Quirk Books to release Tolstoy's "Android Karenina"

[omk3]

I didn't know anything about allotments before I started reading Rankin, Zelda, nor about British traditions. You'll be fine

You could hate his stuff though. He is...peculiar. You either love him or you don't. Try and see

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

well i guess you better fill me in quick then.

The allotment is a small portion of land 'allloted' from a bigger piece of land, sometimes with a shed on it, where men (and it is predominantly men) go to grow vegetables, sit around and generally while away time. Any piece of land might have thirty, forty allotments that make up the greater piece of land.

Here is a picture of a particularly pretty allotment:



Dad's usually have allotments, older uncles too. You can walk onto an allotment right now and it could be the 1950's all over again, nothing much has changed there. I don't know if any other country has an equivalent, but it seems to me as a very British thing.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by omk3

I didn't know anything about allotments before I started reading Rankin, Zelda, nor about British traditions. You'll be fine

You could hate his stuff though. He is...peculiar. You either love him or you don't. Try and see

i *could* hate his stuff. i have a good feeling though. we'll see.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

The allotment is a small portion of land 'allloted' from a bigger piece of land, sometimes with a shed on it, where men (and it is predominantly men) go to grow vegetables, sit around and generally while away time. Any piece of land might have thirty, forty allotments that make up the greater piece of land.

Here is a picture of a particularly pretty allotment:



Dad's usually have allotments, older uncles too. You can walk onto an allotment right now and it could be the 1950's all over again, nothing much has changed there. I don't know if any other country has an equivalent, but it seems to me as a very British thing.

oh, communal gardens ! we have those here actually, although they're getting a bit rarer. and they had them in poland in the 50's at least, because i've got some photos of my dad as a little child with my grandfather, on *his* allotment.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

oh, communal gardens ! we have those here actually, although they're getting a bit rarer. and they had them in poland in the 50's at least, because i've got some photos of my dad as a little child with my grandfather, on *his* allotment.

My dad still has one, so does my 80 year old uncle. I often go there to sit and chat with my dad. But I always feel like I should have a pipe, a knitted cardigan, and hair enough to part with brylcreem when I'm there. It really is like being in another time

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

My dad still has one, so does my 80 year old uncle. I often go there to sit and chat with my dad. But I always feel like I should have a pipe, a knitted cardigan, and hair enough to part with brylcreem when I'm there. It really is like being in another time

i can imagine. (maybe for your next birthday we should get you a cardigan, a pipe, and some brylcreem. you'll have to sort out the hair on your own though. )

[omk3]

Some more info on allotment sheds by the man himself:

There were pots in Danny's shed. Fine big pots they were. Terracotta pots. And
there was a broken hoe, an old-fashioned rat trap, some bails of wire and a bit
of a bench with half a bag of solid cement tucked away beneath it*.
*Many theories abound concerning why there is always half a bag of solid cement
in every garden shed. The best being that it is a tradition, or an old charter.
Or something.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by omk3

Some more info on allotment sheds by the man himself:

brilliant.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

The allotment is a small portion of land 'allloted' from a bigger piece of land, sometimes with a shed on it, where men (and it is predominantly men) go to grow vegetables, sit around and generally while away time. Any piece of land might have thirty, forty allotments that make up the greater piece of land.

Here is a picture of a particularly pretty allotment:



Dad's usually have allotments, older uncles too. You can walk onto an allotment right now and it could be the 1950's all over again, nothing much has changed there. I don't know if any other country has an equivalent, but it seems to me as a very British thing.

And I thought it was a German thing You still see them quite a lot, right accross from the apartment building where my mother lives they have a pretty good size garden area divided up into a number of these allotments.

[astra]

I hate allotments with passion.

All my school time, until I run away and got into uni in Moscow, I had to work in my dad's allotment when my friends were having fun....

Anyway,
I read only one parody.
The Soddit: Or, Cashing in Again by A.R.R.R. Roberts.
My take on the book is:

Waste of your time.

The book is so terrible, I cannot believe someone can write such a gibberish. It looks like an author has never been told that his sense of humor is utter rubbish. It reminds me of a hopeless guy who cannot master an art of telling a joke and make others laugh. Whenever he tells a joke, other people would smile and nod their heads politely, but never tell the joker how really bad he is. The book lacks everything. It is not funny, it is utterly boring and its so called humor is anything but something you would like to read for an entertainment. Avoid it at any cost.

[Sheepless]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I bet this guy is doing pretty well. Quite a few people bought his Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Personally I loved the cover, although I haven't bought the book.

Different author: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was written by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen, of course). That does indeed have a great cover, and let's be honest, the basic gag is pretty funny. The problem, of course, is that it takes more than a single gag to carry a novel. The end result is a mix of Austen and horror which is neither as good as real Austen, nor as good as real horror, and humour stretched way too thin. It ended up on my "maybe I'll finish it sometime" pile.

[basschick]

you know, phillip marlowe wouldn't BE a zombie - he could be hired to FIND a zombie, or the person who created the zombies

btw, i read "bored of the rings" as a teenager, although it was a full rewrite, rather than just having stuff thrown into the original.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by basschick

you know, phillip marlowe wouldn't BE a zombie - he could be hired to FIND a zombie, or the person who created the zombies

btw, i read "bored of the rings" as a teenager, although it was a full rewrite, rather than just having stuff thrown into the original.

Leave Marlowe Alone!!!

[omk3]

Speaking about Marlowe, has anyone read (and liked) Poodle Springs? It's supposed to be an unfinished book by Chandler, and Robert Parker completed it. I tried (with a lot of apprehension), but I couldn't get past the first few pages. That was not Marlowe as I knew and loved him.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I bet this guy is doing pretty well. Quite a few people bought his Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Personally I loved the cover, although I haven't bought the book.

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

I bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was the first of these, but haven't read it yet. I couldn't resist - I loved the cover, and I love Pride and Prejudice. I wouldn't buy the others though, just one willl be enough I think.

Originally Posted by omk3

Okay people, if you keep talking about Marlowe and mashups, someone will hear it and think it's a good idea, and we don't want that, do we?

It's maybe the first and last time in my life I'm thankful for the ridiculous length of copyright - he's still NOT public domain in most places, right? So they can't touch him yet. We can only hope the fad will have disappeared by then.

I actually thought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a good idea (in a funny way), but that was before all those other mashups started shouting for attention too. Haven't read it yet, and I'm not sure if I ever will, but though it seemed as a maybe cool idea for once, it's just ridiculous to be repeated with any classic known to man.

Oh no, why do I like these titles???

Originally Posted by Sheepless

Different author: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was written by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen, of course). That does indeed have a great cover, and let's be honest, the basic gag is pretty funny. The problem, of course, is that it takes more than a single gag to carry a novel. The end result is a mix of Austen and horror which is neither as good as real Austen, nor as good as real horror, and humour stretched way too thin. It ended up on my "maybe I'll finish it sometime" pile.

For all who bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith but haven't yet read it, I have good news.

I have even better news for all those who haven't bought it but are curious!

I bought the book and read it so you don't have to! I read it so that you can save your print processing neurons for the original Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin and no one but Jane Austin. Trust me; the original is better.

The addition of the undead to the mix does nothing to improve Ms. Austin's story, though as I said in an earlier thread, the scene where Mr. Darcy first proposes marriage to Elizabeth and is promptly kung-fu kicked into the fireplace is amusing.