Second rec for Joe Hill's books - my favorite so far is NOS4A2 but they are all good. He's definitely got his dad's chops.

I'm still reading that Regional Horror Film book myself. I keep getting bogged down trying to find some of the films - but what a great little resource. I have my copy on loan from a friend but I would like to add this to my personal library if I ever find a good used copy.

I love Guy N. Smith books - ever since discovering his killer crab series a few years ago. I read 'em whenever I find 'em but haven't found that one yet.

I have also been reading John Huston's autobiography, An Open Book, and just started Bentley Little's The Walking this last weekend.

Powells Books!

Yeah, I rarely leave without an armload of cool books.

I think it pays off to read them in order as you are doing. You can see over the first few books what a toll everything starts to take on Bond. I stopped reading them after From russia With Love - but I've always intedned to go back and read them and the Gardner books that continued the characters.

Modesty Blaise is another good spy read from that era.

There's a lot more psychological depth in Fleming's Bond books than they put into the movies. I enjoy that too. Bond is much more of a tortured soul than the movies would lead you to believe.

Modesty Blaise was published as both a comic series and as novels, both credited to the same author - I've only read the novels. There have also been a couple of movies made, but although both are enjoyable neither did justice to the character.

I enjoy the Bond movies - or most of them anyway. Casino Royale showed great promise, and Daniel Craig was well cast, but with the follow-up films they seemed to want to retell Bond's story in a typical modern cinema mode, inventing back story for the characters and so on. I did like Judi Dench as M, and thought that Skyfall was quite exciting. Most of the Bond films since Connery have followed the same pattern - there's one good to great one followed by a rather mediocre one. You are right about the books being more consistent.

I haven't read Quantum - forgot it was even a Fleming story. I think it would have been in my next book if I had kept reading. Just checked and it's in For Your Eyes Only which is where I stalled when I was reading them in sequence. So I've read the first seven novels.

"...that twist with Blofeld pisses me off..." Exactly the sort of stuff I was talking about. Too bad because Spectre showed some promise in the first half, better than the film of Quantum anyway.

I've read all of Joe Hill's fiction too - really liked it. My favorite is Nos4a2. I've read parts of Locke and Key but need to sit down with the entire series sometime.

Right now I'm reading Bentley Little's The Walking. I'm almost 200 pages in and I'm still not sure how i feel about it but it keeps me interested.

I read a collection of Owen's short stories a few years back. He's good, but yeah, more like a New Yorker writer than ol' chip off the block, Joe Hill. I've always meant to read Tabitha King too but have never gotten around to it.

Great song, peeps. I was only disappointed because I wanted to see some dancing based on the photo.

I just finished Jonathan Maberry's X-Files Origin book with a teenage Scully involved in a bloody serial killer case. It's called Devil's Advocate. I've really enjoyed all the previous Maberry books I've read - his Rot & Ruin series is terrific - but while this one was a fast & fun read it didn't really pique my interest.

Now I'm reading Doctor Strange: A Separate Reality which collects his stories from 1969 through 1974, possibly the most psychedelic period for the master of the mystic arts. I just finished the Sligguth trilogy (based on concepts by Robert E. Howard). I'm really enjoying this collection, particularly the artwork.

I'm a little over halfway through the Doctor Strange collection and wondering what I will find to fill the space until Ape month. Probably safest to go with some short stories so I can sit the volume aside on July 1st when I crack open Boulle's Planet of the Apes finally. What Ape book are you planning to read first Smerd?

I've never seen either Doctor Strange movie - both are on my watchlist but I just never seem to get around to them. I didn't read Strange a whole lot as a kid. Most of my experience with him was with The Defenders - a comic team which I really loved.

I'm enjoying the Dr. Strange collection although I put it aside to read Boulle's Planet of the Apes novel - a first time read for me. It's great so far. different from the films but you can see the inspiration for a lot of scenes. His style reminds me a bit of Jules Verne - maybe because both were translated from French.

I just read the novelization of the 2001 Planet of the Apes for the first time. I was hoping for some understanding of that bizarre final scene that lowered a lot of ratings for the film but the book doesn't go there. It ends with the Wahlberg character alone in space after he takes off from the POTA. It's an OK read, doesn't add much to the experience of seeing the film, and some of the best stuff in the film (like Tim Roth going ape shit) doesn't come off as well in the book. On the other hand, the humans don't seem quite as inappropriately voiced as they do in the film.

I enjoyed Bruce's first two books. How was that one?

I only read two books last month - largely because i got really bogged down reading The Gunfighter - the first of his Dark Tower series. It had some terrific passages but in between was some of my least favorite writing from King. It all seemed very amateurish compared to his usual polished style. So, that took me almost three weeks to read and it was only 150 pages! Should I go on with King's Dark Tower series? The completist in me (and King fan - I've read and mostly enjoyed about 40 of his other books) says yes. King says yes (in his two intros to the copy of The gunfighter that I read - that's right, not just one, but two intros - both better written and more interesting than the book itself). Any Dark Tower fans out there?

The other book I read went down a lot easier - a real page-turner compared to The Gunfighter. It was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Quite possibly the most upbeat post-apocalyptic novel I've read - sort of the antithesis to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Quite enjoyable.

Now, thanks to some positive word of mouth here, I'm reading and enjoying Lovecraft Country.

Welcome back! We're missing you at the Sci/Fi Challenge.

Thanks for the info on Dark Tower. That's a high rec indeed for parts II & III and that has renewed my flagging enthusiasm. I've got a handful of other books backed up at the moment (Matt ruff's Bad Monkey, The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross, and Age of Miracles by Karen Walker at the top of the pile), but I am sure I will return to The Dark Tower soon. I have been putting it off for a long time but I am a King fan and have always intended to read it.

How's the smoke in Portland today. We've reached a new level of haze - good time for reading and watching apocalyptic stories!

King has been great about interweaving characters and places in books in his universe. I didn't read any King from 1992-2004, and I've just started the Dark Tower series but I have read just about everything else. Duma Key and especially under the dome were the works that got me really excited about reading him again.

We have thunderstorms threatening - you can almost smell the moisture in the air - but so far only a few trickles have fallen. If the rain comes we should get some relief from the smoke and ash.

The thunderstorm we got yesterday was very welcome - even though we were without power for about an hour because of it. My son and I didn't care - we ran outside and played in the rain then sat on our porch breathing the much fresher air. Afterwards we could actually see the sun and feel its heat - for the first time in days!

I haven't tried to watch the Under the Dome series. I just watched the mini-series for 11/22/63 last month and thought they did a very good job with it. Really a great adaptation that made me want to go back and reread the book.