Pyramids is interesting addition to the Discworld series. As seems to happen in many of the books, it involves the wonderful city of Ankh-Morpork, but only as it relates to Pteppic’s training the Assassin’s Guild after leaving his home country (which is much like Egypt, only weirder) to get an education worthy of a prince.
Pteppic enjoys his time in Ankh-Morpork, but realizes that something has gone amiss at home when greenery suddenly starts springing up in his footsteps and sunrise depends on Pteppic (Or Teppic, once he leaves home…) making it happen.
Once he arrives home, Pteppic finds that he’s been spoiled by the “luxuries” of Ankh-Morpork and he has some very different ideas about how his homeland should be run. He is, however, overruled by older traditions and must turn to his training from the Assassin’s Guild to preserve both his country and the fabric of reality.
Here is a list of books that are now available in the bookstores for this month! Some were available toward the end of last month and I’m sure there are more to come, but hopefully there’s something on this short list that you’d be interested in!
The Rogue Hunter, by Lynsay Sands
Paperback Edition of An Ice Cold Grave, by Charlaine Harris
Imaginary Friends, an anthology with Anne Bishop!
Brisingr, by Christopher Paolini
The Living Dead, and anthology with Laurell K. Hamilton, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, et al.
Happy reading!
I’ve been reading Sherlock Holmes stories lately, and I’ve discovered many things I never knew! So I thought I’d share with the rest of the world…there will be more to come later on, I’m sure.
1) Sherlock Holmes is a professional student.
–He never attained a degree, despite spending much of his time at a university studying a wide range of subjects.
2) Sherlock Holmes is a crackhead. He shoots up with morphine and cocaine.
–He claims his mind requires stimulation and activity so when cases are few and far between he shoots up with one of the two drugs about three times a day.
3) Sherlock Holmes is arrogant. Very, very arrogant.
–Not only does he mock Scotland Yard, but he’s very brusque and can be very arrogant about his knowledge and abilities. Especially when dealing with Dr. Watson, who is very annoyed with him.
4) Sherlock Holmes was not happy about Dr. Watson’s marriage.
–He didn’t find the bride objectionable, but he seems to think that love and romance are damaging to the intellect. Plus, he lost his roomie.
5) Sherlock Holmes admires a woman, but not in the way we might think.
–He likes her because she outsmarted him and escaped London before he could finish up the case! After this, he ceased making snarky comments about the female intellect. To top things off, she’s married!
After I had finished reading A River Runs Through It, I was informed that it had actually been made into a movie quite some time back. Now, at first I had no interest in seeing it because I thought there was no way that the movie could be as accurate to the book as it should be. Typically, that wouldn’t bother me much with any other book because most of my other books are works of fiction. Seeing, however, that this particular book was based on real-life events I am inclined to be much more exacting. I was told that it was well worth seeing, though, and with my doubts somewhat put to rest I rented the movie this weekend.
There are a few particulars which weren’t in the book, but I believe most of the details were garnered from Norman Maclean’s life and the movie was delightfully accurate to the book in almost every respect.
I was quite pleased with the result, though I must say I was not too impressed with the cast. Surely, many people would love to castigate me for that, but the fact is there was only one actor in the movie that I liked and that was Tom Skerritt. All in all, I think that it is well worth watching just as the book is well worth reading, though I wouldn’t recommend substituting one for the other in any circumstance because there are enough discrepancies to make a difference.
As a final note: if you go out to rent A River Runs Through It at Blockbuster or some similar business, get yourself a comedy to go after it because it’s a sad story. Also, stock up on popcorn. Popcorn goes with everything.
Recently, I read about “spots of time” in A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean. His description really hit a note in me and I was fortunate enough to be able to write about it for class, which naturally made me want to write even more about it since it had such resonance with me. He talks about how poets use the phrase “spots of time” but only fisherman really experience that sensation of having eternity compressed into one single moment. He uses this more specifically in reference to losing a big fish. This made perfect sense to me on many different levels.
The first level is that I have often gone fishing – though not fly fishing -perhaps not so much after I got to college, but for many spring breaks and summer sessions I was out on a river or a lake, living in a cabin, a tent, or just driving out every morning and fishing most of the day away. So I know what it is to lose a big fish. Read the rest of this entry ยป