Sunday Morning Book Thread 01-10-2016: Reading In the Big Easy [OregonMuse]

Wild Partying on New Year's Eve at Casa de Muse.

Actually, this is the Arcadian Books and Art Prints book store in the New Orleans French Quarter, and the owner, Russell Desmond. More New Orleans book stores below.

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The Sunday Morning Book Thread is the only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. And when I type up the book thread, my pinkies remain elevated the whole time, that's how classy it is.

“[I] read books because I love them, not because I think I should read them.”
― Simon Van Booy

Bookstores In New Orleans

As it turns out, there is an amazing number of small, independent bookstores in the city of New Orleans. Here are a few, in no particular order:

Beckham's Bookshop: This book shop on Decatur Street specializes in used books. Current inventory includes fifty to sixty thousand second-hand books on two stories, also classical CDs and LPs.

And, more importantly:

We allow dogs and beer.

So what's not to like about a bookstore that invites you to come in and drink with your dog?

Faulkner House Books: The former home of William Faulkner now serves as a shop selling classic & local interest books. The tag line on the web page is "A sanctuary for fine literature":

Faulkner House Books is located at 624 Pirate’s Alley in the heart of New Orleans’ beautiful and historic French Quarter, just off Jackson Square...Faulkner House Books is a sanctuary for fine literature and rare editions, including, of course, books by and about Mr. Faulkner...Faulkner House Books has been described by both collectors and writers as America’s most charming book store.

I think it's awesome that there's a street in New Orleans named "Pirate's Alley." Makes me think you probably don't want to get caught there late at night. You might wake up on a ship out at sea. Arrr!

The web site for Faulker House Books is basically a blog. Browsing through it, there's some serious bibliophilia going on, in fact, it's probably too hoity-toity, even for us here on the book thread.

The Kitchen Witch: specializing in rare, hard to find, out of print and pre-owned books on food and cooking. If New Orleans is famous for anything (other than drunken, barely legal partying), it's the local cuisine, which is an exotic blend of French, Creole, and Cajun styles.

New Orleans was where I was first introduced to beignets, little deep-fried dough bombs dusted with powdered sugar and the bag they were brought in fresh from the bakery was one big grease spot. The beignet combines elements of all of the major food groups: sugar, starch, grease, and lard, and they were so disgusting, I couldn't stop eating them.

Lastly,

The Garden District Bookshop features a large collection of regional titles - new and used, fiction and non-fiction, children's, and signed first editions and limited editions by many regionally and nationally acclaimed authors. In keeping with the internet age, they are advertising that you can get a Kobo account through them and download books in such a way as its connected to the Garden District Bookshop, although the link appears to just go to the generic Kobo page. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Anyway, if this is what I think it is, it's an interesting idea, independent bookstores partnering with e-book distributors, although I'm not sure what the advantage would be for the reader. Is there a price break, perhaps?

Anyway, the takeaway from this is that there is a metric boatload of independent bookstores in the Crescent City, and you could spend a week browsing through them just in the French Quarter alone. And now, when I look at the times I had been down there, I wish I had.

Yet Another Quiz

Try this quiz on American literature. I was only able to get 20 questions right out of 30 for 67%. I'll bet some, or most, of you morons can do better.

USAF Books

So, like the other armed services, the USAF has its own list of what they want airmen to read. All of the service lists have books on leadership. The one on the USAF list ia Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin, about which they say:

This multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history. It offers fresh insights into Lincoln's leadership style and his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation. By examining Lincoln's relationships with the men he selected for his cabinet – among them William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860 - the author provides a “master class” in leadership, service, values and principles.

I thought Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer might be a book that everyone would like to read, not just airmen, or other military servicemen. It's a fictional story about

...a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self-interest. Massengale, on the other hand, advances by making connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power. Beginning in the French countryside during the Great War, the conflict between these adversaries solidifies during peacetime, intensifies in the deadly Pacific jungles of World War II, and reaches its treacherous conclusion in the last major battleground of the Cold War - Vietnam.

This massive novel (over 1300 pages) is also required reading for West Point and Marine Corps cadets. Somebody once told me there's a derogatory label for men like Courtney Massengale, but I've forgotten what it is.

And for the most moron-friendly title you're going to find pretty much anywhere, there's Beer, Bacon and Bullets. Subtitled "Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq", by Gal Luft, which

...examines how culture can impact the relations between Western militaries and their non-Western allies using five case studies of military cooperation: German advisors and their Ottoman counterparts in WWI; the Anglo-Japanese alliance in WWI; the U.S. military mission in China during WWII; American generals and their Saudi Arabian hosts in the first Gulf War; and the Israelis and their Lebanese allies in the shaping of today's Middle East.

Manly Books

Here's a piece that Maet linked to in an ONT a few days ago: 100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library, which is from 2008, but still worth looking at.

Most on the list actually belong on the list. However, there are a few clunkers, such as Catcher in the Rye. Catcher in the Rye? Really? Why? Don't you think America would be a lot better off if we stopped paying attention to that whiny little bitch Holden Caufield? Too bad his father didn't slap his punk ass around a bit when he first started up with his pathetic mopery. Told him to shape up and act like a man. "I'll give you something to snivel about, twinkle-toes!" Holden's dad would yell as he chased him around the yard with an axe handle.

Old school parenting is teh awesome.

Another Prophet

Interesting article in the Washington Free Beacon concerning the considerable prophetic talent of author and social critic Tom Wolfe:

The professor who called for “muscle” to help her expel a reporter from a protest held a “courtesy post” in the department of journalism. The details of the saga—including, and I am not making this up, a “poop swastika”—read like a missing chapter of Wolfe’s 2004 novel I Am Charlotte Simmons...

Wolfe’s output has not mirrored history but anticipated it. NASCAR? Read “The Last American Hero.” Self-help? Try “The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening.” Reality TV? There’s “Ambush at Fort Bragg.” Neuroscience? “Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died” was written in 1996.

I’ve stopped counting the number of times over the last year that I thought I was living in a Wolfe book.

I've read a number of Wolfe's books, and they do have a way of catching the current zeitgeist, whatever it happens to be, whether it's the hippie insanity of the 60s (Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test), the disco 70s (Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Clutter and Vine) or Wall Street in the 80s (Bonfire of the Vanities)

Mrs. Muse recommends From Bauhaus to Our House, Wolfe's eviscerating history of modern architecture and how buildings got to be so ugly.

Moron Recommendations

Sometimes in other threads, you morons mention books you've been reading, and if I'm there, I'll steal your comments for use here in the book thread. Like these:

Back on Christmas Eve, Norsothoreau wrote

204 I know it's not the book thread but I'm reading "The Most They Ever Had" by Rick Bragg. If there is ever a book that will make you feel grateful for what you have, it's this one. It's about mill workers and what the loss of their jobs meant. Bragg is one of my favorite writers.
He tells a story about a worker that was told to hook up a downed electrical wire. The company wouldn't shut down the power for him to do it and he was electrocuted. His wife sued and lost. The company argued that he should have known better.
Posted by: Notsothoreau at December 24, 2015 10:34 AM (Lqy/e)

The Most They Ever Had by Rick Bragg is about the people who live in these (textile) mill towns, and their backbreaking daily labor in intolerable conditions. There is no way I could ever do what they do.

___________

Commentor 'Feh' writes:

276 actually, I'm half-way through Sam Quinone's book on the opiate epidemic in middle America, "Dreamland"
highly recommended
Posted by: Feh at January 06, 2016 02:40 PM (QSx09)

I actually did not know we were in the middle of an opiate epidemic, and perhaps you didn't either, but Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of Americas Opiate Epidemic puts us some knowledge:

Over the past fifteen years, enterprising sugar cane farmers in the small county of Xalisco on the west coast of Mexico have created a unique distribution system that has brought black tar heroin--the cheapest, most addictive form of the opiate, two to three times purer than its white powder cousin--to the veins of people across the United States...How could heroin...be so incredibly ubiquitous in the American heartland?

Back when I was a stupid idiot (college), I did stupid, idiotic things, like drugs. But not heroin. I never saw heroin. Thank God.

___________

Finally, a recommendation from long-time moron boulder terlit hobo:

97 Tom Holland's book "In the Shadow of the Sword" belongs on the Moron Reading List. The amount one learns about the end of the Sasanian Empire is alone worth the price of admission. And then the real fun starts where he looks into the rise of Islam, and finds out that the Muslims' own accounts about it are pretty much bullshit.
Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at January 06, 2016 07:39 PM (6FqZa)

As far as history goes, boulder terlit hobo is large and in charge. So if bht says In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire belongs on the Moron Reading List, then on the Moron Reading List it will go.

No less significant than the collapse of the Roman Republic or the Persian invasion of Greece, the evolution of the Arab empire is one of the supreme narratives of ancient history, a story dazzlingly rich in drama, character, and achievement. Just like the Romans, the Arabs came from nowhere to carve out a stupefyingly vast dominion—except that they achieved their conquests not over the course of centuries as the Romans did but in a matter of decades.

Of course, this is what ISIS yearns for and wants to bring back - the glorious Caliphate, a big-ass Islamic (Arabic?) empire spanning continents and oceans, and the overthrow of everything else. So, in that sense, ISIS remains true to the intent and purposes of its Islamic forebears.

Books By Morons

As most of you probably already know, moron commenter Mary Poppins Practically Perfect Piercing is an author, and, in particular, the author of The Director's Cut. This novel is a story wherein silent movie vamp Theda Bara teams up with a makeup artist to solve a murder to get her film project (and her dreams of stardom) back on track. MP⁴ has forgotten more about the Hollywood silent film era than the rest of us will probably ever learn, and he puts this knowledge to good use here.

MP⁴ has finished the first couple of chapters of the sequel, The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, and has graciously put them up on his web site as sample chapters. I don't know anything about the plot as I haven't read them, yet.

They can be accessed from this web page.

So thank you MP⁴.

By the way, before MP⁴ was an expert on old Hollywood, he was an expert on old Whitechapel, i.e. Jack the Ripper. He has several contributions to the "Ripperology" field, among them The News from Whitechapel: Jack the Ripper in the Daily Telegraph, co-authored with Dave Yost and The Jack the Ripper Suspects: Persons Cited by Investigators and Theorists with Stan Russo.

___________

Don't forget the AoSHQ reading group on Goodreads. It's meant to support horde writers and to talk about the great books that come up on the book thread. It's called AoSHQ Moron Horde and the link to it is here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/175335-aoshq-moron-horde.

___________

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

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

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:08 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Yay Book thread!

Now to read it ...

Posted by: @votermom at January 10, 2016 09:06 AM (cbfNE)

2 I barely had time to leave a "in before the book thread" comment on the morning thread.

Howdy to readers. Gonna peruse the morning comments a bit more, then what looks like a book-length book thread post, by which time there will be a barrelful of comments here... it never ennnnnds!

Posted by: mindful webworker - brrrr at January 10, 2016 09:10 AM (bVtr0)

3 Thank you OregonMuse, for another great book thread.

Recently read Utopia, by Thomas More.

His ideas are unworkable in actual human societies.

Even ants would have a tough time with his crazy notions of what works. I suppose it was a reaction to his own times. He solved topical problems in his mind, without really thinking the second order effects through.

The kicker, for me, was his absolute reliance on slaves to make everything work.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 09:12 AM (u82oZ)

4 FORE!

Posted by: Precedental Alert System at January 10, 2016 09:13 AM (RNBDV)

5 " Somebody once told me there's a derogatory label for men like Courtney Massengale, but I've forgotten what it is."

Shitbird.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 09:14 AM (ys2UW)

6 Yay, second? My personal best. (Well, not by the time I finish typing.)

Reading "The Arabs" by David Lamb as a follow-up to "The Africans. Makes the excuses you would expect that we all worship the same God since "Allah" means "God" which is the stupidest reason for anything the west has ever made up.

This book is from 1978 so political correctness did not reign supreme and the book includes this delightful bit: "when I asked one government official why Oman had a policy that seemed to discriminate against Arabs, he replied, 'Because Englishmen don't plant bombs.'"

I was reading some true crime but it got boring with too much quoting of emails between husband and wife - he killed her - the day of the murder so I dropped that one and started Paul Johnson's biography of Jesus: "Jesus: a biography from a believer." Not too far into it but it's Johnson so it's lovely: his description of the Magnificat and subsequent quoting of that when he laid it out like poetry moved me to tears:

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior.
For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name.

How much beyond that and John 3:16 needs to be said?

Thanks, always, OM for the book thread.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 10, 2016 09:20 AM (RtCTo)

7 He solved topical problems in his mind, without really thinking the second order effects through.

So what's your point?

Posted by: Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Iosif Stalin, and every progressive, ever at January 10, 2016 09:20 AM (hTaw+)

8 I heartily recommend MP4's "Director's Cut". He knows the period, the culture and the film industry of the time. I couldn't decide which I enjoyed more: the mystery or the characters that drive the story. I'm looking forward to the sequel whenever it comes out.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 09:21 AM (FvdPb)

9 Speaking of reading in the Big Easy, I got half way through Confederency Of Dunces about a year ago and I put it down and haven't picked it up again. Wasn't my cup of tea.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky at January 10, 2016 09:24 AM (MNgU2)

10 The "answer" to the literature quiz on Catch-22 is incorrect.

The correct answer is the first one.

Posted by: TexasJew at January 10, 2016 09:25 AM (isWj/)

11 I am reading 3 books: 13 hours, Seamus Muldoon' s book, and an sf book by another Moron (Outward Frontier by Dana Epperson)

And willowed comment:

I'm gonna try a "today in history" theme for Sundays on my blog bookhorde.org
I was gonna note that this is the day Dashiell Hammett died, then I read bit of his bio and found out he was a card carrying commie, so I went with an outlaw instead.
Link in nic

Posted by: @votermom at January 10, 2016 09:25 AM (cbfNE)

12 that is a picture of a fire trap not a bookstore

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at January 10, 2016 09:29 AM (Cq0oW)

13 Nope; I didn't do any better on the quiz, I did worse. I haven't read anything by Toni Morrison, never read
"On The Road" and haven't read "Catcher in The Rye for 40 years-to name a few of my slip ups.

I'd do better with English writers, I expect.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 10, 2016 09:32 AM (M+RRn)

14 Oh, good read groupies: you can nominate group reads for March & April. There is a thread open under the folder Group Reads.

Non goodreaders - go ahead and join.
Leave a comment on this thread if you are a lurker before joining so we can verify that you are indeed of the horde.

Posted by: @votermom at January 10, 2016 09:33 AM (cbfNE)

15 RE: Massengale. REMF, Rear Echelon Mother Fucker.

Posted by: AtlJim at January 10, 2016 09:33 AM (KtpTY)

16 I'm glad you linked that 100 books list from the ONT the other night. If you hadn't done it, I was prepared to.

While nobody is going to agree on every book on the list, there are lots of good ones. And it's charmingly illustrated with photos of vintage book covers.

I'm embarrassed to admit how few of them I've read, however.

Posted by: rickl at January 10, 2016 09:33 AM (sdi6R)

17 Sadly, there are a lot of books in the 100 list that fall into my
"Feel like I should have read that book, but way too inscrutable or too much work."

Posted by: Edmund Burkes Shade at January 10, 2016 09:34 AM (cmBvC)

18 Not a lot of time for reading this week but, in line with reading most of Shakespeare's works this year, I started with some of his sonnets. I don't know if his poetry originally was read in print or heard aloud like the plays. I either read them out loud or at least hear them in my mind. The possible variations of meaning depending on what is stressed is fascinating. Glad I'm not in a hurry to get through them. In their own way, they are as complex as the plays.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 09:35 AM (FvdPb)

19 The kicker, for me, was his absolute reliance on slaves to make everything work.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 09:12 AM (u82oZ)

This Marx fellow intrigues me.

Posted by: Every Democrat Everywhere at January 10, 2016 09:39 AM (KUa85)

20 Would have been here first but my tablet was confiscated. Finished Seamus's book, the other place I go it would be termed Weird World War II. I enjoyed it, thought the story was intriguing and came together.
Sorry that it ended and couldn't continue, or could it?

Posted by: Skip at January 10, 2016 09:40 AM (3ZgzE)

21 Great thread, thank you! Also thank you for the tip on Dreamland. Lost too many kids in the small town where I used to teach to heroin, oxy, etc. The book is sold out in hard copy on Amazon, but I just downloaded the Kindle version.

Posted by: Emily at January 10, 2016 09:40 AM (7Rn+/)

22 I'm guessing as I asked the other night with this crowd about the 100 books site
Seeing the movie counts right?

Posted by: Skip at January 10, 2016 09:42 AM (3ZgzE)

23 Max @ 9 - You got that far? I tossed the book at about one quarter of the way through. Hated it.

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 09:43 AM (hXu8T)

24 50% on the quiz, not bad for not having read any of them except Mockingbird and Moby Dick.

Finished Chivers' "The Gun," history of automatic firearms. It's a bit repetitive, but deeply researched, and I learned a lot.

Halfway thru Henry Hill's "The Lufthansa Heist," which is basically "Goodfellas" in book form, The movie is better.

Posted by: gp at January 10, 2016 09:43 AM (mk9aG)

25 Ugh.

Stupid subconscious.

That should be-

"This More fellow intrigues me."

Moar Kawphee!

Posted by: Every Democrat Everywhere at January 10, 2016 09:44 AM (KUa85)

26 I read One Year After by William R. Forstchen. It's a continuation of the story in his One Second After: the people of Black Mountain, North Carolina trying to survive after an EMP attack on the United States. The villain is a U. S. government administrator who reminds me of the line, "I'm from the U. S. government, and I'm here to help." The book moves the story along, and I'm looking forward to reading the promised third book in the series.

I also read Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden. It's the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, who was born to two prisoners in a North Korean political labor camp. His life of hardship, eventual escape, life in China and eventually coming to South Korea and the United States is well told by Harden, a former bureau chief for The Washington Post. Along with Shin's story one learns much about North Korea, the Chinese border region in the extreme north, and South Korea's complicated relationship with the North.

Posted by: Zoltan at January 10, 2016 09:44 AM (JYer2)

27 "Somebody once told me there's a derogatory label for men like Courtney Massengale, but I've forgotten what it is."

Douche? Obvious guess.

Blue Falcon?

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 09:44 AM (hXu8T)

28 47% on the quiz.

I am functionally illiterate, but I don't mind the score. Nor, I haven't read Edith Warton or Toni Morrison. And I've read Old Man and the Sea a million times but I don't remember the arm wrestling match.

Plus I made some lucky guesses. Probably should have had 25%.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 09:45 AM (1xUj/)

29 Muldoons book doesn't have enough zombies in it.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at January 10, 2016 09:45 AM (Cq0oW)

30 Bigby @ 29 - Yeah, but what about the final battle on that volcano?

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 09:47 AM (hXu8T)

31 g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at January 10, 2016 09:47 AM (KCxzN)

32 Salutations to the Glorious Book Thread! Kitteh insisted (with teeth) that I get up early so here I am, in before the triple digits.

Speaking of large numbers, the first draft of One Blood is DONE. Weighing in at 102,000 words. It will probably get larger on rewrite. (pant, pant) Wrangling space Neanderthals and demi-kaiju is harder than it looks. I also did my first ever Tuckerization, and I think it came out pretty well.

On the reading front, finished the frothy God Emperor of Didicot a Space Captain Smith sendup of Dune and the like. The plot centers around tea and its critical role in providing Moral Fiber to the British Space Empire, surrounded by a great deal of silliness.

So, what other good books are people reading?

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at January 10, 2016 09:48 AM (GG9V6)

33 "Utopia," ugh. I looked at it after watching "A Man for all Seasons." How could such a smart guy write that twaddle?

Programming books count? I'm working my way thru the second edition of the Big Nerd Ranch guide to Android Programming.

Posted by: gp at January 10, 2016 09:51 AM (mk9aG)

34 Speaking of reading in the Big Easy, I got half way through Confederency Of Dunces about a year ago and I put it down and haven't picked it up again. Wasn't my cup of tea.
Posted by: Max Rockatansky at January 10, 2016 09:24 AM (MNgU2)

What is that book about, anyway? It's been on my stack for a long time, but I've never gotten to it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 09:51 AM (hTaw+)

35 Finished Chivers' "The Gun," history of automatic firearms. It's a bit repetitive, but deeply researched, and I learned a lot.

ISWYDT

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 09:52 AM (hTaw+)

36 I'm reading "Hexed", the second book in the Iron Druid Chronicles series.

It's genre, and I'm not a genre guy. A friend is getting me to broaden my horizons. Witches, vampires, werewolves, our titular Druid, some demigods, and a talking dog.

The first one was quite fun, but somehow it doesn't count as "reading".

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 09:52 AM (1xUj/)

37 I was surprised as hell about 10 years ago when there was a sudden upsurge in heroin usage and death by overdose in the upper middle class area I was living in-

due to the use of "Cheese".

Which is black tar heroin mixed with Tylenol PM.

Apparently, it was the "Zima" of heroin addiction and a great fun and flavorful way to introduce it to kids.

The overdose victims and addicted weren't a bunch of snagged out, 40 year old human garbage bags but

13-18 year olds just beginning the prime of their lives.

The Death penalty should definitely apply to drug dealers.

Buuuuut, I guess we'll get legalization instead. Probably before TFG leaves office.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 09:53 AM (KUa85)

38 Just looked at the 100 book list. I've read more than a quarter of them and what I've not read I've seen the movie. That's the problem with classics you haven't read.

On that list , the book that gives me the best memories is Tarzan . After reading it as a kid I fantasized about being Tarzan for a number of years. Almost killed myself making a rope 'vine' to swing from one tree to another. Though I have good memories of it, It was also a sad book to me in a lot of ways.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky at January 10, 2016 09:54 AM (MNgU2)

39 OM @ 34 - Don't waste your time. It is about a thoroughly unpleasant fellow who believes himself better and smarter than he is. Not even funny. It is one of the few books that I not only did not finish, but threw it out as well.

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 09:54 AM (hXu8T)

40 His ideas are unworkable in actual human societies.

IIRC, that was the point: to demonstrate that a "perfect" society is impossible.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at January 10, 2016 09:55 AM (iuQS7)

41 What snapperhead put Hendrix on a chart with those no talent hacks on the "Periodic Table Of Metal",let alone lumped him with "metal" ?

Posted by: You kids call that music ? at January 10, 2016 09:55 AM (uN4Ye)

42 The little indie bookstores in New Orleans have gone through a curious cycle, like spawning salmon. Back in the 1970s they were mostly in the Quarter, old shops that had been there a long time. As they closed, the center of bookstore activity shifted to Uptown around Tulane University and the Magazine St. antique-shop gauntlet. Now as those Boomer bookstore owners are retiring, the action seems to be shifting back to the Quarter.

In part I think it's a sign of a shift I've noticed since Katrina: stores in the Quarter are going upscale (except on Bourbon St., of course). There are the same kind of nosebleed-expensive art galleries and clothing shops you see in Greenwich Village in NYC. I think they're aimed at wealthy visitors (just like the ones in NYC).

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 10, 2016 09:56 AM (zq6az)

43 15 RE: Massengale. REMF, Rear Echelon Mother Fucker.
Posted by: AtlJim at January 10, 2016 09:33 AM (KtpTY)

This wasn't the one I was thinking of, although it is appropriate.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 09:57 AM (hTaw+)

44 Another question about the 100 books site is just in your lifetime right? Many I read in high school somewhere around 40 years ago.

Posted by: Skip at January 10, 2016 09:57 AM (3ZgzE)

45 My recommend for a New Orleans read : Fat White Vampire Blues. Pretty much what a real New Orleans vamp might be like. None 0f that sparkly, glowy stuff.

Posted by: DRH at January 10, 2016 10:00 AM (AUto9)

46 This week reading 'Decline and Fall', Evelyn Waugh. A tip o' the hat to NaCly who recommended it. If you enjoy Wodehouse, you'll enjoy this. It is the first time in a while that I have laughed out loud while reading.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 10, 2016 10:01 AM (RrDm2)

47 Also, hillarious.

Posted by: DRH at January 10, 2016 10:01 AM (AUto9)

48 Confederacy of Dunces is a very bimodal book: people love it or hate it. I love it, my wife hates it.

A couple of interesting points: it was written just a couple of years after Walker Percy published _The Moviegoer_, and I find myself wondering if Toole intended it to be at least partly a satire of Percy's book.

Second, I've been struck by how prophetic it is. Ignatius J. Reilly was a weird eccentric when Toole invented him in the early 1960s, but now he's everywhere: flannel shirt, overweight, knowitall who isn't as smart as he thinks he is . . . just look over at the next table in the coffeeshop and there he is; maybe a little slimmer and spouting crackpot atheist/occult nonsense instead of crackpot ultra-Catholicism, but otherwise unmistakeably the same.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 10, 2016 10:01 AM (zq6az)

49 Ah, the highlight of my Sunday mornings - the stately and prestigious Book Thread!
Oh, and second the nom for Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House. I read it sometimes in the early nineties and fell apart, laughing. I have always hate-hated-hated modern architecture - the big glass and steel boxes with a bare plaza in front with a concrete turd in a pool of water -- but Wolfe put into words exactly WHY I felt that way!

I got the Santa Fe cookbook recommended in last week's cooking thread, and a book about combining a garden with free-range chickens (which is harder than one might think, as the buggers fall on everything green but rose-bush leaves and citrus shrubs. Not much time this week for pleasure reading, due to deadlines with the Tiny Publishing Bidness.

Posted by: CeliaHayes at January 10, 2016 10:01 AM (95iDF)

50 My sister gave me Confederation of Dunces to read because she disliked living in Louisiana. I gave it back.

I did just finish Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Not a bad adventure book, it and Treasure Island are the quintessential "boys' books"

Kidnapped is interesting because it points out that the whole Scottish experience is not eating organ meat and oatmeal and stealing cattle. Post 1745 it was living under a repressive dictatorship bent on wiping out your entire way of life and culture. And this is taken as granted.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 10, 2016 10:01 AM (q2o38)

51 Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 09:51 AM (hTaw+)

To describe it in today's society , it's about a 30 year old Lefty who still lives with his mom, who doesn't want to get a job because he thinks he's too good and smart to work . Finally gets a job and tries to change everything according to what he wants and manipulates other dumbasses by playing the victim card.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky at January 10, 2016 10:02 AM (MNgU2)

52 Still busy with revamping several rooms in the house which limited reading time. There is an unfortunate aspect of the pushmi-pullyu from Doctor Doolittle involved so the pace is not rapid.

I did come across some writing, articles and a novel, I've done over the years and a lot of notes. I do this writing for my amusement or to relieve anger. There are actually some decent bits among the cinders. This is a pleasure activity. My days of deadlines and answering to editors is in the past.

In line with that, I read two books about typewriters. "The Typewriter Revolution" by Richard Polt and "Typewriters For Writers" by Scott Schad. Both deal with the efficacy and advantages for the modern author. Lots of good information on choosing and using these old manual machines and why they are still effective tools.

I consider a good manual typewriter to be one of the best drafting tools ever created. Notice I said 'drafting'. (Thank God I no longer to need to produce finished copy on one.) There is a satisfaction to working on one that I've never experienced with a computer.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 10:02 AM (FvdPb)

53 32/100 on the books list. I'm illiterate.

OTOH, I will strenuously object to Steppenwolf being on it.

I remember it was popular with the hippies in the 60s. I'm not sure why. I read Hesse's "Klingsors letzter Sommer" (last summer) and couldn't wait for summer to end so that annoying twatwaffle would finish dying.

Then No. 1 Son, who is a college student, read Steppenwolf and got all enthralled by it. Suggested I read it. I got all high-horse and said that if I read it in translation it would annoy me second guessing the translator. Then we found it in krautish. So I read the first couple of chapters.

The main character is the same annoying guy from Klingsor, just with a different name.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 10:03 AM (1xUj/)

54 38 Max Rockatansky

Tarzan was my gateway book series. My dad hooked me in with that. He would make me wait a week to read the next in the series.

I still have my paperback books of every Edgar Rice Burroughs story published.

The craziest setting for his stories was the ranch outside Beatrice, Nebraska. I went through there last week, and the reality disappoints.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 10:03 AM (u82oZ)

55 Re: Tom Holland. You can't go wrong here if you're a history buff. I found his "The Forge of Christendom" to be one of the most interesting I've ever read. Tells about the century 1000 which was considered the millennium and the expected coming of Christ.

A multitude of events here--Hastings, the First Crusade to name a couple. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Libra at January 10, 2016 10:03 AM (GblmV)

56 Posted by: gp at January 10, 2016 09:51 AM (mk9aG)

I've been told that Utopia is satire (the literal meaning is essentially "too good to be true").

Given Poe's law, it wouldn't be surprising that it was difficult/impossible to tell something hundreds of years old was satirical sunce we aren't familiar with the social context it was written in.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 10, 2016 10:06 AM (GDulk)

57 I got 50% on the American Literature quiz, which isn't bad considering that I haven't read most of those books. I guess I've just absorbed them through osmosis, simply by living in this culture. Plus there were a few lucky guesses.

I had to laugh at the arm-wrestling question from "The Old Man and the Sea", which I haven't read. I picked "less than a second" which was wrong, but accurately described an actual arm-wrestling match I lost to the smallest girl in the class when I was in fifth grade.

I probably should have proposed to her on the spot, but I wasn't thinking along those lines at the time.

Posted by: rickl at January 10, 2016 10:06 AM (sdi6R)

58 Love Tom Wolfe but I haven't read all of his stuff, chiefly because I have it in hardback, not Kindle, and I don't really have a good place to read a large hardback book.

But I liked "The Painted Word" even better than "From Bauhaus to Our House." PW is a takedown of modern art and modern art criticism which is simply delightful and cured me forever of wondering what I was missing when I looked at most modern art.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 10, 2016 10:06 AM (RtCTo)

59 I liked Holden Caulfield. He never got over his brother's death plus he was going to bars in NYC which was great.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at January 10, 2016 10:09 AM (iQIUe)

60 by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 10:03 AM (u82oZ)

I think the only other Tarzan book of his I read was Return of Tarzan. It was a long time ago. I wish I was aware enough as a kid to have read his Mars books. It's something I know I would have loved as a kid.

Posted by: Max Rockatansky at January 10, 2016 10:09 AM (MNgU2)

61 I re read Surprised By Joy CS Lewis. And finally read Six Nonlectures by e e cummings. It gave my brain a workout.

Posted by: Beth M at January 10, 2016 10:10 AM (kiy9d)

62 When I was in HS, I read most of Faulkner in a lame attempt to impress my HS English teacher. It didnt work.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at January 10, 2016 10:10 AM (iQIUe)

63 I got the Santa Fe cookbook recommended in last week's cooking thread, and a book about combining a garden with free-range chickens (which is harder than one might think, as the buggers fall on everything green but rose-bush leaves and citrus shrubs.

We kept a few chickens for a year or two, and, not being familiar with their habits, I was amazed at how destructive they can be. They ate every green twig and blade of grass they could gain access to in our yard. They're like locusts with beaks.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 10:11 AM (hTaw+)

64 OM @ 43 - Careerist?

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:13 AM (hXu8T)

65 Oh that test pissed me off. I had read most of the books and authors to some level but the questions pissed me off.

Sort of like asking, 'Earnest Hemingway did much of his writing while standing up. Which model of typewriter did he use?'

Posted by: Ben Dover (You know it's coming) at January 10, 2016 10:14 AM (fbovC)

66 Of all my Christmas gifted books, as I predicted, I started with HG Wells's First Men in the Moon. I'm only seven chapters into it, but enjoying both the experience of reading hard copy, and Wells's style.

The science is ludicrous, of course. Anti-gravity metal. The moon descriptions, seen from nearly fifty years after we landed there fer realz, are hilariously wrong.

But the writing is a pleasure. The language is richer than modern usage. The pace is unrushed, as if the author assumed that reading was the point, not rushing to the conclusion. Takes his time in descriptions of a house exploding violently, or the amusing depiction of the space travelers and their unsecured gear banging about inside a lurching sphere.

Been a while since I've visited an old book, can you tell?

==

Might'z well plug, again, Invulnerable, my weird little mixed-media SF'ish tale of an odd young man with a peculiar gift. Free on the web, and worth it. Table of contents linked in the nic. Comments link on contents page. Annnnd.. PayPal donation buttons on every page theoretically work.

Posted by: mindful webworker - indubitably at January 10, 2016 10:16 AM (bVtr0)

67 I liked Holden Caulfield.

I liked Holden Caulfield, too, although his freedom scared me. My parents never let me do anything, so his ability to take cabs and meet a girl at the skating rink and drink in bars (OK, I did that one) seemed to come from an alternate world.

I felt the same way about Huck Finn, too. Both books merited revisiting as an adult with perspective.

Also, in high school I had no idea about class or what it meant to live in Manhattan and go to boarding school.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 10:17 AM (1xUj/)

68 OM @ 43 - Careerist?

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:13 AM (hXu8T)

Yeah, that's what it means, but it's more contempt-laden, like "pencil-pusher" or something like that. Danged if I can remember what it is, though. Maybe I'm just imagining it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 10:18 AM (hTaw+)

69 For me, the annoying thing is that I read several of those books so long ago that I could not remember the detail. Others, (say Angelou and Morrison) I have no regret for not having read. Anyhow, I augered in at 50%. Sad.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 10, 2016 10:18 AM (RrDm2)

70 OM @ 68 - Perfumed Prince?

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:20 AM (hXu8T)

71 "The Peruvian invasion of Greece," had me doing a classic double take.

Posted by: Chinwendu Whitecrest at January 10, 2016 10:22 AM (THDNf)

72
48 Confederacy of Dunces is a very bimodal book: people love it or hate it. I love it, my wife hates it.

A couple of interesting points: it was written just a couple of years after Walker Percy published _The Moviegoer_, and I find myself wondering if Toole intended it to be at least partly a satire of Percy's book.

Second, I've been struck by how prophetic it is. Ignatius J. Reilly was a weird eccentric when Toole invented him in the early 1960s, but now he's everywhere: flannel shirt, overweight, knowitall who isn't as smart as he thinks he is . . . just look over at the next table in the coffeeshop and there he is; maybe a little slimmer and spouting crackpot atheist/occult nonsense instead of crackpot ultra-Catholicism, but otherwise unmistakeably the same.
Posted by: Trimegistus at January 10, 2016 10:01 AM (zq6az)

Some years ago I was sitting at a bar in Baton Rouge waiting for friends to join me after work. A handsome young man sat down a couple of stools away.....We started chatting about one thing and then another. I mentioned something that I had read recently, and he seemed surprised that I was a reader. I guess I look dumb! One book I mentioned having read recently was "A confederacy of Dunces" and how much I had enjoyed it. The guy immediately got up, kissed me right smack in the mouth, and proposed marriage. It is true!! You either love the book or you hate it. I think he thought we were soul mates because I liked it so much. LOL!

Posted by: TX ette, pissed off and ready to rumble at January 10, 2016 10:24 AM (sUJHF)

73 What is that book about, anyway? It's been on my stack for a long time, but I've never gotten to it.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 09:51 AM (hTaw+)

I guess it's up to me to defend the honor of "A Confederacy of Dunces" seeing as how some morons have poo-ooed it.

I laughed pretty much all the way through it.

It's a very well written comic novel. A modern version of the picaresque novel full of colorful characters who are self-deceiving lunkheads and obsessives.

For instance, the main character, Ignatius J Reilly, is a fat, slovenly loser who considers himself a genius of the highest order and who is corner hot dog stand vendor because that's the only job he can (just barely)hold due to his massive distain of the modern world and the people in it.

Humor, of course, is an individual thing. So, if you require a hero in a novel who is "just like me" and one who you'd like to grab a beer with-

yeah, no, this isn't the novel for you.

The title "A Confederacy of Dunces" might be the tip off there.

I'd say that if you enjoy reading Evelyn Waugh, Kingsley Amis, and Tom Sharpe-

you'd probably enjoy "A Confederacy of Dunces".

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 10:24 AM (KUa85)

74 The "answer" to the literature quiz on Catch-22 is incorrect.

The correct answer is the first one.

Posted by: TexasJew at January 10, 2016 09:25 AM (isWj/)

Yes

Posted by: Velvet Ambition at January 10, 2016 10:25 AM (QPdNE)

75 I'm reading "The Ghost's of K2" about the first attempts at the world's 2nd, and easily most difficult mountaineering problem. It's a fascinating look at the men, and technology involved with first ascents. Much more interesting than reading about Hillary's(!) lard ass getting dragged to the top of Everest by Tensing Norgay.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at January 10, 2016 10:25 AM (5buP8)

76 One of my goals now is collecting books for my five-year old to read eventually. That 100 list had many for a good start.

Posted by: Beth M at January 10, 2016 10:26 AM (kiy9d)

77 74 The "answer" to the literature quiz on Catch-22 is incorrect.

The correct answer is the first one.

Posted by: TexasJew at January 10, 2016 09:25 AM (isWj/)

Yes
Posted by: Velvet Ambition at January 10, 2016 10:25 AM (QPdNE)

That's the one I picked, and I have read that book.

Posted by: rickl at January 10, 2016 10:30 AM (sdi6R)

78 yeah, no, this isn't the novel for you.

Okay, this is my current campaign -- to stop everyone from the 'yeah, no' tic verbally. It does not work in writing, and only works verbally with heavy-duty sarcasm.

Anybody else here remember the Britcom where the female pastor is dealing with her parish council and one of the members uses that as a comedy bit? Drives me up the wall batty. Yes or no; make a choice and refine your language.

My kids use it all the time and I get flaky with rage.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 10, 2016 10:30 AM (MIKMs)

79 I would like to pick a bone about the Samsung Galexy Kindle app. Having had a Kindle and now the Galaxy the Kindle is much better. I'm having trouble figuring out how to get out of the book your reading to another on your library. Actually negotiating around the app is poor to me.

Posted by: Skip at January 10, 2016 10:31 AM (3ZgzE)

80 That's the one I picked, and I have read that book.

I as well.

That's a book I loved in high school. No. 2 Son read it in high school and loved it. I decided to re-read it.

This time I found it annoying. I don't know if it was my mood or if it doesn't age well.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 10:32 AM (1xUj/)

81 On the Catch-22 question I am sure the first two were correct so picked all

Posted by: Skip at January 10, 2016 10:32 AM (3ZgzE)

82 Sort of like asking, 'Earnest Hemingway did much of his writing while standing up. Which model of typewriter did he use?'

Yeah, I wound up not finishing it for the same reason. I'm a medievalist, not an AmLit specialist, and you'd pretty much have to be an AmLit specialist to know some of those questions.

Posted by: Elisabeth G. Wolfe at January 10, 2016 10:33 AM (iuQS7)

83 43 15 RE: Massengale. REMF, Rear Echelon Mother Fucker.
Posted by: AtlJim at January 10, 2016 09:33 AM (KtpTY)

This wasn't the one I was thinking of, although it is appropriate.
Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 09:57 AM (hTaw+)

See my suggestion.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 10:33 AM (ys2UW)

84 OM. Comment #5.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 10:34 AM (ys2UW)

85 But the writing is a pleasure. The language is richer than modern usage.
The pace is unrushed, as if the author assumed that reading was the
point, not rushing to the conclusion.

I buy old books at the Goodwill Bin store, it is where they dunp all the stuff they can't sell in the stores or are damaged and won't move.

I picked up a 1902 copy of The Four Feathers, which takes place in the Madhist uprising in Sudan. I gave it to Dad to read, since he once expressed a great excitement at the movie, and he mentioned that the language is much more intricate, and written to be read and worked over.
When he is done I will be working it over to try to rescue it as a book, the spine is broken and the end-papers are split.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 10, 2016 10:36 AM (q2o38)

86 Yes or no; make a choice and refine your language.

Yeah, no.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 10:37 AM (KUa85)

87 Best Ripper book I ever read was Whitechapel Conspiracy by Ann Perry. It follows much the same tale as From Hell by Allan Moore, but was written earlier and a bit less lurid. However, what I thought was just a theme of that book ended up being a repeated, annoying one through all her books: that an evil corrupt cabal of the super-rich elite run England.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 10, 2016 10:37 AM (39g3+)

88 Baldi - Please see my suggestion @ 70.

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:37 AM (hXu8T)

89 76 ... Beth M, The list from Art of Manliness is a start but not gospel. I saw the article when it first came out and wasn't too impressed. Too many 'classics' that I think are overrated. When collecting books for your future reader, look at H. Rider Haggard (Allen Quartermain, etc.), ERB's Mars series, and the Heinlein juveniles. Obviously these reflect my preferences but I found them fun, different from the pap offered for modern kids' books and enough of a challenge (vocabulary) to keep the learning process sharp and interesting.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 10:39 AM (FvdPb)

90 88 Baldi - Please see my suggestion @ 70.
Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:37 AM (hXu8T)

Okay. But we're talking military men and derogatory.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 10:39 AM (ys2UW)

91 Ohio is in the midst of a terrible heroin problem. A day doesn't go by that we don't hear stories of children dead in bathrooms at school, parents die in front of their children while shooting up at home, we even had parents die from an od in their child's room at the children's hospital. It's in the small towns and the large cities and police and the medical people are screaming for help. It seems to have become the drug of choice today.

Posted by: Abby Coffey at January 10, 2016 10:39 AM (HBU7W)

92 I hope it's not too late for me to mention that I read David Mamet's new play, China Doll. The play on paper is much better than the Broadway reviews.

Posted by: Pete in Texas at January 10, 2016 10:40 AM (2RBkF)

93 See my suggestion.
Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 10:33 AM (ys2UW)

"Shitbird" means something slightly different. It means:

"(U.S. Marine Corps)Derogatory name for a Marine that is not squared away in appearance or discipline."

this according to

http://www.military.com/

join-armed- forces/

military- terms-and

-jargon.html

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 10:41 AM (hTaw+)

94 BtW, "Wild Partying on New Year's Eve at Casa de Muse"? You had me going there for a moment. Is that really Oregon Muse?? Oh.

The Typo Nazi in my head happened to notice these and made me mention them:

"There is no say I could ever do what they do"

No way you meant "say." (W and S are so close together on the qwerty keyboard...!) Also:

"...in the middle of an opiate addition" - Unless my inner Typo Nazi is ignorant of some usage of "addition." Even "addiction" wouldn't work there. Perhaps "addiction epidemic"?

Sig Hail!

Posted by: mindful webworker - indubitably at January 10, 2016 10:41 AM (bVtr0)

95
"Shitbird" means something slightly different. It means:

"(U.S. Marine Corps)Derogatory name for a Marine that is not squared away in appearance or discipline."

this according to

http://www.military.com/

join-armed- forces/

military- terms-and

-jargon.html
Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 10:41 AM (hTaw+)

It also means a brown-noser and a back-stabber.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 10:42 AM (ys2UW)

96 mustbequantum" Okay, this is my current campaign -- to stop everyone from the 'yeah, no' tic verbally.

It's one of those things that was funny the first time.

Posted by: mindful webworker - oh, yeah? at January 10, 2016 10:45 AM (bVtr0)

97 JTB thanks! The stuff from the last decade is horrible.

Posted by: Beth M at January 10, 2016 10:45 AM (kiy9d)

98 Sig Hail!

I wouldn't do this if you hadn't just typo-nazied.

Sieg (victory) Heil (hail).

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 10:46 AM (1xUj/)

99 I love "nope" and "yeah no".

Posted by: Beth M at January 10, 2016 10:46 AM (kiy9d)

100 "I've been told that Utopia is satire" I did not know that. The guys at Open Utopia seem to take it seriously.

Posted by: gp at January 10, 2016 10:47 AM (mk9aG)

101 Speaking of great, relatively modern, picaresque novels-

I highly, highly, highly recommend -

"Falstaff" by Robert Nye.

Falstaff, who might just be the Ur-Moron, is the character from the Henry IV plays by Shakespeare.

Lusty, gluttonous, heavy drinking, erudite, and obscene- he makes a great narrator of his own story.

Just a great, fun, comic read with a lot of heart and intellect.

If you like Robertson Davies, you'll probably like this.

Plus, Anthony Burgess named "Falstaff" as one of his "Great 99 Novels of the Twentieth Century".

So, if you don't believe me. Believe in Burgie.

It's available on Kindle for $11.99.

Which is weirdly expensive, however you can also grab it in used hardback or paperback for about $3.00.

Anywho, check it out.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 10:49 AM (KUa85)

102 Australians use the reverse as well: "no, yeah." It all sounds better with an Aussie accent though.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 10, 2016 10:49 AM (39g3+)

103 Perfumed Prince is a derogatory military term.

From Way With Words website: "perfumed prince n. a man who is seen as bureaucratic or careerist; a man who is said to be effete, feminine, ineffectual, vacillating, or cowardly; (hence) a member of the U.S. military leadership (at the Pentagon); top brass. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)"

That's our boy Courtney.

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:50 AM (hXu8T)

104 Bandersnatch: I wouldn't do this if you hadn't just typo-nazied....

Sigh! Sometimes ironic humor is just wasted.

Posted by: mindful webworker - oh, yeah? at January 10, 2016 10:50 AM (bVtr0)

105 Currently translating Paul Casanova, Mohammed et la fin du monde.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k851849c

This book is in three volumes. The actual text is in the first one; the other two are "Complementary Notes", separate essays that digress from the argument. Normally university libraries have the main volume and half of the notes. As luck would have it, I found the main text online... but it's in French.

This book came out during a golden-age of European scholarship on Islam, the early 1910s. Every time I see something like this, which is often (Noeldeke, Goldziher, Frank-Kamenetzky, Power, Schulthess etc etc etc) I feel like punching the sand on a beach. "You maniacs... you blew it up..."

So: the book. Casanova has noticed that the Qur'an micromanages a lot of stuff, and among what it lays out is a guide to building a holy state by means of the sword. But there's something missing from it. That would be, how to keep the state running if the Messenger Of God is, like, dead. The Qur'an says decisively that the Messenger will be the LAST such messenger.

Casanova points out that the only reason for a last prophet is when the Judgement is extremely f***ing nigh (to borrow from "28 Hours"). And when the Judgement didn't come, the Shi'ites found ways to stretch the doctrine of the last prophet. Some of their more mystical sects see the Mahdi as a reincarnation of Muhammad.

This leads Casanova to some conclusions:

* The form of Qur'anic apocalypticism is Christian, mostly Aramaic.
* Several suras currently contain statements like "everyone will die". These statements, or their whole suras, are forgeries which the caliphs threw in. Casanova fingers 3, 21, 37, 40, 44 among others.
* Some of the other suras which mention Muhammad's early prophethood - "We opened your breast" - have turned into (hilarious) literal stories in the Hadith. Given that, suras that say "you were orphaned, I gathered you; you were poor, I enriched you" - were probably originally non-literal at first too. These would be psalms. The Muslims have reverse-engineered these suras to create a Muslim gospel.

The book has anticipated the post-Hagarism era almost perfectly. It was so far ahead of its time I'm wondering if it literally fell into a wormhole.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at January 10, 2016 10:51 AM (6FqZa)

106 Used book stores are a dying breed, at least here on the MS coast. I only know of one in Gulfport, and a quick search of the intertubes verifies it is the solo survivor. There are a few others scattered along the coast. I don't think you can bring your dog in there, though, as there are about 10 cats roaming around the place.

Please note that if you get the urge to go to New Orleans, be careful there. There were 165 murders last year, and quite a few occurred in The Quarter.

I finished up Seveneves by Neal Stephenson; I enjoy his works. An SMOD adventure. I've started a re-read of Jack Chalker's And The Devil Will Drag You Under; interestingly enough, another SMOD adventure. My taste must be running apocalyptic lately.

Posted by: GnuBreed at January 10, 2016 10:52 AM (gyKtp)

107 "...in the middle of an opiate addition" - Unless my inner Typo Nazi is ignorant of some usage of "addition." Even "addiction" wouldn't work there. Perhaps "addiction epidemic"?

Yeah, I have no idea what I meant by 'addition'. 'Addiction' doesn't make much better sense, either. 'Epidemic' is what I think I meant, and just royally flubbed it. Sheesh.

I fixed that other little thing you mentioned, too. Proofreading is teh hard.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 10:54 AM (hTaw+)

108 103 Perfumed Prince is a derogatory military term.

From Way With Words website: "perfumed prince n. a man who is seen as bureaucratic or careerist; a man who is said to be effete, feminine, ineffectual, vacillating, or cowardly; (hence) a member of the U.S. military leadership (at the Pentagon); top brass. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)"

That's our boy Courtney.
Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 10:50 AM (hXu8T)

I assumed that OM meant derogatory in language. Maybe he didn't.

BTW, I don't mean to play the military card--because I still may be wrong about this--but I'm going by previous usage in my definitions.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 10:54 AM (ys2UW)

109 Back when I was a stupid idiot (college), I did stupid, idiotic things, like drugs. But not heroin. I never saw heroin. Thank God.

Yep, back in those days I did every kind of drug imaginable, but I never wanted to have anything to do with needles.

Posted by: rickl at January 10, 2016 10:55 AM (sdi6R)

110 I'm almost finished with "Vienna Blood", by Frank Tallis. This is the second in a mystery series with Max Lieberman, a young psychiatrist and Freud devotee. It's set in Vienna in 1902, so there is plenty of Viennese cafe society atmosphere. I'm really liking this series - interesting characters and a real sense of place, which I always like, especially in mysteries and detective books.

Posted by: biancaneve at January 10, 2016 11:00 AM (e98eb)

111 Wow, haven't heard Chalker's name in years.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 10, 2016 11:00 AM (MIKMs)

112 Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

-Groucho Marx

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 10, 2016 11:00 AM (LUgeY)

113 Good morning, horde. I thought I'd put it to y'all to suggest what I should read next - the five choices are below. Which ever gets the most votes will be my next book to read.

1. Irons, Roy. "Churchill and The Mad Mullah of Somaliland" 2014 - About the uprising of Sayyid & the failed, then ultimate victorious, missions to crush his revolt

2. Grainger, John. "The First Pacific War: Britain and Russia, 1854-56." 2008. About the naval theater of the Crimean War

3. Glickstein, Don. "After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence." 2015.
About the Revolutionary War campaigns after the victory at Yorktown

4. Clancy, John. "The Most Dangerous Moment of The War." 2015. About Japan's push into the Indian Ocean during WWII

5. Millman, Chad. "The Detonators." 2006. About the German saboteurs in America in WWI.

Posted by: josephistan at January 10, 2016 11:02 AM (7qAYi)

114 That's the truth, about Ohio heroin deaths. Remember that guy who said "Just take the pain pill"? Shortly after that, that guy's administration decided to make prescription pain pills (certainly dangerous enough in themselves) a lot harder to get. People already hooked on them needed a cheap and easy replacement. Heroin filled that gap admirably. I believe we have belabored this before. It's still on.

The big little daily newspaper of Nearby City has taken to listing all those causes of death as "pending." Then once a month, they publish all the bad-news coroner's findings on the same day, to just get it out of the way. Curiously, almost none of the deaths is a straight overdose. They're always consequences of heroin coupled with prescription painkillers, or, on occasion, lots and lots of alcohol. Cold reading.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 11:03 AM (xq1UY)

115 Read Joseph Conrad's Chance to finish my Conrad challenge. A young woman's father is sent to prison leaving her sad and abandoned. Some relatives come to her assistance and it follows her story. It's a pretty simple but long tale as it was serialized. It was OK but its length made it tedious for me.

Listened to Monster Hunter Legion (MHI #4) by Larry Correia, great fun though even more far-fetched than usual. A convention of bounty hunters in Las Vegas, you'd expect it to go smoothly.

Also listened to Magician's Gambit (The Belgariad #3) by David Eddings, as the young hero's company, joined by a young spoiled princess, continue their travel to face the evils threatening the land. Enjoyed it a lot.

MP4's book was very good, hope he made a New Year's resolution to complete the sequel this year. It'd give me a reason to revisit the first one.

Posted by: waelse1 at January 10, 2016 11:03 AM (sHSYh)

116 So: the book. Casanova has noticed that the Qur'an micromanages a lot of stuff, and among what it lays out is a guide to building a holy state by means of the sword. But there's something missing from it. That would be, how to keep the state running if the Messenger Of God is, like, dead. The Qur'an says decisively that the Messenger will be the LAST such messenger.

One thing very missing from Muslim studies is any sort of scholarly work examining the Koran and its historical background. The main reason for this is that unlike Judaism and Christianity, study, analysis, debate, and scholarship is not just discouraged, it is considered evil and sinful. The Koran is not to be studied and understood, it is to be memorized and obeyed.

My experiences over life with many Christians even is that they can read repeatedly and even memorize a great deal of the Bible without really paying any attention to the content and meaning (see Ephesians 1, for example for plain meaning of the concept of "election"). So I can see how Muslims can know the Koran backward and forward, but not really know it. They know the words, but don't think about what they mean.

Good scholarly work and analysis of the book would be a welcome read.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 10, 2016 11:03 AM (39g3+)

117 I highly recommend Tom Wolfe's book The Painted Word. It's all about the destruction of art in the 1950's and 60's. Very short, too.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at January 10, 2016 11:07 AM (B8JRQ)

118 I loved Chalker's "Well of Souls" series, but was less impressed with his "Dancing Gods" series. I didn't realize he'd written so many series though, he really is a forgotten author.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 10, 2016 11:07 AM (39g3+)

119 Baldi @ 108 - No worries. You didn't come across that way.

Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 11:08 AM (hXu8T)

120 One thing very missing from Muslim studies is any sort of scholarly work examining the Koran and its historical background. The main reason for this is that unlike Judaism and Christianity, study, analysis, debate, and scholarship is not just discouraged, it is considered evil and sinful. The Koran is not to be studied and understood, it is to be memorized and obeyed.
__________

I have never understood why memorization is the height of scholarship in that culture.

Second your wish.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 10, 2016 11:10 AM (MIKMs)

121 Posted by: Butch at January 10, 2016 11:08 AM (hXu8T)

Cool.

Posted by: baldilocks at January 10, 2016 11:11 AM (ys2UW)

122 OregonMuse: Proofreading is teh hard.

Tell me about it! Fortunately, you have a horde of editors. And, at least, Those Who Post can edit their work, unlike us miserable commenters.

Posted by: mindful webworker - typo graphically at January 10, 2016 11:12 AM (bVtr0)

123 82--Actually Thomas Wolfe--the Southerner and author of You Can't Go Home Again, not the brilliant Tom Wolfe--was the one who used to write standing up. At 6' 7", he used to write hunched over the top of a refrigerator....

Posted by: JoeF. at January 10, 2016 11:14 AM (78vwv)

124 10:21 CST = 11:15 PixyStandardTime?

Just wondering . . .

Posted by: filbert at January 10, 2016 11:15 AM (s5o+q)

125 10:21 CST = 11:15 PixyStandardTime?

Just wondering . . .
Posted by: filbert at January 10, 2016 11:15 AM (s5o+q)

Yup, close enough. Been traveling the past week so haven't read anything interesting (book-wise).

Posted by: filbert at January 10, 2016 11:16 AM (s5o+q)

126 Asked for and got Hard Luck Hank books for Christmas. Just started reading the first one. Good stuff.

Posted by: V the K at January 10, 2016 11:18 AM (G/+Ma)

127 Yay, Book Thread!
Thanks for the Tom Holland recommendation. I'm almost done with 'Rubicon', and in need of something new to read, so 'Shadow of the Sword' just moved up a few spots on my list.

A question for the authors of the Horde: Has anyone ever worked with the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency? I sent off a query letter to them, got a quick response and a request for a manuscript, and sent that off. Before I go any further down this path, I want to know if anyone has heard any horror stories about these people. They seem to have a good reputation, but I don't trust google not to bury anything negative.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper- quietly rebellious at January 10, 2016 11:18 AM (26lkV)

128 I have never understood why memorization is the height of scholarship in that culture.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 10, 2016 11:10 AM (MIKMs)

I think it's because, prior to the Industrial Revolution, paper was scarce, expensive and the price of books was prohibitive.

And it's not just Islamic/Arabic culture. Jews are also great memorizers of scripture.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 11:19 AM (hTaw+)

129 "" Somebody once told me there's a derogatory label for men like Courtney Massengale, but I've forgotten what it is."

Just got back from the range, so it may have already been said.

Massengale=Massengill=Douche

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 10, 2016 11:20 AM (ptqRm)

130 Muldoons book doesn't have enough zombies in it.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich

*****

Pie and hamsters are well-known zombie repellants. QED.

Posted by: Seamus Muldoon at January 10, 2016 11:22 AM (NeFrd)

131 Right now it's Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin.

Posted by: Skookumchuk at January 10, 2016 11:24 AM (/WPPJ)

132 I wonder if J.D. Salinger went into self-exile because people admiring Holden Caulfield.

Posted by: fluffy at January 10, 2016 11:25 AM (AfsKp)

133 And it's not just Islamic/Arabic culture. Jews are also great memorizers of scripture.
Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 11:19 AM (hTaw+)
________

My understanding of Jewish tradition is that memorization is an aid to erudite debate -- not the ultimate goal.

Posted by: mustbequantum at January 10, 2016 11:26 AM (MIKMs)

134 mustbequantum- I've always taken the veneration of memorizing to be a sign of a marginal lifestyle/culture. If you're worried about where your next meal is coming from, you're not going to waste time inventing new things; you're going to spend your time surviving and trying not to backslide even further. In medieval Europe, monks memorized and copied vast amounts of knowledge, but (proportionately speaking) didn't come up with a lot of new things, and I think that was because they were more concerned with the vikings/arabs/magyars/other nasty neighborhood thugs who were just around the corner, waiting to raid the monastery.

Posted by: right wing whippersnapper- quietly rebellious at January 10, 2016 11:26 AM (26lkV)

135 If you like Tom Wolfe, put your grubby little nubbies on a copy of The Painted Word, which his excoriation of Modern Art. It's basically Bauhaus, except about painting.

Posted by: Secundus at January 10, 2016 11:26 AM (mSKnV)

136 118 > I loved Chalker's "Well of Souls" series, but was less impressed with his "Dancing Gods" series.

Ditto, CT. I had the full Well series, until an unfortunate divorce saw that particular collection change homes. *sniff*

Posted by: GnuBreed at January 10, 2016 11:26 AM (gyKtp)

137 Oh, and no Tom Wolfe collection is complete without his expose on larval stage Social Justice activism, "Radical Chic".

Posted by: Secundus at January 10, 2016 11:27 AM (mSKnV)

138 58---Tonestaple --- I second your hearty endorsement of The Painted Word by Thomas Wolfe. It's roll-on-the-floor funny, intelligent, insightful, and short. What's not to love?

Wolfe's Bauhaus book is equally good and those of you with kids might take note. I home-schooled all of our kids at least for a few years each and that was one of the books they were assigned that made the biggest impression on them. I'm not saying that all of them LIKED it exactly but it is a great anti-Progressive eye-opener that STICKS.

Ordinary people hate Bauhaus architecture. They may not come up with the word "dehumanizing" but they feel the cold in their bones.
Yet few would know that this dehumanization is DELIBERATE and an essential element of leftist Progressivism.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 11:28 AM (T/5A0)

139 Massengale=Massengill=Douche

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 10, 2016 11:20 AM (ptqRm)

Believe it or not, this connection had occurred to me, but then I thought, "naw, that can't be, it's too much of a stretch."

But if there's no connection, it's a hell of a coincidence.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 11:34 AM (hTaw+)

140 If you have enough height, the top of a file cabinet is a good place to work standing up. After hours leaning over a desk it's a relief to spend some time writing or editing on your feet. One of those thick rubber pads to stand on helps as well.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 11:34 AM (FvdPb)

141 Sanders is closing on Hillary in Iowa (-3) and leads in New Hampshire (+4).

Sanders can't get the nomination, but if Hillary loses both Iowa and New Hampshire she's damaged goods. And Trump hasn't yet played his Pedo Island Human Sex Trafficking card.

And Comey has yet to be heard from.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 10, 2016 11:37 AM (rs5De)

142 But I liked "The Painted Word" even better than "From Bauhaus to Our House." PW is a takedown of modern art and modern art criticism which is simply delightful and cured me forever of wondering what I was missing when I looked at most modern art.

Posted by: Tonestaple at January 10, 2016 10:06 AM (RtCTo)

I see you beat me to it

Yeah, we philistines don't appreciate this stuff because we don't know TEH THEORY. It did, however, help me get that MST3K joke about the Mark Rothko Paint-by-Numbers kit

Posted by: Secundus at January 10, 2016 11:37 AM (mSKnV)

143 I read Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House shortly after it came out. I'm actually more aesthetically conservative than Wolfe at times, but I do agree with his distinction between the Modernism of the Bauhaus movement and the "fun" Modernism of Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Durell Stone, Morris Lapidus, and Eero Saarinen.

Posted by: Pete in TX at January 10, 2016 11:38 AM (2RBkF)

144 Ordinary people hate Bauhaus architecture. They may not come up with the word "dehumanizing" but they feel the cold in their bones.

Over on Amazon, some guy posted a long, one-star review of Bauhaus, claiming that Wolfe doesn't know anything about architecture and that the new modern design of apartment buildings in cities is really great and everything, and there was an equally long reply from someone who said, no, Wolfe is exactly right, I live in central Europe and have lived in those crappy commie high-rises that were built after WWII and they're every bit as drab and dehumanizing as Wolfe depicted.

A very entertaining exchange.

Posted by: OregonMuse at January 10, 2016 11:40 AM (hTaw+)

145 Sword of Honor..... David Kirk Myamoto comes to life...can see Mifunes' facial expressions throughout the book !!!

Posted by: qmark at January 10, 2016 11:41 AM (wkUEj)

146 By the way, can I request a ban on the term "The Big Easy"? I lived the first twenty years of my life in the Crescent City without ever hearing it referred to as "The Big Easy." It was invented out of whole cloth in the 1970s, and needs to be retired like most other bad ideas from that decade.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 10, 2016 11:41 AM (zq6az)

147 "Believe it or not, this connection had occurred to me,"

A little over thirty years on active duty before I retired, and that was my immediate mental connection.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice at January 10, 2016 11:42 AM (ptqRm)

148 136 118 Chalker is not forgotten here.

I took the Chalker series The Four Lords of the Diamond on a deployment, back in the day. Highly diverting.

I liked the Dancing Gods series. The touches of humor were just right, and I liked some of the characterizations. YMMV. They all reside on my bookshelf.

I especially liked his ferryboat settings short stories. Some of his best in those stories.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 11:42 AM (u82oZ)

149 Ordinary people hate Bauhaus architecture. They may not come up with the word "dehumanizing" but they feel the cold in their bones.
Yet few would know that this dehumanization is DELIBERATE and an essential element of leftist Progressivism.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 11:28 AM (T/5A0)

I read recently (I forget where) that some actually feel nostalgia for that ugly mid- 20th century Stalinist architecture. I take it that they are the same people who are nostalgic for ugly mid-20th century Stalinism.

On a more benign level, I have noticed the millennials really like 50's retro furniture, including stuff that I grew up thinking was hideously ugly, like formica kitchen tables and Pepto-Bismol pink bathrooms. I remember my parents hung on to that stuff through the '60's and finally, to my great relief, started replacing it in the 1970's.

" Yay! We have a avocado green stove and fridge now! We're modern!"

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at January 10, 2016 11:46 AM (P8951)

150 I took a page from Vic (DYSWIDT?) and reread the first Vince Flynn, "Term Limits." Talk about a breakout novel. I had forgotten large swaths of it, but Flynn IMHO is the undisputed master of the political thriller. It came out in '97 and it's weird how cell phones weren't much in evidence if at all. Some of the top CIA brass talk about their "car phone."

Anyhoo, if you're one of the handful who hasn't read the late Vince Flynn, treat yourself to the tale of former SEALs knocking off Ted Kennedy types because they've failed to rein in a $5T federal budget. Yes, $5T was considered a devastating amount back then that would threaten the US's very existence.

Posted by: RushBabe at January 10, 2016 11:48 AM (/NEnw)

151 149 For more mid-20th century Stalinism nostalgia:

Grutas Park, AKA Stalins World, is a sculpture garden of Soviet-era statues and an exposition of other Soviet ideological relics. The park is about 80 southwest of Vilnius, Lithuania.

It won an igNoble Prize, where I first heard of this park.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 11:51 AM (u82oZ)

152 Almost forgot, I also read "The Angel Benny," a free download from Amazon about a troublemaker angel who is kicked out of heaven and poses as a dying patient in a series of hospices in Florida.

Hilarity ensues and "the coffin room"stock spreads out into the hallways because when Benny arrives the patients miraculously improve and deaths stop. Much illicit sex takes place in the coffin room between nurses, docs and sales reps.

Posted by: RushBabe at January 10, 2016 11:51 AM (/NEnw)

153 My experiences over life with many Christians even is that they can read repeatedly and even memorize a great deal of the Bible without really paying any attention to the content and meaning (see Ephesians 1, for example for plain meaning of the concept of "election"). So I can see how Muslims can know the Koran backward and forward, but not really know it. They know the words, but don't think about what they mean.

IMHO, Christianity is all about seeking and finding a spiritual union with God. This begins with your conscience, that little voice inside that tells you when you have made a mistake and grows stronger with use. There are NT references to a "marriage" of sorts where your spirit is joined with the One Who Created You.

In short, Christians seek to live from the inside out, knowing in their hearts what is right and wrong and living according to that knowing.

"I will write my law in the hearts of men."

Now contrast that with islam where life is dictated by imams and solely by them and prevents any sort of exploration or scrutiny. This results in idiotic "fatwas" that tell their believers it's actually OK to use toilet paper. IOW, living from the outside in. As you might guess, this leads to all types of confusion and a general disregard for the conscience. And all the various other things we're seeing in the muzzie European Invasion today.

The big difference is being alive on the inside versus having someone else always telling you how to live. Naturally YMMV.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 10, 2016 11:52 AM (LUgeY)

154 The kicker, for me, was his absolute reliance on slaves to make everything work.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 09:12 AM (u82oZ)

What's wrong with that?

Posted by: The Democrat Party at January 10, 2016 11:53 AM (Zu3d9)

155 I did much better in the moon quiz. I got 14 out of 15, for 93%.

https://tinyurl.com/zf5cg9q

Posted by: rickl at January 10, 2016 11:54 AM (sdi6R)

156 149---" Yay! We have a avocado green stove and fridge now! We're modern!"
Posted by: Donna&&&&V
---------
Ha! I remember my mother a-g-o-n-i-z-i-n-g over the choice between avocado green and harvest gold. (She finally picked gold.)
And I remember her horrified reaction when my father suggested she just pick white and paint the walls green or gold. "White never goes out of style!"

Heh. Today she has white appliances....and gold walls!

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 11:56 AM (T/5A0)

157 It's been many years since I read it, but I recall my Western Civ prof (yes, I had to take a Western Civ survey course in college instead of Feminista Pissing and Moaning 101) saying that "Utopia" was satire.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at January 10, 2016 11:59 AM (P8951)

158 Yes, Wolfe's take-downs of "modern" architecture were a hoot, and spot-on. When decrying the hoary past, however, keep a sense of discretion. The modernism of skyscraper glass walls, or Swedish and Danish Modern furniture, are not one with Brutalism. That was a whole new thing, and, even at the time, deliberately graceless. I have always blamed it on the Mob's influence in the concrete business.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 12:00 PM (xq1UY)

159 I did much better in the moon quiz. I got 14 out of 15, for 93%.

Same here. I missed the "first unmanned object" question.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at January 10, 2016 12:01 PM (LUgeY)

160 whipped through a couple of books this week. Finished, "Revenant" by Kat Richardson, the last of her Greywalker series. Those who enjoy the paranormal urban mystery type story should like this series. Also finished" Comes the Revolution" by Frank Chadwick. It's the sequel to his excellent Scifi noir, " How Dark the World Becomes". I liked it very much, especially the final part of the book which describes a bloody and near hopeless bit of urban warfare. Kept me reading all night. I'm pleased to discern that the author is moving on to another sequel. Cannot.wait. Now finishing Christopher Buckley's new novel, "The Relic Master". It involves a plot to steal what is now called the Shroud of Turin from the Duke of Savoy in 1517. The main characters are a professional relic hunter and his friend, the artist Albrecht Durer. Part one is the set up, part two the caper itself. It's a fun read. Buckley's take on some of the major personalities of the day are amusing. A couple of laugh out loud lines so far. All in all a pleasing way to spend a rainy/ snowy weekend.

Posted by: Tuna at January 10, 2016 12:02 PM (JSovD)

161 "Utopia" was satire; almost all later Utopian works were not. I remember being spoon-fed the fact that Woodrow Wilson loved "Erewhon" as evidence of his essential humanity. In the fifth grade, not a lot of students understood satire -- back then.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 12:03 PM (xq1UY)

162 I AM THE KING OF THE MOON!

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 10, 2016 12:03 PM (zq6az)

163 Read "The First Century AD" about 25 years ago. A great overview of what was happening on the planet at that time.

Great thing though . . . no muzzies at that time.

Posted by: The Man from Athens at January 10, 2016 12:04 PM (lQqij)

164 Trimegistus: ...can I request a ban on the term "The Big Easy"? ... It was invented out of whole cloth in the 1970s, and needs to be retired like most other bad ideas from that decade.

Wasn't that an echo of "The Big Apple"? Where did that nic for NYC come from, anyway? (He asked the horde knowledge source, without bothering to websearch.)

However, without that, I would never have called my mini-comics about Chicago, "The Big Potato" (the name never caught on, however appropriate). (Shameless self-plugola)

http://bit.ly/big-potato-1
http://bit.ly/big-potato-2

Posted by: mindful webworker - typo graphically at January 10, 2016 12:05 PM (bVtr0)

165 I love old typewriters too. I seem to be into brown and green mid 50s Smith Coronas. I showed my Skywriter to my stepson when I got it. Told him it was my new laptop. I should have mine in for a tuneup, while there are still shops that work on them.

I have been stuck at home all week, as the fuel pump is out on the truck. I've looked at a lot of samples on my Kindle. And I've read some lightweight stuff through Kindle Unlimited. It seems that most of the things I want to read are not available that way, so I will probably not renew it.

Have been reading SJWs Always Lie, but it's not a book you can get lost in. I liked The Art of Homemaking by Alison May. And I found that Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinor Pruit Stewart was a free ebook! I've read it a couple of times and have always enjoyed it.

Glad to be able to recommend Rick Bragg. All Over But the Shoutin' (about his mom) and Ava's Man are good too.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 12:07 PM (Lqy/e)

166 Currently reading the Song of Solomon, by King Solomon. The preacher this morning helped me out by reading some snippets from the platform. He left out the parts about breasts. I suppose that's meant to be read at home.

Posted by: grammie winger, sign of The Time at January 10, 2016 12:08 PM (dFi94)

167 I always thought of Chicago as the Big Bratwurst.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 10, 2016 12:08 PM (zq6az)

168 Over the Christmas holiday weeks (two for me, none for you) I read VD Hanson's "The Father of Us All - History and War", which is typical Hanson, as he has a couple of good central ideas, and beats you over the head with examples about 50 times (he does it about three times in a typical written column such as on PJ Media).
And then I read "The Profession" by Steven Pressfield (that tricky Jew!!) and that is frankly a disturbing book. Taking place in 2032, with plenty of retrospective flashbacks to get the reader to catch up on what happens. Essentially, a Marine Corp General (Salter, the main character) is wrongly disgraced and run out of the Marine Corp for actions during deployment in Africa, and then goes on to join and eventually take over a huge mercenary outfit. He eventually uses this position to take over Saudi Arabia, leverage world oil production and be recalled to the US to become "Caesar", which is the ugly conclusion. Pressfield uses the story to outline the deterioration of the Republic (sound familiar?) and all the ugly things that happen along the way.
The two books taken together (not intentional) kind of outline why we are in the sucky predicament that we are in today with President Obama and the league of sycophants that support him.

Posted by: Bossy Conservative...now older and senile at January 10, 2016 12:11 PM (+1T7c)

169 Chicago means Big Onion.

"My lover put his hand in at the hole, and my bowels moved."
--Lines from Song O'Songs that make you go WTF NSFW?!

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 12:11 PM (xq1UY)

170 Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 12:07 PM (Lqy/e)

Is "Letters....." the one by the lady in WY? If so, I listened to it a year or so ago. Very interesting view of an area I know.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 10, 2016 12:12 PM (GDulk)

171 I have never understood why memorization is the height of scholarship in that culture.

-
Eliminates the possibility of thought.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 12:13 PM (Nwg0u)

172 Is Bauhause the "form follows function" guys? I ran an image search on Bauhaus Architecture. It looked like "only put in a window if you have to". Avoid beauty so as not to make a lesser architect feel bad.

Posted by: t-bird at January 10, 2016 12:16 PM (J3phO)

173 @168 The League of Sycophants
Maybe not the greatest name for a rock band, but a shoo-in at DC Comix.
Remember "Great Society Comics"? There was a genre-changer.
http://www.comicvine.com/the-great-society-1/4000-436512/

Almost made losing Vaughn Meader worth it.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 12:17 PM (xq1UY)

174 In 1979 or so, I was banging out a multi-page document on the old typewriter, with multiple carbon copies. (Correction fluid + carbon copies = lots of blowing and waiting or else white paint splotches on the carbon paper. Erasing really didn't work.) It was a much-used electric typewriter I had for a decade.

On the desk behind me was my then-new Radio Shack Model I computer - which did not yet have lower-case characters, much less a word-processor program or a printer attached, but I knew the potential for all of those was there.

On the typewriter, it was important to me that the document be as clean as I could make it. I got to page umpteen and realized I'd left a paragraph out of an early page.

I lost it, and furiously smashed my fist on the top of my old faithful machine until I'd dented the top in so that no keys could actually strike the paper. That was easy enough to bend back out, but I put the thing in its case, and headed over to the art table, eschewing writing altogether until I could get the computer up to processing and printing words.

Have never typewritered since. I ended up writing my own word processor software and getting one of those nasty printers that used silvered paper, until finally moving up to the real world of Word*Star and the clattering, huge, expensive daisy wheel printer.

I do have several typewriters, the old electric, and a couple of manual units, for all of which I need to get ribbons. For the post-EMP times. But I don't have any love for that technology.

Posted by: mindful webworker - type wronger at January 10, 2016 12:22 PM (bVtr0)

175 I like paintings done by artists in the Bauhaus movement, Kandinsky in particular. I also like some of the chairs and furnishing styles that evolved from that movement.

Posted by: grammie winger, sign of The Time at January 10, 2016 12:23 PM (dFi94)

176 Is Bauhause the "form follows function" guys?
=================================

I think that particular style is most closely associated with Frank Lloyd Wright. I should look it up.

Posted by: grammie winger, sign of The Time at January 10, 2016 12:25 PM (dFi94)

177 Tom Wolfe captivated my attention at 15 years old when Rolling Stone ran a piece on him. It was before anybody knew his thinking was "conservative;" he was just considered a great writer. "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" was Wolfe's take on the new druggie-hippie craze sweeping Amerca, as it happened. That road started us off to where we are now.

Posted by: Anonymous-9 at January 10, 2016 12:29 PM (vmHHv)

178 Same here. I missed the "first unmanned object" question.

I missed "nuke the moon".

I thought that was just one of the best web satires ever.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 12:29 PM (1xUj/)

179 It appears that I am mistaken. Some guy named Sullivan originally coined that phrase in terms of architecture.

What Frank Lloyd Wright actually said is "Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union."
Which is kind of weird.

Posted by: grammie winger, sign of The Time at January 10, 2016 12:30 PM (dFi94)

180 That 100% moon quiz made me feel better. I like that "Waxing Gibbous" is also an album by somebody.

Posted by: t-bird at January 10, 2016 12:30 PM (J3phO)

181 It's the divide between digital and analog. Old mechanical devices are interesting. They are made of materials that age well and have a patina. Plastic does not age well. While my collection of Palm Pilots still work, they are obsolete as are my old Power PC Macs. The old typewriters and treadle sewing machines still perform their functions and do not depends on anything external to make them useful. The older I get, the less interesting modern technology seems to me.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 12:31 PM (Lqy/e)

182 Bauhaus is not associated with Frank Lloyd Wright. It was a school founded in Weimar Germany by Walter Gropius. Pretty much all of the arts and letters turned to shit in the wake of WWI and this was architecture's contribution.

Posted by: cool breeze at January 10, 2016 12:31 PM (6Cu7i)

183 165 ... Hi notsothoreau,

I generally prefer standard desk top machines, Royal, Olympia SG-1, and an Underwood Master Touch. They have more space between the keys and my finger tips are much bigger than the key tops so that helps. For portables I like an Olympia SM-4 and a Smith-Corona Silent from the mid-50s. The smallest manuals are just too little to use comfortably.

Out of curiosity, do you type better, faster or more accurately on a typewriter compared to a computer keyboard? I definitely do.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 12:31 PM (FvdPb)

184 Actually, Wolfe's book is an excellent one for understanding the difference between modern architects like FLWright and the Bauhaus school. It's short, folks!

Likewise, The Painted Word is not an obdurate condemnation of all modern art.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 12:31 PM (T/5A0)

185 "Some guy named Sullivan."

Louis Sullivan?
That was some guy, alright.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 12:32 PM (xq1UY)

186 I like that "Waxing Gibbous" is also an album by somebody.

It's an album *and* a euphemism.

Off to wax my Gibbous.

Posted by: Bandersnatch at January 10, 2016 12:32 PM (1xUj/)

187 Yes, Letters is the woman in WY. If you like it, look for Life of an Ordinary Woman by Anne Ellis. She grew up in the gold and silver mine camps.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 12:33 PM (Lqy/e)

188 Potential new nicknames for Chicago-

The Big Graveyard

The Big Safe Zone

The Big Palooka

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 12:33 PM (0cMkb)

189 Bauhaus is not associated with Frank Lloyd Wright.
=====================================

Yeah, I think he came out of the Prairie School and the Arts and Crafts movement. There are a couple Wright homes in the town I live in now, and there were quite a few in the town where I grew up.

Posted by: grammie winger, sign of The Time at January 10, 2016 12:34 PM (dFi94)

190 I like that "Waxing Gibbous" is also an album by somebody.

That's "waxing gibbons".

And it's a $10 option.

Posted by: Chimpy's Great Ape Washing Emporium at January 10, 2016 12:35 PM (0cMkb)

191 I got a 67% on the quiz but when I apply my patriarchal white privilege modifier it's 99%.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 12:36 PM (Nwg0u)

192 Louis Sullivan?
That was some guy, alright.

Posted by: Stringer Davis at January 10, 2016 12:32 PM (xq1UY)
===============================================

Yeah, but Irish - so ....

Posted by: grammie winger, sign of The Time at January 10, 2016 12:36 PM (dFi94)

193 I am again reading the lengthy diary (600 plus pages) the St Faustina Kowalska, who was a Polish nun who died in the late 1930's at age 33 and was a mystic who received a call to start a new devotion to what she called "The Divine Mercy,-Jesus as offering immeasurable love to sinners before he comes back as righteous judge. It is a very intense, powerful book. She goes through a lot of suffering-both spiritual (She felt the absence of God) and physical (She died of tuberculosis) but has wonderful insights into the love of Jesus what Christian suffering means and how love, humility and submission to the will of God is the portal to being transformed into the image of Christ. St Faustina was canonized by John Paul II in 2000.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 10, 2016 12:40 PM (M+RRn)

194 I do like standard typewriters but seem to have wound up with portables. (I have a brown and green Remington and a weird one from the 60s with a foreign keyboard).

I learned to type on manuals, but I have arthritis in both hands now. I am probably faster on a computer keyboard these days. I love the feel of pressing the keys on a typewriter. It's like an extension of your fingers, maybe like a claw on a cat in the way that it extends that pressure through the key. You don't get that on an electric typewriter or on a computer keyboard. (And Apple has the worst keyboards of anyone. Just went back to an old ThinkPad running Mint and it is so much more satisfying to type on).

It's an odd thing. I do tech support for an ISP and have been involved in tech for awhile. I just don't find anything that excites me there although I do still like gadgets.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 12:40 PM (Lqy/e)

195 He left out the parts about breasts. I suppose that's meant to be read at home.

LOL.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 10, 2016 12:41 PM (M+RRn)

196 It's been a couple of weeks now but someone was asking for suggestions for girls reading list. It was mentioned that the Nancy Drew books might be enjoyable and i wanted to add my two cents. A few weeks late because i haven't been getting to the book thread till way late in the day (holidays excuses etc).

If you can find the old original 1930s and 40s printings of the Nancy Drew books, i highly recommend them as more fun and more intellectually worded than the 70s or later updated reprints. I admit there are some stories that could be solved by a modern phone call (no waiting for a trans-atlantic telegram) but as a child i enjoyed the time period pieces and the silly writing. Also very nice sort of "we're smarty and independent but proud of being girls" themes.

So, there's that.

Posted by: Sugar Plum Fairy #176-671 at January 10, 2016 12:41 PM (hnCis)

197 Class, you are permitted to use a single curve -at most!- on the corner of your building. Show-offs will not be tolerated! Now, come collect your permitted colored pencils of white and muted grays...

Posted by: Professor Bauhaus at January 10, 2016 12:41 PM (J3phO)

198 Mindful, I use typewriters now for initial drafts and personal correspondence. For clean, corrected copy I use a computer. But the computer isn't for creative efforts, just finishing.

Notsothoreau, I have to agree. As I age and, sometimes, simplify my needs, the latest technology becomes less needed or desirable. And there is something reassuring about these old machines (including the treadle sewing machine we have from the 1890s that still works) that continue to do their job well. Gives me hope for my own future in a weird way.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 12:42 PM (FvdPb)

199 Posted by: mindful webworker - type wronger at January 10, 2016 12:22 PM (bVtr0)

For all my bitching about computers, I don't miss carbon paper, correction tape and having to change the typewriter ribbon one bit.

I remember that if I took the sheet of paper out of the typewriter and noticed a typo then, a feeling of dismay would come over me, because I knew my beautiful page was ruined. I could never ever realign the page exactly so the correction would always be slightly above or below the rest of the line.

It's all relative though. The office workers of the late 19th century, who had been writing everything out in longhand, undoubtedly loved the magical new timesaving device once they learned how to use it.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at January 10, 2016 12:43 PM (P8951)

200 So, if you require a hero in a novel who is "just like me"...
-naturalflake
---------------------------

I am reminded of 'Vanity Fair:A Novel Without A Hero', Thackery. The sort of Victorian novel that I enjoy. Also Trollope, of course. Ironically, Thackery and Trollope did not like each other.

Trollope and my family have some 'history', as one of my ancients was found to be guilty of vote-buying in an effort to defeat Trollope who was standing for a seat in Parliament. Since he was running as a Liberal, I have mixed feelings about the affair. Trollope lost.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 12:44 PM (ANVXm)

201 Hey guys, I have a question. Have any of you sold books to brick-and-mortar used book stores? I have a large pile of books, recent ones, mostly unread, that I'd like to get rid of because my interests have changed. I thought I could do it through Amazon, but I'd have to become a dealer, and I don't want the hassle. I thought of finding a local place and going there, but I'm not sure what to expect. Any advice?

Posted by: despair at January 10, 2016 12:45 PM (VrdxH)

202 OT:

Wow.

$1.3B.

Welp, I guess I'll have to spring for a ticket.

Tho I suppose if there's corruption at the Powerball organization this is when it'll show up.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 12:46 PM (0cMkb)

203 If you require a hero in a novel who is "just like me"

-
Hard Luck Hank is just like me, at least when it comes to running and climbing stairs.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 12:47 PM (Nwg0u)

204 Far be it from to louse-up the Book Thread with the likes of myself, but. Football kicks off in like 8 minutes.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at January 10, 2016 12:48 PM (z91zs)

205 201 My experience:

Hardbacks are hard to sell. Newish paperbacks of popular works & lowbrow culture give you the best return, even in a college town.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 10, 2016 12:48 PM (u82oZ)

206 Looking COLD in Minnesota.

Posted by: tu3031 at January 10, 2016 12:48 PM (EDYaR)

207 And there is something reassuring about these old machines (including the treadle sewing machine we have from the 1890s that still works) that continue to do their job well. Gives me hope for my own future in a weird way.
Posted by: JTB
-----------------

I detest dependence upon a device which, in turn, relies on a battery. "A battery, a battery! My Kingdom for a battery!"

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 12:49 PM (ANVXm)

208 Be careful of that treadle! I'm up to four now with several parts heads. I hadn't intended to get that many.

I've thought about that absence of patina for awhile, as I think it's important. Throughout our history, we've had tools that were used and handed down. You can look at it and see that use and imagine the history behind that. Modern tools aren't like that. I'm glad we have plastic for medical equipment. It makes you wonder what we leave for future generations.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 12:50 PM (Lqy/e)

209 football up

Posted by: weirdflunky at January 10, 2016 12:50 PM (ORYm2)

210 #201

Expect to be disappointed. Most used books aren't saleable, and the ones that are don't sell for much. See if there's a dealer who will do trades for books that you might like.

Of course, if you do know that you have pretty collectible books, then that is a different story. Do a little research before you sell.

Posted by: josephistan at January 10, 2016 12:51 PM (7qAYi)

211 $1.3B.

Wowza. That's at a level where you can start buying government officials and maybe cut your taxes.

Posted by: t-bird at January 10, 2016 12:51 PM (J3phO)

212 Speaking of the old typewriters, wasn't the Qwerty setup designed to slow down typing? To prevent key jamming?

Posted by: HH at January 10, 2016 12:51 PM (DrCtv)

213 Posted by: despair at January 10, 2016 12:45 PM (VrdxH)

Yes; Some time ago. It was in a college town with a used book store-They came over and looked at the selection of my mother's books (She was an English professor) and they were very selective about what they choose. The books had to be in excellent shape and rather esoteric.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 10, 2016 12:52 PM (M+RRn)

214 ...or better yet, use it to buy yourself a seat in the Permanent Senate and double your money.

Posted by: t-bird at January 10, 2016 12:53 PM (J3phO)

215 Hey guys, I have a question. Have any of you sold books to brick-and-mortar used book stores? I have a large pile of books, recent ones, mostly unread, that I'd like to get rid of because my interests have changed. I thought I could do it through Amazon, but I'd have to become a dealer, and I don't want the hassle. I thought of finding a local place and going there, but I'm not sure what to expect. Any advice?
Posted by: despair
------------------

Man, many times. The return is *very* poor, but there it is. The alternative is donation to a charity shop, or the library for their book sale.

My local shop offers cash or store credit. Selling your used books provides an object lesson in the wisdom of *buying* used books, because of the sad value of used books when sold.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 12:53 PM (ANVXm)

216 "We hated Bauhaus. It was a bad time in architecture. They just didn't have any talent. All they had were rules."

-- Oscar Niemeyer

Posted by: cool breeze at January 10, 2016 12:54 PM (6Cu7i)

217 Most memorable part for me of catcher in the rye is when he goes into his sister's school and someone has scrawled the f word on the wall. And he thinks with all the things you could write, what a waste of time (or something life that). Awfully poignant growing up in the 80s 90s when so much of culture relied on that sort of language. Just the idea that there is so much more and better to say.
But imo, Franny and Zoey is a far superior story.

Posted by: Sugar Plum Fairy #176-671 at January 10, 2016 12:55 PM (hnCis)

218 193 ---FS --- I have from time to time been tempted by Faustina's diary but the length dissuades me.

Last year I read St. Therese's Story of a Soul. Or rather, RE-read it because I more or less read it in high school. Back then I was reading under academic duress and in cloud of sophomoric atheism. Hated it.

This time I loved the book.

Anyway, the similarity in biography between the two strikes me.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 12:56 PM (T/5A0)

219 It's been a couple of weeks now but someone was asking for suggestions for girls reading list. It was mentioned that the Nancy Drew books might be enjoyable and i wanted to add my two cents. A few weeks late because i haven't been getting to the book thread till way late in the day (holidays excuses etc).
-----------------

'Cherry Ames' series, of course.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 12:57 PM (ANVXm)

220 Have any of you sold books to brick-and-mortar used book stores?

Yeah, quite a few. The return is terrible, as Mike Hammer notes, but exchange rate is better for in store credit. I want to run down with another batch and include my books in them to see if they get picked up.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at January 10, 2016 12:57 PM (39g3+)

221 The Queen's Thief series Megan Whalen Turner

The author writes in a way that would interests both boys and girls. Action, adventure, war, tactics, royals with crippled emotions who do cruel things, intrigue, and gods and goddesses interfering. As a father and a man parts of these books hurt in a way all of us must feel if we live long enough.

Posted by: loves young adult books at January 10, 2016 12:59 PM (PGh+Q)

222 Out of curiosity, do you type better, faster or more accurately on a typewriter compared to a computer keyboard? I definitely do.
Posted by: JTB
-----------

Because the keyboards are crappy..., and have been post the original IBM PC, which was *very* similar in feel and physical characteristics to the Selectric. It was a terrific keyboard, far, far superior to current plasticky junk.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 01:02 PM (ANVXm)

223 You get so little for used books today!
One possibility, if you have a whole lot of books to get rid of, is to have a bookseller make a (retail) appraisal FOR TAX PURPOSES. You can pay him for the appraisal by letting him take the few books he thinks he can sell.
Then give the whole lot to schools and libraries. Don't overlook old folks homes and odd places that have libraries.
The tax deduction may be worth more than the wholesale price you'd otherwise get.

(Just make sure you don't have a first edition of Moby Dick or something like that in the mix!)

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 01:04 PM (T/5A0)

224 I've read that the keyboard layout was supposed to prevents keys jamming although I manage to do it anyway. There is a group on Nanowrimo that writes on typewriters.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 01:06 PM (Lqy/e)

225 Posted by: Margarita DeVille at January 10, 2016 12:56 PM (T/5A0)

It reads rather quickly, I think, as opposed to some other theologioans/mystics who wrote incredibly lengthly things because it's not huge blocks of texts with no break, and the parts that are highlighted are places where Faustina felt Jesus was speaking directly to her. It's miraculous that a simple and simply educated nun could write it.

I have to say that I read a little devotional on the Divine Mercy devotional before I ever launched into the dairy.

Yes, I imagine St Therese of Lisieux and Faustina would feel very comfortable with each other up in heaven. :^)

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 10, 2016 01:06 PM (M+RRn)

226 . The old typewriters and treadle sewing machines still perform their functions and do not depends on anything external to make them useful. The older I get, the less interesting modern technology seems to me.
Posted by: Notsothoreau
-------------

I have a close friend who is a fine, fine electrical engineer. He was the brains behind some major developments in audio engineering.

In retirement, what has he taken up? Edison cylinder machines. He has become something of a world authority.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 01:06 PM (ANVXm)

227 I'm gonna try a "today in history" theme for Sundays on my blog bookhorde.org
I was gonna note that this is the day Dashiell Hammett died, then I read bit of his bio and found out he was a card carrying commie, so I went with an outlaw instead.
Link in nic
Posted by: @votermom
----------------

You won't have that problem when Micky Spillane's birthday rolls around.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 01:11 PM (ANVXm)

228 'Cherry Ames' series, of course.
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 12:57 PM (ANVXm)

Oh, my. I haven't thought about Cherry Ames RN (and her twin brother Charlie) for over 40 years now and yet now that you've mentioned her I can still recall the plots and characters in a few of those books One was set on a dude ranch and featured bratty movie star spawn.

Goodness, I'm surprised I remember that.

Posted by: Donna&&&&V (a white) (whitely brandishing ampersand privilege ) at January 10, 2016 01:15 PM (P8951)

229 Thanks for the advice.

Posted by: despair at January 10, 2016 01:16 PM (VrdxH)

230 I prefer Franny and Zooey-and one of the reasons is because she's mentions reading a book I like very much, "The Way of a Pilgrim" by an anonymous 19th century Eastern Orthodox pilgrim.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at January 10, 2016 01:17 PM (M+RRn)

231 You get so little for used books today!

-
If you think that's bad, try to sell a used handgun down on Martin Luther King Boulevard! Man, you can't give those away.

- Barack Obozo

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 01:18 PM (Nwg0u)

232 JTB: Mindful, I use typewriters now for initial drafts and personal correspondence. For clean, corrected copy I use a computer. But the computer isn't for creative efforts, just finishing.

Reminds me of doing artwork. I've never acquired an art-input tablet - I hear some can be very good, but it's hard to imagine having the kind of control I get with brush and ink. All my computer art has been either scanned in, or drawn with a mouse - difficult, but I do what I can with what I've got.

I could see using a typewriter for creativity, I suppose, if I could scan it in and OCR. Otherwise, re-typing? No, thanks.

(Just typing this comment, I accidentally hit the right key combo to go back a page, and when I went forward, everything I'd typed was gone. That's the browser, not the computer per se, but still, the "joys" of digital erasure. Ugh.)

HH: ...wasn't the Qwerty setup designed to slow down typing? To prevent key jamming?

So I've read.

One thing nice about digital: back on my first computer, I did, briefly, try out the Dvorak keyboard layout, and while I never got as fast on it as I am on qwerty, I could see that it could be faster with practice. If they made a keyboard where the characters on the keys could be reset...

Like I don't make enough mistakes from fast typing on qwerty!

Posted by: mindful webworker - type wronger at January 10, 2016 01:25 PM (bVtr0)

233 The cracker militia terrorists in OR who have occupied a bird refuge have released a list of demands.

http://tinyurl.com/jhsag38

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 01:26 PM (Nwg0u)

234 "I'll give you something to snivel about, twinkle-toes!" Holden's dad would yell as he chased him around the yard with an axe handle.
----------------

This why writers tread a treacherous path. There is quicksand when they deviate from the path they know personally.

The preferred tool of discipline was not an axe handle, but a pick handle. I submit in evidence Lester Maddox, and Buford Pusser.

The knee jerk crowd will wax apoplectic in response to the mere mention of Maddox, but that is another debate. As an aside, I have always thought that Maddox missed an alliterative opportunity in failing to hand out mattock handles

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 01:27 PM (ANVXm)

235 That reminded me: there's a rich guy in the area that collects old farm equipment. Place is called the Iron Ranch and they have a steam powered event every year. We took him a piece that was used in harvesting filberts and he let us walk through some of his collection. He had some of those Edison cylinder machines and a few boxes of the cylinders. Interesting stuff.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 01:36 PM (Lqy/e)

236 When I did Nano on the typewriter, I did OCR to upload it and get my word count.

I have this weird thing going on with the laptop. I'll be typing along and it will jump back up to the previous line somewhere. I haven't figured out what causes it. I suspect it's those Vi keyboard shortcuts but don't know how I'm triggering it.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 01:44 PM (Lqy/e)

237 201
Hey guys, I have a question. Have any of you sold books to brick-and-mortar used book stores?

Back in '83, I spent a summer working in excessively sunny SoCal, back when all my stuff fit in the back of my car. To cover the time between moving to town and my first paycheck, I sold my big box o' SciFi to the local used bookstore.

When I moved back down here in '02, the bookstore had moved to the other side of the street, but was still in town. I went in looking for my Dray Prescott books, which were the only ones I *truly* regretted selling.

They were still there, so I bought them back.

Made me wonder how the bookstore stayed in business, though.

Posted by: Anachronda at January 10, 2016 01:51 PM (o78gS)

238 236
I have this weird thing going on with the laptop. I'll be typing along and it will jump back up to the previous line somewhere.

I have a similar problem, caused by my thumbs hovering near the touchpad. Every now and then the thing gets so sensitive that a finger *near* it will trigger it.

Had a similar problem with a rental Ford SUV. It had one of those touch screen entertainment system thingamabobs. In the center of the bottom of the frame around the touch screen was a capacitive switch for the hazard lights. Both Mrs. Chronda and I were constantly accidentally turning the hazard lights on because a thumb would dangle near the hazard light switch when we using the touch screen thingamabob.

Posted by: Anachronda at January 10, 2016 01:56 PM (o78gS)

239 232
If they made a keyboard where the characters on the keys could
be reset...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o03lWhKykBk

Posted by: Anachronda at January 10, 2016 01:59 PM (o78gS)

240 Love mysteries set in the early to mid 20th century, so looking forward to reading MP4's book!

Posted by: chique testing testing at January 10, 2016 02:01 PM (v9gSJ)

241 You're right. It could be the track pad. I never use it. I prefer the track point that Thinkpads use. I've also been using a mouse as I can't copy quickly enough for work.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 02:03 PM (Lqy/e)

242 Hey guys, I have a question. Have any of you sold books to brick-and-mortar used book stores?

They will pretty much buy anything you bring in.

Just don't expect to get very much for any of it.

Older paperbacks for instance may get you $.20 or so.

If you have some rare books, be sure to separate them out and try to sell them separately.

Old text books generally won't nab you much.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 10, 2016 02:03 PM (0cMkb)

243 I have a similar problem, caused by my thumbs hovering near the touchpad. Every now and then the thing gets so sensitive that a finger *near* it will trigger it.
---------------

Go to the Control Panel, and disable the touchpad, assuming that you have a mouse. On my Toshiba laptop I was constantly having the same problem. After disabling the touchpad, life has become more bearable.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 02:04 PM (n22zQ)

244 You won't have that problem when Micky Spillane's birthday rolls around.
Posted by: Mike Hammer at January 10, 2016 01:11 PM (ANVXm)

--

I just looked it up -March 9. Unfortunately not a Sunday. But I'll try to remember anyway.

Posted by: @votermom at January 10, 2016 02:06 PM (cbfNE)

245 243 Go to the Control Panel, and disable the touchpad, assuming that you have a mouse.

No space for a mouse on my lap. It's just something up with which I have to put.

Posted by: Anachronda at January 10, 2016 02:08 PM (o78gS)

246 OregonMuse, thanks for another enjoyable Sunday morning book thread.

Posted by: Mr. Ogony at January 10, 2016 02:25 PM (FxoT/)

247 No space for a mouse on my lap. It's just something up with which I have to put.

Posted by: Anachronda
----------------

Do not fret. Soon the iBall™ will be introduced, and you will no longer have to use your fingers at all.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 10, 2016 02:35 PM (oFSUK)

248 "We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them."

- John Waters

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 02:37 PM (Nwg0u)

249 Yikes! Looking at the AF reading list (Zoomies read something besides comic books? Who knew?) 'Maximum Effort' caught my eye. I have found exactly ONE used copy on the 'net... for $100.00

Crap.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 10, 2016 02:38 PM (oFSUK)

250 Mrs. JTB brought the treadle sewing machine to the marriage. It was bought used by her grandmother just after WW I and the story is it was used to sew uniforms during the Spanish-American War. It's definitely Victorian era. It is just so cool and even has most of the add-ons that were available back then. I don't know enough about sewing to appreciate all its uses but I hope to learn.

If anyone is going to try NaNoWriMo come November there is a group on it called the Typewriter Brigade. A fun and knowledgeable group of typewriter enthusiasts.

FWIW, the modern equivalent of carbon paper is not messy. It's also useful to trace outlines for drawing and transferring patterns for wood carving since it doesn't smear all over everything.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 02:56 PM (FvdPb)

251
A new study by Israel's Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University:

"Of course, we cannot avoid mentioning the religious element as the most significant factor that motivates the suicide terrorists throughout the world. Here's the most dramatic statistic: 450 of 452 suicide terror attacks in 2015 were perpetrated by Muslim extremists. One of the remaining two attacks was carried out by the Kurdish underground. The other was perpetrated by a woman supporter of a leftist group in Turkey."

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 02:56 PM (Nwg0u)

252 247 Do not fret. Soon the iBall will be introduced, and you will no longer have to use your fingers at all.

The advertising jingle writes itself:

Hitler only had iBall
Goehring had no iBall at all
...

Posted by: Anachronda at January 10, 2016 03:00 PM (TxM1F)

253 Submitted for your approval: Grace Kelly.

http://tinyurl.com/z4lm6m8

Posted by: The Great White Snark at January 10, 2016 04:51 PM (Nwg0u)

254 It is funnier than hell that Courtney Massengale, a disparaging military term I have heard before, is actually a character in a required West Point reading list.

I've recently had a minor debate with a West Pointer that a key lesson from these 'leadership' books that the 'leadership' pushes upon the drones is that real military leadership, genius, cannot be learned from a book as history or calculus is. IOW, it is crap to think it can be learned and is why their are so few throughout history.

The douche bag had actually made a point on the importance of 'nurturing relationships' over actual knowledge - so West Point can require reading "Once an Eagle", but it is more likely the lesson learned will be that one advances by making connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power.

Posted by: Burnt toast at January 10, 2016 05:07 PM (T78UI)

255 It's great that you have a family connection to your treadle! Mine were bought, two Singers, a White and a Wheeler-Wilson. The White was in a barn and is in sad shape. I replaced the head so it works now. I did see my wedding clothes on the two Singers.

There's a nice treadle sewing group on Facebook that does quilting. I've never really quilted so it's been fun. There are several good mailing lists at Yahoo. And there's a nice vintage sewing machine group at Ravelry. (My electrics are vintage too).

Posted by: Notsothoreau at January 10, 2016 05:41 PM (Lqy/e)

256 Notsothoreau, Our treadle is a White. Thanks, I will pass along the info on the different groups to the Mrs, who has the only sewing knowledge in the house. My sewing skills are in the bone needle and dinosaur sinew category. That said, I am intrigued by the reliable (and repairable) mechanics of the treadle sewer. As Mike Hammer mentioned, I don't mind using electricity but don't want to be totally dependent on it.

Posted by: JTB at January 10, 2016 06:10 PM (FvdPb)

257 ,cellophane

Posted by: Emily the deerkin at January 10, 2016 06:40 PM (5luh1)

258 I'm currently reading Calumet "K" by Samuel Merwin and Henry Kitchell Webster, as it was originally serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1901 (I have all 13 issues it appeared in!). I was doubly intrigued that this was Ayn Rand's favorite novel, and it's not hard to see why: The hero of the novel, Charley Bannon of MacBride & Company of Minneapolis, is charged with the building of a grain elevator (the Calumet K of the title) on the outskirts of Chicago, to prevent a rival company from cornering the market on December wheat. He faces all kinds of obstacles, like stalled lumber shipments, ornery union delegates and workers (he pulls a revolver on one of them to prevent a fight), and tough but kindly political bosses to get the elevator built on time. There is literally a thrill in every chapter as he is presented with an obstacle and somehow gets over it. It can be a terribly technical novel at times, but the authors know just where to explain the grain markets, how an elevator works, or even providing maps of the surroundings without breaking the action.

My own writing proceeds apace, as my book of hotel stories and helpful hints is taking shape more or less as I envisioned it. I'm writing at length on each subject as much as I can, and when I'm out of steam I go on to another story. I'm writing it in longhand in a 5x8 college-ruled notebook with two of my favorite fountain pens (one of them a Parker 51 as old as I am that writes like a dream), and I figure that when the notebook is filled up, I'll have a book. When that happens, I will probably come to the horde for help in getting it published. Stay tuned!

Oh, and on the job front, I'm interviewing for two jobs this week, one of them a bank position that will pay me substantially more than my last job. Your prayers are requested, that I make a good impression and don't bump into the furniture . . .

Posted by: DynamiteDan at January 10, 2016 08:06 PM (BaDMP)

259 Long time lurker here. Love this thread, even though I never see it til Monday. Would like to say hi to everyone, so I can join the group on Goodreads! Currently reading Marathon Man by William Goldman. I'm impressed with his writing, especially after the last several mediocre books I've read. Note to self: there's probably a reason so many post-apocalyptic novels are cheap on Kindle...

Posted by: NCRedRider at January 11, 2016 04:43 PM (/5KRK)

260 I finished up Seveneves by Neal Stephenson ...

Posted by: GnuBreed

The physics of the setup did not make sense to me.
IDK if it's wrong, badly explained or I just didn't get it.

I'll have to try again some time.

Posted by: DaveA at January 24, 2016 11:32 AM (DL2i+)

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