Posts by Rob Hosking
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Oh man, I love this sort of time-wasting bollocks.
1) What are you reading at the moment?Just finishing Julian Barnes' Pulse, and marvelling at the guy's writing: this a very personal thing, but you know how you can start reading someone and something just goes 'click' in the brain? Anyway, this is what happens with me and most of Barnes' writing, especially his short story collections. Also re-reading a collection of H L Mencken's collected political essays A Carnival of Buncombe, something which has perhaps made some of my columns more dispeptic this campaign (not that it needed a lot of help). Also part way through This Time Its Different, which is a magnificent history of financial crises. It is very good if you're into this sort of thing and personally I am.
2) As a child, what did you read under the covers?
Lots, but I especially remember being caught reading those WWII classics like Wings Day, The Sky Suspended, etc.
3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one?No fiction that I can remember, quite a bit of non-fiction.
4) You are about to be put into solitary confinement for a year and allowed to take three books. What would you choose?
The Bible, Collected Works of Shakespeare, and one of the 20-odd books from the bedside cupboard 'To read' pile.
5) Which literary character would you most like to sleep with?Adora Belle Dearheart from Pratchett's Going Postal. Sharply intelligent, sarcastic, simmering with rage and reminding me uncannily of a number of exes.
6) If you could write a self-help book, what would you call it?
For God's Sake Go For A Walk In The Fresh Air Or Something.
7) Which book, which play, and which poem would you make compulsory reading in high school English classes?
Book: Ending Up by Kingsley Amis. Brilliantly structured, a magnificent example of Amis's ability to use the way people speak to reveal character, and fiendishly, blackly funny.
Play: Troilus and Cressida by Shakespeare. Give 'em a 'problem play' for once, instead of the usual tragedies; introduce teenagers to a bit of cynicism about love; and, for good measure (hah!) include an introduction to some sound political philosophy by spending a week or two on Ulysses' speech on degree.
Poem: Mrs Icarus by Carol Ann Duffy. Was still breaking out into giggles hours after I first read it.
8) Which party from literature would you most like to have attended?
Probably something from Gargantua and Pantagruel but only if I could still go home early.
9) What would you title your memoirs?
No, I Tell A Lie, It Was The Tuesday has already been taken, sadly.
10) If you were an actor, which literary character do you dream of playing?Jude the Obscure.
11) What book would you give to a lover?
This is hypothetical since I'm happily hitched... but Ex Libris by Anne Friedman would be perfect, since it is all about merging book collections with her partner.
12) Spying Mein Kampf or Dan Brown on someone’s bookshelf can spell havoc for a friendship. What’s your literary deal breaker?
No 'deal breaker' as such...its about balance, isn't it? Someone might have the odd Dan Brown or whatever - we're all entitled, I feel, to the odd night of junk food, metaphorically and literally. (snarf) So long as its more than balanced out by more substantial fare.In fact, what I'd be looking for is a lack of narrowness. To me, what makes someone interesting is an element of heterodoxy, a bit of a mix and mingle approach to looking at life, and at least a hint of a set of opinions which aren't just something off the peg.
A bookshelf dominated by Dan Brown would make me recoil, but so would a bookshelf dominated by political or literary theory. Or a set of shelves, perhaps.
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Opening to Paris Texas. Ry Cooder rules.
I suspect this was the first vaguely arthouse film I ever saw - at Charley Greys, I think (although it may have been the theatre under the Auckland library, the name of which escapes me now) Back in about 1986-87.Opening sequence blew me away.
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Muse: Thirteen Ways of Looking at A…, in reply to Sacha,
Nicely done....
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Muse: Thirteen Ways of Looking at A…, in reply to JacksonP,
Yeah, back in my Uni days that was one of the first poems 'done' in stage one modern Eng Lit.
It was very apt, everyone sat there thinking WCW would have been a pain in the arse to have as a flatmate.
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Nice witty piece. You can adopt 'The Comedian as the Letter C' as a kind of nom de humour
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In 1996, I got a proper job at IDG and became the sole Mac holdout in the office, at the terrible price of having to use Lotus Notes 4.x for Mac
I remember that. The year before, we'd all been told we would be getting new computers, and we could choose PC or Mac, but the upper budget limit was (from memory) $3000 a machine.
Which meant that given the price differential at the time, everyone went to the latest PC Direct machine, loaded with a beta version Windows '95 which hadn't been released at that point.
We'd been using Macs until then and I bought mine off the company, the first computer I owned, an Apple IIci, for $400.
I got to take both with me when I wangled a transfer to IDG's Wellington office.
I seem to recall when you arrived in the Auckland office and wangled an Apple machine, there was some office speculation about how far you'd managed to push the budget limit above $3000 line.
I suppose annual inflation was running at around 5% at the time, so that may have helped....
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Hard News: How much speech does it take?, in reply to Islander,
I was a postie 1986-88-ish. I don't recall being required to swear an oath. I do recall being reprimanded for swearing at one of the supervisors, but I think that is perhaps a bit different.
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For those who were brought up Catholic.....the immortal* Dave Allen
*um, except for the fact he died a couple of years back.
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Field Theory: Gruts, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Surely the mark of a true gentleman is that he can discuss *anything* with propriety, delicacy, accuracy and tact.
Nah, fuck that.
Delighted to see this discussion of burning questions of the day...
First question I have is : 'Gruts' or 'Grunds' ?? I'd never heard the term 'gruts' until my mid 20s, but 'grunds' and 'grundies' was the norm since about the age of eight.
And 'gruts' I first heard from a Pommie tramper.
I'm not too hung up about the different brands but I find anything that isn't entirely or mostly cotton rather uncomfortable.
And even the cotton ones....a bit uncomfortable. Wrote about this before...
http://hosking.blogspot.com/2008/05/not-always-good-fit.html -
Its a cover but they do it justice. And Tex gets to show his best features.
Indeed. As he does on this marvellous infomercial which, I believe, was for a genuine album he had to make for contractual reasons.