Results tagged “Books” from Kazza the Blank One
Last week or thereabouts I finished the Belgariad again. I think I'm getting dementia because I couldn't remember a lot of what happened from when I first read the books some years ago :( But I suppose that meant I could enjoy them afresh heh. The thing that surprised me most actually was the violence in them, I didn't really remember that the first time.
So having a little break before starting the Mallorean.
Last week I finished the "Little House" series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The second last one (These Happy Golden Years) had a sense of finality to it. It was the end of her childhood, end of school, end of single life. At the end she marries Almanzo and they move into his house. The last few sentences sounded as if they lived happily ever after.
So then I read the forward to "The First Four Years" which talks about how the book came to be (Laura's daughter Rose had a copy of the unfinished manuscript, and after Rose died a close personal friend of hers decided to have it published). So this book had a bit of a different feel to it, split into four sections for the first four years of their marriage. This book had a lot of hardships in it and you wondered if they *ever* managed to make a living off the land (which of course is where wikipedia comes to rescue to fill in the rest of the story :) )
So all in all a very enjoyable series of books.
Haven't put any books up in ages.
At night I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Over the past couple of months I've finished "By the Shores of Silver Lake", "The Long Winter" and "Little Town on the Prairie".
These books cover the Ingalls' leaving Plum Creek (Walnut Grove) and moving out to De Smet, South Dakota where they settled, and the first few years they spent there. They arrived at the very beginning of the settlement of De Smet, and had to endure the harsh winter of 1880/81 when there were literally no supplies in the town, and no way for trains to get through. Must have been pretty scary.
The books are getting more and more interesting as they go along. I'm finding it hard to stop at just one chapter before bed!
On the bus over December/January I read a couple of James Herriot's books. Firstly "Vet in Harness", a Book Crossing book I've had for a few years, and then "If Only They Could Talk", which I started reading in about Year 11 (~1990) but never finished. The stories in these books are quite amusing, but it was a little disappointing to read that they were more fiction than fact. Surely some of the actual veterinary experiences must have happened, but presumably the stories around them were embellished somewhat. But his actual practice building is now a museum and can be found in Thirsk in Yorkshire, and there is even a Darrowby Inn in the town!
Finished Book 1 of the Belgariad by David Eddings today. I read the Belgariad and the Mallorean several years ago (mid 2003-2004 - I was even blogging then heh) - Sami lent them all to me and I thoroughly enjoyed them. And I'm thoroughly enjoying reading them again :)
Of course I really should be reading some of the other books I've borrowed... oops..
Spent a good chunk of today moving the rest of the books into the garage, and building more shelves...
Late last year I finished another couple of books.
First, "Watership Down", by Richard Adams - a bookcrossing book I picked up a few years ago. Not too bad, but a little slow going (picked up at the end). It's a bit meandering, and just when you think it could stop they just keep on going. And I realised they were going to need does before they'd even left, you wonder why they didn't (they were male *rabbits* for heavens sake!)...
Also, "On the Banks of Plum Creek" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. So *this* is the book they based the tv series off. They're in Minnesota, with the house seen the tv show (with the upstairs attic room for the girls), and where Nellie Oleson is. Turns out (from the beginning of the next book) they only spent about five years here from when Laura was eight to thirteen.
One of these days I'll have do a road trip across the prairies of America. Like Australia's wide open spaces, I imagine it's a little hard to comprehend how vast they are. I did get a hint of it in 2000 when I flew from San Francisco to New York. This was taken over Nebraska somewhere, and I was amazed at how endless the plains were...
Finished the third "Little House" book today - Farmer Boy. This one tells the story of Almanzo Wilder, who Laura from the other books goes on to marry. The family was from New York state, farmers, and evidently relatively rich. It was quite a contrast from Laura's life on the prairie where the family barely had anything to his life where they had a big farm and lots of animals and all kinds of food to eat.
Quite enjoyed the book. Again, the stories give a great insight to American (kids) life in the 1860s.
Last night I finished reading Heather of Dooce's book "It Sucked and then I Cried".
It was pretty good, although not really as good as I was expecting. It didn't have much of a story to it, it was more just a collection of small stories/anecdotes. Which wasn't a bad thing as such. But I suppose after reading The Daily Coyote just wasn't what I expected.
I suppose one thing that I was expecting was more of an account of her depression. But it kinda skipped over it somewhat and you don't really get a sense of the depths of her despair. You know it's there, but just don't *feel* it.
But it was kinda cool to read some of the background to the stuff I started reading on the blog only some years later (thanks to Chay who introduced me).
Some more books I've finished in the past few weeks
Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Actually had a storyline in this book. Their journey from Wisconsin to Oklahoma and their settlement there. Silly that the TV series of the same name was actually set in Wisconsin.. Quite enjoyed this book. Although sad for them at the end, it all seemed like such a waste of effort. It's kinda funny too being told from the point of view of a young child. It seems like they stop completely at random to settle where they did. But presumably there must have been some sort of deal that they had to set up a house there.
The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Never read any Terry Pratchett before, so DC lent me this. I liked his sort of "silly" writing style.. but only as far as sentence structure. The story was just too all over the place to be enjoyable. In fact I had to go back a few times to earlier bits to figure out what was going on, and multiples times was left wondering how they got to a particular point from wherever they were last. Bit lame.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - William Kotzwinkle
Lovely book. Adds a whole new richness to what you know about the movie. For the first chunk of the book it seems like the mother is the star/centre of the whole story ..! Quite a few little differences, like dropping Lance and his story completely from the book in the movie. One of the better movie tie-ins I've read.
So last week I *finally* finished Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy. What a marathon effort that was! Took weeks and weeks and weeks. It's a ridiculously long book. There's some decent character development, but so many characters it was difficult for me to remember who was who. It took ages and ages for anything to *happen* and even in the end there was a couple of little battles and that was about it.
So yeah, a little disappointing.
It's only the second Tom Clancy book I've read - the other being The Hunt for Red October - which I actually liked the movie better - the book got to where the end of the movie was then just went on and on for another couple of hundred pages :/
If any more Tom Clancy books cross my path I may read them, but won't be going out of my way.
Read Esio Trot by Roald Dahl in about half an hour last night. Pretty lame story really ;)
So that finishes the fiction section of that collection of books, leaving the two autobiographies - Boy and Going Solo. Both of these I've read at least twice, I really quite enjoy them. But might read some other things first. My pile of to-be-read books just seems to keep growing - especially since people keep lending me books! heh
Finished Matilda the other night. I liked this one. Although I really don't remember much of it, and come to think of it don't really remember much about the movie either - not enough to know where they were different. Have the movie on VHS somewhere, will have to watch it soon :)
Finished Little House in the Big Woods last night. I started this book *ages* ago, in our last house I think so probably nearly a year a go. There's not much in the way of plot in this book, it's just a series of recollections about their life in "outback" Wisconsin in the 1800s. As a history lesson it's fantastic! Descriptions about all sorts of things they used to do to get by and making cheese and using every part of a pig etc. I actually found it fascinating.
Before reading The Daily Coyote (and last night after) I'd been reading Roald Dahl before bed.
The BFG I'd had read to me when I was in primary school. During our library classes from week to week we had the story read to us. I actually didn't remember that much about it. Rereading it as a grown up, it wasn't too bad a story.
The Witches, I could have sworn I'd read, but after reading it I'm thinking not. Must see the movie! Also a pretty decent story.
The Giraffe, The Pelly and Me, I'd never read before, was quite short and easy to read and obviously for younger readers.
Up to Matilda now, which I'm pretty sure I've read and have definitely seen the movie a couple of times. I remember the movie these days but will be good to read the book again.
I first started reading The Daily Coyote website in November 2007 (along with with a good chunk of the internet), after Heather posted a link to it on dooce.com. Obviously I was immediately hooked.
For my birthday, Stu bought me a copy of Shreve's book of the same title. I abandoned reading the Roald Dahl book I was up to in preference to this. I have to say I loved it. It is just a beautiful story, and wonderful to get so much more detail about their life that is not covered on the website.
Highly recommended!
So the last two Roald Dahl books I've finished reading were Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, and Danny, Champion of the World.
The Great Glass Elevator was actually pretty lame. Really only two things happened - a silly story about saving a space hotel from aliens and another silly story about sending old people to the minuses and back again. Danny, well I guess not a whole lot more happened, but it flowed so much more betterer as a story and I enjoyed it a whole lot more.
At the end of Danny there was a reference to some larch trees. Which wouldn't have meant anything to me, had it not been for an episode of Monty Python the other night that kept referring to The Larch trees.
Ok, so small things ;)
Finished reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis today. It was ok, but a little tough going (not really being a narrative and fairly old now). But I think it's the first C.S. Lewis book I've ever read.
Really must borrow myself a copy of the Narnia books some time...
I finished reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier last week. I actually had to read this book in high school in about year 10. It was probably one of the better books we read in high school, and I quite enjoyed reading it a second time. Although to be honest I have no idea why she fell in love with him. Maxim is distant and aloof at the beginning of the book - someone you might possibly have a crush on but not someone you could actually easily love. Meh. I probably threw out all my notes on the book from high school before I moved to Canberra, so can't look at what sort of work we had to do on it. Oh well.
Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl last week. And then saw the second half of the movie again after having read the second half of the book. So that was pretty cool.
Finished reading Inner Space by Nathan Elliot today. I really loved the movie, seeing it when it first came out at the movies. In fact when I saw the movie I had absolutely no idea what it was about, just that it was by Steven Spielberg so was likely to be good. So I picked up the book at a book fair last year. The book is actually pretty boring. Well not boring in terms of story line - but that's all it is - just a narration of the movie. It doesn't add anything to it, and apart from a few very tiny differences, is identical to the movie. Identical is fine, but a little character development to add some interest wouldn't have gone astray. This is basically just a kids book.
Three books finished in a week.. scary..!
Oh, just remembered I read Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl at the weekend too (yes, reading through the box set I got a while back, in chronological order :) )
Sunrise this morning was very pretty.. Mount Ainslie was covered in cloud..
Slightly less pressure at work today (apart from one deadline that we looked a little too close to missing), so did a bit of catching up with things.
Windy came in with a box set of Roald Dahl books (the Phizz-Whizzing Collection) - 15 books! For $50! Was too good value to pass up, so popped down and got myself a copy. Will probably read these after Star Trek.
Nat and Andrew came over for dinner and a movie tonight. Natto wanted to read Fantastic Mr Fox, and ended up reading my original copy, the one illustrated before Quentin Blake came along..
Slightly less pressure at work today (apart from one deadline that we looked a little too close to missing), so did a bit of catching up with things.
Windy came in with a box set of Roald Dahl books (the Phizz-Whizzing Collection) - 15 books! For $50! Was too good value to pass up, so popped down and got myself a copy. Will probably read these after Star Trek.
Nat and Andrew came over for dinner and a movie tonight. Natto wanted to read Fantastic Mr Fox, and ended up reading my original copy, the one illustrated before Quentin Blake came along..
We played some Take 2, then ordered pizza and pasta for dinner. The pasta was pretty fail tho..
We couldn't find Lost in Translation (it's probably still packed somewhere), so we ended up watching Jurassic Park.
And then finally talked about Japan a bit, got frustrated over syn_sent errors, and looked at some of our honeymoon photos.
And now it's well and truly tomorrow...
We couldn't find Lost in Translation (it's probably still packed somewhere), so we ended up watching Jurassic Park.
And then finally talked about Japan a bit, got frustrated over syn_sent errors, and looked at some of our honeymoon photos.
And now it's well and truly tomorrow...
I finished reading The Wrath of Khan this week, so tonight we watched the movie. There's a *heap* of stuff in the book that's not in the movie, including a lot more detail about the scientists on space lab, more stuff with Peter Preston and Saavik, David and Saavik's affair (!), and even the mention that the lenses in Kirk's glasses were designed for his eyes (ie, weren't orginal). This made much more sense when you see ST IV and realise the lenses weren't in tact to begin with.
This was on Boing Boing a few weeks ago, seems appropriate to mention it now.. :)
How many AAAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan?
This was on Boing Boing a few weeks ago, seems appropriate to mention it now.. :)
How many AAAAAs in Khaaaaaaaan?
I finished reading the book of Star Trek: The Motion Picture this week, so tonight we watched the movie. I quite enjoyed the book actually. And the movie wasn't as slow and boring as I remember seeing it last time - I must be getting old! ;)
I always thought it was cool how Vejur was actually an old Earth Voyager probe. The graphics looked only slightly cheesy by today's standards, but I suppose in their day they would have been fantastical.
Two commentaries and a stack of special features on the dvds.. hrmmm..
I always thought it was cool how Vejur was actually an old Earth Voyager probe. The graphics looked only slightly cheesy by today's standards, but I suppose in their day they would have been fantastical.
Two commentaries and a stack of special features on the dvds.. hrmmm..
So Stu had his book club here tonight. I mostly stayed out of the way, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
It did mean that last night and tonight involved lots of cleaning, so the house is pretty tidy now :)
And it was so hot today and we still all sweaty after everyone left, that of course we just jumped in the pool :) Was awfully refreshing :)
Finished the book of Star Trek: The Motion Picture today, so will have to watch the movie this weekend!
Spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to plan out much of the work for the next couple of months. It's going to be crazy, with several projects all running at once. I keep telling them I can only juggle three balls at once.. (although even that is pushing it :/ )
It did mean that last night and tonight involved lots of cleaning, so the house is pretty tidy now :)
And it was so hot today and we still all sweaty after everyone left, that of course we just jumped in the pool :) Was awfully refreshing :)
Finished the book of Star Trek: The Motion Picture today, so will have to watch the movie this weekend!
Spent a couple of hours this afternoon trying to plan out much of the work for the next couple of months. It's going to be crazy, with several projects all running at once. I keep telling them I can only juggle three balls at once.. (although even that is pushing it :/ )
The next book I started reading after the death of Michael Crichton was "Sphere" which I picked up at the book fair. It was ok, but not his greatest book. I reckon he should have maybe explored more of what they could do with the power if they'd been given a chance to try and control it. That could have been interesting. But anyway.
I first saw *batteries not included when it came out at the movies here in 1987. From memory (which could be wrong or mixed up with Flight of the Navigator), my nana took us to see it at Beverly Hills although didn't actually come in with us to watch it.
Anyway. I completely loved the movie and have done ever since, even owning it on dvd.
So I grabbed the book at the book fair the other week, and finished it this morning.
The book was just as lovely as the movie, and follows it pretty closely. Definitely a keeper this one :)
Last Saturday morning I finished reading The Final Countdown by Martin Caidin.
It was quite an easy, enjoyable read, I'm glad I picked it up at the book fair.
Apparently it follows the movie fairly closely.
Just need to remind Neil to lend me his dvd (was hoping to watch it this weekend, oh well).
So I finished reading "Minority Report" by Philip K Dick today. Actually I finished that a week or two ago, but finished the last story ("We Can Remember it for you Wholesale") in the collection of short stories today.I've never read any Philip K Dick before, so thought I'd give it a go.. starting with what I'd seen in the movies. Of course the two aforementioned stories bear little relation to the movies, other than their beginnings and the general premise. But still interesting reading nonetheless.
Some of the stories reminded me a little of Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected - a little dark with not-your-average endings.
Some were a bit creepy.
Some were just "huh??"
I may read more of his stuff later.. we shall see...
I realised tonight I hadn't downloaded my photos in over a week.. oops!!
Last weekend was very springy...
A few of my mint seedlings survived the winter and are starting to thrive again..
This currawong sat in the back yard for quite a while, which gave me time to get a photo of it..
A young (pink) daisy..
A few shots of Canberra/Gungahlin..
I'll never tire of the blossom trees around here..
Not sure what this is..?
I like the cutlery they have in the Thai place we went to for lunch on Wednesday (Lemon Grass I think??)..
Of course the big news of this week is that we exchanged contracts for a house!! Terribly exciting for us :) Turns out our new house has a beautiful weeping cherry which is in full bloom at the moment..
Saw this on the ground on Friday afternoon, which I deemed stop-in-the-middle-of-the-city-to-take-a-photo-worthy..
Friday evening saw a bunch of us go to the Wig and Pen for after work drinks. It was a good fun night, although the place is far too pricey to be wanting to do it too often. At one point we got one beer, a plate of chips and a plate of wedges. For $21.30 ?!?!? Friggen rip-off. But the beer is pretty good.
On Saturday, Annie and most of the rest of the family came over with French champagne to celebrate our house-buying (actually the champagne was given to them when Little Squishy was born, but they hadn't gotten around to drinking it.. so we celebrated both occasions :) )
With our dinner (home-made pizzas) we opened another one of our wedding wines - a very nice Coonawarra shiraz. Quite delicious.. for a red wine ;)
Today we spent much of the day cleaning up the house in preparation for moving out.
And we went to the book fair :)
We filled up a shopping bag ($10 worth) with 38 books, so think we got our money's worth :)
Here's the ones I grabbed..
I'm most excited about "The Final Countdown". Dad and I saw this movie years and years ago, and then couldn't remember the name of it for the longest time. I've not seen it again since, so will be cool to read the book.
And so that's pretty much the last week and a bit.... :)
I've just finished reading the Deathly Hallows again.
And I must say I think I enjoyed it much more the second time around. The first time I got bogged down in the middle where they were wandering aimlessly in the forest and got a bit bored of it, but for some reason I didn't feel that this time.
I still didn't like how you never find out what happens to everyone afterwards. If it weren't for some of the online interviews I read, I'd still be wondering.
Anyways, I guess I'll start reading the Little House on the Prairie books next, as the rest of my to-be-read pile is in storage at the moment..
And I must say I think I enjoyed it much more the second time around. The first time I got bogged down in the middle where they were wandering aimlessly in the forest and got a bit bored of it, but for some reason I didn't feel that this time.
I still didn't like how you never find out what happens to everyone afterwards. If it weren't for some of the online interviews I read, I'd still be wondering.
Anyways, I guess I'll start reading the Little House on the Prairie books next, as the rest of my to-be-read pile is in storage at the moment..
I finished Rocheworld today. For once Stu picked a book for me that I actually enjoyed ;)It's written by a physicist (Robert L. Forward), so the science in it is a lot more believable than a lot of other science fiction.
It could have done with a bit more character development, and the plot was quite simple, bit a good read nonetheless.
At the end is a whole lot of technical specifications of the various ships, and character bios. I was kinda wishing I'd read them more as I was going, especially the character stuff. Would it made it a bit easier to remember who was who, and picture the ships a bit better.
I might start on Little House on the Prairie next....
Finished reading "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson tonight.Meh.
Was hard to get into, slow going at the start, disjointed and hard to follow throughout.
It picked up towards the end, but then finished abruptly and you don't find out what happened to anyone.
*shrug*
Well it took five months, but last Friday I finished book eight of Anne of Green Gables. The last book picked up somewhat from the idle gossip of books 5-6-7, and was a bit of a history lesson for World War I (from a tiny snippet from the other side of the world perspective).
My biggest gripe with the books is the lack of any real character development (and lack of plot!). You'd occasionally get insights into characters, but mostly they seemed pretty shallow to me. And you are never kept up to date with the characters you got to know and like from book one. They barely rate a mention in later books. Like Diana, Anne's best friend through her youth is still called "Aunty Diana" but she's mentioned all of twice later on (give or take). And poor Marilla aged and aged and you wondered if she was ever going to die (which of course she did unceremoniously between books seven and eight). The books spent far too much time on boring side stories that had no real meaning for the story and uninteresting gossip.
I really did want to like these books, but really only the first one was any good, with the next three "ok".
I was going to read the Little House on the Prairie series next, but not sure if in the mood for them...
My biggest gripe with the books is the lack of any real character development (and lack of plot!). You'd occasionally get insights into characters, but mostly they seemed pretty shallow to me. And you are never kept up to date with the characters you got to know and like from book one. They barely rate a mention in later books. Like Diana, Anne's best friend through her youth is still called "Aunty Diana" but she's mentioned all of twice later on (give or take). And poor Marilla aged and aged and you wondered if she was ever going to die (which of course she did unceremoniously between books seven and eight). The books spent far too much time on boring side stories that had no real meaning for the story and uninteresting gossip.
I really did want to like these books, but really only the first one was any good, with the next three "ok".
I was going to read the Little House on the Prairie series next, but not sure if in the mood for them...
So I took a break after book six of Anne of Green Gables to read a book lent to me by a guy at work - The Cuckoo's Egg, by Clifford Stoll. What a difference!
A book with a plot!!
I'd read the Reader's Digest version of this years and years ago, and so when someone mentioned it at work, someone else mentioned that they had a copy so I asked if I could borrow it.
As it turns out, Stu also has a copy, and he also has Silicon Snake Oil, so I'll probably read that when I've finished Anne of Green Gables.
But anyway. Great read. I could have used a little bit more technical detail but it was obviously targeted at a wider market. I liked reading about the worm attack at the end as part of the epilogue, and the sprinklings of his home life. Recommended :)