Busytown: Holiday reading lust
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Enough. I'm raving. Time to get back into the garden and attack the agapanthus instead of innocent books and films.
If it's not innocent, LOOK OUT!
And if you see Donald Sutherland, do not approach!
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Oops - posted twice - went out and attacked plants and twisted my ankle. Revenge of the something or others.
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Too right - agapanthus has terrible triffid like qualities.
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There was a corny line from Michelle Roderique to a US General (?) "You're not the only one with a gun, bitch."
I get the impression she only casts for roles where she can look hot and blow shit up. It's a brand thing.
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At the risk of Pterrifying this thread once again - has anyone else read Unseen Academicals? I'm not far into it as yet myself, but it seems like a return to impressive form after Making Money (honest verdict: lacklustre, too much like its postal predecessor).
And I must confess, when I saw Pratchett's dedications in front, which include a friend who typed most of the novel for him, it gave me a bit of a reality check as to exactly what the man is facing.
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At the risk of Pterrifying this thread once again - has anyone else read Unseen Academicals?
My partner has (and paid full list for the hardback!) and really liked it. I think he was much like you regarding Making Money: B-list TP still blows most other fantasy writers out of the water, but it's still B-list Pratchett. Though to be fair, I don't think The Discworld series has been the primary focus of his creative energies in recent years: He was working on Nation and The Folklore of Discworld (with Jacqueline Simpson) at the same time as Making Money.
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I think he was much like you regarding Making Money: B-list TP still blows most other fantasy writers out of the water, but it's still B-list Pratchett.
Had I not read Going Postal beforehand I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. If the mooted Raising Taxes follows the exact same formula again (former conman sent in incognito, brings vaguely "respectable" but creaky/cranky institution up to date) I kind of dread the possible results.
Folklore of Discworld was a delight.
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I loved Unseen Academicals - he was fully on form, and given his illness I had picked it up with a certain amount of trepidation.
[Pratchett visited New Zealand in the early is the early-mid 90s (maybe 94??) -- and I realized afterwards that I had sat next to his table at a small Chinese restaurant in Christchurch, near the University. I was having dinner with a friend who had come back from California for a visit and she had been good enough to bring me a very high tech 14.4k Teleport Gold Modem, then unobtainable for pretty much any money in New Zealand - the thing was under my chair, in its box with the words "Teleport Gold" written on the side of it. About midway through the meal a bearded British gentleman at a nearby table politely caught my attention and said he was enormously curious to know what was in the box. It was only afterwards I realized who he was.]
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I'm currently re-reading Making Money and i must (guiltily) say Im enjoying it as much as most other Pratchett I've read. But then, I work for a bank so most of the jokes hit me right where I live.
Favourite Pratchett though is still Night Watch, closely followed by any of the other Sam Vimes novels.
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I can see why some people didn't like Making Money, but I enjoyed it more than Going Postal, myself.
Plus it still has the funniest moment I've ever read in a book:
""Look out! He's got a daisy!" he shouted, and then thought: I just shouted "Look out! He's got a daisy!", and I think I"m going to remember, for ever, just how embarrassing this is."I laughed for days, I think.
Unseen Academicals hit me between the eyes a bit. If no one minds, here's the link to my full review http://www.bookiemonster.co.nz/2009/11/unseen-academicals-by-terry-pratchett/
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INHO, Making Money is worth the price of admission for the water-powered model of the economy alone -- which is actually (I assume) inspired by a real gizmo, incidentally (one of the few examples of which is in NZ).
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richard: I felt very clever for spotting the Moniac reference, and then re-reading I discovered my edition of MM actually has a front note which explicitly credits the Moniac as the inspiration for the Glooper.
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I actually enjoyed Making Money much more the second go-round than the first - as others have said, it seemed too close to GP, but on the second round I appreciated all the banking/economics jokes much more. And Moist has grown very rapidly on me as a character, so I don't mind seeing more of him.
Unseen Academicals was good, but I don't think it's going to be one of my favourites - possibly because I am not and have never been a football/soccer fan, so the main plot of the book left me a little cold, and I probably missed a lot of in-jokes. Or it may be something simpler; in UA, Vetinari is becoming human; people are leaving UU; the Discworld is changing, in more permanent ways than before.
I can see why, from both a literary standpoint and Pterry's, but - I like the Discworld because it's like how TV series used to be, when instead of someone getting killed off every other week you went back to mostly the same characters doing mostly the same things, if in different situations. I'll get used to the change. It just might take a while.
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the Discworld is changing, in more permanent ways than before.
Vetinari's great modernising Undertaking for Ankh-Morpork(mentioned in Making Money) seems like a mooted endpoint to the medieval-slash-early modern Discworld world. If that city really, seriously industrialises, a lot of the Discworld spirit will change.
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actually (I assume) inspired by a real gizmo, incidentally (one of the few examples of which is in NZ)
Do tell
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Interesting - I see another chapter in the saga of Bollard ripe for the picking.
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richard: I felt very clever for spotting the Moniac reference, and then re-reading I discovered my edition of MM actually has a front note which explicitly credits the Moniac as the inspiration for the Glooper.
By an odd coincidence the New York Times (I think) had a piece on the Moniac not long after I read Making Money -- and that was what made the link for me.
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You all convinced me and I've stuck with re-reading Making Money. It does get better with time. Still not really a favourite, though... also Mr. Fusspot makes me think of Gaspode the Wonder Dog. Now that would be a welcome reappearance...
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also Mr. Fusspot makes me think of Gaspode the Wonder Dog
Mr Fusspot is a great "following dog" to Wuffles.
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Every Pterry work I've read has given me joy, even if unevenly...I love anything the Wee Free Men slam through, or the witches stark in, or
the Librarian so much as ooks in..."The Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents" does take some beating in the overall favourite stakes tho'- -
OOO! Just arrived from The Book Depository (thank you *so much* for the heads-up) "Unseen Academicals" and "The Graveyard Book".
You are allowed a guess as to what I'll majorly be doing for the next 12 hours. Hint: does not include sleeping.
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I'll have to start on Terry Pratchett ... Meanwhile I have finished Fiona Farrell's 'Limestone' (damn good) and Hanif Kureishi's 'Something to Tell You' - also good.
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Thanks Cecelia. I was hoping someone else would admit to not being initiated into the 'Pterry club' yet. It is somewhat exciting though, as if his books are really that good, I can't wait to get started.
Read Nick Horby's Juliet naked over break. I'm a bit of an 80s musical train spotting geek, so it spoke to me in that sense. However, if he is touted as being one of Britain's best comedy writers, I would expect more than two LOL moments in the book. He seems to do angst about as well, or better, than comedy.
As for Ben Elton's Meltdown, well that just simply wasn't funny.
Spoiler Alert
Maybe the notion of another white male who perpetuated the greed driven credit crunch getting off relatively scott free somewhat negated the humour. Or am I being a bit harsh? -
If you enjoy musical references you might enjoy Kureishi and the wonderful Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Allusions to past rock and pop music are kind of lost on me but when I read about them I think, why doesn't someone make an album of songs alluded to in many of these 'growing up in the 70s or 80s' novels? They probably have in Murakami's case.
However, the above books are not comical, just witty and observant.
And well, what's wrong with a bit of angst as long as there's some light at the end of the tunnel?
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