If you've also heard the Current 93/Ligotti collaboration CD "In a foreign town, in a foreign land"*, you'll get a sense of the atmosphere of the series. If not, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymw872sNv2E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk2_TEbfN0Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZvjIPtIP5M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_KhjJNJiio

* note the Death in June reference

This show is the tits. Can't wait for the last episode.

Shame on you guys for not following TD already. It's great. A lot of the cosmic horror aspects are understated, but I mean...as it should be. It's a realistic show.

Damn, I'm going to have to give it another shot then. I watched the first episode and didn't think it was that interesting. Not that weird murder case, typical curmudgeon character with a more "normal" partner, extremely slow, alright music. Maybe the first episode was just pure set up and not that representative of the series. With all this Ligotti and cosmic horror stuff, I'll have to watch at least two more episodes. Really can't stand Woody Harrelson, but I've grown to expect great things from Matthew Mcconaughey.

It's become the greatest thing on TV right now. Can't get over it.

It's cool without knowing all that. This just makes it more so. It's top shelf (with an apparently really strong cellar).


Honestly, I'm hard pressed to think of a TV show I've liked better, like .. ever.

I don't think it's the best TV show ever, but it's the best thing airing right now no question.

Literally right now, I'm not sure if I'd say it's better than Game of Thrones. I enjoy GoT more.

It's worth talking about, since I agree there are other really good shows. TV's been producing some quality stuff in the past few years, and it's been really gratifying to see, but I'll put up a general reply in the TV thread.

Well, I'm really impressed, and I generally don't like TV shows. The writer/producer Pizzolatto mentioned Cioran as one of his literary influences for the show, and seeing as I have had A Short History of Decay on my shelf for about a month now, I thought I might as well give it a go. It's weird and very nihilistic ("And this nothing, this everything, cannot give life a meaning, but it nonetheless make life persevere in what it is: A state of non-suicide") but also rather funny or witty sometimes ("I gorge myself on all the drugs of solitude; those of the world were too weak to make me forget it"). Dense stuff, but cool.

Reading the novel Wolf of Wall Street. I really like it. Not as over the top ridiculous as the film, as it was more closely based on Belfort's own life and written by him. But there's a surprising amount of depth in it and it makes you really like Belfort overall, maybe not sympathize with him exactly - but like him. You get in his head and you see him rationalizing things and the times when he feels sorry for what he does. The tone is still overtly humorous, but it's a more nuanced and in-depth look at an extravagant, one of a kind guy.

Cioran's cool alright. Surprisingly funny flashes of black humour as you say.

I read both Nightmare Factory (by Ligotti) comic adaptations at the library today. There's no place quite like a library. I need to get myself something I can read downloaded books on and fix this whole Ligotti drought problem!

It's bullshit that nearly everything he's done is out of print. Took me years to track most of it down on ebay.

Yeah, it's only by coincidence that I stumbled onto Subterranean Press' website when they started reprinting Ligotti's old stuff. I got all three of his early collections signed by him as well, so I count myself as doubly lucky. Just wait for the abyss to claim him, he'll become super famous and they won't be able to get rid of his stuff fast enough

The Red Tower is a masterpiece of dread and bizzare-ness.

H.P Lovecraft, 'the Thing on the Doorstep'.. masterful twist of suspense, mostly.. it sort of reminds me of how i see people go in and out (most of the time; out) of relationships of love and the madness it can cause, especially if it the 'first love' kind of scenario.. the story is not really about that, in a way it is.. a metaphor, this piece of work.. seems like Lovecraft evaluated a friendship he may have had with someone, watched that person go into a relationship, didn't see that person so much afterwards.. and each time Howard saw that person, he kept seeing him progressing to madness each time he saw him.. sort of how it happens to everyone.. and then some..
anyways.. this story, however, is woven together the elements of witchcraft and mysterious tones throughout.. the plot twists are felt when approached.. really dig this.

Got a Kindle Paperwhite and so far I've got these on it. Should be set for quite a while, hahah.

Brave New World by Huxley (ashamed I haven't read it)
I and Thou by Martin Buber
Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett
Introduction to Phenomenology by Robert Sokolowski
The Knight (The Wizard Knight, Book 1) by Gene Wolfe
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Man's Search for Himself by Rollo May
The Family and Individual Development by D. W. Winnicott
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
Civilization and Madness by Michel Foucault

Just finished the Diving Bell and the Butterfly for class. Honestly, I think living through locked in syndrome would be worse than dying. Pretty incredible, the author died three days after the book was released, just long enough to see positive reception for his work. Pretty interesting short book, although there are a few times when he uses bigger words that it's obvious that it's translated as no one really talks like that.

Just started Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Seems like a pretty interesting concept, although as many people have warned me about, his writing style can be a bit irritating. I'm sure I'll get used to it, though.

I just started started reading recently. Some books I've finished so far are the Lord of The Rings trilogy, Dracula, Lionheart, The Divine Comedy, The Iliad, and The Odyssey. I'm really into war fiction and historical fiction set in ancient or medieval times. So far, my favorite book would have to be The Iliad. One book that I really want to have is Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Irritating? Heart of Darkness has some beautiful writing in it. Maybe the best thing about the book!

7Halberd, you *liked* the Iliad? "Here's thirty pages of unabridged listings of every motherfucker on the battlefield, including each guy's complete, unedited family history." The Odyssey at least has the advantage of sounding like a story a really drunk guy was making up on the spot as he told it to you.

Holy shit. That's a hell of a start for someone who just started reading! I'd still be struggling through John Bellairs if I were at that reading level.

Make sure to read Beowulf if you're going through classical stuff! And The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake, and The Aeneid by Virgil, since it's basically the Roman spiritual successor to The Iliad and follows Aeneas, the Trojan who escaped the destruction of Troy and was the ancestor of the Romans.

Personally I think Beowulf is better than Odyssey/Iliad. Oh btw Greek drama is way better too in my opinion, check out Aeschylus! He's metal as fuck. Euripides and Sophocles are good too.

Anybody know of any good english translations of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel? And by "good" I mean relatively understandable for some white guy who knows relatively little about Chinese History. Maybe i've just played those Dynasty Warriors games too much as a kid, but I kinda feel like the late Han Dynasty is pretty similar to those Game of Thrones everybody's into so much now - minus the dragons and snow zombies and eunuch warriors...

Definitely seconding Beowulf. The Seamus Heaney translation is marvelous, by the way.

I think I'm gonna read the Kalevala next. Maybe sooner, House of Leaves is a such behemoth.

Began reading Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer. So far it's not as strong as Teatro Grotesco but I like that it's separated in 3 sections that each have some form of underlying theme. It's interesting to note that even here, his first book, his prose is still top notch stuff. You can tell that he developed over the years, but it's no less horrific. Hell, it begins with probably the most human, adult horror tale he's ever written. A pretty deeply affecting tale if you have children, I reckon. He remains the master of ominous suggestion.

I need to read more of Ligotti's stuff. Stumbled upon Nethescurial a few days ago, and immediately decided that his shit is right up my alley.

EDIT: Okay, just read The Frolic. Bloody chilling little tale.

Ligotti is kind of inconsistent, and his collections are incredibly frustrating to acquire, since most of the time you'll be digging up something out-of-print only to find that 1/3 of the stories are already in collections you own. I own Grimscribe, The Shadow at the Bottom of the World, Teatro Grottesco, and My Work is Not Yet Done, and I was by far the most satisfied with Teatro, which was also my first. The others have enough good in them that I don't think they were a waste of money, but some publisher really, REALLY needs to put out some kind of Ligotti collected works omnibus or series of volumes that give you EVERYTHING in one place.

However, I suspect a good deal of his books' rarity is publisher shenanigans. They know he's enough of a cult favorite that if they deliberately keep him out of print for a while, only occasionally printing a small number of his stories at a time, people will gobble them up for premium prices.

Quite possibly. I work with a guy who's doing his masters thesis on the influence of Lovecraft on film and games and put him onto Ligotti. He had the same problems, compounded by the fact that my library is in storage at the moment and I cant get them out to lend to him.

An interesting one if you can find it (although I think it IS still in print) is "The Thomas Ligotti reader" - a book of critical essays on his writing. Through one of those odd join-the-dots exercises I discovered Cioran through that.

Anyway, been reading Wolfe's "Home Fires". Not massively impressed to be honest - it seems to owe a massive debt to Haldeman's "Forever war". It's driving me nuts having all my books in storage, not getting anywhere near as much reading done as usual. Going to head out for a walk and hit up a 2nd hand bookshop I know which has a killer sci-fi/fantasy section in a little bit.

I've bought a shitload of books over the past few months, which I'm hoping to finish before I leave the country, but today I got a Kindle for my birthday and I've gotta say it's pretty rad. Only has like a 2 GB hard drive but apparently that's enough to hold hundreds and hundreds of books and I've already found...sources...for lots of books, so with this thing I should be all set on reading material in Korea. Pretty exciting, really!

I'm looking at getting a Kindle, too. Which model did you get?

Paperwhite! Get the Paperwhite! The backlight is really useful.

I just got one recently, loving it.

Cool. That's what I was considering. I was on the fence about getting a Fire, but I feel like staring at its screen would get on my nerves. The Paperwhite seemed more comfortable.

The Fire's a tablet afaik, whereas the Paperwhite's an e-reader.

I'm reading "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" by Chogyam Trungpa. Pretty brutal take on Buddhism, blasts the ego.

Yeah and the Fire, though it'll have a multitude of other features, won't give you a good battery life like the Paperwhite. The Paperwhite is the way to go for a purely reading device.

Batman, libgen.org is a good source for ebooks (I think many of those download links could be illegal). Project Gutenberg is another source for free ebooks.

to all the people who were suggesting Beowulf, might i recommend the "Saga of the Volsungs." i found it by accident at my local B&N and though id look into it since i like norse/icelandic sagas. i was sold though when i found out it was an inspiration for Tolkien (being the Tolkien fanboy that I am), so i gave it a go an i really enjoyed it. WARNING: it breaks all our modern literary rules like show dont tell, deus ex machina, and pacing. its very interesting to know what people gathered around a fire to listen to back then. great read.

im also looking into "seventh son" buy orson scott card. I found out iron maiden's "Seventh son of a seventh son" album has some songs that are based on that book

I just have the basic model Kindle. The Paperwhite's probably better, but this was a gift so I can't really complain.

I've already looked at libgen.org a bit, but so far I've found shitloads of stuff on another site.

that's the vast majority of ancient literature for you

Reading "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell at the moment. Quite a strange novel about first contact with Aliens in that the first expedition to a planet identified as bearing intelligent life is run by Jesuit priests. So it goes into some strange theological implications of life on other worlds. The author is an anthropologist as well, so she has a pretty decent take on how the culture-shock factor would go. Needless to say the wheels fall off the expedition and it all ends in disaster.

Finished "Annihilation" by Jeff VanderMeer. Really, really excellent. Not perfect: a bit too flowery in places, and the characters while being secondary to the atmosphere and the entity of Area X itself are very much on the generic side, with largely predictable motivations. VanderMeer put A LOT of effort into making his female lead strong, but she is basically just a man except that she is female.

However, the books atmosphere, it's world building, is utterly flawless. It's a very Lovecraftian book, but it doesn't ape his style: it's more a homage to him. Really a beautiful book, with tons of intrigue. Already have the sequel "Authority" on pre-order.