It's hard to pick a favorite between the second and third books. The first was good, but easily the weakest so far.

posted by justincredible

It's hard to pick a favorite between the second and third books. The first was good, but easily the weakest so far.

A lot of that is because it was with the second that King started writing novels in the series. The first book was essentially a collection of five short stories that got put together because they were connected, but the flow isn't as smooth as in the other books. At least that's what I think from reading them.

I'd love to see a television series (live action or animated) adapted from the books. 

posted by justincredible

Why did the dead baby cross the road?

 Because it was stapled to the chicken. Eddie: 

Book IV has started off great. My co-worker says it is mostly Roland's back story, which I am pretty anxious to learn about.

I finished Fire and Fury. It is exactly what people want to it to be. If you think Trump is insane, it plays into that, if you think the book is fiction, I don't fault you from thinking that. It wasn't too well sourced. It was an interesting read though. 

I plowed through Dan Drezner's The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas. It is a good book on how think tanks, media types, colleges, and for profit research firms impact the public policy dialogue in today's media environment. 

I am now reading my old colleague at New America, Brian Fishman's book on ISIS, called the Master Plan. In it, he goes back to Iraq and 2004 and Zarqawi and how his influence and group was the basis and foundation for ISIS. ISIS followed a 2005 al-Qaeda and Zarqawi plan called the Master Plan when spreading into Iraq and Syria. 

Just finished "Charlton Heston - Hollywood's Last Icon" by Marc Eliot.  Interesting, as I'd never known much about him apart from his movies and his NRA affiliation toward the end of his career.

I'm 2/3 done with Dark Tower IV. It's such a great book.

Just finished Mudbound by Hillary Jordan.  Set in rural Mississippi right after WW2.  Really enoyable period novel.  The racism of the Klan and Jim Crow is featured prominently.  Very good story.

posted by justincredible

I'm 2/3 done with Dark Tower IV. It's such a great book.

Yeah, I loved that one. Had this neat "Tombstone meets mysticism" vibe to it with the two rival bands of gunslingers (or gunslinger wanna-bes in the case of the bad guys) mixed in with witchcraft and shit.

Finished Dark Tower IV last week. It was fantastic, but I need to take a small break from the series before I start in on the last 3 books. I should be able to finish the series sometime in March.

I'm about halfway through a book called Dirty Shirt: A Boundary Waters Memoir. Given my love of the Boundary Waters and the $5 kindle credit I had, this book ($4.99) made sense. I'm enjoying it so far, but it's not a super compelling story. Just one guy telling stories about his many trips to the area with his brothers, carrying on his fathers legacy of spending time in the wilderness (his dad died when he was 5).

I also started in on Canoecraft: An Illustrated Guide to Fine Woodstrip Construction last night. If I can help it I'd like to be paddling my own canoe on my Boundary Waters trip this year. I've got about 7 months to learn, plan, and build to meet that goal.

Reading "Misery" by Stephen Kind. Still have a bunch of his downloaded that I need to get get through. Tried to start Salem's Lot but it was really slow, and I'm not sure I'm into Vampire stuff

Misery is on my short list to read. The movie terrified me as a kid, and I really enjoyed it when we watched it around Halloween last year.

posted by iclfan2

Reading "Misery" by Stephen Kind. Still have a bunch of his downloaded that I need to get get through. Tried to start Salem's Lot but it was really slow, and I'm not sure I'm into Vampire stuff

As vampire books go, that is near the peak. It does start slow with introducing the main characters, giving a lengthy "here's small town life here" summary and so on, but when it kicks into gear, you get to watch an entire town get disappeared. Been a while since I've read it, but it's something like 25-30% set-up and then pure straight-up fanging the rest of the way.

posted by Heretic

As vampire books go, that is near the peak. It does start slow with introducing the main characters, giving a lengthy "here's small town life here" summary and so on, but when it kicks into gear, you get to watch an entire town get disappeared. Been a while since I've read it, but it's something like 25-30% set-up and then pure straight-up fanging the rest of the way.

Thanks for the insight. I’m sure I’ll read it bc it’s in the top 10 of most lists I look at, just need to power through.

Just picked up Born to Run and Titan today. Looking forward to diving into both of those.

Finished The Lost City of Z this morning. I'm going to start Troublemaker by Leah Remini on the drive home. It's a memoir that talks a lot about her time in Scientology and subsequent departure from the religion.

Got the itch to read again for the first time in a couple of yrs. Picked up Born to Run and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller. Started Born to Run and I'm captivated thus far.

I considered jumping back into The Dark Tower series audiobooks today (with book 5), but the new narrator is not good. Frank Muller was so damn good, but was in a motorcycle accident in 2001 and spent the next 7 years in the hospital until he died in 2008.

posted by Commander of Awesome

Started Born to Run and I'm captivated thus far.

The running book? I enjoyed that one alot

Started The Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball. It has been on my shelf for a while now. 

posted by iclfan2

The running book? I enjoyed that one alot

Yep, this one: https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189

I'm only 40 pages in it so far, but I can't wait to dive more into how they're able to run such long distances.

I finished Troublemaker today, it was an interesting book. I'm going to start Different Seasons by Stephen King next. It's a collection of novellas, including The Body (Stand by Me) and Rita Heyworth and Shawshank Redemption.

Just finished "Toni Tenille - A Memoire", after seeing it mentioned by the Diva.  Quite an eye-opener, apparently her and the Captain were absolutely incompatible except for their love of music.  I knew Daryl Dragon had been with the Beach Boys before they met, but I did not know Toni Tenillehad  also joined the group as a piano player and back-up singer before they made it big on their own.

I forgot to mention I've also been reading a mindless zombie apocalypse book called Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manuel Louriero. It was free through Prime Reading so I gave it a shot. It's been a fun read so far.