Sunday Morning Book Thread - 5-11-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: J.J. Sefton)

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...(HT: Weasel)

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?

We once again had to bid a final farewell to one of our own this week, as Jim Sunk New Dawn from Galveston, Texas passed away. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting him at the TXMOMEs a few years ago.

Jim took his disease and imminent death like the man he presented on this blog. Nothing exaggerated about who he was.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 06, 2025 09:00 PM (VofaG)

Jim SND was a good man. He will be missed.

PIC NOTE

J.J. Sefton recenly linked to this article about the Sassoon Codex, the world's oldest Hebrew Bible:

Dr. Orit Shaham Gover, Chief Curator of the exhibition, said, "Displaying this 1,100-year-old manuscript is a defining moment. It's not just a priceless cultural artifact but a living witness to the extraordinary journey of Jewish tradition. In these tense days, its presence here resonates even more deeply."

THE DOORSTOPPER READING EXPERIENCE

Those of you who have been following my reading habits for the past few years know that I am no stranger to reading "doorstoppers," i.e., books that have the characteristic of being exceptionally long--though usually not boring!

Why do I continue to engage in this behavior? I dunno. I guess I just like to read long stories with lots of characters and events. Short novels are fine, but I can blaze through them in a day or so, depending on the story. I can whip through a 200-page novel--or even a 300-pager--within just a few hours, so those experiences don't seem to last. With a doorstopper, however, I feel like I can savor the story much more, because I have to take my time to get through every chapter and every plot twist. A 1000-page novel can last me up to a week or so, depending on how I approach reading it and how well the author engages my attention.

I will note that "doorstopper fatigue" is a real thing. It usually hits me around 80% into a long novel, and I have to persevere to get through that point, but usually the conclusion of the novel is worth the effort.

Some doorstoppers have taken me multiple attempts, but when I succeeded on the second attempt, I felt rewarded for my efforts because the ending was spectacular. This was the case with Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings. I read around 800-900 pages on my first attempt, but then got distracted and never finished it. I picked it up again later (after I had read the shorter Sanderson novels in the Mistborn series) and finished it and the ending blew my mind. It was pure awesome.

I had a similar experience when reading The Deadhouse Gates, the second book in The Malazan Books of the Fallen by Steven Erickson. My first attempt only took me halfway through the book, as it quickly became confusing. However, last year, I decided to take on the Malazan challenge and read the whole series. My second attempt at The Deadhouse Gates was much better, as I dedicated myself to understanding the events of the story. From then on, the rest of the books in the series posed no great challenge in completing them. In fact, Memories of Ice (book 3) was even MORE awesome than Deadhouse Gates. The middle of that book was so intense, I couldn't put it down. Although the climax was good, it didn't hold a candle to the middle section.

Note that doorstoppers are not limited to fantasy and science fiction, though they are fairly common in those genres due to a certain book about rings and hobbits. However, doorstoppers can show up in any genre. Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is a 4000+ novel divided up into multiple volumes. Fellow Frenchman Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is a svelte 1400 pages in comparison. Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo only clocks in at 1200+ pages. What is it with the French and doorstoppers?

What are some of YOUR favorite doorstoppers? Have you been intimidated from reading doorstoppers?

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ON THREE WAYS OF WRITING FOR CHILDREN

Recently, I was thumbing through my copy of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia (omnibus edition), and I noticed that my copy had included a short essay from C.S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children." Naturally, this piqued my curiosity and I am a fan of Lewis' writing in general, so I read through the essay.

His premise is that there are at least three different ways of writing children's stories, two of which are generally good, and one which is decidedly bad. The bad way is to try and provide the "public" (here, children) with a story that they claim to want. Though how one gathers evidence of such desire can be difficult, except by tracking the books that parents buy for their children. In other words, you are forcing yourself to market your books in a specific way for a very specific audience, but these may not be stories that will endure over time because they don't really address the universal human condition as much as we might like.

A better way--and the one that was practiced by author such as Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame (and a certain Oxford professor)--is to write for a very *unique* audience, i.e., one's own children or specific children known to the author. This means you are telling a story to a captive audience and from there you hope that it will have mass appeal as other children who may chare characteristics with your designated audience of one (or a few) also enjoy the story.

Lewis' way is the third way, where he writes children's stories because that's the best form for what he has to say. The medium and the message are one. Lewis writes fantasy/fairy tales for children as that's the medium that appeals to him when writing for children. Other authors, such as E. Nesbit, write from a child's point of view because it's the best way to express the story. Adults, having been children at one time and remembering what it was like, can appreciate the stories from that perspective.

One of the more important points in Lewis' essay is that children's literature can be an important tool in helping children deal with their fears. Not phobias, as those require more specialized treatment, but the normal fears of childhood. They can read stories about heroes and villains, good and evil, right and wrong, and then use those stories to inspire them to make choices that will serve them well in adulthood when they must confront real-life problems.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I've been reading What's Mine's Mine by George MacDonald. It's a straight novel instead of one of his fantasy stories. But the writing quality remains just as high and effective. The man seems incapable of poor writing. It is encouraging that so much of his work is being produced in good quality physical books. There must be a demand and people willing to shell out money for works that are worth preserving.
Posted by: JTB at May 04, 2025 09:33 AM (yTvNw)

Comment: Classics are classics for a reason. Even though you can find tons of free books through digital resources like Project Gutenberg, people like to pay for the physical copies because they enjoy the tactile sensation of the book in their hand. Apparently this was C.S. Lewis' favorite George MacDonald novel. I just now ordered The Collected Fantasy of George MacDonald because I thought it would be a worthy addition to my library.

+++++

A really interesting and fun book is Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly, a collection of essays about people whose obsessions ruined their lives. There are chapters about John Cleves Symmes, who tried to get Congress to fund an expedition to find the Arctic hole and one on Cyrus Teed, who believed not only that the world was hollow, but that we live on the inside.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 04, 2025 09:40 AM (Dg2sF)

Comment: Considering the stupid and silly projects Congress is constantly funding, searching for a hole to the center of the earth at the Arctic and Antarctic regions is pretty mild. Still, feeding peoples' obsessions rarely leads to a good outcome (see Jurassic Park below).

+++++

UBIK by Philip K Dick
A great SF novel that's a bit hard to summarize. Basically, it concerns a guy working in an anti-paranormal powers agency against a for hire paranormal agency. A bomb kills "someone", maybe. But, who is dead? There's a process called half-life where the dead can be accessed for a limited time but is failing on both sides of life/death. Perhaps the ubiquitous commercial product UBIK holds the answer.
Frankly, PKD had to be one hell of a great writer to produce stories this well-written and complex while all spun-up on methamphetamines and pixie dust and finishing his novels within 3 or so weeks while locked in a hotel room.
One downside, to reading older SF is that the "future" imagined in these books is so off-kilter to what we know of say the 1990's. But, eh...SF.
If this book sounds like it will appeal to you, it will.
Give it a whirl.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 04, 2025 11:06 AM (iJfKG)

Comment: I'll second naturalfake's recommendation. I read this not that long ago and when I got to the end, I wondered, "What the heck did I just read?" It's a crazy story that blurs the line between living and dying. The epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter advertising Ubik are pretty entertaining to read by themselves. It's a floor wax! It's an essential part of this nutritious breakfast! It supplies firm, relaxing support to your bosom all day long! (Use Ubik only as directed. Do not taunt Ubik.)

MORE MORON RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: AoSHQ - Book Thread Recommendations

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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.

Commonwealth Saga Book 2 - Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton

I finally finished the second half of this doorstopper series. The heroes devise a million-to-one chance to prevent the Starflyer from returning to its home star, though the Starflyer is one crafty SOB. It's a miracle that the plan worked at all, as the Starflyer had infiltrated the Guardians at the highest levels. Meanwhile, the mad genius Ozzie devises his own plan to prevent his partner Nigel from launching a genocidal strike against the Prime. Though in actuality, Ozzie's plan is just as genocidal, but just takes much, much longer. He wants to lock the Prime away in their star system until their sun burns out.

It's pretty clear that Hamilton has been influenced by lots of different science fiction traditions. In particular, I can see elements of anime/manga in the way he depicts his battles. Massive, seizure-inducing light shows as each side lauches devastating weapons at each other with little to no effect due to forcefields, leading to ever-escalating arms races as each side tries to outmurder the other. Pretty cool, though not for the bystanders who are reduced to ash along the way...

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

I decided to read this in honor of Jim SND as this is one of two books he recommended on the Sunday Morning Book Thread last year (the other one was Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears).

I've read several other Michael Crichton books by now, and I have watched the movie a few times, so I knew what to expect (more or less). The first half of the book tracks with the movie pretty well, but the second half diverges quite a bit in the details, though the overall plot structure is mostly the same, I think. It's been a while since I've watched the movie.

The major theme that runs through most of Michael Crichton's books (at least, those I've read) is HUBRIS. And boy, howdy, the characters in this book are chock full of it. Most of the characters who are full of overweening pride get their just desserts in this story. Even Ian Malcolm, the chaos mathematician who is basically proved *right* much of the time doesn't understand fully what's going on at the park, though he's pretty good at modeling it. John Hammond, Jurassic Park's visionary creator, is an arrogant fool who denies reality throughout the entire book.

My biggest disappointment with this book--even though it is a good story--is that there is a character called Muldoon, but nary a limerick to be found in the whole book. Thus, I give you the following:

A T-Rex with jaws that could chomp,
Roamed the earth with a thunderous stomp.
His teeth were quite grand,
But his arms? Not so planned,
He'd hug if he could, but--oh, romp!
--Courtesy of Grok

Isle of Destiny by Kenneth C. Flint

ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [singing] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
--Monty Python and the Holy Grail

What does the above quote have to do with Isle of Destiny? Well, apparently, in ancient Ireland a prophecy says that the new High King will be a young man who shows up naked at the gates of Tara carrying nothing more than a sling. Naturally, he's challenged by one of the lesser kings for his right to rule all of Ireland. After a short David-and-Goliath style beatdown, the young man is given his chance to rule Ireland, though it will not be easy.

I've usually enjoyed Flint's books about ancient Irish mythology. He really seems to capture the spirit of those heroes of antiquity. Must be my Celtic blood.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 5-4-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

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

RIP, Jim Sunk New Dawn from Galveston, TX

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. The best way to ask for beer is to sing out Ubik.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 BOING!

Finished reading Jack Posobiec's "Unhumans."

The word is "reciprocity."

I would add the words "times two."

Math.

Sorry.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 08:59 AM (UzL96)

2 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 08:59 AM (ypFCm)

3 Hey! I can read that!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:00 AM (UzL96)

4 Is there a drive-by book thread today? Probably won't be here long.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

5 No new book, but not for wanting one. Heard a podcast from a American author on revolutionary era warfare but it's printed in England and lots of hoops to get it.

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 09:01 AM (ypFCm)

6 Hey! I can read that!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:00 AM (UzL96)
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That is, the Sassoon Codex.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:01 AM (3447G)

7 This is my Holy Scripture. Tare many like it.
But this one is mine.

Posted by: Eromero at May 11, 2025 09:02 AM (LHPAg)

8 Hey! I can read that!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:00 AM (UzL96)
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It's Greek to me!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:02 AM (GlyvH)

9 Bought 2 more books on Amazon the other day. Don't even remember what I bought.

/slaps down mouse-clicking hand in dr strangelove style

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:03 AM (3447G)

10 I think I've only read one doorstopper, Shogun.

These days I could never read something that long because I'd start to lose inter............................

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025 09:03 AM (0eaVi)

11 It's Greek to me!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:02 AM (GlyvH)
-

/inserts batman slaps robin meme here

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:04 AM (3447G)

12 Rest in Peace, Jim SND. I had hoped to meet him some day, but I guess we shall have to wait until we meet at the Great Marina in the Sky, where no hurricanes strike and no boats sink.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 09:05 AM (/RHNq)

13 It's Greek to me!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:02 AM (GlyvH)
-

/inserts batman slaps robin meme here
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:04 AM (3447G)
---
...I deserved that...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:05 AM (GlyvH)

14 Have you been intimidated from reading doorstoppers?
-

I recall posting here a book review of "The Life of Lenin."

Now you made me cry.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:07 AM (3447G)

15 Oh, damn, Jim's gone?

I enjoyed talking to him at MoMes, although I always felt out of my depth around him.

He looked rocky last year, and I had read about his health problems, but I thought we'd have him a while longer.

RIP.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:08 AM (p/isN)

16 Morning, Perfessor.

Howdy, Horde.

Been revisiting some Elmore Leonard this week.

And now for the content...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 09:09 AM (q3u5l)

17 Once upon a time, there was a federal agency that cut a program. The agency is NASA, and the program was Apollo. Originally planned to go through Apollo 20, it fell victim to a fickle public after Apollo 11 made lunar landings seem easy. (The near tragedy of Apollo 13 didn't help matters.) Flights were pared to end with Apollo 17. Eugene Cernan wants to command that mission, which will make him "The Last Man on the Moon."

But will he? He runs into problems. First he crashes a helicopter while goofing around, then develops a prostate infection, and finally strains a leg tendon during a softball game. Thanks to a sympathetic doctor, his conditions stay secret, and he heals.

Meanwhile, Washington mandates that 17's crew will include a geologist who is on the backup crew. Cernan must decide whether to accept this shuffle or bow out and let the backup team fly.

I'm starting to skip ahead in this book, then stop and return to where I was. I've done this many times. If I had the will power to read this properly, I'd likely be finished with it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:10 AM (p/isN)

18 Morning, Book People,

This week I tried Douglas Preston's Extinction and liked it quite a bit. The concept at first glance seems very Jurassic Park: Various Pleistocene (and earlier) animals have been de-extincted with DNA from their ancestors. There's a group of woolly mammoths including a baby, glyptodonts, and at least one indricothere. No predators. The other difference here is that they have had the aggression gene deleted, so they are quite calm and accepting of the visitors to this expensive resort high in the CO Rockies. But several murders happen -- the humans have been decapitated, we find when the bodies turn up. And the park's scientist team have been experimenting with . . . something else.

Exciting, fast moving, and has very little of the woke stuff, despite the lead, a female CO Bureau of Investigation agent who is quite competent and knows her limitations.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:10 AM (omVj0)

19 Least favorite doorstopper: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. Still fascinated by whether that was murder, but could have been done in a third or half the length.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 11, 2025 09:10 AM (UBKzV)

20 One downside to reading older SF is that the "future" imagined in these books is so off-kilter to what we know of say the 1990's. But, eh...SF.

Posted by: naturalfake

The other day, I watched a Jetson's cartoon for the first time in years. I didn't realize that in the far distant future we would still be using punch cards.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:11 AM (lTGtQ)

21 I read Long Bright River by Liz Moore. This is the story of two sisters and of the infamous Kensington Ave. in Philly, home of addicts and prostitutes. Kacey becomes an addict living on the street and her sister, Mickey, becomes a police officer patrolling the district in which Kensington is located. A series of women being murdered coincides with Kacey's disappearance. Mickey's search for her sister and a serial killer makes for a suspenseful read. One thing off-putting to me was that Moore doesn't use quotation marks when writing dialog.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 11, 2025 09:11 AM (SQp7G)

22 "What the heck did I just read?"

Things inconclusive.Fever dream. Entropy. Whatever that is!

My favorite PKD novel.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 09:11 AM (b3ml3)

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

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 09:12 AM (yTvNw)

24 It was a real hairy escape from the Middle East for the Sassoon codex, I've heard.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025 09:12 AM (0eaVi)

25 Sad to hear about Jim, we are losing too many recently.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:13 AM (lTGtQ)

26 The other day, I watched a Jetson's cartoon for the first time in years. I didn't realize that in the far distant future we would still be using punch cards.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:11 AM (lTGtQ)
---
This is what makes Frank Herbert's Destination: Void so unintentionally hilarious.

The characters are trying to solve complicated problems in space using Herbert's extrapolation of 1960s computer technology into the distant future.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:13 AM (GlyvH)

27 I read two door stopers lie Harlots Ghost, some 1158 pages, to be continued and Year of the Locust, neither was terribly rewarding, if they removed about 100 pages at the end, when it went very weird,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:14 AM (bXbFr)

28 RIP, Jim in Galveston.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 09:14 AM (q3u5l)

29 12 Rest in Peace, Jim SND. I had hoped to meet him some day, but I guess we shall have to wait until we meet at the Great Marina in the Sky, where no hurricanes strike and no boats sink.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 09:05 AM (/RHNq)
‘Listen up for muster! Sunk New Dawn!’
-Heavenly XO
‘Here!’
‘You are assigned boat captain. Lay to the Captain’s gig.’

Posted by: Eromero at May 11, 2025 09:14 AM (LHPAg)

30 What's Mine's Mine is not my recommendation. I don't generally read fiction.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:14 AM (Dg2sF)

31 Finished the second book of Iain Banks' Culture series, "The Player of Games." Very interesting premise the author pulled off quite well. Now starting on the third book, "Use of Weapons."

Also started (I'm a two-fisted reader, I am) reading "Great North Road" by Peter F. Hamilton. 1000 page police procedural set in a multi-planet human civilization. Is there an unknown sentient alien monster murdering people, or just a crazy human?

Also reading Hamilton's "Mindstar Rising," which is very good. Human lie detector investigating stuff.

And, finally, reading Dr. Brant Pitre's new book "Jesus and Divine Christology," which seeks to counter the last 200 years of "Jesus wasn't divine, didn't think he was divine," Jesus Seminar nonsense. Do far so good.

I like to read.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 09:15 AM (/RHNq)

32 JK Rowling's Cormoran Strike books keep getting longer. The last couple, I was unable to read in bed, which is one of my favorite reading positions. My arm kept going numb. I do like them, so I'll just have to put up with the inconvenience.

Posted by: huerfano at May 11, 2025 09:15 AM (n2swS)

33 yes its a shame, much like the denizens of my favorite departed blog,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:16 AM (bXbFr)

34 Favorite doorstopper:

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes.

Posted by: Wethal at May 11, 2025 09:16 AM (NufIr)

35 What's Mine's Mine is not my recommendation. I don't generally read fiction.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:14 AM (Dg2sF)
---
Whoops! Sorry about that...

I copied/pasted incorrectly and forgot to make the necessary adjustments.

Should be fixed now.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:17 AM (GlyvH)

36 Curious if any of you have promoted your books on X and how you went about doing this?

Posted by: Ordinary American at May 11, 2025 09:17 AM (vsTPo)

37 Currently I'm on another novel in Max Allan Collins's Nate Heller semi-historical private eye series. This one begins in 1957, as Erle Stanley Gardner's "Court of Last Resort" takes up the case of Dr. Sam Sheppard, convicted in '54 of murdering his wife (the inspiration for Dr. Richard Kimble, no doubt).

Gardner is a featured character, as is Sheppard, of course, and "Flo Kilgore," a thinly-disguised stand-in for reporter and What's My Line? panelist Dorothy Kilgallen. I'm not sure why Collins changed her name; possibly he's got some unpleasant surprises in store about her, and didn't want to smear the real-life woman, or get sued. Heller has a short-lived affair with her, for example.

I'm halfway through, and Collins has jumped ahead to 1966, with Sheppard still in prison.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:17 AM (omVj0)

38 yes Cormoran Strike's series has become unweildy,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:17 AM (bXbFr)

39 Not sure any doorstopper I ever read regretted it, and have read a room full of them.

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 09:17 AM (ypFCm)

40 Good Sunday morning, horde.

No reading to report. Listening to My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. I think sal told us about this a few weeks ago.

It's chock full of teenaged girls and their friendship dramas. If you've never been a teenaged girl with friends, you might have no interest, but I am enjoying the listen while I cast about for my next read.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 11, 2025 09:17 AM (h7ZuX)

41 I didn't find Pilgrim that arduous, ymmv

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:18 AM (bXbFr)

42 Least favorite doorstopper: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser. Still fascinated by whether that was murder, but could have been done in a third or half the length.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 11, 2025 09:10 AM (UBKzV)

IIRC, that was the Theo Durrant case. In of itself, it's not much of a crime - guy gets girl pregnant, prefers to marry rich girl, kills pregnant girl - but it somehow captured the imagination of a lot of people.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:18 AM (Dg2sF)

43 For the last week I've been listening to the audiobook version of The Last One At The Wedding by Jack Rekulak, based on some book thread recommendations months ago.
While I'm not quite finished yet, I've really enjoyed it. Have found myself chuckling a number of times and the author pulled me in right from the first minute.
A story well told, tightly written, with plot twists, character development and an engaging pace.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 11, 2025 09:19 AM (dg+HA)

44 Just over a hundred years ago, President Warren Harding died in office, and Calvin Coolidge was sworn into the role in a farmhouse by his father. Known as Silent Cal, and fondly remembered by conservatives for his minimalist view of the presidency and the federal government, the biography of our 30th president is documented in Coolidge by Amity Schlaes

Calvin Coolidge, former governor of Massachusetts, was a taciturn man, known for always weighing his decisions on how they would affect the common man and whether a given policy was in line with the constitution. His presidency was in the roaring twenties, and during his term, the world modernized. Electric lights became common as did the automobile, and he promoted Charles Lindbergh who would fly the Atlantic solo during his term.

Under his presidency, the federal budget was in surplus for every single year, and his most pressing desire was to reduce federal spending with every new budget. The country flourished as he cut taxes and reduced the budget; wages rose and unemployment fell. His presidency is one that should be remembered and emulated.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:20 AM (lTGtQ)

45 On the Kindle, I read A. I. Apocalypse by William Hertling. This is the second book in the Singularity series. ELOPe, an AI which was created accidently in book one, has been running secretly for ten years. It has been quietly helping humanity with cancer cures, new energy forms, keeping the peace, etc. In Brooklyn a brilliant 14-year old unleashes a virus, Phage, onto the internet. Within a few days it evolves into an AI and controls most computers on earth which causes results similar to an EMP attack. It's up to ELOPe and a few humans to regain control. An exciting scenario which poses questions in 2014 that concern us today.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 11, 2025 09:21 AM (SQp7G)

46 On another subject entirely, I'm glad I wasn't here yesterday (I had to work). I saw the art thread subject and, even at the distance of a day, it still depresses the hell out of me. I love Tissot, but it really pains me knowing I will never, ever have a lady like that.

Anyway, I need a cup of tea. BRB

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:21 AM (Dg2sF)

47 My bucket list included reading War and Peace, a doorstopper if there ever was one. Took me six weeks, but since I'm long retired I had the time for it. Too bad at my age I can't remember a thing about it.

Posted by: Ashley Squishy at May 11, 2025 09:21 AM (kvDvI)

48 yes Cormoran Strike's series has become unweildy,
Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025

***
If Ellery Queen, John Dickson Carr, or Agatha Christie had written novels at such length, would they still be read today? (Though Queen and Carr, sadly, are almost out of print now anyway.) Part of the fun of the classical detective story is that it is tight and compact, so you don't lose track of the essential clues -- if you are smart enough to spot them. It's possible to have solid characterization in a short space: See Josephine Tey, and Carr, Queen, and Christie were better at that than they are sometimes given credit for.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:22 AM (omVj0)

49 Good morning morons and thanks perfessor

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 11, 2025 09:22 AM (RIvkX)

50 Perfessor,

Good choice with "The Collected Fantasy of George MacDonald". It has wonderful selection of his work in the genre. BTW, it includes his essay on the Fantastic Imagination from "A Dish Of Orts", a collection of MacDonald's essays on various matters and is worth reading the whole book.

I have almost everything MacDonald wrote on Kindle and I'm getting physical copies as sales and budgets allow. The books are going in the same book case that holds my Tolkien, Lewis, and Chesterton hard copies.

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 09:22 AM (yTvNw)

51 Happy Mothers Day.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at May 11, 2025 09:22 AM (xv7zH)

52 IIRC, that was the Theo Durrant case. In of itself, it's not much of a crime - guy gets girl pregnant, prefers to marry rich girl, kills pregnant girl - but it somehow captured the imagination of a lot of people.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercin

_____
That's the rub. As presented in the book, the death occurs in exactly the way he intended, but arguably not due to his own actions.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 11, 2025 09:23 AM (UBKzV)

53 Gardner is a featured character, as is Sheppard, of course, and "Flo Kilgore," a thinly-disguised stand-in for reporter and What's My Line? panelist Dorothy Kilgallen. I'm not sure why Collins changed her name; possibly he's got some unpleasant surprises in store about her,

Well, yeah. She did have an unpleasant surprise.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025 09:23 AM (0eaVi)

54 Ah, bean-bag pants! Perfect for relaxing in, not so perfect for moving around in. ....Man, I haven't sat in a bean bag chair since I was a kid. Simply no room for one in my own house...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 11, 2025 09:24 AM (Lhaco)

55 Finished Crows by Candace Savage, great quick read about the smartest birds you'll ever see in the wild. Started Thunderstruck by Erik Larson because everything I've read by him is top-notch. Also, started Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, definitely not what I expected. I thought it would be small town nostalgia but, as the author describes it, these are sketches of grotesques.

Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 09:24 AM (+ViXu)

56 Gardner is a featured character, as is Sheppard, of course, and "Flo Kilgore," a thinly-disguised stand-in for reporter and What's My Line? panelist Dorothy Kilgallen. I'm not sure why Collins changed her name; possibly he's got some unpleasant surprises in store about her,
*
Well, yeah. She did have an unpleasant surprise.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025

***
Right; as I recall, Kilgallen died on the night of the famous 1965 New York blackout, and so her passing was lost in the news blitz about that. Was there something about her possibly being killed by the Mob?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:25 AM (omVj0)

57 in part because the story was interesting,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:26 AM (bXbFr)

58 I visited Jackson Street Booksellers in Omaha yesterday. Highly recommended if you find yourself in the area.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 11, 2025 09:26 AM (/y8xj)

59 The ultimate 'doorstopper' novel: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Change my mind.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 11, 2025 09:27 AM (0sNs1)

60 Right; as I recall, Kilgallen died on the night of the famous 1965 New York blackout, and so her passing was lost in the news blitz about that. Was there something about her possibly being killed by the Mob?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:25 AM (omVj0)

Wolfus, some speculate it was because she was investigating Kennedy's killing.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025 09:27 AM (0eaVi)

61 she allegedly had some info about the kennedy assasination,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:28 AM (bXbFr)

62 We once again had to bid a final farewell to one of our own this week, as Jim Sunk New Dawn from Galveston, Texas passed away.

Chemjeff hardest hit.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 11, 2025 09:29 AM (h7ZuX)

63 Too soon? I think he'd have laughed.

Into the Lord's arms, Jim SND. We feel your absence deeply.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 11, 2025 09:29 AM (h7ZuX)

64 Can only encourage reading War And Peace, have twice, but then am addicted so to speak

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 09:29 AM (ypFCm)

65 Doorstops...

When I was a kid, I'd dive into them. Some of Verne, Dumas, Hugo (yeah, what is it with the French?), Dickens...

But I did my decade long dive into sf novels and not much else starting when I was 13, and when I came up for air found myself not quite so willing to dive into a doorstop. Got around to War and Peace, Of Human Bondage, and others, and liked them, but I have no desire to do that very often. I find myself thinking that George Roy Hill's comment re movies has an equivalent somewhere for novelists. In conversation with William Goldman, Hill once said "If you can't tell your story in an hour and forty minutes, you'd better be David Lean."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 09:30 AM (q3u5l)

66 I am Pilgrim is a great book.

Bought four old sci-fi paperbacks at the friends of the library sale. $2 total.

Space Plague by George O. Smith.
Code Three by Rick Raphael.
Novelets of Science Fiction edited by Ivan Howard.
Doctor to the Stars by Murray Leinster.

Great 50-60's cover art.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 09:30 AM (b3ml3)

67 The ultimate 'doorstopper' novel: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Change my mind.
Posted by: Duncanthrax
_____

That's my least favorite Dostoyevsky major work. The best:

1. Devils
2. Notes From Underground
3. Brothers Karamozov

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 11, 2025 09:31 AM (UBKzV)

68 Under his presidency, the federal budget was in surplus for every single year, and his most pressing desire was to reduce federal spending with every new budget. The country flourished as he cut taxes and reduced the budget; wages rose and unemployment fell. His presidency is one that should be remembered and emulated.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:20 AM

Let us not forget one of, if not the, most important contributions to science and the world he made, the discovery of the Coolidge Effect.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 11, 2025 09:31 AM (0sNs1)

69 'I'll admit to having skimmed war and piece, with the footnotes, in hand,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:31 AM (bXbFr)

70 In conversation with William Goldman, Hill once said "If you can't tell your story in an hour and forty minutes, you'd better be David Lean."
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025

***
I'd expand that to two hours and maybe a few minutes over, like the original True Grit. But shorter is usually better.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:32 AM (omVj0)

71 Doorstoppers that are worth the read:

Atlas Shrugged
Stone's Fall
War and Peace

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:32 AM (lTGtQ)

72 So, in between comic books, I've started reading a non-fiction book about the War for Jenkin's Ear. (England vs Spain, 1740. It was later subsumed into the greater War of Austrian Succession.) One of the more striking aspects of the war was when England dispatched a fleet to harass the Spanish possessions in the Pacific. The fleet lost over half its manpower just getting to the Pacific Ocean, before even coming into contact with the enemy! Disease, inadequate supplies, disintegrating ships, bad weather, spending a month trying to fight through the wind and currents around Cape Horn, ships losing contact with the flagship and simply turning around for home... Staggering losses.

In part, the losses are hard to conceptualize because that is not something I would tolerate in a story. If I were reading a novel were half the cast died of disease....well, I wouldn't 'rage quit' the story, but I'd probably just set it down and not pick it up again...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 11, 2025 09:33 AM (Lhaco)

73 RIP Jim SND.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 09:34 AM (ZOv7s)

74 I guess what I bought last week qualifies as a doorstopper: a Spider-Man omnibus, featuring the stories by Roger Stern, who wrote a run of Spectacular Spider-Man, followed by an acclaimed run on Amazing Spider-Man. Stern is known in the comics world for creating the Hobgoblin, who adapted the discovered gadgetry of Spidey's longtime foe the Green Goblin.

The book is more than 1,000 pages.

As I have all of the issues of these runs, I bought this more for preservation purposes. So did I violate my "no new books" resolution again?

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:34 AM (p/isN)

75 Let us not forget one of, if not the, most important contributions to science and the world he made, the discovery of the Coolidge Effect.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 11, 2025

***
I had to look that up! But it's a good name for the phenomenon.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:34 AM (omVj0)

76 As I have all of the issues of these runs, I bought this more for preservation purposes. So did I violate my "no new books" resolution again?
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:34 AM

Yes. Yes you did.

Now back up and introduce yourself properly:

"Hello. My name is Weak Geek, and I am a bookoholic."

Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 11, 2025 09:36 AM (0sNs1)

77 Yay, Book Thread!

Well, Perfesser, you get results. Or I get you to get results. Quite the surge in Long Live Death sales last week.

Reading this week remains split between Brain Lock and Heart of Darkness.

One thing I will say about Brain Lock (it's about OCD) is that these self-help/therapy books lean heavily into case studies and I wonder if people buy them just to read about how messed up *other people* are. I'm to the point where I'm just skipping the case studies because I get it, people are messed up. It's repetitive at best, disturbing at worst. No time for that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 09:36 AM (ZOv7s)

78 Year of the Locust, neither was terribly rewarding, if they removed about 100 pages at the end, when it went very weird,
Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:14 AM (bXbFr)

You and I have touched on this one before. What a disappointment, after I Am Pilgrim. I've already forgotten Year of the Locust--it was that uninteresting to me.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 11, 2025 09:36 AM (h7ZuX)

79 My bucket list included reading War and Peace, a doorstopper if there ever was one. Took me six weeks, but since I'm long retired I had the time for it. Too bad at my age I can't remember a thing about it.

Posted by: Ashley Squishy at May 11, 2025 09:21 AM (kvDvI)

I read War and Peace nearly 30 years ago and still remember quite a bit. It was one of my favorites. I don't recall how long it took to read, but it wasn't six weeks only because I could not put it down. I sometimes think about acquiring another copy and seeing how I feel about it years later.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at May 11, 2025 09:38 AM (p8HLK)

80 I've been continuing through my run of "The Maze Agency" comic books. I get viscerally angry when I pick up a book that isn't drawn by the original artist, Adam Hughs. The art is so much more bland in the first two issues without him. I really hope the series gets a decent long-term replacement artist.

Per the letters page, Hughs was snatched up by DC to draw Justice League of America (and I think I may have those issues, as part of my yet-unread JLI omnibus 2). It says a lot about those first couple issues that their artist went from start-up indy-book straight to one of the industry flagships!

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 11, 2025 09:39 AM (Lhaco)

81 Doorstoppers? I've read a few on varying topics. I mean, if you condense LotR into a single volume, it becomes a doorstopper, but never felt long while I was reading it.

I guess my most recent experience was that massive Churchill biography, and before that two volumes of Ford Madox Ford's biography, which was a struggle at times.

I guess I'm not generally a fan, and I certainly do not emulate that in my writing.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 09:40 AM (ZOv7s)

82 This week I finished Donald Trump's book The America We Deserve written in 1999 when he had his eye on running for President in the Reform Party.

I will say that Trump has not moved much in policy for the last 25 years. There may have been some changes in his policy on health care, but failure teaches a lot, and he has brought on some specialists in the field.
Otherwise, what he laid out in this book is pretty much what he has focused on.
The one area he has not touched in his Presidency is volunteerism, which he is a big proponent of in his book.

It is decently written, less idiomatic than The Art of the Deal but not so cleaned up to seem to be written by someone else.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 11, 2025 09:40 AM (D7oie)

83 The ultimate 'doorstopper' novel: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at May 11, 2025 09:27 AM (0sNs1)
-

When I last checked, a teen grandpup of ours claimed she's currently reading C&P.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 09:40 AM (3447G)

84 @44 --

I like Coolidge, too, but I have to agree with the adventure comic strip artist Milton Caniff, who criticized Coolidge years later for his suggestion that the Army should buy only one aircraft and have the officers take turns for their flight instruction.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:42 AM (p/isN)

85 I've read my share of doorstoppers. War and Peace, Ulysses, and a few long SF series. But when I start a doorstopper it's usually non-fiction. I've read Carl Sandburg's multi-volume Life of Lincoln, Churchill's WWII, Shelby Foote's Civil War, and Fernand Braudel's three volume The Structure of Everyday Life.

Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 09:42 AM (+ViXu)

86 Atlas Shrugged
Stone's Fall
War and Peace
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:32 AM (lTGtQ)
---
Atlas Shrugged bored the heck out of me from the very beginning. Could not get into the writing style at all.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 09:43 AM (ZOv7s)

87 Mornin' Horde and Happy Mother's Day to the 'ette mamas. Hugs to those who miss their mamas or their children today.

Since moving my mom to assisted living, I'm re-establishing several habits that fell by the wayside over the last couple years, including reading. I'm currently almost halfway through my first reading of Dune. And I need to get back into To the Edge of the World (recommended by a Moron). I'm a very slow reader now compared to my reading pace for most of my life.

Not sure if this qualifies as a door-stopper since it's not quite 1000 pages, but I love Margaret George's The Autobiography of Henry VIII. Have re-read it many times.

Posted by: screaming in digital at May 11, 2025 09:44 AM (Szews)

88 It's Greek to me!

Supposedly in the industrialization of Mexico by the French (Gustave Eiffel was involved), many Greek miners were imported, leading to this common expression for incomprehension, and to the slang for foreigner, Griego. Which morphed to "Gringo"! So gringos weren't originally Yankees, just foreigners.

And while we're at it, "Mano a Mano" does not mean "man to man"! It means literally hand to hand!

Posted by: Ray Van Dune at May 11, 2025 09:45 AM (UOS8z)

89 Hi, screaming in digital! Hugs to you!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 11, 2025 09:45 AM (h7ZuX)

90 I picked up a few books by Theodore Dreiser when I was taking a university course on business and the social environment, to get a take on how twentieth century authors viewed the business world. I don't recall finishing any of them.

It is hard to say whether Dreiser or Sinclair Lewis hated capitalism more. Their books are a constant refrain about how immoral and criminal businessmen are.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:46 AM (lTGtQ)

91 Dash!!! Hugs right back! Hope to see you in Corsicana this year.

Posted by: screaming in digital at May 11, 2025 09:46 AM (Szews)

92 I've read Carl Sandburg's multi-volume Life of Lincoln, Churchill's WWII, Shelby Foote's Civil War, and Fernand Braudel's three volume The Structure of Everyday Life.
Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 09:42 AM (+ViXu)
---
So are multi-volume works really doorstoppers, though? Usually they are groups into volumes that have specific themes, or divisions within the greater work, and one might return to just that volume in a way one wouldn't jump to a chapter in a single standalone (but very long) book.

For example, I have at various times picked up Volume II of the Second World War and just read it, because the sense of action and drama is just electric. I've also read The Gathering Storm when i want a sense of brooding disaster.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 09:47 AM (ZOv7s)

93 I didn't find Pilgrim that arduous, ymmv
Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 09:18 AM (bXbFr

No, Pilgrim isn't arduous - just long and so good it leaves you wanting another one. That is why Year of the Locust was a disappointment, especially when Hayes veers into another genre in the last part.

Posted by: Wethal at May 11, 2025 09:47 AM (NufIr)

94 Calvin Coolidge and Yoshii Toranaga share a lot of personality characteristics.

Tao and falconry.

Ask Grok to compare Calvin Coolidge with Yoshii Toranaga.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 09:49 AM (b3ml3)

95 I'm continuing with mostly hobby-related reading. It is interesting and relaxing without getting distracted by so many rabbit holes to follow. This week I read about bread baking (a huge, varied topic), relief carving, sketching with ink, house plant propagation, and traditional muzzleloading matters. Hands-on topics that let me ignore the maelstrom of news and cultural matters that can ruin enjoyment.

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 09:49 AM (yTvNw)

96 Wolfus, and any other fantasy writer, you might be interested in this vid:

https://tinyurl.com/2s35ffwv

Anyway, gotta go. Have fun on the book thread.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025 09:49 AM (0eaVi)

97 I had a bunch of Audible credits and needed entertainment. Will spare you most of it, but wanted to mention Jennifer Juniper by Jenny Boyd. She is the younger sister of Patti Boyd (wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton). Jenny was married to Mick Fleetwood twice and is an interesting woman. She reads her own book and has a wonderful low voice. And she can write! She talks about London during the Carnaby Street days, then goes to San Francisco for the Summer of Love. She talks about the evolution of Fleetwood Mac, but it's more about the people and less about the music. When her marriage falls apart again, she winds up going to a private college, getting BA and MA in psychology. For her dissertation, she interviews musicians about the creative process (updated as Icons of Rock, which I am listening to now). It's an interesting life.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 11, 2025 09:50 AM (AcTAo)

98 I finished Brideshead Revisited last night. It's one of those stories that I'll be rolling around in my mind for a while.

I'll have to check back later today - I've got some things that need taking care of. Thank you, Perfessor, for this wonderful book thread and thank you Book People for making it such a rewarding place to be on Sunday mornings.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at May 11, 2025 09:50 AM (z1MBx)

99 One of the more important points in Lewis' essay is that children's literature can be an important tool in helping children deal with their fears.
____

Are there any books out there to help kids deal with the fear that their Dad is a weirdo who starts to dress like a woman and leaves the family to be his authentic self, whatever that means?

Posted by: Chuck Martel at May 11, 2025 09:51 AM (Dv3i1)

100 Read "Count of Monte Christo" my senior year in HS. Several years later watching the movie with my wife, she commented, "This is like a bad soap opera." My reply was, "The book is even worse!"

Seriously, Dumas' writing style was very "kitsch", but maybe that's why they are so loved. Everything I've heard from my daughter about "Bridgerton" sounds like something Dumas could have written, just with more sex.

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at May 11, 2025 09:51 AM (e/Osv)

101 I suppose Umberto Eco's books qualify as doorstoppers; a book doesn't have to approach a thousand pages if one has to read them very closely.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:52 AM (lTGtQ)

102 Wolfus, and any other fantasy writer, you might be interested in this vid:

https://tinyurl.com/2s35ffwv

Anyway, gotta go. Have fun on the book thread.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 11, 2025

***
That looks intriguing, OE. The social aspect of magic!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:53 AM (omVj0)

103 74 I guess what I bought last week qualifies as a doorstopper: a Spider-Man omnibus, featuring the stories by Roger Stern, who wrote a run of Spectacular Spider-Man, followed by an acclaimed run on Amazing Spider-Man. Stern is known in the comics world for creating the Hobgoblin, who adapted the discovered gadgetry of Spidey's longtime foe the Green Goblin.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:34 AM (p/isN)

Okay, if we count those as door-stoppers, I have a lot of door-stoppers! Just not that one. I think Heroes Reborn may be my biggest, as far as page-count or issues collected goes.

A summer or two back, I trailed off when trying to read a big fantasy epic. it was the second half of "The Buried Goddess Saga" by Rhett C Bruno and Jamie Castle. It wasn't bad, but the scope had expanded to include too many character that I just didn't care about, and didn't want to read about. I'd quickly read the chapters about the characters established in the first half, then just stop when hit a chapter focusing on the new character. Eventually, I just never started again. Which is easy to do when you're reading via an ebook, and can just que up another book on the same device...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 11, 2025 09:53 AM (Lhaco)

104 I've got to nip out to Petco and pick up some more dry chow for the beasts, but it's a quick walk. Back later.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 09:54 AM (omVj0)

105 I mentioned, the last time I was here, that I've been buying books and then not reading them. Within the last week and a half, I have bought at least 20 books and have finished only 2 (a bio of WS Gilbert and a true crime account from the Gilded Age). All of the others are around the house in piles. Yesterday I tried to get through one (or at least make an attempt), but ended up bouncing from one to the other, barely getting through a few pages of each.

I don't know what's wrong with me. I want to read, but I also just want to go and buy, because book shopping makes me happy (it's the going home that depresses me).

I need something new in my life, but I have no idea what. Or, rather, I do have ideas, but not a single one is practical.

**depressive confession off**

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:56 AM (Dg2sF)

106 Morning all and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms here.
The thing about door stoppers is that after you put in the effort to get to the end, it either has to finish the story line in a satisfactory way or end on a high note. The worst to mes when you get to the end and the Hero after enduring great hardships and succeeding so you are cheering, all of a sudden gets clobbered and you have to wait for the next one to find out what happens.
The worst kind of cliffhanger.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 11, 2025 09:56 AM (t/2Uw)

107 There's no hard-and-fast rule about what constitutes a "doorstopper" but the consensus--if there is one--seems to be that anything over 500 pages could be a doorstopper.

Using that as a metric, around 400 of the books in my library would qualify, though some of them don't really seem like doorstoppers because they are fast-paced and exciting to read.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 11, 2025 09:57 AM (GlyvH)

108 When it comes to door stoppers, three immediately come to mind: LOTR (of course), The Count of Monte Cristo (the full version, not the truncated editions so prevalent), and Moby Dick.

There's a subcategory that includes Lewis' Space Trilogy and the Narnia stories, and my hardcover of all the Conan books. These are separate books but I read them as if they were one book since the stories build on one another.

Honorable mention to Montaigne's Essays since I can't read just one.

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 09:57 AM (yTvNw)

109 Anyway, it's a clear, sunny day outside. Perhaps a long drive with the radio cranked will blow some of the clouds away.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:58 AM (Dg2sF)

110 Some years ago, I read several George MacDonald stories. I particularly enjoyed The Laird's Inheritance because of the hidden passages and ... don't want to give a spoiler! Also, our hero studies math as a boy. I use a quote from this at the bottom of my syllabi (because every math teacher hears "when am I going to ever use this?"):

"Learning is growth and growth in any direction, if the heart be true, is growth in all directions."

I'm not certain about the exact quote. I can't find my book or an old syllabus right now and the internet is not helping.

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at May 11, 2025 09:59 AM (Sf2cq)

111 When did Jim die? Do we have an obit?

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 09:59 AM (p/isN)

112 Gotta go clean up to look respectable for Mother's Day festivities, but it was lovely to be here for a bit.

Perfessor, I'm rarely here live and in person Sunday mornings, but I very much appreciate your book threads. And the Horde's recommendations.

Posted by: screaming in digital at May 11, 2025 09:59 AM (Szews)

113 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 09:59 AM (u82oZ)

114 A doorstop that doesn't feel like a doorstop (YMMV): William Goldman's Boys and Girls Together. 600+ pages and that sucker flies by. As I recall it, Of Human Bondage didn't feel like a doorstop either. Don't recall the page counts on Shaw's The Young Lions or Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, but they didn't exactly feel like any journey of a thousand miles.

So far, though, Bleak House and Anna Karenina are still laughing at me. Buried in the Kindle library are Powell's Dance to the Music of Time and Marcel Proust and several Dostoevskys -- some time before I'm planted, maybe...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 10:00 AM (q3u5l)

115 Ah, doorstoppers ... I actually read War and Peace in high school, after watching the Russian movie version on TV and being thoroughly intrigued. I probably ought to read it again, see if I pick up any more out of it. As I recall, it was a sprawling, gossipy multi-family epic, interspersed with rather boring philosophical discussions, which I skimmed, in order go get back to the interesting bits.
Right now, I am reading another doorstopper - MM Kaye's The Far Pavilions, which is two thick volumes in my edition. Supposedly, much of the story drew on personalities and incidents in her own family history in India. She also has a three-volume autobiography, and I'm also into the first chapters of the first volume. The woman could not write short, if you pointed a gun at her, but at least the stories and reminiscences are interesting and engagingly written.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 11, 2025 10:02 AM (Ew3fm)

116 Re: Dumas and Count of Monte Cristo...
didn't I read he was writing for a magazine, and was being paid by the word?
Or did I imagine that?

Posted by: MkY at May 11, 2025 10:03 AM (cPGH3)

117 In my case, I think multi-volume works qualify because I don't start one without planning to read all the way through to the end. And as I recall the Braudel, every volume was a doorstopper on its own. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 10:03 AM (+ViXu)

118 113 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 09:59 AM (

I always love your greeting, NaCly! Good to have you check in!

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at May 11, 2025 10:04 AM (Sf2cq)

119 So, despite being one of the thread's resident comic-book-reader, I avoid most modern comics. From the reviews, they seem to be really bad...However, I make an exception for Conan the Barbarian. Partly because, hey its Conan, and partly because most modern Conan books are helmed by Jim Zub, a guy who loves the classic Conan character, and doesn't try to infuse the stories with modern tropes.

So, it was quite the unpleasant shock when I was reading Savage Sword of Conan #5 and I ran smack into some of those modern tropes. It was so bad I had to stop and walk away, and when I picked up the story again, I still couldn't finish. Just sort of skimmed to the end. Ug. Then I went back and checked the credits; it wasn't Jim Zub, it was Jason Aaron. Jason F'n Aaron, the clown that gave us Jane-Foster-Thor, which directly lead to the 'Thor Love and Tunder' movie. Yeah. More evidence that I don't need to read any modern comic unless given active assurance that it doesn't suck... And unfortunately, the story is a two-parter. So I get to skim over the next issue as well. Bleh...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 11, 2025 10:04 AM (Lhaco)

120 **depressive confession off**
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:56 AM (Dg2sF)

Wishing you a day of joy, Mp4.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 11, 2025 10:04 AM (h7ZuX)

121 107 ... "There's no hard-and-fast rule about what constitutes a "doorstopper" but the consensus--if there is one--seems to be that anything over 500 pages could be a doorstopper."

Perfessor,
I think of a doorstopper as over a thousand pages. If it is 500 pages or more my list will grow a lot. I always considered 500 pages as 'just a book'.

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 10:04 AM (yTvNw)

122 I suppose Umberto Eco's books qualify as doorstoppers; a book doesn't have to approach a thousand pages if one has to read them very closely.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 09:52 AM (lTGtQ)
---
Focault's Pendulum was a page-turner, especially when read the first time with a high fever over Christmas break.

I damn near lost my mind - I KNOW! AND THEY KNOW I KNOW! *frantically checks all the locks and windows*

The second reading was more leisurely.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:05 AM (ZOv7s)

123 Gotta run now. I'm planning to ride my bike to church this morning so I need to gather different gear than usual.

Posted by: Emmie celebrates the Audacity of Trump! at May 11, 2025 10:05 AM (Sf2cq)

124 I did attempt Proust on recommendation of our Captan Hate, as well as MiddleMarch, middling door stopper, I gave up about half way through the second one,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 10:05 AM (bXbFr)

125 Jim SND recommended The Sum of All Fears?

He had even more class than I suspected. That was a damn good book, I tore through it over a week in the summer of 1992 after it came out on paperback.

I have met Jim SND a few times, at MoMes and one time at Galveston when I was visiting there. So his passing is hitting me more than most. What a colossal loss for us all.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 10:06 AM (vm8sq)

126 I keep thinking to crack open one of the many volumes of Will & Arial Durante History of Civilization. Probably been 25 years since I even read them.

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 10:06 AM (ypFCm)

127 In my case, I think multi-volume works qualify because I don't start one without planning to read all the way through to the end. And as I recall the Braudel, every volume was a doorstopper on its own. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
Posted by: who knew
______

Then the Flashman series is definitely my favorite doorstopper.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 11, 2025 10:06 AM (UBKzV)

128 I finished Brideshead Revisited last night. It's one of those stories that I'll be rolling around in my mind for a while.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at May 11, 2025 09:50 AM (z1MBx)
---
It's one of those books where the second reading is almost as important as the first insofar as now you can see the foreshadowing of the various story arcs.

Watching the Jeremy Irons television adaptation is also a great way to contemplate it. Arguably the best literary adaptation ever made.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:07 AM (ZOv7s)

129 My beloved fourth grade teacher would read The Chronicles of Narnia to class, I found it exceedingly dull. She, among other things, helped to create a virulent anti-communist, whether she knew it or not, inspired me in other ways, and was an all around amazing human being….and she helped to kill any flickering desire I had to read anything fantasy related.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 10:08 AM (vm8sq)

130 I loved Foucault's Pendulum the first time I read it, and the second, and the third. And now I'm tempted to read it for a fourth time.

Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 10:09 AM (+ViXu)

131 We mourn the loss of Jim SND. It is a tragic loss but he met his illness on his terms. While we wipe a tear away from his passing, think of the everlasting joy he is experiencing as he enters Heaven and be with his Savior.

RIP Jim. Fair winds, followng seas.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at May 11, 2025 10:10 AM (7v6oI)

132 Happy Mom’s Day to all the moms.

I need to finish my John Quincy Adam’s bio. Volume 3 of Charles Moore’s Margaret Thatcher bio is looking at me as if I have forsaken it…

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 10:10 AM (vm8sq)

133 I need something new in my life, but I have no idea what. Or, rather, I do have ideas, but not a single one is practical.

**depressive confession off**
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 11, 2025 09:56 AM (Dg2sF)
---
Maybe stop reading and binge-watch classic films. It's a nice way to reset the brain.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:10 AM (ZOv7s)

134 Have skipped around in Montaigne's Essays, and liked what I've read, but have never read it all the way through. In the undergrad European Lit course, spent some days with my eyes glazed over reading his "Apology for Raimond Sebond" (sp?) and can't recall anything about it now except zzzzz, so if I do read the Montaigne straight through I'll probably skip that piece, the longest one in the book I think, even though according to that class it's supposedly central to his work.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 10:11 AM (q3u5l)

135 Thank you Dear Heavenly Father for the gift of motherhood, that brings life and unconditional love to our fallen world.
That nurture is the basis of God's plan for our eternal happiness.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at May 11, 2025 10:11 AM (VJc7E)

136 On the subject of long or challenging books, what books have been recommended to you that you have not read yet?

My list includes:

The House of the Seven Gables (Grandmother's recommendation)

Anna Karenina (saw the BBC series, but haven't read the book)

A History of the English Speaking People (skimmed it only so far)

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:12 AM (lTGtQ)

137 I loved Foucault's Pendulum the first time I read it, and the second, and the third. And now I'm tempted to read it for a fourth time.
Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 10:09 AM (+ViXu)
---
I read it in college and actually got an inter-library loan for The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz.

It was weird.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:12 AM (ZOv7s)

138 I think I like the process of finding new books to read. I love reading reviews and looking at covers and watching video reviews before I buy. Then they sit in my TBR pile because I've heard of another great new book. I have made a real effort to curb that habit but it's a real first world problem.

Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 10:12 AM (2/IuM)

139 Doing back-to-back doorstoppers. Finished James Clavell's Tai-Pan and loved it. So started his even longer Noble House. About halfway and another good one.

Read Shogun years ago and loved that too. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to these two.

Posted by: Vasco de Gamasutra at May 11, 2025 10:13 AM (qXqZm)

140 I never thought of it (them? it's in two volumes) as a doorstopper but whoknew's comment about War and Peace as gossipy reminded me of William Manchester's history of the US from 1932 to 1972. The Glory and the Dream. It's still up in my list of best books ever, even though his politics shows a bit.

what makes it good, though, is it IS gossipy. And after discussing important events, he then spends a page or two mentioning the ages of people who will show up later.

I'd recommend Escape from Shadow Physics, but it's only for physics geeks. It's a discussion of the problems of the Copenhagen explanation of quantum mechanics. Good stuff. As naturalfake said "If this book sounds like it will appeal to you, it will."

Posted by: yara at May 11, 2025 10:13 AM (k9S3D)

141 116 ... "Re: Dumas and Count of Monte Cristo...
didn't I read he was writing for a magazine, and was being paid by the word?
Or did I imagine that?"

MkY,

You remember it right. Monte Cristo was serialized in magazines before being published as a book. This was common in the 1800s. Many of Dickens' longer books did that. There are stories of people waiting on the pier for a ship from England bringing the latest installment of these hugely popular serials so they could try to grab them as they came off the ship.

I wonder if this practice continued, in a way, with the Sunday comics like The Phantom or Prince Valiant. Those story lines could go on for a long time.

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 10:14 AM (yTvNw)

142 After reading a biography, warts and all, of Freeman Dyson, I wanted to read more.

The local library only has three of his books. I checked them out.

Eros and Gaia by Freeman Dyson is the oldest one left, published in 1992. It is a collection of lucid essays that covers science, scientists, politics, arms control, nature, humanity, climate change, physics, SETI, and manned space travel.

These essays are in a way an early autobiography of a deep thinker who had close connection to insiders and other great thinkers and doers.

He really explains how physics research works, how good projects fall by the wayside, and what actually is important. He writes in the clearest prose profound observations. He extrapolates into the future of 2010 and is often right.

I learned a lot in this book, and I will try and get it in my personal library. Just the discussion on climate change was an eye opener, as it introduced data that I had never even considered.

Highly recommended.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 10:15 AM (u82oZ)

143 A History of the English Speaking People (skimmed it only so far)
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:12 AM (lTGtQ)
---
That reminds me that I haven't obtained a copy of his Marlborough biography. I've got almost all his books.

Ah! I don't have The Eastern Front, either.

I mean, if we're talking doorstopper, going through The World Crisis, The Aftermath, and then The Second World War should be some sort of literary achievement. Secret handshake territory.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:15 AM (ZOv7s)

144 ah the Far Pavillions she is pretty wordy isn't she, does the Jewel of the Crown even though its a series, the first one was not as interesting as the subsequent offerings,

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 10:16 AM (bXbFr)

145 I think I like the process of finding new books to read. I love reading reviews and looking at covers and watching video reviews before I buy. Then they sit in my TBR pile because I've heard of another great new book. I have made a real effort to curb that habit but it's a real first world problem.

Posted by: Megthered

So say us all....

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:17 AM (lTGtQ)

146 86 Atlas Shrugged
>Atlas Shrugged bored the heck out of me from the very beginning. Could not get into the writing style at all.

At long last! Common Sense confirmation that:

Less is More
Galt was in an opportunist, an infiltrator, a looter extraordinare! causative of the deaths of hundreds of milions his argument? little better than Lucifer's who certainly wants to kill us all, join me, or join them

Dagney Taggart was no better than Elizabeth Holmes and her disloyalty to Eddie says it all

Musk is no Reardon, more like Richard Stadler going 0->1930 in 3 seconds

Galt's Gulch? Wiped out by the first MadMax-Lord Humungous, Joe Immortan, DeMentis. Transformed into a BarterTown run by the likes of Maxine Waters

President Thompson? Not Trump, as LIBs would like him to be, if anyone Trump is Galt.

And who is Orange Julius?
https://y.yarn.co/3e87a2c0-e900-4bd8-a1c6-452125e2a0f0.mp4

Posted by: MANFRED the Heat Seeking OBOE at May 11, 2025 10:18 AM (Ohtex)

147 @119 --

I haven't read any of Jason Aaron's recent work, but I recall enjoying his stories from around the turn of the century.

That includes the Vertigo series "Scalped," about life, corruption, and crime on an Indian reservation. I have all of the trade collections but have yet to get past No. 4. I really liked what I had read, but the story is so damned bleak that I had to be in the proper frame of mind to continue it.

Maybe I'll move it up in the TBR list. Then I'll reassess my opinion of Aaron.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 10:18 AM (p/isN)

148 I prefer shorter books. I realize the trend is for very long doorstoppers. In my experience, these very long books have too much filler. It takes pages to describe what could be done in a few sentences. They would all be better as shorter, tighter stories. Even Tolkien could have used a better editor.

Posted by: Elric the Bladiest Blade at May 11, 2025 10:19 AM (aeiyZ)

149 I'm reading "Isola" by Allegra Goodman, and am ashamed to say it is an Oprah book club selection, but it's OK. Sort of.

An orphan French girl, very high born, is the ward of her much older cousin, who is an adventuring traveler, him spending long times away trying for riches in the 16th century of the new world of New France. He sucks at his chosen lifestyle, and spends most all of her fortune leaving her almost penniless.

In 1542 he makes her accompany him on the largest boat of his three ship fleet, with a commission from the king to colonize what is now the Quebec region, establish trade and conduct fur business to enrich himself and the throne.

She pisses him off enroute by having an affair with his young secretary, and he leaves her marooned on an island in the bay of the St Lawrence. It's gonna be a version of that reality show "Lost." Survival in the frozen wilderness.

I like books like this better if the language and speech cadence better matches the age, and this one disappoints. It is entirely delivered in the first person, and she speaks like all the 20 year olds you see on TikTok babbling from their bedrooms and kitchens.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at May 11, 2025 10:19 AM (KiBMU)

150 Ayn Rand was an excellent essayist and polemicist. But not so much a novelist.

Posted by: Ordinary American at May 11, 2025 10:20 AM (vsTPo)

151 Edward Rutherford's sagas, such as Sarum, The Forest, and London, are doorstoppers. After a couple of them, the formulaic format gets tedious. These three ones on England are the best.

Posted by: Wethal at May 11, 2025 10:21 AM (NufIr)

152 Happy book thread!

Been listening to Hillerman books on audio

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 11, 2025 10:21 AM (rT96s)

153 I guess I've never read a door stopper . There are books I read I wish were door stoppers because I didn't want them to end.

Posted by: polynikes at May 11, 2025 10:21 AM (VofaG)

154 President Thompson? Not Trump, as LIBs would like him to be, if anyone Trump is Galt.

And who is Orange Julius?

Posted by: MANFRED the Heat Seeking OBOE at May 11, 2025 10:18 AM (Ohtex)
---
To be honest, I didn't get far enough into to understand most of those references. It just seemed very pompous and oh so symbolic and forced. An essay would have been more to the point.

This is where I line up firmly with Tolkien - just say what you want to say and skip the allegory. If you must, be like Orwell and keep it short and simple.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:21 AM (ZOv7s)

155 good morning Perfessor, Horde

RIP, Jim Sunk New Dawn, fellow Texan

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 10:21 AM (w+dhY)

156 After the decade of sf, with the usual novel length running between 40-75,000 words (and generally 50-60K), I found myself thinking of anything over about 400-450 pages as edging into doorstop country.

MP4, don't feel like the Lone Ranger re: buying books and not getting them read. You're not the only one.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 10:22 AM (q3u5l)

157 Perfessor, think you left out a major doorstopper, Tad Williams' "To Green Angel Tower" Both part 1 and part 2 could be doorstoppers in their own rights.

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at May 11, 2025 10:22 AM (e/Osv)

158 https://tinyurl.com/LIBs-WhatPriceTheirVision
ATLAS SHRUGGED UPDATED FOR THE CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS.

"I heard the thugs in Washington were trying to take your Rearden metal at the point of a gun," she said. "Don't let them, Hank. With your advanced alloy and my high-tech railroad, we'll revitalize our country's failing infrastructure and make big, virtuous profits."

"Oh, no, I got out of that suckers' game. I now run my own hedge-fund firm, Rearden Capital Management."

"What?"

He stood and adjusted his suit jacket so that his body didn't betray his shameful weakness. He walked toward her and sat informally on the edge of her desk. "Why make a product when you can make dollars? Right this
second, I'm earning millions in interest off money I don't even have."

LIBs. What Price their Vision?
The Depraved NEW World. A Betrayal Most Foul.
Just SHUT UP and DANCE!

Posted by: MANFRED the Heat Seeking OBOE at May 11, 2025 10:22 AM (QBhW+)

159 Posted by: Elric the Bladiest Blade at May 11, 2025 10:19 AM (aeiyZ)

Moby Dick enters the discussion.

Posted by: polynikes at May 11, 2025 10:23 AM (VofaG)

160 I think the ,latest Sanderson at 1300+ pages was too long. Just too hard to keep track of the action on multiple story lines especially because they were taking place in multiple locations simultaneously. It was like read___ 5 different books at the same time. Then, unlike his other books where he closed up the story lines and left one hungering to find out where they go next....
Sigh.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 11, 2025 10:23 AM (t/2Uw)

161 Edward Rutherford's sagas, such as Sarum, The Forest, and London, are doorstoppers. After a couple of them, the formulaic format gets tedious. These three ones on England are the best.
Posted by: Wethal at May 11, 2025 10:21 AM (NufIr)
---
I liked Sarum and it felt like a labor of love by a son of Salisbury.

Subsequent books reminded me of James Mitchener cranking out formulaic historical novels. I ignored them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:23 AM (ZOv7s)

162 Question for everyone-

Is there a new book (published in the last 12 months) you REALLY like and always recommend?

Or a forthcoming book you are really excited about?

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 11, 2025 10:25 AM (rT96s)

163 The Bible of course is a door-stopper, at which I plod along at a chapter a day. I enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, at about 1100 pages.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at May 11, 2025 10:25 AM (tRYqg)

164 I think what I liked about Atlas Shrugged is that she was able to accurately portray how collectivists will slowly build a framework out of whole cloth, and attempt to legitimize taking over peoples' freedom and property. To me, it was a look into the socialist blueprint, and how the useful idiots follow the plan.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:26 AM (lTGtQ)

165 The only time I have a TBR pile is when I'm doing research for a book. Otherwise, books are shelved until called into service. I hate loose books lying around.

My wife, on the other hand, has built a small book bunker of TBRs next to her side of the bed. She has gone through a bit of a rough patch over the past few months, but is hitting her stride again, knocking out books on a steady basis.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:27 AM (ZOv7s)

166 Thank you Dear Heavenly Father for the gift of ~~motherhood~~ mothership

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at May 11, 2025 10:11 AM (VJc7E)
-

FIFY, Mr. Hubbard.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 11, 2025 10:29 AM (3447G)

167 JK Rowling's Cormoran Strike books keep getting longer. The last couple, I was unable to read in bed, which is one of my favorite reading positions. My arm kept going numb. I do like them, so I'll just have to put up with the inconvenience.
Posted by: huerfano

New one, "The Hallmarked Man", coming out in September. No story synopsis yet. I've already preordered it.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2025 10:29 AM (lJ0H4)

168 Is there a new book (published in the last 12 months) you REALLY like and always recommend?

Or a forthcoming book you are really excited about?

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport

Iain Pears has a book coming out soon. Every novel of his that I have read has been excellent.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:29 AM (lTGtQ)

169 I liked Atlas Shrugged for Francisco's money speech alone, but Rand's idea of an atheist objectivism is a load of scrap. Galt himself put the lie to it when he slams religion for promising the glorious jailbreak to the freedom of the grave. That applies equally to any atheist worldview, including hers.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 11, 2025 10:29 AM (UBKzV)

170 150 Ayn Rand was an excellent essayist and polemicist. But not so much a novelist.
Posted by: Ordinary American at May 11, 2025 10:20 AM (vsTPo)

I can see that. I did like her novels even so.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 10:29 AM (vm8sq)

171 Master and Commander series is very detailed which is fun, especially for sailors. I regret never discussing it with Jim SND this past 10 years

Posted by: Eromero at May 11, 2025 10:30 AM (DXbAa)

172 I think what I liked about Atlas Shrugged is that she was able to accurately portray how collectivists will slowly build a framework out of whole cloth, and attempt to legitimize taking over peoples' freedom and property. To me, it was a look into the socialist blueprint, and how the useful idiots follow the plan.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:26 AM (lTGtQ)

It was all "for the greater good".

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at May 11, 2025 10:30 AM (g8Ew8)

173 I think what I liked about Atlas Shrugged is that she was able to accurately portray how collectivists will slowly build a framework out of whole cloth, and attempt to legitimize taking over peoples' freedom and property. To me, it was a look into the socialist blueprint, and how the useful idiots follow the plan.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 11, 2025 10:26 AM (lTGtQ)
---
That's fine, I just prefer to read about it happening in the real world, i.e. Spanish Civil War.

It's much more applicable because it's real. Antifa is there. The manipulation of the legal process, the creation of a media myth, and the defamation of Franco are much more relevant than Reardon Metal or whatever it is.

Then again, my reading preferences - like my writing topics - defy any logical progression.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:31 AM (ZOv7s)

174 Is there a new book (published in the last 12 months) you REALLY like and always recommend?

Or a forthcoming book you are really excited about?
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 11, 2025 10:25 AM (rT96s)

J. K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith's latest Strike book is coming out in early September. I agree with the posts above that said her books are way to long. But I want to see how things turn out for Strike and Robin.

I think there are two more after this one. She said she has the series planned out.

Posted by: Wethal at May 11, 2025 10:32 AM (NufIr)

175 hapter a day. I enjoyed Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, at about 1100 pages.
Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at May 11, 2025 10:25 AM (tRYqg)

I wanted to like it much more than I did, Really, it is not necessary to spend as much time as Mr. Stephenson did in describing the process of procuring and eating a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal for breakfast.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 10:32 AM (vm8sq)

176 Happy Mother Day to all the mudders out there.
No reading this week. Allergies have me wishing for death. Zirtek barely dents the symptoms. This is the worst I have ever had. Slept 14 hours last night and not a one the night before.

Had THE conversation with my mom yesterday. What to do with her estate. She left me the books, the house and most of the money. What to do with a room full of romance novels I have no clue. They are her wishes but I don't want there to be a rift between my brothers over this. i.e. I alway knew mom liked you best..

I'm the poorest guy (none of us are truly poor though) in the family but I'm sort of of two minds on this.
On one hand the money would be of much benifit to me and almost unnoticable to my brothers but I do think I should quarter it out fairly. I've got some pondering to do. I'm keeping the house though.

Then there is the until recently unknown half brother...
But that is another story and probably somewhat of a door stopper if written out.

Sorry to be so off topic but it is what is on my mind.

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025 10:32 AM (xcIvR)

177 When I was still working at Kroch's & Brentano's in Chicago, Moby Dick was my morning and evening bus read one month. Enjoyed it a lot, though did tend to skim some of the longer sections on how they handled the whale carcasses.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 10:33 AM (q3u5l)

178 147 That includes the Vertigo series "Scalped," about life, corruption, and crime on an Indian reservation. I have all of the trade collections but have yet to get past No. 4. I really liked what I had read, but the story is so damned bleak that I had to be in the proper frame of mind to continue it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 11, 2025 10:18 AM (p/isN)

I checked a preview of Scalped a while back, but lost interested when I saw it as a modern (and bleak looking) crime drama instead of a historical action comic. I have...limited interests.

The trope that broke me in the Conan story was a witch was introduced who committed horrible murders in the first sentence and who placed no value on human life, but the story immediately transitioned into an ignorant-townsfolk-scapegoat-the-outsider story, and tries to make the witch the victim.

That's like some backwoods hick admitting "Yeah, I skinned four people alive and then raped them to death, but they broke into my house! I had every right to do that. They are the real bad guys..."

There is nuance, and then there is crap that just makes you mad at the writer. This was the latter.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 11, 2025 10:33 AM (Lhaco)

179 168 Is there a new book (published in the last 12 months) you REALLY like and always recommend?

Or a forthcoming book you are really excited about?

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport
——-

I’m trying to get my first book published. Trying to find an agent who might actually read it (or even parts of it) is not easy. I’ll publish it myself if necessary.

Posted by: Elric the Bladiest Blade at May 11, 2025 10:34 AM (aeiyZ)

180 Re: Ubik

If I had to summarize the novel in one quick bite, "Use Ubik only as directed." would be it.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 10:37 AM (/HDaX)

181 Well, time for Mass! Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 11, 2025 10:38 AM (ZOv7s)

182 Cryptomicon was another that I went through in a day and a half, I guess I didn't feel that one was a poor stopper either

Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 10:38 AM (bXbFr)

183 177 When I was still working at Kroch's & Brentano's in Chicago, Moby Dick was my morning and evening bus read one month.

Moby Dick/But even better, Revised for the modern age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPsoxpt0BU

Posted by: MANFRED the Heat Seeking OBOE at May 11, 2025 10:38 AM (YmNGC)

184 A doorstop that doesn't feel like a doorstop (YMMV): William Goldman's Boys and Girls Together. 600+ pages and that sucker flies by. As I recall it, Of Human Bondage didn't feel like a doorstop either. . . .
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025

***
+1 on both. OHB as I recall was a little slow -- perhaps "measured" would be a better word for its pace. But BaGT is a dynamite book. I suppose I know why it's never been adapted for a TV miniseries: Its subplot with a portrait of gay life is not in line with today's narrative on that; and before the last twenty years or so, dealing with the subject at all on TV (except in comedy) was Just Not Done.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 10:38 AM (omVj0)

185 Is there a new book (published in the last 12 months) you REALLY like and always recommend?

Or a forthcoming book you are really excited about?

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport
***
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. It came out last year but I just read it in January and I keep thinking about it. It's fiction, but it's difficult to describe what it's about. Two children, best friends growing up together and something horrific happens, they never forget each other, how our lives are intertwined with the people we meet along the way. I cant adequately describe it but it's a great story and I have thought of it every day since I finished it. It's also 600 pages but you fly through them.

Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 10:38 AM (2/IuM)

186 The talk of Shotgun and Yoshii Toranaga and Calvin Coolidge on the thread today jostled a thought of the connection between the two men. Maybe five years ago I reread Shogun. And then on a OM Sunday book thread people were talking about Calvin Coolidge. Being cheap and thrifty I went looking for a public domain biography of Coolidge. I found one at fadedpage and read it - on the heals of reading Shogun.

The biography was written by an admirer and friend of Coolidge and bordered on hagiography.

There are interesting parallels between the two men - even if one is a fictional character e.g. Coolidge used functionaries like a falconer.

Grok compare Calvin Coolidge with Yoshii Toranaga.

Then

Grok compare the Tao of Calvin Coolidge to the falconry of Yoshii Toranaga.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 10:41 AM (b3ml3)

187
Guten morgen, bookenvolk!

And

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Lessee what's upstairs...

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 10:42 AM (iJfKG)

188 What to do with a room full of romance novels I have no clue. They are her wishes but I don't want there to be a rift between my brothers over this. i.e. I alway knew mom liked you best. . . .

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025

***
Reforger, when I visited the small town of Franklin, LA, in April, I visited the local library. There was an entire bookshelf off to itself of just romance novels, paperback Harlequins and other imprints (I guess; I didn't inspect that closely). Perhaps your local library, or a nearby one, would want to take them as a donation?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 10:42 AM (omVj0)

189 Really, it is not necessary to spend as much time as Mr. Stephenson did in describing the process of procuring and eating a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal for breakfast.

I think by the time of Cryptonomicon, Stephenson had succumbed to Timid Editor Syndrome, where successful authors feel free to ignore their editors. IMO, Cryptonomicon was a bunch of random actions by a bunch of loosely related people loosely based around a few Big Ideas which were never paid off. All that said, the Cap'n Crunch scene was one of my favorites.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 11, 2025 10:45 AM (/y8xj)

190 Reforger,

See if you can get her to write down her wishes (or maybe record what she says). If possible, she should have you and your brothers get the things they want now, while she is still alive. The romance books can be donated somewhere.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 11, 2025 10:45 AM (AcTAo)

191 The only Umberto Eco book I've read was "Name of the Rose". I recall it was atmospheric and intense. I liked it but never read any of his other novels. Worth my time? And which would you suggest I try first?

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 10:45 AM (yTvNw)

192 Not sure if this qualifies as a door-stopper since it's not quite 1000 pages, but I love Margaret George's The Autobiography of Henry VIII. Have re-read it many times.
Posted by: screaming in digital at May 11, 2025 09:44 AM (Szews)

I've tried several times to get into it.
I have issues with how it is written. First it is not an autobiograhy, nor is it a biography. It's more like a made for TV movie based on real events. When I first bought it was during my research on the disolusion of the monestaries and was quite pleased to come across it until I read the reviews at the beginning of the book.

"A triumph of historical fiction".

That repeats in my head as I read quotes and such.
Rave reviews for everything except accuracy.
It's holding a door open as I type.

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025 10:45 AM (xcIvR)

193 Cryptomicon was another that I went through in a day and a half, I guess I didn't feel that one was a poor stopper either
Posted by: miguel cervantes at May 11, 2025 10:38 AM (bXbFr)

A day and a half? That thing was an 1100 page plus beast!

But it was pretty interesting, all told.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 10:47 AM (/HDaX)

194 "The Tale of Genghi". Another door stopper that I tried at least 3 times to get through.

Posted by: Tuna at May 11, 2025 10:48 AM (lJ0H4)

195 "The biography was written by an admirer and friend of Coolidge and bordered on hagiography."
This reminds me that I also finished a biography of Eddie Rickenbacker that also bordered on hagiography but was nevertheless fascinating. There was more to the man than I ever expected. and I think I expected quite a bit.

Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 10:50 AM (+ViXu)

196 My favorite doorstopper is Gone with the Wind. I have read it so many times. Most people don't realize that it won the Pulitzer Prize when it was published because she was honey of a writer. Marvelous storytelling, fantastic dialogue.

Posted by: Beverly at May 11, 2025 10:52 AM (MUbWj)

197 By curious coincidence:

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/ 2025/05/john-floberg-doorstops.php

( delete space after archives/ )

Posted by: Oddbob at May 11, 2025 10:52 AM (/y8xj)

198 I also really like the Galbraith books and excited about the one due out in September. My library has already agreed to buy it for me.

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 11, 2025 10:53 AM (t/2Uw)

199 BROODSOW DAY!!

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at May 11, 2025 10:54 AM (0zUq5)

200 The Ranger's Apprentice series is a good example of writing for one's children. The author knew that his son was rather self conscious at being shorter than his friends so he created a character who may be small but is heroic.

Posted by: NR Pax at May 11, 2025 10:55 AM (lXCUP)

201 For science fiction doorstoppers, I recommend Asimov's Foundation trilogy, which I believe Amazon has thoroughly effed up recently. (I think Donald Trump is somewhat analogous to The Mule in that series).

The other one I really like but is a 1950s one is James Blish, "cities in flight."

Posted by: Beverly at May 11, 2025 10:55 AM (MUbWj)

202 That's why I like American Caesars much.

Manchester didn't like MacArthur a lot going into writing the biography so I feel like I'm not getting any sugar coating.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 10:56 AM (VofaG)

203 ‘Listen up for muster! Sunk New Dawn!’
-Heavenly XO
‘Here!’
‘You are assigned boat captain. Lay to the Captain’s gig.’

Posted by: Eromero

"Request permission to come aboard, sir!"

"Permission granted. Bosun! Cast off all lines!"

Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 10:56 AM (UIKcH)

204 If memory serves, Boys and Girls Together was supposed to be one of the first books to get the mini-series treatment. I think Goldman talked about that in one of his books on the movie business. There was supposed to be a script in the works, and some producer showed him some pages to let him see how faithful they were planning to be to the book -- the scene was between two people who never meet in the novel.

The mini-series never happened.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 10:56 AM (q3u5l)

205 Started Thunderstruck by Erik Larson because everything I've read by him is top-notch.

-
I haven't read the book, although I generally love Larson, so I don't know whether the book covers this. Crippen was convicted based upon the discovery of a human torso buried in his cellar and presumed to be his missing wife. Recently, DNA testing has been interpreted to exclude the torso as being the missing wife. He had contended that she had run off with a lover and he may have been wrongfully convicted.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 10:56 AM (L/fGl)

206 "It was all "for the greater good"."

Communism: Forever Building a Better Tomorrow on the Corpses of Today

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 10:57 AM (w+dhY)

207 Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 10:50 AM (+ViXu)

Exactly my experience with the Coolidge biography.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 10:57 AM (b3ml3)

208 Perhaps your local library, or a nearby one, would want to take them as a donation?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 10:42 AM (omVj0)

My mom actually works part time at the local library outlet store. She sells all the books nobody checks out anymore. I think a lot of them may have originated there.

On the otherhand donating books back to the library that they sold...
Hmmmm.

They would just sell them again. They used to have room for a lot more but shut down a large part for some reason. And the shelves are all half empty.

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025 10:58 AM (xcIvR)

209 206 "It was all "for the greater good"."

Communism: Forever Building a Better Tomorrow on the Corpses of Today

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 10:57 AM (w+dhY
‘Good’ . They keep using that word. I don’t think it means what they think it means.’
- I. Montoya

Posted by: Eromero at May 11, 2025 11:00 AM (DXbAa)

210 Speaking of Theodore Dreiser's novel American Tragedy, I believe Mark Twain did a hilariously scathing review of the book, which is worth looking out for. Absolutely merciless.

Posted by: Beverly at May 11, 2025 11:00 AM (MUbWj)

211 Speaking of doorstoppers...

My doorstopper, "Wearing the Cat" is available to not only stop your doors but make you laugh and bend your mind.

Give it a read or use it stop your favorite hinged oaken portal from closing. Your choice.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 11:01 AM (iJfKG)

212 That's why I like American Caesars much.

Manchester didn't like MacArthur a lot going into writing the biography so I feel like I'm not getting any sugar coating.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 10:56 AM (VofaG)

He seemed to hate what the Nimitz faction did to the Marines they sent ashore to get the shit shot out of them - and admired how deftly MacArthur handled his own landings.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 11:02 AM (b3ml3)

213 BROODSOW DAY!!
Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats

What a joy you must have been to yours.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 11, 2025 11:04 AM (/y8xj)

214 Alright, I'll admit that one of my favorite doorstoppers is Stephen King's The Stand, written before he completely lost his ****.

Apocalyptic, filled with detail and suspense, right up my alley.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:05 AM (/HDaX)

215 Alright, I'll admit that one of my favorite doorstoppers is Stephen King's The Stand, written before he completely lost his ****.

Apocalyptic, filled with detail and suspense, right up my alley.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:05 AM (/HDaX)

He just needs to work on his endings.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:06 AM (VofaG)

216 The other one I really like but is a 1950s one is James Blish, "cities in flight."
Posted by: Beverly at May 11, 2025

***
The collection of four novels? Yes, if each is 50K words, and they might be more, then you have 200K words right there. The first in the volume, They Shall Have Stars, is remarkably prophetic about the USA today, except that we don't have regular space travel. The second, A Life For the Stars, is kind of like a Heinlein juvenile in some ways.

You always learn something new when you read a Blish story.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:06 AM (omVj0)

217 What a joy you must have been to yours.

OK, fuck right off, there's a fire waiting for you to die in it.

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at May 11, 2025 11:06 AM (0zUq5)

218 >> Even Tolkien could have used a better editor.

This. I never finished those damned books. Something interesting would happen and then 30 pages of fill—er, I mean “worldbuilding”.

Eventually I said “If there’s one more Hobbit song, I’m out.” Turned the page and the little Oompa-Loompas were at it again. Threw the book across the room in disgust and never looked back.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 11, 2025 11:07 AM (l3YAf)

219 Did the accident cause King to lose his mind? Or was it TDS? I like his old stuff, haven't read much of the newer books.

Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 11:08 AM (2/IuM)

220 He just needs to work on his endings.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:06 AM (VofaG)

Oh, there very much is that. Probably the worst of the bunch is "It".

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (/HDaX)

221 209 "Good" in that phrase always includes the unspoken, "And that's a sacrifice I'm willing for * you * to make."

Inigo knew a thing or two, didn't he?

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (w+dhY)

222 Skimming over my list of Kindle purchases for the past year, I see that most of them are reissues of older titles -- not many new releases (Joseph Epstein's autobiography, and his book of new and selected essays; a collection of previously unpublished stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, a book of essays by Dana Gioia).

I seem to be in the process of getting off the train and letting it go on its way without me, and I can't say I mind it too much.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (q3u5l)

223 Did the accident cause King to lose his mind? Or was it TDS? I like his old stuff, haven't read much of the newer books.
Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 11:08 AM (2/IuM)

I suspect it was bubbling in the background and the accident caused the straps to break.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (/HDaX)

224 Alright, I'll admit that one of my favorite doorstoppers is Stephen King's The Stand, written before he completely lost his ****.

Apocalyptic, filled with detail and suspense, right up my alley.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025
*
He just needs to work on his endings.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025

***
In his first fifteen years or so, his endings were fine. He seems to have lost some of that vividness and fire he had when he was young -- and he is 76 or so now, so that's not unusual. Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, The Dead Zone were all fine work, and I love Firestarter . . . except for its last scene extolling the virtues of Rolling Stone as a pinnacle of journalism.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:10 AM (omVj0)

225 Though King's 11/22/63 is right up there with his earlier works. A new wrinkle on time travel, a portrait of the late Fifties-early Sixties in America, a love story . . . it's got it all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:12 AM (omVj0)

226 Did the accident cause King to lose his mind? Or was it TDS? I like his old stuff, haven't read much of the newer books.
Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 11:08 AM (2/IuM)

King was always crazy. He was a coked up alcoholic in the 80s. IT has a child orgy in the sewer. Most of his books have sadomasochistic themes. He’s a 60s manchild, obsessed with sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll as the ultimate expression of his contempt for normal people.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 11, 2025 11:12 AM (l3YAf)

227 I was channel surfing and happened across “Efface the Nation” and watched the Governor of New Mexico lie her ass off. How does she manage to sit?
We are governed by lying morons! 🤥

Posted by: Unkaren at May 11, 2025 11:13 AM (16w5m)

228 Door Stoppers I have enjoyed reading:

"Brideshead Revisited"
"The Master and Margarita" Mikhail Bulgakov
"St Petersburg" Andre Bely
"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'
"Catch-22"
"Gravity's Rainbow" Thomas Pynchon
"V" Thomas Pynchon
"The Deptford Trilogy" Robertson Davies
"The Book of the New Sun" Gene Wolfe
"The Dancers at the End of Time" Michael Moorcock

Just off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 11:14 AM (iJfKG)

229 3 Did the accident cause King to lose his mind? Or was it TDS? I like his old stuff, haven't read much of the newer books.
Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 11:08 AM (2/IuM)

I suspect it was bubbling in the background and the accident caused the straps to break.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (/HDaX)
——

The decades of heavy drugs didn’t help either

Posted by: Elric the Bladiest Blade at May 11, 2025 11:14 AM (aeiyZ)

230 Did the accident cause King to lose his mind? Or was it TDS? I like his old stuff, haven't read much of the newer books.
Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 11:08 AM (2/IuM)

I suspect it was bubbling in the background and the accident caused the straps to break.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (/HDaX)

I find that a lot of people who don't live in a world most of us do in America have a subconscious self hate and create a fantasy utopia world in their head
One that can't exist in the real world.

And they have no self-awareness that they are just making the world worse..

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:14 AM (VofaG)

231 If memory serves, Boys and Girls Together was supposed to be one of the first books to get the mini-series treatment. I think Goldman talked about that in one of his books on the movie business. There was supposed to be a script in the works, and some producer showed him some pages to let him see how faithful they were planning to be to the book -- the scene was between two people who never meet in the novel.

The mini-series never happened.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025

***
JSG, I hadn't heard that story, or don't recall it from the Goldman books on movies I've read. It makes me shake my head. Here's a property that has enormous dramatic potential just as it is -- and they want to change things. Pffft.

On the other hand, Goldman worked in H'wood for a long time, and much of his own stuff (which he adapted) like Magic and Marathon Man turned out pretty darn well. I guess a lot depends on the producer.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:16 AM (omVj0)

232 King always leaned left, but he used to keep it under control. He could use some better editing too. A lot of that early work still holds up quite nicely, and he may not have entirely lost his touch yet. The Stand is a doorstop that doesn't feel like a doorstop -- so is 11/22/63, and I didn't feel that there was anything much wrong with the ending on that one either.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 11:19 AM (q3u5l)

233 The Dead Zone is the best King adapted movie.,

That was a great ending.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:19 AM (VofaG)

234 The Dark Tower series were doorstoppers. First two were good. Wizard and Glass was atrocious. Last three were mid.

Ending sucked. King knows he can’t write good endings. He may as well have gone with the “And then Roland woke up and it was all a dream” trope.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 11, 2025 11:20 AM (l3YAf)

235 223 There are some disturbing tells in King's works before his accident. That depraved sequence in "It" about the kids should never have made it past his editor, let alone gone into print.

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 11:21 AM (w+dhY)

236 Doorstoppers that are worth the read:

Atlas Shrugged
Stone's Fall
War and Peace
Posted by: Thomas Paine

I've read all three, most recently Stone's Fall. I quite liked the way each of the three narrators provides a different perspective which causes the reader to realize that he* misinterpreted incidents when first presented. Also, I loved the ironic ending.

* I propose immediate execution for anyone who uses the third person plural when the meaning is singular but the gender is ambiguous or unknown.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:21 AM (L/fGl)

237 I am reading True Grit, which is not a doorstopper.

Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at May 11, 2025 11:21 AM (kJDnl)

238 Maybe we shouldn't be too surprised that the Hollywood adaptations of favorite books rarely live up to the source material. Making a movie is an enormous, collaborative effort, and "too many cooks," etc. In contrast, except for collaborations*, novels are written by one person and have, or should have, a single unifying vision.

* Most often two people, but the occasional threesome has worked. See Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes's The Legacy of Heorot.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:22 AM (omVj0)

239 Naturalfake: What did you think of The Deptford Trilogy? It's on my TBR stack, I read his High Spirits ghost stories and loved them and I've read The Lyre of Orpheus which I also liked.

Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 11:22 AM (+ViXu)

240 233 +1 Walken and Sheen really delivered in that movie.

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 11:23 AM (w+dhY)

241 Naturalfake: What did you think of The Deptford Trilogy? It's on my TBR stack, I read his High Spirits ghost stories and loved them and I've read The Lyre of Orpheus which I also liked.
Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025

***
I lucked across Robertson Davies one day in the library in Colorado, and have enjoyed his stuff. Measured drama, well done. I call him the "Somerset Maugham of Canada."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:24 AM (omVj0)

242 I knew a guy in the army who claimed to be related to King and fucking hated him.

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025 11:24 AM (xcIvR)

243 227 I was channel surfing and happened across “Efface the Nation” and watched the Governor of New Mexico lie her ass off. How does she manage to sit?
We are governed by lying morons! 🤥
Posted by: Unkaren at May 11, 2025 11:13 AM (16w5m)

I am simply too close to the NM SSR. SB 506. Watch it closely.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 11:26 AM (vm8sq)

244 206 "It was all "for the greater good"."
Communism: Forever Building a Better Tomorrow on the Corpses of Today

"Every aspect of our Lives must be subject to an Inventory" -- Nancy Pelosi'07, in Red China

Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
Who is John Galt? Really, who is Orange Julius?

https://www.tinyurl.com/ctHARRIS-FamousLastWords
Send in the MicroManagers NOW!

Posted by: MANFRED the Heat Seeking OBOE at May 11, 2025 11:27 AM (3DFTl)

245 The Jurassic Park movie is one of the rare times the movie was better than the book. And I love Crichton, but it’s one of his weaker novels, IMHO.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 11, 2025 11:27 AM (l3YAf)

246 233 +1 Walken and Sheen really delivered in that movie.
Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025

***
They did. In the early 2000s the USA Network had a original series, too, based on Dead Zone. They kept things mostly unchanged, but carried on with Johnny Smith's life as if there were a much longer period between his awakening from his coma with his erratic power, and his conflict with the politician Greg Stillson. It was very well done -- with Anthony Michael Hall as an excellent and likeable Johnny.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:28 AM (omVj0)

247 214 Alright, I'll admit that one of my favorite doorstoppers is Stephen King's The Stand, written before he completely lost his ****.

Apocalyptic, filled with detail and suspense, right up my alley.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:05 AM (/HDaX)

A great doorstopper. And one of King's earliest. That is in my top 5 novels. (Red Storm Rising being #1 of course)

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 11:28 AM (vm8sq)

248 * I propose immediate execution for anyone who uses the third person plural when the meaning is singular but the gender is ambiguous or unknown.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:21 AM

Could we extend that to those who don't use the Oxford comma?

Posted by: Assistant Associate AoSHQ Copy Editors at May 11, 2025 11:28 AM (elO/o)

249 Naturalfake: What did you think of The Deptford Trilogy? It's on my TBR stack, I read his High Spirits ghost stories and loved them and I've read The Lyre of Orpheus which I also liked.
Posted by: who knew at May 11, 2025 11:22 AM (+ViXu)

Excellent trilogy by an excellent writer.

I don't see the Somerset Maugham connection that Wolfus does. Davies has a wicked sense of humor and is able to work odd twists and angles into what would seem to be standard stories.

He wrote two other trilogies, The Cornish and The Salterton, which are well-worth reading as well.

He's a fun read. If you enjoyed his other books, you should enjoy The Deptford Trilogy.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 11:31 AM (iJfKG)

250 I could write a doorstopper. The plot would be boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy becomes girl.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:31 AM (L/fGl)

251 >> Red Storm Rising being #1 of course

Interesting. I read every Clancy novel as a kid, and that was probably my least favorite. I had the computer game where you played a submarine captain and I played the hell out of it.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 11, 2025 11:32 AM (l3YAf)

252 219 Did the accident cause King to lose his mind? Or was it TDS? I like his old stuff, haven't read much of the newer books.
Posted by: Megthered at May 11, 2025 11:08 AM (2/IuM)

Setting aside Mr. King's obvious personal flaws for a moment (and that scene in It is just...vile): the man lacks artistic restraint. This is why in many cases he cannot close the sale on his stories and some of the endings suck. He cannot bring himself to shut up and go to the next thing, or shut up and admit the story is over, now conclude it successfully.

This is why though I have read my share of his books, it is unlikely that I will read another. I haven't read anything by him in...decades now.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 11:32 AM (vm8sq)

253 As far as the state of our world today is concerned, one classic that is frighteningly on point is the famous chapter in The Brothers Karamazov called "The Grand Inquisitor."

I believe you can access it on Project Gutenberg and you should read it today. Or as soon as is feasible.

Posted by: Beverly at May 11, 2025 11:33 AM (MUbWj)

254 The traditional Heaven for sailors is Fiddler's Green, an after-life where there is perpetual mirth, ready drinks, a fiddle that never stops playing, and dancers who never tire.

May Jim Sunk New Dawn be piped aboard there, at the clearing at the end of the trail.

He was Air Force, but he knew the life of a sailor as well. A multi-talented man.

May his wife be comforted in her grief.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:33 AM (u82oZ)

255 Oxford is a silly place.

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025 11:34 AM (xcIvR)

256 I could write a doorstopper. The plot would be boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy becomes girl.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:31 AM (L/fGl)

That was an SF short story: "All You Zombies"" by Horde favorite Heinlein.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 11:34 AM (iJfKG)

257 Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes!

Stop. Full Stop. Do not need that book.

We have Steel Beach by John Varley already.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:35 AM (u82oZ)

258
This is why though I have read my share of his books, it is unlikely that I will read another. I haven't read anything by him in...decades now.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 11:32 AM (vm8sq)

Same here. I thoroughly enjoyed the first few Dark Tower books, but interjected himself and his accident into the ending which totally ruined it.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at May 11, 2025 11:36 AM (7v6oI)

259 Doing back-to-back doorstoppers. Finished James Clavell's Tai-Pan and loved it. So started his even longer Noble House. About halfway and another good one.

Read Shogun years ago and loved that too. Not sure why it took me so long to get around to these two.

Posted by: Vasco de Gamasutra

Noble House is fantastic, second only to Shogun, and Tai Pan is also a great read. If you've never read Clavell's first novel, King Rat, it is also well worth the effort. Clavell spent three years in the Japanese prison camp of Changi during WW2, having been captured at Singapore. King Rat is a fictionalized version of his Changi experience. The fact that he was able to overcome that horrible 3 years and write one of the greatest fictional works about Japan, Shogun, has always impressed and amazed me.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 11:36 AM (/RHNq)

260 250 There's fame and notoriety waiting for the bold comedian who rewrites When a Man Loves a Woman into When a Man IS A Woman.

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 11:36 AM (w+dhY)

261 The best Clancy novel was Debt of Honor, where a Japanese terrorist flies a 747 into the Capitol and kills all of Congress and most of the Executive after America imposes reciprocal tariffs on the rest of the world.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at May 11, 2025 11:36 AM (l3YAf)

262 naturalfake

What you wrote. A classic!

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:37 AM (u82oZ)

263 Favorite book

Overall - Captains Courageous
Sci-Fi - Armor
Fantasy- Legend of Bagger Vance
Historical Fiction - Tides of War
Autobiography - My Grandfather's Son
Biography- American Caesar
Spy - Matarese Circle or American Assassin
Crime- Dirty White Boy
Drama- The Lords of Discipline

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:37 AM (VofaG)

264 A few of Don Robertson's novels were doorstops as well, borderline anyway. Miss Margaret Ridpath and the Dismantling of the Universe is just over 400 pages, and Praise the Human Season is just under 500; neither feels like a doorstop. Haven't read his 1000+ page Paradise Falls yet or his 3 early Civil War novels (including the almost-800-page The River and the Wilderness), but I don't imagine they'll feel like doorstops either. His novel Mystical Union is one of my favorites and is long out-of-print.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 11:38 AM (q3u5l)

265 Disinterested FDA Director

Totally implausible. It's inconceivable.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:38 AM (u82oZ)

266 That was an SF short story: "All You Zombies"" by Horde favorite Heinlein.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 11:34 AM (iJfKG)

Ahh. +1 for the usage of the Oxford quote.

Such a silly place.

Posted by: Reforger at May 11, 2025 11:38 AM (xcIvR)

267 That was an SF short story: "All You Zombies" by Horde favorite Heinlein.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025

***
One of the few Heinlein stories, maybe the only, that I have never liked, mostly because I just don't understand it. His earlier loops-through-time story, "By His Bootstraps," is comprehensible to me with some rereading, but AYZ? No.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:39 AM (omVj0)

268 May Jim Sunk New Dawn be piped aboard there, at the clearing at the end of the trail.

He was Air Force, but he knew the life of a sailor as well. A multi-talented man.

May his wife be comforted in her grief.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:33 AM (u82oZ)

I think it is safe to say that Jim SND was a true Renaissance man. I think that is what I liked most about him.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 11:40 AM (vm8sq)

269 Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 11:36 AM (/RHNq)

The movie King Rat did a good job.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:40 AM (VofaG)

270 I notice a few mentions of Atlas Shrugged as a doorstopper. No argument about the length qualifying. I've read it a few times over many years and find its appeal for me is dwindling, both for the writing style and didactic approach. The philosophy is too urban and 'enlightened' (no room for imagination except for industrial purposes) for my taste these days.

Posted by: JTB at May 11, 2025 11:42 AM (yTvNw)

271 We have Steel Beach by John Varley already.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025

***
I think the difference between that book and our crazy time is that Varley's hero, when he changes surgically into a woman, is doing it *temporarily*, and he *knows* it's temporary. It's been a while since I read the story, but I think he does it for a lark or a kind of vacation, with no mentally-ill idea that he has been "misgendered" by a doctor at his birth. Apparently, in Varley's future, it's like taking a break from your regular life, assuming you can afford it, and you know you can -- and will -- go back afterward.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:44 AM (omVj0)

272 Setting aside Mr. King's obvious personal flaws for a moment (and that scene in It is just...vile): the man lacks artistic restraint. This is why in many cases he cannot close the sale on his stories and some of the endings suck. He cannot bring himself to shut up and go to the next thing, or shut up and admit the story is over, now conclude it successfully.

This is why though I have read my share of his books, it is unlikely that I will read another. I haven't read anything by him in...decades now.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at May 11, 2025 11:32 AM (vm8sq)

He even admits as much in Danse Macabre.

Grandpa King: "Stevie, when you open your mouth, your guts fall out".

Stephen K. :"That's because I want to be a writer when I grow up".

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:46 AM (/HDaX)

273 Such sad news about Jim SND So many gone. May he and the rest of our dear departed morons rest in eternal peace.

Posted by: LASue at May 11, 2025 11:46 AM (lCppi)

274 Wolfus Aurelius

Oh, there is plenty of mental illness in Steel Beach. But you have a good point. Sex change in that time line is recreational and reversible.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:47 AM (u82oZ)

275 That was an SF short story: "All You Zombies" by Horde favorite Heinlein.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 11, 2025 11:34 AM (iJfKG)
********************************************

Adapted in 2014 into the film Predestination, which added an extra twist.

Posted by: My Ridiculously Circuitous Plan at May 11, 2025 11:47 AM (MNmXr)

276 He just needs to work on his endings.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 11, 2025 11:06 AM (VofaG)

Oh, there very much is that. Probably the worst of the bunch is "It".
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 11:09 AM (/HDaX)

King has written some excellent short stories.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at May 11, 2025 11:48 AM (g8Ew8)

277 133
'Maybe stop reading and binge-watch classic films. It's a nice way to reset the brain.'

Exercise is my way of resetting my brain.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 11, 2025 11:48 AM (3wi/L)

278 King of the Doorstoppers is James Michener.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:48 AM (L/fGl)

279 LASue

It is up to us to live fully and well. We can be the torch of America to the great unlearned masses.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:49 AM (u82oZ)

280 Well, off to a day that I expect to be brimming over with no accomplishments whatsoever. Good plans... Maybe more coffee.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Wolfus, if I track down the source on that anecdote re Goldman's BaGT mini-series fiasco, I'll pass it along next week.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 11:50 AM (q3u5l)

281 I don't want to live in Ayn Rand's cold, antiseptic, atheistic universe.

Posted by: 13times at May 11, 2025 11:50 AM (b3ml3)

282 Have a great day in reading.

Thank you, "Perfessor" Squirrel, for this front porch. And thank you Horde, for more book recommendations.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:51 AM (u82oZ)

283 276 Yes

The Stand and Salem's Lot are also outstanding.

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 11:52 AM (w+dhY)

284 "Perfessor" Squirrel

Ayn Rand should win the award for bad sex in a novel.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:52 AM (u82oZ)

285 Oh, there is plenty of mental illness in Steel Beach. But you have a good point. Sex change in that time line is recreational and reversible.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025

***
As I say, it's been a while since I read it. I seem to recall it has a great opening line of dialogue: "In twenty years, the penis will be obsolete."

I recall the setup in his universe is that alien beings have commandeered the Earth, and humans have been forced to move out to the Moon and outer planets to continue their civilization. That incredible disruption -- the loss of the ancestral home planet! -- would be enough to create a lot of psychosis among the surviving humans.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:53 AM (omVj0)

286 13times, 284 was really for you.

Now GTG.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 11, 2025 11:54 AM (u82oZ)

287 Almost time to wind it up here. Thanks to the Perfessor and all of you for another striking Book Thread!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 11, 2025 11:54 AM (omVj0)

288 140
'William Manchester's history of the US from 1932 to 1972. The Glory and the Dream. It's still up in my list of best books ever, even though his politics shows a bit.'

I enjoyed it too; but based on what we know now about the communist threat, his Red Scare section doesn't hold up.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 11, 2025 11:55 AM (3wi/L)

289 My favorite doorstopper is Gone with the Wind. I have read it so many times. Most people don't realize that it won the Pulitzer Prize when it was published because she was honey of a writer. Marvelous storytelling, fantastic dialogue.
Posted by: Beverly at May 11, 2025 10:52 AM (MUbWj)

GWTW tops my list, too Also the Bronte sisters novels, Middlemarch, Atlas Shrugged (altho best to read when young, think) , Lonesome Dove, Great Expectations, Peyton Place and i guess, Lord of the Rings. Im still working my way up to the Russians.

Posted by: LASue at May 11, 2025 11:56 AM (lCppi)

290 Ayn Rand should win the award for bad sex in a novel.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

Hogg boy annunciates the Democrat philosophy.

Defiant L’s@DefiantLs
David Hogg says Democrats need to find a way to reach with young men who just want to "get laid and have fun" and not be condemned by their party.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:56 AM (L/fGl)

291 That's one of the recurring questions in Boyd's book Idols of Rock. Does drug use enhance the creative process or hinder?

Posted by: Notsothoreau at May 11, 2025 11:57 AM (AcTAo)

292 There are three authors with similar backgrounds who wrote novels: Ayn Rand wrote her novels to express her political views, L. Neil Smith wrote his novels to express how these political views would work in the real world if they were allowed, and F Paul Wilson wrote really good novels and the same point of view was there, just only informing the action, not creating and driving the plot.

Wilson sold more books. He was also the better writer.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 11, 2025 11:58 AM (D7oie)

293 Hogg boy annunciates the Democrat philosophy.

Defiant L’s@DefiantLs
David Hogg says Democrats need to find a way to reach with young men who just want to "get laid and have fun" and not be condemned by their party.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Elephants and Earthquakes! at May 11, 2025 11:56 AM (L/fGl)

David Hogg, the Left's newest answer to Andrew Tate.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 11, 2025 11:59 AM (D7oie)

294 Vmom awaiting Mark Moyar 3rd book on Vietnam

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 12:00 PM (ypFCm)

295 205
'Crippen was convicted based upon the discovery of a human torso buried in his cellar ....
He had contended that she had run off with a lover and he may have been wrongfully convicted.'

If that's the case, they should let him go.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 11, 2025 12:01 PM (3wi/L)

296 Just saw the news about an earthquake in Tennessee yesterday. Did any of the Horde feel it?

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 11, 2025 12:02 PM (M2hlN)

297 "That incredible disruption ... would be enough to create a lot of psychosis among the surviving humans."

I saw an interesting comment / analysis online recently along those lines, but for the woke minions out there.

Reality is going to rudely intrude on their fantasy worlds more and more. Their cognitive dissonance won't bear the strain.

And that is going to push many of them into full psychotic breaks.

That rings true to me. Just look at the mass formation psychosis from the Covid-19 psyop.

Now dial that to 11.

Posted by: callsign claymore at May 11, 2025 12:02 PM (w+dhY)

298 David Hogg, the Left's newest answer to Dick Tate.
How'd muh dick tate lat nite?

Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at May 11, 2025 12:02 PM (0zUq5)

299 Red Storm Rising being #1 of course

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33

Easily Tom Clancy's best novel and one of my favorite war novels ever.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 11, 2025 12:02 PM (/RHNq)

300 WE HAZ A NOOD from the expatriate

Posted by: Skip at May 11, 2025 12:03 PM (ypFCm)

301 217
'OK, fuck right off, there's a fire waiting for you to die in it.'

You're over-reacting to a reply that your post practically demanded. Are you drunk or mentally impaired in some way
?

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 11, 2025 12:04 PM (3wi/L)

302 If that's the case, they should let him go.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 11, 2025 12:01 PM (3wi/L)

So whose torso was in the basement and how'd it get there?

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 12:04 PM (/HDaX)

303 Just saw the news about an earthquake in Tennessee yesterday. Did any of the Horde feel it?
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 11, 2025 12:02 PM (M2hlN)

Sure did, rattled the house. Epicenter was about 30 miles south of us.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 11, 2025 12:05 PM (/HDaX)

304 I love that essay by Lewis.
I have his "tu quoque" response saved as a standard reply to people who call fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero movies, books, and comics "childish".

Posted by: Sam at May 11, 2025 12:42 PM (7jMef)

305 Which reminds me:
In the late 70s, early 80s, I worked with a guy who left to get his MS at Stanford, and who wound up at their Artificial Intelligence lab.
He gave me a printout of original limericks generated by that machine. Some of them were quite clever, but not a single one was clean. It had been trained on all the limericks they could find, and so few of them were clean that 99% of what it generated were dirty, some of them really really obscene.
I guess it just reinforces the point of the old maxim: The tree grows as the twig is bent.

Posted by: buddhaha at May 11, 2025 01:18 PM (+dUmU)

306 Hmmm. I found Boys and Girls Together seriously boring. And I wasn't the only one. Goldman himself found it tedious and started writing a thriller on the side to amuse himself: No Way to Treat a Lady.

It sold to the movies and his script-writing career began.

Or so he told the story at the time.

Posted by: Wenda at May 11, 2025 01:36 PM (SnC8S)

307
For those of a technical bent, have you a recommendation for a Mechanical Engineering textbook? I am interested in the topics of heat treatments, joining metals (soldering, welding, fusing), forging, and so forth.

Any recommendations will be appreciated. Thank you.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 11, 2025 01:38 PM (QinEr)

308 Ms. Rowling desperately needed editing for the last several Harry Potter books, but I suspect no one had the nerve to do it.

I love doorstoppers, and I loved Harry Potter, but good lord. Even I had to stop several times during the last 2, especially. She could've not bothered with all the relationship drama, for one thing. She's not particularly good at writing it.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at May 11, 2025 01:56 PM (t5ThY)

309 I have read the French doorstoppers: Count of Monte Criso, which my teenage daughter also read; Les Miserables - worth re-reading and re-watching any of the several film versions; and at least 1 volume of Proust's slog through his childhood obsessions (can't remember which, it was in a college French class.) I have several James Joyce doorstoppers, but can't work up the courage to try and read. I'm also a fan of sci-fi doorstoppers I'm sue for a re-read of Azimov's Foundation series. And I love a hefty historical fiction - Michener or Rutherford.

Posted by: Delilah at May 11, 2025 02:07 PM (n/m5m)

310 PKD is a goldmine of good stories. His collected short stories (4 or 5 thick volumes) is nonstop entertainment.

UBIK! Perfectly safe when used EXACTLY as directed! 😲 (Movie coming someday, same for Valis)

Posted by: 5cats at May 11, 2025 02:25 PM (hv5ip)

311 Ubik is my favorite PKD book, his stories seem straightforward and then, reality gets weird. Like Neo seeing the black cat twice.

Posted by: waelse1 at May 11, 2025 02:57 PM (topXw)

312
Metallurgical engineering, not mechanical engineering.

My mistake ...

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 11, 2025 06:20 PM (xG4kz)

313 I liked Les Mis, the parts where it was the actual story. Then he goes into long essays about the various "miserable" in France... the street urchins, the nuns, etc... and it completely bogs it down. I ended up skipping a lot of those sections.

Posted by: LizLem at May 11, 2025 07:43 PM (tFiHm)

314 I'll ask this next week too, hopefully much earlier in the day... can anyone recommend good books about the serial killer HH Holmes? I need to reread Devil in the White City. But I'm especially interested in any fictional historical thrillers.

Posted by: LizLem at May 11, 2025 07:45 PM (tFiHm)

315 LizLem,

If memory serves, Robert Bloch's novel American Gothic was based on H. H. Holmes. Valancourt Books is reissuing a bunch of Bloch's work, but I don't know yet when American Gothic will be reprinted.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 08:25 PM (q3u5l)

316 Wenda,

Re: Boys and Girls Together. As I recall it, Goldman found the process of writing at that length to be tedious; he found himself blocked during it (and worked on a couple of plays and on No Way to Treat a Lady, which help break his block), and he never wrote a piece of fiction at that length again. I don't recall that he thought the book itself tedious or boring.

Me, I don't think there's a dull chapter in it. But YMMV.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 11, 2025 08:46 PM (q3u5l)

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