Hey Jake just wanted to say that even though I love the skits and humor on this channel, I always appreciate it when you pivot back to more traditional book tube content. I'm definitely guilty of only really engaging in book criticism in an echo chamber around the stuff I already enjoy reading. You're the exception to this, having a very different taste in literature than I do and I always find your perspectives really helpful and I've even been encouraged to read some things I don't think I would have before. This series seems really interesting and I might actually check it out! Thanks for providing quality content every time!
The darwyn Cooke graphic novel adaptations are some of the best comics I've ever read, especially the hunter! The martini editions are by far the most beautiful books I own
As a big fan of Darwyn Cooke’s adaptations of Parker, I wasn’t super interested in reading the original books, but this makes me want to check them out much more! Thanks for the recommendation!
I currently reading Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. It's a 1962 japanese surrealist novel about an entomologist searching for a new type of beetle in a rare desert in Japan, where he encounter a rare village almost buried in the sand. The novel make a great comparision between the adaptability of the beetle in harsh enviroment with the human's. it's almost kafkaesque the way the author related the dunes with human societies, in which the protagonist get trap as a insect in ant farm. Great book if someone is interested.
@@dylanmorrison8788 I have read Kafka. The Castle is a great book if you enjoyed Abe. It's his most "human" novel. The sad part is that he was writing it when he died, so it's not complete. My favorite writer is Thomas Pynchon, I don't consider his novel surrealist but they sure are crazy and poignant. In the same way as Faulkner. So, you my like Bleeding Edge if you grew up during the 90s - 00s. It's about a possible cospiracy related to the 9-11 and the deep web.
parker's character reminds me of anton chigurh from no country for old men. anton is like a strategic machine to kill without remorse or humanity, as if people are little mosquitoes. maybe parker is scarier than anton because anton shows an evil side of him that wants his victims to suffer, as well as parker lacks of.
I know you probably won't see this, but I initially found you through your skits before diving deeper and checking out some of your literary analysis videos. Haven't made time for reading in a while, but you helped me finally get back into reading again. I've already finished one book this year, and I've just started another! Thank you for being you and for talking about the things that interest you 💙
I've always wanted videos with books in the same manner as comics and movies. Super glad to be recommended this. The series doesn't seem to be my tastes but your commentary is entertaining.
That sounds pretty interesting! I read "Butcher's Crossing" based on your recommendation and it was one of my absolute favourite reads last year so I'll put this on my list!
Back in the 70s I was reading every Donald E Westlake novel, the stark novels are very different in tone but also entertaining glad to see you discovered him
I love Richard Starks Parker series. Love Darwyn Cookes adaptations. Love Point Blank starting Lee Marvin. Love everything about this universe. Also there’s a handful of spin off books written by Stark in this series. My favorite is Lemons Never Lie. About one of Parker’s sidekicks. Definitely give it a read
Have you ever heard of Golgo 13? It's somewhat similar. A sociopathic main character that's basically a Terminator, and the more interesting aspect is the side characters and how they react to Golgo. A lot more violent though
I’m reading them in order but am only on the fourth. I’d recommend reading them because the narrative grows with each book. We learn more about The Outfit and pulling off different types of crimes. I’m really enjoying this series.
My dad bought the spanish omnibus of the Parker comics by Darwyn Cooke and I thought of checking them out. But now that I know Stark is a pseudonym for Westlake I really have to give it a try, since I really liked The Hot Rock which I read due to your recommendation.
I’ve been wanting to check out Westlake for awhile. My main familiarity with him is through the first Stepfather film, which I thought he did a good job with. I’ll have to check out one of the Parker books.
I thought the guy in the thumbnail was Walter white and didn’t read the title so I thought this video was going to be about breaking bad 💀 but I’m not disappointed this video was great
The Parker novels are exactly what got me into crime fiction. They do soften his character a bit in the later ones, but The Hunter is a stone cold classic.
Stephen King's favorite. The Parker novels are brilliant, harsh, and vivid. I think Parker lets the reader project dark fantasies into and onto that character, as a cathartic release.
I think I was smart when I was still in school, game made me finally realize I'm just dumb now. Can't follow any of it, especially the loquacious narration
@@funnybleepbloopthing it was based on a TRPG that the designers made for their own friend group which eventually became the 2013 book, Sacred and Terrible Air, and then eventually became 2019's Disco Elysium and is currently becoming a commercially-released TRPG. Or at least was before ZA/UM collapsed into infighting at the end of 2021. Seriously, the studio is currently a mess with most of the founding members and creative leads gone.
@@ZacksScraps Really. Do you even understand the words in your own vocabulary? You do know that esoteric means "hard to understand" right - like that is all but *the* definition of that word? DBAA
The best Parker book that I've read is "The Score" from 1964. The plot is like OCEAN'S 11 turned up to 11! The sheer audacity of the crime along with the epic fashion in which the job goes south leads to an exciting read. Plus the book introduces the character Alan Grofield who Westlake spun off into his own set of stories.
I'm familiar with Levi Stahl at the University of Chicago Press that put out all those matching reissues of the Parker books. I'm slowly collecting them all.
watching this as I put off sitting down to write. Love to hear you talk about fiction. you say terminator but I'm getting some james bond as well. I'm reading 1q84 by haruki murakami. fantastic; we have different tastes but it's hard not to love. i think you'd be enchanted by the mystery and interconnectedness and writing style. kind of like a little life not in plot but in that it's a huge book epic in scope that was a cultural phenomenon since you gravitate to noir i wonder how you feel about gillian flynn.
For anyone who likes Westlake/Stark, I have to recommend Jim Thompson. Westlake called him "the most nihilistic writer America ever produced" -- I'm not sure I'd go that far, but he was still incredible.
I enjoyed this video bc I can't read-- my mom is dictating this for me-- so it makes me feel neat bc I can tell people that I read a book one time about a real life terminator. I am good at books. 😎
I plan to read Eight Million Ways to Die after I finish Five Decembers (checked it out based on your recommendation). And I can’t say I expected a Colleen Hoover reference in a video about the Parker novels 😂
Right now I’m reading “the brothers karamazov” and I’m really liking it! The character featured are some of the most complex I’ve found in fiction I’ve read thus far. The author, Dostoyevsky, has a knack for pumping out great story’s that feel really organic and don’t feel contrived. Dostoyevsky’s writing can sometimes drag, he has a tendency to fill page upon page with internal monologues or wax philosophical rants and dialogues, but, given the attention, that length really adds a lot and has a lot of complexity and nuances to unpack.
@@chris92S sorry for the late response, but I liked it! It’s an ensemble piece so there’s a lot of characters to keep track of, so I struggled keeping up at times, but it’s was surprisingly quite funny at points, It offers a really good dissection of the nature of addiction too.
We would also recommend the Graphic Novel adaptations by Darwyn Cooke as well as the film Payback, which is probably the best big screen adaptation based on the Stark novels.
Series sounds very interesting. I love stories that remove fluff and longwindedness and focus on action. Thanks for the review. I'm gonna check it out.
Off season amusement parks are the BEST backdrops/settings in both horror and murder mystery movies/ books. Instant chills. Now I'm curious if sociopaths like reading books where a sociopath is the main. I know someone (minus the murder part) that may identify heavily with Parker. Normally when I hear a series has like 30 books I shy away cos I like to do start to finish, but you sold me on these.
Thanks for the entertainment you keep giving us consistently. I also hope you’re not over exerting yourself in any way, just wanted to check in regardless so take care!
Picked these books up from this review and its just what I've been looking for recently; loved it. thanks for the highlight and recommend. Love the book content; skits are great too. Keep it up.
You should check out The bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric. Serbian writer who won a nobel prize for literature and its about a bridge on the river Drina that connects Serbia and Bosnia and centuries of history it carries with it, it's similar to the one hundred years of solitude, no main character just generations of people that live there. There is violence, love , tragedy and many more stuff and it also has wonderful prose i highly recommend it.
But Ivo Andrić is a Croatian name. But he was born in Bosnia. But he is regarded highly in Serbian literature. But he would have liked if you called him Yugoslavian.
I sub for the skits, and hadn't read books in decades. Your rec got me into the Scudder series. I'm sad now though, because they cost almost $10 each and only take a day to read. My monetized video game is way cheaper.
Started reading The Hunter on your recommendation -- good so far. I'm glad I checked it out. Quentin Tarantino talked about Parker a lot in his recent book, "Cinema Exploitation," so I assumed reading that and watching this vid around the same time is a sign Parker is for me. I love movies like Taxi Driver or Nightcrawler where the main character is this unstable element and you're wondering what will set them loose. Feels like that's the general vibe with Parker.
I remember reading a book in the Parker series back in my noir/hardboiled phase. I'm pretty sure it was The Hunter. I really enjoyed it, but yeah, the main character was really brutal. I currently just finished The Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. If you're interested in sword & sorcery books set in the D&D universe, these are very well-written and fun. Salvatore is the best writer I've read when it comes to writing action scenes. They're easy to follow and very engaging. I also started reading the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate. I'm on book 2 right now. It's great so far. I love how the authors are able to express complex ideas with simple language. It's also surprisingly mature and dark for a kids' series. Keep up the good work! Love your videos!
glad you are bringing awarenes to Parker and Stark. Fantastic series and the base for the smooth con man. The Mourner has one of the best visual of Red and Green in a book EVER. It would make for great television. Time for you to check out Dortmunder.
It is interesting you compare him to The Terminator as I believe Jon Boorman, the director of POINT BLANK compared him more to Frankenstein's monster than any typical hard-boiled anti-hero.
The Parker novels are brilliant. Many of them start out in media res with the word "When..." "When he saw that the one called Harbin was wearing a wire, Parker said, "Deal me out," and got to his feet." "When he didn't get any answer the second time he knocked, Parker kicked the door in." or "Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left. The bullet furrowed a line through the plans on the table..." Once you've done some writing, it's not that difficult to make a likeable character. But then what usually happens? They go off and make mistakes you'd never make. You, the reader, knows what the characters should do. With Parker, you might have a few ideas, Parker's ideas are revealed in action, they're quicker than anything you could think of, more efficient , and sometimes brutal, but only as needed. Take David Balducci Memory Man. The protagonist is forced into the back of a car by a skinny guy with a gun. Another criminal even smaller than the gunman, is at the wheel. The Memory Man is well over six feet. He's a retired police detective. He knows when they get to where they're going they are going to kill him. Okay. What happens:? What should happen? Ask any cop. That's not what happens. Instead he chats with them until they order him out of the car and tie him to a chair.... Th correct answer if a person with bad intentions is within a few feet of a trained police officer or soldier, they are going to take the gun away. Parker would've beaten any information he could get out of the gunman on page 30, then killed him so there'd be no problems. On about page 70 he'd have beaten the driver, killed them, and then would have to think of something else to do for the next 150 pages. Richard Stark can write likeable characters but what he usually chooses to do instead is write characters who are driven, motivated, have a goal. They may be lying. Their character is revealed in action. He'll forgive a mistake, but never a betrayal. Brilliant writing. If some how you're a writer, maybe a woman writer, and because you had absolutely nothing better to do you've watched this video and you're reading this? Read Parker, but think What if he were a woman, What if that woman wasn't a criminal. What if you rewrote Pride and Prejudice with this kind of drive.... and... Elizabeth Bennet already has amazing drive. She didn't just say "No thanks" to Darcy, she took him apart to make sure he completely understood and then she shot him in the face. Well not really. Jane Eyre was a lot more like Parker than Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or Pip. (David Copperfield was Dicken's trying to do what Bronte did in Jane Eyre, tell the story from the child's point of view. David Copperfield is mostly passive. There is nothing passive about Jane Eyre. Dickens said he never read Jane Eyre, said he didn't need to. And yet, he tried to steal the core idea (smart) but without reading the book (stupid) to better understand it. So read great writing even if it's completely something you would never read. And learn how to take a gun away.
Man Carrying Thing always leaves everyone wanting more. I think the video must have been cut off. I did not get the It Ends with Us review. Looking forward to that in the next video. I will be here for that review.
Great video! Thanks for doing this. I started reading these after 1999's Payback, a film adaptation of the Hunter starring Mel Gibson. My love of the Parker series quickly transferred to a love of the author's hilarious "Dortmunder" series. Everyone must read Dortmunder. Wanna see a gang have to steal the same gem multiple times? "The Hot Rock" Wanna see a literal bank robbery? "The Bank Shot" Wanna see a thinly-veiled Donald Trump get ripped off again and again? "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" Matt Scudder novels: The protag goes from being addicted to drinking to being addicted to going to AA meetings. The best of the bunch is book eight (I think), "When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes" which luckily, is the least-connected to the others and seemed to me to be outside continuity.
Also recommend Westlake’s Dortmunder series. A much lighter and more comedic take on the heist genre. The first actually started as a Parker novel but after the plot became a bit too silly Westlake rewrote it with a different lead. There’s even a quasi “crossover” of sorts where Dortmunder and his associates at one point try and pull a heist based on a non-existent Parker novel.
I didnt think hunter was the best either. but I read all of them, and then reread the hunter. and knowing Parker so well, I fell in love with the hunter. it's a beautiful book. in a way I think it is the best of the series.
Always wondered why they changed the Parker character's name to Walker in Point Blank with Lee Marvin, and Porter in Payback with Mel Gibson. And then left it Parker in Parker with Jason Statham.
Stark/Westlake pulled an interesting literary trick with Slayground. The Blackbird--not a Parker book, technically--has the same first chapter as Slayground, but instead of following what happens to Parker, it follows Grofield instead. Stark did something similar with the eighth Parker novel, The Handle and the Grofield novel, The Damsel. The Damsel starts right at the end of The Handle. I love the Parker novels. It's not quite right to call Parker a sociopath. He exists in an amoral world where there are no innocents, so he's perfectly sane to be as ruthless as he is.
Donald Westlake is also a pseudonym. I believe his actual name is something like Evan Hunter. He has a number of pseudonyms or rather had a number of synonyms that he used to write multiple series 11:28
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/mancarryingthing02231
First reply 🥇!
i wish you split your book and sketch channel apart. my brain is too sexy and smooth to bother with actual fr books
I thought this video was about batman in the first 30 seconds 😅
Payback?
Skillshare is a literal scam company, please avoid such sponsors.
I’m so scared of books… This was the scariest video I’ve ever watched.
Now replace the "k" with a "b" ... not so funny now is it
@@chillsy_pluto Dude stop, you’re scaring the crap out of me.
I like books, but it really depends on the book for me.
No one tell this guy about creepy pasta channels. Literally people reading.
@@m00k61 Sounds horrifying. I love it!
Man Carrying Thing never fails to deliver the best content we could ask for. Seems like he only gets better each time.
Sometimes even delivering the best content we didnt ask for
@@notKevinFeige *carrying
Man carrying TH-cam
Plot twist: He's trying to produce the worst content imaginable, but fails spectacularly every time
Man carrying thing: come for the skits, stay for the skits, but the books reviews are nice too
I dont think my short attention span brain can handle an 11 minute skit, but i'll try to enjoy it nonetheless!
Definitely could use Subway Surfers in the corner, maybe some Minecraft parkour
@@ExtraQuestionableContent Maybe a little family guy too
@@TheSlavicWarlord415 How about we get some guy cutting some weird ass sand or something in the other corner because why the hell not
@@ExtraQuestionableContent Oh yeah, absolutely!
@The Ugandan Warlord @Soos Maybe add a little vine boom every 5 seconds to return my attention to the screen.
Hell yes, man! The Parker series had an ENORMOUS impact on my own work. Great video.
I found you because of books. Stayed because all content was interesting/entertaining but I'm always thrilled when it's a book video!
I was so excited when I saw this uploaded! Great timing, I've been obsessed with the Parker books for the past few months! Really enjoyed this one.
Didn't know you also loved Parker that's awesome!
@@ManCarryingThing highly recommend the Darwyn Cooke graphic novel-isations
keep these book videos coming, i hope you never stop carrying thing
Hey Jake just wanted to say that even though I love the skits and humor on this channel, I always appreciate it when you pivot back to more traditional book tube content. I'm definitely guilty of only really engaging in book criticism in an echo chamber around the stuff I already enjoy reading. You're the exception to this, having a very different taste in literature than I do and I always find your perspectives really helpful and I've even been encouraged to read some things I don't think I would have before. This series seems really interesting and I might actually check it out!
Thanks for providing quality content every time!
The darwyn Cooke graphic novel adaptations are some of the best comics I've ever read, especially the hunter! The martini editions are by far the most beautiful books I own
As a big fan of Darwyn Cooke’s adaptations of Parker, I wasn’t super interested in reading the original books, but this makes me want to check them out much more! Thanks for the recommendation!
I started with the audio books, moved to paperbacks (local library ftw!) , then picked up the comics. Try em all, they're great.
I’ve been meaning to get those
I currently reading Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe. It's a 1962 japanese surrealist novel about an entomologist searching for a new type of beetle in a rare desert in Japan, where he encounter a rare village almost buried in the sand. The novel make a great comparision between the adaptability of the beetle in harsh enviroment with the human's. it's almost kafkaesque the way the author related the dunes with human societies, in which the protagonist get trap as a insect in ant farm. Great book if someone is interested.
There is a movie too...also very good
@@holydissolution85 I need to watch it after I finish the book. Thanks.
@@dylanmorrison8788 I have read Kafka. The Castle is a great book if you enjoyed Abe. It's his most "human" novel. The sad part is that he was writing it when he died, so it's not complete.
My favorite writer is Thomas Pynchon, I don't consider his novel surrealist but they sure are crazy and poignant. In the same way as Faulkner. So, you my like Bleeding Edge if you grew up during the 90s - 00s. It's about a possible cospiracy related to the 9-11 and the deep web.
dunes is fantastic, check out face of another it's my fav abe story
It was an inferior version of camus work in my opinion
parker's character reminds me of anton chigurh from no country for old men. anton is like a strategic machine to kill without remorse or humanity, as if people are little mosquitoes. maybe parker is scarier than anton because anton shows an evil side of him that wants his victims to suffer, as well as parker lacks of.
I know you probably won't see this, but I initially found you through your skits before diving deeper and checking out some of your literary analysis videos. Haven't made time for reading in a while, but you helped me finally get back into reading again. I've already finished one book this year, and I've just started another! Thank you for being you and for talking about the things that interest you 💙
I've always wanted videos with books in the same manner as comics and movies. Super glad to be recommended this.
The series doesn't seem to be my tastes but your commentary is entertaining.
11:10 is the exact response you should have to that book. Bravo for your cutting commentary, Thing Man
That sounds pretty interesting! I read "Butcher's Crossing" based on your recommendation and it was one of my absolute favourite reads last year so I'll put this on my list!
Back in the 70s I was reading every Donald E Westlake novel, the stark novels are very different in tone but also entertaining glad to see you discovered him
I've only read the Parker graphic novels by Darwin Cooke and I adore them. they captured such a great noir mood.
I've never seen his other non book related videos. Best book videos on TH-cam!!
I love Richard Starks Parker series. Love Darwyn Cookes adaptations. Love Point Blank starting Lee Marvin. Love everything about this universe. Also there’s a handful of spin off books written by Stark in this series. My favorite is Lemons Never Lie. About one of Parker’s sidekicks. Definitely give it a read
Have you ever heard of Golgo 13? It's somewhat similar. A sociopathic main character that's basically a Terminator, and the more interesting aspect is the side characters and how they react to Golgo. A lot more violent though
I’m reading them in order but am only on the fourth. I’d recommend reading them because the narrative grows with each book. We learn more about The Outfit and pulling off different types of crimes. I’m really enjoying this series.
Loving these reviews, I find myself looking forward to them just as much as the skits and I'm obsessed with those.
My dad bought the spanish omnibus of the Parker comics by Darwyn Cooke and I thought of checking them out. But now that I know Stark is a pseudonym for Westlake I really have to give it a try, since I really liked The Hot Rock which I read due to your recommendation.
I’ve been wanting to check out Westlake for awhile. My main familiarity with him is through the first Stepfather film, which I thought he did a good job with. I’ll have to check out one of the Parker books.
I thought the guy in the thumbnail was Walter white and didn’t read the title so I thought this video was going to be about breaking bad 💀 but I’m not disappointed this video was great
The Parker novels are exactly what got me into crime fiction. They do soften his character a bit in the later ones, but The Hunter is a stone cold classic.
Stephen King's favorite. The Parker novels are brilliant, harsh, and vivid. I think Parker lets the reader project dark fantasies into and onto that character, as a cathartic release.
Westlake wrote a book called "somebody owes me money " I want to see it turned into a movie so bad. It's my favorite book of his.
I don't know if you've already done it but you should definitely play Disco Elysium. Best book I've ever played. Really well written.
Only “book” i ever read lol. Also I think the game was based on a book too but it’s not translated to English yet.
I think I was smart when I was still in school, game made me finally realize I'm just dumb now. Can't follow any of it, especially the loquacious narration
@@funnybleepbloopthing it was based on a TRPG that the designers made for their own friend group which eventually became the 2013 book, Sacred and Terrible Air, and then eventually became 2019's Disco Elysium and is currently becoming a commercially-released TRPG. Or at least was before ZA/UM collapsed into infighting at the end of 2021. Seriously, the studio is currently a mess with most of the founding members and creative leads gone.
@@futurestoryteller really? It's hardly abstract. Esoteric and existential at all times, yes. But it's not exactly heady reading.
@@ZacksScraps Really. Do you even understand the words in your own vocabulary? You do know that esoteric means "hard to understand" right - like that is all but *the* definition of that word?
DBAA
Sounds like if Cormac McCarthy wanted to make a whole series about Anton Chigurh.
The best Parker book that I've read is "The Score" from 1964. The plot is like OCEAN'S 11 turned up to 11! The sheer audacity of the crime along with the epic fashion in which the job goes south leads to an exciting read. Plus the book introduces the character Alan Grofield who Westlake spun off into his own set of stories.
Agreed - the score is excellent!
I'm familiar with Levi Stahl at the University of Chicago Press that put out all those matching reissues of the Parker books. I'm slowly collecting them all.
They're not Pokemon, you know.
Westlake was a genius, and Point Blank is an utter classic of cinema
Payback (1999) starring Mel Gibson as "Porter" is an extremely well done cinematic adaptation of Parker.
watching this as I put off sitting down to write. Love to hear you talk about fiction. you say terminator but I'm getting some james bond as well.
I'm reading 1q84 by haruki murakami. fantastic; we have different tastes but it's hard not to love. i think you'd be enchanted by the mystery and interconnectedness and writing style. kind of like a little life not in plot but in that it's a huge book epic in scope that was a cultural phenomenon
since you gravitate to noir i wonder how you feel about gillian flynn.
"Hes a totally sociopath who just goes around killing people, not because he likes it, but because hes good at it"
later
"hed be a great ceo"
this
love the book vids. Thanks dood
Darwyn cook made this into a comic and it’s awesome
As a partial sociopath, I'm gonna enjoy this series
Same bruh
Thats ❤
For anyone who likes Westlake/Stark, I have to recommend Jim Thompson. Westlake called him "the most nihilistic writer America ever produced" -- I'm not sure I'd go that far, but he was still incredible.
Definitely going to check them out, looks like quite a few are free on audible right now
I enjoyed this video bc I can't read-- my mom is dictating this for me-- so it makes me feel neat bc I can tell people that I read a book one time about a real life terminator. I am good at books. 😎
I like books, but the words I don’t care for personally. Books have spines, and as a person with a spine a identify with that.
I read both Pronto and Nada on your recommendation, which i enjoyed very much, so I will definitely be checking these out!!
I like when man carries books
I read Hitman by Lawrence Block because you recommended it. It was great.
I plan to read Eight Million Ways to Die after I finish Five Decembers (checked it out based on your recommendation).
And I can’t say I expected a Colleen Hoover reference in a video about the Parker novels 😂
I like your sketches a lot, but honestly, I mostly come back for book reviews, I love them
i thought you had spilled coffee on yourself right before filming and just rolled with it.
Anyone else read the title and expect Diary Of A Wimpy Kid?
Right now I’m reading “the brothers karamazov” and I’m really liking it! The character featured are some of the most complex I’ve found in fiction I’ve read thus far. The author, Dostoyevsky, has a knack for pumping out great story’s that feel really organic and don’t feel contrived. Dostoyevsky’s writing can sometimes drag, he has a tendency to fill page upon page with internal monologues or wax philosophical rants and dialogues, but, given the attention, that length really adds a lot and has a lot of complexity and nuances to unpack.
It's such a good book!
@@chris92S straight up. I already read “the gambler” and “notes from the underground” and was thoroughly intrigued
@@clayowsley5920 I need to read The Gambler how was it?
@@chris92S sorry for the late response, but I liked it! It’s an ensemble piece so there’s a lot of characters to keep track of, so I struggled keeping up at times, but it’s was surprisingly quite funny at points, It offers a really good dissection of the nature of addiction too.
We would also recommend the Graphic Novel adaptations by Darwyn Cooke as well as the film Payback, which is probably the best big screen adaptation based on the Stark novels.
Just found this! I adore the Parker series, though I’ve only read the comics. Those comics stand above most, in my eyes.
Thing Carrierman, you’ve totally sold me on this series - sounds very compelling. Will pick it up for sure
It’s like James Bond but with a surprisingly enthralling writing style, at least for me.
I remember being fascinated with the character from the adaptation in Payback. Happy to see a lot of them are free with an Audible sub.
Series sounds very interesting. I love stories that remove fluff and longwindedness and focus on action. Thanks for the review. I'm gonna check it out.
Off season amusement parks are the BEST backdrops/settings in both horror and murder mystery movies/ books. Instant chills.
Now I'm curious if sociopaths like reading books where a sociopath is the main. I know someone (minus the murder part) that may identify heavily with Parker. Normally when I hear a series has like 30 books I shy away cos I like to do start to finish, but you sold me on these.
Thanks for the entertainment you keep giving us consistently. I also hope you’re not over exerting yourself in any way, just wanted to check in regardless so take care!
Picked these books up from this review and its just what I've been looking for recently; loved it. thanks for the highlight and recommend. Love the book content; skits are great too. Keep it up.
This sounds a lot like a series I enjoyed called Victor the Assassin about a similarly minded international assassin
You should check out The bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric. Serbian writer who won a nobel prize for literature and its about a bridge on the river Drina that connects Serbia and Bosnia and centuries of history it carries with it, it's similar to the one hundred years of solitude, no main character just generations of people that live there. There is violence, love , tragedy and many more stuff and it also has wonderful prose i highly recommend it.
But Ivo Andrić is a Croatian name. But he was born in Bosnia. But he is regarded highly in Serbian literature. But he would have liked if you called him Yugoslavian.
I said Serbian writer because he declared himself a Serb so thats my reason for writing Serbian.
@@commandershepard1357 The joke is that it is best we don't get into it.
@@stevolukic True that.
donald westlake's dortmunder is also amazing
Read about this series in Tarantino’s new book, been meaning to check it out. Loved John Flynn’s film The Outfit
I sub for the skits, and hadn't read books in decades. Your rec got me into the Scudder series. I'm sad now though, because they cost almost $10 each and only take a day to read. My monetized video game is way cheaper.
if you have a library card and you're in the states, use the Libby App to check them out for free
Also Robert Downey Jr is making a movie or tv show in this Parker universe.
Started reading The Hunter on your recommendation -- good so far. I'm glad I checked it out. Quentin Tarantino talked about Parker a lot in his recent book, "Cinema Exploitation," so I assumed reading that and watching this vid around the same time is a sign Parker is for me. I love movies like Taxi Driver or Nightcrawler where the main character is this unstable element and you're wondering what will set them loose. Feels like that's the general vibe with Parker.
I remember reading a book in the Parker series back in my noir/hardboiled phase. I'm pretty sure it was The Hunter. I really enjoyed it, but yeah, the main character was really brutal. I currently just finished The Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. If you're interested in sword & sorcery books set in the D&D universe, these are very well-written and fun. Salvatore is the best writer I've read when it comes to writing action scenes. They're easy to follow and very engaging. I also started reading the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate. I'm on book 2 right now. It's great so far. I love how the authors are able to express complex ideas with simple language. It's also surprisingly mature and dark for a kids' series. Keep up the good work! Love your videos!
glad you are bringing awarenes to Parker and Stark. Fantastic series and the base for the smooth con man. The Mourner has one of the best visual of Red and Green in a book EVER. It would make for great television.
Time for you to check out Dortmunder.
I'm gonna use Skillshare to learn how to read. Thank you.
Please do more noir series like these . Love from India 🇮🇳
It is interesting you compare him to The Terminator as I believe Jon Boorman, the director of POINT BLANK compared him more to Frankenstein's monster than any typical hard-boiled anti-hero.
This is must that phenomenon that the young fellas call 'literally me frfr'
The comic adaptations by Darwyn Cooke are awesome too. My favorite being Nan with the Getaway-face
Just found this whole series is free with an audible membership. Thanks for telling me about the series.
The Parker novels are brilliant. Many of them start out in media res with the word "When..." "When he saw that the one called Harbin was wearing a wire, Parker said, "Deal me out," and got to his feet." "When he didn't get any answer the second time he knocked, Parker kicked the door in." or "Hearing the click behind him, Parker threw his glass straight back over his right shoulder, and dove off his chair to the left. The bullet furrowed a line through the plans on the table..."
Once you've done some writing, it's not that difficult to make a likeable character. But then what usually happens? They go off and make mistakes you'd never make. You, the reader, knows what the characters should do. With Parker, you might have a few ideas, Parker's ideas are revealed in action, they're quicker than anything you could think of, more efficient , and sometimes brutal, but only as needed.
Take David Balducci Memory Man. The protagonist is forced into the back of a car by a skinny guy with a gun. Another criminal even smaller than the gunman, is at the wheel. The Memory Man is well over six feet. He's a retired police detective. He knows when they get to where they're going they are going to kill him. Okay. What happens:? What should happen? Ask any cop. That's not what happens. Instead he chats with them until they order him out of the car and tie him to a chair....
Th correct answer if a person with bad intentions is within a few feet of a trained police officer or soldier, they are going to take the gun away. Parker would've beaten any information he could get out of the gunman on page 30, then killed him so there'd be no problems. On about page 70 he'd have beaten the driver, killed them, and then would have to think of something else to do for the next 150 pages. Richard Stark can write likeable characters but what he usually chooses to do instead is write characters who are driven, motivated, have a goal. They may be lying. Their character is revealed in action. He'll forgive a mistake, but never a betrayal. Brilliant writing.
If some how you're a writer, maybe a woman writer, and because you had absolutely nothing better to do you've watched this video and you're reading this? Read Parker, but think What if he were a woman, What if that woman wasn't a criminal. What if you rewrote Pride and Prejudice with this kind of drive.... and... Elizabeth Bennet already has amazing drive. She didn't just say "No thanks" to Darcy, she took him apart to make sure he completely understood and then she shot him in the face. Well not really. Jane Eyre was a lot more like Parker than Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or Pip. (David Copperfield was Dicken's trying to do what Bronte did in Jane Eyre, tell the story from the child's point of view. David Copperfield is mostly passive. There is nothing passive about Jane Eyre. Dickens said he never read Jane Eyre, said he didn't need to. And yet, he tried to steal the core idea (smart) but without reading the book (stupid) to better understand it. So read great writing even if it's completely something you would never read. And learn how to take a gun away.
Man Carrying Thing always leaves everyone wanting more. I think the video must have been cut off. I did not get the It Ends with Us review. Looking forward to that in the next video. I will be here for that review.
Great video! Thanks for doing this. I started reading these after 1999's Payback, a film adaptation of the Hunter starring Mel Gibson. My love of the Parker series quickly transferred to a love of the author's hilarious "Dortmunder" series. Everyone must read Dortmunder.
Wanna see a gang have to steal the same gem multiple times? "The Hot Rock"
Wanna see a literal bank robbery? "The Bank Shot"
Wanna see a thinly-veiled Donald Trump get ripped off again and again? "What's the Worst That Could Happen?"
Matt Scudder novels: The protag goes from being addicted to drinking to being addicted to going to AA meetings. The best of the bunch is book eight (I think), "When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes" which luckily, is the least-connected to the others and seemed to me to be outside continuity.
I'm reading History Makers: the most Influential People of the 20th Century
Also recommend Westlake’s Dortmunder series. A much lighter and more comedic take on the heist genre. The first actually started as a Parker novel but after the plot became a bit too silly Westlake rewrote it with a different lead. There’s even a quasi “crossover” of sorts where Dortmunder and his associates at one point try and pull a heist based on a non-existent Parker novel.
I didnt think hunter was the best either. but I read all of them, and then reread the hunter. and knowing Parker so well, I fell in love with the hunter. it's a beautiful book. in a way I think it is the best of the series.
If you close your eyes you can still hear him talking about books.
I'll have to check it out, Parker sounds a lot like a prototype for Reacher.
My favorite Scudder novel is Walk Among The Tombstones. By a mile.
damn, never noticed how comfortable that chair looks
Honestly thought this was gonna be about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books
subbed for the jokes, stayed for the book vids. i haven't read a book in years but i enjoy them for some reason
Read Ice by Anna Kavan lately and I have been obsessed with it since I finished it, also Of Mice and Men
I like the idea that Parker is the flip side of Westlake’s other famous character, Dortmunder.
Why does your outro slap so hard? 😭 (i neeed it)
Black Wings Has My Angel just came in the mail thanks to your recommendation :)
Andre Holland is gonna kill it as Groefield.
I finished reading the trial last night, just incredible. Totally recommend.
Always wondered why they changed the Parker character's name to Walker in Point Blank with Lee Marvin, and Porter in Payback with Mel Gibson. And then left it Parker in Parker with Jason Statham.
books killed my grandma, ok?
Stark/Westlake pulled an interesting literary trick with Slayground. The Blackbird--not a Parker book, technically--has the same first chapter as Slayground, but instead of following what happens to Parker, it follows Grofield instead. Stark did something similar with the eighth Parker novel, The Handle and the Grofield novel, The Damsel. The Damsel starts right at the end of The Handle.
I love the Parker novels. It's not quite right to call Parker a sociopath. He exists in an amoral world where there are no innocents, so he's perfectly sane to be as ruthless as he is.
The movie Payback with Mel Gibson is based on the book "the hunter".
Donald Westlake is also a pseudonym. I believe his actual name is something like Evan Hunter. He has a number of pseudonyms or rather had a number of synonyms that he used to write multiple series 11:28
Very cool video thanks!