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Sunday Morning Book Thread - 3-8-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]
Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (test results not guaranteed). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(HT: Piper, who wore these to the TXMOME last year.)
So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, set your clocks forward an hour or three, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?
PIC NOTE
This was set up in the lobby of the university library where I used to work (but never worked for). I just happened to be on campus that day and needed to go to the library to visit my old office. As you can see, students today prefer fantasy and science fiction by a large margin. Romance and mystery are close to tied, though romance has a slight lead. The "other" category is quite a bit behind, especially when broken down into the subgenres. It's an interesting snapshot of what today's college students are reading these days.
PHANTOM BOOKSELLERS
The YouTuber above gives an overview of how the online marketplace works for books, dividing up the marketplace into four main tiers based on the quantity of books being sold versus the prices charged for those books.
The "phantom booksellers" he refers to tend to operate in the middle two tiers (II and III) because that's where they can optimize profits on the demand curve. Buyers in the top tier (IV) are high-end collectors who know what they want and will be more diligent about ensuring that they receive a quality product, even if price is no object. Buyers in the lowest tier (I) are simply looking for the book and aren't too careful about the edition they receive since they simply want to read the book. I'd put myself in the lowest tiers (I and II) when it comes to buying books. Most of the time I don't care about the condition or quality of the book as long as it's reasonably readable.
I'm sure I've been burned by phantom booksellers more than once, though, considering the quantity of books I've bought over the years. I've certainly received books that didn't meet my expectations and in a couple of cases I received the wrong book. I've also had a few orders that experienced unexpected delays, causing me to cancel the order after too long.
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COMPLETIONISM
Hi. My nic is "Perfessor" Squirrel.
I'm a completionist.
For reasons I can't explain, many times when I start reading a series of books or just reading books by a single author, I find myself compelled to obtain ALL of the books in the series, or ALL of the books by an author. It's like an itch under my skin that I just have to scratch.
However, it's not so compelling that I'm going to overextend myself to obtain rare or valuable editions of a book just because it will flesh out my collection. Collectors and completionists have a lot of overlapping qualities, but they are not quite the same thing.
A collector tends to be much more interested in obtaining specific editions of a book so as to have a matching set of a series. Or they'll purchase multiple editions of a book to have all of the possible editions available. Maybe one set of books is for reading and another set is for display.
A completionist, by way of contrast, tends to be more focused on obtaining the story within the book, so specific editions are not particularly important. Sure, it's nice when a completionist can find the desired edition at a reasonable price so as to have a matching set of a series (e.g., all first-edition hardcovers), but it's not a requirement for owning the book. Simply enjoying the story is the primary criterion for obtaining the book.
I do have a few restrictions on my completionism, which tends to keep it in check. I refuse to pay huge premium prices for a book if it's particularly difficult to find. For instance, sometimes mass-market paperbacks will be priced for hundreds of dollars on Amazon. No thanks. I may try to find it available elsewhere if I really, really want it. I'm even OK with purchasing the Kindle edition if it's reasonably priced compared to an expensive physical copy.
I'm also willing to forgo completing books in a series if I don't find the series particularly compelling. However, if I do find a series enjoyable, then I'll probably make an effort to get as many of the books that are available (again, for a reasonable price).
I'm also likely to forgo getting ALL the books in a series that's still being published because it's part of a huge franchise. Sure, I have a bunch of Star Wars and Star Trek novels, but I'm not feeling compelled to collect 'em all. But if I see one I haven't collected yet while browsing through a used bookstore's wares, I might be persuaded to pick it up.
What about you? Are you a completionist? Or a collector? Or both?
MORON RECOMMENDATIONS
Also, this week I re-read John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes, aka Out of the Deeps. I read it at fifteen and have always remembered it fondly. I'm pleased now to report that it holds up very well. There is a strong sense of British wit as he lampoons the governments of the world, including his own, and their reaction to an invasion of beings which have taken over the deepest part of the oceans and are intent on wiping out the land-dwellers.
It's quite Wells-like. It begins very quietly and disquietingly, and proceeds from there over a five-year period just after WWII. Recommended.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 22, 2026 09:13 AM (wzUl9)
Comment: It's always nice when you can revisit a book you read as a youngster and realize that it still holds up well into adulthood. To me, that's a mark in favor of an author who is writing a story that will withstand the test of time, one of the essential criteria in writing a true classic.
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I'm in the third book of Travis Baldree's cozy fantasy* series, Brigands and Breadknives. It's your classic story of an elf ranger on a perilous journey to take a prisoner to justice.
The goblin outlaw has a magic-forged breadknife named Shankling, made by the same swordsmith who made her elf captor's snooty and long-winded blade Nigel. This Elder Blade-ling is more punk rock than lute madrigal. "Look at this white steel! Snowy as hells, right? I've got that, you know, weight of significance. Runes all over the place. Soul of an ancient hero and all that."
*Yeah, yeah, roll your eyes. It's fun.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at February 22, 2026 09:28 AM (kpS4V)
Comment: There's nothing wrong with a fun fantasy read! Not all fantasy has to be grimdark with primary characters being killed off in every other chapter. Even light-hearted fantasy can have its moments of gravitas, especially when the author is exploring the essence of the human condition. Terry Pratchett was a grand master of this.
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Last week I read Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett and it's laugh out loud funny British humour. Was never a fan of Pratchett but this one has sent me looking for more
Posted by: kelly at February 22, 2026 10:34 AM (GxGGi)
Comment: Speaking of Terry Pratchett, this was one of the earliest ones of his I've ever read. It's a great introduction to one of the core groups of the Discworld series of books. I've often seen Guards, Guards recommended as an introduction to the series as a whole. You'll get to meet the Night Watchmen along with the wizards at Unseen University, both of whom are essential to the series. Great stuff. Just remember the secret pass phrase if you intend to join the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night.
As mentioned above, I'm a completionist, so I decided to complete F. Paul Wilson's The Secret History of the World. A few of the books were difficult to track down (or too expensive) for a print edition, so I settled on a Kindle edition. I'm OK with that, since my goal is to read the missing bits and pieces I haven't read yet, not have display copies of each of the stories. As you can see below, they come from a variety of sources.
The Compendium of Srem by F. Paul Wilson -- Kindle edition. Novella. The Spanish Inquisition discovers a tome of eldritch, forbidden lore. It refuses to be destroyed through their efforts.
Black Wind by F. Paul Wilson -- Used paperback.
Young Repairman Jack 1 - Secret Histories by F. Paul Wilson -- New copy. Trade paperback.
Young Repairman Jack 2 - Secret Circles by F. Paul Wilson -- Used copy. Trade paperback.
Young Repairman Jack 3 - Secret Vengeance by F. Paul Wilson -- Used copy. Trade paperback.
Repairman Jack: The Early Years 2 - Dark City by F. Paul Wilson -- Discarded library copy. Hardcover.
Repairman Jack: The Early Years 3 - Fear City by F. Paul Wilson -- Discarded library copy. Hardcover.
Secret Stories: Tales from the Secret History by F. Paul Wilson -- Print-on-demand. Trade paperback.
Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson -- Print-on-demand. Trade paperback.
The Peabody-Ozymandius Traveling Circus Oddity Emporium by F. Paul Wilson -- Print-on-demand. Trade paperback.
The Fifth Harmonic by F. Paul Wilson -- Kindle edition. Stand-alone novel within The Secret History of the World.
WHAT I'VE BEEN READING RECENTLY
I enjoyed re-reading the urban fantasy series The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, so I decided to re-read The Secret History of the World by F. Paul Wilson. Some of them will be new reads because I didn't have all the stories in the series (see above). I'm reading them in chronological order of when the events occur, more or less.
The premise behind the series is that there is a secret war going on between the forces of the "Otherness," an eldritch horror from beyond our reality, and the "Ally," a slightly more benign cosmic entity that seeks to preserve our world, but doesn't much care about the humans inhabiting it. Many key events in history can be tied to this secret battle, though the history books don't cover all the details. For instance, the Twin Towers came down because a cult of fanatics wanted to retrieve an ancient talisman that was hidden beneath Building 7.
The series consists of different sub-series, along with a number of short stories and novellas that have been published independently in various sources. It was a bit of a challenge to collect almost all of the stories. Wilson helpfully provides a complete guide and timeline to the series in the most recent editions of his books. As near as I can tell, I have it all except for the short story "Fix," co-authored with Joe Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson. I'm hoping this one short story isn't the key to understanding the entire series.
The Compendium of Srem by F. Paul Wilson
This short novella explores the history behind a tome of eldritch forgotten lore from the so-called "First Age." It's found by an order of monks in service to the Spanish Inquisition in 1498. Naturally, the Inquisition seeks to destroy this demonic book, but is unable to do so. It resists all attempts at destruction, shrugging off fire, acid, and even repeated blows from an axe.
Wardenclyffe by F. Paul Wilson
This novella explores what Nikola Tesla was really up to at his Wardenclyffe facility on Long Island in 1903. Obsessed with providing cheap wireless power, his experiments yield success, but at a terrible, terrible price, tearing a hole in reality
Black Wind by F. Paul Wilson
In the years leading up to World War II, Japan was attempting to establish itself as a leading world power. To do so, a secret order of monks seeks to reclaim the power of the Black Wind, which was powerful enough to stop the Tokugawa Shogunate from destroying the secret order. They hope to use the Black Wind to completely dominate the world.
The structure of this book is a bit odd because it changes between first-person perspective when the viewpoint character is the American Frank Slater and third-person perspective for any other viewpoint character. It's classic F. Paul Wilson style of writing, though, as he shows us the viewpoints of both heroes and villains in the story.
The Keep by F. Paul Wilson
Two groups of Nazis find themselves trapped in a mysterious keep in the Transylvanian Alps while an ancient horror hunts them down one by one. They are so desparate they turn to a Jewish scholar to help them defeat this evil being, who is more ancient than he claims. Meanwhile, a servitor of another cosmic entity travels to this keep to stop the ancient evil he had locked up there over 400 years ago.
This is our first introduction to Rasolom, the major villain of the Secret History going forward. Here, he's portrayed as a former boyar of Vlad Dracula, though his backstory reveals he's something much more ancient and evil.
Reborn by F. Paul Wilson
Glaeken thought he'd stopped Rasolom in the keep. He was wrong. Now evil is stirring again in a small town on Long Island in the 1960s. Jim Stevens inherits a multi-million estate from a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, then eventually discovers the truth behind the scientist's experiments. The end result is that the One is returning to the world again, seeking to claim it for the Otherness he serves.
Secret Stories: Tales from the Secret History by F. Paul Wilson
This is a collection of short stories that all touch on the Secret History in some way or another. For instance, "Demonsong" recounts the battle between Glaeken and Rasolom during the First Age in a sword-and-sorcery homage to Robert H. Howard.
My favorite story in this book is "The Barrens," where a woman is contacted by an old friend to explore the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, looking for clues that will lead to discovery that threatens to shatter the boundaries of reality itself.
Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson
Repairman Jack is F. Paul Wilson's most popular character. He wrote several short stories about him, giving readers more insight and background into Jack's day-to-day life. He's a "fixer," an urban mercenary lurking in the bowels of New York City's underworld. On paper, he doesn't exist, having no official documentation whatsoever. If you need help that no one else can provide and if you can find him, he might be able to offer you a repair job--for a price, of course.
I actually read a book, a memoir by Sen. John Kennedy. My favorite line:
"I wish we all lived on Big Rock Candy Mountain where hens lay soft-boiled eggs."
Posted by: San Franpsycho at March 08, 2026 08:01 AM (RIvkX)
5
What is the orange beneath autobiography? And the pink all the way at the bottom right?
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 08, 2026 08:02 AM (ExV1e)
6
The "other" category is quite a bit behind, especially when broken down into the subgenres. It's an interesting snapshot of what today's college students are reading these days.
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To be fair, history, nonfiction, etc. aren't considered "genre".
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 08:03 AM (kpS4V)
7
Reading Feeding Wellington's Army the journal of Tupper Carey written by Gareth Glover.
He is a civilian clerk attached to the Commissary. So is attached to a larger organization ( Brigade or Division).but travels with the army in the Peninsula campaigns.
1st of 2 volumes, have it on ebook, 249 pages
Posted by: Skip at March 08, 2026 08:03 AM (Ia/+0)
I'm currently about halfway through Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere, a huge Stephen King-like book that has none of the Maine native's preachiness. (Also it's from 2013.) It's set in the small, hidden,"perfect" town of Wink, New Mexico, somewhere north of Taos. Mona Bright, a former cop, inherits a house there (as well as her father's red 1969 Dodge Charger), and drives out to find the town sits at the edges of various universes that are bumping into, "bruising," ours. Fascinating so far.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:03 AM (wzUl9)
9
Probably science fiction some spy stories some mysteries
Good modern science fiction no bueno
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 08:04 AM (bXbFr)
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:05 AM (0U5gm)
11
Piper rocking the Strange Pants!
You go, Piper!
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 08:05 AM (2Ez/1)
12
I'm listening to a book called The Leopard. It is set in 19th century Sicily during the time of Garibaldi. The thing is I don't remember ever buying it. I haven't formed an opinion yet.
Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at March 08, 2026 08:05 AM (zh591)
13
Also this week I picked up a collaboration by Greg Benford and Larry Niven called Glorious. "Audacious astronauts encounter bizarre, sometimes deadly life-forms and strange, exotic cosmic phenomena, including miniature black holes . . . and spectacularly massive space-based alien-built labyrinths."
Larry, buddy, you had me at "deadly life-forms."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:06 AM (wzUl9)
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 08:08 AM (2Ez/1)
16
I'm currently about halfway through Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere, a huge Stephen King-like book that has none of the Maine native's preachiness. (Also it's from 2013.) .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:03 AM (wzUl9)
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That book is a very wild ride if you like that sort of thing...
One of Bennett's best books, IMHO. It's the one that got me hooked on the rest of his books (see completionism above...)
17
Hi completionist. I try to read the entire series. There is a book with buzz (grey wolf Louise Penny) I am starting with the first in the series. I am glad I did this with the Pendergast series. There is another series I am not sure I love enough to get the missing in order ones our library doesn’t have. (Sister Fidelma series)
A question, I recently read a book that goes back and forth in time. I honestly wondered if one reads it as the author presents and then again with reading all the past at once and then all the present at once to see how that is? Has anyone wondered that or done that? (Fallen City by Adrienne Young was the most recent I read like this)
Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday and may it be full of good books and great conversation.
Posted by: Hyacinth at March 08, 2026 08:09 AM (ryp7h)
18
Took some advice from youtube shorts on people's favorite books. Library has a few but not all. Checked out The Black Tudors, ie, Africans in Tudor England.
Then found a book on Sourdough bread. And Apollo 7 in Pictures.
Happy Sunday for the early risers and Good Night, all to the insomniacs ...
Posted by: Adriane the Pithy Saying Critic . . . at March 08, 2026 08:10 AM (3ZUWJ)
19
What is the orange beneath autobiography? And the pink all the way at the bottom right?
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at March 08, 2026 08:02 AM (ExV1e)
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those subcategories include:
Memoir
Nonfiction
Classical LIterature
Feminist Literature
History
Philosophy
Once upon a time, I was a collector. For who knows what reason (I can't even remember it myself) I'd decided to collect every US printing of the books of Harlan Ellison and Fritz Leiber. Not edition -- printing. If Ace Books went back to print more copies of Leiber's Swords Against Death and the ISBN changed, had to have it in the collection. Underwood-Miller did a signed limited and a trade hardcover of Ellison's All the Lies That Are My Life? Grab 'em both. I could count the ones I was missing on my fingers. Got priced out of that when Phantasia Press did the special carved box edition of Stalking the Nightmare. Sold off most of the stuff some years later so I wouldn't be tempted to indulge that madness again.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 08:10 AM (q3u5l)
22That book is a very wild ride if you like that sort of thing...
One of Bennett's best books, IMHO. It's the one that got me hooked on the rest of his books (see completionism above...)
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 08, 2026
***
It might have been your mention of his work that led me to this one. It's not a library book, but I don't think I bought it. Maybe I picked it up at one of the little "free library" hutches around town. It's been on one of my shelves for a while.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:12 AM (wzUl9)
23
Oh, boy. A whole lot selected Feminist Literature. From the little I've seen, it is narcissistic, egocentric, wish fulfillment, power fantasy, thrown in with the trappings of various pseudo science and pagan slop all presented as truth. I can see the appeal maybe if you go into it realizing what it is and not a framework for any decent society. And maybe their profs load them up on it.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:12 AM (3uBP9)
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:13 AM (eZ5tL)
25
Favorite book categories for me would be non fiction science, history and biography. Other than LOTR, not a fantasy fan. As long as you read, you are improving yourself, if only a break from the mundane.
Posted by: Elect me because i'm dyslexic and racist at March 08, 2026 08:13 AM (nc2DJ)
26
14 Oh, the squirrel is reading the book I read!
Posted by: San Franpsycho at March 08, 2026 08:07 AM
I'm interested in that one as well! I heard him on the "Ruthless" podcast the other day. He's always entertaining! He apparently includes some great quips about Lindsey Graham.
Posted by: Moonbeam at March 08, 2026 08:14 AM (rbKZ6)
Posted by: Dr. T at March 08, 2026 08:15 AM (lHPJf)
28
Today's reading will be Heart of the Mountain by Larry Correia, the last book in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. This will help me ignore the time change.
Posted by: NR Pax at March 08, 2026 08:16 AM (7xrfc)
29
Good morning (sorta) fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.
Aside from the sheer inconvenience of the time change, it disrupts my coffee drinking before the book thread begins. Bah!
Looking forward to This Kingdom will not kill me by Ilona Andrews releases March 24
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:17 AM (znREB)
31
I'm interested in that one as well! I heard him on the "Ruthless" podcast the other day. He's always entertaining! He apparently includes some great quips about Lindsey Graham.
Posted by: Moonbeam at March 08, 2026 08:14 AM (rbKZ6)
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Yes he has words for Graham and several other well known politicians.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at March 08, 2026 08:17 AM (RIvkX)
32
I think the majority of students making those tally marks are female. Just a gut feeling.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 08:20 AM (2Ez/1)
33
Reading a collection of Stephen Crane short stories. Damn shame he died so young.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 08, 2026 08:20 AM (XvL8K)
34
At the turn of the twentieth century, the decaying empires of Russia and continental Europe were hotbeds of anarchism. Socialists and anarchists congregated in the city of London, ironically enjoying more freedom to plot there. This is the setting that Joseph Conrad used in his novel The Secret Agent. Conrad based his story on an actual event in Greenwich.
Adolf Verloc is an agent provocateur for a foreign power whose life has been one of simply spying for First Secretary Vladimir, but Vladimir wants action. He tells Verloc that a shocking terror event is needed, and suggests bombing the Greenwich Observatory. Verloc takes his autistic brother in law under his wing to aid in the bombing, and things go downhill from there.
The novel moves back and forth from Verloc's story to the investigation by chief inspector Heat, who is trying to solve the case from the evidence found at Greenwich, while Heat's superior tries to use diplomatic means to encourage Vladimir to cut back on fomenting terror in England. Conrad's novels are as dense as short stories, painting detailed pictures in the reader's mind, and giving us long passages revealing the thoughts of each character.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:20 AM (0U5gm)
I've been buying particular editions of the following series because I liked their trade dress. However, some of the publishers didn't follow through, so the project will be incomplete.
That said, here's the list: Perry Mason, the Saint, Nero Wolfe, Parker, Garrett, Myth-Adventures (Asprin only), Star Trek: Log (animated series adaptations), Lensman (except "Triplanetary"), Retief, Wild Cards 1-8.
I also have all but the last of the Dortmunder books. All but one are in paperback. I'm flipping between sticking with all paperbacks (less space needed) or springing for hardbacks (nicer covers).
Dortmunder and Parker. Lots of Westlake. Which leads to ...
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 08:21 AM (p/isN)
That Secret History sounds Lovecraftian - or, more specifically, the Lovecraft world that August Derleth tried to create with his version of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:21 AM (ufSfZ)
37
I am trying to break myself of the "must read book 1 first" compulsion if it's a mystery series that fairly standalone.
I now give myself permission to read what's available first, and then go look gor book 1 if it's enjoyable.
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:22 AM (znREB)
38
Completionist: a person who forces an author to write a series of books instead of standalones.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 08:22 AM (1Ff7Z)
39
I think the majority of students making those tally marks are female. Just a gut feeling.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 08:20 AM (2Ez/1)
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Not impossible, though the ratio of male-to-female students here is about 3:1.
40 For reasons I can't explain, many times when I start reading a series of books or just reading books by a single author, I find myself compelled to obtain ALL of the books in the series, or ALL of the books by an author.
I sort of, kind of, used to be such. Not rabid about doing it, but willing to give it a try.
Asimov's "Foundation" Trilogy, then his three robot world works. And then the books where he tried to bridge the two in order to have them be two parts of a common story. And that last group was the bridge too far for me. "This is crap", I thought, and fhat put me off Asimov for good.That was a shame, because I really had enjoyed his short stories as a teenager.
Asimov wasn't alone. Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld" volumes. Ditto, Larry Niven's "Ringworld" works. An iron rule seemed to apply: the longer their authors tried to extend their story, to "complete it", the worse their story telling became and all too soon they entered Crap City and I entered "I Am Done With You" City.
There were notable exceptions, a few. Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee mysteries set in the American Southwest. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes canon. But such were few.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:22 AM (xG4kz)
41
Am I imagining things or is the comments section now using a larger font point size?
42
The prize: a gold statuette of an Aztec dancer. It's the national treasure of a pipsqueak South American country. Worth maybe $1 million.
The problem: It's mixed in with a shipment of 20 authorized replicas, crafted by a crooked sculptor who's going to sell the real thing to a museum in New York.
The complication: Word is leaking out.
That's the basics for "Dancing Aztecs" by Donald Westlake.
A freight hijacker and smuggler at JFK picks up Crate A, as a caller instructed. Uhh ... he was supposed to get Crate E. Not his fault; the caller had a thick Spanish accent. Now Crates B through E have been distributed, and he's told not to bother. Why? Must have been something in Crate E besides these statues. Something valuable.
The remaining 16 statues have been handed out as mementos to each member of a radical pressure group. Button, button, who's got the button ...
(more -- apparently Pixy is setting limits today)
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 08:23 AM (p/isN)
43
Hi JTB! Thanks so much for the recommended article on Conan Doyle in the Paris Review. The first few paragraphs brought back such vivid memories of ordering books in grade school. I don't think I ever would have remembered if not for the article. I can still recall how they smelled when the teacher put them on my desk. I finished "The Sign of the Four and am now on to "The Hound of the Baskervilles". I guess that makes me a completionist!
Posted by: Moonbeam at March 08, 2026 08:23 AM (rbKZ6)
44
23 Oh, boy. A whole lot selected Feminist Literature. From the little I've seen, it is narcissistic, egocentric, wish fulfillment, power fantasy, thrown in with the trappings of various pseudo science and pagan slop all presented as truth.
--
Don't forget revenge fantasy
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:23 AM (znREB)
45
I am also a completionist, snd as such, having been reminded that Dan Simmons passed away on February 21 this year, I am now in the process of reading through all of his standalone novels. Already read the Hyperion Cantos.
He was a tremendously gifted author.
Posted by: Sharkman at March 08, 2026 08:23 AM (/RHNq)
46
Yay book thread! My library would have two categories: "History" and "Other."
"History" would then be subdivided into region and period, while "Other" would be split into "Tolkien" and "Everyone Else."
The hijacker and his partners set out to find the statuette. So do the museum's buyer and his criminal associate. So does a guy who overheard the hijacker (long story). And likely more people will join the hunt -- Westlake thoughtfully provides a list of characters, numbering about 60. I keep rechecking the list when a newcomer appears.
This is delightful.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (p/isN)
48
Which genre does "Morning Glory Milking Farm" fall under? I think I could make a pretty strong case for all of them.
Posted by: Admiral Ackbar at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (JCZqz)
49
That Secret History sounds Lovecraftian - or, more specifically, the Lovecraft world that August Derleth tried to create with his version of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:21 AM (ufSfZ)
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Oh, very much so. Wilson embraced the Cthulhu Mythos in writing this series, but also made his own unique contributions. None of the cosmic beings have unpronounceable names--just descriptors, such as "The Otherness" or "The Ally."
50
These days in some areas I'm a completionist. If there's a writer I like, I'll often try to grab all his books, even the ones I'm not sure I'll ever get around to (76 years old and I can hear that clock ticking louder all the time). Mostly I do this on the Kindle, but there are some I'll keep in hardcover as well as digital. On the shelf is North Atlantic's lovely 13-vol set of the complete short fiction of Theodore Sturgeon -- yeah, I bought the ebooks too but I'm not selling off the hard copies on those.
Current frustration -- Georges Simenon's non-Maigret novels, a number of which haven't been translated and I don't read French.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (q3u5l)
51
I spent the week finishing up Peter Clines' "God's Junk Drawer". Clines basically wrote an adult version of "Land of the Lost". Our protagonist Noah Barnes has returned to the time/space oubliette where he and his sister were trapped, hoping to rescue his sister. He remembers the valley as a scary but thrilling place with a robot from the future, a marooned alien, dinosaurs and Neanderthals, but in his absence the valley has expanded and drawn in people and things from many eras.
Noah and his companions struggle to understand the real nature of the place and how -- or if -- they can escape its confines. Lots of twists and turns. Highly recommended.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (kpS4V)
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (ufSfZ)
53
Just finished reading _The Universe Box_ by Michael Swanwick. It's a collection of short stories by him from the past decade or so. Overall, quite good -- Swanwick's probably the best _writer_ (in the literary sense) in the SF/fantasy field right now, and he knows it. So, overall, recommended.
And now I'm going to touch off a generational flamewar because the only weak story in the book was a bit of Baby Boomer pandering which left this non-Boomer absolutely uninterested. Why do people born between WWII and 1960 have this idea that _anyone_ wants to hear about what it was like getting high in 1967? It's like being in a bar next to some old souse who won't shut up.
Otherwise, good book.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (78a2H)
54
Hello. My nic is Eromero.
I am a complicationist.
Posted by: Eromero at March 08, 2026 08:25 AM (LHPAg)
55
I have also theoretically decided to buy mainly ebooks and audiobooks instead of real books because my vision sucks
Unless I really love the author
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:25 AM (znREB)
56Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 08:24 AM (p/isN)
That book sounds like a combination of The Six Napoleons and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:27 AM (ufSfZ)
57
HOW could I have forgotten to put Matt Helm in my list??!!
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 08:28 AM (p/isN)
58
I splurged on a box set of The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth.
It’s a very nice edition and covers advanced comp sci concepts in a very jocular and interesting manner.
Knuth has a bit of a George RR Martin problem as he takes a long time release new volumes.
The series started in 1962 with three volumes and over the last 60 years has expanded to 5 volumes, 4a and 4b. He’s working on volume 5 but at 88 years old, he’s gotta hurry up and finish before it’s too late.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 08, 2026 08:28 AM (XV/Pl)
59It's like being in a bar next to some old souse who won't shut up.
Well, fuck you. See if I ever tell you a story again.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:28 AM (ufSfZ)
60
I didn't know we had a large print version.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:05 AM (0U5gm)
I see. Thought I'd accidentally enlarged the screen font.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 08:28 AM (1Ff7Z)
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:28 AM (ufSfZ)
64
The other day I watched a YouTube historian Mark Felton profile of Danish author Sven Hassil.
Hassil's books are focused on a Panzer division of expendable soldiers. The key is the focus on German soldiers.
Apparently he was quite popular at one time.
Anyone familiar with him?
Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at March 08, 2026 08:29 AM (zh591)
65
Am I imagining things or is the comments section now using a larger font point size?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at March 08, 2026 08:22 AM (1o8D5)
-
(that's what she said)
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:28 AM (ufSfZ)
---
The miracle of tags that are properly formatted.
68
>>> I have also theoretically decided to buy mainly ebooks and audiobooks instead of real books because my vision sucks
Unless I really love the author
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:25 AM (znREB)
I'm totally with you. I can choose my font size. Even with reading glasses it really helps. I love real books, they're just too hard for me to read anymore.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:29 AM (3uBP9)
69
Because everyone here keeps talking about it, I purchased and downloaded The Camp of the Saints for my Kindle last evening.
So, Amazon now knows I'm a racist, xenophobic. white nationalist. And because Amazon knows, so, too, does the FBI. I'm sure it's in my file by now.
Posted by: one hour sober at March 08, 2026 08:30 AM (Y1sOo)
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars
I would argue that Rogue One is worthy of the title of Star Wars movie.
Posted by: NR Pax at March 08, 2026 08:30 AM (7xrfc)
71The miracle of tags that are properly formatted.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
That's crazy talk!
Posted by: NR Pax at March 08, 2026 08:31 AM (7xrfc)
72
Oh, and The Leopard is one of the greatest novels ever written.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:31 AM (78a2H)
73
Thanks to my Lenten discipline of new youtubes on weeknights, I finished Graham Greene's The Human Element. (This will be a permanent policy going forward, methinks.)
It's an interesting book, taking place in 1978 England and focusing on Cold War politics in South Africa. The main character is English, but married a black woman and has a black stepson, and the English are shown as racist but in a parochial rather than bigoted way, more of a "You're not from here," than dropping slurs and hate. The narrator's mother is displeased that she has no grandchildren that are descended from her, but when the family is in need, steps up to support and sustain them.
It is a spy novel, but heavy on satire and typical British humor (dark, layered absurdity) but like all of Green's stuff that I've read, religious faith (or lack thereof) plays an important role in the story. It is not one of his "serious" works, but as it unfold, the jokes think out and it becomes more serious.
He is very similar to Waugh (they knew and liked each other) but not nearly as vicious in his satire and humor.
Yeah, I see this in listings for all kinds of products over at Amazon. There are always parasitical middlemen looking to make a quick buck.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at March 08, 2026 08:32 AM (O7YUW)
75
I would argue that Rogue One is worthy of the title of Star Wars movie.
Posted by: NR Pax at March 08, 2026 08:30 AM (7xrfc)
---
Disqualified for zombie Peter Cushing and fake Princess Leia.
There are other issues, but those are insurmountable. Needs to be considered an animated film.
76
Finished reading Rick Atkinson's "The Fate of the Day," the 2nd book in his trilogy on the American Revolutionary War. Enjoyed it as much as volume 1, "The British Are Coming."
Now into J Dot D Dot Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. Easy, enjoyable read - except when Mamaw cusses.
77
Because everyone here keeps talking about it, I purchased and downloaded The Camp of the Saints for my Kindle last evening.
So, Amazon now knows I'm a racist, xenophobic. white nationalist. And because Amazon knows, so, too, does the FBI. I'm sure it's in my file by now.
Posted by: one hour sober
It really is a phenomenally prescient book.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:33 AM (0U5gm)
78 And.... it's gone!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey
This is a real thing, but it is binary (i.e., smaller larger). How it comes about, I do not know.
Smaller font is the default. I'm pretty confident there is some metastable state of browser settings and viewing sequence that brings the larger font temporarily into play.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:34 AM (xG4kz)
79
Since Conan Doyle has been mentioned: is it just me, or has anyone else had the experience of reading an apocryphal Holmes story and found that the author simply does not capture his true voice, even if the writer is recommended as 'one of the best?'
Yesterday my Kindle recommended Roger Riccard's A Sherlock Holmes Alphabet of Cases. I started on the first story, but when Watson, within the first two pages, went into the kitchen where his wife was cooking and said, "Mmm, that's good," I deleted it right then and there.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:34 AM (ufSfZ)
80
Lately I've been haunting used bookstores and book sales. Picked up a bunch of old SF paperbacks last weekend but haven't started them yet. Basically I'm getting to all the books I couldn't afford to pick up in the 1980s.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:34 AM (78a2H)
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026 08:35 AM (DoBxX)
83
Rogue One is probably the only Star Wars movie I enjoyed, but that is probably because pretty much every character died.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:35 AM (0U5gm)
84I am trying to break myself of the "must read book 1 first" compulsion if it's a mystery series that fairly standalone.
I now give myself permission to read what's available first, and then go look gor book 1 if it's enjoyable.
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at March 08, 2026
***
The very first Ellery Queen, The Roman Hat Mystery from 1929, is rather stodgy and old-fashioned. The Queen cousins got better as writers and plotters as they moved through the Thirties, changing Ellery to be less obviously bookish and collegiate, producing more vivid stories (The Siamese Twin Mystery sees Ellery and his father trapped atop a mountain with a forest fire working its way up), and better characterization as they went on into the Forties. If somebody wanted to start on the EQ series, I wouldn't recommend Book One.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:36 AM (wzUl9)
85
But did the author intend that message or was it more of the populat north south narrative of the era
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 08:36 AM (bXbFr)
86
Oh, boy. A whole lot selected Feminist Literature. From the little I've seen, it is narcissistic, egocentric, wish fulfillment, power fantasy, thrown in with the trappings of various pseudo science and pagan slop all presented as truth. I can see the appeal maybe if you go into it realizing what it is and not a framework for any decent society. And maybe their profs load them up on it.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:12 AM (3uBP9)
---
It's sort of like the "Sexuality" sections, which exist solely to validate the readers' warped perception of the world.
87
“ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Ephesians 1:3
Posted by: Marcus T at March 08, 2026 08:37 AM (kcoVg)
88
Hello. My name is JTB and I'm a kind of completionist. (Group mumbles "Hi JTB".)
My completionist tendencies are variable. Sometimes I want an entire series: the Patrick O'Brian books, Nero Wolfe, the Liturgical Mysteries, etc. Sometimes I want everything written by a certain author: Tolkien and CS Lewis, of course, Malcolm Guite, Jack Dubrul (he wrote the Philip Mercer series and took over some of the Cussler series), and anything by Donald Hamilton or Robert Howard.
If a book falls into the completionist category, I tend to want physical books but won't, usually, break the budget to do so.
Posted by: JTB at March 08, 2026 08:37 AM (yTvNw)
89 The miracle of tags that are properly formatted.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
It's like Extenz for your viewing screen!
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:38 AM (xG4kz)
90
Being a TOS fan, myself, I'll argue that there are only five Trek movies. The Final Frontier doesn't count.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:38 AM (ufSfZ)
91
Yes, I have great difficulty with Holmes pastiches for that reason. And, frankly, a lot of other pastiches of 19th century literature. The modern diction -- and worst of all the modern _attitudes_ -- spoil them for me.
If you can't enjoy a story about a 19th century Englishman who thinks and acts like a 19th century Englishman, then you are narrow-minded and intellectually incurious.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:38 AM (78a2H)
92Thanks to my Lenten discipline of new youtubes on weeknights, I finished Graham Greene's The Human Element. (This will be a permanent policy going forward, methinks.)
. . .
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 08, 2026
***
I just read this one, entitled The Human Factor. Was Element another title for it, perhaps in America?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:39 AM (wzUl9)
I remember young sherlock tried to put the detective in a kind of temple of doom seti cult with their school master who will be revealed as his antagonist moriarty
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 08:39 AM (bXbFr)
94 Here's my obligatory Ireallyhatedaylightsavingstime and thisleapforwardiswhatsinksitforme rant.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (xG4kz)
95
I've checked out some library books on fantasy mapping:
Fantasy Mapmaking by Cody James King
Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings by Stefan Ekman
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (kpS4V)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (bXbFr)
97
Since Conan Doyle has been mentioned: is it just me, or has anyone else had the experience of reading an apocryphal Holmes story and found that the author simply does not capture his true voice, even if the writer is recommended as 'one of the best?'
Yesterday my Kindle recommended Roger Riccard's A Sherlock Holmes Alphabet of Cases. I started on the first story, but when Watson, within the first two pages, went into the kitchen where his wife was cooking and said, "Mmm, that's good," I deleted it right then and there.
Posted by: Mary Poppins'
Yes, there are dozens of Holmes stories, but few really good ones. Two I felt actually captured the essence of the originals were The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. Both were authorized by Doyle's estate.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (0U5gm)
Don't know that I'd care to read something that was only about getting high in the 60s, but Joe Haldeman's 1968, Tim O'Brien's July July, and Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis are among my favorites of their books.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 08:42 AM (q3u5l)
99
Conrad's novels are as dense as short stories, painting detailed pictures in the reader's mind, and giving us long passages revealing the thoughts of each character.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:20 AM (0U5gm)
---
I think this is considered the first spy thriller.
Conrad is like a hearty meal, one that you can just wolf down and that takes a while to digest.
The Duel is outstanding and also conveys the sense that it's really just a summary of a much bigger story. The film version is outstanding.
100
people say there aren't any heros anymore. I liker books about heros
whilst eating gyros
Posted by: TheCatAttackedMyFoot at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (jrgJz)
101
Yes, there are dozens of Holmes stories, but few really good ones. Two I felt actually captured the essence of the originals were The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. Both were authorized by Doyle's estate.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (0U5gm)
----
One of the worst I've read is "Sherlock vs. Cthulhu" by Lois Gresh.
Sherlock doesn't belong in a Lovecraftian story UNLESS it turns out to have a rational explanation in the end (Scooby-Doo style).
102 Were cats mapmakers, would the maps go on forever or would their compulsion to push things off edges cause them to make fractal maps with infinitely long edges?
The world wonders
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (xG4kz)
103
>>> It's sort of like the "Sexuality" sections, which exist solely to validate the readers' warped perception of the world.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 08, 2026 08:37 AM (ZOv7s)
I find it humorous that there are books on, a whole lot of books on, a basic necessary organic function common throughout all animalia.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (3uBP9)
104I remember young sherlock tried to put the detective in a kind of temple of doom seti cult with their school master who will be revealed as his antagonist moriarty
Young Sherlock Holmes, from 1985. I enjoyed it when it first came out, but never had the urge to re-watch it.
I understand there's an Amazon series called Young Sherlock, but I have no intention of watching it.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (ufSfZ)
105
I just read this one, entitled The Human Factor. Was Element another title for it, perhaps in America?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:39 AM (wzUl9)
---
Sorry, you are correct (though a few of his books do have alternate titles). I keep doing this. A couple weeks back I was writing an article and substituted Stranger Than Fiction for Stranger Things. I need a full time editor.
OK. No more relying on memory. If I've forgotten any more, you'll just have to live uninformed.
I really should get around to reading more of what I own.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 08:45 AM (p/isN)
107
Here's my obligatory Ireallyhatedaylightsavingstime and thisleapforwardiswhatsinksitforme rant.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (xG4kz)
108There were notable exceptions, a few. Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee mysteries set in the American Southwest. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes canon. But such were few.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026
***
Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series remained readable and enjoyable until the end. Yes, he had a couple of clunkers in the '60s and early '70s, but then some of his earlier, pre-WWII novels were weak-ish as well. Archie's voice remained strong all the way, though, and we still wanted to spend time in that brownstone on W. 35th St.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:45 AM (wzUl9)
109
I remember young sherlock tried to put the detective in a kind of temple of doom seti cult with their school master who will be revealed as his antagonist moriarty
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 08:39 AM (bXbFr)
=====
Isn't that the harry potter plot?
Posted by: mustbequantum at March 08, 2026 08:45 AM (QAafR)
110Yes, there are dozens of Holmes stories, but few really good ones. Two I felt actually captured the essence of the originals were The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, and The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz. Both were authorized by Doyle's estate.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (0U5gm)
I have a vague memory of starting Carr's book, but never finishing it. I may have to get a sample on kindle.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:45 AM (ufSfZ)
111
Were cats mapmakers, would the maps go on forever or would their compulsion to push things off edges cause them to make fractal maps with infinitely long edges?
The world wonders
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (xG4kz)
---
Vellum by Hal Duncan features a fractal map. It starts out as a "normal" map by pinpointing your location on Earth. As you keep unfolding it, you start to reveal other areas of the map that appear connected to our world but aren't featured on other maps. Then the book gets weird.
112
Yes lets not speak of solo
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 08:40 AM (bXbFr)
That would be fine with me. I always have to save him from dangerous women.
Posted by: Kuryakin at March 08, 2026 08:47 AM (1Ff7Z)
113
You wouldn't want to be caught in a debate between chatty souse and head cheese. At least not without a few slices of white bread. yum
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:47 AM (3uBP9)
114
I find it humorous that there are books on, a whole lot of books on, a basic necessary organic function common throughout all animalia.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (3uBP9)
I’ve even heard that there’s a whole lot of space on the interwebs devoted to it.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 08, 2026 08:47 AM (sgiFZ)
115
I purchased the DVD set of BBC's Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett. These were very good, Brett captured the essence of Holmes, and the series was close to the original stories, apart from a few where the plots were modified due to Brett's failing health. He basically did every original story and died shortly thereafter.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:49 AM (0U5gm)
116
and Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis are among my favorites of their books.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 08:42 AM (q3u5l)
Oh, I read that one some years ago. I don't remember much of it, but every time I see a lost pet flyer, I think in my head, "...our dear Brautigan..."
117
Oh, and The Leopard is one of the greatest novels ever written.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:31 AM (78a2H)
---
I should read that. In Focault's Pendulum, there's a reference to it and I always wanted to follow that up.
The reference is through a book of great Italian authors is that completely bogus, it's a prop used by a vanity press that is used to assure that potential clients will become famous, so most of the people in it are their customers and get glowing articles while classic, known books are treated as "meh." Quite funny.
118
Whole lotta books, whole lotta space on the web.
Ah, humans. Pon Farr 24/7/365 (366 if it's a leap year).
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 08:51 AM (q3u5l)
119
One thing which is amusing about the otherwise disappointing genre of Holmes pastiches is that most of the modern writers trying to emulate Doyle are actually writing _better_ mysteries than he ever did. Most of his stories require Holmes to notice things the police really should have spotted (Problem of Thor Bridge), or require huge sweeping generalizations to be true, or Encyclopedia Brown levels of trivia knowledge. (And some of those are simply wrong -- see The Speckled Band.)
The best Holmes story as a detective story is probably "The Naval Treaty" and _The Sign of Four_ is a great pulp novel.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:51 AM (78a2H)
120
I see there was a film version of Greene's The Human Factor in 1979, with Nicol Williamson as the central character Maurice Castle, and featuring Richard Attenborough and Derek Jacobi -- directed by Otto Preminger. I'm curious to see what OP made out of the Greene material.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:51 AM (wzUl9)
121 The is a multivariate data modeling technique called the self organizing map (SOM) wherein you can choose whether your map is 2D with definite edges or whether the top-bottom edges come together as do the left-right edges. I never gave much thought to the physical reality of the seamed edges approach, but I did find it to be the more insightful approach to use in order to tweek out marketing opportunities among customers of our company's multidisciplinary analytical sciences section.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:52 AM (xG4kz)
122
When it comes to used books I probably fall into category I or II. I want a physical book in the best condition I can find for a reasonable cost. If I can get a 'good' copy for a certain price or a 'very good' one for a buck or two more I'll go with the better version.
I am a stickler for a used book seller having good reviews, above 90% positive as Amazon rates them. And when a seller does a better than average job of delivery and packaging I always leave a suitable review.
Posted by: JTB at March 08, 2026 08:52 AM (yTvNw)
123
I’ve even heard that there’s a whole lot of space on the interwebs devoted to it.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 08, 2026 08:47 AM (sgiFZ)
---
When I was still assigned to the Wing Public Affairs office, the officer in charge asked me if I'd finished my cyber security training. There was a bunch of people in the room and I answered back loudly. "Yes, sir! It was great. I just learned that there are things on the internet other than cat videos and porn! Who knew?"
124 I neglected to add that the data grid was hexagonal for the SOM technique.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:53 AM (xG4kz)
125
I thought we were going to stop changing the clocks. That would make me happy, as long as they keep standard time, and not make daylight savings permanent. I can travel all over the world and not have jet lag, but for some reason, the one hour change takes me a week to adjust.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:53 AM (0U5gm)
126
Many years ago, I bought a trade paperback collecting some Dark Horse-published Indiana Jones comics. The collection included "The Fate of Atlantis," "Thunder in the Orient," and "Arms of Gold" stories. I didn't particularly enjoy either of them. However, I just recently finished reading the entire run of Marvel-published Indiana Jones comics, and figured I should re-read the Dark Horse books to how they compared. Alas, neither time nor context have improved my appreciation of them.
Being from the 90s, the DH books should have had several advantages over the Marvel books of the 80s. By the 90s there was better coloring available, and there wasn't the expectation that every story would wrap up in one or two issues. Most importantly, the DH books had the full trilogy of movies to draw from, while the Marvel series was mostly just a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. However, none of those advantages will overcome sloppy writing. Shallow connections with history, using way too many wild coincidences instead of logical progression, and generally awkward characters (the girl of the story gets psychic premonitions) will ruin any story...
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 08, 2026 08:53 AM (Lhaco)
127
I would recommend a paperback from 1985, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Richard Lancelyn Green, which is a collection of pastiches that are above the usual level of such things. Tow of my favorites are The Adventure of the Megatherium Thefts, which is about an obsessed book collector and The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet, about a rare volume of Shakespeare.
There are one or two clunkers, but on the whole, the stories are the best apocrypha I've read.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 08:53 AM (ufSfZ)
128
The Duel is outstanding and also conveys the sense that it's really just a summary of a much bigger story. The film version is outstanding.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
__________
It's also based on a true story. And the film is Ridley Scott's first.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 08, 2026 08:54 AM (XvL8K)
129
The is a multivariate data modeling technique called the self organizing map (SOM) wherein you can choose whether your map is 2D with definite edges or whether the top-bottom edges come together as do the left-right edges. I never gave much thought to the physical reality of the seamed edges approach, but I did find it to be the more insightful approach to use in order to tweek out marketing opportunities among customers of our company's multidisciplinary analytical sciences section.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:52 AM (xG4kz)
---
Topologically, I think the map you are talking about where the North and South join and the East and West join forms a toroidal shape. Ancient computer games like the Ultima series used to have this style of map.
130 One thing which is amusing about the otherwise disappointing genre of Holmes pastiches is that most of the modern writers trying to emulate Doyle are actually writing _better_ mysteries than he ever did. Most of his stories require Holmes to notice things the police really should have spotted (Problem of Thor Bridge), or require huge sweeping generalizations to be true, or Encyclopedia Brown levels of trivia knowledge. (And some of those are simply wrong -- see The Speckled Band.)
The best Holmes story as a detective story is probably "The Naval Treaty" and _The Sign of Four_ is a great pulp novel.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026
***
Raymond Chandler commented that Holmes was "mostly an attitude and a few lines of great dialogue." I think RC was oversimplifying. In general, you are right; Doyle's "mysteries" are not great puzzle plots. Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr, even in the short form, ran rings around him. (But Doyle's Holmes was the centerpost they were circling; it all comes back to him.)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 08:55 AM (wzUl9)
131
I find it humorous that there are books on, a whole lot of books on, a basic necessary organic function common throughout all animalia.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (3uBP9)
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If you make the simple assumption that people generally like to read stories about stuff they can't do - like slay dragons, travel through deep space, or experience historic events personally - it makes a tremendous amount of sense.
132
Can anyone give me a rational explanation as to why "Judge" Napalitano has a show on NewsMax? He offends me with every word he says.
Also, somewhere around high school graduation, I found and read a book that had every single Sherlock Holmes story/novel. It weighed about 30 pounds, and the print was so small I would need a microscope to read it now....
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at March 08, 2026 08:56 AM (cP7MP)
133
Speaking of the National Guard, spare a prayer if you can for those like my daughter, who have to go to drill this morning with one less hour of sleep.
134
Sometimes you just can't find a used book at a reasonable price anywhere. I ran into that looking for books about the works of Franklin Booth, one of the finest pen and ink illustrators ever. They just aren't around at a realistic price. Bummer!
You are right, the doubly joined edges form a toroid.
My formerly keen modeling senses, vocabulary and overall grasp of data modeling's technical matters have all atrophied from nearly complete disuse of any of them for the things that have occupied my time since I retired over a dozen years ago.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 08:59 AM (xG4kz)
136
L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series and "Stephen Erikson"s Malazan series killed my 'completionist' urges. Now if a series starts to irritate me, I bail on it. I have bookshelves full of books I haven't gotten to yet. Life is too short to read shitty authors.
I will probably buy the rest of GRRM's ASoIaF series when he finishes i....sorry, I can't write that sentence without laughing. He's never going to finish Game of Thrones. Never.
Currently reading Dr. Michael Heiser's 'Unseen Realm', which has some interesting implications, especially if you grew up playing D&D like I did. And working on Martin Chuzzlewit and honestly, it's growing on me.
137
Last week I finished reading "The Africa Wars: Warriors and Soldiers of the Colonial Campaigns" by Chris Peers. Its partially and overview of various European-vs-African wars of the late 19th century, and partially an ethnography of the various African tribes encounter in those wars. More pages were given to explaining the Zulus (and how the Zulu-inspired tribes spread out and displaced many neighboring tribes) than was given to the Anglo-Zulu war. Which is fair enough.
The book was entertaining, and had some new-to-me information, but I have so little context for the African tribes that many of them started to blur together...
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 08, 2026 09:00 AM (Lhaco)
138
133 Speaking of the National Guard, spare a prayer if you can for those like my daughter, who have to go to drill this morning with one less hour of sleep.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 08, 2026 08:57 AM (ZOv7s)
Consider it done.
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at March 08, 2026 09:01 AM (cP7MP)
139Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 08:49 AM (0U5gm)
I agree that Brett was and is the best Holmes ever captured on screen. However, if you can find it, Peter Cushing played Holmes in a series of BBC adaptations in the 1960s. Only five episodes survive - and one has to allow for the limitations of 1960s TV - but I think they're worth seeking out.
You can find them on YouTube.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:01 AM (ufSfZ)
140
Also, somewhere around high school graduation, I found and read a book that had every single Sherlock Holmes story/novel. It weighed about 30 pounds, and the print was so small I would need a microscope to read it now....
Posted by: SSBN 656
I think I had that one as well, if I recall correctly, it was reprints of the actual Strand magazine where the stories first appeared. Since then, I have acquired the nice hardbacks that Book of the Month printed in the nineties.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 09:01 AM (0U5gm)
141
It's also based on a true story. And the film is Ridley Scott's first.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at March 08, 2026 08:54 AM (XvL8K)
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Was it, though? It's been a while, but I thought I read in the introduction that it was something of a legend and Conrad wrote it down and did so with such authority that people assumed it was true.
Just like people thought the introduction to Lolita was genuine, and not part of the novel.
142 Also, somewhere around high school graduation, I found and read a book that had every single Sherlock Holmes story/novel. It weighed about 30 pounds, and the print was so small I would need a microscope to read it now....
I have "The Annotated Sherlock Holmes", a two volume set, on my bookshelf. It has all the Holmes canon's stories.
The same publisher also sold "The Annotated Shakespeare" which have all his plays and sonnets, I believe. Three volumes.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:03 AM (xG4kz)
143
Put me firmly in the Brett camp. I'd seen other Holmes adaptations but when I saw him I knew I was watching the _real_ Sherlock Holmes.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 09:04 AM (78a2H)
144
The only Cushing-as-Sherlock I remember seeing was Hound of the Baskervilles; didn't know he'd done a series for BBC. Will add that to the list.
Thanks, MP4.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:04 AM (q3u5l)
145
Last week I finished reading "The Africa Wars: Warriors and Soldiers of the Colonial Campaigns" by Chris Peers. Its partially and overview of various European-vs-African wars of the late 19th century, and partially an ethnography of the various African tribes encounter in those wars. More pages were given to explaining the Zulus (and how the Zulu-inspired tribes spread out and displaced many neighboring tribes) than was given to the Anglo-Zulu war. Which is fair enough.
The book was entertaining, and had some new-to-me information, but I have so little context for the African tribes that many of them started to blur together...
Posted by: Castle Guy
You might like The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Packenham. It covers most of the European colonial escapades in Africa, so it is huge, but filled with fascinating stories.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 09:05 AM (0U5gm)
I think I had that one as well, if I recall correctly, it was reprints of the actual Strand magazine where the stories first appeared. Since then, I have acquired the nice hardbacks that Book of the Month printed in the nineties.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 09:01 AM (0U5gm)
Very well be the same one, I vaguely remember them being in a seemingly haphazard order- 3 shortish stories, then suddenly a huge novel; randomly rinse and repeat...
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at March 08, 2026 09:06 AM (cP7MP)
147
My own writing goes on, albeit slowly. I penned a scene and, after typing it up, realized that it actually belonged in a completely different spot than I had originally planned. So that's a bit of editing I have to do. I'm only a couple of chapters from the midpoint, but they're both important and difficult to edit if the story is going to be taken seriously.
I had hoped to get to them today, but I have errands to run.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:06 AM (ufSfZ)
I'm a completionist.
---
I am in some things but not in others. Books is where I am not. I used to be, but realized that life is too short to waste on slop. I don't even bother finishing a book if it bores me. That's the author's job. Make me want to finish it, make me hate putting it down, don't make me force my way to the end.
I'm something of a completionist in my writing insofar as I have a habit of picking up an abandoned project years, even decades after giving up and finishing it. I actually have a spread sheet to track this and I find great satisfaction put putting a bold PUBLISHED in the status field.
149
Perfessor I'd describe myself as a frugal completionist. It's pretty close to what you describe.
Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at March 08, 2026 09:08 AM (c3ex7)
150
Why do people born between WWII and 1960 have this idea that _anyone_ wants to hear about what it was like getting high in 1967?
==
I agree. However there are a shit ton of pot heads these days. We will never be rid of the stoopid hippie dipshits. Legalization cemented it forever in society. Torpid listless dullwits.
Posted by: Alternative point of view at March 08, 2026 09:08 AM (YrUlT)
151
"...After Munyigumba's death a struggle for power erupted between his son Mkwawa and his sone-in-law Mwambambe. Hehe tradition describes Mkwawa as..."
That was an excerpt from "The Africa Wars" that I highlighted because it sounded so stereotypical that it could have been parody in another context. But I guess some things (like crazy ethnic names) become 'stereotypical' because they are legitimately based in reality...
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 08, 2026 09:09 AM (Lhaco)
152
43 ... "Thanks so much for the recommended article on Conan Doyle in the Paris Review. The first few paragraphs brought back such vivid memories of ordering books in grade school. I don't think I ever would have remembered if not for the article. I can still recall how they smelled when the teacher put them on my desk."
Moonbeam,
So glad you enjoyed that article. Michael Dirda is a delight to read. I smiled when I read it since his description of his first time reading Hound of the Baskervilles in grade school matches my experience almost perfectly, right down to the stormy weather and the snacks.
BTW, I still have a couple of the books I got through the Scholastic Books program. Considering I got them when JFK was president, they qualify as venerable.
Posted by: JTB at March 08, 2026 09:09 AM (yTvNw)
153The only Cushing-as-Sherlock I remember seeing was Hound of the Baskervilles; didn't know he'd done a series for BBC. Will add that to the list.
Thanks, MP4.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:04 AM (q3u5l)
The other four are A Study in Scarlet (minus the whole American flashback), The Sign of Four, The Blue Carbuncle and The Boscombe Valley Mystery.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:10 AM (ufSfZ)
154
Was it, though? It's been a while, but I thought I read in the introduction that it was something of a legend and Conrad wrote it down and did so with such authority that people assumed it was true.
NiedermeyersDeadHorse aka NDH
@NiedsG
·
12h
Medical eval... cleared
PT eval... passed
OT eval... passed
Outpatient rehab... scheduled
Medicine... in hand
Rollater... delivered
Last hospital meal... ordered
Out of here 1100 Sunday... TBD
Posted by: toby928(c) at March 08, 2026 09:10 AM (4NO2D)
156
Regarding that opening picture, people felt compelled to include 'feminist literature' as a distinct genre, and marked it as their favorite. I weep for the species.
Personally, I would have checked 'Fantasy.'
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 08, 2026 09:11 AM (Lhaco)
157
"The Leopard" was made into a movie. I saw it a few years ago, but I'll be darned if I can remember anything about it other than that it was set in Italy.
Hitchcock made a movie based on "The Secret Agent" called "Sabotage", not to be confused with "Saboteur", a much better movie.
Posted by: Toad-0 at March 08, 2026 09:13 AM (apR13)
158
Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at March 08, 2026 08:29 AM
Just yesterday a YouTube film came up Panzer Greifen Ani , a propaganda film of the German offensive in May 1940.
I wish I did WWII modles because it was a treasure to see long versions of German troops with trucks and tanks in action
Posted by: Skip at March 08, 2026 09:13 AM (Ia/+0)
159 The movie was "The Duellists". It was Scott's first., according the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Best Debut Film award in 1977.
I read somewhere that there was an element of historical truth to the extended duel between two protagonists, but I cannot recall the details.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:14 AM (xG4kz)
160
Yay book thread! My library would have two categories: "History" and "Other."
"History" would then be subdivided into region and period, while "Other" would be split into "Tolkien" and "Everyone Else."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
This is how public libraries should be organized.
Posted by: Sharkman at March 08, 2026 09:14 AM (/RHNq)
161
116 ...and Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis are among my favorites of their books.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 08:42 AM (q3u5l)
Oh, I read that one some years ago. I don't remember much of it, but every time I see a lost pet flyer, I think in my head, "...our dear Brautigan..."
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 08, 2026 08:50 AM (h7ZuX)
I hate Stephen King, but only personally. With few exceptions, I absolutely loved everything he wrote (under his real name) from Carrie all the way though the last Gunslinger chapter.
Then Twitter came along, and I saw what a despicable human he actually is (or, to be charitable, the one he wanted to depict himself as). I stopped reading him after some garbage about a spider in a closet or something...
Hey, there should be a Book Thread dedicated to individual authors, kind of like when Ace tried with his ill-fated Book Club thing, but with authors instead of individual books...
Or am I like 15 years too late with that thought? LOL
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at March 08, 2026 09:16 AM (cP7MP)
162 Personally, I would have checked 'Fantasy.'
Posted by: Castle Guy
I would have added a column, "Deranged Rantings" and checked that.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:16 AM (xG4kz)
163
My own writing goes on, albeit slowly. I penned a scene and, after typing it up, realized that it actually belonged in a completely different spot than I had originally planned. So that's a bit of editing I have to do.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:06 AM (ufSfZ)
Same, sort of. My editor suggested a scene or two to give the protagonist a more vigorous response to the actions of the villain. I tried to write a short one for earlier in the book, but the second one is coming out longer than it should. It's near the end of the book, and I have to find somewhere to place it so it looks organic to the story and not just tacked on.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 09:17 AM (1Ff7Z)
164
Centaur milkmaids on Holiday is a new AI generated series coming to Amazon.
If that works, the next will be: The Japanese Fishermans Wife in the Prison of Tentacles.
Posted by: AI makes everything better at March 08, 2026 09:17 AM (YrUlT)
165
How come technical manuals are not a category?
Posted by: toby928(c) at March 08, 2026 09:17 AM (4NO2D)
166 This is how public libraries should be organized.
Posted by: Sharkman
Restrooms therein would be "Non Hobo" and "Hobo". The latter would be portajohns situated in the alleyway behind the building.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:19 AM (xG4kz)
167
Alternative: Yep, I am glumly resigned to walking through great banks of weed smoke any time I go out in a city.
My personal prejudice against stoners is that the devil weed makes them think what they are saying is clever or interesting. Two of the most boring conversations in my life were with stoned people.
A while back I watched _Easy Rider_ and found myself rooting for the good people of Louisiana who had to listen to those tiresome bikers blathering on in their bars.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 09:20 AM (78a2H)
168
Centaur milkmaids on Holiday is a new AI generated series coming to Amazon.
If that works, the next will be: The Japanese Fishermans Wife in the Prison of Tentacles.
Posted by: AI makes everything better at March 08, 2026 09:17 AM (YrUlT)
---
This is one of those things where there AI might actually be helplful, since it can eliminate the human element, ending a lot of the trafficking and the debasement of actual humans. I'm quite fine with pornographers being put out of business by tech.
169
I'm counting down to retirement in April. I'm in a technical management role and have a handful of direct reports. Every week I'm supposed to update a portion of a shared activity report. Now that I'm officially in the Garage Time (football reference) of my career I've decided to have fun with it by leaving Easter eggs sprinkled throughout my section just to prove no one ever reads those things.
For weeks now it's claimed that for one person to achieve a certain breakthrough he divided by zero. Another walked on water. After conducting a series of interviews I've made job offers to two candidates I unabashedly referred to as unicorns.
So far no one has said a thing.
Dilbert lives.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 09:20 AM (2Ez/1)
170
How come technical manuals are not a category?
Posted by: toby928(c) at March 08, 2026 09:17 AM (4NO2D)
Because you touch yourself at night.
~ Family Guy, S2E20
Posted by: one hour sober at March 08, 2026 09:20 AM (Y1sOo)
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 09:21 AM (2Ez/1)
175
I'm a sucker for history, particularly military history, particularly WWII (the Big One), and particularly aerial warfare so when I saw Bloody Dangerous by Colin Bell, the memoirs of a 105 year old Mosquito pilot looking back on his youth, I bought it. Then yesterday I saw this YT about Bell and his book.
https://is.gd/tNtjQE
He gets along pretty well for 105.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at March 08, 2026 09:21 AM (FXNzP)
176
>>The other four are A Study in Scarlet (minus the whole American flashback), The Sign of Four, The Blue Carbuncle and The Boscombe Valley Mystery.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:10 AM (ufSfZ)
Wasn't the 'American flashback' in Valley of Fear?
Posted by: Nazdar at March 08, 2026 09:21 AM (NcvvS)
177
Good morning.
Is the blog still on whatever the old time was called?
I read a book I found in the condo "library". It is small but surprisingly free of politics for Bethesda. By Neal Stephenson and Frederick George called The Cobweb. It is a political thriller set in a small University town in Ohio and in the bowels,of the CIA in DC in the period just before/during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.Published in 1997, still feels relevant with political maneuvering between the CIA and FBI and the main characters Sneriff Clyde Banks in Ohio and Betsy Vandeventerin DC are very relatable. No heavy lifting and a very satisfactory resolution to the mystery.
Recommended.
178
It's been a while, but I thought I read in the introduction that it was something of a legend and Conrad wrote it down and did so with such authority that people assumed it was true.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
Conrad apparently got ideas for his novels from actual events. For example, The Secret Agent that I read this week, is loosely based on the story of Martial Bourdin, who carried a bomb to Greenwich Observatory and it went off in his hand before he could place it in a vulnerable spot. And, of course, Heart of Darkness was inspired by an actual voyage up the river in the Belgian Congo.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 09:22 AM (0U5gm)
179
Alternative: Yep, I am glumly resigned to walking through great banks of weed smoke any time I go out in a city.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 09:20 AM (78a2H)
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The problem was that popular support for enforcing prohibition was collapsing. The hope is that as its problems become more apparent, that support will rebound and more restrictions will result.
180 How come technical manuals are not a category?
Posted by: toby928(c)
There's a technical manual that explains that.
The lack of experience with the English language is rampantly evident throughout that section.
Its.Finnish language section has a reputation for causing seizures.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:23 AM (xG4kz)
181
Hey, there should be a Book Thread dedicated to individual authors, kind of like when Ace tried with his ill-fated Book Club thing, but with authors instead of individual books...
Or am I like 15 years too late with that thought? LOL
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at March 08, 2026 09:16 AM (cP7MP)
Didn't Sabrina say she might be doing that on her turns on the Book Thread?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 09:24 AM (1Ff7Z)
Just do it while you're alone.
And wash your hands afterwards.
Posted by: Always sound advice at March 08, 2026 09:24 AM (2Ez/1)
183
I'm really enjoying "The Last Kings of Hollywood".
Coppola is filming the scene where Sonny is machine-gunned at the toll booth. James Caan asks how many squibs are taped to his body and is told 147, and is instructed not to let his hands get close to the squibs or his fingers could get blown off. He considers chickening out but there are cute girls watching the shoot.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 09:24 AM (kpS4V)
184
>>Posted by: Nazdar at March 08, 2026 09:21 AM (NcvvS)
Apologies. Looked it up; had forgotten that part.
Posted by: Nazdar at March 08, 2026 09:25 AM (NcvvS)
185
I don't know if King's a despicable human being. His political views are despicable (and he'd almost certainly say the same of mine). I've pretty well stopped reading his novels because he doesn't seem to be able to keep that stuff out of the books any more -- he's still enough of a craftsman to keep a lot of it out of the short fiction where there's just no room for it.
And even if I hated all of his fiction, I'd count him as one of the good guys for doing Danse Macabre, his book on horror in fiction, film, and tv 1950-80; found enough recommendations in that one to last me for years.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:25 AM (q3u5l)
186
The Duelists, only seen twice and not in years is based on a true story.
Posted by: Skip at March 08, 2026 09:26 AM (Ia/+0)
187 ...and the main characters Sneriff Clyde Banks in Ohio and Betsy Vandeventerin DC are very relatable.
What did you think of the authors' treatment of Constable Herstenvornenbargen?
I keed!
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:26 AM (xG4kz)
188
Conrad apparently got ideas for his novels from actual events. For example, The Secret Agent that I read this week, is loosely based on the story of Martial Bourdin, who carried a bomb to Greenwich Observatory and it went off in his hand before he could place it in a vulnerable spot. And, of course, Heart of Darkness was inspired by an actual voyage up the river in the Belgian Congo.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 08, 2026 09:22 AM (0U5gm)
---
Like all authors, he wrote what he knew. [Runs to grab books to make sure he gets the titles correct.] Norman Sherry wrote two books, Conrad's Eastern World and Conrad's Western World which examine his career as a sailor and the real-life events that inspired his stories. The books are from the 60s, and the author was able to interview people (or family of people) who were in the events and has period pictures of places Conrad visited.
189 The Duelists, only seen twice and not in years is based on a true story.
Posted by: Skip
It shows up as a free movie on YouTube fairly regularly.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:28 AM (xG4kz)
190
The end of a movie I had on was talking about the engineers would have the battle fortifications ready in two days and I thought that would be a fun read about life from an ancient engineers point of view.
Posted by: Ben Had at March 08, 2026 09:28 AM (+nEug)
191
"How come technical manuals are not a category?"
Because they forgot to ask Scotty to check the category list before they put it up.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:29 AM (q3u5l)
In my haste to post I neglected to liberally festoon that constable's name with umlauts!
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:30 AM (xG4kz)
193Wasn't the 'American flashback' in Valley of Fear?
Scarlet was the Mormons and Valley of Fear the AOH, IIRC.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:30 AM (ufSfZ)
194
91 Yes, I have great difficulty with Holmes pastiches for that reason. And, frankly, a lot of other pastiches of 19th century literature. The modern diction -- and worst of all the modern _attitudes_ -- spoil them for me.
If you can't enjoy a story about a 19th century Englishman who thinks and acts like a 19th century Englishman, then you are narrow-minded and intellectually incurious.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 08:38 AM (78a2H)
I run into a similar issues in fantasy novels. I once bailed on a story because it started with a peasant character going to school. I suppose it's possible to structure a fantasy world where society worked that way, but...It just didn't feel right.
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 08, 2026 09:31 AM (Lhaco)
195
Came across a YT video about how LOTR shouldn't be classified with fantasy but with epics like Homer, the Aeneid, and Norse mythologies. Considering some of Tolkien's statements about writing it involved providing/discovering a British mythology, which he thinks of a means to truth, I cans see the point. Keep LOTR away from the less inspiring examples of fantasy popular today. I do use the typical term fantasy for LOTR but have always considered it to be literature in a general sense.
Posted by: JTB at March 08, 2026 09:31 AM (yTvNw)
196
I'd check History, I think. Just started reading a small collection of short stories by Chekhov. I knew the name, of course but in my 70 years had never read anything. The man can write. I say I just started but I'm almost done because it's hard to put down. That has slowed down progress on Judy Dench's Shakespeare book (which continues to be excellent). My next 'big' book to tackle is Nostromo by Joseph Conrad. I read a few of his books when I was in college and remember thinking they were pretty good but they didn't really grab my attention. 20 years ago I read his seafaring memoir (of sorts) called The Mirror of the Sea and loved so I'm giving his novels another go.
Posted by: who knew at March 08, 2026 09:31 AM (+ViXu)
197
The problem was that popular support for enforcing prohibition was collapsing. The hope is that as its problems become more apparent, that support will rebound and more restrictions will result.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 08, 2026 09:22 AM (ZOv7s)
I certainly hope so. I'm tired of the stench everywhere, too.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 09:32 AM (1Ff7Z)
198I agree that Brett was and is the best Holmes ever captured on screen. . . .
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026
***
That particular series did something none of the others I've seen ever did: It showed Holmes dressed in something other than tweed -- a seersucker suit, I think, with a straw hat in the summer -- and smoking something other than a pipe. Holmes puffed the occasional cigarette in the books, and we saw Brett doing that now and then.
Brett also captured a subtle quality of Holmes that Rathbone and others did not. Watson mentioned that Holmes -- while never admitting to it -- was proud of his work. In one Brett episode, he is facing the camera, and the client of the moment exclaims at how wonderful SH's deductions are. And we see Brett's Holmes give the faintest little smile of pleasure before wiping it away and turning back to his client, all business and reasoning machine once more.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:33 AM (wzUl9)
199
One of the takeaways from reading Sherry's book is that creativity is overrated. We laud imagination, but in actuality, that doesn't mean creating something wholly new and unique but combining actual things in new and unique ways. The closer we hew to reality, the more it resonates. Woke writing sucks because it's creates characters and events that feel utterly unnatural, totally artificial.
Tolkien gets praised for his imagination, but the deeper you dig, the more you see how much was deriving from people and events around him. He wasn't creating so much as adopting, which is in many ways harder because you have to know that much more.
200 Mark me down for History. My capacity for Fantasy is pretty much tapped out these days.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:34 AM (xG4kz)
201
I don't know if King's a despicable human being. His political views are despicable (and he'd almost certainly say the same of mine).
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:25 AM (q3u5l)
Yes, but he'd be wrong.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 09:35 AM (1Ff7Z)
202
Mornin' Horde. Still working on my TX history - now into Reconstruction and Edmund J. Davis.
I'm not really a completionist. My favorite author is Elizabeth Peters, but only the Amelia Peabody series. So far, I haven't been able to get into the other series she wrote under this name, even though one of them features a librarian (Jacqueline Kirby). But I'll probably try them again someday. Never even dipped into any of the books she wrote under Barbara Michaels. (She wrote Egyptology nonfiction under her real name, Barbara Mertz).
I have all the Amelia Peabodys, in a mix of tattered mass market paperbacks and ex-library hardcovers picked up at book sales. Except the final one, which was in process at her death and finished by another author. I read it, but glad I didn't buy it. The other author couldn't live up to Mertz/Peters' style and wasn't true to the characters.
I've taken a pause from the Sebastian St Cyr series by C.S. Harris after book 13, but will definitely resume that. One of the problems I used to have with series that are still being published is I'd tear through each one as they came out and then have a long wait for the next. Now, I stay behind and that's ok.
Posted by: screaming in digital at March 08, 2026 09:35 AM (fVXtb)
203
The Duelists, only seen twice and not in years is based on a true story.
Posted by: Skip
It shows up as a free movie on YouTube fairly regularly.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:28 AM (xG4kz)
I watched it a while ago because I read somewhere that Harvey Keitel and one of the still-living Carradines actually were whacking each other with swords. Hard to tell. I always thought the point of a duel was to resolve things, once and for all, but this duel went on for years. At some point, somebody just kill somebody.
Posted by: Ex Rex Reeder at March 08, 2026 09:36 AM (MZ+PY)
204This is one of those things where there AI might actually be helplful, since it can eliminate the human element, ending a lot of the trafficking and the debasement of actual humans. I'm quite fine with pornographers being put out of business by tech.
helpful?
You would think that AI generated child pr0n would have been one of the earliest usages of generative AI.
The first laws against child pr0n appeared in the mid 1970s both in the US and in Europe, NY vs Ferber made it clear that the laws were intended to protect the children. it was upgraded in 1990 Osborne v Ohio to mere possession because it allegedly encouraged demand and further abuse.
I'm not seeing any cases that determined that the motivation for the existence of the laws is to discourage viewing, rather to protect children.
Given the time that has gone by, I'm surprised no one has tested the law w/r/t using AI generated (child-free) pr0n. Maybe they have and no one is prosecuting it because people can make their own at home over the web and VPN in relative obscurity.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at March 08, 2026 09:36 AM (a4flb)
205
Came across a YT video about how LOTR shouldn't be classified with fantasy but with epics like Homer, the Aeneid, and Norse mythologies.
Posted by: JTB at March 08, 2026 09:31 AM (yTvNw)
---
That was Tolkien's stated intent, and I believe that it is increasingly considered to be "literature," especially as scholars come to understand that there is almost nothing in it that is not deliberately placed and that has some sort of symbolic importance. "Tolkien Studies" is now a thing.
Dan simmons take on sherlock waa pretty good i think
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:36 AM (bXbFr)
208The other four are A Study in Scarlet (minus the whole American flashback), The Sign of Four, The Blue Carbuncle and The Boscombe Valley Mystery.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026
*
Wasn't the 'American flashback' in Valley of Fear?
Posted by: Nazdar at March 08, 2026
***
There's one in each. As a boy I skipped the one in Scarlet, wanting to read more about Holmes. However, when I finally read Valley of Fear (a fine mystery, by the way) about six years ago, I stayed with Doyle throughout the "Molly Maguires" section and found it fascinating.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:37 AM (wzUl9)
209
The other day I watched a YouTube historian Mark Felton profile of Danish author Sven Hassil.
Hassil's books are focused on a Panzer division of expendable soldiers. The key is the focus on German soldiers.
Apparently he was quite popular at one time.
Anyone familiar with him?
Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA
I read a number when I was a yute. Although marketed as a memoir, they are 99% bullshit. The basic story is a foreign recruit to the German army goes AWOL to see his girl and is punished by being assigned to a punishment battalion that is forced to do the worst of the worst jobs. (Punishment battalions were very real but I don't think any were armored.)
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at March 08, 2026 09:37 AM (FXNzP)
Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at March 08, 2026 09:38 AM (Kt19C)
211Brett also captured a subtle quality of Holmes that Rathbone and others did not. Watson mentioned that Holmes -- while never admitting to it -- was proud of his work. In one Brett episode, he is facing the camera, and the client of the moment exclaims at how wonderful SH's deductions are. And we see Brett's Holmes give the faintest little smile of pleasure before wiping it away and turning back to his client, all business and reasoning machine once more.
There's also one episode (wish I could remember it), where, at the end, Holmes is striding away from the building where he has just solved a mystery and suddenly leaps into the air in joy.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:38 AM (ufSfZ)
212 Woke writing sucks because it's creates characters and events that feel utterly unnatural, totally artificial.
It sucks because its authors, rabid pronouns freaks all, cannot help but put themselves at the center of everything they write and viewpoints that are not theirs are incomprehensible to them and so there is no valid give and take among points of view.
"I think ... and what do you think of what I think?"
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:39 AM (xG4kz)
213
Given the time that has gone by, I'm surprised no one has tested the law w/r/t using AI generated (child-free) pr0n. Maybe they have and no one is prosecuting it because people can make their own at home over the web and VPN in relative obscurity.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at March 08, 2026 09:36 AM (a4flb)
---
There's no way to stop people from drawing naughty images for themselves. This just makes it easier.
The counterargument to my hope is that the evil in using real humans is part of the thrill. The demons want the straight dope, not an artificial substitute.
214There's also one episode (wish I could remember it), where, at the end, Holmes is striding away from the building where he has just solved a mystery and suddenly leaps into the air in joy.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026
***
I can't say I remember that episode, or any such scene in the Doyle works. But even if that's not canon, it's a good bit of characterization from actor Brett.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:40 AM (wzUl9)
215
Brett also captured a subtle quality of Holmes that Rathbone and others did not. Watson mentioned that Holmes -- while never admitting to it -- was proud of his work. In one Brett episode, he is facing the camera, and the client of the moment exclaims at how wonderful SH's deductions are. And we see Brett's Holmes give the faintest little smile of pleasure before wiping it away and turning back to his client, all business and reasoning machine once more.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:33 AM (wzUl9)
Is that the scene with Lestrade? When he told Holmes that the police didn't hate him, but admired him and Holmes almost - almost showed emotion when hearing it?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 09:40 AM (1Ff7Z)
216
In the above survey, what would the genre of the late Vince Flynn be called?
Dittos with Clancy, Thor, and the other Brad who makes the Pike series.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at March 08, 2026 09:40 AM (a4flb)
218(She wrote Egyptology nonfiction under her real name, Barbara Mertz).
Red Land, Black Land. One of the best introductions to Egyptian history I've read.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:40 AM (ufSfZ)
219
Guess I'm gonna have to watch all the film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, because don't think I've seen a single one, and it sounds like you all really enjoyed them!
Posted by: SSBN 656 (G) at March 08, 2026 09:40 AM (cP7MP)
220
I have duplicates of a few Nero Wolfe books because some were printed during WWII. A different shape, if a chapter ends mid-page the next chapter follows without a page break. Poor glue job. All war-time restrictions, I assume.
I like owning them, but I need something less fragile to read.
Posted by: Wenda at March 08, 2026 09:41 AM (8eeWV)
I also owe CBD a Book Thread topic for next month and need to get on to that soon.
It's nearly 50 here at Stately Poppins Manor, which is practically summer weather for these parts.
Hope you all have a lovely day.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at March 08, 2026 09:42 AM (ufSfZ)
222And even if I hated all of his fiction, I'd count him as one of the good guys for doing Danse Macabre, his book on horror in fiction, film, and tv 1950-80; found enough recommendations in that one to last me for years.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026
***
Yes; Anne Rivers Siddons's The House Next Dooris one I never would have heard of without King's book. His analysis of how Rosemary's Baby works is masterly.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:42 AM (wzUl9)
223The counterargument to my hope is that the evil in using real humans is part of the thrill. The demons want the straight dope, not an artificial substitute.
I'm afraid that you are right. In our Materialistic world, it is easy to wave-off any spiritual/demonic component.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at March 08, 2026 09:42 AM (a4flb)
224I watched it a while ago because I read somewhere that Harvey Keitel and one of the still-living Carradines actually were whacking each other with swords. Hard to tell. I always thought the point of a duel was to resolve things, once and for all, but this duel went on for years. At some point, somebody just kill somebody.
Posted by: Ex Rex Reeder
Just don't bring it up near a fencer. The idea is that they treated the swordfighting as a 'real' thing, not just some theatrical tête-à-tête. Meaning, 'real' fighting involved people getting slashed and seriously wounded. Medievalists and other Society for Creative Anachronism'ists (SCA ) go into conniption fits over the inaccuracies, but the film does get the severe consequences of dueling somewhat correct.
Posted by: weft cut-loop at March 08, 2026 09:43 AM (diia5)
225
A lot of Sherlock Holmes talk, today. It reminds me that I have a small faux-leather bound copy of some Holmes adventures, published by World Cloud Classics. Have yet to read it, though. I have a Robin Hood book in the same style, which I also need to read.
Alas, my most direct experience with Holmes is watching RiffTrax, where the girls of the group joke around with the Basil Rathbone movies... And the "A Case of Evil" witch features Vincent 'the Kingpin' D'Onofrio as Moriarty. That movie was kind of interesting...
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 08, 2026 09:43 AM (Lhaco)
226 Given the time that has gone by, I'm surprised no one has tested the law w/r/t using AI generated (child-free) pr0n. Maybe they have and no one is prosecuting it because people can make their own at home over the web and VPN in relative obscurity.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure
======
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) Struck down a federal law banning virtual child pornography, stating that such material, lacking real children, is protected by the First Amendment.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 09:44 AM (E4rtv)
227
Carole douglas (middle name escapes) focusing on characters like sebastian moran
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:45 AM (bXbFr)
228I have duplicates of a few Nero Wolfe books because some were printed during WWII. A different shape, if a chapter ends mid-page the next chapter follows without a page break. Poor glue job. All war-time restrictions, I assume.
I like owning them, but I need something less fragile to read.
Posted by: Wenda at March 08, 2026
***
Dell Books still did that into the early Sixties. Some of the Alfred Hitchcock short story anthologies would end a story in mid-page, then pick up the next one a few lines later. Annoying, if the previous story was one you had not read, and there was a surprise ending you saw accidentally when you turned to the following tale.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:45 AM (wzUl9)
229
I read Adrian Tchaikovsky's Lords of Creation, the final book in his space opera trilogy, The Final Architecture series. Plenty of action and suspense as Idris Telemmier goes deep into unspace to destroy the Masters who are using the Architects to destroy human occupied planets. I enjoyed the series very much.
Posted by: Zoltan at March 08, 2026 09:45 AM (VOrDg)
230
It's sort of like the "Sexuality" sections, which exist solely to validate the readers' warped perception of the world.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 08, 2026 08:37 AM (ZOv7s)
I find it humorous that there are books on, a whole lot of books on, a basic necessary organic function common throughout all animalia.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 08:43 AM (3uBP9)
Sometimes married guys like reading about ancient history.
Posted by: Keep memory alive at March 08, 2026 09:45 AM (TbWk/)
231
And if you want a Sherlock Holmes movie that is humorous, check out Without A Clue. Michael Cain plays Sherlock Holmes, Ben Kingsley as Watson, and several other excellent actors as well.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 09:46 AM (E4rtv)
232
211 ... "
There's also one episode (wish I could remember it), where, at the end, Holmes is striding away from the building where he has just solved a mystery and suddenly leaps into the air in joy."
I don't remember which episode that was but vividly recall the scene. I assumed that was just an improvisation from Brett that they decided to leave in.
Just looked it up. The episode was season one, Adventure of the Copper Beeches.
Posted by: JTB at March 08, 2026 09:47 AM (yTvNw)
233I have duplicates of a few Nero Wolfe books because some were printed during WWII. A different shape, if a chapter ends mid-page the next chapter follows without a page break. Poor glue job. All war-time restrictions, I assume.
I like owning them, but I need something less fragile to read.
Posted by: Wenda at March 08, 2026
***
I used to have a paperback of The Rubber Band, the third Wolfe novel, from that time. On the back cover they were at pains to say that "This Pocket Books edition contains the full text of the hardcover edition. Not one word has been omitted."
Not sure if I still have it. I think I have a couple of Ellery Queen editions from that time, though.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:48 AM (wzUl9)
234 Sometimes married guys like reading about ancient history.
Posted by: Keep memory alive
"Did that. Did that, I think. Yeah, that'll never happen..."
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 09:48 AM (xG4kz)
Freeman isnt but the guy who plays moriarty and cumberbatch
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:49 AM (bXbFr)
236
Mrs Some Guy has all of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books, ditto the Kirbys. She found the Barbara Michaels stand-alones hit or miss. And she liked the Barbara Mertz non-fiction on Egypt a lot.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:49 AM (q3u5l)
Posted by: Skip at March 08, 2026 09:49 AM (Ia/+0)
238
Theres the 7 percent solution (which nicholas meyers has continued the series into the great war)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:50 AM (bXbFr)
239 Q: Where does Emile Zola go after a hard workout?
A: The J'Accuse-i.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 08, 2026 09:52 AM (BI5O2)
240
If you want a parody of Holmes as a change of pace, see if you can find Robert L. Fish's stories of "Schlock Homes" with his faithful friend Watney. They are designed to be knowingly stupid; the reader gets the gag, while Homes and Watney do not. In the first I read in the series, the mystery is why a stockbroker threw himself out of a window. Homes's clue is the ticker tape, on which numbers continue to drop. He concludes that the stockbroker committed suicide because of a severe wasting disease like consumption . . . whereas we know the guy did it because the values of his stock holdings were dropping and he was going to be wiped out.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:52 AM (wzUl9)
241
I finally pulled the trigger and bought "Camp of the Saints."
I am looking forward to reading it on a 5 hour flight on Thursday.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026 09:53 AM (qFwJc)
242
Clocks are tool of fascism. Destroy all clocks and people just show up whenever they feel like it. Problem solved.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Damn It Feels Good to Be a Trumpster! at March 08, 2026 09:53 AM (FXNzP)
243
83 Rogue One is probably the only Star Wars movie I enjoyed, but that is probably because pretty much every character died.
Posted by: Thomas Paine
So you're saying there's still a chance I might like Star Fleet Academy?
Posted by: Admiral Ackbar at March 08, 2026 09:53 AM (E1op6)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:54 AM (bXbFr)
245
One Holmes story I've never seen made into a show is "The Adventure of the Yellow Face". A man is convinced his wife is being unfaithful when she sneaks off to visit a nearby cottage. It turns out she is visiting her child from a previous marriage; her late husband was a black American from Atlanta, and she hid the child fearing her new husband's reaction. It has a happy conclusion, when the husband welcomes the child into his family.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 09:54 AM (kpS4V)
246 In one Brett episode, he is facing the camera, and the client of the moment exclaims at how wonderful SH's deductions are. And we see Brett's Holmes give the faintest little smile of pleasure before wiping it away and turning back to his client, all business and reasoning machine once more.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026
*
Is that the scene with Lestrade? When he told Holmes that the police didn't hate him, but admired him and Holmes almost - almost showed emotion when hearing it?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026
***
That might have been it!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:54 AM (wzUl9)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:54 AM (bXbFr)
248
I knew the day would come that AI got a hold of Tolkien and we would all be sucked into a blackhole greater than Mordor.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at March 08, 2026 09:55 AM (M9gjJ)
249
Combining Sherlock Holmes with movies, I am willing to bet not a single one of you smart book peoples have watched that Will Farrell "Sherlock and Watson" thing...
Am I right?
Posted by: Denny Crane - I Am Always Right. at March 08, 2026 09:56 AM (cP7MP)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:57 AM (bXbFr)
251One Holmes story I've never seen made into a show is "The Adventure of the Yellow Face". A man is convinced his wife is being unfaithful when she sneaks off to visit a nearby cottage. It turns out she is visiting her child from a previous marriage; her late husband was a black American from Atlanta, and she hid the child fearing her new husband's reaction. It has a happy conclusion, when the husband welcomes the child into his family.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026
***
I read it a few years ago. It features Holmes making some deductions about someone based on his pipe, which has a fake amber stem. "It is quite a trade, the making of sham flies to put in the sham amber."
A lot of Holmes's written adventures don't involve a real crime, a murder or the like, but a set of puzzling circumstances that have to be unsnarled.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 09:57 AM (wzUl9)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 09:57 AM (bXbFr)
253
>>> So far no one has said a thing.
Dilbert lives.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 09:20 AM (2Ez/1)
You should include a map to some hidden treasure in the office. Some little thing that would be neat.
There was a software company that hid in their long legal agreement a code and some web address, maybe an email address, so that if anyone read it they would get money. They just did it to see if anyone ever read those things and I think I remember at least one customer did and they sent them the prize.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 09:58 AM (3uBP9)
Back when I still had occasion to take long bus trips, I'd bring quite a few books along. Hardcovers would have been a real packing hassle, so I'd purchase paperbacks as well as hardcovers of some of my favorites. The most annoying printing error I ran across was in the Fawcett pbk of Stanley Ellin's novel Very Old Money. Fawcett left off the last page. It was just a few paragraphs, and the story proper was over, but the bit of dialog just gave an extra chill to the finish.
Wonder if they fixed that in a later printing...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 09:59 AM (q3u5l)
256
Another reason Doyle is still read today is his writing style. He was not long-winded or stuffy, and he knew how to make action happen through dialog. "Please hand me down the G volume of the Britannica, Watson. Thank you. Now we see here . . ." Doyle does not have to tell us that Watson reached up, took down the volume, and brought it across to Holmes; the dialog tells us that.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:00 AM (wzUl9)
257
249 Combining Sherlock Holmes with movies, I am willing to bet not a single one of you smart book peoples have watched that Will Farrell "Sherlock and Watson" thing...
Am I right?
Posted by: Denny Crane
======
I don't care for Will Farrell and in fact, seeing his name on a picture would make me not want to see it.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:00 AM (E4rtv)
258
Stars of a movie The Leonard were Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale. Cardinale wore a corset that cinched her waist from 68 cm down to 53 cm. And left bruises.
Key quote from the book-- we must change if we want to stay the same.
Posted by: Northernlurker , Maple Syrup MAGA at March 08, 2026 10:01 AM (zh591)
259
There was a software company that hid in their long legal agreement a code and some web address, maybe an email address, so that if anyone read it they would get money. They just did it to see if anyone ever read those things and I think I remember at least one customer did and they sent them the prize.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 09:58 AM
They'd get wiped out by my company. If I want so much as a software update I have to wait a month while the attorneys rip through the EULA and bicker over every black letter of the thing.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 08, 2026 10:01 AM (BI5O2)
260 I could begin and finish a Tony Hillerman Leaphorn and Chee book on a single long flight (e.g., PHL - MIA). His stories were not heavy lifts.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:01 AM (xG4kz)
261
"I don't care for Will Farrell and in fact, seeing his name on a picture would make me not want to see it."
Whig, don't feel like the Lone Ranger.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:02 AM (q3u5l)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:02 AM (bXbFr)
263
Combining Sherlock Holmes with movies, I am willing to bet not a single one of you smart book peoples have watched that Will Farrell "Sherlock and Watson" thing...
Am I right?
Posted by: Denny Crane - I Am Always Right. at March 08, 2026 09:56 AM (cP7MP)
Will Farrell is an idiot and I will never knowing watch anything he's in. So, no. I haven't.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 10:03 AM (1Ff7Z)
Posted by: Commissar of plenty and festive little hats at March 08, 2026 10:03 AM (Kt19C)
265I could begin and finish a Tony Hillerman Leaphorn and Chee book on a single long flight (e.g., PHL - MIA). His stories were not heavy lifts.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026
***
I've read several. The only one I recall strongly was an early Leaphorn story, Listening Woman, with the long sequence where Leaphorn is trapped within a cave system and has to find his way out.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:03 AM (wzUl9)
266
Just finished the second book in Elaine Hume Peake's A Call to War series, The Blacksmith of Dachau. Enjoyed the continuation of the characters introduced in the first volume, The Kaboom Boys. Luckily the third volume, Goodnight from Berlin will be out in September so I won't have long to wait!
Posted by: tankascribe at March 08, 2026 10:03 AM (NtoJk)
267
Yes he. Clowns around too much there are pieces where he is tolerable see zack galifanakis
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:04 AM (bXbFr)
268Was late victorian england so crime ridden
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026
***
Any city like London that crammed, what, 2,000,000 people into a small space would have known a lot of crime.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:05 AM (wzUl9)
269
A couple of bowls of Old Toby and Gandalf would shred like Hendrix on crystal.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at March 08, 2026 10:05 AM (M9gjJ)
270
I've been reading the original, unexpurgated, complete collection of the Brothers Grimm folk and fairy tales.
I didn't have any specific expectations other than every single 'expert' reviewer says the originals are grittier than the modern Grimm stories. With that in mind I downloaded a few public domain fairy tale compilations from Gutenberg for comparison.
Little Red Riding Hood/Little Red Cap vary slightly between old and new translated editions, but not enough to set off alarm bells or raise cause for calls to censor the blood and gore - Mark Twain gets far rougher treatment in the censorship category than Brothers Grimm.
The folk tales are short affairs - typically ranging from three to five paragraphs and are pretty nonsensical.
Posted by: 13times at March 08, 2026 10:07 AM (bSnkm)
271
269 A couple of bowls of Old Toby and Gandalf would shred like Hendrix on crystal.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at March 08, 2026 10:05 AM (M9gjJ)
WOW! So much to unpack there!
Posted by: Denny Crane - But I'm Cool, So I Got It. at March 08, 2026 10:07 AM (cP7MP)
272 A couple of bowls of Old Toby and Gandalf would shred like Hendrix on crystal.
Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at March 08, 2026
***
Wasn't "Toby" the name of the bloodhound Holmes and Watson employed in The Sign of Four?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:07 AM (wzUl9)
273
I think I have every C.S. Lewis story/piece and every Rumpole of the Bailey story.
My son turned me on to Nero Wolfe stories. They are fun.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026 10:08 AM (qFwJc)
274
>>> They'd get wiped out by my company. If I want so much as a software update I have to wait a month while the attorneys rip through the EULA and bicker over every black letter of the thing.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 08, 2026 10:01 AM (BI5O2)
Companies are really bad with open source, free software and the license agreements. I wanted to use a code that was written by the government as a means, (the only means), to comply with a fed regulation. They sent me on a never ending goosechase to get license agreements and the government employees that wrote the software were like, "did you tell them it's free and provided by the government?" Yeah I told them, they want a contract. "Here's the contract: IT IS FREE". I wish it were that simple.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 10:08 AM (3uBP9)
275 "Please hand me down the G volume of the Britannica, Watson. Thank you. Now we see here . . ." Doyle does not have to tell us that Watson reached up, took down the volume, and brought it across to Holmes; the dialog tells us that.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere
I have taken up listen to podcasts in which writing screenplays are often discussed. Expository dialogue is roundly disdained by the podcasters as a sign of bad writing and directing.
The example above demonstrates avoiding expository writing.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:08 AM (xG4kz)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:09 AM (bXbFr)
277 I've been reading the original, unexpurgated, complete collection of the Brothers Grimm folk and fairy tales.
The one with the Gannet?
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:10 AM (xG4kz)
278My son turned me on to Nero Wolfe stories. They are fun.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026
***
My favorite Archie line, describing Wolfe's preference to keep the solution of the mystery to himself instead of telling Archie: ". . . he loves to have a curtain go up revealing him balancing a ball on his nose."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:10 AM (wzUl9)
279
Was late victorian england so crime ridden
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:02 AM (bXbFr)
Let's try that again. Thanks, worthless Cox.
It was so bad in VE, that the citizens wished they were in today's London!
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 10:10 AM (1Ff7Z)
280
261 "I don't care for Will Farrell and in fact, seeing his name on a picture would make me not want to see it."
===
Whig, don't feel like the Lone Ranger.
Posted by: Just Some Guy
=====
Other people obviously like him as apparently he has had a lot of commercial success in movies up to these last few years or so but to me, something about him and his mannerisms, are just off putting.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:11 AM (E4rtv)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:11 AM (bXbFr)
282
"The Japanese Fishermans Wife in the Prison of Tentacles"
somehow I don't think the hobbits are heros in this one
Posted by: TheCatAttackedMyFoot at March 08, 2026 10:11 AM (jrgJz)
283
Somehow I ended up with the original Grimm's Fairy Tales when I was a kid, those were the first version I read. They were notably darker than the sanitized versions; in the original Cinderella, for example, the wicked stepsisters cut their toes and heels off to fit into the glass slipper, but they were found out by the trail of blood they left in the ballroom.
It was an old book from my grandparents house, published around the turn of the 20th century. It was obvious that many of them, such as the Little Girl who Trod on a Loaf, were morality lessons to children, telling them of the horrible punishments that would await them if they were wicked.
And some, like the Little Match Girl, are just tragic.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 08, 2026 10:12 AM (/QdgR)
284
273 I think I have every C.S. Lewis story/piece and every Rumpole of the Bailey story.
My son turned me on to Nero Wolfe stories. They are fun.
Posted by: no one of any consequence
========
You obviously have excellent tastes.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:12 AM (E4rtv)
The medical based observationx from joseph bell probably would have baffled a regular london cop
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:13 AM (bXbFr)
287
It was an old book from my grandparents house, published around the turn of the 20th century. It was obvious that many of them, such as the Little Girl who Trod on a Loaf, were morality lessons to children, telling them of the horrible punishments that would await them if they were wicked.
And some, like the Little Match Girl, are just tragic.
Posted by: Tom Servo
======
Quite a few of those 'fairy' tales are in fact horror stories.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:13 AM (E4rtv)
288
>>> "The Japanese Fishermans Wife in the Prison of Tentacles"
somehow I don't think the hobbits are heros in this one
Posted by: TheCatAttackedMyFoot at March 08, 2026 10:11 AM (jrgJz)
Sounds like an 80s Infocom comedy text game.
Posted by: banana Dream at March 08, 2026 10:13 AM (3uBP9)
289
I have taken up listen to podcasts in which writing screenplays are often discussed. Expository dialogue is roundly disdained by the podcasters as a sign of bad writing and directing.
The example above demonstrates avoiding expository writing.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:08 AM (xG4kz)
Works fine for scripts, but can't quite believe it would work in books.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 10:14 AM (1Ff7Z)
290 Maureen Callahan, of "The Nerve" podcast, is dead set against expository screenplays. Her anti-expository dialogue venom presently is being directed toward "Love Story", the miniseries about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette, his doomed wife.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:14 AM (xG4kz)
291
282 "The Japanese Fishermans Wife in the Prison of Tentacles"
somehow I don't think the hobbits are heros in this one
Posted by: TheCatAttackedMyFoot at March 08, 2026 10:11 AM (jrgJz)
umm, you don't know where I could get a copy, do you?
For Research, you know.
Posted by: Kurt Eichenwald at March 08, 2026 10:14 AM (/QdgR)
292
My favorite Archie line, describing Wolfe's preference to keep the solution of the mystery to himself instead of telling Archie: ". . . he loves to have a curtain go up revealing him balancing a ball on his nose."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:10 AM (wzUl9)
That is a good line.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 10:15 AM (1Ff7Z)
293
I have taken up listen to podcasts in which writing screenplays are often discussed. Expository dialogue is roundly disdained by the podcasters as a sign of bad writing and directing.
The example above demonstrates avoiding expository writing.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:08 AM (xG4kz)
Yup! The Pitch Meeting Guy spotlights that weak writing trick by calling a character "the Exposition Professor", or whatever...
Posted by: Denny Crane - But I'm Cool, So I Got It. at March 08, 2026 10:15 AM (cP7MP)
Same here re Farrell. Ditto Owen Wilson and Chris Tucker.
Posted by: Just Some Guy
I'll quote the Fixx here (One Thing Leads to Another)
"Just what are you trying to say?
You got a blank face, which irritates
Communicate, pull out your party piece"
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:15 AM (E4rtv)
295
Other people obviously like him as apparently he has had a lot of commercial success in movies up to these last few years or so but to me, something about him and his mannerisms, are just off putting.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:11 AM (E4rtv)
I watched him on SNL for a few years after he joined the cast. I never found him the least bit funny. Because of that, I've never seen a film with him in it.
Posted by: one hour sober at March 08, 2026 10:16 AM (Y1sOo)
The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition volumes I/II translated by Jack Zipes 2014.
The Kindle version sells $1.00 at Amazon.
Posted by: 13times at March 08, 2026 10:17 AM (bSnkm)
297 Yup! The Pitch Meeting Guy spotlights that weak writing trick by calling a character "the Exposition Professor", or whatever...
Posted by: Denny Crane - But I'm Cool, So I Got It
Ah! Captain Obvious' second cousin once removed.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:17 AM (xG4kz)
298
The medical based observationx from joseph bell probably would have baffled a regular london cop
Posted by: Miguel cervantes
=======
I think it is very fair to say that cops in the 1800's were picked more for physical strength, stamina, and intimidation rather than scientific deductive knowledge. Thus, the insult 'Plods' was created.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:18 AM (E4rtv)
299
My favorite Archie line, describing Wolfe's preference to keep the solution of the mystery to himself instead of telling Archie: ". . . he loves to have a curtain go up revealing him balancing a ball on his nose."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:10 AM (wzUl9)
OMG, that there just reminded me how many Wolfe books I read way back when- it was the Archie reference- he was like the voice of the reader, if my horrible memory is close to the mark...
Another re-read on the list!
Posted by: Denny Crane - But I'm Cool, So I Got It. at March 08, 2026 10:19 AM (cP7MP)
300 I think it is very fair to say that cops in the 1800's were picked more for physical strength, stamina, and intimidation rather than scientific deductive knowledge. Thus, the insult 'Plods' was created.
Posted by: whig
I am reminded of Sean Connery interviewing candidates to join Elliott Ness' untouchables squad.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:20 AM (xG4kz)
You've lost me there. I'm missing any references completely.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:20 AM (q3u5l)
302
I watched him on SNL for a few years after he joined the cast. I never found him the least bit funny. Because of that, I've never seen a film with him in it.
Posted by: one hour sober
I had totally quit watching SNL after the mid eighties other than some isolated skits. Saw the Cowbell skit which Walken was the real star and Farrell was the monkey. But, watched Elf one time and that was enough. His costars carried the movie and he was just.....there. Caught a bit of another movie, where Emma Thompson and him were stars. Again, he was just there.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:21 AM (E4rtv)
303
249 Combining Sherlock Holmes with movies, I am willing to bet not a single one of you smart book peoples have watched that Will Farrell "Sherlock and Watson" thing...
Am I right?
Posted by: Denny Crane - I Am Always Right.
****
And you would be wrong....
It's mid, given the casting and direction. If you are going for alternate takes on Holmes, try the Robert Downey films.
Posted by: clarence at March 08, 2026 10:21 AM (lBwkW)
304
We needed to port Linux onto a PC to use our TCP/IP Gateway software. (Over 20 years ago)
Free download of shareware? Absolutely not.
Had to buy Red Hat. It worked great and had support, not that there were any bugs found.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026 10:21 AM (qFwJc)
Posted by: 13times at March 08, 2026 10:24 AM (bSnkm)
308
Thinking of the Sherlock Holmes theme today, and remembering the odd crossover book 'The Fifth Heart' featuring the good detective working a case with the American author Henry James. I found Simmons characterization of Holmes to be more hard-bitten than we are used to, but the story over all is a fine yarn!
Alas, Dan Simmons passed on recently. A fine author, and one of my longtime favorites. He will be missed. Hoist your tankards, Morons!
Posted by: Brewingfrog at March 08, 2026 10:24 AM (/zCZM)
309
You've lost me there. I'm missing any references completely.
Posted by: Just Some Guy
=====
No personality, he is literally a blank face--watch his facial expressions in a movie, he is just a blob that relies on physical comedy and overacting. If I wanted to see that, I would watch Buster Keaton or some of the other silent/early talky films (Oliver and Stan, for example).
So it would be as if a movie maker simply put an anchor in his place for movies and had the other characters act around him. Depending on the other cast members, the movie would rise or fall based on them, not him.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:25 AM (E4rtv)
310 By the way - the original complete first edition of the Brothers Grimm was never translated and published until
Posted by: 13times
"... and there Hansel and Gretel's trail of breadcrumbs disappeared, eaten by birds of the forest. The End"
* closes book *
"Bedtime, kiddos! Away with you!"
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:26 AM (xG4kz)
To wit: The infamous 'Jeopardy' skits on SNL. Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery and Norm Mcdonald as Burt Reynolds absolutely kill it. Ferrell is simply awful as Alex Trebek.
Posted by: one hour sober at March 08, 2026 10:28 AM (Y1sOo)
313
Am I right?
Posted by: Denny Crane - I Am Always Right.
****
And you would be wrong....
It's mid, given the casting and direction. If you are going for alternate takes on Holmes, try the Robert Downey films.
Posted by: clarence at March 08, 2026 10:21 AM (lBwkW)
Thanks for the recommendation, Clarence! I have always planned on watching those RDJ versions, and will soon. I guess my point was every single trailer/clip/etc... of the Ferrell film was so bad that I didn't think anyone here would have seen it. But I respect your reaction of liking it.
Posted by: Denny Crane - But I'm Cool, So I Got It. at March 08, 2026 10:28 AM (cP7MP)
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026 10:29 AM (qFwJc)
315
The expository dialog stuff reminds me of the info dumps that would turn up in the pre-Campbell sf magazines.
"As we all know, Fotheringay, the speed of light cannot..."
Wonder what today's screenwriters would make of the long sequence in Forbidden Planet in which Walter Pidgeon takes Leslie Nielsen and Warren Stevens on the tour of the Krell city and tells them about the disappearance of the race. Some exposition in dialog is necessary.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:29 AM (q3u5l)
316
By the way - the original complete first edition of the Brothers Grimm was never translated and published until
Posted by: 13times
"... and there Hansel and Gretel's trail of breadcrumbs disappeared, eaten by birds of the forest. The End"
* closes book *
"Bedtime, kiddos! Away with you!"
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:26 AM (xG4kz)
HARDCORE!!!!!
Posted by: Denny Crane - I Just Formed a Death Metal Band!!!! at March 08, 2026 10:30 AM (cP7MP)
317
I am reminded of Sean Connery interviewing candidates to join Elliott Ness' untouchables squad.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot:
========
It was a problem in US policing for a long time--it was an ill paid career and often quite dangerous. Often confessions were the main source of convictions and beatings, picking out simpletons as patsies, and reliance on manipulation, bad eyewitness testimony, etc. were used to convict.
Brown v. Mississippi is one such example of policing that was too common for that era.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:30 AM (E4rtv)
Posted by: Skip at March 08, 2026 10:30 AM (Ia/+0)
319
Wonder what today's screenwriters would make of the long sequence in Forbidden Planet in which Walter Pidgeon takes Leslie Nielsen and Warren Stevens on the tour of the Krell city and tells them about the disappearance of the race. Some exposition in dialog is necessary.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:29 AM (q3u5l)
That was an all-time great scene! George Lucas admitted that it was the inspiration for his interior shots of the Death Star.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 08, 2026 10:31 AM (/QdgR)
320
To wit: The infamous 'Jeopardy' skits on SNL. Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery and Norm Mcdonald as Burt Reynolds absolutely kill it. Ferrell is simply awful as Alex Trebek.
Posted by: one hour sober
=====
Excellent example.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:31 AM (E4rtv)
321
Morning all.
Working swing shift has hampered reading quite a bit. Finding blocks of time where I can sit for a few are fewer and far between these days. Seems something always comes up. Yesterday it was the poor kid across the street. B. Last year I fixed up one of the grands bikes for him so he could ride with them and B commenced to wearing that bike the fuck out. He rides it everywhere. Yesterday he walks up to his aunt's house pushing it. I go over and it needs WORK. No problem. I start on it.
4 hours later I'm feeling like shit. I got this kids bike apart and it won't go back together.
Mrs R comes out and says "Go get him. Let's go to Wallyworld and just get him a new one."
We take him down there and this humble little guy picks out the cheapest one. I'm all hey this ones cool and this one... Nope. He wants the cheap one. Cool. Then I catch him gazing at the helmets. Grab one kid we got this.
Made little B feel like a million dollars walking out of there with all the "Somebody is having some fun today" sort of comments. I think he was probably happier than he has ever been at that point.
So that's this weeks excuse for not doing this last Saturday's block of reading.
Posted by: Reforger at March 08, 2026 10:31 AM (rpbjO)
322
People often say that the version of BG they read was dark and gory but never cite the edition of the book being referenced. Its not especially helpful when comparing different versions of the same story.
Like I said upthread, I'm not locked into any specific notion of how BG should be told or published.
Posted by: 13times at March 08, 2026 10:32 AM (bSnkm)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:32 AM (bXbFr)
324
The odds of getting Willowed are increasing exponentially.
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot. at March 08, 2026 10:32 AM (cP7MP)
325
But I respect your reaction of liking it.
****
I didn't say I liked it. It just wasn't a complete waste of time.
Posted by: clarence at March 08, 2026 10:33 AM (lBwkW)
326
Only one role I really like Ferrell in: Ricky Bobby. One of my guilty pleasures. I won't say Talladega Nights is good, but it makes me laugh my ass off.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 08, 2026 10:34 AM (/QdgR)
327
I plan for my last entry into the Weekly Activity Report to be one of my favorite classics:
"I came here looking for a job. I can leave the same way."
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at March 08, 2026 10:34 AM (2Ez/1)
328
As the history of the OK Corral gunfight suggests, the cops in the 19th century were often just a slightly better-organized gang than the crooks they were opposing.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 10:34 AM (78a2H)
329
Speaking of Will Ferrell. Obligatory Family Guy clip:
https://youtu.be/Xz6Qv6Et0qc
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 08, 2026 10:34 AM (PiwSw)
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot. at March 08, 2026 10:42 AM (cP7MP)
334
We take him down there and this humble little guy picks out the cheapest one. I'm all hey this ones cool and this one... Nope. He wants the cheap one. Cool. Then I catch him gazing at the helmets. Grab one kid we got this.
Made little B feel like a million dollars walking out of there with all the "Somebody is having some fun today" sort of comments. I think he was probably happier than he has ever been at that point.
So that's this weeks excuse for not doing this last Saturday's block of reading.
Posted by: Reforger
Bless you for your kindness.
Posted by: Tuna at March 08, 2026 10:42 AM (lJ0H4)
335
328 As the history of the OK Corral gunfight suggests, the cops in the 19th century were often just a slightly better-organized gang than the crooks they were opposing.
Posted by: Trimegistus
======
Yep.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:43 AM (E4rtv)
336 The odds of getting Willowed are increasing exponentially.
Newsreaders use "exponentially" with the same glib wave of the hand that they use "assault rifle".
That is to say, their knowledge of what the term meant is suspect, at best.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:44 AM (xG4kz)
337
I love being able to hit the Kindle store or ABEBooks and find most of what I'm looking for (less and less as I get older), but I do miss scrounging through used book shops and tripping over a long-sought title. One of the few things I miss about Chicago; and the used book shops I used to frequent there are mostly gone now.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:44 AM (q3u5l)
338
Bless you for your kindness.
Posted by: Tuna at March 08, 2026 10:42 AM (lJ0H4)
Thank you.
Posted by: Reforger at March 08, 2026 10:44 AM (rpbjO)
339
334 We take him down there and this humble little guy picks out the cheapest one. I'm all hey this ones cool and this one... Nope. He wants the cheap one. Cool. Then I catch him gazing at the helmets. Grab one kid we got this.
Made little B feel like a million dollars walking out of there with all the "Somebody is having some fun today" sort of comments. I think he was probably happier than he has ever been at that point.
So that's this weeks excuse for not doing this last Saturday's block of reading.
Posted by: Reforger
Bless you for your kindness.
Posted by: Tuna at March 08, 2026 10:42 AM (lJ0H4)
Seriously! What a great thing to do, thanks for sharing that!
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot. at March 08, 2026 10:45 AM (cP7MP)
340
As the history of the OK Corral gunfight suggests, the cops in the 19th century were often just a slightly better-organized gang than the crooks they were opposing.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 08, 2026 10:34 AM (78a2H)
Yep. Wyatt Earp wasn't a hero, he just got good press thanks to Bat Masterson, and he survived into the twenties. Most didn't.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 10:46 AM (1Ff7Z)
341
It's mid, given the casting and direction. If you are going for alternate takes on Holmes, try the Robert Downey films.
Posted by: clarence at March 08, 2026 10:21 AM (lBwkW)
I enjoy those movies a great deal, and appreciate how much Watson gets valued in them as well. He's not a dopey comic foil like in some adaptations, he's an intelligent man of action who also keeps Holmes somewhat grounded to the extent it's even possible.
Posted by: Fun flicks too at March 08, 2026 10:46 AM (TbWk/)
342That is to say, their knowledge of what the term meant is suspect, at best.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:44 AM (xG4kz)
Of course we know what "assault rifle" means. It means "Glock."
Posted by: MSM gub experts at March 08, 2026 10:47 AM (PiwSw)
343
If victorian london was so violent holmes would be well trained in hand to hand combat no
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:40 AM (bXbFr)
----
See: "Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff" by Col Thomas Hoyer Monstery
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 10:47 AM (kpS4V)
344 My favorite used book store was in Milton, DE. Nothing fancy, just shelves bursting with books, it was. It was a nice point to take a break from driving downstate. Alas, it has been gone now for nearly a decade.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:47 AM (xG4kz)
345
The odds of getting Willowed are increasing exponentially.
Newsreaders use "exponentially" with the same glib wave of the hand that they use "assault rifle".
That is to say, their knowledge of what the term meant is suspect, at best.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:44 AM (xG4kz)
Interesting! So you think the odds are still more linear, even at this point?
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot. at March 08, 2026 10:47 AM (cP7MP)
Nice. And I'd guess you were having just about as much fun as the kid.
Good all around.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:48 AM (q3u5l)
347
That is to say, their knowledge of what the term meant is suspect, at best.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:44 AM (xG4kz)
Interesting! So you think the odds are still more linear, even at this point?
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot. at March 08, 2026 10:47 AM (cP7MP)
And of course, every second that goes by makes me look very wrong indeed.... ya know, I can live with that!
*smiley face*
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot. at March 08, 2026 10:50 AM (cP7MP)
348
My home town newspaper is\was (not sure anymore) called "The Exponent". I always though that was a killer name for a local rag.
Posted by: Reforger at March 08, 2026 10:50 AM (rpbjO)
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:50 AM (xG4kz)
350
If victorian london was so violent holmes would be well trained in hand to hand combat no
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 08, 2026 10:40 AM (bXbFr)
He boxed some guy in one of the stories outside of London at a pub or boarding house.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 10:51 AM (1Ff7Z)
351
332 If victorian london was so violent holmes would be well trained in hand to hand combat no
Posted by: Miguel cervantes
=====
There was a lot more physical fighting back then but not as many just senseless murders or mass spree killings. The Bloody Code had taken out a lot of the really awful career criminals by capital punishment.
Basically, capital punishment was used to remove the career criminal class and that dampened down the generational problem of criminals passing down the acceptability of criminal behavior.
The truth which is rare in a lot of mystery novels because it is unpleasant, is that "70-80% of violent crimes are recidivism after an earlier conviction for a violent crime. Almost 50% are a person's third violent conviction." Source Swedish Criminal figures, and "65% of the time, when someone is admitted to prison, they’ve already been arrested at least 3x" US crime stats.
So early criminal procedure focused on finding 'bad' men and eliminating them via capital punishment or removing them via imprisonment from the population which meant that figuring out whether a specific bad person did a specific crime was less important than constitutional protections.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:51 AM (E4rtv)
352My favorite Archie line, describing Wolfe's preference to keep the solution of the mystery to himself instead of telling Archie: ". . . he loves to have a curtain go up revealing him balancing a ball on his nose."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026
*
OMG, that there just reminded me how many Wolfe books I read way back when- it was the Archie reference- he was like the voice of the reader, if my horrible memory is close to the mark...
Another re-read on the list!
Posted by: Denny Crane - But I'm Cool, So I Got It. at March 08, 2026
***
Stout is re-readable, and vastly enjoyable, even when you remember who the murderer is. As P. G. Wodehouse said about him, "Now that's *writing*."
Archie narrated the stories in a breezy, truly American voice. He was hardly the worshipful Watson to Wolfe's Holmes -- though you realize he did admire Wolfe, he could just never admit it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:52 AM (wzUl9)
353 And of course, every second that goes by makes me look very wrong indeed.... ya know, I can live with that!
*smiley face*
Posted by: Denny Crane - After 300 comments, It's a Crap Shoot
Oh, I wasn't poking fun at you. I was merely observing that newsreaders think that they are up to snuff on sciency things because they can drop terms like "exponentially" here and there in their verbal blather.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at March 08, 2026 10:54 AM (xG4kz)
354
337 I love being able to hit the Kindle store or ABEBooks and find most of what I'm looking for (less and less as I get older), but I do miss scrounging through used book shops and tripping over a long-sought title. One of the few things I miss about Chicago; and the used book shops I used to frequent there are mostly gone now.
Posted by: Just Some Guy
========
Perfect storm, people, particular young boys and young men, are reading less, there are more sources for used books like Ebay, abebooks, etc, and now epubs like Kindle or Nook.
One could do pretty well simply downloading project Gutenberg epubs (and some other places) for free onto e readers.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:55 AM (E4rtv)
355
And on that happy note, it's off to act like I'm doing something useful here at Casa Some Guy.
Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.
Have a good one, gang.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:55 AM (q3u5l)
356Wonder what today's screenwriters would make of the long sequence in Forbidden Planet in which Walter Pidgeon takes Leslie Nielsen and Warren Stevens on the tour of the Krell city and tells them about the disappearance of the race. Some exposition in dialog is necessary.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026
*
That was an all-time great scene! George Lucas admitted that it was the inspiration for his interior shots of the Death Star.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 08, 2026
***
It had that "sense of wonder" you get only in the best SF. And imagery too. Dr. Morbius points to one of the Krell doors and says, "I suggest you imagine it in line with one of our functionally designed human doors."
The Krell doors were squat and wide. Your mind conjures up an image of a large crab-like being . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:57 AM (wzUl9)
357
355 And on that happy note, it's off to act like I'm doing something useful here at Casa Some Guy.
Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.
Have a good one, gang.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:55 AM (q3u5l)
Ditto. Those emerging goatheads aren't gonna uproot themselves. So unless I want to be constantly repairing flat bike tires this Summer I better get out there.
Posted by: Reforger at March 08, 2026 11:00 AM (rpbjO)
358
Perfect storm, people, particular young boys and young men, are reading less, there are more sources for used books like Ebay, abebooks, etc, and now epubs like Kindle or Nook.
Posted by: whig at March 08, 2026 10:55 AM (E4rtv)
Boys don't want to read about girl heroes much, although they do. Boys want action and camaraderie, and learning things, but not like an egghead.
They're not interested in sissy boys learning to give a blow job to their boy crush.
Men don't want to read about perverts and ridiculous skinny waifs kicking a hulks ass in a fight. Nobody wants to read purple-hair, nose ringed, lesbian wish fulfillment stories.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 11:00 AM (1Ff7Z)
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes. at March 08, 2026 11:00 AM (kpS4V)
360It's mid, given the casting and direction. If you are going for alternate takes on Holmes, try the Robert Downey films.
Posted by: clarence at March 08, 2026 10:21 AM (lBwkW)
I enjoy those movies a great deal, and appreciate how much Watson gets valued in them as well. He's not a dopey comic foil like in some adaptations, he's an intelligent man of action who also keeps Holmes somewhat grounded to the extent it's even possible.
Posted by: Fun flicks too at March 08, 2026
***
Right. When we first meet Watson and then Holmes, they were both young men -- Watson was just back from army service in Afghanistan. While Downey's Holmes is hardly the one we're used to, there are loads of references to the original material in those movies.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 11:01 AM (wzUl9)
Posted by: Skip at March 08, 2026 11:01 AM (Ia/+0)
362
This Week's Kindle Read was the latest installment of indie author Ward Wagher's (Yes, it's Wagher) "Parallel Nazi" series. The concept is a mild-mannered German professor of history in 1982 is magically transported to a parallel universe; where it is 1941, Hitler has just died in a plane crash, and the professor is now a chief in the Nazi party. Can he fix this timeline so Germany is not destroyed by the war? Can he even survive, when he is surrounded by sharks like Himmler and Goebbels?
It sounds dumb, but Mr. Wagher makes it a page-turner. I once again stayed up far too late to finish one of his books.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at March 08, 2026 11:02 AM (P/woT)
The saddest part of Sunday morning again. The end of the book thread. Thanks, Perfessor.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 08, 2026 11:02 AM (1Ff7Z)
364
I bought a Royce-Union 20" bike from Sear, mail order.
I get home from school and my much older brother already put it together.
It was a solid performer for years and years. I won a bike in "The Memorial Day Capsule Hunt" and sold the Royce-Union for $5.
Stupid me. The bike I won was a piece of crap.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026 11:02 AM (qFwJc)
Posted by: Denny Crane - Cigars and Whiskey on My Balcony In 10 Minutes! at March 08, 2026 11:03 AM (cP7MP)
366
We would replace the "banana seat" with a regular seat and put on a "tandem," a rack behind the seat for carrying stuff, like school books.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at March 08, 2026 11:04 AM (qFwJc)
367
Late to the thread but my weekly progress report : about 2/3 way through East of Eden. Beautifully written, thought-provoking plot, plenty of Biblical parallels and allusions, memorable characters, and most importantly, a dang good story.
Posted by: LASue at March 08, 2026 11:19 AM (lCppi)
368
I am reading captain UBiquitous Scott and the Steamer City of Salem by Kenneth S Hulme and Sharon M Kounis, which is about Uriah Bonser Scott who had apprenticed as an ironworker and later a steamboat engineer who moved to Oregon and built and operated the first shallow draft river steamboat named Ohio out of scrounged steam engines to move freight in the upper Willamette (above Newberg) year round, which was impossible with the older, standard hulled boats that had been moving freight prior.
With his success he built a second boat, The City of Salem and successfully bucked the monopoly of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company which held almost all other paddlewheel boats on the Willamette and the Columbia and the Oregon City Locks on the Willamette.
It is mostly a story told through newspaper reports.
UB Scott dressed up the Salem's saloon for excursions and ran a lot of "picnics" and moonlight cruises for Sunday schools, church picnics and lodges in the late Spring when freighting volume was lower.
Before the rise of the Midwest and the Columbia plateau, the Willamette Valley was a major wheat exporter and that river carried it all.
Posted by: Kindltot at March 08, 2026 11:22 AM (rbvCR)
Archie narrated the stories in a breezy, truly American voice. [...]
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere
I always thought of it as Casual Americanish. WWII news journalists wrote in exactly the same breezy cadence.
Posted by: 13times at March 08, 2026 11:40 AM (fnZRl)
370
272- Wasn't "Toby" the name of the bloodhound Holmes and Watson employed in The Sign of Four?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 08, 2026 10:07 AM
Yes.
Posted by: Moonbeam at March 08, 2026 11:56 AM (rbKZ6)
371
Chris Claremont would fill way too nuch panel space with exposition, and his X-Men stories are regarded as classics in the comics field.
John Byrne did the same thing; same result.
And it's been said of Roy Thomas that he never saw an open space on a comics page that he wouldn't fill with useless text.
They we're told that comics should show, not tell.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 02:50 PM (p/isN)
Thanks for the pointer to Robert Jackson Bennett. Never heard of him, but I read the sample chapter of American Elsewhere and was hooked. I've ordered the book.
I don't like Will Farrell either, but I loved Anchorman. I think it was because Farrell's character shared Farrell's pompousness and self-regard, and the whole idea is that the movie makes fun of that.
There are so many great Archie lines. I remember one time Wolfe and Archie were somewhere else, facing a skeptical government official, and Wolfe starts explaining how the case is actually a murder, and why. Archie thinks something like "Look at the fat boy with all the pretty skyrockets."
Posted by: Splunge at March 08, 2026 03:30 PM (KEowH)
Thank you, 13times, for recognizing that there is an entirely other side of the Book Thread.
As well as those even further west in Hawaii where it is now 3 hours earlier in the day because that state remains on Standard Time year around!
Posted by: March Hare at March 08, 2026 04:09 PM (O/GSq)
375
I discovered Sherlock Holmes when I was about 10. My first volume was a cheap hardback edition: rough paper, no dust jacket--the cover had the picture and the title printed directly on the slick paper fused to the cover, pages glued in the spine. (A popular option when I was a kid.) I wore the book out.
Fun fact about the RDJ/Jude Law movie versions of Sherlock Holmes: Mary Watson is played by Kelly Reilly who later played Beth Dutton on "Yellowstone." Her Mary Watson is an intelligent, somewhat independent woman, but not a "feminist." (Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler. Again, intelligent and independent, but not a "feminist.")
Posted by: March Hare at March 08, 2026 04:21 PM (O/GSq)
376
I've found that ebay has far better prices for used books, than Amazon.
This goes especially for "rare" or hard to find books.
Posted by: Pooklord at March 08, 2026 04:39 PM (asU3w)
Be assured that at least one Book Thread habitue will read what you have to say. I don't bail until bedtime.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 08, 2026 07:16 PM (p/isN)
378
Haven't done anything with eBay in umpteen years, so can't say anything about their pricing. ABEBooks is, IIRC, owned by Amazon, but I can usually find books at reasonable prices there; I don't think everyone who posts a book for sale at abebooks.com also posts it at Amazon. I can also find books at insanely high prices in both places too -- depends on the seller. If you haven't checked ABEBooks, it's worth a look.
Commenting end times? Why? We're able to comment on a thread for as long as the thread is visible, right? Book thread usually stays accessible on the page until some time Monday or Tuesday, does it not?
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 08, 2026 10:57 PM (q3u5l)
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