Book reading - Page 2

DaveinGermany · 16-03-2014, 12:33

A grand total of 11, but it was a crap list!

put some R.A.Salvatore. Terry Brooks. Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien et al & it'd have been a different story.

Less · 16-03-2014, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

A grand total of 11, but it was a crap list!

put some R.A.Salvatore. Terry Brooks. Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien et al & it'd have been a different story.

Totally correct Herr Scouser, had they even included the Janet & John books in their list we would all have scored better.

Mind you if I remember correctly, these middle class children would be in trouble in the park these days as they shout out come here Darky, whilst taking their dog for a walk.

Eric · 16-03-2014, 17:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turtle

No, I think it's probably a Canadianism. I've been over here too long I guess!

You are both more or less right ... "gotten" (which is the past participle of "to get") was common in Middle English ... read some Chaucer and you will come across it all the time. It seems to have passed out of use in British English, a lot like the moribund subjunctive; but is still quite common in North American English. Past participles are used in the perfect tenses, and the "-en" ending can be found still used in many other verbs: "to bite", for example ... "he has bitten off more than he can chew." In British English, numerous past participles have been replaced by the simple past form. English is a lazy, non-inflected language which has divorced itself from the Latinate grammar that would have been familiar to Shakespeare ... not to mention Milton, who uses periodic sentences whose structure would have been familiar to Horace and Juvenal ... and to Dr. Johnson.

I hope that is sufficiently confusing ... and now I'm going to pour another drink and spark one up.

Margaret Pilkington · 16-03-2014, 17:31

And you said it was a short trip across your mind....you lied, you Blaggard!

Less · 16-03-2014, 18:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric

and now I'm going to pour another drink and spark one up.

For goodness sake, the beer I've got, could you post me a sparkler?

Then when Kestral comes on site he can call me a hippycrit.

But will I care?

Eric · 16-03-2014, 18:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

And you said it was a short trip across your mind....you lied, you Blaggard!

Nah ... I just make it up as I go along

And at least I didn't get into gerunds and verbal adjectives ... nor the influence of Anglo-Saxon on Lancashire dialect and place names, considering that present day Lancashire was part of Danelaw. Stuff like the "ing-ton" and "ing-ham" in the names of many communities ... but not "-chester"; that's Roman stuff. And let's not forget "heo"

Ahhh, my second joint is kicking in.

Lots of authors play with language and structures. Orwell's "1984" is perhaps more about language than it is politics. And let's not forget Hopkins who, I believe, taught classics at Stonyhurst College. Joyce is Irish; so, he can be more or less ignored, although he does deal with the development of English in "Ulysses."

I think I've read too much ... time to get either a life, or another beer

... think I'll go for the beer and some gnarly cheese.

Less · 16-03-2014, 18:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric

... think I'll go for the beer and some gnarly cheese.

If you put some of that cheese in the same envelope as the sparkler, no-one will ever know!

Eric · 17-03-2014, 11:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Less

If you put some of that cheese in the same envelope as the sparkler, no-one will ever know!

Brings to mind another book: "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)." Ah, British humour ... nowt like it in any other language, or, to be honest, in all other languages put together. Let's raise a glass to Chaucer

and his fart jokes.

And talking of cheese:

Less · 17-03-2014, 12:03

Ah, yes, good old JKJ, I've thumbed through my Penguin paperback many a time, right up until it was borrowed and never returned.

You may enjoy this series from the BBC if you can get it:-

Griff Rhys Jones, Rory McGrath, Dara O Briain and a dog named Loli
undertake a boating journey down the Thames,
in tribute to the one described in Jerome K. Jerome's similarly-titled book.

Restless · 17-03-2014, 16:33

I got 9

Eric · 17-03-2014, 17:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Less

Ah, yes, good old JKJ, I've thumbed through my Penguin paperback many a time, right up until it was borrowed and never returned.

You may enjoy this series from the BBC if you can get it:-

If anyone else knows what we are yakking on about, we know that they have picked up a fantastic book and made it into Chapter lV

Citizens of the country with by far the world's richest literary heritage are probably more into "Duck Dynasty", "Swamp People", and "Pawn Stars"

Surprizingly, we don't get too many Brit. tv shows over here. The most popular, believe it or not, is "Coronation Street," closely followed by "Dr. Who."