Am I being a bit harsh here? You be the judge!

Hi folks,

Frances and I decided to can the road show for this one, and I’m glad we did. We would have been chucked off the motor vehicle, and flung into the harbour, for using obscene language if we’d read this eBook to the Sydney Buses' passengers. We would have ended up in the courts; and I would have become the laughing stock of all my peers.

Sorry Eugene old boy, but you did your dash when you used the F word seven times in seven consecutive sentences. I'm not kidding you here people. Binx gets a sub-zero this time. He murdered what could have been a bit of light entertainment for me over the Easter weekend.

Binx needs to take a creative writing course. Then he’d learn that writers who repeat words, because they lack the skill to critically analyse their work, get the thumbs down from serious readers.

He'd also learn that profanity can never cover up bad writing. Trying to shock readers just doesn’t win brownie points; they expect more from authors. They expect quality writing, regardless of the genre. If Binx enrols in a good course, and works hard, he might eventually become a reasonably good author. He might even discover the richness of the English language and find a wealth of fantastic words to tell his stories with passion and style.

This You Tube video might help you Eugene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBpetDxIEMU

The Norman character might have been strong enough to pull the story together, and save it, but Binx’s limited vocabulary sent it to the sin bin.

When I selected Zen & The Art of Stand Up Comedy by Eugene Binx, I didn’t expect it to fall into the big L, literature league. But I did expect it to engage me and keep me on the hook.

I read the whole book because I’m a ‘finisher’; not a 'quitter'. Take my advice people, if you want a good read, give Zen a miss and spend your time on something worthwhile.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is listed in the Globusz OZ showcase. Why don’t you give that a go?

Of course, it won’t give you a good laugh; you’ll probably cry your eyes out, at the end. But at least the tears will spring from your soul, not your spleen. And by that I mean, they won’t be tears of frustration because Binx wasted your precious time.

Happy reading, and cheers,

Lindsay.

PS this might be my last post. I might be excommunicated from the club. Should I just say good-bye to you all now, or beg forgiveness?

Don't forget to check below for comments. Just click to read.

It looks like everyone is off to a flying start.

Ian is returning to The Isle of Enniskerry, while Alex and Lindsay have listed their choices below.

Thank you all for the excellent comments about the Riccardo Maffey work. I'm sure our readers enjoy your posts as much as we all do.

The Globusz International staff, in the New York office, said they love the site and they look forward to reading all the posts.

They sometimes ask me to translate from Australian to American; they didn't understand what Ian meant by the blue Mercedes.

Stefan told Suzanne, everyone enjoys Alex and Lindsay's posts, and the way they interact with each other, gives them all a good laugh.

Keep it up everyone.

Regards,

Christine

this is the link to the novel Ian is reading: http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Enniskerry/index.asp

I think I'll head for the Scottish isles

Fascinating! I now know Sardarji jokes are the sub-continent's answer to Irish jokes. And the Best of Forwarded Emails has a whole section of them. Better not tell the thought police.

Wikipedia has a longish entry about Sardar/Sardarji which slips in this line: "Sardar is often used to refer to an intellectual imbecile from northern Indian frontiers."

G. Ram Kumar's book looks fun but I'm going to return to the Isle of Enniskerry. I read into it a few months ago, thought the intro was a bit leaden, but the yarn ahead looked interesting.

I haven't finished Sand yet, but will try to speed-read to the end. Does anything actually happen? I must find out!

Meanwhile, I've read Janette Turner Hospital's new novel, Orpheus Lost, for my No 1 Ladies Book Club. What is it about intros? It seems to take a really skilled or innovative writer to get the yarn moving along from the start. Some of the women thought Orpheus Lost plodded at the start, although I appreciated its surreal mood.

There'll be no such complaint with next month's book. Alice Sebold begins The Almost Moon with this sentence: "When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily." After that, the book becomes weird, but it's got a compelling quality and I'll read to the end.

Cheers.

I could do with a good laugh right now.

Hi Guys,

It looks like Lindsay's good to go, so I'll join her with one that sounds like it might be a bit of fun. And i might even learn something along the way: THE BEST OF FORWARDED EMAILS

I've never heard of G. Ram Kumar , but i flicked through a couple of the chapters and he seems to have a handle on humour. What the hell, a good laugh might be just the thing to de-stress after a dog of a week. And i mean a great Dane sort of dog. A big job i'm working on looks like turning into the shower scene from Psycho. With twice the blood!!

http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/TheBest/index.asp

I'll pick out the best bits and share the fun with you all.

Ciao, Alex.

PS: i like the way Lindsay added the synopsis of her book, so i've done a double take. Hope you don't mind L.

The Best of Forwarded emails, by G. Ram Kumar. Ram’s work as a spam buster during the course of work gave him ample opportunities to come across spam – fun email. Collecting avidly such emails over a period of time culminated in the concept, design & content of this book.

It contains a blend of fun & value-added articles that are informative & thought-provoking from eminent authors and business leaders. In that way, this book goes beyond remaining a mere fun book.

Names, characters, places & incidents are used fictitiously or just for fun and any resemblance to any actual person living or dead or locales is entirely coincidental. Remember, this book aims at spreading fun and no malicious motives should be read with this work. Just enjoy reading & have a merry laugh! That’s it!

Lindsay's Round Two Choice

Hey guys,

I've decided to read Zen & The Art of Stand Up Comed by Eugene Binx

I've had my eye on it for a while now and keen to get started. I haven't spoken with Frances yet, so I don't know if we'll do round two of the travelling theatre. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Can't wait to see what the other BLs grab off the bookshelf this month. It's all a bit revealing isn't it? There's an old saying, 'show me your book case and I'll know all about you.'

Zen & The Art of Stand-up Comed by Eugene Binx Nineteen-year-old Norman Smith arrives in the East End of London in the summer of 2002. The well educated Art College drop out from Birmingham is to lodge and work with his Uncle Ernest and Auntie Katie. Norman is an indecisive directionless gentle giant of a young man. Having settled at once into the role of the Son that Ernest and Katie never managed, he continues to drift through life. Within 36 hours of arriving he is seduced by Nancy Trollop, Katie’s best friend. She is twice Norman’s age and their relationship will be the cause of all that happens to him in London and perhaps even thereafter. Through this relationship, Norman is taken on as the Doorman at a new Stand-up comedy venue in the area, “The Two Buttocks.” His life continues still without him making any decisions and he goes on to become Compare, Comedian and Manager at the venue, all by default.

I've already downloaded the eBook to my laptop. Gotta get me one of those digital reader thingys. I think the ATO will agree it's a ligit work related expense. I read a bloody truckload of stuff each day; so why not?

Don't wait too long guys. I've worked it out that it will take us around 10.45 years to get through the current eBooks Globusz has in its library. And that's if we read two books every month. No time out!

So get to it guys!

Cheers, Lindsay.