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Extreme reading
I have read several thousand feet up in the sky. Supported only by a thin metal skin and a very cramped chair...
Oh really? Did someone rivet a steel plank to Everest, or were you in an aeroplane?Must confess thought, I have kindled naked .... In the bath. Some might consider that extreme!
I was in a product of the aerospace industry. There are no planks on Everest. As far as I know...
Come on GL, I'm a bloke who thinks walking into town is an effort. Climbing the world's tallest mountain because it's there ... You've got to be a plank! (No offence was intended to Everest mountain climbers, or their associates. No mountain climbers were harmed during the making of this comment)
But what about the mental distress and emotional trauma??
I'm an aspiring author, it's my natural condition :-D
Its probably worse for your readers!
Could be, but it worked for Hemmingway and Dylan Thomas. Not that I would deign to compare what I write to either. But you've got to be slightly insane to put what's in your head out there for the world to see.If you had an ideal place to read GL, what would it be?
A reclining chair under a shady tree beside a stream. On a table beside the chair would be a cool drink and a few snacks. It would be warm and sunny, but with a cooling breeze. Birds would be singing, but no insects would dare to approach.
What about the drink? This is extreme reading after all. Barefoot, slippers or socks. This is the perfect day...
Kraken rum and coke. Barefoot.
That's better. Now I know where and how. What about the what? You don't strike me as a romantic poetry, flouncy smock type. Neither are you the Edgar Allen Poe doom and gloom type, so what are you reading?
My favourite genres are comic fantasy, old fashioned murder mysteries, autobiographies and comedy.Can't go wrong with a bit of Terry Pratchett, so I'll just re-read all his Discworld books yet again.
Now that's a dream worth having. So, you're reading barefoot in a hammock slung between two willow trees, by a river. The gentle spring late morning light is playing on the water, and the first of the summer birds are migrating to nest, while you chuckle softly to the words of your favourite Pratchett novel and ....
Wait a minute. This sounds much too good to be true. Is it the start of a horror movie or something?
No, this is extreme reading. You are entitled to an extreme of anything, be it comfort, adventure, horror ... so far, it's more extreme than anything else on the thread. You've already started now, you might as well finish.
I did once sit overlooking the sea from the top of a cliff at southern down beach, reading Jonathan Livingston seagull. I suppose that was pretty extreme. Especially considering that I get vertigo climbing a step ladder!
Well I am happy with extremes of comfort and relaxation.
How high was the cliff. I took a photo leaning over the edge of the Cliffs of Moher in the west of ireland. If I had been reading my Kindle that would have been pretty extreme.
About 120 feet ish. I'm really not good with heights. At least not without some sort of safety net. I got dizzy on the 5th floor balcony of the hotel in Turkey. It's not the height that bothers me so much, it's the falling off!
I try not to do the falling off bit. It tends to be ouchy.
I do quite a lot of reading being driven fast, but it's never anything especially interesting. Names, addresses, drug doses and uses, medical condition information. Now reading on a hammock in the middle of a glade with a stream running through sounds perfect!
I'd rather be reading in the sun with a cocktail, oh I did that recently. Fairly sure I read up a mountain on holiday
Right now I'm in bed with a tattooed Kokovoko cannibal called Queequeg in a shady inn in New Bedford, Massachusetts. That's a pretty dangerous place. Or so it seemed at first. A little while later I thinking I am going to be harpooning a whale.Once I get into a book, I don't really notice where I am reading it. What matters is where the book takes me. A hammock by the sea whilst drinking a cocktail? Frankly that would be a waste of a good hammock, sea view and cocktail. I'd probably put the book down and enjoy the view. I can pick the book back up again in the hotel room when the sun has gone down. Or on the flight on the way home.
I've read my Kindle in the cinema . . . but only during the adverts.
Let's see.While riding on a third class train in India. Dunno if that counts as extreme, though. I was inside, not on the roof.
Ummm.
Whilst in no man's land between two African countries while ignoring demands for a bribe. They eventually gave up and let us cross.
Sitting in the sun next to the pyramids in Egypt. Whilst ignoring men trying to get me to ride their camel.
Whist being driven through Lagos under armed guard.
Whilst on a speed boat through the Niger Delta, also under armed guard.
Oh, on a wee plastic chair on the street in Delhi when a HUGE crowd came through celebrating a cricket victory against Pakistan. That was fun.
On a rooftop in Varanasi over-looking the Ganges while the ashes of burning bodies quietly floated into my glass of coke.
Patti, you weren't an operative for some secret intelligence agency were you?
The other night I dreamed I was reading the Kindle. I was in a flying armchair, and the book was a real page turner. Of course, the alarm rang before I found out the end.
The big question is, does the book exist, and if not, could you write it (and the ending)?
G.J. (Gaff to my friends) wrote: "Patti, you weren't an operative for some secret intelligence agency were you?"Who sez I'm not still?
Oh. Intelligence.
Probably not.
Shit Tim. Now I'm gonna have to murderilize you.
And everyone who has read this thread.
Great topic for an new Drabble! "Our Girl in Baku" ...
Gingerlily - Elephant Philosopher wrote: "Girl?"Careful you.
G.J. (Gaff to my friends) wrote: "Great topic for an new Drabble! "Our Girl in Baku" ..."Girl from Baku
Been done, I'm afraid.
Oh, okay. Thought I was gonna have to ban you until I opened the links.
Carry on.
Our Girl in BakuThe streets are slick with rain and on the corner, our girl in Baku scopes out the target.
Scooting from doorway to doorway, unseen, she makes a break for it.
Collar turned up against the downpour, her right hand guards something under the folds of her coat.
The table is free at last. Her contact is busy looking busy.
She takes a seat in the corner. Her contact makes contact.
"And?" her contact asks in code.
"Java, old spot on rye, and Webster," our girl replies.
Even a spy needs bacon, coffee and a good book on their day off.
You're too clever Gaff. I've no idea how you people do things like that.
Sometimes you just get an idea and go with it. The good thing about writing, is that anyone with a pen, a piece of paper and a smattering of inspiration can do it!
Don't got one of those inspirthingies
(I think it just means breathing in) ;)
Patti gets expirations.
Gingerlily - Elephant Philosopher wrote: "Patti gets expirations."All the best contract killers do :-)
Jim wrote: "Gingerlily - Elephant Philosopher wrote: "Patti gets expirations."All the best contract killers do :-)"
You do realise M.I.5 read all these threads? Patti will be getting a job offer in the post any day now!
She's had lots of practise teaching munchkins. Being a spy will be a doddle. As long as she can get the glitter out of her underwear.
Gingerlily - Elephant Philosopher wrote: "She's had lots of practise teaching munchkins. Being a spy will be a doddle. As long as she can get the glitter out of her underwear."Leave the glitter - a good distraction while she draws her gun.
Have you taken your kindle to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro?
Do you read while sword fishing?
What's the most extreme reading experience?
Post it here. Proof of claim welcome but not necessary!