Heartland

SINsister wrote:

Obviousman wrote:I read it a while ago and found it too much like a kid's book, actually. Was not convinced at all.

Interesting... I don't find anything childish about it - quite the opposite. It's written from a teen's perspective, of course, but the themes are most definitely adult. The protagonist is childlike, which may be a reason why you find the book juvenile..? Just my take on it, your mileage may vary, of course!

I agree with the themes being adult - it's been a while and my recollection isn't all that clear anymore - but it's still probably indeed the childlikeness of the main character which makes it read a bit like a children's book. Think it had to do with style and all that, didn't like the overall atmosphere in the book much I seem to recall.

For me, it's always a disturbing and depressing read, despite the humo(u)rous bits peppered throughout. I'm in tears at the end, every time...probably because I relate so well to Holden's bewilderment with society/humanity, people's motives, etc - not to mention how the story ends.

SINsister wrote:For me, it's always a disturbing and depressing read, despite the humo(u)rous bits peppered throughout. I'm in tears at the end, every time...probably because I relate so well to Holden's bewilderment with society/humanity, people's motives, etc - not to mention how the story ends.

Can you sum up the book to me please, start, middle & end, then I'll finish it..............promise

Hahahaha! No can do, my friend. It'd be blasphemy. But I'm sure you can find a CliffsNotes version online, somewhere... Tsk, tsk.

SINsister wrote:Hahahaha! No can do, my friend. It'd be blasphemy. But I'm sure you can find a CliffsNotes version online, somewhere... Tsk, tsk.

OK OK, but does he get Laid & does he die?

No, and no. He ends up institutionalized, though.

Mein Kampf, has anyone read it, I've always fancied giving it a go.

I haven't - not interested in the least.

itnAklipse wrote:But a couple of weeks ago i tried reading some fantasy books, apparently they were supposed to be 'good ones', something by some guy called Bakker. It was dreadful, i couldn't read 10 pages. If the best sci-fi/fantasy books are those by Tolkien and Frank Herbert, then god help us.

R Scott Bakker?

Read his stuff last year, it's actually pretty fine once you get into it.

This one's been sitting on the shelf, waiting for me for ages now, but I never seem to get round to it:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/digestedrea ... 84,00.html

........britain's 10 least finished books


currently not finishing ....Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi ,


like sloooooowwwww death

mh wrote:This one's been sitting on the shelf, waiting for me for ages now, but I never seem to get round to it:

Endurance? There's something wonderfully appropriate about that

I've tried reading Terry Pratchett (one repetitive joke spread across 54,756 books), Weis & Hickman (dull write-ups of other people's games of Dungeons & Dragons), and Robin Hobb (just dull) and found them all to be too terrible to finish - pure teenage pulp (sorry Iz).

David Eddings makes me puke with his cutesy schmaltzy niceness before I finish the 2nd chapter (I always considered his books to be the sword & sorcery equivalent "The Wonder Years" with a voiceover by Thora Hird. Bleurgh!)

In a rare moment of agreement with itnAklipse, I have to second his suggestion of Holdstock's Mythago Wood series, which I found immensely readable.

I never managed to finish Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" - it just felt too dated (and not in a good way).

Most recently I failed to finish"Saturday" by Ian McEwan. I used to like Ian McEwan. I loved "The Cement Garden". I quite liked "The Child in Time" and "The Comfort of Strangers". I just about managed to finish "Atonement" but only because of my inherent stubbornness. I gave up on "Saturday" after about 5 chapters because it was so tediously dull it was unbelievable. He's lost whatever magic he used to have.

lazarus corporation wrote:I've tried reading Terry Pratchett (one repetitive joke spread across 54,756 books), Weis & Hickman (dull write-ups of other people's games of Dungeons & Dragons), and Robin Hobb (just dull) and found them all to be too terrible to finish - pure teenage pulp (sorry Iz).

BOOOO!!!

David Eddings makes me puke with his cutesy schmaltzy niceness before I finish the 2nd chapter (I always considered his books to be the sword & sorcery equivalent "The Wonder Years" with a voiceover by Thora Hird. Bleurgh!)

See above.

It's just a matter of tastes, you know. I am re-reading W&H's "Death Gate" which is a magnificent epos of 7 books, abotu a rave that split up our world and created 7 other from it. It's sublime.

And Pratchett's One Joke Spread Over All His Books, that's possibly like digging Placebo or not. They wrote one song and made copies of that one song time and again. If you like the song, you like them all, otherwise you find it crap all the way...

Still BOO for not liking Terry tho

IZ.

Unfortunately there's always the odd pratchett story that just does not work. Read Pyramids once, and plan never to read it ever again. I managed the Last Continent on the 2nd go after a gap of many years, while Thief of Time and The Truth were one long struggle to finish.

Strange, as I just cannot put down Night Watch and Thud if I start reading them!

I absolutely hated "Lord of the Rings", and Ayn Rand has to be the worst writer of all time.

That's about it.

scotty wrote:The Catcher in the Rye, I've tried Half a Dozen times but just can't be bothered to finish it.

I forgot about that. Holden, the Travis Bickle for emo posers who think repetitively saying damn and pretending to drink alcohol makes them hip.

EDIT - I just remembered I tried reading Harry Potter when younger, but found it to be droll.

I must say I used to go through Enid Blyton like nobody's business... in fact those books made a Shakespeare-like contribution to my own very particular command of the English language
And they're also responsible for my ability to grasp the concept of punctuation better than, oooh about 80% of the rest of you here
Although this post may not be bearing that out. But at least I know when I'm being grammatically incorrect by putting "but" at the beginning of a sentence

It's a wonder I don't go around saying "Do lets!" and "Tally ho!" all the time really

Actually, that was just about the worst-punctated post I have ever made!

nick the stripper wrote:I absolutely hated "Lord of the Rings"

Seconded. At almost every page I was aware of how much better it could've been written (imho). It was almost as if Tolkien was out to annoy the reader on purpose. If that was his goal, he succeeded. The Hobbit was already terrible but compared to LOTR it was an almost refreshing read. I've got the Silmarillion on the bookshelf unread for many years, I doubt I'll ever come round to it.

Of course some people will skin me alive for this kind of blasphemy...

boudicca wrote:I must say I used to go through Enid Blyton like nobody's business... in fact those books made a Shakespeare-like contribution to my own very particular command of the English language

My mother used to read the Magic Faraway Tree series and the Wishing-Chair series to me when I was little.

The writer I was really into and consumed when I began reading, however, was Roald Dahl. I remember reading "The Witches" in one day because I couldn't put it down, and then reading "James and the Giant Peach", "The Twits", "George's Marvelous Medicine" and all his other books.

Personally, I think this signifies that my interest in William S. Burroughs was a natural progression.

Burroughs....PISH sorry, just keeping in line with this thread

boudicca wrote:Actually, that was just about the worst-punctated post I have ever made!

So speaketh the cat in the hat

weebleswobble wrote:Burroughs....PISH sorry, just keeping in line with this thread

Now that is a response