Books....

andrushkiwt

andrushkiwt

Well-known member
Been on a summer reading binge. Eight down, two more to go before school starts back up. Not sure how I found the time for all those in between music, work, and home life, not to mention an engagement and two vacations.

Current story is The Day of the Jackal, by Forsythe. Halfway through and completely hooked. The first two chapters or so were filled with too much history and background, for my liking, but the main story is incredible.

Best book this summer, so far, would have to be Dragon Teeth, by Crichton. Barely beat out State of Fear, same author. Andromeda Strain underneath that, rankwise. And a shoutout for Trap the Devil, by Coes.

After the Jackal is Bone Collector. Any rec's? There's an insane amount of pediatric pharmacology and advanced physiology textbooks on the horizon...so I'd like to get these pleasure readings in while I can. :)
 
Read Day of the Jackal decades ago, good read. Andromeda Strain, wow that's almost 'ancient'. Book was so much better than the movie. Have you read Crichton's 'Coma'? Another book better than the movie (but aren't most?)
 
mjbphotos said:
Read Day of the Jackal decades ago, good read. Andromeda Strain, wow that's almost 'ancient'. Book was so much better than the movie. Have you read Crichton's 'Coma'? Another book better than the movie (but aren't most?)
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I picked a bunch of classic thrillers. I have not read 'Coma (just checked his "list of novels" and didn't see it?), but I've liked all the Crichton books so far. Great Train Robbery too, forgot about that one.
 
I read mostly history books.

Several books I really like are:

"All Under Heaven: A Complete History of China" really a good book to better understand China. Very amazing about the Chinese history and culture.

"Complete Works of Josephus" mostly Jewish history but really helps understand the Middle East, Rome's influence, other tribes. The book was written before Islam. I think the book was written about ~90 AD. Translation is in 16th Century English.

"Delivered From Evil" (has a US slant, but pretty even handed, it is intended as a history book) really good book abut WWII written by a Marine war scholar who really understands subject in whole. But this books talk more than just battles, he writes about the politics, the mood of the different peoples, etc. He goes into much more background than just fighting itself. I would say it is 40%politics, 20% background on key players, 40% battles and strategies (the whys behind the decisions).
 
mjbphotos said:
Read Day of the Jackal decades ago, good read. Andromeda Strain, wow that's almost 'ancient'. Book was so much better than the movie. Have you read Crichton's 'Coma'? Another book better than the movie (but aren't most?)
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Coma was by Robin Cook, I believe. Like Crichton, also a doctor.
 
"The Day of the Jackal"

There was a movie (not the one with Bruce Willis, which was a take-off on the original)...done back in 1973.
Excellent. Fast paced and tense drama from start to finish.
I'm not much of a book reader...too time consuming. I'm a movie nut, love the whole cinematic experience.
 
Slowly working my way through Clavell’s Asia series. Read Shogun and Noble House. Now on Gai-Jin.

Also sporadically picking up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It’s a book I read way back in post-college days and my BMW R75/5 days. A friend from that time came across a 1st edition and gave it to me. I’d recommended it to her back then and she said I might see if it still resonated like it did then. So far I’m finding it more introspective than my current state of mind but maybe I’ll warm to it.
 
miroslav said:
I'm not much of a book reader...too time consuming. I'm a movie nut, love the whole cinematic experience.
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I'll check out the films when I'm finished. Thanks for the idea.

I didn't enjoy reading until not too long ago, actually. I had a bad habit of looking ahead on the next page (right page if I flipped to the left) and I was too anxious to see what happens. Suddenly, it disappeared, and now I can read books like most other people :) I got so caught up in Dragon Teeth, I just couldn't put the books down, one after the other.

There's something about the way you can imagine the characters and story the way YOU perceive it and want it to be, given what the author gives you to work with, of course. I'm a big movie fan as well, but about 8 years ago I started only watching flicks with ratings above a certain mark - there was an across the board parallel to a movie's ratings and how much I liked it. I could often guess its IMDB score within a few points the moment t ended. I figured I might as well just go by the ratings then.

Too many whack directors out there and bad/over acting. With the books, I'm now finding, the directing is up to me. I enjoy this more now.
 
andrushkiwt said:
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Too many whack directors out there and bad/over acting. With the books, I'm now finding, the directing is up to me. I enjoy this more now.
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Hah. That's an interesting POV. I'd say it's more cinematography than directing, though, but I get your point.

I'm more of a reader, but I like a good movie. I can easily lower my bar if I'm stuck in a fairly immobile state nursing a cold or something. (And believe me, with today's cable offerings, there's no ground level on that :).)
 
keith.rogers said:
Slowly working my way through Clavell’s Asia series. Read Shogun and Noble House. Now on Gai-Jin.
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Those were great books. They didn't translate to movies so well. There is so much back-story and history that a movie can't portray.

I've been digging through Patrick O'Brien's Aubry/Maturin series. Love the old navy stuff; wooden boats, iron men and all. Read the Hornblower series many times.
 
keith.rogers said:
Hah. That's an interesting POV. I'd say it's more cinematography than directing, though, but I get your point.
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I said director because he does have the final hand in the entire scene, no? I'm unfamiliar with film beyond this simpleton point of view. But wouldn't he say, "you need to say it like this", or "the scenes should cut like this, not that", etc... isn't he the final checkpoint?

In movies, I have a knack for guessing the "killer", or "plot twist" or whatever it is. Usually within a few mins. (shit, I sound like a snob, I'm sorry. lol. My movie ass-holery is showing). And I attribute this to the poor directing. Dead giveaways for who the killer is. In movies, misc things aren't mentioned for no reason whatsoever - the to-be-antagonist usually mentions something casually, out of nowhere, that comes back to make the viewer say "oh yeah! now i remember. he said..x.. that's why he did it, makes sense now". I just happen to catch those things and make mental notes of them, watching the way the director cuts the scene, the camera angle (if the camera has the only on-screen actor/actress off to the side of the view, you can damn well bet something is going to pop into play on the other side of the screen. especially in horror movies) or expressions on other actors' faces. I dig way into things on screen, too much for my own good. And it ruins movies for me, unfortunately.

Even worse than giving away the killer via foreshadowing or poor writing, is the introduction of a brand new character right at the end! You spend 100 minutes watching these actors, and learning the characters, seeing them develop, trying to guess who did it and what their motives were - and then - Nope! It was THIS guy the whole time! We never told you about him, but yeah, he's the killer. Um, ok. ha. Why do I care about that character?

Anyway, I try not to talk about movies. Picking one up for our movie night at home is a chore and a half. She's practically given up on suggesting anything. ha. She just says, "i'll find whatever you will watch". And she does. :)
 
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