Subject: homework / learning

oh! yes! Mmmmmm pi!

I forgot about that, it still wierds me out ;-)

i love the summing up at the end where he strips away all the metaphor, and then asks the investigators which would they rather believe. brilliant.
been googling snow falls... interesting that it is taught in some states and banned in others! i'm sold... i will amazon that one out to namibia i think. also, did you know it was made into a film? might be worth a download?
(edited)

read the book first.

the film isn't bad, but not a patch on the book. Namibia is the perfect location to read it too. I first read it in St Lucia and the hot climate made it seem even more poignant. I also read it on a boat to Antarctica and it somehow seemed different in a similar climate to the novel...

i recommend romance of the three kingdoms as a good read if a little aged. Water margin to. both great examples of classic chinese literature.

there used to be an awesome series called The Water Margin, around the same time as Monkey. Group of rohin turned bandit to protect the peasants in feudal china. each had their weapon specialty and tortured soul past. ahh.. they don't make tv like that anymore!

I have them all on DVD!

no way! water margin & monkey?!?

sandy, pigsy and tripitaka as well as Song Jiang and his mates all in garish technocolor! Lovely!

I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a Water Margin book though...

yeah the series was way before my time sadly but i heard it was an epic. pretty sure it was shown on telly in England. perhaps the BBC

i will get the DVD's when i get the money and if its anything like the book i'll be crying sweet milky tears of joy.

seriously, read or watch the water margin. and when you're done with that make sure you watch Monkey! Brilliant stuff

edit* obviously not directed at you Jaize because you have done, i was talking to the world who must be told!
(edited)

It was on BBC2 in the early 80's. It rocked although it looks shockingly dated now.

i can forgive it. it'll just be an awesome thing to have to watch for those rainy bank holiday weekends.

even Monkey! is based on classic chinese literature. based on a book called Journey to the west.

Romance of the three kingdoms had a TV series to but it never left Japan and China but it's similar to the above books, worth a try.

do you have chinese connections? i'm definitely going to look out these books at some point - not so easy out here in namibia but... - as i think literature can give a good insight into other cultures, and the chinese culture is an area i have shockingly little knowledge of.

nah i just have an interest. oddly enough it started from computer games. Dynasty warriors for Romance of the three kingdoms and Suikoden for The Water Margin and as i've grown up i've decided to learn more about the story behind it all.

you can always see if you can download an Ebook of it. but i hate those things with a passion. nothing quite beats having the real thing.

If I may take this a tiny bit back to the subject of reading and books...

Not delving too much into today's sad state of affairs when youth read less and less, an intellectual gap which is NOT replaced by an influx of useless information from newer technological resources... real proper books, not to mention paper books are one of mankind's greatest assets. Tell me what you keep in your home library and I'll tell you what kind of a man you are!

For me, a good book is one that takes you away and makes you see, feel, imagine something new, different, elsewhere, even if only a fighter jet manual. Good authors make you forget where you are at that moment and give you a taste of their own mind. Here is a list of a few authors and books I find so enthralling:

Historical novels - Steven Pressfield wrote three amazing books called - Gates of Fire, Tides of War and The Last of the Amazons. Fantastic! Also good is Simon Scarrow's Under the Eagle.
Fantasy fiction - Tolkien of course and his masterpiece of LotR.
Fantasy comedy - Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series.
Comedy novels - The best in my opinion is Tom Sharpe who wrote several excellent books like The Throwback, Wilt, The Midden and several others.
Science fiction - There are the greats like Asimov and Clark and Heinlein but the best I think is John Christopher with his No Blade of Grass from 1956 which is great.
Other great authors which are not the classical school or literature class classics are Gerald Durrell, James Heriott and so many others.

Read books! There no end to the pleasure! :)

(Sorry about the wee speech here... I love books.)
:)

My Family and Other Animals, ah, that takes me back...

we never left the subject of reading books. the tv series were in relation to specific novels. but thanks for sharing your book list. of your list i too love many of pratchetts books - but not all, some like the one set in oz were total rubbish. the best are possibly the guards series, especially nightwatch, and the recent going postal etc series. tolkien is indeed great, but i think david eddings in both the belgariad and the rift saga is equally majestic.
Gerald Durrell was one of my favourite authors when i was younger, and as a result as a 10 yr old i used to tell everyone i wanted to be a zoologist when i grew up. to now be working in africa helping communities set up game parks and lodges and eco-campsites etc is the closest i could get having decided to skip anything resembling a formal education.