pontalba
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This is only the second year I've kept track of what and when I've read my books, it's quite handy, wish I'd started years ago! Which reminds me, must update....
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Hi wordsgood,
No, not familiar with Hobocth at all! You say you have a link? I'd be interested.
Re DG, yes! She writes so slowly, but I suppose considering she has a couple on the go at the time, what else?
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Reading? What a waste of time...
pontalba replied to Colin Jacobs's topic in General Book Discussions
I haven't really had anyone say to me that it's a waste of time to read, but I do tend to get fuzzy looks when someone new comes to the house. They kind of stare and the first thing out of their mouth is "have you read all these books?", then when I say "not yet", they kind of glaze over and nod as though they understand, but obviously they don't as evidenced by the blank stare. It's so much fun. :) -
Oh, I enjoyed BLP so much! It held my interest all the way through, I had to know what happened to those people. Cozzens certainly knew how to weave a story.
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You're right of course, we're only made up of our experiences it's true, but entered into that are our dreams/hopes for the future, regrets for the past the whole ball of wax, maybe something about Damon reminds me unconsciously of someone I've known. I can't say I dislike him, it's very ambiguous. It's funny, I had not seen Malkovich in anything prior to the Ripley film, I even thought [mistakenly] I didn't care for him, no real basis, only a couple of reviews I'd read and I bought his Ripley film with some trepidation. I was blown away by his performance. If I had not read the book I might have thought he was bringing his "typical" style to the story, but no, he caught Highsmith's Ripley dead on track. The learning curve Tom Ripley was on in that book was portrayed so well, I couldn't get over it. Verra difficult role I would think. BTW, I grew up loving that sort of spy "thriller", do you remember the old Sam Durell books? Edward S. Aarons wrote them, I guess back in the '60's, at least that's when I discovered them, I couldn't buy them fast enough! I have to laugh now, when I first bought the paperbacks, they were I think....65 or 75 cents, but I remember being outraged when they went up to 1.25 USD, I thought that was highway robbery! Now...
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Oh, don't get me wrong, I liked the film, it's possible that part of my discontent is that for some reason Matt Damon is irritating to me and I can't put my finger on why. He is an excellent actor, his Ripley was well done, I won't say spot on exactly although very close in spite of the liberties taken by Hollywood in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley. He was an excellent "immature" Ripley. But John Malkovich was an absolutely amazing and yes, spot on Ripley in the second Ripley film. To me he caught the character's nuances as well as Highsmith had written them.
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I've seen The Good Shepherd and mostly enjoyed it, although could Damon have been more wooden? I know the character was cutting himself off emotionally, but he had two expressions. Wooden and wooden[er].
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I finally was able to finish Siri Hustvedt's The Blindfold the other day. It was a struggle in places mostly because it has one of the most self involved and bizarre main character that I've run across in quite awhile. Now all that is fine, if the author manages to keep my interest. Hustvedt did not, either in this case or the previous book of hers I've read, A Plea for Eros. She has talent as a writer, there is no question of that but as far as I am concerned it is undeveloped and superficial. The character is on a self destructive and boring treadmill. I can't recommend it at all. 1/5 I also read Silks by Dick Francis and his son Felix Francis. It's vintage Francis, and although I enjoyed it, somehow this one fell somewhat flat for me. Still, I do recommend it for Francis fans. 4/5 I'm back reading Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer, I'd been derailed by The Blindfold and knew if I put Blindfold down I'd never pick it up again, and I was bound and determined to finish the thing. This is the first Mailer I've read and I'm enjoying it tremendously.
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Hi there.
Yes, the storm has passed, and even the feeder bands that lingered all day yesterday have left the area at last, boy, they hung on like grim death! In a way yesterday was worse than the day of landfall. We didn't get as much damage as could have been, and personally all we had were a few tree limbs across the driveway. West of us though it was pretty bad, even worse in some ways than Hurricane Katrina. But New Orleans fared pretty well, except for their power being still out and the usual stuff. No Flooding! Yays! 
:DI'm delighted and amazed that I have telephone, internet already! We never even lost electricity, but thousands did in this area.
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Hi Stephanie, I'm on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, actually about 25 miles or so NE of the lake and the lake is almost 25 miles wide, so in all approximately 50 miles NE of New Orleans. We're in the "tropical storm" winds, won't get the worst till this afternoon, sometime in the next 6 hours or so. The rain and wind comes in bands that cross as the storm passes. It looks bigger on the satellite image than it actually is I think. They are getting some wind and rain even to the east of us, but nothing spectacular by a long shot. I think the highest winds we'll get are about 45-60 MPH at most. Nasty, but not the 150 MPH they were predicting Saturday night. That scared me. So far so good, the worst will be the losing the electricity as we are on well water and the pump is electric, so we have plenty of water stored. /all fingers crossed/
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The most disturbing work of fiction that you have ever read
pontalba replied to Oblomov's topic in General Fiction
I very recently reread The Handmaid's Tale and liked it a lot. I hated it 30 years ago, but I was in my 20's then and I couldn't get past certain parts. But I've a tougher hide now. LOL I would sooo be in one of those colonies, if they didn't hang me first! -
I read a few of his years ago, but have never really searched out his books for some reason. I've read The Man and The Seven Minutes. From the list on wikipedia, those are the only two I recognize as having read.
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You mean Robert Baer I think. No, it seems I've heard of it, but not read it. Looks very interesting though.
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I'm not getting as much chance to read lately, and am still reading Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer. It is a fascinating study of the workings of the American CIA and the people that inhabit it. Mailer used all the real events of the times in his book and it is rife with mentionings of all the names we've seen in the newspaper over the last 40 years. Also interesting to me is the ability of the agents to compartmentalize their lives. But at present I'm only on page 169 out of 1128. One frustrating thing to me is that Mailer ends the book with "TO BE CONTINUED", and of course he never did continue it. grrrrr! I've read a lot of fictionalized accounts of the CIA, but this is the most realistic and down to earth I've come across.
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Phew! Finished Orlando by Virginia Woolf, it bogged down many times in spite of the beautiful prose, the prose being the reason I rated it a 3/5. I don't know if I am just not in the mood, or it's the book, but I'm supposing a reread...way in the future will hopefully hike the rating.
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Hi SBW, I saw your post regarding Ian Rankin on the September nom. thread. I haven't read any of his yet...I think...well maybe one but I am unsure of it.
That conference sounds lovely, please post about it afterwards, I'd love to hear all that happens! -
Do you have a specific collection of DVD's?
pontalba replied to Colin Jacobs's topic in Music / TV / Films
Law and Order: Criminal Intent [a few seasons] As Time Goes By Star Trek: The Original Series [on VHS tapes] First six ST:TOS films Poirot The Wong Kar-Wai Collection One season of Murder She Wrote The Honeymooners 24 [first 4 seasons] Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea first 6 seasons of Seinfeld The Connery James Bond and the latest one too more that I can't think of off the top of my head..... -
There is one over here for Orbit Gum that supposedly cleans a dirty mouth. The advert shows an attractive young woman tearing a red convertible to pieces with her mouth, the convertible top and the tires at least. Bleech. I have disliked all their commercials though, all are icky. Each ad ends with a blond girl in a white mini skirt, looking rather like a 1960's go-go dancer running on about how Orbit cleans a dirty mouth.
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Oh, and every X-mas and birthday I'd get several Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Cherry Ames or something along those lines too. I wish I still had them. Ratz.
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I remember my mother reading Aesop's Fables, a large orange version to me and, oh I can't remember the name, but it was a book of fairy in the garden stories, a very large, beautiful deep shade of green it was too. I can still see some of the pictures/illustrations from it to this day. I hardly remember time I couldn't read as I seemed to pick it up almost by osmosis. B)
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Bill Masen from The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham Emanuel Comte from Malevil by Robert Merle Merlin from The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
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At what time in the day do you read?
pontalba replied to Colin Jacobs's topic in General Book Discussions
Usually late at night, occasionally in the mid-morning if I get a free stretch of time. -
I only recently added this to my TBR stack and look forward to it even more now I've read this thread.