I'm in the throes of reading Blood Meridian on the impeccable advice of Sheila. I haven't even read all of Sheila's post on because I don't want spoilers. But she said enough in her first paragraph to get me hooked into reading this book.
This is my first Cormac McCarthy and I'm finding myself in awe of his writing. Its relentless and worsted and radiant and vermicular and marmoreal. It slows me in reading because it doesn't give itself up easily. This enhances the trance. It's a rich prose that feeds me full with only a chapter a sitting. I'm forever indebted to Sheila for pointing me to this book.
So what are you reading now? Tell me about it.
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I just read "The Ruins", which is supposedly the greatest horror novel evah (if you read the jacket and the endorsement by Stephen King) but is actually pretty stupid.
I'm going to Cozumel while on vacation, so I thought I'd see what horrors Mexico had to offer. Turns out it's mainly just plants.
Am also reading Robert Hugh Benson's "Come Rack, Come Rope" which is fair to middling.
Also recently finished Dean Koontz's Life Expectancy" (am back on the Koontz bandwagon; he's hit or miss but his recent stuff is pretty good) and the Odd Thomas novels. I'd recommend them.
Posted by: The Abbot at May 06, 2008 03:18 PM (ivbbD)
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I just finished the eighteen-book Amelia Peabody series, by Elizabeth Peters. Woe is me! I knew the day would come, and now I've no more to look forward to. But they are delightful, frothy novels filled with humor, murder, World War intrigue, and Egyptology.
Now I'm helplessly casting about for something new...that's about the time I resume reading more of the stuff I blew off in College. You'll probably catch me reading "Bleak House" or "Wings of the Dove" or something like that.
Or perhaps I'll cast farther back in time and dive back into the oodles of "Oz" books I haven't read yet. What fun!
Posted by: Monica at May 06, 2008 05:22 PM (l6adT)
Posted by: Monica at May 06, 2008 05:44 PM (l6adT)
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The Meaning of Night: A Confession by Michael Cox. Haven't gotten very far into it but I think it's going to be good. A mystery set in the Victorian era. Sort of Wilkie Collins-esque but I doubt as good as The Moonstone. (Note to self: read that again.)
Posted by: bobgirrl at May 06, 2008 05:55 PM (10UYJ)
Posted by: Steve-O at May 06, 2008 07:21 PM (f+RrS)
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Thanks for asking about the puppies Monica. I'll make some pix tonight to post tomorrow!
Posted by: Chai-rista at May 07, 2008 08:10 AM (ERCKE)
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Hey Abbot - If you need a horror book about Mexico try Cauldron of Blood: the Matamoros Cult Killings. It's non-fiction (more or less) and horrifically written for sure. Poorly researched and poorly executed - but it'll creep you out regardless!
Posted by: Chai-rista at May 07, 2008 08:13 AM (ERCKE)
Posted by: itedielp at May 08, 2008 09:38 AM (EGOjn)
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As one of his commenter's said "It's funny and frightening how many of these I've read." I've read about 2/3rd of this list. But I don't see one of my all-time favorite cult books at all. Where in tarnation is Snow Crash?
What else is missing? Please send your thoughts via comments!
1
Not in the same category as the list you reference, but still ... "Go, Dog, Go" has made a indelible mark on me and my children ...
Posted by: keysunset at May 06, 2008 02:31 PM (et6My)
2
Completely appropriate that Dianetics is on the list. Of the five I've read (no, I won't tell you the other four), the only one I strongly object to seeing there is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Books that should be there but aren't ... Worlds in Collision by Velikovsky is a good candidate. I dislike speaking ill of the dead, but it occurs to me that both Margaret Mead's Samoa books and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson might qualify. The fact that Carson got some things right doesn't mean her ideas weren't turned into a cult.
Posted by: wolfwalker at May 06, 2008 02:42 PM (FnWqo)
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Seems to be missing Phillip K. Dick's books. Also no Robert Anton Wilson, though he's virtually unreadable. They got Dune but they missed Ringworld. No Neil Gaiman or William Gibson -- Neuromancer is one of my all time favorites. How about Heinlein's Glory Road? LeGuin's Earthsea Triloy or Piers
Anthony's Xanth books? How about Stephen King's the Stand, or even better, It?
Or how about everything by Umberto Eco? Foucault's Pendulum, at a minimum, ought to be there.
C.G. Jung's Memories, Dreams, and reflections ought to be there, too. Some quality weird in that one.
And a cult list without H.P. Lovecraft? Granted, he was more of a short story writer than a novelist, but certainly the Cthulhu mythos needs to be included in there somewhere.
No Necronomicon, either.
Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of all Ages has got some good Masonic weirdness to it, too.
Castaneda -- yup, read 'em all. Every scrap of that well-executed fraud's oeuvre I've read. Confederacy of Dunces -- Ignatius Reilly is my role model. Chariots of the Gods? Yup. For Ayn Rand, though, the cult value of Atlas Shrugs is way higher than the Fountainhead.
Posted by: The Abbot at May 06, 2008 03:35 PM (ivbbD)
4
I've read about 13 on that list. What's missing is The Hobbit (though has that moved beyond cult status?) and the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson (I found it enjoyable, not unreadable -- Dune was unreadable, though I made it through the first four books of that trilogy.)
Posted by: rbj at May 07, 2008 07:55 AM (ybRwv)
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Thanks for bringing up Lovecraft, Abbot. He certainly deserves a place on that list!
Posted by: Chai-rista at May 07, 2008 08:08 AM (ERCKE)
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Almost 100 students of San Diego Sate University were arrested today for drug trafficking. The student drug distribution cells (AKA "seven campus fraternities") routinely sent text messages to customers listing sale prices . . . one supposes on closeout drugs?
Yes - Theta Chi was apparently the Big Lots of cocaine deals. Get this - "According to prosecutors, one of the students arrested was a cocaine dealer on campus who was one month away from obtaining his master's degree in Homeland Security."
The more I hear, the more entertaining this gets. Read for yourself here.
'Cause that wouldn't be a righteous bust--that would be a sad, sad "why didn't they text me with an offer before they got nailed" bust.
And I really hate those kinds of busts. They put a serious crimp in my mellow, and generally harsh my day.
;-)
Posted by: Pep at May 06, 2008 02:16 PM (QNnqa)
2
At my alma mater, Pt. Loma Nazarene U., we had a creepy peeper who had obtained a copy of the campus telephone directory and amused himself by calling women to threaten or cajole them into chatting with him while he...gotta run, kettle's boiling! Time for tea.
Posted by: Joules at May 06, 2008 04:32 PM (28NFV)
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Huh...where I went to school it was Sigma Chi that had the best drugs.
Posted by: GroovyVic at May 06, 2008 08:29 PM (DVkb2)
4
Why am I picturing a college student dressed like Herb Tarleck from "WKRP" working his butt off trying to make a sale?
"Yeah, we get a lot of compliments on the mescaline. It's really popular with the liberal arts crowd, and if you buy a bag today, we'll throw in a box of pop tarts and an autographed copy of "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. What? You want a nickel bag of weed with it for that price? I'll have to go check with my manager, but I think we can work something out if you get the extended warranty with your purchase."
Posted by: Russ from Winterset at May 07, 2008 07:07 AM (dyz/7)
I'm heading out to the Heartland in a few minutes, returning to Your Nation's Capital Thursday evening, so no more posties from me until Friday.
I see that Chai is in the shop today. Yay! I would also call on LMC and Gary to come to the aid of the party, and even Steve-O ought to consider coming out of hibernation.
Also, anybody seen the Scottish Dwarf lately?
Bye, y'all, for now. Yip! Yip!
Our spring project at Orgle Manor this year is to clean up the side yard to the west of the house, which over the years has become a wasteland of mud, exposed roots and scraggly weeds owing to its utter domination by a large but crooked maple.
Step one is to get rid of the tree, after which we are having a landscaper come in to lay some sod and cut a couple new beds against the wall of the house. (I'm also going to have him put an arbor over the gate to the back yard, but shhh!! - don't tell the Missus, as it's a surprise.) Along with the tree in question, we are also having a major limb lopped off a tree in our neighbor's yard. It leans way out over our property, contributing to the cimmerian gloom and also threatening to come crashing down on the garage during the next major ice storm or hurricane.
In fact, the tree guys are out at the house right now. I just got a call from their chief. Our neighbor, of course, knew and approved of our lopping of their limb, but the female member of the duo was out fussing a while ago because nobody had told her how much it was going to cost and she didn't want any cutting done before she saw the bill. (It's a couple hundred bucks.)
Well, either I am the biggest sap in history or else I am properly applying the Golden Rule, but since we're the ones spear-heading this project, I never dreamed of making any kind of demand that the neighbors pony up. I told the chief to tell her we had it covered. Hopefully, this will bring a little sunshine (ha! get it?) into her Monday. If they insist on pressing a check on us, of course, we won't say no. But I'm not going to force the thing.
We're also having the tree guys cut back a pair of thirty foot tall hollies that flank the end of the driveway. The chief reports that they look really nice now, having been lowered and shaped for the first time in years. I can't wait to see them. (Of course, I'll have to wait to see them because I catch a flight straight from the office this afternoon and won't be back in town until @#($*#(&!!! Thursday night.)
Co-ed college dorm rooms. And where are they? At my own alma mater, of course:
Erik Youngdahl and Michelle Garcia share a dorm room at Connecticut's Wesleyan University. But they say there's no funny business going on. Really. They mean it. They have set up their beds side-by-side like Lucy and Ricky in "I Love Lucy," and avert their eyes when one of them is changing clothes.
"People are shocked to hear that it's happening and even that it's possible," said Youngdahl, a 20-year-old sophomore. But "once you actually live in it, it doesn't actually turn into a big deal."
It strikes me that one of the primary problems of this wretched age in which we live is the fact that nothing is a big deal. No propriety. No limits. No sense of the special. Everything is open and familiar. And of course, familiarity breeds contempt. And contempt is pretty durn near the root of an awful lot of our social ills.
Just saying.
Yips! to Ace.
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Went through all of them. Very intriguing - very good! Liked the different textures in addition to the subject matter. Also enjoyed the sunsets. I really enjoyed them as did my better half. Make sure you tell your husband he did a great job.
Posted by: JB in Florida at May 06, 2008 08:42 PM (S0z6q)
Got to work this morning and the fountain out in front of the Library is glowing green and orange in the morning sun. Looks like a big rectangular pool of Gatorade or melted margarita, with a green spout in the middle. I think the kids put anti-freeze in it. It's weirdly beautiful, but I think they should have found a way to put big salt rocks around the rim. This is a new trick - they usually put suds in it during finals.
In order to fully celebrate this glorious foreign holiday, I offer a scientific article one of our industrious students pointed out to me. It carries the evocative title:
Amoebas may vomit E. coli on your greens
The connection to Cinco de Mayo?
Um . . . limes kill protozoa, so drink up?
Yips! from Robbo:
Enjoy!
As I believe I mentioned some time back, I am currently reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This is my third or fourth attempt, each of the prior ones having got bogged down in the first volume. This time, however, I am well and truly away and look to make it right the way through.
The other day, I reached the point at which Alaric the Visigoth sacked Rome in 410 A.D. I mentioned this to Mom when I was chatting with her yesterday and she, in turn, mentioned the curious fact that at some point during the Victorian Period, Alaric became quite a popular name in some of the higher strata of English society. I recalled that indeed P.G. Wodehouse - himself of Edwardian vintage - had christened one of his senior characters - the Duke of Dunstable - as an Alaric. (I believe the Dook makes his first appearance in the Blandings Castle novel Uncle Fred in the Springtime.)
We pondered for a moment what might account for this particular naming convention - given that the original Alaric was, after all, a barbarian - but came away stumped. Anybody have any ideas?
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If you can get past Gibbon, you will probably actually like Thucydides "The History of the Peloponnesian War." It is a much more readable book even if the "history" part is a bit suspect on a few points. (Thucydides had been exiled after all)
If you are set on Rome, then you might also like Plutarch's biographies. He wrote bios of Greeks - mostly Athenians I think (they considered Greece ancient history) - and bios of Romans. Mostly politicians. Not all are great, but a few of the Athenians come across as Chicago style machine politicians. I guess nothing ever changes.
Posted by: Zendo Deb at May 04, 2008 07:59 PM (+gqOq)
2
Sorry - I guess Plutarch was Greek, but living later under Rome.... Probably looking back at the glory days.
Posted by: Zendo Deb at May 04, 2008 08:04 PM (+gqOq)
First, I cannot help but puff just a bit about the middle Llama-ette's triumph this morning. Although at eight years the youngest member of her youth choir, she nonetheless got a solo verse in today's Offeratory Anthem at what from here on out I will refer to as Robbo's Former Episcopal Church, or RFEC. It was a modern, peppy affair in 5/4 time, the verse of which ought to have had the Dave Brubeck Quartet speed-dialing their copyright lawyers had they been aware of it. She had been quite worried about performing all by herself, and we spent a fair bit of time yesterday practicing together, self counseling her to remember her breathing and to sing as loud as she could. I needn't have been concerned: the gel marched forward when the time came, puffed up her cheeks, rolled her eyes, and struck the notes, as a former golf course starter of my acquaintence used to say, "with great vigah". Furthermore, as she was singing into a mic, the plaster was positively falling from the ceiling by the time she was done. (She wasn't alone in her achievement, by the way. The entire chorus of seven girls - ranging in age from eight to about twelve - positively nailed it this morning. Not only that, they knew that they did. This I attribute to the talent and patience of their director.)
After the service was over at RFEC, I scuttled over to my new digs for Mass. And here again I got a treat: not only was I perfectly familiar with all three of the hymns served up (each of which I have sung many times in my Anglican past), I also happened to be surrounded for once with people who were interested in trying to sing them. Given such cover, I did not feel the slightest bit self-conscious indulging in them.
Speaking of my new digs, let me just share a bit of a rant about them. I happen to love almost everything about my new Catholic parish except this: the church itself is hidious - Eisenhower Moderne at its worst. Not only does its circular shape and central altar remind me irresistably of the Jupiter II, but it is supplied with about eight exit doors all around the circuit. This allows people to scuttle off almost literally whilst still mumbling the Host. I was taught that nobody leaves before the Recessional, and that when one does leave, one goes out the front, shaking the Padre's hand and saying "Good Morning" along the way.
Hmph! I've known for a long time that God was gently but irresistably shooing me into the Tiber, but I used to just look at it from the perspective of what Rome would do for me. Is it possible that given my sensibilities about hymnody and Mass etiquette, Himself might also have been thinking of what I might be able to do for Rome?
I was taught, as a youth, that attendance at mass doesn't "count" unless you witness the chalice being uncovered and stay until it is recovered. That from my Jesuit-educated father.
But of course, who looks at minimums.
Posted by: The Abbot at May 05, 2008 10:38 AM (ivbbD)
2
It strikes me that there are quite a few folks who look at minimums very carefully. However, I recognize that I may have a mild case of Convert Derangement Syndrome, so my view may be a bit clouded.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at May 05, 2008 01:45 PM (C31gH)
UPDATE: After further review on the field, this entry has been ruled too incoherent. We'll try the philosophickal stuff again when I've had a bit more sleep.
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Posted by: ps3 converter at May 18, 2009 12:58 AM (lhhx6)
NRO on the nomination of GEN David H. Petraeus to succed Admiral Fallon as CENTCOM commander. Bonus Feature: his letter to the troops of MNF-I looking back on 2007. Via BlackFive
Biizzzzy, that's where.
I'm headed out on the road tomorrow morning (6 ack emma flight!) and won't be back in until Friday night, so pretty much no posties from me for the rest of the week.
1
I saw the new report on this. I thought the reaction was far in excess of the photos.
Posted by: Boy Named Sous at April 29, 2008 12:09 AM (jiBuF)
2
I only seen one of the photos on TV. It is not so much what the photo shows as what the photo suggests and you can use your imagination on that.
I not surprised at the criticism directed at Ms. Cyrus and her parents but am a bit baffled that no criticism at all has been directed at the photographer, Annie Leibovitz, for the sexual exploitation of a fifteen year old girl.
Posted by: Tbird at April 29, 2008 12:06 PM (D7+Nx)
3
Yeah. There's a lot of implication there. But with so much rawness that's front and center, it's possible some don't pick up on subtlety right off the bat.
Chip and the rest of the Crack Young Staff of the Hatemonger's Quarterly break their recent collective blog-silence in order to announce the return this year for the fifth time of their always entertaining Horrible College-Student Poetry Competition. Nip on over for details about rules, deadlines and the like. Bottom line? "Meter, coherence, assonance, and displays of real talent are to be avoided."
I know that several regular Llama readers have been positively itching to make a run for this much-coveted prize. (Indeed, ol' Robbo may even give it a shot himself this year.) So get your mindless undergrad freak on and get going!
1
I have already submitted my first entry. I am sorry to say that I have quite a bit of material to work with having two sons that are currently dating college women.
My first entry regards the absolutely racist treatment that Mumia has gotten from our judicial system. My inspiration for this entry was the button that my oldest son's girlfriend sported this Christmas.
Talk about self control... I thank the Hatemongers for letting me vent my spleen.
I guess their poetry contest is a mentally better way to get over myself than slamming a pot into the girlfriend's head... What better way to dispatch a green bean casserole than onto a Mumia button? But, my self control held...
Since the Hatemongers have been dark for so long, I invite all of you to make an entry. Last year I was 2nd runner up with a dog hi-Q!
Posted by: Babs at April 28, 2008 07:54 PM (iZZlp)
Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - "Book at Bedtime" Division
Last week the eldest Llama-ette and I finished reading The Hobbit. The gel enjoyed it so much that she insisted we immediately plunge on into The Lord of the Rings.
I was a bit apprehensive about this, thinking that the gel might be just a bit too young for it (she's ten for those of you not scoring at home). And I warned her several times that LOTR was not a children's book like The Hobbit, being a good deal more complicated and more scary. Nonetheless, she finally persuaded me to at least give it a try.
Well, so far, so good. We got through the first chapter of Fellowship of the Ring this weekend. The gel thoroughly enjoyed the account of Bilbo's birthday party. But more importantly, as I dramatically hardened my voice at the point where Bilbo is struggling with Gandalf over giving up the Ring, she suddenly burst out with, "Hey! Maybe that's why Gollum was so rotten - because he had the Ring for so long!"
Smart kid. I begin to think she may be able to handle it after all.
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I read The Hobbit to my kids when they were 5 & 10 years old ... they both wept real tears over the casualties at the Battle of Five Armies. Then we went right into LotR. They loved all of it. Kept right on going into Scarlet Pimpernel, Count of Monte Cristo, Huck Finn, ten books by David Eddings in the Belgariad Series, Tale of two Cities, etc. Can't remember them all. Best thing I ever did for my kids. (I couldn't get them hooked on the Foundation Trilogy no matter how hard I tried. Damn)
Before we had kiddies I read the Tolkien oeuvre to the wifely person, too - well not The Silmarillion, I guess.
It was great family time. Every evening we'd do a recap of the previous evening and often the younger one (who appeared to be minding her own business in the corner with her dolls) had the best handle on the story.
Good times.
Posted by: quasimodo at April 28, 2008 01:30 PM (SGrjU)
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My advice: Forge right into the barrow Downs. At 3, The Lad already likes a little scare. He'll have a fit if I try to turn off Scooby Doo.
Posted by: Boy Named Sous at April 28, 2008 07:18 PM (IjiHk)
