Mac
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Posts posted by Mac
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Crumbs, Frankie. You've got some good ones there! I often wish that I had learned another language to the point where I could read a novel in it's original form. I'm awash with admiration for you.
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I choose:
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber
But saying this, there are approximately 9,473,202 books that I feel people ought to read - I guess everyone has this issue, though!
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- although I don't usually "do" vampires.
No, Janet. Although there are plenty of folk on here that would happily...
...aaaand I'll leave that there, just hanging around...
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I thought that was how one got to Carnegie Hall...
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Hiya Kate. What did you make of The Lost Symbol? Do I bother with it? Do I buy one simply to chuck over my shoulder?
I've got a Lindwood Barclay book to read, but might slide it a bit lower down Mount TBR...
Hope you're well. x
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It is a sad thing when anyone dies. I wonder about the 'accidental' nature of a drugs overdose, though. Surely, unless one intends to commit suicide, any drugs overdose is accidental? How does one get to the stage where it's possible to ingest enough to kill oneself anyway?
It also makes me think of the pressures of fame and what it does to charcters who are less strong than others.
Poor old boy.
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Poor old John Prescott is terribly upset that the public view him as an unsophisticated northern oik, so he talks to his mate Tony to seek some advice.
"Tony," he says. "I'm terribly upset that the public view me as an unsophisticated northern oik. What can I do?"
"Well," says Tony (for it is he). "You could try getting some culture down you once in a while..."
"That's all very well, Tone, " says Prezzer. "But how in the name of Zeus's beard do I do this?"
"Take in a ballet or an opera or something, you know?!?" Tony shakes his head.
"I would," speaks John. "But I'd choose the wrong thing, the press would find out and I'll be pilloried again!" Poor John's face creases in anguish as he gnashes his teeth.
"Look," says Tony in an attempt to mollify his oafish friend. "Go to Covent Garden. Join the box office queue. There'll be a well-dressed couple in front of you. Simply order what they order and Bob's your Uncle!"
"He is," sniffs John. "He really is!"
So off he toddles in one of his Jags down to Covent Garden and, sure enough, standing in front of him in the box office queue is a wonderfully well-attired couple. The gentleman reaches the kiosk and says: "Two tickets for Romeo and Juliet, please."
"Brilliant!" Thinks good old John and when he arrives at the kiosk himself he says:
"Two tickets for John and Pauline, please."
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I am clinically unable to give/throw books away - I find it hard enough lending them out (my friend Andrea still has my copy of Kafka on the Shore, dammit!) - so consequently have many shelves full of books. My garage is heaving with them as well.
Worryingly, I put them in author order as well. Don't get me wrong - I don't alphabetise them, just put them together. I wouldn't want Dexter loose amongst my Lecter's...
I do, however, alphabetise my CD's and DVD's - but this makes sense to me. Say, for example, I want to listen to the second album by Fat Freddy's Drop I simply search along my CD's (of which I have hundreds) for F's and bingo there we are. The same for my DVD's. Imagine the panic I'd suffer if I couldn't immediately find Wall-E!!!
I'm a freak. A freak, I tell you!
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You ought to try Chuck Palahnuik and Glen Duncan as authors. They are dark people indeed. See what you think.
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Mmm...Dushku...
*sounds of Mac sighing wistfully into his hot chocolate...
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That is a good quote. Who wrote that episode? The writer's are excellent.
That's what I love about Mal Reynolds in Firefly. He is so cool! Zoe's as hard as nails, too. They're all so pretty!
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Yeah yeah yeah!
He kills Ben/Glory!
Ace.
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I loved his dark side - man, he could be brutal sometimes (or, at least, there was a suggestion of such...)
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I hated Glory. I thought she was a poor actress, that Clare Kramer. I also thought Riley was dull, dull, dull. But I thought Anya was ace - this comes from a fella whose girlfriend has Aspergers...
Dawn was whiney, as Buffy always was, but Spike got most of the best lines.
I missed Giles, mind...
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I'm there - I'm still mourning the loss of the Buffyverse, so will buy the box set anyway. I've just finished watching Firefly (awesome awesome awesome) and have just bought the first season of Dollhouse...I'm becoming something of a Whedon Nerd!
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This thread just ain't selling it to me, ladies...
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I don't think they understand the accents!
Oh. Ummm. Really? I have to admit to struggling with understanding George W most of the time, but generally have no problem with any other accents the States have to offer...
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Oh. So it doesn't end happily? Hmmm...maybe I shouldn't get the box set...
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I'm terribly dim, I know, so can I be excused for being completely unable to understand why they just don't release the British versions of British comedy in the States? I thought Americans liked us Limey's?
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I would love to marry a Giles. A smart, well-read, British fella with an adventurous streak and a great singing voice. What more could a girl want?!
You have just described me, Noll!
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Yesterday, my GF and I finished watching all - yes, all - of Buffy. It's taken us months to get through but, by gum, what an awesome programme. We're going to get all five series (seasons?) of Angel now.
My GF has a real thing for Spike. And Giles. And Xander ("Why can't Xander be my boyfriend?"!!!) and she simply goes to pieces when Angel comes back now and again...
...sigh...
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There's more! There's more! Check out post number two!
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Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
A charming monster. A macabre hero. The serial killer who only kills bad people is back on the prowl – at least he would be if he could shake off his permanent shadow. Ever since their paths first crossed, the handsome, charming homicidal maniac Dexter Morgan has been pursued by Sergeant Doakes. Dexter may well be a Miami PD blood-spatter analyst, but Doakes has a pretty good idea of how Dex likes to spend his free time, and he’s determined to catch him in the act.
Then a body turns up, horribly mutilated and barely breathing. To trap the torturer, Doakes and Dexter will have to work together – and one of them will have to be the bait…
I like this author. He is sharp, witty and quick-paced. I enjoy the character of Dexter and the ambiguous nature if his proclivities. He recognises that he doesn’t feel things in the same way that ‘normal’ people feel, but by that token he feels them somewhat vicariously and Jeff Lindsay has a knack of allowing the reader to feel this too.
There are some disturbing scenes in this novel – if you’re squeamish, I would possibly avoid this (it certainly made me go “urgh” more than once!) – but Lindsay seems to appreciate his audience and pushes only so far before he moves on to other things. I wouldn’t call this novel gratuitous, though. I felt that the grim bits were appropriate for the plot and pace.
I have the next two to read and am already looking forward to meeting our man Dexter again.
8/10 – pacey and fun, with a bit of grit.
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Hi Mac, what a great review on Sputnik Sweetheart. I read Norwegian Wood and I have to admit I wasn't impressed.
I was really disappointed that I didn't like the book considering the reviews I have heard about Murakami's books. I am just hoping that I picked the wrong book to read first.Norwegian Wood was the first book I reviewed on this little thread - I loved it, but you're right in that it is a little different from his other works. Don't give up on him! Try Kafka on the Shore, this was the very first of his I read and became a huge fan from this novel.
Now then, I've been on my jollies down in Cornwall so haven't been here for a week. However, I read a couple of books, so here's what I thought of 'em...
The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom
On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie, a lonely war veteran, dies in a tragic accident trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. With his final breath, he feels two small hands in his – and then nothing. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.
I am sitting, as I write this, in the large bay window of a pub – The Atlantic – forever looking up and gazing at the huge expanse of ocean. It’s most distracting. The village I’m staying in, Porthleven in Cornwall, is peaceful yet industrious with its team of Fishermen, the shops filled with local produce, the pubs full of music and laughter. My family have had a cottage here for the best part of twenty years, and I adore it. The sun is setting, orange and blue collapsing together, roiling clouds grasping at the last rays of light and scattering fire across the sky. It’s really quite indescribably beautiful.
And why am I trying to paint this picture? The Five People You Meet In Heaven is perhaps the perfect book to finish whilst sitting in a pub with a pint of fine ale by your side and the sun sinking towards the horizon. As I closed the book, my attention was drawn towards the sea and the sky and I’m thinking about the big things: life; love; purpose and connection. This novel inspires depth of thought from the outset. Albom writes in such an easy style that it feels as though he’s beside you, chatting away. I’m going to have to go and buy his other stuff now.
9.5/10 – wonderful.
What do you collect?
in General Chat
Posted
I collect books.
I'm obsessed.
* sounds of deep sighing from Mac...