What Are You Reading? 3

[=Tamar]

I just read Set This House In Order by Matt Ruff. It's an intricate story of MPD (now called DID, but in the era in which it is set, it was called MPD). Despite being told from several points of view, I think it's more coherent than his earlier book, Fool On The Hill.

 

[RathDarkblade]

I am reading Where God Went Wrong by Oolon Colluphid. Very interesting book.

 

[=Tamar]

I'm rereading The Midnight Folk, by John Masefield. I think he lost control of it a bit toward the end, but he doesn't quite wipe out the magic by saying it was all a dream at the end, the way he did with the other book.

 

[Sister Jennifer]

I'm currently rereading Fahrenheit 451. It's a book that has weathered the time since it was written and is still relevant today - possible more so.

Oh my word, yes. Read that one earlier on in the year. An amazing novel.

Just started reading The Grapes Of Wrath. Finally.

Recently read Night Watch, Interview With The Vampire, Salem's Lot, A Brief History of Seven Killings and a Little Britain biography.

I went to a Life Line book fest the other weekend and picked up some awesome books. The best find was a hardback edition of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (trilogy in 4 parts), it's in really good condition. I also picked up a copy of The Fifth Element which I'm looking forward to reading as the movie is one of my favourite sci-fi films. No Discworld books unfortunately.

Happy reading

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

SJen ,was it the American edition with the sphere and red tongue sticking out.

 

[Sister Jennifer]

Oh no, it's a British publishing house - Heinmann. It's the same edition as the first ever Hitchikers novel I bought years ago which is why I'm chuffed to have found it. My copy of the same has lost it's dust jacket and has been read umpteen times. I have a couple of paperback editions but not the same of course. I have a Mostly Harmless paperback with the green guy with the red tongue.

So here's a pic -

 

[janet]

That cover looks VERY familiar Sister J. I'm sure I have that edition somewhere.
Finally reading American Gods and wondering why I waited so long.

 

[Sister Jennifer]

I think American Gods was the first Neil Gaiman novel I read after Good Omens. that was me, hook, line and sinker. It was a while ago and I'd like to read the book again before watching the Tv show but it's not likely I will.

I'm super happy you're enjoying it.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Oh no, it's a British publishing house - Heinmann. It's the same edition as the first ever Hitchikers novel I bought years ago which is why I'm chuffed to have found it. My copy of the same has lost it's dust jacket and has been read umpteen times. I have a couple of paperback editions but not the same of course. I have a Mostly Harmless paperback with the green guy with the red tongue.

So here's a pic -

This is mine I prefer it to the UK one, it also has an extra story in it while the UK one only had the four and is the 1989 edition.

 

[Sister Jennifer]

That's a great cover alright and looks in mint condition. Makes me ashamed of the state of my first copy considering I'm really the only person that's handled it. It's had a lot of reading and travelled quite a bit with me since I bought it in the very early 90's.

What's Young Zaphod Plays It Safe about?

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

The story is a prequel to the events in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and has the young Zaphod Beeblebrox working as a salvage ship operator. He guides some bureaucrats to a crashed spaceship that may be leaking some dangerous materials, radioactive, toxic and otherwise hazardous by-products which were destined to be thrown into a black hole. The bureaucrats swear that it is "perfectly safe." When asked why they want to see it if that is true, they claim that they "like looking at things that are perfectly safe." The comic asides in the story include some of the time travel paradoxes which are a common running theme in Adams' SF work, and plenty of material about lobsters.
Since this was before Zaphod blocked off sections of his own brain for the presidency, readers are able to glimpse what his original personality was like. His general speech patterns and goof-off personality are the same, but he seems to have moral views and is more likely to go off on life-threatening and exciting quests for the greater good.
Throughout the story, it is emphasised that there is something particularly dangerous on board that ought to have been utterly destroyed, but is feared to have escaped.
Ultimately, it is revealed that the something was actually three identical "Designer People". The personalities seem totally benign, which is what makes them so dangerous. The ship is filled with substances so dangerous that they are safe because no one who would actually use them would be let near. The personalities, products of a Sirius Cybernetics Corporation project, however, have custom personalities that could not naturally exist. There is "nothing they will not do if allowed, and there is nothing they will not be allowed to do." Since no one will recognise that they are capable of mass destruction (despite their good intentions), no one will stop them from doing the unspeakable.
The story culminates with the revelation that one of the personalities has escaped and headed off into Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, which is where Arthur and Ford Prefect were picked up by the Heart of Gold a fraction of second before they would have perished (and just minutes after they had been rescued from the demolished Earth in the same sector), in the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Though it does not state it specifically, the story implies that this unspeakably dangerous creation is now known to the planet Earth as then-President Ronald Reagan, a reflection of the author's critical views about the policies of then-President Reagan which also surface in Mostly Harmless. A version of the story included in the posthumously-published The Salmon of Doubt makes this explicit.
This link below should be the full story in pdf format if it works.
http://lib.ru/ADAMS/dayz1_.txt

 

[Sister Jennifer]

Another thing I totally forgot about. I just grabbed my copy of Salmon Of Doubt and am gonna read that right now. I only remembered the Dirk Gently story from that book.

You're awesome Dug, thanks a million.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Another thing I totally forgot about. I just grabbed my copy of Salmon Of Doubt and am gonna read that right now. I only remembered the Dirk Gently story from that book.

You're awesome Dug, thanks a million.

Sssss!! don't tell everyone SJen. I might believe it.

 

[Sister Jennifer]

I reread The Salmon If Doubt in particular Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. Thanks again, dugstar

Am about to read a Neil Gaiman comic called Marvel 1602 which I'm looking forward to.

 

[The Mad Collector]

Just finished a second read through of Apothecary Melchior and the Ghost of Rataskaevu Street by Indrek Hargla. This is only the second book of this series to be translated into English from the original Estonian. My Estonian friend and her mother are both big fans of the originals and she gave me this book for my birthday hoping I would also like it. It is a murder mystery set in Tallinn back in the 1410's so a sort of Estonian Brother Cadfael and most enjoyable, especially as I recognised the streets and landmarks mentioned as the old part of the city is still laid out as it was 600 years ago, here's hoping more get translated.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I've just started Glen Cook's latest in his Garret PI series" Wicked Bronze Ambition" all the titles have a metallic name in them, fantasy its a cross between Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer type PI and a Ankh Morpork type city. He's a guy who has returned from a five year mandatory stint in a Vietnam type war.

 

[Dotsie]

I'm reading Extracted, by RR Haywood. Time travel high jinks.

 

[=Tamar]

I just finished \"A Discovery of Witches\" by Deborah Harkness, which is okay I suppose. It has a very unusual set-up which unfortunately devolves into the standard, though I did like the invention of the daemons as embodying creativity. The use of DNA was also well done and added a little freshness to the plot. Still, I don\'t intend to read the rest of the trilogy. It\'s well written and all that, but I\'m just very tired of the witch-loves-vampire storyline.

 

[Dotsie]

Just finished Howl\'s Moving Castle, following Tamar\'s recommendation Very entertaining

 

[Dotsie]

That post looks weird, and every time I try to edit it, it just gets weirder! It does not like the apostrophe for some reason.