Literature thread

[uhmmaybe]

Skimmed through Deception Point by Dan Brown cus I wanted something easy to read. I'm surprised he's a respected writer cus his novels are so formulaic and you can so tell he wrote with the goal of turning it into a film - with the cheesy one liners and how each chapter end like scenes in a movie.

[Cianyx]

I wouldn't say he is respected per se...

[MuggedByReality]

I wouldn't say he is respected per se...

Maybe in the same way porn stars are respected

[Spreadbury]

Some of my favourites:

Everything Edgar Allan Poe; including Berenice, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Purloined Letter, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Premature Burial, just to name a few (haha). Poe is a master of twists- some as surprising as a movie by M. Night Shyamalan

I also like Zenith and Equinox by Dirk Strasser

[iffets12345]

 
   Martin Amis on the stylistic flaws in one of John Updike's last works:

 "The following wedge of prose has two things wrong with it: one big thing and one little thing - one infelicity and one howler. Read it with attention. If you can spot both, then you have what is called a literary ear.

    ... Craig Martin took an interest in the traces left by prior owners of his land. In the prime of his life, when he worked every weekday and socialised all weekend, he had pretty much ignored his land."

The minor flaw is the proximity of prior and prime. This gives us a dissonant rime riche on the first syllable; and the two words, besides, are etymological half-siblings, and should never be left alone together without many intercessionary chaperones. And the major flaw? The first sentence ends with the words "his land"; and so, with a resonant clunk, does the second. Mere quibbles, some may say. But we are addressing ourselves to John Updike, who was perhaps the greatest virtuoso stylist since Nabokov - who, in his turn, was perhaps the greatest virtuoso stylist since Joyce..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/04/my-fathers-tears-john-updike

Thanks you reminded me to read War against Cliche- Martin Amis.

[MuggedByReality]

  Yeah, that's on my list, along with 1000 other titles

[Cianyx]

Anyone have that problem where they begin too many books at once?

[iffets12345]

I try not to but sometimes one is so boring. When I was younger I would finish one book and read the next easily, but as I'm older I have trouble after my vce hiatus ><
Just read The brethren-John Grisham for leisure. Yea, its more entertainment than lit.

[uhmmaybe]

I used to, but now I skim through a few books before settling on one.
Recently finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass. Loved the illustrations and made me appreciate Tim Burton's film.

[iffets12345]

Read Hound of Baskervilles, um for some reason I thought I had heard the story mentioned in another novel and thought there was some reference to fake footsteps being made, so it was anticlimatic when I found out....

 *SPOILERS*

 there was a REAL DOG.

[Cianyx]

Oh.. My.. Gawd..

I've never read Sherlock for some reason.

Recently finished Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass.

Awesome. One of my all time favourites

[MuggedByReality]

  Finally got around to reading The Day of the Jackal by Fredderick Forsyth and it doesn't disappoint. One of the best thrillers out there.