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I love these type of threads. I am always searching for a good read.
I have just finished reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. It was a light, quick read and I didn't put it down until I finished, but couldn't tell you why. The father reminded me of both Mr Trebus, the old man from a Life of Grime, and a Polish man I knew years ago who had walked across Europe as a child after WW2 to escape the Russians so that might be why I stayed interested. Before that I read Death in Venice and Forgotten Voices of the Great War. I am now reading The Woman in White for a book club I belong to. I didn't think I would like it but I am actually enjoying it.
I don't watch a lot of anything but rubbish on TV or watch films much but I finally got round to watching The Usual Suspects on DVD this weekend and enjoyed it though it was a no-brainier and I have just bought Its a Wonderful Life because I felt I ought to have it. I must get Citizen Kane too now I am reminded to.
On TV I look for Dr Who and The Convent. I missed The Monastery but caught this and I am hooked on the nuns and trying to work out what anyone would get from a living in a secluded, closed order. It's worth putting up with the deeply uninteresting Big Brother antics of the silly women who are staying with them.
I've got Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man to read next and now I think Glass Soup looks worth investigating. I like surreal.
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quote:Originally posted by ExtensionsOff: it made me realise that I have to read some Bukowski if I wish to hold my head high in the literary salons of the West Riding.
The great thing about Bukowski is it's all pretty much exactly the same, so you only really have to read one, and you've pretty much got the gist: people are scum, life is pain, being an alcoholic gutter dwelling lowlife fucking kicks ass etc. I remember laughing out loud at Women so maybe that's a good one to go for. They're incredibly easy to read, galloping on in a flip vernacular with little or no plot, just evocative descriptions of boozing, fucking and shouting and cynicism posing as enlightenment.
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quote:Originally posted by herbs: The Time Traveller's Wife...I never really felt the wife was a rounded character, and was defined by being married to a time-traveller, and as being a wispy artist moping in a studio. The 'wacky japes' the couple get up to with their friends seem a bit false too.
I suppose the thing with the wife is that she is totally defined by the time traveller as he has quite a long life before he ever meets her, but she knows him from childhood onwards. He's got a history, she has a couple of one-night stands.
It wasn't a perfect book, but I enjoyed the japes. Not that they are a particularly essential part of the story. The thing that did bug me, as it does with most books I read and films I watch, was the ending. In this case it was completely revealed about 20 pages before the actual end.
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Y b N b Y... I suppose I could easily feel why Clare loved Henry - he had a personality beyond being a time traveller - whereas Clare's personality never really came through enough for me to see why Henry loved her. Apart from her hair, which does get featured rather a lot.
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quote:Originally posted by ExtensionsOff: it made me realise that I have to read some Bukowski if I wish to hold my head high in the literary salons of the West Riding.
The great thing about Bukowski is it's all pretty much exactly the same, so you only really have to read one, and you've pretty much got the gist: people are scum, life is pain, being an alcoholic gutter dwelling lowlife fucking kicks ass etc. I remember laughing out loud at Women so maybe that's a good one to go for. They're incredibly easy to read, galloping on in a flip vernacular with little or no plot, just evocative descriptions of boozing, fucking and shouting and cynicism posing as enlightenment.
Thorn's right that most of Bukowski's stuff is very much alike, but if you want to read 'Bukowski by numbers' his best work is probably Post Office. If you want to know how he got himself into this mess, you should try the semi-autobiographical Ham on Rye, which is far less 'cool', in that he fucks less women and boozes less, certainly at the start of the book anyway. However, it has more depth, is more varied, and is consequently more interesting than his other novels. They're all great reads though so you can't really go wrong, other than by reading them back-to-back cos they'll all blend into one huge, drunken rant.
quote:Originally posted by herbs: whereas Clare's personality never really came through enough for me to see why Henry loved her.
I guess that being handed a beautiful girl who already loves you, understands and believes you would be fairly irresistable. Plus she seems very willing to get into to the old sheet acrobatics anywhere and any time, and Henry does appear to be a rather enthusiastic practitioner of that sport. Personality would be a bonus, but possibly not essential in that case.
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RickJ Norton would be proud of me - I've been reading Selling Hitler by Robert Harris, and am also dipping in and out of The Light's on at Signpost by nutty old crazyman George Macdonald Fraser (of Flashman fame).
And languishing on the bedside table is this little beauty:
Nazis, nutters and fast chicks. You are what you read.
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quote:Originally posted by sam: I've got Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man to read next and now I think Glass Soup looks worth investigating. I like surreal.
You should read Glass Soup. A gave it to me for Xmas, thinking I would really enjoy it, and he was spot on. Sometimes you're like wtf is going on, but then oh. yeah. I get it. If that makes sense. Just a sec. I'll get the book, and give you the inside flap.
Glass Soup:
"The realm of the dead is built from the dreams- and nightmares- of the living. Octopuses drive buses. God is a polar bear. And a crowded highway literally leads to Hell. Once before, Vincent Ettrich and his lover, Isabelle Neukor, crossed over from life to death and back again. Now Isabelle bears a very special child, who may someday restore the ever-changing mosaic that is reality. Unless the agents of Chaos can lure her back to the land of the dead-and trap her there forever.
ExtensionsOff (I think it was you anyway): I've never read Bukowski, but we have almost (if not all) of his books. A says you should read Post Office (as did someone else, I believe).
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Benway- you should read Battle Royale. It delves so much more into the characters. It's probably one of my all time fave books.
edit: Hello Mart. Thanks It's weird posting...not used to it and it probably won't happen very much come the end of August. But hey. I figured I might as well pop in over the summer and say hello.
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I think I want to read The Time Traveller's Wife now. I picked it up a few times in Barnes and Noble, but always put it back. Thanks for the recommendation!
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quote:Originally posted by Amy: I think I want to read The Time Traveller's Wife now. I picked it up a few times in Barnes and Noble, but always put it back. Thanks for the recommendation!
I enjoyed Time Traveller's Wife. I was gripped in places and winced in others, but like herbs I worked out that the book wasn't actually about the wife and I would have liked more of her and I felt the ending at least was vaguely unsatisfactory. I can't really say why without giving too much away but no-one else in my reading group agreed with me so perhaps I am just too sentimental.
Thanks for endorsing Glass Soup. I am off to play.com now.
-------------------- A day without laughter is a day wasted. In memory of Alastair Posts: 1936
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At the risk of turning this thread into "TTW: what was it all about, eh", I too found the ending unsatisfactory. It was flagged up practically all the way through, so you kind of knew what was going to happen, but it seemed such a random way to [verb deleted], unconnected, in a way, to his time-travelling-ness. Maybe it's one of those books that needs reading again to fully unravel all the strands.
quote:Originally posted by herbs: At the risk of turning this thread into "TTW: what was it all about, eh", I too found the ending unsatisfactory.
I really think there should be a specially trained Ending Department in all publishing firms. The number of books and stories I've really enjoyed reading, only to turn the last page and go, "Oh, FFS!" The Ending Department should just return the whole thing to the author with, "Oh, FFS!" stamped on it in bold. OK, there'd be the odd author suicide here and there, but that would be the best type of ending for that sort of writer, let's face it.
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: I think Herbs hates us, Amy.
I think so too, Misc.
Dang- I totally agree. I had never read anything by Stephen King before, until Cell. Great book, stupid ending. I think I said something like "Oh come on!"
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quote:Originally posted by Amy: I had never read anything by Stephen King before, until Cell. Great book, stupid ending. I think I said something like "Oh come on!"
I haven't read Cell, but didn't think much of the extract which appeared in one of the papers a few months back. I would recommend giving Misery, Firestarter and Insomnia a go, if you're planning to read more King.
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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I read Cell. I'm still not quite sure why I did it. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It's a total copy of The Stand, which he wrote about fifteen years ago. That dint on the head broked his imagination, I reckon.
King recommendations; short stories The Long Walk and The Body and the overblown brilliance of It. I also second Misery and for hideousness, the unsung bit of utter nastiness which is Gerald's Game.
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The Dark Half is also worth leafing through. The film isn't a patch on the book, btw.
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turbo
Gold..... What is it good for? You can't eat it, you can't smoke it, yet everybody wants it.
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The last few months I've only been reading Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series. Somewhere inbetween I read the newest Marian Keyes book, Anybody Out There? for something completely different. Thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
Seen quite a few newish films lately too:
Keeping Mum - awful and cringe-worthy and so very predictable, whilst trying to be 'surprising'. Walk The Line - singing along with Johnny Cash. Enjoyed it, especially as the music has sentimental value for me. Shopgirl - Bit strange but still enjoyable, if only to see the amazing house the Steve Martin character lives in In Her Shoes - chick lit in film format. Entertaining enough and good if you're feeling hormonal and the idea of sisterhood makes you cry. The Constant Gardener - liked this one muchly even though I'm not the greatest Ralph Fiennes fan. Kept playing through my mind in the days after I watched it. Rumour Has It - more chick lit in film format. Can't even remember what it was about, but I like Jennifer Aniston, so I think I enjoyed it.
Am currently downloading the Da Vinci Code film, which I will probably hate but feel compelled to watch nonetheless.
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I saw Office Space at the weekend because it was on TV. I enjoyed that. A couple of moments where I LOL'd to myself! The scene where the dude has his interview with the consultants after the botched hynotherapy was funny.
quote: BOB SLYDELL Y'see, what we're trying to do here, we're just trying to get a feel for how people spend their day. So, if you would, would you just walk us through a typical day for you?
PETER Yeah.
BOB SLYDELL Great.
PETER Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way Lumbergh can't see me. Uh, and after that, I just sorta space out for about an hour.
BOB PORTER Space out?
PETER Yeah. I just stare at my desk but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd probably, say, in a given week, I probably do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work.
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Yeah....and I went ahead and watched Equilibirum last night, which was very shit. I remember, back in day, Raz and I went to watch Jackass the Movie, and the trailer for Equilibirum came up. I was in pretty bad shape on this particular day, and as a result I thought that Equilibrium looked pretty good. I mentioned this to Raz and after a particularly violent "GOD!!!", he didn't speak to me for a few hours after we came out of the cinema, in punishment for saying that Equilibrium looked good.
But, as always, Raz was in the right and I was woefully short of the target. Not a good film. Had a very shouty teenage feel to it. The whole 'in the future there wil be no emotions' thing is kind of stupid, and the hordes of biker helmeted bodyguards being dispatched in a series of homicidal ballet moves felt like the sketches of a GCSE student just after The Matrix had been released. Bale just looked angular and waxy, and gave pretty much the same performance that he did in American Psycho - a man who's inner turmoil is in the solitary confinement of the soul.
I normally like dystopia, but the future in Equilibrium didn't sit well with me. It's lazy to be making films about monolithic, oppressive, and paternal dictatorships taking over the West these days. That was fine in the early part of the twentieth century, but the State is now such a complex and insidious entity, with it's boundaries blurred all over the place, that it seems too simple to still be relying on traditional and literal notions of big brother. So that didn't work either. Nothing did. The society outside of the administrative processes was never really examined and the people didn't feel real. Whether they were on Prozium or not, nothing about the perfomances felt natural. But I watched it until the end anyway, and am tired as a result.
I did quite like the recurring motif of people being shot in the face through the visors on their biker helmets.
[ 10.07.2006, 08:55: Message edited by: Dr. Benway ]
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benway ever since i first saw office space the 'damn it feels good to be a gangster' scene has always made me think of you. i dont know why. its just a totally benway scene.
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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
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I watched the first 20 mins of Equilibirum (Benway, 2006) last night - this has the best/only good bit in it, with the gun kata battle with the people in the blacked out room, which is immensely fun and very graphic-novelly.
Then I channelsurfed for a little while, then I went to bed.
Also went to see POTC 2 at teh cimena yesterday - dm if you were in the 1.30 showing at Cribbs I was in the second row back of the back bit with 4 close personal friends all munching popcorn like there was no tomorrow.
Enjoyed: Norrington being a bastard. Enjoyed: Pretty men in pirate costumes - I think I'm developing a fetish like some people do with uniforms. Enjoyed: Rapid fire references and one-liners e.g. Jack when showing palm infected with black hairy spot "but I still have my eyesight" Enjoyed: Tom Hollander getting some good villain on. He's lovely. Small but perfectly formed. Enjoyed: Bill Nighy's exaggerated consonantal enunciation at the end of words. Disenjoyed: Keira bloody Knightly and her jaw that doesn't shut properly, leaving her a permanently shark-like gritted teeth vibe going on. Disenjoyed: too many Kraken attacks.
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My favourite bit in Office Space is when he's at the therapy session and he says "Ever since I started work, every day had been worse than the one before it. That means every time you see me, that's the worst day of my life." Oh, and when he goes "It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care."
On Friday I watched Wolf Creek and The Hills Have Eyes. Easily the better of the two, Wolf Creek felt menacing and claustrophobic. I also liked the way they used the Australian landscape. At first it's beautiful, and then it's menacing but eventually you come to realise that both of those are readings you're imposing on the scenery, like an ink blot test, and really the scenery just is. I liked that, and it fitted well with the idea of characters stranded at the 'mercy' of an indifferent fate. There were a few too many frustrating 'stupid horror movie' moments, though, including one moment where the protaganists are gifted the most incredible opportunity, faced with the unconscious body of the killer and an assorted rack of weapons and they fail to do anything about it. That's guaranteed to have you yelling at the telly. A shame, because that mars an otherwise relentlessly gruelling experience.
By contrast, the remake of The Hills Have Eyes is just a romp. It's schlocky and glossy and cathartic. There's no real attempt to build an atmosphere of dread and some of the special effects are pretty dire - one cast member getting burnt looks considerably worse than the equivalent moment in the 70s original. There's not a great deal to recommend it - it's well made enough, but it's a soulless, passionless experience. Some decent pickaxe action, but other than that it's all a bit blunt.
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