Search results

I seem to remember that I read him back when I was reading William Gibson, and had prob'ly just finished Zelazny's Lord of Light. So, there was a let down factor involved. I also think that if I approached the book as a kind of alt-future/noir mystery rather than a work of science fiction, I...

I thought I was being rather circumspect.

ds, I read When Gravity Fails several years ago. I have to admit that I thought, at the time, the novel was dreadful. The pace of it seemed all wrong. I suppose that I do owe it to him to read it again. I mean, either it really was that bad, or I just missed the boat entirely.

Your right about "Dag Nabbit!" here in the States. Most people know it as the the most often used exclamation of Yosemite Sam. However, we use (at least around here) "dingleberry" in very much the same way as Geenh describes "dag". I mean, technically, "dingleberry" refers to a clump of dung...

Yeah. At the very least, I think that an author should put such spoutings in the mouths of one of their characters. And, maybe that's why it seemed so jarring in Winterson's book. Like I said, I seem to remember most of the book being quite good. And, again, as I said, it isn't about...

Depends a little on how you look at it, but my contenders would be: - Pickled pig tongue (at one time I really liked it) - Whole baby squid (delicious sauteed in butter, but then all you taste is butter) - Scrapple - a regional dish consisting mostly of little bits of pork (usually from the...

For me, so much of this depends on the context of the question. So often, these days, "Hi. How are you?" has become a meaningless form of greeting, so if the very next question is "What do you do for a living?" I have to assume that the answer must be important to the person who is asking. I...

Well, I don't know that I would say "crappy". Hammett was very much a stylist in his writing, and he isn't to everyone's taste, just like Hemingway isn't, etc. I might say, though, that the bulk of his notoriety is derived more from the fact that a couple of his books were made into very...

Actually, I worked in a grocery store stocking their frozen foods, and so spent about 2/3 of every working day in a large walk-in freezer where the ambient was -8 Fahrenheit. Saying that I worked in a freezer seemed more interesting, to me, than saying that I worked in a grocery store. But...

I certainly can't cite chapter and verse, so to speak, because I read the book many years ago. I do remember, though, that various passages seemed to me to be needlessly hostile towards men in ways that didn't necessarily do anything to advance the story or other themes in the book. I'm...

Odd. My parents always said that it was time to "climb the wooden waterfall". I always thought it was a very poetic expression.

Not at all. Nearly everyone uses some sort of judgment in assessing people they meet. It's just that not everyone does so responsibly. Admittedly, basing that judgment on someone's job wouldn't be as irresponsible as, say, basing it on the color of their skin, but it is still problematic...

Thanks for the info - I'll probably read more of her books down the road. I should add that I didn't really care about the gender of either the author or the narrator, I just don't much care for authors grinding their own political/ideological axes in their fiction - without regard to what...

It's a deal.

We've got quite a few oddities here in PA. The influence of the Pennsylvania-Germans has people saying things like "Throw me down the stairs my shoes" for throw my shoes down to me from upstairs; or "Furhoodled" (I spelled in phonetically) for mixed up. But, given that, my favorite is one that...

I guess the judgmental aspect of this is a mater of context, or the company one keeps. Usually, though, I suspect that a person who follows "Hi. How are you?" with "What do you do?" is the kind of person who reacts with either shock or pity if your answer is running a register in a convenience...

It runs in my mind that I read something called Sexing the Cherry by her. (I'm not sure 'cause I'm still in the aftermath of moving and haven't unpacked all my books.) At any rate, I liked the book, for the most part. There were some very beautiful and clever passages. However, I was put...

mgarratty, I've read a couple of Murakami's books (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World & The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles) and liked them very much. I think if you take a look (or search) among previous threads, you'll find other discussions of Murakami.

I think I first heard of Carroll through "Listmania" on Amazon. Sadly, he is still in my "To Be Read" pile. I've got Bones of the Moon, The Wooden Sea, and Sleeping in Flame. I just wish I had more time to read. I'm anxious to hear your reaction to Carroll, Wabbit, as we seem to have...

Man, this is so freaky. I was just talking about this to somebody last week. I have always hated conversations that begin with "So, what do you do?". When I was newly graduated from college, I got this all the time. It wasn't that it bothered me if people asked - it just bothered me if it...