Currently reading forum game

Just finished the "Gormenghast Trilogy" by Mervyn Peake.
The first two Titus Groan and Gormenghast are excellent, highly descriptive, atmospheric and densely written - possibly too slow moving in terms of plot for some and it's a doorstop of a volume: but it's worth persevering with, it's really character driven, with a lot of it describing the events via the thoughts and viewpoints of various characters (although it's always written in the third person). The claustrophobic ritual-bound world of the weird ancient crumbling castle and its various inhabitants is really well constructed. The prose is very evocative and often cinematic in tone : you get whole paragraphs describing exactly how the sun filters through the dust of an ancient timber-beamed attic etc; but is also excellent at building up tension and suspense as various plots and feuds between characters in the castle develop. The BBC TV version didn't really do it justice.

I wasn't so keen on the third book, it seemed different in tone, more fragmentary and hallucinatory; and for me did not really seem to be part of the same "universe" : this I suppose suited the plot of the main character Titus being lost and out of his element, but for me it introduced a jarring tone with all the references to modern elements like cars, planes and scientists etc, when the first two books seem so clearly set in a mythical medieval-era society.

The Ice Man : Confessions of a Maffia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo.

Based on 240 hours of recorded conversations with Richard Kuklinski during his time served at Trenton State Prison.It focuses on his life and crimes over a 43 year period before he was finally aressted by the police and the FBI.

War of the world and Jane Ayre.

Reading the classics because they are FREE

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-boo...12911?mt=8

think it is available for most things Android etc

Guilty Bystander by Wade Miller,an enjoyable noirish private detective story set in New York with plenty of hard boiled dialogue,a low budget film noir was made in 1950 starring Zachary Scott

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

Far different in plot and superior to the crap 1997 film.

Run To Earth by Mary Braddon,a Victorian novelist who has been described as a female Charles Dickens,this is the third of her books I've read and like the others,it is absorbing,this one is about a girl from a poor background who has a great singing ability which brings her to the attention of a Lord. When she marries him,it causes conflict with his relations.

Meg : Primal Waters by Steve Alten

The third book in the New York Times bestselling saga about Professor Jonas Taylor and his encounters with the Megalodon,a 70 foot long,70,000 pound ancestor of the modern Great White shark,thought to be long extinct. This time around, Taylor finds himself working as a commentator on a daring,reality TV show in the South Pacific.The action and shark attack scenes are brilliantly described and happen frequently as they do in the other books.

Slugs by Shaun Hutson

An incredibly gory and creepy tale done in the same vain as The Rats trilogy from James Herbert.This time its slugs,in their droves that have developed a taste for human flesh.

It Happened In Wisconsin by Ken Moraff,in which the narrator as an old man looks back at his time in the baseball little leagues,playing for a successful,idealistic team,featuring his teammates and his romances. The backdrop to this is the U.S. Depression and the team's ethos was to support the working or unemployed man against the rich. Absorbing so far

Bond On Bond by Roger Moore

A fifty year account of Bond from books to each film(up to Skyfall)with anecdotes from his own experiences making them,trivia and each films box office gross.An insightful and often funny read.