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What's The Last Book You Read?


John Crichton

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Let's see I've been reading a lot of Preston Childs, finished Revival by Stephen King. It did not have the most frightening ending he ever wrote but the book lingers and the ending was disturbing as it asked the question what lies beyond death? I sincerely hope that what lies beyond death in King's world I hope my mon is not experiencing that.

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Finished the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Well, there's nothing girly about this and it's a great read. Tense and exciting, it's quite the pageturner. I'm curious to see what the rest of the series holds in store.

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I just had a nostalgic read as I revisited the whole of David Eddings's long, long, long fantasy series of Belgariad (5 books), Malloreon (another 5 books) and Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress series in the last couple of months. I remember being quite taken by those books when I was 14. Eddings writes entertainingly but by the end this particular story starts to wear really thin and there are a lot of descriptions of riding from one place to another in Malloreon without much actually happening but the characters being very witty.

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Interesting that it was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird. Should be an enlightening read, for many reasons.

EDIT: Some are wondering if this is an attempt to exploit Lee's estate, now that her sister/spokeswoman has passed and she's too senile to protect herself from unwanted publicity: http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-the-new-harper-lee-novel-1683488258

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got around to Robert Galbraith's the Cuckoo's Calling.

Rowling works her magic in a different genre

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Interesting that it was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird. Should be an enlightening read, for many reasons.

EDIT: Some are wondering if this is an attempt to exploit Lee's estate, now that her sister/spokeswoman has passed and she's too senile to protect herself from unwanted publicity: http://jezebel.com/be-suspicious-of-the-new-harper-lee-novel-1683488258

Some diligent reporting on this here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/to-shill-a-mockingbird-how-the-discovery-of-a-manuscript-became-harper-lees-new-novel/2015/02/16/48656f76-b3b9-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html

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Magic? More like derivative schlock.

said the person who loves Hanz zimmer.

I take your opinion with little fanfare.

I will read Silkworm next then casual vacancy.

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Augustus: From Revolutionary to Emperor by Adrian Goldsworthy: A very readable biography and study on Rome's first emperor firmly sets Caius Julius Caesar (Octavianus) Augustus into the framework of the time period, politics and culture and attempts to give us a picture of the man behind the public image. Alas the Ancient sources on his character behind the facade are scant so there is a lot of guess work and the author has to make a lot of inferences from this little evidence but in the end he succeeds in not only chronicling the well known period at the end of the Republic quite adeptly but also giving old theories and interpretations worthy new challengers. While a lot of the writing is embroiled in the public side of things, politics and historical events Goldsworthy succeeds in offering some glimpses of the man behind the ageless marble statues and images in coins that preserve a detached ever young image of Augustus.

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It's next on my list. If Augustus is anything to go by it will be very interesting and quite comprehensive (judging by the 500+ pages). :)

I knew a good deal more about Caesar so I thought I'd read Augustus's biography first. It proved to be especially illuminating on the last decades of his life, which I didn't know so well.

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I always picture Brian Blessed in my head when reading about Augustus

Hehehe I Claudius can do that to you. Although I think he was less a befuddled fool than Graves suggests. ;)

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I always picture Brian Blessed in my head when reading about Augustus

Hehehe I Claudius can do that to you. Although I think he was less a befuddled fool than Graves suggests. ;)

"IS THERE ANY MAN IN ROME WHO HAS NOT SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!?!?!"

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Great moment, that one, Steef :) Such an incredible TV series

Alas the DVD transfer left a lot to be desired. And this is coming from a person who is not a niggler for absolute high definition image in his movies. But it is in great part because of the age of the show itself and quality of the original tapes.

But it doesn't make the series any less brilliant. The theatre-like setting further enhances the whole thing. I just rewatched it and was again amazed how gripping it all is. And what a line-up of premiere British thespians.

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Inky. It was a 70's BBC production. Shot completely on video. The DVD is as good as its ever going to look.

I know! :crymore:

But on the other hand it adds a good deal of old time charm to it.

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I always picture Brian Blessed in my head when reading about Augustus

Hehehe I Claudius can do that to you. Although I think he was less a befuddled fool than Graves suggests. ;)

"IS THERE ANY MAN IN ROME WHO HAS NOT SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!?!?!"

Me Me!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been rereading The Courtship of Princess Leia after 8 years or so. Lots of fun, very Star Warsy. I particularly like how it doesn't get caught up in any military/vehicle jargon like many Timothy Zahn SW books do. The big 3 seem pretty well done too, without any of them breaking character too much (so far). This would have been a fairly good Star Wars movie, had it been made around its publishing year, 1994.

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That was the first EU book I read and I still have nostalgic fondness for it. Some of the Warlord Zinj space stuff didn't make sense the first time I read it, and I never got the feeling he was a very scary or powerful villain.

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I finished the 'Fate of the Jedi' series a few days ago.

I think that after so many books, the ending was a bit rushed. If i remember correctly, 'Legacy of the Force' series suffers the same error, but at least it has a lot of books after it to expand the ending. Fate of the Jedi has only one book and i fear it is going to end so open ended that it is going to be a very unsatisfactory end to the EU. Specially since they did a comic series set 130 Years after Yavin, and all the interesting ideas presented there will never be explained...

Now I'm reading X-Wing Mercy Kill, and even if the plot is meh, it is a very engaging book. It is sad DEL REY did not ask Stackpole and Allston write more of these books all these years.

After mercy kill i will read Maul lock down, then Honor among thieves and Razor's edge, and finally, Crucible to end my Star Wars literature once and for all.

I have a list of about 15 books from other things to read!

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Lots of Clive Cussler, the Dirk Pitt tales.

can't beat a bit of Cussler, especially his early stuff. A letter I got from him 15 years ago is a cherished posession, kind enough to answer some very basic questions...

==

The Guns of Navarone.

A week ago I re-read HMS Ulysses for about the third time and found it so powerful, right up there with The Cruel Sea and then sought from the library's reserve Jack Webster's Bio on MacLean. Maybe not the best writer, his life story was complex in its way with a second wife who seemed a bit of a chancer and fantasist and himself being someone convinced of writing soon 'my best novel'. So I'm about to trawl through what MacLean's I have and currently on Force 10. Only realised of late it's more a sequel to the film Guns of Navarone than the book. A way to pass the time all the same.

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