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

Reading The Grapes of Wrath...I'd forgotten what a powerful moving novel it is.

The Fifth Elephant
and
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
and
The Spirit Level Delusion (thank goodness, nearly finished with that one)
and
10 pages or so away from finishing the 18th Stephanie Plum.

tuc:

I defy you to read the last two pages without crying.

Dipped in to a couple more chapters of '23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism' - Ha-Joon Chang.

Trying to decide on what fiction to start. Possibly 'World War Z' - on account of I saw some of the filming.

Ed

It's a book that would make a brilliant film remake (the original was great - although I bet that right wing git Henry Fonda regretted starring in it), and has a lot to tell modern audiences.

I'd somewhat hate to see it compressed. It's too much of an epic. Miniseries?

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, by Al Franken.

Nearly done re-reading "Nation", then planning to tackle some of my birthday books. Good thing I have today off

'World War Z' it is. Readable so far.

He's done enough research to throw in stuff like quotations from Chairman Mao, names of Chinese cars, etc. All standard thriller-writer stuff. In fact I understand that bestselling authors - yer John Grishams, yer Elmore Leonards - have teams of researchers to get this 'local colour' for them. Only...flagging it up with footnotes is maybe a step too far.

Hmm. I'm getting impatient now. From the footnotes we learn that 'shetou' means 'Chinese snakehead gangster' So why not just say 'kin 'snakehead'? Why keep repeating it? Is he trying to teach me Chinese? Does he think he's Anthony Burgess?

And then we move on to local colour in Portuguese and Xhosa.

And he signals that the book is set in the near future by talking about minidisc players.

I really should try and ignore the bad writing and just enjoy the story.

I don't remember World War Z being overly full of footnotes...

Not full - but there are a few. Maybe they're only near the start.

It's more the 'Look at me with my research' that's getting to me. Other writers wear it less lightly. For example, I've not long finished Sarah Waters 'Fingersmith'. It's not a brilliant book - but she throws in the odd Victorian detail in a way that makes them noticeable without being distracting. (Like people using chamberpots; being mortified at the idea of being seen outdoors without a hat)

>>Other writers wear it less lightly

less is more.

Now here's a book that is worth the cover price for the footnotes alone:

http://www.amazon.com/Bonk-Curious-Coupling-Science-Sex/dp/0393064646

*Highly* recommended!

I've just finished re-reading To Kill A Mockingbird and was reminded of why I liked it the first time around. It does have more racism than I remember. Even the Finches have some attitudes we would call racist now.

I'm about to start What's My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield. H2g2 is the only place I know where I can share that with the knowledge that I may not be laughed at or considered odd as a result!

What does he tell about fonts? Is it history or what is it?
I got two calligraphy books at home, but they are mainly for 'copying' the letters when I want to write something nice with ink.

Ooh! I've got that one in my pile. So point proven.


(although - ahem - it was R4's book of the week a few weeks ago.)

And there's another thing. Early on in that book I learned that the British tended to talk about 'founts' while the Americans tended to talk about 'fonts'. They later became interchangeable, but with the latter gradually taking over and becoming more prevalent by the 1930s...although 'founts' is still sometimes used as a point of pedantic difference.

And then I read 'Fingersmith' which deals with the publication of pornography and she refers to 'founts'.

Research worn lightly.

Having not started it yet, I think it is a book about the development of fonts and the stories behind individual fonts, as well as the impact they have on us (eg. you wouldn't take a letter written in Comic Sans seriously).

It's had great reviews.

sounds interesting, I should get it I think