Let's talk about books and coffie :)

@alfred...mmmmhhhh i'll think seriously about IT ;)
I'm also very careful with my books, though sometimes they wear out because i take them everywhere with me (not all of them, but the ones i'm reading at the moment :p )
Oh, I liked Men At Arms a lot!!! (and I read the play adapted by Stephen Briggs right afterwards) The problem is that the Watch is not my cup of tea...I prefer the wizards from the university (ridcully is amazing). So for example, The Last Continent is one of my fave...The Fifth Elephant is probably the worse Pratchett I've read...


@thered: well I see what you mean...i know people whose ability to speak proper Spanish is far worse than some foreigners I know :rolleyes:
 
Alfred said:
*Ah-hem*... Er... *cough*... but why should we really spend all this time to investigate on such not-really-relevant and very small details? *cough*

hehe,okay,okay,i understand ;) but hmmmmmm if i ever decide to abandon my precious real-paper-format, i guess you'll share your share your secret :)

Alfred said:
a) that no english significant books can be found here, if not waiting for a lot of months, so that the few bookshops who can order them make them arrive here (I don't have a credit card, so no Amazon unless I shamefully use some friend of mine, which I feel very uneasy in doing ) and spending an awful amount of money, mostly in not-advantaging-the-author abroad-shipping expenses, while this... *cough*... not very fair way of acting allows me to read almost anything I can dream of in english in about 10 minutes from the moment I have the idea to the moment i have the ebook in my hand. As soon as some family member will go to england, though, I'll ask them to buy a ton of books I've e-read and loved

that's a very good reason...so you're forgiven for your little crime :p
no,seriously,i understand how it is...I thought that where you live you would have easy access to books :( what a pity... I don't know what i would do if i couldn't find english or german books here.I feel quite lucky that there is a huge international bookshop in Athens...only my swedish books i have to order (massively :D )

Alfred/ FV: I'm also very careful with my books,even though some don't end up in the superperfect condition i'd like,since like FV i take them with me...
The "opening the pages half" i do quite often,especially when i'm afraid that if i open much there will appear cracks in the "back" of the book.These cracks are sth i hate and try to avoid!! but in some cases it's so inevitable :cry:

As for the Watch.....uch,the fifth elefant has caused me such a psychological trauma that now i think that'll never like the watch...Actually i haven't read any Watch books,apart from 100 Elephant pages, but i fear that it will be boring :ill: Obviously i'm quite biased :p
From what i've read so far, I prefer Rincewind and the Witches,the magical part of discworld generally...From characters i adore DEATH,he's so cool, and Twoflower who is so nicely (even stupidly) good,nice character :)

Alfred said:
Well.. what else can I say? Oh, yes, about the books that hit me lately... anyone knows and appreciates Peter Høeg? I've started reading stuff from him (in italian, of course, though I've never wished more than now to know Danish *sigh*) this spring, and after two books I'm really amazed: it's one of the best things I've read in these last 3 years...
I've never heard of him before,but did a quick search tonight and discovered that he has books entitled " Borderlines", "history of danish dreams" and "Woman and the ape"...I wonder what they are about...Alfred?

thered@ hmmmmm........yeah,i understand what you mean about bad english.....it can happen to some people with their mothertounge....
but,well, it's ok.....

/troll :wave:
 
Well, I've managed to finish reading "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" (Part I). It has taken a lot of time because I found it boring at first, and I went on combining the book with some other readings. Let's write a short review:

The characters lack of solid personalities, but this doesn't matter at all, because it is a trilogy and I expect more stuff to come. At first, things are vaguely depicted, and the story goes on freely, as if the author wanted to know what was going to happen next straight by writting it down. That made me feel a bit upset with the story, until Arthur and Ford meet Zaphod and Trillian, the thing about The Heart of Gold starts shining as something imaginative. Marvin's cool, but he's absolutely secondary and gets apart from the main line of the story, thing that also clouds the plot, imo.

The last half of the book gets better, and the characters are put in a more defined situation, the Magrathea destination adds some sense to it all. I like many hilarious points from that on, like the fact that the answer to the last question of the universe is... forty-two. The words said by Arthur that travelled far in the universe, passed through a worm-hole, and were assumed as the sparkle to start a long war in certain planet...

...is also a good add on.


I'm reasonably intrigued, since it is a trilogy and the characters just have started their trip through space. I'll put an eye on the rest of books, and hope they'll keep on in ascendant progression. As for the physical status of the book, it is quite ok, better than I thought when the first pages decided to get to the exile, I managed to keep them together. Sorry for this delay, I wanted to finish with the book before replying. :)

@Alfred: May I ask where have you taken these rarities from? :)


|ngenius.
 
mmmmm cappuccino,what a pleasure!! hot with cinammon in winter... cold as Freddo in a huge glass during summer =)
Lately i'm drinking much espresso,non concentrated at all though... I prefer the dosis for a little cup put in a bigger one...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm me wants coffee now!!
 
@ing: en serio????
I thought that the characters themselves are perfectly shaped and traced...actually the dialogs between them...the whooopiness of Zaphod, the weirdness of Ford and the bitter stupidness of Arthur are amazing and obviously as you said, the magic of Marvin is wonderful.

Of course the plot is not the best because IN FACT it was written as it went along...it was written for the radio so every episode was written after the previous one was aired...Marvin was to be just in the first one, but it became so like and welperformed by the actor who made his voice that they put him in the rest of the episodes...

but the coolness of Adams is the praise to weirdness and a hymn to absurd and that's why he's is so good. Also the way he uses words is much better than the average writer, but for sure if you expect to get a well weaved plot then Adams is not the best choice!

@all...about coffee...I can't abide coffee...nothing about it....the thing is that some years ago I had to drink coffee (with milk) to stay awake in order to read some huge books for highschool and it kept hurting my stomach like hell (and my stomach normally NEVER aches) so in the ends I stopped and never touched the stuff again....

fathervic (milky)
 
ooooooooooops,i've just realized i wrote nothing on Ing's comments on the HHGTTG....Interesting comments!
I read the book a year ago,but actually now i don't recall all stuff perfectly... I recall that i liked it a lot,though....I had found the plot and the stories entangled quite loony...However,i agree that it's not the best plot ever...To my mind,Adams lacks somehow in plot,but gains a lot from the aspect of humor...Really,some of the jokes are very witty,some are just stupid (yet they make you laugh),some of his ideas are totally paranoid, which makes me consider him as a particualrly gifted writer...Sure the plots he creates are strange,dull or whatever,but the jokes and the whole atmosphere of lunacy counterbalancies it...
As for the characters,I wouldn't agree with Ing,More i agree with FV,since i think that characters are quite well-shaped...the cutie little marvin included :)

FV@ i wonder why your stomach can't take coffee,when it can take all these hot 'n' spicy sauces, jalapeños and stuff you throw in it from time to time :D

okay,troll is ready to start her studying =)
btw,yesterday i drank 2 big cups of coffee,2 big cups of deceffeiné coffee, 300ml of coke,endless liters of water........
today,i've just finished my first cup of coffee and i think i'll go for a deceffeiné one......
Hello,my name is Troll and I'm a drunkard :loco: (potomaniac in fact :p)

/Trollaki

(Ing: Gracias por el mensaje :) Hasta mañana tendrás mi respuesta! )
 
En serio. It doesn't mean I didn't like the book, when I found some sense, I liked it. As FatherVic, I tend to embrace a peculiar humor sense particularly centered on kinda absurd source, so these jokes are pretty good for my tastes. I'm eager to reply sharply: "FORTY TWO!" as soon as someone ask me about the meaning of the universe, in fact. :D

"FV@ i wonder why your stomach can't take coffee,when it can take all these hot 'n' spicy sauces, jalapeños and stuff you throw in it from time to time"

You were faster saying it, troll, I was thinking the very same.


@Troll: A tu disposición. ;)


|ngenius.
 
I don't know it either...it's just that my stomach is a bit strange...i can mix whatever I want and I normally never get pain...but some drops of coffee and it hurts as if i haven't eaten in a week!!!

@ing: I laughed (and I really laughed while reading) when after waiting 7000 million years the machine says 42 and the other guy says "We're going the get lynched, you know that?" i simply couldn't stop....

fathervic (life, don't talk me about life)
 
Theredintheskyisours said:
Now reading: Red Empire: The forbidden history of the USSR by Gwyneth Hughes and Simon Welfare. After that book I'll read the book Gettysburg: The Final Fury by Bruce Catton. Bye. :wave:


theredin: you only read about war??? I mean, if it's a way to tame your bloodthirsty soul so you won't go one day to school and slaughter them all it's ok, but ehmmm have you ever thought about reading something funny or at least sci-fi or fantasy??? sometimes it's cool to feel you're in another world :) (on account you don't abuse on drugs :p )

For me, I finished Feet of Clay...it was very good. One of the most well knotted plot from Pratchett so far. After that one I read Wyrd Sister adaption into play in one day! (it's the first time I read a whole book in just one day! but it just took me three hours! 150 pages.)

and now I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It's the first novel from him (except for Good Omens but that was along with Pratchett). It's a very dark and strange atmosphere but is gripping like hell. The only problem it's that is 630 pages (the third largest book i've ever read after the lord of the rings and the Bible) and I generally tengo to think that from 250 to 450 pages is the best size for a book (because if you don't like it but you don't want to stop, then it's not a pain in the ass and you don't have problems of loosing track with the story)

Afterwards I will read Dirk Gently (from Douglas Adams) which is a non Hitchhiker novel.
I will stop a bit with the Discworld novels until Christmas when I'll read Hogfather (which is about Death becoming Santa Claus) I was given it last Christmas (a wonderful gift by a wonderful girl) and now I want to wait and read it in its proper time. I'll tell you how it is anyway.

cheers
fv
 
FatherVic said:
theredin: you only read about war??? I mean, if it's a way to tame your bloodthirsty soul so you won't go one day to school and slaughter them all it's ok, but ehmmm have you ever thought about reading something funny or at least sci-fi or fantasy??? sometimes it's cool to feel you're in another world :) (on account you don't abuse on drugs)


Yeah, theredin, I second. You know, Heidi worked well on me. :D


|ng.
 
well, not much to praise on that...Heidi worked well on everybody :p

fv (still wondering why Heidi wasn't banned, burned and buried from the face of the planet)
 
Big shame on you mr. Han Solo fan!! arghhhhhhhh and keep your 'tatoes :tickled:
Heidi kicks ass!!!!!!!!! :Spin: when i was a kid,i was a biiiiiiiig fun of it,had the book,a Heidi doll & was also watching some series on TV...
Heidi heidi!!!!!! :worship:

/troll (more wise comments will follow during the weekend :p) tired :(
 
Now Reading: The Welck Achaeologies: Rome and the Barbarians.


I just finished a book on the Bosnian Civil War. (Man is that place messed up now.)

Does Lassie count as a non-war book? I read that. I also read a book about slaves of the world. (There's 27 million slaves in the world!) Made me tear up when I read it.

Edit: This is a day after I originally posted this, but I got a great new book! It's called "The Great War" by some guy who knows how to write a book. I would hoghly recomend it to ya'lls!
 
I finished Neil Gaiman's American Gods...it was REALLY WEIRD but I liked it quite a lot...A recommend to all those who like weird stories and well weaven plots.

After that one I read Diggers, which is the secon book of the nomes trilogy (of three :p ) by Pratchett. Pleasant, very easy to read and nice to relax for a while after the weirdness of Gaiman.

Today I started another by Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency...It's Adams, it's gotta be cool :p

@ing: Julio tiene todos los de Adams en ebook en castellano!!!

fathervic (who still reads in paper cause finds terribly hard and not handy the ebook formats)
 
Eons have passed since the last time I knew something coming from Julio, since the 2nd Machina Rock. In any case, I prefer the english version, it provides some helpful english lessons. :D


|ng.
 
heheh contrary to all the Adams insisting maniacs,i'm reading another Pratchett in spanish. "Rechicero" "sourcery" in english... Still haven't read much,cause the last days i was either too busy or abandoned my bookie for some interesting newspaper reading........

as for coffee,coffee,coffee........mmmmmm i've just made some decaffeiné *slurp*