What Book(s) Are You Reading?

[s1m0n]

Have to quote Mark Twain. "Outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. Inside of a dog it is too dark to read"

I believe that's Groucho Marx, although I've also seen it attributed to James Thurber.

[dwest]

Have to quote Mark Twain. "Outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. Inside of a dog it is too dark to read"

I believe that's Groucho Marx, although I've also seen it attributed to James Thurber.

I'm sorry properly said it's "Marx......wait for it........Groucho Marx." My dogs don't eat books, but they love toilet paper rolls, they'll actually show up as faint smudges in an x-ray, you can tell it's a TP roll too.

[Whistlin' Will]

My dogs don't eat books, but they love toilet paper rolls, they'll actually show up as faint smudges in an x-ray, you can tell it's a TP roll too.

Do I want to know how you found that out?

[Denny]

don't encourage him

[brewerpaul]

Speaking of Mark Twain, I'm in the midst of his recently released autobiography. This is only volume 1, and it runs near 800 pages. This is NOT a sequential autobiography-- it's culled from many of his notes, dictations etc. Huge, heavy book, and it's sometimes slow going so I have been reading a hundred or two pages, then putting it aside for something lighter eg a Dirk Pitt novel, then back to Twain. Interesting stuff though.

[dwest]

Speaking of Mark Twain, I'm in the midst of his recently released autobiography. This is only volume 1, and it runs near 800 pages. This is NOT a sequential autobiography-- it's culled from many of his notes, dictations etc. Huge, heavy book,...

My mother is reading Twain, they were able to squish the volume down and fit it in a Kindle, I just can't believe how big the print is.

[fearfaoin]

My recent library loaner is "Going Postal" by Terry
Pratchet, the Douglas Adams of fantasy. I just got
to the part where Moist von Lipwig, former conman
and the new postmaster of Ankh-Morpork, has
discovered the old sorting machine built by Bloody
Stupid Johnson. The inventor thought 3.14159...
was an untidy value for pi, so he made the wheels
with pi=3. This of course required the creation of
pocket universes, quantum uncertainty, etc., the
end result being that they found mail in the hopper
50 years before it was to be written. Soon, the post
office was filled to the brim with undeliverable future
mail and therefore had to be closed. Now they're
trying to dig themselves out and revive the service.
I never thought the post could be so funny.


UPDATE: I'm past that part.

[HDSarah]

Going Postal is great. I need to reread that one. You can continue reading the adventures of Moist von Lipwig in Making Money.

Terry Pratchett is wonderful. I'm his mother, you know, even though he's older than me.

My local library has an "Adopt an Author" program and my husband and I "adopted" Terry Pratchett about a decade or so ago. When you adopt an author, the library automatically buys every new book by that author and sends you the bill. They put a little sticker inside the book cover acknowledging the donor, AND they let the donor be the first one to check out the book. It's a great way to share your favorite author(s) with your community. I still haven't read his most recent book, though -- my library is being REALLY SLOW about getting it. They told me it was on order a couple months ago and I haven't gotten an invoice yet.

I also have a large shelf (though still incomplete) of Terry Pratchett paperbacks at home. I received a couple more for Christmas and just reread them: Unseen Academicals and Thud.

[dwest]

My local library has an "Adopt an Author" program and my husband and I "adopted" Terry Pratchett about a decade or so ago. When you adopt an author, the library automatically buys every new book by that author and sends you the bill. They put a little sticker inside the book cover acknowledging the donor, AND they let the donor be the first one to check out the book. It's a great way to share your favorite author(s) with your community. I still haven't read his most recent book, though -- my library is being REALLY SLOW about getting it. They told me it was on order a couple months ago and I haven't gotten an invoice yet.

What a nice idea, I'm going to borrow that if you don't mind?

[cowtime]

My recent library loaner is "Going Postal" by Terry
Pratchet, the Douglas Adams of fantasy. I just got
to the part where Moist von Lipwig, former conman
and the new postmaster of Ankh-Morpork, has
discovered the old sorting machine built by Bloody
Stupid Johnson. The inventor thought 3.14159...
was an untidy value for pi, so he made the wheels
with pi=3. This of course required the creation of
pocket universes, quantum uncertainty, etc., the
end result being that they found mail in the hopper
50 years before it was to be written. Soon, the post
office was filled to the brim with undeliverable future
mail and therefore had to be closed. Now they're
trying to dig themselves out and revive the service.
I never thought the post could be so funny.

There's NO WAY I could ever read that! it sounds much to true to life....

I have finally gotten around to reading As I Lay Dying by Wm. Faulkner- I intended to read it earlier in the year, loaned it out and recently got it back- I love it!

[Anyanka]

I got The Reluctant Fundamentalist for Christmas, and opened it with a sigh of 'oh dear, it's about Important Issues' (I feel that a lot of books and films get undeserved praise & hype if they're Worthy. Like The Kite Runner.) This one's very well written, though, and keeps me coming back, but my final verdict will depend on the ending.

[Innocent Bystander]

My favourite bit of "Going Postal" was the villain's parrot, whose cry was "Twelve and a half percent! Twelve and a half percent!" Mr Pratchett spells it out near the end, but I'm happy to say that I worked it out.

Yes indeed, those over-hyped worthy books do not leave you smiling.

[Anyanka]

I got The Reluctant Fundamentalist for Christmas, and opened it with a sigh of 'oh dear, it's about Important Issues' (I feel that a lot of books and films get undeserved praise & hype if they're Worthy. Like The Kite Runner.) This one's very well written, though, and keeps me coming back, but my final verdict will depend on the ending.

Very good ending, actually.

[crookedtune]

I'm home with a bad cold, and just finished 'Whale Season' by N.M. Kelby. I wouldn't call it great literature, but it's wildly bizarre, fun and highly entertaining. http://nmkelby.com/www.nmkelby.com/The_Novels.html

[I.D.10-t]

Halfway through Atlas shrugged, starting Three cups of tea.