What books are you currently reading? Part 2

[jeriddian]

Continuation of the thread on good books.

This is the link to the archived thread: http://www.globaljusticealliance.com/archives/thread69/index.htm

[campy]

I'm re-reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of Royal Navy novels, starting with Master and Commander. I'm up to Treason's Harbour now. Great stories, great characters. You feel like you're in the early 1800's when you're immersed in one.

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm going to start reading "The Death of Ivan Ilych" for school.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm re-reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of Royal Navy novels, starting with Master and Commander. I'm up to Treason's Harbour now. Great stories, great characters. You feel like you're in the early 1800's when you're immersed in one.
Oh, yes, Aubrey/Maturin! :D I'm a fan of the series too. I read all 20 books over about the course of year and a half, after seeing the MaC movie in theaters.

Treason's Harbour is the book where Hart's ship blows up, right?

I liked the series so much I gave it a bit of a shout-out - I wrote Stephen Matruin as one of the doctors in the final two chapters of "OLS."

-----

I'm currently reading "Catch-22" for required summer reading. It's one crazy book... Much like the real world, I suppose, it's confusing, circular, convoluted, and shot through with sex. The flight scenes were very well done - Heller was a B-25 pilot in WWII - but the rest of the book inspires an expression much like :huh:. Complicating matters is that it's not a chronological narrative; it jumps around in time without warning. At least near the end it gets easier to understand - and a whole lot grimmer.

[AinoMinako]

I'm reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. It's about the Chicago World's Fair and H. H. Holmes.

[campy]

I'm re-reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of Royal Navy novels, starting with Master and Commander. I'm up to Treason's Harbour now. Great stories, great characters. You feel like you're in the early 1800's when you're immersed in one.
Oh, yes, Aubrey/Maturin! :D I'm a fan of the series too. ... I liked the series so much I gave it a bit of a shout-out - I wrote Stephen Matruin as one of the doctors in the final two chapters of "OLS."Oh, frackle! I was going to refer to a 'Dr. Maturin' in my story. But if it's already been done ... maybe I'll name one of the new cheerleaders Charlotte Aubrey instead.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm re-reading Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series of Royal Navy novels, starting with Master and Commander. I'm up to Treason's Harbour now. Great stories, great characters. You feel like you're in the early 1800's when you're immersed in one.
Oh, yes, Aubrey/Maturin! :D I'm a fan of the series too. ... I liked the series so much I gave it a bit of a shout-out - I wrote Stephen Matruin as one of the doctors in the final two chapters of "OLS."Oh, frackle! I was going to refer to a 'Dr. Maturin' in my story. But if it's already been done ...
That still doesn't mean you couldn't, though. :)


...maybe I'll name one of the new cheerleaders Charlotte Aubrey instead.

I like that. Charlotte Aubrey has a nice ring to it. :D

[MrDrP]

Imperium by Robert Harris. Historically-based political intrigue set in the late Roman Republic.

[campy]

Finished Treason's Harbour, started on The Last Good Season — Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and their Final Pennant Race Together, by Michael Shapiro. So far the issue seems to be: did owner Walter O'Malley really want to keep the team in Brooklyn, or was he just faking it?

[GoTeamGirl]

A Separate Peace by John Knowles for school.

[Twila Starla]

After many a suggestion to read it, I finally started the Artemis Fowl series. So far, I am halfway through the first book, and enjoying it very much. :) Great characters, good writing style, and very humorous! One of the best books I've read this summer.

[Not The CrimpMaster]

Still reading Neuromancer by William Gibson. I started it over the summer, but kind of dropped it when school started. I'll pick it up again when we start having study hall periods in school.

[Molloy]

Actually, I'm not currently reading anything at the moment which is very odd for me. I guess I have just been getting to bed a lot earlier recently.

However, I did finish reading Chibi Vampire, Vol.5 while on break at Barnes & Noble. :thumbup:

[Mike_Industries]

I'm Currently Reading Controversy Creates Cash: An Auto-Biography by Eric Bischoff

It's one of the best books I have ever read. (And no, not because some of Eric's life takes place in Minnesota...)

[Molloy]

Well, since Chibi Vampire, Vol. 6 doesn't come out for a nother three months, I'll try tackling David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. It is a thousand page novel about ... well, it looks to be about everything. I got two hundred pages into it a few years back before it finally overwhelmed me.

Since then, I have read Wallace's "short" story collection Oblivion which I thoroughly enjoyed. So, I'll see if I have what it takes to finish his magnum opus.

One thing I can relate about the novel is that it takes place sometime in the near future where the years are sponsored. Instead of being called 2007, a year is called Year of The Depend Adult Undergarment. Pretty crazy.

[jeriddian]

The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

[Fireand'chutes77]

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, again. It was required for summer reading ("All My Sons;" one off a list of books Catch-22]; and "An American bestseller since 2000"). I decided if I was required to read something, it might as well have explosions, murders, high-tech gadgets, and intelligent, a**-kicking femininas. :P

If they're going to force us read something, why can't they at least choose books that would actually catch student interest, instead of ancient, longwinded, boring books with messages that are delivered with the subtlety of an anvil?

"All My Sons," despite being a play script, defied my expectations and was actually pretty good. That it revolved around WWII and airplanes made it easier to swallow. Catch-22 was an automatic, as it was WWII and airplanes, although given the, uh, adult content contained within it, I'm surprised it made a school reading list. :P

[TransWarpDrive]

"Catch-22" was available in my high school library back when I was in school (all those decades ago... :P). Considering how my peers and I were already "cussing up a storm," and that we already knew the "facts of life" by the time we were freshmen, well, the language and *ahem* adult content really didn't faze us much.
Yeah, by acting that way, we really thought we were being cool and "grown-up..." :laugh:

[recon228]

I just started reading "Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case" by Stephen Farber and Marc Green. It's a very fascinating account of the infamous Twilight Zone accident and the general egomania and arrogance that plagued the movie industry around the mid '80s.

[Cloud23465]

We'll it's not a book... on paper but might as well be. I'm reading all the details on the finaling ruling of the TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential) Program final ruling that will be required by the TSA for workers that do cargo, air, and some other means of transportation. 469 pages in PDF form... so much legal terms... I think I need to go to law school to read this. :confused:

[TransWarpDrive]

Cloud, have you read any of the "Terms of Agreement" that appear on-screen whenever you install any new software? Now that's legalese for you! :blink:
As for what I'm currently reading, I'm rereading the novelization of the first "Fantastic Four" movie (the film released in 2005) by Peter David. He's a well-known science fiction author who's done quite a few novelizations before, and he does an excellent job of "fleshing out" the characters and making them seem more believable. The man's really good at this kind of character development, and it shows in this book - especially in the sequences involving Victor Von Doom's thought processes. Mr. David has successfully depicted Victor as the cold-blodded egomaniac he's supposed to be. Good writing, there...

[Cloud23465]

Cloud, have you read any of the "Terms of Agreement" that appear on-screen whenever you install any new software? Now that's legalese for you! :blink:
As for what I'm currently reading, I'm rereading the novelization of the first "Fantastic Four" movie (the film released in 2005) by Peter David. He's a well-known science fiction author who's done quite a few novelizations before, and he does an excellent job of "fleshing out" the characters and making them seem more believable. The man's really good at this kind of character development, and it shows in this book - especially in the sequences involving Victor Von Doom's thought processes. Mr. David has successfully depicted Victor as the cold-blodded egomaniac he's supposed to be. Good writing, there...

I've started to do that... but went cross eyed and started running round the house screaming. But then again legal stuff that you dont understand can make you do that :laugh:

[TransWarpDrive]

Cloud, have you read any of the "Terms of Agreement" that appear on-screen whenever you install any new software? Now that's legalese for you! :blink:
As for what I'm currently reading, I'm rereading the novelization of the first "Fantastic Four" movie (the film released in 2005) by Peter David. He's a well-known science fiction author who's done quite a few novelizations before, and he does an excellent job of "fleshing out" the characters and making them seem more believable. The man's really good at this kind of character development, and it shows in this book - especially in the sequences involving Victor Von Doom's thought processes. Mr. David has successfully depicted Victor as the cold-blodded egomaniac he's supposed to be. Good writing, there...

I've started to do that... but went cross eyed and started running round the house screaming. But then again legal stuff that you dont understand can make you do that :laugh:
Either that, or lead to permanent confusion... :P

[campy]

Cloud, have you read any of the "Terms of Agreement" that appear on-screen whenever you install any new software? Now that's legalese for you! :blink:
As for what I'm currently reading, I'm rereading the novelization of the first "Fantastic Four" movie Wow, TWD, you're just like Larry! He reads novelizations too! Do you also have a red haired cousin who's a cheerleader? :D

[TransWarpDrive]

Cloud, have you read any of the "Terms of Agreement" that appear on-screen whenever you install any new software? Now that's legalese for you! :blink:
As for what I'm currently reading, I'm rereading the novelization of the first "Fantastic Four" movie Wow, TWD, you're just like Larry! He reads novelizations too! Do you also have a red haired cousin who's a cheerleader? :D
:laugh::laugh:
Unfortunately, no. All my cousins have either blond or brown hair - besides, you wouldn't want to meet them. I won't go into any details, but let's just say they're a real cast of "characters," and leave it at that. ;)
And yes, I read novelizations. Unfortunately, not all of them are good. For instance, the FF movie novelization I'm reading now is far better than the one they did for the current film: "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." The dimwit who penned that book doesn't know squat about science. In one sentence, he described what was obviously an electron microscope as (get this!) an "electromagnetic telescope." :blink: He made dozens of other typos, misspellings, and overall did such a poor job of writing that I regretted having bought the book in the first place. But I'll keep it since it's a mechandising tie-in to the movie.
I also read novels, books on space exploration and aviation (I'm also a licensed private pilot); some military history (mostly the Napoleonic Wars and World War II); biographies - my reading interests cover a wide variety of topics.
So in that aspect, I'm unlike Larry. IIRC, he told Kim he only reads novelizations. Thus his literary interests are narrower than mine.

[campy]

Finished with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now I'm back to Aubrey and Maturin. The Far Side of the World is next in the series.

[GoTeamGirl]

A World Lit By Fire by William Manchester

[The Creeping Spleen]

"Hurricane Gold" by Charlie Higson. Book four of the marvelous Young James Bond series. :)

[jeriddian]

"Sacrifice", the fifth of a six book series in the Star Wars literary aftermath about thirty-five years after RotJ. Pretty dramatic changes. Han and Leia's oldest son is turning into a Sith Lord. Warning: Major characters will die.

[Darth_Comrade]

Aww, you're already on Sacrifice? I'm still stuck on Exile...

And unfrotunately I'm not finding Sacrifice anywhere. But soon, sometime soon I'll find it.

LEGACY OF THE FORCE RULES! :thumbs:

[jeriddian]

Aww, you're already on Sacrifice? I'm still stuck on Exile...

And unfortunately I'm not finding Sacrifice anywhere. But soon, sometime soon I'll find it.

LEGACY OF THE FORCE RULES! :thumbs:

It most certainly does!:D I found Inferno out in paperback strangely enough, but not Sacrifice. I bit the bullet and bought it in hardcover.

Oh, and I just found out, it's not a six book series. There are nine books total. This totally ROCKS.:biggergrin:

But it is so troubling, very dark, no clear distinction between black and white anymore. When everything finally comes out, there's going to be hell to pay between Jacen and the rest of his family.:confused:

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading "Patton: The Man Behind the Legend,1885 - 1945" by Martin Blumenson. Right now I'm at the part where Patton has entered West Point after spending a year at the Virginia Military Institute.
This is an interesting book - I learned that Patton suffered from dyslexia and attention deficit disorder as a child. The dyslexia and ADD made it very hard for Patton to study, but he persevered and got through school by sheer determination. He wasn't going to disgrace his ancestors (many of whom were distinguished Confederate officers during the Civil War) by flunking out of military school.
The author of this book joined Patton's Third Army Headquarters in Luxembourg early in 1945. He never met Patton or even talked with him, but came to admire the general for his exploits. It wasn't until after Patton died that Mr. Blumenson began researching Patton's life and writing books about him, starting with "Breakout and Pursuit" in 1961, which dealt in large part with Patton's battlefield exploits in Normandy. Mr. Blumenson then went on to write a two-volume work entitled "The Patton Papers" in 1972 and 1974, in which he tried to let Patton speak for himself in his own words. This book, then, is Mr. Blumenson's third book on General Patton. :alumnus:

[GoTeamGirl]

Spells and Sleeping Bags by Sarah Mlynowski. A nice, light read before my English teacher has of delve into our assigned books.

[Fireand'chutes77]

"Grapes of Wrath" for English. A good portion of my classmates are saying they don't get it, but I think it's very good. :)

[AinoMinako]

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I like it. :D

Also, tonight I'll be starting Persuasion by Jane Austen and "Writing about Fiction" in The Art of the Short Story for English.

[canuck31003]

Recently I've been wrestling with a bout of nostalgia--I don't remember what triggered my memory, but for some reason my fondness for the old anime series Robotech has resurfaced. I'm mostly only a fan of the Macross saga, so it was fortuitous that I was able to find omnibus versions of the 1st six novels on my first try. I'm amazed Borders still actually had these on the shelf.

Not exactly heavy reading, but it's fun. :P

[GoTeamGirl]

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I like it. :D

Also, tonight I'll be starting Persuasion by Jane Austen and "Writing about Fiction" in The Art of the Short Story for English.

Oddly, I just saw that second book downstairs and had no idea someone had brought it.

I'm reading "Candy" by Kevin Brooks.

[TransWarpDrive]

"Grapes of Wrath" for English. A good portion of my classmates are saying they don't get it, but I think it's very good. :)
Isn't that set in the Dust Bowl in 1930's America? I remember some of my peers in high school were reading that book for English class.

[campy]

I've moved to The Letter of Marque in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Poor Jack Aubrey has been dropped from the Navy List after being unjustly convicted of stock fraud. O'Brian brilliantly conveys the sense of loss Jack feels.

[lunchmeat]

Naval Aviation Training, Operations, Procedures and Systems (NATOPS, aka "the big blue sleeping pill") for LHA/LHD class ships. It's a real page turner.:blink:

[Monstrorrendinformingens]

Weeell, the title at least sounds like there might be pictures in that one which would at least be an advantage compared to philosophical literature.:)

[jeriddian]

"Grapes of Wrath" for English. A good portion of my classmates are saying they don't get it, but I think it's very good. :)
Isn't that set in the Dust Bowl in 1930's America? I remember some of my peers in high school were reading that book for English class.

That's correct. It is set in that time period. The story centers on teh Joad family whoi tavel from Oklahoma towards California looking for a better life, as I recall.

[TransWarpDrive]

"Grapes of Wrath" for English. A good portion of my classmates are saying they don't get it, but I think it's very good. :)
Isn't that set in the Dust Bowl in 1930's America? I remember some of my peers in high school were reading that book for English class.

That's correct. It is set in that time period. The story centers on the Joad family who travel from Oklahoma towards California looking for a better life, as I recall.
Yes, that's it; I remember now. I never read the book myself, but I remember reading comments on it back when I was in school. Thanks, jeriddian! :)

[Fireand'chutes77]

"Grapes of Wrath" for English. A good portion of my classmates are saying they don't get it, but I think it's very good. :)
Isn't that set in the Dust Bowl in 1930's America? I remember some of my peers in high school were reading that book for English class.

That's correct. It is set in that time period. The story centers on the Joad family who travel from Oklahoma towards California looking for a better life, as I recall.
Yes, that's it; I remember now. I never read the book myself, but I remember reading comments on it back when I was in school. Thanks, jeriddian! :)
If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Steinbeck’s writing style takes some getting used to at first - particularly his seemingly-random breaks in the main storyline to touch on other aspects of 1930's-era culture - but I've come to enjoy them. You can just tell, from his level of detail in explaining how the farmers run their fingers through the just or when Tom Joad fixes their car that he's actually done this.

Reading several chapters about the practices and brutal, insidious, oppressive methods of the Western land-owners, I've reached the conclusion that the United States of America was far more effective at getting its way from its own people than any totalitarian state.

[Not The CrimpMaster]

I finished Neuromancer, so now I'm reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I read the short story version in middle school, and it was amazing, best thing I ever read. I'm really excited about the novel. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

I finished Neuromancer, so now I'm reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I read the short story version in middle school, and it was amazing, best thing I ever read. I'm really excited about the novel. :D
I read that novel for English class in high school, and frankly, the idea of losing one's intellect gave me the creeps...:unsure:
As for what I'm currently reading: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jazz" by Alan Axelrod, Ph.D.

[jeriddian]

I finished Neuromancer, so now I'm reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I read the short story version in middle school, and it was amazing, best thing I ever read. I'm really excited about the novel. :D

There's a movie based on that novel starring Cliff Robertson back when he was quite young, about forty years ago. I think the movie was named "Charlie".

[AinoMinako]

I finished Neuromancer, so now I'm reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I read the short story version in middle school, and it was amazing, best thing I ever read. I'm really excited about the novel. :D

There's a movie based on that novel starring Cliff Robertson back when he was quite young, about forty years ago. I think the movie was named "Charlie".

We saw the movie and read the abridged version back in middle school. I really liked it. The movie not so much, though.

[lunchmeat]

Weeell, the title at least sounds like there might be pictures in that one which would at least be an advantage compared to philosophical literature.:)

Sort of depends on how excited one gets over things like helicopter parking spots and jet blast safety regions :rolleyes:

Charlie was indeed the movie, we saw it English after reading the novel. Both were well done.

[campy]

I finished The Letter of Marque and have moved on to The Thirteen Gun Salute in the Aubrey/Maturin series.

[Cloud23465]

Just finished the TWIC Final rule .PDF and finally learned who will make the rule on when you must have this card. Its up to the COTP (Captain of the Port) Now I've got to see who that is.:confused:

[TransWarpDrive]

I finished Neuromancer, so now I'm reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I read the short story version in middle school, and it was amazing, best thing I ever read. I'm really excited about the novel. :D

There's a movie based on that novel starring Cliff Robertson back when he was quite young, about forty years ago. I think the movie was named "Charlie".
IIRC, the film's title was spelled "CHARLY" (with a backwards "R") after the way the title character signed his name.
Cliff Robertson won the "Best Actor" Oscar for his role in the film, too. (He's a good actor - I like his work.)

[Not The CrimpMaster]

I remember seeing Charly after we read the story. I can't remember any specifics, but I think I thought it was good.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Just started the new Terry Pratchett novel, "Making Money". So far, well up to his usual standards of inspired lunacy. :)

[GoTeamGirl]

I finished Candy, which was amazing. Now I'm reading "Jinx" by Meg Cabot.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Reading the play All My Sons for school.

The play being set right after WWII, one quote stood out particularly powerfully, especially considering I'd re-read Flags of Our Fathers a few weeks before, which was about the USMC victory at Iwo Jima and the stories of the six flagraisers.

=====

Chris (who was in command of a company in the Pacific Theater and subsequently lost all his men through enemy action): ...That's only a little thing... but... that's the kind of guys I had. They didn't die; they killed themselves for each other. I mean that exactly; a little more selfish and they'd be here today.

=====

After reading of the valor and spirit and determination of the Marines in FoOF, that's no exaggeration. Truly a band of brothers...

[jeriddian]

Reading the play All My Sons for school.

The play being set right after WWII, one quote stood out particularly powerfully, especially considering I'd re-read Flags of Our Fathers a few weeks before, which was about the USMC victory at Iwo Jima and the stories of the six flagraisers.

=====

Chris (who was in command of a company in the Pacific Theater and subsequently lost all his men through enemy action): ...That's only a little thing... but... that's the kind of guys I had. They didn't die; they killed themselves for each other. I mean that exactly; a little more selfish and they'd be here today.

=====

After reading of the valor and spirit and determination of the Marines in FoOF, that's no exaggeration. Truly a band of brothers...

Absolutely....Absolutely.....:ohwell:

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm starting "The Road of the Dead" by Kevin Brooks, about two brothers whose sister is murdered, and apparently they go out to find what happened.

[Commander Argus]

Well, I tried reading "Battlefield Earth" for the umpteenth time (It's a great book, don't judge it by that utter crud movie) but the copy just couldn't take it and went to pieces on me.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Well, I tried reading "Battlefield Earth" for the umpteenth time (It's a great book, don't judge it by that utter crud movie) but the copy just couldn't take it and went to pieces on me.

Yeah, I had that problem as well - read the book too many times and it just falls to bits.

But like the good Commander says - great book, terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE movie...

[TransWarpDrive]

Well, I tried reading "Battlefield Earth" for the umpteenth time (It's a great book, don't judge it by that utter crud movie) but the copy just couldn't take it and went to pieces on me.

Yeah, I had that problem as well - read the book too many times and it just falls to bits.

But like the good Commander says - great book, terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE movie...
Unfortunately, that's what usually happens when they turn a book into a movie. Something inevitably gets lost in the translation, and no one is happy with the results. :ohwell:

[lunchmeat]

Well, I tried reading "Battlefield Earth" for the umpteenth time (It's a great book, don't judge it by that utter crud movie) but the copy just couldn't take it and went to pieces on me.
You're not going to start hanging out with Tom Cruise, are you?

[jeriddian]

I have never read L. Ron Hubbard. I just have an issue reading a work by somebody who has such trouble understanding the difference between reality and the kind of stuff he writes.

[canuck31003]

It's odd, the first time I read Battlefield Earth I enjoyed it, but when I tried a second time I couldn't finish it. I never saw the movie.

As an aside, I didn't learn of Hubbard's link to Scientology until senior high. Apparently a city in Florida has become Scientology's "mecca"--Town accepts role... CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/24/scientology.city.ap/index.html)

[The Creeping Spleen]

I have never read L. Ron Hubbard. I just have an issue reading a work by somebody who has such trouble understanding the difference between reality and the kind of stuff he writes.

You should give his "Mission Earth" series a try, they're pretty good.

Currently reading "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown.

[jeriddian]

I have never read L. Ron Hubbard. I just have an issue reading a work by somebody who has such trouble understanding the difference between reality and the kind of stuff he writes.

You should give his "Mission Earth" series a try, they're pretty good.

Oh, I've no doubt the series is written well. But any money spent on his books to me is money spent on Scientology, which I feel is far too secretive and shady, and being a scientist myself, the name is a blatant misnomer. I do not feel comfortable doing that.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. :thumbup:

Personally, I always thought Hubbard made Scientology up for a joke, but unfortunately died before he could deliver the punchline. :laugh:

[lunchmeat]

I have never read L. Ron Hubbard. I just have an issue reading a work by somebody who has such trouble understanding the difference between reality and the kind of stuff he writes.
Or ethics and a pitch for the scam he's running.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Try Robert Heinlien instead. :)

I'm quite fond of "Stranger In A Strange Land".

[lunchmeat]

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. :thumbup:

Personally, I always thought Hubbard made Scientology up for a joke, but unfortunately died before he could deliver the punchline. :laugh:

If memory serves, it started with a bar bet, I think at a meeting of the Futurians (Hmmm, kind of like Drakken "It all started on a Tuesday...") then morphed into a money making scheme when he discovered that people would actually go for it.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. :thumbup:

Personally, I always thought Hubbard made Scientology up for a joke, but unfortunately died before he could deliver the punchline. :laugh:

If memory serves, it started with a bar bet, I think at a meeting of the Futurians (Hmmm, kind of like Drakken "It all started on a Tuesday...") then morphed into a money making scheme when he discovered that people would actually go for it.

Shades of PT Barnum. ;)

[lunchmeat]

Pretty much, I saw a History Channel thing on Hubbard once, apparently he was an unusual character. It seems he was removed from command of a Navy gunboat in San Diego for having an unauthorized gunnery practise into Mexican waters during WWII.

[jeriddian]

Try Robert Heinlien instead. :)

I'm quite fond of "Stranger In A Strange Land".

Now THAT is definitely a classic. I will always "grok" Heinlein:biggergrin:.

[lunchmeat]

Yup, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel started me on science fiction back in grade school. We had library day on Fridays and got to check out one or two books, funny how some things get started.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Yup, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel started me on science fiction back in grade school. We had library day on Fridays and got to check out one or two books, funny how some things get started.

Classic book! Great opening line - "You see, I had this space suit..."

Right up there with the first line of John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids, "When a day thay you know to be a Wednesday starts off by sounding like a Sunday, you know that there is something seriously wrong somewhere."

When I was but a wee boy in short rousers, it was the novelisations of old Dr. Who stories that got me into reading. Being the mid 70's pre-video age, this was the only way to "catch up" on all the stories that were before my time.

[Not The CrimpMaster]

I'm still reading Flowers For Algernon, but I'm starting The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, which I'm required to read for the academic decathlon (aka the Nerd Olympics).

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm still reading Flowers For Algernon, but I'm starting The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, which I'm required to read for the academic decathlon (aka the Nerd Olympics).

I read Flowers for Algernon a few months ago. It was very interesting.

Now I'm reading Fade by Robert Cormier. So far it's pretty good.

[TransWarpDrive]

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. :thumbup:

Personally, I always thought Hubbard made Scientology up for a joke, but unfortunately died before he could deliver the punchline. :laugh:

If memory serves, it started with a bar bet, I think at a meeting of the Futurians (Hmmm, kind of like Drakken "It all started on a Tuesday...") then morphed into a money making scheme when he discovered that people would actually go for it.
I heard that he started Scientology on a dare from Lester Del Rey (1915-1993), famous SF author, critic, and editor.

[The Creeping Spleen]

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. :thumbup:

Personally, I always thought Hubbard made Scientology up for a joke, but unfortunately died before he could deliver the punchline. :laugh:

If memory serves, it started with a bar bet, I think at a meeting of the Futurians (Hmmm, kind of like Drakken "It all started on a Tuesday...") then morphed into a money making scheme when he discovered that people would actually go for it.
I heard that he started Scientology on a dare from Lester Del Rey (1915-1993), famous SF author, critic, and editor.

I wouldn't be at all surpised. :)

[jeriddian]

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. :thumbup:

Personally, I always thought Hubbard made Scientology up for a joke, but unfortunately died before he could deliver the punchline. :laugh:

If memory serves, it started with a bar bet, I think at a meeting of the Futurians (Hmmm, kind of like Drakken "It all started on a Tuesday...") then morphed into a money making scheme when he discovered that people would actually go for it.
I heard that he started Scientology on a dare from Lester Del Rey (1915-1993), famous SF author, critic, and editor.

I'd love to hear that story.:laugh:

[The Creeping Spleen]

Me too. :)

Just started reading "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. An epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae (its says on the cover).

[jeriddian]

Me too. :)

Just started reading "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. An epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae (its says on the cover).

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "Gates of Fire" were a geological formation of cliffs or something that provided the narrow passageway that allowed teh Spartans to so successfully defend their front line against the Persians for a long as they did.:hmm:I always thought that was an interesting name.

Right now I'm reading about "Viruses and Kidney Disease"...........joy......... Actually it is interesting, but difficult to wade through. I need "Wade" to explain it to me.:P:laugh:

[The Creeping Spleen]

Right now I'm reading about "Viruses and Kidney Disease"...........joy......... Actually it is interesting, but difficult to wade through. I need "Wade" to explain it to me.:P:laugh:

You a medical type person, Jeriddian?

[jeriddian]

I am a health professional, yes.:)

[campy]

I'm taking a short break from Aubrey & Maturin to read The Republic of Pirates, by Colin Woodard. Subtitled "Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down." I think I even borrowed it on ITLAP Day. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm taking a short break from Aubrey & Maturin to read The Republic of Pirates, by Colin Woodard. Subtitled "Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down." I think I even borrowed it on ITLAP Day. :D
Any mention of Black-Eye Brown in that book, matey? ;)
Arrrr...
:laugh:

[campy]

I'm taking a short break from Aubrey & Maturin to read The Republic of Pirates, by Colin Woodard. Subtitled "Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down." I think I even borrowed it on ITLAP Day. :D
Any mention of Black-Eye Brown in that book, matey? ;)
Arrrr...
:laugh:Not yet. Not even any swords that shoot energy beams.

[Not The CrimpMaster]

I finished Flowers, so I'm going to start Count Zero by William Gibson pretty soon.

[Cloud23465]

I'm reading a .Pdf about how womens sence of smell is so much stronger then mens... well that explains why there always frist to complain about a bad smell.:laugh:

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm taking a short break from Aubrey & Maturin to read The Republic of Pirates, by Colin Woodard. Subtitled "Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down." I think I even borrowed it on ITLAP Day. :D
Any mention of Black-Eye Brown in that book, matey? ;)
Arrrr...
:laugh:Not yet. Not even any swords that shoot energy beams.
How pitiful... :ohwell: :P :laugh:

[campy]

I've now moved on to The Truelove, (a.k.a. Clarissa Oakes in the UK), the next Aubrey-Maturin sea story.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've now moved on to The Truelove, (a.k.a. Clarissa Oakes in the UK), the next Aubrey-Maturin sea story.
Ah, Clarissa... :thumbup: I can't remember; is Truelove the first book she features in?

I took a near-instant liking to Clarissa... The idea of a girl blowing somebody away with both barrels of a shotgun cranks their ******-cool levels up considerably. :biggergrin: :cool:

One reason I enjoyed the series so much was O'Brian's inclusion of strong, independent women in DeVillers and Oakes, who elegantly contrasted the fieldmouse persona of women of the time. There's nothing like a girl who can kick some butt and hold her own.... Why is this sounding so familiar? :whistle: :D

Somehow, I can imagine Stephen and Clarissa having a conversation like this at some point:

"...It's locked. Maybe I can pick it.... Do you have a bobby pin?"

"I don't know... Let me ask my grandmother!"

"...Are all girls like this, or just the ones I know...?!"

:rolleyes: :laugh: :D

[ncnu]

Just finished Steven Sears's biography, George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon. Hoo-boy. As Bugs would say, "What a maroon!" :sick:

[Fireand'chutes77]

On an inspiration from a post in another thread, I picked up "Flight 116 is Down" from the school library. Viscerally graphic and well-written, IMHO. :)

[TransWarpDrive]

I've now moved on to The Truelove, (a.k.a. Clarissa Oakes in the UK), the next Aubrey-Maturin sea story.
Ah, Clarissa... :thumbup: I can't remember; is Truelove the first book she features in?

I took a near-instant liking to Clarissa... The idea of a girl blowing somebody away with both barrels of a shotgun cranks their ******-cool levels up considerably. :biggergrin: :cool:

One reason I enjoyed the series so much was O'Brian's inclusion of strong, independent women in DeVillers and Oakes, who elegantly contrasted the fieldmouse persona of women of the time. There's nothing like a girl who can kick some butt and hold her own.... Why is this sounding so familiar? :whistle: :D

Somehow, I can imagine Stephen and Clarissa having a conversation like this at some point:

"...It's locked. Maybe I can pick it.... Do you have a bobby pin?"

"I don't know... Let me ask my grandmother!"

"...Are all girls like this, or just the ones I know...?!"

:rolleyes: :laugh: :D

:laugh::laugh:
Boy, Clarissa - and Kim - are nothing like my ex-fiancee. She definitely had a "fieldmouse persona" like what you described above... :P
P.S. If you like reading about strong, independent women, I highly recommend David Weber's "Honor Harrington" novels. They're good military SF set in the future; and Honor Harrington, the main character, is best described as a cross between Kim Possible and Horatio Hornblower. I really think you'd like them, 'chutes.
Here's the complete list of Harrington books to date, in case you're interested:

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs

In addition to the novels, Mr. Weber has also edited four books of Harrington short stories:

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
In the Service of the Sword (?)

These four books have short stories about Honor Harrington, or that are set in her world. Some are by Mr. Weber, others by different authors. I suggest you read the full-length novels first, because some of the short stories explain in more detail incidents that are only mentioned in passing in the novels. All of these books are still in print, in hardcover and paperback. And there are more on the way.
Just thought I'd pass this along...

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've been tasked with an independent reading assignment which requires that I select a book from a list of "Top 100 American Authors/Books." There are many such lists out there; my English teacher said to just make sure the list was from a reputable source, not "Bob's Blog of a Thousand Chewing Gums."

I'd wanted to read Orwell's 1984, even though it would have been horrendously depressing, if just to finally say that I've read the source of all the pop-culture references surrounding it. Unfortunately, the list is constricted to Yankee authors.

This is the list I'm planning to use. (http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html) Now I just have to figure out which authors are American.

The teacher stressed that this shouldn't be "work;" we should choose a book that we actually want to read. From the list, I've been checking out Heinlein's stuff (Stranger in a Strange Land; Starship Troopers) on Wikipedia. I've never read his stuff, but I've heard that Stranger involves, um, secretaries. :errr: :blush: ;)

Any suggestions?

[cpneb]

I've been tasked with an independent reading assignment which requires that I select a book from a list of "Top 100 American Authors/Books." There are many such lists out there; my English teacher said to just make sure the list was from a reputable source, not "Bob's Blog of a Thousand Chewing Gums."

I'd wanted to read Orwell's 1984, even though it would have been horrendously depressing, if just to finally say that I've read the source of all the pop-culture references surrounding it. Unfortunately, the list is constricted to Yankee authors.

This is the list I'm planning to use. (http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html) Now I just have to figure out which authors are American.

The teacher stressed that this shouldn't be "work;" we should choose a book that we actually want to read. From the list, I've been checking out Heinlein's stuff (Stranger in a Strange Land; Starship Troopers) on Wikipedia. I've never read his stuff, but I've heard that Stranger involves, um, secretaries. :errr: :blush: ;)

Any suggestions?

Both Heinlein's are excellent: Starship Troopers is geared towards a younger (read: under 18) reader, while Stranger in a Strange Land is most definitely for a more 'adult' (read: over 18) reader. If you've read any T or M on the fanfic sites, you're good.

And, the secretaries? To quote the Pharaoh from ff.net:

Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina

Once you get past that part, you'll find a very good and deep message (messages).

[edit] In fact, double-lucky, all of the Heinleins on the list are worth a read: been through them, multiple times. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and Catch-22 are also on my recommended list.

[Fireand'chutes77]

...Starship Troopers is geared towards a younger (read: under 18) reader, while Stranger in a Strange Land is most definitely for a more 'adult' (read: over 18) reader. If you've read any T or M on the fanfic sites, you're good.
Have you read the beginning of The After? I've written T. :rolleyes:

And, the secretaries? To quote the Pharaoh from ff.net:

Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina

Once you get past that part, you'll find a very good and deep message (messages).
I want to get past that part? :huh: :P

Thanks for the tips; I didn't know Starship Troopers was geared toward a teen audience (although the fact probably doesn't take away from its punch). By the amount of furor it generated (thank you, Wikipedia!), I would have thought it was aimed at the mainstream crowd.

[cpneb]

...Starship Troopers is geared towards a younger (read: under 18) reader, while Stranger in a Strange Land is most definitely for a more 'adult' (read: over 18) reader. If you've read any T or M on the fanfic sites, you're good.
Have you read the beginning of The After? I've written T. :rolleyes:

And, the secretaries? To quote the Pharaoh from ff.net:

Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina Hamina

Once you get past that part, you'll find a very good and deep message (messages).
I want to get past that part? :huh: :P

Thanks for the tips; I didn't know Starship Troopers was geared toward a teen audience (although the fact probably doesn't take away from its punch). By the amount of furor it generated (thank you, Wikipedia!), I would have thought it was aimed at the mainstream crowd.

The furor is over the fact that, even when the book first came out and even for a time after that, it was/is perceived as glorifying war and combat against others just because they're different-looking or thinking from us...gee, does that sound familiar?

RAH was notorious in planting nasty little thinking bunnies throughout his stories. Go to 'Farnham's Freehold' if you really want to raise your teachers' neck hairs...LOL!

[TransWarpDrive]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

[jeriddian]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happen's next!:dubiety:

[cpneb]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happen's next!:dubiety:

A cross for you, jeriddian: Kim/Honor, caused by a dimensional rift to bring someone from the KimVerse into the Honorverse...and, Kim's first meeting with Mike Henke:

(Kim) Monique!
(Mike) Do I know you?
(Kim) Monique, it's me: Kim.
(Mike) I don't know you, 'Kim,' but two things are wrong:
1. You're on my ship, and you don't being here.
and
2. My name's not Monique: it's Michelle Henke. Admiral Michelle Henke, to be precise.

interested, Jeriddian?

[jeriddian]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happen's next!:dubiety:

A cross for you, jeriddian: Kim/Honor, caused by a dimensional rift to bring someone from the KimVerse into the Honorverse...and, Kim's first meeting with Mike Henke:

(Kim) Monique!
(Mike) Do I know you?
(Kim) Monique, it's me: Kim.
(Mike) I don't know you, 'Kim,' but two things are wrong:
1. You're on my ship, and you don't being here.
and
2. My name's not Monique: it's Michelle Henke. Admiral Michelle Henke, to be precise.

interested, Jeriddian?

:blink::unsure::huh::blink::surprised::scared::dri bble:...................

Do you remember what Anthony Quinn's Sheik Abu character said to Peter O'Toole's T. L. Lawrence in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", when Lawrence outfoxed him into agreeing to attack Aqaba from across the Negev Desert?

"Thy mother mated with a scorpion!"

:confused:I normally don't care for crossovers, but this one's got me intrigued. Where is it, you fiendishly clever scorpion's son!?:P:laugh::laugh::laugh:

[Fireand'chutes77]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happen's next!:dubiety:

A cross for you, jeriddian: Kim/Honor, caused by a dimensional rift to bring someone from the KimVerse into the Honorverse...and, Kim's first meeting with Mike Henke:

(Kim) Monique!
(Mike) Do I know you?
(Kim) Monique, it's me: Kim.
(Mike) I don't know you, 'Kim,' but two things are wrong:
1. You're on my ship, and you don't being here.
and
2. My name's not Monique: it's Michelle Henke. Admiral Michelle Henke, to be precise.

interested, Jeriddian?
Wait... Mike's a girl...?

*Does research*

And... hold up..... Honor's a girl?!! :eek: :eek:

Hadn't expected that... The name "Honor Harrington" always brought to mind a clean-cut 1950's-vintage uber-male. :huh:

...Why does this shock seem ironically familier? :blush:


Rufus 3000: ...Wasn't it clear that Shego was the only one smart enough to take over the world?

Kim: Uh, well, um, I guess it always seemed more like a guy thing?


OK, then, who's the eyepatch babe (http://www.davidmattingly.com/Media/MATT_001_400lg/MATT_326lg.jpg) who looks a lot like Dr. Director?

EDIT: I'm looking at a map of the "Honorverse" on Wikipedia. Where's Earth?

[cpneb]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happen's next!:dubiety:

A cross for you, jeriddian: Kim/Honor, caused by a dimensional rift to bring someone from the KimVerse into the Honorverse...and, Kim's first meeting with Mike Henke:

(Kim) Monique!
(Mike) Do I know you?
(Kim) Monique, it's me: Kim.
(Mike) I don't know you, 'Kim,' but two things are wrong:
1. You're on my ship, and you don't being here.
and
2. My name's not Monique: it's Michelle Henke. Admiral Michelle Henke, to be precise.

interested, Jeriddian?

:blink::unsure::huh::blink::surprised::scared::dri bble:...................

Do you remember what Anthony Quinn's Sheik Abu character said to Peter O'Toole's T. L. Lawrence in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", when Lawrence outfoxed him into agreeing to attack Aqaba from across the Negev Desert?

"Thy mother mated with a scorpion!"

:confused:I normally don't care for crossovers, but this one's got me intrigued. Where is it, you fiendishly clever scorpion's son!?:P:laugh::laugh::laugh:

There is a very large, superdreagnaught-sized, plot bunny that appeared in my study when I read your post. The idea has carrier-sized 'Possibilities,' and it's quite intriguing. Two of my favorite women: Kim and Honor...wow....
I'll have to give it some serious thought....

[Fireand'chutes77]

interested, Jeriddian?

:blink::unsure::huh::blink::surprised::scared::dri bble:...................

Do you remember what Anthony Quinn's Sheik Abu character said to Peter O'Toole's T. L. Lawrence in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", when Lawrence outfoxed him into agreeing to attack Aqaba from across the Negev Desert?

"Thy mother mated with a scorpion!"

:confused:I normally don't care for crossovers, but this one's got me intrigued. Where is it, you fiendishly clever scorpion's son!?:P:laugh::laugh::laugh:

There is a very large, superdreagnaught-sized, plot bunny that appeared in my study when I read your post. The idea has carrier-sized 'Possibilities,' and it's quite intriguing. Two of my favorite women: Kim and Honor...wow....
I'll have to give it some serious thought....

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8371/battlebunnygt2.jpg

"We will never... have trouble... finding a parking space... ever... again!"

[TransWarpDrive]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happens next!:dubiety:
You and me both, jeriddian. I guess Mr. Weber's got us hooked, huh? :biggergrin:
EDIT: cpneb, jeriddian, I've already started on a Kim/Honor crossover fanfic. It's still in a rough draft form, but I've definitely got an outline. One of these days, I'll get back to working on it.
SECOND EDIT: The book I'm currently reading is War As I Knew It by General George S. Patton Jr. It's his memoirs about his service in World War II.

[jeriddian]

interested, Jeriddian?

Do you remember what Anthony Quinn's Sheik Abu character said to Peter O'Toole's T. L. Lawrence in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", when Lawrence outfoxed him into agreeing to attack Aqaba from across the Negev Desert?

"Thy mother mated with a scorpion!"

:confused:I normally don't care for crossovers, but this one's got me intrigued. Where is it, you fiendishly clever scorpion's son!?:P:laugh::laugh:

There is a very large, superdreagnaught-sized, plot bunny that appeared in my study when I read your post. The idea has carrier-sized 'Possibilities,' and it's quite intriguing. Two of my favorite women: Kim and Honor...wow....
I'll have to give it some serious thought....

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8371/battlebunnygt2.jpg

"We will never... have trouble... finding a parking space... ever... again!"




'chutes!!!! You Sly Dog!!!!!! http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/747/24bdi5.gifhttp://img102.imageshack.us/img102/8752/20bai8.gifhttp://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8111/27b5zw.gifhttp://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9300/103nc.gifhttp://img440.imageshack.us/img440/2904/9cbr8.gif

That is just about the funniest thing I've seen in a VERY long time!!!:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:


EDIT: Oh, and 'chutes, yes, Honor Harrington is definitely female as is Admiral Henke, who is one of her closest friends. The "eyepatch babe" is Honor Harrington herself BTW. You will find the women portrayed in David Weber's Universe are very strong characters. I think you will enjoy the technical aspects of the series as well in regards to futuristic weapons of war in space. Go get the books and enjoy!

[TransWarpDrive]

Wait... Mike's a girl...?

*Does research*

And... hold up..... Honor's a girl?!! :eek: :eek:

Hadn't expected that... The name "Honor Harrington" always brought to mind a clean-cut 1950's-vintage uber-male. :huh:



OK, then, who's the eyepatch babe (http://www.davidmattingly.com/Media/MATT_001_400lg/MATT_326lg.jpg) who looks a lot like Dr. Director?

EDIT: I'm looking at a map of the "Honorverse" on Wikipedia. Where's Earth?

Earth is located in the Solarian League, which is in the large red circle at the bottom of the map. In fact, Earth's sun, Sol, is at the very center of the Solarian League circle.
And the "eyepatch babe who looks a lot like Dr. Director" is Honor Harrington. At one point in the series, she loses an eye in the line of duty (I won't spoil it by saying where, when, or exactly how she loses it... :P).

[cpneb]

interested, Jeriddian?

Do you remember what Anthony Quinn's Sheik Abu character said to Peter O'Toole's T. L. Lawrence in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", when Lawrence outfoxed him into agreeing to attack Aqaba from across the Negev Desert?

"Thy mother mated with a scorpion!"

:confused:I normally don't care for crossovers, but this one's got me intrigued. Where is it, you fiendishly clever scorpion's son!?:P:laugh:

There is a very large, superdreagnaught-sized, plot bunny that appeared in my study when I read your post. The idea has carrier-sized 'Possibilities,' and it's quite intriguing. Two of my favorite women: Kim and Honor...wow....
I'll have to give it some serious thought....

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8371/battlebunnygt2.jpg

"We will never... have trouble... finding a parking space... ever... again!"



'chutes!!!! You Sly Dog!!!!!! http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/747/24bdi5.gifhttp://img102.imageshack.us/img102/8752/20bai8.gifhttp://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8111/27b5zw.gifhttp://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9300/103nc.gifhttp://img440.imageshack.us/img440/2904/9cbr8.gif

That is just about the funniest thing I've seen in a VERY long time!!!:laugh:

EDIT: Oh, and 'chutes, yes, Honor Harrington is definitely female as is Admiral Henke, who is one of her closest friends. You will find the women portrayed in David Weber's Universe are very strong characters. I think you will enjoy the technical aspects of the series as well in regards to futuristic weapons of war in space. Go get the books and enjoy!

DoubleLucky, you shoot a 40-footer at the buzzer, nothing but Net!
LMAO consistently, and will laugh about this one for the rest of the day!

And, the idea of strong female characters: strong, beautiful (in their own ways), wonderful women, sharp wits, and can they motivate men and women to do more than they ever dreamed of doing? A common factor between the KimVerse and HonorVerse? hmmm.
The guys aren't wimps, either: it's a story that rocks across every book, every chapter!

Oh, and Honor's mom? A doctor, as well (what are the odds?)...only, shorter than Dr. Anne, and most definitely not the kind who would stay at home and bake cookies. She is, however, a beautiful, vibrant, brilliant, and very special woman with a wit that will slice you to shreds and make Bonnie look like a mute nun.

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happens next!:dubiety:
You and me both, jeriddian. I guess Mr. Weber's got us hooked, huh? :biggergrin:
EDIT: cpneb, jeriddian, I've already started on a Kim/Honor crossover fanfic. It's still in a rough draft form, but I've definitely got an outline. One of these days, I'll get back to working on it.
SECOND EDIT: The book I'm currently reading is War As I Knew It by General George S. Patton Jr. It's his memoirs about his service in World War II.

TWD:
We three are hooked on Honor and KP? Gee, there's worse subjects....
Two great minds, on the story idea...let's see how the stories look when they come out. I can almost guarantee that we are not going down the same path to do the story, and the 'Possibilities' are endless, considering the vastness of the HonorVerse.

Good luck, sir!

[Fireand'chutes77]

There is a very large, superdreagnaught-sized, plot bunny that appeared in my study when I read your post. The idea has carrier-sized 'Possibilities,' and it's quite intriguing. Two of my favorite women: Kim and Honor...wow....
I'll have to give it some serious thought....

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/8371/battlebunnygt2.jpg

"We will never... have trouble... finding a parking space... ever... again!"



'chutes!!!! You Sly Dog!!!!!! http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/747/24bdi5.gifhttp://img102.imageshack.us/img102/8752/20bai8.gifhttp://img95.imageshack.us/img95/8111/27b5zw.gifhttp://img255.imageshack.us/img255/9300/103nc.gifhttp://img440.imageshack.us/img440/2904/9cbr8.gif

That is just about the funniest thing I've seen in a VERY long time!!!:laugh:

DoubleLucky, you shoot a 40-footer at the buzzer, nothing but Net!
LMAO consistently, and will laugh about this one for the rest of the day!
Thanks; wierd synapses start firing at 12:20 in the morning! :laugh:


Any other suggestions for the 'Top 100 Books' project?

[cpneb]

Thanks; wierd synapses start firing at 12:20 in the morning! :laugh:

Any other suggestions for the 'Top 100 Books' project?

Isaac Asimov, anyone? The Foundation Series

[jeriddian]

Thanks; wierd synapses start firing at 12:20 in the morning! :laugh:

Any other suggestions for the 'Top 100 Books' project?

Isaac Asimov, anyone? The Foundation Series

Oh, absolutely. This one is a must.:thumbup:

[campy]

I just started on It's Not About the Truth, an examination of the Nifong/Duke lacrosse malicious prosecution case of 2006 & '07.

[cpneb]

My take on "Starship Troopers" is that it's a commentary on crime, punishment, and the responsibilities of the individual to the society/nation/state in which he or she resides.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" impressed me with its insights on organized religion, mass media, and popular culture. Especially so, considering how all three were intertwined throughout the book.
Robert Heinlein was very good at inserting such observations about humanity into his books. That's the stuff of good science fiction: social commentary served in a futuristic or otherworldly setting.

I couldn't agree more, TWD. Well said. And I also heartily recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber to all of you out there as well. I just WISH he would get the next book out!:mad: I'm dying to know what happen's next!:dubiety:

A cross for you, jeriddian: Kim/Honor, caused by a dimensional rift to bring someone from the KimVerse into the Honorverse...and, Kim's first meeting with Mike Henke:

(Kim) Monique!
(Mike) Do I know you?
(Kim) Monique, it's me: Kim.
(Mike) I don't know you, 'Kim,' but two things are wrong:
1. You're on my ship, and you don't being here.
and
2. My name's not Monique: it's Michelle Henke. Admiral Michelle Henke, to be precise.

interested, Jeriddian?

:blink::unsure::huh::blink::surprised::scared::dri bble:...................

Do you remember what Anthony Quinn's Sheik Abu character said to Peter O'Toole's T. L. Lawrence in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia", when Lawrence outfoxed him into agreeing to attack Aqaba from across the Negev Desert?

"Thy mother mated with a scorpion!"

:confused:I normally don't care for crossovers, but this one's got me intrigued. Where is it, you fiendishly clever scorpion's son!?:P:laugh::laugh::laugh:

There is a very large, superdreagnaught-sized, plot bunny that appeared in my study when I read your post. The idea has carrier-sized 'Possibilities,' and it's quite intriguing. Two of my favorite women: Kim and Honor...wow....
I'll have to give it some serious thought....

Bunnies from both 'verses have been nibbling at my toes in the middle of the night, and that's not a good thing for attempts to sleep.

Kim is in her mid-20s, pregnant with her first set of tweebs, and Honor has just placed her growing unborn child into a center to allow the child to grow and be born while she's in space (jeriddian: this is all happening in chapter 15 of Weber's At All Costs). Kim wakes up in Admiral Harrington's cabin with a not-too-pleased Andrew Lafollett holding a weapon on her, and Honor wakes up, extra-pregnant, next to a staring-in-shock Ron (because the pregnant woman next to him is not his wife!).

Mike's ancestors, originally from Earth, have passed down from generation to generation (and updated the storage technology each generation) the copies of the original Kim Possible animated series and from Disney and copies of all six KP movies (hey, I can predict!): Mike recognizes her when Andrew calls her into Honor's cabin. On the other side, Kim, before she fell asleep, was reading At All Costs and had just finished chapter 14. Wade recognizes Honor, because...well, D'OI!.

It's getting fun, jeriddian...you've seen the short take of the first 1-2 chapters. Trust me, just because you've seen this doesn't mean you know it all: if you know me, you know the the devil is, indeed, in the details....

Quills sharpened, CellerFan, jeriddian, TwansWarpDrive, and Flame'n'Silk Double-Lucky!

[cpneb]

Fahrenheit 451

[campy]

I've started on The Commodore by Patrick O'Brian, Aubrey/Maturin book #17. I can't believe I'm so close to finishing the series again. Seem like I checked out Master and Commander just a few weeks ago. The first time through seemed to take a lot longer.

[lunchmeat]

Started the Honor Harington series in the airport last week. Pretty good, so far.

[TransWarpDrive]

Started the Honor Harrington series in the airport last week. Pretty good, so far.
Welcome to the Honorverse! :D Fasten your seatbelt; you're in for quite a ride!
Seriously, though, I think you'll like these books. Full of action, adventure, drama, political intrigue, and more plot twists than a bag of pretzels!
(Sorry; I couldn't resist that last one... :P)

[GoTeamGirl]

My English class is reading "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. It would be good if there weren't a ton of questions per chapter.

In my free time, I still haven't finished "Fade" because...there is no free time.

[TransWarpDrive]

My English class is reading "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. It would be good if there weren't a ton of questions per chapter.

Believe me, GTG; the teachers always ask a ton of questions anytime you study a book for English class. It's annoying, I know; but it's a part of the process one just can't avoid...
Your post brought back memories of when I studied books in high-school English. I remember having two bookmarks in whatever book I was reading for class - one to mark the place in the book where the class was up to; and one to mark where I was reading on ahead of everyone else (and I do love to read). :P

[Ace Ian Combat]

My English class is reading "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. It would be good if there weren't a ton of questions per chapter.

In my free time, I still haven't finished "Fade" because...there is no free time.

Huh, my English class is reading Frankenstein as well, despite the fact the same teacher made us read it last year too. And, yes, there's too many questions about it. And now you have me curious because I believe that is two similar things that have occurred in the areas where we live. :laugh: I wouldn't be surprised if irony struck. :D

[TransWarpDrive]

:laugh: I wouldn't be surprised if irony struck. :D
:D You might want to wear a helmet and body armor in that case. One thing I've learned down through the years: When irony strikes, it strikes hard.
:laugh::laugh:

[Ace Ian Combat]

:laugh: I wouldn't be surprised if irony struck. :D
:D You might want to wear a helmet and body armor in that case. One thing I've learned down through the years: When irony strikes, it strikes hard.
:laugh::laugh:

Will Du. :laugh: Now, should I don Kevlar or chain mail? :biggergrin: :laugh:

I'm having too much fun with these smilies. :)

[campy]

Continuing with Patrick O'Brian, I'm up to The Yellow Admiral now. Getting closer to the end ...

[jeriddian]

Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant, The last Chronicales of Thomas Covenant, the second book of four in this third set of books in this great fantasy series. I highly recommend it.

[Ace Ian Combat]

I'm currently enjoying the Noble Dead series by Barb & J.C. Hendee. It certainly is interesting. A half vampire, half human woman, a half elf, half human man, a half dog, half elemental/spirit, and a little sage who bursts in at all the wrong times, much to the annoyance of the half elf and the dhampir (half vampire).

Actually Chap (the dog) reminds me a little of Rufus since he can understand when they are talking, but he has to use a hide marked with symbols to try to communicate. All in all, very interesting. I'm currently looking for book five, since I have the first four.

[lunchmeat]

Missiles Of October: scarier than any fictional horror story.

[jeriddian]

Missiles Of October: scarier than any fictional horror story.

Got that right!.........:dubiety:

I don't think any of us today really know how close we came to oblivion......

[Fireand'chutes77]

Missiles Of October: scarier than any fictional horror story.

Got that right!.........:dubiety:

I don't think any of us today really know how close we came to oblivion......
We went over the Crisis in 20th Century History... It's disturbing to think the world came within a Monday morning of thermonuclear war. :blink:

EDIT: And with the Petrov incident, doomsday rested on the space of a few minutes and a single snap decision. :scared:

[lunchmeat]

Same with this, there were Soviet submarines, armed with nuclear tipped torpedoes, that came within minutes of launching at the blockade forces.

[TransWarpDrive]

Same with this, there were Soviet submarines, armed with nuclear tipped torpedoes, that came within minutes of launching at the blockade forces.
IIRC, the captain of one such Soviet sub had to be talked out of launching one of those torps by two of his junior officers.

[NinjaNaco]

I'm reading Henry Sienkiewicz's "The Deluge," Volume 1. Volodyovski and Kmita have each been asked to raise regiments, and the cold, methodical, efficient Swedish army has crossed the frontier into Poland...

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm reading Henry Sienkiewicz's "The Deluge," Volume 1. Volodyovski and Kmita have each been asked to raise regiments, and the cold, methodical, efficient Swedish army has crossed the frontier into Poland...
The book's title piqued my interest, and I looked up the subject on Wikipedia. It's odd that such a big event didn't get a single mention in any of the World History textbooks I've read. Poor Poland. The same thing happened nearly verbatim in WWII (heck, Russia roughly claimed the same amount of land!).

I'm having trouble picturing a "Swedish army," though. They're better known for postcards and banks. :huh:
(I know that the Vatican recruits Switzers for its guard force, and that Sweden did pretty well in the mercenary business, but still...)

[jeriddian]

I'm reading Henry Sienkiewicz's "The Deluge," Volume 1. Volodyovski and Kmita have each been asked to raise regiments, and the cold, methodical, efficient Swedish army has crossed the frontier into Poland...
The book's title piqued my interest, and I looked up the subject on Wikipedia. It's odd that such a big event didn't get a single mention in any of the World History textbooks I've read. Poor Poland. The same thing happened nearly verbatim in WWII (heck, Russia roughly claimed the same amount of land!).

I'm having trouble picturing a "Swedish army," though. They're better known for postcards and banks. :huh:
(I know that the Vatican recruits Switzers for its guard force, and that Sweden did pretty well in the mercenary business, but still...)

In the late middle ages, the Swedes were often noted for wielding an effective fighting force for the time.

[TransWarpDrive]

I’m rereading an old favorite of mine: “Recovery” by Steven L. Thompson.
This novel takes place in East Germany in the early 1980's, and is a Cold War-era story about a U.S. soldier training to work as part of an American "Recovery" team. These teams of two men drive around the East German countryside in high-performance cars, picking up pilots and equipment from Allied aircraft forced down in Soviet-controlled territory. They then take the rescued pilots back to safety in their headquarters at the U.S. Military Liaison Mission, outside the town of Potsdam. On his first training mission, the main character is forced to find his way back on his own when his partner is injured and their radio damaged, after they're unexpectedly called to pick up a downed pilot. It's a well-written, fast-paced book, with believable, three-dimensional characters. The suspense makes this novel a real page-turner -- when I first read it, I had a very hard time putting it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. I can assure you, you won't be bored reading this book! :thumbup:

[TransWarpDrive]

I've finished "Recovery," and now I'm reading a book about the real U.S. Military Liaison Mission in Potsdam. This book is titled "Licensed to Spy: With the Top Secret Military Liaison Mission in East Germany" by John A. Fahey.
Unlike in "Recovery," the Americans posted at the USMLM didn't do much rescuing downed pilots and equipment; they gathered intelligence on Soviet troops and equipment in East Germany. In other words, they were spies, plain and simple.
Professor Fahey was an officer in the U.S. Navy when he was assigned to the USMLM in the early 1960's. His book is about his adventures in East Germany doing intelligence work and dealing with East German and Soviet personnel.

[Sir Sebastian]

I feel like such a cretin. I'm mostly into techno thrillers. I LOVE Michael Crichton. Last books I read were Crichton's State of Fear, and David Baldacci's Hour Game. Awesome books, I heartily recommend.

[TransWarpDrive]

I feel like such a cretin. I'm mostly into techno thrillers. I LOVE Michael Crichton. Last books I read were Crichton's State of Fear, and David Baldacci's Hour Game. Awesome books, I heartily recommend.
I've read both of Crichton's Jurassic Park books, as well as The Andromeda Strain. I agree with you - Crichton's a good author.
Another good author in this genre is Craig Thomas. He writes military techno-thrillers similar to those by Tom Clancy. The books by Mr. Thomas that I've read are: Firefox, Firefox Down!, Winterhawk, and Sea Leopard. The first three feature the same character, Major Mitchell Gant (yes, he's the character Clint Eastwood played in the movie version of Firefox back in the early 80's), and deal with military aviation. The fourth one's about a British nuclear sub that gets captured by the Soviets.
And why do you feel like such a cretin? You show good taste in reading; no need to beat yourself up like that. There's nothing wrong with your choices in literature.
Be good to yourself, my friend. :)

[Sir Sebastian]

I've read both of Crichton's Jurassic Park books, as well as The Andromeda Strain. I agree with you - Crichton's a good author.

I've read almost every Crichton's book more than once. I even stole the last line from The Sphere and used it to end my story, Chasing the Dawn.

And I just found out the Finnish translation of Next is out and available at the library, so I put in a reservation. Remains to be seen if can get my hands on it before Christmas.


And why do you feel like such a cretin? You show good taste in reading; no need to beat yourself up like that. There's nothing wrong with your choices in literature.
Be good to yourself, my friend. :)

Well, he is generally considered a hack, which he even freely admits himself. Personally, I find his books highly entertaining.

[campy]

I finished The Yellow Admiral, and decided to put off the last of the Aubrey/Maturin series until my cruise, so I can read them at sea. Now I'm reading F. Paul Wilson's latest Repairman Jack vs. The Otherness novel, Bloodlines.

[lunchmeat]

I enjoy most of Crichton's stuff (Jurassic Park was one thing that got passed around a lot on paleo field expeditions, although very few of the animals in it are from the Jurassic), he gets a bit heavy handed on the limits of technology bit, though.

I've been reading Antisubmarine Warfare: Threat and Solutions and Strategic Antisubmarine Warfare. Yeah, I'm really an exciting guy (just ask the ex....:) ).

[GoTeamGirl]

My class is done with Frankenstein. Now we're doing, for our project, a trial starting tomorrow putting Victor Frankenstein on trial for murder. I'm a juror.

[campy]

The Last Days of Krypton, by Kevin J. Anderson. A prequel to the familiar Superman story.

[lunchmeat]

Just finished Honor Of The Queen, off to the bookstore to find the next installment in the series, plus I need to get a new ehternet card so that I can get online at the house.

[TransWarpDrive]

Just finished Honor Of The Queen, off to the bookstore to find the next installment in the series, plus I need to get a new ehternet card so that I can get online at the house.
So, how'd you like the book? Weber's a good author, wouldn't you say? :D

In case you need it, here's a list of all the Harrington novels to date:

On Basilisk Station
The Honor of the Queen
The Short Victorious War
Field of Dishonor
Flag in Exile
Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands
Echoes of Honor
Ashes of Victory
War of Honor
At All Costs

In addition to the novels, Mr. Weber has also edited four books of Harrington short stories:

More Than Honor
Worlds of Honor
Changer of Worlds
The Service of the Sword

He also did two novels set in the "Honorverse" featuring other characters besides Honor & friends:

Crown of Slaves (with Eric Flint)
The Shadow of Saganami

Hope this helps! Enjoy the books! :D

EDIT: BTW, I finished "Licensed To Spy" and am now reading "Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys" by Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins. It's his memoir about his career in the space program, flying in Projects Gemini and Apollo.

[lunchmeat]

Very well, I have enjoyed the first two books quite a lot. I plan to work through the whole series then the short stories and the other books. I noticed he has also continued Keith Laumer's Bolo series.

[GoTeamGirl]

I've started reading "One Hundred Philosophers", which is an overview of past philosophers and their ideas that have influenced us today. And there are 100 of them.

[Sir Sebastian]

It seems like Next is quite the page turner: put in the reservation last weekend and picked it up this Friday. And having read about a third of it today alone, I'll have to confirm that assessment. Crichton has an uncanny ability to mix fact, science, and pure fiction. And the picture on the cover, a barcode superimposed on a monkey, is pure genius. Fun detail: the barcode is the book's code.

Oh, and while I'm reading, I'm listening to Primal Fear: Seven Seals.

[GoTeamGirl]

I've started Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.

[campy]

I'm reading Barcelona & Catalonia, from the Eyewitness Travel guidebooks series. I'll be in Barcelona in less than 3 weeks!

[Fireand'chutes77]

It's not exactly a book, but I'm reading the new PopSci that came today, featuring the 100 Best Inventions of the year. It's some really eye-popping stuff. I'm loving the green-tech section the best. This is the stuff that's really gonna change the world. When I got to the section on about NanoSolar and its ultra-cheap solar cells that can be literally printed onto a sheet of aluminum foil, I was actually pumping my fist in the air and yelling, "Hell, yeah!" :D :D This technology is what is going to let us compete with coal and oil. To duel with fossil fuels, photovoltaics have to cost about $1 per energy watt. Current solar panels do $3. Nanotech can do it for $0.30. :thumbup:

The arm-pump-yell was repeated a few pages later, in response to a machine that uses microwaves to turn any hydrocarbon based product - tires, plastic cups, this keyboard - into oil or natural gas. Essentially, tire dumps and landfills become energy mines. (Granted, it's still enabling us to pump out oil and gas (and CO2), but at least it's getting rid of the waste.)

It's stuff like this that gives me a huge charge. I may be jaded and nihilistic at times (well, as jaded and nihilistic as a white, suburban 17-year-old can be. :P), but reading about all these new technologies and how people are wrangling the impossible into the possible, turning the pipe dream into an actual pipe, gives me hope about where humanity's headed. :)

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm reading two other books now. The first is for school and is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The second is really interesting; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I've never read anything quite like it...

[Not The CrimpMaster]

I started reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien for English class. It's pretty good so far.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading two other books now. The first is for school and is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The second is really interesting; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I've never read anything quite like it...
Here's a nifty bit of trivia: In the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes," cartoonist Bill Watterson named Calvin's schoolteacher, Miss Wormwood, after a character in "The Screwtape Letters." :alumnus:

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm reading two other books now. The first is for school and is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The second is really interesting; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I've never read anything quite like it...
Here's a nifty bit of trivia: In the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes," cartoonist Bill Watterson named Calvin's schoolteacher, Miss Wormwood, after a character in "The Screwtape Letters." :alumnus:

That's funny. Especially since so far, all the chapters in The Screwtape Letters have started with "My dear Wormwood..." :laugh:

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading two other books now. The first is for school and is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The second is really interesting; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I've never read anything quite like it...
Here's a nifty bit of trivia: In the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes," cartoonist Bill Watterson named Calvin's schoolteacher, Miss Wormwood, after a character in "The Screwtape Letters." :alumnus:

That's funny. Especially since so far, all the chapters in The Screwtape Letters have started with "My dear Wormwood..." :laugh:

Yeah, Watterson said that Wormwood was some sort of apprentice devil in the book.

[GoTeamGirl]

I'm reading two other books now. The first is for school and is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The second is really interesting; The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I've never read anything quite like it...
Here's a nifty bit of trivia: In the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes," cartoonist Bill Watterson named Calvin's schoolteacher, Miss Wormwood, after a character in "The Screwtape Letters." :alumnus:

That's funny. Especially since so far, all the chapters in The Screwtape Letters have started with "My dear Wormwood..." :laugh:

Yeah, Watterson said that Wormwood was some sort of apprentice devil in the book.

He is. It's really interesting, and a bit disturbing.

I've read more of The Alchemist though. It's a pretty good book, with a llot of deep thoughts and life lessons.

[AinoMinako]

I'm reading Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs. It's one of the books in the series that inspired the TV show Bones. Reichs is a forensic anthropologist in real life and writes about a fictional forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan. The show is about Temperance Brennan, a FA who also writes novels about a fictional FA Kathy Reichs. :laugh:

I'm also about to start As I Lay Dying. Hmm.

[campy]

I've been reading The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. I certainly hope my Transatlantic voyage starting next week is a bit more ... restful ... than the one in the novel.

[Fireand'chutes77]

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, for school; later I'm going to pick up "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the library, also for school.

[cpneb]

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, for school; later I'm going to pick up "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the library, also for school.

'chutes, I can't wait until you read this classic for the first time: I hope you enjoy it as much as I have on every read. SOmething tells me that you will 'grok' it intuitively.

My current reads?
"Power Thoughts," by Robert Schuller, and
"Unified Process - Construction Phase" by Ambler&Constantine.

nothing like lite reading....

[Fireand'chutes77]

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, for school; later I'm going to pick up "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the library, also for school.

'chutes, I can't wait until you read this classic for the first time: I hope you enjoy it as much as I have on every read.
I've read the dust cover, and it describes it as a literary and cultural icon, and as one of the cornerstone books of American literature.... I've also heard it contains something of a threesome between several very attractive secretaries, so at least it isn't a total loss. :P :innocent:

[cpneb]

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, for school; later I'm going to pick up "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the library, also for school.

'chutes, I can't wait until you read this classic for the first time: I hope you enjoy it as much as I have on every read.
I've read the dust cover, and it describes it as a literary and cultural icon, and as one of the cornerstone books of American literature.... I've also heard it contains something of a threesome between several very attractive secretaries, so at least it isn't a total loss. :P :innocent:

Gee, you might be just old enough to read it, then... :innocent:
I was younger than you when I was infected with Heinlein's disease, and I stll have it to this day...I'm a carrier, but no worries: the ladies are lovely, indeed, and the story is quite 'interesting,' especially if all you've read is the jacket.
I won't spoil it for you...just come back with the grin off your face (no, that could take weeks to remove) out of respect to us old folks who can remember it :biggergrin:.

[jeriddian]

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, for school; later I'm going to pick up "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the library, also for school.

'chutes, I can't wait until you read this classic for the first time: I hope you enjoy it as much as I have on every read.
I've read the dust cover, and it describes it as a literary and cultural icon, and as one of the cornerstone books of American literature.... I've also heard it contains something of a threesome between several very attractive secretaries, so at least it isn't a total loss. :P :innocent:

Gee, you might be just old enough to read it, then... :innocent:
I was younger than you when I was infected with Heinlein's disease, and I stll have it to this day...I'm a carrier, but no worries: the ladies are lovely, indeed, and the story is quite 'interesting,' especially if all you've read is the jacket.
I won't spoil it for you...just come back with the grin off your face (no, that could take weeks to remove) out of respect to us old folks who can remember it :biggergrin:.

Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the great classics of Science Fiction, as is Robert A. Heinlein himself one of its great writers.:alumnus:

[TransWarpDrive]

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, for school; later I'm going to pick up "Stranger in a Strange Land" from the library, also for school.

'chutes, I can't wait until you read this classic for the first time: I hope you enjoy it as much as I have on every read.
I've read the dust cover, and it describes it as a literary and cultural icon, and as one of the cornerstone books of American literature.... I've also heard it contains something of a threesome between several very attractive secretaries, so at least it isn't a total loss. :P :innocent:

Gee, you might be just old enough to read it, then... :innocent:
I was younger than you when I was infected with Heinlein's disease, and I stll have it to this day...I'm a carrier, but no worries: the ladies are lovely, indeed, and the story is quite 'interesting,' especially if all you've read is the jacket.
I won't spoil it for you...just come back with the grin off your face (no, that could take weeks to remove) out of respect to us old folks who can remember it :biggergrin:.

Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the great classics of Science Fiction, as is Robert A. Heinlein himself one of its great writers.:alumnus:

Yes, Heinlein was one of the greats. You'll notice that he inserts a lot of social commentary into each of his books. Yet said commentary is still relevant, decades after his works were first published.

[lunchmeat]

Rereading Robert Ruark's The Old Man And The Boy and The Old Man's Boy Grows Older.One of my favorite outdoor author's besides Patrick McMannus.

[GoTeamGirl]

In English we've started reading selections from James Joyce's Dubliners. According to my teacher, Modernist writers (like Joyce) were pretty pessimistic.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Rereading Robert Ruark's The Old Man And The Boy and The Old Man's Boy Grows Older.
Imaginative gent, isn't he? :P :laugh:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Sorry for the DP.

Finally got started into Stranger in a Strange Land (SiaSL). Heinlein has a very.... clinical writing style, if that's the right name for it. Dry. I guess that's the "science" of science-fiction showing. He doesn't seem one for much scene visualization, at all - I'm reading and reading, but not really getting a good picture of surroundings or environment, besides the fact that (by my moderns standards, and only to page 75) it's mild-to-moderately futuristic. Bare-bones with descriptions. It's mostly just dialogue and actions.

He doesn't like to explain too much, either, preferring to blithely pop off instances and inventions in passing without too much backstory. "...a search would have been mounted had not World War III intervened...." (Wait, what?! WWIII?! And... and... that's it?! Awwww, maaaaannnn...) "And the Federation Ship Champion... made the crossing under Lyle Drive in only 19 days..." (And what in the heck is a Lyle Drive? And this "Federation?" Aren't sci-fi stories supposed to start with some long-winded Star-Wars screen-scrolly-thingy?! :dubiety: :P :laugh:)

One of the inadvertently fun things about this book is to come across technology that is utterly mundane to a teen of the '00's... which, in reflection, must've seem pretty crazy to people in 1961.

"...In the meantime, a computer programmer had the machines hunt for three-couple ship crews. She found several dozen compatible combinations, each of which defined by its own characteristics the couple needed to complete it. In the meantime the machines continued to review the data changing through deaths, withdrawals, new volunteers, etc.... [The right crew combo is finally found] ....In any case the lights blinked, punched cards popped out, and a crew for the Envoy had been found..."

Utterly in the norm (although a nice twist, for the 1960's, to make the programmer a she!); A Blue Gene/L could've taken care of it without breaking a sweat, and used either Facebook/Myspace or Google to cross the references. The only thing that sets it out of place is the punchcard! :laugh:

"....the steak was waiting in the package lift; with it were pre-baked potatoes ready to be popped in the short-wave. She tossed the salad, put it in the refrigerator, then set up a combination on the stove to grill the steak and have the potatoes hot simultaneously, but did not start the cycle."
Let's seee, dumbwaiters were used in Thomas Jefferson's house, the short-wave is a microwave oven, and the simultaneous cooking is pretty much dual microwave ovens with an automated timer, with settings for food type (only, my microwave just says "popcorn" and "pizza, frozen." :P).

[On sending rockets to the moon, obviously written before July 20th, 1969.] "...Russians sent the first rocket to the moon, but it crashed. US and Canada combine to send another one; it gets back but leaves nobody on the moon. So when the US [and the Commonwealth get ready to send up another, with Russia in competition], General Atomics steals the march by sending one of their own from an island leased from Ecuador..."

Historically accurate, mostly, for the first bit; at Henelin's writing, the USSR had sent up Lunas #1-3. The US's Ranger program didn't get off the ground until latter 1961, and "soft" unmanned landings by the Yanks didn't show up until the Surveyor Program, 1965-68.

"GA" would pretty much be SpaceX a few years (and several Falcon I, II, II, etc launches) later. This scenario, while kaput for the first moon shot, may actually be valid for the second go 'round.

[Talking about a wire bug] "...A microminiaturized wire recorder. The wire is spring-driven so that it can't be spotted by a snooper circuit. The insides are transistors and resistors and capacitors and stuff, all packed in plastic.... Power is about as much radioactivity as a watch dial, but shielded. The wire is good for 24 hours. Then you slide out a spool and stick another one in - the spring is part of the spool, already wound."
Nice try, given the technological outlook at the time. Spools... And dear god, 24-hour battery life? :laugh: Oh, well... they were still using vacuum tubes in TVs, right?

Watches had radioactive backlights? :huh:

---

So far into the book, pretty much the only major things raising my eyebrows are the flying taxi booths, hospital transport chutes, and live-grass carpet in one of the character's apartments. Hopefully the descriptive detail will improve as the book goes on.

[jeriddian]

I remember reading it back in the sixties, and I can see where your perspective woudl be quite different from mine. I think it seems dry because he wanted to make it seem so matter of fact apparent, like you should have known it already, which you would have, had you lived in his future at the time. But in the world of the 1960's, it left the reader thinking and imagining what it was like. I think he didn't go into detail purposefully to allow the reader to be free in imgaining it any way he wanted. Reading it now, alomst fifty years later with all the technological advances we've had would tend to make it read a little archaic and silly at times... like the punchcards! Hah!:laugh: Yeah, that was a good one....

[TransWarpDrive]

Watches had radioactive backlights?
They didn't have backlights as such, but had radioactive markings on their faces.
The radioactive part was the paint used to mark the hour and minute hands, and also the positions on the dial from 1 to 12 o'clock. This paint was made from a substance called radium; when exposed to light for long periods of time, it would then glow in the dark. Radium paint was also used to mark the dials on aircraft instrument panels. The paint would glow in the dim red light pilots used to see in the cockpit without spoiling their night vision. Toward the end of the twentieth century, radium paint was phased out once it was proven to be a health hazard and was replaced with non-radioactive phosphorus paint. Like the radium, phosphorus also glows in the dark after exposure to light, but it doesn't "hold a charge" as long as the radium did. :alumnus:

[lunchmeat]

Mainframe computers were using punchcards as recently as the 1980s (I worked on a project using them in 1987 ir thereabouts, my job was to make sure the cards were oriented correctly when they went into the machine then verfiy that the maps the program produced were accurate. When one considers that each punhcard was roughly equl to a couple of keystrokes on a modern machine the size of the task becomes apparent).

One aspect of the radium paint business (a lot of 40s/50s sf stories had us using radium for lighting by now) is that the figures were hand drawn, resulting in high incidences of oral cancers in the people that painted the dial faces, since they tended to get a fine point on their paint brushes by licking them.

It's kind of interesting to compare what was speculated on in past sf and how things actually turned out. Some of the things like flying cars and slidewalks either never panned out or are only in very limited use. Satellites, nuclear submarines and night vision are commonplace. Personal computers, telephones and entertainment have pretty muh exceeded expectations. Some things, like the internet were largely missed.

I still want my Commando Cody flying suit.....

[jeriddian]

I still want my Commando Cody flying suit.....

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:...................

[Fireand'chutes77]

(a lot of 40s/50s sf stories had us using radium for lighting by now)

If they were referring to the concept of "paint-on lighting," they might be getting close to something like it, thankfully much safer but less elegant. I'm referring to thin-sheet OLEDs, or PHOLEDS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHOLED). They can make them thin enough to cover a ceiling or wall like wallpaper, and like the Wikipedia page says, they're really efficient. (The fact that they can be also used in TV screen applications brings the terrifying reality of the room-covering TVs from Fahrenheit 451 just a bit closer.)

Still reading SiaSL. The action's gotten better, and the book is thankfully less tedious and frustrating now that Mike has grasped a basic tenets of the mess that is humanity. The book is still mostly dialogue; big blocks of dialogue. I'm glad I have a good imagination, since it'd be very hard to get through this book if I couldn't fill the truly massive gaps in scene description. To me, at least, it seems Heinlein is trying to bang his way down a list of philosophical/social points more than he wants to make a story. To his credit, he seems to have humanity pretty damn well pegged. It is somewhat comforting, oddly, that his description of humanity's various sundry problems at the beginning of Parts Two and Three are very similar to a news feed today - some things never change. Even x-number of centuries later, we're still cranking, still tearing our hair out; humans are still trying to hack out what in the heck it means to be human.

Heinlein's wit isn't too bad, either. My favorite bit so far:

"...And if your asinine carelessness [got you in this mess], who am I to tamper with your karma? You picked it."

"Mmmm... I can see your point. Ok, Jubal, you can go to h*ll - for monkeying with my karma. If I have one."

"A moot point. The predestinationers and the free-willers were still tied up in the fourth quarter, last I heard."


----

There hasn't been any, erm, yeeee-hawwwww yet, but if Mike's kissing is any indication ["...Now Mike doesn't have any technique... But when Mike kisses you he isn't doing anything else. Not anything.... Just kissing you." She shivered. "A woman notices..." ], every bedspring in the Harshaw manor is probably going to need replacing. :rolleyes: ;)

[cpneb]

(a lot of 40s/50s sf stories had us using radium for lighting by now)

If they were referring to the concept of "paint-on lighting," they might be getting close to something like it, thankfully much safer but less elegant. I'm referring to thin-sheet OLEDs, or PHOLEDS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHOLED). They can make them thin enough to cover a ceiling or wall like wallpaper, and like the Wikipedia page says, they're really efficient. (The fact that they can be also used in TV screen applications brings the terrifying reality of the room-covering TVs from Fahrenheit 451 just a bit closer.)

Still reading SiaSL. The action's gotten better, and the book is thankfully less tedious and frustrating now that Mike has grasped a basic tenets of the mess that is humanity. The book is still mostly dialogue; big blocks of dialogue. I'm glad I have a good imagination, since it'd be very hard to get through this book if I couldn't fill the truly massive gaps in scene description. To me, at least, it seems Heinlein is trying to bang his way down a list of philosophical/social points more than he wants to make a story. To his credit, he seems to have humanity pretty damn well pegged. It is somewhat comforting, oddly, that his description of humanity's various sundry problems at the beginning of Parts Two and Three are very similar to a news feed today - some things never change. Even x-number of centuries later, we're still cranking, still tearing our hair out; humans are still trying to hack out what in the heck it means to be human.

Heinlein's wit isn't too bad, either. My favorite bit so far:

"...And if your asinine carelessness [got you in this mess], who am I to tamper with your karma? You picked it."

"Mmmm... I can see your point. Ok, Jubal, you can go to h*ll - for monkeying with my karma. If I have one."

"A moot point. The predestinationers and the free-willers were still tied up in the fourth quarter, last I heard."


----

There hasn't been any, erm, yeeee-hawwwww yet, but if Mike's kissing is any indication ["...Now Mike doesn't have any technique... But when Mike kisses you he isn't doing anything else. Not anything.... Just kissing you." She shivered. "A woman notices..." ], every bedspring in the Harshaw manor is probably going to need replacing. :rolleyes: ;)

Yes, FnC'77, you will need earplugs for reading the Mike scenes so the bedsprings don't keep you awake at night!

Glad to hear you're enjoying the read; and the social part is, unfortunately, stiil too close to today for my liking, as opposed to some of the science. Wish we'd grown up a bit more since SiaSL was written....

[jeriddian]

Glad to hear you're enjoying the read; and the social part is, unfortunately, stiil too close to today for my liking, as opposed to some of the science. Wish we'd grown up a bit more since SiaSL was written.... The progress is very slow in that department. The further we get down that road, the harder it gets to go forward, because the mule train behind gets stretched out longer and longer, and it gets harder to get them to catch up.:dubiety:

[TransWarpDrive]

Glad to hear you're enjoying the read; and the social part is, unfortunately, stiil too close to today for my liking, as opposed to some of the science. Wish we'd grown up a bit more since SiaSL was written.... The progress is very slow in that department. The further we get down that road, the harder it gets to go forward, because the mule train behind gets stretched out longer and longer, and it gets harder to get them to catch up.:dubiety:
Exactly! It's like I told you:
...Heinlein was one of the greats. You'll notice that he inserts a lot of social commentary into each of his books. Yet said commentary is still relevant, decades after his works were first published.
In SiaSL, Heinlein's social comments dealt with organized religion, mass media, and their effects in shaping public opinion - at least, that's what I got out of reading this book.
Heinlein's works are examples of "science fiction as a morality play": stories that make observations on contemporary society while taking place in an otherworldly or futuristic setting. The late Isaac Asimov once defined SF as stories about people, and their reaction to changes in the level of science and technology.
However one defines it, though, good science fiction has to include the human element. Having believable characters is essential to a good story no matter what genre one writes in - be it westerns, detective fiction, romance, military/political; if the characters don't seem real, the story won't work. Fortunately, Heinlein's characters pass this test with flying colors. :alumnus:

[jeriddian]

Glad to hear you're enjoying the read; and the social part is, unfortunately, stiil too close to today for my liking, as opposed to some of the science. Wish we'd grown up a bit more since SiaSL was written.... The progress is very slow in that department. The further we get down that road, the harder it gets to go forward, because the mule train behind gets stretched out longer and longer, and it gets harder to get them to catch up.:dubiety:
Exactly! It's like I told you:
...Heinlein was one of the greats. You'll notice that he inserts a lot of social commentary into each of his books. Yet said commentary is still relevant, decades after his works were first published.
In SiaSL, Heinlein's social comments dealt with organized religion, mass media, and their effects in shaping public opinion - at least, that's what I got out of reading this book.
Heinlein's works are examples of "science fiction as a morality play": stories that make observations on contemporary society while taking place in an otherworldly or futuristic setting. The late Isaac Asimov once defined SF as stories about people, and their reaction to changes in the level of science and technology.
However one defines it, though, good science fiction has to include the human element. Having believable characters is essential to a good story no matter what genre one writes in - be it westerns, detective fiction, romance, military/political; if the characters don't seem real, the story won't work. Fortunately, Heinlein's characters pass this test with flying colors. :alumnus:

Well spoken. I couldn't have said it better myself.:thumbup:

[TransWarpDrive]

Glad to hear you're enjoying the read; and the social part is, unfortunately, stiil too close to today for my liking, as opposed to some of the science. Wish we'd grown up a bit more since SiaSL was written.... The progress is very slow in that department. The further we get down that road, the harder it gets to go forward, because the mule train behind gets stretched out longer and longer, and it gets harder to get them to catch up.:dubiety:
Exactly! It's like I told you:
...Heinlein was one of the greats. You'll notice that he inserts a lot of social commentary into each of his books. Yet said commentary is still relevant, decades after his works were first published.
In SiaSL, Heinlein's social comments dealt with organized religion, mass media, and their effects in shaping public opinion - at least, that's what I got out of reading this book.
Heinlein's works are examples of "science fiction as a morality play": stories that make observations on contemporary society while taking place in an otherworldly or futuristic setting. The late Isaac Asimov once defined SF as stories about people, and their reaction to changes in the level of science and technology.
However one defines it, though, good science fiction has to include the human element. Having believable characters is essential to a good story no matter what genre one writes in - be it westerns, detective fiction, romance, military/political; if the characters don't seem real, the story won't work. Fortunately, Heinlein's characters pass this test with flying colors. :alumnus:

Well spoken. I couldn't have said it better myself.:thumbup:

Thanks, jeriddian. Glad you liked it. Do you think maybe someday we humans could actually learn something from authors like Heinlein, and make some changes for the better here on Earth? Or is it just wishful thinking on my part? :unsure:

[jeriddian]

Well spoken. I couldn't have said it better myself.:thumbup:

Thanks, jeriddian. Glad you liked it. Do you think maybe someday we humans could actually learn something from authors like Heinlein, and make some changes for the better here on Earth? Or is it just wishful thinking on my part? :unsure:

The key is going to be communication. I believe despite the fact that the internet, and cellphones, and other such tools have the potential for being dangerous in the wrong hands (witness the jihadists in the Middle East), the ability to finally effect mass communications with the outlying areas of the world, which heretofore have been isolated by geography, poverty, and cultural barriers, should eventually start to educate them with what is happening in the rest of the world. We won't see it in my generation, and probably not even yours, as our ways and the ways of those isolated peoples are pretty much set. It will be up to the future generations, like those in 'chutes' age range, and the children of that generation, and beyond. It is a slow process. But we've already seen some indication of change towards a better future, even from thirty years ago.

Once the minds in those isolated areas are opened up by the knowledge available in the rest of the world, the old prejudices and biases should start to melt away and a meeting of the minds and hearts can start to take place. This can happen regardless of the state of religion, politics, and technology, which can negatively slow it down, but cannot stop it. Such is the power of true knowledge.

The real test is to keep the human race from blowing itself up and back into the stone age before that happens. If we succeed, we can possibly realize something like Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future of mankind to a certain degree.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again to make my point. Thomas Jefferson once said that if he had to lose all of his rights except one, he would choose to keep free speech. The reason for that was because he knew that with free speech, he could win back all of the others. It's the same in the rest of the world. Through free speech, the world can come together.:)

[campy]

I started the final completed Aubrey/Maturin book, Blue at the Mizzen, yesterday. An English gent we're dining with on this cruise is also an O'Brian fan.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Finally finished Stranger in a Stranger Land.

.....

Woooooooo..... That... was... a... lot of sex. :blink:

.....

But, darn it, Heinlein was too.... too..... mature about it! :laugh: He was very calm, very demure, very simple, straightforward, and clinical about the subject. He treated it as an essence of humanity, a fact of life, oozing a sense of, "Yeah... And what about it?" The most vividly sensual descriptions stopped, more or less, at kissing. Except for a few strategically-placed bits of... ahem, dialogue, he left much of the hot-'n-heavy and kinky stuff up to the reader.

I consider that a mark of a composed, mature, facts-of-life writer. One that is "immature," I think, still retains a high-school-teen outlook about sex: It's controversial, something to giggle and blush about, exotic, hyped up, "forbidden," and thus must be described in gleefully erotic, lusty detail.

...

Blast it, I wanted to get my brain cells fried! :dribble::harhar::laugh:

...

Ahem, anyway...

The book certainly cranked into gear once Mike finally got with the program. It was somewhat unnerving how much more casual, in-control, and humanlike he became. It was almost like there were two different people in each half of the book. Thankfully, the action picked up, but the book retained its style of large blocks of dialogue without too much other description. His commentary on the Fosterites (and religion in general) were spot-on and scathing, painfully so. I thought myself superior to cynically knowledgeable about "religion," but when it's cracked open and examined and picked apart before your eyes, it still hurts.

In that vein, the what the Fosterites were spouting had some serious tug to it - even I felt myself getting sucked into it a bit - but the jarring exclusionary sentences scattered through their creed were like a crack in a Mozart record, or, in something I can understand, a scratch on a DVD. The media sounds good, even beautiful, while it's good, but every time it spins around, there's a lone, quiet, quick cick. You don't notice it at first, but it keeps building and building, you start noticing it more and more, and it eventually ruins your watching/listening experience.

To me, at least, it seems Heinlein is trying to bang his way down a list of philosophical/social points more than he wants to make a story.
I retained this view throughout the book, and it looks like my hunch was correct. From Wikipedia:

Stranger was written in part as a deliberate attempt to challenge social mores. In the course of the story, Heinlein uses Smith's open-mindedness to reevaluate such institutions as religion, money, monogamy, and the fear of death. Heinlein completed writing it ten years after he had (uncharacteristically) plotted it out in detail.
While reading, I thought many times, Wow, this sounds just like the '60s! Then I got a mental tap on the head, Well, doy, that's because this book started "The '60's."

From a position 46 years distant, in a culture that is still echoing from 1967, I'm sorta able to roll with the "mind burps" and accept them (Thou art God; free love; the idea that possession is unnecessary), but I still recoil a bit.
To use a ballistics metaphor, "Thou art God" is like the recoil of a .22 - not much, but it chips and chips away after many shots, and your shoulder becomes more sore and irritated at each one. The "accepted cannibalism" bits were like a single-barrel 12-guage: Not as frequent, but damn, they kick like a mule. :confused:

However, if my modern-mindset brain hurts over this stuff, this book must have scared the snot out of people just coming out of the '50's. :blink:

Heinlein probably knew this, and that's why he had "ordinary people" such as Ben and Jill spluttering "But... but... but....!" in many places, representing the likely reactions of many readers, and then had Smith or Jubal blasting apart their reservations like clay pigeons.

The ending wasn't a shock, since I'd read the book synopsis on Wikipedia, but it was still shattering. And graphic. Probably the most graphic section of the book.. The allusions to Jesus's Crucifixion were good, but probably a bit heavy-handed.

"...and more rocks gave him a crown of blood."
(Jesus's crown of thorns)

"...Another shotgun blast was followed by two more shots. One shot, a .45 slug, hit Mike over the heart, shattering his 6th rib near the sternum and making a large wound; the buckshot and the other slug sheered through his left tibia five inches below the patella and left the fibula sticking out at an angle..."
(A modernization of a Roman soldier poking Jesus in the chest with a spear; it was also a Roman practice to break the condemned's legs after a period to hasten death.)

All in all, though, a good book.

However, though a modern lens, I can see one real-life detail that would bring Mike's "free love" thing crashing to the ground - STDs. This far into the future, AIDS would be rampant and all the less-serious STDS would be even more prevalant than they are now. Even if the inner circle all happened to be 100% clean (unlikely), the odds of would STDs would skyrocket as more people joined the movement, eventually breaking "free love's" back. Which, IIRC, is exactly what happened.

[cpneb]

Finally finished Stranger in a Stranger Land.

.....

Woooooooo..... That... was... a... lot of sex. :blink:

.....

But, darn it, Heinlein was too.... too..... mature about it! :laugh: He was very calm, very demure, very simple, straightforward, and clinical about the subject. He treated it as an essence of humanity, a fact of life, oozing a sense of, "Yeah... And what about it?" The most vividly sensual descriptions stopped, more or less, at kissing. Except for a few strategically-placed bits of... ahem, dialogue, he left much of the hot-'n-heavy and kinky stuff up to the reader.

I consider that a mark of a composed, mature, facts-of-life writer. One that is "immature," I think, still retains a high-school-teen outlook about sex: It's controversial, something to giggle and blush about, exotic, hyped up, "forbidden," and thus must be described in gleefully erotic, lusty detail.

...

Blast it, I wanted to get my brain cells fried! :dribble::harhar::laugh:

...

Ahem, anyway...

The book certainly cranked into gear once Mike finally got with the program. It was somewhat unnerving how much more casual, in-control, and humanlike he became. It was almost like there were two different people in each half of the book. Thankfully, the action picked up, but the book retained its style of large blocks of dialogue without too much other description. His commentary on the Fosterites (and religion in general) were spot-on and scathing, painfully so. I thought myself superior to cynically knowledgeable about "religion," but when it's cracked open and examined and picked apart before your eyes, it still hurts.

In that vein, the what the Fosterites were spouting had some serious tug to it - even I felt myself getting sucked into it a bit - but the jarring exclusionary sentences scattered through their creed were like a crack in a Mozart record, or, in something I can understand, a scratch on a DVD. The media sounds good, even beautiful, while it's good, but every time it spins around, there's a lone, quiet, quick cick. You don't notice it at first, but it keeps building and building, you start noticing it more and more, and it eventually ruins your watching/listening experience.

To me, at least, it seems Heinlein is trying to bang his way down a list of philosophical/social points more than he wants to make a story.
I retained this view throughout the book, and it looks like my hunch was correct. From Wikipedia:

Stranger was written in part as a deliberate attempt to challenge social mores. In the course of the story, Heinlein uses Smith's open-mindedness to reevaluate such institutions as religion, money, monogamy, and the fear of death. Heinlein completed writing it ten years after he had (uncharacteristically) plotted it out in detail.
While reading, I thought many times, Wow, this sounds just like the '60s! Then I got a mental tap on the head, Well, doy, that's because this book started "The '60's."

From a position 46 years distant, in a culture that is still echoing from 1967, I'm sorta able to roll with the "mind burps" and accept them (Thou art God; free love; the idea that possession is unnecessary), but I still recoil a bit.
To use a ballistics metaphor, "Thou art God" is like the recoil of a .22 - not much, but it chips and chips away after many shots, and your shoulder becomes more sore and irritated at each one. The "accepted cannibalism" bits were like a single-barrel 12-guage: Not as frequent, but damn, they kick like a mule. :confused:

However, if my modern-mindset brain hurts over this stuff, this book must have scared the snot out of people just coming out of the '50's. :blink:

Heinlein probably knew this, and that's why he had "ordinary people" such as Ben and Jill spluttering "But... but... but....!" in many places, representing the likely reactions of many readers, and then had Smith or Jubal blasting apart their reservations like clay pigeons.

The ending wasn't a shock, since I'd read the book synopsis on Wikipedia, but it was still shattering. And graphic. Probably the most graphic section of the book.. The allusions to Jesus's Crucifixion were good, but probably a bit heavy-handed.

"...and more rocks gave him a crown of blood."
(Jesus's crown of thorns)

"...Another shotgun blast was followed by two more shots. One shot, a .45 slug, hit Mike over the heart, shattering his 6th rib near the sternum and making a large wound; the buckshot and the other slug sheered through his left tibia five inches below the patella and left the fibula sticking out at an angle..."
(A modernization of a Roman soldier poking Jesus in the chest with a spear; it was also a Roman practice to break the condemned's legs after a period to hasten death.)

All in all, though, a good book.

However, though a modern lens, I can see one real-life detail that would bring Mike's "free love" thing crashing to the ground - STDs. This far into the future, AIDS would be rampant and all the less-serious STDS would be even more prevalant than they are now. Even if the inner circle all happened to be 100% clean (unlikely), the odds of would STDs would skyrocket as more people joined the movement, eventually breaking "free love's" back. Which, IIRC, is exactly what happened.

Sounds like you liked it. :laugh:
Question, though, on your last comment: since Mike could cure the diseases, what, IYHO, would happen when members with STDs suddenly found themselves healed after reaching a certain circle?

[GoTeamGirl]

I finished the Screwtape Letters and now I'm reading Extras by Scott Westerfield (a bit of a change of pace).

[jeriddian]

Finally finished Stranger in a Stranger Land.

.....

Woooooooo..... That... was... a... lot of sex. :blink:

.....

But, darn it, Heinlein was too.... too..... mature about it! :laugh: He was very calm, very demure, very simple, straightforward, and clinical about the subject. He treated it as an essence of humanity, a fact of life, oozing a sense of, "Yeah... And what about it?" The most vividly sensual descriptions stopped, more or less, at kissing. Except for a few strategically-placed bits of... ahem, dialogue, he left much of the hot-'n-heavy and kinky stuff up to the reader.

I consider that a mark of a composed, mature, facts-of-life writer. One that is "immature," I think, still retains a high-school-teen outlook about sex: It's controversial, something to giggle and blush about, exotic, hyped up, "forbidden," and thus must be described in gleefully erotic, lusty detail.

...

Blast it, I wanted to get my brain cells fried! :dribble::harhar::laugh:

'Chutes, 'chutes, 'chutes.........*tssk*, *tssk* .....my young friend, I will allow the exuberance of your youth to excuse your keening for such dialogue. After all, I ( as well as the other *older* members of this forum I'm sure), have already been in your position.... ......many, many years ago.....:unsure::rolleyes:..... so we know exactly how you feel. (in other words, BTDT:laugh:.....)

But let me caution that once you are exposed to such graphic detail in print, I think you will find that it will indeed grow very old, very quickly. As I have noted before, there are only so many ways you can describe the mechanical aspects of the sex act. It does get old quickly. You will find as you get older that the description of such scenes in more abstract terms tends to be the more exciting, especially since in the abstract, the emotions of the participants are much better realized and expressed.:)

All in all, though, a good book.

However, though a modern lens, I can see one real-life detail that would bring Mike's "free love" thing crashing to the ground - STDs. This far into the future, AIDS would be rampant and all the less-serious STDS would be even more prevalant than they are now. Even if the inner circle all happened to be 100% clean (unlikely), the odds of would STDs would skyrocket as more people joined the movement, eventually breaking "free love's" back. Which, IIRC, is exactly what happened.

Yep, just look at the 70's, the 80's, and beyond in real history. That is exactly what happened.

[lunchmeat]

Perhaps it is time to grok a cold shower, grasshopper.....

[Fireand'chutes77]

Question, though, on your last comment: since Mike could cure the diseases, what, IYHO, would happen when members with STDs suddenly found themselves healed after reaching a certain circle?
That's what I thought too, and it probably sinks my argument. However, while that might work on the inner circles, the "outer circles" might still be carriers.

And then there's the consideration that advances in science - i.e, vaccines for AIDS, chlamydia, etc - eleminated STDs before Mike even showed up.

[lunchmeat]

When Heinlein wrote the book, the majority of what was then called VD (now STI/STD) responded well to antibiotics, so there was little fear of them beyond getting a shot or having to take some pills. It never ocurred to anyone that people taking antibiotics as a prophylaxis, especially outdated or environmentally damaged ones, coupled with folks not finishing their course of treatment, would have the consequences we face, now. Neither was something viral, such as HIV, envisioned by the general public.

[Molloy]

Rereading some of the early passages in Shame by Salman Rushdie. When I read it in April, it inspired a couple of scenes for the end of Book II of my fanfic "The End." Now that I have actually written up to those scenes, I need a refresher. ;)

[NinjaNaco]

Well, 'chutes, you've given me reason enough not to read Stranger in a Strange Land.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the Sexual Revolution...

[jeriddian]

Well, 'chutes, you've given me reason enough not to read Stranger in a Strange Land.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the Sexual Revolution...

The one concept that always struck me when I read the book was that that "Mike", a human raised by Martians, who are an asexual race, had no concept of sex until he came back home, and he considered it such a sublime and beautiful gift that humans were lucky to have it, compared to the Martians.

[TransWarpDrive]

Well, 'chutes, you've given me reason enough not to read Stranger in a Strange Land.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the Sexual Revolution...

The one concept that always struck me when I read the book was that that "Mike", a human raised by Martians, who are an asexual race, had no concept of sex until he came back home, and he considered it such a sublime and beautiful gift that humans were lucky to have it, compared to the Martians.
Agreed. IMHO, Heinlein wasn't promoting or endorsing the "Sexual Revolution" in this book; he was merely commenting on how sexuality is a natural part of being human, and that we really shouldn't be ashamed of it. This is in addition to his insights on mass media, organized religion, and their influence on public opinion.
As for what I'm reading now:
I finished Mike Collins' book on the space program, and am now reading "Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers in Aviation" by Frank J. Delear. In addition to developing the modern helicopter (which he first flew on September 14, 1939), Professor Sikorsky also developed the world's first multi-engine airplane, and designed and built a series of flying boats (seaplanes and amphibious aircraft) which pioneered transoceanic air transportation. Prof. Sikorsky is one of my heroes in aviation history.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Well, 'chutes, you've given me reason enough not to read Stranger in a Strange Land.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the Sexual Revolution...
It takes an.... adjusted mindset to appreciate the book... At times even my head was hurting... :dontgetit:

I figure it's also a fact of life that the older you become, the more "canalized" you get. Pretty much anyone over 40 could, potentially, throw this book across the room in disgust. A teenager, on the other hand, LOL's that the book's computers use punchcards. :laugh:


Funny, reading the book's title, I can't help but also think of Dylan... Berlin.... Bay of Pigs Invasion....

Lawrence of Arabia,
British Beatlemania,
Ol' Miss,
John Glenn,
Liston beats Patterson,

*Starts humming*

Pope Paul,
Malcolm X
British politician s*x,
JFK, blown away, what else do I hafta saaaay?!!

*Busts out fully into song* (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWVrfM2YrMo)

Weeeee didn't staht the fiiiiah,
It was always burrrrnin' since the world's been tuurrrnnnin'
Weeee didn't staht the fiiiah,
No, we didn't liiiiight it,
But we tried to fiiiight it!

:laugh:

[TransWarpDrive]

Well, 'chutes, you've given me reason enough not to read Stranger in a Strange Land.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the Sexual Revolution...
It takes an.... adjusted mindset to appreciate the book... At times even my head was hurting... :dontgetit:

I figure it's also a fact of life that the older you become, the more "canalized" you get. Pretty much anyone over 40 could, potentially, throw this book across the room in disgust. A teenager, on the other hand, LOL's that the book's computers use punchcards. :laugh:

"Canalized?" :huh: Could you define that for me, please?

[Fireand'chutes77]

Well, 'chutes, you've given me reason enough not to read Stranger in a Strange Land.

As you can probably guess, I'm not a fan of the Sexual Revolution...
It takes an.... adjusted mindset to appreciate the book... At times even my head was hurting... :dontgetit:

I figure it's also a fact of life that the older you become, the more "canalized" you get. Pretty much anyone over 40 could, potentially, throw this book across the room in disgust. A teenager, on the other hand, LOL's that the book's computers use punchcards. :laugh:

"Canalized?" :huh: Could you define that for me, please?
Heinlein seemed to favor the term; I infer it to mean entrenched, dug in, set and bound in our ways.

[jeriddian]

I figure it's also a fact of life that the older you become, the more "canalized" you get. Pretty much anyone over 40 could, potentially, throw this book across the room in disgust. A teenager, on the other hand, LOL's that the book's computers use punchcards. :laugh:

That's not really true, 'chutes. Remember that when the book came out, the people who are now over 40 were your age or a little younger. I read it when I was fourteen. It was the beginning of the sixties and the upheaval of society that decade brought along with rock and roll, hippie culture, the race to the moon, and the "Summer of Love". We were the ones who made the book a best seller. Now anyone over 40 at that time.... ......yeah, then I would say you're right. (which most likely means they aren't alive now.):)

[TransWarpDrive]

I figure it's also a fact of life that the older you become, the more "canalized" you get. Pretty much anyone over 40 could, potentially, throw this book across the room in disgust. A teenager, on the other hand, LOL's that the book's computers use punchcards. :laugh:

That's not really true, 'chutes. Remember that when the book came out, the people who are now over 40 were your age or a little younger. I read it when I was fourteen. It was the beginning of the sixties and the upheaval of society that decade brought along with rock and roll, hippie culture, the race to the moon, and the "Summer of Love". We were the ones who made the book a best seller. Now anyone over 40 at that time.... ......yeah, then I would say you're right. (which most likely means they aren't alive now.):)

- Or they're quite elderly. :laugh:
BTW, thanks for the definition,'chutes. :)

[lunchmeat]

I first read it as part of a high school literature class selection. I had been reading Heinlein since the 4th grade and so already had a familiarity with him (first one was Have Spacesuit, Will Travel). The class was also where I encountered the device of truncating or abreiviating the titles of works by the literati (when the teacher first referred to the book as "Stranger" I thought she was opening a discussion of the Camus story).

Heinlein had some interesting ideas on a number of aspects of society, you might give Grumbles From The Grave a try.

[NinjaNaco]

A teenager, on the other hand, LOL's that the book's computers use punchcards. :laugh:
I know what you mean. I've read/flipped through some of my old dad's sci-fi books from when he was a kid/teen/college student, and the things they say happened in the 1980s/90s... :laugh:

[lunchmeat]

I've mentioned Guy Gilpatrick and his character, Colin Glencannon, a time or two. Whilst bumbling about the internet, I managed to stumble across this site (oddly enough, most of the best things in my life have been arrived at completely by accident, go figure...), to succor the Glencannon deprived;

Advanced warning, some of the cultural views and language are constrained by the mores of the 1930s, some may be offended.

http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/glencann.htm

[GoTeamGirl]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.
It's one of my favorites. Every Christmas season I enjoy reading this book.
I also recommend the audio recording Patrick Stewart did of "A Christmas Carol". It's currently available from Simon & Schuster on compact disc; about $14.95 at Borders. Mr. Stewart also played Scrooge in a film adaptation that premiered on the TNT cable channel back in 1999. It's available on DVD now. There's also a version of "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott that first aired on CBS back in 1984 which is also on DVD. They're both good films (yes, I have them too). :alumnus:

[GoTeamGirl]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.
It's one of my favorites. Every Christmas season I enjoy reading this book.
I also recommend the audio recording Patrick Stewart did of "A Christmas Carol". It's currently available from Simon & Schuster on compact disc; about $14.95 at Borders. Mr. Stewart also played Scrooge in a film adaptation that premiered on the TNT cable channel back in 1999. It's available on DVD now. There's also a version of "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott that first aired on CBS back in 1984 which is also on DVD. They're both good films (yes, I have them too). :alumnus:

Well, Christmas is just around the corner...:P:D

I finished the book today, actually. It was very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure my English teacher is going to strip it apart to find all the symbolism and what not, but I thought the story's theme was pretty straightforward. Or at least not so hard to get that it would take several English classes to figure out.

I loved seeing A Christmas Carol when it played in New York City, but the production was closed.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.
It's one of my favorites. Every Christmas season I enjoy reading this book.
I also recommend the audio recording Patrick Stewart did of "A Christmas Carol". It's currently available from Simon & Schuster on compact disc; about $14.95 at Borders. Mr. Stewart also played Scrooge in a film adaptation that premiered on the TNT cable channel back in 1999. It's available on DVD now. There's also a version of "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott that first aired on CBS back in 1984 which is also on DVD. They're both good films (yes, I have them too). :alumnus:

Well, Christmas is just around the corner...:P:D

I finished the book today, actually. It was very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure my English teacher is going to strip it apart to find all the symbolism and what not, but I thought the story's theme was pretty straightforward. Or at least not so hard to get that it would take several English classes to figure out.

I loved seeing A Christmas Carol when it played in New York City, but the production was closed.

What I love about the book is the way Dickens rhapsodizes about Christmas. You can tell that it's his favorite holiday by his various comments about how joyful a day Christmas is, or is supposed to be. I guess his enthusiasm is one of the reasons I read the book every year. It helps me get in the holiday mood, and also helps me recapture some of the excitement I felt as a kid during the month of December.

[GoTeamGirl]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.
It's one of my favorites. Every Christmas season I enjoy reading this book.
I also recommend the audio recording Patrick Stewart did of "A Christmas Carol". It's currently available from Simon & Schuster on compact disc; about $14.95 at Borders. Mr. Stewart also played Scrooge in a film adaptation that premiered on the TNT cable channel back in 1999. It's available on DVD now. There's also a version of "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott that first aired on CBS back in 1984 which is also on DVD. They're both good films (yes, I have them too). :alumnus:

Well, Christmas is just around the corner...:P:D

I finished the book today, actually. It was very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure my English teacher is going to strip it apart to find all the symbolism and what not, but I thought the story's theme was pretty straightforward. Or at least not so hard to get that it would take several English classes to figure out.

I loved seeing A Christmas Carol when it played in New York City, but the production was closed.

What I love about the book is the way Dickens rhapsodizes about Christmas. You can tell that it's his favorite holiday by his various comments about how joyful a day Christmas is, or is supposed to be. I guess his enthusiasm is one of the reasons I read the book every year. It helps me get in the holiday mood, and also helps me recapture some of the excitement I felt as a kid during the month of December.

I love that enthusiasm in the book. The ending makes me feel really happy, and in the Christmas Spirit.

I got an early Christmas present: a Barnes & Nobles gift card, so more books are on the way!

[TransWarpDrive]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.
It's one of my favorites. Every Christmas season I enjoy reading this book.
I also recommend the audio recording Patrick Stewart did of "A Christmas Carol". It's currently available from Simon & Schuster on compact disc; about $14.95 at Borders. Mr. Stewart also played Scrooge in a film adaptation that premiered on the TNT cable channel back in 1999. It's available on DVD now. There's also a version of "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott that first aired on CBS back in 1984 which is also on DVD. They're both good films (yes, I have them too). :alumnus:

Well, Christmas is just around the corner...:P:D

I finished the book today, actually. It was very enjoyable. I'm pretty sure my English teacher is going to strip it apart to find all the symbolism and what not, but I thought the story's theme was pretty straightforward. Or at least not so hard to get that it would take several English classes to figure out.

I loved seeing A Christmas Carol when it played in New York City, but the production was closed.

What I love about the book is the way Dickens rhapsodizes about Christmas. You can tell that it's his favorite holiday by his various comments about how joyful a day Christmas is, or is supposed to be. I guess his enthusiasm is one of the reasons I read the book every year. It helps me get in the holiday mood, and also helps me recapture some of the excitement I felt as a kid during the month of December.

I love that enthusiasm in the book. The ending makes me feel really happy, and in the Christmas Spirit.

I got an early Christmas present: a Barnes & Nobles gift card, so more books are on the way!

:D Good for you! Buy those books!
Remember, knowledge is power! :P :D

[Fireand'chutes77]

Currently reading "Blood and Thunder," by Hampton Sides, for a book report. To quote the cover, it's about "The epic story of Kit Carson and the conquest of the American West."

I'm liking it very much. Sides must have done an insane amount of research, because he's able to describe the characters as if he was personally interviewing them. His descriptive detail and pacing are excellent, too.

I'm thinking of titling the book report, "Yankee Roll." :cool:

[lunchmeat]

I've started A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens for English class, and I'm more than half way through it. It's pretty good.
It's one of my favorites. Every Christmas season I enjoy reading this book.
I also recommend the audio recording Patrick Stewart did of "A Christmas Carol". It's currently available from Simon & Schuster on compact disc; about $14.95 at Borders. Mr. Stewart also played Scrooge in a film adaptation that premiered on the TNT cable channel back in 1999. It's available on DVD now. There's also a version of "A Christmas Carol" starring George C. Scott that first aired on CBS back in 1984 which is also on DVD. They're both good films (yes, I have them too). :alumnus:


One of my very favorite Christmas books is a novella The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth http://www.amazon.com/Shepherd-Frederick-Forsyth/dp/0553090135?tag=dogpile-20, I liked it so much that I later purchased a copy as an audio book,the first I ever had.

[GoTeamGirl]

Moving away from Christmas, I am now reading "Everything's Eventual", a collection of short stories by Stephan King. The first few I've read were pretty disturbing. One of them was a bit sad, less disturbing. I'm on the fourth story, I believe.

[Ace Ian Combat]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o

[jeriddian]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o

I hope you get to see the movie with Marlon Brando. I always thought that was a good rendition of the play myself.

[TransWarpDrive]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o

I hope you get to see the movie with Marlon Brando. I always thought that was a good rendition of the play myself.
I remember when I studied Julius Caesar in high school English class. IIRC, it was part of our studies on plays by Shakespeare. Boy, does that bring back memories...

[lunchmeat]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o


Et tu, Ace? As most here know, I'm rather fond of the Bard's works, hopefully you will have an instructor who doesn't kill the pleasure of them for you.

Last week one of my favorite authors, George MacDonald Frasier, died. A veteran of the WWII Burma Campaign, he added a great deal of insite to his military stories, whether comedic, as was the case of the Flashman series, semi autobiographical, as in The General Danced at Dawn or historical as in Quartered Safe Out Here. He knew he was dying and left one final commentary for the rest of us, it's worth a read:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506219&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments

Particularly in light of Deputy Secretary Defense Gordon England's firing of acclaimed expert Major Stephen Coughlin:http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2008/01/05/eaton-agonistes-redux/

[Ace Ian Combat]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o


Et tu, Ace? As most here know, I'm rather fond of the Bard's works, hopefully you will have an instructor who doesn't kill the pleasure of them for you.

Last week one of my favorite authors, George MacDonald Frasier, died. A veteran of the WWII Burma Campaign, he added a great deal of insite to his military stories, whether comedic, as was the case of the Flashman series, semi autobiographical, as in The General Danced at Dawn or historical as in Quartered Safe Out Here. He knew he was dying and left one final commentary for the rest of us, it's worth a read:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506219&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments

Particularly in light of Deputy Secretary Defense Gordon England's firing of acclaimed expert Major Stephen Coughlin:http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2008/01/05/eaton-agonistes-redux/

Trust me, my English teacher can ruin any book. Several books that I thought I would enjoy were no completely decimated by the experience of reading them in her class. :cry:

[TheGreenMagic]

That's sad to hear. It's the mark of a great teacher that can make things not only educational but engaging as well. But then you get the ones who do more harm then good, like the above that you mentioned. Lord knows one of my high school art teacher managed to inadvertently kill off any love I had for the subject in but one semester.

"Prepared to be drained of all individuality and spirit."

[lunchmeat]

I can relate to that, I had a similar experience in high school (and boy, were those clay tablets a pain to haul around) with Moby ****. Fortunately I had read the story before I took the class. This pretty much saved the thing for me, I later learned that what Melville had done was just cobble together a bunch of sea stories he had heard while he was in the Navy and later, the Merchant Marine. He apparently had no intention of writing something that would, on the seventh level of intepretation, be an allagory for some kind of gay symbology. An awful lot of these interpretations seem to be more some graduate student's attempt at a thesis rathr than anything more concrete.

[Fireand'chutes77]

Last week one of my favorite authors, George MacDonald Frasier, died. A veteran of the WWII Burma Campaign, he added a great deal of insite to his military stories, whether comedic, as was the case of the Flashman series, semi autobiographical, as in The General Danced at Dawn or historical as in Quartered Safe Out Here. He knew he was dying and left one final commentary for the rest of us, it's worth a read:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506219&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
Quite true, and an interesting, insightful read, if a bit painful. Come to think of it, I don't really know how Britain is doing - we don't hear much about them (or any other foreign country besides Texas and California :P) here in the States. I've thought they were puttering along same as always to their little island selves, somewhere in the middle - not as good as the US, but certainly nowhere near as bad as Iraq.

One of Fraiser's points sticks hard, though.
...We were freer by far 50 years ago - yes, even with conscription, censorship, direction of labour, rationing, and shortages of everything that nowadays is regarded as essential to enjoyment.

We still had liberty beyond modern understanding because we had other freedoms, the really important ones, that are denied to the youth of today.

We could say what we liked; they can't. We were not subject to the aggressive pressure of specialinterest minority groups; they are. We had no worries about race or sexual orientation; they have. We could, and did, differ from fashionable opinion with impunity, and would have laughed PC to scorn, had our society been weak and stupid enough to let it exist.
:ohwell:

The only reason he's able to state that with such confidence is because he is a white male. I don't think he was ever on the other side of Jim Crow laws or a nasty "kitchen, barefoot, pregnant" remark.

Thankfully, things have evened up somewhat since then. (Gooooo, Kimmie! :D)

[GoTeamGirl]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o

I'm supposed to start reading that in the spring for English class once we get through midterms and finish the play Oedipus Rex.

Other than what my English class is doing, I'm still working on the short stories in Stephen King's book. I've gotten through another one, and the current story is odd, involving a race of green people and an abandoned town. He has quite the imagination.

[Ace Ian Combat]

We started reading Julius Caesar in English today. Not sure what I think of it yet, since it's the play version. I got the roles of the soothsayer and Cinna the poet, which were the two I wanted.:)

On a side note, it was a bad idea to stick two keyboards to two computers that look exactly the same side by side. I'm repeatedly trying to type on the wrong one.:o

I hope you get to see the movie with Marlon Brando. I always thought that was a good rendition of the play myself.

Sadly it's not that one, but one with John Gieglug (?) as Caesar. We watched Act 1 today since we finished reading that part yesterday.:hmm: My teacher likes to read one act, watch the movie version of that act, then read the next act, and so on.

[campy]

Sadly it's not that one, but one with John Gieglug (?) as Caesar. We watched Act 1 today since we finished reading that part yesterday.:hmm: My teacher likes to read one act, watch the movie version of that act, then read the next act, and so on.The actor's name is John Gielgud. Here's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gielgud) a Wikipedia article about him.

[GoTeamGirl]

We read a bit of Oedipus today. We're never going to finish, I think. My teacher has us read a bit (about 5-10 lines), pauses to have a discussion to determining meaning, characteristics, ironies, ect...and then continues on that way for the whole class.

[jeriddian]

Sadly it's not that one, but one with John Gieglug (?) as Caesar. We watched Act 1 today since we finished reading that part yesterday.:hmm: My teacher likes to read one act, watch the movie version of that act, then read the next act, and so on.The actor's name is John Gielgud. Here's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gielgud) a Wikipedia article about him.

Well Sir John Gielgud was also a fantastically accomplished Shapkespearean actor. I never saw that movie, but I'll bet it's excellent.:D

[TransWarpDrive]

Right now I'm reading a new book I got for Christmas: The First Men on the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 by David M. Harland. It's a very detailed book about the Apollo 11 mission in July, 1969. Right now I'm up to the part where the astronauts have just been strapped into their couches in the Apollo 11 spacecraft in preparation for liftoff...
(I just love books about the space program! :))

[campy]

I'm reading The 6 Sacred Stones, by Matthew Reilly. It's the sequel to his 7 Deadly Wonders. Jack West, Jr., his adopted daughter Lily, and his team of adventurers buck impossible odds and save the world. It's a pretty good read.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I'm reading The 6 Sacred Stones, by Matthew Reilly. It's the sequel to his 7 Deadly Wonders. Jack West, Jr., his adopted daughter Lily, and his team of adventurers buck impossible odds and save the world. It's a pretty good read.
Let me guess... the next book will be 5 Golden Rings? :P :laugh:

[jeriddian]

I just read the seventh book of the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series called Fury. This is a pretty dark and serious treatment of the Star Wars universe in which one of the Solo children turns into a Sith Lord and the Skywalkers and the Solos have to hunt him down and take him out.

[TransWarpDrive]

As I mentioned in the "How Was Your Day?" thread, I just finished reading Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, about a prisoner in one of Stalin's Siberian forced-labor camps in the early 1950's.
I don't know why, but I always read that book in winter when it gets really cold out. I guess when the temperature goes below zero, I feel more sympathy for the characters in that book. Those poor guys had to live and work in bitter cold - far worse than what I'm enduring now - on a daily basis during the winter. And being political prisoners, they were treated brutally as well.

[TransWarpDrive]

I just finished reading Just One More Thing: Stories From My Life by Peter Falk. It's not so much an autobiography as it is a collection of humorous anecdotes from Mr. Falk's career as an actor. And yes, he does discuss how he made his "Lt. Columbo" character come to life on television - for example, that rumpled, messed-up raincoat Columbo always wore wasn't from the studio costume department - Mr. Falk brought it to the set from his closet at home.
It's a very funny book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh. I found myself chuckling every time I read it. :):D

[TransWarpDrive]

Now I'm reading "The Oscar" by Richard Sale. It's the book that the 1966 movie starring Steven Boyd, Elke Sommer, Jill St. John, and Tony Bennett was based on.
It's about a nasty, ruthless actor named Frankie Fane, and how he schemes and connives to win an Academy Award for Best Actor after having been nominated. I first saw the movie on TV back when I was in junior high school; it was the first film I remember seeing where I didn't feel any sympathy towards the main character - he was that cruel.

[campy]

Now I'm reading "The Oscar" by Richard Sale. [...]
It's about a nasty, ruthless actor named Frankie Fane, and how he schemes and connives to win [...]:hmm: Interesting how TWD posts this right after I put up my new sig. :dubiety::laugh:

[Ace Ian Combat]

We just finished reading Night by Elie Wesiel in English. The room is constantly full of sniffles.

[Fireand'chutes77]

We just finished reading Night by Elie Wesiel in English. The room is constantly full of sniffles.
My class read that last year. It was a powerful book, although Wesiel wasn't much for descriptive detail. His writing style came off as "cold" to me.

I thought his description and imagery of the forced march was very good, though.

[GoTeamGirl]

We just finished reading Night by Elie Wesiel in English. The room is constantly full of sniffles.
My class read that last year. It was a powerful book, although Wesiel wasn't much for descriptive detail. His writing style came off as "cold" to me.

I thought his description and imagery of the forced march was very good, though.

I want to read that! My friend's class is reading that, but my class is doing Julius Caesar next. We just finished Oedipus, and in the mean time I'm reading a book that takes place during World War II called The Book Thief. The author had a really original idea when choosing the narrator.

[Fireand'chutes77]

We just finished Oedipus...
He is one of our English vocab words this week. (How Greek mythology wound up in a vocab list, I don't know.) Anywaym whenever I hear his name, I think of a quote from Disney's 1997 Hercules movie.

"...And then that, that play - that, that, that Oedipus thing. Man... And I thought *I* had problems!"

:laugh:

[Sir Sebastian]

Just finished Area 7 by Matthew Reilly. I don't think I've ever read a book this fast-paced and action-packed. When the action starts, it STARTS, and doesn't quit.

A very interesting bonus was Reilly's interview in the of the book.

Any other tips for aspiring writers?

Yes. There is no such thing as an 'aspiring writer'. You are a writer. Period. I was told that once, and I have never forgotten it.

[GoTeamGirl]

We just finished Oedipus...
He is one of our English vocab words this week. (How Greek mythology wound up in a vocab list, I don't know.) Anywaym whenever I hear his name, I think of a quote from Disney's 1997 Hercules movie.

"...And then that, that play - that, that, that Oedipus thing. Man... And I thought *I* had problems!"

:laugh:

:laugh:

In class we're reading Julius Caeser now (although I missed yesterday's class), and just because I'm reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

The Book Thief has to be one of the best books I've read.

[campy]

I'm reading The Chase by Clive Cussler. It's about a detective pursuing a bank robber/murderer through the American West in 1906. It's kind of a reversal from this author's usual form, starting with the salvage of a locomotive from a lake bottom in the present day and going back to tell the story of how it got there. Good read so far. :D

[Sir Sebastian]

7 Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly. This guy sure knows how to write action/adventure. Despite being simplistic, his style is descriptive without being florid. The pictures and diagrams in Reilly's books feel a little like a copout, but because of the all the complex scenes and settings, they really help to visualize what's going on. Normally in books of this genre, you don't get too emotionally attached to the characters, but in this one I really got to like them. Especially Lily. A few father/daughter moments between her and West, the main character, even got me a little choked up (like that's hard to do :)).

I'm thinking of getting his other books, but this one's the only one that's been translated to Finnish, and with Area 7, the only ones found in my library. I may have to order online.

[campy]

7 Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly. This guy sure knows how to write action/adventure. Despite being simplistic, his style is descriptive without being florid. I liked that one. I recently read the sequel (see message #225 above). It's a worthy follow-up, but it's only half a book, really. It ends on a cliffhanger.

I'm reading On Royalty by Jeremy Paxman, a look at hereditary monarchies in the modern world.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm reading Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Eliot. Right now I'm up to where Mr. Stewart's moved to Hollywood after signing a movie contract with MGM in the mid-1930's.

[GoTeamGirl]

Now I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.

And I have to finish Act I of Julius Caeser this week.

[Ace Ian Combat]

We're reading The Scarlet Letter in English now. Not too sure how I feel about it yet.

[TransWarpDrive]

I put aside the Jimmy Stewart biography for a while and picked up a copy of Ian Fleming's James Bond book, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's a pretty good read. I've seen most (if not all) of the Bond movies, but I've never read Fleming's original books until now.
BTW, did you know that Ian Fleming also wrote the children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, on which the 1968 film starring D-i-c-k Van Dyke and Benny Hill, was based? :alumnus: The book was nothing like the movie, believe me. I read it as a kid back in '68 or '69, and was very disappointed with the film version when I saw it on television.:surprised: I was actually embarrassed to be watching it - that's how bad I thought it was. :thumbdown:

[campy]

I put aside the Jimmy Stewart biography for a while and picked up a copy of Ian Fleming's James Bond book, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's a pretty good read. I've seen most (if not all) of the Bond movies, but I've never read Fleming's original books until now.
BTW, did you know that Ian Fleming also wrote the children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, on which the 1968 film starring D-i-c-k Van Dyke and Benny Hill, was based? :alumnus: The book was nothing like the movie, believe me. I read it as a kid back in '68 or '69, and was very disappointed with the film version when I saw it on television.:surprised: I was actually embarrassed to be watching it - that's how bad I thought it was. :thumbdown:The Bond books are pretty good, TWD, but you'd be better served to read them in chronological order. OHMSS is pretty late in the series.

I remember when I was looking through the libraries of the 3 nearby towns to find them. All had large gaps in their collections, and I thought I'd never find a whole set. Then I walked into my local Ocean State Job Lot store on a totally unrelated errand and found them in paperback priced at 6 for $1! Talk about serendipity. :thumbup:

[Fireand'chutes77]

Then I walked into my local Ocean State Job Lot store on a totally unrelated errand and found them in paperback priced at 6 for $1! Talk about serendipity. :thumbup:
Did you get a free coffee maker for each one? :P :laugh:

[jeriddian]

We're reading The Scarlet Letter in English now. Not too sure how I feel about it yet.

That can be a tough read, AIC. If you get the right teacher though, that can be a good book to study with a lot of interesting facts about it, but Hawthorne can be a difficult read, as can any of the nineteenth century authors, but when you understand the symbolism he's going for and how he uses words to do it, it's pretty neat, or at least I thought so.

[Ran Hakubi]

I'm not much of a book reader, but there are a few that I'd like to get

Paul Harvey "Rest of the Story" collection

Stephen Colbert "I am American, and So Can You"

Keith Olbermann "Worst Person in the World"

Anybody read any of those, and if so, are they worth picking up? I'm pretty sure the Paul Harvey books are, as well as Stephen Colbert's book

[jeriddian]

I'm not much of a book reader, but there are a few that I'd like to get

Paul Harvey "Rest of the Story" collection

Stephen Colbert "I am American, and So Can You"

Keith Olbermann "Worst Person in the World"

Anybody read any of those, and if so, are they worth picking up? I'm pretty sure the Paul Harvey books are, as well as Stephen Colbert's book

I like Paul Harvey a lot, although I think he tends to color the stories a little. Stephen Colbert is amusing. Keith Olbermann.... .....personally, I think the man is the epitomy of yellow journalism, and William Randolph Hearst would be right proud of him. He ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on rail as far as I'm concerned.:mad:

[Ace Ian Combat]

We're reading The Scarlet Letter in English now. Not too sure how I feel about it yet.

That can be a tough read, AIC. If you get the right teacher though, that can be a good book to study with a lot of interesting facts about it, but Hawthorne can be a difficult read, as can any of the nineteenth century authors, but when you understand the symbolism he's going for and how he uses words to do it, it's pretty neat, or at least I thought so.

Unfortunately my English teacher is not one I would choose for any of the books we read. She just isn't quite all there, in terms of her philosophy of books really. I don't know how to describe it however.