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

No, I can't resist...

I'm sure those books will give you *intense* satisfaction.
(geddit?)

Kindly leave the stage.

Ah, ha, you mean some in-tent satisfaction.

And "we roofed the world"! or so the history books are at pains to tell us. Taid (grandad) worked at the small slate quarry of Rhudd Ddu, just down the road from Bleanau Ffestiniog. He had a small cottage near where the explosives were kept. No talk in the family of him ever being an owner of anything (except a rack of pipes), or even a shareholder. A mere Arbeiter with trench-knees from the Somme gone to work and live in the rainiest place in Wales; that was old Taid, boyo.

thanks for the O'brien sales pitch, Ed... I'm buying.

Hornblower books cover a fair bit of the ordinary sailor stuff, but mostly they're about officers not the men. Sharpe (I can't plug those enough) is also very good on detail about the day to day lives of the poor ol' soldiers. (but too many drummer boys get blown to bits for me)

as for me, still reading Take A Girl Like you. I suppose it's not at all trendy to say I love Amis' writing? (Look, Ed, I'm loving a book with no )

O'Brian (with an A) also deals in intelligence and geopolitics, not to mention natural history. The name is fictitious, incidentally. He used to pretend he was Irish born and bred. He wasn't. There's a biography by his stepson, 'Count' Nikolai Tolstoy.

I saw the film Master and Commander (which I understand is a glob of a couple of novels) and the natural history part of that was quite interesting.

I have a novel by Nikolai Tolstoy - is he worth reading (it's called The Coming of the King)

"I saw the film Master and Commander (which I understand is a glob of a couple of novels) and the natural history part of that was quite interesting ..."

Captain: The bird is flightless, you say?
Doctor: Yes.
Captain: Then its not going anywhere.

A good job by those two, and the rest of the cast as well.

Actually, M&C was based almost entirely on 'The Far Side of the World', which is book number 10 out of 20 1/2. Unfortunately it omits the amusing-but-implausible episode where they're pursuing Yankee whalers in the Pacific and Maturin falls off the back of the ship, Aubrey dives in to sail him, the ship moves on...and they're rescued by a Polynesian war canoe crewed by scary lesbians...

The film has many faults, but it's OK.

...dives in to sail him...? Save!

Sorry to move on from Russell Crowe and his cohorts.
I'm learning about the life and times of one: Zozo.
A nickname of affection for the young Voltaire and the book is
:Voltaire Almighty. a life in pursuit of freedom. By one, Roger Pearson Prof of French at Oxford. (boring writer, great subject though)

"I have a novel by Nikolai Tolstoy - is he worth reading (it's called The Coming of the King)"

I like most things Arthurian but found this book unreadable. I've tried a couple of times. Its certainly not a book to take on your hols.

oh thanks, because now I've finished the rather oddly-ending Take A Girl Like you I need something new to read.

Probably going to finish up with -boy and his mates though

At present I am really suffering with a book about ants by Bernard Werber. Anybody read it?
It has got so good reviews and I received it as a present from a friend with rather good taste so i had big expectations when I started reading it. But I just don't like it! And it's not because of the ants - I find the details about their lives very interesting. I guess it's just that the book is.... not well written!
I hate to leave it unfinished but I guess I'd better focus on the other book I have also started - Lord of flies - now that started off pretty well!

A ook about ants...Lord of the Flies...What are you planning on reading next? The Wasp Factory?

Point taken Edward! I'll take up something larger and more powerful, say Born Free: A lioness of two worlds

Just finished reading 'Tooth & Nail', a Rebus book by Ian Rankin. Rebus goes to London. As a crime novel, it's pretty good, but something is lacking.

I read somewhere that, in crime fiction, the setting is one of the most important characters. Maybe it's just that Rankin isn't as at home in London the way he is in Edinburgh, but it does seem like there's something missing. I'm not sure exactly what it is though.

Not just crime fiction. Graham Greene is said to have set all his books in 'Greeneland' - identical in geography and history to the real world.

finished The King of Torts by Grisham - what a waste of trees!

Now reading Sign of the Cross by Chris Kuzneski. More in the Da Vinci Code type of trype...

I was given a pile of books by a colleague, and since I can't not read...

not recommended.

Hate to say this, but very often you *can* judge a book by its cover...

I'm having to read hardback books for health reasons. So I'm working my way through The Living Planet by David Attenborough, Vol. 1 of Greek Myths by Robert Graves and Thrust by Richard Noble. At our second house I'm reading Conquistadors by Michael Wood.