So, What Are You Reading These Days? (besides comics)

[Alan M.]

Just bringing this discussion over to ning...

What books are you reading right now that don't have a narrative driven by images as well as words?

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

They could be like the pellets of a shotgun shell, I suppose.

The Baron said:

This has got me womdering what a "nerd cannon" would do.  Would it fire nerds asprojectiles?  Would it turn anyone it hit into a nerd?

Jeff of Earth-J said:

I'm getting the feeling that I've been reading too much "nerd canon" lately, so last night I started...

[Doctor Hmmm?]

A nerd cannon, obviously, is one of those things they shoot human cannonballs out of, just stuffed with nerds.

What I want to see is a nerd trebuchet.

[JD DeLuzio]

Nerd Cannon vs Nun Chuck:

Who will be the winner?

[Richard Willis]

[Jeff of Earth-J]

GENESIS: I took a few days off between chapters 30 and 31, but finished off the first book last night. TBS has been airing repeats of Young Sheldon starting at four o'clock on weekday afternoons, which allows me to watch one of them every day before I have to leave to pick Tracy up from work. I sometimes think it would be nice to have a working familiarity with the Bible in the same way Sheldon Cooper does. There have been many things over the years that have inspired me to want to read the Bible, most recently, graffiti scrawled on the rear window of a car I was stopped behind at a traffic light. Other "inspirations" have also become supplements to my reading, such as R. Crumb's Genesis and Mark Russell's God is Disappointed in You. Other past inspirations have ranged from movies (A Clockwork Orange) to TV shows (Firefly) to books (Stanger in a Strange Land, East of Eden). 

[doc photo]

House of Silk - "an authorized Sherlock Holmes novel" by Anthony Horowitz. The writer does a good job of capturing Conan Doyle's voice. Or should I say Dr Watson's voice?

Horowitz is no stranger to carrying on the work of other authors. He has also written a couple of authorized James Bond novels.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I AM LEGEND: I finally got around to reading the Richard Matheson novel. Sure, Richard Willis recommended it to me only last week, but Alan M. did almost 15 years ago. Now I'm trying to remember (exactly) why. Not that I didn't like it; I did. I'm just trying to remember what discussion spawned it, whether it was "Dark Shadows" or (more likely) "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I do know I was putting forth all these personal theories of my own about how vampirism works, but it could just as likely have been my rants against the then (still?) current trend of "good guy" vampires. The book is short enough to read in a single sitting, but I got a late start on Friday and finished only parts one and two. This weekend Tracy and I were busy with the discussion of Rachel Rising, so I had to put off parts three and four until today. I Am Legend is actually so short, that it takes up only half the pages; the rest of the book is filled with Richard Matheson short stories. 

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Was it because of the movie it was recommended to you? That came out in 2007

Jeff of Earth-J said:

I AM LEGEND: I finally got around to reading the Richard Matheson novel. Sure, Richard Willis recommended it to me only last week, but Alan M. did almost 15 years ago. Now I'm trying to remember (exactly) why. Not that I didn't like it; I did. I'm just trying to remember what discussion spawned it, whether it was "Dark Shadows" or (more likely) "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I do know I was putting forth all these personal theories of my own about how vampirism works, but it could just as likely have been my rants against the then (still?) current trend of "good guy" vampires. The book is short enough to read in a single sitting, but I got a late start on Friday and finished only parts one and two. This weekend Tracy and I were busy with the discussion of Rachel Rising, so I had to put off parts three and four until today. I Am Legend is actually so short, that it takes up only half the pages; the rest of the book is filled with Richard Matheson short stories. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

No, I'm pretty sure it came out of BtVS, but I can't recall because of vampire lore or the whole "vampire as good guy" thing. I just asked Tracy to contact Alan M. via Facebook and ask him if he remembers. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Alan says he's never read I Am Legend.

Well, shoot.

They say memory's the second thing to go.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I feel as if my reading has been caught in something of a rut lately, so I moved on to...

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE (2013): I don't know what it is with me, but I can never move directly into book I want to read; I always have to read something also first as a "lead in". the first thing I realized when I started reading this book (by Neil Gaiman) from my shelf was that I had read it before. That's okay; I didn't remember anything about it. It's a short novel, so what probably happened is I breezed through it when it was new, and for that reason, none of it stuck. I read it more slowly this time and savored it. The main character is narrating from adulthood something fantastic that happened to him when he was seven. This would make a great (and scary) book for children, except there is one sex scene (and some adult nudity toward the end).

INSTRUCTIONS (text 2000; illustrations 2010): This is an actual children's book, also by Neil Gaiman, also found on my shelf, also that I didn't remember, also not the one I had planned to read. It is illustrated by Charles Vess. 

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Hmmm.. I've read the audiobook of I Am Legend -- back when they were still called "Books on Tape" -- and liked it a lot. But I don't think it was me who recommended it to you. But the book was paired up with Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man, which was also a corker.  

Currently I'm re-reading House of Leaves, a big tricksy book with intertwined narratives and very unreliable narrators -- a book that seems somehow haunted itself. It's really good, though I've fallen behind the pace of the book club I'm reading it with.