Happy & Brainy Group discussion

I love to read repeatedly:

1. Of course, Reason Reigns

2. I have read The Fountainhead almost a hundred times. It gives me joy and fuel.

3. The Romantic Manifesto - taught me how to write a novel

4. Atlas Shrugged

Wow! Re-reading a book a hundred times. I've re-read a few books but there is always a new one I can't wait to discover.

I read the Fountainhead 50 years ago, maybe it's time I re-read it.

I love the book Black Beauty. It was fantasticly written. I re-read it a dozen times!

Hello Mimi and Ed,

Have a great day!

Hi Ilyn,
May I know the publisher of The Fountainhead? I'm motivated by your comment that you've read it a hundred times; I want to get hold of that book too.
Warm regards.
Lita

Hi Litapage2001,

It is available in the Philippines. So is Atlas Shrugged. These two fiction books are written by the author of Philosophy: Who Needs It, Ayn Rand.

Have a great day!


Warmest regards,

Ilyn

I don't really re-read that much but one book I dip into over and over is Henry Green's 'Living', a novel set in Birmingham, UK (where I live)in the 1920s about factory workers. The writing is beutiful and compassionate and strange. The other thing to say about it is the author comes form where i was born and grew up (Tewkesbury) so maybe that also influences me. His other books are great too but this is the one I keep coming back to. I have a review of it on this site where I quote a passage, so you can see what I mean: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
and another one on amazon - I'm 'Brummie reader:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Loving-Living...

Hello Alan,

I will check out "Living". Next month, I will start research on the UK because it is the main setting of my next novel.

When I was much younger, I repeatedly read scenes in The Wolf and The Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss.

The books I have re-read are mostly the classics: The Count of Monte Cristo - my favorite character of all time - and The Secret Garden. I like to revive the kid in me once in awhile and this book does this :)

One of my favorites is The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. It's a SF take on the American Revolution in many ways.

Another is Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Another SF book about a rebel in the future.

I guess I just like rebels...

The Dune saga is my all time favorite series, I read them every few years. And with the new books in the collection, it just get more interesting.

Hello Lucille, Jim, and Jackie.

Jackie, thanks for joining us. Welcome to Happy & Brainy.

Hi everyone. Have a marvelous Friday and weekend. Warmest regards.

The Dune saga is my all time favorite series, I read them every few years. And with the new books in the collection, it just get more interesting.
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I, too, have read the "Dune" books over a few times. For some reason, though, I can't bring myself to trudge through all of "God Emperor". That has to be the most STATIC book I've ever read! Nothing ever DOES happen in it, besides Leto III talking to Hri Nouri and her uncle....At that point, it was obvious that Herbert was treating Dune as a cash cow pretty much the way Paramount eventually ended up treating Star Trek and all its spinoffs...

But the first three were good reads, (no pun intended...)

Stephen H. Turner, author of:
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
The Avedon Question

Stephen, OMG I hated God Emperor the first time I read it, about 20 years ago! I know exactly what you mean, but the last time I read it, it was a remarkably different experience for me. I was able to see things through Leto's eyes, and it changed the entire book for me. I won't say it's great, but it is part of the Dune saga.
I really enjoyed the books Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson wrote about the Duniverse. They have an easy manner in the way they tell the stories, unlike Frank who can get a bit to wordy for my liking. I think Frank took himself too seriously, while Brian and Kevin seem to enjoying themselves.

I got about halfway through "God Emperor" the first read, and haven't cracked it since! Like I said, it DOES look like the elder Herbert was treating Dune like a cash cow at that point. However, the first three, though the first "Dune" is kind of heavy, ponderous reading, move a LOT better than number four!

Have you seen the three Dune movies? (Lynch's, Harrison's and "Children", (which I LOVED!) Which of the two first Dunes did you like better, Lynch's or the Sci-Fi Channel's?

Actually, though I'm enamored of Dune, due to Lynch's version, I'm really more of an Ellison and Clarke man, myself....;-)

Stephen H. Turner
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
The Avedon Question

Tough choice, both have their merits. I liked Lynch's maybe because it was the first and I had nothing to compare it to at the time. I was just so thrilled that it was made into a movie. But after Sci-fi Channels' version of Dune and Children of Dune, I will have to choose them, they were more in depth than Lynch's. These are hard books to put into a movie because they are so big, what do you leave out? Sci-fi's two-parters are a better version because they were able to fit more in than a regular 2 hours movie. And the FX were much better.
A few months ago, I read on Sci-fi's website there will be a new big screen versions of Dune but since then not another word.

FAR OUT!! Was there any mention on who would direct? I have to say, I liked the Lynch version for casting and just the undefinable quality of "soul"...but the Sci-Fi version for completeness and scene inclusion. I also liked Ian McNiece's version of Vladimir Harkonnen better than Kenneth McMillan's, however, I HATED the use of William Hurt for Duke Leto!! But Danielle Amavia's take on Alia? That girl could ACT!! I wonder why we haven't seen anything else with her in it...!

And is it just me, or did you find a lot of "Dune" cues in the original "Star Wars" trilogy...? (Along with some from the "Foundation" series as well...)

Stephen H. Turner
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
The Avedon Question

My favorite book to reread is Afternoon of an Autocrat. I love it when he rides out not knowing its his last ride and the description is heavenly. I love the supernatural ending, will try not to spoil it by telling you the details..... he is thrown on a supernatural patch of road. Its very complicated at this point.
Then I love reading about Damask. She is a fascinating character to me and I wish Norah Lofts had written more about her in her other books as she does with some of her characters. You can read about Jassy in other books besides the one that is mostly about her. I also like the character of a Hatton who is born to play the violin. He shows up in several books.
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I read The Fountainhead in 1975 and do not remember being that impressed by maybe its time to read it again.
I have read Out of African 3 times. Its worth it to me. I love the description also.
Also Gone with the Wind is worth reading again but I will not read that "sequel" which annoys me no end. There should be a law about people writing books that follow up orignal work of art which Gone with the Wind is IMO. (makes me mad)
I own over 300 books as a good one is worth reading again.
Alice

I started reading Norah Lofts when I lived in Suffolk so I sure understand reading books about your area. When we lived in San Angelo, TX I had to read The Time it Never Rained written by the local author there who won a prize for that book. Well worth reading.
A woman here in CO told me to read local artist Mary Summer Wind who writes about local hauntings. Norah Lofts wrote some about that too in the Suffolk area.

Hi
I tend to read Main Street by Sinclair Lewis over and over again. I think I identify with the wife who initially tries to fit in and then sets off on her own. Also, I think I like the way Lewis has affection for all of his characters no matter how different they are. And his observations about human nature are right on target. There is one scene in which the rural folk set their minds to figuring out how many miles a trip is. I never tire of reading it.
Pam Broderick

Stephen,
You are so right, the casting was fantastic. I loved that German/Austrian dude in Lynch's version as Duke Leto. William Hurt, no, that didn't work for me.
Alia was perfect, she couldn't have done a better job.
Still no more word on the new big screen version but I have to admit I haven't been to scifi.com in a while. There's too much to read there, book and movie reviws, all the scifi news, I get lost for hours when I'm there, heehee.

It's been way too long since I read Star Wars and I have no desire to re-read it. I'm going to be re-reading Foundation soon, maybe early next year, depends on what else comes up. That's the problem with re-reading, something always comes up and usurps my positioning. I've been trying to get back to Foundation for about a year now.
I can't really remember if I saw any Dune clues or not.

I like Clarke. But my all time fav sci fi author is Asimov! Have you read his "Nightfall"?

Like some others here I've read a few books multiple times:

The Sun Also Rises (16)
The Three Musketeers (5)
The English Patient (4)
The Lord of the Rings (4, but not in a long time)
Perdido Street Station (4)

Then countless others a couple of times.

I only read the Fountainhead once, for a girl I was in love with at the time. I really enjoyed Rand's writing, but I am not an objectivist, nor could I be, and I find her works preach her theories a little too much, so I doubt I'd go back to her writings, although I may finally read Atlas Shrugged because it is the one book of hers I haven't yet read.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of my all-time favourites and I really need to get back to it again. And Dune...the first book knocked my socks off, but all the follow-ups I've tried just never seemed to do it for me.

As refreshing as it was to see the CHOAM Co. dinner, Jessica finding the terrarium and other scenes that weren't in the Lynch version, I found that the as far as casting was concerned, with the exception of Vladimir Harkonnen, the casting of the Lynch version was FAR superior. It took me about three or four viewings to sufficiently differentiate between the actors playing Paul and Feyd...they look SO much alike...and, except for the fantastically out of place Hurt, there wasn't one familiar face outside of Ian McNiece and Giancarlo Gianini in the cast of the first SciFi Channel film. This changed as they got Alice Krige to play Jessica in "Children", and I must say, she added a lot to it! It's hard to believe this is the same woman who played the Borg queen in "Star Trek: First Contact".

No, I've never read "Nightfall"...Have you ever read "The Last Question"? (My fave story by him!)

Steve

"The Three Musketeers"....EXCELLENT choice! Anybody who likes Dumas is a friend of mine! ;-)

Have you seen the two Richard Lester movies of this perennial? EASILY the best version of it brought to the screen!!

Stephen H. Turner
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
The Avedon Question

Every year has at least a month's worth or re-reads, including my personal favorites, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Good Earth. These books all tend to hit with a positive and/or inspiritational note, so I tend to re-read them in the beginning of the year. I think I've also re-read Gabaldon's Outlander series and Auel's Earth's Children series over a hundred times. It's a comfort thing. :-)

Stephen, if you like Alexander Dumas, there is another author who mimics his style, Steven Brust, in some of his novels starting with The Phoenix Guards, followed by Five Hundred Years After & several others, I think. It might interest you. It's a fantasy, based somewhat on Hungarian mythology.

I thought the style was close enough to add character to the story. I don't know if some might find it grating; too close, yet just off. I'd be interested in your opinion. His website is:http://dreamcafe.com/

Yes I have, Stephen, and I don't care what anyone says, Charlton Heston rocks. He was wicked as Richelieu. And looking at your list there, I haven't read a single one. So now I must. Always good to find another Musketeers fan. My wife is pregnant and we have a deal. If it's quadruplets they're going to be Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagnan. I'll let you know in eight months how it turns out.

Yes, you'll notice this was Heston's first VILLAIN role, and done shortly after he changed his politics from liberal to ultra-conservative. Hee hee...such irony!!

LOL...I gotta see whether the youngest looks like Michael York...show some pictures after a year or two so we can see if it happens! ;-)

And WHATEVER you do, don't name any daughters you have Lady De Winter....!!

Stephen H. Turner
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
The Avedon Question

Do check out Steven Brust's work. It (as in all of his work) tops my list of re-readable books.

From there in no particular order:
on the Rand theme: Anthem
Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land
Thoreau: The complete works of Henry David Thoreau
Faith in a Seed
Richard Bach: Illusions
Wolff: In Defense of Anarchy
Chuang Tzu: Chuang Tzu
McElroy: The Reasonable Woman
Hayek: The Road to serfdom

and many others..

I have a huge stack of books I want to re-read (pretty much every book I own to be honest with you) but somehow I never get around to doing it. I seem to get distracted by all the new and old books I come across that I want to read instead. Theres just not enought hours in the day.

For all the scifi's here... Check out Olaf Stapledon's ' Star Maker'...

For all the non-fictionist ... Check Noam Chomsky's. " American Power and the New Mandarins"......