Do you read?

[Rugeley Villa]

Fiction and non fiction interest me. 

[Rugeley Villa]

Where do you buy your books from? I cancelled my amazon order and ordered them from book depository, because they were way cheaper, but after I ordered I read some terrible reviews about them. 

[leemond2008]

Just now, Rugeley Villa said:

Basically ive found myself searching for books of films, like ben hur, Rosemary's baby, exorcist, etc any films I've enjoyed I've just searched for the book. I'm into old fashioned horror books like Dracula etc, also the occult like Dennis Wheatley. War, slavery, found myself searching for middle eastern novels, Egyptian and all that kind of thing.basically a wide scope. Not sure that answers your question. 

Exorcist is one of my all time favourites, I read it about 15 times, its brilliant.

Rosemary's baby was a nice easy read, nothing too taxing and it was all pretty telegraphed, the final 3rd of the book was really good though.

I couldn't get into Dennis Wheatley, I think I've read 2 or 3 of them and just thought they were a bit 'meh'

Take a look at The Entity by Frank De Felitta, its better than the film, I really enjoyed that one, also Shirley Jackons Haunting of Hill House or The Amityville Horror.

those are some of the best books of films in the horror genre that I can think of at the moment.

If you want something really **** up then read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum

[leemond2008]

2 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Where do you buy your books from? I cancelled my amazon order and ordered them from book depository, because they were way cheaper, but after I ordered I read some terrible reviews about them. 

My books are pretty much exclusively from Amazon or Waterstones, very rare I go anywhere else

[Ikantcpell]

I just got this one from my library, anyone read it ?

[Rugeley Villa]

6 minutes ago, leemond2008 said:

Exorcist is one of my all time favourites, I read it about 15 times, its brilliant.

Rosemary's baby was a nice easy read, nothing too taxing and it was all pretty telegraphed, the final 3rd of the book was really good though.

I couldn't get into Dennis Wheatley, I think I've read 2 or 3 of them and just thought they were a bit 'meh'

Take a look at The Entity by Frank De Felitta, its better than the film, I really enjoyed that one, also Shirley Jackons Haunting of Hill House or The Amityville Horror.

those are some of the best books of films in the horror genre that I can think of at the moment.

If you want something really **** up then read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum

I've heard of all of them apart from The girl next door, and they are all books I'd want to read. 

[Rugeley Villa]

6 minutes ago, leemond2008 said:

My books are pretty much exclusively from Amazon or Waterstones, very rare I go anywhere else

I'll see how long it takes for my two to turn up. If it takes forever, I'll just stick with amazon in the future. 

[leemond2008]

I end up just going on little binges on Amazon and not really even looking at what I'm buying, its good fun just getting random books drop through your letterbox over the space of 3 or 4 weeks.

I've always got a few books waiting to be read so its not like I'm waiting for something to read

[mjmooney]

Charity shops can be goldmines for books, if you can find a good one, and you can develop a good eye for scanning through all the inevitable dross for the gems. Otherwise, yeah, the new ones are usually from Amazon or (on the high street) Waterstones. If I'm looking for something specific that's out of print, I may search Amazon resellers or Abe Books (a secondhand dealer hub, which is run by Amazon, anyway). 

And my 'to read' shelves already have scores (if not hundreds) of books waiting to rise to the top, so the whole business is a fool's errand, racing against mortality. 

Edited December 13, 2017 by mjmooney

[leemond2008]

1 minute ago, mjmooney said:

Charity shops can be goldmines for books, if you can find a good one, and you can develop a good eye for scanning through all the inevitable dross for the gems. Otherwise, yeah, the new ones are usually from Amazon or (on the high street) Waterstones. If I'm looking for something specific that's out of print, I may search Amazon resellers or Abe Books (a secondhand dealer hub, which is run by Amazon, anyway). 

I struggle in charity shops, I always have a look but as you say there is so much dross in there that I very rarely come out with anything.

[mjmooney]

8 minutes ago, leemond2008 said:

I struggle in charity shops, I always have a look but as you say there is so much dross in there that I very rarely come out with anything.

It's a marginal gains game. 95% of the time I come up empty handed, but that 5% sometimes yields treasure, and I'll come out with five or six goodies - sometimes stuff I've been after for years, or really nice editions - delghted with my bargain haul. 

Oxfam are probably the best, but they tend to be pricier than the others. 

Edited December 13, 2017 by mjmooney

[coda]

19 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Just started on this the other day, half way in and it is one hell of an interesting read so far!

Anything about Unit 731? 

[leemond2008]

Ive just started a horror called No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Neville, I've read a few of his  books in the past and never realised he is a Brummie.

I think this is a bog standard haunted house type book but I'm about 20 pages in and there is one major difference to this book to so many others of its kind....its set in Handsworth lolz 

This bird is living in a run down dilapidated house in Handsworth, Perry Barr has been described as being full of Asians with Eastern Europeans slowly taking over and it has also slated the people who work and shop in the Bull Ring.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out, I think one of his other films has just been made into a film, it was called 'The Ritual' or something like that, good book that was.

P.s. sorry Moon Man, I've gone from a classic like The Picture of Dorian Gray to a paint by numbers horror 

[TheMelvillan]

On 11/27/2017 at 19:50, leemond2008 said:

The author tried to bring a tired genre into the modern times, it worked to an extent, possession with iPods, tablets and reality TV.

Shirley Jacksons 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle'  is a major, major influence on this book, the main character is a little 8 year old replica of Merricat, cracking little book, enjoyable read, however it wasn't frightening in the slightest.

Im in the middle of the book which is quite similar. Its called The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp and is descibed as "The Omen for the social media age".
Its entertaining enough but it reads a bit like a man who has a list of pop culture references which he is ticking off as he crowbars them into the narrative.

[mjmooney]

13 hours ago, leemond2008 said:

Ive just started a horror called No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Neville, I've read a few of his  books in the past and never realised he is a Brummie.

I think this is a bog standard haunted house type book but I'm about 20 pages in and there is one major difference to this book to so many others of its kind....its set in Handsworth lolz 

This bird is living in a run down dilapidated house in Handsworth, Perry Barr has been described as being full of Asians with Eastern Europeans slowly taking over and it has also slated the people who work and shop in the Bull Ring.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out, I think one of his other films has just been made into a film, it was called 'The Ritual' or something like that, good book that was.

P.s. sorry Moon Man, I've gone from a classic like The Picture of Dorian Gray to a paint by numbers horror 

Hey, that's fine. I don't spend all my time reading War and Peace, Ulysses and A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (although I have read, and loved, all three). My entirely non-guilty pleasures tend towards crime/noir/espionage/western/war/SF potboilers. 

[AvfcRigo82]

16 hours ago, coda said:

Anything about Unit 731? 

Will let you know if/when I stumble across anything.

[Rodders]

I googled that earlier after reading about that... Christ alive .  It sounds 'worse' than Mengele if such a ghastly comparison can be made.  Japanese seem to be so rubbish at apologising for that type of stuff. ( and I know Britain has been slow in the past too )

 

 

[leemond2008]

5 hours ago, TheMelvillan said:

Im in the middle of the book which is quite similar. Its called The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp and is descibed as "The Omen for the social media age".
Its entertaining enough but it reads a bit like a man who has a list of pop culture references which he is ticking off as he crowbars them into the narrative.

It didn't feel like they were crowbarred into head full of ghosts, they just kind of fitted in and for the most part it worked quite well.

I had a look at jack sparks on Goodreads not long back but didn' really like the look of it if I remember correctly.

Keep us updated on it and let me know if it is worth reading.

[coda]

7 hours ago, Rodders said:

I googled that earlier after reading about that... Christ alive .  It sounds 'worse' than Mengele if such a ghastly comparison can be made.  Japanese seem to be so rubbish at apologising for that type of stuff. ( and I know Britain has been slow in the past too )

There's a bit in a book I mentioned in this thread (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) which led me down the WWII Japanese atrocity rabbit hole. Felt defiled after reading it.

[mjmooney]

12 hours ago, coda said:

There's a bit in a book I mentioned in this thread (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) which led me down the WWII Japanese atrocity rabbit hole. Felt defiled after reading it.

Two books I read as a kid were Lord Russell's reports on German and Japanese war crimes - "The Scourge of the Swastika" and "Knights of Bushido". Grim stuff.