What Are You Reading 4

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Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 26, 2008
7,734
2,850
Michigan, U.S.A.
Just finished reading Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh. Spent most of the time doubled over laughing! Now I'm reading Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items. I'm really enjoying it. The writer keeps it entertaining.
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
Patricia McKillip's Riddle of Stars trilogy, volume 1: The Riddle-Master of Hed (1976). A hero who is a questioner. The riddles have answers, but some of them involve ancient history, and all have lessons to be taken from them.
 

pip

Sergeant-at-Arms
Sep 3, 2010
8,765
2,850
KILDARE
Reading Ready Player Two. Not sure what to think Likeable character in the first book is a complete ass hat in this so it's a lost a lot of the fun.
 

Ghost

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 6, 2012
6,034
3,175
45
Blackcountry
just started From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death By Caitlin Doughty
and I have just ordered When smoke gets in your eyes by the same author
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
Just finished rereading Patricia McKillip's Riddle of Stars trilogy. Oddly, I recall a very different part of the third volume that isn't in this copy, and this paperback dates from the original publication in 1979. What did I read? Now I wonder if there was an early-version short story that I read in a magazine or something.
Writers did that a lot back then - they'd publish a short story and then expand it into a book, sometimes making major changes. Or expand a book into a series and later on make changes in the first book to make it fit better. It's even called retrofitting. Even Tolkein and T.H. White did it, come to think of it (in The Hobbit and in The Sword in the Stone). It's maddening
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
3,400
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Melbourne, Victoria
I'm currently re-reading "The Hobbit" -- a copy I picked up that was published in 1966!! =D

*dances the Sixties Samba* ;)
One of my favourite books especially Riddles in the Dark chapter.:mrgreen:
Ooh, I forgot to mention! :) The one I've got is the Third Edition (published by Allen and Unwin), with Tolkien's signature and illustrations done by Tolkien himself!! =D

*switches to the Tolkien Two-Step* ;)
 

=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
Wasn't Riddles in the Dark the chapter that had a retcon by Tolkien? I don't recall precisely but I think there something was changed in the details.
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
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Melbourne, Victoria
I can't remember if anything was changed in that chapter (the film omits one or two of the riddles), but I definitely remember that in "The Hobbit", Gandalf mentions that Radagast is his cousin. :oops: This definitely got changed later ;)
 

Quatermass

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 7, 2010
7,736
2,950
Yes, there was apparently a retcon. The original scene had Gollum and Bilbo part on better terms, but eventually, to better foreshadow the One Ring's malevolent nature and Gollum's nastiness, Tolkien apparently changed that scene, and claimed in-story in The Lord of the Rings that what happened in earlier editions was actually the story Bilbo gave Gandalf and the dwarves at first, but eventually, Gandalf got the real story out of him.
 
Likes: =Tamar

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
3,400
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Melbourne, Victoria
I've started reading Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, Stabbings and Broken Hearts. Quite interesting. :) I've enjoyed Shakespeare ever since I studied "King Lear" in my final year of school; I've read a few books about him, watched some of the plays done on stage, listened to the audio books. When I was in London some years ago, I went to visit the new Globe and see a play there. ;)

Anyway, the book itself is good so far. Interesting to note how lucky Shakespeare was -- he nearly died in infancy, he nearly died after writing just one minor play and one poem, he'd been in trouble with the law when younger. And the mortality rate at the time couldn't have helped. *shrug* Still, he lived to the grand old age of 53, at a time when the average age at death was 35.

So ... what if Shakespeare had died before writing all those plays of his (and giving us all those words and phrases we use today)? :oops: Someone else would've come up with something, I'm sure, but modern English wouldn't be the same. ;)

Now there's an idea! :) All these conspiracy theories about "who really wrote Shakespeare", etc. etc., blah blah blah -- FINE. :p So in a different Trouser of Time, Shakespeare dies young, and someone else has to step into his shoes. Who would it be? And how would he (or she!) take Shakespeare's place, especially without Shakey's family noticing? :mrgreen: Now there's a way to take the mick out of all those conspiracies ... ;)
 

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