A Good Thriller discussion

I agree Janet:)I just had to put my 2 cents in as well..lol!

Your 2 cents are always welcome, Marian!! Most definitely!! :)

I don't read much high science fiction or fantasy. I want to try the genres out more and see what I think, though.

I don't read many westerns - the one I did read didn't impress me much. Will have a few more go arounds and then I'll be done if it doesn't improve. However, I do have Lonesome Dove to read this year, which should be an absolute treat.

Lonesome Dove is very popular. I never read it.

Skye wrote: "Lonesome Dove is very popular. I never read it."

I am waiting for this book from my library.

I'd like to know if people read cookbooks? Read all or most of the recipes? Maybe I should post this in Our Thrilling Cooks :)

People do read cook books, and now people are incorporating quasi-memoirs amongst recipes or cultural tidbits about certain foods like corn, polenta, and other ingredients ( spices).

Autumn wrote: "When my babies are picked on I take it personally. "

I apologize if you and others took my comments as an attack. I meant no offense to anyone. The comment was directed at the thread’s title and not at any individual post or its author. I do not think anyone is smart or dumb based solely on what they choose to read or not read.

I posted what I did because for the past several weeks I have been following comments on this thread and found myself getting depressed because each new post seemed like a lost opportunity to me.

If I refused to read romances, I never would have been introduced to the delightful characters in Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility.

If I wouldn’t consider westerns I would not have experienced the grim determination of True Grit or the tragedy of mob justice in The Ox-Bow Incident.

If I could not bring myself to read biographies then the understanding of the human cost of the Holocaust that I could gain from The Diary of a Young Girl would be lost to me.

If I choose not to read about subjects that I find uncomfortable then I would never appreciate the subtlety and “flashes of brilliance” in Nabokov’s Lolita (Full disclosure: I still haven’t).

If I knew in advance that I didn’t like science fiction then I would have missed reading what has become my favorite book of this year (and decade). Hidden within a story of first contact and interplanetary exploration, Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow is the heart-wrenching tale of a Jesuit priest’s tortuous journey to understanding the nature of God’s will.

And Perri, if I had used the word never when I said I tended to avoid Christian fiction then C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters never would have become one of my favorites.

Finally, if I didn’t open myself to horror I never would have found Robert Dunbar’s tremendously dynamic GoodReads group, Literary Darkness.

We all have picked up books that fail to appeal to us but we are less likely to find a real treasure if we keep looking in the same places day after day. A good book provides us with new insights into the human condition and they can be found in all shapes, sizes and genres, unless you refuse to look.

Janet wrote: "I get what Tom was saying 'never' is a strong word so I'm going to say less inclined in certain areas than others.

Great discussion! :)"

My work here is done.

Aw, Tom You took away my epic search and gave me one instead-have added The Screwtape Letters to me TBR list. In other good news, I have The Sparrow next up when I'm finished with my current batch. Sometimes a good poke is just the thing to wake somebody up. You've created some thought provoking discussion here

Perri wrote: "Aw, Tom You took away my epic search and gave me one instead-have added The Screwtape Letters to me TBR list. In other good news, I have The Sparrow next up when I'm finished with my current batch...."

The Sparrow was recommended to me by a coworker over ten years ago and I, for reasons all of us contributing to this thread understand, kept putting it off. I assure you, it is one of those "Why did I wait so long to read this?" books.

Hi Tom..I just put a hold on "The Sparrow" at my library..thankyou:)))

Marian wrote: "Hi Tom..I just put a hold on "The Sparrow" at my library..thankyou:)))"

GoodReads really needs Like buttons.

DianeAlice wrote: "Lolita is also one of my favourite books. I think you would love it Janet, the writing is superb.
Autumn, I hate to think of you worrying! You expressed an opinion which I think most of us agree w..."

Hhmmmm. Looking to download this one.

Right now NOTHING is holding my interest, I feel like I'm in a bit of a slump reading wise. Partly lack of sleep I think, I'm just sooo tired :\

Ishita wrote: "And I guess I like books that kinda make me sick! They might be hard to stomach but then it feels like.. "that's the real stuff!", and I always enjoy them so much! Lol, did I make sense? "

The moderator of another group I'm in shared this quote which speaks to what you are saying:

"Curiosity is an ambiguous passion: the virtuous impulse behind the search for knowledge and at the same time a disreputable desire for novelty and strangeness.”
~ Art & the Pleasures of Knowing

In case anybody is interested..here are my books Im reading at the moment.Who knows,you might like to try them out.

On the back of this thread I've just downloaded Lolita! Looking forward to it.

Tom wrote: "Curiosity is an ambiguous passion: the virtuous impulse behind the search for knowledge and at the same time a disreputable desire for novelty and strangeness.”
~ Art & the Pleasures of Knowing"

Beautiful quote! And it does kinda sums it all up. No question, I am a very curious person by nature so I mostly grab these books to just know the reason they are banned or hyped or in such a list as 1001 Books or anything like that! And TBH, sometimes, the reason is not justifiable even though understandable. I feel fortunate that there's no banned book in my country as of yet (or at least none that I know of).

Oh Robert Harris is on my TBR. Do let me know if he's any good!

I tried another very acclaimed author recently, let me down a little.

Janet wrote: "On the back of this thread I've just downloaded Lolita! Looking forward to it."

Oh I am excited already! The book is one of my favorites. I feel like not enough people are reading it and I feel really sad that people only see this as an erotica. Keep an unprejudiced mind when you read this and try to be open (just saying, no offence). Have a fun reading :)

Ishita wrote: "Oh Robert Harris is on my TBR. Do let me know if he's any good!"

I tried listening to an audio version of An Officer and a Spy recently and it didn't really grab me even though the Dreyfus Affair has always fascinated me. I may have to try actually reading it at some point in the future.

Pompeii is a really good fictional account of the Vesuvius eruption. Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome is also good. It's about Cicero. I've always wanted to read Fatherland but haven't gotten around to it.

I always wanted to read Lolita

Tom,I hardly ever listen to audiobooks as a lot of times the voice over can really get on my nerves and ruin the story for me..I have started reading it,and it does have my interest,so that's good:)

You can listen to the audio book on youtube of the book Lolita if you folks like.Its read by Jeremy Irons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdvAa...

Skye wrote: "I always wanted to read Lolita"

Well, you have a reason to now! It might be a little slow in the beginning because you find it hard to stomach so you can't read a lot in one sitting but it never reaches a point where you'd be bored by it, if anything, you'll want to read further coz it's that beautifully written.
OMG, I feel like the ambassador of this book! LOL.


I don't remember which Harris I TBRed but I've heard of Imperium. Maybe I'll give it a try soon :)

Marian wrote: "Tom,I hardly ever listen to audiobooks as a lot of times the voice over can really get on my nerves and ruin the story for me..I have started reading it,and it does have my interest,so that's good:)"

I spend an hour a day walking my dog so I use that time to listen to books. Audio doesn't work well with all books, though. Usually, if the plot is complicated or there are frequent changes in POV I can lose track and the story will go on without me. An easy, rather mindless story (like aLee Child book) is great in audio, though.

Tom wrote: "Marian wrote: "Tom,I hardly ever listen to audiobooks as a lot of times the voice over can really get on my nerves and ruin the story for me..I have started reading it,and it does have my interest,..."

There's something out there for everybody..right?We can all enjoy our reading experiences in a variety of way's.I like that:)

:>)

Yes. We are all individuals and have our own preferences and personalities.

No, but wasn't Brigette Bardot in the first version?

Jeremy Irons is in the 1997 movie version.

Jeremy Irons made several good movies and shows ( Brideshead Revisited on PBS, for example).

In the 1962 version it was James Mason,Shelly Winters and Sue Lyons

That was such an amazing show.

Sorry, I'm having a nostalgic moment ...... Brideshead Revisited. Loved it!!

No self help! It's not like I have all the answers in life, but those books seem painfully awkward to me.

Ishita,

read Robert Harris's The Ghostwriter, not that good I am afraid, found it very slow.

Lolita, the original is by far the best film, Shelley Winters was great as was James Mason.

New one, pretty weak.

Sean, it was? I've consecutively heard good and bad things about Harris. It is one of the reason I keep putting it off.

I've not seen the 1997 version but I did think the earlier one wasn't very close to the book. I'll have to watch the newer version if that is the case.

Have any of you tried S.S Van Dine? Heard he's pretty good too! I'll be reading The Benson Murder Case coming month for a challenge.

Skye wrote: "Lonesome Dove is very popular. I never read it."

I've heard that and really want to read it - frustratingly, it's hiding in my house somewhere so I keep reading other books while waiting to find it again. How annoying?

Diane,
Me too. And around here, I keep coming across a lot of new ones! It's always fun to try something new. Unfortunately, you won't find a lot of free kindles on amazon, and the paperbacks are out of print now. Benson Murder is the first book in the Philo Vance mystery series and I plan on sticking to the series. This'll be my first by him too. I was averse to ebooks until just recently when I had to relent to some great authors going out of print, sad as it was.

I'll try to watch Lolita tonight if I could find it somewhere online!

I need to watch this.

I was inspired to order Lolita on Lovefilm by post, but for some reason it's not available even though Amazon do sell it.

You can listen to the book on youtube,for anybody who wants to read it.Jeremy Irons is the reader.I have just sent for the book from my library,and,as old as this book is..There is somebody ahead of me who's reading to.I have heard also,that the book is waayyy better than both of the movies.

I did not watch the latter version but the book is undoubtedly better than the first. But then I've always been partial to books. But this one is really brilliantly written. People say the 1997 version is more connected to the book but IMDB says the first part was better.

I'm going to read the book first before deciding on watching it or not. I am very intrigued now, will be my next read after my current one.

Yes the first is nearier the book, but the first is much better acted and story. But I guess as we have said in this thread, we are all different.

Erotica

Horror (because words on a page don't scare me), Erotica (because I rather enjoy the real thing), and Romance (though I have read a Sparkie or two).

I saw the movie last night. Although it was nearer to the book the first one was definitely better in terms of acting and everything. But most importantly, there was this one little thing that I missed in this version- it never mentioned that dialogue, the way he fragments and fills her name with lust! (I don't remember exactly how he does that, but I do remember him doing that. And it was quite a moment in the book). Nevertheless, the first thing that stuck me about the movie, and that really had me going, was the way he pronounced her name! And not to sound cheeky, but that was sexy!