A nice little corner tucked away for reading

[William King]

Okay, I'm adding Moon Dance to my ever growing list of "books I want to read, as soon as I find the time (heh)."

I'm now reading the wolves of langabhat by D A Watson, as a follow up. Norse Werewolf mythology in Scotland.

It's ok so far.

 

[William King]

I'm now reading the wolves of langabhat by D A Watson, as a follow up. Norse Werewolf mythology in Scotland.

It's ok so far.

Very much worth a read. IMHO

" Five old friends catch the ferry from the mainland to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis to celebrate the forthcoming wedding of one of their number and take in a music festival. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, as it turns out. "The Wolves of Langabhat" by D.A. Watson is a fast-paced and deeply engaging read that interweaves two main narrative strands set a thousand years apart on the Isle of Lewis. As the strands converge the reader is drawn increasingly into a world of darkness and chaos, a world in which the safe and easy security of the modern world - especially the modern world in somewhere as relatively crime-free as the Isle of Lewis - falls away to reveal a savage and primeval reality that is utterly alien. As horror stories go, this is ambitious and spectacular, and extremely successful. And if they ever make a film of it, the budget for fake gore will need to be large.

You spend a short time wondering whether this is going to be a book about relationships. There seems a slight ambivalence amongst the party about this being Cal's stag do, and the presence of attractive, but married, Scarlett in the group throws up questions about who is going to end up with who, and why, and whether lives are going to be changed as a result. They are, but not quite as you initially expect.

It is another member of the party, Ian, who until not long previously had been a member of a leading rock group, who causes the the two strands of the story to collide. As we move backwards and forwards between an invasion of the island a thousand years earlier and a modern story that keeps finding new and entertaining ways of becoming darker, we are drawn into a world that is at one level instantly recognisable to anyone who has spent any time in the Western Isles, yet which as a result of a visit by an innocent stag party and the awakening of an ancient horror is changed beyond all recognition. As the book drives inexorably towards its climactic ending the body count mounts exponentially and you find yourself emerging from time to time to draw breath. Choosing somewhere as quiet as Lewis in which to set the story simply adds to its impact, and in many ways it is the island itself that is the central character linking the two strands of this entertaining book together."

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usreviews/books/watsonwolves.html

 

[Bad_azz]

I've been on that ferry.... eeeep!

 

[steveandpenny]

Both me and the wife are readers. We have 2 tablets just for our kindles with a lifetime of books stored on the computer. Funny thing was i was reading a real book and kept swiping the page instead of turning it.old dogs can learn new tricks

 

[Bad_azz]

I'm currently reading 77 Shadow Street (I think that's the title) by Dean Koontz...
Creepy as there has been storms blowing here (in real life) for the past 2 nights & I am in a large house with rented rooms... good that I am used to spooky stories hehe or I might be getting creeped out.
Pretty nicely written & not too much waffle- his "Odd" stories tended to get rather waffly as the series progressed... I found myself skipping pages n pages of them.

 

[waarmstrong]

Reading Five Presidents (Ike through Ford) by Clint Hill a longtime Secret Service agent. Was recommended by one of my coffee buddies who's son is an agent. (The Secret Service is the agency charged with protecting the President, as well as the VP, their families, and major presidential candidates, as well as former Presidents.)

 

[William King]

Luke Williams was a freelance journalist and former drug addict researching addiction to crystallised methamphetamine (commonly known as crystal meth or ice) when the worst possible thing happened — he became addicted to it himself. Over the next three months, he was seduced by the drug and descended into psychosis.

It's a rather interesting book, the author is a good writer, though I got a bit bored with the statistics and reporting. But his story about his delusions and experiences as a reporter living in a drug users house is rather bizarre and interesting. He said “I cooked my brain so badly on meth that, after a few months, I genuinely lost track of the fact I was writing a story, I stopped taking notes, and became fixated on a series of non-existent events with myself at the centre. So, yes — as you may have gathered — I got a story, a very good story. Only it wasn’t the one I was expecting; I didn’t bank on becoming a psychotic meth addict myself.”

 

[William King]

Longlisted for the ManBooker prize, this book is dark, dirty and thoroughly well written. It's full of action, almost horror, as you follow the tale of a disgraced surgeon who had took a low paying job on a whaling boat heading into the Artic with a captain considered bad luck trying for a last throw of his dice.

The sort of men that work on a whaling shop in the 19th Century were rather unpleasant, and this book is a testament to their squalid, petty lives, without glorifying or reviling too much in the violence of the era. A dark event, even for this men, occurs on the boat during the trip, and several different personalities collide. I do not want to say too much more, other than the words have a poetry in their construction and the book will grab you from the first dank chapter.

 

[Bad_azz]

The sort of men who worked on any ship in the 19th & early 20th centuries were oft vile creatures.
My pet era & arena of study.

Deffo going to pop this on my to read list xxx TYVM Mr Willy

 

[steveandpenny]

Thank God for our kindle on our tablets. Yes we still use our library in the states to download e books for free (and kind of borrow alot from file sharing programs).

There are 2 author's I go back to every few years. John Steinbeck (who alwas reminds me of the goodness in people hearts and there pain). Also Jack London (go beyond "Call of the Wild" and "Whitefang".

I also hate to admit that I've read all of Stephen king's stuff because no matter how stuipd his plots are he can tell a good story.

You mentioned knootz , did you read his Frankenstein books ?

And damn I've got to look up a series I've read that I liked that was a vipire that were just new York street people a really good twist on the whole thing. I try and get the name of the books.

Im sure you already read hunter thompsom "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" that was a bible to my life , long time ago.

 

[Bad_azz]

...

I also hate to admit that I've read all of Stephen king's stuff because no matter how stuipd his plots are he can tell a good story.

You mentioned knootz , did you read his Frankenstein books ?
...

Yep, Koontz & King, read em all... & sit waiting for the next ones.

 

[nosox]

damn, i gotta get some kind of Kindle or reader thingy......... I need a new book.
I have really enjoyed Conn Iggulden's Julius Ceasar an Genghis Khan series although they tend to have repetative themes. That's true of many writers I guess

oh, I just realized that's post 181 ..... 181 is metric for 69

 

[steveandpenny]

Ok try rob thurman really enjoyed his Cal leandro series (vampire books that are gritty). And yes I read the Snooki Stackhouse books (True Blood)

 

[William King]

damn, i gotta get some kind of Kindle or reader thingy......... I need a new book.

You can download kindle apps for free on any and all smart phones now.

 

[Bad_azz]

& you can get Calibre for free too & then you can use it to download all sorts of readable files to ( ) & then you aren't limited to Amazon stuff.

A great tool for making your own library on the home computer & then just load up to the e-reader as & when it suits you.

 

[William King]

Correct, Calibre is great for adjusting to different formats.

 

[steveandpenny]

Here's a idea we should share ebooks online with each other. Since most it seems have the kindle software we can email books on mobi file format to each other. What do you think?
Any ideas on that or a spot online we can share them. A Indo Expat library.

 

[William King]

Sure.

But i am a signed up member of kindle unlimited. $10 per month for as many books as i can read. I think that's fair.

 

[Bad_azz]

Sorry if it has been mentioned before.I don't have time to check through the posts.

A fab book I recently read was Infinity Born , by Douglas E Richards
Written as a novel but lots of info on why/how it could one day become reality... here is a stolen snippet of his bio (from Amazon)
"Douglas E. Richards... A former biotech executive, Richards earned a BS in microbiology from the Ohio State University, a master's degree in genetic engineering from the University of Wisconsin (where he engineered mutant viruses now named after him), and an MBA from the University of Chicago. "

 

[Bad_azz]

I want to sign up with kindle unlimited too, but they don't take paypal payments poooohwee to you Amazon.