Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 332605 times)

trinite

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #150 on: November 04, 2015, 02:04:49 PM »
While doing the link list for the "Creepy Parrots" panel, I checked out a few of the short stories that got mentioned:

"Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan is amazing and fascinating.

"The Book" by Margaret Irwin is a pretty great Victorian ghost story (it reminded me of M.R. James, which is the highest of praise).

"The Spider" by Hans Heinz Ewers was good...but quite different from the way Caleb remembered it. ;)

And "The Sloan Men" by David Nickle....eeeeeeesh, that one made my skin crawl.

Thanks for this I was trying to track down the David Nickle story after it was mentioned and not having a great deal of luck .

I haven't read any M.R. James that I can recall and I hear him get recommended all the time. Where should I start gents?

If you like audio recordings (and hey, this is the RPPR forums!), there is a very good recording of James's first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, available for free on Librivox. The reader, Peter Yearsley, has a voice that I think perfectly captures James's restrained English academic style.

Here's the link: https://librivox.org/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james/

For particular stories, my favorites from that collection include "Count Magnus" and "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." But they're all excellent.
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Tim

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #151 on: November 04, 2015, 07:57:48 PM »

If you like audio recordings (and hey, this is the RPPR forums!), there is a very good recording of James's first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, available for free on Librivox. The reader, Peter Yearsley, has a voice that I think perfectly captures James's restrained English academic style.

Here's the link: [url=https://librivox.org/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james/]https://librivox.org/ghost-stories-of-an-antiquary-by-m-r-james/[/url]

For particular stories, my favorites from that collection include "Count Magnus" and "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad." But they're all excellent.

In 2008 (dear god that was a long time ago) the HP Lovecraft Film festival brought Robert Lloyd Parry over from England to do his live one man MR James show. It was great and there are very few videos online.

This is an excerpt from the Ash Tree.

! No longer available


Here is a link to his site, I might have to by some of the audio CDs.

http://www.nunkie.co.uk/index.html

Morbid

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #152 on: November 09, 2015, 06:06:34 PM »
I just finished Godwalker by Greg Stolze.  It's his Unknown Armies novel, mostly relating to events around the Mystic Hermaphrodite godwalker and the people it comes into contact with.  It's short and sharp.  Stolze is very good at throwing in small details that humanize even characters making terrible decisions and it really shows here.

I highly recommend it if you have any interest in how an Unknown Armies story "looks."  I think it'd be pretty easy to follow even without knowing the UA background; a few references would go over your head but nothing critical. 

In some ways it's similar to Switchflipped, Stolze's other  "modern magic from obsessed people" novel, but I felt like Godwalker was more personal and Switchflipped had a bit more levity to some of the characters.  I really liked both!

I also read Margaret Irwin's "The Book" and found it both a good story and full of ideas on how to make a mythos tome a little more interesting than "lose 1d4 san, gain one of these spells."

In the same collection (Modern Ghost Stories by Women Writers) I checked out "Afterwards" by Edith Wharton.  I liked it as well, though it's a horror story steeped more in the social than the supernatural.

And now I'm working on Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.  Eclipse Phase takes a whole lot from this book..

Alethea

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #153 on: November 11, 2015, 07:14:17 AM »
Currently reading Starting Point: 1979-1996 by Hayao Miyazaki-san - it's a collection of essays by Miyazaki and it's amazing to see him be such a curmudgeonly old man about the 'industrialization' of animation so early in his career (1980ish).
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Adam_Autist

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #154 on: November 11, 2015, 11:29:35 AM »
Do audiobooks count? I've got Crashing Heaven. A very Eclipse Phase book. A lot of good stuff  about hacking, muses and Simul space.

The Lost Carol

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #155 on: November 24, 2015, 12:13:01 AM »
Right now I've been focusing on comics. Finally got my hands on The Wicked + The Divine Volume 2; I devoured it in about an hour. Until I saw the solicits in the back I hadn't realized Phonogram Volume 3 had started; guess I know what I'm buying after Black Friday.

Also Amazon has a sale on JSA comics, so I've also been going through JSA Volume 3 (2007). Also very good; and highly recommended.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2015, 10:02:47 AM by The Lost Carol »
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Tim

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #156 on: November 24, 2015, 02:22:58 PM »
I just picked up the Planetary Omnibus and am reading that. So far pretty good.

trinite

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #157 on: November 24, 2015, 05:11:04 PM »
Just got about 5 library books on the Black Death. RPGs are how I generate excuses for research!
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The Lost Carol

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #158 on: November 25, 2015, 01:19:21 PM »
Just got about 5 library books on the Black Death. RPGs are how I generate excuses for research!
Would've loved to see the look on the librarian's face when you roll up with 5 books on the Plague lol
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Alethea

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #159 on: November 25, 2015, 03:40:58 PM »
Just got about 5 library books on the Black Death. RPGs are how I generate excuses for research!
Would've loved to see the look on the librarian's face when you roll up with 5 books on the Plague lol

Academic library, wouldn't blink an eye. Public library, depends on if the person manning the desk is a reference librarian or not. Either way, probably not the weirdest thing they've ever seen.
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trinite

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #160 on: November 27, 2015, 10:22:52 PM »
Just got about 5 library books on the Black Death. RPGs are how I generate excuses for research!
Would've loved to see the look on the librarian's face when you roll up with 5 books on the Plague lol

Well, you know, since I am the librarian, I just have to explain myself to my co-workers. :)
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PirateLawyer

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #161 on: December 04, 2015, 06:23:40 PM »
Just finished Stross' Annihilation Score and am back to Authority by Vandermeer.

Adam_Autist

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #162 on: December 04, 2015, 07:01:23 PM »
Am returned to Ellis' Crooked Little Vein. i made the mistake of putting it down. Currently the only half read novel i own.

Adam_Autist

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #163 on: December 21, 2015, 08:08:28 PM »

Alethea

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #164 on: December 27, 2015, 07:17:29 PM »
Just starting Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe. So far it is both hilarious and informative  ;D
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