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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.
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on dance seul, on dance seul.....



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.
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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.



Female assassin extraordinaire.
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.