Incest, war, teenage girl-on-girl experimental sex, deadheads, undescended testes, and a 2 inch penis.

That really gets one's attention on the update page. Now I know why Oprah loved this book so much. Fucking Steadman-lovin' pervert.

Maybe Oprah and Steadman roleplayed the characters. You know what I mean.

Unfortunately, I do know what you mean. I thank you for the mental image, by the way. Now I know what I'll dream about tonight.

oooh... let's re-enact with sock puppets. This is Amanda's specialty, correct?

Robert, why are you following me all the time? Methinks you protest too much, my dearest little polyp...

Wait a sec. Does that mean I'm going to be forced to read and Oprah book club pick? Damnit.

alright, i find myself in the oprah-apologist position way too frequently, but c'mon people... much of the time, oprah's picks are pretty great.

i, for one, have no problem being 'forced' to read:

Faulkner
Tolstoy
Garcia Marquez
Steinbeck
McCarthy

all oprah picks.

elitist as i am... i complain enough about the schlock that most people read that i must commend the woman on getting midwest housewives to read Sound and the Fury. or getting Anna Karenina on the nytimes best seller list. (!!!)

deal with it, ya whiney bitches.

"Ya whiney bitches" -- Er, first off, go fuck yourself, Brian. With all due respect.

Secondly, I swear you stole that "getting housewives to read Faulkner" bit from me, as I've said almost the exact same thing several times all over Goodreads. Try comment no. 38 here, for example.

aw... david. i wish i disagreed with you as you're just too much fun to cyber-debate.

oh, and nice how you figured out how to hack into the system to strategically place your oprah endorsements as if they appeared before mine...

Ah. Now the "Kim likes books with undescended testes" comment makes sense.

I agree that anything that gets people to read is great. Even better if it gets them to read the classics and good literary fiction.

But I hate that stupid Oprah sticker. It's even worse when it's not a sticker at all, but part of the cover. I feel like someone mught think I'm only reading it because Oprah told me to. I don't know why that bothers me, but it does. It's like movie tie-in covers. I hate those too.

i hate buying books with that DAMN OPRAH STICKER ON IT!

I agree with the WORST PART...does Oprahs name need to be on everything?

I believe this is one of few remaining examples of brian-David pre-lover clashes? This is a valuable piece of history and provides crucial evidence for tales recently related to me (although it's a rather tame example).

Yes, I cruise/stalk this site for meaningful and/or momentous Goodreads history. It's a weird tic; don't worry about it.

If you bring attention to it, then it might just disappear.

I bet there is someone out there that has kept this stuff... like scrapbooking... maybe with feathers and glittery stones decorating the goth fag and the morrissey fan...

Yes! I had forgotten where this exchange occurred...!

At least if brian had to be a thief, he was wise enough to steal from the best...

Wow, this is nothing compared to the discussions they get into nowadays...

Robert didn't just leave GR - he left GR along with all of his comments. As much as I hate seeing "deleted member," I hate it even more when people erase all traces of themselves (although at times it is tempting).

P.S. Bram, you want GR history, talk to us. Kim and I remember everything. Well, maybe not everything, but a lot of things.

Great find, Bram!

Wow, this is nothing compared to the discussions they get into nowadays...

But back then the hostility was real. Now it's just a smokescreen for our love.

It's too bad comment number 38 is missing. No more deleting profiles, people!

It's hard to believe the hostility was real. Then again, don't most love stories start out with two people hating one another?

I just noticed that brian said he doesn't have a problem being forced to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Lies. Propaganda. Spin.

He hates Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Comment no. 38 was from Harry Potter Michelle's review of Middlesex, as I recall... H.P.M. has deleted her profile at least two or three times...

So you just had to have credit for being the first to defend Oprah? I guess the hostility must have been real to fight over that small scrap of distinction.

RE: 21.

I can sort of see doing it once, but multiple times? I don't know how Maurice and Tami do it. They are the reigning king and queen of profile deletions.

Dave wrote: "So you just had to have credit for being the first to defend Oprah? I guess the hostility must have been real to fight over that small scrap of distinction."

No. It was that he was using my exact wording against me to defend her (only he didn't remember it was my wording).

By the way, is there lead-based paint in your apartment?

I look forward to Bram finding the thread in which they have their first kiss...

Any guesses as to what book it took place in? A peck on the cheek for a well-articulated Tolstoy review? An all-out makeout session in a Salinger? I say we take bets.

Michelle and Kim, you better believe that I'm going to hit you up for story time soon.

You mean the final, lasting David-brian make-up occurred in a single thread? This may be the holy grail of threads.

Question: is the idiom "white whale" perfectly synonymous with "holy grail"?

Don't know, it may have been a process, but I trust you'll find the signs and signals if it was a courtship of slow progression.

I think the rapprochement happened behind closed doors. Sorry to disappoint. I think a Godard avatar I posted had gottriguez sniffing my bunghole via PM. The rest is cyberhistory.

Damn! Ah well, I guess I'll have to do work today. Although, there was a shooting 10 feet away from my cubicle yesterday (while I was here), and I'm a bit more distracted than usual this morning.

What?! What the hell happened? Holy crap.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mass...

It was crazy.

That is absolutely insane! Are they having counseling today? Were you aware that it was going on or was it in another room?

I think we are going to have some kind of discussion. Our office (biostatistics) is connected to the bipolar clinic, so I could hear her screaming from the stab wounds...and then the shouting and the gunshots. There's a thin wall separating us and a few doorways (one of which I'm right next too). I was half expecting the shooter to come flying through there (before we found out he was an officer). That was the main reason it was so scary--the officer was off-duty and in plain clothes so no one knew if he was dangerous/what was going on.

Holy hell. I'm glad you're okay!

Thanks Michelle!

I won't let office bullets get in the way of my Goodreading.

Spoken like a true GR addict - I love it!

(I'm glad the doctor is going to be okay, by the way.)

Emily wrote: "I agree with the WORST PART...does Oprahs name need to be on everything?"

Here's the answer: Put a snoopy sticker over top of the Oprah sticker. That always makes me feel better. I still know it's there, but I don't have to look at her stupid name.

Her stupid name, Gretchen?

I hate you.

Bram wrote: "I think we are going to have some kind of discussion. ..."

Holy hell Bram! Glad you are ok. We'll put you on PTS watch. If you start reading Koontz and raving about Roth we'll have to have an intervention.

And am I totally freaky voyeuristic because I was looking through the photos searching for Bram in the crowds?

Haha, Michelle. I did the same thing!

It's unacceptable to have to deal with such symptoms. Have you checked for a UTI? just curious as my symptoms went off the charts 2 weeks ago and it turned out to be infection. Would hate to see you suffer unnecessarily.

You know, first David is in his office and a car drives through the wall. Then a shooting happens when Bram's on GR.

Are people out to get us? Have Zoe, Harry Potter Michelle, and other profile deleters gathered as a Legion of Doom, if you will, to take out GR regulars? What is happening?

I sneaked (snuck?) out a side door so as to avoid the media! Didn't want them calling/harassing me all evening (I had messages on my work phone this morning). Plus, I had to get corralled into a conference room with the police and all the 'witnesses' while that press conference was going on outside.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand what David is talking about? I could swear I just saw him post that somewhere else...(Edit: oh, that's in reference to Koontz/Roth, right?--see, I'm still out of it.)

RA, I hadn't thought of that, but you may be onto something.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand what David is talking about?

Actually what I posted shouldn't make sense. It's taken verbatim from a Facebook thread wherein the status updater talked about her pain while urinating.

I scraped off the Oprah sticker.