Aussie Readers discussion
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What Are You Currently Reading? (doesn't have to be an Aussie book)
Finished reading Necessary Lies by Diane ChamberlainMy review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Liam wrote: "Sally wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Have always loved LOTR, for anyone wanting a more encouraging viewpoint. I've probably read it once a year since the age of eleven."I guess one person's 'not very goo..."
Thanks for the recommendations Liam - The Broken Sword looks awesome! :)
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Probably as well because it did not make me a happy vegemite anyway.
Hope you have a more enjoyable read with that one, Phrynne!
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I dad have suspicions about that one Phrynne... It seems they are confirmed!
Yesterday I finished Tell the Wolves I'm Home
and it was 4 stars from me, (prob would have been 4.5 if I could).I really enjoyed this one and my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Several times in the book the main characters mention the film A Room with a View so I thought I may as well segue into reading this next!
I was already on my TBR list and I already had the audiobook, so started it last night on my walk.
Phrynne wrote: "I just finished Sense and Sensibility by Joanna Trollope. (Sorry can't find the link for this one)Probably as well because it did not make me a happy vegemite anyway."
I usually like Joanna Trollope.but for some reason the thought of this one never appealed, so interested in your reaction Phrynne.
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I know! When will I learn? I read Death Comes to Pemberley and was horribly disappointed. And let's not even talk about The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet. No more for me!!!!!
Phrynne wrote: "I know! When will I learn? I read Death Comes to Pemberley and was horribly disappointed..."I haven't read the book, but did watch the recent mini-series and really enjoyed it.
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Probably as well because it did not make me a happy vegemite anyway."
Sense & Sensibility
There you go Phrynne;)
Phrynne wrote: "Angela wrote: "I dad have suspicions about that one Phrynne... It seems they are confirmed!"I know! When will I learn? I read Death Comes to Pemberley and was horribly disappointe..."
Oh, have you read The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet and been disappointed, Phrynne? That IS a shame - it's on my list and I thought it sounded interesting...
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Kathryn - I think I must just have a thing about other people using (or to my mind misusing) Jane Austen's characters. They should find their own characters to write about :)
Patricia - Don't think I have heard about the mini series. Who played Elizabeth and Darcy?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01mqkm5there's the link Phrynne - they weren't played by anyone I recognised (which I like, makes the characters more believable).
It is a BBC production and only 3 episodes long.
It hasn't been on here as far as I know but if you are familiar with how to find these things online, then it should be fairly easy...
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No...I know Michael owns it... How disturbing Phrynne?
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No...I know Michael owns it... How disturbing Phrynne?"
It is a horse standing on its hind legs and it doesn't have any front legs. You have to see it really.
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there's the link Phrynne - they weren't played by anyone I recognised (which I like, makes the characters more believable).
It is a BBC production and only ..."
Thanks Patricia. I will check it out
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No...I know Michael owns it... How disturbing Phrynne?"
I..."
OK thanks for that:)
Phrynne wrote: "But thank goodness it is the first of Feb so I can start Hollow City"SO jealous - my copy hasn't arrived yet!
Liam wrote: "Sally wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Have always loved LOTR, for anyone wanting a more encouraging viewpoint. I've probably read it once a year since the age of eleven."I guess one person's 'not very goo..."
I don't really want to hijack this thread with a pro-LOTR/anti-LOTR tennis match, so I'll just make a few dot points (well, numbered points, because I don't know how to do dots on Goodreads!) and leave it at that. I'm sure Liam and I can agree to disagree. So here goes:
1. I totally agree that Tolkien was an incredible world builder and philologist (slightly different from a linguist) and wrote compelling plots.
2. I fervently disagree that 'the plots are so over-stuffed with miscellaneous crap that they are borderline impossible to get into'. Tolkien 'had me at hello', as they say in the classics, and I fell more and more in love with every page I read.
3. I never noticed names being dropped every second line or extraneous descriptions of the environment. The reason the family trees are included in the Appendices is so that people who aren't interested don't have to read them, but people who are interested can. And I honestly cannot remember ever being bored by descriptions of the physical environment, and I am the kind of person whose eyes usually glaze over at such descriptions in books. All I remember are descriptions of idyllic, beautiful, wondrous, dispiriting and terrifying environments that were a major part of creating the atmosphere of the story.
4. I shudder to think of the irreparable damage that would be done by slicing 400 pages out of LOTR, and I can't for a moment get my head around the proposal that the book is 30 per cent content and 70 per cent filler, so I won't even go there. I do understand that the general rule is that major plot points, the introduction of characters and so on should always advance the story in some way, although I think saying that every line of dialogue and every paragraph of text should do so is a fairly substantial exaggeration - there are other things besides 'advancing the story' that are important, such as atmosphere, mood, characterisation, pacing and rhythm. I have heard and read a lot of experts saying that Tolkien did break a lot of the rules that one might learn in a modern-day creative writing course, for example - but he could break them because he was a genius who could make things work that should not work.
5. I guess the main thing I would tell anyone who was thinking of reading The Lord of the Rings is that if they are looking for the literary equivalent of a car-chases-and-shoot-outs action-adventure movie, it is not for them, because it was never intended to be that kind of story. It was intended to be an epic journey through an alternative world that was complete in itself, a world in which there was recognisable cause-and-effect in every single detail, so that despite a few fantastical elements, it felt truly plausible. For me, the fact that this world is built on almost a dozen fully functioning languages and thousands of years of its own history is not only so mind-boggling an achievement for a single human being's life work as to make the word 'extraordinary' seem woefully inadequate, it is also absolutely crucial to the story and to the worldwide awe and adoration it has inspired over the past 70 years. The Lord of the Rings has stood the test of time BECAUSE its foundations run so deep, because its languages and histories are as important to its inhabitants as our own are to us and the world we live in. Of course language and history are everywhere, how could they not be? And when I read The Lord of the Rings, I can feel them in the earth and the trees, and in can taste them in the water. And that's one of the reasons why I love it so much.
Sally wrote: "Liam wrote: "Sally wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Have always loved LOTR, for anyone wanting a more encouraging viewpoint. I've probably read it once a year since the age of eleven."I guess one person's ..."
Doesn't make it any less shit :P
I am reading Night Street by Kristel Thormell; a novel about the life of Australian artist, Clarice Beckett (1887-1935). As a Melbournian I find the book interesting as Beckett loved painting Melbourne landscapes (e.g. passing trams) and scenes depicting places like Anglesea and St Kilda.
For those who don't know her (like me before I read the book), she studied under McCubbin for a few years and her work hangs in the National Gallery of Australia and elsewhere.
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My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Phrynne wrote: "Thank you Brenda!Kathryn - I think I must just have a thing about other people using (or to my mind misusing) Jane Austen's characters. They should find their own characters to write about :)
Pa..."
Yes, well, that is true, but I do find myself getting suckered in to spin-offs from Jane Austen books - obviously we can't get any more Austen, but I do want to read more stories based on her characters. Unfortunately, very few come up to the same standard as Austen and I am invariably disappointed, yet still (strangely) remain optimistic and I had high hopes for Colleen McCullough's version... I've also seen Mary Bennet by Jennifer Paynter around and have added it to my list...
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Kathryn - I think I must just have a thing about other people using (or to my mind misusing) Jane Austen's characters. They should find their own characters to wr..."
You are an eternal optimist like me! I have read a few by Amanda Grange that I quite liked.
Phrynne wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "Phrynne wrote: "Thank you Brenda!Kathryn - I think I must just have a thing about other people using (or to my mind misusing) Jane Austen's characters. They should find their own ..."
Isn't that funny - I don't think I'd read any more by her - I've read a full length story and a novella and that is enough. She rehashes too much of Austen's work for my liking. I want spin-offs to dream up new events and adventures and occasions for the Austen characters, not reminisce about what happened the first time Darcy met Elizabeth and how grateful Lizzie was when she realised his hand in assisting Lydia and Wickham etc etc. Ho hum!
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Kathryn - I think I must just have a thing about other people using (or to my mind misusing) Jane Austen's characters. They should..."
:)
I've finished The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. 5★My review is at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Sally wrote: "Liam wrote: "Sally wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Have always loved LOTR, for anyone wanting a more encouraging viewpoint. I've probably read it once a year since the age of eleven."I guess one person's ..."
Sally, I'm with you 100% on this topic; especially your point #5.
And yes, readers can agree to disagree. Personally, I don't think much of the Manga genre but I would never insult it's readers by calling it 'shit'! - to use another AR member's word :) Everyone is entitled to their own choices and opinions but let's not resort to swearing, huh?
Anyway, it's Sunday, it's 35C, it's too hot to argue here:)
Angela wrote: "Liam you stirrer!":P
Bette Book Monomaniac wrote: "And yes, readers can agree to disagree. Personally, I don't think much of the Manga genre but I would never insult it's readers by calling it 'shit'! "
The difference being one is an entire genre with tens of thousands of different authors and published books, and one is a single book and author with a well-documented propensity for not being very good. (One of my favourite reviews on the topic, absolutely nails it)
You might as well rebut "One Direction are terrible" with "Wow, I don't tell you that all metal is crap do I".
Surprising though it may be, I'm not after a 'car-chases-and-shoot-outs action-adventure movie'. Some of my favourite novels are ponderous, slow-moving sagas where not much happens for a long time - Assassin's Apprentice and all of Hobb's other novels, for example, which as trilogies are all longer than Lord of the Rings - but there is a huge difference between a slow pace and what LOTR is. A slow pace keeps you invested and interested since the author knows that it gets dull otherwise. Tolkien didn't.
You can waste your time reading pointless ten-page songs if you want, I'd rather not.
Bette Book Monomaniac wrote: "Sally wrote: "Liam wrote: "Sally wrote: "Leonie wrote: "Have always loved LOTR, for anyone wanting a more encouraging viewpoint. I've probably read it once a year since the age of eleven."I guess..."
Well said!
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Haha! Hollow City was HEADS, and it fell TAILS, so I guess you will read The Goldfinch next:)
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Brenda wrote: "But the whole point of all this Liam, is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion! And of course (it's pretty obvious) we all know your opinion...But let it be "each to their own" and PLAY NI..."
Each reader experiences a book uniquely - thats why the same book can be a DNF or a 1 star for some and a 5 star for others. The fact that I simply cannot stand to read Bryce Courtneys work does not devalue the millions of others that love it - nor vice versa. Nor does it stop me respecting the fact that he is a highly regarded storyteller. If you hate it, fine. If you love it, fine. Thats the way I see it.
Each reader experiences a book uniquely - thats why the same book can be a DNF or a 1 star for some and a 5 star for others. The fact that I simply cannot stand to read Bryce Courtneys work does not devalue the millions of others that love it - nor vice versa. Nor does it stop me respecting the fact that he is a highly regarded storyteller. If you hate it, fine. If you love it, fine. Thats the way I see it.
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Wow I think I started a war haha! Interesting to hear all the viewpoints though :-)
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It does say at the end that just a few of the images have been altered but most of them are genuine. It was just that one that gave me the creeps!
I just finished reading Wake by Anna Hope, a book that I won as a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. It's quite an intense story of a post-WWI Britain, the women left at home, their men who returned (sometimes physically damaged, sometimes mentally damaged) and their men who didn't return, and the journey undertaken by the remains of the Unknown Warrior and the unspoken hope that a ceremony and memorial for this body would give the British people a chance to express their grief and allow them to rebuild their lives. I thought it was well done, but am still deliberating about my rating to give it - will be either 3 (actually 3.5) or 4 stars.
Phrynne wrote: "I sat up half the night finishing this book! (Hollow City) Just had to see how it was going to end and then it didn't - we have to wait for the next book!!! But it was excellent and..."Oh I hope mine arrives this week. It should do! Will fit the February Dystopian challenge as well!
Michael wrote: "Very, very disturbing Phrynne. It not surprise me if there was such a creature like that. Some of those photo's in the series looks frighteningly real i tell you. 0_0"Hey Phrynne and Michael. These are actually photos he finds in antique shops. Someone really created them. Now I doubt they are real people and the photographer created the photos for purely artistic reasons. But they make you think don't they?
For his first book he actually created the characters from the first batch of photos he found :)
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I guess one person's 'not very good writer' is a..."
He was an incredible world builder and linguist, and he wrote compelling plots - the only problem being that the plots are so over-stuffed with miscellaneous crap that they are borderline impossible to get into.
I appreciate how much work you put into building a several-centuries-long family tree for every single character who is ever mentioned in passing, Tolkien, but do we really need to have them introduced to us every second line? And do you really need to describe each single blade of grass in the field that the protagonists happen to be walking through at the time?
The LOTR trilogy could have easily been one 600-page novel and wouldn't have lost anything significant. As it stands it is a 1000~page novel with roughly 70% filler and 30% actual content which progresses the story. A general rule of thumb is that each line of dialogue or each paragraph of text should advance the story in some way, and in Tolkien's case perhaps this happened once a chapter. Dullest writing imaginable.
I recommend The Sword of Shannara, which is basically the plot from LOTR ripped off wholesale, but written by an author MUCH more competent at prose rather than historical annals. Also, The Broken Sword which was published in the same year and is thus forgotten, despite having more character, emotion and plot in a quarter of the page count.