Grab the Nearest Book...

"I think she might have gone out to her parents' place."

M. Chabon, Wonder Boys.
 
If your date is susceptible to mob psychology, all you need do to brainwash her into falling for you is show how desirable you are to other women.

The Machiavellian's Guide to Womanizing - Nick Casanova
 
I know Chris quoted this book, but here's another:

He worked at night, using a fountain pen, in a bentwood rocking chair, with a Hudson Bay blanket draped across his lap and a bottle of bourbon on the table before him. When his work was going well, he could be heard in every corner of the sleeping hotel, rocking and madly rocking while he subjected his heroes to the gruesome rewards of their passions for unnameable things.

Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon

This author was a serendipitous find. Brilliant. He paints pictures with his words. :D
 
Just finishing "Wonder Boys" but have been lazy when it comes to reading. Don't know if you consider listening to "our friend in the corner" (radio) a cheat but there have been some wonderful things on BBC7 and BBC4 recently.

Thomas Hardy is one of the featured authors at the moment and both "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and "Far from the Madding Crowd" (currently running) have been brilliant. If you've never read him, I highly recommend listening as an alternative.

Dr. Who is still running and always great fun. Rumpole of the Bailey, Inspector Dalgleish and Lord Peter Wimsey are on the current schedule plus an eerie thriller called "The Woman in Black" - true ear candy. It's addictive I tell you!!

Does anyone else listen to audio or readings online? Just curious.
 
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"They have me to listen, an appreciative audience, while they talk, and Mrs. Joe Heyward to look at."

A Diary from Dixie
Mary Chesnut
 
The absence from this being of any sign of fear struck me at once.

H.G. Wells, The Time Machine (From the Complete Short Stories)
 
Page 28, line 10


"This shook me up considerable, because I didn't want to go back to the widow's any more and be so cramped up and sivilized, as they called it."


-Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer's Companion)
New York, 1983



I reread it every year.
 
First paragraph, first chapter.

Craftsmanship is the skill employed in making a thing properly, and a good craftsman is one who has complete mastery over tools and material, and who uses them with skill and honesty. The efficiency of the modern building still depends on the sincerity of it's builders.


The Practical Carpenter And Joiner

Edited by N. W. Kay

This from a a reference book for apprentices written sometime in the 1920's as it does not give the original date of publication only the reprinting date.
 
Many a time afterwards the Baggins part regretted what he did now, and he said to himself: 'Bilbo, you were a fool; you walked right in and put your foot in it.'

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Ooh yes, it's that classic folks. I actually didn't read it until this year, which is a bit odd considering I read Lord of the Rings many years ago, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's certainly much lighter than Lord of the Rings, but I enjoyed it just as much.
 
An ancient perspective on ethics


"If a lie is necessary, why not speak it? We are all after the same thing, whether we lie or speak the truth: our own advantage. Men lie when they think to profit by deception, and tell the truth for the same reason— to get something they want, and to be better trusted for their honesty. It is only two different roads to the same goal. Were there no question of advantage, the honest man would be as likely to lie as the liar is, and the liar would tell the truth as readily as the honest man."


-Herodotus
The Histories
Book Three – The Seven Conspirators
Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt
Revised by A. R. Burn
London, 1988


Throughout the course of my career, I observed lots of people lying, cheating, and stealing (or, at the very least, not taking great pains to tell the truth). The older I got, the worse it seemed to get. I wondered if this was actually the case or whether I was lacking a long term perspective. As you would expect, this line
really struck a chord when I stumbled across it in Herodotus. I suppose it would have been nice if someone had informed me of the 11th Commandment (Don't Get Caught) back when I was an impressionable youth. The fact of the matter is that I'm a bad liar and I know it, so I suppose I'm stuck (attempting) to be honest.
 
Tenth sentence from page 28 is on page 29.

His (Hieronymus Bosch) most reknowned treatment of sin is his The Seven Deadly Sins, which was comissioned by Philip II and still hangs in El Prado.

Phyllis A. Tickle.
Greed./
Part of the Seven Deadly Sins Lectures.


Highly entertaining if you like philosphy. though this line does not show that at all.
 
He was a real mean one...below the belt...you ain't called on to teach folks like that...them ain't Maycomb's ways,Miss Caroline,not really...now don't you fret, ma'am.

To Kill A Mockingbird
By:Harper Lee
 
"Madame Gaillard knew of course that by all normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal's tannery."


Perfume
Patrick Suskind
 
Our Friend in the Corner: Another plug for BBC Radio

The Chronicles of Narnia begins next Monday (4 December), with Lewis's first book, "The Magician's Nephew". BBC7 is bringing you all seven books, in 28 episodes, from Monday to Friday in the 7th Dimension/fantasy zone throughout December. The final episode of the final book, "The Last Battle", ends this epic on 10th January. These beautiful dramatisations are a great family listening treat, with a breath-taking cast.

******

Also new to BBC7, you can hear the first of a mystery series set in Ancient Rome, Falco, starring Anton Lesser as the Roman sleuth. If you've never read any of this series by British author, Lindsey Davis, I highly recommend them.

My first exposure to Marcus Didius Falco came in 1999 or 2000 when, while writing at an historical site, Lindsey Davis was a "guest speaker" in a live chat onsite. Brilliant!!

******

And for any Iris Murdoch fans ("The Black Prince", "The Sacred and Profane Love Machine", "The Sea, The Sea", "The Unicorn" etc.) try to catch "Iris".

Philosopher, University lecturer and prolific novelist Iris Murdoch produced 26 novels in her lifetime, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease ("Jackson's Dilemma").

Enjoy!! :heart:
 
Obi-Wan's threat display tallied the vultures on Anakin's tail.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
Matthew Stover.

Stay away from this book unless you are the most ardent Star Wars Fan boy. I am convinced that without the richness of the Star Wars universe to draw upon this book would be even worse than it is.

It's basically a novel based on the screenplay and story by Lucas and I think it's abysmal. It's not without some endearing qualities, I think it would be hard for any writer to make Lucas' awful screenplay seem natural and Stover does try to expand on the thoughts and inner turmoil of Anakin. Much of that is hampered by what happens in the film.

But aside from that I don't like Stover's dialogue or his style, it often feels clunky and unnatural to me. So there you go. I think it's a shame that people like this can get published largely because of the setting they work in, I can probably think of a dozen people who could write better that are unpublished, but there you go.

Maybe I'm just bitter. :D
 
The REAL Moby Dick

"Pollard carried a letter from the Essex's principle owners telling the new captain, in spare, direct prose, exactly what was expected of him."

In the Heart of the Sea:
The Tragedy of the Whaleship
Essex
Nathaniel Philbrick
 
"So for now they're merely alone, but together, as together as they can get."
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister Gregory Maguire

(An fantastic book by the author of 'Wicked' :D Recommend it to all ;) )
 
A Portrait of the Artist


"Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."


-James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Norwalk, Connecticut, 1968
 
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Ulysses


"Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges into the past."


-James Joyce
Ulysses
New York, 1982



Incredibly lovely wordsmithing.
 
There was the sun held fast among the fresh leaves and green trunks, as if Apollo had changed into a woodland god, and forsaken the long lonely ways of heaven, and resolved no more to spend half of his days in the underworld.

Edward Thomas, The Heart of England.
 

"He was polite to his elders, who disliked him. Whatever his elders told him to do, he did. They told him to look before he leaped, and he always looked before he leaped. They told him never to put off until the next day what he could do the day before, and he never did. He was told to honor his mother and his father, and he honored his mother and his father. He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got in the Army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed. He turned the other cheek on every occasion and always did unto others exactly as he would have had others do unto him. When he gave to charity, his left hand never knew what his right hand was doing. He never once took the name of the Lord his God in vain, committed adultery, or coveted his neighbor's ass. In fact, he loved his neighbor and never ever bore false witness against him. Major Major's elders disliked him because he was such a flagrant nonconformist."


-Joseph Heller
Catch 22
New York, 1955



It's tough to be a nonconformist.
 
Not page 28, or line 10


"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."


-George Bernard Shaw
 
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