Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Slade House by David Mitchell

How To See by Thich Nhat Hanh. Famous Buddhist monk who was friends with Martin Luther King Jr.

@LN78 Thread jump!
I wasn't surprised. I've read from the period before and it's par for the course, and I'd rather have the genuine period experience of the books than not.

Bond is a fascinating portrait of a man so far (I'm up to the collected version of 'For Your Eyes Only'). Goldfinger and Moonraker have been my favourites so far. Though one of Bond's musings in the 'For Your Eyes Only' short is one of the nicest things I've read in a while.

@LN78 Perhaps through a modern lens he could be thought of as 'a bit of a dick', but on the whole, other than some of the language used he tends to write Bond as both passively progressive and still adhering to attitudes of the time in regards to race. I think that is evident in both 'Live And Let Die' and 'Dr. No'. In fact, I would say that the film of 'Live And Let Die' in its 'blaxploitation' era glory is largely a more racist endeavor than the book.
I find Bond's attitude towards women more interesting. Here again he consistently straddles both sides of the fence being a thorough misogynist yet begrudgingly admiring of many of the woman he encounters. The depiction of his almost always successful womanising is a far more natural, and considerably more consent driven one than most of what the pre-Dalton films portray too.

@LN78
Not to say that I consider the film 'racist' or have any issue with it - it's a great romp! But the book through Felix's assertions and Bond's observations speaks to the agency, social development and 'rise' of the black population in America. We're talking about very different periods of course, so I think there is an almost unavoidable disconnect in perception.
The literary Bond tends to ruminate to varying degrees, and displays a depth that the films often avoid altogether. The appreciably genuine joy Bond takes in the luxurious opportunities his role affords and his actual dislike for unjustified killing just parts of that. I like Fleming's writing quite a lot actually.

@LN78
That's a good buy!

I only started them as I picked up 8 of them for a couple of quid at a boat festival. For whatever reason, the set they were a part of is only 10 of Fleming's books(!), so I'm having to pick up different editions to complete the set (this annoys me greatly)!

I'd be interested to read what you think. It's been a very solid read for me so far. The only slight trip-up I think is 'Dr. No'; mostly just for the Dr himself - it's the first time (and only so far) that I felt like things were a touch on the ridiculous side, like I was reading something from one of the films and my suspension of disbelief was being pushed. The book does recover and, as ever, Bond's observations massively help proceedings.

I'm up to 'Quantum Of Solace' (within 'For Your Eyes Only') now. I managed to get a nice copy of the 2012 penguin 'Vintage' print, so I'll go for more of those when I pick up 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'The Man With The Golden Gun' and 'Octopussy/The Living Daylights'.

@LN78
The 10(!) book set I have is the Penguin Modern Classics one with silver backs and spines. They have brilliant covers (a few with Connery). Such a shame only to have 10 of them.

I've seen it about. I may get it - but I'm probably diving back in to some fantasy/sci-fi series or some such after Bond.

@LN78 I haven't. I did read a review of 'Trigger Mortis' while I was gathering the other 2 books from the classics run.
Not sure if I actually want to read beyond Fleming.

I'm reading "Beyond words. What animals think and feel" by Carl Safina.
At page 60 I discovered that the one-millimetre-long worm "C. Elegans has just 302 nerve cells. (Humans have roughly 100 billion). Yet C. Elegans produces a motivating chemical similar to oxytocin, called nematocin, and its function is similar. It makes the worm seek sex."
Now I wonder if Kojima will please us with a Death Stranding DLC in which we play as a worm.

I'm currently reading Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. It is, in essence, a gloomy romance, with the references to romance being of the time they were written in, and the gloom seeming to anthropomorphize nature itself.

Reading Reality Check by Carol Browne. It's a novella about a lonely middle-aged woman whose house is populated by a number of entities that keep her company. It's very cleverly written and I highly recommend it.

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It's exceptionally well written and stands as one of his best. Does anyone else on here like to read Penguin Classics?

Continuing through the Bond set, I wanted to touch on The Spy Who Loved me and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Spy Who Loved Me. It's an interesting change of pace for the series and shows that despite common perceptions, Fleming was more than capable of writing women. In my post reading research - which I tend to do if the book is markedly different from the film but without standard and obvious reasons - I found that while selling the film rights to the series, Fleming only sold the name to The Spy Who Loved Me and forbade it's adaptation. The book fared badly at the time, was savaged by critics and seemingly not particularly well liked by his regular audience, So dismayed by this, Fleming even blocked second edition and paperback prints of the book, which only happened after he had died.

I was really looking forward to On Her Majesty's Secret Service and wasn't disappointed at all. What a great Bond story! Like many casual Bond fans, I spent quite a long time only thinking about the film adaptation and Lazenby with derision. I came around to the film a few years ago, though it's still not the greatest outing on celluloid.
Something the film had no hope of conveying - is Bond's decision to marry. Not only is it handled very well in the story, we have the benefit of following this Bond over the period of several years. We already know what he thinks of his job, himself, women and the lifestyle he leads. We've the benefit of knowing his frustrations trying to chase Blofeld all over the world. The brilliantly handled relationship with Tracey feels genuine for him.
The film failed in this regard for several reasons, but I do thin the recasting is probably the biggest stumbling block. Had we seen Connery go through all of this after being with him through 5 films already - I think that would have lent a great weight to the narrative. Instead we get a new actor and one of the worst moments (the fourth wall break) in Bond ever put on screen.

Anyway. Still thoroughly enjoying the Bond books. On to You Only Live Twice!

I am currently reading The Hobbit. I find it a great introduction to the LOTR books and am interested in the Middle Earth games as well. Has anyone else read or played these?

I think the ambiguous, deadly yet playful character of Gandalf is an excellent creation ,also ,Beorn is a brilliant character, I won't spoil anything by saying too much about him, except that it would be an understatement to say that he is "at one with nature".

@Draco_V_Ecliptic
Despite my love for epic fantasy, I have tried and failed several times to get in to LOTR. Don't know exactly what it is - but it's never gelled with me.

The Hobbit is a good book though, had to read it at school.

I'm lucky my sister works in a library so has the power to order stuff in. I tend to get a few autobiographies at Christmas so just started Tyson fury's book. It's very interesting and refreshing his honesty about his mental health issues and the negativity he faced for being a traveller

@QualityGeezer That must be an interesting read!

I'm not much for biographies, but Schwarzenegger's was a blast!

@KALofKRYPTON funnily enough I have that too not got round to it yet tho. I've always liked an autobiography as long as it's written well and seems genuine. The best ones I've read have unusually been people I didn't have a massive interest in either such as slash that was a good read

@Draco_V_Ecliptic
I read The Hobbit a few times growing up, was a favourite of mine. The Lord of the Rings, what sequel! Perhaps a bit longer than it needs to be though.

Just started reading Leave it to Psmith by PG Woodhouse. Fiction and comedy rolled into one has always been very tempting to me. And Wodehouse is easily one of the best when it comes to that.