What are you reading?

Post by **Crucifer** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:35 pm

Because I want to.

Mainly because for three years I have sung a most wonderful arrangement of the bit where Mr. Valiant-for-truth is sent for and goes over to the other side of the river, and I want to find out a bit more.

Post by **Erunáme** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:34 am

Crucifer wrote:Library...

Fines.

Post by **narya** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 6:30 am

Erunáme wrote:
Crucifer wrote:Library...
Fines.

Library in the next town.

Post by **Crucifer** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:39 am

Crucifer wrote:
Library...

Fines.

You know, you only get fines as a punishment for having books overdue. Have a set day/time in your weekly schedule where you go to the library and either renew your books, and/or take out some new ones.
Fines avoided.

Post by **WampusCat** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:10 pm

Eru, if you'll PM me your address, I'll send you my paperback copy of the Earthsea trilogy (to keep). I haven't read it in a long time and would love to give it a good home.

Post by **Alatar** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:02 pm

Crucifer wrote:We have English too, bt. But I can't stand it, because we have to read boring rubbish with no plot, and random things like shopping lists thrown in for no apparent reason. And we have to study at least one Irish poet, who are mostly just whinge bags.

From recollection, books and short stories on the English syllabus in Ireland include classics like Steinbecks' The Pearl, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Silas Marner, The Old Man of the Sea and many others, alongside other more contemporary works like Maurice Walsh's Blackcock's Feather and some of Roddy Doyles work. Surely something in there interests you? Or is it simply that you don't want to read anything you "have to".

For the Irish poet, I can recommend Patrick Kavanagh who's far from a "whinge bag". But then I don't find many of them to be whinge bags. Again, is it just a case that you dislike whatever you're told is good?

Post by **baby tuckoo** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 5:45 pm

Yes, Alatar, we require all of the above at some point, but there are also a few that I consider highly flawed . . . though current or historical opinion redeems them in some eyes. The Joy Luck Club is not to my taste nor to that of most teens, especially boys. Frankenstein has a very small audience, I not in it.

When I rule the world (well, my English Dept., which may be never) things will change. "In Cold Blood," "Farewell, My Lovely," and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater." Among others.

Post by **Crucifer** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:43 pm

I'll send you my paperback copy of the Earthsea trilogy

It's a quintet...

Alatar, unfortunately, the course rotates, and none of the above are on for me.

Post by **Crucifer** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:00 am

Wow. I started the Pilgrims Progress this morning. It takes me about ten minutes to get my head around each paragraph.

But it is superb nonetheless.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:22 am

There are five Earthsea books, but I think the first three stand alone as the story of Ged. I love the fourth, Tehanu, but more on its own terms than as a continuation of the first three. It's more adult and unbending, and has a lot of anger in it. It's also maybe my favorite of all of Le Guin's books.

The fifth book, The Other Wind, felt slight by comparison, not nearly as powerful as Tehanu. It just doesn't feel "essential" to me.

Post by **truehobbit** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:06 am

vison wrote:Hey, truehobbit, I haven't thought of Don Camillo for years and years! I read a couple of them long ago and really enjoyed them. In English, of course.

w00t - someone who knows the stories! I'm impressed, vison.

I'm reading it in German, which is of course a translation, too, so we're on the same level here.

If you can get your hands on one of the old movies with Fernandel, that's worth watching, too (although I don't know how they fare in translation, or even what they sound like in the original, if it's subtitled).

I read Pilgrim's Progress out of curiosity sometime halfway through Uni - I don't remember why I became interested, but I really liked it.

Post by **WampusCat** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:11 am

I stand corrected! I had no idea there were more than three of the Earthsea books. There were three on my shelf, therefore it must be a trilogy.

It's been a long time since I read them. Perhaps back then there wasn't a fourth or fifth.

Post by **elfshadow** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:19 am

I started reading The Killer Angels today. I've wanted to for a long time. And I'm unashamed to admit that I started wanting to after I saw the movie Gettysburg which is based on The Killer Angels.

I'm very much enjoying it so far! I've always liked American Civil War history.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:15 am

That does sound interesting, Elsha!

Wampus, I highly recommend Tehanu if you haven't read it. It's Tehanu's life when she's almost our age, and what happens to Ged after . . . the events of the end of the last book. (Tehanu is Tenar, the same as the girl who . . . was in the tombs of the Undergods. Trying to avoid spoilers here.) It's beautifully written and angry all at the same time. Yet not unhappy; just honest.

Post by **Lurker** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 4:23 am

I just bought The Pursuit of HappYness by Chris Gardner at a second hand shop (never bought my books new, ever!) and the cashier goes "I can't believe there is actually a book about this movie!" Duh!!!

(I also bought the Da Vinci Code: The Illustrated Version for only $5.00 in mint condition retails at $38.00.) I haven't watched the movie yet, but I haven't been to the movies for years now. I find it's a total waste of my time, nothing good out there, IMHO.

Post by **narya** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:40 am

elfshadow wrote:I started reading The Killer Angels today. I've wanted to for a long time. And I'm unashamed to admit that I started wanting to after I saw the movie Gettysburg which is based on The Killer Angels. I'm very much enjoying it so far! I've always liked American Civil War history.

I read that to my son, before the movie came out, which is actually based upon two books - Killer Angels and, um, The Sixth of Maine or something like that. K.A. was the better book, but I wouldn't recommend anything else by Shaara or his son (I read them, too).

If you want something really bizarre, read The Guns of the South, by Harry Turtledove, an alternate history in which time travelers introduce a little advanced technology into the Civil War and really muck up the timeline.

I've read quite a few war novels, not because I like war novels, but because my son did, and I read books to him well into his elementary school years (including LOTR, of course). It was more a case of sharing aloud, because he could have read them by himself, but enjoyed the ritual.

I went by the "Summer reading list" table at the local Barnes and Nobles the other day, and mentally preened when I realized I'd read almost all of them. The few that I hadn't, I bought.

Post by **baby tuckoo** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:16 am

Yeah, narya, I agree about the Shaara subsequents. Sad, really. I'd hoped for better.

But I strongly recommend to Elfsa The Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson. Or any of the Shelby Foote narratives historys. Or Shiloh, an early novel by Foote, which spurred Shaara to imagine Angels.

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:52 am

Currently reading "Deception Point". I read Da Vinci Code when it came out, and enjoyed it thoroughly (so sue me). Angels and Demons I found to be complete rubbish. It was like a first draft of DVC but without any of the drive. Digital Fortress I was strongly warned against by a few people cause its based on computers and given that I know a fair bit about them I was told it would just bug me. Actually I quite enjoyed it. Most of the "science" was fuzzy and vague, but not in a bad way. I approached it with the same attitude I have to "Phase coil inverters" and "plasma generators" and "warp nacelles" in Trek. I just let it wash over me.

Deception point is good so far, but not the page turner that DVC was.

Post by **Crucifer** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:37 pm

Deception point is the worst of the four.

And I never finished The Other Wind. It was simply not the same standard. I love Tehanu though.

Post by **WampusCat** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:57 pm

"The Guns of the South"! That's it! narya, I heard about that book years ago, probably on NPR, and thought it sounded fascinating. But I promptly forgot the name and never took the time to search for it properly. I figured I'd run across it eventually. And I did!