Jakeyboy on 27/12/2006 at 15:13

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sounds familiar

Carini on 27/12/2006 at 18:00

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I got:

1. Philips Body Groom (draw your own conclusions)
2. Braun hand mixer (this is a great kitchen tool)
3. 8" JA Henckels chef's knife (I can finally chop herbs properly)
4. A watch to wear to work (so I don't ruin my nice watch)

I forgot! I also got a scarf, a belt and a bell for my bike!

Vivian on 27/12/2006 at 19:50

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A pink ukele, a bottle of nice whisky and a collection of HP lovecraft. Rah!

TheGreatGodPan on 30/12/2006 at 06:21

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I already detailed what I got (http://ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1539915#post1539915) earlier, so now it's time for me to give reviews: The first one I read was "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" because I thought it was the shortest and wanted to minimize the number of books I bring back to my dorm. It was really good, though I am surprised Alexander Solzhenitsyn won a Nobel prize for it (how many others did that with their first book?), though that's not as odd as the facts that 1: the Soviet government allowed it to be published (the reason he was in prison was for badmouthing the government) and 2: nothing else by him was permitted to be published by the government. I had finished Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" (a birthday gift) just before I started on ODitLoID and was constantly comparing the latter to the former in my head as I read it. I found the antics of Satan & friends to be very funny, but I didn't really care all that much about the Master, Margarita or Pontius Pilate. In contrast, while there was some gallows humor in the other book I found Sukhov's inner thoughts to be very compelling and spent a good amount of time pondering how at the end he feels pity for Caesar. Also, I've read that Solzhenitsyn is supposed to be a very devout Orthodox Christian, which seems strikingly at odds with what Sukhov says to the baptist Aloysius, so I guess I'll have to read The Gulag Archipelago for that story (but I had already planned on reading about Tolstoy and Doestoevsky's religious awakenings before that, so this will have to wait in line).

The next book I read was "The Stranger", which actually turned out to be a bit shorter than the book I read before it. The reason I got it was because I'm very difficult to shop for, my sister needed to find something for me the day before Christmas and the rest of my family had forgotten which books I had suggested had already been purchased or were unavailable and I had to come up with one off the top of my head. I remembered a british publication had done a poll finding people's favorite books and that the favorite for women was "Pride and Prejudice" (my dad and sis love it, which is why as of now they own three versions of it on dvd), which neither I nor the men polled liked enough to put near any top-list. Operating on the same logic as the fantastic (http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester.php?search=Pride+and+Prejudice) Unsuggester (which I had unfortunately forgotten to consult) I decided on the book men placed first but women don't care for. I don't quite see what the big deal about it is, or the decision the translator droned on about his decision to use the word "Maman". It reminded me somewhat of "Slaughterhouse Five" (in the apathy of the protagonist, although it was not to such an extent) and "Native Son" (MUUUURRRRDER!), though it was significantly better than the latter (bonus points for being short).

I can't give much a review of Storm of Steel because I'm just a little over halfway through it. I like it so far, even though it's essentially an edited diary/journal, a kind of work I haven't been too much into in the past. I guess the lack of World War 1 books just makes it stand out, although Ernst Junger's support for the war amidst all the horror is what really makes it unusual among critically praised modern books. Apparently it is quite a contrast to his countrymen Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" (which it was also more popular than in the interwar years), so I'll have to read that (and, if it a long time before then, Storm of Steel again right after it), but I feel the nagging desire to first go back and get that other famous disillusioned war novel, Catch-22 since I read the first chapter or two a while back and I hate to leave a halfway decent book unfinished.

As long as I'm discussing good creative works and surprise, I'd just like to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying listening to Sam Bush's "Mahavishnu Mountain Boys", Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant's "Stratosphere Boogie" and Joe Maphis' "Fire on the Strings" right now, even though I could never give such praise to any country music a year ago. Thank you, Pandora, to exposing me to such things, and DC++ for enabling my piracy of these songs.

Shayde on 30/12/2006 at 07:21

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My husband bought me a brand new computer, huge flat screen and a graphics card that makes me come a little when I think about it. He's looking for an artist to mod the case for me.

I bought him the X-box 360.

I got the complete box set of "Angel".

I got R500 in book vouchers, I'm going to spend it on an old edition of Faust. Love the smell of old, leather books.

Got Neverwinter Nights 2, Caesar 4 and Warhammer.

My brother got me Harry Potter playing cards \0/

And my mother got me eye cream. Seriously, who in this world can damage your self esteem like a mother?