The last thing I read recently was this:



It's based on a game I'm playing currently which is Wasteland 2 apparently. Good action packed thing.

Just watched Fury Road, and while I didn't fall in love with it like I did the Gibson ones, it did inspire me to pick up this bad boy once again

Re-reading Paradise Lost and the complete compendium of H.P. Lovecraft's work.

Thinking about picking up Metro 2033...

Confused that so late... but currently I read all of my native STANISŁAW LEM.

Ah yes, he's been on my list for years, too!

I finished Tolkien's 'Children of Hurin' yesterday. It was surprisingly dark, brutal and melancholy, certainly in comparison to The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. In fact, it was pure literary Doom! I'd definitely recommend it to any Tolkien fan that hasn't already read it.

I tried to read The Silmarillion once many years ago, but found it quite impenetrable. I'm having a rest from fantasy for now, currently reading George Pelecanos 'Hell to Pay' (hard boiled crime fiction set on the mean streets of Washington DC ), but after that I'm determined to tackle The Silmarillion once and for all....

I live in DC. The streets ain't -THAT- mean..


Not exactly new material, but I've been reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Started pretty slow, but it's picking up a few chapters in.
Next on my list is to reread American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

John Connolly's latest - "A Time Of Torment". If you like dark and supernaturally-inclined thrillers, he's pretty hard to beat.

I'm just about through (second to last chapter) of the last Harry Potter book and I've got to say I don't get what all the fuss was about. The movies were mildly entertaining but that's really it. The books aren't very well written and the characters are bland. The HP fans MUST be the the Twilight fans but grown up. Anyone else agree?

I've read all these books when they came out. I liked the read, really. The last one is too long though, the beginning (200 + pages) seems to drag endlessly.

I vastly prefer the novels to the films!

Not currently reading anything!!

- normal read: Complete Shakespeare (Norton's) - should have read it all by the end of the year for the 400th anniversary of his death, but probably won't be able to, it's an 3500 page beast of a book=)))

- commute read: Chekhov's collection of short stories

- "high" read: re-reading "Kolyma Tales" by Varlam Shalamov - one of the most devastating books ever

+ Ingmar Bergman: "Images: My Life in Film" - as I'm re-watching his films, it's wonderful to read a chapter about a certain movie before watching it.

Currently refusing to read!

H.P. Lovecraft. I got A book of all his stories that pick up and read sometimes. Does anybody know of stories like these? I enjoy reading short stories.

You mean something in the vein of Lovecraft's writings, or more generally, horror-tinged short stories?

For excellent dark short stories, I'd recommend to start with the quintessentials: Edgar Allan Poe, Gerard de Nerval (Aurelia), Guy de Maupassant (the story "The Horla" is a must read - http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stori ... Horl.shtml).
Also, the book of Ambrose Bierce about his relation of the American Civil War is a litterary masterpiece - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6526 ... ar_Stories ...etc...

Then, of a more modern time, you'd be well advise to read two outstanding Belgian authors that have carved a style of its own, appropriately called the Belgian fantastic or "magical realism": Jean Ray and Thomas Owen (two pseudonyms), they mostly wrote short stories, even very short - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1718 ... er-stories

Some Bloch and Bradbury couldn't harm either. Two American masters of horror (Bloch wrote the original Psycho that inspired Hitchcock for his film)

For something more graphic, I still have my little collection of Poppy Z. Brite and Clive Barker's horrific tales.... Can't go wrong with these two either.

I'd recommend also a nightmarish, sardonic short horror novel, called the necrophiliac by Wittkop. Years after, the dark aura of this story still sticks with me: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1033 ... crophiliac

Thanks. That is some excellent information. I will check it out. Thanks again

You're welcome, that's a genre I'm very familiar with. Come to think of it, seeing as you like Lovecraft's tales, I'm sure you'll find someinterest in Hodgson's writings. Hodgson's style is geared towards occultism, a kind of archaic esoterism full of tormented and weird visions.
Another gothic gem is Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer; it's a novel whose structure is very complex, and full of vivid scenes of horror. A milestone for the whole horror litterature.

Thanks again for all the information. I am going to have to add on to my amazon list.