The Humour Club discussion

So, what's keeping you from socializing with your family lately? In other words...what are you reading?

I'm almost finished with Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World. It's a fascinating read that's not quite as scary as I thought it might be.

I finished "The Taker" by Alma Katsu, now I am reading "Flowers for Elvis" by Julia Schuster. "The Taker" amazing, my verdict is still out on "Flowers for Elvis"...I go back and forth in liking the novel, and finding it boring.

Melki wrote: "I'm almost finished with Death from the Skies!: The Science Behind the End of the World. It's a fascinating read that's not quite as scary as I thought it might be."

I found that surprisingly soothing since it was more a case of 'don't worry, there's nothing you can do' or 'don't worry, its that far in the future you'll be gone long before then'. Not sure what that says about my mental state though...

No - I agree. There's absolutely nothing we can do about any of the scenarios, so why worry.

A Fraction of the Whole is a very funny book about a father and son living in Australia. More people need to know about this great book. Perhaps they're scared off by the fact that it has more than 500 pages...

Can I cheat slightly and mention a book I've just finished? This is David Ellis Dickerson's How Tolkien Sucks. I found it hilarious, though it won't stop me being a Tolkien fan. I wouldn't recommed it to a humourless Tolkien fanatic, because it might give them a heart attack; but there are none of those in this group, I'm sure. And unlike Melki's book, it only has 35 pages.

I finished The Android's Dream late last month and wouldn't recommend it. It was described as funny. Great, I like funny.
However, it wasn't all that funny. There were many chuckle worthy takes on things, but, nothing to make me LOL. It was disappointing.

I'm so beat I can't even remember what I'm reading. Some mystery, and something else, and. . .

I love Dilbert comics.

Death to the pointy-haired boss!

I finished something. It didn't fit any of the challenges, but I finished it!

I've been reading articles on string theory. I didn't say I understood it, mind you. I'm reading it as research for my current book.

Oddly enough, there hasn't been as much humor as I had expected.

On the positive side, there's a mathematical possibility that I've already laughed myself unconscious. One can dream.

It must be summer. No one can remember anything about what they've read.

I'm really enjoying The Henchmen's Book Club. It's nice to know that hidden deep inside a volcano, the henchmen for an evil super-villain take the time to read and discuss good books.

That sounds good. Putting any evil villain in a bookclub setting sounds funny. Little do most know how close to reality this actually is. Some bookclubs are just full of evil people. Am I right?

Put it this way...the main reason I'm not on Facebook is that some women from my previous book club are, and it would be awkward for me to refuse their friend requests. (Since they are also neighbors.) These are women whom I did not enjoy talking to once a month at book club. I certainly don't want to talk to them on a daily basis.

So, yes...there are evil people in book clubs. I'm one of them.

I was just going to joke - Melki are you one of those evil people in bookclubs?

If not liking half* the other people in book club makes me evil, then BWA-HA-HA-HA!

*Note - this applies only to neighborhood book club. I only dislike one person in the other book club.

My last book club meeting (Sunday) consisted of me sitting in the corner (hadn't read the book) eyes darting around (just getting over a Meniere's attack), drooling slightly. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice.

Forgot to say, I've suspended reading for a few days until the sensation of being on a roller coaster subsides. But I've got at least six books going. One of them, Bringing Up Bebe, is pretty interesting as I've just in the past few weeks become an obnoxious, besotted grandmother.

Congratulations, Kathy. I really doubt that you're an "obnoxious" granny, but the besotted part is fine.

Melki wrote: "A Fraction of the Whole is a very funny book about a father and son living in Australia. More people need to know about this great book. Perhaps they're scared off by the fact that it has more th..."


Hi-- this sounds like a must read for the summer. Thanks!

I started reading one of my kid's Summer Reading books. He hasn't started it, but I have. Sigh.

What do they require kids to read on summer break these days?

My kids have never had to do that. I enforce a strict summer reading policy, but they are allowed to choose their own books...except for the year I made my oldest son read The Glass Castle. I wanted him to read about what it's like to grow up WITHOUT six different video game systems. He grumbled the whole time he was reading it, then went on Facebook and told everyone it was his favorite book

It's only for high school. The ninth-grad gets to choose from about ten books (just read one) but the Junior will be in AP English and has to read How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, which is what I started, and also Frankenstein

When I was a kid, we had a different summer program. I think it was called, "Put that book down, you idjit!" Parents used to kick their kids out of the house starting around 6 AM and wouldn't let them back in again until after 10 PM. It was frequently 95 - 110 degrees in the shade. We drank out of hoses and scrounged leftover food from neighbors. In the ravine behind our house, we knew where the water moccasins and rattlesnakes liked to hunt. We climbed trees, rode our bikes, and hid from the bigger kids up and down the street.

It wasn't all bad. During the daily exile, I daydreamed constantly. I invented worlds, stories, and characters to keep myself entertained. I think the snakes liked the stories, too.

I'm mean, I make my kids read everyday - including the summer vacation!

I was hoping to be reading MAD magazine, b/c I seem to only do that in the summer? But, I can't find it anywhere. Is it gone or something?

We still have it at our library.

We subscribe, though that probably costs a fortune for you Canadians. It is the only magazine that every member of the family reads.

I have glanced at Mad Magazine at the library (when stuck in the teen room with 25 junior high kids), and wondered if it would stand the test of time, or just seem juvenile.

Or if I would miss most of it because I'm now totally out of touch with pop culture.

I tend to walk over to the drug store in the summer, and when I walk I tend to take my time, which means going through the magazines. That is when I noticed there was no MAD? So, I've been glancing at every magazine rack in every store since and have yet to find it...maybe they are boycotting Canada?

Or Canada is boycotting MAD?

It's only published around 6 times a year now. Maybe you're just hitting the stores between issues.

Last night I started re-reading by Tom Sharpe for the umpteenth time.

What struck me was how slowly it started with an almost 19th century description of setting with no real funny bits until the introduction of the characters - Constable Els in particular.

I've been meaning to read something by Sharpe for a while now. His books are a little hard to find (and occasionally quite expensive) in the US.

Melki wrote: "I've been meaning to read something by Sharpe for a while now. His books are a little hard to find (and occasionally quite expensive) in the US."

Some of them are not so good as the others. The later ones tend to be less good.

Wilt, Blot on the Landscape, Riotous assembly & Indecent Exposure, |Porterhouse Blue, those are the ones I'd start with, especially if they are expensive.

Currently reading Tom Holt's In Your Dreams. On a hot day. In a chair in the garden. Bliss.

(Something must have gone wrong. We're only supposed to get three hot days a year in England, and we've already had them. Better make the most of it while it lasts. There'll be hell to pay later.)

You'll probably be getting quite a few more of them thanks to global warming. Or else snow in August...who knows. But you're right, either way, there will be hell to pay.

If the ice age comes, I'll take refuge in the local library, like in 'The Day after Tomorrow': that way at least I'll have something to read.

If you must burn books to keep warm, start with Dan Brown.

Melki wrote: "If you must burn books to keep warm, start with Dan Brown."

Follow him with "Twilight."

Melki wrote: If you must burn books to keep warm, start with Dan Brown.

The only Dan Brown I've read is the first 20 pages of Digital Fortress. I couldn't stand any more.

Strange, I've read a few Dan Brown books and really enjoyed them, but, then again I wouldn't burn John Grisham books either.
I'd start with the James A. Michener books, they are so big and wordy they would burn for awhile.

Someone bought me The Da Vinci Code a few years back. It is still sitting forlornly on my bookshelf unread. If gas bills keep going up I might consider burning it next winter.

Damn. I've been buying Kindle books. Kindle books don't make good kindling.

I'm currently reading The Map of Time, which is well written but a bit slow to start. At the beginning it promises you time machines, but I'm on page 94 and we haven't had one yet. The author seems a bit embarrassed about this, and apologises for it on page 49, but I'm still waiting.

The book is translated from Spanish, and there are one or two oddities in it which may or may not sound better in Spanish than English. For instance: 'A young woman stood up from her desk in the corner and came over to Andrew and Charles. She walked with the grace of a rodent.' Er... sorry?

Hmmm...capybaras are rather graceful. Maybe he was referring to one of those.

I'll be interested to see what you think of that book. I had it on my to-read list for a while, but took it off after reading negative reviews from friends. Maybe it deserves to be back on the list so I can continue to not read it for several more years.

I've always thought of capybaras as lumbering. But in any case, if he meant capybaras, he should have said capybaras. 'Rodent' covers too many options. Guinea pigs are bigger behind than in front, and therefore tend to waddle; rats and mice scurry; rabbits go hippety-hop (I like the idea that the young woman hippety-hopped across the room). Gerbils... I don't know what gerbils do. And chipmunks move so fast you can't see how they move.

Of course, it could be a mistranslation. Maybe the Spanish use the same word for 'rodent' and 'gazelle'.

I'm reading the book because I found it cheap in a charity shop and it said it was about time machines. So far it's mostly been about Victorian hookers. I'm not against that, but it's not really what I bought it for.

Chris wrote: "Damn. I've been buying Kindle books. Kindle books don't make good kindling.

I hear Kindle versions of The Satanic Verses burn pretty well.

I'm now on page 120 of 'The Map of Time', and we are inching closer to an actual time machine. In fact H.G.Wells has now appeared as one of the characters in the novel. (I don't think I'm giving too much away here - it says on the back cover of the book that 'hidden in the attic of popular author H.G.Wells is a machine that will change everything', and given that we already know that the novel is about time travel, it's not likely to be a washing machine.)

Ah, but is this the real H.G.Wells? Apparently not, because at the front of the book there is the usual statement that 'Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.' This, then, must be an entirely different H.G.Wells, who, despite having written a book called 'The Time Machine' and living in Victorian England, has no connection at all with the real H.G.Wells. Perhaps Felix Palma is afraid that some descendant of Wells may take exception to the things Palma says about him - for example when he refers to 'the modest proportions and slight south-easterly curvature of his manhood'. Personally I'm fascinated to know how anyone's manhood could exhibit a south-easterly curvature. It must mean that it curves to the south-east irrespective of the direction in which its owner is facing: so if Wells turns left through ninety degrees, his manhood simultaneously turns right through ninety degrees. A remarkable organ: not so much a cock as a weather-cock.

I haven't made my mind up about this book yet, but it's certainly keeping me entertained.

So, his flag unfurled when he saw that woman walking gracefully like a capybara, and someone noticed its "south-easterly curvature." He would be quite useless as a sundial, wouldn't he?