Sunday Morning Book Thread 02-06-2022 [All Hail Eris]

(h/t Mindful Webworker)

Visit the amazing Starfield Library in Seoul, South Korea.

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This is Eris's version of "Fat Man on Ottoman"

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Good morning, my precious poppets! Welcome once again to the classy and luxurious Sunday Morning Book Thread, that plushly appointed mosh pit of opinion, snark, choler, jest and japery, and our continuing conversation on books, reading, writing, and the culture at large. The stately Dungeon of Discord has been Muppetized into a Romper Room of Doom, so feel free to run with scissors, set off firecrackers, and play lawn darts. There is no lifeguard at Ace's Grotto. Dunk away! If you want to deconstruct Deruda while wearing a rainbow unicorn onesie, who am I to judge? Your natural right to cavort pantsless Shall. Not. Be. Infringed! Nor will I judge you for bowing to convention and wearing pants. Even if it's these pants, which caused me Lovecraftian existential dread as a wee tot! So pull up a comfy chair, do a line of Pixie Stix, and tell us what you've been reading!

Who dis:

I of course saw the movie, but never read the Oz books as a child. I would have loved them! As an adult I found them to be strange little psilocybin trips that are chock full of casually violent content sure to delight Midwestern prairie monsters: Twisters, winged hench-monkeys, an axe-weilding tin man who cheerily slaughters his enemies, a scarecrow who murders a murder of crows, a princess who steals heads, and various and sundry cobbled together horrors like The Gump and the coquetish Patchwork Girl.

DO NOT TAKE THE WOGGLE-BUG ACID

The Tin Woodman was Metal in all senses:

"He seized his axe, which he had made very sharp, and as the leader of the wolves came on the Tin Woodman swung his arm and chopped the wolf's head from its body, so that it immediately died. As soon as he could raise his axe another wolf came up, and he also fell under the sharp edge of the Tin Woodman's weapon. There were forty wolves, and forty times a wolf was killed, so that at last they all lay dead in a heap before the Woodman. Then he put down his axe and sat beside the Scarecrow, who said, "It was a good fight, friend."

That right there is a Klingon fairy tale.

What dire tales did you read as a child? One that gave me the willies included the Chronicles of Prydain series (Arawn's reanimated Cauldron-Born army! Yeeesh!)

***

Ravel - Pavanne for Sleeping Beauty

Joe Walsh had a groovy synth version on his So What album:

******

Our own Sabrina Chase is putting her novel "The Last Mage Guardian" (Book 1 in the Guardian's Compact series) on sale for only $1.99! The Amazon blurb reads:

Her great-uncle, the mage Oron, bequeathed to her his oak-shaded chateau and a debt of magical honor. But in a world where women do not do magic, Miss Ardhuin Andrews must hide her magical talents. How can she repay the debt? When Oron's enemies attack, how can she survive? Political intrigue, duty, and echoes of an old war not truly ended combine to create a smoldering crisis in a world where magic and science coexist.

***

It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

ACEPHALOUS - Without a head. Condition of a "Project Team" in a government department which is implementing an "Industrial Decocracy Mission Statement". Also that of a decapitated fowl.

AILUROPHILE - Someone who is abnormally fond of cats. Such a one may readily be identified by the fleas and fine hairs hovering in the air like an aura about their person. Be kind to them; they have probably just spent a small fortune on canned fishwaste.

BOOBOISIE - The slower classes; the stupid masses. A term coined by H.L. Mencken. The more savage American writers -- Ambrose Bierce, Phillip Wylie, Mencken, and the like -- seem to have a gift for what one might term neo-invectivism, another example of which might be Wylie's MICROPOOPS, for pinheaded paperpushers.

BREASTSUMMER - Believe it or not, this beautiful word denotes the beam supporting the upper front part of a building, over its main door or portico. "Ah, Mrs. Sandalbath, as I came in I admired your breastsummer so much. What a superstructure!"

(The above selections are from the indispensable "Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words" by Peter Bowler.)

📖 📖 📖

Contact Eris at your risk! ErisEnthroned at sign protonmail dot cee oh emm

Well that's it for this week. What cool stuff are you reading?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 09:00 AM (2JoB8)

2 hiya

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:00 AM (arJlL)

3 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:02 AM (7EjX1)

4 Just my luck, the book I want in that Korean book store is on the top shelf...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at February 06, 2022 09:02 AM (PiwSw)

5 After a mention made on an earlier thread I ordered a used copy of "Atlas Maior", an atlas of the wonderful maps made during the 1600s. I love old maps and the fanciful illustrations they often use. The drawings remind me of illumminated manuscripts with their brilliant colors. (Caution: the atlas is nicely bound and printed on good, heavy paper and it weighs a LOT. So keep it on a table or desk while turning the pages.) Still, it's reassuring to read a book that can protect you from shrapnel!

I paid just a few dollars for an almost mint copy. That's a great deal for me. But I'm a bit sad that such a valuable resource is valued so little. Yeah, the subject is a bit esoteric but this is the kind of book I would have poured over for hours when I was a kid.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:04 AM (7EjX1)

6 It's funny that you mentioned The Chronicles of Prydain. I'm in the middle of Taran Wanderer right now, having finished books 1-3 earlier this week. I think it really holds up well. Interestingly, we never really get any description of the main character (Taran). We don't know his height, hair color, eye color, age (other than he is youngish, middle teens maybe), and so on. Every other character has at least one distinguishing feature. I think this is so the reader (you) can put yourself easily into Taran's place as he goes through his adventures. Pretty brilliant tactic, I think.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 06, 2022 09:04 AM (K5n5d)

7 BREASTSUMMER

That summer the first girlfriend that lets you see hit tits.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:05 AM (yrol0)

8 her not hit

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:05 AM (yrol0)

9 Have gone back for a re-read of Heinlein stuff. On Citizen of the Galaxy now.

Posted by: Vic at February 06, 2022 09:05 AM (mpXpK)

10 Nice Breastsummer !

"Sank you doktor !"

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:05 AM (arJlL)

11 BOOBOISIE

I think I went to a strip club in Idaho by that name.

Posted by: Muad'dib at February 06, 2022 09:05 AM (ikXZL)

12 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

I of course saw the movie, but never read the Oz books as a child.

Baum also had a house, "Ozcot," in Hollywood, where he had his own studio, the Oz Film Manufacturing Company.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:06 AM (2JVJo)

13 The Oz series by Baum is also interesting in its creative trajectory. The first six or seven are good (some great) -- but around the 8th book the quality really drops off.

BUT! With the 11th book Baum evidently got a second wind because the last four are the best in the series.

That's rare. Usually once an author checks out of a series there's no checking back in again.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:06 AM (QZxDR)

14 Finished this morning British Smooth Bore Artillery- A Technological Study
https://tinyurl.com/ye2a4tfr
1 gun barrels
163 carriages
228 Field service Limber
261 Gin ( or Gyn) I actually made one from scratch
273 gunpowder ( my next endeavor)
288 Guage of guns
308 Carcass round
359 slow match and quick match ( it is explained much simpler than it is in other book)
375 sights

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 09:06 AM (2JoB8)

15 Who dis is Bea Arthur.

Posted by: dantesed at February 06, 2022 09:06 AM (88xKn)

16 Hail Eris! Who's Dis is none other than Kurt Russell.

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 06, 2022 09:07 AM (4I/2K)

17 Nice pic of Baum

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:07 AM (ONvIw)

18 Who dis is Bea Arthur.
Posted by: dantesed

I thought it was Joan Crawford

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:07 AM (arJlL)

19 I walked into a physical bookstore yesterday and purchased a physical book. That was weird.

I did use virtual money so I was at least partly still in the real world.

Posted by: blaster at February 06, 2022 09:08 AM (9otr5)

20 I always expected him to look like Ray Bolger

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:08 AM (ONvIw)

21 Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:04 AM (7EjX1)

Apropos of maps...an old friend of mine was in the navy in the 80s and 90s. He spent spent some time in the old Soviet bloc and was able to pick up Soviet Navy maps for literally pennies. He wrapped Christmas presents with them!

I don't remember the gift, but I do remember the wrapping!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:08 AM (XIJ/X)

22 Good morning everyone. Thank you Eris for the thread!

Continuing on to the end of Dante's Purgatorio. My readings there have had a monumental impact on the understanding of my own faith. I am so sorry I put off this reading for so long.

The folks at the 100 Days of Dante have done an outstanding job putting the video companions together.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:09 AM (mD/uy)

23 Mr. Blobby? I thought Tater already had a name. As to stay on point with the book thread, Jr. Black got me 'Red Famine' by Anne Applebaum for Christmas, but I haven't started it yet. Looking forward to it, but my "reading porch" is too darned cold right now to go out and read.

Posted by: Lady in Black at February 06, 2022 09:09 AM (sVtYq)

24 Book Recap:

A young midwestern girl pillages her way through Paradise with a crazed axe-welding sidekick, his mentally challenged sidekick, and a transhuman feline eventually murdering two well known sister from the community.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:09 AM (yrol0)

25 14 pg 261 my version of a Gyn
https://tinyurl.com/jkbnxbk9

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 09:10 AM (2JoB8)

26 Nurse Ratched sent me "The Plague and I" by Betty MacDonald (who also wrote "The Egg and I"). You wouldn't think catching tuberculosis and staying in a sanatorium for a year would be funny, but she manages. I loved the description of her bitchy head nurse as having eyes that could be used as diamond drill bits.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:10 AM (Dc2NZ)

27 I don't think the pants guy has a weedwhacker, nor a sense of dignity.

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:10 AM (arJlL)

28 One weakness afflicting some of Baum's Oz books was that he was convinced the real money was in stage adaptations -- or silent movies, later on. So in a lot of the books he's clearly writing a vaudeville show which can be performed by a touring company. There's always a couple of scenes with showgirls in minutely-described costumes (Jinjur's Girl Army, Glinda's guards, the Daughters of the Rainbow, etc.), and the action is very limited. But in the later books he tossed that aside and really started getting creative.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:10 AM (QZxDR)

29 I have sold more books than you have read or I have written.

Posted by: Catharine Pugh, once and future Mayor of Bawltmoar at February 06, 2022 09:10 AM (QzkSJ)

30 Another great job on the Book Thread, Eris !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (arJlL)

31 16 Hail Eris! Who's Dis is none other than Kurt Russell.
Posted by: Count de Monet at February 06, 2022 09:07 AM (4I/2K)

Winner!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (Dc2NZ)

32 Some dead guy I don't know.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (7bRMQ)

33 But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (yrol0)

34 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I can't think of any dark books I read as a child. Apparently, my childhood was full of sunshine and goodness, with the darkest material being along the lines of the Boxcar Children.

Until I was around twelve; then I read The Exorcist, and learned of things no twelve-year-old should know about.

Posted by: April -- dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (OX9vb)

35 (Book 1 in the Guardian's Compact series) on sale for only $1.99! The Amazon blurb reads:

Her great-uncle, the mage Oron, bequeathed to her his oak-shaded chateau and a debt of magical honor. But in a world where women do not do magic, Miss Ardhuin Andrews must hide her magical talents. How can she repay the debt? When Oron's enemies attack, how can she survive? Political intrigue, duty, and echoes of an old war not truly ended combine to create a smoldering crisis in a world where magic and science coexist.

-----------------------------------

I no longer have a credit card for Amazon because I lost mine and cancelled it. When I get my new card I will get it.

Posted by: Vic at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (mpXpK)

36 "He seized his axe, which he had made very sharp, and as the leader of the wolves came on the Tin Woodman swung his arm and chopped the wolf's head from its body, so that it immediately died."

I am not sure about metal, but if you were to replace "Scarecrow" with "Kane" this could be out of one of the less eldritch moments of a Kane novel by Karl Wagner.
This makes me wonder how much influence Baum had on Wagner

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (ZMraq)

37 I did pick up a copy of Welcome to the Monkey House and reread Harrison Bergeron and some of the others.

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (ONvIw)

38 You may not know dead guy but dead guy knows YOU . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (QZxDR)

39 Sorry to go off thread so soon, but check this out, in case anyone didn't mention it yesterday:

https://tinyurl.com/2w27j3sy

Did I not predict this? Did I not fucking exactly predict this months ago?

Back to books in a moment.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (2JVJo)

40 32 tis L Frank Baum

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:13 AM (ONvIw)

41 So, Eris, have you taken the gig full time? You're doing great so far.

I've finished my part of the Mrs. Coverlet boomlet here. Although her name graces the titles, she's barely in the books. Which is just as well; she's bland.

I slipped on ice and hurt my wrist yesterday. Because of that, I'll just lurk for the rest of the thread.

Posted by: Weak Geek, gritting teeth at February 06, 2022 09:13 AM (Om/di)

42 I'd like to see the thread renamed "The Oregon Muse Memorial Book Thread."

Posted by: Ordinary American at February 06, 2022 09:13 AM (H8QX8)

43 You may not know dead guy but dead guy knows YOU . . .

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (QZxDR)

That magnificent bastard! I read his books!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 09:13 AM (7bRMQ)

44 Hail Eris! Who's Dis is none other than Kurt Russell.
Posted by: Count de Monet at February 06, 2022 09:07 AM (4I/2K)

Winner!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread)

!

Goldie really rooned him !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:14 AM (arJlL)

45 33 But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn't, didn't already have
Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (yrol0)

Let's see, Bunnel did the outside songs and Beckley did the inside songs, so...Bunnel.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at February 06, 2022 09:14 AM (PiwSw)

46 I have only read a couple of the Oz books. You don't hear much about them these days

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:14 AM (ONvIw)

47 I was looking thru Gutenberg's new additions and this one caught my eye:

THE HOBO
THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE HOMELESS MAN -1923

It's about Chicago's hobo population in the 20s. Not much has changed except it seems the bums were much more polite back then.

Anyway here's an paragraph about bookstores:

Hobohemia has its bookstores where new and second-hand books are sold. The "Hobo Bookstore", sometimes called the "Proletariat," located at 1237 West Madison Street, is the best known. This place makes a specialty of periodicals of a radical nature which are extensively read by the "bos." A large line of books on many subjects are sold, but they are chiefly the paper-bound volumes that the transient can afford. The "Radical Book Shop," located on North Clark Street, is popular among the intellectuals who pass their time in "Bughouse Square."

Posted by: fd at February 06, 2022 09:15 AM (vrz2I)

48 That pants picture is almost exactly like a nightmare I had as a kid.

When the clothes at the end of my bed got up by themselves and chased after me.

Or, is suppose it could've been invisible ghosts. One shirtless, one pantless like Donald Duck, one pantless and shirtless though with underwear on, one pantless and shirtless though wearing socks.

Which was the most horrifying?

Hmm. I'll say the Donald Duck manque. That duck was always pissed-off about something.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:15 AM (5NkmN)

49 This past week I read Freaky Deaky and Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:15 AM (arJlL)

50 Sorry about your wrist, Weak Geek. I dub thee Strong Geek! Carry on valiantly through the pain!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:16 AM (Dc2NZ)

51 44 Hail Eris! Who's Dis is none other than Kurt Russell.
Posted by: Count de Monet at February 06, 2022 09:07 AM (4I/2K)

Winner!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread)

!

Goldie really rooned him !
Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:14 AM (arJlL)

Good old Snake!

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:16 AM (yrol0)

52 Nice Lieberry!

Mr. Blobby explains much of what went wrong with English utes in the 90's.

Those pants...I think I have a pair just like that. Starched.

The Who Dis is Joe Biden's hero Boss Tweed.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (R/m4+)

53 I suppose Baum is on the cancel culture list, he was no fan of native americans

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (ONvIw)

54 I have only read a couple of the Oz books. You don't hear much about them these days
Posted by: CN

They're witchophobic.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (FVME7)

55 Joe Walsh also has an extended riff of Ravel's Bolero in the middle of The Bomber. One of his best songs, but I guess it was too long to get radio play.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (YFAIE)

56 49 This past week I read Freaky Deaky and Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:15 AM (arJlL)

Rum became one of my FAVORITE ALL TIME movies.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (yrol0)

57 Eris, first class job on the book thread. You filled some mighty large pants.

Posted by: fd at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (vrz2I)

58 Welcome to the Monkey House...

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (ONvIw)

Worth a re-read? I haven't read Vonnegut in...uh...a long time.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (XIJ/X)

59 I'm a little more than halfway through a history of the French Foreign Legion. Just about the time the Legion figured out how to shoot Bedouins and jungle fighters, WWI broke out and they had to adapt to gas attacks and trench warfare.

Thanks for another solid book thread, Eris!

Posted by: PabloD at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (WJRq/)

60 Anyway. . .

Am re-reading John Toland's 1976 Hitler bio. I had it in paperback, but bought a hardcover copy because I prefer that.

Am also reading Famous Crimes the World Forgot, Vol 2, by Jason Lucky Morrow. It's a collection of murder cases which were once nationally known, but have fallen into obscurity. Morrow is a good writer, although he could use an editor, as he has a few literary tricks he uses over and over again. But for an inexpensive kindle read, if you are a true-crime buff, this book and Volume 1 are worth getting.

https://tinyurl.com/2s4chpxw

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (2JVJo)

61 Wait I'm not sure that came out quite right.

Posted by: fd at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (vrz2I)

62 Thanks Eris !
Agree with retitled Oregon Muse memorial.
Not sure about the new pants rule.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at February 06, 2022 09:18 AM (C/fpg)

63
Hmm. I'll say the Donald Duck manque. That duck was always pissed-off about something.
Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:15 AM (5NkmN)
------
Rabbit season!

Posted by: Weasel at February 06, 2022 09:18 AM (0IeYL)

64 This week's new book has been _Liftoff_, by Eric Berger, about the early years of SpaceX. One thing which the author doesn't really dig into but I kept noticing was how much of SpaceX's infrastructure and early personnel were legacies of other, failed private space companies of the 80s and 90s.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:18 AM (QZxDR)

65 I checked out a book from the library by John D. MacDonald. Try Travis McGee, they said. You'll like Travis McGee, they said. I did not.

Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (45fpk)

66 Rum became one of my FAVORITE ALL TIME movies.

Posted by: rhennigantx

Never seen it; might hafta rectify that....

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (arJlL)

67 Wow, another great Book thread, Eris. I am still trying to comprehend 'Mr. Blobby' (I do like his homage to Robert Palmer's girls from Addicted to Love)

Posted by: t-bird at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (vOGqy)

68 Mr Blobby should see a dermatologist and have those yellow spots checked.

Posted by: Weasel at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (0IeYL)

69 Eris, I sent 1913 to you last Tuesday. Has it arrived?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (2JVJo)

70 My big read was C.J. Cherryh's Hugo Award-winning doorstop "Cyteen", another in the Union-Alliance universe. Cyteen, a breakaway planet far removed from Sol political and cultural influences, swelled its initially small population by cloning. These "Azi" (artificial zygote insemination), not considered citizens of the Union, are genetically-engineered servants, technicians, laborers, and soldiers. Cyteen did this not only to provide skilled workers but to preserve different gene types to prevent inbreeding. As fast as humans were expanding through the systems, in different directions, that meant that each small genetic sample might diverge from the norm too quickly.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (Dc2NZ)

71 The use of cloning and life extension is so pervasive that traditional family structures don't really matter. Parents can be very old, even dead, but can still "have" a child. In this story, the "father" cloned himself to have a "son", and the son's life partner is his designer-human azi friend. The main plot of the story is the assassination of a top scientist and the attempt tp bring her (or a fascimile) back to life though cloning, and how they try to reproduce the life and influences that contibuted to her (evil) genius, a la "The Boys from Brazil".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (Dc2NZ)

72 That last cartoon is so funny and so applicable for me.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (7EjX1)

73 58. I like a lot of the stories and not all are dark and dystopia. Who am I This Time is actually a cute small town romance, for example.

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (ONvIw)

74 Not yet, MP4. I look forward to it.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (Dc2NZ)

75 Never seen it; might hafta rectify that....
Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (arJlL)

Jackie Brown! Better than Pulp in my opin!

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (yrol0)

76 Booken threaden --

I'm sitting on the floor with Chekov the Ailing Codger Cat. He's purring and taking notice of things around him. I'm hoping this lasts.

I'm rereading Steinbeck's "Cannery Row," which was the partial basis (along with his full novel Sweet Thursday) for the 1982 CR film with Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. CR the novelette is serio-comic, comic scenes alternated with more dramatic ones.

Writing? At my coffee with two of my writing group colleagues I got an idea for a fan story, which is just practice, but any practice is better than sitting around doing nothing. As a comic-reading kid my favorite after Batman was Jimmy Olsen. He was close to my age and had no superpowers (though he was always getting transformed into something weird like a metal-eating monster), but he was competent and solved mysteries even without Superman's help. We've never really seen him depicted properly in TV or film that I know of.

How about a short story in which he solves a puzzle and saves lives without Superman's help? I've begun outlining it. The leader of our group is a big Superman fan. He ought to find this very interesting.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (c6xtn)

77 Speaking of folk tales, my mother received as a 2nd birthday gift Folk Tales Children Love. Pub. by Platt & Munk Co. NY (1932) which I now have. The tales are many of the normal ones we would all recognize from our childhoods - The country mouse and the city mouse, etc. but what really sets this work apart is the accompanying art. Beautiful, full page (12" x 10") art with the richest and deepest colors imaginable.

I'm pretty sure the pictures are lithographed. Just stunningly beautiful. With having little guys in the house again, this work has made a resurgence to rave reviews.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (mD/uy)

78 Hi, Kindletot!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (7bRMQ)

79 The book I'm currently reading is The Labyrinth Key by Howard V. Hendrix. It's one part Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, one part Tad Williams' Otherland, one part Tom Clancy (pick one), and one part William Gibson's Neuromancer. The basic plot involves trying to find out who killed a researcher in quantum cryptography and how was he killed in such a bizarre manner (resembling spontaneous human combustion, but not quite). It asks some really interesting questions about the nature of reality. It lacks the Rule of Cool of Snow Crash, but it's not bad at all.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (K5n5d)

80 Rabbit season!
Posted by: Weasel at February 06, 2022 09:18 AM (0IeYL)

The local MeTV channel here plays "Bugs Bunny and Friends" every Saturday morning. Yesterday, the hour had three different versions of the Bugs / Daffy / Elmer 'duck season' gag, all scripted by Michael Maltese and all directed by Chuck Jones. I honestly did not know they used the same premise for three different cartoons.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (2JVJo)

81 72 That last cartoon is so funny and so applicable for me.
Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (7EjX1)

I'm always saying things like that! I feel like my book stash is key to staving off the Dark Ages when teh world goes dark.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (Dc2NZ)

82 I checked out a book from the library by John D. MacDonald. Try Travis McGee, they said. You'll like Travis McGee, they said. I did not.
Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022

***
Which one? I love the character and the series, but the novels are uneven, some more exciting than others.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (c6xtn)

83 MP4, yep as predicatable as the sun rising every morning.

Posted by: Jewells45 deplorablethug#FJB at February 06, 2022 09:22 AM (nxdel)

84 I'm continuing with the 100 Days of Dante, up to Canto 31 of the Purgatory section, and LOTR. The LOTR reading is taking a lot longer than usual because I'm reading along with the audio CD narrated by Andy Serkis. I'm in no hurry and it is time well spent.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:23 AM (7EjX1)

85 Which one? I love the character and the series, but the novels are uneven, some more exciting than others.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (c6xtn)

"Pale Gray for Guilt." It felt like 80's bimbo.

Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022 09:23 AM (45fpk)

86 New metal album from Greece. The singer reminds me of Dio a little.

https://youtu.be/z6DjG7hg4yE

Posted by: BourbonChicken at February 06, 2022 09:23 AM (ybIRR)

87 Here's a question: did JRR Tolkein ever read the Oz books?

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (QZxDR)

88 54. Yeah, sort of, but as a kid I was more of a Swallows and Amazons kid and I liked A Wrinkle in Time and Harriet the Spy. I also liked short story collections and Nancy Drew.

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (ONvIw)

89 Who am I This Time is actually a cute small town romance, for example.

Posted by: CN at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (ONvIw)

Thanks. I was talking with the older brat about Hemingway's short stories and realized that it was my favorite style for a long time. I figure I'll revisit some of them.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (XIJ/X)

90 I have some friends from Eastern Europe. Their fairy tails are really twisted.

So Cinderella ends with the step sisters killing themselves because Cinderella gets rescued.
Come to find out the Godmother was sent by the Devil to help Cinderella so that the step sisters would kill themselves in despair.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (yrol0)

91 The main plot of the story is the assassination of a top scientist and the attempt tp bring her (or a fascimile) back to life though cloning, and how they try to reproduce the life and influences that contibuted to her (evil) genius, a la "The Boys from Brazil".
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:20 AM (Dc2NZ)
---
WOW! That's eerily similar to the book I'm currently reading (The Labyrinth Key). No one has been brought back to life (yet), but the main character just found out he is a genetically identical twin to a character who just died even though they had different parents and they don't even look alike (it's complicated).

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (K5n5d)

92 I'm rereading Steinbeck's "Cannery Row," which was the partial basis (along with his full novel Sweet Thursday) for the 1982 CR film with Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. CR the novelette is serio-comic, comic scenes alternated with more dramatic ones.

I think I mentioned on another book thread that Cannery Row's sequel, Sweet Thursday, was the source for the flop 1955 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:25 AM (2JVJo)

93 An alternate title to that "The Hobo" book would be "Chicago on 50 Cents A Day".

Posted by: fd at February 06, 2022 09:25 AM (vrz2I)

94 So Cinderella ends with the step sisters killing themselves because Cinderella gets rescued.
Come to find out the Godmother was sent by the Devil to help Cinderella so that the step sisters would kill themselves in despair.
Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (yrol0)

IIRC, one of the step-sisters cuts her heel off to try to make her foot fit in the slipper.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (PiwSw)

95 Reading a paper about the evolution of the US Infantry division. It makes sense until post WW II. After that, I honestly don't know what the five sided nuthouse was trying to accomplish. Don't think the author really does either.

Posted by: Cause and Effect at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (nI61m)

96 Come to find out the Godmother was sent by the Devil to help Cinderella so that the step sisters would kill themselves in despair.
Posted by: rhennigantx

Bibbity, bobbity, BOO!!

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (mD/uy)

97 I still reread Prydain. I have a cross stitch pattern in mind showing the silhouette of a princess holding a glowing ball with a wall of text beside her with Eilonwy's various similes and other characteristic sayings, ending with, "Taran of Caer Dallben, I'm not speaking to you! ...At least, not for a little while."

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (8548M)

98 The folks at the 100 Days of Dante have done an outstanding job putting the video companions together.
Posted by: Tonypete

I've been on the website and it looks inviting. It looks like you can start from the beginning as otherwise you're half way through. Thx

Posted by: 7man at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (qwO6y)

99 I am just finishing up Forty-Odd by Mary Bard.
Mary was Betty MacDonald's sister, and like Betty wrote autobiographical books. Mary married a Seattle physician, and had kids, and had her 40th birthday and faced her "change of life" Being methodical she decided to write up what it meant to her, and tried to better herself, while running her household, being an MD's wife, working on the expected women's organizations, raise her children, be a brownie leader, and have a houseful of her kids' friends running about. Her telling of interactions shows a sense of unreality and wonder at people. Her discussions with a tough 7 year old were very odd.
Her final conclusion is that at 40 she gets to choose what she wants to do because in a way the world has other priorities.

Forty Odd reminds me of my Grandmother, who lived in Tacoma, and was about nine years older. She had her committees and groups and luncheons, and friends. Mary's world is different from ours and I think it was a little richer.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:27 AM (ZMraq)

100 I will point out that Forty Odd by Mary Bard was written in 1948, and was her third adult book

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:28 AM (ZMraq)

101 I've gotten behind on my Purgatorio reading, even though I'm enjoying it immensely.

I have been lazy.

*hangs head in shame*

Hopefully, I can catch up this week.

So, far the Divine Comedy and the excellent commentaries have been superlative grist for the old brain mill. Lots to consider and think about about yourself, the world, and God.

As I've said before, the best college course you never took. They should all be like this.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:28 AM (5NkmN)

102 Even if it's these pants, which caused me Lovecraftian existential dread as a wee tot!

===

So many Dr Seuss ilustrations freaked me out as a kid

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 09:28 AM (lCui1)

103 Just watched the Blobby clip. Thanks for ruining my week!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at February 06, 2022 09:28 AM (y0h08)

104 I binge watched the Prime series Reacher based on Lee Child's book The Killing Floor.
Finally get a Reacher who looks like oversized hulk Described in the book(unlike the diminutive Tom Cruise). I thought it was pretty good. Jumped right into the story like the books do and finished it off in 8 episodes.
Now that I think about it, binge watching was always in the cards as that is how I read the books....nonstop.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 06, 2022 09:29 AM (Y+l9t)

105 And for my own writing: I'm slowly going through edits. I was supposed to meet someone to walk me through a tarot card reading on Friday, but we had a massive ice storm and that got cancelled. And I got an e-mail from a dear friend (and beta reader) who thought things would work out better for the plot if I changed my characters going to Long Beach to somewhere else. It's not an insurmountable change, but it requires more research than I feel I want to do.

Still hoping to have the book out by March 17, but don't know. . .

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:29 AM (2JVJo)

106 As far as books I've got Burnham's Managerial Elite next on my list. We are operating in an environment that is very far from free market, and it is important to describe what it is, even if we hate it. It is remarkable that he is able to describe it in 1942.

(Trying to avoid politics and yet stay on topic.)

Also trying the fantasy anthologies that GRRM is the editor of.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at February 06, 2022 09:29 AM (ybIRR)

107 7man - Yes! Start at the beginning. I think JTB would also agree it's fantastic!

The commentators mention suggestions to other classical works that either influence Dante or were influenced by Dante's Divine Comedy will keep you busy for a decade.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:29 AM (mD/uy)

108 Bolero fans should check out Zappa's live rendition in Spain.

Posted by: fd at February 06, 2022 09:30 AM (vrz2I)

109 15 Who dis is Bea Arthur.
Posted by: dantesed at February 06, 2022 09:06 AM (88xKn)
-

God'll get you for that, dantesed!!!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at February 06, 2022 09:30 AM (y0h08)

110 Two entries for this date in 1944, from my dad's WWII diary, being his first day on the beachhead at Anzio.

Feb 6.
Nearing Anzio at 0900. Should dock soon. About 8 or 10 shells came into harbor as we came in.

Feb 6
Docked about 1030. Moved down to Nettuno, VI Corps HQ. Shells dropping in town all day Put up for night in a pink house in Nettuno. Quiet night.

Welcome to Anzio, EZ Dog!
Note: Later that pink house merits another entry, not having fared well in the ongoing artillery duel.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 06, 2022 09:30 AM (m45I2)

111 "Pale Gray for Guilt." It felt like 80's bimbo.
Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022

***
That one is a slog. The business details and the scam that McGee and Meyer run on their target are very hard to follow for a simple fellow like me. I think you'd like the first one, The Deep Blue Good-by, the third, A Purple Place for Dying, and the seventh, which was made into a 1970 movie with Rod Taylor, Darker Than Amber. And a late one, The Long Lavender Look.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:30 AM (c6xtn)

112 3 PM EST The 5 qualifying race for the Busch Clash the the famous LA Colosseum starts.

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:31 AM (yrol0)

113 103 Just watched the Blobby clip. Thanks for ruining my week!
Posted by: Biden's Dog at February 06, 2022 09:28 AM (y0h0

---

You're welcome!

Stay on my good side, people! This is my Yoko/Fat Man/Tanya Tagaq!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:32 AM (Dc2NZ)

114 Bibbity, bobbity, BOO!!
Posted by: Tonypete

Oh, you ate one too !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:32 AM (arJlL)

115 Thanks Wolfus - maybe I'll give them another go.

Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022 09:32 AM (45fpk)

116 57 Eris, first class job on the book thread. You filled some mighty large pants.
Posted by: fd at February 06, 2022 09:17 AM (vrz2I)

Eek! Phrasing?

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 09:32 AM (OX9vb)

117 Hiya Grammie !

Ever read a Reacher novel ?

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:32 AM (arJlL)

118 L. Frank Baum was such a charming looking man, from that pic, Eris
I am not sure if he looks like he would pay off your mortgage on a whim, or steal your watch in a busy train station. Perhaps both

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:33 AM (ZMraq)

119 In the last ten years or so I've read many of the children's classics I never read as a kid: Beatrice Potter, Wind in the Willows, Winnie-the Pooh, etc. They are wonderful. I have yet to read the Oz series, something I should correct. I have the movie memorized. It was an annual viewing in our family and a BIG DEAL. (My folks were huge Judy Garland fans.) Wish I had a picture of my face when we finally got a color TV in the late 60s and saw it in color for the first time.

Eris, is there an edition of the Oz books, preferably with original illustrations, that you can suggest?

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:33 AM (7EjX1)

120 I'm currently reading The Witness, a Badge of Honor book By W.E.B. Griffin

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:33 AM (arJlL)

121 Ever read a Reacher novel ?

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:32 AM (arJlL)

I have not but Rev has. I can't remember what he thought of them.

Gotta run - church time!

Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022 09:33 AM (45fpk)

122 Big pants to fill
too big for your britches
pants on fire
one leg at a time
better than a kick in the pants
seat of the pants

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:34 AM (yrol0)

123 Interesting (and depressing) essay about libraries from Quillette: https://tinyurl.com/3mau5e8w

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:34 AM (QZxDR)

124 At one point Reacher is accused of being a vagrant as he travels around with only a toothbrush. He replies "I'm not a vagrant. I'm a hobo".

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 06, 2022 09:34 AM (Y+l9t)

125 I love Cannery Row. "Lee Chong is more than a Chinese grocer. He must be. Perhaps he is evil balanced and held suspended by good, an Asiatic planet pulled toward Lao Tze and pulled away from Lao Tze by the centrifugality of abacus and cash register. Lee Chong suspended, spinning, whirling, among groceries and ghosts. A hard man with a can of beans; a soft man with the bones of his grandfather. For Lee Chong dug into the grave on China Point... [here I forget all the words. Femurs and tibia really straight, skull in the middle, ribs on either side]...and sent his boxed and brittle grandfather over the western seas to lie at last in ground made holy by his ancestors."

Plus, the elision of Black Marigolds at the end remains my favorite poem. As a reeling pirate bee with fluttered ease/Steals up the honey from the nenuphar.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 09:35 AM (8548M)

126 Here's a question: did JRR Tolkein ever read the Oz books?
Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022

***
My initial reaction (and I am no expert on Tolkien's life or work) is that he must have. Enormous numbers of children did. And the first Oz book appeared in 1900, when Tolkien was 8.

On the other hand, I missed out on the Oz stories except for the 1939 film. I went from Roy Rogers to Superman to James Bond, Rex Stout, and Ellery Queen. So who knows.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:35 AM (c6xtn)

127 "95 Reading a paper about the evolution of the US Infantry division. It makes sense until post WW II. After that, I honestly don't know what the five sided nuthouse was trying to accomplish. Don't think the author really does either.

Posted by: Cause and Effect at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (nI61m) "

arguable that the generals & bureaucrats headed the list of those who had no idea ... just like in many other areas of life that had evolved into reasonably workable structures, it seems like just change for the sake of changing stuff, because.
the darker view is of course that it was change for the sake of destruction of things that worked, and this is increasingly plausible as we view the results ...

Posted by: sock_rat_eez (5JfcP) at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (5JfcP)

128 Anyone here have opinions on IKEA Billy Bookcases? I have a wall that I want to cover with shelves, and I'm thinking that IKEA way be the best solution. Better quality than Walmart shelves, more reliable than me trying to build my own...My only concern is weight--I mostly have larger-format books, reference books, hardcover comics, and books that are bigger and heavier than novels. So I'm a little worried about the shelves sagging or breaking. Thoughts?

Posted by: Castle Guy at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (Lhaco)

129 Continued my trip this week through Jane Austen, reading "Persuasion" and "Sense and Sensibility", and now reading Anne Bronte's "Wildfell Hall".

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (j5ceG)

130 118 L. Frank Baum was such a charming looking man, from that pic, Eris
I am not sure if he looks like he would pay off your mortgage on a whim, or steal your watch in a busy train station. Perhaps both
Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:33 AM (ZMraq)
-

Sorta like the Wizard!

Posted by: Biden's Dog at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (y0h08)

131 Thanks. I was talking with the older brat about Hemingway's short stories and realized that it was my favorite style for a long time. I figure I'll revisit some of them.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:24 AM (XIJ/X)

I like the Hemingway and Fitzgerald short stories, too. I find some authors pack a lot more moral and meat into a short work. Maybe it's because they can focus on a single incident.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (ONvIw)

132 And for my own writing: I'm slowly going through edits. I was supposed to meet someone to walk me through a tarot card reading on Friday, but we had a massive ice storm and that got cancelled. And I got an e-mail from a dear friend (and beta reader) who thought things would work out better for the plot if I changed my characters going to Long Beach to somewhere else. It's not an insurmountable change, but it requires more research than I feel I want to do.

Still hoping to have the book out by March 17, but don't know. . .
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

Wouldn't a GOOD tarot reader seen the storm coming ?

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (arJlL)

133 I'm a little worried about the shelves sagging or breaking. Thoughts?
Posted by: Castle Guy

The shelf wars.

Begun they have.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:37 AM (mD/uy)

134 Thanks Wolfus - maybe I'll give them another go.
Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022

***
If you don't like McGee, though, anything by MacDonald is worth reading at least twice. Murder in the Wind and Condominium both deal with Florida hurricanes, for instance.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:37 AM (c6xtn)

135 Be sure to get facsimiles of the original Oz books, with the original illustrations by John R. Neill (and W.W. Denslow).

For some reason every modern children's book illustrator decides to take a whack at the Oz books and they all wind up looking like crap. Stick to the originals.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:37 AM (QZxDR)

136 My favorite Travis McGee novel is "The Green Ripper".

Which I read long ago and far away.

It was so different from the other TMcG novels and had horrifying real world implications that I was just blown away at the time.

Now, I suppose, someone of young naturalfake's age reading it would go, "Yawn...same ole same ole."

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:37 AM (5NkmN)

137 L. Frank was very popular among my girls and they collected all of his Wizard of Oz series (or most of, since he wrote so many). I recognized that artwork instanto.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:37 AM (j5ceG)

138 22 ... "The folks at the 100 Days of Dante have done an outstanding job putting the video companions together."

Tonypete, I thought the video for Canto 29 with Dr. Ward was one of the best yet. She really brought the action and symbolism to life.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:38 AM (7EjX1)

139 I've read many of the children's classics I never read as a kid: Beatrice Potter, Wind in the Willows, Winnie-the Pooh, etc. They are wonderful.

-
Reminds me of this.

https://bit.ly/3B4cxcJ

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (FVME7)

140 I have been going through my unread ebooks. It's amazing how fast that goes when you really focus on it. Most of them have been so-so. I did enjoy The Raven's Seal - a historical murder mystery set in early 1800s London. Snowfall on Mars, while dark, ended up being a pretty good sci-fi story.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (8548M)

141 Tad Williams' Otherland series is partly set in a virtual environment. One of those virtual worlds is based on the Oz books. It's pure nightmare fuel. I can't even describe just how awful that virtual world is...but I don't think Williams is being malicious. The twisted version of Oz we get in the books is simply a manifestation of the corruption infiltrating the virtual world.

I haven't read the Oz books, but I've read enough about them to understand how they are filled with plenty of nightmare fuel on their own.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (K5n5d)

142 I don't expect a Baum revival any time soon. We'll have to be able to separate the art from the man's views, and no way Baum will survive that.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (ONvIw)

143 JTB - I agree enthusiastically! I was so moved I drug my lovely wife in to watch it again with me. Dr. Ward was terrific.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (mD/uy)

144 Thanks Wolfus - maybe I'll give them another go.
Posted by: grammie winger at February 06, 2022

***
On the third hand, Grammie, Pale Gray for Guilt turns out to be important in the entire run of the series. Puss Killian, well, let's just say she leaves a lasting impression. So even a work by MacDonald that is less than his best can have its charms.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (c6xtn)

145 Eris' Book Threads are so good she has Weasel reading them, albeit slowly tracing the words with my trigger finger and moving my lips.

Posted by: Weasel at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (/9+YX)

146 Posted by: Muldoon at February 06, 2022 09:30 AM (m45I2)

I love the matter-of-fact presentation of these entries!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:40 AM (XIJ/X)

147 My favorite Travis McGee novel is "The Green Ripper".

Which I read long ago and far away.

It was so different from the other TMcG novels and had horrifying real world implications that I was just blown away at the time.

Now, I suppose, someone of young naturalfake's age reading it would go, "Yawn...same ole same ole."
Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022

***
Yes; it's very much unlike the others in the series.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:40 AM (c6xtn)

148 140 I have been going through my unread ebooks. It's amazing how fast that goes when you really focus on it. Most of them have been so-so. I did enjoy The Raven's Seal - a historical murder mystery set in early 1800s London. Snowfall on Mars, while dark, ended up being a pretty good sci-fi story.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (8548M)

One of the silliest things I did was get the kindle first free book every month for about a year. I think I only finished one.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (ONvIw)

149 I know nothing of Baum's opinions on anything, and it sounds like I do not want to ever learn.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (j5ceG)

150 I found a copy of Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book in the library.
(No it's not about Soetero & Bootygig)
It's second in a series of 12 "coloured" Fairytale collections published in the late 19th-early twentieth centuries. This is a reissue with the original beautiful pen & ink illustrations by Henry J Ford.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (lCui1)

151 Have to start getting ready. Gun show today and meeting of the MGC.
Have a great day all.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (Y+l9t)

152 Eris, is there an edition of the Oz books, preferably with original illustrations, that you can suggest?
Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 09:33 AM (7EjX1)
-----

I just read the big hardcover editions from the library that were reprints with the original Denslow and Neill illustrations. There are over 100 in the original!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (Dc2NZ)

153 https://www.landofoznc.com/

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (yrol0)

154 I find some authors pack a lot more moral and meat into a short work. Maybe it's because they can focus on a single incident.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:36 AM (ONvIw)

Agreed. I think Hemingway is a master at it, but some of the Russians did a great job too.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:42 AM (XIJ/X)

155 A breastsummer will keep your pair of shelves from sagging too much.

I appreciate Mr Blobby throwing a wink at "Addicted to Love".

Posted by: BourbonChicken at February 06, 2022 09:42 AM (ybIRR)

156
Breastsummer > Wangwinter

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:43 AM (5NkmN)

157 Finished up Reacher on Prime last night. Based on the book The Killing Floor. Have not read it or ny of the novels.

One of my favorite lines is when Reacher is called a vagrant and he replies "I am not a vagrant I'm a hobo."

Anyone know if this is in the text or is there some Moron on the screenwriting team?

Posted by: blaster at February 06, 2022 09:43 AM (9otr5)

158 Eris' Book Threads are so good she has Weasel reading them, albeit slowly tracing the words with my trigger finger and moving my lips.

Posted by: Weasel at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (/9+YX)

You could ask WeaselDog to read it to you!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:43 AM (XIJ/X)

159 arguable that the generals & bureaucrats headed the list of those who had no idea

It is an interesting read - and very stark in its contrast. From the Revolution through Korea, you can see what the powers that be were trying to accomplish. After that - not so much. This particular read stops before the shift to brigades. It really does look like change for the sake of change after Korea, all under the pretext of surviving the nuclear battlefield.

Posted by: Cause and Effect at February 06, 2022 09:43 AM (nI61m)

160 Unfortunately Ozcot is no more. Now the site of an ugly apartment building. Very sad.

Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (2NHgQ)

161 Anyone read Gorky Park? I think people here were recently chatting about Russia and Soviet Russia. Enjoyed the movie enough to read the book. As is usually the case, the book is better. I read one or two more in the "Renko Series" but I think I lost interest. Gorky Park was good though.

Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (r63Ar)

162 I know nothing of Baum's opinions on anything, and it sounds like I do not want to ever learn.
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (j5ceG)

**nods**

It reminds me of Chrissie Hynde. After 9/11, she screamed during a concert, "We deserved it! Hit us again!" I still like the Pretenders, but that shriek always pops into my mind whenever I hear one of their songs.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (2JVJo)

163 pi]Nurse Ratched sent me "The Plague and I" by Betty MacDonald (who also wrote "The Egg and I"). You wouldn't think catching tuberculosis and staying in a sanatorium [ . . . ]
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:10 AM (Dc2NZ)

If you can find it, get her other books, Anybody Can Do Anything, and Onions in the Stew.

Anybody Can Do Anything is hair tearingly funny book about looking, finding and losing work in 1930's Seattle, and Onions in the Stew is such a comfortable book about her being married and living on Vashon Island, with the same incredulous look on the oddness of the world

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (ZMraq)

164 I'm slow reading The Collected Works of Saint Augustine. According to Kindle I have 97 hours left to go.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, the Phillips screwdriver of the gods at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (eGTCV)

165 IKEA's Billy bookcase is fantastic. Easy to put together and quite solid. Not beautiful but functionally elegant.

Posted by: Ignoramus at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (i0slg)

166 You could ask WeaselDog to read tit to you!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

Typos are G_d's way of telling us we are NOT in control.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 09:45 AM (mD/uy)

167 Oh, and I finished reading the Wheel of Time a few weeks ago. My husband was annoyed because I actually read the glossary and kept correcting his pronunciation (except for the words I was pronouncing incorrectly on purpose, e.g. Myrddraal, which I insisted on pronouncing as if it were Welsh).

The next installment of the Ascendance of a Bookworm translation comes out in 10 days!

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 09:45 AM (8548M)

168 Hiya Weasel !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:45 AM (arJlL)

169 >>>Mr. Blobby Music Video

what in the world

Posted by: m at February 06, 2022 09:46 AM (tye8P)

170 I too binged Reacher. Not great, but good entertainment.

Main character is meant to be a cartoon, but far better than the Meta-verse nonsense.

Posted by: Ignoramus at February 06, 2022 09:46 AM (i0slg)

171 Unfortunately Ozcot is no more. Now the site of an ugly apartment building. Very sad.
Posted by: neverenoughcaffeine at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (2NHgQ)

That's the story of Hollywood. Here's a blog post about the house and the concrete vomit that exists there today:

https://tinyurl.com/2pcxu2fc

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:47 AM (2JVJo)

172 Agreed. I think Hemingway is a master at it, but some of the Russians did a great job too.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:42 AM (XIJ/X)

I am fond of those and have a lot of Gogol. My husband is no fan and thinks it's a bit lazy to read stories instead of novels (he just finished both of the big Undset sagas), but I am always happy when an author can dig into something without furnishing 300 pages.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:47 AM (ONvIw)

173 Note that Baum himself only wrote 14 Oz books. Then a bunch of other writers, mostly Ruth Plumly Thompson, wrote a metric assload of other Oz books. They're generally considered to be second-rate.

And then of course there's a bunch of shit modern "deconstructions" of Oz with heroic witches and the Wizard's a mean old patriarchal colonialist and isn't it great to be queer and look how transgressive we are. Fuck them.

Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:47 AM (QZxDR)

174 Anyone read Gorky Park? I think people here were recently chatting about Russia and Soviet Russia. Enjoyed the movie enough to read the book. As is usually the case, the book is better. I read one or two more in the "Renko Series" but I think I lost interest. Gorky Park was good though.
Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (r63Ar)

Huh? I really enjoyed "Polar Star". Very different than GP, but I thought it was just as good.

And it definitely felt like what would happen to Arkady after the events of GP.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:48 AM (5NkmN)

175 I found a copy of Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book in the library.
(No it's not about Soetero & Bootygig)
It's second in a series of 12 "coloured" Fairytale collections published in the late 19th-early twentieth centuries. This is a reissue with the original beautiful pen & ink illustrations by Henry J Ford.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (lCui1)
---
Those were a fundamental part of my own childhood reading. I recently ordered 5 of them (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Grey). They have the Henry J Ford illustrations. They are pretty far down in my TBR pile, though.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at February 06, 2022 09:48 AM (K5n5d)

176 Anyone read Gorky Park? I think people here were recently chatting about Russia and Soviet Russia. Enjoyed the movie enough to read the book. As is usually the case, the book is better. I read one or two more in the "Renko Series" but I think I lost interest. Gorky Park was good though.
Posted by: Quint

I loved the book. The movie, not so much.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 09:49 AM (FVME7)

177 Reading a book is so much better than teewee.

Posted by: Eromero at February 06, 2022 09:49 AM (0OP+5)

178 Reading a book is so much better than teewee.
Posted by: Eromero

Concur.

Bigly.

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:50 AM (arJlL)

179 Anyone read Gorky Park?
============
I read it several years ago, and a few others in his list. Gorky Park is the best of the bunch, is my recollection.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:51 AM (j5ceG)

180 39 Sorry to go off thread so soon, but check this out, in case anyone didn't mention it yesterday:

https://tinyurl.com/2w27j3sy

Did I not predict this? Did I not fucking exactly predict this months ago?

Back to books in a moment.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:12 AM (2JVJo)

LOL they're shameless; PDT will have a response

Posted by: m at February 06, 2022 09:51 AM (tye8P)

181 I am fond of those and have a lot of Gogol.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:47 AM (ONvIw)

"The Nose."

I had an amazing instructor in an English class. I worked my ass off on a paper on that story, and did well. But the last sentence of his comments was that the original title was "The Phallus," but the censors wouldn't let him publish it, so he changed the story.

Which completely destroyed the point of my paper!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (XIJ/X)

182 156
Breastsummer > Wangwinter

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:43 AM (5NkmN)

SHRINKAGE

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (yrol0)

183 I'm a little worried about the shelves sagging or breaking. Thoughts?
=====

For about ten years, I used cheap white Wal-Mart shelves and 1) attached them to the wall; and 2) used cheap pine attached to the wall under each shelf (painted white) to ease the bowing problem. It worked for ten years until a total redo of the house. As a matter of habit, I also alternate vertical and horizontal storage on each shelf. Distributes the weight a little better.

Posted by: mustbequantum at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (MIKMs)

184 Anyone read Gorky Park? I think people here were recently chatting about Russia and Soviet Russia. Enjoyed the movie enough to read the book. As is usually the case, the book is better. I read one or two more in the "Renko Series" but I think I lost interest. Gorky Park was good though.
Posted by: Quint

Now ya got me thinking of Last of the Breed, by Louis L'Amour and now I wanna read it again.

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (arJlL)

185 176 Anyone read Gorky Park? I think people here were recently chatting about Russia and Soviet Russia. Enjoyed the movie enough to read the book. As is usually the case, the book is better. I read one or two more in the "Renko Series" but I think I lost interest. Gorky Park was good though.
Posted by: Quint

I read it when it came out

must be at least 40 years ago

Posted by: REDACTD at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (us2H3)

186 But the last sentence of his comments was that the original title was "The Phallus," but the censors wouldn't let him publish it, so he changed the story.

Which completely destroyed the point of my paper!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (XIJ/X)

Ah! Hence, your nic?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 09:53 AM (7bRMQ)

187 One of my favorite lines is when Reacher is called a vagrant and he replies "I am not a vagrant I'm a hobo."

Anyone know if this is in the text or is there some Moron on the screenwriting team?
Posted by: blaster at February 06, 2022 09:43 AM (9otr5)
---------------

heh, yeah, I caught that too. Hard to believe a screenwriter would know there is a difference.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (5pTK/)) at February 06, 2022 09:53 AM (5pTK/)

188 Great job, Eris.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (5pTK/)) at February 06, 2022 09:53 AM (5pTK/)

189 67 Wow, another great Book thread, Eris. I am still trying to comprehend 'Mr. Blobby' (I do like his homage to Robert Palmer's girls from Addicted to Love)
Posted by: t-bird at February 06, 2022 09:19 AM (vOGqy)

That's what got me to click it.

Posted by: m at February 06, 2022 09:53 AM (tye8P)

190 149 I know nothing of Baum's opinions on anything, and it sounds like I do not want to ever learn.
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:41 AM (j5ceG)

Probably not. I read a biographical piece on him years back, and was a bit surprised by it. I can't imagine the SJW crowd would tolerate a revival.

After reading about Dorothy Canfield Fisher's cancellation over "views" for which nobody can find evidence, I went out of my way to read some of her work which was overwhelmingly for adults. I can't imagine why the Vermont SJWs needed her scalp except her advocacy of private and smaller schools.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (ONvIw)

191 165 IKEA's Billy bookcase is fantastic. Easy to put together and quite solid. Not beautiful but functionally elegant.
Posted by: Ignoramus at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (i0slg

Now if they would make one in wood.

Except I'm not shopping there any more because they are mandating jabs on employees and that's evil.

Posted by: Emmie is unacceptable, eh at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (6RgRK)

192 Is Gorky Park the one where they leave the borscht out in the rain?

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (PiwSw)

193 Once you start reading Louis L'Amour, you can't easily stop. He wrote so many books.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (j5ceG)

194 You could ask WeaselDog to read tit to you!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo
---

In the original Braille!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (Dc2NZ)

195 When I visited my Grandparents, Grandma had a folktale book for children, that I think was a school book from when she taught grade school in the 30's

I looooooved the Norse myths, and the Kalevala, and reread them all the time. The Prose and Poetic Eddas are kind of a mess, but they are really good, clean stories.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:55 AM (ZMraq)

196 "After a mention made on an earlier thread I ordered a used copy of "Atlas Maior", an atlas of the wonderful maps made during the 1600s."

It's a great day when a book finds its rightful owner.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 09:55 AM (klqwL)

197
In the original Braille!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (Dc2NZ)

Suck Me

Posted by: rhennigantx at February 06, 2022 09:56 AM (yrol0)

198 Wow! Many thanks for the auto-promote, All Hail Eris! The sale ends Monday, so don't dawdle.

And the latest work in progress is nearing completion. A bit of parallel-world almost time travel and adventure in Interesting Times, and the vital importance of pork buns in motivating the troops.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at February 06, 2022 09:56 AM (VdTX+)

199 128 Anyone here have opinions on IKEA Billy Bookcases?

***

That's what we have in our study, pine colored. They look fine, imo. Hubby used the corner ones so it looks like one continuous shelf across two walls

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 09:56 AM (lCui1)

200 140 I have been going through my unread ebooks. It's amazing how fast that goes when you really focus on it. Most of them have been so-so. I did enjoy The Raven's Seal - a historical murder mystery set in early 1800s London. Snowfall on Mars, while dark, ended up being a pretty good sci-fi story.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 09:39 AM (8548M)

Nice project

Posted by: m at February 06, 2022 09:57 AM (tye8P)

201 Quint, I have read Gorky Park, and others in the Renko realm. I really like them. The stories and characters are interesting, and I think they are an important reminder of how crushing Soviet life was.

Would really like my kids to read some of these, so they understand what it is they think they want.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 09:58 AM (OX9vb)

202 Which completely destroyed the point of my paper!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 06, 2022 09:52 AM (XIJ/X)

That's something I never heard about! I'll have to pass it on to kid2 who is a big fan of Gogol. In a way the original idea is probably the better concept, but ahead of its time.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:58 AM (ONvIw)

203 Except I'm not shopping there any more because they are mandating jabs on employees and that's evil.
Posted by: Emmie is unacceptable, eh at February 06, 2022 09:54 AM (6RgRK)

They also used slave labor.

https://tinyurl.com/2ukszrpu

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (2JVJo)

204 104 I binge watched the Prime series Reacher based on Lee Child's book The Killing Floor.

**

We binge watched it yesterday too! Quite fun. Excellent body count.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (lCui1)

205 Posted by: Trimegistus at February 06, 2022 09:34 AM (QZxDR)

[insert bitchy comment about Quillette, here]

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (ZMraq)

206 Would really like my kids to read some of these, so they understand what it is they think they want.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 09:58 AM (OX9vb)
================
Maybe just mainline the truth and go right to Solzhenitsyn.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (j5ceG)

207 "The Nose."

I had an amazing instructor in an English class. I worked my ass off on a paper on that story, and did well. But the last sentence of his comments was that the original title was "The Phallus," but the censors wouldn't let him publish it, so he changed the story.

Which completely destroyed the point of my paper!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

Nosey Joe

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x8HnxcvdXn8

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 10:00 AM (FVME7)

208 Finished The Charterhouse of Parma. Thought it started good but ended on the boring side. Too much court politics and worse, the most ridiculous courtship through adjacent windows ever. Started Night and Day by Virginia Woolf and Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy. The latter was a cult classic when I was at UW-Madison. I'm curious to see if it holds up.

Posted by: who knew at February 06, 2022 10:01 AM (4I7VG)

209 They also used slave labor. (IKEA)

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

Once I discovered the founder was a recruiter for the Baddies, which was years ago, they went on my list of 'not to be patronized'.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 10:01 AM (mD/uy)

210 I've never bought any bookcases I had to assemble at home. My husband built a roomful of built ins during one of his sabbaticals and the rest I bought from a guy who clears out estates and holds auctions.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 10:02 AM (ONvIw)

211 193 trust me, I know. My parents bought the L'amour "book of the month" series for me as a yute. The guy eventually diied and the books kept coming. I think we finally stopped it after years and. years. In the end we were getting every short story he ever wrote for a magazine, in leatherette book form.

I am not a big novel reader. L'amour makes up a large chunk of my novel readership

Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 10:03 AM (r63Ar)

212 My forever home will have a dedicated library, and I'm also having shelves placed in the loo!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 10:03 AM (Dc2NZ)

213 >Which completely destroyed the point of my paper!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

"The Gun is good. The Nose is Evil."

--Zardoz, first draft

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at February 06, 2022 10:03 AM (PiwSw)

214 Morning.
-------------------
Until I was around twelve; then I read The Exorcist, and learned of things no twelve-year-old should know about.
Posted by: April -- dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 09:11 AM (OX9vb)

The scene wear Regan masturbates with a crucifix would probably be a bit much for a twelve year old.

Posted by: Robert at February 06, 2022 10:04 AM (vBD7W)

215 I just popped in for a quick recommendation.
I know there are many fans of the great Mel Brooks here on the blog. He has an autobiography "All About Me", in which he expounds eloquently about how many things in his life came to be, including a movie I never heard of (12 Chairs), his marriage to Ann Bancroft, his service in the invasion of Europe in WWII, and many others.
And thanks, Eris, for the thread, great work.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at February 06, 2022 10:05 AM (jTmQV)

216 152 ... Eris,

Thanks for the Oz books suggestion.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 10:05 AM (7EjX1)

217 I am fond of those and have a lot of Gogol. My husband is no fan and thinks it's a bit lazy to read stories instead of novels (he just finished both of the big Undset sagas), but I am always happy when an author can dig into something without furnishing 300 pages.
Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:47 AM (ONvIw)

Lazy is the dumbest criticism of appreciating short stories I've heard. Most readers don't like them for some obtuse reason. I've read all of Gogol's fiction except the plays. Dead Souls (a full length novel), The Nose and The Overcoat are the picks of the litter.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 10:05 AM (y7DUB)

218 Once I discovered the founder was a recruiter for the Baddies,
Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 10:01 AM (mD/uy)

??

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:05 AM (lCui1)

219 And I got an e-mail from a dear friend (and beta reader) who thought things would work out better for the plot if I changed my characters going to Long Beach to somewhere else.

Is that the sort of thing that advance readers would normally do? Obviously, things like spelling and grammar are 100% fair game and back when I was earning lunches by pre-reading papers in college, I would offer suggestions about things that might make something clearer or flow better but it would never have occurred to me to suggest plot changes as that sort of thing is fully in the author's creative discretion. How do authors feel about that kind of feedback?

Posted by: Oddbob at February 06, 2022 10:06 AM (nfrXX)

220 >>>This is Eris's version of "Fat Man on Ottoman"

I misread this as "Fat Man on Omicron."

Posted by: m at February 06, 2022 10:06 AM (tye8P)

221 I've read all of Gogol's fiction except the plays. Dead Souls (a full length novel), The Nose and The Overcoat are the picks of the litter.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 10:05 AM (y7DUB)

So, when it comes to Gogol you pick his Nose.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 10:07 AM (5NkmN)

222 Maybe just mainline the truth and go right to Solzhenitsyn.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (j5ceG)

I've given them each copies of the Gulag Archipelago, but I'm pretty sure they haven't touched them. Maybe a good detective story would be a better place for them to start.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 10:07 AM (OX9vb)

223 Quint @ 161 've read Gorky Park and another of his called Polar Star and thought they were well done mysteries with Gorky Park being noticeably the better of the two. The best, by far, soviet era mystery I've read is Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. This is a great mystery novel. I don't know if he wrote any follow-ups.

Posted by: who knew at February 06, 2022 10:08 AM (4I7VG)

224 They also used slave labor.

https://tinyurl.com/2ukszrpu
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (2JVJo)

I decided early on that Ikea and some of the other cheaper trendy brands were not for me. I recall going to the store in Philly and feeling that the brand sort of stripped the personality out of people.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 10:08 AM (ONvIw)

225 There was a book that scared me as a kid. I don't remember who created it (I have a vague feeling it might be the Babar creators) but it was a version of "Pandora's Box." I remember the creatures were really creepy.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at February 06, 2022 10:08 AM (m0zqP)

226 Anyone read Gorky Park? I think people here were recently chatting about Russia and Soviet Russia. Enjoyed the movie enough to read the book. As is usually the case, the book is better. I read one or two more in the "Renko Series" but I think I lost interest. Gorky Park was good though.
Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (r63Ar)

Huh? I really enjoyed "Polar Star". Very different than GP, but I thought it was just as good.

And it definitely felt like what would happen to Arkady after the events of GP.
Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 09:48 AM (5NkmN)

Yes, have read and liked both Gorky Park and Polar Star. Enjoyed the characters in both and what he's up against as a detective.

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 06, 2022 10:09 AM (4I/2K)

227 Speaking of Ikea, there's a horror novel set in an Ikea type store called Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix
The book looks like an Ikea catalog, with illustrations getting progressively weirder. It's a fun story, if a little messy.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:09 AM (lCui1)

228 Yes, that is, indeed, Jeremy Clarkson as Mr. Blobby's chauffeur.

Oh, no!

anyway.....

Posted by: Joe Bar at February 06, 2022 10:09 AM (atAbM)

229 Did I not predict this? Did I not fucking exactly predict this months ago?
Posted by: Mary Poppins'

******

C'mon man. At least give us a hint so we can decide if we want to go to the link. Not everyone connects to links blindly. Without some idea of what you are referring to, my tendency is to skip right over.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 06, 2022 10:10 AM (m45I2)

230 I am always happy when an author can dig into something without furnishing 300 pages.
Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022

***
I am the only member of my writing group who serves up 4500-5000 word short stories that are complete in themselves, instead of being chapters of novels. True, there is little market for the short pieces now, but several of those have been ones I've sold to anthologies or placed on the 'Net. And when you actually complete something, it gives you a tremendous feeling of accomplishment; and the feedback for the entire work can come quickly.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:10 AM (c6xtn)

231 Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy.

I liked that book. As an aside, it was interesting to see how many farmers were brought to court on charges of incest. I suppose it must have been the attitude of, "Well, yer maw's dead now, so yer the lady of the house. In all ways."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:10 AM (2JVJo)

232 Dead Souls (a full length novel)

-
An unfinished novel about a con man selling dead slaves. It's been a long time but I think it was tax fraud thing.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 10:11 AM (FVME7)

233 They also used slave labor.

https://tinyurl.com/2ukszrpu
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 09:59 AM (2JVJo)

Yikes!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:11 AM (lCui1)

234 vmom -

Check out the link MPPPP provided.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 10:11 AM (mD/uy)

235 Check out the link MPPPP provided.
Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 10:11 AM (mD/uy)

Just did. Omg

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:12 AM (lCui1)

236
Lazy is the dumbest criticism of appreciating short stories I've heard. Most readers don't like them for some obtuse reason. I've read all of Gogol's fiction except the plays. Dead Souls (a full length novel), The Nose and The Overcoat are the picks of the litter.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 10:05 AM (y7DUB)

I agree with you. I don't think fiction reading always has to be an endurance test. I did read Kristin Lavransdatter, but tend to steer clear of perseverance tests like that.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 10:12 AM (ONvIw)

237 it would never have occurred to me to suggest plot changes as that sort of thing is fully in the author's creative discretion.

Well, this is different - she's a very dear friend of mine whose suggestions I take seriously and who has helped me in my writing all these years. And as she lived in CA for a long time, her thoughts about geography are ones I take seriously. And it isn't really a plot change, only a change in locale, suggesting a closer / easier distance to travel in 1917 as opposed to 2022.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:13 AM (2JVJo)

238 One would think short stories would be popular with the digital generations, those lacking an attention span.

Some other masters of the form: Poe, Maupassant, Chekhov, and Maugham.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 10:13 AM (klqwL)

239 Thanks, Eris. Happy Sunday morning!

Posted by: ... at February 06, 2022 10:13 AM (dscaa)

240 So, when it comes to Gogol you pick his Nose.
Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 10:07 AM (5NkmN)

His time would have been better spent picking his nose instead of having a come to Jesus moment and writing a follow up to Dead Souls which had none of the charm and appeal of the original.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 10:14 AM (y7DUB)

241 C'mon man. At least give us a hint so we can decide if we want to go to the link. Not everyone connects to links blindly. Without some idea of what you are referring to, my tendency is to skip right over.
Posted by: Muldoon at February 06, 2022 10:10 AM (m45I2)

Apologies, Muldoon. In any event, the link is to that lying whore Psaki saying lockdowns were Trump's idea, not Stinkfinger's. Which I absolutely said was going to happen and that people would believe it.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:14 AM (2JVJo)

242 As a Boomer, and I think a good proportion of bookers here are the same 29 age, I have been trying to track a copy of A Child's Book of Verse edited by Louis Untermeyer. I remember reading that book to shreds and enjoying peeling the plastic film off the cover.

Posted by: mustbequantum at February 06, 2022 10:15 AM (MIKMs)

243 I finished "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Wier. Fun read, but not quite "The Martian" level.

On to Cline's "Armada." "Ready Player One" and ...Two" were entertaining, so I'll see what else this he has.

Posted by: mot at February 06, 2022 10:15 AM (FmeBQ)

244 I am sure most here have read L'amour books. If anyone hasn't and is interested I suggest."To Tame a Land". I am sure Louis preferred his Sackett series and Bowdrie series. But I like the stant alone novels. There are too many to count, but there was something about that book.

Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 10:15 AM (r63Ar)

245 I would offer suggestions about things that might make something clearer or flow better but it would never have occurred to me to suggest plot changes as that sort of thing is fully in the author's creative discretion. How do authors feel about that kind of feedback?

***
I'm of two minds about it. If the reader can give me clear and cogent reasons why the change would work better, or if the idea simply fires me up, then fine. But if the suggestion does not seem to me to work, I (perhaps unreasonably) feel that this person is trying to play in my back yard without permission. It makes no sense, but there it is.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:15 AM (c6xtn)

246 "His time would have been better spent picking his nose instead of having a come to Jesus moment and writing a follow up to Dead Souls which had none of the charm and appeal of the original."

Gogol knew it blew; he left it unfinished.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 10:15 AM (klqwL)

247 Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:14 AM (2JVJo)

*****

Okay, thanks.

Posted by: Muldoon at February 06, 2022 10:16 AM (m45I2)

248 My husband is no fan and thinks it's a bit lazy to read stories instead of novels
Posted by CN

That's unfair. Novels, short stories, poetry--they each present a story in their own way. I love a great short story, and it takes skill to compress the theme into something fascinating. Seems to me, a short story often leaves things unsaid that you might have to ponder for yourself. Not lazy.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 10:17 AM (OX9vb)

249 An old English language version of the original Grimms Fairy Tales made it into my little elementary school hands at some point. They're definitely not the Disney version - I recall that one of Cinderella's nasty stepsisters hacked off her own toes with a knife and still the slipper wouldn't fit.

I also had a love for Greek mythology in those days, aided and abetted by Edith Hamilton's wonderful books. They had a rock star glamor and certainly behaved like rock stars - screwing around with mortal women constantly, squabbling among themselves and performing magic both nasty and nice. Now I think of them as a collection of spoiled brats, but they certainly fascinated me when I was a kid.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 10:17 AM (HabA/)

250 And it isn't really a plot change, only a change in locale, suggesting a closer / easier distance to travel in 1917 as opposed to 2022.

Got it. That would count as one of those "hygiene" improvements I mentioned. Those sort of suggestions are always offered on a "take it or leave it basis" whereas an author's not fixing grammar flaws would really annoy me.

Posted by: Oddbob at February 06, 2022 10:18 AM (nfrXX)

251 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:10 AM (c6xtn)

It's a shame that the market for short stories is relatively small. Some friend from my college co-op days writes them and "flash fiction" and has a few published, but it's more of an avocation for her.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 10:18 AM (ONvIw)

252 I'm of two minds about it. If the reader can give me clear and cogent reasons why the change would work better, or if the idea simply fires me up, then fine. But if the suggestion does not seem to me to work, I (perhaps unreasonably) feel that this person is trying to play in my back yard without permission. It makes no sense, but there it is.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022

***
I wanted to add that I will do this myself, make suggestions about plot or setting improvements, or a new way to approach what the author is trying for. If the writer in my group asks me not to, I'll stop.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:18 AM (c6xtn)

253 Reading an anthology takes longer than reading a novel of equal length; and I often find it mentally tiring

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:18 AM (lCui1)

254 And as she lived in CA for a long time, her thoughts about geography are ones I take seriously. And it isn't really a plot change, only a change in locale, suggesting a closer / easier distance to travel in 1917 as opposed to 2022.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022

***
Valuable input then.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:20 AM (c6xtn)

255 Hey babe I bought you dinner. Don't leave me acephalous.

Posted by: The Booboisie at February 06, 2022 10:20 AM (Spr0s)

256
That's unfair. Novels, short stories, poetry--they each present a story in their own way. I love a great short story, and it takes skill to compress the theme into something fascinating. Seems to me, a short story often leaves things unsaid that you might have to ponder for yourself. Not lazy.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 10:17 AM (OX9vb)

He's an academic, so a certain level of pomposity goes with the territory. I don't let him stop me.

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 10:20 AM (ONvIw)

257 An unfinished novel about a con man selling dead slaves. It's been a long time but I think it was tax fraud thing.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 10:11 AM (FVME7)

Pretty much. In Rooski accounting large landowners carried serfs on their books and, lacking audits, including deceased ones from other owners was a method of cooking the books.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 10:20 AM (y7DUB)

258 IKEA Billy bookshelves.. we have owned several.
When densely loaded, they can begin to sag.

I do know that IKEA has come out with a different level of furniture which uses actual solid wood, instead of laminated particleboard.

We have the entertainment set made of the stuff, and it is a stout as anything out there by anyone else.

I don't know if it has extended into a bookshelf line, but if it has, I would recommend it.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice. Asymptomatic raycist at February 06, 2022 10:21 AM (3D/fK)

259 who knew, I have read Tom Rob Smith's other books, as well.

Agent 6 and The Secret Speech are very good, with Demidov as the main character.

I also ready The Farm, but don't remember liking it much. It's a different kind of story than the Agent Demidov books.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 10:21 AM (OX9vb)

260 They'd already implied lockdowns were Trump's fault long ago with Joe's famous "I'm not going to shut down the country" tweet. How long before they push the failed vax off on Trumpy?

Posted by: ... at February 06, 2022 10:21 AM (dscaa)

261 Jorge Luis Borges was a master of short stories.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 10:22 AM (EZebt)

262 223 Who Knew. Thanks for the recc. I will check it out.

Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 10:22 AM (r63Ar)

263 Book Gainz....I bought a complete paperback set of the Travis McGee books. They are, like the Nero Wolfe books, wonderful time capsules of a time and place that may or may not have existed. I'm almost done with the first one, The Deep Blue Good-by and...its good.

Only Travis McGee is kind of a sanctimonious prick. But then, so was Phillip Marlowe.

Book adjacent, showed my wife the first episode of the Nero Wolfe Mysteries, 'The Doorbell Rang' starring and directed by Timothy Bottom, who does a damn good Archie Goodwin. The story is one of the strongest mysteries where, unlike some stories, the mystery is solved by good old fashioned legwork and deduction and calculated risk as opposed to Wolfe Ex Machina endings.

The wife liked it. And that's worth something.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022 10:22 AM (eeRB6)

264 I love a great short story, and it takes skill to compress the theme into something fascinating. Seems to me, a short story often leaves things unsaid that you might have to ponder for yourself. Not lazy.
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022

***
Exactly. If you can tell a complete story, not an epic but a story that stands alone, in 3000-5000 words, you have the skill to write longer things. The reverse is not necessarily true.

And yes, reading an anthology can be a little tiring. Even 10 pages you are being introduced to a new bunch of characters, a new setting, a new conflict. When I read an anthology, I tend to skip around, read stories by writers I know, a few at a time, then try the new ones, a few at a time.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:23 AM (c6xtn)

265 I am (or was, I haven't tried to keep up in quite a few year) a big fan of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and for both of those, my favorite books* are anthologies of short stories.

* except for Neuromancer which is my favorite SF of all time

Posted by: Oddbob at February 06, 2022 10:24 AM (nfrXX)

266 Exactly. If you can tell a complete story, not an epic but a story that stands alone, in 3000-5000 words, you have the skill to write longer things. The reverse is not necessarily true.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:23 AM (c6xtn)

I am attempting to see if that holds true.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 10:25 AM (7bRMQ)

267 "I also had a love for Greek mythology in those days, aided and abetted by Edith Hamilton's wonderful books."

"d'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths" was a staple of my childhood. It was comprehensive and wonderfully illustrated.

Another great illustrated book aimed at children (I still re-read it) is "Pagoo," by Holly Clancy Holling. It's about a hermit crab in the tide pools of the West Coast.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 10:25 AM (klqwL)

268
Book adjacent, showed my wife the first episode of the Nero Wolfe Mysteries, 'The Doorbell Rang' starring and directed by Timothy Bottom, who does a damn good Archie Goodwin. The story is one of the strongest mysteries where, unlike some stories, the mystery is solved by good old fashioned legwork and deduction and calculated risk as opposed to Wolfe Ex Machina endings.

The wife liked it. And that's worth something.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022

***
Tim Hutton made an excellent Archie. I have quibbles with the director having or allowing Maury Chaykin to shout a little too often as Wolfe; and that black fedora that Hutton wears as Archie looks kind of silly. There would have been better fedora choices. But these are the finest adaptations of the Stout stories ever done, in casting and set decoration and dialog.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:26 AM (c6xtn)

269 Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 10:17 AM (HabA/)

Donna, did you ever read Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book? The concept is that Hawthorne is on a hike with some children, and, to entertain them, tells them his version of six Greek myths.

https://tinyurl.com/2krd449j

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:26 AM (2JVJo)

270 Follow-up on the IKEA question.

Both the Hemnes and the Havsta lines of bookshelves use solid wood.

Both are obviously more expensive than the Billy line, but worth it.
IMHO.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice. Asymptomatic raycist at February 06, 2022 10:27 AM (3D/fK)

271 Jorge Luis Borges was a master of short stories.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 10:22 AM (EZebt)

Yes, but the opposite of light reading.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 10:27 AM (y7DUB)

272 In defense of short stories (with self-bias: I've sold a few), they are a very different creature and require a very different skill set. It is hard to work short. Some genres greatly rewards short stories, like horror and mysteries.

Novels are likewise requiring different mental muscles. Endurance is one, novel writing is exhausting, no joke.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022 10:28 AM (eeRB6)

273 I bought a complete paperback set of the Travis McGee books. They are, like the Nero Wolfe books, wonderful time capsules of a time and place that may or may not have existed. I'm almost done with the first one, The Deep Blue Good-by and...its good.

Only Travis McGee is kind of a sanctimonious prick. But then, so was Phillip Marlowe. . . .

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022

***
Yes, McGee does tend to mini-lecture us on the foibles of our society. I guess he was sort of a mouthpiece for MacDonald, who never did a series character before McGee. He said if he were going to do one, he wanted one he could live with. Twenty novels resulted, so I guess he did.

Marlowe was much more of a loner, of course. He has no counterparts to Meyer or the other recurring friends of McGee who pop up in the books.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:28 AM (c6xtn)

274 How long before they push the failed vax off on Trumpy?
Posted by: ... at February 06, 2022 10:21 AM (dscaa)

Soon. In less than six months, I am sure.

By this time next year, every Democrat will scream at you that lockdowns, masks, mandates and compulsory vaccinations were all Trump's idea and that they resisted like the patriots they are.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:29 AM (2JVJo)

275 I had a cool book as a kid called Tales from Silver Lands. It was a collection of stories and myths from various cultures *other than* the standard Greek myths I also enjoyed reading. Bonus: When watching SG-1 many years later, I already knew who Zipacna was.

I am Zipacna whom men cannot slay,
There's naught that I fear save the watery way.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at February 06, 2022 10:29 AM (8548M)

276 Never read any Oz book, maybe missed out

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 10:30 AM (2JoB8)

277 Back in my day, television was called books!

Posted by: insurgens ad opus at February 06, 2022 10:30 AM (ijlhg)

278 Whenever I hear the word Woggle-Bug I think of synthesizers.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at February 06, 2022 10:30 AM (Uk7B3)

279 The mage name made me think of ORON: One Of The Greatest Sword And Sorcery Novels! Fun read ala RE Howard

Posted by: TG Sam at February 06, 2022 10:31 AM (njAfo)

280 Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 09:47 AM (ONvIw)

Short stories are the perfect way to explore an idea. I wish they were more prevalent today, but we don't really have influential periodicals that are a vehicle more suited to shorter works.

Having said that, I also loved the Katherine Undset Kristen Lavransdottir trilogy. Depressing (duh! Nordic) but a fascinating look at the middle ages in Norway and what happens when traditional Viking mores (challenge a foe in a duel and kill him) meet Christianity (you are now a murderer).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 10:31 AM (Dc2NZ)

281 Nobody brings a short story to life quite like Tom Cruise.

Posted by: Cause and Effect at February 06, 2022 10:31 AM (nI61m)

282 Exactly. If you can tell a complete story, not an epic but a story that stands alone, in 3000-5000 words, you have the skill to write longer things. The reverse is not necessarily true.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:23 AM (c6xtn)

I am attempting to see if that holds true.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022

***
Keep at it! Is it coming along?

Note that I qualify my statement above. Some authors who excelled at short stories either did poorly with novels, or never attempted them, like Harlan Ellison and Dorothy Parker. There are other skills that go into a novel, like the endurance someone mentioned above. But they had the *writing* chops.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:31 AM (c6xtn)

283 OK, folks. It's a brisk 12 degrees out, so am going to make a second cup of tea, pull out a few books and figure out how to change my heroes going from Hollywood to Long Beach into going from Fox Studios on Sunset and Western to Universal City on Lankershim Boulevard.

Perhaps see you all on an afternoon / evening thread. Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:32 AM (2JVJo)

284 April - dash my wigs! Good to know there are more Demidov books. I'll add them to my ever-expanding 'to-read' list.

Posted by: who knew at February 06, 2022 10:32 AM (4I7VG)

285 Let's keep the Book Thread COVID-free, please.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 10:32 AM (Dc2NZ)

286 Quick comment about Reacher.
Noticed that although it says in the credits that it is based on the novel, there is no credits for Lee Child/Andrew Child. Yet, I think they got the tone correct. Surprising.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at February 06, 2022 10:32 AM (Y+l9t)

287 @265 I just finished a book club read of Neuromancer.

I have read everything Gibson has written and it's been a long time since I read Neuromancer. I didn't think it held up as well as it could have. In a lot of ways like the movie theory that Indiana Jones made no difference to the plot of the first movie.

Posted by: blaster at February 06, 2022 10:34 AM (9otr5)

288 Oh, and the Wolfe stories are capsules of a world that Stout invented. It resembled ours. But he invented brand names for cars ("Wethersill" and "Heron") and for guns (a "Marley .32"), suggesting an alternate reality where Wolfe and Archie never aged while time went on around them, presidents changed, WWII was won and the Communist threat emerged, etc. Now and then he'd throw in a real-world brand like "Cadillac" just to keep us alert.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:34 AM (c6xtn)

289 I started reading "The Radetzky March" by Joseph Roth. A review of a newly published work by Roth reminded me that RM is one on those books I've owned for a long time but never got around to reading. It traces the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire by telling the story of one family, the suddenly aristocratic Trottas, over 3 generations.

Since my own ancestors (on both sides) are from what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, I'm enjoying the descriptions.

Roth himself is an interesting character. He grew up in a Jewish village in Poland, studied in Vienna and Berlin and joined the Austrian army when WWI broke out. After the war, he became a very well known and well paid journalist and briefly became a Commie, but he soon became disgusted with both Communism and Fascism. In 1933, he saw the writing on the wall and went to live in Paris, where he wrote many of his novels. He drank heavily and died in 1939, which was a mercy, considering what came next. (His wife, who was insane and committed to a German asylum, was murdered by the Nazis the following year when they killed the mentally ill and defective.)

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 10:34 AM (HabA/)

290 You can't unsee that Blobby video, thanks Eris.

Posted by: Boswell at February 06, 2022 10:35 AM (5iUNf)

291 Why should Russia fear the US after Afghanistan?

Posted by: Anna Puma at February 06, 2022 10:35 AM (D/37N)

292 Never read any Oz book, maybe missed out
Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 10:30 AM (2JoB

Hi Skip,

Answered your question in the EMT.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 10:36 AM (5NkmN)

293 Jorge Luis Borges was a master of short stories.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022

***
At least one of his --"The Garden of Forking Paths"? Not sure -- appeared in and won an award from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in the late Forties. I think I read it once.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:36 AM (c6xtn)

294 Why should Russia fear the US after Afghanistan?
Posted by: Anna Puma at February 06, 2022 10:35 AM (D/37N)

They don't fear us, hence Georgia and Ukraine. And that's a problem.

But also don't trust us, hence Georgia and Ukraine: they are going back to 1988 borders.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022 10:37 AM (eeRB6)

295 And sorry to go OT

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022 10:37 AM (eeRB6)

296 You can't unsee that Blobby video
---

MWAhahahahha!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at February 06, 2022 10:37 AM (Dc2NZ)

297 Nobody brings a short story to life quite like Tom Cruise.
Posted by: Cause and Effect at February 06, 2022 10:31 AM (nI61m)

Can't even star as Grumpy in the Disney remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs now that they've decided to use life size people for the dwarfs.

Posted by: Boswell at February 06, 2022 10:37 AM (5iUNf)

298 When I see Monuments to Books as that Seoul library it saddens me to think that many non-Western countries, at one point in their development, aspired to cultivate the values of what they felt, at some level, to be a superior civilization.

Now our own libraries are unused, in disrepair, and we tear down statues of "old white men" such as Jefferson and Roosevelt.

Posted by: Zek at February 06, 2022 10:37 AM (OzNIz)

299 I was considering a run out to Dollar Twenty-five Tree for a few things. But you know what? I can pick them up after work one evening this week. Scrooit.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:38 AM (c6xtn)

300 Cheery news from DC, the Administration is trying to find LNG ships in case Putin cuts off the gas to Europe.

Way to go after backing out of the Israeli pipeline you worthless mewlin qwim.

Posted by: Anna Puma at February 06, 2022 10:39 AM (D/37N)

301 "In defense of short stories (with self-bias: I've sold a few), they are a very different creature and require a very different skill set. It is hard to work short. Some genres greatly rewards short stories, like horror and mysteries."

One such reward can be found in the stories of Algernon Blackwood.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 10:40 AM (klqwL)

302 Can't even star as Grumpy in the Disney remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs now that they've decided to use life size people for the dwarfs.
Posted by: Boswell

Mocha Tan and the Seven Dudes

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:40 AM (lCui1)

303 LOL'd at the Klingon Fairy Tale!

Great job on the Book Thread, Eris.

Qapla' !!

Posted by: Retief at February 06, 2022 10:41 AM (vSlT4)

304 Early for the gub thread but after a few hours of work will be meeting Mrs Z for a date at the range. Nothing like a woman who smells faintly of Hoppe's.

Posted by: Zek at February 06, 2022 10:41 AM (OzNIz)

305 Oh well, reading again The Adept series. Now half way through the U-boat story.

Posted by: Anna Puma at February 06, 2022 10:41 AM (D/37N)

306 @300

>>Cheery news from DC, the Administration is trying to find LNG ships in case Putin cuts off the gas to Europe.

I find it amusing that the US seemingly cares more about Europe's energy supply than apparently Europe does.

Or Alternatively...

The Curly Shuffle as US foreign policy.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at February 06, 2022 10:42 AM (Uk7B3)

307 Tim Hutton made an excellent Archie. I have quibbles with the director having or allowing Maury Chaykin to shout a little too often as Wolfe; and that black fedora that Hutton wears as Archie looks kind of silly. There would have been better fedora choices. But these are the finest adaptations of the Stout stories ever done, in casting and set decoration and dialog.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:26 AM (c6xtn)

Easily concur. Some of the shouting is in the books (I went back to check after you mentioned it once before) but some of it seems to be the actor's choice. And it mostly works, making him seem grumpier less likable. Which, oddly, needs to happen. Wolfe is not cuddly.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards (Logan Tiberius 2012-2021) at February 06, 2022 10:42 AM (eeRB6)

308 I searched in the Look inside of The Killing Floor and the hobo not a vagrant line is in the text.

Posted by: blaster at February 06, 2022 10:42 AM (9otr5)

309 Jorge Luis Borges was a master of short stories.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 10:22 AM (EZebt)

Everyone loves Borges, but me. And I wanted to, but I couldn't get into it.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 10:42 AM (ZMraq)

310 Borges -- right now a lot of his fiction, non-fiction, and poetry are available in 3 big volumes from Penguin; the fiction was newly translated by Andrew Hurley, and it's okay, but for me the translations by Norman Thomas di Giovanni working with Borges were far more readable. If you're diving into Borges, you might want to check those out.

MacDonald -- I like the McGee series, but think a lot of MacDonald's best work was in stand-alones. The Executioners (aka Cape Fear) and The End of the Night in particular.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at February 06, 2022 10:43 AM (JzDjf)

311 Keep at it! Is it coming along?

Note that I qualify my statement above. Some authors who excelled at short stories either did poorly with novels, or never attempted them, like Harlan Ellison and Dorothy Parker. There are other skills that go into a novel, like the endurance someone mentioned above. But they had the *writing* chops.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:31 AM (c6xtn)

Well, I write in fits and starts. I don't write every day like most writers do or did. My writing background is really non fiction: Theses for college, a history writing competition, and C College newspaper writing. I've always read, but except for those few instances, I've never "written" before. I have three short stories completed. One is being reviewed by a great person on this site. Two others are done, but no one has read them. First attempt at fiction, really. I began a novella, because I'm not sure I could write a full novel. I noticed I'm getting ideas to add in the planned work, so maybe I have some ability after all. Until it's complete, however, who knows? But I also feel that there are so many hacks making money, why not me???

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 10:43 AM (7bRMQ)

312 By this time next year, every Democrat will scream at you that lockdowns, masks, mandates and compulsory vaccinations were all Trump's idea and that they resisted like the patriots they are.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at February 06, 2022 10:29 AM (2JVJo)

The memory hole they'd have to dig to shove all those MSM/Dem/Punchy screams and shrieks about how those Trump rallies and Ron Desantis' opening of Florida were killing people is going to have to go all the way to the center of the Earth.

Posted by: Boswell at February 06, 2022 10:44 AM (5iUNf)

313 I have been reading trashy a ton novels for a while. Been enjoying the Reached series. Went to the book barn to find other types of action authors. Remembered hearing about Dean Koontz books ba k in the 80s and 90s. Picked up a outlet and read one. Jeebust that guy was paid by the word. The only the v worth reading was the lat 50 pages of a 900 page novel. Some serious stilted writing.

Posted by: Cuthbert the Witless at February 06, 2022 10:45 AM (rjpjQ)

314 @304 indeed sra blaster is going with me to the range for our biweekly minimome moron gun club.

Posted by: blaster at February 06, 2022 10:45 AM (9otr5)

315 Jorge Luis Borges was a master of short stories.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 10:22 AM (EZebt)

Everyone loves Borges, but me. And I wanted to, but I couldn't get into it.
Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022

***
I checked: "Garden of Forking Paths" was translated by Anthony Boucher for EQ's mystery magazine. The Wiki synopsis indicates that it is in essence a spy story, which might be why Boucher and EQ liked it. I tried to read it at age 14 and gave up. Maybe, as an SF fan now, I'd like it better. But very often when a mainstream, literary author tries his hand at genre fiction, he misses the mark: He gets some of the genre elements right, but goes off the rails somewhere.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:46 AM (c6xtn)

316 On thing maybe a put off, long thought Oz characters drawings could use a modern, even in 60s take.

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 10:46 AM (2JoB8)

317 In college I picked up Fiction 100, An Anthology of Short Stories. It has all the big ones - Bradbury, Melville, Harte, Poe, Camus, Joyce, O'Connor, Hesse, etc.

It was fun to just crack it open and start to read where it fell. I need to try that again.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 10:46 AM (mD/uy)

318 Gorky Park - The part where Renko is flying into JFK and he looks down and sees cars on the highway and is blown away by all their different colors. That always stuck with me as something we in the west took for granted: choice. And now it is a sad reminder now that 90% of cars are a variation of gray.

Posted by: J. Frank Parnell at February 06, 2022 10:46 AM (O6DoG)

319 Both the Hemnes and the Havsta lines of bookshelves use solid wood.

We have a couple of Billys (Billies?) in the extra bedroom and a couple of Hemnes in the areas where we see them every day. Someday, when I win the lotto, my country manor will be furnished from the Amish furniture stores but for now, Ikea fills the gap between what I want and what I can afford.

Posted by: Oddbob at February 06, 2022 10:47 AM (nfrXX)

320 MacDonald -- I like the McGee series, but think a lot of MacDonald's best work was in stand-alones. The Executioners (aka Cape Fear) and The End of the Night in particular.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at February 06, 2022

***
He was called the John O'Hara of crime fiction for a good reason. I have a bunch of his stand-alone novels on my shelves and go back to them often.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:47 AM (c6xtn)

321 Mocha Tan and the Seven Dudes
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:40 AM (lCui1)

Need to have it rhyme if you're Disney, so more likely:

"Mocha Tan and the Seven Trans"

Posted by: Boswell at February 06, 2022 10:48 AM (5iUNf)

322 Short stories are a very different skill set than novels, and writers have their own "natural length" for writing. For me, novels are easier. I have to really struggle to write short stories. It has gotten easier with practice, but I still admire writers who can just knock them out. They, on the other hand, look at us natural novel writers like we constructed the pyramids one-handed

The old magazine market for short stories is pretty dead now. There does seem to be an emerging market for subscription short writing, like with Substack or Vella or other sites. Will be interesting to see if it takes off.

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at February 06, 2022 10:49 AM (VdTX+)

323 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:34 AM (c6xtn)

Stout's formula worked until the late 60's. His last Wolfe novel, which is set during the Watergate era, features Archie dealing with a feminist and eating horrible vegetarian glop at Lily Rowan's - it just didn't work for me. The externals of NYC fit together with the internals of the Wolfe universe in 1935 and 1945 and 1955 so Wolfe and Archie never seem dated in those books, but not in 1975.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 10:49 AM (HabA/)

324 "Yes, McGee does tend to mini-lecture us on the foibles of our society. I guess he was sort of a mouthpiece for MacDonald, who never did a series character before McGee. He said if he were going to do one, he wanted one he could live with. Twenty novels resulted, so I guess he did."

John D. was a family friend. Mcgee's sidekick Meyer served as his mouthpiece.

A hard worker, John D. had a method to producing a first draft in two weeks. He would write twenty pages a day, giving himself the weekend off. He liked to work standing up at a built-in desk of the correct height.

He once bet my mother she could do that and she gave it a go. The result was "Fancy's Knell," a runner-up for the Edgar in 1967. John D. wrote the blurb of the hardcover.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 10:50 AM (klqwL)

325 In the movie Wizard of Oz there is a scene that no one notices where the Scarecrow is holding a gun when they are in the haunted woods.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 10:50 AM (Kz9dH)

326 263 ... "Book adjacent, showed my wife the first episode of the Nero Wolfe Mysteries, 'The Doorbell Rang' starring and directed by Timothy Bottom"

Actually, it was Timothy Hutton, son of Jim Hutton who did the Ellery Queen TV series. Hutton's Nero Wolfe episodes are all wonderful. We have the whole series on DVD. I was bummed when A and E network cancelled the show. Imbeciles! (Also have the Ellery Queen series on DVD. They are just plain fun.)

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 10:51 AM (7EjX1)

327 I liked Tom Wolfe's short stories too.

Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 10:51 AM (EZebt)

328 OrangeEnt, keep at it!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:52 AM (lCui1)

329 I have three short stories completed. One is being reviewed by a great person on this site. Two others are done, but no one has read them. First attempt at fiction, really. I began a novella, because I'm not sure I could write a full novel. I noticed I'm getting ideas to add in the planned work, so maybe I have some ability after all. Until it's complete, however, who knows? But I also feel that there are so many hacks making money, why not me???
Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022

***
The very fact you have finished several projects puts you way ahead of most wannabe writers. And remember: Nobody ever published an unfinished novel by an unknown. Major writers like Dickens, sure, but not when he started out. You won't get published if you don't finish your work.

Yes, there are times when you get stuck in a story and set it aside. I have lots of fragments like that. You never know when something will re-spark your interest in it, or if it could fit right into something newer you're working on.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:52 AM (c6xtn)

330 Been so long trying to figure out where in the Sharpe series I am at. Think Havoc

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 10:52 AM (2JoB8)

331 (Also have the Ellery Queen series on DVD. They are just plain fun.)
Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022

***
As do I. They were fun, and the closest adaptations ever done to the original stories. Fred Dannay, one of the Queen cousins, took a look at an episode, and was astonished to see how much Jim Hutton as Ellery resembled Dannay himself as a young man.

I think it's time for a new, 5-6 episode series. Alexis Denisof ("Wesley" on Angel) would make a great Ellery. Do them as period pieces, 1930s or 1940s, short stories as one episode each, the novels as 2-3.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:55 AM (c6xtn)

332 MacDonald wasn't bad at short fiction either. One of my favorite short stories is "End of the Tiger" -- it's not a mystery or suspense piece, and it's quite short, and if I were putting together an anthology of short stories for textbook use, that one would be in there.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (JzDjf)

333 Seriously trying to think of of subject for a children's book. That's where the money and influence is at.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (Kz9dH)

334 Or Sharpe's Eagle

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (2JoB8)

335 Good morning, AHE, Horde

Posted by: callsign claymore at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (qHGPV)

336 >>Short stories are a very different skill set than novels, and writers have their own "natural length" for writing.
===

Exhibit A is Robert Sheckley. One of the best short story writers in SciFi but very hit and miss as a novelist.

Posted by: J. Frank Parnell at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (O6DoG)

337 John D. was a family friend. Mcgee's sidekick Meyer served as his mouthpiece.

A hard worker, John D. had a method to producing a first draft in two weeks. He would write twenty pages a day, giving himself the weekend off. He liked to work standing up at a built-in desk of the correct height.

He once bet my mother she could do that and she gave it a go. The result was "Fancy's Knell," a runner-up for the Edgar in 1967. John D. wrote the blurb of the hardcover.
Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022

***
Wow! Yes, he came out of the business world and looked at writing as a job. Twenty pages a day on the typewriter . . . my gosh, that's 5000 words at a minimum.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:57 AM (c6xtn)

338 OrangeEnt, keep at it!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 10:52 AM (lCui1)

I will. Ain't got nothin' else to do anymore.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 10:57 AM (7bRMQ)

339 I loved the Travis McGee series. Read every one of them.

Posted by: Vic at February 06, 2022 10:58 AM (mpXpK)

340 Yes, there are times when you get stuck in a story and set it aside. I have lots of fragments like that. You never know when something will re-spark your interest in it, or if it could fit right into something newer you're working on.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 10:52 AM (c6xtn)

Thanks for the help.

I'm not stuck per se on the novella, I'm just need to do some research so I can fit my idea in correctly to the time and place. Don't like coming across anachronisms in what I read, don't wanna do it myself.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:00 AM (7bRMQ)

341 333 Seriously trying to think of of subject for a children's book. That's where the money and influence is at.
Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (Kz9dH)

What age group? Picture book, elementary school age, or middle school and up?

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 11:00 AM (OX9vb)

342 Stout's formula worked until the late 60's. His last Wolfe novel, which is set during the Watergate era, features Archie dealing with a feminist and eating horrible vegetarian glop at Lily Rowan's - it just didn't work for me. The externals of NYC fit together with the internals of the Wolfe universe in 1935 and 1945 and 1955 so Wolfe and Archie never seem dated in those books, but not in 1975.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022

***
I'll agree that his last 2 seem a little "off" -- but I never took it as being things like feminism or vegetarian fads appearing. The final novel has a violent twist (not involving violence, I mean a real plot variation) that upends nearly everything that went before. And yet, Stout is never less than readable and re-readable.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:01 AM (c6xtn)

343 Seriously trying to think of of subject for a children's book. That's where the money and influence is at.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (Kz9dH)

Queers. Put queers in it. They're all the rage!!!

Sad, ain't it?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:02 AM (7bRMQ)

344 Gorky Park - The part where Renko is flying into JFK and he looks down and sees cars on the highway and is blown away by all their different colors. That always stuck with me as something we in the west took for granted: choice. And now it is a sad reminder now that 90% of cars are a variation of gray.
Posted by: J. Frank Parnell

I had a friend who was stationed at our embassy in Moscow back in the US, back in the US, back in the USSR days. He said that the average Russian would be blown away if he could see one of our supermarkets bursting with available food. Not so much now, of course.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 11:02 AM (FVME7)

345 They're definitely not the Disney version - I recall that one of Cinderella's nasty stepsisters hacked off her own toes with a knife and still the slipper wouldn't fit.

The other hacked off her heel and it still wouldn't fit. Later, after the wedding, as everybody was filing out, two crows pecked out the eyes of the stepsisters.

Grimm's Fairy Tales are something else in the original German.

Posted by: t-bird at February 06, 2022 11:02 AM (AytXr)

346 Queers. Put queers in it. They're all the rage!!!

Sad, ain't it?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:02 AM (7bRMQ)

But David French says it's a blessing of liberty

Posted by: Boswell at February 06, 2022 11:03 AM (5iUNf)

347 Oh, and an announcement, Steve Solomon has released a new book, Water-Wise Gardening.

It is an update of a previous book, Gardening Without Irrigation that is found for free on Gutenberg.org

Where the previous book was for Western Oregon, mostly, this one is focused for US and Canada in general. I have used the free version for years in managing my garden and his techniques do work, for anything but the driest years (like last year here, sheesh)

Steve says he was proud to have written another book at 79. It was edited by David the Good

It is for sale on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/4jsea976

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 11:03 AM (ZMraq)

348 The Tin Man dispatched his foe with forty whacks. So did Lizzie Borden. Coincidence?

Posted by: callsign claymore at February 06, 2022 11:03 AM (qHGPV)

349 Despite Stout's drawbacks as a mystery plotter -- the essential clues are not always presented to the reader -- he was a stylist to study. In his late novel Please Pass the Guilt, he has a scene in which one character is pressed to reveal a fact which will change everything about the investigation. He resists, resists, then eventually admits the fact. Suddenly the scene accelerates like a race car, even though the characters are all still sitting or standing in the same room. I've reread it many times and still can't figure out how he did it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:04 AM (c6xtn)

350 What age group? Picture book, elementary school age, or middle school and up?
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 11:00 AM (OX9vb)

8 to 12 age group. I just remember the Scholastic paperbacks when I was that age and how they influenced my future reading habits. Also we need to push back on the Leftist indoctrination of that age group.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 11:05 AM (Kz9dH)

351 350: yes, we do

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 11:06 AM (ONvIw)

352 Stout's formula worked until the late 60's. His last Wolfe novel, which is set during the Watergate era, features Archie dealing with a feminist and eating horrible vegetarian glop at Lily Rowan's - it just didn't work for me. The externals of NYC fit together with the internals of the Wolfe universe in 1935 and 1945 and 1955 so Wolfe and Archie never seem dated in those books, but not in 1975.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022

Strangely enough, P G Wodehouse had the same problem.

There's a few Jeeves and Bertie and others stories set in the 60s.

Just doesn't work at all. Plus, he had a perfect eternal fictional setting pre-WWII, which he should've stuck with.

No need to go all relevant and hip.

Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 11:06 AM (5NkmN)

353 Per the song at the time, of course. She was acquitted of the murder charges.

Posted by: callsign claymore at February 06, 2022 11:06 AM (qHGPV)

354 I finished "While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away" and absolutely loved parts of it, though its sequel was written more tightly.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at February 06, 2022 11:08 AM (MzsZz)

355 I'm to the point in Huckleberry Finn where two scam artists, The King and The Duke, have fallen in with him and Jim, running cons on the people in small towns along the Mississippi that have circuses and fairs that go through. Although Huck isn't above doing similar small scale things he reaches his limit when they try to con three girls out of their paternal inheritance and quietly subverts their plan.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 11:09 AM (y7DUB)

356 8 to 12 age group. I just remember the Scholastic paperbacks when I was that age and how they influenced my future reading habits. Also we need to push back on the Leftist indoctrination of that age group.
Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022

***
When I was about 13-14, our English teacher passed around a catalog of Scholastic book offerings. The only one that appealed to me was one of the original Man From U.N.C.L.E. paperback novels, and I already had it. At 14 I was reading John Dickson Carr. Maybe if I'd seen such a catalog earlier, my reading tastes would have been very different.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:09 AM (c6xtn)

357 "Queers. Put queers in it. They're all the rage!!! Sad, ain't it?"

I just watched the opening episode of "The Gilded Age," on HBO, which has nothing to do with the book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner besides the title and the period. As we began to watch I said, "this is HBO, which will we have first, gays or lesbians--and will they hold off such a reveal until a later episode, or courageously introduce it in the opening. After all, this is HBO, they can't help themselves."

My wife bridled at the snark, but guess what? It was gays, in the first episode. One of them was even a descendant of John Adams.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 11:09 AM (klqwL)

358 Hardcore History talks to Max Brooks

https://youtu.be/Y-N7QylfF2w

It's hard to tell how blue-pilled Max might be, but he is interesting to listen to.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at February 06, 2022 11:09 AM (ybIRR)

359 What age group? Picture book, elementary school age, or middle school and up?
Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 11:00 AM (OX9vb)

You would think that early reader/picture books should be easy to do. You won't have a long story to write and it shouldn't take long to finish, but I'd bet it's harder than it seems. Besides, you'd also have to have a great illustrator. Most of those type of books have the illustrator's name as prominent as the author.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:10 AM (7bRMQ)

360 I need to go do some chores. I hate it, but there it is.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:10 AM (c6xtn)

361 Anti doesn't matter, I think you can't go wrong with good adventures or mysteries or funny stories with that age group. Wholesome characters who are respectful of others without over-the-top "tolerance." I'm sure it can be done--just have to make the adventure interesting. And I think kids still like to laugh!

*I Am Not An Author, so it's easy for me to say.

Posted by: April--dash my lace wigs! at February 06, 2022 11:11 AM (OX9vb)

362 For any Kipling buffs out there, I will mention an interesting book I picked up at the library recently. It is "100 Poems Old and New" by Rudyard Kipling, 2013, Cambridge University Press. What makes it interesting (at least to me) is that about three quarters of the poems have never before been published in book form. Naturally, not all of them are Kipling's best work. On the other hand, even Kipling's less than best stands head and shoulders above 90% published poetry.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at February 06, 2022 11:11 AM (itkze)

363 My wife bridled at the snark, but guess what? It was gays, in the first episode. One of them was even a descendant of John Adams.

Posted by: Brett at February 06, 2022 11:09 AM (klqwL)

The elite continue to reveal themselves.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:12 AM (7bRMQ)

364 "In our day we didn't need fancy passwords....."
-----

"OK boomer...."

Posted by: Javems at February 06, 2022 11:12 AM (AmoqO)

365 Wolfus, would you send me an email? Nic at cox dot net.

Thanks.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:13 AM (7bRMQ)

366 johnny dollar
@johnnydollar01
DEFECTION DiSASTER: 'Irate' Chris Wallace Has Meltdown Over Zucker Scandal, Said To Be At War With @jaketapper
"Wallace feels he has been stiffed. He's got no staff, no Executive Producer & the guy he gave up a prized gig for has just walked out the door"

-
They say you can take the measure of a man by his enemies. Chris, you're at war with Jake Tapper. That makes you either a pussy or a douche.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 11:14 AM (FVME7)

367 I loved the Travis McGee series. Read every one of them.
Posted by: Vic at February 06, 2022 10:58 AM (mpXpK)
------------

Same. John D. could turn a phrase on occasion, which made him stand out among action adventure writers.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (5pTK/)) at February 06, 2022 11:14 AM (5pTK/)

368 It seems that more than half of the cast of the Silmarillion show is black or indian. I expect they will use the word "halfling" with a hard G.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at February 06, 2022 11:15 AM (ybIRR)

369 Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:10 AM (7bRMQ)

Yes easy to do but not easy to do well. 90% is dependent on hitting on the right subject of the esoteric mind of a child. Dinosaurs . Teenage Ninja Turtles. Who would have known. That's why the corporations have research / survey test groups.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 11:16 AM (Kz9dH)

370 "In our day we didn't need fancy passwords....."
-----

"OK boomer...."
Posted by: Javems at February 06, 2022 11:12 AM (AmoqO)
-----------

John has a long mustache. Repeat, John has a long mustache...

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (5pTK/)) at February 06, 2022 11:16 AM (5pTK/)

371 Posted by: John F. MacMichael at February 06, 2022 11:11 AM (itkze)

He did write my all time favorite book. Captains Courageous.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 11:17 AM (Kz9dH)

372 Just doesn't work at all. Plus, he had a perfect eternal fictional setting pre-WWII, which he should've stuck with.

No need to go all relevant and hip.
Posted by: naturalfake at February 06, 2022 11:06 AM (5NkmN)

Yep. Someone once wrote that when you read a Sherlock Holmes mystery, it's always 1895 - there are hansom cabs on the streets of London. When you read Wodehouse, it is eternally 1925 or so, and Nero Wolfe's NY is the New York of the 40's and 50's.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 11:17 AM (HabA/)

373 Thank you for the mention of L. Frank Baum. Legend has it, he picked the name "Oz" from the bottom drawer on his filing cabinet (which had files beginning "O-Z").

When I was quite young, I fell ill with a serious respiratory infection. One Saturday, while I was sick in bed, my older brother and sister took turns reading "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" to me, cover to cover. That is one of the fondest memories of my childhood. Such a blessing: to be read to as a child!

By the way, children's literature of the Edwardian era could get seriously weird. I was reading the second book in the Oz series, "The Marvelous Land of Oz", aloud to my children when I ran into the ending: where the hero - the boy Tip - is magically transformed into the princess Ozma. I sat there tongue-tied for a second, until I could think of a work-around to tell the kids. After that, I left the Oz books alone.

Posted by: Nemo at February 06, 2022 11:18 AM (S6ArX)

374 They say you can take the measure of a man by his enemies. Chris, you're at war with Jake Tapper. That makes you either a pussy or a douche.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 11:14 AM (FVME7)

I think Chris Wallace's *spit* time at CNN will be spent mostly twiddling his thumbs and cashing checks. I guess that douchebag propagandist will have to console himself with his filthy lucre and cabana boys.

Posted by: Robert at February 06, 2022 11:18 AM (JCMCn)

375 Wolfus, would you send me an email? Nic at cox dot net.

Thanks.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022

***
Will do, sir.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:18 AM (c6xtn)

376 358 I don't know the man. But he has to be better than the other historian named Max B. The law of averages shows that. To be clear, I am talking about Max Boot. As in of you want to learn history, give him the boot.

Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 11:22 AM (2QcAT)

377 I just watched the opening episode of "The Gilded Age," on HBO, which has nothing to do with the book by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner besides the title and the period. As we began to watch I said, "this is HBO, which will we have first, gays or lesbians--and will they hold off such a reveal until a later episode, or courageously introduce it in the opening. After all, this is HBO, they can't help themselves."

My wife bridled at the snark, but guess what? It was gays, in the first episode. One of them was even a descendant of John Adams.
Posted by: Brett

-
Everything is homosexual in it's own way
Like a starry summer night
On a snow covered winter's day
And everybody's homosexual in their own way
Under God's Heaven
The world's gonna find the way

Posted by: Ray Stevens at February 06, 2022 11:22 AM (FVME7)

378 165 IKEA's Billy bookcase is fantastic. Easy to put together and quite solid. Not beautiful but functionally elegant.
Posted by: Ignoramus at February 06, 2022 09:44 AM (i0slg)

Agreed. I had 3 Billy bookcases for many years and they served me well. I carted them from apartment to apartment to apartment....I did not have the same good fortune with other IKEA furniture.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 11:22 AM (HabA/)

379 Everything is fruitiful
In its own way...ayayaya...

Posted by: klaftern at February 06, 2022 11:24 AM (taPSh)

380 "I did not have the same good fortune with other IKEA furniture."

Often easier to abandon than move.

Posted by: Ignoramus at February 06, 2022 11:26 AM (i0slg)

381 90% is dependent on hitting on the right subject of the esoteric mind of a child. Dinosaurs . Teenage Ninja Turtles. Who would have known. That's why the corporations have research / survey test groups.
Posted by: Anti doesn't matter

Homosexual Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Stupid Son of a Bitch at February 06, 2022 11:26 AM (FVME7)

382 Late to the rendez-voo this morning, but I wanted to report that Stephen Hunter's new Bob Lee Swagger novel "Targeted", didn't disappoint. YMMV. Some folks love Hunter, others not so much. I don't think anyone describes the geometry of gunfight as well as he does, though. And his thinly disguised congress critters are hilarious parodies of the two slime bags we most know and love. As an additional delight, Bob Lee dispatches one of the bad guys with a weapon that is, even for him . . . unique.

Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at February 06, 2022 11:26 AM (dVlo/)

383 I loved the Travis McGee series. Read every one of them.
Posted by: Vic

Same here.....

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 11:27 AM (arJlL)

384 To be clear, I am talking about Max Boot. As in of you want to learn history, give him the boot.
Posted by: Quint at February 06, 2022 11:22 AM (2QcAT)

When I used to read the Rear Admiral's magazine, by far the most boring writer was Boot; as in no ability to construct an interesting narrative.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 11:27 AM (y7DUB)

385 SpaceX B4 being lifted right now.

Posted by: pawn at February 06, 2022 11:27 AM (Cfk8j)

386 "I did not have the same good fortune with other IKEA furniture."

Often easier to abandon than move.
Posted by: Ignoramus

Moving IKEA 'furniture' twice and you might have as well had a fire.

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 11:27 AM (mD/uy)

387 Homosexual Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

"Oh, Leonaaaaaaaaaaaaaardo!!"

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 11:29 AM (mD/uy)

388 Seriously trying to think of of subject for a children's book. That's where the money and influence is at.
Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 10:56 AM (Kz9dH)

You could rework the Henty boy's series for the modern world

Aloft with Blue Horizon
Abandoned in Kabul
Filling out Environmental Impact Statements and Quarterly Reports in the North Woods
Four Walls and Zoom, or Life in Karentopia

it gets darker, so I won't go further.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 11:30 AM (ZMraq)

389 Straight out of college and into my first apartment... IKEA was the only shit I could afford. I moved most of it once, and the majority of it fell apart during the trip.

Initially, I blamed myself for poor workmanship.

I evolved that opinion. Even the crap that didn't fall apart during the move remained on the curb long enough to fall apart on its own.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at February 06, 2022 11:32 AM (BFigT)

390 Hiya Donna of the Ampersands !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 11:33 AM (arJlL)

391 Eris--what a wonderful, humorous thread!

Posted by: Ladyl at February 06, 2022 11:33 AM (+4oV5)

392 Sorry to intrude but a fantastic scene at Boca Chica right now.

Posted by: pawn at February 06, 2022 11:35 AM (Cfk8j)

393 389. Unless you are sorely pressed for time, you can usually do better than Ikea

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 11:36 AM (ONvIw)

394 What always amazed me about the Reacher books at least until Lee stopped writing them was that they were always good even though they were all the same. Reacher falls into the middle of some conspiracy. The conspirators don't see him as a serious threat cause Reacher doesn't do "impressive in society" Reacher is way better than they are both strategically and tactically. Reacher cleans their clocks, boinks an appropriate female, and leaves town. And in each novel, it always worked. The Spencer books also always had the same plot and before the series ended they got really boring. "Gee, Hawk should be showing up any time now to save the day, and Susan is going to be selfish and disloyal again, isn't she?"

Posted by: azjaeger at February 06, 2022 11:36 AM (3/XaG)

395 I'm just starting to unpack all my books. Its depressing. I no longer have the big epic book cases I built that stayed with the other house. I have to use the crappy ones that I moved out of in the first place. I guess its a good thing they were stored in the basement. I need to build new ones. Its not like I had anything to do with 2 months of my life.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 06, 2022 11:37 AM (VwHCD)

396 The Wizard Of Oz movie was always special for me and our family.

It was the last movie my Uncle Bobby took my mom, his little sister, to before shipping out to the pacific as a Machinist Mate on the USS Meredith (DD-434) which was sunk off of Guadalcanal running fuel and ammo to the Marines there in 1942. Uncle Bobby went down with the ship.

Out of a crew of 273, 81 survived to be plucked out of the water. God bless those brave sailors and RIP.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at February 06, 2022 11:39 AM (R/m4+)

397 348 The Tin Man dispatched his foe with forty whacks. So did Lizzie Borden. Coincidence?

you should try our new forty wax. you'll never guess what it smells like!

Posted by: goop at February 06, 2022 11:39 AM (2PdcG)

398 Hi, JT.

Yeah, my IKEA coffee tables and chairs ended up on the curb. The good thing about that though is since they didn't cost much to begin with, you didn't feel that bad about ditching them.

A friend made the mistake (back in the 80s) of getting an IKEA bedframe and mattress. They held up alright, but he had to buy all of his bedding from IKEA since they used Euro measurements.

Best to stick to IKEA for things like everyday dishware, dish towels and little stuff like that.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 11:39 AM (HabA/)

399 Eris--what a wonderful, humorous thread!

Posted by: Ladyl at February 06, 2022 11:33 AM (+4oV5)

Right? She is kicking ass. Talk about picking up the ball and running with it...

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at February 06, 2022 11:40 AM (VwHCD)

400 Yeah, Eris is doing a terrific job! OM would be proud of her!

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 11:41 AM (HabA/)

401 Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 11:30 AM (ZMraq)

Got your email, responded.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:41 AM (7bRMQ)

402 "Queers. Put queers in it. They're all the rage!!! Sad, ain't it?"

One of the homos in my book group usually annoys me with his book choices. But his latest choice The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne is oddly inoffensive and very well written. Boyne must be the Ric Grenell of writers in terms of not being an asshole about being gay and not being a proselytizing fuckhead about it. Maybe it has to do with being from Dublin...

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 11:41 AM (y7DUB)

403 Sorry to intrude but a fantastic scene at Boca Chica right now.
Posted by: pawn at February 06, 2022 11:35 AM (Cfk8j)

Texas, or Dominican Republic?

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 11:42 AM (ZMraq)

404 reading "Temper isn't Coming out" by Calvin Trillin
a wonderful comic novel about NYC when it was NYC and not the dystopian shithole it now is.

Posted by: vivi at February 06, 2022 11:42 AM (33kEg)

405 Time for church (or what I call the lazy-ass Mass, 11 am for everyone who likes to sleep in and dink around on Sunday mornings)

See ya later, Horde!

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at February 06, 2022 11:43 AM (HabA/)

406 One of the greatest element of pride in Korea is their development of Hungul, and writing Korean in a native script instead of Chinese. Language is a major unifier for the the culture, and their literacy rates are insane.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 06, 2022 11:44 AM (ZMraq)

407 One of the homos in my book group usually annoys me with his book choices. But his latest choice The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne is oddly inoffensive and very well written. Boyne must be the Ric Grenell of writers in terms of not being an asshole about being gay and not being a proselytizing fuckhead about it. Maybe it has to do with being from Dublin...

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 11:41 AM (y7DUB)

That's the thing, don't be offensive about it and no one cares who you screw.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:44 AM (7bRMQ)

408 Eris has remained true to what OM created while putting her own stamp on it. Well done.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 11:45 AM (y7DUB)

409 408: Yes, another wonderful thread, Eris!

Posted by: CN The First at February 06, 2022 11:46 AM (ONvIw)

410 Kindletot, are there a lot of books? Maybe a list of them for picking?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:46 AM (7bRMQ)

411 See ya later, Horde!
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V

Have a good one, Donna !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 11:47 AM (arJlL)

412 Yeah, Eris is doing a terrific job! OM would be proud of her!
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V

Concur !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 11:48 AM (arJlL)

413 Prydain! I don't know why that always gets overlooked in the "great fantasies for young 'uns" genre.

Posted by: Jim S. at February 06, 2022 11:49 AM (ynUnH)

414 One of the homos in my book group usually annoys me with his book choices. But his latest choice The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne is oddly inoffensive and very well written. Boyne must be the Ric Grenell of writers in terms of not being an asshole about being gay and not being a proselytizing fuckhead about it. Maybe it has to do with being from Dublin...

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt

There's more than one ? Try bringing a weedwhacker next meeting !

Posted by: JT at February 06, 2022 11:50 AM (arJlL)

415 anonosaurus...i saw that!!

Posted by: Qmark at February 06, 2022 11:53 AM (emnp2)

416 ...no one cares whom you screw.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 11:53 AM (EZebt)

417 Posted by: That Deplorable SOB Van Owen at February 06, 2022 11:26 AM (dVlo/)

I love most of Hunter's books. Only a few I've put aside. My first Hunter book was Dirty White Boys which I bought at the airport and finished on the plane ride. It was a page turner.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 11:53 AM (Kz9dH)

418 IKEA has a lot of clever things. e.g. a great broom dust pan. A great air cleaner at a great price.

Posted by: Ignoramus at February 06, 2022 11:55 AM (i0slg)

419 Steven Pressfield put a lesbian cop in his woke book, 36 Righteous Men. But the devil temporarily turned her straight . His worst book by far.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 11:55 AM (Kz9dH)

420 What always amazed me about the Reacher books at least until Lee stopped writing them was that they were always good even though they were all the same. Reacher falls into the middle of some conspiracy...

That's because the Reacher books, like the Spenser books, aren't plot driven. The plot is just an excuse to write about Reacher acting like Reacher.

Lee Child wrote about that in the intro to The Killing Floor that I read way back when.

Posted by: Cybersmythe - SE Texas MiniMoMe March 26 at February 06, 2022 11:56 AM (ezpv1)

421 One of the greatest element of pride in Korea is their development of Hungul, and writing Korean in a native script instead of Chinese. Language is a major unifier for the the culture, and their literacy rates are insane.

Hangul makes Korean much more phonetic than English. It was a very far-sighted achievement.

Posted by: t-bird at February 06, 2022 11:56 AM (pbStR)

422 I care as much about Chris Wallace's career and job satisfaction as I do about Kamala's.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 11:57 AM (EZebt)

423 no one cares whom you screw.

I was going for the rhyme. This is a literary thread......

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:57 AM (7bRMQ)

424 Who dis: Mark Twain?

Posted by: Bonnie Blue - resist we much! at February 06, 2022 11:57 AM (hlxe7)

425 I love most of Hunter's books. Only a few I've put aside. My first Hunter book was Dirty White Boys which I bought at the airport and finished on the plane ride. It was a page turner.
Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022

***
His first, The Master Sniper, used a technique at the climax I hadn't seen before: one-sentence scenes. He'd give us a sentence from the leads' POV, blank line, then one from the sniper, blank line, then back to the leads again. Not overused, used to good effect.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:58 AM (c6xtn)

426 Homo version

Who's in Whom? No whats in whom . Then Who's in Who? I Don't Care.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at February 06, 2022 11:59 AM (Kz9dH)

427 Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 11:57 AM (7bRMQ)

===
I'm just busting your chops

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 12:00 PM (EZebt)

428 I'm just busting your chops

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 12:00 PM (EZebt)

I figgured.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 12:00 PM (7bRMQ)

429 My position on gay marriage is, Why should straight people be the only ones to suffer?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at February 06, 2022 12:01 PM (EZebt)

430 Who dis: Mark Twain?
Posted by: Bonnie Blue

Megan Rapinoe?

Posted by: Tonypete at February 06, 2022 12:01 PM (mD/uy)

431 NOOD DR Monkey

Posted by: Skip guy who says NOOD at February 06, 2022 12:01 PM (2JoB8)

432 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 11:58 AM (c6xtn)

Replied to your email

Back for the gun thread. Good day everyone.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at February 06, 2022 12:01 PM (7bRMQ)

433 ...no one cares whom you screw.

?! I'm looking this up and it seems like English has folded accusative and dative into one 'objective' case. So my German is hurting me here.

Posted by: t-bird at February 06, 2022 12:03 PM (vOGqy)

434 I just finished, "Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello" by Peter J. Hatch and have now started "Washington's Gardens at Mount Vernon" by Mac Griswold. (maybe this should be in the gardening thread instead? LOL).

Posted by: Bonnie Blue - resist we much! at February 06, 2022 12:04 PM (hlxe7)

435 For "gay" writers, I like Armistead Maupin, taken in small doses.

But thriller writers are my favorite. All the McGee novels are great reads, and when I first moved to Miami I made a pilgrimage to the Ft. Lauderdale marina slip where "Busted Flush" was moored.

Another really excellent writer (at his best, and he can be spotty) is Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlins stories.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 12:07 PM (j5ceG)

436 First let me say I LOVE me some Travis McGee. Read them a looooong time ago. Don't know if they'd still hold up, but I spent a great year reading all I could get my hands on back in the day.

This week I finished Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now. All hundred chapters and about 1000 pages. It took a while. Liked it very, very much. But not as much as the Barchester Chronicles. Not as much heart, for me.

Then I watched the BBC version on video. David Suchet was PERFECT as Augustus Melmotte, though I thought he overplayed Melmotte's demise. Pretty much everyone overplayed everything, but I still thought it was OK.

Now I'm working on two books, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner and Things Worth Dying For by Archbishop Chaput. That's kind of a weird combo now that i think about it.

Next Sunday starts pre-Lent (the three -gesima Sundays) and I will start my Lenten reading of The Confessions of St. Augustine. I'm a little nervous about that, but I am assured that it will be worth it.

Thank you for continuing the book thread!

Posted by: SummaMamaT - the one always late to the party at February 06, 2022 12:09 PM (USQVR)

437 Oh, yes, and major, major thumbs up on Prydain!

Posted by: SummaMamaT - the one always late to the party at February 06, 2022 12:12 PM (USQVR)

438 Think after reading synopsis, at Sharpe's Havoc so going to get it. Will hate myself if read it already.

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 12:13 PM (2JoB8)

439 408 Eris has remained true to what OM created while putting her own stamp on it. Well done.
Posted by: Captain Hate

So much this
Thank you Eris!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at February 06, 2022 12:13 PM (lCui1)

440 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
===============
A downer beginning to that book, but worth plowing through.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 12:13 PM (j5ceG)

441 Which one? I love the character and the series, but the novels are uneven, some more exciting than others.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at February 06, 2022 09:21 AM (c6xtn)

I remember reading "A Flash of Green" from that series, many years ago, and quite enjoyed it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at February 06, 2022 12:18 PM (P3gRi)

442 Thank heaven for previews, did read that, onto Sharpe's Eagle

Posted by: Skip at February 06, 2022 12:18 PM (2JoB8)

443 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
===============
A downer beginning to that book, but worth plowing through.
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 12:13 PM (j5ceG)

The stench of the decaying carcass made them real popular in the towns they rode through.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 12:26 PM (y7DUB)

444 The stench of the decaying carcass made them real popular in the towns they rode through.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at February 06, 2022 12:26 PM (y7DUB)
=============
I was thinking of the sounds of the coffin being made leaking into the sick room. Just depressing. Hard to believe the same writer wrote that great line for Lauren Bacall, "you know how to whistle, don't you? just put your lips together and blow"

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at February 06, 2022 12:33 PM (j5ceG)

445 Reading a paper about the evolution of the US Infantry division. It makes sense until post WW II. After that, I honestly don't know what the five sided nuthouse was trying to accomplish. Don't think the author really does either.
Posted by: Cause and Effect at February 06, 2022 09:26 AM (nI61m)

Are you referring to the short-lived "Pentomic" Division? If I recall correctly, the division consisted of 5 (hence the name) battle-groups that could, in theory, that could operate as independent, self-contained units. The organization didn't last long -- probably nobody really figured out how to execute the theory. Of this was also when the U.S. Army was toying with the idea of issuing nukes down to the battalion level (with the Davy Crocket recoilless rifle).

Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at February 06, 2022 01:25 PM (pJWtt)

446 Anti doesn't matter @371, "Captains Courageous" is a good story but, for my money, Kipling's greatest novel length work is "Kim".

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at February 06, 2022 03:28 PM (itkze)

447 Nemo @373 " Such a blessing: to be read to as a child!" Amen to that! Some of my fondest memories of my childhood are those of my father reading to me. Of course, Dad's ideas of suitable bedtime stories could be rather off beat. Aside from classics like "The Hobbit" he also read me selections from Bernal Diaz del Castillo's "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain" (a first hand account of how Cortez conquered the Aztecs by one of his soldiers). And Charles Portis's great American classic "True Grit".

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at February 06, 2022 03:41 PM (itkze)

448 A last comment: Thank you, Eris, for keeping the Book Thread going!

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at February 06, 2022 04:37 PM (itkze)

449 Pikesville 110 proof rye is my favorite but can be hard to find in Virginia. But Rittenhouse rye and Old Forester Rye, both 100 proof, are darn good, half the price, and usually available. I don't mix cocktails, just sip small amounts of the stuff neat. Sure stretches the booze budget.

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 04:56 PM (7EjX1)

450 Ignore number 449. I was in the wrong thread. Damn!

Posted by: JTB at February 06, 2022 04:57 PM (7EjX1)

451 My favorite Mr Blobby moment is on the Big Fat Quiz of the 90s. http://youtube.com/watch?v=97fw8xjB5u4

Posted by: someone at February 06, 2022 09:04 PM (2QuZ+)

452 When my oldest was little, we read all the original Wizard of Oz books and she loved them! The illustrations were really something. I had found very old copies at our public library. We also enjoyed reading the Chronicles of Narnia and the Never Ending Story together.

Posted by: Annie Rose at February 06, 2022 10:24 PM (xwwiT)

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