What are you reading?

My kids have recently discovered the local library which has seen me deciding to get back into reading myself. I was pleasantly surprised to see this autobiography sitting on the shelves & thought "why the fuck not?". It was a thoroughly rewarding read too as there's a whole bunch of stuff in there that I had no idea about. It's been great to be able to see the Metal God as a human being who harbors self-doubt & human frailties like everyone else too. Every metalhead should read this at some point.

I don't often read biographies, but I bet this is an interesting read. Does he speak about the case that Priest faced in the US when they were accused of their music causing the two kids to commit suicide?  That must have been a trying time for the band as they faced potentially very serious consequences for what was a tragedy not of their doing. 

I am quite into my history nowadays and this 525 page monster of a book is my current read.  McLynn likes his detail and spends most of chapter 1 talking about the harshness of the climate of Mongolia and how the nomadic peoples had to basically live in two different places depending on whether it was summer or winter in order to survive (due to farming requirements), so I am expecting this book will need a lot of my attention to get through.

I always have two or theee books on the go at once with a complete collection of HP Lovecraft's work (a 1600 page behemoth) being one, a book about Elizabethan natural philosopher John Dee another and the fifth (and so far last) book of George RR Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series being my main read.

If you were a fan of the "Game of Thrones" TV show then this fifth in the series would deliver a few surprises, one of which had me literally shouting out aloud 'no fucking way' as I sat reading it in the car waiting for my wife to come out of the dentists. Looks like we will never see the ending the story deserves though as Martin either has writer's block or he has just got too comfy being lauded by all and sundry rather than sitting down and getting on with his day job. I would think that a writer would be desperate to get their story out there, but Martin seems to enjoy basking in the fame more than the desire to tell his story.

I don't often read biographies, but I bet this is an interesting read. Does he speak about the case that Priest faced in the US when they were accused of their music causing the two kids to commit suicide?  That must have been a trying time for the band as they faced potentially very serious consequences for what was a tragedy not of their doing. 

Yes, he goes into some depth about that case which is really interesting.  He is also completely open about his sexuality & the challenges he faced during a time when celebrities couldn’t be as open about such things & also his substance abuse/addiction. Did you know that he never actually intended on quitting Priest after “Painkiller”? It was just a miscommunication that resulted in him being replaced.

My mother just gave me a stack of Aldous Hunxley books to read through, even though I just bought Mystic River, Timeline and The Stand at Goodreads with a birthday giftcard.  So I'm gonna speedread one Huxley a day if I can and then send each one back to her.  She wants to get through them once I'm done.

Mystic River has fantastic prose and excellent characterization.  But the first act is a very slow drag that the movie thankfully fixed.  Might've been perfect if it had a better soundtrack.

I don't often read biographies, but I bet this is an interesting read. Does he speak about the case that Priest faced in the US when they were accused of their music causing the two kids to commit suicide?  That must have been a trying time for the band as they faced potentially very serious consequences for what was a tragedy not of their doing. 

Yes, he goes into some depth about that case which is really interesting.  He is also completely open about his sexuality & the challenges he faced during a time when celebrities couldn’t be as open about such things & also his substance abuse/addiction. Did you know that he never actually intended on quitting Priest after “Painkiller”? It was just a miscommunication that resulted in him being replaced.

No, I didn't. That is one hell of a miscommunication. I wonder if they would have maintained the quality of Painkiller or still produced the Jugulator/Demolition crap. At least he was never associated with those albums.

My mother just gave me a stack of Aldous Hunxley books to read through, even though I just bought Mystic River, Timeline and The Stand at Goodreads with a birthday giftcard.  So I'm gonna speedread one Huxley a day if I can and then send each one back to her.  She wants to get through them once I'm done.

Mystic River has fantastic prose and excellent characterization.  But the first act is a very slow drag that the movie thankfully fixed.  Might've been perfect if it had a better soundtrack.

I loved The Stand, but I haven't read it in donkey's years. Maybe it's getting time for a revisit. I do like the Mystic River movie but I haven't read the book. Is Timeline a Michael Crichton book?

I read this who-done-it style thriller across three days. It was really good until the end when all of the twists were thrown out in no time flat. I struggled to keep up with them & felt it would have been better to ease them out over a longer period. It was like he had a deadline to meet so tried to close everything out in a night.

My mother just gave me a stack of Aldous Hunxley books to read through, even though I just bought Mystic River, Timeline and The Stand at Goodreads with a birthday giftcard.  So I'm gonna speedread one Huxley a day if I can and then send each one back to her.  She wants to get through them once I'm done.

Mystic River has fantastic prose and excellent characterization.  But the first act is a very slow drag that the movie thankfully fixed.  Might've been perfect if it had a better soundtrack.

I loved The Stand, but I haven't read it in donkey's years. Maybe it's getting time for a revisit. I do like the Mystic River movie but I haven't read the book. Is Timeline a Michael Crichton book?

Yeah, but not one of his best.  Every villain in the medieval ages is pretty much the same character: "I freak out and accuse you of lying because I can't handle that I'm someone in power who's being told he's wrong."  Honestly, I'd rather have lunch with Trump.  Yeah, these guys are more annoying that Mr. You're Fired.