I’m back on the discworld train. Hoping to get through Maskerade so that I can read Good Omens again before the show comes out.
David Tennant and Micheal Sheen were amazing casting choices for Crowley and Aziraphale. I’m horribly excited.
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Elmore Leonard’s writing rules :
I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of ■■■■ and adverbs.”
(system didn’t like part of that quote - it’s in the article obviously).
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Snooty! I have no problem reading historical romances like that
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I was plugging through that same site and found a bunch of other “tips and rules” lists. A surprising number of them were remarkably unhelpful (Jack Kerouac, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, etc) but John Steinbeck’s had some meat.
Edit : this one from Neil Gaiman was amusing :
when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
2nd edit : this from Zadie Smith @Hattie 
Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.
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Steinbeck’s Cannery Row was, as far as I remember, the first time I went looking for the book after I saw the film.
Usually it’s the other way round…
Currently reading Babylon’s Ashes (Expanse series), but thanks to @billthebetta a Witcher reread may be in order. Saga and short stories are both worth reading more than once.
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right now? nothing. Dealing with the ex. So now I’m drinking.
I’ve not seen the film - and I think I’ll avoid it. I just can’t see Nick Nolte as Doc. That book made a big impact on me - so, ya, hallowed ground.
I don’t think you’ll have to go out of your way to avoid it. It’s from 1982 and I haven’t seen it aired for decades literally.
Lovecraft. The anthology “Dreams of Terror and Death”. Taking the train to visit my mom and back, so listening to an instrumental/ambient playlist on my Zune. I read the first three unfinished fragments and the first story “Beyond the Wall of Sleep”. This is not my first reading of these pieces, but I always find his work simultaneously comforting, haunting, and compelling. “The Doom that came to Sarnath” is up now.
If any of you are curious, this is the first track in that playlist. There are other artists there, like Karsh Kale and the Thievery Corporation, but this is pretty representative of the vibe in the playlist.
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Saw this and decided to give the books a try:
The first is a collection of very short independent chapters. The second is an actual book book. Also, there are direct links to pdf versions at the end of the article.
Here’s one page from the first book (and let’s see how many recognize the quote!):
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Audiobooks: does anyone have an audiobook of an anthology of short stories? If so, are the short stories broken out where it’s obvious where to skip to if you want to read a particular one, or are they broken out into a series of sections with generic titles so you have to manually skip through them until you find the one you want?
Of course I am curious 
In my opinion the song you posted is a good fit for “The Doom That Came To Sarnath” and other short stories like “The Cats Of Ulthar”. I am having a harder time connecting the music with the stories set in a decaying New England, like “The Colour Out Of Space”. But as I wrote, that’s subjective anyway.
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@Curmudge0n
Most of the playlist is centered around relaxing rhythms and vibes, not necessarily aesthetics. It’s a playlist I put together for doing schoolwork, and it’s not at all homogeneous. It’s primary function was to keep me relaxed while I was getting stuff done. I think if I was pairing for the New England bits I’d probably use the From Hell score. That one has lots of old timey sounds mixed about with the electronic stuff, and even some stuff that sounds like it came out of an old Victrola. I have a CD of recordings of different funeral rites from around the world that I’d like to try out, but it is stylistically all over the place, from Ashkenazi prayer to Baptist eulogy to mariachi to pan pipes. Makes it an interesting listen but more intellectually stimulating than I like for reading.
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Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll give that a try when I get back to Lovecraft.
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No problem, and any time. I am a glutton for media of all types, and I’m glad to share. I have to retract the electronic sounds claim. It’s been a while since I’ve given it a proper listen. I think it’s mostly strings and woodwinds, plus a Marilyn Manson song that I neither like or dislike. I found a playlist on the YouTube.
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I love Lovecraft anthologies.
Come for the wonderfully disturbing and surreal cover art, stay for the wonderfully disturbing and surreal prose. About to get into Nyarlathotep.
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Most of my german Lovecraft books got donated to charity before moving some years ago. Shelf space is never enough for me… At the moment I’m thinking about ordering a rather complete edition of Lovecraft’s fiction.
But at the moment:
@Jefe That good? Maybe I should give Margaret Atwood another chance. It’s been a long time since I read one of her books…
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