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

The exams are finished!! Yay!! I might actually read summit interesting for the first time since Christmas

Ok, went to the library and got Catch-22 (again), Life of Pi and Vernon God Little, which I've just started. I'm finding it a bit irritating and claustrophobic, with all the characters other than the eponymous one a bit two-dimensional. Haven't read much though.

Today I'm going to buy Collapse by Jared Diamond, and I fancy some quite a few pop science books over the summer, once the post-exam 'refreshment' period stops. And the World Cup's over.

Damn, it could be July before I finish any books!

AsVernon God Little is narrated by a teenage boy, the fact that all the other characters are a bit two-dimensional is kinda the point.

Persevere with it, I found it hugely entertaining.

RF

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Yes...I read VGL last summer and rather enjoyed it.

After I finished *my* exams - oooh, mumblemumble years ago - one of my lecturers was taken aback to see me coming out of the library with a copy of Bertrand Russell's 'A History of Western Philosophy'. It was the first thing he mentioned when I met him years later.

>>I don't like books which seem claustrophobic

So no Kafka, then? Or Dostoevesky?

Or Austen, come to that.

Kafka had me a gibbering wreck by the second paragraph. I couldn't finish the page cos I was too busy looking over my shoulder, never mind the book.

As for Dostoevsky, I've read The House of the Dead, which took a bit of getting into, but I thoroughly enjoyed, and I've read all Austen's books and didn't find them claustrophobic in the slightest. I think what I meant is that the world of the book is kinda skewed, all the people talk too much, don't say anything, they're all full of shit, and they're kidding themselves on that they're normal. It just makes me want to scream 'Shut up you forking fannies'.

I feel this will be quite central to VGL, but I'm not really *into it* yet. DBC P does use the language well though. 'You could just tell he sits down to pee', is a class line.

Ed,

Freakonomics sounds like it's covering similar territory to The Tyrammy of Numbers, in a flashier way from what you're saying. Did you manage to get hold of the latter?



And what's wrong with reading Catch-22 again? I know it's hyped up a lot, but I finally started to understand life after I'd read it. Meanwhile, I'm currently reading a compilation of gay short stories - Penguin I think - of which Graham Greene's 'May We Borrow Your Husband?', a farce in which a gay couple decide that a newlywed husband might not be quite as straight as his wife thinks, is the hightlight so far.

Sounds *just* like Austen then!

"I've read all Austen's books and didn't find them claustrophobic in the slightest. I think what I meant is that the world of the book is kinda skewed, all the people talk too much, don't say anything, they're all full of shit, and they're kidding themselves on that they're normal."

Jack, I've tried to read Catch-22 lots of times, and the total insanity of it just gets to me straight away (which is, I'm sure, the whole point).

King Bomba, touche! Hadn't really thought of it that way before. Must be the sedate writing which stops me hurling them out the window.

It was the total insanity of it that made me feel normal. Erm

Just a thought; has anyone read Forrest Gump? Basically the plot is the same as the film (no, really), but it's utterly seditious and questions everything about America, pointing out the foibles and hypocrisy in the same way the film absolutely avoids. It's superb, well worth a read. It's by Winston Groom, for all those rushing to bookshops now..

No - I haven't got around to '...Tyranny...' yet. From what you've said, though, I suspect it's covering *opposite* ground.

I was tutting away when he was talking about how analysis of test scores could expose cheating teachers in Chicago schools. These people were meant to protect their jobs and secure promotion by demonstrating that scores for their classes were in line with the level of attainment expected for the grade. There was no comment on the fact that the tests didn't measure whether teachers were able to *improve* their classes' scores, eg from a low baseline to higher-but-still-below-par.

Basically, Freakonomics reads to me like a loose collection of mildly intersting statistical studies. There's no theoretical underpinning - like 'Why did we undertake a study in this particular way?'

Pedro...I suspect you'd enjoy 'The Milagro Beanfield War' by ...someone. You'll have to google it. Sort of Heller crossed with Steinbeck. Sort of.

Finished reading "1215 - the year of magna carta" a couple of weeks ago, (suprisingly good for a history book), have now started "Richard I" (informative but ) and "Snow Crash" (again)

"I was tutting away when he was talking about how analysis of test scores could expose cheating teachers in Chicago schools. These people were meant to protect their jobs and secure promotion by demonstrating that scores for their classes were in line with the level of attainment expected for the grade. There was no comment on the fact that the tests didn't measure whether teachers were able to *improve* their classes' scores, eg from a low baseline to higher-but-still-below-par."

To be fair to the authors, that wasn't what they were looking for. They were specifically looking for patterns which would indicate cheating by teachers. I got the feeling that was the extent of their interest in the data. Perhaps, being academics, the idea of attacking the whole basis of modern education (standardised tests) was too much like biting the hand that feeds them.

That's true...it was the air of smugness that I was annoyed at:
'Look at us! We're solving a real-world problem by getting all these cheating teachers sacked!'

<> (pedro)

I read a couple of Kafta's books when I was 17 and thought I was an anarchist (turns out I just fancied the guy who ran the meetings). I wonder what I'd make of his books now?

And somehow I have never been able to finish Crime and Punishment, though again, last time I tried was a very long time ago. Weirdly, had no problem reading Solschenizyn back then.

Austen *can* come across claustrophobic but only if you take it seriously, which I think is rather hard to do. Mostly 'get a rich man to save you' books.

Agree that you should stick it out with Vernon God Little - I really loved that book.

az

I've read Crime and Punishment. I found the main character intensely irritating, but for some reason I just couldn't *not* finish the book. I'd think, "OK, I've had enough of this", but I'd come back to it after just a couple of hours.

I avoided the film of Forrest Gump because it was hyped so much. (I tend to avoid films that have been hyped 'cos they're usually disappointing.) If the book is better than the film, I might try to get hold of it.

Right now I'm reading Rubicon by Tom Holland. It's subtitled, "The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic", which pretty much sums it up. Very interesting part of history that I never knew much about, despite doing Latin at school. I guess Ancient Roman history and Latin don't necessarily go hand in hand.

One book I've added to my Christmas list (if I don't get it before then) is the book of the series "Terry Jones' Barbarians". Ex-Python Jones (I wonder if he gets fed up being described that way) debunks the Romans' view of the various 'barbarian' races. I watched it on Friday and the comparison of the 'barbaric' Celts with the 'civilized' Romans was an eye-opener. I really want to read that book. His series on 'Medieval Lives' was pretty good, too.

I'm about to start The Jewel Garden by Monty Don and his wife. Funnily enough I've neve read a non-fiction book before, so it should be rather interesting to see what I think as I usually like to take myself out of the real world!