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-- the Dirk Gently books -- -- Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency -- "... I have a memory like a... like a... what are those things you drain rice in? What am I talking about?" -- Professor Urban "Reg" Chronotis This is the first book about the detective Svlad Cjelli, infamously known as Dirk Gently. THE_BOOK -- The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul -- He wondered for a moment what it was like to be a whale. Physically, he thought, he was probably well placed to get some good insights, though whales were better adapted for their lives of gliding about in the vast pelagic blueness than he was for his of struggling up the Pentonville Road traffic in a weary old Jaguar - but what he was thinking of, in fact, was the whales' songs. In the past the whales had been able to sing to each other across whole oceans, even from one ocean to another because sound travels such huge distances underwater. But now, again because of the way in which sound travels, there is no part of the ocean that is not constantly jangling with the hubbub of ships' motors, through which it is now virtually impossible for the whales to hear each other's songs or messages. So fucking what, is pretty much the way that people tend to view this problem, and understandably so, thought Dirk. After all, who wants to hear a bunch of fat fish, oh all right, mammals, burping at each other? But for a moment Dirk had a sense of infinite loss and sadness that somewhere amongst the frenzy of information noise that daily rattled the lives of men he thought he might have heard a few notes that denoted the movements of gods. As he turned north into Islington and began the long haul up past the pizza restaurants and estate agents, he felt almost frantic at the idea of what their lives must now be like. -- Dirk's musing on the gods walking the earth A rather long-winded quote, but also the reason why this book is one of my very favourite ever stories. The idea of gods remaining after we particularly need them to be true anymore really made me almost worried for their fate. Where did Thor go, and what happened to the gods of Olympus now no one believes in them? To paraphrase Kate's feeling about the park, I came away from this book with a very profound sense of something or other. The second story about the holistic detective Dirk Gently. In this one, Dirk's investigating the spontaneous explosion of an airline check-in desk, which has been designated as an act of god. This would have to be my favourite Douglas Adams book. It's very well written. The plot is complex, and so many little things which seem unrelated all end up being tremendously important. The typical Douglas Adams humour is good, but the themes are what I liked best. If you haven't read this book, you should go and read it now. -- the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- -- the Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, that you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. "Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing. -- the now legendary guide, on "Babel fish" ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe -- "I'm a pretty dangerous dude when I'm cornered!" "Yeah," said a voice from under the table, "you go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel." -- Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Life, The Universe, and Everything -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Mostly Harmless -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Chronicles of Prydain -- -- the Book of Three -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION A story set in the imaginary world of Prydain. It's about a boy named Taran, who was an orphan raised by a wizard named Dallben. There are five separate stories which show Taran growing up and eventually defeating the evil Arawn. Disney made a cartoon, The Black Cauldron, which was based on the first and second books in the series. Unfortunately, it was given to typical Disney treatment (that is, watered down, sugared and caramelised) until all of the things which made the novel work made the movie suck. This is why I don't like Disney. -- The Black Cauldron -- "That's like wondering whether to scratch your head when a boulder's about to fall on it." -- Princess Eilonwy ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Castle of Llyr -- 'Tremble!' the quavering voice cried again. 'You shall tremble!' 'Great Belin!' muttered the bard, who was indeed shaking so much he had almost dropped his blade. 'I don't need to be told!' The giant bent, shaded his white eyes against the light of the bauble, and peered at the companions. 'Are you really trembling?' he asked in an anxious voice. 'You're not doing it just to be obliging?' -- the companions meet Glew ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Taran Wanderer -- 'I've heard men complain of doing woman's work, and women complain of doing man's work,' ... ' but I've never heard the work complain of who did it, so long as it got done!' -- Dwyvach the weaver ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The High King -- 'Did I shout for victory today?' he whispered hoarsely. 'Small comfort to folk who once befriended me. Have I served them well? The blood of Merin is on my ahnds.' Later, Llassar spoke apart with Coll. 'The Wanderer has not stirred from the potter's hut,' the shepherd murmured. 'It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound. But he who leads bears the woulds of all who follow him.' -- following the burning of Commot Merin ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Star Wars: X-Wing -- -- Wraith Squadron -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Iron Fist -- "That's what I like to hear. Acknowledgement of my superoior intellect along with a desire to hurt someone else very badly. It's a good day for me." -- Ton Phanan ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Solo Command -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Starfighters of Adumar -- They reached the street. Wedge was struck sideways by a blast of intense light; he stumbled, threw up his sleeve to block the glare. "Sithspit! What's that?" "That's the sun, Wedge. It's after dawn." "Well, it offends me. Turn it off." "It's a hundred thirty, hundred forty million klicks from here." "Go up in your X-wing and shoot it down for me." -- Wedge and Janson after a late night ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Alice books -- -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Through the Looking-Glass -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Dark is Rising sequence -- -- Over Sea, Under Stone -- 'You remember the fairy stories you were told when you were very small - "once upon a time..." Why do you think they always began like that?' 'Because they weren't true,' Simon said promptly. Jane said, caught up in the unreality of the high remote place, 'Because perhaps they were true once, but nobody could remember when.' Great-Uncle Merry turned his head and smiled at her. 'That's right. Once upon a time... a long time ago... things that happened once, perhaps, but have been talked about for so long that nobody really knows. And underneath all the bits that people have added, the magic swords and lamps, they're all about one thing - the good hero fighting the giant, or the witch, or the wicked uncle. Good against bad. Good against evil.' -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Dark Is Rising -- [..] Paul jumped up instinctively, his head turning, questing. 'It's gone!' he said. He looked at Will, and a peculiar expression of puzzlement and wonder and awe came over his face. His eyes travelled down to the belt in Will's hands. 'What happened?' he said. The rector stood up, his smooth, plump face creased in an effort to make sense of the incomprehensible. 'Certainly it has gone,' he said, looking slowly round the church. 'Whatever - influence it was. The Lord be praised.' He too looked at the Signs on Will's belt, and he glanced up again, smiling suddenly, an almost childish smile of relief and delight. 'That did the work, didn't it? The cross. Not of the church, but a Christian cross nonetheless.' 'Very old, them crosses are, rector,' said Old George unexpectedly, firm and clear. 'Made a long time before Christianity. Long before Christ.' The rector beamed at him. 'But not before God,' he said simply. The Old Ones looked at him. There was no answer that would not have offended him, so no one tried to give one. Except, after a moment, Will. 'There's not really any before and after, is there?' he said. 'Everything that matters is outside Time. And comes from there and can go there.' Mr Beaumont turned to him in surprise. 'You mean infinity, of course, my boy.' 'Not altogether,' said the Old One that was Will. 'I mean the part of all of us, and of all the things we think and believe, that has nothign to do with yesterday or tomorrow because it belongs at a different kind of level. Yesterday is still there, on that level. Tomorrow is there too. You can visit either of them. And all Gods are there, and all the things they have ever stood for. And,' he added sadly, 'the opposite, too.' 'Will,' said the rector, staring at him, 'I am not sure whether you should be exorcized or ordained. You and I must have some long talks, very soon.' -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Greenwitch -- Jane giggled. 'Come on in, look at the Grey House over there. I wonder if we'll meet Captain Thing, the one Gummerry rented it from?' 'Toms,' Barney said. 'Captain Toms. And I want to see Rufus, I hope he remembers me. Dogs do have good memories, don't they?' 'Try walking through Captain Toms' door and you'll find out,' said Simon. 'If Rufus bites you, dogs don't have good memories.' 'Very funny.' -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Grey King -- 'Never fear, boy. The High Magic would never take your dog from you. Certainly the Old Ones would not either, and the Dark might try but would not succeed. He leaned forward suddenly, so that for an instant the strong, bearded face was clear; the voice softened, and there was an aching sadness in it. 'Only the creatures of the earth take from one another, boy. All creatures, but men more than any. Life they take, and liberty, and all that another man may have - sometimes through greed, sometimes through stupidity, but never by any volition but their own. Beware your own race, Bran Davies - they are the only ones that will ever harm you, in the end.' -- DESCRIPTION Will Stanton goes to stay with his relatives in Wales, becuase he is recovering from a severe illness. When there, he meets the strange albino boy, Bran Davies. THE_BOOK -- Silver on the Tree -- Owain said, bitterly, 'The Norman rides always on the back of the Drake, as the Saxon did, and the Dane.' Barney said unhappily, 'And I'm all of those things mixed up, I suppose. Norman and Anglo-Saxon and Dane.' 'In what century?' Glyndwr said, pausing to stare up ahead at the mountain. 'The twentieth,' said Barney. The Welshman stopped very still for a moment. He looked at Will. Will nodded. 'Iesu mawr,' Glyndwr said; then he smiled. 'If the Circle spreads that far forward, it is not so bad to find failure here, for a time. Until the last summoning of the Circle, outside all Time.' He looked down at Barney. 'No worry about your race, boy. Time changes the nature of them all, in the end.' -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Smoke and Mirrors -- Avaunt, foul beast, I said. He stared at me with eyes that glittered like two crack pipes. Avaunt? Shit, boy. Who's going to make me? Me, I quipped. I am. I'm one of the avaunt guard. -- Lawrence Talbot, "Bay Wolf" ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Stardust -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION This is a really pretty fantasy story. Nice and simplistic, but very very good nonetheless. It's a fairy tale, with something about it that reminds me of stories I read when I was a child, except that it's a little darker than a real child's story would be, with witches and murder and the like. THE_BOOK -- the Sandman -- -- Preludes and Nocturnes -- DEMON: Bbz. Here, dream master. Thisz isz your helmet. You have won it fairly. Take it. MORPHEUS: I thank you. The kings of Hell are honorable. I will remember this. LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR: Honorable? You joke, surely. Look around you, Morpheus. The million lords of hell stand arrayed about you. Tell us why we should let you leave? Helmet or no, you have no power here - - what power have dreams in hell? MORPHEUS: You say I have no power? Perhaps you speak truly... But - - you say that DREAMS have no power here? Tell me, Lucifer Morningstar... Ask yourselves, all of you... What power would HELL have if those here imprisoned were NOT able to DREAM of HEAVEN? -- "A Hope In Hell" ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Doll's House -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Dream Country -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Season of Mists -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- A Game of You -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Fables and Reflections -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Brief Lives -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- World's End -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Kindly Ones -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Wake -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Death: The High Cost of Living -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Chronicles of Narnia -- -- The Magician's Nephew -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION Some relative gave me the Magician's Nephew for my sixth birthday, and I've loved them since then. The Horse and His Boy is the best one. It's funny. But they're all good, and I would recommend them to any age. THE_BOOK -- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Horse and His Boy -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Prince Caspian -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Voyage of the Dawntreader -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Silver Chair -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Last Battle -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Space trilogy -- -- Out of the Silent Planet -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Perelandra -- My fear was now of another kind. I felt sure that the creature was what we call "good," but I wasn't sure whether I liked "goodness" so much as I had supposed. This is a very terrible experience. As long as what you are afraid of is something evil, you may still hope that the good will come to your rescue. But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it is also dreadful? How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can't eat, and home the very place you can't live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable? Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played. -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- That Hideous Strength -- Ransom shook his head. "You do not understand," he said. "The poison was brewed in these West lands but it has spat itself everywhere by now. However far you went you would find the machines, the crowded cities, the empty thrones, the false writings, the barren beds: men maddened with false promises and soured with true miseries, worshipping the iron works of their own hands, cut off from Earth their mother and from the Father in Heaven. You might go East so far that East became West and you returned to Britain, but even so you would not have come out anywhere into the light. The shadow of one dark wing is all over Tellus." -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Snow Spider trilogy -- -- the Snow Spider -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION The quintessential boy magician versus the evil prince. The three books are based heavily on Welsh mythology, but are set in the late twentieth century. I think that the second book, Emlyn's Moon, is the best one. THE_BOOK -- Emlyn's Moon -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Chestnut Soldier -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman) -- They'd been brought up to it and weren't, when you got right down to it, particularly evil. Human beings mostly aren't. They just get carried away by new ideas, like dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in white sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and playing guitars at people. Offer people a new creed with a costume and their hearts and minds will follow. -- on the topic of the Satanist nuns A story about how the world's going to end and we're all going to die. A brilliant combination of Terry Pratchett's humour and Neil Gaiman's darkness. Aziraphale (an angel) and Crowley ("an angel who did not so much fall as saunter vaguely downwards") are agents of Heaven and Hell respectively. THE_BOOK -- the Discworld books -- 'Is it true that your life passes before your eyes before you die?' YES. 'Ghastly thought, really.' Rincewind shuddered. 'Oh, gods, I've just had another one. Suppose I am just about to die and this is my whole life passing in front of my eyes?' I THINK PERHAPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE'S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE PROCESS IS CALLED 'LIVING'. WOULD YOU LIKE A PRAWN? -- Death and Rincewind in The Last Continent Er, Death's not shouting in that quote above. He just talks in upper case letters. There are so many Discworld books that I have to write about them in sections. I like the Death books best, followed closely by the Guards books and then the Rincewind ones. The witches ones are also very good. Death is my favourite character on the Discworld (followed quite closely by the Patrician, Lord Vetinari). THE_BOOK -- His Dark Materials -- -- Northern Lights -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Subtle Knife -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Amber Spyglass -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Sally Lockhart novels -- -- The Ruby in the Smoke -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- TITLE(REMOVEIF...) -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Tiger in the Well -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- The Tin Princess -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Rowan books -- -- Rowan of Rin -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Rowan and the Travellers -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Rowan and the Zebak -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Harry Potter books -- -- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone -- 'And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?' 'Throw it away and punch him on the nose,' Ron suggested. -- -- The finer points of wizard duelling ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- A Series of Unfortunate Events -- -- the Bad Beginning -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION As the title suggests, this is indeed a bad beginning. The Baudelaire children - Violet, Klaus and Sunny - are at the beach, when a tall stranger by the name of Mr Poe approaches them and tells them that their parents have perished in a fire. THE_BOOK -- the Reptile Room -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- TITLE(REMOVEIF...) -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Vile Village -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- the Hostile Hospital -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Star Wars -- -- I, Jedi -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION My favourite Star Wars book. It's the story of Jedi Knight Corran Horn rescuing his kidnapped wife Mirax. I like this book, because it has a sense of humour about it. The hero's imperfect in ways that can be understood, unlike some characters in other books who never seem to make mistakes. The use of first person is also interesting, and it gives the book a more personal perspective on events than the third person approach does. Mike Stackpole is my favourite Star Wars author. He wrote the five of the X-Wing series, scripted the Rogue Squadron comics, and wrote the Dark Tide duology for the New Jedi Order series. All of these books are pretty good. THE_BOOK -- X-Wing: Rogue Squadron graphic novels -- -- In The Empire's Service -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Blood and Honor -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Masquerade -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- Mandatory Retirement -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK -- AUTHOR -- -- SERIES -- -- TITLE -- QUOTE -- DESCRIPTION ABOUT... THE_BOOK Crystal Lee Cooper - http://zap.to/strawberryfields/