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

Hi

You found "my" message?

I thought it was "Ernesto The Bull"'s message!!!

Ernesto says maybe you would like to see a photo of his library? Log back onto Nick's site & click on the link you find. I hope it works!

Sorry to hear about your book club. A lot of these groups tend to become power trips for the people who run them, don't they? I remember similar problems reported amongst the adult committee that ran a fairly innocent Dr Who fan club in the 1980s. Some people just have to be in total control - maybe their real kids are not doing what they wanted them to do, so they have to boss other adults instead?

Perhaps we could set up a little informal reading group here - no pressure on everyone to read everything, and no shady gardens or big lounges required on the internet! Or maybe we could all join Oprah's book club on the web - although some of the novels might not be available in the UK. And I think maybe Oprah charges a membership fee.

In the meantime, I'll look out for the Elizabeth Buchan book.

School holidays start this evening. I hope the library won't become too crowded over the next six weeks. Actually, most of the kids wander into the library after 10am, when they're still half-asleep.

Hi

Yes, found the picture, thank you.
You are certainly priveliged to have such a beautiful Library. We haven't actually got one at all in our village, but somebody comes along with a van, although I've never been inside it, don't know what it contains. I go to the next village and the library there is a modern, square box.

What a super idea, to have a book group of our own. I believe somebody started something like that when we first joined hootoo, but I think most people don't go there much now. For the time being the CB seems almost back to normal, whatever that is.
Had a look in my diary last night and read that I joined on the 26th of October. Last year.

Strange you should say that, about the people who run these groups. The lady I was talking about is very bossy. She got away with it for a long time because when she first joined our W.I. she was very upset as her son (or stepson) had committed suicide.

I think that the Elizabeth Buchan is a little bit a "woman's book". Don't know why, I suppose I go by what my husband used to read.
That was so very sad, I thought, Rich, when he died so suddenly and there, on his bedside table was the book he was reading, and he was half-way through it. It seemed awful to me that he never knew the ending.

I hope you'll get to read the LOvely Bones soon as I'm very curious to know what you think of it. You'll realise why when you read it.

See you soon.

Take care.

Hi

It's strange how death affects the people who are "left behind" (whatever that means).

My father died from lung cancer, at home, 6 a.m. on a Saturday morning in the winter of 1999. Later that morning, I went out shopping for my mother, and when I got to the town centre, I saw an elderly white-haired man in his eighties, and my reaction was a strange feeling of: "Hey! You're an old man but you're still alive, while my father is dead. I don't understand how that's possible..."

It was really weird, but for the whole of that morning, I felt astonished whenever I saw elderly white-haired men walking around the town, not because they looked like my father, but because they were the same age as my father but THEY were still alive.

Glad you liked the picture of the library. It was built in 1841, and it used to be the town's "Corn Exchange", in fact my mother's father used to bring his corn to this very building. (My mother's father was my only "true" grandparent I ever knew, thanks to various deaths and divorces and other deaths between the 1930s & 1960s.)

I am trying to remember when I first looked at the Radio 2 message boards - almost a year ago, I believe, although I couldn't register at the time because I didn't have an e-mail account, and didn't realise it would be so easy to get one for free. While I was "lurking" without replying, I saw a LOT of what went on last year!

Off to explore a few other book sites now - I'm halfway through "The Bees" by the way, and still enjoying it.

Hi

Just back from the funeral of my friend, made myself a large mug of tea and ready to chat.

I know what you mean about these old men still being alive when your father wasn't.
My husband died suddenly and for me the world stopped, I was in such shock.
For weeks I couldn't understand how people could go about their business and do all the normal things, even laugh and sing, as if nothing had happened.
I often think about that, when I go, things will still carry on and I won't know about it. Hard to imagine, isn't it?
After the funeral I was chatting to a lady vicar. She told me that she was a widow and was absolutely convinced that when we die there is going to be a much better life.
I didn't say: "I hope you're right.
I told her about The Lovely Bones. Do vicars read novels?

I remember when I first joined the R2 board, I was scared stiff. Jason welcomed me and I thought that was so lovely. Perks too, he is always very kind to newcomers, isn't he?
But then I didn't think I could go on with it, everybody seemed so clever and witty, I felt very dull. (So what's changed?)
I remember it was very daunting , everybody seemed to know each other so well and I felt like I was interrupting private conversations.

Are you not coming back to the CB? Take no notice of the mods.


See you soon,

Hi

I was coming back to the CB this morning - but of course it was all closed down due to maintenance. I'll tell you about my own Message Board history sometime.

I have mixed feelings about organised religion. A lot of the Christian bible is contradictory if it is taken literally.

Belief in Creationism leads into all sorts of unproductive arguments. Of course, dinosaur fossils and other geological evidence could have been "planted" as a test of faith, but it would be a mean-spirited god who played that kind of trick on humanity!

Having said that - there are definite HUMAN role models throughout Christianity.

Today is July 23rd, the feast of Saint Bridget of Sweden... Mother to eight children (including Saint Catherine), widow, traveller throughout Europe, political & religious visionary, supporter of LIBRARIES and book-learning and mixed worship, and my favourite of the saints.

Happy St. Bridget's Day!

Hi again

To celebrate St. Bridget's Day, I have just registered on www.oprah.com, and joined Oprah's Book Club.

This summer we are reading "Anna Karenina" (gulp!) and, according to Oprah's marathon-style reading programme, I should be on page 505 by today, July 23rd. So it looks like I've got a lot of catching up to do!

I have also signed up for a personal inspirational message to be sent to my e-mail inbox every day.

I feel better already!



Rich

Hi

Happy St Bridget's Day to you too. Fancy being a saint and then having a saintly daughter as well.

I expect you've already left the library now. I'm sorry, it's not just the boards that are playing up, it's my computer as well. I just couldn't get connected and then when I did and wanted to reply to you, the whole thing got "stuck" every time. And now, I expect you've gone home.

Frustrating, wasn't it, yesterday, when we didn't know what was going on. What on earth did they do when they closed the boards for a week? I didn't see any difference when they came back on, I expect they just wanted a week's holiday. All the hosts and mods. lying in the sun!!

I don't know about these saints etc., Rich, although I was brought up with them I still call onSt.Anthony to find things I've lost, but I'm not at all convinced it's him that's helping me, as I know I've GOT to keep searching and never give up and THEN I'll find whatever I've lost. And positive thinking has a lot to do with it. Now THAT really intrigues me.

As for religions, they are nice for the people who believe in them, which I don't.
And if I am in a tight spot and want to call on somebody for help, I don't actually know who or what that is.

Your inspirational message for the day sounds interesting, was that from Oprah as well?

Talking about religion, have you ever heard of the guru "Sai Baba?" I have quite a few books about him and much as I wanted to believe in him, part of me was very dubious. Then, a few weeks ago there was a horrendous documentary about him on T.V. How he abuses young boys etc. Of course, we don't know if that is true eiter.

Don't know if the boards are working yet, it seems Nick's page is a bit hit or miss too, as I left a message for BDG and she gets told that there are no messages for her. Which made me wonder, did you ever receive the one I sent to you there?

Must make some tea. I've been out to lunch and I've been talking for 4 hours!! Gasping!!

Take care, >sheep>

Hi

No, I haven't heard of Sai Baba, and it sounds like I don't want to either!

I regard the saints as generally being inspirational & motivational figures from history. I'm not a Catholic, so haven't been taught to regard them as God's helpers who still exist someplace. Like funerals, Heaven, etc, I think of them as more help to the living than to the dead...

So, I am now 39 pages into my copy of Anna Karenina - ha ha, you didn't think I'd do it, did you? Well, I am!

Excellent novel so far, although of course, I suspect Anna herself will not appear until page 100. At the moment, the story is concentrating on her brother's circle of friends in Moscow. The writing is very easy to understand, in this new 2003 Penguin translation, and any untranslatable Russian words are explained at the back of the book.

I bought "Anna Karenina" in WHSmith yesterday, could choose another book for half-price, so I got "The Lovely Bones" too, and currently on page 31 of that one.

Login time running out

Hi


Good for you for sticking with Anna Karenina. I must have another look at it, although I tend to shrink back from long books, nowadays. I think it is because I have this pile of unread books on my bedside table and am anxious to read them all. But when you read a book you really enjoy, you don't want it to end, do you?

Saturday-morning. I know F1 is very boring nowadays, but I have to watch it anyway, because...you never know. I live in hope. So there's the qualifying coming up at lunch-time.

So, before that, as soon as I've sent you this, I'm into the garden, always lots to do and now I have all this paving, lots of sweeping up. It's all crunchie underfoot and I hate that.

Enjoy this beautiful weather, Rich,

Love

Hi

Don't forget the British Moto GP, motorcycle racing...

And it looks like Lance Armstrong will claim his sixth Tour de France on Sunday afternoon.

When will I have time for reading?!

Hi

Had a quick look and British Moto GP is on just after F1 finishes. How will we ever have time to chat on the boards again, because there's Jason to listen to as well. I believe he's on at 4.00 and I can only listen to him on the Internet.

My feet haven't touched the ground to-day, friend came for coffee just after I'd tidied the garden and then another friend wanted to go to the Sales, so off we went. In and out of dress shops, trying things on, taking them off, got fed-up and bought a nice blouse I didn't try on and it doesn't fit. Doh!!

Do you have time to go to the Library tomorrow? Otherwise, happy Monday.

Hi

Yes here I am at the library, Sunday, 10.04am. (Currently playing: a Rock Champions compilation featuring Queen, Tina Turner and Patti Smith.)

Please excuse the "cloves and onion" scent on my hands, as I have been preparing bread sauce and stuffing for today's roast chicken.

I've just found out that the British motorcycle racing is on TV at the same time as the Tour de France final stage, and I don't have a working video recorder to record one and watch the other. So I'll have to watch the historic cycling, and watch the motorcycles next time.

Last night, I finished the first part of "Anna Karenina", and now I can read Oprah's guide to that section. I haven't had anymore e-mails from that site, but I do have full access to all the hidden parts of Oprah's site.

Have a good sporting Sunday

Hi

The smell on your hands, onion and cloves, makes me drooool. Proper home-made stuffing, wonderful.
Must admit, mine comes out of a packet and I'm not wild about the taste, but I LOVE the smell, always reminds me of Christmas.

I've never watched motor-cycling seriously, but I feel as if I'm missing a lot of excitement. It's a question of getting to "know" the riders, isn't it, so that you can choose someone to shout for. Like with any game, I suppose.

My friend in Cornwall watches all sport and is interested only in the results, I can never understand that, he's not interested in individuals.

Just greeted you on the CB., has been very quiet the last few days. Weather too nice, I think.

I can't listen to Jason this afternoon as I'll be watching T.V. at te time.

What a busy life we lead, doing nothing but sitting down and watching and listening.

See you soon,

Hi

I am just getting into the motorcycle racing too, this year.

It's funny, perhaps I should have started watching it sooner, because so many people in my family have had motorbikes.

My grandfather (mum's father) rode one when he was a postman, and my late uncle had one until his hip started to go bad. My Aylesbury brother-in-law has had several motorbikes in the past 10 years. And my favourite old family photo shows my mum's aunt dressed in her sunday best, sitting on her very own motorbike, in the early 1920s!

I agree with you about sports personalities vs. results.

I think the motorcycling and Tour de France are much more interesting to watch because you can see the bodily movements of the competitors as they are racing. Whereas in Formula One, you can only see slight hand & head movements from the drivers during the in-car camera shots. And sometimes the Formula One commentators have no idea which driver has just crashed! Obviously, Formula One is more to do with teams and sponsorship than with individuals, unless that individual is the world champion.

"Anna Karenina" update: you mustn't let me slip behind with this book. According to Oprah's schedule on her website, I have to finish the book by early September. Currently, I'm up to chapter VIII of part 2 - that's page 141.

I had a look at Oprah's questionnaire for part 1 of the book. Tough questions! "Look for five ways in which the Shcherbatskys' family life differs from our own..." "Discuss the opening line of the book - do you agree with it?"

I can't wait to read one of the upcoming features on Oprah's site - "Why men should read Anna Karenina"!

Hi

Isuppose it's hard to explain why I love F.1. so much. It USED to be so exciting and I must admit, yesterday it was almost like old times.
Jenson overtook all those cars from 13th on the grid to finish up 2nd. He was great. AND he is English AND he has a nice personality as well, he is supercalm.

Schu. gets all the praise, but it's his CAR which is the best and his team.They have so much money, they can afford the best and that's what I have against F.1. The guys at the back have such an unfair disadvantage.
So, afterwards I watched the Bikes. I know the skill of these guys is fantastic and the danger obvious. Yet, (and don't tell anybody) I fell asleep. But I'll keep on watching, for a while at least.

Are you actually enjoying Anna Karenina? It seems a bit like our Book Group, one feels obliged to read the books, whether you want to or not.

There's very little going on on the boards these days. Just had a look at R2 and Scott is lording it there once again, moaning about Sarah Kennedy. What a boring lot they are, why don't they listen to R4?

See you soon,

Hi

I'm up to Part 2 Chapter XX (page 177) of Anna Karenina now. Most of the chapters are quite short, each one is only four or five pages long, but there are about 35 chapters to each part, and eight parts in the novel!

As I read it, I'm getting the sense that I'm doing something worthwhile. It's interesting to see how many of my assumptions are wrong. For instance, I'm surprised at the number of times the characters speak in French or English to each other, and the references to English novelists like Dickens. I guess I still have a prejudiced view of Russia being closed off from the western world for the whole of its history.

I'm interested to read what Oprah's website has to say about "Why men should read this novel." At the moment, I sympathise mostly with the adulterous Stepan (Anna's brother) and the curmudegonly Levin (based on Tolstoy himself).

My newest library book: "The Winter Queen" by Boris Akunin. It's a recent novel, first published in Russia in 1998 and translated into English last year, but the story is set in Moscow at the same time as Anna Karenina!

The author Boris Akunin has been compared to Tolstoy. Hmmm... Actually, Akunin writes about his characters from a distance, and he is always butting into the story with his own authorial intrusions. Whereas Tolstoy gets right into his characters' heads for page after page, and Tolstoy's observations are placed extremely subtly: the choice of a particular word in a particular sentence.

Got two e-mails from the Oprah site today - a badly typed message of the day, with at least one spelling error... And a full colour web-page advertising the latest issue of her mag. Nice to get e-mails, though.

I've decided to avoid arguing about Radio 2 on the MBs, because life is too short and Anna Karenina is too long!

Have a great day

Hiya

You are getting ME interested in Anna Karenina now. But it'll have to wait, I don't have so much time for reading AND I'm a VERY slow reader, almost as though I'm reading out loud. Every now and again, when I'm aware of this, I'll speed myself up, but it doesn't last. It may be because I've always been quite mad about reading, even from a very early age. But I went to a school where we had to do a lot of homework, every night and all week-end. Even during the holidays.
And my parents knew that if I had books to read, the studying came to a stop. But I found other ways to get away from studying, I was always sneaking out of the house and gallivanting around with my friends, when they thought I was upstairs in my room.
So, every book I did get, I savoured, word by word. It must also have something to do with my personality, because if I had a bar of chocolate I would cut it up into tiny little pieces and make it last for hours. And I'm still a slow eater.

I don't suppose you want to know all that. Ha ha ha.

Something else you don't want to know.
I have a very clever vacuum cleaner. When it gets fed up it stops and it has to have a rest. Overheated? Maybe, I know I am. To-day was the day the whole house would get cleaned up. It's 12.30 and the cleaner and I are having a break. I just tried it and it's ready to start again, but I'm not. I'm only half-way through my coffee.

Therapeutic in a way, vacuuming, it's "thinking time" and I try to solve some of my problems. That has come to a full stop too.

Nothing going on in the CB the last few days and on R2 it's the same old story.
I am in touch with BDG by e-mail, we have a lot of fun and it's private.

Keep reading, One day I'll join Oprah, I've got too much going on at the moment, although if the CB stays like it is, I'll have plenty of time to spare, because all that messaging is very time-consuming, isn't it?

See you soon.







BTW did you ever have a look at some of the people Online? Seems to me most of them are budding writers, showing their works and asking for comments. Quite interesting. I just pick a name that interests me and you get some surprises.

Hi

I know what you mean about making things last - I am always the last to finish opening my presents on Christmas morning, about half-an-hour after my nieces & nephews have ploughed through their massive piles of pressies.

Haven't looked at the budding writers yet, and I see H2G2 is going down for maintenance at 10am this morning (Wednesday).

I finished reading 'The Secret Life of Bees' yesterday. A great read, thank you for recommending it to me. My only complaint was about the final confrontation between Lily and her father - would he have given her up so easily, after working so hard to find her?

Currently on page 210 of Anna Karenina - a quarter of the way through the book. When I reach the same page as Oprah, I'll have to slow down & read along with her, if you see what I mean!

Hope H2G2 is back up tomorrow.

P.S. We'll have to swap e-mail addresses sometime - maybe via Nick's site? Or maybe via BDG, now that she's shown me her e-mail address.

Rich

Hi Catharina

Sunny here in Suffolk today, and we're due for a hot weekend too.

I'm watering my pumpkin plants, but they don't seem to need it at the moment - largest plant is about four feet long and still growing. There's a green flower head at each zigzag of the plant.

Hurrah - I've just reached Anna Karenina page 236! End of Part 2!

Now I'm off to oprah.com to see what she says about that part.

Have a great day