Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I have always lived along the coast. Not by any major rivers. I don't know if the rivers here have locks on them. Perhaps they do. Maybe someone that lives near some of them... like the Ohio or the Mississippi or the Colorado or whatever can tell me.

The only locks I knew about were the ones in the Panama Canal.

Wait, I think once I saw part of the Erie canal (I grew up in New England so New York wasn't far) and saw the locks and also the tow paths that the donkeys used to be on to tow the boats through. That was quite a long time ago though. (Now I don't remember if I actually saw them, or just saw one of them boring filmstip presentations in school).

BOb

well there you are then. we've got the tow paths here as well because the canal is used for a lot of freight carried on barges and in the past, before motor barges, it would be towed by horses sometimes. i imagine most canals have locks because since they are man made they probably frequently change levels quite a lot, depending on the landscape.

[Patricia]

There's a series of 14 locks, dating from 1799, in the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, just a couple of miles from where I live.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/6480869.stm

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Patricia

There's a series of 14 locks, dating from 1799, in the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, just a couple of miles from where I live.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/6480869.stm

Some day I guess I have to get to the UK... and all of Europe. I feel there is just so much in the US I have yet to see also.

BOb

[tompe]

Originally Posted by doreenjoy

The long descriptions that go nowhere -- that don't advance the plot -- drive me crazy. I like a faster pace. That's what most bothers me about the fantasy genre today: the pacing is soooo sloooooww.

A books is usually more than just the plot. If it was just plot you could just read a synopsis.

I was at a science fiction con this weekend and somebody asked George R. R. Martin why his fantasy books was so long. And he said that he wanted the reading of them to be a totally immersive experience. That was the reason that he for example spent so many word describing the food at a wedding.

But there is also fantasy books that do not take tis approach so you just have to choose what kind of books you like to read.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I am reading _Three Men in a Boat_ right now. I have to admit... it is a bit dry. I expected a roaring funny book. But, so far I am a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I've had a few chuckles. Perhaps you have to be British to understand how funny it is to pack your toothbrush, then need it (and other ramblings thus far).

It is a roaring funny book but of course not all the time. You have a structure were the comical situations is built up in an extremely goos way so that they work much better. You also have to understand understatements to get the humour. I can recommend Connie Willis essay about Three Men in a Boat.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by wayspooled

heh.. Are you another soul victimized by Connie Willis' excellent "To Say Nothing Of The Dog" setting your expectations too high?

I thought To Say Nothing of the Dog was to long and sometimes pretty boring and Connie Willis would be the first person to admit that her book is not as good and funny as Three Men in a Boat.

[wayspooled]

Originally Posted by tompe

I thought To Say Nothing of the Dog was to long and sometimes pretty boring and Connie Willis would be the first person to admit that her book is not as good and funny as Three Men in a Boat.

Oh aye, pretty sure my opinion would be in the minority That's what made me remark on possibly seeing someone else with a similar opinion. Three Men in a Boat has been loved for a long time by many.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by tompe

It is a roaring funny book but of course not all the time. You have a structure were the comical situations is built up in an extremely goos way so that they work much better. You also have to understand understatements to get the humour. I can recommend Connie Willis essay about Three Men in a Boat.

As I said, perhaps it is just a European stuff that I just don't get. And other US folks think this book is a "roaring funny" book?

BOb

BTW: I laughed my ass off at Hitchhickers Guide and that was very dry British humor.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

we've got locks on the canals here ; i like to be on the bank (or a bridge) and watch the boats go through them, but i there are so many, and so close together, i think if i were on the boat i would soon get really bored. don't you have locks in the us ? or do you just not live near a canal / river ?

It's always fun to watch the boats go up and down

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

well there you are then. we've got the tow paths here as well because the canal is used for a lot of freight carried on barges and in the past, before motor barges, it would be towed by horses sometimes. i imagine most canals have locks because since they are man made they probably frequently change levels quite a lot, depending on the landscape.

There are towpaths in the US as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towpath

Most of the towpaths here have been transformed to biking paths. And even we, in one of the flattest countries, have locks. When we were on our way home last saturday, we passed a lock where they had the old (1945) prices hanging (people used to pay for passing a lock). A tree trunk costed 3c per trunk! (which would be about 1.3 euro cent).

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

well there you are then. we've got the tow paths here as well because the canal is used for a lot of freight carried on barges and in the past, before motor barges, it would be towed by horses sometimes. .

Interesting canal-related bit of etymology:
If a tunnel didn't have a towpath running alongside it

"...the boatmen had to find another way of getting their boat through the tunnel. ... the boatmen had to lie on the roof of the barge and use their legs to "walk" the boat through the narrow tunnel. ... it was this procedure which coined the phrase "legging it". "

http://www.yorkshire-escapes.com/yor...-narrow-canal/

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by tompe

A books is usually more than just the plot. If it was just plot you could just read a synopsis.

I was at a science fiction con this weekend and somebody asked George R. R. Martin why his fantasy books was so long. And he said that he wanted the reading of them to be a totally immersive experience. That was the reason that he for example spent so many word describing the food at a wedding.

But there is also fantasy books that do not take tis approach so you just have to choose what kind of books you like to read.

Sadly the choice is not up to me as I'm reading this for a graduate program.

I find it's a thin line between "immersive experiences" and skull crushing boredom. But I admit this is all IMO. It's like reading an Ingmar Bergman movie.

[doreenjoy]

Originally Posted by Trekkiemelissa

I just finished His lady mistress the other day and now I am reading star trek: stargazer book 1

I read His Lady Mistress yesterday (desperately needed a break from Perdido St Station). I enjoyed it, but found it a bit melodramatic.

[FlorenceArt]

Hi All! It's been a while since I posted here. After a while re-reading some of my old p-books (I had an anxiety attack when I was jobless and started re-reading my whole fantasy-romance collection, lol), I am back to e-books and reading two of them at the moment:

Nouveaux souvenirs entomologiques by Jean-Henri Fabre (new entomological memoirs? Something like that), the second volume of his memoirs, which I find fascinating. I've always been interested in insects because they are the easiest wildlife to observe, but I don't have the patience to spend years just watching them and I'm happy he did that so that I get to read about it instead. He was a very thorough observer and experimenter, and I like his lively style too. He was completely wrong about evolution, but it's also interesting to read about his opinions on that, which probably were shared by many of his contemporaries.

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem is weird, because it's the story of a boy who was born almost at the same time I was, but his childhood is so different from mine we could be from different planets. Otherwise it's well written, a good book for sure, but somehow there is something missing I can't quite put my finger on. Good, but not great.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by tompe

A books is usually more than just the plot. If it was just plot you could just read a synopsis.

I've never been very interested in plots myself, but I guess it's all a question of taste...

Originally Posted by tompe

I was at a science fiction con this weekend and somebody asked George R. R. Martin why his fantasy books was so long. And he said that he wanted the reading of them to be a totally immersive experience. That was the reason that he for example spent so many word describing the food at a wedding.

Speaking of which, will A Dance with Dragons ever be available electronically? I said I don't care about plots, but it would help if I could remember some of the previous 4 volumes before I start reading this one. Oh well, it's probably too late already anyway, I've forgotten it all

[edgechc]

Just finished the 3rd book of the Destroyermen series - Maelstrom...
by Taylor Anderson

I love when I find a really good series and it keeps me going, but I inevitably get through them too quickly, and are left with end of the trilogy letdown I want more - but were are not to see it until Spring 2010


I suffered the same in dealing with John Birmingham's Axis of Time series.... got so bad I ordered the 3rd book by mail from Australia when it was released there 6 or 9 months ahead of US/Canada....

Oh well off to find some more Alternate World/History - Posy apocalyptic fiction.....