Books

[Kathy Li]

papercrane: wow. We talk Shakespeare, and someone's reading Wyrd Sisters. I laughed really really hard at all the, uh, "the Scottish-Play" stuff in Wyrd Sisters. Then, I had to snort and chortle my way through all the MSN'sD stuff in Lords and Ladies. I love seeing someone who knows how to play with the Bard do it well.

The 1940 B&W film version of P&P is fun, mostly because Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson are pretty much fun to watch in just about anything, but it's based on a (Helen Jerome?) stage play that took more than a few liberties with the book. Still, Edna Mae Oliver clinches it.

Oh. You were probably talking the new one that tries to do the Clueless thing...

[Birdhead]

AHAAH! Allons-Y! Yes! Us too!
But that's for 4th formers, IIRC... *very amused*
Kay: Worth it.
Williams: Uhm... how bored are you? Flashes of brilliance.
Gibson: haven't read comprehensively. Try Pattern Recognition.
T

"We are philosophical geniuses [sic] who will one day rule the world!"
--Agent M
Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha!

[Rysade]

Well DUH, I suggested you read Pattern Recognition. He's a little difficult in that one too.

Queen of difficult reading: Anne McCaffery. Say what? Something about a dragon, and a star.

King of Difficult reading: Larry Niven. It was about mars. I gathered that much, but what rainbow, and where? And extinct animals? Time travel. WHAT'S GOING ON! Of course, Ringworld was Excellent.

--Dai Stihó

Bishie
'Mancer
Foam Poet
"It was a bad line and a prank call, someone spouting insane babble; I couldn't make sense of it. But I had an overwhelmeing sense of deja vu, and the caller's voice sounded oddly familiar."

[Birdhead]

*snorts at Dave* I wasn't talking to you. Why would I want to talk to You? I was talking to kli, who expressed a curiosity as to their value.

I have not read Niven, but I breezed through McCaffrey. Perhaps you need a certain mindset...
T

"We are philosophical geniuses [sic] who will one day rule the world!"
--Agent M
Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha!

[Quill]

Currently I'm too neck-deep in the little lighted box to do much reading, but I keep dipping into Grace Livingston Hill and occasionally Dragonsinger (speaking of AMcC).

[littlehorse82]

Anne McCaffrey is AWESOME! Yeah, some of her books are hard, but that's what makes them enjoyable to me. I like having to think about something I read rather than it just being handed to me.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?

Curiosity mauled the cat and left it on the side of the road.

School is hell with flourescent lighting.

[Kathy Li]

birdhead, thanks for the word! I got bogged down in Fionavar Tapestry, but I think I'll give Lions of Al-Rassan a try.

And I breezed through McCaffrey, too. Well, up to a point. She lost me somewhere along the way, and I think the only one of the post-Moreta books I enjoyed was Dolphins of Pern. But then, I've only been looking at the Pern books. Anybody know if the other McCaffrey serieses hold up?

Quill: Hill's another one I've never read. Never read Phyllis Whitney for that matter. And it's been decades since I read a Mary Stewart. Time to go out and dig up copies of Touch Not the Cat, and Airs Above the Ground...

[littlehorse82]

Her Acorna series is pretty cool. I read Black Horses for the King, too, and that was cool.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?

Curiosity mauled the cat and left it on the side of the road.

School is hell with flourescent lighting.

[Birdhead]

Poor old Anne M got "long series disorder," a problem suffered by multiple series writers. To be fair, she did get it later than most, and to a lesser extent. It's what happens when you write a series, and the first ones are fantastic, but they get worse- often as the author gets more popular, but not neccesarily. Well-known sufferers include Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan and, to a point, Terry Brooks and David Eddings. (The latter two, however, suffer more greatly from Recurring Plot Syndrome.) Notable exceptions are Terry Pratchett and, of course, DD. Prime examples of LSD work from Anne M are (in my not-so-humble-opinion)The Tower and the Hive, the third and up Acorna books, and I personally feel that the Freedom trilogy was great- as a trilogy. I liked it- I like it. But WHY the fourth one? Why? On the other hand, even her not-so-good stuff is WAY better than the later Sword of Truth ones. *nods* I like McCaffrey... I especially liked all the Harper ones, since I love books and lyrics and poems and stuff that includes musical jargon. not sure why.

I must read more Mary Stewart- only read, I think it was, T*****hold and The Little Broomstick,, but I loved both of those...
T

"We are philosophical geniuses [sic] who will one day rule the world!"
--Agent M
Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha!

[Kathy Li]

Yeah, the Harper Hall trilogy are definitely my absolute faves of the Pern books. It's why I'm trying to find Louise Marley's Nevya trilogy; Marley open acknowledges that the Harper Hall books were one of the main influences on that series, just as she says that Connie Willis (when oh when will Connie Willis come out with a new book?!) was an influence on The Glass Harmonica.

Plus, y'know, Marley really is a professional musician.

Oh, here's a recommendation if you want to read fantasy writing with music by someone who's an actual musician: Emma Bull's War for the Oaks.

[Birdhead]

*grin* Thanks! *nods* I like Harper of Pern too. Except Robinton is such a saint... but apart from that, I liked it. *smile*
T

"We are philosophical geniuses [sic] who will one day rule the world!"
--Agent M
Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha!

[Quill]

McCaffrey's quality has gotten spotty in her later efforts, but the lady is around 80, I believe, and suffers from arthritis; I think she's entitled.

kli6: I liked Touch Not the Cat but nothing else of Stewart's has appealed so far. Hill is interesting; bits of her I love (Crimson Roses is a personal favorite) and bits I deplore, but her writing's a product of her time so it's understandable. What interests me in part is the sudden outbreak of anti-German sentiment in The Red Signal, so similar to some of FH Burnett; also, sometimes I can't tell which world war she's writing about without checking the original copyright dates.

[papercrane]

Re McCaffery: I've only read the Harper Hall trilogy; it was around the end of Dragondrums that I discovered Terry Pratchett. If I hadn't happened to come across Maurice, I'd probably have read more of hers...
Re 'long series disorder' and 'recurring plot syndrome': Hah, those are a couple of the reasons I dropped Redwall n years ago and stopped reading the last half of L. M. Montgomery's Anne series. The evil duo have infected the sphere of those who wield a pen; sadly, many have succumbed to their temptations. Let those who have fallen serve as a warning. (On a random tangent, 'It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.' heh, sry--I'm multitasking (of course!) and visiting www.despair.com)

"That's right," he said. "We're philosophers. We think, therefore we am."
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
*Look kindly upon the decaffienated one*
http://pub15.ezboard.com/ftimeheartf...opicID=3.topic

[Kathy Li]

Quill, I probably have a soft spot for Airs simply because I was going through a horse phase at the time, and one of my favorite kids' books ever was Marguerite Henry's White Stallion of Lipizza.

Papercrane; Read the first Redwall and stopped, not because they weren't good, but because, just IMHO, the mice weren't particularly mouselike. And I didn't see a point in making them mice if they were just going to be like small humans in fur. The Anne series, otoh, I devoured in one fell swoop. And then every other LMM book. It's personal taste, but there are some plots I don't mind seeing repeated, as long as the variations are interesting.

Notable exceptions are Terry Pratchett and, of course, DD.

You read Dorothy Dunnett, too?! (duck).

[Birdhead]

Ahahaha, no, I don't, because... basically just because I tried one, once, didn't get into it, and also IO don't have _time_ to read big Thick Old Books that Need Thought.

*throws tomato* Well, you asked for it. next time, though, I might hunt around for a copy of Shining Ones by Eddings and hit you on the head with it...
AHAHAHAH! Sorry. Once, when I was eleven, I was having a mild fight with my best friend and the not-particularly-well-meaning Ellen came and scolded my best friend (I was complaining that Lucy wasn't listening to me... I was 11, remember...) and then stole her book, which was a hardback copy of The Shining Ones (BIG fat book) and ran off round the classroom with it. Lucy, fairly, was furious and chased after her ( . Ellen was fit and Lucy, then, wasn't... we are too cruel.) and when, eventually, Ellen stopped, laughing, and gave it back to her, Lucy started shouting at her- again, fairly. Ellen jsut laughed and asked "What are you gonna do, hit me with it? Go on, hit me with it!" SO Lucy did. The story is famous.
I mena, famous. Really very famous, five years later... everyone still remembers this. So occasionally, if I make a reference to hitting you over the head with a book... it's a reference to that, and I'm forgetting you guys don't know that story.
T

"We are philosophical geniuses [sic] who will one day rule the world!"
--Agent M
Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha, Ahahahaha!