{"conf": "books", "generated_at": "2026-04-26T08:00:02.954878Z", "threads": [{"num": 1, "subject": "Introduce yourself", "response_count": 127, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "PixyGod", "date": "Sat, Sep 28, 1996 (18:19)", "body": "hello I am new here, will anybody talk to me"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep 29, 1996 (00:11)", "body": "Sure, what do you like to talk about?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "nth", "date": "Sun, Oct  6, 1996 (22:53)", "body": ""}, {"response": 4, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Mon, Nov  4, 1996 (07:04)", "body": "The best thing in the soap operas is that they make people to read more."}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov  4, 1996 (08:58)", "body": "And game shows make them want to read even more. Welcome back!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "Harkle", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 1996 (17:55)", "body": "hello whats up"}, {"response": 7, "author": "Harkle", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 1996 (17:55)", "body": "Is anyone here?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "Harkle", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 1996 (17:56)", "body": "Guess not Bye!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (18:44)", "body": "Terry, okay if we come in here until you set up our own place? Thanks. Or should we go to TV. It is entirely empty. Amy"}, {"response": 10, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (20:17)", "body": "Can't start a new topic in the TV conference. I even tried to cheat and got the URL syntax from another conference. But no. So! Good evening gang. Yes, this shall be another nice temp place to hang out in addition to the chat room and Alicia's page. We are kind of like the Jews aren't we. But we are determined to have our own nation while we accept the shelter of kind world citizens. Thanks, Terry for putting us up. You may find it also involved putting up with us and our numbers and obsession. But we are polite, clean up after ourselves and we are only slightly offcolor and then only once in a while. 14 year old girls have sought and received permission from their mothers to talk with us. Here are the pre-defined topics I gave Terry for the new conference. I wanted to supply him with them without delay, so just dashed them off in two minutes. They are: Drooling over Darcy and Firth Maurice virtual view discussion Irony and morality threads continued P&P1 VirtView Clean up from R&V -- lingering book/film comparison notes Hormones, cycles, pheromones, romance and rumors The chat room is fun Plans for the revival of the board Later, Amy"}, {"response": 11, "author": "Kali", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (21:05)", "body": "Amy! Has anyone else been here? I'm heading over to the chat room... Bye! - K"}, {"response": 12, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (21:14)", "body": "Yeah, Kali, HC and Julie. though I cannot see that they have posted. If you go back up to the \"Books conference\" link at the top of this page, it takes you to a page with a link to \"Users\" in list form with the date signed. How do you like this format? Hard to get used to but I think it might have possibilities. Amy"}, {"response": 13, "author": "Arnessa", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (21:26)", "body": "Hey, Amy. I think this format could be good for the meantime. Our exile is turning out to be quite an interesting experience. Everyone has been so resourceful! I'm heading over to chat now. Hope to catch up with you, Kali."}, {"response": 14, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (22:11)", "body": "Welcome, austen is now a happening conference. It's up to you to create the topics."}, {"response": 15, "author": "Dani", "date": "Fri, Nov 29, 1996 (14:45)", "body": "Hi all! Has anyone posted in here about any actual books they've read or is this just a stopping place/stepping stone for other conferences? As you might be able to tell, I'm VERY new here :)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 29, 1996 (15:45)", "body": "No, no, no. This is not just a stepping stone. This is a full blown conference on books. Talk about books you're actually reading (or even books you're pretending to read). Go books!!!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "Rejena", "date": "Wed, Jan  1, 1997 (20:49)", "body": "Terry, I have a book I am reading right now it is Fantastic! The book, \"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings\", the author; MAYA ANGELOU. Fabulous writer, good text, and an autobiography at that. 1969. I became interested in Ms. Angelou by seeing a conference she spoke at on CSPAN of all things. It was at Boston College. I was struck by her wonderful voice and the words came second. Now, that I am reading \"I Know Why....\" I find out that the words have so much more meaning. Rejena"}, {"response": 18, "author": "Rejena", "date": "Wed, Jan  1, 1997 (20:50)", "body": "Terry, I have a book I am reading right now it is Fantastic! The book, \"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings\", the author; MAYA ANGELOU. Fabulous writer, good text, and an autobiography at that. 1969. I became interested in Ms. Angelou by seeing a conference she spoke at on CSPAN of all things. It was at Boston College. I was struck by her wonderful voice and the words came second. Now, that I am reading \"I Know Why....\" I find out that the words have so much more meaning. Rejena"}, {"response": 19, "author": "Rejena", "date": "Wed, Jan  1, 1997 (20:59)", "body": "Terry, I have a book I am reading right now it is Fantastic! The book, \"I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings\", the author; MAYA ANGELOU. Fabulous writer, good text, and an autobiography at that. 1969. I became interested in Ms. Angelou by seeing a conference she spoke at on CSPAN of all things. It was at Boston College. I was struck by her wonderful voice and the words came second. Now, that I am reading \"I Know Why....\" I find out that the words have so much more meaning. Rejena"}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan  1, 1997 (22:36)", "body": "I like Maya, welcome rejena."}, {"response": 21, "author": "Allison", "date": "Thu, Feb  6, 1997 (15:47)", "body": "Hi! I'm new here too. It's good to find some others that still enjoy the lost art of reading. I have a general question. I moved around a lot during high school, therefore missing a lot of the basic required high school reading and reading a lot of books more than once. Now that I have finished school (at least for now) I am going back and reading these American high school staples. What I am asking of you is for input on which ones I must read and immediately. A poll of sorts on the best of the classics. I would appreciate anyone's opinion. Thanks, Allison"}, {"response": 22, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:39)", "body": "hi allison allen i am new here and most surprisingly of all to you and everybody here i am loging from main land china the p r c. and the book i think you read first is wuthering height by EMILY BRONTE. DO LET ME KNOW YR FAVORITES"}, {"response": 23, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:40)", "body": "hi allison allen i am new here and most surprisingly of all to you and everybody here i am loging from main land china the p r c. and the book i think you read first is wuthering height by EMILY BRONTE. DO LET ME KNOW YR FAVORITES"}, {"response": 24, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:41)", "body": "HI MRS. ALLISON ALLEN ARE YOU THERE ? CAN YOU REACH ME? DO LET ME KNOW ? THANKS"}, {"response": 25, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 1997 (09:45)", "body": "Howdy--I've clomped all over the other conferences and thought I'd barge in here too! About all I read are British spy novels, and since I've about exhausted that genre, I've started in on British mysteries. Maybe I'll start a topic on that since I've got a lot to say and ask! What a limited focus! you think. But it keeps me happy and I've never been one to read something to impress others llike so many in my \"Fairly Good Books Club\" (the only reason I venture from my mysteries). I read not wisely bu too well--that is, too quickly and voraciously. Let me cruise around and see what's up in these book topics!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "Murfee", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 1997 (12:28)", "body": "Hello, I am new to this conference session. I am here looking for some assistance. I hae an AP English due on Monday on \"Darkness at Noon', a book written by Arthur Koestler. If you are familiar with this author, the writing, or this period in Russia, please \"jump\" in."}, {"response": 27, "author": "Mkaye", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 1997 (17:06)", "body": "Hi all: I'm new to all this too. Surprised tofind so few responses. Haven't any of you read Snow Falling on Cedars, or Postcards or Song of Solomon of any of the fabulous works out there now? Have a wonderful one for you to try; Down from Troy by Richard Selzer. Author is a retired surgeon, writer about his childhoon, his profession, his family. Great wordsmith. Says his mother wanted to be an opera singer but her voice was too small. She sounded 'like a little mouse ringing a tiny silver bell'. ry it you'll love it."}, {"response": 28, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (21:44)", "body": "Hi! Loved Wuthering Heights........."}, {"response": 29, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (16:21)", "body": "Hi. I used to read a lot, and I miss it. I was brought up on \"the classics\" (as defined by Waldenbooks--Twain,London, Hardy, Shakespeare, not so much Virgil and Homer) and then learned about \"contemporary classics\" (like Kerouac, Atwood, Angelou) in college, and then started working in book stores and tried to read everything! I learned about Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman , Armistad Maupin and John Fowles...and I learned the joy of reading good mysteries and good science fiction from my customers...but now that I'm out of the business, I'm also out of touch. Since I had a child a year and a half ago, I'm lucky to read a book a month--I fall asleep when I try to read. (I'm turning into my mother--only she had SIX kids to gum up her brain!) I'm very excited to have discovered this forum for discussion...I've tried chatting, and I can't keep up, and the book chat lines never seem to talk about books! I liked Wuthering Heights, but I loved Jane Eyre! I'm way more like a Jane than a Kathy--submerged passion and all that jazz!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (16:54)", "body": "welcome, martha... hope you can help invigorate this conference... hasn't been enough action here these past few weeks (afraid colin firth is sucking it's life away)... check out the top ten... add your own (that's usually at least a temporary activity stimulus)... could probably use some additional topics, too (any suggestions? was talk not long ago re: history/ civil war topic, but it seems to have firth-ed away...)"}, {"response": 31, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (18:05)", "body": "Welcome Martha! I have a 3 and 5 year old, and I can tell you (vis a vis reading good books) that there's a tunnel with a pinprick of light at the end of it! I read more books in '97 than the preceding 5 years combined, and I'm hoping to break out of my regular routine this year by reading some divergent tastes (i.e., anything not starring Colin Firth, Nick!) :)"}, {"response": 32, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (20:02)", "body": "delighted to hear it (though i never suspected you to be among the firth-ers, autumn)"}, {"response": 33, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (20:12)", "body": "There is hope!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (21:14)", "body": "Got a 4 and 8 year old and I can relate! But, as Autumn says, there's light! I read whenever I get a quiet moment (rare-usually when everybody's in bed!)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (12:24)", "body": "That's high praise coming from you, Nick! What are you reading these days, Wolf?"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (21:20)", "body": "Kathleen Woodiwiss' Petals on the River. Love her stuff. yeah, I know, gushy romance stuff, but it's gooooooood (live vicariously *wink*)"}, {"response": 37, "author": "kay", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (21:20)", "body": "Hello, I'm from Nevada and i just got on line. Love books and reading. Mostly of the historical romance."}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan 18, 1998 (06:59)", "body": "Really glad you found us, Kay. We hquite a literary contingent here, mostly hanging out in the drool, the bronte and the book conferences. Check these out!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jan 18, 1998 (21:17)", "body": "Hi Kay! Don't forget to post your top 10 list in this conference so we can rip it apart (just kidding!!) :)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan 18, 1998 (21:42)", "body": "Glad you came Kay. Don't worry about drool-lemme give you the low down- they're all firthing!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (11:35)", "body": "Thanks for the welcome. Now i guess i'll brouse the other topics here. Is that ok?"}, {"response": 44, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (18:43)", "body": "It's more than ok!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "shortyj", "date": "Sat, Mar 21, 1998 (13:16)", "body": "Has anyone read Wuthering Heights?"}, {"response": 46, "author": "shortyj", "date": "Sat, Mar 21, 1998 (13:17)", "body": "Hello?"}, {"response": 48, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Mar 21, 1998 (21:06)", "body": "\"Wuthering Heights\"? Whoa, you've come to the right place, Elizabeth! How 'bout that Heathcliff?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 23, 1998 (12:25)", "body": "loved the book!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "bold", "date": "Fri, Apr 10, 1998 (14:17)", "body": "This is my first time here. Can someone tell me how this works."}, {"response": 52, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Apr 13, 1998 (09:21)", "body": "that's WER, clear and consise, albeit a little vague! Welcome Natalie, feel free to wander around and explore the other conferences, when you wander back to 'books' tell us what you like to read, what you're reading right now and give us your honest opinion of WER!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "Amelia", "date": "Tue, Apr 14, 1998 (19:45)", "body": "Hi everybody, I've spent hours looking for a good discussion board where I can talk with people who actually still read books. Glad I found you!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Apr 16, 1998 (22:35)", "body": "Welcome, Amelia! Let us know what you're reading."}, {"response": 57, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Apr 17, 1998 (15:27)", "body": "hi Amelia! welcome."}, {"response": 58, "author": "jgross5", "date": "Wed, Jun  3, 1998 (14:02)", "body": "hi everybody i read a book once i'm new to the Spring i think this is my first day is this where people talk about books? well i jez wanna say hi y'all i read a book once"}, {"response": 59, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jun  3, 1998 (14:31)", "body": "it's not your first day but congratulations on getting around to the book conference. (did you read a book in your first incarnation as a pickle?)"}, {"response": 60, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jun  3, 1998 (14:32)", "body": "and I hope I didn't offend you by letting everyone in on your profession."}, {"response": 61, "author": "jgross5", "date": "Wed, Jun  3, 1998 (15:22)", "body": "*smile* got my juices squirting again on that one we didn't have no books in them times had alotta jars i read alotta jars Peter Piper was my name back then that got shortened to Peter that got shortened and that got shortened to lil' Pete that got shortened to just Pee that got shortened to P. which stood for Palmolive and that's the kinda boat i became in my next life hope that clears everything up hope floats well sometimes not really in my case"}, {"response": 62, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jun  3, 1998 (15:27)", "body": "at least soap floats! (thanks for clearing that all up!)"}, {"response": 63, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jun  3, 1998 (15:40)", "body": "or at least cleaning it all up..."}, {"response": 64, "author": "arra", "date": "Sun, Sep 27, 1998 (16:17)", "body": "Hello, I just wonder how this all is working!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "ratthing", "date": "Sun, Sep 27, 1998 (17:03)", "body": "hi arra. works great! and welcome to the spring!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Sep 27, 1998 (23:12)", "body": "hey-hey, arra..."}, {"response": 67, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep 28, 1998 (06:45)", "body": "It's working arra! Have you joined the books conference yet? Welcome!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "TIM", "date": "Sun, Nov 15, 1998 (20:17)", "body": "Where did everybody go?"}, {"response": 69, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 15, 1998 (21:38)", "body": "still here, just too busy reading i guess! you sure are getting around the place, that's great. we need some new blood *haha* just a little wolf humor, don't mind me..."}, {"response": 70, "author": "TIM", "date": "Mon, Nov 16, 1998 (08:40)", "body": "I decided to spend some time exploring this site this weekend. We'll see how long I can keep it up."}, {"response": 71, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (15:21)", "body": "Welcome, Tim...whatcha reading?"}, {"response": 72, "author": "TIM", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (19:55)", "body": "Thank you autumn. Right now I'm reading \"Bad Chemistry\" by gary krist. It's a mystery story."}, {"response": 73, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (03:04)", "body": "I'm here too!"}, {"response": 74, "author": "TIM", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (04:49)", "body": "I'm glad you're here, Riette. So, what are you reading?"}, {"response": 75, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Nov 19, 1998 (21:01)", "body": "I have nothing!!! Must go to the library tomorrow."}, {"response": 76, "author": "jgross", "date": "Tue, Nov 24, 1998 (13:50)", "body": "Remember, Autumn, you need to go to the library on Friday, November 19. Would you like me to have them call you with a reminder? They're set up for that. They're very customer service oriented. They can wake you in the morning with the audio book of your choice."}, {"response": 77, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Nov 24, 1998 (20:15)", "body": "Ha-ha! Actually I did get there finally and got just what I was looking for, plus 3 ADC maps, woo hoo!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "jgross", "date": "Wed, Nov 25, 1998 (09:28)", "body": "I got 4 ABC maps now I'm beginning to find my way around the alphabet I found out that letters can be put together into words and words can turn into sentences, but then those darn sentences can turn into long stays in prison. You've probably been wondering, \"Why did Jim spend so much time in San Quentin and made all those nice friends he made?\" Well, that's how it happened. My sentences were considered (for some weirdo reason used by the justice system) to be criminally insane......but much more criminal than insane. 2 of these ABC maps that I got from the Austin Public Library were designed with my kinda problem in mind. To this day, I don't know why I was let outta the pen, though. If they'd kept me there, it actually woulda been pretty okay, cuz it got to be home.......and I do miss it."}, {"response": 79, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Nov 29, 1998 (19:48)", "body": "Ah, good old H-14...home sweet home..."}, {"response": 80, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Jul  5, 1999 (05:14)", "body": "So you have me all written down as a music guy, right (see: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/browse/music/all , and especially http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/music/59 )? Actually, I'm a book guy. Or was. Don't tell anybody."}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul  5, 1999 (14:44)", "body": "it's our secret...."}, {"response": 82, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Jul  5, 1999 (23:52)", "body": "forever and ever..."}, {"response": 83, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Jul  6, 1999 (04:29)", "body": "(From the off a light tune: \"...that's what friends are for....\")"}, {"response": 84, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jul  6, 1999 (22:43)", "body": "So, what are you reading?"}, {"response": 85, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (06:02)", "body": "Youth-letters by Franziska Gr\ufffdfin zu Reventlow."}, {"response": 86, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jul  8, 1999 (06:18)", "body": "Please see my remarks next door, at: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/public/read/books/2.224 ."}, {"response": 87, "author": "caryn", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (21:50)", "body": "Hello everyone! I am Caryn Kathryn Mac Fadyen, native of Scotland, Transplanted in America! I kind of like that concept, sort of. Some of you may know me from my food, music, books, conference. I and my entourage have some great things going on within these three areas! Always looking for great feedback and conversation with gracious people, whom are in the know of things! Any dashing and fun Scots of celts out there! Say hello and lets chat about our great enchanted land! Hope you are all listeni g! Thank you all kindly! Caryn."}, {"response": 88, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (22:26)", "body": "I created a Scotland topic in travel so you can romp around in it, Caryn."}, {"response": 89, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 16, 1999 (22:45)", "body": "I adore Scotland and your travel topic will be about as close to the Flying Scot as I am going to get for a while! Great news!"}, {"response": 90, "author": "sheryltoo", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (06:59)", "body": "Hi, I'm new to this group and enjoy reading mysteries, espeically if they include romance. BTW Wolf, I too read Petals on the River by Kathleen Woodiwiss. She is one of my favorite authors. I recently read Snow Falling on Cedars which was a mystery with romance, but nothing like Kathleen Woodiwiss's books. I have to say it was a very nice change from my normal romance novels."}, {"response": 91, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (20:29)", "body": "Have any of your favorite authors books made it to the silver screen. Glad you're joining in the conversation!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (16:09)", "body": "Juliette read Stuart Little this fall and is looking forward to seeing the movie."}, {"response": 93, "author": "sheryltoo", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (07:52)", "body": "Actually Snow Falling on Cedars has been made into a movie. It will be out in the theatres January 7th, 2000."}, {"response": 94, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (08:14)", "body": "Ebert loved Little, his female reviewer counterpart of the week really hated it."}, {"response": 95, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (14:11)", "body": "Uh-oh, whom to trust? We're seeing it either way, so I guess it doesn't matter. Sheryl, I disliked Snow Falling on Cedars , so I definitely won't be seeing the movie."}, {"response": 96, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (07:48)", "body": "I got a book full of skimpily clad girls! Wowee!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (07:52)", "body": "Now, guess what the book is I can't put down..."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (09:48)", "body": "A real page-turner, huh?! Please tell me you can read it from left to right and not from top to bottom with stitched across the mid-section (where the staples used to be.) That means either you were very naughty this year - or VERY nice. Happy Boggle-eyed Alexander, no matter which is the case. *holiday hugs*"}, {"response": 99, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (16:22)", "body": "Alexander, how about the book you plan to read next?"}, {"response": 100, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (16:28)", "body": "Uh, remind me dear, which one was that? Anyhow, the one mentioned above is the monography on Gil Elvgren, published by German publisher Taschen from Cologne. Nearly all his works, from the fourties to the seventies! R. would love this, I bet - as would many more around here... Now, back to \"what next\"... Autumn?"}, {"response": 101, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (17:10)", "body": "Sorry, that was tongue-in-cheek, Alexander! I was referring to \"Scantily Clad Women II\", the long-awaited sequel! I picked up some stuff by Fannie Flagg at the library today because people keep recommending her to me. I wonder if I'll read them?"}, {"response": 102, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "what has she written? and welcome, sheryl!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "She wrote \"Fried Green Tomatoes at the WhistleStop Cafe\" for one..."}, {"response": 104, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (18:43)", "body": "was that the one the movie was based on? (loved that film)"}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (20:01)", "body": "I have the audio tape...was a gift. Have never listened to it because it seemed to be alien to anything I would otherwise be interested in. Shall I give it a listen?"}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (20:02)", "body": "Yes, it was...sorry I did not answer your question in my last post!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (22:04)", "body": "Marcia, I really enjoyed Fried Green Tomatoes and think you should definitely give a listen. But I LOVED Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man ! I'm currently working on Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! which is OK but not as enjoyable as the previous two were. What are you all reading?"}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (23:41)", "body": "Well, that does it. I shall listen to it as soon as my life gets back to normal. Thanks, Autumn! I really appreciate your recommendation. Sometimes I'm a bit of a snob about books and I would have probably passed this one over without your approval of her works. I just might become a fan, also."}, {"response": 109, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (23:44)", "body": "Reading consists of catching up on my Archaeology, Odyssey and Biblical Archaeology Review publications as well as hunting down things for Geo. I get so absorbed in books I do not surface until I have read the last page. I think I will reread some of my Arthurian books and get that topic going again."}, {"response": 110, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (21:24)", "body": "i loved fried green tomatoes (the movie-didn't know it was a book).... have been trying to learn about investing...."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  4, 2000 (21:27)", "body": "Good for you...I inherited some and mess about with it a little. Mostly I let a good thing just get better."}, {"response": 112, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (10:23)", "body": "I've been learning about investing also, wolf, maybe we could talk about it in one of the stock market conferences that's seldom used, like dsm. I've found some wonderful stock sites with cool recommendations and real time tickers that I'd like to share."}, {"response": 113, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (12:09)", "body": "May I tag along?"}, {"response": 114, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (14:57)", "body": "Sure."}, {"response": 115, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (15:30)", "body": "Waiting for a topic to show new activity. I just added dpo and business and the other investing conference to my hotlist."}, {"response": 116, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Feb  5, 2000 (16:39)", "body": "Sure ask me about stock websites in the appropriate topic and I'll respond."}, {"response": 117, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (20:50)", "body": "well, i gotta go explore that conference. in the meantime, i've joined suretrade and right now, just am watching a few penny stocks that came up during a search."}, {"response": 118, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (21:09)", "body": "Go for it, Wolfie, and when you are rich and famous, remember the little people like me who knew you way back when...(and tell us how you are doing...!) *hugs*"}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb  9, 2000 (21:30)", "body": "*smile*"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (13:02)", "body": "Below Deck in a Storm at Sea Ted pursued a Ph.D. in English literature at Oxford for awhile, but dropped out when he decided that his studies were \"astonishingly irrelevant.\" In 1950, Ted invented the word \"nerd\". In 1984 he won a Pulitzer Prize. After dropping out of Oxford, Ted worked 9 years for Standard Oil as a designer of brochures. In the summer of 1936, he found himself below deck on the MS Kungshold, listening to the rhythm of the ship's engines in a focused attempt to distract himself from a terrifying scene. To further distract himself, Ted began writing a nonsensical poem to the motor's pounding beat. \"I was trying to keep my mind off the storm that was going on. This rhythm persisted in my head for about a week after I was off the ship and, probably as psycho-therapy, I began developing the theme.\" When his nonsensical poem was finally complete, Ted decided that instead of signing it with his real name, Theodor S. Geisel, he would use only his middle name. And as long as he was writing nonsense, he would give himself an honorary doctorate. And in a singular, magical moment worthy of all the pixie dust of Tinker Bell, the world's beloved \"Dr. Seuss\" was born. \"Although I knew nothing about children's books it sounded pretty good, so I decided to get it published. It was rejected by twenty-eight publishing houses before the twenty-ninth, Vanguard Press, agreed to take a chance on bringing it out.\" The main reason given by the other publishing houses for rejecting Ted's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was that it was too different from the other children's books on the market. By the time of his death in 1991, the 46 books written and illustrated by Ted Geisel had sold more than 200 million copies and had been translated into 20 languages. Former Random House president Bennett Cerf once remarked, \"I've published any number of great writers, from William Faulkner to John O'Hara, but there's only one genius on my authors list. His name is Ted Geisel.\" What keys did Ted use to unlock the vaults of wild success? Key 1: Ted surprised Broca's area of the brain by using unpredictable words in unusual combinations. In fact, Ted often made up his own words altogether. Key 2: In mimicking the rhythm the ship's engines, Ted created echoic retention in the phonological loop of working memory, located in the dorsolateral prefrontal association area of the brain. You can't get Ted's stories out of your head. Key 3: Ted refused to pay attention to the established rules of his category: children's books. He dared to do what had not yet been proven to work. Key 4: Instead of writing about what was, Ted wrote about what was not. He knew the public was more willing to believe fiction than non- fiction. Now that you have all four of Ted's keys, why don't you do what he did? I can assure you that the keys still work and the vaults are right where they've always been. ---Roy H. Williams"}, {"response": 121, "author": "Carys", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (13:29)", "body": "Greetings all! I call myself Carys and I'm here for the book conference. I'm a fan of mysteries myself. Most recently I've read the historical mysteries of Laura Joh Roland. Her books are set in late 17th century Japan."}, {"response": 122, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (16:54)", "body": "welcome carys!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Sep  9, 2000 (21:19)", "body": "Hello, Carys! I just finished I am of Irelaunde , by Juilene Osborne McKnight. It is about St. Patrick's experiences in Ireland with the Druids, with beautifully woven legends. Great storytelling."}, {"response": 124, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 10, 2000 (09:15)", "body": "Hi Carys, nice to see someone else likes conference hopping!!! I'm reading Patricia Cornwall, Point of origin ...murder mystery. Just finished and Elizabeth Goudge binge, I think I may pick up on her again after this rather gory murder....I think I need something a little gentler..."}, {"response": 125, "author": "Carys", "date": "Mon, Sep 11, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "Hello all! Great to be in the presence of book-lovers. Like many of you I too love the Mary Stewart books about Merlin. My son is now eight. So I think in a few years he should be ready to read them. For now there's Harry Potter."}, {"response": 126, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Sep 12, 2000 (03:16)", "body": "Have you read the Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons Series??? I read them to my kids when they were about your sons age ....I've just seen that they've been republished in paperback."}, {"response": 127, "author": "Carys", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (12:47)", "body": "Thanks for the suggestion, Maggie. Is it just me -- or is it easier to find books for little girls than it is for little boys. Girls will read books where the protaganist is a boy with no problem. With boys it is different. If the protaganist is a girl, it gets dismissed as a \"girls' book\". I will look for the Arthur Ransome series though."}, {"response": 128, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (15:37)", "body": "Probably depends on the age of the boy .. When my girls were a bit older we were still reading aloud to them every night ...the literature changed though ...one of the best was Patriot Games ..by Tom Clancy (we actually read to them until Esther was 16!) I've talked about that elsewhere I think .. we didn't have a TV for many years and in the evenings we'd read to each other and the girls and I would sew (by oil lamps often ..dreadful for the eyes!). My husband is brilliant at voices, and I only read when he gets tired!!!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep 23, 2000 (18:46)", "body": "i think that is wonderful!"}, {"response": 130, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Sep 24, 2000 (07:46)", "body": "(Wolfie, did you decide what book you wanted me to read to you???? *grin* Elizabeth Goudge makes nice bedtime reading ...Maybe I'll make a topic here on her books sometime ...)"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 25, 2000 (00:56)", "body": "Oooh, yes, and I found an early 1400's version of Merlin - quite a work - from Spain! Must post this information in Arthuriana here..."}, {"response": 132, "author": "Carys", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (10:38)", "body": "I did find the Arthur Ransome books. So far my son is really enjoying them. If he really likes a book, he likes to make-up further adventures for his favorite characters from it."}, {"response": 133, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "oh yes, you can do that with those books ....at least I think the characters lend themselves to it ..our girls did books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 10, "subject": "The worst book ever", "response_count": 66, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "churchh", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (20:22)", "body": "_Seeds of Change_ by Thomas F. Monteleone (1975), a truly pathetic science fiction nivel."}, {"response": 2, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Fri, May 30, 1997 (20:47)", "body": "I know this thread is a little old but I thought I'd pipe in about a set of books I've seen called \"It was a Dark and Stormy Night.\" The books are first sentences only of truly bad novels. I should get the book out, I'm not describing it well. The sentences are awful -- some run ons, some just hilarious. It's a fun read and it can stir up your imagination (yes, even thinking about bad literature can help when you feel uncreative). Has anyone else out there seen these? Anyone else have some much-hated book?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Fri, May 30, 1997 (20:54)", "body": "OK, now I've intrigued myself enough to go and actually look up the book. In case anyone is interested, it is called \"It was a Dark & stormy Night, the Best (?) from the Bulwer-Lytton Contest\" compiled by scott Rice. The subtitle is, \"the funniest opening sentences from the worst novels never written.\" The contest is named for the author who actually penned the words Snoopy uses when writing. An example: \"Dawn Esterbrooke looked lovingly upon the gifts which her lifelong childhood friends brought to her wedding shower, but inside her guts churned like an overripe peach in a blender because only two hours earlier she had left a motel with her best friend's homosexual father.\" This fine example is credited to Steve Garman of Pensacola FL. Ta da."}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, May 31, 1997 (16:01)", "body": "That's as much in the running as a limpid carrot in the blender, good one."}, {"response": 5, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Mon, Jun  2, 1997 (12:38)", "body": "Terry, are we the only two people here anymore? Not that I mind talking to you..."}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun  2, 1997 (15:06)", "body": "No, have you talked to aubrey and ginger?"}, {"response": 7, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Tue, Jun  3, 1997 (14:18)", "body": "Not here, although I think aubrey has been in the movie and tv conferences with me. So, can I trash Moby Dick here with impunity? It's the worst book I've tried and tried again to read, yet never managed to really plow through. Thank heavens for Cliff's Notes. But even now, as a mature (somewhat mature) adult without deadlines and quizzes, I haven't managed to get into this book. That's all my ranting for today."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jun  3, 1997 (15:06)", "body": "Have you talked to Ted Chong? How about Stacey Vura? She's stacey@www.spring.com or stacey@spring.com. Deop an email to her at both places and tell her to come keep you company."}, {"response": 10, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (14:15)", "body": "LOL! Putting \"wrote\" in quotes! There are so many losers out there--this topic's way too broad. It's sad how many trees have died for bad books."}, {"response": 12, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (14:41)", "body": "anything written by a fascist (\"see, i told you so\"... \"in the arena\"... \"my six crises\"...etc...)"}, {"response": 13, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 1997 (19:46)", "body": "what about by a fanatic? I rather enjoy reading fanatical works. Sometimes the twain shall meet! Ever read VOX? SAme author as DAMAGE. I certainly prefer the latter as a book and refused to see the movie. Oh. Another odd one, certainly not all bad was Giraffe. About a young man's obsession sexually as much as sensually a giraffe. If I were to tell you too much more you might be afraid to read it. And if I were to tell you I enjoyed it, you might have an unsavory opinion of my tastes (one of them anyway) in literature. I enjoy variety in my written art as much as I enjoy diversity in music and visual presentations. All mix and make for a very interesting slant on life."}, {"response": 14, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 1997 (20:28)", "body": "i define \"unsavory tastes\" as being a predilection for milton friedman... all else requires a look (in spite of native \"provincialism\", and \"squeamishness\")... have read neither of these books, but will look them over, and get back with you... thanks... (being irish, of course, predisposes fanaticism... it's inbred)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (11:48)", "body": "Vox--is that Nicholson Baker? The phone sex conversation? I rather liked that book..."}, {"response": 16, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (17:48)", "body": "yes. Have you read Damage? I preferred that. He also wrote Fermata which is an interesting tale with bizarre transgressions of reality."}, {"response": 18, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (10:06)", "body": "I give it a looksee"}, {"response": 19, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (21:09)", "body": "Never read Damage, Stacey, but everyone raves about The Mezzanine. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have it, so I'll probably never read it..."}, {"response": 20, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (12:07)", "body": "Two worst books. 1] the clock work orange. didn't even watch the movie. 2] the thornbirds. thought i was crazy for a while becausei was told it had to be good it was a best seller."}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (20:08)", "body": "Yeah, that happened with my book club. We read something by Anne Tyler-- \"Breathing Lessons\" I think--and it sucked, but hey, the Pulitzer Prize Committee can't be wrong...."}, {"response": 22, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (17:46)", "body": "*chuckle* oh, to be esteemed for no good reason!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (17:46)", "body": "yeah, sonny was a lucky guy..."}, {"response": 24, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 1998 (20:11)", "body": "LOL!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 26, 1998 (18:05)", "body": "hey nick... remember when we were chatting (I was chatting you were listening) about reading children's books when you need to? Completely wrong topic but I wanted to get it out before I forgot... \"The Bridge to Terabithia\" is one of the best books ever written --- children's or not. I think you would enjoy it... and WER, I think you would too."}, {"response": 27, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 26, 1998 (22:13)", "body": "ok... but you know how bad I am about follow thru!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Jan 26, 1998 (22:13)", "body": "(thanks for the tip...\"terabithia\" was wonderful... half in love with julia edmunds myself...)"}, {"response": 29, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jan 28, 1998 (09:00)", "body": "I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I've read it numerous times Truly memories that stay with me... (little scattered this a.m.)"}, {"response": 31, "author": "CotC", "date": "Wed, Jan 28, 1998 (16:04)", "body": "Hey, WER, go check out contacts and maybe also Fnord ."}, {"response": 32, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jan 28, 1998 (16:48)", "body": "hey tommy! you guys preggo yet?!? *yikes*"}, {"response": 34, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jan 28, 1998 (17:19)", "body": "should I say anything about not \"spending it all in one place\"? (probably not)"}, {"response": 36, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (06:35)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) http://www.capitol-city.com"}, {"response": 37, "author": "Amelia", "date": "Tue, Apr 14, 1998 (19:55)", "body": "Someone here trashed \"Moby Dick\"!! I am appalled! :) Actually, I love \"Moby Dick\". I have also read quite a few BAD books...\"The Bridges of Madison County\" takes the cake though. Yikes!!! My mom made me read it and I will NEVER forgive her."}, {"response": 38, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr 14, 1998 (22:50)", "body": "Did you read Catcher in the Rye?"}, {"response": 39, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Apr 16, 1998 (22:37)", "body": "(*gasp*) I think you're in the wrong topic, Terry...."}, {"response": 40, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Apr 17, 1998 (15:27)", "body": "we hope so anyway!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jul 11, 1998 (19:57)", "body": "the worst book ever, without a doubt, is Catch 22. :-)"}, {"response": 42, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jul 17, 1998 (21:07)", "body": "Ha ha! I think you're in the wrong topic, Mike! :-) (And you obviously have never read \"The World According to Garp\".)"}, {"response": 43, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jul 18, 1998 (08:29)", "body": "did anyone else like Catch 22? I thought it was the most awful thing I'd ever been subjected to. no story. no real characters to get a grip on. nothing. just garbage, written by that prat Heller, who admitted that he just wrote down a load of old pants and it didn't really mean anything. hee:-)"}, {"response": 44, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jul 19, 1998 (11:47)", "body": "I loved it! But then I've got a thing for old pants. :-)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Jul 19, 1998 (17:56)", "body": "i found the bit about the crab apples funny at first, but then it didn't have a point, which took away from it a bit, I thought."}, {"response": 46, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jul 20, 1998 (22:32)", "body": "Nothing in the book had a point. I think that was the point. Insane times, and all that."}, {"response": 47, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sat, Jul 25, 1998 (15:26)", "body": "yeah, i liked \"catch 22\" (a lot)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jul 26, 1998 (21:05)", "body": "How ya been, Nick?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Jul 29, 1998 (15:19)", "body": "pert near good (okay... and you?)"}, {"response": 50, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jul 30, 1998 (21:02)", "body": "Good; busy summer. What have you been doing with yourself? Do your entrepreneurial activities keep you from getting on the computer? (Or do you have your nose stuck in a poetry book?)"}, {"response": 51, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sat, Aug  1, 1998 (16:47)", "body": "been doing kind of the primitive living thing (spent the past few weeks in a cabin (uh, shack) in the middle of nowhere... no computer, no phone... pretty cool, all in all)..."}, {"response": 52, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Aug  2, 1998 (17:41)", "body": "Cool, Nick, I've done that from time. I spent 3 months in a log cabin in the Oregon wilderness, with a clear mountain stream running by. I had a wood cook stove, and had to fetch water in a bucket. No ethernet, no electricity, not even a notebook on this outing. These kinds of experiences can be very renewing!"}, {"response": 53, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Aug  2, 1998 (18:08)", "body": "Just ask Ted Kaczinski and the guy who shot up the Capitol building..."}, {"response": 54, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug  3, 1998 (09:05)", "body": "No, Autumn, that *that* kind of renewal, more like Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Aug  4, 1998 (21:44)", "body": "Ah...speaking of Thoreau, did you happen to hear about him plagiarizing \"Walden\" from his aunt? I read that her diaries turned up and revealed that he had excerpted whole chapters from her work."}, {"response": 56, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug  5, 1998 (04:20)", "body": "Another icon shattered."}, {"response": 57, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (03:16)", "body": "BOOM! I have no idea about the worst book I ever read - if it was that bad there's no way I wouldv'e finished it."}, {"response": 58, "author": "TIM", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (05:15)", "body": "Mein Kampf. and no, I did not finish it."}, {"response": 59, "author": "TIM", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (05:16)", "body": "the NECROMICON is a close second. I did not finish it either."}, {"response": 60, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (12:04)", "body": "didja attempt the Silmarillion?"}, {"response": 61, "author": "TIM", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (16:35)", "body": "I read it and I liked it. But then, I'm a fan of the series."}, {"response": 62, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Nov 19, 1998 (21:05)", "body": "We won't even talk about Melville, Faulkner or Hemingway."}, {"response": 63, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Nov 19, 1998 (21:05)", "body": "Or Nathaniel Hawthorne."}, {"response": 64, "author": "TIM", "date": "Fri, Nov 20, 1998 (03:48)", "body": "I liked Hemmingway. one out of four isn't bad. Actually there are a lot of good authors. Right now we are in the golden age of literature. there are more new authors being published now than at any time in history."}, {"response": 65, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (21:12)", "body": "That is because there is more trash fiction than ever. Bestsellers don't equal literature IMO. Authors like Danielle Steel are murdering too many trees!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "TIM", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (22:48)", "body": "I happen to like everything that Danielle Steele has ever written. There's no accounting for taste."}, {"response": 67, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (22:57)", "body": "My point exactly! There should be accountability! :-)"}, {"response": 68, "author": "TIM", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (23:25)", "body": "I'm perfectly willing to listen to them on tape, and save trees."}, {"response": 69, "author": "ratthing", "date": "Mon, Nov 23, 1998 (09:54)", "body": "have you guys seen the new \"e books?\" they are electronic, book sized tablets for storing and reading. i think levenger is selling them www.levenger.com"}, {"response": 70, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov 23, 1998 (10:08)", "body": "Yep, inevitable. $499."}, {"response": 71, "author": "TIM", "date": "Mon, Nov 23, 1998 (13:17)", "body": "Oh boy! I'm going to have to try one of those."}, {"response": 72, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Nov 24, 1998 (20:18)", "body": "Do any books go straight to audio, or does a tree always have to die first?"}, {"response": 73, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 25, 1998 (03:29)", "body": "Too weird! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 11, "subject": "libraries - do they have any future?", "response_count": 51, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "grnyrose", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 1996 (00:24)", "body": "although more and more people are getting personal computers and learning how to connect with the internet, it still is not as widely spread that we can do with out our libraries. The library may be the jumping off place to learn how to connect on your own...but many may not beable to afford a person computer and hook up charges at this stage of their lives...it will have to be made available for research in a public forum..like a library."}, {"response": 2, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (03:10)", "body": "The library will live on. It is a place of gathered and ORGANIZED information, remember? Nobody will ever be able to organize the net... and besides, not every book or other media will be translated to web form. And of course, the staff at the libraries know how to find and handle the information, and that's what will be needed. (Just random thoughts from an informatics student... 80)... )"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (17:35)", "body": "You probably right. Search engines are far from *organized*. Ever the 11,000 replies in haphazard order from a search engine?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (17:35)", "body": "Mixu, do you think they ought to apply the Dewey Decimal System to websites?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (08:54)", "body": "That would be a good idea, although nobody would want to organize all the tidbits of information in the net. It is a huge undertaking. I'd like to see a new system which is specially made for internet and multimedia... Hmm, maybe I should think about it..."}, {"response": 6, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (01:42)", "body": "As fun as all this is, it's not the same as holding a book. WER"}, {"response": 7, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (10:57)", "body": "And curling up with your computer in bed isn't very comfy. Especially when you fall off to sleep and the monitor falls on your face."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (12:57)", "body": "And holding it aloft in the first place is a chore."}, {"response": 9, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (15:28)", "body": "Ceiling mounted screen, IR keyboard and mouse. WER"}, {"response": 10, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (16:51)", "body": "Great idea!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Tue, Feb 24, 1998 (22:09)", "body": "There is a romance to libraries, even the glass-and-concrete monsters they build today. Shelf after shelf after shelf of books, most of which you've never read, the almost religious silence that surrounds you, the crisp smell of paper, ink and glue, mixed with the warm scent of so many other people - you just can't get that on your computer. OTOH, Norman Spinrad, in a recent essay on his website, suggested what could best be described as \"cyberbooks.\" His reasoning (more or less): Almost all manuscripts are now put on disk and edited there. Why not make this the mode of distribution also? It is possible now to design and build a reader - something about paperback size, with an LCD screen and long-life batteries (with, possibly, solar chargers). You take it to a bookstore, or log onto a publisher's website (or even the author's!) and down oad into the \"e-book's\" memory the texts you want. Computer billing could ensure that everyone gets their money. The software could be designed so that it is very difficult to copy books from one reader to aonther. You could have the book in any font size and type ou wish. I don't know - I like the idea. What do you think? This could easily be adapted to a library, also, with time limits in the software."}, {"response": 13, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (20:02)", "body": "Nothing like the smell of a moldy old tome that's been on the shelf since you were in diapers..."}, {"response": 15, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 1998 (21:41)", "body": "Don't you get a thrill when an old piece of paper being used as a bookmark falls out? Like a store list or a drycleaning receipt from 1972? I swear I can sense the person's energy still on that paper--either that or I just mentally go back to 1972 (a' la Proust) and recall the essence of the time..."}, {"response": 16, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sat, Feb 28, 1998 (21:29)", "body": "I love libraries. And they are really romantic, all those books with countless hands on them. Have found the occasional piece of paper as well. Hope they stay around and don't move completely into the electronic age."}, {"response": 17, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (20:27)", "body": "Don't think from my above post that I necessarily _want_ libraries to go electronic - I, too, have a paper fixation. My wife and I have about 1000 or so books at last count (our last move, three years ago), and we buy more every month. One of my favorite scenes in a film is in \"Something Wicked This Way Comes\", when Jonathan Pryce is offering Jason Robard's character his youth in the middle of the library - when I get rich, I'm building that library in my dream home. I think Umberto Eco said it best - \"We live for books. A sweet mission in this world filled with disorder and decay.\" Libraries are endangered mainly because our society is becoming too lazy to read. I heard a mother in the supermarket once tell her unruly child, \"If you don't shut up, I'll make you read for an hour when we get home.\" If my wife had not restrained me, I probably would have exploded. Our schools offer children pizza parties if they read so many books - as if reading were something unpleasant that we should be bribed to do. My wife was a TA at UT while she finished her Master's degree, and in the actin class she taught, she had to constantly explain to her students that an assignment to _read_ a play was exactly that - not a suggestion to see the movie based on the play. Perhaps message boards and chat rooms can make writing interesting again, but I'm a pessimist, so who knows... Yes, students toady on the average know more than their predecessors, and we cannot expect anyone to know all about everything anymore, as we could in the Middle Ages, but Americans seem to be content to suckle at the glass teat and get their weekly ration of \"90210\" or \"The Nanny\". Of course, one of the advantages of being a pessimist is that I'm never dissapointed. At worst, I am mildly surprised in a pleasant way. Let's hope I'm surprised..."}, {"response": 18, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (21:21)", "body": "way too much tv, they offer pizza parties here too. can't imagine not having books and hope that never comes to pass. as long as i'm around, at least, there will be pages of written stuff even if it's only the stuff i've written."}, {"response": 19, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (22:31)", "body": "I was so happy when my friend Ray sold me two more bookcases, nice oak ones, plus his computer and Hermann Miller chair for $100 total yesterday. The bookcases alone would have been worth it. I have books stacked all over and stored in the basement."}, {"response": 20, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (22:38)", "body": "fav. scene in \"something wicked this way comes\" relates to something bradbury wrote re: the differences between how men and women relate to time... something about women feeling more secure in it because of their relationship to it, being the possessor's of it, in a way (by virtue of the ability to carry life)... and about the terrible desperation men ultimately feel, in it's wake (esp. at 3 am, the \"soul's midnight\", i think he said)... odd, perhaps, but i found that scene bone-chilling, perhaps because f the truth i perceived in it or whatever... certainly transcended genre, as bradbury (i thought) so often did..."}, {"response": 21, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (22:40)", "body": "I need to revisit that Bradbury piece, how powerful."}, {"response": 23, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (13:02)", "body": "As a general rule I don't believe in owning books, only the select handful that I will re-read over the years or reference books. I feel like I keep my book collection at the library! The value of reading has definitely been instilled in our children, and I just throw those Pizza Hut book logs away when they come home in the backpack. (Although I do confess to \"suckling at that glass teat\" more than I should!)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (21:27)", "body": "I'm a little too much of a packrat to feel as you do - I'm not much on other possessions, but I must have my books! The knowledge that when I've got insomnia, I can get up, make some warm milk or herbal tea, and sprawl in the armchair in the corner and read almost any book I'm in the mood for - that is one of the more comforting thoughts I can have during the course of a day. I still prowl the library when I have the time, although I suffer from the feeling that I could categorize the books better than they librarians. I still remember the day I got my \"grownup\" card at the neighborhood library in Atlanta. I was finally able to check out more than two books a week, and I could go anywhere in the library I wanted. Barring the unfortunate attempt to read _The Iliad_ in Attic Greek, I covered that library from top to bottom. I think we all worship the TV Cyclops a little too much - you turn it on because there's one show that looks really interesting, like \"Babylon 5\", but after that, hey! Look! They're showing reruns of \"Deep Space Nine\"! And over here, there's an interview with Mike Judge! Channel 43 has the latest on the Clinton Investigation! South Park! Before you know it, you've blown the better part of an evening, and you wonder where the time went. That's why I'm so down on it - I'm as susceptible as the next p rson, and that kind of takes away your moral superiority. Back to librarires, though (just call me Non-sequiter Man). I think the best place for librarians now is on the Web. I mean, look at all this information just floating around. If you're a fan of William Burroughs, this is a great way to get a good look at what our society (at least the wired portion thereof) really wants to see. Research? Here? I'd rather throw darts at a map of the library and pull random books off the shelf. I wonder - is there a way to collate the information out here without ha pering its flow? The proposed new domain names might help some, but still - I think an objective approach might be the best. Your thoughts?"}, {"response": 26, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Wed, Mar  4, 1998 (06:10)", "body": "Still, it should be at least possible to sort into broad categories - Arts, Spiritual, etc. The problem with the chaotic format on the web is that it is often impossible to break the information into manageable streams."}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Mar  4, 1998 (06:26)", "body": "Isn't yahoo trying to do that? And some of the other search engines are getting smarter at finding things relevant to the subject, I've noticed."}, {"response": 28, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Mar  4, 1998 (15:47)", "body": "Paul, not to be snide but, I think everyone's 'trying' to do that. Just overwhemling amounts of information and not sufficient to create a MISC. category!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Wed, Mar  4, 1998 (22:11)", "body": "I know several people who either have, or are working towards, degrees in Library Science. I hear frequently that there aren't as many jobs out there as there once were. Why not figure out a way to use these individuals, who are trained to collate information, to organize the amorphous mass that is the Web? There may be entirely new categories of information that we need to create before we can get anywhere. What would those be? Before we move from surfing the Web -skimming the surface - to exploring we must weed and cultivate it in some way. Perhaps if the \"web ring\" idea is expanded - cross link all pages on a specific subject to each other.... BTW, if this is the World Wide Web, is there a World Wide Spider? Just wondering."}, {"response": 30, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (01:45)", "body": "Yeah, his name is Bill Gates! :-)"}, {"response": 32, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:07)", "body": "Another nightowl!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:24)", "body": "\"lee-sen to them! chee-ldren of the night! what MU-sic they make!\" (bela lugosi)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (12:36)", "body": "I just got a new library card, my first in 15 years. I spend so much money on books... just frittering it away in bookstores everywhere. I decided I'd try to save some $ and 'borrow' books instead. My local library signs them out for 3 weeks and doesn't charge a late fee if you miss the due date. No wonder libraries aren't making any money!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (17:43)", "body": "i think I spend more in late fees that in buying books. I check eight or nine out at a time (because I can!) and then forget to renew them. It's really pitiful actually because DPL lets you call and renew them through a computer (a 96 second ordeal!) and I still manage to accrue late fees. Once I became so enthralled with a book -- Paulo Coehlo's By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, that I wrote in it. I underlined the passages that were speaking especially to me. Then I lent the book to Brandon (befo e we were living in sin) and he did the same. We really converged over the novel and I wanted to keep it, so I bought the library another used copy..."}, {"response": 37, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Mar  6, 1998 (15:57)", "body": "Congratulations on that library card, Gena! Welcome to my private collection!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 16, 1998 (11:32)", "body": "opponents of the proposed Denver Stadium have made several unofficial proposals to the Broncos... we will give you the money via taxes if you give enough money to the Denver library system to keep all branches open on Sundays! I thought it was a great idea!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Mar 16, 1998 (23:40)", "body": "(i dunno... books instead of broncos? sounds like comm'nism, to me)..."}, {"response": 40, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Mar 17, 1998 (09:23)", "body": "actually the proposal was so both would coexist happily (ever after) the city buys the Broncos a new stadium, the Broncos buy the city one day of library access per week! And the communists never would've justified gazillion dollar stadiums/salaries for an organized sports team!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar 17, 1998 (21:07)", "body": "I think it's a fair trade!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Mar 18, 1998 (00:41)", "body": "(i was kidding)"}, {"response": 43, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Mar 18, 1998 (17:26)", "body": "(i know, just thought i'd take the opportunity to further my point!)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Mar 19, 1998 (09:42)", "body": "*smirk* *smile*"}, {"response": 47, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Mar 20, 1998 (10:09)", "body": "but i don't have anything on."}, {"response": 48, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Mar 20, 1998 (11:23)", "body": "(gulp)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Mar 20, 1998 (13:54)", "body": "*laugh* sorry! Sometimes I forget how public this is-- didn't mean to frighten anyone!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 23, 1998 (12:25)", "body": "i was... the 2nd time (breakfast)"}, {"response": 53, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 23, 1998 (17:24)", "body": "oh... well, you left too early! *smile*"}, {"response": 54, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 23, 1998 (17:25)", "body": "(and this has NOTHING to do with libraries... or does it?)"}, {"response": 56, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 23, 1998 (17:37)", "body": "(good save)"}, {"response": 57, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:13)", "body": "(and hopefully an acceptable(sp?) apology to the other participants!!!)"}, {"response": 58, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:14)", "body": "Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device, trade-named -- BOOK. BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere -- even sitting in an armchair by the fire -- yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc. Here's how it works: BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKS with more information simply use more pages. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet. BOOK may be taken up at any time and used merely by opening it. BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting, though, like other devices, it can become damaged if coffee is spilled on it and it becomes unusable if dropped too many times on a hard surface. The \"browse\" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an \"index\" feature, which pin-points the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval. An optional \"BOOKmark\" accessory allows you to open BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session -- even if the BOOK has been closed. BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOKmarkers can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK. You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with optional programming tools, Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Styli (PENCILS). Portable, durable, and affordable, BOOK is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking to invest. Look for a flood of new titles soon."}, {"response": 59, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:47)", "body": "who'da thunk it? *grin*"}, {"response": 60, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (14:06)", "body": "exactly!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (22:48)", "body": "It'll never catch on!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (23:00)", "body": "I have lots of them. I had four out today just to answer one question. They really do work and are easy to curl up in a corner with on a miserable afternoon when you cannot be outside. I highly recommend them. Over here, bugs like them, too. I hate bugs!!! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 12, "subject": "Favorite Books", "response_count": 157, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "Cheryl", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (15:23)", "body": "My favorite authors are L.M. Alcott, Agatha Christie, Robert Ludlum, Anne Tyler, John Grisham, too many others to name..."}, {"response": 2, "author": "Anna", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (15:38)", "body": "Ann - if many others here read to the extent that I do (and I think it very likely), you have just begun a topic that could rapidly expand to fill all the space available for it, + 5%. The first book that truely engrossed me was 'Peter Pan', which I was given for my 6th birthday, and there have been many others since. The trouble is which to mention... which books would you recommend others read (P&P and other Austens are excluded for obvious reasons!) although by no means as intricate as Austen Georgette Heyer is enjoyed by many Austen fans (especially those of the X persuasion), and so far as I can tell her background detail is accurate, and much more explicit about day-to-day life than Austen. Two of the best are 'A Civil Contract' and 'The Nonesuch' One of my favorite books is/are the first two of the Dune saga I'd agree, but I greatly preferred Dune, and think the whole series went downhill from there I also like the mystery writers: Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. also in mystery; Dorothy Sayers and Rex Stout (the latter pleasingly prolific) and also Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' most of Roger Zelazny's SF (the earlier stuff's better) amongst many others in SF&F"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (18:32)", "body": "Can we link this to the books conference as a topic there too?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "Amy", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (18:42)", "body": "Terry, sure, we can link. Want me to do it?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "Hilary", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (21:17)", "body": "Here are some Australian favourites of mine: Peter Carey (Bliss, Illywacker, Oscar and Lucinda) Tim Winton (Cloud Street, The Riders) David Malouf (The Great World) Sci-fi (of sorts): Ursula LeGuin (The Dispossessed, The Earthsea Quartet) Others: George Eliot (The Mill on the Floss) David Lodge (Nice Work and sequals) A.S, Byatt (Possession) Annie Proulx (The Shipping News Who-dun-its: Ruth Rendel Sarah Paretski Childrens: Roald Dahl Eric Linklater Arthur Ransome Astrid Lingren Gillian Rubenstien Thats just what comes to mind right now."}, {"response": 6, "author": "mrobens", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (21:45)", "body": "I should go to bed, but the topic is to evocative to pass. I read Jane Eyre annually through most of my adolescence. I loved it (and still do, in my heart) and still re-read it occasionally. I loved Dune and loaned (or forced) multiple copies on friends until I realized they weren't reading, just losing it. I've read everything John LeCarre has written, but am particularly fond of George Smiley. And in the mystery genre (although not my favorite) I do like Dorothy; particularly the Harriet Vane novels. I've read science fiction most of my life. I started with stuff like \"The Stars My Destination\" and Asimov's Foundation series and moved on to fantasy (Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider series). I am currently reading only Cyberpunk in this vein: Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash. William Gibson - I've just picked up his new book, Idoru. Anna Quindlen's One True Thing (I've loaned the book so I'm not positive of the title) struck a chord and I read it in one sitting. The English Patient (and who here hasn't read that?) was very beautiful and compelling. I read Shipping News on a cold October day on the Maine coast; a felicitous combination of book and environment and it has stayed with me. I've just begun \"Oscar and Lucinda\", Hilary, and am enjoying it very much. I could go on (and probably will, in the future). Thanks for this topic, Ann. It's wonderful to compare notes with sympathetic souls. Myretta"}, {"response": 7, "author": "ayelet", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 1996 (22:06)", "body": "Mine are: Little Women, A Little Princess, Moominland Midwinter, The secret garden, and a few more."}, {"response": 8, "author": "jwinsor", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (00:33)", "body": "The problem with this kind of question is that I tend to respond with some favorite of which I have been reminded most recently, and overlook others that I might actually like better if they were on the tip of my mind. From the distant past, in my teens I ate up anything by Thomas Costain or Elizabeth Goudge and loved anything by C.S. Lewis - fiction or non. (there is a great C.S. Lewis web page at ."}, {"response": 9, "author": "jwinsor", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (00:33)", "body": "Well, the link did not work, but the URL is http://www.cache.net/~john/cslewis/index.html"}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (07:03)", "body": "This topic is now linked to the same topic in the 'books' conference."}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (07:06)", "body": "You forgot the descriptive tag ."}, {"response": 12, "author": "Kim", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (10:17)", "body": "I have so many wonderful books I love that I could not possibly name all of them. I am a librarian, after all. I would have to put Gone With the Wind and Jane Eyre at the top of my list. I also like books by Victoria Holt aka Jean Plaidy aka Phillipa Carr. I have not read any Jane Austen yet, but I just received a set and will try to read them over the Christmas holidays. I also love mystery novels and books about the history of England."}, {"response": 13, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (13:37)", "body": "Yes, indeed, there is a vast number of books to recollect. To name only a few while looking on my bookshelfs, some Sci-Fi like Azimov ( especially Foundation) and Brabury. Always a place for classics/Litt : Alexandre Dumas, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Camus, Garcia-Marquez, Dickens, Bronte, Shakespeare. In the suspence/thriller genre : from Agatha Christie, Tom Clancy, Grisham and Crichton, Arturo P\ufffdrez-Reverte (Club Dumas, Fencing Master and Painting of the Flemish Master, titles loosely translated) to the inco parable Umberto Eco. Lots of history/biographies, historic costume. Some modern paperback classics like Working, Passages, and authors Bradshaw, Toffler, Castaneda and Rimpoche. The comics and Stephen King collections are my hubbie's, not mine."}, {"response": 14, "author": "EricB", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (16:39)", "body": "It's interesting that most of the books listed so far are fiction. In that vein, I could add little. I enjoy Tolkein, Lewis, Fr. Gerzone (JOSHUA series), Asimov's earlier stuff, some of Robert Heinlein (especially STARSHIP TROOPERS), Tom Clancy's HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (his books sank into formulas after that), LeGuin's EARTHSEA series, and Mark Twain. I'm not much in for mystery. I'm not a big fan of \"classic\" literature for the most part. I have to be in the right mood, but there are times when Shake peare appeals. When I'm up for something funny, Douglas Adams, especially his Dirk Gently books but also the first three in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are all good. I managed to get one of Richard Armour's history spoofs and I enjoy Ogden Nash. And if you can get your hands on any of Piet Hein's Grooks (published by MIT Press in the late 60s), by all means do. In the non-fiction area, anything by Barbara Tuchman, Stephen B. Oates, James McPherson, or Walter Lord is bound to be good history. The Federalist Papers are good reading. P. J. O'Rourke is thought-provoking and hilarious at the same time. James Morris' 3-volume history of the Victorian Empire is superb and Cornelius Ryan's books are excellent. Shelby Foote isn't bad, but I prefer Bruce Catton. Richard John Neuhaus' THE NAKED PUBLIC SQUARE is first-rate political analysis and Wolfhart Pannenberg wri es some very good theological stuff. David McCullough's TRUMAN is probably the best biography I've seen in 15 years. G.K. Chesterton's ORTHODOXY and many of his other writings are worthwhile. Kant's METAPHYSICS of MORALS is worth the read, too, and is not nearly so long nor so imposing as the title might imply. Robert Alter's books THE ART OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVE and POETRY are good intros into the Old Testament writers and their art. There are other non-fiction writers whom I enjoy, but most of them write more particularly for people in my profession, so I'll leave them out. And in any event, it's time for bed."}, {"response": 15, "author": "Kaffeine", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (17:53)", "body": "Oh, this could be a dangerous topic, indeed! Let's see...as a child, I read and re-read \"A Wrinkle In Time\", anything by Tolkein and C.S. Lewis, and going back even further - does anyone remember a children's book called \"Eloise\"? Since then...(in no particular order): Jeffrey Archer, Anne Tyler, Robert Ludlum, John Irving, David Eddings, Donald Westlake, Sara Paretsky, Anne Rice, and so on and on..... Ayelet - \"The Secret Garden\" is one of my favs too. Did you see the movie version (from the female director who's name I can never remember)? It was filmed so beautifully!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "Hilary", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (18:34)", "body": "Myretta, you'll have to tell me what you think of \"Oscar\" when you have finished. After about ch. 25 you won't be able to put it down, I predict. Isn't that language something else? I'm re-rreading it at the moment. And Eric, have you read any Roald Dahl? Interesting twists of morality there."}, {"response": 17, "author": "cat", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (18:44)", "body": "Kim, I have to agree with you about Gone With the Wind and Jane Eyre. I saw the movie three times in two days! Next to Pride and Prejudice my favorite book is Jane Eyre. I also enjoy Follow the River by James Alxander Thomas. That is a great book about \"The true ordeal of Mary Draper Ingles\", and Wuthering Heights."}, {"response": 18, "author": "jwinsor", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (20:06)", "body": "] Terry: You forgot the descriptive tag. Huh? I have not the pleasure of knowing of what you are speaking. I cannot forget something I have never heard of. That the URL came out as a link the second time was a complete surprise to me. I thought it would just be plain text."}, {"response": 19, "author": "elder", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (20:39)", "body": "Favorite books include all of Agatha Christie's mysteries (a passion shared by my mom and my youngest brother); \"Truman\" by McCullough which read like a novel for me (I had to keep reminding myself that I already knew whether the US would drop the bomb, and who would win the 1948 presidential election); the \"Lord of the Rings\" trilogy; science fiction by Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein; Willa Cather; George Eliot; Thomas Wolfe; William Faulkner; Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. You may notice that I have not listed specific books; in most cases, if I like one book, I will devour as many titles by that author as I can find. It is then difficult to choose only one book by that author. Other than JA, I cannot claim to frequently reread any books, although some authors' books are worth a second or third perusal."}, {"response": 20, "author": "carolee", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (23:05)", "body": "Kim, I also love mystery and English historical novels. Have you read the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters? BBC has done at least 7 of the stories in England and PBS picked up the first four here. Also, especially wonderful are the historical novels by Sharon Kay Penman. Particularly the trilogy that begins with \"Here Be Dragons\""}, {"response": 21, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (03:44)", "body": "] \"Here Be Dragons\" ___ I don't know the Penman novels but I have always liked this idea. I think it used to be put on maps to mark unchartered territory. The thing that intriques me about it is the relationship between danger and opporutnity."}, {"response": 22, "author": "Linda409", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (08:05)", "body": "Oh, there are so many !! I like mysteries; Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, P.D. James, etc.. Romances; Victoria Holt, Phyllis A. Whitney. My husband introduced me to his favorite, P.G. Wodehouse; those books have me ROFLOL. Of the ones that I've read multiple times, after P&P comes Gone With the Wind, then Little Women. Linda"}, {"response": 23, "author": "Elaine", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (09:44)", "body": "We have recently moved from S.F. and I miss my book discussion group dearly. I am always trolling for a good read and appreciate the above lists. My current favorite authors include Robertson Davies (Rebel Angels, Deptford Triology,etc.), Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany), Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities) and Jay McInerney (Brightness Falls) I've gone through several phases of reading such as Southern women authors, Oriental, Women's Lib, Western Theme but spent much time in Authurian Legends and Middle Ages enjoying Tuchman (Distant Mirror), Manchester (A World Lit Only By Fire) and Marian Zimmer Bradley (Mists of Avalon). Other memoralble favorites include War and Remembrance, Winds of War, Catch 22, Shogun, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. For P&P lovers, a number of books are always recommended but none of them has ever been quite as satisfying. However, if it is the satire which draws you in, Robertson Davies is excellent, especially A Mixture of Frailties"}, {"response": 24, "author": "Hilary", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (13:34)", "body": "I like Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities, too, and The Right Stuff."}, {"response": 25, "author": "hudson", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (13:43)", "body": "Some of my favorites include: Edith Wharton Henry James Thomas Hardy Ellen Glasgow Richard Adams (Watership Down) Elizabeth Bowen"}, {"response": 26, "author": "PatK", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (22:38)", "body": "I also have so many favorites it's hard to choose. I guess my favorite book of all time (based on number of readings) is Desiree by Annemarie Selinko. Other favorites are: Shogun Dune and most of the other Dune books Anything by Asimov, Eddings, Lackey, Niven, McCaffrey and Orson Scott Card Barbara Taylor Bradford The Merlin/Arthur series by Mary Stewart (Crystal Cave, Hollow Hills, etc) Louisa May Alcott's books (not just the Little Women series) Secret Garden Winnie the Pooh As you can see, my tastes are fairly eclectic and my house is filled with books (and videos)."}, {"response": 27, "author": "mich", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (22:59)", "body": ""}, {"response": 28, "author": "mich", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (23:06)", "body": "I'm a big history fan and just finished First Wives. It's an interesting boook on the roles of all the Presidents wives from Washington to Kennedy. Anne of Green Gables and all the sequels Bridge Across forever The Secret Garden and many more."}, {"response": 29, "author": "mich", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (23:06)", "body": ""}, {"response": 30, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 1996 (18:55)", "body": "Oh! to know that other people devour books too! One little book that I love that no-one has mentioned is Elizabeth Gaskell's \"Cranford\". I find it complements JA delightfully. Another book I come back to again and again is C.Bronte's \"Villette\". Other than that, I like Georgette Heyer,Anne McAffrey,Isaac Asimov,Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, F.H. Burnett, Umberto Eco- especially his \"Misreadings\" and a million others. In the books-that-have-changed-my-life category go: Robert Pirsig's \"Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maitenance\", James Lovelock's \"Healing Gaia\" , \"How to Talk so Kids will Listen & Listen so Kids will Talk\" by A Faber and E Mazlish, and , surprise, surprise, \"P&P\"."}, {"response": 31, "author": "sarahp", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 1996 (20:34)", "body": "It seems that a lot of people here like the same authors! That's cool! Those of you who like Grisham and Crichton should try Richard North Patterson - one of his characters was loved soo much by his fans that they basically hounded him to write more books pertaining to that character - and he did! Also, I think Anne Rice has matured a lot in her writing.... Servant of the bones is a great read. For more fiction but fiction that is based on actual fact (as well as a phenomenal read) try Wilbur Smith - what books this man writes! Sarah"}, {"response": 32, "author": "jane", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 1996 (22:44)", "body": "Elaine, I am so glad that you mentioned Robertson Davies. I have read and enjoyed just about everything he's written---especially the Deptford Trilogy, with 3 different perspectives on the same central events. From the recommendations of this group, I would like to read Oscar and Lucinda next----but it was out of stock at my local bookstore last time I checked. Jane"}, {"response": 33, "author": "Elaine", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 1996 (08:36)", "body": "Carolineevans, Please tell me more about Villette. I am in the middle of this novel and find it a difficult read. The forward was rather intimidating given all the warnings about deceptions of character and view."}, {"response": 34, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 1996 (16:40)", "body": "Those Literary Critics! they spoil every good book if they can!The best advice I can give you, Elaine is to read it right through and not worry too much about the understanding of it.Lucy Snow is as autobiographical as Charlotte Bronte gets, and to the best of anyone's knowledge, M. Paul ,and quite possiblysome of the other characters are people she knew very well. Just get into Lucy's brain, Elaine.Feel her feelings, if you can,and it will start to make more sense. And if you get totally bummed out by t e ending,as I always do, you know you are there. It is a book that \"grew\" on me, more pleasurable second time around.The Characters have been described as \"wonderfully rounded\" on mre than one occasion.And like real life, there are a few inconsistencies, and a few loose ends. I hope this helps- I am not an expert on authorship. If you need something more specific, let me know. Enjoy! I"}, {"response": 35, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 1996 (09:34)", "body": "Try these: Mervyn Peake (also his illustrations) Lord Dunsany (extremely hard to find) - especially King of Elflands Daughter Tove Jansson's Moomintroll series - a Finnish Winnie the Pooh!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 1996 (20:39)", "body": "I havn't had contact with Moominmama, the Snork maiden and others for years,Mixu.Ah, memories!Have to find it for my kids......"}, {"response": 37, "author": "Kali", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 1996 (00:02)", "body": "GWTW, Of Angels and Insects (AS Byatt), Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys), Ian Fleming Bond Books, Mary Renault's mythological sexorgy books, The Golden Ass (Apuleius), the Oz series, Arthur Ransome's children's books, Dream of the Red Chamber (Chinese novel of manners from the Ming period), Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Invisible Man by Ellison, The Great Gatsby, No Ordinary time (Doris Kearns Goodwin's nonfiction work on FDR's administration), and many more which I'm probably forgetting..."}, {"response": 38, "author": "amy2", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 1996 (11:34)", "body": "My favorite novel of all time: THE FIRST CIRCLE by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. Also -- the RABBIT and BECK books by John Updike; MAIN STREET & BABBITT by Sinclair Lewis; SAVAGE PARIS by Emile Zola; MIDDLEMARCH; JANE EYRE; WUTHERING HEIGHTS; FARENHEIT 451; anything by Sir Walter Scott; Mallory's MORTE D'ARTHUR (the original; not the pseudo-Shakespeare translations); the short fiction of Harlan Ellison; LEAR; MACBETH. Guilty pulp pleasures -- Robert E. Howard of CONAN fame; and Mitchell's GONE WITH THE WIND. lso like Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, Dumas peres & fils. Great screenplay writers: Billy Wilder, William Goldman, I.A.L. Diamond, Charles Brackett. In sf heartily recommend Lucius Shepherd, Dan Simmons, and Pat Cadigan."}, {"response": 39, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (00:06)", "body": "Have to add Persig's Trait\ufffd du Zen et de l'entretien des motocyclettes, as mentionned in Caroline's posts above. Just gave me the idea to read it again."}, {"response": 40, "author": "Amy", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (06:43)", "body": "] Persig's Trait\ufffd du Zen et de l'entretien des motocyclettes ___ Anybody ever try his Lila ?"}, {"response": 41, "author": "Kali", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (15:53)", "body": "Georges Sand...not JA, but certainly vibrant and sensitive..."}, {"response": 42, "author": "Arnessa", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (21:17)", "body": "Russian novels, anyone? I mentioned before I am a fanatic about Dostoevsky, but I'll mention it again here. If the world were about to be nuked and I could save only two novels on the entire planet, they would be Crime and Punishment and Pride and Prejudice. (I'm assuming, of course, all the plays and poems of Shakespeare are already in a vault somewhere.) Hilary, I just bought Possession on the recommendation of a friend. Glad to know it's one of your favorite books. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon. And Kali, I loved the Great Gatsby, too. I'd forgotten how much until I reread recently. I don't read nonfiction often, but Doris Kearns Goodwin is another author I want to get around to soon. I see her on so many documentary shows, and it seems to me if she writes anything like she speaks, her works must be lively, witty and interesting as history books seldom are. And to all the Eliot fans out there. What do you think JA would have thought of Eliot? I, myself, find reading Eliot more of a chore than a pleasure. I don't know why, but I never find her characters quite as believable as JA's."}, {"response": 43, "author": "Arnessa", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (21:18)", "body": "Russian novels, anyone? I mentioned before I am a fanatic about Dostoevsky, but I'll mention it again here. If the world were about to be nuked and I could save only two novels on the entire planet, they would be Crime and Punishment and Pride and Prejudice. (I'm assuming, of course, all the plays and poems of Shakespeare are already in a vault somewhere.) Hilary, I just bought Possession on the recommendation of a friend. Glad to know it's one of your favorite books. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon. And Kali, I loved the Great Gatsby, too. I'd forgotten how much until I reread recently. I don't read nonfiction often, but Doris Kearns Goodwin is another author I want to get around to soon. I see her on so many documentary shows, and it seems to me if she writes anything like she speaks, her works must be lively, witty and interesting as history books seldom are. And to all the Eliot fans out there. What do you think JA would have thought of Eliot? I, myself, find reading Eliot more of a chore than a pleasure. I don't know why, but I never find her characters quite as believable as JA's."}, {"response": 44, "author": "Amy", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (21:44)", "body": "Arnessa, I am an Eliot fan. I think JA would have thought, \"Oh dear! Why go into all that?\""}, {"response": 45, "author": "Inko", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 1996 (23:55)", "body": "Favorite books off the top of my head and in no particular order: Jane Eyre, GWTW, Georgette Heyer's \"These Old Shades\" and \"Devil's Cub\", Josephine Tey \"Daughter of Time\" (the best book about why Richard III was not the evil villain Shakespeare made him out to be), Upton Sinclair's \"Lanny Budd\" series, all Herman Wouk, especially \"Winds of War\" and \"War and Remembrance\", and all Nevil Shute's work. I like all historical fiction and biographies, but I'm not much into fantasy or sci-fi. There are many, m ny more that I've enjoyed but these are some that I tend to re-read at some year's intervals whereas other books I read once and never again. However, I think I enjoyed \"The English Patient\" so much that I am going to have to re-read it again. I've just finished \"1000 acres and was quite depressed by the end, but then King Lear wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs! Inko"}, {"response": 46, "author": "mrobens", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 1996 (11:01)", "body": "Arnessa, Crime and Punishment is close to the top of my list of best novels ever written. I have a friend from Russia who tells me that Dostoevsky is much better in translation than in the original. She also tells me that when she started reading American authors, she thought that Hemingway was one of the best novelists she had ever read. I can only conclude that he is also better in translation. Myretta"}, {"response": 47, "author": "amy2", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 1996 (16:17)", "body": "POSSESION by A.S. Byatt is a wonderful novel and well-deserving of the Booker!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "jane", "date": "Tue, Dec 17, 1996 (13:44)", "body": "While searching the Net for something completely unrelated (of course) I came across some Oxford undergraduate's \"Breathtakingly Pretentious Literature Page\". His 10 favorite novels are: P & P, Oscar & Lucinda, Nostromo, Middlemarch, Great Gatsby, Portrait of a Lady, Charterhouse of Parma, Tristam Shandy, Waterland, and Anna Karenina. He seems to be our kindred spirit! Sorry I didn't save the link, but I did think it was funny to see what could be a composite list of much of the above contributions. Jane"}, {"response": 49, "author": "Dina", "date": "Tue, Dec 17, 1996 (15:30)", "body": "Portrait of a Lady!!!!??? I threw it across the room when I finished, because it didn't finish! I am interested in seeing what Campion does with it (opens 12/27). I felt like it ended mid-sentance. I've read some Russian short works. Maybe I will tackle the big ones now. No one has mentioned Patricia Cornwall. Great mysteries, well written, but an easy read. I re-read Jane Eyre also. Amy, I think you are right about what JA would say about Eliot. I almost didn't make it through Middlemarch. If Anne Rice d dn't get so preachy at the end of her books she might get me to read more than the vampire series. I like early Colleen McCullough - \"Ladies of Misalonghi\" as well as \"Tim\" are very touching. One of the funniest books I have ever read was Jean Shepherds \"Wanda Hickey's night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters\". This was the basis for the \"Christmas Story\" movie (where the little boy sticks his tongue to a cold lamp post and it gets stuck). I read this in Jr. High (20 years ago) and laughed so hard I c ied. Shepherd, I think, used to write for Playboy (gasp). This is a good source. I should be writing them all down....."}, {"response": 50, "author": "churchh", "date": "Tue, Dec 17, 1996 (21:26)", "body": "Some of my favorites overlap with those of Myretta and Caroline Evans above. One thing is that I read almost no Post-WWI \"mainstream\" \"non-genre\" literature whatsoever -- a lot of science fiction, a fair amount of 19th century novels, and a little bit of other miscellaneous stuff. Don't read mysteries that much... Have read two or three Georgette Heyers on recommendation from people on AUSTEN-L , but none of them have really impressed me so far... I don't know if these are really my all time favorites (especially the last few books on the list), but these are the books that hace somehow ended up on my nightstand: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens Silas Marner by George Eliot Ice Crown by Andre Norton Alice in Wonderland (both books + Snark) by Lewis Carroll The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Plays by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (because of The Rivals ) She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith Perilous Dreams by Andre Norton High Sorcery by Andre Norton Wine of the Dreamers by John D. MacDonald (SF, not mystery!) I even have Silas Marner on my webpages (follow the link...)"}, {"response": 51, "author": "churchh", "date": "Tue, Dec 17, 1996 (21:34)", "body": "P.S. I know we weren't supposed to include Jane Austen, but I happen to have two copies of Mansfield Park on my nightstand along with the above (Ok, you can laugh at me now, Kali...)"}, {"response": 52, "author": "Arnessa", "date": "Tue, Dec 17, 1996 (21:45)", "body": "Myretta, I have been trying off and on to learn Russian for several years now just so I can read Dostoevsky in the original. Thank you for giving me a good reason to give that up. No modern language should be that difficult. I have various copies of Crime and Punishment and the Brothers Karamasov, and even without knowing Russian too well, one can see what a difference a good translation makes. For anyone out there interested in reading Dostoevsky in English, I would say Constance Garnett's translations are the best I've read. I know little of Hemingway, but I have to agree, he must read much better in Russian. And Amy, you're so right. That's EXACTLY what Austen would say. Eliot often seems to overburden the reader with justifications/explanations for the actions of her characters, whereas Austen never tells all that she must know."}, {"response": 53, "author": "Becks", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 1996 (14:46)", "body": "I agree with many of the choices above. This is what I also love: Drama: Any Shakespeare Henrik Ibsen--he's brillant Long Days Journey into Night Top Girls by Caryl Churchill Novelists: Jude the Obscure--Hardy any Pat Conroy--he's descriptions are lovely Maeve Binchy--excellent Irish writer Judy Blume--when I was young Trainspotting-Irvine Welsh (best book I read this year) Sidney Sheldon--when I want a trashy writer"}, {"response": 54, "author": "Becks", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 1996 (14:46)", "body": "I agree with many of the choices above. This is what I also love: Drama: Any Shakespeare Henrik Ibsen--he's brillant Long Days Journey into Night Top Girls by Caryl Churchill Novelists: Jude the Obscure--Hardy any Pat Conroy--he's descriptions are lovely Maeve Binchy--excellent Irish writer Judy Blume--when I was young Trainspotting-Irvine Welsh (best book I read this year) Sidney Sheldon--when I want a trashy writer"}, {"response": 55, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 1996 (20:54)", "body": "What is Top Girls?"}, {"response": 56, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Thu, Dec 19, 1996 (23:05)", "body": "Becks, if you read Shakespeare, what do you think of Christopher Marlowe? I loved \"Dr Faustus,\" and taped \"Edward II\" from Bravo the other night.It's quite horrifying, but very very powerful and exquisitely done. Are we trashing Hemingway here?One day last week I substituted an English teacher and had to do a wind-up/show the movie of \"The Old Man And The Sea\", absolutely cold, as I'd never read or watched it before. I was bored out of my brain. And a propos of nothing in particular, does anyone care to comment on Laurel Phelan's \"Guinevere\"? I'm not recommending it as literature, as it doesn't claim that foritself, but I'd like to discuss it a bit."}, {"response": 57, "author": "mrobens", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 1996 (08:13)", "body": "]Are we trashing Hemingway here? Caroline, I'm the one who started the Hemingway-trashing. Perhaps I was hasty, but my reaction to \"The Old Man and the Sea\" was similar to yours. He obviously has his adherents, but they probably aren't Jane Austen readers. Myretta"}, {"response": 58, "author": "Becks", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 1996 (11:41)", "body": "Yes, I have read Dr. Faustus, and I did enjoy it, Caroline. Top Girls is a play about a modern career woman who has a birthday dinner with her friends from various centuries (A Victorian woman, Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl, a gladitor, a Japenese Empress)"}, {"response": 59, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Fri, Dec 20, 1996 (14:11)", "body": "I'm off to the Library, right now!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "Tay", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (16:55)", "body": "Caroline Evans, I just finished reading \"Villette\" last night, and although at some parts it was difficult to get through, I just loved it! Monsier Paul is such a dear ! I read Jane Eyre for the first time a few days ago, and did not skip a single paragraph! It was so so wonderful! I just devoured and savored it at the same time! I had always thought it was some boring classic of a plain-looking governess, but found it to be so much more! (Besides, she's really kind of pretty!) I also love Wilkie Collins \"The Moonstone\" and \"The Woman in White\". They are really really excellent mysteries, the best who-dun-it, because you least expect the guy who done it. Ever since I was a child, I've loved Dianne Wynne Jones's \"Howl's Moving Castle\". I don't know if any of you've read it, but its so so wonderful. And Mc Graw's \"Maya: Daughter of the Nile\" is another cherished children book. I of course read L M Alcott's books when young, but I never liked their endings. The heroine always marries a lame substituion for the real hero. I was always disappointed at the end of her books! I read that new one that came out, I forgot what its called, something with \"Rosamand\", and that too, ended disappointingly. Of Hardy, I like ROTN the best; I just loved its CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame's presentation! Catherine Zeta Jones was so superb as Eustacia; I could imagine no other! Clym was a little lacking, though his acting was good. Thomasin was a wee bit too whiny at times, but she is still a dear. Wuthering Heights and Tenant of Wildfell Hall are also very good. I've always liked Byronic heroes. Another great excellent book is Rebecca. Olivier is wonderful in the movie! Its really funny. My three fav books: P&P, WH, and Rebecca all star Larry in their earlier versions, and I liked him only in Rebecca. Recently, I read this excellent book called \"Olivia and Jai\", and its sort of like a Wuthering Heights, only its locale is India, during the 1840's. Jai is this half-caste bastard who is full of venom revenge against his unknown English father Olivia is this truly refreshing and wonderful American girl, whose sotto voce expletives and Cowboy antics (she's from Sacramento, Kali!) are so refreshing in the midst of her British aunt's \"tiffin\" \"mater\" family. Its really really good, I totally recommend it even if you don't care much for India. It's much more believable than WH Heatcliff's unexplained anger: in this book, Jai's hatred is totally justified! If any of you do read it, please please please let me know, for I have yet to meet another being who has! Well, I wonder you havn't yet fallen asleep at my long long reply, only I just love reading, and am quite picky in my books. I've read a bit of Heyer, but she's okay, too stuffy at times. My sister is crazy over Bonnie Prince Charles, and is right now immersed in Gabaldon's Outlander books. C.S. Lewis has always been a fav. I just love that BBC production of \"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe\", watched it a billion times, and do so again once a sibling of mine grows up! Well, I really must now leave! Love to hear your responses!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (16:59)", "body": "Tay, so glad to have you back, baby."}, {"response": 62, "author": "Tay", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (17:05)", "body": "Forgot to quickly add: I just loved Warner Bro's productions of \"The Secret Garden\" and \"A Little Princess\", though I like TSG a bit better. I also love Winnie the Pooh, I have the real classical version, taped from tv when I was a knee-high to a tadpole (a kid). Strawberry Shortcake and the rest of her gang (incl the benevolent and kind and deep-voiced Sun) I deeply feel that the cartoons now adays are noting like those wonderfully sweet lovely cartoons that I used to watch when I was a kid, five to ten years ago! B tter go before this note becomes too long too!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "Tay", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (17:06)", "body": "Amy, Just saw you. How are you doing? Sorry I've been gone for such a long time! I was busily immersed in graduating early. Now I can relax and rejoin my favourite gang of people!!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "lilah", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (19:18)", "body": "Anyone else enjoy Angela Thirkell? Seems like I'm on a real binge with her many novels these days."}, {"response": 65, "author": "Anne3", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (20:39)", "body": "Lilah, I've also read a lot of Angela Thirkell. Her best books are the ones from the thirties, I think--after that she got too angry and bitter about England's changing society. The best of the best is The Brandons, but I also liked Pomfret Towers, August Folly, Before Lunch and Cheerfullness Breaks In. Speaking of Barsetshire, does anyone like Anthony Trollope? I'm a big fan--have read about 30 of his novels."}, {"response": 66, "author": "lilah", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (20:45)", "body": "Anne3, yes, I agree with you about Thirkell's bitterness. Still, it's a very interesting glimpse of a different society and its adaptation to the war years. I guess I feel I can't blame her for mourning a way of life. And I love Trollope. Is the American Senator one of the ones you've read? I found it so interesting to see \"us\" through Trollope's eyes."}, {"response": 67, "author": "Anne3", "date": "Thu, Jan  2, 1997 (21:14)", "body": "Lilah--yes, The American Senator is also one of my favorites. I agree that it's interesting to see \"us\" from \"their\" point of view, but especially because Trollope was such a fair-minded man and disposed to like us--unlike his notorious mother! Some of my other favorites of his (aside from the well-known Barsetshire and Palliser series) are The Three Clerks, Ayala's Angel and Orley Farm."}, {"response": 68, "author": "Meggin", "date": "Fri, Jan  3, 1997 (08:47)", "body": "How about Dick Francis, Robert Barnard, and Jonathan Gash? (love Lovejoy but hate the BBC adaptations). Has anyone read Sharyn McCrumb? She reminds me a bit of Patricia Cornwell but wittier and lighter (in the Elizabeth MacPherson series). Douglas Adams is one of my favorite reads, although I don't usually read SF. I have read GWTW but it is not one of my favorites, I have shied away from it because my maiden name is Mitchell and I have endured too many comments about that. I still read new Madelin L'Engle books as they appear, having fallen in love with \"A Wrinkle In Time\" at age 11."}, {"response": 69, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Fri, Jan  3, 1997 (15:13)", "body": "Caroline, have you received my e-mail regarding Le Z\ufffdbre? Actually, I'm reading each new thread in order so if you posted a message later on, disregard this one."}, {"response": 70, "author": "Gabriella", "date": "Sat, Jan  4, 1997 (11:03)", "body": "JUst had to trow in a few more excellent books. To all yo Austen lovers: Have anyone read Barbara Pym? I've always seen her as a \"modern\" Jane, slightly more realistic/pessimistc about life. I'm also an absolute England -lover and well, Miss Pym captured maybe that feeling, or should I say picture of the ideal English way of life. \"Crampton Hodnet\" gives a good introduction to her works, otherwise I think I rate \"Civil to strangers \" as the best What else? Hm, I read \"Essays in love\" by Alain de Botton last year and just though wow! this man knows a lot about life and love, and he's just 27! (I know I'm too young to say that really :) I'm 19 ) Smthg more philosophical and beautiful to read is hard to find. Many other favourites too, I read far too much (should study!!0) Kurt Vonnegut Jr for socialawareness, Douglas Adams (Dirk Gently rules!!) Terry Pratchett and Tom Holt for funny \"fantasyand Also fond of Dostoyevsky even if I haven't read much. Bulgakovs \"The Master and Marguerit\" (title translated swedish-english= is excellent too. Also the Greman Heirish B\ufffdll and MANY many more.. Mostly read books in English tough, NOT many excellent Swedish authors out there (that's my own point of view, sorry ) And btw, JoanneD, is it Alexandre Jardin's Le Zebre that't you mean? I loved \"Fanfan\" and am now reading \"Bille en t\ufffdte\", liking it a lot!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Sat, Jan  4, 1997 (11:40)", "body": "Writer filmography Yes, Gabriella and here is his filmography as in IMDB: 1.Fanfan (1993) (also novel) ... aka Fanfan & Alexandre (1993) 2.Zebre, Le (1992) (novel) ... aka Oddball, The (1992) 3.Cles du paradis, Les (1991) ... aka Keys to Paradise, The (1991) 4.Gawin (1991) 5.Bille en tete (1989) (also novel) ... aka Headstrong (1989) I just ordered through my book club Qu\ufffdbec Loisirs what is to be his latest: L'Ile des gauchers (une terre o\ufffd l'on pratique l'art d'aimer). Didn't mention all time fav six volume Les Rois maudits of Maurice Druon. It's TV version in the 60's with one of a kind Jean Piat is masterful."}, {"response": 72, "author": "Anne3", "date": "Sat, Jan  4, 1997 (13:46)", "body": "Gabriella--I also love Barbara Pym. She has such a wonderfully tolerant attitude towards life, towards people--I like to read her when I'm upset, she's very soothing. I'm not sure I agree with you about the titles you mentioned as starting places for new readers, though. I'd recommend Excellent Women or Jane and Prudence, since they are early works and some of the characters in them pop up briefly in the subsequent novels."}, {"response": 73, "author": "churchh", "date": "Sat, Jan  4, 1997 (19:49)", "body": "Anne3 -- sorry, but the two Trollope novels I've read are The Warden and Ayala's Angel , and I wasn't greatly impressed with either..."}, {"response": 74, "author": "Gabriella", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (05:42)", "body": "Anne3.. have to agree with your remark on reading Miss Pym when one is upset or maybe sad. Reading her always leave me in a really calm mood. \"Excellent Women\" as you said should have been on my list for first-readers too. But I've always found \"Crampton Hodnet\" to contain the complete Pym-world with vicars and curates, spinsters and young women just starting to know about life.. AND of course the most important thing.. the setting is North Oxford, a city that I just adore and think is \"soo Pym\" :) Glad to hear from another fan of her books. I can go on reading her forever, just like Miss Austen."}, {"response": 75, "author": "Gabriella", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (05:47)", "body": "Anne3.. have to agree with your remark on reading Miss Pym when one is upset or maybe sad. Reading her always leave me in a really calm mood. \"Excellent Women\" as you said should have been on my list for first-readers too. But I've always found \"Crampton Hodnet\" to contain the complete Pym-world with vicars and curates, spinsters and young women just starting to know about life.. AND of course the most important thing.. the setting is North Oxford, a city that I just adore and think is \"soo Pym\" :) Glad to hear from another fan of her books. I can go on reading her forever, just like Miss Austen."}, {"response": 76, "author": "Gabriella", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (05:56)", "body": "Btw.. this set my mind of thinking about Joanna Trollope. Any opinions? I really like her novel \"The men and the girls\", maybe of the same reason, it's set in Oxford :) BUt I've also got almost the same feeling when I read Joanna trollpoe as when I read Barbara Pym, one gets calm and rather happy :) Although I must say that I really prefere Barbara Pym. \"Some Tame Gazelle\" is another great book by her. Joanna Trollope's novel \"The Rector's Wife\" was made into a really great TV-serial a few years back too.. And about Alexandre Jardin: I really had no idea his books had been filmed!! I've GOT to see them/get videos? Which one is the best? any recommendations? Don't think anyone has beeen shown here in Sweden. Alexandre Jardin was here in Gothenburg at the huge Bokkfair we have every year, a couple of years ago when Fanfan just had been translated and I really enjoyed going to the talk he gave... even if I really didn't understan as much of the french as I would do today :)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "Hilary", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (13:35)", "body": "Arnessa, I hope you enjoy 'Possession'. I loved 'War and Peace' and 'Crime and Punishment'. I should read them again, because its been a long time. And I love Eliot's 'Mill on the Floss'. When I read it some years back I had forgotten how funny books like that and JA, that are written in older language, can be. It started off my last JA binge before this one. 'Middlemarch' is being replayed on TV at the moment here - I missed it the first time. It might spur me to read that. BTW its a Davies script too, w th lots of familiar Brit. actors, & including Jonathon Firth. He's not as handsome as his brother, but there are definite family similarities."}, {"response": 78, "author": "Amy", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (15:26)", "body": "Hil, I love MIddlemarch. Dorothea's stuggle with Casubon cuts right to my soul."}, {"response": 79, "author": "mrobens", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (15:38)", "body": "]Hil, I love MIddlemarch. Dorothea's stuggle with Casubon cuts right to my soul. As it does mine. And probably any woman who has been married to such a man. Hilary, I finished Oscar and Lucinda and, as you predicted, was enthralledd. Is other Peter Carey of this calibre? I must find out."}, {"response": 80, "author": "Amy", "date": "Sun, Jan  5, 1997 (16:05)", "body": "Hil I am ashamed to confess I did not finish O&L, but no other fiction is on top of it in the pile."}, {"response": 81, "author": "Hilary", "date": "Mon, Jan  6, 1997 (22:52)", "body": "Myretta, glad you liked it. Yes, his writing is consistently good. I'd recommend 'Bliss' (my favourite) and 'Illywacker', which is a real tome, but worth it. 'The Tax Inspector' is well written, but awfully black. Its about abuse, and I found it quite upsetting. And 'The life of Tristram Smith' I couldn't read - don't know why. Michael couldn't read O&L either, Amy. Its a difficult book to get into."}, {"response": 82, "author": "jane", "date": "Tue, Jan  7, 1997 (12:05)", "body": "I just got Oscar & Lucinda from the library, but Nostromo has taken away my reading time these few days. Still, I am determined. Jane"}, {"response": 83, "author": "MSK", "date": "Thu, Jan  9, 1997 (20:59)", "body": "Some of the books already mentioned have been favorites (Jane Eyre, Little Women...). Some books not mentioned that I love - The Color Purple by Alice Walker Beloved by Toni Morrisson (i just heard this will be made into a movie w/ Oprah Winfrey starring and Jonathan Demme, who did Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia directing; should be interesting) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende I love Barbara Kingsolver's novels (The Bean Trees, Pigs in Heaven, Animal Dreams). I also like Joanna Trollope. As for nonfiction, I've recently re-read \"Bird by Bird\" by Anne Lamott(if any of you are aspiring writers, you should definitely read this). I recently checked \"Possession\" out from the library and based on comments here I'm really looking forward to reading it. I liked Oscar and Lucinda, but was hoping for a different ending, I won't say what so as not to ruin it for anyone."}, {"response": 84, "author": "lisah", "date": "Mon, Jan 13, 1997 (08:38)", "body": "A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving"}, {"response": 85, "author": "Kali", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 1997 (06:10)", "body": "Sheesh...leave a thread for a few weeks and it explodes all over you! I'll try to catch up: Re: #51...Henry, I'm not laughing at you. I thought you knew that MP is my third favorite Austen novel, and definitely among my top ten, period. Perhaps I should start using smiley's only when they're absolutely necessary! ;{ Arnessa: What was it about Great Gatsby you loved? The romance? The tension? The heat symbolism? The light on Daisy's dock? ;) Other books I forgot to mention: Margaret Atwood's the Robber Bride (Z[X]enia...my namesake!) and the Handmaid's Tale. John Dos Passos' The BIg Money. Upton SInclair's EPIC propaganda (it's growing on me). REbecca by Daphne DuMaurier (GREAT book...forgot about it, haven't read it since I was 15)."}, {"response": 86, "author": "Elaine", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 1997 (09:23)", "body": "Lisa, I unabashedly agree with A Prayer for Owen Meany! Have you read Robertson Davies?"}, {"response": 87, "author": "lisah", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 1997 (17:35)", "body": "nope. is \"Robertson Davies\" an author or a title?"}, {"response": 88, "author": "kendall", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 1997 (17:35)", "body": "Would anydone like to advise a beginner of Trollope? There are so many books, and some of them so long! Where would you begin?"}, {"response": 89, "author": "Anne3", "date": "Tue, Jan 14, 1997 (17:56)", "body": ". . . a beginner of Trollope . . . Oh, Katy, how lucky you are! Over 40 novels, and most of them wonderful! The usual starting place is The Warden. It's short, it's the first book in the popular Barchester series, and it's good, typical Trollope. After that you may want to read the other 5 books in the series, beginning with Barchester Towers, which is easy to find. Some other recommendations: The Three Clerks (a lively, early book) Orley Farm (good plot) The Eustace Diamonds (this is actually Book #3 in the Palliser series, but has almost nothing to do with the first 2, so you won't be missing anything) Miss Mackenzie (shorter than most) Please tell us how you like them. Anyone for Trollope.com?"}, {"response": 90, "author": "bet", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 1997 (17:38)", "body": "Hi, I've been lurking around here for quite awhile ... Has anyone else read EF Benson? Very Austenesque in sort of a perverse way, and, in my opinion, just about the funniest writer in the English language. His Mapp and Lucia series is probably his best known work -- \"Lucia in London\" is the one that I like best, but they're all a riot. If you particularly like the comic characters in JA -- Mister Collins, Mrs. Elton, etc. -- then you'll love Benson."}, {"response": 91, "author": "lilah", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 1997 (18:05)", "body": "Betty, I love the Benson books, too. I came across some very, very early ones that foreshadowed themes and characters in the Lucia/Mapp stories. I can always make myself chuckle by thinking about Georgie and his cape, and Moonlight Sonata (with the pause at the end)."}, {"response": 92, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 1997 (18:16)", "body": "Mapp and Lucia was done as a mini-series about 5 years ago. Cannot remember much except one story about Lucia faking being able to speak and write Italian and another about a painting competition. Was a U.K. production, maybe on video,you never know...."}, {"response": 93, "author": "lilah", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 1997 (18:21)", "body": "Indeed it's on video; in fact, for those of you who watch \"Keeping up appearances,\" the actress who plays Hyacinth Bucket stars in the Mapp/Lucia series. Fun viewing."}, {"response": 94, "author": "Anne3", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 1997 (18:36)", "body": "I'm also a big fan of the Lucia series (the books, that is, not the t.v. thing, which was poisoned, IMO, by the odious Geraldine McEwen, who also ruined Mrs. Proudie in Barchester Towers. ) Betty, you're so right about Benson's people descending from Austen's comic characters--you can just see the Eltons and their ilk in Tilling or Riseholme. Did you know that there have been a couple of sequels written in the 1980s by Tom Holt, Lucia in Wartime and Lucia Triumphant ? Not at all bad, as these things go. If you absolutely must see it, Critics Choice is offering the t.v. series in its current catalog."}, {"response": 95, "author": "Amy", "date": "Fri, Jan 17, 1997 (20:40)", "body": "Thanks, Betty. This is something entirely new to me."}, {"response": 96, "author": "bet", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 1997 (09:51)", "body": "I'm so glad there are other Benson fans out there -- I knew there would be. There is small group of writers that I reread every year or so -- JA and Barbara Pym and Benson sort of form the nucleus. I also really love \"Lucky Jim\", even though I know that Kingsley Amis was a dreadful old misogynist. There's something about the pace, and the deft characterizations and the precision of the language that gives all of these books sort of a similar \"feel\" ... BTW, I haven't seen the Mapp and Lucia mini-series. I'm always afraid that books I really love will be ruined for me. I've taken the chance with P&P, though, and been amply rewarded. I rewatch P&P2 as often as I think my family will let me get away with it ..."}, {"response": 97, "author": "lisaC", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 1997 (19:20)", "body": "Has anyone read any novels by Fanny Burney? Apparently, she was one of Jane Austen's favorite writers. I am currently reading Evelina which on the back cover is described as follows: The education of Burney's country-raised heroine in city ways and mores leads to comic errors and a perilous passage from innocent maidenhood to virtuous marriage. But what makes Evelina's odyssey through the ton wonderful reading are the cads who pursue her, the boorish relatives who use her, and the vulgarians who offend her sensibilities until she is redeemed by the attentions of Lord Orville. The novels aapeal, as Jane Austen recognized and emulated, lies with Evelina's fresh voice, Burney's wickedly satiric portrayal of fops and frauds, and the gossipy descriptions of a London awhirl with teas, balls, operas, and excursions, where matchmaking is the game and proper husbands are the prize. Sounds familiar doesn't it? So far, I find the novel to be quite enjoyable and reminiscent of Jane Austen."}, {"response": 98, "author": "Kali", "date": "Fri, Jan 24, 1997 (18:46)", "body": "Did I remember to mention Aldous Huxley's Brave New World? No parents. Your job and abilities predetermined by a letter of the Greek alphabet. And for the biofactory women, the constant curse of Lupus! Oh, and JD Salinger, Catcher in the Rye. I agree with Holden about the headstone inscription. Nobody's going to inherit unless they put that on my 'stone."}, {"response": 99, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Fri, Jan 24, 1997 (19:15)", "body": "Brave New World was my coming of age book, opened my eyes wide to the bigger world of more mature novels. Amazing him being involved in P&P0 too... another in the same line : Vercors' les animaux d\ufffdnatur\ufffds (original title, whish had the translation one). So many new books to read, like your list Kali ;)"}, {"response": 100, "author": "jwinsor", "date": "Fri, Jan 24, 1997 (21:05)", "body": "Vercors' les animaux d\ufffdnatur\ufffds (original title, whish had the translation one). Might that be \"Animal Farm\"?"}, {"response": 101, "author": "Kali", "date": "Sat, Jan 25, 1997 (04:11)", "body": "\"Digression! Digression!\" ;)"}, {"response": 102, "author": "jwinsor", "date": "Sat, Jan 25, 1997 (21:46)", "body": "Kali: \"Digression! Digression!\" ;) How so?"}, {"response": 103, "author": "Kali", "date": "Sun, Jan 26, 1997 (05:54)", "body": "It's a quotation from Catcher...."}, {"response": 104, "author": "Amy", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (07:51)", "body": "Make your choice, adventurous Stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger, Or wonder, till it drives you mad, What would have followed if you had."}, {"response": 105, "author": "Meggin", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (13:27)", "body": "I LOVE C.S. Lewis!"}, {"response": 106, "author": "Kali", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (13:50)", "body": "Currently reading Edith Wharton's first novel, \"Fast and Loose\"...It has some sneaky corollations to \"The Buccaneers,\" her last, with which it is published (Unviersity of Virginia Press)."}, {"response": 107, "author": "kendall", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (18:49)", "body": "Just read the Rector's Wife, circa 1990, by a Trollope descendant. Had trouble putting it down."}, {"response": 108, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (01:21)", "body": "Title: Les animaux d\ufffdnatur\ufffds Joan, too, FYI : Author: Vercors Subject: philosophical novel Description: The discovery of a new breed of evolve monkeys lead a man in comitting a violent act in order to force humanity to define what it is to be human ISBN: 2-253-01023-5 Editing : Albin Michel (french edition) Nombre de pages: 315 Comments: Interesting mix of fiction and philosophical analysis aiming at an important outcome."}, {"response": 109, "author": "alix", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (18:09)", "body": "Myself, I loved Nicholas and Alexandra bt Robert Massie. As far as non-historical books go, I enjoyed Wuthering Heights. I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy Emily Bronte's Jane Eyre. The book itself was fine, the ending just threw me for a loop. The movie was great, though. I *loved* the whole thunderstorm/love confession scene- the lighting guys must have had a field day on that film. Speaking of endings that killed a book, What about A Farewell to Arms? That's one of the joys of American Lit- every book has a social message."}, {"response": 110, "author": "alix", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (18:10)", "body": "Myself, I loved Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie. As far as non-historical books go, I enjoyed Wuthering Heights. I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy Emily Bronte's Jane Eyre. The book itself was fine, the ending just threw me for a loop. The movie was great, though. I *loved* the whole thunderstorm/love confession scene- the lighting guys must have had a field day on that film. Speaking of endings that killed a book, What about A Farewell to Arms? That's one of the joys of American Lit- every book has a social message."}, {"response": 111, "author": "alix", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (18:11)", "body": "Sorry about that, I thought I cancelled the first one! :-)"}, {"response": 112, "author": "Kali", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (19:11)", "body": "Laura/Alix...Kaff and I are also very interested in the last Czar...I loved Nicholas ans Alexandra...I borrowed it from my world history teacher in high school, and since then i've devoured numerous books on Czar Nicholas and his family, WWI, and the Russian Revolution. I identify with Grand Duchess Anastasia perhaps the most. Such a shame that those girls (and Alexei) had to die! :( The Russian Orthodox church has made them saints - martyrs - as they were devoutly religious. It's scary, but my mother and Anastasia, as young girls, looked virtually identical. I know that Anna Andersen was not Anastasia, but I wonder if perhaps Anastasia did not die with the rest of her family..."}, {"response": 113, "author": "Susan", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (22:01)", "body": "Laura (alix) re #109: Funny, I love Jane Eyre and reread it regularly. It was Wuthering Heights that I didn't care for. I have the Jane Eyre with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine on tape and watch it every now and then. The BBC version with Timothy Dalton was also very good."}, {"response": 114, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (22:25)", "body": "Favorite books: anything by Scott Fitzgerald, but most especially Tender is the Night and Gatsby. I read Gatsby when I was twelve and still cry(his romantic readiness-the mysterious figure stretching out his arms to the green light on Daisy's dock). Other favorites-anything by Edith Wharton(just read the Children), GWTW, Rebecca, The queen of the night Eustacia in Return of the Native, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, the Stranger, Their Eyes were watching God, Jane Eyre, Washington Square, Gabrielle Roy's t e Tin flute....."}, {"response": 115, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Tue, Jan 28, 1997 (22:27)", "body": "Favorite books: anything by Scott Fitzgerald, but most especially Tender is the Night and Gatsby. I read Gatsby when I was twelve and still cry(his romantic readiness-the mysterious figure stretching out his arms to the green light on Daisy's dock). Other favorites-anything by Edith Wharton(just read the Children), GWTW, Rebecca, The queen of the night Eustacia in Return of the Native, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, the Stranger, Their Eyes were watching God, Jane Eyre, Washington Square, Gabrielle Roy's t e Tin flute....."}, {"response": 116, "author": "alix", "date": "Wed, Jan 29, 1997 (19:11)", "body": "Sorry about that mistake- Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Btrnte, not Emily. I'm glad I caught that before anyone else did! Oh, Kali, do you know when the Russian Orthodox Church made them saints? I haven't seen anything at all about it, and neither have any of my friends or teachers. Anyone have a clue?"}, {"response": 117, "author": "Kali", "date": "Thu, Jan 30, 1997 (02:32)", "body": "Cassandra - I ditto GWTW, Gatsby, and Rebecca...this is getting freaky! ;) --- I don't know, Laura...I read it somewhere, but I can't remember exactly where..."}, {"response": 118, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Thu, Jan 30, 1997 (14:00)", "body": "Kali-This really is starting to get freaky! I can almost hear the Twilight theme music. It seems we do have a lot in common-Janeites, Wharton fans, KH admirers, Gatsby, and we are both in love with Mr Knightley! And, I believe you like Hurston's Their Eyes book, another of my all time favorites. What are your favorite moments/images from GG? I think I mentioned that I like the moment he's introduced in the book, stretching out his arms. I love the description of the partygoers, too and Daisy's low thrilling voice. Poor Gatsby-he can remember exactly when they last met-Five years ago. Sigh."}, {"response": 119, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Jan 30, 1997 (14:31)", "body": "I like that Daisy's voice sounded like money."}, {"response": 120, "author": "Kali", "date": "Thu, Jan 30, 1997 (21:16)", "body": "The hot day in September, Cassandra, when everything explodes....and Gatsby loses Daisy forever. Sniff. My favorite character was Nick Carraway...the eyes in the sky of Everyman...oh, and Myrtle - BITCH! ;) And the light on Daisy's dock...poor Gatsby...he did so well creating somebody from nothing. And all for that thoughtless little debutante. He would have survived had he done it for himself...but would he have succeeded? Love is blind, and strongly motivational..."}, {"response": 121, "author": "jane", "date": "Fri, Jan 31, 1997 (09:26)", "body": "On the recommendation of the Aussies on this board (notably Hilary) I read Oscar and Lucinda . I am very glad I did, as it is quite special, though as another reader pointed out, there are some things that one would like to imagine differently. I can't figure out who Ciaran Hinds is to play in the film---certainly not Oscar---perhaps the minister/glass expert whose name escapes me at the moment. Anyway, thanks for the recommendation, as I would never have read it if I hadn't heard about it here."}, {"response": 122, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Fri, Jan 31, 1997 (17:17)", "body": "Kali-I agree completely. Love is blind. For Gatsby, Daisy represented a lifestyle. She was the golden girl(and yes Amy I too love the her voice sounds like money line) on whom he set his entire hopes: He kissed her and she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete. I've always loved that line; the entire book reads like poetry. I love Nick too and even Jordon. I love when Jordon remembers in the book how Gatsby looked at Daisy in a way that every girl wants to be looked at. Sigh. How I hate Daisy(so unworthy) and especially that brainless Tom. The scene in the kitchen with the two conspiring against Gatsby still makes me cringe!!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "brit", "date": "Fri, Jan 31, 1997 (20:57)", "body": "I also enjoyed Evelina. It's the first non Austen novel that I have realy enjoyed lately."}, {"response": 124, "author": "brad", "date": "Wed, Feb  5, 1997 (08:36)", "body": "My top seven:Tess of the d'Urbervilles Madame Bovary An American Tragedy Pride and Prejudice Jane Eyre David Copperfield Lorna Doone Followed by: The Trumpet Major Dracula Persuasion Vilette Les Miserables The Country of the Pointed Firs The House of Mirth The Old Curiosity Shop"}, {"response": 125, "author": "Mari", "date": "Wed, Feb  5, 1997 (11:23)", "body": "Brad; thank you for reminding me of Lorna Doone. I haven't read it in such a long time, but it was very much a favorite of mine way back in high school. However an I to read anything new when people keep reminding me of old favorites to re-read??"}, {"response": 126, "author": "JohanneD", "date": "Wed, Feb  5, 1997 (11:28)", "body": "And may I had my voice to Mari by you naming some favorites : Madame Bovary and Les Mis\ufffdrables (the book not the musical). First I see your name and it's nice to read your post, welcome :)"}, {"response": 127, "author": "Amy", "date": "Wed, Feb  5, 1997 (11:39)", "body": "Yeah, you sound like our kinda guy. How did you find us?"}, {"response": 128, "author": "Anne3", "date": "Wed, Feb  5, 1997 (13:58)", "body": "Brad--The Country of the Pointed Firs! What a beautiful, spiritual book! It's rare to find someone else who has read it, much less a man. Have you read Jewett's A Country Doctor? More down-to-earth than Pointed Firs but also wonderful."}, {"response": 129, "author": "Ann", "date": "Wed, Feb  5, 1997 (15:32)", "body": "I've noticed that a lot of the titles mentioned here are old ones. Are there any recently published books that people have read and were excited by?"}, {"response": 130, "author": "brad", "date": "Thu, Feb  6, 1997 (09:12)", "body": "Anne3-- Yes I have read A Country Doctor. Enjoyed it but not as much as \"Firs\". Have you read any of Jewett's short stories? Some of them are very touching. My favorite is \"Martha's Lady\". Also, I live in the Portland Maine area and have been to South Berwick a couple of times. Sarah Jewett's home is preserved there as a historical site and informal tours are given- just knock on the door! You get an almost eerie feeling walking through the house. The table where she wrote her books is still there, placed near a second floor window overlooking the center of town- now filled with gas stations and gift shops. The guest room was occupied by Mark Twain, Henry James, and other well known writers. If you are ever up this way, take a few minutes and check the place out. -Brad"}, {"response": 131, "author": "Paula", "date": "Fri, Feb  7, 1997 (21:34)", "body": "Well, where should I begin??? I have so many favorites. I definitely agree with Kali and Cassandra on many of their picks (We had this discussion in the Pemberley Drawing Room last week). Here is a list of some of my absolute favorites... Pride and Prejudice (of course) and all Austen novels. The Great Gatsby Light in August (My favorite Faulkner novel, but I enjoy all of them). The Hundred Secret Senses and The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) Song of Solomon (My favorite Toni Morrison book, although I enjoy all). Jane Eyre Gone With The Wind (I still enjoy this book. I know it has caused some discussion, but I agree with Kali and Cassandra...the book is a lot different from the movie.) A Room With a View---E.M. Forester (I know there are a lot of fans on this site)... The Color Purple---Alice Walker Any Shakespeare----However, my favorite is Hamlet and Much Ado... On The Road---Jack Kerouac The Age of Innocence---Edith Wharton (love all of her novels, but also enjoy her many short stories). Lady's Maid---Margaret Forester (This book has not been mentioned, but I have a soft spot for it....It is a \"fictional\" account of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's maid......check it out...your heart will break for her....) Well, I have rambled long enough. I have many favorites...this is just a sample..... Oh, can't forget O Pioneers by Willa Cather...That story also makes my heart break....."}, {"response": 132, "author": "Susan", "date": "Fri, Feb  7, 1997 (22:24)", "body": "\"Compromising Positions\" by Susan Isaacs has been a favorite for years and years. I reread it every couple of years. The movie was such a disappointment; they did it more as suspense than comedy. I always felt that Susan Saint James and Bruce Willis could have done it real justice."}, {"response": 133, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Sat, Feb  8, 1997 (19:28)", "body": "More Favorites: Any Shakespeare(especially Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Julet, Macbeth, the Tempest, and King Lear), Noel Coward's Private Lives, Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, Moliere(especially le Bourgeois Gentilhomme), Faulkner's Absolom!Absalom!, Kate Chopin's the Awakening, Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, Huck Finn, and Anna Karenina."}, {"response": 134, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Sat, Feb  8, 1997 (20:03)", "body": "Anyone want to talk about Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca-characters, favorite parts, or Du Maurier, herself. I just finished re-reading it again and it still amazes me, plus it has one of my all-time favorite opening lines-Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Love the movie too."}, {"response": 135, "author": "Kali", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 1997 (00:35)", "body": "We should do a virtual view together, Cassandra...but I will have absolutely NO TIME until my thesis is finished in April. Can you wait until then?"}, {"response": 136, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 1997 (18:51)", "body": "That's fine, Kali. I'm pretty busy myself now, oral presenations and stuff. What's your thesis topic?"}, {"response": 137, "author": "Elaine", "date": "Mon, Feb 10, 1997 (08:40)", "body": "Cassandra, I would also like to hear your views about The Awakening . I finally read this book last month but found it difficult to embrace. Chopin seemed to keep her distance from her characters, almost as though she didn't like them. I know nothing about the author other than the info printed on the jacket."}, {"response": 138, "author": "cassandra", "date": "Tue, Feb 11, 1997 (18:30)", "body": "Elaine-I'm glad to find another person who has read the Awakening. I found your comment about Chopin, not liking her characters really interesting. I know Chopin lived a life similar to Edna-Wife and mother who found herself living in the very different atmosphere/culture of the French creoles. That's where the similarity ends though. The Awakening was definitley her tour de force. About not liking her characters-maybe Chopin was living out her own fantasies the safe way through Edna. I've always had a fondness for the book, partly because one of my favorite teachers adored the novel and she made sure we all did too. One of my favorite parts is when Edna goes sea-bathing for the first time( a kind of re-baptism-before that she's the ultimate prude, shocked by the other women frankness, discussiong their pregnacies). This is the beginning of her transformation-then the part where she s lying down, discovering for the first time the beauty of her body. THe whole book is very skillfully planned-leading to her leaving her husband and children.... The only part of the book I found to be something of a let-down was the end. After going through this spiritual awakening, she gives up fighting and kills herself. Although, I know this has been interpreted as a triumph- rising out of the sea-reborn."}, {"response": 139, "author": "Kali", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (06:58)", "body": "Cass: Upton Sinclair's 1934 Race for the California Governorship as it related to the plight of migratory farm labor. I'm hating it. Truth is, I side with the Associated Farmers over the ag. unions, but only b/c they were communist-run."}, {"response": 140, "author": "Inko", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (16:01)", "body": "Kali: Have you ever read Upton Sinclair's \"Lanny Budd\" series - I loved them when I read them years ago. First one is called \"Worlds End\" and starts pre-WWI; the series goes all through WWII and a bit beyond if I remember correctly. It's been about 20 years since I read them."}, {"response": 141, "author": "Kali", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (16:11)", "body": "I have not, Inko...but I will make note of them in my \"To Read\" notebook...I'm still stuck reading and rereading \"My Race for Governor of California and How I got Licked\" and various other campaign-realted works. Lemme tell you, this man is not the literary genius I once thought he was. We write better stuff here... He did write a few gems regarding \"The University of California and UCLA\" - he refers to college students as fledgling imperialists who hate everybody and everything, and who are encouraged by the university to fight and kill in intercollegiate sports, especially in events at which the Stanfurd Axe is at stake. He's not wrong, ya know...;)"}, {"response": 142, "author": "Kali", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (16:11)", "body": "PS - Are they anything like Dos Passos?"}, {"response": 143, "author": "Inko", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (17:23)", "body": "Hate to say it, Kali, haven't read any Dos Passos. My American lit. has been sadly neglected as I stuck mostly to English and European lit. Lanny Budd is actually historical fiction -- historically accurate, but very much fiction as well. Lanny Budd never existed - he couldn't have; he was in all the right places at the right times to see historic events!"}, {"response": 144, "author": "Kali", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (17:51)", "body": "The Dos Passos America trilogy is fictional as well...I read THe Big Money , which deals with the windup to the Great Depression."}, {"response": 145, "author": "Inko", "date": "Fri, Feb 14, 1997 (21:23)", "body": "I'll have to add Dos Passos to my reading list. It's getting longer all the time, and I seem to spend so much time on the computer right now that my reading has been sadly neglected!"}, {"response": 146, "author": "Kali", "date": "Sat, Feb 15, 1997 (01:59)", "body": "Me too...and there's always school...;("}, {"response": 147, "author": "LynnMarie", "date": "Sat, Feb 22, 1997 (16:31)", "body": "I've been writing all these books and authors down furiously!!!!! So much to read, so little time! I love Rosamond Pilcher. Her novels always seem so...quiet. I like Maeve Binchy, too. Has anyone read Charms for the Easy Life? (Kate Chopin?). I enjoyed that. I took a JA course last semester for fun, and we read Evelina, which I really enjoyed the first time around. The second time, I liked the story, but got tired of Madame Duval and Captain Minivar (is that his name?). Lord Orville and Evelina I liked very much. We also read Cranford, which I really enjoyed (haven't quite finished it yet) -the little scenes of this little village are great. I am in agreement with those that said they loved Jane Eyre. I think I shall ahve to reread Wuthering Heights, as I haven't read it in almost 10 years. I have started Barchester Towers, and think it is very funny, but had to stop when the JA class started, and haven't had a chance to pick it up again. has anyone read Maria Edgeworth's The Absentee? I am in the middle of it now, and like it pretty well. Good description of those Irish nobility that lived in England and were (some of them) ashamed to be Irish."}, {"response": 148, "author": "churchh", "date": "Sat, Feb 22, 1997 (18:46)", "body": "I didn't like Evelina all that much, especially in comparison with Austen, and Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent didn't to very much for me, but I did think that Edgeworth's Belinda was nice (until it got heavily involved in the ridiculious \"Virginia\" sub-plot right at the end)... Read The Warden and could take it or leave it; may read Barchester Towers some day...."}, {"response": 149, "author": "Meggin", "date": "Sat, Feb 22, 1997 (23:17)", "body": "] I love Rosamond Pilcher. So do I, especially her collection of short stories The Blue Bedroom . I also loved The Shell Seekers . Her shorter novels aren't as good, but are pleasant enough in their own way. She's a comfortable read."}, {"response": 150, "author": "Susan", "date": "Sat, Feb 22, 1997 (23:42)", "body": "I love Rosamond Pilcher. I recently finished September, the first novel by her I've ever read, and liked it a great deal. She's one of those writers who can make even mundane details seem interesting. She really made me get involved with the characters."}, {"response": 151, "author": "Susan", "date": "Sun, Feb 23, 1997 (23:10)", "body": "Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but has anybody read Fay Weldon's Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen? It's a very entertaining novel about an aunt who's a writer trying to get her sister's daughter to enjoy reading Jane Austen, told entirely through letters to her. Lots of JA info and trivia and an interesting read in its own right."}, {"response": 152, "author": "Becks", "date": "Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (22:00)", "body": "I just found an adorable little book called \"JA's Little Advice Book.\" Gives advice on everything from men, and \"Jane, at her very bitchiest!\" Really cute--uses quotations from her novels."}, {"response": 153, "author": "Susan", "date": "Tue, Feb 25, 1997 (23:40)", "body": "I bought that book for my only Jane-Austen-loving friend for her birthday last November (after reading it myself). I agree; it's great!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "Anne", "date": "Fri, Feb 28, 1997 (14:54)", "body": "Did any of you Wuthering Heights fans read Heathcliff? I forgot who it is by but it tells about Heathcliff's life for the time he was away. I found it one of the better sequels I have read. What do you think?"}, {"response": 155, "author": "Hilary", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 1997 (13:56)", "body": "Susan, Yes I read Fay Weldon's book at the end of last year. It is an interesting read, but rather odd, don't you think? A bit too contrived, or too 'you'll understand when you're older', or somethimg like that?"}, {"response": 156, "author": "Susan", "date": "Sat, Mar  1, 1997 (18:00)", "body": "I agree with your comments about Fay Weldon's book, Hilary. I actually skipped through all the parts where she isn't talking about Jane Austen -- that was the part I found interesting. That and the comments about how the author's sister's husband (Alice's father) didn't like her -- those were great! The rest I would call pretentious."}, {"response": 157, "author": "Murfee", "date": "Sat, Apr 19, 1997 (13:50)", "body": "Hello, I am new to this conference session. I am here looking for some assistance. I hae an AP English due on Monday on \"Darkness at Noon', a book written by Arthur Koestler. If you are familiar with this author, the writing, or this period in Russia, please \"jump\" in. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 13, "subject": "romance novels", "response_count": 28, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "clueless", "date": "Thu, Jan 16, 1997 (14:30)", "body": "look I'm clueless but if you want to EMAIL me please go to nodoubtchick@hotmail.com I don't know how to access my clueless mail at spring.com"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 1997 (17:49)", "body": "We can fix you up and you'll be clueless no more when it comes to email. We can make you 'clueful'. Email me mailto://terry@spring.com and I'll fill you in on all the fascinating details. You're so, so, clueless, sometimes."}, {"response": 3, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (20:39)", "body": "Yes, I will admit to reading romance novels. On the quiet. When no-one else is looking.Last one was \"Once a Knight\" by Christina Dodds. Very funny.Good escapism."}, {"response": 4, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:44)", "body": "HI I AM NEW HERE AND I AM JOINING ALL OF YOU FROM PR.CHINA IF YOU REA THE WURTHERING HEIGHTS PLS DO REVERT ME I WANT TO TALK WITH YOU THKS"}, {"response": 5, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:45)", "body": "HI I AM NEW HERE AND I AM JOINING ALL OF YOU FROM PR.CHINA IF YOU REA THE WURTHERING HEIGHTS PLS DO REVERT ME I WANT TO TALK WITH YOU THKS"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (20:14)", "body": "Welcome Chen!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "Mkaye", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 1997 (17:13)", "body": "Hi: I write, don't sell much, have trouble giving it away but--a writer must read and I find the romance genre absolute divel. When you've read one you've read them all. Why don't you guys/gals try some of the stuff out there with more meat. Try The Book of Ruth, forget the authors name, but if you want romance you'll find it all in this wonderful book Hi Chen! been all over China and love you country and your people."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 1997 (22:18)", "body": "Are you going to post some excerpts of your work in the writers conference?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (11:14)", "body": "Hi! I'm new. I read all kinds of fiction--at least I used to, before I had a son 20 months ago. I also keep my romance reading quiet. I can't explain why it's so comforting, but predictability has something to do with it. I read more sophisticated things, too, but romance is the chicken noodle soup of literature for me; if I'm tired, sad, stressed, it doesn't demand much of me, and there are a few authors who can make me laugh...that's the most important thing. I also read young adult fiction when I need omfort. I worked in bookstores for about ten years and started out--right out of college--completely oblivious to anything contemporary...I would have classed anything written since Virginia Woolf died as \"drivel\". My customers taught me that there are good books in every genre and that I love people who read!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (18:15)", "body": "I, too, am a novice in the romance genre, but based on a recommendation somewhere in cyberspace, I gave Diana Gabaldon's \"Outlander\" a try. By the time I finished this novel I felt like layers of plaque had been scraped off my heart! There are 2 sequels I can't wait to read, but they're both checked out right now, so I'll have to reserve them another time."}, {"response": 11, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (20:09)", "body": "I blush! I stammer! I wasn't going to confess it, but I'm reading \"The Drums of Autumn\" (the forth in the Outlander series) right now. I really like the multi-dimensional characters, and I like the fact that the story doesn't end when Claire and Jamie have sex or get married, or whatever the end of romance is supposed to be. They have adventures together! I like the fact that they rescue each other and that Claire is brave and smart and that she and Jamie share their joys and sadnesses and get cross with ach other and then can't keep their hands off of each other--now that's romance! ...and you've gotta love all that scottish detail!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (21:23)", "body": "Belva Plain's Evergreen and Fern Michaels' Desperate Measures. Very good. It doesn't matter what happens in the end (unless everybody dies-Titanic) but what happens between the covers (of the book). But I refuse to read any of those dimestore paperbacks like Harlequin Romance, to me, they're just plain dumb (no offense to anybody who likes them)."}, {"response": 13, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Tue, Jan  6, 1998 (00:22)", "body": "I've never read Belva Plain or Fern Michaels, but it'll be nice to add them to my mental list for escape fiction. Have either of you read any Georgette Heyer? My sister owns every book she ever wrote, romance and mystery both, and I go for a raid once or twice a year when I'm in just the right mood. Her books are sweet and mannered regency romances with girls dressed as servant boys and smoldering viscounts and a lot of wit and charm. Not a lot of sex. Not that I object to sex in general, but it gets to be like the exhaustive descriptions of whaling in Moby Dick...maybe I'm getting old, but I find myself skipping over the sex scenes (his throbbing manhood, her sensual core, yada, yada) to find out what the character will say next. I agree about the Harlequins, Wolf, but there have been dark days in my life when all I could do was roll over and eat an oreo and pick up another one. They serve a purpose, but it's nothing like education or enlightenment--more like sedation."}, {"response": 14, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (12:56)", "body": "I read one Georgette Heyer, \"Charity Girl\", because I heard that her regency tone closely echoed Jane Austen's. It was pretty good--can you recommend other titles of hers that you especially liked? The library has a bunch of them. So, 'fess up, did you skip the sex scenes in \"Outlander?\" While reading one afternoon,I was supposed to go to my daughter's kindergarten class to help them make xmas cookies, but there was no way I was leaving the house until they consummated that marriage!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (21:26)", "body": "*giggle*"}, {"response": 16, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (23:31)", "body": "You'll never believe me if I say I can't remember the sex in Outlander! I just flipped through it, though, and found a scene where Jamie discovers that the woman can be on top--is that sweet or what? I don't find the sex scenes a hindrance in Gabaldon's books, I think, because they're character driven. In the formula romances, I swear there's a quota of heaving whatsises, and it's just boring. (gulp.) I think I'm confessing to a familiarity with the genre that I'd rather not reveal to people I don't know...I'm feeling a sudden urge to adjust my glasses and use big words and mply that my interest in romances is purely clinical. I hate to admit this, too, but I don't exactly have a favorite Georgette Heyer...they kind of run together in my head. I think my sister's favorite is called \"Friday's Child\", and it seems to me there was one called \"The Devils Cub\" which was a sequel...the father of the \"Cub\" was the dangerous and dashing hero of an earlier book. I love sequels and series..."}, {"response": 17, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (21:15)", "body": "Well, \"Dragonfly in Amber\" was on the shelf today! But, gulp, it's nearly 800 pages long...of course, if I can't put it down I'll finish it in no time! I also checked out the Fern Michaels one. Another 400 pages! I have not read other romances to be familiar with the formula, but if it's anything like the formula mystery writers--well, read one you've read 'em all..."}, {"response": 18, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 1998 (22:41)", "body": "Finished \"Dragonfly\", moved on to \"Voyager\", and just got \"Drums of Autumn\". Checked out Diana Gabaldon's website and see she has 2 more in the works, \"Fiery Cross\" and \"Farewell to something\", as well as a prequel about Jamie's parents, Ellen and Brian. I'm in deep....!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (22:58)", "body": "Hi, Autumn! I finished \"Drums of Autumn\" and immediately went into grusome withdrawal. There really is noone like her! I'm almost (almost!) glad that I have to wait for the next one, because I can savor this one while I anticipate the next. The problem is that I'm grouchily flailing around for something to fill that Gabaldon niche in my life and there ISN'T ANYTHING! Pace yourself!"}, {"response": 20, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (13:07)", "body": "You know, I thought about delaying \"Drums\" for a good while, but frankly, I couldn't get Jamie and Claire out of my mind! Isn't that asinine? I went to D.G.'s website and wrote down the names of the authors that she says she enjoys reading, so maybe I'll check those out when I'm done and need something to tide me over. Besides, she has excerpts from her future novels there too...If you're interested, it's: www.cco.caltech.edu/~gatti/gabaldon/gabaldon.html"}, {"response": 21, "author": "sblacklock", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (21:33)", "body": "Hi people, I do love to get lost in a good book. I havn't started reading it yet but a friend of mine lent me DG's Outlander recently. Everyone here seems to think very highly of it so I'd better get reading. Anybody familiar with Jayne Anne Krentz aka Amanda Quick? She's a favourite of mine. Romance is my comfort, The Flame and The Flower-Kathleen Woodiwiss my ultimate romantic reading experience."}, {"response": 22, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Mar  6, 1998 (09:30)", "body": "i do enjoy the romatic under (or over) tones in many novels but i find it very difficult to sit and read a pure romance novel. Boy woos girl in amazing fashion, girl plays hard to get, catastrophe strikes, boy and girl try desperately to overcome obstacles and in the end they do... with their love/passion. When i've finished i rarely believe that the book has brought me anything. Nothing to think about, talk to others about, realize about myself... But often my tastes in literature run very far from the 'beaten path' so please don't think i am slamming the genre. Just find it hard to relate."}, {"response": 23, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  8, 1998 (22:10)", "body": "don't care too much for the template romance novels, either. enjoy belva plain, and kathleen woodiwiss, fern michaels is good, too."}, {"response": 24, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Mon, Mar 16, 1998 (00:00)", "body": "Kathleen Woodiwiss keeps coming up--it must be my turn! I've read Amanda Quick and she makes me giggle! Her characters are always so brave and smart (but silly)--she's kind of a bridge between Georgette Heyer and the (oxymoron?) modern historical romance. I've never read her Krenz books, but I've heard they're really good. Stacey--you can't explain the romance urge to someone who hasn't got it. I'm pretty selective, but I can read a harlequin in a pinch. I keep meaning to do a really thoughtful study of \"pulp\" fiction--those disreputable genres that inspire such devotion and such derision...but who has time to be thoughtful!?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 16, 1998 (11:33)", "body": "*smile* as a 'pulp' fiction fan, I must tell you, thoughtful is not necessary!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar 17, 1998 (21:13)", "body": "I just finished a genuinely ridiculous piece of drivel called \"Knight in Shining Armor\" by Jude Deveraux, which someone had the nerve to equate with \"Outlander\"! The author herself in the prologue states that so many people have written her to tell her \"Knight\" is the best book they've ever read--*gag*!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Mar 18, 1998 (17:26)", "body": "guess you didn't like it..."}, {"response": 28, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar 19, 1998 (11:31)", "body": "that's the understatement of the year (she said dryly) books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 14, "subject": "Your favourite Science Fiction book, and why!", "response_count": 37, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (09:12)", "body": "\"when worlds collide\" and \"after worlds collide\" (1932, 1933, respectively), by philip wylie and edwin balmer... book 1 is story of the destruction of earth, from collision with another planet, and details the construction of ship to transport selected individuals to a second planet, which more or less takes earth's place in solar system afterwards... book 2 is story of life on the new world (book 1 was also made into a pretty decent film, by george pal, in '51)... i really love the feel of 30's sci-fi (a imov's anthologies are wonderful)... also, bradbury's \"martian chronicles\", and \"illustrated man\", as well as \"s is for space\", \"r is for rocket\", etc... very literary, high quality sci-fi..."}, {"response": 2, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (15:29)", "body": "wow....i've never heard of either of those, and they sound pretty interesting. I've just been subjected to Arthur C. Clarke's technology-prediction so a bit of sci-fi that was \"off-the-wall\" might go down well :)"}, {"response": 3, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (18:27)", "body": "Reminded me of an INXS song actually... \"two worlds collided and they could never tear us apart\""}, {"response": 5, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (00:42)", "body": "that is a most beautiful thought (the inxs song)..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (01:03)", "body": "I'm alright... december's just a bad month for me... how you doing?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (01:34)", "body": "It's not as bad as it seems... When I remember, I am connected... and that is a very good thing, on balance... What got me tonight was so trivial... was thinking about her hair... i really loved her hair... it was really long, nearly to her waist, and it was very dark brown, nearly black, but not quite... and it had these tight little rings, which always made me think of that yeats thing (looped in the loops of her hair)...she used to wear it out, let it flow, most of the time, but sometimes she wore it up... and when she did, these little ringlets would dangle next to her ear, and she never liked that... for some reason, I couldn't get that out of my head... thinking about how she might've worn it now, and if those little ringlets would still be dangling there, and if she'd still bother with them... make that frustrated little face... but that's good... when I feel moments like that, I feel close to her... and I know that's good..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (13:16)", "body": "Hell, I want to BE her."}, {"response": 12, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (21:17)", "body": "Me too!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 1997 (19:47)", "body": "lost the thread. Who's the icon?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (06:28)", "body": "weaver. she is deceased."}, {"response": 15, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (17:49)", "body": "Well I sure as hell don't want to be dead but... I wouldn't mind some admiration. D'ya all remember Madeline L'Engle? A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorite childhood books. In fact, I think I may read it again for I'm sure the magic is not lost."}, {"response": 17, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (10:07)", "body": "Ring of Endless Light?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (21:12)", "body": "I too enjoyed Wrinkle in Time...But if you're interested in a \"grown-up\" historical time travel, try Diana Gabaldon's \"Outlander.\" Some parts of it smack of a real bodice-ripper, but overall it's historically quite accurate and entertaining."}, {"response": 19, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Tue, Jan 13, 1998 (16:46)", "body": "Having read most of Madeleine L'Engle's body of work, but none of her sci fi (which is usually in the kids' section at bookstores here), you all are inspiring me to go check them out. Off topic, but her adult fiction is good. And for those who like sequels and series, I understand that some of her recent books like \"A Live Coal in the Sea\" actually are picking up the life story of characters from older books. A Yahoo search of her name brought up a good site, but I don't have the link, which explained some of those tie-ins. Evidently, once she has a character she doesn't let them go. And in later novels when she needs them, she pops them in. Kind of cool, I thought."}, {"response": 20, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 19, 1998 (17:23)", "body": "Speaking of L'Engle. There is a site \"A Wrinkle in Time\" where 51 photographers in different cities, states and countries all took panoramics of an area at the same time. The photos are interactive and you can spin around (and up and down) photos of Singapore, Austin, Australia, Boston, Hawaii, Colorado, New Orleans, London, Paris, Fort Worth, etc. Kept me amused for quite sometime and I thought it was fascinating to see what individuals thought represented their 'wrinkle in time.'"}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jan 19, 1998 (21:56)", "body": "Has anybody seen mike g. around? Haven't seen him post since before xmas."}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (08:21)", "body": "I'll see if I can raise him from the dead."}, {"response": 23, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (20:10)", "body": "Maybe they're still celebrating in the UK! :)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Sun, Feb 22, 1998 (09:41)", "body": "I'm not sure if this thread is still going, but here goes... I've got a huge list - let's see if I can skim some representative samples off the top... Starship Troopers - RAH Stranger in a Strange Land - RAH again The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - RAH The Foundation Trilogy - Asimov Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card A Princess of Mars - ERB Anything by Harlan Ellison The Postman - David Brin David Brin's Uplift novels A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller Last Call, The Stress of Her Regard and Expiration Date - Tim Powers Soldier of the Mist - Gene Wolfe and many more... I find myself more and more moving away from \"hard SF\" and into dark fantsy and speculative fiction in my reading. This is partly due to my wife's influence - when we got married, our libraries did also, and that did wonders to broaden my reading. Also, I think, as I have grown older, I am more interested in the style and form in a piece of writing than the actual plot. Moby Dick, a story about this crazy one-legged guy and a big white fish, interests me more than, say, Battletech, a series of stories bout aliens in giant robots invading Earth. Why? Moby Dick is passionately written, possibly the first modern American novel, and certainly one of the greatest novels ever written. My forays into the classics and other genres have made me a tougher critic of the SF I read."}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Feb 22, 1998 (09:49)", "body": "Have you read any of Bruce Sterling's stuff?"}, {"response": 26, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Mon, Feb 23, 1998 (23:36)", "body": "Oh, yes! _Islands in the Net_, _Schismatrix_, _The Difference Engine_. I'm a few years behind in my Sterling - I just finished a huge David Brin binge, which was preceded by my repurchase of all the Heinlein paperbakcs I've read to pieces. I also like the articles he has done for Wired and other magazines - in fact, his piece on St. Petersburg was the only reason I picked up the last issue of Wired. Have you read anything by Michael Bishop?"}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb 23, 1998 (23:48)", "body": "Nope, I went to a huge party at Bruce's house the other night. You can read his speech and some accounts of the party in the cfp conference. What a blast it was!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (23:10)", "body": "A friend of mine was at the conference, and he talked me into coming to the party with him. I wish I had been able to attend the conference, but I did have some fascinating conversations while at the party. I think events like that, especially with all of the relaxed networking and idea exchanging, are possibly the best way to get new ideas across to people that can do things with them. Hmmm... perhaps a kegger for the UN could go a long way toward solving some problems...."}, {"response": 29, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 1998 (11:00)", "body": "You were *there*! Wow, did we talk? How would I have recognized you?"}, {"response": 30, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (11:35)", "body": "We spoke briefly towards the end of the party. You invited me to check out this community (which I obviously did, and I like it a lot!), and I gave you a stock tip. I'm about 6'0\", light brown hair, glasses, goatee - I was wearing a denim jacket. That probably doesn't narrow it down much - 90% of the men in Austin look like that. I work for IXC Communications, if that helps."}, {"response": 31, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (19:39)", "body": "It's all coming back now! I remember it well. What a night at Bruces. I wish we could reel a few more of the partyers in who were at CFP and the party, it would be fun to extend the conversations we had at CFP98 further."}, {"response": 32, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (20:23)", "body": "Welllllll, let's not be close-mouthed about this stock tip, shall we, gentlemen? Feel free to share it with those of us who couldn't make it to Bruce's!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (20:52)", "body": "Promise not to tell?"}, {"response": 34, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (20:59)", "body": "Cross my heart! :-)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (21:20)", "body": "It was ICX. Now, don't tell."}, {"response": 36, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (21:46)", "body": "My lips are sealed!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (08:04)", "body": "The price at the time of the party was about $47 a share. Since then, it's gone up to about $58. The company is scheduled to finish a coast-to-coast fiber optic network in the next few weeks, and the price should go up even more then. Don't worry, this is public info, so the SEC can't raid you guys, but after that clarification, my lips are also sealed."}, {"response": 38, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (22:17)", "body": "Sorry, I ment to type \"The Stainless Steel Rat\" trilogy by Harry Harrison Slippery Jim Degriz to the rescue! Because he has a reality about him that coincides with the plot and concept of the trilogy and the reader is gradually exposed to this universal point of view as the reader gets deeper into it. Jim isn't a good guy or a bad guy, he's just a very talented thief! He tries to only steal from planetary government systems that are obviously corrupt. He usually ends up saving or helping a few truly interesting people on the way. better?"}, {"response": 39, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Apr  6, 1998 (17:07)", "body": "much!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "Amelia", "date": "Tue, Apr 14, 1998 (19:59)", "body": "Are we still discussing favorite sci-fi books? I love anything by Ray Bradbury-especially those fabulous \"Martian Chronicles\". Never heard of the \"Stainless Steel Rat\" but the title sounds interesting."}, {"response": 42, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Jul 25, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "Wer, yo ma man! Our libraries should match to some extend... What was that Stacey said about us two stooges? A few months back..."}, {"response": 43, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul 25, 1999 (22:38)", "body": "now that is a loaded question! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 15, "subject": "Your favourite Science Fiction book, and why!", "response_count": 10, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (19:28)", "body": "I'm a dabbler"}, {"response": 2, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (20:05)", "body": "indeed? well, there's much to recommend it (dabbling)..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Dec  9, 1997 (21:11)", "body": "You guys might like to move your postings to topic 14 - this topic was accidentally created by my presently-psychotic software, and is a carbon-copy of topic 14. I will ask terry to freeze this one, as soon as he turns up again."}, {"response": 5, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:41)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) http://www.capitol-city.com"}, {"response": 6, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (16:11)", "body": "(but WHY is it your favorite sci-fi book?)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (23:15)", "body": "Sorry, I ment to type \"The Stainless Steel Rat\" trilogy by Harry Harrison Slippery Jim Degriz to the rescue! Because he has a reality about him that coincides with the plot and concept of the trilogy and the reader is gradually exposed to this universal point of view as the reader gets deeper into it. Jim isn't a good guy or a bad guy, he's just a very talented thief! He tries to only steal from planetary government systems that are obviously corrupt. He usually ends up saving or helping a few truly interesting people on the way. better?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "infospryte", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (14:31)", "body": "Off topic, but close: We review George Zebrowski's new novel \"Cave of Stars,\" and we look at Brian Stableford's futuristic murder mystery \"The Architects of Emortality.\" http://www.scifiweekly.com/issue128/books.html"}, {"response": 9, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Oct  1, 1999 (16:16)", "body": "I'd never read anything by Phil K. Dick again!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, May 26, 2000 (01:59)", "body": "I went to http://www.scifiweekly.com/issue128/books.html and looked for the \"we\" who were discussing the books. Did not know anyone so I did not remain. Were any reviewed by Sprinizens?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (05:31)", "body": "Whatever happened to Doug Larue? books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 16, "subject": "Favorite Authors (any style, time period)", "response_count": 72, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (23:39)", "body": "(poets excluded) 1. twain 2. fitzgerald 3. kerouac 4. wolfe 5. thoreau 6. joyce 7. o'neill (eugene) 8. chandler 9. conroy 10.thompson (hunter) hmmm... 7 irishmen, in the bunch... well, had to be fair to other ethnicities, too..."}, {"response": 2, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (23:49)", "body": "sure you haven't forgotten anyone? (heehee)"}, {"response": 3, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (23:54)", "body": "didn't have room for karl marx on the list... (have to go off line for a few minutes... please don't embarass me while I'm away?)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 10, 1997 (23:55)", "body": "hmmmmmmm........."}, {"response": 5, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (00:39)", "body": "back now..."}, {"response": 6, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (11:14)", "body": "1. Orson Scott Card 2. Pat Conroy 3. Diana Gabaldon 4. Harlan Ellison 5. Guy Gavriel Kay"}, {"response": 7, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (14:20)", "body": "This topic suggests a body of work, so i'll skip the one-hit wonders: let's say Austen, Wharton, Salinger, Proust, Welty and thank you, nick for reminding me of an all-time favorite, scott Fitzgerald."}, {"response": 9, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (15:26)", "body": "yeah, \"the poor sonofabitch\" (fitzgerald, i mean)... Gatsby is my favorite book, bar none... and waver between he, twain, and yeats, as far as absolute favorites go... last couple of pages of Gatsby are enough to make any serious writer wanta just throw up his hands... what's the point of even trying, after reading that? seriously, don't think english prose gets any better, cleaner, purer than scott fitzgerald, at his best... read Gatsby the first time whaen i was 14, and count that moment, that last page, as maybe my most sublime reading experience... still get goosebumps, thinking of it... (and still believe, somewhat, in that orgiastic future...but most especially born back ceaselessly, into the past)"}, {"response": 10, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Thu, Dec 11, 1997 (23:38)", "body": "Amy Tan, Belva Plain............."}, {"response": 11, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Dec 12, 1997 (22:50)", "body": "Yeah Nick, I know what you mean. I spent a long time \"looking for the green light\" in life...."}, {"response": 12, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Dec 12, 1997 (22:53)", "body": "I'll always believe in the green light... have seen it up close, too (and it is extraordinary)..."}, {"response": 13, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Dec 12, 1997 (23:16)", "body": "I've glimpsed it enough to know it exists, which gives the beacon of hope. However, I've stopped searching for it, for fear I'll be disappointed. Sometimes it appears when it's most unexpected and it's like an epiphany."}, {"response": 14, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Dec 12, 1997 (23:31)", "body": "yeah, know what you mean... and even the green light est douce-amere, once you find it (ask scott)... maybe the pursuit of it really is the thing, like he said (though hardly bore out, over his life)..."}, {"response": 15, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (07:49)", "body": "\"You're a rotten driver,\" I protested, \"Either you ought to be more careful, or you oughtn't drive at all.\" \"I am careful.\" \"No, you're not.\" \"Well, other people are,\" she said lightly. \"What's that got to do with it?\" \"They'll keep out of my way,\" she insisted. \"It takes two to make an accident.\" \"Suppose you met somebody just as careless as yourself?\" \"I hope I never will,\" she answered. \"I hate careless people. That's why I like you.\" (from Gatsby, of course...)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (18:52)", "body": "I rather enjoy keeping the green light in view as the beacon it is. I fondly believe I will never reach it but hopefully will never lose sight. I suppose I'm afraid of discovering it is merely glass."}, {"response": 17, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Dec 18, 1997 (19:55)", "body": "no, the light is real... (i'm sure of that) we're made of glass, though, i think..."}, {"response": 18, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (11:07)", "body": "shit nick. Now you've really rocked my foundation. *dumb stare*"}, {"response": 19, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (14:44)", "body": "oops"}, {"response": 20, "author": "kay", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 1997 (14:44)", "body": "i feel way out of my league. I'v read twain, tolstoy, etc. But since having so many kids, i've gotten away from real meaningful literature. The most moving book i've ever read was Passions of the Mind by Irving stone. The one i liked best was 10000on the hoof by Zane grey. it was a portrait of a woman whose life ws utterly changed by the first world war. Shocked my self by saying anything at all. You'll think i'm stupid or at least shallow."}, {"response": 22, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sun, Jan 18, 1998 (03:30)", "body": "i love irving stone! (esp. \"adversary in the house\" (the wonderful story of one of my heroes, eugene debs), \"clarence darrow\", and \"lust for life\"...) i'm not familiar with \"passions of the mind\", though... what is it about? (and no one that loves books, especially inhabiting this age of 30 minute (sitcom length) attention spans, could ever be construed as being \"stupid\" or \"shallow\")"}, {"response": 23, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan 18, 1998 (22:34)", "body": "don't feel out of place Kay! Believe me, there are times where I wonder about myself (and so does everybody else *wink*) you know, I've never read Stone. Thanks for posting, Kay, enjoy!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 19, 1998 (18:30)", "body": "Welcome Kay! I feel compelled to second nick's post... anyone who takes the time to read and think about a book these days sure deserves points in the intelligence box. Can't tell you how many students opt to write their book reports on the movies these days. Unfortunately (for them and for multiple reasons) the movies rarely mirror the details of a plot nor give the sedentary spectator an opportunity to form his own opinions, thoughts or images. And, if it makes you feel better, sometimes I just want to read kids books. No, they don't challenge my cerebral abilities (usually) but they often present a clear, unblemished (idealistic) view of the world. Somedays I need that innocence."}, {"response": 25, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Jan 19, 1998 (18:42)", "body": "it is extraordinary to be able to do that/feel that... you are very fortunate..."}, {"response": 26, "author": "paxzen", "date": "Sat, Feb  7, 1998 (16:00)", "body": "1. Alice Walker 2. Joseph Campbell 3. Tom Robbins"}, {"response": 27, "author": "stacey", "date": "Sun, Feb  8, 1998 (22:33)", "body": "I really enjoy Tom Robbins as well Linda but, after reading one of his novels, I must wait a few months before reading another. His style is sarcastic, dry and terribly hysterical but two in a row like that is TOO much for me. What is your favorite book by him? I've only read one by Alice Walker -- yep. That one."}, {"response": 28, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb  9, 1998 (19:50)", "body": "Alice Walker.....hmmmm....very familiar..... Stacey, is she the one who wrote -- that was made into a movie called -- ??"}, {"response": 29, "author": "paxzen", "date": "Tue, Feb 10, 1998 (13:17)", "body": "My fave Tom Robbins was 'Skinny Legs and All'. What a novel! The only one I had trouble reading was 'Even Cowgirls get the Blues\". Maybe its time to try that one again."}, {"response": 30, "author": "shortyj", "date": "Sat, Mar 21, 1998 (14:18)", "body": "Has anyone read Wuthering Heights?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:40)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) http://www.capitol-city.com"}, {"response": 32, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sat, Apr 18, 1998 (20:32)", "body": "I've read Wuthering Heights....."}, {"response": 33, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Apr 19, 1998 (18:01)", "body": "How 'bout those windy moors? Sends a shiver down my spine...."}, {"response": 34, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (00:06)", "body": "I think I have to re-read Wuthering Heights. It's been a long time, so I've forgotten much of the story line, but I recently read a book by Alice Hoffman called \"Here on Earth\" which is an Homage to WH (I think) the way \"A Thousand Acres\" echos King Lear. It took me a long time to catch on, but when the girl in the story gets caught while spying on the rich neighbors and is drawn into their circle, to the consternation of the wild-card orphan boy who lives in her home and who becomes wildly jealous...And here's more that sounds familiar, but I have to read Wuthering Heights while the new book is still fresh in my memory so I can figure out why she made the choices she did. hmm."}, {"response": 35, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (18:49)", "body": "Martha, be sure to let us know which you preferred..."}, {"response": 36, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Jun  4, 1998 (07:49)", "body": "Wuthering Heights is my all time favourite. And Jane Eyre. I can't choose - I love the Bront\ufffds' works - all of it. And I quite like Graham Greene's work -Travels with my Aunt is my favourite work by him. And P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves Books. And Umberto Eco's good too. And James Hogg. And Oscar Wilde (I especially liked The Portrait of Dorian Grey.)"}, {"response": 37, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jun  5, 1998 (22:26)", "body": "There is a new biographical film, \"Wilde\", that is out. Our paper gave it a lukewarm review. (Oops, maybe I should be mentioning this in the movie conference)"}, {"response": 38, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jun  9, 1998 (18:36)", "body": "lukewarm as a rating does not usually entice me but I rarely heed reviews anyway."}, {"response": 39, "author": "jgross5", "date": "Tue, Jun  9, 1998 (23:07)", "body": "I like some movies that are Lukas Haas warm --liked Witness, liked Ramblin Rose"}, {"response": 40, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jun 10, 1998 (15:08)", "body": "i liked Chasing Amy."}, {"response": 41, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jun 21, 1998 (08:14)", "body": "For Nick from New Thinking THE GENIUS OF JOYCE I used to love James Joyce. I used to hate James Joyce. I loved him because he was an explosion. He was liked a can-opener. He pushed, he stretched and he explored. He took things to extremes, and he forced society to look at itself, to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Of course, I also loved James Joyce because he was Irish, because he gave me pride and confidence. Even though he lived most of his life in exile, he wrote about nothing except Dublin. He was once asked if he missed Dublin. He replied that in many ways he had never left. I began to hate James Joyce because he could be so difficult, so hard to penetrate. Reading him was often so much like hard work. And I hated him because of what he helped create: Joyceans. Not all Joyce fans, of course, but a considerable number really irked me. I once observed a bunch of Joyceans walking down South Circular Road, Dublin, on Bloomsday. It struck me how utterly mechanical these people were; how they walked like robots and talked like robots. Two of them stopped and began to argue. One said that he was tired and wanted to take a short rest. The other sternly reminded his friend that they had planned this trip together three months ago and that they were supposed to be in Eccles Street by 12.15. I'm back to loving Joyce. Back to realising how influential he has been on my thinking. A key thing that struck me in a very fundamental way about his novel, Ulysses, was how much structure it borrowed. It was based around Dublin. It was based around a period of a day. It was based around Homer's Odyssey. There are many other structures it was based around that I cannot recall right now. (Each chapter was based around an organ in the body, as far as I remember.) Joyce was a genius. Ulysses was a masterpiece. Yet the structure for his book was adapted from other sources. (Geniuses steal, beggars borrow.) It was like he had a house with eight rooms, and he let other people build the foundations and put up the walls. Then Joyce went to work on the rooms, making them challenging and substantial, not having to worry, not having to work on the foundations and having the walls to frame his imagination. In the rooms - these limited spaces - he could expand the space and thinking of our time. Of course, James Joyce, like all geniuses, worked extremely hard and had an absolute attention to detail. He honed his ideas and style over many, many years. Today, there are so few foundations, so little that seems to have been honed and cared for over many years. The Digital Age and Internet is like a giant building site, where very little has been built and that which has been built has a very short life. The pressure to understand and survive today, means that we not alone find it difficult to get a perspective on tomorrow, but equally important, we have little time to learn from yesterday. James Joyce created greatness with time, not against it. Gerry McGovern mailto:gerry@nua.ie"}, {"response": 42, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Jun 24, 1998 (16:25)", "body": "(thanks wer... really enjoyed that... (where do you find this stuff?)... anyway, it was cool... and thoughts of jem joyce are definitely sustaining ones... enabling, you know, that foray to the \"reality of existence\"... enabling, too, that forging, finally (um it's every day for me cause my memory is really bad) of \"concience for our race\"... (right, couldn't just say thanks could i?) (oh damn and i quoted too... shit)"}, {"response": 43, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Jun 24, 1998 (16:27)", "body": "(course i probably got it wrong so maybe it doesn't count)"}, {"response": 44, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jun 24, 1998 (18:04)", "body": "actually, this particular \"stuff\" found me, otherwise, just lucky and eclectic, I guess..."}, {"response": 45, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sat, Jun 27, 1998 (06:48)", "body": "indeed... (a scholar and a gentleman... um, and pictish warrior/conqueror, too)... thanks again..."}, {"response": 46, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jul  1, 1998 (00:21)", "body": "de nada...(you left out fat, hairy, sweaty, and old...)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Jul  1, 1998 (00:43)", "body": "(what's rush got to do with this?)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jul  1, 1998 (02:04)", "body": "don't recall him being hairy... (not that I've looked all over, either, I must add)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (04:17)", "body": "\ufffdsigh of relief\ufffd"}, {"response": 50, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Jan  1, 1999 (14:56)", "body": "Nick Hornby, author of Fever Pitch (also a film, starring the infamous Colin Firth. and yes, he is quite a hunk isn't he?), About a Boy and High Fidelity. High Fidelity is probably *the* best book I've ever read. Ever."}, {"response": 51, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  1, 1999 (15:10)", "body": "I really enjoyed High Fidelity Mike... kinda of Coupland on downers! Have you read any Douglas Coupland? Similar style, just as frank but something about his words just lean me toward smiling as opposed to crying."}, {"response": 52, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Jan  1, 1999 (17:37)", "body": "never read any Coupland, no. A bit too populist for me (I'm such a pathetic snob - I don't like reading the saem books as everybody else. I went to a weekend thing that featured the High Fidelity in October 1997, and I refused to buy it for over a year for that very reason - it was popular. sad sad sad...) HIgh Fidelity should be read by women so that they understand exactly what they do to men."}, {"response": 53, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  1, 1999 (21:02)", "body": "never heard of either of those two authors. do they keep you interested?"}, {"response": 54, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jan  1, 1999 (23:47)", "body": "\"High Fidelity\" was quite entertaining, I thought, although something of a \"guy's novel.\" Have you read \"Bridget Jones's Diary\", Mike? That is the female equivalent of HF, I think (and British, of course). The author is Helen Fielding."}, {"response": 55, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (04:43)", "body": "I heard of that a couple of weeks ago actually, autumn, so thanks for recommending it again. I'll try and dig it up at the bookshop. What's it like/about?"}, {"response": 56, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  7, 1999 (16:05)", "body": "One year in the life of a single woman. Angst about dating, jobs, friends, family, etc. Half of it went over my head because of the Briticisms, but it was enjoyable--I recommended it to one of my \"singletons\"."}, {"response": 57, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (04:55)", "body": "Oh yeah, I remember - I actually looked at it when I was searching for my last book, but I didn't feel that empathising with women was within y capabilities at the time. And it probably still isn't...I'll put it on my non-existent list :-)"}, {"response": 58, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jan 10, 1999 (12:52)", "body": ":-)"}, {"response": 59, "author": "linise", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (01:57)", "body": "I adore the comical differences between social classes in Jane Austen's Emma, but I also adore the harshness and dark passion due to the gap between the classes in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I also adore the simple linguistic beauty in English Patient."}, {"response": 60, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "George Orwell Mark Twain Kurt Vonnegut All three have a common theme of the despair of a thinking man in a world propelled by the unthinking crowd. Apart from Twain, they are disillusioned Socialists (Twain being from a time before the Socialist movement...) without much faith in their fellow man, except a faith in his ability to do the wrong thing, with results in part hilarious and disasterous. For those who think that Orwell and hilarity are mutually exclusive, may I recommend Coming Up For Air ... Steinbeck falls in there somewhere, too..."}, {"response": 61, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (22:34)", "body": "I tried to post this in \"Favourite Books\" but that topic is frozen... Cannery Row - of the three Steinbeck novels I've read, the only one with an obvious sense of humour and without a sad ending. Actually it doesn't have an ending at all; it just becomes time for us to go and the party seems to continue after we leave... Coming Up For Air - one of George Orwell's funniest novels, about a man trying to find the simpler life of his youth (the more complicated, modern, uptight time being 1939...) with hilarious yet mildly sad results. Bluebeard - the first Kurt Vonnegut novel I read. Better than Slaughterhouse Five IMO. Doesn't get any better than Rabo Karabekian... The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - As powerful in its own way as Pudd'nhead Wilson and a spit in the eye of the prigs of American literature. From The Earth To The Moon and Round The Moon - How did Jules Verne get it so RIGHT?"}, {"response": 62, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Apr  9, 2002 (18:46)", "body": "Visitors to Monterey, CA flock to the \"new and improved\" Cannery Row--John Steinbeck is rolling in his grave. My current favorite author is Chitra Divakaruni. She writes the most sensual novels set in India and full of that country's imagery."}, {"response": 63, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Apr 10, 2002 (11:59)", "body": "Top Three on my list would have to be: Diana Gabaldon JD Robb Janet Evanovich (although loved Elizabeth Lowells' Amber Beach... -she's probably fourth.) :-)"}, {"response": 64, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Apr 15, 2002 (11:57)", "body": "I've also read everything by Anita Shreve, Barbara Kingsolver and Elizabeth Berg, which is no small feat considering these ladies crank one out nearly every year!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Apr 16, 2002 (11:12)", "body": "Almost forgot- Absolutely love Suzanne Brockmann's Navy Seal series The latest one started with terrorist training between a Seal Team and the SAS- *sigh* all those Alpha Males! *fanning face*"}, {"response": 66, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (15:40)", "body": "I have never read anything by: Jane Austen Any of the Brontes Victor Hugo Moilere Voltaire Daniel DeFoe Dante Alighieri and several other important writers whose names I cannot recall (and have probably never heard of) so I can't really comment on them. I haven't read anything by Rex Stout, either. I tried to read \"Robinson Crusoe\" once and gave up. A friend of mine insisted that I read \"The Mayor of Casterbridge\" and I tried until I ground to a halt about half-way."}, {"response": 67, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (07:43)", "body": "This is what you haven't read, then what have you read that you liked?"}, {"response": 68, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (20:11)", "body": "I shall reiterate: Mark Twain, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, J.D. Salinger ( The Catcher In The Rye and Franny And Zooey were both quite good) the \"William\" books by Richmal Crompton, \"Asterix\" comics by Goscinny and Uderzo (translated by Derek Bell and Anthea Hockridge). Am currently interested in Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone. Liked the first two of Robert Parker's \"Spenser\" novels but got tired of them. Being a fan of the TV show \"A Nero Wolfe Mystery\", and hearing that they are quite faithful to the books, I would like to read some of Rex Stout's \"Nero Wolfe\" novels and short stories. I hope he did not get stale toward the end the way Arthur Conan Doyle did with Sherlock Holmes. Jules Verne is also very interesting not so much for his literary work but for his uncanny foresight. His ideas for submarine propulsion and respiration in spacecraft are utterly preposterous, but the fact that he not only predicted both (lots of dreamers had) but went into such scientifically based (which in some cases turned out to be prophetic) detail as to how they would work and how they would be used. Submarines that could stay underwater indefinitely, attack surface shipping, and come and go undetected? A man-carrying projectile being fired by Americans from Florida (instead of Texas) into lunar orbit? Wow!"}, {"response": 69, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (22:47)", "body": "I could never get into Hardy, either. That's the great thing about books, there's something for every taste. I made my husband read Pride and Prejudice and he wound up really liking it!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:58)", "body": "*laughing* Well Done Autumn! :-D -but really, how could anybody NOT like it???"}, {"response": 71, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (22:20)", "body": "My thoughts exactly, SB!"}, {"response": 72, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (12:10)", "body": "Now -to convince the rest of the world! :-) Autumn, you should check out the Janet Evanovich books Karen and i are discussing on the new book topics. You'd like them - i'm sure of it!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "blackbeard", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "The Evanovich books are wonderful."}, {"response": 74, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Jun 28, 2002 (18:52)", "body": "Come by and post at the Evanovich topics Blackbeard! :-) books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 17, "subject": "book events - signings, readings, tours", "response_count": 37, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 23, 1998 (09:51)", "body": "from Lisa Palac ( mailto://lisapal@well.com ) My new book, \"The Edge of the Bed\" is coming out next month and I'll be doing a 9 city tour including Cambridge MA, NYC, Chicago, Mpls, Austin TX, San Fran, LA and Santa Barbara and Seattle. My new web site just went up (lisapalac.com) and you can find detailed info on the tour and of course, so much more... Monday, May 4th Cambridge, MA Harvard Square Book Festival Club Passim, 47 Palmer Street 7:30 PM Wednesday, May 6th New York City The Edge of the Bed Book Party hosted by Time Out Invitation Only Thursday, May 7th Chicago Borders Books & Music 2817 N. Clark Street 7:00 PM Tuesday, May 12th Minneapolis/St. Paul Hungry Mind Bookstore 1648 Grand Avenue in St. Paul 8:00 PM Wednesday, May 13th Austin, TX Book People 603 N. Lamar 7:00 PM Thursday, May 14th San Francisco Bay Area Cody's Books 2454 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley 7:30 PM Friday, May 15th San Francisco A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books 601 Van Ness Avenue 7:30 PM Tuesday, May 19th Seattle Elliott Bay Book Company 101 South Main Street 8:00 PM Wednesday, May 27th Los Angeles Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica 7:30 PM"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 17, 1998 (15:43)", "body": "Novelist William Gaddis died yesterday, aged 75, of prostate cancer. Gaddis wrote the post WWII classics the Recognitions, JR, Carpenter's Gothic, and a Frolic of His Own. Apparantly, he was able to finish a fifth novel, \"Agape Agape\" before he died."}, {"response": 3, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "Kurt Vonnegut is in hospital."}, {"response": 4, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (16:25)", "body": "I think I read that in the paper, his daughter made a statement about it. I devoured all his novels when I was a teenager."}, {"response": 5, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:31)", "body": "Yeah, like the book with the drug-addict US prez with SIX breast nipples..."}, {"response": 6, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (12:59)", "body": "You are making me LOL!! Ice-Nine, anyone?"}, {"response": 7, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (18:07)", "body": "...who took the Torrette-Syndrome medication as civilization broke down around him? Ever read that?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (19:06)", "body": "I thought he was just naturally profane. You mean, he was unable to control these outbursts if he truely had Tourette's...or did he just take the medication to escape? Btw, what IS the medication for TS?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (10:50)", "body": "This wasn't a book event per se, but a \"play\" event, there was a reading of Elota's play last night at a gorgeous mansion near Zilker Park, the setting was awesome, the place was filled with writers, producers, playwrights, and assorted literati and Elota's play was marvelous. I'll have more comments in a little photo page I plan to put together. The play was set in the 30s? or some earlier eara and was about three women sharing a house and their trials in keeping it together. In line with some the plays themes, the large banquet table at the event has a wedding cake, compliments of Dorothy, and copious amounts of beer and wine. .]"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 22, 2000 (15:34)", "body": "What an incredibly great evening. They used to be \"routine' in my life on the fringes of academe. I miss them exceedingly!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "I can't even begin to describe this mansion, with it's view overlooking Zilker Park and the downtown Austin skyline. It was teh most magnificent house I've ever been in around Austin. I forget the name of the carrot topped lady who co-authored the play with Elota."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (00:56)", "body": "Sounds most elegant. Were you dressed in turtle neck and sandles? What IS worn to these occasions these days?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (01:09)", "body": "I just wore jeans, my columbia shirt and my photographers vest. I was taking shots with the digital camera."}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 23, 2000 (13:33)", "body": "Ah...! I am sure you looked elegant anyway...even with all of those pockets."}, {"response": 15, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (11:37)", "body": "Austin's a pretty dress down place, even for these kinds of events. And I was doing video, so it made me look like the part."}, {"response": 16, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 24, 2000 (11:49)", "body": "Hilo's like that, as well. Just about no one owns a tie or suit unless they travel to the mainland on business a lot. Funerals are informal and so are weddings. \"Aloha Attire\" is usually specified in invitations, as I am happy with that for the most part. It gets to be an old thing when attending the symphony or a holiday event and I am all dressed up and my escort is in the same Aloha Shirt he has worn a thousand times before. Hawaii is like that. No matter how dressed up or down you are, there will always be someone there who is more dressed up or down than you are. \"Hiding\" behind a camera is a great way to attend something - especially if you do not know many people there. I gather you had a great time despite your video equipment \"date.\""}, {"response": 17, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (18:22)", "body": "I just read this week that nicotine is the drug of choice for treating TS, Marcia. I guess they give them the patch, not the real thing."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 26, 2000 (23:09)", "body": "Interesting! A beneficial use of that otherwise noxious weed. I wonder how they found out...that just might be a very interesting story in itself!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Feb 28, 2000 (22:16)", "body": "Nicotine has long been known to intensify concentration...and TS sufferers often say that their symptoms diminish when they are focused on something intently, such as driving or reading. ? Maybe that's the link."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 29, 2000 (00:22)", "body": "It sounds plausible. I am already too intense. No - that is tense. Oh well...it is still a Good thing I do not smoke!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (23:03)", "body": "I think the negatives far outweigh the benefits! (spoken by someone who is sitting here chewing Nicorette...)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  8, 2000 (23:37)", "body": "TS or quitting smoking, Autumn?"}, {"response": 23, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (22:35)", "body": "ha-ha! I've been \"quitting\" for 12 years...I've gone months, make that years without smoking, but when the craving hits I need something. Even though my friends marvel at my \"non-addictive\" personality, I truly believe nicotine is addictive. Why else would I (or anyone) continue to do something I know is so very bad for me?"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (15:08)", "body": "...and increasingly expensive! I think (having never had the cravings this is easy for me to say)I would take the money I ould have spent, put it in a safe place until I had enough to buy myself a really nice little reward (jewel-type)or does that not work?!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 16, 2000 (15:10)", "body": "They've proven that nicotine is addictive. On animals of all types from lowly to mankind - everything which came into constant contact with it for a while ended up having to have it."}, {"response": 26, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (13:43)", "body": "Franz Dobler, writer and journalist, holds a reading on Friday at the Nautilus bookstore in Hamburg. Franz is one of the nicest folks around, and I don't say this only because he's invited superstar to cohost his Get Country & Rhythm night on Saturday and regularly contributes to the mag."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (14:24)", "body": "Oooh! How fortunate for you. I have actually heard of this man, and you are going to be with him. Have a splendid weekend, Alexander...*Hugs*"}, {"response": 28, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (07:27)", "body": "What's his claim to fame?"}, {"response": 29, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (05:21)", "body": "May 23 Susie Flatau \"Counter Culture\" A Taste of Texas BookPeople 603 North Lamar Boulevard (512-472-5050) 7:00 p.m. \"Texas: The Mythic Frontier\" Sponsored by the Austin Writers' League and Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble (Homestead) 44010 US Highway 183 (512-499-8914) 7:30 p.m. Elizabeth Crook Elmer Kelton David Marion Wilkinson May 24 Austin Elmer Kelton \"Buckskin Line\" and Other Readings BookPeople 603 North Lamar Boulevard (512-472-5050) 7:00 p.m. May 25 Austin \"The Life of a Writer: From Concept to Paycheck\" Sponsored by the Austin Writers' League and BookPeople BookPeople 603 North Lamar Boulevard (512-472-5050) 7:00 p.m. Nancy Bell Karen Stolz Don Webb Lawrence Wright Jim Bob McMillan, moderator May 27 Austin Audio Book Contest Award Ceremony Presented by the Austin Writers' League, Texas Library Association, Austin Public Library, and Earful of Books Earful of Books Fifth Street and Lamar Boulevard 3:00 p.m. May 30 Austin \"Women's Voices in Publishing\" Sponsored by the Austin Writers' League and BookPeople BookPeople 603 North Lamar Boulevard (512-472-5050) 7:00 p.m. Sharon Kahn Suzy Spencer Darleen Marwitz Ruth Pennebaker Stephen Harrigan \"The Gates of the Alamo\" Earful of Books Fifth Street and Lamar Boulevard 7:00 p.m. May 31 Austin Gregory Stephens \"On Racial Frontiers\" BookPeople 603 North Lamar Boulevard (512-472-5050) 7:00 p.m."}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (05:35)", "body": "Some great events this month at BookPeople."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (18:17)", "body": "Sounds spectacular - my second favorite thing after Art Gallery exhibition openings... Have to check on Dobler on Google and see just exactly who he is - and email Alexander and see how he is doing. I worry when he is away so long."}, {"response": 32, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "Can you find out who the person is at Bookpeople tomorrow night while your on Google."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 22, 2000 (19:13)", "body": "http://www.bookpeople.com/coe.html Your schedule is at the above url and it says May 23, 2000 (Tue) - 07:00pm Susie Kelly Flatau will be at BookPeople to sign her new book, Counter Culture Texas ."}, {"response": 34, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (10:09)", "body": "Does it sound like it's worth going to as an event? What does is say about Susie and her book?"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (12:39)", "body": "It says nothing on that url. I'll check into it again for you. Doesn't sound like my favorite sort of topic or the sort of audience it probably will attract. But, check back... I'll let you know what it says about her and the book, if anything."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 23, 2000 (12:42)", "body": "Ah...the cover of the book is of guys sitting at a counter eating...Not what I thought! Susie Kelly Flatau will be at BookPeople to sign her book on Tuesday, May 23. From the Publisher: Synopsis: Counter Culture Texas is an art book, printed on quality paper and carefully laid out. The photos are superbly done. Mark is a master of light and shadow, and he captures the look and feel of these great old places beautifully. Susie\ufffds warmly written commentary enhances the special look and feel of this book of memories--the history of small town Texas written in countertops and chrome stools. Features: This is a beautiful record of Texas icons in the form of unique small hidden away places, photographed by Mark Dean in stunning black and white, with fascinating commentary by Susie Flatau. Susie interviewed the owners of many wonderful old landmark restaurants and bars, and she has woven a fascinating web of stories about these fast disappearing places. Descriptions of the places and neighborly chats with the visitors and owners are carefully recorded. The book will take the reader to another place and time and bring back fond memories for anyone who has ever sat at a counter and ordered a hamburger and a beer or a chocolate soda. About the Author: Mark Dean lives in Houston where he pursues his chosen profession of photography. He is an artist and is displayed in numerous galleries as well as commercially. Susie Kelly Flatau is a multi-talented writer, teacher, and artist. She has many prestigious awards for her work in teaching. 225 Pages 9.25 x 7.5"}, {"response": 37, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Wed, Sep 22, 2004 (10:39)", "body": "No big names in six-strong Booker short-list London, Sept. 22 (PTI): No big names found their way in the Booker shortlist announced last night, with the judges for the 50,000 pounds prize damning some entries as \"rubbish\" and \"drivel\". Led by Chris Smith, former British Culture Secretary, the judges claimed that \"quite a number\" of novels entered were surprisingly \"bad\". But the judges themselves were under attack after dropping many big-name authors -controversial NRI writer V S Naipaul, David Lodge, Justin Cartwright and A L Kennedy - when they drew up the long list. The final six-strong list pits Alan Hollinghust, Colm Toibin and David Mitchell, three novelists likely to feature high in the literary establishment over the next two decades against three almost newcomers, Achmet Dangor, Sarah Hall and Gerard Woodward. Chances of one of the triumvirate - Hollinghust, Toibin, Mitchell, scooping the Prize is bright. All the three have been short-listed for Booker before and they were installed as the favourites by bookmakers William Hill and Ladbrokes. Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, an unconventional sweeping novel telling the stories of six individuals - from a 19th century adventurer to a journalist in Ronald Reagan's California - was picked as the front-runner by both bookmakers. Born in Southport, Lanes, in 1969, Mitchell worked for several years as an assistant at the well-known Booker store Waterstone's branch in Canterbury, Kent, and was named on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists' list last year. Woodward's I'll Go to Bed at Noon, is only his second novel. Now teaching creative writing at Bath Spa University, the 43-year-old was until recently working part-time packing chocolate vending machines at Manchester University to support his writing. The novel is about a dysfunctional family damned by alcoholism. Like his first book, August, it is drawn on his own family. For several years, Woodward's mother was addicted to glue-sniffing. Hall's The Electric Michelangelo is a second novel. It is about a young man helping his mother to run a guest house in Morecombe who learns to become a tattoo artist. He sets off to Coney Island, New York, for adventure. Hall, 30, from Cumbria, learnt tattooing for research. The third unknown, Dangor, born in 1948 is a South African Muslim who was steeped in the anti-apartheid struggle and knew Steve Biko. After the ANC came to power, he ran the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and now works for the United Nations on AIDS programmes. His novel, Bitter Fruit, which opens with a rape followed by a murder and is set in post-apartheid South Africa, is based on Dangor's own life in a mixed race township and on his grandfather, who fled Gujarat after murdering his sister's rapist. http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200409221719.htm books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 18, "subject": "Favourite Biographies", "response_count": 44, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "TIM", "date": "Sun, Nov 15, 1998 (21:20)", "body": "I love to read biographies, specially autobiographies. My favorite autobiography is Wyatt Earp's."}, {"response": 2, "author": "TIM", "date": "Sun, Nov 15, 1998 (21:32)", "body": "I also liked \" MARINE \", which was Chesty Puller's biography. He was truely an amazing person. He fought in every war, starting in WW1 and thru several brushfire wars in Nicaragua and Haiti, WW2 and Korea. He was awarded five navy crosses, and so many other decorations they fill a single spaced typewritten page on both sides. He enlisted as a private and retired a general. He was the most popular leader in the Marine Corps. Yet, he was so sentimental that he sent his wife a dozen roses on the anniversary of their wedding, every MONTH until he died, even during wartime, while he was in combat."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 15, 1998 (22:41)", "body": "at least he knew what really mattered... i can't remember how many biographies i've read. i remember, in particular, one about walt disney, which was neat."}, {"response": 4, "author": "TIM", "date": "Mon, Nov 16, 1998 (09:42)", "body": "I've read more biographies than that, but those are the two that stick in my head."}, {"response": 5, "author": "osceola", "date": "Mon, Nov 16, 1998 (18:31)", "body": "Last one I read was \"Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life.\" A historian wrote it and did a really good job of telling his story factually and in the context of the place and times. Debunked a lot of the mythology, too. Apparently it's accurate that he's always played in the movies by handsome actors -- he was very popular with the ladies."}, {"response": 6, "author": "TIM", "date": "Mon, Nov 16, 1998 (22:18)", "body": "I've seen pictures of him. He is one of the ugliest people that i've ever seen. Those women must have been pretty desperate."}, {"response": 7, "author": "osceola", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (13:17)", "body": "There's only that one photo. But he had blue eyes that every one said were striking, and he had a fun personality when he went to dances. That counts for a lot with women."}, {"response": 8, "author": "jgross", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (13:56)", "body": "I've gone to dances alot lookin' for women. But before I even get all the way through the saloon doors, I get shot down. Always a woman. They really seem to know when I'm about to be around. My chest holds 13 bullets. My head holds more. You should see me dance, though, after I'm shot. The horses outside get real excited. I'm glad somebody notices. Never met Billy, myself. I heard afterward, sometimes, that he was inside."}, {"response": 9, "author": "TIM", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (14:34)", "body": "Yeah, It was said that he did not have a real keen sense of humor. Probably didn't want the competition."}, {"response": 10, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (04:19)", "body": "My favourite biographies, so far, is the two volume life of Klemperer - but stupidly I cannot remember who wrote it, since I read it a couple of years ago. I only remember that I simply could not put it down, it was so excellent."}, {"response": 11, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Nov 19, 1998 (22:07)", "body": "The last biography I read was about Virgil \"Gus\" Grissom, the astronaut, when I was in middle school."}, {"response": 12, "author": "TIM", "date": "Fri, Nov 20, 1998 (04:50)", "body": "Even if you just graduated from high school, that is too long."}, {"response": 13, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (22:14)", "body": "I prefer fictitious characters. They're much more realistic than biographical ones."}, {"response": 14, "author": "PT", "date": "Wed, Dec  9, 1998 (19:29)", "body": "Could you explainwhat you mean by that?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Dec  9, 1998 (21:32)", "body": "I guess what I meant (rather tongue in cheek), PT, is that biographies usually chronicle the life of a hero in glowing terms or the life of some notorious hell-raiser with a lifestyle akin to a \"Melrose Place\" character. What I was saying was that it is often easy for me to put myself in the shoes of a fictitious character when I'm reading a novel, but I don't really see myself in the pages of a biography."}, {"response": 16, "author": "PT", "date": "Thu, Dec 10, 1998 (02:38)", "body": "Thank you, that makes a lot of sense."}, {"response": 17, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (09:02)", "body": "Dear Boy: The Life Of Keith Moon by this guy Fletcher was pretty interesting and strange to read."}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 26, 1999 (11:05)", "body": "I devour biographies whole. One of my original favorites and most reread books in this category is Gods, Graves and Scholars by C. W. Ceram (a diplomat who spelled his name backward to use for a pen name.) Lots of very good Biographies are published in The New Yorker Magazine and are excellent reads by some very famous authors."}, {"response": 19, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (17:31)", "body": "Yes, I read that book, too, possibly even within the last twelve months. I forgot... Nice old copy I have, though."}, {"response": 20, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec 30, 1999 (18:12)", "body": "I have just never gotten into biographies as a concept for my reading pleasure, which I'm sure is depriving me of many good books. I may have to re-think that after reading a novel written in pseudo-biography form this summer, Memoirs of a Geisha , which was the best book I read in 1999."}, {"response": 21, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Jan  5, 2000 (11:35)", "body": "Just read the autobio of Billie Holiday, Lady Sings The Blues - now I wonder: wasn't she rather a jazz singer? ;=}"}, {"response": 22, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  6, 2000 (20:50)", "body": "Jazz, blues, kinda the same thing...rather, blues is a subset of jazz, no?"}, {"response": 23, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Jan 12, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "Rather, the other way round. Or? Where's the John when you need him... Or any jazzed out Louisianian? Blues is where everything comes from, I guess."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 12, 2000 (17:11)", "body": "I'll ask him for you...be right back!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jan 12, 2000 (18:07)", "body": "From John Burnett Both are African-American music forms. The blues, which is older, simpler and more primal, started out as vocals only spirituals sung by slaves, such as \"Follow the Drinking Gourd,\" a song about the Underground Railroad. The forms evolved into the Delta blues, an unplugged form with acoustic instruments (guitar--never banjo, which sounds too \"happy\") which Robert Johnson (\"Crossroads\")may have been the most famous proponent, and the Memphis blues, which mixed blues with a countrified folk sound, such as Leadbelly (\"Goodnight, Irene\"). The movements of African-Americans north to factory jobs and the advent of the electric guitar changed blues forever and also hastened the birth of jazz. Blues added uptempo elements of boogie and shuffle music and became the Chicago Blues under legends such as Chester Burnett (a.k.a. \"Howlin' Wolf,\" Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Albert King). Memphis blues added horns (B.B. King). Blues also evolved into rock-and-roll by adding the backbeat drumming favored by big bands. Jazz is a more complex music form, with multiple time signatures (blues is always played in common or 4/4 time). Brubeck's \"Take Five,\" for example, got it's name because it is played in 5/4 time signature (five beats per measure, a quarter note denotes one beat). The instrumentation is also more varied and everybody gets to solo, which causes long jams with some interesting improvisation. I love hearing how different trumpeters can take off on their solos on songs like Dizzy Gillespie's \"A Night in Tunisia.\" Jazz also incorporated elements of classical music (Brubeck's \"Blue Rondo Ala Turk\" is a variation on a Bach/Mozart style improv over a basso continuo) and guitarists such as the late Django Reinhardt used Spanish flamenco and classical guitar elements to flavor jazz music. All that stuff is missing in the blues. Both are African-American music forms. The blues, which is older, simpler and more primal, started out as vocals only spirituals sung by slaves, such as \"Follow the Drinking Gourd,\" a song about the Underground Railroad. The forms evolved into the Delta blues, an unplugged form with acoustic instruments (guitar--never banjo, which sounds too \"happy\") which Robert Johnson (\"Crossroads\")may have been the most famous proponent, and the Memphis blues, which mixed blues with a countrified folk sound, such as Leadbelly (\"Goodnight, Irene\"). The movements of African-Americans north to factory jobs and the advent of the electric guitar changed blues forever and also hastened the birth of jazz. Blues added uptempo elements of boogie and shuffle music and became the Chicago Blues under legends such as Chester Burnett (a.k.a. \"Howlin' Wolf,\" Little Walter, Muddy Waters and Albert King). Memphis blues added horns (B.B. King). Blues also evolved into rock-and-roll by adding the backbeat drumming favored by big bands. Jazz is a more complex music form, with multiple time signatures (blues is always played in common or 4/4 time). Brubeck's \"Take Five,\" for example, got it's name because it is played in 5/4 time signature (five beats per measure, a quarter note denotes one beat). The instrumentation is also more varied and everybody gets to solo, which causes long jams with some interesting improvisation. I love hearing how different trumpeters can take off on their solos on songs like Dizzy Gillespie's \"A Night in Tunisia.\" Jazz also incorporated elements of classical music (Brubeck's \"Blue Rondo Ala Turk\" is a variation on a Bach/Mozart style improv over a basso continuo) and guitarists such as the late Django Reinhardt used Spanish flamenco and classical guitar elements to flavor jazz music. All that stuff is missing in the blues. Hope this explanation isn't too complex. It's easy to hear the difference, but difficult to explain it. To use an analogy: the blues is simple arithmetic, jazz is anything from algebra to calculus. BTW, when Alexander asserts that with (American music forms) everything comes from the blues, he's right."}, {"response": 26, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (13:08)", "body": "Of course he is, whaddaya think, I'm a PROFESSIONAL."}, {"response": 27, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (13:09)", "body": "Professional bullshitter, that is. 'N case anybody wondered."}, {"response": 28, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (13:24)", "body": "Thanks, John, though I'd of course want to add Bo Diddley up there where it says \"Muddy Waters\", \"B.B. King\" and \"rock\". Bo put the rock in Rock 'n' Roll! As every Rock comes from Bo, Bo comes from the Blues. (Be patient with me. See, I have this odd Bo Diddley-fixation; he was the start of so much - Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones, THe Who - that was great in it's own right, pretty much like the Ramones spawned the whole punk music thing by just being there - BEFORE London '77). The curious thing is, blues never really got as fashionable and trendy for a long time as jazz managed. Jazz was - as rock 'n' roll later - a very danceable young folks music, before it got too smart for it's own good (or was that: too smooth and mannered?). Let's just summarize that history shows that all jazzers can have the blues, while not many bluesers are jazzy about things."}, {"response": 29, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (23:07)", "body": "That's a good way to remember it!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (00:59)", "body": "Good stuff, Alexander and John! Your posts are on their way to John and I will post anything he cares to add to his super essay on the subject. I KNEW you had a BS degree, self-awarded, though it may be...*grin*"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (01:40)", "body": "From John Burnett I agree, Alexander. Jazz was very danceable at one time...mostly before bebop, Coltrane and Miles. And then, as you mention, the \"smooth\" stuff. Especially danceable was big band jazz and swing. As for the blues-punk connection, you don't have to look any further than Ted Horowitz, a.k.a. \"Popa Chubby,\" killer blues guitarist who was once lead guitar for Richard Hell (punk's onetime poet laureate) and the Voidoids. When Popa came to Hilo about 3 years ago, he and I got on famously. I interviewed him and he said that there is no current American popular, rock or jazz music that isn't blues based. In his words, \"It's all the blues, man.\" The man is a great musician who's been there and done that. I wouldn't presume to argue, even if I did disagree--which I don't. I don't like what some \"artists\" have done with the blues, but Bo belongs at the very top of the list of great American music icons...rock, blues, call it what you want."}, {"response": 32, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (15:22)", "body": "Bo is da MAN. And he's BAD. And... Damn, he's soooo good. There's this incredible collection of until then unpublished cuts, outtakes and the like on this CD called RARE & WELL DONE. That's, oh man, oooohhhh so good! It can make a guy honestly sing and shout and dance! P.S.: Moves dem girls nicely, too...."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (17:49)", "body": "From two guys I respect enormously, this is high praise, indeed. Makes me think I should hurry to my nearest CD source and deplete the bank account! Thank you, gentlemen."}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (18:37)", "body": "John: Alex, have you seen the _Eddie_&_the_Cruisers_ movies (parts 1&2)? Bo did a cameo as himself in #2 and a younger actor portrayed him as he was in the early-mid 1960s. Both flicks are way cool, but you have to see both to make sense. The bulk of the music is by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band...a very Springsteenesque band out of Newark, New Jersey. Worth your time when you have 3-1/2 to 4 hours and feel like doing fictional rock and roll movies that seem even more real than _La_Bamba_ and _The_Buddy_Holly_Story (which ARE excellent R&R biopics). You go away feeling Eddie Wilson and the Cruisers were real. Good stuff, although dramatic...not hilarious like _Spinal_Tap_. Bo IS way cool!!!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (20:13)", "body": "I gather the Bo rocks! Bo Rules! Bo is where it's at...! But, this raises musical questions in my mind. Is there not some topic in the Music Conference dedicated to the history of this type of music? Or, indeed, any music?"}, {"response": 36, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Let me put it this way: So I was off topic. Shucks, do I feel bad. But I praised BO the MAN who's a very much underrated musician. I mean, EVERYBODY knows about Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard, Bill Haley... But who has respect for the Diddley-Daddy? You simply can't go off topic on this issue often enough, I say. And if you'd listen to something like the Rare & Well-Done CD, you'd not know what I mean, you wouldn't understand a word I said but FEEL it! Does that man wield a guitar! If in doubt, have John play something to you."}, {"response": 37, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (16:06)", "body": "I mean, B.B. King ain't half bad, but Bo is... Like, EVERYBODY was influenced by Bo, he was to the guys in the Sixties what Iggy and the Stooges and the MC5 were to the guys in the Seventies. And the first thing recorded by Iggy Pop was a Bo Diddley track. The Who covered him. The Stones did. Didn't the Who, too? All of London did. But where's the credit?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "Be not sorry! This is the most activity this topic has had in a while - the entire conference, actually! I think I shall have John play me something if he can work it into his program ( not sure how much of what he plays he actually chooses - but, I'll ask!) Thanks for the suggestion!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (10:37)", "body": "I just happened to notice that there's one thing about biographies - they always make me angry. Mad. W\ufffdtend und zornig."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (13:32)", "body": "What about Biographies makes you angry? I love them best of all. I find people's lives fascinating."}, {"response": 41, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (17:39)", "body": "There so much futility in people's lives."}, {"response": 42, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (17:45)", "body": "Why do you say that? Do you mean that the things people write about you think are just dross and not worth reading about? You'll never read my biography but I don't think my life is futile. I agree it may not be interesting to anyone else, but I have read a few biographies that have really gripped me. I think on the whole i prefer biographies to autobiographies."}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr  3, 2000 (17:53)", "body": "Alexander, could it be that the biographies of the people you wish to read are in a business (popular music and the subculture to which it attaches)whose practitioners tends to be on the edge of insanity and courting death with mind altering medications?! Perhaps you should read about Churchill or Wellington (they all had problems - we are all mortal and subject to the vagueries of our mothers)...or Lord Baden-Powell...?"}, {"response": 44, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Apr  8, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "Let's see: Iacocca: An Autobiography - Lee Iacocca and William something-or-other A Man Called Intrepid - William Stevenson (no relation to Sir William Stephenson, a.k.a. Intrepid) The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X (Malcolm Little/Malik El-Shabazz) and Alec Haley Those are the only biographies I can remember reading straight through. I tried reading Reach For The Sky , a biography of legless fighter ace Douglas Bader, but I didn't get far beyond the air crash that cost him his legs. I read about half-way into Papillon . books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 19, "subject": "Conference news, business and questions", "response_count": 39, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:16)", "body": "not too overboard, is it?"}, {"response": 2, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:27)", "body": "you like your bizzzness, eh?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:29)", "body": "I'm lost, Stace...huh?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:33)", "body": "another\"Conference news, business [read: bizzzness] and questions\" topic... I was just teasing you, virtually of course!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:35)", "body": "gotcha!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:37)", "body": "huh? *grin*"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:43)", "body": "right where I wantcha, I must add..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:47)", "body": "how'd you know I was blindfolded and nude?!?!??!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:51)", "body": "now those are talented fingers!!!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:53)", "body": "new meaning to 'touch type'"}, {"response": 11, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:54)", "body": "*sigh*"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (20:55)", "body": "*lol* (stacey, he's being vulnerable again *heehee*)"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (19:40)", "body": "*ahem* sorry to get off topic *grin* but is there a topic for desert island books? Ones which you would take with you if you were stranded and could only have them to read for months and months or years?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (10:01)", "body": "I started a topic for this."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (12:20)", "body": "Thank you very much. *hugs* It should be interesting to see what is chosen. Please participate. Your choices should be most interesting."}, {"response": 16, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (16:36)", "body": "From: Timothy Troy, University of California Berkeley Forwarded by: David Newbury, University of North Carolina dnewbury@unc.edu Prof. J. Desmond Clark, emeritus professor of paleoarchaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the preeminent paleoarchaeologist and Africanists in the world, has just shown me a copy of a March 29, 2000 article from the Daily Telegraph (London) entitled: \"Last Record of African Explorers Faces Ruin.\" The article was written by Ishbel Matheson in Livingstone, Zambia. It reads in part: \"A priceless collection of books and documents, detailing the earliest days of European exploration in Africa, is under threat of destruction. The Livingstone Museum in southern Zambia has hundreds of valuable books, written by the first missionaries, adventurers and prospectors in central Africa. But the building's leaking ceiling collapsed in recent heavy rains, and many publications were damaged beyond repair. Others need expensive conservation work to save them. Piles of ancient, sodden volumes, with subjects as diverse as elephant-hunting and native practices, have been left to dry in the tropical heat. Early newspapers, with vivid descriptions of life in what was then British-ruled Northern Rhodesia, can scarcely be opened, for fear of tearing fragile, brittle pages. Flexon Mizinga, the keeper of history at the museum, said: 'It means the whole history is wiped out. When you lose this kind ofthing, there is no replacement. You can't get copies anywhere else. These are the only copies we have. Valuable historical documents, which escaped the flood, are slowly disintegrating because the museum has no money for conservation. The original letters and journals of David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary, are the pride of the collection. He was the first European to discover the nearby Victoria Falls, and he is remembered affectionately in the area as a Christian who campaigned to stop slavery. His notebooks describing his second Zambezi [River] expedition in 1858 are stored in the museum, with those of his companions, even though the institution is ill equipped to preserve them. The journals of Sir John Kirk, a botanist, and Richard Thornton, a geologist, which record their first impressions of the African landscape and its commercial potential for the British Empire, are in battered cardboard boxes. The acidity of the brown paper which wraps the notebooks is slowly eating away the handwritten testimony of these Victorian explorers. In the museum's clock tower, amid a jumble of books and newspapers, is the work of Thomas Baines, an artist and a member of the Zambezi expedition. A beautiful first edition of his famous Victoria Falls watercolours lies on a tabletop, vulnerable to the fierce heat and high humidity of the southern Zambia climate. Kinglsey Choongo, a museum curator, says, 'The documents will not see the beginning of another century.' Family members of the early explorers and settlers gave historical items to the museum because they wanted their ancestors' contribution to this part of Africa remembered. It seems, however, that in Livingstone and Zambia the history of the whites in Africa is being erased from the national consciousness. Tim Holmes, an author, lives in Zambia and has written a biography of Dr. Livingstone. He believes the museum has been starved of funds because its collection is perceived as a relic from the colonial past.'After independence came, what Zambians wanted to know most of all, is their own history. The colonial history was seen as an irrelevant burden. But trying to ignore colonialaism is like trying to tell the history of Britain without the Romans.'It is the former colonial countries who are now trying to help the museum out of its immediate crisis. The European Union has pledged 250,000 pounds. Conservationists fear that the money is too late because so much damage has been done. Nor will it be enough for the extensive upgrade needed to preserve the collections.\" Dr. Clark was the director and primary curator of the Livingstone Museum in its early manifestations from 1937 to his departure for Berkeley, California in 1961. In 1951 he raised the funds needed for a major expansion of the museum complex and library in Livingstone. A modest man, Clark neverless has told me in recent oral history interviews I have conducted with him for the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, that it was he who built the magnificent book and manuscript collection for the museum's library. He personally worked with the descendants of David Livingstone and others to do so. Though now eighty-four years old, Clark can list practically every rare book title, journal and manuscript collection which is held in the Livingstone Museum library. Curiously, however, Clark's great legacy to the world will be his work as a paleoarchaeolgist in Africa. The paleolithic and neolithic archaeolgical collections at the Museum are the result of hi"}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (18:35)", "body": "HELP! can we please do something about this background or the font? do you see eyeballs and music notes? though i like them, i can barely read what i typed or what anyone else typed for that matter. *smile* thanks!!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (10:08)", "body": "I see the nature background in this conference, what background are you seeing?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (16:21)", "body": "BODY background=\"/yapp-icons/chalk.jpg\" anyway, it comes up with a white backgroud with purple notes and eyeballs all over it. it's one that wer made and i do adore it but the font needs to change or something...."}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (17:57)", "body": "Hmm, and you're in the book conference? I'm still seeing the nature conference. Am I in the twilight zone?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (22:07)", "body": "perhaps i am?"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (23:22)", "body": "Nature conference? What am I missing? (Be kind!)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (09:18)", "body": "I meant the nature background, there is no nature conference."}, {"response": 24, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (10:44)", "body": "marcia, do you see a nature background in this conference too? am i using the wrong url??? ( http://www.spring.net )"}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (11:35)", "body": "(twilight zone music plays - do do do dooo do do do dooo . . . ) I'll look again."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (12:52)", "body": "*laugh* this is happening to me in inner too!!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (16:03)", "body": "OK, I'm still seeing the old gray safety paper!!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (19:52)", "body": "The old gray safety paper, she aint' what she use ta' be, ain't what she use ta' be . .. do do do dooo do do do dooo . . ."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (20:33)", "body": "Silly me, I only get the default leaves. I wonder why? *boogying with you*"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (20:34)", "body": "Is that the equivalent of a \"plain brown wrapper\"?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (20:35)", "body": "http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/books/19/new is what I am using."}, {"response": 32, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (21:13)", "body": "i'm still getting the music and eyeball background!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "marcia, i've sent screen captures of the backgrounds i'm seeing in here and in inner. this is the weirdest thing!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (21:41)", "body": "Ok looking for them. I had the same trouble with eyeball and music wallpaper on all my conferences for a while. I finally deleted music from my hot list and that cured it. I added it later and it did not recur. Very strange."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (21:48)", "body": "marcia has saved my eyesight! i've got the leaves now and it's much much better! lemme check inner too! (i deleted music out of my conf list)...."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (22:16)", "body": "Yay!!! Wolfie said it worked. I am so glad I was not alone with that problem and I could help rid her of those infernal eyeballs and notes. We gotta get rid of that wallpaper in music!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (22:21)", "body": "you should have default leaves (that is the name of it) background in Inner too andporch and all the rest excepting Babes, food, drool and you and my conferences. Oh, and the infernal eyeballs and notes on Music - how could we forget?! Did the grey safety paper go away too?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (00:56)", "body": "Nope, still gray!"}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (14:30)", "body": "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCIA!!!!!!! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 2, "subject": "What I'm reading right now", "response_count": 270, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Wed, Nov  6, 1996 (07:43)", "body": "Well, the book I am reading at the moment is not new - it is a leather bound collection of all the Sherlock Holmes stories. I read them about 10 years ago, and try to refresh my memory... They are a good read, even when you know the plot... I especially like the narration of Victorian Era England. And the language is hilarious, I\ufffdd say..."}, {"response": 2, "author": "sfpclot", "date": "Thu, Nov 14, 1996 (21:35)", "body": "Out of Control by Kevin Kelly. I just started it. I *think* it's about consciousness emerging from complex processes/structures. The first 65 pages are good. This morning I was reading about the intregral part wildfires play in balancing prairie ecological systems."}, {"response": 3, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (20:28)", "body": "\"Creating Cool Databases on the World Wide Web\""}, {"response": 4, "author": "Ann2", "date": "Fri, Nov 29, 1996 (00:34)", "body": "Actually I am searching for the 'austen read line'. But I can tell you that I am just finishing Smiley's A thousand acres. I came across the title through my interest in actor Colin Firth, who is/has just finished filming that story. Rather interesting story based on the old King Lear theme - A father giving his 'kingdome' away to his three daughters. And then it all starts to fall apart, families, properties,the love they thought they shared... Sad tale of our loneliness actually."}, {"response": 5, "author": "Amy", "date": "Fri, Nov 29, 1996 (08:23)", "body": "Ann2: glad to see you finally here. Are you also reading -- or have you already read -- the other originals that spawned new adaptations featuring Firth: Nostromo and The English Patient? Amy"}, {"response": 6, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (02:52)", "body": "Finished the Sherlocks, and read some Wodehouse. At the moment I am tackling (not counting Malleus Maleficarum and several scientific journals for my studies) LeGuin's \"Tehanu\", and then I'll attack the Gormenghast-trilogy... I guess it is my fantasy period once more..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "elder", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (19:14)", "body": "No new reading until after final exams are given and graded, thank you. But I bought The English Patient for the plane ride to San Diego for the holidays. The cover pic is the advert w/ Kristin Scott Thomas & Ralph Fiennes. I also found some new books about Jane Austen that I shall dig into over semester break."}, {"response": 8, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 1996 (09:30)", "body": "I am in the middle of the 1st book of Peake's Gormenghast, Titus Groan. I have to say I am very impressed. The Brits really know how to write (among with the Russians and some American eccentrics)."}, {"response": 9, "author": "mich", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 1996 (22:53)", "body": "I'm just starting The English Patient. I'm having a hard time getting into the rhythm of it. Should I see the movie before or after I read the book?"}, {"response": 10, "author": "mrobens", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 1996 (10:10)", "body": "Mich, I read the book before I saw the movie. I loved both. They share the rhythm, but use it in different ways. The movie is very faithful to the spirit and poetry of the book. The director has interpreted rather than mirrored the book and done it very well. I think you could either see the movie or read the book first and not lose. Enjoy."}, {"response": 11, "author": "Allison", "date": "Thu, Feb  6, 1997 (16:20)", "body": "I am presently reading a collection of short stories called \"Revenge\". All the stories are written by women and are all about revenge. It is really great and very creative. Gives me all sorts of ideas. I highly recommend it, but not suitable for those of you prone to nightmares. So far, none of the stories have been gruesome, just rather disquieting. The editor of this collection is Kate Saunders. My personal favorite at this time is \"Why Herbert Killed His Mother\". It is a comical tale rather than haunting."}, {"response": 12, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:54)", "body": "I AM PRESENTLY READING THE BOOK BY M.R JAMES,IT IS A COLLECTIONS OF GHOST STORY MR. M.R.JAMES,HE LIVED IN THE LATER1800 AND THE EARLY 1900, WROTE BETTER THAN I EXPECTED.AND I DO HAVE A INTERST IN THE SUSPENSE FICTIONS.ANYBODY WHO HAVE READ THE THRILLER ON ECONOMIST 96/12/21? DO LET ME KNOW YR FAVOURITES I DO LIKE READING THE NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES YOU MAY E-MAIL ME AT CHENJIAXIN@HOTMAIL.COM BYEBYE MEET ME IN CYBER BY THE WAY I AM LOGGING FROM THE P.R.CHINA,PRECISELY SHANGHAI ,CHINA"}, {"response": 13, "author": "chenjiaxin", "date": "Thu, Mar 13, 1997 (06:54)", "body": "I AM PRESENTLY READING THE BOOK BY M.R JAMES,IT IS A COLLECTIONS OF GHOST STORY MR. M.R.JAMES,HE LIVED IN THE LATER1800 AND THE EARLY 1900, WROTE BETTER THAN I EXPECTED.AND I DO HAVE A INTERST IN THE SUSPENSE FICTIONS.ANYBODY WHO HAVE READ THE THRILLER ON ECONOMIST 96/12/21? DO LET ME KNOW YR FAVOURITES I DO LIKE READING THE NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES YOU MAY E-MAIL ME AT CHENJIAXIN@HOTMAIL.COM BYEBYE MEET ME IN CYBER BY THE WAY I AM LOGGING FROM THE P.R.CHINA,PRECISELY SHANGHAI ,CHINA"}, {"response": 14, "author": "Lecteur", "date": "Thu, Aug 14, 1997 (19:59)", "body": "This week I have read: Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris and Symposium by Muriel Spark. I am beginning Kinds of Minds by Daniel Dennett."}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Aug 14, 1997 (22:55)", "body": "All fiction? What are they about?"}, {"response": 16, "author": "Mkaye", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 1997 (17:27)", "body": "I read voraciously, constantly and with an eye toward help in my own writing. I did not, do not, can not understand nor apppreciate The English Patient. A friend says it is all about the state of the world--the burned man is the whole of humanity suffering, the nurse is the small fation of people trying to save mankind, the east Indian bomb defuser is the larger faction trying to prevent the demise of the world. Even this erudite friend of mine can't decide what the other guy was all about. And I can' help but wonder where the nurse got her eternal, unending supply of morphine. Symbolically--TV, drugs, alcohol, etc whidh keep us all sedated in this world. I think it is pretty far fetched but certainly better an anlysis than mine which is----well I just don't get it. Help!!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "Mkaye", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 1997 (17:29)", "body": "Pooy typing, sorry. I should proof read but these tri-focals of mine let me down and I can't read what I have just typed. Shocked to see it come up in big type."}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 16, 1997 (22:17)", "body": "If you check in to the austenarchive, you'll find a discussion of the English Patient with quite a few comments."}, {"response": 19, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Oct 30, 1997 (10:02)", "body": "A completely \"out of character\" book for me, but the novel I'm presently reading is \"The Horse Whisperer.\" Horses have never really done much for me, nevermind a story centered around one. But this is beautifully written, surprisingly exciting and has pulled me in completely."}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 30, 1997 (12:51)", "body": "who's the author?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (13:50)", "body": "Nicholas Evans, isn't it? I just finished a terrific book by Elizabeth Berg, \"Pull of the Moon.\" Definitely a chick book, but she expresses so well the inner discord a woman can feel when she is so focused on others that she isn't really (dare I say it?) \"in touch\" with her own identity. I plan to re-read it when I'm menopausal (hopefully no time soon!!) Just started \"Mrs. deWinter,\" the so-called sequel to Daphne DuMaurier's classic thriller/romance \"Rebecca\". It's slow going, a bit Dickensian in its descriptiveness, but I'm plodding through it."}, {"response": 22, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (16:49)", "body": "Yes, \u000eNicolas Evans."}, {"response": 23, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (11:33)", "body": "I'm supposed to be reading Thoreau's \"Walden\" for my book group. It was my suggestion, but I'm not getting very far. I've read it a couple of times in high school and college, so I thought it would be familiar enough to be comfortable mid-winter reading, and a change from the women's voices that completely dominate our group, but I can't focus on it. I think I may have lost some brain cells in childbirth...and maybe there's a reason I don't read the famous dead guys anymore; I don't expect Thoreau to b a feminist, but it's hard for me to listen to someone who doesn't appear to know women exist! Anyway, it will give us something to talk about at book group besides \"yeah, I liked it\", and \"yeah, me too.\""}, {"response": 24, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (14:51)", "body": "thoreau's dealings with/attitude toward women does seem rather twisted, especially taken within the context of modern attitudes (though applying that standard would seem to negate the work of nearly every male writer of any antiquity at all, i should think)... perhaps he idealized them, in his way... it is probable that the 3 closest re- lationships of his life were with women (his mother, sister, and lydian emerson, wife of waldo, whom he probably loved)... seem to recall that he received a proposal of marriage from a concord schoolteacher, who was somewhat older than he, and his response to have been something along the lines of \"i never expected to encounter such a foe, at this stage in my career\"... regardless of his peculiarities (or maybe because of them, because they are certainly an aspect of what makes him such a compelling personality), perhaps one should attempt to approach his work from a \"sexless\" point of view... even read 150 years later, his words still have vigor, and many of his ideas still seem provocative, stirring, and i would think they apply to everyone... \"The greater part of what my neighbors call good, i consider in my soul to be bad, and if i repent of anything, it is likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that i behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man- you, who have lived seventy years, not without honor of it's kind- I hear an irresistable voice that calls me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like so many stranded vessels...\" that moves me still, and it will always be true (and sorta reads like abby hoffman, when you think about it... anybody read \"steal this book\"?)..."}, {"response": 25, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (16:00)", "body": "You're absolutely right, of course, about context. Nothing frustrates me more than when a conversation about a book gets stopped in its tracks by a stubborn readers' inability/unwillingness to consider the times the author was writing in and his/her world view. My beloved Virginia Woolf has been shot down twice as an elitist (and a bore, but that's another story) by book groups I otherwise loved and agreed with most of the time. I know I'll be defending Thoreau, too. I'm probably just mad because it's ge ting harder and harder for me to focus on a book that doesn't start with a dead body and/or have a foil cover. You're right--Thoreau was a revolutionary, and his views on living a simple life are probably more applicable to my life than anyone he knew in Concord. I'll try again."}, {"response": 26, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  4, 1998 (20:48)", "body": "Well, this has nothing to do with Thoreau, but i'm reading Kathleen Woodiwiss' new novel Petals on The River. so far so good. fell in love with her stuff as a teenager and still like it (even though I'm not a professed romance novelee). I like that her stuff is full of details of historical reference. Of course the story line is good IMO. My absolute fav is A Rose in Winter. (the masked character was such a....hmmmm, can't say it here, I don't think). Oh, and another of my favs is Amy Tan. She can really move me and I have learned much from her pieces. Can't wait until a new one comes out."}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (10:33)", "body": "Tell us more about Amy Tan if you will."}, {"response": 28, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (18:10)", "body": "I liked Amy Tan's \"Joy Luck Club\" but absolutely loved the movie. One of those rare instances where I preferred the film to the book (others include Forrest Gump and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter)."}, {"response": 29, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (20:09)", "body": "\"the graduate\" (better movie than book, i mean... extremely, excruciatingly rare occurence)"}, {"response": 30, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan  5, 1998 (21:18)", "body": "Amy Tan writes historical Chinese/American fiction. Her characters are so real and vivid. She just reaches out and grabs my attention and my heart. Have read all her stuff (save the children's books) and my favorite was \"The Hundred Secret Senses.\" Watched the Joy Luck Club and I cried the whole thing through. Couldn't even get through the book. Forrest Gump was good, of course I bawled. (yeah, I'm a wimp, cry at everything). ET was a better book too."}, {"response": 31, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (12:28)", "body": "Never read \"The Graduate\"--and now I won't bother! Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock is one of the few actors I \"firth\" (synonym for drool now!) over!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (13:19)", "body": "Wow, lighten up, wer! (just kidding! :) Maybe there should be a top 10 category in the Philosophy conference! No Celestine Prophecy? You can borrow mine if you like--I got it for xmas 2 years ago and haven't opened it yet, but it came highly recommended. You don't like any fiction?"}, {"response": 35, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (21:21)", "body": "and it's early, yet, wer!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (21:18)", "body": "I will keep a good thought for her, and you, wer."}, {"response": 38, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (21:28)", "body": "yeah, me too, wer (she'll be in my prayers...)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (22:29)", "body": "Prayers for you mom, wer."}, {"response": 41, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Jan 10, 1998 (16:04)", "body": "Well, wer, how did her surgery go? I'm eager to hear the good news...(thinking positively)"}, {"response": 43, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Jan 10, 1998 (22:32)", "body": "What a load off, I'm sure! However, worrying can bring on that urge to smoke...did you succumb? Or should I say how much?"}, {"response": 45, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jan 12, 1998 (17:40)", "body": "You're welcome--supportive people can be a blessing or a nuisance, I know...I live with one!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (11:45)", "body": "The book i just finished readingis Marcovaldo of the seasons in the city by Italo Calvino. a bit heavy for this romance addict. I felt like the girl in the movie The truth about cats and dogs who had to have a dictionary to understand the book? any way its a strange book and i sure had too deep of a sub meaning for me to gather. but it was fun reading it."}, {"response": 47, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (20:00)", "body": "I am making a note of it & will check the library for it after I finish this 700 page monster I've been working on."}, {"response": 48, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Wed, Jan 21, 1998 (14:55)", "body": "I'm almost afraid to mention it in this esteemed group of readers, but I just finished a collection of Shirley Jackson short stories that was wonderful (mostly unpublished, altho some were simply published long ago in long-defunct magazines). The collection is called An Ordinary Day (sorry, still don't know how to put that in italics). And in a similar vein, I bought a Dave Barry collection today. Any fans of the absurd out there? Or just short-story lovers?"}, {"response": 50, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (11:55)", "body": "Thanks, wer. May I call you wer? I've read so many of your posts, I feel like I know you. So, to experiment. Yesterday, after reading here, I went out and bought a second Shirley Jackson short story collection, The Lottery and Other Stories . So I guess the short fiction kick continues. So, now we'll see if I can post this and the italics come out right."}, {"response": 51, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (11:57)", "body": "Wee! That's fun. I wonder what I was doing wrong, 'cause that looks like what I tried in the past that never worked and always brought up error messages. Thanks again!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (17:43)", "body": "What I'm reading right now... my grade book -- report cards go out tomorrow! Read The Story of Ruby Bridges to my kids today. We had an insightful and productive discussion on racism today (most specifically segregation). I'd love to get into some smut novels but I haven't had the time! *grin* Read a few essays by Ayn Rand the other day. On selfishness. A lesson we should all take -- how to truly be selfish!"}, {"response": 53, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (17:43)", "body": "read rand pretty extensively, long ago... her intelligence is captivating, and her ideas almost persuasive, by virtue of their clarity, alone... that, however, is because they are as old (and persuasively clear) as hell... it was the influence of rand (and scott fitzgerald, though for different reasons, obviously) that led me to become a marxist... objectively, what difference is there between the ideology of rand, and nietzsche (for example)? seems to me that beyond differing experience (and a little more intellectual honesty, on his part), there is none... one is an extension of the other... and really, don't you find the suggestion that human beings require any (further) justification for their selfishness a little disingenuous? akin to tigers \"celebrating their claws\", as nietzsche might say? bourne out by nature, and experience (and sort of redundant)? (sigh... i oughta stop here, but i'm not... nothing personal, but i'm really pissed off tonight, and ayn rand seems as hospitable a host for that as any) the thing that irritates me most about the rand crowd (of which the esteemed alan greenspan is a charter member/thug) is the attempted intellectualizing (even idealizing) of ideas with roots in the most primitive, most bestial aspect of human behavior... it is, i think (using the words marx used for a more benign transgressor, thomas malthus) a \"libel on mankind\"... or so it is my everlasting wish to believe...(and \"objectivism\", in my judgement, and within the context rand suggested, is as \"libelous\", and dishonest a conclusion regarding human potential as i know)... anyway... since i'm really pissed off (seething) at ken starr, maybe i oughta take this over to politics... and, to tell the truth- though i stand by every word i said- all in all, i think ayn rand was a great old broad... (even though i didn't buy a word she said, could always count on her to get the juices flowing... she did not shy from controversy)..."}, {"response": 55, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 1998 (15:01)", "body": "Nick, it's great to hear someone else who likes Rand's writing (she's interesting, after all, and sometimes that's so hard to find) but discounts her \"philosophy.\" Have lately had her work foisted on me by some huge fans, and since I hadn't read it since high school (terribly long ago), I gave her another shot. In fact, I was looking at a collection of previously unpublished stuff just the other day, but I passed on it to buy some more fictional fiction. After all, there are days when you just don't wa t to think so much. At least, I have days like that."}, {"response": 56, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 1998 (19:06)", "body": "me too, like today."}, {"response": 57, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 26, 1998 (18:00)", "body": "I had a heady-thinking weekend. And enjoyed every minute of it. Okay... maybe not EVERY minute!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Jan 27, 1998 (01:32)", "body": "(was reading \"the making of the president 1960\"...a third of the way through, skipped to near the end... the part describing kennedy's waterbury speech, near election day... made me so sad, i just said to hell with it... jack kennedy really is dead, and he's deader every day... and the american century is nearly over, and soon no one will care too awfully much about that, either (or even remember what the fuss was all about)... and aren't we closing it out in fine fashion? yeah... some days it's best to just not think at all...)"}, {"response": 60, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jan 27, 1998 (01:32)", "body": "thought about happier days... past and future. Thought about how the only one that can make me happy is myself. Thought about how inconcievable it is that I could 'save the world' but how very possible it is for me to make a difference in the life of another. Thought about things that make me smile, thought about smiling... the way it is contagious toward the rest of my body... And then I just reflected on what a complex being means..."}, {"response": 61, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan 27, 1998 (01:32)", "body": "man, Stacey, you need to take a break (but what you said is soooo true) *smile*"}, {"response": 62, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jan 27, 1998 (01:32)", "body": "Days of inward reflection are important,no? But they leave you feeling so raw afterwards."}, {"response": 63, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jan 28, 1998 (08:59)", "body": "this is often true. Colorado sunshine and warm weather helped! I feel pretty good now. Finally able to enjoy fresh outdoors instead of just the stuffy gym."}, {"response": 65, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Sat, Feb 28, 1998 (08:28)", "body": "Hi all. Good to see a book group here at the Spring. I just finished Funerals For Horses by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It was a random pick off the shelves at my local library. I couldn't put it down. It is a story of a family, centrally the youngest girl and her on-again-off-again fight against insanity... Findit. Read it."}, {"response": 66, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Mar 16, 1998 (11:38)", "body": "Read \"A Hundred Brothers\" by I don't know who: thought provoking, idiotic, brownish feeling, scattered. (BTW that is read as in I \"red\" not as in you should read!) Also read \"Rent Boy\" by Gary Indiana: graphic depiction of the life of a 'rent boy' (homosexual male prostitute) through letters to an unnamed loved one. Very graphic! I enjoyed the perversity and honesty of this one. Am now reading \"The Dark Rivers of the Heart\" by Dean R. Koontz: been a Koontz fan for almost ten years and this is similar in style to all the rest of his novels. Chilling, well-researched, technical, complicated."}, {"response": 67, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Mar 16, 1998 (23:37)", "body": "i've read 7 or 8 of koontz's books... along with sue grafton, prob. my favorite \"mind candy\" books (that i read just for the sheer enjoyment of it)..."}, {"response": 69, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Mar 17, 1998 (09:21)", "body": "finished Dark Rivers last night and am beginning A Confederation of Dunces. Sadly enough (to some) this is my first reading of it."}, {"response": 70, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Tue, Mar 17, 1998 (18:55)", "body": "Just finished John Grisham's THE PARTNER. Pretty interesting... remind me to call Grisham if I ever need a lawyer. His characters never lose. Am also reading Jackie Joyner-Kersee's autobiography. Have a visit to library in my near future."}, {"response": 71, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (06:25)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. Want to link us to your site? We would appreciate it! Want some banner art, all sizes? goto http://www.capitol-city.com/indexbnrs.html New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) Paul Terry Walhus - ( Internet & telecommunications specialist & owner of www.spring.com ) Do you want to write something about Austin, Art, Music or Life, give us a call! 219-1433 Thanks for your readership and thank you Austin Artists, for being so helpful as we continue to build this publication for you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 72, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Apr 19, 1998 (17:04)", "body": "My tastes are pretty divergent right now. I just finished \"Prince of Tides\", which was a little too dysfunctional and poignant for me. So when in the library I picked up \"Healing Foods\", \"1001 Pitfalls in English Grammar,\" and (of all things), \"The Rules\" (wanted to see if I did it right!) I guess after \"Prince\" I need a break from fiction for a while."}, {"response": 73, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Apr 20, 1998 (00:14)", "body": "reading \"She Loves Me\" --- I'll let you all know..."}, {"response": 74, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jul 11, 1998 (19:42)", "body": "i have just read \"The Essence of the Thing\" by Madeleine St. John. brilliant book. made me cry, which is the first time in ages."}, {"response": 75, "author": "stacey", "date": "Sun, Jul 12, 1998 (06:35)", "body": "*smile*"}, {"response": 76, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jul 17, 1998 (21:04)", "body": "(scribbling the title on my reading list)"}, {"response": 77, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jul 18, 1998 (08:27)", "body": "damn. i bought twenty-five pounds worth of books, and read all four in under a week. i've got too much time on my hands, obviously. now i'm stuck again, and have no money to buy anything new :-(("}, {"response": 78, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jul 19, 1998 (11:46)", "body": "Don't you have a library???"}, {"response": 79, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Jul 19, 1998 (17:55)", "body": "only a college library, which isn't the most prolific fiction establishment, as you may imagine :)"}, {"response": 80, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jul 20, 1998 (22:31)", "body": "In addition to all the faculties' boring doctoral theses, I bet they have a lot of the classics in their lit section, anyway...Come on, a little Jane Austen and you'll be drooling with the best of them!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Aug  1, 1998 (17:41)", "body": "ok, i read, in two sittings, The Horse Whisperer. It was well-done and not based on the movie (the other way around, actually). Some parts seemed rushed, but i was captured anyway. good read. glad i haven't seen the movie (yet)..."}, {"response": 82, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Aug  2, 1998 (18:07)", "body": "I read that one in the springtime, Wolf. I'm glad you enjoyed it, but I didn't like it. For one thing, I absolutely hated the arrogant, pushy heroine, which really violates my first rule for a good novel. As for the rest, the characters just didn't hold my interest. I realize I am the lone dissenting opinion on this book, because everyone I know liked it! I've been working on \"Miserly Moms\" and \"Tightwad Gazette\" these days for thrifty ideas--I need some fresh inspiration!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Aug  2, 1998 (23:08)", "body": "Ever read \"Living Cheaply With Style\"?"}, {"response": 84, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  3, 1998 (09:16)", "body": "autumn: i didn't like her much either until i understood what her major malfunction was."}, {"response": 85, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Aug  4, 1998 (21:41)", "body": "What was it? I forget already! Wer, thank you for the recommendation. I will check the library for it tomorrow. The one I just finished included recipes for for making your own Grape Nuts and baby wipes! Geez, I don't think I'm THAT frugal..."}, {"response": 86, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Aug  4, 1998 (21:59)", "body": "autumn: she was a control freak and when the bad stuff happened, it threw her out of whack and even though she knew she couldn't control it, she tried. the book focused more on her and the whisperer than the horse and the girl. the changes in their behavior (everyone's) was too abrupt. it was a good story and perhaps i'll read his next one (think it's The Loop) just to see. the frugal stuff is in Woman's Day or Family Circle. they're good ideas but i guess i'm too lazy to incorporate most of them. but look at her now! kinda like Martha Stewart. speaking of her, does she have any other job? (she's a perfectionist too, you know)...."}, {"response": 87, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Aug  4, 1998 (22:03)", "body": "Ha ha! I'm imagining Martha Stewart playing the role of Annie in the \"Horse Whisperer!!\" LOL! I consider myself a very frugal person (e.g. I made all my own baby food), but there's no way I'm saving cereal boxes and using them for storage containers!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug  5, 1998 (00:08)", "body": "cereal boxes do make cool postcards, though..."}, {"response": 89, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Aug  5, 1998 (04:19)", "body": "... and something to read if a newspaper isn't handy."}, {"response": 90, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Aug  6, 1998 (17:05)", "body": "I use cereal boxes all the time in my classroom. Only problem is I have to bribe others to eat cereal quickly because I refuse to buy it at all. (Too much sugar, too many preservatives, too expensive... AND I prefer eggs and hash browns for breakfast (even if it means I have to get up WAY early!)"}, {"response": 91, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Aug  6, 1998 (17:13)", "body": "Same here, eggs, hash browns and toast are my breakfast, very rarely do I eat cereal. I used to be into Total, Shredded Wheat, Raisin Bran and Wheat Chex. Oh, and I forgot, Grape Nuts. My grandpa used to eat nothing but Grape Nuts around the clock."}, {"response": 92, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Aug  6, 1998 (21:25)", "body": "s'mores poptarts and splash V-8 juice (at least of late)"}, {"response": 93, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug 10, 1998 (23:09)", "body": "ah, that explains it... the food conference moved to books!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Aug 11, 1998 (15:21)", "body": "ha ha, we have so much overlap here at the spring, don't we? None of us is ever able to remain on topic!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 12, 1998 (02:37)", "body": "I don't know, as Stacey said, you can pretty much count on food or sex being representative of our discussions... maybe should just get rid of the all the conferences except those two..."}, {"response": 96, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Aug 14, 1998 (21:20)", "body": "If we restricted ourselves to those two, we'd probably start talking about music and films!"}, {"response": 97, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Aug 14, 1998 (21:25)", "body": "picked up a couple more Belva Plain books (the continuation of Evergreen, only i don't know which one starts first, so i bought both-good excuse, eh?) hi Autumn!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (09:34)", "body": "been reading a lot of safety manuals, guidance documents and OSHA regulations as of late... (newest second(third)job)"}, {"response": 99, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (10:32)", "body": "ooh, ooh... does that mean there's gonna be a Safety Stacey doll?"}, {"response": 100, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:14)", "body": "So, what's the new job? I am intrigued... Just finished Alice Walker's \"Possessing the Secret of Joy\", about female circumcision amongst African women. Heady stuff."}, {"response": 101, "author": "jgross", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:40)", "body": "That happened to me once. But I just talked to the elders of my tribe, and they gave it back. OH!!! You said f e m a l e..... Anyway, even so, it was pretty heady stuff."}, {"response": 102, "author": "jgross", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (11:53)", "body": "The Manor Road Coffee House, here in Austin had a benefit for African women who have suffered the fate (infection or death or ?) of female genital hacking (or whatever the word is that's used). That coffee house isn't there anymore, but the benefit raised $500. A good good thing."}, {"response": 103, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:17)", "body": "This book made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up."}, {"response": 104, "author": "jgross", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:32)", "body": "She's got a vast readership. The consciousness on the issue is rising. So the power structure of the culture wants to maintain its grip on the ways of its culture, but change can force its way through, even from outside the culture. But I wonder how world influence actually gets into the culture and evolves it, like with this whole scenario."}, {"response": 105, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:45)", "body": "remembering that evolution can be a painstakingly slow process with many malformations of the eventual end result (stop time pic)... yes."}, {"response": 106, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (12:46)", "body": "oops! you asked HOW. Geez. Lemme gather my typing strength... (much easier to discuss over coffee)"}, {"response": 107, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (13:17)", "body": "world influence arrives through either the free flow of information or the forced flow of information... either the culture becomes inquisitive because of incidental contact, or an unwanted intrusion disrupts it"}, {"response": 108, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (14:41)", "body": "what about the trickle of information that's not really free flowing but certainly not forced? kinda like a human rights pamphlet that blows across the boundary of a country to a young soul who never knew she had so much freedom of mind and body and emotion and... (oh yes, did I mention the pamphlet happened to be in a language she understood? Well, it was.)... anyway, how bout that trickle?"}, {"response": 109, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (14:41)", "body": "Let's hear it for trickles!!!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (14:42)", "body": "yea, incidental contact!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (14:52)", "body": "*kick* different idea all together WER! *smile*"}, {"response": 112, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:12)", "body": "I gots different ideas as well and, btw, that kick was not incidental contact... (did kinda turn me on, though...)"}, {"response": 113, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:14)", "body": "What is also thought-provoking is the author's assertion that the reverse can take place, in this case, that some Southern white women (American) had the same thing done to their daughters."}, {"response": 114, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:19)", "body": "WHY, WHY, WHY???????? (and if someone says 'religious reasons' I shall just go off on my whole religious arguement-- UGLY scene!)"}, {"response": 115, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:22)", "body": "(she's telling the truth, too...) but chastity would be the number one reason, Stace (gonna get kicked again, aren't I?)"}, {"response": 116, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:25)", "body": "Not to mention stopping them from masturbating."}, {"response": 117, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:32)", "body": "extreme chastity, then..."}, {"response": 118, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (15:37)", "body": "*frown* ... guess the old standby 'you're gonna go blind' just doesn't cut it anymore..."}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Aug 26, 1998 (22:15)", "body": "ohmygosh! this is terrible. don't they do something similar in india? oh, wait, where's the place where they actually make them smaller? didn't know that was practiced here in the states (and how southern are we talking?). not trying to say that the US hasn't done it's share of unthinkables but THAT? wasn't the syphyllus thing bad enough?"}, {"response": 120, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Aug 30, 1998 (15:06)", "body": "Um, the book made reference to Louisiana, Wolf..."}, {"response": 121, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 30, 1998 (20:35)", "body": "where? plantation homes, i'll bet. good thing i didn't grow up here *whew*"}, {"response": 122, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug 31, 1998 (00:09)", "body": "you're *gasp* not a born-in-da-bayou babe?"}, {"response": 123, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug 31, 1998 (08:17)", "body": "sorry to burst your bubble, wer, nope, this gal is from everywhere. just been here the longest!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Sep  3, 1998 (21:37)", "body": "So where all you been, Wolfie?"}, {"response": 125, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Sep  4, 1998 (02:08)", "body": "Yeah, where, where?"}, {"response": 126, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep  4, 1998 (11:40)", "body": "uh-oh, i gotta go look and see what i had said *grin*"}, {"response": 127, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Sep  4, 1998 (11:47)", "body": "ok-how far back do you want me to go? germany (several times) france spain newfoundland desertland texas california pennsylvania delaware vermont connecticut louisiana kansas florida georgia alabama mississippi missouri ohio virginia w. virginia n & s carolina kentucky tennessee washington d.c. arizona rhode island massachusetts new york new jersey (some of the places are from my Army brat days, others are from personal travel, and still others are due to my current job for schools or temporary duty)"}, {"response": 128, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Sep  4, 1998 (19:04)", "body": "Now, wolf, can you give us a list of books you have read organized and sorted by place?"}, {"response": 129, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Sep  4, 1998 (22:30)", "body": "Wolf, if you ever feel the need to add Maryland to that list, you come stay with me, you hear?"}, {"response": 130, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Sep  5, 1998 (11:07)", "body": "Same here, for Texas. How did you manage to miss Texas?"}, {"response": 131, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Sep  5, 1998 (12:17)", "body": "she didn't...on her list it's between desertland and california..."}, {"response": 132, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Sep  5, 1998 (16:56)", "body": "terry: no autumn: thanks wer: yup"}, {"response": 133, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep  6, 1998 (01:02)", "body": "OK Tell us about Texas, wolfie."}, {"response": 134, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  6, 1998 (12:04)", "body": "like, what don't you already know about texas? places i've been to? ok, Dallas Houston Corpus Christie San Antonio Austin Laredo Brownsville Harlingen and all the little towns up and down the highway to all of those places!"}, {"response": 135, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  6, 1998 (12:05)", "body": "Wait! McAllen Pharr Edington or Edmonton or something like that (it's where the Pan American University is)"}, {"response": 136, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Sep  6, 1998 (17:06)", "body": "Wow, you been to more places in Texas than me! Ever been to Bastrop?"}, {"response": 137, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep  6, 1998 (20:13)", "body": "probably!"}, {"response": 138, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Sep  6, 1998 (21:32)", "body": "Just finished \"Gone South\" by Robert McCammon, which takes place in the bayou of Louisiana with some pretty interesting swamp folks! It was OK."}, {"response": 139, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Sep  7, 1998 (07:33)", "body": "Whta to you find interesting about these folks?"}, {"response": 140, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Sep  7, 1998 (10:35)", "body": "was it southern louisiana or northern? cuz the worlds are completely different.."}, {"response": 141, "author": "jgross", "date": "Mon, Sep  7, 1998 (16:28)", "body": "What was your favorite alligator's breath like when she talked to you? What was her name? Was she the main character? Could she play football as good as Mark McGuire? Was she the ghostwriter of the book? Have you started reading it again back at the beginning? When did Squidboy come in? I heard it was towards the middle. Did his bike have cards flappin' the spokes? Were there alotta words on each page? Did any of the words give ya trouble? Did you meet any of the characters in real life yet? How soon will the sequel come out? Did the library not want you to read it? Did the librarians make faces at you when they saw what you were gonna check out, or did they treat you okay? Why oh why are you always asked so many questions, Autumn? Did you learn to read at an earlier age than your daughters did? Can your daughters read better'n me? I still read one word at a time and I look every word up in the dickshunairy. Some of the words look vaguely familiar because I remember them from long ago. Those are words that I like to keep under my pillow without ever taking them out to look at them, because they enter into my dreams better that way, and they continually improve my Sleepasaurusness. I hope the book you are reading now likes you as much as I do. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I have alotta authors' phone numbers. If you ever want me to request your favorite writer to rewrite a book that you're reading that doesn't really seem to like you, no problem, just let me know, Autumn."}, {"response": 142, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Sep 10, 1998 (20:32)", "body": "Ha-ha, there are quite a few that could stand to be rewritten, Jim!! Could you please just start with Edith Wharton and have her change \"Age of Innocence\" so Newland and Ellen get to spend at least one night with each other? Just like an hour. I'd really appreciate it. Just finished \"A Drinking Life\" by Pete Hamill. This is a memoir by a well-known (not by me!) newspaper columnist about the role alcohol played in his life and influenced him. I'm not big on biographies, but this was quite interesting from an historical perspective, especially growing up in the 30s and 40s."}, {"response": 143, "author": "jgross", "date": "Fri, Sep 11, 1998 (12:21)", "body": "I would call Edith, but she's busy, I know, lyin' around underground. Pete's 61, still kickin', just got a job as editor of the New York Daily News, so you want me to call the Mr. Hamill and ask him to rewrite the part where Ellen and Newland meet in Boston and have him have them consummate like crazy night after night until they get extraordinarily sick of each other? I dunno who yer favorite author is.....living favorite author. I bet whoever it is would do anything at all for you. Rewriting a passage you'd like rewritten would be a, well, a labor of love.....any passage in anybody else's book.....nuthin' to it. I could call Autumn Moore and ask her to rewrite it. She's a writer you should really get to know. She even lives where you live. In fact she lives in your body, so take care."}, {"response": 144, "author": "ratthing", "date": "Fri, Sep 25, 1998 (22:41)", "body": "the book i am reading right now: How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci this is a fantastic book, one that gives you tools for self-exploration. the whole premise of the book is that Leonardo (probably the greatest genius of all time) seemed to base his genius on seven general priniciples that can be understood and cultivated in all of us. these principles are: 1) Curiosita: an insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning 2) Dimostrazione: a commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. 3) Sensazione: the continual refinement of the senses, esp sight, as the means to enliven experience 4) Sfumato: a willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, uncertainty 5) Arte/Scienza: the development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. \"whole brain\" thinking 6) Corporalita: the cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. 7) Connessione: a recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. systems thinking. this philosophy of living meshes well with many other \"good ways\" of living, such as those espoused by two of my other favorite role model/heroes: Ben Franklin and Aristotle. i strongly recommend this bood to anyone who is wanting to expand their lives and experience of life!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Sep 26, 1998 (22:29)", "body": "Wow, what a great recommendation. I know a few Renaissance men who might like that book..."}, {"response": 146, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (18:21)", "body": "Hey Wolfie... Colorado was absent from your list... Come give it a visit sometime... we\"ve PLENTY of room!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (18:22)", "body": "Ooops! Forgot. I am currently reading Travels With Charley (Steinbeck) Trying to curb some of my own wanderlust reading about others..."}, {"response": 148, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (18:23)", "body": "Hey Wolfie... Colorado was absent from your list... Come give it a visit sometime... we\"ve PLENTY of room!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (18:25)", "body": "I am currently re-reading \"Blue Mars\" by Kim Stanley Robinson, and re-reading \"Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance\" oh, and lots of very dry physics books :-/"}, {"response": 150, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (18:31)", "body": "How in the heck did that get posted twice?!?! Especially when I submitted something after it?!?!"}, {"response": 151, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (21:01)", "body": "something in your magic fingers?"}, {"response": 152, "author": "ratthing", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (21:26)", "body": "huh-huh-huh huh huh.... ...magic fingers... ...huh huh huh-huh"}, {"response": 153, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Sep 30, 1998 (22:00)", "body": "Just finished \"She's Come Undone\" by Wally Lamb. It dealt with a lot of sad themes in a very humorous fashion. It's hard to believe it was written by a man."}, {"response": 154, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Thu, Oct  1, 1998 (18:18)", "body": "nice Beavis n Butthead, Ray :-)"}, {"response": 155, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Oct  7, 1998 (00:08)", "body": "Just finished Deja Dead and All That Begins, Begins With Blood."}, {"response": 156, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Oct  7, 1998 (10:50)", "body": "do tell..."}, {"response": 157, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct  8, 1998 (13:24)", "body": "Written by?"}, {"response": 158, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct  9, 1998 (16:28)", "body": "ack...so many questions...will look when I get home..."}, {"response": 159, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 10, 1998 (20:19)", "body": "am still reading The Golden Cup by Belva Plain. the reason it's taking me sooooo long is that the only chance i get is one hour on wednesday nights while my daughter practices gymnastics. yeah, will have to visit colorado-never been there or driven through it.....hmmm how can i add that to my itinerary to S.A.???"}, {"response": 160, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Oct 12, 1998 (20:34)", "body": "Just finished \"Boy's Life\" by Robert MacCammon and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a little bit childhood innocence, folklore, mysticism and murder mystery rolled into one."}, {"response": 161, "author": "jgross", "date": "Mon, Oct 12, 1998 (21:37)", "body": "I'm reading his \"Girl's Life\". I'm 3 fourths thru it, but it's got me bug-eyed. It's got some stale beer, shopping after midnight, sphincters, and some dilapidated Vichy sidestreets all sloshed into one big grotesque crime thriller. I can't put it down, and am reading it as I write this."}, {"response": 162, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Oct 12, 1998 (23:19)", "body": "ROTFLMAO!!!! (Love those vignettes in Vichy's slums!)"}, {"response": 163, "author": "jgross", "date": "Tue, Oct 13, 1998 (12:19)", "body": "Lydia turned me on to that book. She mentioned it to me during \"The Parent Trap\". That night I bought it on the black market in the backstreets of Austin. Talk about a page-turner....didn't have to use my fingers---the pages seemed to turn by themselves....good thing, too, cuz I couldn't put that book down till I got thru it all. That Lydia has really good taste in books."}, {"response": 164, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Oct 14, 1998 (12:34)", "body": "Brandon is out of town (STILL) and I bought some mind candy to occupy the evenings. I am reading Dragon Tears by Dean R Koontz. Typical reality fiction with some sci-fi thrillerness to it. The psychological thrillers are my favorites, the ones that intensify every tiny creak in your own house, while you're reading. I also bought an erotic thriller but forgot the title... let you know later."}, {"response": 165, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 14, 1998 (14:45)", "body": "Erotic thriller, cool!"}, {"response": 166, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Oct 14, 1998 (15:03)", "body": "let me guess...the title is \"Little Stacey's Spice Cake\" Kathy Reichs wrote Deja Dead Read Robin Cook's \"Fatal Cure\" and am currently reading Laura K. Hamilton's \"Blue Moon\"..."}, {"response": 167, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct 15, 1998 (20:19)", "body": "oh, did i mention i'm still reading Belva Plain's The Golden Cup? well, i am, but actually got a couple hours worth of reading done thanks to jury selection all week long!"}, {"response": 168, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct 16, 1998 (03:53)", "body": "since my last post above, I finished \"Blue Moon\" and have read these Laura K. Hamilton books as well \"Guilty Pleasures\" \"The Laughing Corpse\" \"Circus of the Damned\" (can anyone tell that my escapist drug of choice is reading?)"}, {"response": 169, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 17, 1998 (21:08)", "body": "who's isn't???"}, {"response": 170, "author": "jgross", "date": "Sat, Oct 17, 1998 (23:31)", "body": "I like to put on a horse costume and run around in the pasture in the rain. When a horse strides up to me in the mood to mate or whatever ya call it, I take off my horse costume and start mooing real real loud in its face. The horses don't like that. Good thing."}, {"response": 171, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct 18, 1998 (21:31)", "body": "anyway....i finished The Golden Cup (thanks to being sick with a cold). and to any of you who may have been listening awhile back as i labored over which book to read next (after Evergreen), i chose correctly. so any of you belva plain readers who read evergreen and want to know the rest of the story begin with The Golden Cup then move to Tapestry. when i'm done with Tapestry, i'll find out if there are any more in the series. OK? and as to your horse thing, you were the guy on discovery stealing bull semen dressed as a cow, huh? always wondered who'd dress up as a cow in estrus and trick a full (and ready) bull into copulation. now i know. i can sleep better at night."}, {"response": 172, "author": "kristen", "date": "Mon, Oct 19, 1998 (06:05)", "body": "I'm rereading Illusions, by Richard Bach. It's one of my favorite books, but I always rush through it. This time I'm slowing down."}, {"response": 173, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 19, 1998 (06:48)", "body": "I'm reading \"Inside Windows NT Infrastructures\" by David Iseminger. Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-24276-4. About scaleup, cabling, performance tradeoffs, remote access, and nuts and bolts technical issues like choosing the best domain model, switches vs. hubs, backbones, etc."}, {"response": 174, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Oct 19, 1998 (11:38)", "body": "that'll cure your insomnia, riette *grin*"}, {"response": 175, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Oct 20, 1998 (19:58)", "body": "reading tim pat coogan's bio of michael collins... (tremendous)"}, {"response": 176, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Oct 20, 1998 (20:12)", "body": "Finished Dragon Tears. Reread Microserfs (Douglas Coupland) Reading Hideaway (Koontz) I was all set to try the horse thing Leplep but the sky refuses to rain here. I kinda did a runthrough, dress rehersal with my kitties in the basement though. They were into it."}, {"response": 177, "author": "jgross", "date": "Tue, Oct 20, 1998 (20:42)", "body": "Rafikki has a regular horselaugh that gets me gigglin', but all she does is look at me with those eyes that say: \"c'mon, Jim, hey! that's no horselaugh!!\" when she took off her palomino costume, she gave it to me to put on, and then proceeded to show me some remarkably executed bronc bustin' ---she is really good at that ---I wouldn't let her try and swap that costume with any trick-or-treaters, come Halloween, or some kids are gonna....uh, you'll have some pretty scared ones on your hands ---she'll just bust 'em"}, {"response": 178, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Nov 10, 1998 (08:54)", "body": "(we had TONS of trick or treaters!) Finished The Hot Zone by Richard Preston"}, {"response": 179, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 10, 1998 (09:18)", "body": "Reminds me, time to run Leightons Halloween party video as the spring.net slideshow."}, {"response": 180, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (09:50)", "body": "finished Random Winds....what to read next??? have to go pick something out tonight!"}, {"response": 181, "author": "TIM", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (13:27)", "body": "If you like mysteries, \" Bad Chemistry \" by gary krist is a good one."}, {"response": 182, "author": "TIM", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (13:31)", "body": "\"The Bitch Factor\" is also an excellent book. I forget who the author is. Have fun hanging on to the book though. My copy is making the rounds of my friends."}, {"response": 183, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (13:57)", "body": "haha!!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "TIM", "date": "Tue, Nov 17, 1998 (19:59)", "body": "the book is about a female PI turned bounty hunter who ends up stranded by a blizzard with a prisoner. It's very good."}, {"response": 185, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (03:10)", "body": "The BITCH FACTOR? Ha-ha! If I'd written a book, I call it that too! Currently reading 'Hitler's Willing Executioners' (David Goldhagen), 'Blood, Tears and Folly' (Len Deighton) and 'Shetl' (Eva Hoffman). I feel the need to read the last two parallel to Goldhagen's book to keep perspective - he is the angriest man I've read in a long time (understandibly so). The most profound book I've ever read is one I finished a month ago - 'Holocaust', by Martin Gilbert."}, {"response": 186, "author": "TIM", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (04:53)", "body": "The title comes from a saying that says something about a woman being 51% sweetheart and 49% bitch. And, something about not pushing your luck."}, {"response": 187, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov 21, 1998 (20:44)", "body": "picked up Daydreams today (another Belva Plain)...am waiting for a new one by Amy Tan. absolutely love her work. she takes me into a world and culture of which i know nothing about. and her characters move me so...."}, {"response": 188, "author": "TIM", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (00:32)", "body": "another good book that I've recently read: Hardrock Stiff by THOMAS ZIGAL"}, {"response": 189, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 22, 1998 (12:19)", "body": "*blush* i did it again--it should've read daybreak not daydreams!!!"}, {"response": 190, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 14, 1998 (20:44)", "body": "update on daybreak. i'm a little over 3/4th's of the way through and i tell you, it has been tough. the book explores anti-semitism and bigotry through some of the characters. i'm not jewish nor am i african american, but this really ticked me off. not at any fault of belva plain, but just the characters she created. everything is working out now but there for awhile, boy, it was hard. hating people who are different is stupid. you'd have to hate everybody because we are all different. well, anyway, don't want to get on a soap box, but for those of you sensitive to this issue, i figured i'd warn you before you dive into this book. but it is good and the twist of fate works out wonderfully! (even though one of the characters pays dearly). does anyone participate in a reading group? i wondered how it works and who gets to pick out the reads......."}, {"response": 191, "author": "PT", "date": "Tue, Dec 15, 1998 (12:15)", "body": "I think that a reading group is a wonderful idea."}, {"response": 192, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan  4, 1999 (11:41)", "body": "I picked up a book yesterday at a little coffe shoppe in Indian Peaks called SMACK. Forgot the author but the first 30 pages have kept me rapt."}, {"response": 193, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jan  4, 1999 (11:42)", "body": "What's it about, someone on heroin?"}, {"response": 194, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan  4, 1999 (11:45)", "body": "a child that gets involved with that scene when he runs away from a bad home life..."}, {"response": 195, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (03:41)", "body": "I'm still reading \"Timequake\", by Kurt Vonnegut. I've nearly finished it but I still don't really know what's going on...I'm hoping there's a big revelation at the end :-)"}, {"response": 196, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (02:21)", "body": "'the essential lenny bruce' (last night) 'dear theo' (tonight)(if i feel like it)"}, {"response": 197, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jan  6, 1999 (19:33)", "body": "\"lenny bruce is not afraid..\""}, {"response": 198, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sun, Jan 10, 1999 (23:41)", "body": "yup and it's the end of the world (as we know it) (though a few years cohabitation with leonid, leonard and lester may've tempered lenny's bravado just a little)"}, {"response": 199, "author": "PT", "date": "Wed, Jan 13, 1999 (15:58)", "body": "Red Phoenix"}, {"response": 200, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jan 13, 1999 (18:10)", "body": "A Whisper of Blood"}, {"response": 201, "author": "AdamLipscomb", "date": "Tue, Jan 19, 1999 (12:47)", "body": "Just picked up _The Transparent Society_ by David Brin. Brin takes on the privacy issue with a fascinating twist: he proposes that what is needed is not ironclad privacy for everyone, but reciprocal transparency, especially as it relates to governments and corporations. The government already has huge databases on every American citizen - nothing Orwellian here, it just happens as part of a system of record-keeping. Despite all of this data, Americans are still among the most free people on the planet with only the Scandanavian Social Democracies above us on that list, and the Scandanavian governments have, in addition to the type of data our government has, socialized health care systems too! The problem is not that these records exist, but that we don't know who's looking at them. Brin recommends ensuring that there is a constantt bidirectional flow of information, that we have a right to know wht's going on in the corridors of power as much as, if not more than, they have a right to monitor us. Anyway, it's a pretty cool book."}, {"response": 202, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Jan 19, 1999 (17:26)", "body": "I@m re-reading \"The Essence of the Thing\" (Madeleine St. John) and with every page I think it hurts me a little bit more. Such a sad, sad book...and so real-life, too. That's probably the worst thing about it."}, {"response": 203, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Jan 19, 1999 (17:27)", "body": "and of course it's the best thing, too...confusing :-)"}, {"response": 204, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Jan 20, 1999 (19:46)", "body": "the idea of 'reciprocal transparency' is an interesting one... what is troubling, immediately upon consideration of it, though, is the evolution of the idea, the mutations likely to arise from it... once the notion of privacy is obsolete, all kinds of unpleasant scenarios come to mind, especially in the kind of moral climate existing now (and into the future forseeable, i'd guess)... privacy is the only protection available to the radically different, and as long as absolutists congest the thinking of the human race, is a commodity to be protected at all costs, i would think... there's also the potential for abuse, unequal inevitably, because of the power issues involved... the idea of 'i'll show you mine if you'll show me your's' isn't as compelling when one considers the institutional paronoia endemic to government (coupled, of course, with disproportionate measures of power)... sounds like a fascinating book, gonna look it up..."}, {"response": 205, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jan 20, 1999 (22:43)", "body": "think it would make a great topic here on the Spring, as well... suggestions as to conference, anyone?"}, {"response": 206, "author": "AdamLipscomb", "date": "Thu, Jan 21, 1999 (00:29)", "body": "Sounds like an interesting conference topic. Brin does not gloss over the problems inherent in his proposal - he's very honest about both possible problems with Transparency, as well as the existence of unforseen problems also. I'm about halfway through the book now, but one example Brin gives is the use (already occuring) of CCTV cameras in public, high crime areas. It is a fact that the presence of these cameras acts as a deterrent to street crime. Thh problem any sane person has is, how do I know if I'm being spied upon for something other than legitimate law-enforcement reasons? Brin's solution? Not only are all citizens able to dial into the feed from any of these cameras, but they can also dial in to a camera placed in the Police Department's monitor room. Who watches the Watchmen? We all do. I'm not sure I'd like to live in a completely Transparent society - I'm still prone to scratch my butt and pick my nose when I think I'm not observed (like right now, for example), and the last thing I want to do is scare the children.... ;-)"}, {"response": 207, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 25, 1999 (19:50)", "body": "just finished The Color of Water by James McBride. Typically I do not enjoy biographies but this one grabbed me and kept me rapt until I was done. Adam, Sounds like a fascinating read... I'll have to pick it up!"}, {"response": 208, "author": "AdamLipscomb", "date": "Mon, Jan 25, 1999 (20:05)", "body": "The COlor of Water - who's it about? THe last good bio I read was _Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton_ - really enjoyed it, but then, I'm a Burtonphile. _Edgar A. Poe: A Mournful and Never Ending Remembrance_ is very good too. In the mystery department, anyone else read the Tubby Dubonnet series by Tony Dunbar? They're pretty good - they're set in New Orleans, and the main character is a borderline seedy lawyer. They give a very good feel of the unique character of the City of N'awlins. There's also some really good descriptions of cajun cuisine, which just makes me want to go out and eat a ton or so of boiled crawfish."}, {"response": 209, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jan 26, 1999 (13:18)", "body": "The Color of Water is written by a black man for and about his white mother. the chapters alternate from his point of view and narration to her words when questioned by him as an adult. Lots of color/race/whoami issues. THe title comes from his mother's explanation to the question, \"well if God's not white or black, what color is he>\""}, {"response": 210, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Feb  9, 1999 (17:23)", "body": "reading mind candy!!! John Saul's Brain Child. Gotta love a book you can finish in two sittings without trying and stretching your imagination with horrible visages of otherworldly evil!!!!"}, {"response": 211, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Feb  9, 1999 (19:54)", "body": "reading \"My Legendary Girlfriend\" by Mike Gayle.....it's pulp :("}, {"response": 212, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Feb  9, 1999 (20:43)", "body": "i'm still reading belva plain's whispers. of course, i only have time to read it during my stationary bike ride 30 mins two times a week. right now one of the characters is really getting on my nerves. yeah, i know, it's just a book but it just goes to show how belva is able to draw you in."}, {"response": 213, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Feb  9, 1999 (21:59)", "body": "just finished Violin by Anne Rice..."}, {"response": 214, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Feb 10, 1999 (05:37)", "body": "what's that about, wer?"}, {"response": 215, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Feb 11, 1999 (18:05)", "body": "girl meets guy guy is a ghost who plays a violin girl has always wanted to be able to play violin ghost is sadistic girl is strong and more \"messed in the head\" than the ghost anticipated (insert bunch of stuff here) everyone lives/dies happily ever after it's a good read if you like her super descriptive period type pieces..."}, {"response": 216, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Feb 17, 1999 (20:15)", "body": "reread 'all the president's men' last night... part of 'the final days', too... (saw ben bradlee on larry king, made me nostalgic)"}, {"response": 217, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Feb  7, 2036 (01:30)", "body": "flannery o'connor, complete stories this new edition i bought contains several stories i hadn't read previously (written in the forties, when she was a graduate student), and they are wonderful...a little different from those i've grown familiar with...more open-ended, for one thing... even a little less developed, but in some way i find them even more satisfying...she was such a tremendous, unique talent, and always worthwhile..."}, {"response": 218, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Mar  6, 1999 (15:43)", "body": "\"Philby\", Phillip Knightley. life and times of a russian spy."}, {"response": 219, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul  3, 1999 (22:59)", "body": "just finished \"Fault Lines\" by Anna Salter and \"The Street Lawyer\" by John Grisham...still muddling through \"Virtual Reality\" by Howard Rheingold and rereading \"UNIX in a Nutshell\" as well..."}, {"response": 220, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jul  4, 1999 (00:10)", "body": "I recently enjoyed Poisonwood Bible, Colony and Chocolat . However, I was disappointed in Midwives , which had come so highly recommended, and am ready to give up on Accordion Crimes after one more chapter."}, {"response": 221, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul  4, 1999 (01:10)", "body": "don't you hate that!"}, {"response": 222, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  4, 1999 (23:27)", "body": "working on belva blain's promises. yeah, i know, i have a whole library of her books. am still waiting for amy tan to publish another one (luv her work)."}, {"response": 223, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Jul  5, 1999 (01:10)", "body": "yeah, I'm waiting on the next Laura K. Hamilton one to come out..."}, {"response": 224, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Jul  5, 1999 (04:59)", "body": "I read the letter - especially the youthful love letters - of Franziska zu Reventlow. Born a countess in Husum (coast of the North Sea) around 1870, she was quite the bohemian, living from around 1893 to her untimely death 1911 in the famous bohemia of Schwabing, a part of Munich. In my early youth, I guess I was much in love with her. I read all that was just being put in print - republished novels and essays, but most of all her diaries, unpublished before. What an extraordinary person! I can't describe it all to you, I just thought she was the most adorable person I ever heard of, read about or met."}, {"response": 225, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jul  5, 1999 (14:47)", "body": "so how do we get a hold of her diaries?"}, {"response": 226, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Jul  6, 1999 (04:47)", "body": "Don't know if anything is available in English. Sorry. She was such a complex person, constantly in opposition with her own urges and needs. Very liberal for that time... A person with much love, but never sure for whom. All so difficult to express for me without making her seem an easy gal or cheap. Especially since she was not famous, but infamous, and had at times to resort to strange means to support herself, especially after she had a son (whose father was NEVER disclosed by her, not in letters nor diaries I've read). Hard to describe... Let's put it this way: patterns in live pretty much spread these days - not neccessarily all desirable - were lived by her over hundred years ago in the rigid society of Wilhelminian Germany, deep when it was an Imperial state, and state-service, military and order were the basis of the society. She was the prototypical nonconformist. Died for it, too, in the end."}, {"response": 227, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Jul  6, 1999 (04:57)", "body": "Just checked Amazon... There are books on theology by a Henning Graf Reventlow, doubtless a relative, and one title that discusses several women of late-19th century Germany (book in German, sorry): \ufffdbergangsgesch\ufffdpfe: Gabriele Reuter, Hedwig Dohm, Helen B\ufffdhlau, und Franziska von Reventlow by Ludmila Slavova Our Price: $43.95 Hardcover (October 1998) Peter Lang Publishing; ISBN: 0820439622 Book Description Im Weiblichkeitsdiskurs um 1900 wurde die Frau weitgehend als Sinnbild der Sexualitt oder als sprachloses Objekt dargestellt. Man sprach den Frauen schpferische F\ufffdhigkeiten ab. Dieses Buch befa\ufffdt sich mit der Problematik weiblicher Sprachlosigkeit und Kreativitt in ausgewhlten Frauenromanen der Jahrhundertwende. Es untersucht die ambivalente Haltung dieser Autorinnen zu ihrem Geschlecht sowie die Frage, inwieweit ihre Werke von den standartisierten Weiblichkeitsbildern der Zeit beeinflu\ufffdt wurden. BOOK SYNOPIS IN ENGLISH The discourses on femininity in nineteenth-century Germany considered women as speechless objects and as incarnation of sexuality. The discursive practices denied women creative capabilities. This book focuses on female speechlessness and creativity in selected novels by four turn-of-the century women writers. The study examines the ambivalent attitude of these authors towards their gender and the question of how their works were influenced by the prevalent images of femininity."}, {"response": 228, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jul 25, 1999 (22:44)", "body": "Wenesday, Thursday and Friday I read Jean M. Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Mammoth Hunters"}, {"response": 229, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jul 26, 1999 (12:17)", "body": "reading another Koontz... \"Sieze the Night\""}, {"response": 230, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug  8, 1999 (18:14)", "body": "my mother forbade me from reading that book (clan of the cave bear) while i lived in her house. and you know, i haven't read it since moving out on my own! saw the movie, though."}, {"response": 231, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (00:05)", "body": "finished the fourth in the series, also, and read Almost Adam by Petru Popescu last week... My Mom never forbid me to read any book although she asked me to wait until I was older to read The Exorcist..."}, {"response": 232, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (19:46)", "body": "she was afraid the sexual scenes would frighten me...."}, {"response": 233, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (23:47)", "body": "in the first book? okay, I can see that...the rest have way more explicit scenes, though..."}, {"response": 234, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (13:12)", "body": "Finished HANNIBAL (follow-upto Silence of the Lambs) Fantastic! Reading \"The Informers\" now..."}, {"response": 235, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "they do? golly, maybe i oughta...hmmmmmmm *grin*"}, {"response": 236, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Oct  5, 1999 (15:54)", "body": "Just finished \"Where the Heart Is\" loved the story and became quite fond of the characters... Started \"Louisiana Fever\" last night cross between \"The Hot Zone\" and a Nancy Drew novel.. gotta love mind candy!"}, {"response": 237, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (10:49)", "body": "I'm reading \"The Queen's Bastard\" by Robin Maxwell, and I can't put it down! It involves Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley having a secret child, and this child is switched at birth (on purpose, of course) with a stillborn child. The Queen's baby is given to commoners to raise, and he never knows until he's grown that he was the son of the Queen. The romantic scenes between Elizabeth and Robert are really beautiful--not tasteless at all, but speaking of two people who, if circumstances were different, woul have been married."}, {"response": 238, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (16:12)", "body": "....when she should be reading Mary Stewart's Merlin Trology!"}, {"response": 239, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (16:17)", "body": "Come on now--I'm not supposed to be reading anything at all! I'm supposed to be grading these analyses of \"Valmont\" and writing a paper!"}, {"response": 240, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (16:34)", "body": "How bac can THAT be??? Make the little trolls give the actor a good report if nothing else =) I thought you got an extension on that papaper!"}, {"response": 241, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (16:57)", "body": "I did get an extension on that paper, but I was supposed to turn it in today, which isn't going to happen! I haven't gone to the library yet, either! I've fallen into full-scale slacker mode! And believe me, these \"Valmont\" essays are not that exciting to read...no one has said much of anything about Colin Firth!"}, {"response": 242, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (21:36)", "body": "Make them watch it again for your own enjoyment. Too bad you did not have a room full pf Droolians to teach. Can you imagine the essays we would have created for your enjoyment!"}, {"response": 243, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 29, 1999 (21:38)", "body": "Nah, I couldn't do that--it took 3 class periods to get all the way through it, and we're running out of time in this semester! I can say that most all of them did like it, though."}, {"response": 244, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 30, 1999 (00:17)", "body": "I still think you should be teaching it to Droolians for a truly edifying experience *grin*"}, {"response": 245, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Nov  2, 1999 (14:52)", "body": "\"Dear Boy\", the biography of Keith Moon, one of the greatest drummers ever. When he died, the Who were history. superstar will review this very substantial book, published by Omnibus Press, UK."}, {"response": 246, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Dec  8, 1999 (10:17)", "body": "Just finished Moo by Jane Smiley enjoyed it... enjoyed the characters... full of quaint little commentaries on life, real life and fantasy lives that we would all love to lead at times"}, {"response": 247, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Dec 10, 1999 (04:10)", "body": "The Keith Moon-thing was really heavy reading. John B. oughta take a look at this. Extremely good coverage of Sixties and early seventies music scene."}, {"response": 248, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Dec 10, 1999 (04:14)", "body": "Current read: The Johnny Cash-autobiography in German."}, {"response": 249, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (13:21)", "body": "I'm currently yawning my way through that guy Guralnick's 2-volume Elvis-bio. While obviously a labor of love with infinite detail fans will love, much of the detail is made up, as he admits to in the endnotes. Weeeeell."}, {"response": 250, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (16:02)", "body": "Cannot believe anything Elvis could ever be a yawn for you, Alexander! I am plowing through the Hawaiian Creation Myth: \"The Kumulipo\" which is a translation done be Liliuokalani of Hawaii, the Queen. It is rough going since it was translated into Victorian English and is full of allusions to other things which must be looked up before continuing. The second book I am reading is \"Legends and Myths of Hawaii\" written in story form by Kalakaua of Hawaii, the King. (These two monarchs were not consorts; each ruled in his/her own right.)"}, {"response": 251, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (14:17)", "body": "See, Marcia, Guralnick goes like \"Then then he and all the guys went there and there, ate this 'n' that. Elvis wore ....\", all tremendously generic crap, and then he tell you in the end note, that Elvis was dressed like this AROUND that time, it's documented, yes, but IT IS NOT DOCUMENTED FOR THE DESCRIBED EVENT. He's discussing stuff IN DETAIL which he guesses at, generalizes things, and knows how people feel EXACTLY. That's making it all so very exciting. [yawn] The only Hawaii thing I eyer read were the tales by Jack London."}, {"response": 252, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (14:59)", "body": "Michener is good on Hawaii, as is Robert Louis Stevenson. And, Mark Twain Sounds like a really worst-case read, at best. Soulda named it \"Elvis: The Trivia Continues...\""}, {"response": 253, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2000 (03:02)", "body": "I read Michener on Hawaii a long time back. Forgotten most of it! I've just finished the two books of the Stephen Lawhead Arthurian trilogy that I have. Must find the third sometime. I'm now well in to Bruce Chatwin's travelogue, The Songlines, about the ancient invisible pathways connecting up all over Australia, ancient tracks made of songs which tell of the creation of theland. It's another old favourite and I'm 'comfort reading'. What I'm supposed to be reading is a brand new book by Birgit Brock-Utne, Whose education for all?? The recolonization of the African mind. Since 1990 when the phrase 'education for all' was first coined at the World Bank conference in Jomtien, a battle has raged over the its meaning and impact on education in Africa. The argument goes that education for all really means western primary schooling for some and none for others, robbing Africans of their indigenous knowledge and language which then starves highereducation in Africa and perpetuates western dominance. OK, I'm off my hobby horse! It's a good read though if I can concenrate."}, {"response": 254, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2000 (12:58)", "body": "CHATWIN!!!!! Great author if there ever was one!!! Wot a shame he's dead. Positively LOVE that book, even if some stuff has since been shown to be not as factual as it appears in his writing... If you're deep in the book, you'll notice it's not about the Songlines at all, but about the \"where I come from, where me go to\"-thang. And then, looking at the species he actually explores himself."}, {"response": 255, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2000 (13:03)", "body": "Maggie, I expect a full report on Geomythology creation legends...*grin* Capital letters?! Must hunt up a copy... (Aloha, Alexander!)"}, {"response": 256, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr  9, 2000 (14:14)", "body": "Do find one Marcia. I got it originally from the library and it took me ages to find a second hand copy to own. Alexander - have you read in Patagonia? I have it on tape not paper. I love Chatwin's humanity and searching which shine through. I like the way he realtes to people as people not just objects of research."}, {"response": 257, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (14:29)", "body": "Chatwin - got the whole load of them! Incl. the photo book which only has a introduction by him, his book with Theroux, the novels (Utz, made a movie with Armin M\ufffdller-Stahl, and the other thing, filmed with Klaus Kinski, can't think of the name). Patagonia I read auf deutsch, but nearly all the rest I ordered in his tongue. Loved his \"What am I doing here\", which he compiled through all the in and out of hospitals, what was at the end what he was busy with: dying, and editing scraps, essays and articles for that MARVELOUS and WONDROUS tome."}, {"response": 258, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Apr 10, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "Oh alexander i am jealous!! I still keep my out in the second hand shops, but as i said only found songlines recently."}, {"response": 259, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 11, 2000 (14:22)", "body": "Alexander have you read Chatwin: Anatomy of Restlessness:selected writings 1969-1989???"}, {"response": 260, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (13:15)", "body": "No, haven't heard of it. Must be a post-humous collection of stuff he did for mags and papers. I got most of my Chatwin stuff for Christmas or birthday from people who know my tastes."}, {"response": 261, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (15:38)", "body": "....and from people who actually know when your birthday is...!"}, {"response": 262, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (16:13)", "body": "Talking of that ....... Has to be May or June Marcia (you I mean not Alexander) Yes the Anatomy of Restlessness book is post-h. There's a chapter in songlines which is journal jottings, and I keep looking at where to post some of them!"}, {"response": 263, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (20:07)", "body": "I was fishing for Alexander's, of course. We all know when the rest of ours is from Paraspring conference..."}, {"response": 264, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (03:43)", "body": "You may, but i don't More comfort reading Elizabeth Goudge, Herb of Grace"}, {"response": 265, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (15:49)", "body": "I need something comfort - maybe the book you sent will finally be opened and read - ahead of the others waiting for my attention..."}, {"response": 266, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (17:43)", "body": "Please do I think it will help. HUG!"}, {"response": 267, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (18:26)", "body": "Thanks, Maggie. I really need something other than crying."}, {"response": 268, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (01:06)", "body": "Have another hug, and cuddle up with it."}, {"response": 269, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (17:03)", "body": "* H U G S *"}, {"response": 270, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (17:45)", "body": "Oh Wow...*sniff* that is so special...thanks for the support. It means so much right now!"}, {"response": 271, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (20:23)", "body": "Wow, what book? Did you dig in to it?"}, {"response": 272, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (22:45)", "body": "Maggie had Amazon.com send me Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard and I have not looked past the cover. I shall this evening. My soul is sore and needs the comfort, even though things are cool here again this evening. I'll be happy to report on it as soon as I can - even in parts!"}, {"response": 273, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (20:44)", "body": "Greetings all Reading some of the postings provoked me to pull a book from the back of the queue to open up: \"Wireless Imagination - Sound, Radio, and the Avant-Garde\" (Dada Radio -or- Radio Dada?) Also, currently on the reading list is: \"The Legacy of Luna\" (in progress...) Im suddenly finding fractions of free time here and there which is good since I can read more but then I start too many parallel reading projects. Mike aka _cosmo_"}, {"response": 274, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Apr 25, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "What'What's the Legacy of Luna about?"}, {"response": 275, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (14:21)", "body": "Mike, I can relate to multiple reading projects underway. I have three books going plus a stack of journals waiting for me. *sigh*"}, {"response": 276, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (14:21)", "body": ""}, {"response": 277, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (10:26)", "body": "Which books and which journals?"}, {"response": 278, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (14:54)", "body": "Journals: *Archaeology *Biblical Archaeology Review *Archaeology Odyssey *Antiquity and other British Archaeology publications(online) *Various Geological tech journals forwarded by my son *Astronomy Books: *In Gardens of Hawaii - Marie C. Neal (THE reference book for green and growing) *Sarum - Rutherford (the only fiction) *Norma Lorre Goodrich books on Arthurian characters *The KUMULIPO - Queen Liliuokalini of Hawaii * Maggie's book All but the latter and Sarum are reaearching for Geo and other conferences on Spring. I Love doing research - it is like treasure hunting!"}, {"response": 279, "author": "aa9il", "date": "Sun, Apr 30, 2000 (22:27)", "body": "Greetings all \"Legacy of Luna\" is the story of Julia Butterfly Hill and her efforts to stop clear cutting of the old growth redwoods in Northern California. The Radio book is another facet of my inquiry into the fact that there were (and are) unique radio broadcasts out there aside from the rubbish that the media conglomerates are spewing out. Fight for Free Radio! Mike aka Cosmo"}, {"response": 280, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (00:03)", "body": "Believe it, Mike! I am am also a DX-er of some devotion and swl with great regularity logging in the new, the ephemeral and the truly weird. What can we do to help? My son lives in North-central California, and we are truly dedicated to outdoors and preserving it (he is a geologist)."}, {"response": 281, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, May  1, 2000 (00:14)", "body": "I'm still into Elizabeth Goudge, and ploughing through the copies I borrowed from a friend. Have finished 'Herb of Grace' (it's on it's way marcie to join your pile when I get to the Post office!) Have just (last night) finished 'the White Whitch' (set in my area of the Chilterns) Am now starting a real old favourite 'City of bells' Also re-reading Paul Gallico's 'Jennie' Academically I have such a long list of books I'm working on which have to go back to Uni library next week that I'm ashamed to put them in here. Should have finished working on them ages ago! Journals: *journal of multilingual and multicultural development *prospects (UNESCO) *international journal of educational development books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 20, "subject": "The Iris Murdoch Memorial book chat topic", "response_count": 2, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb  8, 1999 (18:33)", "body": "A review of her husband'd book, _Elegy for Iris_, about caring for her as Alzheimer's settled over her. http://search.nytimes.com/books/search/bin/fastweb?getdoc+book-rev+book-r+24166+0+wAAA+%22John%7EBayley%22"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Feb  8, 1999 (18:37)", "body": "Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) in full Dame Jean Iris Murdoch, married name Mrs. J.O. Bailey British writer and university lecturer, a prolific and highly professional novelist. Murdoch has dealt in her works everyday ethical or moral issues, the quesation of good and bad, and explored the the function of myth in the process of making sense of one's life. Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin. Her father was a civil servant who served as a cavalry officer in the World War I. The family moved to London in her childhood and she grew up in the western suburbs of Hammersmith and Chiswich. Between the years Murdoch studied classics, ancient history and philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford. From 1938 to 1942 she worked the at the Treasury as an assistant principal, and then for the United Nations relief organization UNNRA (1944-46). After a year without employment in London, Murdoch took up a postgraduate studentship in philosophy under Ludwig Wittgenstein. In 1948 she was elected a fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford, working as a tutor until 1963. Since then Murdoch has lived as a writer. Between the years 1963 and 1967 she also lectured at the Royal College of Art. Murdoch's first published work was a critical study SARTRE, ROMANTIC RATIONALIST, which appeared in 1953. She had met Sartre in the 1940s, becoming interested in existentialism. In 1956 Murdoch married John Baley, long a professor of English at Oxford, who has also published fiction. They lived many years at Steeple Ashton, and moved then in the academic suburb of North Oxford. In 1954 Murdoch made her debut as novelist with UNDER THE NET, which had as its protagonist the Sartrean hero Jack Donague, and forms a critique of his concern with essences rather than materiality. Together with A SEVERED HEAD (1961), which exploits Jungian theories of archetypes, it has been criticized for the weighting of its theoretical template over a concern with characterization. A Severed Head analyses through the theories of Freud male sexuality and desire, and particularly the fear of castration. THE BELL (1958) is among Murdoch's most successful novels, depicting an Anglican religious community in Oxfordshire. The novel presents a series of events which cohere around the replacement bell to be hung in an abbey tower. The bell with all its symbolic dimensions forms background against which the central characters define their identities and relationships. The works was later televised. Murdoch has published over twenty novels. In her early works, such as THE SANDCASTLE (1957) the style is polished, and the books are generally short, but her later works are large, over 500 pages in lenght. Her major work is considered THE SEA, THE SEA, which won the Booker Prize in 1978. Among her other publications are plays and philosophical and critical studies, including METAPHYSICS AS A GUIDE TO MORALS (1992). She was made a dame in 1987. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 21, "subject": "my trilogy", "response_count": 16, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (12:46)", "body": "excellent!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:01)", "body": "more, more!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (13:49)", "body": "great!"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (22:07)", "body": "Is Harrison Ford going to star in the movie version?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "caryn", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (22:14)", "body": "Good thought Terry, I will have to take serious consideration in Harrison playing my leading man \"Dr. Derek Cameron\", prominent physician and influenza specialist, I.R.A. lobbyist as well. I was thinking of either Cher or Sheena Easton or someone to that nature to play my \"Abyrdeen Lochbuie\" vivacious and radiant Scot with jet black hair like coal, deep sea green eyes and skin as fair and silky as porcelain. How intriguing! Thanks for your insight Terry! Stay tuned and see what happens! Thank you k ndly! Caryn."}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (22:16)", "body": "Any time you need casting advice! How does your book begin, what's the \"prequel\" as they say these days?"}, {"response": 7, "author": "caryn", "date": "Thu, Jul 15, 1999 (22:28)", "body": "The first book begins with the humble introduction of the Lochbuie Clan, and of MacIntyre Lochbuie; Grandfather and the start of all the corruption, scandel as well as the prominence and respect in society, which his family shares with him. Dead for 15 years when the first book opens, but his rampant and restless spirit is alive and well, supervising everything and everyone from, revealing his evil truth of killing his own grandson for stumbling upon his murderous and financial propaganda with the I.R.A. MacIntyre the paranormal pays many visits to his granddaughter as well as other family members and so close friends whom are getting a bit too close. That's enough of that, you will have to see what happens when the books are out. Terry you will have this cliff hanger to keep coming back for more! Happy guessing! Thank you! Caryn"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul 18, 1999 (22:01)", "body": "When are you going to start transcribing these books to the computer? Or will you hire someone else to do this?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "caryn", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (01:02)", "body": "I am hoping to transcribe the first book to computer immediately. I will have the book ghostwritten and polished next. If you would like to help me get my books out there, I will certainly appreciate it and give you and your kinfolks free autographed copies of the books when they are out! Believe me it will not be long before these books will be doing well. I have cross referenced some of my competitors, their plots climax much like mine does, only they have one book, where I have three expanded books with more juicy mouth watering details to watch for! I have been told awhile back by very trusted and admired comrads on the book and film worlds that the story carries a very strong motion picture future with it. My story is compelling, bittersweet, intense and bestseller quality! All told through very well respected, unbiased individuals! Thank you! Caryn."}, {"response": 10, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (08:14)", "body": "What do you mean ghostwritten? Do you mean it will be rewritten by someone or will it be a straight transcription?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "caryn", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (10:35)", "body": "Ghostwriting means they will just polish up the manuscript and put into book form before it is sent to the press for printing. Every book you have or seen in the stores are ghostwritten, They can rewrite the entire manuscript exactly the way the author wants it changed, or they can just prepare the manuscript for printing, and create an actual book as you see in the stores."}, {"response": 12, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (18:45)", "body": "I thought they called that \"editing\"."}, {"response": 13, "author": "caryn", "date": "Mon, Jul 19, 1999 (23:18)", "body": "Editing is the technical side to revisions. Ghostwriting can have editing, but it mainly for manuscripts which are ready for submission. Large publishers have contracted ghostwriters, assigned to particular books and project for both full rewrites, or book preparation. Editors just correct grammer, punctuation, and the mechanics of the book. Ghostwriters look at the whole story, they rewrite the book at the author's or the publisher's discretion. Thank you! Keep your eyes open for the books, they are filled with murder, suspense, mystified intrigue, and of course great romance. Caryn"}, {"response": 14, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (02:42)", "body": "Will you post an excerpt?"}, {"response": 15, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jul 20, 1999 (11:21)", "body": "Yes, please!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jul 23, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "no joke! i can't wait to see some little juicy tidbit of it....what actors do you have in mind to play your characters? books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 22, "subject": "Literature Discussion", "response_count": 50, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (18:57)", "body": "i opened this topic for mr chips to discuss his passion for literature!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (18:58)", "body": "Wolfie, have you noticed Amy and me talking of books we love and share a common interest in...I cannot wait to tell her to come here. *Hugs* for opening this topic. I am sure it will be very busy!!!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (19:00)", "body": "We'll be delighted to accommodate him here and to carry on our Arthurian discussions in screwed...that seems appropriate, somehow...sadly! Sorry I misinterpreted it. (looking for the comment under the entered date...)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (19:03)", "body": "If I can create a topic in Books I shall do a n Arthurian one"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (19:09)", "body": "ok, i'm gonna cut and paste some of our book conversations from babes: john said: I would like an otherwise unoccupied woman to discuss literature with me, but I'm afraid Austen and the Brontes don't do it for me. My women colleagues are all married and/or unattractive (and all are more concerned about comp than lit--understandable for high school teachers). wolfie responded: i love literature, john, but am not an academic scholar in it. my fave classic authors of the moment are charles dickens and mark twain. both of them crack me up to no end! to which marcia responded: John, I am fondest of Tolstoy and the Eueopean writers of the 19th century - with the large EXCEPTION of Proust. I could not get through Remembrances of Things Past...or whatever it was when he was pining for his mother and the little cookies she fed him...tres weird. Which lit did you have in mind? then john said: You already know my poetic taste. I'm not a lit scholar either...Twain is still my favorite American author. And I can get bashed as a sexist for this, but I love the visceral, stripped-down minimalist style of Hemingway. I don't know if he was misogynist, although I've kept hearing he was. Certainly, I was sympathetic to Brett (more than Hemingway was) in The Sun Also Rises. I'm surprised that I like Henry James, but I do. I know Austen was a major influence on him. Dickens ranks up there on my list of English novelists. So does George Eliot. I have mixed emotions about Joyce (I know he was Irish). I couldn't make it through Ulysses, but was moved to tears by The Dead. I like the shorter, later Tolstoy things with redemption as theme, such as Master and Man and The Death of Ivan Ilytch. I've read War and Peace and Anna Karennina, though. I believe there's good reason the former has become a metaphor for overlong, and the latter is just too damn tragic. I knew she was doomed from the second she saw Vronsky. I love some of Dostoevsky, especially The Brothers Karamazov. I know the father is a tragic figure, but I laugh when I read his misadventures. That got me into troubl in a Russian Lit in translation seminar with my favorite lit professor (now deceased). I still think he's funny, intentional or not. Crime and Punishment gave me war flashback nightmares, so the violence in there was certainly effective. I would not have wanted Raskalnikov as a shipmate. wolfie: as to literature: there is a book topic and we could move this discussion there. but, i enjoyed wuthering heights, great expectations, the diary of adam and eve, the awakening-hated the ending (chopin), and several others. my dad loaned ulysses and the iliad but couldn't get through either one. oh, and the hobbit, and a few others by twain were really good. don't know why he and dickens crack me up. love twain for the way he writes like folks talk and the use of ethnic slander does not offend me ecause understand why it was used (even if, during those times, it was also considered taboo). why they wanted to ban the book is beyond me (huckleberry finn). a friend (nick) emailed some selections by twain of which i've read and still have around somewhere, but don't remember the titles. oh, and i have a huge book with the collections of edgar allen poe, because he cracks me up even though the stuff he writes is scary. (i did have a pit and pendulum dream at one point in my adult life). and am working on jane eyre, but because of my (many) other interests, it's sitting on the shelf (not literally, however, it's still in the paper sacks we put all the books in to facilitate the installation of new carpet)....to be continued! marcia: Wolf, it is not a good day if I don't have three or so books going at once! I know the feeling! amy: I wish I had time to read what I want! Right now, I'm trudging through Benita Eisler's biography of Byron in an attempt to learn something useful to my thesis, but I'd really like to cut loose and read a historical novel like I did over the summer! marcia: My absolute favorite kinds of books are historical novels. I can get lost for days and weeks in them...! amy: Really? What authors do you read? I got on an Elizabeth Chadwick kick over the summer, because I find the Middle Ages so interesting. I also like reading about Eleanor of Aquitaine (Ellen Jones' \"Beloved Enemy\" is quite good,) and I devour anything about King Arthur. marcia: I usually perfer Thomas Costain type books and have replaced Mitchener and Tolkien as favs for Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy plus the ones which followed...plus I got lost for a while in Aruthuriana with The Mists of Avalon and NOrma Lorre Goodrich's books on the central characters - all excellent and good reads. I also do a lot of archaeological reading - both journals and dig texts. If the Library of Alexandria did not go to heaven when it died, I don't want to go, either (says here now that I m not lose to going!) amy: All of my friends have copies of \"The Mists of Avalon\" with the covers taped on because they've fal"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (19:16)", "body": "I created the Arthurian site - we can talk both places when other lit comes up here. Great idea, wolf! I'm gonna do that from Screwed 163 for Books 23. Thanks!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "sorry it was soooo long, but thought it'd be easier than going back and forth!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (19:33)", "body": "Mine is just as long. (in fact I am going to do that with the rock collecting if I cannot figure how to link them all by myself...!)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (20:28)", "body": "Did anyone watch \"Anna Karenina\" last night on TNT? I adore that version (with Sophie Marceau, who is absolutely beautiful,) and although I own a copy of it, I only treat myself to watching it every once in a while. All of the period music, the beautiful costumes, when people write they really write Russian, the atmosphere...everything is perfect! I liked that version of the movie better than I liked the book!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (21:01)", "body": "No...did not know it was on and I was at Volleyball getting my face smashed by an errant serve...Do you prefer this version to Vivien Leigh's ???"}, {"response": 11, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (21:36)", "body": "I've never seen the one with Vivien Leigh, but I don't think I could imagine her as Anna. There's simply nothing Russian about her, and I'll never be able to get the image of her as Scarlett out of my mind. (I tried to watch \"Streetcar,\" but I kept giggling because she is Scarlett and always will be.)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (22:30)", "body": "She was lovely...! Of course before I became Firth's I was Olivier's...perhaps that explains the problem."}, {"response": 13, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (22:34)", "body": "You not only have very good taste in books, Marcia, but also in Englishmen!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (22:37)", "body": "Ah, Yes... Thank you for agreeing. You must also share some of the credit for same, at the very least! (Took P&P with me - the book - to last night's Volleyball game and read the chance meeting (wet shirt) st Pemberley scene over and over. Odd the effect it has on me...*sigh* *squish*"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (22:48)", "body": "John has told me he has his Master's Class this evening and other prior engagements. It just might be a while before he gets back here!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (22:02)", "body": "I like so many so-called classic authors, I wouldn't know where to start. Perhaps we should focus on one work and discuss it?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (22:27)", "body": "Since John is indisposed this evening, and I have opened my Arthurian topic, Autumn, suggest a book or an author to discuss. We need direction and impetus in this topic! Please!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (19:17)", "body": "OK, here are some suggestions: Wharton Fitzgerald Twain Steinbeck All Americans, but I'm open to something else. Anyone have a preference?"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (19:28)", "body": "Wow! Great choices...lets see what the others think...meanwhile if your are King Arthurly inclined, pop over to 41 for that discussion."}, {"response": 20, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (22:03)", "body": "Sorry, I'm King Arthur-impaired. :-)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (13:07)", "body": "Must be from Camelot poisoning...! We all suffer from that, I am afraid!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:28)", "body": "From John (including a contribution of his own): From the Washington Post Invitational contest, which calls them Merge-Matic Books. Readers were asked to combine the works of two authors, and to provide a suitable blurb: Second Runner-Up: \"Machiavelli's The Little Prince\" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic children's tale as presented by Machiavelli. The whimsy of human nature is embodied in many delightful and intriguing characters, all of whom are executed. (Erik Anderson, Tempe, Ariz.) First Runner-Up: \"Green Eggs and Hamlet\" - Would you kill him in his bed? Thrust a dagger through his head? I would not, could not, kill the King. I could not do that evil thing. I would not wed this girl, you see. Now get her to a nunnery. (Robin Parry, Arlington VA) And the Winner of the Dancing Critter: \"Fahrenheit 451 of the Vanities\" - An '80s yuppie is denied books. He does not object, or even notice. (Mike Long, Burke) extras: \"The Maltese Faulkner\" - Is the black bird a tortured symbol of Sam's struggles with race and family? Does it signify his decay of soul along with the soul of the Old South? Is it merely a crow, mocking his attempts to understand? Or is it worth a cool mil? (Thad Humphries, Warrenton) \"Lorna Dune\" - An English farmer, Paul Atreides, falls for the daughter of a notorious rival clan, the Harkonnens, and pursues a career as a giant worm jockey in order to impress her. \"The Invisible Man of La Mancha\"- Don Quixote discovers a mysterious elixir which renders him invisible. He proceeds to go on a mad rampage of corruption and terror, attacking innocent people in the streets and all the while singing \"To fight the Invisible Man!\" until he is finally stopped by a windmill. \"Planet of the Grapes of Wrath\" - Astronaut lands on mysterious planet, only to discover that it is his very own home planet of Earth, which has been taken over by the Joads, a race of dirt-poor corn farmers who miraculously developed rudimentary technology and evolved the ability to speak after exposure to nuclear radiation. \"Paradise Lost in Space\" - Satan, Moloch, and Belial are sentenced to spend eternity in a flying saucer with a goofy robot, an evil scientist, and 2 annoying children. \"Gone With the Shining\" - Bed and breakfast owners discover that the Southern Antebellum mansion they own is haunted by the Ghost of Scarlett O'Nicholson. (Lynn Abbey) \"The Sun Also Rises Over the Cuckoo's Nest\" - A petty criminal seeking to evade jail enters the funny farm, where he and fellow inmates commandeer a bus and escape, panhandle enough money to forge passports and go to Spain. McMurphy and the Chief run with the bulls in Pamplona, and McMurphy sustains permanent injury to his manhood. Undaunted, he hooks up Billy Bibbit, who has learned to stutter in Spanish, with a sexually liberated nurse, who runs off with an abusive bullfighter. McMurphy shares Sangria with the Chief, who surprisingly says his first words in 20 years, \"Muchos gracias! Uno mas, por favor!\" (John Burnett)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:07)", "body": "Arrrrrgh, if I EVER have to hear another dissing of Niccolo Macchiavelli around here! John, tell that contributor to wash his mouth, stop thinking they was oh-so-smart for a second, pick up Nick's The Prince, read, shut up and learn. Honestly, I read it when I was a teen, and found his ideas and consequent approach very curious. It is fascinating to read and compare his ideas to other classic philosophies and political ideas, new and old. The main thing is: what was his aim? What was his goal? What are his thoughts good for? What did he intend? Same with Konfuzius, who doesn't get much credit for his strictness and his extremely conservative approach from many. But they do not look at his times, and his motivation. What were the problems he (and later, Macchiavelli) were addressing? These ideas have to be viewed in the mirror of their times, and what of it appeals or contradicts OUR emotions and ideas. And I say, Macchiavelli obviously motivated by very special feelings. Things I can strongly relate to. And he was willing to pay an - for his time - outrageous price for his ideas. Give him respect."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:22)", "body": "..Passing the message on to John... You and I never did have our discussion of Machiavelli, did we?! (making notes as I type...)"}, {"response": 25, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:26)", "body": "Coming up, I guess."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb 18, 2000 (16:55)", "body": "...*sigh*...when I get over the megalithic discussion, in Geomagnetism, and ley lines. Are there any such things in your neck of the woods? Surely, there must be! BTW, archaeology is doing well in Geo, as well =)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (16:20)", "body": "We got megaliths, but not as ensembles, more as singular rocks."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (17:33)", "body": "Standing stones. Yes! Plenty of them and highly significant to those who feel the vibes. Deep in the woods. Near streams. On ancient high trackways. Every one of them is special, indeed! They have recently found more of the avenue stones from Avebury henge monument... More in Geo *smile*"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 19, 2000 (17:36)", "body": "Guess if we are gonna talk megaliths here we should mention Thomas Hardy and his evocative novels..."}, {"response": 30, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (12:01)", "body": "Jude the Obscure , for one...."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 21, 2000 (12:11)", "body": "Tess of the d'Ubervilles for another... Any of his Wessex novels, actually."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 29, 2000 (19:35)", "body": "Without comment (Arrrrrrrrgh!) I post this item: Harry Potter's wizardry banned from British school LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Harry Potter, the fictional young wizard who has captured children's imaginations all over the world, has been banished from one English school because his magical powers go against the teachings of the Bible. The head teacher of St Mary's Island Church of England school in Chatham, Kent says the tales of wizardly adventures do not conform with her school's ``church ethos.'' ``The Bible is very clear and consistent in its teachings that wizards, devils and demons exist and are very real, powerful and dangerous and God's people are told to have nothing to do with them,'' Carol Rookwood told the BBC on Wednesday. ``We are a Church of England aided primary school which means the church ethos is very important to what we do,'' she said. The Harry Potter adventure books, written by British author JK Rowling, have already sold more than 18 million copies in the United States alone. The fourth book in the series, in which Harry begins taking an interest in girls and confronts death for the first time, is due out on July 8, but early orders have already taken it to the top of Internet bookseller Amazon's Hot 100 bestsellers' list. The British head teacher said she had the full support of parents of children at her school. She added that the ban applied to other books, videos and television programs that portray witches and wizards as harmless and fun chracters."}, {"response": 33, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (12:34)", "body": "Censorship ride, departing now for UK - next stop: Grimm's Fairy Tales!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (13:20)", "body": "Really! I cannot believe it! Got get'um, Alexander. I'm right beside you on this!"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (13:21)", "body": "What didja expect after what they did to \"Tom Sawyer\"... Has anyone checked the Bible for PG passages? There are plenty of them in there!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (14:26)", "body": "But that's the way it's meant to be! See, the idea is - if the US moral minority leaders around Falwell and their international minions manage to keep the monopoly on x-rated stuff and hard core violence, everybody goes back to church and creates revenue. Good for them. That's the plot."}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Mar 30, 2000 (14:48)", "body": "Oh, not like the Vatican Library which keeps it all for their own perusal and no one else's? The museum is like that, too."}, {"response": 38, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "Oh no, go to some nice catholic places - full of gore and martyrs! That's the idea - give the folk what they want, and monopolize the supply side! And THEN they have the gall to claim they were capitalists! Not competition there, they want."}, {"response": 39, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:21)", "body": "And the really crass gear in vatican - well, that's the stuff that's really to XXX for the public. Good thing somebody does their job!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "Nothing like graphically painted plaster statues to make me glad I am an Episcopalian who was told we believe in a \"Risen Christ.\" Keem'um scared and told them you have the only way to avoid this end - then keep'um in the dark about when enough is enough...Indeed! (Now, I have offended a large portion of the Spring and the lurking world!)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:28)", "body": "Are you sure they are not looking at it themselves? Where does the line get drawn between Art and Social commentary and the Legislation and enforcement of Morality-as-they-see-it?! (Is that tongue of yours planted firmly in your cheek, Alexander, Dear?!) Um...where did they get all of this crass gear for their collection?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:33)", "body": "From Falwell - shipping surplus over for safekeeping. It's a scientific fact. A tongue? W H E R E ?"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:36)", "body": "Falwell put teletubbies in the Vatican Vaults? No...I gather you are serious about this. Where did HE get it? Can't imagine how much we have in video copies and books not to mention the Internet. I cannot even guess what he decided was too crass and offensive...! When something is said \"tongue in cheek\" in America, it means it was meant in jest as in \"pulling your leg\" ..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (15:41)", "body": "say.... ;=} One leg actually IS much longer than the other!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Mar 31, 2000 (16:46)", "body": "(...my momma taught me not to ask about things like this when an enticing statement is made like that one...but I am so curious I can hardly stand it...)"}, {"response": 46, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (06:04)", "body": "(It's from all those years as general dogsbody in the merchant navy, dear - the stowers were always drunk, and so the ship always tilted to starboard, which made all of us walk in a peculiar way. Worked great on sea, looked odd in the dance halls, though...)"}, {"response": 47, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (06:05)", "body": "(Gosh, some of the stories I really should write down, so I don't forget them!)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (07:35)", "body": "(please do - but don't forget to let us see them!!!)"}, {"response": 49, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr  4, 2000 (11:15)", "body": "Oh Yes, Alexander! You are a most gifted story teller. Please share. I though only the cows in Switzerland and West Virginia had leg orientations like that. Hmmm... The things I learn here...*grin*"}, {"response": 50, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Apr  6, 2000 (16:24)", "body": "*grin, too* books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 23, "subject": "The Matter of Britain - Arthurian Themes", "response_count": 232, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (20:09)", "body": "Amy, Look what we have here. Let us continue our discussion of Mists of Avalon and Mary Stweart's trilogy - as well as trying to master Welsh and Gaelic...! Please, anyone with an interest in The Matter of Britain...please feel free to post!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (20:31)", "body": "These comments are copied and pasted from a previous discussion: (Marcia)I have also read NZB's Forest House. I'd like to get all of her books, but I really think I am most satisfied re-reading Mists of Avalon...! I keeep trying to make the others into it and am disappointed each time. (Amy Keene) I know what you mean--I read \"The Lady of Avalon\" and it just wasn't the same. I think I tried to read \"The Forest House,\" but I never finished it. (Marcia) Whatever you do - don't waste your money on the anthology of other authors who write similar-type stories \"in honor\" of NZB. It is a waste of time to read and hou will resent the money you spent to achieve this book...it's really disappointing. I think I shall stick with re-reading MoA and be happy with that! (Amy Keene) \"The Mists of Avalon\" is kind of like \"Hamlet\"--no matter how many times you read it, you can always find something new and it's always interesting! (Marcia)Indeed - and the mark of a truly great book. If you have not yet read Mary Stweart's Crystal Cave, Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment....RUN and secure these little gems for your very own...my entire family (my ex and my son included) read my copies...and I re-read them regualrly. It is the Arthurian story from Merlin's viewpoint and superbly done! (Amy Keene) Have you read Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur? They are quite good--told from the point of view of Derfel Cadarn, one of Arthur's warriors who eventually becomes a saint. Cornwell brings back some of the characters that were taken out of the original Welsh versions of the story by the French. (Amy Keene) Oops, sorry! Have you read \"Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country,\" by Rosalind Miles? It's a really different take on the King Arthur legend. Amy Keene) Have you read Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur? They are quite good--told from the point of view of Derfel Cadarn, one of Arthur's warriors who eventually becomes a saint. Cornwell brings back some of the characters that were taken out of the original Welsh versions of the story by the French. (Marcia) I learnt what Welsh I know translating The Mabinogion and The Welsh Triads which Rachael Bromwich kindly left in the original language. Have not read the books you mention, but I am surely going to look them up! (Amy Keene) Holy cow, you translated those?!? How amazing! (Marcia) I am probably one of the few people in Hawaii with a Welsh Dictionary and Welsh grammar books...Cymric, that is *smile* It was the very thing that set me off on my five year search for the Kelts...! (Amy Keene) I have tried to teach myself Irish Gaelic, but it is almost impossible to do on your own. About all I can say is \"C\ufffdad M\ufffdle F\ufffdilte\" and \"Pog Mo Tho\ufffdn\"! The pronounciation is so much different than the spelling! Is Cymric the same way? (Marcia) It is far worse than Cymric...all they did with that language was to replace the vowels with consonants and to string all the words of description together as though in English we wrote Thechurchofsaintmaryinthewoodsbesideawaterfall. Gaelic, the brother language to brythonic, is far more difficult...at least it appears to be to me..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (21:23)", "body": "Okay, so we've talked about the modern stuff, but what about the oldies? I've read \"Yvain\" (in both French and English,) \"Le Mort d'Arthur,\" and \"Tristan et Yseult.\" I became interested in Arthurian literature when I read \"The Mists of Avalon,\" but I really started liking it when I had a French lit class. When I was in European lit, my professor (*smirk*) let me teach the class French medieval literature because he knew I loved it so much, and I learned all sorts of things preparing for that presentati n."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 15, 1999 (21:58)", "body": "My interest in archaeology accrued me several-to-many books on digs concerning the \"places\" associated with Arthur. Which made me wonder how they knew...which sent me to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regnum ... (have my own copy), and to the Welsh Triads, the Mabinogion and other source material. Since I keep trying to peel back the layer to find the original ideas, I needed to study the people whose tradition carried the story with them. Aha! The Kelts! And so on. I have Idylls of the King, Once and Future King(disliked it), Le Morte D'Arthur, and all the other popular modern permutations including Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court I have no medieval texts in the original languages but I do have Tolkien's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight plus translations of Perlevaus, Tristram and Iseult, Eric and Enid plus a whole bunch of others..."}, {"response": 5, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (03:42)", "body": "Somebody should make \"The Mists of Avalon\" into a movie. Women would flock to it in droves. (Yes, I've read the book. It was actually required reading in an Arthurian Legends course I took...and I did like it.) But please. No Kevin Costner as Arthur or Lancelot (or Richard Gere, either). Sean Connery is great, but too old (sorry). But more importantly, since this is a feminist retelling, who would play Morgan Le Fay, evil sorceress cum revisionist legend heroine?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (15:30)", "body": "Interesting thoughts proposed here. It would make a spectacular movie with special effects and the *right* performers. British, preferably. Cannot think on anyone off hand - but needs be a tall verile sort (not, I think, despite my adoration for him, Colin Firth!) Let me think about that...Not Vanessa Redgrave in any part of it...like Connery, she would be splendid but too old for the role. Gonna read it again and see who I can imagine in the roles...Just what I needed! Another excuse to read the bo k! (I brought mine on a garage sale table for $1 and I think it was unused when I bought it....one of the best bargains I ever found!) Kevin should stay with baseball and wolf themes...!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (18:36)", "body": "I never thought of it being made into a movie, and I hope Hollywood doesn't, because I'm sure they'd ruin the whole thing. I don't recall any visions of actors coming to mind when I read the descriptions of the characters. I think Sophie Marceau would perhaps be a good Morgaine, but I don't know that the Morgaine character should be splendidly beautiful. If they did it, I would almost want them to do it with a lot of non-star actors (at least who aren't stars in the US,) so that there would be a better chance of having a quality film rather than a silly piece of oversexed fluff."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (18:42)", "body": "I think it should be done in Britain with british actors and personnel. Nothing coming out of Hollywood would seem appropriate it seems to me...! Morgaine should be enchanting enough to lure Arthur into her bed...ah, but that was the other version...not this one. She should probably be \"nice\" looking but not dazzling!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (18:53)", "body": "I agree--no Americanized silliness in this film! If I wanted to find a role for Colin Firth, I think I'd give him a cameo as Gorlois--he's described as dark, elegant, and Roman-looking, so I think Colin might do."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (18:57)", "body": "And he could do evil and sensuously-driven very well (ask all those who Drool *grinning broadly*). You will love the way Mary Stewart handles him - very erotic, indeed! Never thought of CF as Gorlois...fascinating!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (19:00)", "body": "I can't imagine Gorlois as that erotic--I thought that's why Igraine went for Uther in the first place!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (19:06)", "body": "There is a scene where Merlin is dreaming and has visions of her trying on his crown as he stands behind her and cups her ...chest?!...one in each hand. Merlin is more than a little surprised that she continues her conversation as though this was nothing out of the ordinary...I can see it in my mind's eye through hers(mary Stewart's) and his (Merlin's)...you MUST get that trilogy!!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (19:08)", "body": "Igraine was married to the guy Merlin sent to his death so Uther could come to her to conceive Arthur...she was not into Gorlois except remotely, as I recall. (...need to read those books again!)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (19:23)", "body": "Yes, Igraine wasn't crazy in love with Gorlois, but she thought he was a decent enough husband. (In \"The Mists of Avalon,\" I mean.) But with Uther, she experienced true desire for the first time--it was more of an animalistic attraction."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (19:50)", "body": "Agreed... The way Mary Stewart saw it, they were in such \"need\" of each other (Uther and Igraine) that when Merlin came for the infant she did not protest his taking him away to raise. I know that visceral attraction, and it can be more powerful than the need for food and air, sometimes...but it can burn-out both parties involved...(I was much younger then...*smile*)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:00)", "body": "Isn't that sort of what happened in MoA? After the lusty attraction wore off, Igraine sort of resented Uther because they had nothing else on which to base their relationship."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:08)", "body": "Agreed... The way Mary Stewart saw it, they were in such \"need\" of each other (Uther and Igraine) that when Merlin came for the infant she did not protest his taking him away to raise. I know that visceral attraction, and it can be more powerful than the need for food and air, sometimes...but it can burn-out both parties involved...(I was much younger then...*smile*)"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:10)", "body": "Yes, indeed it was! (We are smoking the Spring again with the duplicate split posts...very odd!)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:22)", "body": "I forgot to mention that at one time, I wrote out a whole list of names which I might give to my children, and some of them were from Arthurian legend. They were: Branwen Alysoun Avalon Laoise (pronounced \"Lee-sha\") Broc\ufffdliande \ufffdlysie I doubt very many people would be able to pronounce them, but I really can't imagine not giving my children literary names."}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:30)", "body": "Broceliande...Ah yes! It fairly tumbles out of ones's mouth in a joyous profusion of syllables. it is most musical..."}, {"response": 21, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:32)", "body": "And wouldn't it just suit one of my pale children with glossy black hair? *smile*"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:43)", "body": "Yes, indeed it was! (We are smoking the Spring again with the duplicate split posts...very odd!)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (20:44)", "body": "Um...Yes *grin* It most surely would!"}, {"response": 24, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (21:00)", "body": "What did you think of the most recent version of \"Merlin\" that was on last year (I think)? I liked the special effects, and Miranda Richardson was pretty interesting as Queen Mab, but I'm not sure about the other characters. Some were good and some were not."}, {"response": 25, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (21:12)", "body": "Broceliande...Ah yes! It fairly tumbles out of ones's mouth in a joyous profusion of syllables. it is most musical..."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (21:15)", "body": "(there is a nasty echo in here and I am not doing it...!) I was hoping for a much more \"meaty\" version of the story than we got, but I was happy to see it at all. I liked the actor who was Merlin and MR as Queen Mab...it is a little vague now in my mind. They took liberties, of course, but who has not, including Geoffrey of Monmouth!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (22:50)", "body": "I only recently found out (from reading Bernard Cornwell's introduction) that the French added the character of Lancelot and changed the story so that Arthur and Guenevere didn't have children! I was astonished! Did Geoffrey of Monmouth write \"Historia Regum Brittaniae\"? I remember that was on my list of source materials for Arthurian legend when I taught my European lit class French medieval literature, but I can't remember if he was the person who wrote it."}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (23:32)", "body": "He (GoM) did, indeed, and my copy is right beside me."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (23:38)", "body": "Actually, the Welsh/Brithonic Arthur (Dux Bellorum) and his adventures were of a much cruder sort - not much civilization in the 400's AD. Marie de France was the first one to write chivalric stuff concerning Arthur. Eleanor of Aquataine continued the fashion and it has never been the same. More and more ladies and deeds and holy grails and loathsome trolls and Fisher Kings and loads more knights were added. Malory wrote them down and now we each have a copy! Legends of Teutonic origin blend in from ime to time...it is a very interwoven tapestry, and perhaps that is why it continues to fascinate. In the original Welsh trilogies, there were three Gwennies...none had children - even in the earliest times. She was barren - thus setting up the contest between his heir and illegimate incestuous son...Doomed!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 17, 1999 (23:52)", "body": "Hmm, in \"Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country,\" she had a son, Amir, who went along with his father to a battle when he was about seven, and he was killed by a Saxon. This set up the whole conflict between Guenevere and Arthur--she blamed him for taking her son along, and she left him, leaving him easy prey for a scheming Morgan who seduced him and got pregnant with Mordred. In another book, which I looked at but didn't actually read, she and Arthur had three sons, and I think they all died before adulthood."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (00:05)", "body": "Let me check Norma Lorre Goodrick's book which is a total bibliography but written in readable form....my eyes are getting tired and so are my fingers...might I do this in the morning when I am fresher?! I have several sources to check."}, {"response": 32, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (00:12)", "body": "Do it whenever you can--I'm about to turn in for the night myself!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (00:18)", "body": "Tomorrow!!! I am most interested in the evolution of Guinnie, myself. If I do not speak to you again before you close out, G'night Amy!!!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (01:20)", "body": "Sam Neill (an Australian actor) played Merlin. I think he's terrific. Miranda Richardson might make an interesting Morgan/Morgaine. As for Colin Firth as Uther--probably a natural--yet another cuckold role (but he keeps working)."}, {"response": 35, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (01:20)", "body": "Of course, I meant Gorlois instead of Uther."}, {"response": 36, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (01:25)", "body": "...Just as long as they keep the Feinnes brothers out of it. The Morgan, Morgause, Morgaine, character would be a really interesting choice for Miranda Richardson. Yes! Sam Neill - loved him, but he was not my Merlin for some reason. Arthur, perhaps...but not Merlin."}, {"response": 37, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (14:02)", "body": "Uh, Marcia--Morgaine and Morgause were two different people. Morgause was Igraine's sister, remember? I like Sam Neill as an actor, but I agree that he's not quite what I had envisioned for Merlin. I thought the guy who played Merlin in \"Excalibur\" (which was a pretty rotten movie, but I thought it was the coolest thing in the world when I was 5--especially where the crows are pecking out the eyes of the knights hanging from the tree,) was pretty good, and more like how I envisioned Merlin. He'd have to be someone very distinguished, very English, and preferably have \"Sir\" in front of his name."}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (15:09)", "body": "They get lost in the translations from book to book. Since I do not have a source book on the Morgan / Morgaine character, I cannot definitively speak on this (gotta get out all those years of notes I took), but I have seen authors use the three names interchangeably...which is quite odd. I guess they could no decide who was a sister and who was a daughter as regards Igraine. Will check further in my texts to see what they say. (Some of these characters were added to the mix by later authors, and it g ts very confusing.) Excalibur was a pretty rotten movie...like a nightmare! Yes, Merlin should have distinguished bearing and indefinite age...something other-worldly, as well, would help."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (15:50)", "body": "I am still hunting for Morgause, but found this http://www.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/origins/arthur.html Origins of Arthurian Legend Was Arthur Myth or Man? That's a question we can't answer with certainty, but we can guess that Arthur is a blend of Fact and Fantasy. According to Geoffrey Asche, the historical figure from whom Arthurian legend sprang may have been a fifth century warrior king called Riothamus. Written references to Arthurian-type figures begin with the work of Gildas, a sixth-century monk who wrote De Excidio Britanniae (\"Concerning the Ruin of Britain\"). Gildas' lurid description of battle against the Saxons culminates with the British \"remnants\" rallying behind a man called Ambrosius Aurelianus. Nennius, a Welsh monk who wrote around the year 800, was the first to refer to Arthur by that now-familiar name. In his Historia Brittonum, Nennius lists Arthur's twelve great victories over the Saxons, finishing with the triumph at Mount Badon. Mordred's role in Arthurian legend may also begin with Nennius, who mentions a son of Arthur, killed by his father. By the twelfth century, the legend of King Arthur had become very popular. William of Malmesbury wrote in Gesta Regum Anglorum of Arthur's prowess as a warrior. This is a dressed-up version of the tales of Nennius and Gildas with one vital variation: in this tale, Arthur's role appears to be not that of overlord, but of general. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae appeared about the same time as Malmesbury's work. Geoffrey claimed his story came from an ancient book handed to him by the Archdeacon of Oxford. The existence of such a book cannot be disproved, but it is entirely likely that Geoffrey's fantastic story came from a compilation of contemporary romantic tales and his own inventive imagination. A number of Welsh manuscripts dated to this period also deal with Arthurian legend. (The stories themselves, however, may be even older.) Culhwch and Olwen details the exploits of Arthur and his company, while the Triads of the Isle of Britain lend us a tantalizing glimpse of stories lost to us."}, {"response": 40, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (15:54)", "body": "For a little glimpse into the pronunciation of things Brythonic, Culhwch is pronounced KILL'hooock"}, {"response": 41, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (17:51)", "body": "Here's what it says about Morgause in \"British and Irish Mythology\" by John and Caitlin Matthews: The second child of Gorlois of Cornwall and Igerna. She married King Lot of Orkney by whom she had Gawain, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Gareth. Her fifth child, Mordred, was the result of her incestuous union with her half-brother, Arthur. She had a dark reputation, much like that of her sister, Morgan le Fay, and eventually perished at the hands of her own son Gaheris, who caught her in bed with Lamorack, son of the Orkney clan's greatest enemy, King Pellinore. I had never heard that she was the mother of Mordred--I always thought it was Morgaine--but that's what the book says."}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (17:56)", "body": "I think the three names for her are just from different sources...French, Brythonic and a collection of others which ended up as the English tradition. Morgan / Morgause / Morgaine was the 1/2 sister of Arthur whom she seduced and produced Mordred - something Merlin knew about immediately, but Arthur did not for years...! Your book is correct!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (17:57)", "body": "Read Mary Stewart - she casts the figures in solid stuff then footnotes the whole thing."}, {"response": 44, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (18:07)", "body": "But the book also casts Morgaine as an entirely different person: Daughter of Gorlois of Cornwall and Igerna, half-sister to King Arthur, mother of Owain/Uwain by Uriens of Gore. According to Malory, Morgan was \"put to school in a nunnery, where she learned great sorcery.\" She becomes Arthur's most implacable enemy, attempting by means of magic to destroy him and the Round Table Fellowship. She was responsible for stealing the sword Excalibur and when this was recovered, succeeded in losing forever the scabbard which protected its wearer from all wounds. To the writers of medieval romances of Arthur, she was no more than a sorceress behind her stands the figure of the ancient Celtic battle-goddess the Morrighan. Vestiges of this earlier identity remain embedded in the character as we now have it, such as her appearance with two other shadowy queens on the ship which takes Arthur to Avalon at the end of his days. In Geoffery of Monmouth's poem the \"Vita Merlini\" she is described as ruling over a magical kingdom with her twelve sisters, while in later medieval romances such as \"Huon of Bordeaux\" she has become Fata Morgana, the Queen of Faery, who steals away mortal men to be her lovers. In more recent times her name has become synonymous with witchcraft, although there are again signs that she is becoming restored as a more ancient and powerful figure more in accordance with her origins. She may also be identifi d with Modron, another aspect of the Celtic Mother Goddess."}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "Interesting, Indeed! Igerna and Ygraine and Igraine are just different spellings of her mother. It seems to me that she is the same - just in different guises. Must I rush you my own tattered-beyond-belief copies of Mary Stewart's trilogy? It is the best you will ever read about it - even better, but different from Mists of Avalon. Trust me on this, and you will have a better picture of her and her sisters."}, {"response": 46, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (19:29)", "body": "Bradley obviously thinks of Morgaine as separate from Morgan - which is her right as a fiction writer...This is entitled \"Morgain\" also known as Morgan Le Fay. I am the half sister of the Great king Arthur Pendragon. History claims I am a witch. On this page I would like to show you another side of my personality. I often am characterised as an evil witch, whose only goal is to ruin Arthur's reign. The only one who really understood me is Marion Bradley. Her book, The Mists of Avalon, is a reliable source of information on my family-history. In this book she tells the true story about me and the other women around Arthur. These women, Igraine (our mother), Morgause (my aunt), Vivian (my aunt and Lady of the Lake) and me, of course, are the main characters in the book. I am not an evil witch, but a priestess of the Goddess. Being a priestess, I have great knowledge of herbs and magic; I think it is for this reason that people believe I am a witch. It was during my education that faith (or the Goddess?) brought us together. http://www.missgien.net/morgaine/morgaine.html"}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (19:33)", "body": "Morgause Wife and widow of 'King Lot of Lothian and Orkney'. Mother of 'Gawain' (See Gawain), 'Agravain' (See Agravain), 'Gaheris' (See Gaheris), 'Gareth' (See Gareth). Half-sister of 'Arthur' as the second daughter of 'Igraine' (See Igraine) and 'Gerlois' (See Gerlois). Sister of 'Morgan le Fay' (See Morgan le Fay) and 'Elaine of Garlot' (See Elaine of Garlot). It is suggested in some of the later works that Morgause may have been the mother of 'Clarisant' (See Clarisant), although prophecies were made pertaining to the fact that Morgause was thought to have had five children. As she is known to have conceived 'Mordred' (See Mordred) by Arthur who was under an enchantment by Morgan le Fay it has been suggested that Mordred rather than Clarisant is the fifth child. Yet there is the possibility that the fifth could be 'Soredamor'. Reputed to have been the lover of 'Lamorack de Galles' (See Lamorak). She was killed by her own son Gaheris when she was discovered with Lamorack. Morgause, together with her four sons, and a small army of soldiers is described in some legends as having gone to make peace with Arthur, carrying a flag of truce, despite her husband's previous opposition to Arthur being ruler of Britain. She is said to have begged forgiveness, promising the loyalty of her sons and herself to the royal household. Her sons were granted Arthur's protection, trained in the craft and arms and Knighted by Arthur himself. Some legends indicate that the sealing of this bargain with a kiss passed between the King and Morgause is one of her own sacrifice to him. Arthur, unaware of his relationship to her family, believing himself to be of the 'Ector de Sauvage's' (See Ector de Sauvage) family, is unaware of what such an involvement in a relationship with Morgause would mean. Later versions of the legends play upon this fact when developing the enchantment that befalls Arthur leading to the conception of Mordred. In some legends she becomes Arthur's mistress before his involvement with 'Guinevere' (See Guinevere). He is said to suffer with the darkest dreams whilst he is with her. 'Kay' (See Kay) summons 'Merlin' (See Merlin) as Arthur grows steadily weaker. He learns the truth, that his mistress is also his half-sister. Merlin prophecies that the son conceived from their union will one day attempt to usurp him, and destroy all that he achieves during his reign. Despite his attempts to find Morgause and his desire to kill her, a child is born on the first day of May, and Arthur's fate it seems is sealed. Arthur hoped to find the child by ordering all those born on this day to be found and brought to his court. The babes were placed in a boat and cast out to sea to be destroyed, as Arthur hoped that this would ensure that the child conceived with Morgause would be killed. Of course his illegitimate son survives and returns to revenge his own abandonment and to destroy the King and the Knights of the Round Table http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/arthuriana2z/m.htm#MORG"}, {"response": 48, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (19:36)", "body": "I am so confused....! This is the most complete listing of all things Arthurian from anywhere. It is worth spending time there: http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/arthuriana2z/index.htm"}, {"response": 49, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "I'm confused too--I guess it's because most of the books I've read have Igraine and Morgause as sisters (if Morgause appears in the story at all,) and Morgaine (whom I thought was the same person as Morgan le Fay,) as the daughter of Igraine and Gorlois and the mother of Mordred. Every movie I've seen, every book I've read has Morgaine as the mother of Mordred! I think I might email my Shakespeare professor, who also knows a lot about King Arthur, and see if she has any input on the subject."}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (20:09)", "body": "Ah yes...good idea. Do ask her...and say hi! for me...*grin* I am surrounded by \"source books\" on things Arthurian, and apparently a lot is up for interpretation since it was oral tradition of the Bards which kept it alive ... and each Bard added something of his own to the story. I am surprised we can trace it as well as we can at this remove!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:21)", "body": "Legends can be molded and remolded to fit the whims of the storyteller."}, {"response": 52, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:23)", "body": "Sorry, Marcia. I'd kind of envisioned Ralph Fiennes as Arthur and Joseph as Sir Launcelot Du Lac. ;))))))))))))))) (just kidding!!!!!)"}, {"response": 53, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:26)", "body": "True...and the whole cloth from which Arthuriana is derived is so flimsy that almost any liberty can be taken with it without causing alarm or even eliciting negatitive comments. Unfortunately, at this far remove it will almost be impossible to recover anything of the original tales (though that Arthurian A-Z URL is pretty thorough). It is also impossible to tell where the real Arthur stops and the legend begins. Like Stonehenge and other parts of our treasured past, we interpret them for our times and needs - forget about the real details!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:28)", "body": "JOHN! LOL...I figured someone might say that...!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 18, 1999 (23:46)", "body": "I'm still trying to figure out just where the hell \"Malagant\" in First Knight (dreadful movie, but love both Connery and Julia Ormond) came from. Oh, well, expect anything from a director who casts Richard Gere as a kung-fu fighting Launcelot."}, {"response": 56, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (00:15)", "body": "There is a 4th book about Arthur after the Last enchantment called \"The Wicked Day.\" It is about Mordred growing up and finaly meeting his father who claims him and gives him a seat at the roundtable. It goes up to the Arthur's last battle which is against Mordred. It names Morgause as Mordred's mother."}, {"response": 57, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (00:47)", "body": "There are actually 5 books in the series...and I have them all well worn. I thought I had posted as synopsis of The Wicked Day...but cannot find it..will tomorrow if I cannot find it above. Melwas aka 'Meleagraunce', 'Meliagrance', 'Meleagant', 'King of the Summer Country', (See Summer Country). Also 'Melwas, Prince of Death' and 'Melwas, Princely Youth'. Reputed to have been an evil man, and a terrifying Knight who captured 'Guinevere' (See Guinevere) taking her to his own land where she was rescued in the earliest Arthurian romance legends by 'Arthur' (See Arthur), but later it was 'Lancelot' (See Lancelot) who was the hero and victor over Melwas (who appears to have disliked Arthur intensely, determining to war with him). The depiction of Arthur as the hero is included in the work entitled 'The Life of St Gildas' (See Gildas). 'Chr\ufffdtien de Troyes' (See Chr\ufffdtien de Troyes) depicts Lancelot as a hero, and a man so in love with Guinevere that in order to save her he is prepared to travel to where she is imprisoned in a cart, a mode of transport utilised for criminals normally. Lancelot is described as having to cross the 'Sword-Bridge' (See Sword-Bridge) to reach Guinevere. Melwas of the Otherworld (See Otherworld) later became Sir Meleagraunce in the later developments of the Grail romances, and changed from a King to a Knight, but still defeated despite all his best endeavours. According to the earlier account of the relationship of Arthur and Melwas, it was also written in the work entitled the 'Life of Caradoc', (See Caradoc) that mediation between the feuding kings was attempted to achieve peace. This process could not have been conducted by Caradoc himself as is often suggested as he was a Welsh saint of the twelfth-century, a completely different time period to the historical Arthur. The romances of the medieval period the French 'Vulgate Cycle' became a major influence on all later developments of the story, some of which solicit the help of 'Taliesin' (See Taliesin) and also 'Galahad' (See Galahad) to secure the Queen's release."}, {"response": 58, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (01:10)", "body": "O.K. so the mysterious Malagant did appear--as several other close, but no cigar names--at least in legend, but did he kill Arthur in any of your books, as he did in First Knight ? I always thought that Mordred (how appropriately named) did..."}, {"response": 59, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (01:12)", "body": "Marcia: re your second to last paragraph post 56 \"historical Arthur.\" I am under the impression that the \"historical Arthur\" is a perhaps, not a certainty, despite a strange grave in Glastonbury."}, {"response": 60, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (01:15)", "body": "I wish I were descended from a \"historical Beowulf.\" Then I could proudly tell people \"I'm a Geat!\""}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (01:19)", "body": "I have an interesting Beowulf file I just might send you one of these days...I am not sure if you are old enough to read it...*grin* All of these Arthurian names are so old that they have endured many different spellings. ONLY Mordred killed Arthur - it had to be that way to complete the tragedy unfolding. Hey, I'll call you Johnlemagne anytime you wish...'cause I think you are!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (01:25)", "body": "Historical Arthur comes from the West Cadbury (nothing to do with chocolate) hillfort excavations and their results. A Castrum, or fortified hill fort was found to have been there in the 400's AD and had the fortified entrances and exits. Only such a fort could have been held by a Dux Bellorum or Duke of Battles - most likely Arthur's title. There is also some evidence that someone named similarly to Arthur existed then...perhaps the legend is an amalgam of the two! There was a ready supply of sling s ones in the nearby stream...I have driven by it several times on the way to Glastonbury...a lovely ruin, but not Arthurian, by any means! No more than Stonehenge was Druidic (Yeesh!)"}, {"response": 63, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (03:05)", "body": "That's evidence that there was a Dux Bellorum...not necessarily that Arthur actually existed. I know there are references in stone to \"Arthurus\" and \"Arthurius\" just as there were shrines to Kilroy everywhere in World War II, but nobody actually met him, either. It would be cool to think Arthur actually existed--but the legend is too fantastic, just like I would love to think Beowulf existed--but if that means Grendel (and Grendel's mother) did also, I'm going to have a nightmare!"}, {"response": 64, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (12:32)", "body": "I have come across some even more confusing information--I was looking in Wolfram von Eschenbach's \"Parzival\" to see what I could find, and it says in there that Arthur's sister (a full sister, not half) was named Sangive, and she married Lot and had Gawain. It also lists Arthur's mother as Arnive, which I suppose could be a variant of Igraine, and says that Arthur and Ginover (as it is spelled here) had a son named Ilinot who was killed in service to his lady Kanadic. I can't find any reference in here to a Morgaine, Morgause, or Mordred character, except there is a character called Terdelaschoye who is a fairy and \"closely associated with fata morgana.\" I think the farther this story got away from England, the crazier it got!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (14:26)", "body": "Wow."}, {"response": 66, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (14:43)", "body": "You said it all, Amy, when you said the farther away from England this story got the crazier (and more fantastic) it became. Each tradition added their own particular nasty beasts to conquer, more ladies in convoluted relationships with the main characters - some made up just for the sake of drama... John, I think there was not as much doodling at the time of Arthur as there was at the time of Kilroy, simply because the implements hard enough to scribe stone were not readily available to just anybody...and the stones on which he is mentioned are the sort of memorial stones which take a lot of work and thought. It is still up for grabs - he is probably a compilation of wishful thinking, legend and two or three real Dukes of Battle (my guess)"}, {"response": 67, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (14:48)", "body": "I do love the fact that they were doodling with a chisel--and in Latin."}, {"response": 68, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "During Roman rule in Britain there was an apparent lack of things to do at Hadrian's wall. There is more chisled graffiti there than anywhere else I can think of in that time period."}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (15:00)", "body": "...and, as you point out...it is in perfectly good Latin. How scholarly it makes it all seem!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (15:02)", "body": "Illegitimi non tatum carborundum."}, {"response": 71, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (15:03)", "body": "There's supposedly a graffity in the Hagia Sofia in nordic runes, spelling \"Halfdan was here\"."}, {"response": 72, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (15:32)", "body": "Isn't that funny--we look at graffiti now and say, \"Oh, look what that idiot did!\" But if someone did it 1000 years ago in Latin or Nordic, we say, \"Isn't that interesting?!?\""}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (15:41)", "body": "Oh, Indeed! But the sentiments expressed are often the same - whoever was here, and so-and-so cheats at cards...! Nothing changes =)"}, {"response": 74, "author": "Isabel", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (16:11)", "body": "They saved some of the russian graffitis in Berlin's Reichstag when it was renovated. Many of them where removed, some read like \"Adolf I f***ed your mother\" e.g. Many germans don't like it that they weren't removed totally but I think it's part of our history and this should be conserved. When I visited a rokoko-chinoise pagoda in Kassel, there were graffitis from soldiers looking for women after WW II. If they will ever be removed by renovation I hope they at least photograph the whole stuff...graffitis can be very interesting, historically..."}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 19, 1999 (17:47)", "body": "Indeed - graffiti served as the local bulletin board before such things were set up formally. It is a little window on the world in which the writer lived at the time. Remember to date your graffiti so future generations will know exactly to what you are referring !"}, {"response": 76, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (22:30)", "body": "I talked to my esteemed Shakespeare professor about the Morgaine/Morgause question, and she said that they are indeed two different people, and that Morgaine is indeed the mother of Mordred. She said that she considers Malory to be the authority on these matters and when there is any question, he's the text to which to refer. Does that help?"}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (23:08)", "body": "Yes, it does help. Malory is highly suspect in some circles, but when you are dealing with these legends where they change from day to day and author to author, her authority is as valid as any. The Welsh used her as a triad of the same woman - three faces of Morgan/Morgause/Morgaine See what you think when you read Mary Stewart and read her references on the subject. This is a subject with no \"correct\" answers!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Wed, Oct 20, 1999 (23:45)", "body": "I know--that's what my professor said. She said that it's hard to argue about these things, since there are no right or wrong answers. It's very interesting to see what different modern authors do with the legends, in some cases creating entirely new versions of the myths."}, {"response": 79, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 21, 1999 (12:50)", "body": "...which leads newbies to trust the first one they read and say that is the true version. It is well to read widely in Aruthuriana. I prefer Mary Stewart's version simply because it is such a good read. Much better than TS White (who I disliked intensely for making Merlin into an old fool) and far more readable than Malory."}, {"response": 80, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Thu, Oct 21, 1999 (22:10)", "body": "I think the adventures themselves of the knights are told best by Malory. Women--except for Morgan, who is important, if one-dimensional in her evil--are slighted, of course, in his versions: as damsels in distress, Guinevere as both the embodiment of Mother Mary (which no flesh and blood woman can live up to) and as the sex object of contention between Artie and Lance, and even Igraine is nothing more than a vessel for Arthur's birth. Thus, Bradley was a welcome change of pace although it is a little d stracting seeing Morgan/Morgaine go from w(b)itch to heroine and Guinevere to villainess. Still, a well-written story."}, {"response": 81, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Thu, Oct 21, 1999 (23:17)", "body": "I don't think Morgaine was entirely likeable in MoA--I liked her at the beginning, but then when she married Uriens (I think it was) I started seeing the bad side of her coming out after all. I thought, \"Morgaine, you're screwing up!\" I actually liked the Guenevere character in that book, because she tried so hard to be perfect, but when it came to Lancelot, she just couldn't do it. However, being a hypocrite wasn't very becoming to her..."}, {"response": 82, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Thu, Oct 21, 1999 (23:19)", "body": "After all, I think Morgaine was just as dogmatic about her beliefs as Guenevere was, it's just that Bradley presented them in two entirely different lights so that I didn't even notice that at first."}, {"response": 83, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (00:38)", "body": "Good point. Christianity was presented as THE ENEMY, which villainized Guinevere (I don't remember the Gaelic-like spelling Bradley used) and to a lesser extent, Arthur himself."}, {"response": 84, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (01:27)", "body": "You will be interested in how Merlin views God in Mary Stewart's books - I think she did the best job of walking the theological tightrope. John, I just might have to lend you my copies of her books! I know you would enjoy it - all from Merlin's viewpoint, and Frank liked it as did David - and David is a non-reader!"}, {"response": 85, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (02:33)", "body": "I've read Stewart. Required in the course I took."}, {"response": 86, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (02:34)", "body": "But unlike you, I liked White...it was \"Camelot\" I couldn't stomach."}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:10)", "body": "Perhaps that was my problem. Camelot (and not a Kennedy fan, either, but don't tell anybody!)...yeesh! You must have had a very good course - who taught it? I am more than a little pleased that Stewart was required reading. Guess you can tell that I loved her version...every last word of it - would not have changed anything. Your opinion?"}, {"response": 88, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:10)", "body": "I'm nearly halfway through \"The Crystal Cave,\" and I must confess that I'm not enjoying Stewart's style too much. She goes into long descriptions of places and things, but they don't really function in the story. I find myself saying \"Come on already!\" because sometimes the minute descriptions hold up the flow of the story."}, {"response": 89, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:11)", "body": "I wish my university had a course in Arthurian literature! Maybe I'll ask around and see if anyone would like to create one."}, {"response": 90, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:11)", "body": "I'm nearly halfway through \"The Crystal Cave,\" and I must confess that I'm not enjoying Stewart's style too much. She goes into long descriptions of places and things, but they don't really function in the story. I find myself saying \"Come on already!\" because sometimes the minute descriptions hold up the flow of the story."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:13)", "body": "Ok, she is laying the ground work for the rest of the story. The Hollow Hills has most of the great magic in it. Big time and I am getting chills thinking about scenes therein. She paints a very detailed picture, but you are not left wanting when she is finished...it is all very good stuff. I guess that is what draws me back each time...I do not want it to end!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:23)", "body": "Well, I thought that might be the case--since Merlin is just a kid and doesn't even understand the magic he has within himself, it's kind of difficult to have really spectacular magical scenes. I'm being patient, really!"}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:53)", "body": "I have a geode which I cal The Crystal Cave because it is just as I imagined him crawling into for his blinging visions. I thought I had bad headaches on occasion, but the ones he must have had were incredible. As he says, the Gods exact a price for letting you have these gifts. Has Ambrosius come into the story yet (other than a brief mention at the beginning?)"}, {"response": 94, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (13:56)", "body": "Yes, he's staying at Ambrosius' palace right now. Is Ambrosius' brother Uther THE Uther Pendragon? I thought he was younger than Merlin."}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (14:14)", "body": "Ooooh...its gonna get really good really soon now...! Yes, Ambrosius is Uther Pendragon's brother....that is all I can say right now. Do not want to give away anything, but keep reading. I am all excitement!!"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct 22, 1999 (14:15)", "body": "That would make Ambrosius Arthur's uncle, eventually..."}, {"response": 97, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (00:09)", "body": "That it would. I found Stewart an acquired taste, much like Faulkner for exactly the same reason Amy mentions. But it was my professor (David Miller, who has published several articles on the \"different\" Lancelots of different authors) who told me to be patient and it would pay off--and I found he was right. Being a longtime radio and television news writer, I'm kind of a get to the point person, which is one of the reasons I love Hemingway. And although Stewart's painstaking descriptions sometimes se med perhaps too detailed, at least she is sticking to the point and not meandering in her style. Certainly her Merlin voice does have a propensity towards purple prose. White, on the other hand makes me laugh. I love his description of Pellinore nearly killing Arthur and (a third-person) Merlin having to save his butt. Very few pieces of literature make me laugh out loud, but Twain's \"The Cat and the Painkiller\" chapter of Tom Sawyer and White's narrative of Pellinore kicking Arthur's arse both do."}, {"response": 98, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (01:56)", "body": "A knight and his men return to their castle after a long hard day of fighting. \"How are we faring?\" asks the king. \"Sire,\" replies the knight, \"I have been robbing and pillaging on your behalf all day, burning the towns of your enemies in the west.\" \"What?!\" shrieks the king. \"I don't have any enemies to the west!\" \"Oh,\" says the knight. \"Well, you do now.\""}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (15:51)", "body": "LOL John, If that is from White, I'm gonna read him again. I tend to worship whatever MS wrote about Merlin and regard what is in her stories as the \"true\" version. Hers is a serious style and no fooling around...and I judge all others by her criteria. They all fall short for me, but I shall read White (own it, actually) again and give it a fair chance. btw, David Miller should have taught a good course...did he?! (Don't have to answer that, of course.)"}, {"response": 100, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:27)", "body": "That's not from White. That's simply a joke I'm relaying."}, {"response": 101, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:28)", "body": "Miller was terrific. He also said the same thing Amy's prof did. When in doubt, use Malory as the standard."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:34)", "body": "I guess...using Malory...but I am a purist and like to get as close to the original as possible - that is why I did 5 years of Keltic studies trying to ferret out the truth behind the embellishments."}, {"response": 103, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:35)", "body": "I love the way White treats the entire Arthur-Pellinore relationship. While most of the knights are critical of Pellinore and think he's daft for always going off to fight the dragon, Arthur always stands behind Pellinore. But there are two other dynamics in the writing. One, Arthur knows that Pellinore is his physical superior, and two, Arthur is just a wee bit privately patronizing of Pellinore and you can read it, although Arthur is careful to hide it. But to me, \"Camelot\" ruined White. The though of a singing, dancing Arthur, Lancelot, or Merlin, makes me shudder."}, {"response": 104, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:39)", "body": "It's difficult to know what the \"original\" and the \"truth behind the embellishments\" are, because the Celts largely handed it down as oral stories and Malory's was the first extensive written chronicle of the legend."}, {"response": 105, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:41)", "body": "And a vacant but gorgeous Goulet was the nasty icing on the whole mess. Yes, I recall Pellinore more vividly than almost any other character. White's Arthur seemed to me to be resigned to being the \"nice guy\" of the tale, but not necessarily the most effective or happiest. Was there something father-son in the Pellinore-Arthur relationship? He was Indeed, a teeny bit patronizing, but in such a way that Pellinore would never have detected it, I think..."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (20:45)", "body": "Malory cut his characters out of whole cloth felted together out of Welsh, French and Teutonic sources...most unusual. Perhhaps it could be thought of as an anthology in that way...! (You accessment of the difficulties of determining the original sources is what keeps me at it...I still chase down sources and the internet has made the chore much more immediate. You would not believe the bookmarks...!!!)"}, {"response": 107, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (21:44)", "body": "To a certain extent, I don't think it matters what the truth is behind the embellishments. All in all, the Arthurian legends are a very dynamic and exciting set of stories, but just that--stories. Their power lies in the fact that they can be changed and rearranged without losing any of their integrity (except, of course, in the case of \"Camelot.\") I find even bad versions of the Arthur story fascinating, because they each take a slightly different view of the legend. Even the Monty Python movie is on of my all-time faves!"}, {"response": 108, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (21:53)", "body": "Was that an African swallow???!!!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (22:00)", "body": "One must know these things when one is King...*giggle* My art teacher once said that people had been telling him about how wonderful \"The Holy Grail\" was, and reciting parts for him, and so when he finally saw it, he was disappointed because he thought the people reciting it was funnier than the actual movie! In my English department, you'd better have the whole thing memorized or you can't even get into a conversation!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (23:02)", "body": "One of the things of which my son is most proud is that his Mom introduced him to Monty Python...and that was one of their best efforts. (The Geologists all have it memorized, also!)"}, {"response": 111, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (23:07)", "body": "Hooray! I knew geology was my lost career for a reason! I guess they recite when they're crawling around in caves, eh?"}, {"response": 112, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (23:09)", "body": "...and around the camp fires at night...(mine, as well!) They can also do a mean version of \"I'm a Lumberjack...\""}, {"response": 113, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (23:13)", "body": "That's funny, because all my geology teacher seemed to know was \"Rocky Mountain High\" and other crappy, geology related tunes like that! *giggle*"}, {"response": 114, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (23:59)", "body": "Egad!!! Well, I hung with the grad students and the young profs when David (son)was pursuing his degrees. That'll keep you young better than hanging with the full professors who tend to be tedious or lecherous or both...*grin* I know of which I speak! (Rocky Mountain High??!! Bleah!)"}, {"response": 115, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:06)", "body": "You can go farther than that. John Denver (ugh)!"}, {"response": 116, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:07)", "body": "BTW, grad students and young profs are no less lecherous than the full tenured variety. It's just that most of the younger academics don't need to use their jobs to get laid."}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:09)", "body": "When Stephanie drove me to Denver last year we kept hearing John singing in our heads, but nothing on the radio the entire time we were in the state ( about a week)...they must know something...!)"}, {"response": 118, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:12)", "body": "Very true--although I think the difference is that universities wouldn't hesitate to fire someone like myself, whereas a tenured professor might get to talk his/her way out of the situation...good grief, how do we keep ending up on this subject? This professor with bad taste in music wasn't a letch, either--he was very funny. He had a shirt that said \"A professor is someone who talks in other people's sleep,\" and when we were talking when he was trying to talk, he's say, \"Guys, it's 'Miller Time'\" (Miller was his last name.)"}, {"response": 119, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:13)", "body": "...John, this is true about lechery not being just for the aged, but it is so much more becoming on them when they are young that it is a grace instead of a fault...!"}, {"response": 120, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:15)", "body": "and lest anyone wonder...it did not work with me, fortunately...the getting laid part...I just laughed graciously and ducked under their arms pinioning me in the corner. Never lost a friend that way nor made an enemy and kept my integrity intact at the same time - not all that easy...!"}, {"response": 121, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:17)", "body": "Yech! If any of my students pinioned me in the corner, I'd kick him in the ballocks!"}, {"response": 122, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:20)", "body": "How much more Arthurian can you get than lechery and debauchery and lusting after someone else's wife/husband/SO ??? Merlin was their tenured professor...!"}, {"response": 123, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:22)", "body": "It was not the students pinioning me in the corner - it was the silver-haired gentlemen in the expensive suits or the natty tweeds visiting from another university which usually did it...! I suppose I should have been flattered, but I was just amused that they thought I was one of the few women in the place who could talk intelligently with them when they were sober and still looked good when they were slightly buzzed!"}, {"response": 124, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:24)", "body": "God help me! I hope I have an extraordinarily intimidating professor husband then to keep the roving hands of lecherous old coots off of me!"}, {"response": 125, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:29)", "body": "I did it just fine...professors by nature are a tiny bit timid when faced with a female of intelligence and not of student age...one who might even be considered an equal. As I said, a sense of humor is a must, and I never told my ex about it."}, {"response": 126, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:30)", "body": "Amy, if you want a guy like you described, you will end up with a replica of the one I am currently trying to come to terms with....You really do not want that!"}, {"response": 127, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:34)", "body": "You're probably right--but there are some things in life that you just have to experience to believe! What I really want is a husband to fuss over me, who \"might not beteem the winds of heaven/Visit her face too roughly.\" I hate being fussed over for the most part, but when certain men do it...ah! I love it!"}, {"response": 128, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:37)", "body": "Sorry to burst into \"Hamlet\" there for a moment!"}, {"response": 129, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (00:45)", "body": "...i know...I truly Know! It makes one feel like a queen and blessed in all things...I guess to get one, there must be compromises and take some things one wishes she did not have to do...(Lovely to see Hamlet - Olivier, of course )"}, {"response": 130, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (19:51)", "body": "Back to Arthurian business, I'm still reading \"The Crystal Cave\" and I'm starting to get annoyed at how easily Merlin manages to wiggle out of the stickiest of situations! It's becoming like those old-time chapter plays, where there's a cliffhanger at the end of each week, where you think there's no way the hero is going to get out of this one, and he somehow manages to! I guess James Bond movies are the same way...but not what I'd expect from a book about Merlin!"}, {"response": 131, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "Give him a chance - he pays for his \"easy escapes\" in most original ways...!"}, {"response": 132, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (20:02)", "body": "If you make it through half of The Hollow Hills and are still sick of it, then I will figure you to be the sort who does not like Mary Stewart, but I think she did a GREAT job, and you will too, it you allow her to get her story told."}, {"response": 133, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (20:04)", "body": "BTW, have you ever read the source book for Merlin: Vita Merlini ???"}, {"response": 134, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (20:26)", "body": "Marcia, this reminds me of you trying to sell me on the \"virtues\" of Brussels sprouts. It doesn't matter if I ever go to England, I will never order them by choice and will never again consume them by will. They will have to be forced down my gullet."}, {"response": 135, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (20:32)", "body": "OK, she can stop reading now... I just would hate for people to miss out on something fantastic (IMHO) just because of some preconcieved notion...I shall shut up and get out of the selling mode - I am obviously very poor at it!"}, {"response": 136, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (20:47)", "body": "no, just a tad too evangelistic in tone..."}, {"response": 137, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (21:15)", "body": "Understood. (Merlin was like that in the earliest references to him...)"}, {"response": 138, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (22:58)", "body": "The truth is I'm probably too evangelistic about boxing because of its (rightly deserved) poor image, and because I know another side that unfortunately hasn't reared it's beautiful head too much lately."}, {"response": 139, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (23:15)", "body": "It does when the Olympics come around. Unfortunately, they do not cover collegiate boxing enough...if at all. I really do understand and I appreciate your passion for the game. Do not change one iota, please! We need enthusiasm!"}, {"response": 140, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (23:37)", "body": "I will keep reading--once a friend and I made a bet that if I would read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, then she would wear a dress, and after about 2 1/2 books, I told her I gave up. And believe me, they were a lot worse than Mary Stewart! I think I can stick it out for at least the rest of this book..."}, {"response": 141, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 24, 1999 (23:44)", "body": "ok...Anne Rice is far too weird..."}, {"response": 142, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (00:02)", "body": "And her characters are so tedious! They're all rich and handsome and lecherous--I can only take so much of that before I think, \"Okay, is there someone in this story who doesn't look like a Botticelli painting?\" Geez Louise! After two books, I didn't care what happened to any of the characters anymore! I think she should have stopped at one book!"}, {"response": 143, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (00:10)", "body": "I think that is what gets to me, as well, tho I know someone who read her books. Not sure of his opinion - we did not discuss it, but there are those out there...I am sure I read stuff which would bore him, too."}, {"response": 144, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (00:15)", "body": "Anne Rice is making money hand over fist--and not one dollar of it was once mine!"}, {"response": 145, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (00:30)", "body": "Nor mine...we agree!!!"}, {"response": 146, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (09:42)", "body": "Me too! We all agree!"}, {"response": 147, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (14:20)", "body": "Hmmm...has anyone beside me been to Tintagel, South Cadbury Hillfort (\"camelot\"), Glastonbury and the places in Cornwall with Arthurian connections?"}, {"response": 148, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (17:09)", "body": "Good grief, Marcia, the farthest I've ever been from home was New York City!"}, {"response": 149, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (17:33)", "body": "...at your age, that was about the extent of my travels, as well =)"}, {"response": 150, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (18:11)", "body": "I think I'm a weirdo, though, because almost all of the other GAs have been to Europe, but not me. I don't even know that I want to go because the past few times I've traveled, I've had really bad anxiety attacks and had to go home."}, {"response": 151, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (18:30)", "body": "If you are not adverse to medication - there are things you can take for the duration of the flight. That was my worst time - claustrophobic, dontcha know... I got over that by talking to a very charming British gentleman who needed an anonymous female to talk to...and I was it. A most pleasant way to spend a long flight...*smile*"}, {"response": 152, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (18:32)", "body": "Knowing you (as I do know you...), once you got there you would be so enraptured they could never keep you home again. That is the way it was with me...*sigh* But, that was another life time..."}, {"response": 153, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (18:41)", "body": "Oh, I hope so...at some point, I'm going to have to go to the Bodleian to look at Byron's manuscripts!"}, {"response": 154, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (18:51)", "body": "You just need someone in the seat beside you to distract you with his incredible eyes and sweet mouth and velvety colduroys..."}, {"response": 155, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (20:07)", "body": "Yes, I know...I shall have to tell you a little story about that sometime... And it isn't riding in an airplane that makes me anxious--it' just that when I'm away from home for more than a day or so, I start having this overwhelming feeling that I have to get home. It makes me nervous just thinking about it."}, {"response": 156, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:09)", "body": "A slight case of agoraphobia? Not all that unusual, actually. You just need the right companion and enough interesting stuff to anticipate that home is just a place you have to go back to when you'd rather remain in the British Museum (me) or the Bodleian Library (both of us)..."}, {"response": 157, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:20)", "body": "How about the Victoria and Albert? I'd stay all month in the British Museum!"}, {"response": 158, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (21:40)", "body": "Oh, indeed! Yes! We stayed on Cromwell Road which runs right by the V&A...knew it well. There is so much to see and do in London - it is my all time favorite city. Wait'll you get into Westminster Abbey...! You'll need hours there, as well."}, {"response": 159, "author": "ommin", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (22:11)", "body": ""}, {"response": 160, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (22:16)", "body": "Did Wales exist then, or was it just a bunch of battling Celts and tree-hugging Picts?"}, {"response": 161, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (22:37)", "body": "The original Britons were the Welsh. Cymri, actually... Welsh is a name like \"American Indian\""}, {"response": 162, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (22:40)", "body": "The Picts were the original Highlanders of Scotland before the Gaelic tribes got there. Do not confuse the two. I have spent a lot of time researching things like this...perhaps it deserves its own topic! The Picts were so thoroughly obliterated that only a few carved stones remain of their once-flourishing language and culture."}, {"response": 163, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (22:51)", "body": "AnneH, I am telnetting which allows me to see what happened to your comments which I read briefly. It says they were censored and scribbled which means deleted. You did not do it...I cannot do it. How does this happen to so many of your posts?! You need a new ISP !"}, {"response": 164, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (23:01)", "body": "Since Anne's posts keep disappearing on us, she sent this comment via Email: Marcia - a fascinating book by C.S. Lewis called that Hideous Strength brings Merlin back to life in about 1950, its an extraordinary book but has some interesting ideas about all things Arthurian and gives some insights into what it was like in those times, woods, forests and all sorts of wild things in a wet, mistly land, little enclaves of Roman/British forts and small towns. You get the feel as Merlin speaks. Try it. Its most unusual."}, {"response": 165, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (23:15)", "body": "The Picts were the original Highlanders of Scotland before the Gaelic tribes got there. Do not confuse the two. I have spent a lot of time researching things like this...perhaps it deserves its own topic! The Picts were so thoroughly obliterated that only a few carved stones remain of their once-flourishing language and culture."}, {"response": 166, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (23:17)", "body": "Something is happening - I am overloading Spring, I guess. I did not post the above comment twice, and I do not know what deleted Anne's comments...!"}, {"response": 167, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (00:06)", "body": "Ah, it must be Morgan le Fay at work!"}, {"response": 168, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (00:29)", "body": "Must be! Who's the threat to her? Surely not I..."}, {"response": 169, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (00:35)", "body": "Hmm...any anti-pagans around here?"}, {"response": 170, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (01:25)", "body": "Curious - have not heard of that term...I imagine Jerry Falwell might fall into that category along with the rest of that ilk...(leaving that alone so I don't get stoned by the \"true\" believers...)"}, {"response": 171, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (16:58)", "body": "No wonder you've never heard of the term...I just made it up!"}, {"response": 172, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (18:00)", "body": "*lol* Are you sure you are not the little sister that I never had? I make up words all the time and put them in my fictionary."}, {"response": 173, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (19:48)", "body": "My sister is going to start a campaign to put \"monstrophic\" in the dictionary--her own creation."}, {"response": 174, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "Good word! She can be in \"our\" family, as well =)"}, {"response": 175, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (21:52)", "body": "You got anthropologically technical without really answering my question. I've heard of the Cymri, but Wales (the country) didn't really exist then, nor did any \"nation.\""}, {"response": 176, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:12)", "body": "The Cymraeg from Cymru are a celtic people who displaced the original small-statured dark people who inhabited what is now Wales in about 500BCE. The small dark people were probably from the Iberian area. The Celts ruled Britain until the Romans arrived followed by the Anglo-Saxon-Jute tribes and the Danes. The Norman were the last."}, {"response": 177, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:17)", "body": "Did those small-statured dark people have a name? Or were they eradicated like the Picts?"}, {"response": 178, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:18)", "body": "Technically, they did not have a \"Wales\" (Cambria to the Romans) until they got beaten back into their mountains. The Romans considered the land not worth the fight (just as they did the highlands of Scotland and the Picts) and left them that part of Britain. What the Romans could not tolerate was the Druids who held the country together with their religious faith. The Romans eventually slaughtered every last one of them in the Menai Straits between North Wales and the Isle of Anglesea - a holy island o the Druids."}, {"response": 179, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:26)", "body": "No one has named them - in fact so little of their legacy remains that only anthropological differences in their bones is what separates them from the rest of the population. There was probably some interbreeding and there are still smallish dark (Caucasian)complected Welsh, but they tend to remain in the hills and cwms and not mingle in the rest of the world. Gypsy is sometimes attached to them, but it is not correct - from an entirely differect origin and very much earlier than the gypsies showed up o the record."}, {"response": 180, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:29)", "body": "How did these dark people get to Wales from Iberia? Shipwrecks?"}, {"response": 181, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:32)", "body": "Migrated over the land bridge connecting Britain with the continent during the last ice age."}, {"response": 182, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:45)", "body": "Oh, I always forget about that. I said \"shipwrecks\" because I was thinking of how the Black Irish came about."}, {"response": 183, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Oct 26, 1999 (22:59)", "body": "Yes, but they also had large migrations. They were Celts as well as the red Irish were...just from different areas. You cannot get a thriving populace complete with myths and legends and culture from just shipwrecks, though they make interesting stories!"}, {"response": 184, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (11:40)", "body": "Yes, but you know what storytellers we Irish are, especially when we're in our cups!"}, {"response": 185, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (17:09)", "body": "No worse than the rest of the Celtic Bards. That is the way Merlin Emrys made his living - being a Bard - but you are not reading that one anymore....*sigh*"}, {"response": 186, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (17:46)", "body": "Sorry! I really shouldn't be reading anything at all, considering how much stuff I'm supposed to be doing... It's funny how many Arthurian books, at least those told from a first-person viewpoint, begin with, \"Well, the bards tell it this way, but here's what really happened...\""}, {"response": 187, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (17:55)", "body": "Indeed! It is as though they were there are the inception and have the \"only true version.\""}, {"response": 188, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (18:01)", "body": "I guess the characters telling the stories didn't have much respect for the bards because they were paid to make people sound more important and brave than they really were--it reminds me of \"Monty Python and the Holy Grail\" (again) and Sir Robin's minstrels! \"And so they had to eat Sir Robin's minstrels...and there was much rejoicing...\""}, {"response": 189, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (19:14)", "body": "That is where the term \"singing for your supper\" came from - the bards travelled from estate or castle to castle trading news and stories for food - a sort of travelling periodical. Some go respect - but most were pretty pathetic, I gather! (Poor Sir Robin, I remember him well...)"}, {"response": 190, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Wed, Oct 27, 1999 (22:22)", "body": "Alas, I forgot poor Yorick!"}, {"response": 191, "author": "Irishprincess", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (00:14)", "body": "Yorick was a bard? I thought he was a fool."}, {"response": 192, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (01:57)", "body": "...a fellow of infinite jest...the king's Jester (which was not a fool but a person who brought wise and clever levity to conversations when they sot too contentious."}, {"response": 193, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (02:00)", "body": "Alas, Poor Yorick...I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite wit etc etc. John was responding to my all too often misquoted \"I knew him well\" Well was not in Shakepseare's dialogue."}, {"response": 194, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (02:01)", "body": "infinite wisdom...it is late I should close the book!"}, {"response": 195, "author": "mrchips", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (13:06)", "body": "I may be mistaken, but I think that was one of the many liberties Olivier took with Shakespeare when he committed Hamlet to film. I do know they should have fired the director (Olivier) and told the lead actor (Olivier) to stick to the script. He's was no Robin Williams, that one."}, {"response": 196, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct 28, 1999 (14:11)", "body": "I have followed my own text version of Hamlet so carefully I have every passage he used and cut marked them well. It has been a very long time since I did any refreshing my memory in there - you could well be correct...but I loved his Hamlet...*sigh* (Of course he took liberties - it was not intended to be a literal version!)"}, {"response": 197, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (03:23)", "body": "hope this topic's not been evacuated... read much of the previous discussion, found it fascinating... read a few books on this topic, and was most impressed by goodrich's (which marcia, i think, referenced)... from what i know, goodrich is a respected historian, and it seems hard to dismiss her conclusions, radical though some of them may be... the matter of arthur's historicity i believe pretty firmly established, and her other points well worth consideration... mainly, (and i'm citing from memeory, and it's been a few years since i read her book, or anything else arthurian) the idea of arthur's kingdom being located to the north (being born, himself, in galloway, near the candida casa)... the idea of guinevere as a pictish princess, and lancelot (actually, according to goodrich, 'angus'- lancelot merely being a linguistic corruption from middle-french) being a pictish king... of the historic injustice done to the reputations of both (the alleged infidelity, a fabrication invented to entertain bored french courtiers)(who required, undoubtedly, a lot of entertaining)... and- maybe most interesting of all, to me, the idea that the geographic location of avalon was a small islet on the west coast of the isle of man... at any rate, would like to know your impressions of her conclusions... and would encourage anyone that hasn't read her book to do so (i found it magnificent)..."}, {"response": 198, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (14:33)", "body": "Aloha, Nick! Not vacated or evacuated by any means. It is one of my most favorite things to discuss (as you have seen.) My computer is surrounded by shelves containing all manner of Arthuriana from Idylls of the King to the most recent Archaeological books on Somerset (Glastonbury and South Cadbury Hillfort); including my favorite non-fiction by Goodrich and favorite historical fiction by Mary Stewart discussed above...and the infamous Geoffrey of Monmouth as well as Nennius. Interesting you discuss t e Picts, who are so elusive as to give me fits of frustration when I try to dig into their origins and culture. North of England-cum-Scotland is also the site for Vita Merlini so imo, it is most probable that some of the historical personages in this epic were native to the area. What conclusions have you come to as to the origin and roots of the Picts. Keltic or no? I would love to discuss this with you because we know so very little about them. Their language had no progenitors."}, {"response": 199, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (14:39)", "body": "Oh yes, my opinions on the conclusions of Goodrich...There is nothing I can think of (it has been a few years) with which I disagree. Her work is so thoroughly footnoted and her sources so impeccable... There is no doubt she has compiled what there is to KNOW about these shadowy characters who have held our imaginations for these aeons."}, {"response": 200, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (15:25)", "body": "yes, the picts rather haunt the imagination... though i've probably not researched the matter as thoroughly, i know what you mean re: the frustration... there's so little out there that i've seen, and much of what one can find is trivial or half-informed... (any sources you can share would be appreciated)... i believe the picts to be celts, though why i hold this belief currently eludes me (as i said, been awhile since i read or thought about this... and most of my good books, with the exception of goodrich's 'king arthur', and a few others, are in storeage back in texas)... this topic, however, has wetted my appetite, and i'll be doing some reading the next few days... should admit i found all of goodrich's conclusions especially gratifying... each of them seemed to confirm a thing i wished to be true (which is no way to approach research, i realize... though usually, i think, the way it IS approached)... the claims of the english for arthur have always rubbed me the wrong way (he being so thoroughly un-english in his... reputation)... goodrich's book has given these opinions (or conclusions) a place to hang their hats, which is very cool... (do seem to remember it theorized that the picts were first-wave celts, as much as a thousand years ahead of the rest... and that their language was aboriginal... 'bog man', or whatever, mixed with whatever form of celtic tongue that would have been used at that time)(if, indeed, any)..."}, {"response": 201, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (15:59)", "body": "The first thing one learns about Pictish, aside from the existence of some undecypherable stones of a definitely celtic (you ARE pronouncing it with a hard C?!) interlock design, is that some well-meaning preacher took the parchment scrolls, which has lain happily intact in Scotland for centuries, to London where they were consumed by rats. aarrrggggghhh! I must pop out for a little while, but when I return I will get out my notebooks from 5 years if intensive research on all things Keltic and tell you he Bibliography for the relevant subjects. Meanwhile I shall tackle the subject again on the internet. It has been a while, and having someone to converse with has whetted my appetite, as well. On with the Quest! btw, I like your theory of proto-celtic speech for the Picts mixed with whatever aboriginal language existing at the time - if there was any at all...!"}, {"response": 202, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:10)", "body": "Altavista yielded some splendid URL's. The first is an overall excellent site with pix of Picts (stones, of course) and written history (such as there is.) http://www.ehabitat.demon.co.uk/scotland/index.html Ths Pictish Chronicles of Kings (did not know we knew that far back...) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4933/kings.html A very interesting discussion of Pictish names, etc. http://www.stanford.edu/~skrossa/medievalscotland/scotnames/jonespictishmem/index.html just for starters...they claim 3587 web pages found...happy hunting! I'll be back to compare notes...!"}, {"response": 203, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Nov 12, 1999 (19:18)", "body": "The Highland Council Archaeological Survey http://www.higharch.demon.co.uk/ This page is full of stuff from Megalithic to the truly fringe stuff like leyhunters and such http://www.links2go.com/more/www.higharch.demon.co.uk/"}, {"response": 204, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 15, 1999 (21:07)", "body": "Tales of the Fenian knights The history of Celtic \ufffdire is characterised by its remarkable continuity. While Albion was completely reconstructed by the Roman conquest, her sister isle was left undisturbed. The High Kings ruled on at Tara. The Druids officiated. The pagan rites were performed without interruption. The tribal wars raged on unabated. The High Kings of Celtic Eire moved in a world where historical fact is still encrusted with legend and fantasy. Sceptical historians talk of \"pseudo-history\", or even of the absence of history. But like King Arthur, who is now accepted as a real personage, the High Kings of Eire are more likely to be historical figures embellished by the bards than names plucked from pure fiction. And the nearer they come to a literate, better recorded age, the more convincing are the accounts of their deeds. The Fianna or \"Fenians\" were the archetypal company of Celtic knights, the prototype of Arthur and his Round Table. It was at the court of Cormac Mac Airt that they, and their fearless champion Finn MacCool, performed their celebrated acts of derring-do. Finn MacCool - Fionn MacCumhaill - is the most renowned of all Irish heroes. He was the son of a Druid's daughter, who had eloped with her lover-knight to escape her father's wrath and who bore the boy-child after the revenge killing of its father. Mother and son, Murna and Demna, were taken in by the kindly Druid Finnegas, who educated the boy as his own and changed his name to Fionn. Once grown, Fionn embarked on a devil-may-care career of duelling, fighting, hunting, sorcery, love, and passion. In one episode he saved the life of Cormac Mac Airt and was made the captain of the royal bodyguard. In another he wooed the goddess Sadb, who had been changed into a fawn and who reverted to womanhood for long enough to give birth to their son Ois\ufffdn or Ossian (\"Little Fawn\"), the greatest of all the Ancient Celtic bards. One version of Fionn's death tells how he is not really dead but sleeping in a mountain cave, awaiting the hour of his recall. Relations between Eire and the Roman province of Britannia operated at many levels. The recent discovery of a large Roman fort on Eire's east coast spread panic among Celtic scholars when it briefly raised the prospect, if not of a Roman occupation, then at least of a Roman expedition. But it is now taken to be no more than a large trading post. In the religious sphere, the gradual spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and beyond held momentous consequences. In the 4th century turbulence in Ulster, and the raiding parties of the High King N\ufffdall, prepared the way for Irish migration to northern Albion. This was the first step in the long process whereby the concept of a \"Land of the Scots\" was to be moved wholesale from Eire to a new home across the sea. \ufffd Times of London"}, {"response": 205, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (00:05)", "body": "Marcia, do you know the name of the series of books that start with Atlantis being destroyed by an earthquake and tidal wave. Before the earth quake happens the king has dreams of the disaster so he sends his daughter and a companion away on a ship that crashes on the shores of England or Ireland. She is saved by a farmer who she later marries. Merlin is her grandson and he gets his powers from her."}, {"response": 206, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (08:44)", "body": "A related website (hosted here) that you may want to look at is the http://www.atlantea.com website of Roger Didio."}, {"response": 207, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (13:06)", "body": "Thanks for the link, Terry. Lucie, I don't know of those books off hand. I have read several which allude to these themes but only in brief. I will check on it for you, but it is usually difficult on the web to search for a story's senario and find the exact book for which you are looking. But, that will not deter me...I love the hunt!"}, {"response": 208, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (19:04)", "body": "For an entirely new take on things Arthurian and specifically the Holy Grail, http://website.lineone.net/~c_tolworthy/grail.htm"}, {"response": 209, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (19:07)", "body": "http://website.lineone.net/~c_tolworthy/grail.htm An overview of the grail legends The first fully developed grail legend that survives is Chr\ufffdtien de Troyes's unfinished Perceval or Conte del Graal (Story of the Grail), written around 1190. It is probably based on a Welsh poem, Peredur son of Evrawk. The main difference is that in the Welsh version, the grail is not specifically identified. Indeed, it is generally accepted that in the original legends the item itself was not the important thing - it could be a cup, a lance, a plate, a stone - anything that was imbued with godly power and religious significance. The grail story was further developed in the following couple of centuries (or possibly the later copies were just more accurate versions of the original, now lost). The stories of King Arthur's knights represented chivalrous ideals of honour and Christian conduct. And the grail legends represented the highest desire for purity. Only the purest knights could attempt the quest. Everyone agrees that the grail stories' popularity coincided with the darkest period of Christian history. It was the time of the crusades, and the period of the greatest worldly power of the church. Things were so bad that, from the twelfth century, there were more and more calls for reform. Modern scholars generally date the roots of the reformation from this period. So, amidst the darkest period of Christianity, people clung to the highest ideal they could find of Christian life. Three questions immediately arise: 1.Why did they choose to remember a sixth century British king? 2.Why did they choose a Celtic cup (or stone or plate)? 3.And why, in the stories, is the quest for the grail always unsuccessful? For more about the grail, visit http://engr.arizona.edu/~dkf/grail.html"}, {"response": 210, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 13, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "Beware, following the continuity of thought in the original website above will lead inevitably to the subject of British Israelites which does not belong here, no matter what they say."}, {"response": 211, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (21:19)", "body": "Happy Birthday Marcia"}, {"response": 212, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (21:27)", "body": "Lucie!!! Mahalo Nui Loa! *HUGS* ( I gotta get this subject going again... when I get a moment in my 27 hour day.)"}, {"response": 213, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (21:43)", "body": "Happy Birthday, wonderful geo goddess!"}, {"response": 214, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (22:15)", "body": "Thank you, kindly Terry! You do get around. I was told to check drool tomorrow. You don't suppose they have planned something, do you??!!"}, {"response": 215, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (00:58)", "body": "OK, I'm kinda confused...here (CA) it's 10 p.m. on May 30. How did you guys wind up posting tomorrow??"}, {"response": 216, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (01:22)", "body": "I is tomorrow in Austin! and has been tomorrow for hours in UTC. It is only dinner time here in Hawaii!"}, {"response": 217, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (01:25)", "body": "It is even tomorrow in Australia - very confusing!"}, {"response": 218, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (00:18)", "body": "OK, I see, the clock is set to Greenwich Mean Time. That explains a lot. I thought I was going nuts..."}, {"response": 219, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (10:30)", "body": "me too!!"}, {"response": 220, "author": "alyeska", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (21:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 221, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar  6, 2002 (23:16)", "body": "Lucie, come back!!! We need to get this going again, but nothing Arthurian is currently happening."}, {"response": 222, "author": "Akkie", "date": "Sat, Dec 13, 2003 (23:53)", "body": "is Mists of Avalon any good? My friend Loyal talks about it a lot, and i want to read it, but I can't find it anywhere."}, {"response": 223, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 15, 2003 (12:39)", "body": "The tv series was great. I hope they replay it."}, {"response": 224, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Oct  3, 2005 (16:27)", "body": "Mists of Avalon is one of the books I go re-read when I need a pick-me-up mentally. It is one of my all time favorites. Currently there is a new theme in the Matter of Britian. It seems the lunatic fringe Madoc people want us to believe there was a conspiracy concerning Arthur. Dare I dignify this stupidity with a link? We have the book and DB is adding it to his paper debunking false archaeology. Save your money."}, {"response": 225, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Oct  4, 2005 (23:57)", "body": "I put that Mists of Avalon tv show on a dvd. The one with Sam Neill as Merline. Merlin."}, {"response": 226, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Oct  5, 2005 (19:26)", "body": "is it available on amazon? i've purchased other TV movies from them before..."}, {"response": 227, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (19:00)", "body": "Amazon has diamond jewelry if you want it. I am sure they have the video of Mists of Avalon in just about any form you'd like. The book was so much better than the tv miniseries, though. I think I'd just rather re-read it."}, {"response": 228, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Oct  6, 2005 (19:21)", "body": "well, now i got my next excuse to go to B&N!!"}, {"response": 229, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (10:26)", "body": "It's a great show. I know I'll watch it again. So will you give me a few insider tips on what to watch for as relates to the legend vs. the Hollywood version?"}, {"response": 230, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (16:45)", "body": "absolutely!!"}, {"response": 231, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct  7, 2005 (23:34)", "body": "OK what are your Davidi Letterman Top Ten Things to Look for while watching Mists of Avalon?"}, {"response": 232, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Oct  8, 2005 (02:22)", "body": "Let me think about this. I will get Amy to help. She is also a fan of the book. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 24, "subject": "miniature books with Jill Timm", "response_count": 6, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 15, 1999 (21:01)", "body": "I am all curiosity about the little books. I shall inspect the sites you mention and get back in here to comment. Sounds fascinating. I had a few as a childand wish I still had them (as I do have most of my books from throughout my life.)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 15, 1999 (21:43)", "body": "These are more like works of art than miniature books (the form of art they take). Done by hand on Banana paper make me think she should be closer to Hawaii than Austin... Another is done of dark blue stock as a photo album and all are in the $65 range (plus shipping)...all hand done with Jill's photographs in them. Size is 2.5\" x 3\" for the blue one and has 40 pages. Check them out."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (07:52)", "body": "I think the little books thing is a trend, I saw quite a few of them when I went to BookPeople the other day. But then, my consciousness was raised after seeing what Jill was doing. Even the books for dummies series has some miniscule versions."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Nov 16, 1999 (12:10)", "body": "Miniature books for dummies: people with small minds?! ...sorry, I could not resist..."}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (13:35)", "body": "that's so you can carry them around and the whole world doesn't have to know you're a dummy at anything! *heehee*"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (17:48)", "body": "Good thinking! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 25, "subject": "spring mailing list", "response_count": 40, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Mar 24, 1999 (15:50)", "body": "I am on the ONElist for Vegetarian Parents."}, {"response": 2, "author": "jgross", "date": "Wed, Mar 24, 1999 (17:07)", "body": "I'm on the ONElist for Vegetarian Vegetables. Very colorful, and it's not all in the ground. Some of us get eaten though, and have many exciting digestion stories to tell. I've had to consult with Andrew Weil for help on how to best describe these stories to non-vegetables. Let me tell ya, he's been a big help. I recommend him. He's very delicious. I mean *I* am (excuse me, sorry, a little booboo there)."}, {"response": 3, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Mar 25, 1999 (01:45)", "body": "face it, Jim, we are all very delicious and edible! (some of us just need different condiments...)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Mar 25, 1999 (19:31)", "body": "wait, i don't get it. what's the onelist for?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Mar 25, 1999 (20:18)", "body": "(hey, Wolf!)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Mar 29, 1999 (23:52)", "body": "(*snicker, snicker*)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Mar 30, 1999 (00:15)", "body": "(the taste that satisfies?)"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (01:43)", "body": "This is an ooops topic in books, cause I messed up trying to link the afterlife austen and bronte topic here from porch. Typed 58 instead of 68, hey, it's late and I'm tired so cut me some slack, ok?"}, {"response": 9, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (17:11)", "body": "OK!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Dec 19, 1999 (17:25)", "body": "I am so confused..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (09:38)", "body": "I guess I can unlink this topic."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (10:33)", "body": "i still don't know what the onelist is for *frown*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Dec 20, 1999 (11:40)", "body": "Email jgross, I guess."}, {"response": 14, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (10:21)", "body": "Let's revive the mailing list. Please post your email here if you want to be on our mailing list. This will help with our current transition."}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (11:03)", "body": "mswolf68@hotmail.com"}, {"response": 16, "author": "heide", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (12:24)", "body": "hkalb@aol.com I would like to know more about the transition. Thanks, Terry."}, {"response": 17, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (13:48)", "body": "And put me down as well rosie45@hotmail.com"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (13:49)", "body": "marci@aloha.net Mahalo!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "ratthing", "date": "Sun, Jan  9, 2000 (17:06)", "body": "ray.lopez@mindspring.com"}, {"response": 20, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (13:51)", "body": "sociolingo@hotmail.com (ignore this Marcia keep using the one you have!)"}, {"response": 21, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Jan 10, 2000 (14:32)", "body": "(ray, mindspring? you know, they do have my original domain don't you? *heehee*)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Jan 11, 2000 (18:02)", "body": "(whazzat mean, oh canine-pawed one?)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (21:16)", "body": "that means that mindspring created a website with the name \"midnightwolf.com\". this had been my idea and was thrown about a bit. when i finally went to register it as mine, it was taken and i had to settle for midnightwolf.net. so i've been trying to figure out how they got the name."}, {"response": 24, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Jan 16, 2000 (05:53)", "body": "Like, they thought it was a cool one? What they use it for? Anyhow, I like .net better for non-commercial things... Shows a certain attitude, I guess. .com sounds so, uh, money-ish, know what I mean? That's why I think .net domain names are great for folks, projects and places like the Spring."}, {"response": 25, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan 19, 2000 (23:08)", "body": "moorehdg@erols.com"}, {"response": 26, "author": "Ann", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (00:03)", "body": "dwguild@yahoo.com works for me."}, {"response": 27, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (00:35)", "body": "Yes, it does! Hi Ann! What are you doing online at this hour?!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (09:13)", "body": "terry@spring.net is working now on the new server. If you are someone@spring.net let me know and I can set up an email account for your there. The same will go for austen, firth, midnightwolf, etc when we move those sites to the new server. Spring kind of schized out right now, running on two servers till Ray moves Yapp over, he has to tar it up and move it to the new site. AFter then, the rest of the migration will move swiftly."}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (14:10)", "body": "Guve Ray whgatever he wants/needs including dancing girls, executive chef, masseuse and Father Confessor... and buckets of \"tar\" commands I just came from Unix conf and that a tangled mess that is. I am delighted to know that some think it an easy but tedious thing to do - as all programming seems to be!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (14:11)", "body": "(Think I'd better wake up some more before posting any more. Sorry!)"}, {"response": 31, "author": "Ann", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (15:19)", "body": "Could you set up anneh@www.spring.net again? or anneh@spring.net? (I've been using the one with the www for a long time as my primary address, but the one without would be cleaner.) Also, what is happening with all of the files I have in my \"spring.net/~anneh\" account??"}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan 21, 2000 (10:01)", "body": "They're still there and I'll set up the anneh account tonight. Email me details to terry@spring.net and cc to sprin5@spring.net."}, {"response": 33, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (16:50)", "body": "Hiya! I'm in Ann's boat... I've had a Spring account since 1995 and it is my default account for just about everything... can I get stacey@www.spring.net back along with all my old files???? What info do i have to email you? Username, password or something more specific?!?! YEAH!!! I'll feel whole again!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 25, 2000 (17:42)", "body": "Just about everything...except the photos I posted for you which are on my inaccessable access.spring.net account...*sigh* But, my time will come. All things come to those....who scream the loudest?! Not my style...I'll sit over here out of the way and wait till the important sites are back online."}, {"response": 35, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (10:14)", "body": "Email me w/ username, password, mailing address, phone nos. the usual stuff and I'll set up the accounts as I get the emails. Also, let me know if you need ftp access to any areas of our site."}, {"response": 36, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jan 26, 2000 (10:32)", "body": "Email to terry@spring.net, and cc to springnet@visto.com, sprin5@spring.net"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (00:41)", "body": "Ok there are about 5 posts on telnet which are not in here...but I have'em if anybody wants them... Tis working great this evening (for me) and the middle of the night (for everybody else)... Mahalo!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (08:53)", "body": "Yeah, Marci, there's a twilight zone of about 5 days between the time I tarred up the old conferences and the time they started running here. There's still time to copy and paste stuff from the old ip address 206.97.234.70 if anyone wants to haul their old stuff over here. I should have been more clear the day I did the tar -cvf stuff and told folks they were going be posting to vapor for a few days."}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (13:36)", "body": "I am very happy I did mine yesterday for Geo and for other topics I have created elsewhere. All of my topics are up to date as of this moment *relieved smile*"}, {"response": 40, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (09:20)", "body": "There was a similar twilight zone this time. But there weren't that many people posting. I guess folks are on summer vacation. Sigh! I patched drool up with a gap from the 20th till the 30th of June 2006 in drool. It's amazing we're still running Yapp. I need to find a way to add rss feeds to Yapp posts. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 26, "subject": "Austen and Bronte - is there an Afterlife?", "response_count": 53, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (21:40)", "body": "Lenzi arrived in bronte today and writes in the introduction: Welcome to the bronte conference. This file may be edited by a fairwitness. 1 newresponse item 64 items numbered 1-68 You are a fairwitness in this conference. You have mail. Ok: r Item 1 entered Wed, Jul 9, 1997 (15:42) by Paul Terry Walhus (terry) introductions 1 new of 37 responses total. Topic 1 of 68: 'introductions' Resp 37 of 37: Lenzi (Lenzi) Mon, Dec 13, 1999 (19:19) 3 lines Hello...I've been looking for something like this and have only come across a discussion page which was populated by a massive group of high schoolers looking for help because they hadn't read Jane Eyre for school. Now, after my initial glee in finding this conference, I am wondering how active this site is. It appears there have been no entries for quite a while. I hope it is merely a temporary lull... I am very enthusiastic about the Brontes and have read all I could get my hands on. Until recently I had concentrated on the works of C.& E. and their bios but I have ordered Anne's novels and I'm excited about discovering something of the more forgotten sister. Has anyone read \"A Chainless Soul\" by Katherine Frank? I'm in the middle of it. She proposes that Emily was anorexic. Although there is a considerable amount of conjecture throughout the book, I felt that she might have something there. I think if it is a truth, it was not the kind of self mutilation arising from low self esteem which plag es some of our young women in this day, but probably sprang from her passionate need for control, esp. when she was placed in situations in which she was away from home, away from her usual liberty. Does anyone have thoughts on this? I'm so glad I found you all!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (00:02)", "body": "Until just recently Bront\ufffd was going strong through the aid of a diligent Charlotte, as I recall. There will always be lovers of the three ladies who lived such short and sheltered lives on the Yorkshire moors. I will try to enter the conversation if no one else steps forward - there is just so much of me to spread around, and at 116 pounds, that does not spread very far! Hang in there Lenzi...I shall return!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (00:04)", "body": "Might this topic be better served in Books or linked to Books Conference?"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (01:40)", "body": "Sure I'll link this to books."}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (01:50)", "body": "Well, I got it done on the second try."}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Dec 15, 1999 (14:18)", "body": "Splendid! Now it should attract the Austen and Bront\ufffd admirers amongst us! Thanks, Terry!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 16, 1999 (14:38)", "body": "If we can figure out why they left and how to reattract them."}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Dec 16, 1999 (15:59)", "body": "I'll go rattle some cages in Drool and find out."}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (09:42)", "body": "Rattle gently."}, {"response": 10, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (19:13)", "body": "*whispering* who is austen again? i mean, the name is familiar but why has left my mind (for some reason, all i can think of is julia austin, a local dj *grin*)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (19:21)", "body": "Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma , and a whole bunch other good books on the lives and times she lived in. She was Aunt Jane to a large contingent of family but never married. Probably could not find a Darcy, either *grin*"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 21, 1999 (19:24)", "body": "Terry, I shall - I was Droolian and Firthian before I became aware of life as it really is on The Spring. I shall be most gentle and genteel about my activities there, as always...*smiling diplomatically*"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (10:37)", "body": "With the activity in our http://www.atlantea.com website, I am really hoping to pump things up here as a stomping ground for poets, writers and aficianados of fine classic works. I am using the success of authoress M J Rose as a starting point for the impending marketing I'll be doing for atlantea.com, she made it on the Amazon charts and got her book accepted by the big publishers purely byh guerilla marketing on the net, http://www.mjrose.com is the url I believe. She even sells a marketing kit. We might take some pointers from her in getting these areas popular."}, {"response": 14, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (10:42)", "body": "never heard of her or atlantea, think i'll check it out...."}, {"response": 15, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (10:44)", "body": "the atlantis graphics are great. the wording and everything makes you want to stay and check it out."}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (11:00)", "body": "Roger Didio is the guy doing it, and it has some potential for a collaborative Spring - Atlantea project. Roger and I have been on the phone a lot the last few days. He's in NY."}, {"response": 17, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Dec 22, 1999 (22:45)", "body": "i didn't go through all the links there but is it an interactive book? (that's the feel i get anyway). i think it's a great!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 23, 1999 (19:41)", "body": "It is interactive, and I need to keep talking with Roger. The tentative plan is at http://www.spring.net/atlantea but I need to scale it down and rework it."}, {"response": 19, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (17:41)", "body": "Austen.com is blowing away spring.net in the charts, moving to a solida first place with huge stats."}, {"response": 20, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (18:02)", "body": "-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analog Report Output -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web Server Statistics for austen.com Program started at Sat-22-Apr-2000 17:50. Analysed requests from Mon-24-Jan-2000 11:05 to Sat-22-Apr-2000 03:07 (88.7 days). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Summary (Go To: Top: General Summary: Monthly Report: Weekly Report: Daily Report: Daily Summary: Referring Site Report) (Figures in parentheses refer to the 7 days to 22-Apr-2000 17:50). Successful requests: 2,599,578 (207,023) Average successful requests per day: 29,318 (29,574) Successful requests for pages: 274,805 (20,895) Average successful requests for pages per day: 3,099 (2,984) Failed requests: 22,876 (1,284) Redirected requests: 5,215 (287) Distinct files requested: 13,672 (3,083) Corrupt logfile lines: 35 Data transferred: 23,571 Mbytes (2,026 Mbytes) Average data transferred per day: 272,216 kbytes (296,397 kbytes) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Monthly Report (Go To: Top: General Summary: Monthly Report: Weekly Report: Daily Report: Daily Summary: Referring Site Report) Each unit () represents 2,500 requests for pages, or part thereof. month: #reqs: pages: --------: ------: -----: Jan 2000: 257589: 23512: Feb 2000: 897155: 89981: Mar 2000: 838163: 95983: Apr 2000: 606671: 65329: Busiest month: Mar 2000 (95,983 requests for pages). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Report (Go To: Top: General Summary: Monthly Report: Weekly Report: Daily Report: Daily Summary: Referring Site Report) Each unit () represents 600 requests for pages, or part thereof. week beg.: #reqs: pages: ---------: ------: -----: 23/Jan/00: 184541: 16655: 30/Jan/00: 232402: 23274: 6/Feb/00: 230569: 23278: 13/Feb/00: 207117: 21132: 20/Feb/00: 191006: 18324: 27/Feb/00: 215600: 21522: 5/Mar/00: 195017: 20399: 12/Mar/00: 170918: 20679: 19/Mar/00: 177969: 22148: 26/Mar/00: 190563: 22382: 2/Apr/00: 199351: 23285: 9/Apr/00: 197502: 20832: 16/Apr/00: 207023: 20895: Busiest week: week beginning 2/Apr/00 (23,285 requests for pages). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daily Report (Go To: Top: General Summary: Monthly Report: Weekly Report: Daily Report: Daily Summary: Referring Site Report) Each unit () represents 150 requests for pages, or part thereof. date: #reqs: pages: ---------: -----: -----: 12/Mar/00: 20477: 2566: 13/Mar/00: 28865: 3115: 14/Mar/00: 32715: 3908: 15/Mar/00: 29678: 3477: 16/Mar/00: 27738: 3979: 17/Mar/00: 29584: 3316: 18/Mar/00: 1861: 318: 19/Mar/00: 21582: 2799: 20/Mar/00: 31525: 3792: 21/Mar/00: 31274: 3831: 22/Mar/00: 31872: 4941: 23/Mar/00: 29557: 3218: 24/Mar/00: 29191: 3210: 25/Mar/00: 2968: 357: 26/Mar/00: 22283: 2672: 27/Mar/00: 34288: 3539: 28/Mar/00: 34855: 4363: 29/Mar/00: 34420: 4265: 30/Mar/00: 32994: 4096: 31/Mar/00: 28928: 3130: 1/Apr/00: 2795: 317: 2/Apr/00: 25419: 3668: 3/Apr/00: 35640: 4135: 4/Apr/00: 33896: 3521: 5/Apr/00: 33178: 3741: 6/Apr/00: 35058: 4207: 7/Apr/00: 32346: 3608: 8/Apr/00: 3814: 405: 9/Apr/00: 23433: 2713: 10/Apr/00: 38300: 3483: 11/Apr/00: 34144: 3789: 12/Apr/00: 33034: 3529: 13/Apr/00: 32445: 3626: 14/Apr/00: 32913: 3311: 15/Apr/00: 3233: 381: 16/Apr/00: 25819: 2558: 17/Apr/00: 39421: 3642: 18/Apr/00: 34966: 3498: 19/Apr/00: 38078: 3962: 20/Apr/00: 35845: 3684: 21/Apr/00: 29471: 3274: 22/Apr/00: 3423: 277: Busiest day: 22/Mar/00 (4,941 requests for pages). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daily Summary (Go To: Top: General Summary: Monthly Report: Weekly Report: Daily Report: Daily Summary: Referring Site Report) Each unit () represents 1,500 requests for pages, or part thereof. day: #reqs: pages: ---: ------: -----: Sun: 292154: 34533: Mon: 437223: 45102: Tue: 452175: 46824: Wed: 460204: 48652: Thu: 445911: 47773: Fri: 432125: 43467: Sat: 79786: 8454: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Referring Site Report (Go To: Top: General Summary: Monthly Report: Weekly Report: Daily Report: Daily Summary: Referring Site Report) Listing the first 30 referring sites by the number of requests, sorted by the number of requests. #reqs: site -------: ---- 1106202: http://austen.com/ 866349: http://www.austen.com/ 363561: http://208.171.121.122/ 11677: http://www.pemberley.com/ 2258: http://www.altavista.com/ 2095: http://dir.yahoo.com/ 1270: http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ 996: http://www.northernlight.com/ 921: http://search.excite.com/ 891: http://www.google.com/ 744: http://mercury.beseen.com/ 648: http://student.uq.edu.au/ 606: http://search.yahoo.com/ 601: http://ink.yahoo.com/ 465: http://www.geocities.com/ 401: http://pemberley.com/ 350: http://google.netscape.com/ 286: http://www.insidetheweb.com/ 243: http://www.ussc.allth"}, {"response": 21, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (18:12)", "body": "I have spoken elsewhere. It is nice that they are so busy....but....!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (18:15)", "body": "No buts. It's great news that austen is doing so well. I hope it continues to grow. Maybe we can support it via pledge drive, if not maybe by banner ads and click throughs. Though I want to be careful about this and consider everyones feelings about keeping it pure like it is now."}, {"response": 23, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "You're gonna have to convinve me why I need to support austen.com..."}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Apr 22, 2000 (19:39)", "body": "Wish I knew why all of this noise about Austen.com is making me feel like a, unwanted child with a conference which deserves better...*sigh* Guess it is my problem, not yours or Ann's. I do as well as I can...with what I have..."}, {"response": 25, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (03:34)", "body": "You're doing great, and I'll help you move forward with your conference as much as I can, Perhaps you should consider a dedicated domain name and get in Front Page 2000 authoring. It's not a big deal to get started."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (13:26)", "body": "I seem to attract people from other conferences (as Drool and Austin, for example) and if I were separate, new readers would not be aware of Geo, would they? Not sure what the advantage of having it as a separate entity. I will be delighted to see your posts there. It is doing ok, but it could certainly stand a man's voice in there from time to time."}, {"response": 27, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (15:46)", "body": "What's hot in geo right now?"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:23)", "body": "topic 24 - Beyond Earth (space, stars, planets), topic 27 Geo Archaeology, topic 28 Geo mythology (creation myths from all cultures and religions), topic 4 Gaia, topic 14 Weather (linked to News), just about all of them, actually. Just created two new ones. Geothermal (geysers, etc) and and Geo Mysteries (for the far out from Loch Ness monster to middle earth and crop circles - the far-out of the Geo conference) At any time, the two gem topics get hot (8 for inorganic and 18 for oceanic - pearls / coral, amber, and ivory)"}, {"response": 29, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:25)", "body": "I am always open to suggestions for new topics. Geo's co-creator was gonna create at least one...but...*sigh* Terry's Bioregions has gotten heavy traffic from time to time."}, {"response": 30, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (19:29)", "body": "geothermal is hot by definition. Gems are an interesting topic. Post some things in the new pointers topic. I've got geo on the main page. As conversations heat up I'll try and post them to the main page. If I miss somehting point it out to me. Ann is pumping up the pledge drive on austen.com. The spring is really a family of websites. and right now, it looks like austen.com and not spring.net is the leader."}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (19:34)", "body": "OK...Thanks for that! I will keep you posted, although that cleverly-devised confifty page will give you a good idea of what are the hot discussions (but you would have to web in to see it...) Brava, Ann! She'll do it! She has surmounted much larger obstacles than this."}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (19:38)", "body": "I can post big long files too, but that is not what I think this is all about. I cannot compete with her on this playing field."}, {"response": 33, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (13:07)", "body": "Paul, Thanks so much for your input. The recruiting and curriculum team (Gregory, Adrienne, Ben, Tom and I) will certainly discuss this more, but B&N is very keen on literature courses. Gregory's out of town this week, but maybe we can all sit down next week to discuss your ideas further. Of course, Gregory will determine all of this since he's the big boss man... Thanks, Jan This is a sample of the emails I am getting in support of setting up a Jane Austen University in conjunction with Barnes and Noble. Anyone who is a part of austen.com please get in touch with me, I implore you for your help on this project which could become a milestone for us if it flies. I am going to need all the help I can get on this from our wonderful community of Jane Austen devotees."}, {"response": 34, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (13:09)", "body": "See the austen or the nh conference for me details, there's a cross linked topic there for Jane Austen University."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun 19, 2000 (16:43)", "body": "Please check this out. It has such great potential and a very special creative way to use the post-graduate degrees in things Austen we all seem to have earned."}, {"response": 36, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (09:10)", "body": "Please get in touch with me if you have any ideas for courses we could run online and tie in with the Spring conferences. This may be the mmost important project the Spring has ever undertaken and is vital for our future growth. Please pass the word around about this. We're looking for courses based on topics in all our conferences and courses around the works of Jane Austen and her novels and adaptations. This will become a growing venture within the Spring with funding going to the community as a whole and the participants in the project. Scale of importance: Extremely high priority, urgent!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 20, 2000 (20:06)", "body": "Some of the best minds on Spring are in Drool and they do not leave very often and will not see this posting of yours. Please put it on Porch 43 or somewhere in there...if not the linked topic..."}, {"response": 38, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (08:33)", "body": "Will put it there now."}, {"response": 39, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Jun 21, 2000 (08:37)", "body": "I hoping for a re-unification and re-dedication of purpose around building the Spring and Austen Universities. I am hoping folks in this community get involved, I'd like to see how many courses we can do and what the titles would be. I've asked Ann if she would mind doing a mock up sample page."}, {"response": 40, "author": "linise", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (01:47)", "body": "I found myself wondering upon coming here if this is a place for Charlotte or Emily Bronte? Although I admire both sisters, I find Wuthering Heights to be beautiful beyond compare because of its rough edges and raw emotion. Jane Eyre, on the other hand, is much more refined and soft. I would enjoy a bit of conversation about the sisters....for certainly their styles are very different."}, {"response": 41, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (17:21)", "body": "Welcome Lindi, I believe there may be a whole site dedicated to the Brontes, which is a spin off from our old Bronte conference here on The Spring. Terry, the main man around here, would definitely know where to point you. Mr. Walhus to the front desk please!!!"}, {"response": 42, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jun  1, 2001 (07:09)", "body": "Why, uh, of course. Let me carry your bags, Lindi, there is indeed a bronte conference, it could use some promotion and reviving. But it's there with a rich history of comments. Welcome to the bronte conference. This file may be edited by a fairwitness. 67 items numbered 1-71 You are a fairwitness in this conference. You have mail. Ok: b Item Resps Subject 1 40 introductions 2 29 WELCOME, BRONTE FANS! 3 23 FAITHFULNESS OF BIOS? 4 103 JE FILM ADAPTATIONS 5 6 HOW TO CREATE A NEW TOPIC 6 11 The Role of Governess in AG & JE 7 4 PUBLICITY! 8 47 What IS it about those Bronte heroes...? 9 6 What wonderful timing ... 11 43 Pictures, anyone? 12 10 How Did Charlotte Die? 13 20 Favorite Lines 14 14 The Victorian Age 15 39 Branwell Bronte 16 16 Some Cool Books About the Brontes 17 8 The Spring as a community 18 11 The Musical 19 11 Jane Eyre Sequels? 20 0 Rules Of This Board 21 8 TIMOTHY (The Man, The Myth, The Legend) ;o) 22 34 Amy's Trip to Haworth 23 17 Juvenalia: Angria & Gondal 24 11 More Bronte Pictures! 25 54 What's Your Favorite Bronte Novel? 26 9 What happens at the end of Villette? don't read if you havn't read the book 27 5 Character NAMES 28 2 Favorite Characters 29 23 Did Emily \"will\" her own death? 30 18 Mr. Rochester and Blanche Ingram 31 62 Wuthering Heights video release date 32 68 Princess Diana dies in car crash at age 36 33 5 The role of Nelly Dean 34 6 Websites 35 5 COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!!! 36 3 The Brontes and the supernatural 37 8 Spring proposal to PBS 38 120 My top ten books of all time (in order) 39 5 Bronte Biography 41 2 Testing to see if I can create an Item 42 7 Jane (Eyre) vs. Jane (Austen) -- why not both? 43 5 The Brontes and the Visual Arts 44 3 The Brontes and the Visual Arts 45 1 Bronte Documentary 46 5 Hello from a newbie + The comments on A&E Jane Eyre that brought me here 47 2 Anne's age on gravestone a mistake? - it just doesn't add up! 53 14 Kate Bush's \"WH\" & Other Derivatives 54 12 Shirley (Spoilers) 55 5 Jane Eyre: Group Discussion Topics 56 5 Bronte manuscript discovered? 57 0 Meaning of \"Enough of Thought, Philosopher\" 58 6 Reading Jane Eyre (again) -- anyone want to read along? 59 1 Interesting theory on Heathcliff 60 1 Setting In Wuthering Heights 62 0 do the characters in WH represent the whole mankind? 63 6 I'm baaaccckk... 64 3 Poems 65 0 NEED HELP: regarding Cleopatra, Vashti in Villette 66 0 Emily Bronte ,strange feminist 67 1 WUTHERING HEIGHT 68 4 Jane Eyre,book and movies 69 0 please have a look at my Jane Eyre page! 70 0 questions about Shirley 71 0 Branwell Bronte"}, {"response": 43, "author": "linise", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (23:04)", "body": "Thanks so much! I am indeed new around here and just learning how to sort this all out!"}, {"response": 44, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (16:12)", "body": "Well don't be afraid to ask questions - we're here to help!"}, {"response": 45, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Dec  9, 2001 (17:01)", "body": "Welcome to the bronte conference. This file may be edited by a fairwitness. 1 brandnew item 68 items numbered 1-72 You are a fairwitness in this conference. Ok: r Item 72 entered Sun, Dec 9, 2001 (12:53) by Elena Sheehan (Rochelle1) Still out there? A couple of years down the track and I've finally found the Bronte Conference again. Of course, in the interim I've moved overseas and am now living in the UK - Amy, are you still out there? Ever check in? I've adopted Scarborough as a second home, and was up there on the 150th anniversary of Anne Bronte's death. In the bronte conference."}, {"response": 46, "author": "EllenAsh", "date": "Sun, Mar 23, 2003 (13:20)", "body": "Lucky you! I have yet to go -- on my own! I was wondering when this discussion would get back around to the question posed at the beginning. Austen believes in an afterlife: she just doesn't deal with it in her novels. Life and Death an Misery, yes. Anne Bronte did -- read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, esp. the chapter in which Gilbert and Helen discuss their \"reunion in heaven.\" :) Emily wrote about the possession of the beloved by the lover, rather than eternity. Branwell was a deathbed conversion. Charlotte . . . haven't picked up one of her books in while. Been too busy. Thanks for getting the ball rolling! Ellen Charlotte is rather clear about"}, {"response": 47, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (10:57)", "body": "about?"}, {"response": 48, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (09:20)", "body": "Bronte is picking up a bit. But it's only one or two posters."}, {"response": 49, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2007 (13:00)", "body": "Ann Haker and austen.com made the Tuesday, July 17, 2007 Edition of the NY Times. A World Without End For Fans of Jane Austen is the article by Pamela O'Connell. The article states \"The two largest libraries of Austen fan fiction can be found at Austen.com (austen .com) and The Republic of Pemberley (www.pemberley.com), noncommercial sites devoted to all things Jane.\" And Ann is quoted at length: \"Several explanations have been offered as to why Austen, who died in Winchester, England, in 1817 at age 41, has inspired such an explosion of fan writing. Ann Haker, the founder of Austen.com and a structural engineer in Minneapolis, points foremost to the dearth of Austen prose. ''Fanfic writers make no claims to be able to reach the literary heights of Miss Austen,'' she said. ''But we feel the need to expand on the world, the characters and the stories, that she created. There just is not enough of Jane Austen's own words to read, so we write our own.'' Congratulations Ann!"}, {"response": 50, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Wed, Jul 18, 2007 (19:49)", "body": "Yay!"}, {"response": 51, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Wed, Jul 25, 2007 (03:16)", "body": "it actually turned out to be a story from 2000 that showed up in my google news alerts as a news item. I kind of got caught in a time warp but I enjoyed seeing it anyway since I missed it at the turn of the millenium."}, {"response": 52, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Wed, Aug  1, 2007 (19:41)", "body": ":-)"}, {"response": 53, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Thu, Aug 30, 2007 (16:48)", "body": "That's what I said. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 27, "subject": "Bruce Chatwin", "response_count": 23, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 12, 2000 (16:15)", "body": "What do you want to know?? I'll have a thunk and see what i can come up with - too late now, my brain's going dead and I have someone waiting ...."}, {"response": 2, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (13:07)", "body": "Thank you Alexander for creating this topic.*beaming smile* Bruce Chatwin, as a writer has long intrigued me. My introduction to his work came through taking The Songlines out of our local library many years ago. From the first I was gripped by the heady combination of anthropology,, history, and just \ufffdpeople talk\ufffd. The concept of a travel novel with real people in it gripped me. There is almost an element of voyeurism in eavesdropping on his conversations with the people he met. I felt like a little person lodged in his rucksack peeping over his shoulder, and overhearing his conversations with people. Style wise his prose is direct and non-flowery. There is almost a tautness about it. Yet there is also a mental freedom to meander and just \ufffdbe\ufffd which is very restful. He uses some interesting devices to good effect. For example in the gentle, almost aimless meander of The Songlines, there is a whole chapter of journal notes which explore the concept of nomadism from the countries he visited all over the world. This device succeeds in placing what by then had becom a rather myopic look at aboriginal thought within the greater world context of nomadism, creating a change in the length of focus. It takes literary courage to break the narrative flow and introduce unrelated journal entries, but like most of what Chatwin has done, it works. Yet overall, there is little personal reflection but a mass of descriptive narrative, and at the end one still feels that the man himself has been obscured. We are seeing through his eyes, but not his mind. I have taken time to find out more about the man himself because this intrigued me, and I\ufffdll write about that later."}, {"response": 3, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (13:11)", "body": "Principal Works In Patagonia, London: Jonathan Cape, 1977. The Viceroy of Ouidah, London: Jonathan Cape, 1980. On the Black Hill, London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. Patagonia Revisited (by Bruce Chatwin and Paul Theroux), Salisbury, Michael Russell, 1985. The Songlines, London: Jonathan Cape, 1987. Utz, London: Jonathan Cape, 1988. What Am I Doing Here, London: Jonathan Cape, 1989. Nowhere is a Place: Travels in Patagonia [US edition of Patagonia Revisited with photos by Jeff Gnass and new introduction by Paul Theroux.], San Francisco: Yolla Bolly Press/Sierra Club Books, 1992. Photographs and Notebooks, London: Jonathan Cape, 1993. Far Journeys: Photographs and Notebooks [US edition of Photographs and Notebooks], New York: Viking, 1993. Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969 - 1989, London: Jonathan Cape, 1996. Catalogs, anthologies, smaller works, etc. Animal Style (Art From East to West) (Bruce Chatwin with Emma Bunker and Ann Farkas), New York: The Asia Society, Inc., 1970. \"The Guggenheim Family\" in Great American Families, New York: Times Books, 1978. Diary selections in Cobra Verde: Filmbuch, Schaffhausen, Edition Stemmle, 1987. John Pawson (by Bruce Chatwin and others, translated from Spanish by E. Bonet), Spain: Gustavo Gili, 1992. The Morality of Things - A Talk by Bruce Chatwin, Francestown, New Hampshire: Typographeum, 1993. The Attractions of France, London: Colophon Press, 1993. Prague, edited by John and Kirsten Miller, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994. Articles, stories, introductions, etc. \"The Bust of Sekhmet\", in Ivory Hammer 4: The Year at Sotheby's & Parke-Bernet 1965-66, London: Longman, 1966. \"Museums\", in Robert Allen & Quentin Guirdham (eds.), The London Spy - a discreet guide to the city's pleasures, London: Blond, 1971. \"The Estate of Maximilian Tod\", in Emma Tennant (ed.), Saturday Night Reader, London: W. H. Allen, 1979. \"Foreword\", in Lorenzo Ricciardi, The Voyage of the Mir-el-lah, London, Pan Books, 1980. \"Introduction\", in Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London, Pan Books, 1981. \"Howard Hodgkin\", in Michael Compton, Howard Hodgkin's Indian Leaves, London: Tate Gallery catalogue, 1982. \"Body and Eyes\", in Robert Mapplethorpe, Lady: Lisa Lyon, New York: Viking Press, 1983. \"Introduction\", in Osip Mandelstam, Journey to Armenia, London: Redstone Press, 1989. \"Introduction\", in Sybil Bedford, A Visit to Don Otavio, London: Folio Society, 1990. Work appearing in periodicals \"Gone to Timbuctoo\", in Vogue, July 1970. \"It's a Nomad Nomad Nomad NOMAD world\", in Vogue, December 1970. \"The Mechanics of Nomad Invasions\", in History Today, May 22, 1972. \"Surviving in Style\", in the Sunday Times magazine, March 4, 1973. \"Moscow's Unofficial Art\", in the Sunday Times magazine, May 6, 1973. \"One Million Years of Art\" (Bruce Chatwin, ed.), in the Sunday Times magazine, June 24 to August 26, 1973. \"Postscript to a Thousand Pictures\", in the Sunday Times magazine, August 26, 1973. \"Heavenly Horses\", in the Sunday Times magazine, September 9, 1973. \"Fatal Journey to Marseilles - North Africans in France\", in the Sunday Times magazine, January 6, 1974. \"The Oracle\", in the Sunday Times magazine, March 17, 1974. \"The Witness\", in the Sunday Times magazine, June 9, 1974. \"The Road to the Isles\". in the Times Literary Supplement, no. 3790, October 25, 1974. \"Man the Aggressor\", in the Sunday Times magazine, December 1, 1974. \"The Riddle of the Pampa\", in the Sunday Times magazine, October 26, 1975. \"The Guggenheim Saga\", in the Sunday Times magazine, November 23, 1975. \"The Anarchists of Patagonia\", in The Times Literary Supplement, no. 3903, December 31, 1976. \"Milk\", in London Magazine, August-September, 1977. \"Until My Blood is Pure\", in Bananas, no. 9, Winter, 1977. \"Perils of the Israeli Settlement\", in the Spectator, April 8, 1978. \"Western Approaches\", in the Radio Times, June 22, 1978. \"A Memory of Nadezhda Mandelstam\" and \"An Introduction to Journey to Armenia\", in Bananas, no. 11, Summer, 1978. \"The Quest for the Wolf Children\", in the Sunday Times magazine, July 30, 1978. \"On the Road with Mrs. Gandhi\", in the Sunday Times magazine, August 27, 1978. \"Bedouins\", in London Magazine, November, 1978. \"The Estate of Maximilian Tod\", in Triquarterly no 46, Fall, 1979. \"Abel the Nomad\", in the New York Review of Books, 22 November, 1979. \"Variations on an Id\ufffde Fixe\", in the New York Review of Books, November 22, 1979. \"An Aesthete at War\", in the New York Review of Books, March 5, 1981. \"Von Rezzori\", in Vogue, May, 1981. \"Donald Evans\", in the New York Review of Books, May 14, 1981. \"On the Black Hill\", in Harpers & Queen, October, 1982. \"A Visit to Wiesenthal\", in the Observer magazine, November 7, 1982. \"On Yeti Tracks\", in Esquire, 1983. \"Explorations of the Heart\", in Vogue, January 1983. \"Body Building Beautiful - Lisa Lyons and Robert Mapplethorpe\", in the Sunday Times magazine, April 17, 1983. \"I Always Wanted to Go to Patagonia - The Making of a Writer\", in the New York Times "}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (17:32)", "body": "this dude's been busy, eh? may have to check out some of his stuff...."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (17:35)", "body": "Me too, but my books are backed up and are circling the bed like a rampart. Better spend more time off-line so I can read...*sigh*"}, {"response": 6, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (21:31)", "body": "Sounds like a Bruce Chatwin anthology might be just the thing to take when planning to get stranded on a deserted island. *wink*"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (22:07)", "body": "I would think so..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (03:40)", "body": "The Making of a Writer; I Always Wanted to Go to Patagonia By BRUCE CHATWIN Bruce is a dog's name in England (not so in Australia) and was also the surname of our Scottish cousins. The etymology of ''Chatwin'' is obscure; but my bassoon-playing Uncle Robin maintained that ''chettewynde'' meant ''winding path'' in Anglo-Saxon. Our side of the family traces its descent from a Birmingham button maker, yet there is a dynasty of Mormon Chatwins in a remote part of Utah, and recently I heard of a Mr. and Mrs. Chatwin, trapeze artists. By the time my mother married into them, the Chatwins were ''Birmingham worthies,'' that is to say, professional people, architects and lawyers, who did not go in for trade. There were, however, scattered among my forebears and relatives, a number of legendary figures whose histories inflamed my imagination: 1. A nebulous French ancestor, M. de la Tournelle, supposed to have been mixed up in the affair of the Queen's Necklace. 2. Great-great-grandfather Mathieson, who, at the age of 71, won the tossing of the caber at the Highland Games and died promptly of a stroke. 3. Great-grandfather Milward - a man obsessed by money, Germany and music. He was the friend of Gounod and Adelina Patti. He also handled the affairs of the ninth Duke of Marlborough and came to New York to negotiate the marriage agreement between Consuelo Vanderbilt and the duke, who later sacked him for ''grose incompitance.'' One afternoon, while rummaging through an old tin trunk, I found his court suit and marcasite-handled sword. Dressed as a courtier, sword in hand, I dashed into the drawing room shouting, ''Look what I've found!'' - and was told to ''take those things off at once!'' Poor Great-grandpapa! His name was taboo. Convicted for fraud in 1902, he was allowed out of prison to die. 4. Cousin Charley Milward the Sailor, whose ship was wrecked at the entrance to the Strait of Magellan in 1898. I have written his story in ''In Patagonia.'' While British Consul in Punta Arenas de Chile, he sent home to my grandmother a fragment of giant sloth's skin which he had found, perfectly preserved, in a cave. I called it ''the piece of brontosaurus'' and set it at the center of my childhood bestiary. 5. Uncle Geoffrey. Arabist and desert traveler who, like T.E. Lawrence, was given a golden headdress (since sold) by the Emir Feisal. Died poor in Cairo. 6. Uncle Bickerton. Pick miner and bigamist. 7. Uncle Humphrey. Sad end in Africa. My earliest recollections date from 1942 and are of the sea. I was 2 years old. We were staying with my grandmother in furnished rooms on the seafront at Filey in Yorkshire. In the house next door lived the Free French, and the men of a Scottish regiment were stationed in dugouts across the street. I watched the convoys of gray ships as they passed to and fro along the horizon. Beyond the sea, I was told, lay Germany. My father was away at sea, fighting the Germans. I would wave at the ships as they vanished behind Flamborough Head, a long wall of cliffs that, if a footnote in the Edition Pleiade is correct, was the starting point for Rimbaud's prose poem ''Promontoire.'' At dusk my grandmother would draw the blackout material over the window, brood over a brown bakelite radio and listen to the BBC News. One evening, a bass voice announced, ''We have won a great victory.'' To celebrate the Battle of Alamein my mother and grandmother danced the Highland fling around the room - and I danced with my grandmother's stockings. My grandmother was an aberdonian; but her nose, her jaw, her burnished skin and jangly gold earrings, all gave her the appearance of a gypsy fortuneteller. She was, I should add, obsessed by gypsies. She was a fearless gambler, who, for want of other income, made a tidy living on the horses. She used to say that Catholics were heathens, and she had a sharp turn of phrase. One rainy day in 1944 we were sheltering in a phone booth when an ugly old woman pressed her nose to the pane. ''That woman,'' said my grandmother, ''has the face of a bull's behind with no tail to hide it.'' Her husband, Sam Turnell, was a sad-eyed solitary whose only real accomplishment was an impeccable tap dance. After the Battle of Britain he found employment as a salesman of memorial stained-glass windows. I worshiped him. Toward the end of the war, when we had rented, temporarily, a disused shop in Derbyshire, I acquired from him a love of long walks over the moors. Because we had neither home nor money, my mother and I drifted up and down England, staying with relations and friends. Home, for me, was a serviceman's canteen or a station platform piled with kit bags. Once, we visited my father on his minesweeper in Cardiff Harbor. He carried me up to the crow's nest and let me yell down the intercom to the ward-room. Perhaps, during those heady months before the Normandy landings, I caught a case of what Baudelaire calls ''La Grande Maladie: horreur du domicile.'' Certainly, when we moved into the g"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 19, 2000 (22:56)", "body": "If his books are half as interesting as his bio above he is a splendid read, indeed! Thanks, Maggie."}, {"response": 10, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (02:52)", "body": "He actually inspires me to keep a travel journal in Africa - maybe, someday ....."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Apr 20, 2000 (11:24)", "body": "Thesis first! I have the first installment which I should read instead of posting here...*sigh*"}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (14:49)", "body": "From Maggie: Portrait of Bruce Chatwin"}, {"response": 13, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (14:50)", "body": ""}, {"response": 14, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (16:32)", "body": "Sorta looks smouldering doesn't he. Anyway it goes with the article he wrote."}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (16:40)", "body": "It is always nice to have a face to go with the people in whom we are interested."}, {"response": 16, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (17:51)", "body": "Mmm I like this one! prefer dark hair normally though"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 23, 2000 (20:11)", "body": "UmmHmm"}, {"response": 18, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (15:26)", "body": "Definitely UmmHmm. He was quite a ladies man apparently. I'd have been in the queue."}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Apr 26, 2000 (15:27)", "body": "And, I right behind you (or beside you - your choice!)"}, {"response": 20, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (12:14)", "body": "Weeell the tales I've heard of him!!!!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Thu, Apr 27, 2000 (12:15)", "body": ""}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (14:24)", "body": "*whispering* tell me here and no one else shall ever know...*grin* From whence have you been banned? Or is it an 'in-house' ban ?!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Fri, Apr 28, 2000 (15:56)", "body": "books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 28, "subject": "Coffee Table Books", "response_count": 12, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Apr 13, 2000 (19:31)", "body": "I have a couple of books from National Geographic and I love them. As a child we had lots of books like this around and I could sit for hours getting lost in them. My grown up collection is slow growing but one book at a time!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Apr 16, 2000 (17:59)", "body": "Ooh, I have several from Britain and about Britain; and my favorite books, wherever from the air photography. Hawaii, London, Oahu, Britain, and Malta are some of them. Of course, Atlases, as well. Must have maps. Gotta have them from the Thomas Brothers Maps of California to the Ordnance Surveys of the UK. I definitely need an updated World Atlas...it keeps changing out there. Oh yes, and a splendid one on the Volcano (Kilauea) which contains a photo David took when Mauna Loa was erupting and the entire skyline above Hilo was outlined in active flow fronts. Most impressive...and most disquieting."}, {"response": 3, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (09:03)", "body": "I'm a map fanatic too. But I mostly just have maps, rather than books and atlases."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:24)", "body": "I have maps, too...loose ones which I store in an accordion-pleated whatevers (can't remember what they're called). I know where more obscure little islands in the world are by hunting for them on my maps during DXpeditions."}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:26)", "body": "and speaking of maps, do remember our map collecting topic in collections!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:53)", "body": "Not to mention the Cartography topic in Geo..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (18:49)", "body": "are those two topics attached?"}, {"response": 8, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (19:08)", "body": "No...none of the map topics are linked...Yours and mine should have been from the beginning, but when we were in the first frenzy of creation that July day, we did not think of linking..."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (20:39)", "body": "that's alright. i think yours is more along the lines of creating and mine's of keeping *grin*"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (21:00)", "body": "This is true...*s i g h*"}, {"response": 11, "author": "sociolingo", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (03:56)", "body": "My favourite coffee table books are of Gambia, predictably. I wallow in nostalgia sometimes. The others are mainly art books. I have a long shelf of large books, including the Anglo Saxon Chronicles which sort of counts."}, {"response": 12, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Apr 18, 2000 (15:47)", "body": "The Domesday Book is not in your collection???!!! That would surely qualify, but you'd have to mortgage the house to afford a copy - even the newly released one...! It would look nice beside the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, I think... books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 29, "subject": "stranded on an deserted island - what books?", "response_count": 7, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (07:55)", "body": "Topic suggested by Marcia."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:16)", "body": "Thank you! Now I really have to decide whether or not to take Mary Stewart's Trilogy plus the best World Atlas available,(probably National Geographic's)and probably should take a copy of The Bible. Subject to change, of course. But that is my first 5."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:24)", "body": "How to Survive on a Desert Island for Dummies... *laugh* i was hoping to get that in before anyone else *GRIN*"}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (11:51)", "body": "*LOL* Wolfie, I would not have thought of it. Must be a Larousse's Encyclodedia of Desert Island life, and the Zagat Guide to good food on same. How about a Fodor's Guide so you get the best of palm trees to shade you... Why not just take a laptop...or is that heresy (and where is the electricity?!)"}, {"response": 5, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (18:50)", "body": "well, they have batteries, but how would you get connected to the web?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (19:11)", "body": "Hey, Terry has a palm pilot which shoots straight for the satellite without a modem... But, you cannot surf the Spring very easily with it - or for very long..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Apr 17, 2000 (19:15)", "body": "...but it would not do. I could never again see remember buttons (if, indeed, I ever will again...) with the palm pilot. That is too big a loss to ask me to bear. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 3, "subject": "The book that I couldn't put down", "response_count": 67, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Wed, Nov  6, 1996 (08:46)", "body": "The 2nd reading of the Lord of the Rings was one of the most intensive ones in my life. Other books I just couldn\ufffdt stop reading have been \"Flowers for Algernon\" by Daniel Keyes, \"Consider Phlebas\" and \"The Player of Games\" by Ian M. Banks and Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe - that was a though nut! As you can see, I prefer science fiction - or preferred. At the moment I am in a nostalgic mood, reading old classics (Doyle, Goethe and Joyce)."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (09:48)", "body": "The Lost World by Michael Crichton. OK I'm revealing my pop culture affinity. It's the followup to Jurassic Park. I would call it a great book or anything, just kind of like watching a movie with a lot of action. Crichton usually throws in one page of deep philosophical thought about the state of the planet and this is my favorite portion of his books."}, {"response": 3, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (21:30)", "body": "I am reading Lost World aloud to my kids right now. They are both boys -- 7 and 12. The 12-year-old is a little math and computer geek whose hero is Ian Malcolm. I love Crichton's nerd characters too. I'd like to see Ian and Harry from Sphere meet in a story sometime. Maybe one could fall in love with Karen from Congo. Amy"}, {"response": 4, "author": "clueless", "date": "Thu, Jan 16, 1997 (15:33)", "body": "i couldn't put down Knight IN Shinig Armor by Jude deveraux. I cried like 50 billion times. And I really recommend it."}, {"response": 5, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Mon, Jan 20, 1997 (09:30)", "body": "Winnie the Pooh, definitely. Every time."}, {"response": 6, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (21:23)", "body": "Last book I couldn't put down was \"Guinevere\" by Laurel Phelan. It's not a novel, it's an autobiography.I'd be happy to dicuss it with anyone who has read it.It's fascinating, scary,historically correct,and I would recommend it to anyone."}, {"response": 7, "author": "Kayc", "date": "Fri, Mar 14, 1997 (10:36)", "body": "Beach Music by Pat Conroy was the last book that I couldn't put down. He is such a descriptive writer that I get lost in his world. I actually became part of it. The smells of the South Caroloina coast and the sounds of the Paizza in Rome, ahhhh take me away Conroy! I also have fond memories of reading Pilcher's Shell Seekers. I didn't want the book to end because it was like losing a best friend."}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 16, 1997 (22:08)", "body": "Tell us about Shell Seekers."}, {"response": 9, "author": "June", "date": "Tue, Jul  8, 1997 (15:58)", "body": "\"The Mists of Avalon\" by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Wonderful book! It gave me an interest in the legends of King Arthur that I never had before. I've tried to find other books on the subject (of which there are plenty), but none came close to captivating me so entirely."}, {"response": 10, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sat, Oct 11, 1997 (03:53)", "body": "You should try Norma Lorre Goodrich's \"King Arthur\" (Harper and Row, 1986). It is rather a scholarly book, but not as self-conciously ponderous as most. An enlightening, invigorating read (and it gets to the truth, I believe)..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Oct 12, 1997 (18:17)", "body": "OK, what I know about King Arthur comes from Monty Python (sorry, Nick), but I can give a thumbnail sketch of the Shell Seekers. Basically it's one of those books that covers two generations and how they reconcile the decisions they make in their lives. It is very charming and has \"miniseries\" written all over it. There was a sequel, \"September\", which was more obvious and less charming."}, {"response": 12, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (01:43)", "body": "Actually, anymore, I can't put down any books that I take the trouble to read. Doesn't matter what kind, either. I actually read cookbooks cover to cover. So, I have a tendency not to read anymore, as I don't sleep enough as it is. I've always held books, especially fiction, as my reality altering drug of choice. WER"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (04:23)", "body": "The book I most recently couldn't put down: 'When Things Fall Apart' by Pema Chodron (she spells her name with two dots over each o in her last name). ISBN-1-5-7062-160-8. $18. Shambala Press. It's about finding ways to communicate that lead to openness and true intimacy with others. Pema is at the Campo Abbey in Nova Scotia."}, {"response": 14, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (14:19)", "body": "I, too, tend to escape into a book for hours at a time. The one I remember staying up 'til the wee hours to read at one sitting was \"My Cousin Rachel,\" by Daphne DuMaurier. It was worth being a zombie the next day."}, {"response": 15, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (21:36)", "body": "quote from Pema Chodron: As human beings, not only do we seek resolution but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We donUt deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity. To the degree that weUve been avoiding uncertainty, weUre naturally going to have withdrawal symptoms -- withdrawal from always thinking that thereUs a problem and that someone, somewhere, needs to fix it. The middle way is wide open, but itUs tough going, because it goes against the grain of an ancient neurotic pattern that we all share. When we feel lonely, when we feel hopeless, what we want to do is move to the right or the left. We donUt want to sit and feel what we feel. We donUt want to go though the detox. Yet the middle way encourages us to do just that. It encourages us to awaken the bravery that exists in everyone without exception, including you and me. Meditation provides a way for us to train in the middle way -- in staying right on the spot. We are encouraged not to judge whatever arises in our mind; in fact, we are encouraged not to even grasp whatever arises in our mind. What we usually call good or bad we simply acknowledge as thinking, without all the usual drama that goes along with right and wrong. We are instructed to let the thoughts come and go as if touching a bubble with a feather. This straightforward discipline prepares us to stop struggling and discover a fresh, unbiased state of being."}, {"response": 16, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Oct 24, 1997 (16:02)", "body": "Damn, Paul! You really like this quote... 4th post I believe? Just giving you a hard time, I agree with the content completely!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 24, 1997 (16:08)", "body": "I think what you're seeing is that this topic is linked to other topics in other conferences. There are quite a few linked topics like this. Hey, give me a hard time all you want!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Oct 24, 1997 (16:33)", "body": "That sounds like an open invitation that I certainly make good on!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Oct 24, 1997 (18:10)", "body": "Open season, smack me around like a rag doll."}, {"response": 20, "author": "meeble", "date": "Sat, Oct 25, 1997 (23:48)", "body": "Out here, silence is the dimension in which we float. It billows above us like the sails of galleon earth, ballooning into the outer geography of the Milky Way: it washes us below where the opal runs in luminous veins; it strecthces west as far as the shores of the ice age, with nothing between then and now but powdering rock. Jannette Turner Hospital,,,OYSTER"}, {"response": 21, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (11:10)", "body": "Thank you for the quote. I enjoy being consumed by words to the point where I can see, smell, taste and hear them."}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (11:43)", "body": "That was a sensory experience with words, the milky way here last night was like millions of tiny sharp crystals penetrating the night sky above Cedar Creek, the chill air perked up my neurons and reached in and grabbed hold of my synapses. It was a gorgeous night."}, {"response": 23, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 18, 1997 (17:03)", "body": "Hi. Just wanted to say that I share Kayc's love of the works of Pat Conroy. I did not find BEACH MUSIC to be as devastating as THE PRINCE OF TIDES, but it was equally as mesmerizing. I grew up in the South, and I have encountered no other writer who can so vividly convey the psyche of the Southern Male. It still hurts to read THE PRINCE OF TIDES, but I always feel good about life when I have finished it. By the way, Kayc...I just tried to send you email but got back an unkonwn user error. Charlotte"}, {"response": 24, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Nov 18, 1997 (17:44)", "body": "I agree. Conroy is far and away my favorite contemporary writer (and a great Irishman)- and the only one I connect with, in any fashion (well, besides HST- but that's a diff. kind of connection)...The only problem with Conroy is that he works too damn slow (I've actually gone to the trouble of calling his publisher- you know, to find out what the hang-up is; the wait between The Prince Of Tides and Beach Music seemed interminable!) With the exception of Gatsby, I can't think of any book that begins more beautifully than Tides- simply an extraordinary book..."}, {"response": 25, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 18, 1997 (18:00)", "body": "How very odd to feel green and naive at my age! But who is \"HST\", Nick? I can't begrudge Conroy the time it takes between books. If they are so painful for us to read, imagine what he must go through to write them! On another topic: I loved the quote from OYSTER, by Jannette Turner Hospital, so I ran off to Amazon to order it. Guess what...it won't even be PUBLISHED until March of 1998!! So fess up, whoever posted that quote. How did you manage to read it?? Charlotte old and green AND jealous! :)"}, {"response": 26, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Nov 18, 1997 (18:38)", "body": "You're right, of course...Writers as fine as Conroy obviously require more time to complete their work (doesn't make the waiting any more bearable, though)... HST is Hunter Thompson (madman, drug addict, and genius- and creator of literature within the guise of \"gonzo journalism\")... The quote from Oyster was indeed lovely...According to Yahoo, excerpts from Oyster may be found at this address: http://www.thei.aust.com/isite/btl/btlinoysterex.html"}, {"response": 27, "author": "kayc", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 1997 (11:18)", "body": "Midnight in the Garden of Evil has been attached to my hands for the past few days. I finished it up last night so I can now resume my life. It was an amazing piece of work, diverse & rich with the sights, sounds and history of Savannah. I can still hear \"The Lady Chablis\" speaking in his/her?? warm southern drawl."}, {"response": 28, "author": "kayc", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 1997 (11:19)", "body": "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil has been attached to my hands for the past few days. I finished it up last night so I can now resume my life. It was an amazing piece of work, diverse & rich with the sights, sounds and history of Savannah. I can still hear \"The Lady Chablis\" speaking in his/her?? warm southern drawl."}, {"response": 29, "author": "kayc", "date": "Wed, Dec 17, 1997 (11:21)", "body": "Yikes, no editing time? Sorry about the duplicate post guys! Get rid of #27 for me if you can. Thanks"}, {"response": 30, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (12:53)", "body": "My all time can't put it down book was 30,000 on the hoof by Zane grey. When i picked it up i thought it was just another western. I didn't know then that his wife had written most of the books. any way It's about a woman who raises 3 sons out in the west. someone drops off [literally]a little girl.she raises her then would war 1 starts and the woman's life falls apart. the book is really about her survival of soul in a time when everyone is dying. boy it was a 5 hanky book."}, {"response": 31, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:26)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. Want to link us to your site? We would appreciate it! Want some banner art, all sizes? goto http://www.capitol-city.com/indexbnrs.html New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) Paul Terry Walhus - ( Internet & telecommunications specialist & owner of www.spring.com ) Do you want to write something about Austin, Art, Music or Life, give us a call! 219-1433 Thanks for your readership and thank you Austin Artists, for being so helpful as we continue to build this publication for you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 32, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, Jun 26, 1998 (01:18)", "body": "I'd like to recommend two books to you all. The author's name is Maria Doria Russell. The first book is The Sparrow , and its sequel, just published this spring, is Children of God . Rich, emotional, beautifully written...I haven't the talent to do just to a review. There are some excellent ones at Amazon.com, however. Has anyone else read these marvelous stories?"}, {"response": 33, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jul  3, 1998 (23:35)", "body": "Thanks for the recommendations, Charlotte, I have added them to my loooong library list, as usual! Just finished \"A Prayer for Owen Meany\" by John Irving while on vacation. Terrific! A little long (just shy of 600 pages), but well worth it. The funny thing is I started reading it in New Hampshire, and that's where the story takes place. Kinda funny reading about a place while you're there..."}, {"response": 34, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Sat, Jul  4, 1998 (00:01)", "body": "Thanks, Autumn! I had not heard of this book. I haven't read anything by Irving since Garp, so maybe it's about time, eh? I've added your suggestion to my long list. :) Next time you're at the library, see if you can snag a copy of The Perfect storm . Damn, I'm drawing a total blank on the author's name. Sebastian Junger, I think. Something like that. I ought not to be trying to think at this hour. :)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul  4, 1998 (01:28)", "body": "there's good hours for thinking?"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Sat, Jul  4, 1998 (11:52)", "body": "yeah. for me, they are between 6 and 10 am. :)"}, {"response": 37, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul  4, 1998 (13:37)", "body": "I kinda prefer those for sleepin'..."}, {"response": 38, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jul  9, 1998 (15:48)", "body": "just like all of Douglas Coupland's other novels, I picked up 'Girlfriend in a Coma' and did not put it down until I had finished (even skipped Ultimate Frisbee practice on Monday for it!) This one tends a bit more toward a surreal side I am less interested in but the charaters are strong (and stay with you forever) and the writing is smooth, dry and witty."}, {"response": 39, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Jul  9, 1998 (16:26)", "body": "I have never read any of Coupland's books. What is a good one to begin with?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jul  9, 1998 (19:10)", "body": "Microserfs was my favorite. But I suppose he is best known for Generation X"}, {"response": 41, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (10:45)", "body": "Yeah, \"Girlfriend\" was weird... which is alright by me. The characters are alright, but sometimes, you feel that not only the world in the BOOK undergoes certain events as punishment, to add it all up, but that Coupland actively punishes YOU, the reader, because you're the kind of non-caring bores that'll get all this to happen."}, {"response": 42, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (11:04)", "body": "I always hate it when authors try to lecture me, but do it so obvious, even I notice it. It's worse when they have a potentially great story line, very convincing protagonists and it should be a straight win, but they can't resist to make sure you got what kind of miserable miscreant you and your kind are. Now, T.C. Boyle has all the mentioned stuff in his book \"The Tortilla Curtain\", BUT: He doesn't need to lecture. The desparation his characters suffer - and most remarkably the destruction of conservationist-liberals beliefs - are very much results of the plot, which is extremely believable, but incredible at the same time (only once, when a Mexican talks to another IN SPANISH and uses \"inches\" as measurement, I wondered if that is an error - doesn't Mexico use the metric system?). This is the curse one in very dark, mean moments would wish to put on to some holier-than-thous with the proper beliefs. All events are rather ordinary, which is what makes this read the cruel horror it is - I felt at times so disgusted, moved and choked, I had to put the book away, so this wasn't actually the book I couldn't put down. It was the book I had to put down. Repeatedly. And pick up again, after about half an hour, until I was through."}, {"response": 43, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 11, 1999 (19:32)", "body": "I haven't had a truly captivating one all summer. Recently I read My Name is Asher Lev, The Shipping News, and Primal Fear , none of which I disliked or could heartily endorse."}, {"response": 44, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Thu, Aug 12, 1999 (05:55)", "body": "And why couln't you put them down? Kids put glue on the cover?"}, {"response": 45, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Aug 12, 1999 (17:12)", "body": "Oh Autumn! The Shipping News is one of the best books I've read in the last five or six years! I'm surprised that you aren't more enthusiastic about it! I just finished Mother of Pearl , Oprah's summer selection. It was very good, but I managed to put it down now and then. :) The best two books I've read in recent years: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver The Sparrow (and its sequel, Children of God by Mary Doria Russell"}, {"response": 46, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Aug 13, 1999 (23:54)", "body": "Oh, Charlotte, I loved The Poisonwood Bible ! I just couldn't get into Proulx's writing style in Shipping News , it was so clipped and terse. Something about her writing reminded me of Joyce Carol Oates, and the combination did not sit well with me. The best book I've read in the last year is definitely A Prayer for Owen Meany ."}, {"response": 47, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sat, Oct 23, 1999 (16:20)", "body": "Oh, i'm such a fortunate chap! Last week at the Frankfurt Book Fair - supposedly world's greatest, and judging from my sore feet and the complex survival tactics necessary it might be true - I got hold of Edward Bunker's autobiography Mr. Blue. My recommendation (don't know if it's out already - I got a proof print with photocopied cover...!). For the movie lovers, he's the guy who wrote the books Quentin Tarantino made his movies from - Bunker WAS Mr Blue in Reservoir Dogs in real life, and with 17 the youngest inmate in San Quentin. Extremely fascinating read - he is very intelligent and makes a good point. E.g. his \"Dog eat dog\" describing how thr three-strike rule actually changed criminal's behavior... He is a classic example of a person trained to be criminal by the way the state treated him. (Which is not the classic criminal, I'm not saying this, but his bio is in many parts identical to all those reform school kids, who end on the other side of the law, and live in- and outside of the correction system, never getting a foot into the door of \"normal\" life. superstar had an article on his books in 1997, and we'll review this one. There even is a chance of an interview ahead..."}, {"response": 48, "author": "Isabel", "date": "Mon, Oct 25, 1999 (11:47)", "body": "I love Quentin Tarantino films. I saw Pulp Fiction and From dusk till dawn. Great films! I haven't seen Reservoir Dogs yet, but it seems interesting! Anyone seen it?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "sheryltoo", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (07:48)", "body": "I couldn't put down Snow Falling on Cedars byt David Guterson. It's a story about a Japanese American on trial for murder not long after World War II and in a town still dealing with it's feelings about World War II. The book includes romance, mystery and history. I never was sure how it would end, which is one reason I couldn't put it down."}, {"response": 50, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Dec 14, 1999 (21:30)", "body": "Sounds really good Sheryl. I like mysteries."}, {"response": 51, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Dec 16, 1999 (16:05)", "body": "It was indeed a fine book. The prose is quite lyrical. I am anxious to read Guterson's latest novel, even though reviews do not compare it favorable with \"Cedars\". The film adaptation of Snow Falling on Cedars (starring Ethan Hawke) will be out this month."}, {"response": 52, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 17, 1999 (09:42)", "body": "I noticed Clive Custler has a book with an Atlantis scene, maybe a bestseller, has anyone read this on any of his books?"}, {"response": 53, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Mar 14, 2000 (14:26)", "body": "Thomas \"Eddie\" Shaw's bio, Black Monk Time - describing lives of ex-GIs who decided to become Germany's wildest Beat band in the mid-60ies. See also the Monks topic in Music Conf for more infos. Anyhow, this book is great. Eddie married soon after leaving the Army, a German girl, and that didn't make the road to stardom less rocky. Both went through interesting times, in the end moving to the States (much against her will) and burying this episode... The story of the monks is one of the grand tales of post WWII music biz. Nothing less."}, {"response": 54, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Mar 15, 2000 (17:01)", "body": "Little wonder you created a topic for them in Music Conf - you really did enjoy this book!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (04:13)", "body": "Oh, and the music is just encroyable! Looking back, you go, yeah, I kinda heard all this somewhere... But they did so much first! And all others were doing stuff like this later, most likely without knowing about the monks... Shows you a lot about the evolution of R'n'R - you can keep a good band down, but not a good sound!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 18, 2000 (15:09)", "body": "True! And, very interesting. It feeds on itself and manages to grow and mutate as it grows...very much like jazz..."}, {"response": 57, "author": "Ree", "date": "Fri, Mar 24, 2000 (04:15)", "body": "'If this is a man' by Primo Levi. 'Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite. Our ever-insufficient knowledge of the future opposes it: and this is called, in the one instance, hope, and in the other, uncertainty of the following day. The certainty of death opposes it: for it places a limit on every joy, but also on every grief. The inevitable material cares oppose it: for as they poison every lasting happiness, they equally assiduously distract us from our misfortunes and make our consciousness of them intermittent and hence supportable.'"}, {"response": 58, "author": "paul211b", "date": "Wed, Nov  8, 2000 (20:29)", "body": "Hi Terry If you are interested Clive Custler wrote a book called Atlantis found I have read it and can tell you its great, but before you read it I suggest getting Sahara by Clive Custler its one of the best books I have ever read."}, {"response": 59, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (06:41)", "body": "Hi all One book that I could not put down was the book \"Quake\", by Albert J Alletzhauser. It is about a massive earthquake in Tokyo and the aftermath. If you like colourful characters, with violence, sex, corruption, heroism and tragedy all in one place, this is for you. It is scary - Tokyo does exist on three tectonic plates and it is expecting a severe earthquake. Corruption does exist in building industries of many countries and some of the darker elements in Japanese society come out. A note of serious warning: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH. Rob"}, {"response": 60, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Mar 27, 2002 (15:35)", "body": "The book I couldnt put down was Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. Lots of history, adventure, romance, some sci-fi and, of course, lots of Scots. :-) Highly recommend! Excellent read."}, {"response": 61, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar 28, 2002 (19:29)", "body": "Oh my God, that was a page-turner! I just finished her fifth, The Fiery Cross and am still enthralled with Jamie and Claire's adventures."}, {"response": 62, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Mar 29, 2002 (10:53)", "body": "I've read the Fiery Cross twice now - it's great! and so long!!! :-) According to Diana's web site there's going to be a least 2 more books (yahoo!) taking them up through the American Revolution."}, {"response": 63, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (07:52)", "body": "I've read four. I have been avoiding The Fiery Cross because someone told me that Jamie dies in it. I've been in love with Jamie since Outlander, in a virtual way, of course, and I'm just not ready for the pain. :) But I agree...superb books, all."}, {"response": 64, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "Why would someone tell you that?!? It ain't so, Charlotte! Get yourself to the library, girl! I'm starting Mistress of Spices by Chitra Divakaruni, one of my favorite contemporary authors. Her novels are set in India and are full of sensory experiences--tastes, smells, images...incredible!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Apr  1, 2002 (12:52)", "body": "Charlotte! How horrible to think Jamie dead! I can assure you he's alive and well. :-) i've been in 'virtual love' with the man myself since discovering Outlander. I thought one of the most interesting things in Fiery Cross was the way his relationship with Roger developes - and of course his constantly deepening love for Claire (lucky woman!) Autumn, havent read anything by Chitra Divakaruni- will keep an eye out for her books in the future. Meanwhile, i'm dying waiting for Hard Eight to come out. Does anybody else read Janet Evanovich?? The Stephine Plum series is another one that i couldnt put down. Never laughed so hard in my life as i did reading those books -Step and Lulu absolutely kill me. :-)"}, {"response": 66, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (04:21)", "body": "Hi all Anyone into naval techo-thrillers? I want to recommend the following trio of books, all by Patrick Robinson. Mr Robinson has written Nimitz Class, Kilo Class, USS Seawolf, and HMS Unseen. Nimitz Class is the tale of a nuclear powered aircraft carrier that vanishes in a mysterious nuclear explosion. Ironically it is set in 2002. Kilo Class is about the demise of some submarines that China has ordered to block the Taiwan Strait and the US Navy response. USS Seawolf is a tale of a USN submarine that in Chinese waters that is captured and the rescue of the crew. There is corruption that goes all the way to the Oval Office. Rob"}, {"response": 67, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (05:24)", "body": "I keep rereading the article in the New Yorker about Leigh Fermor. Probably because it's next to my toilet. from the wikipedia.org Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor, known as 'Paddy', (born 11 February 1915, London) is a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Battle of Crete during World War II. He is famous in the genre of travel literature. Leigh Fermor's father, Sir Lewis, was a distinguished geologist. Shortly after his birth, his mother left to join his father in India, leaving him behind with another family. As a child, Leigh Fermor had problems with academic structure and limitations. As a result, he was sent to a school for difficult children. He was thrown out of his school, The King's School, Canterbury, for holding hands with a local greengrocer's daughter. He carried on educating himself, reading texts on Greek, Latin, Shakespeare and History with the plan for him to get into Sandhurst, the Military Academy. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 30, "subject": "Have you ever read a *great* book that change your life forever?", "response_count": 14, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Oct 14, 2000 (22:07)", "body": "excuse me? how did we get spammed?"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Oct 15, 2000 (00:01)", "body": "Terry, is no one in charge of this conference? Kill this topic??? If he(?) can create it 'off the streets' I can kill it. If you don't let me know why!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Nov 26, 2000 (01:02)", "body": "I think we should carry the topic on. Except here :-) Books that changed my life forever: 1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 2. Some book I read as a teenager which, I think, was the only book to ever make me cry like a baby :-) ...can't think of any more right now. Will investigate my brain a bit more..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (08:04)", "body": "What was the name of book 2 (the one that made you cry)?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (11:37)", "body": "Ummm....racks brains... ...searches amazon... Too Young to Die (I'm sure I've mentioned this book in another thread) and the sequel Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever It's about a girl my age (at the time) who gets Leukemia and about her life."}, {"response": 6, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (11:40)", "body": "The author is Lurlene McDaniel (that's how I found it)"}, {"response": 7, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (14:02)", "body": "No one has mentined The Holy Bible?! Interesting. I am still thinking. \"Gods Graves and Scholars\" was mine I think but I never did become an archaeologist... Mike, you're right - this IS turning into an interesting topic!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Nov 27, 2000 (17:49)", "body": "Mike, your #2 above reminded me of a book I read in High School that changed my life. Until I read it, my reading was limited to sci-fi/fantasy, but my English teacher got tired of those book reviews and forced me to expand my horizons. So I read DEATH BE NOT PROUD, by John Gunther. It remains one of the most poignant books I've ever read. Mr. Gunther is (was?) a noted travel journalist, author of INSIDE U.S.A, INSIDE SOUTH AMERICA, INSIDE AUSTRALIA, among others. DEATH BE NOT PROUD is a memoir, a chronicle of his young son's battle with a brain tumor that took his life at age 17. The boy was a certified genius; he corresponded with Albert Einstein and had been accepted to Harvard AND Yale. The book will break your heart, but it will also remind you of the phenomenal strength of the human spirit. Charlotte"}, {"response": 9, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Nov 28, 2000 (01:31)", "body": "DEATH BE NOT PROUD I will look that one up. Sounds good."}, {"response": 10, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 28, 2000 (11:19)", "body": "It was once out of print, but has been reprinted in hardcover and paperback. Amazon has both in stock."}, {"response": 11, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Dec  2, 2000 (03:58)", "body": "woohoo! get thee to a web browser..."}, {"response": 12, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Dec 17, 2000 (22:02)", "body": "Death be not Proud was required reading when I was in middle school. It was pretty heavy compared to most of the stuff we had to read. This topic is so broad! I think most of the books I read somehow change my world view or inner view...it's rare that one doesn't make some kind of mark on my psyche."}, {"response": 13, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Jan 23, 2001 (15:39)", "body": "High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Changed my view of women forever :-)"}, {"response": 14, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jan 28, 2001 (22:05)", "body": "LOL!! That was a good book, Mike. Can't wait to see the movie (LOVE John Cusack)!!! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 31, "subject": "BB&H", "response_count": 118, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (18:33)", "body": "this is a continuation and new topic as discussed in the books topic \"what are you reading now\"...or something like that :) as i said in that topic, i am ready for more info. as a child of a WWII produced German Mother, all the stuff that went on intrigues me. i wonder how much of it she endured (born in 1950) and how much my own Oma and Opa endured. it had to have been tough for them. Opa worked in the Black Forest after fighting in that war (which cost him a leg--the war, not the forest). so Mr. Neuman, please come in and join us (mainly Marcia and i) as we discuss your book and the events that passed therein."}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (19:08)", "body": "I will inform the author that he site is up and running. Ok Wolfie, how come you can create topics in books and I can't? Keeping the Hawaiian riff-raff out again or is it something I am just not old enough to understand yet? ;) My review of the book for Amazon.com (I REALLY liked this book) \"Bastards, Bitches, and Heroes\" touched me on so many profound levels that I am in the process of sending copies to friends. It is not a wallow for sympathy but rather, a bemused sardonic narration of survival. It is told in the most palatable way possible to enable those who will to see and understand.... ...I am grateful for his sharing this harrowing and eventually triumphant memoir with us. That he has, has brought a new dimension and appreciation to my life. This book belongs in every school and in every home. Too many generations have forgotten the horrific price war exacts from the innocent. In every way, this is an important book through the eyes of a survivor. My grateful thanks to Mr Herman I Neuman for taking the incredibly difficult task in hand; to remember and share this book with us. BB&H is a book not only of great courage, but in true survival and creating Heroes where none wanted to exist. \" M. E. Hemming, Hawaii"}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, May 27, 2001 (21:50)", "body": "marcia, i dunno why it let me create a topic. you mentioned in the \"what are you reading now\" topic that you didn't see the buttons but they're there now. maybe that was it. wonder why they didn't show up for you? that's really strange. i really liked this book too."}, {"response": 4, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (09:44)", "body": "Thank Marcia /\\~~~ (little Kilauea) and Wolfie for starting this thread, for your great interest in my memoir, and in promoting it to others. Here's a link to it http://herobooks.com/ . My book's title is somewhat controversial; I had to deliver it to one lady in a plain brown wrapper. I could have asked her what she would call her father if threatened to kill her? What would she call having to squat in an attic, against the owner's will, for a year without sewer, water, power, heat or hope? And what would she call those people who sent my little brother, brain-whacked mother into this little wonderful abode by making us homeless? And then sent him and me into exile and slavery? I live in an isolated small town and yesterday held my 3rd day of book signing here. People bought many more books than I had hoped for. Many of those who have read it, feel much the same about it as Marcia and Wolfie, but from their own perspectives (backgrounds.) A number of them bought 2 or 3 copies. This town is abuzz. How can I keep a low profile? For years I have been searching for someone who endured as much as we, for such a long time, alone, and unnecessarily so, because of a few people who were in denial that they were creating reluctant heroes? We triumphed greatly, Siggi and I. Life is a blast!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (10:14)", "body": "What town are you living in now, Herman? What's the population there?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (10:39)", "body": "Before reading my eye-popping memoir, BB&H, please read the poem September 1, 1939 Thank you, Herman"}, {"response": 7, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (10:51)", "body": "Southern Idaho. Population 815. People who like four seasons, fishing, hunting, skiing, golfing and other outdoor activities retire here: http://www.northrim.net/parkplace/ Herman"}, {"response": 8, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (16:30)", "body": "i printed a copy of that poem to go with the book. you're never going to keep a low profile in a small town! do your book signing in the big cities and live in the small town *laugh* i'm glad you're book is well-received. your book prompts others to want to share their histories but one may be reluctant because theirs might not equal the magnitude of yours. but, different things affect people differently--what may have been traumatic for me may not have been for you. even in my family, children were not allowed to think for themselves. no wonder we didn't have the first clue what to do when we were old enough to leave!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (16:33)", "body": "Aloha Herman! *hugs* for posting here! I am remiss in not posting the link to teh Auden work you posted above. As for the second link, I did go there and I am so envious. You have FOSSILS!!! You even have a Fossil Gulch I see. Wow! I'm gonna hitch a ride on the next whale eastbound to see for myself. Wonder if my rock hammer will get me into trouble staying afloat?! Back to the book. Lots and lots of war footage going on this weekend and I can hardly stand to watch it. It is not just planes and dropping bombs. There are innocent people down there getting the *bleep* scared out of them in rumbling shaking dark bunkers. I shall think of you in your book forever when I see these old movies and newsreels. My reaction is now to recoil in horror. It is a hollow victory in any case. Your book has brought the true cost of domination of one over another."}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (22:00)", "body": "I printed out the poem and made it part of me before my first copy arrived. (So far I have purchased three but sent Wolfie one). Good for you, dear, Kilauea Iki (little Kilauea in Hawaiian) is grateful for your success. It is about time you had your share of adulation. Suffer us kindly - I will try to be modest about my hero Worship as much as possible. The most difficult part of the book for me was when you were sent to America. I was devastated by what happened to you here. I closed the book - it was late evening and thought I cannot get through this part... then remembered you had. So I sat in the night reading until you emerged out of your tunnel into the light again. Anguish was knowing you personally and caring about your life. Relief was knowing that your told me it ended happily. I got a very cold stare from the house male when he saw the cover, so I read him the definitions you wrote in the front of the book. He said no more. Have tried to get him to read it but... he does not read books or much of anything. A waste of time! No plain brown wrapper for me. Anyone who dares ask about the cover will get a book to read pressed into their hands. Good for you! In fact, I will past the cover here if I have Terry's permission. It is stark but so is the life inside the covers. Open your eyes and read and learn lest this happen again!"}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (22:04)", "body": "Yeah, I think you blew your anonymity. No putting this genie back inthe bottle!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, May 28, 2001 (22:12)", "body": "caught Angela's Ashes tonight which made me think of this book. it's about an Irish family come to America only to go back to Ireland. like Marcia said, Mr. Neuman, please suffer us kindly and nevermind our probing and questions and discussions...we are honored to have you here with us."}, {"response": 13, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (00:04)", "body": "I recently found this site: http://www.publink.net/ . I hope that this link will display correctly after I send it. It lists many, if not most of physical bookstores in the USA. They all seem to be listing BB&H, including \"Christian\" and \"feminist\" ones. It seems that the publisher's editor was correct in her assessment that BB&H (\"Fatherless Children, Female Dogs, and Heroes\" for this book conference)would have a broad appeal. Yippee! I also read Angela's Ashes. Frank has an amazing humor and a real sparkle in his eyes. His writng style is unusual in that he wrote it in the present tense and used no quote marks for his dialogues."}, {"response": 14, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (00:13)", "body": "Dear Kilauea Iki and Wolfie, I enjoy your company and am honored by your interest in my story. You already know about all of my skeletons, and so do many in my village. I am poud of them, of most of my skeletons."}, {"response": 15, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (00:28)", "body": "To find my memoir at physical independent bookstores, go to BookSite Stores in the upper right corner of publink.net. Click on the bookstore you want to visit and cut and paste: \"Bas*, *itches, and Heroes: A Memoir\" into the search field."}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (10:50)", "body": "I've not read AA but the movie was so well done that I am interested in the book as well. Am glad that you have reached an agreement with the skeletons. That is a difficult task at best. Too many people allow their skeletons control and forget who's really responsible (i.e., the devil made me do it)."}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (14:47)", "body": "Wolfie, \"...But we did not think of it...\" is more appropriate for Herman. I love the guys who use \"The Devil made me do it\" then smile unremorsefully and usually in more than a little bit naughty manner. Ami and Siggi did not think of trashing, shooting, arson or any of the seven deadly sins because they had character! Heroes all do, you know! By the way, I have to say at this point that this is not only a fantastic read, it is also funny in the oddest places. The events surely are not always pleasant, but the author's telling of the tale is what makes this book wonderful to read. It elicited laughter on many occasions and I felt a little guilty about it. This is by no stretch of the imagination a depressing book. It is uplifting and illuminating in ways I did not begin to understand until I got into it. (I do like this book!)"}, {"response": 18, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, May 29, 2001 (14:49)", "body": "Herman, send any further skelatons around to see me. I have a handy volcano just for such occasions. It even hides the evidence!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (11:33)", "body": "Dear Marcia, You have read about all of my skeletons. My comm problems must have been somewhere else, they seem to have been resolved. Herman"}, {"response": 20, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, May 30, 2001 (19:31)", "body": "Good to hear on both parts. If any of them hang around send them to me! Re the article below, too bad they cannot give you back your childhood! Unfortunately, it is not the perpetrators who will be paying the bill. It is the tax payers, as usual... German Parliament Clears Nazi Payments BERLIN (AP) - Extending a historic gesture to a long-ignored group of Holocaust survivors, German lawmakers on Wednesday removed the final obstacle to payments compensating men and women forced into labor by the Nazis during World War II. After months of wrangling over a $4.6 billion fund sparked by U.S. lawsuits against German companies, payouts are now expected to start next month to what could be more than 1 million forced and slave laborers, most in eastern Europe. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, speaking before Parliament voted, expressed satisfaction that a new Germany - symbolized by Berlin's revival as the capital - had stepped up to show responsibility for its past even 56 years after the war's end. More... http://my.aol.com/news/news_story.psp?type=1&cat=0600&id=0105301525561648"}, {"response": 21, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (08:24)", "body": "Dear Marcia /\\~~~, I queried that Bell Website for the author who wrote about his indentured servitude but received no response. I may need to build up a case for the time when the Schitzmas might come out the manureworks to further enhance my life. So I'll keep searching. Hugs, Ami"}, {"response": 22, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (10:00)", "body": "the Schitzmas are still on your case? oh dear!!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sat, Jun  2, 2001 (18:25)", "body": "Dear /\\~~~ iki, No, but they might. An aside: Sadly, from my perspective, ever more people are becoming ever more clueless about more and more \"whatevers.\""}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jun  4, 2001 (16:57)", "body": "Please let me know how to help you in the search for your ammunition and armor against the possible eventuality of the Schitzmas hitting the fan. You know I am four-square in your corner and have the time to devote to it. Let me know if you wish any more information. meanwhile I will hunt up more on \"involuntary servitude\" to see what I can find. I would fight a thousand times more on your behalf than I would on my own. Ok, what's the deal on the T-shirts? Where do I buy one? /\\~~~ iki building up magma for the eventuality."}, {"response": 25, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (09:55)", "body": "This has been one of MY many experiences: As an architect during reconstruction of Germany after WWII, my father made a lot of money. After many court processes, he managed to divorce my mother leaving her, my little brother and me homeless. We had to squat in a stranger's attic without ANY utilities. This in spite the law."}, {"response": 26, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (10:05)", "body": "Why? Maybe because one of father's lawyers for ten years was a good friend of the famous Chancellor Adenauer. Mother's lawyers were assigned to her under the poverty right laws."}, {"response": 27, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (10:13)", "body": "That was a little too much justice for him and not enough for the three of us. Father remarried. My second mother then divorced him, taking his stuccoed and plastered, three-story concrete block and baked clay tile house, his architectural practice and his Mercedes with her. That was a little too much justice for her and not enough for him."}, {"response": 28, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (10:34)", "body": "Why? Maybe because one of father's lawyers for ten years was a good friend of the famous Chancellor Adenauer. Mother's lawyers were assigned to her under the poverty right laws."}, {"response": 29, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (10:38)", "body": "For my family there were more, many more such wonderfully interesting injustices under the laws. In desparation our mother sent my little brother and me to our relatives America. They enslaved us in involuntary servitude."}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (14:06)", "body": "Involuntary servitude sounds way too good for what they did to you. Their animals were treated better, and that is not saying much! I am not a milk drinker, and now I definitely am not. That they separated you from your brother was the worst of all. This had to be the most difficult part of the book for me. It seemed totally devoid of hope and you were in America existing this way.I wonder how many creative minds are wasting away in this sorry state even today in our land of the free and the home of the brave. *HUGS* Totally off that part of the book, I remembered going back to the student union cafeteria where we all ate and listened to music and had fun. It seemed lifeless and full of strangers, just as yours had been. I guess we have to take all the people we knew back then with us. Fun seems to have gone out of college life - at least, the innocent sort. How very sad! Thomas Wolfe said you can't go home again. In my case it is true. Still, college has always had a very strong appeal to me since I have spent all of my grown life in academe. My best to you and Siggi..."}, {"response": 31, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (21:27)", "body": "*HUGS* Ami and Siggi.... i really don't know much about how Germany operates and i lived there til i was 9! my grandparents and parents believed in the rod and used it at will. (although we weren't beaten, just welted once in a while). from a couple of conversations with my mother, she had her share of the rod as well...hairbrushes, wooden spoons....opa was a hard, proud german, oma was soft and warm. they treated me better than they did my mother, i think. and yes, i got money for christmas, easter, birthdays, etc. my mother told me it would stop when i reached a certain age but never told me what that age was. oma still sends money but mainly for my kids (though she sends some for me at christmas).....what i found interesting, Ami (if i may call you that), was at one point in your book, you said that parents were required to support their children monetarily (pay their kids) or something like that. makes me wonder if these gifts were because of that. gosh, i hope it was out of the goodness of their hearts. and you talked about the cranes rebuilding. i went over last summer and the cranes of my childhood were still there! *laugh*"}, {"response": 32, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (21:37)", "body": "Those cranes reminded me of the Temporaty buildings they put up at Penn State for the influx of new student GI's returning to college after the war. They are still there and still called \"Temp\" Wolfie, you said your kids were delivered through the grace of German engineering. May they last 1000 years like the buildings Ami commented on seeing in post-war Germany."}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (21:45)", "body": "I should ask my prospective daughter-in-law if the cranes are still in her part of Bavaria. Very near Regensberg, actually! Speaking of Gernamy and my ignorance of 3/4 of my genes' origin, I thought High German was spoken in the area at the top of the map when I was a kid. When I re-read this book with map in hand, it occurred to me the Alps might have had something to do with it... This book is educational in so many ways!!!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (23:18)", "body": "I thought that too! I thought Swabish was southern german and hoch deutsch (sp) was for the northerners. My relatives (this past summer) were surprised that I spoke broken Swabish!! I would never survive in a German college course! (Ami, everyone on Opa's side came from Stuttgart-I was born there too. Can't remember where Oma's family came from-I thought it was Stuttgart as well. Members of both families live in Nurnberg (sp)--my apologies for mispelling)"}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun  6, 2001 (23:46)", "body": "Wolfie, please don't apologize for speaking broken Swabian. Imagine how you could confound the traffic guys if they ever pull you over. The likelihood of your meeting up with a police officer who also speaks broken Swabian is about nil. I wish I could speak anything else. I can read a few languages poorly, but that is just about it. Besides, you're prettier than any other Swabian-speaker that I know! *Hugs* Ami and Siggi.. I need them even if you don't!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (10:30)", "body": "High German is taught in all schools, even where Low German is spoken in North Germany. Low German seems to be more closely related to Dutch than to High German. There are many dialects or colloquial variations of High German, among which Swabian is but one. These are only spoken and rarely if ever written. But the German language has mutated so much that I would not be able to speak it very well any more, even if I could recall many of the \"old\" German words. This language is now riddled with English because of TV and frequent world-wide traveling by many Germans, an activity far fewer Americans seem to be able to afford."}, {"response": 37, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (19:49)", "body": "(marcia, i was apologizing for not being able to spell!) i can pull the basics out of a conversation but to quote word for word, nope, lost all that. i wish my mom had taught it to us but she believed that we're in the states and will speak german. guess she forgot i would talk to or write to my grandparents one day!"}, {"response": 38, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (20:28)", "body": "Your Mom did you a service in integrating you into the American mainstream. We are now a nation divided by many languages and it is getting worse. It is sad that there was not some way to speak your mother tongue at home and still retain it. I know a very bright man who heard only a foreign language at home. It so impeded his learning of English that it kept him out of college on the basis of English alone. That is very sad. (Marcia apologizing for dyslectic fingers)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (20:30)", "body": "America is the only country on earth that does not require at least one other language on the elementary level. That is unfortunate!"}, {"response": 40, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (22:31)", "body": "i meant to say, way up there, that we will speak English. and that's fine, i understand that perfectly, but, at the same time, it would've been nice to have been taught our native language so that we could converse with our relatives over there. then, i wouldn't have lost so much that i can barely write letters (via a translation software program which doesn't put sentences in proper syntax so i sound like a cave woman)"}, {"response": 41, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun  7, 2001 (22:47)", "body": "Yes, Wolfie, I know... and understood that nothing works like learning a language as a child. I would have loved to have learned another language. (yeah, Waaaaaaaaay back there before I got messing around with the posts. *sorry smile*"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (17:12)", "body": "Happy Birthday, Wolfie!!! Hauoli Na Hanau *Hugs*"}, {"response": 43, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (18:25)", "body": "thanks sweetie! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 44, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jun  8, 2001 (19:13)", "body": "It warn't purple but that one WAS centered! *Hugs* back"}, {"response": 45, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (17:59)", "body": "Herman, avoid at all costs seeing \"Pearl Harbor\". It also contains air raid sirens (the hand cranked variety of which you were so familiar) and you don't need to see the rest. I could not help but think of you all during the movie. No matter the foe, unless we strip the war lords naked and make them negotiate in a room all by themselves, the future generations will continue to die and the old men will wage war for self-glory and control."}, {"response": 46, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (23:22)", "body": "Thank you /\\~~~ iki, I think that at this point in time such sirens would be more agonizing for me than the festivities they announced. What a vision! Fat old men, grunting and groaning, wearing only \"athletic supporters\" and diamond rings on their pinkeys, the military-industrial complex that Ike warned us about, pummelling each other with pisspots, roadkill sailcats and other ersatz war materiel. A frenzy of voters, taxpayers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters cheering and jeering from the sidelines. Last man with his toupee in place, wins."}, {"response": 47, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jun 10, 2001 (23:43)", "body": "I worried about you through the entire movie. Ended up hugging myself for you. What an image that is!!! Beats scaring little children and killing off the best and brightest of our next generations! I have found another reader of your book for you as soon as I can get it to her!"}, {"response": 48, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (09:26)", "body": "Dear Readers, I have a question that I have been trying to get anwsered for years. I was bombed, beaten and starved into submission, so much so that I used to stutter. But now I want to shout about what my experiences have taught me, and why I remained so sane, even without \"parental guidence,\" counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists or self-help books. I am still too humble to shout about myself, but fortunately, evermore people are doing so on my behalf. Here's but the latest example of this from my publisher's message board about my memoir, BB&H: \"...Move over Frank McCourt. This has the very strong potential of becoming a best seller and a movie. Don't ever stop marketing it...\" Carol Kluz, Author of three suspense and mystery novels. I would like to thank, from the bottom of heart, all of those who are helping to promote my memoir. I especially want to give many hugs to Marica (kilauea iki) who is my most enthusiastic fan. Please help her triumph over the B's and B's in her life. My question: Why did I remain so \"normal\" and enjoy life so much, when I should be a raving maniac?"}, {"response": 49, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (09:32)", "body": "You probably have some innate resiliency and toughness to make it through all these events. Do you work on promoting the book full time? What are your main pastimes?"}, {"response": 50, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (15:16)", "body": "Herman, your character had everything to do with your tenacity and sanity. Your ability to be resiliant and educable when others would have crumbled and given up. Why do some apparenly healthy people commit suicide? Personality is a complex thing. Character is even less quantifiable. Your had your father's intelligence and your mother's tenacity. Some where in the mix each one's bad characteristics were left out of your genes or whatever it is that makes us what we are. Some lean on religion for the reason. I truly don't know, but Tery's suggestion that your innate resiliancy is what brought you to where you are. Happily for us, you are willing to share this remarkable life with us. Had I any less chatacter, I'd become a \"groupie\" and follow you around. Beware, they are bound to be out there! I think you are more than capable of defending yourself. If not, I will come to your rescue. Now, to get the book mailed to the next regular poster of things interesting. She is most eager to read it. Terry, he was up to here in Strawberry jam when last I spoke to him on Instant Messages. There is no end to Herman's resourcefulness. *HUGS*"}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (19:23)", "body": "that's wonderful about your reviews Herman! goodie goodie!! i am glad you survived the B&B's and came out of it scarred but otherwise unscathed. it just shows that the human spirit is strong. and, perhaps, because you didn't know any better? because when you were small, you thought everyone had a life like yours? that's what i thought anyway and a strong faith is what got me through my B&B's and is still doing so. i really didn't know any better and when i did find out, i knew, inately perhaps, how to survive it until i would be free of it. i can definitely see your memoir become a movie. i was imagining that the whole time i was reading it!"}, {"response": 52, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 13, 2001 (23:31)", "body": "I am still waiting to see who get to play Herman's part riding into the sunset of a life restored and fulfilled! Cheryl, your book is on its way to you!"}, {"response": 53, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (10:11)", "body": "Do you work on promoting the book full time? What are your main pastimes? Dear Terry, Promoting BB&H: At this time only as time allows and mostly over the Internet. I have four book signings scheduled in July, one of which is in Sun Valley/Ketchum, ID, where Bruce Willis will be soujourning at that time. A few years ago he filmed a movie in our area. Hopefully he will take notice of my memoir. It seems to be true that good books sell themselves. Locally BB&H is a run-away seller with many people buying multiple copies, and it hasn't yet been written about in any newspapers. However, one of our area newspaper editors requested a copy to read so he can do a feature article. Main pastimes: Have not much time for that during summer months because of other commitments. But I have climbed Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams and others. My wife of almost thirty-six years and I have toured about forty countries and cruised up the Rio Dolce to Guatemala, and last year I rafted down the Colorado River with friends and relatives. We have a big garden, and I run with my dog up and down the Snake River and other cayons during the winter months; we love it. My wife and I have been horseback riding there and as well as in other places. Two years ago I finished the 7 1/2-mile SF Bay-to-Breakers run in the top 10% of male runner of all age groups, even though I jog only a few months each year. Life is a blast!"}, {"response": 54, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (10:18)", "body": "Dear Terry, Are you at MIT and associated with Phillip Greenspun, progammer, teacher, writer, .... extraordonaire?"}, {"response": 55, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (10:55)", "body": "Nope, I know of Philip Greenspun and his fine websites/services but I'm not associated. It really does sound like you're having a blast with all these activities, maybe Bruce is looking for books that can be turned in to movie scripts? And you're keeping fit, it sounds like!"}, {"response": 56, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (15:34)", "body": "No wonder Herman is my HERO in capital letters. The man is good in all departments to which I am privy. Cheryl, you book is on its way. I sent you the tracking information. Oh, I meant to ask... Herman, if I buy your book from http://www.herobooks.com do you get to keep more of it than when I buy it from Amazon.com? I used amazon last evening to expedite the order. I will use Herobooks from now on if you get to keep more of the price of the book - which only makes sense. Sorry I did not think of it earlier! *Warm Sunny Hugs*"}, {"response": 57, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (15:58)", "body": "Dear Terry, Are you at MIT and associated with Phillip Greenspun, progammer, teacher, writer, .... extraordonaire?"}, {"response": 58, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (18:58)", "body": "Terry, I am sorry. I don't know how my question to you was sent twice. I was not even online, was one mile away from my PC, at the time that it was sent the second time. Cat walked on my keyboard? Dear /\\~~~iki, yes I do earn a bigger percentage if you order from http://www.herobooks.com because I can order larger quantities. But I think that it helps my sales ratings if you order through any online or physical bookstore. At this time this is more important than a few dollars. Thank you for asking, you are so kind! I'll be riding into the sunset for at least the next forty years; even considering how my horses have stumbled, bucked, and run away with me. A friend gave me a wild mustang. She ran away with me in Ruby Valley, Nevada, when no one else was in sight for miles. What a sweet liitle girl she was! Yehaaaaa!"}, {"response": 59, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (19:20)", "body": "Herman, Dear one, you were motivated to write this extraordinary book by a stallion, as I recall. He broke a few of your bones on his way to the sweet mare calling to him from the other field and you were restraining him! You do chose the most amazing horses. Or is it some affinity with them they sense?! Maybe it is residual cow-stuff to which they are reacting? *smiling naugtily* Do not be concerned about duplicate posts. It happens as an abberation of the Yapp software being used in this website when there is a lot of activity - all in different places at the same time. At least, that is where I have noticed it most. Is there another cause? Certainly, it has nothing whatsoever to do with you! It has happened tome with great frequency in the past. You are a popular man! You have noe experienced Yapp-Jam. I will be admiring you long into that sunset!"}, {"response": 60, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jun 14, 2001 (19:21)", "body": "World popularity it is, then. Hit the link on Amazon.com and it will take you there and make you feel at home! It will even greet you by name if you have been there before!"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (14:31)", "body": "I have the distinct idea that High Gernam speakers do not particularly like Low German speakers (a class thing?) nor the Netherlanders, either. The latter was brought to my attention when I forwarded a bit of humore yesterday. Herman, I did not send it to you for fear it would NOT be funny to you. I would not hurt you for the world; I think you know that! In any case I got this response back from my ex this morning: I didn't realize that the Netherlanders still had negative feelings for Germans. A friend was in the Netherlands in the 50's. He didn't know their language, so he tried German. He got only dirty looks"}, {"response": 62, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (17:49)", "body": "i had not idea there was any animosity so i almost didn't get the joke marcia sent!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:00)", "body": "Dear /\\~~~, please send me the joke. that way my left half can laugh at my right half, or maybe the other way around. Or top vs. bottom? South Germans have many \"Polish\" type jokes about North Germans. Not a class thing. Everybody needs to deride of hate somebody, while I like almost everybody. Does that make me weird?"}, {"response": 64, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:02)", "body": "not at all, i get along with just about everybody too. i think that makes us unique, not weird! *HUGS*"}, {"response": 65, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:02)", "body": "i thought germany went from stuttgart to frankfurt and that was it (as a kid) *laugh*"}, {"response": 66, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:05)", "body": "Dear /\\~~~, please send me the joke. that way my left half can laugh at my right half, or maybe the other way around. Or top vs. bottom? South Germans have many \"Polish\" type jokes about North Germans. Not a class thing. Everybody needs to deride of hate somebody, while I like almost everybody. Does that make me weird?"}, {"response": 67, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:07)", "body": "uh oh, the double-post gremlin is at it again! (not meaning you, Herman)"}, {"response": 68, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:11)", "body": "My post was posted twice, again. Hugs to you too, Wolfie. I have a cousin near Stuttgart. For years her family have not driven into that city because its traffic is in permanent gridlock."}, {"response": 69, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (18:50)", "body": "Herman, I guess I'd better *HUGS* you first. The 'Humor' is on its way to you. Perhaps if we are going to discuss this I shold post them in here. The Irish hate one another. It was ever thus. As soon as there were two people and one thing they both wanted. Wolfie, I will share Herman for hugging only because you happen to be very special to me, and because we all need REAL hugs and yours are very real as are mine. Traffic has ruined so many lovely old cities in Europe. It is very sad."}, {"response": 70, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (19:01)", "body": "Herman, if you are weird in your not disliking anyone, you have very good company. Wolfie, I can assure you is like that, and I am pretty certain she would do the same for me. We are special, perhaps. I do know some others like us, as well as some who seem to like no one. Please let me live my life in the comapny of the former and not the latter! Maluhia and Hugs of Aloha!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (20:36)", "body": "Everybody needs to deride or hate somebody, while I like almost everybody. I am sorry, I got carried away with this statement. My excuse: I worked in the hot sun most of the day, then was hit on my head by a couple of cold beers while I was posting this statement. My generalized statement certainly is not true, but I do know a few people who are destroying themselves with anger: the need, the habit to hate."}, {"response": 72, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (21:10)", "body": "that's why most stuttgartians take the street cars or walk! and there are a lot of local stores by which to take care of day to day business. i really like that over there. here, you have to drive and drive to get to a neighborhood grocery and then you don't feel like a neighbor, really. yup, i like most people and have disliked only a few but am forgiving. i'd rather not hate anyone, it only seems to make life difficult. *HUGS* to all!"}, {"response": 73, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (21:57)", "body": "OK, Group Hugs! When I hear the name Stuttgart I think of great music."}, {"response": 74, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (22:06)", "body": "Herman, I am curious about the Klumpen (Dutch \"wooden shoes\")you used when you were young. I had two pair as a little girl and neither one fit. Even though they were long enough they hurt!!! Were you really able to wear them to walk ? I think they made much better canal boats!"}, {"response": 75, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jun 16, 2001 (22:33)", "body": "Please invite any of your neighbors and friends to join this discussion. Surely with all the fans you have now, some would care to share their thoughts. Or you can talk about the fragrances in your life Right now mine is a volcano. I rather like it even if it is not wonderful under other circumstances. It means there is exciting things happening on the mountain. Since you have lived on more than a few acres lately, did you have any cattle? By the way, my son usually spends his holidays in Spokane (Yeah, totally irrelevant, I know)"}, {"response": 76, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Jun 18, 2001 (22:54)", "body": "We bought 32 mother beef cows after we moved here. They taught me to be a veterinarian, as if I needed any more lessons. In just 2 years I learned about red water, bloat, foot rot, peeling membranes from nose and udder, cuts, crippled calves, pink eye, abortions, etc. Milked a dead cow by hand to get colostrum milk for her just-born calf. Stuck a cow in gut to save her life but bent the knife. In Frisia we ate colostrum milk pudding. Mooooooohhh."}, {"response": 77, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (00:30)", "body": "Colostrum, unaesthetic as it seems, has all the antibiotics in it. Not a whole lot of nutrition but it probably kept you from udder destruction (Sorry, I couldn't resist!) One eats what one can find no matter how repellant when one is on the verge of starving. Little wonder you have had such good health of late. You beat the odds at every try! I thought you had seen the indelicate end of a cow when I closed the book. Wrong! Just when you thought you knew everything possible about cows. I had no idea that stabbing a cow could save its life until I got hooked on the James Herriot books and PBC (from the BBC) series. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. Have you hung up your rubber boots yet? Why is it I think you are like a cowboy and will never be rid of them?! Oh another question, did you ever get your cowboy boots and hat and all you dreamed about? Or Siggi? I hope you did - or became an Indian. It is very chic now! I was going to broach something you did not cover in you book but only alluded to. I assumed it too painful for memory so I will not ask, but a lot of people need to know what saving lives in a bunker is like when all Hell is breaking loose around you. Please understand, anything any of us ask you about here is optional for you to answer. Just ignore it as though I never asked, if you wish. I will hold you and ask no further."}, {"response": 78, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (00:31)", "body": "Oh, by the way, I have a container of Bag Balm... Just thought you would find that curious!"}, {"response": 79, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (19:01)", "body": "i've never played in cow muck but pig muck, yup. got stuck in it while helping a friend (as payback for teaching me to ride). all we had to do was get the pigs from one part of the sty to the other. well, my boots were too big and i went one direction while they stayed in the muck. by some miracle, not a drop of poop got on my white socks. my friend said i didn't touch the ground between the boots and the fence! can only imagine what a bunker is like. have sat in a few but not the same thing as wwii. and have played war enough that i don't ever want to be in a real one."}, {"response": 80, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (21:33)", "body": "Your \"playing\" war was supposed to prepare you for one, but I think that never is possible! Pigs STINK!!! Gimme cow muck if I must choose. I hope your ride was as successful as your keeping your socks out of the stuff. Yikes! I am not a big fan of pork, but given the choice of starving or eating, I woud partake to feed my family without a second thought. Survival is a very strong instinct!"}, {"response": 81, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jun 19, 2001 (21:36)", "body": "well, i fell off the horse and busted my tailbone! but, i got back on him!! *laugh* her cows cracked me up and can be kinda scary if you've never been in a pasture with them. we rode into the midst of these black and white milk cows and they were so curious and skittish. i was intimidated by the herd. can you imagine, afraid of the cows? *laugh*"}, {"response": 82, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jun 20, 2001 (01:13)", "body": "The only time I was ever in a cow pasture I was about 4 and they were so enormous I was TERRIFIED. I always keep a fence between them and me. Big sheep I can deal with as in Britain to see archaological goodies around which they graze. My 14 yr old son was NOT thrilled by the big sheep - they grow them BIG in Britain!"}, {"response": 83, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (09:48)", "body": "I am sure that I posted here a few days ago about cowboy boots, etc., but I don't see it now. So I'll try again. Yes, I do have them and hats, but rarely wear them now that we don't have horses anymore. No time to ride them. Yes, we frequently wore Klumpen. Even on brick pavement. They did get uncomfortable because they pressed on top on my foot bones. Wolfie, where and how did you play war? Were you in the service? After many, many tests, burp, I determined that cherry worms taste exactly like cherries."}, {"response": 84, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Jun 25, 2001 (10:13)", "body": "> \"I was going to broach something you did not cover in you book but only alluded to\" > Marcica, please ask the question. After reading BB&H, several people have wanted to know more about the bunkers. I remember having been in three different ones, one nicely engineered concrete one, one natural cave, and I forgot the other one, but my mother bicycled us there, as if we were in a bike race, cheered on by howling air raid sirens. I remember being in the dark cave during daylight, looking out observing a man dressed in pajamas, waiting at at a corner of a nearby building, trying to make a run for our cave, while someone was waiting to close the big door behind him once he got in. I have blocked most of my memories about such experiences. ...and I don't have time to play video games."}, {"response": 85, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2001 (21:23)", "body": "Carol Kluz, who has a very vivid imagination, is the coauthor of suspense, \"Countermeasures\" and \"Perilous Summer\" under the pseudonym Carol Randy. She is the author of the fantasy series titled \"The Chronicles of Haven\ufffds Hold.\" They are \"The Prophecy Unfolds,\" \"The Prophecy Unfolds: Volume II\" and \"The Agents of Kedra.\" She wrote the following review of my memoir: \"Bastards, Bitches, and Heroes.\" What makes this tale of abuse different from so many others is the courage and strength of the two young victims who endured it, learned from it and triumphed over it without the aid of counselors, handouts or parental love. Herman I Neuman\ufffds remarkable memoir talks about the stark realities of Nazi Germany that affected his life and the intense post war poverty that forced him to dig out discarded entrails and pig lungs from manure piles. He tells about the whippings he endured under the strict discipline of his mother\ufffddiscipline not tendered by love, about the abandonment and lack of love by his father, about being lured to America as a teen thinking that life would be better only to discover that he and his brother would be separated and turned into slaves at their uncles\ufffd farms. Once, during the war, he and his brother landed in the hospital with diphtheria. While away, their apartment was fire bombed. This was just a precursor to many such narrow escapes that occurred during Herman\ufffds life. Plagued by a chronic ear infection throughout his life, he lost his hearing completely in his right ear. He and his brother were destined to triumph over their hell on earth because they are heroes. In the second part of his book, Mr. Neuman details his struggles to get an education. He worked hard and paid his own way through six years of study to obtain a degree in architectural engineering. While the wild times of the sixties were spreading, he concentrated on his goals and endured hardships to achieve them. But to him, these were not hardships\ufffdhe had lived through real hardships. He was immersed in his independence and dreams and nothing would deter him or his brother in achieving them. All this came about from self-resolve without benefit of loans or scholarships. What makes this even more remarkable is that Herman was brainwashed throughout his life to believe he was slow and incapable of pursuing the higher goals of a college education. He found a woman to be his wife and together they have traveled all over the world. He took the abuse of his past, and instead of falling into a pit of hopelessness and despair, he turned it into burning resolve to better himself. He triumphed! This is an extremely well-written memoir. Without a doubt, it is the best I have ever read. It is further enhanced by photographs and by the philosophical comments of the author about the state of society today. He subtly points out that we have become a society of victims depending on help from all directions. I sense that it wasn\ufffdt the beatings that hurt him in the long run because the physical pain goes away. It was the lack of love that went along with it. The discipline implanted in him kept him from rage, from disobeying laws and from rebelling because these were things that didn\ufffdt occur to him. He always did the \ufffdright\ufffd thing because he believed it was the right thing to do. He rose from the ashes of hell to achieve his dreams. I highly recommend this book."}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2001 (22:54)", "body": "Herman! Splendid news and what a lovely compliment she paid your worthy work. It is true - I was convinced before I read her review! Bur, you knew that..."}, {"response": 87, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul  8, 2001 (23:08)", "body": "excellent review! and i agree absolutely!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sun, Jul 15, 2001 (16:09)", "body": "Last night Ma died in her sleep at the age of 94."}, {"response": 89, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Jul 15, 2001 (17:16)", "body": "*HUGS*"}, {"response": 90, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Jul 15, 2001 (19:34)", "body": "Sorry to hear of this Herman."}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 17, 2001 (21:38)", "body": "*WARMEST HUGS* and condolences, Herman. I will email you."}, {"response": 92, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (11:50)", "body": "I meet the most interesting people at my book signing events: One was a man who witnessed the atom bomb test at Bikini from a ship 12 miles away. When I showed great interest in his story, he went home to get photos that he had taken and showed them to me. He said that he was free of radiation and credited this to his faith in God. Only he and 3 or 4 others who participated in this \"test\" were the only ones still alive. Coincidence? Three days later I mentioned this story to someone, and unbeknownst to me, a lady behind me overheard this. She said to me, \"My husband was there too.\" She continued that he had Hodgkin's disease in the 50's and died of lung cancer 3 or 4 years ago. He refused treatment for this because of his miserable treatment for Hodgkin's. Coincidence? During that same 2-day event a lady bought my memoir. She returned the next day and told me about someone to whom she recommended my book and started crying. That person was officially dead to protect his/her identity from someone who tortured him/her in much younger days. Several days later I mentioned this to someone in another town and that person had met this \"dead\" person several years ago."}, {"response": 93, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (12:03)", "body": "A conclusion to that \"test\" seems to have been that atom bombs kill, and sometimes slowly. I continue to be amazed at how many people are buying more than one copy of BB&H, and mostly for their children."}, {"response": 94, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Jul 20, 2001 (16:17)", "body": "I agree with them - I have bought I do not remember how many copies. I shall wait till their wedding is over before I give it to my son and his wife-to-be. At the moment they have more things to do than they have time in which to do it. Actually, I cannot imagine keeping a book so important and such great reading to oneself. It seems utlimately selfish - so I continue to send them to others. Now, to get them to post a few comments. The thing that first struck me when I was reading BB&H was the fact that Germans were so angry at what the Nazis had done to them and their country. It should not have suprised me - I was taught early on that war was between generals and not between people, even though the people were the ones to suffer. I can imagine, now, how unpopular being a Nazi must have been after what they inflicted on the world. By the awy, if you ever catch any flack from the Schitzma family just mention it and I will become a fury like they have never seen. Each time I read it they make me angrier and angrier. I want Siggi to have his gold watch back, too. You and I both know they have it! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!"}, {"response": 95, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Jul 23, 2001 (19:08)", "body": "Dear /\\~~~ iki, Please calm down. I don't like you to stress out on my behalf; I like you too much. In any case I thank you for your concern. The following report was posted at the \"Studio Literati\" book club: \"Hello Herman, I had to laugh when I just read your response to lawyer bashing. I understand your feelings towards them. I just finished reading your book and I think I want to join in with the person who said \"I did't know whether to laugh or to cry.\" Your book has deeply touched me and also brought me to places I have known. Despite all the hardship you went through, I was amazed how much humor there is in you. Maybe it is the so-called \"Galgenhumor\", the gallows humor. Your book was written in a style that really captivated me....but the most I liked was how you really dealt with your life and succeeded. And since you have so much experience with cow shit, I want to share a story here with you. There is indeed a difference between American and German cow shit. I once lived in Imperial Valley,CA and some German engineers tried to built a manure plant there without success as they had problems to move the American cow shit on the conveyer belts because it fell apart. Not so with the German cow shit! Johanna\""}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (16:56)", "body": "aha!!! See how we continue to be edified? What is it about compactions and German cows? I guess in America, everything hangs loose. In any case you can get at least a monograph out of bovine by-products. Hardly your sort of thing, I think. The lawyer \"humor\" I sent you last week is more in your way of thinking. I answered in my own mind concerning how betrayed the German populace must have felt when they discovered what their country had done. I know a lot of Americans don't like what one or another of their presidents has done, but think how truly angry and indignant you would feel if you discovered what they had done if we had not had freedom of the press andchecks and ballances to prevent just such things from haapening here. We might be appalled at the way the press handles thing, how lawyers distort things, but without them, we probably would never know much of what we need to know to make wise choices. Vigilance is the price of freedom. Never forgt how hard the struggle was to attain it."}, {"response": 97, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul 24, 2001 (18:29)", "body": "that's funny about the cow shit! i've always noticed a difference between the german cows (and their smell) and kansas cows!"}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (17:13)", "body": "Wolfie, you have a far more educated \"nose\" than do I... This from The Telegraph (UK) - disturbing to say the least. The inmates have taken over! Oldham council bans speech by Holocaust man By Sean O'Neill (Filed: 26/07/2001) A 91-YEAR-OLD Holocaust survivor was banned from speaking in Oldham last night because of fears that his views would \"prejudice public safety and order\". Leon Greenman, whose wife and child perished in death camps after the family were deported from their home in Holland, was to have addressed a public meeting organised by the Anti-Nazi League. But Oldham Borough Council refused to accept the booking for the meeting, saying it would be \"unwise\" and \"inappropriate\" for the event to go ahead. The council was worried that the meeting could spark disorder in the wake of recent racial violence and the strong showing by the British National Party at the general election. Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, wore a gag during the declaration of the count when he won 16 per cent of the vote. Candidates were banned from making speeches. A council spokesman said publicity leaflets for the meeting had concentrated on the activities of the BNP in Oldham and not Mr Greenman's speech. \"Oldham council opposes the BNP and all it stands for,\" said a spokesman for the Liberal Democrat-controlled council. \"The council did not think that hosting a meeting of this nature at the present time would be helpful. It wants Oldham to remain calm and peaceful.\" Its decision was supported by the police and by David Arnold, president of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester. Mr Arnold said it would be wrong to inflame the situation in Oldham when the town was \"emerging from a period of wholly unjustified violence and unrest\". He added: \"I have no doubt that the league's motives are entirely laudable but I think they would be much better advised if they had first ascertained what help the people of Oldham felt they needed.\" A spokesman for the league said the ban was \"an outrage\". The group, of which Mr Greenman has been a member for 10 years, was trying to find an alternative venue. \"We feel he has been gagged,\" said a spokesman. \"The council should have listened to his experiences as a victim of racism.\" Mr Greenman, who was born in London's East End, was living in Holland when the Germans invaded in 1940. Between 1942 and 1945 he was held in Auschwitz, Birkenau, Monowitz and Buchenwald. His wife and son were gassed by the Nazis. An Englishman in Auschwitz, his account of his detention, is published this week."}, {"response": 99, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Jul 30, 2001 (17:17)", "body": "Herman, your book is going to go to the UK if I can find anyone there who will promise to read it. They WILL repeat the same stupidity and venal behavior if someone does not read and learn that NO ONE wins in a conflict like this one is threatening to repeat. Is anyone reading or lurking who would accept a copy of BB&H from me? You must be willing to read it and post here when you are done. This book is not only personal triumph, it is a graphic description of those ordinary people who tried to live peacefully when others would not allow it. Read it or repeat it? Hardly a difficult decision!"}, {"response": 100, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Fri, Aug  3, 2001 (17:50)", "body": "Hi All, I am sending this from a local library. I am incommunicado until my PC gets fixed. Someone ran into a power pole while I was reloading Windows. Sorry, Herman"}, {"response": 101, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Aug  3, 2001 (18:23)", "body": "Wow, hope you get back on line soon! I guess you got a big surge!"}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Aug  5, 2001 (23:36)", "body": "I have missed him. I was about to send out a posse tocheck on his whereabouts. Thanks for checking in, Herman. I have a very neat little goody into which my computer is plugged. It stores up to one minute of power so you can close out programs and exit your computer saving your work during a power outage. I'm not all that certain how much of a surge it can take but I have heard it whirr when we had nearby lightning. The night we got 30 inches of rain I was most grateful for its abilities. Hugs! I miss you!"}, {"response": 103, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Fri, Sep  7, 2001 (10:14)", "body": "Sorry that I have not posted for so long. I now have backup UPS, a new printer and laptop. I continue to be amazed by the reactions to my memoir. One reader said that just when she wants to cry, I lift her with humor. She was disappointed, however, when I didn't actually push Fullos's face into the squirming mass of maggots."}, {"response": 104, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (15:50)", "body": "This is what I posted on another message board after a BB&H chat: Even though I did not lose any friends or family members in the WTC disaster, I bawled, while reading about it in the newspaper. To keep my sanity when I was in hell for years, my main diversion was reading. I became addicted to it. I must have read up to 2000 books in my life and many, many more newspapers, etc. What my little pea-brain has learned is that there are many contradictory and changing studies, claims, ideas about many specific subjects. Not to mention propaganda and historical distortions. Therefore I always question what I read, including \"expert\" opinons, scientific studies, etc. I have traveled the world. I love morally upright people and often feel that strangers are my friends, soul mates, no matter what color they are or what religions they believe in. When I was five years old, a black GI, wearing fatigues and a steel helmet, gave this little white boy an orange. Thereafter years of uniquely rotten diets would follow. An stranger bought me a sandwich on a French train, and I did so for an Italian lady on another train. An Australian storekeeper would not let me pay him for my purchases. At the Chicago airport, I gave an Israeli Jew twenty dollars after he was robbed on the subway. A young Omani bought me a drink at that same airport. I gave a white-haired American Indian a ride for many miles through the mountains of Washington, and he told me that he fought in the invasion of Normandy. For two years, I bumbed many cigarettes fom a Pakistani friend when I couldn't afford any. In college I partied with Americans, Greeks, Pakistinis, Jews, Indians, Egyptians,Germans and others. If WWII scared me almost to death, the possibity of future wars does also: Was it Albert Schweitzer who said that man will destroy himself by destroying the earth? Someone killed the austronauts on the Challenger space shuttle by ordering to blast off, even while knowing that the shuttle's O rings might fail. How stupid! When a poisonous chemical spilled into river, other factories purposely dumped their own waste into this river at that time. How convenient! I still have a copy of the letter that my father wrote to his lawyer threatening to kill my mother, little brother and me. And he would blame the court for this if it ordered him to increase his monthly child support by less than he spend on cigars. Cigars that came in individual gold-anodized aluminum cylinders, to protect them from a mean environment. Until someone convinces me that there will never be another madman who might order the use of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, I worry. All of us are in this together and the perpetrators of our present terror must be brought to swift justice. If they aren't, such terror will surely continue. Let's pray that our leaders make the right decisions."}, {"response": 105, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (15:59)", "body": "After years of research, scientists have finally discovered why my mother whipped me when I was a child: I have ODD. And all this time I thought that it was because I was misbehaving, or that all she needed was a psychcatharsis with my generous help."}, {"response": 106, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (20:25)", "body": "ODD???? what sort of deficiency disorder is that, Herman? I do not want to go to the one I have scheduled and will resist the attempt to send me there. I will make do without the medication if necessary. I wish we could get your yahoo discussion tied to this place. I can always copy and paste them when they have read your book. I was stunned that no on had there yet they were all hugging you. They did not deserve hugs...!"}, {"response": 107, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (20:29)", "body": "My mother shunned me like I was misbegotten for my ADD... I burrowed in books like you did. At least we are well-read thanks to our mothers. My mother managed to make my father beat me. He was so much stronger and much more effective. All 50 pounds of me... against his full grown man size. Fair never came into the discussion. I just figured I somehow deserved it. Funny how that works."}, {"response": 108, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (20:39)", "body": "Herman, *BIG HUGS* for placing that post-chat list of comments here. I would refute most of the ones in which you denegrate yourself. You know better than that. If you are a pea-brain then the rest of us have dust-motes for brains. Your sensitivity is remarkable and that you are also all man makes it even rarer. They say we make our own private heavens and hells on earth, but some of us had lots of help making our hells early on. I pray that your heavens are now eternal and your hells are all past you. I wish I could have comforted you this past week. My first words out of my mouth when I could say anything on seeing the disaster was....\"Herman!!!\" I felt the most unbearable anguish!"}, {"response": 109, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (21:28)", "body": "*HUGS* Herman!!"}, {"response": 110, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Sun, Sep 16, 2001 (23:13)", "body": "ODD is \"oppositional defiant disorder,\" and I don't even know what it is. No, I did not have it. My sarcasm was out of control. I apologize. But it seems to me more and more new diseases, etc. are appearing."}, {"response": 111, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Sep 17, 2001 (19:54)", "body": "I love your sarcasm. I just did not want to read anything unintended into your comment. In fact, I cannot find anything about your character which I would change. No, that does not describe you unless it also describes me. In that case I deny it categorically. If I continue to add everything I admire I might just sicken a few readers and embarrass the object of my admiration. Perish the thought! Hugs and more Hugs, you incorrigible wonderful man!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Nov  4, 2002 (11:35)", "body": "Hello, I'm back. I've spent months revising my memoir and published its second edition under the title \"Heroes from the Attic: A Gripping True Story of Triumph.\" I am continuing researching the literary agent and the publishing world. There is soooo much to learn. I hope share here my experiences with visitors at my book events. They tell me some amazing personal stories. Best wishes, Herman"}, {"response": 113, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Nov  4, 2002 (14:48)", "body": "Welcome back Herman. When and where were your book events?"}, {"response": 114, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Nov  4, 2002 (23:34)", "body": "It's my pleasure to be back. I held about two dozen signings in Idaho and Washington and gave one speech at an Idaho Youth Ranch Family Weekend. It was very gratifying to me that I was able to inspire some of those troubled kids. I was in the process of scheduling signings in the Northeastern states but cancelled this trip because of 9-11. I hope that this event will at least make the world wiser and morally stronger. In my book I quoted passages from each verse of Auden's poem \"September 1, 1939.\" One reads: \"To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die.\""}, {"response": 115, "author": "HeroBooks", "date": "Mon, Nov  4, 2002 (23:37)", "body": "http://www.herobooks.com/events.html"}, {"response": 116, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 24, 2003 (22:55)", "body": "A student version for school libraries is now available, called HEROES IN THE ATTIC . I can hardly wait for mine to arrive!"}, {"response": 117, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 24, 2003 (22:57)", "body": "OOps, that is Heroes from the Attic http://www.herobooks.com/"}, {"response": 118, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar 30, 2003 (10:58)", "body": "Did you get it from Amazon via our link? books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 32, "subject": "Harry Potter", "response_count": 1, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov  8, 2001 (21:22)", "body": "what do you guys think about this phenom? it certainly is popular with all sorts of people. (and for the upcoming movie, i've a topic in movies dedicated to this topic) books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 33, "subject": "buying books online", "response_count": 1, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 30, 2001 (12:19)", "body": "I don't know of any such dedicated service, but half.com lets you bring up listings for books and shows what four ohter places charge (buy.com, bn.com, a1books.com and textbookx.com) http://www.everybookstore.com/ is a service that does this. Another efficient comparative book search engine: http://www.addall.com I hear dealpilot.com has gone down hill. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 34, "subject": "William", "response_count": 10, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (22:31)", "body": "Not yet, Sam, but you can be assured I will own my first William book soon and join your discussion. This sounds wonderful. I loved my visits to the UK. It is also laughing at myself a bit. Half of me originated there!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (23:20)", "body": "Yep, maybe tomorrow (or later today; it's after midnight) I'll dive back into a William book... or an Asterix comic..."}, {"response": 3, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (23:23)", "body": "You're half English? Of my parents seven children I am one of three born in an independent Jamaica. I wish Jamaica was still a colony, but Jamaica's independence has been thrust upon it and the Jamaican government has managed to make a hash of a beautiful and gifted island..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Fri, Feb  8, 2002 (23:25)", "body": "Now how did I turn this into another lament about Jamaica? Ignore the previous; this is about William!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (09:42)", "body": "Not a William fan here, but you've peaked my interest. Do you have any favorite quotes for passages you could cite?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (12:17)", "body": "I don't remember the passage verbatim , so I'll look for it. But it had to do with William's attitude toward Science class..."}, {"response": 7, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (12:59)", "body": "I can't seem to find the story I'm looking for, so I'll give this extract instead: William took a fancy to Miss Tabitha Croft as soon as he saw her. She was small and inoffensive-looking. She didn't look the sort of person to write irate letters to William's parents. William was a great judge of character. He could tell at a glance who was likely to object to him, who was likely to ignore him, and who was likely definitely to encourage him. The last was a very rare class indeed. Most people belonged to the first class. But as he sat on the wall and watched Miss Tabitha Croft timidly and flutteringly superintending the unloading of her furniture at her little cottage gate, he came to the conclusion that she would be very inoffensive indeed. He also came to the conclusion that he was going to like her. William generally got on well with timid people. He was not timid himself. He was small and freckled and solemn and possessed of great tenacity of purpose for his eleven years.\" -From \"The Fete - and Fortune\" in William The Fourth by Richmal Crompton First published 1924, reprinted 1984, 1989 MacMillan Children's Books."}, {"response": 8, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (13:12)", "body": "From \"William Makes a Night of it\" ( sic ) in the same book: \"William had disliked Mr. Bennison from the moment he appeared, although Mr. Bennison treated him with the most conscientious kindness. William dislaked the way Mr. Bennison's hair grew and the way his ears grew and the way his teeth grew, and he disliked most of all his agreeable manner to William himself. he was not used to agreeable manners from adults, and he distrusted them. \"Mr. Bennison was a bachelor and wrote books on the training of children. He believed that children should be led, not driven, that their little hearts should be won by kindness, that their innocent curiosity should always be promptly satisfied. He believed that children trailed clouds of glory. He knew very few. He certainly did not know William. \"Mr. Bennison had met Ethel, William's sister, while she was staying with an aunt. Ethel possessed blue eyes and a riot of auburn hair of which William was ashamed. He considered that red hair was quite inconsistent with beauty. He found that most young men who met Ethel did not share that opinion. \"Although Mr. Bennison had reached the mature age of forty without having found any passion to supersede his passion for educational theories, he experienced a distinct quickening of his middle-aged heart at the sight of Ethel with her forget-me-not eyes and copper locks. William never could understand what men \"saw in\" Ethel. William considered her interfering and bad-tempered and stingy, and everything that an ideal sister should not be. Yet there was no doubt that adult males \"saw something\" in her. \"And William had the wisdom to make capital out of this distorted idea of beauty whenever he could.\""}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 10, 2002 (19:32)", "body": "Yup, My grandfather \"graduated\" from the Royal Horticultural College at Kew. Then he came to America on a job and married a local lady. He never went back. I did and enjoyed it so much! There is such dignity and civility (I kept away from the Brixtons and such). That is why I love cricket. It is a social occasion which has drinks breaks. I miss that part of the UK that I miss the most. The genteel nature inherent in every last person I met. I think I got all British Genes out of the mix. I'm sure not into German Engineering. I'm going to love William books!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Feb 11, 2002 (19:37)", "body": "Erm... I am sorry to say, but William does NOT have a genteel nature (as you have probably gathered from the extracts I posted...). books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 35, "subject": "Geo Books", "response_count": 37, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (20:15)", "body": "Wonderful topic, Rob! Congratulations on your first topic creation! I happen to collect books on volcanoes. I'll give each a run-down as time and listening to cricket live on 17.675 MHz allows."}, {"response": 2, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (00:06)", "body": "Hi all Geo books can cover a vast range of things from astronomy to volcanology, seismology to petology, climatology to palaeontology, and all places inbetween. I have books on volcanology, seismology, and palaeontology. I have for volcanoes: Eruption and healing of Mount St Helens - Patricia Lauber Fountains of fire - Geoffrey Cox Slumbering Giants - Geoffrey Cox Mount St Helens: The continuing story - James P. Quiring Mount St Helens: The story behind the scenery - Thom Corcoran Ruapehu Erupts: Karen Williams Kilauea: Newest Land on Earth - Dorian Weisel and Christina Heliker Tarawera and the terraces - Philip Andrews World Disasters: Volcano - Brian Knapp I have for earthquakes: Rocked and ruptured - Jefley J. Aitken The Great Quake: the story of the 1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake - Robert McGregor Magnitude Eight Plus: Story of New Zealands biggest earthquake (can't remember Author). The palaeontology books I have are work books issued by University of Canterbury with useful information about life forms, rock stratigraphy, the environment that they lived in and also their anatomy. Rob"}, {"response": 3, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (11:51)", "body": "Thanks for your list, Rob. I'd hate to duplicate any of them. My books are mostly passed on to my son, mainly to keep the mildew out of them and to save them from being eaten by insects. (Life in Paradise does have its flaws!) I still retain my college texts, a whole lot of mineralogy books and field identifier (Rockhounding among them) books, and the mandatory Hawaii Volcanoes books. I'll try to deal with them one at a time to allow for others to see if they are worth looking up. My favorite book is \"Volcanoes in the Sea\" by Gordon Macdonald. I have recently discovered it is out of print and nothing has resplaced it. It used to be the classic text for all Hawaii Geology students, but it is so well written, it is also a very good read."}, {"response": 4, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (18:57)", "body": "i have bird books, nature books, and lots of gardening books. the AM doesn't understand my obsession with coffee table books! maybe we can link this topic with the books conference and maybe bring some more readers in."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 13, 2002 (23:27)", "body": "Excellent idea. I'll email terry to do it. I can't remember the command. I can telnet but... Wolfie, I have tons of Coffee table books. They are absolutely stunning. I got three more for Christman. All huge atlases and none duplicated. Lance gave me one of minerals amd gemstones but I have it here beside me on a shelf. (Lance of topic 18 who, as soon as he graduates, I'm gonna grab back to this conference.)"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "Go to the conference you want to add the topic. In this case j books Then li geo 66 should do it."}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "Ok: help li **** LINKFROM **** Syntax: li_nkfrom Description: This will link items in the specified range in the given conference into the current conference. This can only be done by a fair-witness of the current conference. A link can be erased with the kill command. Link commands are logged to the conference log file. See also: kill, file log Ok:"}, {"response": 8, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:02)", "body": "I'll do it this time, but this will give you the ability to do it in the future."}, {"response": 9, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:34)", "body": "Thanks terry! I thought it was lk ..... not ik. Ok!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:37)", "body": "(I've done it in the past if you look at the log in geo/config ) Thanks again."}, {"response": 11, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (18:47)", "body": "Worse than that, telnet to spring no longer works for me. I can get to spring via aloha.net telent. I wonder if that would work. Talk about doing it the hard way..."}, {"response": 12, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:51)", "body": "thanks terry!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (21:04)", "body": "You have to use ssh! From a prompt at aloha.net type ssh 66.70.14.230 You will be logged in with the same username as you're using at aloha.net"}, {"response": 14, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (17:47)", "body": "Hi all I know what I want to see. A book compiled dealing with faultlines around the world and the plate tectonics scene at each - NZ, USA, Japan, Indonesia, Chile, Peru etc. New Zealand is well covered in Rocked and Ruptured. Does anyone know of books like that for their patch? Is so can you mention them here? Rob"}, {"response": 15, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (18:01)", "body": "I agree, Rob. I was just searching for maps and information on the Anatolian fault and plate movement as regards the archaeology of that area. There are some sources I need to check, yet, but there is nothing very definitive and I wish there were!"}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (18:07)", "body": "sounds to me like the two of you have a project to do, huh? why don't you guys create the book?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "*laugh* What do you think this conference is?! It just occurred to me that I have written My Life In The Universe several times over."}, {"response": 18, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "*HAHA*"}, {"response": 19, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Feb 17, 2002 (20:00)", "body": "Rob and I could call it *It's NOT My Fault*"}, {"response": 20, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (09:48)", "body": "*laugh* how clever!!!!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "Hi all How about calling it \"Faulty Seismology\" - study of seismicity combined with misunderstandings of the faults. Rob"}, {"response": 22, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (22:14)", "body": "....followed by Faulty Seismic Theory We are far too clever for our own good! *Laughing*"}, {"response": 23, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (17:04)", "body": "Hi all \"Rocked and ruptured\" by Jefley Aitken is the tell all book of New Zealand Faults with 70 colour plates in the middle of the book, written in an easy to understand way and has a FAQ section toward the end. So that kids can understand and enjoy it as well it has a couple experiments you can try with chocolate bars of the gooey interior variety to show faulting. Rob"}, {"response": 24, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Feb 19, 2002 (18:52)", "body": "What a great idea, the gooey-centered candy bar for showing faulting. I'll remember that in case I ever have any little ones to teach again!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "CherylB", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (16:03)", "body": "Snickers bars might be useful, the peanuts could be rocks."}, {"response": 26, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb 21, 2002 (17:31)", "body": "Ah yes!!! Snickers bars are useful for demonstration and is one of the most popular of field food for geologists here. Their mothers, too. =)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Sat, Feb 23, 2002 (02:08)", "body": "Hi all I think what really needs to be done is a simplistic series of things like earthquakes and volcanoes written for school children - say year 4 and above. You would say for a volcano series start with simple diagrams and explanations. The book would be short but it would cover the bare basics as a child of 8-9 years would understand. For example, talking about a stratovolcano, you might describe it as an upside down ice cream cone with a vent at the top. Later on you might include brief simplistic explanations of why they erupt differently and the types of eruption you would expect from them. A brief explanation for Hawaiian eruptions could be that the lava contains little gas so it does not explode. Instead it runs freely like water in rivers. Rob"}, {"response": 28, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Feb 23, 2002 (19:53)", "body": "You must be psychic, Rob! John suggested the very same thought. He will do the graphics and I (may I pick your brains, too?) will write the text. How to get the kids to come here might be a bigger challenge, though we are visible on the internet to search engines."}, {"response": 29, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (03:13)", "body": "Hi all Very few books on tsunami's. I know that they are only generated by a sudden mass movement under water, volcanism, or an earthquake, but I have only seen one good book to date. Simply called Tsunami!. Rob"}, {"response": 30, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Fri, Apr  5, 2002 (16:13)", "body": "The only ones I know are by Walt Dudley. Search Google for him and you will find much material. He teaches at the UH Hilo and has been sailing in our boat (well, put that is the distant past tense) and has a stunning wife who teaches French. He is definitly worth looking up http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Walt%2BDudley%2BTsunami"}, {"response": 31, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, May  5, 2002 (00:01)", "body": "Geo-Book: \"California Earthquakes\" This scholarly study recounts how scientific experts, starting with the \"Big One\" in 1906, overcame the scoffing and coverups of business boosters and turned the state government into the enforcer of quake-safe practices. It's both a political history and a case study of scientific activism. http://geology.about.com/msubbook.htm"}, {"response": 32, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Fri, Jul  5, 2002 (03:38)", "body": "Hi all For those interested in the Physical Geography of New Zealand I recommend the book Physical Geography - a New Zealand perspective, 2001, Rachel .A Spronken-Smith and Andrew Sturman. Rob"}, {"response": 33, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (14:32)", "body": "I was fortunate enough to find an account of the great earthquake of San Francisco at a yard sale in the remote backwaters of this area. My host is ever eager to find \"ancient\" equipment to add to his collection. This time it was a treadle Singer sewing machine for $5. It does not work but looks complete. This is added to a rather large corn sheller in one corner of his dining room. I'll post more on the book I found when I get to reading it. Yard sales can be fun when you are in \"other\" parts of the world beside residential Los Angeles!"}, {"response": 34, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Jul  9, 2002 (16:37)", "body": "post pics in the antique topic in collecting, marcia! we went to a couple of swap meets locally and there was a lot of stuff. saw a bunch of old sewing machines too."}, {"response": 35, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Jul 10, 2002 (10:13)", "body": "Great idea, Wolfie. I'll also take a photo of his corn sheller and the crossbow b (YES!) beside my bed. This stuff is fascinating!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Thu, Oct 17, 2002 (02:36)", "body": "Hi all I have read a great book called \"Volcano Cowboys\", by Dick Thompson. This is the true story of the volcanologists in the USGS who were assigned to watch Mount St Helens in 1980, Nevado del Ruiz in 1985, and Pinatubo in 1991. It gives a new perspective to the world of volcanology, when you look at it from their perspective. At Mount St Helens they risk falling out with the American people over denying them access to their homes, that is until the day before the eruption. At Nevado del Ruiz they issue warnings that the volcano is ready to blow, but the Colombian authorities ignore the warning, costing 25,000 lives. Finally at Pinatubo they have to deal with the USAF, which has its own problems to worry about in addition to having an awakening volcano on their back door step. But Pinatubo is one with a happy ending. But to find out what I mean by a happy ending, you have to read it. Rob"}, {"response": 37, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (20:29)", "body": "That book sounds great, Rob. I think I will know several of the guys they write about. I do need to get a copy. Thanks for telling us about it. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 36, "subject": "books on art", "response_count": 3, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "these are books i love to browse through at the book stores!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (20:51)", "body": "Sam's carries a lot of these coffee table books too--saw some on ansel adams and a couple others."}, {"response": 3, "author": "admin", "date": "Fri, Jan  3, 2003 (10:42)", "body": "I acquired a copy of Twentieth Century Art The Ebsworth Collection which happens to be my cousin Barney's art collection. There is a 29 page pdf preview of this at http://www.nga.gov/pdf/ebsworth.pdf This will give you at least a glimpse in to this remarkable collection. The book features work by George Ault, Peter Blume, Bolotwosky, Byron Browne, Patrick Henry Bruce, Charles Burchfield, Alexander Calder, Francis Criss, Andrew Dasburg, Stuart Davis, Manierre Dawson, Willem de Kooning, Charles Demuth, Preston Dickinson, Arthur Dove, Suzy Frelinghuysen, Albert E. Gallatin, William Glackens, Arshile Gorky, Morris Graves, O. Louis Guglielmi, Marsden Hartley, Stefan Hirsch, David Hockney, Edward Hopper Chop Suey , Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Walt Kuhn, Gaston Lachaise, Luigi Lucioni, John Marin, Alice Trumbull Mason, Joan Mitchell, Ellie Nadelman, Alice Neel, Georgia O'Keefe , Claes Oldenburg, Jackson Pollack , Robert Rauschenberg, Theodore Roszak, Charles Sheeler , Esphyr Slobodkina, David Smith, Joseph Stella, John Storrs, Miklos Suba, Wayne Thiebaud , Bob Thompson, George Tooker, Andy Warhol , Marguerite Thompson Zorach, 74 remarkable artists in all. It is almost beyond comprehension that Barney was able to put together such a collection. I only wish he would collect together his extended family members with some of the same enthusiasm and warmth that he devotes to his art collection. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 37, "subject": "Nostromo", "response_count": 5, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (10:29)", "body": "welcome yacine!"}, {"response": 2, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Mar 23, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "Nostromo was a great movie and one of my favorite Colin Firth vehicles, if this is the Nostromo to which you are referring, Yacine."}, {"response": 3, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (07:24)", "body": "Unfortunately, I have never read anything by Joseph Conrad. I really should buy one of his books and read it. I think I'll start with Lord Jim or Heart Of Darkness though..."}, {"response": 4, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (19:44)", "body": "Definitely a good choice for initiation into Conrad. Nostromo is long and pretty convoluted. Lord Jim was my initiation into his work and I liked it enough to read others."}, {"response": 5, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Mar 24, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "Yacine, have you seen the movie? How does it compare with the book? I usually hate movies of books I love, but I enjoyed this one. Perhaps the actor was an influence on that! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 38, "subject": "\"Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH\"", "response_count": 3, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Mon, Mar 25, 2002 (20:54)", "body": "It sounds like they were two different stories - each good in its own way. I'll look for this one, too, on your recommendation. I'km with your sister on Bridges of Madison County. I disliked it so much I was angry with myself for wasting both time and money on it."}, {"response": 2, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 26, 2002 (17:27)", "body": "i read the rats of nimh too and liked it better. we have the cartoon version as well."}, {"response": 3, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Tue, Mar 26, 2002 (19:52)", "body": "Things that made it through the transition from book to movie: The basic characters of Mrs. Frisby (changed to Brisby in the movie), Mr. Ages, the late Jonothan Frisby/Brisby, Jeremy (rather sillier in the movie than in the book) Sullivan, Jenner's flunky in the movie, is given ONE passing mention in the book. That one mention established Sullivan as the brains behind the creation of the community under the rosebush. It is not mentioned whether Sullivan was with the Plan or with Jenner, but the mere fact that a legend like Sullivan is not mentioned in the execution of the Plan tends to indicate that he left with Jenner, which would be reasonable since the Plan involved undoing everything he had done. Arthur, the engineer behind the execution of The Plan, is not mentioned in the movie. Brutus is rather more vocal (and mildly less violent) in the book than in the movie. There is no magic, no amulet, and therefore no magic amulet, in the book. There was no need for Mrs. Frisby's \"house\" to be saved magically, because the moving of the house was not sabotaged, because Jenner was not there, and would probably not be intending sabotage even if he was there. In the movie, Jenner was demonized, Nicodemus was mysticized, and Justin was romanticized. Jenner was the most unfairly treated, but Justin was far more in the book than he was in the movie. Nicodemus, the wise and magical mystic in the movie, was rather more ordinary in the book. Mystic he was NOT, nor even particularly skillful, but he was a philosopher who envisioned a civilization of rats that did not have to rely on theft in order to survive. This philosophy, which was at the core of the Plan, had the support of Justin and of most of the rats, but not of Jenner. I supposed there was a democracy of sorts among the rats, but in reality they were ruled by a triumvirate: Nicodemus, Justin and Jenner. Nicodemus was a figurehead (until he came up with The Plan), Justin was the technical organizer and Jenner was the political realist. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 39, "subject": "Evanovich: General", "response_count": 27, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (10:28)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (15:39)", "body": "What better way to inaugurate this board with the guy who best exemplifies Joe Morelli. The second pic is the one Janette mentioned from Soap Opera Digest:"}, {"response": 3, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (19:21)", "body": "YUM! Excellent choice for Joe, Karen! :-D Can he do a Jersey accent as well???"}, {"response": 4, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (19:34)", "body": ""}, {"response": 5, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (20:55)", "body": ""}, {"response": 6, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (21:01)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (21:49)", "body": "I am not familiar with this author."}, {"response": 8, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (22:21)", "body": "The series is very light reading and very funny. They're fast and hard to put down. Evanovich has a great sense of humor. I've always felt the mystery part of the plot lines are secondary to the characters, many of whom are memorably hysterical. If you decide to check out her books, you should start with the first. They are numbered and are: One for the Money Two for the Dough Three to Get Ready Four to Score High Five Hot Six Seven Up Hard Eight (which was just released last week) She writes one book a year. The main character is Stephanie Plum, who lives in small neighborhood in Trenton, NJ, and who has no luck with life and jobs. Lots of family pressure to do the traditional thing. But out of desperation, she pretty much blackmails her cousin (who has a bail bond service) into giving her a job as a bounty hunter for people who have failed to make their court appearances. Quite a bit of the books concern her relationship with Joe Morelli, a Trenton cop, and Ranger, another bounty hunter par excellance. She's almost like Lucy Ricardo in her antics, but she has intelligence and good instincts. What she lacks is in execution."}, {"response": 9, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (22:34)", "body": "(Esbee) Can he do a Jersey accent as well??? Glad you like my pick. I can't remember what I was looking for when I ran across him, but I decided he was perfect. I would imagine he could \"tawk Jersey.\" It seems pretty easy for most actors to do, although from what I understand of Jersey geography, it may not be what we normally think which is more the North Jersey speech."}, {"response": 10, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:04)", "body": "excellent description of the books Karen (you should write \"blurbs\" for the backs of books in your spare time ;-D ) always felt the mystery part of the plot lines are secondary to the characters i agree - Janet doesnt make the reader deal with the brutality and blood & guts like many other mystery writers do. many of whom are memorably hysterical Grandma Mazur -nuff said :-D"}, {"response": 11, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:05)", "body": "Crap! closing tags"}, {"response": 12, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (18:14)", "body": "LindaK (from Drool) sent me this article from The Times (Trenton's newspaper) this past Sunday: Plum Alter Ego a Real Character Author Evanovich reads, entertains by Beth E. Fand As soon as Joe Juniak learned that an author would be setting her new novel in Chambersburg, he started vying for a mention in the book. The Trenton police lieutenant joked with Janet Evanovich as she researched at his precinct, stopping her each time she passed by his desk to make sure she could spell his name. The two struck up a friendship and, to his delight, Juniak made it into not only the first comic mystery about Trenton bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, but also the seven that came after that. \"I call him my good luck charm, because he's in every book,\" Evanovich told a crowd of more than 1,000 who gathered at the Lafayette Yard Marriott Conference Hotel yesterday to hear the author--with Juniak's help--to read excerpts from the latest in her series, \"Hard Eight\" (St. Martin's Press, $25.95). \"Joe's been in it since the very beginning, so lately I've been giving him promotions,\" said Evanovich, who made Juniak chief of police in her last book and the mayor of Trenton in the new one. \"Somebody's got to do it.\" In addition to signing books for the fans lined up in the hotel's ballroom, through the lobby and out onto the street, the author told her audience--most of them women--that a new Plum novel titled--\"Visions of Sugar Plums\" will become available Nov. 5. Sounding a lot like her characters, the down-to-earth Evanovich joked her way through the event, throwing in the occasional four-letter word. As New Jersey-based band The Nerds played in the background, the author poked fun at some of the day's guest readers, trying to convince Trenton Thunder player Corey Spencer to take his shirt off and directing Trenton Police Officer Thomas Harnett to put on a blonde wig and hot-pink feather boa. She introduced Trenton mayor Douglas Palmer as \"incredibly sexy\" and later asked him to name a street after her. The mayor answered in kind, encouraging Evanovich to make him governor in her next book. Thanking audience members for coming from as far away as Europe, Palmer urged them to visit area landmarks \"but whatever you do, spend money.\" In the new book, Evanovich said, Plum tries to find a mother who has disappeared with her daughter in violation of a custody agreement. A character Plum meets along the way is named Les Sebring, an Indiana bail bondsman who helped draft a law allowing special custody bonds to be placed on the heads of parents seen as likely to flee. Sebring was on hand yesterday to help Evanovich read, and flashed one of his shins at the audience when his character was described as having great legs. Evanovich said her characters tend to be composites of family members, friends and people who are \"made up.\" Asked if Plum is based on her own personality, the author didn't answer directly. \"Let's just say I know where she lives,\" Evanovich said. Now settled in New Hampshire with her husband and two grown children--all of whom were at yesterday's event--Evanovich grew up in South River and graduated \"in the top 98 percent of my class\" from Douglass College in New Brunswick, she said yesterday. As an adult, she regularly visited her parents at their new home in Mercerville, but didn't get acquainted with Trenton until her father got ill and spent time at St. Francis Hospital, she said. \"I would take breaks and walk around the 'Burg,\" she said. \"I fell in love.\" According to Juniak, the neighborhood reflected in Evanovich's novels does not always match the one that exists today. \"She has a feel for Trenton,\" he said, \"especially the Chambersburg of old, the tight family relationships.\" As Evanovich spoke yesterday, fans munched on food provided by several Chambersburg restaurants. There was even a booth named for popular book character Grandma Mazur, which served Hungarian food in her honor. According to Barbara Zoratti, who made much of the chicken paprika, buttered noodles, stuffed cabbage and goulash on sale at the booth, Evanovich had joked about the absence of such food when she spoke to the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce in April. \"My husband volunteered my services to do the food (this time),\" said Zoratti, of Hamilton. Zoratti said she and the women who helped her run the booth would be giving the proceeds to their employer--the cancer ward at the Mercer Campus of Capital Health Systems. As the event drew to a close, groups of women sat on the ballroom floor and listened to the band as the long line of fans seeking Evanovich's signature inched slowly forward. Diane Burkhalter and five friends were hard to miss as they waited their turn wearing bright pink T-shirts that said \"Jersey girls rule.\" An artist friend made the T-shirts especially for yesterday's event \"so that we would stick out like sore thumbs,\" Burkhalter said. Anita DiNicola said she made a special detour in her trip from Los Angeles to hear Evanovich"}, {"response": 13, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Jun 27, 2002 (19:33)", "body": "Great Article Karen Thanks! *pouting* i wish i could have gone.... but live on wrong coast."}, {"response": 14, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (15:41)", "body": "Reposting from 40: (Esbee) Meanwhile, one of JE's previous romances is being rewritten and published this fall (think it's a Sept. release) not 100% sure, but seem to remember that it's called Full House. That's the only one I don't own, but I have read it. Someone lent it to me. It was OK, although I am curious as to why another person is involved and how it has been redone or why for that matter. Did I read somewhere that the other person was going to create a series with Full House's characters? I'd say my favorite of all her romances was Manhunt. In nearly all of them, the guy sees the heroine and is struck dumb with love immediately. In Manhunt, the guy is resisting and she's laying plans to snare him. Much more realistic IMO. ;-D (Lula) I've looked at used book stores and thrift stores for a Steffie Hall book, just to see what it is like, but have had no luck. I think I only found one at a thrift store and I searched high and low at used book stores. In fact, you hardly ever see any of Evanovich's books at these places. Two weeks ago, there was an annual used book fair run by the alumni to a university. It is huge (about 5-6 enormous tents) and runs for a week. I didn't see any of the Plum books in either paper or hardback. Absolutely none of the romances, but they might not accept that stuff. Seems to me that people hang onto her books because they're a series. I'm really glad about Sugar Plums, too! Oh, boy! I read her short story in that Mary Higgins Clark anthology (The Last Peep) but wasn't impressed."}, {"response": 15, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (13:36)", "body": "I havent read Manhunt -sounds like a good one to track down though. The old romances rarely show up in used books stores, -i work in a new & used bookstore and believe me, they're not common. I havent read the MHC anthology -have heard from other JE readers that it wasnt worth tracking down. I have higher hopes for Sugar Plums :-D Charlotte Hughes is the one rewriting Full House- her name sounds familiar, wonder if she used to write LoveSwepts with Janet.... Lula - you might want to try newandusedbooks.com -that's where i shop if i cant find something in my own used book store :-)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (18:07)", "body": "I went over to the site you mentioned and there's an interview with Charlotte Hughes: Tell us about your new project you have lined with the Janet Evanovich. What can reader expect from this deliciously talented mix? Janet and I go way back to our Loveswept days. Wait a minute, that makes us sound old and anybody who sees our photo inside the book cover of the second title of the series will see that we\ufffdre a couple of hot chicks with great bodies. Janet approached me with the idea to co-author and help her rewrite an earlier book, which was an all-time favorite with her readers. Readers can expect a lot of humor and a page-turning mystery that had me sitting on the edge of my seat as I proofed it, although I knew how the story ended. It has a long list of all her titles, but at the bottom, it shows another title to be co-authored with JE for St Martin's Press called Full Tilt (2003). Sounds right, because they did say it was going to turn into a series. http://www.newandusedbooks.com/specialspage3.cfm?id=573&type=3"}, {"response": 17, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (18:33)", "body": "Thanks Karen, i had read an interview in the Romantic Times that mentioned there would be a new book regularly in this series as well. I'm really looking forward to it :-D A book a year from each series and an occational anthology makes me a happy, happy girl!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (20:44)", "body": "BTW, I picked up you know what today. I'll start a new topic for her books. ;-)"}, {"response": 19, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Fri, Aug 30, 2002 (16:55)", "body": ""}, {"response": 20, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Sep  3, 2002 (13:14)", "body": "Excellent! :-D i read Full House this weekend. It was enjoyable but not up to Stephaine Plum standards. There's a preview of Visions of Sugar Plums at the end, which has me totally intrigued. Once you read it you'll have to tell me what you think about this new character -can it be possible that JE is introducing a paranormal element into the series? (well aside from Ranger, the human equvilant of Batman...) ;-D"}, {"response": 21, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (12:36)", "body": "None of her LS or SCAL books would be, but I am rather curious to see what they've done with this one (if I remember the details of the original, the only one I don't own because it is so rare). When does Visions of Sugar Plums come out? November? can it be possible that JE is introducing a paranormal element into the series? (well aside from Ranger, the human equvilant of Batman...) ;-D hehehe! Or maybe Grandpa Mazur, who's snarfing down some pot roast in the sky. ;-)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (14:36)", "body": "LOL over Grandpa Mazur! Visions of Sugar Plums comes out Nov 5th (well... that's the offical release date anyway) althought, since it's a hardback -i might actually have to wait until the 5th to read it *pouting* Full House had some good characters with great potential, but lacked the edge JE does so well in the Plum books. there was too much fluff without the intrigue. Rauol the bug man needed serious help and Max and his sister (cant even remember her name) could have been devloped more -and those wrestlers -what JE should have been able to do with them!!! any way, hope the next one, Full Tilt, is more Janet and less Charlotte. (but not holding my breath...)"}, {"response": 23, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Sep 17, 2002 (15:47)", "body": "OK, have now read the revamped Full House. LOL about your criticism regarding the \"intrigue\" because that's what was added, the whole business with Raoul and the bugs and his infatuation with her. Also, the ex-fiancee subplot is new. Pretty much everything with Deedee is the same, although they did change a lot about Max (added more). Another big change is the bachelor party. Yeah, she does wind up popping out of the cake, but she is fully dressed and brandishing a rolling pin, as I recall, which Nick thinks is a riot. No fall-out from the party. Oh yeah, going there and doing the cake thing were Deedee's ideas; no one dragged her along. Given that the next book as a \"Full\" title, does this mean Billie is our next serial heroine and the rest of the books are going to feature her antics? I forgot about the preview of Sugar Plums in the back. Will have to go back to read. I think I flipped through the pages and didn't see the name Joe, so I set it down (it was v. late at night) ;-"}, {"response": 24, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Sep 19, 2002 (12:44)", "body": "Like the idea of her brandishing a rolling pin *grin* they should have kept that bit in. does this mean Billie is our next serial heroine and the rest of the books are going to feature her antics? Good question- there are several characters with potential in the book (i admit i like Max -young'n though he is) but it probably will be primarily Billie. Wonder what else she can get up to? kidnapped by an infatuated wrestler? (*rolling eyes*) ;-) i do hope Janet is primary writer as i prefer her to Charlotte. On the other hand, would rather read Plum mysteries so would actually prefer Janet to spend more time writing those... Sugar Plums looks like it's going to be good -Cant wait! let me know what you think of the preview!!!!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Sep 19, 2002 (12:46)", "body": "Oh! and this new guy in Sugar Plums should drive Joe insane! LOL -cant wait for his reaction..... *hee hee*"}, {"response": 26, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (11:31)", "body": "If that was supposed to be a \"teaser,\" it didn't do anything for me. Unlike JD Robb's smaller works (as in the anthology \"Out of This World\"), I haven't found Janet's Plum works, outside the official series, to be very good. She had one in Mary Higgins Clark's anthology (The Last Peep??) and it was only so-so."}, {"response": 27, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Sep 20, 2002 (12:12)", "body": "Isnt that one in the MHC anthology her only other small bit? This new one is going to be 160 pages. She should be able to SOMETHING with that! :-) I thought the 'teaser' was kinda intriging. I wanna see if JE is really introducing a 'non' human to her series... books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 4, "subject": "The book(s) I bought today", "response_count": 70, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 23, 1997 (04:58)", "body": "The I Ching."}, {"response": 2, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (16:31)", "body": "The Ultimate Dracula on impulse at Half Price WER"}, {"response": 3, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Dec  6, 1997 (12:13)", "body": "3001, Arthur C. Clarke. The Odyssey series comes to a close. No one let on about the plot yet, tho - I haven't finished it :)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:26)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. Want to link us to your site? We would appreciate it! Want some banner art, all sizes? goto http://www.capitol-city.com/indexbnrs.html New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) Paul Terry Walhus - ( Internet & telecommunications specialist & owner of www.spring.com ) Do you want to write something about Austin, Art, Music or Life, give us a call! 219-1433 Thanks for your readership and thank you Austin Artists, for being so helpful as we continue to build this publication for you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 18, 1998 (00:23)", "body": "Now, *this* is cool! At http://www.acses.com you put in the title or keyword or author of a book and it searches over 20 online bookstores and finds the cheapest price. For example: Your search for 1 book in 28 stores will take a maximum of 18 seconds: Still 15 shops to go... Still 10 shops to go... Still 5 shops to go... 28 shops checked. Results are loading, please have some patience... Book information: ISBN 0789714140: Cold Fusion Web Application Construction Kit, Second Edition with Cold Fusion and Cold Fusion Studio, by Ben Forta, David E. Crawford, Nate Weiss List price as discount base is US$59.99. Total prices inclusive shipping costs. Click on one offer to proceed to the corresponding shop! Total Price Shop Discount Shipping Service Plain Shipping Time US$42.45 Bookpool USA 36% UPS Ground 3-7 days US$45.47 Bookpool USA 36% Air 2 Day 2 days US$47.20 Bookpool USA 36% UPS 2 Day 2 days US$48.00 Bookpool USA 36% FedEx 2 Day 2 days US$48.94 All Direct Books USA 25% UPS Ground 3-7 days US$50.00 Open Group Books USA 22% ? 2-10 days US$50.70 A1Books USA 22% UPS Ground 1-2 weeks US$50.74 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% Standard Ground 7-14 days US$50.79 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% US Priority 2-5 days US$51.79 Book Stacks USA 20% USPS Book Rate 2-6 weeks US$51.94 BookServe USA 20% UPS Ground Track 3-6 days US$51.94 Amazon USA 20% USPS Priority Mail 3-7 days US$52.84 Book Stacks USA 20% UPS 2-10 days US$52.94 All Direct Books USA 25% UPS Second Day 2 days US$53.99 BookServe USA 20% FedEx 2nd day 2 days US$54.74 A1Books USA 22% UPS 3rd Day Select 3 days US$55.94 All Direct Books USA 25% UPS Next Day Air Saver 1 day US$55.94 Amazon USA 20% Second Day Air 2 days US$55.99 BookServe USA 20% FedEx Overnight 1 day US$57.49 BookSite USA 10% ? ? US$58.94 Amazon USA 20% Next Day Air 1 day US$59.79 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% Second Day Air 2-3 days US$60.64 A1Books USA 22% FedEx Economy 2 days US$61.84 Book Stacks USA 20% DHL Express 1 day US$62.24 A1Books USA 22% FedEx Standard Overnight 1 day US$62.79 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% Next Day Air 1-2 days US$63.49 Powells USA 0% USPS 4th Class Book Rate ? US$63.94 Barnes & Noble USA 0% UPS Standard 4-7 days US$63.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Economy 3-7 days US$64.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Standard 2-3 days US$65.99 Powells USA 0% UPS Ground ? US$67.94 Barnes & Noble USA 0% UPS 2nd Day 2-3 days US$67.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Second Day Air 2 days US$69.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Overnight 1 day US$69.99 Powells USA 0% UPS 2nd Day Select 2 days US$70.94 Barnes & Noble USA 0% UPS Next Day 1-2 days US$71.53 Dymocks AU 2% International Express Post ? US$72.24 A1Books USA 22% UPS Next Day 1 day US$81.99 Powells USA 0% UPS Next Day 1 day US$114.70 Waterstones UK -53% Surface Delivery 4-12 weeks US$115.67 Book Pages UK -54% Airmail 5-8 days US$123.88 Waterstones UK -53% Accelerated Surface Delivery 3-4 weeks US$142.23 Waterstones UK -53% Airmail 5-10 days ABC B\ufffdcherdienst, located in Germany: only Now, is that amazing!!! *This* is the future of electronic commerce on the net. Why would anyone want to shop at amazon.com when they can just go here?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 18, 1998 (03:51)", "body": "Amazon had the 8th price!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Apr 19, 1998 (17:59)", "body": "What a great resource, terry! Thanks for the info!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (22:34)", "body": "The Emperor's Virtual Clothes: The Naked Truth about Internet Culture by Dinty W. Moore"}, {"response": 9, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (22:36)", "body": "figures!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (22:37)", "body": "what does the W stand for?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (22:48)", "body": "not sure... e-mail him at dwm7@psuvm.psu.edu"}, {"response": 12, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (23:04)", "body": "Got \"Silas Marner\" for a dime off the used book table at the library."}, {"response": 13, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (23:18)", "body": "I also bought The Wordsworth Dictionary of Obscenity & Taboo Global Advantage on the Internet How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway Doing Business on the Internet Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace"}, {"response": 14, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, May  7, 1998 (12:55)", "body": "Is it true that you can tell a lot about a person by the books they buy? :)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, May  7, 1998 (13:14)", "body": "and what's that supposed to mean? come on, you can say it..."}, {"response": 16, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (00:18)", "body": "No, it's just that I'm now timid about telling what books I bought recently. :)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (01:19)", "body": "good point... (you know, you oughta check out the genx conf, especially the Formatting the GenX Storybook and Chapter 1 of the GenX Storybook topics) ((so, what DID you buy?))"}, {"response": 18, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (11:19)", "body": "Well, what a lovely compliment! Somebody is associating me, a Babyboomer, with GenX! Thank you! :) I bought: Children of God (sequel to The Sparrow), by Maria Doria Russell The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons Still Me, by Christopher Reeve"}, {"response": 19, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (18:46)", "body": "Charlotte, I'll be interested to hear what you think of \"Bean Trees.\" have you read any other of Barbara Kingsolver's novels?"}, {"response": 20, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (19:37)", "body": "I simply adored it. I was ready to rush to Amazon and order all her other books, but my friend Hugh says he will loan them to me. So now I am just waiting (impatiently!) for him to find them. Like the protagonist is from Kentucky, as am I, so there was a lot of resonance going on, but even without that level, it was so enjoyably written that I found myself simply swept away. I bought the new hardcover version they just released in honor of its 10th anniversary, but I'm sure the paperback is still available, too. Run out and get it!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, May 10, 1998 (21:30)", "body": "I preferred \"Animal Dreams\" -- have you read that one? What did you think?"}, {"response": 22, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, May 11, 1998 (11:36)", "body": "Animal Dreams is on my list, after Pigs in Heaven, which I will start after I finish Children of God. I have read terrific reviews of Animal Dreams, and am greatly looking forward to it!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov  1, 1998 (21:02)", "body": "picked up two more belva plain novels. her latest one, Homecoming, and Whispers. i actually finished the last one i bought and was just dying to get back to a bookstore to pick up more, much to my husband's chargin."}, {"response": 24, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (00:46)", "body": "used the plastic, huh?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (10:26)", "body": "I enjoyed Homecoming , but I have not read Whispers . How was it? Referring to message 23--- I read both Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven , by Barbara Kingsolver, since I wrote that message. Last week I bought her newest, The Ironwood Bible . Looking forward to it. But first I have to finish the two new ones I just bought by E. Annie Proulx."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (10:30)", "body": "already half-way through Homecoming and just started last night (read for 2 hours). Whispers is next, so i'll let you know, Charlotte. wer: nope. we try not to use plastic too much."}, {"response": 27, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (12:40)", "body": "Just finished Jane Smiley's \"Thousand Acres.\" It started off in one direction and then suddently took off in another more dysfunctional and outrageous one."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov  3, 1998 (15:29)", "body": "finished Homecoming last night. 4 hour book. good read, though. and i was wrong about it being her latest novel....Legacy of Secrets is the newest and i don't have that one YET!!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Nov  3, 1998 (16:34)", "body": "Today I bought \"Solid State Physics, Second Edition\" by Hook and Hall, and \"Introductory Nuclear Physics\" by Krane. Oh what an exciting life I lead. y"}, {"response": 30, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov  3, 1998 (23:47)", "body": "Wow. Sure puts us to shame, Mike."}, {"response": 31, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (13:03)", "body": "No Plasma Physics?"}, {"response": 32, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (15:06)", "body": "Plasma physics is probably the most boring type i can think of. I could have done ap lasma project, but i read about it and then fell asleep :-)"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (16:52)", "body": "ok, just to interject, seems i was a bit confused with the titles i mentioned by belva plain. let me correct myself: i read Homecoming and have started Random Winds, not Whispers, and her newest book is Legacy of Silence, not Legacy of Secrets. K? glad we got all that straightened out! mike: are those books for your school? just reading the titles makes me sleepy! and what the heck is plasma physics? i really don't want to think too hard, so explain it, please? it sounds like blood work or something."}, {"response": 34, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (17:52)", "body": "yeah, wolf, my books are school books :-) $80 worth no less (depending on the exchange rates of course :-) plasma physics the study of plasmas (funnily enough! :) which are extremely hot, highly ionized gases...a normal candle flame is part plasma, part hot gas."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (18:35)", "body": "ok, i'm there, thanks mikey!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (21:39)", "body": "Ya know...many years ago, maybe 20, I went to an Audiophile store and listened to some Plasma speakers. They were hand made in Mexico. They worked by vibrating layers of plasma, created by lighting some kind of a little gas flame in the top of the speaker. Looked like a little row of pilot lights. It was a devastating experience for me. Never have I heard such sound. It was as if each note was sparkling in the air around my head. I could identify the direction each note came from. It was the clearest, most heavenly audio experience I've ever had. Every home stereo I've owned since then has sounded like crap, but luckily, as time passed, I have forgotten the wonder. These speakers cost $11,000 each. I wonder if they are still making them."}, {"response": 37, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Nov  6, 1998 (16:55)", "body": "WOW, Charlotte! They sound awesome! How about doing a web search for them?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Nov  7, 1998 (14:44)", "body": "I would really like to be able to hear such sound just once."}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov  7, 1998 (20:17)", "body": "you mean it's better than live?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Nov  7, 1998 (23:32)", "body": "I did an Altavista search for \"plasma speakers\" and turned up some sites - check them out!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Nov  9, 1998 (10:29)", "body": "Oh good. I used Infoseek, and only found one site, and all it contained was some guy telling pretty much the same story I did, that is..he had heard some several years ago and was blown away. In my humble (and non-professional) opinion, yes...better than live."}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  9, 1998 (21:36)", "body": "haha!!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Nov  9, 1998 (23:23)", "body": "Wow, that's something of a paradox, isn't it, Charlotte?"}, {"response": 44, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 10, 1998 (12:36)", "body": "Yeah....but isn't most of life? :)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 10, 1998 (12:39)", "body": "Ok, that was a flippant response. I'll try again: What I meant was that it was an enhanced listening experience. It felt pure . With live, you get natural, ambient noises: a cough, a baby's cry, feet shuffling, normal human noises we all take for granted and ignore. When I say it was better than live, I meant to say that I preferred it to live, for its purity. Better?"}, {"response": 46, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Nov 12, 1998 (10:05)", "body": "flippant was fine Charlotte, I like flippant!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "jgross", "date": "Thu, Nov 12, 1998 (14:21)", "body": "I practically flipped .....and landed on my head it sounded so live, it almost purified me wait, I think I might do some of that plasma now I wanna make sure it's pure plasma, though, before I do it"}, {"response": 48, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Nov 13, 1998 (22:42)", "body": "I got it now! Thanks for the clarification, Charlotte!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (11:42)", "body": "ok, picked up whispers (another belva plain novel). i really need to expand my novel collection to include other authors. i actually have a list recommended to me and have only read belva plain, dick francis, and fern michaels. sad considering the list had 20 different authors on it."}, {"response": 50, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (12:53)", "body": "Add Barbara Kingsolver to your list, Wolf."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (21:51)", "body": "thanks, charlotte, what does she write?"}, {"response": 52, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  7, 1999 (16:03)", "body": "Her books are hard to describe, but enjoyable on many levels. I especially liked \"Animal Dreams.\""}, {"response": 53, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Jan  7, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "There are indeed hard to describe. If I may suggest: Go to www.amazon.com, search for Barbara Kingsolver. There will be reviews by other readers and more articulate descriptions of her books than I am able to give you. I am currently reading her nonficion essays and enjoying them very much. I have finished all her other published works. My favorite so far is her latest novel The Poisonwood Bible . Start with Bean Trees if you can."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:46)", "body": "thanks!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:57)", "body": "bought Rheingold's \"The Virtual Community\" the other day, along with \"The Union Square Cafe Cookbook\" and \"Rivals of Dracula\""}, {"response": 56, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:58)", "body": "the last two are not by Howard, of course..."}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:00)", "body": "and just who could be a rival of dracula?"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:01)", "body": "not sure yet, gave it to the wife to read at work... I'll let you know when it comes back home"}, {"response": 59, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:02)", "body": "haha!! i mean, who does dracula have to compete with, you know? *grin*"}, {"response": 60, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:15)", "body": "WER?"}, {"response": 61, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (16:05)", "body": "I love you, too, Stace..."}, {"response": 62, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (16:26)", "body": "I really enjoyed Virtual Community, as I've said elsewehre..."}, {"response": 63, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (16:48)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 64, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (12:17)", "body": "That's part of what prompted me to finally buy it, Mike. Have you read his \"Virtual Reality\"?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (12:24)", "body": "NO, I've never read Virtual REality, wer. Have you?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (12:28)", "body": "nope...just wondering if I should try and find it, too... (actually more like if I see it should I buy it)"}, {"response": 67, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (20:58)", "body": "I don't really know what it's about..if it's big headsets and wireframe worlds then I don't really care that much :-)"}, {"response": 68, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Feb 14, 2002 (19:03)", "body": "Stokstad's two volume \"Art History\"."}, {"response": 69, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Mon, Aug 29, 2005 (19:59)", "body": "\"Every Dead Thing\" by John Connolly, hardback, for $2 at the library."}, {"response": 70, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (05:25)", "body": "Did you read Every Dead Thing? If so anything stand out? books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 40, "subject": "Evanovich: Hard Eight", "response_count": 27, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (10:29)", "body": "OK, I've now started my reread but I have to say I wasn't in the least bit disapponted by this book. Not even the tone. It was right IMO. I was fairly shocked by the ordinary description of what finally happened when Ranger came to collect. But that only reinforced my belief that the real love and passion exist only between Joe and Stephanie. I think there are abundant clues as to what Stephanie and Ranger are all about. I believe she calls it a \"moth to a flame.\" That means self-destructive and she knows it. In this book, I think Janet has pulled no punches and left nothing up in the air about where Stephanie stands and what these relationships are all about. Am I disappointed that Stephanie did finally sleep with Ranger? Yes, only because of what I fear would be Joe's reaction. However, this would give Janet the opportunity to allow Joe to change a bit (although, in my mind, he's pretty near perfecto!). And about the ending, I definitely believe Joe initiated it, but could not do it himself because of what he is. Both conspired and both will be equally culpable if it ever comes out."}, {"response": 2, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (10:40)", "body": "Admin note: When you respond, you can cut and paste the relevant portion of a person's post into the text box. On another conference, we've developed a formating convention where you put the person's name in parentheses before their message, put the whole thing in italics, and then write your response below it. That way you can respond to any number of people's postings within the same response without it getting confusing or losing the source. It would look like this: Sample (Karen) Am I disappointed that Stephanie did finally sleep with Ranger? No, she finally got it out of her system. The mystery is gone--at least for that element of Ranger's life--and she can work on her other problems, like finding a new insurance company. ;-D You do italics or bold by using basic HTML codes that can be found here: http://austen.com/tutorial/index.html It's very easy."}, {"response": 3, "author": "lulatodd", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (11:47)", "body": "I loved this book. I never liked Joe that much, mainly because he never seemed to like Steph that much. I liked him SO much better in this book, and liked Ranger less, who seemed like a prick from time to time. I was disappointed in the lack of detail of the \"ruination\", but oh, well. My take is that Ranger chose to murder Abruzzi rather than have Joe involved officially because that way it would be final, and they wouldn't have to count on the system, which doesn't always work. I think Joe knew about it, but I think that Ranger chose this way, and chose the responsibility and culpability that goes with it. It's his and his alone, his choice. IMO This is the first time I've felt that it would be OK if Joe and Steph end up together. I've had issues in my own life with SOs trying to change me, so I've been extra sensitive to that in this series. But maybe when Steph chose her job over Morelli ln the last book it made him do some thinking about love without conditions attached. Certainly his attitude is different in this book. It's always felt to me that as much as they seem to love each other, it's always had to be on Joe's terms, and I never liked that. Again, my opinion...not worth much, but it's mine, dammit! lol"}, {"response": 4, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Jun 23, 2002 (13:22)", "body": "Lula!! Love the name you're using. Fond of orange spandex skirts six sizes too small for you? ;-D (Lula) My take is that Ranger chose to murder Abruzzi rather than have Joe involved officially because that way it would be final, and they wouldn't have to count on the system, which doesn't always work. I think Joe knew about it, but I think that Ranger chose this way, and chose the responsibility and culpability that goes with it. It's his and his alone, his choice. IMO As I recall, Joe wanted to talk privately with Ranger, so I took that as the initial approach to \"solve\" the problem. Both guys had warned Steph not to have anything to do with Abruzzi and both knew he was one bad, sick psycho. Taking him out was the only, viable solution, and Joe would know that Ranger would be able to handle it best. But this is a \"conspiracy\" and the law would hang the blame on both them equally. If someone half decent chose to investigate the (ahem) murder, it wouldn't take a genius to find two guys with a motive: to keep Steph alive. (Lula) Certainly his attitude is different in this book. I viewed it more as he was giving her a bit of space. Steph ultimately had a panic attack in 7, when all the pressure (exerted mainly by herself and her family) hit. She now has to put her dreams and aspirations in perspective against reality. Joe's done the wild thing already. It's out of his system. I think he sees that. But I don't believe for one minute he's looking for a traditional Burg housewife. Makes no sense to me. He was attracted to Steph because she's unconventional and that has to remain."}, {"response": 5, "author": "flowerbud", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (06:56)", "body": "Still confused by this board. Just want to see the Hard Eight section. Definitely this book was so much better than seven which was a huge disappointment. After ranger collected, he seemed to back off super fast. I'm guessing tongue like a lizard makes a comeback next book. Besides I like Morelli better - though I wouldn't pass on Ranger."}, {"response": 6, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (09:41)", "body": "Big Welcome Graceful! (Graceful) Still confused by this board. Probably because you've never seen anything like it. But it's very easy to use, once you get the hang of it. Just want to see the Hard Eight section. You're in it. BTW, once you've gone into a topic and read the messages, the next time you come back, you won't see those messages again. Some people like to get the context of what has been discussed by going back and bringing some of the messages back up on the screen. This can be done several easy ways. (1) Below the messages is a Redisplay Box. You can put in a number (representing a specific message #) or the number you want to back up (type in -5 or however many you want to go back). (2) Use (bookmark) this url for the Hard Eight topic, which will show you all posts for the past 7 days: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/books/40/since/-7 (Graceful) Definitely this book was so much better than seven which was a huge disappointment. I have a feeling that one's assessment of the two books has to do with which male character one prefers. All through 6, I was cringing with what was happening, dreading what Janet was laying out: the breakup. However, with my sympathies clearly on the Morelli side, everything seemed very reasonable, logical, plausible and positive in 7. How else are you going to explain why no one (Connie, Lula, or Vinnie) noticed Steph had slept with Ranger? It was not a life-altering experience (redux) as had been the case with Morelli. ;-D"}, {"response": 7, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (19:46)", "body": "So many thoughts bouncing around in my head re: Hard8 that i hardly know where to start! :-) First, i cant believe Steph actually slept with Ranger. I knew it was coming -eventually, but i thought JE would draw it out for a few more books. Remember Buick interuptus? took FOREVER for Joe to finally get Steph to actually sleep with him. (Karen)I was fairly shocked by the ordinary description of what finally happened when Ranger came to collect. But that only reinforced my belief that the real love and passion exist only between Joe and Stephanie. i couldnt agree more. Clearly Joe is Steph's true love. :-) Remember when she finally slept w/ Joe -afterwards EVERYONE (even Vinny) could tell she'd just got some. ;-D She kept insisting \"i was do!\" (Karen)How else are you going to explain why no one (Connie, Lula, or Vinnie) noticed Steph had slept with Ranger? It was not a life-altering experience (redux) as had been the case with Morelli. ;-D Exactly! Re: the Abruzzi murder, it reminded me of an eariler book (cant remember which one off the top of my head -and am at work, so cant go check) when Steph observes that Ranger and Joe are two Alpha Males working together for a common goal ... or something along those lines. Will check for the exact quote tonight. *fingers crossed* that book nine brings Joe and Steph back together - meanwhile am Happy Happy Happy that we're getting a Stephine Plum novella this Christmas -so i wont have to wait until next summer for my next SP fix!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (19:49)", "body": "OH! Meant to say 'Thanks Karen!' for the Evanovich Topics! *Hug* You are the Best Girl! :-D and Welcome Lula and Graceful -hope you stick around and post often!"}, {"response": 9, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jun 24, 2002 (22:43)", "body": "(Esbee) I knew it was coming -eventually, but i thought JE would draw it out for a few more books. But this was the place: a time-out as she called it (not quite a breakup in her mind). I still do have a problem with it, as I can't imagine Joe letting this slide. But on the positive side, no one knows or has guessed, so there's always a posibility it won't get out. when Steph observes that Ranger and Joe are two Alpha Males working together for a common goal ... I remember the Alpha Male comment too. Now where was it??? Was it when she was wrestling that guy to the ground, having skipped out on that wedding, and the two of them are watching her...or when she winds up the Kenny Mancuso one, when she's tackled him to the ground and the two of them are watching her again. They seem to do that a lot. In Hard Eight, I think you see both Joe and Ranger highly concerned for her well-being, as that Abruzzi guy is nuts. Both are trying in their own way to resolve the situation, initially by finding Evelyn and Annie. But when that isn't going to do it, both know Abruzzi has to be taken out. Neither would be able to keep Steph safe with him free and loose. They both respect each other and this shows they trust each other implicitly."}, {"response": 10, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:29)", "body": "(Karen)But this was the place: a time-out as she called it (not quite a breakup in her mind). As i was reading i kept hearing in the back of my mind \"But we were on a Break!\" -ala Ross & Rachel she's tackled him to the ground and the two of them are watching her again. They seem to do that a lot. LOL! So True! she's forever rolling around on the ground with some FTA and then looking up to see Joe, Ranger and an assortment of cops watching with great amusement. In Hard Eight, I think you see both Joe and Ranger highly concerned for her well-being... They both respect each other and this shows they trust each other implicitly. you definately get the idea that these guys like each other -despite the fact that they almost really dont want to. Mary Alice 'the horse girl' cracks me up! In 7 Up i wasnt that excited about introducing Valerie into the plot, i think i liked her better 'off stage'. But now i'm liking the visual that's provided by her kids -you get a clear view of what Steph and Valerie were like as kids -substiutuing the \"i'm a horse\" and pawing with \"i can fly\" and jumping off the garage. :-) Also, her mom's continual \"why can't you be more like your sister\" complaint is getting funnier & funnier. -i mean, does she Really Want Steph to move back in -sans a husband but with two kids? LOL! They must have the most frequently used bathroom in the burg! :-)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (14:30)", "body": "Argh!!! i swear i double checked the tags!!"}, {"response": 12, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (17:28)", "body": ""}, {"response": 13, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Tue, Jun 25, 2002 (17:28)", "body": ""}, {"response": 14, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (12:22)", "body": "(Esbee) As i was reading i kept hearing in the back of my mind \"But we were on a Break!\" -ala Ross & Rachel *hee hee* You know, there's something else in the book that is reminiscent of maybe a movie I've seen. It's been driving me crazy. I need to look through the book again. Perhaps, I've marked it. But will definitely post it to see if anyone else recognizes the situation from another place. In 7 Up i wasnt that excited about introducing Valerie into the plot It was amusing. But I like the new characters that Janet has brought in for 8. Some may not be pleased that Grandma has taken a backseat. But I'm kind of glad. After reading all of Janet's romance novels, where she had a recurring character that has ultimately become Grandma, you get tired of her stuff. Plus it got repetitious. It did bother me that Maggie (the ex-mud wrestler) was introduced into this book, but didn't factor into it all. What was that about? It certainly wasn't necessary. You begin to wonder if some portion was cut out because there was no reason to have her move in next door to Vinnie. I told the other group that my favorite line in the book was \"Those geese are animals.\" But my second fav has to be, after Steph has related how her mother has run down the rabbit, Joe's reply: \"I'm fucking speechless.\""}, {"response": 15, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Jun 26, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "(Karen) I like the new characters that Janet has brought in for 8 Like the Homicidal Bunny? ;-D i'd noticed the developement of Grandma Mazur in previous (pre-Plum) books as well... but have to admit, she's one of my favorites. I mean, when she shot the turkey in the gumpy right on the dining room table... and then zapped her son-in-law with Stephine's stun gun. *snort* maybe its just that my gran is a pretencious snob, but i think she's a hoot :-D Like your favorite lines as well.... but think my fav is when her mom runs over the rabbit and she and Steph decide, \"Well -it WAS a rabbit\" one of my favorite scenes is when Albert gets stuck in the dryer, and Steph has to run him through the gentle cycle for five minutes to get him out. LOL! i found Maggie's breif appearence bewildering as well. Maybe she's going to play a main part in the next book. Visions of Sugar Plums is only going to be a novella, so JE may have been doing some 'set up' prep work in this book for that book's plot. Who Knows... Meanwhile, one of JE's previous romances is being rewritten and published this fall (think it's a Sept. release) not 100% sure, but seem to remember that it's called Full House."}, {"response": 16, "author": "lulatodd", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (08:50)", "body": "I've looked at used book stores and thrift stores for a Steffie Hall book, just to see what it is like, but have had no luck. So I'm glad one of her old books is being reissued, though I'm not much of a romance reader. I've seen them on ebay, but haven't bid on any. I'm really glad about Sugar Plums, too! Oh, boy! Yes, I agree that Joe loves about Steph the same thing that Ranger and everyone else loves about her, and that is that she is an original. But up until HE, he also appeared to hate that about her, too...it drove him crazy. But in this book, he seems more accepting of her. I also liked your comment about nobody being able to tell that she had been to bed with Ranger, and everyone immediately knew when she had been with Joe. I had not thought about that, until you mentioned it. My name actually IS Lula! But I pass on the spandex, at my age and physical condition! lol!"}, {"response": 17, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Jun 29, 2002 (15:31)", "body": "(Esbee) Like the Homicidal Bunny? ;-D That's not what I meant, but the bunny was good! ;-D In HE, Kloughn was a variation on a theme. He's a less spacey version of Mooner, but equally bizarre and needy. I like how she's brought in someone new. I don't think I could've stood the repetitiousness of the same cast of characters. Always need new blood to make it interesting. Which is why I think the old faithful crew (Grandma, Mary Lou, previous sidekicks) all took a backseat. i'd noticed the developement of Grandma Mazur in previous (pre-Plum) books as well... So you've read her romances too! I got really tired of Elsie reappearing in all those stories. Maybe she's [Maggie's] going to play a main part in the next book. You would think so. Why else have her move in next door to Vinnie. Aha!! Steph's new (nondangerous) job. She goes to work for Maggie, with a little mud wrestling on the side. ;-D (Lula) But up until HE, he also appeared to hate that about her, too...it drove him crazy. But in this book, he seems more accepting of her. [I'm going to assume that the \"he\" you wrote refers to Joe.] Another way to view Joe's relationship with Steph in this book is he's keeping himself at arm's length. It's not that he's accepting, but his current standing as \"ex-fiancee-sort of\" doesn't give him the right to say or do anything. She's a free agent. Steph's being a bounty hunter has bothered him ever since he realized he had feelings for her. When it became even more serious--to the point where he was talking marriage, you could see the change in his attitude toward her job. It was no longer an amusement to him because she was so inept, but he feared for her safety and it preyed on him. The guy was chugging Maalox. It bothered him big time. Now, he has to sit back and wait for her. At the end of HE, Steph herself is pretty scared, more scared than she's ever been before. That could lead to certain changes. I also liked your comment about nobody being able to tell that she had been to bed with Ranger Having reread the book, it's not quite accurate. Steph goes over to her parents home the next morning and Grandma notices she looks happy. But no one has guessed it was caused by Ranger. How about we talk about the romances on 39??? That's one of the great things about this site, there's some built in organization (topics). So, Lula, just click on the \"previous topic\" button at the bottom and you'll be there. I'll transfer our comments."}, {"response": 18, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Jul  1, 2002 (22:41)", "body": "I was thinking about the ending, and more and more it seems to resemble a Godfather I end, with Joe putting out a hit on Abruzzi and his having an alibi being with both Steph and Valerie. Joe would be the logical suspect since he is/was Steph's fiancee. But this way, he's appears to be in the clear."}, {"response": 19, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Tue, Jul  2, 2002 (12:58)", "body": "Havent seen the Godfather(s) so cant really comment on any resemblance, but do think Joe would be suspect. Its a good thing that Ranger is good at killing the bad guys. :-) Of course, with Joe alibied, it wouldnt take a mental giant to figure out who killed Abruzzi. The cops will probably treat it the way they do Ranger's carrying concealed. -it's an open secret and everybody will be happy they dont have to worry about Abruzzi any more."}, {"response": 20, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (16:18)", "body": "Just noticed something while listening to Hard Eight on tape during commute from hell this morning. when Grandma Mazur gets handed the pictures of Stephine sleeping she tells Steph that the Rabbit TOLD her to give them to her. a few scenes later, when Grandma and Steph are stopped on their way back from the bakery by the Rabbit and Bill Clinton, nobody can understand what the Rabbit is saying. Not even Clinton. He asks him, \"havent you ever tried to talk in that head before?\" Seems like an oops to me. Wonder why Janet or her editor didnt catch that-"}, {"response": 21, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Wed, Aug 28, 2002 (19:46)", "body": ""}, {"response": 22, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (12:50)", "body": ""}, {"response": 23, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (17:52)", "body": "The cops will probably treat it the way they do Ranger's carrying concealed. -it's an open secret and everybody will be happy they dont have to worry about Abruzzi any more. Somehow the \"whodunnit\" is going to factor into the next book. It's too meaningful a development in the triangular relationship. From Steph's standpoint, you have men who are willing to kill and/or put their careers on the line to protect her. And then you have the two men. They have a lot at stake as well. It really is horrendous that we have to wait until next summer to see where this is all going. Seems like an oops to me. Wonder why Janet or her editor didnt catch that There are a lot of 'ooops' in the series. Maybe when I reread I'll make a list of errors, but one always stuck out (can't remember which book right now) about Valerie. In one book, Steph talks about either going to stay with Valerie or having Valerie do something, as if she lived in town. And Joe's scar seems to move from the right to left eyebrow at will sometimes. ;-)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Thu, Aug 29, 2002 (18:39)", "body": "LOL -never noticed the bit about Joe's migrating scar. (figures YOU'D pick up on that. Joe drooler that you are) ;-P i noticed that Valerie changed locations drastically as well -but thought she must have just moved. i dont think we're ever told how long she lived in Calif. -presumablely just long enough to bleach her hair blond, get a Meg Ryan hair cut and loose her husband to the babysitter. Her man hunt in Hard8 is a riot. Gah! imagine being so desperate that you'd date Kloughn. *shudder*"}, {"response": 25, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (12:06)", "body": "Another ooops In Four to Score, Steph tells Joe, when she wants to drive the Ducati that she got a bike license when she was married to Dickie and has kept it current. In Seven Up, when Vinnie gives her the Harley after her CR-V gets totaled, she tells him that she got her license a couple of years back when she was dating a guy who had a cycle shop."}, {"response": 26, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (12:57)", "body": "WOW! i didnt even catch that! Mmmmmm..... getting all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings thinking about Joe on a Ducati.... ;-d"}, {"response": 27, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Fri, Oct 11, 2002 (23:34)", "body": "It's an interesting bike. Not one you see around much...at least here! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 41, "subject": "The Kinsey Millhone \"Alphabet\" Mysteries", "response_count": 4, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Jul 18, 2002 (17:52)", "body": "jonah robb is a punk (i've read every damn book)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jul 29, 2002 (21:32)", "body": "Geez, Nick, where have you been all my life?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Aug 19, 2002 (20:26)", "body": "lol (reading every damn book, i reckon)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Aug 21, 2002 (21:43)", "body": "You've been missed! Now go stick your nose back in your book. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 42, "subject": "Sherlock Holmes - did he stay too long?", "response_count": 0, "posts": []}, {"num": 43, "subject": "J.D. Robb's \"In Death\" series", "response_count": 17, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (13:19)", "body": "OK, Esbee, here's our topic. \"Purity\" was another good read. When you posted about Mavis somehow affecting Eve, I guessed what the news was. But how will it affect Eve? We've seen how Eve is little by little becoming more domesticated (for lack of a better word), realizing that being a wife is a little different from just being with Roarke. She now had other considerations in her life. She's growing as a person, especially since her childhood trauma had stunted that area of her development. We've seen her maternal instincts surface with Peabody, McNab (especially in this one) and Truehart too (in this one). While she has always felt an obligation to the \"dead,\" her obligations to the living were limited to Mavis. Eve's not ready for children herself yet. She can't take care of herself emotionally, a child would be out of the question. But seeing Mavis go through the process will force her to think about it seriously herself. Reminds of a past book (Judgment?) when Eve is suspended, goes into a deep depression, and Roarke tries to shock her out of it by threatening to use this opportunity for them to have children. She's horrified. ;-)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Wed, Sep  4, 2002 (16:48)", "body": "OK, Esbee, here's our topic. Yippee! *happy dance* i love this series! re: Mavis' baby and it's effect on Eve i'm interested in how Eve will relate to a pregnant Mavis and eventually the baby. she has virtually no past experience with children, espically babies. She can't take care of herself emotionally, a child would be out of the question. But seeing Mavis go through the process will force her to think about it seriously herself exsactly. i cant wait for March (when we get the next book)to see how Eve handles it. LOL over Mavis referring to her baby as Little Eve or Roarke -she'll probably really name the poor child something really random and sentimental like Fabric. We've seen her maternal instincts surface with Peabody, McNab (especially in this one) and Truehart too (in this one). i've always seen her relationship with Peabody and even McNab as more sibling-like. Peabody herself referred to that when talking to Roarke in (i think it was) book four -if that's the second one she's in. i think that scene in Judgment is great, where Roarke shocks her by suggesting they have a baby. She's so flabergasted it makes me laugh. :-D"}, {"response": 3, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (09:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 4, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (09:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 5, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (09:46)", "body": ""}, {"response": 6, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (10:06)", "body": ""}, {"response": 7, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (17:03)", "body": ""}, {"response": 8, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (17:05)", "body": ""}, {"response": 9, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Feb  9, 2003 (17:06)", "body": ""}, {"response": 10, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (18:19)", "body": "(minimalism?)"}, {"response": 11, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (22:33)", "body": ""}, {"response": 12, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (22:35)", "body": ""}, {"response": 13, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (22:37)", "body": ""}, {"response": 14, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (22:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 15, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (22:44)", "body": ""}, {"response": 16, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Wed, Feb 12, 2003 (22:52)", "body": ""}, {"response": 17, "author": "SBRobinson", "date": "Sun, Mar  9, 2003 (16:53)", "body": "so Karen, have you read the latest? what do you think of bringing in Roake's family??? books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 45, "subject": "Girl With a Pearl Earring", "response_count": 151, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (15:42)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (16:38)", "body": "******** An Administrative Note************* Since this is a separate conference from Drool, you will have to change your posted name on the main Books page if you have altered it from what was registered."}, {"response": 3, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (17:28)", "body": "The book website gives this guide...good leading questions . http://www.tchevalier.com/guides/index.html"}, {"response": 4, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (17:40)", "body": ""}, {"response": 5, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (17:40)", "body": ""}, {"response": 6, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (18:00)", "body": "I feel like I'm in college again reading some of those questions. I find 4,10 to 16 (and maybe 2) the most interesting of those. I'm sure there are a boatload of questions and comments of our own."}, {"response": 7, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (22:26)", "body": ""}, {"response": 8, "author": "Tress", "date": "Sat, Nov 16, 2002 (23:25)", "body": "(Dorine) I feel like I'm in college again reading some of those questions. I find 4,10 to 16 (and maybe 2) the most interesting of those. I agree with your college statement! They're like the exam questions during finals week. I like 2, 8,10 and 14 (two of those are 'Vermeer' questions, but I find that I'm really curious about how he sees things...since the novel is through Griet's eyes). Thanks for the link Evelyn..."}, {"response": 9, "author": "sandym", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (05:10)", "body": "(Dorine) I feel like I'm in college again reading some of those questions. I find 4,10 to 16 (and maybe 2) the most interesting of those. I'm sure there are a boatload of questions and comments of our own. #12 looks particularly intriguing. :-D"}, {"response": 10, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (10:02)", "body": "Yeah, those reading guide questions do sound ominously like college exam ones. ;-) I like the idea of discussing the book in sections, as is usually done with books. Films are different because you can't easily divide them up and the discussant has usually seen the entire movie and knows the ending, etc. Rika's suggestion back at Drool about going by year sounds good to me, but I will go with the majority on this one. (As you can tell, I am a structure-junkie.) ;-)))) Then we might use some of the reading guide questions (simplified) at the end if the subject matter hasn't been addressed already. BTW, Al's Q has been answered via email among other things."}, {"response": 11, "author": "lindak", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (11:26)", "body": "The questions are a bit staggering, but 2,10, and 14 made me sit up and take notice. These questions, for me, get to the heart and soul of the characters, and were some of the very things I questioned as I read. #12 is also significant and I think will be a geat source of exploration as we get underway. If we still have a vote, I'd love to see it discussed in sections with the flexibility of being able to move back and forth as need be for discussion. Thank you Evelyn, for the link. V. informative and a great source for the themes that I'm sure we'll want to cover."}, {"response": 12, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (11:45)", "body": "I don't happen to own the book. I borrowed it from Lora, so it might be harder for me to stick to structure, but I shall try. ;-D I guess it is too soon to get a copy of the script?"}, {"response": 13, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (11:59)", "body": "(Moon) I don't happen to own the book. I borrowed it Do you have a library card? ;-) And, Linda, you may want to visit the main Books page (click on Books conference link below the ugly buttons) to get rid of your last name. Gaah, I may try to redecorate around here, as Emma made some be-yew-tiful buttons awhile back. Maybe I'll email Kaylene for instructions on how to apply them. Terry was no help at all. How is the voting going on structured vs. unstructured? Rika - structured Evelyn - unstructured Dorine - unstructured Linda - both Karen - structured Moon - wouldn't know the structure if it \"struck\" her in the face. ;-) What other countries haven't been heard from? This is your UN Secretary-General asking for floor discussion before the Hall Proctor raps my knuckles."}, {"response": 14, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (12:01)", "body": "If we still have a vote, I'd love to see it discussed in sections with the flexibility of being able to move back and forth as need be for discussion. OK. I rescind my suggestion for free- for- all :-))))) Actually, I don't give a rat's ass what format we use. While this is a book discussion...really, we're going to have the film and the cast in mind ; and be part of the postings.Since this is the only reason why we're discussing the book in the first place.So it's a combination of both. HS was done in a haphazard way and no one complained:-D"}, {"response": 15, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (12:04)", "body": "I'm going to ask other non-Drool folks who read the book to join in."}, {"response": 16, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (12:08)", "body": "(Linda) If we still have a vote, I'd love to see it discussed in sections with the flexibility of being able to move back and forth as need be for discussion I'm all for this with *flexibility* the key word."}, {"response": 17, "author": "WinniePeg", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:30)", "body": "Hello everyone... Hope you don't mind if I join in on discussion. I'm kind of new at this so please be gentle with me.. Leona"}, {"response": 18, "author": "lindak", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:40)", "body": "(Leona)I'm kind of new at this so please be gentle with me.. Welcome, Leona. Don't worry, in a very short while you'll be just as rough and tumble as the rest of us :-)) Stick around, please. Our discussions are fantastic"}, {"response": 19, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:44)", "body": "Don't you worry, Leona has a wicked sense of humor. ;-) Pssst! She's been around for years, mainly lurking but she has posted a little way back when."}, {"response": 20, "author": "WinniePeg", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:46)", "body": "Hello everyone... Hope you don't mind if I join in on discussion. I'm kind of new at this so please be gentle with me.. Leona"}, {"response": 21, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:46)", "body": "Welcome, Leona! We are always kind, but never gentle. ;-) (Karen)Moon - wouldn't know the structure if it \"struck\" her in the face. ;-) ROTF! I am not so rigid. My vote goes to unstructured because, fGs, we are not discussing Shakespeare or Dante. (Dorine), I'm all for this with *flexibility* the key word. Hell, yes. If a bar doesn't serve Martinis with Bombay gin I would still have one with Tanquerey. ;-)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "WinniePeg", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:53)", "body": "Ignore second duped post--that was just my 'wicked sense of humour'!!! Evelyn, thanks for discussion questions.. I read GWAPE a while back so will now start my re-read with questions in mind. Ta!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:54)", "body": "Admin note (for infrequent posters or newbie posters, whose names I will not mention): To see if there are new messages, do not hit Reload or Refresh (depending on which browser you are using). This will cause a reposting of an existing message. What you should do is either go back to the main Books conference page: http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/browse/books/all/new or reclick on this topic's url in the Location Bar at the top of your screen (or as you've bookmarked it). Have I lost you completely. http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/books/45/new (Moon) If a bar doesn't serve Martinis with Bombay gin I would still have one with Tanquerey. ;-) Since you put it that way, I'd vote for flexibility as well. ;-)"}, {"response": 24, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (13:54)", "body": "(Moon)We are always kind, but never gentle. ;-) Well put Moon. I must remember that. fGs, we are not discussing Shakespeare or Dante. LOL... and not getting a grade. Welcome Leona..I like a good sense of humor."}, {"response": 25, "author": "Tress", "date": "Sun, Nov 17, 2002 (21:59)", "body": "I'm like Griet...I (try to) do what I am told. Whatever structure everyone else decides...be it a \"free for all\" or \"boot camp\", I'm all for it! ;-D Welcome Leona!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (05:07)", "body": "Is it time? Is it time? Can we start? :-)"}, {"response": 27, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (08:13)", "body": "Yes, it's time. :)"}, {"response": 28, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (16:35)", "body": "Okay, I'll jump in first. I've begun rereading GWAPE and there's an event at the very beginning that still puzzles me, even after two readings. Okay, perhaps better said that it nettles me because IMO it doesn't quite have the ring of truth to it. Why did Griet slap Cornelia on her very first day in the Vermeer household, practically within the first hour of meeting the little girl? Yes, yes, I know that Cornelia was laughing at Griet, but really, that hardly seems like proper motivation for Griet's actions. It seems to me, Griet would have felt entirely out of her element at this point in the story, what with the newness of becoming a maid, leaving her family, meeting Catholics for the first time, etc., not to mention the fact that her family was depending on her to keep this job, and therefore, would have been guarding all of her reactions, emotions, etc., until she'd found her footing. I know this action sets the stage for later tension in the novel, but it seems out of place at this stage in the n rrative. Just MHO."}, {"response": 29, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (17:49)", "body": "I agree that it was out of place. I thought it might be a reaction she might had had with her own sister at home, had she been provoked. It just came out."}, {"response": 30, "author": "lindak", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (17:59)", "body": "Sandy, I was uncomfortable with that scene as well. I thought she would have to answer to that, but she didn't. Maybe it was an accepted thing. However she was not hired as a governess, she was hired to clean Vermeer's studio, which IMO did not give her authority to discipline the children. One of my favorite things throughout this book was knowing when Vermeer was around or about to be around through Griets words. My favorite was early on when she first arrives. Griet is outside the studio and I looked around and saw the closed door. Behind it was a silence that I knew was him. Now, I don't know why I was so affected by that line. OK, I do know...because we know who is behind the door-literally. But, right off the bat we know that Griet is connected to him. Even before this, the day Vermeer and his wife go to Griet's house, we have the scene with the vegetables. I wanted to reach over and tease it into place. I did not, but he knew that I wanted to. He was testing me. This is from Griet's POV, but I wonder if at this early stage this is her infatuation (then it was immediate), or does she really feel all this, barely knowing him. Do we have any indication that he has done something to make her so in touch with his feelings?"}, {"response": 31, "author": "Tress", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (19:53)", "body": "(lindak) This is from Griet's POV, but I wonder if at this early stage this is her infatuation (then it was immediate), or does she really feel all this, barely knowing him. Do we have any indication that he has done something to make her so in touch with his feelings? This is an interesting question, because we do only have Griet's view. I thought about what I was like as a fifteen year old. Griet has been fairly sheltered all her life (we realize she has never been to Papist Corner, or much beyond the Meat Market prior to her going to the Vermeers). I wonder how many men she has known besides her father (and brother if we want to count him)? What kind of reaction would a sheltered teenage girl have to a handsome man? She described his voice even before she saw him...it seemed she was intrigued by him prior to his apprearing before her. I don't have the book in front of me right now, but doesn't she even 'wet her lips' and straighten her apron before her mother brings the Vermeers into the kitchen? IMO, I think her infatuation was immediate, that she was ready to connect with someone (of the opposite sex) outside her family circle and this made her pay particular attention to Vermeer...I'm not saying that if just anyone walked into the room, she would have made the connection. I think she was just open to it. Also, has anyone noticed that they never mention Vermeer by name? It is always \"he\", \"him\", \"my husband\"...Catharina, Maria Thins, Tanneke are all called by their names (when addressing each other or when Griet speaks of them)."}, {"response": 32, "author": "kasey", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (20:18)", "body": "I found the slap somewhat jarring, and out of proportion to Cornelia's action. Granted there is an immediate tension between the two which only escalates but as SandyM said, Griet is out of her element and I too would expect her to be more tentative and cautious as she feels her way and finds her place in the household. Granted, she was not raised to be a maid, it's only due to her father's accident that she finds herself in the role of a servant but I would still not expect such an action on her part given the circumstances."}, {"response": 33, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (20:34)", "body": "(Tress) What kind of reaction would a sheltered teenage girl have to a handsome man? Overwhelming, especially if he were not only handsome, but powerful. Because he is the head of the guild, Griet's whole family is depending on Vermeer to save them from poverty, or worse. Their entire futures are dependent on him, until the brother finishes his apprenticeship. I think, to Griet, this would have given Vermeer an almost messianic appeal. To further mine that vein... (Linda) My favorite was early on when she first arrives. Griet is outside the studio and I looked around and saw the closed door. Behind it was a silence that I knew was him. ...there are many, many references to this charismatic \"aura\" that surrounds Vermeer. Griet doesn't have to actually see him to know he is there... or has been there. She can simply feel this aura that surrounds him. When she is in his presence, this \"aura\" is almost more than she can bear. And yet, at the same time, she is magnetically attracted to it. I once met someone who had this same type of charisma when he entered a room. It was almost electrical, and it even seemed as if the air crackled and the lights burned a little brighter when he was around. He'd had an extensive near-death experience after being struck by lightening. I've never forgotten what that felt like. It was a very attractive force... but also frightening at the same time. That type of energy would have been intoxicating to a teenager on the th eshold of her sexual awakening. (Tress) Also, has anyone noticed that they never mention Vermeer by name? It is always \"he\", \"him\", \"my husband\"...Catharina, Maria Thins, Tanneke are all called by their names (when addressing each other or when Griet speaks of them). Very good point. I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it."}, {"response": 34, "author": "Tress", "date": "Mon, Nov 18, 2002 (22:00)", "body": "(SandyM re: the slap) I know this action sets the stage for later tension in the novel, but it seems out of place at this stage in the narrative. Just MHO. (Kathy C) I found the slap somewhat jarring, and out of proportion to Cornelia's action. I had not thought about this until I read SandyM's post. It really is out of bounds. I cannot imagine slapping the child of your boss the first day on the job....regardless of what that child had done. And not only does she slap her, but (I am now home and have the book in front of me), she threatens to do it again! Cornelia threatens Griet with \"I'll tell our mother. Maids don't slap us.\" and then Griet comes back with \"Shall I tell your grandmother what you have done?\" My goodness! Then if you read on down a bit...Griet senses \"him\" in the middle window on the first floor...\"I stared but could see nothing except the reflected light\". Does this mean Vermeer saw everything? The slap? Then Cornelia trying to sink the pot in the canal? I sense that he thinks the children are indulged by their mother (hope I'm not getting too far ahead here)...but do you think he would watch his child be slapped and do nothing?"}, {"response": 35, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (10:46)", "body": "(Sandy), there are many, many references to this charismatic \"aura\" that surrounds Vermeer. Griet doesn't have to actually see him to know he is there... or has been there. She can simply feel this aura that surrounds him. Griet also has the painter's eye. She feels the aura of colours like him and in the end she even suggests changes to his painting and he does abide. The colour arrangement of the vegetables on their first meeting speaks volumes. (Tress), Does this mean Vermeer saw everything? The slap? Yes. But he can't be bothered to interfere in the household routine. I cannot imagine slapping the child of your boss the first day on the job....regardless of what that child had done. But the author wanted to set up the tension between those two. I guess she had no other way to do it. Mayor flaw or mayor imposition? :-)"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Lizzajaneway", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (13:46)", "body": "In the Sunday Times travel section this week , someone had asked for suggestions for what to do on a visit to Delft. Someone wrote back (one of you?;-) that the visitors should read this rather than a guide book as it gave a marvellous sense of old Delft and was very relevant for a current visit. For me the picture painted for us by TC of the city was one of the stronger themes in the novel, very visual, linking in with (Moon) ...the painter's eye . I agree that the slap felt manufactured but (Moon) I guess she had no other way to do it is probably right!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "mari", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (13:49)", "body": "I really need to go back and review the book, but just a thought: modes of behavior and child discipline were very different in the 1600s."}, {"response": 38, "author": "lafn", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (17:03)", "body": "I am not a big fan of Griet's character:\"The maid from hell\". I read the book twice. Could not abide it the first time.Although I admire TC's imagination. The second time , thanks to Sue, I saw it in a different light.\"A coming of age\"novel...an insight into the lives of the people of Delft at the time etc. And as Lizza says: For me the picture painted for us by TC of the city was one of the stronger themes in the novel,... (Mari)..but just a thought: modes of behavior and child discipline were very different in the 1600s. Even the manner of a maid disciplining a child ? At first I thought it was to keep Cornelia from getting too close to the canal.But it was because she 'laughed'. The author's telling us that trouble is in store with Catharina. \"This is how it will be with her mother I thought except I will not be able to slap her\""}, {"response": 39, "author": "sandym", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (20:48)", "body": "(Evelyn) I am not a big fan of Griet's character:\"The maid from hell\". LOL!! I don't know if I felt quite that strongly about it, but at times, I didn't find Griet's character sympathetic either, which is bothersome when she is your window to everything else in the novel. However, even with the prickles, I thought she was interesting. Vermeer was also a bit of a struggle at times. One minute, kind and compassionate, the next, aloof and cold, swinging from one extreme to the other with little provocation. That's probably an accurate portrayal of an artist's temperament, but it doesn't make him the easiest character for a reader to identify with. Perhaps, it was because we could only view him from Griet's POV. And though I enjoyed the tension of the attraction between these two less-than-perfect individuals, I couldn't help wishing I knew more of Vermeer's side of things, as it was hard to know if Griet's perceptions were accurate, or just the product of adolescent infatuation."}, {"response": 40, "author": "lindak", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (21:00)", "body": "(SandyM)I couldn't help wishing I knew more of Vermeer's side of things, as it was hard to know if Griet's perceptions were accurate, or just the product of adolescent infatuation. As much as I loved this book, I always went back to reread Griets thoughts and dialogue with Vermeer. I have a hard time figuring out if she is giving us the real thing or is what she says coming from her growing infatuation. Was he cool and aloof, after Pieter comes to deliver the meat for the feast, or is she feeling overly sensitive because she is infatuated with Vermeer. Griet seems to think Vermeer is avoiding her because he saw Pieter smile at her. I agree, Sandy. I do wish we had another POV concerning Vermeer's character."}, {"response": 41, "author": "Tress", "date": "Tue, Nov 19, 2002 (23:34)", "body": "(SandyM) I couldn't help wishing I knew more of Vermeer's side of things, as it was hard to know if Griet's perceptions were accurate, or just the product of adolescent infatuation. (lindak) I agree, Sandy. I do wish we had another POV concerning Vermeer's character. I also wish we could have had a 'second opinion' on the relationship. Not even necessarily Vermeer's version (though he would have been my first choice), but I would like to get Maria Thin's account! If we believe Griet's narrative (and let's say she exaggerates her encounters with V), are we to believe what she says about Maria Thins as well? MT seems very in tune with the house (again Griet's POV). She seems to sense the attraction between her son-in-law and the maid. I often wondered, if what Griet is saying is true, why MT just observed? I would think MT would pull her daughter aside and have a little heart to heart. I am not sure I buy the fact that MT would keep the status quo just because Griet made V work faster. I also got the idea...a feeling maybe...that MT was a bit infatuated with V herself. Or at least, she appreciated his work in a way her daughter could not and it bordered on adulation...there are a couple of lines, after Griet is found looking at the painting of Van Ruijven's wife in the yellow mantle....\"I gathered my broom and bucket and cloth. When I left the room, Maria Thins was still standing in front of the painting.\""}, {"response": 42, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (00:41)", "body": "(Tress)....if what Griet is saying is true, why MT just observed? I am not sure I buy the fact that MT would keep the status quo just because Griet made V work faster. You have to look at what would be gained vs. what would be lost if MT said something. Gained: 1. V paints faster, therefore more money brought into the house to feed the ever growing household. Lost: 1. If MT said something, C would go ballistic (as she eventually did), and have Griet dismissed. If Griet were dismissed, they would have to take the time to find and train a new maid. 2. Also, if Griet were dismissed, any kind of \"peace\" or status quo that is keeping that household running would be severely disrupted which would more than likely disrupt V's productivity, therefore affecting their income. 3. With no income, they go bankrupt and lose all their possessions. And who knows where they'd all end up. They need to be sure to keep V happy and working. Plus he is still the head of the household and is to be obeyed."}, {"response": 43, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (08:58)", "body": "(Dorine), They need to be sure to keep V happy and working. Plus he is still the head of the household and is to be obeyed. That is the material point. Without him they would not eat. I agree with all your points. (Tress),I also got the idea...a feeling maybe...that MT was a bit infatuated with V herself. She appreciated him as a painter. And, she knew Griet was a great help to him. There was always another baby on the way and he needed to paint. He did take a very long time with each painting."}, {"response": 44, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (09:27)", "body": "(Sandy)Vermeer was also a bit of a struggle at times Agree. But I didn't want to hit-on both of them at once. (DorineThey need to be sure to keep V happy and working. (Moon)That is the material point. Without him they would not eat. IRL MT had other income from husband's estate. but it did not cover all the expenses.She is the head. But C. rules! I became frustrated with the paltry amount of V. bio in the book (can you tell I expected more ;-). so I checked out a book TC used as a source;"}, {"response": 45, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (09:34)", "body": "contd.. \"Vermeer and His Milieu\" It's a dull, dry book, but full of documented facts. Part of the intrigue of the book is Griet's imagination. She is intoxicated with V.. Her father had taught here to revere art. So even though she disliked the position as a maid (sleeping in a hole in the ground, FGS)she was excited about being so close to the artist that she had admired. Remember her dad pointed out The View of Delft by V.to her."}, {"response": 46, "author": "lindak", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (12:40)", "body": "(Moon)That is the material point. Without him they would not eat. Didn't Taneke say early on to Griet that they could barely pay her wages? So, even if MT had some sort of income, they were in a bad way financially. I got the impression that MT was willing to look the other way with the infatuation, because his paintings were needed to pay the bills. I think she knew that Vermeer had to be kept happy in all areas. I also believe she knew what made him tick better than her daughter. Yes, Vermeer and Catharina had several children, but IMO, MT knew that C was not the warmest body in the house."}, {"response": 47, "author": "Rika", "date": "Wed, Nov 20, 2002 (23:41)", "body": "(Tress) IMO, I think her infatuation was immediate, that she was ready to connect with someone (of the opposite sex) outside her family circle and this made her pay particular attention to Vermeer... And she says (p.42), \"No gentleman had ever taken such an interest in me before.\" So I think the combination of his noticing her at all, the connection they made over the arrangement of the vegetables, and (as Evelyn pointed out) her admiration of him as a respected artist would be enough to tip her over into infatuation. (Linda) Yes, Vermeer and Catharina had several children, but IMO, MT knew that C was not the warmest body in the house. As others have commented, it's frustrating that through our Griet's-eye view of Vermeer, we really don't know that much about the kind of husband and father he was. We see only small glimpses. Catharina seems extremely jealous where her husband was concerned - was this solely because she noticed something in his treatment of Griet, was she just a jealous person, or had he given her other reasons? Hard to say from the evidence we're given. (Tress) Also, has anyone noticed that they never mention Vermeer by name? Yes; that fascinates me. And at first Griet doesn't even explain who she's talking about - she just says \"he\" or \"him\". He so totally inhabits her thoughts that it's not necessary to explain. She calls him \"my master\" on occasion later in the book, but otherwise it's taken for granted who \"he\" is. And on another topic.... One thing I really enjoyed about the novel was TC's imagery. I also came away from the book with a sense that Griet's world was very quiet, and I wasn't sure why. This afternoon I had a chance to re-read the first 50 pages or so, and I paid special attention to the descriptions and analogies (as when she says she \"could hear rich carpets in their voices\" when describing Vermeer and Catharina). I notice now that Griet is primarily a visual observer of the world - most of the things she describes are things she sees, not things she hears or smells or touches. (Notice that even her description of their voices which I quoted above offers a visual analogy for the sound that she hears.) She doesn't describe the splashing of the water in the canal as the boats go by, the crackling of a fire, or the sizzling of the chops as they grill, as an auditory observer would. There are a few exceptions (including the jangling of Catharina's keys), but overall I think this is a fairly accurate generalization. Yet where Vermeer is concerned, she tells us about sounds and scents too. The first time she stands outside the studio, she refers to sound by its absence - behind the door, \"the silence that I knew was him.\" Later, at times when she doesn't see him, she still reports hearing him talking to others. When she first enters the studio, she reflects on the sounds that would be muffled by the door, and she reports on the smell of linseed oil. It makes sense that Griet would be visually oriented, given that she is established from the start as someone who shares Vermeer's eye for color and composition, but it's interesting that her feelings for this equally visually-oriented man would bring out her other senses. I don't know if TC intended this, or if I'm reading too much into it, but Griet's multi-sensory experience where Vermeer is concerned shows her heightened awareness of him, vs. the others in the household who are for the most part peripheral players to her."}, {"response": 48, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (00:09)", "body": "(Rika) Griet is primarily a visual observer of the world - most of the things she describes are things she sees, not things she hears or smells or touches. it's interesting that her feelings for this equally visually-oriented man would bring out her other senses. I don't know if TC intended this, or if I'm reading too much into it, but Griet's multi-sensory experience where Vermeer is concerned shows her heightened awareness of him, vs. the others in the household who are for the most part peripheral players to her. This is a very interesting observation and, too, wonder if this was TC's intention. The lack of Griet's sensory \"awareness\" may be a manifestation of a depression she may feel from being in a strange household with people who are certainly less than hospitable and, at times, hostile. She may even dull her other senses subconsciously (yet in a way deliberately) during times she is not with Vermeer to help her cope with her unhappiness. Then these other senses are \"turned on\" whenever she is in the studio and with or senses Vermeer nearby."}, {"response": 49, "author": "Tress", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (00:31)", "body": "(Rika) Griet's multi-sensory experience where Vermeer is concerned shows her heightened awareness of him, vs. the others in the household who are for the most part peripheral players to her. Very good point. Griet's descriptions do become fuller when she is speaking of Vermeer. '\"Catharina\" the man said calmly. He spoke her name as if he held cinnamon in his mouth.' (sorry, just had to include that line...I love it). (me) I am not sure I buy the fact that MT would keep the status quo just because Griet made V work faster. (Dorine) Gained: 1. V paints faster, therefore more money brought into the house to feed the ever growing household. I just found a couple of lines that negates my 'MT wants Vermeer to work faster assumption' (because I thought she did want him to work at a quicker pace)...from Tanneke: \"Mistress and young mistress disagree sometimes. Young mistress wants him to paint more, but my mistress says speed will ruin him.\" But now I wonder about Catharina. Does she have more children simply to make Vermeer paint faster? There are several times when it is mentioned that they have no money. More children cost more money. She could slow that process down by nursing them, but instead hires a wet nurse (more money) to feed them (and at the rate she has them, I think the wet nurse is practically a permanent employee). The house being full of children could possibly be more of a distraction to her husband than a motivator to paint faster...hmmmm... BTW has anyone else noticed Griet's hand obsession? Several times she notes Vermeer's clean hands, Pieter the son's dirty, bloody hands and her cracked and bleeding hands (I apologize for the reference...it couldn't be helped). This seems important to her."}, {"response": 50, "author": "anjo", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (06:19)", "body": "Karen Do you have a library card? ;-) Just a short note to let you know, that I'm lurking. I do have a library card, and I've been waiting for the book from the library for 2 months, but until I get a chance to read it, I'll just enjoy your postings. Since this is the only topic, where I can submit anything, I'll introduce myself later where it is apropriate (I hope to hear from Karen)."}, {"response": 51, "author": "Moon", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (11:10)", "body": "(Dorine), She may even dull her other senses subconsciously (yet in a way deliberately) during times she is not with Vermeer to help her cope with her unhappiness. Do she ever say she is unhappy? I don't think so. Sure cleaning was a drag and hard work but she did it to help her family. (Tress), has anyone else noticed Griet's hand obsession? Several times she notes Vermeer's clean hands, Pieter the son's dirty, bloody hands and her cracked and bleeding hands (I apologize for the reference...it couldn't be helped). This seems important to her. And especially at the end, when she is summoned to Vermeer's house. She notices her dirty nails from the blood of the meat. Her aesthetic sense overall is high, even in her humble job. When she first starts working at the V house, she notices wrinkle sheets and yellow stained sheets. Young mistress wants him to paint more, but my mistress says speed will ruin him.\" This is another clue that tells us that MT appreciates him as a painter. Griet knows this and considers her an allied. This is also why MT lets Griet help him with the colours."}, {"response": 52, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (16:29)", "body": "(Moon) Do she ever say she is unhappy? I don't think so. Sure cleaning was a drag and hard work but she did it to help her family. Does she have to come out and say it to make it so? And just cause she did it to help her family doesn't mean it wouldn't depress her or at least make her sad. Many people do things for their families that make them personally unhappy, esp if the course of their life and lifestyle was dramatically altered as was Griet's. If that were the case, there wouldn't be as many people in therapy. Unfortunately I don't have the time at the moment to find examples of how I specifically would illustrate my point. Hopefully when I return late tonight I will."}, {"response": 53, "author": "lindak", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (18:33)", "body": "(Dorine)Does she have to come out and say it to make it so? I agree. I don't have a specific reference to her unhappiness, but I never get the feeling that she is happy in the situation. Except of course for her infatuation with Vermeer. I think she was uneasy from the moment she arrived. We don't have verbal complaints, though, even when she describes the long days of endless laundry and cleaning. I just sense that she is not happy. Will look for specifics, if there are any, later this evening."}, {"response": 54, "author": "lafn", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (19:51)", "body": "She wasn't exactly thrilled when her mother told her she had to take the job as a maid to help the family. \"Mother: \"You are to start tomorrow as the maid. If you do well, you will be paid 8 stuivers a day [ed note;how much is that?]. You will live with them\" I pressed my lips together [ed note:she is v. obsessed with her lips] Mother:\"Don't look at me like that, Griet....we have to, now your father has lost his trade\" ...is not with Vermeer to help her cope with her unhappiness. I submit that her infatuation (read:fantacizing)with Vermeer was a coping tool to mollify her unhappiness . (Tress)Also, has anyone noticed that they never mention Vermeer by name? By doing this she de-personalizes her fantasy. Welcome Annette ..hope you can join us soon. (I bought my book online second-hand for four bucks)"}, {"response": 55, "author": "Tress", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (20:52)", "body": "(Evelyn) you will be paid 8 stuivers a day [ed note;how much is that?]. Today it is a 5 cent piece...which doesn't help us out much. It appears to be our version of a penny (?). I don't see any lower denomination. (Evelyn) By doing this she de-personalizes her fantasy. But none of the women call him by his name....Maria Thins and Catharina also refer to Vermeer as \"him\", \"he\", \"my husband\", \"my son-in-law\". Maybe TC wants us to feel he is an outsider in his own home. He doesn't participate in the running of the household, leaving that to his wife (and MT who I think is really in charge). He paints and takes care of Guild business. Maybe his 'outsider' status makes us forgive him for his fascination with Griet. I think if they personalized him (called him Johannes), we may have a harder time with him grinding colors with the maid."}, {"response": 56, "author": "townranny", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 2002 (21:05)", "body": "(Tress) I got the idea that MT was a bit infatuated with V. herself. I read that MT had a bizarre quarrelsome family and liked V because he was not. (Tress) Has anyone noticed Griet's hand obsession? I think the Dutch at that time were fastidious people in general in comparison to other cultures. Does anyone else have any comment on that? (Tress) Has anyone noticed they never mention V. by name? TC was hard pressed to put this book together because so little is known about V. I think she probably felt more comfortable telling the story of a totally fictional character. His character is in shadow. TC sets up distance between V and G. \"He\" was also in a predominantly female household. The Master. I think V. really liked women."}, {"response": 57, "author": "Rika", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (00:24)", "body": "(Kathleen) \"He\" was also in a predominantly female household. The Master. Yes, I suppose when you're the only male in the house (except one or two babies) it's unambiguous. I think it's a little more notable the way Griet does it, though. The rest of them are talking to one another; Griet is talking to a listener who isn't part of the household, and yet still takes entirely for granted that everyone will understand who she's talking about. Did anybody else find it odd that Griet is a little politician sometimes? The way she handled Tanneke, for example - asking her if she really did all the work herself, and flattering her about her painting being at van Ruijven's house and so on. Where would she have learned that, at her age? It sounds like she's lived a fairly sheltered existence and there's no indication that getting by in her family required any excessive level of diplomacy."}, {"response": 58, "author": "sandym", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (07:28)", "body": "Did anyone else get the feeling that Griet was also a bit of a narcissist? She comments at the beginning how the laundry had been carelessly done; then proceeds to do it in a better way (ed. note - read HER way). She thinks herself better at obtaining meat from the butcher than Tanneke had been. Later on, when Tanneke compliments herself on her cooking ability, Griet thinks to herself about how SHE has really made the pheasant better by basting and salting it when Tanneke wasn't looking. She even feels that she can prepare a better composition for a painting than V. can by changing the way the tablecloth is situated. Maybe she had an air of superiority around her that made the most of the other women in the household (Tanneke, Catharina, Cornelia) bristle. Only Maria Thins, who struck me as the \"big picture\" thinker of the household and thus, wouldn't allow tiny annoyances to cloud her emotions, was largely unaffected."}, {"response": 59, "author": "townranny", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (08:14)", "body": "Does anyone think the Girl With A Pearl Earring looks like Shelly DuVal? I think of her everytime I look at it.I saw the same exhibit that Tracy Chevall probably saw in in DC many years ago. The paintings were unbelievably beautiful. Luminous. I can see why they inspired her to write. Do you buy TC's story about the headress? Seems a little dodgy to me. Anyone know anything about it? Also who do you all think GWAPE really was?"}, {"response": 60, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (09:14)", "body": "(Sandy) Did anyone else get the feeling that Griet was also a bit of a narcissist? Maybe she had an air of superiority around her that made the most of the other women in the household (Tanneke, Catharina, Cornelia) bristle. That is an excellent point! Some women (can't speak for men) can pick up a negative vibe in another with or without being able to identify it or articulate it. How each person chooses to react and interact with the person they pick up the vibe from is individual."}, {"response": 61, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (11:03)", "body": "(kathleen) Also who do you all think GWAPE really was? Art historians differ. But most think it was one of his daughter. Do you buy TC's story about the headress? Seems a little dodgy to me. Anyone know anything about it? **The turban-like headress appears in another one of his paintings\"Head of a Girl\" at the Met in NY.These two \"tronien (faces) were painted in a Turkish fashion\" **Vermeer \"social biography\". You really have to hand it to TC . She is v. inventive to weave a story out of such little source material."}, {"response": 62, "author": "Moon", "date": "Fri, Nov 22, 2002 (11:28)", "body": "(Evelyn), You really have to hand it to TC . She is v. inventive to weave a story out of such little source material. (Rika), Where would she have learned that, at her age? It sounds like she's lived a fairly sheltered existence and there's no indication that getting by in her family required any excessive level of diplomacy. To weave such a story from little source material requires a few flaws. We also saw it with the slap. (Sandy), Maybe she had an air of superiority around her that made the most of the other women in the household (Tanneke, Catharina, Cornelia) bristle. True! Tanneke was jealous of her. Cath. was bothered by her and Cornelia resented her. All this made Griet appreciate V even more. To the point that even when he used her pretty much as a personal slave she still looked forward to meeting with him again."}, {"response": 63, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (00:09)", "body": "Sandy, excellent point about the narcissism. She may have had no chance with Catharina in any case (since she may have taken umbrage at V's paying attention to Griet the first time they met), but she probably didn't help her cause. The reason it didn't seem to bother MT was probably that she was strong enough not to be threatened by it. (But, oh dear, now I'm imagining the Church Lady doing the Superior Dance. (kathleen) Also who do you all think GWAPE really was? (Evelyn) Art historians differ. But most think it was one of his daughter. At least some of them claim he didn't have any daughters old enough at the time it was painted, don't they? I think I read that somewhere though I'm not remembering the details. It's an interesting mystery, for sure. (Kathleen) Does anyone think the Girl With A Pearl Earring looks like Shelly DuVal? You know, there is a resemblance. (Moon) To weave such a story from little source material requires a few flaws. We also saw it with the slap. True. Another example for me is Cornelia. We've already discussed the role of the slap as a set-up for their antagonism, but wasn't Cornelia about eight? She seemed a bit too sophisticated in her revenge at times (as when she offers Griet the discarded doll to take to her sister right after Agnes dies of the plague). Unless, that is, Catharina was pulling the strings."}, {"response": 64, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (09:41)", "body": "I read the slap as erratic behavior on Griet's part. I tell ya'...I see a personality disorder here."}, {"response": 65, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (11:20)", "body": "On Evelyn's personality-disorder point, there does seem to be plenty of evidence: * Narcissistic tendencies * The slap * Obsessive fear of showing her hair What else?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "townranny", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (12:18)", "body": "(Evelyn Boake) I tell ya I see personality disorder here. I don't see the slap as part of personality disorder.In a large family there is not a lot of attention to go around and at least one of the kids may act out to get negative attention. I think Griet was very intuitive that Cornelia was one of these kids and went toe to toe with her from the first confrontation. Otherwise, Cornelia could have made her life hell in the house. Children with power can be scary little things. Slapping a child who got out of line was probably typical then."}, {"response": 67, "author": "Moon", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (12:41)", "body": "(Kathleen), Slapping a child who got out of line was probably typical then. Exactly. As I stated before. Griet might have done the same to her sister in a similar circumstance. (Rika),What else? Her clean hands obsession. What I found strange was Griet bringing Pieter to the alley. There is a progression of how many things she allows him to do and all at a time when we know she is bothered by him. Why would she do that?"}, {"response": 68, "author": "lindak", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (12:49)", "body": "(Rika) Unless, that is, Catharina was pulling the strings. I felt that in the case of Cornelia, Catharina was involved. Maybe not overtly, but I think Cornelia sensed her mother's unease with Griet. Children, even at a young age, definitely can sense when something is going on in the household-especially between the parents. At first, I don't think she puts it all together, but as time goes on, Cornelia becomes increasingly antagonistic. However, (Kathleen) she is a scary little thing, and was probably so even before Griet enters the household. The turmoil that Griet created was all she needed."}, {"response": 69, "author": "townranny", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (14:03)", "body": "(Moon) Her clean hands obsession. Absolutely! (Moon)What I found strange was Griet bringing Pieter to the alley. I agree, I think Pieter took her to the alley the first time and she was unwilling. After Vermeer sees her hair, she makes some explanation about loss of innocence at his hands. Then she goes and finds Pieter. Vermeer violated her and so she self-inflicts another violation? Don't quite follow that. Maybe she wanted Vermeer, couldn't have him, went to find Pieter. (Rika) Unless that is, Catharina was pulling the strings. I think so to. I'd read that MT's family was a bit wacky and Catharina is portrayed as unstable, temperamental in the book. Of all the children, Cornelia seems to identify w/Catherina and feeds off of her response. To Griet coming from a warm stable family it must have been like going to live with the Osbournes!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (17:50)", "body": "(Moon) Her clean hands obsession. Yup. After the hands business was mentioned here, I was re-reading the scene where Griet and Vermeer have their first real contact at his house (the scene with the camera obscura), and sure enough, she comments on how clean his hands are. (Kathleen) Vermeer violated her and so she self-inflicts another violation? Don't quite follow that. Maybe she wanted Vermeer, couldn't have him, went to find Pieter. That's how it seemed to me. It may not have been a deliberate choice on her part, but I think her frustrated desire for Vermeer drove her to Pieter. Of all the children, Cornelia seems to identify w/Catherina and feeds off of her response. Agreed, but I felt as though Catharina might also have been more actively involved in some of Cornelia's specific actions towards Griet. As I mentioned before, some of the things Cornelia does to Griet seem to be unusual choices for a child of her age. I'm laughing about the Osbournes reference, Kathleen!"}, {"response": 71, "author": "Tress", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (19:20)", "body": "(Kathleen) Vermeer violated her and so she self-inflicts another violation? Don't quite follow that. Maybe she wanted Vermeer, couldn't have him, went to find Pieter. (Rika) That's how it seemed to me. It may not have been a deliberate choice on her part, but I think her frustrated desire for Vermeer drove her to Pieter. Griet's hair and how she feels about it fascinated me. I think that once Vermeer saw her with her hair down, she felt 'used'. It was almost like her virginity. Something she wanted to keep and not just give away. Griet talked about her hair when Pieter asked her what color it was and how long it was...she lied to him. Told him it was dark and just past her shoulders, then she tells us: \"I had hesitated because I did not want to lie but did not want him to know. My hair was long and could not be tamed. When it was uncovered it seemed to belong to another Griet-a Griet who would stand in an alley alone with a man, who was not so calm and quiet and clean [again with the clean reference]. A Griet like the women who dared to bare their heads. That is why I kept my hair completely hidden-so that there would be no trace of that Griet.\" Her hair became a symbol to her...once Vermeer saw it, she didn't have anything to hide from anyone. Hence the odd alley behaviour? I do think there was a frustrated desire as well, but I also think that she felt that now that V had seen her, nothing else mattered. V's reaction was odd as well. When he saw her hair, Griet says \"At last he let me go with his eyes.\" Did Vermeer realize then that she was not his to have? Kathleen I also liked your Osbourne reference! Was trying to picture Vermeer yelling for Catharina the way Ozzy does \"Sha-roooooon!\""}, {"response": 72, "author": "Tress", "date": "Sat, Nov 23, 2002 (19:21)", "body": "closing...."}, {"response": 73, "author": "lindak", "date": "Sun, Nov 24, 2002 (15:16)", "body": "(Rika)(the scene with the camera obscura), I couldn't figure out why she had Vermeer leave the room so she could look through the box alone. Another one of her disorders, I guess."}, {"response": 74, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Nov 24, 2002 (16:45)", "body": "Slapping a child who got out of line was probably typical then A parent, yes...but by a maid? Did she not think she could lose her job and deprive her family of some extra stuivers? This is v. abrupt behavior.(Had I been Catharina, I would have canned her.) All these instances are contrived by the author, IMO.Griet's impetuous behavior in in direct contrast to the confrontation with Catharina at the end. (Rika),What else? (Moon)Her clean hands obsession. At the end...Pieter's father:\"Now you know the world a little better you see there's no reason always to keep your hands clean. They just get dirty again\" The author is constructing an arc for the coming of age finale. She wets her lips, presses her lips..."}, {"response": 75, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sun, Nov 24, 2002 (22:56)", "body": "(Linda) I couldn't figure out why she had Vermeer leave the room so she could look through the box alone. Another one of her disorders, I guess. I almost forgot what topic I was on and made a remark better suited for 166. Deep breath. Center. Remember where you are. I can see her being very self-conscious at being unable to see him while she looked through the camera, and he must have understood because he readily agreed when she made the request. But more to the point, I think she was in emotional overdrive from the sensuality of putting on the robe and sensing the warmth and scent of his body. That could have been overwhelming for someone as innocent as she was, given that she was already infatuated with him."}, {"response": 76, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (10:46)", "body": "At the end...Pieter's father:\"Now you know the world a little better you see there's no reason always to keep your hands clean. They just get dirty again\" We can say that Griet's saw the world as clean or dirty. V and her family even MT were clean. The other's were dirty. She lived in black and white but was always attracted to colours. When she was allowed the privilege of looking through the box she felt herself closer to the colours, closer to V. She could not have done it with him in the room because it felt dirty to her. Of course, after he sees her hair, there is stronger connection. He had seen through her \"box\" something no one saw. (Rika), That could have been overwhelming for someone as innocent as she was, given that she was already infatuated with him. And that goes for when he caresses her face and puts his finger in her mouth. Of course, the events that transpire following this eventually drive her to marry Pieter and thus she herself becomes dirty."}, {"response": 77, "author": "poostophles", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (11:06)", "body": "(Kathleen) I agree, I think Pieter took her to the alley the first time and she was unwilling. After Vermeer sees her hair, she makes some explanation about loss of innocence at his hands. Then she goes and finds Pieter. Vermeer violated her and so she self-inflicts another violation? Don't quite follow that. Maybe she wanted Vermeer, couldn't have him, went to find Pieter. It seems that so much of Griet's life was beyond her control, where she lived, what she had to do, when she could do it..Her going to find Pieter almost seemed an act of her taking charge of the very little she was able to control."}, {"response": 78, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (11:24)", "body": "(Maria) It seems that so much of Griet's life was beyond her control, where she lived, what she had to do, when she could do it..Her going to find Pieter almost seemed an act of her taking charge of the very little she was able to control. And even then, one wonders ..what choice did she have? Her world was minuscule.Marrying Pieter not only rescued her from the life of a servant, but provided food for her family. I find this another facet of this novel: the struggle of women in the 17th C.to find their own values and place in a male hierarchy."}, {"response": 79, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (21:21)", "body": "Not to change the subject, but how about that Maria Thins? She certainly knows how to work both ends against the middle. On page 152 she orchestrates events so that Griet must serve Van Ruijven at dinner knowing full well that Van R. will probably insist that Griet pose with him in V.'s next painting. She also knows that V. will object. V. has already expressed displeasure in the idea that Griet should pose at all. ... he (meaning Van R.) may ask that she (Griet I assume?) be in it. Yet, starting on page 157 she begins conspiring with Griet on how to avoid Van R., knowing all the time that the deal is already done (ed note: my interpretation). What was the point of these machinations? My guess is that it was to cool V.'s escalating interest in Griet by getting Van R. involved, and at the same time put Griet on notice that she was no more important to the household (V. included) than a puppet on a string, perhaps sensing that Griet, because of her color grinding duties, felt her elf to be something more than that. However, because she didn't want to overplay that hand, Maria T. also makes herself a (false) ally to Griet to help ensure that not only will Griet stay on in the household (after all, she was helping V. ) but also that Griet, from that point on, would have a more realistic sense of her place in the household's pecking order. Tricky, very tricky."}, {"response": 80, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (21:24)", "body": "felt her elf oops... that should read \"felt herself\". Felt her \"elf\" gives an entirely different connotation to that sentence. Sorry."}, {"response": 81, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (22:11)", "body": "(Sandy) My guess is that it was to cool V.'s escalating interest in Griet by getting Van R. involved But as smart as she obviously is, I would think that MT would realize that could backfire and stoke V's interest and jealousy over Van R's attentions to Griet especially knowing his reputation."}, {"response": 82, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Nov 25, 2002 (22:19)", "body": "(Dorine)But as smart as she obviously is, I would think that MT would realize that could backfire and stoke V's interest and jealousy over Van R's attentions to Griet especially knowing his reputation True... My guess is she weighed the risks first, but then went ahead, knowing that something must be done to halt the progression of emotion between Griet and V. The future of the household was hanging in the balance. Catharina went about things differently. She just got herself pregnant every chance she could. ;-)"}, {"response": 83, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Tue, Nov 26, 2002 (18:11)", "body": "I'm drinking Bombay (but not as a martini, I bought the boxed gift that the liquor store had and got a beautiful martini glass in the process! [moon, you are wicked!]) I read GWAPE and was actually pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I can't exactly say that I visualize myself as Griet. I think of myself more of Vermeer's wife; very materialistic. However, I did enjoy the grandmother... (okay, too much bombay, making no sense!)"}, {"response": 84, "author": "anjo", "date": "Wed, Nov 27, 2002 (17:28)", "body": "Just a short note to say, that I have finished reading the book, and agree on most of your observations. To me it was a very pictures book, and very valuable indeed to be able to put a face on most of the caracters. I found myself looking from the page, I was reading to the cover of the book to follow the painting, as it proceeded. As much as I wantet to feel sympathy for V, I found it hard. Perhaps he let himself be guided to much by Maria Thins. Tomorrow I will go through the earlier postings and that way enjoy the book once more. There's a lot more in my head about this book, but I'm afraid it will be borderline topic 166, so I'll just put a sock in it. Oh - heck, I picture V to look a little like Richard Curtois. So tonight I'll probobly be dreaming of Vermeer whispering old gypsypoems in Griets (no forget i - my) ear................... BTW, I haven't had any martini, just diet coke, and see where that got me."}, {"response": 85, "author": "NitaE", "date": "Sat, Nov 30, 2002 (06:13)", "body": "I have just started reading GWAPE for the second time to refresh my memories of it. (The first time was quite a long time ago) It is interesting to read it with concrete faces in mind. As soon as I am a bit further into the book I hope to join the discusssion."}, {"response": 86, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (14:39)", "body": "(SandyM) True... My guess is she weighed the risks first, but then went ahead, knowing that something must be done to halt the progression of emotion between Griet and V. The future of the household was hanging in the balance. Setting up a situation where the two of them were forced to spend much time together in a very intimate setting seems an odd way to halt the progression of emotion, though, doesn't it? I wonder if MT's motives were different. Getting van R. interested in a painting of Griet meant that V. got another commission, thus bringing more money in the door. Perhaps her greed temporarily overcame her common sense. Or she may have underestimated the sexual tension between V. and Griet. (Annette) There's a lot more in my head about this book, but I'm afraid it will be borderline topic 166, so I'll just put a sock in it. Yeah, I've had that problem too. Oh - heck, I picture V to look a little like Richard Curtois. If it turns out that way that wouldn't be all bad!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "anjo", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (17:12)", "body": "(Rika) Or she may have underestimated the sexual tension between V. and Griet. I think someone stated before, that everything in the book, is from Griets point of view. Reading the book, I didn't find anything in V's behaviore, that implicates any sexual attraction - except perhaps his last will; that she was to get the pearl earrings. Then again, that might just be a recognition to her eye for art? (The way, she handled the studio (the settings), and her correcting of the cloth). I was never any good at analyzing books, so just skip this post, if its to far out."}, {"response": 88, "author": "lindak", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (18:04)", "body": "(Annette)I didn't find anything in V's behaviore, that implicates any sexual attraction - I think the interpretation of sexual tension between Griet and Vermeer is going to be one of those things that people will have opposite opinions about for a long time. If we choose to believe that this is strictly Griets POV, born out of her infatuation, then everything Vermeer does could be interpreted as exaggerated. If we choose to believe her, then I think there was a highly charged sexual tension between them-both before and during the time he painted her. We also have the will to think about. It could then be traced back to the first day with the vegetables. Was Griet's infatuation stirred because of his actions in the first place? I will be very interested in the film...I am anxious to know how this will be played out."}, {"response": 89, "author": "Tress", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (19:58)", "body": "(Annette)I didn't find anything in V's behaviore, that implicates any sexual attraction - (linda) If we choose to believe that this is strictly Griets POV, born out of her infatuation, then everything Vermeer does could be interpreted as exaggerated. If we choose to believe her, then I think there was a highly charged sexual tension between them-both before and during the time he painted her. I read this book thinking that Griet had exaggerated many points...but when I came to the part about him putting in the earring...and putting his hand on her face and rubbing his thumb over her lower lip! Whoa! IMO, there was something there. Even if Griet exaggerated (she has no reason to 'make up' something that we are reading, so I tend to think there is truth in what she says, but that her view of things may be skewed). I try to imagine any other situation (except an infatuation) where a man would rub his thumb on a woman's lips. I don't think it could be viewed as totally innocent. I think if MT or Catharina had seen this, they would have been more than a bit upset. I think Catharina knows her husband enough to sense that what she sees in the painting, may be only what is on the surface."}, {"response": 90, "author": "lindak", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (20:03)", "body": "(Tress)Whoa! IMO, there was something there That scene was probably the closest thing I ever read that screamed sexual intercourse, without there being any."}, {"response": 91, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (20:12)", "body": "(Tress) and putting his hand on her face and rubbing his thumb over her lower lip! Whoa! IMO, there was something there. I agree. Unless she invented the whole thing, this sure suggests that he was attracted to her, at least in the moment. But I wonder if that came only after she became his model and he started concentrating on her for long periods of time? (Linda) That scene was probably the closest thing I ever read that screamed sexual intercourse, without there being any. Absolutely. The need for her to pierce her ears, the bleeding, and that she asked him to be the one to penetrate her ear with the earring.... that's all very overt."}, {"response": 92, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (22:10)", "body": "He wouldn't be the first painter who fell in love with the subject of his painting. Not the person herself. Goya ...Pissaro.. Picasso...Gaugain; they all did at one time."}, {"response": 93, "author": "Tress", "date": "Sun, Dec  1, 2002 (22:49)", "body": "Don't know if this should be here or not, but I just watched 60 Minutes and they had a segment on the camera obscura. I didn't realize that this was such a controversial topic. Seems that most art historians don't believe that artists used it (it was stated that they 'traced' an image before painting it). A man named David Hockney wrote a book about it (he believes that Van Eyck, Rembrandt, Vermeer and many others used it as a painting tool). Hockney says you can tell that a camera obscura was used because the images are reversed in many paintings from the 1500-1600s. People appear to be left handed during this period. He also mentioned that the camera obscura helped the artist see reflections and light more realistically. The story was very interesting."}, {"response": 94, "author": "sandym", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (04:11)", "body": "(Rika) Setting up a situation where the two of them were forced to spend much time together in a very intimate setting seems an odd way to halt the progression of emotion, though, doesn't it? Absolutely. I think the plan definitely backfired. When she set it up, Maria T. thought that Van R. would be in the painting, too. But V. decides to paint G. alone in one painting, and simultaneously begins a different painting with Van R. and two other women. (Odd, that. V. usually takes months just to finish one painting and all of a sudden, he's working on two at the same time). We find out later in the narrative that he is painting G. in secret. Before this, G. and V. were already spending time together up in the attic room (he painting; she grinding colors). (Tress) and putting his hand on her face and rubbing his thumb over her lower lip! Whoa! IMO, there was something there. (Rika) I agree. Unless she invented the whole thing, this sure suggests that he was attracted to her, at least in the moment. I agree with you both."}, {"response": 95, "author": "anjo", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (04:43)", "body": "(Tress) and putting his hand on her face and rubbing his thumb over her lower lip! Whoa! IMO, there was something there. (Rika) I agree. Unless she invented the whole thing, this sure suggests that he was attracted to her, at least in the moment. (SandyM)I agree with you both. I have to correct myself. Od as it sounds, I had totally forgotten the \"thumb on the lip\" part. There must be something in the air. And off course V's resistance against painting Griet with Van R. should have set me straight. I think I was in a hurry, the first time I read the book, and will have to read it again more carefully."}, {"response": 96, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (09:02)", "body": "(Tress) Don't know if this should be here or not, but I just watched 60 Minutes and they had a segment on the camera obscura... I also saw this. But I had read an article in the \"Smithsonian\" re: this procedure. David Hockney maintains that it's not cheating [oh yeah!] Not everyone can take an image and trace it to perfection on a canvas. Still.... (Tress) and putting his hand on her face and rubbing his thumb over her lower lip! Whoa! IMO, there was something there. Well, I certainly hope there's *something* in the film.But in the book I just saw Griet as the model for his canvas. IMO, He was in love with the \"Girl with the Pearl Earring\" not G. \"Now that the painting was finished he no longer wanted me\".... Of course, we don't know Vermeer's feelings...and that's where Colin's interpretation will come in. The first time I read the book, I took the story literally. The second time, I saw it on a different level."}, {"response": 97, "author": "Moon", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 2002 (14:38)", "body": "(Annette), And off course V's resistance against painting Griet with Van R. should have set me straight. V knew what happened to the girl he painted with Van R and he didn't want it to happen to G. He liked having G around. She was sure a great helper too. I thought that MariaT had suggested G for the Van R painting so that G would end up disgraced by association and no longer in V's good graces. That would have taken care of the tension with Catarina. I was very surprised when he did caress her lips. I am curious to see if that scene will stay the same in the film."}, {"response": 98, "author": "Rika", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 2002 (00:47)", "body": "(Evelyn) He wouldn't be the first painter who fell in love with the subject of his painting. Not the person herself. True, and I do think that was a big part of the attraction for him. But I thought he seemed to take somewhat of an interest in her beforehand too, probably because he recognized in her someone who shared his visual orientation. Then again, as a few people have pointed out, we're only hearing the story from Griet's perspective. (SandyM) When she set it up, Maria T. thought that Van R. would be in the painting, too. But V. decides to paint G. alone in one painting, and simultaneously begins a different painting with Van R. and two other women. I had forgotten about that. So V. outmaneuvered Maria T. Thanks, Tress, for the report on the camera obscura piece on 60 Minutes. Great timing for it to be shown (for us, anyway)!"}, {"response": 99, "author": "Leah", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 2002 (04:07)", "body": "I read the book a month ago, and my impression of V was that he used G and never stood up in her defence. I think I need to read it again. You have all brought up good points to look out for."}, {"response": 100, "author": "lindak", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 2002 (12:13)", "body": "(Rika)I had forgotten about that. So V. outmaneuvered Maria T I agree, and then I have to ask the question...Why? Obsession with his subject, or something more? As Evelyn said, we'll just have to wait for the film interpretation."}, {"response": 101, "author": "lafn", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 2002 (14:46)", "body": "(Leah)I read the book a month ago, and my impression of V was that he used G and never stood up in her defence. Depends what you mean by the word used (;-) . I felt the same as you the first time I read it..that he used his position as her employer to gain advantage by securing her affections as a model. He knew she was smitten with him; he was a man of the world. \"No gentleman had ever taken such an interest in me before\" (p.42) But I saw it in a different light the second time. His world was art and G. was part of that world while he was painting her. He didn't feel he had to come to her defense because his allegiance was to the Girl in the picture. I was disappointed with Maria Thins whose world was not art...she was the greedy one who set up the whole thing, gave her the earrings and then let Griet take the hit alone."}, {"response": 102, "author": "Tress", "date": "Tue, Dec  3, 2002 (20:17)", "body": "(Leah)I read the book a month ago, and my impression of V was that he used G and never stood up in her defence. (Evelyn) His world was art and G. was part of that world while he was painting her. He didn't feel he had to come to her defense because his allegiance was to the Girl in the picture My impression is that V was very aloof. He couldn't be bothered by anything having to do with the running of the house. Like Evelyn says, his world was art (and the Guild). He let the women of the house sort things out themselves, without bothering to step in and come to anyone's defense. Remember he didn't even come to his child's defense when Griet slapped Cornelia (assuming that he did see G do it). V doesn't seem to care about the consequences of his requests or actions. The fact that he tells Griet to pierce her ear (does he care that she may not want it pierced?) or that by asking G to wear the earring she could lose her job (and it is very important to her family that she stay employed). The only time I recall V coming to anyone's defense is when he refuses to paint G with Van R, and I'm not even sure his refusal is because he is 'defending' Griet. He may just be jealous because he does not want Van R to have what he feels he cannot (remember that Griet is warned by L to not get between these two men. That V has a special gift and G is just an object to him...I don't have the book in front of me, so excuse me if that is poorly paraphrased). Does he realize that the girl in the red dress is now ruined and feels responsible? Or does he truly care what happens to G? If he does, then his choice to have her grind colors, wear his wife's earrings and sit for him (all behind Catharina's back) seems odd. Unless he is just so absorbed in his needs, that he cannot be bothered with what will happen to G (that she is just an object to be painted). I do think that there was an attraction, but am interested to see how it is played out for us to see (is the attraction to Griet or The Girl with a Pearl Earring)?"}, {"response": 103, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (11:12)", "body": "He let the women of the house sort things out themselves, without bothering to step in and come to anyone's defense. Women , esp. servants had a v. low standing in 17th C. Delft. Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Vermeer's friends warns G. whe he sees her posing for \"Girl\".. \"His eyes are worth a room full of gold...But sometimes he sees the world only as he wants it to be, not as it is. He does not understand the consequences for others of his point of view. He thinks only of himself and his work, not of you....the women in his paintings...he traps them in his world. You can get lost there.\" The triumph of the novel is that she refuses to get lost..she escapes."}, {"response": 104, "author": "Moon", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (12:26)", "body": "(Evelyn), The triumph of the novel is that she refuses to get lost..she escapes. Actually, she has no other choice but to leave. Why would you say she escapes?"}, {"response": 105, "author": "Tress", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (14:12)", "body": "(Evelyn), The triumph of the novel is that she refuses to get lost..she escapes. (Moon) Actually, she has no other choice but to leave. Why would you say she escapes? I think she is trapped. She has dreadful choices: (1) Be ruined by Van R;(2) be ruined by Vermeer (she says so when he asks her to lick her lips and leave her mouth open for the painting...she also realizes that as soon as C sees the painting, she will lose her job, possibly ruining her family) or (3) marry a man (boy) who she does not love to make her family happy. Not many options for a maid in the 1600s...I think she knew she would be marrying Pieter (she alludes to that early in the book, saying something about \"I know what that look meant for me.\" Again, don't have the book in front of me, so sorry for the poor paraphrasing). I think she put off the marriage (knowing it was inevitable) so that she could stay longer with V."}, {"response": 106, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (14:15)", "body": "Evelyn), The triumph of the novel is that she refuses to get lost..she escapes. (Moon)Actually, she has no other choice but to leave. Why would you say she escapes? She escapes from this other world that she was infatuated with and grows up... to reality in her own milieu. She could have protested the accusations and told Catharina the real truth. Confronting both V. and MT...but instead she bore the consequences with head held high. She is triumphantly the real hero...the other characters wither beside her. I found the ending exhilarating."}, {"response": 107, "author": "Rika", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (14:19)", "body": "(Tress) I think she knew she would be marrying Pieter (she alludes to that early in the book, saying something about \"I know what that look meant for me.\" Her early knowledge that she'd wind up with Pieter really struck me too. Griet seems to see herself as powerless in most situations, which I suppose was pretty much the case."}, {"response": 108, "author": "Tress", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (14:45)", "body": "(Rika) Griet seems to see herself as powerless in most situations, which I suppose was pretty much the case. Maybe the reason she keeps her hair hidden? She sees that she cannot control her environment, so she controls the one thing she has possession of...as long as no one sees her hair, she is safe and has some control. Once V sees her with it down, she realizes she has lost that last bit of control (she is ruined), so she may as well give Pieter what he wants (it now makes no difference)? I'm still trying to work out the hair issue (as you can tell)..."}, {"response": 109, "author": "lindak", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 2002 (18:10)", "body": "(Evelyn)Confronting both V. and MT...but instead she bore the consequences with head held high. She is triumphantly the real hero...the other characters wither beside her I agree, MT and V were pathetic when Catharina confronts G about the earrings. They each maneuvered Griet for their own purposes and, in the end, neither claimed any responsibility for their actions. I think V's actions are in keeping with the recent comments-he was aloof, she may have been just an object to paint, women were not important, etc. therefore his actions did not surprise me. MT, on the other hand not only pulled the strings where G was concerned, she also deceived her own daughter. (Moon)Actually, she has no other choice but to leave . I agree, and if she didn't she would have no chance at her only salvation, marriage to Pieter."}, {"response": 110, "author": "NitaE", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 2002 (12:37)", "body": "After the hands business was mentioned here, I was re-reading the scene where Griet and Vermeer have their first real contact at his house (the scene with the camera obscura), and sure enough, she comments on how clean his hands are. I think this may have to do with the fact that her father always had blue hands from paibting the tiles and still had after months of not working(p.7). She must have wondered how he could keep his hands so clean."}, {"response": 111, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (11:03)", "body": ""}, {"response": 112, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (11:04)", "body": "Excellent comments and observations about the book, which I've just enjoyed catching up on. I wanted to reread the book first - an activity that hasn't exactly been a picnic for me - but it is done. I'll just try to pick up on a couple of earlier comments that I feel the need to stick in my two cents and then join in the current topics under the miscroscope. (Tress) Griet's descriptions do become fuller when she is speaking of Vermeer. '\"Catharina\" the man said calmly. He spoke her name as if he held cinnamon in his mouth.' (sorry, just had to include that line...I love it). That description stood out for me as well but for another reason. What did it mean? From a purely culinary standpoint, I wouldn't want a cinnamon stick in my mouth; it would taste bitter. A cinnamon-flavored candy might not be appropriate for the times. Cinnamon, being a spice, was a very expensive item at that time, just like the exotic materials V used to make his paints or the dyes used on fabrics that only rich people could afford (the yellow mantle vs Griet's brown clothing). Is Griet picking up on other senses here? The smell of cinnamon being so sweet? The richness of it? This is an interesting observation, but one that was not completely thought out IMO. (Tress) But now I wonder about Catharina. Does she have more children simply to make Vermeer paint faster? I get the impression that she loves having children, that it's not only her \"only\" contribution, but that she can be the center of attraction. Moreover, it is her only way to show the world how much V must love her, despite the fact that she has no role whatsoever in his world. (SandyM) Did anyone else get the feeling that Griet was also a bit of a narcissist?...Maybe she had an air of superiority around her that made the most of the other women in the household (Tanneke, Catharina, Cornelia) bristle. That \"air of superiority\" was noticed by everyone from Pieter the father to vanR to Cornelia. But there's a source for it. Griet came from a family who had only recently lost its livelihood. Her father was a \"master\" tile painter; he was nearly an equal to Vermeer, the only difference being V was the headman of their guild. They were a respected family. The father's master status not only entitled them to benefits from the \"disability fund\" but his son was given more latitude than others at the tile factory; another boy would've been chucked out immediately. (Kathleen) After Vermeer sees her hair, she makes some explanation about loss of innocence at his hands. Then she goes and finds Pieter. Vermeer violated her and so she self-inflicts another violation? Don't quite follow that. Maybe she wanted Vermeer, couldn't have him, went to find Pieter. (Tress) I'm still trying to work out the hair issue (as you can tell)... Try thinking of hair as a woman's crowning pride and joy, one of her treasures, kept hidden, never cut, brushed nightly to a luxuriant sheen, not to be seen by other men unless she was a common tramp whose heads were not covered. Her hair defined the real her. V had seen the \"real G\" that only a husband would've on their wedding night. It was logical in G's mind to consummate the act. She was aroused by what V had done and , you know the rest. ;-) (Annette) Reading the book, I didn't find anything in V's behaviore, that implicates any sexual attraction (Tress) the part about him putting in the earring...and putting his hand on her face and rubbing his thumb over her lower lip! Whoa! Could there be a more erotic moment, but we still don't know if V was touching Griet or the girl in his painting. V is in another world when he paints, and it almost seems like his entrance into the backroom, where he observes her hair down, is like an out of body experience for him. That he never goes back tells me that it isn't a matter of the man knowing he's acted inappropriately, but that artist has what he wants: that glimpse of her hair to use in the painting. That's all. When he's feeling the face, it is erotic to Griet (and us and possibly him), but I'm drawn to the theory that it's the girl in the painting he's feeling. As Evelyn quoted van Leeuwenhoek (on p. 186): His eyes are worth a room full of gold...But sometimes he sees the world only as he wants it to be, not as it is. He does not understand the consequences for others of his point of view. He thinks only of himself and his work, not of you....the women in his paintings...he traps them in his world. You can get lost there.\" He also says, just before this: \"You see, competition makes men possessive. He is interested in you in part because van Ruijven is.\" (Rika) They each maneuvered Griet for their own purposes and, in the end, neither claimed any responsibility for their actions....MT, on the other hand not only pulled the strings where G was concerned, she also deceived her own daughter. Did she deceive her own daughter? Her daughter seemed to know what had really transpired, and surely knew her mother's involvement "}, {"response": 113, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (11:25)", "body": "(Rika) They each maneuvered Griet for their own purposes and, in the end, neither claimed any responsibility for their actions....MT, on the other hand not only pulled the strings where G was concerned, she also deceived her own daughter. (Karen)Did she deceive her own daughter? Her daughter seemed to know what had really transpired, and surely knew her mother's involvement in the sale/negotiation (aiding and abetting) of V's works. You think Catharina knew that MT had given G. the earring? I don't. IMO they were all afraid to take on this pregnant woman who was obviously in a jalous rage. I did feel sorry for C. when she said to her husband:\"Why didn't you ever paint me\"?"}, {"response": 114, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (11:31)", "body": "(Evelyn) You think Catharina knew that MT had given G. the earring? Certainly, even if only at a subconscious level. He didn't get things himself. ;-) Of course, the conspirators didn't want to make matters worse with Catharina in this state, but I think everyone knew what was going on and it was a convenient excuse."}, {"response": 115, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (11:39)", "body": "Here we go (p. 213) \"Did you steal the key to my jewelry box and take my earrings?\" Catharina spoke as if she were trying to convince herself of what she said. Her voice was shaky. Catharina knew from the minute that V took her side in the comb incident that G had a special relationship with her husband, and she would also know that he trusted her and she wasn't about to steal. That \"all maids steal and listen at doorways\" was common knowledge. Catharina (and MT) chose to take that accepted route vs one that would publicly humiliate them if known."}, {"response": 116, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (18:28)", "body": "(Karen)(Rika) They each maneuvered Griet for their own purposes and, in the end, neither claimed any responsibility for their actions....MT, on the other hand not only pulled the strings where G was concerned, she also deceived her own daughter. No big deal, but just to clarify, I don't believe I was the one who said this."}, {"response": 117, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Dec  8, 2002 (21:33)", "body": "OK, right. This belonged to Linda. Sorry. (Linda) They each maneuvered Griet for their own purposes and, in the end, neither claimed any responsibility for their actions....MT, on the other hand not only pulled the strings where G was concerned, she also deceived her own daughter."}, {"response": 118, "author": "lindak", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (12:36)", "body": "(Karen)Did she deceive her own daughter? Her daughter seemed to know what had really transpired, and surely knew her mother's involvement in the sale/negotiation (aiding and abetting) of V's works. I still think she deceived her own daughter on a variety of levels. I do believe that C was aware of somethings, but I beleve MT deceived her more on an emotional level. (Evelyn)You think Catharina knew that MT had given G. the earring? I really don't think she did. If she did, then why the explosion? Surely if MT was not trying to deceive C, then wouldn't she have told her that Vermeer need G to wear the earrings? She didn't have a problem with other women borrowing her things for his paintings. Maybe deceive is not the word I'm looking for. Perhaps MT was trying to hide her dealings with V and G so that C would not suffer. Especially since MT obviously thought her actions were for the good of the household. She probably figured her son-in-law's infatuation and involvement would end once the painting was finished."}, {"response": 119, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (14:40)", "body": "(Linda) I really don't think she did. If she did, then why the explosion? I don't think it was the earrings; it was the fact that he had painted G in that fashion, alone, just looking at him, something he hadn't done before. When it came to supplying V's models, G would fetch C's mantle, powder brush, etc. But the jewelcase was off limits to her. MT handled that alone. Remember how C was going nuts when the jewelcase and its contents were part of another painting and how she didn't trust it in the same room with G? On any logical level, C would know that G wouldn't just take the earring to wear in his painting. Either V or MT would've had to have given it to her. On another level, yes, that \"maid from hell,\" who her husband sided with, was wearing her earring. It was not to be borne. Everyone would know. Public shame was involved, and surely she heard all the gossip too."}, {"response": 120, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (16:47)", "body": "(Karen) Of course, the conspirators didn't want to make matters worse with Catharina in this state, but I think everyone knew what was going on and it was a convenient excuse. Convenient excuse for what? To can Griet? I can see where C. would be humiliated when everyone saw the painting with the maid wearing C's earring.So you think MT and C. conspired to blame G. for stealing the earring in order to appear blameless to the public ? That's a stretch, IMO.You're giving those women more credit than I would."}, {"response": 121, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (17:03)", "body": "(Evelyn) So you think MT and C. conspired to blame G. for stealing the earring in order to appear blameless to the public ? Not explicitly. They didn't get together to cook up this scheme. This is how I see it happening. Catharina sees the pic and goes nuts. Everyone goes to see what is happening. She is sobbing her eyes out, screaming and pointing to picture, blubbering, \"Y-y-you painted her and she's wearing my earrings.\" V goes to look out of the window. MT sends Cornelia the troublemaker out of the room and tries to console her daughter, saying, \"It won't be so bad. Only VR will see the picture.\" Catharina blubbers through her tears, \"but my earrings, they will know....ah, she must have stolen them.\" MT: \"yes, that is what must have happened.\" MT looks at V who has turned back from the window; their eyes meet and he shrugs. Well, something like that. As you can see, I'm no screenwriter. ;-)"}, {"response": 122, "author": "lafn", "date": "Mon, Dec  9, 2002 (20:00)", "body": "(Karen)This is how I see it happening....... ....Well, something like that. As you can see, I'm no screenwriter. ;-) OK, boss...I get it. Just keep your day job;-)"}, {"response": 123, "author": "Rika", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (00:04)", "body": "(Karen) V goes to look out of the window. I had a serious Mr. Darcy flashback when I read this. Karen mentioned something a few posts back about re-reading the book, and finding that quite a chore. The comment reminded me of a question I wanted to ask. We've talked about our liking or dislike for some of the characters (Griet in particular), but I don't think we've really talked about whether or not we enjoyed the book, have we?"}, {"response": 124, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (08:34)", "body": "(Rika) about re-reading the book, and finding that quite a chore Not because of the book, for other reasons. However, I did want to bring up another character/plot line that I thought were truly superfluous: Frans. I felt he served no purpose whatsoever and actually turned into a red herring at one point. Griet becomes very concerned because her brother is asking questions about the valuables within the V household and she fears trouble. Later, she mentions it again. As a reader, I expected something to come of this foreshadowing, but nothing did, much like Fran's role."}, {"response": 125, "author": "Moon", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (13:55)", "body": "\"It won't be so bad. Only VR will see the picture.\" But the painting never leaves their house. V does not sell it. He has it where he can look at it everyday. He is one annoying prick. Not only does G lose her job becase of him, but the painting remains where C has to see it everyday. Is there any likable character in the book?"}, {"response": 126, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (22:25)", "body": "(Moon) But the painting never leaves their house. V does not sell it. He has it where he can look at it everyday. The painting was sold to vanR as promised. It only came back into the house so he could see it while on his deathbed. Now what do we make of that?"}, {"response": 127, "author": "Tress", "date": "Tue, Dec 10, 2002 (22:34)", "body": "'\"Catharina\" the man said calmly. He spoke her name as if he held cinnamon in his mouth.' (Karen) Is Griet picking up on other senses here? The smell of cinnamon being so sweet? The richness of it? This is an interesting observation, but one that was not completely thought out IMO. I think that when Griet describes Vermeer, she has a tendency to incorporate all her senses..she always describes textures, colors and smells more intensely when she is around V. I thought about it, and I don't think that G would have ever tasted cinnamon. She would have known about it, but I don't think her family could afford such a thing. Vermeer and his wife come from money. Griet's first encounter with them she says \"I could hear rich carpets in their voices, books and pearls and fur.\" These first few sentences that are spoken about V set the tone for the infatuation IMO. He is different, exotic....so her senses perk up a bit when she does describe him... (Evelyn) I did feel sorry for C. when she said to her husband:\"Why didn't you ever paint me\"? I actually felt badly for her as well...even though I didn't like her through most of the book. She does want to be part of his world and he shuts her out of it. I don't know if it is because V is trying to protect C (he knows how men look at women in paintings) or because he feels C does not belong to the 'painting world' (she can't appreciate it, has no real interest in it). I do think that V loves C...he mentions converting to Catholicisim for her (a very big deal today, but I imagine in the 1600s it was even a bigger deal), and even G mentions how his eyes follow C at the birthing feast, and how \"I had often seen him look at her, touch her shoulder, speak to her in a low voice laced with honey\" The paragraph after that last sentence is interesing, because it shows the depth of Griet's infatution IMO: \"I did not like to think of him in that way, with his wife and children. I preferred to think of him alone in his studio. Or not alone, but with only me.\" Yikes! (Karen) However, I did want to bring up another character/plot line that I thought were truly superfluous: Frans. I agree. I expect not to see him in the film...the only reason I could see to have him in the book was to contrast their (Frans/Griet) situations. A man can leave, start fresh again somewhere else, while a women is stuck, dependant upon others....I am probably reading waaaay too much into it, but that is the only reason I can see Frans being in the book."}, {"response": 128, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (12:46)", "body": "(Karen) The painting was sold to vanR as promised. It only came back into the house so he could see it while on his deathbed. Now what do we make of that? What's more he left the earrings to her in the will. Of course he must have known that C. never wore them again. So it could have been in compensation for the trouble he caused. I am sure these scenes will be in the film.They just have to build -up the romance angle.mixing paints in the studio just isn't gonna do it."}, {"response": 129, "author": "lindak", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (20:10)", "body": "(Evelyn)I am sure these scenes will be in the film.They just have to build -up the romance angle.mixing paints in the studio just isn't gonna do it I was just thinking this same thing. If all we have are Griet's thoughts and infatuations then we have nothing. (Karen)Now what do we make of that? I think that at the end of the book, I realzed that this wasn't just infatuation on Griet's part, what she felt was true. He desired her as well. I think the picture coming back to the house, more so than leaving her the earrings speaks volumes about what he felt."}, {"response": 130, "author": "lafn", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 2002 (21:07)", "body": "(Linda)I think the picture coming back to the house, more so than leaving her the earrings speaks volumes about what he felt. I'm not trying to be adverserial here...but art and painting was his whole world. It could be that GWAPE was his favorite painting and he wished to see it one last time. Not necessarily because of the model. The other characters don't expand on why he wanted it back...only that \"Papa asked to have the painting on a short loan\". Of course this only adds to the ambiguity . Obviously TC likes to tease the reader this way.She does it constantly which is part of the mystique of the book."}, {"response": 131, "author": "lindak", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (16:24)", "body": "(Evelyn)I'm not trying to be adverserial here... I brought my swords and dueling pistols;-) I know that art was his whole world, he could have borrowed the painting at anytime, but probably knew C would throw a fit. But she could not deny him on his deathbed. I think the timing of wanting to see it (knowing he was going to die makes me think he had a deeper reason to see it.)"}, {"response": 132, "author": "lafn", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (20:04)", "body": "(Linda)I think the timing of wanting to see it (knowing he was going to die makes me think he had a deeper reason to see it.) Put away the swords and pistols.....I'm into this romantic stuff...and desperately want to agree with you.;-)"}, {"response": 133, "author": "lindak", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (20:19)", "body": "(Evelyn)Put away the swords and pistols.....I'm into this romantic stuff...and desperately want to agree with you.;-) LOL. I desperately want to agree with me. I guess I am very wishfully thinking about the film and CF's interpretation being romantic."}, {"response": 134, "author": "Rika", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (20:25)", "body": "(Evelyn) Obviously TC likes to tease the reader this way.She does it constantly which is part of the mystique of the book. I think this is the key. She's left the door open to multiple interpretations. It'll be interesting to see what interpretation they adopt for the film, because I don't think they'll get away with the same degree of ambiguity."}, {"response": 135, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (22:33)", "body": "\"I could hear rich carpets in their voices, books and pearls and fur.\" These descriptions I can understand, but still the cinnamon doesn't cut it for me. G's trying to get across a spicy sweetness when V says C's name. Uh uh. She could have just said \"his voice had the spicy sweetness of cinnamon....\" Poor editing to say he was holding cinnamon in his mouth. (Linda) I think the picture coming back to the house, more so than leaving her the earrings speaks volumes about what he felt. I too enjoy the ambiguity that surrounds their relationship. Did he or didn't he? Actually, I am looking forward to the \"looks,\" the \"touches\" and grinding the paint in the attic. Plenty of opportunities for erotic romanticism there. Don't you doubt it."}, {"response": 136, "author": "townranny", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 2002 (23:17)", "body": "Rika asked if we liked the book. I probably wouldn't have read it if not for the CF connection. Never found the GWAPE painting particularly engaging although I love many of Vermeer's other works. Even so, any picture can speak volumes. TC's story doesn't ring true to me for this painting. But still enjoyed reading about life in Delft at the time. Also liked learning more about Vermeer. Would have like to have read TC's take on the Procuress. What was that nice Catholic boy Vermeer doing in that brothel with a big smile on his face?"}, {"response": 137, "author": "lafn", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (09:29)", "body": "(Linda)I guess I am very wishfully thinking about the film and CF's interpretation being romantic. I'm trying to be v. optimistic about this. The first time I read GWAPE the eroticism came across a little like \"Lolita\". Scenario: Wife is in her last trimester of pregancy with child # 6 , was it? I'm thinking: \"What is this old guy doing fondling this maid's face anyway...is he looking for a place to park his salamy?\" I doubt Colin will play it that way. But it was a big turn-off in the book for me.I could never get a romantic element out of this book."}, {"response": 138, "author": "lindak", "date": "Fri, Dec 13, 2002 (18:49)", "body": "(Karen)Plenty of opportunities for erotic romanticism there. Don't you doubt it. Not for a minute, I'm counting on it."}, {"response": 139, "author": "anjo", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (01:52)", "body": "(Tress).....cinnamon in his mouth.' (sorry, just had to include that line...I love it). (Karen)That description stood out for me as well but for another reason. What did it mean? After reading the english version, I just got the danish translation from the library. In the danish translation, the cinnamon is just translated to \"something\", so I guess the translator couldn't find any meaning in the use of cinnamon. Neither do I. I think the phrase sounds nice, but why?"}, {"response": 140, "author": "anjo", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (02:25)", "body": "Just to clearify the \"cinnamon\" posting above: the english version \"Catharina, the man said calmly. He spoke her name as if he held cinnamon in his mouth\" the danish translation \"Catharina, the man said calmly. He spoke her name without moving his lips, as if he had something in his mouth\". I guess the danish translation wanted to show, that the \"correction\" of Cathrina was very discreet."}, {"response": 141, "author": "NitaE", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (06:34)", "body": "\"Why didn't you ever paint me\"? Would V paint a picture without the order of a patron (could he afford the time and the money)? Or would he even accept the order if a patron wanted a picture of Catharina?"}, {"response": 142, "author": "lafn", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (09:38)", "body": "\"Why didn't you ever paint me\"? (Nita)Would V paint a picture without the order of a patron (could he afford the time and the money)? Or would he even accept the order if a patron wanted a picture of Catharina? Good point , Nita. Too bad V. didn't think of that answer. He might have averted a lot of trouble;-) Instead he gave her an inane answer . But then TC would not have had the bitter-sweet ending."}, {"response": 143, "author": "Rika", "date": "Sat, Dec 14, 2002 (19:00)", "body": "Annette, thanks for the translation. That's what I presumed the \"cinnamon in his mouth\" description meant - that he spoke carefully, perhaps just murmuring without moving his lips much. But I agree with Karen - it's unnecessarily ambiguous."}, {"response": 144, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Sun, Dec 15, 2002 (19:56)", "body": "Sorry to have made an issue about the cinnamon, but ambiguity isn't the problem nor is the Danish translation any help (sorry, Annette, but we're going with the book as written in its original language). The set up is Catharina has caught her mantle on a knife, which has fallen and spun across the floor. She cries out and then V says her name \"calmly.\" Griet interprets the way he said her name as if he held cinnamon in his mouth. My feeling is that she is thinking it has a spicy sweetness to it, like a baking smell, or as if it were a candy. Griet would be getting her first intimations of the couple's attraction for each other. But obviously TC has no idea what having cinnamon in one's mouth would really be like. Ugh! Tree bark! ;-) Many painters painted without specific commissions during later periods, but at that time and prior it seemed more commercial."}, {"response": 145, "author": "anjo", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (02:03)", "body": "(Karen)(sorry, Annette, but we're going with the book as written in its original language). It was never my intention to do otherwise, just to show another \"point of view\". I see, what your feelings around the \"cinnamon\" part is, and I can easily follow that line. I guess, this is my problem (problem is not the right word, more like challenge) with this board, that you are offered so many different interpretations/oppinions, that you tend to see the meaning of most of it. So - as I said from the beginning - I don't expect to have anything to contribute (sorry), just to observe and learn. Another observation. I found it interesting, that V is supposed not to be bothered with \"domestic\" issues and spends most of his time at the Guild or in his studio, but at the same time, TC gives the impression, that he is close to his children. We learn, that he carries them around the house, and they jump at him, when he enters the house (as far as I remember). This makes me a bit \"uneasy\". I can't quite find \"the red thread\" (if you know that expression)"}, {"response": 146, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (16:26)", "body": "(Annette) So - as I said from the beginning - I don't expect to have anything to contribute (sorry), just to observe and learn. Pish tosh (do you know that expression, as I have no idea what a \"red thread\" might be). ;-) You have as much to contribute as anyone here. It was just that the Danish translation seemed to take a completely different slant on what TC wrote, by making it appear as though V was mumbling because he had \"something\" in his mouth. It changed the meaning by giving it a physical rather than sensual description. OK, what's the \"red thread\"? Insofar as V playing with his children, it seems analogous to Bridget's comment about men twiddling a fork under a running faucet as their contribution to cleaning up. ;-)"}, {"response": 147, "author": "anjo", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (16:47)", "body": "(Karen)Pish tosh (do you know that expression, as I have no idea what a \"red thread\" might be). Oh yes, I think I get that one.;)D The red thread: Once again, words fail me (imagin Ken Scott). It is when something sort of connects a line of events. Ex, BJD the diary part keeping the story connected. Or FP (which I think you've heard of ;)D) where the red thread would be Paul and Arsenal. Sorry for the very unarticularly way of expressing my self. It's getting late, and english isn't my best! (I hope, I've got the \"winking part\" right). Back to GWAPE, I can too relate to Bridgets comment. It's just that in many of the books from that time, the children are often very \"distanced\" from their father. Perhaps, it's just TC putting some observations to the story to get an opertunity to describe V and Griets observations of him. Now, I'll stop. I hardly understand myself."}, {"response": 148, "author": "lindak", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (17:56)", "body": "(Annette)Now, I'll stop. I hardly understand myself. Hang in there Annette, Just like I said, I'm desperately trying to agree with myself on how this will be portrayed in the film. I think it is the nature of the story itself, we have only one point of view--that of a young girl. Everything we try to read into it comes from her interpretation of events in the first place. So you are not alone, Annette. Hang in there. I don't know about red threads but maybe they are kind of like red herrings in mystery novels. Lots of things pointing to a particular scenario, but in the end it wasn't that way at all. They were just put in our way to confuse the heck out of us."}, {"response": 149, "author": "KarenR", "date": "Mon, Dec 16, 2002 (22:42)", "body": "I'm not sure we have a specific expression like \"the red thread\" but as you've explained it sounds like a continuing motif of sorts. One last comment (I swear) on the cinnamon issue, TC just wrote it badly and her descriptions are not terribly unique. The most lasting descriptions come from The Great Gatsby, when Gatsby describes Daisy's voice as \"full of money.\" Simple yet vivid and one of the best in lit."}, {"response": 150, "author": "lafn", "date": "Tue, Dec 17, 2002 (20:26)", "body": "(Karen).... on the cinnamon issue, TC just wrote it badly and her descriptions are not terribly unique. I dunno about bad...not unique, as you said... Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses cinnamon as an adjective to convey sensuality."}, {"response": 151, "author": "townranny", "date": "Wed, Dec 18, 2002 (07:28)", "body": "Have it on good authority that Tracy thinks the cinnamon part should have been edited out - no meaning to it. If you want to read a couple of quick little blurbs about life in the Netherlands, servant girls, role of women, street life many others: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/amst_intro.shtml Make sure to page down to see the table of contents. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 46, "subject": "bookcrossing.com and meetup.com", "response_count": 9, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Jan 20, 2003 (15:47)", "body": "What a fascinating concept, Terry! I'm going to surf over there and check it out asap."}, {"response": 2, "author": "admin", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (11:17)", "body": "Let us know your findings, ok?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Jan 21, 2003 (16:16)", "body": "OK, I checked it out but--here's the horrifying part--you have to actually purchase books to make this work. After you read it, you post your critique to the website, put a special sticker on it that you print off the website, and leave it somewhere. Someone else picks it up, reads it, posts their thoughts, and leaves it somewhere else. It didn't appear to be a thing where you can post your comments about the same book if you've just checked it out of the library like sane people do. :-)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "admin", "date": "Wed, Jan 22, 2003 (07:24)", "body": "We'll have to do it ourselves then, with no purchase requirement. Although we do have an Amazon program here and we love it when people buy books through us b ecause it pays the bills. It helps to pay for our server and our colocation fees! What would we need to do, autumn?"}, {"response": 5, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan 22, 2003 (20:34)", "body": "Well, obviously, instead of passing around the same book, we could do it the old-fashioned way and all choose a book to read and discuss. Or, we could each choose a different book and post our thoughts in an individual topic diary fashion. Then we would read the books the others read and add our thoughts to their topics. Does that make sense?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 23, 2003 (10:08)", "body": "Yeah, it does. Fining a book we all like is the trick."}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 23, 2003 (13:25)", "body": "meant to say 'finding'"}, {"response": 8, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan 23, 2003 (18:20)", "body": "Well, that's always the eternal dilemma."}, {"response": 9, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 2003 (08:19)", "body": "Make the Whole World a Library (sorry for the crosspost...*sigh*) Celebrate the Anniversary of bookcrossing.com On April 17th, 2003, join Austin area residents at Quack's on 411 E. 43rd St to celebrate the anniversary of web site bookcrossing.com. The concept behind the site is that you take a book you've read, register it at the site, put an identifying label on the book, then leave the book in a public place for someone else to find and enjoy. To celebrate this anniversary, Austin BookCrossers will have many books available for you to take home with you and enjoy...for FREE! We only ask that if you take a book, you visit the bookcrossing.com web site to let us know what you think of the book and whether you've released it into the wild again. We love to see the journey of each little message in a bottle! If you have a book you'd like to release at the event, bring it by and we'll tag it with a label. Better yet, sign up at http://bookcrossing.com/referral/AustinBXers before you come and tag it yourself so you can track its journey all over the world! When: Thursday, April 17th, 10:30 am - 8:30 pm Where: Quack's, 411 E. 43rd St What: Free books! Why: Because shared books are happy books For more information about this event, visit http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/AustinBXers or contact Nicole at nicole@nicole2112.com. Sincerely, Nicole2112 ( http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Nicole2112 ) books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 47, "subject": "Just William books - First Lines", "response_count": 2, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Dec 12, 2003 (14:52)", "body": ""}, {"response": 2, "author": "mother25", "date": "Fri, Dec 19, 2003 (14:36)", "body": "Hi, I think I must be a bit slow or something! I can't seem to access the reply to my query, unless the answer given is 'Just William', in which case thank you terry! I am sorry to say that is not the correct answer as I know it has to be 'William the.......' and I am trying to fill in the blank. Today is the last day before this quiz has to be posted, so an e-mail would be appreciated from anyone who knows the correct anser. Many thanks. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 48, "subject": "Time Traveler's Wife : Audrey Niffenegger", "response_count": 3, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Nov 18, 2004 (19:33)", "body": "I haven't read it but I'll have to look it up."}, {"response": 2, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Fri, Nov 19, 2004 (08:07)", "body": "It's very good; very well written and if you know Chicago and it's landmarks, makes it nicer:) I really hate when they make movies out of books that I love. They constantly ruin it either in content, casting, direction, etc."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Nov 19, 2004 (16:49)", "body": "not to mention, Hollywood endings...the books are always better IMHO books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 49, "subject": "The #1 Ladies Dectective Agency", "response_count": 0, "posts": []}, {"num": 5, "subject": "Favorite bookstores", "response_count": 41, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "sfpclot", "date": "Thu, Nov 14, 1996 (22:29)", "body": "I shop at half-price exclusively. My bibliophilia far overshadows my net income. Stores I browse at - Adv in Crime and Space, Fringeware, I'm really curious about the upcoming B&N taking taking the place of Univ Coop general books. There's a small used bookstore on south Manchaca (?) I go to for good deals on used crime and sf. The last few years have been good for bookstores in Austin. Seems like five or six years ago there were only a tiny handful. Haven't been to Borders. Bookpeople scares me. Still haven't found my dream bookstore yet."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (09:43)", "body": "For me, my dream bookstore has to be BookPeople. It helps to know about their humble origins in the shopping center next to Whole Foods. They're mega and kinky at the same time, and metaphysical. Man, I took a course in *acrosage* there. How, how many bookstores offer a course in *acrosage*?"}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (09:49)", "body": "I have to say the best small bookstore/magazine stand is the Congress Avenue Booksellers. They have a good Texana section."}, {"response": 4, "author": "clueless", "date": "Thu, Jan 16, 1997 (15:35)", "body": "BORDERS ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!!!"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Jan 18, 1997 (18:47)", "body": "Borders is good. I really like their speakers series. And they have a coffee house built in. It's sad to see the gradual phase out of BookStop by their acquisitor Barnes and Noble. BookStop is our best local discount bookstore. No warm and cuddly milieu like Book People or Borders but you could always count on this store for the one or two books you needed at 20% off. Sometimes I have to sacrifice atmosphere for price when it comes to these high dollar, quick-to-go-out-of-date computer books. Despite it's opulence, Barnes and Noble just doesn't have an intangible something like you get with the other stores in town, BookStop included. My favorite out of the way bookstore is the fringeware store on Guadalupe, for those out of the way zines and 'schwaa'/xfiles topics. And the folks that run it have a cool website ( http://www.fringeware.com )."}, {"response": 6, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 1997 (15:51)", "body": "I guess I already ripped on Half Price Books in the Austin conference area; let me just re-iterate that they pay squat when you want to sell. We have a better deal here in big D (amazingly enough)--and it's conveniently located 2 blocks from me! They're called Paperbacks Plus and what they do is give you credit instead of cash. They give a really fair price, and you log up all this credit that you can then use to buy books at their stores all over town--the credit knocks your price to 1/4 the cover pri e. I really like that system...I have to say again, tho, for those of us true slackers living in squalor, you can't beat the Public Liberry. Sorry, I'm working on a weird old computer that forces me to write this all on one line so I can't edit. I meant to tell you that PaperBacks Plus has an amazing website under www.luckydogbooks.com sorry I can't html you there!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  9, 1997 (00:06)", "body": "You can html us there if you list it as: http://www.luckybooks.com"}, {"response": 8, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 1997 (10:29)", "body": "Well aren't you Mr Fancy Pants! I PROMISE to learn html'ing. Honest."}, {"response": 9, "author": "Kayc", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 1997 (11:45)", "body": "My favorite bookstore is Aticus in New Haven, CT. I haven't been there recently but I have very fond memories. Situated in the heart of Yale it's a cozy cafe/bookstore. One can sip coffee and munch yummie treats while savouring the aroma and feel of their eclectic collection. They are also know for their lectures and \"meet the author\" events. I wonder how many books get sold at half price because of the coffee stains and fudgy fingerprints......? I am now relocated in South Jersey with the earest borders being built an hour away. I sustain my addiction at a local mom and pop store, they'll order anything that's in print. I have never heard of \"peoples\" please elaborate."}, {"response": 10, "author": "Kayc", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 1997 (11:47)", "body": "That should have read \"the nearest borders .....\""}, {"response": 11, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 1997 (13:37)", "body": "Book People is a really cool huge bookshop in Austin that has much of the ambience you mentioned (except the coziness...did I mention it's BIG?). Terry can fill you in more about its roots (or go to Austin conference); I can only say I've enjoyed every visit, they have a huge selection, helpful staff, comfy chairs, and they're attached to Whole Foods so you can get all your shopping done in one stop! Say--I also have the problem of the computer doing its own wraparound and dropping out letters when it do s. Any suggestions on how to make it STOP?"}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Apr 15, 1997 (23:37)", "body": "The two ultra, ultra hip places to see and be seen in Austin are Whole Foods/BookPeople and Central Market/BookStop/Central Park. So draw a line between them and get a place exactly half way in between them and you'll be at the hipness center of Austin. I kind of like to eat out and hang around Central Market more than Whole Foods, which is a little too cool."}, {"response": 13, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (12:57)", "body": "I'm from VERY rural Nevada. We only have one bpook store within 250 miles. not a very good one at that. When we go to town,Las vegas, reno , Salt Lake city, we hit any and every book store we can. but the all time best one is borders."}, {"response": 14, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (13:32)", "body": "Borders was my favorite bookstore until I discovered Amazon.com. Now there simply is no contest."}, {"response": 15, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (17:58)", "body": "I'll look it up. so much on the web that i get lost quickly. thanks for the tip i'll find it."}, {"response": 16, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (19:37)", "body": "No need. Just click here: Amazon! World's largest bookstore! Be forewarned...it is very addictive. :)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (19:43)", "body": "Gotta put my vote in for Half Price. They may not pay squat when you sell but... I never sell my books (personal problem!) and they don't have ANY in Colorado!!! Tattered Cover is by far my favorite. In Denver, Five stories, Great speakers, coffee (with caffeine!), and a bargain wall (of overstocks -- no used) to beat the band!"}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (19:46)", "body": "Too bad BookPeople is going mainstream. They're moving out of their extraordinary location with their 400,000 plus titles and into a smaller mall location across the street where they'll have fewer titles. I guess it's a money move and can't blame them for wanting to survive, but jeez, the place they have now is so awesome."}, {"response": 19, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Wed, Jan 21, 1998 (16:01)", "body": "I'll agree with Terry's post about the loss of diversity. So many bookstores have gone out of business in my area (greater Chicagoland) that it isn't fun to walk in a mall anymore. We lost a Chicago area chain, Kroch's & Brentano's, several years ago. I know, a chain is a chain--but their stores all had personality, they weren't all cookie-cutter copies of the downtown store (which was a religious experience back when I was a kid). And a recent visit to OakBrook mall with a friend found us scanning the directory in vain for even ONE measly bookstore to browse. Of course, there is a huge Barnes & Noble nearby now (not walkable, tho, since it's adjacent to a highway). Sort of a \"lost bookstores of my youth\" commentary. Well, there are a few good stores left in the area, and lots of second-hand stores, too. On the corner near my office there's Brent Books, a tiny but always intersting store with well-informed staff who seem to actually read themselves. So if you're in Chicago, that's the one to check out."}, {"response": 20, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (13:23)", "body": "My small town on the Chesapeake has just one bookstore, one of those little used bookstores that has so many books everywhere it makes you feel cramped. Lots of meandering aisles, no windows, funny book smell...you get back into a little alcove and get a little panicky wondering \"what if there suddenly were a fire? But it's charming nonetheless. Of course, there's Barnes & Noble, Bibelot and Walden's up at the mall, but it's not the same at all."}, {"response": 21, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (18:45)", "body": "We shant forget SF's City Lights. All the history and ambiance certainly make it one of my favorite. A little used book hole in the wall off of Broadway in Englewood (where I live) reminded me of Book People (of yore). Everyone's welcome to come visit!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "arthamom", "date": "Thu, Jan 22, 1998 (18:45)", "body": "I hope to see Tattered Cover before I die, Stacey! I used to work in book stores: two different independents (now, sadly, defunct) in Minneapolis and a bad, crappy chain (Waldenbooks, ptooie!) when I moved back to my home town. I am very uncomfortable with giving custom to chains because Barnes & Noble drove my beloved Odegard Books out of business, and I don't trust the superstores to stay super once they've stamped out all of the competition...blah, blah, blah...it's the same old independent-lovers lame t. Sometimes I sneak into the big, shiney B& N that sprang up a few years ago here, just to feel that feeling of unlimited possibility that a big bunch of books can inspire, but I try not to buy. The twin cities still have Hungry Mind Bookstore in St. Paul--a real bookstore and still (I hope to God!) firmly on their feet."}, {"response": 24, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Fri, Jan 23, 1998 (16:10)", "body": "Glad to see there's so many independents left. Now to plan a trip just to hit good bookstores..."}, {"response": 25, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Jan 26, 1998 (19:03)", "body": "\u001b[BMartha... let me know when the hankering to see TC is too much! You're welcome to come visit with me! Everytime I go into Tattered Cover, I end up sitting on the floor (in the middle of everything) completely engrossed in a book. I \"wake up\" about and hour later... groggy and very happy! Then it's time for a cup of java (rarely gotten in the bookstore as I prefer several coffee houses around town -- Stella's) to make me coherent again!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Tue, Jan 27, 1998 (12:08)", "body": "Sounds like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon."}, {"response": 27, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jan 27, 1998 (12:08)", "body": "*smile* yes, it is."}, {"response": 29, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sat, Feb 28, 1998 (22:24)", "body": "My fav bookstore is Books-A-Million. It's so casual, no one looks at me weird for planting myself down on the floor and browsing through whatever I can get my hands on. We have a Barnes And Noble but it's so presumptuous. Need to find a hole-in-the-wall bookstore."}, {"response": 30, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:28)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, Writers, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer )"}, {"response": 31, "author": "osceola", "date": "Mon, Aug 31, 1998 (19:12)", "body": "One more vote for Half Price, specifically the one on Guadalupe. Used book stores are only as good as the stuff that gets traded in, and I like that store's selection. On the other hand, the one up north on Research is rather lame. The one near my house in south Austin is surprisingly good. Don't try to sell books at that one, though. I once brought in about a dozen books and was offered only $4. I took them to the Guadalupe store that same day and got $18 for the same books. There's a place near UT calle Desert Books, run by some of the people from the old Europa -- I recommend it."}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Aug 31, 1998 (19:12)", "body": "Where near UT is Desert Books, George. I haven't seen it. I miss the old Europa Books, that was one great bookstore."}, {"response": 33, "author": "osceola", "date": "Wed, Sep  2, 1998 (14:21)", "body": "It's in a bank building across Guadalupe from Dobie Mall, down the street from St. Austin's church on the same block. It's in the basement under the bank."}, {"response": 34, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jan 23, 1999 (12:38)", "body": "http://www.CrimeandSpace.com/ you should at least go by and subscribe to their mailing list... http://www.crimeandspace.com/subscribe.html"}, {"response": 35, "author": "AdamLipscomb", "date": "Sat, Jan 23, 1999 (21:45)", "body": "Adventures In Crime and Space ROCKS! I'm a big SF/Mystery buff, and ACS has not only the best new titles, but they've got a killer used book section, not to mention their assortment of rare and autographed titles. If I could get away with it, I'd spend every paycheck there. I used to work (10 years ago) at Oxford Books in Atlanta, Georgia. Oxford isout of business, now. Barnes and Noble and Borders opened huge stores within a few blocks of Oxford, and within a few years, Oxford Books was no more. Since then, I've avoided whenever possible shopping at the megachains. I like stores with character, dangit!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Jan 24, 1999 (14:40)", "body": "and stores that characters visit as well, it seems..."}, {"response": 37, "author": "AdamLipscomb", "date": "Mon, Jan 25, 1999 (20:44)", "body": "There's a great store in Brimingham, Alabama that I used to shop at. Smith and Hardwick. For years, it was owned by a woman everyone knew as \"Miss Anna\". The books were stacked in huge, towering cases that seemed to arch over the aisles, and there was no strict genre breakdown - a great store in which to browse. You could often find out of print books there for a song. Miss Anna didn't take credit cards or checks, but she would be glad to let you take the book home and come back with the cash. She died a few years back, and I think her nephew runs the store now. It's moved to a new location, and they take checks, but it still has a really cozy feel to it."}, {"response": 38, "author": "linise", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (02:04)", "body": "I really like the Tatered Cover book stores in Cherry Creek and Denver Colorado. Does anyone here know of any good stors in the Orlando Florida area?"}, {"response": 39, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Thu, May 31, 2001 (17:30)", "body": "I'm afraid not, but I can definitely recommend some book shops if you're ever in London! Are you in Florida, Lindi?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "linise", "date": "Sun, Jun  3, 2001 (23:09)", "body": "Why I am going to London in a few weeks! It is so funny that you should mention that! Yes, I am located in Florida....bloody hot and humid place!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Jun  5, 2001 (16:17)", "body": "Oh wow...what brings you to London? Have you been here before?"}, {"response": 42, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jul 12, 2001 (18:49)", "body": "W. H. SMith comes to mind straight away. I think along with the British Museum Bookstore, the Ordnance Survey and W.H. Smith, I did a good job of shifting my worth from US$ to \ufffd Sterling."}, {"response": 43, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (05:25)", "body": "http://bookpeople.com hands down. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 50, "subject": "Book Awards", "response_count": 2, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (03:16)", "body": "To promote literacy and energize the book industry, Reed Business International and NBC Universal Television Stations announced plans Wednesday for a new national book award, called the Quill Awards, to be decided by the general public ... http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-ny--quillawards0126jan26,0,111748.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (03:16)", "body": "Haitian-American Edwidge Danticat became the first winner of The Story Prize, a new annual book award honoring short story collections. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=industryNews&storyID=7445174 books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 51, "subject": "Fan Fiction", "response_count": 3, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (08:44)", "body": "* harry potter * slash * buffy * lord of the rings * smallville * sentinel * stargate * due slash * minotaur * cyrrh These are the top ten searches for fan fiction sites on http://www.fanficweb.net I've hear of them all except teh last three and slash. I'm kind of surprised that Lord of the Rings doesn't lead the list. Buffy, no surprise, I know she has a huge cult following."}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Jan 27, 2005 (08:47)", "body": "There are 79 fan fiction sites about Smallville. I grew up with Superman. It was one of my favorite shows. And then there were the movies with Christopher Reeve. And Lois and Clark. I can see the endless potential to extrapolate on this. Superman is the stuff of kids dreams. And some grownups too."}, {"response": 3, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 21, 2005 (12:10)", "body": "gerardbutler.net has a fan fiction site too (most notably, he played the phantom). very good actor even if his movies aren't so well known. he chooses roles for the roles themselves, not for the popularity. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 52, "subject": "The Eyre Affair and it's sequels (Jasper Fforde)", "response_count": 6, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2005 (08:27)", "body": "Where can we get some background information on this? I don't know where to start."}, {"response": 2, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2005 (09:05)", "body": "Ah, Jasper Fforde is a brilliant author who wrote a series of books. Thursday Next is the heroine of the stories. You can check out thursdaynext.com. These books take literature and humor and add it together and it's hysterical."}, {"response": 3, "author": "gomezdo", "date": "Tue, Feb  1, 2005 (19:04)", "body": "The books have an awesome concept and I have the first 2, but haven't gotten past the first several chapters of the first one yet. Won't get to them for a while unfortunately. Heard him on an interview on a local radio station last winter. Very interesting sounding guy. He was doing a couple of book signings that day and the next in the city, but it was very snowy weather then, and I wasn't inclined to get myself there unfortunately."}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2005 (08:02)", "body": "I like the site, especially the way he's done the index page: http://www.jasperfforde.com/index3.html Looks like he's going to be at a bunch of book fairs and festivals in England in March. http://www.jasperfforde.com/appearances.html"}, {"response": 5, "author": "LauraMM", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2005 (09:22)", "body": "The books are hysterical. you have characters named Jack Schitt and Schitt-hawse:) more later!"}, {"response": 6, "author": "wolf", "date": "Thu, Jul 21, 2005 (12:12)", "body": "*laugh* will have to look him up next time i'm in the bookstore. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 53, "subject": "Magick Papers", "response_count": 0, "posts": []}, {"num": 54, "subject": "A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby", "response_count": 0, "posts": []}, {"num": 55, "subject": "The book(s) I bought today", "response_count": 72, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Aug 23, 1997 (03:58)", "body": "The I Ching."}, {"response": 2, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (15:31)", "body": "The Ultimate Dracula on impulse at Half Price WER"}, {"response": 3, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Dec  6, 1997 (11:13)", "body": "3001, Arthur C. Clarke. The Odyssey series comes to a close. No one let on about the plot yet, tho - I haven't finished it :)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (06:26)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. Want to link us to your site? We would appreciate it! Want some banner art, all sizes? goto http://www.capitol-city.com/indexbnrs.html New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer ) Paul Terry Walhus - ( Internet & telecommunications specialist & owner of www.spring.com ) Do you want to write something about Austin, Art, Music or Life, give us a call! 219-1433 Thanks for your readership and thank you Austin Artists, for being so helpful as we continue to build this publication for you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------"}, {"response": 5, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 17, 1998 (23:23)", "body": "Now, *this* is cool! At http://www.acses.com you put in the title or keyword or author of a book and it searches over 20 online bookstores and finds the cheapest price. For example: Your search for 1 book in 28 stores will take a maximum of 18 seconds: Still 15 shops to go... Still 10 shops to go... Still 5 shops to go... 28 shops checked. Results are loading, please have some patience... Book information: ISBN 0789714140: Cold Fusion Web Application Construction Kit, Second Edition with Cold Fusion and Cold Fusion Studio, by Ben Forta, David E. Crawford, Nate Weiss List price as discount base is US$59.99. Total prices inclusive shipping costs. Click on one offer to proceed to the corresponding shop! Total Price Shop Discount Shipping Service Plain Shipping Time US$42.45 Bookpool USA 36% UPS Ground 3-7 days US$45.47 Bookpool USA 36% Air 2 Day 2 days US$47.20 Bookpool USA 36% UPS 2 Day 2 days US$48.00 Bookpool USA 36% FedEx 2 Day 2 days US$48.94 All Direct Books USA 25% UPS Ground 3-7 days US$50.00 Open Group Books USA 22% ? 2-10 days US$50.70 A1Books USA 22% UPS Ground 1-2 weeks US$50.74 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% Standard Ground 7-14 days US$50.79 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% US Priority 2-5 days US$51.79 Book Stacks USA 20% USPS Book Rate 2-6 weeks US$51.94 BookServe USA 20% UPS Ground Track 3-6 days US$51.94 Amazon USA 20% USPS Priority Mail 3-7 days US$52.84 Book Stacks USA 20% UPS 2-10 days US$52.94 All Direct Books USA 25% UPS Second Day 2 days US$53.99 BookServe USA 20% FedEx 2nd day 2 days US$54.74 A1Books USA 22% UPS 3rd Day Select 3 days US$55.94 All Direct Books USA 25% UPS Next Day Air Saver 1 day US$55.94 Amazon USA 20% Second Day Air 2 days US$55.99 BookServe USA 20% FedEx Overnight 1 day US$57.49 BookSite USA 10% ? ? US$58.94 Amazon USA 20% Next Day Air 1 day US$59.79 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% Second Day Air 2-3 days US$60.64 A1Books USA 22% FedEx Economy 2 days US$61.84 Book Stacks USA 20% DHL Express 1 day US$62.24 A1Books USA 22% FedEx Standard Overnight 1 day US$62.79 Alt.Bookstore USA 22% Next Day Air 1-2 days US$63.49 Powells USA 0% USPS 4th Class Book Rate ? US$63.94 Barnes & Noble USA 0% UPS Standard 4-7 days US$63.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Economy 3-7 days US$64.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Standard 2-3 days US$65.99 Powells USA 0% UPS Ground ? US$67.94 Barnes & Noble USA 0% UPS 2nd Day 2-3 days US$67.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Second Day Air 2 days US$69.94 CL Bookstore USA 0% Overnight 1 day US$69.99 Powells USA 0% UPS 2nd Day Select 2 days US$70.94 Barnes & Noble USA 0% UPS Next Day 1-2 days US$71.53 Dymocks AU 2% International Express Post ? US$72.24 A1Books USA 22% UPS Next Day 1 day US$81.99 Powells USA 0% UPS Next Day 1 day US$114.70 Waterstones UK -53% Surface Delivery 4-12 weeks US$115.67 Book Pages UK -54% Airmail 5-8 days US$123.88 Waterstones UK -53% Accelerated Surface Delivery 3-4 weeks US$142.23 Waterstones UK -53% Airmail 5-10 days ABC B\ufffdcherdienst, located in Germany: only Now, is that amazing!!! *This* is the future of electronic commerce on the net. Why would anyone want to shop at amazon.com when they can just go here?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Apr 18, 1998 (02:51)", "body": "Amazon had the 8th price!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Apr 19, 1998 (16:59)", "body": "What a great resource, terry! Thanks for the info!"}, {"response": 8, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (21:34)", "body": "The Emperor's Virtual Clothes: The Naked Truth about Internet Culture by Dinty W. Moore"}, {"response": 9, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (21:36)", "body": "figures!"}, {"response": 10, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (21:37)", "body": "what does the W stand for?"}, {"response": 11, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (21:48)", "body": "not sure... e-mail him at dwm7@psuvm.psu.edu"}, {"response": 12, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (22:04)", "body": "Got \"Silas Marner\" for a dime off the used book table at the library."}, {"response": 13, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, May  6, 1998 (22:18)", "body": "I also bought The Wordsworth Dictionary of Obscenity & Taboo Global Advantage on the Internet How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway Doing Business on the Internet Sex, Laws, and Cyberspace"}, {"response": 14, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, May  7, 1998 (11:55)", "body": "Is it true that you can tell a lot about a person by the books they buy? :)"}, {"response": 15, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, May  7, 1998 (12:14)", "body": "and what's that supposed to mean? come on, you can say it..."}, {"response": 16, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, May  7, 1998 (23:18)", "body": "No, it's just that I'm now timid about telling what books I bought recently. :)"}, {"response": 17, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (00:19)", "body": "good point... (you know, you oughta check out the genx conf, especially the Formatting the GenX Storybook and Chapter 1 of the GenX Storybook topics) ((so, what DID you buy?))"}, {"response": 18, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (10:19)", "body": "Well, what a lovely compliment! Somebody is associating me, a Babyboomer, with GenX! Thank you! :) I bought: Children of God (sequel to The Sparrow), by Maria Doria Russell The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons Still Me, by Christopher Reeve"}, {"response": 19, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (17:46)", "body": "Charlotte, I'll be interested to hear what you think of \"Bean Trees.\" have you read any other of Barbara Kingsolver's novels?"}, {"response": 20, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (18:37)", "body": "I simply adored it. I was ready to rush to Amazon and order all her other books, but my friend Hugh says he will loan them to me. So now I am just waiting (impatiently!) for him to find them. Like the protagonist is from Kentucky, as am I, so there was a lot of resonance going on, but even without that level, it was so enjoyably written that I found myself simply swept away. I bought the new hardcover version they just released in honor of its 10th anniversary, but I'm sure the paperback is still available, too. Run out and get it!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, May 10, 1998 (20:30)", "body": "I preferred \"Animal Dreams\" -- have you read that one? What did you think?"}, {"response": 22, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, May 11, 1998 (10:36)", "body": "Animal Dreams is on my list, after Pigs in Heaven, which I will start after I finish Children of God. I have read terrific reviews of Animal Dreams, and am greatly looking forward to it!"}, {"response": 23, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov  1, 1998 (20:02)", "body": "picked up two more belva plain novels. her latest one, Homecoming, and Whispers. i actually finished the last one i bought and was just dying to get back to a bookstore to pick up more, much to my husband's chargin."}, {"response": 24, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sun, Nov  1, 1998 (23:46)", "body": "used the plastic, huh?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (09:26)", "body": "I enjoyed Homecoming , but I have not read Whispers . How was it? Referring to message 23--- I read both Animal Dreams and Pigs in Heaven , by Barbara Kingsolver, since I wrote that message. Last week I bought her newest, The Ironwood Bible . Looking forward to it. But first I have to finish the two new ones I just bought by E. Annie Proulx."}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (09:30)", "body": "already half-way through Homecoming and just started last night (read for 2 hours). Whispers is next, so i'll let you know, Charlotte. wer: nope. we try not to use plastic too much."}, {"response": 27, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Nov  2, 1998 (11:40)", "body": "Just finished Jane Smiley's \"Thousand Acres.\" It started off in one direction and then suddently took off in another more dysfunctional and outrageous one."}, {"response": 28, "author": "wolf", "date": "Tue, Nov  3, 1998 (14:29)", "body": "finished Homecoming last night. 4 hour book. good read, though. and i was wrong about it being her latest novel....Legacy of Secrets is the newest and i don't have that one YET!!"}, {"response": 29, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Tue, Nov  3, 1998 (15:34)", "body": "Today I bought \"Solid State Physics, Second Edition\" by Hook and Hall, and \"Introductory Nuclear Physics\" by Krane. Oh what an exciting life I lead. y"}, {"response": 30, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov  3, 1998 (22:47)", "body": "Wow. Sure puts us to shame, Mike."}, {"response": 31, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (12:03)", "body": "No Plasma Physics?"}, {"response": 32, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (14:06)", "body": "Plasma physics is probably the most boring type i can think of. I could have done ap lasma project, but i read about it and then fell asleep :-)"}, {"response": 33, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (15:52)", "body": "ok, just to interject, seems i was a bit confused with the titles i mentioned by belva plain. let me correct myself: i read Homecoming and have started Random Winds, not Whispers, and her newest book is Legacy of Silence, not Legacy of Secrets. K? glad we got all that straightened out! mike: are those books for your school? just reading the titles makes me sleepy! and what the heck is plasma physics? i really don't want to think too hard, so explain it, please? it sounds like blood work or something."}, {"response": 34, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (16:52)", "body": "yeah, wolf, my books are school books :-) $80 worth no less (depending on the exchange rates of course :-) plasma physics the study of plasmas (funnily enough! :) which are extremely hot, highly ionized gases...a normal candle flame is part plasma, part hot gas."}, {"response": 35, "author": "wolf", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (17:35)", "body": "ok, i'm there, thanks mikey!"}, {"response": 36, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Wed, Nov  4, 1998 (20:39)", "body": "Ya know...many years ago, maybe 20, I went to an Audiophile store and listened to some Plasma speakers. They were hand made in Mexico. They worked by vibrating layers of plasma, created by lighting some kind of a little gas flame in the top of the speaker. Looked like a little row of pilot lights. It was a devastating experience for me. Never have I heard such sound. It was as if each note was sparkling in the air around my head. I could identify the direction each note came from. It was the clearest, most heavenly audio experience I've ever had. Every home stereo I've owned since then has sounded like crap, but luckily, as time passed, I have forgotten the wonder. These speakers cost $11,000 each. I wonder if they are still making them."}, {"response": 37, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Nov  6, 1998 (15:55)", "body": "WOW, Charlotte! They sound awesome! How about doing a web search for them?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Nov  7, 1998 (13:44)", "body": "I would really like to be able to hear such sound just once."}, {"response": 39, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Nov  7, 1998 (19:17)", "body": "you mean it's better than live?"}, {"response": 40, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Nov  7, 1998 (22:32)", "body": "I did an Altavista search for \"plasma speakers\" and turned up some sites - check them out!"}, {"response": 41, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Nov  9, 1998 (09:29)", "body": "Oh good. I used Infoseek, and only found one site, and all it contained was some guy telling pretty much the same story I did, that is..he had heard some several years ago and was blown away. In my humble (and non-professional) opinion, yes...better than live."}, {"response": 42, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Nov  9, 1998 (20:36)", "body": "haha!!"}, {"response": 43, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Nov  9, 1998 (22:23)", "body": "Wow, that's something of a paradox, isn't it, Charlotte?"}, {"response": 44, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 10, 1998 (11:36)", "body": "Yeah....but isn't most of life? :)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Tue, Nov 10, 1998 (11:39)", "body": "Ok, that was a flippant response. I'll try again: What I meant was that it was an enhanced listening experience. It felt pure . With live, you get natural, ambient noises: a cough, a baby's cry, feet shuffling, normal human noises we all take for granted and ignore. When I say it was better than live, I meant to say that I preferred it to live, for its purity. Better?"}, {"response": 46, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Nov 12, 1998 (09:05)", "body": "flippant was fine Charlotte, I like flippant!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "jgross", "date": "Thu, Nov 12, 1998 (13:21)", "body": "I practically flipped .....and landed on my head it sounded so live, it almost purified me wait, I think I might do some of that plasma now I wanna make sure it's pure plasma, though, before I do it"}, {"response": 48, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Nov 13, 1998 (21:42)", "body": "I got it now! Thanks for the clarification, Charlotte!"}, {"response": 49, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (10:42)", "body": "ok, picked up whispers (another belva plain novel). i really need to expand my novel collection to include other authors. i actually have a list recommended to me and have only read belva plain, dick francis, and fern michaels. sad considering the list had 20 different authors on it."}, {"response": 50, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (11:53)", "body": "Add Barbara Kingsolver to your list, Wolf."}, {"response": 51, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sat, Jan  2, 1999 (20:51)", "body": "thanks, charlotte, what does she write?"}, {"response": 52, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  7, 1999 (15:03)", "body": "Her books are hard to describe, but enjoyable on many levels. I especially liked \"Animal Dreams.\""}, {"response": 53, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Thu, Jan  7, 1999 (18:58)", "body": "There are indeed hard to describe. If I may suggest: Go to www.amazon.com, search for Barbara Kingsolver. There will be reviews by other readers and more articulate descriptions of her books than I am able to give you. I am currently reading her nonficion essays and enjoying them very much. I have finished all her other published works. My favorite so far is her latest novel The Poisonwood Bible . Start with Bean Trees if you can."}, {"response": 54, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (13:46)", "body": "thanks!"}, {"response": 55, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (13:57)", "body": "bought Rheingold's \"The Virtual Community\" the other day, along with \"The Union Square Cafe Cookbook\" and \"Rivals of Dracula\""}, {"response": 56, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (13:58)", "body": "the last two are not by Howard, of course..."}, {"response": 57, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:00)", "body": "and just who could be a rival of dracula?"}, {"response": 58, "author": "wer", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:01)", "body": "not sure yet, gave it to the wife to read at work... I'll let you know when it comes back home"}, {"response": 59, "author": "wolf", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:02)", "body": "haha!! i mean, who does dracula have to compete with, you know? *grin*"}, {"response": 60, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (14:15)", "body": "WER?"}, {"response": 61, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:05)", "body": "I love you, too, Stace..."}, {"response": 62, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:26)", "body": "I really enjoyed Virtual Community, as I've said elsewehre..."}, {"response": 63, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Jan  8, 1999 (15:48)", "body": "*laugh*"}, {"response": 64, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (11:17)", "body": "That's part of what prompted me to finally buy it, Mike. Have you read his \"Virtual Reality\"?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (11:24)", "body": "NO, I've never read Virtual REality, wer. Have you?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (11:28)", "body": "nope...just wondering if I should try and find it, too... (actually more like if I see it should I buy it)"}, {"response": 67, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sat, Jan  9, 1999 (19:58)", "body": "I don't really know what it's about..if it's big headsets and wireframe worlds then I don't really care that much :-)"}, {"response": 68, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Feb  3, 2002 (08:19)", "body": "A book on Adobe Premiere 6 with lots of color pictures."}, {"response": 69, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Oct 30, 2002 (14:31)", "body": "Haven't bought a book in a LONG time... found the benefits of living 1/4 mile from a library. Reading \"Solitaire\" by Eskridge now... just started it and hoping to have it finished before Riley arrives. A light (so far) sci-fi novel... I'm enjoying it!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "WERoland", "date": "Mon, Aug 29, 2005 (19:01)", "body": "Hmmm...this topic became unlinked with the one in the Books conference, so here follows the link to it. http://spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/books/4"}, {"response": 71, "author": "EdmundIronsides", "date": "Wed, Sep 14, 2005 (07:51)", "body": "Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett"}, {"response": 72, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Sep 14, 2005 (08:16)", "body": "Cool, let us know about it! books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 56, "subject": "tech books", "response_count": 1, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  7, 2005 (22:45)", "body": "http://www.freetechbooks.com/ Just what it says. Free tech books. Using phpBB, the books are reviewed. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 57, "subject": "Books about the sea", "response_count": 2, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sat, Jul 15, 2006 (23:56)", "body": "This site http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/Crackerjack/Crackerjack1to20.html has the 100 top books about the sea. My all time favorite is \"And the sea will tell\"; I forget the author. I'll dig it up. The number 101 on the list is: 101 Jaws (1974) Peter Benchley. The book that sparked Steven Spielberg's filmmaking career is still a terrific read. Essentially a retelling of Melville's Moby-Dick, Benchley's novel pits the town of Amity against a great white shark, and the 5,000-pound shark steals the show. Benchley's in-depth research on the fish that never sleeps is as terrifying as it is captivating."}, {"response": 2, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul 16, 2006 (00:02)", "body": "Vincent Bugliosi wrote the Sea will Tell. Here's the amazon review. Amazon.com And the Sea Will Tell spins a riveting story--a story that could have been the backbone for a classic novel by Herman Melville or Joseph Conrad. Two couples--one wealthy and married, the other an ex-con and his hippie girlfriend-- separately set sail for a remote South Pacific island, each hoping to play \"Adam and Eve\" in paradise. Instead of getting away from it all, they take it with them-- their pasts and prejudices, and the petty battles over status and material goods that arise from their different social classes. Only two people out of the original four live through the experience. One of them has the extraordinary good luck to be defended in court by master attorney Vincent Bugliosi (author of Helter Skelter). As the Los Angeles Times writes, \"The book succeeds on all counts. The final pages are some of the most suspenseful in trial literature.\" But it didn't make the top 101 list. Too pulpy I guess. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 6, "subject": "My top ten books of all time (in order)", "response_count": 125, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Wed, Nov  6, 1996 (08:56)", "body": "At the moment my list would look like (not in particular order - just the ten I'd recommend to anybody...) 1. King of Elfland's Daughter 2. The Dispossessed 3. Flowers for Algernon 4. Lord of the Rings (what did you expect? The Spanish inquisition?) 5. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy 6. Master and Margarita 7. Dead Souls (not sure about the English name - Gogol's classic) 8. Dracula 9. Winnie the Pooh 10. Player of Games (AND Consider Phlebas) Hmm... quite a sf-fantasy - heavy selection, I must admit... personally, I prefer short stories and poetry."}, {"response": 2, "author": "sfpclot", "date": "Thu, Nov 14, 1996 (23:06)", "body": "1) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon -- Ten years ago I was on a 36 hour bus trip and picked this book up to read on the way. I've read it 6 times since. Now that I think about it, maybe it's time to read it again. 2) Intelligent Agents by Timothy Leary -- I was 14 when I found this book. Opened my mind to the idea that science fiction was now. And that people could shape their own destinies and spin lives of wild fun, brilliant thinking and playful pranksterism. Also introduced me to the SMI(2)LE acronym. Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension. The founding slogan of my current philosphies 3) Alice in Wonderland (and the rest of Lewis Carroll's works) - set the standard for imaginative heights. 4) Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson - Read it in one night and felt like I was tripping when I was through. Resonated through my mind and put into focus many half-formed ideas already percolating in my head. 5) Ham on Rye (and the rest of Bukowski's works) - brought me back to earth. 6) Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick -- Led me to the rest of Dick's works. The greatest fantasist of the 20th century. Way ahead of Baudrillard and Dennet. 7) 777 by Aleister Crowley -- See Intelligence Agents above. 8) Various essays by William Burroughs -- pragmatic linguistic shamanism 9) Collected short stories of Robert Sheckley -- Underrated SF author. Check out his short stories from the fifties. Now writing 'novelizations.' 10) Huckleberry Finn -- ...Well, then. . . I reckon I'd rather go to Hell. Since that's where all my friends are going to be. Books I wish I'd read Korzybski's Science and Sanity Joyce's Finnegans Wake Dante's Inferno Blake's Heaven and Hell Madame Ovary etc., etc., 100000x etc."}, {"response": 3, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (09:46)", "body": "If you like Bukowski, be sure to check out Jan Hoiberg's website. He's nuts about Bukowski and he runs his site for the Band here on the Spring. You can get to his home page from the Band site we'll be putting up here in a few days: http://www.theband.com Maybe you can encourage him to pump up Bukowski coverage and we could do a special site for that."}, {"response": 4, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (03:59)", "body": "Yes, some books to recommend: The Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson - the Finnish equivalent to Winnie the Pooh. Really great stories. Check the home page at: http://www.exit109.com/~fazia/Moomin.html"}, {"response": 5, "author": "lance", "date": "Mon, May 19, 1997 (02:15)", "body": "Well, I don't know if I'll get to ten, or if I can give them in order, but here are some favorites: 1. Plato's Republic (yes, this is, in my opinion, the best book ever written). 2. Spinoza's Ethics (close to number 1O. 3. King Lear (I could save space by inserting the collected works of Shakespeare). 4. Stendahl's The Charterhouse of Parma 5. George Eliot's Daniel Deronda 6. Pride and Prejudice 7. The Green Kingdom by Rachel Maddux (yes, I know that Maddux is an unknown, but this really is a remarkable book). 8. The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt (should be higher on the list). 9. The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs 10. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville 11. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 12. \"As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams\" by Lady Sarashina (stories and poems by a woman of Heian Japan). 13. The Root and the Flower by L.H. Myers 14. The Duino Elegies by Rilke"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, May 19, 1997 (14:03)", "body": "Why is the Republic the best book ever written in your opinion?"}, {"response": 7, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Oct 10, 1997 (17:41)", "body": "OK, here goes: 1. Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset. 2. Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton. 3. Remembrance of Things Past, Marcel Proust. 4. Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen. 5. Death Comes for the Archbishop (or anything else by Willa Cather). 6. Mme. Bovary, Gustave Flaubert. 7. Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald. 8. Delta Wedding, Eudora Welty. 9. Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenter; JD Salinger. 10. The Awakening, Kate Chopin. Whew! I didn't know if I was going to make it to 10. I almost panicked there for a minute..."}, {"response": 8, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sat, Oct 11, 1997 (03:03)", "body": "Why not? 1. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) 2. The Winding Stair, and Other Poems (Yeats) 3. You Can't Go Home Again (Wolfe) 4. Letters from the Earth (Twain) 5. A Pen Warmed Up in Hell (Twain) 6. Farewell, My Lovely (Chandler) 7. On the Road (Kerouac) 8. Walden (Thoreau) 9. Ulysses (Joyce) 10.The Tower (Yeats)"}, {"response": 9, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct 19, 1997 (11:33)", "body": "1. Joyce, Ulysses 2. Proust, A La Recherche de Temps Perdu 3. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales 4. Cervantes, Quixote 5. Sterne, Tristram Shandy 6. Goethe, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre 7. Austen, Emma 8. Flaubert, Bovary 9. Dickens, Bleak House 10. Tolstoy, War and Peace Honorable Mention Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov Faulkner, Light in August tied with East of Eden Fowles, A Maggot Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler Austen, Mansfield Park Austen, Pride and Prejudice"}, {"response": 10, "author": "amy2", "date": "Sun, Oct 19, 1997 (13:49)", "body": "Wow! Terry -- this is quite a topic! Here is my list: 1) The First Circle - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn 2) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 3) Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen 4) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 5) Les Miserables - Victor Hugo 6) The Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Mallory (Middle English version) 7) Rabbit At Rest - John Updike 8) Rabbit Is Rich - John Updike 9) Persuasion - Jane Austen 10) Cancer Ward - Solzhenitsyn ==="}, {"response": 11, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Mon, Oct 20, 1997 (04:48)", "body": "Um, sort of kinda (for now) 1. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (ok, always this one, always no. 1) 2. The Last Unicorn - Peter S Beagle 3. The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson 4. The Divine Comedy - Dante 5. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 6. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M R James 7. The French Lietenant's Woman - John Fowles 8. The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara 9. Immortality - Milan Kundera 10. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Joan Lindsay Ten is not enough - I could do 10 favourite collections of poetry."}, {"response": 12, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 20, 1997 (09:41)", "body": "Please do, I'd love to hear this list! Specialized top ten lists are welcome, eg. top ten romance novels, etc."}, {"response": 13, "author": "amy2", "date": "Mon, Oct 20, 1997 (12:25)", "body": "I love Immortality by Kundera! I also forgot to mention IVANHOE by Scott!!"}, {"response": 14, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Mon, Oct 20, 1997 (23:10)", "body": "Amy, I'd noticed that ommission! Okay, top ten poetry books - forgetting The Divine Comedy which I should have included here, but lets not get pedantic. 1. Emily Bronte, tied with 2. A Shropshire Lad/Last Poems/More Poems, A E Housman 3. Emily Dickinson 4. Christina Rossetti 5. Thomas Hardy 6. WB Yeats 7. Swinburne 8. Percy Bysshe Shelly 9. Sonnets, Shakespeare (whoops, almost forgot) 10. Thomas Wyatt Yeah, I cheated. Assume these are collected works unless otherwise specified."}, {"response": 15, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 1997 (04:18)", "body": "Assuming, too, that these are collected works: 1. W.B. Yeats 2. Emily Dickinson 3. Robert Burns 4. John Keats 5. W.H. Auden 6. Walt Whitman 7. John Donne 8. Algernon Swinburne 9. T.S. Eliot 10.Percy Shelley Hon. Mention to Tennyson, Byron, Housman, Pound, Wordsworth, (Dante) Rossetti, Dowson, and Wallace Stevens. Oh, and Charles Baudelaire, and Arthur Rimbaud... Oh, hell, and Thomas Hardy, too (\"A Broken Appointment\" kills me)... I obviously lack self-discipline... (sorry)"}, {"response": 16, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 1997 (12:26)", "body": "Terry, I was glad to see you enjoyed Proust too--and obviously not in translation. So how about a French conference where we can sharpen our language skills? I bet I'm not the only one who's rusty around here."}, {"response": 17, "author": "amy2", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 1997 (13:44)", "body": "I also nominate A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION; Saul Bellow's HUMBOLDT'S GIFT; Alexander Dumas' THREE MUSKETEERS for sheer fun value; Thackeray's VANITY FAIR; the collected short stories of Harlan Ellison & Ray Bradbury; Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS; MACBETH; LEAR; CANTERBURY TALES; PARADISE LOST."}, {"response": 18, "author": "Luisa", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 1997 (18:00)", "body": "Picnic at Hanging Rock? Wow, quite a book and, according to my enthusiastic Mom, quite an Australian film, too (never seen it myself...)! Wish I could see it... OK, here\ufffds my list (but I\ufffdm only 18, I\ufffdm inclined to think that this is VERY temporary): 1.The Portrait of a Lady (Henry James)-I had a hard time accepting the ending, but it made me grow up a little. I love it for that. Ralph Touchett, the consumptive cousin, is someone I could fall in love with. 2.Jane Eyre...-I\ufffdve been more in love with this book than I am currently, but it\ufffds a helluva great novel and Rochester a helluva great man. ;-) 3.Fahrenheit (dear Lord, I can`t remember the number in the title, I always say just Fahrenheit---751?) by Ray Bradbury--very impressive writing. Loneliness is a theme that has always interested me. Books too. 4.Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)---can`t really explain. It helped me through a lot in my teenage years. Finally, a teenager I could identify with! 5.Victory (Joseph Conrad)--Alma and Heyst are two of my favourite lovers in Literature. Love almost without words... 6.The Hidden Flower (this is a direct translation of the Portuguese title, I don\ufffdt think it`s the right one) by Pearl Buck--culture clash, tender love story, sad ending. Great writing. 7.Villette-Charlotte Bronte. Lucy Snowe is wonderful. 8.Circle of Friends-Maeve Binchy. Simple writing, great human nature story. 9. Like Water for Chocolate-Laura Esquivel. Poetic, sad and happy at the same time. Interesting recipes. Magical quality to it. 10. Exodus-Leon Uris. Gave me a lot of inspiration and strength to face life. I read all of Jane Austen`s novels and the one that most impressed me was Sense and Sensibility, though it\ufffds not generally regarded as one of her best. I don\ufffdt care, I still loved it. It\ufffds not an essential book for me, though. None of her novels are (IMHO...)."}, {"response": 19, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Tue, Oct 21, 1997 (23:31)", "body": "Ooops. Forgot Dante Gabriele Rossetti. I'd chuck in Wilfred Owen too, I guess, and Cowper's \"The Castaway\" contains some of my most muttered lines. Forgot \"Possession\" by Byatt as well! Weird, weird theory - bearing in mind I've read none of the reviews and know nothing Byatt has said about it - but... did anyone think Browning when they read about Ash, and Christina Rossetti when they read about La Motte? I know you shouldn't read a book like that as a disguised bio-fiction, and obviously there are a lot of generic victorian traits in the characters, but it just struck me like that..."}, {"response": 20, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Oct 22, 1997 (01:55)", "body": "I'll work on an area here where we can \"parlons francais\", as you can see I need a lot of practice. Should it be a whole conference or just a topic somewhere, like in say \"cultures\" or \"travel\", existing underutilized conferences. Wow, I like these choices of top tens and they're giving me ideas for books to read. Keep these top ten lists comin'!"}, {"response": 21, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Oct 22, 1997 (22:49)", "body": "A propos le francais: I think incorporating it as a topic under \"cultures\" or \"travel\" is terrific. The thrust would just be conversational anyway, so either conference would suit. I know what you mean about these book lists, I feel totally illiterate reading them--they are sending me scurrying to the library!"}, {"response": 22, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (04:08)", "body": "What should we call the topic, toss out a French phrase for me to use and pick one of those conferences."}, {"response": 23, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (11:44)", "body": "A suggestion from the peanut gallery... Lassiez buon temps roulez! Nope I don't know French, just enjoyed my stay in N.O. My top ten lists change every few weeks so I don't recall if I've contributed. Not to play the spoiler but I couldn't get through Possession. I thought it dry and contrived. I do love Coehlo and Allende (unfortunately in translation only) \"BY the River Piedra, I Sat Down and Wept\" really affected me. I am affected! Luisa, your list was quite reminicent of mine at your age... that's what English Lit will do to you! *smile* And, although I too have read just about every J. Austen book published, consider few of her works \"necessary\" to my happy existance."}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (12:08)", "body": "Check out the austenarchive topic sometime stacey!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (14:28)", "body": "You could stick it in \"cultures\" and call it simply \"Parlez-vous francais?\" That's pretty open-ended. Stacey, have you ever been to the new Jane Austen site, pemberley.com? Just curious--they will chew you up and spit you out with an attitude like that! :)"}, {"response": 26, "author": "Luisa", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (19:04)", "body": "I go to Pemberley EVERYDAY and I`m proud to say: I\ufffdM STILL HERE! (He, he, he) :D"}, {"response": 27, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (20:49)", "body": "Stacey, I understand what you mean about \"Possession\" being a bit contrived. It's probably one of the reasons why it wouldn't make my top ten. If you can suspend your disbelief to that degree, however, it is quite delightful. The evocation of an age I found fascinating, although not as good as Fowles's \"The French Lietenant's Woman\". What really struck a chord with me, probably because I was doing my honours in English Lit at the time, was its portrayal of the academic world. Its manueverings, in-fighting, treatment by some of knowledge as a comodity, and depiction of the conflicts between different schools of literary criticism was spot on."}, {"response": 28, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Oct 24, 1997 (16:05)", "body": "I agree. I throughly enjoyed TFLW and I think state of mind as you begin a book plays a great part into what you get out of it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez I had to read twice before I was hooked. The surreal nature of his works offended me initially and eventually it is what I have come to enjoy most about his writing."}, {"response": 29, "author": "Luisa", "date": "Sat, Oct 25, 1997 (06:41)", "body": "I kinda forgot about one book that I`ve read more than once and that I still love: The Diary of Anne Frank. I\ufffdm glad we can return here as much as we want and correct our mistakes... ;-)"}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Sat, Oct 25, 1997 (10:02)", "body": "Absolutely, we're in constant flux and revision here."}, {"response": 31, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Sun, Oct 26, 1997 (21:34)", "body": "Does that open it up to non-fic? Another top ten coming on: \"Emily Bronte: Heretic\" Stevie Davis \"The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln\" \"Vita Nuova\" Dante \"The Death of Forever\" \"The Diary of Anne Frank\" \"Lincoln at Gettysburg\" \"The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal\" \"The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn\" \"Jerusalems Lost\" Bob Ellis \"Abraham Lincoln\" Carl Sanburg How slack am I that I cant even remeber half the authors when I'm away from the bookshelves? Can I do plays too, or are you all thouroughly sick of me? \"The Civil War\" Shelby Foote"}, {"response": 32, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (09:50)", "body": "Not at all, Elena, keep those lists coming!"}, {"response": 33, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (11:11)", "body": "One of my favorite plays... \"Burn This\" by (uh oh) tell you tomorrow."}, {"response": 34, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (11:44)", "body": "Samuel Beckett?"}, {"response": 35, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (14:12)", "body": "Ooh, I loved \"Waiting for Godot\" but don't know his \"Burn This.\" Anything by Moliere would top my list (The Would-Be Invalid, The Misanthrope, etc. etc.), as well as Ionesco's \"Rhinoceros\" and \"The King is Dying\". Sartre's \"No exit\" and \"The Flies\" are up there, too."}, {"response": 36, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Mon, Oct 27, 1997 (16:41)", "body": "Bravo to \"No Exit\" and the Lincoln writings!!! I haven't yet figured out how to remember the authors myself long enough to do this, which is why I haven't posted lately. But plays I can remember! \"Moon for the Misbegotten\" by Eugene O'Neill; \"Arcadia\" by Tom Stoppard; \"The Time of Your Life\" by Saroyan. Oh, I'm probably a little lowbrow for this esteemed group, but let's add \"A Thousand Clowns\" and \"Romantic Comedy\" to the list (though the author's names escape me at the moment). I enjoy seeing everyone's favorites and being shamed into reading more."}, {"response": 37, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Tue, Oct 28, 1997 (02:18)", "body": "Forgot to include anything by Virginia Woolf! Am I being just too conventional if I say I enjoyed \"The Voyage Out\" as much as \"The Lighthouse\"?"}, {"response": 38, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 1997 (03:04)", "body": "Nonfiction: 1. Abraham Lincoln (Carl Sandburg) 2. Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Plutarch) 3. Robert the Bruce (Ronald McNair Scott) 4. Robert Kennedy and His Times (Arthur Schlesinger) 5. A Thousand Days (Arthur Schlesinger) 6. Personal Memoirs (U.S.Grant, as told to Mark Twain- probably) 7. Gallic Wars (Julius Caesar) 8. Plain Speaking (Harry Truman, as told to Merle Miller) 9. Miracle in Philadelphia (Eliz. Drinker Bowen) 10.King Arthur (Norma Lorre Goodrich) Hon. Ment. to: Clarence Darrow (Irving Stone); Adversary in the House (Irving Stone); Annals of Imperial Rome (Tacitus); The Making of the President 1960 (Teddy White); Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye (Dave Powers/ Ken O'Donnell)"}, {"response": 39, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Wed, Oct 29, 1997 (22:20)", "body": "I went through the six volumes of Sandburg's Lincoln bio in under a week - I lived those books when I was reading them! Like some reviewer once said, it's hardly biography - to read those books is to walk with Lincoln. Trust a poet to get it right. Huge, huge mistake - I didn't include Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen's) \"Out of Africa\" and \"Shadows on the Grass\""}, {"response": 40, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Oct 30, 1997 (02:23)", "body": "Sandburg's Lincoln may very well have been my most enjoyable read- and read it in much the same way, a book a day- and was terribly depressed and disappointed when it came to an end. In fact, when I saw the category listed \"the book you couldn't put down\", this is the book which came instantly to my mind. Have read just about everything written about Lincoln, but none were nearly as fine (did enjoy Gore Vidal's \"Lincoln\" immensely, but it's really not nonfiction, is it?). It was, indeed, like walking wi h the man himself..."}, {"response": 41, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Tue, Nov  4, 1997 (01:45)", "body": "Aaagghh. Can't believe I forgot Vidal's \"Lincoln\"! You're absolutely right - that book is so close to reality (far more so than the dozens of purported bios I've read) that it almost classifies as non-fiction."}, {"response": 42, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Thu, Nov  6, 1997 (18:38)", "body": "How interesting that there are so many Lincoln fans out there. Terry, is it time for a new conference? Has anyone heard of a book (or read) \"The Shadows Rise: Abraham Lincoln & the Anne Rutledge Legends\"? I asked for it for about three Christmases in a row, but no one could find it. I think it was from a small university press (probably in Illinois)."}, {"response": 43, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Nov  6, 1997 (18:51)", "body": "Is this a scholarly book? What is the substance of it? And some different history conferences would be cool, if there's any interest..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "nomad", "date": "Thu, Nov  6, 1997 (19:52)", "body": "Favorite 10 books in no particular order Plutarchs Lives Alexander by Arrian Vanity Fair by Thackery Three Musketeers by Dumas Persuasion by Austen Jane Eyre by Bronte Wuthering Heights by Bronte Prince and the Pauper by Twain Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by Bachman (King) All the Vampire Chronicles by Rice These are 10 I will read again and again so I guess that makes them favorites. I also love Poe and will read him over and over again. This was tough. Should be your top 100.(totally impractical but easier) :-)"}, {"response": 45, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Fri, Nov  7, 1997 (01:37)", "body": "There is certainly - ABSOLUTELY - interest in a Lincoln conference from this particular quarter...and I'm an Australian!"}, {"response": 46, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov  7, 1997 (08:05)", "body": "We could start one. More details, Elena the Aussie!"}, {"response": 47, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Fri, Nov  7, 1997 (15:52)", "body": "History conferences? with threads for different time periods? Or historical personalities? For Lincoln, at least, we could have threads on a number of topics. But it seems to me that perhaps he should be part of a U.S. Civil war conference, and that could bring in other topics of interest. But I'm open to what works and brings in other interested and interesting posters. Anyone else?"}, {"response": 48, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov  7, 1997 (17:10)", "body": "Let me know when you all finally decide and I'll create it for you."}, {"response": 49, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Mon, Nov 10, 1997 (23:33)", "body": "Yep, history conferences. The Civil War sounds like as good a place to start as any! That's my vote cast."}, {"response": 50, "author": "didi", "date": "Wed, Dec  3, 1997 (18:39)", "body": "Mine: 1) Catcher in The Rye :JD Salinger. Just love the ramblings of a mad man as much as the next person. 2) The Color Purple : Alice Walker. The film does it no justice. 3) To Kill a Mocking Bird : Can't remember author. Top bloke though. 4) Hamlet : Bill Shakespeare. Not a book as such but action packed and going for it!! What did anyone think of Kenneth Brannagh's adaptation? 5) Hooligan Summer: ?. Great teen-read. 6) Of mice and men:Steinbeck. Forced to read this at school and was actually physically moved by the end (won't ruin it.) 7) The Scarecrows:Robert Westall. 8) Great Expectations:Charles Dickens 9) Beginners guide to Freud. Much needy text for degree level psychology. 10) The Lady of Shalott:Tennyson. Strictly speaking not a book but why bind ourselves to certain areas of literary. Its actually really hard to do this but makes you realise that you haven't read enough. Guilt setting in."}, {"response": 51, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Wed, Dec  3, 1997 (18:50)", "body": "Here's mine. I'm not entirely sure about the order, but here we go... 1) Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov. Great adventure story and an excellent intro to the wonderful Foundation series itself. 2) Virtual Community, Howard Rheingold. A seminal book, and a must-read for all net-heads! 3) I have a complaint to make, Guy Bellamy. A great book about a neurotic twenty-something in England. Quote: \"Well, any fool can go to work! Surviving without it is a much more subtle manoeuvre.\" *grin* 4) Green Mars, K.S. Robinson. A great study of martian life and society. Read it for the \"scenery\", read it for the sci-fi, or read it for the cultural message - three books in one! 5) Blue Mars, K.S. Robinson - as above! 6) The Nudists, Guy Bellamy. Sex, relationships and intrigue - and extremely funny! 7) 2010, Arthur C. Clarke. Butchered by the Hollywood film makers, the book is wonderful! 8) 2001, Arthur C. Clarke. Read the book, then use it to decipher the film :) 9) Immediate Action, Andy McNab. The story of one cockney chap's life in the British Special Forces. 10) Goodbye doesn't mean forever. Probably one of the most moving books I've ever read. One teenage girl's struggle against cancer, and how she and her closest friend cope with it. I was moved to tears repeatedly."}, {"response": 52, "author": "Rochelle", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 1997 (02:07)", "body": "Re \"To Kill a Mockingbird\" - it was Harper Lee, wasn't it? And I might be completely off-base, but wasn't Lee a woman? Re \"Blue Mars\" - I made my little brother's day by waiting around half a day at a s/f bookshop to get a copy of \"Red Mars\" signed by Robinson for him (we don't get that many s/f writers visiting here in Sydney). Then I managed to \"accidently\" pick up and purchase a media release copy of \"Blue Mars\" that had been left on a counter a month before the general release date...that went down remarkable well..."}, {"response": 53, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 1997 (12:14)", "body": "Harper Lee is indeed a woman, and if my memory serves me right, she was in her early twenties when she wrote \"Mockingbird\" (first novel too)."}, {"response": 54, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Thu, Dec  4, 1997 (16:44)", "body": "I can't say that I enjoyed Red Mars as much as I did Green/Blue. All three together make an interesting set though!!! I've never read Mockingbird, but maybe I should..."}, {"response": 56, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Sun, Dec  7, 1997 (07:33)", "body": "Definitely Othello! I saw a movie version of it a few years ago, which really opened my eyes to Shakespeare. I can't actually *read* Shakespeare any more - I have to see it, something which I don't get much time for :( I'm desperately trying to find a copy of Brave New World. Nowhere in Brighton seems to want to sell me a second-hand copy (people must be holding on to it!), so I guess I'll have to buy a new one."}, {"response": 57, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Dec  8, 1997 (14:12)", "body": "Don't they have it at your library? In our system, it's kept in the \"young adult reading list\" section--it's a classic! I'm afraid I wasn't familiar with most of your picks, wer, but I have to say I found Hawthorne's \"Scarlet Letter\" a big snooze."}, {"response": 58, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Dec  8, 1997 (14:46)", "body": "Our library? I doubt it, although I'll admit I haven't looked. It's such a hassle just to try and find a book, and generally they're not on the shelves anyway....such is the state of our college :/"}, {"response": 59, "author": "Charlotte", "date": "Mon, Dec  8, 1997 (15:13)", "body": "WER, You might try http://www.amazon.com . I find their prices consistently lower than bookstores, and you cannot beat the convenience."}, {"response": 60, "author": "mikeg", "date": "Mon, Dec  8, 1997 (17:49)", "body": "Well, rather the point was that I don't want to spend the ridiculous price that new books cost - I'd like to read Brave New World, but I don't intend to pay 8 or 9 pounds (erm...$1.6 = \ufffd1.00 - you do the math :) for the priviledge, especially as there's a good chance I'll hate it :) But thanks for the suggestion anyway :)"}, {"response": 61, "author": "MichaelMullen", "date": "Tue, Jan  6, 1998 (21:51)", "body": "This topic is too good to pass up, but immediately induces a crisis. Here goes... 1. Tom Jones -- Fielding is so funny and Tom is such a mess. 2. War & Peace -- Because of Pierre, especially when Moscow burns 3. Little Dorrit -- Standing in for all of Dickens. This is my favorite ... so gloomy yet so funny. 4. The Brothers Karamazov -- Take turns sympathizing with all of the characters, even the bad ones! 5. Pride & Prejudice -- Standing in for all of Austen. Hard to choose between this one & Emma 6. Moll Flanders -- Standing in for all of Defoe. Remember: Be very careful when trying to steal a feather bed from a burning house. 7. Evelina (Fanny Burney) -- Okay I'm stuck on the 18th century, but I don't know anyone who can put this down once started 8. Three Lives (Gertrude Stein) -- I think Stein is screamingly funny, too, if you have the patience for her. The Good Anna in 3 Lives talks just like my Grandmother did. 9. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (LaClos) -- Irresistible. 10. Gemini (or Les Meteores) by Michel Tournier. I'm forgetting tons, but I needed to put in something contemporary. O.K. I'm done, even though I feel disloyal to countless others. Wah!"}, {"response": 62, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Tue, Jan  6, 1998 (22:10)", "body": "On your #9, bet the book was much better than the movie and those attempts to duplicate it (i.e., Valmont, and The End of Innocence-think that's the name- had Winona Ryder in it)"}, {"response": 63, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (13:31)", "body": "Yeah, I never bought Winona as May Archer in \"Age of Innocence\" (which is in my top 10, by the way), though Michele Pfeiffer as Ellen seemed appropriate. I need to revise my list--I left out my beloved \"Confederacy of Dunces\" by John Kennedy O'Toole. Guess I'll have to bump Kate Chopin's \"The Awakening.\""}, {"response": 64, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Jan  7, 1998 (22:25)", "body": "No, Chopin's Awakening was soooo good (although I didn't like the ending). Have to add Mark Twain's Diary of Adam and Eve and just about everything Charles Dickens wrote. And Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. But please don't make me put 'em in order!"}, {"response": 65, "author": "MichaelMullen", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (16:32)", "body": "I haven't seen any of the movies of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, just read the Penguin English translation. It's wildly good. I can imagine it making a good movie, but I can't imagine a movie being as twisted and scintillating as the book, which is entirely in letters between the characters. Check it out!"}, {"response": 66, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (20:56)", "body": "oh, I bet that's good........"}, {"response": 67, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (22:21)", "body": "Another one for the must-read list! Since I've seen the film, I'll just read the letters whilst picturing Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz and John Malchovic (firth! firth!)"}, {"response": 68, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Thu, Jan  8, 1998 (22:23)", "body": "Ooh, John Malcovich (sorry david, but john's right up there). I don't care what type of character he plays, that guy's sexy...........(firth, oh god, am making a mess!)"}, {"response": 69, "author": "niteslyr", "date": "Fri, Jan  9, 1998 (08:14)", "body": "here I go with my list: 10) Dragonlance Legends trilogy -- memorable quotes abound in here 9) Jane Eyre 8) The Moon and Sixpence 7) Anna Karenina 6) Wuthering Heights 5) The Time Machine 4) Spring Torrents 3) Ender's Game (although it got weird at the end. =) 2) Beloved 1) The Westing Game (a very fast read) Well, that's about it!"}, {"response": 70, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jan  9, 1998 (11:51)", "body": "What's Spring Torrents? Who's the author? What's it about?"}, {"response": 71, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Jan 10, 1998 (17:05)", "body": "Ditto for selections 1-3."}, {"response": 72, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Sun, Feb 22, 1998 (10:49)", "body": "In no particular order: Moby Dick The Three Musketeers Les Miserables Parting the Waters (a history of the Civil Rights Movement) A Canticle for Leibowitz Shakespeare's Collected Works (is that cheating?) Shatterday The Chronicles of Narnia Fahrenheit 451 Ender's Game"}, {"response": 73, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Feb 23, 1998 (19:09)", "body": "I think we've said before that anthologies are OK to count as one. What is \"Shatterday\" about and who wrote it, Adam?"}, {"response": 74, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Tue, Feb 24, 1998 (00:26)", "body": "Shatterday is a collection of short stories and essays by Harlan Ellison. They range from the humorous to the marrow chilling, all of them incredibly rich in language and meaning. Ellison is perhaps my favorite author, and I like his essays even more than his fiction. Ellison started his career writing SF and screenplays, but has gained more critical acceptance (for what that's worth), and I would recommend his work to anyone that loves to read. His fiction style is very much like that of Borges or Ma quez - I think the term is \"magic realism\". His essays are kind of like an intellectual kick in the crotch with a splash of spice - they really challenge your preconceptions and force you to think."}, {"response": 75, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Tue, Feb 24, 1998 (00:30)", "body": "BTW, there was a discussion earlier in this thread of \"Les Liasons Dangerouses\" (sp?) Have any of you seen \"Valmont\"? It came out at about the same time as \"Dangerous Liasons\". It was directed by Milos Forman, and it also does _not_ have Keanu Reeves in it, two points in its favor."}, {"response": 76, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Feb 24, 1998 (00:35)", "body": "I remember reading \"I have no mouth and I must scream\" where the last man on earth is kept alive by a computer as payback to the human race. I forget which anthology it was in, though."}, {"response": 77, "author": "terry", "date": "Tue, Feb 24, 1998 (00:35)", "body": "Ok to enter this response? y Warning: a comment slipped in ahead of yours at 75! This has happened to me twice tonight, I don't know if I can handle to shock!"}, {"response": 78, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Tue, Feb 24, 1998 (22:56)", "body": "\"I have no mouth...\" is in the anthology of the same name. That story gives me the heebie-jeebies, priamrily due to some of the creepy images Ellison gives us. I bought the CD-rom game of the story - it's a very disturbing \"game\" - there is, quite simply, no way to win."}, {"response": 79, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (00:15)", "body": "Kind of like life sometimes?"}, {"response": 81, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (20:59)", "body": "for some people!"}, {"response": 82, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (20:59)", "body": "Have not read \"Valmont\"--same author as \"Liaisons\"?"}, {"response": 83, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (21:02)", "body": "think valmont was a spin off of liasons. at least the storyline is the same. valmont has the now infamous (at least here) colin firth, hence all the firthing..."}, {"response": 84, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (21:50)", "body": "Are you joshing me??"}, {"response": 85, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (22:17)", "body": "would i do that? *grin*"}, {"response": 86, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (22:45)", "body": "Hmmm...guess I'll have to rent it and see for myself (firth, firth)!"}, {"response": 87, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (22:50)", "body": "dunno, i prefer john malkovich as the viscount.....droooling!"}, {"response": 88, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (22:51)", "body": "or the marques de valmont, or whatever the title was *grin*"}, {"response": 89, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (22:59)", "body": "Marquis, viscount, whatever! Am picturing it too....mmmm...."}, {"response": 90, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (23:00)", "body": "Uh oh, wolf is drooling..."}, {"response": 91, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Feb 25, 1998 (23:00)", "body": "slipage!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Thu, Feb 26, 1998 (00:03)", "body": "Yes, both \"Valmont\" and \"Dangerous Liasons\" are based on the same book. \"Dangerous Liasons\" is an attempt to present an adaptation of the play on the big screen, while \"Valmont\" is direct from the novel to the screen. I preferred \"Valmont\", but I don't have a thing for John Malkovich, although I can't wait to see him in \"The Man in the Iron Mask\" w/ Gerard Depardieu."}, {"response": 93, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Feb 27, 1998 (22:37)", "body": "Can't wait to read your review in the movie conference!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sat, Feb 28, 1998 (22:27)", "body": "I can't wait to see that one either, Adam. Thanks for clearing of the liasons/ valmont connection. don't really know which one of them i liked the best. would prefer to read the book, although haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm with Autumn, can't wait to read your review. A lot of good actors in that one, too.....and I adore Gerard Depardieu (but only saw him in Green Card)..."}, {"response": 95, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (12:30)", "body": "Ooooh. Green Card. That could have been an excellent movie, if it didn't star the nauseatingly bad female Keanu Reeves, Andie McDowell. For Depardieu fans, I highly recommend \"Cyrano de Bergerac\" - especially if you like swashbuckling and poetry. Back to books, however, my wife and I are currently reading \"Les Miserables\" aloud to each other. I think the abridged version might have been a better idea... so far, we're about 100 pages into it, and all we know is that the Bishop of Digne is a really, really nice guy... I had forgotten all the exposition since I read it several years ago."}, {"response": 96, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (12:42)", "body": "that's great that you share reading. don't think i could ever convince my hubby to do that. of course, his interests art a little different from mine. speaking of keanu, i liked him in a walk among the clouds, his voice wasn't so monotonous. he's nice to look at if he keeps his mouth closed *laugh*"}, {"response": 97, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (20:36)", "body": "Now, now, I kind of like Andie, though she does border on saccharine sometimes."}, {"response": 98, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (21:18)", "body": "My all-time favorite Depardieu film is \"Jean de Fleurette\"--get this in the foreign section of your video store, Wolf! You won't be sorry! Adam, I hope you and your wife save the passages about the glass industry from \"Les Mis\" for bedtime. I can't think of a better sedative! (By the way, I am insanely jealous of you two!)"}, {"response": 99, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (09:00)", "body": "We started this while my wife was pregnant with our son, as a way to relax us both before bedtime and wind down the day. Our first book was _The Hobbit_, followed by _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_. I'm pushing for _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ next, but we'll have to see about that."}, {"response": 101, "author": "EmpZoltar", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (06:41)", "body": "You know, I didn't dig that one as much as some others he wrote. I think some of my favorite RAH novels are his \"juveniles\" - _Have Spacesuit...._, _Starship Troopers_, etc, but for some reason, I really love TMIAHM. Most of Heinlein's later stuff suffered from the same problem Stephen King's more recent works do - they are too cluttered."}, {"response": 102, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:30)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer )"}, {"response": 103, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (10:06)", "body": "Doug, quit. This topic is about the top ten books of all time. We have a shameless self promotion topic in the porch conference."}, {"response": 104, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (10:09)", "body": "It's topic 27 in porch."}, {"response": 105, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (22:49)", "body": "sorry"}, {"response": 106, "author": "SKAT", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (09:57)", "body": "This is probably the most difficult topic somebody has come up here! I'll have to have a go too, though I cannot remember all the names of the authors that wrote the books that most impressed me. Hope they'll forgive me. 1. Wuthering Heights (E. Bront\ufffd), together with Jane Eyre (C. Bront\ufffd): reasons will be obvious to anyone who has read these books. 2. Poor things: can't remember who wrote it, but I found it weird and wonderful, especially the bits where the doctor sews black bunny heads onto white bunny bodies, and vice versa! 3. The picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde): because it scared the hell out of me!! 4. Jeeves and Wooster books (P.G. Woodhouse): because they're great fun! 5. Dracula (B. Stoker): because I ADORE scary books. 6. The Prince (N. Machiavelli): another scary one. 7. Confessions of a justified sinner (James Hogg): SCARY! 8. Jekyll and Hyde . . . OF COURSE!!!! 9. The name of the Rose (Umberto Eco): gripping stuff. 10. Of mice and men. I have a confession to make: I don't like Shakesspeare."}, {"response": 107, "author": "SKAT", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (09:59)", "body": "This is probably the most difficult topic somebody has come up here! I'll have to have a go too, though I cannot remember all the names of the authors that wrote the books that most impressed me. Hope they'll forgive me. 1. Wuthering Heights (E. Bront\ufffd), together with Jane Eyre (C. Bront\ufffd): reasons will be obvious to anyone who has read these books. 2. Poor things: can't remember who wrote it, but I found it weird and wonderful, especially the bits where the doctor sews black bunny heads onto white bunny bodies, and vice versa! 3. The picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde): because it scared the hell out of me!! 4. Jeeves and Wooster books (P.G. Woodhouse): because they're great fun! 5. Dracula (B. Stoker): because I ADORE scary books. 6. The Prince (N. Machiavelli): another scary one. 7. Confessions of a justified sinner (James Hogg): SCARY! 8. Jekyll and Hyde . . . OF COURSE!!!! 9. The name of the Rose (Umberto Eco): gripping stuff. 10. Of mice and men. 11. LOLITA!! Wonderfully perverse, and the first paragraph is the best beginning I have ever read in a book. I have a confession to make: I don't like Shakesspeare."}, {"response": 108, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, May  8, 1998 (18:48)", "body": "Wow, you really like scary stuff! \"Lolita\" was the scariest of them all, I thought...BTW I hate Shakespeare."}, {"response": 109, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, May  9, 1998 (00:34)", "body": "Othello and Hamlet were my favorites of Shakespeare..."}, {"response": 110, "author": "riette", "date": "Thu, Jun  4, 1998 (07:54)", "body": "You also don't like Shakespeare, Autumn? Thank God, I thought I was a Philistyne! I don't like him, 'cos he's such an old put-on! Nobody talks like that, no way!! Not even back then. Not unless you want your tongue tied in hundreds of little akward knots. I mean, the blood and gore simply don't make up for it!"}, {"response": 111, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jun  5, 1998 (22:24)", "body": "My thoughts exactly! But I think we're alone on this...maybe we should form a support group!"}, {"response": 112, "author": "riette", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (04:13)", "body": "To think I'm probably going to have to study the old bugger during the next few years!"}, {"response": 113, "author": "TIM", "date": "Wed, Nov 18, 1998 (06:10)", "body": "To thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night follows the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. Almost an exact quote. I find that it flows better with the extra word in there. You think shakespeare is rough. wait until you get to \"The Canterbury Tales\" in Middle English."}, {"response": 114, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Nov 19, 1998 (22:04)", "body": "The \"Canterbury Tales\" were at least amusing. There is a French equivalent which is quite entertaining."}, {"response": 115, "author": "jgross", "date": "Tue, Nov 24, 1998 (14:09)", "body": "I just had to read that in Middle French and did. But for some reason in the middle of the stories everybody'd be eating popcorn and talking about \"Catcher in the Rye\". Middle French, on a scale of 1 to 10, is probably a 5 (right in the middle) when it comes to comparing it to Middle English, far as reading difficulty goes."}, {"response": 116, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Nov 24, 1998 (21:17)", "body": "Tell me about it! I took an entire class on that, and my head was swimming the whole semester. There were 8 of us in this lit class and we had to speak in Middle French as well as read/write in it."}, {"response": 117, "author": "jgross", "date": "Wed, Nov 25, 1998 (10:39)", "body": "oh so it was one of those swimming classes, eh, Autumn? Towson (sp.?) State had a very advanced Physical Education Dept., I'd say. They could combine swimming with something the French dept. was willing to collaborate with them on. I mean, I now know why you went there. I'm signing up, too, if they have a swimming class that my whole body can swim in and not just my head.....and if the Film dept. collaborates on the design of the class."}, {"response": 118, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Nov 29, 1998 (20:50)", "body": "Come to think of it, for my gym credit I took aerobic swimming! In French! And the Film dept. at TSU does offer a class on French swimming film stars. :-)"}, {"response": 119, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Nov 29, 1998 (21:55)", "body": "lol!!!!"}, {"response": 120, "author": "TIM", "date": "Mon, Nov 30, 1998 (01:36)", "body": "What!!!! you mean they don't offer underwater basket weaving???"}, {"response": 121, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Tue, Feb 12, 2002 (06:56)", "body": "Hi all My top ten books would have to be: 1)Volcano cowboys - Dick Thompson 2)Rommel, Desert Fox - Desmond Young 3)Quake - Albert J. Alletzhauser 4)Star Wars, Rogue Squadron (No.1 of 8)- Michael A. Stackpole 5)Nimitz Class - Patrick Robinson 6)USS Seawolf - Patrick Robinson 7)Kilo Class - Patrick Robinson 8)The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William L. Shirer 9)Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer 10)Isards Revenge (No.8 of 8)- Michael A. Stackpole Rob"}, {"response": 122, "author": "AotearoaKiwi", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (05:46)", "body": "Hi all Here is why I like those books. Volcano cowboys: The true story of the United States Geological Survey at Mount St Helens, Nevado Del Ruiz (Colombia)and Pinatubo. It shows the problems they confronted dealing with their first real explosive volcano, Mount St Helens. With Nevado del Ruiz the shocking true story of Armero which was obliterated by the volcano and the loss of 23000 people. Finally at Pinatubo a story of triumph dealing with the second biggest of last century. Rommel, Desert Fox: The biography of one of Germanys best field commanders in World War 2, the charismatic and cunning Erwin Rommel. Quake: A very realistic and very SCARY account of a big earthquake hitting Tokyo. It is real because Tokyo is expecting a severe earthquake, and scary because the dark side of Japanese society is exposed. A reality test of the individual chapters, at the end confirms the facts. Star Wars, Rogue Squadron: The first science fiction novel in a series of 8 about the Rebellions best fighter squadron. This one deals with the rebirth of the most feared fighter squadron in the Star Wars galaxy. Nimitz Class: A US supercarrier vanishes in a nuclear explosion taking all on board with it. A Kilo Class submarine commanded by a fanatic is responsible. As political tensions mount a deadly chase to destroy the rogue sub begins. Kilo Class: China has ordered 10 of these submarines to block the Taiwan Strait, of which 3 have been delivered but the United States will not allow the rest to arrive. USS Seawolf: A special US submarine is hijacked in Chinese waters and the crew taken prisoner. On board is the Presidents son. When the crew is rescued, someone must take the blame for the sub being captured in this devastating tale of corruption. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: The story of the Third Reich and the role of the individuals who created something better remembered for its role in 12 of 20th Century's darkest years. Inside the Third Reich: The autobiography of Hitlers armaments minister who for a time was the most powerful man in Germany after Hitler himself. Isards Revenge: The final novel in the 8 piece saga that starts of with the rebirth of Rogue Squadron, the capture of Coruscant (heart of the Empire), a treachery trial, and ends when Ysanne Isard, a tyrant of unspeakable evil, dies. Rob"}, {"response": 123, "author": "AlFor", "date": "Mon, Feb 18, 2002 (20:40)", "body": "Top ten books of all time? Tough, but I'll try (I won't promise to put them in order): The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn - Sequel to The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer for which Twain was lambasted for using colloquial American language. As a reply to the critics, Twain took the roughest, dirtist, most low down character from Tom Sawyer and had him NARRATE the sequel! Huck Finn was superior to those he considered his superiors (he was a far better trickster than his idol Tom Sawyer, mainly because he was much more practical) and inferior to the only person in the book he considered to be his inferior, Jim. Chapter Fourteen ends with a paragraph which, if it were put to stand on its own, would be unconscionably racist; in the context of the chapter, however, it is the punch line of a massive joke and the joke is not on Jim but on Huck! From The Earth To The Moon and Round The Moon - These Jules Verne novels are best read one after the other. There are glaring inaccuracies, especially concerning the strucure of the Earth (this was before tectonic theory...) but Verne had most of the physics and a good part of the politics right. Verne could not have concieved of the Cold War, but he made the moon shot a symbol of American unity and greatness (in his version, a symbol of healing after the Civil War). Verne (and most Americans at the time) could not concieve of the U.S. Government putting up the massive amount of money required to go to the moon, so he had the planners raise funds throughout the world. Being French, and given to some national pride himself, Verne had a Frenchman suggest travel inside the cannonball. Verne predicted that there would be a battle between Texas and Florida for the launch site, that Florida would win (but not that the missions would be controlled from Texas; his flight was not controlled at all , and he put the cannon in the southernmost large town in Florida at the time: Tampa Town (right state, wrong coast...) Science fiction? To quote Huck Finn: \"Not by a considerable stretch!\" Animal Farm - Wonderful allegorical tale from George Orwell, his second-to-last novel shows him even gloomier than he was before the war when his outlook was already not a particularly rosy one. A children's story about the fultility of revolution in general and the death of the Socialist dream in particular. I knew I had to include either Animal Farm or Nineteen Eighty-Four here, but the latter was a bit too heavy-handed... A Tale Of Two Cities - A portrait of happiness in a bleak time. It is primarily the story of the Manette family, but the other characters, the deFarges, Jarvis Lorry, Jerry Cruncher and his family, Les Freres d'Evremonde, Barsard & Cly, and especially Sidney Carton paint a picture of the good and evil of the time. (I wish I could remember the name of Carton's employer...) All Quiet On The Western Front - NOT the Iliad by a long stretch! There are NO heroes here, just kids caught in a lethal situation with no way out for no real reason. Not John Wayne material, and beautiful for it. What Catch 22 should have been. Well, I can't think of any other real ones... I nearly came up with Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, but I couldn't justify any of them..."}, {"response": 124, "author": "jebcharleu", "date": "Sun, Sep  1, 2002 (04:55)", "body": "The Bible: particularly Mark, John, Jude, Ezekial, Isaiah, Song of Songs, Hebrews. Shakespeare: Lear, A Winter's Tale, As You Like It, Twelth Night Scarlet Letter and Twice Told Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, plus his journals. Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesin Henrik Ibsen: Peer Gynt, Enemy of the People, Hedda Gabler. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis Bernard Shaw: Heartbreak House, and Pygmailion. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Westing Game by Ellen Raskin I had a tough time picking only ten, so I made a rule: it had to be something I had read at least twice, and once fairly recently. Also like Jane Eyre, Don Juan by Lord Byron, The Moomintroll books, Madeline L'Engle's Time Trilogy, Dune, If On A Winter's Night a Traveler, In Watermelon Sugar, Howard's End, A Movable Feast, Bellefleur. Favorite prose stylists (apart from content), in this order: Jane Austen, Oliver Sacks, Daniel Dafoe, Hemmingway, Harold Bloom. Oliver Sacks may write the most beautiful prose of any living author. Daniel Dafoe taight me it's okay to write really long sentences, so long as theuy are clear. His sentences are beautiful. If you haven't read the Bible yet start with Ezekial. It reads like a dark science fiction fable-- darker and more bitter than you might expect the Bible to be. Or Song of Songs, which is the best and most beautiful erotic poetry ever written. Isaiah is sophisticated, uncomprimising, and full of joy. Mark is the story of Christ written in breathless haste, John is the story of Christ written by a dreamer. Through the Looking Glass-- what a mixture of wit, absurdity, and startlingly beautiful imagery. People in the sixties said Lewis Carroll owed his surreal imagery to psychedelic drugs, I think it's more likely that his genius for surreal imagery was the motive power behind a lot of sixties psychedlia. Lewis Carroll wrote one of my favorite single sentences in all literature: \"What kinds of insects do you rejoice in, where you come from?\" Alice meets a wasp, who asks her that question in a chapter that didn't make it into the final version, because John Tenniel said it was impossible to illustrate. I'm one of maybe twelve people who actually like David Lynch's film of Dune. I still remember seeing the televised Heartbreak House with Rex Harrison as Captain Shotover. I love that guy. Tough to imagine any actor coming along so perfectly suited to play Shaw characters. I had absorbed up a sense of the Hemingway persona from the culture without actually having read any Hemingway, and was surprised to find A Movable Feast so funny. I always imagined him as this grim, humourless character. Sometimes as I read A Movable Feast, it seems to me he is a little cruel to his friends, like Gertrude Stein and Fitzgerald. I heard Joyce Carol Oates give a talk once. She was very modest, funny, quiet, and self-deprecating. Afterward she signed books. I told her how much I loved Bellefleur. She thanked me, and said \"I want you to know that I worked very carefully on every sentence of that book.\""}, {"response": 125, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Sep  1, 2002 (17:01)", "body": "Wow! That's quite a list, jeb. You are dead-on in your descriptions. We don't have a lot of the same favorites, but I follow your reasonings. What are you reading now?"}, {"response": 126, "author": "jebcharleu", "date": "Fri, Sep  6, 2002 (17:53)", "body": "Thanks. I'm reading quite a lot now, but I guess I should put that under the \"What I'm reading right now\" topic."}, {"response": 127, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Sep  7, 2002 (16:24)", "body": "Aw, we don't stand on ceremony here."}, {"response": 128, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (05:26)", "body": "3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: What's not to love? A dashing, brooding older man, a plain but intellectual young woman, a spooky old house and a crazy lady in the attic! All the elements you need to make this classic story of love and loss completely unforgettable. I only regret that I waited until college to read it--don't make the same mistake--check out this book and others by the Bronte sisters today! from http://tln.lib.mi.us/~amutch/jen/top10.htm books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 7, "subject": "I'm looking for a book on ____________.", "response_count": 31, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "mich", "date": "Wed, Dec 11, 1996 (23:49)", "body": "I need something to help me understand the stock market. The ins & outs of buying and selling. Capital gains taxes and how to avoid them. When and how should one go about diversifying? I need a crash course. Mich"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 1996 (08:21)", "body": "Checkout http://www.direct-stock-market.com which is a site that I helped build. And follow the links to a conference here on the Spring. Try and make your questions a bit less generic. Clay knows stock markets."}, {"response": 3, "author": "mich", "date": "Thu, Dec 12, 1996 (17:46)", "body": "Generic? wow, I thought I was pretty specific. I guess I have more to learn than I thought. Thanks for the information."}, {"response": 4, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Oct 31, 1997 (02:40)", "body": "Finding birth parents. Got a friend at work that I'm attempting to help. Already gone and got stuff off of alt.adoption.searching (I think that's right) WER"}, {"response": 5, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:31)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer )"}, {"response": 6, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (10:36)", "body": "I'm still looking for anything on Boulder, Colorado's STP Family (late 60s/early 70s commune, perhaps more infamous than famous). ANY information or comment welcome!"}, {"response": 7, "author": "wolf", "date": "Mon, Aug  9, 1999 (20:49)", "body": "what is the STP Family???"}, {"response": 8, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (10:33)", "body": "I have little idea, only that they were like a commune of outcasts, heavy into drugs and with a certain proportion of Vietnam vets with psychological problems, which added to a curious mix, and many conflicts with society and the law. I learned about them in a documentaion about a coast-to-coast concert journey in late 60s, early 70s (NOT the Merry Panksters, though), where at one stop they showed up, which lead to a clash of cultures, resulting in some violence. On one side, the happy, easy hippy kids from middle class families, who can always go back (weed smokers), on the other hand people who have been kicked around and are now willing to escalate, because that's something they were trained to, and likely to, especially when on drugs (amphetamines). I would like to know more about this group - when they came together, how it ended. What happened inbetween. How public reactions were, what people say today. What music they liked, how they funded themselves. What the benefit and feeling was to be in this group, which seems to have been really tribal. You know, everybody writes about the memorable and nice things, the communities that worked (somehow), and good people. Nobody looks at the down-and-out, because they didn't contribute to an ideal, or to society... But didn't they? Isn't there perhaps something worthy to learn, even if only as \"How Not to\"-lesson? Maybe not acknowledging the dark sides of our Western societies is part of what causes so many problems... Maybe we need to learn more about things like this."}, {"response": 9, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Aug 10, 1999 (13:50)", "body": "maybe so..."}, {"response": 10, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Aug 18, 1999 (14:16)", "body": "never actually read a book on the STP Family... just stories and recollections from people around here..."}, {"response": 11, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Aug 22, 1999 (21:55)", "body": "am still totally clueless about who they were (are?)"}, {"response": 12, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (13:39)", "body": "Oh Stacey, perhaps you would like to help me with this? I look for ANY information and/or contacts, comments, sources,... Wolf, they were drop-outs from society, cast-aways, like hippies minus the flower power, love and peace stuff. At least that's what I heard. Maybe a bit like a communard biker gang, and different drugs than hippies, too. The very antithesis to happy loving-caring hippy communities, but a proper alternative to established society nonetheless."}, {"response": 13, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Aug 24, 1999 (16:22)", "body": "try this... (if you can't access it, I'll cut and paste some of it here... let me know... http://members.delphi.com/stpfamily/index.html"}, {"response": 14, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Aug 25, 1999 (16:56)", "body": "Thank you! Something about the murder case related to them - resolved decades later... http://www.boulderplanet.com/current/1998/040898/news/story1.html"}, {"response": 15, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (05:58)", "body": "The STP Family has found me."}, {"response": 16, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Sep 26, 1999 (22:38)", "body": "is this a good thing?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (13:49)", "body": "Gonna see. Fella mailed me, he from the fambly, okeh? So he tell me, see the website. Did that before, tell him, too. He tell me, he did websearch \"STP family\" and something in a conference system came up wid mah name innit. Thaz how he's found me. Perhaps fella write article?"}, {"response": 18, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (15:59)", "body": "or come to chop yer head off... like Ree-head's threatened me!"}, {"response": 19, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (17:51)", "body": "She say, write article fer ya, and then come chop head off?"}, {"response": 20, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (17:55)", "body": "Huh?"}, {"response": 21, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (18:26)", "body": "huh?"}, {"response": 22, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (18:33)", "body": "Well, like that chap told me, said, mebbe him write piece about da fambly. Riette say, she write sumpdin? Then chop-chop?"}, {"response": 23, "author": "stacey", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (18:35)", "body": "*laugh* I get it now..."}, {"response": 24, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Mon, Sep 27, 1999 (18:41)", "body": "As they always tell me, better late 'n never, eh what!"}, {"response": 25, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (17:08)", "body": "I was only away for a couple of weeks and already I don't know what the hell is going on around here!!"}, {"response": 26, "author": "wolf", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (17:21)", "body": "*laugh* welcome back autumn!"}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (17:31)", "body": "All hell's broken loose since you left, Autumn, and you've ridden out the storm!"}, {"response": 28, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (18:15)", "body": "Woo-hoo!! I'm baaaaack, bay-bee!!! (spoken in my best Austin Powers voice)"}, {"response": 29, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Oct  3, 1999 (19:12)", "body": "Wow, you got that Austin Powers lingo down, baybeeeee!"}, {"response": 30, "author": "1iguana", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (01:39)", "body": "I was friends with bishop (dead), LB, duffy, sal, gina (died of aids but had a decade clean before death - heard her at world convention 12-step program & exchanged letters for a while), knew deuty dawg (dead)& goldfinger but not friends. what I mean friends is that I didn't hang out or get fucked up with those 2. knew founder stp john a little, remember that day when he was killed & bishop avenged him, a very sad day for some of us. who wrote that shit about them & amphetamines? I was a boulder speed-freak but those guys did everything in the world BUT speed. did a lot of shit with those guys but never once shot speed with one of them & I knew all the other speedfreaks. spent time in boulder county jail at different times with wheatgerm, duffy, sal & little brother. whoever said about \"amphetamines\" never hung out or lived with them I garrantee you. they stayed in my attic rooms on 14th st. sometimes. they were the kind of people who you could trust your life with, to watch your back."}, {"response": 31, "author": "autumn", "date": "Mon, Sep 23, 2002 (17:22)", "body": "I am not familiar with that book... books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 8, "subject": "The newest, hottest, greatest books (up to the minute)", "response_count": 6, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:33)", "body": "Capitol-City A&E News Update Austin, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! Were looking for the Best writers in Austin! If you are an Austin writer and want to promote your book send us a copy for review and we will review it on our ALL NEW Capitol-City.Com BOOKSTORE Online! If you are an avid reader of local talent, please give us your opinion and we will post your review of your favorite Texas writers & books in the \"Reader's Great Book Picks\". Just say your piece and email back to this address: larue@capitol-city.com Check Out the Austin Readers Forums on Capitol City. You can find them directly from the menu or from a link inside the bookstore. We are also interested in profiling local visual artist, so if you are one, or know one, let us know. New Articles Now Available! Brook Mays Guitar Wars, preview up now, photos to come. I'll have Chris Mosser's Mo Music Musts Article updated by tomorrow. BANDS, ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS WE WANT TO TELL AUSTIN ABOUT YOU!! Send us info about you, your web sites, your cd's for review. We are here to talk about you so take advantage of our huge readership. send your press kits to: Capitol City A&E Magazine, 13492 Research Blvd., Ste. 120-143, Austin, Texas 78750-2254 Our Wonderful and Devoted Volunteer Staff: Rush Evans- ( Music Reviews, Austin Music History, Program Director at K-Eye Television ) Laura Rojo- Music Reviews, Photographer ( KLBJ Local Licks Live Photographer for 7 years ) Chris Mosser- ( Live Show Reviews, Disc Jockey at KLBJ-FM, member of the band ?Human? ) Marybeth Gradziel - ( seasoned veteran writer specializing in Arts & Folk Music ) Milos Fortunato - ( Award winning screenwriter and Fine Artist ) Doug La Rue (Me)- ( Award winning Artist and Photographer, Co-Publisher and Editor ) Paul Browder- (My business partner and Co-Owner of Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C.) George Shineldecker- ( Office Manager, mostly Pauls Browders office manager) JT Guerrero - ( Photographer )"}, {"response": 2, "author": "doug", "date": "Sun, Apr  5, 1998 (07:33)", "body": "http://www.capitol-city.com"}, {"response": 3, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Fri, Jul 24, 1998 (03:19)", "body": "CHILDREN'S BOOKS YOU'LL NEVER SEE These were from a Washington Post contest: \"You Were an Accident\" (Jean Sorensen, Herndon; Barry Blyveis, Columbia) \"Strangers Have the Best Candy\" (Stephen Dudzik, Silver Spring) \"The Little Sissy Who Snitched\" (Tom Witte, Gaithersburg) \"Some Kittens Can Fly!\" (David Genser, Arlington) \"The Protocols of the Grandpas of Zion\" (David Genser, Arlington) \"How to Dress Sexy for Grownups\" (Stephen Dudzik, Silver Spring) \"Getting More Chocolate on Your Face\" (Thomas Drucker, Carlisle, Pa.) \"Where Would You Like to Be Buried?\" (Barry Blyveis, Columbia) \"Where's Godot?\" (Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park) \"Katy Was So Bad Her Mom Stopped Loving Her\" (David Genser, Arlington) \"The Attention Deficit Disorder Association's Book of Wild Animals of North Amer- Hey! Let's Go Ride Our Bikes!\" (Meg Sullivan, Potomac) \"All Dogs Go to Hell\" (Joseph Romm, Washington) \"The Kids' Guide to Hitchhiking\" (Joseph Romm, Washington) \"When Mommy and Daddy Don't Know the Answer They Say God Did It\" (Barry Blyveis, Columbia) \"Garfield Gets Feline Leukemia\" (John Kammer, Herndon) \"What Is That Dog Doing to That Other Dog?\" (Kenneth Krattenmaker, Landover Hills) \"Why Can't Mr. Fork and Ms. Electrical Outlet Be Friends?\" (Martin Keutel, Alexandria) \"Bi-Curious George\" (Art Grinath, Takoma Park) \"Daddy Drinks Because You Cry\" (Stephen Dudzik, Silver Spring) \"Mister Policeman Eats His Service Revolver\" (Russ Beland, Springfield) \"You Are Different and That's Bad\" (Christopher Springfield)"}, {"response": 4, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Jul 24, 1998 (06:33)", "body": "Not ready for http://www.childrenstory.com !"}, {"response": 5, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jul 24, 1998 (22:02)", "body": "Someone emailed me that list, wer, wasn't it a scream? I forwarded it to all my friends w/kids."}, {"response": 6, "author": "cfadm", "date": "Sun, Jul  2, 2006 (05:28)", "body": "Kids Guide to Hitchhiking, that cracks me up. books conference Main Menu"}]}, {"num": 9, "subject": "The mystery quote - who said that in what book?", "response_count": 97, "posts": [{"response": 1, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Wed, Nov  6, 1996 (07:58)", "body": "\"That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.\" (Got this from my memory - I hope it's right. Anyway, you should guess it from this version, anyway...)"}, {"response": 2, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Nov 15, 1996 (08:50)", "body": "I'm stumped!"}, {"response": 3, "author": "Amy", "date": "Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (21:10)", "body": "\"That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.\" I have no clue. But all the double negatives have my head spinning like Anne Elliot's remark in Persuasion when she meets Capt Wentworth at the concert and they are talking about Louisa and Capt B. Something about not being overwhlemed. I know it must clever but I can never sort it out. It's like that \"Own Grandpaw\" song. Amy"}, {"response": 4, "author": "Mixu", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (03:01)", "body": "Okay, I'll relieve you from your pains. That quote was said by Marvin the Paranoid Android, referring to Tricia Maximillian, or Trillian for short in the 3rd book of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... It's someone else's turn..."}, {"response": 5, "author": "churchh", "date": "Mon, Dec  2, 1996 (13:37)", "body": "If this was Usenet, I would cross-post this to the Austen conference... Amy, do you mean this? -- \"I have hardly seen you since our day at Lyme. I am afraid you must have suffered from the shock, and the more from its not overpowering you at the time.\" She assured him that she had not. \"It was a frightful hour,\" said he, \"a frightful day!\" and he passed his hand across his eyes, as if the remembrance were still too painful, but in a moment, half smiling again, added, \"The day has produced some effects however; has had some consequences which must be considered as the very reverse of frightful. When you had the presence of mind to suggest that Benwick would be the properest person to fetch a surgeon, you could have little idea of his being eventually one of those most concerned in her r covery.\" \"Certainly I could have none. But it appears-- I should hope it would be a very happy match. There are on both sides good principles and good temper.\" \"Yes,\" said he, looking not exactly forward; \"but there, I think, ends the resemblance. With all my soul I wish them happy, and rejoice over every circumstance in favour of it. They have no difficulties to contend with at home, no opposition, no caprice, no delays. The Musgroves are behaving like themselves, most honourably and kindly, only anxious with true parental hearts to promote their daughter's comfort. All this is much, very much in favour of their happiness; more than perhaps--\" He stopped. A sudden recollection seemed to occur, and to give him some taste of that emotion which was reddening Anne's cheeks and fixing her eyes on the ground. What's the difficulty?"}, {"response": 6, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (08:32)", "body": "If you want, we could set up a topic that was cross posted to a usenet newsgroup. it's not trivial but it's near trivial. Since you can create conferences that have posts written to email all you would have to do is redirect the eamil to a usenet newsgroup."}, {"response": 7, "author": "Amy", "date": "Wed, Dec  4, 1996 (09:52)", "body": "] could set up a topic that was cross posted to a usenet newsgroup. ___ That's pretty cool. This Yapp thing, I knew it had some gems."}, {"response": 8, "author": "churchh", "date": "Thu, Dec  5, 1996 (13:55)", "body": ""}, {"response": 9, "author": "Carolineevans", "date": "Mon, Jan 27, 1997 (20:33)", "body": "Henry, that's the most enigmatic quote ever! Mixu, yours gave me a terrible pain in the diodes. All down my left side. Now, who said this:- The worlds second-best science -fiction writer dedicates this book to the world's second-best science writer.(That's from memory, but you get the gist.)"}, {"response": 10, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Tue, Apr  8, 1997 (14:34)", "body": "In an obscure graveyard in the New York City borough of Queens lie the bones of Scott Joplin, dead for more than half a century, hopelessly insane. Hint: it's from a textbook. Sorry, I just couldn't resist, it's one of my favorite lines; something about the thought of those hopelessly insane bones just tickles my fancy (or am I the only strict grammarian?). Plus you can re-word it any old way: In an obscure dance hall in the capitol city of Austin dance the bones of (name here), alone for more than h lf an evening, hopelessly unattractive."}, {"response": 11, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Wed, Apr  9, 1997 (12:28)", "body": "And now I will continue to barge in where I'm not really invited and take this in another direction (can you tell I'm on our better computer by the way this wraps iteself around?): I'm stumped and I need some help and worse still, the quote's not even from a book, it's from possibly the Chronicle from the early 80s. The author described following a car up I35 that had its parking lights on (ok my grammar ain't so hot today); she then analogized this to \"tooling down the intellectual freeways of life wit my turn signal on.\" I just adore that phrase but wish I had the context. Ok, one more then I'll leave you alone (actually, I suspect that I'M the one who's alone here!): again, the chronicle or some such rag, early 80s, and I'm thinking Marion Winik--no quote exactly, just a hilarious article about The Minstrel Show in which women are forced to don tight tap shows and dance dance dance. Thank you and goodnight."}, {"response": 12, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Wed, Apr  9, 1997 (12:28)", "body": "of course what I meant to say was \"tight tap SHOES\"!!!"}, {"response": 13, "author": "terry", "date": "Wed, Apr  9, 1997 (21:10)", "body": "I've heard of Marion Winik. What else do you know about her?"}, {"response": 14, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 1997 (15:04)", "body": "Too much: when I first read her stuff in Austin I just thought she was damned funny in exactly the way I'd like to be should my writing career ever come to pass. Now I know that she was married to a drug addict (heroin, I think) who got AIDS but she went ahead and had a kid with him (she or they already had one)--I may be getting some of the facts a little skewed, but that's the basic picture. I was astonished when I read how serious her life has been. Now she's raising the kids alone in Austin as far as I know; she has a book or two out. I like the way this topic suddenly got linked to Austin--it was a delightful surprise to see it pop up on my list here!"}, {"response": 15, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 1997 (15:16)", "body": "OK, reality check here--I decided that before feeding you any more half-truths I would take my pal terry's advice (I'd put a smiley face with frowny sarcastic eyebrows here but my computer raps my knuckles every time I get coy) and head on over to Amazon.com for the true scoop and sure enough, about the only thing I got right was that her husband died of AIDS. Actually (as related in her fabulous best-seller First Loves) he was GAY, they fell in love, SHE was the heroin hound, they had 2 kids together, t eir life was horrifically bumpy, then she assisted him in his suicide. Wow! Really packs a wallop, eh."}, {"response": 16, "author": "terry", "date": "Fri, Apr 11, 1997 (20:53)", "body": "Really, that's some story. Think we can get her talking here?"}, {"response": 17, "author": "aubrey", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 1997 (08:59)", "body": "I'll look her up and see if she has e-mail or a web page or something--have you ever gotten a famous person to chat? other than me, of course (hey! I was on tv as a kid!). I think she'd be extrememly interesting--her writing style is fantastic and funny."}, {"response": 18, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Apr 14, 1997 (23:26)", "body": "Definitely worth a try."}, {"response": 19, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (12:01)", "body": "Not sure this is the right place but do you know those car commercials that quote 'somethig wicked this way comes'? it is driving me nuts!! where does it come from?"}, {"response": 20, "author": "LorieS", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (12:18)", "body": "I'll second that. I thought it was Shakespeare, Kay, but can't figure out which play. Hope someone out here is brighter than I am and knows the answer."}, {"response": 21, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (12:27)", "body": "it's from \"macbeth\"...(the 3 witches)... \"by the pricking of my thumb something wicked this way comes...\" (was also a hell of a good book, by ray bradbury)"}, {"response": 22, "author": "kay", "date": "Tue, Jan 20, 1998 (17:02)", "body": "Thanks. I'll let everyone here know. Shows how well i sometimes pay attention, i've read macbeth, though not for years. Maybe its time to read it again. About the Ray bradbury, just looked on the shelf and there it is. Haf ta read it too. thanks again."}, {"response": 23, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (09:40)", "body": "OK... I got one. Who said \"...it's not any tougher in Washington (dc) than it is in Waco.\""}, {"response": 24, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (09:54)", "body": "Janet Reno?"}, {"response": 25, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (09:57)", "body": "You got me on the book."}, {"response": 26, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (19:30)", "body": "Nope... it's a quote of Ann Richards to Molly Ivans (in the book She Can't Say That, Can She) after giving the keynote at the democratic convention."}, {"response": 27, "author": "terry", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (19:37)", "body": "Now that you mention it, I remember Ann saying that. I knew it rang familiar. Molly is cool, I talked to her once about coming on the Spring but she said she was taking it in \"baby steps\" on the net. This was a while ago."}, {"response": 28, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (22:03)", "body": "I say ask her again...this is a very 'user friendly' place. Just give her a psuedonym so she doesn't get bugged all the time."}, {"response": 29, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sun, Mar  1, 1998 (22:55)", "body": "molly on the spring would be extremely cool... my absolute favorite contemporary political writer... not sure a pseudonym could disguise her wit, however..."}, {"response": 30, "author": "terry", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (00:14)", "body": "Molly Ivins, Honkytonk Sweetheart (and friends) will be appearing on March 21, at the Cactus Cafe on the UT campus. One set only at 11:15 pm. Kathi Kamen Goldmark, kkg@well.com, will be the backup singer with the big hair - well, one of 'em anyway. This is part of SXSW, so Kathi has no control over guest list or anything like that, but she thinks locals can get wristbands that get us into all the sxsw clubs. I think that we can."}, {"response": 31, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Mon, Mar  2, 1998 (06:51)", "body": "Oh man! What a time to be stuck in New England! A video tape of this event sent to my home would be greatly appreciated. I'd offer to have the senders child, but we really don't want to go there...."}, {"response": 33, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (12:33)", "body": "OK... I have another one. \"I see elegance and beauty in every female athlete. I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace.\" ...tick, tick, tick...."}, {"response": 34, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (12:55)", "body": "Wilma Rudolph? Jackie Joyner-Kersey? You know it has to be a runner, because no one ever thinks gymnasts, skaters or swimmers are sacrificing femininity for their sport."}, {"response": 35, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (14:25)", "body": "And the winner is.... Autumn! Your 2nd guess kiddo! It was Jackie Joyner-Kersey in a TIME magazine interview, 1988 and used, in part, as the title of her autobiography, A KIND OF GRACE."}, {"response": 36, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (14:26)", "body": "I mean Jackie Joyner-Kersee... shame on moi!"}, {"response": 37, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (14:28)", "body": "But Autumn.. I've seen some pretty 'beefy' woman swimmers. Much bigger than runners... not that it isn't attractive."}, {"response": 38, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (15:25)", "body": "Well to tell the truth, after I wrote that the women speed-skaters kind of went thru my mind...they have legs like tree trunks, ya know! I figured it had to be an Olympic sport, because whoever called female wrestlers athletes?"}, {"response": 39, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (23:23)", "body": "(and whoever called female golfers women?) as a species, i find female athletes to be extremely sexy, however..."}, {"response": 40, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Mar  3, 1998 (23:37)", "body": "ummm, was referring to lpga golfers... no offense intended to lady golfers in general... jordan baker was a golfer, after all, and she was quite attractive (a lousy driver, but attractive)... so please, no hate mail or anything... on second thought, lpga golfers are great (real babes), so just forget i said anything at all..."}, {"response": 42, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Wed, Mar  4, 1998 (10:48)", "body": "Please tell me you weren't making a homophobic type comment... unacceptable under any circumstance. LPGA golfers are no more or no less attractive than their male counterparts in the PGA."}, {"response": 43, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Wed, Mar  4, 1998 (23:28)", "body": "no no no no no... NO! that is not what i meant... actually, an image of jan stephenson popped into my head (and i don't know nor do i care to know her sexual orientation) and i typed it and i was sorry (almost) the instant i did... it was mean and i shouldn't have said it... and lpga golfers undeniably wear less polyester than their male counterparts do (god bless 'em all)... am shutting up now..."}, {"response": 44, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (01:42)", "body": "Jordan Baker was a cheater. Her unsportsman-like conduct renders her very unattractive."}, {"response": 45, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (01:52)", "body": "yes... she was a cheater... (but i've known a jordan baker or two... and found each incarnation fascinating... and desireable, in their fashion)..."}, {"response": 46, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:06)", "body": "What are you doing up so late?"}, {"response": 47, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:17)", "body": "i'm always up this late... (what about you? it's 3 am there, isn't it?)"}, {"response": 48, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:30)", "body": "Yeah. Can't sleep--bad migraine. I'm gonna pay for this tomorrow...."}, {"response": 49, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:37)", "body": "sorry to hear that... i rarely get headaches (though i've been known to cause a few)... s'posed to be working, actually... but i'm more playing hookey, here... (though i am working, sort of... in between)..."}, {"response": 50, "author": "autumn", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (02:43)", "body": "Guess you're a day sleeper. Never noticed that you usually post at night! What do you do?"}, {"response": 51, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (03:11)", "body": "I just woke up, but I went to bed around 9 am tonight. And I'll jump back in the sack for another few hours sleep in about ten minutes. I guess this is the opposite of a \"nap\"; what's the opposite of a nap (a few minutes of wakefulness)?"}, {"response": 52, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (03:32)", "body": "no, i'm not a daysleeper... have to be up by 8 or 9 every morning (just don't sleep very much)... i own a couple of restaurants... i usually post when i'm writing... helps keep me fresh, because i write sorta in flourishes, and each \"flourish\" ultimately runs into a wall (if that makes any sense whatsoever)... never thought about it just like that, terry, but you're right... it is sorta the opposite of a nap... i do that, too... can rarely sleep more than 3 or 4 hours at a stretch... (though i'd better try and sleep soon... have to put in a 12 hour day at the joints tomorrow... or, um, today i mean)..."}, {"response": 53, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (06:59)", "body": "Nick, Autumn... you two need some sleep! Nick; not to worry about the LPGA jibe. Autumn; do you take anything for the migraines? I use Midrin for the real bangers. Terry; I know...topic drift."}, {"response": 54, "author": "zx6rider", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (07:00)", "body": "Nick, where are you and what is the name of your 'joints'?"}, {"response": 55, "author": "stacey", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (17:39)", "body": "nick! how did that headache-generating situation at the home front turn out? Is everyone one big happy family now?"}, {"response": 56, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Thu, Mar  5, 1998 (23:30)", "body": "gena- i live in lampasas (pr. lay-uhm-PASS-us)... sure you've heard of it, being that we are the HEART OF THE COW COUNTRY, you know (not meaning to brag, of course)... my joints are about 40 miles away (yes, i actually commute to this paradisus bovinus), in the area of fort hood... stacey- you are referring to my ex-wife's current address (my spare bedroom)? situation is status quo, though she promises to be out by the beginning of summer... doesn't really bug me that much (i barely notice she's around) though my girlfriend, daughter, and mom still take the notion rather hard... (um, what about you? are you okay?)"}, {"response": 58, "author": "stacey", "date": "Fri, Mar  6, 1998 (09:19)", "body": "nick, i think it takes a certain type of person to allow that situation to work. Kudos to you! (feeling better now that two of us on working on issues instead of just one. long way to go, i'm practicing my patience virtue and really involving myself with triathlon training and work. *smile*)"}, {"response": 59, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Mar  6, 1998 (15:53)", "body": "I agree with stacey, nick, you're a bigger person than I would probably be. Gena, midrin doesn't do a thing for me. I am caffeine-free, and when a bad migraine strikes, I treat it with a strong cup of coffee. The caffeine immediately works to constrict my blood vessels. A quote: \"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.\""}, {"response": 60, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Sat, Mar  7, 1998 (03:09)", "body": "\"vanity of vanities... all is vanity\", saith the preacher (and my mother)... stacey and autumn- thanks for the words... however, my motives are not entirely unselfish (good to have someone to wash the dishes on a regular basis)... and being that i was such a lousy husband- really (REALLY) lousy- seems like the least i can do... (pitifully small recompense)... wer- lesser known than nolanville? (you MUST know the area well)... restaurants are in killeen..."}, {"response": 62, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Sat, Mar  7, 1998 (16:43)", "body": "hi guys!!"}, {"response": 63, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Mar  9, 1998 (00:14)", "body": "damn, wer... i've lived here for 6 years, and never heard of some of those places... how did you accrue such familiarity with this terrain?"}, {"response": 65, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Mon, Mar  9, 1998 (00:30)", "body": "wow... gatesville's pretty cool... do you know that grant guy, owns a restaurant on the main drag, near the high school? nearly did a deal with him, few years back... the \"cowhouse\" is on gray street, right? been there recently?"}, {"response": 66, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Mon, Mar  9, 1998 (08:26)", "body": "the cowhouse? man, yous guys are in the kuntry!"}, {"response": 68, "author": "autumn", "date": "Tue, Mar 10, 1998 (10:38)", "body": "South Fort? Isn't that where JR lives? \"do...do do...do do do do do do...\""}, {"response": 69, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Mar 10, 1998 (22:42)", "body": "wer- not missing anything (by not knowing the guy, i mean)... the cowhouse changed ownership a few years back, and last i knew was renting rooms by the hour... (uhhh, which i've been TOLD, of course... having no first hand knowledge of such matters)... autumn- (sigh)..."}, {"response": 70, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Tue, Mar 10, 1998 (22:43)", "body": "still can't get over that name, cowhouse...."}, {"response": 71, "author": "pmnh", "date": "Tue, Mar 10, 1998 (22:48)", "body": "(if you ever caught a glimpse of killeen's typical working girl, you'd know how apropos that name has become)..."}, {"response": 73, "author": "Wolf", "date": "Wed, Mar 11, 1998 (18:50)", "body": "okay"}, {"response": 74, "author": "lizard", "date": "Thu, Apr 30, 1998 (17:24)", "body": "Here's a leap back to Response 27 of 73, about quote \"...it's not any tougher in Washington (dc) than it is in Waco.\" Found this conference while typin ing \"Molly Ivans\" to demonstrate to someone how a search engine works. Emailed Terry and was invited to join the conference. Proof: Molly may not be on Spring, but she's certainly on the Web. This conference's mention of her name was one of 39 hits I got from Alta Vista through Yahoo! Canada. Most of the hits were people quoting her. Since I've moved to Canada, I don't get to see Molly's work much these days; have to wait for the books. Do wish whoever is handling Molly's copy would post her most recent stuff on a Web site. Transplanted Texans everywhere would rejoice. Regards, A former Temple-ite (Templetonian?) (Temple's not far from Waco, for those of you not familiar with central Texas)"}, {"response": 75, "author": "terry", "date": "Thu, Apr 30, 1998 (19:52)", "body": "I call her from time to time but I haven't got her interested enough to check in here, there are other things competing for her attention! I would like to post more of her stuff here though. Hope you keep checking in with us!"}, {"response": 76, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Thu, Jun 25, 1998 (23:56)", "body": "\"Had he seen something making me stand out like a sex-crazed cockroach making it with a pecan in a can of mixed nuts?\""}, {"response": 77, "author": "stacey", "date": "Tue, Jun 30, 1998 (21:48)", "body": "i give up... who?"}, {"response": 78, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Tue, Jun 30, 1998 (23:19)", "body": "maybe I don't wanna tell 'till somebody guesses..."}, {"response": 79, "author": "stacey", "date": "Wed, Jul  1, 1998 (00:20)", "body": "well... la DE da!"}, {"response": 80, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jul  1, 1998 (01:03)", "body": "hehe..."}, {"response": 81, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Wed, Jul  1, 1998 (13:14)", "body": "Okay, it was Philip Jose Farmer in the short story, \"Nobody's Perfect\" in the Ultimate Dracula"}, {"response": 82, "author": "autumn", "date": "Fri, Jul  3, 1998 (22:36)", "body": "it was on the tip of my tongue..."}, {"response": 83, "author": "KitchenManager", "date": "Sat, Jul  4, 1998 (01:23)", "body": "yeah, I bet...*laugh*"}, {"response": 84, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sat, Jul  4, 1998 (22:59)", "body": "*wink*"}, {"response": 85, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Tue, Jan 11, 2000 (17:16)", "body": "I loved Farmer's writing years ago - got a bit away from that line in reading, but always loved the Riverworld books, especially the Samuel Clement and Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac characters, as both have been longstanding literary heroes of mine. Have you ever read any of the Riverworld books?"}, {"response": 86, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Tue, Jan 11, 2000 (19:59)", "body": "Sheesh...the only Farmer I read with any frequency is Fannie and this is the wrong conference to quote her...*sigh*"}, {"response": 87, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (15:17)", "body": ""}, {"response": 88, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (16:57)", "body": "...how's THAT for a mystery quote?! *giggle*"}, {"response": 89, "author": "Ann", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (18:03)", "body": "was it by the Invisible Man? Claude Raines, where are you???"}, {"response": 90, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (19:05)", "body": "You guessed! Pass the torch to Ann for excellent deductive logic!"}, {"response": 91, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 13, 2000 (19:10)", "body": "Actually it was more prosaic than that. I had two browser windows open at the same time, and I posted a boxing article for Terry in this one by mistake...so I scribbled it!"}, {"response": 92, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Jan 20, 2000 (12:48)", "body": ""}, {"response": 93, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sat, Jan 22, 2000 (21:13)", "body": "I promise not to post anymore when I am burnt out and having problems...sorry!"}, {"response": 94, "author": "autumn", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (13:58)", "body": "That's all I ever am, Marcia! Does that mean I can't post anymore, either? :-)"}, {"response": 95, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Sun, Jan 23, 2000 (16:55)", "body": "Don't even think of not posting...we need you! And, if we don't hear from you we worry about your being alright. If you'll forgive my occasional (I hope they will become that way again) goof-ups, I'll not notice yours *hugs*"}, {"response": 96, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb  2, 2000 (12:41)", "body": "The 'Remember' Buttons are Splendid to see...And you may rest assured that I am and will. (Where is that French I quoted last time...?!)"}, {"response": 97, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (08:20)", "body": "Autumn, you're flirting with the unthinkable. Marci you too. Please share your feelings especially when you are burnt out and having problems. Folks care."}, {"response": 98, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (12:11)", "body": "Thanks, Terry...I could not stay away even if I wanted to. There is definitely an irresistable pull in this direction for my head and heart. I shall share. I really appreciate your concern...and, btw, it works both ways, you know! *Hugs*"}, {"response": 99, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (18:01)", "body": "Yep, both ways."}, {"response": 100, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Thu, Feb  3, 2000 (18:23)", "body": "Spring is working so great today. I am all delight and warm fuzziness (hugging my monitor because it is as close to Spring as I can get)"}, {"response": 101, "author": "autumn", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (15:24)", "body": "Such kind words! My father-in-law passed away Feb. 1, and things have been in a tempest ever since...I'm sure you can relate, Terry. But hopefully all will calm down soon."}, {"response": 102, "author": "MarciaH", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (15:53)", "body": "Autumn, I am so sorry! We did not know! Much sympathy beaming to your from Hawaii."}, {"response": 103, "author": "aschuth", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (16:29)", "body": "Autumn, best wishes."}, {"response": 104, "author": "sprin5", "date": "Wed, Feb 16, 2000 (17:39)", "body": "Really sorry to hear that Autumn, I certainly can relate to what you're going through right now. books conference Main Menu"}]}]}