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Post by Lemon Lyman on Jun 17, 2003 17:26:27 GMT
Next in line. Believe it or not, Hillary Clinton's new book, Living History. I brought this today .... she had a very different upbringing than I expected, I'm beginning to form a different opinion on the women I thought was a little annoying. |
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sig007
White House Intern
Posts: 55
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Post by sig007 on Jun 17, 2003 17:48:38 GMT
Last book was Stupid White men (as mentioned earlier a great anti bush book)
I am reading nothing at the minute
I intend to see what else m moore has written for my next book.
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Post by Flamingo on Jun 18, 2003 14:00:06 GMT
Hey have any of you guys seen the book in the shops called 'tony and me by georg bush as told to dr.parsons' it looks pretty funny
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Post by DarkHoarse on Jun 21, 2003 18:01:27 GMT
Made it!
Due to lack of TV and a quiet week at work, I just polished off all 4 Harry Potter books this week and will now of course move on to the 5th. NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!!
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Post by naomi on Jun 22, 2003 17:36:03 GMT
Last - Jilly Cooper: The Rivals
Current - George Eliot: Middlemarch
Next - Well I'm reading middlemarch as part of a bid to get through all 100 of the BBCs Big Read, and I read The Rivals as part of a deal with my best friend to read each others fave 10 books ever so there's plenty of choice ahead of me, but then the little wizard beckons...
On that subject the airport in Frankfurt at dawn on Saturday was piled high with the Order of the Phoenix, I suppose this isn't unexpected but seemed bizarre at the time.
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Post by spike on Jun 23, 2003 11:49:17 GMT
Made it! Due to lack of TV and a quiet week at work, I just polished off all 4 Harry Potter books this week and will now of course move on to the 5th. NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!! It took me 9 hours early Saturday morning, but I read it in one sitting. I'm now rereading it at a more leasurly pace. |
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Post by Joey Lucas on Jun 23, 2003 13:16:38 GMT
I read HP5 over the weekend, had to keep stopping to get some revision done.
After I've finished my exams I will have to read it again as I was half asleep when reading it over the weekend
JL
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Post by Flamingo on Jun 23, 2003 13:33:25 GMT
It took me 7 hours till sun lunchtime and then i re read some extracts from the others. I cant wait for the next one
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Galileo
White House Intern
West Wing crackpot and woman!
Posts: 75
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Post by Galileo on Jun 23, 2003 16:02:58 GMT
Last week I finished reading 'The dreamcatcher', which I think is not one of Stephen Kings' best novels, but it still is good. At the moment I'm reading 'The girl who loved Tom Gordon', also by Stephen King. This is one hell of a book! It's fantastic! (it may already be obvious that I'm a huge Stephen King-fan. No one else can write the way he can!) I'm also reading a book with William Shakespeare's sonnets. What can I say ... the man was a genius! In the future I'm planning on reading the fifth Harry Potter - The order of the Phoenix. I'm actually on the waiting list right now! I wonder how long it's going to take in order for me to receive the book?  |
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Post by Laura Lyman on Jun 25, 2003 10:40:32 GMT
Harry Potter is wrong. It's just wrong. You have all been brainwashed into believing that it is a cool book to read - it's a kids story about wizards.
If you want a good book try Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier or The life of Pi by Yann Martel.
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sig007
White House Intern
Posts: 55
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Post by sig007 on Jun 25, 2003 16:29:27 GMT
I must admit i think that Harry Potter is broken......
we get all the stuff in the papers about kids reading it but do you really think that kids in inner city's can relate to a child going to a boarding school!!!!!!
I know they can believe in magic but that is imagination, i don't think that they have that much experience of that type of school or life experience of people they know who have done it and can relate to it.
not only that but it is widely reported that kids in inner city areas and deprived areas are not getting the whole reading experience anyway as they are hardly encouraged to do it by parents or their peer group....
OK rant over......
sorry about that.
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Post by DarkHoarse on Jun 30, 2003 9:35:33 GMT
In response to the last 2 posts:
There should surely be a place on any intelligent person's bookshelf for Harry Potter and for the many more (for want of a better phrase) "adult-minded" books in existence, including the ones you mention. I very much doubt, from the quality of postings here and elsewhere on this forum, that any of those who have admitted to HP fandom have been "brainwashed". And please don't let us get into a debate about how "relevant" they are to real-life experience, they are childrens' books! Honestly, did we all analyse James in his giant peach and ask ourselves whether he'd have done things differently if he'd not been an orphan? And another thing, there's an insidious suggestion going round (not here, but it's relevant) that JKR should feel guilty for not including more ethnic minorities/disabled/otherwise marginalised characters in her books. These people have forgotten what it's like to be kids and I feel sorry for them. At the age of 10 or even younger I (and I suspect most of us) would have spotted PC bandwagonning a mile off and this would have detracted from the STORY.
Which, in the case of HP5, is again excellent. Not as good as books 3 or 4 though...(imho)
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Post by Flamingo on Jul 1, 2003 15:35:41 GMT
In response to sig007, I know a kid who is 10/11 and dislikes having to read for schoolwork but is really enthusiastic about reading Harry Potter, its good that someone has produced a series of books that appeal even to people who dont normally read literature of an advanced kind, no offense meant or anything
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sig007
White House Intern
Posts: 55
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Post by sig007 on Jul 1, 2003 19:02:11 GMT
To all Harry Potter Fans......
As a parent myself I agree that anything that gets children to read is great, I just disagree that there is no other childrens books promoted in this way and that J K Rowling takes alot of credit for middle of the road writing. I agree what was said in an earlier reply about James and the giant peach and think that it was a fair point.
I think (and lets face it this is only a pernsonal opinion) JK does not really compare to JRR Tolkien (who i love but also think is well over-rated and other writers deserve more credit) who's origional Hobbit is fantastic to read to my little lad as a bedtime book.
I actually read these books so that i would have a standpoint on which to base my argument as i hate people who argue with no real experience of what they are talking about. I will not say that i did not enjoy the book it was ok - just ok but seeing they are not aimed at my age group i can accept that - I still think that they are very over rated but can acept that if they do encourage any amount of children to read then it may well be worth all the crap that go's along with it.
So to all HP fans I hope that you enjoy the books and that she writes many more, but i'll leave the next ones for you lot to read.
cheers....
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Post by madcap on Jul 1, 2003 21:14:04 GMT
Tolkein over-rated ? Look beyond the Hobbit and TLOR and when you take his collective works as a whole they form part of the most imaginative fiction writing of the last century. Tolkein can genuinely claim to have created a "world".
As for Harry Potter, I've just finished TOoTP and found it very enjoyable, with a plot more suited to adults than kids though. I think JK Rowling deserves enourmous praise for creating a series of books which encourages it's audience to grow with the story. I do agree that it's probably not quite as good as The Goblet Of Fire though.
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