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.
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
I love Salman Rushdie.
Somehow I forgot to finish The Satanic Verses. Got distracted.
I love Salman Rushdie.
I've never read anything else, what would you recommend?
I've never read anything else, what would you recommend?
if not
Midnight's Children
then
Moor's Last Sigh.
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.
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.
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.
and a reprint of a furniture catalogue from 1912.
Got a scanner? Willing to scan and post? Cuz,
duuuuuuude.