September's Studious Search For Sonorous Snippets

[Diggler]

"Feed" by Mira Grant (pseudonym of Seanan McGuire) is set in a near-future (about 2034) in which a virus has caused the dead to rise. The main characters are bloggers. They write up their encounters with Zombies in a world where the mainstream media have been largely discredited. I'm only a few chapters in, but I am enjoying it.

This is a really good book. It also offers the most realistic fictional tale of a zombie infested world, and the virology of transmissible disease.

I finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. This was a great, great, great book! Did I mention that it was GREAT!? the only gripe I had was the characters were just not very likeable. Especially Gully Foyle, who was just driven beyond all rationality.

I have now moved onto Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. This was after Conn mentioning it. I'm only around 6% in (Kindles don't like giving you page numbers), but I have to say there are parts of this book that are really close to home. Which is quite prophetic, and scary.

 

[GOLLUM]

...Saintsbury deserves much credit for doing a fine job twisting the craziest language on Earth into something readable. He seems especially fond of George Eliot, so much so I may have to check this dame out sometime.

The only book I have by Eliot is MiddleMarch. I think it is a tour de force and well worth a read. Just a warning though it is long and filled with quite an elaborate array of characters, local politics and intrigues that go to make up the fictional town of Middlemarch..dare I say in our vernacular we would refer to it as 'world building'. It's very good but it takes time and perseverance to get through the text. There is no doubt it is viewed as a classic of English Literature.

Eliott wrote other novels that are reasonably well known albeit I don't know how widely read they are in Silas Mariner, Mill On The Floss & Daniel Deronda. There's another in Adam Bede which I suspect is less well known.

It would be interesting to know if anyone else here read anythnig by Eliot or seen any film adaptations?

 

[Connavar]

This is a really good book. It also offers the most realistic fictional tale of a zombie infested world, and the virology of transmissible disease.

I finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. This was a great, great, great book! Did I mention that it was GREAT!? the only gripe I had was the characters were just not very likeable. Especially Gully Foyle, who was just driven beyond all rationality.

I have now moved onto Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. This was after Conn mentioning it. I'm only around 6% in (Kindles don't like giving you page numbers), but I have to say there are parts of this book that are really close to home. Which is quite prophetic, and scary.

Gully Foyle was the best unlikeable hero/villain i had read in long while,i would have disliked the novel if he was more likeable. His vileness caried the novel well for me.

Prophetic and scary is the perfect way to describe that future in 1984, just wait until you have finished the novel. I just today told my little sister who is Big Brother reality tv show fan if you only knew the "real" source for BB. I think i sold her to the novel only on BB

 

[Rosemary]

Re: Gollum's last post

I've read all of George Elliott's books and enjoyed all of them immensely. As a female writer of her times, I think she was brilliant. Mill On The Floss was on our English Literature exam when I was at school in Britain. I think once you have read one of her books, the rest seem easier to read.

I saw Middlemarch as a TV series. Quite well done, although as you may remember I much prefer to read the books, as so much detail is missed out and the characters are not the same as pictured in your mind. Still the period setting and costumes were well done and most of the storyline was well done.

Hopefully, for those who haven't ready any of Elliott's work, they will at least give them a try.

 

[D_Davis]

I finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. This was a great, great, great book! Did I mention that it was GREAT!? the only gripe I had was the characters were just not very likeable. Especially Gully Foyle, who was just driven beyond all rationality.

And yet through his utterly despicable nature and revenge-fueled quest, he becomes the savior of humanity and gives them their souls.

Absolutely my favorite character in all of literature.

 

[antiloquax]

It would be interesting to know if anyone else here read anything by Eliot or seen any film adaptations?

I haven't read all of her novels, but "Daniel Deronda" is amazing. A lot of the book is about the main character's search for his identity - including his Jewish connections. Another must-read is "The Lifted Veil" which is a short book (novella?) about a man who can read the thoughts of everyone ... except the woman he falls in love with. It's quite different from her other books.
I agree about "Middlemarch" - outstanding!


a

 

[Connavar]

And yet through his utterly despicable nature and revenge-fueled quest, he becomes the savior of humanity and gives them their souls.

Absolutely my favorite character in all of literature.

He would be easily in my top 10 or in my top 5 fav literary characters. Parker, Solomon Kane, El Borak, Cugel for examples as my fav.

Have you read Dumas and Count of Monte Cristo by the way ? Not that you must read because its similar story but because it also an epic revenge story.

 

[GOLLUM]

...Another must-read is "The Lifted Veil" which is a short book (novella?) about a man who can read the thoughts of everyone ... except the woman he falls in love with. It's quite different from her other books.

Thanks to Rosemary and antiloquax for providing further insight into Eliot's other works. The Lifted Veil sounds interesting and not a work I was aware of. Works written by well known 'literary' identities who are not normally associated with speculative fiction that subsequently contain elements of the fantastic in them....well, that's precisely the kind of work that interests me, so thank you for that.

Anyway, speaking of well known authors the TV program First Tuesday Book Club is featuring Daphe Du Maurier's classic Rebecca. Now I thought this a good opportunity to reacquaint myself with this novel having recently purchased the excellent Hitchcock adaptation but then as often happens I spotted the other Du Maurier works I have in my library. Amongst them was The House On The Stand. I have never read this book before but it is described as a mix between time travel and horror and sounded quite interesting, it seems to be quite highly regarded...so I'm now making a start on this.

I wonder if J.D. or someone else here has read this particular Du Maurier work?

And on a completely different note I recently purchased the wonderful BBC (complete) series Private Life Of A Masterpiece. This features fascinating programs on many of the world's greatest art works from 15th Century Renaissance to the modern day. It features both an analysis of the work, the artist and its often surprising personal history leading up to the current location of these works. An additional program on sculptures is also featured. Excellent stuff.

Please refer now to the October Reading Thread.