Currently Reading

[JMS]

How long approx are these stories ? Just looked and 'Norwegian Standoff'
Gobby charge is 50p

 

[Stewart]

1) The Da Vinci Code ...a friend said it was good and lent me a copy. Actually it's brilliant - can't put it down - very glad I changed my mind!

It would seem, sir, that your friend hasn't a clue about fiction and, by your enjoyment of the book, neither do you.

It's one of the most embarrassing books of recent years.

 

[G4G]

Wuthering Heights, believe or not it's my first time reading it!

I'm sorry.

 

[jay]

Wuthering Heights, believe or not it's my first time reading it!

Phenomenal read. Enjoy it.

2) Sometimes I can't be bothered to carry a book when I'm travelling on the train, so I've started using a mobile phone service […] Quite a lot of their stuff is free, too.

Now there’s a telling sign of the times: one can’t be arsed to carry a book, but gotta have that cell phone!
[insert smiley with loaded gun to head]
Annnnnyway, how are these downloads free? Like illegal=free or are they things written specifically for this system?
j

 

[G4G]

It would seem, sir, that your friend hasn't a clue about fiction and, by your enjoyment of the book, neither do you.

It's one of the most embarrassing books of recent years.

LMAO!

 

[jay]

It would seem, sir, that your friend hasn't a clue about fiction and, by your enjoyment of the book, neither do you.
It's one of the most embarrassing books of recent years.

Will someone please bring Stewart a cuppa coffee??!!
And maybe let him know the book he’s reading aint veddy much better than Da Code?
Annnnnnnnnnnd that he has _The Historian_ on order?

Good golly,
j

 

[Stewart]

Will someone please bring Stewart a cuppa coffee??!!

No coffee. Horrible stuff.

let him know the book he’s reading aint veddy much better than Da Code?

I know that.

It's Joyce next.

Annnnnnnnnnnd that he has _The Historian_ on order?

I still expect it to be better than that heap of shit mentioned above.

 

[Erica]

I'm reading two things:

1) The Da Vinci Code - I didn't plan to read it (after the adverse publicity), but a friend said it was good and lent me a copy. Actually it's brilliant - can't put it down - very glad I changed my mind!

2) Sometimes I can't be bothered to carry a book when I'm travelling on the train, so I've started using a mobile phone service called Gobstopped which does short stories, comic strips and jokes. I think it's quite new, and at first they didn't have very much, but it seems to be growing all the time and some of it is really good. Quite a lot of their stuff is free, too. You get it by texting the word GOB to 83238. I recommend the stories Norweigan Standoff and Cat Talk. Website is www.gobstopped.com.

Did check it out! and Guess some may like it, esp if they can't carry a book with them.
Not for me though, as much as I use my mobile, I would never read a book on it.
Let alone pay 50p ( I have picked up some good 2nd books for that price)
Nope! Thumbs down from me!

Ref: 'The Da Vinci Code' Some love it! and some hate it!
but I wish I had wrote it

 

[Stewart]

I think you'll find he was a spammer trying to get us to download his story, for whatever charge, from that site.

 

[Erica]

I think you'll find he was a spammer trying to get us to download his story, for whatever charge, from that site.

Maybe ? so many of them sites...

I have 'The Kite Runner' - Khaled Hosseini on my TBR List
Heard its very good.

 

[Stewart]

I have 'The Kite Runner' - Khaled Hosseini on my TBR List
Heard its very good.

It's alright as a window into Afghani customs (weddings, games, events, etc.) but I'm not too keen on the narration itself. It lacks a certain energy and the characters, while different, are not all that interesting. They need the aforementioned energy in order to jump off the page but they don't do much.

 

[Erica]

It's alright as a window into Afghani customs (weddings, games, events, etc.) but I'm not too keen on the narration itself. It lacks a certain energy and the characters, while different, are not all that interesting. They need the aforementioned energy in order to jump off the page but they don't do much.

Ok, thanks for that
I may re - think that one (pleased I have not bought it yet) its not quite what I thought.
cheers x

 

[Stewart]

its not quite what I thought.

Basically, as far as I've read this is the plot. Kid watches his friend suffering but doesn't speak up. Then the Russians attack Afghanistan and he flees the country to Pakistan and then America where he grows up but feels he needs to return in order to make piece with his friend but his return would appear to coincide with the Islamic state and, subsequently, America's gung-ho wandering over the nation's cities.

 

[JonV]

Maybe ? so many of them sites...

Hey, just cos I didn't post a reply right away doesn't make me a spammer! Some of us had work to do and have only just skived off onto the internet again!

Anyway, here goes to everyone who got back to me on this:

JMS asked how long are the Gobstopped stories. I'm not actually sure, but at a guess I'd say it took me a good 5 minutes each to read the couple I've bought. I'm quite a fast reader, even if I do have bad taste in novels

Jay asks how are they free. Well, as far as I can see it's nothing illegal! Looks like it's just free samples to persuade us to buy the paid-for stuff - it worked on me, anyway...

Erica doesn't fancy reading a book on the mobile. I know what you mean - it does sound a bit weird. I'm not planning on giving up carrying books altogether anytime soon, but when I can't be arsed (!) it does work for me.

Does anyone know of any other companies offering similar stuff on mobiles, by the way?

Oh, and I stand by my decision about the Da Vinci Code, Stewart - it may be based on rubbish but it's a damn good pageturner of a story!

 

[Stewart]

You came back...

just cos I didn't post a reply right away doesn't make me a spammer! Some of us had work to do and have only just skived off onto the internet again!

I'm always suspicious of people who join up, make one post that usually includes a link to some new thing that nobody else has heard of, and then disappear.

Oh, and I stand by my decision about the Da Vinci Code, Stewart - it may be based on rubbish but it's a damn good pageturner of a story!

It's not about what it's based on (although that's rubbish too) that makes it rubbish it's the fact that Dan Brown doesn't think about the words he puts on pages. My favourite example is on the first page where Sauniere can see the silhouette of his killer standing fifteen feet away yet he tells us about the hair colour, eye colour, and build of this silhouette. Did you forget to set your literary alarm for that one? The alarm goes off all the time while reading that.

 

[jay]

The first 100 pages of _The Kite Runner_ are almost-ok. And then it cascades into damn near every cliché a writer could ever pull. He leap-frogs Danny Brown in some areas. Sickening.
There are PLENTY of books on the ‘middle east’ if one just wants to learn about stuff…kind of like there are plenty of biographies on Vlad the Impaler (hint hint), but many seem to need this cloak of fiction to actually get excited about things…

Good to hear Joyce will be read as a salve.
j

 

[JonV]

It's not about what it's based on (although that's rubbish too) that makes it rubbish it's the fact that Dan Brown doesn't think about the words he puts on pages. My favourite example is on the first page where Sauniere can see the silhouette of his killer standing fifteen feet away yet he tells us about the hair colour, eye colour, and build of this silhouette. Did you forget to set your literary alarm for that one? The alarm goes off all the time while reading that.

You're right, of course - the plot is totally shot full of holes. But don't you just like to switch off your disbelief system sometimes and be entertained?

 

[Stewart]

The first 100 pages of _The Kite Runner_ are almost-ok. And then it cascades into damn near every cliché a writer could ever pull. He leap-frogs Danny Brown in some areas. Sickening.

I'm about 160 pages into it and all the life in America stuff just didn't really do anything for me. The next chapter is June 2001 so I'm guessing he's going back to Afghanistan just before a couple of planes go astray.

Good to hear Joyce will be read as a salve.

Yeah, Dubliners has set on the shelf for a couple of years now and it deserves to be read. A guy in work was talking about trying Ulysses although he didn't know what it was about. I brought it to work today and his face dropped when he saw this huge book full of streamed words and no quote marks. Then I showed him Finnegans Wake and it looks like he no longer wants to read Joyce. Shame.

But don't you just like to switch off your disbelief system sometimes and be entertained?

It all depends, really, on what I find entertaining. I found that book totally frustrating because the prose was extremely clumsy although it had. Less italics! Than a Matthew Reilly. Book! SPLASH! which is the sort of thing I'd imagine sitting on the table in Hell's waiting room.

 

[jay]

I'm about 160 pages into it and all the life in America stuff just didn't really do anything for me.

It gets worse…

Then I showed him Finnegans Wake and it looks like he no longer wants to read Joyce. Shame.

_Ulysses_ is completely readable, but ‘the wake’ *is* befuddling.
Maybe after you (finally) read _Dubliners_ you can convince him to hit that or ‘Portrait’.

j
Who has no problem turning off a ‘disbelief’ system but even with no sense of small, shite is still shite.

 

[JMS]

JonV
Ok thanks for Reply