Tambo
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Posts posted by Tambo
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I like the site garfield minus garfield.
"Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."
Works much better without the cat getting in the way.
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Impossible to pick one, but I will anyway...
Feeling Good by Nina Simone
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The City of Thieves by David Benioff mentions a fictional book, The Courtyard Hound.
The chap who keeps mentioning continually refers to it as a classic and quotes big chunks of it, explains the story, the characters and their philosophy.
Towards the end of the book we learn that it is not in fact a real classic, it is a novel written by the protaganist himself. He wants to guage people's reaction to it without giving away that he wrote it and opening himself up to ridicule etc.
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I've never read Don Quixote but I know the musical, Man of La Mancha is a story within a story -- it takes place in a prison and the story within takes place outdoors and a-tilting at windmills and the lovely Dulcinea.
There's a great scene in Don Quixote where a couple of Quixote's friends have decided to burn his library that houses the books on Knights Errant (the source of Quixote's madness.)
As they decide which volumes to keep, and which must be burned, the author Servantes uses it as an oppurtunity to slag off a lot of genuine books that were around at the time.
The books Servantes doesn't like get thrown out of the window into a pile to be burned.
The books he does liked are given a reprieve.
The book he really doesn't like get a reprieve and a generous amount of grand praise, in the translation I read there is a footnote explaining the authors sarcasm.
Being the 16th century or whenever, of course I didn't recognise any of the books. Nothing changes though, there are good and bad books around today and you could imagine this scene taking place.
Except that it would take a very brave author indeed to write such a scene when the books being burned or saved are written by his contempories.
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I went a bit crazy on BookMooch, and coupled with an inability to walk past a second hand bookstore without having a browse, my pile of book to be read has become a mountain in the last two months.
88 to be read, plus 56 in my housemates collection that I want to read too. So a total of 144 books, (or 147 if you count the 3 I'm halfway through.
I thought I had a problem, but looking through this thread, it seems kinda standard.
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My OH didn't mind me reading, so long as it didn't get in the way of her TV watching.
I can't read with the telly on so would usually just use the computer or watch her programmes with her. Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Gordon Ramsay, Big Brother, America's Next Top Model, ugh, they never ended.
I'm reading much more since we seperated.
When I get round to looking for the next OH, I'll be staying away from the telly addicts!
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The book I'm waiting to come out is Bones on the Hills by Conn Iggulden. Out on the 1st September.
I choose my own hours at the moment, so I'm planing a day off work to be there when the postman arrives with the Amazon package. Then I'll just devour it one sitting.
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Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga is quite good.
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I do try to dispel my disbelief when I read, I do want to enjoy the books. These two just took me a step too far though.
I don't mind slagging them off as they're both well established and commercially successful authors.
WARNING - SPOILERS
Step on a Crack : James Patterson
Biggest heist in the history of New York. The police negotiater, while carrying out his negotiating duties, and seeing to his terminally ill wife, and 13 kids (at christmas time) also single handedly cracks the case. Who makes the arrest of the big baddy? You've guessed it, and all by himself believe it or not.
Treasure of Khan : Clive Cussler
Father stumbles across resting place of Genghis Khan, not really looking for it, it's just there. Meanwhile on the other side of the world, son is dikking around right next to the resting place of Kublai Khan.
That annoyed me a little,
my main gripe was that the fight sequences got very repetitive.
I might read another Cussler one day, because there were some redeeming features of the book. (I enjoyed the first half)
You'd have to pay me to read another James Patterson though. If I were stuck in a bathroom with a copy, I would first read the sidesa of all the shampoo bottles.
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Conn Iggulen made a bit of history in the UK bestseller lists with this book.
It topped the non-fiction chart for so long, that when Wolf of the Plains came out and started to do well, Iggulden became the first author to simultaneously be number one in both the fiction and non-fiction charts.
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You see, that's why lists like this annoy me.. Tambo, why are you feeling stupid, just because you've chosen to read different books?!
I don't really feel stupid. I just found it amusing that I have read 30% of one list and 1% of another. Stephen King, JK Rowling, Rohald Dahl and Terry Pratchett seem to have made the difference.
To be fair to the 1,001 list, there are a great number there that I would like to read.
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I had a look through and was quite shocked at my low score...
12.
I faired considerably better on the BBC Big Read, the nations top 100 books. I had over 30 of them and was feeling quite chuffed with myself.
Now I just feel stooooopid. Ah well, by the end of the year I hope to get up to the dizzy heights of 20.
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Bernard Cornwell's first three Sharpe books are near the top of my TBR pile and I've just discovered that there are over 20 more - good job I enjoy a good marathon!
I'm going to be taking these on soon too.
Trying to accumulate most of them first, without buying any new copies. Charity shops and BookMooch for the win.
I've just mooched Sharpe's Tiger, so I suppose I can set off as soon as it arrives.
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No, I have never seen Sports Night, but I will keep my eye out for it now.
Big Aaron Sorkin fan here, although I wasn't too impressed with Charlie Wilson's
War. It was a decent film, but not really anything outstanding or memorable about it.
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Completely agree, Tambo! Although I must say seasons 1-4 get more of a workout since the last 2 weren't as special for me. I still watch all the bonus features and commentaries from every season though. What a great cast!
Did you watch Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip?
They only made one season as it got poor ratings, but I thought it re-created a little of the West Wing magic and is worth a look.
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Hello Boo.
Good for you, sticking in there and finishing the books. Sometimes i just can't bring myself to finish the bad ones.
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The West Wing (complete 7 seasons)
Great show. I've got these too.
They're working DVDs, they don't just sit in the box looking pretty, they get a good run round every six months or so. I tie an unsuspecting friend to a chair and force them to watch.
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lol, Kylie, you're a total book nutter.
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I started using the site last night, and put up an inventory of around about 50-60 books on there.
When I woke up this morning, over a dozen had been mooched!
Cost me over £30 in postage and packaging, so I changed my status to only shipping to the UK for now. Good news is that I suddenly had 35 points to spend.
This evening I went on a mooching binge. Takes a little time to find something you want, but I enjoy the browsing. The result is I have 15-20 books on their way to me, and a wish list of about 70-odd.
three more of my books have been moochied. Looks like another trip to the post office for me tomorrow, but all UK this time so it's not so bad.
I still have 10 points, I think I'm saving them in case any of my wish list titles become available.
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I'm an evening reader, plus when I'm commuting.
Occasioanly on a day off, I'll make an afternoon of it in a coffee shop with a good book.
Please tell me, Kylie, that you're not one of those people who reads as they walk along the street! Now that's something I do find strange.I tried that once. I was at a really good bit and it's a pretty straight street between the railway station and my house. Not something I'd do often though, I kept stumbling.
I used to sit on my front doorstep and read. Not quite ready to face the wife until I was done with the chapter.
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I've always thought of myself a a relatively slow reader, but I'm speeding up the more I practice.
I had my first ever 'speed reading' experience the other day. I had 120 pages of a book still to read for a book discussion group, and only 2 hours to go before the meeting started. No problem at all for some people, but I had to make a concious effort to read faster in order to get it done.
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They've been mentioned here before, but if I was stuck on a desert island with just a bunch of autobiographies, some self-help books and soppy romance novels, I would probably use them to fuel the flames of my signal fire rather than read them.
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I haven't read any Ian McEwan yet, but I really should.
My brother is heavily into him, I think I'll mooch a copy of Atonement and go from there.
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My decision to purchase this particular book was swayed by the sticker they had slapped on the front cover, “Perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden”
A fan of Iggulden I most certainly am, and if the marketing people are trying so hard to sell me this book that stickers are going to come into the equation, then who am I to get in the way of such a process? It got bought.
Sidebottom has set his story in the third century AD. The city of Arete, on the banks of the Euphrates River, is currently the Eastern extreme of Roman influence. This could be about to change as an attack is expected the following year by a horde of Sassanid Persians. Fire in The East follows the journey of Marcus Clodius Ballista, a former barbarian come Roman military officer, who has just been appointed as the commander in charge of the city’s defence.
I was not too impressed with the first half of the book. The intrigue, I didn’t find too intriguing, and the engagement, I didn’t find too engaging. The comic moments provided no relief; I don’t think my sense of humour was ever aroused to the point of laughing out loud.
I felt there were too many characters for my tiny mind to keep up with. There’s a very helpful list of characters appendix at the end of the book, but as I’m a very linear chap who reads from left to right, I didn’t know it was there until it was too late.
It’s not all bad though, the book really came into its own as soon as those pesky Persians arrive. In some quite exciting battle sequences, the author explores the process of siege warfare, and the use of various types of siege equipment, in a surprising amount of depth. The detail given in no way gets in the way of the narrative’s pace; I was glued to my seat and finished the second half of the book in one sitting.
So what did I think overall? “PART ONE” can be seen written in quite a prominent place on the dust cover of this book, and subsequent volumes are referenced in the afterword. It is clear that follow up novels are to be released, but will I be interested?
The last ten or so pages of Fire in the East answered that question for me. The plot takes an unexpected turn at the last minute, and has left me eager to find out what will happen next.
So yes I will be reading Warrior of Rome, part two, soon after it comes out. This time, I’ll be wise to the location of any hidden lists of characters. That’ll be one thing less for me to gripe about.
Reading? What a waste of time...
in General Book Discussions
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"I guess it depends what you're reading"
...would be my retort.