Author Topic: The Library (Read 2089830 times)

Gumtree · « **Reply #6040 on:** August 20, 2011, 12:48:46 PM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

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I think the Hardy I enjoyed most was The Woodlanders - it's not sweet and light by any means but there are some wonderful passages - Hardy knew how to string a sentence together but I think he lacked the ability to provide the reader with a little comic relief to offset the tragedy - The Mayor of Casterbridge is another one I like - the characterisation of Henchard is superb - so was Ciaran Hinds in the film...

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #6041 on:** August 20, 2011, 01:14:31 PM »

Oh dear we do all have different tastes don't we - my objection to Hardy had been, he seems to make so many of his protagonists into flawed characters - and their flaws are really biting - maybe that is why I can relax choosing a read, often about the medieval knights and myths when authors shined their light on nobility - I wonder if it was Hardy who opened the modern floodgates in literature where flawed ambiguous character is the makeup of most protagonists?

Although, thinking on it Hamlet certainly wasn't the noblest of characters but somehow it seems acceptable and in sinc with the fighting for power off the battle field or, maybe the abuse to especially women was assumed and not written so specifically as some of Hardy's characters act out. I guess the best I can say is that Hardy didn't condemn only women as victims of abuse - he shows how woman can be on the power side of the abuse scale as well...

Maybe that is it... as MaryPage said, at this stage of our life enough is enough - to get my insides churned up about something I can do nothing about does not lift me and my day.

MaryPage · « **Reply #6042 on:** August 20, 2011, 03:22:31 PM »

That is it precisely, Barbara. I have enough unwanted stress these days in my real life, what with this economy hurting so many in my family and also impacting me as a result. When I finally get to settle down in my easy chair with a book, I want it to make me happy and smooth out the tummy pains.

marjifay · « **Reply #6043 on:** August 20, 2011, 05:51:37 PM »

Great posts, Gumtree and Barb, on Hardy's writing.

MaryPage said, "I have enough unwanted stress these days in my real life, what with this economy hurting so many in my family and also impacting me as a result. When I finally get to settle down in my easy chair with a book, I want it to make me happy and smooth out the tummy pains."

Reminds me of the Borowitz Report this week (borowitzreport.com), a humorous newsletter of satire, which said:

"Manufacturers of Downward Arrows Post Record Profits

Rare Bright Spot on Wall Street

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – In what stock market analysts are pointing to as a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy period for Wall Street, manufacturers of downward arrows posted record profits this week.

While makers of cars, computers, farm equipment and practically everything else saw their fortunes plunge this week, producers of downward arrows notched double-digit gains, inspiring investors to snap up their shares like never before."

(The borowitzreport always gives me a chuckle.)

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #6044 on:** August 20, 2011, 06:05:58 PM »

Someone in another group sent this to me, and it also gave me a chuckle:

"Now that I'm 'older' (but refuse to grow up), here's what
I've discovered:

1. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

2. My wild oats have turned into prunes and All Bran.

3. I finally got my head together; now my body is falling
apart.

4. Funny, I don't remember being absent minded...

4. Funny, I don't remember being absent minded...

5. If all is not lost, where is it?

6. It is easier to get older than it is to get wiser.

7. The only time the world beats a path to your door is when
you're in the bathroom.

8. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them
on my knees.

9. It's not hard to meet expenses ... they're everywhere.

10. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the
hereafter ... I go somewhere to get something and then
wonder what I'm hereafter."

Marj

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6045 on:** August 20, 2011, 06:11:53 PM »

No 7 is especially true. Has anyone seen that children's book by Jill Murphy "Five Minutes Peace"? Mrs Large tries to have a bath, and ends up at the kitchen table reading the paper because all 3 of her elephant offspring ended up in the bath with her. Nowadays I don't get that, but I do always get phone calls, callers, etc as soon as I close the bathroom door.

Rosemary

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #6046 on:** August 20, 2011, 06:50:52 PM »

No haven't seen the book but that bring to mind one of the memorable events in my life that I do wish old age would work its magic so I could forget the humiliation -

Had two pre-schoolers ages 4 and 5 with another on the way and so during the day to use the potty was a community affair with non-stop chatter, questions, at times accompanied by the most recent song learned that morning on the children's TV show, Captain Kangaroo -

The phone company is upgrading the wiring from the house to the street lines and the workers were in the house all morning - they left for lunch - I am in the midst of my community potty sit where the concept of a closed door was not understood when the front door swings open and in walks 3 guys to continue what I thought was work completed - here I am in all my glory - No words - shock - I slammed the door - the children looked at me in terror and I would not get out of the bathroom for over an hour until I was convinced they were gone - I gave them a bath with bubbles to make it a game - Oh god - to this day I can feel the embarrassment...

bellemere · « **Reply #6047 on:** August 20, 2011, 07:20:57 PM »

Looking for the archived discussion of The Man in the Wooden Hat. Is there a search freature? cn't find it. Just finished one more of Jane Gardam's earlier works; The Queen of the tambourine.
A woman goes through a heck of a nervous breaddown fueled by a tremendously active imagination, colorgul life experiences and post partum depression , possibly sounds terrible, but it is great. Won one of thse British prizes, booker? as best novel of the year.

roshanarose · « **Reply #6048 on:** August 21, 2011, 12:08:56 AM »

What makes the world an interesting place is that we all have different tastes.

Elderly husband and wife are checking out their TV programs. The only two programs that are on is a fishing program and a porn movie.

Wife says to husband "You already know how to fish".

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6049 on:** August 21, 2011, 03:39:34 AM »

Ha-ha Barb - the things our children get us into. We lived in quite a remote cottage when my first 2 children were babies - I was breastfeeding one of them wearing only my dressing gown one morning, after a particulalry broken night, when i heard something outside. Walked to window carrying still-feeding baby, and saw John Lewis delivery man appear just as my dressing gown fell off

He was very polite and pretended he hadn't noticed.

Rosemary

Steph · « **Reply #6050 on:** August 21, 2011, 06:18:03 AM »

Ah Mary Page, I am with you. I did depressing when young, but now.. I like books that make me think, but not the turgid sort of down down down stuff any more. I love mysteries, fantasy and a good fiction. Like biographies if they dont spend their entire time putting down whoever they are writing about. I get interested in things.. Just now.. Polygamy and why it came to the mormons.. I like history as well.
Things I stay away from..Russian fiction.. Between the name confusion and the down down down syndrom, I tend to get bored.. Most Irish, although I like Maeve Binchy.. The current obsession with writers who do not tell a story..Darn it all,, the whole point of a book is the story.

Babi · « **Reply #6051 on:** August 21, 2011, 09:34:03 AM »

I'm with you, MARJ and MARYPAGE. Some 'great' writers, for me, beg a definition
of what makes a work 'great'. Hardy had depth and insight, but his insight was, imo, jaundiced. Joyce is another considered 'great', but did his greatness really
require that his readers struggle with his haughty dismissal of punctuation?
Sorry, ..can't be bothered.

ginny · « **Reply #6052 on:** August 21, 2011, 11:00:33 AM »

Gosh what a great conversation here. Hardy really pushes a lot of buttons! Golly you all are well read, I thought I'd read all of his, but I see I missed quite a few! Now I'm afraid to reread him after my somewhat desultory experience with Revolutionary Road, which I once thought nothing equaled. Certainly Franzen did not approach it.

Then I read it again over 65...and it was still very fine but not the end of the world....So Jude the Obscure which blew me away in my 20's, I am afraid to revisit. Maybe a couple of the others, tho? He's like a Bloch cello concerto in music, to me. Likewise Arrowsmith. Lewis is dated by his language but I did reread Babbitt and found it much more brilliant (and the sequel more meaningful ) despite the language than I had thought. I hated Babbitt and Our Town when I was young. Especially Our Town, by Wilder. Could NOT understand what anybody saw in the boring thing. BOOORING... Or so I thought THEN.

Also reread Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and that one had lost nothing. Babbitt and The Jungle still resonate in issues today actually.

I bought Great Expectations yesterday and hope to see what all the shoutins's about. You all are very well read here! I hate to have missed something. I remember Maryal (Deems) always said Bleak House was her favorite and I hope to read it too someday. For some reason I find self missing Sherlock Holmes. Have you read all of those? Once you get in the pattern of Doyle's writing it's almost like a drug, itself, you have to read them all. I keep drifting over to the set and drifting away because I know if I get near it I'm hooked. There's a new Sherlock Holmes moving coming out too.

I was amazed when I read Goodbye Columbus to see how good it was, but again that was 20 years ago and might not be true now. I do think youth can react more viscerally to youthful subjects, and identify with them, than age wants to, but age has its benefits, too.

Thursday night they were rerunning the movie The First Wives Club on TV, and I caught the last 15 minutes, and it intrigued me, so while in B&N I thought oh I'll look at it, out of curiosity. The author is Olivia Goldsmith, who seems to have written quite a few books I haven't read, and is now untimely deceased. I love it. I really do, so far, I'm not far into it but I really like the way she writes. It starts with several unhappy events, including the suicide of a good friend, but it's told from the POV of the narrator, who lets us in on the news. it's not sunshine and roses. It's a lot like the feeling of Sex and the City, takes place in Manhattan. I like the way she writes about NYC, love the opening sentences:

Quote

Manhattan, land of glittering dreams, slept in the predawn darkness. It was an island where dreams came true, where dreams were outgrown and discarded and sometimes turned to nightmares. Right then, in the darkness of a May night in the late 1980's, it was an island where many women slept alone.

That's a nice, big white and gold paperback, who could leave that on the shelf?

And then I got home and here was a package containing The Choir!!! Yahoo, so it looks as if I've got several great reads lined up, and it's been a while.

I have really missed that feeling where you can sink into an all encompassing book and let everything else go.

Interesting conversation here, I learn something every time I come in. Thank you for note of the quiz, RoshanaRose, I'll look it up. Fascinating on the Dickens statue, RosemaryKaye, man must have had the legs of a mountain goat, his house in London anyway has stairs which would give an Olympic athlete the bends. I hope his statue, should they build it, turns out better than the new one of John Paul II.

MaryPage · « **Reply #6053 on:** August 21, 2011, 11:12:37 AM »

Loved that one, Roshanarose! Passing it on.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6054 on:** August 21, 2011, 11:54:58 AM »

Ginny, that Olivia Goldsmith book sounds great, I'll look out for it.

Rosemary

mabel1015j · « **Reply #6055 on:** August 21, 2011, 12:33:15 PM »

Olivia Goldsmith's books have been inconsistent, IMO. I liked 1st Wives Club, i especially liked Flavor of the Month, The Young Wives was o.k., but i gave up onPen Pals and didn't finish it.

marjifay · « **Reply #6056 on:** August 21, 2011, 01:18:30 PM »

Thanks, Ginny, for you recommendation of Philip Roth's GOODBYE COLUMBUS. I saw the movie years ago, but never read the book. I haven't enjoyed a book by Roth since PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT. But want to read his THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, an alternative history.

I also want to read Sinclair Lewis's IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE. A novel that looks at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Depression when few Americans were aware of the Nazi threat.

Also want to read Upton Sinclair's THE JUNGLE. Can't believe I never read it.

Marj

kiwilady · « **Reply #6057 on:** August 21, 2011, 08:34:22 PM »

Mum gave me "Hegemony or Survival" by Noam Chomsky. Never knew my mum held such radical views! I have it put aside til I finish my September non fiction book for our discussion here on Senior Learn.

Carolyn

Frybabe · « **Reply #6058 on:** August 21, 2011, 09:07:09 PM »

Noam Chomsky is quite a name in the Linguistics field. He has been called the Father of Modern Linguistics by some. His very left-wing world view has been long standing, at least since the Vietnam War. Wikipedia has an extensive article on him and at the bottom somewhere is a link to his published material. The listing of his political activist writings is longer than his writings in linguistics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

This is his website:

http://www.chomsky.info/

roshanarose · « **Reply #6059 on:** August 21, 2011, 10:51:45 PM »

Rosemary - Gorgeous story. What more can be said.

MaryPage - I try to be subtle.

Ginny - Although I do adore Hardy, I admit that "Jude the Obscure" was definitely OTT.

As for Chomsky - I flee towards the door just reading his name. When I was doing my Masters in Linguistics a specially imported professor (tried) to teach his (Chomsky's) revolutionary grammar theories to us. Something about T Bars, or something like that. Like most bad memories I have shut it away.

Frybabe · « **Reply #6060 on:** August 22, 2011, 12:01:32 AM »

Roshanarose, when George was studying linguistics for his PhD, he had the opportunity to attend one of Chomsky's lectures. He does not think very highly of him, but I suspect it is more for his politics then for his linguistics theories. G got his PhD in Education, Reading Specialty. He developed a computer program to help reading teachers diagnose reading problems.

My classes start on Monday. I'm taking evening classes this time. I am likely to be a bit scarce now and again for the next few months. The Intermediate Accounting looks interesting. From riffling through the book and reading the first chapter, I gather that we will be focusing more on accounting rules and standards as well as more in depth understanding of financial reporting, both domestic and international. Yippee! Looks interesting.

Steph · « **Reply #6061 on:** August 22, 2011, 06:02:18 AM »

Oh, Upton Sinclair. I found him in my early 20's and devoured each and every book. Jungle resonates forever.. I tried Arrowsmith, but was put off by the archaic language in many places and the changes in our culture, but I still liked it. It Can Happen Here is genuinely scary since I had no idea how close we had flirted with this sort of nonsense at one period of our history.
Some books never ever lose their strength.
I remember Dickens house from the street, but did not realize you could go inside??
I think I have read most if not all of his stuff. Some was sort of pot boiler, but many of it was written as weekly series, so needed little zings to keep people reading each week.. Plus of course, he got paid by the word.

Babi · « **Reply #6062 on:** August 22, 2011, 08:48:27 AM »

We're well read, GINNY? How many of us can teach Latin and Greek?!! And much
as I enjoyed beautiful music (when I could still hear it), I wouldn't recognize
a Bloch concerto. Who is Bloch? (never mind) My ignorance in that area is abysmal.
I think you're right that youth reacts more 'viscerally'. I also find that I
am no longer interested in most books/films about youth. I really don't want to
see one more 'coming of age' movie.

I didn't read Upton Sinclair, mainly because he was always described as a
'muckraker', and I assumed the worst. Actually, "The Jungle" is credited with
bringing about much-needed changes in meat plant inspection and some labor reforms.

Jonathan · « **Reply #6063 on:** August 22, 2011, 10:55:55 AM »

Back to School. What a wonderful memory. Good luck, Frybabe. Accounting is where it is all happening these days. As for rules and standards...they've had their day. They're killing us. Look for a breakthrough. A way out. Keep us informed. Look for S&P emplyees in your class but don't get too friendly.

pedln · « **Reply #6064 on:** August 22, 2011, 10:59:30 AM »

At the high school where I was librarian, the Am. History picked up with period right after the Civil War to the present (Jr. High had the earlier years.) The history teachers always required an outside book report and would encourage the kids to read the "muckrakers" and/or biographies of them, -- Sinclair, Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens and Nellie Bly, etc.

Your comment, Babi, makes me wonder who we would call our "muckrakers" today. If the history teachers said "post World War II" who would you suggest? And I guess now we'd have to include our broadcast journalists as well. Much has been written "after the fact," but who is changing the world now? My thoughts go back to Rachel Carson, but today

Jonathan · « **Reply #6065 on:** August 22, 2011, 11:03:55 AM »

My daughter is an accountant with a major corporation. The first week she was there she found fifty million in the books that had been overlooked. She is no longer encouraged to share her subsequent discoveries with me. Something to do with inside information.

LarryHanna · « **Reply #6066 on:** August 22, 2011, 11:19:14 AM »

Babi, I agree with you on the "coming of age" movies and TV shows. Not everyone is in there 20's or 30's. It is nice to see an occasional show that features some older folks. I find the lack of morality in most TV shows and movies to be particularly distasteful to me. I am not a prude but do believe morals are there for a good reason. My reading preferences these days tend toward mysteries or true crime stories. I also like for there to be a story. Years ago I read a series of books that followed the same characters throughout the founding and settlement of the the country. They were written by Dana Fuller Ross (which was a pseudonym for Noel B. Gerson (who also used the pseudonym, Donald Clayton Porter, and many more)and called the "Wagons West" series.

pedln · « **Reply #6067 on:** August 22, 2011, 11:31:03 AM »

Larry, your mention of NOel Gerson rang a few bells, but I really didn't know why. This from a 1988 obit in the NYT.

Quote

Noel B. Gerson, who wrote 325 books of fact and fiction under his own name and several pseudonyms, died of a heart attack on Sunday at Boca Raton (Florida) Community Hospital. He was 75 years old.

The main themes of his writing included personalities and events in American history. Among the subjects of his biographies were Sam Houston, Kit Carson and Presidents Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt. As Dana Fuller Ross, he wrote the popular ''Wagons West'' series; as Donald Clayton Porter, he wrote the ''White Indian'' series. Two of his novels, ''55 Days at Peking'' and ''The Naked Maja,'' were made into movies.

marjifay · « **Reply #6068 on:** August 22, 2011, 01:31:18 PM »

Good for you, Frybabe, continuing your education in Accounting.

I remember when I took accounting and financing classes back in the 1970s, there were no handheld calculators and we had to do all our computing without them. Nothing like adding up umpteen numbers and doing division, etc. for a test without a calculator!

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #6069 on:** August 22, 2011, 01:36:51 PM »

Larry said, "It is nice to see an occasional show that features some older folks."

I agree. I get so disgusted watching TV and movies that show nothing but young babes who could win a Miss Universe contest, and men who are all handsome, but all look-alikes. I enjoy European films that have actors who look like real people I know.

Marj

marjifay · « **Reply #6070 on:** August 22, 2011, 01:45:52 PM »

Thanks Carolyn for (your mum's) recommendation of Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival. I missed that one. Have always liked his books and opinions. (Of course you know where that puts me -- on the left of the political spectrum.)

Marj

pedln · « **Reply #6071 on:** August 22, 2011, 03:25:36 PM »

I learned something today. Even colleges have summer reading lists for in-coming freshman. Fantastic. Some schools are even collaborating their books with neighboring colleges and universities. Of course, not every book pleases everyone.

Summer Reads for U

I love this excerpt.

Quote

Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., has picked “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” by Nicholas Carr. Will iPod-addled 18-year-olds be up to the assignment? Administrators don’t sound so sure. Step 1, per Wheaton’s Web site: “Take your time to read carefully, an activity that Carr argues is increasingly difficult.”

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #6072 on:** August 22, 2011, 03:54:41 PM »

Yes Marjifay - and it's only a few weeks till we have Downton Abbey back on our screens, with the fabulous Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton - hooray!

Rosemary

mabel1015j · « **Reply #6073 on:** August 22, 2011, 05:49:46 PM »

I've been reading the " Wagons West" series, altho the authorship is confusing. When i looked up Dana Fuller Ross i discovered that Noel Gerson died in the late 80's - if i'm remembering correctly. And then read that DFR won a book award in the 21st century, so it sounded like some one may have picked up the pseudonym and has continued writing western historical history. I'll see if i can find that info again. I do enjoy the books, the author writes good, interesting stories w/ somewhat charactured characters. But DFR's lists of books is sooooo long, he has to have some formula to create by rather than a new story each time....... I may not be making a lot of sense here, i've got a blazing sinus headache.

Jean

JeanneP · « **Reply #6074 on:** August 22, 2011, 06:42:21 PM »

Rosemary.

Thank you for posting the slides on East Linton. Didn't get to come back over this summer. (So Far). Had to come back twice last year. Maybe the flights will go down a little in October. So high right now.

Miss 2 things about England. Our Villages and living close to the Sea. My Family now live further North and so get up into Yorkshire more often when there. Some really pretty villages close.

Dana · « **Reply #6075 on:** August 22, 2011, 08:24:30 PM »

That new movie about the chimp who was brought up in NYC by a family and taught to use sign language was apparently based on the true story of some group that tried to show that Noam Chomsky was wrong. I guess he thought that what distinguished mankind from other animals was the use of grammar, so this experiment aimed to teach a chimp to use grammar in sign. He was called Nim Chimpsky (the chimp), which of-course is the bit I remember....
I don't know if the chimp did learn grammar or not, but I don't intend to see the movie as I gather he was dragged screaming from his mother...we humans really do have a lot to answer for.

kiwilady · « **Reply #6076 on:** August 22, 2011, 09:30:55 PM »

Marj - giggle! I was surprised my mum read the book she gave me. I and one sister are known as the radicals in our family.

Ginny I found out on Sunday that one of the Librarians at our Central Library ( she is over 50) used to be a Latin teacher. I told her about Senior Learn and our book discussions etc. She says her Latin is rusty but she was really interested in the fact that there is a site like this on the net.

Carolyn

Steph · « **Reply #6077 on:** August 23, 2011, 08:37:48 AM »

Dana Fuller Ross was one of those names that several people wrote under. Noel Gerson was the primary, but after the death, others used it. There are several proprietary authors names, that a lot of different people write under.

Babi · « **Reply #6078 on:** August 23, 2011, 08:50:36 AM »

Good question, PEDLN. I couldn't think of any and had to pause to do some research.
How about Ralph Nader? Or Woodward and Bernstein? I found this interesting comment:

Quote

Although the term "muckraking" might appear to have negative connotations (and does in
British society), muckrakers have most often sought to serve the public interest by
uncovering crime, corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse in both the public and private
sectors."

Speaking of interesting discoveries, JONATHAN, I have a favorite from my days as an
inspector checking hospital medical records of Medicare patients. The records were chosen
at random. My favorite was the discovery of an error involving billing for a penile
implant. As I pointed out to the DON, the record was a woman's. Naturally, they acted to
correct that immediately.

I definitely agree, LARRY. I was thinking just the other day that extremism can run both
ways. Some of the Muslim countries are extremist in covering up their women, but I think
we have become just as extreme in exposing ours.

Right on, MARJ!!

Frybabe · « **Reply #6079 on:** August 23, 2011, 09:14:16 AM »

Quote

As for rules and standards...they've had their day. They're killing us. Look for a breakthrough. A way out.

Jonathan, I almost missed your post

. Well, you may get your wish. I have learned, in the first chapter of our new accounting book, that the US is looking to join with the International Accounting Standards Board (now scheduled for 2014) to coordinate accounting standards world wide. We are one of the few countries that don't already belong to it. Their codes are contained in about 2,500 pages whereas ours covers approximately 25,000 pages. Our FASB (under the SEC's perview) will probably cease to exist at that point. The main stickler appears to be that our standards are rules based and the IASB standards are principal based. That means that it is left up to the accountant to interpret how a standard applies in a given situation. I see lots of potential for a big jump in lawsuits because of the potential for contrary judgments or opinions. While the move to IASB would cut a lot of unwieldy rules and reporting costs, it is likely to make things less transparent and allow for more misbehavior, IMHO (so far, subject to change with more knowledge).

Another interesting thing I read is that Great Britain and a lot of other countries report assets at a market based value on their financials. We report them at the price that was actually paid. I am curious to find out how these other countries report depreciation of plant and equipment which surely would be affected don't you think?

News:

Author Topic: The Library (Read 2089830 times)