Me! Me! I want to see what kind of impression I’ve made… fiction only, please. I am too frazzled for serious stuff.
I am a redhead, you see, and I do not tempt. I insist. -Cristi
Can I have one too, please? Huh? Huh? Can I?
“Organs gross me out. That’s organs, not orgasms.”
-the wallster
Ooh! Ooh! Gimme one o’ them thar book thingies!
One of my favorite subjects is early (really, really early) religious history, particularly Judeo-Christian history. Yeha, I know. “But Cristi, aren’t you a pagan?” Well, yes. But from a purely historical standpoint, Judeo-Christianity is really damned interesting.
Cristi, Slayer of Peeps
I made my husband join a bridge club. He jumps next Tuesday.
(title & sig courtesy of UncleBeer and WallyM7!)
Uke, I gave no suggestions because I read anything and everything. I will second your recommendations of Brothers Karamazov and the works of K.C. Constantine. Both are excellent. Actually read Karamazov for fun once.
And I’ve also read the Beauty trilogy. Like I said…I read everything.
Homepage: www.tiercel.com
Occupation: Culling slow moving vermin
Location: The wild blue yonder.
Interests: Thermals, updrafts, downdrafts, air currents in general.
(Profile by UncleBeer.)
Environment? Nah. Mood lighting and ambience is what counts. - a genuine WallyM7 sig
Books, huh? I’ve heard of those. Can I have one, Uke? Please?
You’re a penny in the tip jar of life
But you’re shiny and you’re mine
-the Judybats
Ike, I can’t get enough good Arthurian fantasy, the longer the better . . . suggestions ?
I’m in, naturally.
No suggestions list, because there are too many possible categories to make a comprehensive list.
Bonus points if Uke can recommend a book I haven’t read, double bonus points if he hits upon a book I’ve been considering/planning on reading.
Ahhh, Uke…A book of SF&F that is both thought-provoking, and not cliche’d.
Please no TVseries tie ins, those are by definition, cliche’d.
Extra points if it is by an author I haven’t read, and even more points if it is someone I haven’t heard of.
>>Nomex underwear is optional for dragons. <<
—The dragon observes
Dear Mr. Ike,
Of your previous recommedations I’ve enjoyed the works of Mr. Landsdale (both Hap & Leonard and his grisly horror) and Mr. Pratchett. P.G. Wodehouse has been for a long time in my reading list, but I’m afraid he has to wait still (a severe case overindulgence of dry British wit caused by Black Adder, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python). I read mostly science fiction and swear by Jack Vance, Harlan Ellison, Robert Sheckley, Fritz Leiber, Gene Wolfe and R.A. Lafferty, a recent discovery. And I MUST mention George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman-series, I can’t believe you’re unfamilliar with it?
So, could you kindly recommed a good book on gardening?
Nawww, something funny will do…
Yours,
mazirian
For once you must try to face the facts: Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts.
Ok Ike, I’m in. Hit me with your best, book that is.
** Sigh. So many men, so few who can afford me ** Original by Wally
I’ve learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.
Homepage: www.superlativeandsassy.com
Occupation: Temptress
Location: Ultra, California
Interests: surpluses, excesses, abundances, extras, lagniappes
profile by UncleBeer
Uke,
How 'bout some good historical fiction? Something that moves along but isn’t too frothy, with some real history so that I can learn something without it being crammed down my throat.
Thanks buddy.
Gee, I have some nice books to get me through the weekend.
How about some good cassette tapes? Say, maybe . . . Oh, I don’t know . . . Ute Lemper, or a collection of Disaster Songs from the early 20th century? THOSE sound like they might be something I’d wanna borrow.
—Eve (batting her eyes into left field)
Hope Uke doesn’t mind me pinch-hitting here for a moment, but this is my end of the publishing world you’re talking about.
For SF: the novels of Iain M. Banks (the books without the “M.” are non-SF, but worthy in their own twisted ways). Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas are good starting places. The former is a novel told both backwards and forwards; the latter one of the best of the space opera revivals on the last decade or two (and more, as you might guess if you know the source of the title).
Fantasy: George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire.” Two novels to date, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, with the third, A Storm of Swords coming in the fall. It’s very loosely based on England’s Wars of the Roses, and the characterization (of literally dozens of named persons) is exceptional.
Both of those are from the “entertaining” end of the spectrum, but if you want something chewy, I could dig that up as well.
I’m your only friend
I’m not your only friend
But I’m a little glowing friend
But really I’m not actually your friend
But I am
[Edited by UncleBeer on 08-29-2001 at 10:57 AM]
In a month or two, after my brain has cooled off from being in overdrive this week, I’m sure I’ll be alookin’ for something to peruse. I enjoy quirky books, and philosophy. But seeing as how it is summer, I’ll want those in the soft-boiled versions.
Wassup, Uke, hook me up, yo.
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
Oooh, Ike, I’ve got a book that I think you would love! It’s called–
oops. sorry.
Bucky
I better start dealing with this in chunks. If I lose my connection in the middle of a looooong post, it’ll be a Brodie for me…
Da Ace: Beat it! Getcher own damn thread! No, wait. I admit my reading in SF/Fantasy has been sketchy, though gratifying. Please stick around in case I run out of ideas in that realm…
Trion: Something like Lord Dunsany? There is NOTHING “like” Lord Dunsany. So I’ll stretch a wee bit and say the short novels of Lord Berners, recently reprinted in an omnibus edition. While not strict fantasy, they are certainly surreal. And he’s a Lord, too, and loved at approximately the same time. If you’re leaning toward horr, do you know Algernon Blackwood? Dover has a “Best of” in print, and any Dunsany/Lovecraft buff should read his short story “The Willows.”
Pixoid: Stop me if you’ve heard this from me before, but something that’ll make you think and have fun at the same time is J.K. Huysmans’ A REBOURS. (Get the Dover translation, called AGAINST THE GRAIN, NOT the Penguin translation, called AGAINST NATURE.) This was the infamous “yellow book” that so affected Dorian Gray in Wilde’s novel.
Uke
Forgot to UBB. Sorry. Now,
Sassy: Hah! You think fiction ain’t serious business? Have a go at G.K. Chesterton’s THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY. Ignatius Press just published an edition annotated by Martin Gardner. A bizarre philosphical/theological thriller from 1907, still topical, and a marvelous read. Christopher Morley was hand-selling it back in the teens; he recommends it in his novel THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP.
mega the roo: I kinda like picking books out of the clear blue sky, I admit. For you, Eddie Condon’s 1947 autobiography, WE CALLED IT MUSIC. Condon was a jazz guitarist and club-owner, and his life in the 1920s typified Jazz Age weirdness. He was a mediocre musician, but a great personality…funny as hell, too.
Uke
Ike:
Oooh. I knew I liked you. Found it at random on the shelves of the Poinsett County Public Library in Harrisburg, Ark. when I was in high school and being one of the only interesting-looking things there that I hadn’t read, I took it home. And it did indeed change my life. Brilliant book and more fun than three barrels of monkeys.
But you didn’t specify which translation Mully should get. There’s the Grove Press edition translated by Mirra Ginsberg, with the text as censored by the Soviet authorities, which I’m told is more accurate linguistically but somewhat staid, missing the tone almost completely. Michael Glenny’s translation of the complete text was the one I originally read and loved; it includes the full text, and has more of the dash and verve of the book. I have heard others say that Glenny’s translation betrays a lack of intimate familiarity with life in Moscow in the 1920s. For many years, these were the two choices. However, there are now two more, only one of which I have read: Diane Burgin and Kathleen Tiernan O’Connor’s Vintage Classics edition. I think this is my favorite, and since it’s an annotated edition, is probably the best place for someone not reasonably well versed in Soviet history to start. There’s a Penguin edition that Amazon’s showing as not yet available even though the expected pub. date was in February – apparently this translation, by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, has been available overseas for a while; obviously, I have no experience of this one.
Which one do you prefer?
“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common.” –Satchel Paige
[Edited by UncleBeer on 08-29-2001 at 11:01 AM]
Uke:
Is there a reliable and comprehensible work out there that’ll get me up to speed on what’s going on with the IMF, WTO and the as yet still amorphous bands of hooters and hollerers?
Thanks for the efforts, Ike.