I've had a stressful week, what with one thing and another. Much as I love my job, the complex reprogramming needed on the website has meant Dave R has been here consistently late in the evenings (not getting at you, DR, I know it's not your fault), so I haven't had enough sleep and this is never a good start. Then there was the delightful firm of gardeners who, not content with botching up my garden three years ago, have decided to try to get me blamed for the accident they caused some poor woman by their negligence; fortunately the true culprit has now been well and truly identified, but I'm breathing fire at them for obvious reasons. Finally, just to put the lid on it, Minsky brought a live toad in last night, apparently to demonstrate how macho he is... as if I didn't know!

So when I went into Waterstone's today to cancel my order for WOLP on the grounds that I'd be buying my copy in Leeds, the inevitable happened, and this is what I've got:

1. The new Harry Potter.
2. Those previous Harry Potter books not already in my collection.
3. "Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow", as recommended by Miss Print.
4. "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker.
5. "Schroedinger's Kittens" by John Gribbin.
6. "Great Expectations" (about time I had a copy of my own!)
7. "The Woman in White" (ditto)
8. "Wee Free Men" (can I wait for the paperback? Noooooooooo...)

I never have any reading time during the week, but just knowing I've got that little lot makes me feel so much better! :-)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I've got Schroedingers Kittens but never read it. One of those times when you buy a load of books, read one, then go buy another load. Must read it at some point. However, as am ploughing my way through William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, Jeffrey Deaver's The Vanished Man, JRRT's LOTR, Dave R's Nextarillion, and Samurai William, not to mention anticipating a certain book by Mr J Fforde and the Da Vinci Code, it may be some time (if ever) when I finally get to it...

(didn't like Miss Smilla, gave up halfway through...but thoroughly enjoyed The Wee Free Men!)

Miss Print and I tend to agree on most books, even down to thinking that "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is rather overrated. She was the one who lent me all the Harry Potters I have read so far, as well as "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (I really _must_ get my own copy of that some time - it's a wonderful read). I also happily rehomed a couple of Neil Boyd's "Father Duddleswell" books for which she had no further use. I'll be surprised, therefore, if I don't get on with Miss Smilla, but we shall see - I think the Pratchett will get read first, anyway.

Actually, that's pretty much what we do when I visit her. We natter for a bit, then we both settle down peacefully with good books for the rest of the afternoon. Some might consider this a little eccentric, but we've been best friends for the best part of twenty years, so it clearly works!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I'd be interested to know what you (and anyone else) made of Miss Smilla - it seemed to be one of those 'must have' books when it came out.

Good Omens is superb, one of Mr Pratchett's better efforts! I thought the bit about the M25 was inspired...

I had the same experience as Dave with Miss Smilla ... I sort of lost the will to go on about a third of the way in. I did wonder if this was because of a bum translation, because the style seemed very clunky and leaden.

Good Omens is half of a good book; I always think TP should have locked Gaiman in a cupboard and just got on with it himself. The 'Omen' parody sections are just feeble. Mind you so are the Just William parts, and I know TP did those, so what do I know.

Are you reading or re-reading LOTR Dave? I sometimes wonder what I'd make of it if I read it for the first time now instead of when I was 14. Hmm.

You know what I think of the egregious Potter by now, and the only other books I've read in this thread are WFM (jury still out) and Jean Brodie, and I agree with Sarah and Miss P on that one; one of those rare books where the film was better.

I'm not actually reading anything at the minute, which is so unusual it might be unprecedented. Although there are bookmarks stuck in various volumes about the place, if I'm honest I'm probably never going to finish any of them. What I'm supposed to be doing is writing WN-3. And I am, I am. Sometimes.



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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

My husband cringes every time I go into a book shop becasue I never come out empty-handed. Well, I rarely spend money on clothes that I don't absolutely need, so I gotta spend it somewhere!

jon: Re-re-reading it. Third time I've read it now, first time at about 14-15, second time at university, and now. Find it hard going - it's a great story, but some of the language is dense...

I have lost count of the number of times I've read LOTR, but it must be over 25 by now. I can also still quote "Earendil was a mariner" from memory, in its entirety, though you might get a few pauses for thought. I've also read the Silmarilli[insert extra "illi"s here ad lib]on two or three times.

Just don't ask me to plough through all that guff of Chris Crustacean's... er, I mean Tolkien's... that Dave Rainbow's been reading, that's all!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Dave - is it the language that's dense or the reader? (Sorry, but you did leave yourself open to that one)

possibly a bit of both. I found stretches of the book incredibly heavy going. Reading each part before the film comes out, so I'd better get a shift on with it.

I haven't read it (LOTR) for ages, because, like Sarah, I've read it so many times I don't need to read it again. I can't quote any long poems, because my memory doesn't work like that, but it's sort of been hard-coded into my subconscious ... I went through hell watching the films (especially TTT) because I spotted every single departure from the text, which is about every other word, and wasn't able to enjoy the story I was seeing for comparing it to the story in my head the whole time.

In re the Laundry Lists .... er, I've got them all. *blush*. And read them. There's some interesting stuff in there, especially for anyone like me who likes seeing the creative process in action, but I freely confess there is very little of literary merit at all. Although, Sarah, you might like to try 'Unfinished Tales'; especially the Turinssaga and The Mariners Wife. They're pretty good, although, obviously, unfinished.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

I quite enjoyed the films (FOTR more than TTT) as they hit most of the high points from the books that I remembered. Stuff like losing Tom Bombadil was no bad thing, imho.

Other stuff like Haldir turning up at Helm's Deep jarred a bit, but not so much that it drastically affected my enjoyment of the film. Looking forward to the extended version in november.

Re: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow: I really love this book. The central character of Smilla Jaspersson is absolutely fascinating to me, so single minded and determined but such a complex woman. I think it can come across as a slow paced work for the first half, the themes of identity within the context of Danish culture and the sense of alienation and isolation from just about everything in Smilla's life apart from her love of her work. The descriptions of the Arctic, the technicalities of Artic research and Greenlandic life I found really interesting. For a crime story the 'whodunnit' is perhaps a lesser factor than the 'why' but I still felt quite driven to know what the conclusion would be. It is an amazing story for me, and far better than Peter Hoeg's other books that I've read (Borderliners and Tales of the Night), which also deal a lot with cultural isolation.

Seeing as we've strayed back onto 'Film vs Book' territory again, what does anybody esle think of the differences between the film and book of 'About a Boy'? I enjoy both versions, don't care about the changes as they both feel fulfilling (and the film ending works better for a film, IMHO) and still want to be Will. Yes, I really am that shallow...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Well Jon, one man's "clunky and leaden" is another girl's "intense and intricate", and I loved Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. I liked it even better on the second reading, which for me is always a good sign.

But Sarah, save it for cold evenings as it would be so weird to read it in daylight and sunshine, it's the sort of book you have to read curled up in a blanket, there is so much dark and ice in it.

My copy of Good Omens is falling to pieces it has been lent out and re-read so often, dd loves it, and it has been doing the rounds of her friends. Dd has also been reading Woman in White and Great Expectations, does this mean she has a reading age of 39, or you have a reading age of 14? :-)

Anyone who can finish LOTR and not die of boredom has my admiration. It has to be one of the world's most overrated unreadable books. ::ducks to avoid flak which will surely come my way::

No flak, Miss P, no flak whatever. Like I said, I can't have any objective view on LOTR because it's sunk into my subconscious. I do wonder how I would like it if I could read it for the first time now, after twenty-odd years more reading. I think 'overrated' is the wrong word, though; I can't think of a book that has been more vilified by the Lit Crit establishment than LOTR. They hate it so much it has warped their judgement, to the point that they can't see the word 'wizard' in a book without screaming and coming out with irrational invective. The most overrated unreadable book is of course Ulysses by James Joyce.

I think it impossible for anyone to have a truly objective opinion of any work of art, actually. If you think about it, any art that doesn't cause some sort of emotional reaction isn't much of a work of art, is it? That's what art's *for*. I reacted negatively to Miss Smilla, Miss P reacted very positively. This is because we are different people with different histories, emotions and reading habits. Perhaps if we'd each read it on a different day our reactions would have been different again. All art is subjective, as Oscar ought to have said.



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

I first read "The Woman in White" at the age of about 14, and although I hadn't read "Great Expectations" at that stage, I had certainly already read "A Tale of Two Cities". We all know the problem... so many books, so little time! We can't all read everything at once.

Anyway, thanks for the advice about Miss Smilla. I'll save her for a dark and stormy night. :-)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I read the whole of The House on the Strand today travelling to and from London (went to the Art Deco at the V&A - excellent exhibition!). One of Daphne du Maurier's best ones I think yet really unknown.

I've been having a bit of a book cull lately. Although I've managed to sell a few on eBay, most of them are charity shop bound. But this means that I see all the books that I want to re-read. So I've decided that I'm not going to read any new books - instead I'm going to go through the summer re-reading all my old favourites, starting with Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor.

Damn - just remembered I've got 3 books on order with Persephone Books and they'll be arriving tomorrow or Tuesday. Oh well, another good idea falls at the first hurdle.

I'm in the throes of reshelving virtually my *entire* book collection. All 2,000+ of them........

Nearly all had to be removed from the bookcases so they could be moved for new carpets to be put in. My spare room has piles and piles of the things: in fact, I can hardly get in. I don't want to put them back all where they came from, because some catagories were overspilling their space and this is a good opportunity to rearrange things. So far I have replaced western novels, poetry, maps, quiz books and cartoon/funny stuff. Well, that's 3/5 of one of four big bookcases sorted. Oh, and there's the shelves in the hall and the small white bookcase to sort out. At least the two cases full of pony books can stay as they are.

Oh, and I have to clean all the bookcases first, because pulling up the old carpets made such a mess. Still, there are worse things to do than sort books :)

I tried reading LOTR but just couldn't get into it. A case of too much density (reader or book, take your pick), but I do love the movies. Well, let's face it. With actors like the two playing Aragorn and Legolas to drool over, what's not to like?