Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Akigagak]

Hmm, then it seems the name was dumbed down for the American market. : /

Not the first time it's happened.

But yes, it's really called Northern Lights. The American title doesn't make any sense, since the Alethiometer, while gold, is not a compass. And while it doesn't fit with the naming conventions of the other two books, IIRC that was because Pullman was unsure if it was going to be a trilogy when he started.

[Solifuge]

While I think this thread is a fine place to talk about what we've been reading ("Teach Like a Champion." Really good book about useful teaching techniques. Also, some Ruby books. Not exactly literature) I'm disappointed its not really resulted in the whole "everyone reads a book and discusses it thing".

I really like that thing.

So I was thinking while this thread serves its purpose admirably, we should occasionally split off a thread on a single book (or even collection of short stories or something!), agreed upon here, to discuss more in depth.

Mostly because I need a reason to read something I wouldn't normally read.

I was saying the same, along with some others. I believe the president of the Book Club is waiting for a sign though. I still propose Terry Pratchet's "Nation", and would be happy to hear other suggestions as well! I've also been itching to sit down and read "Don Quixote" now that I'd get it.

[Vector]

For some time during the pre-publication process, the series of novels was known as The Golden Compasses. The word Compasses referred to a pair of compasses—the circle-drawing instrument—rather than a navigational compass. Pullman then settled on Northern Lights as the title for the first book, and continued to refer to the trilogy as The Golden Compasses. Like the eventual title for the trilogy, the original title The Golden Compasses comes from a line in Milton's Paradise Lost.[1]

In the United States, in their discussions over the publication of the first book, the publishers Alfred A. Knopf had been calling it The Golden Compass (omitting the plural), which they mistakenly believed referred to Lyra's alethiometer, because the device superficially resembles a navigational compass. Meanwhile, in the UK, Pullman had replaced The Golden Compasses with His Dark Materials as the title of the trilogy. According to Pullman, the publishers had become so attached to The Golden Compass that they insisted on publishing the U.S. edition of the first book under that title, rather than as Northern Lights, the title used in the UK and Australia

Interesting... that's an odd progression of ideas.

I've also been itching to sit down and read "Don Quixote" now that I'd get it.

This works for me!  I started it recently.

[GlyphGryph]

Thats really really long, though...

[ToonyMan]

I finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Not really sure what to say, some parts were funny while others were impossible to comprehend.  It also had a lot of like religious references tucked away in there, hehehe.  Overall good I suppose, just not something I would be interested in a whole lot.

[Virex]

This reminds me that I've still got to finish "De geheime Newton" (The secret Newton) before Vector finds me and forces me to translate it


anyway, If you like historical romans I'd suggest anything by Monaldi and Sorti, preferably starting with Imprimatur. It's probably one of the few cases in which someone decided to turn a historical thesis into a novel and make it a best seller.

[Aqizzar]

I read The Golden Compass for a class when I was twelve, and followed it with The Subtle Knife or whatever the sequel was a year later.  I don't remember why exactly, because I don't remember really enjoying the first one.  It was a good book I guess, but... I don't want to call it impenetrable, but there were just so many different "look how clever I am in slightly altering this worn-out fantasy idea" elements that I lost track of what was actually happening.

I don't have a problem with traditional fantasy.  I like nontraditional fantasy.  But when you take a bunch of traditional fantasy ideas, and try to load so many quirks onto them that they seem different while still being largely the same, it feels more like I'm reading the author's ego than a story, and I don't know what different parts of the story are supposed to be doing.  I caught the movie adaption a while ago, and with big chunks of the plot removed, it was just a colorful pastiche of teen-fantasy and anti-establishment imagery.  Which, looking back on it, sums up my take on the story, even if my younger self didn't grasp the concept yet.

_{That's right, I am retroactively cynical about a book I barely remember reading.  Deal with it.}

[ToonyMan]

I read like half of The Golden Compass before going, "What is this crap."

[ChairmanPoo]

Bah, Golden Compass was ok

(meaning that I didn't find it particularily brilliant, but it was entertaining enough.

There was, now that I think about it, a certain feeling of forced trope subversions, on the line of what Aquizzar said)

[Lordinquisitor]

Ah, a book club? I`ve always wanted to know peoples opinion on Battle Royale.

In my opinion it`s one of the best written books ever. Full of interesting characters and gore.

[Realmfighter]

I read like half of The Golden Compass before going, "What is this crap."

WHEELPHANTS

[Vector]

Ah, a book club? I`ve always wanted to know peoples opinion on Battle Royale.

In my opinion it`s one of the best written books ever. Full of interesting characters and gore.

Absolutely loved it, though I seem to remember freaking out extensively in various bits because I read it at the tender young age of 14.  Interesting characters, very Japanese story-telling, wonderful plot.

If you like Japanese novels, though, have you tried any Murakami?  I haven't read much of his, but The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is very, very good.  A bit more sexual than I really wanted to read, but still extremely well-done.

[Willfor]

I am 148 pages into Fools Fate by Robin Hobb. Last book of the three completed trilogies, it has been a long road to get here. And there are still more books to go. And I seem to read them entirely too fast for how big they are. 

[ChairmanPoo]

I didn't like those books (that is, the Tawny Man trilogy). I found them very wanting when compared to the first one.

[GlyphGryph]

I never read the book, but the Battle Royale movie was amazing. How similiar were they?