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| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | ------ | | | checkbox | position | cover The Tale of King Cheops' Court | title The Tale of King Cheops' Court | author Unknown | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages unknown | avg rating 3.00 | num ratings 1 | date pub unknown | date pub edition 1300 | David's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Reflecting on the Greater Kings17 August 2024 Well, this is another one of those tales in a tale, though the frustrating thing is that chunks of it ar Reflecting on the Greater Kings17 August 2024 Well, this is another one of those tales in a tale, though the frustrating thing is that chunks of it are missing, in particular the first part. Anyway, while it was written during the Middle Kingdom, it is actually set during the reign of King Cheops, the pyramid guy. Apparently, he wasn’t really all that liked. In fact, from the commentary, the Great Pyramid is sort of like one of those emotional support vehicles, except that this emotional support building is the only surviving of the seven wonders, and millions flock to it every year just to see it. Oh, and he is also remembered, not that he would care since he is dead. Anyway, I get the impression that this story is about some people who tell tales to him of his father and his grandfather. In fact there seems to be a comparison between them, namely that his father and grandfathers were decent kings, while he was a tyrant (and when you force you people to build a pyramid so that you might be remembered in the 21st Century, you sort of can appreciate them). So, there are four stories, but one of them is lost. The second one is about an affair (and there is an interesting euphemism for sex – making holidays – I might try that the next time I’m in a pub). The interesting thing is that we have the queen having an affair with a commoner, and they are caught because another servant spies on them and rats them out. They are proceeded to be killed, which seems to be a little extreme for the Egyptians since we know that Joseph, who was accused of attempted rape of Potiphar’s wife, was just thrown into prison. The next story is about a king that decides to go for a row but he gets a whole heap of women to row his boat. Mind you, the king goes a little further than that and decides to get them to strip off all of their clothes and wear fishing nets, so you could say that the Egyptians invented fish net clothing. Mind you, the focus is more on a woman who loses a totem in the river, and despite them offering her a new one, she wants the old one, so they use magic to get it. Oh, and in the end they all decide to make holidays. Yeah, there seems to be a lot of magic in this story, but then again we do know that magic was a particularly big part of Egyptian life. Actually, speaking of magic, when we get to the final one, we have the teller claim that the previous two stories are unrealistic and proceed to tell a story about a sorcerer who cuts the heads off of animals and reattaches them so they are alive again. However, this story then moves to a more serious note where he arranges for a woman to give birth to three kings, which end up being the three kings that come after Cheops. In a way, it is an amusing story, but it also seems to have a serious note with regards to Cheops, and also seems to be giving a divine aspect to his descendants. Mind you, this was written during the Middle Kingdom, so to the readers it was basically ancient history. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started not set | date read not set | date added Sep 23, 2024 | owned | format | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Dead Man | title The Dead Man | author Bradbury, Ray | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 19pp | avg rating 3.75 | num ratings 12 | date pub 1945 | date pub edition 1945 | David's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Dead Among the Living13 August 2024 I have to admit that this is actually quite a decent place to end this collection of short stories. In fact, i The Dead Among the Living13 August 2024 I have to admit that this is actually quite a decent place to end this collection of short stories. In fact, it has a rather interesting ending, one that I really don’t want to give away. The story is about a chap known as Odd, and apparently he believes that he died in a flood (not the great flood but rather a recent local flood, though at first, I thought he was one of those characters that have been around for millennia). Anyway, people think that he is crazy because he keeps on telling people that he is dead. However, despite that, people don’t seem to think that he is creepy enough to actually go to a Halloween party. Also, it seems as if he is a bit of an outcast but that is because people think he is crazy. This isn’t all that surprising because if I went around telling people that I was dead they would probably think that I was crazy as well. In fact, Bradbury tends to lead us to believe that Odd is crazy, and yeah, that does work, but we also ask the question ‘what if he isn’t, what if he really is dead’. In fact, there are suggestions that other people have tried to emulate Odd with little success. Anyway, yeah, it isn’t bad at all, and as I said, it does work as a good ending to the book. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 12, 2024 | date read Aug 12, 2024 | date added Sep 20, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Night | title The Night | author Bradbury, Ray | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 8pp | avg rating 3.41 | num ratings 29 | date pub 1946 | date pub edition 1946 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A Second Person Perspective 12 August 2024 One thing about short stories is that the author can experiment with different styles, and this is certainl A Second Person Perspective 12 August 2024 One thing about short stories is that the author can experiment with different styles, and this is certainly what Bradbury has done here. The thing is that most stories are written in either the first or the third person, however in this story Bradbury has written it in the second person, so in a way you get more of an experience of the character than you would normally do. In fact, by using the second person you almost become the character. So, what we have here is a young boy and it seems that the action takes place over the evening and the night. It appears that they are not only waiting for the father to return, but it seems as if his older brother has gone out and hasn’t returned either, and his mum is in a panic. Mind you, it isn’t the first time he has experienced death, but Bradbury is taking us through this situation through the mind of a young boy. It certainly is an interesting story, and the perspective makes it a lot creepier than it would normally be if it was in any of the other person's viewpoint. I sort of liked it, though the more I think about it, the more I feel that maybe it could be just as creepy. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 12, 2024 | date read Aug 12, 2024 | date added Sep 18, 2024 | owned | format | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The World at the End of Time | title The World at the End of Time | author Pohl, Frederik | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages unknown | avg rating 4.00 | num ratings 2,299 | date pub 1990 | date pub edition 1992 | David's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Sep 14, 2024 | date read not set | date added Sep 14, 2024 | owned | format | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Let's Play "Poison" | title [ Let's Play "Poison"](/book/show/54271842-let-s-play-poison "Let's Play "Poison"") | author Bradbury, Ray | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 11pp | avg rating 3.69 | num ratings 13 | date pub Nov 1946 | date pub edition Nov 1946 | David's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Hate Builds Upon Hate9 August 2024 Well, once again this is another of Bradbury’s creepy works, and it involves a teacher that hates kids. Well, sort Hate Builds Upon Hate9 August 2024 Well, once again this is another of Bradbury’s creepy works, and it involves a teacher that hates kids. Well, sort of because at the beginning of the story we are told that the kids threw another kid out of a window and he died. As such, he basically quit his job and went into retirement. Except, they needed a substitute so they convinced him to come back. In a way, this is a story about how hate builds and builds and eventually boils over. The thing is that if you hate somebody they pretty much know it. It is obvious, and I should know because I have been the sender and the receiver. In this situation, the teacher is forced into a situation where he has to deal with kids, and the more he does the more he despises them. In fact, he claims that the kids are either alien invaders or even rejects from hell. However, the more he hates them, the more they realise it, and the more that his fears are turned into reality. I won’t say much more, but it is interesting how he refers to some etchings on a footpath as simply a signature of the creator while the kids claim that it is actually a grave. Yeah, it’s short, and not bad either, and I guess in part I do like some of these short stories. Oh, and the title refers to a game that children play where they can’t step on a certain spot because it happens to be poison. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 09, 2024 | date read Aug 09, 2024 | date added Sep 09, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Stars, Like Dust (Galactic Empire, #1) | title The Stars, Like Dust(Galactic Empire, #1) | author Asimov, Isaac | isbn 0449023737 | isbn13 9780449023730 | asin 0449023737 | num pages 192pp | avg rating 3.74 | num ratings 24,314 | date pub 1951 | date pub edition Jun 01, 1972 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A Fantasy Adventure in Space9 August 2024 Honestly, the thing that stood out to me about this story is that it sounded like a modern fantasty story, e A Fantasy Adventure in Space9 August 2024 Honestly, the thing that stood out to me about this story is that it sounded like a modern fantasty story, except that it was written by Issac Asimov and it is set in space. So, you have Biron, who is the son of a wealthy rancher who is sent to Earth because his father is in trouble, and he comes across as the prince who happens to not realise how important he is. Then you have Arta, who is the daughter of a politician and she is being forced to marry somebody she doesn’t want to, and she comes across as the princess. Of course, in the process of the story, they fall in love. Now, this is particularly odd because a lot of the Asimov stories that I have read where the main characters become romantically involved end up being really quite bad, but this one works. Mind you, it is Asimov, so you can expect an awful lot of exposition, but then again that is pretty much what we get in his stories. Another thing I noticed is that this is supposed to be a part of the Empire trilogy, namely three novels that explore the beginning of the Galactic Empire in the Fountain novels. Now, Robots and Empire was supposed to be the bridging novel, however this novel starts on Earth. The focus of the story is on a polity known as the Tyranni, who are dominating the worlds, however, there is a movement that is seeking to break away from them and establish a system where the planets are free to rule themselves. Mind you, there is an indication at the end of the story as to what this means, but when I was reading this you sort of wonder how small you end up breaking these down into. Like, in our world we have many separatist groups who seek to govern themselves. However, there is a set number of countries and a huge amount of resistance to breaking these countries apart. For instance, there are at least two regions in Spain that seek to be independent, and of course, there is always the Scottish issue. The thing is that if we give one country independence where do we stop because we will suddenly find more and more groups seeking to rule themselves. Here we are talking about planets or even planetary systems, but honestly, where do we draw the line? As I mentioned, it was a rather interesting book, and I felt as if Asimov must have borrowed from a fantasy story or something, except the problem is that when he was writing we were in the world before Tolkien. Like, sure, Asimov does have an issue with writing characters, but for some reason, he did a pretty good job in this book, though it does turn out to be fairly typically Asimov. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 04, 2024 | date read Aug 09, 2024 | date added Sep 09, 2024 | owned | format Mass Market Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Handler | title The Handler | author Bradbury, Ray | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages unknown | avg rating 3.00 | num ratings 1 | date pub unknown | date pub edition 1947 | David's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Leave the Dead Be 31 July 2024 One thought I had was that this story, instead of being creepy, could have been more black humour, particularly what ou Leave the Dead Be 31 July 2024 One thought I had was that this story, instead of being creepy, could have been more black humour, particularly what our protagonist gets up to in his office. He happens to be an undertaker, but he also happens to hate people, so he gets his revenge on them when preparing their corpses. Like, he embalms a racist with black ink, and fills the head of a woman with whipped cream. This gets even more outlandish when they start closing the coffins. Anyway, the problem is that people who land up in the morgue aren’t always dead – apparently, that was what the wake as all about, if somebody had been mistakenly assumed to be dead, but they weren’t - like they were in a coma. Well, as I mentioned, the dead don’t always stay dead, or at least people who land up in the morgue aren’t always supposed to be there, and of course, our undertaker is actually exposed, to an extent. The problem is that in my mind he was taking out revenge on people that he didn’t like, though it is pretty clearly indicated that that basically included everybody. Still, I thought it was pretty good. Definitely worth checking out, and I’m sure some dark grimey humour could be seen in it. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Jul 30, 2024 | date read Jul 31, 2024 | date added Sep 03, 2024 | owned | format | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover An Outline Of Ancient History: Greece | title An Outline Of Ancient History: Greece | author Moe, C.J. | isbn 0207120315 | isbn13 9780207120312 | asin | num pages unknown | avg rating 3.00 | num ratings 2 | date pub unknown | date pub edition unknown | David's rating | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review None | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 28, 2024 | date read not set | date added Aug 28, 2024 | owned | format | actions view | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Make Room for the Boom...or Bust: Six Church Models for Reaching Three Generations | title Make Room for the Boom...or Bust: Six Church Models for Reaching Three Generations | author McIntosh, Gary L. | isbn 0800756142 | isbn13 9780800756147 | asin 0800756142 | num pages 192pp | avg rating 3.00 | num ratings 2 | date pub Feb 1997 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1997 | David's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Changing Your Church28 August 2024 So, the Bible College where my church meets has a couple of tables full of free books. I’m wondering whether they a Changing Your Church28 August 2024 So, the Bible College where my church meets has a couple of tables full of free books. I’m wondering whether they are books that the library no longer wants, or whether it is one of those book exchanges that you see except for Christian books (it turns out that it is the first, though I wouldn’t be surprised to find books landing back up here). Anyway, for some reason I picked up this book – I have no idea why – and when I started reading it I realised why it ended up there – it is quite dated. I remember talking to the vicar once about Christian writing and he said that one of the biggest problems is that what is written can become dated quite quickly – especially sermons. The thing is that sermons are generally written in the context of the era that it was delivered, meaning that reading them, or delivering them now, makes no sense. Okay, I know that pastors recycle their sermons – writing sermons is an incredibly time-consuming task, and one pastor I knew who lead a multicultural church had the added difficulty of making sure that everybody understood it – there were a lot of people in the church whose primary language was not English. Anyway, this book was written in 1997 and it shows. At the time churches were struggling with reaching the younger generations – namely the boomers and Gen X (they call gen-X busters, which irritated me, but then again it just goes to show how out of touch a lot of pastors actually are – the idea is that you have one generation that builds the wealth, the next generation who enjoys the wealth, and the next generation who blows the wealth, so referring to gen-X as busters is quite insulting). So, the thing is that this book was written before 9/11, before the great recession, and also before the church was tarnished with sexual abuse allegations. Further, this was just as the church was starting to become politicised, where punishing gays and banning abortions are the number one focus (though they had been attempting to infiltrate the political establishment for the previous fifteen years). Mind you, this is not what this book is about, and further, it isn’t a book that is targeted at non-Christians or laypeople – it is targeted as church leaders. Taking it in that context I can’t really criticise it, with the exception of their references to gen-X, and also the section at the front where he attempts to tell us what makes Boomers and Gen-X tick. However, he leaves it at that and then moves toward different church models and gives us some examples of these church models. Mind you, this was 1997, so a lot of churches were still pretty traditional, and his suggestion was that we needed to move away from this model and start looking at newer models that would appeal to the younger generations. Mind you, in 2024, the so-called Builder generation (the one that comes before the boomers) has mostly died out and they have been replaced with the boomers. Gen-X have replaced the boomers, and the millennials have replaced gen-X, and there seems to be a huge war between the millennials and the boomers (with Gen-X just sitting on the sidelines). I guess the thing here is that the book isn’t about how to run the church service, but rather six models that a pastor can use to change the church so that, at the time, it would be more relevant to the younger generations. That isn’t really the case now, especially since churches are of many different varieties. This means that the style of service is no longer an issue but rather other issues that turn people off from Christianity, such as supporting certain political candidates, spreading misinformation, and of course pastors hording wealth siphoned from the congregations and flying around in private jets. However, that is beyond the scope of this book. In any case, keeping the narrow focus, and ignoring the first section, it is interesting to read about the different strategies and the churches that have used it, however, as I mentioned previously, it is pretty dated. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 25, 2024 | date read Aug 28, 2024 | date added Aug 26, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Caucasian Chalk Circle | title The Caucasian Chalk Circle | author Brecht, Bertolt | isbn 0816635285 | isbn13 9780816635283 | asin 0816635285 | num pages 136pp | avg rating 3.74 | num ratings 8,662 | date pub 1945 | date pub edition Nov 01, 1999 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Solomon’s Wisdom25 August 2024 It certainly does seem that Brecht likes his epic plays. In fact it seems that the style of Brecht’s plays is quite dif Solomon’s Wisdom25 August 2024 It certainly does seem that Brecht likes his epic plays. In fact it seems that the style of Brecht’s plays is quite different to pretty much all of the plays that I have read to date. Okay, maybe Shaw experimented with the idea, but most of the plays that I have read generally take place in a set time period in a set place and any travel that happens tends to occur on stage. This is not the case with this play. Actually, it is one of those plays within a play, another thing that Brecht seems to do. At the beginning there is a quick story about a chalk circle that is drawn and two competing mothers must pull the child out. That thing alone invokes the biblical story of the two competing mothers in the Bible where Solomon decides to solve it by cutting the baby in half, and the real mother is so horrified that she gives the baby to the other woman. Anyway, the scene starts off in a village in the Caucasus after the Nazis have withdrawn and the villagers are arguing over who gets a plot of land, and what the land is going to be used for. This gives way to the main action of a play where a band of musicians, who act as the chorus during the main part of the play, tell a story of two women and a child that occurred in the past. The set-up is a little complicated, but a baby is born to the governor and his wife, and the woman meets a soldier who is engaged to be married. However, there is a coup and the governor is killed and the wife flees leaving the baby behind. The woman takes the baby with her (for fear of its life) and flees to the mountains while her fiance goes off to do his duty. Of course, in the village in the mountains, there are questions over the legitimacy of the baby, and an unmarried woman with a child is frowned upon, so she marries a dying peasant to give her that legitimacy. This is when the ironshirts finally reach her and bring her back due to the governor’s wife needing the inheritance. The scene then shifts to the judge, who is appointed and rules in favour of the poor, however when the Grand Duke returns to power the judge is going to be executed, at which time he agrees to rule in favour of the governor’s wife, where we end up coming to the scene with the chalk circle. Yeah, it’s a pretty long, intense, and complex play, about power, love, and rebellion. The question really comes down to who is the mother of the child, and the two sections really set this up, the one in the mountains where the bond is formed between the woman and the child, and also the complexity of her love for the soldier and the necessity of being married. Of course, there is also the judge and the question of justice. Mind you, it doesn’t quite seem to be as deep as the other play that I read, but the idea is determining competing claims. It’s a pretty good play, and a rather long and complex one as well. Actually, it would be interesting to see it performed, but sadly you generally don’t get such plays being performed in Australia (unless you keep your ear to the ground with regards to Amateur groups, though sadly a lot of these amateur groups seem to be, well, rather amateurish). ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 22, 2024 | date read Aug 25, 2024 | date added Aug 22, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Moon is Down | title The Moon is Down | author Steinbeck, John | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 142pp | avg rating 3.93 | num ratings 29,702 | date pub 1942 | date pub edition 1971 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Foreign Force20 August 2024 Well, I was down at a coffee shop in Edinburgh and I went to get the Doctor Who book that I was reading and it turned The Foreign Force20 August 2024 Well, I was down at a coffee shop in Edinburgh and I went to get the Doctor Who book that I was reading and it turned out that I had left it on the dresser in my hotel, and since getting back to the hotel was painfully difficult I reached into my bag and pulled out this book. Well, it looked short and simple, and having read some of Steinbeck’s other books I was somewhat familiar with his prose, so I decided to leave the Doctor’s first encounter with the Daleks and read this one instead. The thing with this book is that the cover that I have has a woman holding a pair of scissors and a nazi officer standing behind her but as you start reading the book you discover that the country where the action is set is never named, nor is the invading army. In fact the names of the characters suggest that despite this book being written in 1942, and that there are hints as to the nature of the invading army, and the location of the action, it is never actually mentioned. When I did a bit of background reading for this story it turns out that the book was actually translated and smuggled into Nazi-occupied Europe, and in fact was the most-read American book in Soviet Russia at the time. In a way, it is a story about rebellion against an invading army, but it doesn’t necessarily paint the invaders as being bad people, but rather people being posted in a town in the heart of hostile territory. In another way, while we do have some sympathy with the invaders, it is clear that they aren’t wanted here, and that they are being pushed by an unnamed central command to continue production of the coal mine. The interesting thing is that despite their desire to make things as simple and as easy as possible, the reality is that the people in the village simply do not want the invaders here, and the longer that they are present, the more difficult it is for them to be able to live here. In reality, it isn’t home, and the locals are doing everything to make sure they are reminded that they are not home. It is basically an incident of us and them, and the lives of them are being turned into a constant struggle. It sort of reminds me of the occupation of Iraq. Honestly, no matter how much we were made to believe that we were doing good there and that we were overthrowing a dictator, our presence in the country was resented by the locals. The more that we tried to make the country a peaceful country after we removed their leader, the more resentful the local inhabitants became. The thing is that while this book was set during World War II, and that it was designed to encourage resistance against the Nazi occupiers, it is just as much a book that is being written to the occupiers to let them know that there is nothing that they can do to stop the resentment and the resistance against them. In fact, the suggestion is that resistance is like the mythical hydra in that no matter how many heads, that is leaders, you execute, more will arise. There is something about a person being free, and their desire to resist invaders. Sure, they might have elected mayors and such, but the thing is that it is people prefer being ruled by people whom they have chosen, not by some foreign government that has decided who will be ruling. More so, nowhere is safe, and it will never be home. To the foreign occupying force, there will never be peace as long as they are present. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 19, 2024 | date read Aug 20, 2024 | date added Aug 19, 2024 | owned | format Mass Market Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Doctor Who and the Daleks | title Doctor Who and the Daleks | author Whitaker, David | isbn 0426101103 | isbn13 9780426101109 | asin 0426101103 | num pages 157pp | avg rating 3.79 | num ratings 1,483 | date pub Nov 12, 1964 | date pub edition May 02, 1973 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Doctor Meets his Nemesis 22 August 2024 Well, it turns out that this was actually the first Doctor Who novelisation, I remember reading it when I The Doctor Meets his Nemesis 22 August 2024 Well, it turns out that this was actually the first Doctor Who novelisation, I remember reading it when I was a kid and the only Doctors that I knew were Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker (and I thought they were the same Doctors). So, when I read it as a kid I was quite confused as to who the dude on the cover was (William Hartnell) and who the companions were. In fact, I thought that it had nothing to do with the Doctor Who that I knew (which of course, it didn’t). Anyway, the book begins as if it were the first ever Doctor Who show, and that the Unearthly Child never happened. So, Ian stops in a moor because there has been an accident and he meets up with Barbara, who is injured, and then stumbles onto the Tardis. Actually, the entire story is written from the point of view of Ian, and there is even a suggestion of romance between him and Barbara through the book (and apparently they do end up getting married after they leave the series). It is actually somewhat different to a lot of the other novelisations because it does seem to move away from the main story. Sure, I’ve actually watched the original a couple of times, but I’m not as familiar with it as I am with many of the later episodes, which I have watched more times than I can count. However, they land up on a plant that has been ravaged by nuclear war (which we learn later in the series), and there are two races – the Daleks and the Thals. The Thals are a peaceful people who survive through the use of drugs, while the Daleks are, well, the Daleks. Apparently, when the show was first conceived, they just wanted to do historical stories, but they ended up doing this one as the second. Apparently, the creator really didn’t like the idea of a show where they had to fight bug-eyed monsters, but the Daleks were an absolute hit. In fact, the Daleks are one of the most frequent villains to appear in Doctor Who (alongside the Master – I believe the Master appears in more episodes). It’s not bad, to be honest, and it is quite an engaging story as well. However, as I mentioned, it is actually quite different to the other novelisations because it takes a completely different style, with the scene on the moor, and the fact that the entire story is written through Ian’s point of view. Still, it’s Doctor Who, and an original one as well, so, yeah, it’s pretty cool. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 17, 2024 | date read Aug 22, 2024 | date added Aug 17, 2024 | owned | format Mass Market Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover An Outline Of Ancient History (Rome) | title An Outline Of Ancient History | author Moe, C. J. | isbn | isbn13 | asin B0033P9D02 | num pages 0pp | avg rating 4.00 | num ratings 1 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Jan 01, 1959 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review An Impossibly Brief Outline17 August 2024 This actually looks like an old high school text, and I know that it is an Australian text because right at An Impossibly Brief Outline17 August 2024 This actually looks like an old high school text, and I know that it is an Australian text because right at the end they compare the Spartan, Athenian and Roman systems of government with that of the Australian one. Actually, when I found that I literally laughed out loud, probably because it took me back to some of the old high school texts that I used to read. Mind you, being a high school text it was pretty much an outline in which you get a reasonable run down on almost 1000 years of European History, though it certainly isn’t enough to be able to write an essay on (though a part of me wants to run the questions that they have at the end of each of the chapters through ChatGPT to see what it comes up with, but to be honest with you, I would rather do my own research). Sure, the book does stress the huge impact that Julius Caeser has had on the modern world, despite the fact that he lived for such a short time (and that he is seen as the quintessential Roman where there were a lot of others that are probably more Roman than he is), as well as the map of modern Europe was drawn up by how the Romans were driven out of Germany when Augustus appointed the wrong person to the governorship. Another thing that the book does is that it has a number of compare/contrasts between various Romans, such as Sulla and Caeser. As I mentioned, this is basically a high school text, and a lot of these are brief overviews. Mind you, I find it interesting how they referenced Plutarch at the end when he isn’t strictly a primary source (since he wrote hundreds of years after the subjects of his works, though I remember when I was trying to argue with my Classics teachers at Uni that he was, and that was only because I had just discovered him – it turns out that Tacitus is much, much better). Mind you, one of the themes that are sort of teased out in this book comes down to the impossibility of the republic. It sort of reminds me of what is happening today in our modern world. We have these grand ideas of the perfect system of government, but it ends up leaving certain classes behind. The story of Rome seems to be forever expanding the franchise while making it more and more difficult for the lower classes to assume the higher roles. Yet in turn it was also about placating the lower classes and bringing them onside to further your goals. Also, when we move into the imperial era, it was also a question of looking back at the era of the Republic with rose-coloured glasses and forgetting its failings. However, the section on the Emperors felt much briefer than the Republic section, and of course he only touched upon the Byzantine Empire, but then again that probably requires an entire book to itself (and of course with the themes of the book, it was more upon looking back and the decline, rather than anything new). Oh, and people attempting to get elected to high office to escape from debts and prosecution is also something that isn’t new (see Cataline). ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 13, 2024 | date read Aug 16, 2024 | date added Aug 13, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Good Woman of Setzuan | title The Good Woman of Setzuan | author Brecht, Bertolt | isbn 0816635277 | isbn13 9780816635276 | asin 0816635277 | num pages 112pp | avg rating 3.66 | num ratings 12,159 | date pub Feb 04, 1943 | date pub edition Nov 01, 1999 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A Good Person with Money12 August 2024 Sometimes it can be tricky to understand Brecht’s plays, namely because he was a German communist who was livin A Good Person with Money12 August 2024 Sometimes it can be tricky to understand Brecht’s plays, namely because he was a German communist who was living in exile during World War II. Honestly, I do wonder if this story is a parable of capitalism, and how it is impossible to actually live a noble and honest life as a businessman in a capitalist society. In fact, the whole play is about a woman, who starts off as a prostitute, who comes into some money and decides to open a tobacco shop. So, the play starts off with a water seller who doesn’t actually know how to sell water. As he says, during the wet times, there is so much water nobody wants to buy from him, and during the dry periods, there is no water to sell. Well, no wonder he is pretty useless since it seems clear that he doesn’t make any effort to save water (or doesn’t have the facilities). Anyway, three Gods approach him, and ask him for some shelter, and the only person that offers them shelter is a prostitute, so they decide to reward her. The theme that runs through this play is the difficulty of being a good person in a cutthroat society. She decides to open a shop, and as soon as she opens a homeless family decides to move in, and she is too nice to say no. As such, the whole business is in trouble. Then there is the question of not just the landlady and the carpenter, but also the suggestion that she paid too much for the shop. Yet, during the choruses, where the gods are speaking with the water seller, there is the suggestion that to go into business you have no choice but to stop being good and being good involves letting people walk all over you. Personally, I don’t think that this is the case, and I don’t think this is what Brecht is suggesting either. In fact, it seems that it is more an attack against the church, and it’s definition of good. In fact, there are references in the play to an old book that deals with the art of being good, and it seems that there is actually no real definition as to what being good involves. What actually happens is that we start to see two sides of the woman. At the beginning of the play, a cousin is created to help her deal with the landlady. However, the cousin actually turns up and starts dealing with the people, including the carpenter. The catch is that from the perspective of the gods, the fact that the carpenter was negotiated down suggests that wasn’t good, but in reality, we don’t know anything beyond what the carpenter is saying, and the fact that there are no written contracts suggests that anything could be the case, including the carpenter shaking her down for some more money. The play is set in the Chinese interior, as you can probably tell by the name, but I suspect that the reason for this is because Brecht is attempting to confront us with something in our world by placing the story in what was at the time a mythical area that pretty much nobody would have known of (though these days the popularity of Sichuan restaurants means otherwise). One suggestion also seems to be that being a good person leads to poverty, but sometimes I feel that people mistake being good with being a walkover. I don’t believe it is. Okay, I hate the idea of ‘setting boundaries’ because that is one of those terms that are used by people to, well, walk over people, but in reality, we do need to set boundaries, and as the cousin suggests in the play, there are times that you need to say no. The problem is that this seems to contradict with the idea of being good and generous. You have a house, but you refuse to let a person without a home shelter in the house. That is actually a pretty tricky question, but there is also an aspect of greed where many of us have the resources to pool to be able to do something, but we don’t. Mind you, I’m not all that keen on how some of the charities work, and I am especially suspicious of the fact that some churches are always rattling the tin can, but that is another story. In fact, there are other things that could be looked at in the story, such as the wedding, and the fact that she was blinded by love. I certainly didn’t trust the pilot, but yeah, once again this is something that could also be explored at another time. Anyway, as I have suggested, there is an awful lot that I could write about this play, but time is moving on so I’ll leave it at that. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 10, 2024 | date read Aug 12, 2024 | date added Aug 10, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child | title Doctor Who and An Unearthly Child | author Dicks, Terrance | isbn 0426201442 | isbn13 9780426201441 | asin 0426201442 | num pages 128pp | avg rating 3.72 | num ratings 950 | date pub Oct 1981 | date pub edition Oct 15, 1981 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Introducing the Doctor10 August 2024 So, this is the first episode of probably what is the longest running Sci-Fi TV series ever (and they are still m Introducing the Doctor10 August 2024 So, this is the first episode of probably what is the longest running Sci-Fi TV series ever (and they are still making episodes which is probably because people keep on watching it, though it sounds as if in the world of streaming unless millions watch it the minute it is released then it is a failure – go figure). Anyway, this is the novelisation of the series, and I believe that they have actually novelised all of them. The funny thing is that these days you don’t seem to novelise movies and TV series as much as you did previously. In fact it appears that only the original series were novelised, and when the new series began (and after the original ended) they simply wrote books that were, well, new adventures. The thing with this book is that it is hard to actually look at it from the original reader (well, we do need to remember that these books were written sometime after the episodes were released, one of the reasons being that a lot of the episodes had been lost – or rather destroyed). The funny thing is that when this episode was first released, there was no mention of The Doctor being an alien. In fact, nobody actually knew who he was, except that he might have just been some eccentric inventor. In fact, when they remade a couple of serials into movies the Doctor was actually just an eccentric inventor – no mention of him being a time lord from Gallifrey. Mind you, all these years later, and with the constant retconning by the series, we now have some alien that isn’t even Gallifrean but rather some unknown godlike being that can forever regenerate, and also taught the Gallifreans how to regenerate. Yeah, I’m not a particularly big fan of the new series. Mind you, for an initial story I have to say it isn’t bad. It pretty much introduces us to the main protagonists, and basically sends them back to the Stone Age where a tribe is fighting with itself over an attempt to create fire. It doesn’t end up being a clear-cut story either, with a number of twists and turns, and as is typical of a lot of Doctor Who stories, enemies turning out to be friends and friends turning out to be enemies. Oh, and the other thing I liked about these books is not only are they very close to the original, they are also written for younger audiences as well (despite Doctor Who actually being one of the scarier Sci-Fi shows out there). ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 09, 2024 | date read Aug 10, 2024 | date added Aug 09, 2024 | owned | format Mass Market Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor | title The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor | author Unknown | isbn 5551384314 | isbn13 | asin | num pages unknown | avg rating 3.20 | num ratings 44 | date pub -2200 | date pub edition Jan 01, 2004 | David's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Telling the Tale4 August 2024 These Egyptian tales do seem to be rather interesting, and also have some elements in them that seem to appear in Biblic Telling the Tale4 August 2024 These Egyptian tales do seem to be rather interesting, and also have some elements in them that seem to appear in Biblical stories of the time. The main thing is that the protagonist suffers immensely and then emerges much wealthier than before. Then again, many of the tales can be seen as allegories of life. In a way, this is a tale in a tale in a tale. The main story is that the sailor and his captain have returned from an expedition and that it appears that the captain is in trouble. In response the sailor tells the captain a tale of his own misfortune and that the captain can learn from this. In fact, what this seems to be doing is elevating the art of telling stories (though it seems that the captain does not want to take the sailor’s advice). So, the sailor’s story is that he was himself on an expedition and got caught in a storm and landed up on an island. On this island he learns that it is full of exotic life and he is able to eat his full. However, there is also a serpent, who proceeds to tell a story of how he is the last of his kind, and that his family were killed. He tells the sailor that he will be rescued and reunited with his family. In response the sailor wants to lavish gifts, but is advised that once he leaves he will not be able to return. What seems to be the moral here is the value of a good tale. It's not an excuse but a tale. The thing is that misfortune will befall all of us, and it really comes down to how we come out at the other end. I remember being in a course in my teenage years and was told that the teacher didn’t so much care that we were late, but rather the reason we gave – the better the reason, the less the concern. When I was late, I simply said ‘she woke me up late’, and that was it. So, obviously, the idea is how we tell our tale, and how we explain the situation that we are in. In a way, it is like the Odyssey. Odysseus is literally the master of tall stories. Like, we don’t care that he is basically full of shit, but rather that the story that he is telling is entertaining. As we read it, or as the hearers listened to it, they weren’t concerned with the truthfulness of the matter, but rather the execution. It’s sort of like the difference between ‘I was caught in traffic’ and ‘a car blew up and nobody could move’. The funny thing is that people seem to come out of these situations much wealthier, but using the esoteric view of this in a way they are. Our sufferings and our challenges do define our character. If we are fired for doing a bad job, do we humbly accept responsibility for our actions, or do we rant and rave about a huge conspiracy against us, and send our mates to go and trash the workplace? ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Aug 04, 2024 | date read Aug 04, 2024 | date added Aug 04, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A New Look at an Old Earth | title A New Look at an Old Earth | author Stoner, Don | isbn 1565075951 | isbn13 9781565075955 | asin 1565075951 | num pages 256pp | avg rating 3.45 | num ratings 22 | date pub Jul 1997 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1997 | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Responding to the Young Earthers3 August 2024 I need to first point out that a lot more has come to light since this book was published, but in genera Responding to the Young Earthers3 August 2024 I need to first point out that a lot more has come to light since this book was published, but in general, I believe that it is still fairly on the mark when examining the geological ages of the Earth. The reason I say this is because I can see Young-Earthers (which I should probably put into the same category as Flat Earthers) using the theory of dark matter to claim that the universe is actually smaller than it really is. The other thing is that we know a lot of about the universe than we did in the 80s, and also there is the idea of Cosmic Background Radiation, which is basically the edge of the universe, or the limit that we can see because that is how far back the universe was created. I personally liked this book, and I actually thought that he did a pretty good job aligning the account in the first chapter of Genesis with how scientists have come to understand how the universe was created. The ironic thing is that our modern beliefs actually come from some dude who actually postulated the scientific beginning of the universe based on the first chapter of Genesis. What the author seems to be doing in this book is bringing us back to his position. Okay, my position is that the days refer to ages, and while in the past I believed in a young Earth because I thought it was cool that humans walked with dinosaurs, the reality is that the Young-Earthers basically hold the Bible as irrefutable, and that they force science to conform to their beliefs. The more I think about it the more I feel that they are trying to force a square peg into a round hole. Mind you, I’m not claiming that we are doing the opposite in trying to interpret the Bible in light of Science, but that is because my position is that we don’t need to. My position is that the Bible is a theological text whose purpose is to point us to God and how God came to Earth in the form of Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. The Bible is also an instruction manual on how to live in light of that. However, there is one thing that the Bible is not, and that is a scientific textbook. Sure, it might contain historical texts, but it is not, and was never meant to be, a book that taught us science. As such, the first chapters of Genesis are simply a poetical device written for the Israelites to explain how the world came into being in contrast to the general beliefs at the time. What we need to be doing is comparing Genesis to the creation myths of the Egyptians and the Babylonians as opposed to our own scientists. Look, I could write quite a lot about this, and about the problems that the Young-Earthers cause. Like, it isn’t as if the loudest of them result in us Christians being labelled as anti-science. However, what we need to remember, and this is emphasised in this book, is that we cannot ignore the physical world when coming to the Bible. The Bible actually says that the physical world exhumes the glory of God. As such, we need to examine the world ourselves. In fact, my Dad, a scientist and a Christian, says that science is understanding the world that God created. Honestly, me reading this book is like preaching to the converted, but he honestly raises some very interesting things that we need to consider. In fact, there is a suggestion that Adam was created as an embryo, which suggested that there needed to be a womb to incubate it. Even though the author doesn’t believe that humanity descended from apes, this reference actually makes you think that God intervened somewhere to allow the first man, and in turn, the first woman, to be born into this world. Yes, this is a really interesting read. I might not agree with everything, but it does offer a lot of food for thought. If anything, it has given me a new word to use – Young-Earthers. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 5 | # times read 1 | date started Jul 30, 2024 | date read Aug 03, 2024 | date added Jul 30, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Smiling People | title The Smiling People | author Bradbury, Ray | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 17pp | avg rating 3.57 | num ratings 14 | date pub unknown | date pub edition May 1946 | David's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A Depressing Lot22 July 2024 So, this is another one of those short stories, and it is also another one that I pretty much worked out straight away. T A Depressing Lot22 July 2024 So, this is another one of those short stories, and it is also another one that I pretty much worked out straight away. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it was a bad story, but it was fairly predictable. I guess in part it was because I have read a few of them now, but also because you could sort of see where it was heading. So, the protagonist, for want of a better word, lives with his family, and apparently, his family is such that it makes it difficult for him to go out and meet with other people. It also seems as if he owns the house but they have decided to move in and he can’t get rid of them. You also get the impression, based on the title of the story, that they are not only depressive, but their depressive nature pretty much drags everybody down around them. Honestly, I’ve known people like that, but the thing is that despite all of that, I honestly don’t feel that that is a reason to let them go as friends. Sure, they literally bring the entire atmosphere down around them, but sometimes I would actually prefer to spend time with them because despite that they are actually honest people that you know won’t take you for a ride. Mind you, I can also empathise with the protagonist as well because his family acts as a barrier to him actually making something of his life. Once again, while I haven’t been in that situation, I know people who have. It was like a friend’s father who really didn’t like him leaving the house, in a way that he was always scared that he wouldn’t return leaving him alone. In fact, it was when his father died that he actually felt much freer. Mind you, this was the natural course of things, unlike the story. It wasn’t bad, but as I suggested, it was pretty predictable. Like, even the nature of the woman he was going to marry was obvious. However, while the story might be dark and disturbing, the reality is that sadly, there are a lot of people trapped in the world that he happens to be trapped in. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Jul 19, 2024 | date read Jul 19, 2024 | date added Jul 23, 2024 | owned | format ebook | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover 'Salem's Lot by King, Stephen New edition (1982) | title 'Salem's Lot by King, Stephen New edition(1982) | author King, Stephen * | isbn | isbn13 | asin B00C6OLLJC | num pages 0pp | avg rating 4.10 | num ratings 592,800 | date pub Oct 17, 1975 | date pub edition unknown | David's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Vampire Novel30 July 2024 So, the premise of this story is ‘what if a Vampire came to small-town America’. The original idea was what if he came t The Vampire Novel30 July 2024 So, the premise of this story is ‘what if a Vampire came to small-town America’. The original idea was what if he came to New York, but apparently King’s wife said that he would get hit be a cab. Honestly, I suspect getting hit by a cab in New York would probably do more damage to the cab than the vampire, but that is beside the point. Anyway, I get the impression that he wanted to write a darker version of Dracula, and the thing with Dracula is that he only turned one person while in London. This was King’s second novel, which surprised me a bit. In fact, it surprised me that the story was about a vampire because I sort of thought that Stephen King stayed away from the corny myths, especially since our vision of Dracula has been tainted by way too many low-budget films. However, he does keep the vampire in the background for at least half the book, making you wonder what was actually going on. In fact, the subtitle ‘His words are power’ made me think that the spiritual entity was the writer, Ben, who was the main character. However it wasn’t. I have to admit that I actually liked this book, though jetlag sort of made it difficult to follow it in parts. Still, it is written with King’s distinct style, which I’ve always found to be quite easy to read. Yeah, I have to admit that I do quite like the works of Stephen King, even though my English Teacher hated him, but I suspect it was because he had become sick of reading endless Stephen King essays. Anyway, the thing I really liked is how he actually put a lot of realism into it. Like the doctors trying understand how some of the characters died, but also the fact that you simply can’t go around town, even a small town, impaling people. You will have a lot of questions to answer, and I suspect ‘but they were a vampire’ is likely to land you up in either gaol, or the loony bin. The other thing was how they discussed the difficulty of actually staking a vampire through the heart. There is like a thick bone over the heart that will stop people from sticking a stake into it, so to actually stake a vampire will take quite a lot of effort (which is probably why they traditionally use a mallet). Apparently, the theme behind this book is the destruction of small-town America. Like, as transportation became more efficient, and people were able to move to the cities to make more money the towns slowly die. That is something that is happening in Australia, especially as the farms get bigger, meaning that the towns are no longer needed. Also, since they are no longer connected by train makes it difficult to get out. It makes me think of a town north of Broken Hill called Silverton, which is literally a ghost town, and the only reason it still exists is the Mad Max museum (two of the Mad Max movies were filmed up there). I was in two minds about this book, but as I think about it, yeah, I liked it. I thought King actually handled the vampires quite well. Yeah, it worked for me, and I’d certainly recommend it. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 6 | # times read 1 | date started Jul 20, 2024 | date read Aug 29, 2024 | date added Jul 20, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Tombstone | title The Tombstone | author Bradbury, Ray | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 8pp | avg rating 2.14 | num ratings 7 | date pub unknown | date pub edition unknown | David's rating it was ok | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Creepy Room18 July 2024 I’m not sure if I could call this horror, but rather creepy, but then again a lot of these short stories you call creepy. The Creepy Room18 July 2024 I’m not sure if I could call this horror, but rather creepy, but then again a lot of these short stories you call creepy. Anyway, this was okay, though it seems, at least according to Goodreads, it isn’t all that popular. Then again, I suspect that with the number of reviews, a bad review can drag down the rest. So, it’s about a couple that move into a flat and there happens to be a tombstone there. The wife really doesn’t like the idea of staying at a place where there is a tombstone, but the husband doesn’t care because he is bone tired. It turns out that the previous tenant was a perfectionist, and got into carving gravestones, spelt the name wrong, and basically gave up. The thing is that the wife is convinced that there is somebody buried in the room, but the husband, well, he just wants to sleep. So, yeah, much of the story involves her freaking out at every noise, and the husband trying to get to sleep. Mind you, like a lot of these stories, there is a twist at the end, but I’ll leave it at that. ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 4 | # times read 1 | date started Jul 18, 2024 | date read Jul 18, 2024 | date added Jul 19, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | |

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