The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

[Highwayman]

So I tried reading Foucault's Pendulum and bounced off of it a chapter in, because god damn this prose is impenetrable. Haven't dropped a book this fast since I cracked open and immediately closed Ulysses a few years back.

It always feels a bit embarrassing to drop a critically acclaimed book, but forcing yourself to read something impenetrable isn't a good use of time.

I was so sure that I'd enjoy The Man Without Qualities that I tracked down a rare translation of it and brought it with me on a cross-country journey. Didn't get past the first 25 pages.

[Skull]

A massive package arrived for me today. As you can see from the pic, the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft. Over a thousand pages long, but a journey of a thousand pages starts with a single word...or something. I try too hard to be clever sometimes.

[LJ3]

Which story was your first?

mine was at the mountains of madness

i think there's an annotated Lovecraft with commentary from Alan Moore

[Skull]

Which story was your first?
mine was at the mountains of madness
i think there's an annotated Lovecraft with commentary from Alan Moore

A long time ago in my local library I tried reading a different Lovecraft anthology which started with "Dagon". It was interesting enough.

[AsGryffynn]

Started reading book 1 of Riordan's Trials Of Apollo a few days ago. Meg is best girl.

Best girl my shit... That belongs to Alex and you should read The Hammer of Thor soon. I am still waiting for ship of the dead...

Currently rereading the Spanish language version of Battle of the Labyrinth since I finally found the actual book in a bookstore and also reading Life and Death digitally, since I want to see if Meyer did improve the story by genderbending almost everyone.

[RoydGolden]

Best girl my shit... That belongs to Alex and you should read The Hammer of Thor soon. I am still waiting for ship of the dead...

I read Hammer Of Thor a while ago actually. Alex was pretty cool, though to be honest I liked Sam just a little better...

[aldeayeah]

Which story was your first?

mine was at the mountains of madness

i think there's an annotated Lovecraft with commentary from Alan Moore

Mine was The Shadow out of Time.

[AsGryffynn]

I read Hammer Of Thor a while ago actually. Alex was pretty cool, though to be honest I liked Sam just a little better...

Everyone likes Sam a bit or a whole lot more. My complains on Alex are how Rick will definitely try to make her trans abilities a big deal. He handled Solangelo exactly the same way.

[R.Lock]

I randomly picked up an old Soviet textbook about logic.

Man, that thick propaganda is cute.

[eddyak]

The Henchmen's Book Club, by Danny King.

Great tongue in cheek, very British look at the life of a henchman in a stereotypical supervillain organisation, along with the required 007s and the Rambos that make their lives so difficult (and short).

I say it's a comedy, but there were a few moments in the book that genuinely made me go "holy shit, wait what did they just do?", and moments like that are rare for me nowadays. I actually felt bad for the guy and his colleagues, and even for some of the people he was fighting, which doesn't happen too often these days, what with the number of books I get through recently.

[Skull]

"The musical sound of breaking the law..."



"Arsène Lupin: Gentleman Thief"
An old favourite, but reading it in it's original language for the first time. As much as I love Sherlock Holmes, Arsène Lupin has always been my childhood hero of choice. <3

[LJ3]

Man, how many languages do you know?

[Skull]

Man, how many languages do you know?

Aw shucks man, only a few. Aside from English, Japanese and French are the ones I'm good at. I suppose I'm okay at Hawaiian and I'm getting kinda better(?) at German.

I used to be real good at Latin as a kid, y'know going to Church school and all. But those days are long since past.

[LJ3]

I applaud you.

Only language course I've taken was Latin and that was unfortunately a joke.

Not knowing Korean, I feel I'm missing out on native literature

[Sesto]

Read 'And Then There Were None'

Spoiler:

I had been certain Vera had done it. I mean, I wasn't really sure how, but it seemed like the most likely possibility. Near the end I started to suspect Mrs. Rogers with the idea she faked her death somehow.

Honestly I never really considered the possibility the doctor faked the examination. I still think it's kind of silly nobody noticed the fake gunshot wound, I really don't see how it'd be possible??? His entire plan would have fallen apart then. And couldn't Lombard have noticed the gun hadn't been shot? idk it's kind of silly but I guess they were all hysterical and missed details because of it.

[Skull]

^ Indeed, it's because of stuff like that, that I consider "And Then There Were None" to be one of Christie's weaker entries in her oeuvre.

[Sesto]

Finished "The Hollow Man" by Carr.

Spoiler:

I had been so deadset on Mangan. Especially once the illusionist guy talked about two different illusionist tricks - once involving a confidant, and the other involving the illusionist mixing in with the stagehands. My belief was that Grimaud's daughter had been the confidant, and that after Mangan had committed the murder and (somehow) escaped he mixed in with the police, since they all saw him escape a different window and break in again. iirc it was even suspiciously mentioned that Mangan immediately opened the door as if he knew it was unlocked.

The why was obvious. Grimaud mentioned to Burnaby he would help him get with his daughter, so Mangan tried to kill him. Mangan (somehow) knew about Grimaud's past and killed Fley in some attempt to frame Burnaby (which is why Burnaby's light was on/there was blood).

I thought it seemed so perfect. Of course, I still couldn't explain how the murders were committed exactly. But I thought everything else seemed to fit so it didn't really matter how he escaped from the room.

The actual truth was crazy and quite brilliant, honestly. That said, the clock being ahead because of pure luck is kind of absurd. And the mirror thing, I just don't get that at all. I'd have to see it in person because it doesn't make much sense to me; it doesn't seem feasible.

It was kind of hard to read because it was the first book I've read of Carr's, and all the different police characters who I felt like I were supposed to know already made it a bit confusing, especially at the beginning. But overall it was pretty great. Especially the 'locked room lecture'.

[Skull]

^ IIRC, The Hollow Man is like the third book in that series so I had the same problem of feeling like I should know who these characters were.

I liked the story up until the reveal, which I thought was too convoluted and suspension breaking. But yeah, the lecture is definitely worth a read even if you don't read anything else from the book.

[Cruor]

Reading Lehane (Shutter Island, Mystic River)'s new book Since We Fell.

[MaHaL]

Been doing some LotR re-reading.

Jesus fuck I had forgotten how... tolkien Tolkien's prose is.