Sunday Morning Book Thread - 08-07-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (sanity pills not included). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than the Haribo Sugar-Free Gummi Bears reviews on Amazon (ht: Ciampino - watch this video...you won't regret it!). As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, have a second scoop of ice cream with that birthday cake, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

A few months ago (4-24-2022), I featured Baldwin's Book Barn as the library pic. Moronette vmom shared a picture of an interesting book purchased from said bookstore:

Hi Perfesser,
I want to share a book I found at Baldwin's Book Barn. They have a lot of really old books but I was charmed by this one.
It's Little Arthur's History of England by Lady Calcott, a new edition published in 1888.
I think it was meant to be a homeschool resource for mothers. I can just imagine a mom reading it to her young son by lamplight.
I imagine there are a lot of copies and editions of this floating around, as it was not expensive ($15)
vmom

If you have any pictures of interesting books, please send them to me! I'd love to showcase them as pics (either as the opening picture or as a section within the blog post).

++++++++++

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TITLE?

We had an interesting conversation in the comments last week about book titles. OrangeEnt posted the following:

So, coming near the end of a writing attempt, how does one think of a title?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 31, 2022 10:09 AM (7bRMQ)

A.H. Lloyd chimed in as well, seeking feedback from the Moron Horde about a good title for his Chinese-themed book that he's currently writing.

I've crested 80,000 words and expect to finish the first draft...today? Really close to the end.
At this point, the need for a title is not something I can continue to put off. Here's what I'm looking at. All have the same subtitle "A military history of China 2500 BC to 2020 AD."
Eternal Empire (or China's Eternal Empire)
Tigers and Dragons
Tigers, Dragons and Maoists
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 31, 2022 09:36 AM (llXky)

Naturally, the Moron Horde was up to the challenge, providing a number of suggestions. But this little exercise got me thinking. What makes a good title? How much are readers attracted to a book based on its title? I was attending an online conference this week and I selected all of the presentations I attended based solely on the title alone, though I did read the abstracts as well. But it was the title of each presentation that piqued my curiosity. This is something that I myself have to figure out on occasion as I also present at conferences from time to time. Titles matter.

What are some considerations for a good title?

Do you go with a single word or a phrase? (EX: Metrics v. At the Gates of Rome)

How well does your title fit within the context of the story you are attempting to tell? (EX: ALAMO, which features a "last stand" scenario for human colonists on outlying worlds)

Is your title based on a major theme in the story? (EX: Devil You Know Better, an anthology of stories where the characters make deals with the Devil)

Does the title refer to the main character in some way? (EX: The Dragon Reborn, which refers directly to the Chosen One of The Wheel of Time)

Is a subtitle appropriate? (This tends to be more common in nonfiction than fiction, I think) (EX: How to Run a Marathon in 13 Years: How Hard would You Fight for Your Dreams?)

Are you writing a series of books that use a common motif in each title? (EX: The Case Lee series, in which the title of each book features a location central to the plot: The Texas Job, The DC Job, The Carribbean Job, etc.)

Or do you have some combination of factors that make the title significant and engaging for the reader?

Right now, I'm reading Stalkers, an anthology of horror stories where each story features the idea of "stalking" in some way. Why "stalkers" instead of "followers?" Probably because "stalker" has a much more sinister connotation. It evokes the idea of a serial killer going after prey in a methodical, meticulous manner without being detected, striking from the dark when the prey least expects it. Some of the stories are told from the point of view of the stalker and some from the point of view of the stalkee and some have both.

What are some of YOUR favorite titles? And why?

++++++++++

WHO DIS

CLUE 1 - He was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri and loved growing up there.

CLUE 2 - He was buried in Somerset, England, where a plaque commemorates him with the phrase, "In my beginning is my end. In my end is my beginning."

CLUE 3 - He wrote a book of light poetry, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats which served as the inspiration for a play by Andrew Lloyd Weber.

++++++++++

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I'm currently reading a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, Trigger Warning. It has no "theme," he admits, but that's fine. He is very good: a short story about an "uninventor" that would have made a fine Twilight Zone, another about the elderly Sherlock Holmes raising bees in 1920s China, and a Doctor Who story about the beginning of Time.
If you have not read The Graveyard Book, see to it smartly. It is one of those ultra-rare books where you want to go back and reread it after you finish!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at July 31, 2022 09:15 AM (c6xtn)

Comment: Neil Gaiman is always a very fun read. He's skilled enough to defy most genres and just write interesting stories. Many of his stories fall into the category of "speculative fiction," which is a pretty broad term that can encompass both science fiction and fantasy as well as numerous related genres, such as magical realism. His Sandman graphic novel character is being adapted into a television show, but I'm somewhat skeptical that it will be any good. I didn't care much for the adaptation for Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

+++++

I found a hardcover copy of Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum for $5 at San Diego Comic-Con several years ago. At the time that was an incredible price for that book. As I was browsing the rest of the stall, an announcement came over the loudspeakers that Morrison was signing books on the mezzanine.
I don't normally go for signings, but that seemed too serendipitous to pass up. So I quickly paid for my book and headed upstairs, got it signed, and went back to finish browsing that seller's table.
I could not find him. It was as if that vendor no longer existed.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 31, 2022 09:37 AM (olroh)

Comment: Cue X-Files theme music...Maybe the seller was there just to sell you that specific copy of that specific book. Have you gone on any exciting adventures? Possibly involving a rundown asylum for the criminally insane? That once housed a lunatic clown?

+++++

Your book questions always call up good memories, Perfessor. In my case, T.S. Eliot's Book of Practical Cats. I first came across Macavity in high school and since I'm 29, had never heard of Cats--and apparently neither had anyone else, because I couldn't find a copy of the full book. It came up in conversation with a boyfriend, who was on his way to England for the summer. He scoured the bookshops there, and found a copy--tiny, no pictures, not much more than a pamphlet--and sent it to me, with his own observations of each poem at the bottom of each page.
Posted by: Wenda at July 31, 2022 10:22 AM (gPRZb)

Comment: That's a pretty neat little story. I think the only poems I've read by T.S. Eliot are "The Waste Land" and "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock." I vaguely remember that the play Cats is also based on his poetry, but I have never seen it.

+++++

I read Normandy 44 and the Battle for France by James Holland. Holland focused not just on the front lines, but on the logistics and supply lines, which is something I never thought about that much. His descriptions of how quickly the Allies were able to move fresh troops, supplies, etc. to the front compared to the Germans, who by 44 were short of everything - men, oil, equipment etc. was interesting. Holland notes that while the Germans were rolling lots of new planes off the assembly lines (made with slave labor), they had lost so many well-trained pilots that the guys flying them were novices compared to the US Air Force and RAF. Most of those planes were bombed by the Allies before they ever took off and many of the rest didn't have gas to fly them. Holland said Hitler stupidly focused on things like the V-1 and V-2 bombers, which killed civilians but not one single combat troop.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at July 31, 2022 11:04 AM (HabA/)

Comment: There's a saying in war, "Amateurs discuss strategy and tactics. Professionals discuss logistics." That is one of the strengths of the American military doctrine, the ability to move men and materials anywhere they are needed around the world on very short notice. I know a young man who joined the Army right after he graduated from college (he was in ROTC) and is now involved in logistical engineering. Another common saying is, "An army moves on its stomach." If you can't keep your troops fed, you'll have a much more difficult time achieving victory. Hungry soldiers are weak soldiers. Weak soldiers lose battles.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (340 Moron-recommended books so far!)

+-----+-----+-----+-----+
WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

The Impossible Cube by Steven Harper -- Slightly wokish, but not overly so. Still a decent story about steampunk run amok in the Victorian era (1850s).

Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan -- Book 10 in the Wheel of Time series. Probably the sloggiest of the books in the slog. Not much happens. The pacing should pick up considerably in the next book and then it's a nonstop race to the Last Battle for the final three books. I plan to finish the series in December.

Stalkers edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg -- An anthology of horror stories where each story features the idea of "stalking." Very creepy.

The Steel Breeze by Alistair Reynolds

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 07-31-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

("Huggy" Squirrel celebrates his 29th birthday today!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 07, 2022 08:59 AM (PiwSw)

2 ooh, and first!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 07, 2022 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

3 Who Dis is Thomas Stearns Elliot.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 07, 2022 09:01 AM (PiwSw)

4 correction: Eliot, with one l.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 07, 2022 09:01 AM (PiwSw)

5 Tolle Lege
Pondering a ebook, Sufferings in Africa written by Capt James Riley captured by Muslims but haven't ordered it yet.

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2022 09:02 AM (k8B25)

6 Pic is TS Eliot.

Posted by: Dr. Varno at August 07, 2022 09:02 AM (vuisn)

7 T.S. Eliot !

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:02 AM (c6xtn)

8 Beheadings beheading and moar beheadings

Posted by: rhennigantx History of England at August 07, 2022 09:02 AM (BRHaw)

9 My book!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 09:03 AM (gbzeC)

10 Who Dis: T.S. Elliott. (sp?)

Cleansed the palate with another Perry Mason novel, "TCOT Shoplifter's Shoe." From the mid-1930s -- an era when men wore vests, department stores were common, and offices kept liquor and firearms on the premises. And cigarette smoking was ubiquitous.

About to begin "Cold Storage," courtesy of the library. This got recommended in last week's Book Thread, and I found it was already in my "read this" list. So much for my resolution this year to read only books that I own.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 09:04 AM (Om/di)

11 Greetings Bookists. Thanks Squirrel!

Reading: Some initial background stuff on the WWII China/Burma Theater. Tuchman, Stilwell, CMH Pubs, etc. Also Pacific, with focus on Okinawa & Kamikazes.

It might turn into a book... if a certain family lets me take a crack at it.

Any recommendations?

Posted by: goatexchange at August 07, 2022 09:04 AM (APPN8)

12 So, the neighbor who's moving let me rummage around the garage. Found a couple things, a vintage baseball bat and old camera stuff. I told her to sell them because you can get money. The bat I kept, because baseball bat to the head is a useful deterrent.

Got four books: Will Durant's Age of Faith, a book called Merlin, The Best American Short Stories of the Century edited by John Updike, and Fun Fare, they book I talked about a few threads ago. The Merlin book is from the Pendragon Cycle. I thought it was just a standalone book I was going to give my ten year old girl. Not sure if it's appropriate for her or not. She read King Arthur stuff in school last year.

Still boxes of books in the garage she said I could look through.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:05 AM (7bRMQ)

13 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:05 AM (7EjX1)

14 Eliot looks like a sour sort of man

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:06 AM (VuQO/)

15 Any Morons who use a subtitle like Thing: A Novel of Things ought to spend a night in the box.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 07, 2022 09:06 AM (llON8)

16 Dammit, I thought Eliot had only one "t," but I went with autocorrect's spelling.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 09:06 AM (Om/di)

17 I don't get it. Since when do pimps go to birthday parties?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 07, 2022 09:07 AM (EZebt)

18 Happy Birthday!

Posted by: davidt at August 07, 2022 09:07 AM (oTZbj)

19 I've been in a mood for poetry, partly for the subject matter (which can vary from ancient legends to the nature of the world to almost slapstick comedy) and partly to delight in such effective and creative use of language. And all written in the 20th century. The variety of styles, meter, rhyming, and inventiveness is like sharing in a huge feast of language. It's a delightful way to spend some hours.

- Chesterton's "Ballad of the White Horse" about Alfred the Great.
- Various poems by CS Lewis.
- Tolkien's Poems collected under "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" (Which aren't only about Tom or Middle-Earth). It includes "The Man In the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" which is Tolkien at his most playful and is absolutely hilarious.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:07 AM (7EjX1)

20 I didn't know Eliot was American-born! Huh. I've always thought of him as an English poet.

I'm in the home stretch of Ruth Rendell's 1998 A Sight for Sore Eyes. If you haven't encountered Rendell, be aware that, despite her alliterative name, she was not a romance novelist or an author of Had-I-But-Known "mysteries." Her series with Inspector Wexford of Kingsmarkham (in England) is well done, but for some reason I prefer her stand-alone stories. Each focuses on crime in some way, but is much richer and entertaining, written in a clear style. Her other writing persona is a Barbara Vine. Almost everything of hers I've read has (a) been entertaining and gripping, and (b) has taught me something about writing and revealing character through actions and dialogue.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:08 AM (c6xtn)

21 Reading Hammet's The Maltese Falcon. Nearly done.

Huston's script follows the book closely with some trimming. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet jump off the book's pages.

In the Before Times you could write unflattering gay characters but couldn't spell out Fuck You.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 09:08 AM (i0slg)

22 I read The Alloy of Law, the fourth book in the Mistborn series, by Brandon Sanderson. Set three hundred years into the future from the ending of book three, the Mistborn magic is still being used in the struggle between good and evil; but now there are electric lights in the home of the wealthy and train tracks run parallel to the canals. The final fight scene is exciting, suspenseful, and very well written.

Posted by: Zoltan at August 07, 2022 09:09 AM (wpMS0)

23 I've just downloaded a Vera Stanhope mystery, "The Glass Room" by Anne Cleeves. She's always a good reliable read. I loved the Vera series on Britbox. I wish they'd do another season, but from what I've read, the actress who plays Vera says her stamina is pretty much kaput.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:09 AM (45fpk)

24 hiya

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:09 AM (T4tVD)

25 Titles are advertising, just like covers are advertising. My opinion is that the title should:

1) fit the book. Do not mislead the reader, but give it a title that signals what's inside in some way.
2) be similar enough to other books in your chosen genre that it draws readers to your book. Don't title a suspense novel like you would a light novel, for example.

Whatever draws the readers in to get hooked on the story is pretty much fair game.

Posted by: unwenchable at August 07, 2022 09:09 AM (jqCfy)

26 Good Sunday morning, horde!

Thank you for a great book thread presentation, Perfesser, as always. I look forward to responses on how to name your books.

This week I've been reading The Thicket, by Joe R. Lansdale. Well, that one is my audio book this week. The reader is great, which is a plus. The characters are vivid, and the story pulls you in. My only complaint is that the main character is too stuck on not killin,' even when killin' is necessary. I think he's going to get over it, but I just want to shake some sense into that boy.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 09:09 AM (OX9vb)

27 Okay, I KNOW the pants guy doesn't own a weedwhacker. (If you catch my drift)

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:10 AM (T4tVD)

28 Part of my desire for poetry is in reaction to politicians and their equally disgusting allies in the media and to the self-absorbed imbeciles who try to drown the world in ambiguity. They do not use language to communicate facts or wonder or even to entertain.

They use it as a thug uses a club to subdue, terrify, and, possibly, destroy. From the outright lies of the politicians and news critters to the constantly shifting 'acceptable' words of their so important self-expression on social media, they subvert the use of words and their value. Satan in Hell could devise no more insidious and nihilistic means to destroy what is desirable and human.

The above paragraph doesn't even begin to express my hatred for these creatures and what they represent.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:10 AM (7EjX1)

29 It has been a while since I read a book. I need to get my cataracts fixed.

Posted by: Ciampino - tiring to read if you can't see well at August 07, 2022 09:11 AM (qfLjt)

30 I don't normally go for signings, but that seemed too serendipitous to pass up. So I quickly paid for my book and headed upstairs, got it signed, and went back to finish browsing that seller's table.

I could not find him. It was as if that vendor no longer existed.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 31, 2022 09:37 AM (olroh)

We sell forbidden tomes from places men fear to tread. We also sell comics.

Posted by: The Vendor at August 07, 2022 09:11 AM (yQpMk)

31 Pic is TS Eliot.
Posted by: Dr. Varno

Who punched him in the eye ?

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:11 AM (T4tVD)

32 Titles? You wanna talk titles? Ruth Rendell's A Demon in my View is one to grab a reader.

Ellery Queen in his/their first nine novels had a Nationality-Object name scheme: The Greek Coffin Mystery, the Roman Hat Mystery, the Spanish Cape Mystery. In keeping with the brilliance of the Golden Age of mysteries, the titles were not as simple as they appeared. The first I mention above was not about an Athenian sarcophagus, and the second takes place in the Roman Theatre and involves a top hat as a clue, not a chapeau worn by Cicero; etc.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:12 AM (c6xtn)

33 It has been a while since I read a book. I need to get my cataracts fixed.
Posted by: Ciampino - tiring to read if you can't see well

Could be worse; ya could have dogaracts.....

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:13 AM (T4tVD)

34 Another thing besides the title that influences my picking it off the shelves is the font they use on the cover. Currently there seem to be two popular choices: a modern narrow sans serif, and a scrawled tilted handwritten style. Both put me off. Authors: use a nice font, would you please? Don't try to be cute.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:13 AM (45fpk)

35 Tuesday, August 9th is National Book Lovers Day.

"Books are the purest form of escapism. They transport you to any time, place, or culture."

Posted by: redridinghood at August 07, 2022 09:14 AM (NpAcC)

36 Authors: use a nice font, would you please? Don't try to be cute.
Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:13 AM (45fpk)

And make it big enough, and one that contrasts with the background (i.e no black on dark red)

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 07, 2022 09:15 AM (PiwSw)

37 Happy birthday, Prof!

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 09:15 AM (Om/di)

38 I also read The Curious Disappearance of Seamus Muldoon, by Muldoon, of course.

When his brother-in-law disappeared on a seemingly normal day, everyone--neighbors, family, friends--had a theory about what have might have happened. Muldoon lays out a number of those theories in short vignettes.

Some are preposterous, but the more likely ones are tragic. My condolences to his family, because the pain of loss never really goes away, and is compounded by the not knowing.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 09:15 AM (OX9vb)

39 Currently there seem to be two popular choices: a modern narrow sans serif, and a scrawled tilted handwritten style. Both put me off. Authors: use a nice font, would you please? Don't try to be cute.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:13 AM (45fpk)

Is that stuff the choice of the author, or publisher?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:15 AM (7bRMQ)

40 As for reading, Hemingway's letters. I enjoy them immensely and although I don't get to read Perkins', Stein's or Fitzgerald's replies, they are wonderful insights into the man and his writing, and into his era.

It's very sad that texts, cell phones, and emails have displaced the letter. Last letter I got was back in the early 90s

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:16 AM (VuQO/)

41 The first rule of Font Club is...

https://youtu.be/RqabKAcU2L0

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 07, 2022 09:16 AM (k28UX)

42 Authors probably don't have much input as to covers, etc, it's publishers.

Posted by: davidt at August 07, 2022 09:16 AM (oTZbj)

43 Is that stuff the choice of the author, or publisher?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:15 AM (7bRMQ)

Yeah, might be the publisher. Some of the authors here would know.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:18 AM (45fpk)

44 The first rule of Font Club is...

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 07, 2022 09:16 AM (k28UX)

Don't use Comic Sans!!!!!

Posted by: Lileks (not really) at August 07, 2022 09:18 AM (7bRMQ)

45 No doubt Mrs Elliott

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2022 09:18 AM (k8B25)

46 Happy Birthday, Perfessor Squirrel!
You share a birthday with my FAVORITE brother.

Posted by: redridinghood at August 07, 2022 09:18 AM (NpAcC)

47 Peter Grant at Bayou Renaissance Man posted the week before last, with the news that one of the great mid-century writers of historical fiction, Rosemary Sutcliff, was having all or most of her books released in eBook versions at a reasonable price. I loved her books, when I was a teenager, especially the ones set in Roman Britain. I sent away for the one that I hadn't read in print - Dawn Wind, and was reading that, all this week.
For my money, her most perfect HF novel was one that hasn't been released as an ebook, and is only available in print for very high prices - Rider of the White Horse, about Anne Fairfax, the wife of a Roundhead general during their Civil War, and how she followed him on his campaigns in the North. It's a fantastic book, but apparently a very hard to find one.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at August 07, 2022 09:19 AM (xnmPy)

48 There's a Bible devotional that's popular right now that uses a light turquoise for notes and such. Part of the main text too I think. That would be unreadable for me.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:20 AM (45fpk)

49 Regarding book titles:

A pun draws attention, provided the book is light-hearted in tone. Lots of current "cozy" mysteries provide examples.

Westlake wrote one novel titled "The Spy in the Ointment." Just on the strength of that title, I want to read the book.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 09:20 AM (Om/di)

50 Title for AH Lloyd's Chy-Nah history:

"Eternal Red Locust Swarm". Not very politically correct, and has more to do with the Chinese propensity to eat "every part of the animal," including the proverbial "asshole out of a dead rhino" than any alleged military prowess.

Finished Alastair Reynolds' new novel "Eversion" in a single day. Loved it. It was a very clever story.

Posted by: Sharkman at August 07, 2022 09:20 AM (Lqf5w)

51 Goiters, Carbuncles, and Wens
by Prudence Gravestock

Posted by: Eromero at August 07, 2022 09:20 AM (0OP+5)

52 You people and your fancy reading!

Posted by: Weasel at August 07, 2022 09:21 AM (0IeYL)

53 Happy Birthday, Perfessor Squirrel!
You share a birthday with my FAVORITE brother.
Posted by: redridinghood at August 07, 2022 09:18 AM (NpAcC)
---
Thank you!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 09:21 AM (K5n5d)

54 Reading Hammet's The Maltese Falcon. Nearly done.

Huston's script follows the book closely with some trimming. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet jump off the book's pages.

In the Before Times you could write unflattering gay characters but couldn't spell out Fuck You.
Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022

***
It took me years to finish that book. When I finally did, I realized what Hammett was doing: an advanced writing technique where he never gives us a single character's thoughts, not even detective Spade's. Everything is narrated from the outside, so to speak. Yet character and motivations are revealed through dialogue, action, and body movements. Not easy to pull off in an entire novel. Short stories, sure; Hemingway's "The Killers" is like that (I think). But a novel, not so much.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:22 AM (c6xtn)

55 Hot Coffee...!!! Roberto Eco...The "words from the Renaissance for $500 Alex"...if I ever run into a Monk from the Italian Piedmont, we're gonna have some beers!!!

Posted by: Qmark at August 07, 2022 09:22 AM (emnp2)

56 read the content; read the comments; way too late for TSE. Somewhere around i've got his collected works; i'll have to pull it out again and try the quartets...

thanks to whoever recommended Murderbot diaries last week. I read all but the last one. somebody got their pricing all wrong. 2.99 i'd have paid; 11.99? it's not THAT good. though, maybe i should amortize over the whole series...

Posted by: yara at August 07, 2022 09:22 AM (hBsVD)

57 >>> 46 Happy Birthday, Perfessor Squirrel!
You share a birthday with my FAVORITE brother.
Posted by: redridinghood at August 07, 2022 09:18 AM (NpAcC)

JJ is your brother?!

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 07, 2022 09:22 AM (llON8)

58 So, as to titles, I guess my short stories will be titled The (blank) Incident.

Someone once wrote somewhere that any story is just an episode in a life. The characters "existed" before the story, and unless they die, they "exist" after the story ends. We don't see their life from beginning to end, just one little part of it, so I consider the story just an incident.

What do you writers think?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:23 AM (7bRMQ)

59 Birthday? It's PS's B-Day?! Many happy returns of the day, PS!

Posted by: Weasel at August 07, 2022 09:23 AM (0IeYL)

60 PA Announcer: Attention Ladies and Gents. This morning's first mention of Tolkien comes in at comment #19, that's comment #19, against a betting line set at 25. If you bet the "Under", please collect your winnings at the payout window.

Pro Tip: Always bet the "under"

Posted by: Middle Earth Parimutuel Sports Book at August 07, 2022 09:23 AM (kXYt5)

61 From the text
'.... from the point of view of the stalkee and some have both.'

I have never seen the word 'stalkee', usually it is 'stalked'.

I am quite pedantic when it comes to English, the result of very strict teachers who knew their stuff and making what was a second language into a first language. So apologies.

Posted by: Ciampino - on the musical horoscope - no castanets at August 07, 2022 09:23 AM (qfLjt)

62 Birthday? It's PS's B-Day?! Many happy returns of the day, PS!
Posted by: Weasel at August 07, 2022 09:23 AM (0IeYL)
---
Thank you! Purely by chance today's Book Thread coincides with my birthday...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 09:24 AM (K5n5d)

63 While reading the "Ballad of the White Horse" I thought of other possible subjects for a ballad in that vein. Something like the Battle of Gettysburg and Pickett's Charge in particular. There should be any number of American events, Lexington and Concord or the Lewis and Clark expedition come to mind, that deserve a good narrative poem.

It would be a heck of a challenge.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:24 AM (7EjX1)

64 Happy Birthday, Perfessor Squirrel!
You share a birthday with my FAVORITE brother.
Posted by: redridinghood

Happy Birthday to both of you !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:26 AM (T4tVD)

65 A couple of weeks ago, one of you morons mentioned "Black Mischief" as a satirical and profoundly politically incorrect novel by Evelyn Waugh. So I read it. Boy oh boy. I wonder if local libraries would even keep it on the shelves today.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:26 AM (45fpk)

66 Someone once wrote somewhere that any story is just an episode in a life. The characters "existed" before the story, and unless they die, they "exist" after the story ends. We don't see their life from beginning to end, just one little part of it, so I consider the story just an incident.

What do you writers think?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:23 AM (7bRMQ)
---
I kind of like it...As long as one of the stories is called "The Noodle Incident." In case you are unfamiliar with this trope, it's an incident that happened in the past that is never really explained...(from a Calvin and Hobbes strip)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 09:26 AM (K5n5d)

67 About logistics:

Gen. Kenneth Strong noted in his memoirs that the Allies set great importance on capturing Antwerp, a major port city in Belgium. With it in Allied control, the Allied supply lines were greatly shortened; the armies advanced so quickly that Cherbourg became too far away.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 09:27 AM (Om/di)

68 Purely by chance today's Book Thread coincides with my birthday...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 09:24 AM (K5n5d)

Here's to 29 more! Happy Birthday!

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:27 AM (45fpk)

69 Goiters, Carbuncles, and Wens was one of the group names under consideration for what eventually became Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Not a Joke.

Posted by: Joe Biden at August 07, 2022 09:28 AM (k28UX)

70 Another method with a title is to use a complete sentence. Wait Until Dark, Dial M for Murder, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By, etc.

You can also use a location that's important to the story: Rear Window, for instance. Or something that sets up an echo in the reader's mind. Pixy mentioned the Larry Niven story "Bordered in Black" in his Tech Thread this morning. That story is creepy, a kind of horrific SF tale. As far as I know it references an old custom of bordering in black a card announcing a funeral -- but the story literally involves a black border as well.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:28 AM (c6xtn)

71 No doubt Mrs Elliott
Posted by: Skip

She caught him peeking in keyholes.....

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:29 AM (T4tVD)

72 Hiya Weasel !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:29 AM (T4tVD)

73 Thank you! Purely by chance today's Book Thread coincides with my birthday...
=====

Congratulations, PS, and many more!

Will this be a weekly event hence?

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 07, 2022 09:29 AM (MIKMs)

74 17 I don't get it. Since when do pimps go to birthday parties?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 07, 2022 09:07 AM (EZebt)
----
Is there a stripper+ at the birthday bash?

Posted by: Ciampino - the Man will want to get paid at August 07, 2022 09:31 AM (qfLjt)

75 Happy birthday, Squirrel!

As for titles, there seems to be a current tendency to mimic popular titles. About 25% of the suggestions sent to me by Amazon have either the word " lies" or " secrets" in the title. Sincerest form of flattery, or attempt to piggyback their way to success?

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:32 AM (VuQO/)

76 "Titles are advertising, just like covers are advertising. My opinion is that the title should:
1) fit the book. Do not mislead the reader, but give it a title that signals what's inside in some way"

Yeah. I was very disappointed when I received my copy of "Tits, Boobies and Loons". Turns out it was for the birds.

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 09:32 AM (sn5EN)

77 Someone once wrote somewhere that any story is just an episode in a life. The characters "existed" before the story, and unless they die, they "exist" after the story ends. We don't see their life from beginning to end, just one little part of it, so I consider the story just an incident.

What do you writers think?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022

***
A very good point, OrangeEnt. I'd add that in nearly all non-series stories, the incident is the most important thing that ever happens to the lead character, the event that defines him. We don't care about Scarlett O'Hara after Gone With the Wind, or about the writer in Gentleman's Agreement once that novel is done.

A series, yes, the events can be important, but usually not THE most important event in the lead's life. If every tale about your hero is life-shattering, the series becomes melodramatic. "City on the Edge of Forever" is Capt. Kirk's defining story and Wrath of Khan is Admiral Kirk's, but there are other tales that can be told about him.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:33 AM (c6xtn)

78 CLUE 3 - He wrote a book of light poetry, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats which served as the inspiration for a play by Andrew Lloyd Weber.

Your book questions always call up good memories, Perfessor. In my case, T.S. Eliot's Book of Practical Cats.

Talk about making things easy for people. . .

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 07, 2022 09:34 AM (AW0uW)

79 I really enjoyed all the stories in Peter S. Beagles short story collection "Overneath". In true Beaglean fashion it ended with a tale involving a unicorn. This one took place in the dour Puritan town of No Popery. The creature appeared in the forest, to the delight of a ne'er-do-well Dutchman, a virgin Goodwife, and an Abenaki Indian.

I just learned that Beagle wrote the Next Gen episode "Sarek", so there's your Trek connection.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Iron Fist in Velvet Glove in Iron Gauntlet Clutching an Iron Mace at August 07, 2022 09:34 AM (Dc2NZ)

80 Goiters, Carbuncles, and Wens

******

I awoke once to dawn's early light
Looked down and received quite a fright
From my noggin to my shins
Carbuncles, Goiters, and Wens
Scary things that grow bumps in the night!

Posted by: Muldoon at August 07, 2022 09:34 AM (kXYt5)

81 WOT - Crossroads of Twilight, the penultimate book of the series written by Robert Jordan. The next and last written by Jordan - Knife of Dreams, is pretty good, a lot of focus on Mat's character arc . The following, and final 3, written by Sanderson, drop off in quality. There are some jarring differences in the 'voices' of some characters. I'm surprised the editors didn't catch it. But he got better and it finishes well

Posted by: Chuck Martel at August 07, 2022 09:35 AM (fs1hN)

82 Speaking of titles, have you read our latest? It's Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

Posted by: U.S. Dept. Of Labor at August 07, 2022 09:35 AM (k28UX)

83 Not easy to pull off in an entire novel. Short stories, sure; Hemingway's "The Killers" is like that (I think). But a novel, not so much.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:22 AM (c6xtn)

That's one of the stories in the Updike edited collection I just picked up.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:36 AM (7bRMQ)

84 TV shows have been known to have a title pattern. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. used "affair": "The Vulcan Affair," "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair," etc. Trek didn't, but the word "syndrome" turns up in several episodes.

Oh! The Twilight Zone hour-long episode, "On Monday We Leave For Home," was a complete sentence.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:36 AM (c6xtn)

85 This week for the first time, I downloaded some books on my ancient Kindle (previously only used for games). Joke books for kids, as 9 grandchildren has necessitated that I have some kind of 'hook' so they will accept the elderly crank and the elderly cranky pets as free babysitters.

Rather cumbersome and an incredible digital memory cost - even with the SD card holding all. No doubt I will work through it.

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 07, 2022 09:36 AM (MIKMs)

86 Speaking of titles, have you read our latest? It's Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

I look forward to the sequel: Horses***, Bollocks, and Hogwash.

Posted by: Archimedes at August 07, 2022 09:36 AM (/NCI4)

87 Visitation and Condolences
Today at 5:00 PM
No Drinking
Jack Carp

Posted by: Eromero at August 07, 2022 09:37 AM (0OP+5)

88 Have you gone on any exciting adventures? Possibly involving a rundown asylum for the criminally insane? That once housed a lunatic clown?

Well, I was in DC on January 6, but that was before Biden took office.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at August 07, 2022 09:37 AM (U+Oxn)

89 WOT - Crossroads of Twilight, the penultimate book of the series written by Robert Jordan. The next and last written by Jordan - Knife of Dreams, is pretty good, a lot of focus on Mat's character arc . The following, and final 3, written by Sanderson, drop off in quality. There are some jarring differences in the 'voices' of some characters. I'm surprised the editors didn't catch it. But he got better and it finishes well
Posted by: Chuck Martel at August 07, 2022 09:35 AM (fs1hN)
----
Considering the scale of the project, I think Sanderson pulled it off quite well. He had copious notes from Jordan, as well as key scenes written by Jordan himself. The climax is mostly Jordan's ending (though probably edited slightly by Sanderson and Jordan's wife). It was worth waiting 23 years...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (K5n5d)

90 77. Not a writer, but unless the characters are real people, they don't exist at all. So nothing happens, as they have no life outside the creators ' imagination. All the knockoffs' attempts at reviving someone else's characters change nothing.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (VuQO/)

91 Those pants are the perfect gift for the Brony in your life.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (eGTCV)

92 I look forward to the sequel: Horses***, Bollocks, and Hogwash.
=====

Malarkey.

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (MIKMs)

93 Snort. Thanks Muldoon.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (k28UX)

94 . . .Hemingway's "The Killers" is like that (I think). But a novel, not so much.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022
*
That's one of the stories in the Updike edited collection I just picked up.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022

***
Everybody should read some of Hemingway at least once. As my ex-father-in-law, a pro nonfiction writer, once said, "He brought the English language back from rococo." I don't care for that many of his stories, but "The Killers," "The Short Happy LIfe of Francis Macomber," and a few others are pretty good.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (c6xtn)

95 There should be any number of American events, Lexington and Concord or the Lewis and Clark expedition come to mind, that deserve a good narrative poem.

It would be a heck of a challenge.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:24 AM (7EjX1)

You mean like the Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:40 AM (7bRMQ)

96 33 It has been a while since I read a book. I need to get my cataracts fixed.
Posted by: Ciampino - tiring to read if you can't see well

Could be worse; ya could have dogaracts.....

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:13 AM (T4tVD)
----
Impossible as my house is full of cats. My eyes would be barking the whole time.

Posted by: Ciampino - do you euthenize dogaracts? at August 07, 2022 09:40 AM (qfLjt)

97 Speaking of Wens, in my readings of Pliny's Natural History I learned a new word, "Horn-Pout". Anybody ever heard of a Bullhead catfish called that?

Pliny's "Silurus" is a catfish of that type, now commonly known as the "Wels catfish"

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

98 Speaking of "Wels" I mean.

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 09:41 AM (sn5EN)

99 How many book and movie titles start with "The Girl..."?

It's long past parody.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at August 07, 2022 09:42 AM (5YmYl)

100 Why is it not possible to see a glaring error before posting a comment?

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 09:42 AM (sn5EN)

101 I've been making an effort to try new (to me) right-leaning writers.
I just read Contact Front by Rick Partlow first in a series. Mil-SF, combat armor, desperate war with aliens. Very fun, I liked it. It's on KU.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 09:43 AM (gbzeC)

102 94. He has a lot of detractors here, but he's one of the best. The current hatred of Hemingway as white supremacist makes me sick. Yeah he has characters who used awful slurs, but making unethical people appear unethical and nasty is imo expected.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:43 AM (VuQO/)

103 This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: Ipanema at August 07, 2022 09:44 AM (k28UX)

104 Wens I mean wels. Oh well.

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 09:44 AM (sn5EN)

105 99. Yes, or the ( fill in the blank's) wife or daughter. Itritating.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:44 AM (VuQO/)

106 Some are preposterous, but the more likely ones are tragic. My condolences to his family, because the pain of loss never really goes away, and is compounded by the not knowing.
Posted by: April-

*******

Thanks April. At its core is the factual story of my father-in-law's disappearance, but the surreal nature of people's reactions prompted a bittersweet tragicomical oxymoronic series of short bits through which the real story interweaves. At the end of the day it was a personal tribute to an eccentric but lovable man. That's where my nick comes from; Jack was the original Seamus Muldoon.

Fourteen years this coming Oct, remains unsolved. Without a trace.

Posted by: Muldoon at August 07, 2022 09:45 AM (kXYt5)

107 More on titles:

Len Deighton used a common theme in his trilogies, beginning with "Berlin Game." The next two were "Mexico Set" and "London Match."

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 09:45 AM (Om/di)

108 Greetings:

First Rule of the Font Club is "Possession of a disc with 150 fonts does not make one a typographer.".

Posted by: 11B40 at August 07, 2022 09:46 AM (uuklp)

109 This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: Ipanema at August 07, 2022 09:44 AM (k28UX)

I love watching the old clip of Astrud Gilberto singing that song so effortlessly.

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 09:47 AM (45fpk)

110 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:33 AM (c6xtn)

Wolfus, at this point I have no plans for repeating characters. Another reason I think I'd continue to use the "Incident" title theme.

I don't really know what to title the novella. I guess I'll just try to finish it and see what happens.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:47 AM (7bRMQ)

111 106. Scary. A disappearance is hard to " pull off" these days of computerized record keeping. A colleague's kid vanished about 20 years ago, and he hoped the kid was living under an alias of sorts. He wasn't.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:48 AM (VuQO/)

112 Len Deighton used a common theme in his trilogies, beginning with "Berlin Game." The next two were "Mexico Set" and "London Match."
Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022

***
Nicely done. I wish I could get into Deighton. His characters in the novels I've tried all seem to share some common assumption about their work that they refer to obliquely but never discuss or explain, and I can never figure out what it is.

I had the same problem with Faulkner's Sanctuary and the film version of Mary McCarthy's The Group (so I've never tried the book).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:50 AM (c6xtn)

113 "While reading the "Ballad of the White Horse" I thought of other possible subjects for a ballad in that vein. Something like the Battle of Gettysburg and Pickett's Charge in particular."

‐-------

'Twas the third day of battle, 'twas a hot summer day,

Brave Pickett urged forward his brave men clad in gray,

Then they all got shot.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at August 07, 2022 09:50 AM (5YmYl)

114 TV shows have been known to have a title pattern. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. used "affair": "The Vulcan Affair," "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair," etc. Trek didn't, but the word "syndrome" turns up in several episodes.

Oh! The Twilight Zone hour-long episode, "On Monday We Leave For Home," was a complete sentence.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:36 AM (c6xtn)

The earlier Dragnet tv show titles were always The Big (blank).

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:51 AM (7bRMQ)

115 77
A very good point, OrangeEnt. I'd add that in nearly all non-series stories, the incident is the most important thing that ever happens to the lead character, the event that defines him. We don't care about Scarlett O'Hara after Gone With the Wind, or about the writer in Gentleman's Agreement once that novel is done.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:33 AM (c6xtn)
----
Excellent insight and expressed well, something that I never put into words but all these prequels and sequels are usually much poorer quality and entertainment - books and films - just as you say, because I really don't give a horse's ass except for the original story.

Posted by: Ciampino - do you euthanize dogaracts? at August 07, 2022 09:51 AM (qfLjt)

116 Coupla years ago I listened to "Good in a Room" by Stephanie Palmer on audio book. She does a good job laying out the process of coming up with a working title and deciding on the final version.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 07, 2022 09:51 AM (k28UX)

117 How many book and movie titles start with "The Girl..."?

It's long past parody.
Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at August 07, 2022

***
How about The Machine Gun That Field-Stripped Itself?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:51 AM (c6xtn)

118 I finished the third book in Christopher Nuttall's series I'm calling Marines in Space. Title is When The Bough Breaks. It is a stand alone but it helps to have read the first two. The first two take place in the outer reaches of Intergalactic empire so they have no idea what is happening on Earth as it takes months for communication to reach them.
Earth is in chaos. Society is collapsing. The parallels to what is happening in our society today are chilling. The author discusses some of this in an afterword.
Books are well,written, highly entertaining with an undercurrent of truth that makes what happens all too plausible.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 07, 2022 09:53 AM (Y+l9t)

119 Not a writer, but unless the characters are real people, they don't exist at all. So nothing happens, as they have no life outside the creators ' imagination. All the knockoffs' attempts at reviving someone else's characters change nothing.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:39 AM (VuQO/)

Hence, the quote marks.

I'd never use anyone else's characters.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:54 AM (7bRMQ)

120 while I was already interested in antiques at the age of 10, my interest peaked when I found a set of Charle Latham's "in English Homes" at Canton first Monday trade day in TX

They are very large tomes with beautifully gilt and embossed covers

I studied these like they were comic books

how these ended up at an east TX flea market is beyond me

Posted by: REDACTED at August 07, 2022 09:54 AM (us2H3)

121 Excellent insight and expressed well, something that I never put into words but all these prequels and sequels are usually much poorer quality and entertainment - books and films - just as you say, because I really don't give a horse's ass except for the original story.
Posted by: Ciampino - do you euthanize dogaracts? at August 07, 2022

***
There are exceptions in the film world, like Wrath of Khan and Aliens, but they are as rare as the film that is better than the book it's based on. I can only think of 4 right off: Die Hard, Jaws, Wolfen by Whitley Strieber, and Hunt for Red October.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:55 AM (c6xtn)

122 Happy birthday, Perfesser!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 09:55 AM (gbzeC)

123 A few years ago, there was a trend in pop fiction titles to include the word "Girl." "Girl on a Train," "The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo," and a bunch of others. It was so obvious that even NPR noticed and did a story on it.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 09:55 AM (nfrXX)

124 "Everything is narrated from the outside, so to speak. Yet character and motivations are revealed through dialogue, action, and body movements. "

Great insight. Same for the movie Chinatown, which owes a debt to Hammett.

I just ordered a replica Falcon. The ultimate MaGuffin.

Bogart contribute the line "the stuff that dreams are made of" which he got from Shakespeare.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 09:56 AM (i0slg)

125 Who's dat? is T. S. Eliot, of course.

As for a good title, it must be short, memorable, unique, and intriguing. The formula "[something] of [something]" often works well. For example, "Fifty Shades of Grey" is a terrible book, but the title is terrific, and (IMHO) accounts for much of the book's success. Another is "The Lord of the Rings": short, easily remembered, unique, and intriguing -- it has the reader wondering just what those rings are, anyway, and why being lord of them would matter.

Posted by: Nemo at August 07, 2022 09:56 AM (S6ArX)

126 This week, offered free shipping on Bezos's little hobby site, I bought a 2001 annotated hardcover copy of The Screwtape Letters by Lewis. I plan to keep it in my briefcase so I will always have something interesting to dip into should I be caught without a book when I'm out.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 09:56 AM (c6xtn)

127 119. Good for you. It's still popular, especially with old Jane Austen.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:56 AM (VuQO/)

128 While reading the "Ballad of the White Horse" I thought of other possible subjects for a ballad in that vein. Something like the Battle of Gettysburg and Pickett's Charge in particular. There should be any number of American events, Lexington and Concord or the Lewis and Clark expedition come to mind, that deserve a good narrative poem.

It would be a heck of a challenge.
Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:24 AM (7EjX1)
------
Try "John Brown's Body" by Benet.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 09:57 AM (aaGzp)

129 95 ... Good morning, OrangeEnt.

The Concord Hymn is the general idea but I was thinking of a longer, narrative poem that takes the reader through the events and emotions of the people. More of a story than a commemoration.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:58 AM (7EjX1)

130 Scary. A disappearance is hard to " pull off" these days of computerized record keeping. A colleague's kid vanished about 20 years ago, and he hoped the kid was living under an alias of sorts. He wasn't.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 09:48 AM (VuQO/)

It's got to be hard to go through that, never finding out. Michelle Malkin's cousin disappeared a few years ago. No trace after a last seen exiting a convenience store.

Only good outcome could be that the surveillance state ain't as powerful as they think.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 09:59 AM (7bRMQ)

131 Bogart contribute the line "the stuff that dreams are made of" which he got from Shakespeare.

And since the line is more recognized from Falcon than Shakespeare, that's why I used it as my second novel's title.

I usually come up with a title first, so the working title for my new novel-in-progress is Ten Thousand Midnighs, from the script of Sunset Boulevard.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at August 07, 2022 09:59 AM (AW0uW)

132 "Everything is narrated from the outside, so to speak. Yet character and motivations are revealed through dialogue, action, and body movements. "

Great insight. Same for the movie Chinatown, which owes a debt to Hammett.

I just ordered a replica Falcon. The ultimate MaGuffin.

Bogart contribute the line "the stuff that dreams are made of" which he got from Shakespeare.
Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022

***
That was Bogart? We forget, since he played so many rough guys, that he was a college-educated man -- Yale, I think, class of '22 or so?

Chinatown, when I finally watched it again a couple of years ago, is rather slow. A "measured" pace might be a good word for it. The last line, spoken by a character other than Jake, is the only really memorable thing about it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:00 AM (c6xtn)

133 I understand that the comics series "Men in Black" was not good.

The movie adaptation, however, was.

Maybe because of the actors.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 10:00 AM (Om/di)

134 A. H. Lloyd:

The Middle Kingdom
The Mandate of Heaven
The Dragon Throne
In Death Ground, Fight

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:00 AM (aaGzp)

135 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Posted by: Just Sayin' at August 07, 2022 10:01 AM (k28UX)

136 A.H. Lloyd, I like Eternal Empire. It is a very elegant title.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at August 07, 2022 10:01 AM (Y+l9t)

137 The first rule of Font Club is...

Check out the documentary "Helvetica." If you didn't think somebody could make an interesting film about a font...

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 10:03 AM (nfrXX)

138 Happy 29th Birthday Huggy Squirrel! It's my 29th birthday today also.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2022 10:03 AM (gLRfa)

139 One day I hope to read a book with the title 'The Rectification of Names: The Collapse of the Chinese Communist Party'

Posted by: G'rump928(c) at August 07, 2022 10:03 AM (yQpMk)

140 ...If you can't keep your troops fed, you'll have a much more difficult time achieving victory. Hungry soldiers are weak soldiers. Weak soldiers lose battles.

Your modern foot soldier requires about 5,000 calories per day to maintain weight. I suspect this hasn't varied much in the last 5,000 years.

I'm currently rereading Time Enough For Love by Heinlein. While Lazarus Long, main protagonist, was born in the late 19th century or early twentieth, he claims to have met The Wandering Jew...

an interesting legend from the 12th or 13th century and reminiscent of the legend of Diogenes.

Doomed to possibly walk the Earth forever in wait for an improbable event.

Lots and lots of home spun philosophy contained therein.

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 07, 2022 10:04 AM (JOtiF)

141 I'd never use anyone else's characters.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022

***
I outgrew that when I was a teen (though a lot of my early original characters were modeled closely on others', like Bond and Capt. Kirk). That said: My Man From U.N.C.L.E. fan fiction is an exception. I used the same writing techniques and same methods of showing character that I try for in my original fiction. The writing of them all went incredibly easily, though, because the background was already established, and I knew I was writing for fans of the show.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:04 AM (c6xtn)

142 130 In the case of the colleague's son, he died the night of the disappearance.

He spent most weekends and vacations searching NYC.

That sort of event would probably make a good book.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:04 AM (VuQO/)

143 Chinatown is one of my favorites. One of the best screenplays ever.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:05 AM (i0slg)

144 Yeah, the last Jordan books, pre-Sanderson are a SLOG. So much that doesn't need to focused on, the whole Seanchan thing was a huge tangent from the main plot.

On titles, I either START with the title first, or I do the title last. In the former case, the title may give spur and structure (thematically) to the whole piece. While in the latter, looking back on what I wrote, I try to come up with 2-3 words that describe what I tried to do. (What was the story about? Can I describe it in two to three words?) Of course you want to snag the reader's attention too, so you don't want to be boring, no matter what.

Jordan did pretty well with his titles, overall.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at August 07, 2022 10:06 AM (xcxpd)

145 The Concord Hymn is the general idea but I was thinking of a longer, narrative poem that takes the reader through the events and emotions of the people. More of a story than a commemoration.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 09:58 AM (7EjX1)

Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow, or something else JTB?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:06 AM (7bRMQ)

146 I'm currently rereading Time Enough For Love by Heinlein. While Lazarus Long, main protagonist, was born in the late 19th century or early twentieth, he claims to have met The Wandering Jew...

an interesting legend from the 12th or 13th century and reminiscent of the legend of Diogenes.

Doomed to possibly walk the Earth forever in wait for an improbable event.

Lots and lots of home spun philosophy contained therein.
Posted by: GnuBreed at August 07, 2022

***
LL was born in 1912, RAH told us. His birthday is November 11, and Lazarus tells us that at age 6 he thought the celebrations of Armistice Day, 11/11/18, were for him.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:06 AM (c6xtn)

147 136. I agree

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:06 AM (VuQO/)

148 I just ordered a replica Falcon. The ultimate MaGuffin.

How do you make a replica of something that in itself is a replica ?

asking for a fat friend

Posted by: REDACTED at August 07, 2022 10:07 AM (us2H3)

149 Book-wise, I'm mixing history with comfort food. The Bruce Gamble Rabaul trilogy is next to me, I'm on book 1: Invasion Rabaul now. And I'm reading my Azumanga Diaoh collected manga, because it makes me smile. Not all manga is gay ass frogs, tentacles, and sexualized underaged girls....mind you, I'd still bang Sakaki like a screen door in a hurricane, but I'd propose afterwards.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at August 07, 2022 10:08 AM (xcxpd)

150 This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: Ipanema at August 07, 2022 09:44 AM (k28UX)

I love watching the old clip of Astrud Gilberto singing that song so effortlessly.
Posted by: grammie winger

Who names their kid Astrud ?

Hiya Grammie !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:08 AM (T4tVD)

151 148. I'm offended, sir!

Posted by: Mr Greenstreet. at August 07, 2022 10:08 AM (VuQO/)

152 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Which is a perfectly awful title that tells you nothing about the book but that fact sort of became part of the book's image. It's fun to sometimes the book shelved in the "Automotive and Transportation" section at a book store.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 10:09 AM (nfrXX)

153 re: titles. For my professional autobiography (unpublished) i originally wanted "behind the barricades" subtitle, "a participant's view of the software revolution", my current working title is "a view from afar". maybe it should be "tales i'd tell my kids". in a distant way, it's like Sam Watkin's "Company Aytch"

Posted by: yara at August 07, 2022 10:09 AM (hBsVD)

154 Chinatown is one of my favorites. One of the best screenplays ever.
Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022

***
Maybe it's the direction that makes it seem a little slow in the pacing. Certainly Nicholson's Jake, boss of a decent-sized agency (instead of the cliche of the lone private eye in his office), is a fine character, along with Huston's villain.

The guy who wrote it, Robert Towne? He also wrote an early U.N.C.L.E. called "The Dove Affair," and his was the script for the first Mission: Impossible movie w/ Cruise.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:09 AM (c6xtn)

155 @149 --

Ask the Turk who commissioned the first replica for a recommendation.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 10:09 AM (Om/di)

156 135 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Posted by: Just Sayin' at August 07, 2022 10:01 AM (k28UX)

It took Pirsig decades, but iirc he did finally write a second book. He's a big reason why I never take philosophy too seriously.

You can go nucking futs playing too deep in that rabbit hole.

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 07, 2022 10:10 AM (JOtiF)

157 After the Hemingway letters maybe a biography, and not some fake fictionalized crap.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:10 AM (VuQO/)

158 Yoooooo yesterday I found a book on poetry by John Ciardi, whose translator's note to his edition of Dante's Divine Comedy, wherein he explains his abandonment of an English terza rima in favor of an aba cdc efe rhyme scheme, is one of the sharpest and most interesting apologias of craft I have ever read. The book, "How Does a Poem Mean" has already paid for itself, despite it being priced (appropriately in my opinion and to my chagrin) at $22 in the used bookstore i found it in. Some quick haggling brought it down to $16, still 4x the amount I have paid for a book in living memory. The man has a mind like a razor blade.

Posted by: Coast of Gary - if you have to ask you already know at August 07, 2022 10:11 AM (T0jjm)

159 Happy 29th Birthday Huggy Squirrel! It's my 29th birthday today also.
Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2022 10:03 AM (gLRfa)
---
Happy Birthday!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 10:11 AM (K5n5d)

160 It's fun to sometimes find the book...

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 10:11 AM (nfrXX)

161 Happy Birthday Tuna !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:13 AM (T4tVD)

162 and I knew I was writing for fans of the show.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:04 AM (c6xtn)

Like the Blish ST novels. If you're contracted to use someone else's characters, that's different. I wouldn't want to be known as the Milton Berle of books.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:13 AM (7bRMQ)

163 I love old books in all their splendor. The oldest one I have dates from 1770, and I found it in a regular trash and treasure shop in Maine. I think I paid $5. ("Jerusalem Delivered", a long poem by Torquato Tasso). I also have a 1915 mini-encyclopedia which is quite amusing. Churchill has a paragraph (as an up-and-coming young First Lord of the Admiralty, this is pre-Dardanelles campaign). Some preacher I never heard of gets a page and a half. It is interesting to see what people then thought was important and needed referencing.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at August 07, 2022 10:15 AM (P+D9B)

164 "Maybe it's the direction that makes it seem a little slow in the pacing."

We see everything through Jake's eyes as he unravels it all. Reveal after reveal.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:15 AM (i0slg)

165 Who names their kid Astrud ?

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:08 AM (T4tVD)

Skandis, ya

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 10:15 AM (OX9vb)

166 Wiley Sword has awesome book titles:

Bloodt April
No Better Place To Die
Embrace An Angry Wind

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:16 AM (aaGzp)

167 After much delay, I finished reading Moon Knight Omnibus Volume 1. It's written by Doug Moench and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz and it.......doesn't quite live up the hype. The story structure is as much under-cover detective/secret agent as it is superhero, and the story is often packed too tightly to be enjoyable. The art is really good in places, but the schedule and production values of a monthly comic keep it from being truly special.

That said, there was a moment late in the book that made me smile. A character has to go undercover to infiltrate a terrorist group, and her cover story was that she was a member of the Weathermen in the early 70's. (The story takes place in the early 80's.) It's reassuring to remember that there was a time when authors would acknowledge leftists criminals as actual criminals...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 07, 2022 10:16 AM (Lhaco)

168 My favorite genre is Spies. In middle school I started with James bond before he was well known and before any movies, thanks to Mr Purdy a teacher. He realized I loved to read so he fed me paperbacks. Those books are now so superficial that I can't read them again.
Many 29th birthdays later, and many spy books later, I read the Red Sparrow novel written by Jason Matthews and the two sequels. This had been recommended in this book thread by our dear departed cob. Excellent and I wanted more.
I will entertain recommendations LOL.
I also enjoy crime/police/detective novels and series.

Posted by: Ciampino - a good writer makes the characters live at August 07, 2022 10:16 AM (qfLjt)

169 Hiya JT!

Posted by: grammie winger at August 07, 2022 10:16 AM (45fpk)

170 128 ... I must have read parts of "John Brown's Body" in my school days but have no memory of it. Looking at the Wiki description, it is the kind of thing I had in mind. Thanks for mentioning it. I'll have to get a copy.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 10:17 AM (7EjX1)

171 i started reading C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower..
(after i finished his The Good Shepard)
I have to warn anyone interested in Hornblower; be CAREFUL!
I started with Horatio Hornblower: Midshipman, and so far am up to Hornblower: Commodore, so i'm making headway; but it is a LONG series. Plus, he's mean to Mr Bush.. Which isn't the way to treat your bestfriend

Posted by: gilbar at August 07, 2022 10:17 AM (WMh0E)

172 @148 Touche

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:18 AM (i0slg)

173 "i started reading C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower.."

So did I. Just read the first and like it.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:19 AM (i0slg)

174 Not a writer, but unless the characters are real people, they don't exist at all. So nothing happens, as they have no life outside the creators ' imagination.

I recall a Lit prof ranting about that, specifically about people trying to psychoanalyze the Hamlet character and speculating about his childhood. "He didn't have a childhood because The Bard didn't give him one!"

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 10:21 AM (nfrXX)

175 Happy birthday to Perfessor Squirrel and Tuna. Having a birthday fall on book thread day would be like getting an extra present.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 10:21 AM (7EjX1)

176 >> Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Which is a perfectly awful title that tells you nothing about the book but that fact sort of became part of the book's image. It's fun to sometimes the book shelved in the "Automotive and Transportation" section at a book store.

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 10:09 AM (nfrXX)

I'll disagree here. One of Pirsig's central arguments is about defining "quality". And maintaining your bike on a long trip is an exercise in quality as a syllogism.

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 07, 2022 10:21 AM (JOtiF)

177 Are the Red Sparrow books good? I thought the movie ho-hum except for JLaw showing us her tits, which she siad she'd never do.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:22 AM (i0slg)

178 After the Hemingway letters maybe a biography, and not some fake fictionalized crap.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:10 AM (VuQO/)

Have you read Hotchner's biography of Hemingway? I haven't, but he knew Hemingway rather well, so it might be a good one, or at least interesting.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at August 07, 2022 10:23 AM (XIJ/X)

179 I read a history of the big Eastern Front Battle of Kursk, the Nazi's last strategic offensive. It was entitled Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright which I thought was a good title even if the book wasn't very good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Is the Summer of Our Discontent n at August 07, 2022 10:23 AM (FVME7)

180 I've been on a mild nostalgia kick this year. I'm rereading some of my favorites.

Right now I'm 3/4 through "Sourcery" an early Discworld story from Terry Pratchett.

I think his stuff is holding up well.

Posted by: pawn at August 07, 2022 10:23 AM (wsHtO)

181 Hiya Donna of the Ampersands !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:23 AM (T4tVD)

182 i started reading C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower..
------
I just finished his collection "Gold From Crete". It's...not his best.

Followed it up by readin "Brown On Resolution". Very good indeed.

My copy of "The Gun" is disintegrating. Need to find a new copy, preferably an omnibus volume with "Rifleman Dodd".

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:23 AM (aaGzp)

183 I recall a Lit prof ranting about that, specifically about people trying to psychoanalyze the Hamlet character and speculating about his childhood. "He didn't have a childhood because The Bard didn't give him one!"

Posted by: Oddbob at August 07, 2022 10:21 AM (nfrXX)

Yeah, the character is what is written. There's nothing else. Motivations are baked in already.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:24 AM (7bRMQ)

184 These are 'smart' people?

Bill Richardson on ABC just called Griner a hostage.

Brilliant...

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 07, 2022 10:25 AM (uXUI3)

185 The TV series Route 66 had fun with titles too. It's worth a look at the imdb listing to see some of 'em. Haven't checked but the same probably goes for Naked City, as Stirling Silliphant was one of the head writers on both series.

Current reading -- still working slowly through War and Peace, with hefty doses of Simenon between chunks of Tolstoy (don't know why I can't seem to sit down and just barrel through W&P -- after all, it isn't dull). Current fear -- Simenon's Maigret series; I'm reading his non-Maigret novels, but I've read a Maigret or two though it's been years. The idea of diving into a series of more than 70 titles is more than I want to think about.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022 10:25 AM (a/4+U)

186 Ciampino, if you haven't already, you might like reading the Tommy Hambledon series by Manning Coles. I found a three-novel set at an antique store, they are WWII era stories. Starts with "Drink to Yesterday."

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 10:25 AM (OX9vb)

187 177 Are the Red Sparrow books good? I thought the movie ho-hum except for JLaw showing us her tits, which she siad she'd never do.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:22 AM (i0slg)
----
Forget the movie (which I haven't seen but I know it could never do justice to the book) and read the books.

Posted by: Ciampino - a good writer makes the characters alive at August 07, 2022 10:26 AM (qfLjt)

188 Are the Red Sparrow books good? I thought the movie ho-hum except for JLaw showing us her tits, which she siad she'd never do.
Posted by: Ignoramus

One interesting thing, each chapter in some way features some food. For example, our hero hides from the bad guys in a small restaurant featuring a particular soup. At the end of the chapter, there is the recipe for the food, in this case, the soup.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now Is the Summer of Our Discontent n at August 07, 2022 10:27 AM (FVME7)

189 What are some considerations for a good title?

A good title? Never had one so wouldn't know.

My one short story is on my website. "Invulnerable" was a working title that stuck. I remember first learning the word "invulnerable" from Superman comics. So (decades later) I came up with a "super-powered" character whose sole power was that he could come to no harm, and he could pass this power along to others.

A passive power sort-of precluded the usual superheroics. No slam-bang fights, and only one explosion that happens "off-screen." No costumes. There are gangsters, aliens, and space wars, but mainly it's the adventure of the Invulnerable kid.

Must not be that bad a title. Three short "Invulnerable" films, an RPG, and a DC character "Invulnerable Man." No relation to M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable.

Posted by: mindful webworker - troubles just pass you by at August 07, 2022 10:27 AM (+htsy)

190 "chunks of Tolstoy"

Each chunk weighs about 150 lbs./pages.

Posted by: pawn at August 07, 2022 10:27 AM (wsHtO)

191 174. I agree. I truly hate the attempts at making fictional characters into real people. I equally dislike turning real people into characters and changing their lives, and lying about them . It's different when you use a long gone person and inject them into an adventure. My distaste is related to altering their lives or creating dialogs to create villains in their lives.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:28 AM (VuQO/)

192 Finished the second book of Adrian Goldsworthy's second trilogy about Flavius Ferox, native British prince turned Roman centurion. "The City"(there's a simple title for you)is basically a how to manual of Roman siege tactics. Then there's Hadrian manipulating the situation in order to position himself as Trajan's heir. Looking forward to the next book.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2022 10:28 AM (gLRfa)

193 A.H. Lloyd

Maybe this? The Phoenix and the Dragon.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 07, 2022 10:28 AM (uXUI3)

194 178. Thanks for the recommendation.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:29 AM (VuQO/)

195 "Having a birthday fall on book thread day would be like getting an extra present."

It is indeed. Those 29th birthdays are starting to add up though. LOL

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2022 10:30 AM (gLRfa)

196 Re: Titles and stuff
As it was explained to me by Senior Writers in the Biz, everything in the "outer wrapper", meaning all the stuff a reader encounters before the actual content, should be a tease. Dance of the Seven Veils kind of thing. The first thing a reader really notices is the cover art. Color, style, figures, all that should indicate tone and genre (fluffy and pink *probably* isn't Military Science Fiction). Font also (as grammie correctly states) needs to match the tone and the genre. No digital-style lettering for "Sweet Savage Sporran", for example. Then there is the title itself. It should hint at delights inside but not give the whole damn story line, I'm looking at YOU, manga titles! ("I fell down the stairs and landed in a fantasy world and now I'm a dragon's bride so I think I'll start a crumpet shop". You think I'm kidding.)

Then there's the text on the back of the book (if paper) or the "blurb" for the Amazon/other bookstore page. Again, hints and enticement, maybe the initial problem but NOT the main conflict. You want the reader insane with curiosity!

And it all varies by genre, so there is no One True Way.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at August 07, 2022 10:30 AM (P+D9B)

197 t's different when you use a long gone person and inject them into an adventure. My distaste is related to altering their lives or creating dialogs to create villains in their lives.
Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:28 AM (VuQO/)

In theory, I agree with you. But I enjoyed "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" in spite of it.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 10:31 AM (OX9vb)

198 Who dis?...From St.Louis?....Yogi Berra.

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 10:32 AM (AwYPR)

199 A.H. Lloyd

Maybe this? The Phoenix and the Dragon.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 07, 2022 10:28 AM (uXUI3)
=====

The Terracotta Dragon.

(forged easily in fire but ultimately fragile)

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 07, 2022 10:33 AM (MIKMs)

200 I think the key to a god title is that it should appear on the cover of the book. Or at least its spine. Somewhere on the outside of the book really.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at August 07, 2022 10:33 AM (KFhLj)

201 On the topic of titles, I'm reminded of the Garrett P.I. books by Glen Cook. (A noir-style private eye living in a fantasy world.) The titles of the entire series follow as strict pattern: Adjective, Metal, Noun. "Sweet Silver Blues." "Cold Copper Tears." "Dread Brass Shadows." Pretty neat, but it did start to feel a bit forced as the series reached the double digits.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 07, 2022 10:34 AM (Lhaco)

202 God has many titles.

Posted by: Religious Scholars at August 07, 2022 10:35 AM (k28UX)

203 In the event that it hasn't already been noted, the Audible version of The Graveyard Book is very good!

Posted by: ameryx at August 07, 2022 10:35 AM (ROQjH)

204 Who dis?...From St.Louis?....Yogi Berra.

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 10:32 AM (AwYPR)

I think you made a boo boo....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:36 AM (7bRMQ)

205 187 177 Are the Red Sparrow books good? I thought the movie ho-hum except for JLaw showing us her tits, which she siad she'd never do.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:22 AM (i0slg)
----
I had to look up JLaw. Nope, she's not the picture I formed of the Russian woman Red Sparrow. Too babyish and not beautiful. If you read the book you'll understand.

Posted by: Ciampino - hard to put down books are the best at August 07, 2022 10:36 AM (qfLjt)

206 Good morning, Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at August 07, 2022 10:37 AM (MZ9uN)

207 I think the key to a god title is that it should appear on the cover of the book. Or at least its spine. Somewhere on the outside of the book really.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at August 07, 2022 10:33 AM (KFhLj)
-----
Isaac Asimov told his publishers that as long as his name was on the cover in large, clear letters, he really didn't care what the cover looked like.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:37 AM (aaGzp)

208 Who names their kid Astrud ?

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:08 AM (T4tVD)

Skandis, ya
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs!

ALL of them ? "and this is my other brother Astrud....."

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:37 AM (T4tVD)

209 Happiest of Birthdays to the Perfessor and Tuna.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at August 07, 2022 10:38 AM (a4EWo)

210 145 ... "Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow, or something else JTB?"

That is what I had was thinking but, perhaps, longer. I like the meter and poetic devices. It has an older feel that makes me think of a ballad. And it does tell a story.

So many good suggestions when I didn't really expect any. I know what some of my reading this week will be.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 10:38 AM (7EjX1)

211 Carbuncles. First mentioned at #51, limerick done and posted by #80.
Muldoon's a force.

Posted by: From about that time at August 07, 2022 10:39 AM (4780s)

212 I had to look up JLaw. Nope, she's not the picture I formed of the Russian woman Red Sparrow. Too babyish and not beautiful. If you read the book you'll understand.
Posted by: Ciampino - hard to put down books are the best at August 07, 2022 10:36 AM (qfLjt)

I better not look her up, then. I'm sure she won't fit my image of Dominika, either.

I like to keep my images pure. I really hate it when a book I like is made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. Ruins it every time.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 10:39 AM (OX9vb)

213 202 God has many titles.

Posted by: Religious Scholars at August 07, 2022 10:35 AM (k28UX)
----
The Million Names Of God - by Arthur C. Clarke.

Posted by: Ciampino - it's a clever short story at August 07, 2022 10:39 AM (qfLjt)

214 The not about "logistics in war" is very appropriate, you can't fight without the "beans & bullets" to sustain the fight. Also many of the castle sieges of the early periods of warfare didn't end because the walls were breached, but because the castle residents were eventually starved into submission (exceptions do occur, such as Constantinople - twice).

A recognition of this is why I really enjoy military sci-fi/fantasy. William Forstchen Lost Regiment series is a great eaxmple. But even Elizabeth Moon in her Deed of Pasknarrion mentions the importance of logistics in the 2nd book of the trilogy.

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at August 07, 2022 10:39 AM (SEa82)

215 The Nine Billion Names of God

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:40 AM (aaGzp)

216 God has many titles.
Posted by: Religious Scholars

About nine billion.

Posted by: Zombie Arthur C. at August 07, 2022 10:40 AM (nfrXX)

217 I will entertain recommendations LOL.
I also enjoy crime/police/detective novels and series.
Posted by: Ciampino - a good writer makes the characters live at August 07, 2022

***
Golden Age: Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr. Both did excellent puzzles, though Carr specialized in the impossible crime, and EQ's later work is much more about the human condition while still providing good mystery.

Everyone should try Dashiell Hammett's short stories about the Continental Op and The Maltese Falcon. Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely and The Lady in the Lake (the latter his best mystery plot, IMO).

Modern: The Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker; the Patrick and Angie neo-noir private eye stories by Dennis Lehane, esp. Gone, Baby, Gone (made into a fine film).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:41 AM (c6xtn)

218
That is what I had was thinking but, perhaps, longer. I like the meter and poetic devices. It has an older feel that makes me think of a ballad. And it does tell a story.

So many good suggestions when I didn't really expect any. I know what some of my reading this week will be.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 10:38 AM (7EjX1)

Glad of it. Looks like I've been of some value to someone this week.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:42 AM (7bRMQ)

219 I think you made a boo boo....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:36 AM (7bRMQ)

That was quick.

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 10:42 AM (AwYPR)

220 For Horacio Hornblower fans A&E has several two hour movies that are very well done

Posted by: LMD at August 07, 2022 10:42 AM (0BcGu)

221 indeed plus dominika has a certain sixth sense, an aura she can read about people, that gives her insight whether to trust or be wary, she is btw if anna chapman was actually working for our side, jeremy irons is the handler,

Posted by: no 6 at August 07, 2022 10:43 AM (i0Lci)

222 Interesting, Tiger Tiger Burnjng Bright I think is a chaoer in Airwar, a massive book on WWII air war

Posted by: Skip's phone at August 07, 2022 10:43 AM (k8B25)

223 Armchair generals talk about strategy. Real generals talk about logistics.

Posted by: Old Pentagon saying at August 07, 2022 10:44 AM (k28UX)

224 For Horacio Hornblower fans A&E has several two hour movies that are very well done
Posted by: LMD at August 07, 2022 10:42 AM (0BcGu)
-------
The writing in the later series really deteriorated, though.

Same with the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes. I recommend the first four series. Get the later ones only if you're a comletionist.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:45 AM (aaGzp)

225 215 The Nine Billion Names of God

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 07, 2022 10:40 AM (aaGzp)
----
Thanks for the correction. I knew it seemed wrong as I typed since why would they need a mainframe for such a small number.

Posted by: Ciampino - a clever short story at August 07, 2022 10:45 AM (qfLjt)

226 Ciampino, if you haven't already, you might like reading the Tommy Hambledon series by Manning Coles. I found a three-novel set at an antique store, they are WWII era stories. Starts with "Drink to Yesterday."
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022

***
Tommy was a proto-James Bond without the grimness. For instance, in the novel Green Hazard (1945, still against the Nazis), he refers irreverently to the green flash-producing explosive of the title as "Poppo."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:46 AM (c6xtn)

227 178. I used my free book credit on ThriftBooks for it.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:47 AM (VuQO/)

228 On the topic of titles, I'm reminded of the Garrett P.I. books by Glen Cook. (A noir-style private eye living in a fantasy world.) The titles of the entire series follow as strict pattern: Adjective, Metal, Noun. "Sweet Silver Blues." "Cold Copper Tears." "Dread Brass Shadows." Pretty neat, but it did start to feel a bit forced as the series reached the double digits.

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 07, 2022 10:34 AM (Lhaco)

John D McDonald's Travis McGee series followed a similar pattern.

The Deep Blue Goodbye
A Purple Place For Dying
One Fearful Yellow Eye
The Turquoise Lament

and so forth.

Posted by: GnuBreed at August 07, 2022 10:48 AM (JOtiF)

229 Armchair generals talk about strategy. Real generals talk about logistics.
Posted by: Old Pentagon saying

And Colonel's wives....."Did you see the Hand Grenades on HER ?"

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:49 AM (T4tVD)

230 For the title of the Chinese military history, I must confess that the first thing that crossed my mind was "Get It On, Bang a Gong."

Forgive me.

Posted by: Toad-O at August 07, 2022 10:49 AM (cct0t)

231 I will entertain recommendations LOL.
I also enjoy crime/police/detective novels and series.
Posted by: Ciampino - a good writer makes the characters live at August 07, 2022 10:16 AM (qfLjt)

Try Donald Hamilton's "Matt Helm" series. Started in the 1960s, so the enemy is usually Russia. Read them in order.

Helm is a former US special ops soldier from WWII who tries to settle down with a quiet life in the US, but you can never really retire from that life...

Pay no attention to the dreadful Dean Martin movies with the Matt Helm character.

Posted by: Wethal at August 07, 2022 10:49 AM (ZzVCK)

232 The book The Scourge of God was good. It was about Attila the Hun. It showed how the corruption of Roman politics made the Western Empire easy pickings. It also showed how pathetic rulers like Valentinian would rather kill competent generals like Flavius Aetius than rule wisely and well. Some thing never change.

Posted by: Jmel at August 07, 2022 10:50 AM (qL7HS)

233 The TV series Route 66 had fun with titles too. It's worth a look at the imdb listing to see some of 'em. Haven't checked but the same probably goes for Naked City, as Stirling Silliphant was one of the head writers on both series. . . .

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022

***
Either there was already such a fashion for titles like "Build Your Houses With their Backs to the Sea" and "Is It True There Are Poxies at the Bottom of Landfair Lake?" -- or Silliphant established it and others followed. Ben Casey had ones like "What to Her Is Plato" and "No More, Cried the Rooster -- There Will Be Truth."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:51 AM (c6xtn)

234 "For the title of the Chinese military history, I must confess that the first thing that crossed my mind was "Get It On, Bang a Gong." "

Spewed some coffee on my iPad.

Posted by: Tuna at August 07, 2022 10:51 AM (gLRfa)

235 "Real generals talk about logistics."

I recall a press conference with Stormin' Norman Schwartzkopf where he made a reference to the 'logistical arts' and how important they were. That term stayed in my memory.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 10:51 AM (7EjX1)

236 OrangeEnt, have you tried listening to Larry Correia's Writer Dojo poecasts? Pretty interesting I think, even for a non-writer like me.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 10:52 AM (gbzeC)

237 Try Donald Hamilton's "Matt Helm" series. Started in the 1960s, so the enemy is usually Russia. Read them in order.

Helm is a former US special ops soldier from WWII who tries to settle down with a quiet life in the US, but you can never really retire from that life...

Pay no attention to the dreadful Dean Martin movies with the Matt Helm character.
Posted by: Wethal at August 07, 2022

***
1000+

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:52 AM (c6xtn)

238 197. No one really believes that Lincoln hunted vampires, so IMO, fair game. My problem is with the films and books that confabulate dialog and create realistic falsehoods.

Posted by: CN at August 07, 2022 10:52 AM (VuQO/)

239 I will entertain recommendations LOL.
I also enjoy crime/police/detective novels and series.
Posted by: Ciampino

Check out Donald Westlake's Parker novels if you haven't already, and ditto Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series. Both are terrific reads. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books still hold up nicely too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022 10:53 AM (a/4+U)

240 229 Armchair generals talk about strategy. Real generals talk about logistics.
Posted by: Old Pentagon saying

And Colonel's wives....."Did you see the Hand Grenades on HER ?"

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:49 AM (T4tVD)
----
That's worth stealing ..... too funny.

Posted by: Ciampino - pineapples eh! at August 07, 2022 10:54 AM (qfLjt)

241 Pay no attention to the dreadful Dean Martin movies with the Matt Helm character.
Posted by: Wethal

The residents of Steubenville Ohio are gonna surround your house and sing !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 10:54 AM (T4tVD)

242 OrangeEnt, have you tried listening to Larry Correia's Writer Dojo poecasts? Pretty interesting I think, even for a non-writer like me.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 10:52 AM (gbzeC)

Vmom, I know about them, but there's never any quiet around here for me to listen to anything. I prefer to read anyway so I can stop and think about what I just read.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:55 AM (7bRMQ)

243 " I really hate it when a book I like is made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. Ruins it every time."

Hanks ruined the Elvis biopic. Because he was the star his Colonel Parker character got too much air time. And he looked like Tom Hanks in a fat suit with a bad accent.

So much for suspension of disbelief. You had one of the most recognizeable actors around playing a character who should have been played by a strong character actor, which only brought attention that you had an unknown actor trying to play one of the most recognizeable people ever.

Posted by: Ignoramus at August 07, 2022 10:55 AM (i0slg)

244 Posted by: Wethal at August 07, 2022 10:49 AM (ZzVCK)
Thanks I have read the whole series of Matt Helm. Very enjoyable.

Posted by: Ciampino - It's not the CIA of spy novels at August 07, 2022 10:56 AM (qfLjt)

245 Pay no attention to the dreadful Dean Martin movies with the Matt Helm character.

Posted by: Wethal at August 07, 2022 10:49 AM (ZzVCK)

You watch those movies for Dean, not for the story or because you know the series.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 10:57 AM (7bRMQ)

246 No one really believes that Lincoln hunted vampires.

Cause they're all in Europe. North American cryptids are what Abe hunted.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at August 07, 2022 10:57 AM (KFhLj)

247 I will entertain recommendations LOL.
I also enjoy crime/police/detective novels and series.
Posted by: Ciampino

Check out Donald Westlake's Parker novels if you haven't already, and ditto Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series. Both are terrific reads. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books still hold up nicely too.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022

***
Concur on all! Westlake is better known for his comic crime stories like the Dortmunder series about hapless robbers (The Hot Rock and Bank Shot, in which the Seinfeld-like crooks steal the bank itself!). He wrote the tough Parker stories under the pen name "Richard Stark."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:58 AM (c6xtn)

248 Ninety-two of you have already identified T. S. Eliot. I'm just posting to let you know that I KNEW THAT.

Posted by: creeper at August 07, 2022 10:58 AM (cTCuP)

249 For Horacio Hornblower fans A&E has several two hour movies that are very well done
Posted by: LMD at August 07, 2022 10:42 AM (0BcGu)

I've got all 8 of those. Pretty neat. Filmed with an actual sailing ship, and some decent effects. "The Duel" "The Wrong War" and "Duty" are my favorites. It's kinda interesting how the old "Captain Horatio Hornblower" movie of 1977 fits into the timeline as almost a direct sequel to the A&E movies.

Oddly enough, the A&E movies never made me want to read the books. They felt....complete. There was no need to seek out the source material because it didn't feel like an adaptation. By contrast, the BBC's Richard Sharpe movies felt woefully incomplete: they were obvious adaptations that expected you to already know the source material. Those movies drove me to read the Sharpe books almost instantly. And, fortunately, my local library had the whole original run of them...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 07, 2022 10:58 AM (Lhaco)

250 It's probably already been said, but any dude wearing those pants needs to turn in his man card.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 07, 2022 10:59 AM (anj39)

251 Off I must go to Dollar Tree, and to Target for my Rxs, so later! Enjoy your good reads!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:59 AM (c6xtn)

252 Cause they're all in Europe. North American cryptids are what Abe hunted.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at August 07, 2022 10:57 AM (KFhLj)
----
I wondered why I hadn't seen any Sasquatches around here...Abe must have killed them all.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 10:59 AM (K5n5d)

253 It's probably already been said, but any dude wearing those pants needs to turn in his man card.
Posted by: Diogenes

He's also a candidate for the "Where The Sun Don't Shine Pox"

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:00 AM (T4tVD)

254 Westlake is better known for his comic crime stories like the Dortmunder series about hapless robbers (The Hot Rock and Bank Shot, in which the Seinfeld-like crooks steal the bank itself!). He wrote the tough Parker stories under the pen name "Richard Stark."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at August 07, 2022 10:58 AM (c6xtn)

Bank Shot is a funny movie. Do you remember the days when there were a lot of "mobile home" banks?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:01 AM (7bRMQ)

255 Ninety-two of you have already identified T. S. Eliot. I'm just posting to let you know that I KNEW THAT.
Posted by: creeper

Do you know who punched him in the eye ?

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:01 AM (T4tVD)

256 I had a copy of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats illustrated by Edward Gorey, at a garage sale, but I bought it because of the illustration, I had no idea it was the basis of Cats

Posted by: Kindltot at August 07, 2022 11:03 AM (xhaym)

257 Another huge fan of the Matt Helm series. They are all still available in paperback and as e-books. Start with the first one and read them all. They are excellent and fun reading. And Hamilton's attitudes would fit right in here on Ace. His non-Helm books, westerns and modern, are also great reading. I treasure my copies and passed some extra copies along to a nephew. I suspect they will find their way to his sisters over time.

Posted by: JTB at August 07, 2022 11:03 AM (7EjX1)

258 I seem to buy my oddest and most interesting finds at garage sales and from the Goodwill bin store.
Some of the worst, too.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 07, 2022 11:03 AM (xhaym)

259 Those pants are fine. I would wear them to turn in my man card.

Posted by: dude wearing those pants at August 07, 2022 11:04 AM (sn5EN)

260 Those movies drove me to read the Sharpe books almost instantly. And, fortunately, my local library had the whole original run of them...

Posted by: Castle Guy at August 07, 2022 10:58 AM (Lhaco)

What?! Books about white men doing manly things?! In our libraries?!

We'll get rid of those things right away!

Posted by: Karen, Fat, Purple Haired Bi Head Librarians Everywhere at August 07, 2022 11:04 AM (7bRMQ)

261 72 Hiya Weasel !
Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 09:29 AM (T4tVD)
----
Hiya! Hiya! Hiya!

Posted by: Weasel at August 07, 2022 11:06 AM (+H3qo)

262 239
Check out Donald Westlake's Parker novels if you haven't already, and ditto Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series. Both are terrific reads. Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books still hold up nicely too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022 10:53 AM (a/4+U)
----
Read all the Westlake/Stark stories, both Parker and his other funny character John Dortmunder. The other two authors I shall have to pursue. Thank you so much.

Posted by: Ciampino - The Hot Rock was funny at August 07, 2022 11:06 AM (qfLjt)

263
Guess who just went on Fake News to say, if Trumps runs, he would support biden in '24?

Rhymes with Sham.

Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:07 AM (bSn9B)

264 Rhymes with Sham.

Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:07 AM (bSn9B)

All of them?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:07 AM (7bRMQ)

265 The C.J. Box books are excellent !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:08 AM (T4tVD)

266 Ruth Rendell was mentioned upthread.

I tend to like her standalone more than the Inspector Wexford novels.

She had a good 3 novel run in the early 2000s with

Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (a great title since the thread includes good titles)
The Rottweiler
Thirteen Steps Down

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:09 AM (5NkmN)

267 The C.J. Box books are excellent !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:08 AM (T4tVD)

You bet! I love reading the back of the cereal boxes!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:10 AM (7bRMQ)

268 Rhymes with Sham.

Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:07 AM (bSn9B)

Miss Lindsey?...You can do crap like that w/a safe seat.

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 11:10 AM (AwYPR)

269 Speaking of great titles...

"NOPE" was a fabulous title.

unfortunately, it had zero to do with the movie and as a BONUS! acted as a one word review for the movie.

Sad.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:11 AM (5NkmN)

270 I picked up a copy of Sue grafton's L is for Lawless.

I thought it said L is for Lowlifes.

I think that is a better title.

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:13 AM (T4tVD)

271 My guilty pleasure: Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy. Some of the few books that actually let me sit back and relax and day dream.

Posted by: Diogenes at August 07, 2022 11:13 AM (anj39)

272 Bookish question, do any f our writers keep a journal or make a dossier of comments or events in their lives? I recall a social worker, I had to refer for discipline who did that on the unit. And aspiring writer, she visibly made notes on patients for "later use".

Posted by: CN, the deer-hater at August 07, 2022 11:15 AM (VuQO/)

273 Bret Devereaux is a historian, often focusing on military matters, and he's lately been doing an excellent series of blog posts on logistics. His blog is "A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry" and can be found here: https://acoup.blog

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:15 AM (QZxDR)

274 On a thread here recently there were several people recommending the movie The King's Choice, so I watched it Friday night. I enjoyed it. Poignant and well done.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 07, 2022 11:16 AM (k28UX)

275 Weasel here's book for you. Free on Gutenberg:

WATCH AND CLOCK ESCAPEMENTS
A Complete Study In Theory and Practice of the Lever, Cylinder and Chronometer Escapements, Together with a Brief Account of the Origin and Evolution of the Escapement in Horology

There appears to be a ton of math, so I know you'll like it.

https://bit.ly/3JCJUaT

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (sn5EN)

276
Sham is up for releection in '24.

He will not dare say shit like that before the primary.

Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (bSn9B)

277 Another great one-volume history of England for younger readers is Kipling's _History of England_. Of course, it stops at 1911, which means you can go right to Churchill's history of the Great War and then WWII.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (QZxDR)

278 Some of Ruth Rendell's stuff is wonderfully grim, in particular A Judgment in Stone. That one has one of the great grabbers of an opening. (Working from memory here, which ain't what it used to be: "Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could neither read nor write. But there was more to it than that.")

Stanley Ellin, particularly his short stories, ain't too dusty either.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022 11:18 AM (a/4+U)

279 Sham is up for releection in '24.

He will not dare say shit like that before the primary.

Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (bSn9B)

If it was Lindsay, Trump should immediately start searching for a primary challenger.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:18 AM (7bRMQ)

280 A title for a Far East-themed book should have a natural word innit. Clouds, River, Wind, Fields, Forest, etc.

Finished Benedict XVI's "Faith And Politics". Must-read stuff. Now I'm doing a re-read browse of James V. Schall's analysis of Benedict's "Regensburg Lecture". Titled "The Regensburg Lecture", Schall reveals the Lecture as a solid defense of the traditional university and it describes the decay of reason in what is left of Western Civilization. Benedict places the challenge of opportunistic Islamist terror as a result of modernist drift from reason to intellectual and moral dissolution in the western world.

After that, it's "Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and the Aesthetic of Revelation", by John D. Sykes, Jr. The review I read was good, and the book cost a pretty penny from Amazon, so, soon ...

Posted by: mrp at August 07, 2022 11:18 AM (6eRlp)

281 Great thread, as per usual, Perfessor.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(5pTK/) at August 07, 2022 11:19 AM (5pTK/)

282 Let's just skip over the part about Gallipoli.

Posted by: Sir Winston at August 07, 2022 11:19 AM (k28UX)

283 Goiters, Carbuncles, and Wens

Don't forget "Dilated Pores of Weiner"

Posted by: Fox2! at August 07, 2022 11:22 AM (ds0vf)

284 Guess who just went on Fake News to say, if Trumps runs, he would support biden in '24?

Rhymes with Sham.
Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:07 AM (bSn9B)

You gonna tell us? Do we have to keep guessing?

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 11:23 AM (AwYPR)

285 Nice thread once again.

Thanks, Perfesser, and a happy happy to you and Tuna.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022 11:23 AM (a/4+U)

286 My "popcorn" reading this week has been Hoyt and Correia's book _Monster Hunter: Guardian_, which is another in the ongoing MHI series. Fun stuff, lots of guns.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:24 AM (QZxDR)

287
Graham, obviously.

https://youtu.be/C5F5JKeIWVM?t=38

Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:27 AM (bSn9B)

288 Oh, and this is an article I ran across a few years ago that's appropriate for re-reading this month, by a man who was a POW in Japan at the time of the surrender. It's from Quillette, so the HTML link is about a paragraph long. Here's the tinified version: https://tinyurl.com/56y333fz

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:27 AM (QZxDR)

289 Guess who just went on Fake News to say, if Trumps runs, he would support biden in '24?

Rhymes with Sham.
Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:07 AM (bSn9B)

You gonna tell us? Do we have to keep guessing?
Posted by: BignJames

Wham ?
Bam ?
Thank You Ma'am ?

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:28 AM (T4tVD)

290 Of the choices provided, I like "Eternal Empire."
"Tigers, Dragons and Maoists sounds like it needs an "Oh, My!" at the end.

Posted by: Interesting Times at August 07, 2022 11:29 AM (ieN7O)

291 "Rhymes with Sham"

Sam?

Posted by: Wooly Bully at August 07, 2022 11:29 AM (sn5EN)

292 Here's the tinified version: https://tinyurl.com/56y333fz

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:27 AM (QZxDR)

Subscription required to view.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:29 AM (7bRMQ)

293 The Most 80s Music Video Ever, The Scorpions, with "Arizona":

https://youtu.be/KBTWoZzZ8B8

Underrated classic Scorps song AND vid.

Posted by: Sharkman at August 07, 2022 11:30 AM (jO1gQ)

294 Subscription required? That's weird. I don't have a subscription and I can read it just fine.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:30 AM (QZxDR)

295 Graham, obviously.

https://youtu.be/C5F5JKeIWVM?t=38
Posted by: Soothsayer's Untrue But Accurate Tales at August 07, 2022 11:27 AM (bSn9B)

I don't think he's supporting Biden...it's a little unclear, but I think he meant he's supporting Trump.

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 11:31 AM (AwYPR)

296 Escapements, Together with a Brief Account of the Origin and Evolution of the Escapement in Horology

There appears to be a ton of math, so I know you'll like it.

https://bit.ly/3JCJUaT
Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:17 AM (sn5EN)
---
I have a sneaking suspicion that "Escapement in Horology" does NOT mean running away from ladies of the night before they are paid for their services...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 11:33 AM (K5n5d)

297 Miss Lindsey?...You can do crap like that w/a safe seat.

Posted by: BignJames at August 07, 2022 11:10 AM (AwYPR)

Maybe its time to make it unsafe.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at August 07, 2022 11:33 AM (VwHCD)

298 283 Goiters, Carbuncles, and Wens

Don't forget "Dilated Pores of Weiner"

Posted by: Fox2! at August 07, 2022 11:22 AM (ds0vf)

You forgot furuncles

Posted by: Ciampino - furunculosis at August 07, 2022 11:34 AM (qfLjt)

299 The Maoists did murder a couple hundred millions, enough for a Oh My!

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2022 11:34 AM (k8B25)

300 In order to actually 'dig a hole to China', a child would need to start their journey in Chile or Argentina. The closest antipode city from San Francisco is Port-aux-Français, Kerguelen, French Southern Territories.

Posted by: Wooly Bully at August 07, 2022 11:34 AM (sn5EN)

301 Some great titles:
"Ghost Story" by Peter Straub
A stark, on point title that promises much and surprisingly delivers. That's a rarity.
"The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium" by Harry Matthews
Title promises the oddball, so it better deliver and it does.
"Stories My Mother Never Told Me" an Alfred Hitchcock anthology
What kind of stories would your Mother not tell you? I must read.
"Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon
An artsy-fartsy rendering of a scientific phenom. The title promises art, farts, and science and delivers.
"Far Tortuga" by Peter Matthiessen
Not a grab me by the throat title, but nicely evokes a sea journey. And keeps it's promise.
I feel the same way about this author's other novel title,
"At Play in the Fields of the Lord"

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:35 AM (5NkmN)

302 Regarding Titles:
If you're self-publishing, it's up to you. If you get a publisher, they may very well re-title it.

I once had a couple of opportunities to talk with one of my favorite writers, James P. Hogan, who had just finished writing a thriller. His title was Executive Misdirection, but when it came out its title was The Infinty Gambit. Since there was a group called "Infinty Ltd." in the book, it made sense, and gambit was in keeping with the thriller genre, so I liked the newer title.

Keep the title intriguing. It should get the publisher or reader curious enough to pick it up and have a look, then a read. Good luck.

Posted by: Andrew R at August 07, 2022 11:35 AM (gqKkr)

303 Subscription required? That's weird. I don't have a subscription and I can read it just fine.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:30 AM (QZxDR)

This page is for subscribers only.

George MacDonnell from Aug 2020? Above text is what I get. I see the picture and the title, but no access.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:35 AM (7bRMQ)

304 And aspiring writer, she visibly made notes on patients for "later use".
Posted by: CN, the deer-hater at August 07, 2022 11:15 AM (VuQO/)

Geez. I don't even know where to start with that kind of callous stupidity.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 11:36 AM (OX9vb)

305 304. Dangerous, too. A unit where nearly everyone was categorized as "a danger to self or others" was a stupid place to "take notes". I started with HR

Posted by: CN, the deer-hater at August 07, 2022 11:37 AM (VuQO/)

306
Anyone have a book where the title really grabbed you. It promised much, but-

boy, did it fail to deliver!

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:37 AM (5NkmN)

307 It wants me to sign up for their e-mail list to view. Nah.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:38 AM (7bRMQ)

308 You're right, OrangeEnt. It's behind a paywall. Two days ago when I bookmarked it, it wasn't. Weird. Oh, well, if anyone has a Quillette subscription it's worth reading.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:38 AM (QZxDR)

309 Re-read Sanderson's Reckoners Books this week.

Posted by: garrett at August 07, 2022 11:38 AM (CoQKp)

310 it's worth reading.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:38 AM (QZxDR)

Too bad, it sounds interesting. I'm more interested in the Pac war than Euro.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:39 AM (7bRMQ)

311 Pelosi's biography could be titled "You Have To Read This Book To See What's In It".

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:39 AM (sn5EN)

312 Pelosi's biography could be titled "You Have To Read This Book To See What's In It".
Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:39 AM (sn5EN)
---
What's weird is that applies to her as well.

She'll have to read her own biography to know her own life story...

No doubt it will be ghost written and sold as some part of grift.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 11:41 AM (K5n5d)

313 Yesterday was Hiroshima Day. Which is a day I always post a quip, as well an article by the late, great Paul Fussell, called "Thank God For The Atom Bomb":

https://tinyurl.com/Fussell-TG-4-A-Bomb (PDF download)

The quip is this: "Imagine a world without nuclear weapons?"

"Sure: September 1, 1939, 3:40 am local to August 6, 1945, 8:15 local . . . 65 million murdered human beings. That was ended by the Atomic Bombs."

Posted by: Sharkman at August 07, 2022 11:42 AM (jO1gQ)

314 "Escapement in Horology."

You pay them to leave.

Posted by: BJ Clinton at August 07, 2022 11:43 AM (k28UX)

315 "Stories My Mother Never Told Me" an Alfred Hitchcock anthology
What kind of stories would your Mother not tell you? I must read.

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:35 AM (5NkmN)
----
Alfred Hitchcock's anthologies usually had an eye-catching title like that. Often with a lot of dry humor involved.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 11:43 AM (K5n5d)

316 Anybody read the "The Sandman" comic books?

I watched the first episode last night, and was frankly bored. So bored that I fell asleep in the last ten minutes.

The problem?
There seemed to be zero stakes. Yeah, yeah "Sleepy Sickness" but no stakes for the people we followed.
And the Sandman's actions seemed...well stupid.

Was this a faithful rendering? If so, does the storyline get better?

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:44 AM (5NkmN)

317 Kamala's biography could be titled "My Amazing Life Story Of My Amazing Life That's Amazing".

Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:44 AM (sn5EN)

318 317 Kamala's biography could be titled "My Amazing Life Story Of My Amazing Life That's Amazing".
Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:44 AM (sn5EN)

Subtitled: The Significance of Significance.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at August 07, 2022 11:45 AM (OX9vb)

319 I read the Sandman comic as it came out. The first issues were quite gripping. I don't know how the TV people managed to screw that up -- a comic is basically a storyboard already prepared. Just set up each panel as a shot and you're done.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:46 AM (QZxDR)

320 "My Amazing Life Story Of My Amazing Life That's Amazing"

This book really sucked. 5 STARS!

Posted by: The NYT at August 07, 2022 11:46 AM (sn5EN)

321 "The Purpose of Purpose"

Posted by: mrp at August 07, 2022 11:46 AM (6eRlp)

322 Anybody read the "The Sandman" comic books?

I watched the first episode last night, and was frankly bored. So bored that I fell asleep in the last ten minutes.

The problem?
There seemed to be zero stakes. Yeah, yeah "Sleepy Sickness" but no stakes for the people we followed.
And the Sandman's actions seemed...well stupid.

Was this a faithful rendering? If so, does the storyline get better?
Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:44 AM (5NkmN)
---
I have read the Sandman comics. The stories are pretty much unfilmable because the main characters are cosmic entities dealing with deeply weird and metaphysical issues. It just doesn't translate well to the screen at all. I'm not surprised that the writers of the show don't seem to have a clue. That's pretty typical these days.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 11:46 AM (K5n5d)

323 Kamala's biography could be titled "My Amazing Life Story Of My Amazing Life That's Amazing".
Posted by: fd at August 07, 2022 11:44 AM (sn5EN)

"The Wind Blows and So Do I"

Posted by: naturalfake at August 07, 2022 11:47 AM (5NkmN)

324 Thanks for another great Book Thread !

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:48 AM (T4tVD)

325 I read the Sandman comic as it came out. The first issues were quite gripping. I don't know how the TV people managed to screw that up -- a comic is basically a storyboard already prepared. Just set up each panel as a shot and you're done.
Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:46 AM (QZxDR)
---
Except today's writers are hell-bent on telling THEIR stories, not the stories of the original author. They use the successful IP as a skinsuit.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 11:48 AM (K5n5d)

326

My favorite book of all time is aptly named "The Man From P.I.S.S.....
Poker Investigations, Sensible Solutions " It is indeed a great book, and you can find it at Smashwords. Yes I also authored it, so I may be a tad biased.

Posted by: John Campbell at August 07, 2022 11:48 AM (9D6aG)

327 More on Sandman: what's weird is that the "sleepy sickness" was a real thing. Gaiman just folded it into his story. Sounds like some fucking idiot of a screenwriter decided she could do a better job than the creator of the work.

To be honest, I gave up when I saw how they decided to cast Death. Obvious that scoring Diversity points was more important to them than a faithful adaptation. Never a good sign.

Though I have to say Gaiman has been burning a lot of my respect for him lately as well. In a puff piece "interview" promoting this show for the NYT he patted himself on the back a staunch advocate of Free Speech -- except for "Nazis" and "misinformation" and basically anybody he disagrees with.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:50 AM (QZxDR)

328 Ray Bradbury's titles were a delight: Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Town Where No One Got Off, The October Country, and so many more. Some of Harlan Ellison's too: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, All the Lies That Are My Life. Ditto Gerald Kersh: Night and the City, The Thousand Deaths of Mr. Small, Men Without Bones, Prelude to a Certain Midnight.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at August 07, 2022 11:51 AM (a/4+U)

329 Great thread, birthday boy. I immediately bought CBD'S recommended bio.

Posted by: CN, the deer-hater at August 07, 2022 11:51 AM (VuQO/)

330 Though I have to say Gaiman has been burning a lot of my respect for him lately as well. In a puff piece "interview" promoting this show for the NYT he patted himself on the back a staunch advocate of Free Speech -- except for "Nazis" and "misinformation" and basically anybody he disagrees with.
Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 11:50 AM (QZxDR)
---
Perhaps Gaiman has become a victim of his own success (like Stephen King). He feels he can say whatever he wants because people will still flock to his next book. Well, maybe. I have a few hundred books in my TBR pile to plow through first. I am in no hurry for the next Neil Gaiman book...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 07, 2022 11:53 AM (K5n5d)

331 Great thread, birthday boy. I immediately bought CBD'S recommended bio.
Posted by: CN, the deer-hater

What was that ?

Posted by: JT at August 07, 2022 11:57 AM (T4tVD)

332 More information and more fun on this thread than on many other sites, which don't exist by the way.

Thanks Perfessor and Horde.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at August 07, 2022 11:57 AM (7bRMQ)

333 My all-time favourite book title is A Scent of New-Mown Hay, by John Blackburn because I find it incredibly evocative.
It's a fairly obscure sci-fi novel, which possibly no one else on here has read. I certainly could be wrong about.
It's a cold war sci-fi/horror novel in which a Soviet experiment wrong and deadly spores are released, which turn human beings into walking fungi.
When one of the fungi monsters is close they smell like new mown hay.
Back to lurking.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, there are chickens in my trench at August 07, 2022 11:59 AM (eGTCV)

334 I have never read Gaiman but decades long suspect he was a Leftist

Posted by: Skip at August 07, 2022 11:59 AM (k8B25)

335 NOODlum

Posted by: Martini Farmer at August 07, 2022 12:02 PM (BFigT)

336 52 You people and your fancy reading!

Posted by: Weasel at August 07, 2022 09:21 AM (0IeYL)

I know. Right? Gives me a headache. And makes me feel dumb.

Posted by: Javems at August 07, 2022 12:03 PM (AmoqO)

337 In WWI, the scent of new-mown hay was the indication that you were being gassed. That causes cringes in Indianapolis every Memorial Day.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at August 07, 2022 12:08 PM (x61Im)

338 I wrote an autobiography once. It was was for some Catholic priests, to convince them to annul my first marriage. It started of with "I was born a poor white child". They smirked a bit during our meeting, or perhaps it was an inquisition (I not up on Catholic terminology). I think it was the $237.00 that did the trick.

Posted by: Javems at August 07, 2022 12:10 PM (AmoqO)

339 293 The Most 80s Music Video Ever, The Scorpions, with "Arizona":

https://youtu.be/KBTWoZzZ8B8

Underrated classic Scorps song AND vid.
Posted by: Sharkman at August 07, 2022 11:30 AM (jO1gQ)

Scorpions have US tour dates this fall, with Whitesnake. This is David Coverdale's retirement tour for Whitesnake, so really considering dropping the $$$ to go see.

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at August 07, 2022 12:14 PM (SEa82)

340 It's fun to sometimes find the book...

My response when a bookstore worker sees me looking at my want list and asks if they can order something for me. I’m not here for the books on my list. I’m here for the books not on my list.

Also, I’m probably only in town for a few hours.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at August 07, 2022 12:17 PM (U+Oxn)

341 Kept from going to church because of a dead battery, I can continue to enjoy the thread earlier than usual.

In regard to titles, some of the best I've seen were in the comics series 100 Bullets. "First Shot, Last Call," for example. The trade collections also had imaginative titles. One was titled "Wilt," because the volume number -- 11? -- matched the jersey number worn by Wilt Chamberlin.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 12:20 PM (Om/di)

342 Regarding Matt Helm (you thought I'd leave that alone?):

I realized the other day that the movies took the titles of the earlier books because Hamilton hadn't written the later ones when the movie series flopped.

The Helm books followed a titling pattern, too -- "The" followed by a potboiler noun, such as "Ravagers." The only exceptions were "Death of a Citizen" and "Murderer's Row."

Also, you need not read the books in order. Hamilton wrote them with untold missions between books. I would have loved to have read the Cuban assignment.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 12:34 PM (Om/di)

343 Thing is, I suspect Gaiman doesn't actually believe a lot of the things he says. He's just being a good little Party member parroting the Party line.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 12:35 PM (QZxDR)

344 I found the article about "Normandy 44 and the Battle for France" by James Holland to be both interesting and very personal. My father was a Master Sargent in the Quartermaster Corps. during the Battle of the Bulge. He supplied food to our troops and also earned a Purple Heart when his jeep hit an IED.

Thanks for the contributions all of your readers mad on this subject! I'm a daily fan...

Jim

Posted by: Jim Campbell at August 07, 2022 12:36 PM (h3fmf)

345 He's just being a good little Party member parroting the Party line.
Posted by: Trimegistus at August 07, 2022 12:35 PM (QZxDR)

Yep
That's how they get ya

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 12:44 PM (gbzeC)

346 320 "My Amazing Life Story Of My Amazing Life That's Amazing"

This book really sucked. 5 STARS!

Posted by: The NYT at August 07, 2022 11:46 AM (sn5EN)
----
This book really sucked. 5 GOLFBALLS!

Posted by: Ciampino - furunculosis when there's lots at August 07, 2022 01:21 PM (qfLjt)

347 337 In WWI, the scent of new-mown hay was the indication that you were being gassed. That causes cringes in Indianapolis every Memorial Day.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at August 07, 2022 12:08 PM (x61Im)
----
New-mown hay smell is due to coumarin. Poison gas that also smells like that is Phosgene (Carbonyl Chloride COCl2). Destroys the lungs.

Posted by: Ciampino - at August 07, 2022 01:48 PM (qfLjt)

348 A question for the horde. I've just seen the movie "Thirteen Lives", which is about the rescue of the boys' soccer team from a flooded cavern in Thailand (and which, BTW, I thought was quite good). Can anyone recommend a book about the rescue? The movie has whetted my desire to learn more about the rescue. Thanks!

Posted by: Nemo at August 07, 2022 01:55 PM (S6ArX)

349 I don't have a book for you Nemo but I want to second your recommendation on "Thirteen Lives". I though it was great, my wife liked it as well but occasionally had to stand up and stretch her arms to remind herself she wasn't stuck in a narrow watery tunnel.

Posted by: motionview, a National Divorcee at August 07, 2022 02:25 PM (m7Ses)

350 Several mentions above of two of Donald Westlake's series: the Parker crime capers stories (by "Richard Stark") and the Dortmunder comic crime caper novels. An interesting detail: the first Dortmunder book began as a Parker story. The plot revolves around a criminal crew hired to steal a sacred jewel. They do so but circumstances force them to steal it again. Several times. Westlake was working on it when he realized that the story was begging to become a comedy (something that would not work with the grim character of Parker as the central figure). So he invented John Dortmunder, a chronically unlucky master thief, and his sundry sidekicks and launched them on their own series.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at August 07, 2022 02:38 PM (w6mSC)

351 The Eternal Empire

Posted by: Yawrate at August 07, 2022 02:53 PM (518OI)

352 Nemo, not a book, but Nat Geo has a good documentary on it. Can't remember the title.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at August 07, 2022 03:03 PM (gbzeC)

353 And later Westlake had Dortmunder base a plan on a (non-existent) Parker novel.

While I'm gasbagging, I'll mention that Westlake and another author (can't remember name) told the same episode from different POVs. Westlake's book was "Drowned Hopes"; the other was "88 (or was it 22?) Cadillacs" -- which I picked up solely because of the title.

The episode had a repo man encounter Dortmunder's gang. Mother Murch fetched a potato to stop the repo guy.

When I got to that scene in "Cadillacs," I burst out laughing.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 03:07 PM (Om/di)

354 Corrections:

Book is "32 Cadillacs" by Joe Gores. The Dan Kearney Associates series.

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 07, 2022 03:12 PM (Om/di)

355 A recognition of this is why I really enjoy military sci-fi/fantasy. William Forstchen Lost Regiment series is a great eaxmple. But even Elizabeth Moon in her Deed of Pasknarrion mentions the importance of logistics in the 2nd book of the trilogy.

-SLV
Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at August 07, 2022 10:39 AM

Elizabeth Moon is a Marine.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at August 07, 2022 03:46 PM (6jmQG)

356 A.H.Lloyd had this request:

At this point, the need for a title is not something I can continue to put off. Here's what I'm looking at. All have the same subtitle "A military history of China 2500 BC to 2020 AD."

Whatever the title, he should fix his subtitle. This is correct:
"A military history of China 2500 BC to AD 2020."

Posted by: bradc at August 07, 2022 05:00 PM (4HcnS)

357 I am making $92/hour telecommuting. I never imagined that it was honest to goodness yet my closest companion is earning $21 thousand a month by working on the connection, that was truly astounding for me, she prescribed me to attempt it simply. That is what I do... http://www.salarycash1.com

Posted by: Sarah at August 07, 2022 05:14 PM (zQZ1l)

358 On titles:

The late Philip K. Dick was awesome with titles. I aspire to that level of brilliance.

Also, one of the best titles I’ve ever seen was for a graphic novel: "All You Need Is Kill." How can you NOT pick up a book with that title?!?

They made a (pretty good) movie out of it, starring Tom Cruise, but they switched the title to the fairly boring "Edge Of Tomorrow," which sounds like a generic direct-to-video movie.

Posted by: Ex-liberal at August 07, 2022 05:43 PM (XdH1u)

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