The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: bestseller92 on September 23, 2009, 07:19:29 AM
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This is the first Cormac McCarthy book I've ever read. Actually I was inspired to buy it by a mention by Massad Ayoob in "Backwoods Home" magazine.
Now I'm about halfway through and it's awesome.
The man and boy have just discovered a treasure trove, a cellar full of canned goods and other necessities.
They also found ammo, but, alas, no gun.
(No, please don't tell me how the story ends!)
As a postscript, it's gonna be a movie soon with Viggo Mortensen and Robert Duvall.
If Duvall is in it, I am there!
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Loved the book and can't wait to see the movie. It really hit home since I have a son about the age of the boy in the book. Made me think about how I would deal with the situation.
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Sounds interesting. Can y'all give a brief plot synopsis with no spoilers?
FQ13
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road
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Basically the world ends, everyone dies.
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Basically the world ends, everyone dies.
And that's the optimistic review!
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Oh great! Now I've GOTTA read it, while I wait for Zombieland to come out! ;D
Before I go to the book store, any more good / similar books to look for?
(If Mr. Ayoob recommended it I've NO doubt its a great read)
I've watched "No Country for Old Men" at least 10 times... GREAT movie! (a supressed 12 gauge though? :-\)
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My wife actually bought this book to read. After her synopsis I really didn't want to read it (women take things completely different than men). I started to read it when I had nothing else. I ended up really enjoying the book.
I can say that I would have been slightly better prepared. ;)
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Well, MOST people die. Not everyone.
And it did inspire me to lay in a few more canned goods :).
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It should inspire folks to get at least 1 FULL box of ammo as well ;D
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Well, MOST people die. Not everyone.
And it did inspire me to lay in a few more canned goods :).
Gotta say this sort of thing is a bit sobering (read deppressing as hell) but its why I don't have a real bug out plan beyond a packed bag. Where the hell are you going to go in a stupidly over populated South Florida? Unless you have an ocean going sail boat (that survives whatever the"event" is) you are stuck where you are. I have a month's worth of food, water and fuel and a fair few rounds of ammo to survive in place but I do not like my chances if SHTF in a serious TEOTWAWKI scenario. I also am not paranoid enough to move somewhere where I would stand a better chance because I don't really fancy living in Eastern Montana or somewhere like that (the restaraunts suck for one thing and its hard to make a living). I'll take my chances where I am, but will probaly live just long enough to regret it if things do get seriosuly ugly.
FQ13
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Your a real optimist aren't you ? ;D
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Quaker, If you head north a little ways you can QUICKLY get yourself into a hiding place even you wont be able to find yourself in! Georgia is well known for its "backwoods". I've heard tale of such places in Florida too. I've already come accross thousands of acers of THICK, THICK, F'n THICK woods here in SC in just a few weeks I've been here. Good to hide in, EASY to make shelter in, lots of clean water, but food? Not much to hunt on the east side of this state. :(
Can you eat camp-fire roasted Zombie? :-\
We just got back from the book store with the book, and a copy of "Combat Survival" - a UK magazine, LOTS of interesting stuff in it. ;D
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Quaker, If you head north a little ways you can QUICKLY get yourself into a hiding place even you wont be able to find yourself in! Georgia is well known for its "backwoods". I've heard tale of such places in Florida too. I've already come accross thousands of acers of THICK, THICK, F'n THICK woods here in SC in just a few weeks I've been here. Good to hide in, EASY to make shelter in, lots of clean water, but food? Not much to hunt on the east side of this state. :(
Can you eat camp-fire roasted Zombie? :-\
We just got back from the book store with the book, and a copy of "Combat Survival" - a UK magazine, LOTS of interesting stuff in it. ;D
Yep......there are plenty of places in the southeastern corner that still hide moonshine stills, dopers, and a few bodies that will never be found.....it's mostly all piney woods and/or swamp from I-75 east and I-16 south....with a few towns thrown in.
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OMG, somebody could have said how slow this book is... 71 pages into it, and a better author could have had this covered in 2 pages... OK, if you like reading about minute details of scenary and pushing a shopping buggy around ::).
May as well keep reading, it can only get better!
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OMG, somebody could have said how slow this book is... 71 pages into it, and a better author could have had this covered in 2 pages... OK, if you like reading about minute details of scenary and pushing a shopping buggy around ::).
May as well keep reading, it can only get better!
Darn Russians write like that to. Thanks for the warning . I think I'll skip that one. ;D
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Oh yeah, it starts slow.
It does get better.
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It should inspire folks to get at least 1 FULL box of ammo as well ;D
The events in the book take place several years after the catastrophic events that led to the destruction of the earth and human society. The man (whose name we never learn) may well have had more ammo when that happened, though clearly he did not have enough.
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They dont even say exactly what ever happened do they?!? So far they just talk about burnt tree's, but plenty of buildings still standing and fine, roads seem fine, a people made it, for all the time spent on scenery he sure leaves a lot to be desired. >:( I'm still trying to make myself pick it up again. Guess I'll go do that now. :(
What planet is this taking place on?!? Lots of talk about pushing a shopping buggy for miles through the woods! I have yet to see a woods on this planet where that's feasible. :-\
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Yep......there are plenty of places in the southeastern corner that still hide moonshine stills, dopers, and a few bodies that will never be found.....it's mostly all piney woods and/or swamp from I-75 east and I-16 south....with a few towns thrown in.
I once interrupted a drug deal in Valdosta, right along the interstate, when my brother and I drove down to FL for Christmas with my Dad.
2AM, I was driving, tired, finishing my driving stint, saw florescents off the highway at an interchange. Pulled off and into the almost abandoned parking lot of a restaurant, closed for the night. One other car, by the front of the restuaraant, driver's door, hood and trunk open, a beater. I pulled into a corner of the parking lot under a light, and we got out (brother, his wife and mine, and I) and stretched our legs. At this point I noticed simultaneously 2 things - a car down the road to the west through the trees - lights on but not moving. And a scruffy looking scrawny-assed hairy dude coming from behind the restaurant who started moving very fast when he saw us.
I yelled at everyone to get into the car, and of course the girls are saying - not so fast, we're still stretching, etc. - at which point I am shoving people into the car. The scrawny-assed guy was faster - closed all open items and drove off at break-neck speed eastbound. The headlights down the road went after him - also at high speed, and a 3rd car I had NOT seen right outside the parking lot threw a louie and took off at high speed as well. My brother was driving, and at this point understood exactly what was going on and he was doing 80 when we hit the bottom of the on-ramp to the interstate.
I give FQ 30 minutes of life when he bugs out on foot across the GA border. Unless he knows how to squeel like a pig!! ;D ;D ;D ;D (another film reference, anyone?)
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Eat, yes, squeal, not so much.
FQ13 8)
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" in review:
ARRRRGGGHHHHH! I got to page 127 and couldnt take the freakin annoying little kid anymore!!! In 127 pages NOTHING happened!!!! I got fed up and went to the last five pages of the book... WHY, WHY, WHY the F@#$ did this McCarthy turd write this horrible, horrible, go nowhere, do nothing book!?!?!? >:(
Question 1: They never say, so I'm left wondering what possibly occured to "end the world". The entire book talks of nothing but burnt out tree's, inches of ashes on EVERYTHING, even inside the untouched houses (that still have perfect wood shelves, furnature, and glass windows! Volcanic ash? I dont know, but wish the two main charcters would have shot themselves with their two remaining bullets in "papa's revolver!"
Question 2: HOW do you push a shopping buggy hundreds of miles "through the woods"?!?!?!
Question 3: How do you make a movie out of THIS?
Having read the ending chapter, it was VERY easy to see I missed NOTHING in skipping ahead!
I'm done! Rant / review OVER. >:(
Phwew! Back to the Ian Fleming series for me!
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So much for me taking that along with me as vacation reading. Long,slow, wordy, deppresing and vague. It sounds like one of my ex-girlfriends, I'll pass. ;D
FQ13
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I once interrupted a drug deal in Valdosta, right along the interstate, when my brother and I drove down to FL for Christmas with my Dad.
2AM, I was driving, tired, finishing my driving stint, saw florescents off the highway at an interchange. Pulled off and into the almost abandoned parking lot of a restaurant, closed for the night. One other car, by the front of the restuaraant, driver's door, hood and trunk open, a beater. I pulled into a corner of the parking lot under a light, and we got out (brother, his wife and mine, and I) and stretched our legs. At this point I noticed simultaneously 2 things - a car down the road to the west through the trees - lights on but not moving. And a scruffy looking scrawny-assed hairy dude coming from behind the restaurant who started moving very fast when he saw us.
I yelled at everyone to get into the car, and of course the girls are saying - not so fast, we're still stretching, etc. - at which point I am shoving people into the car. The scrawny-assed guy was faster - closed all open items and drove off at break-neck speed eastbound. The headlights down the road went after him - also at high speed, and a 3rd car I had NOT seen right outside the parking lot threw a louie and took off at high speed as well. My brother was driving, and at this point understood exactly what was going on and he was doing 80 when we hit the bottom of the on-ramp to the interstate.
I give FQ 30 minutes of life when he bugs out on foot across the GA border. Unless he knows how to squeel like a pig!! ;D ;D ;D ;D (another film reference, anyone?)
Too easy!
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So much for me taking that along with me as vacation reading. Long,slow, wordy, deppresing and vague. It sounds like one of my ex-girlfriends, I'll pass. ;D
FQ13
Get Patient Zero, much better read.
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There's no accounting for taste(s).
I thought it was an excellent book.
The best I've ever read? No, but still very good.
It's not a survivalist book so much as it is a book about relationships, the human condition and love.
Mainly it asks the question, "When all hope is lost, is it still worth it to go on, or should we just lay down and die?"
And the answer is, "Yes, it IS worth it to go on."
That's what I got out of it, anyway.
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There's no accounting for taste(s).
I thought it was an excellent book.
The best I've ever read? No, but still very good.
It's not a survivalist book so much as it is a book about relationships, the human condition and love.
Mainly it asks the question, "When all hope is lost, is it still worth it to go on, or should we just lay down and die?"
And the answer is, "Yes, it IS worth it to go on."
That's what I got out of it, anyway.
Dumb questions like this are asked by self impressed assholes sitting comfortably in a college town coffee shop, more interested in impressing the girls than actually learning about life by getting their hands dirty experiencing it. (generally they are French or liberal )
If you are still going on then hope is never lost.
A couple of examples from our own early years , Mountain MEN:
Hugh Glass, In a fight with a Grizzly that he killed with a knife, he was so badly mauled his companions left him for dead after taking his weapons and anything that might have been of value to Indians. He not only kept himself alive, but made it to a settlement to get reoutfitted and return to the mountains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass
Then there was John Colter, captured by the Indians, he was stripped and forced to run the Gauntlet, when he got to the end he kept on going, for 80 miles until he got to an Army post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Colter#Colter.27s_Run
REAL men know that being able to ask the question is it's own answer.
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Tom's exactly right!
Early on in the book the wife starts freaking out. "What are you going to do when they come for us?" She basicly tell's her husband he's not man enough to protect her, then goes outside and kills herself for fear of somebody rapeing her one day!?!?! That's a story of love?
If I hadent thrown the book in the bathroom garbage with dirty Q-tips and such (on purpose. It didnt deserve kitchen garbage) I'd directly quote it. But this is an example of ANY page in the book.
Pappa, I'm very hungry.
We'll eat soon.
Pappa, I'm very hungry
I'm sorry, we dont have any food.
Pappa, what if we dont eat soon?
We'll be alright.
Pappa, what if we dont eat for a long time?
That won't happen.
Pappa, what if it did?
We'd eventually die.
Pappa, would we just fall over dead?
Yes, something like that. But we'll find food.
And EVERY TIME they just happen to wonder accross an abandon house with something to eat. ::)
All the while PUSHING A SHOPPING BUGGY FULL OF THE KIDS TOYS THROUGH THE WOODS!!!! AAAARRRRGGGHHH! ::)
They kept a tarp and blankets in backpacks, but never left the freaking buggy!
Somebody please tell me what burns all tree's, leaves houses untouched, kill's most all life (fish, animals, people), covers EVERYTHING with inches of ash, yet doesnt contaminate water, harm roads, and allow's you to easily hide in a completely burnt out woods? Aliens? Why else did all the tree's burn, but houses didnt? Water is still safe to drink, but no fish to eat? It's been like 10 years since this happened and the guy's "gas fueled" lighter still works to make a camp fire every night (with pre-burnt wood presumably). Nothing in this book makes sense. >:(
But yes, I'll agree. There's no accounting for taste. ;D