Yeah, me too. He and Stephen King dominated my bookshelves in my teens and early twenties, although I stopped soon after that when they lost me to Mario Puzo. While many would point towards his "Rats" trilogy as their favourites, I always preferred The Spear.
I've got the one up from basic, it really is unnecessarily enormous, takes something like 6000 books. My wife and my Mum have the basic version and its just fine, actually even lighter with less fiddly bits. I bought a flash cover for mine with a built in light which is powered by the Kindle's seemingly everlasting battery. Roller is right, the Fire just looks like a sub iPad copy. By the way Staines, you can get JG Ballard's complete short stories (over a thousand pages worth) free on PDF on line, just by searching on JG Ballard Short Stories on Google. For free. Felt a bit guilty downloading it but figured I already have it in paperback so I have paid.....I think there is a way to get it on the Kindle, but just sits on my iPad at the moment. Nice thing about the Kindle is Amazon looks at what you have bought previously and comes up with personalised recommendation lists. Lot of it is horrifying of course (if you have a history of WW2, it may just come up with Mein Kampf) but when you aren't looking for anything in particular and just want to browse its really useful - have bought quite a few books this way, helped by the reviews that other buyers have written.
Thanks to you as well sb. No doubt at all now that i just need the basic kindle (Mrs S will be pleased). I did start to read 'Mein Kampf' funnily enough, but didn't last very long (But a bit longer than i read of 'The Iliad..........Now that REALLY was a struggle )
I battled through the Iliad but would struggle to name half the characters. Moby Dick was tougher going - more effort than Ahab spent trying to find his overblown fish.
My pleasure Quite possibly the greatest political film of all time, Gillo Pontecorvo's "Battle of Algiers". His brother Bruno Pontecorvo worked with Enrico Fermi in the 1930's in Rome on the discovery of nuclear fission and later was responsible for the start of nuclear technology in the Soviet Union. Fantastic film (English Subs): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bOr_U_92xE
To be honest I'm not a huge fan of the so called great directors, Rossellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, Fellini, Visconti etc. Roma Città Aperta and Ladri di Biciclette are ok but Fellini's films annoyed me and as for Antonioni he was dead boring apart from getting to watch Monica Vitti in her prime. If Carlsberg made Gingers: [video=youtube;_v6fG9hSS6E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v6fG9hSS6E[/video] Pontecorvo made one good film, "Queimada!" was ruined by Brando and Kinsky's over acting and making all about them and "Operación Ogro" although politically worthy was very, very slow. Available in full in Italian on YouTube: [video=youtube;aFOEnyIHcAg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFOEnyIHcAg[/video]
