What Are You Reading?

[Book]

Hey Book…read ‘em all, at least I think so. My son and I share in the appreciation of a specific scene…forget which book. But in it Dresden is “invited” to a vampire (all the nastiest and most influential local vamps are there) ball and goes…sneaks in…with one if his cohorts. Now the good part: he makes a grand entrance by stepping out onto a balcony in full view if the entire assemblage…dressed in a powder blue tux with “cheesy vampire” makeup…a daring and extreme insult to all the crowd. Anyway, the author builds everything up to that point with consummate skill so that Dresden’s arrival dressed as the cheesy vampire is shockingly and stupidly hilarious. It’s absolutely one of the funniest scenes ever written, at least to me.

Blackhorse,

I'm sorry for the delay in the response: work became crazy (or more so than usual).

I love that scene. That is the book when Susan Roderiguez is turned, if I remember correctly). It is something like the fourth book. Butcher neatly extends that moment into a story arc through the next six or eight books, resulting in a moment that has Dresden spoiler alert confronting an entire clade (not group, not association, but an entire species) of vampires (one of three types in the series).

The conclusion is profoundly satisfying. The bad guys get it in the teeth (so to speak).

To those of you who are not fantasy/sf readers, this conversation may not mean much to you. I would urge you to check out the Dresden Files television series; I first watched it on DVD (having missed, through inattention) the appearance on the SF channel.

The detective series elements of the plot alone make it worth watching.

In the television series, Paul Blackthorne turns in a spectacular performance as Dresden. Even though the description of Dresden in the books is nothing like Paul Blackthorn, his is the physical presence I think of as I read the books.

It is, in a way, like David Suchet's presence in the television series Poirot. Agatha Christie can describe Poirot in any what that she (might have) like(d). To me, Suchet captures Poirot.

Anyway, I would argue that the Dresden Files series is best read or watched with a dark latakia and an Islay scotch.

Best,
Book

 

[Geopiper]

Currently re-reading "Stranger In A Strange Land" by Heinlein.

 

[Idlefellow]

J.P.S. Brown. I read The Outfit some time back which I enjoyed so I bought several paperbacks but then they languished on the shelf. Recently read Keep the Devil Waiting which I didn't much care for. Now into the Arizona Saga; finished Book I, The Blooded Stock and am nearly through II, The Horseman. His rambling yet detailed style can get a little tiresome, but I rather like it. Plan to finish the Arizona Saga (two more I think) and then I want to read The Spirit of Dogie Long and Jim Kane.

 

[Aussiemike]

A good read he goes into his PTSD.

This is a true story. The events depicted took place during the last decade in an unnamed warzone. The names and locations have been redacted to protect the security of those involved and the practices of the British Special Forces. Out of respect for the KIA and survivors, everything else has been told as it happened…

 

[Aussiemike]

There is no doubt that [Quartered Safe Out Here] is one of the great personal memoirs of the Second World War' John Keegan Life and death in Nine Section, a small group of hard-bitten and (to modern eyes) possibly eccentric Cumbrian borderers with whom the author, then nineteen, served in the last great land campaign of World War II, when the 17th Black Cat Division captured a vital strongpoint deep in Japanese territory, held it against counter-attack and spearheaded the final assault in which the Japanese armies were, to quote General Slim, torn apart .

 

[DWSmith]

Brewdude,

Your post reminds me that I read the book The Exorcist before I saw the movie. For me having read the book before viewing the movie turned the movie into a comedy.

 

[DWSmith]

 

[DWSmith]

 

[JPatrick]

 

[DWSmith]

 

[DWSmith]

 

[DrT999]

View attachment 6943

Yer a better person than I if you made it through this!

 

[DWSmith]

Yer a better person than I if you made it through this!

I've just started working on it. Please wish me luck!

 

[phinz]

I like my pulpy mystery/thriller books.

 

[AMarkey]

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

I just finished that book a week or 2 ago. I had a really hard time keeping my interest in it.

 

[AMarkey]

Im currently finishing up Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I have loved reading this so far. Very compelling book that I would gladly read again.

 

[DrT999]

Im currently finishing up Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I have loved reading this so far. Very compelling book that I would gladly read again.

An interesting read, v. different if you've only seen most of the adaptations

 

[AMarkey]

Finished Frankenstein tonight and now started Bram Stoker's Dracula.

 

[jefe1037]

Lent to me by a friend. Looking forward to the read

 

[DWSmith]