Currently short on new reading material, having just finished Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip for the first time (yes, four years later, I know) – so I have the interesting combination of Bleak House and Pratchett's The Fifth Elephant on the go right…

Castration – The Advantages and the Disadvantages. Seems a bit self evident, although if size of font is anything to go by, the author has an established bias.

For your distraction and diversion
a diversity of literary oddities

Okay, three things.

1) I WANT The Thermodynamics of Pizza

2) Who hasn't read Blessed are the Cheesemakers? It's a lovely book.

3) I haven't read Le Petomane, but I've seen the film. Twice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWgBxonEsno

I think though the author of "The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease" is trying too hard.

But I really need a copy of Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich.

I must listen to Q…

However, Bookiemonster, was it you who read Tender Morsels? I have just finished it and I didn't really like it. I must lack a fantasy gene or summat. I should have reacquainted myself with the fairy tale it was based on?

I'm finding it a strange combination of sentences that are so lyrically amazing they make me go "ZOMG that's beautiful and haunting and my life is changed" and sentences that are so pompously overblown they make me go "ZOMG…

A found otter?

Haha, the wonders of Google. Gio was in fact referring to my barely-a-pseudonym which isn't in effect on the Listener website...

Just as well, otherwise you'd be outed.

As a what now? (Sorry, Monday afternoon brainmush...)

Sam — I had a feeling I saw your review of Chronic City in the Listener a little while ago, but can't find it now. You were largely positive?

Yes, really enjoyed it; hadn't read anything by Lethem previously but loved the energy in the writing, and the sense of…

I see from your blog you've also read Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem – any thoughts on that one?

I had a review in Your Weekend, which is a newspaper magazine that goes out in The Dom Post, Press and Waikato Times on Saturdays. There's no link and I haven't…

I have come across this guy who reckons that it's a lot of racist reactionary garbage

The Wire is "racist" and "reactionary" if that's a fancy way of saying the show is very short of model minorities, but actually pays people the respect of assuming that people — even the…

Might check [ Parrot and Olivier ] out on your recommendation. I've found Carey to be surprisingly hit and miss this past decade — True History of the Kelly Gang was excellent but both My Life as a Fake and His Illegal Self were pretty disappointing, I thought.

Just…

Thanks for fighting the good fight in the thread comments over there, Gio, but all I want to say is that you are way too charitable

Maybe, but the discussion spilled over in other posts of his, and of mine, and while I still fundamentally disagree I must say I…

double shot macchiato

Now you're talking..

Sent note to Russell already, but 'Still Crazy' is getting crazier by the minute

Same. Some people just don't seem to learn. Sad.

I have come across this guy who reckons that it's a lot of racist reactionary garbage

OK, so we have a guy who thinks it's racist. And this is how he starts his argument.

here we have a little bit of the dark continent tucked away in the American city,…

*Apparently 'awesome' is the new 'awesome', but I forget where I read…

A big big love is right, Sacha. I'm the size of a house!

Waaaaay back when, we discussed effective methods of inducing labour.

Far be it from me to comment (here's where I stop, right?), but I'm guessing any list on inducement worth its salt would have 'PIXIES CONCERT' in…

Any chance of linking to the guy? Just want to see how this argument goes.

Here.

The baby has not quite made his appearance yet, Sofie. And no, you can't have my Pixies ticket.

For tonight then (or tomorrow)..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd34UjP6Q3Y

Elsewhere there has been discussion of Facebook being a decaf soy latte to Twitters short black. Well, to steal the analogy, AAT was like a…

I know contrarianism makes the pop-cultural world go 'round, but... *really*? How tiresome.

Any chance of linking to the guy? Just want to see how this argument goes.

I have come across this guy who reckons that it's a lot of racist reactionary garbage

I know contrarianism makes the pop-cultural world go 'round, but... *really*? How tiresome.

most or all of the music is diegetic

I still laugh when I think about Bodie listening in confusion to __A…

Series three and four it's really into its stride, and quite addictive.

Series four is the peak I thought. Wonderful acting from young actors, and... devastating by the end of it. I wanted to reach into the screen and rescue them.

Danielle is right, it's not a series about crime,…

Apart from the opening and closing credits, most or all of the music is diegetic, i.e. it arises organically from inside the scene, as opposed to the usual painted-on exegetic score that tells you how and…

Must get hold of it, for when the cricket season is over.

"Fuck the average viewer!"

Now there's a tee-shirt

Anyone like to buy a really nice grand nephew?
We have a plethora of those (and the nevvies, but so few neices...)

All titles for ownership are run past fudgefudgefudge and we *guarentee* fudgefudgefudge BUY NOW!

(Also, it is – strangely – really hilarious. We hit pause to laugh uproariously at least once an episode.)

So right there Danielle.
Now aren't you supposed to be having your baby about now?

Man. I think I might need to watch it all over again.

I have come across this guy who reckons that it's a lot of racist reactionary garbage, but on the plus side it's given me an excuse to rewatch it to test some his claims.

Have ordered season four…

You'd probably like The Wire, then. You have to trust us on this :)

Seconded, thirded, fourthed. Motion carried.

I think you and David Simon (creator and head writer of The Wire) would have some very interesting conversations, Islander. Because it isn't even really about crime (or, at least, only…

O. I didnt win Lotto. There's always Saturday – and my mother *really* loves involving crime...thingies

so (she says brightly) we'll just sell off a greatgrandkid or 2-

Jeez Stowell, if you've given me a bum steer – your arse/whatever part ofyou, you most cherish, is *cooking*-

I sat for an entire wet weekend to watch the whole of "The Wire" and still wished for a wee bit more than 5 series.
My kinda crime series, although be…

(but I'll wait until apopo to watch, learn, before going to fire up the hangi-)

I, ur, really hate crime series...
They make crime look so – um – containable. Solveable. *Rational*.

You'd probably like The Wire, then. You have to trust us on this :)

They make crime look so – um – containable. Solveable. *Rational*. (Once you've got the secret clue a'course.)

And actually, *everything in our lives* is completely random and happenstance.

There is no order.
There is no meaning.
Except – whatever us wee random apes…

OTOH, we have just discovered The Wire

One Big Ambition for summer which never happened. Managed another whole two episodes. Perhaps the dank winter months might be a better time to try once more.

We really need t-shirts or something to promote this show properly. I'm considering buying series 1 for my Dad.

My husband is 72 and he is really enjoying it. Perhaps not as much as me but it's one of the rare things we can watch together. The secret for older…

]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:24:03 +1300 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/busytown-holiday-reading-lust/?p=156611#post156611 https://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/busytown-holiday-reading-lust/?p=156611#post156611

OTOH, we have just discovered The Wire and we're onto Season 2 and the script is so incredibly delicious that I want to eat it up.

We really need t-shirts or something to promote this show properly. I'm considering buying series 1 for my Dad.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a novel I'd recommend to anyone.

A lovely novel. I read it some time ago and often think of it. I don't want to reignite the SciFi thing either but I read a JG Ballard and didn't like it. Too paranoid. Too OTT.…

Currently making my way through Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America. Like it very much – although it'd probably be even better if I'd read any de Tocqueville beforehand (the book draws heavily upon Democracy in America).

Might check that out on your recommendation. I've found Carey to be…

thinking about things that shouldn't be allowed to exist. Potatoes were at the top of the list.

.. which drew a roar of laughter from my potato-phobe.

Jolisa, if he also dislikes cucumber he is sure to enjoy Mark Twain's recipe for cucumber:

1 cucumber, sliced thinly
4 Tbsp sour…

After that there's some as yet unreleased goodness from AUP for me…

Looking forward to re-reading Huck Fin and Tom Sawyer also, before introducing them to our 8yr olds, who are active adventure readers. Or should that be avid? Oh well, they are pretty active about adventures.

I'm getting into Murakami's __Dance Dance…

Must go and re-read Tom Sawyer myself. I loved it when I read it at about 10, and know an 8 year old who probably would too.

We just…

Mark Twain included plenty of very misleading details in a lot of his work ("Innocents Abroad" anyone?)

Islander! I can't believe I forgot to argue with you about this... imagine the great pleasure it would have given Mark Twain to know that 100 years after his death two readers would…

Urm, how much do you have to do with…

That's interesting dyan campbell- I'd always thought of Tom Sawyer as nearing adolesence i.e. 10ish-12ish.

Tom Sawyer is the first book in the series, and the most definitive details regarding the ages of to be found in the descriptions of school. Tom and his friends have slates and chalk instead…

Charles Collodi
Oh no, no no no no. He's all ours. OURS, I tell you.

Ooops, sorry Giovanni! I had the 1939 edition from the English publisher "Collins" and they anglicised poor Carlo's name to "Charles".

We've also got a busy blog on books, movies, information and ideas. We blog from events such as the New Zealand…

Charles Collodi

Oh no, no no no no. He's all ours. OURS, I tell you.

I remember thinking this NY Review of Books essay on Pinocchio was quite good too, on the differences between film and original book. Was always my favourite of those early (1930s-60s) Disney films as a kid, for reasons I wouldn't want to psychoanalyse.
Anyway, the essay

I read the essay…

Just ask the Arrrrgonauts.

I didn't happen to know this — I looked it up on the historic street names page on the Christchurch library website.

who said investigative reporters were a dying breed? :- )
Thanks for that Philip I must go have a proper look at that site

I didn't happen to know this — I looked it up on the historic street names page…

Why sadly?

Whoops – a word flow problem –
"sadly I think Manhire Street predates Bill..."
was the concept I was after – so I am not denigrating Jimbo – no way!
Immortality is where ya find it, by whatever means... and Bill Manhire should be up there with the…

James K. Baxter Place! sadly

Why sadly? I suppose I can guess, but honouring people by naming streets after them is hardly new, or particularly contentious, is it? Do you prefer the more general like 'Bard St?'

(I really hope you didn't live on Bard St, cause that would be…

Yup.

Oddly, I'll even be in Auckland before April 11. Twice. Maybe I should leave the airport and take in some art.

So, yeah. It's very good. You should all read it.

And the cover is by Marian Maguire isn't it? Her Herakls series is in Titirangi util April 11 and okay it's not a book but it reads like one so go see it.

Somewhere in our family history is a link to Wordsworth...

where I grew up in Sydenham, Christchurch literature was a streetwise thang! – all the streets have names like: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Milton, Kipling, Tennyson, Longfellow, Carlyle, Byron, Defoe, Walpole, Ruskin, Barrie, etc...
We even now have a James K. Baxter…

Oh dear, I'm probably supposed to give some sort of meaningful review too. I'm not sure that I can, but let's see.…

Captures the creativity, the drugs and the whole Romantic shooting gallery really beautifully. Great cast too, John Hannah as Wordsworth and Linus Roache and Samantha Morton as the Coleridges.

I saw Bright Star today – Ro-man-tic.

Just about to find Ode to a Nightingale which was recited as the end credits rolled. Very effective.

deus ex machina

and machines that can help...

If anybody needs me, I'll be there in the corner, becoming unemployed.

(Great article however.)

English translations

and machines that can help...
and some thoughts on turning over old leaves...

Anyway, the essay:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17213

It's so great that this thread keeps coming back. Thanks to SamF for this latest revival.

Ta muchly – for me it's sort of gone from holiday reading to reading as a mental holiday, in the midst of much grimness in the news. Although oddly I did get a fair…

I can see why Kate de Goldi liked it. She also writes about the adult…

Blocking is a substitute for competent management, and unfortunately that's in short supply

Thank you Sacha. Now you have given me a justification for my indifference to the whole thing.

The fact is, if people were spending all their time on Facebook and it wasn't obvious, then what the hell…

you thought I'd 'waste time' on that site, powers-that-be?

Blocking is a substitute for competent management, and unfortunately that's in short supply

Had to tell people to leave me alone for a few hours so I could finish it.

Haha, I almost did that too. Was definitely a "can't stop till finished" book for me.

Had to tell people to leave me alone for a few hours so I could finish it. The word that comes to mind is "Freudian".

Phew.

I am petty and contrarian.

I'm with you. Give me more to do, and make my job more rewarding, and when I take a break to (s)troll through some online distractions, it will enhance my overall state of wellbeing and make me more productive.

Hmm, perhaps that's more utopian idealism…

Trademe is blocked here (fair enough too!)

Any job I have had which officially blocks innocuous websites gets my most lacklustre and recalcitrant performance. Oh, you thought I'd 'waste time' on that site, powers-that-be? Let's just see, in the nature of an experiment, how much of your time I can…

Trademe is blocked here (fair enough too!) but will look when I get home.

Being in charge of these things, I suppose I should put in place some filtering to prevent staff spending time on FB, Trademe, Twitter and PAS, but then what would I do?

If that doesn't pan out, Sam, it is held by about eight other New Zealand libraries, including North Shore, so you could probably interloan it.

Ha – I'd forgotten you could do interloans at public libraries for some reason (although I did a heap for my thesis via the UoA…

But for the sake of my Karma, there's one on Trademe right now.

Good luck.

And, this just in, for Auckland-based Pratchett devotees who like a bargain, the secondhand bookshop in St Kevin's Arcade presently has a fair whack of the Discworld series

Thanks Sam. I was hoping you could delete the tip, copied above, so I could race in and get it first, but…

The recent sci-fi genre bunfight here has finally led me to Joe Haldeman's classic The Forever War – got it today and can't wait to get started. Apparently Ridley Scott is filming an adaptation in…

Or perhaps I'll find Sydney Bridge Upside Down so lauded in The Listener.

Read this in just over a day this weekend – which for me at the moment is impressively fast.

Read it, y'all. It's that good. I'm writing a review of this and The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)…

Get me a science fiction maybe? Or perhaps I'll find Sydney Bridge Upside Down so lauded in The Listener.

I'm in the middle of re-reading The Earthsea Quartet. The second drags a bit, but overall I am reminded of how compelling well-characterised and evocative prose can be. You start to…

Interesting how the accomodated (excluded) figure 27% fits into the 30% failure rate expected in a normal distribution, but with such jiggery pokery would create a success rate of over 80%.

The above are John Hattie's views. In light of his status as an advisor to John Key, they are very interesting.

Why the rush?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/3288378/Government-offensive-smacks-of-desperation

Oh, I'd LOVE to know how that goes – I am a huge fan of Jasper Fforde but found the last Thursday Next a bit wanting

Me too. I gave my daughter The Eyre Affair to read a couple of nights ago, and she necked the whole thing in one…

next on the reading list is the new Jasper Fforde – "Shades of Grey".

Oh, I'd LOVE to know how that goes – I am a huge fan of Jasper Fforde but found the last Thursday Next a bit wanting – love the Nursery Crimes books though.

next on the reading list is the new Jasper Fforde – "Shades of Grey". His…

My literary discovery of the holidays – years and years late – is William Golding.

Re Lord of the Flies ... I always loved the description of Simon floating out to sea in the phosphorescence. And the ending!

But I picked up a biography of William Golding with some of my Christmas book vouchers.

The life itself is a bit boring – writers by and large just sit at desks and write – but the discussion of his work has sent me looking at some of his other…

And more Mantel actually, because she's been quite prolific.

This is about the fourth recommendation of Hilary Mantel I've come across this month.

Haven't read Wolf Hall yet but will throw in a recommendation for Beyond Black.

And at least one of the others was from someone else who is generally hard to please.

My literary discovery of the holidays – years and years late – is William Golding.

I'd read Lord of…

If anyone's interested (there's no sci-fi involved) I'm reading Wolf Hall and it's aMAZing.

Isn't it just — though let's just say I remain unconvinced that Cromwell has gotten a bum rap. Have you read anything else by Hillary Mantel, because I was also pleasantly surprised by 'Beyond Black'. One…

And also on matters of possible interest: Kate de Goldi in the latest Listener.…

how did that go?

I think there's a limited market for books on trademe. Ordinary old books, give away or sell at a garage sale.

I had a collection of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books, from when I was a geeky teenager, which I had held onto in the foolish…

My collection of fantasy books have all gone up on trademe

how did that go?
I have to do this exercise soon...
is there a market out there?

mine are not in fine condition
and ya just really wanna put them
in the hands of someone
whose face will light…

(That line about not washing the Internet above? Lyndon's. Just thought I'd better point it out.)

What? I'm all subtitled out.

This, following this.

I loved that bit

As did I. It was actually just in my mind earlier today, too. I received an email out of the blue from someone who had come across the label's press-release 'blurb' for an old album of mine, which includes

Imagine King Tubby at the controls of…

Rastas in space

I loved that bit

I was quoted by squids-in-space writer William Gibson

Rastas in space, surely ;)

However I believe I shall never wash the Internet again all the same.

I've been feeling A LOT like this recently. :D

(That line about not washing the Internet above? Lyndon's. Just thought I'd…

0 Deborah! I sort of feel personally responsible.
What you had was anaphylatic shellfish poisoning and – speaking on behalf of my own mother who has known since 1993, Westport-
after ingesting mussels (which she had eaten since…

*we get our kina from the kaik' at Moeraki (East coast side)

At a wedding on the coast last year, lots of city folk came along (including me I guess, cause we live in the Akl now), and there were bowls of fresh Kina sitting there with everyone pulling faces,…

As you were bookie-people – kaimoana has a certain priority in…

Subtlety gets you nowhere with us dumb non-academic West Coast whitebaiters.

Send me whitebait now!!!! Is that clear enough? And I'm just an East Cape Kina lover, so not sure we really do subtle either, but we do like to try new things ;-)

Subtlety gets you nowhere with us dumb non-academic West Coast whitebaiters. Why! we read sucking the thumbs on our 3-fingered hands-

I've learned to take them with a saltmine.

Umm, I think that might have been my point, but I'll just go and check .....

..... Yip. Turns out it was ;-)

And that, to coin a phrase, is a loaded Canon.

But loaded in favour of what? I think you'll find that the Top 10 contains not only four books by Rand, but three by L. Ron Hubbard. Which suggests that this Reader's List was somehow fixed by Objectivists, Libertarians, and…

There also seem to be four (that's 4!) Ayn Rand in the top ten on the RL, and none (which as my 4 year old pointed out once, is exactly the same as zero) on the BL.

Aren't you glad we have gatekeepers so we don't have to see Rand…

Me, I'm still smiling so widely half my face has fallen off after getting an email from A Writer I Truly Admire.

Tell me about it! :-)

But this one was a silly thing. However I believe I shall never wash the Internet again all the same.

Has anyone posted this list here before? It is nicely divided into 'The Board's List' (BL) and "The Reader's List (RL)'. And I'd just like to point out, for no apparent reason, that The Grapes of Wrath is 10 on the…

Me, I'm still smiling so widely half my face has fallen off after getting an email from A Writer I Truly Admire.

And I've enjoyed the thoughtful untangling-the-complex-strands posts from linger and Dr Tiso- you want those grapes peeled first, sir?

Nicely done! Linkage?

Oh, well, if you must TWIST MY ARM.

Heh. I don't see your name on it Giovanni.

That's actually my favourite part. But just so nobody thinks ill of anybody, the original tweeter had included the link to my post, which then got lost in the retweeting.…

icely done! Linkage?

Heh. I don't see your name on it Giovanni.

In closing, I wanted to ever-so-casually point out that earlier today I was quoted by squids-in-space writer William Gibson, so I might just take the rest of the year off. Somebody feed me grapes.

Nicely done! Linkage?

She is far from dismissive of science fiction,

Yes, we have been through that, that's roughly twenty years after her original comments. I have no particular quarrel with the distinction she's come to in her wiser old age, much as it's a tad obvious. Her earlier dismissals would have been…

Please be assured that whenever you…

I just like looking at my favourite books – my uni books from the 60s now take up only a small section of…

When I came over from Italy (which is where I am originally from) I could bring a limited number of books and it was an interesting exercise.

I'm currently preparing to move house (not quite as far) and have decided to get rid of about half my books. My collection…

there's a place for it

Agreed, just no longer at the centre (where it used to think of itself as being).

I'm all for that – readers find works important to them for a whole lot of reasons, just as profound and significant as any from the hallowed halls of academia or the smoking saloons of publisher's row.

When I came over from Italy (which is where I am originally from)…

Will the Da Vinci Code last as long as Pride and Prejudice?

I've always thought that The Da Vinci Code would be seen historically kinda like Chariots of the Gods, or Peyton Place. However lately I suspect it may be something more akin to Sherlock Holmes, or Victor Hugo or…

I'm all for that – readers find works important to them for a whole lot of reasons, just as profound and significant as any from the hallowed halls of academia or the smoking saloons of publisher's row.

Me too. [Returns to sitting on hands].

Not just because they enjoyed it I would say but because they were inspired by it and admired the richness of the prose.

I'm all for that – readers find works important to them for a whole lot of reasons, just as profound and significant as any from the hallowed…

I find it interesting because you are starting to touch on the notion of quality.

Quality. Now there's a novel idea [sic]. We could establish an ISO 9001:2008 (updated) Standards Approved definition by Genre, complete with Scope and Terms of Reference. Then we could conduct annual surveillance audits, for the…

{works that denizens of literature departments recognise as important}
is not the same subset as
{works that readers relate to}

For those of us not genuflecting at the altar of modernism, that can be read as:

works that readers believe are important
(which is likely to involve enjoyment, but let's…

(Still trying to formulate things more clearly...)

I really do appreciate your efforts, but Paul is now shifting to canonicity a discussion that was always about the trolling. Science fiction people are Emo, sci-fi is to literature as painting kittens is to art... remember? That he claims to be defending…

Imagining a Sci Fi/Fundy Christian cross over. I want to see Bishop Brian lay hands on people like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wJzGnUEQlA

Shit a brick, who bloody cares. How about we carry on reading books, and those who prefer Architecture Porn (which I quite…

So why should the literary world be any different?

... than SF, in terms of gatekeeping?
Paul, I don't think that was Islander's argument; the contrast made there isn't between SF and literature, so much as between "recognised serious literature" and "writing that engages and captures readers, regardless of whether it…

snap

By respected recognisers

Or gatekeepers, if you will.