What Are You Reading?

[BourbonBoy]

About halfway through Moby Dick but I gotta admit, I've skipped a few chapters here and there simply because, well, the author rambled on about the hemp rope from the Philippines at one point and at another placed a short story in the middle of the novel about another whaling ship that almost mutinied.

But overall, I must say I love the story itself and even though I know how it ends (my dad watched the film religiously when I was a kid) I'm the foreshadowing .

[Saya]

Originally Posted by BourbonBoy

About halfway through Moby Dick but I gotta admit, I've skipped a few chapters here and there simply because, well, the author rambled on about the hemp rope from the Philippines at one point and at another placed a short story in the middle of the novel about another whaling ship that almost mutinied.

But overall, I must say I love the story itself and even though I know how it ends (my dad watched the film religiously when I was a kid) I'm the foreshadowing .

HE DOES THAT THOUGH. I really want to reread Moby Dick but I'm trying to find a abridged version that cuts out all of Melville's rambling.

Seriously, you're not missing much.


Also, which film? Just watched the one with Gregory Peck recently.

[BourbonBoy]

The one with Gregory Peck as Capt. Ahab. It's definitely one of my all time favorite films and it was very historically accurate from how the ships would hunt the whales to the diversity of the crew (not just personalities but also their ethnicities).

I've tried to watch the reinterpretations of the original film but the remakes just don't feel right for some reason.

[Saya]

I felt like Gregory Peck was too young for the role at the time, but I also have a really really hard time seperating him from Atticus Finch so it could have just felt weird because of that.

I also had a crush on Queequeg in the book and was disappointed there has never been an adaptation where he was as attractive as I pictured him.

[BourbonBoy]

I can see why as well. It wasn't until high school that I finally saw him in "To Kill A Mockingbird" for American History class (which is an awesome film regarding segregation, lack of faith in science, and how someone can completely disregard facts even when a fact is demonstrated right before them) that I had to do a report on. While watching TKAM I kept expecting him to yell "With my last breadth, I spit at thee!" even though it was in two separate films. Guess that's what happens when someone takes over a role in a film so well you can't see them doing anything else without recalling another film they were in

[Versus]

OH MY GOD MELVILE SHUT THE FUCK UP I KNOW IT'S FUCKING WHITE MOVE THE FUCK ON.

Sorry. Residual anger from reading that book. I'm going to change my signature now.

[BourbonBoy]

XD And for a sec I thought you'd yell at me for reading "Moby Dick"

[Versus]

No. That book is so fucking infuriating. It's like "wtf does this have to do with anything?" Except you realize that only halfway through the parts that get like that.

[BourbonBoy]

Yeah, I've realized that by now. If the subject of the chapter sounds boring, then chances are the chapter will be.

Seriously, who gives a flying fuck about the order of who eats first among the officers on the Pequad? This is one of the few times in my life I've actually said to myself while reading a book "I get it [writer of story x], time to move the fuck on and advance the story."

Then again, my attention span tends to be short at times so when the author goes on tangents I simply skim over the contents

[tessla-jane]

11/22/63 by Stephen King. Interesting but dry :/

[Miss Absynthe]

The Little Prince.. and it makes me cry like a baby every single freaking time. :|

[Cayora]

I am a bit less than halfway through The Orphan Palace by Joseph Pulver. I am really impressed. I love the poetic writing and the darkness of it. In the introduction, it is described as "if On the Road had been written about Henry Lee Lucas," which seems accurate to me. It is full of fun references to other classic weird fiction and horror. The writing is just gorgeous, without being the slightest bit lush. The violence is graphic and frankly a bit upsetting. But that is what I want in this sort of a book. It is highly recommended.

[BourbonBoy]

Almost done with "Moby Dick" and figured I could use a little high adventure, straight to the point brain candy. I think I'll read some Robert E. Howard "Conan" stories for a few bit

[ape descendant]

Hey, I just started Moby Dick the other day!

[BourbonBoy]

I'm enjoying the overall story, but the way Melville seems to get sidetracked with random stuff is frustrating. However, one must carry on when reading a classic

[Thorn-v]

Do You Think What You Think You Think? by Julian Baggini and Jeremy Stangroom. I like it. It is more of a read and then take a quiz type book, but it definitely makes me think. It challenges point of view without being annoying or irritating about it.

[tessla-jane]

Originally Posted by Drew Keaton

Just finished reading a fantastic anthology called Enter at Your Own Risk: Fires and Phantoms. My review...

Although gay-themed writing has come out of the closet in the last decade, there seems to be a self-imposed closet in the genre. For some reason, much of it strays into the bodice-ripper territory of the Harlequin Romance penny novel. We are traveling down a nice plot and STOP INSERT EROTIC comes along. Enter At Your Own Risk: Fires and Phantoms breaks that mold with a fantastic collection of Gothic ghost tales of the gay flavor.

There is the touch of erotic here and there. There is love lost and love avenged. Some come out of the closet and some wish they had. There are two stellar Gothic classics included among the modern writers. Edith Wharton’s “The Eyes” and “In Kropfsberg Keep” by Ralph Adams Cram remind us that we’ve been in literature long before we were allowed to be literature. Among the current crop, there are a few standout tales here. Robbie Anderson’s “When You are Right” and B.E. Scully’s “Time For One More Show” are both intensely frightening stories of revenge from beyond the grave. “The Neglected Ones” By Joshua Skye is a haunting tale of loneliness and the depths to which a young man will go to end those feelings. Richard Hall’s masterpiece “Country People” is included here. “Promises in the Dark, Whispers at Dawn” by Vincent Waters paints a vicious and violent picture of guilt, perceived sin, and hate. T. Fox Dunham’s “Last Dance in the Rain” explores fear, isolation, and panic in a wonderfully accurate Civil war setting.

Seventeen stories and a fantastic introduction by Robert Dunbar round out this marvelous anthology. Each one captures the Gothic tradition established by Poe, Byron, Shelley and others a century ago. Haunting, painful, mournful, vengeful… make sure this one’s in your trick or treat bag this year!

I just finished this book and I loved it!

[Xombie]

I've been sifting through Joyce Carol Oates shorts. I'm even more into her stories now that I've been living in the south.

[InannaExmorte]

Just got done reading Edgar Switchblade. Pretty cool and very strange. Writte by L. Wyatt. (lonesome Wyatt from Those Poor Bastards and Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks)

[Fruitbat]

I'm too embarrassed to list the books I'm reading at the moment. I'm so broke, I can only afford books from the recycle centre, and most of those are historical romances, or books that are so bad, they don't even get into second hand book shops, but they are however 50cents a book...

Although I do have Thoreau's Walden for xmas from a second hand book shop. Or may be it was the picture book on dinosaurs that was meant for me.

[BourbonBoy]

Reading before bed is "R@pe: Sex Violence History" by Joanna Burke after seeing MissA and Saya discuss it in another thread. It's one of the most informative, and difficult, non-fiction books I've ever read.

[Miss Absynthe]

Oh, sweetie.. it is not 'before bed' type of reading.

[BourbonBoy]

Yeah, I kinda figured that. The stats and even the arguments that have been made just in modern times alone are fucking infuriating.

[Saya]

I really appreciate the focus she puts on rapists though. I wish there was a statistic for how many people are rapists alongside how many people are victims.

That said, the book made me appreciate how awful the criminal justice system can be, even for rapists and alleged rapists (did you get to the part yet about the black guy who was falsely accused, but became a rapist in the prison system? The one To Kill A Mocking Bird was based on? Can't remember his name...)

[BourbonBoy]

Yeah, I remember that part. I was so pissed off I put the book down for a few days. I'm just now working my way through the exhibitionist chapter.