Sunday Morning Book Thread - 04-28-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (Untap. Upkeep. Draw.). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

Disparage no book, for it is also a part of this world.

--Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav

PIC NOTE

I was going to use this picture last week, but then the picture of the One Ring showed up in my Inbox by chance and I could not pass that up. This week's pic is just one of those random pictures of libraries you can find all over the internet. This one stood out to me because there is NO WAY that I could stand having my library look like that. Horizontally arranged books just don't work for me at all. Yes, it's easier to read the spines because you don't have to tilt your head sideways. However, it's difficult to pull books from the bottom of the stack off the shelf and it's equally difficult to return them.

THE PURPOSE OF LORE AND CANON

Carl Benjamin, aka "Sargon of Akkad," went on a tear recently on the importance of lore and canon in preserving carefully crafted worlds, especially those that span multiple media with numerous creators. The people involved in crafting those worlds often rely on the lore and canon in order to keep any additional disruptive elements to a minimum so that the overall storyline is mostly consistent over time. It's a big challenge when you are dealing with a 40-year-old franchise that is based on a tabletop miniature wargame, but also has numerous spin-offs such as novels, video games, board games, at least one movie, and an upcoming television show (that may be stuck in development hell going forward). All of that needs to work together to satisfy the fans. They WANT the creators to be thoughtful, considerate custodians of the intellectual property.

As ace, Critical Drinker, and others have pointed out, the most recent controversy is the inclusion of women in the elite personal guard of the Emperor of Mankind. Up until now, Space Marines have been exclusively MEN. This especially true of the elite-of-the-elite, the Adeptus Custodes. There are units and factions within Warhammer 40K that are dominated by females, but the Space Marines have NEVER been among them. However, according to the recently updated Warhammer 40K Wiki, "The Custodes is an elite cadre of genetically-engineered transhuman male and female warriors who are even more potent in combat than the Adeptus Astartes." [Emphasis added -- PS]

This fundamentally breaks the lore in ways that will cause backwards ripples throughout the canon, as that change now has to be ret-conned into all previous media. Why have female Custodes never been featured in books and storylines before? How are they able to survive the incredibly grueling initiation process that kills most candidates? As this YouTuber points out, there are some changes that can be added to the lore with minimal disruption, but changes that affect the culture and society almost always cause great disruption to the story. Ursula K. Leguin--an early feminist icon in fantasy--wrestled with this idea when she returned to the Earthsea stories after a long hiatus. She ultimately decided that women in Earthsea could NOT be wizards, though there are plenty of women who have magical powers of their own. They just can't be called "wizards" and they cannot fulfill the same role in society. Wizarding was exclusively the domain of men.

Some authors are not all that concerned with their own canon and lore and just write whatever they feel like. H.P. Lovecraft allowed many, many authors to contribute to his Cthulhu Mythos, even when he might not have agreed with some of those changes. For instance, August Derleth added a category of godlike beings that was much more benevolent towards humanity than most of the Mythos, even protecting us at times from the callous disregard of Great Old Ones. Raymond E. Feist doesn't re-read his own books to keep his cosmology and history consistent throughout the Riftwar Saga, leading to odd discrepancies and contradictions from series to series.

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(*sigh* My TBR pile grew again this week...See below)

LORE BREAKING -- WHEEL OF TIME EXAMPLE

NOTE: You may want to skip down to the comments section if you are not interested in this topic, as I intend to go into excruciating detail of one instance of critical lore breaking...

The following excerpt is the opening monologue of Season 1 Episode 1 of Amazon's Wheel of Time, which was first released in Fall 2021. The show is very loosely based on Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series--to the point where only some of the names are the same. The plot and character arcs have wildly diverged in the television series from those that are presented in the books. I've added emphasis to the statements that are contradictory to the source material. This information is presented to the casual viewers as canon exposition, but it's all a pack of lies and I'll demonstrate why in a moment.

The world is broken. Many, many years ago, men who were born with great power believed they could cage Darkness itself. The arrogance. When they failed, the seas boiled, mountains were swallowed up, cities burned, and the women of the Aes Sedai were left to pick up the pieces. These women remembered one thing above all else...the man who brought the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon. Now this man has been born again. We don't know where or to whom. If he was reborn as a girl or a boy. The only thing we know for certain is that this child is coming of age now, and we must find them...before the Dark does. -- Moiraine Damodred

Let's unpack the highlighted portions to examine WHY these statements are incorrect.

Many, many years ago, men who were born with great power believed they could cage Darkness itself

Three thousand years before the events of the main story, the War of Shadow tore the world apart because the Dark One had been freed from his eternal prison. Note that a WOMAN initiated his release, though she had help from others who sought greater power. It was up to a coalition of male and female channelers (magic-users) to attempt to put this evil genie back into the bottle. Unfortunately, only Lews Therin Telamon had a workable plan and could only find male channelers to assist him, as everyone else thought he was mad. So yes, it was MEN that attempted to "cage Darkness," but only because none of the female channelers could be persuaded to assist.

When they failed, the seas boiled, mountains were swallowed up, cities burned, and the women of the Aes Sedai were left to pick up the pieces<

Lews Therin Telamon didn't fail. He and his Hundred Companions (give or take) *succeeded* in sealing the Dark One back in his prison and used potent magical seals to patch over the breach in the Dark One's prison. Unfortunately, because only the male half of the True Source was used, this made the patch weaker than it should have been. The weakening of imperfect seals is the source of the conflict in the current Age. The Dark One was able to exact one last retaliatory strike before he was imprisoned again. The backlash from sealing the Bore tainted the entire male half of the True Source, causing all male channelers to go irrevocably insane. With their great power, they reshaped the world, causing the seas to boil and tearing down mountains over here while erecting even larger mountains over there. (Dragonmount is the site of Lews Therin's death, where he drilled a hole to the center of the planet with the One Power causing an enormous volcano to spew forth from the earth.) It wasn't their fault. Even Lews Therin succumbed to madness, killing everyone in his family--including his beloved wife and children--and earning the appellation "Kinslayer." Because the female channelers had not participated in the attempt to seal the Bore, their half of the True Source was untouched by the Dark One's taint. So yes, they were the only magic users sane enough to rebuild society.

And him they named Dragon

Lews Therin Telamon, the worldwide leader of all of the Aes Sedai (magic users), was already known as the Dragon during the War of Shadow. His banner was a serpentine, Oriental-style dragon on a field of white. Entire armies clashed with the armies of the Shadow under that banner. Because he was the most powerful channeler in the entire world and led the strike on the Dark One's stronghold at Shayol Ghul, his name was remembered well into the following Age, as he saved the world and broke it at the same time.

If he was reborn as a girl or a boy

This right here breaks the lore at a fundamental level. The world of the Wheel of Time is a strictly binary one when it comes to genders. There are men. There are women. Souls only come in those two flavors. Nothing in between. A certain percentage of female souls have the ability to wield the female half of the True Source. A certain percentage of male souls have the ability to wield the male half of the True Source. It *is* possible for a male soul to be implanted in a female body and vice versa, but that takes the intervention of the Dark One and very specific circumstances around one's death in order for that to happen. It becomes a plot point later in the books when the Dark One infiltrates the Aes Sedai with one of his remade Forsaken who can channel the male half of the True Source while wearing a female body (female channelers have a hard time detecting a man's channeling ability). The Dragon--in EVERY Age--is a man and will ALWAYS be a man, because he is the most powerful channeler of either gender in the entire world, in all the Ages that were and all the Ages that will be (time is circular in this series). It's simply not possible for the Dragon to be born as a girl. Period. The Creator would never allow it.

and we must find them...before the Dark does

Note the use of the word "them" in this context. Moiraine is using a gender-neutral pronoun to refer to the "child" in the previous sentence because in THIS bastardized lore, the Dragon can be either gender (contrary to the actual lore). Also note the use of the word "Dark" here. In the books, there is no such thing as "the Dark." Instead, the main antagonist is usually referred to as "the Dark One"--the most common appellation though he has a lot of other colorful names depending on one's culture, ethnicity, and species. If evil is referred to in more general terms, it's usually referred to as "the Shadow" in contrast to "the Light." This is somewhat of an interesting word choice, as a shadow relies on a light source in order to be cast, while darkness is the complete absence of light. It's implied in the story that the Creator (the Light) created the Dark One, and therefore could be the source of "the Shadow." The Creator (i.e., God) is also supposed to have sealed the Dark One in his prison at the beginning up time, and thus is more powerful than the Dark One. By referring to him as "Dark," then that implies equal or greater status with "Light."

As we can see in these examples, the television show just shat all over the source material in favor of its own nonsensical and inconsistent narrative. I counted a minimum of FIVE lore/canon breaks within just one paragraph of text that is spoken in less than two minutes. Even FJB would be hard-pressed to pack that many lies in that much time. The show does NOT get any better from there. And now the showrunners have to somehow find a way to finish their story in maybe one more season if they are lucky. (SPOILER: It will be a complete disaster, rivaling the finale of Game of Thrones in how much it disappoints its audience).

This desire by certain elements to *replace* existing lore instead of creating *new* lore is a direct manifestation of the evil that surrounds us. Both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were adamant that evil cannot create. It can only mutilate, pervert, corrupt, and destroy what the Creator (i.e., God) has made.

Moral of the story: Lore and canon MATTER, people! Violate it at your own risk.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Loren D. Estleman's Vamp: A Valentino Mystery is a fun accompaniment to our own MP4's Theda Bara tales. Val is a modern-day L.A. movie palace owner/restorer who, in this outing, in addition to helping a friend restore a drive-in, is also trying to save a long-lost print of the 1917 epic Cleopatra.

It has a ton of great one-liners: "L.A. has no landmarks, only placeholders for the next Tim Horton's."

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 21, 2024 09:17 AM (3e3hy)

Comment: If you want a good snapshot of what life was like in Hollywood over a hundred years ago, Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing's Theda Bara stories are an excellent example. Interesting characters, lively dialog, and just nice slice-of-life prose to make you feel immersed in that time. Sounds like Estelman's story takes a similar approach, but uses a modern setting in addition to the older Hollywood.

A cousin gifted me with Athenry by Cahal Dunne, mainly because he met the author at a pub in Pittsburgh, but also because the novel is well written and tells the true story behind the Great Famine. The story is an homage to a song called "The Fields of Athenry," which tells the tale of a young Irishman who is sentenced to the Australian penal colony for stealing a bag of grain to feed his starving family. Set in 1840s Ireland, the novel instructs the reader on the English penal code that enforced the English conquest of Ireland. Catholics were prohibited from practicing their religion, owning or leasing property, entering a profession, owning weapons, voting, living in a town, all in an attempt to render the Irish to the level of slaves. The story is gripping and the level of brutality of the English toward the Irish was stunning to me. (My knowledge of Irish history is not detailed.) The odyssey of Liam O'Donoghue as told in the novel is entertaining and I found it difficult to put the book down. Morality trumps inhumanity, and the love of family sustains Liam through his travails. The book has haunted me from the first page and I want to read it again later.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 21, 2024 09:49 AM (U3L4U)

Comment: "The Fields of Athenry" (song) was written in 1979 by Pete St. John and recorded by Danny Doyle. It seemed to capture the spirit of Ireland at the time remaining on the Irish charts for 72 weeks, though never reaching #1. Numerous artists have covered this song over the decades since, such as The Dubliners, The Dropkick Murphys, and Michael freakin' Jackson. I listened to a few of the covers on iTunes, but I think I like the Dropkick Murphys the best. It has a nice tempo to it compared to most.

Since I'm watching Streets of Laredo, the six-hour miniseries based on that novel by Larry McMurtry, I picked up the book at the library to re-read. Since McMurtry co-wrote the teleplay, it follows the novel very closely, down to individual lines of dialogue. On this one I'm not noticing his quirk of shifting viewpoint from one character to another in the same scene, sometimes even in the same paragraph.

What LMcM does better than anybody I've read in the Western genre is to create (or use actual historical) villains. Serial killers, not to put too fine a point on it: savage creatures like Blue Duck the Comanche, Mox Mox the "man-burner," Ahumado the vicious Mexican who traps people in pits and cages, and Joey Garza the merciless, blond, blue-eyed Mexican gunman. His heroes are classics like Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, too, but his antagonists are pure evil and very memorable . . . as if Hannibal Lecter, Jame Gumb, and Francis Dolarhyde were transported to 1870s Texas.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 21, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)

Comment: It's good that the original author of the work apparently had enough creative control to keep the showrunners in line. We need more of that, I think, as so many adaptations are run off the rails by writers who have no clue what they are doing and deliberately disrespect the source material for their own political ideology. There's also an art to writing a good villain, one that is dangerous and menacing, but not so much that he becomes a caricature or a cartoonish super-villain. Drawing upon real-world examples for inspiration is a great way to add that villainous verisimilitude to your characters.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Decipher by Stel Pavlou

Write down every conspiracy theory and nutty physics idea you can think of on slips of paper. Then put those slips of paper into a basket. Draw out anywhere between a dozen and a score of those slips of paper. Then craft a story around that. That's a good summary of the plot of Decipher, which is a veritable cornucopia of crazy conspiracy theories all jumbled up and mixed together in an entertaining Michael Crichton-esque tale that draws upon almost every Hollywood global disaster movie ever made. Here is just a sampling of what can be found in Decipher:

• Corrupt corporation seeking to exploit a newly found resource for fun and profit? Check.


• Equally corrupt CEO of said corporation attempting to grab the main phlebotinum in the story for profit? Check.


• Corrupt Vatican suppressing historical documented evidence about the upcoming end of the world? Check.


• Mysterious ruins created by an ancient race all linked together in a global network for an equally mysterious purpose? Check.


• Smart, sassy, sexy female scientist? Check.


• Cynical, world-weary anti-theist linguist who's only mission in life seems to be to disprove Christianity? Check.


• Somewhat optimistic physicist who knows a lot more than he's letting on? (Also directly inspired by Dr. Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park--Pavlou even plagiarizes a speech from him) Check.


• Unexplained solar storms that threaten the planet? Check.


• Jewish mysticism confirmed by the existence of golems? Check.


• Buckyball (Carbon-60) technology that can do whatever the plot demands? Check.


• Brink of war between the United States and another major power (in this case, China)? Check.


• The lost city of Atlantis rising again? Check.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Although it's not a great book by any means (quite a bit of formulaic writing in many places), it does hit all the right notes and somehow makes all of these conspiracy theories work together. Some of them are presented solely through exposition as the characters work out the details of the global apocalyptic threat they face. I won't spoil the ending, but it's quite inventive and creative. You *know* (more or less) how the end of the story will play out, but the final resolution throws in a couple of cool twists that are foreshadowed earlier in the book, but don't quite register until the characters have their "AHA!" moment at the end. Entertaining and fast-paced.

Shadow of the Leviathan Book 1 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

In typical Robert Jackson Bennett fashion, he drops you into the middle of a strange and bizarre world with little explanation (at first) about what is going on. Over the course of the first few chapters, he interleaves the strange worldbuilding in with the actual events of the story. In this case, he's created a Holmes and Watson mystery-solving duo, but also drawing upon Nero Wolfe to create the lead investigator. A man has been murdered in the most gruesome manner under seemingly impossible circumstances, with equally inscrutable motives. Figuring out what happened and who administered the fatal blow prove to be relatively simple. Now Ana and Din have determine the real culprit who hired the assassin and the true motives behind the murder. I think I've figured out why I enjoy Robert Jackson Bennett's stories so much. They are very similar to Brandon Sanderson's form of storytelling in many ways (with a lot more profanity). Bennett always has an exciting and satisfying conclusion, as well.

The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton

This novel takes place within Hamilton's future history Commonwealth stories. It starts out a couple of hundred years before the events of the Void Trilogy (even though it was written several years later). Humans attempting to escape the galaxy to found a new extra-galactic colony are instead captured by the Void at the center of the Milky Way, where they have to learn to adapt to the strange new rules within the Void. Mental powers rule here instead of technology. They also have to defend themselves against a violent, shapeshifting race that seeks to dominate and replace the humans in the Void.

Three thousand Void years later, an infiltrator from the Commonwealth must unravel the secrets of the alien Fallers who are attempting to dominate the humans on Bienvenidos, as they may be they key to destroying the Void that threatens to overtake the external galaxy. To do that, he'll need to orchestrate a revolution to overthrow the current power structure.

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

• The Essential Life by author unknown -- This is a bit of a mystery. This book showed up on my doorstep this week, completely out of the blue. It did include a packing slip/invoice showing that it was sent to me by a man in Michigan unknown to me via eBay. It's quite a lovely book, actually, with a lot of excellent pictures and jam-packed with information about essential oils. Any Morons in Michigan want to 'fess up? I don't mind the gift. It was quite thoughtful.

The library in which I work (but do not work for) had their annual book sale this week. Naturally, I could not resist. I walked away with the following selections for the low, low price of $7 total.

• A Passion for Books: A Book Lover's Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring For, and Appreciating Books edited by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan with a foreword by Ray Bradbury. -- This is exactly what it says on the cover: a book BY bibliophiles FOR bibliophiles.


• The Last American Vampire by Seth Grahame-Smith -- This is the sequel to his novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and follows the adventures of vampire Henry Sturges across the first part of the twentieth century through JFK's assassination.


• Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe -- For $1, why not have a selection of his classic stories? Poe was very influential in both the mystery and horror genres.


• Darwin's Children by Greg Bear -- I've only read a handful of Greg Bear's stories, but I've enjoyed the ones I've read. So I decided to add a few more to my collection. This one features super-advanced children that may be conspiring to eliminate the "old" human race.


• Vitals by Greg Bear -- Ah, the quest for immortality...It seldom works out well.


• Psychlone by Greg Bear -- What happens when radical climate events develop a mind of their own? Or something to that effect...The blurb on the back of this book is quite vague.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 04-21-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Don't drink the Amontillado!

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 First?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 08:59 AM (omVj0)

2 Sheesh. Too busy to read anything again. Three weeks of school left for the kid, and the garden needs tending. Why do all these things have to interfere with the Book Thread??

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 08:59 AM (0eaVi)

3 I believe that picture is one of Karl Lagerfeld's libraries.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, consulting the checklist at April 28, 2024 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

4 Tolle Lege.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, consulting the checklist at April 28, 2024 09:01 AM (PiwSw)

5 Tolle Legeup to the Tet Offensive in Mark Moyar Triumph Regained, Vietnam War 1965-68
Vietnam always was the North Vietnam Communist taking over South Vietnam, just as the North Koreans trying to take over South Korea. It cover just before this chapter the Marxists Seminaries colleges starting up their antiwar protests

Posted by: Skip at April 28, 2024 09:03 AM (fwDg9)

6 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor!

No way could I stand the library as pictured up top. Looks too sloppy and disorganized.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 09:04 AM (U3L4U)

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

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 09:04 AM (zudum)

8 Pefessor, Greg Bear also wrote (earlier in his career) a trilogy known as the Thistledown series (composed of Eon, Eternity, and Legacy), which I highly recommend.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at April 28, 2024 09:06 AM (PiwSw)

9 Flattered I am to be quoted!

I finished Streets of Laredo, both film and book, and found them both delightful. The casting in the TV miniseries was fine, too: James Garner as Woodrow Call, Charles Martin Smith (of American Graffiti) as the accountant sent out from Brooklyn to help Call hunt a train robber, Sissy Spacek as now-married schoolteacher (and former whore) Lorena, and Randy Quaid as historical gunman John Wesley Hardin.

About to get into Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

10 Pefessor, Greg Bear also wrote (earlier in his career) a trilogy known as the Thistledown series (composed of Eon, Eternity, and Legacy), which I highly recommend.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at April 28, 2024 09:06 AM (PiwSw)
--
I have Eon in paperback (which I read and enjoyed) and the entire Thistledown trilogy on Kindle, but haven't gotten around to reading the sequels yet.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:08 AM (BpYfr)

11 Been a while since I was a librarian, but I'm fairly sure that when I was a librarian I would have gleefully fed anyone who wanted my shelves arranged as shown in the pic to rabid wolverines.

Judgemental? Maybe. Penalty too harsh? Naaah.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 09:08 AM (q3u5l)

12 hiya

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:08 AM (T4tVD)

13 Now my electronic devices know Tolle Lege but it's been playing auto-cucumber lately.
I would be reading my book but the wife gets my tablet and doesn't give it up easily. It's been hard to put it down.

Posted by: Skip at April 28, 2024 09:09 AM (fwDg9)

14 Unlike Dame Barbara Cartland, I have actually read more books than I have written.

Posted by: Miklos challenges anyone to disprove this, Jack Smith included at April 28, 2024 09:10 AM (oGyF9)

15 This amused me
https://___flip.com/i/83frbr

Posted by: Ciampino - Looking everywhere at April 28, 2024 09:10 AM (qfLjt)

16 Speaking of words...

The word "vibe" is seemingly everywhere all at once.

The new Word du jour for the hip, i suppose. So-

Dig my vibe, sweet babies. Dig my vibe.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 09:11 AM (eDfFs)

17 The birdbath is quiet.

Too quiet.

Posted by: the yellow crested Hiyas at April 28, 2024 09:11 AM (oGyF9)

18 I have always enjoyed Poe. He was a master of short stories, and in Murders in the Rue Morgue, has a claim to have invented the detective story.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024 09:11 AM (tbaCD)

19 Thats probably a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:12 AM (PXvVL)

20 On the Kindle I read Windrush by Malcolm Archibald. When Jack Windrush's father dies, as the eldest son Jack expects to inherit the family estate and to be commissioned in the elite Royal Malverns regiment, where his father was a general; but he is told he is the bastard son of a maid and his father. He is driven from the family and given a commission in the despised 113th foot. Determined to better himself and the reputation of his regiment, he acts bravely leading his men in the battle of Rangoon. A very good military fiction book. The first in a series of eleven.

Posted by: Zoltan at April 28, 2024 09:13 AM (gyCYJ)

21 Can't recall if I'd mentioned these already (senile, you know...), but Joseph Epstein has two new books out. First is Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays. Second is an autobiography: Never Say You've Had a Lucky Life: Especially if You've Had a Lucky Life.

Both are delightful and highly recommended.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 09:13 AM (q3u5l)

22 Murders in the Rue Morgue, has a claim to have invented the detective story.
Posted by: Thomas Paine

Does your dog bite?

And who minkey dis is?

Posted by: Inspector Mikleuseau at April 28, 2024 09:14 AM (oGyF9)

23 C'mon.....you KNOW what I'm gonna say about the Pants guy.......

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:15 AM (T4tVD)

24 Last week my library offered a tutorial on self-publishing using Pressbooks Public. If your local library is linked to this, you can create an account on Pressbooks Public website, and start building your e-book for free. Do any of you writers use it already? I've started assembling one of mine into a ready-to-publish e-book. It's easy to use.

There is also something called the Indie Author Project Annual Contest: https://tinyurl.com/2pu38ehe From what I can see on the Pressbooks website, you can submit your completed manuscript right from there. There are prizes, $2,500 to the 1st place winner and $500 each to two runner-ups in each genre (mystery, fantasy, etc.).

OrangeEnt, I'll post this on the Horde writers' site, if it's not there already.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:15 AM (omVj0)

25 Posted by: Zoltan

*moderate glare*

One.Hungarian.at.a.Time.

Posted by: Miklos does not wish to overlaod the System at April 28, 2024 09:15 AM (oGyF9)

26 Theres another addition of books that should be thrown bespite glossey cover and nice fixings ryder by nick pengelley concerns yet another peace treaty between israel and palestine disrupted by a bombing which ties to a purported deal 70 years between lawrence and haj amin husseini which would have cut out the jews obscene yes

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:16 AM (PXvVL)

27 Can't recall if I'd mentioned these already (senile, you know...), but Joseph Epstein has two new books out. First is Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays. Second is an autobiography: Never Say You've Had a Lucky Life: Especially if You've Had a Lucky Life.

I thought he didn't kill himself.....

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:16 AM (T4tVD)

28 In "First Lensman," a woman whose male friends were expecting her to get a Lens as they did states outright that a woman can't become a Lensman because of the mental attitudes the Lens requires. She adds that there will be a Lady Lensman someday in the far future.

Wokies, stay away!

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 09:16 AM (p/isN)

29 If today's science fiction is tomorrow's fact, Roger Zelazny scored a bull's-eye with "My Name Is Legion" from 1969.* He conceived of the grid before the Internet existed.

The title character, unnamed, was a senior programmer for the ultimate, all-encompassing database -- and he grew to distrust it. With the acquiescence of his boss, who shared that opinion, he removed himself from the database and became an unperson. He is now a freelance undercover investigator for a leading detective agency. He gets his assignments in person from its founder and is paid in cash, each time in a secret rendezvous.

He built a trapdoor into the database that lets him take any name and pose as being qualified for his cover jobs.

Right now, he's James Madison (hmm?), attempting to clear a dolphin pod of killing two men at a research institute.

I'm enjoying this.

* The book is copyrighted 1976, but it consists of three stories, the first written in 1969.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 09:17 AM (p/isN)

30 I read "Let Us Now Be Famous Men" by Moron Author Len Nilinsky. The book was mentioned in an AoS comment that provided a download address, so I thought "why not?" This sci fi story is engaging and the main characters limited in number and very well developed. The story takes place on Terra (formerly known as Earth) and is a post-apocalyptic tale where the hero is a Veteran of the Black Ash, a nuclear war that destroyed most of the planet and the plant and animal species living on it. The vivid description of the ruin of present-day Terra is contrasted with museums showing, for example, the weather on pre-war Earth, including a rain shower in a green meadow. This was richly and emotionally described. The Vet is asked by the utopian government to help solve a robot problem on Luna (the moon) because no one else living has the requisite knowledge and experience. Well done and gripping story. (And this was my first e-book.)

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 09:17 AM (U3L4U)

31 I just arrived at the part of The Abyss Beyond Dreams where political activists (i.e., terrorists) attack a city's water infrastructure.

It's not good, even though the forces *behind* the actions are striving to save the entire planet from hostile aliens...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:17 AM (BpYfr)

32 A novel that deserves to be read is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Often overshadowed by her magnum opus, this is the novel that made her later work possible. The Fountainhead was rejected by a dozen publishers before it was released, and then became a best seller, and Gary Cooper demanded to star in the movie version. This is the story of Howard Roark, an architect whose brilliant and original designs are too original for certain members of society to accept. He anonymously gives his designs to Peter Keating with the understanding that nothing is to be changed. Keating succumbs to the pressure of Ellsworth Toohey to modify the designs so that they will be "acceptable". In anger, Roark destroys the building, and is tried for arson. In his own defence, Roark presents to the court his view that a man's ideas are his own property, and that by modifying his design, those ideas were stolen, and it was his right to destroy them. This is the first display of Rand's focus - the individual against the collective. For people who might be intimidated by the massive size and scope of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead is an excellent introduction to the mind and theories of Ayn Rand.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024 09:17 AM (tbaCD)

33 JT --

Don't do that to me at this hour. For a minute there I thought maybe I'd typed Jeffrey instead of Joseph.

Have a heart, man. I haven't fixed the coffee yet...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 09:18 AM (q3u5l)

34 3 I believe that picture is one of Karl Lagerfeld's libraries.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, consulting the checklist at April 28, 2024 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

His apartment in Paris. Style before functionality.

Posted by: GOP sux at April 28, 2024 09:18 AM (Zzbjj)

35 Last week my library offered a tutorial on self-publishing using Pressbooks Public. If your local library is linked to this, you can create an account on Pressbooks Public website, and start building your e-book for free. Do any of you writers use it already? I've started assembling one of mine into a ready-to-publish e-book. It's easy to use.


Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Dammit.

Should have returned that book back in '97. September 15th, if I recall.

Posted by: Miklos owes fines and penalties at April 28, 2024 09:18 AM (oGyF9)

36 This week I finished reading Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer's account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster (to which he was a party). I'd read portions before but never the whole thing.

It confirmed my desire never to scale a 29,000-foot mountain, ever.

Posted by: Dr. T at April 28, 2024 09:18 AM (g0Y4p)

37 Vietnam always was the North Vietnam Communist taking over South Vietnam, just as the North Koreans trying to take over South Korea. It cover just before this chapter the Marxists Seminaries colleges starting up their antiwar protests
Posted by: Skip at April 28, 2024 09:03 AM (fwDg9)

Yup...I remember reading about how Diem was always first and foremost about invading the North and liberating it from the commies and how that idea was just "We Can't Do That!" but it was fine for the commies always wanting to subdue the South.

He was betrayed by the US.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 28, 2024 09:19 AM (R/m4+)

38 I have always enjoyed Poe. He was a master of short stories, and in Murders in the Rue Morgue, has a claim to have invented the detective story.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024

***
With that, yes, and two others, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter." "Rue Morgue" focuses on violent action in the course of the story; "Marie" is totally intellectual; "Letter" introduces the psychological element (though not in the way we'd use the term today) to the tale of crime.

I've never read it, but Poe also wrote a longer story called "Thou Art the Man" which is also considered to be a detective tale.

Dickens' Bleak House has a solid detective element, too, about five years after Poe's stories. I wonder if CD read them.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:19 AM (omVj0)

39 For a further look at Karl Lagerfeld's book collection, here's a video:

https://youtu.be/6MFPLD1C8Pw

To skip over the non-book stuff, go to 6:38.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at April 28, 2024 09:20 AM (PiwSw)

40 Disparage no book, for it is also a part of this world.

Yeah, no. Lots of things that are part of this world deserve disparagement. Most of the Morning Report every weekday lists just a small sample.

Posted by: Oddbob at April 28, 2024 09:20 AM (/y8xj)

41 Picked up The Plague Dogs in a used bookstore yesterday and am already about a hundred pages in. Never read any Richard Adams until now and am liking it so far.
I’m gonna cry at the end, right?

Posted by: Buzzy Krumhunger at April 28, 2024 09:20 AM (c+icY)

42 Judgemental? Maybe. Penalty too harsh? Naaah.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 09:08 AM (q3u5l)
----

They deserve nothing less than the chair.

That lumpy one with the exposed spring. Hey, did something just move inside the back?!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 28, 2024 09:20 AM (FkUwd)

43 Posted by: Zoltan

*moderate glare*

One.Hungarian.at.a.Time.
Posted by: Miklos does not wish to overlaod the System at April 28, 2024 09:15 AM (oGyF9)
---
According to the AoSHQ Sunday Morning Book Thread bylaws, there is a two-Hungarian limit, so you are OK.

At least until the third Hungarian shows up...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:21 AM (BpYfr)

44 I also read Dark Star by Alan Furst. In 1937 Andre Szara is a survivor of Polish pogroms and the Russian civil war, and is a foreign correspondent for Pravda. He is recruited by the NKVD, Russia's secret intelligence service, and becomes deputy director of a Paris network. Not only must he navigate the perils of being a spy, but he must avoid being caught up in Stalin's purges.

Posted by: Zoltan at April 28, 2024 09:22 AM (gyCYJ)

45 Because the female channelers had not participated in the attempt to seal the Bore, their half of the True Source was untouched by the Dark One's taint.

My take-away from this Wheel of Time summary is that-

The Dark One cannot be Hillary Clinton.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 09:22 AM (eDfFs)

46 According to the AoSHQ Sunday Morning Book Thread bylaws, there is a two-Hungarian limit, so you are OK.

At least until the third Hungarian shows up...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:21 AM (BpYfr)

Szar!

Posted by: Zombie Bela Bartok at April 28, 2024 09:22 AM (PiwSw)

47 The Fountainhead is an excellent introduction to the mind and theories of Ayn Rand.
Posted by: Thomas Paine

Good choice. I would add as a basic work "The Manufacture of Madness" by Thomas Szasz. In a bit of post-Corona retrospect, Szasz was quite prescient about the use of "medicine" and "science" to enforce compliance and conformity.

Posted by: Miklos reads at or above Grade Level at April 28, 2024 09:23 AM (oGyF9)

48 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I had a diverse reading week. I won't put it all in one post.

First, I started Butcher and Blackbird, by Brynne Weaver. It promised to be an entertaining concept: a romance develops between two serial killers, whose victims are other serial killers.

I didn't even finish the first chapter. It is written in present tense, which is almost always a deal breaker for me. You better have a really strong story and great characters to get me past present tense, and this doesn't cut it.

I am also too old for this book. I can read and enjoy YA, but this is all rebellious, foul-mouthed youth who are entirely too full of themselves. I threw them off my lawn and back into the library book return.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 09:23 AM (OX9vb)

49 Well, I finally did it and it's about time. I read The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast cover to cover. I've read bits here and there but never the whole thing. Lewis' writing, no matter the topic, is always a delight. The Screwtape Letters can be difficult at times because it is too prophetic and my blood pressure starts to rise.

I do wonder if Lewis was inspired by Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" (which is brilliant) when he used the approach he did in Screwtape.

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 09:23 AM (zudum)

50 Facts not in evidence

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:23 AM (PXvVL)

51 If today's science fiction is tomorrow's fact, Roger Zelazny scored a bull's-eye with "My Name Is Legion" from 1969.* He conceived of the grid before the Internet existed.

The title character, unnamed, was a senior programmer for the ultimate, all-encompassing database -- and he grew to distrust it. With the acquiescence of his boss, who shared that opinion, he removed himself from the database and became an unperson. He is now a freelance undercover investigator for a leading detective agency. He gets his assignments in person from its founder and is paid in cash, each time in a secret rendezvous.

He built a trapdoor into the database that lets him take any name and pose as being qualified for his cover jobs.

Right now, he's James Madison (hmm?), attempting to clear a dolphin pod of killing two men at a research institute.

I'm enjoying this.

* The book is copyrighted 1976, but it consists of three stories, the first written in 1969.
Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024

***
Is the novelette "Home Is the Hangman" in there? I read it in Analog in about '75, and I'm pretty sure it features the same shadowy investigator you mention.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:23 AM (omVj0)

52 Have a heart, man. I haven't fixed the coffee yet...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 09:18 AM (q3u5l)

Was it broken ?

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:23 AM (T4tVD)

53 At least until the third Hungarian shows up...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

Hotscakes, dahlinks!

Posted by: Eva Gabor at April 28, 2024 09:24 AM (oGyF9)

54 "Disparage no book, for it is also a part of this world."

************

Utter nonsense.

Some, if not many, books are worthy of disparagement.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 28, 2024 09:24 AM (l4B/J)

55 Read a thoroughly non-edifying novel in the Xeno canon, "Alien: The Cold Forge" by Alex White. The debacle at LV-426 was just a temporary setback for the nefarious Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Now they've set up a secure lab at a remote location in space where they can observe these adorable imps away from prying eyes.

Of course, things go horribly awry, as they are wont to do.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 28, 2024 09:24 AM (FkUwd)

56 Soviet Double Agent Anthony Blunt May Have Helped Hitler Too
In 1979 the art historian was outed as one of the Cambridge spies recruited by Stalin. Shocking new evidence suggests he may also have passed deadly secrets to the Nazis, Robert Verkaik reports

Lindemans had betrayed Operation Market Garden, the ambitious and ill-fated Allied airborne mission that dropped thousands of paratroopers into the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, the 80th anniversary of which falls this September. Had it succeeded, it would have kicked open the door to the heart of Germany and brought the conflict to a speedy end. In the event the Allies lost more than 17,000 men in what was to be their final defeat of the war.

https://tinyurl.com/vzwuvzsh
Un-paywalled story at the link. A long but great read.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:24 AM (vtyCZ)

57 About hillary although shes more a slorr

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (PXvVL)

58 This week I read something I probably should have read forty years ago: _Double Star_ by Robert Heinlein. I don't know why I never got around to it. Maybe my school library didn't have a copy and it wasn't in print during my peak Heinlein years. Dunno.

Anyway, it's a great book, combining three of RAH's ongoing obsessions: space travel, practical politics, and the nature of identity. An actor is hired to go to Mars (SPACE TRAVEL) and impersonate a political leader (POLITICS) but gradually his own personality changes as he spends more time in character (IDENTITY).

It's full of all kinds of Problematic stuff, like a future monarchical world government run by the House of Orange, heterosexual relationships between men and women, Manifest Destiny, etc.

I liked it a lot, and now I wish I had read it back in the 1980s.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (78a2H)

59 As luck would have it, MI6’s man in Stockholm, Peter Falk, had befriended Kraemer’s housekeeper earlier that year and persuaded her to pass on intelligence. [!!!!]

In case the story gets removed, I copied it all to Word to keep; and if you're interested, you should bookmark the BCF blog page for its access to the Archive Org. link too.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (vtyCZ)

60 About to get into Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

Good book. Good writer. His other stuff is worth reading as well.

Bonus! The movie of "Winter's Bone" is good as well.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (eDfFs)

61 The Dark One cannot be Hillary Clinton.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 09:22 AM (eDfFs)
---
There is a Hillary Clinton-esque character who takes over the White Tower (bastion of the all-female Aes Sedai). She is not a Darkfriend, but she might as well be.

One of the protagonists tells Elaida to her face that the Dark One would be *embarrassed* to claim her, because she screws up everything she touches.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (BpYfr)

62 I was checking out YouTube vids and happened upon Jackie Gleason.

Saw that he had written a book entitled "How Sweet it is "

I might buy it......

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:26 AM (T4tVD)

63 I have some books shelved horizontally. They lie atop other books that are vertical. Got to use every inch available.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 09:26 AM (p/isN)

64 I sympathize with that 'books bought/books read' graphic. My original goal this week was to whittle away at my to-be-read comic book pile. But my pile actually grew a bit, as two crowd-funded books arrived in the mail; on the same day, no less. So I read those while the excitement for them was fresh, and only later went back to what I was originally reading...

First of the new arrivals was "Beyond the Western Deep; Volume 3." A print collection of a webcomic. A very Redwall-inspired webcomic; woodland creatures wielding broadswords, a Squirrel-Otter alliance vs a Wolf kingdom vs Weasel tribesmen. I really enjoy it.

My only concern is whether the story will ever be finished. The creators aren't wasting their time with filler, or needlessly dragging out the story, they just don't update very quickly, and don't put a lot in each page. Granted, they've stuck with their story so far, but, still, we're in volume 3, and we're still in the 'expanding scope' phase of the epic tale.

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 09:26 AM (Lhaco)

65
He was betrayed by the US.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 28, 2024 09:19 AM (R/m4+)

What would you expect from university leftists and CIA manipulators?

Posted by: GOP sux at April 28, 2024 09:27 AM (Zzbjj)

66 Mark Moyar is backing up his books with North Vietnam records, he has pointed out many times already clames by the US government or some military high command was true if even if better shape than the North Vietnam really were. In the book McNamara has finally moved out of the government, he tried to play nice to the North Vietnam Communist continuing hoping they would give up.

Posted by: Skip at April 28, 2024 09:28 AM (fwDg9)

67 Some, if not many, books are worthy of disparagement.
Posted by: Muldoon

Many books have been written by people who can not spell "disparagement".

Posted by: Miklos thinks they get big advances anyway at April 28, 2024 09:29 AM (oGyF9)

68 Yes how did weyland yutani not consider that would have to go pearshaped they are parasites with acid for blood but enough about the execs

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:29 AM (PXvVL)

69 Now they've set up a secure lab at a remote location in space where they can observe these adorable imps away from prying eyes.

Of course, things go horribly awry, as they are wont to do.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 28, 2024 09:24 AM (FkUwd)
---
This is the first time I've ever heard the xenomorphs described as "adorable imps."

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:30 AM (BpYfr)

70 I liked it a lot, and now I wish I had read it back in the 1980s.
Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (78a2H)

I loved all of Heinlein's Juveniles, from Rocket Ship Galileo to Have Space Suit--Will Travel.

https://is.gd/aw2RIm

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at April 28, 2024 09:30 AM (PiwSw)

71 People who can’t return a ‘good morning, to a guy wearing a badge.
This is the plot I try to flip real-time every day.

Posted by: Eromero at April 28, 2024 09:30 AM (NxC5+)

72 I only store some small paperbacks horizontally, but that's to take advantage of limited space on a short shelf. They slide in and out easily.

Worst, in ascending order:

* Horizontal
* Sorted by color
* Spines to the back

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 28, 2024 09:30 AM (FkUwd)

73 Un-paywalled story at the link. A long but great read.
Posted by: andycanuck

Wow-fuck-wow

Thank you

Posted by: Miklos is very interested at April 28, 2024 09:31 AM (oGyF9)

74 @51 --

"Home Is the Hangman" is the third story in the book. Copyright 1975.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 09:31 AM (p/isN)

75 They should have adapted more heinlein

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:32 AM (PXvVL)

76 Perfessor writes, "If you want a good snapshot of what life was like in Hollywood over a hundred years ago, Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing's Theda Bara stories are an excellent example. Interesting characters, lively dialog, and just nice slice-of-life prose to make you feel immersed in that time."

I have trouble thinking of the mid-1920s as a hundred years ago! In some ways my brain is still stuck in the mid-'60s, when I as a teen discovered Ellery Queen (debuted 1929) and Nero Wolfe (1934). So a story set in 1925 Hollywood *seems* to me to be only about forty years back.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:32 AM (omVj0)

77 Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:24 AM (vtyCZ)


Very interesting, if despicable. I guessed before opening the article that Blunt's motive was to ensure the Soviets grabbed as much of Europe as possible.

"The Crown" suggests that Blunt was protected after his espionage came to light in the 1960s because he knew too many of the Royal Family's secrets.

Posted by: Dr. T at April 28, 2024 09:33 AM (g0Y4p)

78
"Home Is the Hangman" is the third story in the book. Copyright 1975.
Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024

***
Then I need to find My Name Is Legion and re-read all three!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:33 AM (omVj0)

79 I have some books shelved horizontally. They lie atop other books that are vertical. Got to use every inch available.
Posted by: Weak Geek


I have some of that going on as well. Just not enough bookshelves.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024 09:34 AM (tbaCD)

80 Also reading Chris Harding Thornton's "Little Underworld", which takes place in Omaha in 1930. It's like if Charles Dickens and William Kennedy collaborated on a Depression-era crime story. Very grungy and funny. Everybody is on the take, but there are rules, sir!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at April 28, 2024 09:35 AM (FkUwd)

81 This week I read something I probably should have read forty years ago: _Double Star_ by Robert Heinlein. I don't know why I never got around to it. Maybe my school library didn't have a copy and it wasn't in print during my peak Heinlein years. Dunno. . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024

***
I have it in a collection, A Heinlein Trio, with The Door Into Summer and The Puppet Masters. Those were three "adult" SF novels he penned in the '50s while he was also occupied with his young adult novels or "juveniles."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:37 AM (omVj0)

82 JT -- Yes, the coffee was broken. If it isn't in liquid form ready to drink, it needs fixing.

Heinlein -- Haven't read Double Star in decades. Another one I should revisit soon.

Wolfus, "Home Is the Hangman" is included in Zelazny's My Name Is Legion. Think it's available by itself in the Kindle store as well.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 09:37 AM (q3u5l)

83 The only problem when reading CS Lewis is avoiding the many, many rabbit holes that appear. Reading The Screwtape Letters, mentioned above, led to rereading Swift's "A Modest Proposal", then Kipling's "Gods of the Copybook Headings" and some of his other poetry. Fortunately, I enjoy the rabbit holes and gave up on avoiding them years ago. (Another benefit of being retired. There's time for rabbit holes.)

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 09:38 AM (zudum)

84 It has a ton of great one-liners: "L.A. has no landmarks, only placeholders for the next Tim Horton's."

Posted by: All Hail Eris

That's bait, right?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 09:38 AM (IG4Id)

85 SQUOT?

Posted by: fd at April 28, 2024 09:38 AM (6EiMS)

86 My schedule has changed such that I am required to hang out in a different town for three hours twice a week. Fortunately, I have a library card for that town, and also a bunch of research I need to do for my Materia Medica (although I will use my own reference material for that) so I have plenty to keep me occupied.

Since I was at the library anyway, I decided to look at the Brandon Sanderson section and got the novella Edgedancer, a reread, and the fourth Stormlight book Rhythms of War. It's been a while since I've actually read a book instead of listening to one. In some ways I resent the required time and focused attention (as well as the personal wear and tear from holding a doorstop of a book) but I'm already done with Edgedancer and into part two of RoW.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Sanderson's writing.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 28, 2024 09:39 AM (XjtdB)

87 I have some books shelved horizontally.

I have a few oversized books but not enough of them to adjust a shelf to make room for them vertically so they get shelved horizontally with undersized ones on top of them.

Posted by: Oddbob at April 28, 2024 09:39 AM (/y8xj)

88 Thanks to whomever mentioned "Disorder in the Court"

Its on YouTube...in case you've forgotten how truly funny Curly could be.

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:40 AM (T4tVD)

89 I have always enjoyed Poe.

In addition to the crime and horror, Poe was one of the greatest "technical" poets, a subject rarely considered anymore. He created new rhyme schemes and metrical foot patterns based on Latin and Greek, a neat trick because they don't use syllabic meter or rhyme in a way that we recognize in our language. Undertaking his proto-Romantic subject matter is a slog for moderns, but just look at the way he builds them and you'll be awe-struck. He went to West Point, you know.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at April 28, 2024 09:40 AM (zdLoL)

90 SQUOT?
Posted by: fd

Gesundheidt !

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:41 AM (T4tVD)

91 (continued from 64) The second package I got this week had a pair of Red Sonja books; a short comic written by a cosplayer, and then a random trade-paperback. I'm not sure why the publisher felt the need to crowdfund this, but I'm a sucker for Red Sonja (the archtypical warrior-woman in a chainmail-bikini) and they added a perk where they'd throw in a random trade-paperback for $1 extra, so I took a gamble and ordered it.

I didn't looks that gamble, but I didn't win either. I got "Red Sonja: Worlds Away" volume 1. It's an okay book, but I already have a copy. The story involves Sonja getting magicked into the present day. that's not a plotline I usually enjoy, I prefer my sword-and-sorcery well separated from my modern day world...But at least the author did some fun stuff with the concept.

Overall, both books were enjoyable. They both had good art, and (more importantly) they both had a writer that wasn't ashamed to be writing a Red Sonja story! That last bit may sound like a low bar, but I've read more than one story-arc that failed to cross it. Nothing ruins a story worse than an author who hates the basic concept of the franchise...

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 09:41 AM (Lhaco)

92 In addition to the crime and horror, Poe was one of the greatest "technical" poets, a subject rarely considered anymore. He created new rhyme schemes and metrical foot patterns based on Latin and Greek, a neat trick because they don't use syllabic meter or rhyme in a way that we recognize in our language. Undertaking his proto-Romantic subject matter is a slog for moderns, but just look at the way he builds them and you'll be awe-struck. He went to West Point, you know.
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver

Yeah, that Homeric addiction will kill ya'.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 09:41 AM (IG4Id)

93 Kaylee the Calico Kitty Cat (the cutest little cat of them all) says, "Hello!" and is always grateful to hang out here with her graybox friends...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:42 AM (BpYfr)

94 Poe was an editor before he became an author, and it shows.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024 09:43 AM (tbaCD)

95 >>> 61 The Dark One cannot be Hillary Clinton.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 09:22 AM (eDfFs)
---
There is a Hillary Clinton-esque character who takes over the White Tower (bastion of the all-female Aes Sedai). She is not a Darkfriend, but she might as well be.

One of the protagonists tells Elaida to her face that the Dark One would be *embarrassed* to claim her, because she screws up everything she touches.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (BpYfr)

I wasn't positioned for success!

Posted by: Kamala Harris at April 28, 2024 09:43 AM (llON8)

96 Also in my current pile from the library, two more Larry McMurtry books: Boone's Lick, a nineteenth-century Western; and When the Light Goes, the fourth (I think) about Duane Moore of The Last Picture Show.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:44 AM (omVj0)

97 I wasn't positioned for success!
Posted by: Kamala Harris at April 28, 2024 09:43 AM (llON

Yes you were.

Posted by: Willie Brown at April 28, 2024 09:44 AM (PiwSw)

98 I've also just started reading a book about the Chevalier d'Eon. It's refreshingly free of modern gender-identity/queerness bullshit . . . but only because it's stuffed full of 1950s-60s Freudian bullshit. Still, fascinating person living in a fascinating age.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 09:44 AM (78a2H)

99 Well kamala...phrasing

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 09:44 AM (PXvVL)

100 @56 --

I clicked on the link to the Blunt story, and it was only three paragraphs, none of which mentioned Blunt. What gives?

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (p/isN)

101 "SQUOT?
Posted by: fd

Gesundheidt !
Posted by: JT"

This squirrel-otter alliance seems dangerous. As if we don't have enough to deal with.

Posted by: fd at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (6EiMS)

102 In addition to the crime and horror, Poe was one of the greatest "technical" poets, a subject rarely considered anymore. He created new rhyme schemes and metrical foot patterns based on Latin and Greek, a neat trick because they don't use syllabic meter or rhyme in a way that we recognize in our language. . . .
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver

I'm gonna go with Dante Alighieri for repeated foot patterns throughout a major work.

Posted by: Tonypete at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (WXNFJ)

103 Very interesting, if despicable. I guessed before opening the article that Blunt's motive was to ensure the Soviets grabbed as much of Europe as possible.
-------
Yes.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (vtyCZ)

104 I'm currently re-reading Robertson Davies Fifth Business, which I last read some half-century ago. I an as engaged now as I was then, perhaps more so. It is the first book in his Deptford Trilogy. Penguin has published the entire trilogy in a single volume.
I cannot recommend this book and its subsequent volumes too highly. When you read it, look up his allusions. His passing mentions of obscure myths and books are worth pursuing, as they illuminate and deepen the story.

Posted by: ameryx at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (q9OK+)

105 101 "SQUOT?
Posted by: fd

Gesundheidt !
Posted by: JT"

This squirrel-otter alliance seems dangerous. As if we don't have enough to deal with.
Posted by: fd at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (6EiMS)

Indeed.

Posted by: Big Penguin at April 28, 2024 09:46 AM (PiwSw)

106 About to get into Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024
*
Good book. Good writer. His other stuff is worth reading as well.

Bonus! The movie of "Winter's Bone" is good as well.
Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024

***
The poetic, "writerly" language in Chapter One almost turned me off. I kept going, and the language and the characters are growing on me.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:46 AM (omVj0)

107 Thanks for The Book Thread perfessor !

Posted by: JT at April 28, 2024 09:48 AM (T4tVD)

108 I'm currently re-reading Robertson Davies Fifth Business, which I last read some half-century ago. I an as engaged now as I was then, perhaps more so. It is the first book in his Deptford Trilogy. Penguin has published the entire trilogy in a single volume.
I cannot recommend this book and its subsequent volumes too highly. When you read it, look up his allusions. His passing mentions of obscure myths and books are worth pursuing, as they illuminate and deepen the story.
Posted by: ameryx at April 28, 2024

***
I lucked across his work when I lived in Denver and have read most of his stuff. He was an actor-manager in real life; he knew how to make a story dramatic without shading it into melodrama. I refer to Davies as the Canadian Somerset Maugham. (Maugham was also in the theatre world as a playwright.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 09:48 AM (omVj0)

109 No reading this week for me - still too busy with unpacking, getting things from the old house, etc. I did manage to order another book, however, since I need some guidance on grounding the ham radio station I will eventually set up. That raises the prospect of having to drill a hole in the garage wall, run a copper rod into the ground, etc.

Posted by: PabloD at April 28, 2024 09:49 AM (lk8z6)

110 I clicked on the link to the Blunt story, and it was only three paragraphs, none of which mentioned Blunt. What gives?
Posted by: Weak Geek
-------
The hot-link to the Times story is in the red text "defeat of the war" last words of that third paragraph.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:49 AM (vtyCZ)

111 Wow-fuck-wow

Thank you
Posted by: Miklos is very interested
-------
You're welcome. News to me too and the rest of the world as well I guess!

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:51 AM (vtyCZ)

112 That raises the prospect of having to drill a hole in the garage wall, run a copper rod into the ground, etc.
Posted by: PabloD at April 28, 2024 09:49 AM (lk8z6)

Do you have a window in the garage?

https://is.gd/Rknlzz

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at April 28, 2024 09:52 AM (PiwSw)

113 Later to the party on this, but-

I finished "The Attack" this week.

Very smartly written "World War Z" type fake historical record of a massive Oct 7th type attack(!) of the US and its aftermath.

Grounded well in today's "vibe", so that it seems like you're reading about a real event. Esp, as reality seems to be cooperating in the form of Hamas support among Our Betters in Ivy League schools.

Great assortment of viewpoints from the average everyday guy to the fuck-all-y'all I got mine prepper to
a member of the reaper squad sent out to clean up to the hapless/useless politicians, etc.

Again very smartly written. Gives just enough description to let you know what happen, but does not wallow in the violence. Schichter lets the teller's disgust and horror convert the experience to you. Also he gives you a good insight into the sorts of people who outright or kinda sorta maybe support the terrorists.

Schichter occasionally breaks his own narrative when he indulges in his taste for satire, but then something compelling comes along right after and you're back in the story.

Well-done. Should be a movie or series but won't be(politics, yo!). Good clean writing.
Recommended.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 09:52 AM (eDfFs)

114 I read Slack Tide, by RKF Adams, which is a Moron-written book that I've had in my kindle unlimited selections for about a year and just hadn't read yet.

It's in the Perfessor's Moron Library link.

A retired Marine whose passion is bonsai gets dragged into taking down a child slavery operation.

It was a good adventure, with a mostly satisfying conclusion (you can't save them all, so you save who you can). Needs some more editing for occasional grammar errors and typos, but not too much.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 09:52 AM (OX9vb)

115 @110 --

That's more like it. Thank you!

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 09:52 AM (p/isN)

116 Fetterman might be a Golem.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 28, 2024 09:54 AM (RIvkX)

117 I read "Let Us Now Be Famous Men" by Moron Author Len Nilinsky. The book was mentioned in an AoS comment that provided a download address, so I thought "why not?"

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 09:17 AM (U3L4U)

And on A Literary Horde! You can still join, if anyone wants to.... (end plug)

Wolfus, go ahead and post about it, I never heard about it. I'm sure there are a few authors here who would participate.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 09:55 AM (0eaVi)

118 Kaylee the Calico Kitty Cat (the cutest little cat of them all) says, "Hello!" and is always grateful to hang out here with her graybox friends...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:42 AM (BpYfr)
* * * *
*scritches to Kaylee* and "hello" back at 'cha!

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 09:55 AM (U3L4U)

119 20 On the Kindle I read Windrush by Malcolm Archibald. When Jack Windrush's father dies, as the eldest son Jack expects to inherit the family estate and to be commissioned in the elite Royal Malverns regiment, where his father was a general; but he is told he is the bastard son of a maid and his father. He is driven from the family and given a commission in the despised 113th foot. Determined to better himself and the reputation of his regiment, he acts bravely leading his men in the battle of Rangoon. A very good military fiction book. The first in a series of eleven.
Posted by: Zoltan at April 28, 2024 09:13 AM (gyCYJ)

Huh. the kindle version of that book is currently listed at 'free.' Looks like I have yet another novel in my kindle library....

Anyways, sounds like a story to compare to the "Sharpe's Rifles" novels when I get around to reading it. Which may be after I read "The Complete Fletcher Adventures" (digital) boxset which I just bought because it was less than 2 bucks. That's a series of naval adventures, which I imagine I would compare to Horatio Hornblower.

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 09:55 AM (Lhaco)

120 You're welcome, Weak Geek.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 09:56 AM (vtyCZ)

121 Been a few years there is a very good Soviet miniseries on a WWII spy story, a German high officer is a Soviet spy. Don't remember title

Posted by: Skip at April 28, 2024 09:57 AM (fwDg9)

122 I am working my way through Walt Kelle\y's The Incomplete Pogo.
Walt Kelly was a well regarded newspaper strip cartoonist, with the animal cast of the swamp, including the main character Possum Pogo, Albert the Alligator, Jake the Snake, Mrs Beaver, and others. Kelly was an excellent illustrator, as you would expect from a ex-Disney illustrator, but I find his humor to be very subtle and full of references to political and social tropes of the 50's which escape me. Pogo's skiff, for example, is named for various political figures of the time, but I have no idea the importance of it.

I recognize how influential he was to strips like Bloom County, Over the Hedge and Calvin and Hobbes.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 28, 2024 09:59 AM (D7oie)

123 According to the AoSHQ Sunday Morning Book Thread bylaws, there is a two-Hungarian limit, so you are OK.

At least until the third Hungarian shows up...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 09:21 AM (BpYfr)

Aw crap!

(nah, not really. grandma was born in Hungary, but was German)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 09:59 AM (0eaVi)

124 Just finished "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson. Horribly burned pr0n star finds love and redemption with a grotesque sculptor who claims to have known him and loved him 700 years before in Medieval Germany. I cannot recommend this book more highly. It is an astonishing tale.

Re-reading "Shogun" by James Clavell, after having been pleased but vaguely disappointed in the 10 part Hulu series that just ended. Realized that though the series was fantastic, it just couldn't capture the enormous amount of internal dialogue and intrigue that the book's characters were always ruminating on as they pretended to be polite to each other. I love this book.

Also just picked up "Your Designed Body" by Steve Laufman and Dr. Howard Glicksman, about how insanely complicated our bodies are and how that complexity disproves Darwinian evolution.

Finally, picked up "Greatest Hits," a Harlan Ellison retrospective edited by Michael Straczynski. Ellison was an insufferable that, but the man could write.

Oh! And lest I forget, Alastair Reynolds has a third novel in the Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies sub-series within his Revelation Space universe, called "Machine Vendetta." Looking forward to this one.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 28, 2024 09:59 AM (/RHNq)

125 I'm currently re-reading Robertson Davies Fifth Business, which I last read some half-century ago. I an as engaged now as I was then, perhaps more so. It is the first book in his Deptford Trilogy. Penguin has published the entire trilogy in a single volume.
I cannot recommend this book and its subsequent volumes too highly. When you read it, look up his allusions. His passing mentions of obscure myths and books are worth pursuing, as they illuminate and deepen the story.
Posted by: ameryx at April 28, 2024 09:45 AM (q9OK+)

Robertson Davies is one of my faves. A very immersive writer.

I recently found "The Deptford Trilogy" in a beautiful Folio Society edition at a used book store for el cheapo. So, I'll be rereading it soon.

I particularly like how Davies joie de vivre always comes through in his writings and storytelling.

Great characters. Great stories. Great writing.

What's not to like?

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 10:00 AM (eDfFs)

126 In anger, Roark destroys the building, and is tried for arson. In his own defence, Roark presents to the court his view that a man's ideas are his own property, and that by modifying his design, those ideas were stolen, and it was his right to destroy them. This is the first display of Rand's focus - the individual against the collective. For people who might be intimidated by the massive size and scope of Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead is an excellent introduction to the mind and theories of Ayn Rand.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024 09:17 AM (tbaCD)

Oooh, that just rubs me the wrong way. The building may have been his idea, but it took the work (and money) of many, many other people to actually create. While he has the right to be indignant and angry...I can't find any sympathy for actual destruction...

....But that's just my immediate reaction from reading the blurb....

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 10:02 AM (Lhaco)

127 A retired Marine whose passion is bonsai gets dragged into taking down a child slavery operation.
---------
Treedom!!!

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 10:02 AM (vtyCZ)

128 It was a love note to frank lloyd wright

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 10:02 AM (PXvVL)

129 And yes it was part of the obtuseness of rand

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 10:03 AM (PXvVL)

130 It's full of all kinds of Problematic stuff, like a future monarchical world government run by the House of Orange, heterosexual relationships between men and women, Manifest Destiny, etc.

I liked it a lot, and now I wish I had read it back in the 1980s.
Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (78a2H)

Thanks for spilling the beans, there.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:03 AM (0eaVi)

131 @122 --

The hot skunk woman who was a member of the X-Men's allies the Starjammers took her name from Pogo's Mam'selle Hephzibah, who was also a hot skunk woman.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 10:04 AM (p/isN)

132 I have come to the conclusion that if a book series I like is being made into a movie or TV series, I am probably going to hate it. I'm looking at you Rings of Power and Wheel of Time. I know changes need to be made to translate to the visual medium, but really. I watched 30 minutes of the Wheel of Time and couldn't do any more. It's not the same story in any sense at all. A town that has been isolated for centuries and is as diverse as walking down a street in NYC. Just Depressing.

Posted by: EyeofSauron at April 28, 2024 10:04 AM (u0bih)

133 Perfessor, thanks for "Perfessor Squirrel's Library" on libib. It is an invaluable resource for all things bookish. Please know how much we appreciate your hard work in amassing this collection and in keeping it updated!

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 10:05 AM (U3L4U)

134 The mention of Ayn Rand earlier reminded me that I don't care for her books as much as I used to. I've read, and re-read, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as well as most of her other books. But her characters and situations seem somewhat wooden for my current taste. The settings are very urban-based and I don't like cities. And the presumption that new is always better, and immensely better, is part of what drives me nuts about present culture.

Which only goes to show how people can change even if the books are the same.

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 10:05 AM (zudum)

135 Yeah, wait a minute . . . if your idea was _changed_, then it isn't your idea (at least not entirely) any more, so how can it be "stolen"?

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 10:06 AM (78a2H)

136 Perfessor, thanks for "Perfessor Squirrel's Library" on libib. It is an invaluable resource for all things bookish. Please know how much we appreciate your hard work in amassing this collection and in keeping it updated!
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 10:05 AM (U3L4U)
---
Thank you! That means a lot. Every week we have so many excellent recommendations from the Horde. I thought it would be a pity for all of them to be lost in the ether...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 10:07 AM (BpYfr)

137 I recently rewatched The Streets of Laredo miniseries, very good. That is McMurtry's official sequel to Lonesome Dove; there was another sequel made by ABC but McMurtry had sold them the rights and washed his hands of that one.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 28, 2024 10:08 AM (q3gwH)

138 The settings are very urban-based and I don't like cities. And the presumption that new is always better, and immensely better, is part of what drives me nuts about present culture.
Posted by: JTB

Not sure what a 'rural' based Atlas Shrugged would read like.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 10:08 AM (IG4Id)

139 (nah, not really. grandma was born in Hungary, but was German)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 09:59 AM (0eaVi)
===
Please submit your papers to the State of California Genealogy Office.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 28, 2024 10:08 AM (RIvkX)

140 I found a book on Google about the history of this town. Finally bought it and found it enjoyable. Stories about the folks that first settled the area and pictures of some of the businesses. I think some of the buildings still stand and I want to match the photos to them. Not a thick book by any means.

I should try and find books on the communities here. I visited Nicodemus last week. It's a National Historic site. It was settled by freed slaves from KY. Not much of it left now, but they do try to tell you the history of the town.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 28, 2024 10:09 AM (yeEu9)

141
I saw Hot Skunk Woman open a Gwenyth Paltrow Candle Boutique in Manhattan in 2009.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 10:10 AM (eDfFs)

142 My favorite Pogo strip is just Pogo and Porky Pine in their boat musing about "folks with ad-vanced brains" on other planets. Or maybe they don't exist and maybe our intellects is the most ad-vanced.

"Either way, it's a mighty sobering thought."

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 10:12 AM (78a2H)

143 Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 09:55 AM (0eaVi)

How does one go about joining the Literary Horde?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 28, 2024 10:12 AM (XjtdB)

144 Perfessor, thanks for "Perfessor Squirrel's Library" on libib. It is an invaluable resource for all things bookish. Please know how much we appreciate your hard work in amassing this collection and in keeping it updated!
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 10:05 AM (U3L4U)

Ditto this. I refer to it often.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 10:13 AM (OX9vb)

145 I recently rewatched The Streets of Laredo miniseries, very good. That is McMurtry's official sequel to Lonesome Dove; there was another sequel made by ABC but McMurtry had sold them the rights and washed his hands of that one.
Posted by: Tom Servo at April 28, 2024

***
There were also two prequels, both based on LM's novels: Dead Man's Walk, showcasing the young, new-to-the-Texas Rangers Gus and Woodrow before the Civil War; and Comanche Moon, about their heyday as Rangers during and just after the war. LM and his long-time writing partner, Diana Ossana, adapted both and stuck closely to the books.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:14 AM (omVj0)

146 Ellsworth toohey is supposed to be the wise one by all the right people

But roarks solution is wrong

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at April 28, 2024 10:14 AM (PXvVL)

147 Seriously, how is Atlas Shrugged 'urban'? I get that people hate it, but 'urban'?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 10:14 AM (IG4Id)

148 Shadout Mapes - nope, no window in the garage, and no readily visible grounding point such as a cold water pipe.

Posted by: PabloD at April 28, 2024 10:14 AM (lk8z6)

149 Also-

The local Big University Library (University of South Carolina, not that Johnny-come-lately USC in Kalofornica) has a deal whereby, for a minimum $50 annual gift, you get borrowing privileges.

Maybe other big university libraries have the same.

Posted by: Miklos has book he ain't even read yet at April 28, 2024 10:15 AM (oGyF9)

150 Oooh, that just rubs me the wrong way. The building may have been his idea, but it took the work (and money) of many, many other people to actually create. While he has the right to be indignant and angry...I can't find any sympathy for actual destruction...

....But that's just my immediate reaction from reading the blurb....
Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 10:02 AM (Lhaco)

Same.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 28, 2024 10:15 AM (XjtdB)

151 122 I am working my way through Walt Kelle\y's The Incomplete Pogo.
Walt Kelly was a well regarded newspaper strip cartoonist, with the animal cast of the swamp, including the main character Possum Pogo, Albert the Alligator, Jake the Snake, Mrs Beaver, and others. Kelly was an excellent illustrator, as you would expect from a ex-Disney illustrator, but I find his humor to be very subtle and full of references to political and social tropes of the 50's which escape me. Pogo's skiff, for example, is named for various political figures of the time, but I have no idea the importance of it.

I recognize how influential he was to strips like Bloom County, Over the Hedge and Calvin and Hobbes.
Posted by: Kindltot at April 28, 2024 09:59 AM (D7oie)

I've never read Pogo, but I've known of it for a while. I think Bill Watterson specifically called out Pogo as an inspiration in the "Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book", which had a lot of creator commentary in it...

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 10:16 AM (Lhaco)

152 More than half of Fountainhead takes place way, way out in the country. Maybe you're just not paying attention?

There are a hundred reasons to disdain Rand, all authored by Alger Hiss.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at April 28, 2024 10:16 AM (zdLoL)

153 So I've been getting Pooky's perspective on the WH40K controversy over the past week. He loves the tabletop game (but can never find someone to play it with him), is a huge fan of the video games, and loves the lore (Dan Abnett is his favorite WH40K author). So, to me, a WH40K expert.

His take is that while this Adeptus Custodes change might be a precursor to something woke, it's not woke. The language around the Adeptus Custodes has been ambiguous enough to support the idea that they might be female, although there's apparently a higher-up in the company who has basically said "over my dead body." Well, although I don't think he's dead, GW had an unfortunate leak of a featured female Custodes before their new codex was released. That leak certainly could have been handled better, and they should really fire whoever was running their Twitter account (or force them to read 1984 to learn the meaning behind "We have always been at war with Eastasia"). In general, the whole mess is a yellow flag, and fans should probably exercise caution in going forward.

Posted by: pookysgirl, your intrepid grimdark reporter at April 28, 2024 10:17 AM (dtlDP)

154 Not sure what a 'rural' based Atlas Shrugged would read like.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 10:08 AM (IG4Id)

Roark: Now, look here. Y'all cain't go puttin' persimmons in my Roark Ol' Kentucky Apple 'Shine.

My 'shine's aged with apples, ding-dang it! An I won't continence no messing with my original formula what I done thunk up all by myself.

You better run for them high-hills boys. I'm blowin' this here still skyhigh!!!

...

Posted by: Excerpt from "Cousin Atlas Has a Hissy" Ayna Mae Rand at April 28, 2024 10:17 AM (eDfFs)

155 Oooh, that just rubs me the wrong way.

Dude

Posted by: Harvey Weinstein's ficus at April 28, 2024 10:18 AM (oGyF9)

156 Seriously, how is Atlas Shrugged 'urban'? I get that people hate it, but 'urban'?
Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024

***
Not, I think, "urban" like Charlemagne Tha God's radio show or visiting hip-hop/rap clubs or wearing your jeans down around your butt, but involving the life and work of people in cities.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:18 AM (omVj0)

157 There are a hundred reasons to disdain Rand, all authored by Alger Hiss.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at April 28, 2024 10:16 AM (zdLoL)

I thought it was Chambers who wrote an article raking Rand over the coals.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 28, 2024 10:19 AM (XjtdB)

158 The secret hide-out in Atlas was supposed to be in the Colorado mountains, yes? It's stupid, I get that. I mean, it's a flipped, retard Platonic fantasy, but urban?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 10:20 AM (IG4Id)

159 Oooh, that just rubs me the wrong way. The building may have been his idea, but it took the work (and money) of many, many other people to actually create. While he has the right to be indignant and angry...I can't find any sympathy for actual destruction...

....But that's just my immediate reaction from reading the blurb....
Posted by: Castle Guy at April 28, 2024 10:02 AM (Lhaco)

Well, he made up for it by purchasing an island and granting fantasies to people.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:20 AM (0eaVi)

160 I’m gonna cry at the end, right?

Posted by: Buzzy Krumhunger




I've never read The Plague Dogs, so unknown on the crying at the end issue.

Adams' "Watership Down" and "Shardick" are both legendary novels that might make you cry. Very highly recommended.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 28, 2024 10:20 AM (/RHNq)

161 On audio this week, I've been listening to Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch. I think vmom mentioned this series.

A young London cop gets assigned, because reasons, to a secret, supernatural detective division. In this story, the male and female gods of the Thames are having a spat, and it's spilling into the mortal world.

Magic isn't my favorite genre, but I love this reader so much, that I may listen to the entire series.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 10:21 AM (OX9vb)

162 Excerpt from "Cousin Atlas Has a Hissy" Ayna Mae Rand

I read that in an imagined William Faulkner voice.

Also, Ole Yeller died.

Posted by: Miklos, wiping away a tear at April 28, 2024 10:21 AM (oGyF9)

163 I lucked across his work when I lived in Denver and have read most of his stuff. He was an actor-manager in real life; he knew how to make a story dramatic without shading it into melodrama. I refer to Davies as the Canadian Somerset Maugham. (Maugham was also in the theatre world as a playwright.)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024

***
I checked, and Davies was, like Maugham, more a playwright than an actor or manager. But both were strongly connected to the theatre. It probably helped their novels and short stories quite a bit.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:22 AM (omVj0)

164 Thank you! That means a lot. Every week we have so many excellent recommendations from the Horde. I thought it would be a pity for all of them to be lost in the ether...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 28, 2024 10:07 AM (BpYfr)

I haven't looked, but maybe a permalink to it on the BT, Perf?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:23 AM (0eaVi)

165 Greetings, O Book Thread!
- Always nice to see buckyballs mentioned. I did basic research on them when they first came out AND did a very well-attended talk at a science fiction con (Bucconeeer) that made them their official con molecule
- Greg Bear lived just up the road from me and we attended parties at each other's houses. He was a sweet and very helpful man that is much missed in the writing community.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at April 28, 2024 10:23 AM (Sebkt)

166 wearing your jeans down around your butt,
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming

Is that wrong? Somebody should have told me if that is wrong.

Posted by: The Youth of TODAY are YOUR FUTURE at April 28, 2024 10:24 AM (oGyF9)

167 'Cause, i always miss that link.........

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:24 AM (0eaVi)

168 My dad had all the published pogo books (compilations) from the 50's, I found them and read them as a kid. My first introduction to really good political satire.
The best, and most famous line from Pogo: "We have met the Enemy, and He is Us."

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 28, 2024 10:25 AM (q3gwH)

169 Please submit your papers to the State of California Genealogy Office.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 28, 2024 10:08 AM (RIvkX)

Nope. Don't live there. Also, my state has a standing SSS order for Commiefornians.

Besides, the LDS probably has all that already....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:26 AM (0eaVi)

170 167 'Cause, i always miss that link.........
Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:24 AM (0eaVi)

*ahem

It's always just before What I've Been Reading This Week

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 10:26 AM (OX9vb)

171 Wouldn't an 'urban' Atlas Shrugged just be Wakanda?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 10:26 AM (IG4Id)

172 When reading The Fountaihed, you see just how venal some of the characters are, and how they presume the population will support them and their demands that everyone accept and obey their pronouncements. The people in the city and on the jury beg to differ.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 28, 2024 10:26 AM (tbaCD)

173 Adams' "Watership Down" and "Shardick" are both legendary novels that might make you cry. Very highly recommended.
Posted by: Sharkman at April 28, 2024

***
I haven't read Shardik, but if WD turns on the waterworks for you, it's in a good way.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:27 AM (omVj0)

174 Here's an idle thought.

Would Larry McMurtry's novel have been as good if written on a computer instead of a manual typewriter? (He used a Hermes 3000 portable.) As a fan of manual typewriters and even dip pens and fountain pens for writing, I like to think that Hermes 3000 helped.

Loren Estleman, David McCullough, and Shelby Foote come to mind as recent writers that chose to compose using older methods, not computers.

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 10:28 AM (zudum)

175 Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 09:55 AM (0eaVi)

How does one go about joining the Literary Horde?
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at April 28, 2024 10:12 AM (XjtdB)

Sidebar on main page. Has direct link to my e-mail.

Psst. It's just as visible as Perfessor's link to libib......

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:29 AM (0eaVi)

176 Years ago, after reading Shogun, I then read an old (1940’s?) biography of Calvin Coolidge. I was struck by a strange and somewhat vague character intersection between Shogun’s Toranaga and Coolidge; Coolidge and Toranaga as falconers launching their minions. Patient Taoists.

Strange and vague.

Posted by: 13times at April 28, 2024 10:29 AM (gFxR7)

177 Magic isn't my favorite genre, but I love this reader so much, that I may listen to the entire series.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 10:21 AM (OX9vb)

I think Terry Pratchett, Tom Holt and a few other English writers pushed a sort of inverse "magical realism" of Borges: Borges was very much about how the infinitely magical would appear in the most banal of realities to turn it on it's head, and Pratchett and Holt had the infinitely magical appear in the banal world, and the banal world immediately began using it for stripping paint, and disposing of garbage so they didn't have to pay the garbage collection fees.
It isn't really American Urban Fantasy with the script kiddies and urban Utes learning spells, it is more the opposite, the Fey start trying to figure out the bus schedule, sort of thing.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 28, 2024 10:29 AM (D7oie)

178 Would Larry McMurtry's novel have been as good if written on a computer instead of a manual typewriter? (He used a Hermes 3000 portable.) As a fan of manual typewriters and even dip pens and fountain pens for writing, I like to think that Hermes 3000 helped.

Loren Estleman, David McCullough, and Shelby Foote come to mind as recent writers that chose to compose using older methods, not computers.
Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024

***
Their works might each have been longer. A computer and word processing software makes it so easy to put words on the screen -- hence the giant doorstop novels forming multi-volume sagas we're seeing these days.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:31 AM (omVj0)

179 Canon to right of them,
Canon to left of them,
Canon in front of them
Into the valley of prose,
Typed the six hundred.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 10:31 AM (L/fGl)

180 @169 --

"SSS order"?

Shoot on Sight ... Something?

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 10:32 AM (p/isN)

181 "SSS order"?

Shoot on Sight ... Something?
Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024

***
The planned retirement fund for SS officers: Social Schutzstaffel Security!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:34 AM (omVj0)

182 Also, Ole Yeller died.
Posted by: Miklos, wiping away a tear at April 28, 2024 10:21 AM (oGyF9)

Yah, I shot him. You trying to make a big deal out of it?

Posted by: Kristi Noem at April 28, 2024 10:34 AM (0eaVi)

183 Any suggestions?

I came across a reference to Edith Wharton by a writer I enjoy (Loren Estleman) but have never read anything of hers.

Any thouhts about a good book of Wharton's to start with?

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 10:36 AM (zudum)

184 It's always just before What I've Been Reading This Week
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 28, 2024 10:26 AM (OX9vb)

Thus 167 after I pressed "post" before looking!

Posted by: Kristi Noem at April 28, 2024 10:38 AM (0eaVi)

185 Would Larry McMurtry's novel have been as good if written on a computer instead of a manual typewriter? (He used a Hermes 3000 portable.) As a fan of manual typewriters and even dip pens and fountain pens for writing, I like to think that Hermes 3000 helped.

Loren Estleman, David McCullough, and Shelby Foote come to mind as recent writers that chose to compose using older methods, not computers.
Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024

***
Their works might each have been longer. A computer and word processing software makes it so easy to put words on the screen -- hence the giant doorstop novels forming multi-volume sagas we're seeing these days.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:31 AM (omVj0)

I think maybe it's more like that they're used to that method and comfortable with it, and-

are famous enough that they don't have to sweat the small stuff like spellings, etc because they have secretaries and editors to handle cleaning up their manuscripts.

Writing on a computer is so much easier for corrections and rewrites, if you're doing it by yourself.

Though having learned on a typewriter, I'm more comfortable a final printout to check.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 10:39 AM (eDfFs)

186 Canon to right of them,
Canon to left of them,
Canon in front of them
Into the valley of prose,
Typed the six hundred.
-----
Roughly handled by the Czarists' missal defence.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 10:39 AM (vtyCZ)

187 Though having learned on a typewriter, I'm more comfortable a final printout to check.
--------
Galley proofs.

Posted by: andycanuck (vtyCZ) at April 28, 2024 10:40 AM (vtyCZ)

188 I came across a reference to Edith Wharton by a writer I enjoy (Loren Estleman) but have never read anything of hers.

Any thouhts about a good book of Wharton's to start with?
Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 10:36 AM (zudum)

Ask President Trump. He graduated from Whartons.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:42 AM (0eaVi)

189 'Let Us Now Be Famous Men'
Well done and gripping story. (And this was my first e-book.)
Posted by: Legally Sufficient'

Thank you again, for reading it. I'm glad you enjoyed it! I've mentioned before, I stupidly shared drafts with a colleague who is an actual NASA engineer and it was heavily critiqued about any number of technical points, and I had to do a whole bunch of edits just to quiet him. What a pain.
Probably the dumbest thing of it was how absolutely nobody liked the term 'elev-pod', but nobody could think of anything better. I finally put THAT in the book, that 'elev-pod' sucked and everyone hates it, but nobody can think of a better word! Also, Bob H the elev-pod operator speaks in garbled Heinlein quotes.

The book is at leneal.com.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 10:42 AM (43xH1)

190 Heinlein's Juveniles are a great remedy for cynicism and despair. Citizen of the Galaxy is my favorite (so far)

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at April 28, 2024 10:42 AM (3uc2w)

191 I managed to watch 15 minutes of Amazon's WoT 1st episode before turning it off in disgust never to return. Over the years I have read all the (sometimes tedious) books at least two times and a couple of them three times. I just couldn't tolerate what I was seeing.

Posted by: SamIam at April 28, 2024 10:43 AM (oasF3)

192 I think Terry Pratchett, Tom Holt...


I really enjoyed "Expecting Someone Taller" by Holt.

Excellent read. Though his others novels were okay/good, he never scaled those heights again for me.

Wasn't Holt, first to the well, with this kind of thing? I remember reading him before I ever heard of Pratchett.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 10:43 AM (eDfFs)

193 Computer rather than typewriter/pen?

Their books might well have been longer, but maybe not by too much. Their working habits had been formed in the days before computers were available, I'd guess, and they were probably accustomed to avoiding bloat. They probably would have embraced the machine's ability to make manuscript wide corrections (wait, in this chapter he's Herman, but in the next five he's Henry, and then back to Herman? Aaaaarrrrgh). But if they'd already trained themselves to keep it tight, the machine may not have made a huge difference.

Just a guess with no data to back it up.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 10:44 AM (q3u5l)

194 I came across a reference to Edith Wharton by a writer I enjoy (Loren Estleman) but have never read anything of hers.

Any thouhts about a good book of Wharton's to start with?
Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024

***
Never have tried Wharton. I often take advice from writers I admire when they talk of their influences and other writers they like, and it's led me to many wonderful stories. Truly I am a Rex Stout fan, at least with the Nero Wolfe stories. But I've never been able to follow up on his suggestion that everyone read Jane Austen. The prose is way too dense for me, I guess.

An indignant fan wrote to Stout, demanding to know who *really* wrote the Wolfe tales. Stout told his secretary to write back: "The name is Jane Austen. But I haven't the address."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:44 AM (omVj0)

195 Dispearage, verb, to remove the pear from the fruit salad.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 10:46 AM (L/fGl)

196 somehow I posted on the EMT

I know I closed that TAB

SORRY

Posted by: rhennigantx at April 28, 2024 10:46 AM (ENQN6)

197 Dispearage, verb, to remove the pear from the fruit salad.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024

***
Also, to complain about an opponent's choice of spears in warfare.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:47 AM (omVj0)

198 I managed to watch 15 minutes of Amazon's WoT 1st episode before turning it off in disgust

-
Speaking of turning off in disgust, Cloud Atlas is woke garbage.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 10:48 AM (L/fGl)

199 Gotta run some errands. Be back shortly. I hate when real life gets in the way of the Book Thread.

Posted by: JTB at April 28, 2024 10:48 AM (zudum)

200 Dispeerage: to deny the rightful place of a nobleman in the social order.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 10:50 AM (bo7UB)

201 This week I read a bunch of random stuff. American Riflemans from the 1920s, a slight book about the Soviet GAZ factories, a bunch of articles. Did more writing than reading really, trying to put the last nail into a project I'm doing about the cosmology of, I guess the least worst way to phrase it, the 'worship of Energy', as distinct from whatever may cause Energy to exist in the first place.
It's considerably more involved than I initially thought as so many practitioners insist *their* practices of relating to Energy are a Totally Different Thing than anyone else's, and so it involves alchemy, various esoteric concepts, paganism, mystical union, all kinds of things that in my opinion are not actually different at all.
There is a reason for my doing this.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 10:50 AM (43xH1)

202 Finished High Spirits by Robertson Davies. I picked it up based on moron recommendations and gave it a full 5 stars on Goodreads. Great book, always clever, often funny and a keeper, I am sure I will be going back to reread a story at random every now and then.
Started the last volume of the Ian Toll's war in the pacific trilogy.

Posted by: who knew at April 28, 2024 10:52 AM (4I7VG)

203 Wouldn't those pants be ... book threads?

Posted by: Nazdar at April 28, 2024 10:52 AM (9XWKq)

204 Dispearage, verb, to remove the pear from the fruit salad.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024

***
Also, to complain about an opponent's choice of spears in warfare.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:47 AM (omVj0)

***

Also indicates that spears are missing

Posted by: Diogenes at April 28, 2024 10:53 AM (W/lyH)

205 198 I managed to watch 15 minutes of Amazon's WoT 1st episode before turning it off in disgust

-
Speaking of turning off in disgust, Cloud Atlas is woke garbage.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 10:48 AM (L/fGl)

-----------

I look forward to the start of the second season of Amazon's Rings of Power. Not because I'd ever turn it on, but the slew of derisive Youtube videos that it will spawn are hugely entertaining.

Say it: "There is a tempest in me!"

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 10:54 AM (bo7UB)

206 The word "vibe" is seemingly everywhere all at once.

-
The word I never heard in my first six decades and now can't avoid is "Charcuterie".

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 10:55 AM (L/fGl)

207 Hallo horde!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at April 28, 2024 10:56 AM (n/1xr)

208
On a Hordian recommendation, I read Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show by Tommy Tomlinson. This is a view of dog shows as seen through the quest of Striker, a Samoyed, and his handler Laura King (who handled Delilah to a Midwest Borzoi Club specialty Best in Show in 2021) to win the 2022 Westminster Kennel Club show.

It was a fun read (Striker wins the Working Group but loses Best in Show to the Bloodhound) and better than most I've read, but it suffers from a lot of distracting asides. Also, like books of its kind, it is written by an outsider to the dog show world. Without the insight of someone with an intimate knowledge of the show scene and life, what a show is and what, in each breed, it is meant to measure, the whole endeavor can sound silly.

Me? If I had any ambition or ability, I'd write a book taking something like the five-day Houston World Series of Dog Shows with a more detailed explanation of what goes on and how clubs (all-breed, specialty and national), the AKC, exhibitors and dogs make it all possible and fun.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at April 28, 2024 10:57 AM (MoZTd)

209 The word I never heard in my first six decades and now can't avoid is "Charcuterie".
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024

***
In high school, I first heard it on a radio ad for a local eatery. My literal mind immediately interpreted it as "Sharky Tree," with an image of a Great White trying to climb one of the oaks in the city park.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 10:58 AM (omVj0)

210 Me? If I had any ambition or ability, I'd write a book taking something like the five-day Houston World Series of Dog Shows with a more detailed explanation of what goes on and how clubs (all-breed, specialty and national), the AKC, exhibitors and dogs make it all possible and fun.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at April 28, 2024 10:57 AM (MoZTd)

Your comments here belie your stated lack of ability. Write that book. It might displace some purple hair, pierced and tattooed freak from the best seller lists.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 10:59 AM (0eaVi)

211 So, from dispearage to dispeerage to...

And I think, who knows why, of disappear and then Disappearer from R. A. Lafferty's merely hilarious short story "The Seven Day Terror."

Which I hereby recommend. You'll find it in The Best of R. A. Lafferty, and several other places.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 11:00 AM (q3u5l)

212 The word I never heard in my first six decades and now can't avoid is "Charcuterie".
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024

***
I must have seen the word earlier than I heard it on that radio ad. It's used in passing in Fleming's From Russia With Love, when the SMERSH guys are trying to decide to knock Bond off and are studying pictures from his dossier. In one photo of him, Fleming tells us, is a sign saying "Charcuterie."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:01 AM (omVj0)

213 The word I never heard in my first six decades and now can't avoid is "Charcuterie".
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024

I have, but that's because I studied French in junior high. I am actually board of hearing about charcuterie.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:01 AM (0eaVi)

214 The University of California, Los Angeles medical school is launching a probe of its controversial "health equity" class—and warning whistleblowers they could be punished if any more information leaks about it.

The dean of the medical school, Steven Dubinett, announced Friday that his office had formed a task force to review all first-year courses, including "Structural Racism and Health Equity," after the Washington Free Beacon published materials from the mandatory class.

The class was on medicine is bad for fat people for calling them fat.

Posted by: rhennigantx at April 28, 2024 11:02 AM (ENQN6)

215 I confess to watching season one of Wheel of Time. That was enough. Or as they say, One and done.

Posted by: JM in Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate at April 28, 2024 11:02 AM (4KzNy)

216 Any book I could write about the dog show world would lean toward the Go Dog Go genre.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 11:03 AM (bo7UB)

217 214 The University of California, Los Angeles medical school is launching a probe of its controversial "health equity" class—and warning whistleblowers they could be punished if any more information leaks about it.

----------

Because nothing in a university education is more important than making sure the rubes never hear exactly what The Initiates are being taught.

They used to call that a priesthood.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 11:05 AM (bo7UB)

218 I finished "Everyone on this train is a suspect" and might go back and Re-read portions now that i know who dunnit . Its like that Knives Out mystery movie in that way

Next up; Lord of the Rings. I hope i can get farther this time.

Posted by: LASue at April 28, 2024 11:06 AM (Ed8Zd)

219 Still brawling my way through 'The Occult In Russian And Soviet Culture', Rosenthal. I can only read a few pages at a a time as I'm one of those people who considers occultism stupid beyond tolerance, and having to wade through an entire book on the subject is nearly intolerable.
The reason is concepts of Self-Negation: it's becoming clear, at least to me, that a major reason Socialism/Communism got such a foothold in the Russian Empire is because it promised to immanentize the eschaton; but the groundwork was already laid by radicals within the Orthodox Church, obsessed with a goal of social justice and 'reform'. There was a LOT going on, in the ROC, and far from being the reactionary force the Bolsheviks made it out to be, a considerable part of the Church was fully onboard with a form of self-negating social movement; and they were genuinely shocked when the Bolsheviks took over, declared War on God, and took them all out.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:06 AM (43xH1)

220 Any book I could write about the dog show world would lean toward the Go Dog Go genre.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 11:03 AM (bo7UB)

Have you ever treed?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:06 AM (0eaVi)

221 I am not sure if Pratchett, Holt, Douglas Adams or Neil Gaiman had come out first with the inverted magical realism, they all started writing them in the early 80's, though Adams probably had the longest lead time.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 28, 2024 11:07 AM (D7oie)

222 Ok, I've now dove deep into a cycle. Just finished "Still Life with Crows" from Preston & Child's Pendergast. Enjoying them very much and can't put them down. One thing I noticed in this book (h/t to another commenter from last week) is that two of the books that Corrie Swanson is reading are "The Ice Limit" and "Beyond the Ice Limit". Nothing like a little self-promotion contained in your own books....

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at April 28, 2024 11:08 AM (e/Osv)

223 The word "vibe" is seemingly everywhere all at once.

-
The word I never heard in my first six decades and now can't avoid is "Charcuterie".

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 10:55 AM (L/fGl)

I understand "Charcuterie"s popularity.

It's one of those words that identifies you as worldly and sophisticated, and one who is desirous of joining or one who actually is one of Our Betters.

Much more so than saying:

"I likes me some lunch meat."

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 11:09 AM (eDfFs)

224 220 Any book I could write about the dog show world would lean toward the Go Dog Go genre.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 11:03 AM (bo7UB)

Have you ever treed?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:06 AM (0eaVi)

----------

I'm not motivated if nobody roots for me.

Maybe I should leave now.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 11:10 AM (bo7UB)

225 Much more so than saying:

"I likes me some lunch meat."
Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 11:09 AM (eDfFs)

Lunchables

or

snackleboard

Posted by: Kindltot at April 28, 2024 11:11 AM (D7oie)

226
Recent words I can do without

Side hustle
Gig
Flex
Toxic
Gaslight
Voices
Problematic
Empathy
Equity

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at April 28, 2024 11:11 AM (MoZTd)

227 Charcuterie?
Bitch better have my money when I get out.

Posted by: Aspiring Raper #328956 in cell block D at April 28, 2024 11:13 AM (B705c)

228 LenNeal, if you have a sequel to Let Us Now Be Famous Men, I would love to read it!

True test of character development is when the reader wants to know more about the characters once the book ends.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 11:15 AM (U3L4U)

229 I'm not motivated if nobody roots for me.

Maybe I should leave now.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at April 28, 2024 11:10 AM (bo7UB)

Nobody's barking at you. Stay. Good boy.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:16 AM (0eaVi)

230 My current sets-my-teeth-on-edge word is "gift" used as a verb.

GIVE. You GIVE someone a GIFT. A GIFT is a thing you GIVE someone. Perhaps you MAKE A PRESENT of something when you GIVE it to them. Perhaps you SEND THEM A GIFT. Perhaps PRESENT IT TO THEM.

But not GIFTING. NEVER NEVER NEVER. I WILL DIE ON THIS GODDAMNED HILL!

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 11:17 AM (78a2H)

231 >>92 In addition to the crime and horror, Poe was one of the greatest "technical" poets,

===

I was amazed by the intricate rhyming complexity of Poe's, The Raven.

Posted by: JM in Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate at April 28, 2024 11:17 AM (Xbquz)

232 Recent words I can do without
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh

Gifting
Rizz
Deets
NGL

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 11:17 AM (IG4Id)

233 [takes dollar, looks around furtively]

Word on the street is, the actual question we need to answer is "Why are all of these faggots trying to insert faggots into these books and games and culture where there were none and they aren't needed?" and the obvious answer is "They cannot do this in real life."

Posted by: Johnny The Shoeshine Guy at April 28, 2024 11:18 AM (zOkaw)

234 One article I read last week is about linking concepts of Negation of the Self in both Christian and Jewish Mystical Union, to the goal of Marxism to annihilate the individual, find similarities in theology and dogma between the two, and exploit them to infiltrate Marxism into the EOC.
This article, or manifesto/declaration of Total War on my Church, was not written by an isolated nut but by a well-respected researcher of kabbalah and esotericism prominently featured in the book I'm wading through right now.
The article treats the Bolshevik/Communist persecution of the Church as a grave tactical error, when elements within both Christianity and Judaism are already onboard with self-negation and social justice; and instead of being wiped out, should be co-opted into a Marxist Society that uses 'organized religion' instead of trying to eliminate it.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:18 AM (43xH1)

235 Recent words I can do without

Side hustle
Gig
Flex
Toxic
Gaslight
Voices
Problematic
Empathy
Equity
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at April 28, 2024 11:11 AM (MoZTd)

Id like to add:

Inclusivity
Gifted
Empower
Curated
Denier
Sourced
Everything that comes out of Jane Fonda's mouth

Posted by: LASue at April 28, 2024 11:18 AM (Ed8Zd)

236 NGL
Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024

***
No-Good Lumbago?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:18 AM (omVj0)

237 No-Good Lumbago?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

If only. Not Gonna Lie.

.. never giving up 'unforts' though.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 11:20 AM (IG4Id)

238 227 Charcuterie?
-----------------------

Been doing that for years as part of my diet.
Didn't know that there was a fancy French word for it.
Not a sandwich is what it's called around here.
All the fixins but no bread. Rather fun to eat.

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:20 AM (lCWOD)

239 Recent words I can do without

Voices

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at April 28, 2024 11:11 AM (MoZTd)

You trying to tell us something, Hadrian?

(I'm allowed to joke about this, I live with someone who is insane.)

Posted by: pookysgirl, veteran of therapy at April 28, 2024 11:20 AM (dtlDP)

240 My current sets-my-teeth-on-edge word is "gift" used as a verb.

But not GIFTING. NEVER NEVER NEVER. I WILL DIE ON THIS GODDAMNED HILL!
Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 11:17 AM (78a2H)
* * * *
Apologies. I certainly didn't mean to set you off. No more coffee for you this morning! Would like you to just calm down now, please.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at April 28, 2024 11:21 AM (U3L4U)

241 No-Good Lumbago?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius
*
If only. Not Gonna Lie.

.. never giving up 'unforts' though.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024

***
I used "whatevs" this morning in a comment. In my defense, I point out that I was only half awake and am suffering with a cold to boot.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:22 AM (omVj0)

242 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at April 28, 2024 11:23 AM (JcnCJ)

243 The word I never heard in my first six decades and now can't avoid is "Charcuterie".
=====

I thought they/it was a way to retire 'hors dovers' while still retaining the French 'chic'. /s

Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024 11:23 AM (MIKMs)

244 *Go Dog, Go.*

I was exposed to P. D. Eastman at an early age.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at April 28, 2024 11:23 AM (dg+HA)

245 I thought they/it was a way to retire 'hors dovers' while still retaining the French 'chic'. /s
Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024

***
Horse's doovers? I'd have to ask my rural vet friend what those are.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:24 AM (omVj0)

246 >>>But not GIFTING. NEVER NEVER NEVER. I WILL DIE ON THIS ... HILL!
Posted by: Trimegistus
-----------------------------

So, re-gifted is out the window?

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:24 AM (lCWOD)

247 Disporridgement: to complain about the quality of the hot cereal in the house you've broken into.

Posted by: Goldilocks at April 28, 2024 11:25 AM (/y8xj)

248 P.D. Eastman is the Burger King to Dr. Suess's McDonald's.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 11:25 AM (78a2H)

249 Been doing that for years as part of my diet.
Didn't know that there was a fancy French word for it.
Not a sandwich is what it's called around here.
All the fixins but no bread. Rather fun to eat.
=====

Italian 'antipasto' is too common for the tastemakers. /s

Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024 11:25 AM (MIKMs)

250 Recommendayion:
As a home schooling dad, I'm always trying to keep an eye out for stories for my girl, especially after we realized that Scholastic is poisoned when, 20 books in, my daughter's favorite book series introduced a non-binary character. Since then we've found a couple of books series that are worth reading:
* tuttle twins - intended to be educational but still good
* dead sea squirrels - Saturday morning cartoon style stories about a boy who found two talking squirrels. My daughter laughs alot when reading it, and ive found it funny too
* The Green Ember - 4 book series about two young rabbits, Heather and Picket, as they are thrown unexpectedly into a war between rabbits and a cruel alliance of wolves and birds of prey that they didn't even know existed. Along the way they deal with betrayal, duty, despair, and hope. Its our current "daddy reads the family a story" book and half the time my *wife* is the one suggesting "just one more chapter".

If graphic novels valid for the book thread I'd like to recommend Minna Sundberg's "Lovely people" which is a short story about bunnies living in a dystopia where "Amazongle" and world counsel rules

Posted by: LowercaseM at April 28, 2024 11:26 AM (1R1ie)

251 Boujie
What ever the f' that is. Just stop it.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 11:26 AM (IG4Id)

252 All the fixins but no bread. Rather fun to eat.

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:20 AM (lCWOD)

It is.

Surprisingly, one of our favorite meals when I traveled to Rome with the delightful and globe-trotting Mrs naturalfake was a charcuterie(!) board at a famous butcher's shop.

All kinds of goodies. Yum!

Posted by: naturalfake at April 28, 2024 11:26 AM (eDfFs)

253 Not gonna lie.
At the end of the day.
Personally, I.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at April 28, 2024 11:27 AM (dg+HA)

254 Disporridgement: to complain about the quality of the hot cereal in the house you've broken into.
Posted by: Goldilocks at April 28, 2024

***
Similarly, "debridement" must mean to keep the target's intended future wife from arriving at the marriage ceremony. See "kidnap," "Runaway Bride."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:28 AM (omVj0)

255 I was re-gifted to normal jr. high by the gifted and tallented program.

Posted by: Reforger at April 28, 2024 11:29 AM (B705c)

256 Boujie
What ever the f' that is. Just stop it.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024

***
Isn't that the French word for "candle"?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:29 AM (omVj0)

257 The most eye-rolling business of what I'm reading is how totally un-self-aware any of these people are. Most are Jewish Kabbalists; and they are deliberately making explicit statements, directly, that esoteric, occult, self-negating Judaism is a critical precursor to fully-fledged Marxism; that the former leads to the latter, and that this is a Good Thing.
I have trouble even believing that these people; most of them highly-placed academics; would publish open-access papers, even from obscure sources; are so blindly enamored of Marxism, they see it as such a Truth, that they openly and enthusiastically espouse their 'reality' of Judeo-Bolshevism and that it's Awesome.

It's really incredible.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:30 AM (43xH1)

258 Speaking of meat, the redneck rotisserie.

https://shorturl.at/tW158

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 11:30 AM (L/fGl)

259 Italian 'antipasto' is too common for the tastemakers. /s
Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024 1

***
It's in the antipasto. It's not *really* in the antipasto; I just love saying "antipasto."

Posted by: Boris Karloff Voice at April 28, 2024 11:31 AM (omVj0)

260 LenNeal, if you have a sequel to Let Us Now Be Famous Men, I would love to read it!

True test of character development is when the reader wants to know more about the characters once the book ends.
Posted by: Legally Sufficient'

Oh, I haven't written a word of it! But I know what happens and what Claire IX finally does.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:32 AM (43xH1)

261 Boujie
What ever the f' that is. Just stop it.
=====

Horsedovers and bushwah. Anybody else remember 'bushwah' as an epithet?

Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024 11:32 AM (MIKMs)

262 “There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”

Posted by: Bertrand Russell at April 28, 2024 11:34 AM (dg+HA)

263 Horsedovers and bushwah. Anybody else remember 'bushwah' as an epithet?
Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024

***
A corruption of "bourgeois," I think?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:34 AM (omVj0)

264
Anybody else remember 'bushwah' as an epithet?
Posted by: mustbequantum

Or "shinola"?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at April 28, 2024 11:34 AM (MoZTd)

265
58 This week I read something I probably should have read forty years ago: _Double Star_ by Robert Heinlein. I don't know why I never got around to it . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 28, 2024 09:25 AM (78a2H)

***

I am a Heinlein fan (peak reading in the late 1970s) and realized I hadn't read this either.

I just now went to Amazon to order and discovered that I had bought this for my Kindle - in 2016!

Got a special deal for $2.99 and it's been sitting there for 8 years.

Gotta work on my Kindle TBR files, but I forget about them because they're not taking up physical space. I have literally dozens and dozens of unread books there.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at April 28, 2024 11:34 AM (G8nnv)

266 I, too, hate gift as a verb. And when did athletes stop being tall? Now they all have 'length'. It drives me nuts every time I hear it.

Posted by: who knew at April 28, 2024 11:34 AM (4I7VG)

267 Recommendayion:
As a home schooling dad, I'm always trying to keep an eye out for stories for my girl,
Posted by: LowercaseM

Stuff I loved as a kid:

Daniel Pinkwater's stuff, especially 'The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death' - worth it just for the title.
Jane Yolen's 'Dragon's Blood' series

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 11:35 AM (IG4Id)

268 I looked at my copy of A Heinlein Trio, which I mentioned above contains three of RAH's best 1950s works, and realized the dust jacket, while surreal, illustrates all three stories. There is a cat and a clock Door into Summer, a painting of two identical men standing below what is clearly a Martian from Double Star, and the the main painting of a woman with her heart visible within her skeleton has an alien riding her back (The Puppet Masters). Good work.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:38 AM (omVj0)

269 In between watching unbearably stupid Marxist Jews step on their own dicks in high-minded papers, it is becoming obvious to me there is a very strong case to be made that various forms of self-negating, mystical occultism are, genuinely, major factors in the development of Collectivist Cosmologies, and that the first might very well inevitably lead to the second.

Start denying the immortality of the individual soul; that it can be dissolved, negated, destroyed; or that it never existed in the first place; and your options narrow.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:38 AM (43xH1)

270 If I could stack physical copies of everything on the Kindle tbr pile, the books would crowd me out of this room. Maybe out of the house altogether.

If I didn't buy another book, ever, there's still enough reading material in this place to last me until I'm planted.

But do I stop buying 'em? Naaaaahh.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 11:38 AM (q3u5l)

271 Oh, anything by Ray Bradbury... like The Halloween Tree. Which I'm pretty sure inspired Stranger Things.

Posted by: weft cut-loop at April 28, 2024 11:40 AM (IG4Id)

272 A corruption of "bourgeois," I think?
=====

Yeah. I remember it as an insult and my grandparents laughing at someone attempting the putdown.

So too the modern 'bougie'.

Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024 11:41 AM (MIKMs)

273 Got some chores to do before I try to catch up on sleep I missed last night. A good book thread, Perfessor, and all you ink-addicted folk!

(Yes, I was going to write "ink-stained wretches," but that I thought should be reserved for today's journalists.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 28, 2024 11:41 AM (omVj0)

274 Had that Heinlein trio volume from the Science Fiction Book Club when I was in high school. A delight.

And I still think The Puppet Masters is the best invasion from space story ever. (Sorry, H.G.)

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 11:42 AM (q3u5l)

275 I'm yammering away about my project, really, I had to do it for a reason. Not my choice, at all, and it has to go to some people to clarify a matter. I thought it might be a few pages and take a few weeks instead it's more like 50 pages and took a year.

I really thought it wouldn't take long to deal with the subject of:

"There is no individual soul, or even any individual beings! There is only Universal Energy!"

I find the idea so dumb I didn't think it would take any time, but man-oh-man, a whole lotta Sooper-Smart people really believe this steaming pile of anti-human dogshit.
So it took a lot longer.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:43 AM (43xH1)

276 OT: Until recently it was W7 on a 2010 ASUS, now it's a Pixy recommended Beelink with Mint. It's amazing how smooth and quick everything is.

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:43 AM (lCWOD)

277 Or "shinola"?

Can't tell it from sh*t.

And when did athletes stop being tall? Now they all have 'length'.

When they're lying down? I suspect that even more than the average talking head, sports commentators know how useless they are and feel a need to sound sophisticated.

Posted by: Goldilocks at April 28, 2024 11:44 AM (/y8xj)

278 /sock

Posted by: Oddbob at April 28, 2024 11:44 AM (/y8xj)

279 Well, off to face the so-called real world.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 28, 2024 11:44 AM (q3u5l)

280 Hate speech.

Mediaite
@Mediaite
Biden White House Blasts 'Hateful Rhetoric' After Pro-Israel Activists Chant 'Go to Gaza' At Columbia Protestors

President Joe Biden’s White House issued a statement condemning pro-Israel activists for “hateful rhetoric” regarding the Columbia University protests.
On Thursday, pro-Israel activists gathered outside of Columbia and began chanting “Go to Gaza!” at pro-Palestinian students protesting the Israel-Hamas war, according to video captured by HuffPost.
The pro-Israel protesters also told the students to “Go home, terrorists!” and “Stop wasting mommy and daddy’s money!”

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 11:44 AM (L/fGl)

281 It's really incredible.
Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:30 AM (43xH1)

No, it's pedestrian bullshit.

Posted by: GOP sux at April 28, 2024 11:46 AM (Zzbjj)

282 OT: Until recently it was W7 on a 2010 ASUS, now it's a Pixy recommended Beelink with Mint. It's amazing how smooth and quick everything is.
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:43 AM (lCWOD)

What model Beelink? There are many of them.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 28, 2024 11:48 AM (8zz6B)

283 I find the idea so dumb I didn't think it would take any time, but man-oh-man, a whole lotta Sooper-Smart people really believe this steaming pile of anti-human dogshit.
So it took a lot longer.
Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:43 AM (43xH1)

Considered themselves wise, they became fools?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:48 AM (0eaVi)

284 I confess to watching season one of Wheel of Time. That was enough. Or as they say, One and done.
Posted by: JM in Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate

I watched season one and thought season two was bound to get better. I was wrong. It sucked worse than season one. Great costumes though. I won't be watching season three. I just don't give a fig about any of the characters.

Posted by: Tuna at April 28, 2024 11:49 AM (oaGWv)

285 In case you're still lurking, Wolfus, post that link on ALH!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:51 AM (0eaVi)

286 >>>President Joe Biden’s White House issued a statement condemning pro-Israel activists for “hateful rhetoric” regarding the Columbia University protests....

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 11:44 AM (L/fGl)
------------------

Two Hundred pro-Palestine supporters. at the Press Dinner, DC Hilton, heckled Biden for his non-support of the Murderers so forcefully the overwhelmed security and made it into the lobby of the hotel. Two hundred (200)

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:51 AM (lCWOD)

287 I'm yammering away about my project, really, I had to do it for a reason. Not my choice, at all, and it has to go to some people to clarify a matter. I thought it might be a few pages and take a few weeks instead it's more like 50 pages and took a year.
I really thought it wouldn't take long to deal with the subject of:
"There is no individual soul, or even any individual beings! There is only Universal Energy!"
I find the idea so dumb I didn't think it would take any time, but man-oh-man, a whole lotta Sooper-Smart people really believe this steaming pile of anti-human dogshit.
So it took a lot longer.
Posted by: LenNeal

X from a woke reverend.


Catch Up
@CatchUpFeed
“Jesus was and humanity is God in drag.”

-
I think that's from Two Corinthians Walk Into A Bar.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, I've Been Through the Desert On a Horse With No Shame at April 28, 2024 11:52 AM (L/fGl)

288 'Length'?
What? When did this get to be a thing?

I don't watch sports so I've never heard of this trend of calling tall people 'long'. I guess 'short' people stay 'short'? Or did that change too?

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:53 AM (43xH1)

289 Two Hundred pro-Palestine supporters. at the Press Dinner, DC Hilton, heckled Biden for his non-support of the Murderers so forcefully the overwhelmed security and made it into the lobby of the hotel. Two hundred (200)
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:51 AM (lCWOD)

Not sure whether to cheer them on or not. He deserves every bad thing, but it might get the lesser engaged voter to be sympathetic to him and garner some votes.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:55 AM (0eaVi)

290 Next up; Lord of the Rings. I hope i can get farther this time.
Posted by: LASue at April 28, 2024 11:06 AM (Ed8Zd)

Courage, LASue. It took me fifty years.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at April 28, 2024 11:55 AM (IZjwR)

291 Jill Stein - Green Party candidate for president, was arrested last night on a charge of assaulting a police officer during a protest march in St. Louis. Normally, I wouldn't give a rip, but I started reading the YT comments below the video and it reads like a DU comment transcript. Man, the Dems want the 3d party candidates out of the race.

Posted by: mrp at April 28, 2024 11:57 AM (rj6Yv)

292 Next up; Lord of the Rings. I hope i can get farther this time.
Posted by: LASue at April 28, 2024 11:06 AM (Ed8Zd)

Courage, LASue. It took me fifty years.
Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum'

"Okay, here we go! 'Lord of the-' Omigod, this book has 1100 pages! I'll read it later."

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:57 AM (43xH1)

293 For the sequel to the SF book, I've saved up a whole pile of Democrat quotes from a substack I troll.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 11:59 AM (43xH1)

294 AOP, It's, as written in Amazon, Alder Lake-N100 - Beelink Mini S 12 Pro mini pc is powered by 2023 Latest intel 12th Gen processor etc.

16GB DDR4 + 500GB SSD

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:59 AM (lCWOD)

295 Sigh. Why is it that time again, the end of the Book Thread? Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 11:59 AM (0eaVi)

296 Corrupt Vatican suppressing historical documented evidence about the upcoming end of the world? Check.

Alex, What is the Bible's Book of Revelation?

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at April 28, 2024 12:00 PM (ynpvh)

297 LenNeal, they don't even call them 'long', they 'have length'. Easily the stupidest change to the language yet. At least in my opinion. FWIW, I think short people are still short in the sports world, although it's probably only a matter f time before they 'lack length'.

Posted by: who knew at April 28, 2024 12:00 PM (4I7VG)

298 AOP, It's, as written in Amazon, Alder Lake-N100 - Beelink Mini S 12 Pro mini pc is powered by 2023 Latest intel 12th Gen processor etc.

16GB DDR4 + 500GB SSD
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:59 AM (lCWOD)

How much is it, and what's the OS?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 12:00 PM (0eaVi)

299 We Haz a NOOD

Posted by: Skip at April 28, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

300 Courage, LASue. It took me fifty years.
=====

Still have not managed it. (Don't taze me bros *cringe*!)

Posted by: mustbequantum at April 28, 2024 12:01 PM (MIKMs)

301 I paid 179 it lists for 199

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:01 PM (lCWOD)

302 The lost city of Atlantis rising again? Check.

Is it also called R'lyeh?

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at April 28, 2024 12:02 PM (ynpvh)

303 AOP, It's, as written in Amazon, Alder Lake-N100 - Beelink Mini S 12 Pro mini pc is powered by 2023 Latest intel 12th Gen processor etc.

16GB DDR4 + 500GB SSD
Posted by: Braenyard'

All this computer talk reminds me of a yard project: turning an old Dell tower into a birdhouse.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 28, 2024 12:02 PM (43xH1)

304 I paid 179 it lists for 199
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:01 PM (lCWOD)

Thanks, I'll look it up. Hope it's not Win 11.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 12:03 PM (0eaVi)

305 Here's the link to the Beelink page. I bought the one for 179.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+s+12&ref=nav_bb_sb

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:05 PM (lCWOD)

306 Here's the link to the Beelink page. I bought the one for 179.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+s+12&ref=nav_bb_sb
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:05 PM (lCWOD)

Might just get that one. Am I mis-reading? It says under OS it's OS. Runs win or lin or mac?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 28, 2024 12:08 PM (0eaVi)

307 It has not OS. I bought a Mint stick ($19) from them and paid a computer business $40 to install it. Old 7 didn't have the stuff to do it.

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:08 PM (lCWOD)

308 I am divesting myself from bondage which includes dumping all things Microsoft.

Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:10 PM (lCWOD)

309 AOP, It's, as written in Amazon, Alder Lake-N100 - Beelink Mini S 12 Pro mini pc is powered by 2023 Latest intel 12th Gen processor etc.

16GB DDR4 + 500GB SSD
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 11:59 AM (lCWOD)

Thanks! $310! Seems like a lot of money compared to the cast-off office boxen I usually use.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 28, 2024 12:12 PM (8zz6B)

310 Here's the link to the Beelink page. I bought the one for 179.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=beelink+s+12&ref=nav_bb_sb
Posted by: Braenyard at April 28, 2024 12:05 PM (lCWOD)

Ah! $179, much better. I think I may just order one. It would be nice to have something with more current hardware.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at April 28, 2024 12:23 PM (8zz6B)

311
124 Just finished "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson. Horribly burned pr0n star finds love and redemption with a grotesque sculptor who claims to have known him and loved him 700 years before in Medieval Germany. I cannot recommend this book more highly. It is an astonishing tale.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 28, 2024 09:59 AM (/RHNq)

***

This premise sounded vaguely familiar. Checked my Kindle buying history and realized I already have this, unread.

I purchased it based on a Moron's recommendation - in 2017.

This is the second recommended book in today's thread I realize that I have had unread for years.

(And I have bought several dozen books so far this year!)

I seriously need to review my library on Kindle.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at April 28, 2024 01:16 PM (G8nnv)

312 @230 --

Yes. Definitely.

The rule in J-school: "Don't verb nouns."

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 28, 2024 01:38 PM (p/isN)

313 Kindletot; thanks for reminding me about Walt Kelly's Pogo. I sort of grew up reading them in the late 50s and early 60s. As you say, there's a lot packed in the strips, much of which I missed at the time-because I was 8-10; the trips are sort of like Bob Clampett's Time for Beany/Beany and Cecil and Jay Ward and Bill Scott's various cartoons like Rocky and Bulwinkle-they work at multiple levels, and so can be enjoyed by adults and kids. The adult stuff in Pogo is political and social commentary (Kelly was, I believe, a New Deal/Adlai Stevenson/New Frontier liberal) very much grounded in the time, so much of the political and social humor would be missed by most today. Kelly's caricatures of political figures like Tailgunner Joe McCarthy, Vice-President Nixon, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro were evocative of the actual people (most, oddly enough with heavy 5 O'clock shadow), and the story lines are somewhat familiar to those who know the politics of the period. On the other hand, lots of stuff that was undoubtedly well-known at the time is unknown to most today.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 28, 2024 02:08 PM (cYrkj)

314 Pogo, cont.

For example, IIRC, the strip had an extensive story line about the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne-the swamp critters planned to send a team to compete-that was reprised a bit for the 1960 Rome Olympics-cut to the chase, the swamp critters didn't make it to Melbourne. I'm sure there was some sort of news hook that Kelly based the stories on, but I have no idea what it was.

Anyway, interesting stuff albeit very much of its time, and so a bit hard to understand in all its facets today.
Although, t least two bits from Pogo entered into popular expression, and probably remain so today among the Baby Boomer generation. The first is Pogo's expression, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." The second is the annual Christmas time rewording of "Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly," as, for example, "Deck us all with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo! Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley, Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!" I'd guess there were a dozen verses or more published in Pogo over the years.

The strips have been reprinted as book compilations-that's how I first read them as a yute at the time, and then some or most were reprinted in the mid 70s.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 28, 2024 02:20 PM (cYrkj)

315 Pogo, end.

Worth a look, if that's your sort of thing, but don't expect to get all the allusions or jokes. There's probably a doctoral thesis on political humor of the mid-20th Century lurking there for someone with the patience to suss out the details.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 28, 2024 02:24 PM (cYrkj)

316 @Open Blogger - Don't use the word "gender" when you mean "sex". It grants the crazies with the framework for their idiocies.

I remember the first time I saw "gender" - it was on an application or intake form. Does everyone recall the joke about forms: Sex? male or female? The applicant would draw a box and write "often" next to it. I figured OK - maybe everyone is sick of the joke.

Now the joke is on us. There is no such thing as "gender" except in the romantic languages where nouns take a masculine or feminine "gender". It is not a synonym for "sex" so we should just stop using it.

Posted by: Jake Speed at April 28, 2024 02:40 PM (Vu1jV)

317 @316 --

Reminds me of the woman who was filling out her application for U.S. citizenship (yes, this is an old joke).

She came to the question: "Do you advocate the overthrow of the U.S. government by subversion or violence?"

She thought for several minutes, then wrote down "violence."

Posted by: Weak Geek knows it's not so funny anymore at April 28, 2024 04:37 PM (p/isN)

318 Bushwah. I remember you maternal grandfather (b. 1885) Using it as a generic epithet.

Now reading: Hampton Sides - Blood and Thunder. It's 50% a biography of Kit Carson and 50% a history of how the US acquired the Southwest and California (spoiler: naked military aggression- although in an almost comedic manner). I was vaguely aware of the Kit Carson legend, but the reality is legendary.

We just put up some new bookcases, so I've started unpacking some more book boxes. I found I have almost an entire shelf of Donald Hamilton paperbacks. Next project: re-reading 31 Matt Helm novels.

Posted by: buddhaha at April 28, 2024 11:26 PM (M1o0g)

319 Ι do accept as true with all the ideɑs you've presented in your post.
They are veгy convincing and can ϲertainly work. Νonetheless, the posts are too brief
for novices. Could y᧐u please prolong them
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Posted by: saliva at April 30, 2024 04:35 AM (40KOV)

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