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Fiction - General
by noodlesandwich When I was a little girl I used to love listening to ghost stories, that is, up until Halloween 1978 when I ended up in the middle of one. Whether the date had anything to do with what happened I'll never know, although many people believe that at this time the dead are able to cross into the world of the living. Maybe they can also take ... us back with them. It was half term and I was walking up the road by the local playing fields with my mate Paul. We were looking forward to that night when a few of the local kids were coming round to my house for 'bob apple' and general fun and games, we didn't know about trick or treat in those days. The twins Jimmy and John Roberts were up there kicking a ball about. "It's the sissy boy!" Yelled Jimmy, " Out playing with the girlies again?". They were always having a go at Paul because he wasn't interested in football and often hung around with girls. He was quite scared of the twins who had a reputation for being hard, but you'd never get him to admit it. He went a bit red in the face and walked on, ignoring them, hands in pockets. Jimmy started shouting more abuse at him. "Get lost!" I shouted, at which Jimmy booted their football toward me, I dodged, but it hit Paul smack on the side of his head. The twins howled, but Paul had grabbed the ball and started to run. It was the only time I ever saw him do anything that approached fighting back. I legged it after him with the twins following and shouting at us. 'Quick! Into the C.A!', I shouted and he took a right into the grounds of the derelict building where we knew of a good hiding place. Attached to the side of the old Community Association building was a tunnel at basement level. We'd been down there before with a few others, it got narrower and lower the further you went in until it became pitch black and you couldn't see any further. We had no idea what it was for, but we used to dare each other to go further in in. No-one had gone much past the point where you had to start crawling. Today though there was no stopping Paul, and I followed him in without thinking. We could hear the twins swearing loudly behind us as they stumbled over bits of brick and rubbish. "You won't get away now" shouted Jimmy, 'The sissys gonna get a hiding', laughed John, I could hear the glee in his voice and was cursing myself for being so stupid as to suggest coming down here. We were trapped. The light which came through holes in the roof was behind us now and I could barely see. I could just make out the bottom of Pauls white trainers as he got down onto his hands and knees and started shuffling further and further into the darkness. We kept going in silence, keeping our energy for getting as far away from the twins as we could. The football had been dropped at the tunnel entrance and I hoped that meant the twins would give up. I was concentrating so hard on just moving in this tiny space that it took me a few minutes to realise I couldn't hear Paul moving any more. I shouted his name but he didn't answer. I strained my eyes but I couldn't see at all, and it was very, very quiet. Then I heard a low whisper, it sounded like a girls voice; 'you came back!'. I'm ashamed to admit I got out of there with as much speed as I could. At the entrance, the twins were waiting. They didn't believe me at first and were determined to wait for Paul to come back out. I ran home to get help, but it was too late. The emergency services ended up pulling the tunnel apart and our village was on the tv news for a few days until they lost interest and went on to cover the next story. No trace of Paul was ever found. And no trace of whoever it was that whispered in the darkness; 'you came back'. Read the complete review |
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Non Fiction - General
by Themaddog74 My mum is a member of Omegatrend, a fast growing network organisation in Australia. It has also spread to other countries in Asia and is being established in the US. Personality Plus is one of the books on Omegatrend's reading list. My mum has read it and she enjoyed it so much and got so much knowledge out of it that she sent me a ... copy of it. I have only read half of it so far, but i love it so much that am recommending it. Florence Littauer, the author and her husband conduct marriage seminars, and personality conferences throughout the US. The book does not appear to have been written from a researcher's perspective, it appears to be writen more form the author's personal experience, which is what makes this book so enjoyable. Florence Littauer has divided people's personalitys into 4 categories. At the beginning of the book she has provided a personality scoring / profile test which you need to complete in order to get the most out of the book. At the end of this test, you add up all of the scores you have given yourself under the each personality, and you can tell which personality you have. Your scoring will be highest in one or 2 personalities and these are your dominant personality types. You have to be honest in this test, otherwise there is no point in reading on. Florence Littauer examines each personality type, looking at emotions, strengths and weaknesses. The aim of the book is to teach people how to understand different people's personalitys as well as your own and improve your relationships with others and achieve your potential. What makes this book interesting and fun to read, compared to other boring psychology / personality books that I had to read when I was at university is that the book is written from a real life perspective. There are amusing anecdotes in the story which people are able to relate to. While reading a section last night covering my personality, I found myself laughing at myself from the outside. I also learned something about myself that will help me relate better to others - Not everyone wants to hear the long version of a story. The four personalities are listed below with a statement from the book relating to them. Melancholy - Whether at home orat work, I keep everything organised and in it's place. Plegmatic - It's hard for me to express excitement about something, even when it's really important to me. Sanguine - When I am shopping, it's not unusual for me to forget where I parked the car. Choleric - I get annoyed when people don't follow my instructions to the letter. Which personality do you relate most to? If you work in a profession where you have to deal with people alot, or you want to improve relationships with other people, I would strongly recommend you track down this book and get it. It's not a boring text book, actually it is sold as a paperback. The ISBN is 0-8007-5445-X For more informatiohn on Florence Littauer look at - www.classervices.com/FlorenceLittauer.html or - www.peoplesuccess.com/littauer.htm or simply typre Florence Littauer into a search engine and it will come up with loads of sites related to her and her work. Read the complete review |
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Fiction - General
by proxam THE GOOD SOLDIER SVEJK did not come to enjoy the same success as some other novels about World War I, probably because the style of the book is not really dark and sombre. In my opinion though, it's every bit as valid as All Quiet on the Western Front, and is in no way inferior just because it is not a tear-jerker. Hasek's satire, and ... his use of double-entendre is quite simply masterful. This book is one of the classics of literature that sprang from the blood-fertilized killing-grounds of WW1. But it's a war book with a twist. It's profoundly funny - hilarious in fact - an anti-war novel that haplessly wanders throughout the old Austro-Hungarian Empire without getting anywhere near the Russian front. Unlike Remarque's book, Hasek's novel views the war as an absurd event, a colossal stupidity as seen through the eyes of a colossally stupid man. * The Plot * What plot? This isn't a book with a beginning middle and end. It's a rambling journey of pointless little stories that are told to illustrate examples of whatever situation our hero finds himself in - of course, they never do. The story begins with Svejk, a citizen of Prague, being drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army on the eve of WWI. It then goes on to document his excruciatingly delayed arrival at the Eastern Front and his farcical capture by his own side. This is not an epic tale of the death of an Empire, but a collection of satirical anecdotes about the Austrian army, and life in the Austro-Hungarian empire during WW1. It follows our hero through the trials and tribulations of being prosecuted for treason, confined for idiocy, being treated for simulati ng arthritis, nursing the hangovers of a debauched Jewish-Catholic army chaplain, stealing dogs* while batman to an officer with a passion for expensive pets, and eventually going to the front lines as a soldier in the Austrian army. * According to Svejk, "the best time to steal a dog is when it is attending to it's larger toilet needs. Dogs are well aware that this is the most dangerous time for them, the most likely time to be stolen. That's why a dog, when doing it's business, will continually look around nervously with that apprehensive expression on it's stupid face." Svejk's particular trait is a tendency to misinterpret orders, or rather to interpret them far too literally, whilst attempting to please his superior officers to the extent that it infuriates them. He seems completely obtuse, doing everything with his customary blank expression of stupidity. All the while, and at every single conceivable opportunity, he recounts wandering anecdotes that, although they simply go nowhere, are usually laugh-out-loud funny. (It has been estimated that there are around 200 such stories interwoven throughout the novel). Svejk is a happy-go-lucky drunk and a joker, who wanders from pub to pub and infuriates his superiors with silly stories. He expresses his patriotism with such passion that it makes those around him wonder whether he is an idiot or a dissident. Hasek lays bare the ridiculousness of the old Hapsburg monarchy: the ethnic rivalries, the endless bureaucracies and the croneying nepotism. The military leadership consists of senile old men and jobsworth pencil-pushers, who spend more time regulating the soldiers' bowel movements than formulating any meaningful strategy. Embezzlement is an every-day occurrence; everyone steals - from generals who skim millions, and cooks who hide meat and cheese to sel l, to Red Cross workers pilfering medicines and supplies. Self-righteous ladies from morality clubs lecture the young recruits about the importance of abstaining from sex and alcohol in what is probably the last few weeks of their lives. Commanders try to impress upon the soldiers the honour and glory in dying for the Emperor - the honour and glory which, "will culminate in a mud-spattered Austrian army cap hanging from a cross in some field." But Svejk isn't as stupid as he acts. He is honest, naive, incompetent, but perhaps a little shrewder than he appears - the reader remains unsure whether he is a devil-may-care buffoon or a conniving, accomplished actor. Through a series of mishaps, blunders, deliberate scams and other reasons, he always seems to, somehow or other, just avoid going to the front. Hasek kept writing his novel until the very day he died. The story, therefore, ends abruptly, almost in mid-sentence. It is quite a long-winded and wordy book (largely because Hasek wrote the book as a serial published in a Czech newspaper and he was paid by the word), but it's easy reading for all that. Compared with all the more serious, and gloomy literature that was spawned by the First World War, Svejk is hilarious - a breath of fresh air. Having said that, with a serious subtext interwoven throughout, it's an anti-war book not to be missed. With its simplicity and originality, it is a sound lesson in not taking the world too seriously. The book is lavishly illustrated with Josef Lada's series of cartoons (classics in their own right) which show Svejk as an overweight, badly shaven, middle-aged, ordinary but comical, looking man. The novel was banned from the Czechoslovakian army in 1925, followed by further restrictions in Po land, Bulgaria etc. before the German translation was burned on Nazi bonfires in 1933. * The Author * Jaroslav Hasek was born in Prague in 1883 and was educated at the Prague Commercial Academy, from which he graduated at the age of nineteen. He was promptly fired from his first job - he was already a heavy drinker. From very early on he was active as an anarchist and published widely in Czech political journals. In 1907 he became an editor of the anarchist magazine Komuna. He was involved in dog stealing and forged pedigrees for mongrel dogs - as was Svejk. After a failed suicide attempt, Hasek spent a short time in a mental hospital, which no doubt gave him a lot of material for Svejk's adventures. During World War I Hasek served at various times in Czech, Russian and Austrian armies. He was a volunteer in the Austrian 91st Regiment on the Galician front in 1915, and depicts in 'The Good Soldier Svejk', some of his superiors from those days by their real names. In September 1915 his unit was cut off as the result of a sudden Russian breakthrough, and Hasek surrendered himself to the Russians. He was imprisoned in camps in the Ukraine and later in the Urals. Hasek joined the Czech Legion, becoming active as a propagandist for the Legion and other Czech organizations. In 1918 he went over to the Bolsheviks, who made him a political commissar in their Fifth Army. Two years later he returned to Prague and nationalist politics. All of this was the material for The Good Soldier Svejk, which, written in common Czech, was an immediate success. Hasek had difficulty finding a publisher, so he financed the printing and distribution of th e first volume himself in 1921. Originally Hasek planned to continue the novel to six volumes, but he died on January 3, 1923 - of tuberculosis contracted during the war - before completing his work. Three volumes appeared, and then a posthumous fourth one, completed by his friend Karel Vanek. ------------------------------------------------------ As many of you will have surmised by now, I'm a multi-talented guy. Sadly my talents don't extend to understanding Czech (apart from ordering beer). Fortunately, the Penguin Modern Classic edition I read was translated into English by Cecil Parrot. ISBN0-14-003568-0 Thanks for reading ©proxam2004 Read the complete review |
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