Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-16-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: Trudy)

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 (a fun romp through Renaissance Italy). 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.

PIC NOTE

Today's pic comes courtesy of Trudy. Her daughter, Kate, and her grandchildren, Gui, Pascal, and Aethelene, created this amazing little diorama. If you are not familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, this depicts the Librarian of Unseen University in the city of Ankh-Morpork sitting at his desk. Yes, he's an orangutan. A magical accident many years ago turned him into an ape and he's been that way ever since. He prefers it, actually, refusing any attempts to turn him back into a human. Turns out there are advantages to being a 300-lb. primate who is several times stronger than a human. Plus, as an orangutan, he's fully capable of reading the more dangerous books in the Unseen University Library that contain knowledge Man Was Not Meant To Know. Technically, he's not a man. Just don't ever refer to him as a monkey. He doesn't like that one bit.

The Librarian is one of my favorite characters in the Discworld series. He's conveys a lot of emotion just by saying, "Oook."

He's even mastered the quantum geography of L-Space, which connects all libraries together. That may be why we find him sitting in Trudy's library...

Here are a few more pics, including a larger version of the image at the top of the page. Note the tiny portrait of Sir Terry on the left-hand side of the diorama.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3 (without the Librarian)

CLOSED OR COMPLETED SERIES

Last week, we discussed various categories of series, based on my own made-up categorizations. Let's look at the idea of a "completed" or "closed" series in more detail.

I tend to enjoy these because you can stretch out a story over multiple volumes, rather than trying to cram everything into one book. That gives authors a lot of breathing room in terms of character and plot development as well as pacing. Though there are still challenges to ensuring that a completed series turns out well. One of the main criticisms of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which stretches across 14 lengthy books (each one is well over 500 pages), is that the pacing slows down to a drag in the middle of the series, making it a real burden for the reader. When I read that series last year, I had to force myself to get through that part of the series by reinterpreting those books as extensive character studies, rather than plot advancement. That change in perspective made them much more enjoyable than they were the first time I read them, when I just wanted things to move along. On the other side of the coin, Michael Moorcock tends to write much shorter books, with much faster pacing. While this can lead to a satisfying conclusion, he doesn't spend a lot of time on character development, so there is only minimal growth as the main character goes through his adventures.

Some authors write books in a series where each book can be significantly different than the others, yet still tell a cohesive tale. C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy is a bit like that. The first two books detail Ransom's journeys to Mars and Venus, respectively, where he's able to experience just how alien God's universe is. In the third book, the story takes place on a "modern" Earth (contemporary to Lewis' time) where Ransom then gets to see the fallen world of his birth as it really is. Lewis acknowledges this is a major shift in tone between the previous books.

A few authors struggle to write the "correct" number of books for their planned series. Tad Williams famously admits that he's functionally incapable of writing a proper trilogy. His last book in Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn had to be split into two volumes when it was released in paperback form as it publishing techniques of the time didn't want to handle a 1,500-page paperback novel. When he was writing the Shadowmarch series, an author's note pointedly states that while he *intended* to write a trilogy, again the final book was too complex to finish the story in just one volume so he extended the series to four volumes.

Raymond Feist suffered this malady from the opposite direction. The first two books of the Riftwar Saga were intended to be a single book with two parts--Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master. However, when it was published in paperback form, it was split into two volumes. Interestingly, the original four books of the Riftwar Saga is really two stories. The first two books tell the story of how Pug becomes a epic sorcerer and stops the Tsurani invasion. The final two books tell the story of Arutha, Prince of Krondor, as he hunts down an evil dark elf. Feist's next major series, the Serpentwar Saga could really be told in two books, but spans another four books. The first book gets the major plot going. The second book can be skipped in its entirety as it's really a treatise on how modern commerce developed, but doesn't advance the plot much. The third book is the major climax of the series, while the fourth and last book is an extended epilogue. The Serpentwar Saga is kind of weird....

Finally, you have authors that seem to get it pretty much right on their first go. You know who I'm talking about...J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It was originally intended to be one hardcover volume split into three books, each of which was also split into two parts. At some point, I believe someone began publishing an unauthorized series of three volumes. This became popular enough that the Tolkien Estate countered with an "authorized" version of the series published by Ballantine books. Again this was hugely popular, turning Lord of the Rings into the fantasy juggernaut we know and love today and influencing countless other authors into imitating that structure for their own series. Dennis L. McKiernan's Iron Tower Trilogy is a note-for-note ripoff of Lord of the Rings, yet it still has its charm.

The major downside of reading a completed series of books is waiting patiently for the next volume to be released. I'm currently waiting for the conclusion of Tad Williams' Last King of Osten Ard series, as well as the next volume of Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires, both of which are expected to be released in November. Nowadays, I'm somewhat reluctant to begin a new series unless it's an author that already has a proven track record of delivering a good story.

Any other pros and cons of completed series?

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WHO DIS

Haven't done one of these in a long while and we don't have any Books By Morons this week...

Individually, each has written at least a half-dozen novels on their own.

Together, they have created an elaborate, complex world involving one main franchise spanning over 20 books, one smaller franchise of just a few books, and some additional novels that tie into the overall world.

They are most famous for creating a Special Agent of the FBI who plays by his own rules, drives a Rolls Royce, and tends to wear bespoke suits to crime scenes.

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

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/)

Comment: A fair and balance look at historical events is something to be treasured these days because it's so rare. Like most figures in history, Columbus was a flawed man, but that doesn't make him the evil monster that the Left tends to portray him as. The indigenous people he encountered engaged in pretty horrific behavior by the standards of his own time. I did not know that Columbus was a navigational savant.

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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)

Comment: Believe it or not I don't think all that much has changed when it comes to being a sailor on a merchant marine vessel. Yes, the work is different and you have lots of cool toys to assist in your efforts, but it's still a lot of work. "If ya got time to lean, ya got time to clean!" The food is a lot better and the cabins can be quite comfy on some of the larger vessels. And the sea *never* stops trying to kill you.

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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)

Comment: Wolfus Aurelius also recommended this book some time ago: "Tremendous story." I may have to read this myself someday because the premise is interesting. A newly constructed house that somehow comes to dominate and terrorize the neighborhood. Without reading it, I do wonder if anyone checked the land it was built on for ancient Indian burial remains. Just sayin'.

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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 too big to embrace.
Posted by: Kindltot at July 09, 2023 10:26 AM (xhaym)

Comment: I tend to embrace this principle in my own way. I had an epiphany one year when I had a massive pile of brush that I needed to break down so it could be hauled off. It's just a matter of tackling it one branch at a time. Eventually, you'll reach the end of the pile. Much of my work involves somewhat challenging projects that *could* be quite large indeed, but we try to break them down as best we can into more manageable chunks. Of course the senior executive leadership is very keen on establishing broad goals in their vision statements. Then it's up to us worker bees to somehow figure out how to execute that vision. *sigh*

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (875 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

I went ahead and ordered a few more books to fill in some gaps in series...

Special Agent Pendergast Book 1 - Relic by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Special Agent Pendergast Book 2 - Reliquary by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast is on the trail of his brother-in-law, who attempted to kill him in the Scottish moors...because Pendergast was getting too close to the truth...

Two Graves by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast is violently ripped away from his newly rediscovered wife after she is kidnapped by the mysterious Covenant (i.e., Those Whacky Nazis)

White Fire by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast investigates mysterious murders and arsons at a Colorado ski resort.

Blue Labyrinth by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child -- Agent Pendergast must unravel the mystery of who dropped off a dead body on his front stoop.

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 - 07-16-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:48 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Gonna close down early too, Perf?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 08:48 AM (Angsy)

2 Tolle Lege!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 08:48 AM (PiwSw)

3 I've been re-reading a couple of classics, The Jungle Book, The Trial, Inferno and Paradise Lost.

What can I say, nothing new is really doing it for me.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 16, 2023 08:48 AM (up/3i)

4 Graciously steps back to allow a more deserving Moron to reach the summit of 'First!'.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 16, 2023 08:48 AM (OjHyA)

5 I miss the Who Dis, but I don't recognize these gentlemen...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 08:49 AM (PiwSw)

6 What can I say, nothing new is really doing it for me.
Posted by: Thomas Bender

Word! I'm getting back into Dante's Inferno.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 16, 2023 08:49 AM (OjHyA)

7 Tonypete, you are a gentleman and a scholar.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 08:49 AM (PiwSw)

8 S'wannyway....

Read a book this week:

Finished One Way to El Dorado by Hollister Noble. I thought it was a western about building a railroad through the Sierras, but it was a modern, well early 50s modern. Really dense writing with quite a bit of detail made the early chapters hard going, especially with the description of railroad equipment. It finally settled down into the story after a couple of chapters introducing the characters. The main was an executive with the Great Western Railroad, torn between his career and a budding art reputation. He and his wife are heading east on one of the company's trains when he gets off in the Sierras because he thinks she's not interested in his art, and wants him to stay with the railroad. Once he jumps off, he gets involved in the doings of the railroad section. It's set in real Sierra locations and the names are right. (Used to live in that area) Lots of intrigue between characters, started by actions of one years ago. Climax has an Old West trope.
(cont.)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 08:49 AM (Angsy)

9 (cont.)

Wasn't as boring as I thought, but lots of descriptive passages. It was written in first person past, which I had no problem with. The main character made asides to the reader in a couple of places. Not a bad book, just slow going.

Unfun fact: Noble shot himself two years later after being sued for plagiarism. Plaintiff lost case, did it for nothing.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 08:50 AM (Angsy)

10 I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper - Jeeze oh Man, don't pass that around. I have a reputation to protect.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 16, 2023 08:50 AM (OjHyA)

11 Word! I'm getting back into Dante's Inferno.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 16, 2023 08:49 AM (OjHyA)

We have just what you need!

Posted by: Lace Asbestos Suits for Sale at July 16, 2023 08:52 AM (Angsy)

12 hiya

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 08:53 AM (T4tVD)

13 Good morning, early Book Thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 08:53 AM (GbxWV)

14 @6

>>Word! I'm getting back into Dante's Inferno.

Yeah, I'd rather re-read A Picture of Dorian Gray or Persuasion than anything the current crop of chuckleheads is churning out.

The last indispensable books were probably written in the 80's.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 16, 2023 08:53 AM (up/3i)

15 I did not get to read this week.

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 16, 2023 08:54 AM (BRHaw)

16 I think Dante is the source of the phrase - "This ain't Hell but I can see it from here." He was in level 7 or 8 at the time.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 16, 2023 08:55 AM (OjHyA)

17 It's Leopold and Loeb, my favorite Broadway team!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 08:56 AM (GbxWV)

18 I don't recognize either person in Who's Dis.

Posted by: dantesed at July 16, 2023 08:56 AM (88xKn)

19 Tonypete, what translation?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 08:56 AM (PiwSw)

20 I read "Impact", which is part of a smaller series within a larger series, by that duo, right?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 08:57 AM (GbxWV)

21 "It's just a matter of tackling it one branch at a time."

How do you eat a whole elephant?

One bite at a time.

Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 08:59 AM (iayUP)

22 Have only read this blog lately. Better than no reading at all, amirite?

:heart:

G'night (again)

Posted by: JQ at July 16, 2023 08:59 AM (Gkog9)

23 Reading "For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE," by Guy MacLean Rogers.

Perfect time of the year, with the annual fast day commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem's 1st and 2nd Temples coming up in about 10 days time.

I think some here mentioned the book back in April, when I bought it.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at July 16, 2023 09:00 AM (EjgJz)

24 I'm trying to Be Better about my mind food, so after a week of pop trash, I've cracked open my moldy 1877 copy of "The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray in Twelve Volumes, Volume IV -- The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq., Written by Himself".

Initial Impressions:

I. This book smells like mold and tobacco. It is not unpleasant. I feel like I need a globe that opens to reveal crystal decanters, and a faithful hound at my feet (or a mercenary cat staring down from the chair back).

II. Redmond Barry Lyndon is an unreliable narrator (I mean, he's Irish!). I like Thackeray's detached and omnipotent narrator in the notes. Of course the detached and omnipotent Kubrick was the perfect choice to bring this tale to the screen.

III. The names are great: Roaring Harry Barry, Sir Dick Ringwood, Lord Bagwig, Captain Punter

IV. This is not a poor epitaph: "Peace be to his ashes! He was not faultless, and dissipated all our princely family property; but he was as brave a fellow as ever tossed a bumper or called a main, and he drove his coach-and-six like a man of fashion."

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:00 AM (GbxWV)

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

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 09:01 AM (T4tVD)

26 The gentlemen are. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 16, 2023 09:03 AM (foXJ2)

27 I read Dave Berry's first novel, Big Trouble. This is a hilarious story set in South Florida that has a thriller ending. The characters reminded me of many of the ONT's Genius Award Winners which begin "A Florida Man...." I'll be reading more of Berry's works.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 16, 2023 09:05 AM (t98tm)

28 I'm trying to Be Better about my mind food, so after a week of pop trash, I've cracked open my moldy 1877 copy of "The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray in Twelve Volumes, Volume IV -- The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq., Written by Himself".

Whew, that's quite a challenge. If you find yourself in need of a change of pace, I recommend his lesser known brother, Robert TakeNamesAndKickAsses Thackeray.

Posted by: Archimedes at July 16, 2023 09:05 AM (eOEVl)

29 I'm trying to Be Better about my mind food, so after a week of pop trash, I've cracked open my moldy 1877 copy of "The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray in Twelve Volumes, Volume IV -- The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq., Written by Himself".

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:00 AM (GbxWV)

Oh, William M is fine, but I prefer Constable Thackeray.

Posted by: Sgt Cribb at July 16, 2023 09:05 AM (Angsy)

30 Good morning! I've decided there is only so much non fiction I can absorb so I've embarked on some other authors. First up, James Michener. Why? My father used to read all the Michener books. Some one last week mentioned Michener's "Alaska" so I've started that one. Then "Chesapeake".

Posted by: gourmand du jour at July 16, 2023 09:06 AM (MeG8a)

31 I've been reading (in some cases, re-reading) some of Keith Laumer's Retief short stories while I wait for the library system to disgorge my order. The only thing that would make me enjoy these more would be if I knew how Laumer pronounced "Retief."

I also hit two used-book stores during a visit to another city. Hoo-wee -- one had no AC and the other had books stacked in a jumble. No organization whatsoever. Boy, I'm glad to have the store that's in my city.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:07 AM (p/isN)

32 Still doing a re-read of the Mitch Rapp series. On book 8 now.

Posted by: vic at July 16, 2023 09:07 AM (A5THL)

33 Hot Coffee!!!...started The Religion...how they learned that immigration just might be easier.

Posted by: Qmark at July 16, 2023 09:08 AM (+t9Oi)

34 I think that Debugging, by David J, Agans, would be a good companion to Kindltot's recommendation of Problem Simplification by Steven Van Dyke, especially for IT people.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 09:08 AM (PiwSw)

35 I read "Impact", which is part of a smaller series within a larger series, by that duo, right?
Posted by: All Hail Eris

Impact was written by Douglas Preston on his own, and has a recurring character in several books that he wrote.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 16, 2023 09:08 AM (foXJ2)

36 I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper - I have two: Robert and Jean Hollander's and Anthony Esolen's translations. I am decidedly NOT a scholar by any stretch of the imagination so I need help walking through the Classics. And I refer often to the '100 Days of Dante' videos to help me understand.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 16, 2023 09:09 AM (OjHyA)

37 Tolle Lege
Finished Irritable Revolution
While long ago, lifetime it seems,I left the military, how it operates should be a concern for every American. It was frightening what Matthew Lohmeier wrote about Cultural Marxism taking over and it was obvious from what the top brass have said publicly seen elsewhere they are heading down a bad road that is Marxism.

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:10 AM (xhxe8)

38 I read Dave Berry's first novel, Big Trouble. This is a hilarious story set in South Florida that has a thriller ending. The characters reminded me of many of the ONT's Genius Award Winners which begin "A Florida Man...." I'll be reading more of Berry's works.
Posted by: Zoltan

His second novel Tricky Business, is just as good.

I'm currently reading Swamp Story, his 3rd novel and its kinda meh.

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 09:10 AM (T4tVD)

39 Re: Middle books of WoT as "extensive character studies". Yes, I think Jordan thought he was doing that. IMHO, he's not a good enough writer to do it. I always reference something I read from Gore Vidal (I think, not an exact quote): "the better the writer, the more characters he can portray realistically. Shakespeare was the best, he could do 17 or 18. I can do 13 or 14". Jordan could do 5 or 6.

Probably late: but it's Preston and Childs.

Posted by: yara at July 16, 2023 09:11 AM (xr64u)

40 When he was writing the Shadowmarch series, an author's note pointedly states that while he *intended* to write a trilogy, again the final book was too complex to finish the story in just one volume so he extended the series to four volumes.
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Yeah, I get this. The Man of Destiny series was intended to be a trilogy because it "corrected" the awful Star Wars prequels (which got rehabilitated by the even worse sequels). When I finished Fall of the Commonwealth, my test readers said that while I'd done a good job, the story now had enough variation from canon that I should do a fourth volume, which became the Imperial Rebellion.

So like Douglas Adams, I have a four-book trilogy.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 09:11 AM (llXky)

41 You know messing with the AoSHq Space/ Time / Continuum will catch up one of these days

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:11 AM (xhxe8)

42 Let's look at the idea of a "completed" or "closed" series in more detail.

I tend to enjoy these because you can stretch out a story over multiple volumes, rather than trying to cram everything into one book.

Perfessor, any ideas why? I note that most, or maybe all of these series, are fantasy or sci-fi. Don't know of any western series, or any other genre. (of course I don't know them all)

I'm not counting things like James Bond or Hoppy, these multiple books are completed stories, even with dozens of titles. Seems to me it would be exhausting to write such a long arc. I wonder how much eventually becomes cut and past with the massive word counts.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 09:13 AM (Angsy)

43 Still working through my collection ofi JL Curtis (Jim Curtis) books. (It's not a chore, they're good!) :-) I'm currently reading his science fiction series called "Rimworld".

This past week I finished:

"Into the Green"
"Militia Up"
"The Rift"

Currently reading book 4, "Diplomatic Immunity", and as soon as I'm done that, I'm going to pick up his freshly released book 5, "Diversions".

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at July 16, 2023 09:14 AM (nRMeC)

44 Good Sunday morning, horde!

No idea on the Who Dis.

Trudy, the diorama is great! Before I read the content, it looked to me like that was a mirror, and I was trying to figure out WTF was going on in that house!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023 09:15 AM (OX9vb)

45 Thanks for the Book Thread Perfessor !

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 09:15 AM (T4tVD)

46 Finished Irritable Revolution
While long ago, lifetime it seems,I left the military, how it operates should be a concern for every American. It was frightening what Matthew Lohmeier wrote about Cultural Marxism taking over and it was obvious from what the top brass have said publicly seen elsewhere they are heading down a bad road that is Marxism.

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:10 AM (xhxe

---
The corrective for this is that it is an all-volunteer force, and people simply don't want to join a losing team.

The recruiting shortfalls mean heavier workloads and more deployments for the ones who remain, who then burn out. The current brass also can't let the idea of endless wars go, so they continue to push overseas long-term activations for the reserve component, which is sick of it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 09:15 AM (llXky)

47 And a bizarre note
Been saying if I find the copy of Patrick O'Brian 100 Days the next and possibly last book I would get it. Well was looking for another book on Waterloo and the bunch of O'Brian and Cornwell's books found 2 copies of Q00 Days. Must have picked them up and forgot I had them twice.

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:16 AM (xhxe8)

48 I saw an interview with Preston and Child. They write their books with story lines told from various character's perspectives which converge at some point in the novel. I thought it would be difficult to cowrite a book with another writer hundreds of miles away, but if each author takes responsibility for certain characters, I suppose it is easier to coordinate the overall story.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 16, 2023 09:17 AM (foXJ2)

49 Oh, speaking of series fiction, for those people who got involved with Abner Fortis, ISMC, P.A. Piatt just published another book in the series, Harvest.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 09:17 AM (PiwSw)

50 I think fantasy and SF lend themselves to series because the author gets to explore a new world or universe along with us. It would be hard *not* to explore.

Then you have the small town drama, like Trollope's Barchester or Faulkner's Yawknapawhatever.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:17 AM (GbxWV)

51 I've been reading (in some cases, re-reading) some of Keith Laumer's Retief short stories while I wait for the library system to disgorge my order. The only thing that would make me enjoy these more would be if I knew how Laumer pronounced "Retief."

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:07 AM (p/isN)

I'd say it depends on whether the character's father has the same name. Then you'd know it's Tief and Re Tief.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 09:18 AM (Angsy)

52 Hollister Noble was a member of the Office of War Information, worth a look just for the list of its members, not to mention its controversies. It was a nest of several things, spies among them. I'm not sure we have any equivalent "institutions" today. An awful lot of future authors, policy makers, and public intellectuals punched a ticket there for good or ill.

James Cozzens, who wrote "Guard of Honor," had a similar post in the Army Air Force, and was blurbed to be the best -informed (probably in terms of closet skeletons and hastily buried bodies) in the entire WWII military establishment.

Nattering chattering heads you encounter in The Press today went into it so they could aspire to the level of access bestowed on these writers. Compartmentalization, chicken-hypnosis, and an iron discipline over journalistic practice prevent it in later times. But mostly the chickens.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at July 16, 2023 09:19 AM (4PZHB)

53 Well, the military recovered from its post-Vietnam slump, so maybe there is hope.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:19 AM (GbxWV)

54 On Irristable Revolution- we have seen the Big Brass pushing Cultural Marxism but this dug a little deeper showing how they are pushing Marxism, both LGBQXYZ and BLM and they have free reign.

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:20 AM (xhxe8)

55 I'm on book 6 of Pliny's Natural History. This section is on metals. I learned what a "anulus pronubus" is. No, it's not dirty. It's a wedding band, originally made of iron.

Anyway, Pliny apparently was not impressed with jewelry, and had this to say about rings in general:

"The worst crime against mankind was committed by him who was the first to put a ring upon his fingers: and yet we are not informed, by tradition, who it was that first did so. For as to all the stories told about Prometheus, I look upon them as utterly fabulous, although I am aware that the ancients used to represent him with a ring of iron".

Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:20 AM (iayUP)

56 Well was looking for another book on Waterloo and the bunch of O'Brian and Cornwell's books found 2 copies of Q00 Days.

Q00 Days ?

Do they have weedwhackers there ?

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 09:20 AM (T4tVD)

57 Dash my lace wigs - when a certain critical mass of Disc World books is accumulated and care is not taken to keep them at the proper and necessary distance from each other, magic may leak out, and uncanny things happen!

Posted by: Trudy at July 16, 2023 09:22 AM (LqXtx)

58 In speaking of completed series, I think of British TV. If they want only eight parts to tell their story, that's all they do, in contrast to the U.S. form of a "season" having to be 22 episodes.

I read somewhere that Patrick McGoohan (did I get that right?) had intended for "The Prisoner" to have a lot fewer episodes than the 17 produced.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:22 AM (p/isN)

59 Enjoying another creepy story by T. Kingfisher, "A House With Good Bones". She has a way with words.

"Waffle House at four in the morning is a liminal space occupied by long-haul truckers, bleary-eyed shift workers, and teenagers so high they can smell God's breath."

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:23 AM (GbxWV)

60 Pliny sounds like an interesting writer.

Posted by: dantesed at July 16, 2023 09:24 AM (88xKn)

61 I kinda like the pants.

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:24 AM (ftFVW)

62 100 days was Napoleon's last hurrah ending with Waterloo.
On my phone and typing on a tiny keyboard is a challenge

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:25 AM (xhxe8)

63 Dependent upon the weather, I may pack up the crew and head to the beach today. This means a big, floppy hat, sunglasses, and a book. Coming here for recommendations for something I could easily get along the way, though I could do a kindle version as well.

Posted by: Piper at July 16, 2023 09:25 AM (ZdaMQ)

64 Or as Hogmartin explained to me:

Denny's = drugs
Waffle House = fights

Now that I am of an age to not be gadding about at three in the morning, I miss all the wild threads in the rich tapestry of humanity.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:26 AM (GbxWV)

65 I've been re-reading a couple of classics, The Jungle Book, The Trial, Inferno and Paradise Lost.

What can I say, nothing new is really doing it for me.
Posted by: Thomas Bender

I was on a re-reading classics kick when pregnant with my second little hobbit, mumble-mumble years ago. Was very surprised how much I enjoyed the Jungle Books that time around. Was planning to read Kim after that, but you know... newborn hobbits take up a lot of time.

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:28 AM (ftFVW)

66 On Irristable Revolution- we have seen the Big Brass pushing Cultural Marxism but this dug a little deeper showing how they are pushing Marxism, both LGBQXYZ and BLM and they have free reign.

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:20 AM (xhxe

---
Yes. The post-Vietnam dysfunction was caused by wider societal factors and the perceived defeat of American forces. Our current leadership has the military they want - not one general has protested or resigned. They move seamlessly from the Pentagon to a liberal think tanks or woke defense contractors.

Basically, they treat Catch-22 as a how-to guide, each seeking to be Milo Minderbender.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 09:29 AM (llXky)

67 "Pliny sounds like an interesting writer.
Posted by: dantesed"

A lot of it is very dry, but there are times when he shows his sarcastic nature. The best part is the side trips researching the words, places, and things I've never heard before.

Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:30 AM (iayUP)

68 59: NO SHARING.

Posted by: Waffle House at July 16, 2023 09:31 AM (e0dkU)

69 @62 --

Skip, my sympathies. My fingers are so thick that I frequently hit the wrong key on my phone's keyboard. And trying to get the cursor placed properly is a challenge in itself.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:31 AM (p/isN)

70 A lot of it is very dry, but there are times when he shows his sarcastic nature. The best part is the side trips researching the words, places, and things I've never heard before.

Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:30 AM (iayUP)
---
The sidebar discussions are what make many ancient writers so much fun. Herodotus being a prime example.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 09:31 AM (llXky)

71 55..."The worst crime against mankind was committed by him who was the first to put a ring upon his fingers: and yet we are not informed, by tradition, who it was that first did so.
Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:20 AM (iayUP)

A man after my own heart. I do not wear rings, nor bracelets--they always seem to be in the way. Mr. Dmlw and I don't even wear wedding rings. We've perused different ones many times, but just end up saying, nah.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023 09:32 AM (OX9vb)

72 The great thing about reading digital books is you can highlight a word and go off in a different direction. I suppose that could be a bad thing too.

Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:32 AM (iayUP)

73 I was on a re-reading classics kick when pregnant with my second little hobbit, mumble-mumble years ago. Was very surprised how much I enjoyed the Jungle Books that time around. Was planning to read Kim after that, but you know... newborn hobbits take up a lot of time.
Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:28 AM (ftFVW)

Oh! I have an entire library of classics up in the office. We look all scholarly with them on the shelves, they are hard bound. Maybe I should start rereading those. Great idea, thank you!

Posted by: Piper at July 16, 2023 09:32 AM (ZdaMQ)

74 Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:30 AM (iayUP)

Is this the Elder or the Younger?

Posted by: dantesed at July 16, 2023 09:32 AM (88xKn)

75 I'm happy to say that the Waffle House in my AO is peaceful (at least when I've been there). One Christmas a few years ago, out of nowhere, the cook started belting out Christmas carols at 6:30 in the morning, in a very passable manner. It was a moment of kairos.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 09:33 AM (PiwSw)

76 Oook!

Posted by: pawn at July 16, 2023 09:35 AM (wsHtO)

77 Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at July 16, 2023 09:19 AM (4PZHB)

I'd read about Noble being in the Information office. Seems to me it'd make him tougher. Offed himself over a lawsuit he eventually would have won. Don't get it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 09:36 AM (Angsy)

78 "Is this the Elder or the Younger?
Posted by: dantesed"

The Elder. I'm reading the Bostock translation from Gutenberg.

Posted by: fd at July 16, 2023 09:36 AM (iayUP)

79 75: you better not be sharing or it will get very UN-peaceful!

And if YOU show up, you WILL leave the crysknife at home!

NO. SHARING.

Posted by: Waffle House at July 16, 2023 09:36 AM (e0dkU)

80 And trying to get the cursor placed properly is a challenge in itself.

And (on iPhone at least) hitting the return key to send when you meant to hit backspace. Who thought that was a good arrangement?

Posted by: Oddbob at July 16, 2023 09:38 AM (nfrXX)

81 27 I read Dave Berry's first novel, Big Trouble. This is a hilarious story set in South Florida that has a thriller ending. The characters reminded me of many of the ONT's Genius Award Winners which begin "A Florida Man...." I'll be reading more of Berry's works.
Posted by: Zoltan at July 16, 2023 09:05 AM (t98tm)

Must be a Miami fan!

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 16, 2023 09:39 AM (BRHaw)

82 Props to Perf for getting a Tolkien reference in before the Comments. Nip it in the bud!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:39 AM (GbxWV)

83 Okay, I'm gonna say it... behind LotR, my next favorite complete series is Harry Potter. The interweaving of little details from beginning to end are fun and it, of course, tickled my childhood fancy for magic.

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:40 AM (ftFVW)

84 Not much reading this week. Hopping from book to book -- a chapter here, a couple of pages there, but not staying with anything for long. The only one I finished was Lawrence Block's The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder. If you like his Scudder series, you'll want to give this one a look even though it isn't a mystery/suspense novel; it's what the title says it is, and you'll get plenty of background on the character. A fun read, as is usual with Block.

And now back to sampling assorted books. Maybe I'm just trying to psych myself up for a long-delayed assault on Dickens' Bleak House...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 09:40 AM (a/4+U)

85 As part of my current obsession with learning Morse code, I've been reading Chris Rutkowski's "The CW Way of Life." The opening story about Rutkowski's father, and his experience during WW2 of surviving a plane crash in Greenland would make a good movie. The plane and crew were located only because his father managed to tap out an SOS and their location after the plane struck a mountain in zero viz conditions and crashed (almost sliding into a crevasse). He then goes into the history of the code, and I'm just starting the portion where he talks about learning the code. NOT recommended unless the subject is of great interest, but for CW nerds the book has become mandatory reading.

Posted by: PabloD at July 16, 2023 09:40 AM (Epuwl)

86 Got to guess that's Preston & Childs.

Posted by: From about that Time at July 16, 2023 09:40 AM (4780s)

87 Posted by: PabloD at July 16, 2023 09:40 AM (Epuwl)

Dittychaser!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:42 AM (GbxWV)

88 This week, I read Motor City Blue, by Loren D. Estleman. It was a good detective novel, and I may read more of the Amos Walker series in the future, but the drug and prostitution themes depress me a little.

I realize this is contradictory. I'll happily read murder mysteries all day long with other settings--why is it that murder stories in general don't depress me?

*ponders

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023 09:42 AM (OX9vb)

89 @80 --

Oddbob, the webcomics creator Aaron Williams, in one of his "Full Frontal Nerdity" strips, posited that an autocorrect programmer was taking his revenge for his miserable years in middle school gym class.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:42 AM (p/isN)

90 Gotta do something, back later.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 09:45 AM (Angsy)

91 Okay, I'm gonna say it... behind LotR, my next favorite complete series is Harry Potter. The interweaving of little details from beginning to end are fun and it, of course, tickled my childhood fancy for magic.

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:40 AM (ftFVW)
---
Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy is my next favorite series and indeed book. While a standalone work, it draws upon his Smart Set books from the 1930s and is vaguely set in that world.

The biggest difference is that Sword of Honour incorporates the sensitivity and spirituality of Brideshead Revisited, so it combines wry humor with an exploration of faith.

It had a profound impact on me, and I limit my re-reading to keep it fresh in my mind.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 09:46 AM (llXky)

92 Danger as I am proof of long series that take over a year or 2,3 is getting books ahead then forgetting you have them.
The Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series I am still working on finding them, have the one after tmy next on ebook already.

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 09:46 AM (xhxe8)

93 Offed himself over a lawsuit he eventually would have won. Don't get it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 09:36 AM (Angsy)

First Arkaside?

I've been reading (not as much as I would like) Rush Limbaugh, See I Told Ya So. Many things we are seeing today are mentioned in that book as 'Yer not going to believe this but...' and it is from the 90's.

I miss Rush.

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 09:47 AM (B705c)

94 I am getting to the end of reading an anthology of short works and sections by Mark Twain on writing and publishing, including of course "Feinmore Cooper's Literary Offenses", bits on things like typewriters, short essays on authors he had known including Bret Harte, and selections from his autobiography about how he came to be a writer, being the editor for General Grant's memoirs, and starting and losing his own publishing company.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 09:48 AM (xhaym)

95 @88 --

Probably because the victims in murder mysteries are usually slimeballs. When they're not, they are nondescript. As Leslie Charteris put it, they are brought into the story only to become a convenient body to be found in the library at the end of Chapter One.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:48 AM (p/isN)

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

I overslept so am late to the thread. One of the privileges of retirement.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 09:48 AM (7EjX1)

97 I've been reading 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett. It's the first (I think) collections of essays by the Baker Street Irregulars. While the members take their interest seriously, they have fun coming up with 'insights' into Holmes, Watson and the other characters. All written with a straight face and plenty of footnotes to lend an academic aura but the silliness of the endeavor underlies the whole thing. It's a lot of fun.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 09:53 AM (7EjX1)

98 I am getting to the end of reading an anthology of short works and sections by Mark Twain on writing and publishing, including of course "Feinmore Cooper's Literary Offenses", bits on things like typewriters, short essays on authors he had known including Bret Harte, and selections from his autobiography about how he came to be a writer, being the editor for General Grant's memoirs, and starting and losing his own publishing company.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 09:48 AM (xhaym)
---
Love that essay.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 09:53 AM (llXky)

99 I kinda like the pants.
Posted by: She Hobbit
===Yeh, but I believe they're on a "guy(?)".

Posted by: From about that Time at July 16, 2023 09:54 AM (4780s)

100 *Arkanside...

I'd turn on autocorrect but I don't think it would have caught that anyway.
I turned it off because of predictive wording. I'd start into a sentence and forget what I was trying to say because my phone already knew the next word when I didn't yet.

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 09:55 AM (B705c)

101 ===Yeh, but I believe they're on a "guy(?)".
Posted by: From about that Time

I dunno, belly, hips, and hands look lady-shaped to me.

Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:56 AM (ftFVW)

102 Kindltot,

Do you have the title of that Twain collection handy?

Thanks.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 09:57 AM (a/4+U)

103 Two years before the mast is excellent. Reading it started me on a multi-year all things nautical and Patrick O'Brian jag.

Posted by: MickyN at July 16, 2023 09:58 AM (+7Dr8)

104 Now that I am of an age to not be gadding about at three in the morning, I miss all the wild threads in the rich tapestry of hzumanity.
Posted by: All Hail Eris
=====
I still get out once a month or so just to hang and observe the late night action. Nap six to ten or so, then go out to catch third set live music, last call and parking lot hangout, then late night food place.
To old for participation, mostly, but I still like hanging with these types. Character flaw, I guess.

Posted by: From about that Time at July 16, 2023 09:59 AM (4780s)

105 Interested in reading Dugard's Last Voyage of Columbus. I suspect it will be disappointingly woke.

Posted by: MickyN at July 16, 2023 10:00 AM (+7Dr8)

106 I dunno, belly, hips, and hands look lady-shaped to me.
Posted by: She Hobbit at July 16, 2023 09:56 AM (ftFVW)

Are you some sort of Super Biologist? People on the highest court in the US can't even make that distinction.

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:00 AM (B705c)

107 House of the Singing Winds: The Life and Work of T.C. Steele has been a pleasurable read. Steele was a wonderful artist who helped establish the Hoosier school of art in the latter half of the 1800s and adopted American Impressionism later in his career. Very much an Indiana boy, his life is a study of pioneer ethics and artistic vision. I really enjoy his paintings; they are effective and appealing. Sort of a small home town boy makes good.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 10:01 AM (7EjX1)

108 Speaking of Twain, I think his travel books (The Innocents Abroad, A Tramp Abroad) are some of his funniest work.

The whole "Ferguson" thing cracks me up even today.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 10:01 AM (llXky)

109 Wait I see it was written in 2005. There is hope.

Posted by: MickyN at July 16, 2023 10:02 AM (+7Dr8)

110 After reading Blazen Chariots: A Tank Commander in Operation Crusader: by Robert Crisp, one of the best memoirs to come out of World War II, I decided on a deeper look. Highly recommended. Robert Crisp had written a no-holds-bared account of the his tank unit's part in the Commonwealth Force's doomed defense of Greece, The Gods Were Neutral, which is recommended for understanding how bad the British Army was in the early part of WWII, and how to survive a debacle.

I am reading the exhaustively footnoted Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942 by Robert M. Citino. This offers deep insights into the German way of war, showing the training and motivation of German officers. It details how, despite operational excellence, inspired leadership, and cohesive troops, the Germans exposed fatal flaws in their organization. These flaws were rooted in 300 yers of German military tradition, and could not be overcome.

This book is the definitive answer to the question of why Germany struggled and lost in WWI and WWII.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:03 AM (u82oZ)

111 Something of interest recently happened that relates to a Nelson DeMille novel we enjoyed recently.

"The Maze" is the novel, and into it is woven, as DeMille is wont to do, a story from the news, which in this one is the Long Island serial killer.

A number of bodies were found on Long Island starting about 15 years ago, not all at once, in a wild section of public Atlantic waterfront, wooded and marshy. They were Craigslist hookers.

The new news is that as a result of a 13 year investigation, an arrest has been made. A local architect.

That the true-crime story had remained a mystery with no killer or killers apprehended, gave the author the mystery hook that "The Maze" has.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 16, 2023 10:06 AM (FpUx/)

112 Wait NYT and San Francisco Chronicle gave it glowing reviews. Probably not.

Posted by: MickyN at July 16, 2023 10:06 AM (+7Dr8)

113 I've seen whole online galleries full of those little between-the-books dioramas. While I find them neat, I'll probably never have any of them. In my house, shelf space is too valuable a commodity to spend on dioramas. ....Unless I build a lego one, sometime, but even that would be temporary because I'd soon replace it with an actual book...

Last week I needed something from Amazon, so to bump me up past the free-shipping threshold, I bought the "Complete Bramby Hedge" collection that has been mentioned in recent months. I wish it felt more Medieval (read: Redwall) and less 19th Century in its style....but there are definitely some fun illustrations in it. And it was a lot cheaper than a lot of the illustrated collections (read: comic book omnibuses) that I usually buy.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 16, 2023 10:07 AM (Lhaco)

114 Good morning
The talk about series reminded me that Patrick Rothfuss wrote two incredible novels and then left me hanging.....
I just went to look him up and apparently book 3 is being released in November. It's only been 12 years since book 2. Can a writer live on the proceeds of a wildly popular two book series for almost 15 years?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 10:07 AM (t/2Uw)

115 Bon giorno! I feel so Italian this morning.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 16, 2023 10:07 AM (FpUx/)

116 Are you some sort of Super Biologist? People on the highest court in the US can't even make that distinction.
Posted by: Reforger

I am indeed.

(But I don't know the correct sequence of characters to end the Italics.)

Posted by: She Hobbit, Super Biologist at July 16, 2023 10:07 AM (ftFVW)

117 Good Morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:07 AM (u82oZ)

118 I dunno, belly, hips, and hands look lady-shaped to me.
Posted by: She Hobbit
=====
I dunno. Went back and forth on that for more than a couple of seconds, would really like to think it's distaff, but again, I dunno. Modern times.

Posted by: From about that Time at July 16, 2023 10:07 AM (4780s)

119 I now conquer the book thread!!!

Posted by: Italics at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (e0dkU)

120 Yikes.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (u82oZ)

121 I have one book left to go in Discworld, but I see there are still a lot of Terry Pratchett books out there left to discover. I can't believe I missed an entire universe for so long. I feel like yelling at my friends "Why didn't you tell me about this what kind of friends are you?" If it wasn't for Good Omens being made into a miniseries, I might have missed it entirely.

Posted by: Nancy at 7000 ft at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (0tmoY)

122 Burpppppp!

Posted by: The Barrel at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (R/m4+)

123 Off to the Barrel. Nt my first visit. Been a while, though.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (u82oZ)

124
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 16, 2023 10:01 AM (llXky)

Roughing it is my favorite Twain book. Mostly because it happened where I live. I can go sit on a bench where he got lost in the snowstorm and made camp in the middle of the street because the couldn't see the side of the road. Virginia City is a short trip away and I would implore any Twain fan to visit there at least once, which you won't be able to do. You will come back, again and again.

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (B705c)

125 Skip, my sympathies. My fingers are so thick that I frequently hit the wrong key on my phone's keyboard. And trying to get the cursor placed properly is a challenge in itself.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 09:31 AM (p/isN)

I started packing a standard keyboard and mouse in with my laptop and charger. I spent far to much time doing data entry to put up with tiny keys and touchpads.
I would pack a standard flatscreen monitor in as well, but I haven't bothered to modify the hardshell briefcase yet.
I know I have issues but I deal with them as I can.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 10:09 AM (xhaym)

126 Looks like auto cucumber is replacing my small i with Capital I

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:09 AM (u82oZ)

127 A Super Biologist.. Yeah.

So, um.. I've got this rash...

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:10 AM (B705c)

128 Welcome Salty, I have lemon poundcake.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 16, 2023 10:11 AM (PiwSw)

129 Roughing it is my favorite Twain book. Mostly because it happened where I live. I can go sit on a bench where he got lost in the snowstorm and made camp in the middle of the street because the couldn't see the side of the road. Virginia City is a short trip away and I would implore any Twain fan to visit there at least once, which you won't be able to do. You will come back, again and again.
Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (B705c)

Virginia City is also where Lucius Beebe lived. Beebe mostly wrote about trains, but he also was a syndicated columnist and was one of the most delightful columnists I have ever read.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 10:13 AM (xhaym)

130 Ilona Andrews is a husband and wife writing team. I would never have known there were two people writing the book if they hadn't told me. I always assumed that the woman wrote the female roles and the man the male but who knows?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 10:13 AM (t/2Uw)

131 A humble bow to Vince Milam, who turned out yet another fine book. Thank you, sir.

Posted by: Brewingfrog at July 16, 2023 10:14 AM (E0Ivz)

132 So, um.. I've got this rash...
Posted by: Reforger

Slap some hot iron on it. And stay out of the strange bushes.

Posted by: She Hobbit, Super Biologist at July 16, 2023 10:14 AM (ftFVW)

133 Before the stories can be violated and defaced I plan to get good hardcover copies of Howard Pyle's Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" and "King Arthur and His Knights. Probably the B and N leather bound editions with his original illustrations. (BTW, Pyle taught NC Wyeth and his home, built in the 1850s, continues to be used for art classes. One regular visitor was Andrew Wyeth.) I loved those books as a child and his illustrations are still my standard for the stories. Wish I had my now ancient volumes.

I am including a hardcover version of the Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales with illustrations. The Left is capable of raping and destroying anything connected to a happy and positive childhood. I'm surprised they haven't tried to cancel and defame Beatrix Potter or the Brambly Hedge stories.

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

134 123 Off to the Barrel. Nt my first visit. Been a while, though.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (u82oZ)

*hands Salty a bottle of water, and some antiseptic wipes

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023 10:16 AM (OX9vb)

135 "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" is completely hilarious AND true, and yet ... Last of the Mohicans is still an enduring classic, made into multiple movies, etc. I think about Cooper a lot as a writer, especially in the context of "why did $ThatGuy sell so well, he doesn't even use the Oxford Comma!" Readers can forgive a lot if the story is gripping and the characters believable, and Cooper has that in spades.

So take heart, all you newbie writers! Stop polishing and start publishing! Don't fret about little things. That's not what will stop you. Write the kind of story that kept you up past your bedtime with a flashlight under the covers.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 16, 2023 10:17 AM (7rP4D)

136 Many definitions of beginning of "The Modern Era."

From the late middle ages (1500 - 1600).

But I like the construction of the first iron bridge ( that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781,) to mark it.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at July 16, 2023 10:18 AM (jgJfd)

137 We enjoyed the mystery novel, number one on the NYT list a couple years ago, "The Miniaturist," and only after I had finished it did I realize what made it the hit it was with NYT readers.

It's set in 1686 Amsterdam in the canalside household of a wealthy Dutch East Indies merchant, and the central character is a very bright young woman who grows to be a quite stalwart character, despite her age and sex.

Sound familiar? It's like every novel and movie and tv show we get today.

But that's not the end. Also central to this seventeenth century story are our two favorite boogeymen the left parades around us today, homophobia and racialism.

The trifecta!

Other than that, it was well-written, with excellent character development, and nicely written descriptions of the lives and times and environment of Amsterdam at the height of its golden century.

I'll not give anything away, but will say that the canals were stinky.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 16, 2023 10:18 AM (FpUx/)

138 I received my copy of the new Sanderson book Yumi and the Nighmare Painter. Was looking forward to it because it takes place in the Cosmere but having trouble getting into it. This is unusual for a Sanderson book. Anyone else read it yet?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 10:20 AM (t/2Uw)

139 Re: Cooper, Dana, and a whole bunch more...

Just wondered -- am I the only one here whose first contact with Cooper, and Two Yrs Before the Mast, and Hugo, and who knows how many others was via the Classics Illustrated Comics in the early 60s?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:20 AM (a/4+U)

140
Needed: glasses that let you read the titles of books on other people's shelves without twisting your neck.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 10:23 AM (MoZTd)

141 Morning, all! I'm back from the wild land of Walmart.

Perfessor mentions about Siddons' The House Next Door:

I may have to read this myself someday because the premise is interesting. A newly constructed house that somehow comes to dominate and terrorize the neighborhood. Without reading it, I do wonder if anyone checked the land it was built on for ancient Indian burial remains.

***
It's not so much that the house terrorizes the neighborhood, but the people who come to live in it -- the house finds the weakness of each of the inhabitants and destroys them using that. The inhabitants, and the couple next door (the wife narrates the story), are terrorized, but not so much the rest of the area.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:24 AM (omVj0)

142 Needed: glasses that let you read the titles of books on other people's shelves without twisting your neck.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh
You think that's a problem? Try finding a book on an upper shelf at the library being short and wearing bifocals.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 10:26 AM (t/2Uw)

143 Did anybody guess the Who Dis? My only guess, and it's a wild one, is Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Not that I know much about their work.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:26 AM (omVj0)

144 135: a work of art is never finished; only abandoned.

Posted by: Anonymous, the most quoted of all time at July 16, 2023 10:28 AM (e0dkU)

145 Saw the Siddons horror recommendation.

This put me in mind of Robert Chambers' The King in Yellow. I couldn't find it in the AosHQ library, so I will recommend it here.

Only three things have ever scared me so much I was effected for days afterwards: The movie Jacob's Ladder; Hope-Hodgson's House on the Borderland; and Chambers' The King in Yellow.

I think Jacob's Ladder got me the worst. I was absolutely shook for days.

But The King in Yellow was a close second. There are scenes in that book that still haunt me.

It's the story of a well-to-do youth who becomes involved with a very very dangerous book and occult organization....

If you like Dunsany, I'm 99.9% sure you'll "enjoy" this.

Just rememebered I felt an overwhelming need to watch Lovejoy and read Wodehouse as a curative afterwards.

Being spooked is all very very personal, of course.

I guess that might be a good mini-subject for a book thread?

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:29 AM (+rYbb)

146 Virginia City is also where Lucius Beebe lived. Beebe mostly wrote about trains, but he also was a syndicated columnist and was one of the most delightful columnists I have ever read.
Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 10:13 AM (xhaym)

The Steamer still steam on the newly reconstructed V&T (seasonal).
I kind of got a jonesing to go do lunch there today.
When the wife wakes up I'm going to suggest it. Maybe catch the train up from Moundhouse.

And I am starting to doubt Shehobbit's creds. Strange bushes? Is that even a thing anymore?

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:29 AM (B705c)

147 Kindltot,
Do you have the title of that Twain collection handy?
Thanks.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 09:57 AM (a/4+U)

Mark Twain: On Writing and Publishing

compiled by Kathy Kiernan for Book of the Month Club and it has no ISBN

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 10:30 AM (xhaym)

148 This week, I read Motor City Blue, by Loren D. Estleman. It was a good detective novel, and I may read more of the Amos Walker series in the future, but the drug and prostitution themes depress me a little.

I realize this is contradictory. I'll happily read murder mysteries all day long with other settings--why is it that murder stories in general don't depress me?

*ponders
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023

***
I think that's the first of the Amos Walker series. He was still writing them a few years ago (he's quite the prolific author), but I think Walker travels more in the suburbs of Detroit now instead of the city.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:31 AM (omVj0)

149 Kindltot --

Thank ya kindly for the info -- a search in the Kindle store gave me a close match on that title, but the contents didn't quite line up with your description and the sample showed that whoever cobbled it together had never heard of proofreading.

Bests.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:32 AM (a/4+U)

150 I am including a hardcover version of the Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales with illustrations. The Left is capable of raping and destroying anything connected to a happy and positive childhood. I'm surprised they haven't tried to cancel and defame Beatrix Potter or the Brambly Hedge stories.
Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 10:16 AM (7EjX1)

Anyone have recommendations for a good Grimm hardcover? Good illustrations a plus for me.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:32 AM (+rYbb)

151 Preston & Child! also , FIRST!!!!

I think they were cited here recently.

Posted by: runner at July 16, 2023 10:34 AM (V13WU)

152 Needed: glasses that let you read the titles of books on other people's shelves without twisting your neck.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023

***
I've noticed at my college library that foreign books write the title on the spine in reverse of the way America does it. In America, if you hold a book level with the face upward, the writing on the spine runs from left to right. On a foreign book, it's the reverse -- you have to hold it with the back uppermost to read the spine left to right.

These are foreign books written in their own language, now -- a German text in German.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:34 AM (omVj0)

153 That the true-crime story had remained a mystery with no killer or killers apprehended, gave the author the mystery hook that "The Maze" has.
Posted by: Mr Gaga at July 16, 2023 10:06 AM (FpUx/)

Wow! I'll have yo read that because from what I have read of the news it is a wild story. So much of the narrative is almost unbelieveable... in the sense of wait wut? Not in the gruesome sense, I skip those parts.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:38 AM (sF9CX)

154 If you like Dunsany, I'm 99.9% sure you'll "enjoy" this.
-----

I do, and I will. It's been in my queue forever.

Dunsany's poetic prose make the indifferent gods and unhappy endings a...pleasure?...to read. So I bet I'll love this.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 10:38 AM (GbxWV)

155 Personally, I hate the Oxford Comma. It is redundant. I use it, but just to please the masses. Which is wrong. So I will stop.

Posted by: runner at July 16, 2023 10:38 AM (V13WU)

156 I haven’t had time to request a real announcement on either the book thread or the food thread, but my latest vintage rabbit hole is available: Temot Them with Tastier Foods: The Recipes of Eddie Doucette. It’s a collection of recipes from IGA newspaper ads of the sixties, and a few other fifties and sixties ephemera, from Chicagoland chef Eddie Doucette.

The ebook versions are free. Link in nic.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 16, 2023 10:39 AM (5RhKJ)

157 The Orangutan and the Squirrel: Tilting at Windmills in the New Millennium

- A NY Times Best Seller

Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 16, 2023 10:39 AM (KVGVf)

158 So take heart, all you newbie writers! Stop polishing and start publishing! Don't fret about little things. That's not what will stop you. Write the kind of story that kept you up past your bedtime with a flashlight under the covers.
Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 16, 2023

***
Sabrina, I'm letting my writing group people force me to second-guess myself about certain technique choices in my fiction -- techniques I've absorbed from long-published writers like Lawrence Block. I've got to stop listening to them unless my own training and instinct agrees.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:40 AM (omVj0)

159 Raining purdy good here now. Not gonna get my grass cut.
Do I sound broken hearted ?

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 10:41 AM (T4tVD)

160 Dunsany's poetic prose make the indifferent gods and unhappy endings a...pleasure?...to read. So I bet I'll love this.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 10:38 AM (GbxWV)

Clark Ashton Smith?

That dude was so great. So great.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:42 AM (DHyKh)

161 Hm, The King in Yellow is $.39 on Kindle today. I'll bite. Probably shouldn't make it my bedtime reading, though?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023 10:42 AM (OX9vb)

162 Re writing techniques

There's a poem, I think by Nicanor Parra but as I'm an old guy now maybe it's not by him. He tells writers to write whatever you choose in any way you choose because too much blood has flowed to insist that only one way is right. And he finishes,

"With only this condition:
You have to improve on the blank page."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:43 AM (a/4+U)

163 Confession: I've had Braudel's "The Structures of Everyday Life" and "The Wheels of Commerce" on my shelves since the early 80's. Apart from some desultory flipping, I haven't read them.

YET.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 10:44 AM (GbxWV)

164 I've got to stop listening to them unless my own training and instinct agrees.

Knowing what to use from critiques and what to ignore, especially writer group critiques, is a difficult skill.

This is especially true when submitting long-form works such as novels a chapter or so at a time.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 16, 2023 10:44 AM (5RhKJ)

165 85 ... PabloD,

Thanks. Just ordered a copy of "The CW Way of Life".

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 10:45 AM (7EjX1)

166 Personally, I hate the Oxford Comma. It is redundant. I use it, but just to please the masses. Which is wrong. So I will stop.
Posted by: runner at July 16, 2023 10:38 AM (V13WU)

Same, same. And the g-damn semic*l*n. I use it ONLY to separate items in a list after a colon (love the colon).

I'd use the semi-c*l*n as God hisownself intended as a pause linger than a comma and shorter than a colin but "ppl" get so angerrrry about it.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:45 AM (DHyKh)

167 Kindltot --
Thank ya kindly for the info -- a search in the Kindle store gave me a close match on that title, but the contents didn't quite line up with your description and the sample showed that whoever cobbled it together had never heard of proofreading.
Bests.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:32 AM (a/4+U)

Most of the content you can get from Mark Twain's autobiography, and the rest from a collected works.
Twain had a problem of being really hard on himself in his autobiography which makes it hard to read. A lot of criticism of Samuel Clemens the man is based on that book, which may not be fair
I also find that the official curators of Twain's works tended to be humorless scolds which also puts me off.

I think Twain was one of the architects of modern American prose. I doubt he intended to be, he just wrote the best he could which was very good indeed.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 10:45 AM (xhaym)

168 I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper & Dash my lace wigs!

Thank you. Some wipes are welcome, no matter how inadequate they are against the decrepitude of the Barrel.

*Starts singing I Will Survive*

*Barrel spits me out. *

*Heads to shower. *

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 10:46 AM (u82oZ)

169 Sabrina, I'm letting my writing group people force me to second-guess myself about certain technique choices in my fiction...

I'm not a writer so WTF do I know but it seems like a writers' group is something that could either be very helpful or very destructive depending on the makeup. If you detect even a hint of the latter, perhaps you should heed it.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 16, 2023 10:46 AM (nfrXX)

170 Hm, The King in Yellow is $.39 on Kindle today. I'll bite. Probably shouldn't make it my bedtime reading, though?
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 16, 2023 10:42 AM (OX9vb)

It's all personal. I'm confident you'll like it. But doubt it will spook you like it did me. I will keep hope alive that it will though! How I roll.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:47 AM (DHyKh)

171 Off to do a few chores for the way-beyond-nifty Mrs Some Guy.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor. And thanks to the rest of the gang here.

Bests to all.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:49 AM (a/4+U)

172 Good morning horde. Thanks for the thread Perfessor. I didn't do much book reading this week, but got lost in the rabbit hole of youtube videos and interweb sites on Appalachia coal country history. Such a cross-section of history, technology and science, labor, culture, public policy, etc. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.

Posted by: TRex at July 16, 2023 10:49 AM (IQ6Gq)

173 Offed himself over a lawsuit he eventually would have won. Don't get it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 09:36 AM (Angsy)

First Arkaside?

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 09:47 AM (B705c)

No. He wrote a book about someone another author wrote about seven or eight years earlier. The first one was more of a biography of the subject, Noble's was more a novel/romance version of the person's life. Looks like he had seen the first author's book, but judge decided that wasn't enough because some of the sources used were gov't records, so can't be copyrighted. Pretty obvious to me after reading the case report, but I guess he didn't think so and went to the gun.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 10:50 AM (Angsy)

174 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:34 AM (omVj0)

The writing on the spines of Spanish language books published overseas run up, where English runs down. Never wondered about other languages.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 10:50 AM (xhaym)

175 Good morning horde. Thanks for the thread Perfessor. I didn't do much book reading this week, but got lost in the rabbit hole of youtube videos and interweb sites on Appalachia coal country history. Such a cross-section of history, technology and science, labor, culture, public policy, etc. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know.
Posted by: TRex at July 16, 2023 10:49 AM (IQ6Gq)

Albion's Seed and The Frontiersman (Ekhart) are really really great books.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:50 AM (DHyKh)

176 Ook!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at July 16, 2023 10:52 AM (/o907)

177 I think some fantasy authors fall into the same trap that TV show writers do; their series gets established and they decide that, as it's probably the most important thing they will do in their career, it now *is* their career so they make it go on and on and on well beyond the number of books/shows they might have originally intended in their outline.

Posted by: CppThis at July 16, 2023 10:52 AM (PZvjL)

178 150 ... "Anyone have recommendations for a good Grimm hardcover? Good illustrations a plus for me."

I haven't seen it yet but the one I ordered was the 14 dollar hardcover on Amazon published by Canterbury Classics. It got the best reviews. I might also look for an edition with the Rackham illustrations.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 10:52 AM (7EjX1)

179 Ook!
Posted by: RedMindBlueState

Is the B silent ?

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 10:53 AM (T4tVD)

180 I use the Oxford comma just to be contrarian and conservative.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at July 16, 2023 10:53 AM (jgJfd)

181 I haven't seen it yet but the one I ordered was the 14 dollar hardcover on Amazon published by Canterbury Classics. It got the best reviews. I might also look for an edition with the Rackham illustrations.
Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 10:52 AM (7EjX1)

Nice. Thanks.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:53 AM (DHyKh)

182 Confession: I've had Braudel's "The Structures of Everyday Life" and "The Wheels of Commerce" on my shelves since the early 80's. Apart from some desultory flipping, I haven't read them.

YET.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

Haha, me too! You make me feel a bit better in my laziness.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 16, 2023 10:55 AM (mZWz7)

183 I'm not a writer so WTF do I know but it seems like a writers' group is something that could either be very helpful or very destructive depending on the makeup. If you detect even a hint of the latter, perhaps you should heed it.
Posted by: Oddbob at July 16, 2023

***
I've been with the group through many personnel changes, and it seems that the latest bunch -- including one fellow who has "published" a not-very-good book with Black Rose Writing -- are not as helpful as earlier people have been.

When the catch errors in logic or grammar, great. When they try to tell me that Technique A "doesn't work" even though many a published novel uses it in the same way I do, maybe it's time to put my fingers in my ears.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 10:56 AM (omVj0)

184 Howdy, folks!

Just got back from the ARMoMe in Van Buren, Arkansas. A good time was had by all.

Have some good stuff to share with y'all next week!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 16, 2023 10:58 AM (BpYfr)

185 Twain describes the Capitol Grounds as a vacant lot in Roughing it. This was not true. There was a 2 bedroom house located on one of the properties that became the Capitol Grounds.
It was moved complete to the corner of Division and Long streets about a quarter mile North.

I only know this because I rented it in the late 90's from the guy that moved it when they decided to get rid of what was then known as "The Gatehouse".
When I moved out the dude went through and checked EVERY dorknob and hinge in the place. Really old crystal and brass French things that were worth a fortune. I had no idea nor did I care.

Dude also told me he knew he was smarter than me because he was left handed. Place almost burned down due to his hog-poge of wires and batteries for his stupid solar systems. He was actually quite famous in the solar crowd of the 70's. His place (not the gatehouse) was on some nationally promoted tour of solar homes.

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:59 AM (B705c)

186 One of the things that sets Tolkien apart from virtually every other fantasy author is that it wasn't his day job, and selling books wasn't something that he ever really thought about until very late in life. So he most likely just wrote exactly what he wanted to write, without much in the way of outside influence.

Posted by: CppThis at July 16, 2023 11:00 AM (PZvjL)

187 I've got to stop listening to them unless my own training and instinct agrees.
*
Knowing what to use from critiques and what to ignore, especially writer group critiques, is a difficult skill.

This is especially true when submitting long-form works such as novels a chapter or so at a time.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 16, 2023

***
True. A 4500-word short story can be read and comprehended at a sitting. A 65K-word novel is something else again.

The advice offered by members in the past has been very helpful. The current three members don't seem to be on the same wavelength, or even on my wavelength. They compliment me on my use of dialogue, but then complain that my murder mystery -- not a hardboiled story, not a thriller -- has too much talking going on. Well, yeah! The essence of the classic mystery is the heroes' discovering things, usually by questioning other people. There's gonna be a lotta talk.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:01 AM (omVj0)

188 The BigRiver had some of Tolkien's stuff on 50% sale so I picked up The Silmarillion, and will punish myself by reading it finally after 3 failed attempts.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at July 16, 2023 11:01 AM (jzzG8)

189
Confession: I've had Braudel's "The Structures of Everyday Life" and "The Wheels of Commerce" on my shelves since the early 80's. Apart from some desultory flipping, I haven't read them.

I have read the first six pages of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 20 times at least.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:02 AM (MoZTd)

190 Howdy, folks!

Just got back from the ARMoMe in Van Buren, Arkansas. A good time was had by all.

Have some good stuff to share with y'all next week!
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

g'day. I look forward to the pictures and videos !

Posted by: runner at July 16, 2023 11:02 AM (V13WU)

191 Just got back from the ARMoMe in Van Buren, Arkansas. A good time was had by all.

Have some good stuff to share with y'all next week!
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 16, 2023 10:58 AM

Nice. Looking forward to TX!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at July 16, 2023 11:02 AM (/o907)

192 So take heart, all you newbie writers! Stop polishing and start publishing! Don't fret about little things. That's not what will stop you. Write the kind of story that kept you up past your bedtime with a flashlight under the covers.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at July 16, 2023 10:17 AM (7rP4D)

Aye, that's the rub. How and where? I've submitted two stories to two magazines and they were rejected. I joined a site named Reedsy, and entered a contest. I didn't win anything, but it's online if anyone wants to read it. How else to start?

https://tinyurl.com/2dac7b9b

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 11:03 AM (Angsy)

193 175 ... "Albion's Seed and The Frontiersman (Ekhart) are really really great books."

Be very careful with Eckert's books. They are addictive, like the Patrick O'Brien Aubrey books, and take up a lot of room on your shelves. You have neem warned.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:03 AM (7EjX1)

194
My general rule is to avoid writing anything that sounds contrived or ambiguous. If that means using or not using an Oxford comma, fine. If that means splitting an infinitive, fine.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:03 AM (MoZTd)

195 Just got back from the ARMoMe in Van Buren, Arkansas. A good time was had by all.

Have some good stuff to share with y'all next week!
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 16, 2023 10:58 AM (BpYfr)

I wish I could have gone, but, well, real life gets in the way sometimes. My dear departed grandparents spent their retirement years in Ozark. I love that part of Arkansas, and it's on our list of places to move to when we finally leave Colorado.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lookin' for me wooden leg at July 16, 2023 11:03 AM (T/Lqj)

196 Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:32 AM

Mark Twain on Writing and Publishing

https://is.gd/euFFlN

Looks like it's only available in paperback at Amazon.

Posted by: olddog in mo at July 16, 2023 11:06 AM (ju2Fy)

197 Thank you Perfessor for another outstanding Book Thread. The discussions of what makes a story work, what motivates a character, what a particular author is trying to accomplish, etc. are fascinating and have increased my enjoyment of most of what I read. As a lifelong lover of books, I didn't think that was possible.

Last week's reading included James Bartlett's Glitter Girl: A Swamp Yankee Mystery which I very much enjoyed. I am somewhat familiar with parts of Rhode Island and Massachusett's South Coast and it was fun to see places that I know mentioned. I enjoyed the story but it was the characters that I appreciated the most - they felt very real, like people that I know from that area. I would highly recommend it.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 16, 2023 11:07 AM (ob77J)

198 I love that diorama in the top photo. I'm not familiar with the Disc World series but admire the time and trouble that went into that little model. It is wonderful for adults. I imagine it would enchant children.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:07 AM (7EjX1)

199 I'm not a writer but I look at the Oxford comma like I look at the condom. I'll never let it become a means to distract me from the goal zone.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 16, 2023 11:08 AM (KVGVf)

200 g'day. I look forward to the pictures and videos !
Posted by: runner at July 16, 2023 11:02 AM (V13WU)
---
Pictures, yes, video, no.

I found a used bookstore right next to the restaurant where we had dinner....Let's just say I (and a few other members of the Horde) didn't leave empty handed. More details forthcoming...

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

201 Again I recommend writers read Steven Pressfield’s books on how to be a better writer. These books cross over to help in other professions as well.

Posted by: polynikes at July 16, 2023 11:11 AM (MNhXM)

202 I'm not a writer but I look at the Oxford comma like I look at the condom. I'll never let it become a means to distract me from the goal zone.
Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 16, 2023 11:08 AM (KVGVf)

Hahah. Nice.

I figure if I seem to need it I done wrote what I was trying to say wrong.

Operator error.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 11:12 AM (DHyKh)

203 "With only this condition:
You have to improve on the blank page."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 16, 2023 10:43 AM (a/4+U)

Aw, crap!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 11:12 AM (Angsy)

204 The Sound of Freedom producer said a screening of his movie is scheduled at Capitol Hill in a couple weeks. It will be interesting to see which "representatives" show up.

Mike Lee, of course. He has supported Tim Ballard's work for some time. A bunch of RINOs who need to bolster their conservative cred...and Freedom Caucus members.

Not one demorat will appear because the word is out: if you acknowledge this film it means you're a Q-anon conspiracist.

Posted by: kallisto at July 16, 2023 11:14 AM (SDJbc)

205 WA, email sent.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 11:15 AM (Angsy)

206 "Perfessor" Squirrel

Thank you for yet another excellent book thread. The Library diorama is fantastic.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at July 16, 2023 11:16 AM (u82oZ)

207 Yeah. Thanks again PS. Good job.

Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 11:16 AM (DHyKh)

208
Not one demorat will appear because the word is out: if you acknowledge this film it means you're a Q-anon conspiracist.
Posted by: kallisto at July 16, 2023 11:14 AM (SDJbc)

If QAnon didn't exist, Democrats would have to invent him.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:18 AM (MoZTd)

209 I figure if I seem to need it I done wrote what I was trying to say wrong.

Operator error.
Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023

***
When I get tangled up, either in a sentence or a whole scene, I stop and say, "Am I trying to do too much? Keep it simple, stupid." And invariably when I simplify the sentence, or trim the scene to fewer characters or make it shorter, I get past the tangle.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:19 AM (omVj0)

210 If QAnon didn't exist, Democrats would have to invent him.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:18 AM (MoZTd)
---
Are we sure it wasn't invented by the Deep State (almost all Democrats)?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 16, 2023 11:19 AM (BpYfr)

211 Bet the likes of Antifa will do everything they can to stop it

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 11:20 AM (xhxe8)

212
"Perfessor" Squirrel had a very hard act to follow on taking up responsibility for the Sunday Book Thread, but I for one think the standard set by OMuse has been more than equalled.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:21 AM (MoZTd)

213 I don't know if any pants can match the pants featured here some years ago, from Eldridge de Paris.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 16, 2023 11:22 AM (oINRc)

214 Oh, William M is fine, but I prefer Constable Thackeray.
Posted by: Sgt Cribb at July 16, 2023 09:05 AM (Angsy)

Another talented member of the clan is Jake Thackray:

https://youtu.be/FE-BKrAAZGc

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 16, 2023 11:23 AM (z3vVb)

215 "Perfessor" Squirrel had a very hard act to follow on taking up responsibility for the Sunday Book Thread, but I for one think the standard set by OMuse has been more than equalled.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:21 AM (MoZTd)
---
Thank you. That means a lot. We were talking about OM last night at dinner. I have tried very hard to keep the spirit of OM alive in the Sunday Morning Book Thread and I believe I have succeeded. RIP, OregonMuse!

I don't need his ghost haunting my conscience!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 16, 2023 11:24 AM (BpYfr)

216 Could the "Who Dis" possibly be Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child?

Just a stab in the dark.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at July 16, 2023 11:24 AM (iZEhM)

217 Ace's recent coverage of Disney theme park attendance decline inspired me to again recommend Peter Schweitzer's 1998 book Disney: The Mouse Betrayed. To say "kissing off middle class families" with Disney World pricing (and all their other parks) is not the original intention is a vast understatement.

As a boy, Walt Disney was unable to attend the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair because his family did not have the money. So he stood peering through the fence at all the happy children creating memories. This had such a profound impact on him that when his company started building theme parks, he ordered the prices be low so that no poor child would be unable to attend. He didn't care if they lost money. He wanted to ensure that no child experienced what he did.

That ended with the hiring of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner in 1984. Roy Disney objected to Eisner's big price increases, stating Walt's precedent. Eisner told him that Walt wasn't there anymore.

Posted by: Cesspit Pariah at July 16, 2023 11:24 AM (E49AC)

218 Albion's Seed and The Frontiersman (Ekhart) are really really great books.
Posted by: Thesokorus at July 16, 2023 10:50 AM

Be very careful with Eckert's books. They are addictive, like the Patrick O'Brien Aubrey books, and take up a lot of room on your shelves. You have neem warned.
Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:03 AM

Thank you! Much appreciated.

Posted by: TRex at July 16, 2023 11:28 AM (IQ6Gq)

219 OrangeEnt suggested I post a link to the contest story I submitted to Reedsy last month. Here it is:

https://tinyurl.com/mvec43ex

It's short, 3K words. If you don't have time to get to it today, please read it this week and comment on next week's book thread -- or comment right there.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:28 AM (omVj0)

220 Just wanted to bring up a book-adjacent memory about QAnon. From what I remember, it became something of a joke, playing 'capture the flag' with some silly little actor. It was played out against the background of GamerGate. Anybody else have similar recollections?

Posted by: mustbequantum at July 16, 2023 11:29 AM (MIKMs)

221 215 "Perfessor" Squirrel had a very hard act to follow on taking up responsibility for the Sunday Book Thread, but I for one think the standard set by OMuse has been more than equalled.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:21 AM

Hear, hear! Thanks Perfessor!

Posted by: TRex at July 16, 2023 11:29 AM (IQ6Gq)

222 An idea I should develop into an essay. As I think about the books, especially fiction, that are ever more appealing to me these days, the word that keeps coming to mind is 'enchanting'. So many levels and nuances to that word that connote delight. imagination and creativity.

One of the great crimes against the arts in the 20th century is that DISenchantment became the norm. Wonder and delight were scorned, grim and nihilistic attitudes were lauded.

This feels like a piece I should draft with a dip pen then refine on my 1939 Royal manual typewriter.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:30 AM (7EjX1)

223 Is today No Nood Sunday ?

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 11:31 AM (T4tVD)

224 Good morning Hordemates.
And Thanxs Prof for another delightful thread.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 16, 2023 11:32 AM (e4fEA)

225 One of the great crimes against the arts in the 20th century is that DISenchantment became the norm. Wonder and delight were scorned, grim and nihilistic attitudes were lauded.

This feels like a piece I should draft with a dip pen then refine on my 1939 Royal manual typewriter.
Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:30 AM (7EjX1)
---
I have a link to an essay by another author that talks about this very subject. I will be posting that link sometime in the near future...(Probably August)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 16, 2023 11:32 AM (BpYfr)

226 One of the great crimes against the arts in the 20th century is that DISenchantment became the norm. Wonder and delight were scorned, grim and nihilistic attitudes were lauded.

This feels like a piece I should draft with a dip pen then refine on my 1939 Royal manual typewriter.
Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023

***
I know. There seems to be no "fun" to fiction any more, whether it's movies, TV, or the written word. The last TV series with clever funny dialog and a sprightly tone was Gilmore Girls twenty years ago. Something as sparkling as Ghostbusters or Back to the Future we'd never see today. And everything is written or filmed, and coated, with this dark grimy slime, it seems. Broken characters, gloomy outcomes, etc.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:34 AM (omVj0)

227 >>>"Perfessor" Squirrel had a very hard act to follow on taking up responsibility for the Sunday Book Thread, but I for one think the standard set by OMuse has been more than equalled.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

>Yes, yes this is all fine, but can the Squirrel play chess or is he too busy playing with his nuts?

Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 16, 2023 11:36 AM (KVGVf)

228 I've read about half of the Discworld novels.

Ook.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at July 16, 2023 11:37 AM (ybIRR)

229 I am currently reading The Odin Mission by James Holland. Its sold as a WW2 version of Sharpe's, although it isn't quite, so far at least. I think its been long enough and most people are ignorant enough that this kind of book should be written as if its the early 19th century Napoleonic war, and nobody knows how anything works or why.

What kind of guns do they use, how do they work, how does the military structure work, what kind of food do they eat, etc. Build that into the story like Sharpe has, because you cannot reasonably assume younger readers know any of it any more.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at July 16, 2023 11:37 AM (0hOvj)

230 Anybody else have similar recollections?
Posted by: mustbequantum at July 16, 2023 11:29 AM (MIKMs)

Yes. The 4chan kids hounded Shia LeBoeuf to the brink of madness. He was a pompous lunatic to begin with, so that wasn't a huge stretch. But he drew their attention with his extremely tiresome, annoying #NeverTrump publicity stunts.

At some point, his confrontations with MAGA people caused him to go crazy on one and get arrested, and kicked out of whatever business was hosting his bizarre "performance art."

So he went "underground" with it, live streaming from an undisclosed location, where those nasty MAGAts couldn't find him or criticize his wacky crap. Or so he thought.

It was then that the autists went to work finding and exposing his locations in some frankly brilliant ways, until he ended up in a self-imposed exile at a secluded cabin somewhere in the darkest forests of Europe. Finland or maybe Iceland, if memory serves.

The whole thing was surreal and hilarious.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 16, 2023 11:38 AM (oINRc)

231 You know, I love that we have this forum, but could we spend a little more time about reading books for the sheer pleasure and excitement a good book brings? There is a thrill to discovering a new author who takes you to a place you've never imagined. I read a lot and difficult to find something fresh. Is there nothing epic anymore? The last unique new author I picked up was Galbraith's Strike series. Is my only hope that Rothfuss has finally produced something worthy after 12 years?
Help me out here.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 11:39 AM (t/2Uw)

232 And everything is written or filmed, and coated, with this dark grimy slime, it seems. Broken characters, gloomy outcomes, etc.

Even comic books are this way. I just read about a story about the Hulk in which he's the last human on earth, in an apocalyptic wasteland where gigantic mutated flesh eating cockroaches devour him every day and he heals back until finally Bruce Banner dies and the Hulk is all alone, knowing if he reverts back to his human form he dies.

Why the hell would you write such a story??

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at July 16, 2023 11:39 AM (0hOvj)

233 Needed: glasses that let you read the titles of books on other people's shelves without twisting your neck.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 10:23 AM (MoZTd)

Would also be uber-useful when perusing the racks in thrift shops and used book stores. Make a smartphone app that would use the camera to view the book title, and display in normal reading position with the phone held horizontal. i.e. simply apply a 90 degree rotation to the image.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 16, 2023 11:40 AM (SNDPm)

234 I lost the plot. Anyway, the LeBoeuf saga had nothing to do with QAnon. Just kids messing with a crazy weirdo. Only commonalities were 4Chan and Trump support.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 16, 2023 11:40 AM (oINRc)

235 225 ... "I have a link to an essay by another author that talks about this very subject. I will be posting that link sometime in the near future...(Probably August)"

Perfessor,
I hope you provide that link. I'm sure my idea is not original.

And, as always, thanks for another wonderful book thread.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:41 AM (7EjX1)

236
One of the great crimes against the arts in the 20th century is that DISenchantment became the norm. Wonder and delight were scorned, grim and nihilistic attitudes were lauded.

There was a great Robert Benchley piece lampooning naturalistic literature.

"In the dining room of the Twillys' house, everything was very quiet. Even the vinegar cruet which was covered in fly specks. Grandma Twilly lay with her head in the baked potatoes, poisoned by Mabel, who, in her turn had been poisoned by her husband and sprawled in an odd posture over the china closet. Wilbur and his sister Bernice had just finished choking each other to death and between them completely covered the carpet in that corner of the room where the worn spot showed the bare boards beneath, like ribs on a chicken carcass."

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:43 AM (MoZTd)

237 It's short, 3K words. If you don't have time to get to it today, please read it this week and comment on next week's book thread -- or comment right there.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:28 AM (omVj0)

Of course, I've read it already. It's not what I usually read, but it's very well done. Better than some others with higher upvotes. I think mine is better than some of the others too.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 11:44 AM (Angsy)

238
You know, I love that we have this forum, but could we spend a little more time about reading books for the sheer pleasure and excitement a good book brings?

Good idea. Please write a 500 word essay (not including footnotes) explaining it further. No ChatGPT, please.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 16, 2023 11:46 AM (MoZTd)

239 226 ... "The last TV series with clever funny dialog and a sprightly tone was Gilmore Girls twenty years ago."

Wolfus, I think the best writing on TV was the old "Have Gun, Will Travel" series. Other shows had their moments but HG,WT was consistently excellent. Mrs. JTB and I were so impressed we got the entire series on DVD.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:47 AM (7EjX1)

240 >Just wanted to bring up a book-adjacent memory about QAnon. From what I remember, it became something of a joke, playing 'capture the flag' with some silly little actor. It was played out against the background of GamerGate. Anybody else have similar recollections?
Posted by: mustbequantum at July 16, 2023 11:29 AM (MIKMs)

Shia LeBouf was maybe the mirror of Kanye West, anti-Trump but even less sane than most. He had a flag with the phrase "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US" that he hoped would turn into a thing(tm).

Someone took his flag and bragged about it on 4chan, and he took it personally. "OK but I have a new flag and you won't be able to snag that one" he said and put up a web cam.

The phrase "weaponized autism" was born as a drone was used to take a flag off of a university campus building roof. The next one, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, was discovered within hours.

Like Wiley Coyote his inability to disengage has clobbered him over and over.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at July 16, 2023 11:48 AM (ybIRR)

241 >>>Wonder and delight were scorned, grim and nihilistic attitudes were lauded.

>Nihilism, much like Marxism, is a malignancy of thought and both should be banished from the 21st century.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at July 16, 2023 11:50 AM (KVGVf)

242 Hello Horde. Arriving just in time to be willowed.

I started the first book in the Pendergast series, as recommended here, this week. Not too deep into it yet, but it's great to have something new to read. Many many thanks to those who provided recommendations on last Sunday's ONT as well.

Also reading How People Change by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp. I've been far away from God since Jesse died, now wanting to find my way back.

Posted by: screaming in digital at July 16, 2023 11:51 AM (aBJcM)

243 Anybody else have similar recollections?
Posted by: mustbequantum at July 16, 2023 11:29 AM (MIKMs)

It was Anti-Trump: He Will Not Divide Us

Which of course meant "you will not disobey us" which I think is what got 4channers full-on stiffies.

Posted by: Kindltot at July 16, 2023 11:52 AM (xhaym)

244 I have three audiobooks in rotation right now:

1) The Silmarillion read by Andy Serkis (he is excellent)

2) We are Legion (Bob universe)

3) Horus Heresy Siege of Terra

Posted by: BourbonChicken at July 16, 2023 11:52 AM (ybIRR)

245 Wolfus, I think the best writing on TV was the old "Have Gun, Will Travel" series. Other shows had their moments but HG,WT was consistently excellent. Mrs. JTB and I were so impressed we got the entire series on DVD.
Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023

***
It was great! It was the gold standard for 30-minute TV Westerns. The Rifleman comes in second, I think. Yes,, there were grim downbeat endings to some of those, but then we got comic stories too, and humor or dry wit in nearly every episode.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:54 AM (omVj0)

246 Needed: glasses that let you read the titles of books on other people's shelves without twisting your neck.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

One of the limiting factors in perusing used bookstores is the neck pain from walking around with one's head turned ninety degrees

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 16, 2023 11:55 AM (J8k8F)

247 Two Years Before the Mast is excellent. I'll probably reread it soon. I just got a new laptop, which gave me an excuse to finally download Obsidian and start digitizing my extensive collection of book note cards (I hadn't found a solution that didn't live in "the cloud" until Obsidian). So in support of that, I'm going through my accumulated gigs of ebooks. (Gigs and gigs and gigs. Of ebooks. Not kidding.)

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at July 16, 2023 11:56 AM (Y+AMd)

248 My favorite voice-over opening to a Have Gun episode (from memory):

Paladin: "I need six men for a job. It's difficult and may be dangerous. The men we're after are not to be trusted. They've stolen a piano."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:57 AM (omVj0)

249 Before this train leaves the station I want to add my thanks for another great book thread. Always a great way to start Sunday. Much appreciated.

Posted by: Rufus T Firefly at July 16, 2023 11:57 AM (iR91D)

250 Hadrian, I appreciate the humor in your response and maybe I wasn't clear. It is great to talk about all the mechanics that go into writing a good book, talking about non fiction about the political events of today or in the past, but who here read a terrific fiction book this week that made them say oooh, that was great.
That's what I miss.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 11:57 AM (t/2Uw)

251 Paladin: "I need six men for a job. It's difficult and may be dangerous. The men we're after are not to be trusted. They've stolen a piano."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 11:57 AM (omVj0)

I started to watch the whole series on CBS's website. I wonder if they're still there. And still free?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 11:58 AM (Angsy)

252 One of the limiting factors in perusing used bookstores is the neck pain from walking around with one's head turned ninety degrees
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 16, 2023 11:55 AM (J8k8F)

I've never had that issue. I can read words upside down and even backwards, like in a mirror.

Dad was a radio man in the Corps and one of his jobs was writing information with a grease pencil on the back side of a glass map for the officers to read. Learned to write backwards. Not everyone can do that.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lookin' for me wooden leg at July 16, 2023 11:58 AM (T/Lqj)

253 231 ... "could we spend a little more time about reading books for the sheer pleasure and excitement a good book brings? There is a thrill to discovering a new author who takes you to a place you've never imagined. I read a lot and difficult to find something fresh. "

Sharon, As far as fiction goes, I find few, if any, new authors that I like. The Liturgical Mysteries series by Mark Schweizer (who passed away a few years ago far too young) is one of the few.

On the other hand, I recently discovered the writing of William Gilmore Simms, A South Carolina writer of the antebellum South and later. His nonfiction is excellent, like his biography of Francis Marion the Swamp Fox. But his fiction is imaginative and the writing is sprightly evocative and delightful.

Posted by: JTB at July 16, 2023 11:58 AM (7EjX1)

254 Where is this RAIN coming from ?

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 11:58 AM (T4tVD)

255 but who here read a terrific fiction book this week that made them say oooh, that was great.
That's what I miss.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 16, 2023 11:57 AM (t/2Uw)

(sniff) I posted about one earlier....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 11:59 AM (Angsy)

256 I started to watch the whole series on CBS's website. I wonder if they're still there. And still free?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023

***
They run every weekday morning on over-the-air TV, Heroes & Icons, at 7 am Central. They are a very fine model to study, because each episode is like a short story in "The Adventures of Paladin."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 12:00 PM (omVj0)

257 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at July 16, 2023 12:01 PM (xhxe8)

258 Where is this RAIN coming from ?

Posted by: JT at July 16, 2023 11:58 AM (T4tVD)

From a melody?

Posted by: Annie L at July 16, 2023 12:02 PM (Angsy)

259 Well, the saddest part of Sunday morning, the end of the book thread. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 12:03 PM (Angsy)

260 I just finished reading "How to Become a Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook for the Aspiring Offender" by Mike Lee. It's a humor book and hilarious in a shaking my head sort of way.

Before that I read Jesse Kelly's "The Anti-Communist Manifesto". I recommend both!

Now onto "The Great Reset" by Glenn Beck.

Posted by: TB24601 at July 16, 2023 12:03 PM (VamVj)

261 Also reading How People Change by Tim Lane and Paul Tripp. I've been far away from God since Jesse died, now wanting to find my way back.

You are in my prayers.

I am currently also reading Gold from Crete, which is a collection of short stories (also mainly WW2) by Hornblower author Forrester. He never disappoints, although some is better than others, its always good reading.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at July 16, 2023 12:04 PM (0hOvj)

262 Q lost. Simple as that. There were closed congressional hearings on it. If you don't believe in Q there are a few people who can prove they were hunted down by him/them. Avanatti being one. The saudi prince's hung upside down in the Hilton are others.

When 8chan was shut down for a few weeks and then came back as 8kun is when he/they went down.
Anything after that is all falsehoods.

It was a wild ride though.
My guess is Q was someone near to Erik Prince.

Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 12:04 PM (B705c)

263 They run every weekday morning on over-the-air TV, Heroes & Icons, at 7 am Central. They are a very fine model to study, because each episode is like a short story in "The Adventures of Paladin."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 12:00 PM (omVj0)

It was commercial free on their website. Can't stand watching commercials anymore. Found Hell on Wheels on a streaming channel for free. Twenty minutes in commercial 1 of 7. Turned it off.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023 12:04 PM (Angsy)

264 I enjoyed 2 Years Before the Mast as well, its very interesting history and great adventure as well. His descriptions of Spanish California are fascinating, a sort of lost time for the area.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at July 16, 2023 12:07 PM (0hOvj)

265 "this amazing little diorama"

One should search Youtube for 'book nooks' ...

Posted by: paquetman at July 16, 2023 12:07 PM (QsZie)

266 It was commercial free on their website. Can't stand watching commercials anymore. Found Hell on Wheels on a streaming channel for free. Twenty minutes in commercial 1 of 7. Turned it off.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 16, 2023

***
CBS.com? I searched for "have gun will travel" and came up with nothing.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 16, 2023 12:07 PM (omVj0)

267

Made it about halfway through the Preston Child series before quitting as they had become obnoxiously retarded.

Also, whichever one of them wrote the Jack Reacher books came out as an advocate for PETA in the first book, so they can go horse impregnate.

Posted by: Niels Smith at July 16, 2023 12:20 PM (j0d9Z)

268 Of series, one must introduce the works of Lois McMaster Bujold. Three main storylines: Vorkosigan's milestones, the Sharing Knife tale, and the Five Gods inter-related events. In the Vorkosign "series", each novel length tale stands alone, and the plot advances details of his life and career. The four Sharing Knife novels stand alone if necessary, but the four represent one long plot about discovering an epic problem and incrementally dealing with the components of (not yet a final) solution. And the Five Gods tales don't much relate to one another except in the settings. Different approaches to "series" but each with advantages explored to the finest point.

Posted by: Pouncer at July 16, 2023 12:46 PM (VETeK)

269 Coincidentally,we are giving KTY a book nook diorama kit for her upcoming birthday

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 16, 2023 01:31 PM (vHIgi)

270 Enjoying another creepy story by T. Kingfisher, "A House With Good Bones". She has a way with words.

"Waffle House at four in the morning is a liminal space occupied by long-haul truckers, bleary-eyed shift workers, and teenagers so high they can smell God's breath."
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 16, 2023 09:23

Yes she does indeed Eris. i'm gonna steal that "so high they can smell God's breath". And I discovered a new word, liminal. TY
T

Posted by: Farmer at July 16, 2023 02:31 PM (55Qr6)

271 Interesting about not sugar coating the Indians that Columbus came in contact with. Originally Columbus came upon natives in Cuba, the Taino that had practically no defenses, wooden spears, ran when he appeared and hid. He described them as timid, but upon further contact they were welcoming, warm and innocent. His last voyage was long after first contact. It might have poisoned the well a little because initially Columbus thought of enslaving these people even though he recognized their innocence.

A balancing text,' Columbus The Four Voyages" Laurence Bergreen

Posted by: jeremiah at July 16, 2023 02:48 PM (h04CF)

272 CInder Spires is going to be a great series. I have the first volume in hardcover and a well-traveled paperback...
Posted by: Richard Sean McEnroe at July 16, 2023 02:38 PM
Posted by: Richard Sean McEnroe at July 16, 2023 02:42 PM (G/6B6)

Posted by: Richard Sean McEnroe at July 16, 2023 02:52 PM (G/6B6)

273 There seems to be an echo in here ...

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 16, 2023 02:57 PM (p/isN)

274 OK. THOSE pants look like camel toe almost to the navel. No tuck flap either. Girls these days, I just don't understand. But it's OK. I don't care either.

Posted by: Ray Mota at July 16, 2023 03:13 PM (sw3xv)

275 Gotta love a Terry Pratchett fan.

Posted by: TheOtherJay at July 16, 2023 03:48 PM (3v8AB)

276 There is a film version of Sword of Honor featuring Daniel Craig as Guy Crouchback. It's not bad.

Posted by: Ladyhobbit at July 16, 2023 03:55 PM (Vprnv)

277 You people always cost me money!
You know who you are.

Posted by: waepnedmann at July 16, 2023 04:04 PM (D4+5t)

278 You'd just blow it on food and shelter.

Posted by: The Enticer at July 16, 2023 04:14 PM (p/isN)

279 Running way behind (as usual) and just saw the recommendation for my little book - THANKS!

If you've got Kindle Unlimited you can read it for free to see if you like it enough to get the paperback or Audible version.

Posted by: Steven Van Dyke at July 16, 2023 06:39 PM (bxAlI)

280
“Roughing it is my favorite Twain book. Mostly because it happened where I live. I can go sit on a bench where he got lost in the snowstorm and made camp in the middle of the street because the couldn't see the side of the road. Virginia City is a short trip away and I would implore any Twain fan to visit there at least once, which you won't be able to do. You will come back, again and again.
Posted by: Reforger at July 16, 2023 10:08 AM (B705c)”

Carson City had its first “Mark Twain Days” weekend on April 22. Different events, including two writing events, and a talk by Twain & a couple of other historical characters. I went for the writing & history; Hubs went because he loves me.

Carson City hopes to make it an annual event. If so, maybe we can make it a Moron Meet-up!

Posted by: March Hare at July 16, 2023 09:41 PM (WOU9P)

281 A hearty well done! to Trudy's family. The diorama details are excellent; the wizard's staff has a knob on the end as it should, and that could be Death (aka Bill) lurking behind the cat. If so, then the bird on the larger crystal ball ought to be Quoth, the raven, yes? Or just a random raven from the Tower of Art. I don't recall that the Librarian had a cat, but all things are possible in L Space and down another leg in the Trousers of Time. As this is the Orang's lair, and he is a wizard, shouldn't there be a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling too?

And that looks like a first edition of The Wee Free Men on the bookshelf? And a 1st ed of Midnight? And Making Money!! They're all first editions??!!!? Crivens!!

Posted by: Drew458 at July 17, 2023 12:57 AM (Olcxz)

282 Tavor 7 For Sale

Posted by: tryjeoe at July 17, 2023 08:05 PM (svnPO)

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