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aquagoat
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I read it in french, but it's true the first pages are a bit difficult to understand, my girlfriend had difficulties reading it in the beginning too.
But after a while you get used to it and it becomes very captivating, you should try again, bb.
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BBP
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Maybe... I'm still stuck on Germinal in French. My French has definitely slipped downhill a lot.
And I'm still reading Junky because I can never remember where I put it. 
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BBP
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Currently I'm reading something I got for free at the book fair: I could choose a book for free, out of a pile of works that you normally wouldn't
touch. But this one's entertaining.
It's The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide by Douglas and Graham Walker, the leaders of the World RPS Society.
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aquagoat
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hum, that sounds quite interesting, considering the title. I never thought such a book could exist. 
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BBP
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It's... well... it begins with a large chapter on how RPS is much better than flipping coins... Now I've reached the chapter "How To Meet Girls With
RPS". This book has to be the most absurd I've read in a long time.
Speaking of RPS: In Fort Boyard they play it sometimes against the tigerheads. Then they have 4 cards, a rock, paper, scissor and pit. What does the
pit do?
At the book fair I bought a 2-in-1 book with Frankenstein and Dracula.
Now I'm reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which turns out to be a great read. I'm halfway already.
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DED
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I do not like the genre.
When reading is a pastime it will always be detectives or thrillers
othwerwise it will be management books (preferably about Knowledge Management)
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Badchild
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I'm currently reading Gravity's Rainbow by T. Pynchon. It's a tough read i must say. I just ot my National Geographic so now that's my daily reading
for the next couple of days...Great article on animal intelligence.
| Quote: | | Speaking of RPS: In Fort Boyard they play it sometimes against the tigerheads. Then they have 4 cards, a rock, paper, scissor and pit. What does the
pit do? |
You mean they make an English version of Fort Boyard? It's just a few km from here. My kids love that show. However, it used to be better before it
became just tv people competing. Before, the teams kept the money.
Really nice to be here BBP.
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punknaynowned
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I haven't finished Pynchon's latest, Against The Day yet.
I've been on page 637 out of 1085, for some months now.
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BBP
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Badchild
I'm currently reading Gravity's Rainbow by T. Pynchon. It's a tough read i must say. I just ot my National Geographic so now that's my daily reading
for the next couple of days...Great article on animal intelligence.
| Quote: | | Speaking of RPS: In Fort Boyard they play it sometimes against the tigerheads. Then they have 4 cards, a rock, paper, scissor and pit. What does the
pit do? |
You mean they make an English version of Fort Boyard? It's just a few km from here. My kids love that show. However, it used to be better before it
became just tv people competing. Before, the teams kept the money.
Really nice to be here BBP. |
Let's see... there was a Dutch FB, a Belgian FB, a Russian, Bulgarian/Serbian/Turkish, US, UK, German, Holland vs Belgium, Algeria, Argentina, Canada,
Denmark... The format's been sold to 65 countries.
For me it doesn't matter much whether the competitors are famous Frenchies or not. I think i've seen only one I knew this far. It's just that they
used to rehearse so they knew what they were supposed to do in every chamber, and with the celebs they don't.
But to stay on topic: I'm reading a play by Gogol.
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scallopino
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BBP
It's... well... it begins with a large chapter on how RPS is much better than flipping coins... Now I've reached the chapter "How To Meet Girls With
RPS". This book has to be the most absurd I've read in a long time.
Speaking of RPS: In Fort Boyard they play it sometimes against the tigerheads. Then they have 4 cards, a rock, paper, scissor and pit. What does the
pit do?
At the book fair I bought a 2-in-1 book with Frankenstein and Dracula.
Now I'm reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which turns out to be a great read. I'm halfway already. |
I think Frankenstein is one of the most beautiful books ever written, in a lot of ways. The descriptions of the scenery around Geneva and the other
places...the lakes, the forests, the mountains, the ice, are really breathtaking.
It's also probably the most depressing thing i've ever read. It is as utterly and continuously bleak as you can get.
I got the film a few weeks after I read it, given its reputation as one of the great movies. I thought it was an absolute travesty. It took all the
great things about the novel out and Hollywoodized it. I don't know what i would think if i hadn't read it first.
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scallopino
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| Quote: | Originally posted by punknaynowned
I haven't finished Pynchon's latest, Against The Day yet.
I've been on page 637 out of 1085, for some months now. |
Punky, here's a tip for when you have lots of pages but can't get motivated to get to the end: Just turn the pages without reading them. You'll find
that you'll just fly through it! You can even try humming a tune to yourself while you do it!
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BBP
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| Quote: | Originally posted by scallopino
I think Frankenstein is one of the most beautiful books ever written, in a lot of ways. The descriptions of the scenery around Geneva and the other
places...the lakes, the forests, the mountains, the ice, are really breathtaking.
It's also probably the most depressing thing i've ever read. It is as utterly and continuously bleak as you can get.
I got the film a few weeks after I read it, given its reputation as one of the great movies. I thought it was an absolute travesty. It took all the
great things about the novel out and Hollywoodized it. I don't know what i would think if i hadn't read it first. |
It's a great book indeed... I'm reluctant to watch any more book films. I read Dracula a few months ago and loved it, with strong, friendly
characters, one of them Dutch speaking ungrammatical at occasions. Now that I've seen Coppola's monstrosity he even dared to attach Stoker's name to,
I'm upset about what Hollywood does to the images a reader may form. Not to mention about character change.
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punknaynowned
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this is exactly my biggest problem with film in general. Hollywood makes a bigger dime by spoon-feeding it to such an extreme, the way they do.
Reading IS an active activity, it stimulates imagination in so many ways in addition to the mainly visual. And with so many faster and faster images
in the way they do them, strips character away for one, but shuts out the possibility of getting to think on one's own except for 'how they gonna get
out of this'. Documentaries are much more interesting to me,. for a long time now. I can enjoy a well-displayed shot and so on, but without the
layers that a book can convey and trusting the audience to put it together, or go off on your own, much is lost in film-making as a story telling
medium.
[Edited on 14-3-08 by punknaynowned]
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scallopino
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I agree Punk. One thing about reading is that everybody "reads" something different; they create the text in a sense based on their own experiences
and they have their own images which reflect people and places they've seen. Movies take all this away by forcing on you a particular reading of
something and you have no choice but to see what they want you to see.
I can only watch a certain kind of documentary. I can't watch history documentaries because of the re-enactments, which rivals tag graffiti as the
lamest thing in the world. The best documentaries have no narration and let the subject and story speak for itself and let the audience form their own
conclusions.
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BBP
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Ugh! History documentaries!
Back in the day I studied history, I had a lovely teacher Maarten Prak who explained us what's the problem with history documentaries: lack of
footage. It's why the main Dutch history programme only deals with the 20th century.
In his lecture, just prior to showing a highly dopey commentary, he explained to us:
"In a historical documentary, there are three ways of making a story more exciting.
The first is reenacting certain events in clothes of the time.
The second is geting an expert to talk about it.
The third is getting an expert in the field to tell about it. (imitates expert) "I am now on the field where in 1600 a battle was fought. It is likely
that this tree (hugs blackboard post) was the witness of this event..."
I'm very fond of nature documentaries. Though Richard Attenborough nowadays makes me laugh (too much Shivers playing), I'm very fond of his work. And
Iain Stewart's recent Earth series is absolutely gorgeous.
There are cases in which the book is worse than the film. Other than some Dutch work, Silence of the Lambs is the first one that springs to mind. And
in case of Clockwork Orange, there is a tie.
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scallopino
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I think you might mean David Attenborough! I really admire him as a film maker and as a person. But I can't stand the "Extreme Nature" documentaries,
which attempt to link animals with stuff teenagers are interested in: like BMX. They're aimed at people who don't usually like documentaries. And they
pretty much say that these "Extreme Animals" would definitely go skateboarding given half a chance.
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BBP
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| Quote: | Originally posted by scallopino
| Quote: | Originally posted by punknaynowned
I haven't finished Pynchon's latest, Against The Day yet.
I've been on page 637 out of 1085, for some months now. |
Punky, here's a tip for when you have lots of pages but can't get motivated to get to the end: Just turn the pages without reading them. You'll find
that you'll just fly through it! You can even try humming a tune to yourself while you do it! |
Heh heh heh! I've done that a lot, indeed! Sometimes it just takes a while for me to get concentrated.
Today I finished my Gogol-collection, with the gorgeous play "The Gamblers". It's been a great read... but I feel a little empty now...
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BBP
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 You're right! I'm so stupid! Richard is an actor.
There's been a lot of heat recently about Attenborough's documentaries: not about the content, but because parts which were hinting on or dealing with
evolution were deleted by the highly catholic channel (EO) that was showing them.
It's spawned a lot of spin-offs. I myself made an EO-approved comic version of 2001, A Space Odyssey. It's very short.
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punknaynowned
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EO-approved, ? who's that?
and care to share yer adaptation for viewing?
(:
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scallopino
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BBP
You're right! I'm so stupid! Richard is an actor.
There's been a lot of heat recently about Attenborough's documentaries: not about the content, but because parts which were hinting on or dealing with
evolution were deleted by the highly catholic channel (EO) that was showing them.
It's spawned a lot of spin-offs. I myself made an EO-approved comic version of 2001, A Space Odyssey. It's very short.
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 I would like to see that! I wish people like the EO would stop trying to
prevent the spread of information. The more I think about it, the more upset I get. I think David is very much unreligious himself and has spoken out
about creationists getting involved with science. It's one of the reasons I like him.
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