Let Me Lodge A Complaint, Mr Lodge!

Advantages: the story proper
Disadvantages: the afterword

...I've just read an interview with a German author who says that he's always liked reading from his books in front of an audience, especially from works in progress as this enables him to see his books more objectively, from the point of view of the readers. At the moment he's working on a novel for which he hasn't decided on an ending yet; he discusses what he's already written with his audience and listens to their suggestions which often surprise him as the readers notice and understand things he's written in a different way from what he's intended, the reason being that they bring their different experience to the book and thus take different ideas and findings away from the reading. If only this author could meet David Lodge and teach him something about the reception of literature and how to treat readers! The first page...

MALU 15.11.2003 · Read review
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Review of Out of the Shelter - David Lodge

Give Castle Lodge the Dodge

Advantages: A historical building
Disadvantages: disappointing and spoilt by the owners

...CASTLE LODGE It was a family day out in Ludlow and whilst I was sitting resting on the bench, waiting for my hubby to return from checking the car and the parking fees, I noticed this really old Tudor style house opposite and on closer inspection discovered that it was open to the public. We didn?t go in straight away, but I did drop a big hint like, ?I want to go in there before we go home? to the family, so that they would not be surprised after the visit to the castle that we went in here. After we had a lovely lunch in the café situated next door to the lodge after a amazing trip around the castle. We were all in high spirits and enjoying our food and refreshments, I dropped the bombshell that I wanted to see the house, they did try to dissuade me as they were now getting slightly tired and wanted to do a little retail...

arnoldhenryrufus 13.06.2009 (18.06.2009) · Read review
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Review of Castle Lodge, Ludlow

  CAMPUS SOAP WITH A SPRINKLING OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Advantages: informative, witty, entertaining, well written, light reading despite subject matter
Disadvantages: patronising, pretensional, overdone, not edited enough

...I have been wondering recently if the reason I like David Lodge so much is perhaps because I have never really grown out of `edutainment` offerings of my youth. You might know the kind of novels I mean, half adventure, half textbook with the information part sometimes integrated into the story and sometimes just put in as a footnote. My favourite ones were of far-away lands, nature and science. I don`t know how popular this didactic genre was or is in the UK, but I used to love them when growing up in Poland. David Lodge is a bit like that: one actually gets quite a lot of solid knowledge out of his book and it`s usually passed on in an interesting way and fairly naturally, as most of the characters in his novels are scholars or writers of some kind. Until recently the academics populating Lodge`s novels were almost exclusively...

magdadh 11.02.2005 (17.03.2005) · Read review
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Review of Thinks - David Lodge

David Cook

Advantages: Current American Idol winner, a musician
Disadvantages: None

...This...... is the current American Idol Winner. David Cook is the American Idol that nearly never was. He actually was not initially going to try out for the television talent show, he was at the auditions to support his brother but, after some pushing from his brother, decided to audition too. A good decision, because he became the winner of the seventh season of American Idol in 2008. David Cook is classified as a Rock, singer-songwriter. His sound is definitely very rocky, but in my opinion quite soft rock. He has a very deep, raspy voice that lends itself very well to this type of music. What I really like about him is that he can actually play an instrument, unlike a lot of the new pop stars out there today who are just manufactured. He plays the guitar and actually used it quite a lot when he was performing on Idol. If you look...

Spottydog11 05.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of David Cook - David Cook

Lovely lodges and amazing hot tubs!

Advantages: Nice lodges, fantastic hot tubs!
Disadvantages: Surrounding area not so good

...Drummohr Lodges are situated on the Firth of Forth, near Musselburgh, Scotland. The park is approx 8 miles from Edinburgh. I came across Drummohr Lodges while browsing through the Hoseasons brochure last year. I was looking for somewhere new to visit for a short break with my partner for his birthday in November, and having stayed in a few Hoseasons holiday parks previously and always finding them to be really nice, I didn't really want to look elsewhere. We do like to stay in lodges, preferably ones with hot tubs! So this was a particular requirement when looking through the various holiday parks in the brochure. We decided on Drummohr Lodges as we thought it looked nice and was also not far from Edinburgh which we wanted to visit. Plus, some of the lodges also had hot tubs! So we booked a Mon - Fri break. We drove up the A1 from...

JEFFJEN 24.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Drummohr Lodges, Edinburgh

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Disney's Wilderness Lodge: Welcome Home

Advantages: A hotel brimming with personality and themed to perfection
Disadvantages: Expensive. But you get what you pay for.

...I consider myself lucky in relation to a lot of things in my life, but especially so when it comes to holidays. When I was six my parents took my to Disneyworld in Florida for the first time. Such was the impression that was left on us from that fantastic holiday, that my parents have taken me back there too many times to count since. In 1998, when I was fourteen years old, we stayed at Disneys Wilderness Lodge for the first time. Even by the standards of Disneyworld this phenomenal hotel raised the bar clean out of site, and since then we haven't even contemplated staying anywhere else. Read on to find out why. FIRST IMPRESSIONS From the moment you arrive at Wilderness Lodge you get hit with this feeling that you've arrived somewhere special. The hotel design is based on the Pacific Northwest, and is certainly the best...

CrazyJamie 11.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Disney's Wilderness Lodge, Orlando

Deaf Sentence - Literary Fiction At Its Best

Advantages: A well crafted novel that delivers at every level
Disadvantages: None

...Having first encountered the work of David Lodge many years ago with his now classic novel Small World, I've made it a point to read everything he has produced since in the way of fiction; to date I have yet to be disappointed. Deaf Sentence is no exception. Told in both the first person by the central character, a retired university lecturer, and the third person, a device which works extremely well, this novel is at times both hilarious and tragic. The hilarity springs from the main character's frustration with his ever increasing deafness and his efforts to live with his condition. Far from mocking the afflicted as might be imagined, the difficulties of going deaf and all that it entails are spelled out in such a way as to generate humour and a degree of compassion. The sub-plots involving the narrator's wife and her business, his...

timetostand 18.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Deaf Sentence - David Lodge

CAMPUS SATIRE MEETS THE FACTORY MANAGER

Advantages: great characters, still valid issues, funny jokes, literary games, good story
Disadvantages: literary games and jokes based on literary theory are not to everybody's taste

...compete with barrow-boy yuppies at City merchant banks just before the Big Bang. Yes, we are talking Thatcher's 80's here and the historical and social realities are always there, explained clearly enough for those who don't remember or were not told. In fact, be it realities of 80s' Britain, post-structuralism or the plight of manufacturing industry; everything is explained and an ignorant reader like me gets gently educated. A reader familiar with one or all of themes appearing in the novel does not need to worry about being patronised as the explanations offer not only the facts but also commentary ranging from subtly ironic to scathingly hilarious. I am a great fan of David Lodge's writing and his books provided me with hours of enjoyment, surprising amount of knowledge of literary theory and many a fascinating insight into the British...

magdadh 15.05.2004 (16.05.2004) · Read review
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Review of Nice Work - David Lodge

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54