Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-24-2024 ["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. 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?

PIC NOTE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I am very thankful for each and every one of you Morons that stops by this scruffy corner of a smart, military blog to comment on books and reading. It's been a truly wonderful experience these past couple years.

HOW TIKTOK RUINED BOOKS

The YouTuber above raises some interesting points about how social media has changed the ways in which people read books. According to his research, people on TikTok can feel enormous social pressure to conform to the latest trends in book reading in order to conform to the current zeitgeist. So you see many, many TikTok videos that cover the same book again and again and again. I think you can see this to a lesser extent among BookTubers who always seem to talk about the same books that have been published in recent years.

The idea that BookTokkers feel compelled to buy tens of books per month is disturbing, as it means the industry is cultivating hording behavior among readers. Now, I like to collect books as much as the next person, and I have hundreds of books in my TBR pile. But in recent years, the vast majority of those books have been from library books sales or used bookstores as much as anything. I also find it a bit weird that people will buy books just so they can produce a "book haul" video. I see a bunch of these in my YouTube feed as well, but I generally ignore them because I don't care. I'll post a picture of my own book hauls on this here website (see below!) but that's as far as it goes.

It will be interesting to see how the changes wrought by social media on reading habits plays out in the next few years. AI-written books are certainly going to become a thing. I remember last year after the Maui wildfire, I suddenly saw a book written about the wildfire that was published on Amazon only a few days after the start of the wildfire. Investigating the author revealed "he" was writing a book a month, which seems very unlikely. My conclusion was someone was experimenting with AI-produced books to push the boundaries of AI's capabilities in that area. Oh, and all of the books had several 5-star ratings on Amazon, of course.

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READ WHAT YOU OWN CHALLENGE

Last week we talked about "gamification" in reading. One gamification strategy is the read-what-you-own challenge, where the goal is to read a set number of books before you buy any more. Dutch Greybeard accepted this challenge and now shares the results. Although he didn't quite meet his original goal of reading 50 books before buying any new ones, he did accomplish a deeper goal of reflecting on his reading habits and motivations. Before the challenge, he was buying dozens of books a month, but didn't know when--or if--he'd ever get around to reading them. Now, he has a much better understanding of how much he reads in a given year. He also sees the wisdom is putting off books that you may NOT actually read, but only purchased because of the FOMO--the fear of missing out. Everyone else was reading these books, so he felt like he was falling behind if he didn't at least own them himself with the intent to read them.

After going through this experience, Dutch Greybeard can now pace himself better and moderate his reading habits. Much of what he talks about is touched upon in the first video I posted above about TikTok ruining reading. Dutch Greybeard was trying to keep up with the cool kids instead of focusing in on his own motivations for reading good books. Sounds like he will have more enriching reading experiences going forward.

BOOKS BY MORONS

"Max Cossack" has a new book out in his Wilder Bunch series:

High Jingo begins with a young couple in love "spelunking" in a cave that isn't really a cave, but an abandoned mineshaft, a relic of a Gold Rush that wasn't really a "rush" but more of a Gold Kerfuffle that never materialized. The couple is assisted by a beer-loving husky dog which eschews the normal protocols of an archaeological dig and willy-nilly unearths an artifact with Hebrew letters on it. And the reader thinks, "This is not your every-day story!"
And that reader is correct. Once again, three generations of the Wilder Bunch take us on an historical, occasionally hysterical, adventure. The story is as old as pogroms in Eastern Europe and as new as Jewish students being abused by pro-terrorist elements paying full tuition even at 4th rate diploma mills. A ripping yarn, full of love, courage and righteous anger, it careens from Medieval Hungary to Israel to a small rural town in Minnesota and up the road to St. Paul. As the old movie line goes, "Fasten your seatbelts; You're in for a bumpy ride."
Available in eBook or Paperback or Audiobook at Amazon.com
Or only in paperback directly from the author on the author's own store, VWAM Books
PLUS: There is a 15% discount at VWAM Books for ACE people, good for all Max Cossack novels and all Ammo Grrrll collections as well. Just enter ACEDISCOUNT (one word, all CAPS) at checkout.

PROPER USE OF BOOKMARKS

Biden's Dog sent me an email recently asking me if he was the only one who used a bookmark to not only mark the page where he last stopped, but also indicated where on the page he stopped. He uses a simple post-it-note with arrows indicating his place on that page.

Me, I'll stick with repurposing land cards from Magic: The Gathering as I have thousands of them. They are also cheap (about $0.10 from your local game store) and sturdy enough to last through several books.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I continue to dip into George MacDonald (in this case The Princess and the Goblin) and GK Chesterton. They were both prolific so I'll be doing this for years. Chesterton for his insight, wit and humor and superb writing which is a pleasure of its own. MacDonald for his ability to create worlds and characters that a small child can follow and enjoy but also appeal to adults. His imagination is as creative as any in literature and his ability to express that imagination is beyond my ability to praise sufficiently. It is easy to understand his influence on Lewis, Tolkien and others. If Shakespeare had written prose he might have approached MacDonald's level. Think of A Midsummer Night's Dream as a novel.
I find it interesting that there seem to be a lot of new editions of MacDonald's works. Apparently, there is a demand.
Posted by: JTB at November 17, 2024 09:26 AM (yTvNw)

Comment: As a lover of fantasy literature, I really, really need to read some George MacDonald. I keep hearing how he influenced great authors like Tolkien and Lewis. I like to read the stories that inspired others. I think it's great that there's an apparent demand--makes the author more accessible to modern readers.

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Persuasion by Jane Austen is my latest foray into early 19th century English society. The story is a good one, featuring the middle child of a titled spendthrift widower who has no male heirs but does have an ego as big as Dallas (as we say). This middle child was nearly engaged but family objected to the young naval officer who proposed so the relationship was called off. Fortunately, love abides and the young couple meets after several years apart and each discovers their feelings have not changed. Boy gets girl in the end. The society is tightly structured and I found myself wondering how these people were able to endure it.
Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 17, 2024 10:32 AM (rxCpr)

Comment: Jane Austen seems to have timeless appeal. I read Mansfield Park in college and was pleasantly surprised at how engaging the story was for me. As I get older, perhaps I shall revisit Austen's other works...

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Last week I read for escapism and Christopher Taylor's Life Unworthy delivered. It opens with a scene from a Nazi death camp. The soldiers assigned to operate the gas chamber sense that something did not go right with their last group execution. When they open the door to the chamber, they're attacked and killed by a werewolf which escapes into Nazi-occupied Warsaw. This beast is then hunted by the Nazis, a doctor who wants to learn how to reproduce the beast, and a spiritualist whose motives are a mystery for most of the book. The man who has been cursed, is doing his best to keep the beast inside him under control while running from the Nazis and then becomes involved with a young Gypsy widow. Lots of interesting characters whose stories are woven together to create a very entertaining story.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at November 17, 2024 11:01 AM (FkuFp)

Comment: As usual, I like to highlight recommendations of Moron-authored books. Christopher R. Taylor took a long hiatus from the blog, but he's been posting regularly now, and it's good to have him back. I, too, enjoyed Life Unworthy. It gave us a sympathetic, if cursed, protagonist who knows he contains a terrible rage inside him, but he uses it for good by killing Nazis. Who can argue with that?

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

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

Well, I went to my local library's book sale this week. I saw several folks I know, as usual. And I made out like a bandit, as usual.

Star Wars - Han Solor at Stars' End by Brian Daley - This is one of the earliest novels in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, before there *was* such a thing as an EU.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois

The Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom

The City by Dean Koontz

Demon Seed by Dean Koontz

Midnight by Dean Koontz

Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

Deeply Odd by Dean Koontz

Saint Odd by Dean Koontz

The Forbidden Door by Dean Koontz

Seize the Night by Dean Koontz

Strange Highways edited by Dean Koontz

Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston

Blasphemy by Douglas Preston

The Majipoor Chronicles by Robert Silverberg

The Unwilling Warlord by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Lords of the Sky by Angus Wells

This Is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams

The Select by F. Paul Wilson

A Dictionary of Euphemisms & Other Doubletalk: Being a Compilation of Linguistic Fig Leaves and Verbal Flourishes for Artful Uses of the English Language by Hugh Rawson

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.

Saga of the Forgotten Warrior Book 4 - Tower of Silence by Larry Correia

As Correia reveals details about his world, we find out that there's a lot of hidden backstory, but Larry is pretty good about slowly doling out the exposition over time. We can now see that the history between humans and demons is vast and complicated. Much of what the humans believe has turned out to be lies and misinformation as the current ruling caste uses its power to remain in power. To acknowledge the claims of the casteless as the true heirs of the hero Ramorowan would overthrow society, though it's already teetering on the brink.

Saga of the Forgotten Warrior Book 5 - Graveyard of Demons by Larry Correia

Now that the demons believe the casteless have all been eliminated through the Great Extermination orchestrated by Grand Inquisitor Ormand, they are launching a major offensive operation against the humans, striking at the very heart of civilization deep in the middle of the continent, as far away from the hellish oceans as possible. Meanwhile, Ormand seeks to claim godhood by finding the source of the demons' power. Ashok and his allies continue to fight both the demons and the oppressive society that has led to the slaughter of countless innocents.

Weirdly, this series reminds me of both the Wizardry and Might and Magic computer games. I wonder if Larry every played those...

The Last King of Osten Ard Book 4 - The Navigator's Children by Tad Williams

One thing I really like about Tad Williams' epic series is that he always includes a synopsis of the previous books in the series so I don't feel like I have to re-read them in order to know what's going on. This means I can dive right into his last book in the series and feel like I'm all caught up. This books reveals the hidden history of the Tinukeda'ya, the mysterious changelings that traveled to Osten Ard countless aeons ago enslaved to the Sithi and Norns, who were all one people back then. The Norn Queen Utuk'ku wages war on both the mortals and Sithi to reach the Valley of Mists, where she hopes to accomplish her ultimate act of vengeance.

True to form, Williams provides plenty of exposition in the final book in the series, explaining just exactly what's been going on throughout the entire series up until this point. He still leaves plenty of mysteries for the characters, though, as there is so much background knowledge required, the main human characters are often befuddled and confused by events far beyond their understanding.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 11-17-2024 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. It's a lot easier to hunt for books than it is for deer.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Did some beta reading this week. Does that count? Thanksgiving week, so not much time for anything but getting ready for Christmas.

Preteen a little sick, so might have to cut out early.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 08:59 AM (0eaVi)

2 Trying to read Hegseths book.

Posted by: rhennigantx at November 24, 2024 09:00 AM (gbOdA)

3 Top 5?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:01 AM (omVj0)

4 Perf, both vids are the same.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:01 AM (0eaVi)

5 Perf, both vids are the same.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:01 AM (0eaVi)
---
Thanks!
I think I've fixed it!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 24, 2024 09:04 AM (BpYfr)

6 According to his research, people on TikTok can feel enormous social pressure to conform to the latest trends in book reading in order to conform to the current zeitgeist. So you see many, many TikTok videos that cover the same book again and again and again.

That holds the same for YTers who "try" things or react to others. See one vid of a foreigner who's gone to some bbq place, then multiple others post their visit to the same blinking place. Usually a day or two after the first one.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:05 AM (0eaVi)

7 Tolle Lege
But didn't read a thing all week

Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 09:05 AM (Niu9o)

8 BOOKEN MORGEN HORDEN!

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:07 AM (WL2lA)

9 "but in recent years, the vast majority of those books have been from library books sales or used bookstores as much as anything"

In my case, the number of used books is approximately 100 percent. It isn't that I'm cheap as much as the dearth of new books worth buying.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 09:07 AM (tSsb6)

10 Started my annual re-reading of LOTR. Tolkien certainly had a way with words. His writing always impressed me ever since I first read the Hobbit as a teen.
Also been watching Malcolm Guite on the Utube. He is one interesting fellow. Makes me wish I had a room to myself for all my books and a nice chair to sit in. And a bottle of bourbon. Can’t forget the bourbon.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at November 24, 2024 09:07 AM (enxwN)

11 This week I finished some short stories in The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Volume Two, edited by Gordon Van Gelder. The later stories, post 1990, are not to my taste -- too literary and "What did I just read?" But there is "Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison, "-- All You Zombies --" by Heinlein (a story I've never understood), and "The Friendship Light" by Gene Wolfe. The latter is creepy and effective. While there are a couple of interpretations you can put on the tale, which is sorta literary, you can simply enjoy it as a weird-fest.

Oh, and there is a good Stephen King short story too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:08 AM (omVj0)

12 I am thankful for the Book Thread, a shining interlude of sanity and joy in the darkest of years.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:09 AM (WL2lA)

13 Perfesser, I beg to differ with your disclaimer:

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. It's a lot easier to hunt for books than it is for deer.

The deer show up in the yard every morning, but it's a pain in the ass trying to figure out which box in the garage contains volume x of the series I'm currently reading. Maybe I need to hit IKEA for more bookshelves....

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at November 24, 2024 09:09 AM (e/Osv)

14 I'm visiting family this week, so I won't have time to actually participate in this week's conversation. So, have fun, all!

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 24, 2024 09:09 AM (0UoT+)

15 It gave us a sympathetic, if cursed, protagonist who knows he contains a terrible rage inside him, but he uses it for good by killing Nazis. Who can argue with that?

Well, he could have killed Reds too....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:10 AM (0eaVi)

16 I dipped into Juvenal and Martial recently. They wrote savage satire and insult comedy. Now those guys were cruel!

Posted by: Please Place The gp In The Bag at November 24, 2024 09:11 AM (5G6LU)

17 Good morning again morons and thanks perfesser

I might read Hegseth's book but that "Dictionary of Euphemisms" has caught my interest.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 24, 2024 09:11 AM (RIvkX)

18 I heard Cormac McCarthy died. I realize it was a while back but his name keeps popping up on news sites. I know he was controversial here but I am glad I read him. My favorite book was “All the Pretty Horses”. The weirdest book was “The Crossing”. The one book I will never forget Blood Meridian. I know everyone says that, but you don’t forget that book. I still say all the pretty horses was better.

Posted by: Quint at November 24, 2024 09:11 AM (y1Yk9)

19 Hah!

Read What You Own must have been reading my mind, because after a year of nearly filling out classic mystery and SF series collections, one of my resolutions for the coming new year is to suspend book purchases and, um, read what I own.

This will have one exception: The trip to Half Price Books during the TxMoMe.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:11 AM (p/isN)

20 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor!

And a happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you and all the Moron Horde! I am thankful to have this thread each week, and thankful for the hard work that goes into creating it. And most thankful for the lively repartee that makes each Book Thread so special!

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (rxCpr)

21 Earlier this week I finished Agatha Christie's Murder in Retrospect, aka Five Little Pigs. A Poirot story, it features solid plotting and surprises, good analysis by Hercule, and much better characterization of the people involved than I expected. I'm beginning to think that Christie deserves the reputation she has as a mystery writer, and that she deserves better regarding her portraits of people.

I've picked up Curtain Up, an examination of Christie's work in the theatre, and a couple more of her own works.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (omVj0)

22 Those Hebrew letters on the book cover are the last two letter in the word for truth

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (RIvkX)

23 "The Weed Agency" continues to grow and thrive. We're now into the Clinton administration, and the Reaganaut budget cutter who was outfoxed by the agency's director has just come into Congress as part of the GOP red wave. He vows to wipe out the agency.

However, he's probably doomed to disappointment because an IT whiz at the agency plans to create a searchable online database of weed species, and new Speaker Gingrich is besotten with the concept.

And the game goes on.

(What happened to the Red Wave folks, anyway?)

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (p/isN)

24 Thanks!
I think I've fixed it!
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 24, 2024 09:04 AM (BpYfr)

Ye did!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

25 According to his research, people on TikTok can feel enormous social pressure to conform to the latest trends in book reading in order to conform to the current zeitgeist.

--
Maybe this is why I see ridiculously long hold lists on some new books of dubious quality at the library.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (WL2lA)

26 "Oh dear," he told himself. "This will never do: they're going to cook me without tucking some thyme and bayleaves into the sacking, and I am sure I would taste better if they covered me with a rasher or two of fatty bacon. O my, to be cooked is not good, to be sure, but to be cooked badly is a tragic way to end one's days!"

He swooned once more, and when he next emerged into consciousness he found himself crying out, "Make sure you put some cranberry and onion confit on the table, for I'll taste a good bit better with that!"

-- Mole, who has been kidnapped and trussed by hungry weasels and stoats, in "The Willows at Christmas" by William Horwood

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 09:14 AM (kpS4V)

27 Maybe I need to hit IKEA for more bookshelves....

-SLV
Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at November 24, 2024 09:09 AM (e/Osv)

makes phone hand

Call us!

Posted by: Ace Shelving Co. at November 24, 2024 09:15 AM (0eaVi)

28 Bookmarks to me are whatever is at hand, from the receipt for the book to a piece of an envelope from the day's junk mail. I am not one of those phillistines who folds pages over.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 09:15 AM (tSsb6)

29 Morning, Horde.

Mostly short pieces this week, skimming through a few short stories and essays. Acquired a hardcover copy of Dana Gioia's 99 Poems, ebook of which I'd picked up on the kindle and decided I'd like a print edition for the shelf. I don't read a lot of poetry and can't recall how I came across his work, but I find quite a few of his pieces just lovely. There are some videos of him reading samples of his poetry, and farther down the page links to several you can read online, at:

https://danagioia.com/poems-2/

Check out "Summer Storm" and "Unsaid" in particular -- those were the ones that made me a fan. His essays are pretty good too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 09:15 AM (q3u5l)

30 like colleen hoover, who apparently has a niche audience,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:15 AM (pGTZo)

31 I just use a scrap piece of paper for a bookmark.

Posted by: dantesed at November 24, 2024 09:15 AM (Oy/m2)

32 I just remember where I left off.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 24, 2024 09:18 AM (RIvkX)

33 Yay Book Thread!

Still working through Gilbert's Churchill. Kind of a long book, actually, but continues to entertain.

Churchill was a total workaholic, always moving onto the next thing. Conversely, he mixed his work with two-week long vacations in southern France or Spain. Even when "working" he like to commandeer Navy ships and cruise about in them.

Anyhow, we're in the 1920s and he's at low ebb, having lost his office, his seat, and his appendix. This is the second time his career was pronounced over (the first was in 1915). I don't think he's done, though.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:18 AM (ZOv7s)

34 Last night, moviegique reviewed "The Prime of Miss Jean Brody" in the Movie Thread.

"The Prime of Miss Jean Brody" was a very good novel written by Muriel Sharp before it was a movie.

Sharp was greatly admired by Evelyn Waugh and wrote several excellent novels.

If you're curious give "The Girls of Slender Means" a whirl. It's a good intro to what she's all about. And, BONUS! Anthony Burgess considered it one of his "99 Great Novels of the 20th Century. He also listed her "The Mandelbaum Gate" as well.

Sharp has that same Catholic-informed dark humor that infuses the writings of Evelyn Waugh and Flannery O'Connor. If you like their writings, you'll
probably like her's.

Check her out.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024 09:20 AM (eDfFs)

35 Almost finished with Tim Sullivan's "The Dentist," featuring his new character, DS George Cross, a middle aged single man, autistic, homicide detective in Bristol, out on the Atlantic coast of Britain.

Sullivan has done a lot of screenwriting, and this story has a cast made for a limited series on one of the streaming channels. His partner is a divorced black woman with two kids, the squad room has a boss (here it would be a lieutenant) who is a political climber, there is a fresh young face, a young woman fresh from the uni, and a bereaved family that tics all the boxes.

Three adult sisters grieve for their murdered dad, a dentist, who seven years ago did a runner, disappeared, never found, who turns up dead not far from his home, had been living homeless the entire time.

Youngest sis is a lesbian, she and her partner have two biracial kids, middle sis always dresses as if she is an exec at Fox News, oldest wears black suits.

But the show is George Cross, who cannot relate socially to anyone at all, cannot get a joke, only speaks when directly addressed, he's severely beset with autism. But shines as a detective, particularly in interviewing witnesses and suspects.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at November 24, 2024 09:20 AM (KiBMU)

36 So, I happened to be in the library and found a few novels to read. First up is Open Carry by Marc Cameron. Not familiar with this author but it appears he has done a couple of Jack Ryan books and a series, so I will put him on my list for future purchases. Open Carry is a murder mystery set in southeast Alaska. The hero is a former military man turned U.S. Marshal. The guy is gruff but likeable and very capable but also has a lot of personal baggage. Three people go missing off a remote island, and the Marshals are called in to arrest a fugitive who appears to be a likely suspect. Tangled plot, likeable characters (except for the bad guys who are very bad), surprises around each corner and very descriptive prose. Looks like there is a second book which I will also be on the lookout for.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 24, 2024 09:21 AM (rxCpr)

37 Is it possible to hate-read a book? Yes, yes it is. I started to dislike this book within the first five pages, then turned to strong dislike, followed by disgust and then even self-loathing. By the end I kept reading as punishment for buying the damn thing.

So, I just finished up 'the book of elsewhere' by Keanu Reeves and China Mieville. I confess to buying it because I love Keanu, even though I have read Mieville in the past and loathed his work.

I am extremely sorry to say that Keanu did not improve the book. Imagine ChatGPT swallowed the thesaurus and then got the prompt to 'make a hyper-pretentious novel about death and immortality and a tusked pig that will not die, with a wide cast of characters that are pretty indistinguishable, with stream-of-consciousness intellectualoid writing. And make it lame'.

That would have been a step up from this drek. Aaagh.

Posted by: Candidus at November 24, 2024 09:21 AM (zGvse)

38 During one of my visits to our local used-book store, a grade-school girl was selling custom bookmarks, which were blank note cards that she colored on one side with markers.

I bought two (50 cents each) to reward the entreprenurial spirit.

It irks me that Nero Wolfe dog-ears the pages of most of the books he read. Philistine.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:21 AM (p/isN)

39 Sharp has that same Catholic-informed dark humor that infuses the writings of Evelyn Waugh and Flannery O'Connor. If you like their writings, you'll
probably like her's.

Check her out.
Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024

***
I read Brodie earlier this year, I think it was, and liked it. Can't recall if I read another one of hers earlier; the titles you mention sound familiar.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:22 AM (omVj0)

40 well that was one way of looking at things, because of his stance on India, he didn't get the leadership posts like baldwin and chamberlain, but he had the last laugh,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:22 AM (pGTZo)

41 Yeah, the book haul phenomenon is weird.

I respect speed readers - like Harriet Klausner, hall of fame reviewer- but some booktok haulers don't just NOT read the books they buy, they return it gor refunds at the bookstore.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:22 AM (WL2lA)

42 Bookmarks to me are whatever is at hand, from the receipt for the book to a piece of an envelope from the day's junk mail. I am not one of those phillistines who folds pages over.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 09:15 AM (tSsb6)
---
Pretty much. I have a few bookmarks that came from the bookstores, and now I hesitate to use them because so many are gone. The well-used Jocundry's in particular brings me the sadz. The Archives in now gone, so no more of those, I guess.

Slips of paper, expired membership cards, magazine reply cards all have their uses.

The key determinant is the size of the book.

When I was writing Long Live Death and Walls of Men, I took scrap paper from work or junk mail, folded repeatedly and came up with 16 bookmarks per 8 1/2x 11 sheet. These I folded in half and used to mark my citations. I kept a stack of them ready at hand because you never knew when you'd hit upon something interesting.

Part of the ritual of finishing the book was the removal of these and their shelving.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:22 AM (ZOv7s)

43 You want to inherit your grandfather's extensive library, being someone who treasures books.
You'd settle for a portion, because it's up to the non-book-loving executor.
What you get is a truckload of Reader's Digest condensed books and paperback romance novels.

Posted by: Why the long face, fellow? at November 24, 2024 09:23 AM (UyyOe)

44 oh that was a deeply cringe book, but mieville is a cringe character,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:23 AM (pGTZo)

45 Finished Alan Smale's "Radiant Sky", the follow-on to "Hot Moon". Can't wait for the next in this alt-Space Race history series.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 09:23 AM (kpS4V)

46 I hoard pretty bookmarks but use scraps of paper as actual bookmarks.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:23 AM (WL2lA)

47
It irks me that Nero Wolfe dog-ears the pages of most of the books he read. Philistine.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024

***
He also has a gold-plated book mark given him by a grateful client, and when he uses that, Archie concludes the book is something special.

Part of the Wolfe Effect is that he talks like a superman, yes, but he never uses a long word if the exact right one is short. And he does very human things like dog-earing book pages, patting his hands dry with a paper towel in the plant rooms, playing billiards with Archie on Sundays on occasion, and indulging his love of the color yellow even in furniture and shirts.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:25 AM (omVj0)

48 Juvenal complains about what's become of Rome: "Put no trust in appearances; after all isn’t every street packed With sad-looking perverts? How can you castigate sin, when you Yourself are the most notorious of all the Socratic sodomite holes?"

Martial, the insult comic: "Cinna, I am told, is a writer of small squibs against me. A man cannot be called a writer, whose effusions no one reads. ... Nestor, you wonder that Marius' ear smells unpleasantly. You are the cause of this, Nestor; you whisper into it."

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at November 24, 2024 09:26 AM (5G6LU)

49 Over the years I've never tried to have a favorite bookmark. Whenever I've used one I invariably lose it and wind up using whatever's at hand. When I do use a bookmark of whatever kind, it's to remind me of the correct page. I always know what paragraph I read last.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:27 AM (omVj0)

50 For those of use that love Audiobooks, you get a program called MusicFab that will let you download the books that you own from you library, in case Audible decided to edit or change the audiobooks.

Posted by: Patrick From Ohio at November 24, 2024 09:28 AM (YLyhv)

51 I have a drawer full of bookmarks and I like to match the feel of the book to the bookmark.

Some are from long-kaput book stores, some are library gimmes, but most are ones I made from old greeting cards, illustrations, and whatnot.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 09:28 AM (kpS4V)

52 You want to inherit your grandfather's extensive library, being someone who treasures books.
Posted by: Why the long face, fellow? at November 24, 2024 09:23 AM (UyyOe)
---
None of my grandparents were much for books. They mostly read magazines, had lots of subscriptions, but didn't hang on to them. I found that my father's father did have an extensive collection of clippings, neatly sorted into files. Topics included Korea, Vietnam, even the first Gulf War. I inherited those.

My father has a massive library (also crates of vinyl) and I will have to have it trucked somewhere. Way too much for me to absorb and it will likely take days to high-grade it. He just turned 82 but is in good health and expects to reach his 90s as his parents did.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:28 AM (ZOv7s)

53 It is not often that a story about chasing a criminal begins with the viewing of his body on a morgue table, yet this is the impetus for Charles Latimer's pursuit in A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler.

Latimer, a writer, is intrigued by the mysterious life Dimitrios must have led, so he follows the trail from Istanbul through eastern Europe, to Geneva, and finally to Paris. Dimitrios had peddled in trafficking, drugs, and assassinations and Latimer is driven to know his full story.

Ambler cleverly takes the reader back in time through the story, as witnesses and accomplices are found and questioned. And, of course, near the end, Ambler throws a twist in, where Latimer finds himself in a situation way over his head. This is another clever story that captures your attention within the first few pages, and keeps surprising you.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 09:28 AM (vwOEY)

54 I might read Hegseth's book but that "Dictionary of Euphemisms" has caught my interest.

I have it. It’s a great bathroom reader as well as general reference. However, I disagree with the author on what counts as a “euphemism or other double talk”. A lot of the words he thinks are double talk I suspect are more a matter of different times being different cultures and requiring different mindsets to speak clearly.

I don’t have the book at hand right now, but something modern cooks complain about in old recipes is that they don’t give temperatures. They instead use misleading terms like “quiet oven” or “gentle oven” or “sharp oven”. They’re very misleading now but weren’t then. I don’t think he uses that as a specific example but he does write from a similar modern perspective.

That said, the book is definitely a keeper. It’s not a Bill Bryson-style completely fictional language history. It just has its own very modern perspective.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 09:29 AM (olroh)

55 I've got a ton of index cards in a small box on my work table -- if I need a bookmark chances are I'll use one of those. Never could bring myself to fold down a page corner. If it's only going to be for an hour or two and the book's a hardcover, I might use the front or end flap of the dust jacket if I think I might forget where I was.

One nice thing about the ebook reader is that it holds your place in the book.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 09:30 AM (q3u5l)

56 Good Sunday morning, horde!

If I read what I own, I'll never buy another book or visit the library again. I should get started on that. Problem is, sparkly suggestions capture my interest and fit my mood, so off to the library and kindle I go!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

57 Our local library had a bunch of books written by China Mieville. I never got more than 50 pages into his books. He’s mainstream hard left which makes him a trite boor.

Posted by: 13times at November 24, 2024 09:31 AM (cdwVa)

58 Last week I read for escapism and Christopher Taylor's Life Unworthy delivered.
--

Still my all time favorite Moron written book

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:31 AM (7gFa4)

59 Dimitrios is based on a real life character, Zaharoff the salesman for Vickers,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:31 AM (pGTZo)

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

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 09:32 AM (yTvNw)

61 "FOMO--the fear of missing out. Everyone else was reading these books, so he felt like he was falling behind if he didn't at least own them himself with the intent to read them."

For me, it's nothing to do with what everyone else is reading. It's that something looks interesting to me, and I want to read it, but maybe not just right now, and I don't want to miss my opportunity to acquire it. For later.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 09:32 AM (OX9vb)

62 Yes, Dash, I blame Perfessor and the Horde for the sad state of my TBR pile! Something new and shiny always distracts me.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 09:32 AM (kpS4V)

63 (What happened to the Red Wave folks, anyway?)
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:12 AM (p/isN)
---
The Contract With America Republics listed among their goals congressional term limits. This effort failed, but they included in their platform a vow not to serve more than three terms. This meant the most honest among them refused to run for re-election and disappeared.

The only ones to retain office beyond 2000 were therefore the ones who broke their word, which explains a lot about the GOP establishment.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:33 AM (ZOv7s)

64 I don’t have the book at hand right now, but something modern cooks complain about in old recipes is that they don’t give temperatures. They instead use misleading terms like “quiet oven” or “gentle oven” or “sharp oven”. They’re very misleading now but weren’t then. I don’t think he uses that as a specific example but he does write from a similar modern perspective.

That said, the book is definitely a keeper. It’s not a Bill Bryson-style completely fictional language history. It just has its own very modern perspective.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024

***
Old recipes, at least those I used to read in TV Guide, always used "Yield" as the indicator of how much food the recipe was expected to provide. Now we see simply "Makes."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:33 AM (omVj0)

65 The book turkey in the picture is neat. Upon close examination, it appears that pieces were inserted between the pages, and the book wasn't damaged in the making. Kudos!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 09:33 AM (OX9vb)

66 Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 09:28 AM (vwOEY)

I think that was made into an OTR show. I wonder how true the script was to the story. In the show the hero was constantly tying himself into knots to excuse the femme fatal accomplice, which was frustrating and annoying.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 09:33 AM (s9EYN)

67 I read "A Coffin for Dimitrios" a few years ago and enjoyed it.

However, I don't remember how it ended, and I no longer have it.

"Oh, well" or "Phooey!" -- take your pick.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:36 AM (p/isN)

68 Glad to see the jaunty hat back on the squirrel, Perfessor.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at November 24, 2024 09:37 AM (a3Q+t)

69 The book turkey in the picture is neat. Upon close examination, it appears that pieces were inserted between the pages, and the book wasn't damaged in the making. Kudos!
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 09:33 AM

Or, he could be jiving us.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at November 24, 2024 09:37 AM (a3Q+t)

70 Ambler's Dimitrios I know I've read, but don't recall much in the way of details. Journey Into Fear, which someone mentioned here recently, is much more memorable.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:38 AM (omVj0)

71 Glad to see the jaunty hat back on the squirrel
----

Squirrel's got bills to pay, honey!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 09:38 AM (kpS4V)

72 Dash at 56 --

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger on that. Between what's on my bookshelves and what's already on the Kindle, I'll never finish the Amazing Colossal To-Be-Read Pile. If I never buy another book, I've still got more than enough on hand to last me until I'm planted. (Maybe I should have the Kindle and a few favorites buried with me, just in case...) But I'll still browse a bookshop if I happen to get near one, and I spend an inordinate amount of time/cash in the Kindle store and assorted publisher and used book sites.

Of course, I'm not hooked -- I can quit any time I want...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 09:39 AM (q3u5l)

73 Don't know if I mentioned this one already: I'm reading a bio of General Candido Rondon, a Brazilian explorer and military man -- probably best known in this country for being the co-leader of Teddy Roosevelt's Amazon expedition. For Rondon that whole journey was basically another day at the office -- he spent his whole career exploring the Brazilian interior and building telegraph lines through impassable terrain. Oh, and single-handedly reforming Brazil's policy toward the Indians of the Amazon.

He came from a dirt-poor background in the most remote and impoverished province of Amazonian Brazil, but showed such energy and intelligence that he got an appointment to the military academy in Rio, where he impressed his professors and commanders (and picked the right side in the revolution that ended the monarchy). One of those geniuses who come out of nowhere -- kind of messes up both heredity and environment theories of intelligence.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 24, 2024 09:39 AM (ZzAjc)

74 the twist in dimitrious is you can't rely on any account by any of the relaters like Colonel Haki or Peters, they all have agendas, reasons to hide Dimitrious dark doings,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:39 AM (pGTZo)

75 I noticed you have Walter Jon Williams "This Is Not A Game" as one of your book sale buys. This is the first of a good series (some four books to date). I am particularly fond of the 4th in the series "The Fourth Wall". That one is a deft combination of a near future techno thriller, a murder mystery and a merciless satire of Hollywood.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 24, 2024 09:39 AM (aYnHS)

76 Old recipes, at least those I used to read in TV Guide, always used "Yield" as the indicator of how much food the recipe was expected to provide. Now we see simply "Makes."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:33 AM (omVj0)
---
I imagine the appliances/ovens of those days simply did not have the precision measurement of temperature that we do now, so one had to use judgement rather than just stare at the instruction manual and follow the steps.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (ZOv7s)

77 Me trying to decide which books to pack for the next ~~day~~week just in case I read the remaining 300 pages of the book I'm currently reading…

This is me. I know damn well I’m going to buy books on the trip, but just in case I have to pack at least three big hardcovers (I don’t generally deliberately travel with paperbacks).

On my current trip alone I’ve acquired:

- Bill Mendelez’s A Charlie Brown Christmas
- Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons
- Winston Graham’s Marnie
- Robert Tralins’s Supernatural Strangers
- Arthur Conan Doyle’s Tales of Terror and Mystery
- Algernon Blackwood’s Tales of the Mysterious and Macabre
- Asimov et al’s Twelve Frights of Christmas

One book, for the first night of travel, is all I needed to pack.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (olroh)

78 If you have TUBI through streaming...

I stumbled across a neat short(28 minute) video made when Public TV wasn't just a grist mill for progtards,

that had Christopher Plummer depicting Vladimir Nabokov giving a lecture on Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis".

It was excellent and made me wish that old Nabby was still alive, so I could take one of his literature classes.

I highly recommend seeking it out if you're interested in either Kafka or Nabokov.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (eDfFs)

79 Eris, I read Last One at the Wedding- it is a trap book- one of those you don't put down once you start.
I thought the main character was exasperating but relatable.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (7gFa4)

80 I'm working my way through "Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche" by Haruki Murakami. Not for everyone but well done and eye opening.

Folks were talking about Fruitcake. Near Copper Harbor Michigan is a monastery where the monks make several flavors of very good fruit cake, or alcohol in log form.

Posted by: Smellslikevictory at November 24, 2024 09:41 AM (jPdyB)

81 you can think of him a little like a prototype for Blofeld, who had murky origins, how does one get into the arms trade, the soghnanalians the khashoggis more closer to the point the victor bouts of the world

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (pGTZo)

82 There's a book I read years ago. I've forgotten the title and author. It's a strange book and it bugs me that I can't track it down. The author may be an SF author, but it's not an SF book. If I had to put it in a genre, it would be "private detective", but I don't remember if the protagonist is actually a private dick or just a guy who accidentally got involved in a crime. The title probably contains the word "Hell".

The main antagonist is a violent hillbilly with a tumor on his upper lip that looks like tentacles.

The antagonist tries to kill the protagonist twice, and both times the protagonist fights back and wins using a found object. The first time, it's a live snapping turtle. The second time, it's a billiard ball which happens to be on the river bank, because decades ago a steam ship carrying a shipment of billiard balls had a boiler explosion which threw the balls all over the place. At one point, the conspirators capture the protagonist and gouge one of his eyes out, but an old lady with a hunting rifle comes to the rescue.

I'm pretty sure it's a good book. Any ideas what this might be, or how to find it?

Posted by: Bombadil at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (MX0bI)

83 kind of messes up both heredity and environment theories of intelligence.

This is why I detest the conjecture that Nero Wolfe is a descendant of Sherlock Holmes.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (p/isN)

84 I've been rereading Michael Gilbert this week, with a mixed response. I think his first book came out of his experience in a POW camp in WWII. He wrote into his eighties and maintained a full-time career as a lawyer (barrister?). I've read some of them so often I anticipate favorite sentences.

But this time I'm underwhelmed by the amount of time he spends on geography, chiefly of London. Loooong paragraphs of specific neighborhoods that don't convey a lot of mood to a non-Londoner.

Obviously he's still the great writer he always was. I think I've changed as a reader. I want short paras of description that let me imagine them. I want more white space on the page. I'm not sure how to think about it.

Posted by: Wenda at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (YzCJt)

85 78 https://tinyurl.com/4hcwk7ya

Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (5G6LU)

86 I've never read Stephen King, but one day checking out the books at Target, just to see how many were Big Five published, I paged through one of his novels. I was surprised how short his chapters were. I saw one was barely a page long. Is that standard for him?

Makes me think it might not be so bad to have shorter chapters in my writing, than trying to get at least twenty-five to thirty pages out of one.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:43 AM (0eaVi)

87 Hopefully get to more of Martin Gilbert's Churchill, A Lfe today

Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 09:43 AM (fwDg9)

88 I didn't know Aum Shinrikyo were into fruitcake.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 24, 2024 09:43 AM (ZzAjc)

89 Or, he could be jiving us.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at November 24, 2024 09:37 AM (a3Q+t)

If so, that's one cold turkey.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:44 AM (0eaVi)

90 master of war, was perhaps the silliest take on the matter,
for reasons that bout served the purposes of many, from african warlords to the Northern Alliance to their opposite party,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:44 AM (pGTZo)

91 https://tinyurl.com/4hcwk7ya
Posted by: gp's Movie Laffs at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (5G6LU)

Ah! Well, there you go. Thanks, gp!

Kafka via Nabokov via Plummer.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024 09:45 AM (eDfFs)

92 Perfessor,
If you want to start reading George MacDonald fantasy, start with "The Princess and the Goblin" as an example of his ability to appeal to every age group. Also, "Phantastes" which was CS Lewis' introduction to MacDonald. Don't read "Phantastes" if you are distracted. Be in the mood to absorb and appreciate the subtle transitions from everyday life to his fantasy world and to enjoy the incredibly rich descriptions, savoring the word images. It is a book to get lost in.

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 09:45 AM (yTvNw)

93 Vmom, agree.

I think the lead character had normalcy bias -- or maybe niceness bias -- and he just didn't want to make the leap to admitting what was going on.

I admired his patience with his sister and her weird young ward, which paid off in the end.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 09:46 AM (kpS4V)

94 Arms merchants were a convenient scapegoat for the idiots who started World War I.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 24, 2024 09:46 AM (ZzAjc)

95 Makes me think it might not be so bad to have shorter chapters in my writing, than trying to get at least twenty-five to thirty pages out of one.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:43 AM (0eaVi)
---
It depends on what your chapters are supposed to do. In fiction, I have chapters that cover an event or particular plot either emerging or coming to fruition. They are of variable length.

In non-fiction, it's about the topic and again, it may vary considerably.

Also: is it just a number or does it have a title. Seems that ones with numbers are often much shorter.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:46 AM (ZOv7s)

96 Arms merchants were a convenient scapegoat for the idiots who started World War I.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 24, 2024 09:46 AM (ZzAjc)
---
Old and Busted: Merchants of Death.

New Hotness: Arms Sales Boost the Economy!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:47 AM (ZOv7s)

97 I highly recommend seeking it out if you're interested in either Kafka or Nabokov.
Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (eDfFs)

I dunno, it might be a trap.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:47 AM (0eaVi)

98 I try to make my chapters about the same length, and make each one a kind of mini-story within the book.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 24, 2024 09:48 AM (ZzAjc)

99 Bookmarks to me are whatever is at hand, from the receipt for the book to a piece of an envelope from the day's junk mail.

I now have a drawer full of bookmarks acquired at bookstores and other places. But I used to use whatever was at hand. Commonly a concert stub or the receipt for the book. But often more important things that I’d assured myself I’d only be using temporarily until I had time to get a less important marker.

I’m constantly finding things in my older books that I should never have used as a bookmark. A few months ago I was searching through a book for a reference and ran across the bookmark I’d left in it. A recipe for cheesecake from The Smoking Goat in San Diego (which I recommend). I tried the recipe. It was great. That bookmark is no longer being used as a bookmark.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 09:48 AM (olroh)

100 80 A poorly formatted copy, free at archive.org:
https://tinyurl.com/39r46y9a

Posted by: Please Put The gp In The Bag at November 24, 2024 09:48 AM (5G6LU)

101 I finished Everest: The West Ridge by Thomas Hornbein. This is a climb from the 60s, that was different from the standard route, done by two rock climbers. It has some of the best photos I've seen. I am not a climber, so the technical bits go right by me. But it does showcase the obsessive thinking that you usually see at Everest.

Which leads to book 2, that I've almost finished, A Day to Die For, by Graham Ratcliffe. This is about the 1996 FUBAR climb. He was not part of the Hall or Fischer teams, but a smaller group that was asked to delay their summit to let the two bigger groups go through. If you have an interest in this, please avoid Krakauer's Into Thin Air and watch the You Tube videos by Michael Tracy instead. He catches a lot of Krakauer's lies. Anyway, Graham successfully summited twice, but became obessed with an interview that indicated their team was asked to wait because the other two teams knew that the weather would worsen. It's pretty clear they ignored the worsening weather, which blew in earlier than expected. People died as a result. This book was a nice change, since he was an outsider to it all.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at November 24, 2024 09:49 AM (gfViB)

102 You sound as excited about your book purchases as I was as a 2nd grader ordering the paper back books from Scholastic Readers and having them come in a few weeks later. It was almost better than Christmas.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:49 AM (D6PGr)

103 Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (olroh)

I liked Cat Among the Pigeons enough to read it multiple times.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 09:49 AM (s9EYN)

104 I've never read Stephen King, but one day checking out the books at Target, just to see how many were Big Five published, I paged through one of his novels. I was surprised how short his chapters were. I saw one was barely a page long. Is that standard for him?

Makes me think it might not be so bad to have shorter chapters in my writing, than trying to get at least twenty-five to thirty pages out of one.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024

***
As his books grew longer, I think his chapter page count often decreased. It's kind of a standard nowadays in bestsellerdom, to have a number of one- to three-page chapters. It's a useful technique if you want to change the viewpoint character for a short period before returning to the main narrator or protagonist. And short chapters make modern readers think they are flashing through even a long book.

I like to end a chapter with something of a hook to keep the reader turning pages, so if a crisis emerges on page three of Chapter Three, maybe that's a hint to break there. Maybe switch to another viewpoint for a few pages, keep the reader hanging, then come back.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:49 AM (omVj0)

105 I brought the examples to the current day, Bout apparently was released in that cunning deal, sarc, and he' brokering weapons for the Houthis, the Russian John Wick, will probably start knocking people off,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:50 AM (pGTZo)

106 Paperbacks get dog-eared as a bookmark for me.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:50 AM (D6PGr)

107 kind of messes up both heredity and environment theories of intelligence.

This is why I detest the conjecture that Nero Wolfe is a descendant of Sherlock Holmes.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (p/isN)

Like how could some regular school boy from the sticks write fantastic plays? It must have been really done by an elite person.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:51 AM (0eaVi)

108 I liked Cat Among the Pigeons enough to read it multiple times.

Thanks. That’s likely to be one of the ones I get to sooner rather than later.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 09:51 AM (olroh)

109 Without going back to verify -- if memory serves, King's chapter lengths tend to vary with the book in question. The novellas' chapters tend to be pretty short, but the longer the novel the longer the chapter. This is, again, from memory.

I think Lawrence Block had a chapter in one of his Chip Harrison novels that consisted of one sentence: "The gun jammed."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 09:51 AM (q3u5l)

110 Stephen King has had over 90 movies made from his books /novelettes.

That’s quite an accomplishment.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:51 AM (D6PGr)

111 The book turkey in the picture is neat. Upon close examination, it appears that pieces were inserted between the pages, and the book wasn't damaged in the making. Kudos!

'Tis the season for craft fairs and my wife likes them so I go to a lot of them. There's always a brief cringe when I see decorative... "stuff" made from books (sometimes very artfully). But on inspection the books are always things that would have eventually ended up in the landfill anyway so I grudgingly admit that it's a good use for them.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 24, 2024 09:52 AM (/y8xj)

112 I want more white space on the page.

Posted by: Wenda at November 24, 2024 09:42 AM (YzCJt)

You'll love my book of accomplishments! Out soon!

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 09:52 AM (0eaVi)

113 Anyone else not particularly like or get the fuss about Confederacy of Dunces?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:53 AM (D6PGr)

114 Good morning Horde. Thanks much Perfessor. Your reading volume and retention continues to be impressive. Our library has books that we've read a long time ago. No way that I remember everything, they'll probably feel new when I go back and read again.

Posted by: TRex at November 24, 2024 09:53 AM (IQ6Gq)

115 only a detective like a nero wolfe would really risk investigating these characters, certainly none of the organs,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:54 AM (pGTZo)

116 Just a warning for those of you who like a lot of bookmarks.
I have a hardback cookbook, The Yankee Cookbook by Imogene Wolcott, that I put in so many bookmarks that they split the endpapers and separated the cover from the pages.
I have been putting of doing a repair on it

Posted by: Kindltot at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM (D7oie)

117 In my mysteries, I've titled my chapters, which tend to be a bit longer, by quoting a line of dialogue (comic, often, but not always) from that chapter. For instance, "I'll Have His Kidneys for Hood Ornaments" or "Is That a Boy Dog?"

It's fun for me and the reader, I think. I grabbed that from David McDaniel's technique in his Man From U.N.C.L.E. original novels of the 1960s. A variant of it is still older, i.e., "In Which the Queens* Take Stock," or "How Mr. Waverly Spoke Severely of Rainbows, and Illya Kuryakin Remained Unimpressed."

(* Ellery Queen and his father the Inspector, that is)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM (omVj0)

118 Posted by: TRex at November 24, 2024 09:53 AM (IQ6Gq)

I’m due to read Gates of Fire and Armor again. Enough time has passed where I can enjoy again the parts I remember and revisit the parts I had forgotten.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM (D6PGr)

119 Anyone else not particularly like or get the fuss about Confederacy of Dunces?
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:53 AM (D6PGr)
---
When it came out, I started it and immediately put it down within a page or two.

Instant dislike.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM (ZOv7s)

120 113 Anyone else not particularly like or get the fuss about Confederacy of Dunces?
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth

--

*raises hand*
Someone gave me a copy because it was their favorite book; I didn't finish it but lied and said it was funny.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:56 AM (J5RCE)

121 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:46 AM (ZOv7s)

A.H., I've done both. One western has chapter titles, most of the others are numbered.

The current project of my own, not the epistolary for ALH, I think each chapter is based on scenes. Typing on the computer give about five to eight pages for each chapter.

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 09:56 AM (0eaVi)

122 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM (ZOv7s)

I got about half way before I put it down. Was waiting for it to hit me and it just never did.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:57 AM (D6PGr)

123 You sound as excited about your book purchases as I was as a 2nd grader ordering the paper back books from Scholastic Readers and having them come in a few weeks later.

And now we order stuff online with 2-3 day delivery and check the shipping status twice a day to see where it is.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 24, 2024 09:57 AM (/y8xj)

124 Anyone else not particularly like or get the fuss about Confederacy of Dunces?
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024

***
It is occasionally funny, with eccentric characters, and a good portrait of New Orleans during the time I grew up here. There are more hilarious novels like Richard Bradford's Red Sky at Morning, which deserves to be better known. I'd recommend RSaM over ACoD anytime.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:58 AM (omVj0)

125 wolfe was montenegrin, so much like an ambler character, I think the late maury chaykin couldn't pull of that part of the character,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 09:58 AM (pGTZo)

126 116 this is where those sticky note tabs that go at the outer edge of the page are useful.
Having said that, I better convert my old Joy of Cooking bookmarks to that

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:58 AM (J5RCE)

127 Tried twice to read A Confederacy of Dunces and just couldn't get into it. Decades ago, though, so maybe I'd like it now. But it ain't anywhere near the top of the reading priority list.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 09:58 AM (q3u5l)

128 I try to make my chapters about the same length, and make each one a kind of mini-story within the book.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 24, 2024 09:48 AM (ZzAjc)

It seems to work out that way for some reason. I've also noticed if I'm not careful, the paragraphs all are the same number of lines.

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 09:58 AM (0eaVi)

129 Like how could some regular school boy from the sticks write fantastic plays? It must have been really done by an elite person.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 09:51 AM (0eaVi)
---
New Men are always a threat to the existing order. They are free of preconceptions and will do the unexpected.

They also undermine the notion that credentialism (which comes in many forms, used to be ancestry, now its college degrees) has any link with competence.

I will say that I'm increasingly seeing the virtue of aristocracy insofar as there were demands put on the sons of the family to wear the uniform and stop a bullet for the sake of family honor.

Our "meritocracy" contains zero personal stake on the part of the elites.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:59 AM (ZOv7s)

130 "Is That a Boy Dog?"
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM

And is that how he identifies?

Posted by: Democrats at November 24, 2024 09:59 AM (a3Q+t)

131 only a detective like a nero wolfe would really risk investigating these characters, certainly none of the organs,
Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024

***
It would depend on who was paying Wolfe's fee. I believe he once said, "It takes a fillip on the flank for my mare to dance."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:59 AM (omVj0)

132 A few months ago I was searching through a book for a reference and ran across the bookmark I’d left in it. A recipe for cheesecake from The Smoking Goat in San Diego (which I recommend).
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 09:48 AM (olroh)

Middle Eastern restaurant, huh?

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 10:00 AM (0eaVi)

133 A.H., I've done both. One western has chapter titles, most of the others are numbered.

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 09:56 AM (0eaVi)
---
Good thing I'd already finished my coffee, or I would have spilled it.

"I will be your huckleberry because we cannot be bound by the huckleberries of the past, but those of the future. Huckleberries are very important, which is why I chose to be one of the future, unburderned by the past."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:02 AM (ZOv7s)

134 Another book that I know is good because I trust the people who tell me so , that I couldn’t get through was Lucifer’s Hammer.

I guess I’m like the few people who didn’t like the movie , The Godfather. ( looking at garrett)

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (D6PGr)

135 "Is That a Boy Dog?"
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM

And is that how he identifies?
Posted by: Democrats at November 24, 2024

***
In my scene, one of the leads' dog, a male Afghan hound named Witt, meets a Newfoundland. They sniff each other and then settle down next to each other, instant friends.

"Is that a boy dog?"
"I think so."
"Then it's happened. Witt's come out of the closet at last."
"You must be so proud."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (omVj0)

136 'Tis the season for craft fairs and my wife likes them so I go to a lot of them. There's always a brief cringe when I see decorative... "stuff" made from books (sometimes very artfully). But on inspection the books are always things that would have eventually ended up in the landfill anyway so I grudgingly admit that it's a good use for them.
Posted by: Oddbob at November 24, 2024 09:52 AM (/y8xj)

The one crafter I follow does this- she once made a table lamp by drilling holes in vintage "dumpster books" and sticking a metal rod through them.
Kind of cool, oddly.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (f+FmA)

137 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 09:49 AM (omVj0)

Well, I try to do that. Hoping readers see it that way. Not that I've had many readers yet because I haven't published any novels at this point.

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (0eaVi)

138 I will say that I'm increasingly seeing the virtue of aristocracy insofar as there were demands put on the sons of the family to wear the uniform and stop a bullet for the sake of family honor.

Our "meritocracy" contains zero personal stake on the part of the elites.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:59 AM (ZOv7s)

Doesn't help when the government ruins the most loyal families through death taxes on those killed in battle. Iniquitous!

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (s9EYN)

139 I just bend the corner of the page over for a bookmark.

*runs for cover.

Posted by: Reforger at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (xcIvR)

140 Ken Burns' recent documentary (I know, I know) about Leonardo Da Vinci was an okay overview of the man but two episodes are not sufficient to cover the topic. But it did lead me to some books on Da Vinci and his art. "Leonardo Da Vinci, the Complete Paitnings" by Frank Zollner is a wonderful exploration of his paintings, especially compared to his contemporaries, and the techniques that make his paintings so extraordinary. This is a huge, heavy book that calls for a reading pillow or some support but it's worth the effort. The large format allows for many enlarged details and allows you to note the subtleties in his art. (His ability with skin tones is wonderful.) There is so much more to Da Vinci than the Mona Lisa.

To my amazement, the local library had this book and "Leonardo's Notebooks" which looks to be as interesting if you have any interest in the man.

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 10:04 AM (yTvNw)

141 Other great moments in Harris' westerns:

"Now is the time when we must fill our hands, not because you are a son of a bitch, but because we must be unburdened by what came before."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:04 AM (ZOv7s)

142 I read the box on the book High Jingo.

What's the the Hebrew word for "dead" ("מת") on the cover?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at November 24, 2024 10:04 AM (K3JKK)

143 Doesn't help when the government ruins the most loyal families through death taxes on those killed in battle. Iniquitous!
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 10:03 AM (s9EYN)
---
State-run farms are much easier to control. Nice to see Labour is moving ahead with collectivization, right on schedule.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:06 AM (ZOv7s)

144 Bookmarks.
When Mr. S retired- he was a big city librarian- he had brought home all the leftover time-relevant reading club bookmarks over the years.
We're good for bookmarks forever.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:06 AM (f+FmA)

145 I'm on sort of a 'read what you have already' kick. At present, going through the Sharyn McCrumb mysteries that I have in paperback on my shelves - the Ballad series, and the Elizabeth McPherson series. Some of them I haven't read in ages, to the point where I have forgotten who the murderer is.
I'm waiting for the cover of my latest book to be finished - can't do much until it is, and the designer is a friend who is doing me a great favor, so I can't bug her too much.
Another matter for the Great Minds of the Horde: it's a book, a YA from the 1930s that was one of my mother's favorites. I can't remember the author or the title! It's a juvenile mystery, the boy main character is named Billy Deane, and his family lives on a small ranch in the back country of San Diego county, near the border with Mexico. He has a visiting female cousin, and a best friend from the local reservation, and the water source for the ranch has mysteriously dried up. Does that ring a bell with anyone? I'd love to find a copy of it. (The original copy was destroyed in the fire that burned through where my parents lived in 2003.)

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at November 24, 2024 10:06 AM (Ew3fm)

146 Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 10:04 AM (yTvNw)

I think I recommended to you the Biography by Walter Isaacson. I really enjoyed it but it did change my conventional wisdom perception of DaVinci.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:07 AM (D6PGr)

147 Stephen King has had over 90 movies made from his books /novelettes.

I recently bought a collection of King movies. It includes The Running Man which I already owned and have seen several times. Just watched it again last night with my dad. What unexpectedly made it even more interesting is that the night before we’d watched Network. It could easily be a sequel. It also, sadly, has held up amazingly well. The man protesting government violence was, through “edited” video, turned into the scapegoat for it.

But even more striking to me was when Maria Conchita Alonzo’s character heard the news report about the capture of Ben Richards, which she had been a part of. It was filled not with inaccuracies but with outright lies. And they weren’t even important lies. Just pointless.

Having been in DC on during the “insurrection” it really hit home.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:07 AM (olroh)

148 In recent weeks, I haven't always had time to thank our illustrious host before vanishing into the ether, so I'm going to do so now, just to be safe. Thanks, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:08 AM (ZOv7s)

149 Without going back to verify -- if memory serves, King's chapter lengths tend to vary with the book in question. The novellas' chapters tend to be pretty short, but the longer the novel the longer the chapter. This is, again, from memory.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 09:51 AM (q3u5l)

I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't a short book. A couple inches thick, I think.

Opened the book to one page, a chapter ended near the top, another one started, and a third was down near the bottom of the opposite page.

Posted by: Kamala at November 24, 2024 10:08 AM (0eaVi)

150 Good morning Hordemates.

Posted by: Diogenes at November 24, 2024 10:09 AM (W/lyH)

151 113 Anyone else not particularly like or get the fuss about Confederacy of Dunces?
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:53 AM (D6PGr)

*raises hand

My sister, whom I adore, loved this book in high school (lo, these many years ago). I have tried reading it twice, and both times was so annoyed with the main character that I couldn't continue. Ugh. I guess it's really funny, but I didn't laugh. At all.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:09 AM (OX9vb)

152 Hornbein and Unsoeld climbed the West Ridge of Everest and rendezvoused with another two-man team on the South route. They were all forced to bivouac at about 25,000 feet. It is windy on Everest roughly 364 nights of the year, and if it had been windy that night all four men would have died. By a miracle, it was calm and they made it. In the middle of the night, Unsoeld took Hornbein's boots off and took Hornbein's frozen feet into his own jacket to warm them.

The best book about Himalayan mountaineering is Annapurna by Maurice Herzog. That expedition was in 1950(?) and it was a way bigger adventure than any dumb tourist could have in the Himalayas today.

Posted by: Bombadil at November 24, 2024 10:10 AM (MX0bI)

153 TX Mo-Me folk,
If you have time to go to Waco, check out Gold's Used Books on Franklin.
There is also a H-P Books remainder store. As our son, the H-P warehouse manager puts it- "last stop before the chipper." It's a fun treasure hunt.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:10 AM (f+FmA)

154 Good thing I'd already finished my coffee, or I would have spilled it.

"I will be your huckleberry because we cannot be bound by the huckleberries of the past, but those of the future. Huckleberries are very important, which is why I chose to be one of the future, unburderned by the past."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:02 AM (ZOv7s)

Just distracted. Forgot to change socks. Kinda like Wolfus on the Tech thread....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 10:12 AM (0eaVi)

155 Middle Eastern restaurant, huh?

French. Probably best French restaurant in SD.

Although soon enough France probably will be middle eastern, and without the good food.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:12 AM (olroh)

156 What's the the Hebrew word for "dead" ("מת") on the cover?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at November 24, 2024 10:04 AM (K3JKK)
====

There is a missing aleph in front.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 24, 2024 10:13 AM (RIvkX)

157 My current bookmark is one that was given to my late father. Plastic, with a tassel, it is printed with An Irish Blessing. Which is why Dad had it. The plastic has now been taped many times, but it is still serviceable.

Another bookmark looks like a playing card and I've had it since childhood. It says to read for knowledge and pleasure, and to play cards for relaxation.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 24, 2024 10:13 AM (rxCpr)

158 I have a hardback cookbook, The Yankee Cookbook by Imogene Wolcott, that I put in so many bookmarks that they split the endpapers and separated the cover from the pages.

Posted by: Kindltot at November 24, 2024 09:55 AM (D7oie)

May I suggest Post-it flags? I use these a lot, and I can even write a small note on it, like the recipe title, if I write small. They don't have to go into the binding area, but can stick out anywhere, and are much thinner than a piece of paper.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:13 AM (OX9vb)

159 The one crafter I follow does this- she once made a table lamp by drilling holes in vintage "dumpster books" and sticking a metal rod through them.
Kind of cool, oddly.

Yeah, stuff like that. Which would be cool in a dedicated library space. Half Price Books used to (may still) sell books by the pound sorted roughly by size and color.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 24, 2024 10:14 AM (/y8xj)

160 Robert B. Parker was also one for short chapters, though his viewpoint character in the Spenser novels and the Sunny Randall ones was always Spenser or Sunny -- first person narration. (Of which more in a moment.) The Jesse Stones are third person, and I think he shifted viewpoint on occasion, but again he tended to shorter chapters as the years went on. And in his Westerns too.

One modern trend seems to be to intersperse a first person narration with occasional jumps into third from a different character's POV -- in other words, something the first person narrator couldn't possibly be present to tell us about. Not sure if I always like it, though it gives you a chance to open the story up a bit.

Lawrence Block did it to open one novel, but then had his narrator, Matt Scudder, continue with, "At least, that's how I imagine it happened."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:15 AM (omVj0)

161
The "Blue Max" and "Blood Order" paperbacks just arrived.

Posted by: Auspex at November 24, 2024 10:15 AM (j4U/Z)

162 yes that part of running man rang true, of course the books are grimmer than the film,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 10:16 AM (pGTZo)

163 Yeah, stuff like that. Which would be cool in a dedicated library space. Half Price Books used to (may still) sell books by the pound sorted roughly by size and color.
Posted by: Oddbob at November 24, 2024 10:14 AM (/y8xj)

I have never bought by the pound there but I’ve bought a ton of books from them.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:16 AM (D6PGr)

164 Currently on book 3 in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. Book 2 felt like a slow burn, I was hoping for more progression in the general story, but it still ended up being a good read. I generally really like Larry Correia's writings, his monster hunter books are very pulpy. The Forgotten Warrior series is very good, his writing style seems to get better and better over time. I would also recommend Servants of War with Steve Diamond, imagine WWI but with magic and battle mechs.

Posted by: Drew in MO at November 24, 2024 10:17 AM (EfGoi)

165 Running Man is the only work by Stephen King that I have read and at the time I didn’t know it was Stephen King.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:17 AM (D6PGr)

166 Another "No" on "Confederacy of Dunces".

Synchronicity- I spent last week re-reading "Main Street" for probably the third time in 50 years. It amazes me that when I first read it, it was only 50 years old, but it could have been a century as far as societal changes.

Yesterday, I went to the 'Crossroads" traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian where they had a collection of American fiction about small town/rural life. Sure enough, "Main Street' was right there.
Re: the protagonist, Carol Kennicott- I guess Karens are forever.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:18 AM (f+FmA)

167 Bookmarks!? You don’t just memorize what page number you are on?

Posted by: PMRich at November 24, 2024 10:18 AM (eh5ud)

168 If you have time to go to Waco, check out Gold's Used Books on Franklin.

I’ve picked up some very nice books from Golden’s Book Exchange in Waco, including John the Balladeer and First Lensman. And one of Sarah Hoyt’s “Shakespeare” trilogy which even she has disowned but I thoroughly enjoyed.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:19 AM (olroh)

169 Had to look it up .

King’s pseudonym for Running Man was Richard Bachman.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:19 AM (D6PGr)

170 My sister, whom I adore, loved this book in high school (lo, these many years ago). I have tried reading it twice, and both times was so annoyed with the main character that I couldn't continue. Ugh. I guess it's really funny, but I didn't laugh. At all.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024

***
Ignatius defines "eccentric," but he lacks loveable qualities, at least to me. Though I will admit, near the end, I did not want to see him seized and carted off to an insane asylum.

His mother, now, is much like many lower-middle-class white women I've known, mothers of my friends. And Toole did one thing I'd never seen in fiction before: He has Mrs. Reilly and others refer to young humans as "chirren," which is how "children" is pronounced here among many black and white people. Nearly every Southern dialect I'd ever seen in print before, including things that were supposed to be set in Noo Awlins, used "chillun" -- which I have never heard a living human say.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:20 AM (omVj0)

171 Running Man is the only work by Stephen King that I have read and at the time I didn’t know it was Stephen King.

Yeah, even the movie was credited to Richard Bachman.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:21 AM (olroh)

172 10 ... "Started my annual re-reading of LOTR. Tolkien certainly had a way with words. His writing always impressed me ever since I first read the Hobbit as a teen.

Also been watching Malcolm Guite on the Utube. He is one interesting fellow. Makes me wish I had a room to myself for all my books and a nice chair to sit in. And a bottle of bourbon. Can’t forget the bourbon."

Oh yes! My annual reading of LOTR, (the 59th if I did the arithmetic right) begins in a week or so. It is a treasured tradition.

Malcolm Guite is a gem. He is, by far, my favorite living poet. Also, he has the ability to see and discuss the wonders of literature and what makes it so effective. His insights into Tolkien, Lewis, MacDonald, the Romantic poets, and much more is beautiful. People are richer for his videos and books. Look for his videos about the importance of imagination as a means to enhance being human. The man is an erudite and pleasant delight. Check out his books "Mariner" about Coleridge and his poetry and "Lifting the Veil". I'll be discussing the latter next week.

BTW, Guite prefers Lagavulin 16 single malt which further proves his moral superiority and good taste.

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 10:21 AM (yTvNw)

173 A couple weeks ago, I bought a heaping bag of books at the library sale. $2 a bag, so I stacked 14 hardbacks in there. Someone must have been cleaning out an estate, because there were more of the "World's Greatest Literature" (1944) series. Took them all, because the two poetry books I found last time were top-notch. I also got "Modern British Poetry" (1920) which Monica received as a Christmas present in 1928.

I like old books that are well-made. The WGL books are in great shape, despite clearly being used and abused. A couple have water-damaged covers (used as coasters!) but the pages are intact. Someone left a bobbypin as a bookmark in "Treasure Island".

It's also fun to see what was considered "best" before the birth of YT and social media. Irving's Sketchbook, Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, and Scott's Ivanhoe - does anyone read those anymore?

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 24, 2024 10:21 AM (IzT+7)

174 Running Man is the only work by Stephen King that I have read and at the time I didn’t know it was Stephen King.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024

***
Have you read the novelettes in Different Seasons? "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," "The Body," and "Apt Pupil" were all made into films, and people are amazed when I tell them King wrote the originals.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:22 AM (omVj0)

175 You don’t just memorize what page number you are on?

“When I was twenty-nine…”

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:22 AM (olroh)

176 Anyhow, we're in the 1920s and he's at low ebb, having lost his office, his seat, and his appendix. This is the second time his career was pronounced over (the first was in 1915). I don't think he's done, though.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Keep reading, he finds an antagonists and things get interesting to say the least.

Posted by: Dandalo at November 24, 2024 10:23 AM (3QsZU)

177 It's also fun to see what was considered "best" before the birth of YT and social media. Irving's Sketchbook, Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, and Scott's Ivanhoe - does anyone read those anymore?
Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 24, 2024 10:21 AM (IzT+7)

I think I was the only kid that really liked Silas Marner when we were required to read it in the 9th grade.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:24 AM (D6PGr)

178 Earlier printings of King's The Bachman Books included 4 novels; later printings have only 3. One of the Bachman's, Rage, has been pulled and King decided it won't be reprinted on finding out that a number of school shooters seemed to have read it and he didn't want to give any more of 'em any ideas.

The book wasn't a bad read if memory serves.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 10:25 AM (q3u5l)

179 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:22 AM (omVj0)

Hah. Only have seen the movies.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:25 AM (D6PGr)

180 yes they are stylistically different from much of kings work, most have castle rock as a reference point but obliquely,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 10:25 AM (pGTZo)

181 171 Running Man is the only work by Stephen King that I have read and at the time I didn’t know it was Stephen King.

Yeah, even the movie was credited to Richard Bachman.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:21 AM (olroh)

And here I thought he just the guy who sang You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.

Posted by: Prothonotary Warbler at November 24, 2024 10:25 AM (YrTFn)

182 146 ... "I think I recommended to you the Biography by Walter Isaacson. I really enjoyed it but it did change my conventional wisdom perception of DaVinci."

Hi Sebastian,

Yes you did and thanks. I have it on my list for future reading. The more I learn about the man and his works the more I want to learn.

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 10:26 AM (yTvNw)

183 Also I have to respectfully disagree about needing AI to write a book in a month. You don't know the circumstances. In the years my husband struggled with Parkinson's and dementia my world got very small. My New Year's resolution one year was to set my alarm for four am and write until he woke up.

I wrote well over six hundred thousand words that year--I even posted about it on a gains thread. Seven novels. The seventh came so fast it seemed that I was taking dictation.

Could I do it again? I doubt it.

Posted by: Wenda at November 24, 2024 10:26 AM (YzCJt)

184 Bookmarks!? You don’t just memorize what page number you are on?
Posted by: PMRich

I usually have four or five books going at once.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 10:28 AM (47OwT)

185 Earlier printings of King's The Bachman Books included 4 novels; later printings have only 3. One of the Bachman's, Rage, has been pulled and King decided it won't be reprinted on finding out that a number of school shooters seemed to have read it and he didn't want to give any more of 'em any ideas.

The book wasn't a bad read if memory serves.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024

***
I have an earlier edition with the four novels. Rage (originally titled, he said, Getting It On) is not bad, but I recall being a little tired of it by the time it ended. The same with The Long Walk, which is dystopian SF, and Roadwork too, which bored me when I tried to reread it during the Sniffle Scare. The Running Man is very good, but casting Arnold was probably a big mistake -- I've never seen the movie.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:28 AM (omVj0)

186 I think I was the only kid that really liked Silas Marner when we were required to read it in the 9th grade.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:24 AM (D6PGr)
----

It wasn't required reading in my high school, but I found a beautiful old copy at the UGLI and was swept up in the lush writing. 19th Century lit can be very dense but if you can just sit back and read for pleasure it's a wonderful story. That scene where the old miser sees little Effie's golden hair and his heart breaks and opens up is such a moving chapter.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 10:29 AM (BbEYi)

187 Regarding bookmarks, I just checked: Gilbert's Churchill has a piece of scrap paper upon which I wrote out a list of online ammo purchases that I ended up not making.

During that break I took some quality time and Churchill tried to re-enter politics only to be soundly defeated. That's it! His career is OVAH!

Or is it...?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:30 AM (ZOv7s)

188 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:22 AM (omVj0)
*
Hah. Only have seen the movies.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024

***
Then I highly recommend reading all three. The fourth, "The Breathing Method," is creepy, but utterly fascinating.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:30 AM (omVj0)

189 Dunces. I know I read it, put it down, and haven't thought about it again until now, and have essentially no recall of it. And I love humorous books.
So, meh.

Posted by: From about That Time at November 24, 2024 10:30 AM (4780s)

190 Yes you did and thanks. I have it on my list for future reading. The more I learn about the man and his works the more I want to learn.
Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 10:26 AM (yTvNw)

In the biography you will also learn about the many works that he started but never completed. And too bad because the art world and engineering world would have really benefitted .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:30 AM (D6PGr)

191 I wrote well over six hundred thousand words that year…

Philip K. Dick wrote similarly quickly under very stressful conditions, although in his case they were self-inflicted. It can be done and with great results.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:31 AM (olroh)

192 'Arghhh!" GOLDENS, of course.
We use both, but we're old.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:31 AM (f+FmA)

193 You don’t just memorize what page number you are on?

“When I was twenty-nine…”
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024

***
". . . it was a very good year . . ."

Posted by: F. Sinatra at November 24, 2024 10:31 AM (omVj0)

194 I wrote well over six hundred thousand words that year--I even posted about it on a gains thread. Seven novels. The seventh came so fast it seemed that I was taking dictation.

Could I do it again? I doubt it.
Posted by: Wenda at November 24, 2024 10:26 AM (YzCJt)
---
Long Live Death was written in less than six weeks, and it felt very much the same - I wasn't writing it, just taking it down.

Writing like that is very specific to circumstances.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:33 AM (ZOv7s)

195 And here I thought he just the guy who sang You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.

B-b-b-aby you just ain’t seen Killian yet.
Here’s something you ain’t never gonna forget, viewers!

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:36 AM (olroh)

196 A book a month...

The writers who came out of the pulp era could do that easily. The guys doing paperback originals for Gold Medal and other houses were that prolific. I believe Robert Silverberg said that he wrote his novel Thorns in 9 days, and Thorns wasn't a short book like the average Ace Double. And I think Harlan Ellison said in an interview that there were whole issues of magazines done by one or two people using their own names and pseudonyms. Can't recall which writer was said to have done a novel in three days...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 10:36 AM (q3u5l)

197 Ok, I guess today I am permitted an orderly retreat. Thanks, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:36 AM (ZOv7s)

198 I bought a heaping bag of hardcover books at the library sale for $2. Someone must have been cleaning out an estate. I cleared out all copies of the "World's Greatest Literature" (1944) series. I also got "Modern British Poetry" (1920) which Monica received as a Christmas present from Lauri in 1928.

The WGL books are in great shape, despite clearly being used and abused. A couple have water-damaged covers (used as coasters!) but the pages are intact. Someone left a bobbypin as a bookmark in "Treasure Island".

It's also fun to see what was considered "best" before the birth of YT and social media. Irving's Sketchbook, Cooper's Last of the Mohicans, and Scott's Ivanhoe - does anyone read those anymore?

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 24, 2024 10:36 AM (IzT+7)

199 Nice to know I share that with others.

Posted by: Wenda at November 24, 2024 10:37 AM (YzCJt)

200 ". . . it was a very good year . . ."

It was a very good year for folding back spines on paperback books …

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:37 AM (olroh)

201 Long Live Death was written in less than six weeks, and it felt very much the same - I wasn't writing it, just taking it down.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 10:33 AM (ZOv7s)

The author of one of my favorite novels of family life said that one day the whole book just appeared in her imagination and she simply wrote it down.
"Reason for Gladness" by Mary Wallace. OOP, alas, and my pb copy is fading fast.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:38 AM (f+FmA)

202 He has Mrs. Reilly and others refer to young humans as "chirren," which is how "children" is pronounced here among many black and white people. ..."chillun" -- which I have never heard a living human say.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:20 AM (omVj0)

True that! I married into a black family with recent Mississippi roots, and my MIL used the "chirren" pronunciation. Her northeastern grandchildren were also bemused with the "-er" ending on words and names. Jessica did not appreciate "Jessicur."

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:39 AM (OX9vb)

203 I read Last of the Mohicans. Not my favorite read but I slogged through it because that was my favorite genre as a kid.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:39 AM (D6PGr)

204 Can't recall which writer was said to have done a novel in three days...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024

***
A tiny worm in the back of my brain is piping up to suggest it was "Frank Gruber," who also wrote Westerns and screenplays.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:41 AM (omVj0)

205 Posted by: Prothonotary Warbler at November 24, 2024 10:25 AM (YrTFn)

Good to "see" you. I hope all is well in your world.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 10:41 AM (s9EYN)

206 And I think Harlan Ellison said in an interview that there were whole issues of magazines done by one or two people using their own names and pseudonyms. Can't recall which writer was said to have done a novel in three days...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 10:36 AM (q3u5l)

"Blonde Inspiration" is a comedy about this very thing.
Look for it on TCM- it's a "writer's movie".

"Get the plotter!"

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:41 AM (f+FmA)

207 Speaking of 19th century writers , I think Rudyard Kipling is on the nomination list for Greatest Writer of All Time.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:43 AM (D6PGr)

208 I think I was the only kid that really liked Silas Marner when we were required to read it in the 9th grade.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:24 AM (D6PGr)

We read it in Great Books, but not in school. I remember liking it and should read it again.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (s9EYN)

209 19th Century lit can be very dense but if you can just sit back and read for pleasure it's a wonderful story. That scene where the old miser sees little Effie's golden hair and his heart breaks and opens up is such a moving chapter.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 10:29 AM (BbEYi)

This is the kind of reading I like for the porch on pleasant days. Too dense for bedtime, and no quiet place inside. TV is on as soon as Mr. Dmlw! wakes up, and the only thing I can read then is AOSHQ.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (OX9vb)

210 And to think these people who wrote so fast and prolifically were using typewriters without easy correction methods. (I remember Wite-Out, and correction tape before that. Ugh.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (omVj0)

211 Yeah. The Bachman Books.
Sort of memory holed those are. Apt Pupil was a particularly sick story.
A friend and I found the newly erected set for Misery at the time I was reading that book. Walking through a forest we had been playing in for years and all of a sudden there was this house. Looked like it had been there forever.
We tripped. WTF? So we creep up on it and discover it's almost all Fiberglass. Took some pics, procured a lantern and left.
About a year later we found out what it was all about when the poster came out and we had pics of that house inside and out.
This was about the time the movie for The Running Man came out which as hard as it is to believe is WAY worse than the novella in Bachman Books. Which is why I remember all this. It was forced on me after seeing the movie by my friend as a defense for dragging me to that horrible 90 minutes of my teen years I wasted.
I really don't like King much. Never have. I think he is a very sick man and don't find him entertaining in any way.

Posted by: Reforger at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (xcIvR)

212 Dash @202, got a chuckle out of that. My dad was born and raised in New England, then moved south, and he would add the "-er" endings as well. We always kidded him about it.

Posted by: skywch at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (uqhmb)

213 It irks me that Nero Wolfe dog-ears the pages of most of the books he read. Philistine.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 24, 2024 09:21 AM (p/isN)

When Wolfe starts reading a book, he has a gold (18K? 24k?) bookmark. As the book disappoints him, he moves down through the quality level of his bookmarks, finally ending up dog-earing the pages.

Or so I remember.

Posted by: Ronald Kornblow at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (pXRYM)

214 I know Thanksgiving isn't written about as much as Christmas, but I always read the last two chapters of Alcott's "Little Men" describing the celebration at Plumfield.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:45 AM (f+FmA)

215 I read Persuasion and Mansfield Park back-to-back this past summer. Loved them both!

Posted by: Moonbeam at November 24, 2024 10:46 AM (rbKZ6)

216 205 Posted by: Prothonotary Warbler at November 24, 2024 10:25 AM (YrTFn)

Good to "see" you. I hope all is well in your world.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 10:41 AM (s9EYN)

Hi, Polli! Good to see you, too!

Posted by: Prothonotary Warbler at November 24, 2024 10:46 AM (YrTFn)

217 know Thanksgiving isn't written about as much as Christmas, but I always read the last two chapters of Alcott's "Little Men" describing the celebration at Plumfield.
Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:45 AM (f+FmA)

Would that be about Thanksgiving? Didn’t it become an official Holiday in 1860’s ?

Admittedly I don’t know when Alcott wrote.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:48 AM (D6PGr)

218 Her northeastern grandchildren were also bemused with the "-er" ending on words and names. Jessica did not appreciate "Jessicur."
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:39 AM (OX9vb)

Interesting. In Missouri the older folks pronounced every word ending in a vowel with an "uh" sound instead. So, Missouruh, tomatuh, etc.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024 10:50 AM (s9EYN)

219 Finished Paradise Lost, Dave Mason's autobiography, and the second of 4 Len Deighton spy novels. Makes me feel productive. Horse Under Water was better than the Ipcress File IMO, so now I'm expecting god things out of the last two. Paradise Lost, I can now say I read it, and at times I really enjoyed it, but I didn't read it at a deep enough level to fully 'get' it. But I get why it is timeless. Mason's book was just a fun read.

Posted by: who knew at November 24, 2024 10:51 AM (+ViXu)

220 The Alcott is set in the 1870's and the feast is actually called Thanksgiving.
The menu is what became the classic meal- but the children all contributed to it, a nice touch.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:51 AM (f+FmA)

221 I have a lot of funny stories of my Louisiana accent interacting with the NY accent when I moved there in the 80’s.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:52 AM (D6PGr)

222 its the one deighton novel that was not turned into a film

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 10:52 AM (pGTZo)

223 The Alcott is set in the 1870's and the feast is actually called Thanksgiving.
The menu is what became the classic meal- but the children all contributed to it, a nice touch.
Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:51 AM (f+FmA)

Cool and it was probably even more of a celebration since it was recently declared a national holiday.

Learn something at aos everyday.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:53 AM (D6PGr)

224 deighton put little notes about things that were not in the public domain, like the gehlen org

Posted by: miguel cervantes at November 24, 2024 10:53 AM (pGTZo)

225 113 Anyone else not particularly like or get the fuss about Confederacy of Dunces?
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 09:53 AM

Based on Moron comments over the years, I think I might be the only one who loved that book.

Posted by: Moonbeam at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM (rbKZ6)

226 My father has a massive library (also crates of vinyl) and I will have to have it trucked somewhere. Way too much for me to absorb and it will likely take days to high-grade it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 24, 2024 09:28 AM (ZOv7s)

Mr S has already thoughtfully compiled detailed instructions for the dispersal of his ginormous Texana collection.
I should send a photo sometime.

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM (f+FmA)

227 Legally Sufficient said "And a happy and blessed Thanksgiving to you and all the Moron Horde! I am thankful to have this thread each week, and thankful for the hard work that goes into creating it. And most thankful for the lively repartee that makes each Book Thread so special!"
I second that!

Posted by: who knew at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM (+ViXu)

228 My dad was born and raised in New England, then moved south, and he would add the "-er" endings as well. We always kidded him about it.
Posted by: skywch at November 24, 2024 10:44 AM (uqhmb)

Oh, I forgot some areas of New England do this, too. The kids were in PA, so not that far north.

And Polliwog, it's funny about that. People think there is one southern accent, when there are dozens. I watched a movie once where the characters were supposed to be from KY, but they were (poorly) speaking a SC gentleman dialect. They had it so wrong.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM (OX9vb)

229 “It is not Christians who oppose the world, but rather the world which opposes itself to them when the truth about God, about Christ and about man is proclaimed. The world waxes indignant when sin and grace are called by their names.”—Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “A Council to Be Rediscovered”

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 10:55 AM (olroh)

230 Interesting. In Missouri the older folks pronounced every word ending in a vowel with an "uh" sound instead. So, Missouruh, tomatuh, etc.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 24, 2024

***
Da Swamp has, or had, the same influences that led to the classic Brooklyn "dese, dem, dose" dialect. So you used to hear those in many neighborhoods here, along with most voiced "th" sounds turned into "d" (e.g., "father" became "fadda," "the" became "da") and "er" into "oi" ("first" into "foist") and vice versa ("oil" became "erl"). Mayor Maestri in the 1940s was supposed to have asked FDR, "How'd ya like dem ersters, Chief?"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:55 AM (omVj0)

231 So fun to get to be here in real time.
A blessed and Happy Thanksgiving to you all and special thanks to the Perfesser!

Posted by: sal at November 24, 2024 10:56 AM (f+FmA)

232 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:55 AM (omVj0)

Yeah I grew up in South Louisiana but I sounded nothing like people who grew up in New Orleans. .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024 10:57 AM (D6PGr)

233
Based on Moron comments over the years, I think I might be the only one who loved [Dunces].
Posted by: Moonbeam at November 24, 2024

***
Oh, I enjoyed it and admire Toole's writing skill. It would have been interesting to see how he might have developed as a writer. But it is not on my favorites list.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:57 AM (omVj0)

234 For the record, I think Reforger should be banned from this thread , also anyone writing on a book as well.

Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 10:57 AM (fwDg9)

235 Thanks for the thread, Perfessor. Gotta go.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 10:58 AM (0eaVi)

236 Yeah I grew up in South Louisiana but I sounded nothing like people who grew up in New Orleans. .
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at November 24, 2024

***
Same here. My mother was western Canadian, so I sound more like William Shatner and Michael J. Fox. Over the years I've observed the quaint cultural artifacts of the natives here, like an anthropologist living among an African or South Pacific tribe.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 10:59 AM (omVj0)

237
Back from my Christian Nationalist meeting. The news were full of a Rainbow Coalition of White Supremacists. A very good sermon by one of the curates on what we might find in Heaven.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 10:59 AM (dxSpM)

238 It would take me years to read what I own, well into the Vance Presidency.

Posted by: Eromero at November 24, 2024 11:01 AM (LHPAg)

239 I watched a movie once where the characters were supposed to be from KY, but they were (poorly) speaking a SC gentleman dialect. They had it so wrong.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM (OX9vb)

Saw that a lot when Justified was on. Half the cast sounded like they were from Savannah or Richmond.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Part of the E-4 Mafia at November 24, 2024 11:01 AM (Ad8y9)

240 lI think I might be the only one who loved that book.

I haven’t read it for a long time but I remember thoroughly enjoying it. I also liked The Neon Bible, but not as much.

Through a curious confluence of friends of relatives of friends I got to spend an evening with said friends talking with Kenneth Holditch in his house in New Orleans, and drinking his bourbon. He was, ironically, a very Toole-ish character.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 11:01 AM (olroh)

241 Since we don't have family nearby the holidays are a quiet time for us. I've already picked out the reading for this week.

I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving.

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 11:01 AM (yTvNw)

242 Through a curious confluence of friends of relatives of friends I got to spend an evening with said friends talking with Kenneth Holditch in his house in New Orleans, and drinking his bourbon. He was, ironically, a very Toole-ish character.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024

***
Do you know what part of town he lived in?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 11:03 AM (omVj0)

243 sal --

Thanks for the mention of "Blonde Inspiration" -- I don't have TCM any more (wasn't going to shell out for cable here after they took TCM off the basic package), but will see if I can turn it up on YT or archive.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 11:03 AM (q3u5l)

244
For the record, I think Reforger should be banned from this thread , also anyone writing on a book as well.
Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 10:57 AM (fwDg9)

_________

I use old show ribbons for bookmarks. Of which we have an ample supply. My Missal needs about six, what with all the jumping around in it during Mass as well as the very thin pages which are hard to turn.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:03 AM (dxSpM)

245 I've got a few actual bookmarks that I use, but I'm not picky and any scrap of paper close to hand will do. When I was younger and sharper I never needed them because I could always remember where I left off. Father Time has sapped me of that ability and now bookmarks are a necessity .It also might help to read just one book at a time.

Posted by: who knew at November 24, 2024 11:03 AM (+ViXu)

246 Holditch was teaching at UNO during the time I was there, and I took a few English classes, but I don't recall ever hearing his name.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 11:04 AM (omVj0)

247 Glancing at the book shelves and boxes of books that don't fit on the shelves, I estimate, conservatively, that I have about five gazillion years worth of quality reading in my possession already. And that doesn't count the hundreds of books on Kindle that I forgot I had.

Posted by: JTB at November 24, 2024 11:06 AM (yTvNw)

248 I really enjoyed CoDunces. The crossroads of crazy and genius. I’d look for, and thought I found the characters every trip to NOLA.

Posted by: Eromero at November 24, 2024 11:06 AM (LHPAg)

249 And that's why I wanted to read about their climb. It's a pretty chatty book, with lots of dialogue. Most Everest books aren't in that style. He talks a lot about the process of acclimating.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at November 24, 2024 11:07 AM (gfViB)

250 "Confederacy of Dunces" is a book set in a very specific time and place. You almost have to read it like you would "Satyricon"if you read

I enjoyed it and laughed a lot when I read it long ago and far away. I even read it twice. However, my folks moved to NO when I went to college and I spent summers there. The characters are exaggerated but very recognizable as NO types if that time.

This isn't a plot driven novel. It's the sort of novel where the author sets up the characters and they bounce off one another and there isn't any real character development. Think PG Wodehouse in that regard though he does it better cuz he includes a plot.

And last, there isn't anyone likable in the novel. If you're someone who needs that, you're out of luck. But, the title kinda tells you that.

Ignatius is someone who thinks he's always the smartest person in the room, but he's not. That's a big part of the joke.

Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024 11:08 AM (idn/6)

251 What's the the Hebrew word for "dead" ("מת") on the cover?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at November 24, 2024 10:04 AM (K3JKK)
====

There is a missing aleph in front.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 24, 2024 10:13 AM (RIvkX)
-

Curiouser and curiouser!

What is the reason for the word "Emet" ("truth") on the cover?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at November 24, 2024 11:09 AM (K3JKK)

252 And last, there isn't anyone likable in the novel. If you're someone who needs that, you're out of luck. But, the title kinda tells you that.

Ignatius is someone who thinks he's always the smartest person in the room, but he's not. That's a big part of the joke.
Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024

***
His mother is pretty likeable. How she put up with "My Ignatius" through the years is hard to imagine. And yes, you're exactly right about him, and the joke.

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

253
I've always enjoyed A Confederacy of Dunces, even though it drags later in the book. I don't know what it would have been like if Toole had an editor.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:12 AM (dxSpM)

254 I watched a movie once where the characters were supposed to be from KY, but they were (poorly) speaking a SC gentleman dialect. They had it so wrong.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM (OX9vb)

Saw that a lot when Justified was on. Half the cast sounded like they were from Savannah or Richmond.
Posted by: Pug Mahon, Part of the E-4 Mafia at November 24, 2024 11:01 AM (Ad8y9)

The two dumbasses, Dicky and his compadre (?) did pretty well with the redneck accent.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at November 24, 2024 11:12 AM (g8Ew8)

255 There's a monastery near Copper Harbor? Who knew! If the monks wanted to remove themselves from the world, you couldn't pick a much better place in the lower48 than Copper Harbor. I love the UP, and almost every trip there, something new surprises me.

Posted by: who knew at November 24, 2024 11:12 AM (+ViXu)

256 People think there is one southern accent, when there are dozens. I watched a movie once where the characters were supposed to be from KY, but they were (poorly) speaking a SC gentleman dialect. They had it so wrong.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:54 A

One of the (many) reasons I disliked "Love, Actually" was the Minnesotan women's various Southern accents. At least attempt it, "actresses".

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 24, 2024 11:13 AM (IzT+7)

257 I am kidding of course, my mother writes in books profusely, of which I am agast. But they are her books to do what she wants.

Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 11:14 AM (fwDg9)

258 234 For the record, I think Reforger should be banned from this thread , also anyone writing on a book as well.
Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 10:57 AM (fwDg9)
Heh.
I was kidding about the dog earing pages.
As for writing on books. I use a sharpie to write copyright dates on the cover all of my history books. Also note when started and (sometimes) finished on the liner page. I also sometimes do a biography on the author and fold it up inside the cover.
History is written from a perspective and who wrote it and when is as important as the subject itself.
I think anyway.

Posted by: Reforger at November 24, 2024 11:15 AM (xcIvR)

259
Speaking of books and editors, Matthew Briccoli reconstructed Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel as it was before Maxwell Perkins took an axe to it.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:15 AM (dxSpM)

260
The problem I have with the character of Ignatius J. Reilly is that he bears a strong resemblance to... me.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:17 AM (dxSpM)

261 I've been doing the read what you own challenge too. I have been failing badly -- for a couple of reasons: I belong to 2 book clubs so I have to read those, but I almost always borrow them on the Libby App, and I re-read several books on my kindle (altho' I do "own" them, so maybe they count?), and I have been buying vintage books by classic American and British authors to stock our library in our big new house (20 bookcases) I haven't read them yet, but if I was sticking to the read what you own/don't buy any more, that was cheating. I have been posting my reads on FB with blurbs and rating.

Posted by: Delilah at November 24, 2024 11:18 AM (/XUPT)

262 Do you know what part of town he lived in?

No. I vaguely recall we had to take a cab from our vaguely French quarter courtyard motel but that’s it. It would have been around 2004.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 24, 2024 11:20 AM (olroh)

263 Slow going on Paradise Lost. I have the deeply ingrained habit of zipping through fun/interesting SF and other genre, so forcing myself to slow down for poetry is a struggle. It helps to move my lips when reading. :^)

I am through Book 2, with accompanying Notes. I don't need a bookmark because I mark up the text (!!!) a la Mortimer Adler.

I love the book thread; thanks Perf.

Posted by: sinmi at November 24, 2024 11:20 AM (/30kX)

264 256 People think there is one southern accent, when there are dozens. I watched a movie once where the characters were supposed to be from KY, but they were (poorly) speaking a SC gentleman dialect. They had it so wrong.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 24, 2024 10:54 AM

One of the many things I liked about Slingblade is that it’s set in Southern Arkansas, and Thornton hired locals for all the parts, so the accents are perfect for the setting.

Posted by: Tom Servo at November 24, 2024 11:21 AM (W6hoT)

265 The problem I have with the character of Ignatius J. Reilly is that he bears a strong resemblance to... me.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:17 AM (dxSpM)

And speaking of Justified, I found my past self in some of those characters too.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at November 24, 2024 11:21 AM (g8Ew8)

266 Chuck Woolery, game-show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble', dies at age 83.

Posted by: andycanuck (hovnC) at November 24, 2024 11:24 AM (hovnC)

267 Good morning again, Book Thread Cognoscenti.

I am still reading The Two Towers. Ripping good yarn. I can see the WWI roots of the book.

I was reading it during muted commercials while watching Kansas State University redeem their wretched performance of last week. Not a lot of time for reading, alas.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 24, 2024 11:25 AM (u82oZ)

268

While preserving an authentic accent is important, what really matters is the size of a characters wang.

Posted by: Joey Bidet at November 24, 2024 11:28 AM (tBck8)

269 One of the worst accent/dialect productions was The Walking Dead. The undead turned in a good effort, though.

Posted by: Eromero at November 24, 2024 11:29 AM (LHPAg)

270 Naughty Pine: I'll be starting Irving's Sketchbook soon. Just finished his History of New York which is overlong but consistently funny. They are both in the Library of America volume of his works.

Posted by: who knew at November 24, 2024 11:29 AM (+ViXu)

271 Re Sinmi at 263 --

From the time I chanced on Heinlein's Puppet Masters around 1963/4, sf (and mystery/horror) was almost all I read for pleasure for a decade. Got used to fast-paced storytelling, and still, decades later, often find 19th century work harder going than I might have except for that long addiction to well-done contemporary popular. Loved that stuff and still do, but I think it did a real number on my attention span.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 11:30 AM (q3u5l)

272 I'm currently prowling through The Best From Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fourth Series, from 1955. This is when the writers told real stories. There's "Fondly Fahrenheit" from Alfred Bester, a comic short called "I Never Ast No Favors" from C.M. Kornbluth, a Robert Sheckley, a Richard Matheson that, like a lot of his, would have made a good Twilight Zone a few years later, and even a short time-travel bit from Shirley Jackson, of all people. Quite readable.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 11:32 AM (omVj0)

273 The real world (in the form of the delightful Mrs Some Guy) beckons, so this kid's outta here.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

And a Happy Thanksgiving to the Horde.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 11:33 AM (q3u5l)

274 256- One of the (many) reasons I disliked "Love, Actually" was the Minnesotan women's various Southern accents. At least attempt it, "actresses".
Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 24, 2024 11:13 AM

They were "from" Wisconsin, which made the accents even worse, LOL!

Posted by: Moonbeam at November 24, 2024 11:39 AM (rbKZ6)

275 Thanks for the entertaining thread, "Perfessor" Squirrel.

I can see you wearing that hat for stalking deer.
FWIW, I killed a yearling last Wednesday. But with my car, not a rifle. Some damage to the car needs to be repaired. My first deer kill. But no antlers.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 24, 2024 11:39 AM (u82oZ)

276 Anyone here ever read any Neal Shusterman works? I'm trying to decide if a humble bundle is worth it. It doesn't have Unwind which looks like his most popular book. It has the Scythe books.

I just wanted to see if anyone had a thumbs up/down on the author.

Posted by: banana Dream at November 24, 2024 11:40 AM (Y6IkP)

277 I lose bookmarks (and find a lot of them later in some book I finished), so I've usually used anything handy, but now, I've started using my old business cards. Every time I changed jobs or got a new title - another box of 200 cards. That quantity was probably correct for the sales and marketing types, but way too many for an engineer. I probably have over a thousand with different titles, companies, and names - some companies allowed nicknames (which I go by) and others were very formal: honorific, first, middle initial, and last.
(Rant)
I hate short paragraphs, probably because of the association, to me, with James Patterson. His writing, at approximately fifth grade level, and resulatant popularity rub in the failure of the Education Industry.

Posted by: buddhaha at November 24, 2024 11:41 AM (EyY5h)

278 Naughty Pine: I'll be starting Irving's Sketchbook soon. Just finished his History of New York which is overlong but consistently funny. They are both in the Library of America volume of his works.
Posted by: who knew at November 24, 2024 11:29 AM (+ViXu)

Travel broadens the mind...

When we visited Spain this year, I found out that Washington Irving is highly regarded as a great man of letters there, because of his "Tales of the Alhambra".

Which was pretty much a complete ruin while he was there as ambassador to Spain.

Anyway, his book brought new international interest about the grotty old alhambra and played a major role in it being restored.

Start writing about ruins, and you too may become a cultural hero!

Posted by: naturalfake at November 24, 2024 11:41 AM (eDfFs)

279 For as long as we have had books, and for all the thousands of books being written, I wonder...are all the good titles taken?
How does one come up with an original title?

Posted by: Diogenes at November 24, 2024 11:42 AM (W/lyH)

280 One of the many things I liked about Slingblade is that it’s set in Southern Arkansas, and Thornton hired locals for all the parts, so the accents are perfect for the setting.
Posted by: Tom Servo at November 24, 2024 11:21 AM (W6hoT)

Dwight Yoakam's from southern Arkysaw?

Posted by: BurtTC at November 24, 2024 11:47 AM (lH8E4)

281 People think there is one southern accent, when there are dozens.

You ("one") often hear it said that the BBC destroyed all the local British accents within one generation. The US had regional accents all to hell over, not just he south, and they got bulldozed by commercial travelers and then broadcasting. Parts of the south had less contact, or more resistance. Dare one say "pride"?

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at November 24, 2024 11:47 AM (zdLoL)

282 I don't know what it would have been like if Toole had an editor.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:12 AM (dxSpM)

I do.

Readable.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at November 24, 2024 11:50 AM (d9fT1)

283 I read Last of the Mohicans. Not my favorite read but I slogged through it because that was my favorite genre as a kid.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth

One of the few movies that was better than the book. Doesn't happen often.

Posted by: Tuna at November 24, 2024 11:50 AM (oaGWv)

284 How does one come up with an original title?
Posted by: Diogenes at November 24, 2024

***
Make it a complete sentence? A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Wait Until Dark, All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By, for example.

Titles, thank goodness, are not copyrightable (?). Otherwise we would not have more than one Murder by the Book.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 11:51 AM (omVj0)

285 One of the worst accent/dialect productions was The Walking Dead. The undead turned in a good effort, though.
Posted by: Eromero at November 24, 2024 11:29 AM (LHPAg)

Rick Grimes is also one of the leads in the aforementioned Love, Actually, where he at least gets to be British, but everyone behaves like dickheads. A bunch of gay British dickheads.

So yeah, the accents are the least of it.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 24, 2024 11:51 AM (lH8E4)

286 Can't recall which writer was said to have done a novel in three days...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024 10:36 AM (q3u5l)
#################################

Sounds like either Philip K. Dick or Michael Moorcock, though I can't recall the record low time spent writing a novel for either.

Posted by: My Ridiculously Circuitous Plan at November 24, 2024 11:52 AM (MYVh7)

287 I use Last of the Mohicans as a literary disaster that movie makers cleaned up vastly

Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 11:52 AM (fwDg9)

288 Time for chores, I guess. Thanks to all for another week's great Book Thread!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 24, 2024 11:53 AM (omVj0)

289 I don’t have the book at hand right now, but something modern cooks complain about in old recipes is that they don’t give temperatures. They instead use misleading terms like “quiet oven” or “gentle oven” or “sharp oven”. They’re very misleading now but weren’t then. I don’t think he uses that as a specific example but he does write from a similar modern perspective.

If I had to guess, I'd say those were perfectly good description of the heat from a wood, coal, or gas oven, before thermometers were widely used and/or invented.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at November 24, 2024 11:57 AM (cSS7r)

290 Nood.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 24, 2024 12:02 PM (PiwSw)

291 Thanks again for a lovely Book Thread, Perf!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Agent of Chaos at November 24, 2024 12:02 PM (kpS4V)

292 NOOD
Thanks I, am the shoutout Mapes

Posted by: Skip at November 24, 2024 12:04 PM (fwDg9)

293 Speaking of books and editors, Matthew Briccoli reconstructed Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel as it was before Maxwell Perkins took an axe to it.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at November 24, 2024 11:15 AM (dxSpM)

Thank God for Perkins!

Posted by: long night ending, dawn in January at November 24, 2024 12:04 PM (2NXcZ)

294 My current non-fiction read is 'Blacklisted by History', Evans.

A tip-o-the-hat to the Moron who recommended it, it is proving to be a *very* interesting read.

Goodreads reviews:

https://t.ly/evBzw

Current fiction read : 'The Dollmaker', Arnow.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 24, 2024 12:05 PM (XeU6L)

295 I wondered last week whether Anthony Horowitz could write a third book in his Susan Ryeland series given it's unusual premise that editor Ryeland solves contemporary murders by relying on Atticus Pund mystery novels written by Alan Conway. This week I discovered I could preorder the third in the series, Marble Hall Murders, to be released in May. The story concerns a new Pund novel written by a new author given Alan Conway's death and, wouldn't you know it?, the new author also has murder problems.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Peppermint Mocha! at November 24, 2024 12:07 PM (L/fGl)

296 Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel.

-------

As an aside, he is buried just down the street at Riverside Cemetary, Asheville...above the flood plain, but lots of very old trees lost:
t.ly/tJKJv

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 24, 2024 12:12 PM (XeU6L)

297 *cemetery

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 24, 2024 12:13 PM (XeU6L)

298 I asked the wife, who grew up using a coal oven (which also supplied hot water and heat for the house) how the temp was controlled. She said, " Poorly. I burnt a lot of things. It had a little dial in front - 'warm, medium, hot'. You never wanted "hot" for cooking, but that was good for heating and water."
I asked how the temperature was controlled, she said it was by a sliding grate in the front. "Load it up with coal, then adjust the air."

Posted by: buddhaha at November 24, 2024 12:14 PM (EyY5h)

299 296: O ghost, lost, and grieved by the wind, come back again.

Posted by: long night ending, dawn in January at November 24, 2024 12:14 PM (2NXcZ)

300 "Can't recall which writer was said to have done a novel in three days...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 24, 2024"

***
"A tiny worm in the back of my brain is piping up to suggest it was "Frank Gruber," who also wrote Westerns and screenplays."

It could well have been Gruber. In his book "The Pulp Jungle," Gruber claims that he earned $10,000/year writing for magazines prewar-making him one of the country's highest earning writers. IIRC, he then had no use for book writing as magazine stories paid better for words written and time spent writing, albeit he later wrote quite a few books. One story he told..a magazine editor contacted him on Monday to write a story due on Wednesday. Gruber finished the story on time and it was printed as written. Like many of the pulp writers of the period he cheated. For example, many of his Johnny Fletcher books were lifted wholesale from his Oliver Quade, The Human Encyclopedia, magazine stories published years before.

cont...

Posted by: Pope John 20th at November 24, 2024 12:14 PM (uk4V/)

301 And awfully late because my phone shut off:

Thanks for the replies and especially thanks for the thread!

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 24, 2024 12:25 PM (Ne4j5)

302 I recall that Jack Kerouac wrote 'On the Road' in just three weeks. I suspect that speed was involved.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at November 24, 2024 12:32 PM (XeU6L)

303 Gruber cont...

In The Pulp Jungle, Gruber was also pretty negative about selling books to Hollywood, as they didn't pay pulp writers very much for film rights. Inasmuch as pulp-type novels without a popular following were pretty much interchangeable by Hollywood standards (compare the Falcon movies to the Lone Wolf movies to Boston Blackie movies, etc), it seems Hollywood had a point.

Cyril Kornbluth was another very quick writer. He and the other Futurians were drinkers and all around party guys. One time Kornbluth wanted a companion to go drinking with him, and dropped in on a fellow Futurian. The friend had a magazine story due the next day, and had barely started on it, so he was unavailable to go. To free up his friend for a drinking bout, Kornbluth took his place at the typewriter, asked his friend for the story's theme and needed length, and began typing. A half-hour or so later Kornbluth had finished a publishable story, and the two went drinking. During his short life Kornbluth wrote quite a few stories and novels in collaboration with other writers; Merrill, Pohl, etc. I sometimes wonder if the collaborators contributed much beyond an idea or so to those collaborations.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at November 24, 2024 12:32 PM (uk4V/)

304 Eris, I read Last One at the Wedding- it is a trap book- one of those you don't put down once you start.
I thought the main character was exasperating but relatable.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at November 24, 2024 09:40 AM (7gFa4)

Yes, I lost precious sleep devouring this book. Review follows hereforewith:

Unlike other reviews I've read, I liked the protagonist. I've known and worked woth lots of guys like him and got along well. It was interesting to explore the concept of loving someone who turns out to be a narcissistic sociopath. The father's unconditional love for his daughter was a great theme.

Posted by: pookysgirl reads too much at November 24, 2024 12:41 PM (KBVl9)

305 . It isn't that I'm cheap as much as the dearth of new books worth buying.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 24, 2024 09:07 AM (tSsb6

A thousand times THIS.

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at November 24, 2024 12:58 PM (Vvh2V)

306 Hmm. Left at comment 230 and the thread barely made 300.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 24, 2024 01:01 PM (Pgs69)

307 Ron Hubbard was also reportedly a very fast writer of (barely) publishable prose. I'm read that he used rolls of white butcher's paper fed into his typewriter, rather than typing paper, so he wouldn't have to waste time changing paper as he came to the end of a page. Like many stories told about Hubbard, however, it is probably no more than an a remote approximation of the truth.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at November 24, 2024 01:07 PM (uk4V/)

308 Also, if you tried Confederacy of Dunces, and wondered what the fuss was about (I think you have to be Truly Deeply Madly Southern to appreciate it, and a certain Flavor of Southern, at that) try Handling Sin by Mike Malone. A much easier read, and funnier right out the gate.

Posted by: Tammy-al Thor at November 24, 2024 01:07 PM (Vvh2V)

309 Willowed? Is this the book that Sgt Mom is looking for?

The Singing Cave is a children's novel by Margaret Carver Leighton and illustrated by Manning de V. Lee. It was published in 1945 by Houghton Mifflin.

Southern California ranch boy Billy Deane dreads the arrival of Penny, a visitor from New York. Eventually, he befriends her, and they search for artifacts around the area with their Native American friend Felipe. They encounter smugglers and the mystery of the singing cave, and they discover rare artifacts. Eventually, they find the Singing Cave and discover its mystery.

Posted by: badgerwx, VIP lurker at November 24, 2024 02:51 PM (50Aqj)

310 I missed hanging out with you all this morning as I had to drive down to Rhode Island to see Oldest Daughter. Still, in case any of you are still checking in, I wanted to stop by and wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you, Perfessor, for another excellent Book Thread, and thank you Book Lovers for making this such a interesting and welcoming place.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at November 24, 2024 03:12 PM (ZGNOr)

311 Badgerwx! Thank you! That's exactly the book that I was trying to remember! My mother loved that story, and it was set around the area that she and my father built their retirement home!
Yay - the Horde strikes another home run!

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at November 24, 2024 03:22 PM (Ew3fm)

312
Sgt Mom, glad that Brave search was right. This book had its own wikipedia entry.

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