Book Nerd’s Comments (group member since Dec 20, 2018)

Book Nerd’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

Happyshadowthoughts95 wrote: "Kids
The Gremlins 1943
James and the Giant Peach 1961 ✔️
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1964✔️
The Magic Finger 1966
Fantastic Mr Fox 1970✔️
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator 1972✔️
Danny, th..."
Good job. The kid's books you haven't read are pretty short so you could finish them before the end of the year.

Unfortunately I haven't gotten to any of the adult books like I was hoping to.

ForestGardenGal wrote: "Book Nerd wrote: "I'd ask if there is such a thing as an original idea. What is an original idea?
..."

Great question! I would like to suggest that an original idea comes from either analysis afte..."
I'd say even if you have a totally new and unique experience, like meeting alien life, you'd still interpret it through a lens of human experience, if that makes any sense.

ForestGardenGal wrote: "Funny, I read this in March before I joined the group. Tremendously fun story. I really enjoyed this plausible alternate history type of sci-fi! I didn't even realize there were other Professor Cha..."
I don't think it's that plausible really but it's fun.

The best part of the BFG to me was the dream mixing.

Mike wrote: "One interesting detail that caught my attention was the description of the video - that it was "good enough". Is Forster hinting that accepting "good enough" is the beginning of societal attrition?"
I'd say we accept "good enough" constantly because it's slightly easier. One thing that annoys me is that people are okay with watching tv on tiny cell phone screens when they have real life-sized tvs in their houses. They don't even bother to turn them sideways to make the picture slightly bigger.

Mike wrote: "It's of course easy to mock them for beginning to worship The Machine, but I wonder are we really much different? In my old pre-pandemic job I travelled to and from London fairly regularly. I would often sit in a coffee shop, waiting for my train, watching all the people around me. There would be couples sat opposite each other, heads in their phones, people walking out from the underground heading to the platforms, head down in their phones. The idolatory of the mobile phone is real!"
Yeah, we worship a lot of things, not just religion. I'd call cell phones more of an endorphin addiction but it's pretty much the same thing.

ForestGardenGal wrote: "With no direct experience, where do your ideas come from? Can there be originality without direct experience, or is everything necessarily regurgitated and recycled? Okay, this did end up being commented upon in Part III."
I'd ask if there is such a thing as an original idea. What is an original idea?

ForestGardenGal wrote: "How do they eat? Underground, no sunlight --> no photosynthesis --> limited plant life --> no agriculture nor game animals.... Is this a soylent green type situation?"
Yeah, there are probably automated farms in huge caverns. They probably do recycle the the usable nutrients in the bodies soylent green style too.

I just started Matilda. It's really fun watching her mess with her parents.

I actually just read it online because it was so short but it's worth picking up a physical copy.

Welcome Joe and Aya.

Welcome Sara. Wish I could retire next year.

Welcome PlotTwist. I haven't read A Tale of Two Cities yet but I definitely should.

Pat the Book Goblin wrote: "Any one interested in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived In the Castle or Haunting of Hill House?

Psycho by Robert Bloch, Hell House by Matheson, Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu, Poe?"

I'd read either of the first two. We read Psycho and Carmilla this year.

It's kind of odd that it's just a plateau. Plenty of things must have gotten up or down in millions of years. Usually lost world books are on an island.

ACD really seems to like dinosaurs that hop.

And in the end Ed didn't get the girl but he got rich. That's much better.

I forgot that at first they didn't think Professor Challenger was going with them.
Some day I have to read the other Professor Challenger books.

This was great!
Written when movies were relatively new, it really captures the world of smart phones, home delivery, and learning from youtube videos.
The part where they were trying to complain about the breakdown of the machine really reminds me of trying to get something done by talking to some automated call system or somebody on the other side of the planet.

Yeah, it's a fun read. A lot like an H. G. Wells story to me, and dinosaurs are always fun.

I'll read this tomorrow. Looks like I'm going to enjoy it.

The story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual now lives in isolation below ground in a standard room, with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Travel is permitted, but is unpopular and rarely necessary. Communication is made via a kind of instant messaging/video conferencing machine with which people conduct their only activity: the sharing of ideas and what passes for knowledge.

It's London, 1907. Journalist Edward Malone, rejected by the woman he loves because he is too prosaic, decides to go in search of adventure and fame to prove himself worthy of her. Soon after, he meets Professor George Challenger, a scientist who claims to have discovered a 'lost world' populated by pterodactyls and other prehistoric monsters.

Rosemarie wrote: "I suggest The Terror by Arthur Machen. It's a novella length book and sounds intriguing."
I'd like to read that.

Canavan wrote: "Book Nerd said (in part): I don't know about this because it's really long but I've been wanting to read Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rymer for years now.

I managed ..."
Yeah, I figured it wouldn't be good for a group read, just mentioned it. I'll probably keep putting it off lol.

Donna wrote: "I didn't know this was a book! I must look for it. it sounds like it would be a very interesting read!"
It is a good and pretty short read.

That sounds interesting. I'll check it out.