It's the Halloween reading thread!

[Lily Fairbairn]

Ghosts, pumpkins, and good times all around!

I finally finished Cottrell's Seeing Roman Britain, which took me a long time to read, not because it's at all boring but because I so enjoyed lingering over a map, tracing his route. I had no idea, for one thing, how many Roman roads are still very obvious in the landscape. Plus I kept falling over wonderful village names, such as "Muggleswick".

Now I'm reading Weir's Way, a collection of Tom Weir's essays for Scots Magazine about his nature hikes and so forth. Very soothing, except for the occasional story of a hiker killed by adverse weather conditions.

I've also started The Druids, by Peter Berresford Ellis, as a counterweight to the Roman version of the Druids. He begins by quoting from French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss. "There are no final truths. The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions."

I'll add, in the "soft" sciences, at least [tongue]

So what have you been reading?

 

[NottaSackville]

Did I scare ya? I've been hiding around the corner for months, I think, just waiting.

Ahhh - it's been quite some time (2.5 months!) since I've posted here. Stupid real life... In the meantime, I've read some books I really enjoyed!

Robert Kroese has become one of my new favorite authors. In my hiatus I read 3 of his books and a couple short stories: Mercury Falls, Mercury Rises, Mercury Rests, Mercury Begins, and Mercury Swings. Very witty, very well written (and cheap - just the right price!) The trilogy centers around a lazy angel, Mercury, an Apocolypse that Mercury isn't sure is a good idea, a reporter that becomes involved when her new kitchen linoleum turns out to be an interplanar gateway, and the four [strike]horsemen[/strike] attache cases of the Apocolypse. Along the way, we get to meet Lucifer (who currently lives on a plane that looks oddly like a Florida retirement community), Tiamut, the Archangel Michael (who is actually a little girl with curly hair), Job, Cain, the antichrist (who still lives with his mom and is truly annoying) time travel, space travel, etc. etc. Wild, wacky, fun.

I also read Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones. My then 11 year old liked it a lot. I thought it was pretty entertaining (though it kinda dragged, I thought) and my 10 year old is currently reading it and liking it.

Next was Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke. I hadn't heard of this one before, but loved it. Just a fun little-boy-adventure positioned a wee bit in the future when a scientist has figured out how to communicate with dolphins.

After reading a literary giant, I rinsed my mouth out with Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern, which was laugh out loud funny. It's basically a collection of, well, Sh*t the author's dad has said over time. The book was spawned by a Twitter feed by the author, and eventually spawned the short-lived sitcom a year or so ago of the same name. Not only was the book funny (and foul-mouthed and crude - not at all family friendly!), but buried in there is a Dad who cares very much and is doing his best to do a great job - he just does it using a lot of funny, foul language.

Finally, I've been tackling a couple of books by Karen Miller. First was The Innocent Mage, which I've finished, followed by The Awakened Mage which I'm currently reading. I'm conflicted. The characters are stock fantasy cardboard cutouts, the story line is stock fantasy rural rube saves the world, the evil is stock fantasy evil, the action is non-existent (really, truly and completely non-existent) and the books are long. The main character is pretty darn unlikeable, yet unexplainably loved by everyone except the stock villains. Book 1 is 620 pages long, and almost nothing happens. I'm 111 pages in to the 600 page book 2, and still almost nothing has happened.

And yet, I'm conflicted, because despite all that, I like the books. I guess, in the end, sort of like Seinfeld and his show about nothing, Ms. Miller tells a story about nothing pretty well.

Notta

 

[RosieLass]

I'm still getting through "The Mummy Case" by Elizabeth Peters.

I really admire Emerson as a man, as a scientist, and as a suitable counterpart to the vivacious Amelia Peabody.

But his narrow-minded views on religion, and on Christianity in particular, really get up my nose sometimes. Especially when he sweepingly condemns all Christians because he doesn't like the bad behavior of a some Christians.

And I think that annoys me because I see it so much in real life, especially from the more outspoken of my politically oriented friends. It's just hateful and tiresome. And even though I know this is just a work of fluffy fiction, it still bothers me.

Anyway, against his will, Emerson is getting pulled into Peabody's criminal investigation of the illicit antiquities trade. And with Ramses in tow, you know all sorts of extraneous hijinks will soon ensue.

I think this is the first time I've reread these early books since I completed the series and found out who the Master Criminal really is. I'm not sure if Peters already knew at this point who he was. It would be interesting to know, to see how (or if) it directed her story.

 

[RosieLass]

I really liked it a lot. I was also excited to see that there was a film version of it...until I learned that the film version bears very little resemblance to the book. So I'll be giving that a miss. Even if it is as terrific as everyone says it is.

 

[Ataahua]

I caught a head cold on Saturday so indulged in some HP to take my mind off it. I enjoy these early books because it isn't life-or-death for Harry yet and JK Rowling has some great humour.

Professor Lockheart is such a delightful git. [laugh]

 

[NottaSackville]

It worked that way too - a nice gift of humor to the readers.

(And some of the ladies in the book as well, apparently)

 

[Kim]

It's just so much fun to be introduced to the whole wizarding world - I remember the first time I read book 1 I was hooked as soon as I read the name Albus Dumbledore []

 

[Aunt Dora Baggins]

How's that for timing?

For those that don't know him, Charles Williams was one of the Inklings, the informal writing group that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They read their stuff aloud to each other.

All Hallow's Eve was Williams' last complete novel. It's a weird story that opens when a young woman wandering through an empty city realizes that she was killed in a plane crash. Some of the story is told through her point of view, some though her bereaved husband's, and, as was common back then, though many other points of view as well. The "living" part of the story takes place in London after WWII, where a kind of Antichrist character is gathering a following. It's a spooky story, but also has a very strong theme of redemption. In some ways it reminds me of some of Stephen King's novels, though there's no gore.

It also reminds me in many ways of C.S. Lewis' novel "The Great Divorce", in which a bunch of inhabitants from Hell take a bus trip to Heaven. That novel also reminds me a bit of Tolkien's "Leaf by Niggle". All three were published in 1945. Coincidence? Not sure. They're not enough alike to say the authors were copying from one another, but they did have similar themes.

Since I finished that one, I've started another Williams novel. (I tried him as a teen and couldn't get into it; I just had to be at the right time of life, I guess.) This one is called "War in Heaven" and is one of his first novels, published in 1930. It has a lighter tone, and a lot of humor and great opening line: "The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse." It is set in England in 1930 and is about a quest for the Holy Grail. I'm really enjoying his mix of mainstream real life and wild fantasy.

I also finished the one I was reading last week, "The Greater Trumps". It was really wild. It reminded me a lot of Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising".

I've been finding these at the Australian project Gutenberg site.

 

[Lily Fairbairn]

Oh, it's you! [] I've been wondering where you were and hoping all was well. Yes, real life can be annoyingly...real.

You do find the most interesting books. Lucifer in a retirement home, and the four attaché cases of the Apocalypse---there's an awful sort of logic to all that.

I can see where a funny, if profane, book would be just the ticket. As for hundreds of pages of things-not-happening, well, if you say so.... [unimpressed]

Good to see your pixels again! Don't be a stranger!

 

[Lily Fairbairn]

While Radcliffe is in many ways a great hero, in others he's a bit too, well, realistic. I understand how you can do without hateful and tiresome in your fiction, especially such entertaining fiction as the Peters books.

 

[Lily Fairbairn]

I wish Philosopher's Stone hadn't been re-titled Sorcerer's Stone here in the US. There was no need to change it, hmph. [mad] One of these days I want to either re-read the Potter books (just the other day I was noting them all lined up on a shelf in my living room) or listen to the audio book versions, which I understand are very nicely done.

Feel better soon!

 

[Lily Fairbairn]

I'm not familiar with Williams, even though one of my own novels has been compared to his---I must be on his wavelength. I figure any friend of Tolkien's would be a friend of mine. []

And yes, that IS a great opening line!

 

[Darkstone]

Thought of it when I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[Aunt Dora Baggins]

Your recommendation adds to my anticipation.

 

[demnation]

but I'm far to distracted by the far superior A Wizard of Earthsea to give it much of a read. (and it doesn't help that the first thing I see when I open Dance with Dragons is a review blurb that ends thusly: "Tolkien is dead. Long live George Martin." Feh!)

 

[Wayward]

I swear every copy of the Song of Ice and Fire books has some blurb about Martin being "this generation's Tolkien". I don't particularly see any resemblances, aside from both of them creating insanely popular fantasy series.

Having said that, I did read A Dance with Dragons a couple months ago.

Most recently I read Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which I hadn't read since middle school. It was a fun revisiting.

 

[entmaiden]

and I re-read it every once in a while. I don't love the follow-up books as much, but the original is just excellent.

 

[Wayward]

I think at the time of my initial reading (long long ago), I had planned on reading the sequels and was surprised upon learning that they existed, as my teacher hadn't informed us of them. Then I sort of forgot about them and moved on, I'm afraid.

They're probably worth reading once, aye?

 

[Kim]

Not sure if I want to stick with it though, kinda despressing. Has anyone else read this? Is it worth it?

 

[entmaiden]

I just don't find myself drawn back to them like I do with the first book. One of them focuses on Charles Wallace and not so much on Meg. One of the things I really loved about "A Wrinkle in Time: was that Meg was me when I first read it - I was the same smart, awkward teenager who didn't fit in. I loved Meg!

I have some books that I re-read every once in a while, and "A Wrinkle in Time" is one of those.