Reading Thread 9/28/2025

Howdy Readers! Welcome to the Reading Thread, your Sunday morning source for the insightful, lively and spirited discussion of books 'n stuff. I'm filling in for a while as this space re-invents itself under new management so please set your near-term expectations accordingly low.

What do we have this week? Why, it's none other than Moby Dick; or The White Whale, written by Herman Melville and published in 1851. As I mentioned in the other editions of the Reading Thread you may not always get such fabulous selections as this.

Anyhoo, feel free to discuss reading and books in general and share your thoughts on this week's selection if you're so inclined.

I know you're just as excited as I am, so just jump below the fold to get started!

******

click for download options

New procedure for clicking - rather than opening a PDF, a link now takes you to the Gutenberg Project web page for the book with multiple download options.

Also, for those interested, here is the Moby Dick; or, The Whale (Wiki page link).

******

Special Bonus Topic For Today's Discussion

Do you like books about whales?

***

So that's it for now, guys and gals. Come to class next week prepared to discuss reading 'n stuff, and remember, Reading is FUNdamental!

Posted by: Weasel at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 09:00 AM (+qU29)

2 What's new, bookholes?

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:01 AM (kpS4V)

3
ESPONJA!!!!11!!1!1

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 28, 2025 09:02 AM (tljrc)

4 Good Sunday morning, horde.

I have not read Moby Dick. Probably never will.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 28, 2025 09:02 AM (h7ZuX)

5 1/2 way through Rick Atkinson's The British are Coming, a history of tje America Revolutionary War 1775, 1777.
Had no idea much about the very beginning of trying to get Canada on our side by force. Too bad for them as it looks today.

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 09:02 AM (+qU29)

6 I remember reading Moby Dick in school, it's certainly worthy I think.

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 09:03 AM (+qU29)

7 Was forced to read this in school and hated it.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2025 09:03 AM (7nrYO)

8 I enjoyed The Deep Range, a book about the future in whale ranching by Arthur C. Clarke.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 28, 2025 09:04 AM (u82oZ)

9 In the heart of the sea got me to reading it with all the annotations

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:04 AM (bXbFr)

10 I remember reading a few chapters in grade school that detailed how a whale was processed at sea. The book might have been Moby-Dick.

Interesting material, and I kept thinking about how hard our ancestors had it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:05 AM (p/isN)

11 That explained the research that melville went through to write it

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:05 AM (bXbFr)

12 The theory is its all metaphor for a battle between man and God.

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 09:06 AM (+qU29)

13 Booken morge horden!

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:06 AM (dE3DB)

14 Now this is a thread I can get into.

Posted by: Call Me Fishsmell at September 28, 2025 09:06 AM (vFG9F)

15 I've always had a fundamental disdain for fiction. Lies, made up nonsense, old wive's tales.

Except science fiction. That was real to me.

I'm a contradiction.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2025 09:06 AM (7nrYO)

16 I'm enjoying "Bolo," a collection of military/SF stories by Keith Laumer. A Bolo is a high-powered armored vehicle. It reminds me of "Battlebots," a 1990s television demolition derby for remotely controlled vehicles.

I was looking online at various covers for the book. I don't think any of them captured the true likeness of these machines. No, I'm not going to try my hand at drawing one. I'm a critic, not an artist.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:06 AM (p/isN)

17 With a flensing knife.

Posted by: Call Me Fishsmell at September 28, 2025 09:07 AM (vFG9F)

18 Oh, no contribution. (insert sad face here)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:07 AM (uQesX)

19 From Matilda:

Harry Wormwood: What is this trash you're reading?
Matilda: It's not trash, Daddy, it's lovely. It's called "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville.
Harry Wormwood: Moby *what*?
[snatching the book from Matilda and tears the pages out of the cover]
Harry Wormwood: This is Filth! Trash...!

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (dE3DB)

20 Standards seem to be slipping a bit around here, what with pants no longer being required.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (0sNs1)

21 This week, I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt.

True crime, 1980s Savannah. In an elite, gentrified district, a wealthy antique dealer shot and killed a young man in his home. This is the story of the Savannah elite, neighborhood dynamics, beautiful architecture, community secrets, gay life, trans life before it was trendy, and even some voodoo.

I'd read reviews complaining that it's boring and dry reading, but I think it's a good account of true crime that reads more like a novel than news report. I liked it.

Goodreads immediately recommended the autobiography of one of the main characters (the drag queen Lady Chablis), but I think I'll pass on that one.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (h7ZuX)

22 Glad I read Moby-Dick as an adult, when I had the patience to enjoy it, and not under duress with a book report looming over me.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (kpS4V)

23 Dash, I thought the movie was good.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:09 AM (kpS4V)

24 I did not know frederick forsyth who i was first introduced in thosr readers digest condensed versions day of the jackal had passed in june it later turns out he worked for Mi-6 as a stringer

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

25 If memory serves, Melville's book was seen as highly experimental narrative technique and did not sell well at publication. It took close to 50 years in the hands of theorists for it to become the Great American Novel.

Used to be, the title being "Moby-Dick" with a hyphen was a big enough deal that otherwise-clueless lit quizzers would work in a gotcha question every damn time. Yet clearly there were multiple editions.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (zdLoL)

26 “ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

Ephesians 2:4-5

Posted by: Marcus T at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (HEStL)

27 I had ordered 5 books from Amazon. They all arrived yesterday, Already read two.

One book is my personal copy of The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command by Andrew Gordon. I went through an ILL hardback and decided the analysis was so important that I needed my own copy.

The discussion is still highly relevant to today. The USN as an organization has not had a major conflict in 80 years. Naval Aviators, Submariners, and recently a ship of two in the Red Sea or Eastern Med have faced combat. But not all together.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (u82oZ)

28 In one of my graduate literature electives, we read the letters between Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorn. Hawthorn was giving him shit for taking so long to complete the manuscript of Moby Dick. They both referred to it as "The Whale".

Posted by: BifBewalski - at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (QVmho)

29 Hello, Baby Beluga, wonderful board book.
Baby Beluga, sing along with Raffi? Might want to use it as kindling after 2 weeks.

Posted by: PTSD giver at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (Ot6Sh)

30 I can appreciate the bare bones style of a Jack Reacher novel, all plot no puffery, but when I switched to another novel of more richly descriptive prose, I realized Lee Child's style was just too spare for me. It's good airport reading. Not a diss.

Did have a laugh though. Reacher is in a dive bar in the Keys, working as a bouncer, and a sketchy guy walks in asking for a Jack Reacher. Don't know him, replies Reacher. Can you describe him?

Somebody penciled in "Yes, he's the size of Tom Cruise."

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:11 AM (kpS4V)

31 His last book ghosted by toby dixon revisits the odessa files

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:11 AM (bXbFr)

32 Harry Wormwood: This is Filth! Trash...!
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (dE3DB)

LOL

I should re-read that soon, such good characters.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 28, 2025 09:12 AM (h7ZuX)

33 I'm sure English teachers enjoyed having Beavis and Butthead in their classes when it came time to introduce this book.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at September 28, 2025 09:12 AM (0sNs1)

34
Was forced to read this in school and hated it.
Posted by: San Franpsycho

Have you seen the Tom and Jerry spoof of it. It's hilarious.

Posted by: BifBewalski - at September 28, 2025 09:12 AM (QVmho)

35 In Soviet Russia, Moby Dick reads YOU.

Posted by: Flat Fyodor at September 28, 2025 09:12 AM (WZl6l)

36 If it was in long hand it probably took forever

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:12 AM (bXbFr)

37 Standards seem to be slipping a bit around here, what with pants no longer being required.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (0sNs1)
====

*hopes Duncanthrax is sitting on a towel*

Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2025 09:13 AM (7nrYO)

38 Tom and jerry is hoe we imbibed culture ae yoots see carmen the opera

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:14 AM (bXbFr)

39 19 From Matilda:

Harry Wormwood: What is this trash you're reading?
Matilda: It's not trash, Daddy, it's lovely. It's called "Moby Dick", by Herman Melville.
Harry Wormwood: Moby *what*?
[snatching the book from Matilda and tears the pages out of the cover]
Harry Wormwood: This is Filth! Trash...!

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport

Where was Wormwood when I had to suffer through Billy Bud? And all that crap Walt Whitman spewed forth with.

Posted by: BifBewalski - at September 28, 2025 09:14 AM (QVmho)

40 @21 --

Dash, my wife and I, with our then-only child, visited Savannah during location shooting for the movie. We didn't see any activity, but that city's downtown is lovely.

We were there for just one day; the vacation was actually on nearby Tybee Island. A memorable trip.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:15 AM (p/isN)

41 Just finished reading John Van Stry's second book in his "Valley of Fire" series (set in his "Wolfhounds" universe): 'To Hand'. The first book in the series is 'Misplaced'.

Very entertaining, finished it off in an all-day reading binge that put me behind on several other tasks I need to finish, but totally worth it.

Wolf and Mariella join the Royal Navy in the Kingdom of Iraklis (a kingdom composed of three star systems, outside the Empire of Solaria.) Here they 'find their better place' - Wolf had been a privateer under letter of Marque by the King, and Mariella... well, you'll learn a lot more about her in this book. She's got a major role to play in a war that's being thrust on the Kingdom by a third player.

This series will be at least three books, and knowing John, it'll probably go to 4 or 5.

It is available from Raconteur Press and Amazon. The first two books have been released in two formats: First, serialized (about 1/3 of the book at a time, every week) which is then replaced by a release of the entire book. The book has an addendum with additional detail that isn't released with the serial. Howver, if you want the story earlier, go for the serial.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at September 28, 2025 09:15 AM (O7YUW)

42 If you have read 'Moby Dick', or are going to, I strongly recommend 'In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex', Nathaniel Philbrick, wherein you get the entre true story.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 28, 2025 09:15 AM (XeU6L)

43 Time for me to queue of the Halleluiah Chorus and turn the volume of the maximum.

Last Spring I mailed a couple stacks of comic books off to a binders, and this week, after nearly 5 months, they sent me back a package of three brand new custom-bound hardcover books! Entire comic book runs, now in a single volume. To be read in a single sitting, or just perused at me leisure. And capable of being proudly displayed on my bookshelf, rather than just squirreled away in a box!

It's so satisfying to finally have these. No matter what else is going on in my life, or in the world at large, for now I can look at these and thing that life is good!

...And since I'm happy with these, it's time to prepare the next batch of comics to be bound! I could easily see myself ending up with a full shelf of these.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:15 AM (Lhaco)

44 Oh, no contribution. (insert sad face here)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:07 AM (uQesX)

Next week.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo [Flying the American Flag!] at September 28, 2025 09:16 AM (n9ltV)

45 The book I liked the most was Yalum
by Matthew Hughes.
It ties together the Conn Labro arc of linked short stores with a universe upended by a sudden switch of its operating system from cause-and-effect rationalism to will-powered magic. He has a number of stories in the new universe.

The linked short stories of Yalum are highly satisfying.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 28, 2025 09:16 AM (u82oZ)

46 Glad I read Moby-Dick as an adult, when I had the patience to enjoy it, and not under duress with a book report looming over me.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:08 AM (kpS4V)

I read it again several years ago, and I thought it was wonderful!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo [Flying the American Flag!] at September 28, 2025 09:17 AM (n9ltV)

47 have faced combat. But not all together.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM

Let's not diminutize the incredible DEI battles the organization has fought since the first shots at Tailhook.

Posted by: 7th Fleet OODs Benevolent Association at September 28, 2025 09:17 AM (0sNs1)

48 I never read Moby Dick as a kid. I did try to read it somewhat recently, but the volume I picked up from the library had so many footnotes that it was distracting. I didn't get far before I gave up and returned to my usual fare.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:17 AM (Lhaco)

49 30 Somebody penciled in "Yes, he's the size of Tom Cruise."
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:11 AM (kpS4V)

*snort

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 28, 2025 09:17 AM (h7ZuX)

50 That's a great idea, Castle Guy. Do they unbind the pages from the cover and cut them?

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:18 AM (kpS4V)

51 Morning, Weasel.

Howdy, Horde.

Haven't read Moby Dick in something like 40 years and should probably revisit. Read the thing on morning and evening CTA rides from Rogers Park to work at the downtown Chicago Kroch's & Brentano's. Made the commute a lot more pleasant. When Melville spent page after page on the minutiae of whaling, I tended to skim a bit. But it's a heckuva story. And the movie with Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart ain't too dusty either.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 09:18 AM (q3u5l)

52 Is this about me?

Posted by: Tank Abrams at September 28, 2025 09:19 AM (XQo4F)

53 I've never read Moby Dick. It was on my suggested high school summer reading list but I wasn't interested.

I can't remember what's else on that list. All I can think of is 'Animal Farm' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

Posted by: dantesed at September 28, 2025 09:19 AM (Oy/m2)

54 Calling roll the first day of my microbiology course and come to a nice Pakistani kid (well known as a bright light around the biology dept) that everyone called "Ish". I called his last name and remarked his moniker of "ish" seemed unduly informal.

He grins and says "OK. Call me Ishmael".

I throw up the touchdown arms and yell "YES!!"

Bookish girl in back row exclaims "OMG!"

Rest of the class sat there looking stupid.

I asked BookishGirl after class about her reaction.
She said "That was so perfect!"

Sigh. Only people got it - one a Pakistani (at least 3rd gen. American though)
Literature is dead in America.

Posted by: retropox at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (6sNb7)

55 Shes more the worm in dune

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (bXbFr)

56 @43 --

Castle Guy, what were those comics?

(I may have asked before, but my memory isn't good.)

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (p/isN)

57 Tank Abrams' books are available at my library. 😩

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (kpS4V)

58 I have been trying to recommend a book series to weak geek and I keep getting the spam notice.

Posted by: clarence at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (JWJk8)

59
Is this about me?

Posted by: Tank Abrams

Sorry, dear. This about whales of no pigmemt exercising their privledge to be hunted down and rendered for their fat in the most brutal way imagined.

Posted by: BifBewalski - at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (QVmho)

60 *only two people got it*

Posted by: retropox at September 28, 2025 09:21 AM (6sNb7)

61 @53/dantesed: Probably "Death of a Salesman", "The Great Gatsby", and "1984" as well.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at September 28, 2025 09:21 AM (O7YUW)

62 I'm almost through the "Civil War Trilogy" by Michael and Jeff Shaara. Already finished "Gods and Generals" and "Killer Angels." Will probably finish up "The Last Full Measure" this week.

Don't tell me how it ends.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at September 28, 2025 09:21 AM (Q4IgG)

63 A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (2020) by H.G. Parry:

I was up late finishing a historical fantasy that reimagines the French Revolution with magic.
Main characters are Wiliam Pitt the Younger (PM), William Wilberforce (abollitionist), Robespierrre (ya him), Camille Desmoulins, and a slave girl in the Carribean.

It's very politicial, and follows historical events pretty closely, except that in this world magic is known and ightly controlled - only aristoscrats can use it. Everyone is tested at birth, and commoners with magic are braceleted to cause pain & also alarms if they use magic.

The style is reminds me of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but no footnotes.

It ends a bit cliffhangery and there is a sequel. It's a book you will either love or be bored with.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:21 AM (gDlxJ)

64 So after quitting Lee Child's I switched to Cherie Priest's "Jacaranda", a slender postscript to her steampunk zombie Clockwork Century series. It takes place in a haunted old grand hotel during the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900. An entity seems to be feeding off the fury of the storm and driving the inhabitants mad with guilt for past crimes.

I know steampunk is a spent force on the literary scene but I kind of miss it. Priest seems to have moved on to supernatural stories.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:22 AM (kpS4V)

65 7th Fleet OODs Benevolent Association

I was a witness to the inside the Beltway budget battles of the early 1990s. Lots of combat intensity without physical deaths.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 28, 2025 09:24 AM (u82oZ)

66 57 Tank Abrams' books are available at my library. 😩
Posted by: All Hail Eris

Mine too! Sh even has kids books yeech

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:24 AM (gDlxJ)

67 Just started “Kings of Texas” by Don Graham. It’s about the King Ranch and it’s over 150 year history of cattle ranching and raising horses. So far so good. I’ll have more when I finish. Now I’m trying to get the yard and gardens ready for fall so time is limited.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 28, 2025 09:24 AM (Hwl+o)

68 Graham Greene was once a foreign office spy for England, and used this background to inform his story Our Man in Havana. The protagonist, Jim Wormold, is a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana, who is coerced into becoming a spy for the Empire, with no real idea of how to perform the job.

Wormold is a simple man who just runs a shop in Havana, and when he is tasked with finding operators to help him spy, he chooses some names at random, and invents stories from them to report back to London. His reports are believable, along with his drawing of a vacuum cleaner nozzle he labels as a weapon. London even sends agents to help him expand his operation. Unfortunately, when one of his fake sources dies, and another is shot at, the fake world becomes all too real. Instead of a joke, the situation becomes deadly.

As things spiral out of control, Wormold and his team have to try and protect the people he blithely named as spies, and find out who is trying to kill them. Greene's story is very dark humor, where the spy agencies will fall for anything, and throw money around on the slightest pretext, but will also kill without a second thought.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2025 09:24 AM (0U5gm)

69 Reading 'Moby Dick" is like sharing a cell with a very long-winded old salt while he tells you everything you ever wanted to know about whales but we're afraid to ask. The final confrontation with the whale is almost like an afterthought, a few pages at the end.

Posted by: Toad-0 at September 28, 2025 09:25 AM (OA3Zb)

70 Last time, I was chosen to be the sacrificial reader of Kamala Harris' 107 Days. I must confess that all I read of it was the sample on Amazon.

My review based on that sample (on the principle that you don't have to drink the whole quart of milk to know it's sour): So you've got the 2024 election going, and the fate of the country (maybe the world) depends on the outcome, good vs evil, all that. How the bleeping bleepity bleep do you make that dull? Kamala Harris managed it with her usual incoherent aplomb.

There. I have suffered for my many sins. I hope this is sufficient atonement for at least a few of them.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 09:25 AM (q3u5l)

71 If you like bolo by Laumer, try his series featuring Retief.

Posted by: clarence at September 28, 2025 09:27 AM (JWJk8)

72 Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:07 AM (uQesX)

Next week.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo [Flying the American Flag!] at September 28, 2025 09:16 AM (n9ltV)

Ok. I have a few more to read. Maybe I'll do a shorter synopsis and give name of publication instead of a full review. It'd take weeks to do each separately.

This should go with the one I sent in:
https://tinyurl.com/2682hmf3

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:27 AM (uQesX)

73 Dirty little secret I can tell now.

I NEVER wore pants in Perfessor Squirrel’s book threads.

You people can’t tell me what to do.

Posted by: Hedley Lamarr at September 28, 2025 09:28 AM (UWRAE)

74 Good morning fellow Book/Reading Threadists I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 09:28 AM (yTvNw)

75 Grumpy and Recalcitrant at September 28, 2025 09:21 AM (O7YUW)

Yes, 'The Great Gatsby' as well 'The Diary of Anne Frank' was on that list too.

Posted by: dantesed at September 28, 2025 09:28 AM (Oy/m2)

76 I used the GM Emulator deck to work out the first several scenes in my story and am now expanding on those. I'll need at least one more pass where I add the dialogue. Am also transferring my list of character descriptions into World Anvil.

I always assumed I was a "pantser" in writing, but apparently I my a "planner" after all.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:28 AM (lFFaq)

77 @58 --

Try mentioning the book in the form of a question: "WG, have you read ___?"

Then I reply, and perhaps the ensuing conversation can overcome the guard.

P.S. As a kid, I had a pillow illustrated with a basset hound that I named Clarence after one of Dad's uncles.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:29 AM (p/isN)

78 The 22nd was national Hobbit Day. In honor of Bilbo and Frodo I read a few of my favorite passages from LOTR. Time well spent.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 09:30 AM (yTvNw)

79 Just Some Guy - Sorry it had to be you who got picked by you have done a valuable service to the horde

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 09:32 AM (+qU29)

80 I read the Bolo series after I had read his Retief series.

Posted by: clarence at September 28, 2025 09:32 AM (JWJk8)

81 I know steampunk is a spent force on the literary scene but I kind of miss it.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:22 AM (kpS4V)

That seems more of a visual rather than literary medium. I've never read any, but how would it work?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:32 AM (uQesX)

82 @71 --

Clarence, I have all the Retief books. Have yet to read several of them.

I tell you my TBR list is huge. Maybe I should have it bound.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:33 AM (p/isN)

83 I just re-read El Cazador, a short-lived comic book series from 2004. (Now in a custom-bound hardcover, see comment 43). It's a gloriously illustrated story set in the golden age of piracy.

The main character is...surprisingly girl-bossy. She was a passenger on a ship that got taken over by pirates, but then she kills the pirate skipper and takes command for herself, instantly becoming brilliant badass at all things...That would be infuriating in a modern story, but here it's just slightly annoying. Mostly because the story is not trying to showcase her brilliance, her actions are just what push the plot forward. There are lots other, more believable (if just as eccentric) characters that take up most of the screentime. Particularly an English Privateer and his Solomon-Kane-like sidekick.

It really is a pity the comic ended prematurely.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:33 AM (Lhaco)

84 ...add Across Five Aprils. The Good Earth. Crime and Punishment.

Posted by: Flat Fyodor's High School List at September 28, 2025 09:33 AM (WZl6l)

85 Instead of going back to Nabokov this week, I read a few more MacDonald Travis McGee books, which still hold up pretty well. Back to Nabokov some time this afternoon.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 09:34 AM (q3u5l)

86 Tank Abrams' books are available at my library. 😩
Posted by: All Hail Eris

Mine too! Sh even has kids books yeech
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:24 AM (gDlxJ)

I have no interest in reading her stuff to find out, but maybe she actually has writing skills?

And then again, she's published. I'm not.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:35 AM (uQesX)

87 So the steele dossier 60 years early dr hasslbacher is supposedly based om schacht the nazi banker

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:36 AM (bXbFr)

88 @83 --

Oh, Gawd, I loved El Cazador! Dixon and Guice at the top of their forms. Oh, I regret the bankruptcy of CrossGen.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:36 AM (p/isN)

89 I first robin cooks sphinx that way

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:37 AM (bXbFr)

90 I read 'Moby Dick' cover to cover. It's almost a how to manual of whaling and whale processing as I recall. Melville must have put a ton of research into whaling.

I need to be reading more once life is together.

Posted by: Posted by: Stateless - VERY GRATEFUL, BLESSED, LOVED AND HAPPY! -- - New Life Creation - 18.1% at September 28, 2025 09:37 AM (Sco7b)

91 In the readers digest condensed version

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:37 AM (bXbFr)

92 54 retropex I will imagine that was Pakistani guy & bookworm girl's meet cute and they start dating and get married and build a wonderful library together

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:38 AM (dE3DB)

93 Good morning all

Have 150 pages to goin the Galbraith and the library wants it back tomorrow so need to finish. The mystery has gotten really complex and interesting but lots and lots of personal stuff for the characters so,e of it hitting a little too close to home. Have to think about how it is affecting my reading of the book.
Finished the Parker book, Painted Ladies. Just meh, but was definitely overshadowed by the far superior Galbraith.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 09:38 AM (t/2Uw)

94 Just finishing The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.
It rates the usual 'the book was better than the movie', but only because it would've been impossible to compress all the detail & characters into a movie. A full re-watch of the movie from the very beginning is now on my schedule, will also be looking for another Woulk work to put in queue.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at September 28, 2025 09:38 AM (KaHlS)

95 " I know steampunk is a spent force on the literary scene but I kind of miss it."

Is it time for steampunk Prometheus?

Posted by: Call Me Fishsmell at September 28, 2025 09:39 AM (vFG9F)

96 Interesting how scott and cameron lean on conrad for the ship titles nostromo and the sulaco

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 09:41 AM (bXbFr)

97 WG, I had all those books but lost them in a move. When I moved, I had something over 8,000 books.

The Retief series is a parody of the diplomatic service when you actually get someone who is trying to do the job in the best interests of the kingdom rather than the service.

Posted by: clarence at September 28, 2025 09:41 AM (JWJk8)

98 Skip at 79 --

Thank ya kindly. Even the sample was an ordeal; reading the whole thing could probably be fatal. I hope none of the Horde will be tempted to off themselves that way.

I'm hoping that repeated doses of MacDonald and Nabokov will ease the suffering that goes with reading Kamala Harris. In a few months, I may be fully recovered. But, hey, anything for the Horde, right? Unless I get chosen to read Adam Schiff's 23-volume autobiography, in which case I'm outta here.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 09:41 AM (q3u5l)

99 Cachelot by Alan Dean Foster: Humans give the remaining cetaceans their own world, problems still arise.

Sounding by Hank Searls: A whale encounters a Soviet submarine. There's a whole Moby Dick style side-story with a rogue whale attacking ships.

Posted by: Captain Comic at September 28, 2025 09:41 AM (yr/82)

100 Steampunk - I like Jim Butcher's aeronaut windlass series.
It's kinda YA ish but fun

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 28, 2025 09:42 AM (dE3DB)

101 Thanks for the Reading Thread, Weasel!

Read Moby Dick long ago and didn't much like the book. Maybe because I was into other subjects at the time, I don't know. Was not much impressed by H.G. Wells either, although I like sci-fi.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at September 28, 2025 09:42 AM (kB9dk)

102 92 54 retropox I will imagine that was Pakistani guy & bookworm girl's meet cute and they start dating and get married and build a wonderful library together

They ended up lab partners, bonding over Salmonella cultures. Not sure after that.

But your version is sweet.

Posted by: retropox at September 28, 2025 09:43 AM (6sNb7)

103 50 That's a great idea, Castle Guy. Do they unbind the pages from the cover and cut them?
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:18 AM (kpS4V)

I ordered syth-sewn binding. They unfold the comic, take out the staples, and run some thread through the fold of the comic, physically sewing each book to some connecting cloth/something that serves as the interior spine. It's a similar process to how old-fashioned books were bound. The outside edges or the books are trimmed to make the book look clean.

There are other options for glued binding, where they cut the pages at the binding (the pages probably loose an eighth of an inch or something) and then set the whole text block in glue, binding it like a paperback novel. But I went with smyth-sewn because it lets the book open better, letting you see the art all the way to the center of the page.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:43 AM (Lhaco)

104 Commenting from downstream.

Walked out of Elephant Man in 1980. Awful, depressing dreck. A cinematic case for suicide. First, the audience, then Merrick.

Posted by: Raspail at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (yhJp6)

105 Finished Robert Galbraith's "The Hallmarked Man", the latest novel in the C.B.Strike mystery series. Once I got to a certain point in the book I couldn't put it down. All the many plot threads were tied up neatly in a very exciting finish. I really love this series and cannot wait for the next book which, I believe I read, will be the last. Highly recommended but it's best to start with the first in the series and work your way through. It's worth it to take the time to get to know Galbraith's(J.K.Rowling)vivid characters.

Posted by: Tuna at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (lJ0H4)

106 Speaking of steampunk, do any other fans in here of Phil and Kaja Foglio feel that they're soon to wrap Girl Genius?

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (p/isN)

107 I always assumed I was a "pantser" in writing, but apparently I my a "planner" after all.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:28 AM (lFFaq)

I'd think most writers are both. I start out with an idea and see how it goes along, then start plotting out the end game. I've never started with a plan and used it all the way through, and also never pantsed all the way through.

I started a few pages on the most recent WIP, then like a lightning bolt, the whole story popped into my head. That's never happened before. Now, I just have to finish writing it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (uQesX)

108 NaCly - I'm reading "Rules of the Game" right now. I got interested in Jutland after watching Drachinifel's 3-part series on YouTube. I'm currently on Chapter 9, the Long Calm Lee of Trafalgar.

Posted by: PabloD at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (WIjYx)

109 I love the illustrations by Gustave Dore. This week I found a collection of his work, "The Fantastic Gustave Dore". Not only does it have a huge selection of his etchings, there is a section just on his paintings. I didn't know Dore did regular painting. They are wonderful: varied in style and materials. He has landscapes that rival Constable and the Hudson River School artists. One made me think of a Frank Frazetta painting in the use of color and atmosphere. It will take months, maybe years, to give this the attention it deserves.

The book itself, about 500 pages, is beautifully bound with archival quality paper. Amazon has it for 30 dollars which is a huge bargain and worth every penny. I should include it in my will.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (yTvNw)

110 27 ....The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command by Andrew Gordon. I went through an ILL hardback and decided the analysis was so important that I needed my own copy.

The discussion is still highly relevant to today. The USN as an organization has not had a major conflict in 80 years. Naval Aviators, Submariners, and recently a ship of two in the Red Sea or Eastern Med have faced combat. But not all together.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (u82oZ)
________
You might like to look at Portrait of an Admiral by Arthur Marder. The first half is the bio of the foremost intellectual naval officer of RN in that era (he founded Britain' Naval Review.) But the best part is the 2nd half which is Richmond's journal for the WWI period. He's pretty harsh on most everyone. "I think Winston is mad."

Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2025 09:45 AM (s0JqF)

111 The last whale book I read was-
"WhaleFall", which is currently being made into a movie.

In the novel. a diver is accidentally swallowed by a Sperm Whale and the whale proceeds to die, which means the diver has to get out of the whale digestive tract before it falls to a depth where the pressure will kill him.
No, he doesn't escape that way, you perverts!

It's a good high concept sort of thing for a movie, if not terribly cinematic, cuz it turns out the inside of a whale isn't like it is in Pinocchio. Real whales are stuffed with tightly packed guts, not wrecked ships! Who knew?

Anyway, the novel would be a novella or long short story in normal hands because the solution is obvious and fairly quickly achieved, but for-
the protagonists (can you guess?) Daddy issues!!!!

So, in typical H'wood fashion most of the book is taken up with "Whyyyyy? Daddy?" cuz the guy is a failure in life, etc.
And this silliness eats up most of the novels pages and I'm sure the movie's time.

You'll be glad to know that the protag gets out by resolving his Daddy issues, and gains a new appreciation for Dad and life and the sea.

FIN

As a book, it was a slog.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 28, 2025 09:45 AM (iJfKG)

112 Now I'm into Mark Helprin's "The Ocean and the Stars". What a beautifully written story. Thanks to whoever recommended it last week.

"The sea was speaking to him in silence. Its message was: as your spirit rises to fill the place of appetites and illusions, take stock and be comforted, for all time is lost in the oceans and the stars. You've left behind the things of life on land that shield you from a truth the sea will not let you forget -- that you are first and last a spirit, that you are alone, and that this can be borne."

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:46 AM (kpS4V)

113 I may have given myself a problem with a couple of characters in the story. One is defined by her clever sarcasm and the other by her love of sharing jokes. Now I have to come up with examples that would make sense for small saurians in their world. I suspect that will be just as difficult as developing clues to the mystery. Maybe more so.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:47 AM (lFFaq)

114 50 That's a great idea, Castle Guy. Do they unbind the pages from the cover and cut them?
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:18 AM (kpS4V)

Just for some free advertising, I used the Houchen Bindery, which is part of the HF Group. If you're looking through a library and see books made of old magazines/periodicals, that's the sort of thing they normally do. But then on the side they make custom bound comics for us nerds...

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:47 AM (Lhaco)

115 The 22nd was national Hobbit Day. In honor of Bilbo and Frodo I read a few of my favorite passages from LOTR. Time well spent.
Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 09:30 AM (yTvNw)

It was commemorated on this very site with this:

https://tinyurl.com/5dwpmft6

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:47 AM (uQesX)

116 Had to read Moby Dick as a junior in high school. Call me Ishmael but I hated it. I guess that dislike would stop me from rereading it in the present.

Posted by: Tuna at September 28, 2025 09:48 AM (lJ0H4)

117 I would rate Moby Dick #1 among novels. Even as a child, I was fascinated. That is the American past that most impresses me, nautical New England. And the whaling bits that bored most entranced me.

One thing I like about the two friends is that Hawthorne and Melville, unlike most of their NE fellow writers, still believe in the reality of evil. I understand they thought most of the Concord lot to be assholes.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2025 09:49 AM (s0JqF)

118 Holy cow, 'Fake, they are making it into a movie with Josh Brolin, filmed at Monterey CA.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:49 AM (kpS4V)

119 My however-many-greats grandfather was a seaman on a whaler--he worked up in the sails, and I actually have the needles he used to mend them.

But Moby Dick doesn't work for me. No female characters. Boring.

But I think it illustrates something else about our tastes. Well, maybe just mine. I grew up in a small town in MT. Didn't go east of Minneapolis until I left for college. No way I could picture an ocean. I suspect people who grew up in New England would have as much trouble picturing the neverending-ness of the Great Plains.

Posted by: Wenda at September 28, 2025 09:49 AM (GPYyj)

120 Speaking of steampunk, do any other fans in here of Phil and Kaja Foglio feel that they're soon to wrap Girl Genius?
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (p/isN)

Stuff does seem to be moving towards the "back in time jump" that was shown at the beginning.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:50 AM (lFFaq)

121 If you have read 'Moby Dick', or are going to, I strongly recommend 'In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex', Nathaniel Philbrick, wherein you get the entre true story.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc.
----

I feel that I need to re-emphasize this. This is not a novel, it is an account of what actually happened, as fictionalized by Melville. The true story only starts at the moment that the whale head-butts the ship. If you are of a nautical bent, you will find it fascinating...and scary.

Here is a link to the Goodreads reviews:
https://shorturl.at/8ED8K

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 28, 2025 09:51 AM (XeU6L)

122 56
Castle Guy, what were those comics?

(I may have asked before, but my memory isn't good.)
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:20 AM (p/isN)

Ruse, El Cazador, and The Path. (All old CrossGen titles). the Path got its own volume. Ruse had to be split into two parts, with the second part going behind the all-too-short El Cazador.

I am greatly enjoying them. Even The Path; its art style never quite grabbed me, but the story is fun, and the single-volume format makes it easy to go from one issue to the next.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:51 AM (Lhaco)

123 Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:43 AM (Lhaco)

I like the way you had them bound. Don't lose anything that way.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:51 AM (lFFaq)

124 25 If memory serves, Melville's book was seen as highly experimental narrative technique and did not sell well at publication. It took close to 50 years in the hands of theorists for it to become the Great American Novel.

Used to be, the title being "Moby-Dick" with a hyphen was a big enough deal that otherwise-clueless lit quizzers would work in a gotcha question every damn time. Yet clearly there were multiple editions.
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 28, 2025 09:10 AM (zdLoL)
_______
The style is reminiscent of Tristram Shandy. That jumps out from the first page.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2025 09:52 AM (s0JqF)

125 RE: whale books

The novelization of Star Trek IV explores the motivations of the probe. There’s a sequel novel called Probe that goes into even more detail.

Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 28, 2025 09:53 AM (/jGcj)

126 @99 Read a ton of Alan Dean Foster in my late teens til early 30s, then just stopped.

JSG, if you ever worked in K&B's lower level at noontimes, possible you sold me some of those.

Posted by: Nazdar at September 28, 2025 09:53 AM (NcvvS)

127 good morning Weasel, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at September 28, 2025 09:53 AM (rruQb)

128 I don’t know why I read this thread anymore. I can’t handle my hold queue at the library, let alone my TBR pile.

Posted by: Best Thief in Lankhmar at September 28, 2025 09:53 AM (64rer)

129 I wonder that there isn't a National Gollum Day. There are so many of them out there.

Posted by: Toad-0 at September 28, 2025 09:54 AM (OA3Zb)

130 Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:44 AM (uQesX)

So far I'm loving using the GM Emulator deck as a tool. It really helped me flesh out the supporting cast and put a twist in the narrative flow that I think works better than what I had intended.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:54 AM (lFFaq)

131 Great story, retropox

Posted by: Best Thief in Lankhmar at September 28, 2025 09:55 AM (64rer)

132 I know steampunk is a spent force on the literary scene but I kind of miss it. Priest seems to have moved on to supernatural stories.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:22 AM (kpS4V)

Are there any recommendations for actual good steampunk stories? The only times I've tried to dip into the genre, I ended up getting deconstruction/tasteless filth with a steampunk veneer. Never really got an actual good steampunk epic.

Except maybe the original Jules Verne stories. And book (It may have been called Nemo) that pretended that the historical Jules Verne had a childhood friend that actually went on many of the crazy adventures that Jules 'fictionalized' in his stories...

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:56 AM (Lhaco)

133 I'm getting a lot out of Jaron Lanier's book on ditching social media.
"Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media."
It's old, from 2018, and I am stunned by what I'm learning, and ashamed of my relative naivete about this whole issue all along. This guy is an accomplished computer scientist who worked on the team that developed the flagship commercial virtual reality products. He's got at least three other books that look to be worthwhile.

There was a massive automated astroturf messaging campaign two weeks ago, "Tyler Robinson Was MAGA," that flooded X for a whole weekend. It remained effective for days afterward in driving the narrative, for Dems anyway. I was so distressed by it that I nuked my X account. We're going to have to deal with many more of these evil automated propaganda campaigns in the future. It's scary how so many people get suckered by this vile crap.

Posted by: gp at September 28, 2025 09:56 AM (1vrHF)

134 128 I don’t know why I read this thread anymore. I can’t handle my hold queue at the library, let alone my TBR pile.
Posted by: Best Thief in Lankhmar at September 28, 2025 09:53 AM
----
I feel seen.

The librarians laugh when I pull up to the drive-through book dispensary.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:56 AM (kpS4V)

135 Shorter whale story. Jonah and the whale .

Posted by: Ben Had at September 28, 2025 09:57 AM (kurEY)

136 And then I end up reading a book from my own library instead of one I requested.

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:57 AM (kpS4V)

137 My comment in 109 about the Gustave Dore book didn't mention the many rabbit holes it contains. The first was reminding me of a separate volume I have, Rime of the Ancient Mariner with all of his illustrations. They really bring Coleridge's words to greater life and appreciation of his genius. The second came from illustrations for books by Balzac and Rabelais, neither of whom I've read. I downloaded inexpensive ebook versions of Balzac's 'Droll Stories' and Rabelais' 'Gargantua and Pantagruel '. (This is where ebooks are helpful.) The Balzac book, sort of his Decameron, is a playful and pointed slap at French society of his time. So far it is delightful. Reminds me of Jonathan Swift and even some passages from Dumas with the same straight-faced humor. I wish I knew French well enough to read the originals instead of translations but I would probably miss about thirty percent of the story.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 09:57 AM (yTvNw)

138 _______
The style is reminiscent of Tristram Shandy.
Posted by: Eeyore
-------

Now you've gone and done it.

“I begin with writing the first
sentence—and trusting to Almighty
God for the second.”
― Laurence Sterne

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 28, 2025 09:58 AM (XeU6L)

139 Nazdar at 126 --

I spent about 9 years (1976-85) on the lower level paperback sales floor at Kroch's, so yep, I probably did.

Terrific store while it lasted. Spent way too much of my paycheck there.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 09:58 AM (q3u5l)

140 Off on errands.

*resignedly dons pants*

Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 28, 2025 09:59 AM (kpS4V)

141 @122 --

I loved Ruse and El Cazador. Don't remember The Path, but then I didn't buy every CrossGen title.

I still have what I bought. I'm debating whether to take some runs to the secondhand book store to trade in. That would free some storage space and slightly lessen the burden on the kids, who will someday have to dispose of them in the way that I'm having to send along my late father's accumulation.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 10:00 AM (p/isN)

142 The “Perfessor” had invited me to the Book Club when I first de-lurked. I never made it before now. Probably won’t make it often.

We recently bought a robot mop/vac. It’s big and white. The company’s name is Narwal. (You’re morons, you see where this is headed.) So I named the robot Moby. Mrs. QED puts up with me!

I do enjoy reading although I’ve not read this classic. I need to do something about that!

Posted by: QED Texan at September 28, 2025 10:01 AM (fveCG)

143 I'm reading trash. I read Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe and now I'm reading the Middle of Hickory Lane. Both by Heather Webber. Utter trash but oddly engaging.

Posted by: lin-duh: I'm offended! at September 28, 2025 10:01 AM (nKjbR)

144 88
Oh, Gawd, I loved El Cazador! Dixon and Guice at the top of their forms. Oh, I regret the bankruptcy of CrossGen.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 09:36 AM (p/isN)

That bankruptcy drove me away from comics for a decade. Most of my custom-bindings are going to involve me buying entire runs of old CrossGen books and then binding them for my shelf. Sadly, I haven't really found any modern books that warrant the same attention...

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 10:01 AM (Lhaco)

145 The novelization of Star Trek IV explores the motivations of the probe. There’s a sequel novel called Probe that goes into even more detail.
Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 28, 2025 09:53 AM (/jGcj)

Why? For what purpose? Oh, money.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 10:02 AM (uQesX)

146 @99 Read a ton of Alan Dean Foster in my late teens til early 30s, then just stopped.

I had to look him up and double-check but I did have all of his Star Trek books! During the house cleaning and purge, they didn't make the cut.

They were really enjoyable as I recall.

Posted by: Posted by: Stateless - VERY GRATEFUL, BLESSED, LOVED AND HAPPY! -- - New Life Creation - 18.1% at September 28, 2025 10:02 AM (Sco7b)

147 Dirty little secret I can tell now.

I NEVER wore pants in Perfessor Squirrel’s book threads.

You people can’t tell me what to do.
Posted by: Hedley Lamarr at September 28, 2025 09:28 AM

* smiles *

Notations can be (and are) made in your Permanent Record, though.

Posted by: Bob from NSA at September 28, 2025 10:02 AM (0sNs1)

148 So far I'm loving using the GM Emulator deck as a tool. It really helped me flesh out the supporting cast and put a twist in the narrative flow that I think works better than what I had intended.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:54 AM (lFFaq)

I did a search for GM Emulator. Are you doing a gaming book? Is is only for D&D type stuff, or novels, too?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 10:04 AM (uQesX)

149 121 If you have read 'Moby Dick', or are going to, I strongly recommend 'In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex', Nathaniel Philbrick, wherein you get the entre true story.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc.
----

I feel that I need to re-emphasize this. This is not a novel, it is an account of what actually happened, as fictionalized by Melville. The true story only starts at the moment that the whale head-butts the ship. If you are of a nautical bent, you will find it fascinating...and scary.

Here is a link to the Goodreads reviews:
https://shorturl.at/8ED8K
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 28, 2025 09:51 AM (XeU6L)
_______
I think that's a bit misleading. It's not exactly true that Melville fictionalized the story, just that's where he got the ending. There's a lot more than that. It's not like Forrester's Sink the Bismarck.

Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2025 10:04 AM (s0JqF)

150 Little House On the Prairie update. In the 1870s, a serial murderer family, the Benders, were operating in Kansas from their cabin located near that of Charles Ingalls. Once several bodies were found on the Bender property, the Benders fled never to be seen again. One story has it that Charles "Pa" Ingalls was a member of a vigilante group who captured and killed the Benders.

https://is.gd/3Fxoll

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:06 AM (L/fGl)

151 I did read “The Old Man and The Sea.”

Posted by: QED Texan at September 28, 2025 10:07 AM (fveCG)

152 This is the Mythic v2 deck. I *don't* have anything for names yet. Haven't figured out this world's naming conventions, so need to do that. May just take the first letters of the description words on the deck once I have something to trigger ideas. Thinking of asking Grok to suggest some naming conventions.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 10:08 AM (lFFaq)

153 Hi Tuna
I'm at that stage myself but need to read daytime only so not quite done. I'm also on 4th season of TV series and really liking it especially as the casting is fantastic so putting faces on the characters in the books. It is the last season I can buy though on Prime. Do you know if there are more?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 10:08 AM (t/2Uw)

154 >>>In the 1870s, a serial murderer family, the Benders, were operating in Kansas
-------------

Bloody Kansas

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at September 28, 2025 10:09 AM (OS3X9)

155 Little House On the Prairie update. In the 1870s, a serial murderer family, the Benders, were operating in Kansas from their cabin located near that of Charles Ingalls. Once several bodies were found on the Bender property, the Benders fled never to be seen again. One story has it that Charles "Pa" Ingalls was a member of a vigilante group who captured and killed the Benders.

https://is.gd/3Fxoll
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:06 AM (L/fGl)

And thus, "The Kansas Pitchfork Massacre" was born.

Currently, filming in Kansas with Josh Brolin.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 28, 2025 10:09 AM (iJfKG)

156 @139 - Yes, would have been '82-'86, would walk down from work (Streeterville) for my lunch hour. Also yes, a lot of my paycheck went with me.

Posted by: Nazdar at September 28, 2025 10:09 AM (NcvvS)

157 @146 --

Alan Dean Foster's ST:TAS adaptations are among the books that I will pull out just to reread passages and get wrapped into the entire story.

I recently got the last three books in the series. Have yet to read them. I do regret the change in cover design for the last two books.

Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 10:10 AM (p/isN)

158 Amor Towles Table for Two. Loved the part set in NYC. LA part not as much. Writing is still high quality but the antagonist is really antagonizing. One of those "too cool for school" gals.

Posted by: Vivi at September 28, 2025 10:11 AM (cpunl)

159 123 Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:43 AM (Lhaco)

I like the way you had them bound. Don't lose anything that way.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 09:51 AM (lFFaq)

All three of the comics I selected have art going across the center/gutter/whatever, so the binding selection was crucial. The new hardcovers actually read better than the (few, incomplete) trade paperbacks I have the same stories.

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 10:11 AM (Lhaco)

160 143 I'm reading trash.
Posted by: lin-duh: I'm offended! at September 28, 2025 10:01 AM (nKjbR)

We don't have to be ON all the time. So much stress in everyday life, amusing escapism is relaxing, and there's not a thing wrong with that.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 28, 2025 10:12 AM (h7ZuX)

161 Are there any recommendations for actual good steampunk stories? The only times I've tried to dip into the genre, I ended up getting deconstruction/tasteless filth with a steampunk veneer. Never really got an actual good steampunk epic.

Except maybe the original Jules Verne stories. And book (It may have been called Nemo) that pretended that the historical Jules Verne had a childhood friend that actually went on many of the crazy adventures that Jules 'fictionalized' in his stories...
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:56 AM (Lhaco)

Just off the top of my head, but there's also The Great Train Race.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at September 28, 2025 10:12 AM (g8Ew8)

162 @146 Stateless, read one of the early Flinx stories when I was about 17-18 and that started it. No idea why, but I just stopped.

There's a Star Trek novel (by someone else) that tweaks him, involving a mysterious disease that affects aliens; the disease is never named, just identified by initials 'ADF'.

Posted by: Nazdar at September 28, 2025 10:14 AM (NcvvS)

163 Amor Towles...

Posted by: Vivi at September 28, 2025 10:11 AM (cpunl)

A wonderful writer! Lincoln Highway is a marvel!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo [Flying the American Flag!] at September 28, 2025 10:14 AM (n9ltV)

164 >>> 86
==
And then again, she's published. I'm not.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 09:35 AM (uQesX)

She also scored about $2 billion of taxpayer money. Wanna make a deal?

Posted by: Stan at September 28, 2025 10:16 AM (ULPxl)

165 Finished binge watching seasons 1,2,3 and 4 of "Slow Horses" on Apple TV. The series is based on the Slough House novels by Mick Herron. Wasn't thrilled with the plot of series 1 but continued to watch just to revel in Gary Oldman's portrayal of Jackson Lamb. Glad I did because the remaining 3 were very exciting. Oldman owns the series but the supporting actors are excellent.

Posted by: Tuna at September 28, 2025 10:16 AM (lJ0H4)

166 141 @122 --
I loved Ruse and El Cazador. Don't remember The Path, but then I didn't buy every CrossGen title.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 28, 2025 10:00 AM (p/isN)

The Path was samurai book. Took place on the same world as Way of the Rat. Very stylized art. Too stylized for my taste. Way too many shadows...may pages were more shadow than art. [shrugs]

I like to think that I'm too young to worry about passing on my collections. But, one never knows... Well, I'll leave those decisions for when they must be made...

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 10:18 AM (Lhaco)

167 Barack Obama: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:19 AM (L/fGl)

168 @124 The style is reminiscent of Tristram Shandy.

Aye, and this is the great chasm we look across at all literature from before motion pictures. We like a concise story, and the conciser the better. All the fleshing out is done for us by cinematographers, and by actors' gesture and inflection.
When people had a lot of time on their hands, many read "By the pound"; the more detail, subplot, diversions into abstruse knowledge and side stories of the characters' past, the more entertainment they gained from those big fat triple-deckers. It's a fortunate book lover today who can take that view. We live in a different world.

TLDR?: This comes up every time Ayn Rand is mentioned.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at September 28, 2025 10:20 AM (zdLoL)

169 Itsvmoney laundering with abrams

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 28, 2025 10:20 AM (bXbFr)

170 Benders Mound isn't too far from our place. There is a restaurant here in town called Benders; you can buy a book on the Benders there, the food's good, and I understand from Mrs Some Guy that the occasionally-available blackberry pie is (ahem) to die for.

Haven't worked up enough nerve to sit at the table with my back to the curtain, though.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 10:20 AM (q3u5l)

171 She also scored about $2 billion of taxpayer money. Wanna make a deal?
Posted by: Stan at September 28, 2025 10:16 AM (ULPxl)

Cancel the last one?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 10:21 AM (uQesX)

172 I think El Cazador is a restaurant in Corsicana?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 10:22 AM (t/2Uw)

173 Barack Obama: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:19 AM (L/fGl)

Trafficking boys for sex you mean? I thought they already did that??

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 10:22 AM (uQesX)

174 119 ... "My however-many-greats grandfather was a seaman on a whaler--he worked up in the sails, and I actually have the needles he used to mend them.

But Moby Dick doesn't work for me. No female characters. Boring.

But I think it illustrates something else about our tastes. Well, maybe just mine. I grew up in a small town in MT. Didn't go east of Minneapolis until I left for college. No way I could picture an ocean. I suspect people who grew up in New England would have as much trouble picturing the neverending-ness of the Great Plains."

Wenda,
Those needles are great family heirlooms. That would be like having some of the tools my ancestors used on their Quebec farms, which I don't. You are right about location. I've never been west of the Mississippi and would be amazed at the prairies and mountains out there. But growing up in New England let me appreciate stories of whaling and sea battles. My hometown had a connection with pirates in the 1600s and 1700s which added a spark to my love for Treasure Island in second grade.

That said, I have to be in the mood for Moby Dick with the slow, incremental pace of the story and pages of description that don't advance the plot.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 10:23 AM (yTvNw)

175 Is that an Edward Gorey cover on Moby Dick?

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 10:24 AM (78a2H)

176 If reading is FUNdamental, and Guns are all about FUNdamentals, does that mean I should read more about Guns?

Posted by: RI Red at September 28, 2025 10:24 AM (AklnB)

177 Hullo book morons.
I am 99% of the way done with the Pickwick Papers, Charles Dicken's first novel. Its interesting, not as good or polished as, say, Bleak House or The Old Curiosity Shop but it's also less depressing, being mostly comedic. It does have some very vivid, likeable characters so he hit it out of the park there.

Moving on to Oliver Twist next.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 28, 2025 10:25 AM (xcxpd)

178 If reading is FUNdamental, and Guns are all about FUNdamentals, does that mean I should read more about Guns?

Shoot yer books.

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at September 28, 2025 10:26 AM (89Sog)

179 I think El Cazador is a restaurant in Corsicana?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Hmmmm. . . . Don't think so. Lemme check.

Posted by: Tonypete at September 28, 2025 10:26 AM (cYBz/)

180 176 If reading is FUNdamental, and Guns are all about FUNdamentals, does that mean I should read more about Guns?
Posted by: RI Red at September 28, 2025 10:24 AM (AklnB)

Yes.

Just keep in mind most gun magazines are bought and paid for ads rather than honest reporting.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 28, 2025 10:26 AM (xcxpd)

181 Hi Tuna
I'm at that stage myself but need to read daytime only so not quite done. I'm also on 4th season of TV series and really liking it especially as the casting is fantastic so putting faces on the characters in the books. It is the last season I can buy though on Prime. Do you know if there are more?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

I've watched all that are available. "The Ink Black Heart" being the latest. I'm assuming and hoping they will continue as I've read the series gets high ratings when broadcast on, I think, HBO. Anyway if they do continue, "The Running Grave" will make a humdinger of a show. Lots of opportunities for great British character actors.

Posted by: Tuna at September 28, 2025 10:27 AM (lJ0H4)

182 Are there any recommendations for actual good steampunk stories?

-
I quite enjoyed The Oracle Engine by M.T. Anderson. It is a retelling of Marcus Crasus and his death at the Battle of Carrhae set in a steampunky Ancient Rome. It's full of revenge, treachery, an early computer, and all kinds of good stuff.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:27 AM (L/fGl)

183 "Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks"

That's why his "library" is going to twice what was projected.

Posted by: Call Me Fishsmell at September 28, 2025 10:28 AM (vFG9F)

184 167 Barack Obama: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:19 AM (L/fGl)

Well, from some the pictures I've seen (of concrete so cracked it is likely structurally unsound) the funds aren't going to the construction of the library itself, so they must be going somewhere else...

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 10:28 AM (Lhaco)

185 Sharon - are you thinking of Aguado's?

Posted by: Tonypete at September 28, 2025 10:29 AM (cYBz/)

186 "Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks"

Shouldn't be surprised, I guess.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 10:30 AM (q3u5l)

187 Sure, I slept with a cannibal. At least he didn't wear a dress.

Posted by: Call Me Fishsmell at September 28, 2025 10:30 AM (vFG9F)

188 180
Just keep in mind most gun magazines are bought and paid for ads rather than honest reporting.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 28, 2025 10:26 AM (xcxpd)

I though gun magazines were the things you put the bullets in. [sticks out tongue]

Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 10:32 AM (Lhaco)

189 177 ... "I am 99% of the way done with the Pickwick Papers, Charles Dicken's first novel. Its interesting, not as good or polished as, say, Bleak House or The Old Curiosity Shop but it's also less depressing, being mostly comedic. It does have some very vivid, likeable characters so he hit it out of the park there."

MAE,
If you like Pickwick Papers, one of my favorite Dickens books, try "Sketches By Boz", his first book. Much lighter in tone, more fun, and with playful humor and observations than in some of the later books.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 10:32 AM (yTvNw)

190 I got into Alan Dean Foster young, like early teens. I still think his two short story collections ('With Friends Like These', and 'Who Needs Enemies?') are some of the best sci-fi or fantastic short fiction. Read everything he put out until the Damned series. I didn't like that and it sorta soured me on him.

Then Del Rey sorta fell apart and his work got harder to find and...I moved on to other authors. I still have a ton of his books though.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 28, 2025 10:33 AM (xcxpd)

191 I though gun magazines were the things you put the bullets in. [sticks out tongue]
Posted by: Castle Guy

You're thinking of a clip.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, [0] Day(s) Since Leftist Terror Attack! at September 28, 2025 10:33 AM (L/fGl)

192 MAE,
If you like Pickwick Papers, one of my favorite Dickens books, try "Sketches By Boz", his first book. Much lighter in tone, more fun, and with playful humor and observations than in some of the later books.
Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 10:32 AM (yTvNw)

I will check to see if its in my Kindle collection. Is that one of his stories where he wrote based on some comic sketches and etching?

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 28, 2025 10:34 AM (xcxpd)

193 IMHO, anything written during (or about) the Victorian period has a steampunk vibe to me.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at September 28, 2025 10:36 AM (g8Ew8)

194 Im re-reading Modern Times by Paul Johnson right now.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2025 10:36 AM (BI5O2)

195 Just finished a few days of golfing on the Oregon coast. Had beautiful weather. It made me think I could write a book. Something like "The Ten Best Golf Courses in the Pacific Northwest."

Posted by: Diogenes at September 28, 2025 10:37 AM (2WIwB)

196 Just keep in mind most gun magazines are bought and paid for ads rather than honest reporting.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo

If there is no ad for that gun, then that gun sucks.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at September 28, 2025 10:38 AM (/lPRQ)

197 Barky continuing his administration grifting paying his Maxism groups

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 10:38 AM (+qU29)

198 I think the restaurant had Mexican figures out front and the name definitely began with El. Had dinner thee with a bunch of Morons.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 10:38 AM (t/2Uw)

199 We subscribe to the Preston and Child site to get news of the upcoming books and playful blog posts. The latest one has Pendergast supplying the list of books he considers the best British mystery and detective novels. Here's the list.

- Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
- The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by Le Carre
- Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
- The Land God Gave to Cain by Hammond Innes
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Just FYI.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 10:42 AM (yTvNw)

200
I think the restaurant had Mexican figures out front and the name definitely began with El. Had dinner ~~thee~~ you varlet*, with a bunch of Morons.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 10:38 AM (t/2Uw)

*Corrects for proper use of medieval grammar.

Posted by: naturalfake at September 28, 2025 10:43 AM (iJfKG)

201 But I lying don't cost hundreds of millions, it's money flying to lawyers, unions, interest groups, pockets of the hundreds of officials of the library and anywhere it can be stolen.

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 10:44 AM (+qU29)

202 Put me down as another in the "came to Moby-Dick as an adult and loved it" camp.

I think it's just not suitable for teenagers.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 10:45 AM (78a2H)

203 Oh wait. This is funny. There is an El Cazador but it is in Appomatox, VA. 😂
And also had dinner there with a bunch of Morons.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 10:45 AM (t/2Uw)

204 El Segundo Bar has the best greasy pork burrito* anywhere.
The hot carrots add a flash of color and fun to the dish.

*If your Mexican restaurant doesn't have it on the menu then it is not Mexican.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at September 28, 2025 10:45 AM (/lPRQ)

205 @190 MAE - Have both of those, as well, and will have to break them out. First time seeing what King Harv's ad did with those on Sarah Hoyt's site, had to LOL.

Posted by: Nazdar at September 28, 2025 10:47 AM (NcvvS)

206 Lying? Building stupid phone

Type, read post

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 10:48 AM (+qU29)

207 *If your Mexican restaurant doesn't have it on the menu then it is not Mexican.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher

There a local place here where I simply tell them to 'surprise me' when ordering. I've never been disappointed and I have no idea of what they are serving me.

I try to read there but I don't understand much Spanish so there's that. . .

Posted by: Tonypete at September 28, 2025 10:49 AM (cYBz/)

208 192 ... "I will check to see if its in my Kindle collection. Is that one of his stories where he wrote based on some comic sketches and etching?"

Yes. Each chapter is only a few pages long. If you don't have it already, there is a Kindle version for 99 cents called "Sketches by Boz: Premium Edition (Unabridged, Illustrated, Table of Contents)". It uses the original illustrations by Browne and Cruikshank.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 10:50 AM (yTvNw)

209 Good news:
🎬 Series 7 Begins Filming in 2025 – Here's What We Know So Far They're coming back! Strike — known as CB Strike in the US — is officially set to begin filming its highly anticipated seventh series in autumn 2025.Jun 8, 2025.

The Ink Black Heart was actually season 6. It was only released in January of this year.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 28, 2025 10:50 AM (t/2Uw)

210 I went to a Mexican restaurant in Tennessee on a road trip. The door guy had obviously quite recently cut off all the fingers on his right hand. Still bandaged up.

After we were seated, I got a legit spit take from Joe Mannix when I asked him "hey, did ya get a gander at El Choppo over there?"

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2025 10:50 AM (BI5O2)

211 Late to the thread, but I have been reading Paradise Lost.

It took 229 pages, but Adam and Eve have finally eaten the Forbidden Fruit, and their dialog has at last shifted from nauseating page after page of "But I love you more!" "No, I love YOU more!" to recrimination and accusation.

So, like a normal marriage.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 10:51 AM (ZOv7s)

212 Good news:
🎬 Series 7 Begins Filming in 2025 – Here's What We Know So Far They're coming back! Strike — known as CB Strike in the US — is officially set to begin filming its highly anticipated seventh series in autumn 2025.Jun 8, 2025.

The Ink Black Heart was actually season 6. It was only released in January of this year.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Thanks for the info Sharon. I'm thrilled.

Posted by: Tuna at September 28, 2025 10:52 AM (lJ0H4)

213 If reading is FUNdamental, and Guns are all about FUNdamentals, does that mean I should read more about Guns?
Posted by: RI Red at September 28, 2025 10:24 AM (AklnB)
---
Yes. Smith and Smith (later Ezell's) Small Arms of the World (various editions) and Ezell's Handguns of the World are good places to start.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 10:53 AM (ZOv7s)

214 188 180
Just keep in mind most gun magazines are bought and paid for ads rather than honest reporting.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 28, 2025 10:26 AM (xcxpd)

And, in the case of NRA magazines, endless pleas for money.
I have over two years left on my NRA membership which is as good as a life membership maybe.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 10:53 AM (LHPAg)

215 Put me down as another in the "came to Moby-Dick as an adult and loved it" camp.

I think it's just not suitable for teenagers.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 10:45 AM (78a2H)
---
I should try that. After reading lots of Conrad, it would probably feel very different.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 10:55 AM (ZOv7s)

216 211 Late to the thread, but I have been reading Paradise Lost.

It took 229 pages, but Adam and Eve have finally eaten the Forbidden Fruit, and their dialog has at last shifted from nauseating page after page of "But I love you more!" "No, I love YOU more!" to recrimination and accusation.

So, like a normal marriage.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 10:51 AM (ZOv7s)
Mark Twain's story of Eve is pretty good.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 10:56 AM (LHPAg)

217 And, in the case of NRA magazines, endless pleas for money.
I have over two years left on my NRA membership which is as good as a life membership maybe.
Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 10:53 AM (LHPAg)
---
I let my lapse around 20 years ago when I was working in the state Legislature on gun issues and realized that the NRA was completely useless where it actually matters. They just wanted to live large in DC, not actually win. State groups did all the heavy lifting.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 10:57 AM (ZOv7s)

218 Just finished Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarine U-505 and World War II's Most Daring Heist by Alexander Rose. Would make a great movie.

Posted by: FlatVille Bill at September 28, 2025 10:57 AM (uMGpS)

219 I let my lapse around 20 years ago when I was working in the state Legislature on gun issues and realized that the NRA was completely useless where it actually matters. They just wanted to live large in DC, not actually win. State groups did all the heavy lifting.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 10:57 AM (ZOv7s)
Like Texas State Rifle Association, of which I am a Life Member.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:00 AM (LHPAg)

220 I just re-read El Cazador
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 28, 2025 09:33 AM (Lhaco)

Me llaman el cazador
Ese es mi nombre
Me llaman el cazador
Cómo conseguí mi fama
No hay necesidad de esconderse
No hay necesidad de correr
Porque te tengo en la mira de mi arma.

Posted by: Spanish Robert Plant at September 28, 2025 11:04 AM (qpyNK)

221 I tried reading Moby Dick as a teen. Even with my liking for sea stories it was a slog except for the bits of action. Fast forward 30 or 40 years and it is a different matter. Taking the time to enjoy the rich descriptions, sometimes too rich even now, the pace that builds slowly like a sea that gradually becomes rougher and more dangerous, the adult insight into the characters that I missed as a teenager. Experience and perspective can make a huge difference for enjoying a book. It can also lead to realizing what we thought was great stuff in youth turns out to be mediocre.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 11:04 AM (yTvNw)

222
Back from my Christian Nationalist meeting, where we discussed burning heretics and enslaving women's wombs. Just another ordinary Sunday.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 28, 2025 11:05 AM (tgvbd)

223 This week I read, "By Any Means Necessary: America's Secret Air War in the Cold War," by William E. Burrows.

Having flown several PARPRO missions myself over the Sea of Okhotsk in 1989, I found the book riveting in its detailed summaries of early-to-mid Cold War U.S. reconnaissance flights gathering intelligence on the Soviets. Most disturbing, however, was the U.S. government flat out lying to family members of those who lost their lives on some of those missions.

If you're 29+ and of the Cold War age where "duck and cover" was practiced in your schools -- and you are into actual military history as opposed to historical fiction -- this book would be a good read for you.

Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:05 AM (Y1sOo)

224 ike Texas State Rifle Association, of which I am a Life Member.
Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:00 AM (LHPAg)
---
The main driver in Michigan was the Michigan Coalition for Responsible Gun Ownership, which pushed through the change to shall-issue carry back in 1999.

Unfortunately, the term-limited GOP House Speaker decided that it would be a cushy gig and launched a coup, putting himself in charge and proceeded to do nothing but the usual lobbyist bullshit. The organizers quit, and no one has been able to pick up the pieces since, which is why Ohio - which lagged Michigan - now has Constitutional Carry and we still have the retarded pistol registry.

Meanwhile the NRA is completely invisible. Screw them.

In terms of reading, their magazines suck. First Freedom is just shameless self-promotion and The American Rifleman is too pedestrian. I get far more value collecting early editions of Smalll Arms of the World because they have the WW I stuff in it. The later ones include AKs, so you need both.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 11:05 AM (ZOv7s)

225 I think it's just not suitable for teenagers.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 10:45 AM (78a2H)

Certainly not today's teenagers.

It might've been different when it was first published, back in the days when boys were routinely sent to sea at age five or six.

Posted by: Spanish Robert Plant at September 28, 2025 11:06 AM (qpyNK)

226 Just finished Phantom Fleet: The Hunt for Nazi Submarine U-505 and World War II's Most Daring Heist by Alexander Rose. Would make a great movie.
Posted by: FlatVille Bill at September 28, 2025 10:57 AM

RADM Gallery wrote some interesting books, most of which seem to be out of print these days.

Posted by: Duncanthrax, a mid-tier AoSHQ commenter, according to Grok at September 28, 2025 11:06 AM (0sNs1)

227 > Taking the time to enjoy the rich descriptions, sometimes too rich even now

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 11:04 AM (yTvNw)

IMO, the chapter "The Whiteness of the Whale" is one of the finest extended riffs in the history of English prose.

Posted by: Spanish Robert Plant at September 28, 2025 11:07 AM (qpyNK)

228 Gun books would make one heck of a topic for a reading thread. We could watch people thrash each other over the writings of Elmer Keith and Jeff Cooper.

BTW, Tolkien and Matt Helm would both approve.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 28, 2025 11:09 AM (wLsnt)

229 JTB--
Yes, those net-mending needles are heirlooms! They're wood, about a foot long each, obviously carved for different tasks. I have them framed, which should help preserve them.

Posted by: Wenda at September 28, 2025 11:09 AM (GPYyj)

230 Mama, what's a 'whale' ... ?

Posted by: Dr_No at September 28, 2025 11:10 AM (ayRl+)

231 If you're 29+ and of the Cold War age where "duck and cover" was practiced in your schools -- and you are into actual military history as opposed to historical fiction -- this book would be a good read for you.
Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:05 AM (Y1sOo)
---
Society at all levels was much more serious then, and less obsessed with safety. Risk was an accepted part of life.

It was more moral, but less moralistic. There was an understanding that not every decision was angels vs devils.

What pisses me off the most is the revisionism where the US was the aggressor, forcing the peaceful Communists to produce 50 million AKs and send them all over the world.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 11:10 AM (ZOv7s)

232 Gun books would make one heck of a topic for a reading thread. We could watch people thrash each other over the writings of Elmer Keith and Jeff Cooper.

BTW, Tolkien and Matt Helm would both approve.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 28, 2025 11:09 AM (wLsnt)
---
Not to mention Sykes and Fairbairn.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 11:12 AM (ZOv7s)

233 It might've been different when it was first published, back in the days when boys were routinely sent to sea at age five or six.
Posted by: Spanish Robert Plant

Aye, I miss those days. . .

Posted by: Captain Ned at September 28, 2025 11:14 AM (cYBz/)

234 I dropped the usual gun magazines long ago. They were 99 percent 'latest and greatest' articles/infomercials. Except for the Mike Venturino and John Taffin articles they didn't apply to my interests. Even the reloading articles were usually how to go faster and get more power instead of utilitarian loads. I did better getting the books written by Venturino and Taffin. Muzzleloader Magazine is the only one I keep up with.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 11:14 AM (yTvNw)

235 What pisses me off the most is the revisionism where the US was the aggressor, forcing the peaceful Communists to produce 50 million AKs and send them all over the world.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Had the guard the rice to keep the kulaks from stealing the people's food.... And to make sure the disloyal don't sabotage production.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at September 28, 2025 11:14 AM (/lPRQ)

236 @ 231 If you're 29+ and of the Cold War age where "duck and cover" was practiced in your schools -- and you are into actual military history as opposed to historical fiction -- this book would be a good read for you.
Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:05 AM (Y1sOo)
____________________________________

Our parents would take us to the Behrman Gym on Washington Avenue off of Prytania Street. That's where the Civil Defense people showed the early black 'n white movies of atomic testing blowing houses apart and tossing cars in the air … cool stuff if y' had a 'high pucker factor' … and I still have some of their old 'duck 'n cover' handout materials …

Posted by: Dr_No at September 28, 2025 11:15 AM (ayRl+)

237
"Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks"

Shouldn't be surprised, I guess.
Posted by: Just Some Guy

Bulldoze it to the ground. Barky was coloring book literate at best.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars(TM) - what makes you think you are in charge? at September 28, 2025 11:17 AM (xG4kz)

238 I remember duck and cover well. And extra drills on occasion in 8th grade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Them was the days, huh?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 11:18 AM (q3u5l)

239 Our parents would take us to the Behrman Gym on Washington Avenue off of Prytania Street. That's where the Civil Defense people showed the early black 'n white movies of atomic testing blowing houses apart and tossing cars in the air … cool stuff if y' had a 'high pucker factor' … and I still have some of their old 'duck 'n cover' handout materials …
Posted by: Dr_No

I completed some Civil Defense correspondence course and got certified as a bomb shelter technician or some BS like that.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at September 28, 2025 11:18 AM (/lPRQ)

240 Meanwhile the NRA is completely invisible. Screw them.

Wayne LaPierre won't be a loose thread compared to Alan Gottlieb. The Second Amendment Foundation brings lawsuits against government on behalf of people like us.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:18 AM (LHPAg)

241 66
'Tank Abrams' books are available at my library. 😩'
'Mine too! Sh even has kids books yeech'

"The Very Hungry Garden Slug"

Posted by: Dr. Claw at September 28, 2025 11:20 AM (fd80v)

242 Krebs at 237

Actually, if they bulldozed the damn thing it would probably be the best possible symbol of the entire Obama presidency. And if they really wanted to be efficient, they could slap Biden's name on the rubble too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 11:20 AM (q3u5l)

243 I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there is some batshit stuff in Moby-Dick. It's not until Chapter 9 -- when the Pequod is off Patagonia -- that Ahab reveals his secret boat crew of Arab (?) rowers, who have been _hiding down in the hold_ since the ship left New England.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 11:21 AM (78a2H)

244 Whoops! I meant Chapter _FORTY_ nine, not nine.

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 11:22 AM (78a2H)

245 Moby Dick is one of my favorite works. I have the John Houston move version on a CD.

Posted by: javems at September 28, 2025 11:23 AM (8I4hW)

246 We didn't have the duck and cover stuff in class. My hometown was considered one the likely early targets so what was the point.

Posted by: JTB at September 28, 2025 11:23 AM (yTvNw)

247 RADM Gallery wrote some interesting books, most of which seem to be out of print these days.
Posted by: Duncanthrax, a mid-tier AoSHQ commenter, according to Grok at September 28, 2025 11:06 AM (0sNs1)
BM1 Fatso Giannoni.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:26 AM (LHPAg)

248
We didn't have the duck and cover stuff in class. My hometown was considered one the likely early targets so what was the point.
Posted by: JTB

Ditto. We had a SAC base, K I Sawyer, only a dozen miles away and there were nuke-carrying B-52s based there. Fire drills, yes; duck and cover drills, no.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars(TM) - what makes you think you are in charge? at September 28, 2025 11:26 AM (xG4kz)

249 I want to read "Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy," by Toshi Yoshihara. It's recommended by the U.S. Naval Institute.

Pretty expensive on Amazon, though, even used editions. Not sure why.

Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:26 AM (Y1sOo)

250 One of the more irritating cliches of Cold War and later comedy about the subject is the constant mockery of the idea that "hiding under a desk will save you from a nuke."

No, you Communist tools, hiding under your desk will protect you from being shredded by broken glass when the shockwave from a bomb miles away hits your big 1950s classroom windows.

But mocking civil defense, and of course missile defense, has always been a lefty fetish. "No, there's no way to survive -- so we have to disarm and submit!"

Posted by: Trimegistus at September 28, 2025 11:27 AM (78a2H)

251 Well Hell!
You know it's diet time when your sitting at the counter eating some yogurt (blueberrry) for breakfast and reading the AOS, and a dollop falls off the spoon and the first thing it hits is the clean white shirt.
Sheesh.

Posted by: Diogenes at September 28, 2025 11:27 AM (2WIwB)

252 Pretty expensive on Amazon, though, even used editions. Not sure why.
Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:26 AM (Y1sOo)

It should be cheap. An hour later you'd want to read it again.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 28, 2025 11:30 AM (uQesX)

253
We were well-loved and precious children at St Thomas Aquinas in Dallas.

We had Duck and Cover Drills!

Posted by: naturalfake at September 28, 2025 11:31 AM (iJfKG)

254 Call me Ish Kabibble.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at September 28, 2025 11:32 AM (mfT7D)

255 249 -

Just about anything published by the university presses tend to be pricey. That Yoshihara book is $35 even for a Kindle edition, and even that's cheaper than quite a few university press titles I've seen out there. Is a puzzlement.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 11:32 AM (q3u5l)

256 I want to read "Mao's Army Goes to Sea: The Island Campaigns and the Founding of China's Navy," by Toshi Yoshihara. It's recommended by the U.S. Naval Institute.

Pretty expensive on Amazon, though, even used editions. Not sure why.
Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:26 AM (Y1sOo)
---
Published the same year as Walls of Men. I may have to do a 2nd edition one of these days. Lots of new information out there.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 11:33 AM (ZOv7s)

257 Wouldn't mind finding a nice big hunk of ambergris. That would pay not only for some books but shelves too. Maybe even professionally-installed shelves!

Posted by: haffhowershower at September 28, 2025 11:34 AM (144I4)

258 Duck and Cover Drills!

They told us that they were tornado drills.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at September 28, 2025 11:34 AM (/lPRQ)

259 257 Wouldn't mind finding a nice big hunk of ambergris. That would pay not only for some books but shelves too. Maybe even professionally-installed shelves!

Posted by: haffhowershower at September 28, 2025 11:34 AM (144I4)

The quality of ace's work is apparently THAT high.

Posted by: Posted by: Stateless - VERY GRATEFUL, BLESSED, LOVED AND HAPPY! -- - New Life Creation - 18.1% at September 28, 2025 11:35 AM (Sco7b)

260 Well Hell!
You know it's diet time when your sitting at the counter eating some yogurt (blueberrry) for breakfast and reading the AOS, and a dollop falls off the spoon and the first thing it hits is the clean white shirt.
Sheesh.
Posted by: Diogenes at September 28, 2025 11:27 AM (2WIwB)

Bonus for eating during the book thread. Notice it can't hit your pants if you're not wearing any!

Posted by: haffhowershower at September 28, 2025 11:35 AM (144I4)

261 255 249 -

Just about anything published by the university presses tend to be pricey. That Yoshihara book is $35 even for a Kindle edition, and even that's cheaper than quite a few university press titles I've seen out there. Is a puzzlement.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 11:32 AM (q3u5l)
Call 1-800-Cash For Commies

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:35 AM (LHPAg)

262 I just finished reading The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher. Now I'm not inclined to like Dreher. And I'm not impressed with the jacket blurb by David Brooks.
That having been said, however, the book gave me a lot to chew on.

Posted by: Still lurking up north, read some, don't comment much at September 28, 2025 11:38 AM (kTd/k)

263 I have a bad cold so ,no, not in church. Ate my breakfast while wearing plaid jammoe pantses. Not spilt anything yet.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:39 AM (LHPAg)

264 219 The NRA is worse than useless. I managed a race for a candidate who was solidly pro-2A. The NRA backed the incumbent who was terrible on gun rights.

Gun Owners of America and Second Amendment Foundation fight. And like y'all said, there are state-level groups that fight.

Posted by: callsign claymore at September 28, 2025 11:39 AM (rruQb)

265 Working my way through a vanilla yogurt at the moment. Nothing on the pants or the keyboard yet.

But there's still time for my secret klutz superpower to manifest itself...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 11:41 AM (q3u5l)

266 150
'Little House On the Prairie update. ... One story has it that Charles "Pa" Ingalls was a member of a vigilante group who captured and killed the Benders.'

I'd have watched that episode.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at September 28, 2025 11:41 AM (fd80v)

267 >>An hour later you'd want to read it again.

It's like sex with an Asian woman. An hour later you are horny again.

Anywho, I think the book I mentioned above (By Any Means Necessary) along with Blind Man's Bluff gives one a pretty good idea what it was like conducting Cold War espionage missions from both airborne and sub-sea perspectives.

Not sure about any books detailing such activity from the surface Navy's point of view.

Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:42 AM (Y1sOo)

268 263 I have a bad cold so ,no, not in church. Ate my breakfast while wearing plaid jammoe pantses. Not spilt anything yet.
Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:39 AM (LHPAg)

I'm just finishing an annoying cold so also not in church.

Posted by: Still lurking up north, read some, don't comment much at September 28, 2025 11:43 AM (kTd/k)

269 167
'Barack Obama: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Obama Library Funds Are Secretly Flowing to Dark Money Networks'

They should have called it the Obama Laundromat.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at September 28, 2025 11:44 AM (fd80v)

270 White whale? Rayciss.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at September 28, 2025 11:44 AM (o46Y5)

271 Late to the party, perhaps, I thank night shift: I have Nerdrotic's bok on pre-order now.

Posted by: Cow Demon at September 28, 2025 11:45 AM (bPFPB)

272 Came in late and haven't read the comments yet, but I'm going to jump right in and say Moby Dick is a great book. It's the only book I've read at least 6 times. Finished Reaper Leader about Admiral Flatley and started a new Umberto Eco (new as in to me and as published in 2010) called The Prague Cemetery. Also started LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West by Francis Parkman.

Posted by: who knew at September 28, 2025 11:46 AM (+ViXu)

273 Not sure about any books detailing such activity from the surface Navy's point of view.
Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:42 AM (Y1sOo)
I can remember standing in the catwalk on USS Independence watching a Badger fly overhead (herded by two Phantoms), this was Vietnam era.

Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2025 11:47 AM (LHPAg)

274 195
'Im re-reading Modern Times by Paul Johnson right now.'

Always a good read. I'll bet I've read it 5 times by now.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at September 28, 2025 11:49 AM (fd80v)

275 I am enjoying rereading Paradise Lost this week, and available for free on librivox and at Project Gutenberg.

https://tinyurl.com/Paradise-Lost-LV

https://tinyurl.com/Paradise-Lost-PG

Feigned sympathy for the devil as it were.

Posted by: sven at September 28, 2025 11:49 AM (MUJd1)

276 I just finished reading "Of whales and Men" by R.B. Robertson. It is an excellent read that highlights the British whaling industry post WWII. I highly recommend.

Posted by: Michael at September 28, 2025 11:49 AM (ma4zd)

277 I grew up land locked. Anything nautical was of interest. I devoured Howard Pease's tramp steamer books as a youth.

Posted by: javems at September 28, 2025 11:50 AM (8I4hW)

278
O/T: some dingleberry just shot up a Mormon church in Grand Blanc, Michigan

multiple victims

"shooter is down"

the church is on fire (4 alarm fire)

Posted by: AltonJackson at September 28, 2025 11:50 AM (tljrc)

279 Time to create new disasters here at Casa Some Guy.

Thanks for the thread, Weasel.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 28, 2025 11:51 AM (q3u5l)

280 Just read a Pittsburgh Steelers player was mugged before the game in Dublin Ireland.
I wonder if he was mugged by the old Irish, or the new imported Irish. Not mentioned in any of the reports.

Posted by: From about That Time at September 28, 2025 11:52 AM (n4GiU)

281 278 Posted by: AltonJackson at September 28, 2025 11:50 AM (tljrc)

Oft evil shall mar.

Posted by: sven at September 28, 2025 11:52 AM (MUJd1)

282 Little House On the Prairie update. ... One story has it that Charles "Pa" Ingalls was a member of a vigilante group who captured and killed the Benders.'

I'd have watched that episode.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at September 28, 2025 11:41 AM (fd80v)

Yep. Merlin Olsen was executioner.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at September 28, 2025 11:55 AM (LjSYW)

283 >>>No, you Communist tools, hiding under your desk will protect you from being shredded by broken glass when the shockwave from a bomb miles away hits your big 1950s classroom windows.
------------

They thought about that over the summer. Next year they moved us into the hall that was solid brick on both sides.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at September 28, 2025 11:56 AM (OS3X9)

284 >>I can remember standing in the catwalk on USS Independence watching a Badger fly overhead (herded by two Phantoms), this was Vietnam era.

I flew P-3s from '85-'89. Did a lot of those type missions (RIG -- Recognition Identification Group) on Soviet surface combatants in WESTPAC, particularly those on the first cruise after coming out of rework in Vladivostok.

Posted by: one hour sober at September 28, 2025 11:56 AM (Y1sOo)

285 Well, it's been brief for me, but still worthwhile.

Thanks, Weasel!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2025 11:57 AM (ZOv7s)

286 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2025 12:00 PM (+qU29)

287 A restaurant shooting in NC yesterday, a church today, and dems senators doubling down along with that asshole Newsom.
Sigh...

Posted by: Diogenes at September 28, 2025 12:01 PM (2WIwB)

288 Bonus for eating during the book thread. Notice it can't hit your pants if you're not wearing any!
Posted by: haffhowershower at September 28, 2025 11:35 AM (144I4)

Good thing it was yogurt and not hot bacon!

Posted by: Diogenes at September 28, 2025 12:02 PM (2WIwB)

289
Call me Ish Kabibble.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone

The man with the Moe Howard haircut.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at September 28, 2025 12:05 PM (63Dwl)

290 "Count Luckner, The Sea Devil" by Lowell Thomas is anther good sea yarn. Count Luckner was to the sea as Baron Von Richthoven was to the air in WWI.

Posted by: Michael at September 28, 2025 12:06 PM (ma4zd)

291 I was rather surprised when visiting a Barnes & Noble last week to find "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" shelved in the Fantasy section.

Posted by: My friends call me Pete at September 28, 2025 12:13 PM (afP1r)

292 [177 I am 99% of the way done with the Pickwick Papers, Charles Dicken's first novel.]

Pickwick Papers is one of my favorite books of all time! It's laugh-out-loud hilarious. "Ode to a Dead Frog" is in it, so say no more. Best audiobook of the book is on a site called free-ebooks.net, narrated by Stan Pretty. You have to be a VIP member to download it, but you can listen to it for free. Of course you can download the text at gutenberg.

Posted by: microcosme at September 28, 2025 12:17 PM (LeaW9)

293 I was cleaning out some boxes that came from my mom's house. In one of the boxes were some old books. I just finished reading "Captain Blood" by Raphael Sabatini. The book was printed in 1922. Great story. The 1935 movie with Errol Flynn followed the book fairly well, with some changes in nationalities and compressing the story a bit. Sabatini's prose was very enjoyable. He had an anonymous narrator with a lyrical voice. He used some latin phrases in had to look up, but that made it all the more interesting.

Posted by: Betaraybill at September 28, 2025 12:22 PM (4KVvr)

294 96 I think of the Alien movies as having a dark, Conradian influence, nihilistic and skeptical of civilization’s attempts at outreach. I want to read the conservative defense of colonialism that someone mentioned here once.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at September 28, 2025 12:29 PM (DYKW0)

295 Bruce Gilley, The Case for Colonialism.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at September 28, 2025 12:30 PM (DYKW0)

296 Got my naming conventions from Grok now. Won't generally need them for a while, but it's good to have an idea of the sounds I'm looking for.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 12:31 PM (lFFaq)

297 I already read Moby Dick. My English 101 prof was a ... Mobyphile (I almost typed Dickophile, but that would have other, unintended even if amusing, connotations). Even though it was supposed to be a comp class, he would go off at least once a week on the nuances and levels in it. We got a real case of foreshadowing in the first lecture of the class - almost an entire hour on the first sentence. Three words. An hour. After the second week, where he managed to run up about 25 minutes (out of 6 hours) on it, I figured I might as well read it. A good book, probably a great one, but not my interests at the time. I would probably have liked it better at 14, but around then, I read The Sea Wolf and the descriptions of miserable conditions turned me off ever "wanting to go to sea" - a good thing, since I have a helluva time with sea sickness - and reading wooden ships and canvas novels for awhile.

Posted by: buddhaha at September 28, 2025 12:50 PM (55AVV)

298 I was blown away when I read "Moby Dick." I couldn't believe it was written in the 1800s. It seemed modern and avant-garde.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at September 28, 2025 01:37 PM (5YmYl)

299 >Are there any recommendations for actual good steampunk stories? The only times I've tried to dip into the genre, I ended up getting deconstruction/tasteless filth with a steampunk veneer. Never really got an actual good steampunk epic.

Been an on and off lurker here, long enough to remember OregonMuse. I'm working on book three in this series, which might be described as "The Hugh Jackman Van Helsing movie, but with an actual plot and more character stuff, and the Van Helsing analogue is a Dunedan with ancestors from Steampunk Numenor, played by either Peter Cushing or Basil Rathbone, and instead of Kate Beckinsale, we have a cute red-headed rancher's daughter from fantasy Argentina who is the Dunedan's sidekick/Watson/our main POV." Might or might not be your thing, but it exists.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CR7ZL3S7

Posted by: jaglionpress at September 28, 2025 01:57 PM (zPHkj)

300 Posted by: jaglionpress at September 28, 2025 01:57 PM (zPHkj)

At $5 for 2 I decided to check them out.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at September 28, 2025 02:16 PM (lFFaq)

301 Thank you Polli!

Posted by: jaglionpress at September 28, 2025 03:47 PM (zPHkj)

Processing 0.05, elapsed 0.0562 seconds.
14 queries taking 0.0134 seconds, 309 records returned.
Page size 174 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.