Book Club. Only the quiet and well behaved allowed in.

[destinie21]

LAUGHING HILARIOUSLY!!! Rolling over, my GOD!

 

[pixiesjuice]

Road Dance by John Mackay

A brilliant book by a true story teller. The first book for a while that i wished would never end.

 

[raphy]

Well, I'm currently digging through the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. I've just read L is for Lawless and I wouldn't say that I was hooked, but they're definitely enjoyable reads.

Best thing I've read lately, however, is the A Song of Fire An Ice series by George R. R. Martin. High Fantasy at its best, with truly engaging characters, a compelling, non-traditional plot (the good guys don't always win) and an engaging and fully-fleshed out world. I can't wait for the next book.

Raphy, who's just introduced whisp to Pratchett. Yay. Go me!

 

[Speak]

I gotta say that Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken is superb. Thoroughly researched, hilarious and scathing. The Tri-Umverat of fact-based political satire! However, there is an even greater Franken masterpiece. One for our times. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: a Fair and Balance Look at the Right. Just read it.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0440508649.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpghttp://www.ohthethingsiknow.com/images/lies4.jpg
--------------------

I enjoyed this one. http://www.yenra.com/stupid-white-men/stupid-white-men.jpg
Check this one out. I don't think it mentioned Rush once.

SWM is different than Franken's latest. More along the Green line but independent. No apologist for the democrats thats for sure.
I'm reading Gore Vidal's Blood for Oil: Dreaming War and the Cheney Bush Junta next but I plan to read Moore's Dude Where's My Country? Soon. Stupid White Men is one of the few popular political books I've read lately that talk much about race.

The book was written just shy of 9-11. Moore believed at the time that it perhaps is better that someone like Bush got elected because at least people wake up and see what's going on when someone of his tact operates. Under Clinton we got raided and no one even noticed. He cites many examples of how Bush was innefectual in the first months of his presidency. I bet his tune has changed since 9-11. Thousands of innocent american dead have provided the fuel for his ghastly cadre of ghouls to wage war against their enemies within the American Citizenry quite effectively. Dude Where's My Country? should be an interesting update.

Here's a link to audio of Michael Moore speaking on the Pacifica Network. He gives his opinion on Rush and oxycontin. (Why can't you liberals see how irrelevant it is that Rush is a total hipocrit!?! Why do you obsess about this oxycontin thing so much? Boo hoo hoo. Cry. So sad.)

256k streaming video

Listen

I didn't check the audio version but the part about the Oxycontin and Rush occurs at 18:00 minutes into the 256k stream.

Ditto Mike!! :lol:

 

[Speak]

I just finished the latest Harry Potter. My kids got it, I swear! Wasn't me, no! It was sitting next to the complete works of Shakespeare and I picked it up by accident. Yeah, that's what happened.
Now that I've totally convinced everyone that I would never go out and buy it for myself, I thought it was very good and although I've heard some say it was too long I thought it wasn't long enough. Sorta wanted it to keep going.
Now, where did I put that Chekhov I was reading.....

Lol. I was taking a break from Nobokov myself when I read it. Very good though. I was a little dissappointed that the story didn't get pushed along a little farther. Its gonna be on in the next one.

 

[dirtylover]

re

Yo, hello, Mr mellow (speak).

I've read stupid white men, liked what it was saying, but thought it was a bit patronising. I'm not sure about MM, he seems to like the lime light and uncovering problems, rather than solving them. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, he just gets on my tits for some reason.

I'll look up the other two you mentioned

Same to Raphy and Pixie.

Seems like there's far too much good stuff to read out there! I need to lose a job.

 

[dirtylover]

I just finished the latest Harry Potter. My kids got it, I swear! Wasn't me, no! It was sitting next to the complete works of Shakespeare and I picked it up by accident. Yeah, that's what happened.

A bit like thinking you're going to get sex, but then just having a wank. But instead of having a wank, you're actually just reading it.
Sorry, but I really don't get HP, he just annoys me. Not sure why. I think you're with the majority though, very popular lad, our Harry.

To Raphy and Whisps - -don't you find Pratchett's Discworld loses it a little after, say, the twentieth book? And why is he always wearing that cowboy hat? And have you tried Robert Rankin?

 

[dirtylover]

dl, I have no interest in having anything critiqued among friends nor critiquing others. That is not a "book club".

Rereading Turgenev's Diary of a Superfluous Man, brilliant novella. Read it.

Perdita

Okay, it was a crap idea. I realise that now. Do you like my AV btw?

 

[kellycummings]

Re: re

Yo, hello, Mr mellow (speak).

I've read stupid white men, liked what it was saying, but thought it was a bit patronising. I'm not sure about MM, he seems to like the lime light and uncovering problems, rather than solving them. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, he just gets on my tits for some reason.

Michael Moore makes the best documentaries but they are also the most biased. He's a very talented filmmaker but sometimes needs to understand that there are other POV's.

 

[Guest]

Do you like my AV btw?

It's OK but it's not very original (seen lots of strawberries, cream and chocolate as AVs) and does not represent you to me, at least not the you I enjoy.

I too do not understand the HP attraction for adults, even the movies lost me halfway through but for Alan Rickman (would see him in anything).

P.

 

[Speak]

Re: Re: re

Michael Moore makes the best documentaries but they are also the most biased. He's a very talented filmmaker but sometimes needs to understand that there are other POV's.

I want biased opinions myself. You go into a documentary with your own POV. If you want the other side of the story turn on your TV at any time you'll get enough to make you sick.

 

[whispering_surrender]

To Raphy and Whisps - -don't you find Pratchett's Discworld loses it a little after, say, the twentieth book? And why is he always wearing that cowboy hat? And have you tried Robert Rankin?

I haven't made it through twenty yet....so I'll tell you later.

What cowboy hat?

Not yet. Should I?

Whisp

 

[Speak]

I too do not understand the HP attraction for adults, even the movies lost me halfway through but for Alan Rickman (would see him in anything).

P.

The books are better than the movies. Have you read the books? I like children's stories myself. I'd like to write one someday. I think a children story is a good way to have fun, teach lessons and spin myths. The best children's stories don't skirt the harsh realities of the world either and should be enjoyable for adults as well as kids. HP isn't a masterpiece but it has a lot of appealing elements. Magic, school, fights between good and evil and suspense. You can relate to Harry and his friends. There's also humor as well.

 

[kellycummings]

Re: Re: Re: re

I want biased opinions myself. You go into a documentary with your own POV. If you want the other side of the story turn on your TV at any time you'll get enough to make you sick.

I can agree with that but a documentary by definition is supposed to be objective and without editorial. I like his work and many times agree with him. Just saying that he only presents one side of the argument and passes it off as fact. It's his way and people love him or hate him.

 

[Guest]

Hi Speak. I read the first book but it just didn't catch me, nor Tolkien. I don't read Sci-Fi either. I loved Mort of Discworld because Death as a character fascinates me (am writing my own novel of Death), but couldn't finish the first book and it's taking me forever to finish Wyrd Sisters, as fairly amusing as it is.

I find an occasional good line, phrase or paragraph in Pratchett, and wish he would write something else. I enjoy reading interviews of him more than his books; he obviously has a good mind and interesting ideas about the world and life. I'm sorry he became so successful; he has the makings of a fine writer. (I'm serious, not being facetious.)

I do love good children's books and have favourites, just not HP.

best, Perdita

 

[kellycummings]

The books are better than the movies. Have you read the books? I like children's stories myself. I'd like to write one someday. I think a children story is a good way to have fun, teach lessons and spin myths. The best children's stories don't skirt the harsh realities of the world either and should be enjoyable for adults as well as kids. HP isn't a masterpiece but it has a lot of appealing elements. Magic, school, fights between good and evil and suspense. You can relate to Harry and his friends. There's also humor as well.

I enjoyed the movies but the books really are better. She doesn't talk down to the reader at all. It's presented in a straight forward manner and I think that's why adults like them. If they were written in a way that talked down to kids I don't think they would have the appeal.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Re: re

I can agree with that but a documentary by definition is supposed to be objective and without editorial.

Not true. Where does it say that? I think I've never seen an unbiased doc. The makers of them do not profess to be historians, that I know of. I think a doc. w/o bias would be pointless, like 'the news'.

Perdita

 

[raphy]

Sorry, but I really don't get HP, he just annoys me. Not sure why. I think you're with the majority though, very popular lad, our Harry.

Never read any, have no desire to, nor see the movies.

To Raphy and Whisps - -don't you find Pratchett's Discworld loses it a little after, say, the twentieth book? And why is he always wearing that cowboy hat? And have you tried Robert Rankin?

I don't find it loses it, but I can see how you could. For me, reading a Pratchett novel is like listening to a Meatloaf or Bonnie Tyler song. They all sound the same, because Jim Steinman can't write any other type of music, but since I happen to like that type of music, I don't mind that they all sound the same.

It's the same with Pratchett. He has his slow books and not-as-good books, but it's not in a pattern, per se. I still find as much to laugh about in Thief of Time as I did in the original The Colour of Magic. I didn't have enough room to bring over my entire (incomplete) collection of Pratchett books for whisp, so I brought The Colour of Magic, Witches Abroad, Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Carpe Jugulum and Thief of Time - Which I thought were a pretty fair spread of Pratchett novels.

So yeah, I can understand how that claim could be laid at Pratchett's door. After all, each and every subsequent novel is merely 'more of the same' - I just happen to really like what constitutes 'the same', so I don't really ever get bored of reading him. Pratchett and Alistair MacLean are probably my two most re-read authors, and the same accusation of 'sameness' could probably be pointed at MacLean too.

I've read a few books by Rankin. I found him entertaining, to be sure, but I've never found an author that can make me laugh out like Pratchett can. Not Rankin, nor Douglas Adams, nor Christopher Moore. There's just something about the way Pratchett endows the mundane with ethereal existential qualities and vice versa that just has me rolling in my seat as I read him, and his talent for characterization is superb.

As for the hat - I have no idea, but I think he looks pretty spiffy in it

 

[Speak]

I do love good children's books and have favourites, just not HP.

best, Perdita

Recommendations please.

 

[Guest]

Recommendations please.

What age level? Seriously, I love children's books "as literature" from some written for two year olds to those for pre-teens. Also, give me time; my memory is crap so I have to look at my library and call my niece for titles I've given her.

Perdita

 

[kellycummings]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re

Not true. Where does it say that? I think I've never seen an unbiased doc. The makers of them do not profess to be historians, that I know of. I think a doc. w/o bias would be pointless, like 'the news'.

Perdita

Documentary: Presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film.

Many of them are historians (Ken Burns for example) and many present their material simply as a record of something that has happend. Shoah, The Civil War, few others that I can't think of now that I need to.

 

[Speak]

perdita I see you're from SF. You don't read Sci-Fi but have you ever read anything by Philip K. Dick? He's a homespun original from Berekely. He died in the eighties. His works inspired Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report and others but he's written a lot of classics that take the themes of these movies and really pushes beyond. The place and times he lived in are reflected in his novels. He's definitely a philosopher and his main theme is what is real. Themes relating to mind bending drugs, real and fictional often reoccur in his stories. Some titles I would highly recommend are:
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
A Scanner Darkly
The Valis Trilogy and Radio Free Albemeuth
and
Flow My Tears the Policeman Said.
He is a lot of people's cult favorite. His style is a little unpolished sometimes but he has monolithic ideas.

 

[Speak]

What age level? Seriously, I love children's books "as literature" from some written for two year olds to those for pre-teens. Also, give me time; my memory is crap so I have to look at my library and call my niece for titles I've given her.

Perdita

Age level doesn't matter. I'd rather have your favs.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re

... Many of them are historians (Ken Burns for example) and many present their material simply as a record of something that has happend. Shoah, The Civil War, few others that I can't think of now that I need to.

The definition is pointless, it's just one word and I doubt someone who makes docs. would know it.

Burns and others who make 'historical' docs. of course do not have a bias, unless they are out to distort history or make obviously truthful points. Docs. on current affairs are different, like those that began this topic.

Kelly, please, you are so difficult to communicate with; it seems to take several steps for you to get to a point, or to get one. Yes, I'm impatient, and I only bother when it seems worthwhile to me.

Moore has a bias and everyone knows it; what's the big dea? Take him or leave him.

Perdita

 

[Speak]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: re

Documentary: Presenting facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film.

Many of them are historians (Ken Burns for example) and many present their material simply as a record of something that has happend. Shoah, The Civil War, few others that I can't think of now that I need to.

I don't know if this is the definition of documentary or not but people's work shouldn't be restricted by semantics either way. And a lot of people take question of Ken Burns as a historian. Again you have your own POV. MM is pretty honest about his biases. What more can you ask without making it your work instead of his?