Sunday Morning Book Thread 08-02-2015: Defectors [OregonMuse]

Library at El Real Monasterio de El Escorial - Madrid, Spain

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Or kilts. Assless chaps don't count. Serious you guys. Kilts are OK, though. But not tutus. Unless you're a girl.

Book thread MULTIPLE TRIGGER WARNINGS for statements to the effect that murdering babies and chopping up their bodies for money is a bad thing, the climate science is NOT settled, and accused rapists have not thereby forfeited their due process rights.

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
-Charles Dickens

Demons

For a number of years now, this country is going to hell in a handbasket, and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it. Heck, I even joined the communist party awhile back, but it didn't work out. But, along these same "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" lines, I think it's time for a second look at one of mankind's oldest problem-solving techniques.

I'm referring, of course, to the black arts.

I mean, why not? The country is now circling the drain, so what have we got to lose? As the poet says, at this point, what difference does it make?

We are aided by the fact that the necessary magic tomes and necromancy self-help books are much more accessible than they used to be. If you want your book of spells, you don't have to seek out some faraway ruined castle or creepy, half-deserted New England coastal town, and fight your way through vampires, ghouls, Planned Parenthood medical directors, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and other evil, unnatural creatures. No, now you can simply order them direct from Amazon. With their Kindle editions and Amazon Prime free shipping, dabbling in the occult and meddling with Things Best Left Alone has never been easier!

What brought this on was a link posted by the moron commenter 'The Great White Snark' in a thread earlier this week. He said "If you're having personal problems, you may want to read this book" and then linked to The Daemonic Companion: Creating Daemonic Entities To Do Your Will by Baal Kadmon, and I'm guessing that "Baal" is not the name he was given at birth.

Now, at $4.99, you'd think you'd be getting a bargain, but it's only 38 pages long, so making contact with Beezlebub's servants certainly doesn't come cheap. But I'll give him this, having my own personal demon (daemon?) would come in might handy at times, like when the wife wants me to mow the lawn and I don't feel like it, or I want my boss's wife to walk in on him while he's cheating on her.

The downside is that, as fun as this is, it won't be any good for the stuff I really want to do, such as see Bill and Hillary! incarcerated in a federal penitentiary, or to have entire departments of the federal government simply disappear. I don't think that will be allowed. Because Jesus said:

..."Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
(Mat 12:25-26)

So there's that. Satan is smart enough that he wouldn't do anything against his own interests. He'd make a great CEO of one of our companies, and come to think of it, he probably already is.

But this "Baal" guy has written a number of other booklets on how to use the occult, such as
Vashikaran Magick: Learn The Dark Mantras Of Subjugation and Chakra Mantra Magick: Tap Into The Magick Of Your Chakras. (Al Gore gives this book a thumbs up)

I don't recommend them. I mean, seriously, isn't this obviously a lose-lose deal? If it doesn't work, you're out 5 bucks, but if it does work, these things usually turn out badly, don't they?

These guys are the original mad scientists.

Kulturkampf

Amin & Mohammed Aaser are Muslims who were teenagers during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They had a rough time of it in school afterwards

So they created the "Noor Kids" series of children's books, for Muslim children:

“Just as Dora the Explorer exposed many to positive impressions of the Latino-American community, we hope that Noor Kids can play that role for the American-Muslim community,” Amin Aaser, who left a career working with Fortune 500 companies to start the series and explore other faith-based projects, told a local Minnesota magazine. “Our long-term goal is to use Noor Kids as a vehicle to foster Muslim integration between communities across North America, Australia, and Western Europe through publishing books, video games, and TV shows.”

There are 7 books in the series so far.

The genre of Islamic children's books has become popular enough that it now has its own Amazon category.

Which will eventually create an audience for books such as I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman's Encounter with God, Bilquis Sheikh's classic autobiography that details her journey from Islam to Christianity. And then there's Hiding in the Light: Why I Risked Everything to Leave Islam and Follow Jesus by Rifqa Bary.

Here are some other conversion accounts:

Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World? by Tom Doyle and Out of Darkness Into Light: True To Life Stories of Muslims Coming To Jesus Christ Through Visions, Dreams, And Miracles by Ali Abdel Masih. I don't know about dreams. But I've been hearing these conversion stories from the Mideast for some time now, wherein a lifelong Muslim one day has a compelling dream of Jesus Christ and then converts to Christianity.

I believe that the Islamic enterprise, as mighty and as threatening as it looks today, is built on a foundation of sand, and will eventually collapse. And who knows, maybe these dreams are the giving way of the first few grains of sand.

Out of North Korea

And speaking of popular genres, I notice there are quite a few books written by Koreans who have fled North Korea and the tales they tell aren't pretty.

The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee

A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea by Eunson Kim

Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America by Joseph Kim

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

RIP E.L. Doctorow

Writer, novelist, and essayist E.L. Doctorow passed away earlier this week at age 84:

Over a career spanning half a century, Doctorow published 12 novels, three volumes of short fiction, and a stage play, as well as countless political and literary essays and articles.

He was best known for works of historical fiction such as Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and World's Fair.

Doctorow's usual technique was that he would either place fictional characters in famous historical events or famous historical characters in fictional events, and that would be the platform of whatever story he was telling.

Moron Recommendations

A lurking moron recommends this new anthology of military sci-fi stories: Fiction River: Valor (Fiction River: An Original Anthology Magazine Book 14), also available on trade paperback. The lineup includes stories by authors Steve Perry, Louisa Swann, Jamie McNabb, Kristine Kathyrn Rusch, and more.

___________

The premise for the political thriller 28 Pages by Allen Mitchum is that 28 pages of the official 9/11 Commission Report are classified and have never been released to the public. Who are they protecting and why are they doing it?

A DC lawyer investigating the greusome murder of her sister uncovers a shocking conspiracy against the United States by the Saudi Arabian ambassador.

I thought that the 28 "redacted" pages was just a plot device, but there actually are 28 missing pages that supposedly provide hard evidence of links between Al-Qaeda and the Saudi government. More info here.

28 Pages was selected as a semifinalist in the in The Kindle Book Review's Best Indie Books of 2012 Contest.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:03 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Picked up copy of Histories of the Hanged by David Anderson. An interesting read. Anyway you slice it, the Brits were mean sumbitches back in the day.

Need to find some lighter reading, preferably cheerful or irreverent, or both. Needs to be in paper. Anybody got some suggestions?

Posted by: Long Running Fool at August 02, 2015 09:05 AM (/A5gb)

2 Scooby-doo the mystery is back on

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2015 09:06 AM (e3Z5/)

3 Still working on , "The Forgotten Soldier", Sajer.

About

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
-Charles Dickens"

I recall again the critic who said of Sandberg's Lincoln biography :"The worst thing to happen to Lincoln since John Wilkes Booth"

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 02, 2015 09:08 AM (9mTYi)

4 Read Camp of the Saints. And weep.

Posted by: Shallow HAL 9000 at August 02, 2015 09:09 AM (Gcu5R)

5 Chief Eromero has the weekend off after working extra days this past week. So he is going to church this morning just like regular folk, taking along his favorite Book the 1599 Geneva Bible. Be back later.

Posted by: Eromero at August 02, 2015 09:10 AM (go5uR)

6 Need to find some lighter reading, preferably cheerful or irreverent, or both. Needs to be in paper. Anybody got some suggestions?
Posted by: Long Running Fool
-----------------

Wodehouse. "Jeeves Takes Charge", which is the first of the series.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 02, 2015 09:10 AM (9mTYi)

7
On order:

All the President's Men meets The Call of Cthulhu

Crooked By Austin Grossman

Here told in Richard Milhous Nixons own words: the terrifying supernatural secret he stumbled upon as a young man, the truth behind the Cold War, and the truth behind the Watergate cover-up. What if our nation's worst president was actually a pivotal figure caught in a desperate struggle between ordinary life and horrors from another reality? What if the man we call our worst president was, in truth, our greatest?

NPR review at the link:

http://tinyurl.com/p3btyaz

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at August 02, 2015 09:13 AM (kdS6q)

8 Been Down So Long Looks Like Up To Me

A true classic by Richard Farina

Posted by: Shallow HAL 9000 at August 02, 2015 09:14 AM (Gcu5R)

9 Reading Killer Angels and another Gettysburg book, a book about China, the last Wool book Dust, and a biography of a SC justice from the 1800s. Lots to finish this week.

Posted by: NCkate at August 02, 2015 09:16 AM (si/ji)

10 Also worth reading on North Korea: The Orphan Master's Son, winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Wall to wall horror stories, but... Cecil the Lion!

Posted by: cool breeze at August 02, 2015 09:18 AM (6Cu7i)

11 Anybody read Buchanan's Unneccessary War? Having read about it, it sounds a tad absurd.

Posted by: Marston at August 02, 2015 09:19 AM (4yVwR)

12 1. ... For something light and fun try the Liturgical Mystery series by Mark Schweizer. Your local library may have them but they are very affordable on Kindle.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 09:19 AM (FvdPb)

13 I discovered that a game product I wrote twenty years ago inspired an epic fanfiction, about three quarters of a million words. Even with my bank trying to drive me up the wall and my car battery dead, still a pretty good morning.

Posted by: Graves at August 02, 2015 09:21 AM (3MEXB)

14 JackStraw - are you around?

Posted by: Cheri at August 02, 2015 09:21 AM (ZFPMM)

15 Coulda been first, stopped to read and got squirrelled!

Posted by: Brother Cavil, stockpiling mead at August 02, 2015 09:21 AM (m9V0o)

16 I was perusing the books at Lemuria in Jackson last week and saw that book The Girl With Seven Names and almost bought it. Instead I got sidetracked looking at a book called The Venlo Incident in which the Nazi SD rolled up both British spy networks in Holland in the early days of WWII. I might have bought it save the formatting had to be a clever MI6 plot, for example a picture set landscape and the caption is partially unreadable because that is where the spine is. There were other formatting issues which made just flipping through the book a bloody nuisance. Which is a shame since it is a fascinating peek when England was at war with Germany and Chamberlain was still the Prime Minister.

Another interesting book I saw is called Before They Were the Black Sheep: Marine Fighter Squadron 214 and the Battle of the Solomon Islands. A son reconstructs from his father's postcards and other written accounts two combat tours with the Swashbucklers flying Vought F4U Corsairs before Pappy Boyington stole their squadron number, changed their name, and wrote his own chapter in combat aviation.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 09:21 AM (CpRK8)

17
Meanwhile, over at Space site Centauri Dreams, Gregory Benford stops by to give Kim Stanley Robinson's "Aurora" the frisking the SF commie crybaby's monkey typing richly deserves.

Down in the comments, David Brin and others join in on the biker stomp.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=33736

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at August 02, 2015 09:23 AM (kdS6q)

18 Almost through "Elon Musk" by Ashlee Vance. The author is a tech writer whose work I've come to respect over the years. He attempted to get Musk to cooperate on the book but was refused. Vance pursued the project without authorization. After eighteen months, Musk finally agreed to cooperate.

There are a number of similarities between Musk and the late Steve Jobs. Both are visionaries, intensely driven, and abrasive. Both were demonstrably brilliant. Both succeeded in several ventures -- Apple and Pixar for Jobs while Musk built PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla Automotive. Both demanded dedication from their employees.

Neither suffered fools. Neither had much empathy for their employees, but Musk's negotiation skills were apparently superior to Jobs'.

Musk seems to have been different in that he was extremely stress resistant, willing to take extraordinary risks, built tremendous personal technical knowledge of software development, rocket science, automotive engineering and business, as well as being an insanely hard worker. (He expected the same work ethic from his employees.)

The book covers his early years, PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla. SpaceX and Tesla were near disasters that few other CEOs could have either built or saved.

Fascinating book about a very unique man. Love him or hate him, he certainly has accomplished a great deal.

Posted by: doug at August 02, 2015 09:23 AM (wmbzs)

19 Been Down So Long Looks Like Up To Me

A true classic by Richard Farina
Posted by: Shallow
------------------

I thought I was the only one that had read that....

Posted by: Mimi Baez at August 02, 2015 09:25 AM (9mTYi)

20 Still working through Isaac's Storm, by Eric Larson, and another collection about the Great Galveston Hurricane - John Edward Weems "A Weekend in September".
Spent all yesterday at the range and in class - my daughter and I decided that since the Crazy Years are now upon us, we ought to get concealed carry permits. We do the gypsy markets and book events all the time, and while we don't carry much cash away from them ... still, one out to be prepared.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at August 02, 2015 09:27 AM (95iDF)

21 Read "Why Read Moby-Dick" by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's short but deals with so many of the aspects that make Moby Dick such a great novel. (IMHO) Ace has threatened to chose Moby Dick for his book club selection and this might be a way to get a feel for such a long story.

I realized I haven't read any Shakespeare in too many a moon. Dug out one of my complete works and started Hamlet, to be followed by either Midsummer's or The Tempest.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 09:29 AM (FvdPb)

22 When I was twelve I went through a junior black arts phase. Book of incantations, wand, the whole nine yards. That all ended when I tried to sign up for a student competition at my middle school one semester.

Turns out a spelling bee wasn't what I thought.

Posted by: Muldoon, a solid man at August 02, 2015 09:29 AM (NeFrd)

23 I tried to re-read Procurator, by Kirk Mitchell. I read it years ago, and I hadn't realized how depressing it is.

The main characters have no joy, the villains have no spark, the plot is only about corruption and betrayal, and the violence is just brutality.

I gave up half way through and started re-reading Hunted by James Allen Gardner. It takes quite a bit to make that book look like the cheerier choice.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 09:30 AM (3pRHP)

24 So Kim wrote another story about Man setting out across the great expanse to settle another star system? How is it different than oh Alpha Centauri by William Barton and Michael Capobianco? Or Manseed by Jack Williamson?

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 09:31 AM (CpRK8)

25 A fun mystery series are the Black books by Russell Blake, of which a new volume is about to be released. OTOH I noticed that although the ebook prices are low, for paperback they're pretty steep.

Posted by: waelse1 at August 02, 2015 09:31 AM (Cnnc4)

26
And speaking of The Great Old Ones:

The Cult of Cthulhu - Artists, scholars, uber-fans. Meet the people keeping Lovecraft's Providence legacy alive

http://tinyurl.com/op85hc6

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at August 02, 2015 09:33 AM (kdS6q)

27 Oregon Muse, that writer calling xirself Baal might also be riffing on the Kabbalah with the name Kadmon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Kadmon

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 09:36 AM (CpRK8)

28 I'm reading "Roughing It" by Mark Twain (99 cents on Kindle).

On Friday night's ONT, CDR M linked to an Atlas Obscura article about a map that detailed "literature's most epic road trips" and Twain's book spurred my interest the most.

"Roughing It" is Twain's recollection 11 years later of his travels west in 1861 that began when he was in his mid-twenties.

I've just finished the section that covered his travels from St Joseph, Missouri to Carson City, Nevada on the Overland Stagecoach route. I've found that a much better map to follow his journey can be found in the Wikipedia article on the "Overland Trail".

There is a map of the Pony Express Trail there created in 1860 by William Henry Jackson that provides a much better understanding of the route and all the station stops in between. I opened it in Media Viewer and enlarged it. I referred to it frequently while reading Twain's account of his travels by stagecoach.

"Roughing It" is entertaining and informative of the time, and it certainly is not up to today's PC standards. Twain also reveals a lack of "ecological concern" during his youth that would surely rattle a few Gaia worshippers.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at August 02, 2015 09:36 AM (NqQAS)

29 Eromero mentioned the 1599 Geneva Bible. I have one ordered and it should arrive early this week. With all the Planned Parenthood news (talk about nauseating!) and the usual daily shit, I'm feeling the need to read the Bible, something I almost never do. The Geneva edition with all that commentary and its historic significance seemed like a way to get started. Any suggestions on verses that might apply to the PP topic would be appreciated. Perhaps verses to help me deal with the sickening rage that news brings out.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 09:40 AM (FvdPb)

30 Al Gore gave the Chakra book 3 thumbs up.

Three.

Posted by: typo dynamofo at August 02, 2015 09:43 AM (i7JE3)

31 Reading "Ice Station" by Matthew Reilly - total fluff and perfect to read at the pool.

Posted by: Lizzy at August 02, 2015 09:44 AM (NOIQH)

32 Then he tipped the masseuse.

Then he gave her the tip.

Posted by: typo dynamofo at August 02, 2015 09:45 AM (i7JE3)

33 I took a couple chapters from my upcoming novel Life Unworthy and released them as a free short story on Smashwords.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/564458

I'm still fighting them to get it formatted for full release to Amazon etc, and they're being... annoyingly unhelpful about it, but its out there gratis.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 09:46 AM (39g3+)

34 The Daemonic Companion: Creating Daemonic Entities To Do Your Will

Er...ah...I read that book. Boy, it sure is hot down here.

Posted by: Zombie Uncle Ted Kennedy at August 02, 2015 09:46 AM (Dwehj)

35 I think a line of American kid books would be a good idea. Here's what its like to be American, as opposed to every other demanded influence and cultural shift. Something fun for kids to read.

You could even do the "outsider kid, its okay" thing in modern cities with this theme. You're so weird, you like cowboys and think problems are opportunities?

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 09:52 AM (39g3+)

36 Next year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death so I figured I'll try to read his works then.

Sabrina Chase said on her Goodreads/Amazon page she'll be doing a call-in Internet show Tuesday at 1pm EST, in case anyone wants to quiz her about her books.

Listened to The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, which is a terrific noir mystery, with Marlowe getting himself in hot water and getting involved with some messed up people.

Also listed to Graham Greene's The End Of The Affair where a writer gets to know a couple and begins an affair with the wife in WWII London. Mostly it's the writer's thoughts on love, hate and later on religion. Pretty good short novel.

Also read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stephenson, which is an entertaining treasure hunt on the high seas. If you haven't heard enough pirate-speak lately it's a fun read.

Posted by: waelse1 at August 02, 2015 09:54 AM (Cnnc4)

37 Re: North Korea. Jack Cheevers' "Act of War" tells the tale of the now almost forgotten Pueblo Incident. Incredibly well written and great character development. Ranks with "Unbroken" as a story of courage and determination.

Posted by: Libra at August 02, 2015 09:55 AM (GblmV)

38 Christopher Taylor thank you for the link to Smashwords. Will be reading up on them and probably creating an account to go with the one on Goodreads I just created.

And get back to working on short novel, got plenty of edits and suggestions to work through.

Good luck with your efforts, what problems are you encountering with Amazon?

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 09:56 AM (CpRK8)

39 Good morning morons! Did you know Time Warner Cable thinks 10 minutes is really on 1-2 minutes?

Still on my 1-2 minute hold now for 12 minutes.

Posted by: Nip Sip at August 02, 2015 09:58 AM (0FSuD)

40 Someone in LA won PB last night and it wasnt me.

Prorated and minus taxes it is about 35 mil. Not bad...
Ticket sold near USC. So, was it a professor? A student? A gangbanger?? Who knows?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 09:58 AM (iQIUe)

41 We will know if a Moron won the PB when Ginger Island sells.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 09:59 AM (CpRK8)

42 I love the book thread. Usually don't have much insight to contribute.

Posted by: KT at August 02, 2015 10:00 AM (qahv/)

43 I'm reading "Roughing It" by Mark Twain (99 cents on Kindle).

On Friday night's ONT, CDR M linked to an Atlas Obscura article
about a map that detailed "literature's most epic road trips" and
Twain's book spurred my interest the most.

"Roughing It" is Twain's recollection 11 years later of his travels west in 1861 that began when he was in his mid-twenties.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at August 02, 2015 09:36 AM (NqQAS)

I read Roughing It years ago, and it is one of those books you give away and find another copy to keep. His use of language and timing is genius, and his telling of the speech and attitudes among the miners is delightful.
Twain does go into hyperbole at times.

One of my goals is to find a copy of Richard Burton's The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains. Burton did pretty much the same route as Twain a year prior, and wrote about it. I have read excerpts, and I generally find Burton to be fairly cold, if meticulous, narrator, but I want a second look at the same period and area.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 10:03 AM (3pRHP)

44 42 I love the book thread. Usually don't have much insight to contribute.

Posted by: KT at August 02, 2015 10:00 AM (qahv/)

All you have to do is read a book, and then tell the rest of us morons about it. You never know, another moron might want to read it, too.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 10:04 AM (43BmD)

45 Sorta-kinda Book Thread-related: I will be interviewed on web radio WriteStream Radio this coming Tuesday, 1pm Eastern. Link to show: http://bit.ly/1IxJ32I

It will be archived for your amusement, but the live session will have listener call-in opportunities to harass me.

What kind of things would the Horde like to have me talk about? (besides bacon).

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at August 02, 2015 10:05 AM (GG9V6)

46 What kind of things would the Horde like to have me talk about? (besides bacon).

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at August 02, 2015 10:05 AM (GG9V6)

Pastries!

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 10:09 AM (43BmD)

47
I recall again the critic who said of Sandberg's Lincoln biography :"The worst thing to happen to Lincoln since John Wilkes Booth"

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at August 02, 2015 09:08 AM (9mTYi)

My favorite book review is by Dorothy Parker: "This book should not be tossed aside, but flung with great force."

And the perfect literary epitaph of Percy Bysshe Shelley which called him "an ineffectual butterfly, vainly flapping it's diaphanous wings in the void". Can't remember who wrote that one though.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at August 02, 2015 10:09 AM (egLDQ)

48 The 10th anniversary of Katrina is coming up so be prepared to be bombarded with crap.

Heard some moonbat on NPR earlier talk about going into the restrooms of the superdome and seeing 2 kids, ages 3 & 4, face down in a sink. It took 3 whole days to remove them. lol How do you deal with this level of stupidity? The host tried to explain it away as the "trauma" of the storm. Yeah right. They stayed with relatives in Houston but whine that they want to go back to N. O. Well, go back. No one is stopping you. She said everytime it rains her mother grabs a suitcase and puts all their can goods inside ready to bold. lol

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 10:13 AM (iQIUe)

49 Amazon is fine, Smashwords is very, very, very picky with its formatting; the best way to set your book up is with HTML. But they found one problem and it's one line they don't like but their comment makes no sense. I'm in communication with them trying to figure it out.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:13 AM (39g3+)

50 Since Oregon Muse is all about summoning demons...

The very name ...* given by the Greeks to madness was derived from the root-word man, men, which occurs in the Latin Manes, and indeed the Romans thought that a madman was tormented by the goddess Mania, the mother of the Lares, the hallucinations of lunatics being taken to be spectres who pursued them. And so a madman was laruarum plenus, laruatus, one whom phantoms disturbed;

pg 201. The History of Witchcraft and Demonology. Montague Summers. Castle Books. 1992

* Here the author wrote the Greek word in Greek so put a spacer to denote a word is there.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:14 AM (CpRK8)

51 I've never read "Roughing It", but I remember reading in Life magazine as a kid that one of the Gemini 7 astronauts took it on board their record-breaking two-week flight in 1965.

Ah, there it is...

https://tinyurl.com/oj8u8qe

Posted by: rickl at August 02, 2015 10:15 AM (sdi6R)

52 Sabrina, I always am fascinated with researching and plotting.

Do you you set out like going to the hardware store for elements to build your story on, or do you start with what you have on hand and only go out for specialty items when you find you need them?

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 10:16 AM (3pRHP)

53 And a hearty thankyou to waelse1 helping spread the word ;-)

*scribbles* pastries...got it.

Writing: Working on One Blood, sequel to The Scent of Metal
Reading: Tried to read a collection of Repairman Jack short stories, having heard much praise on the Book Thread for same. Didn't grab me. Did read The Paper Magician which was entertaining, if a bit lacking in explosions. Can't have everything. Currently reading King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court, where Morgan le Fay (she hates that name) tries to wreak revenge on Hank Morgan of Twain's Connecticut Yankee by going to the future. Full disclosure, author is a friend of mine. So far pretty funny even though I am not an Arthuriana fan.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at August 02, 2015 10:19 AM (GG9V6)

54 Was just watching ABC and they were interviewing Trump. No wonder most people have a tenuous grasp of the English language. The prick interviewer used the word "Emphatic" as poorly as most use literally.

Posted by: Temp at August 02, 2015 10:21 AM (FeDqp)

55
Sholom Aleichem was introduced to Mark Twain as "the Jewish Mark Twain" -- Twain replied, Really, I'm told I'm the American Sholom Aleichem.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 10:24 AM (iQIUe)

56 Interesting Larry Correia blog post -- "Fisking the Guardian's Latest Sad Puppy Article of the Week" at http://bit.ly/1hbOCxO

Posted by: doug at August 02, 2015 10:25 AM (wmbzs)

57 Mike Hammer, etc., etc. - I'll take a look. A bunch of folks here have mentioned the series from time to time.

JTB - Tried the Liturgical Mystery on the kindle but bounced. Think OM mentioned them very favorably a couple of months back.

Posted by: Long Running Fool at August 02, 2015 10:26 AM (/A5gb)

58 Any suggestions on verses that might apply to the PP topic would be appreciated. Perhaps verses to help me deal with the sickening rage that news brings out.

And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.
(2Ki 17:16-18 )

"When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?#8212;that I also may do the same.' You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
(Deu 12:29-31)

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 10:27 AM (43BmD)

59 Kindletot, good question!

In real life I have what I call the Shed of Doom on my property. It was built in the 1930s and still has most of its original junk. Whenever I need some esoteric bit of wood or hardware I rummage around and usually find something that will work. Haven't found the Ark or Jimmy Hoffa yet, but it could happen.

My writing is much like that. I have so many weird bits and pieces in my brain (I mean, look who I hang out with!) that I rarely have to do research *just* to find something for plot purposes. I did a bit of research on Brittany for the Mage Guardian books, mostly for place names, and quite a bit on Pluto for The Scent of Metal because I picked Pluto for revenge purposes and only then started reading up on it. And became more and more convinced it really is Something Very Odd as I kept going...

I read a lot of science and technology news, Atlas Obscura, cryptography, military history...and just let it all bubble away in my subconscious.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at August 02, 2015 10:27 AM (GG9V6)

60 Has Larry been talking with our Empress??

http://preview.tinyurl.com/pkmvvww

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:28 AM (CpRK8)

61 11. I have read "Unnecessary War" by Pat Buchanan. It is very much an anti-Churchill theme.

While Churchill was not the military and tactical genius many think, he was not nearly as bad as the book makes him seem.

The book was a stretch, but does give a different look at the run up to world war II that is never taught.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:31 AM (EJf8R)

62 Slogged through Dan Simmons' four-book Hyperion series; I'd originally bought just the first, but I decided to take the plunge and ordered the other three from Amazon.

Mostly good reads, although it occurs to me that nothing highlights a particular author's annoying verbal tics more than binge-reading way too much of their stuff in a short period of time. Simmons has a few:

1. Recurrent misuse of the word "penultimate" (which he corrects in the third book with a sentence obviously written to show that he had become aware of its proper use)

2. The planet Hyperion has a sky that is not "blue". It is "lapis blue", although to be fair, Simmons sometimes uses "lapis lazuli" and, occasionally, when he's feeling lightheaded, "lapis". Before I was finished with the series I had to google "lapis" to see if it meant something more than what I thought it did. Spoiler: It didn't.

3. In fact, his gaudy use of color to pad out descriptions at every turn; I have no doubt 4,000-page series would have fit in a single portable book with the deletion of all color words. Stephen Crane may have opened new literary territories to the use of color imagery, but Simmons populated it with a fecundity of symbology that would startle China. Or Red China, or Blood-Orange Red China, as it were.

So overall, my opinion? The reveals at the end struck me as trite; I felt let-down, but in retrospect, I can't imagine where else Simmons might have been headed.

Posted by: jwpaine, otherized for your protection at August 02, 2015 10:31 AM (wKcQA)

63 Recently read "George Washington's Secret Six" by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. It's by no means an academic work and there's certainly some conjecture involved in telling the story, but I thought it was well-done and a good jumping off point for further reading and research on the topic. It's not a long or complicated, so I think it would be a good read for tweens or teens.

Posted by: Hoplite Housewife at August 02, 2015 10:32 AM (VMKPX)

64 The most recent book I finished reading is Wiseguys by Nicholas Pileggi, the book they made the film Goodfellas out of. A lot more details, different sequence of events, and more background on the story.

Many of the quotes from Henry Hill are directly out of the book, you can almost hear Ray Liotta reading them. Its raw and brutal and while sometimes the mobsters come across as kind of charming, mostly they're just thugs.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:32 AM (39g3+)

65 Another big difference between Jobs and Musk is that Jobs never built a business that survives pretty much solely on taxpayer subsidies. Whereas Musk has perfected the art of using government funds to enrich himself.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:32 AM (EJf8R)

66 Churchill as a commander was more or less a disaster; see WWI. But Churchill as a visionary and world leader: superb.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:34 AM (39g3+)

67 Speaking of demons and whatnot, Anno Dracula by Kim Newman is good. I read it after having read and enjoyed Newman's The Hound of the D'Ubbervilles, a dark comedy Sherlock Holmes parody and I was expecting much the same but Anno Dracula is more a full blooded horror novel. The premise is Dracula won the fight with Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing and vampirism is an acceptable alternate lifestyle in late Victorian England.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at August 02, 2015 10:35 AM (LImiJ)

68 re: #60 from the comments.

dave mills
3 days 19 hours ago

Larry! Damn it! That's a T-rex. Big head, short arms, no big claw on foot. You researched the monster truck, but expect to just wave your magic pole arm over the dino and make it OK. Sigh!

correia45
3 days 17 hours ago

How do you know that T-Rex isn't transitioning to being a raptor, and it identifies as a raptor? Enough of your cis-paleolontogical privilege hatemonger!
*snicker-snort-guffaw*

Oh Oregon Muse, perhaps that picture I had mentioned might be inserted onto this thread.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:36 AM (CpRK8)

69 65 Another big difference between Jobs and Musk is that Jobs never built a business that survives pretty much solely on taxpayer subsidies. Whereas Musk has perfected the art of using government funds to enrich himself.
Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:32 AM (EJf8R)

Yeah. So different from Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Posted by: rickl at August 02, 2015 10:36 AM (sdi6R)

70 Fun thing I found poking about the web the other day:

http://makezine.com/projects/build-a-sturdy-notebook-with-coptic-book-binding/

Posted by: Anachronda at August 02, 2015 10:37 AM (o78gS)

71 Listened to At Home by Bill Bryerson (sp?) last week but forgot to say so. It was interesting but I wonder if ther is a bit of that "Gell-Mann Amnesia" thing because on the two topics he talked about that I know something of there was a "hey, wait" in each case. He wasn't wildly wrong, but he wasn't correct either. I suspect that the subject is simply too vast and the research too great for him to have looked very deeply into any of it.

Over-all there were a lot of interesting tidbits and I'm glad I listened to it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 10:37 AM (GDulk)

72 69. Original mentioned Jobs, not Lockheed.

Of course tons of businesses play the game. I just think he is a bit overrated since the company he is most associated with is extremely heavily subsidized.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:40 AM (EJf8R)

73 I *just* bought the new Ted Cruz book, "ATime For Truth". Am only ~22 pages or so along, and am already feeling my blood pressure rise. If half of what he says is true, we are so boned. Well and truly. I didn't think it was possible to despise Washington/GOPe any more than I already do, but I think I may have underestimated my ability to reeeaaaccch down and plumb new depths of loathing.

I need to be reading something light and goofy instead.

Posted by: TX ette at August 02, 2015 10:41 AM (sUJHF)

74 Yeah. So different from Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Both were well established long before they got into the government cronyism racket. Musk started that way and has yet to produce anything that doesn't involve government funds.

The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count aka Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula by Loren Estleman is a great read, particularly as its his first novel. He keeps the Doyle voice very faithfully and tells a terrific story.

Estleman also did a novel about Dr Jeckyll and Sherlock Holmes I have yet to read. His usual writing is westerns and detective stuff these days, but he started out with mashups decades before they became popular.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:41 AM (39g3+)

75 Listened to Mere Christianity this week. I have read very little of C.S. Lewis' non-fiction works (Abolition of Man recently, but I think that's it) partially due to their price and I don't know why else.

I liked it a lot and think I will need to listen again in a few months since I suspect I will get different things out of it if I do. Even though I didn't agree with his conclusions on everything, I can see where Lewis has helped shape modern Evangelicism. He also write with a great deal of humor while trying to answer questions (some honestly asked and some dishonestly) that had been sent to him after the radio broadcasts that were the backbone of the book.

Now listening to Moonwalking With Einstein which is interesting but I'm not sure how helpful it will end up being.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 10:43 AM (GDulk)

76 64: My son is reading the "Lufthansa Heist" by Henry Hill. Says it's a good read.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 10:43 AM (ucDmr)

77 Everything by CS Lewis is great. Everything. I cannot think of a single book or short essay he's written I would not recommend.

Henry Hill was much more a scumbag than he admits in the books, I saw an interview with him in Washington State not long before he died (no, he wasn't hit by the mob, it was health issues). He was still on drugs, on his third girlfriend after his wife dumped him.

Oh, his wife is less the put-upon sweetheart the movie portrays as well. In fact, although this wasn't in the book, apparently she was having an affair with Paulie while Hill was with his mistress packing up coke in her house.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:45 AM (39g3+)

78 All the esoteric books say the same thing. Your world is created by your beliefs and expectations. From the KJ Bible"...Seek and ye shall find, ask and it is given, knock..." is the short story. The long story is currently being told by Louise Hay and others. Countless books. See Neville Goddard. Mystic Christianity would be called heresy analogous to Horus Heresy Warhammer 40K by Catholic Church. Satan is God's friend (see book of Job). See Jesus vs Satan in South Park boxing match as a parable as to why Satan's house is always divided.

Posted by: Seeker at August 02, 2015 10:46 AM (PGh+Q)

79 61 11. I have read "Unnecessary War" by Pat Buchanan. It is very much an anti-Churchill theme.
...
The book was a stretch, but does give a different look at the run up to world war II that is never taught.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:31 AM (EJf8R)

I remember when that book first came out, Victor Davis Hanson ripped it to shreds in his review; basically saying that Buchanan didn't know what he was talking about.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 10:47 AM (43BmD)

80 All but done Still the Best Hope from Dennis Preger
I have listened him for a long time so not a lot of new facts.

Posted by: Skip at August 02, 2015 10:47 AM (e3Z5/)

81 now you can simply order them direct from Amazon. With their Kindle editions and Amazon Prime free shipping, dabbling in the occult and meddling with Things Best Left Alone has never been easier!

-
I'd like to remind everybody that you can't buy a CBF on Amazing because it's evil n shit.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at August 02, 2015 10:47 AM (LImiJ)

82 I remember when that book first came out, Victor Davis Hanson ripped it to shreds in his review; basically saying that Buchanan didn't know what he was talking about.

Ouch. Victor Davis Hanson is a world renowned historian with an arm's load of degrees in history. Pat Buchanan is a right-leaning crank.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:49 AM (39g3+)

83 in actual reading. Started The Disappearing Spoon, A dead-tree book Called Ethnic Embroidery about...you guessed it, and have been reading through the sci-fi/fantasy bundle I won here a couple (?) of months ago. I'm about half way through the bundle and so far I've liked two books, hated two and thought a couple others were okay.There were a couple I might be willing to spend money on to find out what happens next, so I guess it isn't a failure from the publisher's point of view.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 10:50 AM (GDulk)

84 @65 Hyperbole, much?

There are a number of Senators who would love to fund NASA's Space Launch System wet dreams in California, Texas, Alabama, and Florida with your tax dollars rather than encourage competition and reduce launch costs. SpaceX is trying to lower launch costs to compete with China and Russia. Taxpayers benefit.

Rather than sending tax dollars to Russia for ISS flights, foreign countries buy launches on SpaceX. ULA and NASA simply can't compete.

Only one way to do a US launch on non-Russian engines -- SpaceX. They build their own.

Posted by: doug at August 02, 2015 10:51 AM (wmbzs)

85 Frankenstein started it all, which is why I think the 'unassuming little potboiler' should be a AoS read-along.

Posted by: mustbequantum at August 02, 2015 10:52 AM (MIKMs)

86 Well, here I am all summoned and all and all this

naturalfake jackass wants me to do is tell that the

"sidebar", whatever that is, article about the 11

realms of the United States?

Whoever wrote that had obviously never been to

Texas, as his descriptions were a poor fit for all three

regions.

There done.

Oh hell, now the jackass wants me to do something else.

Posted by: naturalfake's Daemon at August 02, 2015 10:53 AM (KUa85)

87 77: Henry Hill was a scumbag. It's part of the job. He lived for the moment as mobsters do. I don't remember him trying to pass himself off as a hero. Just told his story.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 10:54 AM (ucDmr)

88 I have read "Unnecessary War" by Pat Buchanan. It is very much an anti-Churchill theme..The book was a stretch, but does give a different look at the run up to world war II that is never taught.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:31 AM

Just spitballin' here, but I'd guess one reason said history is "never taught" is the source. Pat Buchanan strikes me as the Right's version of a moonbat, full of weird theories, Dark Conspiracies and plain old undiluted horseshit.

Not everyone is worth paying attention to simply because they fall somewhat within the orbit of one's political beliefs.

WSC may not have been particularly sharp as a military commander, but as the kind of Inspirational Leader the UK very much needed at the time, he was tops.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 10:54 AM (rCmeG)

89 I like the idea of SpaceX; I don't like the fact that Elon Musk (along with several other modern 'entrepreneurs') are doing it entirely on the government teat.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:54 AM (39g3+)

90 I have to stop reading the Book Thread. I have already ordered two more books based on the recommendations and the thread is far from over.

Still reading but nothing that I would recommend to this august group.

On a Twain related note, does anyone know if the Tom Sawyer and the Huckleberry Finn books on Amazon are the originals (unexpurgated for SJ/PC) or have they been modified.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 10:54 AM (ftVQq)

91 84. Not really. Im talking more about Tesla. The taxpayer subsidized vehicle maker.

Musk has his positive attributes, but many folks simply do not want to acknowledge the role of government in Tesla.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:55 AM (EJf8R)

92 Hey Hrothgar, so what books have you now ordered???

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:55 AM (CpRK8)

93 Well, okay that was actually pretty good.

The jackass had me read "Dreams from My Father" by some arab dude.

It was about how this guy sought out all the evil and anti-social influences he could to hide his beta maleness and future his hate against the rest of the world.

I must say I approve.

Posted by: naturalfake's Daemon at August 02, 2015 10:56 AM (KUa85)

94 Posted by: doug at August 02, 2015 10:51 AM (wmbzs)

What good is being a US politician if not for the graft (and immunity from prosecution)?

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 10:56 AM (ftVQq)

95 Oh look people, its a trool emerging from beneath a slimy rock in a vain attempt to share disease-ridden mucous with the innocent.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:57 AM (CpRK8)

96 Henry Hill was a scumbag. It's part of the job. He lived for the moment as mobsters do. I don't remember him trying to pass himself off as a hero.

Sure, he's scum. But he was worse than the film and book portray him, is all I'm saying. And let's just say he was no Ray Liotta either.

Oh, by the way, remember the scene in Tommy's mom's house? When she shows off paintings? Those were done by Henry Hill, he became a painter later in life.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 10:58 AM (39g3+)

97 I don't remember him trying to pass himself off as a hero. Just told his story.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 10:54 AM

One thing that surprised me about "Wiseguy" was its basic unemotional tone. Hill and Pileggi told the story pretty much straight, without moralizing, excusing or prettying it up. So many books of this sort try to say "see, I wasn't such a bad guy!" and it doesn't work.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 10:58 AM (rCmeG)

98 Sabrina, F. Paul Wilson wrote Science Fiction before he started the Repairman Jack series. He was published by Ace. The best of them is An Enemy of the State, which is about the break away of the outer worlds from Earth Authority.

For some reason The Tery and Dideetown World are the books that get reprinted. They aren't as good and say less about freedom.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:00 AM (3pRHP)

99 56 Interesting Larry Correia blog post -- "Fisking the Guardian's Latest Sad Puppy Article of the Week" at http://bit.ly/1hbOCxO

Posted by: doug at August 02, 2015 10:25 AM (wmbzs)

I'm reading this now. Hilarious, and highly recommended for all Morons.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:00 AM (43BmD)

100 Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:55 AM (CpRK

1599 Geneva Bible (Patriot's Version) mostly because I think I better start getting right, and

King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court because I loved the original Connecticut Yankee when I read it years ago.

I would have sworn I had a complete Works of Mark Twain, but haven't been able to find it!

My grand-daughter was bemoaning the fact that Twain had been sanitized and wanted to read the original which is why I'm looking for it.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:02 AM (ftVQq)

101 The only book by F. Paul Wilson in my library is The Keep.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:02 AM (CpRK8)

102 have to stop reading the Book Thread. I have already ordered two more books based on the recommendations and the thread is far from over.

-
Yeah, me to but I haven't got a problem. I can quit anytime I want.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at August 02, 2015 11:02 AM (LImiJ)

103 96: They were all worse than the film depicted. Jimmy the Gent was demented. Had more killings than he could remember. Tommy DeSimone was even worse. They were basically insane.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:02 AM (ucDmr)

104 I hope you find the Twain book. As for horror stories, always try the original Grimm versions and not the Disney versions.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:04 AM (CpRK8)

105 Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:00 AM (3pRHP)

I read a couple of the Repairman Jack books but the theme was soon over-used (for me) and the supernatural addition didn't hold my attention.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:04 AM (ftVQq)

106 I think the best thing to come out of the whole Sad Puppies thing is to show what a scumbag George RR Martin is. As if his increasingly obvious fixation with little girls wasn't enough.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:04 AM (39g3+)

107 Halfway thru Larteguy's "The Centurions." First world armies, with self-imposed first world restrictions don't fare well against 3rd world forces that don't observe limits.

Just started on Manchester's 3rd volume of his Churchill biography, "The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm." He may have been a greta man, but he was also kind of a dick.

Moar books added to queue: bought several P. J. O'Rourke books.

Posted by: Butch at August 02, 2015 11:06 AM (HLx1C)

108 Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 10:55 AM (CpRK

So Anna, you reading anything good these days?

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:06 AM (ftVQq)

109 I do not ascribe to every single part of Buchanan's analysis. He does cite the historical record in a few instances where, in hindsight, things could have gone better in the run up to WW2. Of course, anyone with the benefit of hindsight could have made some different decisions etc.

His main thesis is that Churchill is considered the "Man of the Century" for his role in both World Wars and his role in Britain's survival.

Buchanan lays out a non-moonbat (in my opinion) case that Churchill's long term decisions helped precipitate the ultimate dissolution of the British Empire in a manner that did not necessarily have to happen. Many of these supposed decisions happened in the run up to World War 2. He thus argues that a man with as many fingerprints on the fall of the empire should never be considered the indispensable man of the century.

Many people ripping it would likely never read it, and that is fine. But he makes his case fairly well, even if I do not agree with the whole thing.

For the record, there is no Holocaust Denial etc in the entire book. He sticks to topic pretty well.

Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 11:06 AM (EJf8R)

110 I recently reread an oldy but goody "Fields of Fire" by James Webb. I was in 6thgrade when i read it the 1st time. Sister Vincentia applauded me reading a few grade levels ahead then in the next breath gave me a verbal whipping for reading trash. I think i preferred a physical whipping from that lady. She had a way with words.

Posted by: fastfreefall at August 02, 2015 11:07 AM (w9ErY)

111 They were all worse than the film depicted. Jimmy the Gent was demented.

Yeah, that was the part that surprised me. He came across as mostly business and focused in the film and he was a psychotic murderer in real life. Tommy was a lot younger than Henry, too.

Paulie was a lot less the kindly father figure, as well. They kind of tried to show that in the film but it didn't come across very effectively. In the film he seems like the one sort of decent guy, but in the book you realize he's just as bad as the rest of them, only in power.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:07 AM (39g3+)

112 75 ... Polliwog, I started out getting Lewis' books from the library but decided I wanted my own copies. The new editions are pretty expensive so I haunted the local used book stores and have been able to assemble a pretty thorough collection of his nonfiction. Took some time to find most of them.

If you are interested in his literary and scholarly criticism, check out "The Discarded Image".

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 11:07 AM (FvdPb)

113 I'd agree Churchill wasn't a genius when it came to military strategy but you can't lay the blame for Galipoli completely on him. It was his idea but he wasn't in command on the ground.

IIRC the people who were supposed to be in command on the ground made sure they were a few miles off shore in relative safety.

Then you have the fact that Kitchner refused to give them ground forces initially when Galipoli was virtually defenseless, only to give them exactly what they asked for later after the Turks had fortified the peninsula.

He wasn't blameless but Churchill was scapegoated as the sole cause of that disaster. (Partly because Kitchner died during the war when a U-boat torpedoed the ship he was on. Can't speak ill of the dead)

Posted by: Marston at August 02, 2015 11:07 AM (4yVwR)

114 They were basically insane.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:02 AM

Hey, it was a movie, FFS. The producers knew that presenting a documentary on Eeeeevil Crime Dudes wouldn't sell.

Why do you think The Godfather did so well? It humanized a bunch of pretty inhuman characters and wrapped them in nice photography and sweet music. Ticket sales would have been dismal if Don Corleone was portrayed as the unprincipled, violent, uncaring thug his real-life counterparts so often were.

I once met a couple of real-life Mafia dudes. Even in a "normal" setting, they were Not Nice People. I wouldn't have wanted to have them mad at me. And I wouldn't make a movie about them.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:09 AM (rCmeG)

115 111: You nailed it. The new book pretty much lays it all out. John Gotti is the guy who whacked Tommy. With Paulies blessing.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:09 AM (ucDmr)

116 Regarding Musk's no-risk funding by the government, I think the Horde should collaborate on a venture, maybe the Center for Scientific Progress, and apply for government grants and tax exemptions. Attendance at any MoMee would be a justifiable expense for tax purposes.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:10 AM (ftVQq)

117 demons are to me what clowns spiders are to some of you......i have to skip this entire thread or i'll be freaked out for months.........clutching my rosemary beads too scared to clack them

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at August 02, 2015 11:10 AM (0O7c5)

118 I've been reading CJ Box's Joe Pickett series about a Wyoming fish and game officer and his family. They're pretty good mysteries and Box has a feel for rural and small town life and Pickett is a thoroughly decent man who loves his family and his job and is a good husband and father. That's kind of rare in books these days. I've read five of them so far and there hasn't been a clinker in the bunch.

Posted by: huerfano at August 02, 2015 11:11 AM (bynk/)

119 114: Setle down, okay? We all get that about mob movies. Damn, you know Marty?

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:12 AM (ucDmr)

120 91 84. Not really. Im talking more about Tesla. The taxpayer subsidized vehicle maker.

Musk has his positive attributes, but many folks simply do not want to acknowledge the role of government in Tesla.
Posted by: Nick in South Bend at August 02, 2015 10:55 AM (EJf8R)

Well, whenever government interferes in the free market, it causes distortions.

The government has decided that it wants to encourage the development of electric cars, so it offers a $7500 rebate to buyers of electric cars. That's just the Federal government; various states also offer additional incentives of their own, particularly California.

Whatever you may think of electric cars, the Tesla Model S is a genuine luxury sedan with acceleration that leaves most sports cars in the dust. It's a far cry from the glorified golf carts that most other electric cars are.

Tesla is a small car company that sells to a high-end niche market. A bare-bones Model S costs almost $100,000.

Who do you think is more likely to be influenced by the $7500 rebate, the buyer of a $100,000 Tesla or the buyer of a $30,000 Chevy Volt?

The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of this government money is going to big established car manufacturers like GM and Toyota, not Tesla.

Posted by: rickl at August 02, 2015 11:12 AM (sdi6R)

121 106 I think the best thing to come out of the whole Sad Puppies thing is to show what a scumbag George RR Martin is. As if his increasingly obvious fixation with little girls wasn't enough.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:04 AM (39g3+)

A while back, GRRM and Correia had a back-and-forth on their respective blogs, and it was amazingly civil, and I wanted it to continue for a few more rounds longer than it did. GRRM came off (at least to me) as someone who could be reasoned with.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:12 AM (43BmD)

122 You nailed it. The new book pretty much lays it all out. John Gotti is the guy who whacked Tommy. With Paulies blessing.

Yeah, well Billy Batts was part of Gotti's crew. That's the guy that they stomp the crap out of and bury in the woods. Yeah he was a jerk but like Hill says; he was made.

That was one of the more interesting parts of the book, how the little crime family fit in with the rest of the mob. You kind of feel like Paulie was Tony Soprano in the film, but he was more Paulie Walnuts.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:12 AM (39g3+)

123 By Jove!! Hrothgar has an idea! Eureka!

If we all self identify as the de-jeur minority of the moment when claiming who the owners are. Fill the mission statement with feel good jargon so dense that the IRS agents' eyes glaze over and thus fail to truly parse the intent. Plus buzz words of promoting and self-actualizing the metabolization of complex sugars in liquid form...

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:13 AM (CpRK8)

124 "Forgotten Soldier" is a great read. Found a fair bit of it to be pretty dubious, though. Possibly a semi or mostly fictional memoir of real events. A good read with valuable insights, though, to be sure.

Posted by: otho at August 02, 2015 11:13 AM (d8udV)

125 Posted by: fastfreefall at August 02, 2015 11:07 AM (w9ErY)

Webb really lost his way somewhere along the line! I still remember that book myself.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:13 AM (ftVQq)

126 Hrothgar, if you need to, you can get a lot of Twain's work at Gutenberg.
If you want hardcopy, prowl used bookstores.

Twain had one problem, he had bad choice in personnel. I always got the idea that his editors after he died didn't much like him, his writing, or his humor.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:14 AM (3pRHP)

127 As to what I should be reading, my own story and fixing problems.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:15 AM (CpRK8)

128 122: You never did get the feeling Paulie was all that in the movie. For a boss, he seemed small time. Not real ambitious.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:15 AM (ucDmr)

129 Posted by: huerfano at August 02, 2015 11:11 AM (bynk/)

I tried to get into this series based on recommendations here at the SBT, but couldn't do it. I will give it a retry based on your post.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:16 AM (ftVQq)

130 Whatever you may think of electric cars, the Tesla Model S is a genuine luxury sedan with acceleration that leaves most sports cars in the dust.

That's an electric car feature: they are super fast off the line and accelerate very rapidly. Even in reverse. All the power goes directly to the wheels right away. The Tesla is a nice machine, even if it doesn't do what they claim and is way too expensive.

I've been reading CJ Box's Joe Pickett series about a Wyoming fish and game officer and his family.

I've read a few of those. They got really, really dark and not as fun to read for me after a while though. I wanted more Wyoming fish and game and less horrific evil and dark, sinister government encroachment, I guess.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:16 AM (39g3+)

131 >>I think the Horde should collaborate on a venture, maybe the Center for Scientific Progress,

A Moron think tank.

Posted by: Lizzy at August 02, 2015 11:17 AM (NOIQH)

132 Center for the Calming of Breasts and Slicing Like a Hammer.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:18 AM (39g3+)

133 The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count aka Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula by
Loren Estleman is a great read, particularly as its his first novel. He
keeps the Doyle voice very faithfully and tells a terrific story.

Christopher Taylor-

That sounds like both an interesting and fun read. Thanks for posting about it.

Posted by: Charlotte at August 02, 2015 11:19 AM (k3z23)

134 We all get that about mob movies. Damn, you know Marty?

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:12 AM

Actually, I can't remember the name of the one Mob guy I had the longest conversation with. He was the "driver" for a Boss (whose name I DO remember, but never mind) and, though it was never said, had to have done a few other things for the guy as well.

And I enjoyed all the Organized Crime-related movies I ever saw. But I always remember the opening lines from a book I read by a claimed Mafia hit man (he called himself "Joey"): "Fuck The Godfather. Actually, I liked the movie. I thought it was a great comedy."

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:19 AM (rCmeG)

135 I once met a couple of real-life Mafia dudes. Even in a "normal" setting, they were Not Nice People. I wouldn't have wanted to have them mad at me. And I wouldn't make a movie about them.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:09 AM (rCmeG)

Were they made men?

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:20 AM (43BmD)

136 Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:13 AM (CpRK

I'm halfway serious about that concept. When you read what crap has been funded, you realize that a bunch like the Horde (after abandoning all their principles and concentrating on getting free money) could write mission statements, organization charts, proposals, and study results that would make perfect sense to the average government reviewer at EPA, DHS, NASA, or NOAA.

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:21 AM (ftVQq)

137 A Moron think tank.

Posted by: Lizzy at August 02, 2015 11:17 AM (NOIQH)

Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:22 AM (43BmD)

138 Just finished James D. Hornfishers, Ghost Ship. Which was recommended here. Want to recommend 2 other books by the same author: Neptune's Inferno & The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Both are a great read.

Posted by: Gary Rafferty at August 02, 2015 11:23 AM (L7quo)

139 Were they made men? Posted by: OregnMuse at August 02, 2015 11:20 AM

I'm sure they were made of something, OM.

I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but even I know better than to ask certain questions of certain kinds of people....

Which is not to say I didn't want to.

Still, I thought asking about the food at Umberto's Clam House might be, shall we say, not received gracefully.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:24 AM (rCmeG)

140 Center for the Progressive Calming of Breasts and Slicing Like a Social Justice Hammer.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:18 AM (39g3+)

FIFY

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:24 AM (ftVQq)

141 13: I vaguely remember that book. Laughed my ass off at that line. You could not make a believable movie about Sammy Gravano that would work. That guy could not be cleaned up enough to make it work.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:25 AM (ucDmr)

142 That guy could not be cleaned up enough to make it work.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:25 AM

But easier, maybe, than making a charming comedy about Tony "the Ant" Spilotro.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:27 AM (rCmeG)

143 slightly OT:

are most of you migrating over to e-readers and forgoing dead tree books completely at this point?

I read some stuff on my ipad, but I'm having trouble giving up physical books.

But it's becoming a storage issue. Not sure if I should take the dive and just buy a kindle and accept that dead tree books are going the way of the typewriter... thoughts?

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:29 AM (AkOaV)

144 142: Yeah, real charmer there. Damn, those guys were really twisted. Really not a whole lot of redeeming social value. Lot like politicians.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:30 AM (ucDmr)

145 Any suggestions on verses that might apply to the PP topic would be appreciated. Perhaps verses to help me deal with the sickening rage that news brings out.

The only verse I have on the wall of my office is Ephesians 6:12

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Seems appropriate to PP.

Posted by: Weirddave at August 02, 2015 11:30 AM (WvS3w)

146 OreganMuse, it's interesting to me that you happen to mention Muslim conversions to Christianity today. Yesterday I was reading Michael A. Harbin's The Promise and the Blessing -- the chapters about the early church... modern-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Dijbouti...

He makes the point in a footnote that we think of Christianity as a European religion only because the Muslims later conquered many of the non-European Christian regions.

I guess I knew that, but hadn't really thought about it. There should be a word for that kind of unexamined knowledge.

Another book rec to drop -- Greg Schwipps What This River Keeps. A man loses his Indiana farm to eminent domain. His son is a charming screw-up who is somehow falling up. There's a loving dog in there too.

Posted by: Jobey in Error at August 02, 2015 11:30 AM (dGWLp)

147 Buy a kindle. For sure nothing beats real paper but to be able to carry 100+ books anywhere anytime? It compensates greatly.

Posted by: fastfreefall at August 02, 2015 11:31 AM (w9ErY)

148 Black magic and sorcerery huh? Let me dig out those 1st edition AD&D books and get the party started!

Posted by: Eastwood Ravine at August 02, 2015 11:31 AM (O9Sq/)

149 I think people who expect that you can get demons to do your bidding are dangerously fooling themselves. Sure, demons may do your bidding for a while simply to hook you in even further, but no, it never turns out well for your eternal salvation-witness Dr. Faustus. Don't open a door if you don't want somebody coming in. The being who comes to kill, steal and destroy and his minions are not the servants of humanity. It's sounds like a demonic version of "Name it and claim it" theology-not that I endorse that theology to begin with

(and I know you were being facetious about demons doing your bidding. OM)

And as an alternative to folks who invite Satan in and want to make a buck from doing so, I present William Wilberforce-whose biography by Eric Metaxas called "Amazing Grace"-(William Wilberforce and the heroic campaign to end Slavery) I re-read this week. What an inspiring man. I've decided if Roman Catholics can ask Saints to pray for them, Maybe Wilberforce can put in a good word with God for the defunding of Planned Infanticide. The man who did so much to end the Slave Trade in England would surely feel that the lives of AA babies and all well babies shouldn't be snuffed out and chopped into bits.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:33 AM (OSs/l)

150 Hornfisher's Neptune's Inferno is a well nigh good fusion of the events around Guadalcanal. All in one readable place.

Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors has issues. One being I have already read the story with two of Hoyt's books - The Battle of Leyte Gulf and The Men of the Gambier Bay along with Theodore Roscoe's Tin Cans.

Then there are the issues of Hornfisher injecting inaccuracies and rampant speculation into the book. USS Gambier Bay was not the first carrier sunk by naval gunfire, HMS Glorious during the Norway retreat by Schornhorst has that dubious honor. Hornfisher's dubious scholarly work arises again when he uses a fictional character from Herman Wouk's The Winds of War to criticize Halsey leaving 7th Fleet unprotected to chase Ozawa's carriers.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:34 AM (CpRK8)

151 But it's becoming a storage issue. Not sure if I
should take the dive and just buy a kindle and accept that dead tree
books are going the way of the typewriter... thoughts?

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:29 AM

Still a book reader, and will probably die surrounded by piles of the things.

I admit the attraction is mainly sentimental, but I just can't warm up to the idea of spending my life with face buried in some electronic device when all I want to do is read.

Besides, e-readers can crap out, and their batteries die. As long as you have daylight or a lamp nearby, an old-fashioned book will never desert you. Until the binding falls apart, anyway. Which is really no worse than a change in software that renders your Bindle (or Dandle, or whatever they call those things) blank and unresponsive.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:34 AM (rCmeG)

152 Second the recommendation for Roughing It. I've read it a number of times now, and I still get a twinge of pleasure when Twain is launching into one of his wonderful stories, whether it's the one where the infamous liar dies, Jim Blaine and the old ram, or the boy who loved turnips.

Speaking of rereading, I'll bet lots of people have particular books that they reread most often. These could be simply great books, but sometimes they are just books you enjoy returning to, even if you wouldn't make any pronouncements about their greatness.

Here's one of mine, that I just re-read, again: Night of the Jabberwock by Frederic Brown. Brown wrote science fiction and mysteries, and this is not quite either. The story takes place from the perspective of the protagonist, the editor of a small-town paper, during a single drunken night, filled with strange events, and wound through with Lewis Carroll references.

Brown was an uneven writer, but when he was on, he produced stuff that is a delight to read. This book is just plain fun. Worth checking out.

Posted by: Splunge at August 02, 2015 11:35 AM (iMxBJ)

153 Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:34 AM (rCmeG)

Right. Plus you can re-read books at any time, put them down and pick them up later, lend them to people, give them away... etc.

I don't know. They are a pain in the ass. the last time I moved, my buddy was helping me on about our tenth round of boxes full of books coming out the uhaul he just looked at me and said, "haven't you ever heard of fucking e-books dude? For christs sake!"

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:36 AM (AkOaV)

154 Scripture in regard to PP:

Ephesians 6:10-20-Put on the whole armor of God.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:37 AM (OSs/l)

155 131
A Moron think ~~tank~~ keg.

fixt

Posted by: Anachronda at August 02, 2015 11:37 AM (o78gS)

156 Damn, those guys were really twisted. Really not a whole lot of redeeming social value. Lot like politicians.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:30 AM

More honest than the general run of politicians, maybe.
More up-front about their greed and willingness to harm you if you got in their way.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:37 AM (rCmeG)

157
The family of Michael Brown Jr has requested a national moment of silence of 8/9/15 @ 11:55 am CST.

=========

I'm sure all the morons will wish to participate....hahahaha!

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 11:39 AM (iQIUe)

158 143 slightly OT:

are most of you migrating over to e-readers and forgoing dead tree books completely at this point?

I do almost all of my reading using my Nexus now. I hardly ever read a print book.

Also, questions about the use of e-reading technology is a topic is 100% relevant and not OT in the slightest. Thus saith the AoSHQ Sunday Morning Book Thread Proprietor.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:40 AM (43BmD)

159 And I posted this yesterday-Williams Wilberforce's comment about slavery seems quite applicable to the horrors of PP. I may have to get it out on a sign outside sometime:

http://tinyurl.com/nzv2xtq

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:40 AM (OSs/l)

160 Oh if any authors want to write modern day scientific horror...

http://annapuna.blogspot.com/2008/12/fools-rush-in-where-scientists-warily.html

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:40 AM (CpRK8)

161 Thank you to whoever recommended H. Paul Honsinger's Man of War series on a recent book thread. Talk about fun reads. I've ripped through the series and am about 1/2 way into the third book. Not exactly serious military science fiction, but a fun beach read version of military science fiction.

Posted by: Splunge at August 02, 2015 11:41 AM (iMxBJ)

162 I do E-Readers on stuff I get from Gutenberg and can't get from any other source. I do read a lot of stuff from the 1800's like travelogs and some stuff that is really out of print and is only available in digital.

I do like actual books, though. Readers are good for entertainment, but for research and flipping back and forth between sections for information and building arguments from various sources in various books and I find it hard to keep more than one book open and I find it frustrating to bookmark in my Sony.

(place obligatory "highlighter marks smudging each other out on the screen" joke just after the "Sony? Might as well be DOS" jibe.)

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:41 AM (3pRHP)

163 #159. That's a great Wilberforce quote, FS.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:41 AM (43BmD)

164 I do almost all of my reading using my Nexus now. I hardly ever read a print book.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:40 AM (43BmD)

Yeah?

Hmm... a Nexus? Like a tablet, not a specific e-reader?

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:42 AM (AkOaV)

165 I'm the only person I know who doesn't have an e-reader and doesn't want on, although I have way too many books. I need a area of my life where I'm not electronically hooked up. I find the e-readers I have looked up, have much glare, are not comfortable to use and I'm afraid that if I spell a cup of tea on it while reading I'm out several hundred dollars.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:45 AM (OSs/l)

166 Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:40 AM (OSs/l)

Yes!

If something this horrific was going on for YEARS, imagine what else we don't know!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:46 AM (ftVQq)

167 Anna Puma thanks for the info. I often wondered which naval battle, The Winds of War was supposed to be about. I did like Neptune's Inferno better. Also, Duh. In the box (Name) I was supposed to type, Vn Redleg, not my actual name. (Need more coffee.)

Posted by: Gary Rafferty at August 02, 2015 11:46 AM (L7quo)

168 157: Got my greatest gangsta raps all ready to go. Turned up to 11

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:46 AM (ucDmr)

169 ...but for research and flipping back and forth
between sections for information and building arguments from various
sources in various books... Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:41 AM

Much of my "professional" writing (that is, what I got paid for) involved considerable research, which led to a desk regularly piled high with books and magazines, all bookmarked and ready to refer to. Inelegant, but effective.

On the few occasions I tried to do research on teh Intarwebz, I wound up having to print stuff off and pile hard copies on the desk. Screen-flipping was too distracting, to say the least.

Plus, so much of the online stuff was inaccurate at best or just plain out-and-out bullshit. When you have three or four (or more) books available on a given subject, it seems easier to dig out facts.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:47 AM (rCmeG)

170 Gary @ 138 - Heartily concur on those three Hornfischer books. Excellent reads. I still get a lump in my throat when I think of CDR Ernest Evans taking the USS JOHNSON (DD-557) in for two runs against that Japanese battlegroup.

Posted by: Butch at August 02, 2015 11:47 AM (HLx1C)

171 Anna, I am thinking of Mutant 59, The Plastic Eaters.

A lab tech dies while working on a microbe that eats plastic to help with trash disposal, the sample is lost down the drain. Civilization nearly collapses

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:47 AM (3pRHP)

172 Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:45 AM (OSs/l)

Kind of my thoughts as well.

But as someone mentioned upthread, using an e reader for free e-books in the public domain sounds like a great idea.

I just like the idea of paying $20 and having a hardcover book that will last forever, doesn't need batteries, won't be in the "wrong format" in 10 years, I can give away, re-read, lend it out, etc. etc. etc.

Plus I like reading on paper more than on a screen.

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:47 AM (AkOaV)

173
157
The family of Michael Brown Jr has requested a national moment of silence of 8/9/15 @ 11:55 am CST.

=========

I'm sure all the morons will wish to participate....hahahaha!
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 11:39 AM (iQIUe)

What was Michael Brown doing the moment he was killed?

That question will get you a moment of silence.

Posted by: eman at August 02, 2015 11:47 AM (MQEz6)

174 Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:42 AM (AkOaV)

The Kindle app on the iPad is pretty darn nice, plus I can take a break are look at the book thread if I wish!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:48 AM (ftVQq)

175 143 ... I much prefer physical books but space is seriously limited. I use an e-reader for casual fiction and collections of an author's works. The Delphi Press collections are very affordable, usually under three dollars, and are well formatted. That still leaves me with over a thousand books on the shelves that I can't bring myself to get rid of but it's better than it was.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 11:48 AM (FvdPb)

176 Just finished "Shooting to Live" by William Fairbairn. Good stuff and an interesting dude.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at August 02, 2015 11:48 AM (JG47A)

177 Any suggestions on verses that might apply to the PP topic would be appreciated. Perhaps verses to help me deal with the sickening rage that news brings out.

Romans 1:18-32.

Seriously. Yes, what they are doing is evil and horrific, and they will, but for the grace of God, face their maker and pay for their deeds. But the first reaction of every Christian should always be to look within and repent first.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:49 AM (39g3+)

178 I've got a 5y/o boy. We we're at Barnes and noble yesterday. Ugh the books for kids these days. For now he's happy with Curious George. I have about two dozen hard cover kid's books from the 70s. I have an old Nancy Drew and maybe one Hardy Boys. I have no problem with him eventually reading old books. Anything new like Hardy Boys out there? And of course the classics like Treasure island and such.

Posted by: Beth M at August 02, 2015 11:49 AM (kiy9d)

179 Both were well established long before they got into the government cronyism racket. Musk started that way and has yet to produce anything that doesn't involve government funds.

All true and so what? The problem isn't Musk, it's Leviathan. Musk would be a fool NOT to take advantage of all of the free pork offered. The purpose of a corporation is to provide the largest ethically possible return on shareholder's investment. You can argue that rent seeking is "unethical", and I'll sort of agree with you, but it isn't even close to being UNETHICAL, like Planned Parenthood.

The solution isn't to castigate Musk but to reform the system so that rent seeking isn't even an option.

Posted by: Weirddave at August 02, 2015 11:49 AM (WvS3w)

180
I'm rereading "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco.

I know he was a dedicated lefty, but some insight is to be gained into the minds of dedicated lefties by reading the bizarre complexities of this man.

Stunningly complicated, yet diabolically delicious.

Posted by: GBruno at August 02, 2015 11:51 AM (u49WF)

181 Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:47 AM (rCmeG)

I don't see how you can do research efficiently using ebooks. Maybe if I got paid enough, I'd figure out a way?

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:51 AM (ftVQq)

182 179: Good luck with that. Never happen.

Posted by: Chavez the Hugo at August 02, 2015 11:51 AM (ucDmr)

183 Musk would be a fool NOT to take advantage of all of the free pork offered. The purpose of a corporation is to provide the largest ethically possible return on shareholder's investment.

These two statements are in contradiction.

I agree we should reform the system (or, rebuild from the ashes) but I'm just opposed to the praise guys like Musk get when he's about as far from guys like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt as humanly possible.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:52 AM (39g3+)

184 One of my goals is to find a copy of Richard Burton's The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains. Burton did pretty much the same route as Twain a year prior, and wrote about it. I have read excerpts, and I generally find Burton to be fairly cold, if meticulous, narrator, but I want a second look at the same period and area.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 10:03 AM (3pRHP)

***********

I notice that Amazon has a 99 cent offering of "City of Saints" on Kindle, but it appears to be an OCR rendition of an original hardback edition with lots of errors in character recognition and text formatting. It might be worth 99 cents, though.

But sometimes it's more pleasant to settle in with a physical book where you don't have to struggle with the poor optical presentation. I would also expect that tactile feel and the smell of an old copy of Burton's work would positively contribute to the reading experience.

Posted by: Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily at August 02, 2015 11:53 AM (NqQAS)

185 >>Isn't that a contradiction in terms?

Heh. No.
Can you just imagine the policy papers the horde could produce?

"Leave Citizens the F#@$ Alone" by AtC

Posted by: Lizzy at August 02, 2015 11:53 AM (NOIQH)

186 Hmm... a Nexus? Like a tablet, not a specific e-reader?

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 11:42 AM (AkOaV)

Right. So instead of having to decide whether to buy a Nook, or a Kindle, I instead bought a Nexus, downloaded the Android Kindle app and the Android Nook app (both for free) and I have the best of both worlds.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:54 AM (43BmD)

187 Is Musk taking money from government as a subsidy or payment for product or service?

Posted by: eman at August 02, 2015 11:54 AM (MQEz6)

188 Posted by: Weirddave at August 02, 2015 11:49 AM (WvS3w)

Agree, that's why I was quasi-serious about setting up the Center for Moron Progress. If the system allows, nay encourages, dipping into public funds, why not jump in the water!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:54 AM (ftVQq)

189 And of course the classics like Treasure island and such.

Posted by: Beth M at August 02, 2015 11:49 AM

Not sure I'd recommend it, especially today, but when I was taught to read (by my grandmother), I learned on McGuffey's Reader and Horatio Alger books.

Yeah, she was an old lady then, and I'm old now.

But in skimming those again many years later, I'm amazed at the relative complexity of their vocabularies and sentence structures. They made me a three-year-old who used lots of big words. Some things never change.

P.S. Kids' books are uniformly awful these days, as far as I've seen. They make the Dick and Jane stuff look like Shakespeare.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:55 AM (rCmeG)

190 Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 09:29 AM (FvdPb)

That's great to hear. I love the works of Shakespeare.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:55 AM (OSs/l)

191 I just finished "To Kill a Mockingbird" again, and am about to start Go Set a Watchman. I'll get back to y'all when I finish.

Posted by: tsrlbke PhD(c), rogue bioethicist at August 02, 2015 11:56 AM (tM4uk)

192
Layers of fact checkers. Hahahaha

Turns out Jericho is not dead. Not Cecil's brother either. Just a buddy he went drinking with and chasing beaver.

In other news, Jane Doe, who would have found the cure for breast cancer is scheduled to be dismembered and have her parts sold off at Planned Parenthood this morning.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at August 02, 2015 11:56 AM (ODxAs)

193 I'm really hoping matress girl will be allowed to address the DNC.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 11:57 AM (iQIUe)

194 Greetings:

I just finished "Culture and Conflict in the Middle East" by Philip Carl Salzman. It was short, kind of pricey, and anthropologically dense in spots but it made a strong case about why Arab tribalism (taken to the nth degree by Islam) is pretty much the cause of most of the Middle East's problems and virtually incurable.

Posted by: 11B40 at August 02, 2015 11:57 AM (evgyj)

195 I've been reading a lot of '50's era SciFi; available as megapacks on Amazon; Public Domain work that has been repackaged. What is being published is heavily Soviet style police state, or Amerika Fascism which is troubling in the sense that Orwell's '1984' to me, was a warning while to the liberal tyrant it is an instruction manual as the liberal tyrant believes that he will be the one whipping the slaves into line while he lives the life of luxury.

So does anyone remember 'Spindizzy' the antigravity field that levitated entire cities into space?

Cities in Flight by James Blish
http://astore.amazon.com/aoshq-20/detail/0575094176

Four 'books' in one eBook for $10.50 on Amazon. In the first 'book' are several one liners that are stunning since they were written between 1950-1962.

What caused me to remember this story was an afternoon's casual research into the question of 'how much arable land is required to feed a city?' It appears that there is some original research that needs to be done if sublight vessels or long term platforms, or even colonies are going to be built.

Posted by: SkandiaRecluse at August 02, 2015 11:57 AM (ya3u6)

196 I like the "Dark is Rising" sequences of books by Susan Cooper. He'd have to be older to read it but I read them as an adult and loves them and also know of a 12 year old who read them too and enjoyed them.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:57 AM (OSs/l)

197 Not a problem, though it has now been about six months since I read Last Stand so might be in exact error on what he was using Winds of War to criticize Halsey, but it stuck hard in my memory him using a fictional character to advance something he feels in a history book to be important.

Then there is the matter of him letting the hyperbole getting the best of him. In one paragraph he describes how the Battle of Leyte Gulf covered largest geographical area of any battle. Then in same paragraph mentions the Battle of Midway. Furthest afield for action with Leyte was Kondo's force being engaged by US submarines. As opposed to Japan's Midway operation that spanned from Australia to the Aleutians and Midway Atoll with attacks in all three areas.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 11:58 AM (CpRK8)

198 I also think "Half Magic" by Edgar Eager is just such a fun read for kids, but that's not a new book.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 11:58 AM (OSs/l)

199 I don't see how you can do research efficiently using ebooks. Maybe if I got paid enough, I'd figure out a way? Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:51 AM

It's difficult. Of course if one writes for the Internet, it's permissible to throw in tons of links like Poppin' Fresh does. But I never used "research" to quote others' opinions. I only wanted verifiable facts, upon which I then opined.

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:59 AM (rCmeG)

200 I don't see how you can do research efficiently using ebooks. Maybe if I got paid enough, I'd figure out a way?

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 11:51 AM (ftVQq)

Right, and that's the real weakness of e-books. If you do lots of research, or you're one of those readers who likes to write notes in the margins, underline stuff, flip back and forth, etc., it is not easy to do those things in a e-reader; I think the present technology is too clunky to be really useful.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 11:59 AM (43BmD)

201 Butch @ 170. I agree. The total valor of the man & it's all true. For me it was Evan's talk to his crew at the Commissioning of the USS Johnson that stood my hair on end. Imagine being on the crew & knowing that he meant exactly what he said. I think the author did an amazing job weaving that sense of Even's determination into the fabric of the story.

Posted by: Gary Rafferty at August 02, 2015 11:59 AM (L7quo)

202 And so it begins.

Posted by: Jimmy Smits at August 02, 2015 12:00 PM (TF10X)

203
187 Is Musk taking money from government as a subsidy or payment for product or service?
Posted by: eman at August 02, 2015 11:54 AM (MQEz6)

Yes.

Can you afford a Tesla?
Why should our tax dollar subsidize wealthy lefties buying or selling . . . anything?

Posted by: GBruno at August 02, 2015 12:00 PM (u49WF)

204 Kindltot, Larry Niven in the Ringworld books the Puppeteers use a bug to cripple the advance technology on the Ringworld. A bug that ate super conductor material.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:00 PM (CpRK8)

205 This week:
'Anathem' by Neil Stephenson.

Posted by: Garrett at August 02, 2015 12:01 PM (+p3XK)

206 Cities in Flight by James Blish

Interstellar Master Traders made the sky FALL!

Posted by: Fox2! at August 02, 2015 12:01 PM (brIR5)

207
Shelly liked to perform anal sex on his poor wife. Why?

Was he kinky?
A top?
Birth control?
Hated the poor woman?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 12:02 PM (iQIUe)

208 Turns out Jericho is not dead. Not Cecil's brother either. Just a buddy he went drinking with and chasing beaver.

In other news, Jane Doe, who would have found the cure for breast cancer is scheduled to be dismembered and have her parts sold off at Planned Parenthood this morning.
Posted by: Guy Mohawk at August 02, 2015 11:56 AM (ODxAs)

Originally they were saying Jericho was a rival who was alpha maled by Cecile and was kind of his right hand man, who would kill all of Ceciles kids and rape Cecile's bitches because, well, nature.

Then it was "his brother, who was helping to care for his cubs".

Anyways -- not dead?

Heh.

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 12:02 PM (AkOaV)

209 Sorry, it was Byron - NOT Shelley.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 12:02 PM (iQIUe)

210 It appears that there is some original research that
needs to be done if sublight vessels or long term platforms, or even
colonies are going to be built.

Posted by: SkandiaRecluse at August 02, 2015 11:57 AM (ya3u6)

The Moron Center For Progressive Science has just the study proposal you need!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:03 PM (ftVQq)

211 O/T: I have bad news.
So I am just flipping around on the tube and I landed on Family Feud, where the question was:

"If there was a Mount Rushmore for First Ladies, who should be on it?"

you'll never guess who was the #1 answer, never ever guess

sad and depressing

Posted by: chemjeff at August 02, 2015 12:03 PM (2XMpf)

212 Turns out Jericho is not dead. Not Cecil's brother either. Just a buddy he went drinking with and chasing beaver.

Beaver? That's certainly diverse of him.

Of course, maybe he identifies as a beaver. Has a fake dam and everything. The SJWs would absolutely love this.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 12:03 PM (43BmD)

213 Hrothgar - "Save Earth Colonize Space!!!!!!!!!!"

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:04 PM (CpRK8)

214 "If there was a Mount Rushmore for First Ladies, who should be on it?"
you'll never guess who was the #1 answer, never ever guess

sad and depressing
Posted by: chemjeff at August 02, 2015 12:03 PM (2XMpf)

Michelle Obama.

These questions don't bother me that much. It's simply a matter of LIV name recognition. The answer is always whoever the current first lady is. 5 years ago, they would've said Laura Bush.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 12:05 PM (43BmD)

215 One of my goals is to find a copy of Richard Burton's The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains.

Yeah me too. I've wanted to read that for a long time, but its very hard to find

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 12:06 PM (39g3+)

216 This week:

'Anathem' by Neil Stephenson.

Posted by: Garrett at August 02, 2015 12:01 PM (+p3XK)
So far, that is the only NS book I finished (and I have read them all but Seveneves, which is in the queue) but just couldn't really get into!

IMHO, don't judge the author by this book!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:06 PM (ftVQq)

217 P.S. Kids' books are uniformly awful these days, as far as I've seen. They make the Dick and Jane stuff look like Shakespeare.
Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 11:55 AM (rCmeG)

Yeah, the original print run of the hardy boys (1910s to 1930s or so) is pretty awesome reading. I own a lot of those books, handed down from my grandfather. Would definitely have my (theoretical) kid read them.

Problem though is the outdated lexicon and the, er, less than politically correct turns of phrases (ie "[n-word] in the woodpile")

Posted by: mynewhandle at August 02, 2015 12:06 PM (AkOaV)

218
Beaver might be a euphemism for something.

Or are you saying Jericho is a homo?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at August 02, 2015 12:07 PM (ODxAs)

219 Uh oh corgis, CBD has a Norman Lear post up. The end is nigh!

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:07 PM (CpRK8)

220 Hrothgar - "Save Earth Colonize Space!!!!!!!!!!"

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:04 PM (CpRK

I think we can work with that. Have your people call my people!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:08 PM (ftVQq)

221 nood yobs

Posted by: MAx at August 02, 2015 12:08 PM (LAliD)

222 Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 12:05 PM (43BmD)

well I have even worse news for you then.

I think the show was taped before '08 so the top answer was actually... Hillary Clinton

and Laura Bush was all the way down at #6 or something

Posted by: chemjeff at August 02, 2015 12:09 PM (2XMpf)

223 Anna, I just looked it up. Plastic Eaters was written by Kit Pedler, who also was a medical researcher, and also wrote for Dr Who, and was part of the writing team that invented the Cybermen.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 12:10 PM (3pRHP)

224 Beaver might be a euphemism for something.

Or are you saying Jericho is a homo?

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at August 02, 2015 12:07 PM (ODxAs)

No, I'm saying Jericho might be a trans-species pioneer. Compared to that, being a homo is a little tame.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 12:11 PM (43BmD)

225 114
See "The Sopranos". But you know I was really bummed when I thought that black out at the end of the series meant that Tony got a bullet to the back of his head. A bullet that he, of course, so richly deserved.. LOL

Posted by: Tuna at August 02, 2015 12:12 PM (JSovD)

226 MANY tanks to everyone who provided Biblical citations. I have started a list and will go through each one.

As to e-readers, I should have mentioned that I don't like being dependent on batteries or electricity generally for important matters like certain books. I would rather read Shakespeare or even Conan stories by candle light than be deprived of them due to some technological mishap.

The 'modern' attitude that technology is the answer to every situation is so incredibly stupid, egotistic (what bad could ever happen to me?) and short-sighted it makes me want to scream.

Oh yeah, I still use a manual typewriter.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 12:13 PM (FvdPb)

227
"Save the Earth -- Send the masses to the colonies."

Ok, I can understand that sentiment.

I was thinking more along the lines of 'we need to take off and nuke'm from orbit, just to be sure they don't follow us'.

Posted by: SkandiaRecluse at August 02, 2015 12:14 PM (ya3u6)

228 Problem though is the outdated lexicon and the, er, less than politically correct turns of phrases (ie "[n-word] in the woodpile")

I have a bunch of them and I don't remember that particular one, but I take your meaning.

I disagree, but I'm not a SJW or ISIS terrorist who thinks we should blow up the past, I prefer to embrace it and learn from it.

In that vein, I have a bunch of Bronc Burnett books written in the late 40s/early 50s. I remember one passage that reads "Bronc was fagged" describing how tired he was. Hehe. Reading in the late 70s/early 80s I knew that word meant something completely different.

I love those type of books. I have the complete Tom Swift Jr. series, most of the Rick Brant series, a smattering of Tom Swift Sr. books (which are much worse than the Hardy Boys ones verbiage wise, as to what you're talking about) and a bunch of random others (Bronc Burnette, Ken Holt, etc...). Love 'em. Great books.

Posted by: Weirddave at August 02, 2015 12:17 PM (WvS3w)

229 One of the prayers over the past couple of weeks at church (and regularly in my own prayers) has been "Lord, continue to send dreams and visions to Muslims so that they might give up violence and come to faith in Christ.'

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:21 PM (OSs/l)

230 A Dr. Who link? That is neat. I guess we should say the fear of the mutant microbe in science fiction is well founded and long before The Andromeda Strain how else did H.G. Wells kill the Martians after all?

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:23 PM (CpRK8)

231 I agree with you, JTB, although I don't use a manual typewriter anymore. :^)

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:23 PM (OSs/l)

232 Mr scribbler.one thing I've always remembered from C S Lewis autobiography was him talking about being a young kid with a big vocabulary and people misunderstanding him - taking him for being uppity for a kid.

Posted by: Beth M at August 02, 2015 12:23 PM (kiy9d)

233 With Google and Windows 10, we might all be returning to typewriters.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:27 PM (CpRK8)

234 Mynewhandle. I'm not worried about language of past times. Fully intend to have him read Huck Finn eventually.

Posted by: Beth M at August 02, 2015 12:28 PM (kiy9d)

235 Gary @ 201 - You might also like "Sea of Thunder."

Posted by: Butch at August 02, 2015 12:29 PM (HLx1C)

236 183
I agree we should reform the system (or, rebuild from the ashes) but I'm just opposed to the praise guys like Musk get when he's about as far from guys like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt as humanly possible.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 11:52 AM (39g3+)

The very minute the Wright Brothers perfected their airplane, the first thing they did was to try to sell it to the government.

Posted by: rickl at August 02, 2015 12:30 PM (sdi6R)

237 Need to find some lighter reading, preferably cheerful or irreverent, or both. Needs to be in paper. Anybody got some suggestions?
Posted by: Long Running Fool at August 02, 2015 09:05 AM (/A5gb)

Handling Sin, by Michael Malone ( Not a religious book)

It's hysterical, and fun and has a nice ending.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at August 02, 2015 12:31 PM (DI417)

238 I just finished "To Kill a Mockingbird" again, and am about to start Go Set a Watchman. I'll get back to y'all when I finish

-
I quite liked it and it's moron friendly.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at August 02, 2015 12:31 PM (LImiJ)

239 Cheerful and funny

"Three Men In a Boat" Jerome K, Jerome about a boat trip down the Thames. It was written in the early 1900's (or late 1800s) but still a great book.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:34 PM (OSs/l)

240 Thanks, OregonMuse, for providing a good, solid Christian (and Jewish-supporting) thread every week.

I've read all of the books that you mentioned about Muslims having dreams and visions of Jesus and being directed to believers. Even if someone isn't a Christian, they're all a great read.

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit at August 02, 2015 12:36 PM (dPpmC)

241 Cheerful and funny-Jeeves and Wooster.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:38 PM (OSs/l)

242 I think the show was taped before '08 so the top answer was actually... Hillary Clinton

and Laura Bush was all the way down at #6 or something

Ugh.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 12:39 PM (43BmD)

243 The very minute the Wright Brothers perfected their airplane, the first thing they did was to try to sell it to the government.

...its amazing to me that you can't tell the difference here.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at August 02, 2015 12:40 PM (39g3+)

244 I don't know his politics-they might be liberal for all I know, but it doesn't come out much in the book which is irreverent and funny

"A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:40 PM (OSs/l)

245 I have read just about every other Stephenson novel.
About time I tackled this one.

Posted by: Garrett at August 02, 2015 12:42 PM (+p3XK)

246 With Google and Windows 10, we might all be returning to typewriters.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:27 PM (CpRK

Here you go:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ospwrru

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:43 PM (ftVQq)

247 Late to the party, but re: Twain: if you want new copies, the definitive editions are published by the Mark Twain Library through University of California Press. I don't know that they have all of them out yet, though, and I know Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii is published by the University of Hawaii Press. Dover, which does reprints, has an edition of Following the Equator, and my copy of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc was published by Ignatius Press, which is generally quite solid.

But one case where it's imperative to get the UCP edition is No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger--because Twain never finished it, a bunch of unscrupulous publishers took what he had written and either twisted it into an unrecognizable shape or essentially had someone else write a completely different book with the same premise, titled it The Mysterious Stranger, and slapped Twain's name on it. Accept no imitations!

IMO, incidentally, No. 44 was Twain's attempt at retelling the Faust legend. But since I might decide to publish on that thesis, I won't go into too much more detail.

As for CSL, yes, his nonfiction is excellent, even when you quibble with parts of it. The only potential exception I can think of is The Allegory of Love, which I haven't read because it was superceded by The Discarded Image. But The Discarded Image is so good, I've used it for bedtime reading! (Of course, I am a medievalist, so YMMV.)

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 12:43 PM (iuQS7)

248 "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:40 PM (OSs/l)

I've read a few of his books and the writing is good enough that I'd recommend him!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:45 PM (ftVQq)

249 Yes, thanks so much, OM. The book thread is a favorite of mine. Thx for your work.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 02, 2015 12:46 PM (OSs/l)

250 Committees of Correspondence per chance Hrothgar?

Janteal, "But cursive is all retarded!"

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:46 PM (CpRK8)

251 Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 12:43 PM (iuQS7)

Thanks for the Twain link, but the prices, ouch!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:47 PM (ftVQq)

252 Being a lazybones, I am still rereading "Shogun," and I am reading "An Inconvenient Woman" by Dominick Dunne. I always enjoy his books even thought they all tend to be pretty much the same: mind candy.

I have read "Escape from Camp 14" and it was pretty darned horrifying. What people will do to save themselves when there's nothing else to cling to besides oneself.

Posted by: Tonestaple at August 02, 2015 12:48 PM (WdorP)

253 Long running fool: "Wilt" or "The Throwback" by Tom Sharpe are two of my faves that meet your criteria.

Posted by: Tonestaple at August 02, 2015 12:50 PM (WdorP)

254 Committees of Correspondence per chance Hrothgar?

Janteal, "But cursive is all retarded!"

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:46 PM (CpRK

'Tis but another reason for an indelible record written in a fine round hand!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:51 PM (ftVQq)

255 Hrothgar, you might be able to find them used, since they're often assigned as textbooks.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 12:52 PM (iuQS7)

256 The picture at the top of the library in Madrid does my soul good. --Anonymous-9

Posted by: Anonymous-9 at August 02, 2015 12:54 PM (vmHHv)

257 I thoroughly enjoyed a walk in the woods. Will eventually read some of his others.

Posted by: Beth M at August 02, 2015 12:55 PM (kiy9d)

258 'Tis but another reason for an indelible record written in a fine round hand!

And the shipping cost on sun baked mud tablets of cuniform is expensive?

----
But Gilliand in his Rosinante science fiction trilogy wrote along these lines. There was the Communist and a few fellow travelers who got swept up with the other Anglos at the Alamo protest and deported by Gov. Panablanco of Texas. He ends up at the artificial world of Rosinante and starts being the typical Marxist stool. Also at Rosinante is an AI with its own agenda, it finds the world perfectly suited for AIs so wants to protect it. So Mr. Guthrie gave up his computer and started to use a typewriter after a particularly nasty article of his vanished from his newsletter and was replaced. Gilliand uses the AI to attack Marxism and show how Guthrie is really not the sharpest stylus - what with talking struggle and proletariat while living on a space colony.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 02, 2015 12:58 PM (CpRK8)

259 'Tis but another reason for an indelible record written in a fine round hand!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 12:51 PM (ftVQq)

"He copied all the letters in a big round hand!"

Great penmanship/decorative writing resource, from the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting: http://www.iampeth.com/lessons
Historical styles, mainly, like Spencerian and Copperplate, but they've got printable guidelines for practice and quite a few late-19th-c. handwriting manuals, along with tutorials for choosing dip pen nibs and using modern tools like the oblique pen holder.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 12:58 PM (iuQS7)

260
I have read "Unnecessary War" by Pat Buchanan.
Posted by: Nick in South Bend

In the original German, or in translation?

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at August 02, 2015 01:01 PM (kdS6q)

261 Ah, fountain pens, my writing instrument of choice, preferably refilled from a bottle. There is a tactile pleasure in the way the nib skates over the paper. And they don't have to cost a lot. A Safari fountain pen with a fine or extra fine nib is under 30 dollars. Unless you have to press hard on the paper, a fountain pen is great.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 01:02 PM (FvdPb)

262 Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 12:58 PM (iuQS7)

I am afraid to visit my local used bookstore because "books"; however, I may try to visit the textbook aisle for Twain and my grand-daughter.

Also thanks for the penmanship link, I was a calligrapher in another life!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 01:03 PM (ftVQq)

263 Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 01:02 PM (FvdPb)

A good (or reasonably good) fountain pen (no cartridges please), a point conditioned to your hand, and decent paper makes for a lovely writing experience!

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 01:06 PM (ftVQq)

264 Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 01:02 PM (FvdPb)

I've heard good things about the Safari, but it doesn't seem to be available with a flex nib, which is what I want for Spencerian practice. Any recs on that front?

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 01:12 PM (iuQS7)

265 Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 01:12 PM (iuQS7)

Personally didn't like the look of the Safari, too modern, but the price is right.

I have used a Waterman and thought it a good pen, but it may not do what you want..

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ob7hlju

Also, Fahrney's has everything for the hand-writing enthusiast:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/7hv5wpt

Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 01:19 PM (ftVQq)

266 Go with an Esterbrook instead. Cheaper, vintage, and interchangeable nibs.

I have fountain pens, manual typewriters and spinning wheels. I do tech support for a living.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 02, 2015 01:20 PM (Lqy/e)

267 Thanks, Hrothgar and Notsothoreau! *goes off to explore*

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at August 02, 2015 01:22 PM (iuQS7)

268 Elisabeth, Check with Goulet Pens. They offer several flex nib pens including a new one from Noodler's (they make my favorite bottled ink) for under 20 bucks. The web site is helpful but a phone call to them will get you excellent advice. Their staff is top notch.

Spencerian and copperplate script is artistic beyond my ability so I can't recommend a specific pen.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 01:23 PM (FvdPb)

269 My favorite fountain pens are from Pelikan. Not inexpensive but with care they will last for generations. They are bottle fill only. I have two and treasure them but use a Safari or one of several others for every day carry.

Posted by: JTB at August 02, 2015 01:30 PM (FvdPb)

270 Bill Bryson is pretty much the Gell-Mann effect with a beard and glasses. I read his early books and enjoyed them, but around the time his _History of Everything_ came out I began to notice that whenever he talked about something I _did_ know about, he was wrong, or at least misleading.

Posted by: Trimegistus at August 02, 2015 01:34 PM (Dome6)

271 I'm sure all the morons will wish to participate....hahahaha!

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at August 02, 2015 11:39 AM (iQIUe)

Nice! Gives a few days to stock up on noisy fireworks.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at August 02, 2015 01:39 PM (vHvSw)

272 Re: Bill Bryson. He's a lib, but manages to keep most of that out of his books. His saving grace for me is that he's actually funny. I've read most of 'em, and recommend "In a Sunburned Country" (about Australia), "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" (about coming back to the U.S. after living in England for some years), and my favorite, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" (a boomer from the heartland remembering how it was to grow up then).

Posted by: Bookaday at August 02, 2015 01:40 PM (Djtwl)

273 I read a fun book this week, "How I Became a Famous Novelist", by Steve Hely. A guy decides to write a best-selling novel so he can show up his ex-girlfriend at her wedding. Analyzing the bestseller lists he creates a formula for a bestselling novel, i.e., there must be a mystery, different geographical settings so it can be placed in the "local interest" section of bookstores all across the country, a secret club, etc. The book has samples of all kinds of bad writing - badly translated writing, florid romance novels, highbrow literary novels, etc. There is a reproduction of the Times bestseller lists, and the book synopses are hilarious.

Posted by: biancaneve at August 02, 2015 01:49 PM (kBiy2)

274 Posted by: Trimegistus at August 02, 2015 01:34 PM (Dome6)

I suspected that might be the case. I find I'm having a bit of the same problem with Moonwalking With Einstein. The best way I can think of to describe the writing is "glib" and I find it tiring to listen to on an.....emotional(?) level maybe(?). It could be that there's just so much information that my brain is getting overloaded I guess.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 01:54 PM (GDulk)

275 Posted by: Bookaday at August 02, 2015 01:40 PM (Djtwl)

I suspected that as well. He generally kept politics out of At Home, but he was *very* familiar with the writings of Marx, Engels, etc. and used them for examples fairly frequently.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 01:56 PM (GDulk)

276 Re: "Three Men In A Boat." Connie Willis did a SF/time traveling riff on it called "To Say Nothing Of The Dog," which was part of the subtitle of the "Three Men..." book. It is one of the more enjoyable romps I have read, and highly recommend it.

Now that I have willowed myself....

Posted by: LochLomondFarms at August 02, 2015 02:09 PM (bcKXN)

277 Thanks to the folks that sent some rec's my way. A lot of the suggestions look fun and a couple are on the way.

Posted by: Long Running Fool at August 02, 2015 02:17 PM (/A5gb)

278 Late to the thread as usual.

Finished The chemistry between us : love, sex, and the science of attraction by Larry Young (2012).

This highly informative book is a great complement to The Red Queen : sex and the evolution of human nature by Matt Ridley. It is a well-sourced corrective on the idea of gender as a social construct, among other gems. Even better: robust peer-reviewed research well told.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 02, 2015 02:49 PM (u82oZ)

279 All of that about Twain, and no mention of "Innocents Abroad"? Highly amusing travelogue.

Posted by: Mimi Baez at August 02, 2015 02:51 PM (9mTYi)

280 Two-thirds of the way through A Canticle for Leibowitz, someone somewhere turned me on to The Manipulated Man. Partway through that, someone else pointed out Enjoy the Decline. There are at least a couple dozen more books queued up in Google Play, and a bunch more beyond that in my Calibre library. At the rate I'm going, I'll never finish. :-)

Posted by: salfter at August 02, 2015 02:51 PM (0gC2q)

281 Also finished C.S. Lewis : a biography by A.N. Wilson.

This was a fascinating book, full of insights.
Normally I regard the inner life of artists and writers with the same dread as Novocain -free root canal surgery. Not here. There were plenty of surprises for me.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 02, 2015 02:52 PM (u82oZ)

282 For another take on Black magic try Black Easter by James Blish. Excellent!

He wrote a Miltonesque sequel called Day After Judgement. His reach just exceeded his grasp in the sequel, but Black Easter crackles with energy.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 02, 2015 02:59 PM (u82oZ)

283 Whenever I face one of these "How to [Insert Your Unrealistic Goal Here] and Make Millions" books, I always ask: "If this is supposed to work, why is this writer writing a book about it"?

I mean if this book can bring you everything you dream about then one would assume the writer has tried this stuff out.

And yet they're writing a book about it.

Granted that may be the path to riches and glory but that's not what's usually talked about in these tomes.

Now when Donald Trump writes a book on how to make millions by convincing others you're a billionaire then I'll sit up and listen. Cause he obviously knows how to do that.

Somehow, I don't think making millions is that easy or accessible to just anyone. Special talents and skills are required and some may not be amenable to be being acquired through study.

Now if you'll excuse me, my magic kettle is starting to boil.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at August 02, 2015 03:24 PM (x3GpS)

284 162
I do E-Readers on stuff I get from Gutenberg and can't get from any
other source. I do read a lot of stuff from the 1800's like travelogs
and some stuff that is really out of print and is only available in
digital.

I do like actual books.

Posted by: Kindltot at August 02, 2015 11:41 AM (3pRHP)
************* I love travelogs, essays etc. Old and new. Your comment reminded me of something I scored at an estate sale. Three volumes of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors ed. by Francis Walsey , Funk and Wagnalls, copyright 1914. Totally cool little books. Example Italy, Sicily Greece - Vols 12 Charles Dickens Naples and Environs Dickens, Shelley, Von Goethe. The other volume is Russia, Scandinavia and Southeast -- Peterhof, by General Count von Moltke, Constantinople -St. Sophia -Edward Gibbon.At a time when authors travelled and sold these pieces to journals, mags. etc. There are old photos etc. I wish I had all 10 volumes. And in one of the books I found an old postcard 1924 of the Grand Mosque Damascus and as the greeting read "greetings from Damascus the oldest city in the world" -- to the man in Florida whose estate this was. You can tell by the length of my post (apologies) how much I love these three little books which cost me $1.50 total.

Posted by: gracepc at August 02, 2015 03:28 PM (DMQhB)

285 The Sunday Book Thread is the best thread on Ace of Spades. Good books, and good ideas.
Thank you.

Posted by: Kris Palemaker at August 02, 2015 03:41 PM (MKoOW)

286 <I'm referring, of course, to the black arts.

I mean, why not? The country is now circling the drain, so what have we
got to lose? As the poet says, at this point, what difference does it
make?>Does it creep anyone else out that Ace posted this topic at the same time as THIS or THIS?

I will admit though, as creepy a pic of Plugs Biden that is (and g-damned funny)...the Anka singing Nirvana makes me damned scared for my immortal soul.

What next? "Barry Manilow covers Metallica, Godsmack, and Emimem"?

:shiver:

Posted by: BlaxPac at August 02, 2015 03:59 PM (xj/Iq)

287 Whoever wrote that had obviously never been to Texas, as his descriptions were a poor fit for all three regions.

Posted by: naturalfake's Daemon at August 02, 2015 10:53 AM (KUa85)

I agree that things are more complicated than they appear in the map.

Linguistically, Texas has some pretty stark divides. I'm a 7th-generation Texan, grew up in Dallas, but can barely understand anyone east of the LBJ (635) freeway. Mesquite and Dallas might as well be separate countries.

Rather than hard divisions, I see overlapping layers. For example, El Norte overlaps all of Texas, even though it is strongest in the areas that the author mentions. As another example, Fort Worth is more like, say, Salt Lake City, than Dallas.

I've seen some of the other divides in my travels. For example, I've spent a lot of time (months) in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh has different accents than what I'm used to, but, culturally speaking, I feel at home there. Philadelphia is a place that I can't wait to leave.

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit at August 02, 2015 04:03 PM (dPpmC)

288 The Hardy Boys book with the objectionable noun was "The House on the Cliff," the second in the original series. When the books were redone in the '60s, a new story was substituted under that title. I remember pausing at that term when I was reading Dad's copy. I may still have it. I know I have 24 of the blue-spine books.

And in regard to recommendations for something light and fluffy: I see your Woodhouse and raise you Flashman (George MacDonald Fraser ).

Posted by: Weak Geek at August 02, 2015 04:03 PM (+P39t)

289 Any suggestions on verses that might apply to the PP topic would be appreciated. Perhaps verses to help me deal with the sickening rage that news brings out.

Here are just a few out of many. Do a Bible search for Moloch.

Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
-Micah 6:7

On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house.
-Ezekiel 23:39

They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal--something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.
-Jeremiah 19:5

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit at August 02, 2015 04:30 PM (dPpmC)

290 Richard Burton's The City of the Saints

I picked up an edition in Salt Lake City when I visited. "Local interest", and all.

If you have a tablet (or a laptop that turns into one) you can download a free pdf:
https://books.google.com/books?id=shsJDNHap2QC

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at August 02, 2015 04:32 PM (q7gmI)

291 Humph: My Linky Link didn't Link.

Anyway, the links were for the "Paul Anka sings Nirvana" and "Smooth like Biden" pic on the sidebar.

WARNING: DO not look/listen to either while stoned...worse than a LSD flashback....at least that's what I read...:shrug:

Posted by: BlaxPac at August 02, 2015 04:40 PM (xj/Iq)

292 This week I read:

Take the Star Road by Peter Grant
The Time Traders by Andre Norton
He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper
Police Operation by H. Beam Piper
Sugar Skull by Cedar Sanderson
Dispatches from Cuba by Michael J. Totten

All good stuff.

Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 05:03 PM (zpNwC)

293 FenelonSpoke, 159, I have stolen that - what an awesome quote.

Posted by: Tonestaple at August 02, 2015 05:06 PM (WdorP)

294 I have used a Waterman and thought it a good pen, but it may not do what you want..
http://preview.tinyurl.com/ob7hlju
Also, Fahrney's has everything for the hand-writing enthusiast:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/7hv5wpt
Posted by: Hrothgar at August 02, 2015 01:19 PM (ftVQq)

You young whippersnappers with your fancy, new-fangled technology.

There's nothing beats the feel of using a metal stylus to scratch out cuneiform characters onto a wet clay tablet, and the solid, permanent weight of the tablets after you bake them. It is a thing of beauty.

Posted by: Akkadian scribe at August 02, 2015 05:12 PM (43BmD)

295 Here are just a few out of many. Do a Bible search for Moloch.

"Moloch" occurs only once in the Bible, in the NT.

Search for "Molech" instead.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 05:32 PM (j1VIK)

296 Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at August 02, 2015 04:32 PM (q7gmI)

Thanks for the pdf link, bth.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 05:49 PM (j1VIK)

297 Don't know if you're still around, OregonMuse, but I have to post a great big THANK YOU from me to you for the Sunday Book Threads. Not just because I have something to say (I was gonna say "add" or "contribute," but that would be all egotistical of me), but because there's as much food for the mind in 'em as their is food for the tummy in the later food threads.

I look forward to thinking about books every Sunday, and sharing pleasure in them with fellow Morons (and 'ettes, natch).

So thanks, OM!

Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 06:00 PM (rCmeG)

298 Posted by: MrScribbler at August 02, 2015 06:00 PM (rCmeG)

This!

I mostly lurk on all the threads but I do make it a point to pay extra attention to the book threads. Hell, I even read the content. No really.

Anyway, thanks OM.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at August 02, 2015 06:03 PM (MQyUw)

299 MrScribbler, weirdflunkyonatablet:

Thank you for your kind words. It's fun to watch all the book knowledge being exchanged on the thread each week and I'm glad to have your participation in it.

I check the book thread from time to time on Sunday. It is sometimes still active well into the afternoon.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 06:33 PM (j1VIK)

300 Can't leave this at 299. Thanks to everyone who contributes although you are breaking the Bank of Tonestaple and I will never ever get through all of the books I have now, much less the ones you inspire me to buy. And thanks to Oregon Muse for doing this every week - it's absolutely my favorite thread.

Posted by: Tonestaple at August 02, 2015 06:51 PM (WdorP)

301 "Moloch" occurs only once in the Bible, in the NT. Search for "Molech" instead.

The story I heard was that the Masoretes (the final editors of the Hebrew form of the Bible) repointed the vowels on words they didn't want to utter aloud.

YHWH got the vowels for "adona (lord)" so - Jehovah. Moloch got the vowels for "bosheth (shame)".

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at August 02, 2015 06:56 PM (AVEe1)

302 mynewhandle, I luv my Kindle. Heck, I have two.

I have an e-ink Kindle and a Kindle Fire HD. Get the e-ink kind. It's much lighter, you can read it in sunlight, and the battery lasts a heck of a lot longer. Kindle Fires are just cheap Android tablets with a lousy custom user interface.

I can even get library books on my Kindles because my library uses Overdrive.

Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 07:15 PM (zpNwC)

303 Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 07:15 PM (zpNwC)

Overdrive is how I have been listening to these books. I like audiobooks because I can return them immediately and haven't found a way to do the same with the reading books. I also like audiobooks since my job requires my hands and eyes but usually not much of my brain.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 07:49 PM (GDulk)

304 Currently listening to an audiobook of Beowulf. It's a prose version and reminds me a little of the Iliad and Odyssey except that the early English either didn't spend as much time whining about how unfair life was or the translator didn't bother to put that bit in.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 07:54 PM (GDulk)

305 Or rather, Danes I guess. The English came from the editor's forward saying that they thought the author may have been from one of the kingdoms that became England.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 07:56 PM (GDulk)

306 "Overdrive is how I have been listening to these books. I like audiobooks because I can return them immediately and haven't found a way to do the same with the reading books."

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at August 02, 2015 07:49 PM (GDulk)

You have to do that through Amazon under "Manage Your Content and Devices" Find the Overdrive ebook, and select return under actions.

Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 08:08 PM (zpNwC)

307 Speaking of Overdrive, I just saw this pop up on there:

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
by Bill Browder

"A real-life political thriller about an American financier in the Wild East of Russia, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin's corruption.
Bill Browder's journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union's collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia.

In 2007, a group of law enforcement officers raided Browder's offices in Moscow and stole $230 million of taxes that his fund's companies had paid to the Russian government. Browder's attorney Sergei Magnitsky investigated the incident and uncovered a sprawling criminal enterprise. A month after Sergei testified against the officials involved, he was arrested and thrown into pre-trial detention, where he was tortured for a year. On November 16, 2009, he was led to an isolation chamber, handcuffed to a bedrail, and beaten to death by eight guards in full riot gear.

Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life: he embarked on an unrelenting quest for justice in Sergei's name, exposing the towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin. A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world."

Sounds really interesting.

Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 08:15 PM (zpNwC)

308 "Right Turn ONLY" Anthology looking for contributors.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/qdbpvg7

Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 08:25 PM (zpNwC)

309 Helping a teacher hold up a candle in the darkness

http://www.gofundme.com/rwgr47y

"I'm teaching a new class next year (2 sections with approximately 76 students total). On the 12th grade book list, 1984 by George Orwell is an option, however my school does not have the books. I find Orwell to be extremely vital and relevant for today's students and have developed an amazing unit of study based on the text. In order to teach this, I'll need 2 class sets and a few extra copies to keep in the classroom. Please help me reach my goal! So much of the Common Core is doing away with poignant literature - please don't let Orwell become a casualty."

Posted by: BornLib at August 02, 2015 08:27 PM (zpNwC)

310 YHWH got the vowels for "adona (lord)" so - Jehovah. Moloch got the vowels for "bosheth (shame)".

This wouldn't surprise me. The vowel points in the old manuscripts can be quite problematic, since there aren't any, so trying to figure out what they should be can be a daunting task.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 02, 2015 09:37 PM (j1VIK)

311 Thank you to some ancient ace commenter, I picked up Pynchon's Mason and Dixon and am enjoying it, and intend to reread it after. And I'm here in Sydney Australia.

Posted by: bruce at August 02, 2015 09:49 PM (vRHFY)

312 Regarding some of the earlier comments regarding Wiseguys, Henry Hill etc. just wanted to share a couple of personal anecdotes. I was born in and grew up nearby Chicago and though I have lived elsewhere for many years, still end up back there frequently for family and friends. As many of the Moron horde know, the mob in Chicago was traditionally referred to as "the outfit" or occasionally, "the syndicate". As everywhere, the traditional mafia in Chicago shattered into many fragmented ineffectual pieces and was quickly supplanted by Russian, Mexican and Central American organized crime. There are still some hanger ons, but they are guys more interested in acting out some sort of bad movie in which they are starring and talking tough than actually doing anything their predecessors would have considered worthy of time. In short, they're a joke. But they can be and occasionally are, still dangerous on an individual level.

Not long ago, my wife decided to take me on a birthday dinner at a well known high end restaurant. If you are from the Chicago area, you would instantly recognize the name as it is quite the local institution. Having never been, it was a real treat and I was very much looking forward to it. To set the stage a little more, I'm of strong Italian descent (Sicilian actually) and my family has been in the area for 100 years. I don't consider myself to be a "neighborhood guy" or necessarily "street wise" but I'm also pretty familiar with how the city works and the more colorful side of its character(s). But this particular night, something was just off. You could cut the tension in the place with a knife as soon as you walked in the door.

As I said, well known place and usually a mix of locals and the well dressed, downtown set. Not this night - the place was almost empty, even by the standards of a week night but everyone was very tense and the wait staff was running around like it was a full restaurant even though half the place was empty. We have reservations, but it is completely expected to have to wait even under the best of circumstances so we order a drink at the bar and surprisingly, get called to a table almost immediately. We end up seated right next to a big round table that probably seats 8 but is currently empty. 5 minutes pass, we are looking at the wine menu and in walk 6 or 7 guys in the full hanger on uniform - expensive stuff that isn't quite tailored right, flashy jewelry, the haircuts...if you've been around it, you know what I'm saying. One of the guys pulls a gold name plate out of his own jacket that says "reserved" and throws it on the table and they proceed to loudly hold court but no problem, easily ignored. At some point, after we have ordered - one of these guys makes some comments which gradually become apparent are directed at my wife. We ignore it because they aren't being too loud or direct and frankly, its an expensive dinner for my birthday and to hell with em. Well they intermittently keep it up and at one point our waiter, clearly a recent russian immigrant, starts to join in on it - like he's suddenly been give the D-bag seal of approval. But he's taking it to a level that can't be ignored...lewd, blatant, utterly disrespectful. Now this is not a great situation for me because I'm obviously furious but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that nothing good is going to come from me giving it right back to these guys - that crap most assuredly only works in the movies. I put the cash on the table and we get to leave, less than half way through the meal and one of the seven guys at the table notices what is happening with the waiter and kind of gives him a death glare and mouths "I'm sorry" to my wife and motions for us to stay. A couple of minutes later, two drinks arrive for us, courtesy of the guy at the table. We nod, lift our glasses to say thanks and figure things are looking up. My wife gets about two or three sips into her drink, says she doesn't feel good and her drink tastes and smells weird. I figure it's psychosomatic but I take a sip and she's 100% right, it tastes and smells like a chemical other than booze - just completely and totally off. So, once our charming waiter eventually walks by, without even thinking, I ask if they can make another because something is just off about it. Well, you would have thought I creatively insulted his mother in front of his children. I thought we were going have ourselves a nice little altercation right there. But gradually, his anger transforms into something else and he hesitantly asks if I would mind just "letting it go". I just stare at him blankly and he gets the message and takes the drink with him. But instead of heading back to the bar with it, as I expected, he makes a bee line right for the guy who bought us the drinks. My situational awareness floods back...Oh $%^$ he knows that guy and he's going to tell him we just turned away his drink...%^^$@! I start subconsciously checking for escape routes and my mind is racing through how I can get my wife as far away from this situation as quick as possible. Then....the guy at the table who bought us the drinks, to absolutely everyone's shock, including the waiter....just. starts. SCREAMING at the guy. Very hostile, very aggressive. Now another emotion floods over me, pity and regret....this poor guy is getting read the riot act like I have NEVER seen before. The other guys at the table have gone from their rude but playful jackassery to dead, serious, silent stares. The whole place is watching this go down - there is no ignoring it. After a moment or two transfixed by what is happening, I shake out of it long enough to give my wife a look, put down the cash and walk briskly to the exit. I notice we are followed out by a few other people who obviously have had their fill of being bystanders as well. I start to think I have overreacted until I notice my wife is literally shaking and trying not to cry she is so upset. Eventually a few weeks later, still thinking I overreacted I pass on the story to some family members who spend time with law enforcement and various street level individuals as part of their work. They just nod and confirm that what I thought happened is exactly what had indeed happened and that there are just certain nights in certain restaurants that are known for this type of thing and in the old days it might have gone a lot worse for the waiter. Didn't mean for this to turn into such a long post - just wanted to share one story of several.

Posted by: CastleP at August 02, 2015 10:50 PM (7+oeE)

313 Very interesting story, CastleP.

Note to self: when the mob shows up, it's time to leave.

Posted by: OregonMuse at August 03, 2015 09:58 AM (j1VIK)

314 Kindltot #43 and Elinor, Who Usually Looks Lurkily #184:

Do you not know ABE Books (www.abebooks.com)? It's the place to go for used books. It's basically a clearinghouse for tens of thousands of used book dealers around the world, and has even more choices than Amazon Marketplace, since it costs the sellers less to join.

ABE lists 123 copies of 'The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California'. The cheapest is $6.99 delivered, but is a not-so-fresh ex-library copy. The first one listed as 'Near Fine' (in Very Good dust jacket) will run you $18.44 delivered. They're both copies of the 1968 Alfred A. Knopf edition, so you won't have any problem with OCR errors. By default, ABE sorts results by price from lowest to highest, and the last of the 123 is a first edition that will run you $2,296.20 shipped from London, at today's exchange rate.

Just be sure to check 'Not printed on demand' in the left margin and skip over the 'EBook' editions which should be screened out by checking that, but aren't.

For used books, I usually check ABE first, Amazon Marketplace second, and rarely have to look anywhere else. No, I'm not an employee or stockholder, just a satisfied user: I've bought hundreds of books from them, and sold dozens through them.

Posted by: Dr Weevil at August 04, 2015 10:53 AM (L/0Hc)

315 gracepc (#284):
ABE Books lists 3 complete sets of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, priced at 64.95 to 100.00 plus shipping.

Posted by: Dr Weevil at August 04, 2015 11:15 AM (L/0Hc)

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