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What are you currently reading? v2

^ when the zombie apocalypse starts, you'll be in much better shape than me :)

alasdair
 
Haha. It's really good actually. Specific to the UK it seems; and goes through all seasons, with illustrations. Covers...everything, so far. I've almost finished it :) Tracking animals, making fire, orientation/map/compass usage; edible stuff, useful stuff, making fire, signalling for help, making shelters... blah blah blah!
 
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King. I saw the film about 10-15 years ago.

Im enjoying it immensly. The relationship between Dolores and her employer is very realistically and movingly portrayed, and that's just a sub-plot narrative to string the thing together?

I dont know whether it was cos he was a better writer earlier in his career and not churning out absolute shite at the rate of 3 books a year later on (or so it feels like) or because it was one of his books that did not deal with supernatural fantastical horror, just plain and simple real world story telling, in the same vein as Gerald's Game, that wasn't supernatural either, and i loved that too. I know you're meant to "suspend disbelief" but i cant take even the supernatural work of some of the writers in the genre who are highly critically acclaimed like Clive Barker when he goes on his flights on fantasy.
 
I remember enjoying that too, at the time. He definitely was better earlier in his career, but then again my tastes have changed and I grew up reading his stuff, so I dunno. I used to love Stephen King stuff. :)
 
There's no doubt the guy can spin a good yarn, but ever since I heard about the hostility he had towards Kubrick's version of The Shining (which I reckon is one of the best films of its era), I haven't been able to see him as anything other than a bit of a hack.

Apparantly he was scandalised by Kubrick's wise decision to lop out the heavy-handed metaphorical subplot about the hotel's boiler being ready to explode, and his decision to downplay the 'built on an Indian burial ground' bs - some tired out crap which Stephen King seems to be a bit obsessed with. He made some God awful tv film to set the record straight.

Granted, he seems to have moved away from the mystical claptrap in more recent years, but his stories still seem a bit on the shallow side to me. You can't say he's ever pretended to be anything other than what he is, though
 
If you have actually read The Shining then Stephen King's anger towards Kubrick should make perfectly good sense. I watched the movie first and thought it was brilliant. After reading the book later I could not believe how much material was missing from the movie. Not only that but Kubrick exhibited so many subliminal messages throughout the movie completely irrelevant to the original story written by King. There is a documentary that covers all of this in detail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_237#Overview
 
Yeah, but an adaptation doesn't have to be a remake of the novel, and most adaptations benefit from a bit of artistic licence, especially when an auteur like Kubrick is involved.

I'll happily admit I've never read the novel all the way through, but I've seen the masterpiece Kubrick made and the car-crash Stephen King had oversight of, and it's enough for me to draw the conclusion that he has little understanding of what's involved in making a work of art, at least when it comes to film.
 
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Aye, I think Stephen King was a bit of a dick there. :D I can't really empathise with someone who watched the movie and thought "they made an arse of my beloved book".

But then again, I'm not a best-selling novelist.

But still... come on.
 
I know, right? I think one of his main objections was that Jack Nicholson seemed a bit tapped from the get-go, so the enormity of the breakdown got lost a bit in translation (which is fair enough, really :D), but I struggle to understand anyone who didn't enjoy the idiosyncratic way he did it, or realise that the film was at least decent, on its own terms.
 
Stephen King was a raging cokehead in the 70s and 80s, which probably explains it. How fucking grandiose is publicly proclaiming that Stanley Kubrick, of all people, made a shit job of things? Haha. :D
 
I dunno, from the interview i heard with Stephen King all he said was that he hated Kubrick's adaptation of his book. Hes entitled to his opinion of cousrse, especially as it was his baby/creation after all. Despite Kings hatred of the film it is often listed near the top of many peoples all time favourite films list. It still thorougly creeps me out and ive seen it about 10 times already. I'll have to read the book to see what all the fuss is about.
 
spudgun said:
Granted, he seems to have moved away from the mystical claptrap in more recent years, but his stories still seem a bit on the shallow side to me. You can't say he's ever pretended to be anything other than what he is, though
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Dolores Claiborne is anything but shallow. His storytelling is an art form here imo, and his portayal and depth of the characters emotions and their interactions ring very true in this book imo. Dolores reminds me of Evey for some reason. No offence Evey, if you read this and want to know why I'll pm you.

I agree that hes not pretending to be Dostoyevsky or Kafka is he, but that doesnt mean all his books are throwaway trash, although a few ive had the misfotune to buy have been, "Cell", for example, my god that was truly awful. His books in general seem to give the reader credit for possessing more intelligence that james herbert does; without wishing to sound snobby, the JH books ive read were pretty low brow although they did have that element that kept you turning the pages, excited to see what was coming next as in The Rats.
 
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If you like Stephen King you should check out The Talisman written under his pen name Richard Bachmam. It is a fantasy novel but has a little bit of every genre thrown in there. Probably one of my favorites of his, though It is probably my number one SK choice if I'm choosing just for horror's sake. Four seasons is also wonderful. Lol well there are three Stephen King masterpiece novels that are nothing alike. Just goes to show his genius. I can sadly agree the man has not written anything truly notable in years.
 
I've just read an interesting book: Babylon's banksters by Jp Farrell. All about the connection between money creation, deep physics and alchemy. My brother told me it was batshit crazy but then he thinks that Fifa is one of very few corrupt global organisations and they are all squeaky clean with the people's interest at heart.
 
im loving this atm

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I've just finished The Alcheminst by Paulo Coelho. Had it in my book collection for years but never got around to it. Wasn't too bad but not as impressive as I thought it might be
 
age-of-consent-monbiot-225x300.jpg


The Age of Consent

A manifesto for a new world order

Our task is not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution.”

All over our planet, the rich get richer while the poor are overtaken by debt and disaster. The world is run not by its people but by a handful of unelected or underelected executives who make the decisions on which everyone else depends: concerning war, peace, debt, development and the balance of trade. Without democracy at the global level, the rest of us are left with no means of influencing these men but to shout abuse and hurl ourselves at the lines of police defending their gatherings and decisions. Does it have to be this way?
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Not bad so far...
 
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