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Post by Chris W on Dec 4, 2018 11:45:38 GMT -7
I'm ready to start whenever you guys are. No rush; I have plenty of other books I can read.
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Post by jetjackson on Dec 4, 2018 14:52:41 GMT -7
I'm already half way through the book, although I stopped and started a different book to wait for everyone joining here to catch up.
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Post by MarkAnderson on Dec 4, 2018 14:56:12 GMT -7
I have about 50 pages left in my current book, so I should be ready to start some time this weekend. Patience, young ones.
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Post by Chris W on Dec 4, 2018 18:09:43 GMT -7
Actually, I just finished reading a book about patience...
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Post by MarkAnderson on Dec 5, 2018 12:25:32 GMT -7
I’m ready to start reading tonight.
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Post by jetjackson on Dec 5, 2018 15:21:52 GMT -7
Assume your other half has already finished it then
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Post by MarkAnderson on Dec 5, 2018 15:39:08 GMT -7
I don’t think she’ll care for Statement.
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Post by MarkAnderson on Dec 6, 2018 10:42:30 GMT -7
Read the 1st chapter last night, and I'm instantly reminded of why I didn't like this book. Who does Ed Douglas think he's writing for? The audience is a bunch of S7-beanie-wearing pad people. Why is the prose so pretentious and pedantic? It's like he's writing to win a book festival award or satisfy a dissertation committee. I'm already tired of hearing about how hanging out at road cuts throwing wobblers is the same as painting the Mona Lisa.
And stop trying to win over Ben Moon's detractors from 30 years ago. News flash: those people are mostly already dead, and the rest are never reading this book.
Now that I have that out of my system I can focus on Ben's climbing.
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Post by jetjackson on Dec 6, 2018 17:09:38 GMT -7
Yes, I was reading the first chapter and I'd pull out the phone occasionally and look up the meaning of a word. Not so much as I didn't get the 'gist' of it's meaning, but more that I was curious as to what a perfectly normal alternative to the word would have been. As per the Economist style guide, never use a long word or foreign word when a shorter or everyday English word will do. The author seems desperate to impress with his vocabulary. It eases off however in later chapters, presumably he got tired of constantly reaching for the thesaurus while writing the book.
Warning, 1st chapter 'spoilers'...
The level of detail into his father's career as an artist was unnecessary in my opinion. This is the story of Ben Moon and we really only need to know about his father in so much as it has shaped and effected his life. Clearly the death of his father was an important aspect of that, moreover his father's death on a motorbike, which did not seem to deter Moon from bikes, speed and risk later in life.
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Post by MarkAnderson on Dec 6, 2018 18:00:46 GMT -7
The level of detail into his father's career as an artist was unnecessary in my opinion. This is the story of Ben Moon and we really only need to know about his father in so much as it has shaped and effected his life. Clearly the death of his father was an important aspect of that, moreover his father's death on a motorbike, which did not seem to deter Moon from bikes, speed and risk later in life. Totally agree. I feel like the author is bending over backwards to show off his art-critic-chops and to draw (dubious in my opinion) parallels between climbing and painting. I also don’t care for all the tedious details of every letter and book his grandfather gave him. That could be covered in one short page stating that Ben admired his grandfather and was inspired by his stories about climbing. I was thinking today about how most books of this type begin with an attention-grabbing white knuckle cliffhanger (literally), and then rewind to the beginning of the story. This book starts with tiresome rambling about Scottish hill walking and then segues into art appreciation class.
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Post by Chris W on Dec 6, 2018 18:35:35 GMT -7
Read the 1st chapter last night, and I'm instantly reminded of why I didn't like this book. Who does Ed Douglas think he's writing for? The audience is a bunch of S7-beanie-wearing pad people. Why is the prose so pretentious and pedantic? It's like he's writing to win a book festival award or satisfy a dissertation committee. I'm already tired of hearing about how hanging out at road cuts throwing wobblers is the same as painting the Mona Lisa. And stop trying to win over Ben Moon's detractors from 30 years ago. News flash: those people are mostly already dead, and the rest are never reading this book. Now that I have that out of my system I can focus on Ben's climbing. Hahahaha!!! Well, at least I'm not the only one who though the book got off to a rocky start. I was trying to figure out where he was going with Chapter 1 or what point he was trying to make. I'm about mid way through chapter 2 and haven't found anything yet I thought I would talk about. Jet, I agree, almost all the information about his father could have been left out, especially the art stuff. I know I'm just a cave man, but I really and truly don't understand the appeal of that type of "modern art". Blue circles on a red square? It's a good thing I'm reading this with you guys. You're much better at articulating your thoughts about the text than I am. I'm a very simple-minded cave man.
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Post by MarkAnderson on Dec 6, 2018 19:09:22 GMT -7
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Post by Chris W on Dec 6, 2018 19:24:37 GMT -7
Not quite. I'm bald.
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Post by Chris W on Dec 7, 2018 16:52:43 GMT -7
Well, I've read the first three chapters now and so far, I haven't come across anything exciting yet. I feel like, up to this point, I learned more about Ben from Revelations, and I'm glad I read that first. It's gotten a bit more interesting...
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Post by rockmoose on Dec 7, 2018 17:35:00 GMT -7
I haven't started yet, but I'm certainly hoping it improves from the early call signs posted. Otherwise it's going to be a long slog. Having just finished Revelations, The push, and Alone on the wall, in quick succession, I particularly liked being able to cross-reference historical ascents from different viewpoints. I'm expecting plenty of this between Statement, and Revelations.
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