Books

[HOLLYWOOD]

when will jesus bring the pork chps by george carlin

today the Hollywood Brother finished up his comedy reading of George Carlin's latest creation. His book "WHEN WILL JESUS BRING THE PORK CHOPS", flows just like his HBO specials. The Hollywood Brother loves his use and usage (two words he talks about in the book) of the english language and numerous phrases that mean the same thing. The book is funny indeed but you do need to think in order to follow all his jokes and observations. Now as the Hollywood brother read on within the great pages of this book, he found some interesting ideas that the Hollywood Brother agreed with. The Hollywood Brother will not go into that here so as not to spoil any parts of the book for its constant readers.

The bottom line because the Hollywood Brother said so is simply if you like George Carlin live or on HBO then this book is for you. If you like more serious historical stuff then this may not be for you but the Hollywood Brother thinks if you read it, you will dig it and that is the bottom line because the Hollywood Brother said so

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

on behalf of the hollywood brother he want to let people know that this offically licensed hollywood brother thread is not dead in no way shape or form. Lately the hollywood brother has not had reading time but in the near future, the hollywood brother will be reading a book called "THE GREAT PHILADELPHIA SPORTS DEBATE" as well as more of the Kellerman's works and who knows what else

 

[nessonite1]

I WAS reading Love Hina and Ranma 1/2 but I can't find the volumes I am on anywhere!

 

[Goodieluver]

Chairshots:guide to wrestling and life by Bobby Heenan and Steve anderson
The bobby heenan autobiography
We were soldiers once and young(forget the author)
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

and whatever books the university makes me buy

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

the hollywood brother has been keeping an eye on this thread and noticed that it was getting buried. this is not a good thing but a bad thing. the hollywood brother created this thread not just to promote reading but so that people could learn about books, get into conversations and even recommend stuff to other posters here. The hollywood brother would like to see this thread continue but he need your help. please post on this thread

 

[quesecotil1]

another recent book that the hollywood brother read was ric flair biography. The hollywood brother found it a interesting read as it taught the hollywood brother aobut wrestling old school when there were terriorties. Also the hollywood brother liked how the nautre boy gave his tohughts but told you why he tohught what he thought and then let you come up with your own thoughts.

The hollywood brother would recommend this book to anyone interested in wrestling whether you a nature boy fan or not.

As the nature boy claims in his book "SPACE MOUNTAIN MAY BE THE OLDEST RIDE, BUT IT HAS THE LONGEST LINE!"

Ahh yes, I read that earlier last year. I must say, Ric Flair led (and is still indeed leading) a very interesting life. God bless the Nature Boy in all his roby glory.

Anyway, my current favorite author is Haruki Murakami. He is a Japanese novelist who is actually REALLY big over there. He was apparently treated like a rock star after his career was launched and then left the country for awhile to get away from it all, as I understand it anyway. He is, according to his fans and seemingly most critics, the greatest contemporary novelist in the world. I have read a variety of his books and I must say, it's hard to disagree. My personal favourite might just be 'Norwegian Wood'. Allow me to post the blurb on the back of my copy:

"Norwegian Wood is a love story. When Toru Watanabe hears his first love's favourite Beatles song he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, to a world of friendships, sex, loss and desire - a time when a young impetuous woman crashes into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past."

In a Haruki Murakami novel, you're not just getting a story, you're getting an experience. You can feel something underlying in the story, a connection between events and just enough mystery to have you produce your own conclusion. Something which can keep you enjoying a book long after you've put it down.

I'm currently reading 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' by Mr. Murakami. Very weird, I'll let you check it out. I also recently completed reading 'Dance Dance Dance' also very strange with amazing twists and an admirable range of unique and distinctive characters.

Now I have Murakami out of the way, I can move on to my favourite fantasy novelist. Mr. David Eddings. Creator of The Elenium trilogy and the follow up, The Tamuli, my very favourite series. True enough, his storylines can be pretty predictable and linear, but they're classic. However, the thing which makes an Eddings novel a mark above the rest for me is the characters. He creates real human characters with brilliant actions, reactions and interaction. The humour in his books also makes me laugh out loud, very loud.

Another series of his I've read would be the Belgariad. It was much the same with a classical linear storyline but with brilliant characters. Though I am of the opinion that the characters in the Elenium and Tamuli were far superior to those in the Belgariad. Soon I hope to acquire the Mallorion, the series after the Belgariad. I'll let you know how that goes.

I am personally a very big fan of reading, despite the fact I am a huge anime fan I do not actually own any manga bar the Akira volume one. Something I might have to rectify at some point. That's enough digressing though, my main point was that you should all make the effort to read a Haruki Murakami novel and soon, David Eddings too if you're interested in fantasy. I’m certain you won’t regret it.

 

[Cbarton]

Just finished a great book. It is called "The Ultimate gift" by Jim Stovall. IT is about a year long journey that a young man named Jason Stevens partakes in after the death of his great uncle, oil and cattle billionaire Red Stevens. The 12 tasks he must complete will earn him the 'ultimate gift' from Uncle Red's will. If he fails any task, he forfeits this unknown 'ultimate gift'...

I HIGHLY recommend this book to any and all! You will not be able to put it down.

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

thanks go out to both of you for following the hollywood brother's lead and keeping this thread alive

 

[Ignatz]

Where to begin....I am fifty years old and have been collecting books since I was a child. Half my library has to be boxed up and kept in the garage. Public libraries are a splendid and civilized institution but I am loath to give back a book I have enjoyed. Okay...I also hate giving back a book I haven't enjoyed! I am a miser. It is a disease curable only by death.
Nevertheless, I will restrain myself from dominating this thread with a torrent of recommendations. Here are a few:

Detective stories: There are three series that I consider absolutely unrivalled. First, of course, is the canon of Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. The first half of the series is superior; Doyle got bored with the characters and it shows in the later stories. But for atmosphere, excitement and crisp, colorful dialogue, nothing beats Holmes and Watson.
G.K. Chesterton created the most unlikely detective of all in his mild-mannered little priest, Father Brown, who solves his mysteries not with arcane knowledge of cigar ashes and tropical poisons, but with his common sense, psychological insight and theological understanding.
That's two from Great Britain. The third master in my trinity is Rex Stout, who essentially combined the British style of detection with the hard-boiled American school in his Nero Wolfe novels. The massive, cranky and brilliant Wolfe is the second greatest character created by an American mystery writer. The greatest is Wolfe's assistant (and narrator of the stories) Archie Goodwin. Begin with the first novel in the series, "Fer-de-Lance," and by the time you've devoured four or five, you too will believe this remarkable household on West 35th Street in New York City actually exists. (It doesn't, though; the address Stout gives for Wolfe is actually smack in the middle of the Hudson River.)

Damn, I'm long-winded. I'll save my recommendations in other genres for a later thread.

 

[Nerobob1]

Well, my favourite series of books has to be the "Sharpe" chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. Amazingly intense Napoleonic War novels.

I just finished the much-hyped Da Vinci code by Dan Brown. Pretty good, but not for hardcore Catholics.

 

[Ignatz]

Well, my favourite series of books has to be the "Sharpe" chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. Amazingly intense Napoleonic War novels.

I just finished the much-hyped Da Vinci code by Dan Brown. Pretty good, but not for hardcore Catholics.

Cornwell is indeed excellent. Though I've only read "Sharpe's Company," I plan to read more...especially now that Patrick O'Brian is no longer with us and the Aubrey-Maturin series is at an end. I need a historical fiction fix. (A fixion?)

 

[Nerobob1]

I think there's about 20 Sharpe books in all. Cornwell has also written the Arthurian trilogy, a 100 years war based trilogy and American Civil War books. You probably know all this, but just in case.

Am I right in thinking Company is the one where the English attack the Spanish Fortress City place?

 

[Ignatz]

I think there's about 20 Sharpe books in all. Cornwell has also written the Arthurian trilogy, a 100 years war based trilogy and American Civil War books. You probably know all this, but just in case.

Am I right in thinking Company is the one where the English attack the Spanish Fortress City place?

That's the one. The fortress of Badajoz on the Spanish-Portuguese border. I've also seen an excellent television adaptation, with Sean Bean as Sharpe and Pete Postlethwaite as the loathsome Hakeswill.

 

[Nerobob1]

I remember seeing the TV adaptations ages ago, and am now frustrated because I can't track down any DVDs.

I found the character of Hakeswill annoying as the novels progressed. He'd keep turning up, especially in the India related books, and at the end Sharpe, instead of shooting him in the face with a cannon, would throw him in a snake pit or an elephant's pen, and it was obvious he'd survive.

I just finished Sharpe's Waterloo, damn good.

 

[Ignatz]

Flashman

An exciting, informative and hilarious series is "Flashman" and its sequels, by George Macdonald Fraser, the next of which is due out in a couple of months. What Fraser did was take an existing fictional character, the school bully Harry Flashman from the classic English novel "Tom Brown's School Days," and chronicle his career after expulsion from Rugby. Flashman is tall, handsome, intelligent...and an arrant, lying, drinking, womanizing coward. He stumbles into almost every military and social crisis of the 19th Century and usually through guile and sheer dumb luck emerges smelling like the proverbial rose (winning the Victoria Cross, a knighthood, etc.) and being lionized as one of England's heroes. Along the way, he encounters such towering figures as Bismarck, Burton, Gordon, Lincoln, Custer, Lily Langtry and Lola Montes and casts a keen, clear eye on all and sundry. The novels are scrupulously researched and even footnoted. They are also, to use a threadbare modern phrase, politically incorrect in the extreme.
Flashman narrates his own tales and he is an engaging and entertaining rogue. There are about a dozen novels in the series, begun in the early 1970's, and the later ones are as good as or better than the earliest. This is a trick that is hard to pull off, by the way; even the masters of literature have been known to trot out their classic characters a few times too often. Think of "Tom Sawyer, Detective" or the later adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Phillip Marlowe or Travis McGee. (One school of thought even holds that Shakespeare's Falstaff suited up once too often.) But Flashy just gets better with age.

 

[Ignatz]

Horror

I observe that many of the forum members are passionate for tales of horror and the supernatural. May I presume to recommend a forgotten master from about a hundred years ago? His name was M.R. James. He was an Englishman, a professional antiquary, and a master of the ghost story. His protagonists are mostly cut from the same cloth as the author, scholarly little bachelors drudging away among museums, libraries, estate sales and ruins. James could, in a sentence or a phrase, evoke an apparition or creature or booger that will scare the hell out of you and, I promise you, linger in your mind for the rest of your life. He is one of the very few writers who has made me sit bolt upright in my chair, an effect usually achievable only by films or mischievous housemates. Poe never did it. Lovecraft never did it. King never did it. But when I read James's "Treasure of Abbot Thomas" for the first time, I nearly ripped a patch of upholstery out of the seat of my chair, if you get my drift. Most collections of Victorian era horror have a story or two by him. Dover publishes his "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" and its sequel "More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary."