A jolly good read?

[Paddingtonwolf]

I have read all of the Wheel of Time. Christ it took ages!

 

[Johnny75]

A wheely long time?

 

[Kenny]

A wheely long time?

You should hang your head in shame at this...mainly as I was going to post it and thought "nah, its proper shit even for me"

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Wheely Wheely long time. 12 books averaging about 1200 pages each.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I might try Wheel of Time again soon but I have my Le Carre to read when it arrives and I am only midway through the first book of Saga of the Exiles by Julian May (about fifth read through of that series).

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

My mate at school was into Wheel of Time, that was in the early 90's. Just had a quick google and seen how big a series it turned into, blimey!

 

[Dire Wolf]

Currently about half way through Billy Summers, the new Stephen King. It’s great. I always think he’s at his best when he’s not writing horror, and this is (so far) thoroughly worth reading.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Interesting. I love me a bit of King. Will check it out

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I’m looking forward to reading it once I’ve cleared my birthday book backlog. I thought The Institute was his best book for years.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

I was looking at some King books the other day. Was it the Stand that someone recommended on here?

It's been a very long time since I read Christine, for some reason I never really read any other of his novels

 

[Dire Wolf]

I was looking at some King books the other day. Was it the Stand that someone recommended on here?

It's been a very long time since I read Christine, for some reason I never really read any other of his novels

Different Seasons, a collection of 4 short novels is excellent. It includes The Body which was made into Stand By Me and Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption. Worth it for those stories alone. Absolutely brilliant.

 

[lemonjelly]

Has anyone read the (or part of the) Ben Aaronovitch Rivers of London Series?

I am hoping for a couple of Stephen Kings Dark Tower series for my birthday, as I acquired a few individual (as yet unread) parts, but need books 1 & 3 to enable me to start on the series proper.

 

[lemonjelly]

I was looking at some King books the other day. Was it the Stand that someone recommended on here?

It's been a very long time since I read Christine, for some reason I never really read any other of his novels

His On Writing is a really good book to read. The Dark Half is good, as is The Green Mile. I enjoyed from a Buick 8, and also seem to recall Needful Things was good, but that was read a long time ago! Recently read Finders Keepers that was enjoyable. 11/22/63 is a really good novel.
Avoid insomnia. I am still angry at what a terrible ending it has.

 

[BillyDee]

The only Steven King book I've read (well, Richard Bachman...) is The Running Man. I went through a bit of reading books that had been turned into films I'd seen. Loved the film, the book is very different, more like the Channel 4 show Hunted but actually the better for it.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

If you want to read the horror Stephen King I would argue that the best ones in rough order are

The Stand
It
The Shining
Salem’s Lot
Carrie
Christine

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

It's been between 10 and 20 years since I read most King books and I have only read a couple more than once so my memory may be letting me down, but the ones that stand out in my mind are (in chronological order):

Salem's Lot
The Shining
The Stand
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Pet Sematary
It
The Green Mile
Bag of Bones
Lisey's Story
11/22/63
Joyland
The Institute

There are probably others I really enjoyed that I have forgotten how good they were. There are also some, like Dolores Claiborne and Rose Madder that I couldn't tell you a single thing about them despite having read them. All I remember about Dreamcatcher is that it had farting aliens in it!

Pretty much anything he wrote up to and including Misery is worth reading and then he goes a bit hit and miss. I personally think that Joyland and The Institute are the pick of his recent offerings. Both are superb.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Thanks for the replies, the above has given me a good ideas of what to target once I come out of the GoT marathon I'm on, ta.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Finished Billy Summers last night. Really enjoyed it. A criticism of many King books is that the endings can be weak, I certainly didn’t feel that way about this. The bad guy who is a good guy/good guy who is a bad guy trope is a familiar one but it’s done with warmth and heart and the surrounding characters add meat to the bones. Definitely worth a read.

 

[lemonjelly]

not long finished One Day by David Nicholls. I'd really recommend it. Bits of the story floating around in my head a lot. Possible spoiler warning!

have to say though, absolutely brutal way to end the book. Found the last few chapters to be quite emotional tbh. Got caught out in a way, realising there was going to be a death in the story, turned the page and saw the death outlined, and realised it was 1am and I was knackered. So got left on a proper cliffhanger for 2 days before I was able to finish it.

 

[Jack Regan]

Surprised to see today that Bernard Cornwell is releasing a new Sharpe book later this month. I suppose Uthred is knocking on a bit these days, if he's still going (only halfway through the series) so be interesting to see what Sharpe is up too some 15 years since his last appearance.