The Not a Book Club Club discussion
Random Musings..
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Then I'll catch back up with Malazan, and read S&L Sept pick in time to read Red Skies on the 15th.
Then catch up with Malazan again (this has been a running theme most of the year, though more so in the last few months than at the start of our read), read S&L October pick in time for The Republic of Thieves. Then, catch up on ...you get the picture..
In theory. lol.
Kat wrote:Nah, I don't want to commit to books that much either. I've too much other stuff to do. :( That moment, when reality sneaks up on you...so annoying.
Rob wrote: "I want to join the Swedish club!!! But I only speak so-so English, and bad Spanish. Haha, German and Swedish tend to have the same roots. So if you really concentrate, you can get the meaning of every third sentence or so.
I listen to a lot of swedish Heavy Metal and sometimes I get a bit of it.
But English is the only foreign language I'm really fluent in. I learned a bit of Russian, studied Japanese, worked 3 years in France, but nothing did really stick.
I'm Swedish, but the only Swedish I know I learned off the Swedish Chef
I am really keen to read Lies of Lock Lamora, so you can count me in for that read.
Mod
Oh cool. I thought you had read that already for some reason.
David Sven wrote: "I'm Swedish, but the only Swedish I know I learned off the Swedish Chef"I tried to think out a Swedish joke about this here but I failed.
Mpauli wrote: "Rob wrote: "I want to join the Swedish club!!! But I only speak so-so English, and bad Spanish.
Haha, German and Swedish tend to have the same roots. So if you really concentrate, you can get the..."
I wonder if it's easier for Swedes to grasp German than the other way around? I always thought it's a piece of cake, but I've German roots, I've heard it all my life, so while I don't speak it well I understand most of it anyway... german parties ftw honestly. LOVE GERMAN PARTIES.
Languages are a lot of fun, Mpauli. I studied both German and Italian next to Swedish and English. I wanna brush the former two up though, I've lost my touch. I might take some classes in French soon...
Rob wrote: "I want to join the Swedish club!!! But I only speak so-so English, and bad Spanish.
The plus for me is (or maybe the sad fact of the matter?), apart from work, a monthly tabletop night at my hous..."
Honestly Rob, I think I might drop it soon since the people who were active in it seem to be dropping off one by one. But it's so much fun picking out books! Which is like, the best thing about running it, lol.
But there is always Google Translate for the inventive one http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/9...
My commuter route is 25 minutes, so not too much useful time there...
Kat wrote:"LOVE GERMAN PARTIES "Yay! We had some awesome parties back in my university days.
Double birthday party with between 80-120 guests in a two-room apartment. That was fun!
Kat wrote:But there is always Google Translate for the inventive one
Or Babelfish, I did most of my french taxes with Babelfish.^^
Kat wrote: "I tried to think out a Swedish joke about this here but I failed"Why did the Swedish Chef cross the road? I can't remember if he was chasing the chicken or if the chicken was chasing him.
I made that one up if no one guessed. I do requests every other Tuesday
Mod
Oh and Kat, my commute is only about 20 minutes each way, but it adds up, especially when I started to listen while getting ready. That adds another 20-30 minutes each day.
Mod
Rob wrote: "I love German food/beer, does that count? My family is mostly Polish and some German.Of course that counts! :)
And don't get me started on beer...we might need to rename the thread to "Anyone else want to drink?"^^
Rob wrote: "I love German food/beer, does that count? My family is mostly Polish and some German. There is an authentic German restaurant about 90 minutes from me. The owner and the chef are both German immigr..."It does count Rob!
Ah, alright. I don't do audio, I just read the books, but I see how you get a lot read that way.
Well, I did want to do the Swedish Thing because I only partake in English groups and speak so much English as it is... but since the interest has cooled... I mainly do contemporaries and classics though, I'm not sure it'd hit it here?
David Sven wrote: "Kat wrote: "I tried to think out a Swedish joke about this here but I failed"
Why did the Swedish Chef cross the road? I can't remember if he was chasing the chicken or if the chicken was chasing ..."
I have a request for next Tuesday! Topic of your choosing. Ponder this.
Mpauli wrote: "Kat wrote:"LOVE GERMAN PARTIES "
Yay! We had some awesome parties back in my university days.
Double birthday party with between 80-120 guests in a two-room apartment. That was fun!
Kat wrote:But..."
That does sound like a warm party, and probably awesome too :)
Yes, epic parties in general! Especially those where your 75+ omas agree to shot ouzo with you and your cousin. That was probably one of the single most surprising and awesome moments of my life, heh.
Does Babelfish still exist? That's so early 2000's for me!
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My game nights average between 4-8, and that's more than enough for me :-)
I'm not a big drinker either, Rob. I had my fair share of drinking a bunch and party trips from 18-22ish... geez.I love big parties, but that's probably because I have a huge family.
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Rob wrote: "I'm actually not a big drinker myself. I did a 1 liter boot once, and that nearly did me in. Lol. My friends were doing the 2 liter."Ah, tody it's the same for me. I just drink rather occassionally at 2-3 parties a year and sometimes while watching football (soccer) with my dad or somme friends.
But during my university days in Cologne, we were in Pubs like 4-5 nights a week.
On a "quiet evening" we just met with 3-5 people watched some tv or something like that and drank 2 liter. These evenings were called "non-drinking-nights", lol.
Sometimes when we sit together now, we ask ourselves how we did it, but somehow it worked.^^
You people are nuts. Biggest party I've thrown was like 20 people.
It's scary how quick a guest list can explode. My friend studied economics, I did social science and Japanese, so we invited different people from university. When you add old friends, some younger family members and non University acquaintences to the mix, half of them bringing significant others themselvesm you'll reach 80 rather quickly.
Does Babelfish still exist? That's so early 2000's for me!
It did when I did my taxes with it in 2010.^^
Mod
This year I'm not having it, but I'm going to grill a little for this month's game night.
Man, talk about off topic. The moderators of this group sure are lousy.
Rob wrote: Man, talk about off topic. The moderators of this group sure are lousy."Rob wrote: Also Kat, you're always welcome to organize reads here instead, unless you're set on the Swedish thing. If you end up doing a lot I could probably consider making you a mod or something.
Maybe she could bring order to this group!
Kat wrote: Yes, epic parties in general! Especially those where your 75+ omas agree to shot ouzo with you and your cousin. That was probably one of the single most surprising and awesome moments of my life, heh.
Or maybe not...forkat about it.
I really like this group! :)
And to go back on topic...I'm doing Before They Are Hanged now before I get hanged here. ;)
Mpauli wrote: "football (soccer)"You call it football! :) 10 points!! Who do you support? I'm an Arsenal fan. My Dad is from north London so it's a birth thing, not a choice thing :P
I think you guys need to plan a visit to SA and come to one of our house parties. We have a rather huge extended group of friends so they get fairly large. Randall and I (he's the friend I always stay with when I visit Joburg and I'm renting his spare room when I move back) have thrown some very epic parties in the last 2 years. We may be in our 30s now, but we can still party :)
As for the actual topic of this thread - every month I read the two books chosen by the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club, I plan to finish the SoIaF series before I start the Malazen series, and I'm working my way through our book club bookshelf. I've challenged myself to have read 50 by the end of the year. I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? so I'm on 30. Out of 141 :P Tonight I'll start Before They Are Hanged and jump into the discussion tomorrow.
I spent nearly 6 months partying at Bikini Beach (near Gordons Bay) so I can attest to SA house parties. In fact i even got tear gassed, twice, for an illegal gathering, (those two words are best said with a heavy dutch afrikaans accent). But then half the police later to join the party when their shift finished. Crazy times.
Lee wrote: "I spent nearly 6 months partying at Bikini Beach (near Gordons Bay) so I can attest to SA house parties. In fact i even got tear gassed, twice, for an illegal gathering, (those two words are best said with a heavy dutch afrikaans accent). But then half the police later to join the party when their shift finished. Crazy times. "Wow! That's a great story :) I can't say I've ever been tear gassed at a party before, but then our parties tend to stay on private property in Joburg, while Cape Town parties to have a tendency to run onto the beach. Cops joining the party later is fairly common here. Weirdly enough they often supplied the pot (this happened to me twice about 12 years ago) in exchange for beer. Ah good times!
I have to admit to these events happening some time ago. How long? Well Mandela was still in jail and that year was the first year that the black population was allowed to go onto the white beaches. This upset the 'Vaalies' no end. Aparthied was still going and large groups of people, no matter what colour, gathering caused a few of the local police to get nervous. At a pub on the beach front got a bit full, people left the stoop and started to spill out into the carpark (sundowners at 4pm). The answer was to let off a couple of cannisters of tear gas and throw it into the crowd.
But you can imagine, 6 months at Bikini Beach was plenty of time to spend not worrying about too much :)
Penny wrote: "Mpauli wrote: "football (soccer)"You call it football! :) 10 points!! Who do you support? I'm an Arsenal fan.
No way! A fellow Gooner! It's kind of weird for a German, but I'm an Arsenal supporter aswell.
As a kid I always liked the cannon on their crest. When I started getting interested into international footbal all my favourite players of the time (Petit, Adams, Bergkamp, Overmaas) all played for the Gunners.
So, next to te German Bundesliga, I also follow English Premier League and Champion's League football regularly, at least every Arsenal game.
I've been to the old Highbury in 2006 watching Arsenal vs. Liverpool.
I also try to see them as often as I can, when they play Champion's League here in Germany.
Mod
Seems like we need a general chatter topic or something.
Rob wrote: "Hmm. I think I need to change the name of this thread and make another thread for suggesting group reads.Seems like we need a general chatter topic or something."
Agreed! We do tend to get off topic in this group in general though :P (Sorry, the rest of my post doesn't help at all).
Mpauli wrote: "No way! A fellow Gooner!"
Awesome! I assumed you'd just support a German team but it's nice to know we can also talk English Premier League when it starts up again :) My Dad is a proper football lover so he watches every game, I catch most Arsenal games but I'm not quite as dedicated as he is. He said we played beautifully this weekend when we won 7-0. I've been to the Emirates once to watch Arsenal beat Sunderland in 2007 or 2008. It's good fun live!
Lee wrote: "I have to admit to these events happening some time ago. How long? Well Mandela was still in jail and that year was the first year that the black population was allowed to go onto the white beaches..."
Ah, that makes a lot of sense then. I was only 10 when Mandela was elected president so although I technically lived through the transition from apartheid I don't have much personal experience of it. The cops back then were a very different story, but then so was the country. Have you been back to SA post 1994 out of interest?
Mod
Crack that whip! :) Yes we do need a general chat thread so thanks for making this one Random Musings. I think you can be a bit strict with the group read suggestions thread.
Mod
It will inevitably lead to a bit of book discussion..but I'll have to draw the line to partying, beer, and soccer.. ^_^
Rob wrote: "It will inevitably lead to a bit of book discussion..but I'll have to draw the line to partying, beer, and soccer.. ^_^ "Rofl! You're such a hardass :)
Rob wrote: but I'll have to draw the line to partying, beer, and soccer.. ^_^ Haha, yeah...talking about Fever Pitch wouldn't help that much, I guess.^^
Penny wrote: He said we played beautifully this weekend when we won 7-0.
I just read about it. At the moment, I'm enjoying a bit of football free time during the summer break and just check up on the latest transfer talk (please let it be Higuain and not Suarez!)
Although, who am I kidding...it's women's European Championship and I'm watching the German team and the Arsenal Ladies, who play for England, so it's not technically football free.
As soon as Rob starts a new thread, you hop on there and mention the new season fixture list. It drives his OCDness mad. It's like when i set up chapter threads, some times I type in caps, then not, then half in Caps. I envisage him sitting there shaking his head at my sloppyness ;)
Last time is was in SA was 1990, we left a week before Mandela was freed.
I am still making Biltong though :) in fact, just finishing off a strip as we speak.
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I'm honored. I think..
Lee wrote: "As soon as Rob starts a new thread, you hop on there and mention the new season fixture list. It drives his OCDness mad. It's like when i set up chapter threads, some times I type in caps, then not, then half in Caps. I envisage him sitting there shaking his head at my sloppyness ;)"
Hehehe, yeah I think Kim (he's the main mod of our club) would throw a fit if I did that on our group :) He's also got a touch of the OCD in him - it's a great trait for a mod I think.
Lee wrote: "Last time is was in SA was 1990, we left a week before Mandela was freed.
I am still making Biltong though :) in fact, just finishing off a strip as we speak.
"
Wow that must have been such an interesting time to be here! You should come visit again sometime, see how things have changed. Don't believe the press or the ex-saffas in Aus. Biltong is great! Way better than any other attempts at the same thing I've tried. Beef jerky doesn't come close! Also game biltong is just the yummiest! I was in the bush a week ago and every time we saw Kudu Joe said "Mmm, they make yummy biltong" :P No offence to veggies if we have any in the group!
I have yet to visit Australia but I'd have to plan it when Kim (who is also an Aussie) is also visiting Aus (he's living in the US now cause he just married an American). You guys have some really weird animals and some spectacular parks and natural beauty that I'd love to see in person.
Mpauli wrote: "I just read about it. At the moment, I'm enjoying a bit of football free time during the summer break and just check up on the latest transfer talk (please let it be Higuain and not Suarez!)"
I was going to say something about that in my previous post then didn't :P I try not to listen to the rumours because they're mostly nonsense but if we buy Suarez I don't think I can support Arsenal any more. I hate him. I think the entire African continent hates him after he stopped the Ghana goal with his hand in the 2010 world cup and then celebrated when they missed the penalty. He's too high risk for Arsenal though. He gets banned and sent off and behaves like a *insert string of bad language here*. We can't. I'll cry.
Rob wrote: "Penny wrote: "I'm making that my facebook status :)"I'm honored. I think.."
I didn't in the end. It was only so funny in context, but it was totally a compliment! It required far too much back story to work as a status and that took all the funny out, like when you have to explain a joke. But it was a brilliant line! :)
Wait is Fever Pitch also a novel?! I had no idea, I loved the film. I have to check it out
Kat wrote: "David Sven wrote: "I'm Swedish, but the only Swedish I know I learned off the Swedish Chef"I tried to think out a Swedish joke about this here but I failed.
"
Norwegians love Swedish jokes, or more precisely, jokes about Swedes. :)
Kat wrote: "Wait is Fever Pitch also a novel?! I had no idea, I loved the film. I have to check it out"Nick Hornby is quite funny. I really liked High Fidelity. The movie Fever Pitch is probably the most faithful adaptation of a novel he's written, but About A Boy and High Fidelity both did quite well.
Anders wrote: "Kat wrote: "Wait is Fever Pitch also a novel?! I had no idea, I loved the film. I have to check it out"Nick Hornby is quite funny. I really liked High Fidelity. The movie Fever Pitch is probably ..."
I never read anything by him, I just saw the movies. I've been meaning to check him out though!
Anders wrote: "Kat wrote: "David Sven wrote: "I'm Swedish, but the only Swedish I know I learned off the Swedish Chef"
I tried to think out a Swedish joke about this here but I failed.
"
Norwegians love Swedish..."
We love jokes about Norwegians as well ;)
Kat wrote: "Wait is Fever Pitch also a novel?! I had no idea, I loved the film. I have to check it out"Yes, and it's insanely good. It's glorious, if you're also an Arsenal fan, but in no means you have to be to enjoy it.
He has a rare gift into transporting the essence of football and how it translates to daily life.
Anders wrote: The movie Fever Pitch is probably the most faithful adaptation of a novel he's written, but About A Boy and High Fidelity both did quite well.
I think NBC ordered a new comedy series based on "About a boy" for the upcoming season.
I'm a bit reluctant to see how that works out.
Penny wrote: I try not to listen to the rumours because they're mostly nonsense but if we buy Suarez I don't think I can support Arsenal.
A good friend of mine and the father of my god-child is a Liverpool fan and he is always really embarassed that Suarez is associated with his club. Nobody in his right mind should sign somebody who has obviously really wrong views on race or human behaviour at all.
I'm a Crystal Palace fan, and I'm quite proud that it's a club that is open for everyone and anyone. We wouldn't have tolerated the kind of behaviour shown by Suarez.
Anders wrote: "I'm a Crystal Palace fan, and I'm quite proud that it's a club that is open for everyone and anyone. We wouldn't have tolerated the kind of behaviour shown by Suarez."Oh ja, I forgot about that incident of racism on the field! I don't care how good a player he is, you can't behave that way. It really bothers me with sportmen in particular because kids worship them and it's not ok if they're allowed to set such a bad example.
Crystal Palace are new to the League this year aren't they? It's always fun watching the new teams come up I think. They get such a boost both in moral and money when they make it to the bigger league.
Yes, they've been in the top two divisions since before I was born, but haven't been in the Premier League since 2005. Should be interesting.
I'm putting a cookie jar here for off-topic chats.-> /cookiejar
Hey libraries are pretty cool. I've been buying all my books on amazon, but now that my wife has more time to read we went and got library cards. Not only do they have a lot of good books, if not at my branch, then a few days away via california inter-library loan, but most importantly they have tons of ebooks.They have all of Malazan available as ebooks through Overdrive, which actually ends up downloading the azw from amazon.com. They also have 3m cloud reader that works on my kindle, audiobooks, even safari books online for technical computer books. I used to pay $40/month for safari books online.
I haven't been to a library in years...Looks like they transitioned to the digital age pretty well :)
My wife hates social media - she doesn't even have a facebook account, but she told me I can make a goodreads account for her :P
Also, I played tennis for the first time in 25 years since being on the high school tennis team...amazing how much you remember after all that time!
Sky wrote: "Hey libraries are pretty cool. I've been buying all my books on amazon, but now that my wife has more time to read we went and got library cards. Not only do they have a lot of good books, if not..."I've used the library heavily for the last few years. I also have the 3m app for ios and I like the highlight function which allows me to shoot an email to cut and paste for reviews. At this point a book has to be on sale for me to pony up.
The Not a Book Club Club
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Foxglove Summer (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Anthony Ryan (other topics)Miles Cameron (other topics)
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Miles Cameron (other topics)
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Great, then Novenmber it is. :)
Rob wrote: So I was thinking of maybe reading The Lies of Locke Lamora the week of August 26th, and Red Seas Under Red Skies starting around September 15th or so."
That sound good aswell. With Dynasty Warriors 8 arriving this Friday and the Shadowrun PC game next Friday, gaming will come up more for the end of the month and start of the next month, but my trips into chinese history and future Seattle should be over at the end of August. :)