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Cluttermagnet
Posted

NOTE: This is in response to my posting of "I'm reading Jules Verne's Mysterious Island." in the original thread. ~Eric

 

Two word synopsis of every Japanese horror flick made in the 50's/60's,

 

with nodding recognition to Verne's Mysterious Island

 

(voice over by breathless female narrator)-

 

"Ah! Monstah!"

 

:whistling:

Guest LilBambi
Posted

Mysterious Island is a great book! If folks don't have the book, there are versions online where it can be read:

 

The Mysterious Island - WikiSource

 

The Mysterious Island - Gutenberg

 

So good that they have done various movies based on the book:

 

Mysterious Island (1961) - IMDb

 

Mysterious Island (2010) - IMDb

 

Mysterious Island (TV 2005) - IMDb

 

Mysterious Island (1995 – 1 Season ) TV Series - IMDb

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

I'm actually reading a newer translation than the old favorite that's been around for a century+. The old standard was translated by Agnes Kinloch Kingston. The one I'm reading is a 2001 edition translated by Jordan Stump. It's a bit different from the version (Kingston's) that I read as a child. :yes: It's more closer to Verne's original.

Guest LilBambi
Posted

Cool!

 

Gutenberg, in addition to the one above that I posted above, also has American Stephen W. White's translation from 1876:

 

Mysterious Island - Gutenberg (Stephen W. White's translation)

 

In the earlier posted version they have this to say about the translation at the beginning of the book:

 

[Redactor’s Note: The Mysterious Island (Number V013 in the T&M numerical listing of Verne’s works) is a translation of L’Île mystérieuse first published in England by Sampson and Low and in the United States by Scribner and Henry L. Shepard using the same translation of W. H. G. Kingston. English translators often altered their translations to suit current political views of Church and Empire. In the Kingston translation the chapters near the end of the book where Captain Nemo makes his appearance are altered beyond all recognition and all mention of Captain Nemo’s previous life as a “freedom fighter” for Indian independence is removed, in addition to other deletions. The present translation is by the American Stephen W. White. It first appeared in the Evening Telegraph of Philadelphia, PA and was later published as an Evening Telegraph Reprint Book (1876). The present version is prepared from a xerox copy of that book kindly provided by Mr. Sidney Kravitz of Dover, NJ. According to Taves and Michaluk “Although more faithful than any other translation, this one has never been reprinted”. And so after a lapse of 127 years this translation of The Mysterious Island is now again available to the public.

 

 

Since the text was hand set for a newspaper there are many printer’s errors (including upside-down characters). Where obvious these have been corrected, although an attempt has been made to retain the original spelling of words in use at that period. Where there is a doubt, words have been altered so that the spelling is consistent. In other cases, like “trajopan” where the inconsistency is traced to Verne’s original, the spelling is left unaltered. A table of contents based on the chapter headings has been added which also indicates the points at which the french version was divided into three parts. An updated translation by Sidney Kravitz is now available from Wesleyan University Press (2001).

In a text of this length there are bound to be some errors. The redactor (Norman M. Wolcott, 2003) welcomes corrections of these at nwolcott2@post.harvard.edu . ]

 

Very interesting about the political views of Church and Empire of the day.

 

Think I would definitely like to read one that still has Nemo's previous life, as in the original by Verne, as a Freedom Fighter for "Indian Independence". I really hate it when they take such licenses with translations.

Guest LilBambi
Posted

BTW: I do have the version translated by Jordan Stump in ebook format from Amazon Kindle. I didn't realize it till I looked.

Guest LilBambi
Posted

Great idea to put a topic for good reads :thumbsup:

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

I may actually have created a similar topic before, but didn't bother looking for it. ;)

Posted

Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes

 

Nothing like shattering preconceptions....

 

 

Adam

Posted

driving everywhere you need to go, sitting and watching tv, playing on the pc combined with no excercise

and eating like a pig?

t

 

It specifically focuses on nutrition and the unsubstantiated "science" behind it.

 

Adam

  • 1 month later...
Guest LilBambi
Posted

I am currently reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. I am on Book 1, simply entitled Foundation as linked below. The Foundation Series:

 

 

The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order arePrelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire,Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth.

The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology(analogous to mathematical physics). Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillionsof humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.

Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. Seldon's psychohistory also foresees an alternative where the intermittent period will last only one thousand years. To ensure his vision of a second great Empire comes to fruition, Seldon creates two Foundations—small, secluded havens of all human knowledge—at "opposite ends of the galaxy".

The focus of the series is on the First Foundation and its attempts to overcome various obstacles during the formation and installation of the Second Empire, all the while being silently guided by the unknown specifics of The Seldon Plan.

The series is best known for the Foundation Trilogy, which comprises the booksFoundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. While the term "Foundation Series" can be used specifically for the seven Foundation books, it can also be used more generally to include the Robot series (four novels) and Empire series (three novels), which are set in the same fictional universe, but in earlier time periods. If all works are included, in total, there are fourteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and seven novels written by other authors after his death, expanding the time spanned in the original trilogy (roughly 550 years) by more than twenty thousand years. The series is highly acclaimed, and the Foundation Trilogy won the one-time Hugo Awardfor "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.[1]

 

 

I just finished the four Robot Novels aka Daneel Olivaw books: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of the Dawn, and Robots and Empire. These are excellent books. I could read them over and over.

 

R. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "Robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society. Olivaw appears in Asimov's Robot and Foundation series, most notably in the novels The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire, Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation and Earth as well as the short story Mirror Image. Since he also appears in all of the books of the Second Foundation Trilogy, Daneel is the most commonly appearing Asimov character. He was constructed immediately prior to the age of theSettlers, and lived at least until the formation of Galaxia, thus spanning the entire history of the First Empire.
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

It's been a bazillion years since I read Asimov's Foundation books.

 

Oh, by the way, I'm going to lose my Cory Doctorow virginity starting this evening. I have Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town sitting on the desk right next to me. It will be my first Cory D. book. I grabbed it when I was at the library the other day. I remember you recommending him pretty highly. I'm looking forward to cracking the cover in a bit. :yes:

Guest LilBambi
Posted

My favorites of his are his short stories, like Craphound, the shorts about technology, and the novels, Little Brother, which won awards and Makers. I also have Pirate Cinema which has also won awards. I look forward to reading it very soon too.

 

Haven't read the the one you are reading yet. Let me know what you think of it.

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

So far, it's W E I R D! I don't know what this fellow smokes, but 35 years ago, I would have asked him to share. ;)

  • Like 1
Guest LilBambi
Posted (edited)
:hysterical: Well I do know he does his own very high caffeine cold brew coffee! Sounds really good and doesn't have the ingredients of things like Redbull, etc. Edited by LilBambi
Posted

Kubla Khan

 

Kubla Khan is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. According to Coleridge's Preface to Kubla Khan, the poem was composed one night after he experienced an opium influenced dream after reading a work describing Xanadu, the summer palace of the Mongol ruler and Emperor of China Kublai Khan. Upon waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from the dream until he was interrupted by a person from Porlock. The poem could not be completed according to its original 200-300 line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines. He left it unpublished and kept it for private readings for his friends until 1816 when, on the prompting by George Gordon Byron, it was published.

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

They don't call 'em "mind altering" drugs for nuttin', huh? ;)

Posted

Coleridge also wrote The Rime Of the Ancient Mariner, which seems a bit drug induced.

 

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, nor breath nor motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.

 

Water, water, every where,

And all the boards did shrink;

Water, water, every where,

Nor any drop to drink.

 

These guys loved their (perfectly legal) opium.

Guest LilBambi
Posted

Yep, amazing stories of the things that gave the dreams and nightmares of some authors over time.

  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/20-online-resources-for-free-books.html

 

Goods sites above.

 

I tried out the

 

Free Book Spot

 

The website might not be terribly impressive or polished, but they have an extensive selection of books ranging from reference materials to fiction novels. You can find some absolute gems on this site, but be aware that you may come across some broken links on occasion: please report them if and when you do.

 

Plenty of great books, some very recent. Along with audio books and vids. :breakfast:

Guest LilBambi
Posted (edited)

Nice! Thanks!

 

I am currently reading four books.

 

One is FreedomTM (Daemon 2nd book in Daniel Suarez's technothriller series) -- both books are great reads if you enjoy technothrillers! I gave them both 5/5 Stars at Goodreads.com. I am approx. 150 pages into FreedomTM currently. Both are excellent reads and quite the technothrillers! My thanks to Adam for loaning me the books along with Daniel Suarez's third book, Kill Decision which Adam says is even better than Daemon and FreedomTM!

 

Another is J. R. Rain's brand new Silent Echo on Amazon that I got on Amazon's new "Kindle First which "offers customers exclusive early access to four pre-release books chosen by Amazon Publishing editors across a variety of genres each month. You can sign up to get monthly reminders of new available titles." I got Silent Echo (review on Publisher's Weekly) for $1.99 (Kindle First member price). The book will sell for $4.99 normal price.

 

Silent Echo is a great book so far. I am on page 40. I was on page 2 when I had to put it away last night before our show. Had a hard time putting it down.

Also, the chilly morning of 41F this morning helped keep me under the covers a bit longer than usual and I really enjoyed curling up with a great book on my iphone where I have the font size larger and the background color black which makes it so much easier for me to read.

I just went on and on and hated to put it down this morning too. Can't wait to see how this all comes together. I have already so far given it 5/5 stars at goodreads.com.

 

Here's a geekwire article about Amazon First and being able to get J.R. Rain's Silent Echo with it along with three others:

 

The first four Kindle First books are:

  • We Will Survive: True Stories of Encouragement, Inspiration, and the Power of Song, by Gloria Gaynor
  • Things We Set on Fire, by Deborah Reed
  • No Place for a Dame, by romance author Connie Brockway
  • Silent Echo, by mystery author J.R. Rain

Edited by LilBambi
V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

I could not get past page 50 with Daemon. It just put me to sleep. :(

Posted

Daemon takes a bit to heat up. The first couple hundred pages really set the stage for the rest of it and the sequel, Freedom .

 

Adam

V.T. Eric Layton
Posted

I'm too old to wait for books to "heat up". My rule since turning 45 has been if it doesn't grab me by page 50, it's toast.

Posted

I generally have the same rule. It took me a bit to get to where the book would not let me put it down.

 

Put it in the bathroom and work on it a bit at a time until it garbs you by the throat. Trust me, it will. :lol:

 

Adam

Guest LilBambi
Posted

Yes, I had the same problem with the beginning but it was definitely worth it. And it's a great set of books.

  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Posted

I started off the year reading at a pretty good clip, but I've been feeling like I'm living on the wrong side of the Wall lately. Instead of wanting to make me curl up with a good book, the dreary weather has put me in a bit of a reading funk. In addition, I've been geeking out over the two new additions to my family: my granddaughter and my new phone. (Don't look at me like that - I did put my granddaughter first!)

 

You can see what I've read so far this year here.

 

What I'm really enjoying this year is a two volume set from The Library of America entitled "American Science Fiction - Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s." Included in this boxed set are:

  • Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants
  • Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human
  • Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow
  • Richard Matheson, The Shrinking Man
  • Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
  • Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
  • James Blish, A Case of Conscience
  • Algis Budrys, Who?
  • Fritz Leiber, The Big Time

So far I've finished the first two, interspersed with other books. I want to get through the whole set this year. I'd also like to get their Shirley Jackson volume and their Philip K. Dick collection.

 

I also want to finally read "To Kill a Mockingbird" this year. I've never read it, and I'm trying to get back in the habit of reading more than my usual diet of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

  • Like 2

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