The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Main > Arts & Entertainment
FAQ Community Calendar Today's Posts Search

Arts & Entertainment Give meaning to your life or distract you from it for a while

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-08-2010, 01:47 AM   #1756
skysidhe
~~Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.~~
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,828
Fear Nothing - Dean Koontz


Then
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Release on May 25th!


wow it's $11 dollars on Amazon too.
skysidhe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-09-2010, 09:17 PM   #1757
DangerouslySimple
Resident Denizen
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 63
Quote:
Originally Posted by russotto View Post
_White Fang_ is on my short list of "books which suck so bad I threw them across the room rather than finish reading them".
I'm glad I'm not the only one. "Jesus Saves" by Darcy Steinke pissed me the hell off. I was angry for DAYS after I read that book.

I'm looking to try to read "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco again. My husband and I were going to read it together, and pull a couple of friends in to read it, so they could understand some of the things we were talking about. Most of our friends, unfortunately, aren't very literary though, and to trust them to read anything over 50 words is a bit of a stretch

It IS a good read though- it is translated from Italian to English- but it would be helpful if the reader knew a touch of Italian and Latin. Or are clever enough to read context clues well enough. AMAZING book though.
DangerouslySimple is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2010, 12:44 AM   #1758
Flint
Snowflake
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
Just finished 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Nice story, but for Christ sake every page has at least 4 paragraphs of what every damn type of fish is called and what color they are. I actually started skipping sections so I could get to the plot development.

Interestingly, Jules Verne, in 1869, makes a number of specific observations that I see verified in articles in Scientific American that I happen to be reading in 2010.
__________________
******************
There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there
it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your
expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever
gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio
Flint is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2010, 03:32 AM   #1759
GunMaster357
Professor
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Brest (FRANCE)
Posts: 1,837
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flint View Post
Just finished 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Nice story, but for Christ sake every page has at least 4 paragraphs of what every damn type of fish is called and what color they are. I actually started skipping sections so I could get to the plot development.
That's due to the writing style of that period. If you were to read "Le Capitaine Fracasse" by Théophile Gautier (1863), you would find the same kind of lengthy descriptions. If memory serves me, The first 4 or five pages of the book are about describing the castle of a minor noble in the southwest of France. Yet, the plot is nice but it's more of a romance than an adventure.

I still read both of these authors with pleasure.
__________________
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." - Ambrose Bierce
GunMaster357 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-10-2010, 03:38 AM   #1760
mywork08
Pithy Euphemist
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 19
Mastering Visual Basic
mywork08 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-11-2010, 01:15 PM   #1761
Sundae
polaroid of perfection
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 24,185
Quote:
Originally Posted by russotto
_White Fang_ is on my short list of "books which suck so bad I threw them across the room rather than finish reading them".
Quote:
Originally Posted by DangerouslySimple View Post
I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Nooooooooooo!
Still, I read it when I was about 11 so it might suck I suppose. At the time I adored it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DangerouslySimple View Post
I'm looking to try to read "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco again.
Lent to me by a very intelligent man who was trying to get into my knickers. His obvious scheming meant I gave up on it twice, but when I was no longer in contact with him I adored it.
Sundae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-11-2010, 02:19 PM   #1762
DangerouslySimple
Resident Denizen
 
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 63
LOL SG, I meant being so angry to throw books in general, I've never read White Fang, but I did throw Jesus Saves across the room when I read the ending. I was fuming for quite awhile over that stupid book.
DangerouslySimple is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 09:48 AM   #1763
Stormieweather
Wearing her bitch boots
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Floriduh
Posts: 1,181
Relentless - Dean Koontz.

Edge of your seat page turner!
__________________
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."
- Mahatma Gandhi
Stormieweather is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 11:12 AM   #1764
skysidhe
~~Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.~~
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,828
I usually like Dean Koontz but in this particular book, the main character is running a gambit of catastrophes and bizarre occurrences running from one side of town to the other in the course of 8 hours all of this after his dad dies in the hospital.


I know it is fiction but the progression of events is annoying.
* spoiler alert*

All in the course of 8 hours.
His dads body is stolen.
Visits friend.
Genetically engineered evil monkeys kill friend.
Evil monkeys play head games with main character.
Evil monkeys start fire.
Main character barely makes it out alive.
Main character goes to another friend.
eats - takes a shower they see the evil monkeys.
Main character leaves.
Evil monkeys stalk main character on bicycle.
Main character goes to another friend.
Weird things are discussed.
Main character leaves runs into
sheriff. Sheriff is becoming infected
with evil monkey traits.
Main character kills psychopathic cop then blows up his car.
There is 4 more hours of sunrise and
the main character spends all of them in even more bizarre life lessons which I am not going to mention. It is very redundant.( maybe redundant isn't the right word. I want to say incredulous but then why should I feel some sort of flaw in logic. I mean the book taking about evil monkeys for crying out loud!

I am almost finished with it and it is defiantly NOT a keeper. I am though turning pages as fast as I can to see what happens with the evil monkeys.






Last edited by skysidhe; 05-12-2010 at 11:18 AM.
skysidhe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2010, 01:33 AM   #1765
wolf
lobber of scimitars
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phila Burbs
Posts: 20,774
I just finished two very different books on Faith.

Have a Little Faith - Mitch Albom
This is a small delight of a book. Rather than defining Faith, Albom shows it to you, through the lives of two very different kinds of clergymen, a Rabbi and a Christian Pastor.

Dynamics of Faith - Paul Tillich
Supposed to be a classic in the discussion and definition of Faith. I'm sure it is. I found this very difficult to read and comprehend in a lot of places ... not for a lack of trying. But it's a rare book that makes me reread and go back a couple pages here, a chapter there. There are reasons that I chose not to be a philosophy major. Books like this were one of the biggies. Well, that and the lack of job opportunities for Industrial Philosophers these days ...

Don't worry SG, I loved White Fang too (assuming you mean the one by Jack London rather than some newly published piece of vampire/werewolf porn that the youth are all gaga about currently).
__________________
wolf eht htiw og

"Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island

High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis
wolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2010, 05:51 AM   #1766
DanaC
We have to go back, Kate!
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 25,964
@ Wolf: have you 'The five people you meet in heaven' ? also by Mitch Albom.
__________________
Quote:
There's only so much punishment a man can take in pursuit of punani. - Sundae
http://sites.google.com/site/danispoetry/
DanaC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2010, 07:17 AM   #1767
Trilby
Slattern of the Swail
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 15,654
Wolf Hall

September (rosamund pilcher is a guilty fave)

re-reading a bunch of kate atkinson. LOVE HER!
__________________
In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic.

"Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her.
—James Barrie


Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum
Trilby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2010, 09:16 AM   #1768
Sundae
polaroid of perfection
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 24,185
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf View Post
Don't worry SG, I loved White Fang too (assuming you mean the one by Jack London rather than some newly published piece of vampire/werewolf porn that the youth are all gaga about currently).
Oh, no. Proper Jack-London-frozen-wastes-Klondike White Fang.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna View Post
re-reading a bunch of kate atkinson. LOVE HER!
My work here is done

Do you have When Will There Be Good News?

Also, did I introduce you to Esther Freud?
Another very English author who writes shatteringly about childhood but with exquisitely barbed humour.
Sundae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2010, 09:27 AM   #1769
Trilby
Slattern of the Swail
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 15,654
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundae Girl View Post
Do you have When Will There Be Good News?

Also, did I introduce you to Esther Freud?
Another very English author who writes shatteringly about childhood but with exquisitely barbed humour.
I've got When Will There Be Good News right now!

No - I've not read Esther. What should I get to start?
__________________
In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic.

"Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her.
—James Barrie


Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum
Trilby is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2010, 09:36 AM   #1770
Sundae
polaroid of perfection
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 24,185
If you need one right now read Peerless Flats or Hideous Kinky.
But I'm happy to send you some in our product exchange

She's better once you have her vibe, so try to start with the ones I've recommended as opposed to The Sea House or Gaglow.

Oh and yes she is the niece of Clement and daughter of Lucian.
Sundae is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
books


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 3 (0 members and 3 guests)
 

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:24 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.