Sunday Morning Book Thread: 10/22/2017

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, USA

One Hit Wonders

Let's face it, most authors never have a single hit, much less more than one. But there are books (fiction, for the purpose of this discussion) that I found wondrous, yet when I excitedly read another by the author, was disappointed.

City of Thieves was written by none other than David Benioff, of "Game Of Thrones" fame, and it is a beautiful, inspired, elegant book. Is it a great book that belongs on the never-to-be-published list of Dildo's 100 Great Books? No, but it is well worth a read, if for no other reason than to catch a glimpse of what it was like in Western Russia during WWII.

His other stuff? Eh. 25th Hour was readable but without any sympathetic character development, so it was like watching the story unfold from 10,00 feet above. And that is the best of a very small lot.

Anyway, who are your one-hit wonders?

******
Anyone like the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo? I have read the first three, and they are loads of fun. The first installment...The Bat, introduces Harry as a weird egg; an antisocial oddity. You know, like most of us!
******
Victor Davis Hanson has written a The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won

Max Boot says:

"If you think there is nothing more to be said about World War II, then you haven't read Victor Davis Hanson's The Second World Wars. Hanson displays an encyclopedic knowledge of every aspect of the conflict, ranging from land to sea to air, and from grand strategy to infantry tactics, to analyze what happened and why. Page after page, he produces dazzling insights informed by his deep knowledge of military history going all the way back to ancient Greece. The Second World Wars is compulsively readable."

I thought that The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts was the definitive account of World War II, but I will have to give Hanson's book a shot. He is too good a writer and too fine a scholar to miss this one.
******
If you think that Pete Hamill is a New York ultra-liberal, you would be correct. But he is also a pretty damned fine writer, with two books in particular that in my opinion are worth a read. The first is a novel: Snow In August, set in a New York City that is long gone. It has baseball! The second is his memoir, suitably called A Drinking Life. But it isn't preachy, which far too many books by ex-drinkers tend to be. He has led an interesting as well as drunken life, and he describes it wonderfully.

Posted by: CBD at 09:15 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 YAY!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:14 AM (qJtVm)

2 Guys guys guys, I have in my possession what is possibly the greatest pulp sc-fi cover of all time:

http://tinyurl.com/ybxnqlbj

The back of Jack Williamson’s The Green Girl promises
Black Doom!
Purple Terror!
Green Beauty!

Our hero faces challenges such as:
The Red Globe of Atomic Destruction!
The Dragon-Plants of a Hidden World!
The Lord of Flame in a Serpent’s Body!
The Murderous Zombies of Mutron!

And if that weren’t enough, literally every! Sentence! Of the! First paragraph! Ends in exclamation points!

Tell me you’re not peeing in your Underoos just reading this!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:15 AM (qJtVm)

3 I'll get my reading list ready for the additions I'm sure today will bring.

Posted by: no good deed at October 22, 2017 09:16 AM (eIQHF)

4 Let's face it, most authors never have a single hit, much less more than one.
-----------

This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: Thomas Pynchon at October 22, 2017 09:16 AM (w1zJX)

5 Good morning, readers, breeders and feeders!
Whatever that means.

Posted by: RI Red - 100% pure Sonobian Covfefe brewing at October 22, 2017 09:17 AM (RHK2H)

6 Let's face it, most authors never have a single hit, much less more than one.
------------

Look, I was run down by a cab, okay?

Posted by: Margaret Mitchell at October 22, 2017 09:17 AM (w1zJX)

7 Thanks for filling in CBD.

Prayers for OM's complete and speedy recovery.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 09:17 AM (EZebt)

8 CBD, Thanks for the book thread. A lifeline on Sunday mornings.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:18 AM (V+03K)

9 That's an impressive library right there

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 09:19 AM (8Vtau)

10 I wonder what will be in the soon to be released JFK files.....

Poontang and Pharmaceuticals I reckon.

More coffee.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 22, 2017 09:19 AM (nUkMr)

11 lord of the flies?

catch 22?

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at October 22, 2017 09:20 AM (AxFdW)

12 "City of Thieves".....it's about D.C. ... right?

Posted by: BignJames at October 22, 2017 09:20 AM (GiOiK)

13 but it is well worth a read, if for no other reason than to catch a glimpse of what it was like in Western Russia during WWII

==

fooking freezing and treacherous !

Posted by: Wehrmacht at October 22, 2017 09:20 AM (8Vtau)

14 I have started reading the Phoenix Empire series (moron recommendation). So far so good.

There was another moron author mentioned yesterday that writes sci-fi humor books based on small town Texas. Does anyone know who that author is?

Posted by: auscolpyr at October 22, 2017 09:21 AM (pzA2L)

15 The Harry Hole series? I just don't know. Maybe I'm too closed minded.

Posted by: freaked at October 22, 2017 09:22 AM (UdKB7)

16 All Hail Eris, Why do I think that pulp novel with all the exclamation points is going to make Clark Ashton Smith read like Shakespeare? But thanks for the cover. The lascivious flower creature made my day.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:22 AM (V+03K)

17 to kill a mockingbird?

natch. but if it's only one published book, does that really count?

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at October 22, 2017 09:22 AM (AxFdW)

18 speaking of WWII, making my way through Winik's good book. It's taking me a while, reading it bit by bit. Some of it is really hard to read - Auschwitz, details. Very hard.

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 09:23 AM (8Vtau)

19 Finished Forging The Blade book 2 of the Phoenix Empire. Moved on to book 2 of the Running With The Demon series. I had forgotten what a raging liberal Terry Brooks is. He manages to put in an anti-American screed every chapter in the second book and push unabashed socialism as the solution for every problem, I don't think I will get the third book. Oh and did you Morons know that the US has the highest rate of child abuse of any first world nation?

Posted by: Vic We Have No Party at October 22, 2017 09:24 AM (mpXpK)

20 "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser Is a quite good historical novel of the 'figure out what's going on here' sort, which I particularly enjoy. I re-read it every few years. I tried another of his books but couldn't get interested.

Posted by: Pete at October 22, 2017 09:24 AM (rmn2g)

21 I got yer harry hole right here.

Posted by: Hope Solo at October 22, 2017 09:24 AM (/qEW2)

22 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

Willowed.

Wave to my family there. Three generations. Went there for a couple of Family Days, in the distant past. Learned to drive in the parking lot.

In good news, we can still mock the Air Force. I gave it up for Lent after the Pararescueman saved a trainload of people in France. That was a tough season.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:24 AM (hyuyC)

23 The lascivious flower creature made my day.
Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:22 AM (V+03K)
----
I love the detail of the long leafy tongue. That's what takes it from mere illustration to Art.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:24 AM (qJtVm)

24 Whatta Library! Just beautiful -- and how has it survived?

One hit wonder: Canticle for Leibowitz.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (MIKMs)

25 Two items for this august assembly:

1. Don't quote Max Boot as an authority on anything. The man is a useless tool. His endorsement is to me the kiss of death.

2. The long-awaited trial by fire of my Mauser C96 "Broomhandle" took place yesterday. As one might expect of a firearm built entirely out of spare parts, there were some hiccups, but on the whole it was very fun to shoot.

I have to say those 7.63mm cartridges pack a lot of pop for their size. One of my friends remarked at how much the barrel rose with each shot - something even more impressive when you consider how front-heavy that pistol is. I guess that's why I didn't notice because it recovered without any effort on my part.

The rifling is pretty worn, but I was still able to put together a decent group at 10 yards and GOOD LORD what it did to that stump!

Anyhow, the project was worth the money and the effort. Now I'm going to take it all apart all over again and give it an even more thorough scrubbing.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (cfSRQ)

26 Good Morning fellow Book Threadists.

Love that photo at the top of the post but I'm surprised something that beautiful survives in Baltimore. Oversight or encouraging? You decide.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (V+03K)

27 ... if it's one published book one can just as easily say every book they wrote was a hit as they only had one.

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (AxFdW)

28 Let's face it, most authors never have a single hit,
------------------------------------------------------------

And so, I post a note of thanks to Votermom (bookhorde.org) and Sweasel.com who have both mentioned my book; plus the notice of a few from the horde who hang around here late at night.

Over eighty people have downloaded my (free) novella. I just hope some find it interesting.

Wolf Hunters: Planet of Storms
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B076HNZSCX

Still free, today and tomorrow.

Mostly it is about the behavior of females who keep an apex predator as a house pet, and have discovered cloning.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (m9X4Y)

29 I am home early enough for the book thread! Rarely happens.

I am re-reading the second in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight series to prepare myself for the third one coming out soon.

I am also reading Eric Metaxes' new one Martin Luther. I am enjoying it. My history of Luther is pretty good, but I am still learning some new stuff.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (gppsv)

30 Willowed.

210 Salty, I kid the Zoomies. We are all one dysfunctional family.

Also, we Squids have to suffer the perv jokes which, though true, still sting like the lash and burn like the CO's carpet.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:23 AM (qJtVm)

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (qJtVm)

31 In one portion he is describing a tortured path of a phenomenal individual who brought the scope of the atrocities to the attention of the world in '44. It is shocking that in 1944 people still did not believe or wanted to believe.

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 09:26 AM (8Vtau)

32 I should remark that I like VDH by the way. In case that wasn't clear.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:26 AM (cfSRQ)

33 The back of Jack Williamson's The Green Girl promises..

And it's complete and unabridged too!

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at October 22, 2017 09:27 AM (T33X5)

34 Just finished reading Thomas Pocock's "Stopping Napoleon" about the Mediterranean in the Napoleonic Wars. Much has been written about the major battles, but this book shines a welcome light on a forgotten theatre of that conflict. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Napoleonic Wars.

Now that Halloween is approaching, it's time to start reading some horror stories!

Posted by: josephistan at October 22, 2017 09:27 AM (ANIFC)

35 JTB - GMTA

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:28 AM (MIKMs)

36 Reading 'The Ten Thousand: A Novel of Ancient Greece' by Michael Curtis Ford. It's historical fiction that takes place around 401 BC about 10K Greek mercenaries that go to war with the Persians. Eventually led by Xenophon, a real guy, the story is told by Theo his slave servant. Pretty good so far.

And for your listening pleasure.

Wazimbo-Nwahulwana
https://youtu.be/16Q9ISsWF2s

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at October 22, 2017 09:29 AM (T33X5)

37 Now that Halloween is approaching, it's time to start reading some horror stories!
Posted by: josephistan at October 22, 2017 09:27 AM (ANIFC)

Dreams from My Father

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 09:30 AM (NWiLs)

38 Logan's Run was a one hit wonder. Nolan was fairly prolific but this was his one best known work. There were about six sequels, all of which the 12-year old me thought sucked real bad.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 09:30 AM (EZebt)

39 The ultimate one-hit literary wonder would be Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. I don't believe she published any other books in her lifetime; though a short novel she wrote as a teenager was published in the 1990s.

Posted by: Secret Square at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (9WuX0)

40 Just started "Scalia Speaks", a collection of decisions, speeches and letters by the late Justice Scalia. Edited by his son Christopher and a former law clerk. I heard the son talking about it on a local radio show and based on speeches I heard Scalia give over the years it should be a gem. This was a lovely anniversary gift from Mrs. JTB. (Or maybe she didn't want to keep hearing me gripe about how long it takes for remainders to show up.) :-)

The Foreword is by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They were true friends. I still have trouble reconciling that.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (V+03K)

41 Good Sunday morning, horde!

Eris, do you actually have that book? It's a delight! Did you find it at a used book store, or an estate sale, or other?

This week I started the LawDog Files and The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova, both recommended here.

Posted by: April at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (e8PP1)

42 One hit wonder: Herman Melville.

Posted by: Hope Solo at October 22, 2017 09:33 AM (/qEW2)

43 Libraries are important, but not because they are libraries, rather because they contain books.

Books are important, but not because they are books, rather because they contain words.

Words are important, but not because they are words, rather because they contain ideas.

Ideas are important, but not because they are ideas, rather because they contain the hopes and dreams of mankind.

And as long as we have libraries, and books, and words, and ideas; the hopes and dreams of mankind cannot be contained.

Posted by: Muldoon at October 22, 2017 09:33 AM (wPiJc)

44 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

I went back to see your answer, and left one myself.

For books this week, I am on an Isaac Asimov kick. Only two of his science essay books to go.

And I read his next-to-last collection of SF short stories. The pun stories are ghastly.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:34 AM (hyuyC)

45 Napoleon's burial on the ground of Les Invalides is very impressive - the sarcophagus (main one that you see) is off the ground, made of porphyry; all his major battles are tiled around it in marble.

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 09:34 AM (8Vtau)

46 39
The ultimate one-hit literary wonder would be Margaret Mitchell's Gone
With the Wind. I don't believe she published any other books in her
lifetime; though a short novel she wrote as a teenager was published in
the 1990s.

Posted by: Secret Square at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (9WuX0)

Yeah, but who wouldn't trade a middling career as a journeyman author for writing an epic like that?
Besides, it's a huge book. Today it would be broken up into a trilogy.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:34 AM (cfSRQ)

47 One hit wonder: Ray Rice

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 09:35 AM (NWiLs)

48 So, in The Green Girl, which was written in 1930, the Earth, or at least its surface, is under attack by a mysterious force that blots out the sun and causes a massive freeze. A scientist has found a way to counteract the strange phenomenon and has located the source of the malevolent force deep below the surface. Our intrepid young hero and his genius older friend build an Omnimobile (sea, land, air, outer spa-a-a-a-ace!) and go down and through one of the Pacific trenches and into a subterranean world.

It's written ON pulp and it's written IN pulp.

One thing I love in these old stories is the world-class superbrain who has his own workshop and can build his own damn ship, a la Heinlein's juvenile Rocket Ship Galileo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Ship_Galileo

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:35 AM (qJtVm)

49 Anyway, who are your one-hit wonders?

Erich Segal's 'Love Story.' The absolute worst book I was forced to read in high school.

And his stupid 'Love means never having to say you're sorry' nonsense? Well, good luck maintaining a relationship with that attitude.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at October 22, 2017 09:35 AM (T33X5)

50 (the grounds of the ...)

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 09:35 AM (8Vtau)

51 25 ... AHL, Thanks for the report about the C96 Mauser. I have read that the ammo packed a real punch but you are the only one I know who actually fired one. (I believe Winston Churchill carried one in South Africa.) Congrats on a successful project.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:36 AM (V+03K)

52 Did Robert E. Howard ever write a book-length piece? I know he wrote a Conan book that was never published.

Is he a "no-hit" wonder?

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:37 AM (cfSRQ)

53 Oh, wow, didn't realize OM was sick. Get well soon, my friend.

I e-mailed him to announce to y'all that the sequel to A Place Outside The Wild is out and on sale for 99 cents at the 'zon. You guys were awesome in supporting the first - hopefully the sequel measures up. From 'll the feedback I've gotten this far I pulled it off.

No link but if you plug the title, A Place Called Hope, into Ace's Amazon link it's the first result.

Posted by: Emile Antoon Khadaji at October 22, 2017 09:38 AM (JcFAG)

54 Anyone like the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo?

I picked up "The Snowman" for the Kindle earlier this year.

Then when I read they had made of movie of it, I read the book in anticipation of the movie.

"The Snowman" was definitely a fun popcorn thriller, so I'll be reading some more of those.

(Probably, the one set in Australia next, since it's referenced a lot in "The Snowman")

Frankly, I wondered how they were going to make a movie without significantly changing the plot line.

And sadly, from the reviews, the movie version of "The Snowman" appears to have been given the Harvey Weinstein-Ficus treatment.

So much so that even the movie's director denounced and refuted it.

*single tear rolls down cheek for orphan movie*

Posted by: naturalfake at October 22, 2017 09:38 AM (9q7Dl)

55

Also, a reminder,
keep an eye on Amazon's 'Today's Deals' link.

You can find interesting books for a low price.

And looking over Amazon's Top One Hundred ebooks, in two categories - paid and unpaid - judging by the book covers; the proverbial 'bodice ripper' genre sells well.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 09:38 AM (m9X4Y)

56 And I read his next-to-last collection of SF short stories. The pun stories are ghastly.
=====
I think there was another one who made puns the basis of his stories -- I want to say Aspirin, but I'm too lazy to look it up now.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:39 AM (MIKMs)

57 Other one hit novel wonders: Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita), Grace Metalious (Peyton Place), Ralph Ellison (The Invisible Man), Richard Hooker (MASH), Ross Lockridge (Raintree County), and Kathleen Windsor (Forever Amber).

Posted by: Secret Square at October 22, 2017 09:39 AM (9WuX0)

58 Muldoon

I agree with your wise statement.

For most public libraries, the culling of old books leads to a replacement of bad for good. Even the research libraries are holding more and more off-site. ILL is your friend.

Take a list of great SF books, with books like Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and try and find it in a public library.

That being said, one thing I do is check out library books that I already have in my own extensive collection at home. Just to get usage stats for the good books I enjoy. So they are not replaced with the current dreck.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:40 AM (hyuyC)

59 Morning, folks. Sorry to hear Oregon Muse is suffering. What's the problem?

On my writing front, finished final edits, registered ISBN with Bowker, and have set about getting a Library of Congress Control Number. That should take a couple of weeks. Once that's done, book I goes live.

Wife is more excited than I am. I know there are two more to go...

Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 09:40 AM (7d/38)

60 43 Libraries are important, but not because they are libraries, rather because they contain books.

===

Not here Dr. Muldoon. Here, libraries contain perverts watching porn and mentally ill people bathing in the sink in the bathrooms.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 09:40 AM (EZebt)

61 the proverbial 'bodice ripper' genre sells well.

==

as long as there are lonely housewives and aging coquettes, it will sell well...which is for a long, long time

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 09:41 AM (8Vtau)

62 51
25 ... AHL, Thanks for the report about the C96 Mauser. I have read that
the ammo packed a real punch but you are the only one I know who
actually fired one. (I believe Winston Churchill carried one in South
Africa.) Congrats on a successful project.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:36 AM (V+03K)

My pleasure.

Churchill carried a "cone-hammer" C96 at Omdurman. He dislocated his shoulder getting off the boat when he deployed to India and it would pop out when he did sword work, so he resolved that in a charge, he'd use a pistol instead.
And that's what he did. He said in his memoirs that it likely saved his life - and those of some others. He also carried it in South Africa but did not have it with him when he was captured by the Boers.
Given how large and heavy those things are (and that the holster was made of *wood* I can see why he might take it off to do some work in a presumably safe area.
And yes, I intend to get a holster for it. It will be a while, though, since building this thing wasn't cheap.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:42 AM (cfSRQ)

63 Posted by: Jake Holenhead at October 22, 2017 09:29 AM (T33X5)

Jake, thanks for the link, that is beautiful.

Posted by: April at October 22, 2017 09:42 AM (e8PP1)

64 One hit.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"

Posted by: geoffb at October 22, 2017 09:42 AM (zOpu5)

65 Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:39 AM (MIKMs)

Yes Asprin, but also Piers Anthony. What is it with puns and authors whose names start with A?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 09:43 AM (rp9xB)

66 Thank you, CBD, for guest-hosting the book thread! I don't know what I'd do with myself without this Sunday morning tradition, except maybe be on time for church.

Posted by: Emmie at October 22, 2017 09:43 AM (ZapPq)

67 If bodice rippers are the rage, I wonder when shopping, the lasses hum, "I Need a Hero". A rainy, stormy day where I am it, will gander at the deals

Posted by: auscolpyr at October 22, 2017 09:43 AM (pzA2L)

68 I should point out that the holster also works at a stock, which is why I want one.

It looks like a neat little carbine.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:43 AM (cfSRQ)

69 John Steakley wrote just two books. Armor and Vampires.

Armor is in my top 20 books but I've never read Vampires as that's not a subject matter I'm interested in. But I did see the movie which wasn't very good. Though making a movie from it proves somebody thought the book was good.

Armor was so good I was disappointed that he only wrote the two books.

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 09:44 AM (Q0dwZ)

70 George Peabody Library in Baltimore, Maryland.

Baltimore. How do they keep out vandals, thieves, and of course hoboes, a.k.a. "The Peed Bodies?"

Posted by: Sworn Testimony of Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS, Age 10 at October 22, 2017 09:44 AM (t5m5e)

71 Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Posted by: Hope Solo at October 22, 2017 09:45 AM (/qEW2)

72 Also, if having published only one full length book in your lifetime makes you a one hit wonder, Edgar Allen Poe would qualify based on "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket".

Posted by: Secret Square at October 22, 2017 09:45 AM (9WuX0)

73
"Catch-22" was a one hit wonder.

Heller became a famous author who was so intimidated by his own famous book he didn't write another book for decades.

That's some catch that "Catch-22" huh?

Finally, he wrote other novels. But, no hits.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 22, 2017 09:45 AM (9q7Dl)

74 Eris, do you actually have that book? It's a delight! Did you find it at a used book store, or an estate sale, or other?

Posted by: April at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (e8PP1)
---
I found a copy on Abebooks.com.

This after perusing cheeztastic pulp sci-fi covers:

https://www.pinterest.com/robertamsler/science-fiction-pulp-cover-art/

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:45 AM (qJtVm)

75 One hit wonder? Most of the "One Hit Wonders" I know about tend to be written by people named "Clinton," who were paid enormous sums of money for a ghost written book that only accidentally brushes up against the truth and were shamelessly promoted in the off chance the publisher would make back some of the advance money paid.

Currently working on "The History of the Pelopobnnesian War", "Execution by Hunger" and "Harvest of Sorrow." "Catherine the Great and "The Path Between the Seas" waiting in the wings.

Works of fiction recently read, "The Borrowed World" series. I recommend reading, not because the books are gripping and well written, because they rate a solid "C" to "B-" as far as I'm concerned, but because for those who are interested in "The end of the World as We Know It" the books contains some food for thought when it comes to the reality of surviving "The End of the World as We Know It."

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 09:45 AM (WEBkv)

76 mustbequantum

Robert Asprin.

With two series, the Phule's Company one and MythAdventures.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:46 AM (hyuyC)

77 Someone must have mentioned Harper Lee already.

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 09:47 AM (Q0dwZ)

78 For those who like Mark Schweizer's Liturgical Mystery series, the 14th just came out: "The Lyric Wore Lycra". It's not available from Amazon yet but he has his own publishing business. I ordered it direct from him and at a slight discount. I like supporting small publishers when I can.

If this is only half as good as the previous thirteen, it will still be laugh out loud hilarious and clever.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:48 AM (V+03K)

79 That being said, one thing I do is check out library books that I already have in my own extensive collection at home. Just to get usage stats for the good books I enjoy. So they are not replaced with the current dreck.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:40 AM (hyuyC)
---
Ha, that was a plot point in The Bellwether. A librarian lady would check out the classics so they weren't taken out of circulation.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 09:48 AM (qJtVm)

80 With two series, the Phule's Company one and MythAdventures. Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:46 AM (hyuyC)
=====

polliwog also mentioned Piers Anthony as another punster.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:48 AM (MIKMs)

81 Here, libraries contain perverts watching porn and mentally ill people bathing in the sink in the bathrooms.

****

We can take it as a give that there are bad libraries. Just as there are bad books. And bad words. And bad ideas. My point was that it is not the library that matters, nor the books, nor the words, nor even the ideas themselves, but the dreams within.

Posted by: Muldoon at October 22, 2017 09:49 AM (wPiJc)

82 Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:46 AM (hyuyC)

I liked both quite a bit. I guess they didn't know how to end Mythadventures so they sucked all the fun out with things like Skeeve worrying he's becoming an alcoholic. Haven't looked very hard for any more since.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 09:50 AM (rp9xB)

83 Hmm, I just realized Thucydides "The History of the Peloponnesian War" probably qualifies as a "one hit wonder."

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 09:51 AM (WEBkv)

84 I am also reading Eric Metaxes' new one Martin Luther. I am enjoying it. My history of Luther is pretty good, but I am still learning some new stuff.
Posted by: Quirky bookworm

And I think we're coming up on the 500 anniversary of the 95 theses.

Also someone suggested a history of the battle of Midway. Thank you. It was awesome.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at October 22, 2017 09:52 AM (+Tibp)

85 One hit wonder, " A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". I did enjoy it very much.

Posted by: Son of Sam the Butcher at October 22, 2017 09:53 AM (VJBq9)

86 "The Alienist", Caleb Carr. "The Secret History", Donna Tartt

Posted by: Sensitive new age guy at October 22, 2017 09:54 AM (mYDmK)

87 One hit wonder:

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

His other stuff is readable but none of that material begins to rise to the level of A Canticle.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent at October 22, 2017 09:54 AM (j0Oc6)

88 83 Hmm, I just realized Thucydides "The History of the Peloponnesian War" probably qualifies as a "one hit wonder."
Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 09:51 AM (WEBkv)

But luckily Steven Pressfield came along to make it even better with his ' Tides of War' .

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 09:54 AM (Q0dwZ)

89 One hit wonder - Michael Herr, *Dispatches*.

Nothing he published before/after even came close.

*They were killers. Of course they were; what would anyone expect them to be?*

Posted by: Tonypete at October 22, 2017 09:55 AM (tr2D7)

90 One Hit wonder:

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. I have two of his other books, but they are not nearly as good.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:55 AM (hyuyC)

91 _The Hour of the Dragon_ is a full-length Conan novel, published as a serial while Howard was alive, so I think that counts. (By modern standards it's a bit short, but modern novels are all bloated to jack up the cover price in order to make the dollars-per-square-foot that bookstores demand.)

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 22, 2017 09:56 AM (zncJR)

92 Oh, I just remembered a one-hit wonder that I despised -- one of the few I just thought was so awful (no matter how much it was touted) -- Time Traveler's Wife. Badly edited and incoherent in both plot and science.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:56 AM (MIKMs)

93 29
I am also reading Eric Metaxes' new one Martin Luther. I am enjoying it. My history of Luther is pretty good, but I am still learning some new stuff.
Posted by: Quirky bookworm at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (

I want to get that too. Eric Metaxes is such a thorough researcher. I hope he doesn't sweep aside the dark places of Luther. Because there are some really really dark places.

Posted by: grammie winger - How many days till Spring Training? at October 22, 2017 09:56 AM (PXyhz)

94 74 ... Eris, Thanks for that link to all those pulp covers. They are GREAT! (Tony the Tiger voice.)

Those "Magnus the Robot Fighter" seems vaguely familiar. If so, the memory is shrouded in the mists of time.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:56 AM (V+03K)

95
And I think we're coming up on the 500 anniversary of the 95 theses

Next week

Posted by: grammie winger - How many days till Spring Training? at October 22, 2017 09:57 AM (PXyhz)

96 95
And I think we're coming up on the 500 anniversary of the 95 theses

Next week
Posted by: grammie winger - How many days till Spring Training? at October 22, 2017 09:57 AM (PXyhz)

Good old Martin.

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 09:58 AM (NWiLs)

97
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Trave (John D. Voelker)

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 22, 2017 09:58 AM (pNxlR)

98 Traver

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 22, 2017 09:59 AM (pNxlR)

99 Yay book thread!!!

Thanks CBD!

and prayers for OM's quick recovery.

I got a short note from Oregon, btw, he says he misses us.
(I think the docs must have him on the good stuff...)

Posted by: @votermom @vm pimping great books usually free or sale at October 22, 2017 09:59 AM (hMwEB)

100 Katherine Ann Porter, Ship of Fools.

Apparently she pitched another novel to her publisher and lived off the advance until she died, but never wrote it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 22, 2017 10:00 AM (zncJR)

101 Here are some more killer covers:

https://weburbanist.com/2011/10/11/blast-off-36-retro-sci-fi-book-covers/

Sexploitaceous science.

What's with the swordswoman riding the giant green kitten in that Fritz Leiber novel?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 10:00 AM (qJtVm)

102 Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. I have two of his other books, but they are not nearly as good.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 09:55 AM (hyuyC)

funny, I read that book way back when and, as a youngster, the thought that the author might have written other books completely escaped me.

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:00 AM (WEBkv)

103 How about authors who exceeded their first hit with their follow up book. Quite a few of them come to think of it.

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 10:00 AM (Q0dwZ)

104 Blake,

'A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War' by Victor Davis Hanson is a great read.

They set the standard for truely bloody and viscious warfare.

Posted by: Jake Holenhead at October 22, 2017 10:00 AM (T33X5)

105 By the way, if you've been waiting for a sale to buy it, The Hidden Truth is on 99c sale this week.

One of the Amazon reviews includes this:

Thanks to the Ace of Spades blog's Sunday Book Thread for the heads up about this one....definitely recommended!!!!

link to the book in nic, for your convenience

Posted by: @votermom @vm pimping great books usually free or sale at October 22, 2017 10:01 AM (hMwEB)

106 Well, Eris, my pinterest was getting stale, what with all of the potato recipes. Just added pulp covers--thanks!

I like the detective and beatnik stories better than sci-fi, though.

Posted by: April at October 22, 2017 10:03 AM (e8PP1)

107 Home safe and no less sound than usual from the CenTexMoMee where a good time was had by all...or at least me, which is what really matters.

Posted by: Laughing in Texas at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM (xQfPr)

108 April, whats your pinterest? I have a bookhorde one that I don't update enough

Posted by: @votermom @vm pimping great books usually free or sale at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM (hMwEB)

109 One hit wonders:

J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
Boris Pasternak - Doctor Zhivago
Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights
Sylvia Plath - The Bell Jar
Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha
Frank Herbert - Dune

Zero hit wonders:

John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM (TKf/P)

110 Ooooh, ooooh, call of me teacher, ooooh --

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 10:06 AM (MIKMs)

111 The Old Testament?

Posted by: Burger Chef at October 22, 2017 10:06 AM (RuIsu)

112 Daniel Defoe.

Don't bother looking for another Robinson Crusoe in his oeuvre or you'll be sorely disappointed.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:07 AM (ul9CR)

113 Interesting that Steven Pressfield's first best seller was a story based on golf, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Admittedly it had western military undertones but he went on to write my favorite book of all time, Gates of Fire.

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 10:07 AM (Q0dwZ)

114 I read Cathedral by Nelson De Mille. I enjoyed this very good police procedural / thriller. An IRA splinter group takes over St Patrick's Cathedral in NYC on St. Patrick's Day. There are hostages, including the cardinal, and it's up to Patrick Burke of the NYPD to save them before sunrise when explosives are set to go off and bring half of the cathedral down. Exciting ending.

I also read SPQR VI: Nobody Loves a Centurion by John Robert Maddox. It's 70 B. C. and Decius Caeciluis Metellus the Younger has to get out of town, Rome, because his powerful archenemy, Clodius, will be serving as a Tribune for a year. Decius also needs further military service if he wants to run for higher office in the future; so off he goes to Gaul to fight with Caesar's legion. After a centurion is found murdered, Caesar uses Decius's investigative skills to solve the case. An interesting mystery, and as always in this series, one learns about the times and its peoples.

Posted by: Zoltan at October 22, 2017 10:07 AM (SMiQX)

115 109 One hit wonders:

J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM (TKf/P)

Only because it was required reading in high school. I read it as an adult (well into my forties at the time) and came to the conclusion the book was "Much Ado about Nothing."

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:08 AM (WEBkv)

116 I started my annual reading of Lord Of The Rings. (I can picture your "I'm shocked!" faces even now.)

I'm trying a slightly different approach this time. I'm reading only one chapter then stopping to really review what Tolkien wrote and how. For instance, when the Hobbits are leaving The Shire, any time they stop he gives a clear description of the trees, plants and terrain at that spot. A small detail and I must have noticed it in the past but it stood out for me this time. Also, I'm paying closer attention to all the poetry, which I haven't done in a while.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 10:09 AM (V+03K)

117 Oh the hilarity if we could get that title on a best seller list...Dildos 100 great books

Posted by: A dude in MI at October 22, 2017 10:09 AM (qXXGi)

118 Robert Louis Stevenson. Beyond the masterful Treasure Island, a big meh.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:09 AM (ul9CR)

119 votermom, I think my pinterest name is just my given name. I just followed your board.

Posted by: April at October 22, 2017 10:09 AM (e8PP1)

120 Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM (TKf/P)

I tried to read CoD but got only half way through before saying WTF, where's he going with this? No desire to finish it.

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 10:09 AM (Q0dwZ)

121
One-hit wonders:

Frederick Rolfe, who wrote the eponymous novel of my nic.

Mark Raskovich, The Bedford Incident.

Jaroslav Hasek: The Good Soldier Svejk.

Robert Traver: Anatomy of a Murder.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 22, 2017 10:10 AM (LuOq1)

122 Re: Magnus, Robot Fighter

That was a favorite comic book series of this wee Moron. Geeky and futuristic. And it got ruined by the introduction of a new character that had nothing to do with robots. Or fighting.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 22, 2017 10:11 AM (tRaq7)

123 I don't know that Melville was a one-hit wonder. I liked Typee and Omoo more than Moby Dick.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 10:11 AM (qJtVm)

124 Oh, and good morning, fappers and fappees.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 22, 2017 10:11 AM (tRaq7)

125 Thanks for filling in CBD.

Prayers for OM's complete and speedy recovery.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 09:17 AM (EZebt)

Any details on this, i.e. severity?

Started Homage to Catalonia as part of the moron Orwell group read (I assume it's not forbidden to talk about it here). Typical Orwell: very readable, factually precise, somewhat dry and just full of the premonition that things will turn to shit pretty quickly. Should be enjoyably informative.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:12 AM (y7DUB)

126 Only because it was required reading in high school. I read it as an adult (well into my forties at the time) and came to the conclusion the book was "Much Ado about Nothing."
Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:08 AM (WEBkv)

In high school I liked it, but as an adult I can't stand it. Everything else he wrote I've always found unreadable.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:12 AM (ul9CR)

127 Once that's done, book I goes live.

Wife is more excited than I am. I know there are two more to go...
Posted by: Apostate

Congratulations!!!

Posted by: Adriane the Sleep Deprived Critic ... at October 22, 2017 10:12 AM (AoK0a)

128 Whatwhatwhat:

I BEG to differ, sir!

RLS not only wrote Treasure Island, he also gave us Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! That's a two-hit author by any standard.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 22, 2017 10:12 AM (zncJR)

129 VDH Culture and Carnage is a great book. He explains how a free culture can win against an empire of slaves.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 22, 2017 10:12 AM (rnAwa)

130 Love Victor Davis Hanson, he arguably has the best grasp on ancient history (especially Greek history) of any writer working today.

but please please NEVER dirty his name by mentioning him in the same paragraph as that loathsome traitorous slime Max Boot.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 10:13 AM (V2Yro)

131 William Cruz Smith: Gorky Park,

read the followup about Arkady being exiled to fishing boat, well, there's always Gorky Park.

Posted by: auscolpyr at October 22, 2017 10:13 AM (pzA2L)

132 I concur with Blake regarding Catcher in the Rye. I also read it as an adult, and did not find it deep at all. The main character is a sniveling malcontent and got no sympathy from me.

Posted by: April at October 22, 2017 10:14 AM (e8PP1)

133 Bossybarb here---Loved all the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole books. I was in a period 2 years ago when all I read was Scandinavian/ Icelandic fiction and came upon this series. If you read three of them you must continue as they move on for 15 + years, watch children grow and Harry continue to battle his demons while solving crimes.

Posted by: simpleliving at October 22, 2017 10:14 AM (7czoZ)

134 128 Whatwhatwhat:

I BEG to differ, sir!

RLS not only wrote Treasure Island, he also gave us Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! That's a two-hit author by any standard.

I stand corrected. I was thinking of his travel books - stultifyingly boring, and a couple other bad novels. Dr. Jekyll does count-he's a two-hit wonder.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:14 AM (ul9CR)

135 Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 10:11 AM (qJtVm)

Wasn't Moby Dick just a whale hunting manual? What's interesting here too is I don't think it became a hit until long after it was written.

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 10:15 AM (Q0dwZ)

136 RLS not only wrote Treasure Island, he also gave us Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde! That's a two-hit author by any standard.
Posted by: Trimegistus

Another two-hit author: Norman McLean (sp?)
1. A River Runs Through It
2. Young Men and Fire.

At least I haven't found a third. Also, Young Men and Fire is awesome. Non Fiction.

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at October 22, 2017 10:15 AM (+Tibp)

137 In defense of "Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights" that particular Bronte sister died a year after publishing "Wuthering Heights."

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:15 AM (WEBkv)

138 In defense of "Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights" that particular Bronte sister died a year after publishing "Wuthering Heights."
Posted by: Blake

that's no excuse !

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (QC/4S)

139 115 109 One hit wonders:

J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM (TKf/P)

Only because it was required reading in high school. I read it as an adult (well into my forties at the time) and came to the conclusion the book was "Much Ado about Nothing."

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:08 AM (WEBkv)

I didn't say they were good, only that they were hits. I think The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time.

I am trying to get through Doctor Zhivago now. Halfway through and it is really slow going. I am thinking there may be something to the theory that the CIA promoted it to embarrass the Soviets.

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (TKf/P)

140 How about Mario Puzo?

His attempts at revisiting his big hit (i.e. The Sicilian) were almost universally derided. And did he ever write anything else of note?

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (ul9CR)

141 I myself, am reading the very fascinating History of Java and the astounding! and exciting! sequel, The Little Method that Could.

BBL.

Posted by: Adriane the Sleep Deprived Critic ... at October 22, 2017 10:17 AM (AoK0a)

142 130 Love Victor Davis Hanson, he arguably has the best grasp on ancient history (especially Greek history) of any writer working today.

but please please NEVER dirty his name by mentioning him in the same paragraph as that loathsome traitorous slime Max Boot.
Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 10:13 AM (V2Yro)

He may be all of that, but he did write a great history of America's small wars, maybe the best on the subject.

Posted by: josephistan at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (ANIFC)

143 Have a great day everyone. Enjoying the great weather here. Hope your snuggling weather results in snuggling.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (hyuyC)

144 don't know that Melville was a one-hit wonder. I liked Typee and Omoo more than Moby Dick.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 10:11 AM (qJtVm)

The Confidence Man is a weird sort of dry comedy. Wasn't Moby Dick considered a major flop when published? Nabokov was well regarded by the lit crits but Lolita was probably his only best seller.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (y7DUB)

145 Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (ul9CR)

Is that a trap?

Posted by: Roc Ingersol at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (Q0dwZ)

146 Magpie Murders

I mentioned last week that I was reading Magpie Murders (Hint: not The Magpie Murders) by Anthony Horowitz. I have now finished it and quite liked it. It's two, two, two mysteries in one, maybe three. The first half of the book is an Agatha Christie/Poirot-ish murder investigation with a framing device in which an editor reads the manuscript only to discover that the final chapter is missing. The second half concerns her search for the final chapter after the author's apparent suicide and her growing concern that he may have been murdered. The third mystery for which there is no solution is the author, a successful, popular, and, no doubt, wealthy mystery writer of such works as House of Silk, Foyle's War, and Midsomer Murders, paints a very unflattering potrait of the successful, popular, and wealthy mystery writer in his book and a major theme of the book is the way reality bleeds through into an author's fiction. I quite liked the way the clues in both and each mystery seem to say one thing but, in fact, say something quite different.

One other mystery arising from this book which I shall investigate with further reading is that at one point our book editor heroine badmouths the work of author Will Self in passing. I had previously considered reading his novel Umbrella and have now bought it. Was this good natured joshing of two author pals or a vicious blow arising from some personal or professional rivalry between the two? Who knows? Well, I'll decide if I like Self.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (Nwg0u)

147 I didn't say they were good, only that they were hits. I think The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time.

I didn't say they were good, only that they were hits. I think The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time.

Made me laugh because the comment "most insufferable books of all time" is spot on.

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (WEBkv)

148 145 Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (ul9CR)

Is that a trap?

One big hit, The Godfather.

I can't think of anything else he wrote, books or screenplays, of note.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:19 AM (ul9CR)

149 Btw I borrowed Landmark's Herodotus from the library because of the last book thread.
Haven't cracked it open yet.
I blame CBD.

Posted by: @votermom @vm pimping great books usually free or sale at October 22, 2017 10:20 AM (hMwEB)

150 CBD, you've been doing a fantastic job as a fill-in for OM, but we still hope he recovers quickly (and maybe does a post about reading while on Oxy).

I've been rereading "Crafty Cat Crimes," a fun anthology of short stories of cats committing crimes, solving them, and nudging humans into crime (and sometimes all three!). It's a good respite from the serious stuff I've been reading (and living). Highly recommended for the feline-loving Horde.

Posted by: pookysgirl says GO DODGERS GO! at October 22, 2017 10:20 AM (XKZwp)

151 I didn't say they were good, only that they were hits. I think The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time.

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (TKf/P)

One more time:

Made me laugh because the comment "most insufferable books of all time" is spot on.*

*I don't do italics because I'm not fond of the barrel.

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:20 AM (WEBkv)

152 Still reading "Hell's Super" which I am enjoying. It's my bedtime book so it's taking a while. And I am also reading "Click to Calm" Healing the Aggressive Dog". We are, after 7 years, working on walking nicely on leash. I'm feeling a little more optimistic because I have finally given up on lamb lung to use as our treats and bought some small kibble in a flavor she doesn't usually eat and it will be easy to pull those out of the treat bag one at a time to toss down her bottomless gullet. She is such a delightful dog: her 8th Gotcha Day was last Monday. I made such a good pick.

Posted by: Tonestaple at October 22, 2017 10:20 AM (SlFBw)

153 Wasn't Moby Dick just a whale hunting manual? What's interesting here
too is I don't think it became a hit until long after it was written.
=====

My own theory is that he is and was sufficiency obscure to provide PhD candidates for the most boring and silly analyses to get tenure. I swear they pick the most obscure nonsense to get their gigs and then its the gravy train forever.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 10:21 AM (MIKMs)

154 The third mystery for which there is no solution

==

mm, what ?

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 10:21 AM (QC/4S)

155
A few more, just wandering around my library:

James Farrell: Studs Lonigan

Ernest K. Gann: Fate is the Hunter

Robert Penn Warren: All The King's Men

Lew Wallace: Ben Hur

Thomas Heggen: Mister Roberts

John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces

Eric Hodgin: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 22, 2017 10:22 AM (LuOq1)

156 What, you fugget about me?

Posted by: Mein Kampf at October 22, 2017 10:22 AM (Qz5Uo)

157 Max Boot doesn't even wear boots.

Posted by: The Gipper Lives at October 22, 2017 10:23 AM (Ndje9)

158 A one-hit wonder that all SF fans need to know about is Demon of Undoing by Andrea Alton. It's a first contact novel but all from the point of view of the aliens, who are catlike and have a culture very similar to ancient Japan in terms of rank and honor. They are *completely* puzzled by humans and refer to them as demons. It is also pretty funny. The main character is an outsider in his own culture and so is not as repulsed by the demons--and then he meets one while escaping from a dungeon. Hilarity and cultural appropriation ensue...

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 22, 2017 10:23 AM (hnzFp)

159 one hit wonder - Gone With the Wind

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at October 22, 2017 10:23 AM (hMwEB)

160 Robert Traver had "Anatomy of a Murder" as his best fiction. But he wrote some wonderful non-fiction books about fishing: "Trout Madness" and "Trout Magic".

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 10:24 AM (V+03K)

161 Cat like eyes and based on Shogun Japan . That's kind of racist .

Posted by: SJW head monitor at October 22, 2017 10:25 AM (Q0dwZ)

162 137 In defense of "Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights" that particular Bronte sister died a year after publishing "Wuthering Heights."
Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:15 AM (WEBkv)

Excuses, excuses.

Carolyn Keene didn't let a little thing like being dead stop her.

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at October 22, 2017 10:25 AM (hMwEB)

163 I read City of Thieves some years ago and liked it. I thought it was very cinematic.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 10:25 AM (Nwg0u)

164 Posted by: Trimegistus at October 22, 2017 10:12 AM (zncJR)

Didn't he write Kidnapped as well? I liked that one better than Treasure Island, which I never could get I to as a kid. Haven't read it as an adult. Maybe I should and see if it holds up to my memory.

He also wrote a bunch of poems for kids including "Bed by Day", about it still being light outside at bedtime in the Scottish summer, that one of my kids had to memorize and recite as a class in school.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 10:26 AM (rp9xB)

165 One hit and half a million dead - Uncle Tom's Cabin

Posted by: ramajama at October 22, 2017 10:26 AM (ergrq)

166 141 I myself, am reading the very fascinating History of Java and the astounding! and exciting! sequel, The Little Method that Could.

BBL.
Posted by: Adriane the Sleep Deprived Critic ... at October 22, 2017 10:17 AM (AoK0a)

Then you'll want to avoid reading "Shell Scripting" by Jason Cannon. Now there's a real page turner!

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:26 AM (WEBkv)

167 Delingpole talks to the author of The Road to Somewhere

http://www.breitbart.com/podcasts/james-delingpole/

A useful terminology here. "Somewheres" are working or middle class, and attached to where they live, and have a strong regional or national identity. "Nowheres" typically work internationally and were angry on a gut level about Brexit. The Britishness on this podcast goes up to 11.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 22, 2017 10:27 AM (rnAwa)

168 Let's face it, most authors never have a single hit, much less more than one.

Maybe you publish too many books. One Author, One Book, One Hit.

Posted by: Mohammed at October 22, 2017 10:28 AM (H0quv)

169 Robert Penn Warren: All The King's Men

He was primarily a poet, no?

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:29 AM (y7DUB)

170
One hit and half a million dead - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Posted by: ramajama at October 22, 2017 10:26 AM (ergrq)

Lincoln is supposed to have said upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, "So, you're the little lady who started this war."

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 22, 2017 10:29 AM (LuOq1)

171 Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 22, 2017 10:22 AM (LuOq1)

"Fate is the Hunter" is one of my all time favorites.

Unfortunately, the movie didn't do the book justice.

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:29 AM (WEBkv)

172 What, you fugget about me?
Posted by: Mein Kampf

He was writing another, Was Gehappened.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 10:30 AM (Nwg0u)

173 Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 22, 2017 10:23 AM (hnzFp)

Demon of Undoing was a great book, recommended in a Sunday Book Thread several years ago. Did the author never write any more?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 10:32 AM (rp9xB)

174 He was writing another, Was Gehappened.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege

THAT is brilliant!

Posted by: Blutarski-esque 0.0 at October 22, 2017 10:33 AM (+Tibp)

175 Sundays, and why the flag disruptions are so costly:

Barbara Frietchie poem by John Greenleaf Whittier --

Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewalls' bier.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 10:33 AM (MIKMs)

176 Canticle for Leibowitz.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (MIKMs)

I have been told that by more than a few people, which is why I am probably not going to read anything more by him.

Canticle was so beautfully written too. What a glorious book!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 10:33 AM (wYseH)

177 A good one hit wonder is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I read the Burgin/O'Connor translation but, if I were doing it now, I would read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:34 AM (TKf/P)

178 Robert Penn Warren: All The King's Men

-
Quite possibly my all time favorite fiction book. It's been Hollyweird raped twice and both movies completely missed thd point, even the 1949 version that, I think, won best picture.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 10:35 AM (Nwg0u)

179 @172 - DUDE !

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 10:35 AM (QC/4S)

180 Excuses, excuses.

Carolyn Keene didn't let a little thing like being dead stop her.
Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at October 22, 2017 10:25 AM (hMwEB)

But was Carolyn all dead, like Emily, or mostly dead?

Posted by: miracle max at October 22, 2017 10:35 AM (WEBkv)

181
He was primarily a poet, no?

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:29 AM (y7DUB)

Both, really. Apart from All the King's Men, his novels are said to be talky and undistinguished. His poetry is supposed to be much better.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 22, 2017 10:37 AM (LuOq1)

182 I've heard Holocaust survivors ask why Auschwitz and the train lines leading to that hell on earth were not bombed when there was opportunity. Something to think about when dealing with the norks...

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 10:38 AM (QC/4S)

183
Actually there's a Russian movie of All the King's Men.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 22, 2017 10:39 AM (LuOq1)

184 Robert Penn Warren: All The King's Men

He was primarily a poet, no? Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:29 AM (y7DUB)
=====

I Claudius and Claudius the God: Robert Graves.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 10:39 AM (MIKMs)

185 Also, we Squids have to suffer the perv jokes which, though true, still sting like the lash and burn like the CO's carpet.

Umm, phrasing?

Posted by: blaster at October 22, 2017 10:39 AM (jHrzU)

186 He was writing another, Was Gehappened.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 10:30 AM (Nwg0u)

You win this thread, sir.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 22, 2017 10:41 AM (rnAwa)

187
Intimate Care and Feeding of Houseplants by Harvey Weinstein

"Refreshingly original!"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 22, 2017 10:41 AM (pNxlR)

188 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Berendt has written one or two others, but they certainly weren't the caliber of his first. That book is amazing.

Posted by: blaster at October 22, 2017 10:41 AM (jHrzU)

189 One hit wonder, or only hit writer

Austin Tappan Wright wrote a very long novel called "Islandia", about a fictional country, on a fictional continent in the southern hemisphere.
It takes place early in the 20th century.

Wright was a Harvard educated lawyer, who spend years of his spare time creating and writing about a different kind of life in a different kind of country. When he died (relatively young from an auto accident) , the manuscript was found among his papers.

It is a a book about a people that consciously choose to reject modernity, and instead embrace a life built around work, nature and a sense of place and permanence. I hesitate to use the word Utopia, because in truth that has a hard meaning, as written by John Mill. Hard to explain, yet very evident from reading the novel. Not for everyone, it runs over a thousand pages, and parts are slow. It is written about a culture (post Victorian) that is now long dead. It will seem very archaic and tiresome to others. Islandia has a very different culture; some would call it hedonism, or Epicurianism. They embraced what was simple and beautiful in the world, and tried to make their country beautiful.

I think Wright was very conscious of that. WWI killed much of what was best in the old culture. This takes place before that, but was written after that.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at October 22, 2017 10:42 AM (S6Pax)

190 @2 - Looks like a Vervoid.

Williamson was actually a pretty good SF writer.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at October 22, 2017 10:44 AM (l9m7l)

191 I am reminded of "Lord of the Flies". Book as conch (fetish). Ah, well. Real life beckons. Later y'all.

Endeavor to persevere!

Posted by: Muldoon at October 22, 2017 10:45 AM (wPiJc)

192 Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:34 AM (TKf/P)
---
I liked Bulgakov's The Heart of a Dog, about a canine who is given a human pituitary gland and testicles and transforms into a human. Well, a fat, slovenly, lazy human. A New Soviet Man. His parts came from a drunk Bolshie hobo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_a_Dog

I love that he chose the name Polygraph Polygraphovich.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 10:45 AM (qJtVm)

193 Another one hit wonder, in science fiction, but a short story not a novel is Pamela Zoline for "The Heat Death of the Universe." Which I recommend if you haven't read it.

Posted by: geoffb at October 22, 2017 10:45 AM (zOpu5)

194 For those of you who have read through Brad Thor, Vince Flynn, David Baldacci or Lee Child, and may be wearying of a predictable plot, may I suggest the "Slow Horses" series from Mick Herron? The name comes from Slough House, where the MI-5 screw-ups who can't quite be cut loose are sent to spend days working through old information, running routine errands, etc.

The screw-ups aren't always their fault (one failed a training exercise that resulted in Kings Cross being hypothetically blown up because a fellow recruit intentionally gave him the wrong info on the alleged perpetrator). Add in a recovered alcoholic, a gambling addict, and a few other misfits.

The head of Slough House is a not-quite-over-the-hill old time Cold War spy who keeps getting himself and his office drawn into the internal politics of MI-5 and the government, which sometimes requires the Slow Horses to clean up their screw-ups (some deadly). Real Tigers is about the head of MI-5 faking the kidnapping of a Pakistani intelligence official so she can "rescue" him and have the official in the UK's debt. She picks the wrong "tigers" (agents whose job it is to test security and try to infiltrate secure areas to see how good it is.)

The dialogue is witty, the characters aren't cardboard cut-outs, and not everyone survives over the series.

Slow Horses. Dead Lions. Real Tigers. Spook Street, and London Rules coming 2018.

Posted by: Wethal (shy lurker) at October 22, 2017 10:45 AM (IZjZE)

195 'Morning, Horde.

One-hit wonder...Robert James Waller's "Bridges of Madison County".

Secret Square, thanks for the reminder of "Forever Amber".

Posted by: creeper at October 22, 2017 10:46 AM (VDCWC)

196 The High and the Mighty is another good book by Ernest Gann, so no one hit wonder is he.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 10:46 AM (hyuyC)

197 A good one hit wonder is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I read the Burgin/O'Connor translation but, if I were doing it now, I would read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.
Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:34 AM (TKf/P)

Hard to have a hit with samizdat. I think I read the latter translation but remember thinking at the time "this is some wild shit and probably impossible to translate without a gazillion footnotes to explain the cultural context".

A Russian pianist, Simon Nabatov, did a double cd of quintet music based on his impression of different chapters. It's not for everyone, like all music of that type, but if you like Thelonious Monk or Herbie Nichols type piano playing it would be in your wheelhouse.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:46 AM (y7DUB)

198 Confederacy of Dunces

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 10:47 AM (PUmDY)

199 I was reading Michael Angold, Byzantium: the Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages from 2001. I got it used for ten bucks.

It did a good job explaining how the Byzantine system differed from the Roman system. Essentially Constantinople was a brand new city, built by a Christian dynasty. Rome was just a classical city, like Syracuse or Antioch. Constantinople (or, cities very near it: Nicaea and Chalcedon) became the arbiter of Christianity.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 10:48 AM (6FqZa)

200 J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:04 AM

Only because it was required reading in high school. I read it as an adult (well into my forties at the time) and came to the conclusion the book was "Much Ado about Nothing."

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:08 AM

I had to TEACH the damned thing, managing by focusing on the unreliable narrator, theme, and symbolism. One of the payoffs was my students were shocked when they read an essay by a Baby Boomer and realized that a whole generation of readers thought Holden Caulfield was some sort of hero, not a teen suffering from mental illness.

Luckily for later students, the English department started using texts like Catch 22, Brave New World, and The Things They Carried to cover similar themes.

Posted by: NaughtyPine - Public nuisance at October 22, 2017 10:49 AM (G8B7r)

201 may I suggest the "Slow Horses" series from Mick Herron

+100, excellent.

Posted by: In Vino Veritits, drunk Bolshie hobo at October 22, 2017 10:49 AM (t3kPl)

202 Heller became a famous author who was so intimidated by his own famous book he didn't write another book for decades.

-
One of my friends, yes I have friends, says his nove! Something Happened is his favorite book. I couldn't get into it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 10:50 AM (Nwg0u)

203 Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker were pretty much one hit wonders.

Posted by: Banana Splits Guy - Bunch Em If You Got Em at October 22, 2017 10:51 AM (RrhD2)

204

Survival Guns, Mel Tappan

Errors and written by a person lacking real bonafides, yet still an interesting read and was very influential.

Posted by: In Vino Veritits, drunk Bolshie hobo at October 22, 2017 10:52 AM (t3kPl)

205 It did a good job explaining how the Byzantine system differed from the Roman system. Essentially Constantinople was a brand new city, built by a Christian dynasty. Rome was just a classical city, like Syracuse or Antioch. Constantinople (or, cities very near it: Nicaea and Chalcedon) became the arbiter of Christianity.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo

Constantinople? You mean....Istanbul?

The lessons of history, again and again, is that Islam is a barbarian religion, which has few redeeming characteristics. It has wrecked, ruined or broken much of what it found.
And sympathizers in the West have helped. For centuries.

The "call to prayer" is the most beautiful sound in the world? Really?
More beautiful than Handel's "Messiah"?

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....outlaw in America at October 22, 2017 10:52 AM (S6Pax)

206 OT: File under, hmmmmm......

The Richland Parish Sheriff's Office has confirmed that actor/musician Corey Feldman was arrested Saturday night on unspecified drug charges in Mangham.

Feldman and his band were scheduled to play Saturday night at Live Oaks Bar and Ballroom in Monroe, but he was arrested before the show started.

Feldman will be booked into the Richland Parish Detention Center. Sheriff Gary Gilley says more information about the arrest is forthcoming.

http://tinyurl.com/y8fwxqzc

Posted by: Tami at October 22, 2017 10:54 AM (Enq6K)

207 Intimate Care and Feeding of Houseplants by Harvey Weinstein

"Refreshingly original!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah. "Another stroke of genius!"

I may be alone in this, but my eyes kind of glaze over when I see his stuff.

Posted by: The Ficus at October 22, 2017 10:54 AM (pszv/)

208

The Secret Life of Plants

A tightly scripted erotic thriller that serves also as a morality play and training manual.

Posted by: H. Weinerstein at October 22, 2017 10:54 AM (t3kPl)

209 Still doing research on the Spanish Civil War. One of those affairs where it's a shame someone has to win. The story I'll write from this is perking away in the back of my head.

Some light reading - old Doc Smith scifi stuff.

Also read up on passive solar collectors. Made some mods that should boost heat output by at least 50 percent on the DYI design I found. If it works as well as I hope, I have two more places I can install panels.

Posted by: Long Running Fool at October 22, 2017 10:55 AM (oSjOY)

210

Jinx!

Posted by: H. Weinerstein at October 22, 2017 10:56 AM (t3kPl)

211 A good one hit wonder is Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I read the Burgin/O'Connor translation but, if I were doing it now, I would read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.
Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:34 AM (TKf/P)

The Heart of a Dog as Eris sited and probably one of his best works - The White Guard. Plus, his short stories - A Country Doctor's Notebook, about the time when he, as a top of class med-school graduate went to the boonies in Russia to practice medicine. The Fatal Eggs was kind of good - probably was thinking of Master and Margarita at the time...

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 10:56 AM (QC/4S)

212 Daniel Defoe.

Don't bother looking for another Robinson Crusoe in his oeuvre or you'll be sorely disappointed

"The Shortest-Way With The Dissenters" (read: seventeenth-century SJWs) was great. Might as well be titled "Hey, At Least I Don't Suggest Serving Them In A Stew For The Irish".

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 10:56 AM (6FqZa)

213 "Heather Has Two Mommies" by Leslea' Newman.

Newman!.....I knew it.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 22, 2017 10:56 AM (nUkMr)

214 I swear they pick the most obscure nonsense to get their gigs and then its the gravy train forever.
=====

Sorry for not being clearer. My sweeping generalization only covers some astonishing idiots, not our own truly educated and wise teachers. Please excuse the frustration, I live in IL, the land of Ayers and Dohrn and Alinsky (cheap ripoffs of Machiavelli).

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 10:57 AM (MIKMs)

215 Grateful Dead's Touch of Gray. Although a good song, really this is the hit?

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 10:57 AM (PUmDY)

216 "Forrest Gump" by Winston Groom is one of the funniest books I have ever read and probably wasn't a hit before the movie came out. I like it much more than I liked the movie.

Posted by: huerfano at October 22, 2017 10:58 AM (Dp2K8)

217 "So, in The Green Girl, which was written in 1930, the Earth, or at least its surface, is under attack by a mysterious force that blots out the sun and causes a massive freeze. A scientist has found a way to counteract the strange phenomenon and has located the source of the malevolent force deep below the surface. Our intrepid young hero and his genius older friend build an Omnimobile (sea, land, air, outer spa-a-a-a-ace!) and go down and through one of the Pacific trenches and into a subterranean world. "

That plot is eerily similar to that of Brad Torgersen's "Ray of Light" which I enjoyed very much. I've always hoped he would do a follow up which would explain some of the mysteries left open at the end of the story.

Posted by: Tuna at October 22, 2017 10:58 AM (jm1YL)

218 that loathsome traitorous slime Max Boot.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 10:13 AM (V2Yro)

I used the Max Boot quotation because he has written a couple of reasonably good histories.

His political philosophy is shit, and I have no interest in his pontifications about current events, but as a historian he isn't bad.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 10:58 AM (wYseH)

219
The Richland Parish Sheriff's Office has confirmed that actor/musician Corey Feldman was arrested Saturday night on unspecified drug charges in Mangham.

Hahahaha. I have to laugh.
The kid is still a dope, after all. Way to go, dummy.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at October 22, 2017 10:59 AM (0/NKA)

220 >> Grateful Dead's Touch of Gray. Although a good song, really this is the hit?

It's an awful song.

Truckin' was the Hit.

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 10:59 AM (npPN0)

221 Kind of suits you anyway

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:01 AM (PUmDY)

222 'The "call to prayer" is the most beautiful sound in the world?'

Think about that, and understand that it is a POLITICAL statement. Not a religious statement, not a "factual" statement. It is something that must be stated as dogma if one is to be considered one of the faithful.

For exactly the same reason, Islam has always been the most intensely POLITICAL religion ever devised. That's why the left is so enamored of it; Islam's entire purpose is to allow a core leadership to enforce obedience and to achieve and maintain overall political power.

Any other aspects of it are simply the usual blah blah blah to keep the foot soldiers and the slaves (women) pacified and obedient.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 11:01 AM (V2Yro)

223 Hard to have a hit with samizdat. I think I read the latter translation but remember thinking at the time "this is some wild shit and probably impossible to translate without a gazillion footnotes to explain the cultural context".....

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 10:46 AM (y7DUB)

So true ! I picked it up a couple of times I think, as a yut, but until I read a number of other things, I just could not get into it. But once I did...yeah. Another thing, it took him 20 years to write it and it was published posthumously, so the final edit may not have been what he had in mind. And, yes he did burn one version of it....

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 11:01 AM (QC/4S)

224 >>Kind of suits you anyway

That's all you have to say?

It's alright.

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:02 AM (npPN0)

225

So the Astros and Dodgers, eh?

That should be uninteresting.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at October 22, 2017 11:02 AM (0/NKA)

226 219
The Richland Parish Sheriff's Office has confirmed that actor/musician Corey Feldman was arrested Saturday night on unspecified drug charges in Mangham.

Hahahaha. I have to laugh.
The kid is still a dope, after all. Way to go, dummy.
Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at October 22, 2017 10:59 AM (0/NKA)

I don't know. If even half the stuff he says is true it's a wonder he isn't already dead.

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 11:02 AM (NWiLs)

227 very old Grateful Dead joke:

Q. What did the Deadhead say when he ran out of weed?

A. "Wow man, this band kinda sucks."

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 11:03 AM (V2Yro)

228 Went to get Kidnapped on my Kindle and was reminded that Stevenson also wrote The Black Arrow which I remember enjoying quite a bit. Ended up getting a "complete novels" compilation since it was under a dollar.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 11:04 AM (rp9xB)

229 Dune is unbelievably good. The second one is meh. The rest are garbage.

Posted by: Mephistefales at October 22, 2017 11:04 AM (4eTy6)

230 Whistle through you teeth and spit

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:04 AM (PUmDY)

231 One more one hit.

Douglas Hofstader, "Godel, Escher, Bach."

Posted by: geoffb at October 22, 2017 11:04 AM (zOpu5)

232 >> very old Grateful Dead joke:

I listened to some 67 Shows last night.

Such good shit.

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:06 AM (npPN0)

233 Daniel Defoe was too busy being a secret agent man to write...

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 11:06 AM (QC/4S)

234
Went to get Kidnapped on my Kindle and was reminded that Stevenson also
wrote The Black Arrow which I remember enjoying quite a bit. Ended up
getting a "complete novels" compilation since it was under a dollar. Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 11:04 AM (rp9xB)
=====

Stalky and Co - Kipling. Obviously not a one-hit wonder, but I wanted to live with those wild children at school.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:06 AM (MIKMs)

235 Daniel Defoe.

Don't bother looking for another Robinson Crusoe in his oeuvre or you'll be sorely disappointed.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:07 AM (ul9CR)

I thought Moll Flanders was pretty good.

It is a rather daring adaption of the Spanish Picaresque novel (Like Lazarillo de Tormes), and really hammers in that there are good and bad decisions in life.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 22, 2017 11:07 AM (rb1WU)

236 Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 10:56 AM (6FqZa)

I started that when you mentioned it before. Quickly came to the conclusion that I don't have the necessary background information to even start understanding his argument. It is one of the limited number of ways the US is extremely different from the parent country.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 11:07 AM (rp9xB)

237 209 ... You can never go wrong with old EE Doc Smith sci-fi. And as much as I enjoy the over the top sci-fi parts, I've always liked the part in First Lensman where Kinnison is running for president. Reminds me of the Trump and Clinton campaigns. Same where he has his characters in mining in First Lensman and Skylark Duquesne.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 11:09 AM (V+03K)

238 Garrett, someone yesterday asked me if Dead and Company played John Mayer songs.

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:10 AM (PUmDY)

239 Opposite of one hit wonder.

Richard III (1592-1593)
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594)
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596
The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Julius Caesar (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1600-1601)
Othello (1604-1605)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1605-1606)
The Tempest (1611-1612)

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:12 AM (Nwg0u)

240 238 Garrett, someone yesterday asked me if Dead and Company played John Mayer songs.

Why yes, yes they did. Come up to my hotel room and I'll play with m..., I mean, play some on you FOR YOU...

Posted by: H. Weinerstein at October 22, 2017 11:12 AM (t3kPl)

241 >>Garrett, someone yesterday asked me if Dead and Company played John Mayer songs.

I have no idea what they play. I get off the bus in 1980.

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:13 AM (npPN0)

242 Got a New Potato Caboose going right now, in fact.

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:14 AM (npPN0)

243 151 I didn't say they were good, only that they were hits. I think The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time.

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 10:16 AM (TKf/P)

Right on both points. I started Catcher in my teens. Didn't get far, and saw no point in going further. (And note, I was a teen; the age - if there is one - at which I should have been most likely to like it.) Another appalling hit from my teens was Love Story, which I had to read because I lost a bet to my sister. It's shit. The only good thing was the picture of Ali McGraw on the cover.

A few have become "hits" only because of movies. E.g., Spartacus, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Touch of Evil.

Nicolas Monserrat's Cruel sea probably counts. Also Beau Geste and Prisoner of Zenda. And Tristram Shandy.

Also Nordoff & Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty. Technically a trilogy, but few seem to have read Men Against the Sea or Pitcairn's Island. Anyway, exactly where do trilogies fit here? One or three?

Actually, did Tolkein have another actual hit than LOTR? Or does the fact that there are true LOTR junkies who read the Silmarilion make it a hit, too? (And LOTR isn't really a trilogy; it's a 3 volume novel.)

I can't call it to mind, but I think there's an old fair play mystery which should count. But I can't get to it.

If non-fiction counts, what about James Boswell? Or Edward Gibbon? That would probably open things up too much.

Posted by: George LeS at October 22, 2017 11:14 AM (+TcCF)

244 174 He was writing another, Was Gehappened.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege

-------------

Steinbeck will come.

Posted by: Hillary at October 22, 2017 11:14 AM (gC2IV)

245 Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:12 AM (Nwg0u)
=====

Triggering! Should have a warning.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (MIKMs)

246 I've been listening to Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Whimsy books as they come up at reduced price on Kindle. I read a lot of them about twenty years ago but am catching completely different details this time. One change is that, thanks to Kindle, I'm now familiar with Edgar Wallace, the Dr. Thorndyke novels, etc. that get referenced a lot.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (rp9xB)

247 "Dune is unbelievably good."

I liked that book. Once. Before I learned Arabic and Middle Eastern history, and that Herbert lived there.

He stole everything. Words. Customs. Theme. Plot. Fierce, desert dwelling natives rise up in religious revolt led by their prophet against outsiders exploiting the desert for a special resource they're reliant upon for long-distance travel and modern civilization? Where could that have come from?

Basically every Fremen word and phrase used is mangled Arabic, from 'shai hulud' ("ancient thing," in Arabic) to 'ikhwan' ("brothers," like as in Muslim Brotherhood). 'Kwisatz haderach' (supposedly, "shortening of the way") was lifted from Kabbalistic Hebrew; Kefitzat Haderech, meaning the same.

Lost all respect for his writing.

Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (7d/38)

248 Used book sale at Friends of the Library. 17 military history books! Don't know how I got out of there.

Posted by: Phildirt at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (45Obe)

249 They don't play Mayer's songs. They do a nice Viola Lee Blues. Hoping for an Alligator this tour

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:16 AM (PUmDY)

250 David Baldacci

Posted by: Wethal (shy lurker) at October 22, 2017 10:45 AM (IZjZE)

I want to know exactly what Baldacci has done to keep selling books. For me, he was a "one hit wonder" the wonder being how he manages to keep selling?

Or, perhaps Balducci is a bunch of authors writing under the same pen name, like the guys who wrote the "The Avenger" series.

Posted by: miracle max at October 22, 2017 11:17 AM (WEBkv)

251 Nicolas Monserrat's Cruel sea probably counts.

Posted by: George LeS at October 22, 2017 11:14 AM (+TcCF)

He wrote some other fine books, and his last one, sadly unfinished, "Master Mariner," is a great story.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 11:18 AM (wYseH)

252 "Actually, did Tolkein have another actual hit than LOTR?"

He was asked to write a sequel to The Hobbit because it did well. It blew up into LotR. So The Hobbit (at 100 million copies!) probably counts as a hit.

Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 11:19 AM (7d/38)

253 A really good one-hit-wonder: The Far Arena by Richard Ben Sapir. I think one-hit only because he died way too soon, but I love the book.

Posted by: Bookaday at October 22, 2017 11:19 AM (2qDS0)

254 Also Nordoff & Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty. Technically a trilogy, but few seem to have read Men Against the Sea or Pitcairn's Island. Anyway, exactly where do trilogies fit here? One or three?

-
Read all three as a kid and loved them.

When he wasn't writing books, Charles Nordhoff was a volunteer pilot with the Lafayette Escadrille.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:19 AM (Nwg0u)

255 Or, perhaps Balducci is a bunch of authors writing under the same pen name, like the guys who wrote the "The Avenger" series. Posted by: miracle max at October 22, 2017 11:17 AM (WEBkv)
=====

I think Patterson does something similar: using his own well-known name to get other authors out there. Pretty sure that most 'reliable' best-sellers now are written as 'collaborations'.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:20 AM (MIKMs)

256 Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (7d/3

it was pretty obvious that it was based on them, but still a good story

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at October 22, 2017 11:20 AM (hMwEB)

257 The Far Arena by Richard Ben Sapir

-
Loved it.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:20 AM (Nwg0u)

258 Watership Down by Richard Adams. I don't think I got through Shardik. The Plague Dogs was ok, but nowhere near the masterpiece of WD.

At the other end of the spectrum is John Irving, who followed up Garp with a string of great novels.

Posted by: HammerDog at October 22, 2017 11:20 AM (9M063)

259 /off miracle max sock

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 11:21 AM (WEBkv)

260 He stole everything. Words. Customs. Theme. Plot. Fierce, desert dwelling natives rise up in religious revolt led by their prophet against outsiders exploiting the desert for a special resource they're reliant upon for long-distance travel and modern civilization? Where could that have come from?

Basically every Fremen word and phrase used is mangled Arabic, from 'shai hulud' ("ancient thing," in Arabic) to 'ikhwan' ("brothers," like as in Muslim Brotherhood). 'Kwisatz haderach' (supposedly, "shortening of the way") was lifted from Kabbalistic Hebrew; Kefitzat Haderech, meaning the same.

Lost all respect for his writing.
Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (7d/3

I'm not trying to tell you how to think but it'll be a cold day in Hell when you find an author who isn't a product of the culture in which they're immersed.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:21 AM (y7DUB)

261 osted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:12 AM (Nwg0u)

Thank you, my good man. I did what I could...

Posted by: Kit Marlowe at October 22, 2017 11:23 AM (QC/4S)

262 Ace of Spades behind his ear, him not thinking twice....I'm on my way

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:24 AM (PUmDY)

263

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 11:25 AM (QC/4S)

264 Just wanted to mention an older novelist (70s), John Barth. Most known for Giles Goat Boy. Have to say that everything of his was exceptionally good back then, so now it is time for a reevaluation.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:25 AM (MIKMs)

265 Comments > 100, so OT gun pr0n bleg. I am considering buying one of these Colt 1908 .380 ACPs.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Item/709256168

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/708698995

The first is $700, built in 1915. I've exchanged e-mails and text with the second seller, got him down to $825. Looks like post-1924 model.

Any thoughts, horde?

Posted by: Butch at October 22, 2017 11:26 AM (hXu8T)

266
Is it my imagination or am I see Alice Cooper in a movie right now called Monster Dog?

On Comet TV.

Posted by: Soothsayer -- Fake Commenter at October 22, 2017 11:26 AM (0/NKA)

267 244 174 He was writing another, Was Gehappened.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege

-------------

Steinbeck will come.
Posted by: Hillary at October 22, 2017 11:14 AM (gC2IV)

Mein Fuhrer...Steinbeck...

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 11:27 AM (NWiLs)

268 Two items for this august assembly:

1. Don't quote Max Boot as an authority on anything. The man is a useless tool. His endorsement is to me the kiss of death.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (cfSRQ)

That's kinda where I am too. I am reminded of the leadup to the Iraq War, I was a voracious reader of the Weekly Standard, and would follow their writers around to the various places they occupied on the net.

Despite my misgivings going in to it, I bought that these guys knew what they were talking about, that in spite of my question as to why Iraq, they said it was the right thing to do.

It's funny how in hindsight I had answers, but at the time I was willing to ignore them. Pretend they weren't there, or not so much pretend as to be aware of them, but unable to put them together with reality.

Boot was one of the so-called experts. There were others, but it was almost like I assumed he had magical powers.

These days, I'm going to assume he knows some things about some things, but good grief am I not ever going to pay attention long enough to care to sort any of it out. I'll just start out thinking he's wrong, and I'll probably be alright not giving it any more thought than that.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 11:28 AM (Pz4pT)

269 At the other end of the spectrum is John Irving, who followed up Garp with a string of great novels.
Posted by: HammerDog at October 22, 2017 11:20 AM (9M063)

All true but right after Garp, which I thoroughly enjoyed, the publishers re released his earlier stuff; dear God they were wretched.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:30 AM (y7DUB)

270 1. Don't quote Max Boot as an authority on anything. The man is a useless tool. His endorsement is to me the kiss of death.

Posted by: A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2017 09:25 AM (cfSRQ)

He wasn't really on my radar until watching him lose his shit on Tucker Carlson's show. Dude is unhinged.

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 11:30 AM (NWiLs)

271 @260: "product of the culture in which they're immersed."

What? 'Product of the culture in which they're immersed' = 'passing off pre-existing words and situations as your own ideas.' I think not.

Also, he was American. Born in Washington, died in the upper midwest. He wasn't a 'product of Arab culture.' He deliberately looted Middle Eastern language and history for his 'original science fiction' because it was easy and no one in the West knew any better, and passed it off as original. And they thought it was original. And that's how it was billed by reviewers in the cover blurbs on my mom's copy I read as a kid.

It's the same shit FASA did with Shadowrun; they looted Neuromancer wholecloth, changed some spelling, and just pretended they invented it. They even kept slang and setting. And it was a hit. But that doesn't make it 'not stolen.'

Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 11:31 AM (7d/38)

272 243 ... Tolkien had two massive bestsellers in his life time: The Hobbit and LotR. The Silmirillion was written more for himself than for publication. The academic works, like Sir Gawain were influential but weren't intended to be big sellers. Not sure how his short fiction like Leaf By Niggle or Smith of Wooten Major sold.

By contrast, CS Lewis wrote a lot of hugely popular fiction. But his motivation to write fiction was different from Tolkien's.

I wonder what the result would have been if Tolkien had written Christian apologia. Would it have been as successful as Lewis'?

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 11:32 AM (V+03K)

273 One hit wonder: Joseph Heller with Catch 22. A monumental work, and everything else I've ever read by him is pointless.

Posted by: Billy Hollis at October 22, 2017 11:32 AM (sNJx5)

274 The C-96 is lighter than the British Army issue Webley of the time, and the ammo was lighter.

Anyhow, my pick for a one hit wonder is The Godwhale by T. J. Bass, which is a distopia based on Ehrlich's Population Bomb.

The world society is the Hive, and is run by a central computer who's directive is the greatest good for the greatest number, which means everyone lives on the edge of starvation in minimal personal space, citizens are raised in artificial wombs, the Gardens are cultivated to the greatest effect--meaning all the plants are sterile since reproduction takes calories away from food production--and the seas are sterile from overharvesting.

When there is a glitch in production, citizens are put in to cryo-storage until either there are resources for them to be revived, OR the space is needed and they are decanted and given a bottle of "easy red" euthanasia liquor to voluntarily drink. You know, exhorted to drink it to feel better as they are laying puking on wet, cold floors in catacombs.

Anyhow, the plot is around a very old resurectee that flees to the sewers and from there to the sea where he meets the "Benthic Ferals", wild humans living on the coast that scavenge the gardens and are in turn hunted by the Hive. Eventually he finds an old plankton harvester which revives because it senses new life returning to the sea and the book turns into a struggle between the Hive that wants to capture the harvester and the ferals who need it. (Of course there are FAR more twists to this, many of which come from cloning and space travel subplots)

Bass wrote two books, and both of them on the same subject. What is fun is that he was a medical student or intern at the time so the whole book is laced with endocronology and biochem. At the age of 16 I learned about the Krebs cycle and about deficiency diseases.

It does start out as a Population Bomb sort of book, but in reading it I started thinking that a lot of the Hive's problems were self inflicted, and maybe "the greatest good for the greatest number" might not be the best guiding principal.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 22, 2017 11:32 AM (rb1WU)

275 >> They do a nice Viola Lee Blues. Hoping for an Alligator this tour

'Sleepy alligator
in the
noon day sun
Lying by the river
just like
he usually does.'

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:33 AM (npPN0)

276 The granddaddy of all 1-hit wonders: A Confederacy of Dunces.

Leaving Las Vegas was good, too. Ingeborg Day's (nee Elizabeth McNeill) 9 1/2 Weeks is technically a memoir, but the book is far better than the movie, at least if you like a minimalist style of writing.

Posted by: Hal Incandenza at October 22, 2017 11:34 AM (GgwSG)

277 >>>> Tolkien had two massive bestsellers in his life time: The Hobbit and
LotR. The Silmirillion was written more for himself than for
publication. The academic works, like Sir Gawain were influential but
weren't intended to be big sellers.
.
.
.Even though everyone claims Tolkien was writing the Silmirillion before he died it sure does not read like anything he wrote before.

To me it seems that it was *finished* by a committee of writers some time after his death.

Posted by: The Great White Scotsman at October 22, 2017 11:34 AM (+Dllb)

278 And then there were five. Fifth Polanski victim comes forward and says he nailed her when she was 10.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:35 AM (Nwg0u)

279 248 Used book sale at Friends of the Library. 17 military history books! Don't know how I got out of there.
Posted by: Phildirt at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM (45Obe)
----
Score!

And (as I tell myself) you're providing a home for waifs and strays.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 11:35 AM (qJtVm)

280 >>Used book sale at Friends of the Library. 17 military history books! Don't know how I got out of there.

As a commenter on a Smart Military Blog, you can write those off!

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:36 AM (npPN0)

281 Just read this. Chicago police are replacing their police car sirens with the National Anthem so fleeing suspects will stop and kneel.

Posted by: SJW head monitor at October 22, 2017 11:37 AM (Q0dwZ)

282 Don't know if it's been mentioned in the past, but Amazon should sponsor this thread,

Always find good suggestions and Amazon is my go-to for the hard to find books.

Thanks everyone!

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 11:38 AM (WEBkv)

283 Just read this. Chicago police are replacing their
police car sirens with the National Anthem so fleeing suspects will stop
and kneel. Posted by: SJW head monitor at October 22, 2017 11:37 AM (Q0dwZ)
=====

Je Accuse! Denouncing myself because I snorted all over my keyboard and screen.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:39 AM (MIKMs)

284 Gah! A Confederacy of Dunces is the worst book I ever tried to read. Got only one tenth of the way through it, waiting for the funny.

Posted by: Butch at October 22, 2017 11:39 AM (hXu8T)

285 Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 11:28 AM (Pz4pT)

Like you, I regularly consumed almost everything in the Weekly Standard, which I greatly preferred to National Review, which I imagined as being populated by a bunch of snooty fucks who I'd hate if I knew them, except for Rob Long. I've always associated Buckley fans as country clubbers who don't care so much about conservatism so much as they like hanging out with someone who artfully uses big words. And I consider WFB a smart conservative.

Kristol and Hayes losing their fucking minds over an egg borne contagion have been major disappointments. Fred Barnes and Andrew Ferguson are still entertaining straight shooters but Boot has been a snarky turd for a long time.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:40 AM (y7DUB)

286 >>A Confederacy of Dunces is the worst book I ever tried to read

Try 'Point, Counter Point' by Huxley.

What a piece of shit that thing is...

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:42 AM (npPN0)

287 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 10:06 AM (MIKMs)

========

Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 22, 2017 11:43 AM (/qEW2)

288 The third mystery for which there is no solution

==

mm, what ?

-
How much of the fictional mystery writer is the actual author?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:45 AM (Nwg0u)

289 "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

On meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, Lincoln said "So this is the little lady who made this big war."

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 22, 2017 11:46 AM (pV/54)

290 Looking for compilations of old time ghost stories to read to the grandkids. Not the gory and the satanic ones. Spooky stuff, the type to read around the campfire.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Posted by: The Poster Formerly Known as Mr. Barky at October 22, 2017 11:46 AM (GKqQK)

291 Kristol and Hayes losing their fucking minds over an
egg borne contagion have been major disappointments. Fred Barnes and
Andrew Ferguson are still entertaining straight shooters but Boot has
been a snarky turd for a long time. Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:40 AM (y7DUB)
=====

American Spectator (with the green turkey) has been doing a decent job recently.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:47 AM (MIKMs)

292 To be fair to Tolkien, he was a University Professor of Ancient Languages at Oxford, which was his real career. His world grew out of the stories he made up to tell his children, and out of his love for ancient languages.

For example, in his day he was the leading scholar of the Norse Sagas, and "Middle Earth" is a straight up translation of "Midgard". A lot of bits of the Norse sagas leak into his stories, which helps give them such an ancient feel.

What's astounding is that Tolkien was so influential even though he was never more than a part time writer indulging himself in his own private hobby.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 11:48 AM (V2Yro)

293 Is that you, Trixie?

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:51 AM (PUmDY)

294 *wanders in late because I stayed up late writing*

One-hit wonders by writers who wrote other stuff?

Last Communion by Nicholas Yermakov.
https://pictures.abebooks.com/BIBLIOBOY/md/md14782011457.jpg

The two follow on books of the series never held the adventure of the first one. Of discovering a truly alien race that almost looked Human. Slow-ship pilot Shelby Michaels discovering their secret while finally discovering herself.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 22, 2017 11:51 AM (qZSgP)

295 247 apostate:

thank you. i finally have an excuse for not reading "dune".

Posted by: musical jolly chimp at October 22, 2017 11:52 AM (AxFdW)

296 Bram Stoker's Dracula. Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 22, 2017 11:43 AM (/qEW2)
=====

Yes, but I think he wrote other potboilers. IMHO Frankenstein stands out just because it is written in such a 'modern' style. Wasn't there some kind of contest on a long voyage where they entertained themselves with scary stories?

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:52 AM (MIKMs)

297 I have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:54 AM (PUmDY)

298 American Spectator (with the green turkey) has been doing a decent job recently.
Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 11:47 AM (MIKMs)

It's funny that I was just reading an article from there about Rick Perry's fondness for crony capitalism on another browser. During the Clintooon reign that magazine used to be the mother lode of all accusations about Slick's predations, some of them hilariously nutty. I think our respectable Repuke overlords were embarrassed with how close to the target they were and helped the Uniparty push to marginalize them, which was mostly successful. But still they persisted.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:54 AM (y7DUB)

299 277 ... Tolkien worked on what became the Silmarilion for decades, in fact before he began LotR. He mentions in the intro to LotR that opinions he sought said the earlier material would never sell so he turned to what became the LotR as a more viable vehicle.It reflected his fascination with philology. I don't know that he ever completed a final version. At least with his fiction, Tolkien was forever tweaking and adjusting his work. I believe The Silm. is his work but may not be exactly how he wanted it. Hard to say now. His son did an admirable job making it readable.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 11:54 AM (V+03K)

300 Anna Puma, from your vast knowledge of WWII, what have you read about a decision by the allies not to bomb Auschwitz and tracks leading to it in '44 ?

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 11:55 AM (QC/4S)

301 247 apostate:

thank you. i finally have an excuse for not reading "dune".
Posted by: musical jolly chimp at October 22, 2017 11:52 AM (AxFdW)

I get Herbert and L. Ron Hubbard mixed up.

I can't think of any good reason why I should try to unmix them.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 11:56 AM (Pz4pT)

302 Plowing my way through "Left of Bang", which is about Marine combat profiling.

Soldiers and law enforcement use these methods everyday, and the book supposedly will also help everyday folks to be more aware of situations and their surroundings.

Some good information thus far, but a bit dry, and consists (so far as I've read) of seemingly common sense information that most "aware" people normally use as they go about their business.

It had some good reviews, which was why I purchased it. If I have a different opinion when I finish, I will update here.

Posted by: RM at October 22, 2017 11:56 AM (U3LtS)

303 I have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin
Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:54 AM (PUmDY)

My book group read it years ago. I thought it was terribly written and stopped after two chapters.

Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:57 AM (y7DUB)

304 I had too much to dream last night.

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:58 AM (PUmDY)

305 'Dune' is worth at least one read.

Not the entire saga. Just the first book.

Posted by: garrett at October 22, 2017 11:59 AM (npPN0)

306 All Hail Eris, Why do I think that pulp novel with all the exclamation points is going to make Clark Ashton Smith read like Shakespeare? But thanks for the cover. The lascivious flower creature made my day.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:22 AM (V+03K)

Looks like Green Girl is about to experience some flower power.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon, survivor of GNAMM at October 22, 2017 11:59 AM (O848g)

307 297 I have never read Uncle Tom's Cabin
Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 11:54 AM (PUmDY)

You haven't missed much. It's a poorly-written tub thumper.

My pet peeve in reading it: Stowe failed to grasp that in the now obsolete familiar pronouns, "thee" is the objective case, whereas "thou" is the nominative case. So the book is replete with such gems as "Thee should go ..."

A little thing, but it grated on me enough that I remember it to this day.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at October 22, 2017 11:59 AM (YqDXo)

308 One hit wonder: the power of one

No hit wonder: infinite jest

Posted by: Richie mcgrane at October 22, 2017 11:59 AM (KBZLg)

309 Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 11:28 AM (Pz4pT)

Like you, I regularly consumed almost everything in the Weekly Standard, which I greatly preferred to National Review, which I imagined as being populated by a bunch of snooty fucks who I'd hate if I knew them, except for Rob Long. I've always associated Buckley fans as country clubbers who don't care so much about conservatism so much as they like hanging out with someone who artfully uses big words. And I consider WFB a smart conservative.

Kristol and Hayes losing their fucking minds over an egg borne contagion have been major disappointments. Fred Barnes and Andrew Ferguson are still entertaining straight shooters but Boot has been a snarky turd for a long time.
Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:40 AM (y7DUB)

I guess it would be true to say Buckley was before my time, and I never was much interested in political magazines prior to jumping into Weekly Standard.

It was so much more than a political publication too. I sometimes wonder what happened to some of the less political guys, but honestly the only one I've pursued for his writing outside the magazine/online world is Joseph Epstein.

I would highly recommend his work. A couple books I've read, Snobbery, Envy, and In a Cardboard Belt, but he has several collections of his essays.

Now that I mention it, I know it's probably time for me to grab more.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 12:00 PM (Pz4pT)

310 It always sounded like it was the worst book ever

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 12:00 PM (PUmDY)

311 I wonder what the result would have been if Tolkien had written Christian apologia. Would it have been as successful as Lewis'? Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 11:32 AM (V+03K)
=====

Thematically they seem relatively similar. Please make the time when you go to WI again to digress to Wheaton College, which apparently has the largest collection of Lewis, Tolkein, Sayers, et al. outside of GB. A few years ago I went to Cantigny Park, but never made it to Wheaton College.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:01 PM (MIKMs)

312 Failed SF writer L Ron Hubbard's Dianetics was the foundation for Scientology, and counts as a one hit wonder.

Hubbard made a bar bet that the best scam you could run was to start a religion.

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 22, 2017 12:01 PM (pV/54)

313 Runner, I have seen that reason mentioned in a few places but have never tracked it down.

But for the followers of the concept of Strategic Bombing and of Douhet, it makes sense to skip hitting such targets. Such locations are not producing any war material so would be a waste of resources and hazarding crews for no apparent gain in shortening the war. As opposed to say to the Dora site or Regensberg.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 22, 2017 12:02 PM (qZSgP)

314 My book group read it years ago. I thought it was terribly written and stopped after two chapters.
Posted by: Captain Hate at October 22, 2017 11:57 AM (y7DUB)

I read the whole thing, and it IS terribly written.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at October 22, 2017 12:02 PM (YqDXo)

315 hese days, I'm going to assume he knows some things
about some things, but good grief am I not ever going to pay attention
long enough to care to sort any of it out.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 11:28 AM (Pz4pT)

About current events? Absolutely. He is an ass. But not a bad historian, so I will pay attention to that....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:02 PM (wYseH)

316 JTB, Clark Ashton Smith considered himself a poet first and it shows in his ability to find the pluperfect word, preferably something arcane. His prose is a lush tapestry of scarlet, puce, and purple, but it reads very well if you slow down and savor it. Like appreciating a bouquet of intoxicating night blooms just on the verge of decay.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 12:04 PM (qJtVm)

317 In the 90s I susbscribed to the American Spectator. I landed on some mailing lists that were scary. I dropped it.

Posted by: blaster at October 22, 2017 12:04 PM (jHrzU)

318 CS Lewis was good at being CS Lewis. Tolkein was good at being Tolkein. Lewis trying to be Tolkein, e.g. Narnia, isn't as good.

The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity are treasures. I am agnostic, and I would force atheists and non-atheists to read them if I could.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 22, 2017 12:04 PM (rnAwa)

319 If David Klaus ever finishes his book on Operation Tidal Wave, we might just have the definitive book about the USAAF attack on Ploesti .

http://www.low-level-ploesti.org/

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 22, 2017 12:08 PM (qZSgP)

320 If I have a different opinion when I finish, I will update here.

Posted by: RM at October 22, 2017 11:56 AM (U3LtS)

Please do. It's on my list of possibles, but some of the reviews say pretty much what you did....

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:08 PM (wYseH)

321 Trump will allow release of JFK assassination files next week.

"JFK scholars believe the trove of files may provide insight into assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to Mexico City weeks before the killing, during which he visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies. Oswald's stated reason for going was to get visas that would allow him to enter Cuba and the Soviet Union, according to the Warren Commission, the investigative body established by President Lyndon B. Johnson, but much about the trip remains unknown."

My pet theory is that Oswald was a lone gunman, but acted at the behest of Krushchev and Castro who both had motive.

Each incoming President gets an envelope sealed by their predecessor with alien autopsy photos from Area 51, secretly filmed 8mm of Marilyn fucking the Kennedys, and proof that Castro and Khruschev were behind Oswald.

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 22, 2017 12:08 PM (pV/54)

322 I pulled up the Tucker Carlson/Max Boot pimp slap (fun!) but violated my cardinal rule: Never, ever read the comments on a YouTube political vid.

*scours soul with Brillo pad*

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 12:09 PM (qJtVm)

323
L Ron Hubbard's Dianetics

...makes you pee

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 22, 2017 12:09 PM (IqV8l)

324 dude. dude. that Dune was an allegory and a warning was the whole damn point. of course he stole everything. that was the point of doing allegory.

Posted by: Boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:09 PM (adqKS)

325 I didn't say they were good, only that they were hits. I think The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time.

Made me laugh because the comment "most insufferable books of all time" is spot on.
Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 10:18 AM (WEBkv)

===

Garp is the most insufferable book of all time.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 12:10 PM (EZebt)

326 RE: Herbert 'passing off' his Dune as an original work.

I had no difficulty seeing the similarities in Dune to the middle east from the moment I first read the book(s), even when I knew nothing about the middle east or Islam.

You might even say the Spice Melange on Dune was a metaphor for petroleum. I wouldn't, but you might try to make that claim. Petroleum didn't have the magical medical properties of the spice. Nor is there anything similar to the Bene Gesserit in Islam, unless you want to make the case that the psychology of Islam is similar.

Even the ecology of Dune can be traced to Earth Day.

But Dune was a unique, original examination of the confluence of forces that created that universe. The selective breeding program of the Bene Gesserit, the unexpected effect of the Spice, racial memories, genetic memory, and a ruling power with absolute control over the people.

The part of the story that had the greatest effect on me was Paul, and Leto II having the ability to see the future, and the path that had to be taken to reach that future.

Religious prophets and their prophecy don't explain what has to happen to bring about the prophecy that is all too often explained after the fact, rather than before it happens.

Frankly, I don't understand the open hatred for a work of fiction.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:12 PM (m9X4Y)

327 Garp is the most insufferable book of all time.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 12:10 PM (EZebt)

I disagree, but I can certainly understand why you would say that.

Try "A Prayer For Owen Meany." It's Irving's best book.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:12 PM (wYseH)

328
Absolutely. He is an ass.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:02 PM (wYseH)
------
You talking about me?

Posted by: Weasel at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (NLny5)

329 There's a book called Left of Boom that is tge memoir of a CIA guy who worked at infiltrating the Taliban.

Whole sentences and even paragraphs of the book are redacted. Bit annoying. Otherwise good.

Posted by: votermom pimping great books! at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (hMwEB)

330 Strategic vs. Humanitarian, don't know what to say.

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (QC/4S)

331 You talking about me?

Posted by: Weasel at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (NLny5)

NO! I swear!

[I don't want to get shivved by your enforcer]

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (wYseH)

332 "The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time."

I hated it when I was forced to read it in HS, mostly because Holden Caulfield was such a whiner.

A generation later, and the Igno-son hated it even more.

Posted by: Ignoramus at October 22, 2017 12:14 PM (pV/54)

333 Garp is the most insufferable book of all time. Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 22, 2017 12:10 PM (EZebt)
=====

Nah. I respectfully disagree. Everyone, and I mean every single angsty selfish little twit across the US must read Catcher in HS. Garp is for advanced (college level) angsty twits.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:14 PM (MIKMs)

334 Skandia, CS Lewis would retort that fiction teaches lessons and that there are some books that teach evil lessons. so hatred is a viable emotion for some fiction.

not for Dune though. there are some disguised Islamic apologetic which deserve hate more. like Gaiman's Ramadan

Posted by: Boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:15 PM (adqKS)

335 Hubbard made a bar bet that the best scam you could run was to start a religion.

That may be what the bet was, but Hubbard ran a scam that was wrapped in the rhetoric of religion. He didn't start a religion, he started a scam.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM (m9X4Y)

336 One of the things I appreciated about Dune is the idea of a Sci-Fi universe that has rejected technology in many ways, and yet has still come up with an advanced, space-faring civilization.

I can't think of any other writer who even attempted that before Herbert, and very few since. It was a true innovation, and true innovators are rare.

I think of Herbert every time I curse a piece of modern tech that thinks it knows what I want more than I do. Or that does whatever it wants to do no matter what I think about it.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM (V2Yro)

337 All these must reads that turn out to be insufferable; wait till you get barrack's opus as a must read

Posted by: runner at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM (QC/4S)

338 Skandia, CS Lewis would retort that fiction teaches lessons and that there are some books that teach evil lessons. so hatred is a viable emotion for some fiction.

--

Ok, I'll concede that point. for some values of 'some'.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:18 PM (m9X4Y)

339
[I don't want to get shivved by your enforcer]
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (wYseH)
------/
I'm a little afraid to come home - I failed completely to send pics of the TX MoMe while it was in progress.

Posted by: Weasel at October 22, 2017 12:18 PM (NLny5)

340 [I don't want to get shivved by your enforcer]
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:13 PM (wYseH)
-------------

Fear the bluebell.

Posted by: bluebell at October 22, 2017 12:18 PM (Nktqf)

341 Nah. I respectfully disagree. Everyone, and I mean every single angsty selfish little twit across the US must read Catcher in HS. Garp is for advanced (college level) angsty twits.
Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:14 PM (MIKMs)
---
I somehow avoided having to read "Catcher in the Rye" in HS.

Maybe we should all read it together for a lit thread and make fun of it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 12:18 PM (qJtVm)

342 The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity are treasures. I am agnostic, and I would force atheists and non-atheists to read them if I could.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 22, 2017 12:04 PM (rnAwa)

========

Same here. Regardless of whether you agree with his conclusions, they a) teach you honest self-examination b) they teach you to think carefully and critically about the issues they raise. They might actually force leftists to rise above the level of hashtag slogans and nasty tweets.

Posted by: Steve and Cold Bear at October 22, 2017 12:19 PM (/qEW2)

343 "The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most insufferable books of all time."

"The Pitcher in the Rye" was much better.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at October 22, 2017 12:19 PM (YqDXo)

344 Oh shit -- Bluebell is calling from inside the thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 12:20 PM (qJtVm)

345 341 Nah. I respectfully disagree. Everyone, and I mean every single angsty selfish little twit across the US must read Catcher in HS. Garp is for advanced (college level) angsty twits.
Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:14 PM (MIKMs)
---
I somehow avoided having to read "Catcher in the Rye" in HS.

Maybe we should all read it together for a lit thread and make fun of it.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at October 22, 2017 12:18 PM (qJtVm)

Nowadays the go-to books are anything by Maya Angelou.

So ... no improvement there.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at October 22, 2017 12:20 PM (YqDXo)

346 I'm a little afraid to come home - I failed completely to send pics of the TX MoMe while it was in progress.
=====
Didn't have the photoshop skills to blur the faces, did you? Let's be honest here.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:20 PM (MIKMs)

347 Robert Louis Stevenson. Beyond the masterful Treasure Island, a big meh.

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 22, 2017 10:09 AM (ul9CR)

"Kidnapped" by him was a good read.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon, survivor of GNAMM at October 22, 2017 12:20 PM (O848g)

348 I'm a little afraid to come home - I failed completely to send pics of the TX MoMe while it was in progress.
Posted by: Weasel at October 22, 2017 12:18 PM (NLny5)
-----------

Tell them why, Weasel.

Posted by: bluebell at October 22, 2017 12:21 PM (Nktqf)

349 to kill a mockingbird
catcher in the rye
zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
tao of physics

Posted by: MAxIE at October 22, 2017 12:21 PM (9TR2V)

350 335 Hubbard made a bar bet that the best scam you could run was to start a religion.

That may be what the bet was, but Hubbard ran a scam that was wrapped in the rhetoric of religion. He didn't start a religion, he started a scam.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM (m9X4Y)

Scam, pons asinorum, what's in a phrase?

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at October 22, 2017 12:21 PM (YqDXo)

351 The Catcher in the Rye ain't that great, but it's not THAT bad either and I think it suffers from the fact that so many novels---especially first novels or "coming of age novels"--were essentially copies of it, so it's lost whatever freshness it once had.

Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:23 PM (7uYFy)

352 335 Hubbard made a bar bet that the best scam you could run was to start a religion.

That may be what the bet was, but Hubbard ran a scam that was wrapped in the rhetoric of religion. He didn't start a religion, he started a scam.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM (m9X4Y)

--------------

Sounds like islam too.

Posted by: Soona at October 22, 2017 12:24 PM (ZAAkQ)

353 Nah. I respectfully disagree. Everyone, and I mean every single angsty selfish little twit across the US must read Catcher in HS. Garp is for advanced (college level) angsty twits.
Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:14 PM (MIKMs)

Threads never disappoint when it comes to pithy commentary.

Someone should write a book that called: "The Best of Ace: The Pithy Commentary Collection."

Offer the book with a coupon good for $1.00 off a gallon of Valu-Rite and it's a surefire best seller.

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 12:24 PM (WEBkv)

354 hs english students read almost nothing by white straight Christian men anymore

Posted by: MAxIE at October 22, 2017 12:24 PM (9TR2V)

355
That may be what the bet was, but Hubbard ran a scam that was wrapped in the rhetoric of religion. He didn't start a religion, he started a scam.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM

He started a joke which started the whole world crying.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 22, 2017 12:25 PM (IqV8l)

356 Scam, pons asinorum, what's in a phrase?

"Viggo, English, Please,"

-- Avi

Never mind, I looked it up

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:26 PM (m9X4Y)

357 I read The World According to Garp in preparation for seeing the Robin Williams movie of it and I loved it at the time, but I have a feeling I wouldn't get through it a second time so I won't even try.
Ditto for "A Confederacy of Dunces."

Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:27 PM (7uYFy)

358 Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 11:28 AM (Pz4pT)

About current events? Absolutely. He is an ass. But not a bad historian, so I will pay attention to that....
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:02 PM (wYseH)

I have been sorely disappointed by recent historians, because they bring their politics into the work, and it colors the tone and directions they take.

I find I don't have the time or the inclination to sort out what is as close to an objective view of events, and what is political axes being grinded (grounded?).

I can believe Boot has written some solid history, I just don't have any intention at this point to find out.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 12:28 PM (Pz4pT)

359 The Catcher in the Rye ain't that great, but it's
not THAT bad either and I think it suffers from the fact that so many
novels---especially first novels or "coming of age novels"--were
essentially copies of it, so it's lost whatever freshness it once had. Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:23 PM (7uYFy)
======

Even Sorrows of Young Werther was better (bleah, gaaaak, icky poo), and I made my rep to avoid Catcher by writing about Portrait of the Artist (Joyce). Bildungsromans?

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 12:29 PM (MIKMs)

360 He started a joke which started the whole world crying.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 22, 2017 12:25 PM (IqV8l)

That Bee Gees song is fucking weird. And haunting.
And creepy.

Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:29 PM (7uYFy)

361 Humanitarian feelings don't enter the Strategic picture to win a war. Especially after your bomber forces have already suffered horrendous loses.

If you still want to talk Humanitarian there is the fact that the 'precision' in precision bombing was more often in abeyance and bombs fell hither and yon. So pulling the pin-point bombing RAF Mosquitoes did to free resistance members was never going to happen using B-17s or B-24s.

Posted by: Anna Puma (HQCaR) at October 22, 2017 12:30 PM (qZSgP)

362 356 Scam, pons asinorum, what's in a phrase?

"Viggo, English, Please,"

-- Avi

Never mind, I looked it up

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:26 PM (m9X4Y)

Sorry. To my mind, taking Scientology seriously is the philosophical equivalent of getting extensive tattoos, i.e., a ringing proclamation of stupidity.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at October 22, 2017 12:31 PM (YqDXo)

363 That may be what the bet was, but Hubbard ran a scam that was wrapped in the rhetoric of religion. He didn't start a religion, he started a scam.
Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:16 PM

He started a joke which started the whole world crying.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 22, 2017 12:25 PM (IqV8l)

I didn't see that the joke was on me.

Posted by: Tom Cruiser at October 22, 2017 12:31 PM (Pz4pT)

364 Nood, CBD going nuclear.

Posted by: tbodie at October 22, 2017 12:31 PM (XtR0g)

365 I can believe Boot has written some solid history, I just don't have any intention at this point to find out.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 12:28 PM (Pz4pT)

You aren't missing anything earth-shattering.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 22, 2017 12:32 PM (wYseH)

366 I can believe Boot has written some solid history, I just don't have any intention at this point to find out.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 12:28 PM (Pz4pT)

I did read some of his stuff and while it wasn't bad, I won't read anything else by him again.
He and Ralph Peters have more than one screw loose when it comes to Russia and Putin --and Trump derangement alone doesn't explain it.
Both of these guys are literally driven to sobs by the mention of Putin. It's like he sodomized them.
Or something.

Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:34 PM (7uYFy)

367 Every Day I Write the Book is kind of brilliant

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 12:34 PM (PUmDY)

368 He started a joke which started the whole world crying.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at October 22, 2017 12:25 PM (IqV8l)

That Bee Gees song is fucking weird. And haunting.
And creepy.
Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:29 PM (7uYFy)

I recall reading an article years ago, where they pretty much admitted, especially during their Saturday Night Fever days, that they hated their own music.

I always sorta took this song to be autobiographical, an admission of their personal shame for their music career...

And now that I write this, I think it does tie into the L. Ron Hubbard story.

Is it their fault, that the world took them seriously?

Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 12:34 PM (Pz4pT)

369 I recall reading an article years ago, where they pretty much admitted, especially during their Saturday Night Fever days, that they hated their own music.

I always sorta took this song to be autobiographical, an admission of their personal shame for their music career...

And now that I write this, I think it does tie into the L. Ron Hubbard story.

I hated disco in the '70's and so I hated the Brothers Gibb. But they were extremely talented and in retrospect, their earlier stuff wasn't so bad.

Is it their fault, that the world took them seriously?
Posted by: BurtTC at October 22, 2017 12:34 PM (Pz4pT)

Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:37 PM (7uYFy)

370 The Catcher in the Rye ain't that great, but it's not THAT bad either

Pretty much my impression.

I mostly resented that an okay, passable, maybe-worth-a-read piece of student emo had been pushed on me as OMFG THIS IS ESSENTIAL READING OR YOU GET A 'F' IN LIFE.

No. No, it is not essential.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:37 PM (ofVSV)

371 I thank God that I didn't try to make it as an author. I'd be the hobo following you to your car trying to bum loosies and harassing you for loose change.

Gimme a dollar! Got a cigarette?

Posted by: Fritz at October 22, 2017 12:37 PM (Kwhm/)

372 I thank God that I didn't try to make it as an author. I'd be the hobo following you to your car trying to bum loosies and harassing you for loose change.

--

Work time travel into that and you have a storyline.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:39 PM (m9X4Y)

373 I mostly resented that an okay, passable, maybe-worth-a-read piece of student emo had been pushed on me as OMFG THIS IS ESSENTIAL READING OR YOU GET A 'F' IN LIFE.

No. No, it is not essential.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:37 PM (ofVSV)

The Catcher in the Rye is one of those cultural artifacts that is over-rated only because of the fucking Baby Boomers.....

Posted by: JoeF. at October 22, 2017 12:39 PM (7uYFy)

374 I don't know. If even half the stuff he says is true it's a wonder he isn't already dead.

Posted by: Insomniac - Getting Microaggressed on the Daily, Yo! at October 22, 2017 11:02 AM (NWiLs)

This latest arrest. To shut him up? Or to keep him safe until he names names? Or just because he was whacked on drugs and got caught?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon, survivor of GNAMM at October 22, 2017 12:39 PM (O848g)

375 I thank God that I didn't try to make it as an author. I'd be the hobo following you to your car trying to bum loosies and harassing you for loose change.

So... like me when I quit my job and started writing "House of War"?

After watching my bank-account fall for two months I quickly figured out... yeah, I need to start looking for that day job again

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:40 PM (ofVSV)

376 Lotta things went wrong in this country when they tried to industrialize education because of the massive burst of baby boomers reaching kindergarten.

Posted by: Skandia Recluse at October 22, 2017 12:41 PM (m9X4Y)

377 Had a really good friend in HS. She said that Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of "Catcher in the Rye", was "essentially the most perfect person" one could imagine.

Fast forward several decades. She is doing PR for Nancy Pelosi and Emily's List folks. Don't know if there is a message there or not.

Moody, rebellious types were really in vogue at the time.

Posted by: RM at October 22, 2017 12:41 PM (U3LtS)

378
This latest arrest. To shut him up? Or to keep him safe until he names names? Or just because he was whacked on drugs and got caught?
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon, survivor of GNAMM at October 22, 2017 12:39 PM (O848g)

All of the above?

Posted by: Blake at October 22, 2017 12:43 PM (WEBkv)

379 Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of "Catcher in the Rye", was "essentially the most perfect person" one could imagine.

Whut.

Posted by: Yshua of Nazareth at October 22, 2017 12:43 PM (ofVSV)

380 Also Nordoff & Hall's Mutiny on the Bounty. Technically a trilogy, but few seem to have read Men Against the Sea or Pitcairn's Island. Anyway, exactly where do trilogies fit here? One or three?

-
Read all three as a kid and loved them.

When he wasn't writing books, Charles Nordhoff was a volunteer pilot with the Lafayette Escadrille.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:19 AM (Nwg0u)

IIRC, Nordhoff and Hall also wrote a book, entitled "The Hurricane" about a huge typhoon striking the South Seas, and the adventures of some who endured it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon, survivor of GNAMM at October 22, 2017 12:46 PM (O848g)

381 He stole everything. Words. Customs. Theme. Plot. Fierce, desert dwelling natives rise up in religious revolt led by their prophet against outsiders exploiting the desert for a special resource they're reliant upon for long-distance travel and modern civilization? Where could that have come from?

Basically every Fremen word and phrase used is mangled Arabic, from 'shai hulud' ("ancient thing," in Arabic) to 'ikhwan' ("brothers," like as in Muslim Brotherhood). 'Kwisatz haderach' (supposedly, "shortening of the way") was lifted from Kabbalistic Hebrew; Kefitzat Haderech, meaning the same.

Lost all respect for his writing.
Posted by: Apostate at October 22, 2017 11:15 AM

Of course, mohammed rose to power in the 7th Century A.D., long before there was any market for petroleum, beyond artisanal use of the tar for caulking boats and suchlike.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon, survivor of GNAMM at October 22, 2017 12:49 PM (O848g)

382 Other one hit novel wonders: Vladimir Nabokov
(Lolita), Grace Metalious (Peyton Place), Ralph Ellison (The Invisible
Man), Richard Hooker (MASH), Ross Lockridge (Raintree County), and
Kathleen Windsor (Forever Amber).

Posted by: Secret Square at October 22, 2017 09:39 AM (9WuX0)

=====================
"Raintree County" certainly qualifies for the one-hit wonder category. A masterwork, in my opinion. Ross Lockridge, Jr.certainly wrote a great American novel.
. His son's book "Under The Raintree" explains his father's work, success, and the final battle with depression.

Posted by: mrp at October 22, 2017 12:53 PM (Pqytn)

383 Not really a hit then, but it is now :

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Posted by: True the Note at October 22, 2017 12:53 PM (HLTe8)

384 "Whut."

Way back when, a skinny, sarcastic cynic who ripped everything apart verbally with cold disdain, smoked too much, was alienated from his parents and every aspect of normal culture, and prowled an Ivy League campus in a black turtleneck, would have been quite the catch.

Posted by: RM at October 22, 2017 12:54 PM (U3LtS)

385 Based on recommendations here, I placed the following holds on books at the local library:

The landmark Herodotus : the histories

and Gates of fire : an epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Thank you. I'll pick them up this week.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 22, 2017 12:54 PM (hyuyC)

386 In Herbert's days it was Common Wisdom that Mecca was a super for-real entrepot for All The Trade between the Byzantine Empire and the Indian Ocean. "Spice" was a lazy shorthand seen in the history-books.

It's not uncommon to see bullshit like this to this day (plug, plug):
www.amazon.com/gp/review/R244EH3I8ELKIU

Nowadays smarter scholars are trying to point out that, no, Mecca barely existed and if it did, it was a layover for ships dropping off at Jiddah. Maybe some leather. A little mining.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:55 PM (ofVSV)

387
A one-hit wonder that all SF fans need to know about is Demon of Undoing
by Andrea Alton. It's a first contact novel but all from the point of
view of the aliens, who are catlike and have a culture very similar to
ancient Japan in terms of rank and honor. They are *completely* puzzled
by humans and refer to them as demons. It is also pretty funny. The main
character is an outsider in his own culture and so is not as repulsed
by the demons--and then he meets one while escaping from a dungeon.
Hilarity and cultural appropriation ensue...

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 22, 2017 10:23 AM (hnzFp)

I liked it a lot.

Posted by: redclay06 at October 22, 2017 12:55 PM (nVN5G)

388 Most aliens would think of us as uplifted chimpanzees. (I often wonder about the 'uplifted' part.)

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 12:58 PM (ofVSV)

389 The ultimate one-hit literary wonder would be Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. I don't believe she published any other books in her lifetime
----
see 6

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 22, 2017 12:58 PM (9tO1t)

390 Moody, rebellious types were really in vogue at the time.
Posted by: RM
-------
Yup.

Posted by: Jack Kerouac at October 22, 2017 01:02 PM (9tO1t)

391 What might be fun is asking the Horde what their favorite literary novels are.

I suspect there's some interesting choices.

Plus, maybe some fun in defending those choices.

Anywho, back to work.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 22, 2017 01:25 PM (NyJwR)

392 Somewhat off topic here at first, but i will get to my one-hit wonder shortly...

Moron author Dan Humphreys debuted about a year ago with A Place Outside the Wild, a very different, thrilling, and intelligent "zombie" novel. Check the reviews on Amazon--it is a stellar book, far above the norm for even the best of that genre. The sequel came out this past week: A Place Called Hope. Deeper, and just as much nail-biting suspense as the first. Check it out.

1 Hitter: Beat the Reaper, Josh Bazell. Snarky and bright caper novel about a guy who manages to sever his ties to his totally mobbed up family. Main character trying to atone for past sins by working as an ER doc in NYC. Compliocations, actions and hilarity ensues. Definitely worth a read. The second book in the series, Wild Thing, is a horror. The main character (the doctor) goes full SJW, using the book to lecture the reader on climate change, etc. Check the reviews.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to buy Humphreys' books!

Posted by: Chris Sheehy at October 22, 2017 01:26 PM (Dl9Xw)

393
What might be fun is asking the Horde what their favorite literary novels are. I suspect there's some interesting choices.
Plus, maybe some fun in defending those choices. Anywho, back to work. Posted by: naturalfake at October 22, 2017 01:25 PM (NyJwR)
=====

Already stuck my own neck out on this, both historically and contemporary.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 22, 2017 01:37 PM (MIKMs)

394 Just started "Scalia Speaks", a collection of decisions, speeches and letters by the late Justice Scalia. Edited by his son Christopher and a former law clerk. I heard the son talking about it on a local radio show and based on speeches I heard Scalia give over the years it should be a gem. This was a lovely anniversary gift from Mrs. JTB. (Or maybe she didn't want to keep hearing me gripe about how long it takes for remainders to show up.) :-)

The Foreword is by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They were true friends. I still have trouble reconciling that.
Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (V+03K)

I heard an interview with him, too, on Levin's show. I definitely want to get that one as well as That Nothing May Be Lost: Reflections on Catholic Doctrine and Devotion, by (Father) Paul Scalia. It has a five-star rating on Amazon.

Posted by: SandyCheeks at October 22, 2017 01:42 PM (joFoi)

395 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert_bibliography

Lot more than 1 hit there.

Posted by: DaveA at October 22, 2017 01:50 PM (FhXTo)

396 Erich Segal's 'Love Story.' The absolute worst book I was forced to read in high school.

And his stupid 'Love means never having to say you're sorry' nonsense? Well, good luck maintaining a relationship with that attitude.
Posted by: Jake Holenhead at October 22, 2017 09:35 AM (T33X5)

You know that was written about the grand love story between Tipper and myself, right?

Posted by: Al Gorical at October 22, 2017 01:51 PM (joFoi)

397 Favorite "literary" novels? For me I guess it's these three:

The Leopard, by Lampedusa
Moby Dick, by Melville
Beowulf, translated by Tolkein

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 22, 2017 01:53 PM (zncJR)

398 Ralph Ellison should have stopped after Invisible Man.

Posted by: logprof at October 22, 2017 01:58 PM (GsAUU)

399 I already inserted a reference to Amy from Henry's Dress into my novel.

Just this week, after almost 20 years, I reminded myself why:

https://youtu.be/6DDA4lG1LE0

"He Allison," "Get Yourself Together," and "Zero Zero Zero" are all-time awesome.

Posted by: logprof at October 22, 2017 02:01 PM (GsAUU)

400 Well, for two of the above, Jaroslav Hasek and John Kennedy Toole, neither lived long enough to write another book.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez, we are being gaslighted 24/7 at October 22, 2017 02:11 PM (8/cWV)

401 My nomination for one-hit-wonder is Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez, we are being gaslighted 24/7 at October 22, 2017 02:14 PM (8/cWV)

402 OregonMuse breaks his shoulder and HIllary breaks her big toe at the same time.

Coincidence? Hmm...

Posted by: cool breeze at October 22, 2017 02:15 PM (TKf/P)

403 Finished reading Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. It has been so long since I read Bradbury and I almost forgot how much of a master of the English language he is. Bradbury is not an easy read for those who want something simple or quick, but he is always rich in imagery. A great October book with heavy themes of age and regrets, but a positive ending that made me smile.

Posted by: RGallegos at October 22, 2017 02:18 PM (59GQk)

404 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Berendt tried to follow it up about ten years later with a book about Venice, Italy that was interesting to a certain degree but was just fairly mediocre in the long run.

HMS Ulysses. Alistair MacLean wrote a total masterpiece about the Murmansk run during WW II. Guns of Navarone wasn't bad at all. But then he fell into a horrible rug that never rose above pedestrian. What a waste.

Posted by: Deplorable lady with a deplorable basket of deplorable Ca at October 22, 2017 02:22 PM (CxK6m)

405 Rut, not rug. Dang autu cucumber.

Posted by: Deplorable lady with a deplorable basket of deplorable Ca at October 22, 2017 02:23 PM (CxK6m)

406 I should have made clear that I tend to regard Hobbit-LOTR as one book. (And also the Bounty trilogy.) The Alice books are another case, if anything stronger.

But thinking it over, I can see that doesn't work, if applied to other cases. E.g., that implies that Patrick O'Brian's "one hit" is a 20-volume novel. And there are innumerable cases of this in detective fiction. So I withdraw it.

However, I just remembered my all-time favorite one hit wonder: Wind in the Willows. (I think only C S Lewis ranked it as high as I do.)

There were things Lewis did in all his fiction, which Tolkien couldn't, and vice versa. Lewis has a lot of humor, not JRRT's strong suit, and was also better at visual description. OTOH, JRRT beats CSL hands down in grandeur, and battle scenes, and in suspense. Usually (but not always) JRRT does better characterization, I think. (Lewis's best human characters are all in That Hideous Strength, except maybe Oruel.) And of course no one can match Tolkien for making a made-up world seem real. Not even Jack Vance. (I don't count premodern writers here, as they were always building on an existing tradition.

Posted by: George LeS at October 22, 2017 02:24 PM (+TcCF)

407 40 The Foreword is by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They were true friends. I still have trouble reconciling that.
Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 09:32 AM (V+03K)

They were from an earlier time, when this was possible. I'm old enough to have been part of it. Hell, my wife was a lib when we met, though I've since converted her. But it just wasn't considered odd. And I don't think the new attitude is anything but a disaster.

Posted by: George LeS at October 22, 2017 02:29 PM (+TcCF)

408 404 ...
HMS Ulysses. Alistair MacLean wrote a total masterpiece about the Murmansk run during WW II. Guns of Navarone wasn't bad at all. But then he fell into a horrible rug that never rose above pedestrian. What a waste.
Posted by: Deplorable lady with a deplorable basket of deplorable Ca at October 22, 2017 02:22 PM (CxK6m)

HMS Ulysses does have a terrific ending, but Navarone, thanks to Harveywood, was a bigger hit.

Posted by: George LeS at October 22, 2017 02:32 PM (+TcCF)

409 Scam, pons asinorum, what's in a phrase?

"Viggo, English, Please,"

-
It's Latin for "Bridge of Kardashians".

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 02:35 PM (Nwg0u)

410 Failed SF writer L Ron Hubbard's Dianetics was the foundation for Scientology, and counts as a one hit wonder.

-
Or, perhaps, a one toke wonder.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 02:41 PM (Nwg0u)

411 And of course no one can match Tolkien for making a made-up world seem real.

Howard's Hyborean Age yo.

Some swear by R. Scott Bakker. Although I'd say he spent so much time on the worldbuilding he'd forgot to show us why any of it mattered. I've failed to get into "Prince of Nothing" twice so far.

George R R Martin may or may not count. He has help from his nerd fanbase, organising his mind-droppings and inventing the languages he couldn't be arsed to.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 02:42 PM (ofVSV)

412 If you hearing me howlin

Posted by: Cosmic Charlie at October 22, 2017 02:51 PM (PUmDY)

413 394 ... Thanks for the reference to Father Paul Scalia. Looks intriguing, even to this very former Catholic. It goes on the list to acquire soon. I remember that sparkling and touching eulogy he gave his dad.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 02:51 PM (V+03K)

414 406 ... George LeS, Pretty much agree with you about Tolkien and Lewis different strengths. Tolkien did have a sense of humor but it was a bit dryer than Lewis' and often expressed as whimsy for children. His "Mr. Bliss" and the Father Christmas Letters are in that category. I find them delightful.

The more I read Wind in the Willows as an adult, the more I agree with Lewis' assessment.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 03:02 PM (V+03K)

415 My nominee for disappointing second novel: "The Face on the Cutting Room Floor" by Stan Cutler. Loved his debut, "Best Performance by a Patsy." Hollywood P.I. recounts his greatest success od decades earlier to a ghost writer, who blows a hole in his solution. They team up to reinvestigate the killing. Great fun, lots of humor.

"Face," however, was just dreary. Also had a druggie undergoing an abortion. Complete turn-off.

Cutler came back somewhat with "Shot on Location," but that was it for the series. Drat. What might have been.
..

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 22, 2017 03:07 PM (VQjk/)

416 407 ... Yeah, I remember when friendship between such opposites was possible. But a lot of that tolerance, if that is the right word, has been beaten out of me over the last 20 years, especially if that 'opposite' would diminish my rights and freedom. Ginsburg and her ilk qualify. I don't like it either but I didn't set the table.

Posted by: JTB at October 22, 2017 03:08 PM (V+03K)

417
"The ultimate one-hit literary wonder would be Margaret Mitchell's Gone
With the Wind. I don't believe she published any other books in her
lifetime."

"See 6."

According to Anne Edwards, Mitchell's biographer, Mitchell had many lucrative offers from publishers to write another novel, preferably a sequel to "Wind". She turned them down because she felt she had only one book in her: she'd give "Wind" everything she had. Of course, it didn't hurt that the sales on "Wind" and the movie rights made her wealthy: she didn't need to write any more, and, as Dr Johnson observed, "No one but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."

Posted by: Brown Line at October 22, 2017 03:32 PM (a5bF3)

418 One-hit authors: I have one for you.

My wife and I both highly recommend House of Stairs by William Sleator, and the two or three other books by him that we tried we didn't like at all. That one would make a cracking good movie, and Wikipedia says someone started the project but there is no news of it finishing. Five 16-year-old teens are kidnapped and wake up on a strange place, a sterile and unsettling place where all they can see are stairs and a few flat islands (certainly no guard rails). I won't spoil what is going on, but there was one sentence about a third of the way through that literally gave me a chill. It's not a long book and it's a real page-turner.

Posted by: mr_jack at October 22, 2017 03:56 PM (1p+aL)

419 EXCLUSIVE: Woody Allen's upcoming movie contains some scenes involving an older man having sex with young starlets

Well, at least it's timely.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 05:35 PM (Nwg0u)

420 326 Even the ecology of Dune can be traced to Earth Day.

Dune was published as a book in 1965; parts had appeared in John W. Campbell's Analog magazine as early as 1963. Meanwhile, the first Earth Day didn't happen until 1970. In fact, the early environmental movement was greatly influenced by Dune. The connection was a boon to Herbert, since it helped his novel acquire a far wider audience than the science fiction crowd.

BTW, I read Catcher in the Rye on my own in ninth grade and thought Holden Caulfield was an unbearable asshole.

Posted by: Outside Adjitator at October 22, 2017 05:35 PM (pXthv)

421 Oh hey!!!

Writers check this out

(delete space)
https://news.usni.org/2017/10/17/ marines-solicit-science-fiction-stories-imagine-future-conflicts

Posted by: @votermom @vm pimping great books usually free or sale at October 22, 2017 05:37 PM (hMwEB)

422 408 We do not discuss either the bastardized piece of crap Hollywood made, or that bastard son of a bastard that was Force Ten From Navarone in polite company.

Posted by: Deplorable lady with a deplorable basket of deplorable Ca at October 22, 2017 05:46 PM (CxK6m)

423 For a truly obscure one-hit wonder, how about "The Terrible Game" by Dan Tyler Moore. I read this about sixty years ago as a teenager, and it was <i>terrific!</i>

Posted by: PersonFromPorlock at October 22, 2017 06:05 PM (7m5jX)

424 Frank_Herbert_bibliography
Lot more than 1 hit there.
Posted by: DaveA

Yeah, "The White Plague" was a b.f.d.

Sometimes later books, which are great, get overshadowed by the earlier books, which are deemed Classics. A good example here is William Golding's "Freefall". It may well be better than "Lord of the Flies".

But kids are told to read "Lord of the Flies", and they read it, and they grow up thinking I've already read Golding so I'm done. No, kids. You've read ONE Golding book.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 06:23 PM (6FqZa)

425 Oh hey!!!
Writers check this out
(delete space)

There Will Be War

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 22, 2017 06:24 PM (6FqZa)

426 One hit wonder:
"The Diary of Anne Frank"

She never wrote anything good after that...

Posted by: South of reality at October 22, 2017 07:00 PM (FKP/C)

427 Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins. I loved that when I read it back in my hippie days. His other books -- a girl with giant thumbs?? Couldn't get into.

Posted by: Rosemarie at October 22, 2017 07:10 PM (Cp1Er)

428
And then there were five. Fifth Polanski victim comes forward and says he nailed her when she was 10.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I'm Dreaming of a White Privilege at October 22, 2017 11:35 AM (Nwg0u)

And what says the mannish Meryl Strep about this latest calumny against her idol?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 22, 2017 10:03 PM (pNxlR)

429 78 JTB

Mark Schweizer's series now available on Amazon; Kindle versions at $2.99 each.

Posted by: TrubbleMaker at October 23, 2017 01:08 AM (s0oJj)

Processing 0.05, elapsed 0.0559 seconds.
14 queries taking 0.0207 seconds, 437 records returned.
Page size 243 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.