Book Lair discussion
General
>
Random Chats
Mod
I am officially on vacation but still have to work at home. It's great not having to get up at a certain hour, though!
How is everyone doing?
I was off today and actually slept until 8! Unheard of for me. The next week is a short one for me because we are closed Thursday through Monday, so a four day weekend will feel like a vacation. Yay!
Mod
I have slept for 11 hours I think eheh.
Enjoy your mini vacation, Kandice!
I always say I'm going to sleep until noon, but I have an internal alarm clock that rouses me by 6 at the latest and sometimes trying to stay in bed is more stressful than just getting up, so 8 is a win. I am NOT a good sleeper!
Mod
Mod
I am reading a book where Singlish is used. Wikipedia says it's English using some expressions from Singapore or something like that. What I would really like to know if it is supposed to be grammatically incorrect, as in, omitting words or switch the proper order. Quite frankly I find it annoying but if it is a real thing I will take it in a different account. Does anyone know?
I wasn't aware there was such a version of English - but the grammatical convention for dialects is that if they are recognised as such, then the way they are spoken should take priority over the usual grammatical rules for Standard English when putting them on the page. Hope that helps!
It is not an official version of the english language like say a second language. In that sense it is a mistake and a grammatical incorrection. On the other hand it is a reality that most english you hear these days from no native speakers is not a proper english and there's a tendancy on a bad writer to try to define their characters by those english errors used in a daily basis by those no native speakers. If you can cope with that and take it as an artistic choice it is not an error but surely it is not good either.
However, even if it isn't a recognised language - if it is a dialect, like a West Country dialect, or the Irish accent, the convention these days is to write it down in the way it is spoken, without worrying too much about whether it is grammatical. It isn't regarded as bad writing - Paul McVeigh in his critically acclaimed book 'The Good Son' uses this device throughout the story.
I actually like when a writer writes dialogue in the way in which it is spoken, grammatically correct or not. One of my favorite examples is Wild Cat by Laura Black. I have no idea how close to accurate she writes it, but it puts me in the scene of the book immediately. (this is one I've read many times!)It also reminds me of the dialect in Firefly. I loved how Whedon meshed Chinese and English to reflect the way the world had "moved on."
I haven't read 'Wild Cat', but it certainly sounds as if it follows what is now regarded as the industry standard:).Oh I completely agree about Firefly - which I LOVE. And when speech is used to denote important aspects in worldbuilding, it can a really nifty way to add to our knowledge of what matters. Janet Brown does this really effectively in the Earth Girl series.
Mod
Here are a couple of examples from the book:
""I buy CDs some other time. Come, we go makan. My treat."
or
"Ba, I make plenty of money now! Can support you in style, what!"
I was wondering if this was real. I get the non-English words but why not use the proper verb tenses or pronouns?
In the book this is defined as Singlish so it appears to be real, I just wondered if anyone knew it and could tell me if it was accurate. Frankly, at times, it just annoyed me.
I'm wondering. Maybe it makes some sense in context!
But what it is doing, is reporting the speech as it is spoken. If you tidy it up to follow Standard English rules, it would not be an accurate representation of the spoken conversation, which is why it is written like that.
English is not my native language but I guess the clever writter can give glimps of language use without cover page after page with pidgin and baberish that's cumbersome to the reader. But of course in the end that's the author own decision.
Oh absolutely. And as you mention - it is always a balancing act... Because if you go all 'Robbie Burns' where there is a forest of apostrophes and wierd made-up words, then your readers will lose the will to live - as I do whenever I am confronted with the Scottish poet's original work:).
really!? I've heard very good about Robbie Burns!
Hm. Try reading Burns in the original, as opposed to the tidied version...
SJ wrote: "Hm. Try reading Burns in the original, as opposed to the tidied version..."Nice, I'll try it if I have the opportunity, but I must buy his books online and I'm not sure to find some original ones.
I've pasted an extract from Robbie Burns' poem To a Louse...Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.
Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her-
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.
Swith! in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whaur horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.
Now haud you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rels, snug and tight;
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it-
The verra tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss' bonnet.
I think you can see what I mean...
I see. And it got my curiosity rollying! I wonder if there is a bilingual version of it.
Mod
The book is called
Fellside. Love that cover! The blurb doesn't say much but considering how much I enjoyed the previous one I think I would this one as well.
Mod
Aaaaaaah! That's forever :'(
Hi everybody how are you doing!?I just got an email with my reading chalenge progress. Did you get it too!? I was pleased with my results so far this year and curious how everybody is doing their reading chalenge so far.
I haven't received an email yet, but I do have a challenge so I assume it's coming. I think it's funny they send the emails since your progress shows up on almost every page of GR as it is.
Hi, Kandice. It's strange you didn't get an email yet about your challenge. There's a reason for them to send it at this time. Besides the reminder to call you in again the main reason is it's a quarter of the year already, and you should check up your progress. They also send you a few reading sugestions and cheer up incentive from friends. Hope you get yours soon.
By the way, anybody knows if there's a way to see the pages read by friends or it is just the number of books read? I know we can see the number of pages we read ourselves and I was just curious if we can see those of our friends.
Go in your friends stats page (on their profile page, in the "XXX's bookshelves part", on the bottom right of that part).You can then choose books or pages.
Regarding the challenge, I'm way ahead of it, but it is not really representative I feel since this year, I have mostly been reading much shorter books than usual. If you compare my average page/book this year compared to last year, I think I have at least 100 pages less.
Mod
I hope you are all well.
I am sorry I haven't been around much but between work and being sick for over a month and a half I have struggled to do much of anything, really.
How are you guys doing?
Melaslithos wrote: "Go in your friends stats page (on their profile page, in the "XXX's bookshelves part", on the bottom right of that part).You can then choose books or pages.
Regarding the challenge, I'm way ahea..."
Sorry I didn't reply to you before Melas and thank you for the information. I didn't know about that stats thing over there!
Anyway I was surprised to find that we have about the same page number by now!
Ana, glad to hear from you. Hope you are fully recovered by now.
Happy readings!
Ana wrote: "Hi!I hope you are all well.
I am sorry I haven't been around much but between work and being sick for over a month and a half I have struggled to do much of anything, really.
How are you guys doing?"
We've missed you! I've been in a bit of a reading slump so you haven't missed many posts by me.
I hope everyone is doing well.
I have a funny reading "coincidence." My face to face movie/book club at the library did The Nanny Diaries this month. During our discussion a woman approached the tables and said "Pardon me, but I couldn't help but overhear your discussion. I'm a nanny." It was awesome! We picked her brain for about half an hour and learned a lot. What are the odds?
Mod
Still sick and the sleepness nights + meds affect my focus so I have not been able to enjoy books as much as I want to, but whenever I am able to focus (usually around 4am) I dig into them fiercely.
I have no idea what I will read next but I think a break might be welcome, at least I will try to take it slower.
Hope we get over our slumps soon, Kandice! And wow that thing with the nanny sounds very intriguing, hope you had a good time!
Nice to get some news Ana! And glad to hear that you are getting better. Hope you'll make a full recovery soon!
Mod
Mod
How is everyone doing? It's finally the weekend and boy did I need it. I intend to rest as much as possible.
What are your plans? :)
For all the women here, I just discovered a new group, lauched by Emma Watson, to discuss feminism. If you haven't heard of it yet, I think it's worth a look: Our Shared Shelf.I have far too many things to catch up with this month, but I will try to join in their discussions next month, their selection of books looks pretty interesting (and next month is a graphic novel, it should not take too much time to read).
Mod
I just made this post and was wondering if any of you was willing to check it out:
https://anaslair.wordpress.com/2016/0...
I tried to pick 10 songs from my past that I still found amazing and would love if you would give your own input, be it there or here. There were so many wonderful songs back then!
Ana wrote: "Hi, everyone!I just made this post and was wondering if any of you was willing to check it out:
https://anaslair.wordpress.com/2016/0...
I tried to pick 10 songs from my..."
I did. It seems a bit country heavy, but that's only because my mom listened to it in my childhood. I don't now.
Mod
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Mod
Broken Pieces by Rachel Thompson 
Puppet by Pauline C. Harris"Found another one!
Looks like this image is pretty popular
Hi, all. Very funny, but not so uncommon as one might think.Same with the names of the books. There are too many books with the same titles.
Something funny I found out recently is the use of chinese imagery for the cover of some japanese author books. Sometimes the contrary also occurs but it's not so common.
The guilt is with the editors. Some editors know nothing about the books themselves or their authors, they specialise in publishing and marketing alone...
Along the same lines was my disappointment when the cast, almost without exception, for Memoirs of a Geisha was CHINESE!*shakes head*
Kandice wrote: "Along the same lines was my disappointment when the cast, almost without exception, for Memoirs of a Geisha was CHINESE!*shakes head*"
Hi Kandice! So true!!!
Ana wrote: "Hi, everyone!I just made this post and was wondering if any of you was willing to check it out:
https://anaslair.wordpress.com/2016/0...
I tried to pick 10 songs from my..."
I see you listed "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals. Great tune by a great band, and if you'd like to hear a different take on it I suggest listening to the version by a band called Frijid Pink. very psychedelic, and even somewhat creepy but a cool groove nonetheless.
My daughter leaves Monday morning, 6:30 a.m. for a three weeks tour of the four colleges she is most interested in. She has never been away from home that long and she will be taking a variety of transportation including planes, trains, college admissions giving her rides and possibly a subway or two.It's the most nerve wracking thing I've ever been through.
Mod
Book Lair
Books mentioned in this topic
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (other topics)Memoirs of a Geisha (other topics)
Memoirs of a Geisha (other topics)
Broken Pieces (other topics)
All the Blue-Eyed Angels (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Laura Black (other topics)Alexandre Dumas (other topics)
Philippa Gregory (other topics)
Margaret George (other topics)
Colleen McCullough (other topics)
More...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
I put on this shelve only books in which "history" is important to the story, not stories that happen to take place in another point in time, but could have happened anytime else (for example,a lot of historical romances, etc.).
If you want some recommandation on more general "historical fiction", well, it's a bit vague, and I'll do as the others, and ask you to be a bit more specific.
Although I just realized I didn't put anything from Alexandre Dumas in my list, and those are all great novels.