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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133718
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| Posted: 23 July 2011 at 4:46am | IP Logged | 1
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JB - regards the Tudor period, you might wish to try 'Wolf Hall', by Hilary Mantel•• Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't read historical fiction. Especially not about periods with which I have become very familiar. * When I read a history and find myself occasionally disagreeing with the author over some point of interpretation, that's really all it is, a point of interpretation. But when the same thing happens in a historical fiction, it reads as WRONG. –––– * There is a kind of irony here, I suppose, since my journey into history really began with Gore Vidal's LINCOLN, which IS historical fiction. But it was also the last such book I have read!
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Dave Phelps
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4185
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| Posted: 23 July 2011 at 8:22am | IP Logged | 2
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Working my way through Frank Herbert's Dune series. Just started his last, which I'm now hearing ends on a cliffhanger or something. I know his son did two sequel novels to wrap it up, but I haven't heard good things about those. Ah well. What's life without a little mystery? :-)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133718
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| Posted: 23 July 2011 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 3
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Working my way through Frank Herbert's Dune series.•• Uhhhrrrrrr. . . . Shoulda stopped with the first one!
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Brad Brickley
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8290
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| Posted: 23 July 2011 at 9:39am | IP Logged | 4
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Yeah, I was wondering about Dune myself. Lots to pick from after Dune itself. Good to know I can just stick to the original.
Okay, I finally finished Anna Karenina (Oprah Book Club Edition). Great book, it's amazing how well Tolstoy can write, you feel like you're really there with the characters. I can understand why Tolstoy is regarded as one of the great realist novelists.
It took me quite a while to get through, a dense read, but worth the effort. I started off with a free Kindle edition, but the translation wasn't smooth, seemed kind of stilted. So, I bought the Kindle Oprah Book Club edition, it has great translators, a much better read. Once you get the hang of Tolstoy's style, the book is a nice read. The hardest part for me was getting used to the many Russian names and the various names each character has in that Russian system.
I might wait a while to tackle War and Peace.
I've started Christopher Hitchen's Hitch 22, a memoir. I've read the first couple of chapters so far, funny and quite literate. Lots of great words, I kind of wish I'd picked this up as a Kindle edition too. Makes it much easier to look up definitions.
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Tim O Neill
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 10943
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| Posted: 23 July 2011 at 10:06am | IP Logged | 5
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Lake Wobegon Summer 1956 by Garrison Keillor
An amazing book. Keillor is known for his radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, but in addition to his radio work he has consistently put out some of the best books. This is no surprise to anyone who has heard his show. He does a weekly monologue in front of a live audience, and the constant storytelling has made his skills so sharp that you can't see the seams. Some of his monologues have been adapted in books, and they are among my favorite short stories. But this long form story is a wonder.
I feel like there are some great comedy writers out there and there are great fiction writers, but nobody can meld the two like Keillor.
I'm of the opinion that John Irving is the modern Charles Dickens, and along those lines I would say that Keillor is the modern Mark Twain.
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Thom Price
Byrne Robotics Member
L’Homme Diabolique
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7593
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| Posted: 24 July 2011 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | 6
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Finished the first three books in the GAME OF THRONES series in as many weeks, but I found the last one to be emotionally exhausting so I needed a change.
I'm currently reading ON STRANGER TIDES by Tim Powers. The last PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie was loosely based on the novel; although I disliked the movie, the basic story was enough to intrigue me about the book.
I almost accidentally purchased the novelization of the movie. A novel based on a movie based on a novel; I'm sure that one is a real masterpiece.
Edited by Thom Price on 24 July 2011 at 10:11pm
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Paul Lloyd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 May 2004
Location: Wales
Posts: 486
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| Posted: 25 July 2011 at 12:44am | IP Logged | 7
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Kim Newman's "Secret Files of the Diogenes Club".
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Gary Olson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 September 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 382
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| Posted: 25 July 2011 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | 8
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Portrait Of Picasso As A Young Man by Norman Mailer. Norman borrows somewhat from earlier biographers, as he acknowledges, but his own insights and observations are pure Mailer.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133718
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| Posted: 26 July 2011 at 3:29am | IP Logged | 9
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On the previous page I mentioned having started IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS, Erik Larson's latest, about the experiences of William E. Dodd and his family in Nazi Germany, beginning in 1933. Dodd was the American ambassador.Poking around online this morning, looking for additional information to flesh out the story, I came across an essay written by Dodd's daughter, Martha, describing their arrival in Germany. It's also a quick lesson in How Writers Do It -- Ms Dodd's essay is very obviously the source for Larson's description of the same events. Basically, he has paraphrased what she wrote. Apparently, Ms Dodd was a successful writer (who fled the United States when she and her husband were accused of being Communists during the McCarthy era), and had produced a book about her experiences in Hitler's Germany. I'm thinking this might be worth reading, if I can locate a copy, once I have finished GARDEN.
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Roger A Ott II
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5371
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| Posted: 26 July 2011 at 7:14am | IP Logged | 10
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I picked up a copy of JURASSIC PARK at a used book store awhile back (the same place I found CITY AT WORLD'S END!), and am having a lot of fun reading it.
One major problem, of course, is having seen the movie many times, I am picturing the actors in my head instead of making up my own "actors" from the character descriptions. Ian Malcolm is described as a "tall, thin, balding man of thirty-five" but I can't stop picturing Jeff Goldblum's full head of hair.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133718
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| Posted: 26 July 2011 at 7:23am | IP Logged | 11
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When I read the book, when it was first published, I saw Mickey Rooney as John Hammond. Sir Richard Attenborough was a bit of a surprise!
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3508
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| Posted: 26 July 2011 at 8:37am | IP Logged | 12
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JB wrote:
| Working my way through Frank Herbert's Dune series. •• Uhhhrrrrrr. . . . Shoulda stopped with the first one! |
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'Children of Dune' is readable, but 'working' is a pretty accurate description of trying to get through anything past that.
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