Nothing worse than a monster who thinks he's right with God.

Mal ,'Heart Of Gold'


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."


Volans - Sep 26, 2005 12:06:56 am PDT #9195 of 10002
move out and draw fire

Here's a site that does book recommendations: [link]

You don't have to sign up to get a rec, but if you do you can add to their database and thus improve the recommendations. Otherwise, just enter an author/title of a book you like.


Anne W. - Sep 27, 2005 1:57:30 pm PDT #9196 of 10002
The lost sheep grow teeth, forsake their lambs, and lie with the lions.

There's a sequel to "Wicked" that just came out. Title: Son of a Witch.


Volans - Sep 29, 2005 4:21:48 am PDT #9197 of 10002
move out and draw fire

So the DH is reading The Sexual Life of Catherine M. and occasionally sharing bits of it with me. The blurbs all say it's erotic, which appears to be untrue, but several passages have gotten lodged in my brain.

Including "I masturbate with the punctuality of a civil servant."

Since she's French, I can only assume this means she starts late, knocks off early, never achieves orgasm, and expects the government to pay her as if she had.


Calli - Sep 29, 2005 4:26:33 am PDT #9198 of 10002
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

I read The Sexual Life of Catherine M. a while ago. Ones hot buttons vary and all that, but I found it had the least erotic orgies I'd ever read. Heck, the LFN stuff being gleefully (and rightfully) mocked in the fanfic thread is sexier. At least you get the sense that the LFN "author" might find her sex scenes hot, and I don't really get that from TSLoCM.


Katerina Bee - Sep 29, 2005 8:36:17 am PDT #9199 of 10002
Herding cats for fun

Say, anybody read "Ilium" by Dan Simmons? I am enjoying the spectacle of Greek gods who have recreated the Trojan War, plus it has made me long to access the Cliff's Notes of "The Tempest" for a memory refresher on what was the dealio with all that. I'm sure readers with solid backgrounds in those literary classics would be all over the references going on. I am having big fun with this one.


Jessica - Sep 29, 2005 8:38:44 am PDT #9200 of 10002
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

I was waiting for it to come out in paperback, and then it kind of dropped off my radar. How does it compare to the Hyperion books? (Which I lovelovelove.)


Katerina Bee - Sep 29, 2005 9:10:09 am PDT #9201 of 10002
Herding cats for fun

Oh man. It has everything "Hyperion" did and then some. Big sweeping everything and characters with lots of heart. I am about ready to tear the hardback copy of "Olympus" from DH's hands if he doesn't hurry up and finish already.

We couldn't find our copy of "Hyperion" and thus added it to an Amazon order. Now we both wanna read that one again.


Jars - Sep 29, 2005 9:52:18 am PDT #9202 of 10002

Say, anybody read "Ilium" by Dan Simmons?

Yes! And I just finished the sequel a couple of weeks ago. God, loved the first one, even with the faint whiff of pretentiousness. I thought the sequel was good, but I didn't think the ends tied up as neaty as I'd like. Yeah, I love the classical stuff, am less solid on the Shakespeare, and handwave through the Proust.

I've read Hyperion, but can't for love nor money find any of the sequels.


JohnSweden - Sep 29, 2005 11:28:44 am PDT #9203 of 10002
I can't even.

Thanks for the Dan Simmons reminder. I'm another who loved the Hyperion books (and plenty of his other stuff too), and hadn't gotten around to Ilium. I think Neil Stephenson ate the $40+ monster hardback part of my brain. I'll have to scout around for a paperback Ilium.


Laura - Sep 29, 2005 6:42:49 pm PDT #9204 of 10002
Our wings are not tired.

Had book group tonight. Presented 4 books for next time at my house and we chose The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman. I stressed that I wanted to get away from the disturbing or depressing. It had to be something that none of us had read too, so tricky.

10 thumbs down on the book we discussed tonight. How to be Good by Nick Hornby. Hated it. But it did generate a lot of discussion. My take was that I felt like I was reading a blog. The type of blog where the writer is pretending to be sincere and is totally making the shit up. The voice was only convincing from time to time. It had moments, but too few and far between.