Amsterdam_Neil_D Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 (edited) I wonder if SmallHeathTalk have a "Can you read?" thread? I think they'd do well with a "can you speak?" thread to be honest. They are funny though, like when you see small heaths walking around outside there compound or if they manage to get to a shopping area unsupervised, you can see them looking at all the shapes and colours and trying desperately to formulate this into some sort of environmental awareness. They will be talking next i suppose, early small heaths are trying to apply the concept that some sounds have a meaning attached to the them. On a brighter note, I hear the trial of their owner could be a re-trial. Shame. Edited November 8, 2013 by Amsterdam_Neil_D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eames Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 Dunno. He might have much of the ground work already written. A Dance With Dragons is much better than Crows was. Dany & Tyrion are actually in it again and you catch up with some of the stuff that has already been shown on TV. I'm currently going through the Dunk & Egg tales which are some short stories set about 100 years before A Song of Ice & Fire. There is some overlap, you meet characters who are referenced a lot in ASoIaF and get an even greater sense of the world. Well worth getting into after Dragons. Nice one, will check that out. I can't imagine a life without being immersed in that world now. Estimates for Winds of Winter was 3 years assuming 500 pages a year of completed manuscript. According to Wiki he as several chapters written already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 Dunno. He might have much of the ground work already written. A Dance With Dragons is much better than Crows was. Dany & Tyrion are actually in it again and you catch up with some of the stuff that has already been shown on TV. I'm currently going through the Dunk & Egg tales which are some short stories set about 100 years before A Song of Ice & Fire. There is some overlap, you meet characters who are referenced a lot in ASoIaF and get an even greater sense of the world. Well worth getting into after Dragons. Nice one, will check that out. I can't imagine a life without being immersed in that world now. Estimates for Winds of Winter was 3 years assuming 500 pages a year of completed manuscript. According to Wiki he as several chapters written already. It's still projected for a 2014 release as it stands. As I've never had to wait for one of the books yet, how likely is that likely to be the case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eames Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 Not likely at all. Crows was 3 years later than planned....... he also doesn't commit himself totally to the series... he has loads of other side projects and interests which will slow the pace of writing down. There is no way a) he will deliever the novel for release in 2014 and the series will end with just 2 further novels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 8, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 8, 2013 I tried to read GoT's, I really did. Not happenin' though. I find too many fantasy writers forgo decent writing for world building, which puts me off and ultimately bores me when I try to read them. I'm currently reading this Only on the second story, but his writing really is something else. Some sentences can run on for whole pages. The first story was hard work, although deliberately jargon-filled as it dealt with marketing, but the second has some sentences that I just have to stop to and re-read a few times because they are so **** good. My love of supermassive novels means that I will eventually have to read "Infinite Jest". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frobisher Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 (edited) Dunno. He might have much of the ground work already written. A Dance With Dragons is much better than Crows was. Dany & Tyrion are actually in it again and you catch up with some of the stuff that has already been shown on TV. I'm currently going through the Dunk & Egg tales which are some short stories set about 100 years before A Song of Ice & Fire. There is some overlap, you meet characters who are referenced a lot in ASoIaF and get an even greater sense of the world. Well worth getting into after Dragons. I found Dance with Dragons a bit tedious. All Tyrion does is sit around saying word removed and playing Cyvasse. Edited November 8, 2013 by stwefano Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 I agree on that one. Like Byrenne's road to nowhere in AFFC, Tyrion's boat trip don't half drag on. I love the Ramsey Snow stuff though, and all the events up at the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 (edited) Reading Bravo Two Zero and can't put it down. Great book, there is also a book that looks at the true story, also a good read. This one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Real-Bravo-Two-Zero/dp/0304365548 Edited November 8, 2013 by dodgyknees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted November 9, 2013 Share Posted November 9, 2013 Has anyone read 'Oi Ref!'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 Half way through Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood and it's so disappointing. This is a poor follow up to Oryx and Crake which was brilliant. I've been looking at reviews and I reckon a lot of people review the author instead of the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 10, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 10, 2013 (edited) Half way through Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood and it's so disappointing. This is a poor follow up to Oryx and Crake which was brilliant. I've been looking at reviews and I reckon a lot of people review the author instead of the book. Exactly what my missus said. She raved about 'Oryx' but said YotF was a let-down. Edited November 10, 2013 by mjmooney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 I liked 'The Handmaid's Tale', but not enough to want to read more of her stuff. Although I've heard 'Oryx and Crake' and 'The Blind Assassin'' are very good. Anyway I'm going to re-read 'Austerlitz' by W.G. Sebald, because I was rather distracted by the very annoying layout (big font, absurd spacing, like, 25 sentences to a page), and couldn't really get into it, but I keep hearing that Sebald was brilliant, so I'll give it another shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 10, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 10, 2013 I preferred "The Rings of Saturn", although TBH all the Sebald books are much the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 Half way through Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood and it's so disappointing. This is a poor follow up to Oryx and Crake which was brilliant. I've been looking at reviews and I reckon a lot of people review the author instead of the book. Exactly what my missus said. She raved about 'Oryx' but said YotF was a let-down. Have either of you read the third one, MaddAddam? Not sure whether to bother with it. I liked 'The Handmaid's Tale', but not enough to want to read more of her stuff. I found that one chilling. It's a great novel just not all that enjoyable with all the interior monologue from a woman stuck in a room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 10, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 10, 2013 I haven't read Oryx, but Mrs M has the same dilemma - she's not sure whether to bother with the third book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 I preferred "The Rings of Saturn", although TBH all the Sebald books are much the same. There is no reason to read The Rings of Saturn. All you have to do is travel to Norfolk on a still day and look east for a few hours, contemplating the three thousand miles of flat featureless land between yourself and the Urals. Internalise that melancholy. Come home again. Job done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 10, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 10, 2013 All you have to do is travel to Norfolk That's good enough reason to read The Rings of Saturn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginko Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 Not likely at all. Crows was 3 years later than planned....... he also doesn't commit himself totally to the series... he has loads of other side projects and interests which will slow the pace of writing down. There is no way a) he will deliever the novel for release in 2014 and the series will end with just 2 further novels. Yeah, I've heard he wants to finish it in seven books as it seems to be quite a significant number in the story lore. Seven gods, etc. I also heard that he knows how he wants to end things, it's just the bits in between he hasn't fully fleshed out yet, but he's told the two producers of the TV show how it ends just in case he doesn't live to finish the books, which would be a massive shame but considering his age and how fat he is, it's a distinct possibility. I caught up just in time for Dance for Dragons to be released and blew through it pretty quick. It is annoying have to wait for so long. There's one or two chapters from Winds of Winter up online somewhere. He's done readings of new material from the book at conventions and stuff. The one I read concerns Arianne but really doesn't give too much away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MakemineVanilla Posted November 11, 2013 Share Posted November 11, 2013 All you have to do is travel to Norfolk That's good enough reason to read The Rings of Saturn. What you might call a great chill-out book. Sebald really creates a great atmosphere of Zen-like stillness and wonder. I think it captures what Freud meant by 'oceanic feeling'. Very memorable but not for everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted November 12, 2013 Moderator Share Posted November 12, 2013 The 100 greatest novels, as of 18981. Don Quixote - 1604 - Miguel de Cervantes2. The Holy War - 1682 - John Bunyan3. Gil Blas - 1715 - Alain René le Sage4. Robinson Crusoe - 1719 - Daniel Defoe5. Gulliver's Travels - 1726 - Jonathan Swift6. Roderick Random - 1748 - Tobias Smollett7. Clarissa - 1749 - Samuel Richardson8. Tom Jones - 1749 - Henry Fielding9. Candide - 1756 - Françoise de Voltaire10. Rasselas - 1759 - Samuel Johnson11. The Castle of Otranto - 1764 - Horace Walpole12. The Vicar of Wakefield - 1766 - Oliver Goldsmith13. The Old English Baron - 1777 - Clara Reeve14. Evelina - 1778 - Fanny Burney15. Vathek - 1787 - William Beckford16. The Mysteries of Udolpho - 1794 - Ann Radcliffe17. Caleb Williams - 1794 - William Godwin18. The Wild Irish Girl - 1806 - Lady Morgan19. Corinne - 1810 - Madame de Stael20. The Scottish Chiefs - 1810 - Jane Porter21. The Absentee - 1812 - Maria Edgeworth22. Pride and Prejudice - 1813 - Jane Austen23. Headlong Hall - 1816 - Thomas Love Peacock24. Frankenstein - 1818 - Mary Shelley25. Marriage - 1818 - Susan Ferrier26. The Ayrshire Legatees - 1820 - John Galt27. Valerius - 1821 - John Gibson Lockhart28. Wilhelm Meister - 1821 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe29. Kenilworth - 1821 - Sir Walter Scott30. Bracebridge Hall - 1822 - Washington Irving31. The Epicurean - 1822 - Thomas Moore32. The Adventures of Hajji Baba - 1824 - James Morier ("usually reckoned his best")33. The Betrothed - 1825 - Alessandro Manzoni34. Lichtenstein - 1826 - Wilhelm Hauff35. The Last of the Mohicans - 1826 - Fenimore Cooper36. The Collegians - 1828 - Gerald Griffin37. The Autobiography of Mansie Wauch - 1828 - David M. Moir38. Richelieu - 1829 - G. P. R. James (the "first and best" novel by the "doyen of historical novelists")39. Tom Cringle's Log - 1833 - Michael Scott40. Mr. Midshipman Easy - 1834 - Frederick Marryat41. Le Père Goriot - 1835 - Honoré de Balzac42. Rory O'More - 1836 - Samuel Lover (another first novel, inspired by one of the author's own ballads)43. Jack Brag - 1837 - Theodore Hook44. Fardorougha the Miser - 1839 - William Carleton ("a grim study of avarice and Catholic family life. Critics consider it the author's finest achievement")45. Valentine Vox - 1840 - Henry Cockton (yet another first novel)46. Old St. Paul's - 1841 - Harrison Ainsworth47. Ten Thousand a Year - 1841 - Samuel Warren ("immensely successful")48. Susan Hopley - 1841 - Catherine Crowe ("the story of a resourceful servant who solves a mysterious crime")49. Charles O'Malley - 1841 - Charles Lever50. The Last of the Barons - 1843 - Bulwer Lytton51. Consuelo - 1844 - George Sand52. Amy Herbert - 1844 - Elizabeth Sewell53. Adventures of Mr. Ledbury - 1844 - Elizabeth Sewell54. Sybil - 1845 - Lord Beaconsfield (a. k. a. Benjamin Disraeli)55. The Three Musketeers - 1845 - Alexandre Dumas56. The Wandering Jew - 1845 - Eugène Sue57. Emilia Wyndham - 1846 - Anne Marsh58. The Romance of War - 1846 - James Grant ("the narrative of the 92nd Highlanders' contribution from the Peninsular campaign to Waterloo")59. Vanity Fair - 1847 - W. M. Thackeray60. Jane Eyre - 1847 - Charlotte Brontë61. Wuthering Heights - 1847 - Emily Brontë62. The Vale of Cedars - 1848 - Grace Aguilar63. David Copperfield - 1849 - Charles Dickens64. The Maiden and Married Life of Mary Powell - 1850 - Anne Manning ("written in a pastiche seventeenth-century style and printed with the old-fashioned typography and page layout for which there was a vogue at the period . . .")65. The Scarlet Letter - 1850 - Nathaniel Hawthorne66. Frank Fairleigh - 1850 - Francis Smedley ("Smedley specialised in fiction that is hearty and active, with a strong line in boisterous college escapades and adventurous esquestrian exploits")67. Uncle Tom's Cabin - 1851 - H. B. Stowe68. The Wide Wide World - 1851 - Susan Warner (Elizabeth Wetherell)69. Nathalie - 1851 - Julia Kavanagh70. Ruth - 1853 - Elizabeth Gaskell71. The Lamplighter - 1854 - Maria Susanna Cummins72. Dr. Antonio - 1855 - Giovanni Ruffini73. Westward Ho! - 1855 - Charles Kingsley74. Debit and Credit (Soll und Haben) - 1855 - Gustav Freytag75. Tom Brown's School-Days - 1856 - Thomas Hughes76. Barchester Towers - 1857 - Anthony Trollope77. John Halifax, Gentleman - 1857 - Dinah Mulock (a. k. a. Dinah Craik; "the best-known Victorian fable of Smilesian self-improvement")78. Ekkehard - 1857 - Viktor von Scheffel79. Elsie Venner - 1859 - O. W. Holmes80. The Woman in White - 1860 - Wilkie Collins81. The Cloister and the Hearth - 1861 - Charles Reade82. Ravenshoe - 1861 - Henry Kingsley ("There is much confusion in the plot to do with changelings and frustrated inheritance" in this successful novel by Charles Kingsley's younger brother, the "black sheep" of a "highly respectable" family)83. Fathers and Sons - 1861 - Ivan Turgenieff84. Silas Marner - 1861 - George Eliot85. Les Misérables - 1862 - Victor Hugo86. Salammbô - 1862 - Gustave Flaubert87. Salem Chapel - 1862 - Margaret Oliphant88. The Channings - 1862 - Ellen Wood (a. k. a. Mrs Henry Wood)89. Lost and Saved - 1863 - The Hon. Mrs. Norton90. The Schönberg-Cotta Family - 1863 - Elizabeth Charles91. Uncle Silas - 1864 - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu92. Barbara's History - 1864 - Amelia B. Edwards ("Confusingly for bibliographers, she was related to Matilda Betham-Edwards and possibly to Annie Edward(e)s . . .")93. Sweet Anne Page - 1868 - Mortimer Collins94. Crime and Punishment - 1868 - Feodor Dostoieffsky95. Fromont Junior - 1874 - Alphonse Daudet96. Marmorne - 1877 - P. G. Hamerton ("written under the pseudonym Adolphus Segrave")97. Black but Comely - 1879 - G. J. Whyte-Melville98. The Master of Ballantrae - 1889 - R. L. Stevenson99. Reuben Sachs - 1889 - Amy Levy100. News from Nowhere - 1891 - William Morris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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