Art Back Again For 2014

Wanted to at least get the final lists up tonight, so here they are.

MAIN LIST

1) The Food of the Gods - H.G. Wells
2) The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories - Michael Cox and R.A. Gilbert (eds.)
3) From a Buick 8 - Stephen King
4) Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos - James Turner (ed.) (finished 7/15/14)
5) The Lovers - Philip José Farmer
6) Flesh - Farmer
7) Strange Relations - Farmer
8) Dark Gods - T.E.D. Klein (finished 12/3/14)
9) Cthulhu's Reign - Darrell Schweitzer (ed.) (finished 9/4/14)
10) Who Goes There? - John W. Campbell, Jr. (finished 5/29/14)
11) The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies - Clark Ashton Smith (finished 5/26/14)
12) A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin

ALTERNATES LIST

1) The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books - J. Peder Zane (finished 6/29/14)
2) The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (finished 11/8/14)
3) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond
4) Kirby: King of Comics - Mark Evanier (finished 8/9/14)
5) The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany - William L. Shirer
6) 500 Essential Cult Books: The Ultimate Guide - Gina McKinnon (finished 4/11/14)
7) The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
8) The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem (finished 7/29/14)
9) Superfolks - Robert Mayer (finished 9/14/14)
10) Daredevil: Predator's Smile - Christopher Golden
11) From Hell - Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (finished 3/12/14)
12) Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 - Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (finished 6/14/14)

Page counts (for my own personal reference; feel free to check them out if you so desire):

The Food of the Gods - 254 pp. (1904)
The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories - 504 pp. (1986)
From a Buick 8 - 487 pp. (2002)
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos - 461 pp. (1990)
The Lovers - 216 pp. (1951)
Flesh - 230 pp. (1960)
Strange Relations - 262 pp. (1960)
Dark Gods - 261 pp. (1985)
Cthulhu's Reign - 309 pp. (2010)
Who Goes There? - 49 pp.(1938)
The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies - 416 pp. (projected) (2014)
A Game of Thrones - 835 pp. (1996)
The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books - 352 pp. (2007)
The Communist Manifesto - 143 pp. (1848)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - 480 pp. (1997)
Kirby: King of Comics - 223 pp. (2008)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany - 1,245 pp.(!) (1960)
500 Essential Cult Books: The Ultimate Guide - 383 pp. (2010)
The Big Sleep - 155 pp. (1939)
The Fortress of Solitude - 511 pp. (2003)
Superfolks - 231 pp. (1977)
Daredevil: Predator's Smile - 384 pp. (1996)
From Hell - 572 pp. (1989)
Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 - 250 pp. (1987)

ETA: Original publication dates (in parentheses)

Ooh you too? I did the same for my list last year lol, but I just had it in a text doc :P

>3 .Monkey.:

Yeah, me too. I had mine as a blog post that I saved as a draft. Blog has been giving me grief for some reason lately so I thought I would go ahead and put it up here. If I can't decide which of two books I wanna read I will usually opt for the shorter one. :)

Haha, nice. I generally choose by just varying subject/style, and opting for a quick read (which is based far more on writing style than length) if I've just had a slow one (or few).

The most significant thing we have in common this year is a whole load of returning titles from previous years, lol. Maybe this time we'll clear them up!

The Third Reich story is definitely long but it's full of fascinating stuff all the way through; I don't remember any slow parts.

>6 Cecrow:

Yup; 14 books that were on last year's lists are on my lists again this year.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a book I've wanted to read for decades; I picked up a copy on the cheap at the Friends store at my local library and felt like it needed to go on one of my lists this year.

I should probably note here that I'm about two-thirds of the way through Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Having a devil of a time finishing this one; if I'm not done with it by Valentine's Day, I'm going to abandon it.

Ten days until Valentine's! ;)

>9 Cecrow:

Lol!

***

Setting aside Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos a day early; just cannot get any traction on this goddamn book! Perhaps the cold weather has addled my brain. Anyway, I'm not abandoning this one (i.e., stating that I definitely don't wanna try to finish it at some point this year) - just saying I want to put it aside for something else and come back to it around June or July; hopefully it will be speaking to me then.

The present plan - finish a graphic novel that I just checked out from the library (Alex Ross' Justice) and then start a different graphic novel from my lists (Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell). Hopefully I will have better luck with these than I did with the Cthulhu Mythos book.

What didn't take about it, do you think? Maybe you've overdosed on the subject matter lately (not sure but I think you've visited the Cthulu corner a few times), sounds like shifting gears is the way to go.

>11 Cecrow:

No, I don't think that that's it, although I have read a lot of fiction that's set in that universe, particularly in the last few years. The problem is mostly that I cherry-picked the best stories out of the collection when I started reading it, therefore leaving only the mediocre (and less than mediocre) stories to read until toward the end. A word to the wise - don't do this. You'll run out of motivation to finish the book really fast. :P

>12 artturnerjr:, gotcha. I'm reading Warriors front to back, even though the story I anticipate most comes last in the book. I'm hoping that'll keep me motivated ... or not, since I decided this title didn't qualify for my list this year.

>13 Cecrow:

Yeah, I guess my thought is that an editor that is worth the title will put the stories in an anthology in a certain order for a reason, and that you spoil the overall intended effect of the book if you read them out of order. Having said that, it can make starting an anthology easier going if you read the stories you are most interested in first (getting started on things has never been my problem, however, as those of you who have followed my progress (or, rather, lack thereof) on TBR Challenge in previous years are surely aware of by now).

Started From Hell in earnest; mesmerizing. 8)

Finally finished one! Completed From Hell today; my, that was an intense and fascinating read. I'll post a full review soon - I'm still processing it now.

Hmmm... what's next? Well, I seem to being doing better with non-fiction titles than fiction ones in recent months, so I think I'll try one of those. I was thinking about Kirby: King of Comics, but after toting around From Hell for the better part of a month, I'm probably done with large comics/comics-related books for a little while. I think instead it's gonna be 500 Essential Cult Books: The Ultimate Guide; that should be a fun read. :)

Congrats! Looking forward to the review. Seen the movie?

>17 Cecrow:

Thanks, buddy! No, oddly enough, in spite of being a ginormous Alan Moore fan (and despite the fact that he seems to be catching up on Philip K. Dick as Hollywood's go-to source-material guy), the only movie I've seen that's based on one of his works has been Watchmen, which I was iffy about at first but warmed to on subsequent viewings. Suppose I'll make it a point to check out the film now that I've finally read the comic, though.

Yay for finishing! I'm sure your opinion is rather far from mine, lol. I had to drag myself along through that misery of a read, and it took twice as long to drudge through all the text in the back. Blurgh. :P

500 Essential Cult Books sounds like something I need!! :D Will have to wait & hear what you think of their selection choices! :))

Okay, wrote my review (finally!). You can read it here:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3QE8LCIK5FUMW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=...

>17 Cecrow: (follow-up)

Was out shopping at my favorite local used book/movie store and picked up a DVD copy of From Hell, so I'll probably be checking it out in the near future. Only paid 2 bucks for it, so if it sucks I won't be too upset. :)

>19 .Monkey.:

Yeah, I actually thought it was pretty great (I was gonna say "I really enjoyed it", but that's not quite the right phrase, is it? lol). I actually didn't read all of the text appendix (cheating, I know) - just checked it out if I didn't quite understand something or if was curious regarding his sources.

Oh, and I'll make sure to post a review of 500 Essential Cult Books as well. I'm gonna try to do a better job of reviewing all the titles I read than I have in previous years.

I'll be curious to see how they define "cult book", lol. That's a label guaranteed to stir some debate.

Hah, I may have to go post my review of it in amazon to counter all the glowing "Moore is a god!!" ones. :P

>21 Cecrow:

Yeah, it always does, doesn't it? I find it interesting that the author doesn't exclude some very popular works whose cult status could easily be disputed. In the introduction, she writes:

Can a cult book be a mainstream book? Short answer: yes. Both Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice made our final selection. This is not because they are studied at schools and universities worldwide. Rather, it's because of their legions of devoted fans - fans so devoted in fact, they dress in the attire of these books' heroes and heroines, read a flood of fan fiction, and subscribe to contemporary magazines devoted to their authors. Nor does cult preclude commercial success. That's why we've included modern bestsellers like The Da Vinci Code; love it or loathe it, you can't deny the fervor of the fans who will go to extraordinary lengths to crack the secret of the code, visiting key locations in the book, and generally showing their devotion to Dan Brown's implausible potboilers.

>22 .Monkey.:

I assume you're referring to your LT review (http://www.librarything.com/work/5779/reviews/103347845). Frankly, I'm more than a little mystified by it. Is there misogyny here? Well, yes, of course there is - it's set in the Victorian era, a profoundly misogynistic time. It would be extremely disingenuous for Moore and Campbell to have depicted it otherwise. Also, recall who the most misogynistic characters are - Gull and J. K. Stephen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kenneth_Stephen) - the bad guys. This is not a misogynistic work - this a work about the evils of misogyny.

Whew - by that definition it'll have Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, etc. I'd definitely expect to see Infinite Jest, Atlas Shrugged, and something or other by Ron Hubbard.

Ack, horrible "definition" of cult classic, totally agreed with Cecrow, that just means anything that sells! Ughhh. Well I certainly won't be getting any new copy of the book if the bulk of it winds up more worthwhile, 2ndhand for sure.

>24 Cecrow:

Twilight? Check. Fifty Shades of Grey? Nope, although less mommy-friendly BDSM lit is represented (The Story of O, Justine, etc.). Infinite Jest? Check. Atlas Shrugged? Check. L. Ron Hubbard? Yup - two books by Mr. Scientology, actually (Battlefield Earth and Dianetics).

>25 .Monkey.:

Well I certainly won't be getting any new copy of the book if the bulk of it winds up more worthwhile, 2ndhand for sure.

Yeah, I picked my copy up for 2 bucks (sure wouldn't have paid list ($18?!? Fuggedaboutit.)). I'm having lots of fun arguing with the author in my head as I read, though (part of the appeal of these sorts of books for me, I suppose).

Hahaha, nice. Are the less -a million people bought it so it's important!- books at least explained with more adequate reasoning?

>27 .Monkey.:

Yeah, for the most part. She's not afraid to say if she thinks something is shite, either (the above-mentioned Battlefield Earth, for example, gets a one-star review), which I appreciate.

Actually, I liked Battlefield Earth. I read it young and it zipped along like a comic book, had some fun twists in it. I don't believe he sold any Scientology in that one, or I was oblivious to it. I smirk at the Travolta movie right along with everybody else, though.

>29 Cecrow: Yeah he wrote a lot of pulp classic kind of stuff back in the day, too, nothing remotely connected to the scientology crap.

>29 Cecrow:

Actually, I've heard the gamut of opinions on that one. I recall an old friend of mine saying that he absolutely loved it. Also (fwiw), Mitt Romney has named it as a favorite of his:

http://nyti.ms/1eMI6sX

Just hit the halfway mark on 500 Essential Cult Books. A good reading week (for me, anyway); here's hoping that next week (a vacay week) will be even better. 8)

Are you composing a reading list as you go?

>33 Cecrow:

Sort of; I am adding titles that sound interesting to my Amazon wish list as I go.

I normally add to my amazon wishlist too, but I had never heard of The Top Ten (no. 1 on your alternate list) and just lost 30 minutes due to 'look inside' on Amazon. Had to pull myself away and just order the book!!! Have to wait 10 days now for delivery from USA as that was cheaper than buying it at home!!

>35 Elainedav:

Yeah, that one looks pretty fascinating. Lucked out and found a copy for a quarter at my local Friends of the Library bookstore. Hopefully I'll be able to get to it later on this year.

Okay! I've completed book #2 (500 Essential Cult Books); pretty pitiful, compared to how some of you all are doing, but I'm still confident I can get through at least 12 total books by the end of the year. I should have a review of it up sometime this weekend.

Up next: The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies by Clark Ashton Smith. It's a little bit of a cheat having this one on my lists: I pre-ordered it from Amazon back in November of last year and received my copy in the mail last month, so it's only actually been on my TBR shelf for less than a month, but it's a book that I've wanted to read very badly since it was announced that it was coming out, so I don't feel too bad about including it here. The physical book itself is a very handsome paperback from Penguin Classics, and it's super-cool to just hold in it my hands and look at it:

So, how was it?? Did you agree with many of the picks?

>37 artturnerjr:, if you're cheating then I'd hate to think what that makes me. At least three of my titles are coming from the library.

>38 .Monkey.:

Oh, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Having said that, I am a big fan of the whole "books about books" thang, as I am of any delivery system which imparts lots of useful information to me in a painless fashion. This book is both. :)

Yeah, I did agree with most of them, though I would offer the caveat that if you find the author's definition of "cult" (see #23 above) rather too populist (and there is, of course, a rather strong argument to made for the idea that the whole notion of cult, by definition, is completely anti-populist), you're probably gonna find this work more irritating than pleasurable.

>39 Cecrow:

Well, in the final analysis, I think the important thing is that our lists are made up of titles that we have sincerely wanted to get to for some time. Actually ownership of said titles as physical books (which increasing looks like it may become a rather antiquated notion in the not-too-distant future anyway) seems to me to be rather secondary.

Re: 39/40 On the group page it even says you don't have to own them, they can simply have been on your -must read- list, too. Though for me personally, this challenge is to get some of those that've been languishing on the shelves able to rest happily with the already-read titles. :)

>40 artturnerjr: Yeah, I don't like that stupid "popular" definition at all, but I like lists and books so I'm curious. :P I'll have to check around for real cheap used copy, lol.

>41 .Monkey.:

Yeah, like I said, I think it's a really enjoyable book, especially if you forget about the whole "cult" thing. Maybe she was gonna call it 500 Essential Interesting Books or something and the publisher was like, "Naw, that'll never sell. What about 'cult'? Can you put the word 'cult' somewhere in the title? Cult sells." (Sounds crazy, but I've actually heard of much sillier things in the publishing world.)

Bahaha, yeah, stupid but wouldn't be surprising at all!

>37 artturnerjr: That is a beautiful cover! Just looking at it makes me want to read it.

>44 abergsman:

The illustration is a reproduction of a painting of the author's entitled The Spy. I am not generally a fan of Smith's painting, although I am fond of this particular piece. His comical/grotesque/otherworldly sculpture, on the other hand, consistently knocks my socks off.

Hey all. Just a brief update on how I'm progressing on my lists. I'm a little past halfway through The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies; I'm progressing slowly, partly due to extra-literary commitments, but mostly because I love Clark Ashton Smith's prose style so much that I just find myself wanting to take my time and savor every word. I've got three short stories left, a short section of prose poems, a short section of "poem" poems, and then I'm done, so I'm confident I can knock this one off in another week or two. :)

I'm getting similarly slowed by Joseph Conrad. Some authors you just can't rush.

>47 Cecrow:

My recollection of Conrad is that his prose style is a bit of a chore. A by-product of English not being his first language, perhaps?

I remember Heart of Darkness left me scratching my head in university, but I'm finding Victory to be fantastic. I may have had to grow into him. To the extent he does dwell on certain scenes longer than strictly necessary, I still find the way he does it to be engaging.

>49 Cecrow:

I'd probably have an easier time with him now. I was in my mid-twenties the last time I read him, and I'm a significantly more disciplined reader now than I was then.

Whew! The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies is finally finished! A bit of a chore getting through the last section (poetry), as Smith really rolls out the obscure vocabulary here, but now it's done. I really enjoyed this one; I'll post a full review in the next couple of days.

Up next: Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. This is probably best known as the basis for a few different movies, notably The Thing from Another World (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044121/) and The Thing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/). This is actually a novella rather than a full-length novel, so it shouldn't take too terribly long to finish (I hope not; I am already rather embarrassingly far behind on this challenge. :/).

My review of The Dark Eidolon and Other Fantasies is up.

Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R32BH2TUEWH1IE/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

LT link:

http://www.librarything.com/work/14340042/reviews/103855363

Seems like a rarely-read title, given yours is the first review!

As a pursuant of 501 Must-Read Books, I've got my eye on Who Goes There? as it made the list.

>53 Cecrow: I just read The Thing From Outer Space a couple mos back, it's good stuff. It's been ages since I've seen the movie (and I haven't yet bothered with the recent remake) but from what I recall I had a much different feel reading the book. It was really amusing but also full of tense suspenseful moments. I'm curious though, since it's "Must Read Books," do they include many other short stories in the mix? I haven't looked over that list much.

>51 artturnerjr: It's short, you'll finish it in no time, I'm sure! :D

>53 Cecrow:

Well, it just came out a couple of months ago, so I'm sure it will pick up readers as word gets out. It's also helpful that it's available in ebook format, as that seems to be a lot of people's preferred reading platform.

Who Goes There? has picked up lots of accolades over the years. I'm surprised I'm just now getting to it.

>54 .Monkey.:

The only film version of the story I've seen is the 1982 John Carpenter movie, which I thought was excellent (and scary!), though I imagine I'll be tracking down the other two versions after I finish reading it. And yes, the pages are positively flying by - the tension just does not let up!

ETA: Touchstone

>54 .Monkey.:, 501 Must-Read Books calls the entry "Who Goes There" but then describes it as "a collection of seven short stories originally published ... in Astounding Science Fiction magazine."

The other six stories are called Blindness, Frictional Losses, Dead Knowledge, Elimination, Twilight and Night.

>56 Cecrow:

"Twilight" is another Campbell work that's very highly regarded. I read it years ago but I'll be damned if I can remember anything about it. Definitely due for a reread.

>57 artturnerjr:, just so long as there's no sparkling vampires, I'd give it a go.

>58 Cecrow:

Which, of course, is the first thing that comes up when you Google "Twilight". :)

***

Good news! I finished book #4 (Who Goes There?) early this morning. PolymathicMonkey's right - it's a good, quick read (could have used a dramatis personæ, however - lots of characters to keep track of). Wow! I finished two books in a week! Somebody call The New York Times. :D

Up next: I'm due for a graphic novel, so it's gonna be Fantastic Four, Vol. 1, as it's the only one left on my lists.

I just spotted your Clark Ashton Smith review on the Hot Reviews page. Congratulations!

>60 Cecrow:

Thanks! No one is more surprised than me, as it is my second LT review ever. Encouragement to keep writing them, I guess. :)

Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 is finished! Would not have taken so long, but it's been a busy couple of weeks. I'll try to get a review posted in the next few days.

Up next: time for a non-fiction title. After musing upon it for a little while, I decided on The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books.

Update: a little past halfway through The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books. Really enjoying it so far; it's both entertaining and informative - my favorite combination. :)

I'll bet you're picking up some more great leads on titles to pursue. If any land on your 2015 list, be sure to point them out.

You, uh, realize the problem here, right? Knocking off TBR titles with content expressly geared towards adding to your TBR pile. Just saying ... ;)

>64 Cecrow:

You, uh, realize the problem here, right? Knocking off TBR titles with content expressly geared towards adding to your TBR pile. Just saying ... ;)

Lol - oh yeah. Total vicious cycle, right? It's especially bad as an LT member, since any of us who have been on this site for more than a week probably have more books recommended to us than we can read in a lifetime. Still can't seem to resist reading these kinds of books, though.

My downfall was 501 Must-Read Books, so I know the pain first-hand. But we can have some reassurance in the face of knowing how little we'll actually get to in our lifetimes when we feel like we've at least done the research to ensure we're pursuing the very best fraction.

>66 Cecrow:

Yes, that's true. I also like having that knowledge base were you can go into a bookstore, pick something up and say, "Oh yeah - this is that novel that so-and-so recommended" without having to look it up. I have a strangely retentive memory for information like that - can't remember what I'm supposed to pick up at the grocery store, but I can remember which Tolstoy novel is supposed to be best. :D

Heading out of town (to Ohio) this weekend. Taking along The Top Ten and Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos in the (hopefully not too naïve) expectation of finishing the former and restarting the latter while I'm away.

Another one bites the dust! Apparently I wasn't being too naïve after all (see #68), as I did in fact finish The Top Ten (a very interesting and revealing book, although perhaps not in the way the editor and the polled writers intended it to be) and restart Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Here's hoping that having a fresh start on the latter volume enables me get all the way through it this time!

if you still find it tough another approach is to knock off a story or two each time between other titles; I've done that a few times.

>70 Cecrow:

Good tip, but this one is actually going great guns at the moment - only two stories left! With any luck at all, I will finish it this week. 8)

Hurray! Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos is finished. This one was a bit more uneven than I was expecting; nevertheless, there are some excellent stories in this collection. I'll try to post a full review in the next few days.

Up next: The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem.

Way to go at resuming and finishing it! And The Fortress of Solitude sounds great.

>73 Cecrow:

Yeah, I'm really glad I set it aside for a while and then started it again; it picked up quite a bit at the end.

The Fortress of Solitude sounds great.

I read Motherless Brooklyn by the same author some years back and enjoyed it a great deal; hopefully I have a similar experience with this one.

>74 artturnerjr: - I will be very interested to see what you think of Fortress of Solitude. My theater book club read it earlier this year since our local theater was developing a musical adaptation to hopefully take to Broadway someday. The book wasn't my cup of tea but the show was really good. Fun to see what parts they kept.

>75 LittleTaiko:

Yeah - I am only a little over 100 pp. into it, but I can definitely see where it's not a novel that would appeal to all tastes. As someone who grew up in the 1970s as a rabid Marvel Comics fan, however, I am right bang in the center of what I take to be Lethem's target audience; I doubt he could have written a book that is more appealing to someone of my interests if I had asked him to. 8)

Update: about two-thirds of the way (300+ pp.) into The Fortress of Solitude, which means I've read about 200 pp. in the last four days - an almost-unheard-of pace for me recently. I will say no more about it until I am through, other than I am obviously finding it very engrossing.

That's spot-on where my upper limit is, about 50 pages in a day, but to sustain that for four days running - wow!

I think there's been days when I could more and actually have the time, but I get a bit wearied of it beyond 50 in a day and it starts to hurt my enjoyment.

>78 Cecrow:

I think the pace at which I'm reading this one has a lot to do with the fact that it's the first full-length prose novel I've read in about a year. I guess I was really starved for the pleasures of this particular form without realizing it!

I used to knock off 100-150 pp. a day as a teen without a lot of difficulty, but I realize now that I was doing a lot of skimming from plot point to plot point without really appreciating the nuances of what I was reading. I'm actually glad that I've learned to slow down a bit and enjoy the journey rather than always feeling the need to race along all the time.

Finished The Fortress of Solitude last night. In spite of a somewhat slow opening and often being on the verge of drowning in pop culture references throughout the book, Lethem weaves a powerful, accessible tale of interracial friendship in America. Recommended.

Up next: in keeping with the Marvel Comics-obsession theme of Lethem's book, it's going to be Kirby: King of Comics. 8)

This does not appear to be the small, round pink Kirby who eats everything in sight.

>81 Cecrow:

Lol - no - this would be Jack Kirby (pictured below with a few of his creations), possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations of the 20th century.

Wow - now I no longer know where he leaves off and Stan Lee begins. Seems I've been misattributing many of Kirby's creations.

>83 Cecrow:

Well, co-creator is more accurate, although some of the characters depicted above (Silver Surfer, Darkseid, Mister Miracle, et al.) are entirely Jack's creations. Stan Lee had a significant hand in the characters that he and Kirby came up with at Marvel, but their collaborations are generally about 75% Kirby's work, with Lee being on hand primarily as a sort of script doctor to polish Kirby's somewhat subpar dialogue.

My review of The Fortress of Solitude is up at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/review/R35CULAG6N4IBM/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0385500696) and at LT (http://www.librarything.com/work/5984/reviews/97376037).

I should add that I also need a book to read that is slightly more portable than the Kirby tome, as it is quite large (coffee-table-book large rather than doorstop large - it's over a foot high) and I don't really want (for example) to tote it back and forth to work, so I will be reading Cthulhu's Reign on those days which I require more compact reading matter.

>86 artturnerjr:, been there, done that. The Raj Quartet is the biggest book I could find in the public library when I was fourteen and tried tackling it the first time; it stays on my desk at work for lunch hours and dost not moveth.

>87 Cecrow:

Is it as big as this edition? What a beast!

http://amzn.com/0688030653

The pages are onion-skin thin, and at 3.5 lbs you almost can't do anything but read it at a desk or a table. It makes a good thump sound, lol. It's a cheat though, because it's actually four distinct books bound together as an omnibus. I've been reading them several months apart so I've had to wrestle with it three times so far, one more to go. Big books are liable to be damaged, good idea that you're handling yours with care.

>85 artturnerjr: - if you find yourself in New York in September they will be debuting the musical based on this book. Saw it in Dallas and really enjoyed it.

Okay! Kirby: King of Comics is done. It was a real treat; I should have a full review posted soon.

Up next: Cthulhu's Reign (since I started it already).

***

>89 Cecrow:

Big books are liable to be damaged, good idea that you're handling yours with care.

Yeah. This was kind of a expensive volume as well (although, being the bargain hunter that I am, I did not pay full price for it), so that's another reason I am trying to take good care of it.

***

>90 LittleTaiko:

I doubt I will be anywhere near New York in September, but thanks for the heads up. I have no doubt that it makes for a fine musical, as music is so central to the novel.

About halfway through Cthulhu's Reign. Man, is it bleak. The stories (about the Old Ones from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos tales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_One_in_fiction#Cthulhu_Mythos) overtaking the Earth), are about as grim as one would (or could) imagine. After reading this (and watching the first season of HBO's uber-noir True Detective series in a two-evening marathon), I'm definitely going to be ready for something lighter; anything written in the history of Western civilization should fit the bill. :D

>92 artturnerjr: are you actually going to persist? I'd give up!

>92 artturnerjr:, well, it is Cthulhu. And, you should definitely read Shirer next. LOL.

>93 ipsoivan:

Well, for better or worse, I seem to thrive on this sort of thing. A lot of my reading is in the post-apocalyptic, dystopian, and horror genres, so bleak is nothing new to me. A great deal of my non-fiction reading does not cast the most flattering light on the human condition, either. Exactly what it is in my psychological make-up that attracts me to such dark subject matter I will leave for others to analyze.

>94 Cecrow:

Ha! Well, at least we know that the Nazis lost in the end, right?

***

Okay! Cthulhu's Reign is done. Yes, the second half of the book was pretty much as bleak as the first, although it does end (with Fred Chappell's novella "Remnants") on a relatively upbeat (although still ambiguous) note.

I said I wanted to read something lighter next; Cecrow's amusing suggestion aside, I think, of my remaining titles, that Superfolks, Robert Mayer's humorous novel about superheroes, best fits the bill, so that one's next.

Sounds like a work perfectly geared to a fan like yourself, and with a publication date (1977) to bear in mind.

>96 Cecrow:

Well, it's supposed to be an important precursor to the whole deconstructionist movement that was going on in the superhero genre in the 1980s (with Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, etc.), so it's of particular interest to me, and something I felt like I needed to investigate.

>95 artturnerjr: I find it hard to believe that Fred Chappell contributed to this, that he's written horror! Have you read some of his other work?

>98 ipsoivan:

Yeah, he's a bit of the odd person out here, isn't he? Wasn't he the poet laureate of North Carolina at one point? Nevertheless, he's been an admirer of Lovecraft's for many years, and has written Lovecraftian horror fiction on and off since the late 1960s. Lovecraft has many aficionados that surprise people: Joyce Carol Oates, Jorge Luis Borges, Michel Houellebecq... it's quite a long list, actually.

Haven't read any of Chappell's other work, but I will certainly keep an eye out for it. I thought his story was the most surprising in the whole collection.

Finished Superfolks early this morning. A quick read, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed it all that much; most of the humor just didn't work for me. Nevertheless, I'm glad it's off the list.

Up next: something completely different. I'll be reading the Penguin Classics edition of The Communist Manifesto:

A brief note: The Communist Manifesto will be the 12th book I've read for the Challenge, which means I will have reached my goal for the year after I'm done with it. :)

Congrats on almost finishing your challenge!!!

Yes, congratulations!

I'm feeling a bit put off by my own list at this point. Too many long tomes, and I've hit so many duds. However, seeing some of you reach or approach the end gives me some new hope. I should stop going to the library and get these books read!

Once you're done with the Communist Manifesto, will you continue chipping away at this list, or will you postpone (some of) them to next year's challenge?

>102 LittleTaiko:
>103 ipsoivan:

Thanks!

>103 ipsoivan:

Yeah, in spite of a slow start, this has been a pretty good year for me, Challenge-wise. It doesn't always go this smoothly - I only finished 10 of my Challenge books last year, for example. I am easily distracted by lower-priority reading matter as well, so I feel your pain!

>104 Petroglyph:

I'd like to knock another title or two off my lists if possible, although I'll be much more likely to read other stuff now. Next year, I have a reading project in mind (reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series (http://www.librarything.com/series/Barsoom)) that is incompatible with the Challenge, so any titles that I don't get to this year will most likely have to wait until 2016.

>105 artturnerjr: - incompatible with the challenge, you say! And we began following "rules" in this group when, exactly? LOL Go ahead, list 24 ERB books for 2015 and I won't bat an eye! :)

I must admit that I put an item on my list that I did not yet own, but that I had wanted to read for a long time. Also, several books were new to my library (i.e. added less than 4 months before). But I understand if you're more of a purist about the rules. Having a long-term reading plan is a good thing, too.

>107 Petroglyph:, same here and then some. I loosely interpret TBR as any title I've intention to read at some point in time and have chosen to put on the slate for this coming year. So to me it makes no matter how long I've owned it or whether I own it at all. I wouldn't even balk from posting a title I anticipate being published in the coming year. Really the only thing I'm strict about is not changing my 24 listed titles once they're posted.

>106 Cecrow: ff.

I suppose I could make the main list the Barsoom series (there are 11 books in that series, so perhaps those books and one additional title that is set in that milieu (John Joseph Adams' Under the Moons of Mars, perhaps)), plus a shorter alternates list of non-fiction/anthology titles in case I need a break in the series (assuming no one objects, of course).

I'm not much of a rules purist, either, having broken them more than once in the last few years.

Why is it that they'd break the rules? They state things from your mental TBR count also, so if you've been meaning to read them, you're officially following the rules. But hell, even if you just learned about them a week ago and decided you want to read them all, who cares? Put 'em on! I think we're pretty much all agreed that the point of the challenge (along with nearly every reading challenge) is simply to read and have fun with books, yeah? So have at it! :))

Well, there used to be a rule for the Challenge that you couldn't put any books that you'd read before on your lists, and I've read the first three books in the series before (granted, it's been about 10+ years since I've read them, but I have read them). Having said that, I've looked around on the web for where the rule was posted (I believe it was in the FAQ) and I can't find it, so... I guess I'll go for it! :D

Ahh. Well you could always leave those three off if you really wanted, but I don't see any reason to. Especially since it was so long ago you read them, not like something fresh in your mind or whatnot. So yes, for sure stick the series on your list! :)

>112 .Monkey.:

Yeah, I definitely want to reread them. I remember the first one, A Princess of Mars, pretty clearly (it helps that I saw the underrated 2012 film version, John Carter (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401729/) - it follows the plot of the novel pretty closely), but the second and the third are pretty hazy to me.

Yeah, pop the series on there. No one will bat an eyelid.

Shhhhh. You never read them before. We didn't hear you say that. Literally, actually, we didn't hear you.

I read the novelization of the John Carter movie to my son and neither one of us was impressed, we've yet to rent the movie and might never. But I understand the original novel is quite a bit better.

>115 Cecrow:

Never read what, Cecrow? ;)

I confess I am rather bemused by the whole process of taking a work of literature, turning it into a movie, and then turning it back into a different work of literature. John Carter isn't the first time this has been done, either (see Little Women (novelization), V for Vendetta (novelization)*, etc.). I mean, why not just read the original?

*Although I understand this one's actually pretty good. (Drat! I'm undermining my own argument!)

Well, I could see it with V since the original is a graphic novel not an actual novel, it's not so rare for one of those to get made into the other when it does well. But novel--movie--novel does indeed seem absurd. But then, you get things like the movie 3 Men and a Baby, which was a remake of a French movie, and which itself was remade in multiple other countries. Remakes of remakes, woo! lol.

>117 .Monkey.:

Well, I could see it with V since the original is a graphic novel not an actual novel

Yeah, that's true. Probably not the best example I could have picked lol.

***

I confess I am getting a little frustrated with my reading of The Communist Manifesto. I love Penguin Classics but the proportion of introductory material compared to the actual text being discussed seems to me to be a little absurd (200+ pages of discussion of a document that only runs about 40 pages? C'mon!). I am seriously thinking about skipping the rest of it and just reading the Manifesto proper.

I always read the book before the intro. Occasionally they do mention a thing or two that helps appreciate something in the text, but generally not so much, plus almost without fail they spoil it. Okay, so that particular title wouldn't really get spoiled, hahaha, but still, text first! :P I imagine there's so much other stuff because of the massive impact the book has had, and they explain the history, and what followed its publication, and all that, yeah? It makes sense. I could see it being a bit much though, lol.

For some reason I always thought Marx's manifesto was an enormous book. I'm obviously confusing it with something else he wrote.

>119 .Monkey.:

Okay, so that particular title wouldn't really get spoiled, hahaha, but still, text first! :P

Lol! Spoiler alert: That whole communism thing? Yeah, didn't work out so good. :(

I imagine there's so much other stuff because of the massive impact the book has had, and they explain the history, and what followed its publication, and all that, yeah?

Yeah, exactly. There's a general preface, a chapter on the reception of the Manifesto, a chapter on the general sentiment regarding communism in 19th century Europe, a chapter on Friedrich Engels and his contribution to the Manifesto (okay, that one's actually kind of interesting), on and on, ad nauseam. Being a Penguin Classic, this is of course all supplemented by copious footnotes. I mean, if you want a text where, upon completing it, you feel like you've just finished your doctoral dissertation on Marx and communism, this is your book. I really should have went with an edition with a brief introduction and then bang, the Manifesto, but I saw the Penguin Classics edition on sale for two bucks at a local bookstore and was all like, "Ooo! Gimme." :)

>120 Cecrow:

For some reason I always thought Marx's manifesto was an enormous book. I'm obviously confusing it with something else he wrote.

Yeah, I think you're thinking of Das Kapital (I'm obviously not a great Marx expert, just getting to his writing for the first time at the age of 47, but I think that's the one). The Manifesto was just like a little pamphlet, a little piece of agitprop to get the ball rolling for that particular political movement; think of Thomas Paine's Common Sense (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_(pamphlet)) and you'll get the general idea.

Ok, so here's the deal. I started reading The Communist Manifesto around September 14th (or shortly thereafter), so about five weeks ago. In that time, I've managed to read only about 120 pages of the book - about 60% of the introduction. At the rate I'm going, it's going to take me another three weeks to just finish the intro. So... no way, I say! I am skipping ahead to the Manifesto proper, and then I may or may not come back and finish the intro (right now, I am leaning toward "may not").

Gosh, I feel better now! :)

Good call!

lol - if you're not getting any value out of it, yeah, skip ahead. It's a case-by-case basis with me, sometimes I skim or skip unless I'm really picking up good pointers on how to approach the main work.

>124 Cecrow:

I wouldn't say I wasn't getting any value out of it - I just didn't feel like it was worth the amount of time I was spending on it. (Did find some amusing quotes from Marx, though. My favorite: "The weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons"(!).)

I am happy to report that The Communist Manifesto is now officially done. Woo-hoo! :)

How was it? Well, it's a polemic/mission statement written by extreme ideologues who nonetheless had some very perceptive things to say about the dominant economic system of its day. It is therefore (as you might imagine) infuriating and penetrating, in approximately equal measure. It's also pretty concise, so if it's something you're curious about, by all means give it a go.

***

Well, that's my 12th book, so I'm a free man now, as it were. I think I'm going to finish up one of the other books I've had going (A Princess of Mars, which I'm about two-thirds of the way through), and then try to knock off at least one more of the books off my 2014 lists before the year is through (leaning toward Dark Gods).

>126 artturnerjr: Congratulations, art. I'm also hoping to knock off my baker's dozen book, but have only made it a quarter of the way through. I'm enjoying my freedom too much to feel an obligation...

Yay for freedom! Congrats, artturnerjr!

>126 artturnerjr:, awesome! What I've gathered is: short and sweet but skip the intro. :) Congrats on the goal accomplished, and still nearly two months left.

>127 ipsoivan:
>128 Petroglyph:

Thanks!

>129 Cecrow:

What I've gathered is: short and sweet but skip the intro. :)

Exactly (unless you're a grad student or a professor). :)

Congrats on the goal accomplished, and still nearly two months left.

Thanks! Have to say I feel pretty good about it, especially after only finishing ten books off my lists last year.

Update: finished A Princess of Mars, which was a lot of fun. Also nice to know that I now have one less Barsoom book to read next year. :)

Up next: probably Dark Gods.

>131 artturnerjr:, you do a good job of covering off the classics, between these and H.G. Wells. Have you read much Jules Verne?

>132 Cecrow:

Thanks! I am very fond of speculative fiction from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I'm not really sure why - I guess it just seems to me like authors of that period were less concerned about what marketing niche there work was going to fit into and were more apt to just let their imaginations flow.

Much to my chagrin, I have never read any Jules Verne! I've had a copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea sitting around here forever but it never seems like I am able to get to it. With Verne, I keep thinking I would like to read a bunch of his stuff at once when I read him, like I did with H.P. Lovecraft and like I'm planning on doing with Edgar Rice Burroughs next year. I'm sure I will get to him soon enough. :)

I was sifting through my TBR pile and found First Men in the Moon and Food of the Gods, then remembered you'd read one and had the other listed. These have been following me for probably a couple of decades; they won't make my 2015 but I've got them tracked now. The moon story looks like the more interesting of the two. I haven't read any Wells since highschool, I think, when I was on a bit of a streak with The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, War of the Worlds and Island of Dr Moreau. Those were all good, not sure why I stopped there.

>134 Cecrow:

I read The First Men in the Moon and enjoyed it; I started The Food of the Gods and stopped about halfway through (due to family issues rather than the book; the book was actually pretty good). First Men in the Moon requires a crazy amount of suspension of disbelief; compared to that, A Princess of Mars is a model of scientific veracity lol. Food of the Gods was entertaining; there's a lot more humor in it than is typical of Wells.

I have become quite an admirer of Wells' stuff over the last several years; there is a much great degree of thematic richness in his work than mundanes probably think is possible. :)

Lucky 13 (Dark Gods) is finished! Wow, that was an amazing book. T. E. D. Klein is not very well-known outside of horror fiction circles, and that's a shame - his tales are comparable to Stephen King at his very best. Truly captivating and highly recommended.

Well, I think I'm done with my 2014 lists for this year; I could probably get one more title in before the end of the year, but I don't want to chance it. As those of you who've looked at my 2015 lists know, Guns, Germs, and Steel is returning next year; the rest will most like have to wait until 2016 to get read, I'm afraid. :(

Seems like one of those authors who has the talent but just couldn't get the profile rolling. Success as an author is at least 50% luck, I think.

>137 Cecrow:

Well, Klein's big problem is apparently writer's block; he's published only seven short stories (and no novels) in the last quarter-century. His only novel (The Ceremonies (1984)) sold well and was widely acclaimed, but he has produced very little work since. With very few exceptions, if you don't put new work out, people tend to forget you. :(

Sorry so late, but congrats on finishing your challenge!

>139 billiejean:

Thanks! :)

As a (perhaps) final note on this year's challenge, I am just now noting that there were six titles on this year's lists that were holdovers from my 2013 lists that I actually read this year. I'm glad I finally got to them - better late than never, as they say. :)

That's great that you were finally able to cross those off the list. Gives me hope for the couple that I didn't make it to this year which made it to next year's list. Maybe it just takes a while to find the perfect time to read them.

>142 LittleTaiko:

Maybe it just takes a while to find the perfect time to read them.

Yeah, I think you're right. If I'm not in the right frame of mind to read something, it's a chore, and that's not what I'm here to do. It's nice getting books off of Mt. TBR, but I'm primarily here to have fun. :)