Last Book You Read

[Arizona Colt]

Started reading THE VALACHI PAPERS after finishing BRONSON'S LOOSE! THE MAKING OF THE DEATH WISH FILMS.

Also re-reading SPAGHETTI NIGHTMARES: ITALIAN FANTASY HORRORS AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF THEIR PROTAGONISTS by Luca M. Palmerini and Gaetano Mistretta. Great interviews in this one.

[Amaze]

how is the valachi papers? it sounds vaguely familiar. i think it may have been on my to-read list at one time then I forgot about it

[Arizona Colt]

It's the first inside story on the Mafia and served as the basis for the Bronson movie THE VALACHI PAPERS. It details all the inner workings of the Mob and the rituals they endure to join.

I've only just begun to read it. Also finished Iris Chang's bestseller, THE RAPE OF NANKING: THE FORGOTTEN HOLOCAUST.

Wow, what the Japanese did to the Chinese was far worse than what Hitler did to the Jews.

[The Peacemaker]

Wow, what the Japanese did to the Chinese was far worse than what Hitler did to the Jews.

That must've been pretty goddamn grusome.   


What did they do?

[Arizona Colt]

I don't know if I can post these things or not. There were two movies that were incredibly accurate but besides being possibly even more disturbing than CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and SALO, they didn't even scratch the surface.

Some of the things they did were to take the children and bury them waist deep and sic dogs on them even commanding them to tear sat their genitals.

The Japanese practiced cannibalism on there Chinese, British, American and Australian prisoners. Supposedly feasting on the male phallus increased there sexual potency.

They formed rape squads and those who resisted were found with their eyes, noses, breasts, etc...torn off.

They put on decapitation contests (which were featured in Japanese newspapers at the time) to see who could take off the most heads in a certain amount of time.

People were stripped naked, forced into frozen ponds where they froze to death than used as target practice.

Also, the chinese were used as live targets in bayonet practice.

They would force hundreds of men women and children into a square then douse them with gasoline then set fire to them.

People nailed to boards, run over with tanks, buried up to their necks and hacked with swords.

Children were experimented on while they were still alive, mass shootings, people dug graves then killed while another row dug further then they themselves were killed,

Unborn babies were torn from their mothers and hung in the streets, and on and on....

Much of this was done for the hell of it with no reason at all. Much as been made of why the Japanese who had for the longest time been friends with there neighbors, why they suddenly turned so savage.

In Japan there is no mention of the massacres in the schoolbooks save for maybe one or two sentences. Recently, the chinese government has tried to get Japan to apologize but they do not acknowledge that anything happened.

I have a dvd called HORROR IN THE EAST that was shown in abridged form on the history channel that has some startling information about this. There are even accounts by Kamikazes that survived! One says that many Japanese did not want to participate and die in this way but they would be killed if they refused.

It's mentioned in the book that one of the reasons the Asian Holocaust is largely forgotten outside Asia is that for years Germany has countless times assumed shame and blame for their war crimes while the Japanese Government has not.

In  strange and ghastly occurence, the author, Iris Chang, was found dead on a lonely road with a bullet in her head. It was called a suicide.

It's a fascinating book that details the dark side of human nature and the savage and animalistic forces that surface in the face of war. Hopefully, to never be repeated.

[The Peacemaker]

Those things are so incredibly cruel and evil.

I never understood how people could be so inhumane.

[Arizona Colt]

Maybe I should have PM'ed you those details as they are quite disturbing. Those things happened years ago and do not speak for the Japanese people of today but of the government and those that were in power then and are still in power now.

[rrpower]

The James Dean Story. When finished, I'll move onto One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

[RallyMonkey]

Just finished The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Just bought The Prestige and Little Children today.

Little Children is so far one of the worst books I have ever read. With such poorly worded sentences such as

Why was it that other mothers could never remember the titles of anything, not even movies they'd actually seen, while she herself retained lots of useless information about movies she wouldn't even dream of watching while imprisoned on an airplane, not that she ever got to fly anywhere?

That's basically how the whole book is.

[Groggy]

I've read quite a bit over my period of being banned from this board, but right now I'm working on "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T.E. Lawrence.

[dave jenkins]

Jack Sullivan's Hitchcock's Music. The chapter on Rear Window is worth the price of the book alone.

[Silenzio]

I've read quite a bit over my period of being banned from this board, but right now I'm working on "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T.E. Lawrence.

Read that over the summer.... i like the "old chap" 20s-style English it's written it (even if it's difficult to understand at times)

[BeauButabi]

Right now I'm in between Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Scoolboy by John le Carre. I watched the BBC produced mini-series of Tinker, Tailor after finishing the book. le Carre writes really good stuff, definately worth checking out if you're into espionage fiction.

[Juan Miranda]

I was up 'till half four this morning as I just had to find out what happened at the end of Haruki Murakami's incredible, unclassifiable novel, KAFKA ON THE SHORE. Yesterday afternoon I completed a Christmas treat, Sheldon Hall's fascinating book on the making of ZULU: WITH SOME GUTS BEHIND IT. Lots of fabby details about that mighty movie.

I'm re-reading and playing through Micheal Stean's SIMPLE CHESS at the moment, as my game's shocking these days.

[marmota-b]

I'm reading three books at the moment, changing them according to my mood... Life of Pi by Yann Martel and two Czech books, one is a serie of sermons about Abraham (from a pastor I've met personally and with whom we talked a bit on the internet, so it's interesting for me also from this point) and the other is an adventurous book by Jaroslav Foglar, one of the most famous Czech (in Czech Republic) children writers. Because I'm gradually writing a story inspired by it, so I wanted to refresh my knowledge of the original.