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Philip K. Dick, The man in the High Castle

A book recommended by Maverick in the [a href=\'http://forum.maidenfans.com/index.php?showtopic=6109\' target=\'_blank\']topic[/a] devoted to books in the French Forum. [!--emo&:)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Right now i'm reading "bravo two zero" by Andy McNab. It's a true story from the Iraqi-war of 1990. It's about a special forces group from the brittish SAS behind the enemy lines in Iraq. It's a great book. INteresting to know how much a man can endure... I strongly recomend you to read it guys!
 
Just read "All The President's Men" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein - their account of how they (and others) broke open the Watergate scandal which forced Nixon to resign. I thought it was quite interesting. I've always loved the movie version of the book, but (as always) the book has so much more detail. In fact, the scandal was so complex that it was really hard to absorb it all in one reading.

During the presidential election campaign, I read comments on the web from former Nixon staffers and Washington insiders stating that the Bush administration is eerily similar to the Nixon administration in regard to their propaganda machine and political modus operandi. If there's anyone interested in current US politics, I'd highly recommend this book because it seems likely that history is possibly repeating itself... the difference being that this time, the major media is run by corporations who are in bed with Bush and his friends, so no truth is likely to emerge in time to stop any abuses of power.

One thing about the Watergate story that surprised me was the extent to which Woodward and Bernstein worked independently. I had always thought of them as a team, doing most of the work side by side. While that happened sometimes, it was more often the case that they did their own investigations then compared notes to come up with a story. This way, it was easier for them to get independent confirmations of controversial facts before printing them.

At any rate, it was a great book. Even if you don't care to read it, definitely check out the movie if you've never seen it. Superb acting by Dusting Hoffman and Robert Redford.

Edit: Post #888! The Number Of The H!
 
Arthur C. Clarke, 2001 : A Space Odyssey.

I haven't liked the Kubrick's movie and I hope that with the book, I will create my own images...
 
I'm reading a book called The Bad Place by Dean R. Koontz. Started out slow, but I like it a lot now. It's like watching a thriller only better. [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Wilbur Smith - Last train to Katanga
Again an awesome novel by Wilbur Smith!
This one takes place in Kongo in the 70's, about a man progressing from a mercenary without feelings until he "finds himself" again. (Strongly aided by a woman)
 
NR: Legends of Dune: The machine Crusade, Heretics of Dune, Prelude to Dune: House Harkonnen. Although I haven't started with House Harkonnen yet.
 
That's pretty weird, as I started reading ChapterHouse:Dune, after I finished Dean R. Koontz's The bad Place which turned out to be quite a book. Chapterhouse doesen't seem to have the same finesse as the other Dune novels, but I said the same about Dune Heretics and it turned out to be my favourite
 
I'm done with Heretics and The machne crusade now. I need to buy Chapterhouse next... My favourite is God Emperor btw.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Scream for me Stockholm+Nov 7 2004, 01:25 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Scream for me Stockholm @ Nov 7 2004, 01:25 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Right now i'm reading "bravo two zero" by Andy McNab. It's a true story from the Iraqi-war of 1990. It's about a special forces group from the brittish SAS behind the enemy lines in Iraq. It's a great book. INteresting to know how much a man can endure... I strongly recomend you to read it guys!
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Most of it's not true. Andy McNab made it up to make a book. The journey the soldiers took is correct, as is the places they visited. But the events that took place were fabricated lies. McNab and his men 'did not kill everyone at the checkpoint'. They were noticed at the checkpoint and shot at by about 2 men. Then they ran away..! It was all lies.

Anyway! I'm reading Run to The Hills (3rd Edition)
 
I finished reading "The Ring" by Suzuki Koji a while ago, and I have rarely read a book that caught me like this.

Having seen both the Japanese and American adaptions of it (which both differ dramatically from each other, and even more dramatically from the book), I was quite excited to read it, because it was already one of my favourite horror stories (in fact, the American film was the first film in approximately ten years -if not more- to give me nightmares!).

The basic story is the same in the book and the two films. Four kids die of unknown circumstances at precisely the same time in exactly the same way. This is brought to the attention of a journalist (Asakawa), who is the uncle (or aunt in the adaptions) of one of the victims. In the course of his investigations, he finds out that the four kids spent a weekend together at a cottage in a remote location somewhere in rural Japan. He decides to spend a night in the same cottage and finds a video tape there. It consists of seemingly random and unrelated images, along with a message saying he will die a week after watching the tape unless he follows the instructions. Unfortunately, the instructions have been taped over with a commercial, presumably by the four dead kids.
Asakawa takes this very seriously, because all four kids who have been in this cottage died a week later, and everything seems to point out that they have also watched the video tape.
He teams up with an old highschool friend of his, Riyuji, to investigate the backgrounds of the tape. Having only the images of locations and people on the video tape to work with, they follow a track which leads to a psychic and her daughter, Sadako. And they discover the entire, awful truth behind the tape...

For those of you who have seen the film, be advised that, while the outcome is almost the same as in the film, the background isn't. I'm not going to give away more because this is one of the most rewarding horror stories ever.
The plot culminates in one of the most exciting ideas I have ever heard about. I wish I could discuss this here, but that would mean giving away a good part of the suspense of the story. In fact, what I think of as so exciting just seems to be a minor detail of the whole thing, but when you start to think about it, it makes the whole thing even scarier. And I can tell you, it's not in the films!

Not to mention, the final pages of the book are quite thought-provoking as well.
 
'The Ring' wasn't even scary. [!--emo&:P--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Dear H, it's been a month and a half since anyone posted here! Perhaps I should get the ball rolling again...

[a href=\'http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931412758/qid=1107883174/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-8574294-4254530\' target=\'_blank\']The Hiram Key[/a] by Knight & Lomas

It's a book by two ex-Freemasons who started doing some historical research to find out what the origins of the Freemason's silly rituals are. They came up with a hypothesis which starts in ancient Egypt and continues through the present. The most controversial part of the hypothesis is that Jesus was one of two messiahs, the other being his brother James. They state that leadership of the "true Christian church" passed to James after Jesus died, and that modern Christianity (founded by Paul) is a completely false and twisted version of what Jesus was actually teaching and is better referred to as "Paulianity". I've seen that part of this hypothesis before from other writers, and there's some pretty convincing evidence behind it.

As for the rest of their hypothesis, alleging that Freemason rituals go back thousands of years: they certainly make it seem plausible, though that's not the same thing as being factual. One of the more interesting parts of the book is a comparison between ancient religions: Sumeria, Egypt, pre-Moses Judaism etc. One of their more interesting points: when Christians say "Amen" at the end of a prayer, they're saying the name of an ancient Egyptian god. (Amen is another name for Re, the sun god.) It's not a coincidence - it's been passed on as a religious ritual ever since the Hebrews spent a couple centuries in Egypt, just before Moses' time.

I really dig all this kind of stuff about conspiracy theories, secret societies, historical conspiracies etc. I don't necessarily believe all of it, but it's fun to read.
 
Smx,you ain't the only one that reads such things. I finished CHapterhouse:duen. It was good, but my favourite remains Dune:heretics. I've read a book for school, called Baltagul, which means "the Double Axe" Pretty boring., about a peasant woman in the mountains, whoms housband doesen't come back after a sheep fair. She starts ooking, for him, or actually for his body, as she knows he's dead. Pretty goood outlook on how people used to live and be.

I got Captain Grant's Children by J. Verne, as a prize for a loe statemen. Don't think i.m gonna read it. I tried in the past, but it's so boring
 
[!--QuoteBegin-StrangerInAStrangeLand+Dec 20 2004, 11:34 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(StrangerInAStrangeLand @ Dec 20 2004, 11:34 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]'The Ring' wasn't even scary. [!--emo&:P--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
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Ha! I agree, I almost fell asleep. It was a good mystery but not a good scary story. "The Grudge" was much scarier and that one did give me nightmares!
 
Da Vinci Code for the second time [!--emo&:blush:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blush.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blush.gif\' /][!--endemo--] .. almost finished it
 
Yeah, I've read Da Vinci's code, too. Excellent stuff!

And it influenced me to read "Messianic legacy" I'm on right now.
 
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