What are you reading now?

[Tero]

Another mystery, then Feathers, but it is still in the mail.
No stinking Kindle edition, it has drawings.
http://www.amazon.com/Feathers-Evolutio ... 482&sr=1-1

[Tero]

And yes, I bought books at Borders, sometimes buy books at B and N and will now help put them out of business. The book was 14 dollars at Amazon new, 29 at B and N. Minus 10%.

[tattuchu]

I'm reading God, No! by Penn Jillette. Anybody thinking of getting this, don't bother. It's weak. First of all, it's practically nothing to do with atheism, despite the title, and despite the fact that Penn is a prominent atheist personality. It's mostly one anecdote after another. Just stuff about his life. Some of it is interesting and funny but, surprisingly, most of it it is just lame. He's also kind of a pig. I'm no prude or anything. But after about the 200th time he mentions his cock, and how much he likes blowjobs, and how his ex girlfriends were all hot models, it gets a bit tiresome

[Ronja]

Thanks for the warning, Tat!

[Pappa]

Agile Web Application Development with Yii 1.1 and PHP5

[Millefleur]

Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem. Just finished Amnesia Moon, by the same author, after Kr recommended it, and enjoyed it muchly.

[Exi5tentialist]

The Power of Six. Author 'Pittacus Lore' has hit upon a lucrative formula for a book series around the plot of a group of 9 humanoid survivors who have fled to Earth after the invasion of their home planet Lorien by the Mogadorians, who have followed them and still hunt them down as they try to blend in to the population here. Each survivor has their own number. 1, 2 and 3 have already been hunted down and killed by the Mogadorians (this is not a spoiler, it's revealed in the introduction to the first book called I Am Number Four. The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers'. After every last cent has been extracted from The Power of Six I'd like to suggest titles for the next two books: these would be Five Goes Mad in Dorset and The Secret Seven. The income-generating powers of the books are Rowlingesque in scale, I wouldn't want the authors to miss out.

[Ronja]

The Power of Six. ... The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers'.

"insultingly" - as in "younger" is an insult?

[Exi5tentialist]

The Power of Six. ... The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers'.

"insultingly" - as in "younger" is an insult?

No, obviously not.

[Ronja]

The Power of Six. ... The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers'.

"insultingly" - as in "younger" is an insult?

No, obviously not.

So what did you mean when you wrote "The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers' "?

[Exi5tentialist]

So what did you mean when you wrote "The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers' "?

I meant I thought the reviewers were being insulting.

Anyway, have you read either book? Don't get me wrong, I think they're good books, in fact I'm rather envious of the authors for having written them.

[Ronja]

So what did you mean when you wrote "The books are insultingly reviewed as 'for younger readers' "?

I meant I thought the reviewers were being insulting.

I still don't get it. Is being reviewed as 'for younger readers' the insult that you perceived? (As I have not read any of those books, I have next to no context into which to place your comment, that's all)

[Exi5tentialist]

I don't think you need any context to be honest. Don't you think any book that says, 'for younger readers' is insulting. From time to time I still get out and read my copy of "A Fly Went By". I love that book, and I'm not exactly a 'beginner', as you'd think reading the reviews.

[Ronja]

Don't you think any book that says, 'for younger readers' is insulting.

No. Don't recall that I ever would have. Then again, writing about books 'for teenagers' was my first "steady" job (as much as a 15-year old can have a steady job), and as my employer had started a magazine about children's and youth literature precisely because he thought they deserved a more serious and focused treatment than short and superficial mentions in the side columns, that may well have influenced my views. He was quite serious about how I wrote, and would not accept platitudes or anything that sounded like cliches or as if I had only skimmed the book I was reviewing. Taught me loads, he did.

Also, I'll most likely keep re-reading The Cat in the Hat and the other dozen or so Dr. Seuss books we have every now and then until the day I drop dead - and Winnie the Pooh, The Wouldbegoods, Anne of Green Gables, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Harry Potter series, and, and, and ...

Great literature and/or enjoyable language / characters / plots do not IME depend on the intended (by the author) or perceived (by e.g. a reviewer) or marketed (by the publisher) "target" reader group.

Admittedly, one of my favorite books is Feynman's "What Do You Care What Other People Think" - which I am also currently re-reading, after just finishing "Knife" and "Rebel" by R. J. Anderson.

Hope the above explains something about why I found your comment so incomprehensible.

[Exi5tentialist]

Great literature and/or enjoyable language / characters / plots do not IME depend on the intended (by the author) or perceived (by e.g. a reviewer) or marketed (by the publisher) "target" reader group.

We are completely in agreement on the fundamentals, I think.