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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Feb 2 2016, 4:18pm
Post #1 of 17
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It's the Groundhog Day reading thread!
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It's also the Celtic quarter day, Imbolc, halfway between the solstice and the equinox, also known as Candlemas and/or St. Bridget's Day.
Did anyone see his or her shadow? I certainly saw mine here in sunny Texas.
Me, I'll finish listening to 44 Scotland Street today and move on, probably, to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, read by Stephen Fry. I've also started a second audio book, Enter Three Witches, by Caroline B. Cooney, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. I've only listened to a few tracks so far, in which the author is setting up a plethora of characters. Okay. We'll see if anything eventually happens.
As for reading on paper, I've caught up with a couple of magazines and am now trying to decide whether to continue on with the nonfiction book, The Golden Door, or dive into another novel. So many books, so little time!
What have you been reading?
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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NottaSackville
Valinor
Feb 2 2016, 5:15pm
Post #2 of 17
(476 views)
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Post Apocalyptic Nomadic Warriors
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Shadow? Winter hasn't hardly even started here in NY yet. As Mrs. Notta said this morning "Who cares if he sees his shadow, spring started last November!". Supposed to be 60 F here tomorrow - that will crush the record high by 8 degrees.
One of the books I read during my reading thread hiatus was Post-Apocolyptic Nomadic Warriors by Benjamin Wallace. The nuclear apocolypse has happened, life goes on, and frankly, people are finding that, with a little more space and a lot fewer jerks, things just aren't all that bad.
But still, there are zombies, mutants and not ALL the jerks died, so sometimes you just need yourself a post-apocolyptic nomadic warrior to defend your town. But what do you do when TWO of them show up and you have to choose? Do you pick the Clint Eastwood type? Or the former librarian? And which one fits in better on your kickball team?
I found the book a funny and fresh take on all the post-apocolypse stories out there. The characters were engaging, the story was interesting and the plot was well-paced. It was easily worth the $0 that I picked the Kindle edition up for. (Or was it $1? I can't remember, and doesn't matter.) I liked it enough that I bought and read the other related books by Benjamin Wallace: Knights of the Apocolypse, Prisoner's Dilemma, Last Band of the Apocolypse, Gone to the Dogs, and How to Host an Intervention. The last 4 are really just a few page short stories and I think the whole bit cost me well under $10.
He's got other books as well in other series and I've bought a few of them to put on my Kindle, but I'm taking a little break and reading other books for a bit.
Notta
 Happiness: money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important and so are friends, while envy is toxic -- and so is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. - The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner as summarized by Lily Fairbairn. And a bit of the Hobbit reading thrown in never hurts. - NottaSackville
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 2 2016, 6:11pm
Post #3 of 17
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have you seen what Sky TV is doing in the UK?
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Feb 2 2016, 6:13pm
Post #4 of 17
(457 views)
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Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 3 2016, 9:23pm
Post #5 of 17
(445 views)
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For my sins - The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
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Good lord this writing is terrible. There's a decent enough storyline here that could be interesting in the hands of an adept and subtle author, but the writing is clunky, fan-girlish ("tawny eyes", "hair almost as dark as wet ink") and desperately shallow.
I'm continuing with it though because it's so horrible it's fascinating - like watching car-crash television. I shouldn't read it but I can't look away.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
(This post was edited by Ataahua on Feb 3 2016, 9:23pm)
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sevilodorf
Tol Eressea
Feb 4 2016, 12:34am
Post #6 of 17
(435 views)
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and the sequels (I am a complete masochist) are even worse.
This is the author of The Very Secret Diaries --- fanfic .... and she should have recognized her limitations.
Fourth Age Adventures at the Inn of the Burping Troll http://burpingtroll.com
Home of TheOneRing.net Best FanFic stories of 2005 and 2006 "The Last Grey Ship" and "Ashes, East Wind, Hope That Rises" by Erin Rua
(Found in Mathoms, LOTR Tales Untold)
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Ataahua
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 4 2016, 1:09am
Post #7 of 17
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This is the author of The Very Secret Diaries.
Her name was familiar but I couldn't pick why - thanks sevildorf! That puts a whole new light on her writing.
And the five other books in the series are even worse? Oh joy.
Celebrimbor: "Pretty rings..."
Dwarves: "Pretty rings..."
Men: "Pretty rings..."
Sauron: "Mine's better."
"Ah, how ironic, the addictive qualities of Sauron’s master weapon led to its own destruction. Which just goes to show, kids - if you want two small and noble souls to succeed on a mission of dire importance... send an evil-minded beggar with them too." - Gandalf's Diaries, final par, by Ufthak.
Ataahua's stories
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Old Toby
Grey Havens
Feb 4 2016, 5:57am
Post #8 of 17
(419 views)
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Just finished this. I decided I had to read it because it was the first of the Western genre. I am afraid I lost interest about half way through though. The writing, like much of the writing of that era, became lost on wordy tangents and it grew tedious for me, although the story started out very well. The final showdown between the Virginian and Trampas was all too brief and anit-climactic. I think the high point of this story was early on, in the chapter about Em'ly the demented chicken. Now THAT was a winner of a chapter! I don't regret reading this novel just for that!
"Age is always advancing and I'm fairly sure it's up to no good." Harry Dresden (Jim Butcher)
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Annael
Immortal
Feb 4 2016, 3:34pm
Post #9 of 17
(397 views)
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The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker
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one of those books that is so densely packed with through-provoking ideas I can barely get through a paragraph without putting the book down to ruminate.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Annael
Immortal
Feb 4 2016, 3:36pm
Post #10 of 17
(400 views)
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since the book got turned into both a movie and a TV series, I doubt that will happen.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
Feb 4 2016, 5:06pm
Post #11 of 17
(387 views)
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...about The Soul's Code by James Hillman. Took me forever to read it, but it was well worth the effort.
Where now the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harpstring, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow....
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Dame Ioreth
Tol Eressea
Feb 5 2016, 3:56am
Post #13 of 17
(359 views)
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I've often wondered if "novel" is a correct term for this book
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To me, it seemed more of a memoir than a novel. It does suffer from a lack of novel-type format - set up, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. The book was written as a sort of memoir. Owen Wister did go west as the narrator did and, at the urging of Teddy Roosevelt, wrote about his adventures. Those experiences were written into this book. For me, it kind of moseyed along. I got the impression of listening to an old man telling stories about his youth. It reminded me of my grandpa's stories and I thoroughly enjoyed those so that might be why I enjoyed this book so much.
_
Heed WBA when building blanket forts.
ITLs don't get enough FAS. :)
Where there's life there's hope, and need of vittles.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
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Annael
Immortal
Feb 5 2016, 5:09pm
Post #14 of 17
(342 views)
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for me they were a "funny once"
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the first one made me laugh a little, but I was quickly bored.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Annael
Immortal
Feb 5 2016, 5:12pm
Post #15 of 17
(340 views)
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Yes, Hillman's another "dense" writer
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Forgot to mention I'm also working through "The Maiden King" by Robert Bly and Marion Woodman, and that's also so thought-provoking I have to put it down and ruminate often. We're reading it in an ongoing "class" on Jungian-related topics and the discussions it provokes have been brilliant. We read "The Soul's Code" in that class a few years ago.
I am a dreamer of words, of written words. I think I am reading; a word stops me. I leave the page. The syllables of the words begin to move around … The words take on other meanings as if they had the right to be young.
-- Gaston Bachelard
* * * * * * * * * *
NARF and member of Deplorable Cultus since 1967
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Darkstone
Immortal
Feb 5 2016, 6:14pm
Post #16 of 17
(341 views)
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Arthur Machen’s “The Great God Pan” (1894), a horror classic, cited as influential in their writings by HP Lovecraft and Stephen King. Originally condemned in Britain as degenerate due to implied sexual content, it seemed to me very reminiscent of Emile Zola’s 1880 novel Nana, though the latter was a bit more sexually explicit but without the Eldritch Horror. All in all, a few nice chills via purplish Victorian prose about the mostly second-handedly described depredations of the female antagonist who was at once both incredibly beautiful yet indescribably repulsive.
The Arsenic Century, by James C. Whorton (2010). A horrifying book about how throughout the 19th century Great Britain was poisoned by arsenic deliberately added to food, candy, medicine, ale, wine, clothes, wallpaper, wool, product labels, and anything else manufacturers needed to preserve, add bulk to, or make a nice pretty green. The laissez faire policy of the British government is incomprehensible, with the argument “If people don’t want arsenic in their homes just avoid products that contain it” negated by the fact that manufacturers would lie about its presence in their products, and the argument of the ability for legal redress negated by manufacturers almost always successfully arguing in court “How can we know that it’s *our* arsenic laden product that caused someone to get sick and die?” Given recent problems with products from food to air bags, and the itch of many politicians to deregulate health and safety laws, this is a very scary book.
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Fimbrethil, Warrior Entwife
Sez: "Why don't we terraform Earth? It's closer."
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Meneldor
Valinor
Feb 8 2016, 8:22pm
Post #17 of 17
(287 views)
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I finally finished A Bridge Too Far, by Cornelius Ryan. It's an amazing story, thoroughly researched and well told. If you've seen the movie, you know the basics of the story, but as usual, even an epic-length film leaves out huge amounts of the true history. Strongly recommended.
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. -Psalm 107
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