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

"To be is to do"- Socrates

"To do is to be"- Jean-Paul Sartre

"Be do be do be"- Frank Sinatra

God is Dead - Friedrich Nietzsche

(followed, some time later, by)

Friedrich Nietzsche is Dead - God

A novella you might enjoy is "God in search of the Black Girl" by Brigid Brophy. It was written as a reply to George Bernard Shaws "The Black Girl in search of God." In it God goes in search of the black girl (theres a surprise) not realising that not all his fellow fictional characters have independent existences like he does

Very funny and very clever.

That sounds very interesting Never read anything by Brigid Brophy...

I like the sound of 'novella' too I just finished Norman Cohn's 'Pursuit of the Millennium', a history of various medieval heresies - absolutely fascinating, but a bit, well, *heavy*: I could do with something which isn't going to take weeks and weeks

Its finding it that can be the problem. Its in a book called "God in search of the Black Girl and other stories." I got it from a public library about 20 years and have never seen it in a bookshop, new or 2nd hand in all that time. I expect the internet makes finding stuff a lot easier but not for a techno-phobe like me

Read Deadeye Dick today as a break from Hitler and Stalin. Short books have their virtues.

Apart from a little about the Cathars all I know about medeval heresy I learnt from The Name of the Rose

Mediaeval heresy - sounds fascinating, as well as heavy...
I am reading a novel, Alice Sebold's 'Lovely Bones', weird and wonderful!

Sounds interesting Adelaide
Do tell (I recognise the authors name but have never read anything of hers)

She has written only one other book, 'Lucky', the account of her rape which took place when she was at University.
'Lovely Bones', is told by a girl, Susie Salmon, from the afterlife, as she has been raped, murdered and dismembered by a neighbour just before Christmas 1973. (She was 14.) She follows the lives of her family and school mates, watching how they react to her death, and her sister's gradual thawing, her father's desperate attempts to find the murderer, and the turning of her would-be boyfriend, to the 'weird' girl, Ruth, who didn't know her beforehand, but actually saw her ghost go rushing from the cornfield where she was killed, to the afterlife. It's a vivid and marvellous tale. Oddly, Alice Sebold said, in an interview I read recently, that despite having set her main character in the afterlife, she doesn't believe in one! I am about halfway through, so i am eager to see if the murderer is actually caught, and what 'miraculous event' Ruth and Susie's putative boyfriend (they exchanged one kiss two days before her death) take part in. (The miraculous event is mentioned in the front blurb...
The only problem I have with Susie is that she is sometimes very knowing for a 14 year old in 1973.
My non-fiction isn't so good at the moment - a trivial Australian book of "true-crime" writing. Very uneven!

Sounds like a writer who would be worth looking at
Fiction I've just reread Deadeye Dick, typical Vonnegut, very funny black humour, not his best but good
I've also been rereading the Narnia books and not finding the Christianity a problem. I can make my own mind up on that but disliking many of C.S. Lewis' attitudes. Funny how it has became so dated when LOTR hasn't.
Non-fiction I've almost finished Hitler and Stalin : Parallel Lives which was very good but very depressing

I read a review of 'Hitler and Stalin' in our local paper on Friday, they liked it, or rather 'The Telegraph Group' (review was reprinted from there) did. It certainly would be depressing!
I found C S Lewis' jingoism one of the real problems with the Narnia books - you're right, they are dated, horribly! I think it's because they're so 'real world' compared to LotR. I confess I have never read Vonnegut, I had a boyfriend who put me off the things he liked, by his descriptions. (Long story.) I read Michael Moorcock on his say so - 'nuff said!

I liked Moorcock when I was a teenager but probably wouldn't read him now. Vonnegut is in a different class I'd argue.

I'll add him to my 'to read' list, along with Robert E Howard (Conan) and Janet Frame (NZ writer who died at the beginning of the year, and to my shame, I have never read any of her books!)

Howard I didn't like. I've never heard of Janet Frame. So much to do, see and read and only 1 lifetime (or not as the case may be )

I liked the Narnia books, but havent' read them since I was prepubescent. (+20 years ago!) I don't remember jingoism. I was thinking I should read them again, this conversation is giving me second thoughts.

I am currently trying to read Pride and Prejudice. I just can't get into it. Is there something wrong with me?

Its the jingoism and racism in the depictation of the non-Narnia peoples, I forget their name, but seem to me to be meant to be read as Muslim. Cruel, treacherous and always plotting to invade Narnia.

Haven't tried to reread P&P in years but did enjoy. Reread Emma every now and then. Much my favourite Jane Austen.

Not necessarily - Pride and Prejudice is a matter of taste! Do you have to read it for school or Uni?

I haven't *read* any of them before. Maybe I should start with a different one. Is Emma any easier to get in to?

Adelaide - no I'm reading the for personal. Just cause I keep hearing about them and they keep making them into movies and such. So I should be able to just enjoy them. I know I've read things that are much harder and been able to get more into them, so I don't think It's just that they are difficult to follow, although I am finding P+P so.

I think Emma is easier. P&P is a lot easier than some of her others like Persuasion or Mansfield Park. I had to read the lot in 6th form.

I liked the film Clueless, a good modern retelling of Emma.