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[Hammers]

I am highly sceptical to C.S. Lewis and his sneaky apologetics. 

[JollyBob]

I have read that series, and I must say, they are absolutely barking mad in places.

Also in part, horribly creepy, and not just because of the (not-entirely)subtext. Lewis gets an excellent sense of creeping dread into parts of the books. Not everyone's cup of tea, certainly, but worth trying once. You might be surprised.

[PeteMurray]

I am highly sceptical to C.S. Lewis and his sneaky apologetics. 

C.S. Lewis is sneaky in the same way a marching band is subtle.

[Plynkes]

I have got the entire damned Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series boxed set.

Sweet. A very generous gift. People close to me could rely on Paddy for a good while when hunting for Christmas and birthday gifts for me. Unfortunately, those days are gone now, as I've got 'em all, including the unfinishedy one.

Have you not read past Ionian Mission, Pete, or are you going round the track for the second or third time? If the former, then in my opinion the best is yet to come. My particular favourite segment is The Thirteen Gun Salute - The Nutmeg of Consolation - Clarissa Oakes - The Wine Dark Sea part...



SPOILERS (of a sort. Plot ain't really what you come to O'Brian for, is it?)


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...forming as it does more or less a complete story of one long trip to the East Indies, Australia, the South Seas, South America and home again. Lots of fun with Dyaks, bare-bothered Polynesians, French-Yankee Privateers and such, and where we first meet my two favourite characters, Sarah and Emily. Two orphaned island girls rescued from death by Stephen, who end up talking like foul-mouthed sailors by the end of the voyage, usually at the most inappropriate times. They're priceless.


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END OF SPOILERS


Time I got back to Paddy, I fancy. It's been over a year. Only three to go and I've been putting off finishing them, as I think I shall feel very empty and miserable once I know there are no more to come.

[Bako]

Yeah, well it's the only thing from CS Lewis I'd read.

[PeteMurray]

No, I never got past Ionia, and I'm looking forward to going on. In fact, I like them so much that as soon as I got the books, I went back and re-read the stories just so's they'd all be fresh in the mind. I know that at one point I'll pick up the unfinished volume and after that there will be no new stories, but I can accept that in a sort of bittersweet way.

I have to admit disappointment that Aubrey and Maturin didn't turn up in the Chesapeake and wasted the American War in Boston. It seemed to me precisely the kind of campaign that Captain Aubrey was well suited for.

I really can't say enough good things about these books. They're rich, fantastically rich, with characters and stories and allusions galore.

[Hammers]

No, I never got past Ionia, and I'm looking forward to going on. In fact, I like them so much that as soon as I got the books, I went back and re-read the stories just so's they'd all be fresh in the mind. I know that at one point I'll pick up the unfinished volume and after that there will be no new stories, but I can accept that in a sort of bittersweet way.

I have to admit disappointment that Aubrey and Maturin didn't turn up in the Chesapeake and wasted the American War in Boston. It seemed to me precisely the kind of campaign that Captain Aubrey was well suited for.

I really can't say enough good things about these books. They're rich, fantastically rich, with characters and stories and allusions galore.

The language, don't forget the language. The cabin or dinner table dialogues between Aubrey and Maturing is the stuff which makes this foreigner love the English tongue.

I also always found my self almost stunned by the manner O'Brien suddenly, and almost in passing, lets important character pass out of history.

[Plynkes]

You ain't a foreigner, Hammers. We are the international brotherhood of the LAF, and countrymen all!

[PeteMurray]

You ain't a foreigner, Hammers. We are the international brotherhood of the LAF, and countrymen all!

I will drink to that, three times three!

[Mancha]

Coincidently, The O’Brian books are mentioned in a book I’m reading right now, called Friends in High Places, by Donna Leon.  I don’t usually get into whodunits, but this series of books, about a Venician detective named Guido (that right there is reason enough to read at least one!) Brunetti, have some great character development, and I’ve read almost the entire series.  This very afternoon I read:

“Four years ago, Brunetti had been abandoned by his wife of almost twenty years for a period of more than a month while she systematically read her way through, at his count, eighteen sea novels dealing with the unending years of war between the British and the French.  The time had seemed no less long to him, for it was a time when he, too, ate hasty meals, half-cooked meat, dry bread, and was often driven to seek relief in excessive quantities of grog.  Because she seemed to have no other interest, he had taken a look at one of the books, if only to have something to talk about at their thrown-together meals.  But he had found it discursive, filled with strange facts and even stranger animals, and had abandoned the attempt after only a few pages and before making the acquaintance of Captain Aubrey.  Fortunately, [his wife] was a fast reader, and she had returned to the twentieth century after finishing the last one, apparently none the worse for the shipwreck, battle, and scurvy that had menaced her during those weeks.”

I once read a chapter of my step-bit…mother’s book, in which her characters and events bore a startling and, quite frankly, offensive similarity to people and events in my family.  Ever since then, when reading these little asides, which seem to have nothing to do with the plot but somehow fill out the characters, I wonder how, exactly, the event transpired in the author’s life.

[Aaron]

Well, I will sail in here and rake Poly from hawse to stern-post. I have got the entire damned Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series boxed set.

Enjoy it Pete. As Plynkes said, the best is yet to come. Forrester's Hornblower is just as enjoyable for me, but in an entirely different way (no musical or natural history references for starters).

[Will Bailie]

Scored some choice reading material at a used book sale this weekend:

Sgt Lamb of the Ninth (Robt Graves)

Tournament of Shadows (about the Great Game in Asia between the Russians, British and (later) the USA)

August 1914 (Solzhenitsyn)

Plus a couple of other, less noteworthy titles.

[Svennn]

Green Manor II - The Inconvenience Of Being Dead

Been itching for this after getting volume I and it looks just as good.

[argsilverson]

"Foundry's" The Great Paraguayan war arrived today.

[Operator5]

I picked up this collection of fiction/non-fiction at Barnes and Noble for less than $10.

Adventure! Thrilling Tales of Discovery.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Adventure/John-Richard-Stephens/e/9781435105034/?itm=1

It's a collection of works, some true (and I question how true) from Howard Carter, Rudyard Kipling, Dr. Livingstone, Teddy Roosevelt and others. Some great titles like: Raiding Mummies' Tombs, A Deadly Expedition Through Unknown Africa, Caves of a Thousand Buddhas, and Battle of the Witchdoctors.

I also picked up a copy of Sax Rohmer's: The Quest of the Sacred Slipper. No Fu Manchu in this one. Got it for $2 at a used book store.