My son is 9, so I'm currently re-reading every Roald Dahl book I can get my hands on so I remember them well enough to talk about. They're even better when you're an adult, believe it or not. I've already been back through the Narnia series, though he's reading some (politically incorrect, who gives a damn?) Enid Blyton stuff right now and admittedly, I can't manage that anymore.
I am eagerly awaiting the next George R R Martin book. We just managed to procure an illegal copy of the first 6 episodes of the Game of Thrones tv series, which hasn't aired in Australia yet, and it's... well, not the book. They never are. Still, better than watching more Friends reruns.
I haven't read sci-fi for a long while, but I did go into mourning when Asimov died. His Foundation series was beyond brilliant.
Knowledge of the author seems to narrow the viewpoint of the reader so that everything they wrote must tie into some event the reader knows about. It's like a guessing game, or deciphering some kind of code. When I saw the latest Dorian Gray film, I couldn't believe how overtly homosexual it was -- the book itself was very subtle and that tension was important to the story, but because the film folk know Oscar Wilde had a bit of an interest in the lads they made it gratuitous. You can make anything about anything if you try hard enough to find a connection, but why?
I am eagerly awaiting the next George R R Martin book. We just managed to procure an illegal copy of the first 6 episodes of the Game of Thrones tv series, which hasn't aired in Australia yet, and it's... well, not the book. They never are. Still, better than watching more Friends reruns.
I haven't read sci-fi for a long while, but I did go into mourning when Asimov died. His Foundation series was beyond brilliant.
(05-13-2011, 11:05 AM)billy Wrote: even the really famous poems i can't recite verbatim.Bloody hell billy, I could have written that.
i love the jabberwock but ask me to recite it. i even did a homage poem to it
which i can't recite either
i'm not that into wanting or needing to know how people lived or died (no offence meant)
though i have retained some aspects of poets lives. i recall snippets of others lives of course
but i just want to read the words. their anguish and suffering and how they arrived at them is secondary.
Knowledge of the author seems to narrow the viewpoint of the reader so that everything they wrote must tie into some event the reader knows about. It's like a guessing game, or deciphering some kind of code. When I saw the latest Dorian Gray film, I couldn't believe how overtly homosexual it was -- the book itself was very subtle and that tension was important to the story, but because the film folk know Oscar Wilde had a bit of an interest in the lads they made it gratuitous. You can make anything about anything if you try hard enough to find a connection, but why?
It could be worse