wrathofkublakhan

That'd be great. I think the deal is that they send the covers back to prove they were not sold because of shipping costs. It's a real shame when this happens but it does protect the author, insuring that royalties are honest. Every time I've seen a huge bin full of these book without covers I wonder if the books were really that bad! I had a friend who worked at a bookstore. He gave me a copy of Lonesome Dove without the cover. At the time I didn't know what it meant, but he harked it out of the bin knowing I might like it -- later on it went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and to star Robert Duvall in a great mini-series.

Wotcha saying there, oblomov? ------------ I'm must say I'm kind of tidal, I'll rise up and play at several different interests; seems to change with the moon's cycle. *I love making music CDs for friends - I can boast over 900 music CDs on my shelves. *I teach an MFA class on Photoshop and building web portfolio pages; so I enjoy dabbling in those areas when I have the time and inclination. *Being a Geekazoid, I own three camera - one is a digital camera and I've been known to carry it about hooked to my belt like a pseudo-schizo-batman. *I am learning to cook (some may remember me using my digital camera, photoshop skills and my web pages called Cooking Adventures with Wrath). *My boss will pay for any tickets when I attend any dance or theater production; so it's kind of a hobby, kind of like work. *I love museums but hate going alone - I cultivate "museum buddies" but they keep graduating (sigh). *My little list could go on: movies, shopping, travel, computer games etc.

Ditto that: amazing, huh? "Cue the music, cue the tears!" There is a great moment just at the end of Romancing the Stone; he shows up in Manhattan with his croc-boots, she climbs in with the flowers, cue the music (cue the tears) as the credits begin to roll while the boat begins to roll up the street. BUT, if you watch it on television you get totally and completely and horribly ripped off because those bastids minimize the screen and put an advertisement in there! Grrrrr -- we all recognize the right "moment to cry" in a movie, when they take it away it's so .... ...evil.

Awesome -- I am so jealous. Four quick points: 1. Very cool to be members of a "real life" book club. 2. The website rocks - I like the banner at the top and it's layout. 3. You meet at the pub, how incredibly civilized of you. 4. Posh - it is soooo Gilbert and Sullivan, I just know there is a lyric (from The Mikado?) that deserves a posting in here but I just did a frantic and hopeless search and can't find it. Congrats - it sounds like pints of fun.

Ack - in the Riddlemaster of Hed there is a character (the bad guy) who's name is Ghisteslwchlohm. It makes me blink twice when I come across it.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I love it when a little research goes into a response in this forum. Typically I'm a soda-straw-sleeve kinda guy. I've been known to bend a corner (left or right, top or bottom - depending on where I am on the page) when I am toting my paperback about to lines at the bank, restaurants and the dreaded DMV. A lot depends on the quality of the book (meaning cover, binding etc. not the content) - the higher end books I imagine having a longer cycle in passing through other people's hands as I donate to my library. What I love about this thread on being dog-eared is that it is just one step away from the discussion on book-banning and book-burning in that it is indeed: about respect for the written word on any level. I remember reading The Walking Drum (btw, does any one know how I can make that a link without posting the URL?) - where it's described that in the 12th century a man in England boasted having a library - containing 8 books. Now and then I come across, in my reading; tales of people smuggling the Bible into Russia, cowboys in the Old West carting just three books because it was all they could carry (Plutarch, for example) or some strident activist demanding a book like Harry Potter be banned from a school library and I realize just how precious a book can be and to what lengths one will go to read. I'd feel pretty terrible if I contributed to the subtle destruction of a book if it became dear to a population. OTOH - booksellers tear off the covers and toss into the trash the books they can't sell. It's all a matter of balance, grasshopper.

....and, have your needs been met?

re-enactment - like in civil war? crucifixions? lady godiva? I mean, really, last time I was arrested for running about nekkid in the streets I told the judge, "I am doing a re-enactment!" A little history helps shorten those jail terms. And I love salsa dancing too! It's so nice to see it gain in popularity again.

C'mon, tell us more; no need to be coy.

tsk ... maybe I'm a fighting cock!

(cough) of course.

When I was a teenager I read quite a few sports autobiographies - these guys were my heroes. Not so much anymore, I now know they are mostly written by someone else and have even heard some sports guys deny they've said the things that are in their own autobiographies! Is there zero accountability in the sports world? I enjoyed the biography written on Frank Zappa; that guy was pretty smart, involved in freedom and funny. I think, in general, you've got to find someone you admire to enjoy a biography on their life or section of their life. It's satisfying knowing a few odd bits when the subject comes up at cocktail parties and trivia games. So, I'd not read on an historical figure just because they were famous for a period; they'd have to have done something that I really respect - which as of this typing I can think of .... very few. I think it's time to google autobiographies and see how many are narcissistic and yet unimaginative enough to be called "My Life."

Wow, great list. I think I'll move next door to you ~ you can just skate them over as you finish them.

OooooKaaaaay! The movie came out 32 years ago, prolly time to tackle this beast. The movie won five Oscars and well worth the ticket price -- and yes, the book is even better. Put on your reading glasses, brew a pot of tea and settle in for a wonderful experience.

Thanks for the interesting review -- I have to say, it's an awesome title for a book. Now having read the review, I'd be curious to give it a go - I always like women leaders in any era.

I found it on youtube!

Didn't you love the Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day narrated by Sebastian Cabot, the Disney one? I thought they were beautifully drawn and I liked how the format was tied into a book-theme.

Hmmmm.... I bought the Riddle Master of Hed trilogy when it came out re-bundled as one edition and I've had to buy new editions of Dragonsinger and Dragonsong since they'd originally been bought used and simply fell apart; I went through a five year period where I re-read them every summer. I still have my copy of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test from the early 70's and I'm amused that two rolling papers stuck together is the bookmark (Zig Zag, of course). I have two boxes of old comics that run from my "early days" (Casper, Wendy, Archie, Richie Rich) to my "older days" (Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Green Lantern, Hulk etc). I felt ten cents was a fair price, then up to 12 and finally 25 cents. When it jumped to 50 cents (then to a dollar!) I thought they were way too expensive for what they were. Years (and years and years) later I found the Dark Knight and Sandman graphic novels and that I could afford them. When I was courting my now ex-wife, we used to buy the books with the Calvin and Hobbs comics in them. I'd read them out loud and we'd go from panel to panel and just laugh and laugh because, really, Calvin and Hobbs was awesome. Now and then; when it's not too depressing, I'll read through them again for fun and nostalgia - the reading of them is tied to an event in my life and they are still great.

I guess my obscure guy would be Robert Anton Wilson ~ though it's possible there may be some fans in this well-read forum. Heavy on satire and science, he writes a lot about quantum mechanics and weaves those ideas into his plot lines; sometimes making a story in which in the past story the person was a different sex and had odd urges that were hard to explain. A friend to Dr. Timothy Leary, the influence of the drug culture is well established -- if anyone was following "the problem with .... classics" thread and the brief discussion about modernism, these books would be post-modern and, for me, delightful and funny and smart. He is probably best known for his collaboration with Robert Shea in writing The Illuminatus!, but I also enjoyed his: [*]Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy (1980–1981) [*]The Universe Next Door [*]The Trick Top Hat [*]The Homing Pigeon [*]The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles [*]The Earth Will Shake (1982) [*]The Widow's Son (1985) [*]Nature's God (1991) and his.... Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (1977) (wikipedia links)

I started reading the Dragon Riders of Pern when they came out. So, I think I may have read the first one back in 1976? - and then each book as it was published. Through the first trilogy (flight, quest, ruth), then the complementary trilogy (song, singer, drums), the side stories (moreta, nerilka, some short stories) .... Throughout all the books, one of the characters was Robinton - Master Harper plays a big role in keeping everyone together. One of my favorite characters, he finally dies as they solve the big questions of their roots back to Earth. In 1994, twenty years after following these characters, Dolphins of Pern is published with the funeral of Robinton - with a dazzling display and homage by the dragons and the fire lizards. Wow, I could barely read with the tears on my bookmark - it was a good cry.

<stammers> Well .... uh .... do you like -- cheese?

I'm a-guessing Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden would fit into this thread.

C'mon, let's learn MORE about Kell!

I'll make one last appeal for comfort reading. A predictable story doesn't offend me, a well written ending that I've been hoping for is something that satisfys on an emotional level - and, I think, in the end, what following a story is all about.

Little House seems to be a popular series, so I see in this thread. Is the first book, the best of all - or is it the type of group where reading the whole set is the key?