You know what they say about payback? Well I'm the bitch.

Fred ,'Life of the Party'


We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good  

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


Nutty - Apr 22, 2004 5:09:14 am PDT #2340 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Jesse, I haven't read Live and Let Die, but I've read others, and Fleming is about as crude as you can pretty well imagine. He's sexually crude too, which always sort of flew in the face of the suave-good-guy image people take away from the movies. Sort of like Mickey Spillane, only less self-consciously hard-boiled. Anyway, less self-aware.

Also, there will be Bond-torture before the novel ends. Guaranteed.


Jesse - Apr 22, 2004 5:14:01 am PDT #2341 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Sort of like Mickey Spillane, only less self-consciously hard-boiled. Anyway, less self-aware.

Yeah, ew. I think I'll forget it. Thanks.


Jess M. - Apr 22, 2004 6:57:47 am PDT #2342 of 10002
Let me just say that popularity with people on public transportation does not equal literary respect. --Jesse

Well of Lost Plots, the third book in the Fforde series, was my favorite by far.

I started What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal last night. It's based on the Mary Kay LaTorneau case (teacher has an affair with a student). I have to look up what review made me think this was a worthwhile read. So far (60 pages in or so) the author just seems really self-congratulatory and show-offy. It's distracting from the plot.


Betsy HP - Apr 22, 2004 7:05:10 am PDT #2343 of 10002
If I only had a brain...

Jesse, isn't "Live and Let Die" the one that obsesses about the "Chigroes", who are Chinese/Negro mulattoes? Ew. Maybe that was in Dr. No...


Fred Pete - Apr 22, 2004 7:10:29 am PDT #2344 of 10002
Ann, that's a ferret.

Maybe that was in Dr. No...

That's my vague recollection. And Man with the Golden Gun had the "homosexuals can't whistle" bit.


Megan E. - Apr 22, 2004 7:12:05 am PDT #2345 of 10002

Well of Lost Plots, the third book in the Fforde series, was my favorite by far.

I bought this a while ago but haven't read it yet. I guess I should move it to the top of my TBR pile.


Betsy HP - Apr 22, 2004 7:12:15 am PDT #2346 of 10002
If I only had a brain...

And you know what? I STILL read them. I read James Bond. In my adolescence, I read Fu Manchu. I can overlook a lot. Shame on me.


Consuela - Apr 22, 2004 7:13:20 am PDT #2347 of 10002
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

I read all the James Bond novels as a teen, same way I read all the Agatha Christie mysteries. I recall them being dated, but don't remember much else, except bogglement at how different they were from the movies.


Jesse - Apr 22, 2004 7:13:31 am PDT #2348 of 10002
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.

Jesse, isn't "Live and Let Die" the one that obsesses about the "Chigroes", who are Chinese/Negro mulattoes? Ew.

Ew. As far as I got, it was all about Observing The Negro In His Native Environment. (I.e, Harlem) Lots of "dialect," and "Negresses" and whatnot.


Nutty - Apr 22, 2004 7:00:50 pm PDT #2349 of 10002
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

Dr. No is probably the one Betsy's thinking of. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I never read Live and Let Die, and I remember the whole strange thing about the Chigroes. Then again, I also remember the extremely casual comment in one of those books about how emasculated American men are because they let their wives drive them places (presumably, to work).

You're not a REAL MAN until you've left your wife at home to walk to the grocery store.