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

[kennyc]

Now you guys got me interested....downloaded and read chapter 1...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant;880874[URL="http://www.webscription.net/p-1076-torch-of-freedom.aspx"

Torch of Freedom[/URL] by David Weber and Eric Flint. A side novel in Weber's Honor Harrington series.

This runs concurrently with events depicted in other books in the series, but those events are in the background, and mentioned only as they affect the foreground action of this book. An interesting read for those, like me, who've read the rest of the series, but I suspect a little bit too much for anyone new to it. Quite a long book. I did enjoy the second-half more, where we get into events not covered in previous books (as far as I remember!).

I'm certainly looking forward to the next one, which should move the whole series forward.

Now for a change of pace - My Son, the Wizard by Christopher Stasheff. The fifth in a fantasy series. I've read the others and enoyed them (although some time ago). From the first few pages, I think I'll be able to pick up without any difficulty.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

When you consider its age, Dreams, this really is something of a ground-breaker. Other atheists, agnostics and deists of the time who had the courage to write openly about what they didn't believe, tended to be 'professional' skeptics. Twain had always put himself forward as something of an 'everyman' author (if always a tad eccentric in his social outlook), so the book must really have shocked many folks.

I'm in a Mark Twain frame of mind lately: Recently re-read his brilliant *Joan of Arc* and *Connecticutt Yankee* and have just started a re-read of *Prince and the Pauper* (written for his children). Each of this trio of books is set in a different era and his historical scholarship and the ability to use it to water-colour his work rather than burden it with look-what-I-know detail is admirable.

My enthusiasm for Twain, by the way, has nothing at all to do with the fact that he was a fellow pipe-smoker ... honest! It's pure coincidence that many of my favourite authors of that period were brothers of the briar.

Another was JM Barrie (Peter Pan) who wrote perhaps the most hilarious collection of short stories I've ever read, *My Lady Nicotine*. Twain's daughter said he was 'the smokiest man I've ever known'. She had obviously never met Barrie (a fellow-Scot).

Ol' JM -- described as 'the most eccentric man in London' by friends -- was never seen without a disreputable pipe between his teeth. It is believed to have been the *real* reason for the break-up of his marriage and was certainly why the fussy George Bernard Shaw broke off his friendship and refused to visit JM's smoke-flled home.

Of course, bowing to current PoCo, there wasn't the suggestion of a pipe in Johnny Depp's depiction of the great man in *Neverland*. Only Dustin Hoffman (a life-long non-smoker) was seen to smoke a cigar in the movie.

I'm in danger of imposing an information overload here ...

Cheers. Neil

I guess I should give Mark Twain another try... I started reading Tom Sawyer and was not very impressed, I'm afraid. Maybe I'll try another one. I understand Huckleberry Finn is better, but I was afraid not to understand it without reading Tom Sawyer first.

[neilmarr]

***I started reading Tom Sawyer and was not very impressed, I'm afraid. Maybe I'll try another one***

My humble advice, Florence, would be to jump straight into *Joan of Arc*. Once you plainly see what the man could do, you're well prepared for what he did do. I rate him right up there with Dickens (for colour and humanity) and Vonnegut (for imagination and wit). Cheers. Neil

Psssttt ... anybody willing to help me out by quickly (five mins of a job) casting an eye over our first experiment with Mobi format for a novel in their Kindle (mentioned in an earlier post today)? If so please do drop me a line -- ntmarrAtbewrite.net (with the @ sign, natch). N

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

***I started reading Tom Sawyer and was not very impressed, I'm afraid. Maybe I'll try another one***

My humble advice, Florence, would be to jump straight into *Joan of Arc*. Once you plainly see what the man could do, you're well prepared for what he did do. I rate him right up there with Dickens (for colour and humanity) and Vonnegut (for imagination and wit). Cheers. Neil

Psssttt ... anybody willing to help me out by quickly (five mins of a job) casting an eye over our first experiment with Mobi format for a novel in their Kindle (mentioned in an earlier post today)? If so please do drop me a line -- ntmarrAtbewrite.net (with the @ sign, natch). N

Thank you for the advice Neil. I might try that, although I'll admit the subject doesn't really fill me with enthusiasm... but it would be an occasion to read something different

[Sorry, I don't have a Kindle - maybe you should try posting in the Kindle part of the forum?]

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Re-read Mark Twain's short Letters from the Earth last night (an excellent 100-page MR ePub download). I hadn't realised until this re-read just how much of Twain had been lifted almost word-for-word for use in lectures and books by atheism's Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Chris Hitchens, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris. You've got to admire Twain's brave stance in a time when it took real guts and involved no little risk (especially in the US south) to express such views and to poke fun not only at religion itself, but also at those who professed belief, which must have been pretty well 100% of his neighbours and 99% of his readers. Cheers. Neil


PS: Wonder if any pals in this thread with a Kindle might be wlling to download and cast an eye over the first Mobi format novel we've produced in-house. A neat book, *Notes from the Lightning God by John Schouten, but no need to actually read it unless it appeals (you'll find blurb, extract, etc in the book store section of our site below): we're just interested in being sure that on the actual Kindle machine layout is good and that a little Spanish punctuation has converted accurately. If you can spare a few mins, just drop me a line at ntmarrATbewrite.net. Use the @ sign, of course. Thanks. Neil

Thanks for posting that, Neil. It's been about 30 years since I read it, so I just downloaded the mobi file and shot valvaldirules a bit of K for uploading it!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

When you consider its age, Dreams, this really is something of a ground-breaker. Other atheists, agnostics and deists of the time who had the courage to write openly about what they didn't believe, tended to be 'professional' skeptics. Twain had always put himself forward as something of an 'everyman' author (if always a tad eccentric in his social outlook), so the book must really have shocked many folks. ...

It was published posthumously. He was no dummy!

[beppe]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Re-read Mark Twain's short Letters from the Earth last night (an excellent 100-page MR ePub download). I hadn't realised until this re-read just how much of Twain had been lifted almost word-for-word for use in lectures and books by atheism's Four Horsemen -- Richard Dawkins, Chris Hitchens, Dan Dennett and Sam Harris. You've got to admire Twain's brave stance in a time when it took real guts and involved no little risk (especially in the US south) to express such views and to poke fun not only at religion itself, but also at those who professed belief, which must have been pretty well 100% of his neighbours and 99% of his readers. Cheers. Neil


PS: Wonder if any pals in this thread with a Kindle might be wlling to download and cast an eye over the first Mobi format novel we've produced in-house. A neat book, *Notes from the Lightning God by John Schouten, but no need to actually read it unless it appeals (you'll find blurb, extract, etc in the book store section of our site below): we're just interested in being sure that on the actual Kindle machine layout is good and that a little Spanish punctuation has converted accurately. If you can spare a few mins, just drop me a line at ntmarrATbewrite.net. Use the @ sign, of course. Thanks. Neil

You got me quite motivated to read Letters from the Earth. Your last posts are really a joy for the spirit!

I have always appreciated Mark Twain! P.S: He is better than Dickens (IMHO), fresher, the prose is more agile. MT looks like an "hippie", CD like a "square". Talented, but obsequious, while MT is a rebel at heart. I read the much exalted Tale of two cities last year and I had hard time to continue reading toward the end. Very good post!

[beppe]

I am reading Life of Pi.
I have gone a short way, but enough to be enchanted by the delicacy and sensitivity of the story-telling, the waving of the threads and the richness of details.


SPOILER
I just got where he explains how his name being Piscine, to avoid being called Pissing by his school mates, he was able to make himself be called Pi. (excuse the Latin construction).
END OF SPOILER


One of the best things that I have read in a long time. It is just the beginning. To day, when I told this to my wife - she is a great admirer of Life of Pi - she broke up in a huge grin. Great things ahead.

[recluse]

I prefer Ambrose Bierce over Mark Twain. Purely a matter of taste. Bierce's style and venom appeal to me more. I never really enjoyed Twain. But, I also think Poe was a drunken hack.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by beppe

I am reading Life of Pi.
I have gone a short way, but enough to be enchanted by the delicacy and sensitivity of the story-telling, the waving of the threads and the richness of details.


SPOILER
I just got where he explains how his name being Piscine, to avoid being called Pissing by his school mates, he was able to make himself be called Pi. (excuse the Latin construction).
END OF SPOILER


One of the best things that I have read in a long time. It is just the beginning. To day, when I told this to my wife - she is a great admirer of Life of Pi - she broke up in a huge grin. Great things ahead.

Agree with you - it's a great book. I loved it despite being hesitant of starting it in the first place. I am sure you will love it right to the end.

[Katti's Cat]

Just finished 'World without End' by Ken Follett. I had read the prequel to this years and years ago and didn't re-read it.

Have to say I love the way Follet is able to weave a story around the main characters (although it seemed, just like in real life that the bastards came out ahead).

Couldn't put it down. I read it as pBook (someone borrowed it to me and why spend money on it if I have it). As the book is rather large and heavy I sat on my chair for about 16 hours / day over the long weekend. Sore behind but I finished it.

Now holding my breath - surely he can write another one around the cathedral - after all he finished around 1361 - plenty more years to go.

[recluse]

Reading "If You Could See Me Now" by Peter Straub. Suspenseful and eerie early work (1977).

[neilmarr]

Hi Kati's Cat: Follett's *Pillars of the Earth* and *World Without End* really are excellent. If you liked them, maybe you should give Rutherfurd and Michener a whirl. They tend to cover longer time-spans in their novels but use the same fascinating device, interlinked stories of family fortunes. Excellent research goes without saying.

Talking of research; I just finished a re-read of Twain's *The Prince and the Pauper* last night. It's a ripping yarn, but the historical detail is fascinating and, even though the book was written for his children and aimed at what we'd now call a YA market, Twain pulls no punches in describing some of the cruel realities of Tudor England.

Cheers. Neil

[ficbot]

Reading 'The House Next Door.' Great story but the main characters are a bit prissy and shallow. This is a re-read (in ebook) from an old print favourite and it's not quite as good a I remembered.