What are you reading now?

Tyg wrote:

@Kevin: Tell me if it's good. I wonder if it's someone on the writing team or if they got in a ghost writer?

I just finished Heat Wave by Castle. Actually it is a short book, and finished it in one long evening. Impressions...... Unimpressed. The point behind the book was to make it appear that "Richard Castle" wrote it. And "Richard Castle" is supposed to be a long time best selling author. Which, you would think, would make him experienced, professional, and smooth. This book isn't. The book is unpolished. I'm having trouble coming up with quite the right words to describe it. But it comes off as more the first published effort of a rookie writer than it does the professional work of a veteran. The chemistry between the characters in the show does not show up in the book. The dialog is weak. The presentation as a whole is unsatisfying. While the tone has a ghost of a similarity to the show, it falls flat. Reminds me of that expression "he phoned it in".

As to who wrote it, nothing in the print tells that. I had thought it might be Stephen J Cannell, who is the show's creator as well as a veteran novelist. However, it is hard to see a writer with Cannell's experience delivering such an unpolished, amateurish work. I rarely read mystery, so I had never before read one of that man's books. So I don't know. They could have had a writer from the show write it, but then why is the feel of the book so much weaker than the feel of the show?

As a whole, a little interesting. But not good enough to encourage reading another of the series if another is made. Recommendation, low. There are too many better things to read out there.

That's disappointing. Kind of stupid too, it could be a nice addition to the DVD sales if they actually put out some good books.

Rereading an old book off my shelf. Dog Wizard by Barbara Hambly. It's a fantasy. Hambly is different from the other fantasy authors that I know in that she's much darker. Most fantasy is "it's always darkest before the dawn." Hambly is more "It's high noon, it's midsummer's day, it's dark, and there's a storm coming". It's not going to get any brighter.

Started the first True Blood book: Dead Until Dark

That will be my next one
I started a few minutes ago the 3rd one of the vampire diaries series

Past Due: A Story of Disability, Pregnancy and Birth by Anne Finger

On Television by Pierre Bourdieu (for a class)

New Ideas from Dead Economists. by Todd Buchhold. Just rereading it as a review.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (for Science Fiction Film class)

trucherrygirl wrote:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (for Science Fiction Film class)

Which is what the movie Bladerunner is, very loosely, based on. Very loosely

Kev wrote:

trucherrygirl wrote:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (for Science Fiction Film class)

Which is what the movie Bladerunner is, very loosely, Yebased on. Very loosely

Yes, I know! One of my friends from film club (who's also my caregiver actually) recommended the book to me! We can read any science fiction book we want pretty much. I showed the book to my professor and she's like, "You can't go wrong with Philip K. Dick." Okay, then!

I'm loving it so far! Already more than 100 pages in. We'll be watching Blade Runner this coming week actually (on Monday), so we're reading some articles about the film and it's interesting to read how different the book is from the film. Still, I've heard very good things about the film, so I'm hoping it's good on its own merit! The book actually reminds me a bit of Dollhouse with the androids and bounty hunter conflict and the whole "But you're programmed to think that way!" theme. I wonder if Joss drew inspiration for Dollhouse from Philip K. Dick.

Reading this book makes me want to read more science fiction books. What have I been missing out on?! Seriously.

For fiction, I almost always read Scifi or fantasy. Which in bookstores is shelved together, because fans of one tend to be fans of the others. Libraries only sometimes do it that way. While I have read more fantasy than Scifi, I think Scifi gets a higher rating overall. Though of course it's not always good. But some great authors of scifi have true science backgrounds. And some scifi has broken ground that science caught up on only decades later. Some scifi is really just contemporary stories, but in a futuristic setting. But much else explores real moral and ethical issues as they pertain the the changing realities of the world. Like Firefly did.

Joss probably did read PK Dick at some point. There are few absolutely new ideas in entertainment. And while I never read anything exactly like Dollhouse, some of the themes have been shadowed in other works. Slavery, or slave like conditions, and prostitution have featured in any number of future scenarios. Think of the role of the "furniture" in Soylent Green.




*****


Just finished "What's the matter with Kansas?" By Thomas Frank. Written in 2004, this puts into words a lot of things I've been thinking about American politics in recent years. If you want to get an understanding of the far right reaction in American politics, this is the book to start with.

Have you guys been watching Caprica? It's got a lot of the same themes running through it too. The first 3 or 4 eps are kind of slow/messy, but it gets really good after that.

I seem to have come to a stall with The Prime Minister (although I'm still reading it) so I've now started Salt: A World History.

I haven't, because I don't have cable TV. I've only seen the first 2 seasons of BSG



I read a book on salt too, possibly the same one. It's interesting. Is that by the same author that did the book Cod? Because that was a good one as well.

Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris

The 4400: Welcome to Promise City by Greg Cox Loving it

@ Kev - Shame on you! Although to be honest the first 2 seasons are the best.

I'm reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery right now. It's very good so far.

I'd either have to rent or buy the dvds. I don't like watching shows online. The quality if too low.

I've been rereading some old series. For lack of energy to get into anything new. The Garrett PI series by Glenn Cook and stuff by Elizabeth Moon.

@ Kev: Sorry I missed your Salt question. Yep, it's by the same guy who wrote the cod book. I have to admit that I got distracted and never actually finished it. When it comes to books, I'm very easily distracted by something newer and shinier.

I usually finish a book. But occasionally it takes me forever to start them.

The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson

Finished The Butterfly House by Marcia Preston and currently reading Plan B by Emily Barr.