The Shroud Underground

Rob Davies · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:49 pm Post subject:

20th Century Ghosts is amazing. Not a bad story in the collection.
His novel Heart-Shaped Box is great, too.

Phil Kuhlman · Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:16 am Post subject:

I'll have to look those up. Sadly, in kerrville, Texas the only book store that gets new stuff is a Hastings, and it's horror selection is really lame. It's a good place to get cheap hardback King novels since they buy back books, but most of my collection is from the old book shop here in town. I actually managed to get a 1st edition of "The King In Yellow" and a 1st printing of "Best Supernatural Stories of HP Lovecraft" ( the first popular edition in hardback of his work) for 20 bucks each. The best collection I got though is a very cool one called "Hauntings" with art by Ed Gorey. But aside from that it's next to impossible to find anything written by a new author from the last 20 years here. When I'm a bit more healed up from the surgery/cancer I'm hoping to head to San Antonio to shuffle through the bookstores, so I'm using this thread to add to my shopping list. Very Happy

Tom Piccirilli · Disciple Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 45

I love bookstores as much as any bibliophile, but I'd be lost without Amazon.com. Prices are cheaper, they get books sooner than most stores, no tax, and if you order $25 of stuff, shipping is free. You just can't beat it, and it all comes right to your door.

Currently reading Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake's) new Parker novel DIRTY MONEY, and while I'm digging it this one, like the two before it in the series, are significantly less action-packed than his other books. I might have to reread some of the earlier ones just to get the flavor of old Parker back.

Also started my buddy Jack O'Connell's new one THE RESURRECTIONIST, which is a cross-genre crime/thriller/offbeat fantasy. Which features circus freaks. Who doesn't love circus freaks?
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Tom Piccirilli is the author of twenty novels including THE COLD SPOT, THE MIDNIGHT ROAD, THE DEAD LETTERS, and A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN. Learn more at: www.tompiccirilli.com

KevinLucia · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:14 am Post subject: Reading....

20th Century Ghosts WAS amazing....better than Heart Shaped Box, (though that was good, too), IMHO.

Reading "The Ruins", by Scott Smith.

I'm never gardening again.

Nathaniel Lambert · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: Re: Reading....

KevinLucia · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:37 am Post subject: Ruins

It WAS slow...took me a few chapters....but when I got into the story, it was done in a few days. Good stuff.

Nathaniel Lambert · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:29 pm Post subject:

Just finished BLAZE. It was a very emotional read, heartfelt even. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

KevinLucia · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:36 pm Post subject: Blaze

You know...reading that as a parent, especially of two newborns in the last three years, was TOUGH. I also liked it - not as bad as King himself was making it out to be (calling it a "trunk novel").

Nathaniel Lambert · Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 2:00 pm Post subject:

The Clockwork Orange.

I read this in high school, O' so many moons ago, because I was obsessed with Stanley Kubrick. Needless to say I completely missed the entire point Burgess was trying to make. I just thought it was a novel about ultra-violence with a shitload of made up slang.

The ultra-violence was just a machine Burgess used to drive home his point. It was a filler and could have been replaced with any powerfully charged emotion. His intro to the book really gives insight into how ingenius this man really was.

To tell you the truth I didn't have a clue what "A Clockwork Orange" was until I read the meaning right from Mr. Burgess. And I gotta say that three word phrase is the PERFECT description of man and human nature/tendencies and society's plight to scaffold something that cannot be. In fact, without constraints we're capable of so much more.

I know that a clockwork orange means something to my friends across the big pond, but I'm a naive midwesterner who's only exposure to other cultures is watching Andy Zimmern on The Travel Channel.

In the introduction Anthony Burgess states, in reference to his meaning of a clockwork orange, that "I meant it to stand for the application of a mechanistic morality to a living organism oozing with juice and sweetness."

Can you make a perfect, ninety degree angle out of flesh and blood?

Fuckin' beautiful, man!

John P. Wilson · Disciple Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 44

Yeah, Clockwork Orange is a masterpiece. I love how he invents his own language. It really isn't too hard to follow either, once you get into the rythm of his prose. Oddly, I haven't checked out any of his other novels. I need too though.
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"You feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?"

Rob Davies · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 2:36 pm Post subject:

I love A Clockwork Orange, but I haven't reread it in a while. Must put it on the pile. I just got the Blu-Ray version of the movie, and it looks amazing.

I just finished The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which is an excellent book. Especially if you grew up playing D&D, reading SF and comic books, and watching anime and Dr. Who.

I just started Edward Lee's Flesh Gothic, and I'm rereading Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.

Blu Gilliand · Initiate Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 12

My to-be-read pile is ridiculous:

Right now, I'm reading THE COLD SPOT by Tom Piccirilli. It never made it to the pile - started reading it straight out of the mailbox.

Blu

Nathaniel Lambert · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 8:50 pm Post subject:

Blu,
My wife would make me sleep in there with the books. I've seen that picture somewhere else. Was it at the Horror Mall?

Blu Gilliand · Initiate Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 12

Nathaniel Lambert · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject:

A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN by our very own
BLACK HOUSE by KING and STRAUB