kurtz

Actually if you can overlook the mistakes it probably is an enjoyable story.It is one of a series about Evan Tanner, who is a thief who becomes a spy and who never sleeps because sleep center in his brain was damaged in Korean War. If you like Matt Helm novels, or maybe Mickey Spillane, you will probably enjoy these also.

Finally finished this book, thank goodness. There is afterword written by author in which he admits never having been to Thailand, so this explains much. But not everything. Tanner, the hero, wants to disguise himself as Thai man so he puts tobacco on his face to make his skin yellow. Then he shaves his beard, but cannot figure out what to do about his blonde hair since he has no shoe polish. Why didn't he shave his hair off? Then he actually manages to fool all the Thais and Laotians into believing he is native with the tobacco and by squinting his eyes. He learned Thai with some language tapes apparently so well that everyone in Southeast Asia believed Thai was his native language. Not only has this writer never been to Thailand, but apparently he was never in the army, as he shoots down a fighter jet with a tank cannon. This book is called Scoreless Thai, but is written by Clueless Writer.

We have 3 cats: Poco, Diamond and Guinevere. They are all same litter. They love to play and also to hunt. They go crazy about gekkos onceiling and sometimes they catch them. Often they grab gekkos tail and then it comes off but gekko gets away. Once all 3 of them were fighting a really nasty tokay, and another time they were ganging up on a viper, but luckily I saw this and flung snake over a wall with a broom. All 3 cats follow me around and try to follow me aroud village but they won't go very far because of all the dogs.

Yes Sue that is true. They do speak slower. The fact is though that this book is basically very good plot and interesting story. If it were not for these details I would really enjoy this book, and I suppose it should not bother me as it is just fiction. However for some reason I find it difficult to overlook these inaccuracies, not only about Thailand but other subjects as well.

Yes 87th precinct are some of my all-time favorites. If you haven-t read them, you could check ot the Matthew Hope series, about lawyer in Florida. Those are good too.

It gets worse. I know Sue you will see how screwed up this is. They are in northern Thailand, yet speak khmer. Then they go to Laos, which in book they say is northwest of northern Thailand, which if he even looked at a map would see that it is northeast. Then they go to Laos, and though guy speaks fluent Thai, he cannot communicate with Laos people, even though as you know they are almost same language. My wife's father is from Thailand and her mother is from Laos, and they communicated fine. Here is an ironic thing easyreader. Very coincidental. In past I did spend many years trying to communicate with this writer, and finally managed to speak with him. The reason is the novel he wrote called Eight Million Ways to Die. As I said, I used to live next door to Mr. Block. I am also a former private investigator, now retired. However one of my cases was similar to the plot of the novel. I thought maybe I had told him this story, and he used it in the novel. We used to go to same bar, and since in those days I was often drunk, I thought I had told it to him, and wanted to ask him so I tried to contact him but for years was unable to. Then finally a lady I knew who owned bookstore phoned me and said he was coming to her shop for booksigning. I went there and asked him, and he assured me he did not get idea from me. I believe him as the stories are similar, but not identical. he is very nice man and signed book for me.

I should not accuse writer of being inaccurate. I could not even get title of book right. It is really The Scoreless Thai.

For the purpose of story, this is fine. But realistically it is far-fetched to believe that there was this one woman hunter who rode horses and no one else did for thousands of years. However I am not trying to say these are bad stories, only they are not historically accurate. James Bond stories were ridiculously inaccurate but I still enjoy reading them.

Ed McBain is one of my all-time favorite mystery writers, but I am reading novel Downtown, and it is probably worst crime novel ever. The plot of it is too ridiculous to even go into, but it involves mistaken identities, Chinese fashion model and fat white movie producer married to intellectual black fashion model, or something like this.

I started reading novel Thai Score by lawrence Block. I really love his detective novels and in fact he lived next door to me in New York City. Matt Scudder novels are best New York City detective novels there are. However, he has written this novel about Thailoand and it is pretty lame. I do not think he has ever been here, it is so inaccurate. In book, he says morning and tomorrow is same word in thai language, which is not true. he says all the opium here comes from red China, but in fact it comes from Burma. Thai people in novel call themselves Siamese, which they never do anymore. The tea they serve in book is very strong, when in fact it is always weak here. On top of that somehow Evan Tanner, the main character, speaks fluent Thai somehow, even though he says he has never been to Asia. And I have only read 50 pages of this epic, so I do not hold much hope it will get better. I think Lawrence Block should stick to New York City.

For example, the people in these books rode horses thousands of years before real people, according to archaeological evidence. Also, there is no fossil or archaeological record of women hunters, to my knowledge. Women stayed home and tended the home, and men went hunting. This is probably why modern women call chauvinist men neanderthals.

My wife and mother-in-law recently converted from Buddhist to Christian and since mother cannot see well enough to read small print she listens to cd of Bible in Thai, which is what I am listening to right now.

These books are good if you want to enjoy good story, but not if you really wish to understand anthropology and pre-history. They really have no relation at all to reality. I do not wish to make people angry who enjoy the stories, but as I have always been interested in this period of time and even been involved in anthropological research involving bronze age settlements in northeastern Thailand, I wanted to tell people that are interested in factual study of pre-history to not rely on Auel books for information.

I just finished reading Lost Horizon and I think I may have to include this book in one of 3 favorite classic stories in that section in forum. This is kind of story I would enjoy reading many times. It makes you really feel like you are there in shangri-la.

Just finished reading this book for second time. it is collection of short stories by Somerset maugham set in far east, mostly in Malaysia, which in time of stories was malaya. All the stories have some sort of moral or message and I think anyone will enjoy them whether or not they are interested in asian stories.

It is not 10 am yet but already read parts of 2 books: Lost Horizon by James Hilton and The Enchantress by han Suyin.

NCIS

I would highly recommend the Lt. Joe Gunther novels of Archer Mayor, or 87th precinct novels by Ed McBain. Also Stephen Leather novels The Chinaman, Solitary Man and Hungry Ghost.

The funniest books I have read are the Feng Shui Detective novels of Yuri Vittachi. But just as funny are Pool and Its Role in Asian Communism and The Coroner's Lunch, which are both by Colin Cotterill.

I am depressed after reading posting from guy in twenties who is "still reasonably good looking." There is not much hope for me in this case, since I am 57.

Thank you ooshie. I will check out how much these devices cost and maybe get one but I am old fashioned and really I like reading real books more than internet but I don't know why.

I read part of 2 books today. The Lost Horizon, and The Enchantress by Han Suyin.

Apocalypse Now.

The Emperor's Treasure on history channel.

Hello Sue. I usually go to Gekko book store. Actually same guy who owns this owns 4 used bookshops in Chiang Mai. Two Gekko bookshops, Big Mango books and a new one whose name I forget but is around corner from Gekko bookshop. They are all in area of Thapae Gate. I do not really know what a kindle is, but I know it is something about books and internet. However probably no good for me. I run internet on cell phone and get 5 hours a month so I think would take too long to read books on internet.