Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-09-2023 ["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. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless 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, fire up that waffle iron, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

All Hail Eris posted the following comment last week:

I did a Pinterest pull on "bathroom libraries" and there were some splendiferous, nay, commodious examples of luxe libraries.
Some are centered on the bathtub, but a few brave examples show a terlit surrounded by shelves.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 02, 2023 09:12 AM (CiQt2)

So I thought I'd dig up a pic of a man (maybe me) sitting in his tub surrounded by his favorite friends. I would visit my grandparents when I was younger (they passed away a number of years ago), and they had a shelf of Reader's Digest magazines in the bathroom. In my current house, the bathrooms are among the few rooms that *don't* have books in them, though the master bath does have bookshelves right outside the door.

A SERIES ON SERIES...

As I've been reading the Special Agent Pendergast series lately, it occurred to me that there are several *types* of series, though there are different ways of categorizing them. Let's do a quick recap of some possible categorizations. I'll go into more details about them in future installments of the Sunday Morning Book Thread.

"Closed" or "Complete" Series -- I use this term to refer to series such as trilogies, quadrilogies, quintets, sextets, etc. Any series that has a story that is told in a very specific number of books with a well-defined beginning, middle, and end. Most of these can be found in the fantasy genre, though you'll also find them in the science fiction genre, or even a blended genre of fantasy and science fiction. You can thank the Series That Shall Not Be Named written by a certain Oxford professor for kickstarting this type of series. These series tend to be plot-driven, rather than character-driven, though there are, of course, exceptions to every rule

Open-ended Series -- An open-ended series is much more character-driven than the previous category. Often, they revolve around a single character or even a small group of characters who then go on a series of adventures. Successful authors who write these stories can write them indefinitely if they continue to make money for the publisher. In extreme cases, an open-ended series might be written by numerous authors if the original author passes away and the publisher is able to continue the series. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books are a classic case of this type of series that are written indefinitely. In some open-ended series, you may find character development over time, while in others, the characters are relatively static and don't change much from book to book.

Series-Within-Series -- Some authors choose to write multiple series set within the same universe, thus creating their own massive worlds with complex plots and characters that may crisscross and intersect with each other. Brandon Sanderson's "Cosmere" is a good example of this where he has numerous series of books that are all interconnected through the overarching "Cosmere." Terry Brooks' Shannara series contains numerous trilogies and quadrilogies all set within a linear timeline spanning thousands of years.

Collaborative Series -- This is a somewhat unusual category. I'm not talking about a series written by a writing duo, like Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. No, this is a series where each book is written by a different author, yet the series as a whole tells a coherent story using the same characters (mostly) from book to book. I have a few interesting examples of this that I'll discuss in a future Sunday Morning Book Thread because I find it a fascinating exercise in collaborative writing. It doesn't always work, though. You can often find them in series that are set in an Expanded Universe like Star Wars or Forgotten Realms.

Anyway, these are just a few ways in which series of books can be categorized. I'm sure there are lots of other variations out there. Many categorizations might be genre-dependent, so I'd love to know if there are specific series categories that may show up in romance, for instance, or westerns, or mysteries that don't show up in other genres. As always, I tend to use examples from my own reading experience and I'd love to hear about your own examples down in the comments.

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BOOKS BY MORONS

A Symphony of Sorrows (Book 1 of The Vivichemist's Codex) by Keira Zelek
Ebook is available for purchase at $5.99, or can be read for free with a Kindle Unlimited subscription. A paperback version is coming soon, roughly estimated to release within the next 3 months. As of right now, however, I haven't set a price point for it yet.
Link: A Symphony of Sorrows
Description:
One more job shouldn't have mattered.
As a Royal Vivichemical Physician serving the Mantle of the Sovereign, he'd dealt with more than his share of the aristocracy before. Blood, sweat, sleepless nights, and a willingness to do what many would decry as wrong were how he achieved his worth. After all, it takes a certain kind of man to willingly enter the medical profession. And, for three-hundred and sixty-five years, Azarel Vyrzan was considered the best in his field.
He never expected a simple misdiagnosis to cost him everything.
With his Mantle revoked and himself under investigation for murder, Azarel has been forced to remain homebound, spending the last fourteen years of his everlasting life stuck in mundanity. So, when a mysterious letter arrives from an emperor in a foreign land, Azarel figures he has nothing left to lose by accepting a contract halfway across the known world.
He couldn't have been any more wrong.
A Symphony of Sorrows is the first book in The Vivichemist's Codex, a darkly insidious fantasy series filled with courtly intrigue, strange bedfellows, and horrors inspired by the ghoulishness of Victorian-era medicine.

Keira has an additional question for the Horde:

I'm also more than happy to talk to any fellow members of the Horde, and take whatever advice they'd be willing to share with me. Being a first-timer (and an admittedly cocky 26 year old who wants to turn her writing into a full-time career), it has definitely been a very daunting experience trying to figure all of this stuff out, haha.
If it helps at all, my rough estimate for getting the paperback released is hopefully within the next 3 months. The main problem I'm running into right now is figuring out how to do the formatting for it, and if I need to obtain a Library of Congress Control Number before I can actually publish it. I did buy my own ISBN for the ebook, so I know how to do that, thankfully. The part that's irritating me a little bit is that I used the Kindle Create program that Amazon has to do my ebook, and I thought it was also supposed to do formatting for the physical copies. But, as I'm reading through KDP, it apparently doesn't accept files made with Kindle Create and only wants them in some ultra-specific PDF format. So, it's been a little bit of a nightmare trying to figure out the paperback side of things. It is coming, though.

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Weirddave alerted me to a new release from Moron Author Matt DiPalma on the Thursday Night ONT:

You should mention Tears of Jet [Amazon Link - PS], new book by Moron author Matt DiPalma (I don't know his screen name). I won his first book, For Love Of Dora, at the NoVaMoMe a couple of years ago and really liked it. I told him so, and mentioned it on an ONT. He just sent me this one and I'm enjoying it as well. Sci-fi, I'm about 75% through.
Posted by: Weirddave at July 06, 2023 10:14 PM (uwLpe)

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Currently I'm on a Lawrence Block kick. Resume Speed is a 2016 novella in book form; crime is involved only on the edges, and it's still terrifically readable. Right now, his short story collection Catch and Release from Hard Case Crime. It contains one story, "Dolly's Trash and Treasures," featuring the ultimate hoarder. The writing is a tour de force: There are no dialog tags, no "he said" or "He scratched his chin," dialog only. Yet we always know who is talking because characters address each other by name, and the voice of the title character is very different from the people from Child Protective Services who are visiting her, etc.
I want to copy a page or two of this and bring it to the guy in my writing group who complains he often does not know who is speaking in my work. He seems to think you have to have a dialog tag a lot more often than you do.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 02, 2023 09:10 AM (omVj0)

Comment: I teach writing to students. Not creative writing, though I encourage them to use elements of storytelling in at least one of their assignments, as that will make for a more engaging paper. When we learn how to teach writing, we are encouraged to model the behavior we want to see. For example, showing the writer in the writing group a sample and then demonstrating the process through your own writing is one way to illustrate just *why* that writing technique can be used effectively for telling a story.

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I recently read an oldie-but-still-goodie: The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar (by Julius Caesar). It's nothing but an account of battles, marches, massacres and betrayals -- and yet it's fascinating and very "readable." All the Romans have basically the same three or four names in different order, and all the Gauls have incomprehensible mishmashes of vowels and Xs, but Caesar's a good enough writer that you never have any trouble following what's going on, or who's betraying who.
One rather grim but evocative element is how Caesar's treatment of the Gauls gets worse over time. At first he's trying to win hearts and minds, resolve their disputes with each other and treat them fairly, but after a decade of this shit he's selling entire tribes into slavery and cutting off the hands of all the men in a village to get his message across that you Don't Fuck With Caesar.
Anyway, it's a classic, it's good, and I have no idea which of the dozens of English translations is the best one.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 02, 2023 09:20 AM (QZxDR)

Comment: There a lot to learn from the conquerors of the past. They all had to put down rebellions among the populations they conquered. And in the end, the empires they founded eventually collapsed. There's a lesson there, I'm sure, but today's leaders are too blind to see it. Remember, THOU ART MORTAL!

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My recommendation this week is Impact, by Douglas Preston, of Preston and Child fame. Abbey Straw is a young woman with remarkable intelligence and a limited potential, growing up poor in a coastal Maine town. Working as a waitress, she has to regularly decide between saving to return to college or buying things like lenses for her telescope. One night, she is out with her telescope, and sees a meteor hit the earth. Driven by discovery and the potential for selling a valuable specimen, she goes in search of the object. Meanwhile, Wyman Ford is tasked by the US government to travel to literally the other side of the world to trace the source of some gemstones that appear to be nothing ever seen on the planet before, that have a refraction index higher than diamonds, and which also happen to be radioactive. At the same time, a NASA scientist has found evidence for a gamma ray point source on the planet Mars. How are these three separate incidents related?
This is a fast paced and well written book, and like his books co-written with Lincoln Child, the science is accurate, if unbelievable. Highly enjoyable.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 02, 2023 09:30 AM (DZzNH)

Comment: Thomas Paine has recommended a number of Preston & Child books recently. I can't blame him. I picked some up cheap at a library book sale. Now I've been blazing my way through the Agent Pendergast series. Definitely interesting characters and weird mysteries that usually have a mundane solution of some kind, if a bit far-fetched in some cases.

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I have finished reading James Fenimore Cooper's "The Spy".
It is a novel about espionage and fighting during the American Revolution, providing an interesting window into a different era and a different (upper class, somewhat Tory) sensibility. It can be captivating at times.
The sentences are longer and the descriptions go on for a bit longer than standard English-language writing does nowadays. Perhaps it hasn't felt the influence of college writing classes.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Posted by: PG at July 02, 2023 10:04 AM (84jHt)

Comment: Novels have changed a lot since 1821, when this book was written. So yes, the language, syntax, and structure will be unfamiliar and even jarring to the modern reader, who tends to prefer short, quick, simpler texts. Still, there is a delightful elegance when reading passages from early American novels. Cooper's father was a Congressman in the fledgling republic, so Cooper no doubt would have heard amazing stories of heroism and intrigue from those who lived through those dark times (he was born in 1789). Cooper's own personal life was also quite colorful.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (865 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

I read one of the Agent Pendergast novels by Preston & Child that I bought at a recent library book sale. So I decided to buy a few more to fill in the gaps in the storyline. The books are largely independent (with a few exceptions), but it helps to read all of them to get a better picture of the overall story arc. Also, they are pretty well written and highly entertaining.

Special Agent Pendergast Book 13 - White Fire

Special Agent Pendergast Book 14 - Blue Labyrinth

Special Agent Pendergast Book 15 - Crimson Shore

Special Agent Pendergast Book 16 - The Obsidian Chamber

Special Agent Pendergast Book 17 - City of Endless Night

Special Agent Pendergast Book 18 - Verses for the Dead

Special Agent Pendergast Book 19 - Crooked River

Special Agent Pendergast Book 20 - Bloodless

Special Agent Pendergast Book 21 - The Cabinet of Dr. Leng

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast must solve a hundred-year-old mystery while also stopping a murderer in the present.

Brimstone by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast investigates a series of murders that have a whiff of demonic energy associated with them.

The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- With the help of some associates, Agent Pendergast breaks out of a maximum-security federal prison to stop his brother Diogenes from implementing an evil scheme worthy of the Joker.

The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast is tasked with retrieving a stolen Tibetan artifact that allegedly has the power to wipe humanity off the face of the earth.

Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast must solve a Scooby-Doo mystery involving zombies that killed his friend.

Fever Dream by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast finds out his wife--who he thought had been torn apart by lions while on safari--had, in fact been *murdered.*

Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast disappears under mysterious circumstances while on a hunting trip with his brother-in-law.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the 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 discussion topics 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 - 07-02-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOOKS yay

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 09, 2023 09:00 AM (BRHaw)

2 Read one more chapter in the railroad novel. Slow going, but the story may start picking up speed.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 09:02 AM (Angsy)

3 Matt Labash turned me on to "Orwell On Truth," a collection of excerpts from G.O.'s writings. It's a brisk read, pithy, quotable. Recommended. I found it on CloudLibrary.
https://tinyurl.com/4fy8m4sw

Posted by: Dig gp Must at July 09, 2023 09:03 AM (MvF+J)

4 Those pants are a bit hard to swallow.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 09:03 AM (Angsy)

5 Still doing a re-read of the Mitch Rapp series. On book 7 now.

Posted by: vic at July 09, 2023 09:04 AM (A5THL)

6 Tolle Lege
1/2 way through a suggestion from Legalinsurrection.com
Irresistible Revolution : Marxism's goal of Conquest & Unmaking of the American Military by Mathew Lohmeier
The Cultural Marxists are using indoctrination to brainwash the military, and it is in all branches.

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 09:05 AM (xhxe8)

7 I read Lords of Uncreation, the third of the Final Architecture trilogy, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. A very good space opera with a satisfying ending.

On the Kindle I read Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam by Paul Clayton. Not the greatest writing, but some interesting scenes portrayed as Melcher is drafted in 1968 and sent to the 4th Inf. Division in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Clayton also wrote a disappointing ending.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 09, 2023 09:05 AM (t98tm)

8 Finished 'Bad Blood' by Wall Street Journal's John Carreyrou, recounting the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. It's an easy, quick read, but oddly enough, less engaging than the TV series "The Dropout" that tells the same story. A rare case where the filmed story is better than the written one.

Posted by: Dr. Mabusette at July 09, 2023 09:05 AM (ALNX4)

9 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

I guess my books would count as an open-ended series.

Haven't done any real reading or writting this week; the weather has sapped my mind and strength. Had a few too many last night, so not feeling tip-top today.

I have a shelf of books in my bathroom; mostly trash paperbacks that I don't mind suffering from humidity or shower splash.

Sorry, just rambling today.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 09, 2023 09:07 AM (AW0uW)

10 Just about done with A Few Acres of Snow, a book about the French and Indian wars. Good read but the author's comments are bit much.
Farewell, My Lovely by R Chandler is my beach book. Might be my only Marlowe book.

Posted by: Jamaica NYC at July 09, 2023 09:07 AM (Eeb9P)

11 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was delightfully varied.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:08 AM (7EjX1)

12 A husband and wife team wrote a series of Christian historical fiction, Thoene was their name, iirc right. I read the ones about WWII and enjoyed them. I think they also had a series about the creation of Israel. I didn't read that one. I think this falls under the first category of complete series.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at July 09, 2023 09:08 AM (ebhEj)

13 Good Sunday morning, horde!

That's a lot of content.

*Trots back to the top to read it...are we allowed to run in the library?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 09, 2023 09:08 AM (OX9vb)

14 'TV series "The Dropout"'

Added to my list, thanks!

Posted by: Dig gp Must at July 09, 2023 09:08 AM (MvF+J)

15 Mulford's Hopalong Cassidy books, and Louis L'Amour Sackett books would be open ended western series.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 09:08 AM (Angsy)

16 On a recommendation here I tried "The Borrowers" kids book by Mary Norton. The story and illustrations are charming. Not to the extent of the Brambly Hedge books or "Wind in the Willows" but worth my time. I got a one volume hardcover edition of all the stories which is nicely bound and surprisingly affordable. BTW, the local used book store has a huge children's section. I looked for editions there and was told they are sold as soon as they come in. I wonder if grandparents are snapping them up since their own copies are probably gone.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:09 AM (7EjX1)

17 That Symphony of Sorrows book reminds me of a story about one of Queen Victoria's lady's maids (names escape me, sorry). Her belly began swelling and both the Queen and royal doctor believed her to be pregnant. As she was single, she was instantly dismissed from court. A few months later, she died and the autopsy revealed that she wasn't pregnant, but had some sort of cyst or growth that mimicked a pregnancy.

The royal doctor was so ashamed and embarrassed at his misdiagnosis that he killed himself.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 09, 2023 09:10 AM (AW0uW)

18 For open-ended series, I would submit Piers' Anthony's Xanth stories, plus any number of mysteries -- Perry Mason and Nero Wolfe at the top.

For collaborative series: Thieves' World and Wild Cards.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:10 AM (p/isN)

19 Is 'Commentaries on the Gallic Wars' the same thing as 'The Conquest of Gaul' by Caesar?

Posted by: dantesed at July 09, 2023 09:10 AM (88xKn)

20 Question. How does one drain that lovely tub?

Posted by: The Barrel at July 09, 2023 09:11 AM (RIvkX)

21 After purring along for most of the story, "Pronto" downshifted and never seemed to get back in top gear. I can see why Elmore Leonard did this; uneventful airline flights make for dull reading. It was just his technique -- a chapter opens with characters in discussions about what happened during the time skip -- that threw me off track.

After the last page was an advertisement for the sequel. I knew that Rayland Givens would survive the story because Leonard wrote more books featuring him, and he wound up with a TV series. ("Justified," I think.) But now that I know that other characters are coming back, too, the sequel goes on the list.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:11 AM (p/isN)

22 I just finished the graphic novel "The Light Brigade," written by Peter J. Tomasi, who once was an editor at DC Comics. Although it was originally published in four issues, I consider it a GN.

It deals with a WWII U.S. Army squad that gets mixed up in a war between angels and half-breed angels, the latter of whom want revenge against the Almighty for attempting to eradicate them in the Great Flood. Also in the mix are the spear that pierced Jesus's body* and a cosmic sword. It's pretty much a straightforward battle story with dismemberment and discussions of faith. Recommend reading but not keeping.

*Although this was published by DC, I don't think this is the Spear of Destiny that is in the DC Universe.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:12 AM (p/isN)

23 I wonder if 'these pants' are just reused old sun room curtains. They aren't bad mind you, just weird for pants.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:12 AM (7EjX1)

24 /plumbing sock off

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 09, 2023 09:14 AM (RIvkX)

25 I'm not saying I would kill for those book shelves in the top photo. But that guy in the tub had better stay alert. (He can keep the tub. I want the shelves and the room.)

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:15 AM (7EjX1)

26 Morning, fellow readers! Any week where the esteemed Perfessor quotes me is by definition a good one.

Until recent years, a lot of my reading was in open-ended series, such as the classical mystery: Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr, Rex Stout, the Spenser and other series by Robert Parker. There is more character development in modern series, I guess, though there were bursts of that in the EQ series after WWII.

Series-Within-Series: I'd say the Polesotechnic League/Empire of Earth stories by Poul Anderson fall in that category. There are multiple stories about secret agent Dominic Flandry, for instance, set in the same universe as the earlier-set Nicholas van Rijn tales.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:16 AM (omVj0)

27 thanks for the prendergast recommendation, yes that use of perspective wasn't jarring, I admit my own submission puts too many details, to the reader all at once,

Posted by: no 6 at July 09, 2023 09:16 AM (PXvVL)

28 Court Spokesman: Remember, THOU ART MORTAL!

Blow it out yer ass!

Posted by: Marcus Vindictus at July 09, 2023 09:16 AM (Angsy)

29 Just finished reading Martin Dugard’s “Last Voyage of Columbus”. It was fairly well balanced in that he showed Columbus as both a devout Catholic and a man obsessed with riches and fame which was common for that era. What I enjoyed most was the fact that Columbus was a navigational wizard and an excellent ships captain. He was so good that his rivals believed he was possessed. Dugard also covered the political machinations prevalent between the world powers of that time. He also does not sugar coat the ways of the natives that Columbus had dealings with. I recommend it if you enjoy history and stories of seamanship.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at July 09, 2023 09:17 AM (RqUF/)

30 Still re-reading Monster Hunter International. Been a busy week, getting ready to leave in the morning for a road trip to Ohio.

Posted by: lin-duh at July 09, 2023 09:17 AM (UUBmN)

31 As for Collaborative Series, we're seeing Robert Parker's Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Western Appaloosa series continued by new writers since RP's death.

I can't think right now of a series where the original author is still living, still writing in the series, and yet other authors are contributing volumes. Maybe, the Man-Kzin Wars stories based in Larry Niven's Known Space? LN himself is still writing things set in that universe, I think, but the paperback series of anthologies about the wars between kzinti and men has been going on for a long time.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:18 AM (omVj0)

32 A month or so ago, I posted a review of The Russo-Ukrainian War, by Serhii Plokhy, a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard. It covers all of Ukrainian history, but emphasizes the current war. At the time, I noted that he has another book, The Gates of Europe, originally published in 2015, but now updated. This book is a history of Ukraine from early days, but goes into more pre-war historical depth than the RUW. The short version is that the area now known as Ukraine is in a very tough neighborhood, with repeated invasions, occupations, and massacres, as groups like the Greeks, Mongols, Ottomans, Poles, Lithuanians, Austrians, Germans, and, of course Russians, fought over control of the land. The resulting cultural fault lines partially explain why the country has had such a tragic past.

The Gates of Europe is an excellent and excellently written book, and the two books together provide a very solid foundation for evaluating the geopolitical context of the current war's origins.

Highly recommended.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 09, 2023 09:19 AM (eOEVl)

33 Someone made pants from one of Dr. Jill Biden's old dresses.

Posted by: huerfano at July 09, 2023 09:19 AM (7zEAH)

34 After learning about Wendell Berry poetry from the Malcolm Guite YT videos, I found Berry's many non-fiction works. He writes beautifully (not a surprise after reading his poetry) and his approach to living resonates with me. Wish I had learned of him 50 years ago. I got a two-volume hardcover edition of most of his essays published by Library of America. Not inexpensive but the binding and paper is quality and his essays are ones I will read many times.

It's slow reading because I savor the writing. And he touches on so many topics and philosophies that are important to me, with connections (made by me, not him) to Tolkien and CS Lewis among others. I'm doomed but enjoying it. This is the kind of reading that calls for a comfy chair and a pipe of good tobacco.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:20 AM (7EjX1)

35 Good morning all! Thank you Perfessor for the lovely Book Thread!

Posted by: SuperMayorSuperRonNirenberg-Your Mayor Is WEAK, Not Me Though, Buffest Mayor EVAH! at July 09, 2023 09:21 AM (9yMwu)

36 12' tall bookshelves - YES
tub in a library, please NO

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 09, 2023 09:22 AM (wE4Se)

37 Jack Vance had a really cool set up where his Sci-fi novels mostly all took place in the same "Universe".

Series would cluster around a given "cluster".

The guy was really amazing and I got very angry when I recently saw him dismissed as "light space opera" and "space operetta".

His late career Cadwall series is brilliant and beautiful.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 09, 2023 09:22 AM (SsHIN)

38 Lately I've been reading my way through Richard Henry Dana's _Two Years Before the Mast_, which I picked up for cheap along with some other history paperbacks.

Dana was a Harvard man who, by his own account, suffered vision problems after a bout of measles in 1834, which made it hard for him to continue his studies.

His treatment for this was to sign on as an able-bodied seaman aboard a merchant brig sailing from Boston to California by way of Cape Horn. I don't know if doctors in the 1830s were lunatics, or whether "I need a rest cure so I'm going to be a sailor" was the acceptable social code phrase for "I'm bored out of my mind at Harvard and there isn't a war going on right now so I'll risk my life some other way."

Because by his own account, being a sailor in those days was an endless round of very hard physical labor, interrupted by hours or even days of sleepless terror whenever the ocean decided to try to kill everyone. No power equipment, no engines. Everything was done by muscle power, and a merchant carried a crew of only 20, not the hundreds of a man-of-war.

Anyway: great book. Makes a good accompaniment to Moby Dick. Recommended.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023 09:22 AM (QZxDR)

39 In my Lawrence Block kick, I've just finished his very first (non-erotica) crime novel, Sinner Man from 1960, reissued by Hard Case Crime about six years ago. The lead is a Connecticut insurance agent, very middle-class, who accidentally kills his wife. So he bugs out, creates a new persona for himself, and works his way into a new organization and starts a new way of life . . . into the Mob as a tough guy. He eventually does have to kill people, reluctantly. Though he becomes less reluctant, it seems, as time goes by. Not an "I killed my wife and I regret it with all my soul" kind of story at all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:24 AM (omVj0)

40 It deals with a WWII U.S. Army squad that gets mixed up in a war between angels and half-breed angels, the latter of whom want revenge against the Almighty for attempting to eradicate them in the Great Flood.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:12 AM (p/isN)
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The Nephilim aka Giants. The First Book of Enoch has a few things to say about these guys, none of it good.

Tolkien parallels this discussion, by having various Valar assume the role of Archangel Michael in advocating Melkor's imprisonment.

Enoch has a bit of a twist on it that Tolkien omits: the fallen angels must watch their progeny get slaughtered before being confined to the Pit for an eternity of suffering. Enoch is the most metal book in Scripture.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 09, 2023 09:24 AM (llXky)

41 This week I reread The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons. Published in 1978; I first read it in about 1981. When it first came out Stephen King called it one of the 10 best horror fiction novels (May have come out before The Shining.)

It creeped me out all over again; very well written and hardly anything that "dates" it. Excellent psychological development.

Posted by: skywch at July 09, 2023 09:26 AM (uqhmb)

42 Anyone else ever hear of the Guardians series by Richard Austin (IIRC)? I read a bit of that in HS and I will not pretend it’s great lit. But it passed the time when in HS…

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 09, 2023 09:27 AM (7IPpw)

43 Lately I've been reading my way through Richard Henry Dana's _Two Years Before the Mast_, which I picked up for cheap along with some other history paperbacks....

Anyway: great book. Makes a good accompaniment to Moby Dick.

It's one of my favorite books. It's also a book I recommend that every young man read, not only to remind them how soft things are now, but to tell them that men once could and did do these things. You're capable of a lot more than you think, despite what today's ads tell you.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 09, 2023 09:27 AM (eOEVl)

44 He also does not sugar coat the ways of the natives that Columbus had dealings with. I recommend it if you enjoy history and stories of seamanship.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at July 09, 2023 09:17 AM (RqUF/)

Why would anyone have to sugar coat the American hemisphere natives? They were all peaceful and living in harmony with nature and themselves. No war, plenty of food, respect for all, and they honored and revered the non-binary LBQWERT+-=! None of that icky church stuff like the European invaders! It was a paradise I tell you!!!1

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 09:28 AM (Angsy)

45 Isn't Hard Case Crime a treasure?

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:29 AM (p/isN)

46 For example, showing the writer in the writing group a sample and then demonstrating the process through your own writing is one way to illustrate just *why* that writing technique can be used effectively for telling a story.

My prediction: The writer in WA's group will dismiss it as wrong.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 09:30 AM (Angsy)

47 A "netflix for books" would mail them to you though instead of having you go there.

A library is more a "redbox" of books.

Posted by: 18-1 at July 09, 2023 09:31 AM (lc5cP)

48 Why would anyone have to sugar coat the American hemisphere natives? They were all peaceful and living in harmony with nature and themselves. No war, plenty of food, respect for all, and they honored and revered the non-binary LBQWERT+-=! None of that icky church stuff like the European invaders! It was a paradise I tell you!!!1

It was, until the war with Wakanda. That changed everything.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 09, 2023 09:31 AM (eOEVl)

49 I re-read Plum Island by Nelson DeMille recently. John Corey, a NYC policeman recovering from a gunshot wound, is spending some time recuperating at his uncle's house out in the boonies of Suffolk County. One day, he finds that his new neighbors have been murdered. What raises his suspicions is that the murder scene looks too professional to be a simple robbery gone wrong, and to top it off, the couple worked at a top secret biological weapons facility at nearby Plum Island. Word on the street is that the pair may have taken something deadly from the lab. With the encouragement of the small local PD, Corey decides to do some investigating on his own, and finds the mystery is deeper than even he could imagine. The story is well written, and while mostly told in first person like many gumshoe novels are, it flows well, and is a fast read.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 09, 2023 09:31 AM (bi309)

50 Brave is being very slow on my phone
Switching to safari

BOOKEN MORGEN HORDEN

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 09:31 AM (UpeiO)

51 Dugard also covered the political machinations prevalent between the world powers of that time. He also does not sugar coat the ways of the natives that Columbus had dealings with

Columbus and the Spanish explorers ran into the political world of North America has it had been. Brutal and violent just like anywhere else.

Later Europeans though came to North America after disease had killed the majority of the inhabitants meaning there was indeed less (not none) conflict and more food and "living in harmony with nature".

Its basically like looking at one of those post apocalyptic novels were a small group of people are trying to rebuild society.

Posted by: 18-1 at July 09, 2023 09:34 AM (lc5cP)

52
*It was, until the war with Wakanda. That changed everything.*

And then the murders began.

Posted by: Obligatory at July 09, 2023 09:34 AM (DhOHl)

53 About to start reading:
Magic Tides & Magic Claims by Ilona Andrews
The Frugal Wizard's Guide to the Middle Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 09:35 AM (UpeiO)

54 Vladimir Arsenyev, the tsarist officer who wrote the 1923 book about Dersu Uzala, mentions how as a child he was thrilled and inspired by Fenimore Cooper’s stories.

Posted by: 13times at July 09, 2023 09:36 AM (g/kU+)

55 This week I reread The House Next Door, by Anne Rivers Siddons. Published in 1978; I first read it in about 1981. When it first came out Stephen King called it one of the 10 best horror fiction novels (May have come out before The Shining.)

It creeped me out all over again; very well written and hardly anything that "dates" it. Excellent psychological development.
Posted by: skywch at July 09, 2023

***
I think The Shining came out in '77. I remember reading it in paperback that year, so maybe it was '76. Anyway, yes, the Siddons novel is extraordinarily good. She was one of the few "women's" writers whose work played fair, i.e., had good men and bad, good women and bad. I recommend her "big" novel Peachtree Road -- not a horror novel, but a story of a generation in Atlanta and its suburb Buckhead.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:37 AM (omVj0)

56 Reading Uplink Squadron by J.N. Chaney. Swear this dude lurks here, he used "when the Germans bombed Perl Harbor".

Posted by: BifBewalski at July 09, 2023 09:37 AM (3CCua)

57 Btw I want those pants and would wear them everywhere

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 09:38 AM (UpeiO)

58 I have never understood the fascination (of some) with reading material in the bathroom. For me, the bathroom has very distinct purposes, none of which are reading or conducive to reading.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 09, 2023 09:39 AM (7IPpw)

59 Here is the goodreads page for Uplink Squadron if anyone is interested in space fighter/opera mental chewing gum.

https://is.gd/5Pbv08

Posted by: BifBewalski at July 09, 2023 09:39 AM (3CCua)

60 It's becoming more common nowadays for writers to let other writers "play in their sandbox." Baen Books has published several novels by other writers set in Larry Correia's Monster Hunter universe. Mostly they're about MHI operators distinct from the main group, but Sarah Hoyt wrote one about one of the central characters in the ongoing "metaplot" of the series.

There's also the whole Eric Flint 1632 franchise, which has dozens of writers now.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023 09:41 AM (QZxDR)

61 Later Europeans though came to North America after disease had killed the majority of the inhabitants meaning there was indeed less (not none) conflict and more food and "living in harmony with nature".

Posted by: 18-1 at July 09, 2023 09:34 AM (lc5cP)
---
Disease played a role, but so did the traditional cultural practices of wiping out the neighbors and stealing their women.

After the dust settled from the War of 1812, the tribes forced westward engaged in a war of annihilation that ranged from the coast of Lake Michigan to the Dakotas and even down to Arkansas. The surviving members of the defeated peoples fled to US Army posts for protection.

Such gentle, loving people.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 09, 2023 09:41 AM (llXky)

62 For example, showing the writer in the writing group a sample and then demonstrating the process through your own writing is one way to illustrate just *why* that writing technique can be used effectively for telling a story.

My prediction: The writer in WA's group will dismiss it as wrong.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023

***
I think so too. I brought another sample of Lawrence Block's work to another member who complains about my occasional use of "narration summary," the deal where your narrator summarizes for the reader some of what he is being told by another character, with frequent dialog interspersed. He didn't like Block's use of it either. "Why not make it all dialog?"

My response: "All dialog can be as dull as all narration. Not to mention it will probably run longer. This way the dialog given highlights and underscores what is being narrated."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:41 AM (omVj0)

63 @58 --

Privacy. It's the one place in the house where kids can't invade.

Interrupt, yes, but you decide when to come out.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:41 AM (p/isN)

64 Read the first chapter of George MacDonald Fraser’s ‘Pyrates’ and was smitten. This guy can write. He is the author of the Flashman series which I sampled as a teen and found odd likely because it was a serial collection. Looking forward to reading the whole corpus just for the sheer power of his writing and humor.

Posted by: Puddinhead at July 09, 2023 09:42 AM (/UtnQ)

65 I re-read Plum Island by Nelson DeMille recently.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 09, 2023 09:31 AM (bi309)

I enjoyed that one, I read his other stuff after that one. Good author, decent plots.

Posted by: BifBewalski at July 09, 2023 09:42 AM (3CCua)

66 It looks like Humble Bundle has a big collection of digital Red Sonja comics on sale. There is some classic stuff (written by character creator/adapter Roy Thomas) some pretty good stuff (drawn by Mel Rubi or Carlos Gomez) and some absolute garbage (written by Gail Simone). Also a bunch of stuff I haven't read--stuff that was released after the last Red Sonja Humble Bundle. I think there is enough new-to-me material to justify making a purchase...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 09, 2023 09:42 AM (92RsY)

67 The bathroom is tailor made for spank magazines.

Posted by: Puddinhead at July 09, 2023 09:44 AM (/UtnQ)

68 I have never understood the fascination (of some) with reading material in the bathroom. For me, the bathroom has very distinct purposes, none of which are reading or conducive to reading.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 09, 2023 09:39 AM (7IPpw)
===
You mean you don't enjoy Teen Vogue while in the bubble bath?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 09, 2023 09:45 AM (RIvkX)

69 When it comes to open ended series so many examples come to mind: Sherlock Holmes, many Clive Cussler series, Matt Helm, Philip Craig's Martha's Vineyard mysteries, the Pendergast series, Conan stories and other Robert E. Howard series, the Allan Quartermain books, the Liturgical Mystery series, etc. Establish an interesting character(s), leave room for change and growth, and bring on the plot for that book. That formula has been working for a long time.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:45 AM (7EjX1)

70 Reading Uplink Squadron by J.N. Chaney. Swear this dude lurks here, he used "when the Germans bombed Perl Harbor".

Posted by: BifBewalski at July 09, 2023 09:37 AM (3CCua)

From yesterday:
It was a Weber downdraft carb, don't remember what model exactly, but it was a manual choke. It was from Redline? I remember the box said : Not legal in CA.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 09:45 AM (Angsy)

71 I am almost finished with Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I don't normally read sci fi, but so many of you have recommended it that I decided I can expand my reading universe a bit.

It's good. I most enjoyed the parts where Rollo's crew is all together--has a very "Firefly" feel to it. And I'm completely enamored with their memorial services, highlighting a person's faults and then embracing him ("he was ours"). It's both weird and poignant.

I will probably not continue the series, just because space and alien critters set me a bit on edge. But I might.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 09, 2023 09:45 AM (OX9vb)

72 Yesterday's book was Ruritania: A Cultural History from The Prisoner of Zenda to The Princess Diaries, by one Nicholas Daly, and it was a delight! Mr. Daly considers every sort of fiction set in a nonexistent small European kingdom, and why we love it. Since he goes on beyond books to theater and film, I now have a longer list of musicals to hunt down and watch! Even though it was published in 2020, it's a challenge to find; I ended up with an interlibrary loan from the state university. Worth the wait if you are into the history of popular culture and/or are looking for leads on great forgotten fun now in the public domain (Graustark, here I come!).

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023 09:47 AM (SPNTN)

73 57 Btw I want those pants and would wear them everywhere
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 09:38 AM (UpeiO)

They are oddly appealing.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 09, 2023 09:47 AM (OX9vb)

74 Alistair MacLean's novels are all standalones, no continuing characters, except for Guns of Navarone and Force Ten From Navarone. I'm not even sure if his post WWII spy stories take place in the same universe.

HIs first novel, HMS Ulysses, is very different from his later work. It's the tale of one British cruiser and her crew on one of the runs to Murmansk. Like his later stuff, it has lots of action, but is a little more tightly written than some and is much more of a drama than a thriller.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:47 AM (omVj0)

75 Morning, Horde...How goes it?

I'm just sitting here eating my waffles (with genuine Vermont syrup) and enjoying your comments...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 09:47 AM (BpYfr)

76 Thoroughly enjoy Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Each book seems to stand alone well while advancing a series of larger story arcs. I haven't finished the series (yet), as I was experiencing a little series fatigue after the 8th book since I was reading them back-to-back. Gotta pick that back up after my Dune reread...

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 09, 2023 09:47 AM (ftFVW)

77 Good Morning
(So far so good).

I've now read 4 Robert Parker books starring Spenser, Boston detective. The first one Paper Dolls was #20 in the series and I liked it so decided to go back and start at the beginning. Read the Godwulf Manuscript. It does a good job of fleshing out the character and the mystery is intriguing but not as good as #20. Then read #4 Finding Rachel Wallace and began to question my new found author passion.
Cont

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 09:48 AM (t/2Uw)

78 There was a meme flying around Twitter these past few days about which movies were better than the original book. I've generally been disappointed with movies, because they can only cover a fraction of the book. I saw "Hunt For Red October" right after I read the book, and I realized the movie contained very little from the book. "Jaws" is the one movie that was actually better than the book, in my view.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at July 09, 2023 09:48 AM (d9Cw3)

79 Since the topic of 'series' was brought up by the good Perfessor, here's a question to everyone: how many volumes of a series do you collect? Before you loose interest, or the series turns bad/repetitive/just not was it was in the beginning?

My longest collection of novels is currently the "Garett PI" books by Glen Cook. I have about a dozen of them. As a teen, I know I had a big collection of "Redwall" or "Dragonriders of Pern" novels, but those collections have since been purged.

....Of course, if we include comic books, I have at least 20 giant volumes of assorted Conan the Barbarian collections, and still counting. (The growth has briefly paused as Marvel recently gave up the license, and the new owner has yet to release another reprint) I also have the original R E Howard short stories (3 volumes of Conan, and 5 volumes of others), but the comics adaptations dwarfs the original....

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (92RsY)

80 Holmes, I suppose could be classified under both "open ended" and "collaborative" series, though I tend to find most Holmes pastiches dull. IMO very, very few authors can duplicate Conan Doyle's style, so unless a book is written as a Holmes-and-Watson adventure and not a Holmes-Adventure-as-Told-by-Watson, I don't think it works.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (AW0uW)

81
From yesterday:
It was a Weber downdraft carb, don't remember what model exactly, but it was a manual choke. It was from Redline? I remember the box said : Not legal in CA.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

Nice! I had a Weber manual (see, I can stay on topic) and a collection of emulsifier tubes and jets. I was able to pop the lid and tweak that baby in under five minutes to adjust for altitude while out 4x4 playing in the Orogrande Mountains near Las Cruces.

Posted by: BifBewalski at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (3CCua)

82 Good morning all.

I'm almost finished with "Felonious Monk" by William Kotzwinkle. Tommy Martini was a promising young college athlete when, working as a bouncer one summer, he accidentally killed an unruly kid with one punch. He found solace in a monastery, praying, fasting, and taking anger management medicine.

He was bequeathed a fancy house in Arizona and a fat stack of cash by his crooked uncle, a priest with mob ties. Now he's got to deal with drug cartel hit men and mafia businessmen and oh no, he's all out of happy pills.

I've really enjoyed the hard boiled humor in this and its follow-on, "Bloody Martini".

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (aqEpR)

83 Yesterday's book was Ruritania: A Cultural History from The Prisoner of Zenda to The Princess Diaries, by one Nicholas Daly, and it was a delight! Mr. Daly considers every sort of fiction set in a nonexistent small European kingdom, and why we love it. Since he goes on beyond books to theater and film, I now have a longer list of musicals to hunt down and watch! Even though it was published in 2020, it's a challenge to find; I ended up with an interlibrary loan from the state university. Worth the wait if you are into the history of popular culture and/or are looking for leads on great forgotten fun now in the public domain (Graustark, here I come!).

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023 09:47 AM (SPNTN)
---
Did that include the royal wedding where entire cast of "Dynasty" was shot in the season finale?

They did real cliff-hangers in the 80s.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (llXky)

84 @78 --

"Men in Black." I understand the comic was lousy.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 09:51 AM (p/isN)

85 Holmes, I suppose could be classified under both "open ended" and "collaborative" series, though I tend to find most Holmes pastiches dull. IMO very, very few authors can duplicate Conan Doyle's style, so unless a book is written as a Holmes-and-Watson adventure and not a Holmes-Adventure-as-Told-by-Watson, I don't think it works.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 09, 2023

***
Loren D. Estleman's SH pastiches work well. They have the stamp of approval of the Doyle estate too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:51 AM (omVj0)

86 Speaking of Robert Parker (#7

I read his Jesse Stone series a few years back when I was looking for what Perfessor Squirrel would call an "Open Ended Series." I enjoyed it enough, but it seemed to have run its course right about the time Mr. Parker passed away.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at July 09, 2023 09:52 AM (d9Cw3)

87 Caesar was also putting down rebellion among his own troops, and of course among the factions at home in Rome and the rest of Italy. He was known at the time as an eye-rollingly over the top self-promoter, and although his writing could charm the tunic off his best friends' wives, you should never swallow his accounts whole without a little comparative reading.

At a certain point in a nation's history, all conquests are taken to be favorable. Then a miracle occurs.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at July 09, 2023 09:53 AM (4PZHB)

88 I think it was the kind of absurd premise in Finding Rachel Wallace that just hit me wrong. Ms Wallace is a lesbian who has written a feminist tome and is being threatened because she exposes the bigotry of the male hierarchy. See my problem? Yes, set in an earlier time, but in Boston and although Bostonians have been called racists, anti homosexuality just didn't seem right. There's even Nazis.
Book was okay so on to the next one.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 09:53 AM (t/2Uw)

89 Lots of good reading recently.

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning.
Book about the Armed Services Edition books produced free for military during WW2. good book, inducing me to read:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I knew about only from it's brief critical role in a looney toons cartoon. I'm seldom disappointed reading an old classic, but this blew out all expectations.
Novel released in 1943, about a girl growing up from ~1910 to 20. Working poor, with enough ethnic references to make it politically incorrect today.
Kind of Horatio Alger for girls?
Very well written, I listened to a 2005 audiobook narrated by Kate Burton.
I presumed largely forgotten today, however the library has multiple copies & it did take almost a month before available.
So not forgotten, but the subject matter is not in my normal range.
It's semi autobiography & the author Betty Smith would most certainly be at home on the book thread.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 09, 2023 09:53 AM (wE4Se)

90 83: yeah and they were all resurrected next season .

Seeing such things that my family loved only gave me the ammunition needed to fire at stupid soap operas and dramas of that sort. Also drove me into more serious items.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 09, 2023 09:54 AM (7IPpw)

91 Since the topic of 'series' was brought up by the good Perfessor, here's a question to everyone: how many volumes of a series do you collect? Before you loose interest, or the series turns bad/repetitive/just not was it was in the beginning?

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (92RsY)
-----
I think the most books in a series by a single author I own would be Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. However, those books can be subdivided into smaller series based on main characters.

The most books I own in ANY series would be Forgotten Realms (around 91 books), but many of those are self-contained series just set in the same world.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 09:54 AM (BpYfr)

92 I've now read 4 Robert Parker books starring Spenser, Boston detective. The first one Paper Dolls was #20 in the series and I liked it so decided to go back and start at the beginning. Read the Godwulf Manuscript. It does a good job of fleshing out the character and the mystery is intriguing but not as good as #20. Then read #4 Finding Rachel Wallace and began to question my new found author passion.
Cont
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023

***
Sharon, I think Rachel Wallace is a little later in the series. Number Four was, I think, the one where he introduced Hawk, Promised Land. But Rachel and Early Autumn are both quite good. Parker's interest was less in the mystery with surprises, and more about Spenser finding a loose thread and pulling on it to make things unravel, while we see how Spenser reacts to the people he meets.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 09:55 AM (omVj0)

94 Good morning literate morons, I'm looking for a beta reader/proof reader for a dark humor, military space opera. If this appeals to ye, drop me a note: Norsekhet on gmail. Thanks.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at July 09, 2023 09:56 AM (9yUzE)

95 Lawrence Block ... no dialog tags, no "he said" or "He scratched his chin," dialog only. Yet we always know who is talking because characters address each other by name, and the voice of the title character is very different from [other] people

The *Fletch* books by G MacDonald (sp?) do this exceptionally well. Dialog can go on for PAGES with no tags, or in fact with no descriptive or expositive narration. But because of personality (and the notion that viewpoint character Fletch is often interviewing a subject or witness or competitor while the other is responding helpfully or evasively or whatever) it's fairly easy to keep track of who is who.

Posted by: Pouncer at July 09, 2023 09:57 AM (VETeK)

96 Finished the third Murderbot novella - they are about 150 pages so hard to call it a book.

Good, taut writing. Good action. But on number three, the story is starting to become a little repetitive. Kind of the same story each time.

And here lies the problem for the reader - the author is writing novellas and selling them at novel prices. Good for her but bad for the reader. I would keep reading the series but it will be pricy to do so.

I will point out that it's way, way better than expected. I was expecting a modern woman author in SciFi to be woke as woke can be, but seems like there are a few things she will put in each story to check the box of "modern sensibilities" but then the story just moves on. And in this third one, near as I can tell, all of the characters are female. But that's the thing it doesn't hit you over the head with this. It may not even be true.

Posted by: blaster at July 09, 2023 09:57 AM (pwExq)

97 Perfessor, You and Thomas Paine are in big trouble. The last thing I needed was another series of books (like the Wyman Ford stories by Doug Preston) that will take up my valuable reading time. And since I already know I like Preston's writing, your suggestion is especially insidious.

Sigh! So many books, so little time.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:58 AM (7EjX1)

98 58 I have never understood the fascination (of some) with reading material in the bathroom. For me, the bathroom has very distinct purposes, none of which are reading or conducive to reading.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 09, 2023 09:39 AM (7IPpw)

I've got nothing against reading & (limited) multi-tasking.
But a permanent library in a bathromm is way too far.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 09, 2023 09:59 AM (wE4Se)

99 The only real series I got into was the aforementioned Guardians series. I have none of the books as I bummed them off of friends and I think I stopped after three (just because many interesting books were clamoring for my attention, like “Vortex” by Larry Bond. Good novel.). I think the series would be called “open ended” by the good Perfessor as I never knew it to have an end-point.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 09, 2023 10:00 AM (7IPpw)

100 Last night finished Mortal Play which involved Spenser being hired by the Boston Red Sox. Took so long to get into the story due to lots and lots of Boston trivia almost put it down. But then he actually does some detective work, the story got interesting so actually stayed up late to finish it.
I think the reason I liked the later book was that he has cut down a lot of the superfluous stuff like what Spenser eats at every meal and constant descriptions of Boston streets. It just slows everything down and doesn't add much.
Think I'll skip to so,e of his later books and see if ther magic returns.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 10:00 AM (t/2Uw)

101 I'm not certain if either of my series falls strictly into the Perfesser's categories. The historical novels (All but To Truckee's Trail) are set mostly if not all in Texas, and feature characters from four interlinked families. Each book is separate, and stands independently, and a character who is the lead in one book may turn up in another as a minor - and someone mentioned/appears briefly in one book is the lead in another. They're not quite "closed series" because I am still writing elements of the set. The Luna City series has an overall plot arc and a rotating set cast of characters ... but some of the stories are single stories in their own right, and I am planning to round it out at 12 - maybe a series within a series? I dunno...

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 09, 2023 10:00 AM (xnmPy)

102 Sigh! So many books, so little time.
Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:58 AM (7EjX1)

Seriously. I need to retire so I can read all day.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 09, 2023 10:00 AM (OX9vb)

103 The nice thing about the Book Thread Barrel is that there's a small library inside.

The bad news is, it's all math story problems and Michele Obama "best seller" remainders.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 10:01 AM (aqEpR)

104 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. paperback originals, and later the Star Trek originals, were collaborative. I've never read many of the ST novels, so I don't know, but the MFU authors often used elements from earlier works, even if they weren't their own. In one novel, for instance (a rather campy and silly one), Thrush has developed a working invisibility screen. U.N.C.L.E. gets the technology at the end. Then, in a later novel by a totally different author, the lab guys have managed to make a working screen for a single human being, and Solo is there to test it out -- just a small incident in a bigger story. But the writers played off each other.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:01 AM (omVj0)

105 I'm not sure if there are specific series types in romance. Admittedly, I've only delved into some specific genre-romance series (fantasy/horror/whatnot). The obvious feature seems to be strong character focus. You either become interested in or identify with the protagonist and want to follow her through her adventures of, ahem... all kinds. And again, some story arcs span multiple books, but I think they most often try to be relatively stand alone to broaden appeal. BUT, that is my impression based on the few I've read: Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels, and Sarah Maas's Court of ... novels.

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 09, 2023 10:02 AM (ftFVW)

106 It deals with a WWII U.S. Army squad that gets mixed up in a war between angels and half-breed angels,

I read it wrong. But it might be a more interesting fantasy book if I had read it right and it was written as " a WWII U.S. Army 'SQUID' that gets mixed up in a war between angels and half-breed angels."

So, either a kraken from the deep, or a US enlisted grade sailor somehow surrounded by and necessary to, but wholly unloved by, a bunch of enlisted infantrymen.

Posted by: Pouncer at July 09, 2023 10:03 AM (VETeK)

107 re: BOOKS BY MORONS

*******

This is a peeve of mine. I'm curious what it takes for someone to be considered a Moron Horde author. AOSHQ is a vibrant and highly diverse community with a lot od different backgrounds of the commenters and cob loggers here.

Does it help to have actually participated in thread discussions on particular topics or engaged with commenters? Or is it sufficient merely to e-mail the Perfessor and claim to be a "longtime lurker" and "big fan of the blog". Does using obscure words like 'mundanity' help? I think the whole idea of marketing your e-book by finding on-line sites of possibly like-minded readers (as suggested at KDP and other 'How-to Market your e-book' sites) is to actually engage in those sites and enter into conversations in order to establish a rapport. I for one am disinclined to buy a book promoted so cynically.

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:03 AM (kXYt5)

108 A continuing character series I also recommend is written by Jack DuBrul. He cowrote with Clive Cussler the Oregon Files series of stories, which in my opinion were the best of the cowritten Cussler books. The protagonist in DuBrul's novels is Philip Mercer, a mining engineer who is often tasked with assisting in underground disasters. He has, I think, five or six standalone novels, some are: Charon's Landing, Pandora's Curse, River of Ruin, and Vulcan's Forge. Philip Mercer is an underground version of Dirk Pitt, and if you like Cussler, at least early Cussler, you will like DuBrul. I hope that DuBrul gets back to writing more novels on his own, now that Cussler is gone. There has been a trend recently of cowritten books with a big name authors; I assume that is a method publishers are using to filter what gets printed in order to assure sales.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 09, 2023 10:04 AM (fGQwe)

109 The dialog in McDonald's Fletch books was delightful -- fast, funny, and you'd have to work to lose track of who was speaking. If memory serves, when Avon was first releasing them in paperback, some of the early dialog was printed there on the cover, and it would hook the casual bookshop browser more effectively than the publisher's blurb could.

And also if memory serves, I think Charles Webb's The Graduate was heavily dialog, to the point where you'd almost swear they'd torn out pages and stuffed them into the cameras when they made the movie.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 10:04 AM (a/4+U)

110 I'm not certain if either of my series falls strictly into the Perfesser's categories. The historical novels (All but To Truckee's Trail) are set mostly if not all in Texas, and feature characters from four interlinked families. Each book is separate, and stands independently, and a character who is the lead in one book may turn up in another as a minor - and someone mentioned/appears briefly in one book is the lead in another. They're not quite "closed series" because I am still writing elements of the set. The Luna City series has an overall plot arc and a rotating set cast of characters ... but some of the stories are single stories in their own right, and I am planning to round it out at 12 - maybe a series within a series? I dunno...
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 09, 2023 10:00 AM (xnmPy)
---
Those are just my own made-up categorizations based on my own reading...Of course there will be numerous variations and additional categorizations! The uniqueness of your own series adds to their charm.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 10:04 AM (BpYfr)

111 Was at the library book sale and found Upton Sinclair’s Oil! In paperback for 50 cents. I’ve never read any of his books. I guess Oil! was the inspiration for the film There Will Be Blood.

I only just made it past fifty or so pages and gave it up. It’s so uninterestingly partisan. Even in the 1930’s there is no way in hell anyone but dedicated leftists could swallow suck hack work. Yet it still gets reprinted and reprinted and reprinted. Blah.

Posted by: 13times at July 09, 2023 10:04 AM (9c1e9)

112 When it comes to non-comics series, the one of which I own the most books is The Destroyer. I own No. 1-54.

Then I suddenly dropped the series. Comics shouldered their way in to my reading time.

The comics series of which I own the most issues? That would have to be the original run of The Avengers. But I plan someday to whittle it to just the good stories; the series deteriorated in its last years, and I see no need to keep them all.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 10:04 AM (p/isN)

113 Last night finished Mortal Play which involved Spenser being hired by the Boston Red Sox. Took so long to get into the story due to lots and lots of Boston trivia almost put it down. But then he actually does some detective work, the story got interesting so actually stayed up late to finish it.
I think the reason I liked the later book was that he has cut down a lot of the superfluous stuff like what Spenser eats at every meal and constant descriptions of Boston streets. It just slows everything down and doesn't add much.
Think I'll skip to so,e of his later books and see if ther magic returns.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023

***
Mortal Stakes, in which Spenser deliberately kills a couple of criminals for the first time. Yes, he killed gunman Phil in the first novel, but that was in a hand-to-hand self-defense battle fight. In MT he lies in wait for the criminals. Yes, they are planning to kill him, but he still finds it disturbing to do this. It's telling that his first move afterward is to go to Susan (whom he is only dating at this point, not seriously involved) and tell her about it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:06 AM (omVj0)

114 Read Masters of the Air by Donald Miller. Well researched. Will disabuse you of some WW2 myths you might believe.

Posted by: jeff at July 09, 2023 10:06 AM (Rviza)

115 Some folks are constipated and something to read helps take their mind off the business at hand.

I shave (electric razor) while sitting on the pot. By the time I am done shaving, I am done with the other as well.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at July 09, 2023 10:07 AM (jgJfd)

116 In the familiar "movie better than book" discussion, I see "Jaws" has been mentioned, and I pair that with "MASH" and "Last of the Mohicans."

I think that Brideshead Revisited is rare case where the film and book match perfectly. If you read the book, you see the show, and the show is so faithful to the text as to be a transcription/audiobook of it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 09, 2023 10:08 AM (llXky)

117 78 There was a meme flying around Twitter these past few days about which movies were better than the original book. I've generally been disappointed with movies, because they can only cover a fraction of the book. I saw "Hunt For Red October" right after I read the book, and I realized the movie contained very little from the book. "Jaws" is the one movie that was actually better than the book, in my view.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at July 09, 2023 09:48 AM
****
I can think of several:
Postcards from the Edge, in which the movie had an actual plot instead of just a series of anecdotes

Less Than Zero, which also had a more coherent story and less sensationalism for its own sake

The Devil Wears Prada, which took one of the worst, most childish, nasty excuses for a novel EVER and turned it into an interesting character study and a look into a world about which I knew little. The only example I can think of in which the movie is excellent and the book absolutely not worth reading!

Just for myself, I prefer the movie of Ready Player One to the book simply because of its sunnier tone and more positive ending; I have always disliked fashionable despair.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023 10:08 AM (SPNTN)

118 I'll join in the praise of Two Years Before the Mast. I've read it twice and I' still amazed at how hard and dangerous the life of a sailor was back then. Dana points out that the American merchant fleet worked with much smaller crews than the British and Spanish. Still working my way through the Russians, but with only 175 pages to go in Demons the end is in sight.

Posted by: who knew at July 09, 2023 10:09 AM (4I7VG)

119 Nice! I had a Weber manual (see, I can stay on topic) and a collection of emulsifier tubes and jets. I was able to pop the lid and tweak that baby in under five minutes to adjust for altitude while out 4x4 playing in the Orogrande Mountains near Las Cruces.

Posted by: BifBewalski at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM (3CCua)

The B didn't like it. Had trouble from the beginning, made the shop fix it. They got mad at me because I insisted it work. Might still have the car if I put in another Stromberg.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 10:09 AM (Angsy)

120 Does it help to have actually participated in thread discussions on particular topics or engaged with commenters? Or is it sufficient merely to e-mail the Perfessor and claim to be a "longtime lurker" and "big fan of the blog". Does using obscure words like 'mundanity' help? I think the whole idea of marketing your e-book by finding on-line sites of possibly like-minded readers (as suggested at KDP and other 'How-to Market your e-book' sites) is to actually engage in those sites and enter into conversations in order to establish a rapport. I for one am disinclined to buy a book promoted so cynically.
Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:03 AM (kXYt5)
----
This is certainly a fair point. However, if we only limited "Books by Morons" to established commenters, we'd be missing out on some great tales. For instance Vince Milam's Case Lee series contains quite a few references to the Moron Horde that only a longtime reader of the blog would understand. As soon as I read Patrick Chiles' "Frozen Orbit" I knew he was One Of Us. Yet neither author comments here with any regularity...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 10:09 AM (BpYfr)

121 The dialog in McDonald's Fletch books was delightful -- fast, funny, and you'd have to work to lose track of who was speaking. If memory serves, when Avon was first releasing them in paperback, some of the early dialog was printed there on the cover, and it would hook the casual bookshop browser more effectively than the publisher's blurb could. . . .

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023

***
The other thing McDonald did, at least in the first two Fletch stories, is to show Fletch taking some kind of steps without telling the reader what he is up to. As in the best of the Mission: Impossible TV episodes, we will eventually see why he is doing this. I call this "building suspense."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:09 AM (omVj0)

122 For reasons I can no longer articulate, I avoided series in the past. I got over it. The Aubrey/Maturin by Patrick O'Brian and the Kinsey Millhone by Sue Grafton were series I blazed through in the last two years. There are a lot of good ones: John Connolly's Charlie Parker, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch and also the Pendergast books, the last of which annoyed the crap out of me despite my enjoyment of it because I could see the end was not in sight about halfway through.

Posted by: huerfano at July 09, 2023 10:10 AM (7zEAH)

123 88 ... "I think it was the kind of absurd premise in Finding Rachel Wallace that just hit me wrong. Ms Wallace is a lesbian who has written a feminist tome and is being threatened because she exposes the bigotry of the male hierarchy. See my problem? Yes, set in an earlier time, but in Boston and although Bostonians have been called racists, anti homosexuality just didn't seem right. There's even Nazis.
Book was okay so on to the next one."

Sharon, It's been years since I read that story but I don't think Parker was especially sympathetic to the Wallace character. Not hostile but not fawning either. IIRC, Parker used the Wallace character in one or two later stories and had some fun with it in a positive way.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 10:10 AM (7EjX1)

124 ...a character who is the lead in one book may turn up in another as a minor - and someone mentioned/appears briefly in one book is the lead in another.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom at July 09, 2023 10:00 AM (xnmPy)

This is a device that I like in a series. Tana French does this with her Dublin Murder Squad series, and I enjoy starting a book, and realizing that I sort of already know who that character is.

I read the first of your Luna City series some years ago, and enjoyed that very much. I haven't come back around to the next--maybe it's time to rectify that.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 09, 2023 10:12 AM (OX9vb)

125 Postcards from the Edge, in which the movie had an actual plot instead of just a series of anecdotes

Less Than Zero, which also had a more coherent story and less sensationalism for its own sake

The Devil Wears Prada, which took one of the worst, most childish, nasty excuses for a novel EVER and turned it into an interesting character study and a look into a world about which I knew little. The only example I can think of in which the movie is excellent and the book absolutely not worth reading!

Just for myself, I prefer the movie of Ready Player One to the book simply because of its sunnier tone and more positive ending; I have always disliked fashionable despair.
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023

***
Jaws, Hunt for Red October, and (strangely) the novel that became Die Hard were all better as movies. Oh, and Wolfen by Whitley Strieber.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:12 AM (omVj0)

126 In terms of Better Than The Book movies, I think the film Contact was FAR superior to Sagan's novel. For one thing it stuck to the present day for its setting and thus could tactfully jettison Sagan's silly ideas about near-future society.

I'd vote for Hunt For Red October, too. The no-moving-parts electromagnetic propellor in the film is a lot cooler than the book's props-in-a-tube. And by keeping the focus on just the US Navy rather than dragging in the Brits, it makes keeping the secret much more plausible.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023 10:13 AM (QZxDR)

127 83 ....
---
Did that include the royal wedding where entire cast of "Dynasty" was shot in the season finale?

They did real cliff-hangers in the 80s.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM
****
I had forgotten all about that one, and so did the author! I think it was because he didn't really consider series television in the monograph (e.g., in the chapter on Cold War-era stories, there was no mention of all those Mission: Impossible episodes in which the team saved some tiny EE nation from the [unnamed] Communists).

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023 10:13 AM (SPNTN)

128 OK, folks, I think I'm going to make tea and re-read Boswell's Life of Johnson. Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 09, 2023 10:13 AM (AW0uW)

129 When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning.
Book about the Armed Services Edition books produced free for military during WW2. good book, inducing me to read:

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 09, 2023 09:53 AM (wE4Se)

A couple of the books from the neighbor's stash were WWII prints, they said they used lighter paper to save for the war effort or something like that.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 10:14 AM (Angsy)

130 Wolfus, in a way I think you've identified my problem with the book. The actual mystery takes second place to how Spenser is feeling about everything. So much soul searching.
I may have been spoiled by the Galbraith series character Strike or Karen Slaughter's Will Trent. Not only is there great character development but also a real story.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 10:14 AM (t/2Uw)

131 Honore de Balzac pioneered the idea of an interconnected fictional 'verse. All his novels have overlapping characters, and sometimes they switch from hero to antagonist. I only discovered B. a few years ago so I'm still just getting my feet wet in his works.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023 10:14 AM (QZxDR)

132 Sharon, It's been years since I read that story but I don't think Parker was especially sympathetic to the Wallace character. Not hostile but not fawning either. IIRC, Parker used the Wallace character in one or two later stories and had some fun with it in a positive way.
Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023

***
Been years for me too, but I thought the threats to Rachel's life were because of something more criminous, and less about her lesbianism/feminism (which she concluded was the motive, but it wasn't?). And in any case the clashes between Rachel and Spenser are fascinating and often funny.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:14 AM (omVj0)

133 This is certainly a fair point. However, if we only limited "Books by Morons" to established commenters, we'd be missing out on some great tales. For instance Vince Milam's Case Lee series contains quite a few references to the Moron Horde that only a longtime reader of the blog would understand. As soon as I read Patrick Chiles' "Frozen Orbit" I knew he was One Of Us. Yet neither author comments here with any regularity...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 10:09 AM (BpYfr)

Thanks Perfessor, it is worth knowing that you are a pimp squirrel with integrity!

The problem we book thread morons have is we just can't read fast enough.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 09, 2023 10:15 AM (wE4Se)

134 107 as per Muldoon- I am certainly much quicker to pick up books from commenter I chat with every day

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 10:15 AM (xhxe8)

135 Yet neither author comments here with any regularity...

As far as you know. Nics exist for a reason.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 09, 2023 10:15 AM (p/isN)

136 Re: pant: I suspect a dearth of weed whackers. ,

Posted by: Fox2! at July 09, 2023 10:16 AM (mETmT)

137 102 ... "Seriously. I need to retire so I can read all day."

Dash,
Trust me. In retirement the reading materials will increase in number to fill, and overfill, all available time.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 10:16 AM (7EjX1)

138 It’s so uninterestingly partisan. Even in the 1930’s there is no way in hell anyone but dedicated leftists could swallow suck hack work. Yet it still gets reprinted and reprinted and reprinted. Blah.

Posted by: 13times

I had Sinclair thrust upon me in school by a lefty Engish teacher. I recall the tense discussion when I refuted his assertions about the meat packing industry's working conditions, as I was descended from former employees.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 09, 2023 10:16 AM (fGQwe)

139 Good morning literate morons, I'm looking for a beta reader/proof reader for a dark humor, military space opera. If this appeals to ye, drop me a note: Norsekhet on gmail. Thanks.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at July 09, 2023 09:56 AM (9yUzE)

If only there was a Horde writer's group....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 10:17 AM (Angsy)

140 There's a funny bit of setting overlap in some of James Blish's Star Trek novelizations. He throws in some references to the setting of his _Cities in Flight_ series -- the Vegan Empire, I think. Trying to imagine those two series coexisting in one universe is fun but mind-twisting. You wind up with the Enterprise being sent in for some union-busting against the migrant space cities.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023 10:17 AM (QZxDR)

141 Are those pants corduroy?

Posted by: Gasp! at July 09, 2023 10:18 AM (DhOHl)

142 Wolfus, in a way I think you've identified my problem with the book. The actual mystery takes second place to how Spenser is feeling about everything. So much soul searching.
I may have been spoiled by the Galbraith series character Strike or Karen Slaughter's Will Trent. Not only is there great character development but also a real story.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023

***
Maybe so. But remember, beginning in the '70s male heroes were supposed to be more "vulnerable," etc. Plus Parker does keep it short and often funny.

Parker drifted away from the semi-puzzling mystery after his second novel. There are revelations in a Parker book, but rarely, maybe never, the thunderbolt surprise of who is behind it all. I think we read the Spensers to spend some time with him (and Susan and Hawk, etc.) and watch how he handles his life.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:18 AM (omVj0)

143 Yet neither author comments here with any regularity...

As far as you know. Nics exist for a reason.
---
Indeed! I meant to say that, but I was worried I would run out of characters in the comment box...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 10:18 AM (BpYfr)

144 There's a funny bit of setting overlap in some of James Blish's Star Trek novelizations. He throws in some references to the setting of his _Cities in Flight_ series -- the Vegan Empire, I think. Trying to imagine those two series coexisting in one universe is fun but mind-twisting. You wind up with the Enterprise being sent in for some union-busting against the migrant space cities.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023

***
Right; he mentions the Vegan Tyranny, and a philosopher named Bonner the Stochastic, who I think is mentioned in passing in one of the CiF novels.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:20 AM (omVj0)

145 102 and 137 --

Retired for a while now. Not only do you find yourself not able to read all day (something always comes up somehow), and not only do the reading materials increase (exponentially, it seems sometimes), but you find it harder to stay focused than you did before. So you just don't get more reading done.

At least that's how it's working out for this kid...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 10:22 AM (a/4+U)

146 80 Holmes, I suppose could be classified under both "open ended" and "collaborative" series, though I tend to find most Holmes pastiches dull. IMO very, very few authors can duplicate Conan Doyle's style, so unless a book is written as a Holmes-and-Watson adventure and not a Holmes-Adventure-as-Told-by-Watson, I don't think it works.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at July 09, 2023 09:50 AM
****
You want a truly great Holmes & Watson pastiche? I read a metric crap-ton of them, and the best I've ever read were:
Sherlock Holmes: A Betrayal in Blood, by Mark A. Latham, in which H&W must get to the bottom of why the respectable Dr. Abraham Van Helsing and his equally respectable friends would pursue and murder an eccentric Balkan gentleman and then put about the story that their victim was some sort of bloodsucking ghoul. This is literally a perfectly Holmesian inversion of Dracula, and you'll never read the original the same way again!

(continued)

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023 10:22 AM (SPNTN)

147 This is a peeve of mine. I'm curious what it takes for someone to be considered a Moron Horde author.

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:03 AM (kXYt5)

Perfessor posted a price list last week. Did you miss it??

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 10:23 AM (Angsy)

148 I'd vote for Hunt For Red October, too. The no-moving-parts electromagnetic propellor in the film is a lot cooler than the book's props-in-a-tube. And by keeping the focus on just the US Navy rather than dragging in the Brits, it makes keeping the secret much more plausible.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023

***
Hunt the novel is talky and dull, with a lot of "telling" things to the reader and much less tension and action than in the film. I was disappointed in the book and have not read anything else by Clancy. Maybe he got better. I don't think his stuff will be remembered in fifty years outside the film adaptations of his Jack Ryan stories.

The hell of it was, Clancy admired SF writer Larry Niven, who on his own or in collaborations makes his work vivid and memorable. If he'd collaborated with Clancy on something, it could have been great.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:24 AM (omVj0)

149 ....
Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God by Guy Adams, in which the boys take on the challenge of a mysterious and deadly gaseous manifestation that seems to have something to do with the occult dabblings of the mysterious Mr. Aleister Crowley. Along for the ride are Dr. John Silence, the also mysterious Julian Karsten, and the ebullient Mr. Thomas Carnacki. No spoilers!

These both come from the delightful people at Titan Books, one of two indispensable keepers of the great genre and pulp traditions (the other is Wildside Press).

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 09, 2023 10:24 AM (SPNTN)

150

The Princess Bride is the ultimate movie better than book example...

Posted by: Ped Xing at July 09, 2023 10:25 AM (BMgvA)

151 Finished a self published book recently,non-fiction for once,

Problem Simplification by Steven Van Dyke.

The basic premise is that life is complicated, but if something is too complex to solve it is probably needing to be broken down into solvable chunks.
He breaks this into three principles: Make sure you know what the problem is, Small problems are easier to fix than big problems, and There is clear and simple answer to every problem and it is wrong - figuring out why it is wrong usually gives you the right answer.

He then fleshes this out by discussing bad interpretation of what the problems are, when it is easier to fix a problem, the difference between a fix and a full rebuild, and then gives some principles he left out at the beginning because it is easier to deal with three main points instead of eight or ten points that overlap.

Quick read and very much to the point. It makes the point that so much "policy goals" in the world are so huge that no one can accomplish them. Goals like "Freeing the world in our lifetime" or "meeting all our customer needs" is a recipe to never succeeding because there is no beginning or ending point, and to big to embrace

Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 10:26 AM (xhaym)

152 And by keeping the focus on just the US Navy rather than dragging in the Brits, it makes keeping the secret much more plausible.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 09, 2023 10:13 AM (QZxDR)

Haven't read the book, but Brit security is like a sieve.

Posted by: BignJames at July 09, 2023 10:26 AM (AwYPR)

153 I liked it that Agatha Christie wrote “Curtain” closing her Hercule Poirot series to be published posthumously, but she wrote it long before she died so it had the quality of her earlier books, as I thought the quality subtly flagged in her later years, though not a huge amount.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at July 09, 2023 10:27 AM (x5s2s)

154 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker (if you catch my drift....)

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:27 AM (T4tVD)

155 hiya

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:27 AM (T4tVD)

156 My Open Ended Series is the Harry Bosch books, by Michael Connelly. But Connelly also has a Series Within A Series *Bosch Universe* with the Lincoln Lawyer books and the Jack McEvoy books. I have read them all. Love me some Harry Bosch!

Posted by: SuperMayorSuperRonNirenberg-Your Mayor Is WEAK, Not Me Though, Buffest Mayor EVAH! at July 09, 2023 10:27 AM (9yMwu)

157 Todays reading will be the epic tome There is a Monster at the End of this Book.
Grand number 2 will insist when they get here in about an hour.
I've read this book probably 50 times in the last year.
I try to introduce new books and he just wants "monster".

Errr.. they just pulled up.

Posted by: Reforger at July 09, 2023 10:27 AM (B705c)

158 I dunno. I read a detective novel for the mystery, to unravel the story watching the detective develop clues. The way he goes about it is what is interesting to me. How the detective uses the strengths and weaknesses that the author has given him to solve the mystery.
The witty banter only goes so far. In the Jesse Stone book I read, the banter actually moved the story.
Spenser just seems too simplistic to me. Like a 45 minute tv drama instead of an 8 part Prime video.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 10:27 AM (t/2Uw)

159 The Princess Bride is the ultimate movie better than book example...
Posted by: Ped Xing at July 09, 2023

***
William Goldman stuck his tongue firmly in his cheek with that one and stated that what he was giving us was "just the best parts" of a (non-existent) book he read as a boy. So -- in a way -- it's a book that's better than the "original" book!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 10:28 AM (omVj0)

160 151 Finished a self published book recently,non-fiction for once,

Problem Simplification by Steven Van Dyke.

Thanks Kindltot, it's on Kindle Unlimited, now just need to finish it before the free KU trial ends.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 09, 2023 10:29 AM (wE4Se)

161 I dunno on The Princess Bride being a better movie than a book. I laughed all the way through the novel, and when the movie came out I thought they did a terrific job on it -- perfect casting, script by Goldman, how could you miss -- but it just didn't do it for me the way the novel did. May have something to do with which one you encounter first.

But then, Goldman's a favorite of mine, and I loved the author asides and the end of the novel, none of which could be kept for the film.

But I think the film's cardinal sin is the song over the closing credits.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 10:32 AM (a/4+U)

162 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker (if you catch my drift....)
Posted by: JT

Nor the bathtub guy neither.....

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:32 AM (T4tVD)

163 I'm still going low-carb, so will not comment on Weber vs Dellorto. They deserve their own thread. "Bodging" maybe?

On a shelving blog though, we should not let that bathroom depiction pass without a civil engineering plea. If you put a traditional bathtub and traditional bookshelves in the same room, you had damned well better see to your joissusses or you will crash through the floor one day. How embarrassing.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at July 09, 2023 10:34 AM (4PZHB)

164 My Open Ended Series is the Harry Bosch books, by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch sounds a lot like Hairy Bush.

Is it me ?

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:34 AM (T4tVD)

165 The Pern books should have ended with the book on Master Harper Robinton.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 09, 2023 10:34 AM (XfWLC)

166 Since the topic of 'series' was brought up by the good Perfessor, here's a question to everyone: how many volumes of a series do you collect? Before you loose interest, or the series turns bad/repetitive/just not was it was in the beginning?

Scanning the shelf across the room without actually getting up, I can see Sue Grafton's R is for Richochet and Walter Mosley's Gone Fishin'. Can also see my wife's partial collection of (crap, now I have to get up because I can't remember the author's first name) Rita Mae Brown "cat" series. I think the common end point of all of those is around 2001 when I was laid off in the dot-com bust.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 09, 2023 10:36 AM (nfrXX)

167 Vmom, I'll be interested to see what you think about the Sanderson boo, The Frugal Wizard. Like Tress of The Emerald Sea, it took me a bit to get into them as they were so different from the other Sanderson books but definitely enjoyable.
FYI, Tress of the Emerald Sea was inspired by The
Princess Bride.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 10:36 AM (t/2Uw)

168 The Princess Bride is the ultimate movie better than book example...

Posted by: Ped Xing at July 09, 2023 10:25 AM (BMgvA)

I was finally able to see that movie, years after always reading references about it. Ehhhh, it was ok, but not as funny as I thought it would be.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 10:36 AM (Angsy)

169 Brit security is like a sieve.

They don't do so badly, once you realize that about half of them are just On The Other Side.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at July 09, 2023 10:36 AM (4PZHB)

170 But I think the film's cardinal sin is the song over the closing credits.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023

***
Tell us about it!

Posted by: American Werewolf in London at July 09, 2023 10:37 AM (omVj0)

171 I'm gonna miss that chick.

Posted by: RALPH THE PIG at July 09, 2023 10:38 AM (2znMt)

172 I recently discovered a new series that I like: Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty. First book is Cold, Cold Ground.

Duffy is a detective in Belfast, Ireland in the early '80s. He is a Catholic working on a predominantly Protestant police force, and suffers some grief over that in his community. He's also not above smoking some dope now and then, and he has great taste in music.

I like the detective work intertwined with the politics of The Troubles, and reliving the '80s through this series has been fun. I'm listening to these on audio, because I love the narrator's voice and diction.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 09, 2023 10:38 AM (OX9vb)

173 Oh yeah the Kindle version of Golden Isis is free right now.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 09, 2023 10:39 AM (XfWLC)

174 Since Tolkien hasn't been mentioned very often so far, I'll add that I started listening to The Silmarillion on CD, read by Martin Shaw. (The local library had the the set.) To my surprise, it works quite well as an audio book. I thought the long section on the various Valor would be difficult to follow but wasn't. I haven't listened to the battle sections yet and am curious how well they will come across.

Just learned that Andy Serkis recently narrated the Silmarillion. I have his narrations of The Hobbit and LOTR which are excellent. I'll have to listen to his version at some point. Unfortunately, it is only available as a download, not on CD. I always prefer the CD versions so I own the item and it's not at the mercy of some tech gremlins.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 10:39 AM (7EjX1)

175 Just Some Guy said "But I think the film's cardinal sin is the song over the closing credits." . C'mon man, let's not be trashing Willie DeVille (although it is one of his weakest pieces). Search out Le Chat Bleu by Mink DeVille to hear him at his best. He worked with Doc Pomus on that one.

Posted by: who knew at July 09, 2023 10:39 AM (4I7VG)

176 A Vic sighting !

Hiya Vic !

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:40 AM (T4tVD)

177 The film Jeremiah Johnson versus Vardis Fisher’s book Mountain Man. I like Fisher’s book version more than the Crow Killer version. That said, neither is paced for a modern readership.

So I guess the film is better than the book, though I still enjoyed the book.hah

Posted by: 13times at July 09, 2023 10:41 AM (Cpv18)

178 . . . I read a detective novel for the mystery, to unravel the story watching the detective develop clues. The way he goes about it is what is interesting to me. How the detective uses the strengths and weaknesses that the author has given him to solve the mystery. . . .

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023

***
In the classic detective-mystery novel or short story -- Queen, Christie, Carr, Stout -- that's quite true. I guess the Spensers are more detective adventures that use the trappings of the old-style private eye story (updated for the '70s and later) to entertain.

It's also possible that Parker saw the enstupidation of the reading public early on, and kept his stories simpler so they would sell.

Posted by: American Werewolf in London at July 09, 2023 10:41 AM (omVj0)

179 Bathroom reading brings up memories of dear old dad, sitting and chain smoking Camels while reading, usually a John D. McDonald paperback.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at July 09, 2023 10:41 AM (MeG8a)

180 If anyone's interested, Reedsy has a new story contest.

Topic is Phobias. 1k to 3k words. $250 for the winner. Entry fee of $5.

Link:
https://tinyurl.com/y5s29eb

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 10:41 AM (Angsy)

181 The Pern books should have ended with the book on Master Harper Robinton.
Posted by: Anna Puma

Does the author have a speech impediment ?

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:42 AM (T4tVD)

182 Golden Isis is a fun ride. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 10:42 AM (t/2Uw)

183 John Ringo, like Larry Correia, has a open ended/collaborative series with his The Legacy of the Aldenata books. He wrote several of his own and then collaborated with Tom Kratman, Julie Cochrane and Michael Z. Williamson. Ringo also infuses a lot of his writings with not so subtle political commentary (like the authors he collaborates with).

Posted by: Stacy0311 at July 09, 2023 10:43 AM (DtPtM)

184 Good morning horde. Keira's question is interesting. Would love to hear wisdom or see pointers to self-publishing resources.

Posted by: TRex at July 09, 2023 10:45 AM (IQ6Gq)

185 Good morning Hordemates!

Posted by: Diogenes at July 09, 2023 10:45 AM (e4fEA)

186 177 The film Jeremiah Johnson versus Vardis Fisher’s book Mountain Man. I like Fisher’s book version more than the Crow Killer version. That said, neither is paced for a modern readership.

So I guess the film is better than the book, though I still enjoyed the book.hah

Posted by: 13times at July 09, 2023 10:41 AM (Cpv1

Gah, I remember hating the film version of Jeremia Johnson. As you say, not paced for modern audiences. but I was also enraged because it seemed like nothing that happened had mattered. A whole lot happened, but any consequences were undone, and the main character seemed unchanged by all that he had been through.

I dunno. Maybe I just don't like that type of story...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 09, 2023 10:46 AM (92RsY)

187 >>> 184 Good morning horde. Keira's question is interesting. Would love to hear wisdom or see pointers to self-publishing resources.
Posted by: TRex at July 09, 2023 10:45 AM (IQ6Gq)

according to hoyt (

Sarah Hoyt has been indie publishing for years along with several author buds.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 10:47 AM (llON8)

188 hmm, pixy took something as html tags???

according to hoyt (no spaces)
dot
com

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 10:47 AM (llON8)

189 Been wondering if a sequel to Golden Iris was around?

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 10:48 AM (xhxe8)

190 Ah, Bach...

Posted by: Radar O'Reilly at July 09, 2023 10:48 AM (DhOHl)

191 Perfessor posted a price list last week. Did you miss it??
Posted by: OrangeEnt

******

Must have.

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:50 AM (kXYt5)

192 Posted by: Castle Guy at July 09, 2023 10:46 AM (92RsY)

I have the diametrically opposite opinion. I guess that's what makes the world go 'round.

Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 10:50 AM (FO8S3)

193 Golden Isis is a fun ride. Highly recommended.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Skip spoke highly of it as well.

I own it; haven't got to it yet.

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:51 AM (T4tVD)

194 Price list? Twenty bucks, same as...

Posted by: Oh, wait. This isn't the Art Thread at July 09, 2023 10:52 AM (DhOHl)

195 Matt Labash turned me on to "Orwell On Truth," a collection of excerpts from G.O.'s writings. It's a brisk read, pithy, quotable. Recommended. I found it on CloudLibrary.
https://tinyurl.com/4fy8m4sw
Posted by: Dig gp Must at July 09, 2023 09:03 AM (MvF+J)

Whatever happened to Matt Labash? I'm assuming he's still out there, but he was one of the less political writers with the Weekly Standard crew. I always enjoyed his writing, and wouldn't think he'd have joined the losers who became Bill Kristol's butt buddies.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 10:53 AM (bjjWV)

196 79 ... "Since the topic of 'series' was brought up by the good Perfessor, here's a question to everyone: how many volumes of a series do you collect? Before you loose interest, or the series turns bad/repetitive/just not was it was in the beginning?"

I used to collect EVERY book by Clive Cussler, now it's just the Isaac Bell series. I have almost every Nero Wolfe book, all the Martha's Vineyard and Liturgical mysteries, Matt Helm of course, and the Chet and Bernie books. Add the Patrick O'Brian and most Bernard Cornwell books. Since many of my favorite authors have died, their series are finite.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 10:53 AM (7EjX1)

197 I liked it that Agatha Christie wrote “Curtain” closing her Hercule Poirot series to be published posthumously, but she wrote it long before she died so it had the quality of her earlier books, as I thought the quality subtly flagged in her later years, though not a huge amount.

She was never the same after meeting The Doctor and getting attacked by the giant alien bee.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at July 09, 2023 10:53 AM (9yUzE)

198 Captains Courageous movie was well done but I attribute that to the fact Kipling was so good at writing that it was easy to go from book to the screen.

Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 10:54 AM (FO8S3)

199 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 10:55 AM (Zz0t1)

200 I bought one of TJM's books. It arrived this week.

I haven't started it yet.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 10:55 AM (Zz0t1)

201 More for my own mental health, I was thinking of writing something with the working title of: "There is no sunset language"

The pitch is: God made several transcendent commands

• Be Fruitful and Multiply
• Tend to the garden
• Forbidding global government
• Ending of This Age (which ended in 70AD)

I would like a few more, but they need to be distinct enough to be able to cover in its own chapter/part.

For example, the first, a whole section on how technology, climate and culture has managed to embarrass the Malthusians to sustain huge global populations, so there is no need to worry about culling human lives.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (p8A+W)

202 Read the first chapter of George MacDonald Fraser’s ‘Pyrates’ and was smitten. This guy can write. He is the author of the Flashman series which I sampled as a teen and found odd likely because it was a serial collection. Looking forward to reading the whole corpus just for the sheer power of his writing and humor.
Posted by: Puddinhead
____________________

You will not be disappointed. Flashman at the Charge was the best, IMO, followed by the initial book, Flashman.

Royal Flash was probably my least favorite, and the only one that spawned a movie.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (Dm8we)

203 You are very special people (in all the best ways!).

I feel you're buttering us up for something.......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (Zz0t1)

204 Topic is Phobias. 1k to 3k words. $250 for the winner. Entry fee of $5.

********

Ah Phobias. One of the under-appreciated Greek philosophers...

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (kXYt5)

205 Kipling's novel, "The Light That Failed," failed, and ISTR even Kipling thought it a failure. But there is a 1939 film of it. Is the movie any good?

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at July 09, 2023 10:57 AM (4PZHB)

206 Castle Guy. I’m waffling a bit on comparing the film and books because it’s been decades since I watched the film.

Fisher’s book underscored one thing; lawful or outlaw, it was the last time Men were free to do as they wish. At least that was what I got out of it.

Posted by: 13times at July 09, 2023 10:57 AM (Cpv18)

207 175 --

I'll happily take your word that Willie DeVille has done much better work than the closing Princess Bride number. All I know is that a) for decades I was a sit-through-the-end-credits movie viewer, both in theaters and at home, and b) I've seen the closing credits to Princess Bride only once.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 10:57 AM (a/4+U)

208 I seem to once start a series do get through them all, do have 1 more of Patrick O'Brian Master and Commander but waiting to find a used book, and 1/2 way through the Sharpe series

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (xhxe8)

209 Ah Phobias. One of the under-appreciated Greek philosophers...
Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (kXYt5)

"I think, therefore I cringe"?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (9UlRk)

210 You are very special people (in all the best ways!).

I feel you're buttering us up for something.......
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (Zz0t1)
---
It's just part of the standard closing remarks I use every week. However, I have yet to be disappointed, so as far as I'm concerned, it still holds true.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (BpYfr)

211 Read the first chapter of George MacDonald Fraser’s ‘Pyrates’ "

If you want a deeper dive into Fraser, try Mr. America. A more serious tone than the Flashman series. What comes through is that Fraser admired Americans and had disdain for the English upper classes. A "true Scotsman" shall we say.

Also "Quartered Safe Out Here" which is his auto-bio about being an 18-year old enlisted man in the British Army fighintg the Japs in the jungle during the Burma campaign

Posted by: Ignoramus at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (RqMSv)

212 Ah Phobias. One of the under-appreciated Greek philosophers...
Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (kXYt5)

I've read the Greek commentator Articles and he agrees with you.

Posted by: Napoleon XIV at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (AiZBA)

213 For example, the first, a whole section on how technology, climate and culture has managed to embarrass the Malthusians to sustain huge global populations, so there is no need to worry about culling human lives.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (p8A+W)

Psst. I never worried about overpopulation and scare resources. I just wanted to kill a lot of people.

Posted by: Malthus at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (Angsy)

214 However, I have yet to be disappointed, so as far as I'm concerned, it still holds true.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 10:58 AM (BpYfr)

Well, you must try harder.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 10:59 AM (Zz0t1)

215 I did obliterate the Honor Harrington series, at least up until the "prequel" books kicked in. Based on a Moron Recommendation, of course.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 10:59 AM (9UlRk)

216 You are very special people (in all the best ways!).

I feel you're buttering us up for something.......
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden

Is there a grill nearby ?

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:59 AM (T4tVD)

217 My Open Ended Series is the Harry Bosch books, by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch sounds a lot like Hairy Bush.

Is it me ?
Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:34 AM (T4tVD)

Heh, yeah. I think it's just you. I think I read maybe three from the series, and realized that was enough. The writing's fine, I guess, nothing spectacular, but I think this is the problem I have with series. They become formulaic.

Same thing with the teevee show, I guess, although I think the actor, whatshisname, was terrific as the character, and the show was very well made.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (H0rd2)

218
Is there a grill nearby ?
Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:59 AM (T4tVD)

TO SERVE MAN

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (Zz0t1)

219 Ah Phobias. One of the under-appreciated Greek philosophers...

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (kXYt5)

That's a scary thought.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (Angsy)

220 I'm about halfway through "Angelmaker" by Nick Harkaway in my current journey of trying to discover decent non-woke SF and Fantasy published in this century.

Posted by: pawn at July 09, 2023 11:01 AM (wsHtO)

221 "Royal Flash was probably my least favorite"

Funny . that was my favorite. A young Otto von Bismark. And Lola Montez! With a plot lifted from the Prisoner of Zenda.

Favorite single scene is in Mountain of Light, which I won't spoil. You'll know it when you get to it.

Posted by: Ignoramus at July 09, 2023 11:01 AM (RqMSv)

222 Harry Bosch sounds a lot like Hairy Bush.

Is it me ?
Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 10:34 AM (T4tVD)

Heh, yeah. I think it's just you

!

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:02 AM (T4tVD)

223 One of my thoughts for 2023 was to read nothing but books in a series.

However, I haven't exactly done that as I've read quite a few standalone books this year.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:04 AM (BpYfr)

224 Re: Keira--I'm late to the show this morning, but I can highly recommend Karen Ronan for help with formatting for KDP (and cover art, too). She is absolutely AWESOME and AMAZING.
https://coversbykaren.com/

Posted by: FIIGMO at July 09, 2023 11:04 AM (5Xtai)

225 I have in my possession Swamp Story, Dave Barry's 3rd novel.

His first 2 were EXCELLENT !

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:04 AM (T4tVD)

226 108 ... Thomas Paine,

Thumbs up for Jack Du Brul books. I have all his Philip Mercer books and all his collaborations with Cussler. The latest Isaac Bell book, The Sea Wolves, is entirely Du Brul's writing and it is excellent.

Like you, I would love to see some new Mercer books. The stories were action packed and the characters were fun.

Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 11:04 AM (7EjX1)

227 However, I haven't exactly done that as I've read quite a few standalone books this year.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:04 AM (BpYfr)

Reading in parallel gets too confusing.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:05 AM (9UlRk)

228 >>> 201 More for my own mental health, I was thinking of writing something with the working title of: "There is no sunset language"

The pitch is: God made several transcendent commands

• Be Fruitful and Multiply
• Tend to the garden
• Forbidding global government
• Ending of This Age (which ended in 70AD)

I would like a few more, but they need to be distinct enough to be able to cover in its own chapter/part.

For example, the first, a whole section on how technology, climate and culture has managed to embarrass the Malthusians to sustain huge global populations, so there is no need to worry about culling human lives.
Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (p8A+W)

Weird how the same type of idiots who came up with the phrase "human resources" don't seem to think humans are in fact, resources, let alone resourceful.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 11:05 AM (llON8)

229 That's a scary thought.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

********

Most of the time Phobias could be overcome by frequent exposure and deep breathing techniques. He was a weird dude.

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (kXYt5)

230 Ah Phobias. One of the under-appreciated Greek philosophers...

Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (kXYt5)

That's a scary thought.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (Angsy)

Under-appreciated, and almost never gets talked about in professional circles anymore, I'm afraid.

Replaced by other, more modern thought on these topics.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (H0rd2)

231 Heh, yeah. I think it's just you. I think I read maybe three from the series, and realized that was enough. The writing's fine, I guess, nothing spectacular, but I think this is the problem I have with series. They become formulaic.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (H0rd2)
---
That is a good point about series becoming formulaic. This can especially be true for character-based series like Jack Reacher, where the novels tend to be very similar in many respects. But even in long-running epic series, this can be an issue. I like Terry Brooks' Shannara series, but the later books are much more formulaic than the earlier books.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (BpYfr)

232 Heh, yeah. I think it's just you. I think I read maybe three from the series, and realized that was enough. The writing's fine, I guess, nothing spectacular, but I think this is the problem I have with series. They become formulaic.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (H0rd2)

That's probably why you see so many. Set the formula, decide on the plot and the writer's done, just fill in the details. Then, twenty years later, you find the author only wrote the first two and ghost writers did the rest.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:07 AM (Angsy)

233 FYI, Tress of the Emerald Sea was inspired by The
Princess Bride.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

I'll habe to give that a try. Love the movie, hate the Golding book

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (vHIgi)

234 201 More for my own mental health, I was thinking of writing something with the working title of: "There is no sunset language"

Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 10:56 AM (p8A+W)

* FORTRAN has entered the chat.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (Zz0t1)

235 I have Volume 15 of "The Library of Universal Knowledge", the last volume. Covers Vegetable Chemistry to Zymotic Diseases. Written 1885. I would like to have the other volumes but they are kind of hard to find.

Posted by: fd at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (iayUP)

236 Most of the time Phobias could be overcome by frequent exposure and deep breathing techniques. He was a weird dude.
Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (kXYt5)

"Have you considered that the nous is a necessary precedent for the psyche?"

"Pssssh. Have *you* considered that I'm picturing you naked right now?"

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (9UlRk)

237 However, I haven't exactly done that as I've read quite a few standalone books this year.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:04 AM (BpYfr)

Reading in parallel gets too confusing.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:05 AM (9UlRk)
---
I've seen at least one YouTuber recommend reading multiple books at once to improve reading speed. Supposedly, reading a few chapters here and a few chapters in another book helps improve cognition. Mixing up fiction and non-fiction gives your brain a break from one type of reading when you pick up the other to read for a bit.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (BpYfr)

238 "This can especially be true for character-based series like Jack Reacher, where the novels tend to be very similar in many respects."

This is about me, isn't it?

Posted by: Secret Agent 007 at July 09, 2023 11:09 AM (DhOHl)

239 ---
That is a good point about series becoming formulaic. This can especially be true for character-based series like Jack Reacher, where the novels tend to be very similar in many respects. But even in long-running epic series, this can be an issue. I like Terry Brooks' Shannara series, but the later books are much more formulaic than the earlier books.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (BpYfr)

* Dirk Pitt has entered the chat.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:09 AM (Zz0t1)

240 Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:00 AM (H0rd2)

That's probably why you see so many. Set the formula, decide on the plot and the writer's done, just fill in the details. Then, twenty years later, you find the author only wrote the first two and ghost writers did the rest.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:07 AM (Angsy)

And I expect this is where AI enters the chat. Literally.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:09 AM (H0rd2)

241 That is a good point about series becoming formulaic.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (BpYfr)

That can be a good thing, especially when the author attempts to keep his characters consistent. There is a comfortable and familiar flow to a well-done formula!

But all too often the formula overwhelms the story.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 09, 2023 11:12 AM (PHmov)

242 I've seen at least one YouTuber recommend reading multiple books at once to improve reading speed. Supposedly, reading a few chapters here and a few chapters in another book helps improve cognition. Mixing up fiction and non-fiction gives your brain a break from one type of reading when you pick up the other to read for a bit.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (BpYfr)

Honestly, I think this here very webzine has replaced a lot of my book reading. Maybe for those reasons, it's obviously quite diverse (in the best sense of the word), to read multiple "authors" here, not just those like yourself who create posts, along with The Big Guy, but all the commenters as well.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (H0rd2)

243 My favorite author was Steven Pressfield but his last two books , 36 Righteous Men and A Man at Arms were semi woke in my opinion. Still well written though.

Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (FO8S3)

244
And I expect this is where AI enters the chat. Literally.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:09 AM (H0rd2)

* You have died from dysentery.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (Zz0t1)

245 That's probably why you see so many. Set the formula, decide on the plot and the writer's done, just fill in the details. Then, twenty years later, you find the author only wrote the first two and ghost writers did the rest.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:07 AM (Angsy)

And I expect this is where AI enters the chat. Literally.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:09 AM (H0rd2)
---
Only a matter of time before that happens, I think. The result will be bland, formulaic stories, but unfortunately the human brain is being conditioned to accept that via the writing in modern entertainment. There won't be a difference between Hollywood writers and AI-generated stories.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (BpYfr)

246 Weird how the same type of idiots who came up with the phrase "human resources" don't seem to think humans are in fact, resources, let alone resourceful.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 11:05 AM (llON

-----

At my place of employment, humans were classified under "organic resources". No lie.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (aqEpR)

247 British author Ruth Rendell always surprised you, though I have not ready many of her series mysteries about her Inspector Wexford character. It's odd. Years ago I would have instantly gone for her continuing character novels over the standalones. Now I'm the reverse. As if rejecting series TV with continuing characters for an anthology show like Twilight Zone or U.S. Steel Hour.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (omVj0)

248
At my place of employment, humans were classified under "organic resources". No lie.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (aqEpR)

So is a table made of wood.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:14 AM (Zz0t1)

249 Mixing up fiction and non-fiction gives your brain a break from one type of reading when you pick up the other to read for a bit.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (BpYfr)

I'd just wind up being the guy making small talk at dinner parties about how Anna Karenina was actually the one who made the financing of the Hubble Telescope possible by finding out who stole a painting from the Louvre.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:14 AM (9UlRk)

250 Morning, Horde...How goes it?

I'm just sitting here eating my waffles (with genuine Vermont syrup) and enjoying your comments...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

Uh-oh.

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:14 AM (T4tVD)

251 An interesting shared universe series is James Branch Cabell's Life of Manuel series. Manuel is a series of nearly two dozen works consisting of fantasies, historical romances, social satires, verse, plays, and essays, in which Cabell explored the lives for the varies decedents of Dom Manuel, Count of Poictesme (a fictional province of France), and their views on life and concepts such as justice and the like.

Most, or all, of the Manuel works are in the public domain, albeit some (particularly the essays and related materials) are obscure enough to make them very hard to find. Back in the 1960s Lin Carter, an SF author/editor, convinced his publisher to reprint some of the series. I doubt they ever sold well, and, IIRC, no more than 6 or 8 of the Manuel works were reprinted before the published gave up the experiment. Jurgen is the most famous, and probably the most readable; it was the subject of a famous obscenity case, and that case was the subject of another of Cabell's works.

cont...

Posted by: Pope John 20th at July 09, 2023 11:15 AM (cYrkj)

252 Thanks for The Book Thread, Perfesser !

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:15 AM (T4tVD)

253
Uh-oh.
Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:14 AM (T4tVD)

Sous Vide that shit!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:15 AM (Zz0t1)

254 That can be a good thing, especially when the author attempts to keep his characters consistent. There is a comfortable and familiar flow to a well-done formula!

But all too often the formula overwhelms the story.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 09, 2023 11:12 AM (PHmov)
---
Oh, yes! There's nothing inherently wrong with formulaic writing, if the author can still tell a compelling story. For instance, in Vince Milam's Case Lee stories, you know Case is going to travel around the world investigating a mystery, while encountering numerous bad guys. At the end, he calls in a team of fire support and together they kill all the bad guys. You don't really care if you've read it before because it's still entertaining.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:16 AM (BpYfr)

255 Question. How does one drain that lovely tub?
Posted by: The Barrel

Remember when Elvis shot the TV ?

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:16 AM (T4tVD)

256 Thanks for The Book Thread, Perfesser !
Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:15 AM (T4tVD)

I'm not here very often, but it goes without saying.

It should be said more often.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:16 AM (Zz0t1)

257 I'd just wind up being the guy making small talk at dinner parties about how Anna Karenina was actually the one who made the financing of the Hubble Telescope possible by finding out who stole a painting from the Louvre.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:14 AM (9UlRk)
---
I think a Moron Author could have some fun writing that story...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:17 AM (BpYfr)

258 I need to get moving. Need to see if I can find a pea trap for the newly installed bathroom sink.

Plus, I really should mow the lawn before heading down for the kids freshman orientation for a couple days.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:17 AM (Zz0t1)

259 And I expect this is where AI enters the chat. Literally.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:09 AM (H0rd2)

Sounds about how everything in my life went. Find a job that makes lots of money, finally get into it, then the money's gone. It's happened multiple times. Now that I'm trying writing, AI will get all the sales. Publishers will love it because they won't have to pay a writer for the work. Even if AI written books are crap, it won't matter because today's readers can't read anything complex anymore.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:19 AM (Angsy)

260 Well, I guess it's just a p-trap.

Oops.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at July 09, 2023 11:19 AM (Zz0t1)

261 Envision trapped peas.

Posted by: Sorry couldn't resist at July 09, 2023 11:19 AM (DhOHl)

262 At my place of employment, humans were classified under "organic resources". No lie.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (aqEpR)

****

This is discrimination!

Posted by: The Terminator at July 09, 2023 11:20 AM (vHIgi)

263 Envision trapped peas.
Posted by: Sorry couldn't resist

Auntie m !
Auntie m !

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:21 AM (T4tVD)

264 Sock off

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 11:22 AM (vHIgi)

265 >>> 246

-----

At my place of employment, humans were classified under "organic resources". No lie.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (aqEpR)

Were you and your cow orkers cage-free and fed an organic diet???

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 11:22 AM (llON8)

266 You should not be p-ing in your bathroom sink anyway. That's unhygienic.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:22 AM (9UlRk)

267 As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So, if you're wearing those pants, you are exempt from the pants requirement, but you're wearing pants, and therefore meet the requirement. However, if you doff them, since you're exempt by virtue of wearing them, you are no longer in compliance.

This kind of logic is a requirement for leftist justices of the Supreme Court.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at July 09, 2023 11:22 AM (a3Q+t)

268 I have to confess that I spend so much of my day reading AoS comments, that I no longer have much time for reading actual books. I'm always impressed by regular commenters who post a lot during the week, then tell about all the books they read on the Book Thread. Where do you find the time?!

Posted by: jayhawkone at July 09, 2023 11:23 AM (9rPx3)

269 >>> 249 Mixing up fiction and non-fiction gives your brain a break from one type of reading when you pick up the other to read for a bit.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (BpYfr)

I'd just wind up being the guy making small talk at dinner parties about how Anna Karenina was actually the one who made the financing of the Hubble Telescope possible by finding out who stole a painting from the Louvre.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:14 AM (9UlRk)

Would you have anything to share about coelacanths?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 11:23 AM (llON8)

270 I've seen at least one YouTuber recommend reading multiple books at once to improve reading speed. Supposedly, reading a few chapters here and a few chapters in another book helps improve cognition. Mixing up fiction and non-fiction gives your brain a break from one type of reading when you pick up the other to read for a bit.

So I shouldn't worry about having multiple books open at any given time.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 11:24 AM (p8A+W)

271 Only a matter of time before that happens, I think. The result will be bland, formulaic stories, but unfortunately the human brain is being conditioned to accept that via the writing in modern entertainment. There won't be a difference between Hollywood writers and AI-generated stories.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM (BpYfr)

Which reminds me, I'm wondering if there is a decent enough to read book on the history of Hollywood writing. Of course, once upon a time well-known and respected writers went out there to soak up some cash. Then of course we have the commie period, and now there are a bunch of NPCs doing all the writing, and these idiots are on strike!

Why? Don't know, don't care!

Surely someone has written the history though. And don't call me Shirley.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:24 AM (JNXnC)

272 This kind of logic is a requirement for leftist justices of the Supreme Court.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at July 09, 2023 11:22 AM (a3Q+t)

My pantslessness is a Constitutional Right. Your pantslessness is disparate impact.

...and your penumbra is emanating.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:24 AM (9UlRk)

273 Cabell cont....

Although the wide range of the various works constituting Manuel is admirable, Cabell was kind of a one-trick pony-he gives the impression that much of what he wrote was intended to offend those he regarded as stuck-up blue noses.

Anyone interested in older fantasy (the various works constituting Manuel were written from about 1900 through 1930) should give Jurgen a try; it's readily available, and the best of the lot.

To give an idea of Cabell's storytelling; early in the book Jurgen speaks well of the devil's artistic talent in designing lures and temptations for mankind. The devil overhears Jurgen's praise of him and then....

Posted by: Pope John 20th at July 09, 2023 11:24 AM (cYrkj)

274 At my place of employment, humans were classified under "organic resources". No lie.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:13 AM

At certain establishments in Nevada, they're classified as "orgasmic resources".

Posted by: Duncanthrax at July 09, 2023 11:25 AM (a3Q+t)

275
That can be a good thing, especially when the author attempts to keep his characters consistent. There is a comfortable and familiar flow to a well-done formula!

But all too often the formula overwhelms the story.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 09, 2023 11:12 AM (PHmov)

____________

If a series actually has a predetermined narrative arc, then formulaic writing is bad. But if the series is just episodistic, then formulaic writing is OK.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 09, 2023 11:25 AM (MoZTd)

276 The most interesting thing I've read lately is a chapter in A Village In the Third Reich concerning the Nazis climbing the highest mountain Europe, Mount Elbrus. The village in question is a mountain resort in the Alps so many of the locals were expert climbers. Come the war, they raised a mountain division. A part of the Stalingrad campaign concerned the attempted capture of oil fields across the Caucasus Mountains. A general decided it would be a good idea to plant the Nazi flag atop Elbrus for propaganda purposes. What followed pointless confusion and misery. They finally got the propaganda photographs just before Big Adolph called the whole thing off and threatened to court martial those responsible. The episode wasn't particularly evil or cruel so there's that.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at July 09, 2023 11:26 AM (FVME7)

277 Even in golden age Hollywood they had to inject FDR fanboyism.

I watched a Miss Marple episode and you knew who was one of the baddies because he didn't support this newfangled NHS.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:27 AM (aqEpR)

278 That can be a good thing, especially when the author attempts to keep his characters consistent. There is a comfortable and familiar flow to a well-done formula!

But all too often the formula overwhelms the story.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 09, 2023 11:12 AM (PHmov)

I guess I'm contradicting myself a bit, but one of the things that turned me off on the Bosch series was when I heard he had left the force, and I guess was doing private eye work? Whatever, to me it kinda ruined it, realizing the character's routine would be changed that much... that the "formula" would be changed.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:27 AM (JNXnC)

279
Weird how the same type of idiots who came up with the phrase "human resources" don't seem to think humans are in fact, resources, let alone resourceful.

Its a different way of being oriented. When it comes to politics or life in general, my ideology trends towards action and policies that promote human flourishing.

When asked by a liberal and by a libertarian about my political bent, I pause then drop my human flourishing line. No one ever seems to be bothered by it because internally they process that thought through their own value set and ideology and eisegete very different meanings.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 11:28 AM (p8A+W)

280
What followed pointless confusion and misery.

____________

Is this not a constant in the life of every army?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 09, 2023 11:28 AM (MoZTd)

281 I'm always impressed by regular commenters who post a lot during the week, then tell about all the books they read on the Book Thread. Where do you find the time?!

Posted by: jayhawkone at July 09, 2023 11:23 AM (9rPx3)

They use Patrick Thomas McNulty's stopwatch.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:29 AM (Angsy)

282 ...and your penumbra is emanating.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:24 AM (9UlRk)

That's what SHE said.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:30 AM (JNXnC)

283 Were you and your cow orkers cage-free and fed an organic diet???
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 09, 2023 11:22 AM (llON

---

They call those floor plans "veal-fattening pens" for a reason.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (aqEpR)

284 OrangeEnt

Nice Twilight Zone reference there.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (a/4+U)

285 So I shouldn't worry about having multiple books open at any given time.

I can't do that very well. Sometimes I'll stop a book in the middle and then go pick it back up later -- sometimes much later -- but I can't keep multiple books in progress. In fact, sometimes I find myself annoyed that I have to finish one book just so I can start on the next thing I want to read.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (nfrXX)

286 In fact, sometimes I find myself annoyed that I have to finish one book just so I can start on the next thing I want to read.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (nfrXX)

I'm that way with knitting.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:33 AM (9UlRk)

287 Time to be pantsed and productive,

Thanks again, Perf! And happy reading, Horde.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:33 AM (aqEpR)

288 I'm not saying I would kill for those book shelves in the top photo. But that guy in the tub had better stay alert. (He can keep the tub. I want the shelves and the room.)
Posted by: JTB at July 09, 2023 09:15 AM (7EjX1)

The guy in the tub looks like a sculpture to me.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 09, 2023 11:33 AM (ekXRE)

289 I'm always impressed by regular commenters who post a lot during the week, then tell about all the books they read on the Book Thread. Where do you find the time?!

Modern blog posts are like CSI episodes, there is one factoid and an hour's worth of eye-wash wrapped around it.

Books, preferably written before the 1960s (before editors dummied down everything) almost always provide enough input. There are a few sites I go to, but most of my news is from JJ Sefton's Morning Report and the comment section.

I like to avoid disposable knowledge (e.g. pop culture, baseball scores) and have a very high retention rate.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 11:33 AM (p8A+W)

290 Backatcha Eris !

Posted by: JT at July 09, 2023 11:34 AM (T4tVD)

291
They use Patrick Thomas McNulty's stopwatch.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023

***
I had to look that up! I thought you were referring to the lead character in John D. MacDonald's The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. That novel, which has basically the same premise, is actually from a year before the TZ episode, though they did not make a TV-movie from it until 1980.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 11:34 AM (omVj0)

292 Use InDesign. LaTeX is likely too challenging for a beginner.

Also, InDesign can export to any configuration of PDF you may need.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 09, 2023 11:34 AM (oINRc)

293
I'm always impressed by regular commenters who post a lot during the week, then tell about all the books they read on the Book Thread. Where do you find the time?!

My buxom, callipygic executive secretary (the one with the English accent) reads them to me while I comment.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 09, 2023 11:35 AM (MoZTd)

294 Phobias has largely been replaced by Hysteria in contemporary thought.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at July 09, 2023 11:36 AM (FVME7)

295 I can't do that very well. Sometimes I'll stop a book in the middle and then go pick it back up later -- sometimes much later -- but I can't keep multiple books in progress. In fact, sometimes I find myself annoyed that I have to finish one book just so I can start on the next thing I want to read.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (nfrXX)

Thinking about the much talked about and much maligned Georggggge RRRRRR Marttttttin series, there were many books that came and went between reading the second to last and last books he wrote, and in that time I forgot MUCH of what had come before.

I thought it was my fault, really, as I was reading, but have come to accept that it wasn't a faulty memory on my part, but an overabundance of characters, spread out too far and wide, and too long between the author's putting it down on paper. And of course, once upon a time it bothered me quite a bit, as it did others, that the author wasn't finishing the damn thing. Now, I couldn't possibly care less.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:37 AM (JNXnC)

296 There's probably a bit of a rough transition in being a Nobody writer who suddenly becomes a Somebody writer that everyone is anxiously expecting more content from.

I, of course, am neither. But still.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:39 AM (9UlRk)

297 Just finished David Baldacci's The 6:20 Man.
Was down to the last 20 pages and still hadn't figured it out.
Classic Baldacci!

Posted by: Diogenes at July 09, 2023 11:40 AM (e4fEA)

298 Just off the top of my head, before Tolkien, there was Nordoff and Hall's Bounty trilogy, and of course, Graves's I, Claudius and Claudius the God. Kidnapped and David Balfour are a pair; I don't know if there's a 3d. And of course, the two Alices. And others.

And for "open" series, Wodehouse had two for novels (Bertie and Blandings) and any number for short stories. That's common. Mowgli, for instance.

Strictly, despite everyone calling it that, I don't think LOTR is a trilogy. No one who likes it would ever read just one or two of them. The Hobbit and LOTR together could be a linked series. Lewis's come closer.

Posted by: Eeyore at July 09, 2023 11:40 AM (brAQZ)

299 Got to climb off the couch and do some chores, folken. Good thread as usual this morning!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 11:41 AM (omVj0)

300 My buxom, callipygic executive secretary (the one with the English accent) reads them to me while I comment.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 09, 2023 11:35 AM (MoZTd)

Is she single?

I forgot what we were talking about.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:41 AM (JNXnC)

301 Callipygic?

https://youtu.be/0h1ZOU5Ztp0

Posted by: Obligatory Seinfeld reference at July 09, 2023 11:42 AM (DhOHl)

302 like to avoid disposable knowledge (e.g. pop culture, baseball scores) and have a very high retention rate.
Posted by: Reuben Hick at July 09, 2023 11:33 AM (p8A+W)

I need to reduce my intake but being raised with the National Enquirer ,TV and the World Almanac, it's almost impossible.

Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 11:42 AM (FO8S3)

303 Nice Twilight Zone reference there.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (a/4+U)

I had to look that up! I thought you were referring to the lead character in John D. MacDonald's The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything. That novel, which has basically the same premise, is actually from a year before the TZ episode, though they did not make a TV-movie from it until 1980.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 09, 2023 11:34 AM (omVj0)

My first thought was Mr. Pem from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, but I remembered he didn't really stop time, just went back and forth in time. Might have been a lot more obscure. Figured the TZ ref would easily be noticed.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:42 AM (Angsy)

304 I'm just waiting for a break in the rain to finish setting a post for my new Hoselink reel.

Doesn't rain for six damn months, and picks the one day i got a job to do to start coming down.

Stupid air.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:43 AM (9UlRk)

305 There's probably a bit of a rough transition in being a Nobody writer who suddenly becomes a Somebody writer that everyone is anxiously expecting more content from.

I, of course, am neither. But still.
Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:39 AM (9UlRk)

I forget where I first saw it, the trope about a writer who gets famous with his first novel, then struggles to write another.

Man, I've heard "write what you know," but that's just ridiculous. Enough naval gazing, write monkey, write!

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:44 AM (JNXnC)

306 225 I have in my possession Swamp Story, Dave Barry's 3rd novel.

His first 2 were EXCELLENT !
-------------
Enjoyed him for a while until I recognized he wanted to be hip/woke John D. MacDonald. His stories always follow some wokery of the moment.

Posted by: Pudinhead at July 09, 2023 11:45 AM (4eKPg)

307 The sophomore slump. I think it hits artists in a lot of fields, not just prose writing.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:45 AM (9UlRk)

308 Most of the time Phobias could be overcome by frequent exposure and deep breathing techniques. He was a weird dude.
Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (kXYt5)

The Greeks considered Fear and Dread, Phobos and Deimos, to be separate, though related. Actually brothers born of Ares and Aphrodite in mythology. Nowadays we conflate them, and I wonder if if that is an error.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 11:45 AM (xhaym)

309 308 Most of the time Phobias could be overcome by frequent exposure and deep breathing techniques. He was a weird dude.
Posted by: Muldoon at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (kXYt5)

The Greeks considered Fear and Dread, Phobos and Deimos, to be separate, though related. Actually brothers born of Ares and Aphrodite in mythology. Nowadays we conflate them, and I wonder if if that is an error.
--------------
These can also be overcome via a high bulk diet of grains and an enema. Do not fear the nozzle.

Posted by: Pudinhead at July 09, 2023 11:47 AM (4eKPg)

310 John Steakley wrote just two books. Vampires and Armor. That's how you can bat a 1.000.

Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 11:48 AM (FO8S3)

311 For me it is either read a book or go on the ONT. lately it has been read a book.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 09, 2023 11:50 AM (t/2Uw)

312 John Steakley wrote just two books. Vampires and Armor. That's how you can bat a 1.000.
Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 11:48 AM (FO8S3)

Yeah, and Eddie Gaedel has a 1.000 OBP.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:50 AM (JNXnC)

313 I, of course, am neither. But still.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:39 AM (9UlRk)

I'm now officially 0 for 3. Well, the latest attempt didn't win, but it's posted on the Reedsy Prompts website. No money or honorable mention and probably won't be in their next print issue.

The Wagon Incident, if anyone's interested in reading it. Contest 204. Undertaking a dangerous journey prompt.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 11:50 AM (Angsy)

314 I don't seem to be able to juggle books, 1 at a time

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 11:50 AM (YQVc1)

315 That is a good point about series becoming formulaic. This can especially be true for character-based series like Jack Reacher, where the novels tend to be very similar in many respects. But even in long-running epic series, this can be an issue. I like Terry Brooks' Shannara series, but the later books are much more formulaic than the earlier books.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 09, 2023 11:06 AM (BpYfr)

Pratchett started getting formulaic early in the Discworld series, then started switching it up using other characters, usually ones that were minor characters earlier and fleshing them out.
Then he shrugged off the small stuff and went and wrote Small Gods and Feet of Clay which were quite frightening for a fun, humerous, Gulliver's Travels-like social commentary.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 11:51 AM (xhaym)

316 If I start liking the second book would drop the 1st

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 11:51 AM (YQVc1)

317 Self-published book covers tend to have atrocious design, especially typographically.

I design mock covers and wish I could help.

Posted by: Dr. Varno at July 09, 2023 11:52 AM (X+Ku8)

318 Posted by: Warai-otoko at July 09, 2023 11:08 AM (9UlRk)

I struggle to understand what the nous is

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 11:53 AM (vHIgi)

319 Weird how the same type of idiots who came up with the phrase "human resources" don't seem to think humans are in fact, resources, let alone resourceful.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket

Oregon state government had an agency that was called, Department of Human Resources and every time I saw the old title I would think "Soylent Green is people"
Apparently I was not the only one since it was later renamed Department of Human Services.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 11:54 AM (xhaym)

320 Hipster tub boy will try to convince you he's reading one of the classics but I sense he may be perusing a nudie mag.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (KVGVf)

321 Thanks again for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (a/4+U)

322 re Werewife @ 146, thanks for the recommendation on "A Betrayal in Blood". I am going look for that. Another good story that covers some of the same ground is Fred Saberhagen's "The Holmes-Dracula File". Which, as you might guess from the title, stars the great detective and the famous vampire (the Giant Rat of Sumatra also appears). It is the second in Saberhagen's "Dracula" series which began with "The Dracula Tape". That retells the original Dracula story from the Count's viewpoint.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (2SWLc)

323 I struggle to understand what the nous is
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 11:53 AM (vHIgi)

No nous is good nous.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (JNXnC)

324 A disappointment. I began a guilty pleasure trilogy but think I'm going to abandon it barely into the exposition. The Mintari series by Daniel Arenson began well enough and I knew it wasn't going to be Shakespeare when I began. The setting is 1000 years into the future where science has developed a rather ingenius method to resurrect dinosaurs and place them on their own planet. Our larger than life hero is a ranger whose job it is to protect the dinosaurs, particulary from poachers. The general theme seems to be our hero's fued with a particularly large T Rex who had eaten his wife and child some years earlier. (The book begins with the epic tale of their attempted but unsuccessful escape from the T Rex.) All that's well and good. The real problem is that the villain, our hero's father, is just too over the top evil and my willingness to suspend disbelief is tested.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (FVME7)

325 Can't juggle fiction books but can juggle non-Fiction with it. One fiction book at a time.

Posted by: polynikes at July 09, 2023 11:56 AM (FO8S3)

326 I struggle to understand what the nous is
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 09, 2023 11:53 AM (vHIgi)

No nous is good nous.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (JNXnC)

Da nous is da part of da rope dat goes around youse neck.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 09, 2023 11:57 AM (e4fEA)

327 Oregon state government had an agency that was called, Department of Human Resources and every time I saw the old title I would think "Soylent Green is people"
Apparently I was not the only one since it was later renamed Department of Human Services.
Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 11:54 AM (xhaym)

Might just be to reduce confusion, as "human resources" these days is understood to be the commie assholes who hire employees. Whereas human services are all the freebies the state gives out to people.

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:58 AM (JNXnC)

328 Oregon state government had an agency that was called, Department of Human Resources and every time I saw the old title I would think "Soylent Green is people"

-
No, no. That would've been Human Ingredients.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at July 09, 2023 11:58 AM (FVME7)

329 No nous is good nous.
Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (JNXnC)

Da nous is da part of da rope dat goes around youse neck.
Posted by: Diogenes at July 09, 2023 11:57 AM (e4fEA)

Well, they ain't caught me yet, so I says again.....

Posted by: BurtTC at July 09, 2023 11:59 AM (JNXnC)

330 Kiera:

You can generate a PDF from many writing programs, like Word, if you're very careful about formatting. A paper book has specific needs that normal documents don't.

Best bet is software like Adobe InDesign, which has a lot of layout tools for "what you see is what you get" book pages, and generates the correct PDF file at the end. Adobe Photoshop is nice for creating and manipulating things like book cover art.

You shouldn't need to deal with Library of Congress at all. That's kind of a myth, I think.

Good idea to get your own ISBN numbers. They are quite expensive purchased one at a time, but if you get ten of them, there's a huge discount, and you never know how many you'll need. Keep in mind that any new version of your book (like making a paperback) will need a new ISBN.

Posted by: TB at July 09, 2023 11:59 AM (N1vqS)

331 They call those floor plans "veal-fattening pens" for a reason.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 09, 2023 11:31 AM (aqEpR)

You. Get out of my head.

I used to call them that. It made me unpopular.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 12:01 PM (xhaym)

332 We haz a NOOD comrade

Posted by: Skip at July 09, 2023 12:01 PM (xhxe8)

333 The saddest part of Sunday morning has arrived. The end of this week's Book Thread. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 09, 2023 12:01 PM (Angsy)

334 Hipster tub boy will try to convince you he's reading one of the classics but I sense he may be perusing a nudie mag.
Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 09, 2023 11:55 AM (KVGVf)

Prolly going thru his husband’s old “Playgirl” collection.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at July 09, 2023 12:02 PM (R/m4+)

335 Eyesore makes a good point; a "closed" series consisting of several linked individual books none of which contain a complete story can be considered to be just one very long book that was split into several books, for convenience, at appropriate places. The guiding factor would be whether the individual books of the "series"could stand on their own; as Eyesore says, it's unlikely that anyone would read, say, The Two Towers, and get much from it without reading the other two books.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at July 09, 2023 12:05 PM (cYrkj)

336 Every time I see "nous" I think "nuts"

Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 12:06 PM (xhaym)

337 For many years I received Pendergast hardbacks for my November birthday or Christmas. I finally had my wife read one. "We had these?!?!" She devoured the series.

Posted by: SmileyGG at July 09, 2023 01:24 PM (oRwBU)

338 Finished James Agee's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," then--thanks to the Horde--found the original article "Cotton Tenants: Three Families.". (Available through Internet archive.org.) Much shorter and easier to read as the writing is more straight-forward. Walter Evans photos are included, with captions.

I became curious about what has happened to these families. In "And Their Children After Them" Dale Maharidge and Michael Williason spent three years, 1986-1989, interviewing and photographing the surviving members of the families and their descendants. I've only started; so far, Maharidge and Williamson are discussing how cotton became "king" and how ordinary, industrious farmers were displaced, moved to the clay hills, and their descendants became tenant farmers after the Civil War.

Posted by: March Hare at July 09, 2023 04:20 PM (WOU9P)

339 More than a little fashionably late to the thread again this week. *sighs*

Before beginning JL (Jim) Curtis' book "Rimworld- Into the Green", I picked up the short story/prequel, "Rimworld: Stranded" and finished that. I'm about three quarters through "Into the Green" and am really enjoying it so far.

The time period is the 29th century (Year 28xx) and Humanity has been pushing out into the Galaxy, and has terraformed quite a few worlds. There's been a 100 year war against another sentient race of reptile based creatures known as Dragoons (Dragons, or just 'Goons'). A cease fire was signed and there's a DMZ set up, so basically both sides recognized an effective stalemate. Well now the Dragoons are starting to probe back into human space by use of traders, and the humans suspect they're collecting intel on where the human positions are soft and ripe for declaring "Game on" for another offensive push.

Having been medically retired from GalPat, Fargo just wants to enjoy his purchased land and cabin on a frontier planet, but circumstances have other ideas. And so we follow how "retirement" sure seems awfully complex and decidedly not filled with relaxation and fishing.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 09, 2023 04:42 PM (nRMeC)

340 I'm currently rereading a small series of books I first read when I was a child, many many years ago:

The Borrowers series, by Mary Norton, and two Little Grey Men books by B.B. (D. J. Watkins-Pitchford). They're what we'd call fantasy books today, detailing the lives of The Little People as understood by Victorians. I loved them as a child and tried to find them for years only to think they were out of print (Amazon has them now), but what a surprise to learn that the ancient gnomes of England were capable of murder, and the little borrowers of old Victorian mansions were nothing but opportunistic thieves. How we have moderns have whitewashed our fairy tales, which authors of previous generations did not do.

Posted by: RebeccaH at July 09, 2023 05:56 PM (JI6AV)

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