Reading Tab
 

Borrowing a page (no pun intended :laugh: ) from MV, here's a thread to keep a running tab on things you read...be it books, magazines, articles, or anything else like that.

For me:

An article Peter sent to me about the Segway scooter thing:
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...6660-1,00.html

...and, a book called "The American Leadership Tradition." I've been reading it for too long really...stopped for awhile and started back up, etc. I'm getting close to the end now, which is great, because I get such a great rush of satisfaction then I finish a book like that. I feel like it's in the vault...no one can take it away from me now! I've got that knowledge in me, and I'll retain most of it until the day I die. Great feeling. :)

i used to read a book every week .....mysteries and psychological thrillers........having a child kinda takes over and there just isn't much time or mental energy left for the focus needed to delve into a good book.....i still read when i do the stair gauntlet at the gym ( believe it or not)......but i miss my old freedom to read terribly!!!..........i miss wandering in bookstores for hours........alas.....i still keep a list of books i want to get (from book reviews), but i wait for them to come out in paperback. i usually order them at a bookstore while still in hardcover and the store will notifiy me when it's available in paperback..........works great with my nasty memory.

i'm reading "Beneath the Skin" by Nicci French right now......psycho thriller.....likin' it.

Dean Koontz's "False Memory" was a great read...and it would make a terrific movie. i'd recommend it!:yup: :yup:
.

My problem with reading is that I have to read the entire book in one sitting or else I rarely finish. That means that Tom Clancy books are out for me, obviously.

Most recently, I read a couple of books I enjoyed. They were "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor" by Bruce Campbell, "Ronald Rabbit is a Dirty Old Man" by Lawrence Block (I had read this one a couple of times before, so it wasn't so much new to me) and "Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese" by Michael J. Nelson of MST3K fame (which is more like a series of articles/reviews than a "book" per se, even though it is in book form).

I was going to reread "Fletch Won", but I know that if I read it, I'll just be wanting Kevin Smith's movie version to hurry up and get made. It's best I not think of Fletch at all again until 2003.

I just read the first three pages of an untitled literary work, code-named: hotarsecookie.

Basically, thus far it's about a young boy called Oscar whose family was killed in a car crash, and he was the only survivor and he blames the rest of his family. Which is interesting because their is a secret in his family which ultimately he wouldn't be able to uncover if his family hadn't been killed and he hadn't moved to his Auntie's. It's a catch 22.

I'll keep you posted.

Can we also make this thread a WRITING TAB?

Today I wrote the eigth, ninth and ten pages of my colaborative work, "Oblivion". I've done it on a very small font, and I am nearing the end of the first act. I have said to my partner that I should be completed the entire thing by the 11th or 12th of this month, so I'm going to write a heap more tonight.

Well you might not finish it in one sitting, but I took Clear and Present Danger with me on a vacation, and finished it in three days.

Right now I'm refreshing my memory with Lord of the Rings...read The Hobbit, not too long ago.

I've been trying to get through a Dean Koontz book, Fear Nothing. So far, it really has me pulled in. It's finding time to read it that's the trouble.

I read Antigone twice in the past week.

OG- you read it for enjoyment...or for school?

School. I'd never read that thing for my own enjoyment again!!!:furious:

I even had to write 12 pages off stuff about it. Well I wrote 16, but still!

Yeah..it's pretty slow going, but it has some great insight into family dynamics and relationships between siblings...

Pssh, thats not what it was about at all!! It was teaching the life lesson that "**** happens". The whole siblings story was just the forum in which it was told.

Was it a work of fiction with some real-world theme underneath? I've never heard of the book, so I'm sort of clueless. If it's meant to teach you about the effects of siblings and families on each other, though, I imagine there are more specialized books you can look into.

I read Antigone too....And it's a greek play, TWT, although we read the French version from the 1940's, sort of re-written by Jean Anouilh. I have to say I prefer the French to the Sophocles version. Also, I took another look at Our Town after talking about it at school, and I absolutely love it. It's a great, great play.

No its not. Our Town is a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE play!

TERRIBLE!!!:furious:

ryan, how did you like Bruce Cambell's book.....tell me more!

and finding time to read is a challenge....especially when there's nothing better than having hours on end to just lose yourself between the pages.....spud, once you start, as long as you can read a good enough chunk at a time......you'll find the time...dontcha' think?...but the book has to be good enough to lure you back.......check out the Koontz book False Memory if you can.

and one of my alltime favorite authors, Paul Auster, wrote a trilogy called New York Trilogy...three short stories.....all terrific......you could easily read a whole story in one sitting.

and Silver....congratulations on writing........on actually writing.......for the longest time i felt i'd be a writer one day......built it up so much that i think it has actually prevented me from writing seriously.......afraid of failing i guess......at one point i burned all my writings...in a huge barrel outside..........who know's what i was thinking.......

Our Town is a remarkable play - so uplifting and beautiful and poetic. I think you missed the boat on it, Peter. I'll argue Our Town to the death. Anybody else read it, its by Thornton Wilder?

I liked it a lot. It was funny, inspirational and informational all at the same time. I recommend it highly.

I started Paul Johnson's "Modern Times" today. Got a few pages in. Good stuff, although I find I don't REALLY take a fair amount of it in unless I either A) read it with a significant amount of focused attention, or B) read certain parts more than once. I'll be glad to have read it in the end, though...it'll give me a nice, solid handle on the happenings of the world, starting with 1920 or so.

Yes, it's always good to get a nice, solid, BIASED handle on the happenings of the world. ;)

BTW, was your interest in Johnson piqued by our discussion on MV?

I'm reading Ibsen's A Doll's House; next will be Hedda Gabler.

From what I've heard, Johnson isn't particularly biased. He's British, for one, so I'm not getting an Americanized version of things. You're not going to completely avoid bias no matter what you read, however. And no, I'd read a bit of Johnson before the discussion, but it was mildly renewed by that.

Well, I meant political bias rather than geographical.

Not that I care really; a lot of great historians are biased in one way or another. Hence the winkie-face.

Well, I'm open to suggestions...but, given my hatred of anything even resembling a text-book, with few exceptions, I thought it best to give Johnson a more serious look...his books seem to have a more storylike feel to them, which makes them more palatable to someone like me.

Well, Johnson is a conservative (or neoconservative, to be more precise), so you'd probably enjoy his work.

That being said, being politically biased doesn't necessarily make your work trash or anything like that. Intellectuals was definitely biased (I illuminated many of the shortcomings over at MV). Modern Times, on the other hand, has been received quite well by mainstream historians.

I don't really have any recommendations, because I enjoy historical works by liberals like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (who is also considered a mainstream historian, despite having a stated political preference), so you should be able to enjoy your conservative historians.

A Dolls House was OK. Steve, Ryan, and I filmed a pretty terrible scene from it, but the analysis of it was genious.:D

What is poetic about Our Town?!?! It was a piece of ****!!!!

:laugh: That was rich!

I read a peice called "Lucifer's Tirade" by my friend which was about how he was cut from a performace/variety night because his subject matter [get this "A Warm Welcome" by Rowan Atkinson] was offensive to his audience.

!!!

It was a wonderful peice of writing though. There is one sentance that particularly stands out:

In my inner-world, I walk alone. All artist do.

Right on.

I'm quite tempted to spill my guts on that supposedly wonderful sentence...but I won't, for the sake of what I hope will remain a mostly untainted and enjoyable thread. Anyway, I'm something like 15 pages into "Modern Times." Takes awhile to read...I've got to go over a lot of it more than once to make sure I really take it in. Good stuff so far, though.

PM me, NOW.
Spill your guts, just not here where people may slip up on them.
I'm interested in seeing what you have to say.

...

Sent.

Wow. Too bad that's not a public debate. Shucks.:(

Well, I went to the Half-Price Books tonight with a friend of mine, and while she buys several books about depressed people dealing with grief, I picked up such titles as "Producing Great Sound for Digital Video" by Jay Rose, "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler" by Joe Queenan, "Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu" by Simon Callow and "I Am Spock" by Spock.... I mean, Leonard Nimoy. I'm thinking she and I may have different tastes in reading material.

I may never be able to finish that Orson Welles book. It's nearly 600 pages AND it's in really small type. But I hope I can.

I started with the Joe Queenan book, though.

Simon Callow's Orson Welles biography is excellent. I read it when it first hit the shelves back in 1996. It is the first of a proposed trilogy on Orson's life and career. The Road to Xanadu covers his childhood up through Citizen Kane. Extremely well written and terribly interesting.

You think the paperback is thick? I've got the bug-squishin' hardcover sitting on my shelf: 640 pages, counting the index.


*BTW, Simon Callow is an English actor. His most well-known high-profile role to date was as Gareth, the bloke who dies in Four Weddings and a Funeral. He's had a very distinguished stage career, mostly in Great Britain. Some other films you might have seen him in are Shakespeare in Love, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, and he voiced the Grasshopper in James & the Giant Peach.

Yesterday I started, and finished, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. It was an egregious offense against decency and good taste.

What?!? Egad! I'm appalled! I love that book!

I just finished Lord of the Rings today and The Hobbit a couple days ago. So much fun. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the movie now, before I wasn't as interested.

Can I get an amen? I've been preaching one thing for months: read Harry Potter, and read the first LOTR book, even if you don't have time for "The Hobbit" or the two LOTR books that follow it. You'll thank me later...the movies are SO much more exciting and enjoyable if you do. I specifically sat down and read both (the four Potter books and the first LOTR book) in hopes of getting pumped for the movies, and it worked brilliantly. There is NO other way to see the movies. :)

Well, I take that back...I envy those who get to experience the story of LOTR on screen without knowing what's going to happen already. It's good and bad, I suppose.

Well those that haven't read the books will probably get lost when it comes to certain aspects of the movie. :D

Trying to get through Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz.

If any of you enjoy reading a thriller now and then, you might read one of Koontz's books. I've read 4 so far. Like them all.

I got into Koontz when I was done reading ALL of King's books. Koontz doesn't scare me as well as King does, but it is good stuff.

I've never read a King book, I've only seen movies based on his books. One of Koontz's books-into-movie, Phantoms, I didn't like. Too much different from the book. Koontz doesn't scare me, but it does interest me a lot. Only books I have ever been drawn into. :D

Wow, Sadie, I'm a huge King fan too. I saved up all the money I could get my hands on to buy "Dead Zone" in hardcover when it first came out. I've bought every new one since. He doesn't scare me though, I just really like his prose and I get lost in his world when I read him. The one exception to that, though, was "Bag of Bones." That book gave me the willies in a serious way. The magnets on the refrigerator, the wind, the water scenes... eek!

I don't dislike Koontz. In fact I am halfway through "From the corner of his Eye" as we speak. So far it's really good but he's toeing the line of the supernatural. Koontz's style and readability are very good but he does not do the supernatural well. My favorite Koontz book is "Intensity" just because he avoids the supernatural and focuses on a nutcase.

I just finished "Aztec Blood" by Gary Jennings. Very good, but a bit pale in comparison to the original "Aztec".

Working on "From the Corner of His Eye" by Koontz
Next, I'm going to read some Mickey Spillane.. haven't decided which one.

Alright, I've been busy...should've posted on here awhile ago. I'm reading three books at once right now, but I think I'll be dropping one shortly. First up is Heroes of History by Will Durant. He wrote the book something like 20 years ago, but never did anything with it. Paul Little (I think that's his name), the manager of his estate, discovered it, unused, and had it published. It's quite good so far.

Next up: Out of the Silent Planet, the first in a trilogy by C.S. Lewis. Main character's name is Ransom. Very interesting sci-fi book. Really classic stuff. I'm digging it.

Finally: The Picture of Dorian Gray. To be honest, I'm not enjoying this too much. I think Lord Henry talks too abstranctly, and thinks he has a better grip on life than he actually does. You know the type I'm talking about: talks in really broad, deep-sounding terms. It'd be like talking to Morpheus from "The Matrix" nonstop. This is the one I think I might drop. I can't help but notice that the characters all seem rather, um, gay. I don't know that they are...but, well, it is Oscar Wilde. I'm not saying they are, but, well, the evidence does seem to point that way. How many men do you know that, when they're upset, fling themselves down on a couch in despair?

any of you mofo's that read Koontz, check out FALSE MEMORY. i think it would make a great movie.

my dad is reading a tome on Abraham Lincoln....what an amazing person- Lincoln........vitue incarnate.

I'll be wrapping up Return of the King tomorrow, no doubt. I've just gotten past the...well...the spoilers....

;)


I don't know what I'll read next. Possibly Roald Dahl. I feel like reading Going Solo again.

Meanwhile, writing wise, we're up to the 4th draft of Oblivion. I might make it available for you guys to read when I'm done if you're at all interested. When I'm done, of course.


Chris, regarding men and couches -- not a bloody lot.

Roald Dahl is wonderful. i most recently read "boy"- a gift from my bro. it's based on the author's boyhood.

Yeah, it's the prequel to Going Solo which is about his times working for the Shell company in Easter Africa and the role he played in WW2. It's one of my favorite books.

I enjoyed Boy too, just not as much.

i didn't know about Going Solo......i'll have to pick it up and one for my brother as well. thanks silver.;)

i didn't know about Going Solo......i'll have to pick it up and one for my brother as well. thanks silver.;)

what i liked about boy was learning more about Dahl.

Exactly.

I think the best part of both books is the way you can see that despite it being a regular life or a regular person, it still has the magic witch inhabits all of his books.

Especially the story about the mouse. It's got the same magic you could hope to find in any of his other story's.

I think he would have been an extraordinary person to meet or know.

where the hell did this thread explode from? i'm minding my own business searching for new threads when bam, i walk right into it. sheesh, now i'm all late for the party. or, if i'm really senile, i've been here a long time ago and forgot the thread existed. my apologies. moving on!!

heeey, men could fling themselves down on couches in despair up til the 1930s. Then they had to stuff a lit cigar in the corner of their mouth, pour a tumbler of scotch, down it in a bitter gulp and fling it fiercely into the fireplace with a stern look and an even sterner stance while their WOMAN flung herself down on the couch in despair.

you saw the Talented Mr. Ripley. I only had to LOOK at Jude Law and know he could pull it off. And the man is het with a kid. I haven't even seen that movie; I just need to see his hair slicked up and him in tennis casual and know it's the truth (that he could do the self flinging and get away with it).

Book, books ...

Dean Koontz!! HEY! Lightning was the first book I ever read by him and it was ok (I was 10) and then I forgot he wrote it or that I ever read him. Then, bored at the airport in prep for a flight I bought Intensity and MAN was I feeling it! I haven't read anything else by him. I don't get scared by him, either, but he does pull me into things - in that case he did, anyway. I was ranting at the main character like nobody's business!

King - ah, Mr. King. I read some of Skeleton Crew at about age 10, was shaken by the short story about the stranded doc who must eat himself to stay alive and then handled Mr. King again when I read The Stand. And I loved it. The TV movie sucked but man the book was great. I don't know if he so much scares me as gives me a clarity so I can really see whatever things he comes up with - some authors can talk and talk and not get you there. And the humanity - I'm more into his human heroes facing awful scary things rather than just "scary things happening." His stuff like Shawshank Redemption, etc ... that's a prolific man and he's good at what he does.

Just discovered the Anita Blake Vampire Series (by Laurell K. Hamilton). I can't believe I didn't know about her; then again, I must have been too caught up in Anne Rice and Clive Barker in my youth. Currently reading Bloody Bones. If you want gore, stuff you remember late at night all on your lonesome, a tough as nails female heroine who gives the men some sexy attitude, heels, as well as can hold her own with advanced weaponry - I recommend her. They compare her to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kids, I tell you - she is FAR better. Forget that fufu TV crap. Very fun stuff. In case you haven't gathered from my avatar and other mentionings, I have an intense affinity for women who can kick @ss as well as turn (male) @ss on. ;)

Yeah, I know it doesn't make you gay...but, well, it's my opinion that you don't refer to men as "beautiful." Men are "handsome," or "attractive" or "good looking," they're not "beautiful," though. :) At least not in the eyes of other men. I'm not saying they ARE gay...but, well, they act less than manly, IMO. I dunno about other parts of the world, but in the US, Oscar Wilde being popular among gay men is sort of a joke/cliche.

I don't think the characters are meant to be taken as homosexual...but it is funny to watch them act, for lack of a better phrase, highly feminine. :)

Back when he was still screening at Icebox.com did anyone every watch The Queer Duck Show? It was one of the most politically incorrect, yet hilarious animations I'd ever seen. Ever Wednesday, I'd watch Queer Duck. His friends included his lover [an alligator], a large lesbian polar bear and a suave sophisticated homosexual -- Oscar Wilde Cat.

Queer Duck! He's intellectual!
Queer Duck! He's homosexual!
Please don't think that he's peverse
He's the patient's favorite male nurse!!
Hooray! He is okay!
'Cos he's o-pen-ly gaaaaaaay!

He's a truly queer Queer Duck!!
QUEER DUCK!

Last night I finished off The Return of the King.
It was a very anti-climatic ending to such an epic series, but at the same time, I can't have seen it end in any other way. It was very sad, I thought -- not the ending of the book [which almost seems more tired and weary than it does sad] but having to finish reading it. There's something about not being able to put the bookmark into something that has taken up such a large portion of your time to do, that I find very sad. It happened when I finished The Green Mile and The Beach, but it really hit home when I was finishing this book.

What the hell am I going to be able to read now that lives up to The Lord of the Rings?

Read C.S. Lewis' trilogy...it starts with "Out of the Silent Planet." I think he was writing it at the same time Tolkien wrote LOTR...and, of course, they were fairly close friends. I dunno if it's a coincidence or not (I'd be surprised if it was), but the main character in Lewis' trilogy is a man named Ransom -- who's a philologist (linguist...same as Tolkien).

Does it compare?

You're reading The Return of the King, right? Hurry up and finish so we can debate the books on their merits. I've grown to like debating over anything -- especially "culture". I've had days where me and my friends sat at a bowling alley discussing the The Fellowship of the Ring compared to the film. I need debate. So hurry up!!

Can't hurry: way too much else to do. The motivation is lacking to finish it, anyway, since I pretty much know what happens anyway. Does it compare? Well, it's not exactly the same, so in some ways yes, and others no. It reads more like a story than LOTR, but less like an epic/realistic history. It's more of an allegory. A good one, though. Plus "Ransom" is a really cool name. :)

I may aswell have a look at it after I've read Going Solo.
I'm just very unsure that I'll be able to read fantasy ever again, considering I've read LOTR.

Btw. You say that you know how it ends. In what respect? How the QUEST ends, or the stuff after that as well? I mean I thought there wouln't be much more after, well, you know....but there is.

Quite a lot of important stuff that makes sense of everything that happened in the Shire etc. You know all this too?

My latest:

Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye:
Par normal for Koontz. He draws me in every time with a great beginning... then flop. Every single time! Why do I keep buying his books? Intensity was an exception as was The Watchers. I'm not reading him any more though.

John Grisham, A Painted House:
This is easily the best book I've read in 5 years. If you're put off by Grisham due to subject matter (Law) try this. It's a total departure from his norm and it is fantastic. Briefly, it's the story of a 7 year old boy who grows up on a cotton farm in Arkansas in the 1950's. When it's time to harvest his family has to hire outsiders to come in and help them pick. When everyone from totally different backgrounds clash together to pick cotton there's dreams, sex, murder, mayhem... all against the backdrop of the Korean war. Can't say enough... I loved it.

Current:
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms:
Only read the first 3 chapters last night... I'll let you know though. Not sentimental at all... gritty book so far.

I know a lot of it, Silver -- I've seen the little cartoon movie (saw it many times growing up)...so, at least on most major issues, the suspense for me is gone. I'll still finish it, though. And yeah, LOTR is hard to live up to...but I find it best not to compare other sci-fi and fantasy to it (Out of the Silent Planet is much more Sci-Fi than fantasy). Better to let it stand on it's own.

Anyway, I finished "Planet," and read around 40 pages of "Perelandra" late last night -- which is the second book in the trilogy.

I was going to ask if you knew about the fate of Saruman [who next to Gollum is my favorite character], so I'm assuming you are.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to bypass Going Solo. The talk in the Shoutbox has lead me to bring out my old Monty Python book, Monty Python Speaks! which is basically a collection of extracts from interviews [that were conducted entirely for the book]. It's really interesting, goes through the making of their films, their hardships as people who didn't always get along, Graham's homosexuality and alcoholism. It's a fantastic book.

I had no idea that Graham was a homosexual. Interesting. I'll never look at King Arthur the same way again. Now I know what Patsy was for...he was, basically, his patsy. :) I'm sure there was much rejoicing, though...at least on Arthur's part.

Alright, I'm done.

You should look into the book, Monty Python Speaks! by David Morgan. It's a real eye opener, especially in the area of the films and in the area of Graham as a person -- basically no one wanted to write with him, he was living what they wrote, in essence. At a party they found him crawling around on the floor biting people's ankles -- and he wasn't drunk. They just said to him, "Graham..." and he just stopped, realised it wasn't acceptable and STOPPED. Really weird guy.

So, you mean he was as crazy as the characters and situations they created, basically? All messed up?

Well, he was an alcoholic, except he could give it up so easily. He was also extremley brilliant -- he was a qualified doctor and everything, he just never doctored because he never did the three years in a hospital. He was a really strange guy. Watch Life of Brian -- he's so fit. That's because he stopped drinking after Grail [which if you watch, he's drunk most of the time] and got fit, just like *that*. He did strange things. He was very difficult to work with [only John Cleese could ever really do it]. The book of course tells this from the perspective of the Pythons themselves, and it's really weird to see what they all thought of him, 'cos they all loved him -- just didn't like him.

I read Bernard Goldberg's "Bias" the other day. Easy read.

I am about half-way through "Black Hawk Down". I'm not seeing the movie, but I wanted to read the book.

I'm in the process of reading The Fellowship of the Ring. For obvious reasons.

Bones and Murder by Margaret Atwood.

My English teacher put me onto it. It's really quite insightful and witty.


"I hear that this game was once played at a summer cottage by six normal people and a poet, and the poet really tried to kill someone. He was hindered only by the intervention of a dog, which could not tell fantasy from reality. The thing about this game is that you have to know when to stop."

Finished Out of the Silent Planet and all but a few pages (skimmed over some around the end of the book) of Perelandra, 2 of 3 books in C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. I started reading the third (That Hideous Strength), but I imagine it'll be awhile before I bother to finish it. I hope to finish Heroes of History soon enough, but I'm still less than a third of the way through.

I haven't much bothered with reading since The Return of the King. I'll be sure to later of course.

I'm reading two books:
Exit to Eden/ Anne Rice writing as: Ann Rampling
and,
The Dark Tower Series/ Stephen King

mwhha, Exit to Eden, eh? It's really ... sort of blah, to me, I much preferred her Beauty series. Though I'll admit reading this one certainly contributed to my ... knowledge bank.

Oooh, or Belinda!! That's a VERY good one. Very into the psychological, much more feeling in that one.

Oh good. I knew the name of that book was a lady's name, I told Toose it was Belinda, I was right. I haven't read the Beauty series, yet...but I intend to!:randy:

Well per the recommendation I'm also reading Exit to Eden... with a quickening pulse and sweaty palms I might add.

I'm definitely going to explore Belinda when I'm done here.


Aside:
I thought the movie was ok (Exit...) after reading the book I revise that to the movie truly sucked.... don't bother.


Oh yeah... you have to pay a penance for using my>>> :randy:

Who said it was yours?? :randy:

It was agreed, I believe that that smiley was made for me...

Well, I didn't MAKE it...I just added it. I dunno what spurred me to it. I think I was adding other smilies and couldn't pass it up. I admit that it reminded me of Toose, though. :laugh:

Anyway, read some more of Heroes of History (Athens was one freaky place). Still tons left, though.

Alright, way behind in my tab...I've read Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, half of The Problem of Pain, and most of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe within the last two weeks...all by C.S. Lewis. I'm diggin' it. Truly awesome stuff.

I'm much more of a Lewis Carrol person.
Although the names do have a word in common.

Not much else I wouldn't assume.

I've read Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carrol) and The Beach (Alex Garland) both for about the hundredth time in the past week.

I really need to have a look at some new stuff.

I read the first part of The Annotated Alice once -- you'd like it. Crawling with foot notes and (obviously) annotations.

I would.

I'll look into it.
Perhaps I'll buy it.

Hey, if I win the Oscar tipping thing, you can get me that instead of the DVD.

;)

Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Few books are as imaginative as the latter. What an AMAZING movie it would make if done well.

The Silver Chair.

Yeah, if done well. I remember seeing a movie on The Silver Chair, and it was soooooo boring!

I finally, finally, finally finished The American Revolution last week, and I'm just about halfway done with Miracles. I'm not sure what's next. Maybe That Hideous Strength or The Four Loves. We shall see. :)

I just picked out the next book I want, How to be Good.(My sister will get it for my birthday)
It's by the guy that wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy. I wonder how long I have before this book becomes a movie...
;)

Nick Hornsby--I like him a lot. Never read the one you're getting, Sades... let me know how it is!

I just finished Austen's Mansfield Park--it was slow going, let me tell you. I had to do it, though, 'cause it was the only one of hers I hadn't read. I now know why I never wanted to read it before. It has some redeeming characteristics (occasional bursts of wit, interesting characters in the Crawford siblings), but all in all, a most dull book. Fanny Price is a mousy, puritanical heroine and Edmund is just as bad (except he's a guy). And we're supposed to spend the entire book sympathizing with them...

That's Nick Hornby - no 's' in his last name.
Bruce Hornsby & The Range, Nick Hornby novelist.
;D

About A Boy was just released a couple weeks ago in trade paperback in the U.S. The hardcover was published in July of 2001.

I guess that's just the way it is...

Some things will never change...

And the colored girls go:

Do, de do, de do, do de do do...

But, seriously, folks... how about those books?

Now I'm gonna be humming Lou Reed tunes for the rest of the night...

"Now I'm goin' out
to the dirty boulevard..."

We started our [sexually perverted] production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with that song...

That's an easy play to sexually pervert (so to speak)...

"Lovers, to bed. 'Tis almost fairy time."

:laugh:

I'm currently reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It is way overdue for me, since I played him (David) in a school play a few years ago (2.5 hours - I never got to leave the stage once)

I'm also in the habit of always reading some Discworld before I go to sleep every night, keeps the nightmares away. Currently I'm goint through the series chronologically, and have come as far as Reaper Man (for the fifth time).

Right on, pally!

I just borrowed The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents--haven't started it yet.

A heaping helping of Pratchett is good anytime. :yup:

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents is great. I was a bit sceptical at first since it was supposed to be for younger readers, but I hardly noticed any difference from the other books.

These are the books I've read in the last couple of months:

The Meaning of Relativity, by Albert Einstein (first time)
Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (first)
God's Fires, by Patricia Anthony (second)
American Son, by Brian Ascalon Roley (first)
Star Wars: The Approaching Storm, by Alan Dean Foster (first)
Napalm & Silly Putty, by George Carlin (first)
House of Cards, by Stanley Ellin (first)
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (first)
The Fellowship of the Ring, by J. R. R. Tolkien (second)
The Two Towers, by J. R. R. Tolkien (first)

The Holy Bible, King James Version (second time in its entirety)

Reading a few books, on and off. Pravda I must admit, is chewing up most of my time.

Negotiating with the Dead : A Writer on Writing
Margaret Atwood

Catch 22
Joseph Heller

And I've finished a few as well.
Don't know if I ever mentioned them.

The World According to Garp
John Irving
The book that changed my life. Love it, love it, love it.

And I've also just bought a book online, which I'm planning to read shortly.

The Primary Colors : Three Essays
Alexander Theroux

God, that's a great book. Irving is just a brilliant writer, period. One of my old creative writing profs was friends with Irving--they went to school together. Of course, this did not mean that I ever got to meet or even communicate with John Irving... dammit. ;)

I finished The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents a few days ago, and loved it. Very funny, very well-done, combining all kinds of folk- and fairytales into one book (most noticably the Pied Piper and Puss-in-Boots). A nice addition to the Discworld series.

We watched Harry Potter the other night, so I've been re-reading all the books. I'm on Goblet of Fire right now--my favorite of the series. :yup:

I finally got ahold of Stephen King's On Writing--I've been looking forward to reading this book for over a year now. I've heard it's excellent.

Stephen King is my hero and On Writing is like a bible. I've been meaning to read through the book again this week - funny that you mentioned it cause I've been hearing the voices telling me to read it. I'm bringing it along with me on my trip to West Virginia this weekend. I'm going to the wedding of two doctors - it's going to be big. I hardly know them, but it's gonna be the closest thing to the Liza Minelli wedding, which I wasn't invited to! :furious:

TODAY, one of my best friends gave me a book I've wanted for a long time - Chuck Palahnuik's Fight Club. Oh, it's beautiful. I almost fainted when he started to give it to me. I've wanted it for a year, but I wouldn't fork out $13 for it. I'm sinfully cheap.

Other books I've been reading:

* Giovanni's Room ~ James Baldwin
* The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon ~ Stephen King
* Ambrosial Flesh ~ Ann Mitchell
* Being & Doing: A Workbook for Actors ~ Eric Morris
* How To Hypnotize Yourself & Others ~ Rachel Copelan, PH.D.
* Depression: The Way Out Of Your Prison ~ Dorothy Rowe
* Creative Dreaming ~ Patricia Garfield, PH.D.
* Life on the Other Side ~ Sylvia Browne
* Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis ~ Sigmund Freud
* Russell Crowe: The Biography ~ Tim Ewbank & Stafford Hildred
* Night Chills ~ Dean Koontz
* Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ~ Hunter S. Thompson
* How to Talk Dirty and Influence People ~ Lenny Bruce
* The Shameful Life of Salvador Dali ~ Ian Gibson
* The Dada Painters & Poets: An Anthology
* The Man Who Ate The 747 ~ Ben Sherwood
* Red Dragon ~ Thomas Harris
* Fountain Society ~ Wes Craven
* Drawing Blood ~ Poppy Z. Brite
* K-PAX ~ Gene Brewer
* Dizzy & Jimmy ~ Liz Sheridan