Currently Reading: A Christmas Carol read by Tim Curry

Last month, in October, I had mistakenly asked The Book Drunkard and her husband SavageDave if they had listened to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow read by Tim Curry. Neither of them had and I couldn’t find any version, so I gave it up. Turns out it was because I was being a numpty and getting my stories mixed up. Thankfully, I’ve got it right this time. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and read by Tim Curry? YES PLEASE!

Tim Curry has a great voice and I am really looking forward to this.

Currently Reading: Gulag Archipelago, Vol III

I finished up Gulag Archipelago Volume II back in February and had to take a break as it was simply too heavy in both density of the text itself and the subject matter.

But the time has come to plunge into this third and final volume of Solzhenitsyn’s magnum opus. Took me 6 months to get through Volume II, so I am planning on a similar time frame. I am not going to rush this.

Wish me luck!

Currently Reading & Quote: Rando Splicer

It has been almost 3 years since I read the previous book in this The Spiral Wars series, Croma Venture. Not that’s been 3 years between publication dates, I have to admit that. But when I read Croma Venture I vowed that I wouldn’t read any more until the series was finished. With this book and the next being released, I figured I was pretty close to keeping that promise.

So imagine my surprise when I read the Forward:

Dear Readers

A quick note to let everyone know the current state of my plans for this series.

Some of you may have noticed that the gap between the release dates of each Spiral Wars book has been getting longer. I promise this is not intentional. However, you may also have noticed that the complexity of this world is increasing with each book, and when that happens it becomes harder and harder to resolve all the various plots rapidly.

I make no comment about certain independently published authors who manage to put out a new book every few months, but that’s not how I write. I make no judgement if you prefer those types of books to these, but I think that in independent publishing there should be room for both the books that take a few months to write, and those that take closer to a year. Believe me, this one took a lot of effort, and I’m very pleased with it.

As I’ve written on my twitter and facebook pages, the plan for this series now stands at ten books. If you’d like more information, it can be found on those social media pages. I hope the remaining books of the series will be written more quickly than this one, but I can’t promise it. I can only promise that I’ll do my very best to keep the quality as high, and hopefully higher, than what’s come before, in return for your patience. And, a request that if you like what you read here, and think that it deserves even more success than that which I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy so far, that you recommend it to friends, family, on social media, or anyone who you think might enjoy it.

Bolding is me. Considering Rando Splicer is only book 6 and even the “new” book is Book 7, I am crap out of luck. Shepherd better do some really good writing with this book! I also hope my attitude changes so I can actually enjoy reading this

Currently Reading: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Completed)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Completed) by David Madden.

When I finished up the incomplete Edwin Drood by Dickens earlier this year Fraggle found this volume, as I had asked for any suggestions for more reading.

I have just started in on Part II, which is where Dickens left off when he died. So far, Madden seems to be doing his best to keep the voice and style of Dickens and is doing a very adequate job. It is looking very promising 🙂

Currently Reading: Consent to Kill

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. This is not good!

😦

Currently Reading & Quote: Shirley

; and that gift of poetry – the most divine bestowed on man –
~Shirley, Chapter XII

Gag me with a spoon, please! While I realize that historically speaking Poetry has had a pre-eminent place in literature, that does not in and of itself make it better than prose. Mankind does not, with the rare exceptions of intellectual snobs and idiots, speak in poetry but in prose. It is an artificial construct that completely relies on the extremely subjective tastes of the times. Other than that, I’m enjoy this novel. Well, except when Charlotte Bronte writes whole pages in french and doesn’t bother to translate it.

The above is a picture of the typical “beatnik”. It is what I imagine Alex and Fraggle to look like if they were beatniks in real life.. Heaven help them 😉

Currently Reading & Cover Love: Capital Murder

Ahhhh, another Arcane Casebook story. I’d read these for the covers alone but thankfully Willis tells a good story too. I thought about saving this large version of the cover for my Cover Love section for next month’s Roundup but I couldn’t hold on that long. So here you go! 🙂

Storywise, Capital Murder seems to be chugging right along with all the previous installments.

Currently Reading: Menace of the Monster

Whereas I complained like someone was killing my firstborn about the introduction to each story in Menace of the Machine, here I am finding it non-objectionable. Maybe because they’re shorter and the editor seems to be strictly talking about the history of the story instead of interjecting his political views into it?

Whatever the reason, this is on track as a 4star read. Keeping my fingers crossed this literary train doesn’t get derailed.

Currently Reading & Quote: The League of Frightened Men

I do read books, but I never yet got any real satisfaction out of one; I always have a feeling there’s nothing alive about it, it’s all dead and gone, what’s the use, you might as well try to enjoy yourself on a picnic in a graveyard.
~ Chapter 1 (Archie Goodwin)

It’s tough to tell if Rex Stout is having fun with his characters and being ironic, or something else. I can’t imagine any other reason, but then, I can’t imagine anyone thinking they can make an actual living from writing books either. A Mystery, in a mystery book no less! (for the record, that was me being ironic)

Currently Reading: The Innocence of Father Brown

Good grief Charlie Brown, here I go with yet ANOTHER mystery series. I’ve started a “Complete Works of GK Chesterton” and the Father Brown mysteries are packed into the beginning.

What’s nice is that each book is simply a collection of short stories about Father Brown. So far I am really liking this format.