UK Roleplayers Book of the Month - March

[Pete]

Bwuh?

Jezmondo, take the thermometer out of your bottom and check the temperature. Yup, you'll note that it's reading stone cold zero... because you are dead to me. You decided not to read the book that a film was based on because the film was shite-mondo? Your bases are all sense making not to us.

I'm keen for you to suggest the next book to be read. No poll, just straight up Jez, from the heart. I'm gunna then watch a flick based on it, and then decide whether to read the book. That'd be great... if this were the UK Role Players Watch The Flick And Then Maybe Read The Book Club.

:: throws toys out of pram, looks contrite, hugs Jez ::

Dude, I don't need a hug, WTF?

Yeah, but I did man. Your comment made me so durned internet mad that I needed to hug a dude.

But like seriously... like, seriously dude, with real feeling... what book am I reading next? I'm going to be a Good Neighbour and read whatever book you suggest. Or at least, I'm going to give it a go. Surprise me, I'm all ears, and hungry for the Jez-tastic suggestion.

Cheers
Pete, Broken Like A Wilting Daisy, Five Element Master, Kata Of The Burnt Blossom

[Kaiserjez]

But like seriously... like, seriously dude, with real feeling... what book am I reading next? I'm going to be a Good Neighbour and read whatever book you suggest. Or at least, I'm going to give it a go. Surprise me, I'm all ears, and hungry for the Jez-tastic suggestion.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

But what's wrong with checking out a film to get the idea of if you might like the book? If I had watched the Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland version I might even have tried the book out!

[w00hoo]

Pete's One Liner Thought: I liked TTM; it's a quality, fast-paced read if you're in the mood for lighter fare. 3 out of 5 pistoles.

I found it generally turgid. I suppose that I got through all 550 pages was a sign of something, but more short chapters forced by the serialised nature of the book than actual page turning fun. There were very few of the 66 odd chapters where I got to the end of one and thought 'I can't put this down yet, I need to know what happens next.'

I'm pretty positive that they could have removed 4 of every 5 words and still had a working book that wouldn't have lost anything.

The high points for me were the memories of the film, where they hit a beat that I could picture.This could be because the book is just completely outside of my normal parameters for reading material. I don't do historic fiction without a good reason, I don't do romances intentionally, I like deep characters and interesting plots rather than courtly intrigue and light sketches.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone actually liked the characters in the book. By the end I was mentally referring to them as the Four Hipster Gits, they seemed to have almost no redeemable aspects. D'Artagnian made Marty McFly look three dimensionable. It's a shame QoT didn't get to the end of it because I was looking forward to hearing the shrieks of dispair (wherever she'd been in the World at that point, I'm sure they'd have echoed to Kent) when it disappeared in to the 10 chapters of The Lady de Winter's incarceration and it spent the first pages decrying her weak and useless body and how if only she'd been a man she could have done something to escape her prison.

One Liner - Not for me, too long, too plodding and I wanted all the wrong people to die horribly. 3/10 baguettes.

[dpmcalister]

I couldn't get past the first half dozen chapters. The writing was so torturous that I had to put it down and found myself finding almost anything else to do rather than read it. I'm really annoyed because so many people have raved about it and I've wanted to read it myself for years. On the plus side, I read the free version from Project Gutenberg so it didn't cost me anything other than time.

One Liner Thought: Not every classic is good and, sometimes, the film version is better. One out of 5 rapiers.

[w00hoo]

I don't know if it would have been better if the film wasn't so well known. I'd get to bits, the chase to London, the breakfast on the wall thingy, and just go 'ah this bit'. So there were no big reveals anywhere. Would I have guessed that de Winter was Athos' wife? Possilby not, although again, the idea that they were married and he'd never seen her shoulder was just bizarre to me (I'm fine to believe it could have happened, but still kind of incredulous.)

I read it because I decided two things, 1 I wasn't going to start anything else before I finished it and 2 I'd read at least 1 chapter a night before going to sleep. I had some stuff I really wanted to read...

[Evilgaz]

One liner: As Baz King once said about Radiohead's V Festival performance - "Turgid w***".

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is really dull.

Fixed that.

[Pete]

Please line up in an orderly fashion so that you can take turns using the thermometer to verify that you are all dead to me.



Thinking about it, I've never seen any of the film versions. I've seen odd bits of the various films here and there, but I've never watched one straight through. I did watch the recent~ish version of The Count of Monte Cristo... mon Dieu, a travesty! I watched it in horrified fascination as the fantastic source material - a proper classic - was butchered into a slight imitation. It wasn't even a very good film.

How are you lot getting on with that thermometer? I think I may need it myself if American Gods, a novel I once had the unfortunate misfortune - and that's a lot of misfortune - to pack with me on a trip to St. Ives one summer, is the next novel chosen. Maybe the intervening years will afford me a perspective from which I can appreciate it.

Cheers
Pete

[Elrick]

I suggest E squared by Matt Beaumont

Out of the ashes of doomed ad agency Miller Shanks has risen Meerkat 360, a very 21st century workplace. Staff include David Crutton, an MD with the worst email signature in history; Milton Keane, a definitely-straight PA with a yearning for reality tv fame; Liam O'Keefe, a creative with an online gambling addiction who may be linked with the contents of the stationery cupboard appearing on eBay; and, Harvey Harvey, a creative who politely replies to pornographic spam and who might just have met his future wife online - a rich Nigerian princess in deep trouble...Told entirely via emails, texts, webchat and blogs, the long-awaited follow up to "E" is a hilariously funny insight into the hearts, minds and inboxes of the world's most engagingly dysfunctional ad agency.

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1486 ... oduct.html

[Kaiserjez]

How are you lot getting on with that thermometer? I think I may need it myself if American Gods, a novel I once had the unfortunate misfortune - and that's a lot of misfortune - to pack with me on a trip to St. Ives one summer, is the next novel chosen. Maybe the intervening years will afford me a perspective from which I can appreciate it.

Doesn't matter if it's chosen or not Pepé, I refer you to you last post on the subject:

But like seriously... like, seriously dude, with real feeling... what book am I reading next? I'm going to be a Good Neighbour and read whatever book you suggest. Or at least, I'm going to give it a go. Surprise me, I'm all ears, and hungry for the Jez-tastic suggestion.

But if you've already tried it then I'll send you back to one of my original suggestions - To Kill a Mockingbird. And yeah, there is a film version as well!

[Pete]

Gosh durn it, yur raht. Weel awraht then, I weel staht readin' American Gods sometahm next week.



Foot In Mouth Pete

[queenortart]

I might just read the bits with the handy search function on the Kindle about Mrs De Winter and her pathetic gurl-ness. Then I can hate it sufficiently that I won't feel guilty for not wanting to read through the rest. I keep reading two or three pages at a time, but it's like wadding through treacle.

[queenortart]

OK I have now read that bit, and I suspect kept most of the train carriage either amused or thoroughly hacked off with me.

Words like tosser and sexist bastard arse git buggery w-nk b0llocks may have been said - I assume the nanny filter will get rid of a lot of what I just typed.

Dumas has just joined my list of people never to read again which includes Dickens, Thomas buggery Hardy and Dan Brown. DULL DULL DULL and his worst crime is that I didn't give a toss about any of his characters and I really really wanted to.

The weekend freeform for 2013 is the King's Muskeeters, and I'm going to have to watch the film version now to summon up any enthusiasm for playing the game as this read has rung out any interest I had in the 3 pansy fops and their little chum d'Artagan

[w00hoo]

So, did anybody actually like the main characters?

Do you think they are just hateful because we aren't reading this in 1844?

Aside from massive editing, what was missing from the book for you?

Was there anything that you thought, 'ooh I could use that for X'?

[w00hoo]

So, did anybody actually like the main characters?

Do you think they are just hateful because we aren't reading this in 1844?[/quote]

The word hateful gives it away for me here. I couldn't even believe they were really friends, most of the time they didn't so much look out for each other than sponge off what bit of good fortune the other might have had. The only time they seemed to work together well was when they were in danger of being killed to death by something.

Aside from massive editing, what was missing from the book for you?

I go back again and again to the problems of it being a serlialisation rather than being written as a coherent novel. I don't think it really did anything. The finish felt somewhat contrived and the focus just flitted about too much. This could be why I didn't really care about anyone (well, one 'why' anyway.)

Was there anything that you thought, 'ooh I could use that for X'?

I almost went back and re-read the bit on the bastion for some D&H stuff I was writing. I found myself thinking 'I've picked up knowledge about people with bandoliers of charge thingies for muskets from somewhere recently, that had some odd phrases in it, they might be useful here' but then had to really wrack my brain for when that had happened and eventually realised I'd spent ages wading through The Four Hipster Gits and it was in there. I didn't actually go back and re-read it, but that little bit _might_ see some use.

[w00hoo]

Wonder why that's come about.

While it's trite I'm tempted to blame a mix of consumerism and technology.

"Batteries not included" used to be a serious warning, it meant 'buy this for Christmas without batteries and you won't be able to use it for two to four days. Now it means "will have to buy some batteries."

You used to buy something mail order and expect to wait at least 28 days before it came, not be unhappy if you order at 11am and it's not arrived the next day.

That has bled over in to other things. We watched Deliverance last summer and it suffered from what most films of its era now suffer from, plodding plot with big chunks of not a lot happening. While I'm not necessarily expecting all my films to be SuckerPunch music videos, it's obvious that we've been shown a different way of doing it and that has taken some of the sheen off of the old way.

Back to the Victorian serialisations, this would come out regularly in the news paper and people would gather round to hear the next bit. Those that could read would read it out to those that couldn't. It was something special. As such there was more leeway to be a bit crap. Especially as part of the crapness could be covered over by a good story teller doing the reading. I'd imagine people would gather around the water choleranator and discuss the latest bit. Books have changed purpose now, people read them alone and maybe talk about them when they've finished...