Beau Peep Notice Board => Outpourings => Topic started by: Diane CBPFC on July 14, 2009, 07:59:14 PM
Title: What are you reading?
Post by: Diane CBPFC on July 14, 2009, 07:59:14 PM
I am listening to books on CD on my ipod as I am spending hours on the road/waiting for kids these days.
I just "read" The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - and am now 7/8th through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.
Both are fantastic books, probably made even better as they are read by actors. :-)
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Vulture on July 14, 2009, 08:35:36 PM
I'm not technically minded enough to work an ipod, Diane, I still use an mp3 player. I have a million story tapes from my personal cassette player days (definitely the ice age....) and I converted them to mp3 thingies (I've got about 15 gigs worth). They're brilliant for the odd times I get on a bus, or have to wait for appointments, etc. Even better to go to sleep by; I sometimes wake up and the player's still going! They still don't replace a reading book but the player weighs about 4 oz and a book can weigh a pound or so.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tom on July 14, 2009, 09:39:40 PM
I'm currently reading the Orange customer services website to see what they have to say about my internet connection problems. It's funny that the problems are mostly down to either me or my computer's browser settings (although I haven't changed them and I'm connected perfectly well now) - AND I received an error message '718 no response from the remote computer' when I tried to connect about thirty times earlier this evening. It's amazing that they have a definitive list of all these error messages on their site (when I finally manage to get a stable connection) yet when I click on 718 I receive a white page with a box containing "Page does not exist". Needless to say I provided feedback of 'poor' when they asked how I found their advice.
And I wonder why if I was on broadband I could call their customer services team between 7am and 11pm, but as I'm on dial-up they are only available between 8am and 10pm.
Not being paranoid, but I think they are trying to tell me something. >:(
Inexcusable rant over - sorry about that...
Vulch, I haven't got an ipod or an MP3 player - wouldn't know where to begin with them. Takes me all my time to find the music that is stored in my mobile phone. And don't even ask about the phone numbers... :o
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Vulture on July 14, 2009, 09:53:07 PM
Vulch, I haven't got an ipod or an MP3 player - wouldn't know where to begin with them. Takes me all my time to find the music that is stored in my mobile phone. And don't even ask about the phone numbers... :o
Now, I'm with you on the mobile phone thing, Tom. I've been with T-mobile since they were Mercury, and every 18 months or so I get offered a new phone just for renewing my contract with them. Last year I thought I treat myself to a really swish (free) phone and I gave my old-fashioned one to a grateful granddaughter. After one week of lost calls, unsent text messages, alarms that didn't go off, I begged my granddaughter to take the damn thing and let me have my old one back. She had to put all my numbers back in for me and reset my customised ring tone (grandson shouting 'answer the phone' in an ever rising agitated manner) 'coz I hadn't a clue! It'll soon be time to renew the contract again but all the new phones do everything but wipe your bum - I think I'm going to go for the two cans and a bit of string this time.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tom on July 14, 2009, 10:11:46 PM
;D I went to Buxton the other week to meet a friend and was meant to call her when I got there. Well, I know her number is in my phone but when I looked through the phone book the only number I could find was my own. Why would I want to look for my own phone number in my phone? Did the manufacturer think I might need to call myself? Maybe they were thinking ahead so if I lost my phone, I'd be able to call it, but in that case I would already have to know the number ...and I wouldn't be able to look in the phone book if I'd lost the phone anyway... my phone can bring maps up of anywhere in the world, but look for a phone number, which is the reason I've got the thing ..0. I found my friend the really old fashioned way... I looked for her!
I'm in a bit of a moany mood this evening aren't I?
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on July 15, 2009, 12:07:06 AM
I don't read books, or listen to them. I have a lousy attention sp
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Diane CBPFC on July 15, 2009, 12:11:59 AM
This isn't looking like too promising a start for the BP book club.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Joan on July 15, 2009, 12:46:39 AM
:D I was just thinking that, Diane. We're not very good at sticking to the topic, are we? Always going off on a tangent. My books at the moment are "easy reading" - can just pick them up when I've got a couple of minutes and they don't require too much concentration. Mostly rereads as well, but always have one on the go. Reading "Life Swap" by Jane Green just now.
Did I tell you that I reread (first go at about 15) Anna Karenina? Took me about three months - next is War and Peace. Some day.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on July 15, 2009, 01:40:38 AM
- and am now 7/8th through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.
Both are fantastic books, probably made even better as they are read by actors. :-)
Since I'm not really speaking to Mince I don't join in here much anymore, but then I saw this thread.
Diane, I have been trying to read Pillars of the Earth for several months. I am about a third of the way into it. It's not that I don't find it interesting, because I do. It's finding the time to concentrate on it. It's so very detailed. I have read six other books --five lightweight chick-lits and one Clive Cussler action-adventure -- since starting "Pillars." I also have the sequel World Without End to read. :-\
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Diane CBPFC on July 15, 2009, 03:18:19 AM
Nobody else speaks to Mince either so you should feel at home here.
I just finished Pillars while the kids were in the pool for their swim club. The story was woven together beautifully. I love having the story read to me - you should get the CDs out from your library and see if you like to listen instead of read. You can do dishes, drive, listen in the dark in bed (I have a hubby who grumbles when he sleeps if I have the light on.)
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Mince on July 15, 2009, 04:48:40 PM
Feather's always telling me she's not speaking to me.
Well, I tend to read books for my students to read afterwards, so that I know they have read them.
One of my students, who is 12, read Stephen King's "Firestarter" in just over a day (500 pages), and now wants to read Christine. I really ought to warn her that many of King's other books are a little "adult" in places to say the least.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tom on July 15, 2009, 07:44:09 PM
:-[ Sorry, I went really off topic last night, but I was on about reading something - the internet and the phone numbers :-[
I like the idea of the BP Book Club. I've not read a book for a while though...
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: robbie62 on July 15, 2009, 08:17:34 PM
my friend is a vet and he has just read a book called "the healthy dog" he says he could'nt put it down
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on July 15, 2009, 08:19:42 PM
;D Boom-boom!
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tom on July 15, 2009, 08:20:57 PM
<-
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Roger Kettle on July 15, 2009, 09:05:47 PM
I've got a couple of books on the go at the moment. "9/11 The New Evidence" (Malc is proud of me) and "The Fighting Cheyennes" by George Bird Grinnel. Both remarkable.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Zesty White on July 16, 2009, 10:25:56 AM
I'm reading 'Loot: Inside the World of Stolen Art' which is the memoirs of Thomas McShane, an undercover FBI agent working in the Art Crime Squad. It's informative and amusing as it's written as though you've just sat down for a chat with this dyed in the wool New Yorker. Anyway, for 37p plus P&P, what more can you ask?
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: The Peepmaster on July 16, 2009, 11:37:29 AM
We took a dog with a mild ear infection to the vet's.
After examining him, the vet said "I'm going to have to put him down".
"Put him down? But he's only got an ear infection".
"It's not that. He's bloody heavy".
Incidentally "Pillars of the Earth" vaguely reminds me of Mince, only he's a pillock of society.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on July 16, 2009, 02:16:31 PM
Nobody else speaks to Mince either so you should feel at home here.
I just finished Pillars while the kids were in the pool for their swim club. The story was woven together beautifully. I love having the story read to me - you should get the CDs out from your library and see if you like to listen instead of read. You can do dishes, drive, listen in the dark in bed (I have a hubby who grumbles when he sleeps if I have the light on.)
I managed to read about fifteen more pages yesterday during my lunch break. Just as I was getting to an interesting part, I heard someone calling my name and insisting I join that group for the rest of my lunch. I could not be rude and say "I'd rather read this book than sit with you" so I spent the rest of my lunch break listening to gossip, gripes and complaints.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Colin on July 16, 2009, 06:14:29 PM
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on July 16, 2009, 07:59:28 PM
Indeed, Tom - hay fever may also be a hazard.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Max on July 16, 2009, 08:27:30 PM
Currently reading John Wilson's autobiography "Sixty years a fisherman", yes I know he has an annoying laugh but the guy knows his trade (actually a hairdresser).
SO, where was he the other week when I was on the Corrour estate with a size 4 Owner treble hook embedded deep in my palm and two of my three ruffty tuffty pike angling mates turning their faces away? Luckily the other one was able to snip off the barb after I had forced it up through the skin with the unhooking pliers.
Funny side, I asked one of the COWARDS to get me a drink from my bait bag (it's like a mini freezer full of Techni Ice) and he handed me a diet coke, (ignoring the vodka bottle completely).
With a low growl I threw it at him and demanded the bottle....... actually as I was shaking like a leaf and damned near in tears I got it myself.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Joan on July 17, 2009, 07:14:38 AM
It's a dangerous sport, fishing, Max. I've had a few hooks in my hands (nothing like yours, though), back of the ears, etc in my time.
My clearest fishing memory which involved pain (actually, more fear than anything) was when I went down to the Castle Douglas loch by myself to fish (usually went with a friend). I would have been about 9 and all we'd ever caught up till then were tiny wee perch. There were pike in the loch, though, and this was to be the day that one of them decided to attach himself to my hook. Initially elated, I started to reel him in, but as he got closer and I saw what a huge evil looking monster he was (if you've ever seen a pike's mouth close up, you'll know what I mean), I was torn between being able to boast to my friends and family with the proof in hand and the sheer terror of sticking my hand in its mouth to get the hook out, even if I had managed to knock him on the head, which would have been doubtful, given his size. As he got closer and closer, I was seriously contemplating cutting the line, he looked so menacing. I was just about to step in and lift the line out, when (luckily for me) he put up one last major struggle and got free. Phew! The one that got away and I was quite happy about it! ;D
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Diane CBPFC on July 17, 2009, 03:49:44 PM
When I read your post Max, I thought you were quoting from the book - didn't realise that happened to you.
You and Joan should not go fishing together :-)
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Max on July 17, 2009, 08:25:05 PM
Joan,
Yes I've seen the business end of a quite a few pike, been fishing for them exclusively for the last 3 years. My personal best is a 19 1/2 lbs lady from the Lake of Menteith (only female pike get big, males stop growing around 8-10lbs). No thumps on the head though, purely catch and release although some of our recent immigrants from Eastern Europe don't hold with this, anything is good for the pot apparently and any method of catching also. >:( I'd say you were lucky the pike broke off, even with protective gear I've seen plenty of damaged knuckles caused by their gill rakers.
As for a dangerous game, yes it is. I survived gale force winds and a stalled outboard on Loch Lomond and a rapidly sinking boat on Loch Long, both times I was very happy to set foot on dry land again.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Joan on July 17, 2009, 11:34:54 PM
Don't forget I was 9, Max, which was quite a long time ago. :( So very little got thrown back unless it was teensy weensy. Couldn't have eaten the pike, though. It would have been the biggest fish I'd ever caught - probably not saying much! Typical that the females are bigger than the males - funnel web spiders are like that too.
Haven't fished for years, but used to do it all the time when I was little. My dad loved fly fishing and his summer holidays were spent sitting in a boat in or on the side of a loch miles away from anywhere in Scotland, and a couple of times Ireland. He taught me how to guddle, but I was never successful. Nothing like a fresh brown trout for breakfast.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on July 18, 2009, 02:21:11 AM
Just an update for Diane:
I was at the part in "Pillars" where William, Walter and their army were on the verge of attacking the castle when someone from work plops her uninvited self at my table (I didn't even see her) and says: "I know you're reading, but I just wanted to sit here with you. I won't take up too much of your time." Yeah, right. She sat there talking for 20 minutes until it was time for me to go back to work! See what I have to put up with!
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Diane CBPFC on July 18, 2009, 03:18:36 AM
See, now it it were on an MP3 or ipod you could take out one ear plug and pretend to switch it off. Then you could look at her with a pleasant look on your face and nod now and again and say "You, are so right!" every five minutes or so whilst listening to the story.
Baring that, you could cover the book to look like a bible and say "I would like to share the word with you sister". Of course once your book is finished you could end up with some lonely lunch hours. ;D
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tom on July 18, 2009, 04:05:32 AM
Or you could be pre-prepared and have a list of obscure words by your side, and when someone gatecrashes your space say "What does @@@@@@ mean - just read it a few pages ago." If they know what the word means, thank them, saying I've never thought of it in that context; when free, dash to the nearest lottery shop and buy a lucky dip...
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Vulture on July 18, 2009, 11:10:35 AM
I was at the part in "Pillars" where William, Walter and their army were on the verge of attacking the castle when someone from work plops her uninvited self at my table (I didn't even see her) and says: "I know you're reading, but I just wanted to sit here with you. I won't take up too much of your time." Yeah, right. She sat there talking for 20 minutes until it was time for me to go back to work! See what I have to put up with!
The problem is, Feather, you're too nice! Just give them a stare and, if that doesn't work, carry on reading as though they weren't there. Always works for me -NOTHING comes between me and a book!!
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Malc on July 18, 2009, 08:48:00 PM
I never interrupt people who are reading, and I hate being interrupted when I am reading.
I also hate people who stop walking when they reach the moving walkway and then block all traffic behind them. But I digress.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: The Peepmaster on July 19, 2009, 07:08:21 AM
One of my pet hates, Malcolm! Folk who get to the top of an escalator, step off, and then stop. You can't help piling into them.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Malc on July 19, 2009, 02:49:54 PM
What I do in those situations is, I get hold of them by the scruff of their necks (even little old ladies) and their waist band, then I huckle them to the down escalator and THROW them bodily down it, revelling in the sound of the multiple impacts and their screams of pain.
I do that mentally, that is.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on September 10, 2009, 04:51:09 AM
Diane, I wanted to let you know that I finally finished The Pillars of the Earth - all 973 pages of it. After I really got into it, all I can say is: Wow! I have started the sequel, World Without End and it's a daunting 1014 pages, so I hope it is as action-packed. Of course I also have five new books I just received to choose from. :)
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: The Peepmaster on September 10, 2009, 07:49:01 AM
Diane, I wanted to let you know that I finally finished The Pillars of the Earth - all 973 pages of it. After I really got into it, all I can say is: Wow! I have started the sequel, World Without End and it's a daunting 1014 pages, so I hope it is as action-packed. Of course I also have five new books I just received to choose from. :)
It was great wasn't it Feather. It was cool to hear how those early jobs became common surnames. I liked Pillars the most but other people who have read both liked World more. World has a lot more going on in it. I hope he writes another one 200 years later set in the 1500s
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on September 11, 2009, 03:52:29 PM
I got caught up in all the battles, the romance, the drama, the tragedies, the redemptions and the historical facts. I enjoyed how everything was tied to the building of the cathedral. It amazed me how they could build that cathedral without all the machinery that would be used today.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Mince on September 11, 2009, 08:49:58 PM
I got caught up in all the battles, the romance, the drama, the tragedies, the redemptions and the historical facts. I enjoyed how everything was tied to the building of the cathedral. It amazed me how they could build that cathedral without all the machinery that would be used today.
Feather, please read Lonesome Dove. If you don't regard it as one of the finest examples of brilliant story-telling ever written then I'll refund the cost of the book.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Mince on September 11, 2009, 09:47:04 PM
Feather, please read Lonesome Dove. If you don't regard it as one of the finest examples of brilliant story-telling ever written then I'll refund the cost of the book.
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry - I can get a second hand copy for £12,467.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tarquin Thunderthighs lll on September 11, 2009, 11:31:02 PM
I got caught up in all the battles, the romance, the drama, the tragedies, the redemptions and the historical facts. I enjoyed how everything was tied to the building of the cathedral. It amazed me how they could build that cathedral without all the machinery that would be used today.
It all sounds rather like the rehosting of the Beau Peep Forum.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Mince on September 12, 2009, 12:01:40 AM
I got caught up in all the battles, the romance, the drama, the tragedies, the redemptions and the historical facts. I enjoyed how everything was tied to the building of the cathedral. It amazed me how they could build that cathedral without all the machinery that would be used today.
Feather, please read Lonesome Dove. If you don't regard it as one of the finest examples of brilliant story-telling ever written then I'll refund the cost of the book.
My mother loves Lonesome Dove.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on September 12, 2009, 05:18:13 AM
Feather, please read Lonesome Dove. If you don't regard it as one of the finest examples of brilliant story-telling ever written then I'll refund the cost of the book.
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry - I can get a second hand copy for £12,467.
Why thank you, Mince, for offering to purchase the book for me so that I can read it and collect the money if I disagree with Roger's opinion. It's high time you did something nice for me.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Mince on September 12, 2009, 08:20:38 AM
I've just spent a week moving Beau Peep. I'm having a holiday first.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Tom on September 12, 2009, 08:22:29 AM
Why thank you, Mince, for offering to purchase the book for me so that I can read it and collect the money if I disagree with Roger's opinion. It's high time you did something nice for me.
I've just spent a week moving Beau Peep. I'm having a holiday first.
HCP, Mince.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Malc on September 12, 2009, 03:43:27 PM
I'm sure we've had this conversation before, but I thought the TV adaptation of Lonesome Dove was one of the best things to come out of the US. The characters spoke in McMurty's prose style, much as I believe people in the Old West would have, and the personalities were totally unlike anything I had come across in Western genre storytelling, though probably True Grit came close - good and evil less accentuated, no black or white hat delineation.
McMurtry adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, by the way.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Roger Kettle on September 12, 2009, 08:57:11 PM
Talking about the way people spoke in the Old West, there was much discussion about how realistic the dialogue was in the "Deadwood" series a few years back. The writers claimed that the excessive swearing was authentic for the period. There was a very funny parody of this on YouTube and, if I can find it again, I'll post it it here but---be warned---if you never saw the series and are offended by strong language, it's not for you.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Roger Kettle on September 12, 2009, 09:00:09 PM
Hopefully, this is it. I repeat my warning about the language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f31PLcCXD0U
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: The Peepmaster on September 12, 2009, 09:02:25 PM
You might like this one, Roger.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on September 13, 2009, 12:20:14 AM
Being an American, I'm curious what it is you like so much about the Old West, Roger.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Roger Kettle on September 13, 2009, 10:14:41 AM
Feather, most of my generation in the UK grew up on a diet of Western films and T.V. series. It's more difficult to explain my near obsession with the Little Bighorn battle but I remember reading a book about it when I was 10 or 11 and was completely enthralled. That fascination remained with me and, in 1993, I set off to Montana to see the site for myself. It was everything---and more---that I'd hoped for and my "once-in-a-lifetime" trip turned into three more visits. I feel completely at home in Montana and have made some great friends there. Besides the history of the area, the scenery is, in places, breathtaking. When I'm driving around Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota, I'm as happy as a pig in...um...mud.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: Feather on September 13, 2009, 02:46:10 PM
Thank you, Roger. I have never been to Montana, but people I know who have say it's beautiful. Your interest mirrors one I have had all my life. That's why I was interested in what you had to say about the Old West.
When I was a child I developed a strong interest in England. I watched British television programs and became fascinated with the medieval, Tudor and Elizabethan periods along with the architecture of castles and cathedrals. My parents could not understand my fascination with Britain because they had never been there, had no interest in it and had no desire to go. They did not watch British television programs on a regular basis either. From the age of 10, though, I was watching MasterpieceTheatre on Sunday nights in my bedroom. The series was on our Public Broadcast Channel and was defintely not mainstream. Masterpiece Theatre ran predominantly British programs - Upstairs Downstairs being my all-time favorite. Most of the other programs/series they ran were adaptations of British novels or historical events. I loved it! When I went to university my major was English with an emphasis on British Lit.
It's always nice to see your country - a place you take for granted - reflected in another's eyes, thoughts and feelings.
Title: Re: What are you reading?
Post by: The Peepmaster on September 13, 2009, 05:13:28 PM