Modern books that you wish we could record.

petalbounce · Post by **petalbounce** » May 15th, 2015, 10:39 am

All I have to say is Clue, by Michael McDowell. XD

Renkotsu · Post by **Renkotsu** » June 10th, 2015, 10:53 pm

for me, it would be any of Margaret George's books. or any of the Jean M. Auel series.

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » August 28th, 2015, 3:42 am

You all know those sports-related Fantasy Team selection exercises ... well, what book do you fantasise about going into copyright expiration?

Me? I'd love to be able to record "Reach For The Sky" for Librivox.

Regards,
Son of the Exiles

Cori · Post by **Cori** » August 28th, 2015, 4:28 am

We have a thread along these lines already

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1313 Okay if I merge this into it?

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » August 28th, 2015, 4:47 am

Of course!

Umm ... I don't suppose you've already invented the steam engine and the pop-up toaster as well, have you? Aww...

SOTE

Post by **annise** » August 28th, 2015, 5:40 am

It's hard to have an original idea after 10 years

. But sometimes good to revive them for those who weren't around when they first came up

Anne

Hobbit · Post by **Hobbit** » August 30th, 2015, 11:07 am

I don't think anyone has mentioned the incredible spy novels of John Le Carre (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, A Perfect Spy). I'd love to record those!

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » September 9th, 2015, 3:28 pm

An Australian book called "Cop This Lot", written in the mid-1960's by an Irishman living in Australia under the pen-name and persona of an Italian immigrant called "Nino Cullota" (yes, I know what the surname means in Italian) was the second in a series which began with "They're A Weird Mob".

http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327749194l/6662324.jpg

In the first book, Nino emigrates to Australia, becomes a bricklayer, and marries an Australian girl. In the second book, he takes his new wife and his two mates to Italy to meet his family.

A lot of the humour in these books comes from the confusion of first Nino and later his father, both English speakers, with Australian slang.

To give an example from "Cop This Lot" from memory (I don't have the book to hand). The group has arrived at Nino's parents' place in Italy, and Nino, to his surprise, has just been informed by his father, the former mayor of the town, that he has learned English in honour of the occasion. Nino tells him that Australian English is not necessarily the same as Standard English, and that it took Nino years to learn to understand it. Nino's father tells him that it will not take him (the father) even as many hours, not with his intellect.

My father turned to Joe suddenly and said, "Signor Joe. Is on your arm a watch."

Joe said: "Sowot?"

"You see, Giovanni" said my father to me, returning to Italian, "how easy it is with the scientific approach? A watch is a 'sowot'. We will continue."

"Signor Joe. You are seeing this walking stick?"

"Bloody good lump of a waddy, too."

"Hrrmm", said my father to me in Italian. "Some of the words are quite long. I will need pen and paper to reproduce them phonetically."

"What's the matter with the old bloke?" said Joe to Dennis. "Tells me I gotta watch, then shows me his stick. Don't he like watches?"

"Dunno", said Dennis. "Can't follow him."

Joe took off his watch and put it in his pocket.

"Why does this one take off his watch, Giovanni?" said my father.

"He thinks you will break it with your stick, father."

"We would be so inhospitable?" To Joe: "Signor Joe ... I am not hitting your sowot."

"Huh? Take that stick off him, will ya, Nino? Mad as a meat-axe."

Breeze · Post by **Breeze** » September 24th, 2015, 2:27 pm

Kendra E. Ardnek's books. Or maybe not. They make me laugh to much. I may actually get to record them. When I finish my solo I'll consider offering my services.

Newgatenovelist · September 27th, 2015, 11:02 am

I'm sure someone has already mentioned them, but I'm sorry it isn't possible to record Dorothy Parker, Wendy Cope or Neil Gaiman.

If it's a specific book, then I'm very sorry that Lord Dunsany's The Curse of the Wise Woman isn't PD!
-Erin

MGTM2014 · Post by **MGTM2014** » October 9th, 2015, 5:57 pm

I'm not the first to nominate anything with Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters, but I'll gladly add my vote to that list.

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » October 31st, 2015, 5:01 pm

Not a book, but a Second World War Australian poem, by Kenneth Slessor.

Beach Burial - El Alamein

http://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/beach-burial-1253#.VjVcg4pXfCQ

Post by **Availle** » October 31st, 2015, 5:24 pm

My grandfather fought in El Alamein... Nothing more than a wide expanse of heaps of sands. And a number of war memorials.

SotE, if the poem is still in copyright in the US, it may be better not to write it out here (our forums are based in the US). If people are interested, they can always find the text.

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » October 31st, 2015, 5:52 pm

Ava, there's a German language version link on the English language webpage I've linked, but I don't know how skilled it is.

My own (paternal) grandfather was in the Royal Australian Navy at first during the Great War. He was on the task force that was sent out to sink the Emden. He came back from that with what I guess these days would be termed "double pneumonia". They took him, along with many other casualties, out to the Hordern Pavilion at the Sydney Showgrounds (all the hospitals were full to overflowing), propped him up against a pillar, and, in his own words, "left me there to die". He survived, somehow, and tried to rejoin his ship. The Navy wouldn't take him back, however. Said he'd been TPIed out (stands for "Total and Permanent Invalid"). So he went down the road to the Army recruiting station and was accepted there and sent to fight in France. Says something for the then Army Physical, doesn't it? The old yarn goes that the first doctor gets a torch (ie, flashlight) and shines it in the recruit's left ear; then the second doctor shines his torch in the recruit's right ear; and so long as the two doctors don't actually see one another, "you're in the Army now".

SOTE

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » October 31st, 2015, 7:39 pm

SonOfTheExiles wrote:Not a book, but a Second World War Australian poem, by Kenneth Slessor.

Beach Burial - El Alamein

http://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/beach-burial-1253#.VjVcg4pXfCQ

I love that poem. Kenneth Slessor is my favourite Australian poet.

How about "Five Visions of Captain Cook". Snippets (it's quite a long poem):

Cook was a captain of the Admiralty
When sea-captains had the evil eye

.....

Daemons in periwigs, doling magic out,
Who read fair alphabets in stars
Where humbler men found but a mess of sparks,
Who steered their crews by mysteries
And strange, half-dreadful sortilege with books

....

...That was the captain
Cook was when he came to the Coral Sea
And chose a passage into the dark.

....

Best,

Barbara