h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello!!! Or Hullo or Hallo....there is a lot of argument about that.

How are you today?
I think you want to say "when i was in student housing". Just a technicality of terminology.

I assume that you read English books? What sort of thing have you read? What do you enjoy?

Yes, I've read a few English books , but this year, I've always been too tired to concentrate much. I love to read Robin Cook, John Grisham, Bill Bryson, but I've read a lot more, and I don't prefer a special genre

John Grisham!!! Oh good lord!!! Boring boring Okay it's mainly because a lot of his books are the same...and all start with "The...".

Have you tried reading any English classics? They're always a good test of language understanding...we study them for school. So for example...Jane Austen (which shouldnt count as classic, because they were trashy novels of the time, but we still study them), Thomas Hardy...slightly boring, Bronte...especially jane eyre. errmm...oh Alice in Wonderland!!! by Lewis Carrol.

Do you enjoy fantasy, crime, new fiction, poetry...?

No poetry, but the rest is fine
Sorry, Jane Austen bores me to death, but I have read Alice in wonderland, and Behind the looking glass...,oh, and Great expectationsby Dickens. I've always intended to read Nathaniel Hawthorne ( The scarlet letter ), and the 'tales of a tub ( Swift ), my bookshelf is full of books I bought with the intention to read them, and one day, I will do so, honest.

Oh I always have that too

Have you tried any Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan...they're fantasy.

Crime...erm Jonathon Kellerman, Ian Rankin, James Patterson

Books everyone ought to read...

The Secret Garden: Frances Hodgeson Burnett
What Katy Did: Susan C...something...sorry.
Catch 22
The Queen and I: Susan Townsend

A nice eclectic mix

I'd like to read a Terry Pratchett, everybody's talking about the discworld novels, I wanted to buy the first volume when I was in that book shop in Gloucestershire, but she only had the seventh, so I ended up buying Valhalla - Tom Sharpe - great fun I'll read more of him. Can you tell me the title of the first Terry Pratchett ?
Oh, and I think I know 'The secret Garden', but I'm not sure about it.

Oh that’s fine! Katkat talking to me in a thread I haven’t subscribed to! How should I have known? Now, here’s my, erm, butt.

Yes, I’d like to be taught some English, please. But I personally don’t insist on lessons. It would be nice if this was a place where I could come to ask my (embarrassing) questions. Like: Is it supposed to be “This is plain stupid” or “This is plainly stupid”? Yes, questions like that, basically.

By the way: today I started reading my first Grisham. Everyone is talking about his books, so I became interested. I have only read a very few pages so far, but I think it’s nice. At least I don’t have to concentrate, and I doubt that I’ll need my dictionary!

If you want to be freaked out I can recommend Chuck Palahniuk’s books. I’m always glad that I don’t understand all those dirty words… most of them I don’t even find in the dictionary – I think if I had read his books in German I’d be embarrassed to recommend them.
But really, his books will make you chuckle and feel disgusted at the same time. Please don’t blame me if you don’t like them: I only understand half of the dirty words he’s using. If you understand all of them it could be too much, I’m afraid. Maybe we should found a "dirty words" - thread!

katkodl

Can we HAVE a dirty words thread??? I think somehow it would get moderated...

When you want to say that something is clearly stupid, that it's obvious that it is stupid....you say it's plainly stupid.
If you want to say that something is just REALLY daft...say it's plain stupid. Plain stupid is slang and not really grammatically correct.

I believe that the first Discworld book is possibly The Light Fantastic. However most of the books can be picked up. There are several different threads of stories going on in the series. There are books about The City Watch, ones about The Witches, ones about Rincewind the Wizzard (yes spelt like that), and some random ones about random people.

And miss Kodl...my apologies but mighty glad your butt is now here.

katkodl, the books you mention don't sound very appealing to me, and you're somewhat vague about the plot - if they have a plot, that is

*enter a Pratchett fan*

The Light Fantasgtic is the second book. The first is the Colour of Magic. Neither of these two are particularily good, so if you can't get into them, don't dispare.

There are multiple series running at one time, and if you can get your hands on all the books in the right order, that's good, but if you can't it's not the end of the World. It's better if you can at least manage to read the smaller series in order, so that the characters aren't jumping around.

Instead of me continuing my sales pitch, here's the link to Pratchett's Anonymous, our h2g2 based fan club...

*proffers* A640360

On the topic of not being able to undertand English people speaking, I can't understand some of the English people, which isn't because I don't know the language, it's cause they all speak so weird in England...

GO AUSTRALIA!!!

Ahem...


Cat

Nice typing there, Chris...

Yeah Chris if you're going to waltz around on an English thread then do try and spell correctly! The reason you can't always understand what we say is because we have different words, and different slang for the same things. It happens everywhere. Besides, English is the language, and seeing as I'm English, and have won various English prizes, and taken part in various English societies, and public speaking contests, and lectures, I think that maybe I can talk about English...not that I'm showing off or anything

Chris, thanks for the link and the titles

Uh, do we have a serious discussion here ? I hope not, I'm easily intimidated

Do we have a serious discussion?? *looks around worried* I do hope not! They tend to make a mess of the carpet!

No you can say whatever you want to talk about in here. Questions about English slang, structure etc, testing out new phrasing etc that you have learnt or want to test on us before saying it, any important things you have to write and want to check whether it sounds right, any discussion about English....things...really. Fashion, books, films, food, travel, anything you like at all! So for example if you were planning a trip to England I could immediately help you...if you wanted of course

In the meantime...anything and everything...except saying that Astralian English is "better" than English English.

I should have known that before I went to spend my holidays in England this summer
My next visit will have to wait until I either :

have robbed a bank,

or

have won the lottery

or

have saved enough money through not buying anything else evermore



in other words : extremely unlikely in this lifetime

My new plan for going ANYWHERE, is to make sure I have friends there so I can stay with them. That cuts down on expenses by a LOT. Then all you have to do is pay for half the meals etc and you have a nice house to retreat to when your country of choice beats you up.

Of course my plan isn't getting far currently, as I lost my Dutch contacts, my Austrian one is having kittens about exams, my American ones are trying to move house, my Cambridge one chucked me, etc etc...

However, when I FINALLY get my act together and move out of my parents house, I shall be welcoming anyone who can get to Stanstead Airport...as if I manage to move to Cambridge this will be 15mins away by train.

For some reason, it gets more difficult when you're older, I have met some of my hootoo friends at the London meet, but wouldn't dare to invite myself to stay with them

I think you have to find the sort of person who has an open invitation system, or you can say "I'm planning on visiting England soon and was thinking of passing through , are you free around then? It would be great to see you"

Hmm, I know some people I could meet for a couple of hours, and one I could stay with, but I just wouldn't stay for longer than a couple of days, but I hope I'll be able to do that one day

Oddly enough most people don't stay with anyone for all that long. I mean, I've had people stay for say a week...but only when I was going out with them. Oh and I've stayed at a friend's house for a week as well actually. But she was at university so it's not as if we were in each other's hair all the time.

*is reminded that she only has 3 weeks to get benefit forms in* Stupid DSS!