What Are You Currently Reading?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by J Harker

You seem to be doing really well on the reading of late Dem. Wish I could read like that.

I'm sitting down each night to read for 1-2 hours rather than watching a film at 8pm. That's all. Other than horror late at night i haven't watched a single movie or tv episode or anything in the entirety of October. Haha. Everything comes at a price as there are only so many hours in the day.

Following a shaky opening Revival is becoming rather good. The first couple of chapters were all about a kid seeing a methodist preacher in his local church which wasn't an entirely enthralling sixty pages. However the story is set over decades and said kid has has now gone to high school picked up a guitar, joined a band, got laid and so on across the next seventy pages and it was much more interesting.

It's really picking up now and i'm expecting the return of the preacher and some sort of Occult pact.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Following a shaky opening Revival is becoming rather good. The first couple of chapters were all about a kid seeing a methodist preacher in his local church which wasn't an entirely enthralling sixty pages. However the story is set over decades and said kid has has now gone to high school picked up a guitar, joined a band, got laid and so on across the next seventy pages and it was much more interesting.

It's really picking up now and i'm expecting the return of the preacher and some sort of Occult pact.

Slightly wrong in thinking of Occult pacts.

Revival really isn't a horror novel for 85% of the time. It's only in the last forty pages that true horror breaks out.

However it was well worth the wait and i didn't see it coming.

There's a quote at the beginning of the book from a cult author that reads -

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, / And with strange aeons even death may die."

Which actually is a pointer to the finale and a spoiler, however being a book you don't actually know that until you get to it. It's not like it was in the trailer or anything.

As i mentioned earlier. I'm quite impressed with myself. Going almost two years and reading just a single book over last Christmas to reading four in the month of October - 'Salem's Lot, All Hallows, Night in the Lonesome October and Revival.

Going to start on Sharpe's Assassin: Richard Sharpe and the Occupation of Paris, 1815 this evening.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I finished Sharpe's Assassin last night.

Hugely enjoyable. As you might expect Bernard Cornwell captures the Sharpe, Harper and Wellington seen on tv quite beautifully so it was always easy to envisage what was happening. set in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo with France defeated and Paris occupied by the British and Prussian army's. It had humour, despicable characters, fast paced action sequences and a formidable villain in the French colonel Lanier who was impossible to dislike.

This was the first Sharpe book i've read, although i own and have watched every Sharpe episode at least twice over the years.

There's a new hardback currently on the supermarket shelves which i may have to invest in methinks.

Anyway tonight i read Elevation. A cracking book by Stephen King.

It's about a fella who begins to lose all his body weight without losing mass with no explanation as he's clearly fully healthy. Except it's also much more than that.

King is excellent at bringing small town America vividly to life and he really does that here in a short 130 odd pages. Elevation examines sexual prejudice and then friendship in a heart warming way (The friendship, not the prejudice) not to mention a 12k Turkey run, or half marathon to you and me.

At ten o'clock i realised i had only 40 or so pages to go and there was no way i wasn't finishing it.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

That's six books read in under a month. Pleased with that.

Although i haven't watched a single thing in the 8-10pm slot, except for football, at all in that time.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I'm currently approx 70 pages into England's Screaming by Sean Hogan.

It's a fascinating book that interweaves the characters and time lines from all our favourite British horror films into one narrative strand. For example Don't Look Now, Neither the Sea Nor the Sand and the short public information film Lonely Waters all become one distinct story.

To begin with i wasn't sure how it would work but in his introduction Jonathan Rigby explains all. A warning to the curious though. You do need some knowledge of British horror cinema to get the full benefit of the tales involved otherwise it'll probably go over your head and won't be anywhere near as much fun to read.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Currently approx half way through Sharpe's Command. The new book from Bernard Cornwell.

It's entertaining stuff and if you are familiar with the classic tv series starring Sean Bean you can easily picture the characters as you read along. Having not read any of the early Sharpe books before they were picked up for tv i'd love to know if the characters are exactly like the ones in the films because they absolutely are in the two latest novels. Has Cornwell adapted his characters into their tv personalities or was it the other way round.

I recall Justin set himself a challenge of reading twenty books last year (Not sure if he completed it or not. I know he came close if not) so i aim to do likewise this year. I enjoyed taking time out to get lost in stories on the written page last October so much that i missed it when i stopped in early November.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Approx sixty pages into Devil May Care. A James Bond novel written by the acclaimed author Sebastian Faulks in the style of Ian Fleming after the Fleming estate commissioned the author to mark the 2008 centenary of Fleming's death.

I may only be four chapters in but i'm utterly absorbed by it all. I had to pull myself away from it for fear of not putting it down until midnight and i really want to watch a film...

...The Living Daylights.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Approx sixty pages into Devil May Care. A James Bond novel written by the acclaimed author Sebastian Faulks in the style of Ian Fleming after the Fleming estate commissioned the author to mark the 2008 centenary of Fleming's death.

I think you mean birth!

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I recall Justin set himself a challenge of reading twenty books last year (Not sure if he completed it or not. I know he came close if not) so i aim to do likewise this year. I enjoyed taking time out to get lost in stories on the written page last October so much that i missed it when i stopped in early November.

I ended up with 23 read by the end of December.
I’m going for 24 this year and I’m already on my 4th book lol.

Clive Barker - Weaveworld
Haruki Murakamai - Absolutely On Music
Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

Currently around 80% through
Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl

Not sure I can keep this pace though for the whole year.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I ended up with 23 read by the end of December.
I’m going for 24 this year and I’m already on my 4th book lol.

I used to read on my lunch sitting in the car but I don't drive to work anymore and I just don't have the time when I get home by the time I finish training and getting dinner it's bed time

Clive Barker - Weaveworld
Haruki Murakamai - Absolutely On Music
Sue Townsend - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

Currently around 80% through
Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl

Not sure I can keep this pace though for the whole year.

Fair play to you I wish I could read like I used to but it takes me an age to read a book.

I used to keep books for lunchtime in work read them in my car but now I don't drive to work anymore and by the time I train and get dinner at night it's almost bed time