Apart from anything else, the difference in sound is noticeable.

Well, yes they sound fancier than crows. Tuis have, besides beautiful blue-green iridescent tints in their feathers, a strict adherence to white-tie, and a…

You don't have crows here, but you have Tuis, which I believe are just fancy crows.

Apart from anything else, the difference in sound is noticeable.

One of my favourite pre-Treaty NZ sources is 'Letters from the Bay of Islands: the story of Marianne Williams' edited by Caroline Fitzgerald (Penguin, 2004).

This sounds like something to search out – NZ has one of the best recorded and most interesting histories around.

Last year I read (devoured)…

McMafia, by UK-based reporter Misha Glenny.

Very highly recommended for anyone who wants an in-depth look at the inter-relationship between governments, big business and organised crime

I think he's a little unfair on Thatcherism (although not totally unfair – the evangelical side didn't appeal to my sceptical Tory instincts).

The index alone is hilarious, eg:

Tycoons.. sexiness of, 40; superstitions of,…

"...always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of the night."

Marianne was one of the small group…

steven crawford – waterproof books (or, at least, notebooks, exist...I used to get them from a Brit supplier, but I am sure there are many more.

Only waterproof book I've ever seen was in someone's shower in Sydney – Aussie songs for the shower. A slim tome I wouldn't recommend.…

There…

I actually dont like meeting my favourite writers

It's funny you should say that, because I did in fact meet Terry Pratchett. I didn't know him from a crowbar at the time (91 or 92) but a friend of mine liked him so when I found out that he was…

I am now ploughing through The Newgate Calendar , which is a bunch of 18th century true crime stories, as circulated in the pamphlets of the time. It should be compulsory reading for the hang'em high brigade. Death was the penalty…

Only waterproof book I've ever seen was in someone's shower in Sydney – Aussie songs for the shower. A slim tome I wouldn't recommend.

Fish identification guides and so forth have been around for a bit. Meanwhile, a quick prod on Amazon reveals – is every thread going there this…

I came away thinking about how people come to commit their energy…

Your average external hard-drive can handle the complete OED (believe, I've got it) and much much more – plug into your laptop and ptuui!

Do you shell out for a subscription — which is quite expensive at £195+VAT p.a., though the regular updates must be pretty tasty for word geeks…

waterproof books (or, at least, notebooks, exist

I used this stuff back in pre-Photoshop days, when I was an airbrush animation jockey. Rugged as hell, didn't bubble and distort when sprayed. I bet they make banknotes out of it.

Only waterproof book I've ever seen was in someone's shower in…

The mistake is – MARKETING THEM AS SUBSTITUTE BOOKS!

Nicely put, Islander. Supplementary technology, sure. But not a substitue.

I agree with Craig. But I was on a packed plane recently and a guy had a Kindle and everyone on the plane wanted to have a look – so it will become mainstream before long.

@Hillary: Oh, I can coo and want to poke the latest gadget as eagerly…

I agree with Craig. But I was on a packed plane recently and a guy had a Kindle and everyone on the plane…

There are 2 major problems: battery life. & screen size (and continuance of material thereon.)

Sure, you can download – stuff (much of which requires additional use of your cred card) and most of it – limited.)

Books have sensory qualities no…

Although that may change as my eyes get worse, as it would be easier to change the size of the text I"m guessing.

A book has something though – from the cover through to physically turning the pages, which just doesn't seem to be replicated by…

I'm in the no camp, because like Stephanie Johnston I'm wedded…

In the comic it was an attempted rape.

You're quite right (either way, it's a seriously nasty scene and has an even uglier pay off down the road), but either way I do wish folks on the PR trail wouldn't be glib about any representation of sexual violence.

I don't…

After today I can recommend the New Dowse. I took the eight year old and her ten year old friend. They stayed interested for more than fifteen minuets!

ITA, even though I was the kind of Wellingtonian for whom the Hutt Valley might as well be Mars. :) It's the…

...geeks are fools with far too much disposable income and no impulse control...

I don't have too much disposable income.

I'd be a fan of a permanent book thread if that were possible?

As it happens, it is. Keep posting comments to this thread and it will certainly stay on the front page!

I'd suggest 'Weaveworld'

Hmm, good point. The other Clive Barker I've read is 'Sacrament'.

As 'Weaveworld' is probably his most well-known, I really should give it a go. It's been on the must-get-round-to-reading-that-sometime list ever since a friend explained the plot to me while I was viewing reality from a…

If you market it right, you can make a bunch of people buy everything at least twice.

The beginning credits summarise some parts that were covered in the comic

Snyder's said he's got studio backing for a near-four hour director's cut and (NOT including animated 'Black Frieghter' side project), so I'm assuming he's trying to out-Jackson Jackson. Or he get a tasty bonus for every fanboy head…

The role was played by actor Keanu Reeves

and this

whiff of reaching for spurious "contemporary relevance"

amongst other things really killed The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'm really looking forward to Watchmen but I'm sad about the lack of large squid, I'm sure we could even supply…

I'd suggest 'Weaveworld', which is a more successful exercise in big baggy epic fantasy, or 'Cabal'. And there's always 'The Books of Blood' ...

Those are the only Barker I've ever read. They are really good, especially Weaveworld and Books of Blood. Yet somehow, I've never felt a strong desire…

Clive Barkers 'Imajica' (all 1100 pages...). Only the second Clive Barker I've ever read. Dunno if I'll bother with any others.

Don't know if I'd recommend 'Imajica' as an entry point into Clive Barker — in many ways, it's a rather atypical piece of work. I'd suggest 'Weaveworld', which is…

I'm entirely comfortable with filmmakers changing elements of the storyline and structure to make the film 'work' (what I call the Tom Bombadil effect). As long as my intelligence isn't insulted in the transition.

Neither am I, Rich. I can't stand the much-ballyhooed television version of Brideshead Revisited, which isn't…

Well, you can start watching the back ten on line

I'll almost certainly wait until they come out on DVD. One good thing about all this piracy and general hi-tech 21st century jiggery-pokery is that the studios have been forced to reduce their release dates to a few months from…

Also very much enjoyed "Opportunity" by Charlotte Grimshaw.

Agreed. I've read most of her work and I think she gets better every time. I also try and read masses of kiwi fiction, albeit from libraries. And I read everything Kate Atkinson writes, she's a superb storyteller and characteriser. Is that…

I found it affecting and irritating in equal measure. There are aspects of Sandoval's personality…

I also loved " The vanishing act of…

I found The Tipping Point very simplistic.

That's what I thought too, reading the reviews... but being simplistic is not good, right? I'm asking because I already discovered that prevaricating was a false friend this week.

I got the first half of series 4 for Christmas, and watched the series 4.5 webisodes on youtube, so I'm more or less caught up.

Well, you can start watching the back ten on line. Sometimes A Great Notion and The Disquiet That Follows My Soul are... well, definitely best…

On 'The Wire' vibe...does anyone know if we're going to get 'Generation Kill' out here? Or is that something I'll have to look elsewhere for?

PAS DVD addict to the resuce! Generation Kill will be available in NZ later this year.

Also be aware that after series two I think, it…

It’s a feature of the style of ‘The Wire’ that the characters and connections unfold slowly and sometimes it’s not till several episodes later that a particular connection comes clear.

Sometimes not till several seasons later.

I found BSG season 1 for $30 at the warehouse, and I know that I'll probably need to complete that set once I find the…

Watched one episode* with great interest but also with some bewilderment, as it was difficult to fully understand connections and back-stories. Do I really need to start with season one?

Danielle answered that one – but it’s a feature of the style of ‘The Wire’ that the characters and connections…

I finally own all 7 series of West Wing, got three out of four for Lost, and after seeing about 8 shows, thinking that I should look at Sopranos, as well as Outrageous Fortune (I hate picking up shows part way through, so was ignoring them because…

I wish to warn you, without spoilage: season four will rip your heart out and leave you lying awake…

You could get a fair bit of the story of season 2 without it, but you'd be missing A LOT without the season 1 background.

I intended to spend a chunk of my summer (the late, dark hours) watching The Wire (described by Tom Frewen in the NBR last week as "the best television drama ever made"). We bought season/series 2 from JB's…

Cormac McCarthy's The Road superb, taut, and at once utterly despairing and strangely moving. And you can just tell that like No Country for Old Men it's got the potential to be a winner of a film. He practically writes the script for it right here.

On its way to…

...but some of the character's casual anti-Semitism was a bit hard to take

I caught most of (searching through Wikipedia...) what must have been the TV Movie Prisoner of Honor a number of years ago, about the role Georges Picquart played in the exoneration of French Military officer (and Jew)[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus|Alfred…

Oops, not quite sure what happened with that sentence there. Forget the "even if (of course)" bit.

Ernest Hemmingway- Fiesta: The Sun Also Rise

On the one hand, there's no denying the tough delicacy of Hemmingway's first great novel, or…

I read this in the holidays, Craig. It was the first Updike book I'd ever read, and I found it somewhat unnecessariy wordy.

And how... You know, John, you can spin all the metaphorical candy floss you like but there's a nasty after taste when you've read a lovingly detailed…

And a moment of silence for John Updike, who died today. Good god, the man could write (I was a…

O Geoff Lealand? Bill Pearson didnt live long enough on the Coast to get his whitebaiting right

I can't vouch for Pearson's whitebaiting expertise but I do remember Coal Flat as being evocative of other aspects of life on the Coast--life in a burg like Granity, with a politics which…

Randal Keynes, 'Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, his daughter and human evolution'. (2001)

Annie was one of his daughters who died as…

But where they really work, at least for me, is that you never get the sense that Gaiman is self-consciously writing "for children" — by that, I mean there's no dumbing down or condescending in the language or the story itself.

Definitely Craig. He has a remarkable way of capturing…

'Amis and Son' by Neil Powell – not a bad summary of the two writers. I'm still not a particular fan of Martin A: partly because there's something too self conscious about his writing, partly because he seems to glory too much in…

Gaiman's books for children are marvellous -

But where they really work, at least for me, is that you never get the sense that Gaiman is self-consciously writing "for children" — by that, I mean there's no dumbing down or condescending in the language or the story itself. There are…

"The Day…

All right, hands up: who hates Beth?

I hate all of them, and their New England prig of a mother — a statement that would land you a punch in the junk from a frightening large proportion of literate American women. :) Probably a defect in my sympathies, but it's…

I won my copy of Civil War & OOPs in a raffle – haven't read it all yet.

Jane Mander's Story of a NZ river – can you see hints of the Piano in it?

Little Women- Reminds me of a haiku in David Bader's 'One…

JK Rowling's 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' continues the global Harry Potter phenomenon of the last decade. This little volume contains the five fairy/morality tales mentioned in the HP books in a new translation from the original runes by Hermione Grainger, annotated by Dumbledore.

(Profits from…

Get any swims in?

I'm more of a sit beside the water man, preferably with bottle, book and ashtray

The ocean, IMHO, is purely for scenery – and sourcing sweet, sweet sea life for the barbie.

The clearest explanation yet I've heard of atomic physics ...

I just got one of those on DVD. Our Friend the Atom by Walt Disney and Heinz Haber. If you haven't seen a chain reaction explained with mousetraps and ping-pong balls, you don't understand atomic physics!

That was one good summer.

Get any swims in?

and something called My First Stabbing

A little something which should be read by everyone, this summer and all summers to come!

And Little Women, because I never had.

All right, hands up: who hates Beth?

You have all driven me, via shame and embarrassment as a crappy-not-much-reading-over-summer librarian, to pick up some books again: today, I have decided to embark upon a 'New Zealand Novels of the 20th Century' reading project.…

Thoroughly awesome.

And Little Women , because I never had.

Still sounds rather lame to me, because it all hinges on Manhattan — who's as close to being omnipotent as makes no odds — being spectacularly obtuse about his own work. Hell, it might work but I loved the squid of doom precisely because it's exactly the kind…

...
Craig,
That guy you like to doesn't summarise it well. Here's what someone else said (my emphasis):

"There was no squid... He and Dr Manhattan built a machine to mimic the powers of Dr Manhattan, under the guise of "free energy" to solve the energy…

I'm still rather nervous about reports that Snyder has changed Moore's pitch-black ending to something weird and not a good kind of weird either. I'm just hoping that turns out to be an elaborate fan-boy fake out.

Oh may god, that sounds awful. Please…

I'm looking forward to the movie. I was in London when the original comics came out. The monthly visit to Forbidden Planet was an exciting thing.

Despite my disdain for Zac Snyder, I'm going to be there with a stocking over my head. I'm still rather nervous about reports that…

Amy, what did you make of Novel About My Wife? I liked it in spite of myself, and in spite of itself, if that makes sense. She's a very fine writer, but the plot was disturbing, in good ways and bad.

Oh, I like me some disturbing. I enjoyed it.…

Tim: Moore didn't want his name in the credits, and if my memory served he actually sued to make sure his name isn't on the credits or any marketing material for the movie.

Or any movie based on his work. He regards Hollywood as incapable of rendering his ideas on…

And for kids I recommend Kate de Goldi's 'The 10 pm question'.

It's about one of those very anxious 12 year old boys. And realistic boy stuff. And has an eccentric girl character. And some family stuff. And a great male teacher.

Seconded, and I'd add that it's a fine…

I understand some of the issues over Moore not being credited in any way whatsoever – but it still seems wrong to only have Dave Gibbons in the credits.

Tim: Moore didn't want his name in the credits, and if my memory served he actually sued to make sure his…

Watchmen holds up on re-reading. And damit – I'm I'm determined to be recklessly optimistic about the movie!

Good move — not even Samuel Jackson in full-tilt scenery shredding mode could redeem The Spirit, which is a shame given the pedigree of the source material.

But there's two words that…

I'm vaguely optimistic for Watchmen – the movie. The trailers look stunning – but it seems too "shiny" for me. I understand some of the issues over Moore not being credited in any way whatsoever – but it still seems wrong to only have Dave Gibbons in the credits.…

Enjoying it all greatly, and having those "nooo, not lights out yet, one more chapter!" moments I remember from childhood except that of course now I…

I was stoked to find it actually – not just at that price – but because I enjoyed "Bullshit", which I got from Unity – and because as you say, it's fascinating to read back to see what predictions were made…

Comics: Fables, Pride of Baghdad – by Brian K. Vaughn, and re-reading Watchmen before the movie obliterates it...

sigh...yes, Fables has also been recommeded to me. As has pretty much anything by Brian Vaughan. Just started reading "Y – The last Man", which is okay so far (bit too early…

Fascinating with regard to what's happened since it was published – some accurate predictions in there.

Civil War & Other Optimistic Predictions – David Slack.

Found in a basket of books outside the Mercury Bay Library in Whitianga.

For 50 cents.

A former Guardian journalist and columnist deconstructs the newspaper industry to explain why we're all so hideously uninformed by modern journalism and newspapers. Bloody good read, and should be compulsory for Journalism schools and media studies departments everywhere. Mostly applicable to the UK and…

Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
The occasional bout of extra verbiage, that seems to be an Obama trait does not spoil what is a clear,…

Henning Mankell – working my way through his.
Charlaine Harris – Sookie Stackhouse series. Enjoyable pulp.…

Yeah, i chomped through this and thought the same – suspect Hamish got up to way more than he lets on here.

And at the risk of being crude, I've heard that Hamish was very far from the languid, sexless aesthete back in the day. So I'm rather glad he…

I suppose nz is too small to have really frank memoirs, or at least not publish them till one's pushing up daisies.

If by "frank" you mean copious urination on people in no position to defend themselves from beyond the grave, endless relitigation of petty feuds that weren't that interesting…

Hamish Keith's memoir, Native Wit, which I'm enjoying as a thoroughly engaging personal journey through an emergent New Zealand culture. Oddly, he skimps a little on himself:

Yeah, i chomped through this and thought the same – suspect Hamish got up to way more than he lets on here. I…

It's about one of those very anxious 12 year old boys. And realistic boy stuff. And has an eccentric girl character. And some family stuff. And a great male teacher.

'Stuart: a life backwards' by Alexander Masters (Harper, 2006)
Winner of the Guardian First Book Award 2005

Alexander Masters, liberal journalist of Cambridge, England, wanted to write about local…

Achieving Our Country by Richard Rorty.

Very apropos in light of the recent election (the USA's, not so much ours). The late Pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty riffs on Whitman and John Dewey, and describes his views on "spectators" vs. "agents" in leftist politics in…

I cantered through one Christmas present: Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, in which the Guardian columnist gloriously skewered (it was published in 2004) religious lunatics, Thatcherites, new-agers et al, sometimes giving the impression that his own philosophies are above scrutiny.

He then went on to help…