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

Bonobo, I 'spect you found it when you were searchin' for your specs.
You'd enjoy "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" but unable to find it so can't give you the author.
On t'other hand when I was huntin' for that I chanced upon the unputdownable Kurt Vonnegut book I couldn't find the other day. It's called "Breakfast of Champions".
By the way, you're not livin' in a corner of my flat are you?

Oh, a wonderful book! Here, in case you haven't already seen it, is my Gude Entry about Vonnegut: A3724823

I have it in audio on my 'Pod. It realy adds something to it, hearing it in Vonnegut's distinctive, Camel-sharpened rasp. Of course, you don't get the sketches of the *** hole, the wide open beaver or the girl's underpants...

(I wear contacts, btw)

The Man Who Loved Only Number is by Paul Erdos

about to finish Hornblower in the West Indies - then I have no more Hornblower books

Also: Catlow by Louis L'Amour. I lurve those manly men!

that unsuggester, I think, is an anti-christian anti-knitting/crochet machine! it's fantastic though!

it really is!

"The Great American Chocolate Contest Cookbook"

About to start, again, Die Verwandlung (Metamorphosis) by Kafka. I will _not_ be distracted by the huge pile of other stuff I have by the sofa this time.

I WILL start reading The Pallisers by Anthony Trollope this week, I've been threatening to do it for 2 weeks but RL got in the way

Mr Maven, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers ia ABOUT Paul Erdos. It's by Paul Hoffman. I still haven't found it. It's round here somewhere. I hope I haven't given it to the local church charity bazaar in that box I took down there a couple of weeks ago. I usually end up buying my own books back so it may be that I still have it. Anyway it's an engrossing read. Or was.

I'm currently reading Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult. I've read one or two books previously and I find them really thought provoking. I love the fact she takes a very emotional topic and comes out with a book that is really thought provoking.

*phew, 690 posts of backlog just got through*

I'm currently reading Nick Webb's biography of Douglas Adams...

Recently finished 'Finding Myself' by Toby Litt which I found hard going at first and very smug, annoying and clever-clever - unfortunately it turned out to be a damn good read! I think I tend to dislike books with main characters that I don't like, but I suppose that's not unusual.

Terry Butcher's autobiography was a cracking read, with a few very interesting insights - in his Ipswich days, years before this sort of thing was common, he used NLP tapes made for him by a bloke called Doc Lewis to imagine all the tension bubbling out of him before games.

And I really enjoyed the Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-Time. I'd not read anything about Asperger's before. Particularly interesting as one of my former housemates has an aversion to green and yellow foods, believing them to be evil...

I've finished 'Fermat's Last Theorem' by Simon Singh. Very good. I appreciate that he can't really get into the details - the maths is too horrendously complicated for bears of little brain like me 0 but he does a great job of keeping the reader enthralled and lifting the lid on some fundamentals.

Currently reading yet another Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin book. They're my secret vice. This one's the one that was made into the film - but there's a lot more in it.

gah, I cracked and (thanks to the wonder that is h2g2) and instead of Die Verwandlung I'm reading Nightseer by Lauren K Hamilton (there's an entry about her in PR if anyone wants to comment )

Hamilton eh...I tried reading her once, as I'm quite into that kind of literature, but it was just too much

It was like reading fantasy erotica but worse.

How are you finding it?

It seems that Die Verwandlung isn't always translated as 'Metamorphosis' these days. I've seen it as 'The Change' and 'The Transformation'


A couple of years ago, I was at a conference in Prague. I hooked up with a really cool, erudite Italian guy. We were walking through the Old Town Square on a balmy, May night, looking at the gorgeous architecture and even gorgeouser women. He turned to me and said, 'Why was Kafka depressed?' Another day we went to the castle. At the gate he said 'This is *exactly* as Kafka described in 'Before The Castle' (scene where the guards stop him from entering).


(but don't get me started on the meeting with the pornographer and the Russian mafia hitman)

>>It was like reading fantasy erotica but worse.

I'm not sure what's meant by that sentence. Should it perhepas be:
'It was like reading fantasy erotica but not as good' ?

hmmm maybe....

Well its erotica but erotica set in a fantasy world. What's better is that the book I started or tried to read had all the characters running around naked and group sex and orgy and it was just...yeah. I tried getting into it as I thought there'd be a plot - but the plot - it was hard to find...

But apparently her books do well, so I guess I may have just got a bad one or soemthing

OK...here's a question:

Most erotic writing in mainstream fiction?

I'd plump for 'Another Country' by James Baldwin. He holds back on the gay scenes but (ahem) pours it out in the straight ones.

Did anyone ever read The Go between by LP Hartly - that was just hilarioius. His attempts at erotica was just laughable..

Some of the thrillers that I read have erotica in them, but they've never gotten too much out of control. Can't think off hand of any main stream author that I've read who has done extreme erotica....

Kitush: "Well its erotica but erotica set in a fantasy world. What's better is that the book I started or tried to read had all the characters running around naked and group sex and orgy and it was just...yeah. I tried getting into it as I thought there'd be a plot - but the plot - it was hard to find..."

A friend and I were discussing her books on the weekend -- she described it as "a pretty standard gory vampire novel, except for the sex...and the sex is bad"

SC