How nerdy are you?This week Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died. A whole generation of pasty dice-obsessed nerds owes him big time. Me included.
So, in his honour, how nerdy were you? Are you still sunlight-averse? What are the sad little things you do that nobody else understands?
As an example, a B3ta regular who shall remain nameless told us, "I spent an entire school summer holiday getting my BBC Model B computer to produce filthy stories from an extensive database of names, nouns, adjectives, stock phrases and deviant sexual practices. It revolutionised the porn magazine dirty letter writing industry for ever.
Revel in your own nerdiness.
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chthonic, Thu 6 Mar 2008, 10:32)
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Lord of the RingsI'd be delighted if someone could give me a good reason why I should attempt to read this albatross of English writing. People foam on about it endlessly and I just can't see why.
The case against:
1) It's a kids' book. Let kids read it if they want to.
2) For adults, the whole concept is infantile (Dildo fucking Baggins!? Just the name makes me think of the nursery)
3) I saw a clip of one of the films and there was a walking, talking tree - with a face. Enough said.
(, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 9:33, 12 replies)
I'd like to pass on what Terry Partchet said about itIf you are a teenage boy and LOTR isn't the most fantastic book you have ever read then there's something wrong with you, if however you an adult and LOTR is the the most fantastic book you have ever read then there's something wrong with you
(, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 9:48, closed)
I read it in my twentieswhen I was in bed with chickenpox for a fortnight (it's a bastard when you don't get it as a kid!)
I have to say it went on a bit, and it's no Harlan Coben.
Unusually, the films were much better than the books IMO. They spent more time on the fight scenes, whereas the book spends a huge number of pages on the journey and the battles are over in minutes.
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K2k6 has a proper job these days, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 9:48,
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.Don't bother, anything by tolken will put you to sleep. It's like reading bloody Dickens.
(, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 9:49, closed)
It's not a kids bookThe Hobbit is, LOTR isn't and The Silmarillion certainly isn't.
It's also worth bearing in mind that LOTR starts rather badly and changes writing style and pace a few chapters in.
Overall it isn't the best fantasy book out there - however it was the first fantasy book of note.
It's worth reading but there are definite flaws : character interaction is sub par, some characters are rather one dimensional, the pace is inconsistent and the books would have been improved with some editing.
(, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 9:52, closed)
!But it's MAGICAL!
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whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 9:57,
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It's a perfectly good book, and entertaining if read as a child or an adultbut to be fair, it just doesn't sound up your street - yes it does have talking trees, yes there are wizards and magic and elves - so it's probably not the book for you. Which is fair enough; if everyone liked exactly the same books, the world would be a pretty boring place.
I think it's excellent however, but as with so many things in life, ymmv
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LemonEntryMyDearWatson This time, Moriarty, the hand is on the other foot, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 10:02,
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You do like kicking off a discussion...Don't you Frank?
May I suggest 'Reasons why Star Wars is shite', and 'All trekkies are gay' for your next posts.
:)
(, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 10:09, closed)
^agrees^*Is inspired to wrote anti-LOTR post*
*does so*
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 10:22,
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It's not really a kid's book.I can't really imagine any kids having the stamina to read the whole thing. It's immense and wordy, just the way I like my books.
One good reason to read it: so you can be slightly more informed about what the book is actually about, when you make outlandish statements designed to provoke people into arguments.
The character is called *Bilbo* Baggins, and as a linguist, Tolkien most probably chose this name to indicate the character's jovial nature and rural background, in the same way that the evil baddie is called Sauron, because this sounds like something horned and angry.
They don't just throw these things together, you know.
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St3cks, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 10:29,
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lotrMy mate went into the cinema to see LOTR and came out about 10 minutes later, furious.
"It started off OK", he said, "then I noticed that the bloke had hooves. Its fuckin' sick I'm not having it".
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browser still relating boring anecdotes into a void on, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 10:54,
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@ St3cksThat's us told then.
Note to self: *Bilbo*, not Dildo
(, Fri 7 Mar 2008, 15:21, closed)
It's a 'classic' in the sense that it'sa book that everybody wants have read but nobody wants to read, because it's quite frankly plodding at times. The Silmarillion was ten times worse though; far rather read some Herodotus.
I'll take George R.R. Martin or Robin Hobb over Tolkein any day.
(, Tue 11 Mar 2008, 20:09, closed)
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