posted
I've completed my P D James fest, and very enjoyable it was too. I'd almost forgotten some of her early novels, but as she was once quoted as saying that she had to read one of her OWN novels before a reader forum because she couldn't remember who-done-it, I feel no shame.
After that I felt historical, so I re-read the amazing Wolf Hall and have started the sequel Bring Up the Bodies.
Regarding the number of books read in a year, according to Radio 4 the average person reads six books in a year. Considering the number I read, some people can't read any at all. I wonder if I should set myself a challenge of ONLY reading 52 books a year?
Nooooooooooooooo.............
Registered: Mar 2002
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quote: Books are wonderful things and one can never have too many.
Ah, spoken like someone who has never had to pack up one's entire possessions, load them, unload them and unpack them after a relocation across a distance greater than the European subcontinent.
Or, looked around at one's life and realize that the book boxes and the music boxes account for 90% of the boxes, with the rest of one's supposed well rounded life (clothes, bedding, stuff to cook with and eat with, curious knock knacks of a well travelled world citizen) accounting for a depressing 10%...
quote:Regarding the number of books read in a year, according to Radio 4 the average person reads six books in a year. Considering the number I read, some people can't read any at all. I wonder if I should set myself a challenge of ONLY reading 52 books a year?
Aiyee, only six?! I've read more than that already this year, and I don't spend anywhere near as much time reading as I would like to.
I suppose if you read LONG books limiting yourself to a book a week might not be toooo scary...
Elora:
quote:Ah, spoken like someone who has never [...] looked around at one's life and realize that the book boxes and the music boxes account for 90% of the boxes, with the rest of one's supposed well rounded life (clothes, bedding, stuff to cook with and eat with, curious knock knacks of a well travelled world citizen) accounting for a depressing 10%...
Oh I'm getting to that point. Books, music/dvds and yarn take up a disturbing amount of space, overflowing from their proper places naturally.
From: Mordor | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I need to do something similar. I try to keep my favourites on bookshelves so I can get at them, but those shelves are (of course) full and new favourites and additions to old series no longer fit.
Yesterday I acquired The Wind Through The Keyhole and (while a storm appropriately blew up outside) read a vast amount of it. I like this quote:
quote:'...he said I was too old for stories.'
'A person's never too old for stories, Bill. Man and boy, girl and woman, never too old. We live for them.'
Well said, sai.
From: Mordor | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Eagerly awaiting a book all about the science of Middle Earth!
Come on Amazon....it does not take 2 months for things to be transported any more. Not even if you shipped it to Australia via Africa...
From: Dancing 'twixt the stars | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I've finished The Wind Through The Keyhole and I'm starting Beowulf in between finishing off The Silmarillion. (I got distracted after finishing the main section - bad DQ!)
From: Mordor | Registered: Apr 2002
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Well hurry up and finish reading the Silm, DQ! And then ask about the bits that confused you
From: Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, The Shire! | Registered: Sep 2006
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The Science of Middle-Earth by Henry Gee....lots of fabbo stuff about Tolkien's concepts, peoples, events...mithril, elves, orcs, magic...lots of cool stuff. Happy nerdlet
From: Dancing 'twixt the stars | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:The Science of Middle-Earth by Henry Gee....
Hey, I've got that one as well!
Yes, wonderfully nerdy I haven't finished it yet - but then again, it is just as much a small encyclopedia to look up things in. I should read more of it in context, though
From: Narnia, also connected with Norway | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I am missing the great TheGentleman who could always be relied upon for reading recommendations.
I find myself in dire need of inspiration for new authors to entice my reading hours. I am happily reading biographies from the Tudor period, but I would like to have something else in my sights. Any suggestions?
posted
I might recommend the George Smiley spy series which is interesting and well-written if nothing else. Took me six months to finish all three. I even read the middle one which people often skip, The Hounarable Schoolboy. I dont know why people do, it's only around 800 pages long and it is my favourite of the three! Likewise I'm not sure what to read now. Must confess that there is not much recently written fantasy wise that interests me, sadly, so I might have to go for a classic. I might even try the book I was tormented with as a schoolboy for EnglishnLit, The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy. I might even like it now!
From: Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, The Shire! | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
WAIT ROXY??????!!!!! Prepare for major glompage! How are you, you long-missing and much-missed reprobate?
From: Hades, UK | Registered: Mar 2003
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'Die Welle,' which is 'The Wave,' in German. Fascinating study in the manipulation of group dynamics based upon an experiment by a California high school teacher. Incredulous students ask how Nazism could've occurred. They find out, in quite spectacular fashion.
[ 10-17-2012, 06:51 AM: Message edited by: Maia Olorin ]
From: Where The Streets Have No Name | Registered: Jul 2002
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I read "The Wave" some years ago, M.O. and feel inspired to hunt it out and read it again. I remember that it was quite disturbing, especially as it was based on a real experiment. Short, but good, IIRC.
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Yes. Basically true to real life events at a Palo Alto High School in the late 60's. The most disturbing thing about it, imo, is that it didn't take long for the movement to turn nasty, nor did the Leader, in this case, the teacher, exhort his students toward intolerance and threatening/ominous behaviour. The dynamic just evolved that way... within a week or so. Nice middle-class kids became little Nazis. This is a real-life case history akin to Milgram's study as well as the Stanford Prison Experiment. The data are conclusive that this kind of Darkness was/is not specific to the German people, as many uninformed people have assumed.
From: Where The Streets Have No Name | Registered: Jul 2002
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I've read more than that already this year, and I don't spend anywhere near as much time reading as I would like to.![[]](icons/icon22.gif){kind=icon}
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Books, music/dvds and yarn take up a disturbing amount of space, overflowing from their proper places naturally. ![[]](icons/icon56.gif){kind=icon}
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but mustn't be tempted to reread them ![[]](icons/icon10.gif){kind=icon}
I need to do something similar. I try to keep my favourites on bookshelves so I can get at them, but those shelves are (of course) full and new favourites and additions to old series no longer fit. ![[]](icons/icon58.gif){kind=icon}
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