Better Than Starbucks discussion

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Beginnings (edited)
Hi Taps,
Happy Holidays! Well, for one reason or another, I must admit, that within my heart of hearts I tend towards darkness -in so many ways-therefore it is more than likely I will enjoy reading "The Road" authored by McCarthy. I will let you know how it goes story wise-thank you for your interest in my opinion of the book. McCarthy has won many big Book prizes , so if I do not enjoy I will be surprised.
Why I am choosing to read a book which will probably be disturbing during the middle of the Merry Christmas Season? What does this say about me? Who cares? And why is it all about me? O.K. Taps, I will stop asking silly yet relevant questions -guess I am not as dark as was thought in the previous paragraph-I feel better already. Seriously though... Merry Christmas.:)
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi Karin,
I tend towards being a liberal when giving out stars-if I read the book I give it 5 stars. I do not pride myself upon reading books I do not favor. In my off time I pretty much will not read a book that I think/feel is not specifically written for me-I take the ideology "to each his own" as a major factor in choosing what to read and utilize it to the fullest for the purest of reading pleasure.
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings (edited)
Greetings Mita,
Happy to hear you liked reading "The Road" I know McCarthy has umpteen awards for his writing and I usually do enjoy reading plenty of award winning authors. The difficulty is, am not very good at explaining exactly why I favor this or that book, however, I almost always know in a split second if I will love reading a book. For me, it is kind'of a mystery as to exactly why or why not I'll love a particular book-I just know it when I read it-sometimes from the first few lines! Often I will do quite a bit of the pre-reading stuff-book jacket- author investigations etc. perhaps this is why I'm rarely if ever disappointed with what I read-or perhaps I'm being close minded. Whatever the reason good books seem to find me!
posted 2 months ago.
mita
That's an in depth analysis of your reading habits Beginnings. May good books keep finding you :-)
posted 2 months ago.
Karin
Okay, Beginnings, I understand. Sometimes, though I play reading games in a different Shelfari group because I like to do that sort of thing, and sometimes I read a book one of my kids has to read, so I don't always read books I love. Plus, I rarely give out 5 stars; for me four stars means I really liked the book but didn't find it superlative. But to each her or his own.
posted 2 months ago.
Rina
Dystopia: an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.
It is the finest dystopian novel I have read. The story. The prose. The believability of the premise. I hope you enjoy The Road, Beginnings.
posted 2 months ago.
tapbirds
Beginnings: I agree, dark is good anytime of year . . . as long as it's good! :)
posted 2 months ago.
Karin
I have read some literary dystopian stories I found better. I tend to like hope in mine.
posted 2 months ago.
uplandpoet
i made it thru the first chapter and really hated it, made it a page or two into the 2nd chapter and realized life was too short to ever read another word he wrote, but i understand some folks actually liked it and him.
posted 2 months ago.
Riddley
I loved The Road. I also found it hard to read. This is from my review - "Love is so strong in this book that I was tempted not to finish as the thought of how it would end was almost too heartbreaking."
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings (edited)
Hi Karin,
To be a bit more honest than in my earlier reply, I have in fact given a low star rating to a book every once in awhile. I do make mistakes in choosing what to read, just like everyone else. "The Road"
does have "hope hidden" -so you might enjoy a re-read of the book.
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings (edited)
Hi Taps,
On the front of the book cover a scant mention of a miracle. I was intrigued to discover what exactly this miracle consisted of-turns out the book "The Road" is actually a very good reading
choice for the Christmas Season!
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi Rina,
I too enjoyed reading the book "The Road" authored by Cormac McCarthy. Looks as if the dystopian or post apocalyptic stories are not too far from actually reality..
"...Beyond the current global slowdown, the world faces several long-standing economic challenges. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, waste-disposal, epidemics, water-shortages, famine, over-fishing of oceans, deforestation, desertification, and depletion of non-renewable resources. The nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, services, funds, and technology..." Credit Central Intelligence Agency World FactBook
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Here is our fellow Shelfarian Riddley's blog about the book "The Road"
http://theknockingshop.blogspot.com/2... Thank You Riddley :)
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Yes Mita, I too hope they keep finding me.
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi Up,
As said before, "To each his own."
posted 2 months ago.
uplandpoet
so it is
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi again Taps,
Perhaps this is why you liked the book "The Road" http://thepostcalvin.com/cormac-mccar...
posted 2 months ago.
tapbirds
Thanks, Beginnings. I truly appreciated the article and the author's comparison of The Road to that of the incarnation. My favorite line: "Yet love, even in the face of searing pain, does not rid itself of hope." So true.
posted 2 months ago.
Sally S
I liked it.
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi Again BTS,
What is a bit disconcerting is that since we do not watch T.V. at home we have only watched one of the Presidential debates and I was discombobulated to hear Bernie Sanders state the exact quote I wrote here on Shelfari
"...Beyond the current global slowdown, the world faces several long-standing economic challenges. The addition of 80 million people each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the problems of pollution, waste-disposal, epidemics, water-shortages, famine, over-fishing of oceans, deforestation, desertification, and depletion of non-renewable resources. The nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods, services, funds, and technology..." Credit Central Intelligence Agency World FactBook
What does this mean? Am I already preordained to vote Bernie? I thought this was a bit stranger than fiction.
posted 2 months ago.
tapbirds
Beginnings: Resistance is futile!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyenR...
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi again Up,
Look what I found: Muscular Prose: Cormac McCarthy[edit]
Myers criticizes McCarthy for filling his sentences with bulky words that contain no real detail or meaning. He uses the following as an example from The Crossing: "He ate the last of the eggs and wiped the plate with the tortilla and ate the tortilla and drank the last of the coffee and wiped his mouth and looked up and thanked her." Myers follows: "This is a good example of what I call the andelope: a breathless string of simple declarative statements linked by the conjunction "and". Like the "evocative" slide-show and the Consumerland shopping-list, the andelope encourages skim-reading while keeping up the appearance of 'literary' length and complexity. But like the slide-show (and unlike the shopping-list), the andelope often clashes with the subject matter, and the unpunctuated flow of words bears no relation to the methodical meal that is being described."
McCarthy's prose, Myers quips, "is unspeakable in every sense of the word," implying that it is both awful and frequently difficult to imagine a person saying. McCarthy's use of archaisms is also brought under scrutiny. Credit: Wikipedia
posted 2 months ago.
uplandpoet
Among other things
posted 2 months ago. ( edit | reply | permalink | delete )
mef
Wow. Fascinating conversation to come in on the end of. (And "come in on the end of" is one of those weird English phrases that work, but shouldn't.) Beginnings, I have three different openings for my current piece of writing; if you know at a glance whether you'll like a book, I could ask you to read them and tell me whether any of the three strikes you as the opening of a book you'd like to spend time on. If you'd do it, and you like one of them, you could save me a lot of headaches... :-)
posted 2 months ago.
uplandpoet
send me a chapter and i will give you the same review. as i am pretty sure ive never read a second chapter of a book that had a weak 1st chapter and it is rare that i get thru chapter one and end up unhappy with the book.
posted 2 months ago.
mef
Might just do that...
posted 2 months ago.
uplandpoet
I await!
posted 2 months ago.
Karin
Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames
1.5 stars, rounded to 2
Although this book got off to a rollicking start and it seemed as though it would be 3 or 4 stars like most of the Wooster and Jeeves books this is a play on, and although there were some funny scenes, it just wasn't for me due to some of the key differences between the two fools, Bertie Wooster in the original and Alan Blair in this book.
Alan Blair is an American agnostic Jew, a struggling writer who received a quarter of a million dollars in a lawsuit and so hired a personal valet, Jeeves, and certainly he notes that he likes the name because of Wodehouse's books. I am not going to give a plot summary. Suffice to say that the reason this book failed for me is because much of the humour was darker, playing off of Blair's depression, neuroses and deep alcoholism, and while in the TV show Monk's neuroses were funny, I just don't find depression or alcoholism funny, nor drunk people. Although there was a marijuana scene I found rather funny, which was a bit of a surprise, but I don't want to say why in case this is a book you like.
Jonathan Ames can certainly write humour, it just wasn't my cup of tea.
posted 2 months ago.
mef
Thanks for posting. I might try it...
posted 2 months ago.
tapbirds (edited)
"The Amateur Naturalist" by Gerald Durrell ★★★★★
I read the "Amateur Naturalist" over 30 years ago and dreamed of someday designing a natural history laboratory in the way of Gerald and Lee Durrell. Alas, the years slipped by, and my dream remained unfulfilled. And then, surprisingly, I recently embarked upon a new teaching career in math and science. This has provided the wonderful opportunity to turn my classroom into the type of naturalist sanctuary envisioned by the Durrell's. I experience much joy when student's stay after class to explore and handle the many objects in the collection, many which are newly added each year. I am reminded of the words of the old Anglican hymn: "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small, All things wise and wonderful, The Lord God made them all."
posted 2 months ago.
Beginnings
Hi Taps,
Sounds as if you've found a peaceable kingdom for the season. :)
posted 2 months ago.
tapbirds
Beginnings: My kingdom, though small, is indeed peaceable and flourishing. During the upcoming winter break, I am thinking of adding a live snake to the menagerie. Perhaps a Mountain Kingsnake:
https://www.facebook.com/EBViv/photos...
posted 2 months ago.