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September 26
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New comment on Lisa's review of
Outlander
(see all 6 comments)
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September 09
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Lisa
gave
to:
The Three Musketeers (Modern Library Classics)
by Alexandre Dumas
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in May, 1986
Lisa said:
"If I was a Physicist, I would explain it like this: Athos, Porthos and Aramis are like the protons in an atom. D'Artagnan the neutrons that stabilize it. Actually, this would mean they are Lithium. So, keep them away from water. Or else...unfortunate...more
If I was a Physicist, I would explain it like this: Athos, Porthos and Aramis are like the protons in an atom. D'Artagnan the neutrons that stabilize it. Actually, this would mean they are Lithium. So, keep them away from water. Or else...unfortunately the King sends them on an expedition to the isles. Now, they would have to cross the channel to get there, would they not?
On their way, however, it shows that rivers and winecellars are no good either.
action - reaction. Everybody under their desks!
If I was a Musician, I would explain it like this: Athos, Porthos and Aramis are like the voices in a fugue. D'Artagnan is the rule that binds them. Actually, in their luckier Moments they are the Fugue No. 19, A major from the first book of das Wohltemperierte Klavier (the first note to be played fortissimo, their Subjects are condensed into that first note and unfurl accordingly in the course of the book). In the more tragic moments, however, they are the Fugue No. 18, G-Sharp minor. Watch out for the Tritone, Mylady strikes again!
If I was me, I would say, it is hard to describe how I love this. I have read it many times and I will re-read it forever probably. I will obsess about this one phrase about Myladys Lips forever probably. I will pity Fenton forever probably. I will pity Buckingham much less forever, probably. After all, he did not really retrieve the queen's honour, did he?...less
"
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September 08
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Lisa
gave
to:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Mass Market Paperback)
by Robert M. Pirsig
bookshelves:
thosebooks
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in September, 2007
Lisa said:
"About two weeks ago, someone borrowed me 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'. When he'd suggested the read to me, I'd made my 'You know, this title sounds a bit gimmicky, and is it any good?' face, so more serious measures were taken (not his...more
About two weeks ago, someone borrowed me 'Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance'. When he'd suggested the read to me, I'd made my 'You know, this title sounds a bit gimmicky, and is it any good?' face, so more serious measures were taken (not his own copy, one for library use among his acquaintance).
I was reading it on the way home, in the beginning, it reminded me a bit of 'Jarhead', which I had been reading last year at some time.
Then, on page 93, the book was suddenly released in a wild leap. For a short moment I was frozen midair. Oh, and you HAD my full attention, Robert Maynard Pirsig. Whatever you say.
As I was turning the pages (always an intimate gesture), the book in my hand felt very strange. Even though I don't care if a book is 'used', I almost never read one that does not actually belong to me. I knew I had to return it, but already started bartering with myself, figuring I could just get him a new one. This must be what it's like to sleep with somebody who's not yours to be either. Not that I knew.
So, it's a book that one should read. It is not necessarily one with which I agree in every point (especially about the philosophy of 'quality'), but it demonstrates its subject in a most unusual way, which is stunningly appropriate.
The only point at which I was inclined to shoot the (imaginary, you know, it's not like Pirsig is sitting in a room with me)author a dirty look is when he claims that John and Sylvia are no figures for plot use, since not developed in 'action' scenes. Robert M., you know they ARE the means of your rhetoric demonstration, and they ARE discarded when you don't need them any more.
But I think the demonstration itself is high. quality....less
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Lisa
gave
to:
La Reine Margot (Oxford World's Classics)
by Alexandre Dumas
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in March, 1998
Lisa said:
"The name is Mole. De la Mole. This is our man. The topic...you know, it has probably be done before, and afterwards, and in more intellectual ways (see all of the Henri IVs by Thomas Mann), but it never gets quite as gripping as here. There is the Ki...more
The name is Mole. De la Mole. This is our man. The topic...you know, it has probably be done before, and afterwards, and in more intellectual ways (see all of the Henri IVs by Thomas Mann), but it never gets quite as gripping as here. There is the King, there is the Queen, there is the Executioner, there is Fate whirring by your ears like hot lead. There is Blood everywhere.
In one word this is KQEFB.
This sums it up. about. Not really. Just read it....less
"
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Lisa
gave
to:
Pixy (Paperback)
by Max Andersson
bookshelves:
schwarzeromantik
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2002
Lisa said:
"To celebrate a weekend that was generally quite un-pleasurable, today I finished 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', which I had picked up at the airport (I know). It did do nothing much to humour me.
Really, I give Bryson that his father w...more
To celebrate a weekend that was generally quite un-pleasurable, today I finished 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', which I had picked up at the airport (I know). It did do nothing much to humour me.
Really, I give Bryson that his father was a very good sports writer, even the short paragraphs of his work that the book features show that (I keep repeating to myself 'the lordly Yankees') , but Bryson himself? 'Laugh-out-loud'? Not that I would have noticed....anyway...in one paragraph which proves to be interesting after all, Bill Bryson recounts his missing out on his paper route, because he was too bogged down in private fantasies; one of which was, how 'Bizarro world' would work.
'Bizarro World was a planet that featured in some issues of Superman Comics. The inhabitants of Bizarro World did everything in reverse - walked backwards, drove backwards, switched televisions off when thy wanted to watch and on when they didn't, drove through red lights but stopped at green ones, and so on. Bizarro World bothered me enormously because it was so impossibly inconsistent. The people didn't actually speak backwards,but just talked in a kind of primitive cave man 'me no like him' type of English, which was not the same thing at all. Anyway, living backwards simply couldn't be made to work. At the gas station they would habe to take fuel out of their cars rather than put it in, so how would they make their cars go? Eating meals would mean sucking poo up through their anus, sending it through the body and ejecting it in mouth-sized lumps on to forks and spoons. It wouldn't be satisfactury at all.'
Of course, I didn't think that all this couldn't be make to work, but rather sided with Willoughby, Bryson's more brainy friend. Since all laws of science would have to be reversed as well, there would be no primes any more.
One place where all of this is perfectly envisioned is 'PIXY' by Max Andersson, one of the best comic books I've ever known.
In the realm of the dead, Andersson shows the people to live backwards, and, what shall I say - they eject mouth-sized lumps on their forks and spoons (mercifully, one is spared the 'sucking up' part).
So there I was, at my ease, considering what it would be like for the time to go backward, through heartbreak and love to a time of innocence....less
"
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Lisa
gave
to:
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (Paperback)
by Bill Bryson
bookshelves:
plain_vanilla
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in August, 2007
Lisa said:
"To celebrate a weekend that was generally quite un-pleasurable, today I finished 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', which I had picked up at the airport (I know). It did do nothing much to humour me.
Really, I give Bryson that his father w...more
To celebrate a weekend that was generally quite un-pleasurable, today I finished 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', which I had picked up at the airport (I know). It did do nothing much to humour me.
Really, I give Bryson that his father was a very good sports writer, even the short paragraphs of his work that the book features show that (I keep repeating to myself 'the lordly Yankees') , but Bryson himself? 'Laugh-out-loud'? Not that I would have noticed....anyway...in one paragraph which proves to be interesting after all, Bill Bryson recounts his missing out on his paper route, because he was too bogged down in private fantasies; one of which was, how 'Bizarro world' would work.
'Bizarro World was a planet that featured in some issues of Superman Comics. The inhabitants of Bizarro World did everything in reverse - walked backwards, drove backwards, switched televisions off when thy wanted to watch and on when they didn't, drove through red lights but stopped at green ones, and so on. Bizarro World bothered me enormously because it was so impossibly inconsistent. The people didn't actually speak backwards,but just talked in a kind of primitive cave man 'me no like him' type of English, which was not the same thing at all. Anyway, living backwards simply couldn't be made to work. At the gas station they would habe to take fuel out of their cars rather than put it in, so how would they make their cars go? Eating meals would mean sucking poo up through their anus, sending it through the body and ejecting it in mouth-sized lumps on to forks and spoons. It wouldn't be satisfactury at all.'
Of course, I didn't think that all this couldn't be make to work, but rather sided with Willoughby, Bryson's more brainy friend. Since all laws of science would have to be reversed as well, there would be no primes any more.
One place where all of this is perfectly envisioned is 'PIXY' by Max Andersson, one of the best comic books I've ever known.
In the realm of the dead, Andersson shows the people to live backwards, and, what shall I say - they eject mouth-sized lumps on their forks and spoons (mercifully, one is spared the 'sucking up' part).
So there I was, at my ease, considering what it would be like for the time to go backward, through heartbreak and love to a time of innocence....less
"
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June 23
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Lisa
gave
to:
Gegen den Strich. (Taschenbuch)
by Joris-Karl Huysmans
bookshelves:
schwarzeromantik
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Lisa
gave
to:
Tief unten. (Paperback)
by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Ulrich Bossier
bookshelves:
schwarzeromantik
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in June, 2002
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Lisa
gave
to:
Les élixirs du diable (Paperback)
by E.T.A. Hoffmann
bookshelves:
schwarzeromantik
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in September, 2006
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Lisa
gave
to:
Gordon (Paperback)
by Edith Templeton
bookshelves:
urge
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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