The Book Thread

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gerg
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Re: favourite books

Post by gerg »

Raidersrawesome wrote:
Any Stephen King ( except the Dark Tower series )
Can I ask why. I absolutely loved it but struggle to read any of his other stuff. Reading Bram Stokers Dracula atm. As for my favourites its hard to go past Brian Lumley's Necroscope and Vampireworld series. Riftwar saga was very enjoyable as was Clive Barkers stuff. Even Abarat is interesting for a newish series.

I've ordered the wheel of time series from Amazon so looking forward to them. Been reading a heap of martial art reference books lately but getting back into the Fantasy genre again. I'll give Janny Wurts a crack when I get time, Nick.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

You won't regret it, Gerg.
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The Book Thread

Post by Please »

Harry Potter
Well, at least Jack got paid.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Nick, did Janny Wurts co-write a book with Feist after the riftwar saga? how do you co-write a book?
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

Yeah they co-wrote the Daughter of the Empire series. I never read those ones but my Mum thought they were pretty good.

Myself and a friend co-wrote on our friend's wedding card recently. We wrote one word each, I'll post the card in a second. I'm assuming that's how you co-write a series.
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The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

THIS is how you co-write a wedding card...

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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Nick, as youv'e read the novel, thought I'd ask you the question.

As you've read Magician, would you agree it should be made into a movie? I was thinking Russell Crowe as the king and Joel Edgerton as Pug.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

I don't know, there's so much going in Magician, what with Pug's training and Tomas heading off to the elves, I just don't think they could do it justice. Maybe it would have to be a three parter like the Lord of the Rings or something.

By the way, I've never read Lord of the Rings before. Started reading the Hobbit for about one chapter and couldn't handle it and stopped. Never seen the movies either, can't bring myself to do it before I read the books.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

I reckon that they have the technology to do it justice now. 10 years ago I would have said no.It's to good a story not to be shared with the masses.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

Yeah but books that wre turned into movies are stupid. Have you ever read the original Jurassic Park??
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Fair point, but if you put Peter Jackson or the ilk and a studio like Paramount in charge of bringing it to screen i would love it. Wouldn't you?
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

Dunno. I will reserve judgement until I see the Lord of the Rings I guess.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Thats what i thought
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by gangrenous »

My 2c, it has been a fair while since I read either though:

- If Magician were made into a movie, it would definitely have to be three parts.
- I'd be happy to see Peter Jackson have a crack at it. He did a great job with LoTR where many book to movie transitions have failed before him. My only real complaint with the movies was that Frodo was an annoying ****.
- I think Magician is harder to convert to film. I think some of the best stuff is seeing the characters grow up at the start, and that's harder to do enjoyably in a movie I reckon. It'd be tempting to do a star wars I think and start in the middle. Start with a story based on one of the simple wars when the characters are already developed and awesome. Then go back and make the first one to show how they got there. That way you might have the time to dedicate to the details of them growing up and changing that you'd otherwise have to rush through because people who weren't previously invested in the stories from the books would be bored.

On a similar topic:
- I would love to see a movie of the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb. But I don't think it would translate well...
- The Discworld movies/TV shows I've seen have been largely underwhelming which is a shame. I don't think it's for lack of effort, I think a lot of the great humour and wordplay of Terry Pratchett is lost without the written medium.
- I think a series of movies based on Iain M. Banks culture novels could be awesome.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Ella_Ruiz »

The Nickman wrote:Yeah but books that wre turned into movies are stupid. Have you ever read the original Jurassic Park??

Not always, on the topic of LOTR, I think Peter Jackson did do justice to Tolkien, although the way Tolkien wrote was very long-winded and paid attention to every little detail, Jackson remained true to the narrative

There's quite a few movies based on books at the Movies; Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and there's rumours of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace being made into a film, I personally think Hollywood is running out of ideas and then turn to books for inspiration, but not all film adaptations are stupid, but in many cases, some important incidences in the book are left out in the film, or altered and that can prove irritating
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Canberra Milk »

Wow, look at this old thread.

I don't think I've come across anything as good or better than those I started the thread with six years ago.

Actuallyyy yes I have - Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantakis.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Canberra Milk »

Ella_Ruiz wrote:
The Nickman wrote:Yeah but books that wre turned into movies are stupid. Have you ever read the original Jurassic Park??

Not always, on the topic of LOTR, I think Peter Jackson did do justice to Tolkien, although the way Tolkien wrote was very long-winded and paid attention to every little detail, Jackson remained true to the narrative

There's quite a few movies based on books at the Movies; Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and there's rumours of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace being made into a film, I personally think Hollywood is running out of ideas and then turn to books for inspiration, but not all film adaptations are stupid, but in many cases, some important incidences in the book are left out in the film, or altered and that can prove irritating
They're making Kerouac's On the Road. Kirsten Stewart and the guy from Tron are in it. I refuse to watch it.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Ella_Ruiz »

Hahahaha oh man, I guess it all boils down to personal taste... The Hobbit film that came out didn't seem to fit with what I had in mind with the novel (well, so far ) and yes, I was dragged into the hype of The Hunger Games because it was a series based on a dystopian future, and in I found the way the novels were written quite...bland, not enough creative writing and so many references to Ancient Rome...

And CM, I'm also surprised that this forum is still up and running - and I'm embarrassed with most of those original posts I've placed on here! :lol: :| but I still love to read, as you may know...

I've read The River God series by Wilbur Smith, which was mentioned here a while ago, and still read and love my modern classics ( Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Oscar Wilde Portrait of Dorian Gray and Dicken's Great Expectations were some recents) and I've just finished reading Marieke Hardy's autobiography, You'll be sorry when I'm dead which was okay, but I'm not a real fan of autobiographies or biographies
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Michael »

What's everyone's feelings on Cormac McCarthy's novels? Some of them are undoubtedly brilliant (No Country for Old Men, The Road, Child of God etc), but I tried reading Blood Meridian about three times, and it is literally unreadable. It's like a southern gothic/anti-western about a nameless 'kid' who joins a group of bounty hunters on the US/Mexican border in the mid-1800's, based on the Glanton gang. I see it's been voted as one of the top five novels of the last 100 years/top four American novels of all time etc, but I defy anyone to finish that book. It's captivating in parts, but could any of you read 500 pages of prose like this?

"They wandered the borderland for weeks seeking some sign of the Apache. Deployed upon that plain they moved in a constant elision, ordained agents of the actual dividing out the world which they encountered and leaving what had been and what would never be alike extinguished on the ground behind them. Spectre horsemen, pale with dust, anonymous in the crenellated heat. Above all else they appeared wholly at venture, primal, provisional, devoid of order. Like beings provoked out of the absolute rock and set nameless and at no remove from their own loomings to wander ravenous and doomed and mute as gorgons shambling the brutal wastes of Gondwanaland in a time before nomeclature was and each was all."
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

looks like a nice light and easy read, good for a plane trip from Canberra to Sydney.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Michael »

Mate, you have no idea - it is literally hundreds of pages of that. He doesn't really use quotation marks, commas and any other devices to break up the text either, and its written in a strange cadence, these kind of long passages where by the end you forget what was happening at the start. It has a certain eerie, powerful quality about it at times, but I refuse to believe anyone has actually finished it.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

I've never read his novels. I've seen "No Country for Old Men" and thought it brilliant. Worth the read?
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Michael »

Begbie wrote:I've never read his novels. I've seen "No Country for Old Men" and thought it brilliant. Worth the read?
Absolutely - the movie is almost a shot-for-shot remake of the novel, its very true to the source, most of the dialogue is directly quoted. Although there's a couple of differences in the book that make it even more brutal than the movie, and there's more of Sherriff Bell's monologues like the "I was Sherriff of this county when I was 25 years old...hard to believe. Grandfather was a lawman, my father too" voice-over at the start of the film.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Nick »

Ive been reading a lot of Anne Perry lately
Just found out her and a friend killed the friends mother in their teens, which is slightly chilling but i enjoy her books

Thinking my next purchase will be no country for old men because the film was exceptional
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Off »

I am currently reading green eggs and ham.
This place is woke.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Raidersrawesome »

Question wrote:I am currently reading green eggs and ham.

No your mum is reading it to you
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Lui_Bon »

Nick wrote:Ive been reading a lot of Anne Perry lately
Just found out her and a friend killed the friends mother in their teens, which is slightly chilling but i enjoy her books

Thinking my next purchase will be no country for old men because the film was exceptional
I can't believe there is a literature discussion I've never seen before. Then again, I do have lowbrow tastes.

You do recall the NZ fillum with Kate Winslett when she was about 15? That was her!

Bugger Raymond Feist - he's an incompetent craftsman, no more - though I'll give him credit for churning out many more words than his useless roleplaying idea deserved (and yes I only read his first book, so trell me he got any better). Who is going to star filming Culture novels?

I like books. I have a few thousand. I've even read some of them.

Anyone read Q, by "Luther Blissett"?
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Lui_Bon wrote:
Nick wrote:Ive been reading a lot of Anne Perry lately
Just found out her and a friend killed the friends mother in their teens, which is slightly chilling but i enjoy her books

Thinking my next purchase will be no country for old men because the film was exceptional
I can't believe there is a literature discussion I've never seen before. Then again, I do have lowbrow tastes.

You do recall the NZ fillum with Kate Winslett when she was about 15? That was her!

Bugger Raymond Feist - he's an incompetent craftsman, no more - though I'll give him credit for churning out many more words than his useless roleplaying idea deserved (and yes I only read his first book, so trell me he got any better). Who is going to star filming Culture novels?

I like books.]I have a few thousand. I've even read some of them.
ou s
Anyone read Q, by "Luther Blissett"?
:clap: you're a legend! over 1000 books owned - and go on to describe Feist as an "incompetent craftsman". Fantastic stuff.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Lui_Bon »

Begbie wrote:
Lui_Bon wrote:
Nick wrote:Ive been reading a lot of Anne Perry lately
Just found out her and a friend killed the friends mother in their teens, which is slightly chilling but i enjoy her books

Thinking my next purchase will be no country for old men because the film was exceptional
I can't believe there is a literature discussion I've never seen before. Then again, I do have lowbrow tastes.

You do recall the NZ fillum with Kate Winslett when she was about 15? That was her!

Bugger Raymond Feist - he's an incompetent craftsman, no more - though I'll give him credit for churning out many more words than his useless roleplaying idea deserved (and yes I only read his first book, so trell me he got any better). Who is going to star filming Culture novels?

I like books.]I have a few thousand. I've even read some of them.
ou s
Anyone read Q, by "Luther Blissett"?
:clap: you're a legend! over 1000 books owned - and go on to describe Feist as an "incompetent craftsman". Fantastic stuff.

I strongly suspect you are taking the proverbial because I don't rate Raymond Feist, so I had better reply while sober (unlike last night...). Didn't mean to offend you.

Now my brain works, Ann Perry was the basis for one of the 15-year-old girls in Peter Jackson's film Heavenly Creatures. I remember the name of it now.

Magician was the only Feist book I ever read, and the only thing I can remember about it (when did it come out? 1980?) was that it had a plot stolen directly from all the fantasy books which had come out before, with a healthy dose of Gary Gygax - you know, the "journey of the hero" business cut with Dungeons and Dragons stock characters. I will credit that it is written better than a David Eddings novel, but that's about as far as I'd go. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "incompetent"; maybe something like "serviceable" or "mundane" might have been more accurate. Each to his own - some people liked The Da Vinci Code.

And I didn't say "over 1000 books owned". I said a few thousand. Something over five. And as I said I've even read a lot of them. This doesn't necessarily make me an authority but I do have a degree in literature. That must be why I'm a public servant.

I'd still recommend Iain Banks to all and sundry (that would be the Culture novels). Pure fantasy is mostly passing me by nowdays but I do quite like KJ Parker.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Probably had a few Tanduays last night myself mate. Magician is a good read, however, I get what you're saying.

You should write a book yourself, that beard story you wrote last year was the best thing I've read.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Lui_Bon »

Begbie wrote: that beard story you wrote last year was the best thing I've read.
huh?
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

Didn't you write a story about entering a beard competiton and came second?
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Lui_Bon »

Begbie wrote:Didn't you write a story about entering a beard competiton and came second?
a) No

b) what the hell are you doing awake

c) my excuse is I've been painting kitchen cupboards, drinking and watching Prometheus (interesting film but possibly not as portentious as Ridley Scott may have liked, apart from not actually explaining why the Engineers grew the Aliens... but I haven't googled for knowledge yet).

d) It would take me six weeks to grow a beard, and I've already been told I'm not allowed to.

To enter into the spirit of things, though, I did read (and now own) an awful lot of Michael Moorcock [including both his Hawkwind novels, as actually penned by some bloke called Michael Butterworth), every word ever written by Roger Zelazny, a pile of Jack Vance and of course reams of Robert E Howard. And ER Eddison, and William Hope Hodgson. I have even read John Norman, to my shame. I believe I have read Lord of the Rings over 20 times and frankly I now regret the wasted time. I have read the Silmarillion, once, but suspect it might be better the second time around. I could not finish Nikolai Tolstoy's book about Arthur (the name escapes me), but then again I believe he finished it [the narrative] before the actual Arthur was born... And TH White, and Poul Anderson, and Andre Norton.

So I do kind of like fantasy but I like to see some inventiveness. I've got some ORc books whci I haven't read yet which I hope will show some. And a book of Tim Powers short stories, though they are more kind of supernatural.
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Re: The Book Thread

Post by Begbie »

I'm in another country, its not late. I varnished a cupboard today.
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The Book Thread

Post by The Nickman »

Question wrote:I am currently reading green eggs and ham.
Oh you'll love that. There's a massive twist at the end.
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