Who's reading what?

[nar]

Hey Sharra,

hymmm - not sure about anagramming the entire work, but I did once come up with this:

Tolkiens masterpiece; "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy; condensed for you.
= (ie is an anagram of...)
Loyal Frodo destroys The Ring. The King's fit to rule once more. Epic ends.

KR's

- Neil

[Raisin]

Crikey imagine creating anagrams for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy! You'd have to do all the elvish as well.

I may give Matt Smith a chance, apparently he's the last Doctor because he can only regenerate so many times!

Raisin

[nar]

Hey Raisin,

re: "imagine creating anagrams for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy"

I'm still surprised what's possible.

The entire text (>935,000 letters) of 'Moby Dick' was once anagrammed into a new novel.

http://www.anagrammy.com/literary/mkeit ... dom21.html

This guy (Mike Keith: http://www.cadaeic.net/) is The Man when it comes to this type of extreme constrained writing.

Kind Regards,

- Neil

[Sharra]

omg - the whole of Moby Dick.... The real version drove me nuts!
Raisin - yup the Doctor can only regenerate 12 times, meaning we can have 13 actors. Matt Smith will be no 11. I am sure though, that if it is still a success, they will come up with a way of circumventing that - I'm sure I remember the Master getting more regenerations from somewhere
Sharra
x

[Elegost Eruaphadion]

I'm re-reading the Silmarillion once more, and have just finished the Night Angel Trilogy by fledgling author Brent Weeks.

[David]

Elegost, I don't mean to be rude, but the idea of someone rereading The Silmarillion is just astonishing to me. Reading it the first time was bad enough, and I was a big LOTR fan at the time.

Surely there's loads of stuff out there waiting for your first reading?

[Elegost Eruaphadion]

Haha, well, let me tell you the first time I read it I was but 13, so didn't really take much of it in. I've been inspired to read it again after reading the Children of Hurin late last year, which I would recommend.

On my reading list though Brave New World, and after that a good War book I think.

[David]

A good War book, eh? One of the things I'm reading at the moment is the first volume of Pat Barker's Resurrection trilogy, about (so far) the rehabilitation and attempted "cure" of victims of shell shock towards the end of WW1, with cameo appearances by Sassoon and Owen - fairly convincingly. It's very good.

[Wabznasm]

And I recommend El Doctorow's "The March", but then that's about the American Civil War and might not be what you're looking for.

I haven't read Regeneration, David, but the TV appropriation is good fun.

[David]

I haven't read Regeneration, David, but the TV appropriation is good fun.

I didn't know there was one. I'll look out for that.

[BenJohnson]

Been years since I read Brave New World, but I remember liking it at the time.

[Sharra]

I'm re-reading the Silmarillion once more

I read it years ago, twice, (when i was still young enough to refuse to let a book 'beat' me) and still had no clue as to what was really going on...

Wab - I've recently read Doctorow's 'The Book of Daniel' and thought it was fantastic.
And Brave New World is brilliant. Well worth a read.

I have to make myself read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison this weekend. I've started it twice and just can't get into it

Sharra
x

[Wabznasm]

Invisible Man is one of my favourite books. Utterly superb, if a little bit too symbolic at times.

The March is better than the Book of Daniel too, which I felt suffered a little bit from 'post-modern do whatever we like' syndrome. Was good though.

[Elphin]

War book - go a long way to beat these two

A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry on the divided loyalties of an Irishman in British army in WW1

Her Privates We- Frederic Manning on WW1, raw account written in 1929. Quite excellent.

elph

[Ros]

I don't usually frequent war books, but I'm reading Stalingrad at present, which although fact reads like a fiction story. Difficult to know who to root for, though, as both sides were equally appalling...

[Select Samaritan]

Hey Select Samaritan, how's the book going? I was curious because it's a great title and wanted your opinion on it

You've got a lot riding on this, Raisin. Don't forget, you picked it!

It's not bad. I'm not finished yet though. I'm a slow reader regardless, but I haven't been reading much at the same time. Three quarters done and I like it enough to give it three out of five stars.

Overall, it's better than average and in some areas, it's quite good.

It's about a serial killer with a unique method of murder, in case you didn't already know. The novel chronicles a new phase in his life you might say, as he moves from one part of the country to another.

The writing is choppy, though intentionally so. Meant to mirror his mind. Although he's a very calm and cool individual at the same time.

Every now and again, Lew (the writer) lets go an absolute gem, either as a paragraph, a scene or a simple one sentence observation. So he's "good" if you know what I mean.

There are a million books one could and perhaps should read before this one. But if you're in between great novels, give this one a try as a break.

I often do that. Break up heavier novels with lighter filler. Anyway...

[Raisin]

Not really great literature, but yesterday afternoon I bought three of the "Twilight" series out of four that everyone's been raving about, I've forbidden myself from watching the film until I've read them all.

I finished the third one this afternoon and they were pretty good, it must be hard to write something about vampires that hasn't already been said a thousand times, but the writing was orignal and the three so far have been easy to read and keep up with.

Buying the fourth tomorrow and maybe the film with it Also steadily working my way through the Discworld series in random order, they're a lot of fun, but I must find something serious to read after the holidays! Ian Rankin is my best bet I think, I love his writing.

Raisin

[Ros]

Ian Rankin more serious than Pratchett? One-of-the-best-authors-ever Pratchett?

Ros

[Raisin]

Yay, another Pratchett fan! I think I admire Terry Pratchett more as a writer, just that the content itself in Ian Rankin's books is a lot more serious!

[Ros]

Yay, another Pratchett fan! I think I admire Terry Pratchett more as a writer, just that the content itself in Ian Rankin's books is a lot more serious!

D'you really think so? Don't you think Pratchett has more to say on the daftness of nations and the motivations and weaknesses of individuals?

ok, I confess to never having actually *read* a Rankin book, but I have looked at the covers quite seriously.

[lightthespark]

I haven't read any Rankin, but I'm glad there's some Pratchett fans on this site! He's fantastic (literally ), Making Money, one of his most recent works, I think was my favourite of all of his Discworld novels, although I'm sure a lot of fans will disagree with me! When you look back at his earlier work (which I did after reading MM) it's evident how much his writing has changed, albeit subtely. I love his idea that money as paper is worth nothing, and it's all the nonsensical background and almost imaginary figures that give it its value. He makes it all seem rather silly! I also love Moist and his ability to scam his way out of any situation, but still remain likeable - the power of oratory (did anyone see the documentary?)!

Currently I'm reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I've only just started it but I love it so far. Every word in it seems heavily considered for the greatest impact. Every sentence is intensely suggestive and paints a vivid picture of the characters and their surrounding. Fantastic. And it makes a change from all the Bronte I've been reading lately!

[Ros]

Trouble is, Pratchett's earlier works were the funny ones. I haven't enjoyed the recent ones as much, even though they are clever.

Reading? At the moment I'm steadily marching through two fairly heavy tomes:

The Road to Middle Earth, by Tom Shippey, which is written by a professor of philology and discusses Tolkein's work in the light of that - it's really very good. Highly recommended

and

Agincourt by Juliet Barker, which is a historical discussion, and again fascinating. Best book on the whole event, I reckon. Did you know that there were many female blacksmiths working in the middle ages?

[David]

Just for a bit of fun, but in all seriousness, I have to say I don't think much of Pratchett. I've tried reading him, just as I've tried reading J K Rowling. I hoped and expected to like them, and I gave them a decent chance, but nope. Twice.

Mind you, I started an Ian Rankin book once, and I couldn't finish that either.

[Ros]

Well, although I've read all the JK Rowling, she's not really that good. Certainly the start of book 1 is very dull for quite a while, and some of the later ones are bloated. And she's very derivative. She just bungs it all together in quite a gripping fashion.

Pratchett perhaps works best if you're already a science fiction reader and understand more of the stuff he satirises, particularly for the first books.

[David]

Pratchett perhaps works best if you're already a science fiction reader and understand more of the stuff he satirises, particularly for the first books.

Oh, I think I've paid my scifi dues, so I knew what he was satirising. The trouble is, it pretty much satirises itself fairly effectively, so it doesn't leave much for satire to work on.

I do like P G Wodehouse. Now he was a funny writer.