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Post by Claire on Mar 17, 2008 21:59:10 GMT 1
Our first reading circle book is to be: Strange Riders at Black Pony Inn by Christine Pullein-Thompson Anyone who wants to join in, please try and read the book within the next 2 weeks, then we will start the discussion. Happy Reading! ;D
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Post by kunuma on Mar 18, 2008 21:21:21 GMT 1
Grrr! Not to preampt discussion, but had forgotten how much I hate the particular type of incident that ocurrs in this book!!
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Post by Claire on Mar 20, 2008 21:44:25 GMT 1
Haven't started on my copy yet. Cant remember a whole lot about the story but must say you've got me all curious to know the incident you are talking about!
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Post by seahorse on Mar 20, 2008 22:55:05 GMT 1
Am about to start now cant wait
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Post by kunuma on Mar 20, 2008 23:52:22 GMT 1
I wonder if the paricular incident was prompted by this happening to the PT's themselves, as it is a recurring story line in several books. Even in one of my favourites, I Wanted a Pony, the possibility is hinted at.
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Post by exmoorfan on Mar 21, 2008 10:34:28 GMT 1
Have started it, not got to the incident..Don' t think I have read this series before.At least its not jogging my memory yet.
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Post by haffyfan on Mar 21, 2008 14:59:15 GMT 1
arrrggghhh......wait for me!
Am just raeding famous Five but will have to take a break it seems. Am intriged by Kunumas posts...can't think what she means but they do seem to lurch from disaster to disaster in that series. OOh might have got it...something to do with your (or nags in this case) noggin?
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Post by haffyfan on Mar 21, 2008 15:00:53 GMT 1
Anyone know if the cassettes abridged as I could cheat? Also is the newer ed (like claires pic) abridged, as they are the only copies I have?
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Post by exmoorfan on Mar 21, 2008 19:38:22 GMT 1
I didn't know there were cassettes haffyfan....I am nearly at the end....See what kunuma means. ;-(
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Post by Claire on Mar 21, 2008 19:42:27 GMT 1
Oh couldn't wait any longer, getting too curious about kunumas comments so have started!
Not sure if the cassettes or newer ed is abridged, although I don't think the newer book is. It's that short if you abridged it, it would practically disappear to nothing! I'm actually reading the 1976 first edition, not the one pictured. But its a good point. Maybe we should say which edition we are reading so we can compare if there are any differences in them.
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Post by haffyfan on Mar 21, 2008 19:44:33 GMT 1
I've got Strange Riders and Prince. Don't know if they did any others, I didn't have any. They survived my mother, unlike the books and i also found a Malory Towers set and Five Go To Smugglers top so somebody must have produced a library. You can get the Silver Brumby I believe too, good job my old stereo still has a cassette deck!
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Post by exmoorfan on Mar 22, 2008 11:05:22 GMT 1
Well are we doing the whole series.? lol Want to know what happens next now I've finished...!!
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Post by kunuma on Mar 22, 2008 15:38:51 GMT 1
Haffyfan, you were right about the noggin thing!I had to go ahead and reread the series, as I seem to have a "series compulsion" - it is why I had to keep buying Saddle Club books. See that makes me a compulsive pony book nerd - and since my other passion is Sci fi, well no further comment needed! ;D
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Post by haffyfan on Mar 22, 2008 20:03:24 GMT 1
Confession time...I am now the owner of nearly 50 saddle club books (they were so cheap i couldn't resist!)...I didn't even like rthem much first time round though! I know what you mean about series compulsion though...how many exactly are there Kunuma? And does Pine Hollow burn down and some horses die at end really or is it a nasty rumour? sounds a bit harsh to say the least.
PS sorry to hijack thread. x x
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Post by Claire on Mar 23, 2008 21:29:30 GMT 1
Just finished the book. I know what you mean now kunuma!
Feel free to read the rest of the series anyone who want to, and we can maybe comment a little on it too, but just for those who havent time or havent the full series (I have just noticed I dont have Good Deeds) we will mainly concentrate on Strange Riders.
To all our new members please join in if you would like to and have a copy of the book!
BTW I also have a series compulsion...but I MUST read them in the correct order or it drives me nuts. (Hence my spending hours working out the order of the Jackie and the Georgie series) But I know I am not the only one with this obsession!
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Post by garej on Mar 23, 2008 22:45:53 GMT 1
BTW I also have a series compulsion...but I MUST read them in the correct order or it drives me nuts. (Hence my spending hours working out the order of the Jackie and the Georgie series) But I know I am not the only one with this obsession! I am not joining in because I am trying to finish all of Josephine's first (which is worrying because I am currently on Josephine and in a couple of weeks time I will run out of books to do if I dont hurry up). As for reading it in correct order, well it started out that I found that my P-T books (and Jackie too) were part of a series and that I intended to finish the series and not buy any more P-T books. That soon has gone out of the window (considering that I have all their fictional pony works). Part of it didnt help that Hodder and Stoughton/Knight (some of my Jackie books are marked Knight and some are marked Hodder & Stoughton, yet they were all purchased brand new at the same time) only published 6 of the series during the early-mid 1990s. With the exception of the first, it wasnt the first 6, but a random 6. Hence me wondering for years how come Barbara had Captain but in the "second" book she somehow got Patch (that isnt explained until you have the first 5 books). But now I have all the Jackie books, bar Jackie's Steeplechase Adventure.
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Post by trixiepony on Mar 24, 2008 10:49:11 GMT 1
Cool and Im pritty shour I have a coopy, I'll read it when I get back home, as Im at my brothers right now and that wosn't one of the books I brout to read here.
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Post by haffyfan on Mar 26, 2008 19:16:11 GMT 1
Read it ;D
Was the ravette updated regarding money and maybe other bits does anyone know? (I am thinking it was)
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Post by Claire on Mar 26, 2008 21:47:35 GMT 1
It could have been. Remind me when it was published, was it much later than the first ed? (1976) TBH don't really take much notice of money and such in the stories. Looking forward to discussing the book when everyone has finished. Did anyone notice there was a rude (ish) word in it? BTW while we on the subject of BPI has anyone got a copy of Good Deeds going spare as I seem to be missing that one.
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Post by garej on Mar 28, 2008 20:01:24 GMT 1
Read it ;D Was the ravette updated regarding money and maybe other bits does anyone know? (I am thinking it was) All of mine bar 2 are Ravette, and I cant remember if they changed it or not to be honest. It's like the Jill books, you dont notice the money being different until you are purposely taking notice.
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Post by exmoorfan on Mar 28, 2008 20:35:46 GMT 1
Ok i am thick but what is Ravette.?
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Post by Claire on Mar 28, 2008 20:39:17 GMT 1
exmoorfan...its just the name of a publisher
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Post by Claire on Mar 28, 2008 20:47:41 GMT 1
Oops forgot to say that the first 4 were originally published by Piccolo Books (Pan). Ravette I think first published books 5 and 6 and reprinted the first 4 so those editions will be the newer ones. There were also some hardback editions which were the ones I remember reading from the library when I were a nipper!
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Post by garej on Mar 28, 2008 21:21:49 GMT 1
There were also some hardback editions which were the ones I remember reading from the library when I were a nipper! Both Severn House and Swift were the publishers of the hardback editions. I have never seen any editions by either of those publishers, though.
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Post by Claire on Mar 30, 2008 11:14:52 GMT 1
Hi all, its been nearly 2 weeks since i posted this. How is everyone getting on? I think most people have read the book (and some the whole series!) but if anyone else is planning to read it let me know so we can give you a couple more days. If not we can maybe start the discussion tonight.
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Post by kunuma on Apr 2, 2008 18:41:20 GMT 1
I'm hoping for people to come up with positive reactions, I just find these so seemingly shallow, both in people and equine characterisations. Some of the PT characters are my 'friends' and some of the horses stay indelibly in my mind, but the BPI books seem to sacrifice the character detail, and in fact a lot of other details in order to introduce 'adventures'. Was this to please publishers perhaps? I never really wanted adventure in my pony books, just pony people I liked, and those I could dislike, and ponies described well enough that I felt I had actually met them! Anything done with a pony is an adventure, I didn't need real baddies! I also don't want even minor pony characters to die!!!
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Post by Claire on Apr 2, 2008 20:58:14 GMT 1
Hi kunuma,
I totally agree with you about the books. (I have read up to Catastrophe) I am not really a fan of the adventure type pony books as I think its a bit of a cop out. Theres lots of interesting things can happen with ponies without having to spice it up with kidnappings and the like. But both Christine and Josephine did go thru a phase of adventure novels in the 70s and 80s. (ie J's Moor series which are better than BPI but not her best stuff by a long way) so think it may possibly have been a publishers thing. (But Diana interestingly did not go down that route at all)
Another thing I dont like about the BPI books either is that they are just so downbeat. I know CPT liked to wallow in misery a bit but these are really depressing. In Strangers you get problem piled upon problem, the ponies go missing, Mary goes missing, a horse dies, the American lad (sorry forgot his name) goes missing, Mary ends up in hospital, etc, etc. Surely one crisis would be enough. But this pales into insignificance next to Catastrophe at BPI where even more disasters strike. I feel in a way that CPT almost likes misery and suffering. Like you kunuma I dont like animals to be hurt in pony books, sometimes it is handled well as in Diana's Riding with the Lyntons, but Christine is so heavy handed. Not only does the horse die in Strangers but in the other books they have injuries, colic, azoturia and god knows what else. I've noticed in it a lot of her other books too, like ponies in the park where the badgers are hurt and then the total horrendous massacre in ponies in the forest (which I have mentioned before and can only warn people about if they havent read it already) I don't know why she piles it on with a trowel?? The only consolation is they always have upbeat endings.
There are some good points about the book/s. As always with the PT books they are so easy to read, so even if you dont like the subject matter that much you find yourself keeping on reading. I dont agree with you kunuma that the characters are all shallow, some of the minor ones are but I think the character of Harriet is quite well drawn although like most CPT characters is a miserable sod! I also like the character Ben who has a very down to earth attitude to money. But I think it is a characteristic of C's books that the main character is far more important than the others (ie if you compare it to J's Noel and Henry series where all the characters are brilliantly portrayed) I agree that the pony chracters are a bit one dimensional. The only one that seemed to come to life a little was Broncho in Prince in BPI.
Interesting to know if anyone likes the books. I would rate them as about 2 horseshoes, not her best work!
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Post by sarah on Apr 3, 2008 9:33:32 GMT 1
I'm nearly there - just kept getting side-tracked by more interesting books!
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Post by haffyfan on Apr 3, 2008 9:51:21 GMT 1
On the whole I don't really enjoy Christine's books that much (Impossible Horse and Phantom Horse being exceptions) as like Claire has said she wallows in doom and gloom that is way outside my comfort zone. Now I don't go for cheesy happy endings (Ten Pound Pony, Dark Champion etc...which are fantastic books BTW just think they could have had a less predictable ending) but I don't like to see all the pain and cruelty she portrays either. As Kunuma said pony books don't really need adventure (although I love Kit Hunter and Linda Craig so am completely contradicting myself) but the PT sisters are for me the essence of a time now forgotten. The characters in Diana's and Josephine's books had seemingly idyllic childhoods which consisted off running about (safely) in the countryside all day long, riding, hunting, pony club, local shows and never seemingly going to school or stepping foot outside that this lovely safe 'bubble'. Everyone was happy, the world was a nice place.....for what ever reason Christine generally went totally against this and her characters tended to plunge head long into disaster after disaster and were never really very happy (apart from at the end sometimes). I cannot think of one of her characters I would have liked to be and apart from maybe Phantom, any of her equine characters I can relate to and whom appeared real whereas I would happily pretend I was Sara, Noel, Alice, Nettie (most often!), Christina etc all day and their ponies featured heavily in my life too. I longed for my own Adonis and held deep affection for many more ponies from their books esp the ones belonging to members of the Woodbury Pony Club (Bowie, Tristram, saffy etc) I feel Christine put the emphasis of her books on the adventure and what was happening whereas Diana and even more so Josephine emphasize characters and made you want to be part of their world, so in turn you didn't need mystery and intrigue to keep you hooked. All my favorites when I actually think about it are pony stories through and through, no adventure or mishaps (apart from pony related ones) and the theme nothing too heavy in general. Just the normal everyday things us horsey types do/dream of doing. Sorry very off the point..back to BPI...I also felt no connection with the shallow 2D characters, and the ponies were even worse. They had no personality or quirks...I cannot conjure up an image of what they look like in my head at all. The story could have been equally good and exciting without the kidnapping, Mary and the brain tumor incident etc. It could have easily just focused on a family trying to make ends meet with their new venture IMO. Saying all this I have some affection for this book as it was one of the earlier pony books I read however I do not like any of the other titles in the series and have read all of them just the once (in fact apart from Strange Riders, the Phantom Horse series and David and Pat trilogy cannot think of any more of Christine's I have read more than the once whereas I have read a large percentage of Josephine and Diana's books time after time after time, never boring of them even as an adult. I would possibly give Strange riders 3 horseshoes (purely out of childhood affection) and the rest of the series just 1. A plea now can we do Prince Among Ponies or Janet Must Ride next? ?
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Post by sarah on Apr 3, 2008 20:14:09 GMT 1
How annoying - can't find where I have put the book. This wasn't one of my favourites either. It annoyed me the way the the characters always 'cried', 'shrieked' or 'shouted'. It was all very (over) dramatic. What also bugged me was - if you read on through the series - the horses they buy at the market seem to disappear - in particular Periwinkle. The foal gets sick in another book (thanks Haffyfan who pointed this out in another thread) but I don't think is heard of again. It may be I was just skim reading and missed their departure - so if anyone else has read the series...
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