Books/Movies that have interesting ideas..

[got tonkaed]

Curtain?

actually i think my two favorites were the A.B.C. murders and cards on the table....with an honorable mention to the Big Four

I read them when i was young so clearly all opinions against me are invalid.

No, brilliant choice.
And in fact, the ABC murders had a pretty darn cool premise.
Cards on the table was one of the only ones i worked out (smug grin!) but its a classic.
I love Poirot, and it always annoys the hell out of me when literary snobs laugh at Christie-she wrote some of the great books, in terms of pure enjoyment.
And shouldn't books be enjoyed, for Gods sake?

*dismounts from hobby horse*

id agree, that series of books was one of my favorites growing up.

[suggs]

i liked some of the elements behind 1408.

Only saw the cusack film, but that was cool.
Did the book have a better premise? cos there wasnt really that great a premise in the film, it was just bloody good i thought.

naw i meant the film tbh....

not necessarily the immediate plot line, but everything behind why the room had to act like it did, and the issues of the self with cusacks charcter.

It was quite a bit like The Trial, only exactly the opposite.

Kafka? Never read tbh
what, cusack racked with guilt and stuff? or did i miss it (could well have done)

with the trial theres a big wrestle with notions of free will and it has the sad ending....and in this one he basically chooses the exact opposite, at the expense of the self. Its a neat little inversion.

Shit i missed that i think DOH!
Could you Pm and explain that mate (so as not to spoil it for anyone else reading this gold dust)

[mandyb]

"It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen".

THE BEST EVER OPENING LINE. God he was good.

Great book - I like the closing paragraph even more though..

Another great opener;
“Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer...” To Kill a Mockingbird - what I wouldn't give to be able to write like that....
Also loved War of the Worlds - the film too, even if it did have Tom Cruise in the lead role

The last paragraph made me intensely sad when i first read it! but yep, its brilliant.
Never read To Kill A...Is it god? I guees so
But surely you loved other things about Mr. Cruise, Mands?

put it on your list of 'things to do' - I think you'll like it.
As for Cruise - not into that 'all American' look - too suspicious....(no offence to all the other gorgeous Americans on this site of course

[Grooveman2007]

All Quiet on the Western Front. One of the most moving books I've ever read.

[suggs]

*hastily phones up plastic surgeon* "No scrap the Cruise look-ITS OUT".

[kleep]

I feel like a stranger in my own post...

[suggs]

I feel like a stranger in my own post...

Sorry! So to recap:

1984
Kill A mocking Bird
Watch 1408
Murder of Roger Ackroyd/ABC Murders
Fight Club

[suggs]

If you like fantasy, Neverwhere by N. Gaiman is really good, a great premise.
(LOndon is populated by a load of people underground etc, unbeknowst to the over landers.

[kleep]

Never really read a murder mystery, think I'm gonna add that to my reading queue as well.

[DeCaptain]

I'm assuming that a lot of people here have read Slaughterhouse-Five, but if you haven't it's an interesting story, to say the least.

[jecko7]

Dune is good if you like the whole new world thing (the author, can't remember his name, had actual apendices of the religion, geography, etc of the planets in the book ). Definetly not a light read though...

I hated 1984 with a passion. It's basically Orwell's personal philosophy thinly veiled with a subpar attempt at a plot. Not fun to read at all. Animal Farm was interesting though, since this is about interesting books. Orwell always depresses me though

The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury, are fun. Basically a collection of short stories tracing human's colonization of Mars, I won't ruin the ending (s).

[suggs]

2 OF THE GREATS!

Making History -S. Fry
Fatherland -R. Harris

Both similiarish premises-"What if Germany had won the second World War?"

-maybe that sounds a bit naff, but both books do it really convincing.
In some ways the Harris book is more of a conventional "Cop Thriller", but with some cool twists, and the fact that its all in Nazi Germany in the 1960's (President Joseph Kennedy is in charge across the atlantic!) makes it pretty sinister.

"Making History" is more surprising, more fantastical (they try and go back in time to kill Hitler) but its really thought provoking, and being Stephen Fry, has some great comedy moments as well.

Plus, they are both really easy reads.
Bloody classics the both of them. I wish I could be reading them for the first time, you will experience a massive sense of joy.

[kleep]

If you like fantasy, Neverwhere by N. Gaiman is really good, a great premise.
(LOndon is populated by a load of people underground etc, unbeknowst to the over landers.

I loved Neverwhere. Basically anything Gaiman writes tickles my fancy.

[kleep]

2 OF THE GREATS!



"Making History" is more surprising, more fantastical (they try and go back in time to kill Hitler) but its really thought provoking, and being Stephen Fry, has some great comedy moments as well.

OOH that sounds awesome. Kind of like the game Red Alert (if you have played it).

MY BOOK QUEUE IS GETTING GINORMOUS!

[suggs]

I hated 1984 with a passion. It's basically Orwell's personal philosophy thinly veiled with a subpar attempt at a plot. Not fun to read at all. Animal Farm was interesting though, since this is about interesting books. Orwell always depresses me though

Mate i think you've missed the point of 1984

If anything, it was a bit of a "mea culpa" from Orwell-warning of the possible dangers of communism turning into a full blown totalitarian dictatorship-which of course he was right about.
It is in NO WAY a reflection of Orwell's "socialism" if thats what you mean.
And indeed he seems to conclude that there is no future for socialism-the plebs will never rebel etc

But I know what you mean-there is a deep sadness in all of Orwell's books.
Which is why I love 'em!

[Genghis Khant]

I just finished reading "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. It's a way over the top fiction novel about the Illuminati, written in the 70's(so it's full of drugs and sex, heh). It's hard to describe or to limit it to one genre. It's very funny, but thrilling at the same time. There are a lot of good fnord points about society hidden behind the humor and some very raunchy scenes in the book. It's kind of a difficult read because the authors just jump from subject to subject, character to character, time to time within the same paragraph. Hard to grasp at first but they use it well and it makes for a good book cause you don't know what the hell is going to happen next! haha.

Read some reviews on it, I'm sure there are people out there that can better explain it than me because I suck.

Mad one! I've just spent most of the evening going through my old Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu records.

fnord

[suggs]

"And they drive an ice cream van"...CLASSIC!

[suggs]

Oh mate, you must read:

MONEY by M. Amis.

The actual premise isn't anything amazing-just a bloke who eats, drinks, drugs and shags his way around London and New York whilst making a porn film.
But its one of the funniest books I've ever read, with a bit of a morality tale thrown in, and a great, classic twist near the end.

"Laughter in the dark" was one of the reviews, and it is black comedy at its finest.
Martin Amis on fire (and he appears in it as well as a minor character!).
A MUST READ!

[muy_thaiguy]

"Brave New World" is another good one, if a bit, disturbing in some areas.

[suggs]

"Brave New World" is another good one, if a bit, disturbing in some areas.

GOOD CALL! A bloody brilliant book, and a real easy read as well.

[Grooveman2007]

Carnage and Culture. Discusses the reasons that Western armies are so devastating against non-western.

[Hologram]

Well, for fiction, Naughts and Crosses is basically a story where the roles of whites and blacks are reversed. It's mostly a love story, but it does raise a few questions.

Non-fiction, by far, is a series of essays compiled in a book called What If?. It basically takes various historic events and attempts to figure out how the world might be different because of a few things gone differently.

[muy_thaiguy]

Well, for fiction, Naughts and Crosses is basically a story where the roles of whites and blacks are reversed. It's mostly a love story, but it does raise a few questions.

Non-fiction, by far, is a series of essays compiled in a book called What If?. It basically takes various historic events and attempts to figure out how the world might be different because of a few things gone differently.

Alexander the Great surviving after the age of 33? Napoleon winning Waterloo? Hitler listening to his generals about invading Russia?

Really, a lot of historical events and possibly todays world could be different if a battle had been won by the other side.

[InkL0sed]

Nightfall, by Isaac Asimov and someone else, I forgot his name.

It's about a planet that never has night, as it has 4 different suns. There is always at least one in the sky no matter where on the planet you are. All the planet's inhabitants are thus petrified of darkness, to the point where they go insane when entering it.

The book is about what happens when the suns all align to briefly cause night.

[Hologram]

Well, for fiction, Naughts and Crosses is basically a story where the roles of whites and blacks are reversed. It's mostly a love story, but it does raise a few questions.

Non-fiction, by far, is a series of essays compiled in a book called What If?. It basically takes various historic events and attempts to figure out how the world might be different because of a few things gone differently.

Alexander the Great surviving after the age of 33? Napoleon winning Waterloo? Hitler listening to his generals about invading Russia?

Really, a lot of historical events and possibly todays world could be different if a battle had been won by the other side.

Those are some of the stuff they address, yes.

Others are "What if Lee's Lost Orders had never been found by Union soldiers?" or for a real controversial one "What if Pontius Pilate had not executed Jesus of Nazareth?"

I'd provide more of them, but I seem to have temporarily misplaced my book...