Lorne: Once the word spreads you beat up an innocent old man, well, the truly terrible will think twice before going toe-to-toe with our Avenging Angel. Spike: Yes. The geriatric community will be soiling their nappies when they hear you're on the case. Bravo.

'The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco'


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."


§ ita § - Dec 29, 2003 4:27:12 pm PST #357 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Everyone is a bit marvellous, yes.

And I agree with you, Hil. You wouldn't need to be half as marvellous as them to work out the clues. Some were glaringly obvious enough that I got impatient waiting for the plot to hand the clue to the character who was a specialist, so he could work out what my non-specialist self had.

Plus, I got the impression he was just plain lying about stuff.


Vortex - Dec 29, 2003 4:51:42 pm PST #358 of 10002
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

I also borrowed my parent's Satanic Verses

I tried to read it. I figured any book that would piss off an entire religion to want to kill someone would be pretty juicy. I couldn't get past the first chapter. Then I thought how sad it was that the man would be in hiding for the rest of his life for a piece of crap. YSVMV


§ ita § - Dec 29, 2003 4:53:12 pm PST #359 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I love Salman Rushdie.

Somehow I forgot to finish The Satanic Verses. Got distracted.


Vortex - Dec 29, 2003 4:55:54 pm PST #360 of 10002
"Cry havoc and let slip the boobs of war!" -- Miracleman

I love Salman Rushdie.

I've never read anything else, what would you recommend?


DavidS - Dec 29, 2003 5:24:15 pm PST #361 of 10002
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I've never read anything else, what would you recommend?

Midnight's Children


Kat - Dec 29, 2003 5:33:58 pm PST #362 of 10002
"I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret." Leigh Bardugo

I've never read anything else, what would you recommend?

if not Midnight's Children then Moor's Last Sigh.


Kate P. - Dec 29, 2003 5:40:58 pm PST #363 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love

Kat, Lyra's Oxford is just a short story, featuring Lyra and Pan, set in Oxford, after the events of the HDM books. It's fine for what it is, but it's really quite short, and I guess I'd been led to believe (by the fact that it's being marketed as a new book) that there would be more to it. Probably the best reason to buy it is the map of Oxford (helpful to me, since I seem to be reading a lot of books set in Oxford lately--just finished Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I loved) which includes a few excerpts from a catalog that outfits adventurers: naphtha lamps and so on. Nice touch.

My holiday gifts to myself included the Firefly DVDs and a copy of The D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths (yay!). I also intend to steal some of my dad's books at some point; my mom gave him Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, about growing up white and wild in southern Africa, and The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri's new novel. I gave him Peter Carey's The True History of the Kelly Gang, which I read in Australia and loved, and I gave my mom The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, continuing the theme of places-I-have-been.

Rushdie--I'd definitely go with Midnight's Children first, though I also really enjoyed The Satanic Verses.


Atropa - Dec 29, 2003 5:47:39 pm PST #364 of 10002
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.

Butbutbutbutbut - the footprints of an enormous hound! Cocaine and violins! Short monographs! Irene Adler!

I know, I know. I just never have gotten around to them.

Oh! I completely forgot one of the books I got as a prezzie: The Water Flowers by Edward Gorey. A first edition of it, because Pete knows how to pick presents for me.


amyparker - Dec 29, 2003 5:50:47 pm PST #365 of 10002
You've got friends to have good times with. When you need to share the trauma of a badly-written book with someone, that's when you go to family.

Okay, nobody asked, but I'm gonna share anyway. I got The Virago Book of Gardeners (collected excerpts from writings by female gardeners up to the 1930's); The Path of the Human Being, teisho (dharma talks) from Genpo Roshi; a book on restoring period gardens; Ursula K. LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching; and a reprint of a furniture catalogue from 1912. There.


amych - Dec 29, 2003 5:52:56 pm PST #366 of 10002
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

and a reprint of a furniture catalogue from 1912.

Got a scanner? Willing to scan and post? Cuz, duuuuuuude.