A Great Reading Achievement

[Beef Oven]

Dear Eco fans, what's your view on the book in post #505 on the 'What are you reading' thread?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Dear Eco fans, what's your view on the book in post #505 on the 'What are you reading' thread?

Sorry, Beef; I thought I'd responded to your post then!

I didn't know of it before your post and it's gone on my "list".

[umslopogaas]

Right, Mission 1 accomplished. I have braved the train system, been down town and bought several more recent books by Eco, notably 'The Prague Cemetery', 'Baudolino', 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana' and 'Turning back the clock' (he does do intriguing titles).

Now, Mission 2, I have to read them. I'll report back, but this may take a bit of time ...

[Beef Oven]

Dear Eco fans, what's your view on the book in post #505 on the 'What are you reading' thread?

It's a fascinating read - glad it's on your list

[Beef Oven]

Right, Mission 1 accomplished. I have braved the train system, been down town and bought several more recent books by Eco, notably 'The Prague Cemetery', 'Baudolino', 'The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana' and 'Turning back the clock' (he does do intriguing titles).

Now, Mission 2, I have to read them. I'll report back, but this may take a bit of time ...

this just reminds me of how sad my almost total on-line consumerism is. i remember getting off my butt, getting on the tube and hitting a few good bookshops in charing cross and coming back with totally different titles than intended!

keep it up for all of us umslo!!!

[umslopogaas]

D**n, had just completed a reply to Beef Oven when a brief power cut threw my computer into a tizz and it wouldnt transmit. Try again.

I was perhaps laying it on a bit, this wasnt a traverse of the assault course that is the London transport system, just a gentle tootle down the line to Exeter. SW Trains are really very comfortable (albeit the return was twenty minutes late).

While hunting for Eco I also bagged some new Asterix comics. I was surprised and pleased to find them still in print, the ones I already own are more than thirty years old. I was also a bit surprised to be told they were in the Childrens section. There is nothing adult about them in the usual sense, but some of the jokes are quite clever, and would certainly need to be explained by a grown-up. Anyway, childrens literature or not, they make this ageing adult chuckle.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

While hunting for Eco I also bagged some new Asterix comics. I was surprised and pleased to find them still in print, the ones I already own are more than thirty years old. I was also a bit surprised to be told they were in the Childrens section. There is nothing adult about them in the usual sense, but some of the jokes are quite clever, and would certainly need to be explained by a grown-up. Anyway, childrens literature or not, they make this ageing adult chuckle.

At the end of February, after an operation, I "rediscovered" my Asterix collection and they did me as much good psychologically as the painkillers did physically. I know lots of kids who love them, and the joy is the subtle humour is something they discover as they grow older.

(I can't help feeling that Eco would adore the idea of someone going out to buy his novels and also stocking up on Asterix!)

[umslopogaas]

FHG #37, my visits to bookshops are usually serendipitous, I go in wanting one thing and come out with half a dozen others. Good thing I do now have to make a train expedition to the nearest one, if my local one was still open I'd be in there more often than would be healthy for my wallet!

I recently had another go at Joseph Conrad's 'Victory'. This is a special book for me, it was the first proper grown up book I read, somewhere in my teens and I still have the rather battered paperback nearly fifty years later. Conrad is one of those authors who make me feel so indadequate linguistically, english is my first and only language, it was his third (I think french was his second) and he still writes in it far better than I ever will.