>>>>>>>>>>>Interesting. Does a dead body have imagination?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>How would I know? I've never been dead.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Ok I'll ask one of my door knobs when I get home. :-)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Now this is getting me worried... do you often get that urge to talk to things? :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I beleive he is referring to the phrase "Dead as a door knob".
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hmm... hate to jump on that, but I think it's 'Dead as a doornail' from Dicken's A Christmas Carol.
>>>>>
>>>>>Really. I will tell my grandmother.
>>>>
>>>>Actually, it turns out you're right. I'd never heard that term, but apparently it exists. To double check, I did a Google on 'Dead as a door'. Door nail seems to be far more prevalent, but doorknob is in there too. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's one of those things that started out one way, and by word of mouth, got morphed into something else. Dickens wrote 'Dead as a door nail', and I suspect that's where it started.
>>>>
>>>>My apologies.
>>>
>>>I am sure you are right.
>>>
>>>Actually, I never read the book. After see mulriple version of the story as movies, it never appealed to me to read it. Perhaps I should reconsider that.
>>
>>I'm not a huge Dickens fan. My mother loves his stuff, but I think it's clear he was paid by the word to write for the periodicals of the time. Don't get me wrong; he writes well, but for my tastes, a few hundred pages too much.
>
>I too dislike wordy stories.
>
>For example, Steven King is a good writer, but his books are too long. He generally send a good one to two hundred pages just following the characters around (And they went, and they went,...), and doing nothing to contribute to the actual story.
>
>Now, Dean Koontz, on the hand, write complete stories. He doesn't bore me with mind numbing lack of action. His characters are natural, and the stories are almost beleivable.

It's not that I dislike long books so much as unnecessarily long books. Dickens was paid by the word, so he used lots of words. Neal Stephenson, on the other hand writes long books that deserve to be long.

>
>>
>>A Christmas Carol is the exception. It's very short.
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Besides, your door knobs wouldn't know a thing. I'm European, we use door handles. You know, the ones you can open with your elbow if your hands are full.