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

So, if you love reading,
what do you love reading?
A short and simple question, but with many differnet posibilties of replies.

books! Hitchhiker's Guide, obv. And horror, and... comedy. And Discworld *definitely* isn't my thing.
What do you like reading?

Humour & Philosphy.
Strange I know, but I grew up reading Fantasy novels (McCaffrey et all) and veared toward the funnier ones. Then, not os long ago, I inherited my garndmas' book collection, almost 90 years worth of a book collection, that had a huge chunk of philosophy in it.
It's not as dull as it sounds (well maybe a little).
Is it just me, or is Terry P. loosing his sense of humour? It just seems that the last few books he's done aren't quite as funny as the rest.

I wouldn't know - I don't read his books. My excuse being: I can't take in all that information. I got lost in the first three paragraphs of the Colour Of Magic or whatever it's called. I reckon you gotta be reeeally brainy to understand it but that's me and please don't take it as any form of offence.

Bye!

I did write a reply to this one yesterday believe it or not, but my computer did a swan song just before I pressed post, twice, so I gave up for a while.
Yeah I agree about Terry P. His books can be a bit on the intellectual side, lots of long words and puns that you don't understand. Mind you a couple of years after reading one of his books I saw something that made me realise what the actual pun was about (Ican't remember now) and I almost fell off my bike laughing.
On a similar thread, try reading the Myth series by Robert Aspirin.
He's an American author with a good sense of humour (the only one I know).

Just reading back through, I take it you've read Stephen King?
I can't get into his horror but I'm just re-reading the Dark Tower series, superb. The only real horror that I've been able to really get my teeth into is Anne Rices' vampire books, but I've also lost interest after a while and everyone was saying 'Have you read this new author Anne Rice?' to which I had to reply, yeah about four years ago. That and a book called American Psycho. Not so much a horror as a psychologically gore fest, very graphic.

Argh! I forgot my fishey!!!

(Just to make up)

No I haven't read anything by those two, but I'll have a look for something by them. I'm reading Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire and... it's gory, but fun. I'd love to meet Lestat one day. (yeah right *chicken out, chicken out*)

You like fish then.




me too.


later!

Dice-Man. Now, that's a good book. A little scary to know that Rheinhart actually truly believes in the methods, but there you go.

It's not so much that I like fish, to be honest I HATE fish. I actually have a phobia of fish. It's more that the only way to tell whether it was me or my other half talking was that I always signed off with a fish. You see we used to both log on as Pastey. But I've set it up now so that we can both log on seperatly.

You know, in a way I'm going to have to stop this. But reading back through again, Interview with a Vampire is a good book, a great story. I think that is what I look for most in a book, how good the story is. I'm not too concerned if it's badly written, just if the story is good, if it grips you. Anne Rice's books do. Quick bit of trivia here for you, just in case you get into conversation with a someone who claims to be a complete A.Rice fan and they are really getting on your appendages, before the vampire series became famous, Anne Rices' longest running series was a collection starting with a book called 'The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty', followed by one called 'Beautys' Punishment' and ending with 'Beautys' Release'. The thing about these books, and why not many people have heard of them (let alone why your local Waterstones won't stock them) is that they came under the banner of Soft Porn. Weird huh? I read them be sheer fluke and was to say the least amazed. I've also got the comic book version of Interview which started long before the film came out, but because of one delay or the other, the film started shooting about four books from the end, and they had T.Cruise, not as Lestat as he is in the film, but as Louis, toward the end of the comics they were actually using screen shots of T.Cruise in the role. Weird.
Another good horror book though is Cabal, the only Clive Barker book I've read. but good none the less, very good in fact.

I hate fish but they are a pretty decoration.

No offence, but I originally read your name as Patsey. It was when i when to your page that i realised... oops!

No offence taken, I assure you.
The name has caused a lot more embarising and confusing scenes than that. It has been confused with Pasty as in the cornish varity aswell as Patsey of the female ilk. Pastey, is as I am, pale. I currently have a tan and now look mearly white. I suppose for he most embarrising situation it didn't help that I used to have hair so log that I could sit on it. But still whilst walking into a gents toilet at a beer festival I was working at and therefore having to wear a name tag, and having one of the women nearby saying, 'You're going into the wrong toilet', that was worse.

okay... that is worse. i've had no problems with my name apart from that i wish i was called something else.

A quick little tale for you here, think of it if you ever change your name.

A friend of mine, who shan't remain nameless because that will defeat the object of the tale, was born with the name Sharon Hagar. You can imagine the hell that she went through at school with the initials S.Hagar, Shagger Hagar they used to call her. You would have thought that her parents would have learnt with her older sister being called Samantha, but there you go. Any how, as soon as she could, could she changed her name. Her father said that if she did it, she had to move out, so she did. She changed it to Shannon Cornell. Far better all round. Now many years past, her mother died, she split up from her long term boyfriend (obnoxious little scrote that he was) and for one reason and another, she had nowhere to live. So she approached her dad to see if she could move back in with him. They made their differences and he agreed, on the condition that she took back the family surname. So she had to change her name back to Hagar but kept her first name as Shannon. So she still had the initials S.Hagar.
I don't know if there is a moral in there somewhere but it certainly bears thinking about.

no moral... good story. Very funny. It's not reeeeally true, is it?

Yep, totally true. I've known the lass in question for about seven years now. In fact I'll be seeing her again next weekend.
It seems like one of those stories that start "with my mates' brother's friends uncle" but it's not.

'Night.

okay.

'bye!

anne rice is what i read when philosophy books start burning holes into my head during the school year..... check out poppy z. brite's collections of short stories....

i like reading what i can find..... as long as it is interesting.... philosophy, old dusty books, anything except french theory...


also- why aren't americans funny? i've began to notice that humor is imported to here from canada or england....
why?

I have a theory on this, but I don't know how true it is as I've not done any research, but...

Given that in any given nation there is a set quantity of humour that is distributed between the t.v. and radio stations countries with fewer stations have a higher concentration of humour than those with a greater number of stations. To sum, to actually get aired in England it got to be good as there are fewer airing slots so the quality has to be higher, whereas in the US there are countless number of airing slots so anyone can get on.

Sounds plausible doesn't it?