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Post by Simbelmyne on Nov 16, 2003 13:08:05 GMT
On the positive side - LOTR is no.1 on the Big Read! Yay! And on the negative side - that guy doing it (Ray Mears) is so annoying! I don't like him at all and he didn't say the right things  I think (however much I like Tom Bombadil) it was a bit stupid to feature loads of him - purely because I don't think it's one of the strengths of the book. It's not necessary to the books - the films and the radio drama proved that. He didn't mention many of the major parts (e.g. Lothlorien or any of the major battles later on) and he got through about half the Fellowship in half an hour! I'm not happy about that. Anyway, I hope it doesn't drop now he's done that. OK, rant over. What did you think? Simbelmyne |
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Post by Éowynshue on Nov 16, 2003 13:21:22 GMT
I'm glad its winning, but its not surprising really. lol. i thought the show was dissapointing. Something really bugged me and that was when he said "who is the lord of the ring? well its whoever has it in their possession which is frodo" or something along those lines. Wrong! Gandalf says in FOTR chapter 'Many Meetings' "The Lord of the Ring is not Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor". So that annoyed me... and his impression of Gollum was just awful! it sounded like Yoda with a Welsh accent! strange... and his singing. not good. he wouldn't have convinced me to vote for it (already have voted for it  ) i dont think it can drop lol. its not just people from britain voting for it, fans from all over the world are voting for it, and thats a lot of fans! it will win, no doubt about it. if they'd done this before the films came out it would be different, and since the final film comes out a couple of days after the Big Read final i think all the movie stuff will make even more people vote for it. bookies have even stopped taking bets on it they're that certain it'll win |
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Post by Simbelmyne on Nov 16, 2003 13:47:23 GMT
Ah yes, I forgot that about the "who is the Lord of the Rings" eowynshue. And Gollum had a strong Welsh accent! (No offence intended to anyone except Ray Mears) And he has a really rubbish understanding of LOTR I think. Boo to Ray Mears!
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Súlryn Nightrunner
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Mae Govennen, Amin naa S?lryn the Wind Chaser
Posts: 32
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Post by Súlryn Nightrunner on Nov 16, 2003 23:05:05 GMT
Ray Mears is cool, HE is the REAL LIFE Strider.
Can you do what he does and he is not annoying
No Offense but this is my opinion!
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Post by Eloise on Nov 17, 2003 7:28:22 GMT
It was no worse than the others really. Did you see the one about his dark materials? Now that was cringe worthy! It did have a lot of mistakes in it, and I didn't like the fact that it only focused on the nature theme of tolkien, there is so much more to LOTR!  |
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Súlryn Nightrunner
Friend of Rohan
Mae Govennen, Amin naa S?lryn the Wind Chaser
Posts: 32
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Post by Súlryn Nightrunner on Nov 17, 2003 9:41:10 GMT
The dude only had 30 mins to tell us about the book, i thought he did very well
Go Ray Mears - Go 21st Century Aragorn
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Post by Laerdan on Nov 17, 2003 10:21:31 GMT
Much as I want LOTR to win I am slighlty concerned that what we get is not a true image, I suspect many people will vote for books they have never read because they have seen the film.
Obviously in LOTR's case this is an advantage to it's chart position, I just hope it persaudes those people to read the book.
I didn't see the Ray Mears bit as I was performing in a concert but he's always irritating and ill informed so no surprises there.
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Post by MirkwoodArcher on Nov 17, 2003 12:27:37 GMT
Sorry to disagree with so many of you, but I thought it was good, apart from the mistake about who is the lord. It's nice to hear Bombadil get a mention. To me, he is a very major part of the book.
Ray Mears is great, and nobody who's read his books would call him ill-informed (I didn't notice a Welsh accent for Gollum, sounded like a London one to me). He clearly didn't understand the "who is lord of the rings" thing, but a lot of people get confused by that. I confess, I really like Ray Mears. There's something very appealing about a man who can do all that he does and who loves the natural world like he does. Probably there are others who could have come up wiuth a better 30 minute synopsis, but I'm probably not one of them and I'm not going to criticise him. At least his love of the book shone through. The part that followed about Wuthering Heights kept confusing the book with a love story. At least LotR didn't suffer that fate!
Neneithel
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Post by Simbelmyne on Nov 17, 2003 16:49:38 GMT
I see we have very divided opinions  This is the first time I've come across him. I can see he loves the book, (mainly because of the state of his copy ) but he is not someone I like. I thought it was cool he was interested in nature, but I thought that a balance would have persuaded a wider range of people. Bombadil I know is loved by a lot of "bookies", but also I saw that the programme was really for people who were massive fans, and the aim was partly to persuade those who weren't huge fans or hadn't finished them! I think it's good that Ray Mears does do what he does, but I found a lot of his career and a tiny bit of "I'm a survival expert and I know what I'm doing" creeping in with his stuff. I don't know if I could do better than him, but what I'm saying is someone else might have done better. I enjoyed the one for Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. That was really good! Oh yeah, who did the His Dark Materials one? Didn't see it. Simbelmyne |
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Post by MirkwoodArcher on Nov 17, 2003 20:57:15 GMT
I liked the Hitchhiker's Guide one too. Sanjeev Bashkar (hope the spelling is right) is always great and his taste in books just makes me like him more.
I think the survival expert stuff creeping in was the fault of the production team, not Mears himself, like the annoying words flying across the screen. It really annoyed me when a goldfish was shown instead of a Babel fish in the HHGttG one. It was manifestly too large to go in anyone's ear. The production team on The Big Read should spend more time reading and less time coming up with silly gimmicks. A great book doesn't need them, they should save them for lame ducks like the works of Dickens, which Ray Mears is welcome to use as firelighters as far as I'm concerned.
Neneithel.
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Earlienda
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Post by Earlienda on Nov 21, 2003 11:03:38 GMT
I have to agree with you there. I didn't think that Ray Mears was the best person to get, and the guy presenting it - he didn't like the book, you could tell. Anyway, back to Ray Mears. There were loads of things that annoyed me and loads of things that I loved. I didn't think he used the time to his advantage. He could have really done a lot more. I didn't really like his Gollum imperssonation - infact it kind of freaked me out. I though that it wasn't really a great film that would encourage people to vote unless they were real die-hard fans *us*! I liked that he mentioned Tom Bombadil, because I always loved him from the books. But what I didn't like was the words flying across the screen, that was just irritating. I, as much as with anybody else, will acknowledge that Tolkien was all about words and language, but that doesn't mean those words should be reandomly flying about the place. I thought that he really should have mentioned something more about the later books, I can understand him not saying the ending,a s there are people who have avoided spoilers, etc, and that would have ruined the films for them. But he could have said more about TTT and a little about ROTK. I didn't like the whole, "Who is the lord of the Rings?" but I can understand him being confoosed. I would be confoosed on a number of things if it hadn't been for COE and sites such as this. I could see that he really liked the books and I identify with him for that and I have to say I admire what he does, *Real-life Strider* and I liked that he showed the Countryside as a sort of Shire-esque place, I really loved that.  On the subject of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I loved it - I'm a huge fan of Sanjeev Baskar, and also of the book so I though it was great. His film really amused me, apart from the whole goldfish thing. What did everyone think of Clair Short's Captain Coreeli's Mandolin. After LOTR that's one of my fave books and I thought she did a great job. |
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Post by MirkwoodArcher on Nov 21, 2003 11:13:44 GMT
To be honest, Clair Short is someone who could put me off virtually anything. The fact that she liked Captain Corelli's Mandolin immediately made it seem unattractive to me. I'm not fond of love stories and I don't like war stories, so it's probably not my kind of book anyway. Maybe I'll read it one day and find out.
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Post by Matrix on Nov 21, 2003 13:22:54 GMT
it was ok but it was abit boring seeing him doing stuff that he does rather then lotr things.
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Earlienda
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Elf Princess of Imladris
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Post by Earlienda on Nov 22, 2003 15:32:07 GMT
it was ok but it was abit boring seeing him doing stuff that he does rather then lotr things. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, I thought it wasn't really anything to do with the book. I mean Alistair McGowan didn't dress up and impersonate Cathy and Heathcliff did he? |
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Earlienda
Friend of Rohan
Elf Princess of Imladris
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Post by Earlienda on Dec 5, 2003 16:35:07 GMT
To be honest, Clair Short is someone who could put me off virtually anything. The fact that she liked Captain Corelli's Mandolin immediately made it seem unattractive to me. I'm not fond of love stories and I don't like war stories, so it's probably not my kind of book anyway. Maybe I'll read it one day and find out. Yeah, I know what you mean Clair Short isn't exactly the best salesperson, but I loved this book. It isn't really focusing on war, it has an interesting view on it but it's more based on the different types of love there is and also the value of people. It really made me look at my elders differently and see them from a different viewpoint. It also made me wistful for that time, before everything was ruined by technology. |
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