Posts by James Butler
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Time Out Bookstore,
My apologies* - for some reason I thought there was a further back room. Perhaps your neighbours don't have customer-accessible rooms at the back, and are thus less circumspect than they might be? I am a great fan of your shop.
* Saying this a lot lately :-(
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I had a minor suspension-of-disbelief problem with The Sparrow (and I'm pretty happy with a lot of very dubious SF) - while Russell is quite skilful with her depictions of the technology of the expedition, I think the organisation ("Sure, we'll fund an expedition to another star! And why don't we crew it with all your best friends!") was compromised to serve a plot point.
Also, while her primary point about clashing cultures was well put, I think she was trying to say something deep about God as well - which I completely failed to comprehend. Perhaps I've lost the ability since I gave up my Christian card.
I'm just starting on Children Of God, and I'm not yet through the contrived-recap-for-people-who-didn't-read-the-first-book, a literary technique for which I have zero tolerance.
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Thomas Beagle,
Dear James Butler. You may think you want to read The Sparrow but, trust me, you don’t. Yes, thank you, the therapy helped and I now feel a lot better.
Too late :-) I thought it was pretty good, although perhaps not up to the hype I had heard/read about it; and I did keep my hands in my pockets for a few days afterwards.
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I’m loving the new Auckland Super City Super Library System. Before the amalgamation, I discovered that some books I wanted to read ( The Dying Earth , The Sparrow) were only available in far-flung branches on the Shore, so I waited until November then requested them online. Brilliant!
I also love Time Out books, and their children’s section is nice, except when you can smell dope smoke drifting in from the back room; it’s kinda amusing I guess, but not when I have my children with me. To be fair, it hasn’t happened recently.
I think my main motivation for wanting to continue buying books (and CDs, DVDs) rather than just borrowing or downloading, is so that my children will might have the same chance I did to discover new and wonderful things just by wandering around the house feeling bored. But then, I guess we have the Internet for that now, too.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to ,
My apologies - my snark was unwarranted. I was thinking of similar comments I have seen made with much less well-informed thought backing them than yours.
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to ,
Not all men are rapists, but almost all rapists are men,
Um, how did you arrive at that?
I'm guessing... arithmetic?
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Up Front: Say When, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Benefit of the doubt says at least three male posters here support feminism, but wouldn’t describe themselves as feminists. Am I right?
For myself, I'm reluctant to appropriate a label which I don't completely understand.
If "believe in equal rights and equal opportunities for men and women" is a sufficient definition, then sign me up! But I have had reason to doubt that this would satisfy everyone.
Probably the easiest, and most useful, way for me to engage in this issue is to a) try to live the principle of equality in my life and relationships, and b) stand on the sidelines and yell "Yay feminists!!" when necessary. I don't know if I have the skill or fortitude to actually play.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to nzlemming,
Hmmm Blogspot seems unable to deliver scalianz any more. I wonder why?
Emma's link doesn't seem to work, but this does.
My favourite so far on that page:
"Tiger Woods to Convert to IslamObama’s plan for Sharia Law may benefit someone. [...]"
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Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey, in reply to philipmatthews,
Even if the reviews were uniformly dire
No, that wouldn’t be accurate, Craig.
You missed his cunning use of the subjunctive “were” :-) He did link to rottentomatoes upthread…
Edit: Emma, snap.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Emma Hart,
try filling out Family First’s Family Issues survey
Done - although it felt uncomfortably like I was trolling, clicking "Strongly Disagree" so many times in succession...