books to read

Hemingway the sun also rises a take of on his years in paris and spain great book. Also a very interesting love story.

you got me interested with the love story part...I'll check it out someday. Although I hate all people in relationships right now. lol.

Phoenix- between the two of us we could be HAP-I-R together! I love it- we've got such a potential connection! HAP-I-R: Hateful of All People In Relationships =P

...But that would mean I'd have to hate all my friends, and what if I were to suddenly start having luck myself? Or if you ended up grabbing some sexy Virgo, Cancer or random out-of-the-blue Libra? Now wouldn't that shake things up!

that was hilarious. lol. HAP-I-R, I love it. I can pretty much guarantee you will never find me with a Libra though. Watch, because I said that I'll end up marrying some Libra and having twelve of his children or something.

No. No. No.

😛

Confusing... Perhaps they could write a book about all of our lives... Although it would probably make a better soap opera.

I don't like Hemingway.

I recomend reading Philip Jose Farmer and expanding into the sci fi genre... I'd start with the Riverworld books, but the Dayworld books are good too, and he wrote a lot of good ones that aren't even in print anymore 😢.

Come now Hemingways true at first light a great book

I guess he's just not my cup of tea.

A bit of earl gray would be quite nice right now. with a hot buttered scone . Have you read The moon is down by John Stinebeck? I saw in the sun that his wife who was quite a bit younger than he died last week. He died back in the 60s I think.

I'm really in the mood for that yummy vanilla tea that we just bought, very nice, don't even need sugar with it... Steinbeck is alright, but I have to be in a specific mood to read him... And I haven't read that specific book. It must be really odd ot out live your spouse by 40 years.

yes, that would be depressing for me.

Not to interrupt the conversation but when I had my Practically Perfect Tea with Mary Poppins in Disneyland (lol), I was quite taken aback by the whole process of having tea the English way. It came in this itty bitty cup made of china, and there was this strange contraption that apparently is used to "strain" the tea, and then they asked me if I wanted milk with my tea, which completely freaked me out because I've never in my life put milk in my tea, but I took it to be polite, and it was actually kind of good. I'm not a big tea person though, it never seems to be sweet enough for me. I like a very flavorful tea though and it wasn't very flavorful. I think I had the vanilla or something. But, if you want to make me a happy woman, feed me some of those lovely scones with that strawberry stuff, oh my gosh I love it.

You have the very best coffee any were we have the tea a good english tea come from india and is quite strong. The only coffee worth a hoot is at harreds in london about $ 8.50 your money and no free refills like in the states. canterbury has the best scones in the world there is a bakery on highstreet up by marlow st the very best and old woman runms it when she dies the end of scones she will not give out the recept.

I love your stories james!! Do you know that I have this whole mental image of where you live, of Den, of your favorite pub, of your whole life pretty much because of your stories. They remind me of the movie "Chocolat", for absolutely no apparent reason other than that's the sort of setting I've put you in. God I would love to go to Canterbury. Is that in England? Please excuse my lack of geographical knowlege. 🙂

Canterbury is a city in england a small city I live on the west end of town about half mile from the old city west gate. I live within a mile of the cathedral at Canterbury very old built over 1000 years ago. I live up whitstable road it was the road to the town of whitstable for over 1000 years. the house I live in was built in 1585. last but not least Den is being a real cookiemonster today. she is pissed agian about something and she will not tell me what. so its just the same no matewr were you live.

sorry to hear that james. Perhaps if you give her some flowers she will feel better?

Maybe someday ten years from now when I am rich I will come and visit Canterbury. It sounds very charming.

I wonder, does Canterbury cathedral still look like it does in that famous painting of it? I have no idea who painted it... Although I should know this...

The best painting of the cathedral I know of are by David Arbus. I have seen painting that were suppost to be the cathedral at canterbury and they were not.the cathedral is about 1/4 mile long and close to 5 story building high. It is quite a undertaking to build about 1000 years ago.

Phoenix,

Here is a way for you to visit Canterbury till the opportunity arrives for a "real" visit.

This is a book about the modern day tales of Canterbury.

WALKING TO CANTERBURY: A Modern Journey Through Chaucer's Medieval England by Jerry Ellis

I'll give you a "short" review of the book....
"More than 800 years ago, within the shelter of Canterbury Catherdral, the knights of King Henry II murdered Thomas Beckett, the arch~bishop of Canterbury. The miracles soon began, and then the pilgrims followed. And they follow still. As every English Lit student knows, Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" tells the stories of these medieval pilgrims. Ellis follows in Chaucer's considerable footstep to create his own 60-mile Pilgrim's Way from London to this ancient shrine. Ellis, a typical American innocent abroad, meets all kinds of people along the way and gets himself into the occasional difficult situation, such as when he accidentally falls into a steep hole in the countryside and knocks his back out of line. But Ellis is an optimist; his story is full of much spiritual warmth, especially as he gets closer to his final destination, Canterbury Cathedral."
~June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune

Have you read this JT?

Caterbury Tales... Brings back memories...

We had an assignment in English to make a presentation on a canterbury tale for the class, and our tale was the Miller's Tale, wich is a very interesting tale about this guy's wife and and an astrologer trying to have an affair behind her husbands back while dodging this other guy who also wants to have an affair with her... It's probably one of the more racy tales. But anyway, it was SO embarassing to do. The luck or group was that the only guy in our class just happened to be in our group, and he wrote the script. I played Alison, the wife who has the affair, jeeze, I can't beleive what I got up in front of class and said. It was so corny.

ALISON
(She laughs.) Let?s go to my bedroom now.

NICHOLAS
Damn, you are so sexy. I could do it right here.

ALISON
Oh, Nick, you?re such a daredevil. But I want to do it in my bed.

NICHOLAS
Sure, c?mon, let?s go.

Pure dramatic genious.

Yes I read canterbury tales a long time ago. they do some of the tales in a show here for tourest.

freebird, the canterbury tales I read,was the pilgrims telling each outher stories, on the way to canterbury. I can also show you were beckett was killed. Have you ever heard the saying, there save for the grace of god go I. it has a canterbury connection. Thomas moore was beheaded by Henry the eight. As he was going to the block a friend of his said there save for the grace of god go John Bradford. About three weeks later he went to the block also. that is were the saying comes from. His daughter took his heart and it is buried under the west gate at canterbury. his head was put on a spike out side london tower and his body dumped in a common grave. We are the bloody brits.

Band~aids must sell very well over there 🙂

Thank you for sharing your knowledge...I always love learning new things. Are you a tour guide?

Only for the american's I know

That's hilarious Morgon. lol...well, that ranks right up there with me playing that mancrazy chick in a performance of The Great Gatsby. I can't remember the damn character's name 😢

James, I have watched a great many television shows on London and the history of it etc, and you really do have quite the past. A lot of bloodshed. Some of it is pretty scary.

check out the war of the roses sometime the houses of york and manchester. blood everywere

"sophies world" = teachings of philosophers and such. very interesting.

"the lovely bones"

the best is "Farhenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury... futuristic sci-fi novel, only about 150-200 pages long so short enough. But really, its one of those books that certain people just take to and hold dear for all their lives... in it the firemen burn books and the government is evil and extremely controling-think social conditioning. But the creepy part of it is that the author describes how this society came to be by stages and that is so close to our own way of life it is scary.

but if you like long books, read Stephen King's "The Stand" which is about 1300 pages uncut edition...or you could watch the five hour long movie which is good too. it is sort of like the new age plague that kills off people except there is only a little bit about that, most of it is the aftermath of the disintigration of society and the battle between Heaven and Hell as personified in a little old lady and a cowboy lol. ps. favority character in that is the Trashcanman...a very creepy pyromaniac who loves nuclear weapons 🙂 enjoy

Do you know why Ray titled his book, "Farhenheit 451"?

Read The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley!!! Especially all you lovers of myths and legends, like me...

he was not into celsius perhaps. it would have been celsius 232.

Okay, I think I may have stumped you. He titled his book, FARHENHEIT 451 because this is the temp. that paper burns. (firemen burn books).

no paper burns at celsius 232 I wonder what temp cortica burns at?

That whole damn celsius thing makes no sense to me. And did you know that they're talking about changing America to the metric system? I'll die, I'll just die. I never understood any of that stuff in school. In fact I remember the teachers trying to teach it to us and enough students couldn't grasp it that they just sort of didn't make us understand it. lol. Sure, we had to learn some of it for scientific conversions and yada yada, but other than that we skated.

Okay then, back to books.

An Urchin In The Storm by Stephen Jay Gould is interesting. EXTREME CONCENTRATION is needed to get through it. It's essentially a book about essays that were written about theories about evolution. And more. Much more. If you're not into anthropology, or the study of the history of man, etc, you will absolutely die of boredom.

For some reason I'm drawing a blank as to what books I've read and liked. That's really annoying. I'll have to get back to you.

you shouild live here we have miles, inch, feet, acres. We also have kilameters. we have metric and inch and british whitworth. its fun for example a 1/2 bolt if its american it has 13 threads per inch if its british whitworth it has 12. fun fun fun

How about japanese literature? I like Kawabata... Snow Country is good, and I like his short stories too.

Phoenix perhaps the books you are looking for are the nigel & clair books, they had a dog named tad. stories like nigel and clair went up a hill to get a pail of water. they each had fifty pence clare came down with a pound. ROFL OH the 1st year of school.

lol freebird i wasn't stumped just too late getting back to you. of course I know that-that's a major point in the book and a fact I used in order to convince my cousin (a little pyro) to read it.

The Cross-Time Engineer by Leo Frankowski

(MorganofMind would probably enjoy the most.)

A series of books, actually. Recent engineering graduate stumbles back into 1231 A.D. Poland. Realizes the Mongel invasion is just 10 years away, and what to do about it.

Imagine how far you could go, knowing just what you know now, to be able to use in medieval times? He befriends a Duke, improves the loom, knows where coal deposits are (and copper, iron ore, etc). On and on. He teaches the people how to stow ice in summer, introduces animal husbandry, etc.

It builds and builds, each step he takes being logical and improving his lot in life. He rises in status until ultimately leading the attack against the Mongels and changing history.

Very interesting... The plot really reminds me of "A Connecticut Yankie in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain. And it kind of sounds like "Timeline" by Michael Crichton.

Who likes Henry Miller?
I've been wanting to read Tropic of Cancer for some time now yet I can never seem to get past the first few chapters.

I've heard of this book, but no idea what the genre is. Give us a synopsis.

Henry Miller was a wild man who hung out all over Europe in the 30's & 40's & wrote about his friends, writing, and sex (sex and more sex!). Tropic of Cancer was banned in this country until the 50's (I think). From what I can tell, it's a bit of a chronicle of his years in Paris. I think I'm more of a dialogue lover and that's why I keep putting this book down.

I may check into that. Sounds like the European version of Timothy Leary.. Tune In, Turn On, Dropout.. Good clinching of the reason for liking (i.e. dialogue).

I like getting new directions for reading. You can't always go by the NYT Top 10 etc.

I like the Russian authors, although I'm not a regular reader. The kind of writing that sucks you in, chews you up & spits you out. Of course, I also love reading the George & Martha books and Shel Silverstein makes me laugh.
Whatever mood I'm in.
Who / what do you like to read?

Sadly, my reading hobbits took a nose dive after I left school. I'm also a product of this household. My father collected books for years, so much of it is dated.

Mainly Sci Fi. I'm not very much into fantasy, like Piers Anthony, etc. I can't handle talking dogs with spectacles, for example. I am trying to get a hold of more classic hardbounds. Even downloaded the List of the 100 greatest books ever written, to be pored over again and again.

I liked horror for awhile. Stephen King was good for a long time. Didn't read Koonce (msp) don't know why.

I'm read for deeper thought however. Elaborate on George & Martha, and Silverstein?

George & Martha are two hippos who are friends and the books are cartoon- style . While they can be read to children, they definitely have a humorous adult vein to them. Don't ask...I remember them from my childhood.

Shel Silverstein was a guy from the 60's (kind of an activist poet) who wrote bizarre (but funny) poems. He was also a musician & wrote the Unicorn Song (if you ever hang out in Irish Pubs, you probably know it).

As for Koontz, I remember reading "Murder" by him & being totally scared! Although, I can't think of anything scarier than Salem's Lot by King. ( The movie too...always gets me!)

My reading is all over the place too. I wish I was more of an avid reader, but I truly only read what sounds interesting at the time. For some reason, I'm looking forward to Madeleine Albright's autobiography due out in September. Like her sense of humor.

Have you ever read Nelson DeMille?
I highly recommend the Charm School & the Gold Coast. Easy reads of fiction that keep you interested. (He wrote the General's Daughter that was turned into a movie in the 90's).


Blah Blah Blah! My brain is scattered this evening!

Never liked Sci-Fi or Fantasy though I know many who do (and they are all Capricorns!). I loved mythology in school but never enjoyed talking dogs either.

One last thing...if you like reading short stories (which I do) pick up "Nine Stories" by Salinger.

Have a good evening, Espernaut!

stephen king was good, very very good. Favorite book of his is The Stand (i think I mentioned it sometime cant remember). His new books suck though, I hated The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Hearts in Atlantis was a little bit pointless...and of course there is now way TOO much sex in his books and it annoys me: example would be Bag of Bones cuz w/o it it would be a good book and maybe scary. nt that too much sex bothers me, its just that I know what Stephen King looks like and I *shudder* at the thought of him writing it. The Shining (which Morgan is holding hostage) was a GREAT book.

I read one short story by Koontz and loved it in a perverse way. it was from the point of view of three nine/ten year olds two brothers and a sister who just "thought" the end of the world and it happened, everyone died, and they lived on with their childish evilness until the girl got pregnant (by a brother of course but lucky that was not detailed) and all three were "guessing" with their clairovoyant skill whether it would be a boy or girl until they came to the conclusion that the baby was both/neither asxual and they got scared because then the baby which when born would be more powerful and wouldn't need them anymore and *insert creepy music here* that was that. Again of course too long of a post, tooo long from a computer.

I was an "Aesop's fables" & "Saggy~Baggy Elephant"'s kid. : ) 'Can't resist the Stephen King topic.. (and trying to hit all points..) Understand the sex mention, and believe he does it to aid creepy element, also alot of profanity, w/i limits the majority of the time adds a touch of realism to the passage. About reading suggestions: all are appreciated and have be noted (bookmarked this post).

Re: King. One thing I really admired and took delight in -was his "rewarding" of fans who had followed his prior books. In every one I've read.. there will be a reference to an earlier book. Like Derry, Cujo, etc. My fav.. "TommyKnocker's" aliens driving in a car, look downward & spot a momentary "flash" of a clownlike face in a drain pipe. ("It") And.. I post too long also, but it's fun!