Read Any Good Books Lately?

[Tuber Mirum 125]

I'm with NAP on this one, I read Use of Weapons and The Business and found myself not really following what was going on, and not really caring either by the end. Strange, as I usually love Sci-fi and weirdness in general, and everyone I know (well, those who know what sort of books I like) swore blind I'd have loved Banks's stuff.

 

Don't misunderstand me, I found them riveting, and I also quite enjoyed The Business.

 

I'm just not going to read them again in a hurry.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Finished Dawkins tonight and started the awesome 'The Damned United' a novelisation of Brian Clough's time in charge at Leeds United. Written as a diary, it started brilliantly. Skipped ahead for a look, and can HIGHLY RECOMMEND page 209!

[TLC 9]

I'm with NAP on this one, I read Use of Weapons and The Business and found myself not really following what was going on, and not really caring either by the end. Strange, as I usually love Sci-fi and weirdness in general, and everyone I know (well, those who know what sort of books I like) swore blind I'd have loved Banks's stuff.

 

Don't misunderstand me, I found them riveting, and I also quite enjoyed The Business.

 

I'm just not going to read them again in a hurry.

Ah sorry, I did completely misunderstand. Maybe I'll re-read them one day, it has been a few years.

 

I might get round to finishing 'Stranger in A Strange Land' by Robert Heinlein one day, can't remember why I didn't finish it the first time as it was pretty good up to the point I stopped reading it. I must have purchased something else I was desperate to read and thought I'd come back to it.

 

Halfway through 'Merde Actually' by Stephen Clarke at the mo (another one I stopped reading and recently picked back up), one I can read on the train with pride as there's a French swear word on the cover and it was some sort of bestseller too I think, so that's ok.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

The Damned Utd is highly recommended from MPFC Towers. Young Maryport also impressed with the candid portraits of seventies footballers.

[Rebecca de Winter 8]

Bookies taking bets on the boy wizard's demise in the final book. Shortest odds on Voldemort to off him.

 

Either way, we'll probably know in 2007, what do the Potterheads on the list think?

 

Rowling was right on the money for the first 4 - Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and then completely lost the plot (and many readers) with Order of the Phoenix, managed to stumble back with Half-Blood Prince, so, who knows what unpredictable things may happen in the next story? She was in tears over killing off Sirius, so can she really bring herself to kill off Harry? The odds are against. And does anyone want the bad guy to win?

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

does anyone want the bad guy to win?

 

Yeah, the bookies, they'll be cleaned out if he dies!

[Rebecca de Winter 8]

does anyone want the bad guy to win?

 

Yeah, the bookies, they'll be cleaned out if he dies!

 

I was referring to the readers when I said "anyone", but I see your point, but then again, who cares if the bookies get cleaned out, apart from them?

Long Live Harry Potter and Death To Voldemort!!

[CarolAnn 926]

Rowling was right on the money for the first 4 - Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, and then completely lost the plot (and many readers) with Order of the Phoenix, managed to stumble back with Half-Blood Prince, so, who knows what unpredictable things may happen in the next story? She was in tears over killing off Sirius, so can she really bring herself to kill off Harry? The odds are against. And does anyone want the bad guy to win?

 

I generally root for the bad guy - they are misunderstood. We have to have the bad guys, because then the "good" guys wouldn't have any reason to be sanctimonious.

 

I have read all the Harry Potter books in a gradual sort of way, and I still don't understand what all the hype is about. JK Rowling should be edited with a light saber. She really isn't that good of a writer - she's wordy and she wanders. I often wonder if the movies hadn't been done by Warner Brothers in a fairly good fashion if the momentum on the books would have continued.

[Rebecca de Winter 8]

Agreed, what would the good guys do if the bad guys weren't there? Sit around twiddling their wands I guess...

 

I enjoyed the first four books, she lost me in Order of the Phoenix (hard going), redeemed herself somewhat with Half-Blood Prince....perhaps she should have quit while she was ahead.

 

There are those who will keep reading just to see if she fires up again or to see how it all ends - I think the books, at least four, would have been popular even without the movies, but I think maybe she kept writing because of the movies.

[maryportfuncity 10,646]

Currently wading through Stuart MacConie's 'Pies and Prejudice' an exploration of all things Northern English. One fact made me laugh out loud, the standard tests for colo-rectal cancer include examining faeces, basically you sh*t blood with this problem.

 

However in Bury, Lancs - Black Pudding Mecca for the whole world - the locals shift so much congealed blood, with spices and fat, that the usual stool tests are totally unreliable.

[Godot 149]

No need to wade through The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Great story, great piece of writing, very moving and impossible to be dry-eyed at the end. I couldn't put it down. Brilliant.

[Phantom 2,533]

"The Trials of Lenny Bruce - The fall and rise of an American icon" - Ronald K. L. Collins & David M. Skover

 

The title of the book says it all really, goes into a fair amount of detail about the events in the courtroom during Bruce's obscenity trials and the other events going on in his life that shaped his mood until his death on August 3rd 1966.

[The Pooka 26]

The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst.

 

Wonderful stuff about Robert Louis S's ancestors building lighthouses such as Bell Rock and Skerryvore on bare Scottish rock.

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence by David Benatar.

 

Musings from an 'anti-natalist' point of view. In it, he suggests we suffer "quite serious harms" by coming into existence that "could not have befallen one had one not come into existence".

 

It was nominated for the strangest book title of the year award.

[Slave to the Grave 26]

I've discovered possibly the worst book ever written. It's called Dark Lady and it's by Richard North Patterson. I don't think I can read any more. I quote:

 

Stella's voice was toneless 'How did it happen?'

'With love'. The voice belonged to Detective John Burba. Crossing the room, he stood beside Dance. Thought both were big, Burba was red haired and blocky and proletarian, with a crude perfunctory manner. 'This a full-on, fist-f***kers-of-America, male-on-male scene'.

 

And later:

 

'Micelli's didactic tone aroused just enough antipathy to keep Stella from throwing up. She could feel Dance watching her again. In a thin voice, she asked, 'What about anal penetration?'

 

 

Apparently a New York Times bestseller

[Banshees Scream 110]

Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence by David Benatar.

 

Giving him the credit of just two cents for highlighting a very interesting view and concept, but all in all his opinion is weary and is just simply an 'opinion'. People live rich lives of pleasure, and others suck at it period. I never read the book but just from the title it sounds like a manic depressive thought it up. Life brings many things, feel lucky to be apart of it. It can be a wonderful place'

[DevonDeathTrip 2,358]

Better Never To Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence by David Benatar.

 

Giving him the credit of just two cents for highlighting a very interesting view and concept, but all in all his opinion is weary and is just simply an 'opinion'. People live rich lives of pleasure, and others suck at it period. I never read the book but just from the title it sounds like a manic depressive thought it up. Life brings many things, feel lucky to be apart of it. It can be a wonderful place'

 

But Mr Scream, while the many wonderful things in life might make your life go better than it otherwise might have gone, you could not have been deprived by their absence if you had not existed. Those who never exist cannot be deprived. It could be argued that the harm that your existence causes the world as a whole outweighs the benefits you might bring to it. I hasten to add that this reasoning could be applied to everybody and not just you

 

You might like to visit the website of The Voluntary Human Extinction Society for further information:

 

http://www.vhemt.org/

 

Anyway it is far too early in the morning for philosophy, I'm going to put the kettle on. I wish Hein was still about, I'd welcome his input in to this particular discussion.

[Brinsworth House Baiter 12]

I've discovered possibly the worst book ever written. It's called Dark Lady and it's by Richard North Patterson. I don't think I can read any more. I quote:

 

Stella's voice was toneless 'How did it happen?'

'With love'. The voice belonged to Detective John Burba. Crossing the room, he stood beside Dance. Thought both were big, Burba was red haired and blocky and proletarian, with a crude perfunctory manner. 'This a full-on, fist-f***kers-of-America, male-on-male scene'.

 

And later:

 

'Micelli's didactic tone aroused just enough antipathy to keep Stella from throwing up. She could feel Dance watching her again. In a thin voice, she asked, 'What about anal penetration?'

 

 

Apparently a New York Times bestseller

 

Sounds delightfully appalling!

 

As an aspiring and oft rejected writer, I find it inspiring that such superfluous and poncey sh*t is making the New York Times bestseller list.

 

There's hope for my own superfluous and poncey sh*t yet.

 

Happy days!

 

Cheers,

 

BHB

[Banshees Scream 110]

But Mr Scream, while the many wonderful things in life might make your life go better than it otherwise might have gone, you could not have been deprived by their absence if you had not existed. Those who never exist cannot be deprived. It could be argued that the harm that your existence causes the world as a whole outweighs the benefits you might bring to it. I hasten to add that this reasoning could be applied to everybody and not just you

 

I disagree along the terms of if you never existed you can't be deprived. Science hasn't scratched the face of anything concerning the basis and understanding of life before or after period. Your speaking from a very scientific view point, which I respect at certain extremes but those who never got the opportunity to live in my eyes have been deprived from the so called 'fruits' of life. Talking phrases' around here everybody debates about the true meanings of them, and even as competition rules todays world behind the mask of ones destiny, as some will win and some will lose, I guess every man and woman is a star.

[Gunjaman5000 30]

I've discovered possibly the worst book ever written. It's called Dark Lady and it's by Richard North Patterson. I don't think I can read any more. I quote:

 

Stella's voice was toneless 'How did it happen?'

'With love'. The voice belonged to Detective John Burba. Crossing the room, he stood beside Dance. Thought both were big, Burba was red haired and blocky and proletarian, with a crude perfunctory manner. 'This a full-on, fist-f***kers-of-America, male-on-male scene'.

 

And later:

 

'Micelli's didactic tone aroused just enough antipathy to keep Stella from throwing up. She could feel Dance watching her again. In a thin voice, she asked, 'What about anal penetration?'

 

 

Apparently a New York Times bestseller

I've tried twice to get beyond the fifty page mark on this very book, and with another of his I gave equal effort to see if it was just me. I'm glad I'm not the only one, it really is feckin' awful isn't it?

[Madame Defarge 21]

Unfortunately, it has the potential for morphing into an equally gross screenplay.

Maybe titled Stella and the Prole as a romantic comedy , or as a buddy movie,

Burba and Dance, it will be the summer blockbuster of 2008.

[Tuber Mirum 125]

I'm currently enjoying a delightful little opus by James Hamilton-Paterson called Amazing Disgrace.

 

In the course of his discourse Mr. Hamilton-Paterson offers a number of unusual and interesting recipes, one of which I shall offer in the Deathlist Kitchen thread as soon as I can find it.

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

Well, it's not a book but an interesting article all the same, suggesting Eggers isn't quite the arse I believed him to be.

 

Anyway, this is really just an excuse for me to ask if any DLers have ever been to Sudan, as I somehow seem to have got myself posted to a wedding in Khartoum wedding next month and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to have fun and/or avoid death while there? I guess the old jungle juice and the spandex shorts are both frowned upon, and the FO advice is not at all encouraging, so any tips are welcomed - both sensible and, natch, pisstaking ones.

 

Maybe President al-Bashir can also be mentioned in the AfDes thread, although he's a nipper at about 60 and Western 'regime change' must be the current favourite for his demise.

[Monoclinic 39]

Anyway, this is really just an excuse for me to ask if any DLers have ever been to Sudan, as I somehow seem to have got myself posted to a wedding in Khartoum wedding next month and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to have fun and/or avoid death while there?

 

I hear the Sudan is where you pick up old tricks? I suggest your wedding outfit should comprise a pair of underpants and two pencils and that to overcome the language barrier try the word "wobble".

[TLC 9]

Anyway, this is really just an excuse for me to ask if any DLers have ever been to Sudan, as I somehow seem to have got myself posted to a wedding in Khartoum wedding next month and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to have fun and/or avoid death while there?

 

I hear the Sudan is where you pick up old tricks? I suggest your wedding outfit should comprise a pair of underpants and two pencils and that to overcome the language barrier try the word "wobble".

Has to be 'wibble' or else it won't work... although saying that it wasn't a complete success for Captain Blackadder either.