Books you're currently reading???

[Torrere]

Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation

Includes:

a queen bee worried because all of her lovers drop dead during sex
gay octopi and bottle-nosed dolphins
super-lover drosophilia
a praying mantis who bites off the heads of her lovers because they're more satisfying without their heads
etc

It's a fun read and backed up by science, anecdotes to other species, and references in the appendix.


I picked it up because I saw a photo of the author having a drink at a party with Craig Venter and the astronomer Lord Rees. Is that a bad reason or a good reason?

[ferret88]

Thud! by Terry Pratchett

[Happy Monkey]

An assortment of TheTick. Funny stuff.

[Clodfobble]

Just started System of the World, the third book in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.

[thrillhouse]

biography on Kenneth Tynan by his wife, Kathleen.

[Happy Monkey]

Gaiman's "Death" comics. I lent them out a while back, and got them back recently with "The Tick" as interest in the loan.

[wolf]

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl

I'm not sure how I made it through gradual school without having to read it.

[Cyclefrance]

Went to put something into the loft (attic) this afternoon and my eye fell upon a Robert Rankin book I had bought some time ago but hadn't got around to reading - 'Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls' - the 8th (possibly 9th) book in the now famous Brentford Trilogy.

Some of you may have heard me talk of Mr Rankin before - I classify him as a writer of surreal humour. What do I mean by that? Well, maybe it's a bit hard to communicate in everyday words, so in an alternative attempt to succeed, here's the start of the book as a means to enlighten you - it begins with a poem (in fact each chapter has its own poem)....:

THERE'S A CHEF AND HIS NAME IS DAVE

There's a frog in the Kenwood blender.
There's a cat in the microwave.
There's a mouse in the waste disposal.
There's a chef and his name is Dave.

There's a cockroach that lives in the pate,
And the salt is an earwig's grave.
There are droppings all over the butter.
There's a chef and his name is Dave.

There's a nasty fungus under the stove,
Where the creepy crawlies wave.
And squeezing his spot in the beef hot-pot,
There's a chef and his name is Dave.

There's a man from the Health Department
And he's just been sick in the sink,
And the Waternman's Arts Centre kitchen
Will be closed for a while, I think.

Chapter 1

'She does what??' John Omally looked up from his pint and down at Small Dave.
'Reads your knob,' said the wee man. 'It's a bit like palmistry, where they read the lines on your hand. Except this is called Penistry and they can tell your fortune by looking at your knob.'

It was spring and it was Tuesday. It was lunchtime. They were in the Flying Swan.

'I don't believe it,' said John. 'Someone's been winding you up, Dave.'
'They have not. I overheard two policeman talking about it while I was locked in the suitcase.'
'Excuse me,' said Soap Distant, newly returned from a journey to the centre of the Earth. 'But why were you locked in a suitcase?'
'There was an unpleasantness. I don't wish to discuss it.'
'Small Dave was sacked from his job as chef at the Arts Centre.' said Omally.
'What Arts Centre?'
'The one they built on the site of the old gasworks.'
'Oh,' said Soap. 'So why did they sack you, Dave?'
'I was unfairly dismissed.'
'The manager gave Dave his cards and Dave bit the end off his knob.'
'It was an accident. I slipped on some mouse poo, and anyway he hit me with a frying pan.'
'I thought that was in self-defence, because you came at him with the meat cleaver.'
'I just happened to be holding the meat cleaver at the time.'
'You bit off the end of his knob,' said Soap. 'That is disgusting.'
'It was an accident. I slipped, he hit me on the back of the head, I fell forward and my teeth kind of clenched.'
Soap's teeth kind of clenched, and so did Omally's.
'So what happened to the manager?' Soap asked.
'He's recovering in Brentford Cottaeg Hospital. The surgeon sewed the end back on. It's no big deal. Mind you' - Small Dave smirked wickedly - 'from what I hear he's going to sue the surgeon.'
'I know I'm going to hate myself for asking,' said Soap, 'but why is he going to sue the surgeon?'
'Well,' said Dave. 'What with all the blood and it being an emergency operation and everything, it was the kind of mistake anyone could make. Especially if you're Mr Fowler.'
'What, fumble-fingers Fowler? He's not still in practice, is he? I thought he was struck off years ago.'
'He probably will be this time. He sewed the manager's knob end on upside down.'
'I think I'll go for a walk,' said Soap. 'I feel a little queasy.'
'I'll come with you.'said Dave.
'I'll stay here.' said Soap.
'Just one thing, Dave,' said Omally. 'Why exactly were you locked in a suitcase?'

++

And so it continues apace with the sudden presence of many policemen, and an amazing escape by Small Dave with Omally and Soap Distant who eventually end up wearing gardening trowels (naturally). And this is only in chapter 1 - another 25 have yet to follow..

I'll let you know when I've finished it....

[TiddyBaby]

Anne Rice

"the body thiefs"

[TiddyBaby]

victor frankel scared the shit outta me, especially when i found out later that my roommates' father survivied the jap pow camps

(the japs looked at if you DID NOT kill yourself and were captured... you must be the worlds worst loser)

[cjjulie]

"I Couldn't Keep it to Myself" by Wally Lamb. It is a compilation of Essays/memoirs by women in the York Correctional Institution in Niantic CT.

[Jacquelita]

I love Wally Lamb - One of my all time favorites is "This Much I Know is True". "She's Come Undone" is also great. I wish he'd write something new.

[deadheadtimo]

Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture, by Brian Preston

[wolf]

I didn't like "She's Come Undone" at all. I know too many patients that are just like her. I liked "I Know this Much is True" for exactly the same reason.

[TiddyBaby]

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World