What are we reading?

[BanzaiCat]

I don't know if I could stand to read something like that.  Even if no specific titles/projects were mentioned, I still suspect I would want to either weep and/or howl in rage for all the great films that aren't getting made.  I salute you, sir!

It's talked a bit about the development of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and a movie that never saw the light of day, Smoke and Mirrors. I just started reading it and so far it's been a really good read.

As an aside: anyone remember the movie Manos: The Hands of Fate, by chance?

Almost certainly one of the greatest episodes of MST3K ever.  ;D

I was part of a movie that's still shooting called The Rise of Torgo. It's a prequel to Manos. A local guy, someone I've worked with on other projects, is putting it together. He's been getting a bit of publicity, including Playboy magazine calling him up wanting to do an interview. Funny thing, the guy that did Manos never copyrighted the work, and other folks tried to put together a sequel, but it never came to be. I played a (very creepy) sheriff's deputy, and my daughter played one of the Master's wives, lol. I'd post a picture but the guy asked me not to share those until he was ready for it.

He's captured all the terrible production angles that made Manos so freaking hilariously awful, so here's hoping this movie has some of that...uh...charm. ;)

[Greybriar]

Night of the Hunter by R.A. Salvatore.

[MetalDog]

Night of the Hunter by R.A. Salvatore.

Is that a Drizzt book?  Or something else by him?

[Greybriar]

Night of the Hunter by R.A. Salvatore.

Is that a Drizzt book?  Or something else by him?

According to Wikipedia, it is Book XXV of The Legend of Drizzt series. If I had known that, I would have begun with Book I, Homeland.

[MetalDog]

It's been too many years since I kept up with the ins and outs of Salvatore's Drizzt character.  His first appearance was, Streams of Silver if I remember correctly.  That's where he took off.  I believe the next series started with Homeland and went into Menzoberranzan, home of the Drow.  After that, I lost track.  To know that he got 25 books out of an ensemble character does my heart good.

[Toonces]

I recently finished another fantastic book by Guy Gavriel Kay called River of Stars which takes place in the same universe as, but several decades later than, the story in Under Heaven.

Now I'm reading many books concurrently, but the three most noteworthy are: Game of Thrones Book 4: A Feast for Crows, The U.S. Army in WW2: Guadalcanal- The First Offensive, and Elusive Victory.

[BanzaiCat]

I've gotten more into Tales from Development Hell and gotta recommend it highly to anyone that has an interest in movies. Read a really interesting chapter about how the Lord of the Rings series came out (not much on the animated movie with its "where there's a whip there's a way" toe-tapper), a chapter on the development of Total Recall and how Minority Report was intended to be a Total Recall sequel, and several other interesting bits. Still have more than 3/4 of the book to go, but it's very interesting.

[bob48]

I've just finished 'Battle of the Bulge Vol 3, the 3rd Fallschirmjager Division in action Dec 1944 - Jan 1945' by Hans Wijers.

On order with Amazon I have Iain.M.Bank's last 'Culture' book, Hydrogen Sonata' and 'Hitler's Spanish Legion - The Blue Division' which is due out in July.

[BanzaiCat]

I guess I should be reading some war books or sumthin' instead of these panty-waist Hollywood primers.

[Greybriar]

Since Night of the Hunter is the XXV book of the The Legend of Drizzt series and I hadn't read any of them yet, the first book of the series, Homeland, is on its way to me now.

While I am awaiting its arrival, I am reading Spellcasters: Witches and Witchcraft in History, Folklore, and Popular Culture by Pauline Bartel. It's an interesting read so far.

[Staggerwing]

While I am awaiting its arrival, I am reading Spellcasters: Witches and Witchcraft in History, Folklore, and Popular Culture by Pauline Bartel. It's an interesting read so far.

Wow. $82.50 at B&N is a bit steep. Especially when you can get a 'very good' used copy from Amazon starting at 83 cents.

An interesting title though. Now added to my 'buy later' list.

[Gusington]

^Right in my wheelhouse...gotta check that title out. Thanks Greybriar.

[Greybriar]

You're welcome, Gus.

[airboy]

I finished the Widowmaker series by Mike Resnik.  Then reread Second Contact.

Listening (audiobook) to Monster Hunter Alpha by Larry Correia.

I've been reading a number of religious books lately that were suggested by my wife.  Riding the Dragon was less than useful.  I'm reading "Why to Catholics Genuflect" which is very interesting.  I'm reading bits and pieces of "50 Ways to Pray."

I have been doing the daily Mass (Bible) readings for several months.  Lots o' stress in my life that I'm trying to get a handle on.

[JasonPratt]

Greybriar,

Up to the point I stopped reading (or just never started the next set to be more accurate, with The Thousand Orcs), the Drizzt series has run in trilogies; so while the books do tend to have coherently contained stories (more-or-less), they are also intended to be read in their appropriate sets. Anyway from experience I'd imagine if you find you like Homeland, you'll like the next two books, too; but the trilogies tend to have different tones per set so one trilogy doesn't necessarily indicate whether a reader will like the next trilogy and so forth.

This will be more true than usual when you finish the origin trilogy, which was written as a prequel, and move on to the Ten Towns trilogy, where Drizzt is a kewl secondary character for the team (because that was how he was designed) and the story focuses on Wulfgar (or whatever his name is) the barbarian for three books. Unless Salvatore has done a repolish, you'll find those three books a lot more rough-edged, too, naturally. ;) Things go back to Drizzt as essentially the main character (usually) from then on. (There are occasional digression books for a different character.)

If you get far enough to run across a holy cleric off in the mountains somewhere, because a pirate ship was teleported into a lake (don't ask, makes sense in context), you may want to digress off for a whole five book origin series on that guy (The Cleric Quintet), which was regarded for a while (maybe still is?) as Salvatore's best series. The books are all nicely short and well-paced, so you should burn through any of them quickly.

Kind of makes me want to re-collect and reread the series on Kindle now. :)