What Are You Currently Reading?

[Demoncrat]

Finished reading J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World, his debut novel.
When solar flares cause a major thaw, the survivors struggle to retain their humanity whichever they see fit, i.e this is the template for the majority of his work, tone wise imho. Not that his short stuff is all hearts and flowers
This does bear the hallmarks of a first attempt, the slightly underwritten "love triangle" does dominate the middle part of the book, something he would refine to an unique abstraction of his own.
I do love old Jim. His worldview is the blackest mirror.

[MrBarlow]

Just finished Book 1 of The Spread.

Bunch of guys hire a cottage in the Scottish highlands only to find something metallic like a corkscrew embed on a hill. One of the group who is a troublemaker touches it and begins to be infected with some sort of fungus. What starts as a good weekend becomes a night of survival. Honestly this is a typical lads weekend away and had great tension written into it and certainly worth a read.

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[Dave Boy]

Going back a few posts, I remember reading The Iron Man when I was at school. I even remembered the cover, it was this one. 1975 edition.

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I may try to pick up this edition on ebay.
Blimey! Memories..

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Dave Boy

Going back a few posts, I remember reading The Iron Man when I was at school. I even remembered the cover, it was this one. 1975 edition.

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I may try to pick up this edition on ebay.
Blimey! Memories..

I remember my parents reading it to me when I was young and then reading it myself when I was a bit older – it's a brilliant story. We had a hardback book, one that looks like this:

[MrBarlow]

The Spread book 2: The Village.

This part took a darker turn of being Resident Evil meeting Carpenter's Prince Of Darkness with a big boss placed into it. Like The Rats trilogy this had me nearly sat on the floor instead of the seat and has the typical Scottish accent well written into it.

Now onto Book 3 The Stand.

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[davcol]

Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921
Third of a loose trilogy from Beevor. I also have Stalingrad and Berlin. Anytime i read flippant comments online encouraging riots and revolution I'm reminded of the absolute horror and misery suffered by ordinary people described in this book.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by davcol

Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921
Third of a loose trilogy from Beevor. I also have Stalingrad and Berlin. Anytime i read flippant comments online encouraging riots and revolution I'm reminded of the absolute horror and misery suffered by ordinary people described in this book.

Not read that but i thought his D-Day The Battle for Normandy book was excellent.

[davcol]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Not read that but i thought his D-Day The Battle for Normandy book was excellent.

The military jargon is a bit complicated to follow unless having prior experience. He does decribe the brutal reality very well. I will look out for more of his work.

[nosferatu42]

Yep, well still reading books on the shithouse.

Mostly lately i have been reading.....

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I have read the originaL John Russo "Return of the living dead", but that's another story....

This one is a tie in with the film and it's a pretty straightforward adaptation although there are extra moments with the guy who drops the bomb, and the guys who lost the canisters were Russian defectors , so like now you know, anyway I enjoyed it.

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After reading a shit load of J. Herbert recently decided to give old Steve King another bash, as he was the one that really struck a cord as an impressionable kid of around 9 onwards after watching "Carrie" on TV. ( i'm not joking, I remember doing a stand up talk in Primary school about his books, show and tell and all that, must have been 11 at the time i guess, and also Garfield... anyway I digress)

Really enjoyed Salem's Lot again, so much so i'm on a mission at the moment.
Hoopers adaption is pretty sound, it mixes up scenes and characters but most of the stuff on the page is there somewhere.

Anyway after that i was on a roll, so decided to read Night Shift again.

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I picked this up to read the two stories vaguely connected to Salem's Lot, the Lovecraft inspired one and the modern add on, those were the stories I read first, I thought " One for the road" was really good, a story that hardly registered with me as a kid.

So, yep it's a mixed bag, some i really liked, "Children of the Corn is a pretty solid short.
Some such as the "Mangler" were really goofy and you could definitely see those E.C influenced wheels turning.
"Lawnmower man" is still lame as ****.

Likewise " I Am the doorway" seemed like a Twilight Zone episode.

But reading them again after all these years I could see so many links to later works, obviously the Salem's Lot stuff, but" Trucks", "Battleground " and the "Mangler' all concern inanimate objects that come to life, preceding "Christine".
" The Boogeyman' has moments that kind of foreshadow "IT", he's talking about if you believe in monsters does it gain power and become real.
Anyway, really enjoyed reading that as well, so pushed onwards.

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Currently reading "Christine" again, as I said I read these as an impressionable kid and read his novels avidly up till I think 'Needful Things", then just found drugs, beers, art and girls.

So all this, like going back to Herberts stuff recently, has been a bit of a revelation, you miss so much as a kid, nuances that aren't impactful at the time because you haven't experienced these moments.

Being an old rotter these days, and being much more acquainted with all the disappointments of growing up I'm feeling the nostalgia vibe that "Christine" rides a lot more.
I've always liked the Carpenter film but it always feels kinda slight, not meaty enough, it's a film i've watched many times, but maybe more because it's lightweight, the soundtrack, the car, it's an easy watch.

Reading it again, I'm struck by how much it's totally those teenage rebellion years, I'm gonna be myself and **** my lame parents.
The friendships, finding new stuff that get's you motivated, the first kiss, that time when you are just wrapped up in emotions and hormones, that **** the world vibe.

That's all there in the film, but the book makes it more personal, and reading Kings stuff again that's what stands out and is probably why he is so popular, he has the ability to drop himself right into the centre of a character and convey their feelings.

I'm halfway through. They've just trashed Arnie's ride. The shitters are gonna pay...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I enjoyed reading that nos.

More importantly you've made me want to read some early King once again.