Whatcha reading?

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
25 Nov 2021, 7:44pm
Anyway, it's what I imagine the last days of Flex's reign of terror was like.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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New audiobook:
Image
Not a celebrity memoir guy at all, but, c'mon, Mel Brooks.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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I'm perversely thrilled to find scans of a bunch of late 70s Marvel novels that I read over and over as a kid. So I'm going to read the Captain America one and … probably be disappointed.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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I'm about halfway thru Brooks' memoir—it's light and affectionate—and stumbled upon this, so I'm watching it. Not surprisingly, it covers a lot of the same gags he loves. If some of the stuff feels a bit easy and flat in the memoir, watching the same material in archival form in this documentary just kills. He is such an infectious, enthusiastic performer.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by tepista »

Now that I've read all 6 of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books, I just finished his newest unrelated novel. It's a noir set in the late 30s where Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff, who were apparently grade-school chums, team up to solve the murder of a mutual friend and come across witches and real-life Frankensteins in Hollywood, USA.

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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tepista wrote:
16 Dec 2021, 6:05pm
Now that I've read all 6 of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books, I just finished his newest unrelated novel. It's a noir set in the late 30s where Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff, who were apparently grade-school chums, team up to solve the murder of a mutual friend and come across witches and real-life Frankensteins in Hollywood, USA.

Image
Any good? I'm far more of a noir fan than a horror fan, so the premise/setting sounds cool.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by tepista »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Dec 2021, 6:42pm
tepista wrote:
16 Dec 2021, 6:05pm
Now that I've read all 6 of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books, I just finished his newest unrelated novel. It's a noir set in the late 30s where Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff, who were apparently grade-school chums, team up to solve the murder of a mutual friend and come across witches and real-life Frankensteins in Hollywood, USA.

Image
Any good? I'm far more of a noir fan than a horror fan, so the premise/setting sounds cool.
if I recall you didn't like the name-dropping, pop culture style of the Anno Dracula, it still has that, but on the other hand, it's told in the first person from the Chandler character as if he was Phillip Marlowe, so it's different. But the same. i dunno. I liked it. It inspired me to purchase a copy of the Big Sleep. I like reading books that I already seen the movie. Plus I understand there's a lotta drug use, which was watered down to practical non-existence in the movie.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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tepista wrote:
16 Dec 2021, 7:22pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
16 Dec 2021, 6:42pm
tepista wrote:
16 Dec 2021, 6:05pm
Now that I've read all 6 of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula books, I just finished his newest unrelated novel. It's a noir set in the late 30s where Raymond Chandler and Boris Karloff, who were apparently grade-school chums, team up to solve the murder of a mutual friend and come across witches and real-life Frankensteins in Hollywood, USA.

Image
Any good? I'm far more of a noir fan than a horror fan, so the premise/setting sounds cool.
if I recall you didn't like the name-dropping, pop culture style of the Anno Dracula, it still has that, but on the other hand, it's told in the first person from the Chandler character as if he was Phillip Marlowe, so it's different. But the same. i dunno. I liked it. It inspired me to purchase a copy of the Big Sleep. I like reading books that I already seen the movie. Plus I understand there's a lotta drug use, which was watered down to practical non-existence in the movie.
Ah, okay. If I find an audio version of this I might give it a shot. Chandler was just a fantastic writer. The plots are nothing exceptional—he had the fantastic advice that went when in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns—but his prose is so damned compelling. Really romantic in its own way. You might also dig Mickey Spillane's first several Mike Hammer novels. Philip Chandler is a like a modern knight; Mike Hammer is just a sadistic lunatic. But Spillane's storytelling was alluring as hell.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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A whole bunch of stuff that I've just started:
Exercise Audiobook:
Image
William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream. It's been at least a couple decades since I've read this—I've read it three times, I think—but it's a fucking tour de force of popular narrative history. It's a "sit back and enjoy the ride" kind of work, something that works the emotions more than the brain. But it's close to 60 hours, so I'll be listening into February.

Tub Book:
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Matt Beaumont, Where There's a Will. I thought I'd read all of Beaumont's novels before, but this was on my shelf and I have no recollection of reading it and it doesn't seem familiar so far.

Bedtime Book:
Image
Breezy, bouncing around in topics and styles, speculative, spinning old tales in new ways—fun stuff for advanced Beatles nuts. Definitely not your first Beatles book.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 Dec 2021, 5:41pm
A whole bunch of stuff that I've just started:
Exercise Audiobook:
Image
William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream. It's been at least a couple decades since I've read this—I've read it three times, I think—but it's a fucking tour de force of popular narrative history. It's a "sit back and enjoy the ride" kind of work, something that works the emotions more than the brain. But it's close to 60 hours, so I'll be listening into February.

Tub Book:
Image
Matt Beaumont, Where There's a Will. I thought I'd read all of Beaumont's novels before, but this was on my shelf and I have no recollection of reading it and it doesn't seem familiar so far.

Bedtime Book:
Image
Breezy, bouncing around in topics and styles, speculative, spinning old tales in new ways—fun stuff for advanced Beatles nuts. Definitely not your first Beatles book.
Like the sound of the first one, that's going on my list. I've looked at the Brown book on my local library shelf a couple of times and pondered taking it out. But I'm a Beatles literary virgin so to speak, unless you count Kevin Barrys Beatlebone which I wouldn't, so just wondering what you'd consider the optimal Beatle tome for a curious newbie? My lack of Beatles knowledge is quite shameful really.

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Low Down Low wrote:
21 Dec 2021, 6:10pm
I've looked at the Brown book on my local library shelf a couple of times and pondered taking it out. But I'm a Beatles literary virgin so to speak, unless you count Kevin Barrys Beatlebone which I wouldn't, so just wondering what you'd consider the optimal Beatle tome for a curious newbie? My lack of Beatles knowledge is quite shameful really.
For more of a primer kind of Beatles book, I'd go with Philip Norman's Shout! or Bob Spitz' The Beatles. They both cover the story in a pretty straight-forward narrative. Norman is more jaundiced towards the group, Spitz is more positive (but, as I recall, contains some factual errors). Inder might have different selections for intro books.

edit: There's also The Compleat Beatles, a fine two-hour documentary made not long after Lennon's murder. It does the job well enough.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Low Down Low »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
21 Dec 2021, 6:28pm
Low Down Low wrote:
21 Dec 2021, 6:10pm
I've looked at the Brown book on my local library shelf a couple of times and pondered taking it out. But I'm a Beatles literary virgin so to speak, unless you count Kevin Barrys Beatlebone which I wouldn't, so just wondering what you'd consider the optimal Beatle tome for a curious newbie? My lack of Beatles knowledge is quite shameful really.
For more of a primer kind of Beatles book, I'd go with Philip Norman's Shout! or Bob Spitz' The Beatles. They both cover the story in a pretty straight-forward narrative. Norman is more jaundiced towards the group, Spitz is more positive (but, as I recall, contains some factual errors). Inder might have different selections for intro books.

edit: There's also The Compleat Beatles, a fine two-hour documentary made not long after Lennon's murder. It does the job well enough.
Great stuff. Will give that a watch and the Norman book is available on my library shelf so that should help fill a small gap at least. Cheers Doc.

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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This is probably a hell of a longshot, but does anyone have any tips on where to go online to search for used books by publisher and date? I'm looking for a specific printing of a series of JG Ballard's books, but whenever I find one on eBay or something, they're just using the old cover image but are selling the new printing with a different cover. I have 5 of the series I'm looking for and I want to fill in the collection with the others from the same series so they look uniform on my shelf, but there's no real way to make sure I'm getting what I'm looking for unless I click into each listing and hope that it has any publisher info—and even then I'm not guaranteed because nobody pays attention to that stuff when they're listing their books for sale, the author and title is all that matters to them. It doesn't help that it's a UK printing either, so I'm checking all the ebay.co.uk type URLs.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Kory wrote:
22 Dec 2021, 7:52pm
This is probably a hell of a longshot, but does anyone have any tips on where to go online to search for used books by publisher and date? I'm looking for a specific printing of a series of JG Ballard's books, but whenever I find one on eBay or something, they're just using the old cover image but are selling the new printing with a different cover. I have 5 of the series I'm looking for and I want to fill in the collection with the others from the same series so they look uniform on my shelf, but there's no real way to make sure I'm getting what I'm looking for unless I click into each listing and hope that it has any publisher info—and even then I'm not guaranteed because nobody pays attention to that stuff when they're listing their books for sale, the author and title is all that matters to them. It doesn't help that it's a UK printing either, so I'm checking all the ebay.co.uk type URLs.
I'd go to abebooks.com, and if you find a promising lead, contact the vendor to doublecheck it's the exact edition you want.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Kory wrote:
22 Dec 2021, 7:52pm
This is probably a hell of a longshot, but does anyone have any tips on where to go online to search for used books by publisher and date? I'm looking for a specific printing of a series of JG Ballard's books, but whenever I find one on eBay or something, they're just using the old cover image but are selling the new printing with a different cover. I have 5 of the series I'm looking for and I want to fill in the collection with the others from the same series so they look uniform on my shelf, but there's no real way to make sure I'm getting what I'm looking for unless I click into each listing and hope that it has any publisher info—and even then I'm not guaranteed because nobody pays attention to that stuff when they're listing their books for sale, the author and title is all that matters to them. It doesn't help that it's a UK printing either, so I'm checking all the ebay.co.uk type URLs.
Hello,

Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon is great! I have no idea if they could help you but, like you, I'd play the longshot and contact someone there.

https://www.powells.com/

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