Man. I feel that. I went no contact with my nParents. It’s rough a lot of the time, but I’m living a way better life without all the gaslighting and manipulation.
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Irrational Man by William Barrett
This book was a real eye-opener. I hope you are doing well
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sales success books on Sandler method to win new business and hopefully nice bonuses. But holding fast to no gear in 2023!
Thanks!
It’s heavy. I have to take it in small bites.
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Just finished the Sleeper omnibus. I’ve owned the first two volumes forever but had never come across the second half of the series, then one day I’m checking in bookdrop and there’s an omnibus edition. As always with Brubaker very gritty and violent and nobody’s a good guy, not even the good guys.
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I read Prometheus rising as a student and ended up basing my architectural thesis on it. I should dig that out.
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Just finished American Cosmic, about religion, technology and UFOs. Good read. Back on Gurdjieff now.
As I have my own huge ”library” in my book shop, I tend to take home things to read and then return them and put them back for sale. They’re already second hand anyways so one more read doesn’t make any difference.
Like heavy metal music, the books of Stephen King tend to be a thing one grows out of. I used to love them as a teenager and then suddenly stopped reading them and moved on to ”finer” things like classics of world literature.
A few weeks back I was in the storeroom of my book shop and standing in front of our scifi/fantasy/horror section. There were hundreds of King -books and I decided to try one. I kinda missed the people of Castle Rock and that whole northeast vibe. I’ve returned to heavy metal in my adulthood, so why not Stephen King?
I picked one and that’s where I made the mistake. It was Dreamcatcher, a book about an alien invasion in the woods of Maine area. The first 150 pages were mainly farting and burping, but now it’s been picking up pace. I heard that King wrote this on pain meds after a car crash and doesn’t regard it one of his finest works. I have to agree there. But it’s good to be back nonetheless.
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Speaking of growing out of things, this thread has been quite high-brow, so I haven’t been inclined to mention it earlier, but I too have been rereading an author I read a lot as a teenager (through my Dad’s book collection that he read as a teenager).
I’m currently reading Levkas Man by Hammond Innes. He wrote adventure novels from the 30s through to the late 80s. The last 18 books I read were by him, and the next 10 will be also. For years I’ve had in mind reading all of his books in a row in order of publication. They were just such a big part of my teen years. My parents were separated so they were something I’d read during holidays when I stayed with him, and maybe take a couple with me when I went home.
I put it off for years too, I’m not a big reader like I used to be, and it’s easily a 12-18 month commitment. I think I thought I was going to write some kind of essay about it. But actually I think I’m just along for the journey.
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I stumbled across the artwork from The Electric State on YouTube the other day, I HAD to get all the books & liking the writing and story so far , I also watched the Tales from the loop on Prime which was great. I’m a few years behind the rest of the world, No rush, I like it that way.
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Yeah this and his other compilation are some of my favourite books I’ve read. One of the few I’ve read more than once. I’m not really a huge sci-fi fan but he‘s so good at taking an interesting sci-fi-ish idea and weaving it into a brilliant short story. One or two of them fall a bit flat but on the whole just so good!
It’s just a shame he doesn’t have more books! Would love any similar recommendations - not necessarily sci-fi (in fact probably not, most sci-fi doesn’t do it for me), or even necessarily short stories.
The Shining, It, The Stand, early short story collections, Carrie, Dark Tower 1 through 4… all great. Sure I’m missing plenty.
Oh - Bag of Bones is a really underrated one.
I just think he’s done his ideas to death and slid into a comfortable safe caricature of himself over the years. It’s fine and people still enjoy them, although it’s obvious most of them aren’t at the same level as his classics. I absolutely loved reading all the big ones though and I still have a few left to read that I know will be great, like The Green Mile for example.
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Merkabah Rider series (four self published books) by Edward M Erdelac
Merkava mysticism in the American wild (weird) west of brim stone and hellfire Christian preachers and indigenous shamanism,. BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE! of course it’s set in the HP Lovecraft universe.
Heaven and Hell versus Hell and the Great Old Ones
“Everything is real” (I am not sure if nothing is permitted or not tho)
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I like Needful Things a lot, and Tommyknockers is fun. Dolores Claiborne is great though very different.
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I just finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, a wonderful literary exploration of video games. Highly recommended!
I just discovered Quinn, a rather prolific youtube SciFi reviewer, and his first video on the 3BP trilogy is excellent:
The Chinese TV adaptation (with English subs) is available on youtube for free now:
This scene is apparently absent from the Chinese TV adaptation and may have been removed from recent print editions in China as well.
Edit: currently re-reading Asimov’s Foundation series.
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Currently re-reading the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin.
I don’t read too much fantasy but this one is really good!
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I started this. I had just been craving something I know will be written really well and be interesting.
I got 90% through this…
This series is very highly rated with fantasy fans. I really want to recapture the enjoyment I used to have for reading fantasy series… But the writing is SO SO BAD. I’m going to audiobook the ending as I have it on audible, and might continue audiobooking, but it hasn’t really broken out of its tropes enough for me yet. It’s hard to read 500 pages of something and just stop though… When it’s a 4 book series it is basically one story, so reading a quarter of a story and outright stopping makes me uncomfortable haha. I feel trapped by meh 
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