Sunday Morning Book Thread 12-06-2020

Wisconsin Historical Society Reading Room

Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules). Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, which were obviously designed by someone with a very troubled childhood.

Pic Note:

The Wisconsin Historical Society houses quite an achive:

The Wisconsin Historical Society...Division of Library-Archives collects and maintains books and documents about the history of Wisconsin, the United States, and Canada. The society's library and archives, which together serve as the library of American history for the University of Wisconsin–Madison, contain nearly four million items, making the society's collection the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to North American history.[3][4] The Wisconsin Historical Society's extensive newspaper collection is the second largest in the United States after the Library of Congress.[5][6][7] The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research is also housed within the division.[8] The society's archives also serve as the official repository for state and local government records.[1] The society coordinates an Area Research Center Network, an alliance between the Historical Society in Madison and four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System throughout the state, to make most of the archival collections accessible to state residents.

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"

Read All The Books

Of course, it is obviously impossible for one person to read every book that has ever been written. But if you go back far enough, you will eventually get to a point, centuries ago, in time when such a thing would have been possible.

According to this article in the Smithonian, there was at least one person who thought that you could at least keep track of them all:

Christopher Columbus may have explored oceans, but his illegitimate son, Hernando Colón, explored the mind. In the 16th century, he amassed somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 books, part of a pie-in-the-sky effort to collect “all books, in all languages and on all subjects, that can be found both within Christendom and without.” As part of this ambitious endeavor, he commissioned an entire staff of scholars to read the books and write short summaries for a 16-volume, cross-referenced index. Called the Libro de los Epítomes, it served as a primitive sort of search engine. Now, researchers have found one of those lost volumes, a precious key to many books lost to history.

And by attempting to collect everything, it is not meant just the "classical" or "good" literature, but literally *everything* that had ever been written:

Unlike other book-obsessed collectors from the time period, Colón wasn’t just interested in volumes from classical authors or other well-trodden texts. Fortunately for present-day scholars, he bought everything he could find in print, including political pamphlets, guidebooks and posters from taverns.

The lost volume/index they found is a 2,000 page tome that is a foot thick.

I remember reading William F Buckley's speculation, back in the days when I was a subscriber to the dead tree edition of National Review, that Erasmus was probably the last guy who could've read everything. And, coincidentally, Erasmus (1469-1536) was more or less a contemporary of Hernando Colón (1488-1539).

(h/t Hans Schantz)

Who Dis:

You'll need to ID both people for full credit

(Last week's 'who dis' was early Hollywood actress Gloria Swanson.)

Moron Recommendations

60 I'm reading Larry Correia's "Target Rich Environment" which is an anthology. I need some mindless fluff to distract me from reality.

Posted by: lin-duh at November 29, 2020 09:31 AM (UUBmN)

TRE is a collection of Correia's urban fantasy short stories, some of them previously published, but others seen here for the first time:

Together for the first time, fourteen action-packed tales of demons, monster, vampires, and cosmic horrors too terrible to name—and the men and women who take them all down. Oh, and toss in an interdimensional insurance salesman for good measure.

You’ll also find: An elven princess from the pages of Monster Hunter International on a mission to redeem her people. A samurai pirate with a blood vendetta against an extremely large sea beast. And a magic-wielding P.I. who walks the mean streets of Detroit.

Journey back to the origins of Monster Hunter International in “Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Hunters.” Uncover the origin of one of Dead Six’s central characters in “Sweothi City.” And celebrate the holidays with the Grimnoir Chronicle’s own Jake Sullivan in “Detroit Christmas”...

And more. The Kindle edition is $6.99. And if you're still hungry when you're done, there's always Target Rich Environment Vol. 2.

Maybe I'll be talking about this sort escapist 'fluff' writing in the months ahead if Biden manages to sleaze his way into the White House.

___________

44 I discovered a marvelous author - Norman Collins, an Englishman who not only wrote novels beginning in the 1930s and continuing to the 70s, but also worked for the BBC and went on to help establish the rival network, ITV. He was very popular in his day, and is now nearly forgotten, but unjustly so.

He most popular book was 'London Belongs to Me', and I discovered it because I watched the movie made of it in 1948, starring David Attenborough and Alastair Sim. You can see the whole thing on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DDUWWLsOpQ

If you like the movie, the book is even better. It's the story about a diverse group of lower middle class people in a rooming house in south London a year before WWII breaks out. Collins has a Dickensian way of writing these people withe real affection. There's Percy, a young garage mechanic who's not a bad guy, but you can see he's already on the wrong path, getting mixed up in shady stuff. The landlady is into spiritualism and takes in a new lodger, Mr. Squales, who's a fake medium who sees her as his meal ticket. (Alastair Sim plays Squales and is a hoot in the role.) The heart of the group is the Josser family, Mr. Josser who's just retired from a lifetime as bookkeeper to a financial house, his irritable wife, and their daughter Doris, who wants to strike out on her own.

The book is part comedy, part drama, and really enjoyable. I'm sorry I read it so fast, and am just waiting for some time to go by before I read it again. Meanwhile, I've ordered another Collins book from AbeBooks, and hope it's as good as this one.

Posted by: Dr. Mabuse at November 22, 2020 09:27 AM (NPokB)

Not much I can add to this succinct review, other than to note that London Belongs To Me (Penguin Modern Classics) is either OOP or Penguin isn't putting in a lot of effort into making it readily available. Amazon lists the paperback price north of $22. Suggest looking into purchasing a used copy from Abebooks, and there are many available.

___________

124 12 With that out of the way: I'm reading The End of October, a 2020 SF/thriller by one Lawrence Wright. It's the kind of story that reviews will call "eerily prophetic," as it deals with, guess what, a pandemic. This one is real, more like the 1918 flu.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at November 22, 2020 09:10 AM (rpbg1)

Sounds good... wait, did you say Lawrence Wright, the guy who wrote...

Purchased, as the author is the Lawrence Wright of 'The Looming Tower', and I can't give him money often enough.

Posted by: motionview (I also want desperately to believe) at November 22, 2020 10:04 AM (pYQR/)

Yup, that Lawrence Wright. This novel does, indeed, sound prophetic:

At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry's wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.

Featuring descriptions of past plagues and meticulously researched, some of the reviews compare this book (favorably) with Michael Crichton. I was surprised to see the Kindle edition available for only $3.99. (Update: no, sorry, that must've been a sale price. It is now at $14.99. Aargh.)

Lawrence has written books on wildly different subjects. In addition to The Looming Tower, there's Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, a book about you-know-what, and also Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory, about one of those "satanic ritual abuse cases" back in the late 1980s.

___________

A Blind Squirrel Finds A Nut

Who wrote this?

If, like me, you’re sick and tired of being told how to think, speak, eat and behave, then this book is for you.

If, like me, you think the world’s going absolutely nuts, then this book is for you.

If, like me, you think...the real stars of our society [are] not self-obsessed tone-deaf celebrities, then this book is for you. If, like me, you’re sickened by the cancel culture bullies destroying people’s careers and lives, then this book is for you.

From feminism to masculinity, racism to gender, body image to veganism, mental health to competitiveness at school, the right to free speech and expressing an honestly held opinion is being crushed at the altar of ‘woke’ political correctness.

So this is a blurb used to describe a new book written by which author?

a) Mark Levin
b) Donald Trump, Jr.
c) Sean Hannity
d) Piers Morgan

And the answer is, of course (d) Piers Morgan. The book, published last month, is titled Wake Up: Why the world has gone nuts and further subtitled 'Our eyes have been opened' and 'We must never close them again'.

Piers Morgan? Seriously?

I always thought Morgan was just a limey twit. Every time his name has appeared on my radar it's always been in tbe context of a 2A/gun ownership debate that he is invariably on the wrong side of. Oh, and didn't he get canned from one of his media jobs for publishing fake photos during the Iraq War?

So now he's sounding like a conservative cultural warrior. So I don't know.
I found out about thie book when it was endorsed by PDT on Twitter.

Books By Morons

Moron author 'Long-time Commenter, First-time Reader' has just published a new collection of Space Western short stories, called Stardust Mesa: Scenes From Another Frontier:

Decades ago, the colony ship Gila left Earth bearing the future inhabitants of a new world, one destined to become humanity�s homestead among the stars. This collection of stories paints the picture of life on a new frontier � one both like and unlike the American frontier of yesteryear, where miners wrest exotic material from asteroids, ranchers breed herds of giant bug-like creatures, and each and every person fights to carve out a new life for themselves far from the planet their ancestors left behind. Welcome to the western side of the stars.

I might have to buy this one myself. Fortunately for me, the Kindle edition is only $1.99.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Let's book!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:01 AM (Dc2NZ)

2 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 09:01 AM (9sWOw)

3 Who Dis? Judy Garland and Vincent Minelli?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:02 AM (PiwSw)

4 Those pants look like something I'd wear to a Hollywood Hieronymus Bosch party.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

5 Hi Eris!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:02 AM (PiwSw)

6 Read 'Superego' by Frank Fleming and thoroughly enjoyed it,
although the ending makes it pretty clear that there would be a sequel,
and, oh look, there's a sequel!
It's done in a first person style that is very well done and gives you
a good understanding of a sociopath.
But he's a bad guy killing bad guys, mostly, so its all good.
I have to admit that I was a little afraid to find out that
I understood his thinking better than I probably should have.
Definitely recommend it though.

Posted by: Last at December 06, 2020 09:03 AM (BdIMF)

7 It's yours Eris.
Finished Sharpe's Trafalgar in a week, would like to go to the next Sharpe's Prey.
But maybe find something at the used book store or get Obama Unmasked again.

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 09:03 AM (9sWOw)

8 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. Hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 09:04 AM (7EjX1)

9 Hey thanks for including Stardust Mesa today OM!

I am currently re reading the Stormlight Archive books by Brandon Sanderson in preparation for reading the new one that just came out.

Posted by: Long-time Commenter, First-time Reader at December 06, 2020 09:04 AM (q07WT)

10 Good frosty morning all! Getting to head out to the back 40 to cut our Christmas tree.

Posted by: Muad'dib at December 06, 2020 09:04 AM (Eabwd)

11 oops, posted in prev thread

correct spelling of Mr Judy Garland:

Vincente Minnelli

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:04 AM (PiwSw)

12 Those pants are fine. I'm wearing some like them right now.

Stop staring at my crotch.

Posted by: f'd at December 06, 2020 09:05 AM (CMssp)

13 I'll take Piers Morgan as the Blind Squirrel.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:05 AM (PiwSw)

14 I call fake. If that really was a Wisconsin library, the motif would be graced with green and gold. Not even joking.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:05 AM (gm3d+)

15 THIRST!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at December 06, 2020 09:05 AM (pP5cE)

16 Almost afraid to ask. Is that Nicolas Cage's face on the crotch of 'those pants'? Disturbing in either case.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 09:06 AM (7EjX1)

17 Toff...Fop...related? redundant?

Posted by: BignJames at December 06, 2020 09:06 AM (AwYPR)

18 If not posted, Mark Dice on the fraud:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGoXq2OsUYs

Posted by: Biden's Dog at December 06, 2020 09:06 AM (pP5cE)

19 Betty and Don Draper!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

20 John Garfield and Lana Turner? Postman always rings twice?

Posted by: MichiCanuck at December 06, 2020 09:07 AM (VdZL5)

21 Le nood.

Posted by: m at December 06, 2020 09:07 AM (LTs8q)

22 Nice reading room!

Those pants are great for doing PT and other things around the neighborhood....

The Who Dis is Mitt Romney and his whore role playing the "Bad Librarian".

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (R/m4+)

23 I blazed through "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" by Grady Hendrix. It was hilarious, but no light horror romp. The nice "young" man who moves into the neighborhood is a true parasite.

Somebody here recommended it, so thanks.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (Dc2NZ)

24 John Garfield and Faye Emerson from Btwn 2 worlds

Posted by: REDACTED at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (MIsHM)

25 Hi Grammie! *waves at Grammie*

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:09 AM (PiwSw)

26 Spent most of the week re-visiting old Heinlein classics. Think I will move in to a re-read of the Harry Potter series. I wish my authors would do something new.

Posted by: Vic at December 06, 2020 09:09 AM (mpXpK)

27 I finally ditched Nero Wolf after trying to muster up some enthusiasm for finishing the book. I've maybe bailed on half a dozen books in my life. I always feel guilty for not finishing them. Not this one. POOF it was gone.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:09 AM (gm3d+)

28 Hi Grammie! *waves at Grammie*

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:09 AM (PiwSw)

Hi Back!

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:10 AM (gm3d+)

29 Who Dis'? For a second I thought it was Lucy and Ricky.

Posted by: Biden's Dog at December 06, 2020 09:10 AM (pP5cE)

30 I don't like the Flying Books picture. When some of them land, the pages will be bent....

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at December 06, 2020 09:11 AM (PiwSw)

31 Computer screens destroy the library in the picture.

Posted by: Luddite at December 06, 2020 09:12 AM (XxJt1)

32 I felt the need to reread some Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories and found a cheap Kindle collection (Vol I).

I haven't read them since I was a teen, but I remember the world-building and lived-in, genteel decay of Lankhmar.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:13 AM (Dc2NZ)

33 Marlene Dietrich and Billy Wilder?

Posted by: Bandersnatch at December 06, 2020 09:14 AM (q2K0j)

34 John Garfield and Lana Turner of The Postman Always Rings Twice?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:14 AM (rpbg1)

35 I finally ditched Nero Wolf after trying to muster up some enthusiasm for finishing the book. I've maybe bailed on half a dozen books in my life. I always feel guilty for not finishing them. Not this one. POOF it was gone.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020

*
*

Which one did you give up on? I think you mentioned it was the first novel, Fer de Lance?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (rpbg1)

36 I knew the guy but his name just wouldn't come to me. John Garfield. No clue on the lady but she looks like she wants to devour Garfield. In a good way.

Posted by: Jewells45TRUMPWON! at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (nxdel)

37 www.koehlerbooks.com/cover-polls/

Hi All, thanks OM!

Mostly, I lurk. On occasion, however, I have mentioned here that I was a writing a book about my grandfather, a WWI and WWII Combat Engineer. Well, we are nearing publication. At the link above, YOU all can participate in this venture by voting on which of the two cover designs you prefer.

All who are interested, I invite you to play. Enjoy. The book is titled, ahem, 'Combat Engineer'.

Publication date is scheduled for February 25.

Thank you all!!

Posted by: goatexchange at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (HgBj4)

38 If 'Stardust Mesa' sounds good to you, look into H. Beam Piper's 'Lone Star Planet' / 'A Planet for Texans.' On Gutenberg. Or the Atlanta Radio Theatre Co. has an audio adaptation.

Posted by: RNB at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (DjjZJ)

39 egads that Calvin & Hobbes is spot on
what year is it from?

booken morgen horden

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 09:17 AM (nUhF0)

40 Which one did you give up on? I think you mentioned it was the first novel, Fer de Lance?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (rpbg1)

It was. I tried. I really tried. But when the thought of reading on fills you with cringe-ness, it's time to move on.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:18 AM (gm3d+)

41 Good morning.

Toff as aa nickname for a posh snooty character.

**********

Toffy Pull - a limerick

A posh snooty fella named Goff
Dismissed all critiques with a scoff
So imagine his terror
When a typesetting error
Printed "Don't Be A Jerk, BeAToff!"

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:20 AM (m45I2)

42 I am almost finished with Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic. It is fairly interesting. More of a memoir than a scientific write up, but it is still pretty interesting. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a real problem.

Also, I can almost smell things today. I still feel like garbage and walking upstairs takes more effort than I would like, but at least I can almost taste my food.

Posted by: Quirky bookworm at December 06, 2020 09:21 AM (EbJ6H)

43 Son put on his wish list a couple of books about WW2, complete with maps and battle strategies. Total about $125. Daughter put on her list interior car wipes, about $9.95. Who puts car wipes on their Christmas list?

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:22 AM (gm3d+)

44 Muldoon, you have a rare genius for that. =)

Posted by: Long-time Commenter, First-time Reader at December 06, 2020 09:22 AM (q07WT)

45 >>.... All who are interested, I invite you to play. Enjoy. The book is titled, ahem, 'Combat Engineer'.

Publication date is scheduled for February 25.

Thank you all!!
Posted by: goatexchange at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (HgBj4)

Very cool! It sounds like it will be an interesting read. Good luck!

Posted by: My life is insanity at December 06, 2020 09:22 AM (Z/jzm)

46 Toff. All right then.Now do "snooty" and "posh."

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at December 06, 2020 09:22 AM (zMFmR)

47 Mornin', all!

Rod Dreher seems to have some serious TDS, but his Live Not by Lies is excellent. His voice is in this book, but the interviews with survivors of Communism are the stars of the show. I have not read The Benedict Option, but this book made me want to. I feel far more prepared for where we are headed after reading it.

Posted by: Catherine at December 06, 2020 09:22 AM (5ihJp)

48 Which one did you give up on? I think you mentioned it was the first novel, Fer de Lance?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (rpbg1)

It was. I tried. I really tried. But when the thought of reading on fills you with cringe-ness, it's time to move on.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020

*
*

Fer de Lance is a bit of a slog compared to his later work. Stout didn't really hit his stride in the series until after WWII. Check out Might As Well Be Dead and Murder By the Book from the '50s. Wolfe lectures far less and Archie is a much more polished fellow who no longer says things like "It don't signify."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:23 AM (rpbg1)

49 Hiya Bookies !

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 09:23 AM (arJlL)

50 "Combat Engineer" cover...

I vote for number two. I like the long, long bridge.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:24 AM (XxJt1)

51 Hiya JT!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:24 AM (Dc2NZ)

52 OMG. I made the book thread! I'm still not wear Nicklaus Cage sweat pants though!!

I am now on book 2 of Correia's anthology, "Target Rich Environment".

Posted by: lin-duh at December 06, 2020 09:25 AM (UUBmN)

53 Horde, Goatexchange's link is fun. Scroll down. His book is the fourth.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:26 AM (XxJt1)

54 Check out Might As Well Be Dead and Murder By the Book
from the '50s. Wolfe lectures far less and Archie is a much more
polished fellow who no longer says things like "It don't signify."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:23 AM (rpbg1)

I'll give them one shot. One. If I am displeased, I'm coming after you.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:26 AM (gm3d+)

55 For fun, I'm just starting two light history books, one on Medieval notions of Hell and the other on the Inquisition.

"Pride, envy, fornication, vainglory, anger of longstanding, worldly sadness, avarice, gluttony, sacrilege, adultery, false witness, theft, robbery, continual drunkenness, idolatry, effeminacy, sodomy, evil-speaking, and perjury. For these, liberal alms are to given and prolonged fasting is to be kept; laymen three years, clerics five years, subdeacons six years, presbyters ten years, bishops twelve years." -- from an 8th Century penitential for crimes committed by the clergy (from "The Medieval Underworld" by Andrew McCall

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:26 AM (Dc2NZ)

56 Started reading The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric as part of my book group. It's centered in Bosnia, so it's pretty dry reading, and about a real bridge that was constructed in the late sixteenth century by a Grand Vezir of the Ottoman Empire who had been the son of a villager who was packed off to Turkey by the rock worshippers as part of the blood tribute those vermin imposed. Anyway he was totally indoctrinated into their dogshit cult but there was still a vestigial part of him that knew "this is fucked up". Anyway he commissioned the bridge to facilitate travel between Turkey and Hungary but the first guy he had as foreman was a real cocksucker in terms of keeping the money that was to be paid to the workers and beating the fuck out of everyone. So the workers said fuck this shit and started sabotaging the bridge. When the prick found one of the perps he had a sharp pole stuck up his asshole and coming out his shoulder, carefully missing any vital organs, and suspended from the highest point of the bridge in progress where he finally died after eighteen hours. Eventually the Vezir found out what a lowlife the foreman was and sent him packing in disgrace. The bridge was completed under a new better guy and everyone liked it but got used to it quickly. Then Hungary kicked the rock worshippers out and suddenly all the money that was coming in to support the guest houses and stable surrounding the bridge disappeared and that's where I'm at now.

Like I said it's pretty dry reading and the Serbs aren't exactly synonymous with comedy clubs but anything that increases my knowledge of that area is a good thing.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:26 AM (y7DUB)

57 Re: Bookish Problem #158:

If you were reading Muldoon's Library of Limericks Vol. 1 you would know that the bathroom IS the perfect reading position.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:26 AM (m45I2)

58 I always felt that particular Calvin and Hobbes strip was very, very prophetic.

Posted by: pookysgirl saw this coming too at December 06, 2020 09:27 AM (XKZwp)

59 I just wanted to say thank you to whomever recommended Terror to read. Currently listening to it on audible and it is a super well written book.

Posted by: thathalfrican - The One at December 06, 2020 09:28 AM (IYHxL)

60 Jewells, my friend loved the dragonfly. Thank you so much for creating it and sending it to her.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:28 AM (XxJt1)

61 I got John Garfield; I could hear his voice before I could think of his name. I think that Faye Emerson is correct, but the predatory look and body language made me think Tallulah Bankhead.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at December 06, 2020 09:29 AM (fTtFy)

62 Also, I think I'm the only one at the family Christmas party that did not get a book of some kind. Instead, I got a journal. O.o

Posted by: pookysgirl saw this coming too at December 06, 2020 09:29 AM (XKZwp)

63 Toff. All right then.Now do "snooty" and "posh."
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at December 06, 2020

*
*

"Posh," I've read, came from an abbreviation of "Port out, starboard home." According to the story, passengers on ocean liners (between London and New York especially) didn't want to be stuck on the side of the ship where the sun came in the portholes all day -- before air-conditioning, this was. So going west, they would pay extra for cabins on the port side, which apparently was more shaded, and coming back they wanted the cabins on the starboard side. So liner companies began to refer to that in shorthand, and it apparently passed into the language.

Dunno if that's for real, though.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:29 AM (rpbg1)

64 Piers Morgan has always been pretty good on many topics, but when it comes to guns he turns absolutely stupid.

I've been re-reading Michael Moorcock books lately, stuff I haven't read since high school. I'm almost done with the first Corum trilogy then I want to get to the Hawkmoon books. The man has his problems but he's brilliant, creative, and imaginative on an amazing level.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:30 AM (KZzsI)

65 I'm on a binge through Keith Laumer's Retief stories, in chronological order as listed in Wikipedia. I may own most of them without realizing it. I'll see.

I need to read something in which schemers are outfoxed by somebody clever -- and willing to break rules.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 09:31 AM (sBV5A)

66 but the predatory look and body language made me think Tallulah Bankhead.
Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey

Johnny Carson once introduced her as Ballullah Tankhead.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 09:31 AM (arJlL)

67 Get this illiterate troll out of the book thread.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:31 AM (y7DUB)

68 You can't lose what you don't have.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:31 AM (gm3d+)

69 Typical troll...farts in the library.

Posted by: BignJames at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (AwYPR)

70 These Pants:

Do you have a runny nose or are you just happy to see me?

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (m45I2)

71 done, goatexchange !

what fun !

Posted by: sock_rat_eez, we are being gaslighted 24/365 TRUMP WON! at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (/On2j)

72 Check out Might As Well Be Dead and Murder By the Book
from the '50s. Wolfe lectures far less and Archie is a much more
polished fellow who no longer says things like "It don't signify."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:23 AM (rpbg1)

I'll give them one shot. One. If I am displeased, I'm coming after you.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020

*
*

I don't think you'll cringe, Grammie. Rex Stout got better as he wrote about the characters. Archie's narration is breezier and funnier (in Murder By the Book he travels to LA, spends his entire time there in the rain, and has choice remarks to make about the place), and the plotting is better. You'd almost think a different writer penned these two.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (rpbg1)

73 Hiya Eris !

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (arJlL)

74 Hiya Grammie !

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (arJlL)

75 "I'm not crazy about reality, but still it's the only place to get a decent meal."

Groucho Marx - epicurean

Posted by: BackwardsBoy - #BidenCheated at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (HaL55)

76 Started "The Old Regime and the French Revolution" by Alexis de Tocqueville. Excellent so far. He is an amazingly clear and concise writer with astonishing insight. I've joked before that I'm the only person I know who has actually read "Democracy in America" as opposed to having read about it. That is truly a must read. Unfortunately, it seems to be describing an America that no longer exists.

Posted by: Who knew at December 06, 2020 09:33 AM (SfO/T)

77 You're very welcome creeper. I'm glad she liked it.

Posted by: Jewells45TRUMPWON! at December 06, 2020 09:33 AM (nxdel)

78 Also I've been reading Black Mask magazine Continental Op stories by Dashiell Hammett. Most of them were written based on cases he actually participated in, and they are great procedural stuff from the twenties.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:33 AM (KZzsI)

79 A rare book thread troll sighting. so+NG

Posted by: motionview at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (pYQR/)

80 Hiya JT!

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (gm3d+)

81 I read A Crown of Thorns, the seventh book in the WOT series, by Robert Jordan. The main story, the Dragon Reborn vs. the Dark One, was not advanced much until the final chapter. This is the weakest effort in the series so far.

On the Kindle, I read Middle Falls Time Travel: Omnibus Books 1-3 by Shawn Inmon. Thomas Weaver's life is haunted by a teenage tragedy when he kills is older drunken brother in a car accident. An alcoholic in his 50's, living with his mother, he looses his car salesman job. This pushes him over the edge and he commits suicide. He wakes up as teenager in his old bedroom he shares with his brother. He gets to live life over, but knowing what happened in the old one, and he is able to make changes in the new one.

The other stories take characters from the first and tell of their relives. One is that of Carrie who breaks a cycle of thirteen lives, suicide, and relives to become a watcher of people's lives, and is able to tweak events in them. Some parts are repetitious as some events are repeated in two character's lives. The ending has a nice twist. There are 13 books in the series at $3.99 each on Amazon.

Posted by: Zoltan at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (qb8uZ)

82 Welp, nobody else likes the book cover I chose. 76% to 24% for the soldier over the bridge.

http://www.koehlerbooks.com/cover-polls/

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (XxJt1)

83 I had to look up the term "worldly sorrow" and why it was a sin. Apparently it means being sorry you got caught, not being truly repentant.

https://tinyurl.com/y2sxyapm

The Medievals also had a sin called accidia, or listless indifference:

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

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (Dc2NZ)

84 I enjoy the Rex Stout stories, but yeah the first ones aren't as good as they got later. Someone else took over writing the characters after Stout died, but they aren't as good.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:35 AM (KZzsI)

85 Good morning all - had a profitable week writing (about 8,000 words to go to wrap up the current W-I-P) and all yesterday at Goliad, in the Author Corral. The weather in South Texas this weekend was brisk, but not ice-cold, and only occasional sprinkles of rain. There was a good turnout of vendors and shoppers come to walk around Courthouse Square. I sold enough copies of my books to make it worth the time and gas to get there, Santa arrived, per usual, riding on a tame longhorn ... aside from having to wear a mask indoors, it was almost refreshingly normal.
But if this mask idiocy keeps up, I'm going to make a new period costume to wear at book events - a WWI nurse outfit, where wearing a mask won't look dumb.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at December 06, 2020 09:36 AM (xnmPy)

86 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I am still slogging through Between Silk and Cyanide, by Leo Marks.

The slog is not due to disinterest; Marks is a witty writer and his story is fascinating. I need to do two things to read more: play less online poker, and go to another room from where my husband is watching tv.

I'm one of those who needs quiet to read. Radio or tv will kill my concentration and comprehension.

Posted by: April at December 06, 2020 09:36 AM (OX9vb)

87 I continue, slowly and joyously, with LOTR. This will take a nice long time. Good tea and good pipe tobacco beside me.

I'm interspersing chapters of LOTR with the audio CD of CS Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet" which is really well done.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 09:36 AM (7EjX1)

88 Yah...the troll is so * NG.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:37 AM (XxJt1)

89 @84 The NHL has a penalty for Embellishment

Any player or goalkeeper who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or a reaction, or who feigns an injury

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 06, 2020 09:37 AM (9TdxA)

90 16 Almost afraid to ask. Is that Nicolas Cage's face on the crotch of 'those pants'?

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 09:06 AM (7EjX1)

Looks like that's who it is to me, too.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 09:37 AM (5lMGa)

91

Regarding Toff. I've also heard the English use toffee nosed to described someone who is snobbish, elitist, aristocratic. It comes from toff and adds the nose to people who stick their noses up in the air when they are around people they consider to be lower classed.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (a8I88)

92 I continued my religious readings:

Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison. Originally published in 1930, this was an examination of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The author stated that he had originally planned a book refuting the Resurrection but instead became a believer. While the author was a member of the Church of England, this book seems to be applicable to all Christian denominations. A couple of interesting points Morison makes is that early Christians did not make the burial crypt of Jesus Christ a pilgrimage destination (no reason to: it was empty) and if the Resurrection had not happened why were the Apostles prepared to be martyrs for a hoax? He also spends considerable space to refuting various arguments against the Resurrection. Rating = 4.5/5.

A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler and William Nix. Published in 1968 (there is also a later edition), the book examines the divinity and history of the Bible. The parts of the book are the logical arguments for divinity and the discussion of the various translations. I found the catalog of manuscripts tedious. Applicable to Protestants (authors are critical of the Council of Trent and the Deuterocannonical books). Rating = 4.0/5.

A Textual Concordance of the Holy Scriptures by Fr. Thomas Williams. Originally published in 1908 (my copy is the very nice 1985 reprint by TAN Books). This is a nice Catholic concordance with lengthy extracts of passages divided into Moral and Doctrinal categories. There is also an Appendix that lists various examples of topics for sermons. Originally intended for the parish priest, this is a great book; while not exhaustive, it gives plenty of context lots of places to dive deeper into the Bible. Rating = 5.0/5.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (pJWtt)

93 91 @84 The NHL has a penalty for Embellishment

Any player or goalkeeper who blatantly dives, embellishes a fall or a reaction, or who feigns an injury
Posted by: Ignoramus at December 06, 2020 09:37 AM (9TdxA)
---

Soccer (excuse me, futbol) is a Passion Play of bullshit.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (Dc2NZ)

94 24 John Garfield and Faye Emerson from Btwn 2 worlds
Posted by: REDACTED at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (MIsHM)

You are correct, sir!

Don't know the connection, but your ID is correct.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (5lMGa)

95 Who Dis?

Between Two Worlds...JG & FE

Posted by: Jerzy Sobon at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (3bJGe)

96 Started "Empires of Light"....about the competition between Westinghouse and Edison. The forward is a short history of research and discoveries about electricity 'til that time. Some very smart people had some strange ideas.

Posted by: BignJames at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (AwYPR)

97 I enjoy the Rex Stout stories, but yeah the first ones aren't as good as they got later. Someone else took over writing the characters after Stout died, but they aren't as good.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

The good period in Stout begins when he changed publishers in 1946 or so and published The Silent Speaker. There were a few low spots, but his high quality remained undiminished until he died almost 30 years later.

Robert Goldsborough's continuation novels, no, they don't have the right voice.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:40 AM (rpbg1)

98 The Medievals also had a sin called accidia, or listless indifference:

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

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet
Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (Dc2NZ)
*memorizes acedia*
" a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world."Thinking that one's going to come in handy.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:40 AM (XxJt1)

99 On suggestions here read Door into Summer. Pretty good book. Thanks for the help. Now trying the Moon is Harsh.

Wow, either this book is hard to read our my IQ has dropped to about 85.

R

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (JFO2v)

100 I love the illustration in the post. It is so true. As a kid we had this huge dictionary, published in the late 1800s IIRC. I could spend hours going through it when the weather was too bad to go out to play. Good times.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (7EjX1)

101 Posted by: Rig at December 06, 2020 09:30 AM (so+NG)

Don't worry; *you* won't feel a thing.

Posted by: Baron Munchausen at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (anPrq)

102 I'm about halfway through Bend Sinister Nabokov's autobiography and I swear I've read almost everything in here, either as part of his fiction or biography, both of which make sense. One thing he devotes a chapter to is his obsession with butterflies about which almost everyone considers him a fucking loon including his parents. Before he got out of Russia some Bolshevik almost had him imprisoned in Crimea thinking his butterfly net was sending signals to British ships.

Anyway it's nice reading a literate autobiography as the enemedia tries to stifle their gag reflex reading Gaylord's mentally ill scribblings.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (y7DUB)

103 I've joked before that I'm the only person I know who has actually read "Democracy in America"

********

I reckon a sizable percentage of readers here have actually read it. I, for one, have.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (m45I2)

104 Grammie, regarding Nero Wolfe, try "And Be a Villain." If you don't like it, come after me, too.

And if you don't, oh well. My wife, who's read mysteries since her adolescence, detests Nero Wolfe.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (sBV5A)

105 I read "Empires of Light" and enjoyed it, but don't remember many particulars.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at December 06, 2020 09:42 AM (fTtFy)

106 A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler

Norm Geisler was one of Rev's professors.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:42 AM (gm3d+)

107 Also I've been reading Black Mask magazine Continental Op stories by Dashiell Hammett. Most of them were written based on cases he actually participated in, and they are great procedural stuff from the twenties.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

Every crime writer or wannabe needs to read Hammett as well as Chandler. Chandler at his best was more colorful in his language and produced funnier and more memorable dialog, but even he acknowledged his debt to Hammett.

If they could have done a couple of the Op stories as a film in the '60s or '70s, Ed Asner would have been perfect. Remember, the Op is not a glamorous guy, and is described as being rather short and fat.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (rpbg1)

108 Goat exchange. I voted but I'm on the (so far) losing side. Do you get to override the results of the poll? If so, I'm lobbying you to do it. The long bridge is a much better look than the tiny General. At least in my opinion, and who's to say that my opinion isn't the most important.

Posted by: Who knew at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (SfO/T)

109 Anyway it's nice reading a literate autobiography as the enemedia tries to stifle their gag reflex reading Gaylord's mentally ill scribblings.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (y7DUB)

I read Gaylords first two books as part of the Know Your Enemy routine.

I knew they were 100% fictional and that most likely both were ghost authored. Make me mad I lost the cover that had him as a Kenyan genius boy man from Africa.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (JFO2v)

110 Trolls on a book thread who can't spell

Posted by: San Franpsycho at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (EZebt)

111 86 So the book loving geniuses voted and worship a grifter who has never read a book, well never any book besides Mein Kamph.

Posted by: Rig at December 06, 2020 09:35 AM (so+NG)

I don't normally address trolls, but your comment reveals nothing but your own ignorance. I assume you're referring to the president, in which case I encourage you to Google search for "Donald Trump's favorite books" and you'll discover an interesting article on the subject by the Los Angles Times. You might be surprised how much he has read. I discussed this topic on the book thread some months ago.

Or, don't do the Google search, and remain ignorant. Your choice.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (5lMGa)

112 105 I've joked before that I'm the only person I know who has actually read "Democracy in America"

********

I reckon a sizable percentage of readers here have actually read it. I, for one, have.
Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:41 AM (m45I2)

I read the Cliff Craven Notes.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:45 AM (JFO2v)

113 John Garfield and Faye Emerson from Btwn 2 worlds

Posted by: REDACTED at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (MIsHM)

Yes. They were also in a movie called Nobody Lives Forever. Which sounds like a Bond movie title. Garfield was a big lefty. He claims he wasn't a commie but his wife was a member of the communist party.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 06, 2020 09:45 AM (a8I88)

114 Mein Kamph.

********

Heh.
This one can't even spell in Austrian!

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:45 AM (m45I2)

115 Grammie, regarding Nero Wolfe, try "And Be a Villain." If you don't like it, come after me, too.

And if you don't, oh well. My wife, who's read mysteries since her adolescence, detests Nero Wolfe.
Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020

*
*

The drawback to that one, WG, is that it's the first of the Arnold Zeck trilogy -- Wolfe's Moriarty. She may get hooked and have to read the other two.

Did I say drawback?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:45 AM (rpbg1)

116 Over 100 comments in and us Morons don't have something silly to comment about the banners hanging from the gallery at the library? I remember taking a vanload to children to a midnight party at the bookstore and wearing a sorting hat . . .

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 06, 2020 09:46 AM (MIKMs)

117 Or, don't do the Google search, and remain ignorant. Your choice.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (5lMGa)

What's the o/u on that?

Posted by: BignJames at December 06, 2020 09:47 AM (AwYPR)

118 Don't know the connection, but your ID is correct.
Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 09:39 AM (5lMGa)

Between Two Worlds

kinda dumb movie but had a great supporting cast including Isobel Elsom, one of my all time favs

Posted by: REDACTED at December 06, 2020 09:47 AM (MIsHM)

119 "Donald Trump's favorite books" and you'll discover an interesting
article on the subject by the Los Angles Times. You might be surprised
how much he has read. I discussed this topic on the book thread some
months ago.

Paul McCartney made the tired old claim about Bush the Younger as well.

Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:48 AM (gm3d+)

120 What's the o/u on that?
Posted by: BignJames at December 06, 2020 09:47 AM (AwYPR)

Did anyone have 100 in the o/u Texas K State game?

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:48 AM (JFO2v)

121 Paul McCartney made the tired old claim about Bush the Younger as well.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:48 AM (gm3d+)

He was burning through about 2 per week over his 8 years.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:48 AM (JFO2v)

122 Hi All. Ya'll are amazing, thank you for so much for the enthusiasm, humor, and spirit.

Most of you today seem to like the Red Cover, as do I. The Green Cover is more 'me', but I think the Red one is better for the book. It's complicated.

I have no idea about the process. The poll alone does not determine the cover selection. It will be a decision by the publisher, myself, the design team, the poll, etc.

Ya'll rock.

Posted by: goatexchange at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (HgBj4)

123 The good period in Stout begins when he changed publishers in 1946 or so and published The Silent Speaker. There were a few low spots, but his high quality remained undiminished until he died almost 30 years later.

Another consistent winner is the Perry Mason BOOKS by Erle Stanley Gardner. They change over the years (he's really wild and cuts a lot of corners early on) but they're always clever and interesting. If you only know the character from the TV show, I really recommend these books.

And yeah, the Op was always described as being heavy and not at all glamorous. And he has no name, it was one of the more interesting concepts. Plus, super new, nobody was writing anything like it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (KZzsI)

124 Rereading a very well worn copy of Vom Krieg.

Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (tU3dj)

125 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

That is when you read a book after 10-15 pages, you throw the book across the room while saying " What a pile of garbage?"

Posted by: dantesed at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (88xKn)

126 I nearly forgot the most recent Catholic book I read:

Faith of Our Fathers by James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. Originally published in 1876, mine is the 110th (!) edition from 1917. Not exactly a catechism or apologetic, the book is intended to explain Catholic doctrine with citations of applicable portions of Scripture and early Church devines. I found it quite readable and Cardinal Gibbons had a forthright and clear writing style. This book happened to be mentioned in the introduction of my old catechism book and deserves to still be read. What is interesting is that this is a contemporary explanation of some of the doctinal decisions of the 1st Vatican Council and 19th Century prejudice against the Catholic Church. Rating = 4.5/5.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 09:50 AM (pJWtt)

127 The Calvin and Hobbes item is eerily prophetic/accurate.

(When in HS, and I had to write a critical analysis in English in order to participate in the secular bar mitzvah, I did mine on MCMLXXXIV, a novel I enjoyed way, way too much for my own good. The title thereof was about a paragraph long as a tip o' the hat to older publications.)

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at December 06, 2020 09:50 AM (/0HPZ)

128 John Garfield and Jane Greer.

Posted by: Tuna at December 06, 2020 09:50 AM (gLRfa)

129 Paul McCartney made the tired old claim about Bush the Younger as well.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:48 AM (gm3d+)

Any time I hear a McCartney interview I quickly think of tire irons.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

130 Back in 1985, Earth was thought to be 27,700 light years away from blackhole Sagittarius A*.

The new map puts it at 25,800 light-years away.

Make the SMOD look like a fricking picnic!

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:51 AM (JFO2v)

131 There is a really good argument, and its kind of slyly hinted at by Rex Stout, that Nero Wolfe is related to Sherlock Holmes. But he leans more Mycroft.

The character concept is really just "what if Mycroft became a detective?" Obviously the man is too lazy and out of shape to do the ground pounding, so he has to have someone do that work for him. And Archie ends up being a really interesting, capable character after a while.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:51 AM (KZzsI)

132 Nicolas Cage ! On the pants that is.

Posted by: runner at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (zr5Kq)

133 The origin of the term Toff is pretty cool. I wonder where poofter comes from.

Posted by: G'rump928(C) blurts at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (yQpMk)

134 One more comment on Rex Stout: He had a superb ability to make a scene move and to sprinkle twists throughout a novel (and even a novelette). You know how new developments are always coming up that change things in a good Law and Order episode? Something like that.

In his penultimate novel, written when he was nearly 80, he has a climactic scene (not the revelation of the murderer) where things build, things build, a character admits something -- and then the scene somehow accelerates like a race car. It's not an action scene (though he did those pretty well), but dialog. To this day I can't figure out how he did it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (rpbg1)

135
Nicholas Cage sweat pants will make your junk The Star of any occasion!

Posted by: naturalfake at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (dWwl8)

136 127 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

That is when you read a book after 10-15 pages, you throw the book across the room while saying " What a pile of garbage?"
Posted by: dantesed at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (88xKn)
---

"Angels and Demons" was so bad I only made it a couple chapters in before flinging it across the room.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (Dc2NZ)

137 That is when you read a book after 10-15 pages, you throw the book across the room while saying " What a pile of garbage?"

Yeah my Goodreads has a DNF section for these. I don't run into them very often.

I need another category of books I really wanted to like and feel for the author because they tried hard and obviously want to write but just don't have the talent. There's a lot of that in self-pub these days.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:53 AM (KZzsI)

138 Wolfus, I had read pretty much the same explanation for "posh." Only difference was, it was for ships sailing from England for South Africa.

Passengers wanted to see land, not water.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 09:53 AM (sBV5A)

139 "I've joked before that I'm the only person I know who has actually read "Democracy in America"

It was required reading in my high school. It sits on a book shelf next to Jefferson's letters, Lincoln's letters, etc.

Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 09:53 AM (tU3dj)

140 Any time I hear a McCartney interview I quickly think of tire irons.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

hot or room temp?

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:53 AM (JFO2v)

141 the middle WOT books are extremely weak. i used to joke that Jordan decided he was going to try to be a REAL writer and do more character development. which, IMHO, he totally failed at.

i think it was truman capote who said you could tell how good a writer was by how many characters he could portray realistically. that Shakespeare was the best: he could do 17 (IIRC), but he (capote) could only do 12 or 13. On that scale Jordan comes out at

didn't make it to Goliad yesterday. Lady Yara was sick and the weather seemed a bit too iffy.

Posted by: yara at December 06, 2020 09:53 AM (rde8g)

142 Piers Morgan contributed to the cancel culture. So why is he complaining now.

Posted by: runner at December 06, 2020 09:54 AM (zr5Kq)

143 John Garfield and Jane Greer.

Posted by: Tuna at December 06, 2020 09:50 AM (gLRfa)

John Garfield and Faye Emerson.

Posted by: BignJames at December 06, 2020 09:54 AM (AwYPR)

144 And yeah, the Op was always described as being heavy and not at all glamorous. And he has no name, it was one of the more interesting concepts. Plus, super new, nobody was writing anything like it.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

Hammett quickly became the headliner in the Black Mask stable of authors. Much as Robert Heinlein did 10-15 years later in Astounding Science Fiction. Nobody else had ever written SF like he did.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:54 AM (rpbg1)

145 No book report today because I'm reading several books simultaneously, and it's taking longer to complete them than I though. I'm sure there's some sort of book club name for this problem.
I agree with Muldoon: Many of the folks here have read de Tocqueville.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 09:55 AM (v16oJ)

146 OM, I would challenge "rig" to tell us what books it has read.

Odds are, the reading list will contain such luminaries as Rachel Maddow. But, even that might be a stretch.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 09:55 AM (WEBkv)

147 "Angels and Demons" was so bad I only made it a couple chapters in before flinging it across the room.
=====

And I liked it better than DCode. No accounting for preferences and I liked some helicopter rescue off a Vatican roof as very well done and could see it in a movie.

Posted by: mustbequantum at December 06, 2020 09:55 AM (MIKMs)

148 Grammie-

Read Big Trouble by Dave Barry

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 09:55 AM (arJlL)

149 Wolfus, I had read pretty much the same explanation for "posh." Only difference was, it was for ships sailing from England for South Africa.

Passengers wanted to see land, not water.
Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020

*
*

That makes more sense and would hold for any time of year, while the sunlight concept would depend on whether the sun was toward the north or the south.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (rpbg1)

150 COVID-19 could cause erectile dysfunction in patients who have recovered from the virus, doctor warns

the dick why does it always have to be the dick

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (JFO2v)

151 There's a mystery conference called Bouchercon--next year its in New Orleans in August. You can sign up for the Nero Wolfe dinner, which is well attended by his fans.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (AwPyG)

152 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

That is when you read a book after 10-15 pages, you throw the book across the room while saying " What a pile of garbage?"
Posted by: dantesed at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (88xKn)
---

Some asshole in our book group kept whining to read Geek Love and finally to shut him up we agreed to it. I made it a chapter in before throwing it against the wall.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (y7DUB)

153 Mein Kamph.

********

Heh.

This one can't even spell in Austrian!

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 09:45 AM (m45I2)

The thing I've learned about most leftists is how incredibly stupid they are. They are barely educated and have a child like understand of most things. They are intellectually incurious and have an aversion to any real learning. It's much easy for them to just be part of the hive mind. They think that spouting leftist talking points makes them smart but they are just ignorant parrots.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (a8I88)

154 "Has anyone experienced 'throw' books? "

One of Umberto Eco's book a friend gave to me. I can't even remember which one it was.

Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 09:57 AM (tU3dj)

155 83 Welp, nobody else likes the book cover I chose. 76% to 24% for the soldier over the bridge.

http://www.koehlerbooks.com/cover-polls/
Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 09:34 AM (XxJt1)

I didn't vote, because I wanted to think about them. I think the soldier picture speaks more to our modern tastes, and current melancholic trends.

The bridge and tank has a war poster feel, with the bright red and bolder graphics. At first, I didn't like it--it seemed harsh to me. But, given the subject matter, I think it's better. The war poster art fits, and it's more descriptive of the subject. I'd go for that one.

Posted by: April at December 06, 2020 09:57 AM (OX9vb)

156 Finally, a library I know.

While studying Medieval Latin, we would go down to the sub-basement. All books were kept in steel wire cages. A passage way between them was just large enough to allow a normal-sized person to walk through. A few of us, it was a very small class, would enter our cage and sit at a table to peruse and study medieval books while the professor spoke. Great exposure to the subject of study.

Discovered there was a horde of numismatic material in the main basement. Coins and medals had accumulated for a century. Never catalogued, or even viewed. Locked behind double-security system. (Can't remember how I gained initial access.) Asked for permission to work with it. Spent months cataloging and translating. Massive, unused collection. Hope it is now used for research and observation.

Wished to study the very first members of the migration to Wisconsin and native Americans. Found excellent materials in a loft in the ceiling. (This building contains both nooks and crannies.)

When an addition to the building was desired, designers and builders were imported from Italy for the work. They perfectly copied the original library structure.

While at university, this building became my home away from home. Numerous fantastic memories.

Posted by: French Jeton at December 06, 2020 09:57 AM (85zsD)

157 >> 127 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

That is when you read a book after 10-15 pages, you throw the book across the room while saying " What a pile of garbage?"
Posted by: dantesed at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (88xKn)

The DaVinci Code

Posted by: My life is insanity at December 06, 2020 09:57 AM (Z/jzm)

158 Thanks for sharing the Smithsonian article. Fascinating. Needed quick easy read so read Alice Hoffman of the practical magic series.
Love all the suggestions and my list is growing.
Starting the Federalist Papers which I have not read in full before and plan to read Tocqueville after the glowing recommendation. Happy Sunday to all.

Posted by: Tigerlily at December 06, 2020 09:57 AM (ny1NG)

159 Hammett quickly became the headliner in the Black Mask stable of authors. Much as Robert Heinlein did 10-15 years later in Astounding Science Fiction. Nobody else had ever written SF like he did.

There was a golden age of sci fi in the 50s to around 1970 and then... the next generation just isn't nearly as good. There was this crop of amazing authors who all showed up at once and never has been repeated.

And no, I have never finished Democracy In America. I've read sections of it but its one of those 1201250 page books I never get through all the way.

Like the bio of Calvin Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. Dude. Its like 5000 pages long, you could break a cow's back with this thing. There's no possible way the man was interesting enough to justify that many words.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (KZzsI)

160 "Angels and Demons" was so bad I only made it a couple chapters in before flinging it across the room.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (Dc2NZ)
-----
*fistbump*

You are my soul mate.

Posted by: Retarded Monkeys at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (Uhu8A)

161 @147
I can't read more than one book at a time without losing interest in all of them. My hat's off to you.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (AwPyG)

162 I'm on a binge through Keith Laumer's Retief stories, in chronological order as listed in Wikipedia. I may own most of them without realizing it. I'll see.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 09:31 AM (sBV5A)

The Retief stories are a lot of fun. Laumer was a former U.S. Foreign Service guy, so he apparently modeled the bumbling diplomats on people/incidents he knew about.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (pJWtt)

163 Gah! Off stupid simian sock.

Posted by: Retarded Monkeys at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (Uhu8A)

164 It was required reading in my high school. It sits on a book shelf next to Jefferson's letters, Lincoln's letters, etc.

Posted by: Marcus T

Can you imagine that being assigned now? I can't. It wouldn't leave enough time for Toni Morrison and the 1619 Project.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 09:59 AM (v16oJ)

165 Begone!

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 09:59 AM (Uhu8A)

166 I'm currently reading You Are Not Alone, a psychological thriller by two women, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. It's clearly written and moves fast, and has good characterization as far as it goes. However, every male character in it is either a dope or utterly useless, or actually bad/untrustworthy/evil. Every single one (at least so far). Stuff like that is why I don't read many modern novels, and hardly ever those by women with women protagonists.

The villains here are women, at least, which is unusual in modern novels.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:59 AM (rpbg1)

167 The thing I've learned about most leftists is how incredibly stupid they are. They are barely educated and have a child like understand of most things. They are intellectually incurious and have an aversion to any real learning. It's much easy for them to just be part of the hive mind. They think that spouting leftist talking points makes them smart but they are just ignorant parrots.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (a8I8

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

Leftists are big on "appeal to authority" method of argumentation.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 09:59 AM (WEBkv)

168 There's a mystery conference called Bouchercon--next year its in New Orleans in August. You can sign up for the Nero Wolfe dinner, which is well attended by his fans.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020

*
*

Setting any convention in Gnaw-luns between March and November makes me question the organizers' sanity.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:01 AM (rpbg1)

169 The Retief stories are a lot of fun. Laumer was a former U.S. Foreign Service guy, so he apparently modeled the bumbling diplomats on people/incidents he knew about.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (pJWtt)
-----------------

It's funny, but, Laumer was good at both ends of the spectrum. His "Bolo" series was outstanding serious fiction while the Retief series was very much tongue in cheek.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:01 AM (WEBkv)

170 "Can you imagine that being assigned now? I can't. It wouldn't leave enough time for Toni Morrison and the 1619 Project."

Spends on the high school and subject. Some of the teachers have enough flexibility to use books they pick as part of their curriculum- provided they get approval. It can be used in both a history or language arts context. Our local high school still assigns that book. That's why they are one of the best in the state.

Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 10:02 AM (tU3dj)

171 I am signed up to this email list that alerts me when books go on sale for super cheap. If something comes up free, I'll get a copy sometimes just to see what the author is like. I've found a few gems that way.

But most of them... aren't. In fact a good 75% of the books on there or more are "empowered womyn detective in the case of her life" novels by women. I don't mind a good female detective, but they're EXTREMELY few and far between. And nearly all of the not good ones are "she's put upon by cartoonish stereotypes of men and is better than all of them except her doting partner who is a total soi boi" books.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:02 AM (KZzsI)

172 Like the bio of Calvin Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. Dude. Its like 5000 pages long, you could break a cow's back with this thing. There's no possible way the man was interesting enough to justify that many words.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (KZzsI)

I read it and enjoyed it. It filled in many blanks the history classes in my education may have intentionally left. I am a fast reader, but I did not consider it a slog at all.

Posted by: Catherine at December 06, 2020 10:02 AM (5ihJp)

173 172
"Can you imagine that being assigned now? I can't. It wouldn't leave enough time for Toni Morrison and the 1619 Project."

Spends on the high school and subject. Some of the teachers have
enough flexibility to use books they pick as part of their curriculum-
provided they get approval. It can be used in both a history or language
arts context. Our local high school still assigns that book. That's why
they are one of the best in the state.

Posted by: Marcus T

You are clearly a fascist and a racist.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:03 AM (v16oJ)

174 I think "the promise of the premise" applies when you're looking at a book. The reader has to have a good idea of the type of read it is from the cover.
Otherwise, the readers who'd like it won't find it and the readers who assume it's something other than what it is won't like it.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:04 AM (AwPyG)

175 Literal defenestration of bad books. Raise or remove the screen beforehand.

Posted by: klaftern at December 06, 2020 10:04 AM (RuIsu)

176 Its super hard to find good westerns these days too. They are either painfully hardcore brutal "realistic" as in "everything and everyone was miserable and everything was awful all the time and then you died of Dysentery on the Oregon Trail" rather than actually realistic.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:05 AM (KZzsI)

177 174
I think "the promise of the premise" applies when you're looking at a
book. The reader has to have a good idea of the type of read it is from
the cover.

So......you can judge a book by its cover?

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:05 AM (v16oJ)

178 "The DaVinci Code"

I actually read the whole thing. LOL. Needless to say I've never felt the need to pick up any of the author's other books.

Posted by: Tuna at December 06, 2020 10:05 AM (gLRfa)

179 How's Anna Puma doing btw?

Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 10:05 AM (tU3dj)

180 @168
It was probably cheap in August!
Plus I imagine they had to find a city that could be counted on not to be hiding under their beds from the covid. Not an easy task.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:06 AM (AwPyG)

181 136 127 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

That is when you read a book after 10-15 pages, you throw the book across the room while saying " What a pile of garbage?"
Posted by: dantesed at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (88xKn)
---

"Angels and Demons" was so bad I only made it a couple chapters in before flinging it across the room.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (Dc2NZ)

Oh yeah. Several when I was younger.

I'd do that with Great Expectations if it wasn't in a textbook.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at December 06, 2020 10:07 AM (/0HPZ)

182 And of course I have been flogging Larry Correia forever here.

Start with "Monster Hunter International"

Posted by: Mr. Trashbag, Shoggoth and Eater Of Toes at December 06, 2020 10:07 AM (fBtlL)

183 174
I think "the promise of the premise" applies when you're looking at a
book. The reader has to have a good idea of the type of read it is from
the cover.

It's something similar with wine. I'm sure a great deal of thought goes in to the label, and its design depends on the target demographic for the potential purchasers. Granted, there aren't a lot of wines with cleavage and bare-chested men in torn shirts, but your point remains valid.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:07 AM (v16oJ)

184 A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler

Norm Geisler was one of Rev's professors.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:42 AM (gm3d+)

That's so neat; the world is sometimes a small place! I particularly liked his use of the logical argument format (premise, intermediate step, conclusion) similar to tha used by Saint Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. I did find the Prof. Geisler's book informative; unfortunately, as a Catholic, the book didn't meet my specific doctrinal needs.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:08 AM (pJWtt)

185 So......you can judge a book by its cover?

Nearly everyone does. We all know we shouldn't but its hard to avoid.

The topic of what makes a good book cover and how to build one is one of great interest to me. I know a good one when I see it, but how to make it yourself is... challenging.

99% of book covers now are "attractive person head or cowboy shot (head to thighs, basically)" or abstract bright colors.

I am at the point where a cover that does NOT show a person is more interesting to me because it stands out. The guy who did my Snowberry's Veil book cover was excited because I described something that didn't involve a human figure, it was something different for him to do.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:08 AM (KZzsI)

186 weatherman freaks out ha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAiE9fJbVd4

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 10:09 AM (JFO2v)

187 And of course I have been flogging Larry Correia forever here.

Start with "Monster Hunter International"

Posted by: Mr. Trashbag, Shoggoth and Eater Of Toes at December 06, 2020 10:07 AM (fBtlL)
------------

I enjoy the "Monster Hunter" books, but, I think the "Grimnoir Chronicles" are better.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:09 AM (WEBkv)

188 @GoatExchange: I voted! I liked the one with the soldier.

@April - keep plowing on with Silk & Cyanide - it picks up and you will be so glad to read the finish!

I wish I'd had more time to read this week. Work kept me far too busy. I only made time to go through Kurt Schlicter's new one, Crisis (very entertaining) and that was a quick read.

Posted by: CarolinaGirl at December 06, 2020 10:09 AM (Kh9rg)

189 @185
And there's the added complication that the cover has to be appealing in thumb-print size on a smart phone
I think that's why you see a lot of books lately that are all title-and-author on the cover with little else.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:10 AM (AwPyG)

190 Has anyone read "The Fantastic Flying Books of MR Morris Lessmore"? It sounds like it would be a a good choice for a first or second grader.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:10 AM (7EjX1)

191 Its super hard to find good westerns these days too. They are either painfully hardcore brutal "realistic" as in "everything and everyone was miserable and everything was awful all the time and then you died of Dysentery on the Oregon Trail" rather than actually realistic.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

I like the Deputy Paige Murdock Westerns by Loren D. Estleman (who also writes hardboiled private eye stories set in Detroit, historical crime-oriented novels set there, and has done fantasy with Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula). Cynical and "realistic," yes, but no worse than the best hardboiled crime novels.

I don't know if anybody writes the kind of stories Louis L'Amour did, though. A modern Hondo would be neat.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:11 AM (rpbg1)

192 "That's so neat; the world is sometimes a small place! I particularly liked his use of the logical argument format (premise, intermediate step, conclusion) similar to tha used by Saint Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. I did find the Prof. Geisler's book informative; unfortunately, as a Catholic, the book didn't meet my specific doctrinal needs.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:08 AM (pJWtt)"

Summa. Theologica is probably one of the most magnificent works ever written. It is not only instructive in purpose, but teaches you how to think about the world in general and has application well beyond its original intent.

Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 10:11 AM (tU3dj)

193 "Mein Kamph"

German Boy Scout manual?

Posted by: Tuna at December 06, 2020 10:11 AM (gLRfa)

194 Read all the books & Erasmus
Not sure which 'recent' issue of 'Praise of Folly' that I'd read, but half was intro/footnotes and spent at least twice as long sidetracked on wikipedia diversions.

The way 'new' ancient or early medieval authors seem to be available the longer I read, makes me think that the actual date anyone could have "read all the books" would have been much earlier. -obviously distribution would be the primary factor.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at December 06, 2020 10:11 AM (x8Q/V)

195 I can never read through this post and thread without finding at least one new book at I have to buy. This week it's "Who Moved the Stone" recommended by Retired Buckeye Cop. My list of have-not-reads grows and grows....

Posted by: CarolinaGirl at December 06, 2020 10:12 AM (Kh9rg)

196 I'm glad to see other fans of the inspiration of my Nom de Plume here. Laumer's Retief is my single favorite literary character and sadly is still relatively obscure.

Posted by: Retief at December 06, 2020 10:12 AM (SWlro)

197 Chip the books so that it will send "smart" phones to an animated blurb.

Dreadlock Holiday!

Posted by: klaftern at December 06, 2020 10:12 AM (RuIsu)

198 Not book related, but if you have a Sonos system and love vintage Christmas music, you should download SWYH (Stream What You Hear) and get it up and running and then go find the '74 K-Mart Christmas Tapes to play. They're great fun, plus you get the occasional K-Mart employee coming on to tell you about the blue light specials and to get your check approved before getting into the checkout line. LOL If you like nostalgia, it's great.

Posted by: Lady in Black at December 06, 2020 10:13 AM (O+I8R)

199 I picked up a complete collection of Continental Op stories in B&N two or three years ago. Still have yet to read most of them.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 10:13 AM (sBV5A)

200 Granted, there aren't a lot of wines with cleavage and bare-chested men in torn shirts, but your point remains valid.
Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:07 AM (v16oJ)
---

Sweet Savage Sauvignon

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 10:14 AM (Dc2NZ)

201 I like the Deputy Paige Murdock Westerns by Loren D. Estleman

Yep his are great. Estleman also wrote several semi-biographical books about the west like Billy Gashade which are worth reading.

In fact I have liked everything by him except his assassin books. He wrote a few about a hit man that just don't click at all.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:14 AM (KZzsI)

202 @183
I think it was the Franzia wine people who started the "cupcake" line of wines, and it's very obvious that it's targeted for the wine moms who don't feel they have to be connoisseurs.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:15 AM (AwPyG)

203 1974 K-Mart Christmas In-Store Music

https://youtu.be/j9hR4Gg6b9w

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (KZzsI)

204 The thing I've learned about most leftists is how incredibly stupid they are. They are barely educated and have a child like understand of most things. They are intellectually incurious and have an aversion to any real learning. It's much easy for them to just be part of the hive mind. They think that spouting leftist talking points makes them smart but they are just ignorant parrots.
Posted by: TheQuietMan at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (a8I8

I see you met some members of my family. An over-educated Jonestown cult.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (rPZEG)

205 196 I'm glad to see other fans of the inspiration of my Nom de Plume here. Laumer's Retief is my single favorite literary character and sadly is still relatively obscure.
Posted by: Retief at December 06, 2020 10:12 AM (SWlro)
--

It's a measure of my niche-iness that I assume Retief the Lucky is well-known.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (Dc2NZ)

206 I used to go to the Starbucks inside a local Barnes & Noble to spend time while one of the kids was at a sport class. Near the seating area was a display of romance paperbacks. I started calling it the Shirtless Cowboy Section.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (QZxDR)

207 There was a golden age of sci fi in the 50s to around 1970 and then... the next generation just isn't nearly as good. There was this crop of amazing authors who all showed up at once and never has been repeated.

The problem is getting published.

I have a completely fresh plot line but there is no way on earth that it would ever make it to the market. Even the protagonist breaks the mold of the superhero not one who is former special forces or a freak from a super soldier program

Sort of a Tom Clancy meets Speculative Theology.

Posted by: President Elect 🐧 at December 06, 2020 10:17 AM (C+evo)

208 I love Retief. And he still holds up, like most good sci fi

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:17 AM (AwPyG)

209 Granted, there aren't a lot of wines with cleavage and bare-chested men in torn shirts, but your point remains valid.
Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:07 AM (v16oJ)
---

Sweet Savage Sauvignon
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020

*
*

I've always thought Barefoot Wine missed a good bet not getting Nicole Kidman or Charlize Theron to pose shoeless on their labels and/or ads. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:18 AM (rpbg1)

210 I always felt that particular Calvin and Hobbes strip was very, very prophetic.

That was real? Excellent work. He would have done that a few decades before I fully understood it.

Posted by: t-bird at December 06, 2020 10:18 AM (CTJwJ)

211 Elsa Lanchester and John Garfield.

Posted by: RobertM at December 06, 2020 10:18 AM (qWhQP)

212 "Angels and Demons" was so bad I only made it a couple chapters in before flinging it across the room.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 09:52 AM (Dc2NZ)

Dan Brown is such a really $h!tty author!. I read one of his novels (completely forget the title) in which the bad guy's motive is to obtain the secret of Freemasonry to get eternal life (or something ludicrous like that -- I've pretty much purged it from my memory). I read it because a friend of mine is a pretty well-known Freemason (he often appears on the TV shows to refute some bull$h!t) recommended it as a book to read that packed so much wrong about Freemasonry in one package. Brown was too lazy to do any research: the climatic battle in the House of Temple in Washington, DC, can't happen the way he described it because the particular room isn't laid-out like he described it.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:19 AM (pJWtt)

213 The problem is getting published.

You have to publish yourself, but yeah getting noticed with sci fi is hell. People are reluctant to give a new author a shot, because there's so much crap.

Fantasy has kind of the opposite problem: there's 930,125,712,087 fantasy books out there and most of them are drek. Its like yelling to get noticed in the Super Bowl crowd.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:20 AM (KZzsI)

214 Elsa Lanchester and John Garfield.
Posted by: RobertM at December 06, 2020

*
*

You joke . . . but Elsa was quite the hottie in her day, say ca. 1935, when she played Mary Shelley and the Bride of Frankenstein.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:20 AM (rpbg1)

215 @207

I've mentioned this before, but self-publishing in sci fi and romance sells more books than traditional publishing, by a lot.
I think one of the reasons is the formulaic plots the traditional industry clings to--everyone is sick of the cliches

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:20 AM (AwPyG)

216 I thought Retief is what NGU did to his patients.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 10:20 AM (arJlL)

217 I've been listening my way through the C.S. Lewis space trilogy and have arrived in That Hideous Strength.
Listening brings an entirely new perspective to books I have read several times.
IMHO the satanic Professor Weston of Perelandra is one of the most evil characters in literature.
That Hideous Strength seems prescient in its portrayal of an almost religious worship of "science."

Posted by: Northernlurker, still lurking after all these years at December 06, 2020 10:21 AM (lgiXo)

218 The joke is that the standard box art for current board games is of a bearded man looking at a map/blueprints.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 10:21 AM (sBV5A)

219 "Its super hard to find good westerns these days too. They are either painfully hardcore brutal "realistic" as in "everything and everyone was miserable and everything was awful all the time and then you died of Dysentery on the Oregon Trail" rather than actually realistic."

I've got a two-book series, revamping the classical western "Lone Ranger" which a couple of reviewers have compared to Louis L'Amour - Lone Star Sons and Lone Star Glory. Short adventures, set in Texas during the decade of the Republic of Texas. A lot of my other books can, at a squint, be called 'westerns' as they are set on the 19th century frontier, but none of them are 'everyone was miserable and died of cholera.'

https://www.amazon.com/Celia-D.-Hayes/e/B002BM1QHG/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at December 06, 2020 10:22 AM (xnmPy)

220 The romance people have covers down to a science.
Two people in a clinch=sells more books.bare chest=sells more booksthe word "duke"=sells more books.
And someone told me the object is the draw the viewer's eyes in a backwards "6".

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:23 AM (AwPyG)

221 Fantasy has kind of the opposite problem: there's 930,125,712,087 fantasy books out there and most of them are drek. Its like yelling to get noticed in the Super Bowl crowd.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

Nearly every fantasy novel I see has "Trilogy" in it somewhere, as if modern scribblers can't manage to tell a complete story in one volume. And when I flip to page 1, I see someone, invariably a woman, looking out of a tower and remembering the grand days when her father, King Arglebargle, ruled the land. Pffft.

I write the stuff myself . . . but most of the published fiction I've run across bores me. Give me Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East or Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:23 AM (rpbg1)

222
Bang. Little earthquake just hit.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at December 06, 2020 10:23 AM (t5m5e)

223 CRT, in your comment about Westerns, you wrote that they are "either" and then gave only one example -- super-gritty.

What is the other kind?

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 10:24 AM (sBV5A)

224 It's funny, but, Laumer was good at both ends of the spectrum. His "Bolo" series was outstanding serious fiction while the Retief series was very much tongue in cheek.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:01 AM (WEBkv)

Concur: his anthology Bolo: The Annals of the Dinochrome Brigage has some very thought-provoking stores about sentient super-tanks. The short story, "Field Test" has one of the best last lines I've ever read.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (pJWtt)

225 I see you met some members of my family. An over-educated Jonestown cult.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (rPZEG)

Son of a bitchin no good lousy ass anarchistic capitalist bitch. That's what I say about my relatives, but you won't say it.

Posted by: Zombie Jim Jones, something he said in 1978 at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (R/m4+)

226 A while back OM recommended "A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order." I'm about 1/2 way through. It was slow going at first but things pick up a bit around 1200AD. There is brief mention Colon coming up. I know. Boring. But it's really quite interesting to revisit how we got to where something is just so much of the background that we don't even think about it. Like ABC order.

Posted by: Marica at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (z/+He)

227 4.4?

Posted by: klaftern at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (RuIsu)

228 Bang. Little earthquake just hit.
Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at December 06, 2020 10:23 AM (t5m5e)

I know it's past 100 comments, but the book thread isn't really tge place to brag about your sexual prowess.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (/+bwe)

229 Piers Morgan? Seriously?
__________

There are two points to be made.

1. Strictly logically, it is wrong per se to dismiss something because of who said it. That, and not being a meanie, is what ad hominem is.

2. While (1) is strictly true, and we should follow it had we but world enough and time, we don't, so we can't. There are some people who have shown themselves to be so reliably mendacious and irrational that the sane thing to do is ignore them. Paul Krugman comes to mind. So does Barack Obama.

Still, if someone I knew well and respected said "Krugman actually wrote a good essay", I suppose I should read it. Note that the "actually" makes it more believable - the speaker knows what he's dealing with.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:26 AM (7X3UV)

230 The short story, "Field Test" has one of the best last lines I've ever read.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (pJWtt)
-----
Yes. Yes, it does.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:26 AM (Uhu8A)

231
g'mornin', book-rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (DUIap)

232 And someone told me the object is the draw the viewer's eyes in a backwards "6".

There are a couple of tricks but the way western reader's eyes work is in a "Z" pattern (learned by reading lines of text), so that's often the design.

One really annoying thing these days is having the author's name in

HUGE TEXT

and the title smaller and harder to find.

Which I guess I understand, because once an author becomes popular, people buy their books based on them not the title or even content. But it offends my sensibilities: the title should always be the prominent feature.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (KZzsI)

233 A while back I was involved in a project to give examples of bad writing and explain why they are bad. I knew just where to look: I went to B&N and picked up a Dan Brown paperback -- _Inferno_. I was not disappointed.

At one point Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon and some pals are in Venice, hurrying to stop a deadly pandemic. They pass some gondolas. And Brown stops the story dead to give the reader a page worth of irrelevant facts about gondolas, blatantly stolen from the Wikipedia entry.

It is difficult for me to express how much I loathe Dan Brown's books, or how disappointing and depressing it is that they get massive promotional budgets.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (QZxDR)

234

3.3. Warner Springs.

Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (t5m5e)

235 There should be a "Krugman Rule". Like the eating and swimming one.

Posted by: klaftern at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (RuIsu)

236 I have read all of "Democracy In America" but so long ago it was probably still hot off the presses. I have dipped into once in a while over the years.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (7EjX1)

237 What is the other kind?

I lost my train of thought mid-post because I got a phone call.

The other one is porn with spurs. Just a loose plot around sexual situations described in anatomical detail usually restrained to autopsy reports.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:29 AM (KZzsI)

238 Gah! Off stupid simian sock.
Posted by: Retarded Monkeys at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (Uhu8A)

It likes you !

Posted by: runner at December 06, 2020 10:29 AM (zr5Kq)

239
I have read all of "Democracy In America" but so long ago it was probably still hot off the presses. I have dipped into once in a while over the years.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM

I just found an audio thingie of Democracy in America on archive.org; just stated listening to it last night. lemme find the link...

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:30 AM (DUIap)

240 I think Piers Morgan is just another decepticon. Some of them are better than others (Tucker Carlson) but sooner or later they try to "influence" your thinking and that's when you know they're not on your side.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:31 AM (AwPyG)

241 I can never read through this post and thread without finding at least one new book at I have to buy. This week it's "Who Moved the Stone" recommended by Retired Buckeye Cop. My list of have-not-reads grows and grows....
Posted by: CarolinaGirl at December 06, 2020 10:12 AM (Kh9rg)

I find the Book Thread harmful to my bank account, also. I don't think you will be disappointed. A minor warning: the book was written almost 100 years ago, so the sentence structure is a little different to how we now commonly write. One of the "1 Star" reviews on Amazon is from some dolt who claims it is badly written and he should know because he has a Masters Degree, yo!

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:31 AM (pJWtt)

242 One really annoying thing these days is having the author's name in

HUGE TEXT

and the title smaller and harder to find.

Which I guess I understand, because once an author becomes popular, people buy their books based on them not the title or even content. But it offends my sensibilities: the title should always be the prominent feature.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

Signet books did that with the James Bond paperbacks in the early and mid-Sixties, the editions my mother bought and I first read. IAN FLEMING ran the text, then a small artist's conception of a scene from the story, then the title, with "A James Bond Thriller" running vertically down the right edge of the cover.

I suspect these were after the JFK publicity that he liked the books, and after the first film came out. Prior to that, I doubt Fleming's name would have been such an eye-catcher.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:31 AM (rpbg1)

243 190 Has anyone read "The Fantastic Flying Books of MR Morris Lessmore"? It sounds like it would be a a good choice for a first or second grader.
Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:10 AM (7EjX1)

Or, you can watch a video adaptation on YouToob:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ReBeGc_IU

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:31 AM (5lMGa)

244 The other one is porn with spurs. Just a loose plot around sexual
situations described in anatomical detail usually restrained to autopsy
reports.

Ah, you mean like Lonesome Love.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:31 AM (v16oJ)

245 Or, don't do the Google search, and remain ignorant. Your choice.
Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 09:44 AM (5lMGa)

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

Sorry to be so late to the thread but this cannot go unchallenged! This troll doesn't even know the spelling of the name of the book he wants to cite, so I think it is certain he won't do the google search. His dedication to dumb certainty is as big as his yap.

Thanks for the Smithsonian article on Colon! Book collectors are a compulsive breed and he sounds like the quintessence!

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Hey! You can't do that here! at December 06, 2020 10:32 AM (N17yv)

246 I write the stuff myself . . . but most of the published fiction I've run across bores me. Give me Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East or Larry Niven's The Magic Goes Away.

As much as I admire Tolkien, I don't like reading Tolkien-style fantasy. And I don't like "my book isn't Tolkien fantasy" fantasy stories either. I think I lean more toward Conan and Fafhrd/Gray Mouser-Elric style fantasy. Less elfy and more grounded and human.

I don't want people bursting into song, I don't want really wierd, invented raced like Skyrealms of Jorune. Keep it familiar, but fantastic.

And yeah, for the love of God, enough chosen one special princess stories. I'm getting to the point I turn away books simply because they have a female first person POV. They're inevitably terrible.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:33 AM (KZzsI)

247
found it:

archive.org/details/OTRR_Certified_Democracy_in_America

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:33 AM (DUIap)

248 There's a mystery conference called Bouchercon--next
year its in New Orleans in August. You can sign up for the Nero Wolfe
dinner, which is well attended by his fans.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (AwPyG)

Anthony Boucher also wrote a series of "hard boiled" werewolf stories.
One of them tangles with the FBI who is loading their tommy guns 1:5 with Silver bullets just because of werewolves.

The book I found years ago was "The Complete Werewolf"

Posted by: Kindltot at December 06, 2020 10:34 AM (WyVLE)

249 At one point Harvard Symbologist Robert Langdon and some pals are in Venice, hurrying to stop a deadly pandemic. They pass some gondolas. And Brown stops the story dead to give the reader a page worth of irrelevant facts about gondolas, blatantly stolen from the Wikipedia entry.

It is difficult for me to express how much I loathe Dan Brown's books, or how disappointing and depressing it is that they get massive promotional budgets.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (QZxDR)

Heh. And I'm sure Dan Brown weeps yuuge tears of sadness every time he goes to the bank.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:34 AM (5lMGa)

250 It is difficult for me to express how much I loathe Dan Brown's books, or how disappointing and depressing it is that they get massive promotional budgets.
Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM

Someone in publishing (an editor iirc) said Brown wrote airport books: something you could pick up during a layover that would see you through the delay and you can abandon it in the hotel.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at December 06, 2020 10:34 AM (/+bwe)

251 72 Check out Might As Well Be Dead and Murder By the Book
from the '50s. Wolfe lectures far less and Archie is a much more
polished fellow who no longer says things like "It don't signify."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:23 AM (rpbg1)

I'll give them one shot. One. If I am displeased, I'm coming after you.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020

*
*

I don't think you'll cringe, Grammie. Rex Stout got better as he wrote about the characters. Archie's narration is breezier and funnier (in Murder By the Book he travels to LA, spends his entire time there in the rain, and has choice remarks to make about the place), and the plotting is better. You'd almost think a different writer penned these two.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:32 AM (rpbg1)
__________

Two things to note.

1. Wolfe fans are divided. One group loves Archie (Jacques Barzun) another can't stand him (John Dickson Carr). So you may have a problem there, or not.

2. I don't recommend going with one outside NY, or for that matter, in which Wolfe leaves the brownstone. Some of them are good, but they are not paradigm Wolfe stories.

BTW, I do not recommend the Zeck trilogy. The first was good, the 2nd decent, but the 3rd is the pits. If I'm reading about Nero Wolfe, I want Wolfe in the story. Not some skinny active imposter. It is the worst of the lot. (The last is also bad. The Watergate one.)

Go with 40s - mid 60s, and you're pretty safe.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:34 AM (7X3UV)

252 Which I guess I understand, because once an author becomes popular, people buy their books based on them not the title or even content. But it offends my sensibilities: the title should always be the prominent feature.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020
------
Isaac Asimov used to tell his publishers that the way to guarantee sales of his books was to have his name on the cover in large, clear letters.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:35 AM (Uhu8A)

253 Sweet Savage Sauvignon
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 10:14 AM (Dc2NZ)

I laffed.

Brides of Bordeaux

Posted by: April at December 06, 2020 10:35 AM (OX9vb)

254 One of the "1 Star" reviews on Amazon is from some dolt who claims it is badly written and he should know because he has a Masters Degree, yo!

Its almost painful to read Goodreads reviews by young people. They should just avoid old books because every time they are exposed to something from the past they act like a cloistered little girl who heard her first curse word. SHOCKING! UNTHINKABLE! HOW CAN THIS BE ALLOWED!

They seem to utterly lack the ability to learn from the past or read things in context, no everything has to fit within their extremely narrow, infantile categories or its a thoughtcrime that makes them cringe and run for their safe space in the empty tub with all the pillows.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:36 AM (KZzsI)

255 Talking About Movies last night, I talked about how I enjoyed the movie I guess READY PLAYER TWO is SJW garbage, Thanks to fellow Morons letting me know and saving me Money.

The Spellmonger series just released the 12 book. I really like this series. It's nice to enjoy a book and not have SJW crap.

I am disappointed in the Sharpe's Trafalgar, I didn't like that he was having an affair with a married woman right under the nose of the Husband, The Husband was a Jerk but it just bothered me

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 06, 2020 10:36 AM (dKiJG)

256 Just a loose plot around sexual situations described in anatomical detail usually restrained to autopsy reports.

*********

Necropsy in Laredo - a western porn limerick

A forensic scientist named Knapps
Studies cowboy anatomical maps
All day long he tells jokes
About horny cow pokes
And dissects lots of poor assless chaps

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 10:37 AM (m45I2)

257 150
COVID-19 could cause erectile dysfunction in patients who have recovered from the virus, doctor warns

the dick why does it always have to be the dick

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (JFO2v)

Heh. We've got the Karens. Let's scare the shit out of men now.

Posted by: Doctors Everywhere at December 06, 2020 10:37 AM (XxJt1)

258 see you met some members of my family. An over-educated Jonestown cult.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (rPZEG)

Mine too. My first words to my ultra-Leftist moon-bat sister of the lovely (future) Mrs. Cop back when we were dating ***mumble*** years ago, were "You don't know what the fvkc you're talking about." We don't get along because SIL constantly tries to derail family gatherings with political bull$h!t. She now draws-in her antennae around me because I drove her off from a Christmas party in a near-stroke because I verbally flayed her in front of the rest of the family.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:37 AM (pJWtt)

259 Speaking of prophetic novels, there was a Dragonriders of Pern spinoff book where Pern was ravaged by a world-wide pandemic that was just a resurgent flu. I don't remember the name of the book, but I definitely remember reading it as a youngster. Don't particularly feel like going back to re-read it, given the current state of things.

Ah well, what cannot be cured must be endured. (a phrase from the book. Amazing that I remember that, but not the actual title of the story.)

Posted by: Castle Guy at December 06, 2020 10:37 AM (Lhaco)

260 There should be a "Krugman Rule". Like the eating and swimming one.

Posted by: klaftern at December 06, 2020 10:27 AM (RuIsu)

If you think you have an intelligent thought...wait 30 minutes. It will go away, because it is just gas.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 06, 2020 10:38 AM (xT2tT)

261 As much as I admire Tolkien, I don't like reading Tolkien-style fantasy. And I don't like "my book isn't Tolkien fantasy" fantasy stories either. I think I lean more toward Conan and Fafhrd/Gray Mouser-Elric style fantasy. Less elfy and more grounded and human.

I don't want people bursting into song, I don't want really wierd, invented raced like Skyrealms of Jorune. Keep it familiar, but fantastic.

. . .
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

I call my stuff hard-boiled fantasy. Magic works, but people still have to earn a living, and economics often plays a role in things. I don't usually write about princesses and lords, but more about retired or former soldiers, ex- or current prostitutes, and magicians with a eye for wine and women.

As for people bursting into song, if I put a song into a story, I'd have to subcontract the lyrics. I'm no poet (though I've read a lot of it and appreciate the good stuff).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:38 AM (rpbg1)

262 The writer who is the most guilty of stopping the narrative to spend a few pages showing off his knowledge on some obscure technical subject was Tom Clancy. He takes the cake.
Do you know the schematics for a nuclear submarine? Well settle in, because I do.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:38 AM (AwPyG)

263 78 Also I've been reading Black Mask magazine Continental Op stories by Dashiell Hammett. Most of them were written based on cases he actually participated in, and they are great procedural stuff from the twenties.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:33 AM (KZzsI)
_________

Those are interesting, among other things, because they break with the "hard boiled" genre of which Hammett is often considered the originator. In those, the detective's personality is always front and center, pretty much all the time. But in the CO, it is the opposite. Hell, you never even find a name.

BTW, one thing about Rex Stout is that he combines the older and newer styles, Wolfe being the older sort of detective, Goodwin the newer.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:38 AM (7X3UV)

264 I am disappointed in the Sharpe's Trafalgar, I didn't like that he was having an affair with a married woman right under the nose of the Husband, The Husband was a Jerk but it just bothered me

I like the Sharpes books and Cornwell as an author but everything he put out in order of writing after Waterloo is just not up to quality. One gets the sense he knocks these things out to pay the bills between his preferred projects.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (KZzsI)

265 Is anybody here familiar with the Nero Wolf mysteries written by Rex Stout? I've been reading big serious works lately and now feel the need to go on a mystery binge to lighten things up (so nothing too gory or nihilistic). I'm looking for stuff that falls between the genteel British lady detective stuff and Hannibal Lector, and Nero Wolf mysteries sound like they do.

The P.D. James mysteries sound like they might be interesting too.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (HabA/)

266 And yeah, for the love of God, enough chosen one special princess stories. I'm getting to the point I turn away books simply because they have a female first person POV. They're inevitably terrible.

I need to find a writer's club or something. I have this interesting plot-line that unfortunately spans the antediluvian age to the near future.

The problem is how to go about telling it in under 10k pages. I like the Princess Bride method where the narrator steps in to cover things; I've looked at the stories within a story approach, the first person, present tense, past tense.

The current view is several first person views. The protagonist's, the various antagonist, and jumping time and space with narration.

Upthread, there was the complaint of explaining Gondolas in the midst of a tense action scene. if the information is so important, isn't there a better way to express it? Or does this fall under the "less is more"?

Does anyone do footnotes in a work of fiction?

Posted by: President Elect 🐧 at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (C+evo)

267 Bang. Little earthquake just hit.
Posted by: Semi-Literate Thug at December 06, 2020 10:23 AM (t5m5e)

I hate little earthquakes. Because you never know if the little earthquake is going to turn into a the Big Earthquake. They all start out the same.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (5lMGa)

268 She now draws-in her antennae around me because I
drove her off from a Christmas party in a near-stroke because I verbally
flayed her in front of the rest of the family.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:37 AM (pJWtt)

The preferred outcome! We can't change their thinking because they are too jingoistic and ignorant, but we can get them to shut up in social situations!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 06, 2020 10:40 AM (xT2tT)

269 this is book / politics related

watching this video
about China's influence in DC

I verified that the anecdote he uses a about a book launch checks out

https://archive.is/lrqV6

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 10:40 AM (nUhF0)

270 Muldoon is awesome.
A prince among poets

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:40 AM (AwPyG)

271 The short story, "Field Test" has one of the best last lines I've ever read.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (pJWtt)
--------------

"For the honor of the regiment."

Completely agree.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:41 AM (WEBkv)

272 Hiya Donna Amp !

Hop all is well witchoo.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 10:42 AM (arJlL)

273 Heh. We've got the Karens. Let's scare the shit out of men now.

Posted by: Doctors Everywhere at December 06, 2020 10:37 AM (XxJt1)

I thought the vaccine was supposed to leave women barren.

Is this a plus or a minus for the Karens?

Posted by: President Elect 🐧 at December 06, 2020 10:42 AM (C+evo)

274 The short story, "Field Test" has one of the best last lines I've ever read.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (pJWtt)
-----
Yes. Yes, it does.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:26 AM (Uhu8A)

I'd say the story encapsulates one of the primary reasons why men will stay in combat so brilliantly, that it gives me chills just thinking about it.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:42 AM (pJWtt)

275 Does anyone do footnotes in a work of fiction?
Posted by: President Elect at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (C+evo)
------
Pterry Prachett did.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:42 AM (Uhu8A)

276 269

I forgot the vudeo link

https://youtu.be/acZXridt7wM

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 10:42 AM (nUhF0)

277 OMG, I wrote my comment above without reading any of the earlier ones. I scrolled up after posting to see the subject of Stout's books had already come up.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 10:42 AM (HabA/)

278 Speaking of prophetic novels, there was a Dragonriders of Pern spinoff book where Pern was ravaged by a world-wide pandemic that was just a resurgent flu.

Reminds me of the Star Trek Next Gen episode where they got the sniffles and the doctor couldn't figure out what it was. That was the last episode I watched when it was coming out new episodes. Just awful. Crusher was the most incompetent medical officer in the history of starships. You know she got the job by sleeping with Picard.

The writer who is the most guilty of stopping the narrative to spend a few pages showing off his knowledge on some obscure technical subject was Tom Clancy.

Yeah. Another author who suffered from his own success by not being edited sufficiently. Too many subplots, too many side characters, too much bloat. Nearly all his books after Patriot Games at least could have been half as thick and twice as good.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:43 AM (KZzsI)

279 Combat Engineer - I voted for the red cover with the bridge. After all, that's what combat engineers did.
I haven't been reading much lately. I have the attention span of a gnat. That said, I'm about half way through 1914-1918 about WWI. It's a very dry read and I can only manage about 15 or 20 pages a day. I need to get after it. I have other books in line and that line keeps growing.

Posted by: Old Blue - Deplorable Trump Chump at December 06, 2020 10:43 AM (VNmG1)

280 A couple of days ago the Kindle Daily Deals consisted of 156 or so romance novels. They all fell into one of a few categories:

- Cowboys/ Highland Scots
- Amish maidens
- Billionaires (like studly billionaires are thick upon the ground)
- Dastardly nobility

I assume these things sell but looks like they give new depth to the concept of formulaic.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:43 AM (7EjX1)

281 I hate little earthquakes. Because you never know if the little earthquake is going to turn into a the Big Earthquake. They all start out the same.

I think at this point of the game, there are many people who are hoping its the REAL BIG ONE.

Dinosaur Extinction Event level.

Posted by: President Elect 🐧 at December 06, 2020 10:44 AM (C+evo)

282 @265

Ampersands! Now that's more like it. Welcome back, Donna.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (XxJt1)

283 "Posh," I've read, came from an abbreviation of "Port out, starboard home." According to the story, passengers on ocean liners (between London and New York especially) didn't want to be stuck on the side of the ship where the sun came in the portholes all day -- before air-conditioning, this was. So going west, they would pay extra for cabins on the port side, which apparently was more shaded, and coming back they wanted the cabins on the starboard side. So liner companies began to refer to that in shorthand, and it apparently passed into the language.

Dunno if that's for real, though.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 09:29 AM (rpbg1)

With respect, this looks and feels like one of those 'origin' stories that are clever, explain everything, and are simply not correct. Like it's something written generations after the fact.

Kind of like 'the whole nine yards', which everyone knows is referring the the total square yardage of sail on the ships of the line back in the day. It just meant you were going all out and holding nothing back.

Right?

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (5lMGa)

284 @267
Yeah, earthquakes would be a lot more fun if you didn't have to worry whether this was the big one.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (AwPyG)

285 Is anybody here familiar with the Nero Wolf mysteries written by Rex Stout? I've been reading big serious works lately and now feel the need to go on a mystery binge to lighten things up (so nothing too gory or nihilistic). I'm looking for stuff that falls between the genteel British lady detective stuff and Hannibal Lector, and Nero Wolf mysteries sound like they do.

The P.D. James mysteries sound like they might be interesting too.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020

*
*

Donna, we were just discussing them upthread. I grew up with them, starting at age 12, and reread one or three every year even when I remember who the murderer is. Now that, as PG Wodehouse said, is writing.

As I said above, the novels beginning in about 1947 and running into the early '70s are the best ones. Wolfe is more the curmudgeon we love, Archie is more polished and breezy in his narration, and the plots tend to be neater. Stout also did a bunch of 20K word novelettes where the plotting was even better -- "Die Like a Dog" and "The Gun With Wings."

Try Might As Well Be Dead and Murder By the Book from the mid-'50s.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (rpbg1)

286 I've visited the Wisconsin historical society, it is wonderful. We were allowed to see the private, stored donation of Col. Hobart C. Harrison of the 25th Wisconsin, my mother's great grandfather.
https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS2553

They allowed us to see the ceremonial, engraved sword he was given when he was mustered out as a brevetted General in 1865, along with his calfskin parade gloves. (stored in a box of their records) He lived an amazing life - fought through the entire war, spent a year in the Confederate prison in Libby, escaped, went back to serve under Sherman in the Battle of Atlanta and the march to the sea, and lived to the age of 87. He was someone who was never scared of a fight, and he almost became Governor, but he ran as a democrat and lost to the republican candidate who had just as good a war record as he did.

btw, his first military action in his life took place when he was 47 years old.

Posted by: Tom Servo at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (V2Yro)

287 Unpacked more mysteries this week. Including several anthologies. We all have our likes and dislikes. I will give The Big Sleep one more try. I put it down the first time. It's a problem if you can't stand the hero, and I couldn't.

I did find some Hammett, Stout, Queen, and Carr, plus several Judge Dees. I have mixed feelings about Ellery, but the others I like a lot.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (7X3UV)

288 The short story, "Field Test" has one of the best last lines I've ever read.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (pJWtt)

Have you read "Big Boys Don't Cry" by Tom Kratman? It's set in the Boloverse and is reminiscent of "Field Test."

Posted by: Retief at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (SWlro)

289 That was what bugged me about the gondolas. It had no relevance. The characters were in a hurry, so they used a motorboat like most sane people would. They just happened to pass by some gondolas and apparently Brown decided his page count needed to be higher.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 10:45 AM (QZxDR)

290 If you think you have an intelligent thought...wait 30 minutes. It will go away, because it is just gas.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

*************

And if you disregard this advice you will soon find yourself in over your head, flailing vainly in an attempt to stay afloat.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 10:46 AM (m45I2)

291 @280
According to the romance genre, billionaires and dukes are thick on the ground

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:46 AM (AwPyG)

292 Speaking of covers, I sometimes try to dream up cover ideas for a book I'm reading. I got the idea from Rex Stout correspondence in a recent reprint line of the Wolfe books. The publisher mentioned that one copy of the manuscript had gone to the artist.

Imagine extracting one image from an entire book. Then you have abstract covers.

I was looking up Retief covers this past week. Some of them portrayed him in Roman battle garb, complete with helmet. That's not how I see Retief.

With the collapse of mainstream comics, this is a way to scratch my comics itch.

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 10:47 AM (sBV5A)

293 Where's the quake? I'm on the left coast, and I went to a presentation about the probable consequences of a 9.0 in our county. Suffice it to say that all the hills were going to end up in the valley, and everything taller than a single-story dwelling was going to pancake.

Posted by: PabloD isn't in a reconciliatory mood at December 06, 2020 10:47 AM (/LWj7)

294 According to the romance genre, billionaires and dukes are thick on the ground
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:46 AM (AwPyG)
--------------

And brilliant, hunky, yet unrecognized servants abound.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (WEBkv)

295
Yeah. Another author who suffered from his own success by not being edited sufficiently. Too many subplots, too many side characters, too much bloat. Nearly all his books after Patriot Games at least could have been half as thick and twice as good.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:43 AM (KZzsI)
-----
I tried rereading "The Sum of All Fears" a few years ago and had to put it down. After the Second Intifada, the first few chapters were simply unbelievable. (They were marginally believable in the 90s, but enough so that you could kinda suspend disbelief.)

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (Uhu8A)

296 I think at this point of the game, there are many people who are hoping its the REAL BIG ONE.

Dinosaur Extinction Event level.

**********

Like G*d shaking up his Etch-a-Sketch.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (m45I2)

297 And at the risk of raising a controversial subject, notice that the "Cinderella story" premise always seems to sell well, despite what the powers-that-be are trying to push.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (AwPyG)

298 Jane, I have read and enjoyed PD James, they aren't my favorites, but they are pretty good. The other author that is good in small doses is Anne Perry. She's so bitterly anti-authority (for reasons involving her past) that its sometimes too much to take in her books if you read more than a few.

Upthread, there was the complaint of explaining Gondolas in the midst of a tense action scene. if the information is so important, isn't there a better way to express it? Or does this fall under the "less is more"?

The way I approach this is to spread it out. Be patient, take your time unless its absolutely critical. Set it up in advance with a few notes or comments in dialog and narration. Don't feel like you have to dump it all on everyone at once (there are genres where this is okay, such as a detective novel, but usually its unwelcome).

So have the book open with a goldoleer who has an incident where they physical limitations of the thing comes up. Just one, and as an aside that adds spice to a piece of dialog.

See, dialog gets... tedious if its just constant. You have to have characters do something sometimes, take an action, get distracted, have something happen, to break up the blocks of text. So spin in something in a conversation where it gives the reader something to keep their attention, but later is useful and important.

I'm a big fan of no fat, no bloat, trim everything down to ONLY what the story and characters need. It makes reading books written before the 20th century kind of painful because holy crap there's so much bloat.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (KZzsI)

299 Posted by: goatexchange at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM

Will be on that like white on rice, picked the better cover but losing one.
My FiL was a D-day combat engineer so look for all on the subject

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (9sWOw)

300 243 ... OM,

Thanks for the link.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (7EjX1)

301 I'm going back and reading early authors of weird fiction I've missed. Currently a third of the way through a collection of stories by Algernon Blackwood. I feel like I should be enjoying it, but I'm not. He's a good writer, I think. But there's so much writing. There's three paragraphs where two sentences would do, and so little action or events. I feel like a bug trapped in resin when this book is in my hands. Maybe it's just me though. My concentration and focus have deteriorated of late.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at December 06, 2020 10:49 AM (H5knJ)

302 Is anybody here familiar with the Nero Wolf mysteries written by Rex Stout? ...
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (HabA/)

Look up the thread, lots of discussion about Nero Wolf this week. I like them.

The premise is that the detective is too fat and doesn't want to leave his comfortable abode to solve the mystery. He sends his assistant to do the leg-work.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:49 AM (pJWtt)

303 123 The good period in Stout begins when he changed publishers in 1946 or so and published The Silent Speaker. There were a few low spots, but his high quality remained undiminished until he died almost 30 years later.

Another consistent winner is the Perry Mason BOOKS by Erle Stanley Gardner. They change over the years (he's really wild and cuts a lot of corners early on) but they're always clever and interesting. If you only know the character from the TV show, I really recommend these books.

And yeah, the Op was always described as being heavy and not at all glamorous. And he has no name, it was one of the more interesting concepts. Plus, super new, nobody was writing anything like it.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:49 AM (KZzsI)
__________

Evelyn Waugh was a big fan of Mason. He and Gardner corresponded.

Though he never comes out and says it, I get the impression he didn't care for Ronald Knox's mysteries. He explicitly declines to discuss them when writing about Knox.

Or maybe he didn't want to talk about mysteries.

Personally, I find Knox's Bredon stories as just OK. Decent mysteries, but they don't grab, partly because of weak characterization. But Knox could do that in other books, most notably in Let Dons Delight.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:49 AM (7X3UV)

304 Well time to shower. For some reason, offending the rest of the congregation is frowned upon.

Later!

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:49 AM (WEBkv)

305 I will give The Big Sleep one more try. I put it down the first time. It's a problem if you can't stand the hero, and I couldn't.

I did find some Hammett, Stout, Queen, and Carr, plus several Judge Dees. I have mixed feelings about Ellery, but the others I like a lot.
Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020

*
*

I had the same problem as you with Chandler when I tried The Maltese Falcon by Hammett. Finally I read it through and understood what he was doing.

Ellery Queen, as we've discussed, may be an acquired taste. The early 9-10 novels are utterly brilliant mysteries, but Ellery is kind of hard to empathize with. Starting in the '40s, though, the cousins really melded the "novel" with the mystery, and you got some really good stuff like Cat of Many Tails, an early serial killer novel.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:49 AM (rpbg1)

306 A couple of days ago the Kindle Daily Deals consisted of 156 or so romance novels. They all fell into one of a few categories:

- Cowboys/ Highland Scots
- Amish maidens
- Billionaires (like studly billionaires are thick upon the ground)
- Dastardly nobility

I assume these things sell but looks like they give new depth to the concept of formulaic.

I flat out don't understand the studly billionaire category.

It takes real effort to be a billionaire and even more effort to distance yourself from the masses who either want to kill, kidnap, maim, loot, sue, swindle or mooch off of you.

Everyone and their brother is trying to hurt you or separate you from your money so there is always a security team, and interference team, lawyers, PR specialists, advisors and many others all allegedly trying to protect you from the masses.

This studly billionaire walking his dog along the beach and stumbles across a busty fair maiden is so outside the realm of realty that it even mocks science fiction.

Posted by: President Elect 🐧 at December 06, 2020 10:50 AM (C+evo)

307 It has been observed that some fatbody loser Antifa types believe they are Shackleford-style "monster hunters", and that YOU are the monsters they are "hunting".

Posted by: The Itinerant Scotsman at December 06, 2020 10:50 AM (VN8L5)

308 Back in 1985, Earth was thought to be 27,700 light years away from blackhole Sagittarius A*.

The new map puts it at 25,800 light-years away.

At that rate, we'll be there in about 340 years.

No, I don't do physics, just arithmetic. Why do you ask?

Posted by: Bob the Bilderberg at December 06, 2020 10:50 AM (qc+VF)

309 Idunno if the POSH story is true but it was accepted as gospel in the travel industry. We did use that acronym.

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 10:50 AM (XxJt1)

310 Does anyone do footnotes in a work of fiction?
Posted by: President Elect at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (C+evo)

Jonathsn Stranfe and Mr Norrell is half footnotes

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 10:50 AM (nUhF0)

311 Kind of like 'the whole nine yards', which everyone knows is referring the the total square yardage of sail on the ships of the line back in the day.

The mainsail on a ship of the line was considerably larger than nine square yards, by several factors.

The story I heard (and it sounds plausible) was that 9 yards was the standard length of ammo chains used in fighter planes. Give em the whole nine yards, boys.

But who the hell knows?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:51 AM (KZzsI)

312 Like the bio of Calvin Coolidge by Amity Shlaes. Dude. Its like 5000 pages long, you could break a cow's back with this thing. There's no possible way the man was interesting enough to justify that many words.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 09:58 AM (KZzsI)

I read it and enjoyed it. It filled in many blanks the history classes in my education may have intentionally left. I am a fast reader, but I did not consider it a slog at all.
Posted by: Catherine at December 06, 2020 10:02 AM (5ihJp)

The Forgotten Man had plenty of useful information but dear God it was tediously narrated. Silent Cal was a pretty funny guy.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 10:51 AM (y7DUB)

313 According to the romance genre, billionaires and dukes are thick on the ground
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:46 AM (AwPyG)
------
I self-identify as a billionaire duke. Does that help?

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:51 AM (Uhu8A)

314 @293
Dr. Kate is the Cal Tech earthquake expert, and she's very fun to listen to.
Once she was telling a newsroom full of anxious reporters that yes--this particular EQ was evidence of a shelf moving that could impact the LA area. (She pauses) In a million years, or so.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:51 AM (AwPyG)

315 my typoitis is acting up today

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 10:52 AM (nUhF0)

316 37 www.koehlerbooks.com/cover-polls/

Hi All, thanks OM!

----------

I voted on the first! I look forward to reading this. Please remind us when it is available.

Posted by: Rob at December 06, 2020 10:52 AM (k+Pes)

317 No, I don't do physics, just arithmetic. Why do you ask?

And apparently not even that very well. 1985 was 35 years ago, not 25. Sigh. Moar coffee, please.

Posted by: Bob the Bilderberg at December 06, 2020 10:52 AM (qc+VF)

318 - Cowboys/ Highland Scots
- Amish maidens
- Billionaires (like studly billionaires are thick upon the ground)
- Dastardly nobility

I assume these things sell but looks like they give new depth to the concept of formulaic.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 10:43 AM (7EjX1)

That's why I unsubscribed to pretty much all of my "notification of cheap books" e-mails. It was mostly chick lit.

Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:53 AM (5lMGa)

319 @310
The main time I see footnotes in fiction is in historical fiction, when the author makes a note at the end to explain what liberties he or she has taken with actual dates and facts.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:53 AM (AwPyG)

320 Oooh, I finally feel like I can comment in the book thread.

I read (re-read) three books this week:

Red Storm Rising
Dune
The Silmarillion

Glad I did it in that order, as I had to re-acquaint myself with reading fully structured sentences vs. blog posts.

There's a whole world of difference between RSR and TS.

Posted by: browndog at December 06, 2020 10:53 AM (BgMrQ)

321 www.koehlerbooks.com/cover-polls/

...
All who are interested, I invite you to play. Enjoy. The book is titled, ahem, 'Combat Engineer'.

Publication date is scheduled for February 25.

Thank you all!!
Posted by: goatexchange at December 06, 2020 09:16 AM (HgBj4)

GE: I'm in the minority -- I prefer the red cover, too.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:53 AM (pJWtt)

322
I self-identify as a billionaire duke. Does that help?

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:51 AM

get in line

I identify as a dastardly noble Highland Scot cowboy billionaire duke

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:54 AM (DUIap)

323 If you're voting on GE's book cover website don't forget to click the one you like in addition to reporting here. *sheepish grin*

Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 10:55 AM (XxJt1)

324 I had the same problem as you with Chandler when I tried The Maltese Falcon by Hammett. Finally I read it through and understood what he was doing.

Its interesting because Sam Spade is such a bastard. He doesn't like his partner. He's sleeping with his partner's wife, but doesn't even like her. He's clearly not above doing some shifty, questionable stuff, or at least giving the impression he will.

But he's got a very strong code of ethics which he is absolultely unbending on, and he will get the job done, whatever it costs him. And that in a way makes him admirable.

But for being a famous detective, Spade is real rotten guy.

Marlow by contrast is a very good man, who is a bastard to women. He likes to have them around but doesn't trust any of them and keeps them at arm's length. But he has an incredible moral code of behavior and will never, ever break that rule. Marlow is a modern day knight, without armor or a lance or even a trusty steed, going through nasty, horrible places and dealing with terrible people.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:55 AM (KZzsI)

325 Ah, you mean like Lonesome Love.
Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 10:31 AM (v16oJ)

Gus and Woodrow meet at Brokeback Mountain

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 10:55 AM (JFO2v)

326 @305
The Big Sleep is famous for a mistake that Chandler made in the story.
The chauffeur is murdered, but the reader is never told whodunnit.
When asked, Chandler just said he forgot

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (AwPyG)

327
I'm a big fan of no fat, no bloat, trim everything down to ONLY what the story and characters need. It makes reading books written before the 20th century kind of painful because holy crap there's so much bloat.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (KZzsI)

Word.

Posted by: E. Hemingway at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (5lMGa)

328 Good morning all ye Hordemates.

Interesting pants.

Posted by: Diogenes at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (axyOa)

329 Muldoon is awesome.
A prince among poets
Posted by: artemis

***********

Hardly. I'm just amusing myself. I'm happy if I bring a smile to someone.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (m45I2)

330 Speaking of covers, I sometimes try to dream up cover ideas for a book I'm reading. I got the idea from Rex Stout correspondence in a recent reprint line of the Wolfe books. The publisher mentioned that one copy of the manuscript had gone to the artist.

Imagine extracting one image from an entire book. . . .
Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020

*
*

Probably in Plot It Yourself.

The one image worked for the Signet James Bond paperbacks. Usually the artist chose either the villain (Mr. Big) or the attractive girl from the story (Tiffany Case, Honeychile Rider, Tatiana Romanova, or the girl Goldfinger painted gold in that novel).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (rpbg1)

331 I had to look up the term "worldly sorrow" and why it was a sin. Apparently it means being sorry you got caught, not being truly repentant.

-
So like Clinton remourse.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (+y/Ru)

332 That's why I unsubscribed to pretty much all of my "notification of cheap books" e-mails. It was mostly chick lit.
Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional

Somebody loaded up my little Free Library of Death with that stuff.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 10:57 AM (arJlL)

333 Piers might have a little touchn of buyers remorse, but only just a little and will get over it.

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 10:57 AM (9sWOw)

334 Hardly. I'm just amusing myself. I'm happy if I bring a smile to someone.
Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (m45I2)

I thought the style guide was quite clear stating that self amuse was not allowed.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 10:57 AM (JFO2v)

335 184 A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler

Norm Geisler was one of Rev's professors.
Posted by: grammie winger at December 06, 2020 09:42 AM (gm3d+)

That's so neat; the world is sometimes a small place! I particularly liked his use of the logical argument format (premise, intermediate step, conclusion) similar to tha used by Saint Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. I did find the Prof. Geisler's book informative; unfortunately, as a Catholic, the book didn't meet my specific doctrinal needs.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:08 AM (pJWtt)
_________-

Geisler (and his student, William Lane Craig) are pretty well respected by Catholic philosophers. He definitely wasn't of the Cartwright variety of Protestant, who thought all that RCs say is directly from Satan.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:57 AM (7X3UV)

336 I identify as a dastardly noble Highland Scot cowboy billionaire duke
Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:54 AM (DUIap)
-----
How does the kilt work when you're on horseback? Do we get into the Monty Python "Scotsman on a Horse" sketch?

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM (Uhu8A)

337 The Big Sleep is famous for a mistake that Chandler made in the story. The chauffeur is murdered, but the reader is never told whodunnit.

The thing is, when you read the book, you don't care. Chandler's mysteries were less about the mystery than the ride anyway.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM (KZzsI)

338 And apparently not even that very well. 1985 was 35 years ago, not 25. Sigh. Moar coffee, please.
Posted by: Bob the Bilderberg at December 06, 2020 10:52 AM (qc+VF)

Shake it off. Math on a Sunday is optional.

Posted by: Endeavor To Persevere at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM (SCvwT)

339
@305
The Big Sleep is famous for a mistake that Chandler made in the story.
The chauffeur is murdered, but the reader is never told whodunnit.
When asked, Chandler just said he forgot
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (AwPyG)

The butler did it.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM (5lMGa)

340 To me, the author is a really, really good writer if they can make us root for someone unlikable, like Sam Spade or Scarlett O'Hara

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:59 AM (AwPyG)

341
How does the kilt work when you're on horseback? Do we get into the Monty Python "Scotsman on a Horse" sketch?

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM

hence, the ass-less chaps

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:59 AM (DUIap)

342 Dan Brown is the Harold Robbins/Jacqueline Susanne of today. Neither of them cried on the way to the bank back in the '60's and '70's, but they're pretty much forgotten today.

Brown is popular in part because he puts a faux intellectual whipped cream topping on his piles of shit.

He does seem to be geographically challenged. I remember going to a talk debunking "The Da Vinci Code" and one guy there said he couldn't take the book seriously after the first few pages. The guy said he had lived in Paris for 10 years and Brown's directions around the city were so ridiculously inaccurate that they were distracting. "No, you idiot, if they took a left there, they'd end up in the Seine." But of course, Brown didn't need to care if he got it right because he's a hack who knows most of his readers won't know if his geography is right or not.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 10:59 AM (HabA/)

343 I had the same problem as you with Chandler when I tried The Maltese Falcon by Hammett. Finally I read it through and understood what he was doing.

Its interesting because Sam Spade is such a bastard. He doesn't like his partner. He's sleeping with his partner's wife, but doesn't even like her. He's clearly not above doing some shifty, questionable stuff, or at least giving the impression he will.

But he's got a very strong code of ethics which he is absolultely unbending on, and he will get the job done, whatever it costs him. And that in a way makes him admirable.

But for being a famous detective, Spade is real rotten guy. . . .

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

True. But I meant also Hammett's technique. At no point does he enter the thoughts of any character, not even Spade. Emotional effects are shown by words and actions only. That was startling to me at age 15, and the other times I tried and failed to finish the book. Finally, decades later, I sat down with it and got what he was doing.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:59 AM (rpbg1)

344 Helped a few others on that book cover picks, since aced the rest can definitely say picked the better though losing cover.

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 11:00 AM (9sWOw)

345 Geisler (and his student, William Lane Craig) are pretty well respected by Catholic philosophers. He definitely wasn't of the Cartwright variety of Protestant, who thought all that RCs say is directly from Satan.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:57 AM (7X3UV)

Who is Cartwright? Any relation to Jack Chick?

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 11:00 AM (5lMGa)

346 323 If you're voting on GE's book cover website don't forget to click the one you like in addition to reporting here. *sheepish grin*
Posted by: creeper at December 06, 2020 10:55 AM (XxJt1)

Look, it's already tightened up to 60-40% !

Posted by: April at December 06, 2020 11:00 AM (OX9vb)

347 Any time I hear a McCartney interview I quickly think of tire irons.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 09:51 AM (y7DUB)

hot or room temp?
Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:53 AM (JFO2v)

Room temp. Iron conducts heat really well and I don't want gloves to deprive me of the feel when it goes *thunk*.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:00 AM (y7DUB)

348 The short story, "Field Test" has one of the best last lines I've ever read.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:25 AM (pJWtt)

SPOILER:

"But, it was all just a dream..."

Posted by: naturalfake at December 06, 2020 11:00 AM (dWwl8)

349 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:55 AM (KZzsI)
-----
My favorite hard-boiled detective is Tracer Bullet.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (Uhu8A)

350 I self-identify as a billionaire duke. Does that help?

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea

Pffffft. Sucks to be you. I'm a $100 billionaire prince of the blood.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (v16oJ)

351 How does the kilt work when you're on horseback? Do we get into the Monty Python "Scotsman on a Horse" sketch?
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM

hence, the ass-less chaps

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 10:59 AM (DUIap)

The Man With Nae Trous!

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (5lMGa)

352 @330

This is probably why the book covers for epic tales like Game of Thrones or Outlander just give up, and have a symbol or something

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (AwPyG)

353 The Chauffeur murder part always felt like a mistake anyway, the scene added nothing to the story, it was a distraction. By that point you'd forgotten there even WAS a chauffeur.

Regarding pared down books and writing, there was a big difference in the 19th century in book reading. Back then you would read a book for the reading, not to get to the end. It was a journey you went along, and the longer and more detailed it was, well the more you had to look forward to.

These days nobody has time or inclination to read more than a few lines of text.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (KZzsI)

354 Needing something both good and not politics, I am rereading Mario Kloos Frontlines books. Really good SF grunt books.

Posted by: Akua Makana at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (YkUJb)

355 Anyone point out that Piers Morgan was the first Celebrity Apprentice winner?

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:02 AM (2DOZq)

356 GA is just one big fucking joke!

Georgia County Cant Find Chain of Custody Records for Absentee Ballots Exist

So they put drop boxes up and have no clue where when how who picked up and number of ballots.

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 11:02 AM (JFO2v)

357 I want to thank whomever suggested His Name Was Wren. I gave myself an early Christmas present, and thoroughly enjoyed that little yarn.

Rob Winters did a lovely job interweaving historical fiction with science fiction and young teens without devolving into foul language, sex, drugs, etc. I appreciate that, especially when the story is good.

Posted by: Moki at December 06, 2020 11:02 AM (+X9Vs)

358 I rather enjoy the early Nero Wolfe stories. They set the tone for the later books but also for the changes in society between then and now. Wolfe's brownstone isn't air conditioned. It was a time when a bribe of a dollar was generous. Things like that. And always Wolfe's use of language.

Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 11:02 AM (7EjX1)

359 Marco Kloos, NOT Mario. Jeeze.

Posted by: Akua Makana at December 06, 2020 11:03 AM (YkUJb)

360 "Does anyone do footnotes in a work of fiction?"

George MacDonald Fraser has many in the Flashman novels. To explain things Flashy takes for granted, and to get into the historical controversies in the "true" part of these historical novels.

Michael Crichton has a prescient appendix in State of Fear to explain that Global Warming is all bullshit.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 06, 2020 11:03 AM (9TdxA)

361 192 "That's so neat; the world is sometimes a small place! I particularly liked his use of the logical argument format (premise, intermediate step, conclusion) similar to tha used by Saint Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. I did find the Prof. Geisler's book informative; unfortunately, as a Catholic, the book didn't meet my specific doctrinal needs.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at December 06, 2020 10:08 AM (pJWtt)"

Summa. Theologica is probably one of the most magnificent works ever written. It is not only instructive in purpose, but teaches you how to think about the world in general and has application well beyond its original intent.
Posted by: Marcus T at December 06, 2020 10:11 AM (tU3dj)
________

I do not know of anything which so thoroughly covers the interaction of reason, will, emotion, and appetite in human nature.

The problem with it is that it needs proper hyperlinks. It is all to easy to read one part, and by not reading a related one, to get the wrong idea.* And they are not always under the same grouping, or headings that seem intuitively obvious. E.g., it is very easy to misread the 5 Ways to think Aquinas believes he is proving the world had a beginning, something he elsewhere is quite explicit about being known only through revelation.

And note that it is explicitly for beginners.

*This is above and beyond the problem of changes in language. "First", "motion", "will"... lots of terms don't mean what we think they do.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:03 AM (7X3UV)

362 276

longer video with details

https://youtu.be/OwGLItcb498

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:04 AM (nUhF0)

363 Goodness, look at this ! So many royals and nobles, kings, queens...with their head still attached.

Posted by: runner, unveiling the new and improved Madame Guillotine at December 06, 2020 11:04 AM (zr5Kq)

364 Thank you Oregon Muse. Based on:
I'm reading The End of October, a 2020 SF/thriller by one Lawrence Wright.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

It is ordered, and on the way to me.
My week(s) in reading:
I finished all the Joe Pickett novels, by CJ Box. I thought very good. Light reading I would say, in the sense that not much focus is needed.
I started and read the first book of another series by Box, with the main character Cody Hoyt. But Hoyt is an alcoholic, and I am bored of alcoholic detectives, I have read about some others.

Vince Flynn died. But another author continued his work, his series, with the Mitch Rapp character, and I have enjoyed those books. So I was excited when I saw a new one in the series came out, Total Power. Finished the book. Not sure why, but I did not enjoy it that much.

David Baldacci wrote a Mitch Rapp like character, called Will Robie. I have read two in the series, and am now on the third. Hmmmm...they are okay.

Now to read the comments and see what you guys have been reading.

Posted by: MikeM at December 06, 2020 11:05 AM (IKT63)

365 I have to give Rex Stout credit for recognizing that the FBI was utterly corrupt in The Doorbell Rang, published all the way back in 1965.

Posted by: cool breeze at December 06, 2020 11:05 AM (UGKMd)

366
The writer who is the most guilty of stopping the narrative to spend a few pages showing off his knowledge on some obscure technical subject was Tom Clancy. He takes the cake.
Do you know the schematics for a nuclear submarine? Well settle in, because I do.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:38 AM (AwPyG)

Back in the early 80s when he burst onto the scene, NO ONE in the thriller genre knew diddly squat about tech stuff, so they just pulled it out of their ass. It was exciting to read about military and tech stuff that actually had some basis in reality.

One of the more cringeworthy examples of pulling things out of an authors ass that I remember is Ludlum, who at one point had two rival assassins using a Stechkin and a "Browning Grade 4" as their personal pistols. The Stechkin is a big, clunky Soviet machine pistol and the "Browning Grade 4" is a finely engraved full sized auto shotgun.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at December 06, 2020 11:05 AM (EGyGV)

367 If you're looking for a reprieve from today's events, a quick fun read is David Spades autobiography, Almost Interesting.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:05 AM (2DOZq)

368 Georgia County Cant Find Chain of Custody Records for Absentee Ballots Exist

So they put drop boxes up and have no clue where when how who picked up and number of ballots.

You can't be surprised. I've been waiting for the inevitable epidemic of hard drive crashes and lost phones.

Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 11:06 AM (v16oJ)

369 Pffffft. Sucks to be you. I'm a $100 billionaire prince of the blood.
Posted by: pep at December 06, 2020 11:01 AM (v16oJ)
------
Meh. The whole pince of the blood thing is overrated. If you're not trying to bump off the next in line to the throne, you've got a slew of relatives wanting to do the same to you.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:06 AM (Uhu8A)

370 I'm currently reading NYPD Red 3

Pretty good so far.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:06 AM (arJlL)

371 The main time I see footnotes in fiction is in historical fiction, when the author makes a note at the end to explain what liberties he or she has taken with actual dates and facts.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:53 AM (AwPyG)

Tom Jones had a ton of footnotes explaining colloquialisms and how things happened long ago and far away. Also some of the literary spats Fielding was involved with.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:07 AM (y7DUB)

372 I'm glad to see other fans of the inspiration of my Nom de Plume here.

-
My nom de plume is Fatten Lazee.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:07 AM (+y/Ru)

373 George MacDonald Fraser has many in the Flashman novels. To explain things Flashy takes for granted, and to get into the historical controversies in the "true" part of these historical novels.

His footnotes are as hilarious as the text. He corrects... his own writing. "apparently Flashman forgot how things went because according to historians...". Its brilliant.

But Hoyt is an alcoholic, and I am bored of alcoholic detectives, I have read about some others.

The only recovering alcoholic detective I ever really liked was Jesse Stone by Robert B Parker. I liked that character better than Spenser, although after a while it became implausible that this little sleepy town would have so many problems and major bad guys.

Its like those long-running "small British town" detective TV shows. Really? This 1000-population British hamlet has 3 murders a week by a serial killer genius?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:09 AM (KZzsI)

374 127 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

There's a reason my cell phone (which I use to read kindle books) has a sturdy otterbox case.

The last one in paper was supposed to be an in-depth examination of how the black death affected the cultures of medieval Europe. I made it about ten pages in, and then hit the author talking about how the plague struck bourgesie and proletariat alike.... once I read "seize the means of production", well, it made a satisfying thump as it impacted the wall. And then I tossed it in the trash and emptied coffee grounds all over it, to make sure no one else would be reading that stupidity.

Marx has a lot to answer for, and one of those is so thoroughly contaminating historians that they can't actually let go of their ridiculous worldview in order to understand any other worldview or culture.

Posted by: Not From Around Here at December 06, 2020 11:09 AM (wrzAm)

375 @364
I can't think of a single instance where the child of the deceased author or anyone else "taking over" a series has done an adequate job, and it's kind of interesting--no one can copy the style correctly. It's like a thumbprint that can't be duplicated.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (AwPyG)

376 I hate the movie casting of American Assassin, one of my all time favorite books. They didn't have to be perfect but they weren't even close to what I had imagined in my head.

JK Simmons would have made a good Stan Hurley.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (2DOZq)

377 @356
As I noted on the EMT, did a quick lookup, Stacey Abrams is reporting her group just smashed through the 1 million mail in ballot threshold.

So, uhm, unless the GA GOP decides to shit can mail in ballots, or
actually do something about the fraud and vote harvesting, which by the way is illegal in GA, the chances of the two GOP Senate
candidates winning is not looking good.

It would appear the GA GOP like most of the GOP writ large are simply a bunch of incompetent grifters.

So there's that.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (ztzef)

378 Speaking of Harold Robbins, in his book The Carpetbaggers there is a chapter, Nevada Smith.

It is riveting.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (arJlL)

379 Oh, before I forget, here's yesterday's entry from 1944 in my dad's WWII diary.

Dec 5
The 45 Div obtained their objective between the Hagenau woods and the Vosges. They are just short of Mertzwiller. 79 Div remained static. 3 Div is still up and down the Rhine from Strasbourg. 103 Div is moving up in the area south of Buschwiller in rendezvous. 14 Armd Div is still spread out in combat teams of which only "B" is committed. All these Divs belong to VI Corps as of today.
Gerry air power (?) is more and more in evidence. Nearly every day one or more planes comes over to be met with a hail of AA. ~~Today~~ Yesterday four MEs jumped one of our L5s.
They shot the 5 down, both the pilot and obs were injured but not seriously. Our AA shot down two of the ME's.
We had a period of nearly two hours of clear weather today. The rest of the time was cloudy with some rain.

I like his ironic use of the (?) after referring to German air power. The Luftwaffe had to be getting pretty thin by this time.

The L5 refers to the Stinson L5, a plywood covered two-weater prop plane used for artillery observation from the air (among other things)

link here:

www.skytamer.com/Stinson_L-5.html

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:11 AM (m45I2)

380 Speaking of Harold Robbins, in his book The Carpetbaggers there is a chapter, Nevada Smith.

It is riveting.
Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (arJlL

They made a movie just from that.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:11 AM (2DOZq)

381 Know a guy who was in Prince Albert's fraternity at Amherst. Many co-eds wanted to fuck a prince, I was told.

Posted by: Ignoramus at December 06, 2020 11:12 AM (9TdxA)

382 A truly wonderful set of books is E.C. Williams Westerly Gales. I am not a sailor, but this story of a small island nation in the Africanthat needs to create a navy, set sometime in the future after Ocean

Posted by: Akua Makana at December 06, 2020 11:12 AM (YkUJb)

383 John Garfield and Jan Sterling

Posted by: Worf at December 06, 2020 11:12 AM (0tSJR)

384 One of the more cringeworthy examples of pulling things out of an authors ass that I remember is Ludlum, who at one point had two rival assassins using a Stechkin and a "Browning Grade 4" as their personal pistols. The Stechkin is a big, clunky Soviet machine pistol and the "Browning Grade 4" is a finely engraved full sized auto shotgun.
Posted by: IllTemperedCur at December 06, 2020 11:05 AM (EGyGV)

I was reading Ludlum on the beach once and experienced one too many eye rolling implausible plot twists and thought "this is trash and I'm through with reading trash". I'd have thrown it in the ocean except it was my parents' book.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (y7DUB)

385 206 I used to go to the Starbucks inside a local Barnes Noble to spend time while one of the kids was at a sport class. Near the seating area was a display of romance paperbacks. I started calling it the Shirtless Cowboy Section.
Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 10:16 AM (QZxDR)

'Gimme Back My Shirt!' is a good working title of every romance novel.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (5lMGa)

386 They made a movie just from that.
Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me

Yep, Steve Mcqueen.

But the chapter by Robbins is riveting.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (arJlL)

387 358 I rather enjoy the early Nero Wolfe stories. They set the tone for the later books but also for the changes in society between then and now. Wolfe's brownstone isn't air conditioned. It was a time when a bribe of a dollar was generous. Things like that. And always Wolfe's use of language.
Posted by: JTB at December 06, 2020 11:02 AM (7EjX1)

Yeah. That appeals to me right now.

I remember someone writing that one of the pleasures of reading Sherlock Holmes stories is that it is always London in 1895. Same with Wodehouse - they are set in an Edwardian England that never really existed, where nobody is worried about the storm clouds starting to appear in Russia and the Continent.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (HabA/)

388 Haven't read anything in awhile, it being deer hunting season but we did take our 2 month old grsndson and his parents to cut a couple of Christmas trees this morning for his great grandma and us. It's 27 degrees, breezy and clear so the little guy was bundled like an Eskimo.

Posted by: Cosda at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (6woel)

389
BTW, I do not recommend the Zeck trilogy. The first was good, the 2nd decent, but the 3rd is the pits. If I'm reading about Nero Wolfe, I want Wolfe in the story. Not some skinny active imposter. It is the worst of the lot....

I disagree. The fact that Wolfe believes that he has to go that far just to survive, proves how dangerous Zeck is.

Imagine how lame the story would be if Wolfe were shown to have simply holed up in some Manhattan hotel eating bonbons until the situation resolved itself.

I found it to be a very satisfying conclusion.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (dWwl8)

390 You want boring technical detail in a book read Moby Dick.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (2DOZq)

391 I am a big Wolfe fan. My favorites are "The Silent Speaker" and "The Doorbell Rang." I agree that "Fer de Lance" is rather offputting for a first read. I like it as a curiosity, but only because I'm a fan.

FWIW, I first tried Wolfe when was college age. My mother had all of the original books plus the Goldsborough continuation books. I hated the original Wolfe and liked the Goldsborough books better. When I read the books again in middle age, I thought the continuation books were anemic and started identifying with Wolfe.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (fTtFy)

392 Back in 1985, Earth was thought to be 27,700 light years away from blackhole Sagittarius A*.

The new map puts it at 25,800 light-years away.

-
Yet some people claim there's no such thing as progress.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (+y/Ru)

393 another fiction book with footnotes, iirc from long ago, is The Beloved Vagabond by John William Locke

https://preview.tinyurl.com/y6mcjckt

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (nUhF0)

394 I can't think of a single instance where the child of the deceased author or anyone else "taking over" a series has done an adequate job, and it's kind of interesting--no one can copy the style correctly. It's like a thumbprint that can't be duplicated.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (AwPyG)
-----
I tried reading "Gods and Generals" and had to stop. Apart from historical infelicities, he was trying to imitate his dad's style and not carrying it off.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:15 AM (Uhu8A)

395 I can't think of a single instance where the child of the deceased author or anyone else "taking over" a series has done an adequate job

Supposedly the woman who took over doing the Lord Peter Wimsey books does a really good job, and I like the Max Allen Collins Mike Hammer books, but they aren't quite the same as Mickey Spillane. And while I like Ace Atkins' writing, he doesn't get Spenser right.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:15 AM (KZzsI)

396 342 Donna

Did you know that Harold Robbins wrote ONE, highly acclaimed novel at the beginning of his career, titled "A Stone For Danny Fisher"?

It was a critical success, but a commercial flop & then some. So Robbins thereafter went where the money was.

But Robbins had demonstrated that he had a spot of talent.

I regard Mario Puzo as a gifted writer, not in the same schlockmeister category as Robbins. But Puzo hit midlife without ever having achieved any commercial success. He couldn't support himself as a writer. He was working as a railway freight agent. And so, as he writes in his autobiography, he decided to write a book with only one goal in mind-- money! And that was the genesis of... "The Godfather."

(Puzo's autobio isn't actually that, but he wrote a series of autobiographical essays, IIRC.)

Posted by: mnw at December 06, 2020 11:16 AM (Cssks)

397 395 I can't think of a single instance where the child of the deceased author or anyone else "taking over" a series has done an adequate job

Hey, the royalty checks spend the same....

Posted by: Brian Herbert at December 06, 2020 11:17 AM (PiwSw)

398 Willuam John
not John William
gah

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:17 AM (nUhF0)

399 There's speculation that the reason the USSC has set the response to the GA lawsuit for Dec 9 is because the court is going to throw out the "mail-in votes without legislature's approval" as unconstitutional, which will also throw out WI's mail-in too. It will be too late to fix the problem, so (according to the Constitution) if they can't get their electors in on time, they don't get any electors.
So neither candidate will get 270, and the vote goes to the states (each state one vote) and Trump wins.
Plus it has the added bonus of making the voters in these states furious at the charlatans in charge.
Sounds plausible.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (AwPyG)

400 I was reading Ludlum on the beach once and experienced one too many eye rolling implausible plot twists and thought "this is trash and I'm through with reading trash".
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:13 AM (y7DUB)

I feel the same way now. I certainly don't mind "light fiction" but there's a different between light fiction and trash and life's too short to read trash.

I try not to eat a lot of sweets these days, but when I do, I buy a really good piece of chocolate and savor it, rather than eating a crappy Twinkie or something. Same principle.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (HabA/)

401 Did you know that Harold Robbins wrote ONE, highly acclaimed novel at the beginning of his career, titled "A Stone For Danny Fisher"?

Yep.

And I HAVE that book around here somewheres.

And the Elvis Movie King Creole was based on that book.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (arJlL)

402 I have to give Rex Stout credit for recognizing that the FBI was utterly corrupt in The Doorbell Rang, published all the way back in 1965.
Posted by: cool breeze at December 06, 2020

*
*

Stout was on the FBI's enemies list as far back as the '40s, I think. He wasn't a Communist, but anybody who disagreed with Hoover and his methods became an enemy. I think the book The FBI Nobody Knows that Stout mentions in Doorbell is real.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (rpbg1)

403 Very interesting on the lost Colon volume! That's the sort of thing that sets history fans a-quiver. I'm reading Milton's masque of Comus, which should be hoity toity enough for this thread. I am a fan of shakespeare, so this drama works for me (though i was not in love with his earlier works)

Posted by: funsize at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (EiPf6)

404 Herbert's son has written a series of Dune prequels, and I read only one but it was disappointing. I guess they fill in a lot of gaps, but it felt like he didn't quite understand his dad's world or the characters at all.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (KZzsI)

405 You want boring technical detail in a book read Moby Dick.
Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (2DOZq)
-----
I thought it was fascinating, but I guess that's just me.

I also came to the book as a mature adult. I may not have felt the same way had I been compelled to read it in high school.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (Uhu8A)

406 My dad used to tool around the skies over Anzio in a Stinson L-5. After the liberation of Rome he quite literally buzzed the Pope, flying right over St. Peter's Square and seeing it packed elbow to elbow with people.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (m45I2)

407 As I noted on the EMT, did a quick lookup, Stacey Abrams is reporting her group just smashed through the 1 million mail in ballot threshold.

-
Stacey Abrams: Too Big to Fail

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:19 AM (+y/Ru)

408 294 According to the romance genre, billionaires and dukes are thick on the ground
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:46 AM (AwPyG)
--------------

And brilliant, hunky, yet unrecognized servants abound.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing at December 06, 2020 10:48 AM (WEBkv)
________

Oddly enough, the source of it all doesn't have them. To the best of my recollection, the only member of the nobility you meet in Jane Austin is the relative of the Elliotts' (can't recall the name) in Persuasion. And that's a brief scene.

There are two baronets (Bertram and Elliott), but they are not nobility, but knights, and neither is the hero of the book. And one baronet's widow (Lady Katherine).

Darcy is just "Mister". As are the other heroes; some have military rank, but those are the only titles.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (7X3UV)

409 Stacey Abrams: Too Big to Fail
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020

*
*

Stacey Abrams: Too Big to Do Much of Anything Except Complain

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (rpbg1)

410 What do you guys think of Nelson DeMille ? I've read The Charm School which was pretty good and for some reason I never pick up another of his books.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (2DOZq)

411
As I noted on the EMT, did a quick lookup, Stacey Abrams is reporting her group just smashed through the 1 million mail in ballot threshold.

-
Stacey Abrams: Too Big to Fail

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:19 AM

and it only took three photocopiers & a gross of sharpie markers to do it

Posted by: AltonJackson at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (DUIap)

412 @387
I agree--half the charm of the Agatha Christie books (and other golden age mysteries) is the setting and time.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (AwPyG)

413 Willuam John
not John William
gah
Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone

Oh, we know who ya meant.

!

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (arJlL)

414 My dad used to tool around the skies over Anzio in a Stinson L-5. After the liberation of Rome he quite literally buzzed the Pope, flying right over St. Peter's Square

I thought the Band of Brothers episode showing what the guys were like once the war was basically over but nobody was being sent home yet did a good job showing how they would do absolutely nuts stuff.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (KZzsI)

415 257 150
COVID-19 could cause erectile dysfunction in patients who have recovered from the virus, doctor warns

the dick why does it always have to be the dick

Posted by: rhennigantx at December 06, 2020 09:56 AM (JFO2v)

Heh. We've got the Karens. Let's scare the shit out of men now.

Posted by: Doctors Everywhere
-----
You know what else causes erectile dysfunction??? Eating, breathing, getting old, driving cars, working, sleeping, swimming in cold water, ugly people, reading, having kids, life , etc. , etc. , etc. ///

Posted by: lin-duh at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (UUBmN)

416 "I think Piers Morgan is just another decepticon. Some of them are better
than others (Tucker Carlson) but sooner or later they try to
"influence" your thinking and that's when you know they're not on your
side."

There will never be two precisely defined sides. Piers and Tucker are useful, even if they are further "left" than "our side". Tucker has gotten to the heart of the problem in many of his rants, much more powerfully than even some on "our side". That is why the left has mostly trashed Tucker.

Even if Piers/Tucker are still ensconced in the sinecures of elite privilege and influenced by Big Money ... they are often bold about decrying the more totalitarian aspects of their cocktail party fellow inebriates. And they do it on the public stage ... maybe it is just "controlled opposition kabuki theater", giving the masses false hope and keeping the commoners from revolting, but I don't think so.

Posted by: illiniwek at December 06, 2020 11:21 AM (Cus5s)

417 >>There's speculation that the reason the USSC has set the response to the GA lawsuit for Dec 9 is because the court is going to throw out the "mail-in votes without legislature's approval" as unconstitutional, which will also throw out WI's mail-in too. It will be too late to fix the problem, so (according to the Constitution) if they can't get their electors in on time, they don't get any electors.
So neither candidate will get 270, and the vote goes to the states (each state one vote) and Trump wins.
Plus it has the added bonus of making the voters in these states furious at the charlatans in charge.
Sounds plausible.

@ZoeTillman Dec 6, 2020 11:13 am

Update in the GOP challenge to PA's election results: Alito's deadline for a response to Rep. Kelly et al.'s petition was changed - it's now due Dec. 8 at 9am, instead of Dec. 9. Recall Dec. 8 is the federal safe harbor deadline for states to certify. No explanation provided.

Posted by: JackStraw at December 06, 2020 11:21 AM (ZLI7S)

418 While at university, this building became my home away from home. Numerous fantastic memories.
Posted by: French Jeton
Wow, thanks for sharing that memory.

Posted by: MikeM at December 06, 2020 11:21 AM (IKT63)

419 I read Moby Dick, liked it alot

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 11:22 AM (9sWOw)

420 COVID-19 could cause erectile dysfunction in patients who have recovered from the virus, doctor warns

So very sick of FUD. Especially "Plague!" FUD.

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at December 06, 2020 11:22 AM (3P/5p)

421 @408
Lady Catherine in Pride an Prejudice is one of the all-time great characters.

Everybody knows someone like her.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:22 AM (AwPyG)

422 There's speculation that the reason the USSC has set the response to the GA lawsuit for Dec 9 is because the court is going to throw out the "mail-in votes without legislature's approval" as unconstitutional

I just figured they were doing it for my birthday.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:22 AM (KZzsI)

423 Stacey Abrams: Too Big to Fail

If I were a mad scientist, I would transplant her butt onto Brie Larson.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:23 AM (arJlL)

424 305 I will give The Big Sleep one more try. I put it down the first time. It's a problem if you can't stand the hero, and I couldn't.

I did find some Hammett, Stout, Queen, and Carr, plus several Judge Dees. I have mixed feelings about Ellery, but the others I like a lot.
Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020

*
*

I had the same problem as you with Chandler when I tried The Maltese Falcon by Hammett. Finally I read it through and understood what he was doing.

Ellery Queen, as we've discussed, may be an acquired taste. The early 9-10 novels are utterly brilliant mysteries, but Ellery is kind of hard to empathize with. Starting in the '40s, though, the cousins really melded the "novel" with the mystery, and you got some really good stuff like Cat of Many Tails, an early serial killer novel.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 10:49 AM (rpbg1)
________

I pretty much agree about Ellery. One way to handle the early ones (which I agree are excellent plots) might be to read a little S S Van Dine first. After Philo Vance, even the early Ellery Queen would seem human.

(I will endorse Carr's verdict on the Green Murder Case, though. The atmosphere of that house makes up for the usual Van Dine faults.)

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:23 AM (7X3UV)

425 Marx has a lot to answer for, and one of those is so thoroughly contaminating historians that they can't actually let go of their ridiculous worldview in order to understand any other worldview or culture.

Posted by: Not From Around Here at December 06, 2020 11:09 AM (wrzAm)

It's really hard to find good contemporary historians who both write well and aren't Marxists. David Hackett Fischer is one, but the pickings are mighty slim.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 11:23 AM (HabA/)

426 Sup, readers?!

Posted by: Weasel at December 06, 2020 11:24 AM (MVjcR)

427 BTW, I do not recommend the Zeck trilogy. The first was good, the 2nd decent, but the 3rd is the pits. If I'm reading about Nero Wolfe, I want Wolfe in the story. Not some skinny active imposter. It is the worst of the lot....

I disagree. The fact that Wolfe believes that he has to go that far just to survive, proves how dangerous Zeck is.

Imagine how lame the story would be if Wolfe were shown to have simply holed up in some Manhattan hotel eating bonbons until the situation resolved itself.

I found it to be a very satisfying conclusion.

Posted by: naturalfake at December 06, 2020

*
*

Naturalfake, I have to agree. It's better than Holmes vanishing and being thought dead for several years, only to turn up alive. It's the pinnacle of the Wolfe series. Plus we get to see how well Archie would do on his own as a private eye. (According to him, he makes a good profit over the 3-4 months, enough to plan a trip to Norway with Lily Rowan. And you know he wouldn't have accepted her money to pay for the trip; he'd pay, or he wouldn't go.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:24 AM (rpbg1)

428 @417
The date for response is the date the state has to explain why it's not utterly corrupt--it's not the date for a decision.
It may be they're trying to apply pressure, and hope the state will buckle on its own rather than come up with an argument.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:24 AM (AwPyG)

429 What do you guys think of Nelson DeMille ? I've read The Charm School which was pretty good and for some reason I never pick up another of his books.
Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (2DOZq)

The best part of DeMille is his wonderfully snarky and sarcastic characters. One of my favorite exchanges is in The General's Daughter:

"Dealin' with you is like jerkin' off with sandpaper."

"Thank you."

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at December 06, 2020 11:25 AM (EGyGV)

430 Big publishers are so scared and desperate now that they will only go with the Big Thing Which Sells and not take any risks, hoping to find the next Big Thing.

Amish romances are super popular and have been for a long time, for... some reason. I doubt any of them have the slightest similarity to actual Amish belief or culture but its a sort of "isolated old fashioned culture in modern day" thing.

The Outlander series of time traveling modern grrl in Hunky Kilt Land has spawned a bajillion imitators.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:25 AM (KZzsI)

431 COVID-19 could cause erectile dysfunction in patients who have recovered from the virus, doctor warns

Feature, not a bug.

Posted by: Wi Tu Lo and Sum Ting Wong at December 06, 2020 11:25 AM (W4eKo)

432
I pretty much agree about Ellery. One way to handle the early ones (which I agree are excellent plots) might be to read a little S S Van Dine first. After Philo Vance, even the early Ellery Queen would seem human.

(I will endorse Carr's verdict on the Green Murder Case, though. The atmosphere of that house makes up for the usual Van Dine faults.)
Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020

*
*

Oh, I love the early Ellery on his own terms. He makes mistakes and comes to wrong conclusions; he's not perfect. Philo Vance I tried at age 14, when my tolerance for wordiness was greater than today, and could only make it through the first 4 novels. After that he bored me.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (rpbg1)

433 I read Moby Dick, liked it alot
Posted by: Skip

When I was little I thought the title was Mopy Dick.

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (arJlL)

434 I'm reading The Complete Ghost Stories by M.R. James. They're very good, very subtle. But while reading them, I feel certain there's something in the room with me, just out of sight.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (l9m7l)

435 326 @305
The Big Sleep is famous for a mistake that Chandler made in the story.
The chauffeur is murdered, but the reader is never told whodunnit.
When asked, Chandler just said he forgot
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (AwPyG)
________

Who does he think he is, Charles Dickens?

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (7X3UV)

436 there is a fairly recent book. (201

Col�n, The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books
about Hernando Colon

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (nUhF0)

437 I just figured they were doing it for my birthday.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:22 AM (KZzsI)

Happy Birthday to you in advance. Same to JJ.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at December 06, 2020 11:27 AM (rPZEG)

438 You want boring technical detail in a book read Moby Dick.
Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (2DOZq)
-----
I thought it was fascinating, but I guess that's just me.

I also came to the book as a mature adult. I may not have felt the same way had I been compelled to read it in high school.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (Uhu8A)

It's not just you. Tastes are subjective and there's no *right* answer but there's a reason it's considered a classic. But it's not an easy read.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:27 AM (y7DUB)

439 Hiya Weasel !

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:28 AM (arJlL)

440 When I was little I thought the title was Mopy Dick.
Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (arJlL)
-----
Likewise, when I was small, I thought that a famous wannabe knight-errant was named Donkey Hotay.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:28 AM (Uhu8A)

441 421 @408
Lady Catherine in Pride an Prejudice is one of the all-time great characters.

Everybody knows someone like her.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:22 AM (AwPyG)

Ha! You're right.

Austen's characters are wonderful. You can imagine Jane sitting quietly at family parties and festivities, an unassuming maiden aunt, taking everything in, noticing everything...

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 11:28 AM (HabA/)

442 339
@305
The Big Sleep is famous for a mistake that Chandler made in the story.
The chauffeur is murdered, but the reader is never told whodunnit.
When asked, Chandler just said he forgot
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:56 AM (AwPyG)

The butler did it.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 10:58 AM (5lMGa)
_______

I recall exactly one murder in which the butler did it. It's a pretty famous one, too, though I won't engage in a spoiler. (It's another I just unpacked, too.)

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:29 AM (7X3UV)

443 404 Herbert's son has written a series of Dune prequels, and I read only one but it was disappointing. I guess they fill in a lot of gaps, but it felt like he didn't quite understand his dad's world or the characters at all.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (KZzsI)

Just a quick off topic rant about the new Dune movie:

Isn't it interesting that they change the usage of "jihad" to "CRUSADE"?!?!

I want to wring the neck of the whole production team for that bit of wokeness!

Posted by: browndog at December 06, 2020 11:29 AM (BgMrQ)

444 My dad used to tool around the skies over Anzio in a Stinson L-5. After the liberation of Rome he quite literally buzzed the Pope, flying right over St. Peter's Square and seeing it packed elbow to elbow with people.
Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (m45I2)

Very cool.

Posted by: runner, unveiling the new and improved Madame Guillotine at December 06, 2020 11:29 AM (zr5Kq)

445 I'm reading The Complete Ghost Stories by M.R. James. They're very good, very subtle. But while reading them, I feel certain there's something in the room with me, just out of sight.
Posted by: BeckoningChasm at December 06, 2020

*
*

That, I suspect, is exactly what he was trying for. I read some of those same stories years ago, and on a walk on the levee (in daylight, mind you) I had the feeling I was being followed by something "that was extremely reluctant to show its face."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:29 AM (rpbg1)

446 Likewise, when I was small, I thought that a famous wannabe knight-errant was named Donkey Hotay.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:28 AM (Uhu8A)

Sounds like a Turkish Buckwheat from Little Rascals.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at December 06, 2020 11:30 AM (EGyGV)

447 Gotta tear myself away from my favorite AOSHQ thread to go to church and stuff...thanks as always for the great read, OM and fellow 'rons and 'ettes!

Posted by: Donna&&&&&V at December 06, 2020 11:30 AM (HabA/)

448 *leaves Madame Guillotine alone for a bit

Posted by: runner at December 06, 2020 11:30 AM (zr5Kq)

449 Does anyone do footnotes in a work of fiction?Posted by: President Elect at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (C+evo)

Terry Prachett. And his are utterly hilarious.

Posted by: Not From Around Here at December 06, 2020 11:31 AM (wrzAm)

450 When I was little I thought the title was Mopy Dick.
Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:26 AM (arJlL)
-----
Likewise, when I was small, I thought that a famous wannabe knight-errant was named Donkey Hotay.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020

*
*

Both sound like characters or titles in a Looney Tunes cartoon!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:31 AM (rpbg1)

451 I can't think of a single instance where the child
of the deceased author or anyone else "taking over" a series has done an
adequate job, and it's kind of interesting--no one can copy the style
correctly. It's like a thumbprint that can't be duplicated.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:10 AM (AwPyG)

-----

I tried reading "Gods and Generals" and had to stop. Apart from
historical infelicities, he was trying to imitate his dad's style and
not carrying it off.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:15 AM (Uhu8A)

When the powers that be decided to continue putting out Spenser for Hire novels after Robert Parker died, they did themselves no favors. By the same token, when Robert Parker was given the challenge of finishing a Raymond Chandler novel, it was... well not bad... but you could tell where one author ended and the other began. It was a franken-novel.

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:31 AM (946rW)

452 I would have bet my left nut that never in a million years Pierced Organ would write an anti woke PC book and PDT would endorse it.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at December 06, 2020 11:31 AM (9Om/r)

453 It's not just you. Tastes are subjective and there's no *right* answer but there's a reason it's considered a classic. But it's not an easy read.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:27 AM (y7DUB)

This is true. IIRC, William Faulkner loved the book. But he was from Mississippi so ...

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:31 AM (2DOZq)

454 @430
I think Amish romances are popular for the same reason that Regency era romances are popular--there is a rigid set of "rules" that creates tension for the two main characters.
For example, in Pride and Prejudice, she's turned down his offer of marriage but she's now changed her mind. The problem is, she's not allowed to broach the subject with him.
In Sense and Sensibility, everyone is horrified that Marianne is writing letters to a man she is not engaged to.
It makes for an interesting source of conflict in the story.

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 11:32 AM (AwPyG)

455 For something really different to read in detective mysteries, check out Ghosts: Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low by E. and H. Heron.

Its a victorian-era parapsychological detective who deals with supernatural (and some not so supernatural) cases from a scientific perspective. Very interesting and well-written stories of a brilliant detective facing the unknown. It might be tough to find, since its obscure and old, but there is a kindle version out on Amazon.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:32 AM (KZzsI)

456 COVI(D)-19 coul(D) cause erectile (D)ysfunction in patients who have recovere(D) from the virus, (D)octor warns

Fixed.

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at December 06, 2020 11:32 AM (3P/5p)

457 340 To me, the author is a really, really good writer if they can make us root for someone unlikable, like Sam Spade or Scarlett O'Hara

Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:59 AM (AwPyG)
__________

Yes, but there are different types of disliking. I didn't hate Spade, I did hate Marlow. (And Rand's heroes.) That makes a difference. Nero Wolfe is an asshole, but in a way I find likeably. Actually, so was Holmes sometimes.

One of my favorite authors is Michael Gilbert. Perhaps his worst is Be Shot For Sixpence, in which the hero is pretty dislikeable, and that's one of the weaknesses. The setting is good, though, in the Alps.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:33 AM (7X3UV)

458 Gotta tear myself away from my favorite AOSHQ thread to go to church and stuff...thanks as always for the great read, OM and fellow 'rons and 'ettes!
Posted by: Donna&&&&&V

Have a good one, Donna and say one for us !

Posted by: JT at December 06, 2020 11:33 AM (arJlL)

459 Piers Morgan is Trump's friend from Apprentuce days, and I guess it's a real friendship
probably his loyalty red pilled him

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:34 AM (nUhF0)

460 The authors who write the Amish fiction books can really churn 'em out!

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:35 AM (m45I2)

461 COVI(D)-19 coul(D) cause erectile (D)ysfunction in patients who have recovere(D) from the virus, (D)octor warns

Fixed.

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at December 06, 2020 11:32 AM (3P/5p)

First, it is pretty low to threaten someone's dick to get them to join the Branch Covidians.

Second, post hoc ergo prompter hoc is a fallacy for a reason. Even if one thing follows another, it does not mean the first thing caused the second.

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:35 AM (946rW)

462 By the same token, when Robert Parker was given the challenge of finishing a Raymond Chandler novel, it was... well not bad... but you could tell where one author ended and the other began. It was a franken-novel.

Yeah that... didn't work. God bless him, Parker really did try, even mimicking some of Chandler's phrasing but he didn't get the character, setting, or flow of the story right at all. It was a well-meaning failure.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:35 AM (KZzsI)

463 MOrgan is pro Brexit, right ?

Posted by: runner at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (zr5Kq)

464 It appears that my 90-year-old, wheelchair-bound mother-in-law has come through the COVIDs with nothing more than a stuffy nose.

But sure, it's gonna kill us all.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (RIsF5)

465 345 Geisler (and his student, William Lane Craig) are pretty well respected by Catholic philosophers. He definitely wasn't of the Cartwright variety of Protestant, who thought all that RCs say is directly from Satan.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 10:57 AM (7X3UV)

Who is Cartwright? Any relation to Jack Chick?
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at December 06, 2020 11:00 AM (5lMGa)
_________

Thomas. Elizabethan Puritan of the most fanatic sort. He's really the #1 target of Richard Hooker's Laws. (The latter was one of the books that kept me Anglican far longer than I ought to have been.) Kind of like John Knox, without the verve. The easiest intro is (once again) in C S Lewis's OHEL volume.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (7X3UV)

466 The authors who write the Amish fiction books can really churn 'em out!
Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:35 AM (m45I2)

You can plow right through them.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (rPZEG)

467 probably his loyalty red pilled him
Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:34 AM (nUhF0)
-----
Heh. I hope the Wachowski Bros. are irked by the co-opting of the term "red-pilled".

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (Uhu8A)

468 I am disappointed in the Sharpe's Trafalgar, I didn't like that he was having an affair with a married woman right under the nose of the Husband, The Husband was a Jerk but it just bothered me

-
Admiral Lord Nelson was essentially a perfect man except for his affair with Emma Hamilton when they were both married to other people.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (+y/Ru)

469 . . . Nero Wolfe is an asshole, but in a way I find likeably. Actually, so was Holmes sometimes.

. . .
Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020

*
*

Wolfe is not the kind of person you'd want to hang out with for long. You'd like to eat at his table, for sure, but for company Archie would be vastly preferable.

Holmes was difficult, true. And sometimes he didn't play fair with Watson (and the reader). But you could tell Watson liked his company (and going on adventures with him), and vice versa.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:36 AM (rpbg1)

470 Holmes was a jerk but in a way that was still noble and likable, and no writer since has gotten that right. The modern TV and movie attempts get him all wrong and are sometimes painful to watch them try. They either treat him like some kind of autistic genius or just flat cruel.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:37 AM (KZzsI)

471 Morgan voted to remain in the EU.

Posted by: runner at December 06, 2020 11:37 AM (zr5Kq)

472 I like Baldacci but am having to slog my way through his latest series featuring FBI agent Atlee Pine. Just finished book two and have #3 staring at me. I'm not looking forward to it.
Why? You ask.
Well, she's just not very likable. And plot development is really slow in coming out. I almost need my own whiteboard just to keep track and remember who is who.

Sigh.

Posted by: Diogenes at December 06, 2020 11:37 AM (axyOa)

473 I assume because Covid allegedly causes disruption of blood flow that it allegedly would also target your junk.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:38 AM (2DOZq)

474 Holmes was a jerk but in a way that was still noble and likable, and no writer since has gotten that right. The modern TV and movie attempts get him all wrong and are sometimes painful to watch them try. They either treat him like some kind of autistic genius or just flat cruel.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

Exactly. He was successful in his area, others thought highly of him, he was well-placed in his society, and he was doing important work in a field he had made his own. He was not a loser, in today's parlance.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:39 AM (rpbg1)

475 Heh. I hope the Wachowski Bros. are irked by the co-opting of the term "red-pilled".
Posted by: Captain Obvious,

it's SISTERS!!! they screeched

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:39 AM (nUhF0)

476 What made Holmes likable was that he would apologize to Watson at times for being a jerk to him, and he was always incredibly patient and sympathetic to the weakest and most helpless. He had no patience whatsoever with lies, elites, and bores, but he was incredibly kind to a client in real need. And he was wonderful with those street kids

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:40 AM (KZzsI)

477 it's SISTERS!!! they screeched
Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:39 AM (nUhF0)
-----
How many legs would a dog have if you call a tail a leg?

/Lincoln

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:41 AM (Uhu8A)

478 What made Holmes likable was that he would apologize to Watson at times for being a jerk to him, and he was always incredibly patient and sympathetic to the weakest and most helpless. He had no patience whatsoever with lies, elites, and bores, but he was incredibly kind to a client in real need. And he was wonderful with those street kids

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

Perfectly said.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:41 AM (rpbg1)

479 I assume because Covid allegedly causes disruption of blood flow that it allegedly would also target your junk.

Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:38 AM (2DOZq)

The mechanism for that is not obvious. If that were happening, why would other areas of the body not be affected. I haven't heard of any gangrene from disrupted blood flow to arms or legs (or even fingers or toes).

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:41 AM (946rW)

480 Actual books read recently:

Skinwalker Ranch. I quit about chapter 5 when it confirmed that it was going to be aliens. That's when I realized that I'm more likely to believe in werewolves than aliens.

Five Nights at Freddy's. Book 1.

Currently reading: Vampire Earth series and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Posted by: katya the designated driver at December 06, 2020 11:42 AM (TqblR)

481 I thought Retief is what NGU did to his patients.
Posted by: JT

LOL

Posted by: squeakywheel at December 06, 2020 11:42 AM (zT8DA)

482 The lady above looks like Maureen O'Hara. Her body language says the man is her son.

Posted by: katya the designated driver at December 06, 2020 11:42 AM (TqblR)

483 What made Holmes likable was that he would apologize to Watson at times for being a jerk to him, and he was always incredibly patient and sympathetic to the weakest and most helpless. He had no patience whatsoever with lies, elites, and bores, but he was incredibly kind to a client in real need. And he was wonderful with those street kids
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:40 AM (KZzsI)
-----
The Granada series from the 80s is still the best screen depiction of Holmes.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:42 AM (Uhu8A)

484 AW actually me as well, read up to this book and of course saw all the Sean Bean series. But going to continue with the flawed hero

Posted by: Skip at December 06, 2020 11:43 AM (9sWOw)

485 Anybody read The Confidence-Man by Melville? It's a really strange comedy like watching a Jim Jarmusch movie and all the characters are played by that irritating fuck Crispin Glover.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:44 AM (y7DUB)

486 The mechanism for that is not obvious. If that were happening, why would
other areas of the body not be affected. I haven't heard of any
gangrene from disrupted blood flow to arms or legs (or even fingers or
toes).

COVID hates masks and penises and sleeps until 10:00 PM Pacific.

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at December 06, 2020 11:44 AM (3P/5p)

487 Piers Morgan is Trump's friend from Apprentuce days, and I guess it's a real friendship
probably his loyalty red pilled him
Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone

Piers Morgan has written Daily Mail articles about Trump that were nastier than anything I've seen.

Posted by: squeakywheel at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (zT8DA)

488 I have to give Rex Stout credit for recognizing that the FBI was utterly corrupt in The Doorbell Rang, published all the way back in 1965.
Posted by: cool breeze at December 06, 2020

*
*

Stout was on the FBI's enemies list as far back as the '40s, I think. He wasn't a Communist, but anybody who disagreed with Hoover and his methods became an enemy. I think the book The FBI Nobody Knows that Stout mentions in Doorbell is real.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (rpbg1)

In three separate books, on three separate famous incidents, the authors are not specifically focused on the FBI, but in each they come off looking corrupt and/or incompetent.

First was the hard to find, and "discredited" book on the JFK assassination, Mortal Terror, in which the author says the fatal shot was accidentally fired by the SS agent in the car behind.

Now, the theory may be bunk, but the very real problem is that the FBI blew the ballistic tests, and you'll never guess what happened subsequently... all the tests are lost! Along with the fragments and such. I hate it when that happens.

The other books are Flight 800, Jack Cashill's extensive work on that bullshit story, with the FBI joining the CIA in faking/covering up what really happened.

The third is the one I'm currently reading A Lie Too Big To Fail, by Lisa Pease, on the RFK assassination. In this one, I'd almost say the FBI is just their typical incompetent self, I'm not sure how thoroughly they're involved in the cover up.

So... that's my report on the FBI. Three major investigations, absolute, complete failure as an investigative entity, intentional or unintentional.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (hku12)

489 The Granada series from the 80s is still the best screen depiction of Holmes.

Yeah. Brilliant, and both Watsons were perfect as well. Nobody has ever done it better before or since. It made me genuinely sad and depressed when Jeremy Brett died. He was so good in that role, it was like he was born for it. Him and David Suchet as Poirot.

They both got the characters and setting so right that I could even forgive the changes they made to some of the stories (and in fact, sometimes the changes were actually better storytelling).

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (KZzsI)

490 374 127 Has anyone experienced 'throw' books?

There's a reason my cell phone (which I use to read kindle books) has a sturdy otterbox case.

The last one in paper was supposed to be an in-depth examination of how the black death affected the cultures of medieval Europe. I made it about ten pages in, and then hit the author talking about how the plague struck bourgesie and proletariat alike.... once I read "seize the means of production", well, it made a satisfying thump as it impacted the wall. And then I tossed it in the trash and emptied coffee grounds all over it, to make sure no one else would be reading that stupidity.

Marx has a lot to answer for, and one of those is so thoroughly contaminating historians that they can't actually let go of their ridiculous worldview in order to understand any other worldview or culture.

Posted by: Not From Around Here at December 06, 2020 11:09 AM (wrzAm)
_________

Another I just unpacked, which went straight to bedside, is Peter Laslett's The World We Have Lost. It's about 17th C England. One thing he does is flat out reject the very idea of class conflict as mattering in that era. He goes even farther than Hexter (a favorite I'm mentioned before).

He actually has a chapter about there being only one class that can be so named, the gentry and above. There were divisions of status, but within it, and below it, but there was nothing remotely resembling the Marxist model of conflict as battles between classed defined by the means of production.

He's right, of course. That is a model that has been spoon-fed to us so long we take it for granted. But it needs questioning. A month or so ago I cited a set of Marxist essays on the "shift from feudalism to capitalism" in which, for all practical purposes, the editor admits Marx's definition of "feudal" is unhistorical and lacking in rigor. (But we see it all about. I've gotten tired of calling that out.)

The battles were over ideas, political and religious - something Marx thought illusory - and NOT essentially economic. And largely within one class.

It really is hard to extirpate the influence of ideas which is in the very air we breathe.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (7X3UV)

491 Ahoy bookfagz!

I could use another MoMe...

Posted by: Insomniac at December 06, 2020 11:46 AM (nakwk)

492 -----
The Granada series from the 80s is still the best screen depiction of Holmes.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020

*
*

The series with Jeremy Brett? Absolutely. His characterization was superb. I recall a moment when Holmes has pronounced a deduction and has been proved right, and the astonished client remarks, "Brilliant, Mr. Holmes!" And Brett, his back to the character but facing the camera, allows Holmes the briefest smile at the compliment before wiping it away and proceeding.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:46 AM (rpbg1)

493 The M*A*S*H comedy novels used footnotes -- sometimes footnotes to previous footnotes -- and they were hilarious.

The writer really had it in for the TV scripters who killed Henry Blake. (In the books, he's still around.)

Posted by: Weak Geek at December 06, 2020 11:47 AM (sBV5A)

494 Wait, we're supposed to be surprised that being sick for a couple of weeks, worrying you might die, and spending time getting your strength back can have a negative effect on your sex life?

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 11:47 AM (QZxDR)

495 Anybody read The Confidence-Man by Melville?
It's a really strange comedy like watching a Jim Jarmusch movie and all
the characters are played by that irritating fuck Crispin Glover.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:44 AM (y7DUB)

Oh my goodness! Crispen Glover as Bartleby the Scrivener, too!

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:47 AM (946rW)

496 410 What do you guys think of Nelson DeMille ? I've read The Charm School which was pretty good and for some reason I never pick up another of his books.
Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:20 AM (2DOZq)

My opinion is that Nelson DeMille is one of the greatest living authors.

The Gold Coast, the Gatehouse, the Generals Daughter, WildFire, Night Fall, Plum Island, etc are very good.

However, some of his books are too disturbing for me and Spencerville is awful.

Posted by: Ladyl at December 06, 2020 11:48 AM (TdMsT)

497 And Brett, his back to the character but facing the camera, allows Holmes the briefest smile at the compliment before wiping it away and proceeding.

Yeah he was very subtle and just right in every scene. Brett was a master at his craft, it makes me want to see him in other stuff.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:48 AM (KZzsI)

498 I, too, love Moby Dick. Like Captain Obvious I suspect it's because I never had to read it in school. I remember having to read Great Expectations for a junior high english class and I haven't been able to read Dickens since. The first time I read Moby Dick, I had gone to the bookstore to get Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow (a hot best seller at the time), but was too cheap to pay the asking price and when I saw a paperback Moby Dick on the shelf for 50 cents, I thought "well, this is supposed to be a classic and its really cheap". I've read it at least 6 more times since then and every time it's great.

Posted by: Who knew at December 06, 2020 11:48 AM (SfO/T)

499 Piers Morgan has written Daily Mail articles about Trump that were nastier than anything I've seen.
Posted by: squeakywheel at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (zT8DA)

I guess I'm wrong then
*shrug*

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 11:49 AM (nUhF0)

500 COVID hates masks and penises and sleeps until 10:00 PM Pacific.

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at December 06, 2020 11:44 AM (3P/5p)

According to the CDC, teh covids hate loud music too.

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:49 AM (946rW)

501 Whatever else you do, if you catch the COVIDz do not read Mopey Dick.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:50 AM (m45I2)

502 Yes, Jeremy Brett IS and always will be Sherlock Holmes. Well, maybe Basil Rathbone, too.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 11:50 AM (QZxDR)

503 The lady above looks like Maureen O'Hara. Her body language says the man is her son.
Posted by: katya the designated driver at December 06, 2020 11:42 AM (TqblR)

They may have been identified above, I don't know, I'm physically incapable of scrolling up, but he's got the look of someone who we'd all recognize if we saw photos of him as his older self.

She has, hate to say, that hard look to her that to me says she's not actually into men, but has to fake it to make it.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 06, 2020 11:50 AM (hku12)

504 And Brett, his back to the character but facing the camera, allows Holmes the briefest smile at the compliment before wiping it away and proceeding.

Yeah he was very subtle and just right in every scene. Brett was a master at his craft, it makes me want to see him in other stuff.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

You know he played the Hon. Freddy, the young man enamored of the now-upper-class Eliza Doolittle, in the movie of My Fair Lady? He sings (or lip-syncs) "On the Street Where You Live."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:50 AM (rpbg1)

505 Wait, we're supposed to be surprised that being sick for a couple of weeks, worrying you might die, and spending time getting your strength back can have a negative effect on your sex life?

The most important thing in the universe to the soulless elite is sex. Their entire being revolves around it. Even getting rich is just a way to have more and better sex. This hits them right at their core.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:51 AM (KZzsI)

506 Welp. Lesson learned.
Do not try to read the book thread On an iPhone while sipping hot coffee and balancing a slice of toast over ladened with blueberry jam.

Posted by: Diogenes at December 06, 2020 11:51 AM (axyOa)

507 They both got the characters and setting so right that I could even forgive the changes they made to some of the stories (and in fact, sometimes the changes were actually better storytelling).
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (KZzsI)
----
Sadly, the writing went off the rails after the fourth series and they had mined the best of the stories. And in the final series, poor Jeremy Brett was so obviously ill that it was impossible for me to watch.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:51 AM (Uhu8A)

508
John Garfield and Faye Emerson from Btwn 2 worlds
Posted by: REDACTED at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (MIsHM)

You are correct, sir!

Don't know the connection, but your ID is correct.
Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse

An interesting movie. I've seen it on TCM a couple of times.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0036641

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 06, 2020 11:52 AM (63Dwl)

509 You know he played the Hon. Freddy, the young man enamored of the now-upper-class Eliza Doolittle, in the movie of My Fair Lady?

No I did not, and now I have to watch that again. I haven't actually watched all those old great musicals for ages. There's a run of them that are just hilarious and wonderful like The Music Man.

Robert Preston should have gotten more and better work, the man was a huge screen presence.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:53 AM (KZzsI)

510 Wait, we're supposed to be surprised that being sick for a couple of weeks, worrying you might die, and spending time getting your strength back can have a negative effect on your sex life?

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 11:47 AM (QZxDR)

You don't even have to get sick for a couple weeks. I'm sure when we look back on this time we'll find that things like "love" and other forms of human interaction have taken a severe nosedive.

You can't do this to people this long and not cause profound, if not permanent damage.

We shall see. How many babies are born in the coming months will be a good indicator.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 06, 2020 11:53 AM (hku12)

511 Count me as a Moby-Dick fan, as well. And I think it's significant that I somehow avoided having it as assigned reading in high school or college. I picked it up as an adult and enjoyed the hell out of it.

For one thing, it's _funny_. A lot of the book is just Herman's slightly-skewed observations of human behavior among a ship's crew.

It also has some absolutely gonzo elements. Ahab has a secret Arab boat crew he keeps hidden in the hold for six months. Nobody seems to think that's odd.

Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 11:53 AM (QZxDR)

512 If you like Moby Dick try In The Heart Of The Sea.

Posted by: JackStraw at December 06, 2020 11:54 AM (ZLI7S)

513 Re sidebar, WTF could John Brennan have to say that's newsworthy?

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 06, 2020 11:55 AM (RIsF5)

514 Another I just unpacked, which went straight to
bedside, is Peter Laslett's The World We Have Lost. It's about 17th C
England. One thing he does is flat out reject the very idea of class
conflict as mattering in that era. He goes even farther than Hexter (a
favorite I'm mentioned before).Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:45 AM (7X3UV)

Thanks, Eeyore! I hadn't seen that one, but you're keeping up the grand tradition of me not making it through the weekly thread without buying at least one new book!

Posted by: Not From Around Here at December 06, 2020 11:55 AM (wrzAm)

515 438 You want boring technical detail in a book read Moby Dick.
Posted by: Mr. Meeseeks, Look at me at December 06, 2020 11:14 AM (2DOZq)
-----
I thought it was fascinating, but I guess that's just me.

I also came to the book as a mature adult. I may not have felt the same way had I been compelled to read it in high school.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (Uhu8A)

It's not just you. Tastes are subjective and there's no *right* answer but there's a reason it's considered a classic. But it's not an easy read.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:27 AM (y7DUB)
________

I loved as a child, precisely for the technical parts. The symbolism went right over my head. But then, I have a life-long fascination with ships and the sea. The "fold outs" I was fascinated with, of my father's, weren't Playboys (that came later), but the plans in Chappelle's History of the American Sailing Navy.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:55 AM (7X3UV)

516 John Garfield and Faye Emerson from Btwn 2 worlds
Posted by: REDACTED at December 06, 2020 09:08 AM (MIsHM)

You are correct, sir!

Don't know the connection, but your ID is correct.
Posted by: President-Elect OregonMuse

An interesting movie. I've seen it on TCM a couple of times.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0036641
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at December 06, 2020

*
*

A rare example of Hollywood doing fantasy back then. There were others, It's a Wonderful Life and Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but generally fantasy seemed to be a hard sell to audiences. (Not counting the Universal monster films, and they had lost audience share a while before.) Still, you could find a fantasy film before a good SF movie. That had to wait until Forbidden Planet in '56.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:55 AM (rpbg1)

517 Well, the other thing is that Covid seems to effect the elderly more than others. Old men and dick problems aren't exactly perfect strangers.

Posted by: bob dole eating viagra by the handful while elizabeth looks on in horror at December 06, 2020 11:56 AM (H5knJ)

518 Yeah he was very subtle and just right in every scene. Brett was a master at his craft, it makes me want to see him in other stuff.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:48 AM (KZzsI)
-----
One of my favorite scenes is from the end of "The Six Napoleons" where Lestrade sincerely tells Holmes just how much they respect him at the Yard, and Holmes is so deeply moved that he's nearly speechless. Perfectly played by both actors.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at December 06, 2020 11:56 AM (Uhu8A)

519 Watched 1917 last night. It wasn't really what I expected, but I enjoyed it.

Posted by: Old Blue - Deplorable Trump Chump at December 06, 2020 11:56 AM (VNmG1)

520 My dad used to tool around the skies over Anzio in a Stinson L-5. After the liberation of Rome he quite literally buzzed the Pope, flying right over St. Peter's Square and seeing it packed elbow to elbow with people.
Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 11:18 AM (m45I2)

But, but, but...what about COVID???

Posted by: Insomniac at December 06, 2020 11:57 AM (nakwk)

521 Uh oh. Ted Cruz is in trouble again. He's managed to anger such towering intellects as Keith Olbermann and John Cleese.

https://bit.ly/3mP4Jnu

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:57 AM (+y/Ru)

522 I just wanted to say thank you to whomever recommended Terror to read. Currently listening to it on audible and it is a super well written book.
Posted by: thathalfrican - The One at December 06, 2020 09:28 AM

Late to the thread -- I was one of those. Well-researched novel. I had Google Earth open on the tablet while I was reading it.

Posted by: Taqiyyologist (bofa/deez) at December 06, 2020 11:57 AM (OssQ4)

523 A lot of the book is just Herman's slightly-skewed observations of human behavior among a ship's crew.

It also has some absolutely gonzo elements. Ahab has a secret Arab boat crew he keeps hidden in the hold for six months. Nobody seems to think that's odd.
Posted by: Trimegistus at December 06, 2020 11:53 AM (QZxDR)

One of Dylan's earliest and funniest songs played off on those types of things.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:57 AM (y7DUB)

524 It's not just you. Tastes are subjective and there's no *right* answer but there's a reason it's considered a classic. But it's not an easy read.
Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:27 AM (y7DUB)

I didn't make fifty pages. But, like you say, taste. Plenty of people did indeed love it. No right or wrong answers if an individual does or does not like it.

Posted by: Endeavor To Persevere at December 06, 2020 11:58 AM (SCvwT)

525 Re sidebar, WTF could John Brennan have to say that's newsworthy?

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 06, 2020 11:55 AM (RIsF5)

I am sure it is more "REEE, REEE, REEEEEE... Trump must be removed by military coup RIGHT NOW!!?!" talk.

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:58 AM (946rW)

526 Uh oh. Ted Cruz is in trouble again. He's managed to anger such towering intellects as Keith Olbermann and John Cleese.

And none of those people whining about hunting have a single care for unborn children.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 06, 2020 11:58 AM (RIsF5)

527 We shall see. How many babies are born in the coming months will be a good indicator.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 06, 2020 11:53 AM (hku12)

Well there will be at least one born, as I have another grandson on the way.

Posted by: clutch at December 06, 2020 11:59 AM (9UmRs)

528 Its cool that they finally found the last shipwreck, either Erebus or Terror (can't remember) a year or two AFTER this book was published.

Posted by: Taqiyyologist (bofa/deez) at December 06, 2020 11:59 AM (OssQ4)

529 470 Holmes was a jerk but in a way that was still noble and likable, and no writer since has gotten that right. The modern TV and movie attempts get him all wrong and are sometimes painful to watch them try. They either treat him like some kind of autistic genius or just flat cruel.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 11:37 AM (KZzsI)
_________

I agree. I've never been high on ANY filmed Holmes. But I suspect that Leslie Howard might have pulled it off, from his performance in Pygmalion.

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 11:59 AM (7X3UV)

530
Well there will be at least one born, as I have another grandson on the way.
Posted by: clutch at December 06, 2020 11:59 AM (9UmRs)

So do I!

Posted by: Ladyl at December 06, 2020 12:00 PM (TdMsT)

531 Nood, in case nobody else called it

Posted by: PabloD isn't in a reconciliatory mood at December 06, 2020 12:00 PM (/LWj7)

532 COVID is merely the current universal boogeyman. Low IQ "writers" can puke out an article about any darn topic they choose and if they add a COVID hook it's a keeper.

e.g. We saw an article the other day about a doc I know, who is the only acute care doc in a small rural town in far eastern Colorado. The article led with scare quotes along the lines of "The Devastating Impact of COVID on rural health care".

Long story short, the guy got COVID and drove himself to Denver where he was hospitalized for a week or so. During his absence the local hospital had to hire a temp (locum tenems) to fill in for him.They ended up bringinng a doc from (gasp) Dallas, a 10 hour drive from this town. Some of the townspeople even had to go forty miles to the next nearest town with a hospital for routine care.

The entire story would have been absolutely no different if the doc had developed appendicitis. But since it was COVID that somehow made it newsworthy.

Maldistribution of health care services in rural areas predated COVID and will still be an issue when COVID is long gone.

Posted by: Muldoon at December 06, 2020 12:01 PM (m45I2)

533 what if viagra cures covid

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 12:01 PM (nUhF0)

534 NOOD

Posted by: Skip, the guy who says NOOD at December 06, 2020 12:01 PM (9sWOw)

535 what if viagra cures covid

Posted by: vmom Mobile Autonomous Zone at December 06, 2020 12:01 PM (nUhF0)

It would be hard not to laugh...

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at December 06, 2020 12:02 PM (xT2tT)

536 All your boners are belong to us!

Posted by: Wi Tu Lo and Sum Ting Wong at December 06, 2020 12:03 PM (W4eKo)

537 Anybody read The Confidence-Man by Melville?
It's a really strange comedy like watching a Jim Jarmusch movie and all
the characters are played by that irritating fuck Crispin Glover.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 11:44 AM (y7DUB)

Oh my goodness! Crispen Glover as Bartleby the Scrivener, too!
Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 11:47 AM (946rW)

There's a story out there, that Crispen Glover was partially black-listed in Hollowwood, because he had the nerve to complain while shooting the first Back To the Future movie, that movie producers were using the beds on the set for their nefarious activities.

I think the story goes, that Glover had been molested when he was younger and just starting out in the business, and he didn't want to see it happen to other kids.

I say partially black listed because, while there's a faction in Hollowwood that wouldn't touch him after that (including for the sequels), there were others in Hollowwood who appreciated his willingness to speak up.

Posted by: BurtTC at December 06, 2020 12:03 PM (hku12)

538 Haven't seen Juliet E. McKenna's 'Tales of Einarinn' or it's offshoots mentioned here so I thought I'd put in a plug. Well-written, if with a slightly modern sensibility, fantasy set in a nicely realised world. Nothing particularly profound about the stories (5 books in the initial series) but an enjoyable way to spend some time.

I'd also mention her 'Green Man' series, 3 book (to date) of contemporary fiction, also nicely done.

Under the pen name J. M. Alvey you can find her Philocles of Athens mysteries. I'm not enough of a scholar to judge the accuracy of her depiction of Classical Athens but it seems accurate.

Posted by: aelfheld at December 06, 2020 12:03 PM (Zy9Yy)

539 Someone in publishing (an editor iirc) said Brown wrote airport books: something you could pick up during a layover that would see you through the delay and you can abandon it in the hotel.
Posted by: NaughtyPine at December 06, 2020 10:34 AM (/+bwe)
---

That must be the saddest collection ever: Books Abandoned in Hotels and Airports.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 12:04 PM (Dc2NZ)

540 And none of those people whining about hunting have a single care for unborn children.
Posted by: Mr. Peebles at December 06, 2020 11:58 AM (RIsF5)

Of course not. When their intended victim is trapped in the womb, its not exactly hunting. There's no sport in packing a Remington 700 into a petting zoo.

Posted by: Endeavor To Persevere at December 06, 2020 12:04 PM (SCvwT)

541 504 And Brett, his back to the character but facing the camera, allows Holmes the briefest smile at the compliment before wiping it away and proceeding.

Yeah he was very subtle and just right in every scene. Brett was a master at his craft, it makes me want to see him in other stuff.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020

*
*

You know he played the Hon. Freddy, the young man enamored of the now-upper-class Eliza Doolittle, in the movie of My Fair Lady? He sings (or lip-syncs) "On the Street Where You Live."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at December 06, 2020 11:50 AM (rpbg1)
_________

Yes. Parallel with Hugh Laurie being both Bertie Wooster and House.

But I'm off the island on Brett. I never could buy him as Holmes. Lacked Holmes's light touch; it all seemed forced. And they went overboard with Watson, going away from the Nigel Bruce error to making him smarter than he was in the books. I never did see the virtue in that series.

(On the same line, I'm completely left cold by the Frye-Laurie Jeeves series. It's not Wodehouse.)

Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 12:05 PM (7X3UV)

542 Addendum: That would be a beautifully bleak coffee table book of photographs (black and white, of course).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 12:05 PM (Dc2NZ)

543 Uh oh. Ted Cruz is in trouble again. He's managed to anger such towering intellects as Keith Olbermann and John Cleese.

https://bit.ly/3mP4Jnu

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 11:57 AM (+y/Ru)

I am sad that John Cleese==Keith Olbermann

Posted by: redbanzai the Southerner at December 06, 2020 12:05 PM (946rW)

544 "That must be the saddest collection ever: Books Abandoned in Hotels and Airports."

Actually some of the most enjoyable reads I've ever had have come from the community room of resorts and such. People leave hardbacks, magazines, all kinds of books.

Posted by: attila the irritable at December 06, 2020 12:06 PM (w7KSn)

545 A rare example of Hollywood doing fantasy back then.

-
Hollywood fantasy today is progressive solutions work.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at December 06, 2020 12:11 PM (+y/Ru)

546 I think the story goes, that Glover had been molested when he was younger and just starting out in the business, and he didn't want to see it happen to other kids.

I say partially black listed because, while there's a faction in Hollowwood that wouldn't touch him after that (including for the sequels), there were others in Hollowwood who appreciated his willingness to speak up.
Posted by: BurtTC at December 06, 2020 12:03 PM (hku12)

Welp that explains, at least in part, why he's such an odd duck. I remember when he aimed a kick at Letterperv which subsequent events cause me to view differently.

Posted by: Captain Hate at December 06, 2020 12:15 PM (y7DUB)

547 There was a recommendation by Dr Mabuse for author Norman Collins ("London Belongs To Me"). There are a lot of books by him on internet archive (archive.org).

Posted by: microcosme at December 06, 2020 12:15 PM (uNa1R)

548 319 @310
The main time I see footnotes in fiction is in historical fiction, when the author makes a note at the end to explain what liberties he or she has taken with actual dates and facts.
Posted by: artemis at December 06, 2020 10:53 AM (AwPyG

IIRC, For Us,The Living" has long footnotes on RAH's then fascination with Social Credit type economic systems.

Posted by: Worf at December 06, 2020 12:19 PM (qyH+l)

549 Low IQ "writers" can puke out an article about any darn topic they choose

YAY!

Posted by: deplorable unperson - refuse to accept the Mask of the Beast at December 06, 2020 12:20 PM (3P/5p)

550 (On the same line, I'm completely left cold by the Frye-Laurie Jeeves series. It's not Wodehouse.)
Posted by: Eeyore at December 06, 2020 12:05 PM (7X3UV)

Really,

I loved that series!

Especially Fyre as Jeeves.

Posted by: browndog at December 06, 2020 12:27 PM (BgMrQ)

551 Best use of footnotes is, of course, "Bored of the Rings".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at December 06, 2020 12:34 PM (Dc2NZ)

552 I like the Sharpes books and Cornwell as an author but everything he put out in order of writing after Waterloo is just not up to quality. One gets the sense he knocks these things out to pay the bills between his preferred projects.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 10:39 AM (KZzsI)

The Adventures that Sharpe had in India were interesting and pretty good, He did change that Sharpe became a Lieutenant in India.

I know the novels really starts with Sharpe's Rifles Fellows here on the Book Thread said I should start at the so called first book.

If you have an Audible account several of the Sharpe Novels are included with your subscription.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at December 06, 2020 12:45 PM (dKiJG)

553 Damn. Missed it entirely.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at December 06, 2020 02:08 PM (qDSku)

554

The new social contract to replace Consent of the Governed:
In exchange for total power, the new Progressive tyranny promises to take away our remaining rights only slowly at first and to eat the useful idiots last.

Posted by: cold civil war at December 06, 2020 02:38 PM (Z2PYk)

555 The thing about the Jeeves series is that one misses all the inner thoughts of Bertie Wooster. That's what makes the books so hilarious.

Posted by: microcosme at December 06, 2020 02:53 PM (uNa1R)

556 The problem with POSH being London NY is that the word is English. Port out would be the sunny side. Better possibility that I grew up with was England-India, with something to look at the whole trip.

Posted by: Heresolong at December 06, 2020 07:09 PM (spsWF)

557 The Adventures that Sharpe had in India were interesting and pretty good, He did change that Sharpe became a Lieutenant in India.

Yeah the three prequel books in India are brilliant, and you're right, those are written after Waterloo. Anything after those though, he didn't have really enough content or reason to write Sharpe into history and they come across as weak or forced.

Sharpe's Trafalgar he's just a passenger most of the book. Sharpe's Prey he's wandering around in Holland confused. Sharpe's Havoc he's mostly a spectator. Because the Rifles weren't involved in any of this crap really. They all go on like that.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor, Best-selling author-elect at December 06, 2020 07:56 PM (KZzsI)

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