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

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

I read the first half last night. The whole jaunting thing and how it threw the world into chaos is interesting. And in the fifties they thought tattoo removal would be the greatest medical challenge lol.
I really didn't get The Matrix at all.

I've been looking forward to this one. I've never read Alfred Bester and it looks really great.

In this pulse-quickening novel, Alfred Bester imagines a future in which people "jaunte" a thousand miles with a single thought, where the rich barricade themselves in labyrinths and protect themselves with radioactive hitmen—and where an inarticulate outcast is the most valuable and dangerous man alive.

The Stars My Destination is a classic of technological prophecy and timeless narrative enchantment by an acknowledged master of science fiction.

Welcome Claudia.

Lesle wrote: "I purchased one BookNerd, adult book, but I am not sure what the title was or where it even is. Im sure it is in my library that I forgot to log on My Bookshelf :("
Yeah, I buy books and then don't read them for years too. :)

Jen wrote: "I like that. Adding to TBR"
Collected Fictions has all of his fiction as far as I know but if you don't get that the stories in Ficciones and El Aleph were my favorites.

That black balloon looks like Marilyn Manson to me.

I haven't talked about it much but I'm still working my way through Collected Fictions by Borges. Almost done now.
Some of it's great, some not. Lots of Argentine cowboys and tough guys. Naturally I like the weird trippy stuff best.

Here's a quote I love from A Weary Man's Utopia:
"What Happened to the governments?" I inquired.
"It is said they gradually fell into disuse. Elections were called, wars were declared, taxes were levied, fortunes were confiscated, arrests were ordered, and attempts were made at imposing censorship-but no one on the planet paid any attention. The press stopped publishing pieces by those it called it's 'contributors', and also publishing their obituaries. Politicians had to find honest work; some became comedians, some witch doctors-some excelled in those occupations."

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.