What 📔book are you reading right now?

Radaghast said:

Which one?

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@Ashley first mentioned reading Something Wicked This Way Comes... the 1983 Disney movie of the same name is what I was referring to.
'Tis not very good; in fact, it's pretty bad (imo).
However, to be fair, (and as I have mentioned elsewhere) it's nigh impossible to adapt any Bradbury story to the screen/stage and not lose the very characteristics that make it unique. It may be a good presentation, and for those watching who have never read the original story it may be a very enjoyable experience, but they still will not have experienced "Bradbury".
Interestingly enough Bradbury himself wrote the screenplay for a Twilight Zone episode (1962): "I Sing the Body Electric".
I remember it was a good story, made you think a bit.
But later, when I read the short story (which he fleshed out from his screenplay) I preferred the written story to the screen presentation.

Deimos said:

@Ashley first mentioned reading Something Wicked This Way Comes... the 1983 Disney movie of the same name is what I was referring to.
'Tis not very good; in fact, it's pretty bad (imo).
However, to be fair, (and as I have mentioned elsewhere) it's nigh impossible to adapt any Bradbury story to the screen/stage and not lose the very characteristics that make it unique. It may be a good presentation, and for those watching who have never read the original story it may be a very enjoyable experience, but they still will not have experienced "Bradbury".

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Have you seen any other adaptations? Just curious. I have yet to read the book, so will avoid any adaptation in the meantime.

Bradbury apparently thought it was a pretty good adaptation.

By the way, here's a little bit of trivia: a character I'm the New Zealand film Utu, set in 1870, quotes the line. Someone on INDb listed it as a "goof", because "Bradbury didn't publish it until the 20th century". 😄

Ashley said:

I have read most of those. I haven't done The Halloween Tree or Usher II, but the others were good. The Veldt I read for school two years ago, and I've been reading the rest more recently, as my brother got several of his books from the library, and I decided I'd read them, too. I liked The Exiles, but I haven't read many of the authors in it. I probably would have liked it better if I had.

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Bierce is good (his more scary/supernatural stories).
Check out Algernon Blackwood's The Willows. I read somewhere that Tolkien may have used that story for his idea of "malevolent willows".
It's very possible as The Willows was published in 1907... Tolkien would have been 15 at the time.

Squint-eyed Southerner said:

Bradbury apparently thought it was a pretty good adaptation.

By the way, here's a little bit of trivia: a character I'm the New Zealand film Utu, set in 1870, quotes the line. Someone on INDb listed it as a "goof", because "Bradbury didn't publish it until the 20th century". 😄

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Really?
There were parts that were faithful to the novel, and I thought Jason Robards was well cast for his part (and played it well).
But I came away with the thought: "A 'miss'.... Not close enough for me to ever watch it again, never-mind to recommend it."

You know he thoroughly disliked the Truffaut directed (1966) Fahrenheit 451?
I didn't like "futuristic technology" look of vehicles, homes etc.; looked somewhat cartoon-ish.
But I thought the adaptation was overall pretty well done.

I thought the casting was very good, especially Beatty's character (Cyril Cusack captured it perfectly )... Oskar Werner was good as Montag.
Bernard Herrmann did the music ('nuff said there).

And I re-watch it every so often, more to watch Cusack's Beatty than for any other reason.
Beatty has a sadistic temperament that is fascinating.

Radaghast said:

Have you seen any other adaptations? Just curious. I have yet to read the book, so will avoid any adaptation in the meantime.

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Not aware of any (others may know more).
And pax to both Bradbury and Squinty on the acceptability of the SWTWC movie.... but I still can't recommend it.
(Except the opening scene with the Black Locomotive.... that was so well done it gave me high hopes for the movie. Alas! It was not to be😕.)
So do read the book first.

I have just started reading the Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik, the Napoleonic wars with dragons. Quite good so far, Plus, some light reading with P. G Woodhouse and Jeeves

Radaghast said:

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I've only just found out about this book recently, having read that it's a Tolkien ripoff. I borrowed it from the library out of plain old curiosity and am about halfway through. It is a Tolkien ripoff, and McKiernan in the forward as much as admits it (though he cites other authors who inspired him). It's less of one than I expected, though. So far there's no equivalent of the One Ring. There are analogues to the hobbits, Morgoth and Sauron, but not particularly any of the protagonists, and there is yet to appear a Gandalf equivalent.

What strikes me more is how badly it's written. The author desperately wants to rush the exposition along, cramming it in at every given opportunity. The aim is to make it seem as if it's coming in the words or thoughts of the characters but this is not always achieved. Also, the hobbit takeoffs, called Warrows, are sold as these "doughty" warriors because they're good with bows. It's kind of hard to take this idea seriously. McKiernan also goes into loving detail about the heights of the Warrows and the colors of their hair and eyes. Also, Warrows is kind of a silly word. Why pick something that rhymes with 'arrows'? Or maybe that's the idea? But the author has other names for them as well: 'buccan', 'Waldfolc', 'Waerlinga' (the last one probably inspired by Tolkien's 'Eorlingas'). The names of these Warrows are all almost parodic in nature: Tuckerby Underbank, Danner Bramblethorn, Dorby Thistletwig. Okay, that last one I made up but it's not too far off the mark.

Anyway, it's the first book of three. I'm doubtful I will finish the trilogy, but I will finish this book. I can't decide which come off as worse, this or the Shannara books, which I liked upon first reading when I was a teenager, but which didn't appreciate well with time.

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Finally finished this. Sheesh, what a groaner. Again, less for its derivation of Tolkien than the flowery and cloyingly descriptive writing style. One thing I forgot to mention is that this started as a proposed sequel to The Lord of the Rings (which the McKiernan started writing while recovering a motorcycle accident). Doubleday tried getting the rights to publish but were denied by the Tolkien estate (I guess Simon Tolkien was too young at the time to have any say?), so the author changed details of the story (I guess this could explain why there's not Gandalf equivalent).

Anyway, I started reading this.

I saw it in a "Take a Book, Leave a Book" box on the curbside, so I figured, what the heck (unfortunately, I didn't have a book to leave, but the box was nearly full anyway).

I'm reading Eldest by Christopher Paoini. It's the sequel to Eragon. I'm already halfway through. It's not as good as Eragon (a bit too political for a fantasy story), but I think I'll still finish it. Not sure if I'll read the last book in the trilogy, Brisingr.

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, the fifth book in the Stormlight Archive. About 130 pages in and it’s amazing so far. This is his longest book at 1,330 pages

1,330 pages. And it's part of a series (that includes 3 novellas), and there are five books to go? 😨

Radaghast said:

1,330 pages. And it's part of a series (that includes 3 novellas), and there are five books to go? 😨

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Yup, the next one isn’t coming out for like 5-6 years while he works on some other series in between. The man’s a machine but the quality to me is always excellent. I don’t think he’s written a book that I haven’t enjoyed so far.

Erestor Arcamen said:

Yup, the next one isn’t coming out for like 5-6 years while he works on some other series in between. The man’s a machine but the quality to me is always excellent. I don’t think he’s written a book that I haven’t enjoyed so far.

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Yeah, don't want to commit to a series where it takes years between volumes. Had quite enough of that 😆

I read Mistborn: The Final Empire though my copy didn't have those last three words on the cover, nor any indication that it's a trilogy. I though it was okay, overall, from what I remember.

I'll take a look at his self-contained books. His output is indeed incredible.

Radaghast said:

Yeah, don't want to commit to a series where it takes years between volumes. Had quite enough of that 😆

I read Mistborn: The Final Empire though my copy didn't have those last three words on the cover, nor any indication that it's a trilogy. I though it was okay, overall, from what I remember.
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I'll take a look at his self-contained books. His output is indeed incredible.

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Yeah the first mistborn was OK. That series, at least the first era, was a bit young adult but it definitely got more mature as it progressed and then the second era, which is 4 more books, is much more mature. It also was in a time period where the technology is kind of steampunk so was really cool to me how it mirrors real human technology advancement.

Stormlight Archive is a much more serious, mature high fantasy series. It takes place in a medieval era and the magic system to me is very interesting and well done. These first five books are a complete era/series on the planet that these books take place on. When he writes the next set, it’ll be 10-20 years in the future on the planet and will be five more books.

His output definitely is incredible and I also appreciate and love how open he is with his fans. He posts weekly updates on YouTube about how far he’s gotten with writing, what he’s planning to work on, etc. and then every year on his birthday he releases the “State of the Sanderson” which is a more in depth description of what he’s working on, what he’s releasing and the plan for when. And like I said, in my opinion at least, everything in the cosmere (in book universe) that he’s written has been enjoyable to me. Elantris was his first book and probably the one I enjoyed the least but he’s also admitted it’s the weakest book he’s written. One of my favorite standalone books in the Cosmere (which has characters that appear in Stormlight eventually too) is Warbreaker. It’s not too long and was a really good story.

Erestor Arcamen said:

Elantris was his first book and probably the one I enjoyed the least but he’s also admitted it’s the weakest book he’s written. One of my favorite standalone books in the Cosmere (which has characters that appear in Stormlight eventually too) is Warbreaker. It’s not too long and was a really good story.

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I guess that's understandable since it was his first book. But as far as his production, to think on top of all his own stuff he managed to also finish The Wheel of Time. That's insane.

Radaghast said:

Finally finished this. Sheesh, what a groaner. Again, less for its derivation of Tolkien than the flowery and cloyingly descriptive writing style.

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The name for that kind of writing is purple prose (is that not the loveliest, most evocative descriptor? 🙂)
Purple prose is "writing that is overly ornate or elaborate and is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors."

Radaghast said:

.. Doubleday tried getting the rights to publish but were denied by the Tolkien estate (I guess Simon Tolkien was too young at the time to have any say?),

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omg... that is so funny because it is so true.
I like to think that, on the far side of the grave, should Simon LeGreedy be met by his grandfather, the elder Tolkien would soundly box his grandson's ears for the rest of eternity.

Radaghast said:

so the author changed details of the story (I guess this could explain why there's not Gandalf equivalent).

Anyway, I started reading this.
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I saw it in a "Take a Book, Leave a Book" box on the curbside, so I figured, what the heck (unfortunately, I didn't have a book to leave, but the box was nearly full anyway).

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Those are call "Little Free Libraries" where I am. I have happily come across several in the most unlikely places.
You can find some real gems in them.

Deimos said:

omg... that is so funny because it is so true.
I like to think that, on the far side of the grave, should Simon LeGreedy be met by his grandfather, the elder Tolkien would soundly box his grandson's ears for the rest of eternity.

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😂

I've been making my way gradually through the really long introduction to the three-volume The Collected Poems of JRR Tolkien. I wasn't sure at first why I got it, until I found at least two poems that I was surprised didn't get space in THoMe. The Complaint of Mim has been added to my overly complicated, home-made Legendarium reading guide. The introduction is so long, however it's given me some direction of how I want to approach the poems. In celebration of today being a Monday, I wanted to give a shout out to how Tolkien wrote a hilariously fun lament about the horrors of Mondays. I laughed a lot for the first half, but it kind of hit a point of diminishing returns after a certain point. Fun to think of Tolkien as a man who understood and glumness that comes with Mondays, to the extent of joking about it extensively in poetic form.

The main book I'm reading is Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising. I've been planning it as a Christmas read for a while, and it's turning out to be perfect for it. I've long held curiosity about the book and the series that it's a part of ever since watching a movie adaptation that I personally found a little disappointing except for the presence of Doctor Who actor Christopher Ecclestone. The Dark is Rising series has been haunting me for at least a decade. The covers of one edition are quite striking. And then there's another aspect that recommended the series to me, the fact that it kept coming up in recommendations for people (like me) who like A Wrinkle in Time and The Prydain Chronicles. A Wrinkle in Time and the Prydain Chronciles are very different, so I wanted to understand that. So far I am definitely seeing the comparison with A Wrinkle in Time. I'm enjoying it as a great cosy read during the holiday season.

To the thread's title "What book are you reading right now?" ....

if I'm really, truly, absolutely honest, I'm not reading any book right now.
I'm reading this here forum.

(sorry, couldn't help myself... i'll slink back into the forest now.)

I just finished Eldest and am now frantically searching for a copy of the next book in the trilogy, Brisingr. The only copy I could find was in Spanish for some reason. I didn't like the elves in Eldest, especially Arya, but the rest of the book was pretty good, with an interesting twist at the end.