CP LITERATURE DRAFT - (Rapid Fire Free For All Round)

[Aeneas]

Trade:

To Jerzee Girl: Poetry

To Aeneas: short stories/anthologies

[Bobblehead]

Nice recovery to JerzeeGirl to get her poetry category back.

And Ro is up in all 3 drafts.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

And Ro is up in all 3 drafts.

That is like Venus, Jupiter and the Moon aligning.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by troutman

That is like Venus, Jupiter and the Moon aligning.

So you're saying we should, like, sacrifice a virgin to Ro or something?

[jammies]

Originally Posted by troutman

Scandal!

Well I'll trade that pick back for the low low price of - wait a minute! Damn you Aeneas, I was about to cash in!

[Displaced Flames fan]

Ro has been MIA with the flu I think. Hope he hasn't gotten worse.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Ronald Pagan

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

by Milan Kundera

That book broke my heart..

[JerzeeGirl]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Nice recovery to JerzeeGirl to get her poetry category back.

TBQH I owe the entire thing to Aeneas.....he is the straw that stirred this trade drink.

But I was pretty happy not to have burned a selection there, I have to admit!

[Aeneas]

Being cursed by guys and having girls owe me one; that's a reversal.

[Ronald Pagan]

Originally Posted by kermitology

That book broke my heart..

Mine too, I was in the middle of a tormenting long-distance relationship while I read it. That book has stayed with me ever since.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Ronald Pagan

Mine too, I was in the middle of a tormenting long-distance relationship while I read it. That book has stayed with me ever since.

I had just ended a 5 year relationship that culminated with a trip to Prague.. so the setting being Prague made it even worse. Great book though.

[Aeneas]

Allright time for some fun.
I am putting this book in the Travel category. If you went to purchase it at Chapters that's where you'd find it.

"The missing link between Paul Theroux and Paul Whitehouse"

The book is called "Playing The Moldovans At Tennis" by Tony Hawks.

Prologue excerpt:
"You know, your problem is that you're in denial."
"No I'm not."
"I rest my case."
I wish it was always that easy to prove you're right. Sometimes it requires going to enormous lengths.

One reviewer says that Hawks may remind you of Bill Bryson, except Hawks is genuinely funny.

Anyway, Hawks and a friend are watching England rout Moldova in football (soccer for the unwashed) and they have a pointless argument about the England's weak opponent. Goes something likewhat is and where is Moldova? That it is such a small country that their football team is just made up of 11 blokes and they are not real athletes. Hawks friend defends the Moldovans saying that the national team of even a small country would comprise excellent all around athletes. Hawks is considered a fine tennis player, so the eventual bet is that Hawks could not beat each of the starting eleven of the Moldovan National Football club in one set of tennis.

The loser has to sing the Moldovan national anthem outside a pub on the high street...naked of course.

SO begins his adventure through eastern Europe, Ireland and Israel trying to track down these players and convince them to play a set of tennis with him.

Here is where the 'travel' aspect of the book takes over from the farce and humour. As one who travelled widely in eastern Europe in the early 90's I can only imagine and feel for him when he has difficulties in the tourist hotbed of Moldova. For those up on their regional politics and geography, unlucky for Hawks a couple players were from the trans-Dneister region. That means travelling almost in a war zone to try and play tennis!

A really fun read. I especially love when he gets off a bus in the middle of no where in some town. No one speaks English. He looks for the nearest restaurant or hotel, and there are none. Not hard to find, not run down; there are none. Not in jolly old England anymore.

Was going to look for a pic of the cover, maybe will edit that in.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Aeneas

Allright time for some fun.
I am putting this book in the Travel category. If you went to purchase it at Chapters that's where you'd find it.

"The missing link between Paul Theroux and Paul Whitehouse"

The book is called "Playing The Moldovans At Tennis" by Tony Hawks.

Never heard of it, but that sounds like a great read.

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Never heard of it, but that sounds like a great read.

It is. Just the absurdity of it. He was also bet that he couldn't carry a bar fridge around the circumference (sp?) of Ireland. That also was a pretty good read.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Aeneas

It is. Just the absurdity of it. He was also bet that he couldn't carry a bar fridge around the circumference (sp?) of Ireland. That also was a pretty good read.

I think I might just have to "borrow" that book from you soon. Like when M.T. "borrowed" Bored Of The Rings.

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by troutman

I think I might just have to "borrow" that book from you soon. Like when M.T. "borrowed" Bored Of The Rings.

Figured you'd like the Irish one.
The chapter on drunken sex in a dog house is classic; and it really makes complete sense.

[Jagger]

The Mighty Pen are pleased to select representing our first sci-fi pick:

The Mote in God's Eye
by
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

I read this novel a long time ago and have read it a few times since. It's quite possibly the finest novel I've read about first contact. The alien civilization that they create is truly fascinating.


Some wiki:

The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, is a science fiction novel that was first published in 1974. The story is set in the distant future of Pournelle's CoDominium universe, and charts the first contact between humankind and an alien species. The title of the novel is a wordplay on Luke 6:41–42 and Matthew 7:3–5.
The book describes a complex alien civilization, the Moties. The Moties are radically different (both physically and psychologically) from humanity in ways that become clearer over the course of the book. The human characters range from the typical hero-type in Captain Roderick Blaine to the much more ambiguous merchant prince and suspected traitor Horace Bury. Robert A. Heinlein, who gave the authors extensive, detailed advice on the novel, blurbed the story as "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read"


Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/Mote-Gods-Eye-L...9124667&sr=8-1

[Aeneas]

Originally Posted by Jagger

The Some wiki:

The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, is a science

Great book. My copy is in rough shape from several readings and lendings.

[JerzeeGirl]

Originally Posted by Jagger

The Mote in God's Eye

by
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle

Robert A. Heinlein, who gave the authors extensive, detailed advice on the novel, blurbed the story as "possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read"

I hadn't seen this one before but I'll have to get a copy with praise like that from Heinlein, plus the books of Niven's that I have read were very good. Thanks Jagger!

[Ronald Pagan]

I'm going to make my pick

With his Fourth pick Ronald Pagan of the cart-drawn Mountebanks is pleased to pick in the short story category:

The Illustrated Man

by Ray Bradbury



Bradbury is a master short story teller. Using carefully crafted prose and not wasting any words, he weaves complicated plots into tight narratives that are deceptively simple.

Of the more famous stories in this collection, The Veldt, Zero Hour and Kaleidoscope, Bradbury broaches the danger or dialectic of our technological and scientific discoveries. Both space travel and the 'holodeck' are seemingly serene and awe-inspiring moments for the characters. However, they both end with the technology and science presenting haunting realities as to their consequences. He castigates our divorce from family and community in Zero Hour.

The themes going on in this book are too numerous to mention. They fold into the nuclear hangover of the implications of our discoveries, the dangers of embracing technology and the irreplacibility of human relationships in the face of technological progress.

Wonderful book. Each tattoo, each scar, each illustration has a story.