Dannyboy Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Hah hah...No one understands degree level maths....it's all made up 😬 😬 😬 Mathematicians are just good at sounding convincing...much like engineers 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 😬 Opps....let out a trade secret there Dannyboy - 92,000 miles and rising Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boonie Hound Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Ah-ha Geoff that was the beauty of doing English - the boy to girl ratio and the fact you could make anything up in classes like Post Modernism - although that did mean reading Umberto Eco works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballast Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Never seen ET.....can't be bothered.... 😬 Saw Titanic once...the effects were superb...but Leonardo DiCaprio....sorry couldn't give a monkeys whether he survived or not...now if it had been Brad Pitt Like LotR and HP though...sorry... ...but the books are better in both cases!! Bx Caterham 21 1.8K Supersport 😬 😬 (K8 XTC formerly R351 BMX) 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 I studied law, which involved lots of reading, none of which could be described as fun ☹️ So as an antidote I love fantasy (although not really sci fi) - LoTR is a wonderful book. If you don't like it, then fine but you can't really argue with the fact that it has endured through the generations and IMHO is a classic I also love Hitchhkers Guide, Terry Pratchett, Robert Rankin and the Harry Potter books. And Roald Dhalcan still make me smile 😬 I keep up the serious side with a love of medieval history Give me a book over a film any day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Elizabeth Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Well said that shedder Prof T is I studied Mine Surveying. Which it I found out involves spending all day in a dark hole in the ground. So I gave it up 😳 Have just bought the HHGTTG "bumper" edition, but sadly it is too thick to fit in my teeny-weeney laptop bag ☹️ Dunno about Roald Dhall ... but Soapy Dhall makes me smile Talking of food, I have just finished Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Brilliant and shocking Makes Gordon Ramsey look like a Boy Scout Edited by - Noger on 11 Aug 2004 14:37:04 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs GTD Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Couldn't agree more, Tam. I had a real problem with TLotR film (first one and only one, as I fell asleep), 'cos the Hobbits didn't look like the ones in my head! I've enjoyed all the HP stuff (books & film) as it gave me a chance to mentally escape back to when I was 11 and it seemed like there was an adeventure waiting to happen around every corner. But if you want to read a really great kids book try 'Holes' by Louis Sacher (Ithink). GTD and I also love Pratchett, but I do find giggling on the train a bit embarrassing 😳 All hail to the Shedder who recommended Jasper fforde - I really want a Dodo now, and for great science fiction I love Asimov. To some extent I don't think it matters what you read, just as long as you read something. Books are much better than TV and film, IMHO... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meldrew Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Aaaaaargh! Tolkien! Gnargh! Ugh! Mmmmmmf! Don't like Tolkien at all. Sorry. Just can't relate to all that hobbit/orc/wizard mumbo-jumbo. I should also add that I can't stand Martin Amis and Ben Okri brought me out in a rash. I also kept reading novels by Iain Banks in the hope that I might like one of them one day - which actually turned out to be the case ,though I had to plough through a lot of dross to get there...As for Douglas Adams: Hitch-Hiker's was a brilliant radio series, with some spin-off books that were good until he ran out of ideas (roughly halfway through the fourth one). What was all that Dirk Gently rubbish about? I did like "Kitchen Confidential". "A Cook's Tour" is a bit less interesting, however. Anthony Bourdain is like P J O'Rourke with a Sabatier. Recent quality reads: "Toast" by Nigel Slater (amusing and touching life-mapped-through-food wibble), "Millennium People" by J G Ballard (bonkers but brilliant) and "Overtaken" by Alexei Sayle. I did try reading some more Martin Amis on holiday, but had to go and wash my hands after I'd finished it. Horrid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meldrew Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Should add that the first two Harry Potters were fun to read to small Meldrew No1. Thried one is getting a bit formulaic so far. Also, it's quite clear that Hagrid is a Yorkshireman, so why did Robbie Coltrane give him a West Country accent? Further to that, why do people always read Paddington with a posh English voice when he comes from Darkest Peru? Maybe he learned English from the World Service? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boonie Hound Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Tam - you are therefore a magician of words. I went out with a law student - now solicitor (in the legal sense Paul and Ross) and she would explain a borrowing and there was some other part of the law that was an onion. I knew I shouldn't have accepted that funny cigarette while at uni. Pratchett - brilliant stuff. I have now been told to ration my books as they are taking over the house and use the library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs GTD Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Don't do it Boonie. Keep buying books, throw the TV away, and put the new books where the TV used to be... 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachael Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Meldrew, I have to agree with you about Martin Amis...I read a few of his books and didn't get on with them at all! I'll pretty much read anything though - apart from my old law text books! Tam I know just what you mean when you say they didn't exactly make for fascinating reading - although the copyright ones weren't too bad. Currently got Bill Bryson's - A Short History of Nearly Everything, which I am enjoying muchly Rach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossybee Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 now solicitor (in the legal sense Paul and Ross) Drat! Rrrrrosssssssssss!!! here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.Mupferit Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 So, Tam, was it your love of medieval history caused you to giggle with the rest of us at the Jeanne D'Arc performance 🤔 Or was it the performance by the farting dog 🤔 😬 Brent Now sans Zetec 209 Gone but not forgotten ❗ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil.cavanagh Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 " in the legal sense " what you mean she is 'working' in Vegas or that bit of Amsterdam????? Rachel... I'm working my way through 'A brief history of nearly everything' to. Very good! and very readable!! ps I did actualy read all of 'A brief history of time'. It backed up my belief that Physicsits and mathemagicans are just makign it all up and so long as they agree with each other we'll never know.. just like the accountants at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Brent - it was the dog, of course 😬 (along with the fact that you were in helpless and highly contagious fits of laughter 😬 😬) That really was a very silly evening........... I agree with Rachael and Mrs GTD (the women are ganging up ) - get rid of the telly and put book cases in its place - you know it makes sense Have bought A Brief History of Nearly Everything for Mr C as a holiday read (as well as the Bernie Ecclestone book) - that should keep him quiet for long enough for me to read a great tome on Elizabeth and Mary, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self (both too big for the laptop bag) and A Hat Full of Sky 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs GTD Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Ooo Tam, very jealous ☹️. My holidays are finished for the year, so I'll have to content myself to reading on the train ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 I've been very lucky this year - we get 10 days additional holiday every 4 years of service so I have had mucho time off It's going to be hard going back to 25 days next year ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
db Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Mrs GTD - Jasper Fforde - *thumbup* He's got a new one out -- although I thought he came off the boil after the first two... Maths is magic, of course. Anything sufficiently advanced ends up indistinguishable from magic (as Arthur C Clarke would have us believe). It's more a case of figuring out what someone else has made up too... Assume you've all read Dan Brown this summer. Nearly everyone had it on holiday with them. My ... Preciousss! Member #109** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boonie Hound Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Forget Dan Brown - go for Dale Brown - that is of course if you like trashy novels about high-tech aircraft and Americans saving the world....not that I have most of his books you understand....the house elves made me do it..... .....Sorry I can't get rid of the TV...I love it too much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs GTD Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 So it was you, db! Thanks!! I've read the first two JFf's, and I'm going to read the third one (Well of Lost Plots?)once I finish Pyramids by Pratchett - plock plock. I haven't read Dan Brown, or heard anything about him - any reviews out there? I wasn't sure if he wrote typical light-weight holiday stuff, or if it's a bit more literary than that (not that I've anything against light-weight - I'd read my fair share of Jackie Collins & J Archer...) 😳 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossybee Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 You have a TV!!! 😳 Rrrrrosssssssssss!!! here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boonie Hound Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Yes Ross - but living in the Fens you only have one to a tribe and it takes so long for the programmes to get to us from telly land that Kyle has just appeared in neighbours. We are scared that the pictures are the devil's work and it could steal our soul - poor little fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
db Posted August 11, 2004 Share Posted August 11, 2004 Dan Brown is pseudo intellectual stuff. Someone who wants to be writing Name Of the Rose, but isn't good enough. Entertaining stuff nonetheless if you can stand being patronised to and his obvious plot explanations. I still recommend Murakami when you're done with Fforde and Pratchett. A lot more grown up but still slightly surreal! My ... Preciousss! Member #109** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Elizabeth Posted August 12, 2004 Share Posted August 12, 2004 Anthony Bourdain is like P J O'Rourke with a Sabatier. No way, a Wusthof, surely (I have Wusthof ham knife, and it is quite the veryest thing). I love early Martin Amis. Times Arrow was fantastic, so to London Fields. Rachel papers and Money not bad, but it all went down hill from there. Happens to them all though. Will Self, Irvine Welsh ... quite a few brilliant books then lots of tosh. Having read The Wasp Factory (very apt at the moment !) and loved it, I have yet to read a Iain Banks and even get into it. Although as Iain M Banks I have read most of his Culture SF books. But they are a bit "oooh wouldn't communism be great if it worked" leftyspeak for me. And the usual sad-SF-man hope for a future in which men and women are totally sexually liberated is just a bit tired. I re-read Ringworld by Larry Niven, and it is filled with the same "pneumatic young woman fancies 200 year old bloke" stuff. Never heard of FForde, but have just ordered one from Amazon, looks right up my street. For VERY sureal Peake-esque steampunk-fantasy try China Mielville. Read both Perdido Street Station and The Scar recently, most odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Elizabeth Posted August 12, 2004 Share Posted August 12, 2004 Just started HHGTTG ... forgot that early on there is a definition Hoopy : A really together guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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