Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[KeithHernandez]

All of us, be we Okies, North Carolinians, Oregonians, Alaskans, or what-have-you pretty much stole the land from some folks who are slightly darker complected (apologies in advance to anyone reading this who has any First Nation blood in you or whatever you like to think of yourself as).

Let's not all of a sudden start keeping track. It's like that Eddie Izzard bit - "yes, but do you have a flag?"

Yeah thats what I was saying.

[Nabubrush]

Yeah thats what I was saying.

Good enough then. What shall we tackle next? Abortion? Gun control?

[Doc]

I started both Of Mice and Men and Atlas Shrugged today.
I'm sorry if this reading turns me into a dick for a while, I'm told that Ayn Rand can do that and I don't think Steinbeck will improve my faith in humanity either.

[dejavroom]

Didn't see this thread. Good thread. Am starting with the "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius, because stoicism is a good thing when you're 30 and basically a failure. I might tackle Epictetus later, but only if I'm *really* feeling like being scolded for 200 pages on a patrician style...

[jaydub]

Atlas Shrugged is a bit of a slog, but reputedly is Ayn Rand's definitive work.  I think The Fountainhead had most of the same points however.  I guess someday I'll try to figure out what the expansion of those themes introduced in The Fountainhead in the later book was all about.

[pmcd9]

Everybody is reading Harry Potter and talking about how awesome it is, but I think the series has been in decline since the third book. The first one is actually the only true masterpiece in the collection and the last one was just terrible in my opinion.  I'll probably read the latest, but I'm dubious as to it's awesomeness.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I'd like to request that if anyone's going to discuss the new HP book, and you're going to say anything remotely spoiler-y, please put it in a thread with a title something like "Harry Potter thread--INCLUDES SPOILERS."

Thanks.

[AugustWest]

I'd like to request that if anyone's going to discuss the new HP book, and you're going to say anything remotely spoiler-y, please put it in a thread with a title something like "Harry Potter thread--INCLUDES SPOILERS."

Thanks.

Consider this my official moderatory type endorsement of that request.

[smick]

My unofficial comment is please be nice or I will edit your post full of furious ding-dongs. Spouse and I are sharing that book due to cheapness and today is her day.

I totally wish I could spray paint furious ding-dongs on the person who, the night the book was released, walked by us and spoiled a plot point to me, the ladyfriend, and the son.  My life wasn't ruined or anything by it, but it's just a case of someone getting their jollies by attempting to cause harm and disappointment in others.  I'm seriously sick of that brand of humor.  I wanted to Lovitz up to the guy.

[linnea]

I totally wish I could spray paint furious ding-dongs on the person who, the night the book was released, walked by us and spoiled a plot point to me, the ladyfriend, and the son.  My life wasn't ruined or anything by it, but it's just a case of someone getting their jollies by attempting to cause harm and disappointment in others.  I'm seriously sick of that brand of humor.  I wanted to Lovitz up to the guy.

Oh jeez. Smick, you are far more a gentleman than I. What a fuck*ng douche. He was just begging to get bitch-slapped.

[Golfhaus]

I think "fucker spoiled a Potter ending" would hold up in court as an adequate defense. They'd probably send HIM up the river.

I'm not a Potter reader, but damned if I haven't learned from my wife. She got mad when she told me the ending of the 6th book after she read it, and I said, "Yeah, I looked it up on Wikipedia yesterday." I spoilt it not a bit, but the fact that I knew before she did - and found out without reading it - was sacrilege.

[CortJstr]

I accidentally ruined 5 for my SO. I forwarded her a column and I hadn't read the intro, because the guy just blathers on about how he's always looking for a new job before getting to the real column. Well she read the intro and it said who died. Then the next week he said he got a whole lot of hate mail and vowed to ruin all the remaining books, just to be a dick.

[wombat]

I had a friend who read this last book send me a summary of the important points when she was done. The thing is,  I am not that big a fan - before I decide to read it I want to know if it seems like I am going to care or it's just going to be annoying. I mean, 800 pages, people. I don't want to read 800 pages and then get to the end and hate the ending. Life is too short.  And I wanted her judgment on whether it would make sense to a casual reader, or you had to be the kind of person who remembered precisely some crucial event on page 250 of volume 3, you know? Which I am decidedly not.

It was hard to convince her to do it - she was sure she was misunderstanding what I wanted to know. I said, I know you've read all the books more than once - didn't you like them the second time when you already knew what was going to happen?  They weren't 'ruined' because you'd already read them, right?  But she was still very wary.

[CortJstr]

And I wanted her judgment on whether it would make sense to a casual reader, or you had to be the kind of person who remembered precisely some crucial event on page 250 of volume 3, you know? Which I am decidedly not.

I'm trying to decide if this trait would make you enjoy a movie like The Hudsucker Proxy more or less. And how do you feel about mysteries, where there are always callbacks to minor crap?

[smick]

I had a friend who read this last book send me a summary of the important points when she was done. The thing is,  I am not that big a fan - before I decide to read it I want to know if it seems like I am going to care or it's just going to be annoying. I mean, 800 pages, people.

The whole series is a pretty fast read.  Each one takes only a few hours.   It's 800 pages, but not very... uh, tome-like in nature.