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

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Well, despite whatever else she may have done, Paris Hilton has at least made one worthy contribution to society.

I'm talking, of course, about her car wash hamburger commercial for Carl's Jr.

I don't think Palin has anything to teach me. Considering I don't care much about fashion.

BOb

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I don't think Palin has anything to teach me. Considering I don't care much about fashion.

BOb

But you look so dapper in that tux!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

But you look so dapper in that tux!

Thanks. My mom will be happy to hear that. She made me wear it.

BOb

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I don't think Palin has anything to teach me. Considering I don't care much about fashion.

BOb

.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Thanks. My mom will be happy to hear that. She made me wear it.

BOb

[lilac_jive]

This thread got interesting very quickly

I'm reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, which I got in pbook from the library. I've been toggling between ebooks during the day, and pbooks when I get home. I've already read 17 books this month!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I've already read 17 books this month!

...and you couldn't fit _The Trial_ in? (just read your post on the other thread.)

BOb

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

...and you couldn't fit _The Trial_ in? (just read your post on the other thread.)

BOb

That's what I was going to say!

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

...and you couldn't fit _The Trial_ in? (just read your post on the other thread.)

BOb

Nope! Pretty much everything sounds more interesting than "The Trial."

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Nope! Pretty much everything sounds more interesting than "The Trial."

OK, I'll give you a hint... _The Trial_ is not about a trial.

BOb

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

OK, I'll give you a hint... _The Trial_ is not about a trial.

BOb

Of course not, it's about the trial, right?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Of course not, it's about the trial, right?

Actually, I read it and I'm still not sure what it is about. ;(

BOb

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Actually, I read it and I'm still not sure what it is about. ;(

BOb

Oh boy, now I really want to read it...

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Oh boy, now I really want to read it...

I'm sure my highschool English lit (even though he wasn't an English author) could tell me what it was about.

BOb

[montsnmags]

I'm about to go to Sydney for a few days solo freewheeling, and I'm currently umming and ahhing about what book to take. I think I'll take Stevel Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole. It's been much lauded, and I've read the first chapter (extract here <---linky) and it's right up my alley. Some here (and I can think especially of some usual suspects and accomplices) might want to take a guernsey at it, as I think it might be right up theirs too.

I think it's available as an ebook (epub) from Penguin UK, and it says it is in ebook form at Random House for the US, but I haven't looked further, seeing as I got it in a secondhand bookstore in pbook form.

A Fraction of the Whole - ABOUT THE BOOK

Meet the Deans.

The Father is Martin Dean.
He taught his son always to make up his mind, and then change it. An impossible, brilliant, restless man, he just wanted the world to listen to him – and the trouble started when the world did.

The Uncle is Terry Dean.
As a boy, Terry was the local sporting hero. As a man, he became Australia's favourite criminal, making up for injustice on the field with this own version of justice off it.

The Son is Jasper Dean.
Now that his father is dead, Jasper can try making some sense of his outrageous schemes to make the world a better place. Haunted by his own mysteriously missing mother and a strange recurring vision, Jasper has one abiding question: Is he doomed to become the lunatic who raised him, or a different kind of lunatic entirely?

From the New South Wales bush to bohemian Paris, from sports fields to strip clubs, from the jungles of Thailand to a leaky boat in the Pacific, Steve Toltz's A Fraction of the Whole follows the Deans on their freewheeling, scathingly funny and finally deeply moving quest to leave their mark on the world.