The book dialog game - Page 14

poohbear_nc · 08-23-2011, 03:01 PM

Obviously I have no clue.

Issybird? Can you help out?

Hamlet53 · 08-23-2011, 05:08 PM

I am also at a loss. Issybird?

issybird · 08-23-2011, 05:47 PM

I've read the hints and I think I know the name of the author--Douglas Coupland--but I don't know the novel. Which is what I live about this thread, so many new books to read.

HomeInMyShoes · 08-23-2011, 10:11 PM

Okay issybird is the winner here. Take it away. The book was Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. I agree with some comments on Coupland, that he's a bit of a one-trick pony at times, but I love his work. He makes me laugh a lot.

issybird · 08-24-2011, 08:26 AM

From one of the funniest books in English:

"It was a perfect title, in that it crystallized the article's niggling mindlessness, its funereal parade of yawn-enforcing facts, the pseudo-light it threw upon non-problems."

poohbear_nc · 08-24-2011, 08:38 AM

It has a Wodehouse-ian syntax & vocabulary - but it's not Wodehouse - at least not any that I've read. More modern.
[methinks I'm going to discover a new "must read" book]

issybird · 08-24-2011, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

More modern.

Yes.

And, I hope so!

issybird · 08-24-2011, 10:27 AM

"He was all ready to slink down to the phone when, returning to the bedroom, he again surveyed the mutilated bedclothes. They looked in some way unsatisfactory; he couldn't have said how. He went and locked the outer bathroom door, picked up the razor blade, and began again on the cirdumferences of the holes. This time he made jagged cuts into the material, little inlets form the great missing areas. Some pieces he almost severed. Finally he held the blade at right angles and ran it quickly round the holes, roughening them up. He stood back from his work and decided the effect was perceptibly better. The disaster now seemd much less obviously the work of man and might, for a few seconds, be put down to some fulminant dry rot or the ravages of a colony of moths."

issybird · 08-24-2011, 11:41 AM

Not even a nibble, eh?

The author's first novel, it made Time magazine's list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. I said it was modern but in fact it's older than I am.

Spoiler:

"Then there'd been that essay written for Welch by one of the Honours people, containing, in fact consisting of, abuse of a book on enclosures by, it transpired, one of Welch's own ex-pupils. 'I asked him who could possible have filled his head with stuff like that, you see, and he said it was all out of one of your lectures, Dixon. Well, I told him as tactfully as I could...' Much later Dixon had found out that the book in question had been written at Welch's suggestion and, in part, under his advice. These facts had been there for all to read in the Acknowledgments, but Dixon, whose policy it was to read as little as possible of any given book, never bothered with these,"

Hamlet53 · 08-24-2011, 12:36 PM

So I sort of cheated by looking up the Time Magazine list and using that and the other information to come up with this. I put it in a spoiler to allow more time for others to come up with the correct answer more honestly.

Spoiler:

issybird · 08-24-2011, 02:27 PM

I was going to identify the author as one of the angry young men of the 50s, but since there hasn't been any guessing and Hamlet's got it, I think it's time to move on.

Over to Hamlet.

HomeInMyShoes · 08-24-2011, 02:31 PM

I had no clue on this one.

poohbear_nc · 08-24-2011, 02:47 PM

I'm putting it on my TBR list - the excerpts are intriguing! Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an ebook version.

issybird · 08-24-2011, 03:09 PM

No, sadly. I wanted to nominate it for the bookclub for humor month, but couldn't. That's why we can't give up on pbooks just yet; too many mid and backlist gems which haven't been digitalized.

Hamlet53 · 08-24-2011, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

No, sadly. I wanted to nominate it for the bookclub for humor month, but couldn't. That's why we can't give up on pbooks just yet; too many mid and backlist gems which haven't been digitalized.

Yes far to many that are not eligible for Project Gutenberg treatment, but are not, and may never be, put into ebook form.

Anyway I am betting this one will go quick and easy.

"Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking."

08-24-2011, 11:41 AM	#204
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	Not even a nibble, eh? The author's first novel, it made Time magazine's list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. I said it was modern but in fact it's older than I am. Spoiler: The author has an equally famous writer-son. "Then there'd been that essay written for Welch by one of the Honours people, containing, in fact consisting of, abuse of a book on enclosures by, it transpired, one of Welch's own ex-pupils. 'I asked him who could possible have filled his head with stuff like that, you see, and he said it was all out of one of your lectures, Dixon. Well, I told him as tactfully as I could...' Much later Dixon had found out that the book in question had been written at Welch's suggestion and, in part, under his advice. These facts had been there for all to read in the Acknowledgments, but Dixon, whose policy it was to read as little as possible of any given book, never bothered with these,"

08-24-2011, 12:36 PM	#205
Hamlet53 Nameless Being	So I sort of cheated by looking up the Time Magazine list and using that and the other information to come up with this. I put it in a spoiler to allow more time for others to come up with the correct answer more honestly. Spoiler: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
The Movie Dialog Game!	lestatar	Lounge	622	12-25-2011 01:26 PM
Unutterably Silly Nearest Book game.	NatCh	Lounge	73	12-02-2008 11:10 AM
The Amazon e-book sales guessing game continues	Alexander Turcic	News	22	07-05-2008 07:36 PM

08-23-2011, 03:01 PM	#196
poohbear_nc Now what? Posts: 58,843 Karma: 135181808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	Obviously I have no clue. Issybird? Can you help out?

08-23-2011, 05:08 PM	#197
Hamlet53 Nameless Being	I am also at a loss. Issybird?

08-23-2011, 05:47 PM	#198
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	I've read the hints and I think I know the name of the author--Douglas Coupland--but I don't know the novel. Which is what I live about this thread, so many new books to read.

08-23-2011, 10:11 PM	#199
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Okay issybird is the winner here. Take it away. The book was Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. I agree with some comments on Coupland, that he's a bit of a one-trick pony at times, but I love his work. He makes me laugh a lot.

08-24-2011, 08:26 AM	#200
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	From one of the funniest books in English: "It was a perfect title, in that it crystallized the article's niggling mindlessness, its funereal parade of yawn-enforcing facts, the pseudo-light it threw upon non-problems."

08-24-2011, 08:38 AM	#201
poohbear_nc Now what? Posts: 58,843 Karma: 135181808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	It has a Wodehouse-ian syntax & vocabulary - but it's not Wodehouse - at least not any that I've read. More modern. [methinks I'm going to discover a new "must read" book]

08-24-2011, 10:27 AM	#203
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	"He was all ready to slink down to the phone when, returning to the bedroom, he again surveyed the mutilated bedclothes. They looked in some way unsatisfactory; he couldn't have said how. He went and locked the outer bathroom door, picked up the razor blade, and began again on the cirdumferences of the holes. This time he made jagged cuts into the material, little inlets form the great missing areas. Some pieces he almost severed. Finally he held the blade at right angles and ran it quickly round the holes, roughening them up. He stood back from his work and decided the effect was perceptibly better. The disaster now seemd much less obviously the work of man and might, for a few seconds, be put down to some fulminant dry rot or the ravages of a colony of moths."

08-24-2011, 02:27 PM	#206
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	I was going to identify the author as one of the angry young men of the 50s, but since there hasn't been any guessing and Hamlet's got it, I think it's time to move on. Over to Hamlet.

08-24-2011, 02:31 PM	#207
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	I had no clue on this one.

08-24-2011, 02:47 PM	#208
poohbear_nc Now what? Posts: 58,843 Karma: 135181808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Durham, NC Device: Every Kindle Ever Made & To Be Made!	I'm putting it on my TBR list - the excerpts are intriguing! Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an ebook version.

Advert

Advert

08-24-2011, 03:09 PM	#209
issybird o saeclum infacetum Posts: 20,224 Karma: 222235366 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: New England Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5	No, sadly. I wanted to nominate it for the bookclub for humor month, but couldn't. That's why we can't give up on pbooks just yet; too many mid and backlist gems which haven't been digitalized.