(no subject)

[nigeltde]

Some good news about the environment for a change, even if the viability about the whole thing looks a little doubtful at the end. Pity we totally dropped the ball on that one ourselves.

lainy122, I thought you might find this amusing :-D

Gave up on the War of the Jewels. Love ya, Tolkein, but I'm not there yet. Am reading The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie atm (didn't even know he'd written it until I jumped into House fandom). It's a little over-explainey but otherwise great fun. The main character is a professional bullshitter and the way he copes with being thrown into a mess he knows absolutely noting about is hilarious. Plus he stubbornly refuses to look like anyone other than Laurie in my head.

I also read The Uncle's Story by Witi Ihimaera on Monday. thanatos666 recommended it to me and it was really good. There was something, I can't quite place it, about the prose style that turned me off a little, but the narrative was so compelling that it didn't really matter. It's about this guy Michael who comes from a very traditional Maori family. One day he comes out to his parents, with the expected explosive result. But at least half the book is actually devoted to his Uncle Sam, also gay, and who fought in Vietnam, whose story Michael slowly uncovers. This book was not only hugely interesting in the way it sheds light on Maori views on things like homosexuality and masculinity and identity and war, it packs a huge emotional punch *and* throws in for free a dollop of Message and Social Commentary about indigenous peoples at the same time. I preferred reading about Sam to reading about Michael, mostly because of the Vietnam stuff which was fascinating, but the Michael stuff was good too. Thanks, Chelle!

Comments

[thanatos666.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it!

Really gotta start reading more novels now. Especially seeing as I don't get to read the paper at work any more *sniff* stupid cheap arses taking away my crappy paper.

[nigeltde]

Aw! Poor Michelle! That's so miserly!

You should read some of the European classics in preparation for your trip! Some Yeates or Voltaire or Goethe or something :-D Or at least something English and contemporary....

[thanatos666.livejournal.com]

Hahah perhaps. I did start reading Jean Paul Satre, but found it too slow and philosophy like :P. I know, I'm stupid, but I just don't really like books where it spends more time in the main character's random thoughts than in the actual plot.

Have put Bryce Courtenay's April Fools Day on hold at the library so I'm looking forward to that. How about a little Jane Austen? That's English ^_^

I told Thad that you enjoyed The Uncle's Story (he owns the book) and he was happy but horrified that I hadn't recommended HIS favourite book (that I havent read). So Thad recommends Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts and the new Dresden Dolls album while he's at it (plus a Faith No More song but I cant remember what it's called. RV? RW?).

Shantaram is a true story about an Australian and it looks awesome but it's so long and I just don't think I have the commitment for a book that long! Also, they're planning on making a movie out of it and Johnny Depp is begging to play the lead character. This is from the author's website:

"I was a revolutionary who lost his ideals in heroin, a philosopher who lost his integrity in crime, and a poet who lost his soul in a maximum-security prison. When I escaped from that prison, over the front wall, between two gun-towers, I became my country's most wanted man. Luck ran with me and flew with me across the world to India, where I set up and ran a free clinic in a crowded Bombay slum. I joined the Bombay mafia, and worked as a gunrunner, a smuggler, and a counterfeiter. I was chained on three continents, beaten, stabbed, and starved. I went to war. I ran into the enemy guns. And when those wilderness years of hunted exile came to an end, when I changed my life, when I stopped running onto the knives and started running into the light of love instead, I wrote the novel, Shantaram, that was based on my wild and wicked life."

[nigeltde]

Wow! Shantaram sounds awesome! Unfortunately I had a bit of a brain-fart at the libaray the other day and borrowed like ten huge books but when I get the chance I will definitely check that out. Tell Thad thanks!

Which Sartre did you read? I've read Nausea and I thought it was very good--in fact I'm a little surprised by the way it's stuck with me--but I agree that it is slow :-D I have a copy of The Outsider by Camus, the other major French existentialist, that is much shorter and is also very good, if you wanna give that a try.

I've never read any Bryce Courtenay. I dunno if it's a true perception or not but I'm always turned off by the Big Serious Drama vibe his books have :-D But Austen is wonderful! Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite books. And if you're looking for something a little more 20th century I can recommend Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman which is all about a hidden London under the real one and it's excellent :-D

[thanatos666.livejournal.com]

Yay for brainfarts!

The one I tried was The Age of Reason and it's very undaunting looking on the outside.

I've always had that problem with Bryce Courtenay as well! I went to put this book on hold and I didnt actually know who the author was. I was tempted to just leave and pretend I'd never tried, but I saw that it was about his son who died of AIDS because of a blood transfusion as a haemophiliac. That thing kinda tugs on me so I decided to give it a read.

I've never read Jane Austen, but I can recite the TV show by heart (with details of the horses, of course)

[nigeltde]

Hmm, that sounds either really depressing or Uplifting (if you know what I mean). But Courtenay probably has too much class to let it go to to those extremes, so let me know how it goes.

And I own a copy of P&P so if you want it just send a word.

Btw, did you know I've still got hold of your Manson CD and your Boondock Saints DVD? Muahahahaha!

[thanatos666.livejournal.com]

YOU have my boondock saints DVD!?!?!? And all this time i've been sending secret hate messages to Lisha for it! I haven't even watched it yet!

And I still have your Manson album too :P

[nigeltde]

Heh heh heh. Aheh heh heh.

[corvus-coronis.livejournal.com]

"Manga leads to gender confusion"

- for posting that, you deserve a pride of personal catguys, now go get (http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=catguy) yourself some.

[nigeltde]

That's really cool!

[lainy122.livejournal.com]

*cracks up* Oh god, oh god, so funny. Ok, yes, there is often HUGE gender confusion in manga - in fact, more often than not - but Inuyash? He's one of the more masculine ones, I swear! HA!

[lainy122.livejournal.com]

PS Am totally enjoying Persion Boy. Ta muchly! <3

PPS I borrowed Dead Poet's Society, and Muppets From Space from the library! Did you want to watch?

[nigeltde]

Yes! Yes! Yay! Are you off tomorrow, Saturday? I have double reason to see DPS now because apparently Robert Sean Leonard is in it (he's also in House which I am obsessed with atm).

And Persian Boy is the best, isn't it? Where are yo uup to?

[lainy122.livejournal.com]

I have a game Sat afternoon, but I'm not sure when. I'll buzz you with the time when I get home, k? *is being all sneaky and using the library computers for her ljing* I sit here behind the desk, and the public assume I'm working - little do they know! *evil cackle*

I've just read the part where Alexander and Bagoas sleep together for the first time. So cute!

[nigeltde]

Muahahaha! Library patrons the SIMPLE! Library patrons the FOOL!

I've just read the part where Alexander and Bagoas sleep together for the first time. So cute!
I love that bit, Bagoas is so unendingly brilliant. Isn't Renault the most amazing writer?

[lainy122.livejournal.com]

Totally. So good ^_^

[nigeltde]

HA!