All of them? Lol. I read 30+ fantasy books each year for the last 7 years or so. What do you like?

Really just the Drizzt books of Forgotten Realms (which I think have stopped) and Game of Thrones. I used to read other Forgotten Realms related books but not for a number of years. That aspect of the Gunslinger book was partly what attracted me to wanting to try them though.

Yes, from my limited (3 or 4 novels) experience, it's Burke's best and most literary novel.

I followed it up by reading last year's The Jealous Kind, which Burke describes as the conclusion to a trilogy begun by Wayfaring Stranger. (All three books have Hackberry Holland as protagonist.) I thought it engaging but was not as fond of it. However, as with Wayfaring Stranger, I found the mid-twentieth century Houston milieu of considerable interest, having grown up there and then. His sense of this era in Houston: “The real story was the class war. We just didn't know it.”

The Holy Grail theme set up in the first book (and, I gather continued in the second) is enlarged in this third volume, which sees Holland as a figure living out the codes of knighthood and courtly romance.

James lee Burke is so good at what he does.

I've read all 20 robichieux novels


Ps. You will start to refer to everything as "blue-black"


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I think I read a couple of Drizzt books and then realized they were all going to be the same and didn't want to burn out. But they were entertaining, with a caveat that I find most fantasy books enjoyable.

The first Gunslinger book is sllllllow and dry and inhospitable, but I guess that's partially the point.

I've been reading Mark Lawrence's books (reading his 6th right now) and they've been quite enjoyable. They are pretty gritty but quite easy to go through and very fun.

The other book I'm reading right now is Gormenghast, which is a "trilogy" (2.5 books and then the author died) that were written decades ago, are only kind of fantasy, and completely different than everything else I read. The first book was good but took way too long to get going imo, this second one is quite a bit more fun overall in terms of pacing. I don't really know what to say about them overall, though. The writing is interesting, the characters and plot is interesting, the pacing is not great sometimes and in some places it's hard to understand wtf is going on to some degree.

However, it's more than unique enough to make up for any of the rough edges or it not being much of a standard fantasy book.

Finished "When We Were Orphans" which is by far the weakest of Ishiguros that I've read. The writing was still great (although several of the critics I read after complained about it) but I thought the plot had some huge problems. I was quite let down by the Shanghai part of the story as I think shanghai has a lot more personality, especially at that time, than was conveyed in the book.

wouldn't really recommend to anyone unless they just wanted to read everything by this author.

I'm reading A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay after hearing some good things. It's so good it's scary! Kinda like an updated version of The Exorcist type issues for the reality tv age.

I got True Blue: The Real Stories Behind NYPD Blue by David Milch and Det. Bill Clark for my step-dad on a whim (happened to come across it on Amazon and just got a used copy because he loved the show). I was somewhat interested in reading it myself too even though I've never watched NYPD Blue. It's great and I'd recommend it for any fan of Milch. Decent chance I'll really watch the show.

Part of my interest comes because I know that Milch is truly a great artist, judging by his more recent shows like John From Cincinnati and Luck which largely eschew traditional television sensibilities. If this were a book by X writer who had one big TV cop hit in the '90s I don't know if I would care, and it would be interesting to see if my opinion of the book would change if it were exactly the same.

Anyway, it's a very entertaining and easy read, mixing insider gossip with real cop stories. We'll see how I feel when it's done.

I'm now reading The North Water by Ian McGuire. It's gritty and grimy as hell, bunch of hard British men on a 19th century whaling voyage. I like it.

This was really good. It reminded me a little of the early great Arkady Renko novels by Martin Cruz Smith, despite their vastly different settings.

Just started David McCullough's recent bio of the Wright brothers. I've had pretty good luck with him, loved his Adams and Truman bios.

I finished the Gunslinger and started the second of the series. It is already better and I'm only a little bit into it. I would not have bought it without you guys encouraging me to continue the series as Gunslinger was not very good.

Rereading Pudd'nhead Wilson. It contains Pudd'nhead Wilson's calendar. It sparked a revolution, so that an extended version was need, thus:

Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, from Following the Equator (1897)

Sam Sends Sparks Skyward, The New Calendar

Is there a book club on 2p2? I need some motivation to read something within a specific time period - 2 weeks/1 month a good time frame.

I just finished Porcelain by Moby. It's an autobiography of the period between 1988 and 1998 in his career. So from his start as a DJ to his rise to electro-dance musician, to his fall as a punk rocker and it ends just before the big hit happens (his album Play).

The book covers life as a poor person in NYC in the early 90s, with several great anecdotes.

He reflects on many things. I didn't know Moby was a Christian and he was sober for 8 years as he was rising in the music ranks, but then fell off the wagon in 1995.

In an afterword he mentions that he wanted the book ghostwritten, but his manager insisted on him trying to write it. He claims he wrote it on his own and loved the process. I thought the book was well written. It had moments that made me think about life, death. It has some great passages on writing songs. Best of all, it was very interesting and made me learn about stuff I knew nothing about, thought I cared little about, but ended up enjoying (night life in NYC in the 90s).

We used to have one.

There's a book club in my pants 24/7, baby.

Quit now, I'm giving the opposite advice. He's not a good writer and his best work came earlier.

Trying the first Maisie Dobbs book. Surprisingly good so far.

Marty Smith is the stone cold nuts.

This book is on top of my hardback stack, I have to get to it. Xmas present iirc.

Infinite Jest, but it takes 2 weeks-3 months depending on your reading speed.

I finished a few, all good:

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. As advertised.

Call for the Dead broke my Le Carre cherry. I like his style and the story is decent. I get the feeling there's better things to come in this series. Smiley's a pretty awesome character.

A pair of Winston Groom histories: The Aviators and The Generals. Both books follow three luminaries and tell their stories in alternating fashion. Both books are very good -- first focuses on Lindbergh, Rickenbacker, and Doolittle's exploits, and the second takes on MacArthur, Marshall, and Patton. Overall I like the format, but once in a while I found myself wondering which witch is which -- didn't happen so much with The Generals because each person filled such different roles, but I did experience some conflation during The Aviators.

LeCarre is the top of the food chain in espionage. Call for the Dead is but a crumb
His compilation of three Smiley novels...The Quest for Karla I've read and re-read...literature with a depth not to be experienced in genre fiction. Smiley has of course been performed by both Alec Guinness and Gary Oldham to great effect
There are many other fine renditions of his work most notably Richard Burton in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
My favorite book of LeCarre is perhaps A Perfect Spy which plumbs the engine room of his soul where his amazing work comes from. There is more to being a spy than spying. The author's personal formative history with his arch criminal con man father looms large. There is a Latin phrase Larvatus Prodeo...I go forth in disguise...that applies to the author himself and generates the dark energy of his work

A Perfect Spy is le carre's autobiographical fiction; i liked it (& The Spy Who Came In From The Cold) a bit less than the consensus I think, but Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and the third one are top notch.

His non Russian stuff is a bit more mixed - The Little Drummer girl is pretty good but the more recent things tend to plough a less interesting 'perfidious albion' furrow.

Another writer to check out if you like the genre is Gerald Seymour's Irish novels. It is better, imo, than more literary efforts at capturing the Troubles.

I've not read his middle eastern stuff.

I've been a big Le Carre fan since the 70s, but he's lost me lately with his incessant anti-American politarding. He did a great job with those old cold war books though.

Kokiri...I appreciate your thoughts on LaCarre's Perfect Spy. As an aspiring writer I read his first several Smiley novels with great interest, then watched Alec Ginness' remarkable performance with a great if puzzled interest. This was before the internet so I found in A Perfect Spy some psychological insight into the theme of betrayal. His father was a world class piece of work (an associate of the Krays). His more recent well reviewed novels though popular have failed to grab me by the throat.