"In the beginning-
nothing...

After the end,
nothing..."

NB: copyrighted!

(I' sure as shit even Lucas' couldnt develope that scenario!)

I believe it was created in 1982 by a group of publishing magnates, led by Bob Guccione, and marketing gurus in an attempt to drum up sales for a bunch of worthless cross shaped pendants they had purchased by accident.

I'm more into the George Lucas interpretation.....Anyone want to help…

Possession? The AS Byatt? Which is one of my all-time favourite books.

Er yeah. That one. Of course – as with LOTR – I skipped anything that didn't look like prose...

When do we get an edit button, overlords??

I've come to the conclusion that the PAS edit button is like the Island competition, on The Island which was on TV the other week.

They dangle in front of us by editing posts as moderators, but it'll never come for us.

I have a theory it was hacked together in a few years by scribes working for the Emperor Constantine who wished, in an attempt to bring the declining Roman Empire under control, to replace pantheism with a rigorous and prescriptive state religion based loosely on Judaism.

But with bacon sarnies…

I have a theory it was hacked together in a few years by scribes working for the Emperor Constantine who wished, in an attempt to bring the declining Roman Empire under control, to replace pantheism with a rigorous and prescriptive state religion based loosely on Judaism.

But with bacon sarnies…

[the bible was] made over centuries

I have a theory it was hacked together in a few years by scribes working for the Emperor Constantine who wished, in an attempt to bring the declining Roman Empire under control, to replace pantheism with a rigorous and prescriptive state religion based loosely…

And if anyone knows about Enduring Chill it’s the Groke...

Ha!

I think they should have retained the first translator, who gave it the feel of a quirky nature-child Bjork video.

Agree. Don't know why they brought in Elizabeth Portch – there's a lot of scope for license with Jansson's…

academic piss-taking (Persuasion)

Possession? The AS Byatt? Which is one of my all-time favourite books.

I recently got through the Moominvalley collection with the kids – mixed bag really, and not as 'genius' as I remembered despite the new cover endorsement from Phillip Pullman. I think they should have retained the first translator, who gave…

Emma, this has been the best blog ever. It has kept me amused for a couple days of otherwise mindless activity at work.

Cheers for that Dinah. Though I'd like to give most of the credit to the brilliant comments thread.

Well, if PotC was a disappointment on that score, maybe you should try 'Apocalypto'. It totally showcases Mels more gentle and sensitive side as a director.

See, I quite enjoyed that as a movie. But yes, not exactly happy families.

. . . Undulant Fever would have to be a contender.

Um, also known as The Enduring Chill. Fortunately it's never been re-titled Brucellosis for audiences outside the US.

I think it's appaling how the Catholic church in particular has got away in recent decades with concealing and sanitising its proud (and oh so recent – collusion with the Nazis, anyone?) history of sadism, brutality, antisemitism and torture.

If there really is a generous Catholic God then there ought…

DWJ is the best. A pity libraries and book shops can't agree whether to put her under J or W, or both, or in the case of whitcoulls for a long time, neither.

Signed, Grateful reader.

You could try here – the shop manager assure me there MAY be a…

I can assure you that I never will, but it's called the passion of the Christ, fair warning.

I got it out thinking it was a love story.

Man.

Well, if PotC was a disappointment on that score, maybe you should try 'Apocalypto'. It totally showcases Mels more gentle and…

DWJ is the best. A pity libraries and book shops can't agree whether to put her under J or W, or both, or in the case of…

It's a Choose Your Own Adventure through Austen's books. You can choose to marry Mr Collins, or Mr Darcy the first time he asks (but only if your intelligence…

Continuing with Huysmans, I love this quote from Arthur Symonds (found on Wikipedia, natch):

Barbaric in its profusion, violent in its emphasis, wearying in its splendor

What a great quote. And yes, Joris Karl Huysmans, not Adolph Huysmans, I hadn't looked at Against Nature in years and had the…

I can assure you that I never will, but it's called the passion of the Christ, fair warning.

I got it out thinking it was a love story.

Man.

Don't think I'm the only Christian out there who gets a tad over-sensitive after endlessly being lumped in with Mel Gibson, Brian The Bish and the theo-con wing of the Republican Party.

Sorry, no, allow me to backpedal, insofar as I don't think that happens nearly enough. I think it's…

And I'm not knocking your faith at all,

Sorry for being a little spiky on that subject. Don't think I'm the only Christian out there who gets a tad over-sensitive after endlessly being lumped in with Mel Gibson, Brian The Bish and the theo-con wing of the Republican Party.

A doctor acquaintance told me that if Jesus really lost that much blood, he wouldn't have made it to the crucifixon before he died of blood loss and shock.

If it's stark realism you're looking for, I have the sneaking suspicion that James Caviezel won't be cast again as a…

I very much doubt it would have oversold the whole concept of being nailed alive to a large piece of wood.

A doctor acquaintance told me that if Jesus really lost that much blood, he wouldn't have made it to the crucifixon before he died of blood loss and shock.…

NO matter what Gibson claims, that film moves beyond scriptual fidelity into somewhere else that freaks me out. I don't know about Mel and the evangelicals who turned TPoTC into a massive hit, but my faith contains Easter Sunday as well as Good Friday.

Scriptural fidelity is a very thorny…

That's peculiar, coming from a Catholic – I know it's been said before, but the whole thing is built on a very robust dose of sadomasochism, starting from the decision to represent Jesus on the cross instead of well, in any other moment of his life or afterlife, really.

Have…

I think the resurrection scene needs a bit of re-working as well.

Roger Dirom The Producers:

Of course that whole second act has to be rewritten. Theyre losing the war? Excuse me? Its too downbeat!

and

"[singing] I see a line of beautiful girls dressed as stormtroopers each one a…

i laughed. a lot.

It's so relentlessly sadistic, I just don't want to know what gets Gibson off.

That's peculiar, coming from a Catholic – I know it's been said before, but the whole thing is built on a very robust dose of sadomasochism, starting from the decision to represent Jesus on the cross…

Winston Churchill's son Randolph somehow contrived to remain ignorant of scripture until Evelyn Waugh and a brother officer, in a vain attempt to keep Churchill quiet when they were posted together during the war, bet him…

I think the resurrection scene needs a bit of re-working as well. I'm seeing the Jesunator arising from the sea of Galilee in a wet white shirt, carrying an AK47 and screaming "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani, Motherfuckers!!!".

Infinitely preferable to Mel Gibson's essay in Jesus torture porn. I've sat through…

I'm seeing the Jesunator arising from the sea of Galilee in a wet white shirt, carrying an AK47 and screaming "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani, Motherfuckers!!!".

make that the dead sea, and i think you'd have a buyer in hollywood.

I found all that begetting in the prequel decidedly tedious

Well, when I come to make the definitive film version, I'll be dealing with most of that by borrowing a trick from George Lucas and having big letters scrolling through space. I'll cut most of the old testament down to…

... So, following from our comparative religion discussion above, would that now be one book or three? Or should we treat a single-volume trilogy as a trinity, so recognising both counts?t

How many tomes can you fit on the head of a pin? As I'm not up to fretting over…

(i) It's the Wirrun series. (NZ English rules, ok?)
(ii) The official starting…

It is complete loose stool water. It is arse-gravy of the worst kind.

But getting back to classics, I'm struggling to think of supposedly…

a book to me is a story – or set of information- between covers

Very good: a set of information between covers = the bible = a book! Glad we could reach an agreement. :-)

It's all horrible semantics of course, and if thinking of the bible as a book…

Well, I suppose if we were desperate, anything written on papyrus/paper/parchment/leather/stone/wood – ur – gel?
Let alone bytes – makes a book?

Interestring question, although we did coin the word ebook for a reason, surely – recognising that ineffable thing, the unit of bookness that still makes us say to…

"The Bible" is a contested (think Vulgate for a latter challenger, Torah for an earlier one) SET of books i.e it's a compendium-

no worries either way Giovanni…

Giovanni – quite aware of the bible/biblos etc. is, per se, the word in Europe (well, a lot of European languages) for 'book'- BUT a compendium is NOT *a book*-

Not sure about the usefulness of the distinction. However it came about, whatever its history, it still seems a unit…

Ah, the Victorian novelists propensity for silly names. Trollope was even worse.

You mean he came up with something better/worse than Pumblechook? Do tell.

Angels opening seals and pouring blood upon the surface of the earth

... and there's a mental image for your book club!

For a number of centuries in Europe the words bible and book were in fact synonimous.

WOOT!! a tiso spelling mistake!

take *that* mr multi-lingual "writes better than half of us"...

"The Bible" isnt a book!

Much as I agree with your value judgments, I don't see how any of that makes the bible not a book. For a number of centuries in Europe the words bible and book were in fact synonimous. And bible originally means "books" (meaning the books…

As an atheist, I despise the damage it has caused humanity.

As…

What's not to love?

Dunno, I found all that begetting in the prequel decidedly tedious.

Funny that the Bible hasn't rated a mention yet.

That's because God is perfect, infidel. Prepare to be burned at the stake.

Anyway, the bibles great. Sex, war, infidelity, more sex, more war, supercool monsters, and the ending rocks! Angels opening seals and pouring blood upon the surface of the…

We therefore have effing Jar-Jar at our house most weekends.

Meesa feeling yoousa pain.

Heart of Darkness

Didn't like that one either. Too subtle. The film was much better. More helicopters and napalm.

When it comes to hating on Lucas, I think the prize still goes to my friend jsr,…

kooky. and good.

but maybe not a classic. that time travel shit was, well, crazy. if i want my realities twisted left, right, and upside down i'll, well, follow politics.

@megan, burley my good friend. burley. come…

Now I'm wondering who I lent my copy to, so I can steal it back and re-read it

I don't have your copy because I stole mine from my parents

Someone even ragged on Heart of Darkness, the total philistine.

And I'd rag on it again in a heartbeat.

He don't like Slaughterhouse 5? So it goes.

(Can I extend my prejudice to include Nevermind? I'd hate to open that can of worms)

I realised that life had more to offer than this turgid book.

Like, why read books when you could be slagging them? If I'd only finished Tristram Shandy I could've saved myself years of reading.

Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse 5. Another book I finally got round to reading after hearing it referred to in hushed, worshipful tones by all and sundry.

Yawn, big f**king deal. Firebombing picturesque mediaeval German cities is wrong. Yes, yes, I get it already, Kurt.

Rich, you and me better step…

Anyone who feels like a failure because they can't finish Gravity's Rainbow is lacking perspective.

But anyone who feels Gravity's Rainbow is a failure because they can't finish it is lacking more.

I didn't want to finish it. I too read as far as the BDSM Nazis and then lost…

anyway, seeing as Craig was big upping Peter F Hamilton can I come back at you with the literary sensorium that is China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.

You certainly can. I've got a copy somewhere, but it's like Proust — in the sense that I keep getting stuck around the…

There was a ginga elf in Rivendell. She moonlighted as a policy analyst.

can two gingas save the world?

Everything always comes back to the gingas with you, doesn't it, Che.

Oh hey, me too, but hardly anyone else I know has heard of it.

Now I'm wondering who I lent my copy to, so I can steal it back and re-read it.

and yeah again, mentioning the Historian only gets me blank looks.

not sure about the Wilberforces remake. Just let it be, no good can come of it. And…

can two gingas save the world? only in nzl.

Well, they're doing Under the Mountain, so O can't be far behind.

and i say "yes, bring the wilberforces".

the 80s version is in our local video store and i might be forced to make a dvd back-up copy, just in case they lose theirs.

And on the vampire front, I'm rather enjoying Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian.

Oh hey, me too, but hardly anyone else I know has heard of it.

I'm also really enjoying the love-in for DWJ. I think one of the best things to come out of the HP phenomenon was the…

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. Ripping yarn and no mistake.

Oh yes. Not nearly so sold on Iron Council, though.

Archer's Goon is still my favourite DWJ, though.

I reread Archer's Goon a couple of years back. while it wasn't quite the transcendental experience it was when I first read it it was still a jolly good read and there were a few clever bits that I'd totally missed as…

And on the vampire front,…

It's a pity no-one told George Lucas that before he pumped out a turgid stream of shitquels, and pissed on my cherished childhood memories from a great height.

It gets worse if you have kids. My son loves the prequels, but doesn't really like the originals. We therefore have effing…

i have been trying to find the name of that series for years.

A couple of years ago I finally (after about 5 years of occasional trying) re-found the Borrible books, one of which I had read as a child and had fond memories of, and which I thought my…

As a child, I loved one of her books so much that I made my mother go to the public library, say I'd lost the book, and pay for the replacement cost, just so I could keep it.

My [relationship redacted] did something similar with Nicholas Fisk's __A Rag, A…

It's a pity no-one told George Lucas that before he pumped out a turgid stream of shitquels, and pissed on my cherished childhood memories from a great height.

When it comes to hating on Lucas, I think the prize still goes to my friend jsr, who won the Ruptured Spleen…

There are some things far too precious to let out of memory and back into your waking life..... Star Wars

It's a pity no-one told George Lucas that before he pumped out a turgid stream of shitquels, and pissed on my cherished childhood memories from a great height.

But dragging…

Diana Wynne Jones

As a child, I loved one of her books so much that I made my mother go to the public library, say I'd lost the book, and pay for the replacement cost, just so I could keep it.

I am a terrible person. (And a librarian, ironically…

This is why I haven't re-read Diana Wynne Jones's The Homeward Bounders, which I loved when I was about ten. I don't want to be disappointed by it now.

I reread that last week :) Wasn't disappointed.

Archer's Goon is still my favourite DWJ, though.

There are some things far too precious to let out of memory and back into your waking life

This is why I haven't re-read Diana Wynne Jones's The Homeward Bounders, which I loved when I was about ten. I don't want to be disappointed by it now.

If I were an influential NZ director/producer specialising in fantasy epics, I'd be in quiet negotiations with Maurice Gee over the rights for that one.

Well, they're doing Under the Mountain, so O can't be far behind.

Sounds like a criticism that could be made of Austen, Shakespeare just as much.

I'm not saying that all authors should deal with these topics, by any means. God forbid. My point is that the answer to the 'Tolkien rendered a complete and multi-layered world' argument that many people trot…

I've never been able to get into Dickens. Too many weird minor characters with names like Chuzzlewit.

Ah, the Victorian novelists propensity for silly names. Trollope was even worse.

that said, i'll not read them again. i found a copy of the half-men of o in a bookstore and reread it, only to be extremely disappointed at its simplicity.

There are some things far too precious to let out of memory and back into your waking life — the…

I developed a severe allergy to Dickens at the tender age of nine after there was a pre-Christmas sale of Dickens books at Whitcoulls and *every one* of my relatives decided that since Lucy liked to read all those big books, Martin Chuzzlewit would be the perfect gift!

I think…

Now, forty years later, this year's project is reading my way through Dickens. Can't believe how funny he is. I just ignore the bits that get in the way.

I developed a severe allergy to Dickens at the tender age of nine after there was a pre-Christmas sale of Dickens…

Howsabout a bit of Jasper Fforde to f*** with every genre and character in literature?

I love Jasper Fforde. I want to be Jasper Fforde when I grow up.

but I love Anne Elliot and think Persuasion is one of the best of Austen's novels

I just... can't identify with…

Patricia Wrightson's Wirrin arc (which begins with The Nargun and the Stars, and makes prominent use of characters from Aboriginal mythology)?

!!!!!

you legend.

i have been trying to find the name of that series for years.

best tweenie books *ever*.

that said, i'll not read them again. i found…

Me too. The only apple product I've ever bought is cider.

Iscrumpy.

Tricky, when in my head he's standing on the lakeshore, his wet white shirt plastered to his torso, holding an AK-4

Darcy. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Shaken & stirred.

[Piers Anthony's] Xanth series is a little better,

at least, in small doses. I found Anthony's "Incarnations of Immortality" series a more satisfying read, because there he's trying to map out his personal philosophy, rather than labouring to put a bad pun in every paragraph as in Xanth. It's still…

1. walk into your living room.
2. pick up the TV.
3. uplug it and carry it out the door to the garden.
4. hit it with a shovel until it is broken.

Erm. You're talking to a person who squealed with excitement when she discovered that the Vibe channel…

(see also: refuses to buy IPod.)

Me too. The only apple product I've ever bought is cider.

Fanny Price can get knotted,…

return indoors, put feet up, and read harry potter. (it is after all an entry-level drug).

Confession time. I've just read all 7 Harry Potters, in about 3 weeks. I'd resisted them before, because,w ell, I like to be contrary (see also: refuses to buy IPod.)

I'm now having trouble…

I really need to win Lotto and stop working so I can concentrate on something worthy

1. walk into your living room.

2. pick up the TV.

3. uplug it and carry it out the door to the garden.

4. hit it will a shovel until it is broken.

5.…

Also, I don't understand this accusation of priggishness. In which universe would you not be a tad upset if your 15-year-old daughter/sister eloped with a wrong-un and spent several weeks in London…

I really need to win Lotto and stop working so I can concentrate on something worthy

Amen
One of the problems with this thread is now my Must Read pile (aka the spare room) is growing far too large, same with the Must Reread pile (aka the downstairs library), while…

a shiriken death to d'arcy

Tricky, when in my head he's standing on the lakeshore, his wet white shirt plastered to his torso, holding an AK-47 and screaming 'yippie-ki-ay motherfucker'. That's what you people have done to my psyche.

However. You'll get no traction dissing P&P, Tibby, but I'll give you…

And my all time favourite author at this point in time is Coetzee: Disgrace is the best

I did not enjoy that book at all. It is entirely possible that I just didn't get it, but the theme seemed to be 'woman brutally raped as symbolic revenge for apartheid', and…

(i knew that would draw you out)

I raced back home between tutes, to cook some chocolate sponge rolls for the vegetarians who are coming over for dinner tonight, and said to myself that I would only look at PAS, I wouldn't post because I didn't have time....

I plead…

Philistines.

LOL. (i knew that would draw you out)

I simply wasn't going to sink to acknowledging your attempts at baiting.

Philistines.

LOL. (i knew that would draw you out)

so tired of asking

So tired of being asked, obviously.

It is this simple: you cannot grow bananas in London, Jaguar did not make a car like that before the end of the war and Pynchon does not understand the English class system.

And any loser could paint like Mondrian.

It is our weakness for narrative and realism that creates…

Anything by Jane Austen.

right on.

the films are worse. a bunch of foofy tosh.

Philistines.

Pride and Extreme Prejudice

Anyone interested in seeing what this would look like should hunt down the Monty Python/Sam Peckinpah/Salad Days sketch. It's probably on youtube but I can't access it.

Then when I was 20 I picked it up and couldn't put it down. Read it in one night and my god. What a book!

I you got that right. Heller got so tired of asking how come he never wrote anything that good again, that once he replied that…

I love Heyer in general, but her pre-Regency stuff (there's a William the Conqueror one, shudder) leaves me cold.

Hell yes, and the sad thing is that My Lord John (which was unfinished when she died and published posthumously) is kind of the her equivalent of Peter Jackson's King Kong.…

I was 13.

Then I reread it when I was 16. Same deal.

Then when I was 20 I…

I read the Da Vinci Code, too. I thought it 'crappy book, would make a great movie', but Ron Howard…

White Teeth is the worst "good" novel I've read in a while. What a shocker. Genuinely bad on just about every count. A disaster. A piece of shit. Unmitigated crap.

You're probably right , but the awful Autograph Man makes it look like a work of genius.

Mason & Dixon and…

Is it Pamela or Clarissa that continues to write in her diary as she is raped?

Pamela. Fielding's pisstake contains a fabulous section where she tries to fend off her attacker with one hand while frantically scribbling in her notebook with the other.

...I like Dick more than Che does...

Well, it made me smile.

I have taken against 'classics' to some extent, probably put off by school set-texts (Dickens, Austen) but have browsed a number of more…

Die hard – Pride and Extreme Prejudice

says blaxploitation to me.

mind you, pam in one of those empire line dresses would be... quite a sight.

they'd need to drop the hem a lot to hide the platform shoes but.

Anyway, the Foofy Tosh files start with Georgette bloody Heyer.

*cough* At least she left the fucking (and I mean fucking) Tudors alone. If I see one more novel about any sodding Boleyn girl or anyone else who got their ya-yas off in Tudor or Early Stuart England I'll be…

there's only one thing that could rescue austen novels.

ninjas. or maybe a mafia shoot-out. or maybe the ghost of both

Emma wanted Austen crossed over with Die hard – Pride and Extreme Prejudice

Unless you're interested in bad pornography, and male "oh…

there's only one thing that could rescue austen novels.

ninjas.

Oh, they were there. You just didn't see them.

Emma: can we rename this the foofy tosh file?

I'm charmed that we're asking my permission to do things now.

So, no we bloody can't, not if you're going to stick Toy Story in there. That movie was every parent's dream: something you can watch with your kids without sending…

and i'm feeling a guilty need to defend my foofy tosh assertion about austen.…

Clarissa is probably more interesting, but it really is long; I paused indefinitely at about p. 300.

I tried Tristram Shandy once, managed a page or three.

You guys are killing…

the [jane austen] films are worse. a bunch of foofy tosh.

Emma: can we rename this the foofy tosh file?

Surely, the phrase "foofy tosh" defines the worst of the worst.

Toy Story. Paddington bloody Bear. Even if he is supposed to be a metaphorical refugee. In fact, especially if.…

The Night's Dawn trilogy makes great Sci-Fi reading, but I'm not…

here's a question... how many of the critics on this list have actually written a novel?

Ah, time to make a clean breast of it. I'll just go get the soap.

...

I have. All the way to the end and everything. It was about a group of uni students…

It's got a whole heap of flaws in terms of characterisation, the massive change in tone from book 1 to book 3, and that kind of stuff just isn't everyone's cup of tea. But it's still a giant in terms of its lasting popularity and influence.

I found it really…

only wondering because, well, i'm not very good at it myself, despite numerous attempts.

(to be honest, the only thing i've ever written that interested anyone was a little blog, now slowly moldering into…

No one has yet mentioned my favourite unfinished read – Pamela. Has anyone actually managed to read it all the way through? Why and how?

Yes. I had nothing better to do and nothing else to read, then it just became a matter of sheer bloody-mindedness. Then I went on…

These days I prefer a book I can read from cover to cover while in the bath

Since you mention Candide, I'd rate that for shortness and sweetness among classics.

Someone upthread expressed dislike for plots driven by arbitrary coincidence; here I think that contributes nicely to the whole package.

No one has yet mentioned my favourite unfinished read – Pamela. Has anyone actually managed to read it all the way through? Why and how?

Because it was a set text for a 200-level Novel course, and with sort of growing incredulity and horror that it really was going to…

Anything by Jane Austen.

right on.

the films are worse. a bunch of foofy tosh.

Movie? Whew. I think it's not so much about the worst good movie, as the best bad one. Clearly, Chariots of Fire would have to be the worst bad one.

Oh, wait. Anything by Goddard. Sure to cure your insomnia.

I tried Tristram Shandy once, managed a page or three.

You guys are killing me here, you really are.

If anybody needs me, I'll be in the bathroom, crying.

fran: "i'm sorry mr. green, there are no ginger elves"
mr. green: "but i'm wearing my sequin tights!"

I tried Tristram Shandy once, managed a page or three. I keep it on the shelf, just in case.

As a teenager I would consume…

'The Stand', for example, is now three to four hundred pages longer than the original version.

And much the worse for it. It's his best book, and the extra material adds little compared to the pace it takes away. And "updating" it to 1990 makes a whole lot of it…

Yeah, I've just done a history paper on the Victorian age and I kept thinking 'But I've heard that self-same rubbish trotted out by politicians/pressure groups just the other day'.

I think it would be a rather nice idea if someone wrote a semi-sequel called __The Way We Still Live…

Indeed it does. Wasn't implying any judgment on what sorts of stuff people read, more of a "why?" is SF/fantasy so strong.

My theory about this (and I'm pretty sure it would hold for a large chunk of PA readers) is that there is an area of sci-fi/fantasy that neatly…

"why?" is SF/fantasy so strong

Good question. There's an element of sheer fun to the genres in their speculative nature that gives you scope…

the ticklish notion that the way we live right now is more like Trollope's pitch black vision of London 135 years ago than is comfortable.

Yeah, I've just done a history paper on the Victorian age and I kept thinking 'But I've heard that self-same rubbish trotted out by politicians/pressure…

It's my suspicion that some authors of series which become hugely popular, are all like, now I have the power and I can leave in all the tedious nonsense they cut out of the first two if I like.

It certainly happens in movies — see the Matrix sequels, which…

Talk about 500 page epics :) I'm going to have my own chapter soon.

It's my suspicion that some authors of series which become hugely popular, are all like, now I have the power and I can leave in all the tedious nonsense they cut out of the first…

– The Carbon Diaries 2015 (Amazon)

– The Mysterious Benedict Society (Wikipedia)

reaching the unanimous conclusion that yes, [character from TSH] was exactly like [dear friend who now works for the Ministry of (Redacted)].

My guess would be either:
Henry – Treasury
Bunny – Internal Affairs

Did you watch The Way We Live Now? Thought Matthew Macfadyen wonderfully odious as Felix Carbury. I enjoyed it, but have never read Trollope – I might now.

Ah, so Andrew Davies isn't totally evil! :) But doesn't it say a lot about TVNZ that they've sat on this for…

At the risk of crossing the streams with the copyright debates, Richard Stallman currently has a boycott out on the purchase of Harry Potter books, and not just because the average geek should know better anyway.

Stallman always reminds of the UK leftist (mentioned in a book by Mark Steel…

And last but not least, if your life is too short (and your patience too short) for Neil Stephenson

Hear hear (for everything post-Snow Crash, at least). From The Diamond Age onwards, the man's literary career consists of little more than wanking on about how much research he's done and…

I loved TSH too mostly because I had a very strong sense of having known most of the characters and therefore having to uneasily wonder if people in my circle would behave the same way given the same set of circumstances.

Yes, that's what makes a book for me. That's…

Please don't take this as a dis, Kerry,because as far as I'm concerned the house of literature has many mansions.

Indeed it does. Wasn't implying any judgment on what sorts of stuff people read, more of a "why?" is SF/fantasy so strong. I did read Children of Men this year…

JKR, I'm looking at YOU...

It's my suspicion that some authors of series which become hugely popular, are all like, now I have the power and I can leave in all the tedious nonsense they cut out of the first two if I like.

I mentioned elsewhere that I gave up…

@hadyn. yeah, but LOTR was one of the c20th's first big effort to write a complete hero mythology, with back story.

being "FIRST!" doesn't mean you're any good (see first comment)

From what you appear to have drawn from White Noise it would seem that you've not simply read it, you've deconstructed it. How else would you have made the mediaeval connection?

You seem to be implying a very narrow definition of the word "reading". I noticed a parallel to mediaeval…

It was the day my grandmother exploded.

Nice. Even more succinct than the famous opening line from Anthony Burgess's Earthly Powers:
"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

But would you start reading one that began "It was a Thursday my Grandmother exploded"?

Just to be pendantic for a moment, the actual sentence is:

It was the day my grandmother exploded.

As for feeding the people of Gondor, contrary to the bleak portrait of the Pelennor (the plain…

Henry James, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Owen Marshall, Elizabeth Knox, Philip Roth, Italio Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, Valdimir Nabokov, Keri Hume, Margaret Mahy, Don DeLilo, Michael Chabon, Toni Morrison, Witi Ihimaera, Virginia Woolf

Speaking of, I really liked Dreamhunter/Dreamquake.

YA books also seem to suffer a lot less from page-count…

. . . it never crossed my mind to treat Jack Gladney with detached scorn.

Of course not – apart from being the only character with any real complexity, he's the one you're invited to identify with. It's his poor gormless wife, along with the semi-sentient denizens of the supermarkets…

I'm quite surprised at the preponderance of fantasy/sci fi stuff people read. I'm more interested in contemporary stories

Please don't take this as a dis, Kerry,because as far as I'm concerned the house of literature has many mansions. And genre snobbery inverted is just as tiresome as genre snobbery right…

and i'll admit freely that tolkien was desperately in need of an editor. that whole epic should have been *one* 500pager.

Umberto Eco had a nice piece about the often unacknowledged role of editors in the creation of literature's great classics. It was an editor for instance who got Eliot…

I love…

Why would you start a sodding novel with the word "renowned"?

But would you start reading one that began "It was a Thursday my Grandmother exploded"?

Craig, was that a ... sports metaphor?

*sob* I keep bad company...

I hate Da Vinci Code with a passion and I haven't even read it. The first SENTENCE is appalling.

You're not alone.

That sentence, btw, is:

Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery.

Why would you start a sodding novel with the…

Two-dimensional lesser-mortal characters who blunder about driven by a mumbling fear of death, in a way that DeLillo's intended gentle readership is encouraged to treat with detached scorn?

Well, I suppose your talk of the dimensionality of the characters is an indication that we read it in different ways. I…

a good comparision is star wars. i *freaking loved* that series.

but i was only 8.

adults hate LOTR, but kids love it. assuming they can make their way…

Wait, who mentioned Kiwiblog?

*sigh* I can't complain that someone took a shot at the open goal. :)

Craig, was that a ... sports metaphor?

blame Wagner

ah... i missed the whole r@pe of the valkryies connection... silly me.

Be careful what you wish for, every writer world building like Robert Jordon and the Wheel of Time? No one wants that.

Stephen Donaldson's Gap series was based on the Ring cycle, blame Wagner

and i'll admit freely that tolkien was desperately in need of an editor. that whole epic should have been *one* 500pager.

Maybe, maaaaaaayyyyybeeeeeeee, 100 pages. Maybe. In fact, just read The Hobbit, then stop. But if I may be so bold as to refer back to the [[http://www.publicaddress.net/system/topic,1466,up_front_the_classics_are_rubbish_too.sm?p=75902#post75902|first comment on…

Ffs che, I'm posting a fluffy opinion on someone's blog, not submitting a goddam term-paper.

chortle.

and i'll admit freely that tolkien was desperately in need of an editor. that whole epic should have been *one* 500pager.

moving right along: stephen donaldson and the white gold series. anyone read his…

@joe

The World War Two backstory of Zadie Smith's White Teeth takes place in a setting that's rather reminiscent of The Zone in Gravity's Rainbow. Nice imaginative bit of literary thievery.

you're assuming she read it.

Ffs che, I'm posting a fluffy opinion on someone's blog, not submitting a goddam…

The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton.

the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.

Kage Baker's Tales of The Company

I've ranted at length elsewhere about how, if he wasn't a…

The Man in the High Castle isn't half bad.

No, it's all bad. It must take some kind of genius to turn a premise that good into a book that dull.

Andrew Davies is working on the script. Against my better judgement, I watched his (depressingly typically) "sexed up" Room…

Tolkien may have been horrified at the genre his work spawned, but spawn it did. Frankenstein too regretted his monster (and that's a great, great book).

Oh, you're getting no argument from me that Tolkien's children are responsible for an entirely unwelcome revival in the three (and more)…