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Sunday Morning Book Thread 10-17-2021

Dog Eared Books SF 03.jpg
Dog Eared Books, San Francisco, CA


Good morning to all you 'rons, 'ettes, lurkers, and lurkettes, wine moms, frat bros, crétins sans pantalon (who are technically breaking the rules). Welcome once again to the stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread, a weekly compendium of reviews, observations, snark, witty repartee, hilarious bon mots, and a continuing conversation on books, reading, spending way too much money on books, writing books, and publishing books by escaped oafs and oafettes who follow words with their fingers and whose lips move as they read. Unlike other AoSHQ comment threads, the Sunday Morning Book Thread is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Even if it's these pants, from that live action version of that anime thing that didn't do so well at the box office.



Pic Note:

Here's what DEB says about itself on its 'About' page:

If you're looking for a pleasant place to peruse a lot of books, seek no further! Since 1992, Dog Eared Books has been supplying a book-hungry San Francisco with new, used, and remaindered books as well as cards, magazines, calendars, and blank notebooks. We're a general interest store, so we have a little of everything, but we do specialize in off-beat, small press, and local literature. Our staff of is happy to help you locate specific titles or you can roam around discovering wondrous obscurities you never knew you couldn't live without.

Yeah, looks pretty woke.


It Pays To Increase Your Word Power®

20211017 book pic 01.jpgd
Within the past few years, we are witnessing the absumption of:
--trust in various national institutions
--Joe Biden's mental faculties
--CNN's credibility
--CNN's ratings
--Michael Pence's political career
--my belief that we're going to be able to vote our way out of this





Dog Eared Books SF 04.jpg



A Progessive Book Exchange?

Last week, on the AoSHQ Sunday Morning Book Thread:

412 late to the thread. dammit.
got lectured by my buddy last night for two hours about my white supremacy that i apparently have. he is half black, half hispanic. he and i work together and are very good friends.

he is totally blue pilled.

he challenged me to read white fragility by robin diangelo. i looked on amazon and was floored to see 37K reviews and its five star.
well, not floored. anyone actually read it and can give me the cliffs notes?

Posted by: Jack Burton, who says brandon, let's go. at October 10, 2021 11:15 AM (NlREX)

I would never do this. It seems awfully one-sided, like you're accepting his assumption that you need to be educated or enlightened. I would insist on a book exchange: I'll read the book he gives me if and only if he reads a book I give him. If we're going to have a conversation about race or whatever, I'm just not going to sit there and let him set the terms of the discussion. I'm not going to assent to his hidden assumption that his way of seeing things, his narrative, is true by default.

No, we're going to have a real conversation. He might not like that, which is why I think the most likely outcome is that he'll bail. But let's assume that you're holding a winning lottery ticket and he agrees to the book exchange. What book would you give him? I guess it depends on what prompted the discussion, but in a subsequent comment, naturalfake suggested The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 by Hugh Thomas. He says:

He'll bail almost instantly on that idea.
And if he doesn't then he'll bail as soon as he finds his historically ignorant progtard assumptions challenged. And believe me, they will be.

Progtard Fragility as it were.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 10, 2021 11:25 AM (5NkmN)

Let's see why:

Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, Hugh Thomas describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history.

Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts.

Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time, but to answer controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated.

In other words, it's a sober, objective attempt to write an historical account of slavery as it actually existed over and above anything we might happen to feel or believe about it. You can plainly see how this would be very antithetic to the prog mindset. It's very much like sprinkling holy water on a vampire.

But the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him? That is, if he would actually read it.



Who Dis:

who dis 20211017.jpg
Last week's who dis was actress Julie Newmar.



Moron Recommendations

A lurking moron e-mailed to recommend two science fiction series by David and Leigh Eddings:

The series are fantasy fiction containing all the necessary ingredients; young hero (Garion), a powerful family ('Aunt' Polgara, her father Belgarath (both thousands of years old, but still very much alive)), brave and capable companions, and enough Gods (good and evil), villians, sacred objects (good and evil), wizardry and sorcery to satisfy the jaded.

Things I like are the story line, which I think puts Tolkien to a distant second, and especially the personal interplay among the characters.

The first is The Belgariad series, 5 parts, and the first book, first published in 1982, is Pawn of Prophecy:

A fierce dispute among the Gods and the theft of a powerful Orb leaves the World divided into five kingdoms. Young Garion, with his "Aunt Pol" and an elderly man calling himself Wolf --a father and daughter granted near-immortality by one of the Gods -- set out on a complex mission. In the process, as Garion grows into his early teens, he learns to defend himself, grapples with a wild boar, uncovers spies at a king's palace, learns about sorceryand starts to gain a sense of what his own destiny may be.

The Kindle edition is only $2.99.

The second series is The Mallorean, which continues the characters in further adventures.

Apparently, there are no Kindle editions, but you can purchasse paperback collection sets.

Or you could try your local library.

___________

Bill Pronzini, who's written a gajillion mysteries, thrillers, and westerns. His most famous creation is "The Nameless Detective".

However, it was one of his standalone thriller novels, which made me an instant fan-

"Nothing but the Night"

Available on Kindle for : $.1.99.

Posted by: naturalfake at October

Here is the Amazon blurb:

Successful Northern California vintner Cameron Gallagher suffers from alcoholism, depression, and persistent nightmares. Truck driver Nick Hendryx lost everything when a hit-and-run accident put his wife in a coma. They are two men with seemingly little in common, but their disparate paths are about to intertwine in startling and dangerous ways. As Nick’s determined search for the man who wrecked his wife and his lives pulls him deeper into Cameron’s orbit, the wealthy wine executive struggles to hold on to a rapidly disintegrating personal life. And when there’s nothing but the night separating them, their entangled worlds and secrets will explode in ways neither man could ever have anticipated.

And, like the man said, the Kindle edition is $1.99.

The Kindle edition of many of Pronzini's gazillion mystery novels are priced to sell at $2 to $10. There are something like 40 'Nameless Detective' novels.

___________

Speaking of which, the beginning of John Bellair's The House with a Clock in Its Walls is great.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at October 10, 2021 08:18 AM (/+bwe)

The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a YA urban fantasy novel, and a "Teacher's Pick" so designated by Amazon:

When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan. comes to stay with his uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both magicians! Lewis is thrilled. At first, watchng magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman named Selenna Izard. It seems that Selenna and her husband built a timepiece into the walls--a clock that could obliterate humankind. And only the Barnavelts can stop it!

The movie adaptation (starring Jack Black) was released back in 2018.

The Kindle edition is $7.99.

___________

25 I read the latest work of one of my favorite authors, Steven Pressfield. The work, A Man At Arms, is about a retired Roman legionnaire hired by the Romans in Jerusalem to stop a man and a girl carrying a letter from the apostle Paul to the Christians in Cornith, Greece. Many others are trying to stop the letter, and it's a cat and mouse game across the Sanai desert and into Egypt. During the journey the legionnaire, Telemon of Arcadia, has a conversion in his world view. Action packed and great character development.

Posted by: Zoltan at October 03, 2021 08:11 AM (av5VM)

A Man at Arms came out earlier this year, and the price of the Kindle edition is quite high, almost as much as the paperback.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, insults, threats, ugly pants pics and moron library submissions 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.


20211017 book pic 03.jpg

Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Let the enbookening commence!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:00 AM (Dc2NZ)

2 Those pants have built-in knee pads.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:01 AM (Dc2NZ)

3 No matter how you feel about the safety and effectiveness of the COVID shots..if we do not have control over what we put into and on our bodies, we are not free.

Please consider a donation to the Liberty Counsel sooner than later. Your liberty is *our* liberty (and vice versa).

https://lc.org

Https://www.usfreedomflyers.org/

Posted by: CAPT Constitution at October 17, 2021 08:02 AM (kDIcw)

4 Morning!
Looks like Bob Mathias to me.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:02 AM (ONvIw)

5 hiya

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (arJlL)

6 Did not read this week! To distracted.

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (yrol0)

7 I'm sure glad Mathias didn't go all caitlin on the world of sports

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (ONvIw)

8 Tolle Lege
Ordered Dennis Prager Rational Bible Deuteronomy last weekend but looks like not even sent for backorder, wonder if
It will ever get sent.
So was looking from sidebar Molly Hemingway's Rigged, have it up on Kindle store just waiting to see if anyone here got it yet.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (2JoB8)

9 Good morning book hoarders. Confess - you've got them stacked up everywhere, don't you? Last count on my Kindle, I had 182 unread.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (45fpk)

10 Great recommendations this morning.

The Belgariad is a fantastic YA series (really, that's what it is). It certainly sparked my interest in the genre and helped shape me into the person I am today.

The Eddings' main flaw is they wrote the same exact plot no less than 6 times--it gets a bit tiring after a while, no matter how entertaining the characters are.

Also, don't look too deeply into their background...some rather unsavory details about their past...

I also love The House With A Clock In Its Walls. One of the most terrifying books I ever read as a child.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:04 AM (K5n5d)

11 Who Dis is of course Winston Churchill in disguise.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 08:04 AM (2JoB8)

12 I took a detour from Mary Shelley's biography to read a bit more about her parents. Interesting family to say the least.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:04 AM (ONvIw)

13 Nice first, Eris !

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 08:05 AM (arJlL)

14 11. I hadn't thought of that! Those British and their intelligence strategies.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:06 AM (ONvIw)

15 Good morning readers - still working my way through Dante's Divine Comedy with an assist by video. It is fantastic.

https://youtu.be/UM3rQG3FpWE

Posted by: Tonypete at October 17, 2021 08:06 AM (mD/uy)

16 I don't think anybody in the pants pic owns a weedwhacker (if you catch my drift)

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 08:06 AM (arJlL)

17 9. Yes! And I've downloaded way too much stuff on the kindle that I rarely pick up.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:07 AM (ONvIw)

18 In a recent Red Letter Media retrospective on John Carpenter movies, Rich Evans praised this short story based on a retelling of "The Thing" from The Thing's point of view. It's called "The Things":

https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:07 AM (Dc2NZ)

19 I purchased The Slave Trade: a while ago based on the initial recommendation here years ago.

It is massive, detailed and factually inarguable.

Highly recommend it....
again.

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice. Asymptomatic raycist at October 17, 2021 08:08 AM (3D/fK)

20 Hi everyone! Grammie Winger, I can't even count the number of unreads just on my Kindle. In my house - well, one day I went so far to move all the unread books to the left side of my bookshelves and the reads on the right. At least three (possible six, now that I think more about it) are evenly divided. I have a LOT of unread books. And then I come here and buy more! Now I have to get that Slave Trade history. I have too many woke friends.

Posted by: CarolinaGirl at October 17, 2021 08:08 AM (Kh9rg)

21 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes.

Went drinking yesterday, but I'm not hung over, which is a good thing. I am a little depressed, but that's because I have to work tomorrow.

Did some editing on the book yesterday and came up with a better ending than what I originally wrote. I'm still waiting to get opinions on the thing from other people, and then it will be a month or two of slowly revising and nailing down specific references and geography.

Silent film fans can be very snotty and picky, so while I don't expect this book to be anything near a best-seller (or even a seller), I do want it to be as good and accurate within the metrics of fiction as I can make it.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 17, 2021 08:08 AM (2JVJo)

22 It came up long ago here I think but maybe somewhere else,
What percentage of books do you own that you have read?
I doubt I have 1 I didn't at least once.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 08:09 AM (2JoB8)

23 When you absume, you make an abs out of you and me!!

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 08:09 AM (UHVv4)

24 Oh - and I've been taking part in the 100 Days of Dante reading group sponsored by Baylor University - ending on Easter 2022. It has been fantastic - you read three cantos a week, and three podcasts discussing the cantos are released each week. It has been wonderful.

Posted by: CarolinaGirl at October 17, 2021 08:10 AM (Kh9rg)

25
If it wasn't for absumption I wouldn't have nothing at all.

Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 08:10 AM (dQvv7)

26 You're a better man than I, Skip. I have enough unread books for three years.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:11 AM (45fpk)

27 Still working my way through Troy Denning's Prism Pentad series. Currently in middle of book 4. The whole series is a pretty wild ride through one of the most crapsack worlds ever created for Dungeons & Dragons. The Dark Sun setting is very, very strange. I really can't even begin to describe it.

The characters are pretty interesting because while they are trying to be "good" by the standards of the setting, they also have to make tough choices that often leave them morally compromised, such as sacrificing individuals to serve a greater good. Or defiling the planet even further to save a life.

Denning isn't top-tier fantasy, but he's pretty solid mid-tier and can hold my interest.

"Perfessor" Squirrel Rating: B/B+

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:11 AM (K5n5d)

28 I have no idea who 'dis is but the pipe makes him look intelligent.

Posted by: N.L. Urker, the Phillips screwdriver of the gods at October 17, 2021 08:11 AM (cSyAR)

29 I'm currently reading American Tabloid by Jamed Ellroy.

Its intense. And YUUUGE !

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 08:12 AM (arJlL)

30 21 Congrats again on the book and recreating the ending. I wish I was creative.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:12 AM (ONvIw)

31 >>I would never do this. It seems awfully one-sided, like you're accepting his assumption that you need to be educated or enlightened.


Yeah maybe he can give his friend a book on Black Slave Owners such as, Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860.

William Ellison who was black was at one time among black who owned slave, the largest holder of slaves in The South.

It will probably blow his mind to read that book.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at October 17, 2021 08:12 AM (oLHOO)

32 4 Morning!
Looks like Bob Mathias to me.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:02 AM (ONvIw)


It is!

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 08:13 AM (Q+kh1)

33 It came up long ago here I think but maybe somewhere else,
What percentage of books do you own that you have read?
I doubt I have 1 I didn't at least once.
Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 08:09 AM (2JoB
----
I actually have a spreadsheet where I track my reading activity. Let me check...

23% unread (310 books)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:13 AM (K5n5d)

34 The spaceship in "The Skylark of Space" travels faster than light, but I can't say the same for my progress in same.

At last reading, the bad guy has teamed with the good guys to find a way home. The lead good guy at one point offers an end to hostilities, but the bad guy replies, oh no, once we return to Earth I will resume trying to kill you.

Then they all experience some kind of mindful in which they see illusions (illustrated in the book).

Now they're headed for a planet that contains copper, the ship's fuel. The chances of this planet being uninhabited? Doubtful -- we still have 90 pages to go.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:13 AM (Om/di)

35 Not reading a lot. I started Frank Norris' McTeague, the novel Erich von Stroheim based his lost silent Greed on, but I put it down for a while and now can't get back into it. I'm also reading a pop biography of Patsy Cline, since I just picked up a 4-CD set, The Patsy Cline Collection.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 17, 2021 08:13 AM (2JVJo)

36 Those pants are fine. I would wear them to shoot up heroin in a back alley while waiting for my next modeling gig!

Posted by: The guy wearing those pants at October 17, 2021 08:13 AM (5Woea)

37 ut the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him? That is, if he would actually read it.

Hayek's The Road To Serfdom. Most Progs are economically illiterate and it's part and parcel of their culture. And if you prefer to avoid DWM (dead white men), anything by Sowell or Walter Williams.

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 17, 2021 08:14 AM (F0YaR)

38 I haven't read that book by Hugh Thomas, but I have read his mammoth history of the Spanish Civil War. (In fact I read it twice.) The guy does go into details, that's for sure.

Thomas was somewhat biased in favor of the Republic, but as the book progressed, one could sense he was changing his mind even as he wrote. The version I have is a revision he put together in light of new material, so there is something of a disconnect at times between his earlier version, which was stridently anti-Nationalist and his fairer revisions.

Anyway, the upshot is that Thomas is a meticulous historian and while in that case he had a bias, he was intellectually honest enough to make corrections, which counts for something.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:14 AM (llXky)

39 9 Good morning book hoarders. Confess - you've got them stacked up everywhere, don't you? Last count on my Kindle, I had 182 unread.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (45fpk)


I've got books that on my device that, when I see them, I think, now when did I buy that?

Or, I see a Horde recommendation and run off to buy it, but then Amazon informs me I already did, on such-and-such a date.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 08:15 AM (Q+kh1)

40 "Yeah maybe he can give his friend a book on Black Slave Owners such as, Slaveowners: Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860. "

This book?

https://tinyurl.com/5apmw4kf

Posted by: Village Idiot's Apprentice. Asymptomatic raycist at October 17, 2021 08:15 AM (3D/fK)

41 Congrats again on the book and recreating the ending. I wish I was creative.
Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:12 AM (ONvIw)


Thanks. I was trying to find the perfect "tag line" to end things and I think I did.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 17, 2021 08:15 AM (2JVJo)

42 Oh -- and I've been taking part in the 100 Days of Dante reading group sponsored by Baylor University -- ending on Easter 2022.
-----------------------------
Did you have to get vaxxed for that or did you just need weekly Ovid testing, Carolina Girl??

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 08:15 AM (UHVv4)

43 Another interesting book about the slave trade is Giles Milton's "White Gold" - about the slave trade in North Africa, in white Europeans, kidnapped from coastal villages as far away as Ireland and Iceland, and off sailing ships. Many areas along the Italian, French and Spanish coasts were essentially depopulated by raiders from Algiers - and this continued for nearly four centuries.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 17, 2021 08:16 AM (xnmPy)

44 Went back to my feel-good short SF stories. Read a lot of Poul Anderson the last week. My favorites are "Enough Rope" and "No Truce for Kings." For a longer story, I reread "High Crusade". Frothy Fun, back to the plucky Terrains style. AmericanTerran Exceptionalism in Space for the win. British stiff upper lip wins.

Currently reading A Force by By Whitney T. Bendeck, an overview of the origins and use of Strategic Deception in WWII Middle East. The references cited have a lot of my old go-to books. Easy to read.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 17, 2021 08:16 AM (u82oZ)

45 I enjoyed the new C.J. Cherryh Union-Alliance novel "Alliance Rising" a lot, and now I'm rereading the one that started it all, "Downbelow Station". It's been decades.
I'm savoring it even more now, having read so many in the series. It's like a history of the future.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:16 AM (Dc2NZ)

46 Who dis?

Rock Squarejaw

Posted by: Nosmo King at October 17, 2021 08:17 AM (5Woea)

47 @40

>>This book?

Sure, that one or any number of books detailing the fact that there were a considerable number of blacks that owned slaves in the South.

In fact the slave trade does not happen without the assistance of Africans so this whole thing about slavery being a uniquely white endeavor is complete ahistorical bullshit.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at October 17, 2021 08:18 AM (oLHOO)

48 Most of the books clogging up my kindle were free, like the Bram Stoker collection and sundry other public domain works. Usually I download this sort of thing before a trip or a seminar that promises to be boring

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:18 AM (ONvIw)

49 "I read the latest work of one of my favorite authors, Steven Pressfield. The work, A Man At Arms, is about a retired Roman legionnaire hired by the Romans in Jerusalem to stop a man and a girl carrying a letter from the apostle Paul to the Christians in Cornith, Greece. Many others are trying to stop the letter, and it's a cat and mouse game across the Sanai desert and into Egypt."


Aaand there goes another one added to my stack. Thanks a lot Zoltan.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:18 AM (45fpk)

50 Good morning book hoarders. Confess - you've got them stacked up everywhere, don't you? Last count on my Kindle, I had 182 unread.

Posted by: grammie winger

I have boxes of books that have not yet been gone through. From my Mom, in laws, boxes from my grandparent's farm, etc. I don't even know what I have.

Or have not.

Probably some Hemingway in there, tho'.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 17, 2021 08:18 AM (mD/uy)

51 9 Good morning book hoarders. Confess - you've got them stacked up everywhere, don't you? Last count on my Kindle, I had 182 unread.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:03 AM (45fpk)
----
I only have 107 unread on my Kindle. I still have several in progress...I never go anywhere these days so I have little incentive to bring along my iPad and read on the Kindle app.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:18 AM (K5n5d)

52 47 Absolutely bullshit, but this is a propaganda war so truth is irrelevant

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:19 AM (ONvIw)

53 Did you have to get vaxxed for that or did you just need weekly Ovid testing, Carolina Girl??
Posted by: andycanuck

It's online andy - see my linky on it above.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 17, 2021 08:19 AM (mD/uy)

54 The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a YA urban fantasy novel, and a "Teacher's Pick" so designated by Amazon:

I've only seen the movie, which was pretty well done, even though I can't stand Jack Black as a person; he's a libtard's tard.

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 17, 2021 08:19 AM (F0YaR)

55 Nice bookstore!

Those pants....I may have a pair somewhere.

The Who Dis is a young Walter Cronkite before alcoholism and sodomy took their toll on him.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 17, 2021 08:19 AM (R/m4+)

56 I read both of those David Eddings sets when I was in high school and they were okay. I mean, I found them to be an entertaining way to pass the time but I didn't really get much out of them besides that.

I think that Eddings got a big boost because the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales were hitting the market and the current editions of LotR used similar cover art. The first series did okay, and I vividly recall the second series coming out with very Tolkien-esque cover art and of course the title was Guardians of the West. In fact, that's what drew me to them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:20 AM (llXky)

57 No one serious could be against the Oxford comma. The NYT, for example, is not a serious newspaper.

Bonjour moron readers! Started in again on Larry McMurtry this week. Couldn't help it: I just can't quit Gus McRae.

https://tinyurl.com/tpetdaw3

Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 17, 2021 08:20 AM (vI/Pp)

58 Oh, nevermind Andy.

More coffee needed. . .

Posted by: Tonypete at October 17, 2021 08:20 AM (mD/uy)

59 I have hogsheads of unread books about the place, and thank goodness! When TSHTF, I will have loads of free entertainment.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:21 AM (Dc2NZ)

60 Read "The nesting dolls" By Alina Adams.
This book you could give to your Democrat friend to
read about real socialism.
Starting in1930 in USSR (Gulag)continue through 1970 in Odessa and ending in 2019 in Brooklyn, the book describes life of multiple generation of Jewish women
Legal Insurrection review: https://tinyurl.com/42h7ar54

Posted by: redmonkey at October 17, 2021 08:21 AM (0+Ppk)

61 41 That's wonderful. You are a tribute to Miss Bara.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:21 AM (ONvIw)

62 I have less than 120 unread books in a collection of over 4,000. If a book remains on my bookshelves, it had to be good in some way.

Good ur nostalgia, like all but one book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and all of Arthur C. Clarke *even the skin-diving ones) and Robert A. Heinlein except for his government one. Got all of Nevil Shute but his last one. Etc.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 17, 2021 08:22 AM (u82oZ)

63 Grammie, I have about 100 tabs open in the Ace window, courtesy of Sefton in this past week.

As far as real books -- whoof. I have them stacked in front of each other. Many I have yet to read.

I actually left the used-book store yesterday empty-handed. (I went there only to unload more comics; with a 35-item-per-visit trade limit, several trips have been required.)

Now I wonder: Does Corsicana have a used-book store?

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:22 AM (Om/di)

64 Finished The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, the first thing I read by him. I knew he was a well regarded author but nothing was particular compelling for me until Anthony Burgess included it in his Ninety Nine Novels which naturalfake iirc recommended. As it began it seemed very influenced by Conrad, which isn't a bad thing, situated in a tropical shithole in Southern Mexico. It was when he began concentrating on the travails of the Whiskey Priest that it got really really good and stayed that way for the duration. I'd highly recommend this to any Catholic, of which I'm not but graduated from a Catholic high school, who is having a crisis of faith caused by...oh I don't know, maybe a dogshit Pope, to give a refreshed perspective. It's one of those books that stays on your mind after you finish it.

Any of his other works recommended?

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 08:23 AM (y7DUB)

65 I'm still waiting to get opinions on the thing from other people, and then it will be a month or two of slowly revising and nailing down specific references and geography.

Working on it this week. Got it printed off on Thursday.

Posted by: Jewells45 at October 17, 2021 08:23 AM (nxdel)

66 I would recommend to Jack Burton's friend Thomas Sowell's "The Vision of the Annointed." That said, and to draw from another literary reference, The Wizard's First Rule states "People are stupid. They will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true."

Posted by: Retief at October 17, 2021 08:23 AM (0umd9)

67 I have hogsheads of unread books about the place, and thank goodness! When TSHTF, I will have loads of free entertainment.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:21 AM (Dc2NZ)
---
Don't you find shelves more convenient?

Speaking of which, this week I intend to build a bookcase out of some surplus lumber I've got lying around. For once I'm looking at increasing capacity beyond current requirements because I know there will more books...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:24 AM (llXky)

68 Those pants look like something the Hulk would've bought from Carnaby Street in London in the mid-1960s.

Granny glasses are de rigueur, if you want to be totally Fab!

Posted by: naturalfake at October 17, 2021 08:24 AM (5NkmN)

69 I'd highly recommend this to any Catholic, of which I'm not but graduated from a Catholic high school, who is having a crisis of faith caused by...oh I don't know, maybe a dogshit Pope, to give a refreshed perspective.
Posted by: Captain Hate

Speaking of which, off to Mass.

Thanks for the tip.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 17, 2021 08:24 AM (mD/uy)

70 No one serious could be against the Oxford comma. The NYT, for example, is not a serious newspaper.

Bonjour moron readers! Started in again on Larry McMurtry this week. Couldn't help it: I just can't quit Gus McRae.

https://tinyurl.com/tpetdaw3
Posted by: Huck Follywood at October 17, 2021 08:20 AM (vI/Pp)

Morning Mouth Breathers

Posted by: weirdflunky at October 17, 2021 08:24 AM (cknjq)

71 To give you a sense of how weird the Prism Pentad series is:

Right now two main characters are hiding in the corpse of a bear. One character is animating the bear to appear as though it's alive using his mindbending power. The other is using sorcery to cover up the fact that the bear has been sliced open and that it's dead (illusion of some kind, I think).

Meanwhile, their half-giant companion is attempting to gain entry to a full-giant citadel full of beast-headed giant. To do so, he brings along the animated corpse of the bear (which appears alive). His intent is to have the beast-headed giants cut off his own head and replace it with that of the bear so that he can fully join the giant tribe.

The overall goal is to infiltrate the giants' citadel, Trojan Horse style, and throw open the gates to a rival giant clan (without beast heads) and steal a magical artifact that will help the main characters kill the Dragon which is terrorizing the lands.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:26 AM (K5n5d)

72 Oh, nevermind, Andy.

More coffee needed. . .
-------------------------
ROTFLMAO.

I knew I should have used "Is your student guide named Beatrice, Carolina Girl??" instead!

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 08:26 AM (UHVv4)

73 I'll admit I'm becoming more and more cynical, and so my first thought with Jack Burton's "half black half hispanic very good friend who is blue-pilled" and his book recommendation is that it was an attempt to push the book on the illustrious thread readers, complete with a reference to its very good ratings.

But YMMV

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:26 AM (AwPyG)

74 And the dog on the dog-eared books sign looks more like a cat, to me.

Might be a San Francisco thing.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:27 AM (AwPyG)

75 Now I wonder: Does Corsicana have a used-book store?
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:22 AM (Om/di)
----
I didn't even think of that...Don't give me any ideas! (I should be down there on Thursday...)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:27 AM (K5n5d)

76 @34 --

Oh, dammit, autocorrect!

"Mindful"? No. Think of what goes before Biden's name.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:27 AM (Om/di)

77 who is having a crisis of faith caused by...oh I don't know, maybe a dogshit Pope, to give a refreshed perspective. It's one of those books that stays on your mind after you finish it.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 08:23 AM (y7DUB)

First Things did a write up on Greene a while back. I'll have to dig out what issue it was.

Francis wasn't the pope we wanted, but he was the pope we needed. No one else could have exposed the corruption in the Vatican so completely and successfully as he did. For that I am profoundly grateful.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:28 AM (llXky)

78 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 17, 2021 08:28 AM (u82oZ)

79 @64 Graham Greene recommendations: "The Comedians"." Our man in Havana", "The quiet American"

Posted by: redmonkey at October 17, 2021 08:28 AM (0+Ppk)

80 I apologize for my lack of comma sense. It's a curse you know.

Posted by: f'd at October 17, 2021 08:28 AM (Tnijr)

81 I do so admire everyone here who writes fiction. I simply can't . Backing college I took a medieval French literature class and we were tasked with writing a love poem in the 11th century style. I slaved away to make something credible. The professor said that although it had the correct elements and rhyme, that it read like a technical manual and that I probably should not consider a change of majors.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:29 AM (ONvIw)

82 Last week's read was Footprints Of Thunder by James F. David, a 1995 time travel novel. It has some interesting twists, an amoral billionaire, and lots of details on dinosaurs and Ice Age mammals.

3, maybe 3.5 out of 5 stars. Held my interest. No politics.

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 17, 2021 08:29 AM (F0YaR)

83 @62

I still have Tanar of Pelucidar on my shelves.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:29 AM (AwPyG)

84 If coffee shortages occur....war.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 08:30 AM (dHB/y)

85 But the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him? That is, if he would actually read it.
__________

Several options. One was featured here yesterday, Sowell's Conflict of Visions. Might get someone to see that there IS actually a problem. Another (more aggressive) would be Ed Feser's The Last Superstition, an unapologetically Thomist attack on the New Atheism, and progressive views, generally.

BTW: the last week Newmar link doesn't work. I'm fond of Julie. Remember how there were 3 photo spreads in Playboy? One before the centerfold, one after? Well, Julie Newmar was in the first one, in the first Playboy I ever saw. Have never forgotten it.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 17, 2021 08:31 AM (7X3UV)

86 It came up long ago here I think but maybe somewhere else,
What percentage of books do you own that you have read?
I doubt I have 1 I didn't at least once.
Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 08:09 AM (2JoB
----
I actually have a spreadsheet where I track my reading activity. Let me check...

23% unread (310 books)
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:13 AM (K5n5d)


23% sounds about right. The trouble for me was getting catalogs from remainder places like Daedalus where they were virtually giving stuff away and I was like a kid in a candy store. When they'd come I'd just shelve them and mostly forget about 'em.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 08:32 AM (y7DUB)

87 Reread an old favorite this week: I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Great stuff. If you only saw the BBC TV series, check out the book and its sequel Claudius The God.

Basically Graves tries to provide realistic motives for the wild stories of excess and murder put forth by Suetonius and Tacitus. (Personally I suspect they were just lying about some things.)

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 17, 2021 08:32 AM (QZxDR)

88 @77

Yes, Francis is a first-class red-pill, but the problem is similar to the red-pilling we've been getting in American politics. It's corrupt to the core, so much so that there's no one willing to even stand up and say so.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:32 AM (AwPyG)

89 Those pants make me think.

Is there any runway showing well-tailored bespoke clothing that exudes competence, power, and good looks?

Even for me?

The current designers seem to be self-indulgent twits. Only the Chest thread is a refuge. Thanks, OregonMuse.

Oxford commas hint that you had some learning.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 17, 2021 08:33 AM (u82oZ)

90 Good morning NaCly!! Check your email.

Posted by: Jewells45 at October 17, 2021 08:34 AM (nxdel)

91 I do so admire everyone here who writes fiction. I simply can't . Backing college I took a medieval French literature class and we were tasked with writing a love poem in the 11th century style. I slaved away to make something credible. The professor said that although it had the correct elements and rhyme, that it read like a technical manual and that I probably should not consider a change of majors.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:29 AM (ONvIw)
---
I think the key to writing anything is having something you really want to say. I guess there are people who just sort of write stories and their writing reads like they're cashing a check. That was what I got from the David Eddings books - he's getting paid by the page so he drew out each story line to be as long as possible without really saying anything interesting. The books are above average time-wasters, though.

I can't write like that and as my 'pause' from writing stretches out, I'm starting to wonder how many books I have left in me. I want to finish B.O. Wolf's story, I've got a notion of more Vampires of Michigan tales, but then what? I'm not sure.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:35 AM (llXky)

92 If you asked Roddy Piper which book to give them, he'd laugh in your face.

Remember the characters that refused to look through the glasses?

We're living it.

Real time, real life change the world stuff.

I hate it.

Posted by: weirdflunky at October 17, 2021 08:35 AM (cknjq)

93 Have a great day, everyone. May your book reading entertain, and maybe, expand your mind.

Chores start now.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at October 17, 2021 08:35 AM (u82oZ)

94 Hey! Your friend posted something on Facebook! Don't 'cha want to take a look? Open up the ole Facey book just one time? See what important thing your pal posted? Just once, for old times sake? You might enjoy it? Maybe see those notifications you were missing? Just a peek, hmmmmm?

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at October 17, 2021 08:35 AM (0ryfU)

95 I think the key to writing anything is having something you really want to say.


This is why I'll never write a book. My head is full of blank.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:36 AM (45fpk)

96 My issue with the 'dialogue" book choice is that the argument boils down to either "The African Chiefs started it." Or "Everybody did it."

I don't have a suggestion for a book to recommend.

What book would break - or even just reveal - the cycle of resentment/entitlement/rage that blames white people now for what happened generations ago and generates power and money to those who promote that attitude while enabling/sabotaging the people its 'supposed" to help?



Posted by: vivi at October 17, 2021 08:36 AM (USW1s)

97 I apologize for my lack of comma sense. It's a curse you know.
=====
I know, and have the mirror-universe curse; and sprinkle comas and semicolons throughout anything I write.

They are so festive. A Celebration With Sprinkles.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 17, 2021 08:36 AM (MIKMs)

98 The NY publishers use the Chicago Manual of Style, for those peeps who are interested in what they abide by.

I don't like it, much, due to all the commas, and the fact that not much is ever capitalized.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:37 AM (AwPyG)

99 The Oxford comma is a pointless affectation of pretentious snobs.

Posted by: Nosmo King at October 17, 2021 08:37 AM (5Woea)

100 @97

I love semicolons, and I think they are underrated; people use semicolons in speaking all the time.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:38 AM (AwPyG)

101 Make him read Friedman or Douglass.

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at October 17, 2021 08:38 AM (0ryfU)

102 Off to church ... if SPinRH shows up, Hi!

Posted by: CarolinaGirl at October 17, 2021 08:39 AM (Kh9rg)

103 I do so admire everyone here who writes fiction. I simply can't . Backing college I took a medieval French literature class and we were tasked with writing a love poem in the 11th century style. I slaved away to make something credible. The professor said that although it had the correct elements and rhyme, that it read like a technical manual and that I probably should not consider a change of majors.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 08:29 AM (ONvIw)


Well, it's something you either want to do - and can - or don't. I happen to like doing it, but I am limited in that all I want to write about (at the moment) are various iterations of Theda Bara and silent Hollywood. I'll be retired next year and so will have more time to do it, but I don't know how many more books I have in me. I have an idea for a short story and the germ of a third book, but beyond that, who knows?

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 17, 2021 08:39 AM (2JVJo)

104 I always omitted the Oxford comma when I was a copy editor, because that was AP style.

When AP decided to restore the comma, so did I.

Oh, that reminds me of one of my favorite hed busts, courtesy of Columbia Journalism Review:

Man comes out of comma

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:39 AM (Om/di)

105 I love semicolons, and I think they are underrated; people use semicolons in speaking all the time.


Why wouldn't that just be two separate sentences?

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:39 AM (45fpk)

106 Yes, Francis is a first-class red-pill, but the problem is similar to the red-pilling we've been getting in American politics. It's corrupt to the core, so much so that there's no one willing to even stand up and say so.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:32 AM (AwPyG)
---
It depends on where you look. Have you not seen the unprecedented pushback he's drawing? He tried to shut down the Latin Mass and a bunch of bishops basically told him to pound sand.

I'm seeing lots of emphasis on sound doctrine and the seminaries and religious orders are seeing their highest intakes in 30 years. These are not "liberal catholics" either, but very very traditional. Even our college town parish is putting Latin back into the services and all the weird 70s liberal decorations have been replaced by traditional icons.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:39 AM (llXky)

107 An apostrophe is merely an uppity comma.

Posted by: Nosmo King at October 17, 2021 08:39 AM (5Woea)

108 Re-reading some Elmore Leonard. This one, "Raylan."

U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens walks into a country store in Kentucky, young girl sitting on a stack of corn seed sacks says "Sir, Would you think I'm bold to inquire what you do as your job?"

Raylan says "Which one's the question, what I think, or what I do?"

Posted by: Mr Gaga at October 17, 2021 08:40 AM (4ZE6o)

109 Life first...then art or

Art first then life.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 08:40 AM (dHB/y)

110 Does anyone else have a cat/dog that loves to pull books off the shelves? Or is that just me?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:40 AM (K5n5d)

111 >>> 77 who is having a crisis of faith caused by...oh I don't know, maybe a dogshit Pope, to give a refreshed perspective. It's one of those books that stays on your mind after you finish it.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 08:23 AM (y7DUB)

First Things did a write up on Greene a while back. I'll have to dig out what issue it was.

Francis wasn't the pope we wanted, but he was the pope we needed. No one else could have exposed the corruption in the Vatican so completely and successfully as he did. For that I am profoundly grateful.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:28 AM (llXky)

This sounds vaguely familiar...

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 17, 2021 08:41 AM (ACi07)

112 Earlier this week I cited Norman Friedman as an example of an amateur turned expert. skippy agreed. Friedman is simply the best writer on warships, ever.

Now, I know not everyone wants to get into the weeds of the design of USS Wichita. But I would strongly recommend anyone with any interest in the subject to read just the introductions to his design history series. (He's done both the USN and RN.)

His main interest is not WHAT ships were like (many cover that) but WHY. And at that, he is unmatched. His most general books are probably The Fifty Year War and Seapower As Strategy.

Anyway, if you are at all interested in the subject, check him out.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 17, 2021 08:42 AM (7X3UV)

113 Oh, in addition to physical books unread, I have two on my phone -- one Mason and one Queen.

The Internet Archive contains a lot of material.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:42 AM (Om/di)

114 Since a young kid if I was spending my hard earned money on a book I had to get what I wanted to read, I'm not running a library.

Been waiting in deli line

Posted by: Skip's Phone at October 17, 2021 08:42 AM (HvE6X)

115 @92

Yeah, I agree. Anyone who still thinks the covid and the election-stealing were not tied together is being purposefully ignorant.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:44 AM (AwPyG)

116 Graham Greene did something interesting that I like quite a bit.

He, in his own mind, divided his novels into two subsets.

One, was the literary, usually more theologically oriented novels.

And, two were what he called "entertainments" or novels, written strictly to be page-turners.

The "entertainments" were almost always made into movies, so the dude knew what he was doing.
But, he also gave himself permission to write novels with higher intellectual fiber content for mentally chewing over after you closed the final page.

Nice to have so much talent that you can have it all.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 17, 2021 08:44 AM (5NkmN)

117 Oh, in addition to physical books unread, I have two on my phone -- one Mason and one Queen.

You just reminded me I recorded a Perry Mason movie from TCM that starred Ann Dvorak as Della Street. Think I'll go watch it now.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at October 17, 2021 08:46 AM (2JVJo)

118 Posted by: redmonkey at October 17, 2021 08:28 AM (0+Ppk)

Much thanks.

Still reading Buddenbrooks by Mann, a much more readable work, at least for me, than The Magic Mountain. Maybe that's because it's kind of a soap opera-ish book with the subtitle of The Decline of a Family as manifested in each section having someone in the family dying or going bankruptcy. Or both. Each successive generation seems to be top loaded with fuckups and there's never a convincing description of just how the family was any good at making money in the first place (although when I was a kid dwelling on that stuff seemed to be as "common" as asking somebody what his salary was).

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 08:46 AM (y7DUB)

119 This is why I'll never write a book. My head is full of blank.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:36 AM (45fpk)
---
For many years I wanted to write something but never could get going. I'd have an idea, write maybe 10 pages and then give up.

The turning point for me was realizing that I didn't have to come up with something completely new and entirely original. It was okay to be inspired by something else or pen a response.

That's the key to everything I've written - it's a reaction to something else. I hated the Beowulf movies, so I wrote a book about how I would do it. I hated Star Wars prequels, so I rewrote them. I hate angsty vampire stories, so I wrote that. I hated the bias and lies about the Spanish Civil War, so that became a project.

My hatred hasn't made me powerful, but it did make me somewhat productive.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:47 AM (llXky)

120 75 Now I wonder: Does Corsicana have a used-book store?
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:22 AM (Om/di)
----
I didn't even think of that...Don't give me any ideas! (I should be down there on Thursday...)
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 17, 2021 08:27 AM (K5n5d)
---

Bookstore trip!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:47 AM (Dc2NZ)

121 I didn't make much progress on Norse Mythology last week but finally got to Ragnarok. This is gonna be great!

Posted by: f'd at October 17, 2021 08:47 AM (Tnijr)

122 MP4, are we boring you? :-)

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:48 AM (Om/di)

123 Nothing smells as good as a book shop.

They should make a candle.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:48 AM (AwPyG)

124 "What book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him? That is, if he would actually read it.

"The Gulag Archipelago." All three volumes. It red-pilled me 45 years ago.

Posted by: Brett at October 17, 2021 08:49 AM (yjgWC)

125 The only thing apparently not absumed is the direness of the situation upon which we find ourselves in.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 17, 2021 08:49 AM (kJgh9)

126 Off to rake leaves. Have a lovely booky day!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Live! from the Dungeon of Discord at October 17, 2021 08:49 AM (Dc2NZ)

127 The NY publishers use the Chicago Manual of Style

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:37 AM (AwPyG)

Strunk & White is far better.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 17, 2021 08:51 AM (Q9lwr)

128 This week I was actually binge-watching an old detective series: Castle. Best-selling mystery writer follows a NYPD detective around as his 'muse.' Starting to get to the relationship stuff where they are pairing up, so I may try a few more episodes but I think I'm done. Dated in some ways (decorator clutter in expensive NY apartment), but otherwise interesting with enough humor to keep it going.

Cameos by best-selling mystery writers meeting for poker games is cool.

Posted by: mustbequantum at October 17, 2021 08:51 AM (MIKMs)

129 Graham Greene did something interesting that I like quite a bit.

He, in his own mind, divided his novels into two subsets.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 17, 2021 08:44 AM (5NkmN)
---
Waugh's work is similar in that respect. He made his reputation by dashing off vicious satire about the Smart Set but he also did very religious works.

Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy are where the two groups overlap, since both books have satiric parts but are also deeply spiritual.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:51 AM (llXky)

130 @119

I think the key to writing fiction is what E L Doctorow said--write like a car driving at night, where you can only see as far as the headlights.

If you think of writing "a book" that has a plot, and themes, and dialogue, and humor, you won't get started--it's too daunting.

But if you think: "I have a good idea for a scene. I will write it down, and worry about who these people are, and what they're doing there, later" then it's a whole lot less daunting.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:52 AM (AwPyG)

131
g'mornin', book-ish 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 17, 2021 08:52 AM (DUIap)

132 U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens walks into a country store in Kentucky, young girl sitting on a stack of corn seed sacks says "Sir, Would you think I'm bold to inquire what you do as your job?"
Posted by: Mr Gaga at October 17, 2021 08:40 AM (4ZE6o)

One day this feller from Washington come by
And spied 'em and turned white as a sheet
And he dug and he burned
And he burned and he dug
And he killed all our cute little weeds
And then he drove away
We just smiled and waved
Sittin' there on that sack o' seeds

"Y'all come back now, y'hear!"

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 17, 2021 08:53 AM (R/m4+)

133 Chicago Manual of Style?

All the lede is in .45ACP?

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 17, 2021 08:55 AM (kJgh9)

134 artemis - your latest book came up on my Kindle recommended reading list yesterday. I get an email from them each day, which somewhat explains my stack.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 08:55 AM (45fpk)

135 Chicago typewriters spell only one thing: R.I.P.

(stolen from a Saint story)

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 08:56 AM (Om/di)

136 What book would break - or even just reveal - the cycle of resentment/entitlement/rage that blames white people now for what happened generations ago and generates power and money to those who promote that attitude while enabling/sabotaging the people its 'supposed" to help?

Posted by: vivi at October 17, 2021 08:36 AM (USW1s)
---
Yes, and I've noticed that liberals increasingly can't actually argue or think for themselves, they just throw citations at you. Don't tell me what someone else says, what do YOU say??? Can you explain what you even believe or do you need to check your notes?

That's the core issue - these people are NPCs incapable of independent thought. You start to engage and they just fire off quotes like its Holy Scripture.

In situations like the one mentioned above, my response would be: I will discuss this with you, but only if you are willing to reconsider your own position. If not, we're done.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 08:57 AM (llXky)

137 I've been doing the 100 Days of Dante too, using the Longfellow translation, which is free at Project Gutenberg.

Posted by: Linnet at October 17, 2021 08:57 AM (MTIh5)

138 Never heard of it but my favorite taco place is 3 blocks away.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 17, 2021 08:57 AM (EZebt)

139 Thanks, grammie. I wish you would write something, you have a very funny "voice".

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:58 AM (AwPyG)

140 @136

My usual response is to be thoughtful, and say, "You're right; people shouldn't be able to decide for themselves, because you know best."

Because that exposes what's at the core of their belief system; the need to feel superior.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:00 AM (AwPyG)

141 I wish you would write something, you have a very funny "voice".

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:58 AM (AwPyG)


You're very kind, artemis. I would stare at the blank page till the cows come home, I'm afraid. Speaking of cows, I hope none of you missed National Cheese Curd Day yesterday.

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 09:00 AM (45fpk)

142 Via RT, comrade:

The deputy secretary at the US Treasury has put Americans on notice that the only way to end the plague of empty shelves around the country is for every resident to be vaccinated. The frank warning came off as a threat to many.

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 09:00 AM (UHVv4)

143 What book would you read right before you go to war and the odds are 50/50 that you will survive...according to experts?

I myself would ask my team leader for suggestions on a book to read before a confrontation.

But i don't have a leader so i suggest to myself....something about DDay would be good.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 09:01 AM (dHB/y)

144 But if you think: "I have a good idea for a scene. I will write it down, and worry about who these people are, and what they're doing there, later" then it's a whole lot less daunting.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:52 AM (AwPyG)
---
Yeah, so I tried that and all I got was a lot of one-scene novels.

For me, I have to have a plot, a plan so I know where I'm going. What often happens is that the plot evolves and shifts once I get absorbed into the story. I sometimes think that I'm so reactionary that I react against my own plots, since in the end, I don't follow them, either.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:01 AM (llXky)

145 Speaking of cows, I hope none of you missed National Cheese Curd Day yesterday.
Posted by: grammie winger

No whey!

Posted by: Miklos, reading at or above Grade Level at October 17, 2021 09:01 AM (QzkSJ)

146 I hope none of you missed National Cheese Curd Day yesterday.
----------------------------
No whey, grammie!

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 09:02 AM (UHVv4)

147 Horde mind!

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 09:02 AM (UHVv4)

148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich SHOULD be red-pilling, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be.

I still remember the ending. "There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch, from the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail. Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days. The three extra days were for leap years."

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at October 17, 2021 09:02 AM (8548M)

149 @144

I think you are describing the "drive with headlights" technique, without realizing it.

The "men in the basement" are playing the part of the reader, and switching your story as they see fit.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:03 AM (AwPyG)

150 *mounts soapbox*

Language as an evolving phenomenon is exciting for people who like change and novelty for its own sake, and is a deadly threat to chemists and cooks

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 09:03 AM (KbLYZ)

151 No whey, grammie!

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 09:02 AM (UHVv4)


Just in time for JJ's visit to Wisconsin!

Posted by: grammie winger at October 17, 2021 09:03 AM (45fpk)

152 Hola Bookophiles. I'm also doing 100 Days of Dante and it's great.

I recently came across a reading regimen on a FB C S Lewis fan page that I'm incorporating. It's a kind of deliberate reading. Read one chapter of a worthy ( and somewhat dense) work after supper. Choose a phrase that has meaning to you. Write that down and a few lines summarizing its significance. I normally read way too fast and find myself surfing through the prose, scanning for the high points. This deliberate reading idea has me slowing down -- also re-reading the passage looking for the tasty tidbits.

Posted by: sinmi at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (A5IVt)

153
Question for the writers out there - Is there catharsis by writing about a painful life event and getting it off ones chest? I can write, have the experience required to do a credible job, have one hell of a true story, but don't feel like engaging in the process unless there is some positive benefit. Commercial success or failure is not important at all.

Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (dQvv7)

154 @143 --

I'd pick something funny. Remembering humor would help me through the horrors.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (Om/di)

155 My usual response is to be thoughtful, and say, "You're right; people shouldn't be able to decide for themselves, because you know best."

Because that exposes what's at the core of their belief system; the need to feel superior.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:00 AM (AwPyG)
---
One approach I use quite a bit is simply to agree and amplify their argument. Just follow it all the way to the end.

"Huh, so Martin Luther King died for nothing. The whole civil rights movement was a total waste of time. Sad."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (llXky)

156 146 it wouldn't have been gouda to miss it

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (ONvIw)

157 My neighbor Judy used to run the local bookstore called "Dog Eared Books" called so because she used to raise and show dogs.
She had to sell it because she started losing her sight.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 09:05 AM (KbLYZ)

158
@124

I was thinking about the question - what redpill book would you recommend - and The Gulag Archipelago was the first thing to come up.

In the throes of 2020 a relative told me I needed to read The New Jim Crow, and I snarkily responded with "And my mother-in-law keeps trying to get me to read The Watchtower, implying that it's just another holy text. It was enough.

But thinking back, I really do like the "I'll read one of yours if you'll read one of mine" stance. And now I'm really thinking about it.

Posted by: weew at October 17, 2021 09:05 AM (+m+uH)

159 "But if you think: "I have a good idea for a scene. I will write it down, and worry about who these people are, and what they're doing there, later" then it's a whole lot less daunting. "

and more fun.

Posted by: itsacookbook at October 17, 2021 09:05 AM (yPxXc)

160 Someone here piqued my interest a few weeks ago talking about Hamlet's Mill in terms that led me to check it out. First of all, not many people seem to have read it since it's been out since 1969 and the library only had two copies and not that many reviews in Goodreads. Second, when I took it out from the library and just started skimming sections it seemed to be like a more difficult to follow narration than Camille Paglia, except in Camille's case it's densely packed with facts that almost force you to dwell on every single word. I don't think I'll be entertained enough to make it through it but at least I know what it is now.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 09:08 AM (y7DUB)

161 Basic Economics Sowell

https://tinyurl.com/asvetty5

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 17, 2021 09:09 AM (yrol0)

162
I think you are describing the "drive with headlights" technique, without realizing it.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:03 AM (AwPyG)
---
No, because the ending is always known, it's just how I get there. Every novel I wrote I knew how it was going to end. Getting there had some twists and turns, but I pretty much set out with the final scene in mind.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:09 AM (llXky)

163 @153

I dunno, to me you're talking about two different things. it may be psychologically beneficial to write down your troubles, and feel that you've got a handle on them that way.

But I think with fiction, you have to be careful not to get on a soapbox, or let "author intrusion" mess up a good story.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:09 AM (AwPyG)

164 136- Some people are just...unreachable. I am still reeling from what my cousin said Friday. She's really streetsmart, an expert at "reading the tea leaves."
She was talking about the son of a close personal friend who decided he was a woman & started the process. (She sounded like it bugged her that he was so bad at it and she didn't know what to make of it.) I mentioned that a guy posing as trans raped a 9th grader. She immediately went to "Oh, that guy who was arrested" and she didn't believe about the rape.
I said the cops did a rape kit and she was raped. "Oh, yeah, the cops.." she snorted. I said "Do you think the cops faked a rape kit? And the guy who did it was sent to another school and did it again?" And she countered with "So two examples out of how many?"

I told her that I"m nervous in the gym now because some guy might show up in my locker room like the one in that spa in California, who was eventually arrested.

The closest I got was that she copped out and said "I don't care, it's not my issue."

But then, she thinks Guiliani was a terrible mayor so she's living in a alternative universe anyway.

Posted by: vivi at October 17, 2021 09:10 AM (USW1s)

165 tacitus was a senator at one point, and hence was 'affected' by claudius purge, suetonius was born in the time of vespasian, some time after the rule of claudius and nero, he was a scribe to another official,

Posted by: alien covenant was much worse at October 17, 2021 09:10 AM (hMlTh)

166 Aspiring writers (not me), remember that you don't know how many false starts and junked scenes your favorite author produced.

What you read is the jewel after it's polished.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 09:10 AM (Om/di)

167
Every novel I wrote I knew how it was going to end. Getting there had some twists and turns, but I pretty much set out with the final scene in mind.

If only you were there to advise Stephen King back in the day, maybe he would have written some truly good stuff.

Posted by: weew at October 17, 2021 09:11 AM (+m+uH)

168 I believe you simply have to want to write. I don't. When I finally turned in my history and philosophy majors' theses I swore I'd never do that again. Since, the most I've written is either comments (as here) or some training shit at work. But the latter, too, is over.

There's an excellent Waugh essay in which he eviscerates Stephen Spender (Two Unquiet Lives), starting with Spender's statement to T S Eliot that "he wanted to be a poet". From there, it gets fun.

Posted by: Eeyore at October 17, 2021 09:12 AM (7X3UV)

169 But thinking back, I really do like the "I'll read one of yours if you'll read one of mine" stance. And now I'm really thinking about it.
Posted by: weew at October 17, 2021 09:05 AM (+m+uH)

Solzhenitsyn's books are hard to find these days.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM (ONvIw)

170 Question for the writers out there - Is there catharsis by writing about a painful life event and getting it off ones chest? I can write, have the experience required to do a credible job, have one hell of a true story, but don't feel like engaging in the process unless there is some positive benefit. Commercial success or failure is not important at all.

Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (dQvv7)
---
Evelyn Waugh was 'sent down' from Oxford by a master named Crutwell. His revenge was to feature characters of that name in various books who were always unsavory. He even attempted to coin the term "Crutwellism" as a reference to the sexual abuse of dogs.

When I was being tormented by a supervisor at work, I began to put versions of him in my novels and it brought me considerable satisfaction.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM (llXky)

171 @167

Everybody's different, which is why it's so much fun to listen to authors speak at conferences--everybody gets it done a different way, you just have to figure out what way is yours.

When I start, the only thing I know is the title.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:14 AM (AwPyG)

172 170 - thanks for a wonderful idea.

Posted by: vivi at October 17, 2021 09:15 AM (USW1s)

173 Because that exposes what's at the core of their belief system; the need to feel superior.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:00 AM (AwPyG)

Sounds right. I went to a fauxhemian event last evening with a lot of those types.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:16 AM (ONvIw)

174 Now I wonder: Does Corsicana have a used-book store?

Maybe Ben Had will wander by to answer but you question made me think of something else. Archer City, TX, Larry McMurtry's home town. I visited there once about a hundred years ago (slight exaggeration is allowed in the book thread) when it seemed like half the town was used book shops. I had heard several years ago that they were closing down but a quick bingle says that's not the case although they may have contracted into a single store (https://www.bookedupac.com/) . Has anyone visited there more recently?

Posted by: Oddbob at October 17, 2021 09:16 AM (nfrXX)

175 #165 Than you, alien covenant was much worse, for the background.

Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 09:17 AM (UHVv4)

176
When I was being tormented by a supervisor at work, I began to put versions of him in my novels and it brought me considerable satisfaction.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM (llXky)

This is a great idea.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:18 AM (ONvIw)

177 Question for the writers out there - Is there catharsis by writing about a painful life event and getting it off ones chest? I can write, have the experience required to do a credible job, have one hell of a true story, but don't feel like engaging in the process unless there is some positive benefit. Commercial success or failure is not important at all.
Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (dQvv7)


I couldn't write that way. Because I mostly like to write humor and that requires distance and objectivity.

If I had that objectivity about something that painful, I doubt it'd be painful for me anymore and hence not a driving force for writing.

That said, there's plenty of people who've made careers out of writing about their pain. For instance, look at the guy who wrote "The Great Santini". He's made a whole career chewing on that same cud for decades.

Whatever turns your key is what works. There are no rules about that.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 17, 2021 09:19 AM (5NkmN)

178 177 Question for the writers out there - Is there catharsis by writing about a painful life event and getting it off ones chest? I can write, have the experience required to do a credible job, have one hell of a true story, but don't feel like engaging in the process unless there is some positive benefit. Commercial success or failure is not important at all.
Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 09:04 AM (dQvv7

Writing about painful events as a way to process your emotions and responses is a time honored technique. It allows you to vent and be emotional and yes, it's cathartic.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:21 AM (ONvIw)

179 I love semicolons, and I think they are underrated; people use semicolons in speaking all the time.
Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:38 AM (AwPyG)


The best semicolon use in science fiction is H. Beam Piper. He could turn out a sentence like a French Chef making crepes.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 09:22 AM (KbLYZ)

180 >>>Within the past few years, we are witnessing the absumption of:
--Joe Biden's mental faculties

Over at the BBC, they are reporting results of a photo contest: "Your pictures on the theme of 'derelict'"--and I thought, whoa, missing a good chance to post photos of Joe Biden! But the definition of "derelict" doesn't quite match the state of his mental faculties.

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-58841907

Posted by: m at October 17, 2021 09:22 AM (cME97)

181 I don't know why it never occurred to me, but old college textbooks are cheap. The copy of Engineering Materials and Their Applications that I bought used in college was missing a bunch of pages in the chapters on plastics, and a couple of weeks ago I decided to get a better copy, and for $6, including shipping, I just bought it.

I then went a little crazy and bought an organic chemistry book. It only cost me $4, but I don't have a clue what I'm going to do with it.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 17, 2021 09:23 AM (ezpv1)

182 @181

My dad was an engineer, and he always had a college textbook on his shelf at work, even 70 years later, because he used it to look up formulas

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:25 AM (AwPyG)

183 Tesla has been ordered by a federal court in California to pay almost $137m in damages to a Black former employee who said he endured racial abuse while working at a factory in Fremont.

So reading the federal register the 3 people that caused the trouble were 1) Filipino, b) Hispanic, and iii) Black.

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (yrol0)

184 This is a great idea.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:18 AM (ONvIw)
---
You remember J.J. in Vampires of Michigan?

That's the one.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (llXky)

185 Greetings:

Dog Eared Books seems to be escaping the shop-lifting pandemic that Frisco is experiencing for some reason or other. Perhaps they have a vaccine mandate ???

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (uuklp)

186 BBC:

"The next theme is "minimalism", and the deadline for entries is 19 October 2021."

Posted by: m at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (cME97)

187 Unread books on the shelf/Kindle? Dear God in Heaven...

If I didn't buy another book, I'd probably still have enough on hand to last me until I'm planted (which barring accident, stupidity, or the jab should be another decade or so).

Realized long ago that if you thought you might want to read a book you had to buy it then because if you waited it would go out-of-print; this was pre-internet and interlibrary loan took a while. Got into the habit of grabbing it then, and that habit led to the growth of The Amazing Colossal TBR Pile. I still have that habit, but I'm getting better. Slightly.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 17, 2021 09:27 AM (JzDjf)

188 I would give my woke pal Black Rednecks to read. Nothing gets you thinking straight like Thomas Sowell.

Posted by: Texican ette at October 17, 2021 09:28 AM (doF/7)

189 >>> "No whey!" above...

Just a pet peeve of mine, so I know everyone will be fascinated. /s

Half the country pronounces "wh" as "w," and the other half pronounces it as "hw." Puns (and worse, crossword clues - looking at you, NYT) based on one pronunciation vs. the other are just an annoyance to 50% of readers.

/rant

Posted by: Fou Troll at October 17, 2021 09:28 AM (HLwmB)

190 For those interested: John Bellairs left a number of uncompleted books when he died. Bellairs' publishers commissioned fantasy author Brad Strickland to finish them, and Strickland went on to write a number of further novels in Bellairs' universe from scratch. Kindle editions of several of the books have been available for three bucks in the past few weeks, and more may be coming in the future.

Posted by: RNB at October 17, 2021 09:28 AM (DjjZJ)

191 you're welcome, you see how biased current accounts of events, you look at sallust, he was clearly a caesar partisan, was even rewarded for his efforts, thucydides, was a staff officer of the old regime, like a kennedy hangerson, machiavelli worked for a psycho familliy right out of game of thrones, the borgias, so this colors their perspective,

Posted by: alien covenant was much worse at October 17, 2021 09:28 AM (hMlTh)

192 You know, I am not sure the best counter to the bluepilled friend isn't something like Lysander Spooner's Unconstitutionality of Slavery. It is not long, but the language is intricate.

Stephen Douglass cited it as the reason he turned from a belief that the United States was evil in how it was created and should be destroyed, to a good thing used for evil.

It does not directly challenge your bluepilled friend's narrative, but points out that the evil done is not from the system, but from the men who decided to uses the system to subjugate others by torturing the language. It approaches the Constitution from the point of view of Contract law.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 09:30 AM (KbLYZ)

193
That said, there's plenty of people who've made careers out of writing about their pain. For instance, look at the guy who wrote "The Great Santini". He's made a whole career chewing on that same cud for decades.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 17, 2021 09:19 AM (5NkmN)
---
The late Pat Conroy. One of his last books, The Death of Santini, was about his father and his relationship with him that ventured into autobiography.

Conroy relates that after his third novel came out (Santini), she told him she could no longer have a meaningful conversation with him because he would treat it as fodder for his books. He basically alienated everyone in his family *except* his father, who cheerfully would go to book signings as "the real Santini."

Pat was pissed that his dad always had a longer line for autographs.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:30 AM (llXky)

194 @190

Do you think Strickland does a good job? I haven't had much luck when someone tries to pick up the torch from a famous author

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:30 AM (AwPyG)

195 ---
You remember J.J. in Vampires of Michigan?

That's the one.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (llXky)

I do. Were those the "correct" initials? Poor old Crutwell

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:31 AM (ONvIw)

196 Sorry, the "she" is Conroy's mother. That wasn't clear.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:31 AM (llXky)

197
I then went a little crazy and bought an organic chemistry book. It only cost me $4, but I don't have a clue what I'm going to do with it.
Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 17, 2021 09:23 AM (ezpv1)


That's okay most organic chemistry students don't either.

Posted by: blaster at October 17, 2021 09:31 AM (mbFEM)

198 Conroy relates that after his third novel came out (Santini), she told him she could no longer have a meaningful conversation with him because he would treat it as fodder for his books. He basically alienated everyone in his family *except* his father, who cheerfully would go to book signings as "the real Santini."

Pat was pissed that his dad always had a longer line for autographs.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:30 AM (llXky)


You could see the whole evolution through his works. The one thing I noticed was that rape kept moving closer to the protagonist until finally it happened to him.

Posted by: blaster at October 17, 2021 09:33 AM (mbFEM)

199 Anyone remember David Brooks (may his name be erased) book Bobos in Paradise. It's from years ago, but it's so true. Everyone trying to be bohemian. Ick

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:33 AM (ONvIw)

200 Conroy relates that after his third novel came out (Santini), she told him she could no longer have a meaningful conversation with him because he would treat it as fodder for his books.

This made it into Prince of Tides. Except it is the protagonist's sister who does this.

Posted by: blaster at October 17, 2021 09:34 AM (mbFEM)

201 In other news, Elon shoots former employee into "outer space". Expected to arrive at Mars meet-up in 6 or so years. Or not.

Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 09:34 AM (taPSh)

202 "Thomas was somewhat biased in favor of the Republic, but as the book progressed, one could sense he was changing his mind even as he wrote. The version I have is a revision he put together in light of new material," Lloyd

oh, I just ordered it (used hardback). I saw the paperback was Feb 1999, but the hardback was 1997. 907 pages ... I'll read a couple chapters probably, and keep your comment in mind.

Cassius Clay said he was glad his grandfather got on that boat. In the end it appears (except for recent developments?) that the great grandchildren of blacks brought to early USA as slaves, have much better lives than those of the black tribes of Africa that had sold them into slavery.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 17, 2021 09:34 AM (Cus5s)

203 20 In my house - well, one day I went so far to move all the unread books to the left side of my bookshelves and the reads on the right. At least three (possible six, now that I think more about it) are evenly divided.
Posted by: CarolinaGirl at October 17, 2021 08:08 AM (Kh9rg)

Hmm. Might try this.

Posted by: m at October 17, 2021 09:34 AM (cME97)

204
I do. Were those the "correct" initials? Poor old Crutwell

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:31 AM (ONvIw)
---
Maybe.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:34 AM (llXky)

205 "The next theme is "minimalism", and the deadline for entries is 19 October 2021."
Posted by: m at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (cME97)

I'm a maximalist. Alas.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:34 AM (ONvIw)

206 Nothing smells as good as a book shop.
They should make a candle.
Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:48 AM (AwPyG)


Vanilla and piles of fallen Autumn leaves

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 09:35 AM (KbLYZ)

207 Well, time for Mass. Probably miss next week's thread.

Always a pleasure! Thanks OM!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:36 AM (llXky)

208 Anyone remember David Brooks (may his name be erased) book Bobos in Paradise.

I didn't read it but I recall reading reviews at the time. Talk about a writer "going native..."

Posted by: Oddbob at October 17, 2021 09:36 AM (nfrXX)

209 199 Anyone remember David Brooks (may his name be erased) book Bobos in Paradise. It's from years ago, but it's so true. Everyone trying to be bohemian. Ick

hmm. maybe i should czech it out.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 17, 2021 09:39 AM (u1vod)

210 When I was being tormented by a supervisor at work, I began to put versions of him in my novels and it brought me considerable satisfaction.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM


Revenge writing. Interesting idea, but I don't think I could engage in the effort for that reason. Basic premise is that a young feminist woman falls in love, but the man does not feel the same. She realizes she is pregnant, but only after the breakup, and decides to hide the fact from everyone. Forty-four years later, with too much time on his hands because of the pandemic, the man inadvertently discovers the truth. Man reaches out to the child (now a middle age woman) and is met with silence. I suppose I should be angered and outraged at the feminist mother, and I was at first, but it didn't last as I discovered other details of her life which explained the 'why' of her action.

Thanks to everyone else who replied.

Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 09:41 AM (dQvv7)

211 Greetings:

RE: Slave Trade

Searching for "Forgotten Slaves" will bring up some interesting results including European slavers and Muslim slavers. More interesting perhaps is the work of modern African academics and their acceptance that the "Atlantic Trade" was not the whole ball of wax.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 09:41 AM (uuklp)

212 The two Eddings series are pretty good offbeat-medieval fantasy. They have all the usual features: magic, quests, pantheons, demons, good guys and bad guys. But better yet are the six books in Eddings' two series _The Elenium_ and _The Tamuli._ Those deserve to be much more widely known, being less cliched and better characterized.

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at October 17, 2021 09:41 AM (z/nZY)

213 But thinking back, I really do like the "I'll read one of yours if you'll read one of mine" stance. And now I'm really thinking about it.
Posted by: weew at October 17, 2021 09:05 AM (+m+uH)


'Course you could also do the "I would be interested in looking into it, but the take on the subject is outside my experience, could you SEND ME AN EMAIL with the five most important ideas in this book so I can focus on what YOU SEE as important here?"

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 09:43 AM (KbLYZ)

214 Anyway, Bobos in Paradise was the unofficial theme for the wedding I attended last evening. It consultants and MBA types celebrating in a drafty cold barn with field flowers in jars. The bride's gown dragging in mud as a hailstorm just finished up.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:44 AM (ONvIw)

215 210 When I was being tormented by a supervisor at work, I began to put versions of him in my novels and it brought me considerable satisfaction.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM

Revenge writing. Interesting idea, but I don't think I could engage in the effort for that reason. Basic premise is that a young feminist woman falls in love, but the man does not feel the same. She realizes she is pregnant, but only after the breakup, and decides to hide the fact from everyone. Forty-four years later, with too much time on his hands because of the pandemic, the man inadvertently discovers the truth. Man reaches out to the child (now a middle age woman) and is met with silence. I suppose I should be angered and outraged at the feminist mother, and I was at first, but it didn't last as I discovered other details of her life which explained the 'why' of her action.

Thanks to everyone else who replied.
Posted by: Traitor Joe's Military Surplus, Vaccine and Massage Parlor at October 17, 2021 09:41 AM (dQvv7)

Sounds like a story I would enjoy reading. And it might be that your interest in the story would make the writing particularly strong.

Posted by: m at October 17, 2021 09:45 AM (cME97)

216 Good morning book friends.
Still reading the third book in the Sanderson series, Oathbringer. A little over 900 pages in and moving faster now. I don't think I've ever devoted this much time to a series of books. It is worth it though. I am still in awe.
( I will guiltily admit to having also read Iris Johansen's new book and a J.D Robb).

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 17, 2021 09:45 AM (Y+l9t)

217 I am finding myself interested in the lives of writers (Shelley and Godwins these days, but I have Ford standing by). Reading about the times and family life gave me a greater appreciation for Frankenstein as a work of its day and as an offshoot of the reading she, herself, did.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:48 AM (ONvIw)

218 185 Greetings:

Dog Eared Books seems to be escaping the shop-lifting pandemic that Frisco is experiencing for some reason or other.
Perhaps they have a vaccine mandate ???

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (uuklp)


Apparently, nobody wants to steal books.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 09:50 AM (Q+kh1)

219
Apparently, nobody wants to steal books.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 09:50 AM (Q+kh1)

Hmmm, I wonder why?

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:51 AM (ONvIw)

220 Been starting a reread of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series in preparation for November's Amazon TV show (even though I'm half afraid it's gonna suck...) Have read the prequel (New Spring) and book 1 (The Eye of the World) and am just beginning book 2 (The Great Hunt). After that, I had planned on taking a break from the reread to read a few new November releases (the final books in the Towers of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft, and in The Expanse series), but the 3rd, the last in KJ Parker's Siege "trilogy" apparently isn't coming out til January, so maybe I was mistaken in thinking I had seen a November release date for it... so I'm probably going to have a gap before the Nov releases, might go with The Dragon Reborn to continue the WoT reread, or one of my unread kindle books. Plan to reread The Lord of the Rings in December to round off the year.

Posted by: tintex at October 17, 2021 09:52 AM (1SqmW)

221 "Good morning book hoarders. Confess - you've got them stacked up everywhere, don't you? Last count on my Kindle, I had 182 unread. "

LOL. Stacks upon stacks

Posted by: Tuna at October 17, 2021 09:53 AM (gLRfa)

222 Oh there are books stolen worth boat loads of money.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 09:55 AM (2JoB8)

223 To be honest, I'm sick of the slavery shit and the idiotic idea that it's so "today". People were farther ahead in the 60s and 70s when minorities were actually involved in education and getting ahead was easier as you could build from a manufacturing job. We've made too many wrong turns.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:55 AM (ONvIw)

224 Anyway, Bobos in Paradise was the unofficial theme for the wedding I attended last evening. It consultants and MBA types celebrating in a drafty cold barn with field flowers in jars. The bride's gown dragging in mud as a hailstorm just finished up.
Posted by: CN

I read that as Boobs in Paradise

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 09:57 AM (arJlL)

225
222 Oh there are books stolen worth boat loads of money.
Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 09:55 AM (2JoB

I don't suppose the average semi-literate vandal type knows which ones are valuable or would take the time to learn on the off chance he might find one.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:57 AM (ONvIw)

226 I read that as Boobs in Paradise
Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 09:57 AM (arJlL)

Oh FFS, every single thread?

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:57 AM (ONvIw)

227 If cops can't/ won't protect Walgreens....they can't help you.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 09:57 AM (dHB/y)

228 Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe has the most beautiful opening of any work of fiction I have ever read

Posted by: Jmel at October 17, 2021 09:58 AM (xt5dk)

229 Oh FFS, every single thread?
Posted by: CN

Excuuuuuuuuuse me !

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 09:59 AM (arJlL)

230 227 If cops can't/ won't protect Walgreens....they can't help you.
Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 09:57 AM (dHB/y)

Won't is really the thing, isn't it? Why risk being thrown into jail because you have the bad luck of apprehending an addict in the throes of an opioid demise?

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 09:59 AM (ONvIw)

231 188 I would give my woke pal Black Rednecks to read. Nothing gets you thinking straight like Thomas Sowell.
Posted by: Texican ette at October 17, 2021 09:28 AM (doF/7)

The people I know are too invested in the narrative to actually think.
Oddly the amount of cultural appropriation at last night's festivities was shocking. They are incomplete libs

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 10:03 AM (ONvIw)

232 If i can't get to Walgreens....i die a retarded dog's death.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:04 AM (dHB/y)

233 I did an overnight trip to the Portland area on Friday. Normally that would include a pilgrimage to Powells Books, but I now avoid the downtown area like the plague. I did visit their westside location in Beaverton, and it was overflowing with prog nonsense on every display. I walked out empty handed, which is unusual for me.

Posted by: PabloD, make commies fly again! at October 17, 2021 10:04 AM (8akfU)

234 228 Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe has the most beautiful opening of any work of fiction I have ever read
Posted by: Jmel at October 17, 2021 09:58 AM (xt5dk)

I do love that book

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 10:05 AM (ONvIw)

235 I just finished reading Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

His premise is that we get tied up caring about things so much we stop getting things done: instead be comfortable about being different, to not care about adversity in your life you have to care about something more important than the adversity in your life, and you always are choosing what you care about.
His chapters include: you are not special, the value of suffering, you are wrong about everything, and the importance of saying no.

Some of what he says is matched by reading I have done on addiction and dependence, and some is pragmatic looks at people in general. He does introduce the appealing character, "Disappointment Panda" to illustrate some points about how, no, your life is not going to be wonderful and yes, you should get on with it anyways.

It is not so much actionable bullet points self-help manual to move your life forward, it is more along the lines of that person in your life who said, yes this sucks, and sitting and whining about it will make it suck worse, but it also gives some insight as to why that is so.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 17, 2021 10:05 AM (KbLYZ)

236 One book? A very good question. If the person is as utterly ignorant of the history of our European-descended culture (as many wokesters are, having been kept in the dark because the ignorant are more easily deceived), I'd offer Jacque Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence", which is a history of the 500 years of Western culture from the Renaissance to 2000. If the question, however, is the true nature of race and differences between the races, I'd offer Thomas Sowell's "The Economics and Politics of Race: An International Perspective". By contrast, if the question revolves around American history, I'd offer Samuel Eliot Morrison's "Oxford History of the United States and Canada", assuming you can find a copy, which is easily the best one-volume history of the US up through WWII that I've seen. Or if the person simply doesn't know how to think, I'd offer Irving Copi's "Introduction to Logic", fourth edition (again, if you can find a copy), in particular the first three chapters, which discuss what logic is, the uses of language, and the informal fallacies. Or if the question is statistics and information, I'd offer Darrel Huff's "How To Lie With Statistics" - a classic on the subject.

Posted by: Nemo at October 17, 2021 10:06 AM (S6ArX)

237 222 Oh there are books stolen worth boat loads of money.
Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 09:55 AM (2JoB

I believe that is why the big LA city library was burned back in 80s. All of the rare books had been stolen and sold by the employees so they burned it to hide that fact.

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 17, 2021 10:06 AM (yrol0)

238 Was thinking of the book suggestion while waiting in line, might be not the best but of what I have to give a Leftist might be Battle Cry of Freedom, a Civil War was fought over slavery and 1/2 million died from it ending it.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 10:06 AM (2JoB8)

239 228 Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe has the most beautiful opening of any work of fiction I have ever read
Posted by: Jmel at October 17, 2021 09:58 AM (xt5dk)

I'm looking at a preview now. Which part? The note to the reader (This is a first book)? The opening to Part I (. . . a stone, a leaf)? Or the first paragraph of chapter I (A destiny that leads the English to the Dutch)? They're all pretty good.

Posted by: m at October 17, 2021 10:06 AM (cME97)

240 "Language evolves"

Yeah and it gets a lot less fucking precise as it does.

Posted by: sven at October 17, 2021 10:07 AM (Lzpvj)

241 he challenged me to read white fragility by robin diangelo. i looked on amazon and was floored to see 37K reviews and its five star.
well, not floored. anyone actually read it and can give me the cliffs notes?

Posted by: Jack Burton, who says brandon, let's go. at October 10, 2021 11:15 AM (NlREX)

I would never do this. It seems awfully one-sided, like you're accepting his assumption that you need to be educated or enlightened.
Posted by: OregonMuse at 09:00 AM

I've never read the book, but I know people who have. There's a consensus among people who are NOT leftists, that it's intellectually insipid, scholastically sloppy, and can be reduced to: White Man Bad.

I don't feel the need to read it myself, in much the same way I don't feel the need to read Das Kapital, or dare I say it, Mein Kampf.

I know what it is, without having to spend any more time on it than to tell someone who tells me I should read it to go F himself.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:09 AM (FNdgH)

242 My dad was an engineer, and he always had a college textbook on his shelf at work, even 70 years later, because he used it to look up formulas

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 09:25 AM


My dad was a chemical engineer, and I went into aerospace. I've got a bunch of textbooks on my shelves, mostly books I didn't sell back after I finished whatever course they were for. They are sometimes useful.

I will say that this cheap knockoff of a CRC manual I bought in graduate school was the best $14 I ever spent.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 17, 2021 10:10 AM (ezpv1)

243
It is massive, detailed and factually inarguable.

__________

Progs don't care if it's inarguable. It and its facts don't exist.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 17, 2021 10:10 AM (/U27+)

244 But the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him?
--------

Well, Thomas Sowell, for starters. Perhaps, 'Black Rednecks and White Liberals'. Of course, they might not make it past the title. Perhaps more palatable might be, 'The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy'.

Also, one of my Moron-recommended (thank you!) current reads, 'The Real Abraham Lincoln'. The title has some attraction, and the contents are very revealing with regard to how we got to where we are, on many fronts. Very nice foreword by Walter Williams.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:10 AM (bk3Sg)

245 "210 When I was being tormented by a supervisor at work, I began to put versions of him in my novels and it brought me considerable satisfaction."

My daughter, who writes "urban fantasy" novels, has a list of people who've offended us. Their names, disguised, are used in her stories for victims or villains. Childish, yes; but cathartic.

Posted by: Nemo at October 17, 2021 10:13 AM (S6ArX)

246 Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (uuklp)

Apparently, nobody wants to steal books.
Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 09:50 AM (Q+kh1)

I did a massive Sal Army dropoff last week. Stuff that would seem to have some use, but I don't want or need. They took everything I brought... except books. I was told they aren't taking books.

This is our world now.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:13 AM (FNdgH)

247 Good morning all. So many books, so little time...

I'm thinking I have 11 bookshelves of varying sizes in my little house. All full. Plus Kidsharn has another big bookshelf in storage, plus 10-15 cartons of books, also in storage.

I can never say I have nothing to read.

Posted by: Rosasharn at October 17, 2021 10:13 AM (PzBTm)

248
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe has the most beautiful opening of any work of fiction I have ever read
Posted by: Jmel at October 17, 2021 09:58 AM (xt5dk)

__________

A wonderful novel. Matthew Bruccoli took Wolfe's original manuscript and edited it more as Wolfe wanted it before he bowed to the wishes of Maxwell Perkins.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 17, 2021 10:14 AM (/U27+)

249 Everywhere there were Marxists statues....they stood for about 10 years before being torn down by the same people that erected them.

Maybe almost everywhere?

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:15 AM (dHB/y)

250 Oh FFS, every single thread?
Posted by: CN

I read that as "I think you're GREAT !"

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 10:17 AM (arJlL)

251 Hiya Rosasharn !

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 10:17 AM (arJlL)

252 No books read this week. Back to lurking and reading your erudite comments.

Posted by: Count de Monet, Intermittent Faster, Unvaccinated Kulak-American at October 17, 2021 10:18 AM (4I/2K)

253 re 128; yeah, Castle was a fun series ... I liked the custom body armor he bought that said "Author" ... or was it "Writer"; to go with all the cops whose vests said "Police".

Posted by: sock_rat_eez (jDHSU) at October 17, 2021 10:18 AM (jDHSU)

254 This week finished 'The Vanishing Act', Mette Jakobsen. A bit quixotic, with an unsatisfying, somewhat dark ending. It's essentially the diary of a 12 year old girl, living on a small island with only adults, in the aftermath of WWII.

While I didn't care for the ending, the book is still worth reading. It's a rather curious little book.
----

Continue to slog through the history of the Bell System, and continue to be staggered by it. As an enterprise, it has no equal, anywhere, anytime.

And, as mentioned above, I am finding 'The Real Lincoln' to be *very* interesting.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:18 AM (GBHAb)

255 Old and busted: There is none so blind as he who will not see.

New and shiny: There is none so blind as the woke.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 17, 2021 10:20 AM (d9FiS)

256 Everywhere there were Marxists statues....they stood for about 10 years before being torn down by the same people that erected them.
Maybe almost everywhere?
Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:15 AM (dHB/y)

Nothing gives me more of a chuckle than seeing statues or placards in May Day parades with the likes of Marx, Lenin, Mao or Che on them.

None of these idiots ever worked a day in their lives. Layabouts and moochers all of them. Marx was the King of Moochers.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 17, 2021 10:20 AM (R/m4+)

257 I'm reading The Best of Lucius Shepard right now. I think the closest name you could give his stories is magical realism, although there are elements of sci-fi too. It's weird: I don't particularly like the contents of the stories, but his style of writing is just intoxicating. In fact, a lot of it seems to reflect psychedelic experiences.

Posted by: Jim S. at October 17, 2021 10:21 AM (ynUnH)

258
Dog Eared Books - We've Got Shit On Our Floor AND On Our Shelves!

It looks like the corner of their building might be a preferred urination location, too.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:22 AM (pNxlR)

259 But the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him?

******

You've got to keep the length and reading at an appropriate level:

"The Little Engine That Could"

Posted by: Nosmo King at October 17, 2021 10:23 AM (5Woea)

260 "A lurking moron e-mailed to recommend two science fiction series by David and Leigh Eddings:"

Based solely on the description which follows, I would characterize those books as being clearly in the fantasy genre, and not science fiction. If one is drawing a comparison to LOTR, it isn't SF.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 10:24 AM (o/t4E)

261 But the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him? That is, if he would actually read it.
__________

Except no, it's not. I'll replace it with a better question: Why would you think someone who thinks you should read White Fragility is your friend?

If you DO read it... or better yet, look it up on the internet, because it's been talked about ad infinitum, you'll realize anyone who says you should read it thinks you're a racist. I.E., not your friend. Once you realize that, I would expect one to view the situation differently than thinking "if I just give HIM the right book to read....."

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:24 AM (FNdgH)

262 I want to actually write a pulp fiction disguised as ...mmmm.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:26 AM (dHB/y)

263 Greetings:

246 Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:13 AM

I did a massive Sal Army dropoff last week. Stuff that would seem to have some use, but I don't want or need. They took everything I brought... except books. I was told they aren't taking books.

This is our world now.

Our local public library branch had a donation box pre pandemic hysteria. That was shut down and since visiting hours have been restored not put back in operation. Interestingly, there now seems to be a donation box for books at the garbage collection yard.

Forgive my pessimism.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 10:27 AM (uuklp)

264 Well, Thomas Sowell, for starters. Perhaps, 'Black Rednecks and White Liberals'. Of course, they might not make it past the title. Perhaps more palatable might be, 'The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy'.

Also, one of my Moron-recommended (thank you!) current reads, 'The Real Abraham Lincoln'. The title has some attraction, and the contents are very revealing with regard to how we got to where we are, on many fronts. Very nice foreword by Walter Williams.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:10 AM (bk3Sg)

Maybe something by Jesse Lee Peterson. I heard him on Malice's podcast the other day. Jesse would drive these people nuts, and apparently has.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:27 AM (FNdgH)

265 lucius shepherd, that's a name I haven't heard of in ages,

Posted by: alien covenant was much worse at October 17, 2021 10:27 AM (hMlTh)

266 I have that same edition of The Second World War.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 10:28 AM (cTqLg)

267 Forgive my pessimism.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 10:27 AM (uuklp)

Yeah, perhaps when they shut off our access to fuel oil, we can use the books to keep warm in the camps.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:29 AM (FNdgH)

268 CN, a good book about the Wollstonecraft-Godwin household is Death and the Maidens by Janet Todd.

Posted by: Linnet at October 17, 2021 10:29 AM (MTIh5)

269 I'm being tortured by Windows 10 today

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 10:30 AM (ONvIw)

270 The audiobook of Doc Savage Fortress of Solitude has a full cast of actors, and I like it a lot so far. The narrator does most of the talking, and the other characters are brief and rare.

After watching a few seasons of Ventures Bros and a few other things, I have experienced more of the realm of pulp second-hand and by influence. As good as the Venture Bros is, it is heavily cynical and does not have the wonder and optimism of the works they refer to. The frontier of science seems to be a golden tomorrow no more. It is a reason to write fiction only in an era before cell phones, even if it is after Dick Tracy's radio watch.

I found Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere on audible to be off-putting, after I read the book in paperback. Something about a large cast, like a Broadway play that I can't see, that I don't like.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 17, 2021 10:31 AM (ybIRR)

271
That top photo is packed to the gills with woke titles in the displays adjacent to the check out location. It's a place of worship, as it were.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:31 AM (pNxlR)

272 "White Fragility on the Mayflower" Would be a good book for Friend to start with. Never mind, I just made that one up.

Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 10:31 AM (taPSh)

273 Give him "A Conflict of Visions" to read, so a black man can explain to him how his entire worldview is ridiculous bullshit.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 10:32 AM (cTqLg)

274 268 Thanks! Reading their bios is like reading Dickens, but real and sometimes sadder.

Posted by: CN at October 17, 2021 10:32 AM (ONvIw)

275 Hi JT!

Posted by: Rosasharn at October 17, 2021 10:33 AM (PzBTm)

276 I do so admire everyone here who writes fiction.

-
Now, Joe Biden, he can do fiction.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 17, 2021 10:33 AM (d9FiS)

277 Greetings:

Nathan Philbrick's book on the Mayflower is a worthwhile read. Apparently the fragile missed that boat.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 10:33 AM (uuklp)

278 like johnny quest, entirely too unpc for todays audiences,

Posted by: alien covenant was much worse at October 17, 2021 10:33 AM (hMlTh)

279 White Fragility on the Mayflower" Would be a good book for Friend to start with. Never mind, I just made that one up.
Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 10:31 AM (taPSh)

"White Fragility In Birkenau"

"White Fragility In the Gulags"

Those whites, always being so fragile.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:33 AM (FNdgH)

280 I'll admit I'm becoming more and more cynical, and so my first thought with Jack Burton's "half black half hispanic very good friend who is blue-pilled" and his book recommendation is that it was an attempt to push the book on the illustrious thread readers, complete with a reference to its very good ratings.

But YMMV
Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:26 AM (AwPyG)

I accidentally hit the embiggen button on the Dogear Books photo, and "White Fragility" is prominently displayed on the counter. So, a bookstore to be avoided, strenuously.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 10:34 AM (o/t4E)

281 I think that anyone running against a Soros funded non-prosecutor should emphasize that they are supports of the:
Shit
On the
Sidewalk
Open-air
Restroom

Posted by: Downcast at October 17, 2021 10:34 AM (IBt2y)

282 Good morning, Horde

Just say no to reading woke garbage from left-leaning friends. Time is too precious to waste on lies and half-truths.

You're not going to reach woke family or friends through argument or debate anyway.

Posted by: callsign claymore at October 17, 2021 10:34 AM (Dyp3p)

283 But the question is still open: what book would *you* give a prog friend that you think has the best chance of red-pilling him?

******

You've got to keep the length and reading at an appropriate level:

"The Little Engine That Could"
Posted by: Nosmo King

The Little Red Hen? It has a happy ending.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 17, 2021 10:35 AM (d9FiS)

284 I accidentally hit the embiggen button on the Dogear Books photo, and "White Fragility" is prominently displayed on the counter. So, a bookstore to be avoided, strenuously.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 10:34 AM (o/t4E)



That entire display section is chock full of that stuff...

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at October 17, 2021 10:35 AM (ZSK0i)

285 I'll admit I'm becoming more and more cynical, and so my first thought with Jack Burton's "half black half hispanic very good friend who is blue-pilled" and his book recommendation is that it was an attempt to push the book on the illustrious thread readers, complete with a reference to its very good ratings.

But YMMV
Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 08:26 AM (AwPyG)

I wouldn't quite go that far, but I do have to wonder how one could have gotten to this point, in 2021, and not be aware of what that book is. And what someone is saying about YOU when they tell you that you should read it.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:35 AM (FNdgH)

286 How did white people happen, though? Hint: it was a process that killed all the fragile people along the way to the northern climes.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (cTqLg)

287
The local and annual AAUW Used Book sale ceased re-boxing all books at the sales' end some years ago. Now practically everything is carted out to dumpsters brought to the mall where it is held solely for the purpose of books' disposal.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (pNxlR)

288 @282

Agree. A shame that the topic dominated the thread today.

Posted by: artemis at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (AwPyG)

289 Hey! Your friend posted something on Facebook! Don't 'cha want to take a look? Open up the ole Facey book just one time? See what important thing your pal posted? Just once, for old times sake? You might enjoy it? Maybe see those notifications you were missing? Just a peek, hmmmmm?
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at October 17, 2021 08:35 AM (0ryfU)

If Facebook was on paper, I could at least wipe my ass with it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (o/t4E)

290 Krebs I would have assumed as much from it's location, chances are I could walk in there and find nothing I would read.

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (2JoB8)

291 >>> 142 Via RT, comrade:

The deputy secretary at the US Treasury has put Americans on notice that the only way to end the plague of empty shelves around the country is for every resident to be vaccinated. The frank warning came off as a threat to many.
Posted by: andycanuck (UHVv4) at October 17, 2021 09:00 AM (UHVv4)

1) WTF does Treasury have to do with inventory and distribution, let alone health issues?
2) commies do love starving people, don't they?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (ACi07)

292 248
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe has the most beautiful opening of any work of fiction I have ever read
Posted by: Jmel at October 17, 2021 09:58 AM (xt5dk)


That's a good one. I also love the opening to Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing, when the young boy sneaks out of his cabin to watch the wolves playing in the snow in the moonlight

Posted by: ghost of hallelujah at October 17, 2021 10:37 AM (sJHOI)

293 Grampa, for today's lesson I want you to use 'absumption' in a mumbling.

Posted by: Arkansas Biden Baby at October 17, 2021 10:37 AM (Xrfse)

294 I did a massive Sal Army dropoff last week. Stuff that would seem to have some use, but I don't want or need. They took everything I brought... except books.
---------

Our best local used bookshop will no longer take hardbacks *unless* they have the dust jacket.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:37 AM (GBHAb)

295 Greetings:

Me, I'm thinking that nobody reads "Chicken Little", "The Princess and the Pee", and "The Pied Piper" anymore. Those would seem to be at an appropriate reading level.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 10:38 AM (uuklp)

296
"White Fragility In Birkenau"

"White Fragility In the Gulags"

__________

White Fragility in the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

White Fragility at Verdun

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 17, 2021 10:39 AM (/U27+)

297 Ha! Insty has Don Surber link where he talks about Ace's take on the Dispatch/Bulwark feud. I LOL'ed.

Posted by: t-dubya-d at October 17, 2021 10:39 AM (Q0PLi)

298 Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy at October 17, 2021 08:35 AM (0ryfU)

If Facebook was on paper, I could at least wipe my ass with it.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 10:36 AM (o/t4E)

I contacted an ex through farcebook, because I had no other way to reach her. We're not going to be pen pals, or rekindle the flame, but I got a very sweet reply.

So it has some use.

Unfortunately, I told the algorithm I still exist, so I've since been inundated with the multiple daily emails begging me to open up the site again.

Yeah, no.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:39 AM (FNdgH)

299 Deputy Fife at Treasury is lookin' out for you. Rest easy.

Or is it Pfyffe?

Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 10:40 AM (taPSh)

300 If you walk into an independent bookshop in SF, you get what you deserve, up to and including the inevitable surprise anal.

The whole city is to be strenuously avoided. But I'll guarantee the independent bookshops of SF are all run by the worst kind of Californians.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 10:40 AM (cTqLg)

301 Deputy Fife at Treasury is lookin' out for you. Rest easy.
Or is it Pfyffe?
Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 10:40 AM (taPSh)

You got to nip it. Nip it in the bud!

Posted by: Barney Fife, Deputy at October 17, 2021 10:41 AM (R/m4+)

302
And what someone is saying about YOU when they tell you that you should read it.
Posted by: BurtTC


The proper rejoinder to the friend (if, in fact, friend he is) and his recommendation was, "Were I to agree with you, then we'd both be wrong", and leave it at that.

Devil take the consequences. One less ill-informed squawk box polluting your audible space were he to flounce off, permanently.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:42 AM (pNxlR)

303 Good morning Hordemates.
These pants...what the ever loving hell???
Sheesh.

Posted by: Diogenes at October 17, 2021 10:42 AM (axyOa)

304 If in SF, please wipe your feet when you leave. Maybe just stay there.

Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 10:42 AM (taPSh)

305 We're all going through some version of the winnowing process in Stephen King's "The Stand."

People gravitated towards Mother Abigail or Randall Flagg based on their character.

The woke are on their way to Las Vegas.

Posted by: callsign claymore at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (Dyp3p)

306 "Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck -- His premise is that we get tied up caring about things so much we stop getting things done" kindltot

Much of the top down attack on our patriotic beliefs (like the AG's political prisoners, or threats on parents at school board meeting, or the whole SJW/CRT attack on who we are) ... is something we should care about very much, but is done to deliberately oppress us and make us just give up.

So fighting back against that attack, we have to keep getting things done in real life, and enjoying our real life (that mostly still exists in full).
SJW warriors often become consumed by their "caring", which is instigated by CNN type propaganda. In contrast we have to direct and manage our valid concerns, not ignore them. But not giving a F*ck what "possessed" Karen thinks is part of that.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (Cus5s)

307 I did a massive Sal Army dropoff last week. Stuff that would seem to have some use, but I don't want or need. They took everything I brought... except books.
---------

Our best local used bookshop will no longer take hardbacks *unless* they have the dust jacket.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:37 AM (GBHAb)

My regular used book store really really wants me to bring in a book or two, so they can give me a discount on what I buy. I could be wrong, but I don't think they want boxes full of books. They don't have room for them. And none of them are shitty modern novels.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (FNdgH)

308 I have been reading Blaise Pascal's "Pensees." He posits that it makes no sense trying to use Nature to prove that God exists to an atheist.

Instead, as a mathematician, he argues that probability and the immense pay-off of faith and living a holy life is better.

Posted by: Been Lurking at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (xopIz)

309 The deputy secretary at the US Treasury has put Americans on notice that the only way to end the plague of empty shelves around the country is for every resident to be vaccinated.

For whatever reasons, our betters really, REALLY want 100% compliance with this.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (Xrfse)

310 History is made north of the equator.

That's why Australia is screwed.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (dHB/y)

311 Me, I'm thinking that nobody reads "Chicken Little", "The Princess and the Pee", and "The Pied Piper" anymore. Those would seem to be at an appropriate reading level.
Posted by: 11B40
-------

Nor do children play games like 'Simon Says', or 'Mother, May I'. Childhood games/lessons in discipline.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:44 AM (WD9ZA)

312 https://youtu.be/HRx49-leiRE

Every city run by democrats has turned into shit. This is a red-pill with a 6-foot diameter fired by a battleship directly at us. It does not miss, it cannot miss, you cannot dodge it. No book will help a blue-pilled man in 2021.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 17, 2021 10:44 AM (ybIRR)

313 Sorry, shouldn't have gone off on that tangent.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 17, 2021 10:45 AM (Xrfse)

314 And what someone is saying about YOU when they tell you that you should read it.
Posted by: BurtTC

The proper rejoinder to the friend (if, in fact, friend he is) and his recommendation was, "Were I to agree with you, then we'd both be wrong", and leave it at that.

Devil take the consequences. One less ill-informed squawk box polluting your audible space were he to flounce off, permanently.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:42 AM (pNxlR)

I'm in the Sgt. Murtaugh segment of my life, so while I don't care much for personal confrontation, I'm also getting too old to beat around the bush about this shit.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:45 AM (FNdgH)

315 For whatever reasons, our betters really, REALLY want 100% compliance with this.
Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (Xrfse)

They really need a dose of STFU

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:46 AM (ONvIw)

316 Dog Eared Books seems to be escaping the shop-lifting pandemic that Frisco is experiencing for some reason or other. Perhaps they have a vaccine mandate ???
Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 09:26 AM (uuklp)

Doubt the majority of those shoplifters know what to do with a book. They can't eat it, snort it, or fuck it.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (o/t4E)

317 For whatever reasons, our betters really, REALLY want 100% compliance with this.
Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (Xrfse)

And I'm sorry, but you'd really really have to be a fool not to wonder what exactly they're putting in that vial they're forcing everyone to shove in their arm.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (FNdgH)

318 I do not understand the Soros phenomenon at all. Is he trying to create anarchy? Is he secretly the Devil? This viewpoint makes no sense in a civil society. Back to the book thread: Has there been anything written about this?

Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (Y+l9t)

319
Hey! Your friend posted something on Facebook! Don't 'cha want to take a look? Open up the ole Facey book just one time? See what important thing your pal posted? Just once, for old times sake? You might enjoy it? Maybe see those notifications you were missing? Just a peek, hmmmmm?
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy


Doncha wanna see pictures of what he had for breakus? How 'bout lunch or, or ... din-din? Wha's he snackin' on -- right now? Donchu wanna snack on that, too?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (pNxlR)

320 Greetings:

A major part of the Progressive assault on our former republic has been to get and/or keep the populace "drunk on compassion" and "stupid about human rights".

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (uuklp)

321 Like everyone else, people on the Right are inundated with the Marxist weltanschauung from cradle to grave. In school, in church, at work, at home on our televisions, in our stadiums, in our music, and on and on.

I know what the Left believes, what with total Gramscian institutional capture and all... I certainly don't need to read *more* about it. All Americans know it chapter and verse.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (cTqLg)

322 "Conflict of visions", is a possibility for red pilling your blue friends.

Posted by: Skylerkat at October 17, 2021 10:48 AM (1IHBn)

323 The whole city is to be strenuously avoided. But I'll guarantee the independent bookshops of SF are all run by the worst kind of Californians.
Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice
-----

Which leads me to another Moron-recommended read, 'When the Wicked Seize a City', McIlheny, et al

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:49 AM (WD9ZA)

324 Speaking of fiction . . .

Election Wizard
@ElectionWiz
Mayor Pete says supply chain disruptions will continue. He claims demand is up "because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 17, 2021 10:49 AM (d9FiS)

325 We ain't voting our way out of this because, get this, we didn't vote our way into it.

The election was stolen. They got away with it. They are going to keep doing it.

Posted by: Been Lurking at October 17, 2021 10:49 AM (xopIz)

326 318 I do not understand the Soros phenomenon at all. Is he trying to create anarchy? Is he secretly the Devil? This viewpoint makes no sense in a civil society. Back to the book thread: Has there been anything written about this?
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (Y+l9t)

I think he's trying to "get even" for WWII, despite the role he played.

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:49 AM (ONvIw)

327
That's why Australia is screwed.
Posted by: Humphreyrobot


They cannot escape their Prison Planet origins.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:50 AM (pNxlR)

328 Will this comment get red text?

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 10:50 AM (Om/di)

329 Orwell: 'History Stopped in 1936' (and Everything Since Is Propaganda)

https://bit.ly/3BTOb56

The source of this intriguing observation is not Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, but his 1943 essay "Looking back on the Spanish War."

We were both thinking of totalitarianism in general, but more particularly of the Spanish civil war. Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various 'party lines'."

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at October 17, 2021 10:50 AM (Do5/p)

330 Many lefties operate under the assumption conservatives don't read.

Posted by: Brother Northernlurker just another guy at October 17, 2021 10:50 AM (cSyAR)

331 History is made north of the equator.

That's why Australia is screwed.
Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (dHB/y)

People keep saying it's not ALL of Australia, it's just the big cities, including the capitol.

Which would be even more silly than saying all the crep going on in THIS country is just the big cities. And DC.

There are a LOT fewer people outside the cities in Aussieland than there are here.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:50 AM (FNdgH)

332 Huh. One comment gets a message of red text and won't post. A different one goes right through.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (Om/di)

333 318 I do not understand the Soros phenomenon at all. Is he trying to create anarchy? Is he secretly the Devil? This viewpoint makes no sense in a civil society. Back to the book thread: Has there been anything written about this?
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (Y+l9t)

It's sort of "you turned me into the devil, so I could survive, so fuck your survival, Europe and the West"

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (ONvIw)

334 Wasn't there a locally owned progressive bookstore that got destroyed in one of the BLM riots?

Posted by: Brother Northernlurker just another guy at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (cSyAR)

335 I think he's trying to "get even" for WWII, despite the role he played.
Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:49 AM (ONvIw)

I just start with "he's evil," then stop asking questions.

I don't really care why.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (FNdgH)

336 Time for church, anyway.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (Om/di)

337 Yeah Burt...I'm not vascular enough in my outrageous statements. Thanks.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:53 AM (dHB/y)

338 Heidi had to sit through a lecture by the White Fragility author for work. I lurked.

Cliff notes. Whites (anyone who's not black) were born racist, everything that comes out of your mouth is racist. No matter what you do you will always be racist. Even if you've had black friends for years that is also racist somehow. The logic is so twisted that your brain will start to bleed if you read it. Oh, the chic who wrote the book is a white academic. (But not racist) Gees.....Ok, good morning. Later, cawfee.

Posted by: Cannibal Bob at October 17, 2021 10:53 AM (RoIW/)

339 Many lefties operate under the assumption conservatives don't read.
Posted by: Brother Northernlurker
-----

The Left/Prog/Lib/Dem are all about projection.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 10:54 AM (WD9ZA)

340 I just start with "he's evil," then stop asking questions.

I don't really care why.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (FNdgH

It doesn't really matter why, but that's my guess. I know plenty of people who are angry open borders types because of the MS St. Louis, and who hold a grudge against everyone.

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:54 AM (ONvIw)

341 >>> 326 318 I do not understand the Soros phenomenon at all. Is he trying to create anarchy? Is he secretly the Devil? This viewpoint makes no sense in a civil society. Back to the book thread: Has there been anything written about this?
Posted by: sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (Y+l9t)

I think he's trying to "get even" for WWII, despite the role he played.
Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:49 AM (ONvIw)

I think he's just another power-addicted psycho, although one who has been very successful at pursuing his goals.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 17, 2021 10:54 AM (ACi07)

342 Other titles at the Dog Eared checkout:
Turn This World Inside Out
Making Spaces Safer
Call Them By Their True Names
Racist Logic
Become America
Colonize This!
How We Fight White Supremacy
American Prison
Pleasure/Activism

Seems like a Screed-fest

Posted by: Nosmo King at October 17, 2021 10:54 AM (5Woea)

343 I hit the random books button on Project Gutenberg and got linked to Camilla by Fanny Burney. So I'm reading that. Boy oh boy. Definitely gives some context to Northanger Abbey. (And one of these days, I will finally read Glenarvon...hopefully I can find some annotations, as I'm not going to know who everyone is.)

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at October 17, 2021 10:55 AM (8548M)

344 "Conflict of visions", is a possibility for red pilling your blue friends.
Posted by: Skylerkat at October 17, 2021 10:48 AM (1IHBn)

People seem to misunderstand these concepts of red and blue pills. It's not left/right, it's not really about politics at all. It's people looking at the world today, and either believing things are all as our media and politicians and corporations and culture are telling us it is... or realizing the WHOLE narrative we're living in is a lie. And questioning everything.

For example, if one believes the Republican Party cares about you, and shares your values, you're blue-pilled.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:56 AM (FNdgH)

345
I think he's just another power-addicted psycho, although one who has been very successful at pursuing his goals.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 17, 2021 10:54 AM (ACi07)

He's power addicted, but he's chosen his "open society" goals out of revenge, IMO.

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:56 AM (ONvIw)

346 Soros: What he thinks and why? Don't know, but his stolen money goes exclusively towards monkeywrenching civilization.

Therefore, he has no place in my civilization. His bought and paid for minions? Well, that goes without saying.

Posted by: klaftern at October 17, 2021 10:56 AM (taPSh)

347 Wasn't there a locally owned progressive bookstore that got destroyed in one of the BLM riots?
Posted by: Brother Northernlurker
------

You have to break eggs to make an omelet.

Posted by: Comrade Lenin, still lifelike at October 17, 2021 10:56 AM (WD9ZA)

348 >>> 317 For whatever reasons, our betters really, REALLY want 100% compliance with this.
Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (Xrfse)

And I'm sorry, but you'd really really have to be a fool not to wonder what exactly they're putting in that vial they're forcing everyone to shove in their arm.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (FNdgH)

Crazy talk.

Posted by: Stan at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (ACi07)

349 Soros is easy to understand. He's a currency trader, who is also megalomaniacal sociopath imho.
He wants to be the man who destroys the US dollar and shorts the living daylights out of it.

He will literally make several trillions doing that.

That's his past pattern and that's what he'll do.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (Xo5lP)

350
Time for church, anyway.
Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 10:52 AM (Om/di)

________

I go to 7:00 AM Mass so that I have the rest of the day. We're one of two parishes in the Archdiocese that is allowed to have a TLM and the numbers attending have gone up dramatically. We now have five Sunday Masses and if the line waiting for the 8:15 is any indication they're all packed.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (/U27+)

351 I'm so excited, I just scored a copy of On the Marble Cliffs for only 7.95!

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (ONvIw)

352 IMHO leftists are consumed by hatred and are desperately miserable.

Posted by: Brother Northernlurker just another guy at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (cSyAR)

353
"The Little Engine That Could"
Posted by: Nosmo King


"The Little Red Hen" or "Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose".

If you never have encountered the latter, seek it out and read it. One cannot help but wonder what got into Dr. Seuss that he would not only write it, but have it published.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 10:59 AM (pNxlR)

354 I said...vascular....i meant vernacular.

Me goof.

How do you say ...me goof... in French or something.?

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at October 17, 2021 10:59 AM (dHB/y)

355 And I'm sorry, but you'd really really have to be a fool not to wonder what exactly they're putting in that vial they're forcing everyone to shove in their arm.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (FNdgH)

It could be saline. It's just like the transgender bullshit. It's about making the individual bend the knee and publicly parrot the lie. This is how they break the will and enslave the mind. End of story.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 11:00 AM (cTqLg)

356 I'm so excited, I just scored a copy of On the Marble Cliffs for only 7.95!
Posted by: CN.
-----
I'm confused. You mean it's on, like, paper?

Posted by: A Millennial at October 17, 2021 11:00 AM (830x5)

357 I suggested a viewing of the Larry Elder-produced movie Uncle Tom to my church after my participation in their 6 week study of a woke book called The Myth of Equality. The suggestion was ignored, so I do likewise with them, after 15 years...

Posted by: Joe Kidd at October 17, 2021 11:01 AM (RMN7W)

358 WE HAZ NOOD

Posted by: Skip guy who says NOOD at October 17, 2021 11:01 AM (2JoB8)

359 How do you say ...me goof... in French or something.?
Posted by: Humphreyrobot
------

'Fox pass'?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:01 AM (830x5)

360 >>> 355 And I'm sorry, but you'd really really have to be a fool not to wonder what exactly they're putting in that vial they're forcing everyone to shove in their arm.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:47 AM (FNdgH)

It could be saline. It's just like the transgender bullshit. It's about making the individual bend the knee and publicly parrot the lie. This is how they break the will and enslave the mind. End of story.
Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 11:00 AM (cTqLg)

You are correct. (For that matter, would you put it past these asshoes to randomly distribute saline to some places and one or more different solutions to others?)

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (ACi07)

361
Wasn't there a locally owned progressive bookstore that got destroyed in one of the BLM riots?
Posted by: Brother Northernlurker


Despite having festooned their storefront with signs that stood in for pleas to "Burn Us Last!", no doubt.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (pNxlR)

362 I'm confused. You mean it's on, like, paper?
Posted by: A Millennial at October 17, 2021 11:00 AM (830x5)

Yeah, and the cheapest one just like it is listed for 68.00

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (ONvIw)

363 308 I have been reading Blaise Pascal's "Pensees." He posits that it makes no sense trying to use Nature to prove that God exists to an atheist.

Posted by: Been Lurking at October 17, 2021 10:43 AM (xopIz)


Except that Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, says that God's attributes are clearly seen in nature, so I think it actually *does* make a certain amount of sense.

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (GLULz)

364 Grampa, for today's lesson I want you to use 'absumption' in a mumbling.
Posted by: Arkansas Biden Baby


****

Eh, Fat! It looks like ya 'ab sumption on yer chin, why dontcha wipe it off!!

Posted by: Muldoon at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (5Woea)

365
Snood

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (/U27+)

366 IMHO leftists are consumed by hatred and are desperately miserable.
Posted by: Brother Northernlurker just another guy at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (cSyAR

Very close. It's the Will to Power. But hatred, misery, and the desire to inflict it on others are it's main components.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 11:02 AM (cTqLg)

367 Me, I'm thinking that nobody reads "Chicken Little", "The Princess and the Pee", and "The Pied Piper" anymore. Those would seem to be at an appropriate reading level.
Posted by: 11B40

The Princess and the Pee ?

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 11:03 AM (arJlL)

368 Yeah, and the cheapest one just like it is listed for 68.00
Posted by: CN.
-----

Congrats! That's one thing about the net, one can scour for bargains.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:03 AM (bPH26)

369 Greetings:

The most enlightening thing that I have read since the turn of this century is the Islamic tenet that "The Kuffar should feel himself subdued."

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (uuklp)

370 You think you're having a bad day?

https://bit.ly/3pbHMyE

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (d9FiS)

371 I go to 7:00 AM Mass so that I have the rest of the day. We're one of two parishes in the Archdiocese that is allowed to have a TLM and the numbers attending have gone up dramatically. We now have five Sunday Masses and if the line waiting for the 8:15 is any indication they're all packed.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at October 17, 2021 10:58 AM (/U27+)

A very hopeful sign.

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (ONvIw)

372 Silly me, want to change my book suggestion to Gulag Archipelago, something every Leftist should read so as not to say they weren't warned when sitting in a Gulag

Posted by: Skip at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (2JoB8)

373 "'The Real Abraham Lincoln'. The title has some attraction, and the contents are very revealing with regard to how we got to where we are, on many fronts."
Posted by: Mike Hammer

I was just breezing through a little of that earlier this morning. ... Confirms to me that there are parallels with how Big Money today directs policy, and how Lincoln also saw railroads and other corporations as deserving of subsidy, to build the nation. That cause demanded "homogeneity" across the states, no succession if some states got stomped on. The forward calls Lincoln not the Great Emancipator, but the Great Centralizer.

Today the globalists see the need for top down control of countries, not just states. But it is (again) to serve the richest.

Posted by: illiniwek at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (Cus5s)

374
The Princess and the Pee ?
Posted by: JT
--------

It's about overcoming nocturnal incontinence.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (bPH26)

375 ...or realizing the WHOLE narrative we're living in is a lie. And questioning everything.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:56 AM

Unfortunately, over the past 18 months, I have taken this questioning to not just politics or "healthcare", but everything... including my (now past) Christian faith. I remember sitting in church as an early teenager and starting to question things. I got lost in thought during the homily and then finally concluded that all of this couldn't be a big lie, because there are so many all over the world who believe it.

I basically kept to that justification for my faith until this past year. Numerous things have always bothered me about belief in a god or gods or this religion or that religion, but I never really lost my faith fully until this past 18 months. When I saw that every institution in the world in every country in the world could outright lie or outright deny facts, I realized that the same thing could be true about religion(s).

It's a terrifying realization after living one's whole life with the belief in God, a purpose for life and the idea that there is an afterlife.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at October 17, 2021 11:05 AM (Do5/p)

376 We now have five Sunday Masses and if the line waiting for the 8:15 is any indication they're all packed.

I think that a lot of folks are feeling that something wicked this way comes and are anxious to reconnect with Our Creator. IMHO, anyway.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at October 17, 2021 11:05 AM (Xrfse)

377 It could be saline. It's just like the transgender bullshit. It's about making the individual bend the knee and publicly parrot the lie. This is how they break the will and enslave the mind. End of story.
Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 11:00 AM (cTqLg)

You might just be onto something there. It would certainly explain why they say, "the vax won't necessarily stop you from contracting Covid, but you will get less sick than without it" -- an unproveable assertion, since the response of unvaccinated individuals to covid infection is all over the map.

But if it were just saline, one wouldn't expect adverse reactions, and death from the vax, which certainly do occur.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 11:05 AM (deveD)

378
Congrats! That's one thing about the net, one can scour for bargains.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:03 AM (bPH26)

And since it's a big book seller and not some random person needing money, I feel no guilt!

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 11:05 AM (ONvIw)

379 @ElectionWiz
Mayor Pete says supply chain disruptions will continue. He claims demand is up "because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession."


The word "gaslighting" is no longer sufficient. We need a new word to describe the shameless, brazen, blatant lying from the top levels of our so-called "leaders." Even zombie Joe Stalin is watching from hell and saying WATF?

Posted by: Oddbob at October 17, 2021 11:06 AM (nfrXX)

380 The Princess and the Pee ?
Posted by: JT
--------

It's about overcoming nocturnal incontinence.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:04 AM (bPH26)


Or "Why I Have To Get Up 3 or 4 Times Each Night"

Posted by: OregonMuse, AoSHQ Thought Leader, Pants Monitor & Social Distancing Professional at October 17, 2021 11:06 AM (GLULz)

381 Greetings:

And this week's proofreading award goes to:

Posted by: JT at October 17, 2021 11:03 AM (arJl)

My apologies

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 11:06 AM (uuklp)

382 But if it were just saline, one wouldn't expect adverse reactions, and death from the vax, which certainly do occur.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 17, 2021 11:05 AM (deveD)

Oh sure, I highly doubt it's just saline. Just pointing out that it's particular formulation is irrelevant to the reason it's being pushed on everyone.

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 11:09 AM (cTqLg)

383 I hate how auto cucumber inserts an apostrophe into EVERY instance of "its."

Posted by: The Rt. Rev. Yudhishthira's Dice at October 17, 2021 11:10 AM (cTqLg)

384 You might just be onto something there. It would certainly explain why they say, "the vax won't necessarily stop you from contracting Covid, but you will get less sick than without it" -- an unproveable assertion, since the response of unvaccinated individuals to covid infection is all over the map.

As are the responses of "vaccinated" individuals. They could make up any shit they want.

A "vaccinated" person has serious symptoms, but does not need hospitalization? Oh, well had you not been "vaccinated", you would have had to be hospitalized! A "vaccinated" person has serious symptoms and needs hospitalization? Oh, well had you not been "vaccinated", you would have died!

There is no possible way to know if the "vaccine" reduces symptoms unless you test people of the exact same health and biology. And "vaccinate" one and not the other and then purposely give both of them SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 and compare how each reacts. There is no way they did all that testing in 6 months during "Operation Warp Speed".

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at October 17, 2021 11:11 AM (Do5/p)

385 Greetings:

RE: Sunday Masses

I grew up in the Bronx of the '50s and '60s. Our parish had hourly Masses from 6am to noon and then the last at 12:45pm.

The blue laws prohibited bars from opening on Sundays before 1pm. Going to get your hangover fixed was known as the 1 o'clock Mass.

Posted by: 11B40 at October 17, 2021 11:11 AM (uuklp)

386 Mayor Pete says supply chain disruptions will continue. He claims demand is up "because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession."
------

Really, just what insight does the token 'Sec. of Trans' have that is significant or meaningful to the question?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:12 AM (pK7cg)

387 Really, just what insight does the token 'Sec. of Trans' have that is significant or meaningful to the question?
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:12 AM (pK7cg)

He's just a professional gay

Posted by: CN...FJB at October 17, 2021 11:17 AM (ONvIw)

388 artemis @123: "Nothing smells as good as a bookshop. They should make a candle."

It's not a candle but Powell's Books in Portland is offering its own perfume: "For a limited time beginning in November, the store is going to be selling its own fragrance called (wait for it) Powell's by Powell's. According a press release, it "captures the scent of books with subtle hints of wood and violet," and will be sold in a 1-ounce bottle contained inside a book-shaped box." The list price is $24.99.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 17, 2021 11:17 AM (63dCF)

389 #379 Oddbob: The word "gaslighting" is no longer sufficient. We need a new word to describe the shameless, brazen, blatant lying from the top levels of our so-called "leaders."

Wokespeak?

Kind of like "Newspeak" from 1984.

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at October 17, 2021 11:31 AM (t0cxj)

390 #102

Hi Carolina Girl! :-)

Posted by: SPinRH_F-16 at October 17, 2021 11:33 AM (t0cxj)

391 About a month ago, somebody recommended Dan Willis' Arcane Casebook series, thanks! I'm nearly finished with book 6 of the 7 currently available. For those curious, a free 100ish page prequel can be downloaded from https://www.danwillisauthor.com/ that will introduce the world he has created nicely.

Posted by: Posting "First" should be a killin' offense! at October 17, 2021 11:34 AM (WKALj)

392 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM @170:

Another good example of this may be found in the work of David Drake. Drake, an author whose primary focus is military science fiction (best known for the Hammer's Slammers series), was seriously angry when a reviewer, one Charles Platt, sneered that if Drake had ever actually been in combat he would not write the way he did about it. Now Drake is in fact a combat veteran. He served in Vietnam and Cambodia in the 11th Cavalry. Since Platt's comment Drake has regularly included minor characters in his stories named "Platt". They are always despicable: stupid, cowardly and corrupt. I have always thought this a rather elegant revenge.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 17, 2021 11:35 AM (63dCF)

393 Unfortunately, I told the algorithm I still exist, so I've since been inundated with the multiple daily emails begging me to open up the site again.

Yeah, no.
Posted by: BurtTC at October 17, 2021 10:39 AM


I know from experience that they eventually give up.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 17, 2021 11:36 AM (ezpv1)

394 Does that bookstore in SF have a place to clean the poop off your shoes?

Posted by: Skylerkat at October 17, 2021 11:43 AM (1IHBn)

395 OregonMuse: For the "Progressive Book Exchange" I would give him "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Nothing to do with "white supremacy" but would be interesting if the friend could start to see what is happening to us.

Posted by: Ozzie at October 17, 2021 11:52 AM (iOwhL)

396 Dang! Missed the book thread
Gonna read it now

Posted by: vmom - link to Red's fundraiser at October 17, 2021 11:56 AM (NbKZB)

397 OM, to the faithful, God's handiwork in Nature is obvious. Saint Paul believed in God before Jesus "waylaid" him.

So, have you tried evangelizing atheists with the "Nature" argument? How's that working for you?

Posted by: Been Lurking at October 17, 2021 12:06 PM (xopIz)

398 Mayor Pete says supply chain disruptions will continue. He claims demand is up "because the president has successfully guided this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession."
------

Really, just what insight does the token 'Sec. of Trans' have that is significant or meaningful to the question?
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 17, 2021 11:12 AM (pK7cg)


Expertise in guiding things out of teeth.

Posted by: Captain Hate Won't Forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at October 17, 2021 12:12 PM (y7DUB)

399

I'm so sick of young heroes, brave and capable companions, God's, sacred objects and etc.

It's like I've been reading the same book for 50 years.

I want fantasies full of burned out cynical old people that use age and treachery to destroy evil with no hope of achieving a noble destiny or a powerful heritage or even guaranteed survival...

Posted by: Apu He/Him/Fuck/You at October 17, 2021 12:30 PM (FhuV8)

400 I found engineering textbooks from the 1950s dumped in a newspaper recycling bin. Hardbacks, no cover art.

Used-book store wouldn't take them but offered to recycle them. As I didn't want to keep them in the car trunk for life, I accepted the offer, but it still bugs me.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 12:40 PM (Om/di)

401 Whadya know. I deleted mention of Hardy Boys and eBay, and the post goes through.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 12:41 PM (Om/di)

402 If Grimes has more children I hope she never has to do that mom thing with yelling the name of every child in the family until she lands on the right one.

Posted by: Brother Northernlurker just another guy at October 17, 2021 12:42 PM (cSyAR)

403 I found engineering textbooks from the 1950s dumped in a newspaper recycling bin. Hardbacks, no cover art.

Used-book store wouldn't take them but offered to recycle them. As I didn't want to keep them in the car trunk for life, I accepted the offer, but it still bugs me.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 12:40 PM


In "Dead Poets Society" which is set in the 1950's there's a scene where the camera pans across a stack of a student's textbooks and they all have brightly colored printed covers and it took me out of the movie for an instant because my father's old textbooks of about that vintage--which I had taken possession of by that time--all had plain gray cloth covers.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 17, 2021 12:59 PM (ezpv1)

404 My problem post mentioned that I have Dad's original Hardy Boys books -- not the blue spines, those are from my era -- but they don't have dust jackets.

They've been in a closet for years. I fear they might crumble if opened.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 17, 2021 01:06 PM (Om/di)

405 After reading about Pressfield's new book, it went on my reading to do list. So I went to check and see if Erik Larson had finally written a new book, but none to be found. Might have to go reread The Devil in the White City then.

Posted by: Charlotte at October 17, 2021 01:09 PM (RNpWq)

406 Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 17, 2021 09:13 AM @170: Another good example of this may be found in the work of David Drake. Drake, an author whose primary focus is military science fiction (best known for the Hammer's Slammers series), was seriously angry when a reviewer, one Charles Platt, sneered that if Drake had ever actually been in combat he would not write the way he did about it. Now Drake is in fact a combat veteran. He served in Vietnam and Cambodia in the 11th Cavalry. Since Platt's comment Drake has regularly included minor characters in his stories named "Platt". They are always despicable: stupid, cowardly and corrupt. I have always thought this a rather elegant revenge. Posted by: John F. MacMichael at October 17, 2021 11:35 AM (63dCF)

Sort of OT and willowed, but I took a psychological test once along the Myers-Briggs lines where you had to describe your least preferred coworker. The results for me turned out to be astonishingly accurate, although I didn't realize it until a couple of years afterward because I just immediately dismissed them. I wonder if defining our enemies tells us more about ourselves than we might want to know.

Posted by: Caesar North of the Rubicon at October 17, 2021 01:46 PM (BMmaB)

407 Thomas Sowell has written four or five books dealing with race. Any one of them would be good for your friend, and do him good. Discrimination and Disparities is his most recent (I haven't read it). Black Rednecks and white liberals has one chapter on slavery, and its great.

Posted by: Emerich at October 17, 2021 01:56 PM (twk+e)

408
IF I had a progressive friend, the book I'd recommend to read is "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black and White" by David Barton. I've bought several copies to share with family. A slim and focused volume, it uses original source material and is very enlightening

I'd have to apologize for the vomit stains in "White Fragility" when I returned it to him. At least it would prove that I read it.

https://tinyurl.com/yyzxwwk6

Posted by: Miley, the Duchess, #SuperStraight #maskless (Mzdiz) at October 17, 2021 02:06 PM (Mzdiz)

409 I read Kendi and Coates and they were as terrible as you might imagine. People keep saying of Coates that "He writes so well." I could see how you might think that after reading Kendi, but in my opinion both were bad writers. I picked up White Fragility to finish my stupid experiment in seeing into the minds of bigots and had to put it down for a while when I got to the line in the introduction, I never got to the actual book mind you, that read "No less an authority than Beyonce Knowles recently remarked..." I will get back to it eventually.
As to the book exchange I'd tell the guy that you'll try to get through his book by a white lady if he'll read any one of a handful of race relation books by Thomas Sowell.

Posted by: Ben Sears at October 17, 2021 02:14 PM (AQEgU)

410 Very late to the thread, but if I can't post this here, I don't know where... (ahem) I recently finished reading The Wheel of Time. All of it (14 volumes), and it was glorious.

Onward!

Posted by: quietI at October 17, 2021 07:01 PM (7dgPE)

411 Reading Book 20 of 20 in Jerry Boyd's wonderful and funny "Bob and Nikki" SF series. Bob's a hillbilly in Missouri who comes home one day to find a beautiful alien in his garage trying to get her broken saucer running again. A couple of years later, Bob's the Admiral of the most powerful (and funniest) fleet in space. If you're looking for a truly escapist read, which still has a lot to say about kindness, integrity, and barbecue, this series is for you. They're all available to borrow if you have a Kindle, but I buy them ($2.99) to try to make sure Mr. Boyd keeps writing them. Highest recommendation!

Posted by: Doc Strange at October 18, 2021 04:41 AM (02K3U)

412 My biggest issue with the Belgariad & the Mallorean is the essentially modern viewpoints of characters living in feudalistic societies. They're a fun read & don't require much effort to enjoy.

One fantasy series I sort of stumbled across is the five-book series The Tales of Einarinn. It's well-constructed, with believable & largely sympathetic characters.

Posted by: aelfheld at October 18, 2021 11:10 AM (Zy9Yy)

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