What are you reading?

[Roger Kettle]

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.

[Zesty White]

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?

[The Peepmaster]

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.

[Feather]

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.

The second sentence tends to explain the first one.

[Feather]

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.

[Colin]

Im reading In Foreign Fields.



http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-foreign-fields.html

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Im reading In Foreign Fields.

Prenez garde du taureau, Colin!

[Tom]

Im reading In Foreign Fields.

Prenez garde du taureau, Colin!

Gesundheit, Tarks!

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Indeed, Tom - hay fever may also be a hazard.

[Max]

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.

[Joan]

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!

[Diane CBPFC]

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 :-)

[Max]

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.

[Joan]

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.

[Feather]

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!