The Book Shelf

[tented]

It kinda fizzled out a little in the end, and like I say, there's a better book to be written in this period of tennis, but it filled a gap nicely between the FO and Wimbo...

If only we knew an Irishman with a way with words, and a love of tennis ...

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I do not want to start a separate thread for this but since it is regarding language, I want to hear some opinions:

English is a second language for me but I love it. I study it, explore it, read in it, learn as much as I can.
I was in a restaurant today and saw a poster. On the poster, there was a smiling girl, and the caption read " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves my job"

It bothered me and a bit later I figured it out why: I thought it should have said " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves HER job"

Am I wrong? Which way is correct? Would they be both correct? Why am I confused here and why does the first version just rub me the wrong way?

 

[tented]

I do not want to start a separate thread for this but since it is regarding language, I want to hear some opinions:

English is a second language for me but I love it. I study it, explore it, read in it, learn as much as I can.
I was in a restaurant today and saw a poster. On the poster, there was a smiling girl, and the caption read " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves my job"

It bothered me and a bit later I figured it out why: I thought it should have said " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves HER job"

Am I wrong? Which way is correct? Would they be both correct?

I would use: "I am one of those annoying people who actually loves their job."

Why am I confused here and why does the first version just rub me the wrong way?

Because you're one of those annoying people who actually loves correct grammar.

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I do not want to start a separate thread for this but since it is regarding language, I want to hear some opinions:

English is a second language for me but I love it. I study it, explore it, read in it, learn as much as I can.
I was in a restaurant today and saw a poster. On the poster, there was a smiling girl, and the caption read " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves my job"

It bothered me and a bit later I figured it out why: I thought it should have said " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves HER job"

Am I wrong? Which way is correct? Would they be both correct?

I would use: "I am one of those annoying people who actually loves their job."

Why am I confused here and why does the first version just rub me the wrong way?

Because you're one of those annoying people who actually loves correct grammar.

:clap

 

[Moxie]

I do not want to start a separate thread for this but since it is regarding language, I want to hear some opinions:

English is a second language for me but I love it. I study it, explore it, read in it, learn as much as I can.
I was in a restaurant today and saw a poster. On the poster, there was a smiling girl, and the caption read " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves my job"

It bothered me and a bit later I figured it out why: I thought it should have said " I am one of those annoying people who actually loves HER job"

Am I wrong? Which way is correct? Would they be both correct?

I would use: "I am one of those annoying people who actually loves their job."

Why am I confused here and why does the first version just rub me the wrong way?

Because you're one of those annoying people who actually loves correct grammar.

:clap

I am one of those annoying people that loves grammar, and language, too. I think all options are colloquially possible, and advertising tends to the conversational. But if you extract "people who loves their job," it doesn't work. I have lost the ability to diagram a sentence, but the subject is "I", the verb is "am", "one of those people" is an adjectival phrase describing "I," so the pronoun has to respect the subject, i.e, "I." Therefore, I think "my" is correct. ("I am," "my work.")

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

^Moxie, what you say makes sense, but isn't "I" useless once you consider yourself to be " "one of those people"? Because now, you are talking about a group as opposed to yourself?

I am still confused...

 

[Moxie]

Yeah, maybe I'm one of those people that's confused, too. (..who're confused?) Oh, dear. :huh:

 

[tented]

How about:

"You know those annoying people who love their job? I'm one of them."

 

[Moxie]

How about:

"You know those annoying people who love their job? I'm one of them."

:clap

 

[Kieran]

I'm reading Robert Hughes "Rome", a kind of personal tour through the history of the Eternal City. it's good in parts, though I skimmed over most of it because of his obvious anti-Catholic bias. I don't mind anti-Catholic bias, by the way, I'm used to seeing it, but I prefer if it's dolloped on with accuracy and wit.

He's good on the art and architecture of the city, but unreliable on the history. I was kinda looking forward to reading it and now I'm kinda disappointed by it...

 

[Riotbeard]

Kieran's revelation that he's read LOTR eight times has made wonder which book people have read more than any other?

For me, it's J.D. Salinger's "Franny & Zooey". I got into the habit, decades ago, of sometimes taking it with me whenever I go on a vacation which includes air travel. I open the book as soon as the plane takes off, and try to finish it before it lands. Most of the time I can do it. I must have read it a dozen times at this point, yet I never get tired of it.

Has anyone else ever read a particular book multiple times?

Dating myself as on the younger side, but the Harry Potter books (late 20s). I think the first one came out when I was nine, so I kind of shared my late childhood and teenage years with the characters. I also read the LOTR books a couple of times, Ender's Game a couple of times, and Atonement (my favorite book of all time) a couple of times.

 

[Riotbeard]

I'm reading Robert Hughes "Rome", a kind of personal tour through the history of the Eternal City. it's good in parts, though I skimmed over most of it because of his obvious anti-Catholic bias. I don't mind anti-Catholic bias, by the way, I'm used to seeing it, but I prefer if it's dolloped on with accuracy and wit.

He's good on the art and architecture of the city, but unreliable on the history. I was kinda looking forward to reading it and now I'm kinda disappointed by it...

You should read E. P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class. It's got an anti-methodist, protestant bias. Then again, he is a communist, so probably not too fond of any religion, but he only attacks protestantism in the book :laydownlaughing

 

[Kieran]

Yeah, that's the thing with this book: Rome was pagan from the beginning, but there's no mockery of their pagan beliefs, no hectoring, no scoffing. None regarding Protestants either. But the Church gets with both barrels, on almost every page. I physically shut the book last night, and said "enough", after one attempt at mocking a belief of Catholics bordered on becoming a form of witch hunt. The lines I read were so disgusting and disturbing, I wondered if the purpose of the book, after all, was to lay into Catholics, and not to discuss Rome.

And like I say, I'm used to overlooking this stuff, but enough is enough. This is the same bloke who wrote a definitive book on Goya, and I believe there was a great television programme to accompany this.

No longer kinda disappointed, now I'm totally disappointed in the man... :nono

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

UK folks are able to buy this book now. I will have to wait.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rod-Laver-Memoir/dp/1760111244/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398273441&sr=1-1&keywords=rod+laver

 

[shawnbm]

I just bought another book over the weekend--one of many on the First World War. We are a century out from the beginning of that war and it still fascinates me like no other. I like the fact the cover shows a gorgeous field of the symbol of the Great War--the red poppy. It is amazing to think of how many thousands of miles of terrain covered in poppies concealed the hundreds of thousands of dead below their tiny roots.

 

[Moxie]

For the end of summer, I read a really good psychological thriller, "Gone Girl," by Gillian Flynn. It's creepy and surprising. Rather like Lionel Shriver's "We Need to Talk about Kevin," though that one was too creepy for my taste. And David Fincher ("Se7en,") is making the film.

 

[Kieran]

I read Robert Harris's Fatherland on my hols, great beach thriller. Also read a book by Henning mankell, The Shadow Girls - this was light but not significant.

Gonna hit a few heavies now: got Camus The Outsider from the library yesterday. Also a book by Simone de Bouvier, The Woman Destroyed, and Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. I'll start with the Camus...

 

[Kenneth]

I am reading American Psycho , again, after 15 years. I am wondering if I will be as disturbed as the first time around, or have I been desensitized enough not to care...

If you are into disturbing books and run out of ideas, try Johan Theorin's 'The Asylum' (the original Swedish name was 'Sankta Psyko')

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

I have just started to read Sycamore Row, which is a sequel to A Time To Kill, by Grisham, his very first novel. With Grisham, it is always hit and miss for me, but A Time To Kill was one book that effected me deeply, and I did not mind the movie either.

It is intriguing so far and I am not minding some easy reading at this moment in my life.

 

[Kenneth]

I have read a half of Rolf Dobelli's 'The Art of Thinking Clearly' this week. Very smart and fun! And structured in short paragraphs, so that nobody falls asleep in the middle of one!