Books - What are you reading?

Also just read Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. It was excellent! Definitely recommend if you can find it.

coming up to halfway through the 3rd book in the Lord of the Rings series....wondering what that as the ring had been 'destroyed" what was going to happen next......when it turns out the rest of the book is the Appendix! Has anyone read all of the Appendix?

Yes (the Appendices, though). However, if you want to get into Middle-earth more fully, I'd recommend taking a break from the LotR here and turning to the 'Silmarillion' (if you haven't read that yet). The Appendices were intended by Tolkien to give some background to the LotR so people could understand how deeply-rooted in history the story was, and they were also, frankly, a gathering-place for some ancillary material that Tolkien didn't have a story for. The 'Silmarillion' has flaws (well-documented by Christopher Tolkien in the History of Middle-earth series), but is probably a better place to continue than the Appendices, which give tantalising glimpses at the Silmarillion material. I'd recommend reading the 'Silmarillion' together with 'The Atlas of Middle-earth' by Karen Wynn Fonstad (good maps that make what happens a lot clearer).

Alternatively, you could try getting on with some of the recent editions by Christopher Tolkien of the Great Tales of the First Age--'The Fall of Gondolin', 'The Children of Húrin', 'Beren and Lúthien'. These are not fully-formed books but compiled from drafts wholly or partially published before, but re-edited. 'The Children of Húrin' is Tolkien's second-best dramatic idea, after LotR, I think (as I said, not fully-written, but comprehensible with a bit of thought).

Obviously, if you don't want to get into it that heavily, feel free to read the Appendices next. The above recommendations are really just for a different order, as the Appendices came out before a lot of other material that I think it is best to read first.

There's a timeline somewhere in the appendix that details what happened to the main LOTR characters after the book ends. That bit is worth reading for sure.

Currently reading: Snowden, Permanent Record.
Just finished: Cross Channel, Julian Barnes. Lovely (and even more for a French reader, maybe?)

Just finished Heart of Darkness. It just made me want to watch Apocalypse Now again (for the 3rd time this year...)

It's become more of a study than a story, to me. I must admit that the background does not necessarily add to the 'story'. A bit like a short chapter at the end of a book which charts what happened to the main characters...except that this is half the book.

Yes, that's why I recommended reading it later. The Appendices were put together because of the flood of letters Tolkien and his publisher received, especially in the 60s when the success of LotR became a global phenomenon, that asked for more information about all the tantalising glimpses into the past that occur in the book. There are now much better sources of information available if you're interested in the same things as those letter-writers. If you only wanted to read LotR and not immerse yourself in Middle-earth any further, you can safely stop now.

Yes, I think will stop now. Actually, I may watch the film.....I've not seen them(?) yet!

Noooooo, don't watch the films--preserve your memories. The films are utter, utter shit. :(

OK! Incidentally, I read Game of thrones when it first cane out and have yet to watch any of the series! However, the rule of never reading the book after watching the film holds firm.

Can anyone think of good examples of films that are as good/ better than the book? The only things I can think of off the top of my head are Annihilation and Apocalypse Now (which is a very, very loose adaptation anyway).

Actually, when I was a teenager I read The Godfather and thought it was great but I imagine as an adult who's opinion of a book isn't directly linked to the abundance of violence/ shagging, I might prefer the film version.

Jaws
Silence of the Lambs
[alan partridge voice] Jurassic Park

Almost finished

The Cronenberg adaptation of Crash is worth watching! Similar, disgusting tone. I really rate High Rise, Concrete Island is alright, not on the same level for me though. Drowned World is worth reading too.

Oh actually, the film version of High Rise is decent too!

That Conrad wrote so well in his second language continues to amaze me. The start of the book as the boat leaves London and heads out the Thames Estuary is an amazing piece of writing.

A book I first read as a teenager and I still return to it over and over.

Can anyone think of good examples of films that are as good/ better than the book?

Not off the top of my head, but I've seen a lot of films based on rubbish books, so in a way that bar is not too high. I'd say some of the 50s pulp fiction transfers to the big screen would probably qualify, although I can't say that I've read a lot of pulp fiction.

Noah (2014) by Aranofsky is based on a story from a children's book and is a terrible film but still better than its source material.

cf The Ten Commandments.

Lucky Jim is a little subtle these days and the type of people it pokes fun at are a little obscure to us now, but it contains the prototype hangover paragraph.

Stephen king films if Stephen king is kept away from the film:

The Shining
Carrie
Stand by Me
Misery

Game of thrones the TV show is a huge improvement on the printed garbage source material

The Bourne films are vastly superior to the total fucking dreck that Ludlum wrote

Have you tried to read The Godfather

Ok none of this is great literature

Sorry for spamming the book thread...Super Cannes is worth a go...made me feel sick

Mr Men TV series with the voice of Arthur Lowe....sooooo much better that the books!