honestfi
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Posts posted by honestfi
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Hmm its the old philosophical argument - "Did it exist before it had a name?"..... I guess I agree that Bridget Jones was probably the first novel coined "Chick-Lit", but that doesn't mean that the genre of fiction didn't exist before, it's just a new genre born out of the other genres. There is an argument, for instance, for calling Christie or even Austen "Chick-Lit". No, I'm not calling them trashy, but they wrote popular fiction, particularly aimed at young ladies.
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Yes,I like the Eva Cassidy version aswell.. My mam has a Fleetwood Mac CD (can't remember the name) and Stevie Nicks singing Songbird is absolutely brilliant. I just love the song though..
It was Chrissie McVie actually....
....um unless Stevie sang a later version of it, Chrissie sang it on Rumors, the original. -
I've always loved this lyric, Crowded House, Don't Dream It's Over
There is freedom within, there is freedom without, try to catch the deluge in a paper cup
Had it as a siggy for a while (a long while back).
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There are Amazon Marketplace sellers selling them for 1p. Effectively, you're just paying postage.
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Not totally fitting the criteria, but I would recommend Trust Me by Jeff Abbott, which is about a guy who gets kidnapped by some terrorists and the wild chase that ensues as he runs away from his kidnappers and tries to find out why this is happening to him. Sounds a bit ordinary, but he uses all sorts of modes of transport. Also, Awakening by SJ Bolton, but not if you're afraid of snakes! - very dark, a bit gothic, story of a reclusive woman dragged into an ancient murder mystery, involving sinister cults...
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Well researched books, or books based around the writer's experiences in a given profession or hobby are the only books I can truthfully say I really enjoy.
I am a mine of useless information and love books which add to this store. Mike Ripley's Angel series and the two non-Angels, The Legend of Hereward the Wake, and Boudica and the Lost Roman are FULL of snippets of information from almost any subject you can imagine - but mostly historical. Also, as a word of warning, Ripley does...erhem...stretch the truth a little so you are never too sure whether it is correct or not - it's the way with him to wind up the readership. I love it actually.
It's usually mostly true.....Crime fiction ain't just cops and robbers, you can learn how MI5 works, international spy consortiums, drug trafficking, politics, stock exchange mechanisms, and although this is the type of stuff I would have said 20 years ago, no way, I'm dozing off just thinking about it, there is such talent in the genre that keeps you gripped AND interested in the story lines.
Only non fiction has got me wanting to delve into any subject in any meaningful way. Anything on late 19th Dynasty Egyptian (the Akenhaten/Tut era). Despite the fact I do like historical fiction, particularly based around the years 1066-circa 1300, I have never had the urge to research this seriously.
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Hmmm good one I may take up the challenge, perhaps, maybe.
Fraid I was uninspired by Wiki's list (1970) didn't fancy any of them. Another site: http://www.caderbooks.com/best70.html...a bit more promising. And, ha!, that famous book Everything you wanted to know about sex...etc, was out in the year I was born. How about that.
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No idea but man those kid creatures sound freaky. Children's book you say?
Too right, there always is a market for freaky children's books. Puts me in mind of Where the Wild Things Are (though I know it's not that). Another example of freakery: Fungus The Bogeyman. And poetry too: how about The Pied Piper of Hamlin. All enough to give you nightmares. And yet it didn't. This type of stuff would probably be banned by the PC brigade nowadays.
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Ah what about eighties chick-lit? Are there still some Jackie Collins, Danielle Steeles out there writing Die-Nasty sagas where the men are handsome and the girls are bitches in shoulder pads? Or has it moved on from that? Think the first huge novel I read was Kane and Abel.
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Why did we like one book better than the other? Credibility? Alone those books offer little more than fluffy entertainment, but you could get a bit more meet to the bones by comparisons, no?
Just a thought.
Um, so a bit like comparing a Tescos donut to an Aldi donut?
Perhaps. Maybe.Must admit, only chicklit I have read is British, and although I know it is utter trash, I still find it utterly readable. Annabel Giles, f'r'instance. Contradicts herself, totally unbelievable farce, repeats herself throughout, usually the same joke which wasn't funny to start with. Come Together/Again (Josie Lloyd, Emlyn Rees), twenty to thirty something fun. Read them all 3 or 4 times. Shame on me.
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Amazon, Amazon and uuuhhhh...Amazon. Dunno how I coped before 2001 (when I got puta).
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No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean my post to come across the way that it probably did! I just meant that I love my tbr pile, but we're all different. Sorry if I sounded unfriendly - I didn't mean to:)
:friends0:s'ok
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just to add to this MBTI fun im INTJ - result od 2 offical tests - lol imj an asocial ****** i be....
This could become another thread. Maybe should, we be digressing.
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Any particular reason you had me down as INTJ
?Methodical to the point of striving near perfection, seems to be the way with INTJs I have known.
Had you deffo I, N and J. I haven't read too many threads so I took a stab at the T. Having seen more of your posts I should have spotted the F.
But, y'see (my excuse), INTPs are terribly good at getting it nearly right.
We're bloody good the rest of the time. -
INFJ can't really dispute that.
**!!!**!!! nuts...had you down as INTJ - one out and I've just lost myself a chocolate button.
:lol: I'm INTP if you're interested. You see, this is what I do first time around. It wouldn't vex me if all books needed to be read this way; but the fact that I can't stop myself from analysing trash in the same way I'd analyse Dostoevskij doesn't feel right.Each to his own, hey if you derive some sort of pleasure from this kind of analysis...maybe some authors would like to know how they measure up against Dostoevskij, you could devise your own "reading scale".
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I'd love to be able to do that, but my library is quite small, and I rarely find even one book I remotely like the look of, so I end up having to reserve them online, which leads to have a list of books ready to order, which leads to not being able to wait for the reservations to arrive, which leads to going the bookshop to buy the book instead, which leads to 3 for 2 offers, which leads to shelves full of unread books waiting to be started! Mine's quite small too (oo er), but then again I'm not too fussy about what I read.
Ok 'fession time, I do have an Amazon Wish List. But it's only used as a hint to friends...or relatives...or anybody else that feels sorry for me...
OMG if I went down your route I'd end up poorer than I am already. -
I don't see the OP's problem with tbr piles. Surely if you're going to read (for example) 50 books in a year, does it matter if it's books you've had on a pile for some time, or books you've been lucky enough to have for free, or books you've just gone out and bought?
Um, I don't have a problem with TBR piles. Just saying they're not my thing. I got 3 random books from the library and I enjoyed 2 out of 3 of them. If I started a TBR pile, I'd get too clogged up.
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Due to life, the universe and being trained at university in the art of close reading I've gone from an average of 1 or 2 long (400pp+) / 3 or 4 short (200pp+) books a week to an average of 1/8 of a single 400+ book a week.
Yes, it takes me about two months to read a book these days, not just because I've only got the time read on noisy peak-time buses, but also because I'm unable to read without a cereal packet without considering the implications of every word and punctuation mark. Words and punctuation marks that aren't there are the subject of even more speculation ("I wonder why Mr. Kellog chose not to use this particular word here...").
With what my TBR (30+) and wishlist (200+) are like, this state of affairs depresses me.
Nah - I wouldn't let it. You probably can tell us more about the author than anyone else. Do you, perchance, know what your Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is? I've got a small bet with myself if you do.
My second read of a novel is always slower than the first. It usually takes about double the amount of time. I find myself examining paragraphs, sentences, punctuation, grammar........
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Um - why don't you try Kelkoo?
http://shopping.kelkoo.co.uk/ctl/do/search?siteSearchQuery=flanimals&fromform=true
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If you have a fairly consistent reading habit, how many do you read in a week?
Yes, it depends upon word length and readability of novel, let's just say the fairly standard 100,000 word length. If I'm not off work - I don't take books to work (my workplace isn't really the kind of place you can find somewhere to settle) - I only read just before going to sleep. I average 1.5-2 books a week. On holiday, if I don't go out, I sometimes read for 2-3 hours a day, sometimes more if I have nothing better to do.
I average 3-4 books a week under those circs. Suppose I am above average when it comes to speed. And, yeah, I can have an intelligent conversation about said book, I haven't just got "the gist" of it.How 'bout yous out there?
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As ever, thought of a couple I've read...
Peter Ustinov's Dear Me - found it rather dull, frankly, shame really.
I'm sure there's a few people here that have read one or two of Clive James's Unreliable Memoirs series, I've read the first and found it very funny, apparently though some of them are not up to his usual standard.
Also The Real James Herriot biography written by his son, Jim Wight. Although interesting, the unfortunate consequence after reading this was I lost total interest in the James Herriot books. James Herriot (or Alf Wight) didn't really want his biography written, and somehow I understood why after reading this book - let's just say that some of his stories weren't altogether...truthful....and some incidents just plain made up. Made me a bit angry actually. This may sound a bit severe to some, but I guess if you read it you may see where I'm coming from. Okay, okay, so he did paint a very good picture of 30s, 40s and 50s Yorkshire, a place that he obviously loved, along with describing the dramatic improvements that were going on in the veterinary profession AND the James Herriot books were always catalogued as 'fiction'....but the publishers always marketed them more as non fiction...which is just a tad annoying.
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Snap! I have it, I started it a while ago but haven't yet finished it
uh, okay
i may see if my "esteemed" library has a copy. I've read quotes from it in Readers Digest (is it just me, or has that journal really gone downhill in the last 5 years) and it sounded really good, and very honest. -
Oh and while I think of it....
I've been meaning to get hold of Dear Fatty by Dawn French - anyone else here read it?
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Yes! I would recommend it to folk of our generation who grew up listening to Johnnie. I came away from the book feeling a lot of admiration for a man who had his fair share of troubles. I thought it might be a bit lightweight, but it was brutally honest about his mistakes and feelings. I enjoyed it and was left with much respect for this icon.
Love that book, my very fave non fiction I think. My impression after reading it: What a woman Tiggy Walker is!
Autobiographies and Biographies
in Non Fiction
Posted
OMG, I've just started reading Sun On The Water - I was in floods reading the first chapter.