The 'Currently Reading' Thread.

[Grecian]

58 minutes ago, Factotum said:

Having been a big Stephen King fan when I was younger, I thought I would give a go on the ones I missed now that I have a bit of time.

Started on Mr Mercedes. Enjoying it so far. King's always been somewhat clunky at times, but he always has a good hook in his books. I've got the other 2 in the series, so will dive in.

I read Doctor Sleep earlier this year and really enjoyed it. The best book he's written in the past decade is 11.22.63, a stunning book to read. I've read most of his work over the years, that one and Misery are the two I recommend above all others. 

[Factotum]

Yeah I love Misery. I was a big King nut when I was in my teens but it kind of fell away as I got older for no real reason just other stuff got in the way. I have Doctor Sleep to read. I really enjoyed the film so looking forward to the book

[Onyx2]

I love a time travel device and 11.22.63 is a doozy. The mini series of it from a couple of years back is worth a watch too. 

[Carbomb]

Apparently, King's son, Joe Hill, has turned out to be just as good as his dad. @Chris B is a massive King fan, and has said he rates Hill.

[Mr_Danger]

Perfect Sound Whatever is a slight decline in quality to Acaster's Classic Scrapes but I feel that's more to do with the subject material. When he get's in to his anecdotes they're just as entertaining as any of his scrapes. 

The thing with a big fuck off list book is it's a tad list-y so it becomes a bit monotonous at times. Obviously the book is about more than what music he listened to from 2016 and the underlying story of his breakdown as told through his obsession with the music from that year is actually pretty raw at times, even as told through his humour.

Also introduced me to an up and coming young hip hop artist who goes by the name of Kendrick Lamar ensuring my finger remains firmly on the pulse of the contempory music scene.

[waters44]

Currently watching CBeebies(!) and they have put on a play of The Tempest

It’s made me realise that Shakespeare is a massive black spot in my knowledge, apart from Gnomeo and Juliet. 

I’d like to dip my toe a bit, any recommendations on a good place to start?

[gmoney]

33 minutes ago, waters44 said:

Currently watching CBeebies(!) and they have put on a play of The Tempest

It’s made me realise that Shakespeare is a massive black spot in my knowledge, apart from Gnomeo and Juliet. 

I’d like to dip my toe a bit, any recommendations on a good place to start?

10 Things I Hate About You

[Chris B]

3 hours ago, waters44 said:

Currently watching CBeebies(!) and they have put on a play of The Tempest

It’s made me realise that Shakespeare is a massive black spot in my knowledge, apart from Gnomeo and Juliet. 

I’d like to dip my toe a bit, any recommendations on a good place to start?

Reading Shakespeare can be a little unintuitive at times if you're not used to it - some people get stuck on the fact that so much is written down in blank verse. Read it from sentence-to-sentence (as in full-stop to full-stop) rather than line-to-line, and it'll be much easier. 

As far as where to start, it depends what you're looking for.

Some of the comedies rely on performances to actually be funny. Midsummer Night's Dream, in particular, can be hilarious, but they can be missed on the page. There's still plenty of good stuff, though, and it's a very fun play. Much Ado About Nothing is fairly easy to read, and the back-and-forth dialogue is generally pretty funny. Again, though, the Dogberry character comedy stuff might fall flat (although he's pretty limited in terms of turning up).

I tend to like Shakespeare's villains a lot, and find them a pretty nice way in. Richard III is a cracking play, and Richard's early monologues are great. The play really moves along too. Merchant of Venice is reasonably straightforward, and Shylock is Shakespeare's most underserved character - massively antisemitic, but actually more sympathetic. Everyone around him is an arsehole. King Lear is my favourite play, and actually pretty straightforward to read. It's one of the more heavy-going ones, but the story is pretty simple.Edmund, the villain, is a blast to read.

I'd probably start with Richard III - Richard lays out his plans early, which definitely helps to make clear what's going on. It's also pretty nasty in places, and Richard is generally massively entertaining. He's charming and funny, while being an utter prick.

 

It might be worth starting with some films/audiobooks to get more of a hang of them. For audiobooks, the RSC has a load of the audio productions on Audible. You can't really go wrong with any of them. In terms of both listening and watching, Much Ado About Nothing is a good starting point. The audio version has David Tennant in the lead. In film, Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing is pretty light going and an easy enough watch - also genuinely funny in places. Not sure of good film versions of Midsummer Night's McKellan's Richard III is good (as is Olivier's version once it gets going). 

Also, as @gmoney said, 10 Things is a good adaptation. On a similar note, if you go with Hamlet, the Lion King has a lot of similarities in story, which might help it to read easier. I love Branagh's Hamlet, but I'm in a minority on that one.

[HarmonicGenerator]

I was going to suggest Branagh’s Much Ado as well. That and his film of Henry V are fairly easy to pick up what’s going on if you’re not familiar with the language. Much Ado is the best romcom ever and this version has Emma Thompson being great, as well as Denzel, a very young Kate Beckinsale, and Keanu Reeves as the villain.

It’s worth checking out some of the big theatre companies to see what they’re offering as streams at the moment. The best stage versions allow you to understand what’s going on without understanding any of the actual words - and I think Twelfth Night is one of the best at that.

By sheer coincidence, the National Theatre is streaming one of their latest versions of Twelfth Night with Tamsin Greig in for free on their YouTube next Thursday (it’ll be on there for a week). The RSC recently put up one of their own recent versions which had Ade Edmondson in. And you might have to pay, but Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2012/13ish Twelfth Night with Stephen Fry and Mark Rylance is superb.

Your choice tends to be something quite Aaaccctorrr-y where you can clearly hear the words but it can feel very stagey, or something where you might not catch all the language but they play it very naturally and speak in normal patterns, intonation etc so you can always understand the feeling of a scene. I prefer the second way.

To get more of a sense of the poetry of Shakespeare, Patrick Stewart is reading a sonnet a day on his Twitter at the moment. I don’t know the sonnets very well and they’re still fairly hard going for me but Patrick Stewart reading poetry is still nice to hear.

You could also just look up some great speeches and scenes on YouTube. I’d suggest Stewart again doing John of Gaunt’s speech about England in Richard II, or there’s a Macbeth from the late 70s with Ian McKellen, Judi Dench and Muldoon from Jurassic Park. McKellen doing the ‘Tomorrow’ speech is without equal. It’s incredible.

A couple of more recent film versions that I enjoyed were Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus, which is like Shakespeare doing Call Of Duty, or the Macbeth with Michael Fassbender. However, I’d probably start with comedies - Much Ado, Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night’s Dream is another of my favourites but one without a film/TV version I’ve really loved.

Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably one of the easiest ones to read, I think. Even so I’d read a quick Act/scene synopsis before you do just to help figure it all out.

[waters44]

Thank you all!!

[Mr_Danger]

I've listened to nearly all of the first Wool book from Audible this week. I really like the story and there's something perversely satisfying about listening to a post apocalyptic tale whilst the world fall's to shit (I wasn't ready for The Road)  but the telling of said story isn't all that great. I'm no literary scholar but it all comes across very 'made for t.v.' 

I'll stick with it through the other books though because as I said I really like the story.

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Mr_Danger

[HarmonicGenerator]

22 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

I've listened nearly all of the first Wool book from Audible this week. I really like the story and there's something perversely satisfying about listening to a post apocalyptic tale whilst the world fall's to shit (I wasn't ready for The Road)  but the telling of said story isn't all that great. I'm no literary scholar but it all comes across very 'made for t.v.' 

I'll stick with it through the other books though because as I said I really like the story.

 

I really liked those books, like you say maybe not the best written but a great premise, really strong world-building and lots of satisfying twists and turns. I think the first one is the best but there's not a massive downturn in book 3 like sometimes happens with these things.

Currently I'm halfway through The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (not that one). No idea where it's heading but I'm enjoying it.

 

Edit: Just to add to the Shakespeare post earlier, the Globe are free streams on YouTube at the moment. They've got a Hamlet there at the moment but today's the last day. They're a good one to watch if you don't want your Shakespeare to be too heavy going - the way they do things there's almost always an injection of humour. The Othello they did a couple of years ago, which I would have expected to be a lot of doom and gloom and betrayals, was hilarious (mainly thanks to Mark Rylance who is without question the finest actor I've seen on stage).

Edited April 19, 2020 by HarmonicGenerator

[Chris B]

I could have sworn there was a Shakespeare topic here once. I found the Globe's Hamlet interesting - a woman playing the role gave his first speech in particular a more openly emotive quality for the first monologue than is usually there. Hamlet's usually played brooding and angry, not *upset*. It was quite cool to see.

[Grecian]

1 hour ago, Mr_Danger said:

I've listened to nearly all of the first Wool book from Audible this week. I really like the story and there's something perversely satisfying about listening to a post apocalyptic tale whilst the world fall's to shit (I wasn't ready for The Road)  but the telling of said story isn't all that great. I'm no literary scholar but it all comes across very 'made for t.v.' 

I'll stick with it through the other books though because as I said I really like the story.

 

If post-pandemic apocalypse is good, go with Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. The premise is a super-flu with a 99% mortality rate has swept the earth. I finished it last week, really enjoyed it. 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Grecian

[ElCece]

3 hours ago, Grecian said:

If post-pandemic apocalypse is good, go with Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. The premise is a super-flu with a 99% mortality rate has swept the earth. I finished it last week, really enjoyed it. 

Might be one that I pick up when it's a touch less raw.