The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

**Deathhappens** · August 21st, 2021, 10:28 PM

Originally Posted by Five_X

How do you book-reading folks manage to keep up reading something that's 300+ pages, let alone a series? Something that's shorter I can do in an afternoon or two, but my brain tapers off eventually when I try something longer these days.

I tend to marathon stuff like that too or I forget where I was/lose interest. The curse of the 21st century and its constant bombardment of novelty on our attention span.

I find stopping at a cliffhanger helps.

**Mattias** · August 21st, 2021, 10:31 PM

I normally set aside an afternoon to read whatever, and go until I finish. Which if it's a big one has ended up around 1am on occasion.

**Deathhappens** · August 21st, 2021, 10:32 PM

Of course, it heavily depends on what you're actually reading. 300 pages of a typical soft sci-fi/fantasy or other page turner I can knock through in a few hours. 300 pages of Hemingway is a deal harder to digest.

dammnitMattmymeeeerge

**Mattias** · August 22nd, 2021, 01:12 AM

That's why you always edit your last post.

Also to clean up drunken typos in anime rants.

**Skull** · September 8th, 2021, 04:21 PM

Re-read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1902) by Arthur Conan Doyle, watched the 1939 film with Basil Rathbone as well as the 1988 TV version with Jeremy Brett, plus I listened to the BBC Audio Drama from 2011 with Nicolas Brigg - all in a single day.

Why you ask? All for the purpose of seeing how various adaptations handle the story. Which scenes they keep and which they leave out, how dialogue is tweaked to be understandable to the "modern" audience of the day and how directors can't resist adding in extra stuff to spice up the story and make it their own.

T'was an interesting experiment and not at all because I was bored and stuck at home...that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

**ResidentSeagull** · September 8th, 2021, 05:21 PM

So what is your conclusion about the various adaptations of the tale?

**Skull** · September 8th, 2021, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by ResidentSeagull

So what is your conclusion about the various adaptations of the tale?

It's a surreal experience, experiencing roughly the same story four times in a row and now the details are all blurring together in my mind.

They are all decent to good adaptations. The audio drama is practically a word for word adaptation acted out minus all the "he said, she said" and is definitely recommended for purists.

Of them I'd say the Rathbone movie from the '30s is the weakest due to not only having some minor plotholes due to cutting scenes but also adds unnecessary stuff like a séance scene by a purported psychic that leads absolutely nowhere.

**Deathhappens** · September 9th, 2021, 03:08 AM

Having only read the book... I guess I'll stick to it, then.

**Skull** · September 9th, 2021, 08:49 AM

Speaking of the book, I can definitely see why it has stood the test of time and even those only familiar with the Holmes canon tend to know about the Hound. The fact that it's one of the only full length novels lets ACD pour all of his strengths into it (whereas the opposite kinda happened with the Valley of Fear), the unique presence of a supposed supernatural element makes it stand out in comparison to the other stories and Holmes' absence allowing Watson to take centre stage for a while.

No wonder it has been adapted so many times, including in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

**pinetree** · November 27th, 2021, 05:03 PM

In another attempt to get back into reading, I've picked up Leviathan Wakes and The Black Prism.

Leviathan Wakes:
I haven't managed to get into a book for almost 2 years now but I was so hooked I devoured the thing in 2 days.
Amazing universe and characters. Great mystery. If I didn't know this was part of a series I would be totally satisfied with this. Kinda makes me scared about The Expanse lasting NINE books though.

Spoiler thoughts

The Black Prism:
The start of the lightbringer series. I decide to go with this one instead of continuing The Expanse so I could alternate with a fantasy series but it was a terrible decision.
To be fair, I've barely started the book, so these are super early impressions, but I already hate it enough that I don't want to continue.

I can handle sudden terminology and poorly explained magic systems, the problem really is the prose. I've seen a lot of praise for this series and I can only imagine he gets drastically better because at this point his writing is... flavorless, stunted, obtuse and repetitive. I don't think I've had such a kneejerk reaction to someone's writing... ever. It's just so bad.
The conversation between Kip and Gaspar was dreadful and Gavin's introductory scene is worse.

The way Gaspar goes from pleading for help to mocking Kip for his supposedly importance is so bizarre. There's not a single phrase describing his change of demeanor. The man just continues talking and the reader is left weirded out about how his personality completely switched from one word to the next. It's only after a few more paragraphs that you understand that he actually recognizes the kid's name and that's what triggered his change.

I doubt I'll continue this much longer. I'll probably move on to a different fantasy book or just start the next Expanse book.

**eddyak** · December 1st, 2021, 08:02 PM

Lightbringer doesn't end well, according to most of the people I've heard criticise it. Literal jesus in a trenchcoat shows up to literally deus ex the story to its conclusion.

**pinetree** · December 1st, 2021, 08:19 PM

Yeah, I researched the rest of the series to decided if I wanted to force myself to continue gave up on it.
Already moved on to Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Much better prose and really interesting from the start.

**Sesto** · December 24th, 2021, 02:13 PM

Read a bunch of stuff recently. Some Japanese classics, No Longer Human and Kokoro were my favourite. I was a bit iffy on Kokoro at first but once it reached the final third I just finished it in one sitting. I think how we never see the narrator's reaction to Sensei's letter is brilliant.

Also read the Dying Earth series. It was sometimes hard to get through but overall pretty great. I've always been a fan of "dying earth" settings. Cugel was an fun character - an absolutely unlikeable cunt you can't help but cheer for (sometimes). I really liked the whole fantasy travel vibe, just going from place to place and seeing the interesting creatures and cultures along the way. The Rhialto stories were also decent, the magician banter was fun even though I only really enjoyed the second of the stories. I could've read a whole novel about Rhialto and the familiar-esque creature just traveling and throwing insults at each other.

After the Dying Earth I wanted more fantasy so starting the Witcher books now. It's alright so far.

**Mattias** · December 24th, 2021, 03:00 PM