So I used my Walden Pond gift certificate on two whole books. Since it was a gift certificate, I decided to buy books people had fervently recommended to me. One was The Good Soldier. The man approved my selection, saying it was a great book. I told him a friend had recommended it to me because she adored it and no one knew about it. He countered that last statement by noting that I had found a Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century edition; it was one of the greats! I said that, okay, but most people didn't know about it; I hadn't even heard of it until my friend told me.

"You have smart friends," he said.

I also mentioned that she recommended it to me, specifically, because I loved The Remains of the Day, and it took him a few seconds to remember who it was by, and then he mentioned how awful the movie was. He said they took the soul out of the book.

The other book I got was Perdido Street Station, which a friend of mine really loves. I'm not entirely sure how I'll like it, but it definitely sounds worth trying.

then he mentioned how awful the movie was.

And then you punched him in the nose?

...hmph.

But yeah, The Good Soldier always turns up on "great 20th C. novels" lists ( Parades End does too, but a bit less frequently). But there's not much popular awareness of Ford. I never would have heard of him if my prof hadn't been the type to go off on random tangents.

Perdido Street Station - on my 150 books to-be-read bookshelf

And then you punched him in the nose?

...hmph.

Heh. I said I thought it was pretty good, decent, and very faithful except for a few parts, but I agree that, okay, it did seem to lack a lot of the soul of the book; they just sort of put the pages on the screen without transferring the depth.

( Parades End does too, but a bit less frequently)

Yeah, he recommended that too.

I read The Sharing Knife: Beguilement (That's the newest Bujold) and it really isn't what you'd expect. It's a fun, romance in a fantasy setting. I don't know if she's setting up for darkness in the second book but it's a popcorn read. If that's a thing.

I also read the last book in Elliott's Crown of Stars series and who was it who was worried about Alain? It's a very strange thing but I think he's okay. I mean, he's not all happily ever after but it does seem that he is the founder of the family that winds up being that of Emperor Tailleffer and thus Liath and Blessing are his descendents. Not that he ever gets to explain this to them, but I think that he understands it in the end. Overall, I think that the book lost something in the end because it seemed like we were getting the story told from too many ps.o.v. and when Sanglant dies -- it just didn't seem real -- and I suppose that was with good reason.

If the theatre were to play The Good German and the Good Shepherd as a double bill could they advertize it as The Good German Shepherd ?

The Good German Shepherd: The Return of RinTinTin

who was it who was worried about Alain

That was me. Sounds like it did get weirder than I'm comfortable with in the end.

Well, they never actually said that was what happened. . . but how far into the series did you get?

I surmised that this is what happened based on Alain getting sent back in time to the world pre-Cataclysm and marrying Adica and having that nice life and then after the second Cataclysm that put the world back together realizing who the heir to Count Lavastine really was. It kind of explains why the dogs accepted him even though he wasn't Lavastine's son but were perfectly willing to abandon him whenever an heir of Taillefer appeared (Anne, Mother Obligatia.)

I was actually kind of afraid that he would wind up as Sorgatani's pura so was happy that this wasn' t his fate.

I thought that the first two books of the series were the best.