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What are you reading - Part II


jrlx

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This is a continuation thread, as the original reached the limit of 40 pages.

 

The same rules apply: books, magazines, reference material, fiction, technical, ... anything is acceptable

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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Well, I guess my taste in literature could best be described as eclectic!😂. Having not long finished E E Smith's Lensman and Skylark series', I am working my way through The Complete H P Lovecraft collection and, Collected Works of M R James!

Looming on the horizon are Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars and Venus series', Robert E Howard's Conan  series (three big volumes!!😊) and, Robert Fabbri's Vespasian series!

Having recently lost my job due to medical reasons I now have lots more time to concentrate on modelling AND reading!😂

 

Allan

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Having finished The Vinyl Detective I'm on a musical roll as I've now started "Route 19 revisited, the Clash and the making of London's Calling" by Marcus Gray.

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Spotted this in a local charity shop. Who could resist that cover or title?

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With blurb like this I had to get it (£10)

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For a 1937 boys adventure story it is remarkably on the nose about the development of guided missiles, weapons of mass destruction and the politics of mutually assured destruction

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On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 9:16 AM, Albeback52 said:

Well, I guess my taste in literature could best be described as eclectic!😂. Having not long finished E E Smith's Lensman and Skylark series', I am working my way through The Complete H P Lovecraft collection and, Collected Works of M R James!

Looming on the horizon are Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars and Venus series', Robert E Howard's Conan  series (three big volumes!!😊) and, Robert Fabbri's Vespasian series!

Having recently lost my job due to medical reasons I now have lots more time to concentrate on modelling AND reading!😂

 

Allan

Good choices with Lovecraft and James, outstanding writers, both, nobody wrote better ghost stories than M R James.  My favourites from these authors are 'The Colour Out Of Space' by Lovecraft, and 'O Whistle and I'll Come To You', by James.  James usually managed to insert a little humour into his stories, too, which I enjoy.

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Just started reading Early Riser by Jasper Fforde.

Set in an alternate universe where the earth is suffering an ice age and humans hibernate for four months every winter.

Very funny (even the Tom Jones jokes). 

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On 8/9/2019 at 11:19 AM, 593jones said:

Good choices with Lovecraft and James, outstanding writers, both, nobody wrote better ghost stories than M R James.  My favourites from these authors are 'The Colour Out Of Space' by Lovecraft, and 'O Whistle and I'll Come To You', by James.  James usually managed to insert a little humour into his stories, too, which I enjoy.

James in particular was genuinely spooky! Very atmospheric and quite chilling. One of my favourites was The Mezzotint. 

 

You may recall the BBC produced an excellent series of tv adaptations!. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the scene from The Stalls of Barchester (if I remember right) where the skeleton claw hand simply appeared suddenly out of the dark and grabbed the poor, soon to be deceased victim by the shoulder. Classic stuff. Lost Hearts was another very fine adaptation which really spooked my sister!

 

Allan

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8 minutes ago, Head in the clouds. said:

Just about to start ' A Grim Almanac of Lincolnshire'. It is about the strange, heinous and macabre goings on in Yellowbelly land over several centuries. Should be a little different!.

 

I bet that's a big book!

 

Dave (Yorkshire and proud of it :) )

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On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 3:04 PM, Albeback52 said:

James in particular was genuinely spooky! Very atmospheric and quite chilling. One of my favourites was The Mezzotint. 

 

You may recall the BBC produced an excellent series of tv adaptations!. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the scene from The Stalls of Barchester (if I remember right) where the skeleton claw hand simply appeared suddenly out of the dark and grabbed the poor, soon to be deceased victim by the shoulder. Classic stuff. Lost Hearts was another very fine adaptation which really spooked my sister!

 

Allan

I remember the BBC productions well, A Ghost Story For Christmas, produced over several years.  The Stalls of Barchester was my favourite, very true to the original story; I did find with  some of them, the writer did change the story, such as A View From A Hill, which he made much darker than the original, which has s vein of humour in it.  Anyway, I also enjoyed A Warning To The Curious which was very well done.  A couple more I would like to see made would be Canon Alberic's Scrapbook and Count Magnus.  Perhaps one day the BBC will oblige. :)

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22 hours ago, 593jones said:

I remember the BBC productions well, A Ghost Story For Christmas, produced over several years.  The Stalls of Barchester was my favourite, very true to the original story; I did find with  some of them, the writer did change the story, such as A View From A Hill, which he made much darker than the original, which has s vein of humour in it.  Anyway, I also enjoyed A Warning To The Curious which was very well done.  A couple more I would like to see made would be Canon Alberic's Scrapbook and Count Magnus.  Perhaps one day the BBC will oblige. :)

Fine choices. There's a rich vein of material from which to choose. Casting the Runes has been made into a film - Night of the Demon. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's a well acted and genuinely creepy film that still gets favourable reviews even today. The only thing that spoils it is the rather unconvincing demon!

I still love the scene where Dana Andrews character is being chased through the woods by something very invisible and very unfriendly!😊

 

It was also made into a very good,one off tv drama with the excellent Ian Cuthbertson in the role of Karswell.

 

Allan

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7 hours ago, IanHx said:

Reading "1:144  F-14D Tomcat instructions" by Revell......

 

When you stop reading and start building, you'll be in for a treat, as it's a sweet little kit (even I've done a presentable job). Just be a bit gentle with the wing sweep gears, they're a mite fragile.

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21 hours ago, IanHx said:

Reading "1:144  F-14D Tomcat instructions" by Revell......

A good read of the instructions and good planning goes a long way toward a successful build!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 4:42 PM, Albeback52 said:

Fine choices. There's a rich vein of material from which to choose. Casting the Runes has been made into a film - Night of the Demon. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's a well acted and genuinely creepy film that still gets favourable reviews even today. The only thing that spoils it is the rather unconvincing demon!

I still love the scene where Dana Andrews character is being chased through the woods by something very invisible and very unfriendly!😊

 

It was also made into a very good,one off tv drama with the excellent Ian Cuthbertson in the role of Karswell.

 

Allan

Oh yes, I've seen Night of the Demon, great film, very atmospheric.  You're right about the demon, though, it wasn't very good; supposedly there was conflict between the director and the producer about including it, and I think the producer won.  There is a book about ;the making of the film, 'Beating the Devil', it's pretty scarce and quite expensive, but I would like to read it.

 

I didn't know about the Cuthbertson version, but I see it's on dvd, so will have to get a copy, thanks for the heads up on that.

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12 hours ago, 593jones said:

Oh yes, I've seen Night of the Demon, great film, very atmospheric.  You're right about the demon, though, it wasn't very good; supposedly there was conflict between the director and the producer about including it, and I think the producer won.  There is a book about ;the making of the film, 'Beating the Devil', it's pretty scarce and quite expensive, but I would like to read it.

 

I didn't know about the Cuthbertson version, but I see it's on dvd, so will have to get a copy, thanks for the heads up on that.

Like Night of the Demon, it was a fairly loose adaptation but, I quite enjoyed it. Another one worth getting is BBC's 1972 "The Stone Tape", Based on a play written by Nigel Kneale. It was also one of the "Ghost Stories for Christmas" series

 

Allan

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These are letters written at the time by an American soldier sent to Australia during WWII. Nothing very dramatic happens --they adjust to camp life and Australian life, drink, try (and largely fail) to meet women, and end by being shipped off to stop the Japanese invasion of New Guinea. The story ends as they are on the airplane going to New Guinea,

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11 hours ago, Albeback52 said:

Like Night of the Demon, it was a fairly loose adaptation but, I quite enjoyed it. Another one worth getting is BBC's 1972 "The Stone Tape", Based on a play written by Nigel Kneale. It was also one of the "Ghost Stories for Christmas" series

 

Allan

I have The Stone Tape on dvd, great production, Nigel Kneale knew how to scare people!  I remember being terrified by Quatermass and the Pit at the age of 7.  Watched every episode though!  I  have the dvd of that, too and the later 1960's film version.  That's good, but the original BBC serial is better, has a much creepier atmosphere (and a better Quatermass -Andre Morrell).  They don't make 'em like that now!

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Read the whole book in three days, absolutely superb. Not a technical book, there are plenty of those already, it covers first person accounts from those who flew the plane during the war. Very well authored, with an easy to read flow, it covers the iconic Battle of Britain but also later campaigns over France, Africa, Italy and the East, it deals with post-traumatic stress and fatigue and in probably the most interesting chapter, about the ATA, it discusses the women who flew the planes and the institutional sexism they faced - for example, they were never taught to fly instruments, leading to many unnecessary deaths when weather turned nasty.

 

Currently only £3 at the Works!

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On 8/14/2019 at 7:19 PM, 593jones said:

I have The Stone Tape on dvd, great production, Nigel Kneale knew how to scare people!  I remember being terrified by Quatermass and the Pit at the age of 7.  Watched every episode though!  I  have the dvd of that, too and the later 1960's film version.  That's good, but the original BBC serial is better, has a much creepier atmosphere (and a better Quatermass -Andre Morrell).  They don't make 'em like that now!

I wasn't all that impressed with the film version of Quatermass and the Pit. It just seemed to bumble along which, is a shame because it had a fine cast. Just didn't grip I'm afraid.

 

I discovered the BBC Series "Ghost stories  for Christmas" on Amazon video ! Guess what I bought!😂

If you can get hold of copy, I recommend  : "The Dark Side". It's a collection of 31 short stories of supernatural by French author Guy de Maupassant. Not unlike Lovecraft in style.

 

Allan

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Working through Iain M Banks` Culture series of sf novels. Wonderfully written, excellent characterisation, evocatively descriptive without over-embellishment. Dialogue is so good you want to read it out loud. Crying out to be filmed with a big budget.

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Having read several books in a row about the High Middle Ages (the last one about the Templars), I decided to jump further back in time and I'm now reading "The birth of Classical Europe" by Simon Price and Peter Thonemann.

 

9780140274851.jpg

 

It's the first volume of Penguin's History of Europe Series. Starts in 1750 BC, with the Minoan civilisation in Crete, and ends with the end of the Roman Empire in the West (about 425 AD). Very interesting, I've just read a few tens of pages but I'm already learning a lot!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

 

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