Reading anything?

[Sleepyskull]

Lots of good stuff:


3. My English class is about halfway through Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I am enjoying it.

One tip:
Check if Your copy bases -as I guess when You read it at school- on the censored second edition. If it is so, try to get a copy of the reprinted first edition. It was republished a few years ago. And I promiss You'll see Mrs. Shelly with totally new eyes.
And if You want to torment Your teacher ask him/her about the changes Mrs. Shelly had to make. I bet my hat he/she will twitch like a worm.

Actually, my teacher made sure to get the original version. She told us the history of why it was changed

[indianasmith]

I just finished a reather neat volume called GEORGE WASHINGTON ON LEADERSHIP.  A fascinating look at how the Father of Our Country dealt with his problems, and how his solutions can be adapted and used by today's business and civic leaders.  Really well done and quite historically accurate.

[Rev. Powell]

She was a great writer, but it's remarkable how few movies she actually liked. 

[Sleepyskull]

Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley

It's a great book and very funny!  I almost finished it once, but got distracted. I now plan to finish it.

[Doggett]

[Jim H]

I just read Monkey Girl.  It's about Intelligent Design and the Dover case which basically trashed its hopes of being taught in the USA.  What's probably most fascinating about the book is the incredible amount of ignorance on display by the people on the Dover schoolboard who were involved in adding ID.  All of them, quite literally, know next to nothing about evolution, intelligent design/creationism, and even the bible.  Yet, of course, they're the ones deciding what to put in the science classroom.   

The book is clearly on the side of the evolutionists, but I'd question seriously anyone who isn't in this case.  Not only is ID not science (I mean, proponents want to REDEFINE science to fit ID in, how anyone can take the "It's science!" bit seriously after that is beyond me), the school board also lied, manipulated, bullied and threatened to get what they wanted.  The way the school board acted was atrocious - and of course, they ended up costing the tax payers over 1 million dollars.

They should be ashamed.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es.

Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro"

A graphic adaptation of the film, using stills from the film, in four volumes.

The Good
What draws me to these types of films is not so much the animation, as the characters. Seldom in an animated film do I see such complex characters.

The Bad
The story. Not much happens in the film. At least in comparision to his other films which I've read or seen.

The Interesting
It's an interesting look at how some Japanese live in modern Japan, as seen through the eyes of someone who is Japanese himself.

It is interesting to note how many times in his films, the hero is actually a little girl. Which in this aspect is similiar to the animated films made by Walt Disney. No wonder some people call Hayao Miyazaki the Walt Disney of Japan.

Next time: Lois H. Gresh's "The Twilight Companion"

[InformationGeek]

Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro"

A graphic adaptation of the film, using stills from the film, in four volumes.

I have something similiar to that, but it the Princess Mononoke one instead and it is in five volumes.

Anyways, I'm currently reading through Batman Hush.  It's pretty good and the artwork is great!

[AndyC]

Still reading Slade's "Bed of Nails." A bit past the halfway point. Pretty good so far. The central theme is cannibalism, and goes into some detail with regard to past customs in the South Pacific, as well as some psychos of the last century or so. The investigation has thus far centred around a multiple murder at the World Horror Convention in Seattle, which Slade attended in real life as a guest of honour prior to writing the book. And the two chief suspects are a couple of feuding lawyers-turned-authors from Vancouver, much like the author himself.

I think I will take a break from Slade after this one. I've got just one more in the series to read, and I'm in no hurry, since he's probably not going to have anything new on shelves for a year or two, having a new book out just last year. I have a copy of Peter Straub's Koko waiting on the night stand.

[indianasmith]

I just read DAVE BARRY TURNS 50 .  Barry is always funny, and even though the book is a bit dated (written in 1998, that means Dave is about 15 years older than I am), as a 46 year old adolescent, I can identify with much of what he is saying.  His "history of the boomers" is pretty hilarious.  Not as good as DAVE BARRY'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO GUYS or my favorite, DAVE BARRY HITS BELOW THE BELTWAY, but still good for some nice hard belly laughts.

[Sleepyskull]

I just read DAVE BARRY TURNS 50 .  Barry is always funny, and even though the book is a bit dated (written in 1998, that means Dave is about 15 years older than I am), as a 46 year old adolescent, I can identify with much of what he is saying.  His "history of the boomers" is pretty hilarious.  Not as good as DAVE BARRY'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO GUYS or my favorite, DAVE BARRY HITS BELOW THE BELTWAY, but still good for some nice hard belly laughts.

Dave Barry is great! He is one of my all-time favorite writers.

[Mofo Rising]

I just read DAVE BARRY TURNS 50 .  Barry is always funny, and even though the book is a bit dated (written in 1998, that means Dave is about 15 years older than I am), as a 46 year old adolescent, I can identify with much of what he is saying.  His "history of the boomers" is pretty hilarious.  Not as good as DAVE BARRY'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO GUYS or my favorite, DAVE BARRY HITS BELOW THE BELTWAY, but still good for some nice hard belly laughts.

If you haven't read it already, check out Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States. It's a funny book and it got me in trouble at work. Well, sort of.

At one point in the book, Barry starts talking about Samuel Gompers, one of the leaders of the Labor Movement. He freely admits he knows nothing about Samuel Gompers, but thinks Gompers would be a great name for a large dog--something I've stored in my brain for years.

At any rate, I was at my place of employment, a public library, and one of my coworkers began discussing thinking of a name for her new dog. So, loudly, I said, "You know what would be a good name for a dog? Gompers!" My coworker cringed and all of a sudden I had stepped into a minefield.

See, unbeknownst to me, there is a school for the developmentally disabled in Phoenix known as the Gompers Habilitation Center. Apparently, the term "gomper" has arisen to refer to the mentally challenged in a quite hurtful manner. So basically I had just loudly used a very negative epithet. Did I mention I was in a very public part of the library?

Insert foot directly in mouth.

Anyway, it's a great book, especially if you're a fan of U.S. history.

[indianasmith]

That one is funny - I read it several years ago.

[Joe the Destroyer]

Finished reading the last two books in the Beast House series, The Midnight Tour and Friday Night in Beast House.  Now that I'm done with that affair, I've decided to kick myself in the nuts and read four things at one time:

-Dominant Species by Michael E. Marks (sadly, it's the Kindle edition with tons of conventional mistakes)
-Horus Rising by Dan Abnett
-Complete Kick-Ass graphic novel
-Complete (at least I think it's complete) Scott Pilgrim

I have a lot of work to do... 

[Joe the Destroyer]

Well, I finished Kick-Ass and the first Scott Pilgrim book.  On to the next one. 

Also got a start on Dominant Species and Horus Rising.  The Kindle edition of Dominant Species is kind of annoying.  I don't know if it's in the hardcover version, but there are a lot of conventional errors (i.e. someone says, "Your on."  or it's instead of its).