Search results

Can’t say I enjoyed it. I hope book discussion pages don’t get hijacked like this again — callow students being indoctrinated in neo-conservative newthink, encouraged to misinterpret a good book. This was the very thing Orwell (let's spell his name right, even if he was a “socialist bastard”)...

My resolution is to try never to write "no" when I mean "know," or "there" when I mean "their," or to leave out apostrophes where they are called for. I also resolve never to go anywhere near Nebraska.

Question was not directed at Halo.

I had to read Animal Farm in high school, and from what I gather they're still reading it, so I don't think it goes to show our age. On Pride and Prejudice, I agree with baddichter's comments. But to fully appreciate the book, I think we need to consider the era in which it was written—the...

As Cathy says, but a narc can also mean a drug squad cop, undercover or otherwise, as well as an informer. There used to be a word "Nark," too, which, in this part of the world at least, meant anyone who was an unwelcome pain in the arse. Too easily confused with "Narc" to be used much in...

Cussler? Grisham? Well, Grisham writes interesting light entertainment, at his best; but favourite authors? Like saying your favourite food is hamburgers. Reminds me of when a friend shifted house, he offered the mover beer, for doing a good job. Guy was a beer afficionado—had beer from all...

Catch 22 Undermilk Wood Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence People shouldn't need authors for these, but I do for my 5th choice: Whoever wrote Morry's signature quote: “Experts are addicts. They solve nothing! They serve whatever system hires them. They...

George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four. You are the classic warning against the threat of totalitarianism. To you, politics and philosophy are inseparable, auchtorities suck and the reality might not exist outside our imaginations. Dont ask me what auchtorities are.

Deliverance. Sat through the movie on edge of seat, walked out of there with head spinning. The book? Like drinking flat beer.

Is that Walt Disney's Bambi, or Friedrich Nietzsche's?

Lonesome Dove—is it worthwhile. A vexed question. Some people, including ones who have no respect for the Western genre, can get lost in it and simply love it; others, while conceding that it is a well enough written book, just can't get into it, don't understand what others who rave about it...

Thanks for that, Ell. Yes, that's the book all right. I recognise the title, now I see it written. I'll try to get a copy and see if I enjoy it as much as I did when I read so long ago. Pretty sure I will. Copy I read was borrowed from a good friend, since killed in mysterious circumstances.

Or you could try Horseman, Pass By. His first, I think. Didn't win the Pulitzer, like Dove, but I think the movie based on it (Hud) must have won awards, and made Paul Newman famous. Paul Newman was famous to me already, for his portrayal of Billy The Kid in some B movie from way way back...

Yes. One of the best books ever. Puts all those others in the shade.

Have you read Larry McMurtry, Direstraits? Lonesome Dove is what made him famous, but he has written a lot in what I would call the Western genre, all of them good. Personally, I can't get into Stephen King. His writing comes across as very flat, to me.

Are any of yours NOT spam?

I am a bit surprised to find no mention anywhere of this genre, except for Wabbit’s saying that he doesn’t care for it. Well, very few are very good, but a few are as good as anything mainstream. Here are three: Warlock, by Oakley Hall. Hall has taken bits of history, people who lived and...

Cajunmama, I didn’t know Cajuns were portrayed as buffoonss. Can’t remember ever seeing them portrayed at all, actually. All I know is the food is hot and spicy, and I like it like that; and the music, which I hear sometimes on a radio program I listen to. Someone else (I think it was...

I agree, but there can be exceptions. Most shoot-em-up westerns are formulaic, no characterization, no atmosphere, no nothing; but some are different. Same, I guess, with most genre fiction. I never read romance, for instance, but a good love story can be good. One, whose title and author I...