Best Reads of 2005!

G.S., I've not seen Double Indemnity but I enjoyed the novel. And I saw Strangers on an Train which also has a Chandler screenplay.

Swans, thinking about it I read Sin City: Hell and Back last year and was really disappointed. Miller really seems to have lost his way with this series. Even the artwork -- usually the saving grace -- looked awful. Not that I suppose he's too bothered, what with two sequels lined up to the already lucrative movie adaptation.
 
Stu";p="3891 said:
G.S., I've not seen Double Indemnity but I enjoyed the novel.
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Stu,

I implore you. Get thee to the video store. Double Indemnity is the best of the many James M. Cain film adaptations. Barbara Stanwyck's goofy nose has never looked sexier.

Realizing My Goofy Nose Fetish,
Phil
 
Stu, I decided to forgo the rest of the Miller series after "Family Values" and "Bullets, Broads", etc., which were OK.

I love Marv! Thanks for confirming I shouldn't keep spending on the rest.

And take my advice along with that of G.S., see Double Indemnity. You must get past the image of Fred McMurray as the pop on My Three Sons, you see...
 
Swans, it's okay, I've never seen My Three Sons so I can avoid that problem.

Btw, has anyone here read John Connolly? Private eye stories with supernatural overtones.
 
I'd like to add Jonathon Carroll's Glass Soup to the list of best reads. I can't think of anything else. 2005 marked the first time I read Brendan Connell, Matt Cardin, and Mark Samuels. I can't wait to read more these gents.

Cheers!
 
I like threads like this because I like to see what people are reading. I haven't kept track of the things I read last year, but some I remember are:

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
God's Defenders by S.T. Joshi
The Shudder Pulps by Robert Kenneth Jones
Book of Evidence by John Banville
Bruges La Morte by Georges Rodenbach
Best of D.F. Lewis plus stories from Weirdmonger
White Hands and Other Stories by Mark Samuels
Black Altars by Mark Samuels
Divinations of the Deep by Matt Cardin plus "Teeth"
The Sound of His Horn by Sarban
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
The Vanishing by Tim Krabbe
The Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem
Lights Out in the Reptile House by Jim Shepard
Brotherhood of Mutilation by Brian Evenson plus some short stories
 
Thanks, Slawek. :)

yellowish haze said:
The more I think about this thread, the more I’m unable to decide on a top ten list of books I’ve read last year. All of them are simply FANTASTIC! In fact, there is one aspect of 2005 which is, in my case, quite obvious - it was definitely the most Ligottian year of my life and will probably stay so forever. Not only, after discovering Ligotti in December 2004, did I read most of his stories, but I also have managed to investigate an incredible plethora of authors writing under a strong influence of TL and discover many other weird fiction writers. I must give credit for this achievement to TLO – without this site and all of you I would probably be still reading Dean Koontz and all the other mediocre or main stream writers.
Just have a look at those titles (actually, I included all of the titles. They appear in a seemingly-chronological order):

IN A FOREIGN LAND, IN A FOREIGN TOWN by Thomas Ligotti (my first collection by TL – probably my favorite one)

NOCTUARY by Thomas Ligotti

THE GOD OF FOULNESS by Matt Cardin (thanks Matt, once again!)

MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE by Thomas Ligotti
…
(at this point I decided to stop reading Ligotti for some time – I was simply afraid that later there would be nothing left)
…
THE DIVINITY STUDENT by Michael Cisco

AGAINST THE WORLD, AGAINST LIFE by Michel Houellebecq (the on-line version)

DIVINATIONS OF THE DEEP by Matt Cardin

THE GOLEM by Michael Cisco (I think the first part – The Divinity Student – was much better. However, The Golem was still an enjoyable read )

THE THOMAS LIGOTTI READER by various

DEATH POEMS by Thomas Ligotti

SELLECTED LETTERS III by Lovecraft ( yeah, I know… I should have started reading those letter in a chronological order. I was simply too desperate to wait for the first two volumes)

NU: THE SCIENCE FRICTION REMIXES by Simon Logan

HELLHOUSE by Richard Matheson ( I don’t know if I was satisfied with this one – “I Am Legend” was much better)

CRAMPTON by Thomas Ligotti and Brandon Trenz

A DREAMER AND VISIONARY by S. T. Joshi (this is the British version of Lovecraft’s biography by Joshi as some of you may know. Although it is much shorter than the original, it’s still very comprehensive)

SCARS AND OTHER DISTINGUISHING MARKS by Richard Christian Matheson

THE SEXUAL LABIRYNTH OF NIKOLAI GOGOL by Simon Karlinsky (In fact I’ve paged through this one only in search of info on my ancestors)

THE CHARNEL WINE by Richard Gavin

THE EXORCIST by William Peter Blatty (I knew I had to read this one some time)

THE WEIRDMONGER WHEEL by D. F. Lewis (on-line) (unfinished YET – no need to explain why :))

THE LOST by Jonathan Aycliffe (pretty cool – maybe because I really like Stoker’s “Dracula”)

OLIVER TWIST by Charles Dickens ( there was simply no way I could go to see the Polański’s adaptation without having read the novel)

WYSPA ITONGO (THE ITONGO ISLAND) by Stefan Grabiński (there is no translation of this novel in English – we can only hold thumbs for Miroslaw Lipinski, the official translator. Nevertheless, Grabinski is much better in his short fiction).

OBSERVATORY MANSIONS by Edward Carey

MR. TEMPLETON’S TOYSHOP by Thomas Wiloch ( great!)

THE WHITE HANDS AND OTHER WEIRD TALES by Mark Samuels (…-this one as well)




That’s all (finally!). I hope everyone is going to share their 2005 best reads. I am looking forward to reading your plethora of titles.
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That list is really something. I know what you mean, Slawek, about feeling an evocation of some TLO-ish nostalgia as you read back over it. The same effect hit me.
 
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