Sunday Morning Book Thread - 7-6-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (a little something for the 'Ettes, HT: Dash my lace wigs). 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...(fireworks not included)

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

PIC NOTE

I've never really looked at the economic benefits of going to the library. Nowadays, I tend to simply purchase the books I want to read instead of checking them out at the library. I do sometimes, if it's a book that I'm not quite sure about or I am relatively certain that I won't read it again. Also, relatively few of the books in my library are going to be found in current library inventories. Though I have been pleasantly surprised when browsing the shelves in the library in which I work (but do not work for). I've found a number of books that I never would have expected the library to carry. Of course, they are on obscure shelves where no one but me would ever find them, so it's a shame that the students are missing out on such great books. The more popular genre fiction books are displayed on the first floor where students are more likely to see them and check them out.

4 LEVELS OF READING

I'd say the vast majority of us Morons are at levels 3 or 4. However, your children and grandchildren may still be learning. How will you help them advance to the next level?

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I can relate to this:

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

If you love 80's SF/Fantasy movies, I can't recommend Chris Nashawaty's The Future Was Now enough. It's such a fun read.
AH-nult and John Milius were a match made by Crom, but it was still a dangerous shoot. Schwarzenegger suffered serious falls, was mauled by part-wolf German shepherds, and was almost hit in the jugular by a prop war axe. Milius just grinned at him and said "Pain is temporary, film is forever". I imagine them laughing over kielbasa-sized cigars at the end of each day.
Schwarzenegger helped co-star James Earl Jones train and lift weights, and Jones coached Arnold on his acting and on-camera technique.
It was nice to enjoy movies in the pre-internet age, where I had no idea that my favorite films were considered box office bombs. And before VHS/DVDs and streaming, a movie could hang around the megaplex for a year if it was still pulling in viewers.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 29, 2025 09:12 AM (kpS4V)

Comment: This does sound like a fun book. According to the official blurb, it's the story of eight incredible films released in 1982: ET, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Conan the Barbarian, Blade Runner, Poltergeist, The Thing, and Mad Max: The Road Warrior. All of them went on to become either cult classics or genuine classics beloved by generations of fans. Has there been a current year that has seen such a string of movies that are destined to achieve the same level of nostalgia?

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This week I read Blasphemy by Douglas Preston. It is the second in the Wyman Ford series, though there is no need to read the first in the series to enjoy this--there's no significant cross-referencing.
In it, a group of scientists have built a supercollider in hopes of proving the big bang theory. A television evangelist proclaims it the anti-Christ. American Indians are unhappy with the location of the project. Corrupt politicians (is there any other kind?) are stirring the pot.
An incredible clusterf**k of a collision of competing interests ensues.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at June 29, 2025 09:33 AM (h7ZuX)

Comment: I read this some time ago when I picked up Blasphemy at a library book sale (at least, I'm pretty sure that's where I found it). It's one of Preston's solo stories, though it may be set in the same continuum as his collaborations with Lincoln Child. It is a pretty wild read with an epic conclusion. Very cinematic. It would make for a very cool movie, but I would not trust today's modern Hollywood writers to do it justice.

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I have also been reading The Testament of Marcellus by Marius Gabriel. It is thus far about a noble Roman of uncertain purpose visiting Jerusalem and Pontius Pilate at Passover. So far he has met Jesus on the road, was present at Jesus' chastisement of the money changers, and at Judas' negotiations with Pilate to betray Jesus. It is interesting.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Well, This Is Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Me Into at June 29, 2025 11:21 AM (L/fGl)

Comment: I've been watching The Chosen on Amazon Prime recently. It's a fascinating show as we see Jesus through the eyes of his followers and detractors. The Testament of Marcellus tells the story of a Roman lawyer who tried to defend Jesus, but was ultimately unsuccessful as we all know. One of the reviews on Amazon caught my eye with this comment: "What was remarkable about this book is that he dares to intimately include the Crucifiction and Jerusalem, along with all the Jewish/Christian issues that are naturally connected, though I did notice that there was a total absence of the involvement of Islam [emphasis added--PS] in either the characters of descriptions of areas." WHAT? Why would Islam be mentioned in the context of this story which takes place around A.D. 33? Shows the historical ignorance of the commenter...

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

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

Interstellar Medic Book 2 - The Long Way Home by Patrick Chiles -- This was a Moron Authored book featured last week that has now been released. I'm looking forward to reading it as I've enjoyed Patrick Chiles other books.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick -- This was a Moron Recommendation from a couple of weeks ago. I like PKD, so I expect I will enjoy this novel as well.

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.

Night's Dawn Trilogy Book 3 - The Naked God by Peter F. Hamilton

This is the final book in the Night's Dawn Trilogy. Humanity is still fighting a losing battle against the possessed, who have shunted several worlds out of our time-space continuum into an alternate dimension cut off from the "beyond." However, the possessed find out that their supposed "Paradise" is anything but beneficial to them. One habitat discovers that the alternate dimension in which they are trapped experiences entropy far faster than our own universe, so they are slowly being drained of energy. Another slice of an island will soon run out of air. Meanwhile, in normal space, Al Capone and his "Organization" have unleashed forbidden antimatter weapons against the Confederacy. Quinn Dexter, who began this whole mess, has escaped to Earth, where he is unleashing is own plans to bring about the Apocalypse on behalf of "God's Brother" (a.k.a. Lucifer). Starship captain Joshua "Lagrange" Calvert is on a mission to find the Sleeping God, who may be humanity's last hope to avoid oblivion. It's a long read (1200+ pages), but seldom boring.

This book also predicted "smartphones" about a decade before they came into being. They're not called that, of course, and are far more advanced, but the basic idea is there. A young woman goes to an electronics store to purchase "neural nanonics," which are embedded in the base of your skull and allow you to access the global network directly through a mental interface. What was amusing was how the process mirrored today's purchase of a smartphone, complete with asking the customer what apps she'd like installed by d

default. I found that scene highly amusing.

Oh, and there is a slight possibility of someone hijacking your "nanonics" and using them to control you, which is why they always come in a factory-sealed box for your protection!

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 6-29-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

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

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. PRO TIP: Never, ever drop a 3" salute shell upside-down into a mortar tube. It goes off like a stick of dynamite.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Hey! I did read some stuff last week! Thanks to Raconteur Press, I read a couple of old style pulp stories. I'd recommend Morons to sub to their substack.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

2
Booken morgen horden!

Finished The Sleeping Witness, a Fr Gabriel mystery by Fiorella de Maria, 2017. Despite being a recentish book, it's written in a style consistent with the setting, late 1940s England. If you like Father Brown mysteries you'll like it.

Audiobooks - re-listens and some cozies

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:00 AM (6U1c2)

3 Good morning Book Threadists.

Ooops! No pants -

BBIAM

Posted by: Tonypete at July 06, 2025 09:01 AM (cYBz/)

4 Good morning!

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:01 AM (KJrlM)

5 Tolle Lege
Got a lot of reading in on Rick Atkinson's The Day of the Battle, a historical account of the Italian campaign in WWII. Highly recommend his books

Posted by: Skip at July 06, 2025 09:02 AM (+qU29)

6 Nooded.

Posted by: Nazdar at July 06, 2025 09:02 AM (NcvvS)

7 good morning Perfessor, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at July 06, 2025 09:02 AM (T+z9y)

8 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great (and patriotic) week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 09:02 AM (yTvNw)

9 Good Sunday morning, horde!

That library receipt is brilliant. Put that way, I am definitely getting my tax money's worth out of the library.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 06, 2025 09:02 AM (h7ZuX)

10 The Camp of the Saints is going back into publication in September. Looking forward to finally reading it without paying $200 for a used copy.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 06, 2025 09:04 AM (QqW4y)

11 Finally finished listening to the 14 book epic of the Wheel of Time series. Not sure if the ending was satisfactory??? 🤔

Posted by: lin-duh at July 06, 2025 09:05 AM (VCgbV)

12 Don't you hate it when something interrupts the book thread and you have to go somewhere?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 09:06 AM (0eaVi)

13 Barely touched "Knight Life" by Peter David this past week. So much for my goal of completing it before Independence Day.

I will share one of PAD's gags. Merlin, not sure whether he has an incantation appropriate for what he wants to do, uses a digital research program. It's called Spellcheck.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 09:06 AM (p/isN)

14 Good morning Horde. Thanks Perfessor!

Posted by: TRex at July 06, 2025 09:07 AM (IQ6Gq)

15 The Camp of the Saints is going back into publication in September. Looking forward to finally reading it without paying $200 for a used copy.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 06, 2025 09:04 AM (QqW4y)
~~~~~

Thans for that info, Biff. Every few months or so I too have searched for a reasonably priced used copy.

Posted by: IrishEi at July 06, 2025 09:07 AM (3ImbR)

16 I'm on a geometry kick this week, so I started "A Panoply of Polygons" by Alsina and Nelsen. This is a followup to their "A Cornucopia of Quadrilaterals." I'm supplementing my study with Grok assistance and Python examples. This Golden Ratio stuff is wild!

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:08 AM (KJrlM)

17 Didn't have much time for reading books this week. Too busy writing one of my own.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 06, 2025 09:08 AM (78a2H)

18 Watched the video on reading levels

It occurs to me that AI is at level 2 but AI users think its at level 4

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:08 AM (6U1c2)

19 Reading the 3rd book in Peter F. Hamilton's "The Mandel Files" trilogy, which is called "The Nano Flower."

Greg Mandel is a psychic, having been given a "gland" whilst in the British Army. He can tell whenever someone is lying instantly, amongst other psi powers.

Living in an England that's been physically and economically devastated by The Warming (Gorebull Warmening[tm]) writ large, he investigates a series of incidents on behalf of a rich young woman who runs the country's largest corporation, much hilarity and hijinks ensue.

Great book, wonderfully interesting futuristic science (with the exception of the ridiculously improbable Gorebull Warmening[tm] horseshit), I've greatly enjoyed these three books. As I always do anything written by Mr. Hamilton.

Highly recommend.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 06, 2025 09:10 AM (/RHNq)

20 "It occurs to me that AI is at level 2 but AI users think its at level 4"

Try it. You may be surprised.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:10 AM (KJrlM)

21 Last week's discussion about books where we did not like the characters recalls to mind Night Over Water by Ken Follett. A Pan Am clipper seaplane departs England in 1939 just as war is declared, headed for the US. Aboard are a fascist and his family, a runaway wife, a brother and sister fighting for control of dad's company, and a flight engineer whose wife has been kidnapped and will be killed if the plane lands on schedule.

The story is tense and engaging, even though you may hope that several of the passengers don't survive. When the plane makes a fuel stop in Ireland, who should join the passenger list but the husband of the cheating wife, to confront her and her American lover. To make matters worse, the plane then has to fly across the Atlantic through storms, while the engineer is fudging the fuel numbers to comply with the kidnappers.

What this motley group doesn't know is that there is also a German scientist aboard that the Nazis want to hold onto, as well as a mob boss. Everyone is hiding something, or running from it, and the odds are decreasing that anyone will survive. This novel shows that a story can be entertaining even if you dislike every character.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 09:11 AM (uU/gw)

22 Morning, Perfessor.

Howdy, Horde.

And now for the content.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:11 AM (q3u5l)

23 Ah, the latest issue of Muzzleloader magazine appeared in my mailbox the other day. I don't keep track of magazine subscriptions so when they show up it's a pleasant surprise. I enjoy it slowly, article by article, over the course of a week or more.

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 09:12 AM (yTvNw)

24 New commenter here. Is this thing on?

Posted by: Edwin of the Hill Country at July 06, 2025 09:12 AM (Y5J1/)

25 The Camp of the Saints is going back into publication in September. Looking forward to finally reading it without paying $200 for a used copy.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba

Given the rise and now, fall, of unrestrictive immigration, this should be interesting.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 06, 2025 09:13 AM (cYBz/)

26 Thans for that info, Biff. Every few months or so I too have searched for a reasonably priced used copy.
Posted by: IrishEi
_______

Pre-order link:

https://tinyurl.com/ycxhezrt

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 06, 2025 09:13 AM (QqW4y)

27 Re: getting kids to 3 and 4. A father I know said he was rereading the classics with his son. He said it was amazingly enjoyable.

Posted by: Smellslikevictory at July 06, 2025 09:14 AM (jPdyB)

28 The Camp of the Saints is going back into publication in September.

---

oh!
Please everyone, request your library get a copy!
Libs usually have a form to request they purchase a book - if it's already on the publisher preorder site and it gets a lot of preorders, publisher may increase print run.
They specially pay attention to the pre orders from the big wholesalers like Baker & Taylor and Ingram

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:14 AM (6U1c2)

29 New commenter here. Is this thing on?
Posted by: Edwin of the Hill Country at July 06, 2025 09:12 AM (Y5J1/)
---
Welcome! We're glad you can join us!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 06, 2025 09:15 AM (IBQGV)

30 @24 --

Welcome, Edwin! What do you read?

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 09:15 AM (p/isN)

31 Some of folletts work has been good the last offerings were kind of meh like never the world war three type thriller not to mention his very tree killing 20th century trilogy

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:15 AM (bXbFr)

32 "Please everyone, request your library get a copy!"

The PDF can easily be found for free on the web.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:15 AM (KJrlM)

33 More like Captain Bare-ney, amirite?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 09:16 AM (kpS4V)

34 The PDF can easily be found for free on the web.
Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:15 AM (KJrlM)

That doesn't help getting it to people who've not heard of it, though.

I think it would be good to make an effort to get good books into libraries, to oppose the ALA's trash

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:17 AM (6U1c2)

35 The library was one of two places friends and I would hang out on rainy days. The other was the Museum of Natural History. I credit that with my love of reading and learning. In fact looking back, I realize that none of the little friends in that group succumbed to a life of crime or drug use that plagues many city kids.

Posted by: IrishEi at July 06, 2025 09:18 AM (3ImbR)

36 Haven't read Nashawaty's The Future Was Now, but picked up his book on Roger Corman as a Kindle store cheapie the other day. It was mostly interview excerpts with people who got their starts working with Corman and liberally sprinkled with posters, lobby cards, and stills from Corman pictures -- a lot of fun and recommended for any fan of Corman's stuff.

Currently reading a Peter Straub I'd missed, Mr. X. About a third of the way in and not bad so far.

Haven't gotten to Oedipus at Colonus yet, though. Some time this week.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:19 AM (q3u5l)

37 The PDF can easily be found for free on the web.
Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading
______

I'm one of those hard (or at least soft) copy philistines.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 06, 2025 09:20 AM (QqW4y)

38 New commenter here. Is this thing on?
Posted by: Edwin of the Hill Country
----
Oh, it's on all right!!! Welcome!

Posted by: lin-duh at July 06, 2025 09:20 AM (VCgbV)

39 34 also do this for your favorite writers - if they have a new book forthcoming put it on hold asap; if the library never gets this author's books, request s copy of the newest one.

Libraries are obsessed eoth new releases

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:20 AM (6U1c2)

40 Fall of giants i think it was called hes starting a new trilogy about the making of stone henge

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:21 AM (bXbFr)

41 I read Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. This is the second book in the Stormlight Archive series. I'm enjoying the series very much.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 06, 2025 09:22 AM (qYFra)

42 Welcome, Edwin of the Hill Country!

I hope you're not from the Texas Hill Country that's been devastated by flooding.

Posted by: IrishEi at July 06, 2025 09:22 AM (3ImbR)

43 33 More like Captain Bare-ney, amirite?
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 09:16 AM (kpS4V)

Right! Rawrrr!

I am especially amused that the book's original owner, one Carol (last name redacted) proudly claimed this by writing her name and the date inside the front cover.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 06, 2025 09:22 AM (h7ZuX)

44 Good morning dear morons and thanks perfesser

Pictures of flooded children's camp in Texas are absolutely heartbreaking.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 09:22 AM (RIvkX)

45 I think it would be good to make an effort to get good books into libraries, to oppose the ALA's trash
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport

My previous local library pulled themselves out of the ALA so that they could more freely offer books of local interest and those that comported with their population's religious and moral leanings.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 06, 2025 09:24 AM (cYBz/)

46 "I'm one of those hard (or at least soft) copy philistines."

I'm long accustomed to reading, writing, studying with screens.

vmom, if you want to find The Great Books, you have to go to the internet now. The brick and mortar libraries will never have them back, except for maybe the best university libraries. archive.org is a priceless treasure!

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:25 AM (KJrlM)

47 Camp of the Saints --

The cynical side of this former librarian says that the book will be reprinted and ignored by the few remaining newspaper book review sections. The review sources aimed at booksellers and librarians (Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus, etc) will roast it for being so biased re: immigrants and refugees and so give the overwhelmingly lefty librarians an excuse to not purchase.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:26 AM (q3u5l)

48 Yay book thread! Um, the receipt at the tope of the page should also include the PROPERTY TAX I'm paying to keep the library open, which - unlike my book budget - I have zero control over.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:27 AM (ZOv7s)

49 Probably its too on the nose in a different era it was considered a cry for help now an unhelpful warning about the present day

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:28 AM (bXbFr)

50 I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:26 AM (q3u5l)
---
People with "banned books" displays will proudly assert that they will not spread "hate." Twas ever thus.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:29 AM (ZOv7s)

51 46 The very best item my public library now circulates is free mobile wireless hotspots. That's how I've been getting internet since I cut my cord.

The internet is the library now. The physical library itself is now the children's playplace and bum hangout.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:29 AM (KJrlM)

52 No just mind arson

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:29 AM (bXbFr)

53 I'm reading the third book in James Rollins' Moonfall Saga, "A Dragon of Black Glass".

It's very dense worldbuilding with many plot threads bobbing and weaving around the core issue, which is, the Urth long ago stopped turning on its axis and life is now confined to a narrow band that is neither a frozen wasteland nor a blazing hellscape. The moon has been discovered to be drawing closer and closer, threatening destruction in a year or two (it's already churning up the environment), and there is a last ditch effort to get the planet rotating again if ancient knowledge and mechanics can get it kickstarted. Of course, that will also wipe out a good portion of humanity.

Just roll(ins) with it, it's fantasy science.

It's been a couple years since Book 2 came out and I have to keep referring to the Dramatis Personae list to keep everyone straight in my head. So yeah, in this case I like having a cast of characters.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 09:30 AM (kpS4V)

54 On the Kindle, I read The Last Firewell by William Hertling. This is the third book in the Singularity series. It's 2035, thirty years after the first AI came into being by accident. AIs and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute For Ethics ensures that robots and humans don't harm society or each other. A powerful AI named Adam has found a way around its restrictions and attempts to control all of the computers on Earth. A nineteen year old girl with unique gifts becomes the last firewall standing between Adam and his quest. Interesting, but not as good as the first two in the series.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 06, 2025 09:32 AM (qYFra)

55 Finished the 8 book series of Cleek: Man of 40 Faces and started A.H. Lloyd's A Man of Destiny.

Otherwise, my reading has pretty much been the dialogue in Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:33 AM (lFFaq)

56 vmom, if you want to find The Great Books, you have to go to the internet now. The brick and mortar libraries will never have them back, except for maybe the best university libraries. archive.org is a priceless treasure!
Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading
_______

Used book stores? I believe that hundreds of years from now physical books will still be a thing, even if it's just some niche communities. They simply cannot be replicated.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 06, 2025 09:34 AM (QqW4y)

57 I finally finished The Quiet American and it's a good read. Very good. What I like about Greene is that he keeps things moving - it's a story, not just a message. There are messages in the story, but unlike C.S. Lewis, you don't feel them clang off your brain when another one arrives.

Greene includes faith and politics, but in an organic way and frequently features people who are caught up in politics but don't care or understand.

Obviously The Quiet American is a bit more pointed in having Alden Pyle be a clandestine operator, but one steeped in Yankee morality with boundless confidence that he is doing the right thing to stop Communism.

The narrator, Thomas Fowler, is a jaded English journalist whose woman Pyle steals, creating a love triangle and political intrigue as he tries to figure who Pyle really works for.

It's a prescient book, published in 1955 and features a French ground attack pilot predicting that far from being over, Vietnam is only getting started and soon everyone will be involved. Excellent writing, evocative as ever.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:35 AM (ZOv7s)

58 Some of folletts work has been good the last offerings were kind of meh like never the world war three type thriller not to mention his very tree killing 20th century trilogy
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:15 AM (bXbFr)

Dude! I'm begging you. Use capitalization and punctuation!

You generally have interesting comments, but they're he'll to parse.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:37 AM (lFFaq)

59 56 I've always been a bookworm and library enthusiast, but when I want to read or learn something, I want to do it now, not when and if I can successfully conclude a physical search for it.

OTOH, if I am merely seeking the casual, sensual pleasure of books and stacks and perusing, that's a whole 'nother thing. But most of the time, I have a goal in mind.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:38 AM (KJrlM)

60 Since I abandoned Peter Hamilton's "Reality Dysfunction" for being unbearably dense I started on the latest from Nick Harkaway writing a John le Carré Novel, "Karla's Choice" which features his father's famous British spy, George Smiley.

Very enjoyable so far. Cold war intrigue in Europe in the early 60s.

Harkaway is one of my favorite "new" authors.

Posted by: pawn at July 06, 2025 09:39 AM (4NpHF)

61 Last week I read an isekai story, from 30 years before the term 'isekai' was coined. "Amethyst: Princes of Gemworld" a 1983 maxi-series from DC comics. The premise should sound familiar: an infant princess from a magical fantasy land is brought to the real world, to hide her from the evil overlord that killed her parents. Then when the princess is a teenager, she is pulled back into the fantasy land, where she must learn about her powers, defeat the overlord, and set everything right.

I enjoyed the story, though I'm not sure I can recommend it to others. It suffered for having a comic-book pacing; it always rushed to the next action scene, at the expense of exposition, characterization, or just letting the story breathe. The artist was barely even allowed to draw the expansive establishing shots that would set the fantasy-world tone. Being an isekai also hurt the story; the parts that took place in the real world were the least interesting and most cringey. After the halfway point the princess stayed in the fantasy world full-time, and the story become much more interesting as we got see more fantasy-world building. That was where the story was best. (continued)

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025 09:40 AM (Lhaco)

62 As a sidebar, I must point out that Graham Greene - like Evelyn Waugh, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc. - wrote what they knew. They took elements of life and picked out details and these are what ultimately made their books so great. Part of what makes the Battle of the Pelennor Fields resonate is Tolkien's careful description of the clouds, wind patter, the smell of the wind.

Greene does the same, evoking Hanoi on the brink. The locals are trying to get by, but all the restaurants have screens to prevent grades from being thrown in them. Saigon is more peaceful, but still on edge.

Another frequent point I've made is having stories take place at the end of an era - Gone with the Wind, The Winds of War, etc. That's the same feel Greene has in The Quiet American.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:40 AM (ZOv7s)

63 Moron Recommendation: It's not sci-fi and it's not recent, but in the current political climate its themes are on point. From a Christian perspective, Scripture and modern political themes are woven together. The title of the book sums ir up nicely: The Politics of Guilt and Pity by Rousas John Rushdoony ©️1970

The writing style is thick and chewy, not a beach book for sure, but worth the effort IMO.

Broad central themes include self as god, vs. government as god vs. God as God.

Available in hard copy or Kindle

Also available in pdf format here:

https://tinyurl.com/guilt-and-pity-RJR

Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 09:41 AM (poXs5)

64 Dude! I'm begging you. Use capitalization and punctuation!

You generally have interesting comments, but they're he'll to parse.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:37 AM (lFFaq)
---
He's gatekeeping his thoughts. IYKYK.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:41 AM (ZOv7s)

65 You generally have interesting comments, but they're he'll to parse.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette

I make a game of interpreting the comments, and figuring out which other post they relate to.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 09:42 AM (uU/gw)

66 I think I'll read The Third Man next. I ordered a small stack of used paperbacks by Greene. I originally thought to read them in order, but I'm just going on implulse.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:42 AM (ZOv7s)

67 You generally have interesting comments, but they're he'll to parse.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:37 AM (lFFaq)

Then again, autocucumber can force too much punctuation...

*runs away, serpentine

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 06, 2025 09:42 AM (h7ZuX)

68 Read "Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom" this week (again). It is non-fiction. Much of it would be intuitive to the Horde, but good to fully develop the different philosophies on regulation and the corresponding trade-offs.

One key take away is that true innovation that looks forward typically challenges existing regulation that can only look backwards and is primarily concerned about downside risk. Lots of variations on the "better to ask forgiveness than permission" theme, but that line of logic only goes so far.

Good book read through the lens of AI and digital assets/tokenization.

Posted by: TRex at July 06, 2025 09:43 AM (IQ6Gq)

69 My cat almost always places herself betwixt me and my book if I'm in my reading spot with the book balanced on a pillow. In fact I'm disappointed when she doesn't.

If I ignore her, the catspreading goes on for an hour, but if I provide a few minutes of uninterrupted scritches and cooing, she feels like she has received her due and will curl up elsewhere.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 09:43 AM (kpS4V)

70 There was a thread a couple of weeks ago about the fire and restoration of Notre Dame cathedral. I remember the news reports and the horror of seeing such a beautiful edifice harmed so badly. It was a splurge but I got a copy of "Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris" this is the official book of the restoration. Being official, you can't get away from the references to Macron and other government drones. But the contents are fascinating. The photos of the damage are heartbreaking but bit by bit you can see how the determination to restore it come into sight. The difficulties of salvaging what they could, support to keep the damaged areas from getting worse and protecting the crews, rediscovering the techniques and materials used in earlier centuries, etc. Inspiring. The most poignant photos were the pieces that were undamaged even though surrounded by devastation.

One miracle was that most of the stained glass windows survived the fire and collapse. Many of the materials and techniques that created them are lost although modern science can approximate them.

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 09:43 AM (yTvNw)

71 44 Good morning dear morons and thanks perfesser

Pictures of flooded children's camp in Texas are absolutely heartbreaking.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 09:22 AM (RIvkX)

In our dark times, we need heroes. And here is one:
https://tinyurl.com/mt5uzvn8

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 06, 2025 09:43 AM (7v6oI)

72 @65 --

You, too, eh?

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 09:43 AM (p/isN)

73 harkaway has much more magical realism and some sciifi elements in his work to distinguish himself from the late lecarre

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:44 AM (bXbFr)

74 Last week's discussion about books where we did not like the characters recalls to mind Night Over Water by Ken Follett. A Pan Am clipper seaplane departs England in 1939 just as war is declared, headed for the US. . . . This novel shows that a story can be entertaining even if you dislike every character.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025

***
Morning, all,

I loved that title but was not hyper-thrilled by the overall story. (He's yet to match his classic Eye of the Needle.) Currently I'm reading his Hornet Flight, another WWII story, but this one set mostly in occupied Denmark.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 09:44 AM (omVj0)

75 I make a game of interpreting the comments, and figuring out which other post they relate to.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 09:42 AM (uU/gw)
---
He's the Ambassador Kosh of the book thread.

"The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:44 AM (ZOv7s)

76 I like them pants!!!
Would drive libs crazy.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 06, 2025 09:44 AM (1bdKO)

77 Lol. Autocucumber got me on the second to last word. Didn't occur to me they'd automatically replace *hell*.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:45 AM (lFFaq)

78 41 I read Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson. This is the second book in the Stormlight Archive series. I'm enjoying the series very much.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 06, 2025 09:22 AM (qYFra)

That one is the best of the series. I've heard not so good things about the latest book, but I'm barely into it at the moment and so far so good.

Posted by: Farquad at July 06, 2025 09:47 AM (pyONU)

79 The war would continue not because of pyles work, but the ego and ambition of ho chi minh, as with fidel

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:47 AM (bXbFr)

80 When I was in grad school, I pretty much lived in the library. Every Thursday morning, they'd load up all the week's new acquisitions onto two big tall shelves and I'd be there perusing, picking out 4 or 6, and retreating to the basement with them until noon.

One of my department's profs was always there too, perusing. We never talked there. Later, I took one of my blue book exams with him, and muffed it terribly. I think the only reason he passed me was his respect for my love of books and learning.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at July 06, 2025 09:47 AM (KJrlM)

81 I loved that title but was not hyper-thrilled by the overall story. (He's yet to match his classic Eye of the Needle.) Currently I'm reading his Hornet Flight, another WWII story, but this one set mostly in occupied Denmark.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 09:44 AM (omVj0)
---
That reminds me of the incredible range of Donald Sutherland, who in a space of just a few years was a Nazi killer, Irish terrorist, Oddball, a military prisoner and Klute.

Nailed all of it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:48 AM (ZOv7s)

82 A Communist gave me The Quiet American to convince me I shouldn't oppose communism while it's failures where manifest literally everywhere in plain sight.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 09:49 AM (RIvkX)

83 If I had to guess, I'd say Miguel's comments probably come to us via his smartphone and that he finds typing on the thing a bit cumbersome when trying to properly capitalize and punctuate. My guess. I could be wrong.

I do know that if I had to use a smartphone to post here (or anywhere else) I wouldn't post here (or anywhere else). How the grandkids type on the bloody things is beyond me.

And no, I don't text.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:49 AM (q3u5l)

84 Then again, autocucumber can force too much punctuation...

*runs away, serpentine
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 06, 2025 09:42 AM (h7ZuX)

Lol, yes. Especially when criticizing the lack. I should have checked *every* word before posting.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:49 AM (lFFaq)

85 Polliwog, my phone always defaults to we're for were, we'll for well, you get the idea. I have to be hypervigilant.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 06, 2025 09:50 AM (h7ZuX)

86 My previous local library pulled themselves out of the ALA so that they could more freely offer books of local interest and those that comported with their population's religious and moral leanings.
Posted by: Tonypete

That's fantastic!
My local public is under the jurisdiction of the school district so 🤢🤮

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:50 AM (GhIJO)

87 That reminds me of the incredible range of Donald Sutherland, who in a space of just a few years was a Nazi killer, Irish terrorist, Oddball, a military prisoner and Klute.

Nailed all of it.
=====
And a victim of an alien conspiracy. And a professor smoking weed with his students in the 1960s.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 09:50 AM (RIvkX)

88 The war would continue not because of pyles work, but the ego and ambition of ho chi minh, as with fidel
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:47 AM (bXbFr)
---
Could one not argue that the KMT was China's Third Force? The Republic had effectively collapsed and the warlords were incapable of fighting the Communists, so a new "force" was needed that wanted to modernize while retaining continuity with tradition and at the same time mustering opposition to the Reds.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:50 AM (ZOv7s)

89 (more musings on Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld)

One other element that hurt the comic was how I read it. DC has never properly collected the comic, so the only way to read it is to pick up the original comic books, or to buy an out-of-print "Showcase Presents" phone-book-style reprint. Alas, this book only collects the black-and-white linework. This is unfortunate, as color is a big aspect to a book set in 'Gemworld.' There are twelve kingdoms in the story, each named after a gem, and using that color for....well, almost everything. With that, some of the characters are a bit hart to differentiate...

Still, the comic was a fun read. Amethyst was never a big-time comic book character, but apparently she is (or was) something of a cult favorite. I remember seeing an issue of her comic used as a prop on various episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, when the characters needed to be a little bit nerdy. And I'm always up for anything resembling a sword-and-sorcery comic.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025 09:51 AM (Lhaco)

90 The title of the book sums ir up nicely: The Politics of Guilt and Pity by Rousas John Rushdoony ©️1970

--

I will look that up, muldoon

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:53 AM (GhIJO)

91 A Communist gave me The Quiet American to convince me I shouldn't oppose communism while it's failures where manifest literally everywhere in plain sight.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 09:49 AM (RIvkX)
---
American dirty tricks totally justified the Killing Fields. And Great Leap Forward. And Cultural Revolution. Etc.

One change is that one no longer sees public arguments that collectivism was needed to build a modern society because even the Chinese decided it didn't work, and while being politically Marxist, used capitalism to industrialize their society.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:53 AM (ZOv7s)

92 Also this week I finished Stephen King's 2021 Billy Summers, a long crime novel about a likeable middle-aged hit man that I suspect I read once before and completely forgot until the story's climax. That seemed familiar to me. Aside from several completely unnecessary swipes at Trump and "right wing" items -- swipes at Obama and leftism would have been just as out of place in such a story -- it's quite readable and compelling.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 09:53 AM (omVj0)

93 Aaron Williams, a genius comics writer/artist with several titles to his credit, posited in a standalone Full Frontal Nerdity strip that the guy who programmed autocucumber was taking revenge for his treatment in fifth grade gym class.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 09:54 AM (p/isN)

94 Didn't care much overall for the film adaptation of Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters (by far my favorite invasion from space story), but Sutherland was perfectly cast in it and made the flick far more watchable than it would have been without him.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:54 AM (q3u5l)

95 But graham usually got the players backwards,

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:54 AM (bXbFr)

96 Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 09:49 AM (q3u5l)

I was wondering if he used speech to text on a phone. I just feel like I could properly appreciate his comments better if I didn't have to wrestle with each one. As is, I suspect I'm missing quite a bit of their value.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 09:55 AM (lFFaq)

97 Read at one sitting (rare for me now): Seanan McGuire's Lost in the Moment and Found, a short-ish fantasy novel about a shop where all lost things go. It's connected to, but not part of the main storyline of, her "Wayward Children" series. The lady is a Hugo and Nebula Award winner (though those awards have lost a lot of what they used to mean), and she writes well and clearly. Entertaining.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 09:56 AM (omVj0)

98 Dude! I'm begging you. Use capitalization and punctuation!
======

Capztn and punctn nvr ndded in Eng

Brly nd vwls

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 09:58 AM (RIvkX)

99 Watched the video on reading levels

It occurs to me that AI is at level 2 but AI users think its at level 4
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 09:08 AM (6U1c2)

Of course, I haven't caught up on all the comments yet, but it seems this vid pertains more to non-fiction books. I see one weak spot in the levels, or he just put them out of order. The first thing I would look at is the author's name. If the author is a known commie/subversive, there's no need to read the book. It will assuredly be propaganda.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 09:58 AM (0eaVi)

100 Sutherland also played a Corsican noble and a Parisian street clod in the same movie.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 09:59 AM (p/isN)

101 Once I'm done with Follett's Hornet Flight, I have only one more in my TBR pile, Robert B. Parker's family saga All Our Yesterdays. I need to hit the library again!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 09:59 AM (omVj0)

102 Chiang was probably the best possible option sun yatsen s vision was probably too idealistic to survive yes the green gang oh scary

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 09:59 AM (bXbFr)

103 ...even the Chinese decided it didn't work, and while being politically Marxist, used capitalism to industrialize their society.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 09:53 AM (ZOv7s)

Which is why I contend that they have a fascist system at this point. I'm starting to believe that every major system evolves/devolves into fascism.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:01 AM (lFFaq)

104 In prose reading, I finished up a Steampunk collection from Raconteur Press, "Full Steam Ahead." It was a very mixed bag. It used a broad definition of 'steampunk,' basically anything with magic or made-up physics set during the industrial revolution time period. Lots of variation in tone, as well. The second half the collection (the half I read this week) was pretty lame. Some stories that just didn't hit right, some boring stories, one story that was just an extended dick joke... But at least it did contain one final cool story, a James Bond style story with a secret agent going to evil-Canada with some steampunk-styled gadgets...

Looking back, that was probably the most defining trait of the collection; the prominence of alt-history backdrops. At least two (maybe three) stories wet where the Civil War broke up the US into multiple countries, plus the aforementioned story where the Dominion of Canada became an evil empire ruled by a Mad Empress. Alas, short stories in an anthology can only suggest settings like that, and can't explore them to the degree they deserve.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025 10:01 AM (Lhaco)

105 See also, Vietnam, Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 06, 2025 10:03 AM (RIvkX)

106 Even magical realiats like pf kuang dont seem to realize this

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 10:04 AM (bXbFr)

107 Okay, this may have limited appeal, but I read Pluck: the Extraordinary Life and Times of David Schnaufer. David was responsible for the resurgence of of the mountain dulcimer in the 1970s. He played with Chet Atkins, Emmylou, Mark O'Connor and others in Nashville. He taught a lot of people, including Cyndy Lauper. There are still You Tube videos of his performances available. The book really covers the folk music scene and the major dulcimer builders. I wasn't crazy about the format of the book, but the information was just incredible.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 06, 2025 10:04 AM (AcTAo)

108 Until recent years -- and still to a large degree -- my reading has come from libraries. First the big public library I grew up with, and later the massive library at my former employer.

My book purchases have usually been the paperback edition of whatever it was. Even when hardcovers were more affordable, I often opted for the paperback version. Most of the stuff still on my shelves here is pocket-book paperback or large-format paperback. There are a few hardcovers, but most of those were gifts, finds at thrift stores, or nonfiction/reference. My atlases (three!) are all hardcover, naturally.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:06 AM (omVj0)

109 My kiddo is supposed to read Don Quixote over the summer in preparation for her AP Lit class which starts in the fall. My wife got a copy as well, and I downloaded it for Kindle, which means I'm reading about knights errant instead of doing a deep-dive on Jutland this summer like I had hoped. It's not a bad book thus far, but when you need footnotes to understand Cervantes' jokes it takes away something.

I guess Jutland can wait. It's not like the ships are going anywhere....

Posted by: PabloD at July 06, 2025 10:06 AM (oyCAU)

110 Haven't read Billy Summers, but may give it a look. King's novels over the past umpteen years have spent too many words on his politics, and now every time I see it I find it dropping me out of the story. Less room for it in his short fiction, so I'll still grab a new collection when I see one.

And re: King's short fiction. The Life of Chuck has been released on Kindle as a stand-alone at 10.99. That story was included in a previous collection (If It Bleeds) available at the same price. By now, King probably has more money than God and the pricing probably wasn't his idea, so I'd guess the publisher is just gouging the readers to cash in on the movie release.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 10:06 AM (q3u5l)

111 Even magical realiats like pf kuang dont seem to realize this
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 10:04 AM (bXbFr)

What is it they don't realize? Please help the less gifted among us understand you better.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:07 AM (lFFaq)

112 I use the county library as much as possible but they seldom have what I'm looking for. I might get a hit one out of five times to the point it's a surprise when they have the book. If I was interested in current best sellers or political tell-all books (spoiler alert, I'm not), no problem. Try to find an actual paper copy of Tennyson's poetry or Rushkin's critiques, not a chance in hell.

Admittedly, my reading interests can be a bit esoteric but no Tennyson?

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 10:08 AM (yTvNw)

113 The devouring that mao would do, or pretend that chiang was the reason

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 10:09 AM (bXbFr)

114 Which is why I contend that they have a fascist system at this point. I'm starting to believe that every major system evolves/devolves into fascism.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:01 AM (lFFaq)
---
"Fascism" no longer has any consistent meaning. It's a generic tag for "evil." Bill Clinton's campaign platform from 1992 is now considered fascist. You can only stretch a word so far before it breaks down.

One way of looking at it is that fascism is nationalist while Marx is internationalist, but that's not true - Stalin wanted Communism in one country, and Trotsky was the internationalist. It's all so pointless.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:09 AM (ZOv7s)

115 My cat Penny is asleep, perched on top of her cat tree by the window, dreaming little kitty dreams as her paws twitch.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 06, 2025 10:10 AM (IBQGV)

116 Even magical realiats like pf kuang dont seem to realize this
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 10:04 AM (bXbFr)
---
An unexpected pleasure in all of this is that Walls of Men's more modern chapters seem to be holding up quite well. I made a point of trying to stay out of the weeds, but I feel I conveyed the big picture.

Always nice when one doesn't have to go in and do a major edit.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:12 AM (ZOv7s)

117 @65 --

You, too, eh?
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 09:43 AM (p/isN)

I've said that to him before, as well. He should at least put the comment number he's replying to. Otherwise it's almost a "huh? what are you talking about?"

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:12 AM (0eaVi)

118 Haven't read Billy Summers, but may give it a look. King's novels over the past umpteen years have spent too many words on his politics, and now every time I see it I find it dropping me out of the story. Less room for it in his short fiction, so I'll still grab a new collection when I see one. . . .

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025

***
I know I made a face a couple of times at his egregious DJT-bashing, but in a long novel like BS it didn't happen often. One of his later ones that I got at the library (Gwendy's Final Task?) started out with the lead character being horrified at Trump and what she thought was his crazed indifference to the "science" of the Sniffle Scare. I put that down right quick.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:13 AM (omVj0)

119 I've said that to him before, as well. He should at least put the comment number he's replying to. Otherwise it's almost a "huh? what are you talking about?"
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:12 AM (0eaVi)
---
He's not that hard to track, honestly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:13 AM (ZOv7s)

120 A.H. Lloyd - I recently saw a YouTube video about a book titled "The Fleet that Fought Itself." It's about what happened to the Spanish Navy during their civil war. Might be of interest to you, if you haven't perused it already.

Posted by: PabloD at July 06, 2025 10:14 AM (o2Win)

121 Read zero, zip, nada including 2 of the book recommendations from last week's book thread. Long week of covering for the church maintenance/groundskeeper who was on vacation. 2 funerals which meant coordinating grave digging and for one a massive luncheon afterwards. RIP Cathy.
Checked Libby and The Camp of the Saints can be found in French not English. Amazon has the hard copy at a ridiculous price.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at July 06, 2025 10:14 AM (2NHgQ)

122 @112 --

For an experiment, I just now searched our library system's website for Tennyson in hard copy. I didn't expect to find any. Got 19 entries.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 10:15 AM (p/isN)

123 Fascism has the Benito Mussolini definition.

And the results definition.

Depends on which end of the stick you're on.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:15 AM (fV+MH)

124 Thanks

The horror that mao unleashed which has inspired the likes of the shining path and even american revolutionaries cant be grappled with

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at July 06, 2025 10:15 AM (bXbFr)

125 Christian Nationalist is the latest hated enemy of the left. Started satan got to big for his britches and was cast down.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:16 AM (jgmnb)

126 A.H. Lloyd - I recently saw a YouTube video about a book titled "The Fleet that Fought Itself." It's about what happened to the Spanish Navy during their civil war. Might be of interest to you, if you haven't perused it already.
Posted by: PabloD at July 06, 2025 10:14 AM (o2Win)
---
I'll have to check that out. Naval superiority was one of many advantages the Second Spanish Republic completely pissed away. In addition to being a corrective to the Red b.s. about Franco, I wrote Long Live Death because Iwas sincerely interested in how he could have won. After the July Rising, there wasn't really a single moment when the Nationalists were in jeopardy.

Weird that the commander of such a one-sided contest should get so little credit.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:17 AM (ZOv7s)

127 Cap'n Barney reminded me that I had a pulpy paperback in my book dungeon called "Our Secret War Against Red China" (a "true" story of daring underground operations against the Commie menace) that has a strapping blond shirtless slab o' man and his barely clad lover/fellow agent on the cover.

Back in the golden age, when readers were respected and pandered to.

I haven't read it yet. Got it for the cover, of course.

I'm thinking A.H. Lloyd needs to get a decent cover artiste if he wants to goose his numbers up.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 10:17 AM (kpS4V)

128 Which is why I contend that they have a fascist system at this point. I'm starting to believe that every major system evolves/devolves into fascism.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette

That is about where I am.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 10:17 AM (Yxl6b)

129 Can anybody recommend a good novel or memoir about wolf hunting/trapping in the American West, 19th or early 20th Century? I have Ernest Thompson Seton's account of hunting Lobo the king wolf in NE New Mexico in 1893, and would like some more.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:18 AM (omVj0)

130 The only books I buy are classic books, I can't remember the last contemporary book I've purchased. Maybe something from Patterson, King or Clancy in the late 90's.

And I definitely would have failed Hugh Hewitt's test.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 06, 2025 10:18 AM (XV/Pl)

131 the aforementioned story where the Dominion of Canada became an evil empire ruled by a Mad Empress.
Posted by: Castle Guy

Very prescient.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 10:19 AM (Yxl6b)

132 Fascism has the Benito Mussolini definition.

And the results definition.

Depends on which end of the stick you're on.
Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:15 AM (fV+MH)
---
But is it of the left, or the right? Mussolini openly was of the left. The NSDAP was also of the left, but accommodated itself to the conglomorates.

China is showing that it's possible to have a capitalist system run by marxists - basically syndicalism. Which is also of the left.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:20 AM (ZOv7s)

133 Waaay back in the late 20th century, one of my professors in a military history class assigned us to read "Camp of the Saints." I didn't understand why at the time. I do now.

Can you imagine a professor adding that to the reading list today? And this was at a college known for hippie liberalism.

I still have my hardback copy. I figured I'd be handwriting copies of it and passing it like samizdat books, but history changed for the time being. Maybe I'll have to do it after the dems seize power again.

Posted by: PabloD at July 06, 2025 10:22 AM (o2Win)

134 I'm thinking A.H. Lloyd needs to get a decent cover artiste if he wants to goose his numbers up.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 10:17 AM (kpS4V)
---
I'm working on it. I have a list of corrections for the Man of Destiny series and my youngest is working her way through. The plan is to do a revised edition with a more classical Star Wars-ish cover showing space battles and characters.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:22 AM (ZOv7s)

135 He's not that hard to track, honestly.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:13 AM (ZOv7s)

Harder in his first comment. By the third of fourth you can get an idea of what he's talking about. It's just getting there that's the head scratcher.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:22 AM (0eaVi)

136 Been reading, "Men Of God", by Robert L. Millett. Seems like I have a ways to go.

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at July 06, 2025 10:23 AM (P0m9n)

137 But is it of the left, or the right? Mussolini openly was of the left. The NSDAP was also of the left, but accommodated itself to the conglomorates.

China is showing that it's possible to have a capitalist system run by marxists - basically syndicalism. Which is also of the left.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:20 AM (ZOv7s)

Horseshoe theory of politics. Far left is indistinguishable from far right.

Really, the “left - right” nomenclature is a very poor framework to use to describe things.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:23 AM (Lhvai)

138 Christian Nationalist is the latest hated enemy of the left. Started satan got to big for his britches and was cast down.
Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:16 AM (jgmnb)
---
They actually hate Christ, but use the qualifier to let the gay denominations know they are safe (for the moment).

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:23 AM (ZOv7s)

139 I have to get going, but about covers - they are the least important part of the book. People who get hung up on cover art are missing the point. Yes, great iconic covers are wonderful, but the key thing is actually PUBLISHING THE BOOK.

You an do another cover later. Look at all the covers for various editions. My priority was to get a bunch of stuff written, and then muck around for a publisher, and I may finally be able to have the time to do that soon (God willing!).

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:25 AM (ZOv7s)

140 Cat is eyeballing my book. Who is this interloper in my domain?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 10:25 AM (kpS4V)

141 129 Can anybody recommend a good novel or memoir about wolf hunting/trapping in the American West, 19th or early 20th Century? I have Ernest Thompson Seton's account of hunting Lobo the king wolf in NE New Mexico in 1893, and would like some more.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:18 AM (omVj0)

That request immediately brought to mind 'Snow Dog' by Jim Kjelgaard, but that doesn't quite match the parameters. It's a kids book, for starters, and follows an early 20th century fur trapper and his pack-dogs. He ends up getting hunted by a particularly angry wolf, and only survives thanks to one of his dogs.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025 10:26 AM (Lhaco)

142 I often find myself thinking that in the end the main political divisions will be not left/right, but one side that tries to leave people alone as much as is humanly possible and another side holding guns to peoples' heads while screaming 'bleep you, pay me!'

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 10:27 AM (q3u5l)

143 131 the aforementioned story where the Dominion of Canada became an evil empire ruled by a Mad Empress.
Posted by: Castle Guy

Very prescient.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 10:19 AM (Yxl6b)

In that story, the Canadians had genetically engineered squirrels to be horse-sized and put Mounties on them. Watch the trees!

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025 10:29 AM (Lhaco)

144 The cat is trying to distract the reader from going any further with “Blood Meridian”.
Smart cat. That book was seriously effed up.

Posted by: Buzzy Krumhunger at July 06, 2025 10:29 AM (RKVk8)

145 Horseshoe theory of politics. Far left is indistinguishable from far right.

Really, the “left - right” nomenclature is a very poor framework to use to describe things.
Posted by: Tom Servo

Way back when, in the days of Reagan and my youth, I did a graphical representation of the various forms of government, with individual autonomy in the vertical axis. It indeed came out horseshoe shaped.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 06, 2025 10:29 AM (Yxl6b)

146 I have to get going, but about covers - they are the least important part of the book. People who get hung up on cover art are missing the point. Yes, great iconic covers are wonderful, but the key thing is actually PUBLISHING THE BOOK.

You an do another cover later. Look at all the covers for various editions. My priority was to get a bunch of stuff written, and then muck around for a publisher, and I may finally be able to have the time to do that soon (God willing!).
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:25 AM (ZOv7s)

I think you're wrong about the first part. The cover is what the person thinking of buying your book sees. A bland, or poor cover may get the book reshelved instead of opened. Lots of advice about making covers out there on the internet. You may not think about covers when writing, but it's not something to ignore.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:30 AM (0eaVi)

147 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 06, 2025 10:09 AM (ZOv7s)

I'm referring to the economic definition, which still very much has meaning.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:31 AM (lFFaq)

148 Over the past 4-5 years I have shifted away from buying books. For years I have sought such as I was looking for at local used book stores, and if unable to find a copy, used ABE Books to purchase a used copy.

Over the last year or so, I have started first checking the library system. The issue isn't expense, the issue is (?) massive book build-up. I have far too many.

It is fortunate that all of the North Carolina public library systems are interconnected (for sharing) so the catalogs of hundreds of such are available. It may take a few days to get here, but I can pick up whatever I would like to read at the local branch a few blocks away.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 06, 2025 10:31 AM (XeU6L)

149 "China is showing that it's possible to have a capitalist system run by marxists - basically syndicalism. Which is also of the left.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd "

It is strange watching youtubes of street scenes in Chinese cities now.

Affluent young people walking around dressed like westerners with English store signs and Chinese street signs.

Booty shorts and pink and blonde hair and everything.

How does the Chinese government square that circle?

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:31 AM (fV+MH)

150 The King novel I mentioned above, Gwendy's Final Task, is the conclusion of a trilogy that started with Gwendy's Button Box and continued with Gwendy's Magic Feather. The first and last were co-written by King with Richard Chizmar; the second was by Chizmar alone. Which explains why I couldn't find it on the library shelf among King's works.

The first one was good, but knowing Part Three starts with such a completely unnecessary diatribe against Trump, I doubt I'll look for Part Two.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:32 AM (omVj0)

151 I was wondering if he used speech to text...

**********

Speech to text and auto-correct in the context of casual messaging and internet commenting is a nuisance and cause for mockery, a passing joke. But when you consider that speech to text dictation has become so prevalent in the field of medicine that virtually all documentation in one's EMR is generated by voice to text. If you look at any encounter note in your EMR you will likely see a disclaimer to the effect of:"This note was generated by voice recognition software and may be chock full of errors in spelling, or grammar, or content.."

This should give us all pause.

Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 10:33 AM (poXs5)

152 That request immediately brought to mind 'Snow Dog' by Jim Kjelgaard, but that doesn't quite match the parameters. It's a kids book, for starters, and follows an early 20th century fur trapper and his pack-dogs. He ends up getting hunted by a particularly angry wolf, and only survives thanks to one of his dogs.
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025

***
That might work fine! I'll look; thanks.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:34 AM (omVj0)

153 Covers. Many moons ago one of the paperback houses (Signet, I think) started a line called Adventures in Romance. These were presumably romance novels with a little bit of a suspense story mixed in. So putting new stuff out on the racks at Kroch's & Brentano's one morning, what do I find except several copies of Janet Caird's novel The Loch, issued as part of that line. Cover looked like nothing so much as a Harlequin Romance. What readers would have thought as they found themselves reading a book that had a spot in Stephen King's Danse Macabre recommended horror novels 1950-1980 when they thought they were getting an adventure in romance, I can only guess.

That line didn't last too long if memory serves.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 10:34 AM (q3u5l)

154 Which is why I contend that they have a fascist system at this point. I'm starting to believe that every major system evolves/devolves into fascism.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:01 AM (lFFaq)

My argument has long been that China has reverted to the Imperial system that they’ve been comfortable with for 2300 or so years now - a much older system than fascism. In such a system, any economic arrangements are possible, so long as all acknowledge that they only exist with Imperial Permission, which may be revoked or modified at any time. Subjects may do anything they wish, so long as they recognize that anything they own, including their lives, may be demanded of them by the Emperor at any time.
The Law is what the Emperor says it is at any given time - no more, no less.
And the Emperor never gives reasons - to ask for one is to court Death.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:34 AM (Lhvai)

155 Booty shorts and pink and blonde hair and everything.

How does the Chinese government square that circle?
Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:31 AM (fV+MH)

Can't stop the signal Mal

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:36 AM (VofaG)

156 (cont.)..and don't expect that your doctor or anyone in his/her office is proofreading and correcting mistakes. It would be a good idea to review your own medical record and demand that incorrect info be corrected.

Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 10:36 AM (poXs5)

157 make a game of interpreting the comments, and figuring out which other post they relate to.
Posted by: Thomas Paine

Like this one.

More like Captain Bare-ney, amirite?
Posted by:

Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025 10:36 AM (n4GiU)

158 Covers are important. Perusing the drugstore and bookstore racks for new paperbacks when I was a teen, the cover would often be the thing that led me to pick the novel up and read the blurb. (Especially, as pulp-flavored paperbacks did back then, the cover included a nearly-nude and attractive girl.)

Covers now are so cartoonish and generic that I don't pay much attention to them. But a really good cover can jump out and grab your attention.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:37 AM (omVj0)

159 We interrupt this Sunday Morning Book Thread for an important Sunday Morning Book Thread update:

I'm finally 1,000 pages into Hamilton's "The Naked God."

Joshua Calvert has reached his destination in the Orion Nebula. Though Hamilton made a slight error when a character says that they travelled 16,000 light years to get there. It's made clear much earlier in the text that the characters only had to travel 1,600 light years (still an enormous distance, even with anti-matter-powered engines).

We now return you to your regular Sunday Morning Book Thread shenanigans (pants still required).

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 06, 2025 10:38 AM (IBQGV)

160 150
The first one was good, but knowing Part Three starts with such a completely unnecessary diatribe against Trump, I doubt I'll look for Part Two.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:32 AM (omVj0)

I used to be a big King fan. Loved The Stand, and the early books of the Dark Tower series. He became really unglued when he was hit by that car. I just can't bring myself to read any more of his stuff.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 06, 2025 10:39 AM (7v6oI)

161 @159

>>We now return you to your regular Sunday Morning Book Thread shenanigans (pants still required).

Well, the book is 1174 pages per the wiki, so hopefully the last 174 pages aren't a slog.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 06, 2025 10:40 AM (XV/Pl)

162 I remember the Soviet Union having underground rock and roll clubs.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:40 AM (VofaG)

163 I used to be a big King fan. Loved The Stand, and the early books of the Dark Tower series. He became really unglued when he was hit by that car. I just can't bring myself to read any more of his stuff.
Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 06, 2025

***
His 11/22/63 is absolute dynamite, though. Time travel (with a catch), a detailed look at what America 1958-1963 was like, and a love story, all in one.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)

164 162 I remember the Soviet Union having underground rock and roll clubs.
Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:40 AM (VofaG)
Maybe lust and greed piggybacked on r n’ r?

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:42 AM (jgmnb)

165 re: that receipt up top

My local grocery store clerks always announce when they hand me the receipt, "You saved $14.32 today."

I politely correct them, "Actually no. I spent $322.76"

Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 10:42 AM (poXs5)

166 Can anybody recommend a good novel or memoir about wolf hunting/trapping in the American West, 19th or early 20th Century?
--------

Nope...but interesting.

As an aside, 'Hunter's Horn', Arnow. Deals largely with Appalachian culture, early 20th century. A large portion has to do with hunting dogs, and fox hunting. Not dandies on horseback, but rough mountain people. Goodreads reviews here:
http://tiny.cc/shro001

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at July 06, 2025 10:42 AM (XeU6L)

167 Moscow has the most amazing underground I've ever seen.

And yet there are people in the villages that are without any hope.

Only vodka. Living in shanties.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:43 AM (fV+MH)

168 With Mr. S depending on me to drive him, I've been using our public libraries more. I've been reading mostly novels.

What I have begun doing, if I don't like the first few chapters, is to consult the 1 and 2 star reader reviews on Amazon. If they are reporting the same reactions and criticisms, I tend to not finish the book.

Will request "Camp of the Saints" for ours.

Posted by: sal at July 06, 2025 10:43 AM (f+FmA)

169 Covers now are so cartoonish and generic that I don't pay much attention to them. But a really good cover can jump out and grab your attention.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:37 AM (omVj0)

Wolfus, it seems there's so little creativity anymore. They have stock characters in stock poses with stock typefaces and stock colors for the book theme. Stock, stock, stock. Only way to get something different is pay an artist to do your cover without relying on stock items. That's something polynikes should think about.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:43 AM (0eaVi)

170 Well, the book is 1174 pages per the wiki, so hopefully the last 174 pages aren't a slog.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 06, 2025 10:40 AM (XV/Pl)
---
1244 pages in my edition...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 06, 2025 10:43 AM (IBQGV)

171 When I was buying paperbacks in high school and college, there were tons of terrific sf covers done by people like the Dillons and Richard Powers. Some of the Dillons' best showed up on the Ace Science Fiction Specials (check out their cover for the first edition of LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness), and Powers' work was all over the sf lines done by Ballantine and Berkley. God, that stuff was lovely.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 10:44 AM (q3u5l)

172 163 I used to be a big King fan. Loved The Stand, and the early books of the Dark Tower series. He became really unglued when he was hit by that car. I just can't bring myself to read any more of his stuff.
Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 06, 2025

***
His 11/22/63 is absolute dynamite, though. Time travel (with a catch), a detailed look at what America 1958-1963 was like, and a love story, all in one.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)
Yeah, it was a pretty good read.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:44 AM (jgmnb)

173 Reading adjacent. The Tolkien Society has an annual meeting where 'scholars' present papers on various aspects of his works. For the second year in a row they have chosen every woke shit for brains with a word processor and an opinion to give the presentations. Evidence that Tolkien supported the LBGQ blah blah in LOTR? Oh it's so obvious. Tolkien with his characters responsible for the toxic masculinity afflicting the planet? Only the blind could miss it. It's disgusting even though not unusual these days.

The only thing I like about the situation is the membership numbers apparently are plummeting. The presumption and arrogance of the leaders could, and I hope will, destroy the society leaving a space for enthusiasts, sans agenda, to enjoy Tolkien's actual words and life story.

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 10:44 AM (yTvNw)

174 Cats learning to read could be the demise of human existence

Posted by: Skip at July 06, 2025 10:44 AM (+qU29)

175 I used to be a big King fan. Loved The Stand, and the early books of the Dark Tower series. He became really unglued when he was hit by that car. I just can't bring myself to read any more of his stuff.
Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 06, 2025 10:39 AM (7v6oI)

Maybe someone should hit him with a car again. That might bring him back to his senses, like King Tut.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:44 AM (0eaVi)

176 I'm currently reading Jimmy Connor's bio, The Outsider.

Also reading non fiction The Secret Language of Color.

Both really good if either subject interests you.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:46 AM (VofaG)

177 Thanks Biff, that's good to hear about The Camp of the Saints. Not much reading done this week but I'm a little over half the way through The Natural and it does not disappoint.

Posted by: who knew at July 06, 2025 10:46 AM (+ViXu)

178 His 11/22/63 is absolute dynamite, though. Time travel (with a catch), a detailed look at what America 1958-1963 was like, and a love story, all in one.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)

The Fifties lasted until the Summer of Love. Discuss.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:46 AM (0eaVi)

179 Stephen King lost me when the majority of his output featured down on their heel authors suffering from crippling writer’s block.
Got to be tedious after a while.
Then he discovered Twitter…

Posted by: Buzzy Krumhunger at July 06, 2025 10:47 AM (RKVk8)

180 Best book covers of all time - 1960’s sci-fi paperbacks, especially Ballantine!

See for Walls of Men, Ballantine would have commissioned a giant snarling dragon in armor, standing astride the Great Wall, holding a sword of flame. Maybe some puny mongols on the ground running away in fright.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:47 AM (Lhvai)

181 @170

>>1244 pages in my edition...

Well, you got a novella and two short stories worth of reading left, hopefully what's left is compelling and rich.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 06, 2025 10:47 AM (XV/Pl)

182 I remember the Soviet Union having underground rock and roll clubs.
Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:40 AM (VofaG)

Maybe lust and greed piggybacked on r n’ r?
Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:42 AM (jgmnb)

(freezes with deer in headlights look)

What?

Posted by: Record Executives at July 06, 2025 10:48 AM (0eaVi)

183 165 re: that receipt up top

My local grocery store clerks always announce when they hand me the receipt, "You saved $14.32 today."

I politely correct them, "Actually no. I spent $322.76"
Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 10:42 AM (poXs5
But don’t you get a dime off per gallon at the pump on every hundred bucks you spend in the store?

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:48 AM (jgmnb)

184 Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 10:33 AM (poXs5)

Absolutely. My sister, a PA, makes a lot of her reports by phone dictation. She's good about checking accuracy, but it would still be easy to miss an error.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:49 AM (lFFaq)

185 A writer is the god of his Characters. King is the cruelest of novel gods.

I have wondered if King felt the cruelty of HIS god when he got rag-dolled by that car.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:49 AM (fV+MH)

186 When I was buying paperbacks in high school and college, there were tons of terrific sf covers done by people like the Dillons and Richard Powers. Some of the Dillons' best showed up on the Ace Science Fiction Specials (check out their cover for the first edition of LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness), and Powers' work was all over the sf lines done by Ballantine and Berkley. God, that stuff was lovely.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025

***
Not to mention the grand work done by Richard McGinnis. He was so good he went on to do movie posters for some of the James Bond films like Thunderball, and for How to Steal a Million w/ Audrey Hepburn. I think his women were featured on the first edition covers for Gold Medal's line of MacDonald's Travis McGee books, for instance.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:50 AM (omVj0)

187 Not to mention the grand work done by Richard McGinnis. He was so good he went on to do movie posters for some of the James Bond films like Thunderball, and for How to Steal a Million w/ Audrey Hepburn. I think his women were featured on the first edition covers for Gold Medal's line of MacDonald's Travis McGee books, for instance.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025

***
Oops, no, *Robert* McGinnis.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:51 AM (omVj0)

188 Horseshoe theory of politics. Far left is indistinguishable from far right.

Really, the “left - right” nomenclature is a very poor framework to use to describe things.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:23 AM (Lhvai)

Don't forget islam.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 10:51 AM (g8Ew8)

189 “Evidence that Tolkien supported the LBGQ blah blah in LOTR? Oh it's so obvious.”

No young children in the Elvish world because they’re all gay now. Poor Arwen has to look outside of her gay race to find love.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:51 AM (Lhvai)

190 Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:34 AM (Lhvai)

I don't disagree since fascism involves bureaucrats having all of the actual power but none of the visible responsbility.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 10:52 AM (lFFaq)

191 WHAT? Why would Islam be mentioned in the context of this story which takes place around A.D. 33?

Maybe the commenter is looking for the miraculous descent of the Table in sura 5, or the conversion of clay birds into real ones in sura 3.

Posted by: gKWVE at July 06, 2025 10:53 AM (gKWVE)

192 I've mentioned multiple times here but choosing, buying and waiting for the arrival of paperback books from Scholastic Reader is one of the best childhood memories I have. It was right up there with Christmas.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:53 AM (VofaG)

193 The last great book King wrote is the Green Mile, which came out in the mid-90s.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 06, 2025 10:53 AM (XV/Pl)

194 The only thing I like about the situation is the membership numbers apparently are plummeting. The presumption and arrogance of the leaders could, and I hope will, destroy the society leaving a space for enthusiasts, sans agenda, to enjoy Tolkien's actual words and life story.
Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 10:44 AM (yTvNw)

So, they're at "the uses of cheese in Tibullus" stage of Tolkien scholarship, eh?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 10:53 AM (0eaVi)

195 189 “Evidence that Tolkien supported the LBGQ blah blah in LOTR? Oh it's so obvious.”

No young children in the Elvish world because they’re all gay now. Poor Arwen has to look outside of her gay race to find love.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:51 AM (Lhvai)
Exception. Counselor! Hobbits! They’re like bunnys!

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 10:54 AM (jgmnb)

196 His 11/22/63 is absolute dynamite, though. Time travel (with a catch), a detailed look at what America 1958-1963 was like, and a love story, all in one.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)

It is a good book and a decent premise on changing events with time travel.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 10:55 AM (g8Ew8)

197 Ahhh…. Sunday morning! Coffee, Mass, Book Thread—not necessarily in that order.

Love the Library receipt! When our kids were young, the local library saved us many thousands of dollars providing books we didn’t have. The librarians recognized us; one still works there, although she’s nearing retirement. Happy to say our kids now take their kids to story time and borrow toys as well as books!

Posted by: March Hare at July 06, 2025 10:56 AM (O/GSq)

198 Horseshoe theory of politics. Far left is indistinguishable from far right.

Really, the “left - right” nomenclature is a very poor framework to use to describe things.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 10:23 AM (Lhvai)

yeah the Left and Right of today will never meet regard to social issues no matter how far left or right they are.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:56 AM (VofaG)

199 Not to mention the grand work done by Richard McGinnis. He was so good he went on to do movie posters for some of the James Bond films like Thunderball, and for How to Steal a Million w/ Audrey Hepburn. I think his women were featured on the first edition covers for Gold Medal's line of MacDonald's Travis McGee books, for instance.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:50 AM (omVj0)

Got a later McGee out of a Little Library, so it did not have the iconic McGinnis cover, which I remember so well from the first ones. Fabulous time-capsule art.

Posted by: sal at July 06, 2025 10:56 AM (f+FmA)

200 192 I've mentioned multiple times here but choosing, buying and waiting for the arrival of paperback books from Scholastic Reader is one of the best childhood memories I have. It was right up there with Christmas.
Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:53 AM (VofaG)

Me too!! I still have the first book my parents bought from there. We didn't have much growing up so I still appreciate the hit to their budget.

Posted by: Our Country is Screwed at July 06, 2025 10:57 AM (7v6oI)

201 Horseshoe theory of politics. Far left is indistinguishable from far right.
I didn't buy that BS in high school the teacher was pushing

Posted by: Skip at July 06, 2025 10:57 AM (+qU29)

202 (cont.)..and don't expect that your doctor or anyone in his/her office is proofreading and correcting mistakes. It would be a good idea to review your own medical record and demand that incorrect info be corrected.
Posted by: muldoon

There is your medical record that you get to see and the one the Doctor writes for 'insurance purposes'.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at July 06, 2025 10:57 AM (/lPRQ)

203 I've mentioned multiple times here but choosing, buying and waiting for the arrival of paperback books from Scholastic Reader is one of the best childhood memories I have. It was right up there with Christmas.
Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025

***
We used to get those catalogs in jr. high. Nearly all of the books failed to catch my interest: They were aimed at kids the physical age I was then, not my mental and interests age. (I wanted to read about adults, the people I identified with, doing adult, dangerous things.) They did have one or two of the U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novels -- but I already had those.

Still, P, I know exactly what you mean about snagging a new book that you were excited to read.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 10:58 AM (omVj0)

204 If you really wanted to change the future you would stop WWI, not WWII.

Of course you would then cease to exist and therefore not be able to do that.

Which is why Terminator should have stopped with the third one but I digress!

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 10:58 AM (fV+MH)

205 China says the Dalai Lama must follow Chinese law if he wants to reincarnate

-
Winnie the Pooh has God's number on speed dial.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Big Mouth of the West at July 06, 2025 10:58 AM (L/fGl)

206 Horseshoe theory of politics. Far left is indistinguishable from far right.
I didn't buy that BS in high school the teacher was pushing
Posted by: Skip at July 06, 2025 10:57 AM (+qU29)

The Left like to use that to excuse the Left and try to lay it on the Right. Like Fascism and Nazism which were both socialistic Marxism turned up to 11.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:59 AM (VofaG)

207 Posted by: March Hare at July 06, 2025 10:56 AM (O/GSq)

did you check out the spreadsheet?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:00 AM (0eaVi)

208 Our library bragged about 10,000 visits. For a mere $1.2 million. $120 per visit. I was not impressed.

Posted by: Smileygg at July 06, 2025 11:01 AM (a9Rdt)

209 BTW, there really was a “Captain Barney.” He was a navy captain who fought in the Revolutionary War and was instrumental in keeping the Brits out of Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. His portrait is in the State Capitol in Maryland, IIRC. He was not as handsome as portrayed on the cover of the this morning’s “guilty pleasure.”

Posted by: March Hare at July 06, 2025 11:01 AM (O/GSq)

210 Marxism is just revenge.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:01 AM (fV+MH)

211 Well, you got a novella and two short stories worth of reading left, hopefully what's left is compelling and rich.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at July 06, 2025 10:47 AM (XV/Pl)
---
Hamilton knows how to stick the landing in his doorstoppers. I'm not worried.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 06, 2025 11:02 AM (IBQGV)

212 210 Marxism is just revenge.
Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:01 AM (fV+MH)
Just like every other ‘ism’.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 11:02 AM (SZI4h)

213 No young children in the Elvish world because they’re all gay now. Poor Arwen has to look outside of her gay race to find love.
Posted by: Tom Servo

Ahhh... that explains everything. The dwarves, the ents...

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at July 06, 2025 11:03 AM (/lPRQ)

214 There is your medical record that you get to see and the one the Doctor writes for 'insurance purposes'.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher

********

That has not been my experience. In fact, EMR's roll the clinical documentation and the billing coding into one, which when combined with the insurance company's EOB tells the complete story. I have no problem accessing that info.

Posted by: muldoon at July 06, 2025 11:04 AM (poXs5)

215 Good morning and thank you, Professor, for the Book Thread.

Last week I read The Case of the Canterfell Codicil by PJ Fitzsimmons. I found it on my Kindle and am guessing that I purchased it after somebody here on the Book Thread recommend it. If that is, indeed, the case, thank you. It is a fun, closed room mystery that does not take itself too seriously. I was surprised to see that it was released in 2020, as most books that I enjoy are not that recent. I plan on getting the next book in the series, The Ghost of Christmas Morning but am undecided whether to go ahead and get the Kindle version, as I have a love/hate relationship with the Kindle. I’m leaning towards having our local small book store order it for me.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at July 06, 2025 11:04 AM (g+wu5)

216 Fell off using the libraries heavily when I started working for Kroch's & Brentano's at the end of '76 -- it was too easy to get into the habit of buying the ones I wanted. Never really broke that habit later. Quite a bit of what I bought over the decades later ended up being donated to local libraries, so I guess it works out. Somehow. Maybe.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:04 AM (q3u5l)

217 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 0

I got those catalogues in the 2nd and 3rd grade so a bit different than Jr High where the hormones shifted one's interests and reading habits.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 11:05 AM (VofaG)

218 The Left like to use that to excuse the Left and try to lay it on the Right. Like Fascism and Nazism which were both socialistic Marxism turned up to 11.
Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 10:59 AM (VofaG)

As mentioned upthread, a better framework gives the most weight to totalitarianism vs. individual freedom. By that measure, the UK today is becoming a dangerously totalitarian system, whereas some systems that are called authoritarian allow a great deal of personal freedom.
A legislative tyranny is just as bad as any other kind.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 11:05 AM (Lhvai)

219 Marxism is just revenge.
Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:01 AM (fV+MH)

Mmmm. Maybe more like covetousness with a blatant revenge factor.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 11:07 AM (g8Ew8)

220
I got those catalogues in the 2nd and 3rd grade so a bit different than Jr High where the hormones shifted one's interests and reading habits.
Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025

***
Even at that age I wanted to read about adults having adventures, not so much kids -- Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc. The Hardy Boys were teens, college or high school students at least, weren't they?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:08 AM (omVj0)

221 Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 11:05 AM (Lhvai)

yes but they start with a basic political philosophy which I have no problem describing as Left or Right.

Seems like the more tyrannical and restrictive are based on the Left.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 11:08 AM (VofaG)

222 Just learned the Moonfall Saga is (as of now) a quadrilogy.

Jeebus. Rollins really needs to tighten up the story.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 11:08 AM (kpS4V)

223 A legislative tyranny is just as bad as any other kind.
Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 11:05 AM (Lhvai)
What about a caliphate?

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 11:09 AM (SZI4h)

224 When dynasties collide!

Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump Are “Wedding Bells Serious” as Relationship Heats Up

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Big Mouth of the West at July 06, 2025 11:12 AM (L/fGl)

225 Asimov wrote like three prequels and four sequels to the Foundation and Empire series.

I read them all you magnificent bastard!

I have the feeling he didn't really want to do that. But I loved em all.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:15 AM (fV+MH)

226 Here's an article about the reissue of The Camp of the Saints.

https://is.gd/XvqByK

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025 11:16 AM (PiwSw)

227 That request immediately brought to mind 'Snow Dog' by Jim Kjelgaard, but that doesn't quite match the parameters. It's a kids book, for starters, and follows an early 20th century fur trapper and his pack-dogs. He ends up getting hunted by a particularly angry wolf, and only survives thanks to one of his dogs.
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 06, 2025

***
Snow Dog is pretty recent, 1983. It's available for less than four bucks on Abebooks. Even if it isn't completely what I'm looking for, it sounds like a good adventure. Think I'll give it a try.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:18 AM (omVj0)

228 Seems like the more tyrannical and restrictive are based on the Left.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 11:08 AM (VofaG)

I agree that they go there faster, and I think it’s for the same reason that Caliphates (as Eromero mentioned) go there - they presume themselves to be Morally Superior to all others, and they give themselves license to pursue any crazy scheme they imagine because of that.
And anyone who opposes these Morally Superior beings must be Evil, and therefore must be destroyed.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 11:19 AM (0DdMG)

229 The most fun book I read was Rendezvous With Rama.

Zero plot zero character development zero character study.

Just fun as hell. No way they could make it into a movie.

No monster. Just people walking around finding cool alien things.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:20 AM (fV+MH)

230 OK, you level four readers. Parse this!

Western Lensman@WesternLensman
Jamie Raskin: LA riots were “a mass, peaceful, nonviolent protest where there were riots happening."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Big Mouth of the West at July 06, 2025 11:21 AM (L/fGl)

231 OK, you level four readers. Parse this!

Western Lensman@WesternLensman
Jamie Raskin: LA riots were “a mass, peaceful, nonviolent protest where there were riots happening."
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Big Mouth of the West at July 06, 2025

***
Answer: It's a leftist talking. Therefore sense-free.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:23 AM (omVj0)

232 197 Ahhh…. Sunday morning! Coffee, Mass, Book Thread—not necessarily in that order.

Love the Library receipt! When our kids were young, the local library saved us many thousands of dollars providing books we didn’t have. The librarians recognized us; one still works there, although she’s nearing retirement. Happy to say our kids now take their kids to story time and borrow toys as well as books!
Posted by: March Hare at July 06, 2025 10:56 AM (O/GSq)

My daughter is active at our library, she is part of the homeschool book club and she volunteers at their events. The young adult librarian is great and makes sure my daughter is very involved and included. It has been awesome.

Back to lurking with my 2 cats and mini dire wolf. But I do need advice on self publishing a children’s book if anyone has it to give.

Posted by: Piper at July 06, 2025 11:23 AM (pZEOD)

233 Peaceful protest meant as cover for violence.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:24 AM (fV+MH)

234 The most fun book I read was Rendezvous With Rama.

Zero plot zero character development zero character study.

Just fun as hell. No way they could make it into a movie.

No monster. Just people walking around finding cool alien things.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:20 AM (fV+MH)

LOL. Yup. And the wonder of it's vastness.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 11:25 AM (g8Ew8)

235 Marxism is just revenge.
Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:01 AM (fV+MH)

Well, that's the pitch anyway. That's how they sell it to the doltish misfits they need to weaponize against the normies.

But that's far from what it actually is. It's a means for a select group of lunatics to sieze power. It's a megalomaniacal vision of dominance and solitude.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at July 06, 2025 11:25 AM (W2A23)

236 The most fun book I read was Rendezvous With Rama.

Zero plot zero character development zero character study.

Just fun as hell. No way they could make it into a movie.

No monster. Just people walking around finding cool alien things.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025

***
The "Enormous Big Thing" sub-genre of SF. See also Ringworld by Larry Niven and Titan by John Varley.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:25 AM (omVj0)

237 Old farts carrying signs as cover for young people not carrying signs.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:26 AM (fV+MH)

238 The Hindenburg's trip across the Atlantic was "mostly uneventful."

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025 11:28 AM (PiwSw)

239 Orange Ent, I checked back on the Tech Thread and saw your mention of the YouTube channel with Briggs, about retirement, home buying, and different cities and states. I'll have a look this pm; thanks!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:30 AM (omVj0)

240 The Hindenburg had a fiery but peaceful landing.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:30 AM (q3u5l)

241 "The "Enormous Big Thing" sub-genre of SF. See also Ringworld by Larry Niven and Titan by John Varley.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere"

And dare I add Frederik Pohl's all time classic "Gateway" to that list.

Possibly the best sci-fi novel ever.

No plot really. Just awesomeness.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:31 AM (fV+MH)

242 The Hindenburg's trip across the Atlantic was "mostly uneventful."
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025 11:28 AM (PiwSw)

That peaceful morning of Dec 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor was interrupted by loud noises.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 11:32 AM (g8Ew8)

243 The Hindenburg's trip across the Atlantic was "mostly uneventful."
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025

***
So were the voyages of the Titanic and Lusitania. I was going to include the Bismarck, but it was being hunted for a while before the big ending, so that was hardly uneventful.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:32 AM (omVj0)

244 Even at that age I wanted to read about adults having adventures, not so much kids -- Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, etc. The Hardy Boys were teens, college or high school students at least, weren't they?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

I think you are misrembering your youth. First to third, and for most, through fifth, you are not reading hardy boys, nancy drew.

Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025 11:33 AM (n4GiU)

245 That peaceful morning of Dec 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor was interrupted by loud noises.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons

I saw a YouTube about the best war movies and one was "Torah Torah Torah!" I guess it was a Jap /Jews combined attack.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Big Mouth of the West at July 06, 2025 11:36 AM (L/fGl)

246 Orange Ent, I checked back on the Tech Thread and saw your mention of the YouTube channel with Briggs, about retirement, home buying, and different cities and states. I'll have a look this pm; thanks!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:30 AM (omVj0)

There's interesting info in his vids, but his lying about the results of Trump's tariffs and such has turned me off. I won't watch him again.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:36 AM (0eaVi)

247 I think you are misrembering your youth. First to third, and for most, through fifth, you are not reading hardy boys, nancy drew.
Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025 11:33 AM (n4GiU)

Got hold of a copy of Lady Chatterly's Lover during my seventh grade.

It changed me.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 11:36 AM (g8Ew8)

248 I saw a YouTube about the best war movies and one was "Torah Torah Torah!" I guess it was a Jap /Jews combined attack.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Big Mouth of the West at July 06, 2025 11:36 AM (L/fGl)

Interesting fact about Pearl Harbor. The lead pilot on the attack ended up a Christian evangelist.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:38 AM (0eaVi)

249 I think you are misrembering your youth. First to third, and for most, through fifth, you are not reading hardy boys, nancy drew.
Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025

***
Maybe not first and second for me, but I know I started on the Hardy Boys series before I was ten (fifth grade). Remember, I was sneaking reads of the action scenes in James Bond when I was nine, and started with Alfred Hitchcock anthologies when I was eleven.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:39 AM (omVj0)

250 There's interesting info in his vids, but his lying about the results of Trump's tariffs and such has turned me off. I won't watch him again.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025

***
Plus he keeps saying that an area with a median house price of $350K or a rent of $1350 is "affordable." Uh, no, it's not.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:41 AM (omVj0)

251 Could be misremembering, but I recall reading things like the Bomba stories, some of the old Tom Swift from a shelf in my grandparents' place, some Kipling and London, and a lot of Roy Chapman Andrews' dinosaur books, and a few of the Whitman titles Wolfus mentioned as early as third grade. I remember that there were a few of the Little Golden Books in the house earlier than that, but I couldn't tell you which ones.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:41 AM (q3u5l)

252 Plus he keeps saying that an area with a median house price of $350K or a rent of $1350 is "affordable." Uh, no, it's not.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:41 AM (omVj0)

He's obviously a coasty.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at July 06, 2025 11:42 AM (g8Ew8)

253 Old farts carrying signs as cover for young people not carrying signs.

Hey! Hey! What do you say? How many undocumented migrants has Trump killed today?!

Hey! Hey!...

Posted by: Dirty Old Hippie Boomer Who Loves A Good Chant at July 06, 2025 11:44 AM (R/m4+)

254 Could be misremembering, but I recall reading things like the Bomba stories, some of the old Tom Swift from a shelf in my grandparents' place, some Kipling and London, and a lot of Roy Chapman Andrews' dinosaur books, and a few of the Whitman titles Wolfus mentioned as early as third grade. I remember that there were a few of the Little Golden Books in the house earlier than that, but I couldn't tell you which ones.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025

***
I know I read the Tarzan series when I was ten. Ballantine brought out the entire series in paperback that year, and my father, who'd grown up on them, bought each one and passed it on to me. The Mars books I was not ready for, though.

Whitman also published classics like Sherlock Holmes and Jack London's Call of the Wild, and I know I read those in grammar school, fourth or fifth grade. Still have the Holmes volume, probably my oldest (with me) book.

I was always way ahead of my grade reading level. Until college, anyway.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:46 AM (omVj0)

255 The first books I can remember are the volumes of a set of supermarket encyclopedias (Funk & Wagnall's?). They were in the house when I was in kindergarten and first grade. I remember picking through those a lot, but can't remember reading a lot of children's books.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:47 AM (q3u5l)

256 Br’er Rabbit. Danger, excitement, adventure! Got it all.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 11:48 AM (jgmnb)

257 I remember picking through those a lot, but can't remember reading a lot of children's books.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:47 AM (q3u5l)

I only remember the Dr. Suess books, and one by Bennett Cerf. I read Cerf's later humor books, but I don't remember when. He might have been dead by then. The classic children stories were most likely read at school.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:49 AM (0eaVi)

258 The first books I can remember are the volumes of a set of supermarket encyclopedias (Funk & Wagnall's?). They were in the house when I was in kindergarten and first grade. I remember picking through those a lot, but can't remember reading a lot of children's books.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025

***
I remember those, the Golden Book Encyclopedia series! A new one came out each week or month, and I read them (almost) cover to cover. There was a later one for high school agers, and we had that too.

There were others with a section of the Funk & Wagnall's dictionary in the middle. The front and back sections would be taken up with illustrated focus articles on animals or plants or planets or volcanoes. I recall the cat breeds, horse breeds, and a minimal list dog breeds features.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:51 AM (omVj0)

259 We seem to be zeroing in on the age of ten, a different target than the 1-3rd grade sochrastic books age.

Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025 11:51 AM (n4GiU)

260 I remember getting my 8th grade mind blown by Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025 11:51 AM (PiwSw)

261 I got better.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025 11:52 AM (PiwSw)

262 "I was always way ahead of my grade reading level. Until college, anyway."

Same here. I have no memory of being taught to read, but I could read when I started kindergarten. I had that Whitman Sherlock Holmes at one point, and I think maybe the London as well. If memory serves Whitman also had a sf series (Rip Foster? Something similar), which I grabbed when I saw it.

A lot of Classics Illustrated Comics too starting in 5th & 6th grade.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:52 AM (q3u5l)

263 We seem to be zeroing in on the age of ten, a different target than the 1-3rd grade sochrastic books age.
Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025

***
Yes, that is different. But didn't Scholastic have items for older (ages 9-15) readers too?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:53 AM (omVj0)

264 I remember The Mouse and the Motorcycle being one of my favorites when I was very young.

im trying to remember when I first read Captains Courageous but I know I was still in Elementary school.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 11:53 AM (VofaG)

265 Wasn't there something like an encyclopedia of children's stories? I remember a few hardbound volumes that had multiple stories in them. The front had some kind of painting or illustration on the cover. Might have been cream colored cover with some blue accents.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:53 AM (0eaVi)

266 I've decided to read all the Shakespeare plays I never read for school. Right now I'm reading Coriolanus, and I confess it's hard to say that title without smirking.

Posted by: Sobek at July 06, 2025 11:53 AM (cFhfC)

267 192 ... "I've mentioned multiple times here but choosing, buying and waiting for the arrival of paperback books from Scholastic Reader is one of the best childhood memories I have. It was right up there with Christmas."

Ho Polynikes,

Oh yeah!! It was third and fourth grade for me. I still recall the excitement when the books arrived and having to wait ALL DAY before they were passed out. That program was my introduction to Conan Doyle, Hound of the Baskervilles, and Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages.

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 11:53 AM (yTvNw)

268 My family had a set of encyclopedias that I pored over for years, randomly reading anything. The inside fron covers ha da collage of historical events and people. One was Orville and Wilbur Wright, but I thought they were the Smothers Brothers for a long time.

Posted by: Pug Mahon Does Not Miss Colorado at July 06, 2025 11:54 AM (0aYVJ)

269 I was sleeved out by the Skeezicks in the Uncle Wiggly stories. I wonder if our library system has any old illustrated copies.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 11:54 AM (kpS4V)

270 I remember getting my 8th grade mind blown by Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 06, 2025

***
In eighth I was reading Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novels and novelettes. By ninth I'd discovered Ellery Queen, in tenth there was Alistair Maclean and David Westheimer (Von Ryan's Express).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:55 AM (omVj0)

271 Vonnegut is IMHO the best writer I've ever read.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:55 AM (fV+MH)

272 One was Orville and Wilbur Wright, but I thought they were the Smothers Brothers for a long time.
Posted by: Pug Mahon Does Not Miss Colorado at July 06, 2025 11:54 AM (0aYVJ)
----

"Mom always did like you better!" -- Wilbur

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 11:55 AM (kpS4V)

273 What I don't recall is Scholastic Book Fairs when I was in grade school. Maybe they had 'em, but I don't remember any. Couldn't have made much of an impression on me then.

On that happy note, off to placate the cat, who seems to think I haven't fed her though that's not true. Then to achieve new heights of disorder here at Casa Some Guy.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 06, 2025 11:56 AM (q3u5l)

274 This all started with someone commenting on the thrill of book delivery day.
I've gotten in to it to emphasis how we should never be too dogmatic about memories.

Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025 11:56 AM (n4GiU)

275 That program was my introduction to Conan Doyle, Hound of the Baskervilles, and Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages.
Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025

***
The two Jacksons (as well as the Holmes) are fun and readable by anybody, I'd think.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:56 AM (omVj0)

276 You have time left to read one of the great classics.Which do you choose Aristotle, Plato or Socrates?

Posted by: Ben Had at July 06, 2025 11:57 AM (HFcKg)

277 when I was 10 or 11 I started reading the yearly World Almanac my father would get. I blame the Almanac for my love of useless trivia and numbers/stats.

Posted by: polynikes at July 06, 2025 11:57 AM (VofaG)

278 My Weekly Reader, and I went directly to The Encyclopedia.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 11:57 AM (jgmnb)

279 Before I drift off, thanks Perf and Hordelings for another lovely Book Thread.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at July 06, 2025 11:58 AM (kpS4V)

280 'Bout time for me to confront my Sunday chores. Thanks to all for a fascinating Book Thread!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 06, 2025 11:58 AM (omVj0)

281 Well...nobody can compete with an Encyclopediast.

Posted by: eleven at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (fV+MH)

282 Thanks prof. Nood

Posted by: From about That Time at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (n4GiU)

283 You have time left to read one of the great classics.Which do you choose Aristotle, Plato or Socrates?
Posted by: Ben Had at July 06, 2025 11:57 AM (HFcKg)

Plato and Socrates were aristo snobs who hated the common man. Ari educated Alex. I'd say read Seneca instead.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (0eaVi)

284 Our county had a Bookmobile that visited each school. Only problem was you had to, get this, return the books.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (jgmnb)

285 Late, but thanks for the thread, Perfessor. Maybe I'll have something worth contributing next time.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 12:02 PM (0eaVi)

286 284 Our county had a Bookmobile that visited each school. Only problem was you had to, get this, return the books.
Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (jgmnb)

I’ve heard tell that instead of a Presidential Library, Joe Biden is going to have a Presidential Bookmobile.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 06, 2025 12:02 PM (Lhvai)

287 283 You have time left to read one of the great classics.Which do you choose Aristotle, Plato or Socrates?
Posted by: Ben Had at July 06, 2025 11:57 AM (HFcKg)

Plato and Socrates were aristo snobs who hated the common man. Ari educated Alex. I'd say read Seneca instead.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (0eaVi)
I found out last night while eating ice cream and watching Princess Bride, that Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates were morons.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 12:03 PM (jgmnb)

288 "I was always way ahead of my grade reading level."

Hi Wolfus. Me too. Treasure Island in second grade, Hardy Boys and Tom Swift started about that time. And reading those World Book encyclopedias like they were novels. LOTR in seventh grade. I always wanted to read adult level things. I had no problem with using a good dictionary as needed. (Reading dictionaries, especially the etymologies, became a happy habbit.) The 'see Spot run' stuff was boring after a few weeks of kindergarten.

Posted by: JTB at July 06, 2025 12:04 PM (yTvNw)

289 Interesting fact about Pearl Harbor. The lead pilot on the attack ended up a Christian evangelist.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:38 AM (0eaVi)

I had a comic book version of his biography. Also one of a girl who grew up in Nazi Germany as Hitler youth but came to Christ after the war. And one of Brother Andrew, the Bible smuggler.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 12:05 PM (lFFaq)

290 I had a comic book version of his biography. Also one of a girl who grew up in Nazi Germany as Hitler youth but came to Christ after the war. And one of Brother Andrew, the Bible smuggler.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at July 06, 2025 12:05 PM (lFFaq)

Strange how things work out, isn't it?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 12:06 PM (0eaVi)

291 I found out last night while eating ice cream and watching Princess Bride, that Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates were morons.
Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 12:03 PM (jgmnb)

Brain freeze. I don't remember that part. Although, I've only seen it once.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 12:07 PM (0eaVi)

292 I was thirty when I read the Hobbit and LOTR. Pappy Eromero was sixty. We slow sometimes

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 12:07 PM (jgmnb)

293 291 I found out last night while eating ice cream and watching Princess Bride, that Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates were morons.
Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 12:03 PM (jgmnb)

Brain freeze. I don't remember that part. Although, I've only seen it once.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 12:07 PM (0eaVi)
Vizzini said so before he died.

Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 12:11 PM (jgmnb)

294 Vizzini said so before he died.
Posted by: Eromero at July 06, 2025 12:11 PM (jgmnb)

When or if I watch it again. I'll look.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 12:12 PM (0eaVi)

295 I remember the scholastic book fairs but i don't remember ordering any. I don't remember much of my early reading but I know that by 4th and 5th grade I was using the adult section of the local branch library (my dad had to stop in and tell the librarian I could take out any book I wanted even if I did have just the 'kids' library card). By 6th and I was riding my bike or taking the bus downtown to the main branch because that's where all the sci-fi was. I do remember checking out Harold and the Purple Crayon from the school library and setting off a small craze where all the older kin=ds would check it out and read it. Who knows if that really happened but it;s how I remember it, damnnit!

Posted by: who knew at July 06, 2025 12:12 PM (+ViXu)

296 You don't read Socrates. He never wrote anything. What you read is what Plato said Socrates said.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 06, 2025 12:35 PM (78a2H)

297 KatieFloyd--

That was probably me who recommended "The Case of the Canterfell Codicil." I'm a big fan of the Anty Boisjoly series. "The Ghost of Christmas Morning" is my favorite. According to PJ Fitzsimmons's newsletter, the tenth installment is due out this summer.

And, like you, I don't like many modern writers but these books are a fitting and entertaining tribute to PG Wodehouse so it's appropriate to make an exception.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at July 06, 2025 12:35 PM (FEVMW)

298 "15 The Camp of the Saints is going back into publication in September. Looking forward to finally reading it without paying $200 for a used copy."

"The Camp of the Saints" is available on the Internet Archive to read or download as a pdf:

https://archive.ORG/details/
raspail-jean-camp-of-the-saints-1975

Posted by: Pope John 20th at July 06, 2025 12:37 PM (yl1YV)

299 "If she says your behavior is heinous
Kick her right in the 'Coriolanus.'"

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at July 06, 2025 12:42 PM (FEVMW)

300 Late to the thread:

Unfortunately, public libraries can no longer be trusted to preserve books. Librarians (as a profession within the U.S.) have shown a great willingness to discard books because of an author's Wrong Think.

I own a number of old ex-library books because that's the only way to find them "out in the wild."

If you want to preserve a book, you need to own it yourself.

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at July 06, 2025 01:30 PM (pJWtt)

301 Plato and Socrates were aristo snobs who hated the common man. Ari educated Alex. I'd say read Seneca instead.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 06, 2025 11:59 AM (0eaVi)

Good advice

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 03:52 PM (dE3DB)

302 265 Wasn't there something like an encyclopedia of children's stories? I remember a few hardbound volumes that had multiple stories in them. The front had some kind of painting or illustration on the cover. Might have been cream colored cover with some blue accents.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

Maybe Collier's Junior Classics? All different colored covers though iirc.
I loved reading those

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 03:57 PM (GhIJO)

303 Might have been cream colored cover with some blue accents.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

Grolier's The New Book of Knowledge though this is nonfiction mostly

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at July 06, 2025 04:00 PM (GhIJO)

304 putin sucks

Posted by: andycanuck at July 06, 2025 07:42 PM (2yoRf)

305 Finished "Knight Life." Turns out PAD wrote two sequels. Someday ...

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 06, 2025 11:45 PM (p/isN)

306 > Can anybody recommend a good novel or memoir about wolf hunting/trapping in the American West, 19th or early 20th Century? I have Ernest Thompson Seton's account of hunting Lobo the king wolf in NE New Mexico in 1893, and would like some more.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

If you liked Seton, how about more Seton? *Wild Animals I have Known* is really good.

Posted by: pjungwir at July 07, 2025 03:43 AM (q4wrI)

307 Recently finished some children's books: Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi and King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry. Halfway through Introductory Discrete Structures with Applications by Bernard Kolman and Robert C. Busby. My wife teases me for reading math books, especially on vacation, but this one is really fun.

I'm hoping to finally finish Ovid's Metamorphoses soon. I'm getting close. It was supposed to be done in 2024.

Posted by: pjungwir at July 07, 2025 03:46 AM (q4wrI)

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