Desert Island Books.

[Gary the Enfield]

Without getting sniffy about it.....

The books are so complex in terms of storytelling there's no way they could ever transfer to film. They had to condense so nuch that a lot was lost.

Peter Jackson made a reasonable fist of it, but the books bear no relation to the film. As usual.

Plus, Sean Bean is a cock.

I have read the books many times and did enjoy the films (far better than some earlier attempts) but Gary is correct (never thought I'd say that) - they cannot be transferred adequately to film. Not sure I agree about Sean - I mean he beat the French in Spain practically singlehandedly.

you mean you've missed that age-old Monty/GtE rivalry????

Obviously.

[americantrotter]

They do, unfortunately that particular one isn't !
Dean Koontz books as well are good for holidays - maybe not a desert island though

Haven't read it meself. Read most of Grishams. Steer clear of his "non legal" ones though.

Michael Connelly is ace for hols too!

I do like Connelly's stuff. Have quite a few on my kindle. For Grisham I prefer the street Lawyer. I actually like his non legal stuff. (Fiction) Loved a Painted House, Playing for Pizza, and that high school reunion one.

[BWFC_Insane]

I like Coupland as well for holiday pick up and read books.....

[Montreal Wanderer]

I have recently discovered I can put some 2,000 books on my e-reader so I suppose I would take that, a generator and a lot of fuel.

ereaders are cool, I have one.

Do you know any good sites for downloading books?

Actually, no. I give a list of books I want to one of my kids and s/he pops round and installs them. The same thing happens with movies and tv shows. TBH I don't inquire too closely as I don't think I want to know the source. Just in case, you understand.

[BWFC_Insane]

I have recently discovered I can put some 2,000 books on my e-reader so I suppose I would take that, a generator and a lot of fuel.

ereaders are cool, I have one.

Do you know any good sites for downloading books?

Actually, no. I give a list of books I want to one of my kids and s/he pops round and installs them. The same thing happens with movies and tv shows. TBH I don't inquire too closely as I don't think I want to know the source. Just in case, you understand.

And surely it would depend what type of e-reader you've got?

Mines a kindle so you know, amazon, is the only place I can go.....

[Puskas]

Out-of-copyright e-books can be found at the Gutenerg project:
http://www.gutenberg.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For e-book management, including conversion between (non-copyrighted, obviously) formats - try calibre. That's quite nice.

[thebish]

Out-of-copyright e-books can be found at the Gutenerg project:
http://www.gutenberg.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For e-book management, including conversion between (non-copyrighted, obviously) formats - try calibre. That's quite nice.

isn't that the Lawrie MacMenamie-advertised lager - with all the lager taken out?

[Puskas]

Out-of-copyright e-books can be found at the Gutenerg project:
http://www.gutenberg.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For e-book management, including conversion between (non-copyrighted, obviously) formats - try calibre. That's quite nice.

isn't that the Lawrie MacMenamie-advertised lager - with all the lager taken out?

No.

That's not quite nice.

[thebish]

I have recently discovered I can put some 2,000 books on my e-reader so I suppose I would take that, a generator and a lot of fuel.

ereaders are cool, I have one.

Do you know any good sites for downloading books?

Actually, no. I give a list of books I want to one of my kids and s/he pops round and installs them. The same thing happens with movies and tv shows. TBH I don't inquire too closely as I don't think I want to know the source. Just in case, you understand.

And surely it would depend what type of e-reader you've got?

Mines a kindle so you know, amazon, is the only place I can go.....

not quite - the kindle will also read PDFs... and there are books floating around in pdf form...

also, many libraries now do e-books - but in the epub format. I personally don't think it is outrageously evil to borrow an epub book from a library and convert it to mobi in order to read it. that's surely the same as me borrowing a book from the library and letting someone else read it... to do that, of course, depending on the library, you might have to accidentally run it through some kind of programme to strip the library's protective time-limited code from it...

[Montreal Wanderer]

I have recently discovered I can put some 2,000 books on my e-reader so I suppose I would take that, a generator and a lot of fuel.

ereaders are cool, I have one.

Do you know any good sites for downloading books?

Actually, no. I give a list of books I want to one of my kids and s/he pops round and installs them. The same thing happens with movies and tv shows. TBH I don't inquire too closely as I don't think I want to know the source. Just in case, you understand.

And surely it would depend what type of e-reader you've got?

Mines a kindle so you know, amazon, is the only place I can go.....

As noted I'm not too savvy on these things. I have a Kobo my daughter gave me when she upgraded. I think she just gets .pdf files and bungs them in. It is quite a small neat e-reader which fits easily in the pocket. Some were certainly from Project Guttenberg (and the scanning was not always too good) - for these you initially have to wade through pages of license stuff.

[Jakerbeef]

I have recently discovered I can put some 2,000 books on my e-reader so I suppose I would take that, a generator and a lot of fuel.

ereaders are cool, I have one.

Do you know any good sites for downloading books?

Actually, no. I give a list of books I want to one of my kids and s/he pops round and installs them. The same thing happens with movies and tv shows. TBH I don't inquire too closely as I don't think I want to know the source. Just in case, you understand.

And surely it would depend what type of e-reader you've got?

Mines a kindle so you know, amazon, is the only place I can go.....

Well, not the only place...

[Bijou Bob]

[quote="Prufrock"]Is The Bible really a hell of a book?

CUlturally important to our society, yes. In a literary sense, in a similar vein to plenty of classics, but just not as good. Ovid's Metamorphoses, all the cool stuff of the Bible, better written, and way less preachy! Imagine the self loathing after a good desert island bout of onanism!Anyway, My desert island book and luxury are always the same.

Self loathing???????? You sir, have issues

[Worthy4England]

I've always found not reading fiction a bit of a headscratcher. Lack of imagination? Or maybe they think we have too much of it.

I did talk to someone once who said he couldn't see the point in fiction. Barely watched fictional films either. He needed some kind of historical reference to keep him interested.

Certainly it's better than my dad's approach. He's only read one book for fun in his entire life. Makes Christmas shopping a bit difficult...

I'm a lot like your pal, Jakerbeef. Even the last two novels I read (and I think I've read no more than five) one was To Kill a Mockingbird which is pretty much autobiographical, and therefore believable, and the other one was Found Wanting by Robert Goddard, and that is based around what is known of Anna Anderson's claim to be Princess Anastasia.

I can see the logic to it. I've always had my head too far in the clouds to do much grounded reading. If I'm interested in the topic I'll devour it though.

For better or worse books like Harry Potter, Twilight and the Game of Thrones/Lotr adaptations are pushing fantastical stuff into the mainstream, which is fine by me. Pratchett and Gemmell novels were a bit of a dirty secret when I was younger.
Which is a shame as Pratchett should be lauded for what he's achieved and has written some genuinely great novels. But he's populist and writes about witches and stuff so he'll always be 'niche'.

You wanted to try getting Chronicles of Thomas Covenant in the late 70's early 80's. The seller used to look round the shop, before reaching past Escort Readers Wives and back editions of under the counter Hustler, before getting to the book requested.

[Worthy4England]

I have recently discovered I can put some 2,000 books on my e-reader so I suppose I would take that, a generator and a lot of fuel.

ereaders are cool, I have one.

Do you know any good sites for downloading books?

Actually, no. I give a list of books I want to one of my kids and s/he pops round and installs them. The same thing happens with movies and tv shows. TBH I don't inquire too closely as I don't think I want to know the source. Just in case, you understand.

And surely it would depend what type of e-reader you've got?

Mines a kindle so you know, amazon, is the only place I can go.....

Not at all, you can go lots of places, and use a converter such as

http://calibre-ebook.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;