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

Ah yes Ed, Victor of the Long Neck. I remember him now! So 'twas he kept Steve Biko off the BBC's front page. Just to keep our American readers up to speed, Berlusconi is planning to get half of Italy, well 4 million anyway, onto the streets. Prodi's "final straw" mistakes were supporting American foreign policy at home in Vicenza (US Base) and Afghanistan.

On the book front, for holiday reading, I'd highly recommend:
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell:-

"a torch to pass from generation to generation" Tony Benn
"spiked, witty, humorous, instructive...full of excitement, harmony and pathos" Alan Sillitoe
"unfailing humour mixes with unfailing rage...a truly Swiftian impact" Michael Foot

Well, I got side-tracked from reading 'The Alchemist' by my amazonian delivery. Just the one book but one I'd been waiting for.

So I off and read it in one sitting - Kim Harrison 'For a Few Demons More' - very good, worth the wait, hate it when authors kill people off because they've got to do something

out of 5 possible

cheersismarah

RF:
>>With Iain Banks, everyone still quotes The Wasp Factory, which is rubbish

Beg to differ. Try re-reading it. It's very good indeed. I agree that the underrated 'The Bridge' is wonderful, though. I've gone right off Banks recently. Oftentimes his books have the air of having been dashed off (which, he admits, they are!). 'Dead Air' was pointless LadLit.

SpaceCadette
>>Quick, will some kind soul recommend a good book on revolution? <<

Well, not necessarily revolution, but how about 'Sophie Scholl and The White Rose'? It's historical, it's war, it's resistance, it's good stuff...

cheersismarah

Ooh! Ooh! Sophie Scholl, you say? See my and JEllen42's work in progress: A12961055 (and look out my Entrys on Georg Elser and on German Anti-Nazi Youth Movements too) (Or...for The Cultural Revolution: A5141369 See link to Jung Chang's excellent book)

On revolution - runddon'twalk to Eric Hobsbawm's classic 'The Age of Revolutions'.

For a failed revolution, there's Che Guevara's 'African Diaries'

*Do Not* bother with Ian Bone's utterly feeble-minded and execrable 'Bash The Rich'. The eejit seems to think that he radicalised the miners. (!!!) (Corruscating review on Amazon pending)

Bride of Lammermoor - Sir Walter Scott

So far it's not too bad. But I hate Scott cause he is mean to Hoffmann (the original Sandman), so I can't help but add "your mom!" to the end of a lot of his phrases.

After that, it's Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Yes. It's the Scottish Week.

I tried to read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists a couple of years ago, and found it impenetrable.

Anyway, I went to Books Etc this afternoon and picked up 3 books on their 3-for-2 offer:

Restless, by William Boyd. I like Boyd.
A Short History OF Tractors In Ukrainian...discussed here a couple of months ago.
We Need To Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. Anyone read this?

These should keep me going over my holiday.

RF

I've just finished reading We Need To Talk About Kevin. Read on a recommendation and surprised myself by enjoying it much more than I thought I would, it's not generally the sort of thing I'd usually go for. However, it was an eloquent and good, easy read. Good holiday poolside choice.

Next up are another two books also recommended, not by the same peope incidently, but I can't decide which to go for first.

Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee

or

The Secret Life Of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

The second one looks like a bit of a girl's book though.

Disgrace is very good. I like Coetzee.

Amy:
Trainspotting contains one of my all-time favourite sentences from literature. It's far too rude to reproduce accurately here, but it's something like:
"Yis could just ing tell that some ing wis goantae that "

Great opening line, too:
"The sweat wis lashin oafay Sickboy's face."

A friend of a friend kept asking who this character was that everyone kept talking about, 'Masel'. As in "Ah says tae masel...". She had to be taken aside and have a penny dropped on her.

RF I loved the Ukranian Tractors, it had me in stitches (but as I'm such a Big Girls Blouse it also made me a bit)

I've just finished The Peppered Moth by Margaret Drabble. It seemed to be about something then for a while it was about lots of things then it seemed to be about nothing. Beautiful writing though.

Now I'm reading The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

Hmm ... "Sports Cinema - 100 Movies: The Best of Hollywood's Athletic Heroes, Losers, Myths, & Misfits of the Silver Screen". One reviewer asked about the inclusion of "Gladiator", which the author defended as the alltime sport of its day. I guess if the list of greatest snake movies can include "Boogie Nights" ...

http://www.amazon.com/Sports-Cinema-Hollywoods-Athletic-Misfits/dp/0879103310

RF, I haven't read "We need to talk about Kevin", but two people that I know have, one thought it was "the best book I've ever read!", and the other said "I've never read such a boring, self-absorbed, long-winded book in my life!!" I'm more inclined to believe the second reader, as she's got about 20 years on the first one, and the first reader likes to thinkthat she's a psychologist, up to you?!

Currently in between proper books, now reading the Rough Guide to New Zealand, but will update when I've decided what "real book" to read next!!

L x

RF,
That's odd. I found The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists so easy to get into; I was really with those guys painting that big house, looking out for the boss...

I've now started John Steinbeck's masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath and after only 6 chapters I can see why it's so highly rated.

Cry Freedom, just finished, was an amazing book, full of stories of unsung heroes - Steve Biko's wife, Donald Wood's wife, the Lesotho govt. official, the old man with the battered car hidden down by the river, the New Zealand pilot. I was moved to tears of joy that there are such good people in the world.

I thought the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists was a good story which would have benefited from better editing. It was too long.

TRTF, like its title, is perhaps a little on the long side, I'll give you that, Sho. After all, there's only so much you can say about a bunch of blokes painting a house.

The Ukranian Tractor book didn't do anything for me I'm sorry to say.

I'm a bit late to the subject, but the next time you're in the market for a holiday read, you might try Robert Ludlum's 'Road to Gandolfo'. 'Road to Omaha' was good too, but Gandolfo was better.

finished The Fellowship of the Ring, now starting my favourite The Two Towers.

you read your books twice?

Only twice?! There are books that I re-read on a 5 year cycle, I understand more of them then, and get more of the jokes as well!!

About to start "my best friend's girl" by Dorothy Koomson, it's been lent to me by a friend, don't think it's gonna be my kinda book, but you never you know?!

L x

Oh, yes, most books at least twice, sometimes in succession. The really good ones get read dozens of times.

Currently reading
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Fire and Ice by Erin Hunter
Brimstone by Lincoln Preston and Douglas Child

(all for the first time )