What are you reading?

[AerostarMonk]

Originally Posted by jekylljuice

It's been a while since anyone last used this thread...I take it nobody minds if I double post?

Since I haven't been able to get about very much today, I've spent much of the time reading Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (the first of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and the original Golden Compass, before they felt obliged to alter the title for some of the overseas markets).

Thus far it's been a heck of a lot better than that stolid adaptation I saw over Xmas, though one of the penalties for having seen the film in advance is that a lot of the suspence has been taken out of it for me in terms of narrative. Since I know more-or-less what's going to happen, it's not quite proving the page-turning experience that I feel it otherwise would be. I'm still enjoying it very much, but all in all I'm looking forward to getting this one finished and moving onto the next book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, of which I remain mostly ignorant.

Here, I come again warning about the third book. My goodness if you have any wish to keep your mind intact just stay away. Talk about abysmal. The first two books were a delight to read, full of wonder and adventure and many themes that would've had people questioning authority for ages. Unfortunately by the time The Amber Spyglass gets through I wondered if the first two books were really worth it. It's as if Pullman decided that every character should stop engaging in actual story and turn to the reader and explain his viewpoints on religion and authority. The rest included a sluggish read about wheeled cattle fighting creatures that resembled Donald Duck and a creative writing term paper written by a college student that just finished reading Paradise Lost and a handful of Gaiman and Moore comics.

I guess maybe you should read it for yourself. I just made it sound a lot more interesting than it actually is. Plus seeing something through to its conclusion afflicts more than just this reader.

As for The Northern Lights things, there is some dispute over the title. Pullman has hemmed and hawed over the issue saying in some interviews that he originally wanted the title to be Golden Compass and that he preferred it as well. In others he said the opposite. But The Golden Compass fits the trilogy better than The Northen Lights ever could. It fits the theme of significant objects or in other words "His Dark Materials." That's just this reader's opinion.