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Showing posts from September, 2012

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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Getting through the last half of this book was a little like trying to finish that second helping of dessert that you really shouldn’t have had. At first it tastes good and you think “Sure, I could eat this every night, that’d be fine”. But soon it stops tasting so good and you have to start sipping water to help it go down. You’ve eaten too much to stop now, though. There’s no point putting what’s left away, there’s not enough left for a decent snack even. So you plough on through, even though you can’t really fit anymore in and it doesn’t taste as good as it did at the start. It’s a shame, but I kind of ruined it for myself by continuing to eat the Holmes-cake instead of stopping when I got full.   I enjoyed the 4 novels the most. I felt that there was a bit more to sink your teeth into. The Hound of the Baskervilles was probably my most favourite. The short stories were good but started to feel a bit formulaic after a while. Introduction by Watson, here’s the initial facts

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

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A book that combines space, military and philosophy? That's got to be a recipe for awesome. I was starting to think I wasn't a true sci-fi fan after all, as I didn't seem to be enjoying all the 'classic' sci-fi books I should be. They felt like a bit of a chore to read and I had a slight sense of dread whenever I was about to start one. I didn't grok Stranger In A Strange Land at all. I didn't really enjoy reading it. It felt more like a job that had to be done. But Starship Troopers - fuck yeah! I was a little hesitant before starting Starship Troopers . I haven't seen the movie but I remember when it came out. I wanted to see it then because, well – space bugs, but I didn't. Years later at the video store when I said “Oh, cool! Starship Troopers, let's get that one. It looked really awesome when I was 12”. The reaction I got was less than favourable. “Yeah, nah, let's not. It's … not good”. So I started with a littl