The Collected Works of Jim Morrison. Which is somewhat oddly named, considering for poetry and scripts etc he went by James Douglas Morrison, to keep that life separate from his rock-star life. Guess Jim sells a lot more books though. Just starting on it, but it's some pretty wild stuff, and pretty damn good so far. Contains a lot of journal entries and movie scripts. He went to college at a film school (or did he hang out at a cafe where the film students gathered?), which is where he met at least one of the guys he would form the Doors with. Got interested in his poetry from a video I saw the other day, and underneath it was a comment from someone who swears they met Jim (Jimmie as he was known at the time) after his suspicious death in France (no witnesses, and apparently a very strange coroner's report). I know—everybody and their funkle has seen Elvis, Bigfoot, or Jim Morrisson. But for some reason I believe this one may well be true. Or at the very least it's a really cool story, bro. Let me see if I can dig it up... Here. Of course—it was from a video by The Charismatic Voice. There's no way to tell if this is for real, but this comment really ignited my imagination and made me want to read some of his poetry: Spoiler: Cleeeck EEeeet! I have a controversial story about Jim. I lived in Santa Barbara in the 1990's, when I was in my 20's. One evening I was in the local bookshop, and saw that some new volumes of Jim's poetry had been released, and was thumbing thru one, when a biker comes up to me with a curious smile. We started to chat, and then he asked me if I liked Jim's poetry, or was simply a Doors Fan who had just discovered him as a poet. I told him that I have a copy of "The Lords & the new Creatures" that was printed before Jim died, and loved it as a treasure. He immediately told me that I had to come to a local tavern that weekend; there was a poet there I would want to meet. He insisted I go there and ask for Jimmy. So I promised since by why not, my ex and I do love poetry readings... We go to the tavern and I see the biker there, he's thrilled that I came after all. I was startled to see so many other bikers, and they were quite friendly and cheerful, but watching us warily anyway. Still, my friend told me to go talk to the HUGE man in the corner; that was this Jimmy he wanted me to meet. Jimmy was quite heavy, had long silvery gray hair and a great beard. He was smiling and writing in a notebook. I approached him shyly, I am not really a bold person, but he looked up and grinned, offering his hand then asked my Name... I was stunned to realize this man looked and sounded like Jim Morrison, his voice was the same breathy drawl, he had the same eyes, hairline, cheekbones, everything, but now encased in the body of a "Fat Buddha." He asked if I wrote poetry so I popped a few lines out, which he seemed to like since they were Free Verse, then he offered his own poem, also free verse. He had me sit with him and bought me a beer. My Ex was too freaked out to sit with us; he noticed the same things I did, and was trying to understand how this could be THE Jim Morrison... We had a lovely conversation, and he went up to start a poetry reading where hew as simply "rapping" rather than reading anything from his notebook. It was a wonderful mix of comedy and poetry, and made it clear he was a master of free verse poetry too, which is a difficult from to handle well. The bikers were ecstatic and clapping, and also seemed to be unwilling to let random people into the tavern, they literally ran off two parties rather than let them in, as if hoarding Jimmy to themselves. I did not ask Jimmy if he was Jim, that seemed rude, and again, I was not expecting him to be who he was, but I had NO doubt he was Jim. When I got home, I looked in the Phonebook [remember those?] and there was Jimmy D Morrison right in the phone book! I never called him, but we did visit the tavern a few times and every time, Jimmy was there, smiling serenely and very happy to see me; my ex barely spoke to him, and never could explain why he was reluctant to approach Jimmy. In 1996, I heard that Jimmy had passed away, but never found an Obituary. My buddy biker told me that Jimmy had been taken somewhere for burial, but the tavern had been given a marker with his name and info on it, which they kept on the property but stills secret, so you had to know where it was to find it. You may scoff, I don't mind, I do understand. But this was my experience, and after all the evidence that Jim's body was never intered in France, that the coroner's report was hinky, and that there had been sightings of Jim for years after his death, I might suggest that Jimmy was truly Jim, living quietly as he had said he wished to do, and that he had found peace in life, and enjoyed his life after disappearing. He was a fat happy Buddha at the end, still writing and speaking his poetry for friends alone to hear. Those Bikers believed he was Jim, and protected his privacy fiercely. So did I, I never shared anything about those evenings spent with Jimmy's performances until he had passed away. I was honored that he seemed to like me and my pathetic poetry, and am still stunned about ever meeting him at all.
I went back to the Steampunk collection, and The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan. I kind of set reading to the side in favor of writing, and now I've completed some stages of projects, I'm hoping to finish the books I've started, hah. Isaac's Storm is not forgotten, just not being read for now.
Pushing on towards 2/3 of the way through Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander. Odd to say that a naval adventure set aboard a sloop (well, brig, but thanks to the ideosyncracies of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, it's referred to as a brig) has been likened to Jane Austen, but it genuinely has been. I've tried Austen a couple of times and found the subject matter just not to my taste. But this very much is. It isn't just a naval adventure; it's strongly character-driven, with characters well-drawn and rounded, with their own failings. Occasionally I could do with a break from the nautical terminology - it spends as much time describing the ship as it does the action, which although setting the scene and making the world believable, does mean that it can drag somewhat - but even then the writing is never less than beautiful. I will be proceeding swiftly to the second in the series, Post Captain, fairly swiftly.
these books are so great. And all ~20 of them are very good, which is a mind boggling achievement. But I think the first few are still the most brilliant.
I loved Master and Commander and I plan on continuing with the series on Kindle. It's so very much For Me. Time had no meaning while I was reading through it (except when it started getting late and I wanted to finish the chapter before bed, but there were 50 pages left). One of the greatest disappointments in cinema is that they only made the one film. It was not commercially successful, so that was the end of it.
I keep meaning to watch it! It has become something of a cult classic, and it is on Disney+, so perhaps one night, when the little one is being a pain, I need to go down the 'oceans are battlefields' road.
I went all over the place with my reading. I'm still on the previously mentioned ones, but I decided to finish the graphic novels my brother recommended. We Only Find Them When They're Dead is one of my "books of the year" now. Along with a few others. I officially completed my Goodreads reading challenge (my journal holds all the books I didn't bother putting into Goodreads, mainly the romance novels). I'll be getting back to the other ones I've been picking through now.
Just finished The Conquering Tide last night and started Twilight of the Gods to finish off Ian W. Toll’s Pacific War trilogy. Easily one of the best, most detailed histories I’ve ever read.
Reading the beginning of Carrie (again) to pay attention to exactly how King handles third limited with a rotating cast of POV characters. This is a masterclass. It's always unsettling how modernist he was when he wrote his first published book. And how adept. I think I'm going to copy a few passages and then emulate his approach for a while.
Glory, God, and Gold: A Narrative History by Paul I. Wellman. It was printed in 1954 and is about the history of the American southwest. I bought it at a second hand book store recently. I've read his historical fiction and thought I'd give this a try. He is delightfully snarky about the Spanish and their incusions into the New World.
I'm reading a bunch of Ray Bradury short stories. Really love his prose. It's full of beautiful metaphors and similes. I'm pretty sure he was known for doing this sort of thing and I'm totally onboard. My favorite one so far has been All Summer in A Day. Just absolutely beautiful. I can relate to the main character in so many different ways. Why didn't I check out his short stories earlier? They are really good!
Well, you're in luck! He has 50 collections of shorts (probably 40-45 if you don't count overlap) and 3 fix-up novels made up of short stories. Wikipedia counts over 400 shorts and novelettes in all. You shouldn't run out for a while, lol. Of those collections, I've read The Illustrated Man and I Sing the Body Electric as well as two of the fix-ups. As much as I love his novels (especially Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes,) I honestly find his short prose a little hit or miss. That's probably just me, though. I'm super selective when it comes to short stories. I don't mean to be. I just don't seem to enjoy them as often as a lot of people do. I keep trying them nonetheless because I find the occasional gem that makes them all worth it. On my phone right now, I have the audiobooks for a Shirley Jackson collection and another Bradbury, namely A Pleasure to Burn. It's made up of stories from the Fahrenheit 451 universe, so that should be interesting.
No, it's me too. I know in school I read at least The Illustrated Man (the story) and The Veldt. There might have been one or two more, I don't remember, but I didn't really care for them much. But I really liked Fahrenheit 451. But with so many shorts, there are probably a lot of good ones in there.
I would say that I'm a person who's easily impressed. I'll read just about anything and I'm probably going to like it or find it interesting. Sometimes, I'll come across books or shorts or whatever that I will really, really love. Obviously, I will sometimes turn very critical but that doesn't really mean I'll hate or dislike the story automatically. It might still have merit or elements that are well done.
It's very easy to forget how good a technical writer Stephen King can be. He's an easy-to-read writer, so people almost dismiss his technical skill. He may not always hit the spot, and his prodigious output means he sometimes does slip in standards, but his best books are magnificent. I loved Carrie when I read it a few years ago. The build-up, then the pulse-pounding conclusion. Fabulous. I also loved Misery for the tightness of the narrative, It for sheer immersion, and The Dark Tower series... for the most part. It's been a few years since I read anything by King - I can't remember now if it was The Shining or It - and maybe it's time to pick up something of his again. Speaking of easy-to-read, I've finally picked up Bernard Cornwell. I've just finished Sharpe's Tiger, which was all right, and I've got The Last Kingdom on in the car at the moment. I'm enjoying the latter far more than the former. Uhtred is an enjoyable protagonist and POV character in a historical setting I'm quite familiar with. My current read is Anna Keay's The Restless Republic. A fascinating look at some key figures and intellectual ideas underpinning the British Commonwealth of 1649-60.
I notice he had a somewhat different voice at the beginning of the story that fades a bit as it goes on. At the beginning though, it's powerful and very modernist, in a way I find super appealing. By midway through, or probably a little earlier it's much more his usual authorial voice. I think he was really feeling his oats, knowing this would probably be his debut novel, and really showing off what he could do. I cheekced the beginning of 'Salem's Lot, my second favorite, and he seems to be using his usual authorial voice for it, though in many ways it's an even stronger story. Lol, I just realized—he did that thing a lot of rock bands or popular bands to. Thier first song is incredibly powerful or extremely well produced or something (not always the first one, but the first one anyone hears—the breakthrough), and grabs the attention hardcore, and then after that they settle into what will be their normal mode. Allanis Morrissette comes to mind with "You Oughta Know," The Hollies with "Long Cool Woman in a Red Dress," and there are several more I can't think of at the moment.
John Mellencamp—that amazing intro to "I Need a Lover." Of course that wasn't even his band, it was a group of sessions players hired just to record the intro. He said his band isn't able to play it, so whenever they do it in concert they do their own dumbed-down, far less technical version in some other mode, like reggae or country or whatever they feel like on the day. That intro is one of my favorite pieces of music, alongside the similar-sounding one by Lou Reed for "Sweet Jane." Hah, and King used the same strategy—grab 'em right at the beginning (in the intro if it's a song), and then you got 'em.
Actually the intro is pretty hightly technical (at least I think it is). Once the song itself starts it's extremely simple. I mean, that intro sounds all Steely Dan or something if you ask me (a non-musician). Ok, I listened to it. Maybe it isn't all that difficult (that lead guitar gets pretty crazy though after a while). Maybe he was joking, or making an excuse for why they never play it, and why they instead always do a reggae or country or bossanova version? I'm not sure. Anyway it's by far my favorite part of the song and for a long time it was my favorite piece of music.
And listening to it now, the music throughout sounds a lot like the intro in parts, especially right near the end when the lead guitar is going nuts. I think Ol' Johnnie was fibbin' a bit. That or they had the sessions players sweeten up the whole song?
yeah there’s no way the musicians playing with john mellencamp of all people can’t play that. it’s basic rock stuff. great song.
As so often in this thread someone is reading something that I've been consider to read, which helps me to make up my mind about it. I take it that its a good trilogy?
