think it's my birthday," he puzzled, "and Christmas must be months away, and I haven't been outstandingly good, or even good at all." (He had to admit this even to himself.) "Most probably I won't like it anyway, but since I don't know where it came from, I can't possibly send it back." He thought about it for quite a while and then opened the envelope, but just to be polite.

"ONE GENUINE TURNPIKE TOLLBOOTH," it stated — and then it went on:

"EASILY ASSEMBLED AT HOME, AND FOR USE BY THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER TRAVELED IN LANDS BEYOND."

"Beyond what?" thought Milo as he continued to read.

"THIS PACKAGE CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:

"One (1) genuine turnpike tollbooth to be erected according to directions.

"Three (3) precautionary signs to be used in a precautionary fashion.

"Assorted coins for use in paying tolls.

"One (1) map, up to date and carefully drawn by master cartographers, depicting natural and man-made features.

"One (1) book of rules and traffic regulations, which may not be bent or broken."

And in smaller letters at the bottom it concluded:

"RESULTS ARE NOT GUARANTEED, BUT IF NOT PERFECTLY SATISFIED, YOUR WASTED TIME WILL BE REFUNDED."

Following the instructions, which told him to cute here, lift there, and fold back all around, he soon had the toll booth unpacked and set up on its stand. He fitted the windows in place and attached the roof, which extended out on both sides, and fastened on the coin box. It was very much like the tollbooths he'd seen many times on family trips, except of course it was much smaller and purple.

"What a strange present," he thought to himself. "The least they could have done was to send a highway with it, for it's terribly impractical without one." But since, at the time, there was nothing else he wanted to play with, he set up the three signs,

SLOW DOWN APPROACHING TOLLBOOTH

PLEASE HAVE YOUR FARE READY

HAVE YOUR DESTINATION IN MIND

and slowly unfolded the map.

As the announcement stated, it was a beautiful map, in many colors, showing principal roads, rivers and seas, towns and cities, mountains and valleys, intersections and detours, and sites of outstanding interest both beautiful and historic.

The only trouble was that Milo had never heard of any of the places it indicated, and even the names sounded most peculiar.

"I don't think there really is such a country," he concluded after studying it carefully. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway." And he closed his eyes and poked a finger at the map.

"Dictionopolis," read Milo slowly when he saw what his finger had chosen. "Oh, well, I might as well go there as anywhere."

He walked across the room and dusted the car off carefully. Then, taking the map and rule book with him, he hopped in and, for lack of anything better to do, drove slowly up to the tollbooth. As he deposited his coin and rolled past he remarked wistfully, "I do hope this is an interesting game, otherwise the afternoon will be so terribly dull."

The other was Kipling's The Jungle Book. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, in particular, was a favorite.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Alan Flusser, Dressing the Man.

 

[Handley_Page]

Will Adams. THe Exodus dig

 

[drteetho]

I'm a little over halfway done "Uprising" by Douglas Bland. Really intriguing premise - what would happen if Canadian First Nations people declared war on Canada itself?

 

[xelliebabex]

Been off work with laryngitis so i reread old friends, the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings, almost finish the final one.

I really enjoy his snappy wit and the constant banter among the main characters

“My Lord, I find thy face apelike and thy form misshapen. Thy beard, moreover, is an offense against decency, resembling more closely the scabrous fir which doth decorate the hinder portion of a mongrel dog than a proper adornment for a human face. Is it possible that thy mother, seized by some wild lechery, did dally at some time past with a randy goat?"

 

[johneb87]

"Shogun" by James Clavell

Previously I had just finished "Black Cross" by Greg Iles, "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point" by Dan Brown. Everyone kept telling me that I needed to pickup Shogun, so I did.

 

[PennLady]

"Shogun" by James Clavell

Previously I had just finished "Black Cross" by Greg Iles, "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point" by Dan Brown. Everyone kept telling me that I needed to pickup Shogun, so I did.

I read "Shogun" ages ago, and some of the others in that series. I'm not sure how historically accurate they are (I'm told they're not, really) but as I recall, it was a good read.

 

[lovecraft68]

Death by China.

This book is a train wreck, the more you read the more disturbed you get, but its fascinating.