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

"I meant the Neil Gaiman coincidences that keep cropping up are spooky ..."

Ah, right, I missed the first word, "All very spooky ..."

I enjoyed One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest, miss nicky - better than the film. And I cycled 53 kms on my exercise bike yesterday. And I'm NOT reading any Parry Otter books.

I've never read any Harry Potter, and I have no intention of doing so. I reckon the people who queued for hours in the rain to get the latest/last one are a few pages short of a novel.

There are a couple of spoof novels out there: Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody, and Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel. Has anybody read them?

Coming back in late...

Life is too short to read Ayn Rand. I regret the portion of my own that I wasted on 'The Fountainhead'. She really was a disgraceful woman.

Bagpuss...
Ta! I didn't know there was a new Thusday Next. I *do* hope you realise that the missing footnotes thing is a meta-textual joke. (Sorry if I'm patronising you here...and even sorrier if I'm not.)

I'm finally nearing the end of Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy of potboilers. They're not my usual fare, and in literary terms there are many reasons not to like them, but they're redeemed by the occasional discussion of interesting ideas.

So...what to read next? I have the Hitchens on order from the library. And Patrick Leigh-Fermor's name has come up in various contexts recently, which I might take as an omen. And a bought a vintage copy of 'Another Country' by James Baldwin the other day, and that's always worth a re-read...

I do read Harry Potter - and I just started the seventh Volume.
And I read the first "Barry Trotter" and didn't like it at all.

Re: Ayn Rand - never read it, but in GAS (Matt Ruff) the book is discussed and a Synopsis presented (I felt that was quite enough information about that).

Life is never too short to read Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged is an exceptional piece of work.

I've been reading Neil Gaiman too...just finished Anansi Boys, and read American Gods and Stardust earlier this year. I started with Stardust, and I feel that it could be offputting as an intro to his work, as it's quite childish (in the way that The Hobbit is childish compared to LOTR) compared to the grown-up-ness of his other books that I've read. I'm glad I persevered and read more, though.

RF

I shall have to take your word on Atlas Shrugged. Conceivably it has literary merit. However, if like The Fountainhead, it reflects her vile philosophy then it must be quite hideous.

Well, you're a left wing delusionist and I'm a capitalist freedom-lover, so we're never going to see eye to eye.

RF

Ah yes! Freedom - the survival of the most self-regarding.

Fancy starting an Ayn Rand thread? We can explain to one another why we're wrong.

Atlas Shrugged still lurks on the corner of my desk like a guilty concious or a beggar with a particularly shaggy dog. I wonder if there is an Atlas Shrugged Anonymous or a specialist disposal company?

Burn it!

Am ploughing through "On the shoulders of giants" Stephen Hawkings mix of introduction and full-text reproductions of important works in physics and astronomy (currently on Book of Copernicus's observations and calculations.)

Haven't yet finished The Earth, the Richard Fortey book from some tiem back. I'm dipping in in dribs and drabs.

I got a little bored of Focualt's pendulum and took a break from it. Plan on returning to it. soon.

I demolished the new harry Potter over the weekend - was a surprise gift from someone who doesn't read much but wanted to know how it ended and could count on me to tell them.

Book 3 of Copernicus's 'On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres

Currently reading Piratica by Tanith Lee
Fun nonsense for teenagers :D

should I be ashamed to say I "did" HP7 on Saturday, and promptly picked up HP1 and am now reading them all again?

Dare I say that the fact that so many people are getting through HP7 so quickly, considering its thickness, says something about its quality? It only took my ten year old daughter a day.

Hey ho! back to *real* books.

well, for me I wanted to whip through it before everyone spoiled it for me
I don't think it was as good as 3 or 5, but there you go (and it is a kids' book after all)

but now I'm about to go back to Middle Earth (yeah yeah...)

God!, some people are so snobby about Harry Potter! I have read it and I love the story. Now I am on Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale!

Started Shogun by James Clavell. Herodotus's Histories will be started when I've finished Persian Fire (over 3/4 done).

I eyed the blind watchmaker in the bookshop today, passing through Sheffield station. Might put it on my list but it's getting to be a long list.