The Good Citizen

Libertines - I get along

Next up 6 In Search of Lost Time - Proust And while I'm making my way through that... 7 The Atrocity Exhibition - JG Ballard

February (Ordered another copy of Voyage off ebay so I'll finish it eventually ) 5 The Lambs of London Peter Ackroyd - 8.5 This was a short (240 pages in an isis large print edition is pretty short!) but really enjoyable novel set in 19C London around the discovey of a range of lost shakesperian artifacts and the public commotion it quickly causes. Based on genuine historical figures, Charles and Mary Lamb, it suprised me, with a little help help from Wikipedia, how much fact was woven into the fiction. Admittedly a better grounding in Shakespeare would have been useful to appreciate some of the prose and quotes from his plays and how it related to the story line. Alas, the bard's work goes completely over my head and I probably would have finished this quicker if I didn't spend half the time rereading the extracts from his plays trying to work out what they actually meant! It didn't detract from a well crafted story however and Ackroyd crams plenty of life into his characters. For all the strained social conventions of Victorian England, it still drew me in and I genuinely cared about their fates. It was impessive what can be accomplished in so few words.

You know the 'next gen' kindle will smell just like a musty 50 year old penguine classic, complete with mottled water damage

17. Creates magic down under (4) - The Wizard of Oz No easy newspaper this (2) - Hard Times (I got this off Yahoo though )

Ah well.. googling for it passed the time.

Found these on Yahoo answers but they don't have all the answers (so don't expect me to know! ) still I thought they would be worth trying to get. Think it will be obvious if an answer is correct! I've put the first one in... 1. Does she live in an eco friendly house? (4) - Anne of Green Gables 2. An atmospheric phenomenon (2) 3. Tigers, elephants, monkeys etc in case (5) 4. Fishy measure by this river crossing (1) 5. Ramblers enjoy taking one of these (5) 6. Ssh, the Spanish gent is gliding by (5) 7. Big bird’s dropped it (4) 8. Reflective battles (4) 9. All about an overgrown garden (3) 10 .Potatoes (1) 11. Patriotic material (2) 12. Beaming brightly (2) 13. He’s planting cuttings with an unsuccessful royal donor (7) 14. Criminal bird (2) 15. No easy newspaper this (2) 16. Un homme stranded here? (2) 17. Creates magic down under (4) 18. Not the best quality for one of those round the table, we hear (4) 19. He’s my pal as well (3) 20. A cruel flock of birds (4)

This sounds similar?..The Rebel, Jack Dann ... "In The Rebel, Jack Dann asks: What if James Dean hadn't died in that car crash? What would his life have been like? How would he have affected others? How would he have changed history? It doesn't seem, at face value, a particularly prepossessing premise for a novel. At least it didn't for me when I first picked it up to read. I had little knowledge of, or interest in, any of the central characters: James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Colonel Parker, Bobby Kennedy, et al. But Dann is a consummate writer. Have faith in his abilities, and more often than not you’ll be rewarded. And that's certainly the case with The Rebel. At first, the James Dean that Dann shows us in The Rebel is the James Dean we are familiar with — rebellious and insouciant: He flicked his half-finished cigarette in a high arc across the room and wondered if it would start a fire. If it did, he would sit right where he was like a fudgeing Buddha and die without moving a muscle. If it didn't, he would race on Monday. But then, of course, he has his accident and survives. During the accident, he has a vision of his dead mother, who tells him to “do something wonderful and important” with his life. And it seems, for a while, like he's trying to do just that, like he's trying to become a better person. But people don't change overnight, accident or no, and it quickly becomes clear that he's still just the same self-centred, drug-addled SOB he was before the accident. Of course, he does change, eventually, over the course of the novel. He grows older, becomes more mature, more thoughtful, more responsible — but these are changes rendered by the passage of time and the accumulation of experience, not by his accident."

They wrote so many great songs but In keeping with this being a book forum, Cemetry Gates by the Smiths. A dreaded sunny day So I meet you at the cemetery gates Keats and Yeats are on your side A dreaded sunny day So I meet you at the cemetery gates Keats and Yeats are on your side While Wilde is on mine So we go inside and we gravely read the stones All those people all those lives Where are they now? With the loves and hates And passions just like mine They were born And then they lived and then they died Seems so unfair And I want to cry You say: "ere thrice the sun done salutation to the dawn" And you claim these words as your own But I've read well, and I've heard them said A hundred times, maybe less, maybe more If you must write prose and poems The words you use should be your own Don't plagiarise or take "on loans" There's always someone, somewhere With a big nose, who knows And who trips you up and laughs When you fall Who'll trip you up and laugh When you fall You say: "ere long done do does did" Words which could only be your own And then you then produce the text From whence was ripped some dizzy wh0re, 1804 A dreaded sunny day So let's go where we're happy And I meet you at the cemetery gates Oh Keats and Yeats are on your side A dreaded sunny day So let's go where we're wanted And I meet you at the cemetery gates Keats and Yeats are on your side But you lose because Wilde is on mine

From top left to bottom right of my book shelves, History top, followed by A-Z by author of fiction, followed by a nice little astrophysics and Astronomy section I'm building up bottom right, then some biographies and lastly a few books people have leant me (that I will probably never read!) I used to have a huge CD and DVD collection but after the 'download revolution', they all got ebay'd off and now its all on a hard drive. I miss the connection you have with an album though, I enjoyed reading the inlays and the art work, the tactile experience of possessing it. I'm toying with buying back my favourite albums on vinyl (except the price has gone through the roof). Anyway I'm not going down the kindle route with books that was my point

A Clockwork Orange is a great novel although it takes a few pages to get to grips with the language, the film is a classic as well! After many years of suffering CBeebies I find it good aversion therapy to having more kids!

Anything with a picture of a distressed child on the front entitled something like 'Daddy Please No' or "Betrayal". I do understand why people want to tell their story but after a 'child called it' (I think) there was just a deluge of them hitting the best seller list in ASDA. My Mum has read a loads of them, maybe one or two but I don't understand why you would continually choose to read something so upsetting! Thats not meant to offend btw, thats just a personal view, I think its the way they are marketed with the obligatory little child on the front holding a teddy bear, there is something I just find unsettling about it.

I've left my copy of Voyage on the bus this morning, what a numpty I'd got about 200 pages in and really getting into it, they'd just left Earth's gravitational orbit too. Duh, I'll have to buy another copy...

I wouldn't say its fantasy as such, its just narated in the third person by Death/grim reaper but the story itself that 'Death' tells is set very much in reality. Its a great book, but is most defintiely very moving!

I read Super-Cannes recently which is sort of a companion to Cocaine Nights which is quite acclaimed. It was a good fast paced thriller, if a little amoral so not for the faint hearted! So I'll read Cocaine Nights at some point too, (again always reading books in the wrong order!). So I'm just discovering him too at the moment Kylie, I know he is very highly rated and the band Joy Division (who I really like) wrote a song called atrocity exhibition after the lead singer read the book so thats a good enough recommendation for me!

Drop City - T C Boyle and The Lambs of London - Peter Ackroyd finally dropped through my letter box yesterday. Still waiting on The Atrocity Exhibition - J G Ballard a week after it was posted though, which is the one I want most of all... Ebay is always a mine field!

Frankie, thats quite a list of lists you have, I'm duly impressed! Another useful source for me plunder for book hunting.

True and thats the way is should be, I can't show him the way but I can guide him along his path I guess. He's always had an old head on young shoulders but we used to be thick as thieves and adapting to his adolescence has been trickier than I thought as he keeps his feelings hidden more now. I used to be able to read him like a book (good pun) now I wonder whats going on in his head. I guess sharing something like a discucssion on a book would be a good way to open up about a few things now and then. Its not as we are strangers under the same roof though, I suppose its just natural to worry regardless.

Birdsong did I think, Cold Mountain too (possibly), I found Grapes of Wrath very moving at times too. Don't even get me started on films though, I'm a right wuss!

The only one I thought of was from the illustrated man short stories collection by Ray Bradbury. Probably not the one though! "The Rocket" — Fiorello Bodoni, a poor junkyard owner, has managed to save $3,000 to fulfill his lifelong dream of sending one member of his family on a trip to outer space. The family, however, finds it impossible to choose who will go because those left behind will inevitably envy the chosen one for the rest of their lives. Bodoni instead uses the money to build a replica rocket from an old mock-up, and sets up a 3D theater inside the cabin and convinces the children they are actually going through space.

I think he may have read the Adrian Mole series, I think his mother suggested it, so maybe its just me! I'll check though as it is a good suggestion, I think he could really relate to it. I have a few Philip K Dick books and suggested "Do Androids dream..", he just shrugs! I have no problem with his reading Fantasy its not as if I think its not worthwhile and thats what he enjoys. I would like him to just expand into reading something a little more grounded in the real world occasionally too. I've already lost him to his laptop. He's very self regulating to be honest, he wont watch horror films and anything with Violence in, he's quite sensitive in that respect but what I suggest I know are suitable to his tastes. He refused to argue a pro capital punishment stance in school debating society recently, his teacher tried to explain the benefits of arguing the counter argument to what you believe to understand opposing viewpoints but he refused flatly and she had to admit defeat which made me chuckle with a hint of pride. once he gets an idea in his head there is no moving him. As Sofia suggested though when I'm watching a film and he walks in he has in the past got engrossed and enjoy it, If I put one on while he is in the room though he walks out!? I suppose he is just finding himself at the moment, he has many interests both artistic and scientific but he often gets bullied at school, mainly because he reacts to taunts, its an all boys grammar school and having gone there myself I know how thick skinned you need to be and he isn't at all, although he is getting a bit better. I just worry he will live in a world of fantasy books and computers as a form of escape, where as a I think he has a lot to offer. He is a really kind and thoughtful lad and I'm of course very proud of him. I think I may suggest a book swap, I'll suggest something for him to read and he can suggest something for me to read, he might go for that. Thanks for all your advice.

He found Terry Pratchett himself and really enjoys them, I've suggested Douglas Adams but he hasn't read "Hitchikers.." yet. He's like that with food, he doesn't like Chinese, (he tried one dish once) his palate is limited to say the least! Thanks I'll take a look at Neil Gaiman and Jasper Fforde, maybe if I suggest something closer to his tastes first he will be open to other books I suggest. He read 'Animal Farm' and loved 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' which he had to read the first chapter of for School and read the whole thing in a couple of days. So I know he can appreciate other books, its just gettnig round that Teenage obstinance! (I thought it was all going to be sooooo simple!)

Ok, so my son is 14 he's a bright academic lad and an avid reader, he'd read the first Harry Potter book by his 7th Birthday and devoured most of the teenage section of Waterstone's which makes a christmas list always a challenge. While not wanting him to grow up too quickly I'd like to challenge him to read some more adult books, suitably themed of course so nothing explicit, but something that will open him up to themes other than teenage super spies and especially elves, dragons and Wizards. He is at that age though that whatever I suggest he will turn his nose up at. Films too he refuses to watch (I have a list of films I think he would love which would open his eyes a bit to cinema rather than popcorn movies but he has declared he doesn't like films grrrr). Music and Bands is the only way I seem to be able to relate to him culturally. Its a shame as I have always thought I had such a great back catalogue of culture in my head I'd love to one day pass on to him and he's hit his teenage years and asserting his own independence I guess. I have nothing against him enjoying the fantasy genre, I'd just like to share some of the great books and films I have watched down the years that I think he is ready to appreciate. So advice please! He is his own person and I respect that, if he watched something and said dad I didn't enjoy that at all thats fine but I wish he wasn't so closed off to the idea in the first place. (His mum thinks he is autistic - he isn't so thats by the by but he is an awkward independent little sod sometimes!). Should I just leave him be or do you have any ideas or recommendations books wise that might bridge the gap? I'd like to have more of a connection with him than just playing skyrim with him on the xbox for hours on end! Has anyone else similarly frustrated?

Thanks all, I've made a start on Voyage Karsa, only 60 pages in but tonight I should get chance to make a hole in it! After that I must start Proust otherwise I will keep putting it off all year! Ha My son's mother blogs on her book reading so Dylan (my son) tells me, I haven't told her about this site as she would laugh at my efforts! I finally read Catch-22 last year Kylie after the 3rd attempt (first attempt about 15 years ago in 6th form!). It is undoubtedly a great book, and funny, if a little long. I think it could have made its point in about 200 pages less than it needed, a must read though (eventually!)

I missed the start and saw the last 10 minutes pre war before it cut to the trenches, it did seem very wooden and lacked the passion of the book, I remember the love scenes being quite racy were there actually any in the adaptation?? Maybe it was good I missed it then judging by th luke warm reaction on here! I loved that book, it reduced me to tears at the end I think.