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Post by StolenThunder on Feb 2, 2002 6:21:45 GMT -5
Well, I will read just about anything by Tom Clancy ;D Hmm... They can be good books... The Bear and the Dragon was nicely done...
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Post by Elric3960 on Feb 3, 2002 1:32:33 GMT -5
Posted by: Qab Posted on: Feb 1st, 2002, 10:06pm :oFunny Steinbeck? Is that possible? I guess if a Laughing Vulcan is possible... Seriously, perhaps Steinbeck was like most authors, he'd tried a variety of styles but his diehard fans only accepted one. If it can happen to Stephen King, another one of my favorites as far as his Fantasy/SF stories are concerned, it can happen to anyone. I'll look for it when I'm solvent. Posted by: Ana Ng Posted on: Feb 1st, 2002, 10:12pm In other words "Show, don't tell." A valid point that I tend to disagree with, but valid nonetheless. To me, a literate play can be more entertaining than a drama where the characters control every scene visually or the settings and costumes dominate the play too much. I know those are extreme examples, but I'm sure that you've got the drift.
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Post by Qab on Feb 3, 2002 17:27:35 GMT -5
:oFunny Steinbeck? Is that possible? Ok, here's an example. One character is named Sister Hyacinthe. Before she becomes a nun, her father commits suicide and leaves her to care for a sickly mother (who never exhibits a single symptom) and a schoolboy brother. She takes a job with the Folies Bergère, "not only in the line of lovely undressed girls, but also with speaking, singing, and dancing parts". After 20 years, and the death of her mother and brother, "She was very tired. Her bosom had remained high; her arches had fallen. [She] wanted to rest her feet... [She] took the veil as Sister Hyacinthe in an order of contemplation which demanded a great deal of sitting down." Personally, I find a character who was once a naked chorus girl and is now a nun hilarious! ;D
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Post by Elric3960 on Feb 4, 2002 1:18:14 GMT -5
^^^But look what she had to go through to get there! It sounds like something Max Shulman would write if he were addicted to depressants! For you young whippersnappers who've never heard of this demented genius and Father of Modern American Satire, he's the guy who created Dobie Gillis, Richie Cunningham's predecessor. He also wrote the brilliant farcical novel "Gather 'Round the Flag, Boys!" that was adapted into a film starring a sorely-miscast Paul Newman.
I guess a work where Steinbeck was making fun of his own heavy-handed literary style can't be too bad a read, and even interesting. I can't help but think if anyone other than him wrote it, she/he would have been "living on borrowed time" as far as his fans were concerned.
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Post by Zeph on Feb 4, 2002 13:14:32 GMT -5
ok Qab.......I will make time to read this book after I get through the pile on the coffe table
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Post by Qab on Feb 4, 2002 17:54:31 GMT -5
ok Qab.......I will make time to read this book after I get through the pile on the coffee table Just be glad I straightened up the coffee table yesterday! Now you can take a book off of it without causing an avalanche! ;D
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Post by Peter_Pevensie on Feb 4, 2002 21:43:51 GMT -5
This is a nearly impossible question for me to answer...I'll say that my favorite novels are, in no particular order: - David Copperfield, by Charles thingyens
- Voyage, by Stephen Baxter
- The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
I guess, if pressed, I'd have to say thingyens is my favorite author. Anyone care to press me? ;D
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Post by Peter_Pevensie on Feb 4, 2002 21:47:33 GMT -5
^^^ Don't you hate it when the auto-censor's joke is funnier than yours?
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Post by Aurian on Feb 5, 2002 6:50:24 GMT -5
Oh Geez, I should not show my list of favorite authors.. Oh well ..*points to her title* Tolkien "lord of the rings" Steven King the stand, IT, "the eyes of the dragon" ( I only know the swedish title), Misery and alot more. David Eddings the belgariad Maggie Furey the magicians tale Margit Sandemo 'the saga of the icepeople', 'the witchmasters saga', 'the realm of light' ( scandinavian "kiosk litterature romance saga" in 82 books. I have read them all 5 times) Astrid Lindgren pippi longstockings... ( I miss her so, Astrid passed away last week, the Swedish are all in mourning, we all lost our favorite "grandmother"... ) I enjoy reading the classics.. Shakespear, thingyens, Strindberg, Steinblech. Hey I even liked reading Hemingway. But those books never reach my heart. I am much to light-weight for that. I will freely admit to wanting to burn my economy litteraturebooks. Philip Kotler better not meet me in a dark ally somewhere...
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Post by Elric3960 on Feb 5, 2002 13:49:13 GMT -5
...Steven King..."the eyes of the dragon" ( I only know the swedish title), Believe it or not, the translator got it right, my dear. That's the original title in English! Excellent choice BTW. I believe he originally wrote it for his children. I'll have to get back to you on that.Aw! That's a shame! I loved reading that book when I was little! She was a remarkable writer that held her own with your other resident genius, Hans Christian Andersen. I share your sense of loss.
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Post by Aurian on Feb 5, 2002 14:06:03 GMT -5
thank you Elrich!! I know, It was bad I could not stop myself from crying the morning I heard she had passed. Astrid was 94 years old. Everyone who ever was a child has been familiar with Astrid. She was a real tough cookie too, she got involved whenever there was something wrong in the country. The childrens hospital here carries her name, and she donated so much to it. She was no stranger to politics. Her head concern was childrens rights and enpowerment.I really loved that woman. HC Andersen was from Denmark, but that man was wonderful too.
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Post by Qab on Feb 5, 2002 19:20:34 GMT -5
Ohhh... I loved Astrid Lindgren's Pippi books. I still have my copy of Pippi in the South Seas that I got when I was 6. Zeph and I have even agreed that if we were ever to have a daughter that we would name her Annika (and NOT because of Seven of Nine!)
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Post by Elric3960 on Feb 6, 2002 12:20:26 GMT -5
thank you Elrich!! I know, It was bad I could not stop myself from crying the morning I heard she had passed. Astrid was 94 years old. Everyone who ever was a child has been familiar with Astrid. She was a real tough cookie too, she got involved whenever there was something wrong in the country. The childrens hospital here carries her name, and she donated so much to it. She was no stranger to politics. Her head concern was childrens rights and enpowerment.I really loved that woman. That's a beautiful eulogy for a remarkable lady, Aurian. 94 years old! And kept fighting until the end! I should be so lucky. To those who pass on her books to future generations, she'll live forever. One day, I'd like to see this children's hospital that bears her name. I'm sure it's beautiful. :-[OOPS! Sorry about that. I knew that he was Scandinavian but I forgot that he was Danish. Oh well. Ms Astrid can be considered a legendary Swede along with Ingrid Bergman. She was Swedish, wasn't she?
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Post by Aurian on Feb 6, 2002 12:32:37 GMT -5
Absolutly! One of our national "treasures" along with Greta Garbo and AnneMargret
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Post by Gnom on Feb 6, 2002 17:23:48 GMT -5
Astrid Lindgren pippi longstockings... ( I miss her so, Astrid passed away last week, the Swedish are all in mourning, we all lost our favorite "grandmother"... ) I feel for you. Our beloved "grandmother" and Moominmamma Tove Jansson passed away last year. When they go, they seem to go in numbers... It's impossible to grow up here without being introduced to these great storytellers. The Pippi books in my shelf are those of my mother, and they've been read through, literally. And it's not just Pippi: Emil, Karlsson-on-the Roof, Ronja the Robber's Daughter, Mio min Mio... ::sigh:: Not so bad there wasn't something good in it... A friend of mine got a baby girl yesterday. She calls her Peppi (Pippi in Finland). On the topic... Besides Tove and Astrid, my favourite authors are: Mika Waltari His historical books are great, especially the Egyptian and the Etruscan [same cannot be said about his English translator's imagination... ]. I'm a big fan of historical novels in general. The bigger and fatter, the better.
Otherwise I'm pretty omnivorous: Jane Austen, Annie Proulx, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Armistead Maupin, Leo Tolstoy, Charles thingyens, Yashar Kemal, Zane Grey (!), Agatha Christie... I used to love John Irving books until having an encounter with the author and losing all appetite for them.
Right now I'm halfway through Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. Intriguing.
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