Would anyone be interested in a reading thread? I’ve been reading a lot during lockdown and I wonder what other people are reading.
Various differing articles online about assorted material is about all I can read any more. Have a couple of decent books here but no sooner than I start reading, distraction or slumber nails me.
The most recent thing, hm, probably be some Michael Connelly and I stopped reading it.
Bad. The day was in places. Sorry, those are not sentences on their own but accordingly to him and his editing crew, they are. And that jarred me away from reading otherwise well-told stories.
"How can this f***er write like this an earn millions? Gah!"
I had the same response when Lustbader compared a lady to a 747 jet plane, and not really in a way that made either sound appealing. Something to extent of "she was broad like the jet she was boarding, her vastness would help her through this." I'm paraphrasing from the memory of it but it is still quite repulsive.
So I'm not reading a lot of contemporary stuff. Even Poppy Z. Brite left me with a bad taste for stories. She did a very formula-driven homosexual coming of age story with elements of paranormal crap going on. It just well fell flat.
"Oh Romeo, we are terribly doomed, gay lovers. We shall perish at the hands of wicked vampires, or be driven insane by ghosts."
"Ah, be still my Juilette. I have the magic key to unlock our bonds. We can then run a restaurant!"
Those are not actual lines from the story. They are though what was bludgeoned into reader's heads as the main thematic sentiments of the story.
Yeah, cue the crickets. Big hint, not every gay man wants to be a stereotypical nurse, or cook. I had military service with a few gay men that make the straightest Rambo look like pussies clamoring for mommy's sweet embrace. Macho much? Nah, just pure stud warriors afraid of nothing. And at the same time the best person you want to take care of you in a bad situation because they are so human. That isn't written in a sexual sense either.
