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Thom Price
Byrne Robotics Member
L’Homme Diabolique
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7593
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| Posted: 19 September 2012 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | 1
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"Forever Amber: From Novel to Film" by Gary A. Smith. This showed up in my Amazon suggestions for some reason, and I found it curious -- even odd -- that someone wrote a book about a novel and its film adaptation that is neither critically well regarded nor particularly remembered.
The book is interesting, perhaps better than the source material warrants; it's like a scholarly tome on a Harrold Robbins novel.
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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9842
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| Posted: 19 September 2012 at 8:56pm | IP Logged | 2
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41) "Call for the Dead" by John le Carre, read by Frank Muller
The very first of the George Smiley stories (and le Carre's first novel), it's a great introduction to the character, who becomes so disgusted with the secret service that he retires in the midst of the case, a small affair that keeps getting bigger as Smiley digs deeper.
Having been familiar with the character due to the TV production of "Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy" with Alec Guiness (tho I never saw it), I was surprised that Smiley is described as being short, fat, slow, and "dressed like a bookie." Definitely not Gary Oldman, either.
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Ed Aycock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 05 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1004
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| Posted: 20 September 2012 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | 3
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Just finished "Chilly Scenes of Winter" by Ann Beattie. (Also made into a film with an unusual history - released in 1979 as "Head Over Heels" and flopped. Re-released in 1982 with the original title and different ending and it broke even.) Now I am reading "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" by Jeannette Winterson.
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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9842
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| Posted: 23 September 2012 at 3:00pm | IP Logged | 4
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42) "1984" by George Orwell
A thoroughly depressing novel, but one that I think expresses the despair felt by Orwell at least and perhaps the world as a whole following WWII: the world has been taken over by continent-spanning governments, intent on keeping people under their boots so as to hold on to power.
I read most of this in high school, but gave up when Orwell got to the part where Winston Smith reads a book for 30 pages to give us the opposition's point of view and to fill us readers in on what the politics of this world is all about. This time I plunged on ahead, even tho this is (IMO) a very clumsy narrative device. Also disappointed to find that Newspeak (ie Doubleplusgood!) isn't used throughout, but rather is just referred to as the up and coming language.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
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| Posted: 23 September 2012 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | 5
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I read a few days ago that it's been 75 years since THE HOBBIT was released, so I'll be digging out my copy to re-read it. I love it, it's a book that is so easy to lose yourself in, a fantastic fantasy world and an escape from real life.
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Matthew Chartrand
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 1357
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| Posted: 23 September 2012 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | 6
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City At Worlds End. First time reading this one. I enjoyed very much. Definitely a book of the 50's, I could almost see actors of that time in my head as I read it.
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Andrew Hess
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9842
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| Posted: 24 September 2012 at 8:08am | IP Logged | 7
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43) "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, read by Gary Sinise
This brilliant tragic novel of two men trying to get by during the Depression and fulfill their dream of getting a quiet farm all their own reads like a play: the scenes are set up with stage directions and refer to action/sound happening "off set". Steinbeck's set up of the entire story is masterful, hints of later action given throughout.
Sinise's narration is a treat as well: he plays the characters so distinctively that I forgot several times that he was the only one reading.
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Derek Cavin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 03 June 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 2403
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| Posted: 25 September 2012 at 3:57am | IP Logged | 8
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I'm dumbing down this week: Mack Bolan War Drums
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Randy Lahey
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 January 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 675
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| Posted: 26 September 2012 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | 9
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I'm just finishing The Killing Floor, the first Jack Reacher book. Do the Jack Reacher books need to be read in order?
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Valmor J. Pedretti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 October 2011
Location: Brazil
Posts: 786
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| Posted: 26 September 2012 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 10
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Derek Cavin: Bill Bruford The Autobiography
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Reading this one right now and loving every page!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132231
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| Posted: 27 September 2012 at 4:55am | IP Logged | 11
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"Slide Rule", the autobiography of Neville Shute.
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Armindo Macieira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 October 2006
Location: Portugal
Posts: 955
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| Posted: 27 September 2012 at 5:44am | IP Logged | 12
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Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins
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