Book Review

[Seed of Memory]

@baldmountain Here we go. I'll pop it off. I literally own thousands of books so not sure where to start. Definitely keeping any political books out of the equation for all of our sanity.

I'll start somewhere a bit unknown. Robert B Parker is one of my favorite authors. He passed away a few years ago and his series has been continued by a ghost writer but as usual, the quality is never the same as the original. He has 3 main series: Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall. Spenser was started in the 70s and the other 2 series are somewhat spin-offs of Spenser. They all inter-connect at some point. Spenser is my personal favorite. I don't care for the Sunny Randall books and the Jesse Stone series is just okay.

Spenser has about 30+ books in his anthology. He is a Boston PI with a penchant for being a smart ass. Probably why I like the series. Anyway, the cast of characters is extremely varied and the cases are of a different sort than what you would see in a James Patterson novel. There is a lot of history kind of meshed in and since the author is from Boston you can actually look at a map of Boston and see where the characters are going. The first book in the series is called The Godwulf Manuscript and the last written by RBP is Sixkill.

 

[Seed of Memory]

@socaljoe

 

[socaljoe]

@baldmountain Here we go. I'll pop it off. I literally own thousands of books so not sure where to start. Definitely keeping any political books out of the equation for all of our sanity.

I'll start somewhere a bit unknown. Robert B Parker is one of my favorite authors. He passed away a few years ago and his series has been continued by a ghost writer but as usual, the quality is never the same as the original. He has 3 main series: Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall. Spenser was started in the 70s and the other 2 series are somewhat spin-offs of Spenser. They all inter-connect at some point. Spenser is my personal favorite. I don't care for the Sunny Randall books and the Jesse Stone series is just okay.

Spenser has about 30+ books in his anthology. He is a Boston PI with a penchant for being a smart ass. Probably why I like the series. Anyway, the cast of characters is extremely varied and the cases are of a different sort than what you would see in a James Patterson novel. There is a lot of history kind of meshed in and since the author is from Boston you can actually look at a map of Boston and see where the characters are going. The first book in the series is called The Godwulf Manuscript and the last written by RBP is Sixkill.

That sounds like something right up my alley. I've been a big fan of Michael Connelly and his various series, the best known and most expansive being his Harry Bosch series. And if you're not familiar, Bosch is a homicide detective and the stories take place in and around Los Angeles generally.

I've read damn near everything Stephen King has written, Dean Koontz as well. For something a bit more subversive, I've enjoyed many Chuck Palahniuk novels. Robert Ludlum is a favorite for his spy/thriller novels...though I still haven't read the Jason Bourne trilogy.

I could talk books for hours and hours, but I'll leave it there for now. I've got quite the backlog of historical nonfiction books to plow through, and I still need to finish reading The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn...as haunting a read as it is.

 

[Seed of Memory]

@socaljoe I'm actually a pretty big fan of Michael Connelly. I own quite a few of his works. If you like those you would enjoy Robert Parker. My favorite author of all time is George RR Martin, followed by Anne Bishop. She isn't as well known but she has a series called the Black Jewels Trilogy. The anthology is more like 8 books but it is a great fantasy/mystery. Actually, part of my right sleeve is dedicated to it. She weaves a great web. I've read all of Stephen King's work up to 2010 but by and large I've never really enjoyed them. What period of non-fiction do you prefer? I typically stick to world wars 1 and 2 and the dark/middle ages running from Longshanks to the French Revolution.

 

[Gweedo]

Please don't laugh, but I've been a Clive cussler fan since I was about 12 lol don't read much paperback these days but did a ton when I was a kid, can't remember the author but the clan of the cavebear books were great as well, if not a bit graphic for a kid to read

 

[Seed of Memory]

Please don't laugh, but I've been a Clive cussler fan since I was about 12 lol don't read much paperback these days but did a ton when I was a kid, can't remember the author but the clan of the cavebear books were great as well, if not a bit graphic for a kid to read

Man, we all have our shame reads. Lmao. Mine is Harry Potter. I'm a grown ass woman and I almost bought a fucking $60 Slytherin robe. I've read Clive Cussler before. I even still own a few.

 

[Gweedo]

my wife is a huge Potter nut, weve got all kinds of stuff around lol goblets wands and what not

 

[baldmountain]

I used to listen to Robert B Parker books on tape during my commute. I remember enjoying the stories but the dialog drove me bananas. He said "blah blah blah", then she said "blah blah blah", then he said "blah blah blah", then she said "blah blah blah". The he said, she saids got to me.

 

[baldmountain]

Harry Potter is being at our house too. My daughter learned to read with Sorcerer's Stone.

I've sent a couple Cusslers too. I like them.

I'm a science fiction nerd to Heinlein, Simak, Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Neal Stephenson, Gibson, Gaiman, etc are all on my favorites list.

My shame is Stephany Plum novels by Janet Evanovich.

 

[MtRainDog]

Kurt Vonnegut Sirens of Titan. Hand's down favorite. The Jerry Garcia foundation owns the film rights, and never allowed a movie to be made believing no one could do the book justice. Highly recommended, easy read.

 

[Seed of Memory]

@baldmountain I love Neil Gaiman. He is such an amazing fantasy writer. So is Andrzej Sapkowski. There are 2 books out there and they are prologue by GRRM and Neil Gaiman. They are collections of short stories but they are fantastic. Up to 15 writers in each collection. Dangerous Women and Book of Swords.

 

[Hotwired]

Connelly signed all of my books in person in a Delray Beach book store where he did his readings. I had all of his first edition first printing books in awesome condition. I bought most of them at the store and had them signed right there by him. He even signed his first 2 books he wrote that I brought to the store with me. Very nice guy in person

 

[Seed of Memory]

Connelly signed all of my books in person in a Delray Beach book store where he did his readings. I had all of his first edition first printing books in awesome condition. I bought most of them at the store and had them signed right there by him. He even signed his first 2 books he wrote that I brought to the store with me. Very nice guy in person

That would be awesome. We never have book signings here. I'd have to to back to GA for one. I'm still buying books regardless though. Only person I know who even has a barnes & noble account and a BAM account. You have good book stores in your area?

 

[H.A.F.]

I like the SciFi/Fantasy stuff mostly. Tom Clancy, Cussler and some other for the reality based stuff.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - there's a 5 book series. Lots of dry humor like Monty Python.
Lord of the Rings
Heinlein books (Starship Troopers writer)
Roger Zelazny books
Michael Moorcock eternal champion books (like the old Conan stuff)

 

[ChronicWonders]

I enjoyed Brian Jacques Redwall books as a kid. Otherwise it was Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain. I dislike people so animals, running away and living in a solitary environment always appealed...

 

[Hotwired]

That would be awesome. We never have book signings here. I'd have to to back to GA for one. I'm still buying books regardless though. Only person I know who even has a barnes & noble account and a BAM account. You have good book stores in your area?

Just that one in Delray. I mainly ordered my Koontz signed collection thru a guy in California who was personal friends with Koontz. Even Koontz emailed me to buy my signed books there. Most of my other books were thru ebay and ABE.

When I got sick I sold my whole collection. Over 50 authors with Stephen King being my most profitable and Koontz behind him. I tallied up my expenditures....................ie book purchases, shipping, materials and whatever else, then tallied up all the money I made in selling them. I couldn't believe I made only about $2k profit.

I spent $31k on my whole collection and made $33k back when I sold them. This was right before the crash in 2007 and 2008. Book prices were dropping like crazy and I lost a ton of money because of that. If I still had those same exact books now they would net me $60k.

I had a signed copy first first of King's Salem's Lot. Newer signing so just his sig and date, not the older type sigs with his usual "To XXXX" with a short statement on the cover page. Those were worth more. People on ebay drooled for it. I also had 5 or 6 clamshell case hardcover signed and numbered by him that people went nuts for.

I miss my books

 

[socaljoe]

@socaljoe I'm actually a pretty big fan of Michael Connelly. I own quite a few of his works. If you like those you would enjoy Robert Parker. My favorite author of all time is George RR Martin, followed by Anne Bishop. She isn't as well known but she has a series called the Black Jewels Trilogy. The anthology is more like 8 books but it is a great fantasy/mystery. Actually, part of my right sleeve is dedicated to it. She weaves a great web. I've read all of Stephen King's work up to 2010 but by and large I've never really enjoyed them. What period of non-fiction do you prefer? I typically stick to world wars 1 and 2 and the dark/middle ages running from Longshanks to the French Revolution.

Very cool, I'll try to remember to check out Parker one of these days.

George RR Martin is awesome. I didn't even get into fantasy books when I was rambling earlier. R.A. Salvatore is an awesome fantasy writer.

I've heard that from quite a few people about Stephen King. I think I can see why some people don't care for his style, he tends to spend a lot of time on character development and setting the scene, whereas someone like Dean Koontz just dives into the action within a few chapters...sets that hook quick, and then fills in details as he goes.

I'm very into WW1 and WW2 and the respective time periods. I primarily listen to podcasts on the topics. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History and Daniele Bolelli's History on Fire are great history podcasts...if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[ChronicWonders]

I enjoy history. Ill have to check them out during a trim session...

 

[Seed of Memory]

Very cool, I'll try to remember to check out Parker one of these days.

George RR Martin is awesome. I didn't even get into fantasy books when I was rambling earlier. R.A. Salvatore is an awesome fantasy writer.

I've heard that from quite a few people about Stephen King. I think I can see why some people don't care for his style, he tends to spend a lot of time on character development and setting the scene, whereas someone like Dean Koontz just dives into the action within a few chapters...sets that hook quick, and then fills in details as he goes.

I'm very into WW1 and WW2 and the respective time periods. I primarily listen to podcasts on the topics. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History and Daniele Bolelli's History on Fire are great history podcasts...if you're into that sort of thing.

So much to unpack here. Lol. I was trying to individually reply to each section when i realized i kind of have a response for all of it.

Fantasy is probably my favorite genre. And it kind of leans in to how i feel about Stephen King. I have an extremely vivid imagination. I feel King takes that from you as a reader. He puts so much detail in that there is no room at all to kind of paint the scene in your head at your own leisure. So that is exactly why I never cared for his writing. It is just too much. I like to leave some things up to the imagination. I did always enjoy Dean Koontz and keep an extensive collection of his books in my little personal library.

Thanks for the info on the podcasts. I listen to them all the time. I drive an hour to work each day so that is 2 hours of just sitting in my car bored. I've listened to everything i could find so it will be great to hear something new. I needed some rejuvenation there.

 

[socaljoe]

So much to unpack here. Lol. I was trying to individually reply to each section when i realized i kind of have a response for all of it.

Fantasy is probably my favorite genre. And it kind of leans in to how i feel about Stephen King. I have an extremely vivid imagination. I feel King takes that from you as a reader. He puts so much detail in that there is no room at all to kind of paint the scene in your head at your own leisure. So that is exactly why I never cared for his writing. It is just too much. I like to leave some things up to the imagination. I did always enjoy Dean Koontz and keep an extensive collection of his books in my little personal library.

Thanks for the info on the podcasts. I listen to them all the time. I drive an hour to work each day so that is 2 hours of just sitting in my car bored. I've listened to everything i could find so it will be great to hear something new. I needed some rejuvenation there.

Most criticisms I've heard about SK are that his books are too long or move too slow. I can totally see how you'd feel that way about King. I have always appreciated his level of detail, I feel like it helps me to visualize it better, I don't have a particularly vivid imagination.