Book Fail Helpline

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

The Great Gatsby was, imo, awful.

Perhaps only the english like this book?

Maaaaybe.

[Aggie]

Any of you familiar with 'Lillith' by George MacDonald?
I've just read this Victorian Christian Fantasy novel, and I am stunned...
The book's basic premise is completely Christian, and couldn't be further from my own beliefs, but it is a superb apologia for christian mythology.
The writer was apparently an acknowledged inspiration for W.H. Auden, C.S. Lewis, C.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien among others.
It is lyrical and enchanting. The writing style is definitely a product of its times (1800's) but yet vaults above its contemporaries.

It is available cheaply from Amazon, and the digital version is free from the Kindle Store, or Feedbooks.com

I completely commend it to your attention..

Requested.  The print version is free (temporarily) from my local library.

Horrible confession to make:  I don't own a proper bookshelf.  I own books, but most are in boxes.  I have, particularly when younger, received many books as holiday gifts, but have never really bought books for myself, unless the are a regular reference (e.g. Diet for a Poisoned Planet) or if I've checked them out from the library and read them completely at least three times.  Fortunately, if I ever get an e-book reader, the library provides those as well, although you do have to 'return' them.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Do you have an empty wall? A good friend and his wife in Paris took a number of wooden wine boxes and transform them in CD shelves covering all the wall of their dining/living room. I'd considered using shelves on a wall too but I have faced some opposition to the idea from my wife...

[Aggie]

Same problem. 

Mostly I refuse to spend $300 on a bookcase from Ikea (and who knows how much from anywhere else).  I do have shelves, but they are covered with plants and in any case not really suitable for books (no backstops, semi-open sides).  I don't really have a free wall available except in the bedroom. 

If I had enough wine to have access to boxes, I wouldn't be concerned about reading.  


Oh, probably finishing the book.  This is exactly what I fear - the last half is better.  It's still not great, but I would have taken a much greater shine to the story and lead character if I had read the second half first.

[Griffin NoName]

We used to use bricks and planks for bookshelves. Classic student approach.

[Aggie]

Well, I'll try it when I get back to school.

(should note that at least one shoe rack is that style, but it's hidden in a walk-in closet; public display would not be acceptable)

[Sibling DavidH]

We used to use bricks and planks for bookshelves. Classic student approach.

So did we.  It can be very attractive, especially with the larger books.  It looks a bit manky with paperbacks.

[Bluenose]

The word turgid was invented for the specific purpose of describing Henry Jame's book A Turn of the Screw.  I was ready to kill myself by the time I had finished it - the alternative, of killing Henry James, having been made redundant by he predecease, was alas not available.

[Swatopluk]

The word turgid was invented for the specific purpose of describing Henry Jame's book A Turn of the Screw.  I was ready to kill myself by the time I had finished it - the alternative, of killing Henry James, having been made redundant by he predecease, was alas not available.

Call Herbert West, Reanimator or any indecent voodoo master, if you want to take personal revenge on a deceased person.
If neither is available, there is always the precedent of the Cadaver Synod.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

We used to use bricks and planks for bookshelves. Classic student approach.

So did we.  It can be very attractive, especially with the larger books.  It looks a bit manky with paperbacks.

Gotta use the right size bricks, and the right size planks.... 

Bricks just large enough for the height of the paperback-- sometimes, two bricks glued or bolted together at each end, standing on end.  Of course, the whole thing's not nearly as stable as cinderblocks...

That's where you string wire from shelf-to-shelf, through holes-in [the planks], twisting tight at each layer.   Wedging a single brick in the middle of a long span helps keep those thinner boards from bowing too much.  Wire wrapped around the outside works here, and at the ends, if you don't want to pierce your boards/planks.

Of course, you can go with rope instead of wire, for a more rustic look.  At the bottom plank, instead of just laying it on the floor, a pair of bricks, laid flat at each end provides room for the rope to pass 'round the bottom shelf [between the bricks], without de-stabilizing the whole.   A single brick, flat, in the center, but offset from the rope/wire, keeps the center in trim.   Finally?  Take the ends of the wire/rope left at the top, and attach them to the wall, to keep the whole from falling away into the room. 

Like a stack of..... well, bricks.....



00000000000000000000000000000000000

And, years later, when you move, your friends will wonder why you got so frikkin' many bricks lying about...

[Roland Deschain]

As Herbert finished the last of his preparations for the re-animation of the corpse before him, he felt a slight tingle of glee. In good shape was the body, with excellent preservation. How could his plan not work? Slowly and surely, he made his move...

As an Englishman, I must concur that The Great Gatsby was very enjoyable to read. I have no idea why more of the English than the US residents here seem to enjoy it. It must be a cultural thing.

There have been few books that i've had to put down partway through. These have been Weaveworld by Clive Barker, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, and The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice. Considering that I once managed just over 120 books in one 15 month period (I was going for a personal best), and my usual rate of book consumption is somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 this amount, that's not bad going. I finished most of the above books, though. Weaveworld I absolutely adored once i'd read it fully, but couldn't get on with it at first. I don't know why, as I love Clive Barker's books, usually. To anyone who's read Gravity's Rainbow, i'm sure you understand why I felt I had to stop. Most bizarre book i've ever read, I think (I believe headf*** is the correct term here). Catch 22 is a different matter. I've loved the film ever since I first saw it back in my very early teens, so the book should have hooked me from the onset. I'm so glad I did finish it. The only one I didn't finish is The Vampire Armand. I loved the previous books in the series, but I think this came during her born again period, and it really sucked because of that. I may come back to it some day, but not for a while.

I hate not finishing books, as you never know what's in store for you. There may be something interesting later on that gives what you've read purpose beyond that which you've been able to ascertain. Or it may actually turn out to be a total pile of crap. Either way, it's a choice you make.

[Griffin NoName]

I have to finish books. Catch 22, the novel, had me rolling around in hysterics.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I loved Catch 22 as well-- it was a lovely treatise on the twists of human behavior.

I'm like you, Ronald, I like to finish a book once started.  But some just are not worth it.  Anne Rice's horrid drek (my opinion), I never could get past the first, Interview with a Vampire.   Gulliver's Travels, I started, read 3/4 of the way, and put it down never to return.   I suspect that me being unaware of the politics it was mimicking, is what made it unreadable for me.

There were a few others-- Tolkin's Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring had be bogged down in it's endless pages of nonsensical poetry.  Years and years, I would put it down, to pick it up and try again.  I finally did slog past the endless boring parts, and then eventually managed to read the rest, and the next two books as well (this time, skipping/skimming the poetry--whole chapters simply ignored as unreadable).  It was really odd, as I totally enjoyed The Hobbit, having read it first.   I've never had the slightest interest in returning to those, either-- but I have a really good BBC production of a play of all three books, some 9 CD's worth of audio.  I've listened to those many times (now on MP3, naturally). 

I read for escape, for a really good story, to get away from myself a bit.   If the ponderous prose keeps getting in the way of that?   I'm likely as not, to simply skip it as not worth the bother.

[Roland Deschain]

Catch 22 pretty much encompassed the gamut of human foibles. Well worth a read.

Gulliver's Travels I loved too. If you keep up with a little politics, as i'm sure you do, you can see that things haven't really changed much since then, not that much. It was fun trying to pin the attitudes of the people on current political parties.

The poetry is one of the things I love when reading the Rings trilogy. I must have read that book around 12 times now, and it has never bored me. The language he uses is beautiful, if a little odd at times, but then what do you expect from a linguist? The Hobbit is a very different kind of book, and much easier to get into, in my opinion, especially as it was written for a slightly younger audience. I've also listened to the radio play of it (LotR), and it was very good. Must get that on something more up-to-date than cassette, lol.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

My copy is all on CD, but I have long since ripped it to MP3 format.

I did it twice-- first, letting the automatic engine work it's magic-- but, alas, the play is pretty much a continuous recording, no gaps, and the creators of the CD set broke it up into 2 minute intervals...!

And most players cannot do gapless playback, so....

... back to the ripping process.  I had me a careful look at the table of contents-- and what'd'ya know?  The chapters have time-intervals neatly printed in there... and my ripping software lets me arbitrarily rip segments of time from the CD.

So the second go-round (9 discs... did I mention it was on 9 discs? It was... ) that is how I ripped it-- by chapter.  And naming of the MP3 files became dirt-simple too, just use the chapter's title...

... anyway, I still re-listen to that now and again.

I don't care for language just for it's own self-- if the language keeps getting in the way of the story?  I think the author has failed in his task.  LOR was like that-- I kept slamming my head against the flowery language.  Why I despised The Great Gatsby too, I suppose.   And Anna Karenna.  Yes, I had to slog through that in High School-- I knew I was in trouble, when I was on page 150 or so, and still in Scene 1....!  This, on a tightly-printed paperback....

... "great" literature seldom is, IMO.   If you have to have a PhD in language to just get past the first part?  Then it may be "lofty" or "elitist" or even ivory-tower-esque... but I do not agree that it's "great".

But, I suppose I'm one of those egalitarians:  I think the opinion of my local plumber, as to what is good literature is just as valid as the local PhD in English Lit.  Perhaps more so, as the plumber has to make a real living...

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