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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU Books Game Part 4

999 replies

MoominMymbleandMy · 17/07/2009 19:54

Well, we made it to a fourth thread!

As before, we frame an AIBU from the point of view of a character in a book and everyone tries to guess the book and/or the character.

Everyone welcome to play/time-waste as much or as little as they please.

New thread, new AIBU...

AIBU to refuse to read aloud?

OP posts:
CJCregg · 24/09/2009 14:32

Amazon Prime is going to be my undoing. I ordered the Ariel Manto book this morning in 30 seconds flat. And The Eyre Affair arrived today! I'm never going to get down to any work at this rate ...

Totally stuck on everyone's. Still having my identity crisis - I just wish our mother had named us a bit more imaginatively, it would help give me more of a sense of self.

llandb · 24/09/2009 15:12

CJ, I don't know what yours is, but I want to! Same for everyone, and another plea for clues!

... And I'm a nice chap, (even though the film version painted me as a bit of a lothario). I'm trying to clear my grandfather's name; I have nothing to lose!

steamedtreaclesponge · 24/09/2009 16:27

Right, that's it - I'm demanding books and nothing else for my birthday! And my library account is creaking under the weight of all the reservations I keep making.

Am feeling completely clueless today, can't think what anyone's can be!

...He keeps asking my advice, but my private secretary has enough to do without dashing off letters to him all the time...

llandb · 24/09/2009 19:31

Treacle, I'm sure I should know yours, but I don't (I just want to go and eat cake )

Oh dear, another all-round pleafor clues!

... He went to prison for fraud, and the townsfolk lost their savings. If only he'd had enough money to drill a little deeper!

pollywobbledoodle · 24/09/2009 21:19

and for supper, a bit of pork stew...ah, the perks of the job!

pollywobbledoodle · 24/09/2009 21:21

ps cj, i cancelled amazon prime after the month's trial, far too tempting!
btw cj which R Dahl should i have read ?

CJCregg · 24/09/2009 21:59

Polly, are you the big bad wolf?!

I also did Amazon prime for the free month and then cancelled - but now I've been tempted back, partly because I'm so crap at remembering people's birthdays and you get next day delivery free ... but also due to the veritable frenzy of book buying generated by this thread, which has cost me a fortune in delivery costs.

Roald Dahl - can't remember which one but will look up. On Tales of the Unexpected it was the one with Elaine Stritch. Will come back later.

By the way, if you ARE the wolf, that has got to be the most cryptic, subtle AIBU yet ...

CJCregg · 24/09/2009 22:05

'Twas William and Mary, from the Kiss Kiss collection. Highly recommend all of them if you've never read. Saw a friend who was reading John Wyndham this morning, and had an overwhelming desire to reread all his short stories too ...

Original poster
MoominMymbleandMy · 24/09/2009 23:09

Evening all! I've been busy with boring RL and return to discover my brain has shut down totally because I'm clueless about the lot!

CJ, is your mother a bit of a mad scientist?

And what Roald Dahl thread are you and Polly mucking about on?

Clues, please, everyone!

OP posts:
CJCregg · 24/09/2009 23:24

Evening, Moomin!

thread here though not really about Roald Dahl at all!

Poor Mum - she doesn't have time to do anything except run around after us. Though sometimes she does get distracted, thinking of alternative names for us that she could have chosen, but didn't ...

CJCregg · 24/09/2009 23:25

PS just started the Eyre Affair!

Original poster
MoominMymbleandMy · 25/09/2009 00:06

Hope you're enjoying it, CJ, and thank you for the link, I did nearly PMSL - a treat after a day doing the equivalent of trying to drive cats in harness.

And I am totally, utterly and completely stumped on all of them, and feeling so thick I might go and fish out The Eyre Affair for a re-read!

OP posts:
llandb · 25/09/2009 10:10

Morning!

at you lot.

Now, I'm short of cash, and I haven't long to live. And we have to prove there's oil in the Rocky Mountains before the valley's doomed to flooding!

But wait, the spinster who fancied my grandfather absolutely insists that I take her life savings...

pollywobbledoodle · 25/09/2009 11:13

morning!
High 5 cj, i was indeed the big bad wolf..have you any chandeliersto swing on?

and will def read the r dahl books you mentioned...i didn't realise john wyndham had written any short stories, i used to love his books when i was in my teens (i feel a library visit coming on....not amazon, i am trying to reduce the strain on the floorboards!)

more clues on the rest please

pollywobbledoodle · 25/09/2009 11:27

llandb, yours isn't anything to do with mark twain is it?

llandb · 25/09/2009 11:38

Sorry, BigBadWolf polly, no Mark Twain.

I'm a Brit named Bruce, visiting my grandfathers's kingdom in Canada!

(Pity to be named Bruce and not Australian )

pollywobbledoodle · 25/09/2009 11:42

worth a try!no idea now i'm afraid

steamedtreaclesponge · 25/09/2009 12:03

...His tempting just isn't up to scratch - I'm worried we're going to lose this one to the Other Side, if he's not careful...

Llandb, gave into temptation and googled, and now know what yours is! But not going to put it down as would be cheating, will wait and see if anyone else gets it...

llandb · 25/09/2009 12:05

llandb's assesment of the author's plot (repeat x however many books he wrote):

Bloke with some sort of shadowy past (in this case, curmudgeonly gaolbird grandfather he barely knew) has shed his past and mended his ways, but has to face old nemesis while somehow crippled.

Faces nemesis with lots of show-down. Boats and oil rigs may feature.

There is a girl, but she's barely mentioned.

Baddie is killed. Hero/anti-hero and justice prevail.

Bloke marries barely-mentioned girl, whose appeal isn't necessarily obvious because she hardly gets a mention

steamedtreaclesponge · 25/09/2009 12:07

I'd never heard of the author before - are the books actually any good? Am guessing not, from your summary, but they sound like they could be quite fun...

Original poster
MoominMymbleandMy · 25/09/2009 12:09

Ohh! Brain finally clicks into gear! The Screwtape Letters!

Don't worry about cheating by Googling, Treacle. It shows initiative when we are all baffled and I've just done it for Llandb's too. What a troublesome clan your family is!

Polly, was that a particular version of the Big Bad Wolf? And, if so, which one, please?

OP posts:
llandb · 25/09/2009 12:10

Ah, Treacle, cross-posted! Auntie's ex-BF gave us a few of this fella's books and it was on my list of fave trash lit for a while (local secondhand bookshop had a big stash )

steamedtreaclesponge · 25/09/2009 12:15

Hooray! Finally! Gosh those ones went on for a while.

Original poster
MoominMymbleandMy · 25/09/2009 12:19

They did go on for a bit but collective honour is restored! Phew!

AIBU to be scared of a book?

OP posts:
llandb · 25/09/2009 12:23

Treacle, I think the quality varies depending on how pressing the publishers had been

Certainly better-written, better-researched, more of a greenie ethic (in view of the times ) and less dripping with misogyny than your average blokey gung-ho adventure story, or so I reckon. Auntie's BF was more of a Wilbur Smith and Tom Clancy reader!

Not heard of the others - and what Moomin asked about whether a particular version of BBW, please?

Off to head off RL destruction