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As a new era of technology dawns on the world, with its revolutionary space-age electrical bits and bobs, 'old-fashioned values', as my grandparents like to refer to them as, have all but vanished. No longer do we go for a nice long walk in the New Forest, but we go around mauling people on GTA3. Recreation now consists of anti-social, idle screen-watching, and the only muscles getting a vigorous workout are those button-pressing thumbs and fingers.
We don't walk, we don't run, we don't ride. Or at least, not in the way that they did in the old days. Obesity is becoming the norm; and people just don't exercise right. Added to that, people's diets revolve around junk food and coke. No healthy food, no healthy exercise, the youths of today are quickly becoming unhealthy, obese sloths.
So I may be taking it to a bit of an extreme; people still play sports, people still eat right, but for the majority of the people on these forums, gaming is a much more preffered pastime to say, playing tennis or riding bikes.
Another smaller, less noticeable factor to this revolution, is in written material. As reading coils back into the shadow of interactive electronics, books are fast becoming an extinct genre.
People not buying books = Not much money to authors
Not much money to authors = Authors don't write books
Not many books = BAD.
Pop down to your local bookshop. Few, if any, truly decent books are released lately. People just don't read. Instead, stood on the best sellers stand are 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook' and 'Big Brother Uncut'. It makes me want to be sick. The true books are all still a load of tripe; romance novels written by a person with an intellect of a 9 year old (yup, I'm looking at you Pocket Rocket) and terrible written crime novels. Books are becoming extinct, just like exercise and healthy eating.
I absolutely love fantasy books. I prefer heroic fantasy, like David Gemmell, but will still gladly enjoy a spell of Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels. However, there is one very worrying trend that is coming with this change in lifestyle.
There are no new books.
OK, so Terry Pratchet does faithfully write new Discworld novels year in, year out, something which I am very fond of, but the fact remains that Nobody writes fantasy books. My favourite author, as stated before, David Gemmell, is the only consistenly good author who writes fantasy books. Also a worrying factor, is that the best selling science fiction and fantasy books, happen to be the Oh-so-ironical re-production of Lord of the Rings books. Bookshops don't seem to promote new authors, but are just in it for the money. I have already read the Lord of the Rings books, so they no longer interest me. I have read most of the great fantasy books, and enjoy Ian M. Banks as well.
My main gripe with this lack of new books, is that the genre is dying. In the late 60s and 70s, following from the standard set by Lord of the Rings, fantasy became an 'in thing'. Yet nowadays, for every author that comes anywhere near the standards set by Tolkien, is another 10 R.L.Stines with a further 50 terrible droll 'Goosebumps' books that could easily be written by my non-existent pet dog.
Fantasy is the best genre of book available. I would stick by that statement of my opinion no matter what. Yet I see it to be so saddening, and so maddening that people would prefer Big Brother to classic works of literature. Fantasy books, or, no, decent books on the whole, are such a rare occurence that one would think the whole human population has become a race of mindless numbskulls. Mind you, judging by the success of books like 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook', it is probably true.
I am truly saddened by the demise of such an interesting and gripping genre; if only the mindless fools who buy the tripe that infests the bestsellers stands would wake up and see the decent books taking a backseat to their inbred cousin's success. If only people would see clearly.
But it will never happen. There are always people that will read the bad literature, always the blinded kids groping for 'Goosebumps' in favour of 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'The Wizard of Oz'. I am just hoping that in light of the success of the Lord of the Rings film, people will be drawn back into the wonders of fantasy, and that more authors will discover the potential of the gripping genre that will always better its siblings.
But sadly, I don't think that this will happen. Fantasy will always be the underdog genre, and I don't think that it will ever share the success of other books. Only time will tell, and what will most likely happen is that in the wake of technological advancements, books will become as infrequent and uncommon as records have become in light of CDs. Only time will tell, and I doubt that fantasy will be able to stand the test of time, under the constant bullying and rule of technology. If only people would wake up and see the true potential for good books.
Come on, don't sit there and watch 'footballer's wives'. Go and read something, I certainly know which I would prefer.
We don't walk, we don't run, we don't ride. Or at least, not in the way that they did in the old days. Obesity is becoming the norm; and people just don't exercise right. Added to that, people's diets revolve around junk food and coke. No healthy food, no healthy exercise, the youths of today are quickly becoming unhealthy, obese sloths.
So I may be taking it to a bit of an extreme; people still play sports, people still eat right, but for the majority of the people on these forums, gaming is a much more preffered pastime to say, playing tennis or riding bikes.
Another smaller, less noticeable factor to this revolution, is in written material. As reading coils back into the shadow of interactive electronics, books are fast becoming an extinct genre.
People not buying books = Not much money to authors
Not much money to authors = Authors don't write books
Not many books = BAD.
Pop down to your local bookshop. Few, if any, truly decent books are released lately. People just don't read. Instead, stood on the best sellers stand are 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook' and 'Big Brother Uncut'. It makes me want to be sick. The true books are all still a load of tripe; romance novels written by a person with an intellect of a 9 year old (yup, I'm looking at you Pocket Rocket) and terrible written crime novels. Books are becoming extinct, just like exercise and healthy eating.
I absolutely love fantasy books. I prefer heroic fantasy, like David Gemmell, but will still gladly enjoy a spell of Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels. However, there is one very worrying trend that is coming with this change in lifestyle.
There are no new books.
OK, so Terry Pratchet does faithfully write new Discworld novels year in, year out, something which I am very fond of, but the fact remains that Nobody writes fantasy books. My favourite author, as stated before, David Gemmell, is the only consistenly good author who writes fantasy books. Also a worrying factor, is that the best selling science fiction and fantasy books, happen to be the Oh-so-ironical re-production of Lord of the Rings books. Bookshops don't seem to promote new authors, but are just in it for the money. I have already read the Lord of the Rings books, so they no longer interest me. I have read most of the great fantasy books, and enjoy Ian M. Banks as well.
My main gripe with this lack of new books, is that the genre is dying. In the late 60s and 70s, following from the standard set by Lord of the Rings, fantasy became an 'in thing'. Yet nowadays, for every author that comes anywhere near the standards set by Tolkien, is another 10 R.L.Stines with a further 50 terrible droll 'Goosebumps' books that could easily be written by my non-existent pet dog.
Fantasy is the best genre of book available. I would stick by that statement of my opinion no matter what. Yet I see it to be so saddening, and so maddening that people would prefer Big Brother to classic works of literature. Fantasy books, or, no, decent books on the whole, are such a rare occurence that one would think the whole human population has become a race of mindless numbskulls. Mind you, judging by the success of books like 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook', it is probably true.
I am truly saddened by the demise of such an interesting and gripping genre; if only the mindless fools who buy the tripe that infests the bestsellers stands would wake up and see the decent books taking a backseat to their inbred cousin's success. If only people would see clearly.
But it will never happen. There are always people that will read the bad literature, always the blinded kids groping for 'Goosebumps' in favour of 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'The Wizard of Oz'. I am just hoping that in light of the success of the Lord of the Rings film, people will be drawn back into the wonders of fantasy, and that more authors will discover the potential of the gripping genre that will always better its siblings.
But sadly, I don't think that this will happen. Fantasy will always be the underdog genre, and I don't think that it will ever share the success of other books. Only time will tell, and what will most likely happen is that in the wake of technological advancements, books will become as infrequent and uncommon as records have become in light of CDs. Only time will tell, and I doubt that fantasy will be able to stand the test of time, under the constant bullying and rule of technology. If only people would wake up and see the true potential for good books.
Come on, don't sit there and watch 'footballer's wives'. Go and read something, I certainly know which I would prefer.
Page:
The problem is exactly the opposite - people are now only reading the book of the film. Black Hawk Down was released as a book in 1999 and from the first 10 pages it is clear that this was a story of more worth than most films plots. Now the film is out many will go read the book, and probably say the film was better. Many many books are brilliant but unless they get chosen to be a film then many never hear of them and thats a shame. LOTR is one of the few films to do the book justice.
Also there are many non fiction books out there which challenge popular history, yet many never red them so the popular history continues, oblivious to hte often more dark truth.
Also there are many non fiction books out there which challenge popular history, yet many never red them so the popular history continues, oblivious to hte often more dark truth.
I don't think its a case of peps not reading books. I think its a case of Hollywood making film adaptations of all the popular books such as Harry Potter, LOTR, American Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, Schindaler's List, Pride and Predjadice etc.
So many young and impresionable people do not bother reading, cos all the special effects and reading is done for them in 2 hours worth of celluloid. Im not saying this is bad, as JK Rowling books ar flying off the shelf now. i am also one of those impressionable peps. I am just saying that books have lost their way to the book shops on their way to Hollywood.
So many young and impresionable people do not bother reading, cos all the special effects and reading is done for them in 2 hours worth of celluloid. Im not saying this is bad, as JK Rowling books ar flying off the shelf now. i am also one of those impressionable peps. I am just saying that books have lost their way to the book shops on their way to Hollywood.
Stranger In Paradise wrote:
> I don't think the problem is that there are no new books, rather that they are
> hard to find. Most book stores stock whatever they can sell at a reduced price,
> and many novels are know utter rubbish written which would have Shakespeare
> turning in his grave.
It's a vicous cycle. Those of us who want something
> other than the latest moron Oliver book have to use Amazon, as places like
> Waterstones and local stores take ages to get most hard to find books. And if
> you want anything out of the ordinary then its bad luck. But by using Amazon
> local retailers are losing out on my, and other peoples, trade.
From Amazon
> I have had some of the best books, especially horror novels, Sci fi, fantasy,
> and non fiction ones as well like military and history. The choice is fantastic
> and you realise there are loads of good books out there !
There is a
> downside... my bookcase is overflowing.
----------
Amazon is actually a very good online retailer. They stock all of the David Gemmell books; a big plus since neither of the Waterstones in Southampton do. I also suggest trying 2nd hand shops. They sell very cheap books, and not many of them are tripe. I also advise to use Amazon. Despite being a very big online retailer, they are suffering large monetary problems, according to Guardian, and I'd hate to see them go down because I've ordered from them for years. Never have I had bad service from them, either.
> I don't think the problem is that there are no new books, rather that they are
> hard to find. Most book stores stock whatever they can sell at a reduced price,
> and many novels are know utter rubbish written which would have Shakespeare
> turning in his grave.
It's a vicous cycle. Those of us who want something
> other than the latest moron Oliver book have to use Amazon, as places like
> Waterstones and local stores take ages to get most hard to find books. And if
> you want anything out of the ordinary then its bad luck. But by using Amazon
> local retailers are losing out on my, and other peoples, trade.
From Amazon
> I have had some of the best books, especially horror novels, Sci fi, fantasy,
> and non fiction ones as well like military and history. The choice is fantastic
> and you realise there are loads of good books out there !
There is a
> downside... my bookcase is overflowing.
----------
Amazon is actually a very good online retailer. They stock all of the David Gemmell books; a big plus since neither of the Waterstones in Southampton do. I also suggest trying 2nd hand shops. They sell very cheap books, and not many of them are tripe. I also advise to use Amazon. Despite being a very big online retailer, they are suffering large monetary problems, according to Guardian, and I'd hate to see them go down because I've ordered from them for years. Never have I had bad service from them, either.
I don't think the problem is that there are no new books, rather that they are hard to find. Most book stores stock whatever they can sell at a reduced price, and many novels are know utter rubbish written which would have Shakespeare turning in his grave.
It's a vicous cycle. Those of us who want something other than the latest moron Oliver book have to use Amazon, as places like Waterstones and local stores take ages to get most hard to find books. And if you want anything out of the ordinary then its bad luck. But by using Amazon local retailers are losing out on my, and other peoples, trade.
From Amazon I have had some of the best books, especially horror novels, Sci fi, fantasy, and non fiction ones as well like military and history. The choice is fantastic and you realise there are loads of good books out there !
There is a downside... my bookcase is overflowing.
It's a vicous cycle. Those of us who want something other than the latest moron Oliver book have to use Amazon, as places like Waterstones and local stores take ages to get most hard to find books. And if you want anything out of the ordinary then its bad luck. But by using Amazon local retailers are losing out on my, and other peoples, trade.
From Amazon I have had some of the best books, especially horror novels, Sci fi, fantasy, and non fiction ones as well like military and history. The choice is fantastic and you realise there are loads of good books out there !
There is a downside... my bookcase is overflowing.
As a new era of technology dawns on the world, with its revolutionary space-age electrical bits and bobs, 'old-fashioned values', as my grandparents like to refer to them as, have all but vanished. No longer do we go for a nice long walk in the New Forest, but we go around mauling people on GTA3. Recreation now consists of anti-social, idle screen-watching, and the only muscles getting a vigorous workout are those button-pressing thumbs and fingers.
We don't walk, we don't run, we don't ride. Or at least, not in the way that they did in the old days. Obesity is becoming the norm; and people just don't exercise right. Added to that, people's diets revolve around junk food and coke. No healthy food, no healthy exercise, the youths of today are quickly becoming unhealthy, obese sloths.
So I may be taking it to a bit of an extreme; people still play sports, people still eat right, but for the majority of the people on these forums, gaming is a much more preffered pastime to say, playing tennis or riding bikes.
Another smaller, less noticeable factor to this revolution, is in written material. As reading coils back into the shadow of interactive electronics, books are fast becoming an extinct genre.
People not buying books = Not much money to authors
Not much money to authors = Authors don't write books
Not many books = BAD.
Pop down to your local bookshop. Few, if any, truly decent books are released lately. People just don't read. Instead, stood on the best sellers stand are 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook' and 'Big Brother Uncut'. It makes me want to be sick. The true books are all still a load of tripe; romance novels written by a person with an intellect of a 9 year old (yup, I'm looking at you Pocket Rocket) and terrible written crime novels. Books are becoming extinct, just like exercise and healthy eating.
I absolutely love fantasy books. I prefer heroic fantasy, like David Gemmell, but will still gladly enjoy a spell of Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels. However, there is one very worrying trend that is coming with this change in lifestyle.
There are no new books.
OK, so Terry Pratchet does faithfully write new Discworld novels year in, year out, something which I am very fond of, but the fact remains that Nobody writes fantasy books. My favourite author, as stated before, David Gemmell, is the only consistenly good author who writes fantasy books. Also a worrying factor, is that the best selling science fiction and fantasy books, happen to be the Oh-so-ironical re-production of Lord of the Rings books. Bookshops don't seem to promote new authors, but are just in it for the money. I have already read the Lord of the Rings books, so they no longer interest me. I have read most of the great fantasy books, and enjoy Ian M. Banks as well.
My main gripe with this lack of new books, is that the genre is dying. In the late 60s and 70s, following from the standard set by Lord of the Rings, fantasy became an 'in thing'. Yet nowadays, for every author that comes anywhere near the standards set by Tolkien, is another 10 R.L.Stines with a further 50 terrible droll 'Goosebumps' books that could easily be written by my non-existent pet dog.
Fantasy is the best genre of book available. I would stick by that statement of my opinion no matter what. Yet I see it to be so saddening, and so maddening that people would prefer Big Brother to classic works of literature. Fantasy books, or, no, decent books on the whole, are such a rare occurence that one would think the whole human population has become a race of mindless numbskulls. Mind you, judging by the success of books like 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook', it is probably true.
I am truly saddened by the demise of such an interesting and gripping genre; if only the mindless fools who buy the tripe that infests the bestsellers stands would wake up and see the decent books taking a backseat to their inbred cousin's success. If only people would see clearly.
But it will never happen. There are always people that will read the bad literature, always the blinded kids groping for 'Goosebumps' in favour of 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'The Wizard of Oz'. I am just hoping that in light of the success of the Lord of the Rings film, people will be drawn back into the wonders of fantasy, and that more authors will discover the potential of the gripping genre that will always better its siblings.
But sadly, I don't think that this will happen. Fantasy will always be the underdog genre, and I don't think that it will ever share the success of other books. Only time will tell, and what will most likely happen is that in the wake of technological advancements, books will become as infrequent and uncommon as records have become in light of CDs. Only time will tell, and I doubt that fantasy will be able to stand the test of time, under the constant bullying and rule of technology. If only people would wake up and see the true potential for good books.
Come on, don't sit there and watch 'footballer's wives'. Go and read something, I certainly know which I would prefer.
We don't walk, we don't run, we don't ride. Or at least, not in the way that they did in the old days. Obesity is becoming the norm; and people just don't exercise right. Added to that, people's diets revolve around junk food and coke. No healthy food, no healthy exercise, the youths of today are quickly becoming unhealthy, obese sloths.
So I may be taking it to a bit of an extreme; people still play sports, people still eat right, but for the majority of the people on these forums, gaming is a much more preffered pastime to say, playing tennis or riding bikes.
Another smaller, less noticeable factor to this revolution, is in written material. As reading coils back into the shadow of interactive electronics, books are fast becoming an extinct genre.
People not buying books = Not much money to authors
Not much money to authors = Authors don't write books
Not many books = BAD.
Pop down to your local bookshop. Few, if any, truly decent books are released lately. People just don't read. Instead, stood on the best sellers stand are 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook' and 'Big Brother Uncut'. It makes me want to be sick. The true books are all still a load of tripe; romance novels written by a person with an intellect of a 9 year old (yup, I'm looking at you Pocket Rocket) and terrible written crime novels. Books are becoming extinct, just like exercise and healthy eating.
I absolutely love fantasy books. I prefer heroic fantasy, like David Gemmell, but will still gladly enjoy a spell of Terry Pratchet's Discworld novels. However, there is one very worrying trend that is coming with this change in lifestyle.
There are no new books.
OK, so Terry Pratchet does faithfully write new Discworld novels year in, year out, something which I am very fond of, but the fact remains that Nobody writes fantasy books. My favourite author, as stated before, David Gemmell, is the only consistenly good author who writes fantasy books. Also a worrying factor, is that the best selling science fiction and fantasy books, happen to be the Oh-so-ironical re-production of Lord of the Rings books. Bookshops don't seem to promote new authors, but are just in it for the money. I have already read the Lord of the Rings books, so they no longer interest me. I have read most of the great fantasy books, and enjoy Ian M. Banks as well.
My main gripe with this lack of new books, is that the genre is dying. In the late 60s and 70s, following from the standard set by Lord of the Rings, fantasy became an 'in thing'. Yet nowadays, for every author that comes anywhere near the standards set by Tolkien, is another 10 R.L.Stines with a further 50 terrible droll 'Goosebumps' books that could easily be written by my non-existent pet dog.
Fantasy is the best genre of book available. I would stick by that statement of my opinion no matter what. Yet I see it to be so saddening, and so maddening that people would prefer Big Brother to classic works of literature. Fantasy books, or, no, decent books on the whole, are such a rare occurence that one would think the whole human population has become a race of mindless numbskulls. Mind you, judging by the success of books like 'Jamie Oliver's Cookbook', it is probably true.
I am truly saddened by the demise of such an interesting and gripping genre; if only the mindless fools who buy the tripe that infests the bestsellers stands would wake up and see the decent books taking a backseat to their inbred cousin's success. If only people would see clearly.
But it will never happen. There are always people that will read the bad literature, always the blinded kids groping for 'Goosebumps' in favour of 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'The Wizard of Oz'. I am just hoping that in light of the success of the Lord of the Rings film, people will be drawn back into the wonders of fantasy, and that more authors will discover the potential of the gripping genre that will always better its siblings.
But sadly, I don't think that this will happen. Fantasy will always be the underdog genre, and I don't think that it will ever share the success of other books. Only time will tell, and what will most likely happen is that in the wake of technological advancements, books will become as infrequent and uncommon as records have become in light of CDs. Only time will tell, and I doubt that fantasy will be able to stand the test of time, under the constant bullying and rule of technology. If only people would wake up and see the true potential for good books.
Come on, don't sit there and watch 'footballer's wives'. Go and read something, I certainly know which I would prefer.
Page: