Sunday Morning Book Thread - 06-05-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (always be cautious about your search results! ht: All Hail Eris). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than the Voynich Manuscript. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...(for when you need to attend meetings of the Church of the SubGenius.)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, slice some rashers of bacon, and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Buck Throckmorton sent me the following note accompanying this picture:

Hey Perfesser:
Thanks for the great job you do.
I stumbled upon this picture and it brought back memories of my childhood, when my house had a bookshelf full of dozens of books like these. My parents had no use for me ever saying I was bored. If I did, they would point me to that bookshelf. Those childhood books took me on many great adventures, as I got lost between the covers and into the habit of reading.
My most recent book is one that a client of mine said I'd enjoy: On Valor's Side published in the early '60s. It's a marine's account of WWII from his enlistment in the Marines, through boot camp, landing at Guadalcanal, then the four-month battle to hold their beachhead before the Japanese finally surrendered the island. Just finished it this week.
All the best,
Buck

I can totally relate to Buck's childhood bookshelves. Even though my family moved around a lot when I was younger, we always had a house full of books. We took them all over the country and even overseas to Germany.

WRITING TIPS

Last week I brought up how important research is for writing a story, especially if it will be based on historical events or scientific knowledge (or some combination thereof). I asked A.H. Lloyd if he'd be willing to share some of his knowledge on research, since he's been neck deep researching China. He graciously replied in the comments with the following:

Okay, so the first thing is know what you want to write. Ask yourself: "What value am I adding to this topic?"
In the case of Long Live Death, I wanted to write the kind of book I would love to read, but which did not exist. I knew that there was a lot of b.s. about the Spanish Civil War so I could correct that, but mostly I really wanted to know how the war unfolded.
A big factor in this was that I had spent several months reading about the Spanish Civil War while convalescing from an attack of acute myocarditis. So a lot of the research had already been done, and all I had to do was refresh my memory, add some more sources, etc.
I then blocked out the structure of the book, outlining the chapters and topics. After that, it was just a matter of filling in the gaps...
With China, my approach is a little different because this time I dove into Chinese history with the notion that I would probably write a book on it. So my work is a little more organized. I should be farther along than I am, but we've had a lot of family drama, so I don't always get the quiet time I need to write.
As in all books, I have an idea of how long I think it will be to guide me, and I try to set a quota of words per session/week/month. I did really well in April but May has been a disaster. I'm still hoping to finish the draft in June with a July publication target.
One big difference between fiction and non-fiction is the need for an index, and this time I started auto-populating it right from the start. Saves me a lot of effort on the back end. For example, I just introduced Mao Tse-tung, and immediately added him to the indexer thingy. Now all subsequent mentions will be added.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 29, 2022 10:20 AM (llXky)

I love how he pointed out that he sets quotas on how much writing he will do in a given period. Self-discipline seems to be one of the key elements to successfully writing a book. Set a goal and follow through. He's also taking advantage of technology in his writing project by making use of the indexing functions of his word processor. Learning how to use these tools can save a lot of time and effort in the long run!

NOTE: A.H. Lloyd has quite a number of books available, for anyone interested.

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(Be honest. This describes you, doesn't it? ht: CN)

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BOOKS BY MORONS

Moron author Daniel Humphreys reached out to me a couple of weeks ago about a Kickstarter project he launched on May 31 to help him re-release his Paxton Locke series of books. The original publisher went out of business, so he's looking for alternatives. If you would like to help him out, the Kickstarter project is live until June 30. He's already surpassed his goal, but I'm sure he'd appreciate support from the Moron Horde!

Paxton Locke: Relaunching the acclaimed urban fantasy series

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Sometimes when I read through the comments every week, I can spot a trend among the recommended reading, even though there's usually an excellent mix of authors and stories. Last week, I noticed that several of you recommended stories involving conspiracies or espionage in some way. Here are a few of the recommendations:

I'm continuing to add vacation-books to my Kindle paperwhite. Yesterday I got a deal on Above Suspicion by Scottish author Helen MacIness. Ms. MacInnes's husband was in MI6. She wrote espionage novels beginning in WW2 through the Cold War. I read her books many 29 years ago, looking forward to a re-read.
Posted by: grammie winger at May 29, 2022 09:14 AM (45fpk)

Comment: World War II and the subsequent Cold War are both rich targets for espionage thrillers. MacInnes had a fairly prolific writing career and was quite the trailblazer in her genre. It probably helps when your husband is James Bond. A few of her books were even made into movies. Above Suspicion, for instance, was made into a film in 1943, starring Richard Thorpe, Joan Crawford, and Fred MacMurray.

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Speaking of which, I will give a shout-out to Foucault's Pendulum, which is one hell of a fun ride. Eco is the anti-Dan Brown, knowing all sorts of oddball stuff in lots of languages. The plot is basically a bunch of bored book editors come up with the most over-the-top conspiracy they can think of, and naturally people start to believe its true.
Quite amusing as well.
There are very few books that stick with you to the extent that you quote from it. This is one of them. Eco's got so many great turns of phrase. One of my favorites is a discussion about people. There are four kinds of people: cretins, fools, morons and lunatics.
Cretins are stone stupid, try to eat and ice cream cone and plant it on their forehead. They don't write books, so no one cares about them.
Fools seem very intelligent, but they always talk "outside the glass." They're trying to talk about what's *in* the glass, but never make it. They walk up to you and ask how your wife is doing after you divorce. Fools are in great demand as diplomats and politicians.
Morons use logic to solve everything, mindlessly following it wherever it goes. I am a human. Martin Luther King Jr. is a human. Therefore, I am Martin Luther King Jr. Stuff like that. Sometimes they get things right, but it's hard to tell.
Lunatics are exactly like morons in every respect, except that sooner or later, they will always bring up the Knights Templar.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 29, 2022 09:46 AM (llXky)

Comment: The premise of Foucault's Pendulum is that a group of editors create a conspiracy theory about the Knights Templar and other occult groups. To them, it's just a joke. Unfortunately, they apparently stumble onto a real conspiracy that is not happy with their meddling. Strikes too close to home. So when you are writing about conspiracy theories, you just never know who might be out there reading!

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Oh- forgot one other book I am currently reading (well, listening to):
Raven Rock: The story of the US Government's secret plan to save itself while the rest of us die.
Pretty fascinating so far. The effort for "Continuity of Government" is exactly what the title says: a core group of people live. The unwashed masses become soylent green.
Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at May 29, 2022 10:22 AM (cFx0q)

Comment: The blurb for this book mentions numerous secret bunkers set up around D.C. High-level politicians are supposed to be evacuated to them in the event of an emergency. I can't help but wonder if they are set up like the Vaults in the Fallout franchise. Maybe each one is also a secret experiment on humans (paid for by Fauci's NIH, of course).

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In addition to the conspiracy-themed recommendations above, FenelonSpoke posted the following plea for assistance:

My son will be starting college full time in the Fall, God willing. He only took a few classes at a time at the community college. Any recommendations for a non woke "How to be a organized successful college student"? There seems to be a lot of stuff out there. I just don't know what's good and I think-as many young people do- he has some ADD and needs to be more organized.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at May 29, 2022 09:56 AM (l7p9i)

Comment: I taught a class in Fall 2021 and one of the first things I gave my students (college freshmen) was a short pamphlet that I had laying around. I scanned it into PDF so that I could deliver it to them through our learning management system. Anyway, it's an excellent short guide that is very useful for both high school and college students. I'm posting it here for your convenience:

How to Get Good Grades in College by Linda O'Brien. Enjoy!

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (191 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton -- Book 2 of The Void Trilogy. Splits itself between a medieval society powered by psychics and an ultra-tech civilization on the verge of transitioning to nonphysical form. Still follows the plot of Star Trek V to some extent.

A few weeks ago (4/24/22), I posted an image of my haul from a library book sale. Well, the library in which I work (but do not work for) is throwing out a bunch of books (leftovers from the book sale, probably). So now they have several carts that are free for the taking by campus staff who work in the library. Naturally, I couldn't resist. Oh, and our local community library is having a book sale next weekend. I may go and attend that as well...*sigh* I may just have a problem...

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 05-29-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 hiya

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:00 AM (arJlL)

2 Top10?

Posted by: Matthew Kant Cipher at June 05, 2022 09:00 AM (kb51C)

3 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:00 AM (2JoB8)

4 Good morning Perfessor.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at June 05, 2022 09:01 AM (w6LHE)

5 Morning, Perfessor & Horde! It smells right bookish in here....:

Posted by: Matthew Kant Cipher at June 05, 2022 09:01 AM (kb51C)

6 I don't think the pants guy owns a weedwhacker. (if you catch my drift....)

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:01 AM (arJlL)

7 This week I read Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson delivers an interesting fantasy world populated with interesting characters. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 05, 2022 09:02 AM (8ap/U)

8 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading. Mine was rather esoteric.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:03 AM (7EjX1)

9 Happy Sunday

PS It almost Raceday!

Posted by: rhennigantx at June 05, 2022 09:04 AM (yrol0)

10 This week I read Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson delivers an interesting fantasy world populated with interesting characters. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Posted by: Zoltan at June 05, 2022 09:02 AM (8ap/U)
---
There's a fair number of Sanderson fans around here (myself included). If you liked the first Mistborn book, I think you will really enjoy the rest in the first series. The second Mistborn series is also quite good.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:05 AM (K5n5d)

11 I do believe that we had a shelf of books by the same publisher, although not those specific books. My mother got them when we were small through some kind of subscription service: a lot of late 19th century/20th century kid lit which had gone into public domain. Lots of Louisa May Alcott stories, IIRC. Inexpensive and simple covers, cheap but durable paper. I think I still have many of them in boxes in the garage.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at June 05, 2022 09:06 AM (xnmPy)

12 Past 1/2 on Richard Pipes Russian Revolution
Gets scary the more I go into it that as said to get me to read this we are reliving the Russians Revolution.
At point the Karansky government knows the Bolsheviks are well funded by the Germans ( in middle of WWI) but everyone passes this up and suspect to many of them their's demise though Karansky escapes to the US living here almost until his death in 1970.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:07 AM (2JoB8)

13 Hello librosexuals!

Seconded (thirded?) re the Mistborn trilogy. I also liked the later novel "The Alloy of Law".

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 05, 2022 09:08 AM (Dc2NZ)

14 Hope one of the Ettes brings up the Holomor book again, I want it next and lost the title. Looked it up on my Kindle app but it doesn't save them.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:09 AM (2JoB8)

15 I'm continuing with a collection of weekly columns by Malcolm Guite and short pieces by Chesterton. I discovered that hearing them in my head as if I were reading aloud brings out a liveliness even when the topic isn't profound. It adds a lot to my enjoyment. Not to mention these columns take a while because of all the allusions I tend to follow down rabbit holes.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:10 AM (7EjX1)

16 This week I read The Last Defender of Camelot, a collection of Roger Zelazny's short stories. "For a Breath I Tarry" is still one of the greatest SF shorts I've ever read.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at June 05, 2022 09:10 AM (/+bwe)

17 Agreed. Helen MacInnes wrote great spy novels. I often find hardcover editions at book sales for a buck or two. Love the social/cultural details as these novels go back awhile.

Posted by: Ziba at June 05, 2022 09:11 AM (S1hrL)

18 Red harvest was conquests contribution

Posted by: No 6 at June 05, 2022 09:12 AM (i0Lci)

19 Heh, Amazon just emailed me and told me my Kindle will not have access to the Store after Aug 17.

Quote from the email "Thank you for using one of our earliest Kindle devices."

Translation: "Why don't ya upgrade, ya freak?"

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 05, 2022 09:13 AM (PiwSw)

20 Karensky was an idiot thinking kornilev was a bigger threar then lenin so he cut the former off at the knees

Posted by: No 6 at June 05, 2022 09:13 AM (i0Lci)

21 Morning to all you book types!

I'm rereading (for the 3rd time) Stephen King's 11/22/63. I know he's not well thought of here, but politics aside, he is a superb storyteller at his best. This novel is one of his tops: time travel with an interesting catch. Every time you go into the past, it's a reset -- anything you did on the previous trip, you have to do again, or it won't happen. And each time you step through on the same day in 1958 -- you can't jump forward in time.

It's a grand adventure, a love story, a suspense tale with a built-in ticking clock, and a wonderful evocation of the late Fifties and early Sixties in America. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:14 AM (c6xtn)

22 Those pants...why not?

I saw Aged Urine open for the Dead Milkmen at the old JFK Stadium in Philly back in 1985.

The Squirrel's pimp hand is strong this week.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 05, 2022 09:14 AM (R/m4+)

23 Richard Pipes should be followed up with "The Shadow of the Palace" for an in-depth look at the psychology of the revolution at its roots in 1825 up to 1917. Also excellent reading.

Posted by: Ziba at June 05, 2022 09:14 AM (S1hrL)

24 I really love the squirrel-as-pimp. Book-pimping.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 05, 2022 09:14 AM (EZebt)

25 There are some poems that just stay with a person, at least the imaginative aspects, for some reason. For me that would include Gray's "Elegy In a Country Churchyard" (not a laugh riot), Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, Tennyson's "Ulysses", even some of Tolkien's Tom Bombadil and Hobbit drinking songs. I've been rereading them to better learn how the pacing and word choice add to their imaginative power. It's a fun, if nerdy, exercise. Chesterton's "Ballad of the White Horse will probably join this group.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:15 AM (7EjX1)

26 Thank's to the Professor's recommendation, I read Nothing Left To Drag Home by Gary Rafferty. This is a brutally honest depiction of an artilleryman whose unit, Battery A, 2nd/94th Artillery drew the short straw and was deployed Lao Bao on the Vietnam/Cambodian border near the DMZ. From late January 1971 until March 18th they faced daily bombardment from NVA guns in Cambodia and confronted am bushes along their one ground supply line.

This was a particularly interesting read to me as I was trained as a cannon cocker at Fort Sill, OK. I got lucky when I was sent to Vietnam and ended up working in the 1st Inf. Division's APO. I spent my entire year within a base perimeter.

Posted by: Zoltan at June 05, 2022 09:15 AM (8ap/U)

27 My favorite books when first started reading was that big set Compton's Encylopedia.

Posted by: Eromero at June 05, 2022 09:15 AM (0OP+5)

28 And he let lenin stage his revolution john reed who was generally clueless did note this was a gamchanger although he bought the kornilev coup narrative.

Posted by: No 6 at June 05, 2022 09:15 AM (i0Lci)

29 Heh, Amazon just emailed me and told me my Kindle will not have access to the Store after Aug 17.

Quote from the email "Thank you for using one of our earliest Kindle devices."

Translation: "Why don't ya upgrade, ya freak?"
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 05, 2022 09:13 AM (PiwSw)
---
Yet one more reason to acquire physical copies whenever possible...Kindle is nice for carrying around an entire library, but technology fails or becomes obsolete over time. Books can last decades, even centuries if properly kept.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:16 AM (K5n5d)

30 At point the Karansky government knows the Bolsheviks are well funded by the Germans ( in middle of WWI) but everyone passes this up and suspect to many of them their's demise though Karansky escapes to the US living here almost until his death in 1970.
Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:07 AM (2JoB

The krauts were the real villains of the Rooski revolution, subsidizing that cocksucker Lenin and giving him safe passage from Zurich through Germany to Petrograd in the middle of a world war.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 09:16 AM (y7DUB)

31 Thank you Perfessor for this thread and for the Moron Recommendation page!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 05, 2022 09:17 AM (PiwSw)

32 Ziba and would also follow my historical reading which usually stops before the Decembists.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:17 AM (2JoB8)

33 I'm rereading (for the 3rd time) Stephen King's 11/22/63.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

******

How does the story tie in with the JFK assassination? Or does it?

Posted by: Muldoon at June 05, 2022 09:17 AM (cPDW+)

34 I've been enjoying "Andrew Wyeth: The Helga Pictures" for the many sketches, the back story. and 'controversy' when they went on exhibition. (How dare Wyeth do some work without telling people about it!!) And the finished paintings, of course. If you like Wyeth's work it's a window on how and why he pursues a painting.

If I can't paint like Wyeth, at least I can try to understand his appeal for me.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:17 AM (7EjX1)

35 More on Russia : Would like to recommend
"Putin's Playbook" by Rebekah Koffler.

Former Communist and intelligence officer lays out Putlin's plan to defeat America. Factual (sections have been redacted by FBI prior to publication in 2021).
Much of what she describes is happening right now. A page turner and eye opening even if one thinks one has heard/read it all by now.

Posted by: Ziba at June 05, 2022 09:18 AM (S1hrL)

36 Kerensky makes the same error all liberals do.

They think their enemies are opponents. They do not merely under-estimate the threat, they do not even comprehend it..

Posted by: San Franpsycho at June 05, 2022 09:18 AM (EZebt)

37 I also hit the library yesterday and grabbed an Elmore Leonard Western from the Fifties, a collection of short horror stories by Fritz Leiber, a 1971 Ruth Rendell non-series crime/drama novel, and the first 2 books of the Narnia stories. The Magician's Nephew is the first, according to the flyleaf, and Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is second. I'not sure I've ever read the latter, and I know I haven't encountered the former or any of the other books in the series.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:18 AM (c6xtn)

38 This week I'm revisiting an old favorite: William Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!"

Faulkner wrote that this novel was "the story of a man who wanted a son through pride, and got too many of them and they destroyed him.”

Over and above that, the book is about how a local legend is refined in the telling and re-telling until it ripples out into the wider world. The difficulties of a first reading are due to the stories being told in the way the characters would really talk. That style is key to Faulkner's best work.

I don't believe Faulkner is much loved these days. I consider him the greatest of 20th century American writers on the basis of 4 novels: "Go Down, Moses," "As I Lay Dying," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom, Absalom!"

Of course, I'm prejudiced. My father grew up a sharecropper's son in Northern Mississippi, and helped me to a young appreciation of Faulkner's ability to apply modernist style to tales of a tradition.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 09:18 AM (NwNPz)

39 I have one of the early basic Kindles so I'm sure I have that e-mail somewhere. Eh, I have so many unread books on it already.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 05, 2022 09:19 AM (Dc2NZ)

40 Those pants are fine. Eye would wear them to give offerings to Osiris.

Posted by: Horus at June 05, 2022 09:20 AM (vrz2I)

41 Happy Sunday

PS It almost Raceday!
Posted by: rhennigantx

Racist !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:20 AM (arJlL)

42 Seen Union of Salvation twice though didn't understand a word

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:20 AM (2JoB8)

43 Finishing up O. Lost (the original version of Look Homeward Angel). Not much longer, but the information about the family in the aftermath of the Civil War adds, not detracts, from the story.

I will follow up by rereading Of Time and the River.

The kids books up top look like nice editions. I have the Andersen one, and will look into finding The Black Stallion.
Grandsons are officially on "summer vacation", but will be furnished with lots of reading material and geography workbooks. They both like maps, so it seemed fun to get.

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 09:21 AM (ONvIw)

44 I'm still reading the Conan book "Hour of the Dragon", probably the best of the Conan stories, which is saying a lot. Although many of the follow-on books based on Howard's scraps and hints are decent reading, they lack his ability to create such powerful images and emotional content. It's not just the Conan character. Howard wrote straight horror, truly hilarious comedy, and westerns among others. All of them are entertaining and worth reading. What a loss at so young an age.

I keep an eye open for the paper versions of Howard's collections. I have a bunch but there are always more. The Delphi collection on Kindle is probably the best of the e-reader versions.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:22 AM (7EjX1)

45 Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonsdawn" recounts the history of the colonization of Pern by humans seeking a more agrarian life with minimal technology at the edge of the populated systems. It's the most science fictiony of the Pern stories, or really fantasy with SF trappings, recounting their initial success cut short by a sudden devastating attack by an alien spore that destroys every living thing in its path -- a cyclical phenomenon that happens every 200-300 years, and so not encountered by the exploratory scout team that discovered the planet.

This was a one-way trip with no means of evacuating the populace, so they have to cope as best they can. Through some sciffy handwaving, they breed the dragons from native "fire lizards" who incinerate the thread as it drifts down. If you enjoy the Pern series, this backstory explains how their advanced society evolved into one of almost feudal fortresses of the later tales.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 05, 2022 09:22 AM (Dc2NZ)

46 I'm rereading (for the 3rd time) Stephen King's 11/22/63. I know he's not well thought of here, but politics aside, he is a superb storyteller at his best. This novel is one of his tops

I agree. I couldn't put it down when I read it several years ago. It's one of King's best. The mini series was actually a pretty good adaptation as well.

Posted by: Jewells45 at June 05, 2022 09:22 AM (nxdel)

47 Captain Hate

This past week you mentioned that you thought if an American Flag touched the ground it must be destroyed.

Did you find out anything more about that ?

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:23 AM (arJlL)

48 [i/I'm rereading (for the 3rd time) Stephen King's 11/22/63.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

******
How does the story tie in with the JFK assassination? Or does it?
Posted by: Muldoon at June 05, 2022

***
Oh, yes. That's the ticking clock I mentioned. Jake, the hero, steps through the time warp, the "rabbit hole," to 1958 to find out if Oswald really was the lone gunman, and if so, to keep him from being successful. But the story is so much more than just that, a wonderful *big* novel full of great characters and humor and human moments as Jake adapts from his 2011 to 1958 and lives through the ensuing years.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:23 AM (c6xtn)

49 I don't believe Faulkner is much loved these days. I consider him the greatest of 20th century American writers on the basis of 4 novels: "Go Down, Moses," "As I Lay Dying," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom, Absalom!"

Of course, I'm prejudiced. My father grew up a sharecropper's son in Northern Mississippi, and helped me to a young appreciation of Faulkner's ability to apply modernist style to tales of a tradition.
Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 09:18 AM (NwNPz)

Faulkner was The Man compared to snotty pussies like Fitzgerald and the rest of those overrated gelded eunuchs.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 09:24 AM (y7DUB)

50 The "How To Get Good Grades" pamphlet may be too overwhelming for new students, particularly males.

Simple instructions are best:

1) Attend every class is the first, and most critical rule.
Do not miss a class;

2) Be in contact with your professor and/or TA about your progress throughout the semester (if they allow it) and address issues they identify right away.

The "halo effect" matters. It is better to start strong.
Teachers become biased early on, and if you wait until late in the semester to put forth your best effort, they very often have already determined in their own minds what grade they think your work product should earn.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 09:24 AM (HimGd)

51 I keep an eye open for the paper versions of Howard's collections. I have a bunch but there are always more. The Delphi collection on Kindle is probably the best of the e-reader versions.
Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:22 AM (7EjX1)
---
I splurged and bought the Centenary Edition of The Complete Chronicles of Conan. It's a very nice hardbound edition of all of the Conan stories with additional supplementary materials.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:24 AM (K5n5d)

52 It seems like there's a lot of Scandinavian fiction out there, mostly thrillers like those of Jo Nesbo of Norway. So I started 'Still Waters' (Sandhamn Murders Book 1)
by Viveca Sten, a tale of murder set on the island of Sandhamm, Sweden. It was free on Kindle Unlimited, and I'm pretty much getting what I paid for. The umlauts are interesting though. And I learned that the signature red color of Swedish cottages that I love so much is called Falu. I never knew that.

Posted by: grammie winger at June 05, 2022 09:26 AM (45fpk)

53 JT,

Nobody here responded to it. I'll research it on my own and report back, assuming nobody responds to your updated query.

Thanks for asking.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 09:26 AM (y7DUB)

54 Faulkner was The Man compared to snotty pussies like Fitzgerald and the rest of those overrated gelded eunuchs.
Posted by: Captain Hate

When I read that comment, I knew it was you !

LOL !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:27 AM (arJlL)

55 Youngest kid is home from college for the summer and finally decided to clean out his old bookshelves.

It puts me and his mother in a melancholy dilemma: the Kid doesn't want many of his books from early childhood, but we can't bear to get rid of them.

We tell ourselves we're keeping them for our grandchildren, but there's no strong guarantee that any such grandchildren will exist.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:28 AM (QZxDR)

56 I don't believe Faulkner is much loved these days. I consider him the greatest of 20th century American writers on the basis of 4 novels: "Go Down, Moses," "As I Lay Dying," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom, Absalom!"

Of course, I'm prejudiced. My father grew up a sharecropper's son in Northern Mississippi, and helped me to a young appreciation of Faulkner's ability to apply modernist style to tales of a tradition.
Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022

***
Despite growing up in the south, I've never been able to get into him. His famous short story "A Rose for Emily," and his short crime-oriented stories about Gavin Knight, a lawyer in his mythical and unpronounceable MS county, are quite good, though. I tried his one popular success, Sanctuary, and couldn't understand what was happening. All the characters seemed to share some big assumption or belief which informed everything they said and did. But they never talked about it directly -- so I was lost.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:28 AM (c6xtn)

57 Heh, Amazon just emailed me and told me my Kindle will not have access to the Store after Aug 17.

Quote from the email "Thank you for using one of our earliest Kindle devices."

Translation: "Why don't ya upgrade, ya freak?"

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 05, 2022 09:13 AM (PiwSw)

I upgraded to the Kindle Paperwhite. Love it.

Posted by: grammie winger at June 05, 2022 09:29 AM (45fpk)

58 Faulkner was The Man compared to snotty pussies like Fitzgerald and the rest of those overrated gelded eunuchs.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 09:24 AM (y7DUB)
================
With the exception of "As I Lay Dying", which I found to be a hard book to finish. Faulkner also made contributions to screen writing, which shouldn't be overlooked: "You know how to whistle, don't you Steve? You put your lips together and blow."

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 09:30 AM (HimGd)

59 Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 05, 2022 09:13 AM (PiwSw)

I have a Kindle Fire that's about three years old and I use it download samples of certain books. I wonder if I get the same e-mail as you did.

Posted by: dantesed at June 05, 2022 09:30 AM (88xKn)

60
"We tell ourselves we're keeping them for our grandchildren, but there's no strong guarantee that any such grandchildren will exist."

Don't get rid of them. We are in the same boat but maybe someday...

Some of our collection contains books from when I was a little kid. I was glad my Mom saved them.

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 09:30 AM (vrz2I)

61 Mexici did a simiilar thing with fidel in 56 , he took a boat the granma and then herbert matthees dis his press

Posted by: No 6 at June 05, 2022 09:30 AM (i0Lci)

62 Matthews was his press agent now when the boomerang came around the marxist guerillas arose in mexico they were utterly ruthless in the 60s and then the 90s

Posted by: No 6 at June 05, 2022 09:32 AM (i0Lci)

63 Youngest kid is home from college for the summer and finally decided to clean out his old bookshelves.

It puts me and his mother in a melancholy dilemma: the Kid doesn't want many of his books from early childhood, but we can't bear to get rid of them.

We tell ourselves we're keeping them for our grandchildren, but there's no strong guarantee that any such grandchildren will exist.
Posted by: Trimegistus

See if there are any Little Free Libraries in your area.

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:32 AM (arJlL)

64 To me, Faulkner and Williams and Wolfe all share a common flaw: they aren't Southern writers so much as they are people playing the character of "Southern Writer" for an audience of New Yorkers. Faulkner in particular packs his works with minstrel-show grotesques. One can't avoid the suspicion that he's doing it because the Yankees love to read about how bizarre and inferior Southerners are.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:32 AM (QZxDR)

65 Awesome Faulkner passage, even if for a bad cause:

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances...

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:32 AM (ZsR3z)

66 I was a good bit past 29 when we had our first kid. Mom had to hold on to those books for a long time, thru many moves. (Dad was AF).

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 09:32 AM (vrz2I)

67 Don't get rid of them. We are in the same boat but maybe someday...

Some of our collection contains books from when I was a little kid. I was glad my Mom saved them.
Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 09:30 AM (vrz2I)

I concur. Kid1's kids are using books from my kids' childhoods, and they provide a great springboard into less contemporary, more wholesome reading fare.

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 09:33 AM (ONvIw)

68 Don't get rid of them. We are in the same boat but maybe someday...

Ditto, except the first one is now on the way. I'm glad we saved them. You never know.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:33 AM (ZsR3z)

69 Kid2 is here for the weekend and culling the bedroom bookcases was on the agenda. That leaves me to go through the rest and donate, give away, and relocate the remaining 40%. The cases will head off to VA with grandma's bedroom and dining room furniture, and a large desk. Can't wait.

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 09:36 AM (ONvIw)

70 I also had a bunch of Peanuts books from the 60s and early 70s and both my boys read the covers off those. I think they learned a lot about life and reading from those. Later came Calvin & Hobbes. Ditto for that.

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 09:36 AM (vrz2I)

71 29 ... "Yet one more reason to acquire physical copies whenever possible...Kindle is nice for carrying around an entire library, but technology fails or becomes obsolete over time. Books can last decades, even centuries if properly kept."

Over the last couple of years I've been getting fewer Kindle books. Partly due to reading books that I want to preserve on the shelves and partly because I hope to pass them down to young relatives when the time comes. (They are an intellectually curious group, which I find encouraging.) I have ever diminishing faith in the viability of technology, especially including planned obsolescence, and putting control of my reading in hands of companies. (Are you listening, Amazon?)

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:36 AM (7EjX1)

72 I also worry that any children's book written before 1995 or so will vanish from libraries and bookstores. Sometimes I feel like a medieval monk.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:37 AM (QZxDR)

73 I also had a bunch of Peanuts books from the 60s and early 70s and both my boys read the covers off those. I think they learned a lot about life and reading from those. Later came Calvin & Hobbes. Ditto for that.

I know my daughter is looking forward to reading to her kids some of the books she loved. Sadly, I think our copy of Green Eggs and Ham has seen its last days.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:38 AM (ZsR3z)

74 51 ... "I splurged and bought the Centenary Edition of The Complete Chronicles of Conan. It's a very nice hardbound edition of all of the Conan stories with additional supplementary materials."

Perfessor,
I got that years ago when it first came out. It's a nicely bound hardcover and has a treasured place in a special Victorian bookcase inherited from my grandfather.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:39 AM (7EjX1)

75 One can't avoid the suspicion that he's doing it because the Yankees love to read about how bizarre and inferior Southerners are.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:32 AM (QZxDR)

The original novel makes the "yankee" roots much more obvious which seems, to me anyway, a crucial part of the story. Tom was born in NC, but the family roots were in PA, with the book's opening set around Gettysburg right before the battle.

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 09:39 AM (ONvIw)

76 Heh, Amazon just emailed me and told me my Kindle will not have access to the Store after Aug 17.

Quote from the email "Thank you for using one of our earliest Kindle devices."

Translation: "Why don't ya upgrade, ya freak?"
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 05, 2022 09:13 AM (PiwSw)

I didn't get an e-mail, but my kindle had that message. FTS, I'll upgrade when i want to.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 09:39 AM (2JVJo)

77 Over the last couple of years I've been getting fewer Kindle books. Partly due to reading books that I want to preserve on the shelves and partly because I hope to pass them down to young relatives when the time comes.

I think we're in a golden age of book-owning right now. You can buy used copies of older books for a song, because so many people no longer read, or only read on a Kindle. I don't care if it's used, as long as it's in reasonable shape.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:40 AM (ZsR3z)

78 Morning everyone!

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 09:40 AM (PAisM)

79 I also worry that any children's book written before 1995 or so will vanish from libraries and bookstores. Sometimes I feel like a medieval monk.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022

***
Oh, yes. The big regional branch I've been going to has the rare original or early edition of certain pre-1990 books like some of the early Perry Masons, and they have reissues of stuff like early Ellery Queen. But you have to look for them. At a small branch like the one I can walk to from my front door? Forget anything much earlier than 1990.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:40 AM (c6xtn)

80 Against my better instincts (and contrary to an earlier statement) I kept reading The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, mostly so I could complain about it to the book group on the rare occasion I attend it. My problem with it was that it wasn't written as much from an Indian perspective as I wanted it to be, which was dumb on my part considering the author was a limey homo. The whole thing seemed written from a Masterpiece Theater standpoint with all the horseshit that turned Downton Abbey into a maudlin farce of pampered bitches complaining about every stupid fucking thing. What I failed to appreciate is that's right in a homo's wheelhouse to write about.

With expectations recalibrated it was much more enjoyable while still not being what I wanted it to be.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 09:41 AM (y7DUB)

81 72 I also worry that any children's book written before 1995 or so will vanish from libraries and bookstores. Sometimes I feel like a medieval monk.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:37 AM (QZxDR)

I think they will. With Dorothy Canfield Fisher being "cancelled", I can imagine the plans for purging and editing are well underway. Hard copies are a big plus.

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 09:41 AM (ONvIw)

82 I also worry that any children's book written before 1995 or so will vanish from libraries and bookstores. Sometimes I feel like a medieval monk.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:37 AM (QZxDR)
---
That's somewhat true, I suppose, as both libraries and bookstores exist to cater to the public's interests in reading material. Of course, both entities have gone full woke in recent years and now try to enforce their preferred version of the public's interests.

I do think there will always be a secondary market for those books, however, because classics are classics for a reason. "Print on Demand" is also something we can enjoy--I have numerous books that I've ordered via Amazon that were printed and bound on the day I ordered it.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:42 AM (K5n5d)

83 Of course, I do have to confess that there are some Beloved Childhood Favorites I'll be glad if I never see again. Pretty much the entire oeuvre of P.D. Eastman, for instance. ("Are You My Mother?" and "Go, Dog, Go!") Kind of the poor man's Dr. Seuss, without the gift for meter and phrasing that made most of Seuss's books fun to read aloud.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:42 AM (QZxDR)

84 Had a number of those kids' classics volumes in the picture. The first Kipling I read was a volume from that set and Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare was there too. Verne, Dickens... good stuff.

Even an old Kindle that can't access the store any longer (I've got an ancient Kindle keyboard) can still handle books loaded from the PC by a USB cable. Deregister that puppy and use it for non-DRM ebooks. Works fine.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 09:42 AM (JzDjf)

85 The whole thing seemed written from a Masterpiece Theater standpoint with all the horseshit that turned Downton Abbey into a maudlin farce of pampered bitches

But the dresses were marvelous.

Posted by: grammie winger at June 05, 2022 09:42 AM (45fpk)

86 72 I also worry that any children's book written before 1995 or so will vanish from libraries and bookstores. Sometimes I feel like a medieval monk.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:37 AM (QZxDR)

To your point, they've certainly done their best to cancel authors like Dr. Seuss.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 09:42 AM (PAisM)

87 Somebody needs to make an app that will automatically flip thru your Kindle books, screenshot each page, and organize them and save them to a text file or pdf or some such format you can keep forever.

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 09:42 AM (vrz2I)

88 The whole thing seemed written from a Masterpiece Theater standpoint with all the horseshit that turned Downton Abbey into a maudlin farce of pampered bitches complaining about every stupid f***ing thing.

Yeah, whenever I see a show like that, I say "no wonder you lost the empire".

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:43 AM (ZsR3z)

89 I've read that the first rule of writing is to get in the chair and behind the keyboard.

Two-thirds through "The Guns of Avalon," still no guns. However, Lord Corwin has his hands on an explosive.

The story is a bit choppy, with flashback scenes that haven't been mentioned earlier. I've had to go back through the book to see whether I've missed anything. Nope. I'm having to figure out where they fit in.

The royals of Amber are such a sweet bunch, conspiring against each other. I think Zelazny researched Roman history for ideas. These days, Democrats would fill the bill.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 05, 2022 09:43 AM (Om/di)

90 Morning everyone!
Posted by: Secret Squirrel,

Hiya !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 09:44 AM (arJlL)

91 > Books can last decades, even centuries if properly kept.

On the other hand, books are easily destroyed by fire, water, and mold.

If my Kindle gets burned in a house fire, I can just get a new one and all my books will still be there.

Even if Amazon goes out of business, anything you've cracked and backed up yourself is effectively immortal.

Plus I've got tons (not hyperbole... literal tons) of physical books. I love them, but I've got no space for any more and no desire to move them again (realistically, at my 29 years of age, pay someone else to move them).

So... there are arguments either way.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 09:44 AM (bW8dp)

92 I think we're in a golden age of book-owning right now. You can buy used copies of older books for a song, because so many people no longer read, or only read on a Kindle. I don't care if it's used, as long as it's in reasonable shape.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:40 AM (ZsR3z)
---
I also enjoy the "print on demand" capabilities for many older books, though the quality can be a bit sketchy at times. I ordered the Lensman Saga and each volume in the series a little bit different the previous volume (in size, shape, texture, etc.)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:45 AM (K5n5d)

93 But the dresses were marvelous.

Yeah, whenever I see a show like that, I say "no wonder you lost the empire".

And that puts paid to the notion that differences between men and women are a social construct. Heh.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:45 AM (ZsR3z)

94 And now, a rant because there's no-one else I can vent to:

The in-your-face and down-your-throat imposition of perversion continues apace. There are now ads for a new Discovery Plus series called The Book of Queer, which is hell-bent on insisting to you racist, rapist, gun-stroking, queer-bashing Trumpkins that all the important people in history have been gay.

From the usual suspects like Da Vinci (who is shown lasciviously wagging his tongue at the viewer) and Lincoln to deliberate Christian-baiting insisting St Joan of Arc and Jesus were also gay.

And the show's tagline? "Your history isn't straight." Get that? Not 'our' history, but 'your' history. You need to be re-educated, you fucking hetero breeder! You must celebrate out fabulousness while we reduce your heroes and your religious figures to sex objects for our masturbational fantasies!

I've been in amateur theatricals. I know gay people personally. But this incendiary shit really makes me want to go full Taliban.

Book thoughts coming next.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 09:45 AM (2JVJo)

95 > I've had to go back through the book to see whether I've missed anything. Nope. I'm having to figure out where they fit in.

Did you read the first one first (Nine Princes in Amber)? That will help some, although some of the relationships and mysteries aren't cleared up for several more books. Amber has a long and very complicated history.

There's an omnibus edition of the Chronicles of Amber that's worth getting if you like the series.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 09:47 AM (bW8dp)

96 Translation: "Why don't ya upgrade, ya freak?"
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper

Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 09:47 AM (FVME7)

97 I really wish I had gotten ahold of the Lensman series when I was 11 years old. I'd have loved them and I wouldn't have minded Smith's writing style. Sadly, I didn't actually see a copy of any of them until I was in my 20s, and I'd already been spoiled by Heinlein and Kipling.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:47 AM (QZxDR)

98 Zelazny was, is, and ever shall be a delight. If you've only read the Amber novels, don't miss the other novels and the short fiction. Amber Ltd is releasing his backlist on Kindle and just issued UNICORN VARIATIONS a couple of weeks ago. There's another ebook title, THE MAGIC, collecting ten of his early stories with appreciations by Samuel Delany, Theodore Sturgeon and others -- not to be missed.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 09:49 AM (JzDjf)

99 I really wish I had gotten ahold of the Lensman series when I was 11 years old. I'd have loved them and I wouldn't have minded Smith's writing style. Sadly, I didn't actually see a copy of any of them until I was in my 20s, and I'd already been spoiled by Heinlein and Kipling.
Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:47 AM (QZxDR)
---
He has a very distinctive style. Admittedly, there's really not much characterization or development going on, but the over-the-top arms race is just bizarrely fascinating...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:49 AM (K5n5d)

100
I've been in amateur theatricals. I know gay people personally. But this incendiary shit really makes me want to go full Taliban.

Book thoughts coming next.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 09:45 AM (2JVJo)

The only consolation to what you note - and it is everywhere these days - is to hold on to the conviction that the people doing this are only destroying *themselves* and the organizations they control by doing this, they are not actually harming any of us. The problem is that it always takes time for these things to play out, and it feels terrible to live through that long decay, especially the part where we have to watch institutions and outlets we once respected (like Discovery) die. But die they will.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 05, 2022 09:49 AM (r46W7)

101 The great thing about the reading habit those children's books inspired is that I was reading adult books like the James Herriot series ("All Creatures Great And Small") and even "Jaws" while still in elementary school, and I was reading Ludlum books in Jr High School. (As I've noted before, "The Parsifal Mosaic" cured me of any further Ludlum books.)

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at June 05, 2022 09:51 AM (d9Cw3)

102 Great thread, as per usual, Perfessor.

Not much to add as my reading really has taken a back seat to other projects.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (5pTK/) at June 05, 2022 09:51 AM (5pTK/)

103 The Decades channel is doing a WKRP marathon. Still funny.

Grit has The Guns of Fort Petticoat, a Western from 1957. Not a comedy despite the title. Audie Murphy plays a Union soldier in TX in the 1860s who has to organize and train a group of non-soldiers at a fort to repel Indians. The catch: They're all women, young and middle-aged and old, and from what I see it is not played at all for laughs. Sort of an Alamo story for the distaff side.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:51 AM (c6xtn)

104 I read a graphic novel, "The Electric State" and I recommend it.

It's a weird story about an alternate 1990's world. There was an invention, the neurocaster, that took everyone by storn. The book makes it unclear what the neurocaster actually did--did it project fantasy images into their heads or did it just project pleasure impulses? The book strongly suggests the latter. With the hinted idea that the connected minds are combining into some kind of super-intelligence...which seems to lack any intelligence other than futhering itself.

And then there was a world war, fought entirely by remote machines, which lasted for seven years, and then--stopped somehow.

The text story is of a young woman trying to cross the country to reconnect with her lost brother. And the text bits are the weakest part of the book, because what really resonates are the incredible images.

Seriously, the graphics in this book are outstanding. More than worth the price of the thing.

And yeah, the text stuff gets into our female protagonist's early Lesbian leanings and such. Not enough to grate, but enough where you're "I'm glad I bought this for the images and not the text."

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at June 05, 2022 09:52 AM (m0zqP)

105 Yay bookzzzz!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 09:52 AM (kf6Ak)

106 I've been in amateur theatricals. I know gay people personally. But this incendiary shit really makes me want to go full Taliban.
Book thoughts coming next.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 09:45 AM (2JVJo)

MP4: I hear you. Another reason I won't subscribe to Discovery- which used to be a great channel twenty years ago. We're in a slow glide path as a country heading toward a large mountain.
I told my wife the other day- remarking on the cultural decay and fact that now gas is $5 per gallon, food is approaching Iceland prices, and baby formula is non existent- that I wondered if this is how the Roman citizenry felt at the tail end of the empire when the hordes were beating at the gates.
Rome I can understand collapsing- incompetent rulers. And while we have incompetent ones here, it seems that there are some who are trying to collapse America.
Depressing rant off.

BTW go see Top Gun Maverick if you want to rekindle hope!

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 09:52 AM (PAisM)

107 I was recently reading a history of the Raj, and the author spoke very highly of Kipling's Kim as reflecting how things really were then.

I had never read it, so got a used copy and did so. It's a good book, but the thing that struck me the most was that it was once considered a children's book. I'd venture that most adults couldn't handle it now.

Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:53 AM (ZsR3z)

108 re: Kindle will not have access to the Store

does that mean they can't delete the books from your kindle anymore? but you still have USB download capability? doesn't sound like a complete loss to me.

Posted by: yara at June 05, 2022 09:53 AM (hBsVD)

109 Zelazny was, is, and ever shall be a delight. If you've only read the Amber novels, don't miss the other novels and the short fiction. Amber Ltd is releasing his backlist on Kindle and just issued UNICORN VARIATIONS a couple of weeks ago. There's another ebook title, THE MAGIC, collecting ten of his early stories with appreciations by Samuel Delany, Theodore Sturgeon and others -- not to be missed.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022

***
I've never read the Amber stories, but some of his others like "Home Is the Hangman" have a distinct tinge of the crime story built into them. The lead character in that is also the lead in another short story or novella that I've forgotten the title of, so it was a kind of series.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:54 AM (c6xtn)

110 This week I finished the second installment in Secret Squirrel's Outward Frontier series, Alamo. Great story, I'm looking forward to the third one.

Posted by: DIY Daddio at June 05, 2022 09:54 AM (RJscS)

111 Anyway. . .I posted earlier in the week that I took a ride to the St Benedict Center in Still River, MA and came away realizing I need a drastic change of life. I've begun taking a page from Ben Franklin, identifying the worst sins / temptations / failings in my life and concentrating on them one at a time in order to at least, if not control them, be less of a rotten, sinful person (as you can tell from my rant above, 'anger' is not the one I am concentrating on now).

I'm currently reading a devotional book, My Daily Life, by Anthony Paone, a Jesuit (I know) Father. Here is a short passage at the beginning of the book that struck me:

"There will be days when you will feel utterly alone, unimportant and even worthless. You may feel as though God is far away from you, or that He does not care about you, or even that He does not exist. . .At such times you may have a deeper appreciation of the sentiments of Jesus Crucified when He cried out, "my God, My God, why have you deserted me?" If you cannot cling to God in His glory on those days, you can surely cling to Jesus Who underwent the same human experience for your sake."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 09:54 AM (2JVJo)

112 "Lord of Light" by Zelazny is one of my favorite sci-fi novels ever. (1968 Hugo award winner) Somehow he managed to mix a ripping good sci-fi yarn with most of the elements of Buddhism and Hinduism, and portray all of them in a completely unexpected light. Another surprising part - the book consists of 7 stories spread throughout time, and it does not really matter which order you read them in. And yet, in the context of the stories, it makes perfect sense. It's a wheel, not a straight line.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (r46W7)

113 A fear I have if burning times come and Amazon feels your book is on the naughty list ( I have a few of) they will deny access.

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (2JoB8)

114 The in-your-face and down-your-throat imposition of perversion continues apace. There are now ads for a new Discovery Plus series called The Book of Queer, which is hell-bent on insisting to you racist, rapist, gun-stroking, queer-bashing Trumpkins that all the important people in history have been gay.

-
Absolutely infuriating! Everybody who's anybody was queer! All based on the flimsiest of evidence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (FVME7)

115 Greetings:

Guadalcanal can never be too much mentioned. In my cups, I wonder and worry if the history survives the coming generations.

Posted by: 11B40 at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (uuklp)

116 Question for kindle readers: has there been an instance of a book purchase that just 'expires'? In other words, when you've purchased a book for kindle consumption, does that purchase last forever or is it only available for a given amount of time?

I ask because I've purchased tv series on Amazon Prime only to learn that the 'purchase' was really a long term lease and is now expired. I must repurchase in order to view that series again. Weirdly, the option to rent the series was also on offer at the time I initially decided to purchase it.

Posted by: squeakywheel at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (GtoP2)

117 Kim is, no hyperbole, the greatest novel in the English language. Kipling manages to write a coming-of-age story, a spy story, a panoramic portrait of Raj India, an Army story, a Buddhist quest for enlightenment, and a meditation on identity, all packed into one book.

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 09:56 AM (QZxDR)

118 110 This week I finished the second installment in Secret Squirrel's Outward Frontier series, Alamo. Great story, I'm looking forward to the third one.
Posted by: DIY Daddio at June 05, 2022 09:54 AM (RJscS)

Awesome! Thanks for buying it! And if it isn't any trouble, please do leave a review on Amazon. It really helps.

Working on ARCANE FURY now!

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 09:56 AM (PAisM)

119 "If you cannot cling to God in His glory on those days, you can surely cling to Jesus Who underwent the same human experience for your sake."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 09:54 AM (2JVJo)

I like that.

Posted by: grammie winger at June 05, 2022 09:56 AM (45fpk)

120 Still reading Stranger in a Strange Land. It is really a different book reading it as an adult. It's quite funny now. And I have grown to really respect Heinlein as a writer.

A lot of the interstitials where he does headline news could be completely on topic for today. Not bad prognosticating for a book written in the 50s. Of course we still don't have flying cars....

Posted by: blaster at June 05, 2022 09:56 AM (9otr5)

121 A lot of the interstitials where he does headline news could be completely on topic for today. Not bad prognosticating for a book written in the 50s. Of course we still don't have flying cars....

Posted by: blaster at June 05, 2022 09:56 AM (9otr5)

Heinlein wasn't always right, but he had better insights into human nature than almost any so-called "philosopher" of the last century or so.

Posted by: Tom Servo at June 05, 2022 09:58 AM (r46W7)

122 *All based on the flimsiest of evidence.

Or more likely, no evidence at all. Wishcasting at its best.

Posted by: squeakywheel at June 05, 2022 09:58 AM (GtoP2)

123 With the exception of "As I Lay Dying", which I found to be a hard book to finish. Faulkner also made contributions to screen writing, which shouldn't be overlooked: "You know how to whistle, don't you Steve? You put your lips together and blow."
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 09:30 AM (HimGd)

I'm sure the screen writing kept a steady cash flow coming in which I suspect his major fiction did not. The beginning of The Sound and the Fury still provided the best when-the-light-went-on moment for me as a young reader when I realized the disjointed narrative was through the eyes of a retard. Probably hard to find an editor who thought that would appeal to a large audience.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 09:59 AM (y7DUB)

124 This week's book report:
SPQR: Under Vesuvius - finishing that means I have no more SPQR mysteries. Sad! I really enjoyed this series
Started on Mistborn: Bands of Mourning
Also picked up a nonfiction book at the library that seems interesting - Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 09:59 AM (kf6Ak)

125 Heinlein wasn't always right, but he had better insights into human nature than almost any so-called "philosopher" of the last century or so.
Posted by: Tom Servo at June 05, 2022 09:58 AM (r46W7)
---
Most of the greats of science fiction had profound insights into the human condition. That's one of the reasons why their stories are so good.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 09:59 AM (K5n5d)

126 I stumbled upon this picture and it brought back memories of my childhood, when my house had a bookshelf full of dozens of books like these.

Junior Deluxe Editions. I have those memories. My children have those memories. My oldest granddaughter has just discovered them and hopefully, she and her siblings will have fond memories. I still have about 30 of this set on one of the bookshelves in the grandkids room.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at June 05, 2022 09:59 AM (WYgPj)

127 Paxton Locke series is good! I hope Daniel Humphreys has a successful kickstarter

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 10:01 AM (kf6Ak)

128 Thanks for the shout-out, Perfessor!

The Kickstarter is indeed fully funded, but there are still openings for redshirts of the heroic and mustache-twirling sort if any morons are interested in that sort of thing.

- Daniel Humphreys

Posted by: Emile Antoon Khadaji at June 05, 2022 10:01 AM (uYcFJ)

129 Absolutely infuriating! Everybody who's anybody was queer! All based on the flimsiest of evidence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (FVME7)

"Stunning and brave" new theory will be the media consensus. Backlash, anyone?

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 10:01 AM (ONvIw)

130 Perfesser, RE your book problem, here is a solution:
https://tinyurl.com/perfesser

There is at least what looks like one full library shelf system up for auction this week.

Posted by: markreardon at June 05, 2022 10:01 AM (4dSMZ)

131 Both for college students and for writers I would recommend Barbara Oakley's Learning How To Learn. It was, when I took it, the most popular class on Coursera and maybe the most widely viewed MOOC class in the world.

Oakley was recommended by Instapundit Glenn Reynolds. The big lesson that comes through right away is how to break through procrastination and how the brain learns through focus and diffuse modes.

These are videos that can be viewed on YouTube, but I signed up for Coursera and went through most of it. I write my own Pomodoro timer and use it for writing, research, and coding.
-----
Conan is much slower than say Ender's Game. For writing, my goal is to write one very good, gripping first chapter, and I have been working on one with little success for two years.

Even the Lord took a day off. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Posted by: David Prince at June 05, 2022 10:02 AM (WUxVt)

132 Grit has The Guns of Fort Petticoat, a Western from 1957. Not a comedy despite the title. Audie Murphy plays a Union soldier in TX in the 1860s who has to organize and train a group of non-soldiers at a fort to repel Indians. The catch: They're all women, young and middle-aged and old, and from what I see it is not played at all for laughs. Sort of an Alamo story for the distaff side.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 09:51 AM (c6xtn)

I've seen it. Not a comedy. You'd think they'd see the title is wrong for it, but maybe they wanted the audience to think it was.
Saw your post to me on the hobby thread. Thanks, no hurry. I've also run into the doldrums on my writing. I've thought of something new but not sure how to proceed.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 10:02 AM (7bRMQ)

133 For those who have expressed an interest, today in 1944 from my dad's WWII diary:

June 5.
Rome is ours. We have it surrounded and occupied. The natives are delirious with joy. What with flag waving and flower throwing and shouting and ringing it is a great show. Our battery moved from Velletri to the fair grounds SW of Rome. As soon as we closed in the new area ‘Ace’ [Taylor] took me for a flight over Rome. The main streets were thronged with people. The entrance to Vatican City was so crowded with people that we couldn’t see the ground. [Margin note: This was the Pope’s address welcoming the Allies. A lucky flight for us because flying over the Vatican is strictly forbidden. However this was a special occasion and passed uncensored.] Rome is not badly bombed. Only the railroad yards show any amount of bombing. Our troops are moving well out with little opposition. All troops are advancing straight up the axis on rather narrow division fronts. The Air Corps is still raising Cain in the rear areas. Gerry seems very confused and disorganized.
[/ii]

Posted by: Muldoon at June 05, 2022 10:02 AM (cPDW+)

134 I agree that Heinlein had a good grasp of human psychology and social dynamics . . . mostly.

Re-reading his later works and other SF from the 1970s it is striking how so many authors completely bought into the creepy Frankfurt School perv ideas about how we had to liberate ourselves from "sexual repression."

Turns out that "polyamory" isn't emotionally satisfying, kiddy-fiddling does permanent psychological harm, promiscuity leaves people empty and alone, and none of them helps keep society stable and functioning.

Certainly RAH wasn't alone in this. In fact it was practically mandatory in 1970s SF. Were any authors brave or insightful enough to wonder "hey, maybe there are going to be some downsides to this Sexual Revolution that's starting around us . . . "?

Posted by: Trimegistus at June 05, 2022 10:02 AM (QZxDR)

135 The beginning of The Sound and the Fury still provided the best when-the-light-went-on moment for me as a young reader when I realized the disjointed narrative was through the eyes of a retard. Probably hard to find an editor who thought that would appeal to a large audience.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022

***
Did he have the same editor as Thomas Wolfe? Maxwell Perkins, I think?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:03 AM (c6xtn)

136 I also worry that any children's book written before 1995 or so will vanish from libraries and bookstores. Sometimes I feel like a medieval monk.
Posted by: Trimegistus

As long as I'm in full rage mode, didja see this?

California Kindergarten Teacher Says Her "Anti-Racist" Teaching Entails Telling White 5-Year-Olds To "Be Quiet" And "Take A Back Seat"

https://bit.ly/3xjS0ks

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:03 AM (FVME7)

137 133 For those who have expressed an interest, today in 1944 from my dad's WWII diary:
[/ii]
Posted by: Muldoon at June 05, 2022 10:02 AM (cPDW+)

Muldoon- thanks for sharing. That's got to be fascinating to read his diary.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 10:05 AM (PAisM)

138 107 I was recently reading a history of the Raj, and the author spoke very highly of Kipling's Kim as reflecting how things really were then.

I had never read it, so got a used copy and did so. It's a good book, but the thing that struck me the most was that it was once considered a children's book. I'd venture that most adults couldn't handle it now.
Posted by: Archimedes at June 05, 2022 09:53 AM (ZsR3z)

I remember that my older brother read Kim in middle school. By the time I got there, Kim had been removed for some reason unbeknownst to me.

Posted by: browndog Official Mascot of Team Gizzard at June 05, 2022 10:06 AM (BgMrQ)

139 Finally finished a reread of Miller's A Canticle for Lebowitz. Started another reread of W. Scott's Tales of a Scottish Grandfather: From Bannockburn to Flodden. I seem to be stuck in that lane. Y'all have added a good number of titles to my reading bucket list, but, for whatever reason, I'm being lazy in my selection.

Posted by: Sock Monkey * Ungovernable at June 05, 2022 10:07 AM (WYgPj)

140 Kindle books expiring? I've been buying Kindle books since early on (2010 or thereabouts), and have never had Amazon remove one of my purchases. Even titles no longer available for purchase in the Kindle store are still accessible in my purchases. The publishers don't seem to be as crappy on that issue as film and tv companies. The only case I can remember of Amazon doing that with a book was the 1984 fiasco a little while back.

That said, I tend to keep favorites (Zelazny's short fiction, Sturgeon's short fiction, short fiction by Chekhov, Singer, and others) in print editions too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 10:08 AM (JzDjf)

141 @95 --

Yes, I read "Nine Princes of Amber."

I have a two-volume collection of the first five stories. Picked it up secondhand more than 30 years ago for $5.

The scene to which I referred was Corwin's dealing with a jewelry merchant for polishing powder that Corwin knows to be explosive. As best as I can figure out, it happened between the books.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 05, 2022 10:08 AM (Om/di)

142 I've seen it. Not a comedy. You'd think they'd see the title is wrong for it, but maybe they wanted the audience to think it was.
Saw your post to me on the hobby thread. Thanks, no hurry. I've also run into the doldrums on my writing. I've thought of something new but not sure how to proceed.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022

***
It does have a happy and kind-of-fast ending, but I guess that was the sort of film they thought the audience wanted.

I too have hit the doldrums, as I said. I have a good idea, but don't know who the lead character or narrator should be. James Blish's advice I guess still holds: "Who does the situation hurt the most? That's your lead."

What I do with something new is, I sit down with my More Stories Notes document and just start typing as if talking to myself. Ideas work themselves out as I go, or they fizzle, but the writing of them is crucial.

I submitted one of my SF tales to a contest. Originally I submitted it in Dec., but they bounced it because I'd left my pen name on it; otherwise it fitted their rules. I checked, took off the pen name, and resubmitted. They pay actual money. We shall see what we shall see!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:08 AM (c6xtn)

143 "Stunning and brave" new theory will be the media consensus. Backlash, anyone?
Posted by: CN

Bob Dylan prophesied that A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall. I fear he may be right.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:09 AM (FVME7)

144 For "of," substitute "in."

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 05, 2022 10:10 AM (Om/di)

145 Re perving in 70s SciFi- it was the 70s. And if you are writing speculative fiction where your society is more "advanced" than today there are boundaries that are pushed. Stranger was thought of as a hippie book but it is really, really a product of the 50s in which it was written. Not chaste, exactly, but pretty demure considering.

Posted by: blaster at June 05, 2022 10:10 AM (9otr5)

146 I finished up Carry On, Mr. Bowditch in preparation for teaching a home school course in the fall. Our group follows A Thomas Jefferson Education, with a focus on reading and discussing original source documents.

Bowditch is the kind of book that kids should read if you are interested in the old-fashioned American values of hard work, progress, grit, determination, and faith. Not a woke concept in sight. Highly recommended.

Posted by: Motionview, a National Divorcee at June 05, 2022 10:13 AM (kXamp)

147 @140: "Kindle books expiring? I've been buying Kindle books since early on (2010 or thereabouts), and have never had Amazon remove one of my purchases."

I haven't either (started in 2009), though i've heard about such in the distant past. may have been another unsubstantiated consipiracy theory. the bigger problem might be a battery that won't charge, and even that's not too hard to change

Posted by: yara at June 05, 2022 10:14 AM (hBsVD)

148 OK, folks, think I will sign off and try to relax. Hope you all have a lovely day.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing at June 05, 2022 10:14 AM (2JVJo)

149 40 Those pants are fine. Eye would wear them to give offerings to Osiris.
Posted by: Horus

I Toth they came in a Set with a matching top.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 10:15 AM (kf6Ak)

150 147 @140: "Kindle books expiring? I've been buying Kindle books since early on (2010 or thereabouts), and have never had Amazon remove one of my purchases."

I haven't either (started in 2009), though i've heard about such in the distant past. may have been another unsubstantiated consipiracy theory. the bigger problem might be a battery that won't charge, and even that's not too hard to change
Posted by: yara at June 05, 2022 10:14 AM (hBsVD)

Me either. My only knock against kindle is that they won't automatically update new editions of books you purchased. You have to reach out to Amazon and ask for an update.

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 10:15 AM (PAisM)

151 An actual "Raven Rock" exists at the Greenbrier resort, located in White Sulphur Springs, WV. You can even take a guided tour of the old bunker.

Posted by: PacosMojo at June 05, 2022 10:16 AM (1Fv0G)

152 Re perving in 70s SciFi- it was the 70s. And if you are writing speculative fiction where your society is more "advanced" than today there are boundaries that are pushed. Stranger was thought of as a hippie book but it is really, really a product of the 50s in which it was written. Not chaste, exactly, but pretty demure considering.
Posted by: blaster at June 05, 2022

***
Exactly. Heinlein always was a careful observer of his market. He's said he wrote Stranger in the late '50s, but had to hold off on publishing it until he judged the mores of the reading public had changed enough. He caught it just right, apparently.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:16 AM (c6xtn)

153 I checked, took off the pen name, and resubmitted. They pay actual money. We shall see what we shall see!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:08 AM (c6xtn)

Hope you win! But I'd be leery of having to use my real name. With so many snoops thinking you need to be destroyed if you don't express the right thoughts, I would never put my real name on anything I might get out there. (Not that I ever will, probably crappy writer anyway.)

Did you just have to submit under your name, or will it be published under it too?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 10:16 AM (7bRMQ)

154 > Lots of Louisa May Alcott stories

Old, old memory here. There's a kid's card game called "Authors" that was popular when I was a tyke. It's still around, apparently. It's basically just a Go Fish/Old Maid-type game, but is touted as being "educational", as the cards have famous authors and their works, rather than the normal suits and numbers you'd see on regular cards.

Being the foul-mouthed little bastards that we were, we came up with derogatory nicknames for the authors which we'd use when calling out for a match.

The only one I'm remembering offhand is "Louisa May Shit Ass", I think because (in that edition, at least) her picture was that of a rather sour-faced old woman.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:16 AM (bW8dp)

155 June 5.
Rome is ours. We have it surrounded and occupied.

***

Hannibal is green with envy.
What a great day for your dad!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 10:17 AM (kf6Ak)

156 > As best as I can figure out, it happened between the books.

That scene is definitely in one of the books, though I'm not remembering which one. Possibly it's a flashback in one of the later books.

Corwin has brought some of the jeweler's rouge back to Amber with him, and is using it to polish something (a sword, I think). Gets it too close to the candle, and KABOOM!

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:18 AM (bW8dp)

157 I'm pretty pleased with myself. In my never-ending quest to learn Latin, I bought and read a Latin horror novelle, Vox In Tenebris by Andrew Olimpi. As I was reading, I thought that I wished it weren't quite so easy. Then I came a list of Latin books graded by difficulty and VIT was listed as "advanced intermediate". Advanced intermediate, eh? I'll take that.

Incidentally, a new word I learned reading this is maga, magae meaning witch or sorceress. That's right. MAGA = witch.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:20 AM (FVME7)

158 Anonosaurus Wrecks,,impressive!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 10:20 AM (kf6Ak)

159 Incidentally, a new word I learned reading this is maga, magae meaning witch or sorceress. That's right. MAGA = witch.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:20 AM (FVME7)

I am not a witch.

Posted by: Christine O'Donnell at June 05, 2022 10:21 AM (7bRMQ)

160 > The lead character in that is also the lead in another short story or novella that I've forgotten the title of, so it was a kind of series.

Those stories are in a collection called "My Name is Legion".

The protagonist is a former computer programmer who'd been working on a world-wide computer network that contained data on everybody and everything. He tore up and burned his own punch cards (yeah, this was written a long time ago) before they went into the system, and also set up some unauthorized terminals (one was in a remote weather station in Greenland, as I recall), so he could create new identities for himself at will, then started hiring himself out as a high-end private investigator.

Pretty good stuff.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:22 AM (bW8dp)

161 If Christopher Taylor is lurking, I just finished "Old Habits" and really enjoyed it. I hope we can see more of the Jolrhos universe.

Posted by: Retief at June 05, 2022 10:22 AM (vSlT4)

162 > the over-the-top arms race is just bizarrely fascinating...

"Yes, we will now convert the mass of an entire galaxy into a beam of pure energy, which we will use as a weapon against other galaxies..."

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:23 AM (bW8dp)

163 WOLFUS NO NO NO!!! LION WITCH AND WARDROBE COMES FIRST!!

There's the original publication order, in which LWW is first, and the chronological order, in which MN is first. I VERY STRONGLY recommend reading them in the original publication order. I think LWW loses a ton of its magic if you have already read MN.

(I scrolled down to post this as soon as I saw that comment, so I'm sure someone else has already weighed in)

Original pub order: LWW, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle. Magician's Nephew is chronologically first, and The Horse and His Boy takes place basically during the last chapter of LWW. I don't care when you read Horse, but LWW has GOT to be before Magician's Nephew. It's just GOT to.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at June 05, 2022 10:24 AM (8548M)

164 Gotta walk doggeh
Y'all better be here when I get back!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 10:26 AM (kf6Ak)

165 Thanks again Perfessor for another fine book thread. Also, to all those who make such great recommendations in the comments. I have learned so much from y'all, and collected more books than I have time to read.
Currently reading The Wonderful Country by Tom Lea. Early days of El Paso Texas. Fine writer who was also an excellent artist.
I am not interested in seeing the Robert Mitchum movie until after I finish reading the novel.

Posted by: Glenn John at June 05, 2022 10:26 AM (HKku6)

166 Hope you win! But I'd be leery of having to use my real name. With so many snoops thinking you need to be destroyed if you don't express the right thoughts, I would never put my real name on anything I might get out there. (Not that I ever will, probably crappy writer anyway.)

Did you just have to submit under your name, or will it be published under it too?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022

***
Actually they wanted no name *at all* on the ms. itself, just the title and page number, etc. I submitted it through their website, on which I did enter my name and email address. They'll know whom to contact. This is the Writers of the Future ongoing contest: https://tinyurl.com/yc3tdvdk. Yes, it's the Scientology people, but their money is as green as anybody else's. And I don't bloody care if some fringe nuts scream about my work -- but I'll use a pen name anyway because I think my own is dull.

Don't assume your stuff is crappy, man. We all have to learn as we go. Well, except Robert Heinlein, but even after his first sale to Astounding, he didn't sell every story he wrote at first.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:26 AM (c6xtn)

167 For the writers here: Pen names, why or why not?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (7bRMQ)

168 People not wanting to read or get trapped into multi-volume sets of sci-fi, fantasy or horror? Or they simply don't like fantasy all that much. Roger Zelazny's 'A Night in the Lonesome October' is a well crafted short novel centered on invented ancient rites of Halloween - witty and humorous but not jokey-joke.

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (WvmgE)

169 Jack Cocchiarella
@JDCocchiarella
If you can give up Chick-fil-A for Pride Month, you can give it up for the rest of your life.

-
I had some yesterday and I have pride.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (FVME7)

170 > Question for kindle readers: has there been an instance of a book purchase that just 'expires'? In other words, when you've purchased a book for kindle consumption, does that purchase last forever or is it only available for a given amount of time?

There are regular Kindle books, which don't expire, "Kindle Unlimited" books, which also don't expire, but you can have only so many on your Kindle at once, and (for some books) you can "lend" your Kindle copy to a friend.

I think the last one may have an expiration date.

There are also some books that you can rent for a certain period of time (mostly textbooks), but that's generally made very clear on the book's Amazon page.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (bW8dp)

171 WOLFUS NO NO NO!!! LION WITCH AND WARDROBE COMES FIRST!!

There's the original publication order, in which LWW is first, and the chronological order, in which MN is first. I VERY STRONGLY recommend reading them in the original publication order. I think LWW loses a ton of its magic if you have already read MN.

. . . LWW has GOT to be before Magician's Nephew. It's just GOT to.
Posted by: Mrs. Peel at June 05, 2022

***
So be it!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:28 AM (c6xtn)

172 Humble Bundle has deals for books about Star Trek, schematics and lore and stuff. Also a bundle for books on breaking into the music industry. Two different bundles for crazy people. Also, some tech books, RPG books, and comics as is usuall.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:30 AM (dJ3Nm)

173 This is the Writers of the Future ongoing contest: https://tinyurl.com/yc3tdvdk.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:26 AM (c6xtn)
----
That's still a thing? I have a couple of their anthologies (II and IV). They have some pretty decent stories in there, along with commentary from already published authors.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 10:30 AM (K5n5d)

174 @156 --

Rodrigo, Corwin was polishing a bracelet that he was going to give to Deirdre (not going to check the spelling right now).

I think that happened before he and Eric had the fight that ended with Eric pitching him into medieval Shadow London.

But after his escape from Eric's dungeon, I assume, he dealt with the jeweler for the powder.

It's only one paragraph, and I enjoy how it's written, but it's still a bump for me.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 05, 2022 10:30 AM (Om/di)

175 > Rodrigo, Corwin was polishing a bracelet that he was going to give to Deirdre (not going to check the spelling right now).

Yep, that was it. It was a bracelet.

I need to dig out my omnibus edition and read it again.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:31 AM (bW8dp)

176 Does anyone get malware warnings from any of the badblue domains? All of them are blocked for me and I'm curious as to what the deal is.

I think they're a part of Doug Ross's writing, at least they're linked from his blog.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:32 AM (dJ3Nm)

177 AHLloyd, I always enjoy your insights, and I think the idea of adding something new is important. These days the "something new" is too often a woke perspective, and then other wokies offer pile on works.

BTW, someone from James Madison College is part of Bilderberg. The union maid from my generation, but still.

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 10:33 AM (ONvIw)

178 This is the Writers of the Future ongoing contest: https://tinyurl.com/yc3tdvdk.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022
----
That's still a thing? I have a couple of their anthologies (II and IV). They have some pretty decent stories in there, along with commentary from already published authors.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022

***
Apparently so -- and I'm glad to hear from an unbiased source that they do quality stuff. The story I submitted is like a Heinlein juvenile with some inspiration (credited, sort of) from James Blish's Cities in Flight tales.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:33 AM (c6xtn)

179 > My only knock against kindle is that they won't automatically update new editions of books you purchased.

Sometimes they do.

I noticed just recently that all my Patrick O'Brian books suddenly have new covers.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:34 AM (bW8dp)

180 We had a huge old dictionary from the time I was in kindergarten. The thing weighed a ton and I probably built some five year old muscles picking it up and reading it. Looking back, it makes me think of the descriptions of the Book of Skelos in the Conan stories. No idea where it came from but our house was built just after the Civil War and may have been left behind by the previous owner. That thing helped get me through my first reading of "Treasure Island", circa first grade.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 10:35 AM (7EjX1)

181 Yay! I hope you enjoy them. I just reread the whole series recently myself. (And btw, Magician's Nephew is a favorite - I just think it has too many spoilers for LWW.)

Even at my advanced age, I still (re)read the great classics for children. The Wind in the Willows, for example. And others that aren't as well known, like Nesbit (some of whose characters Lewis name-checks in the first chapter of Magician's Nephew), or Kipling (whom Nesbit regularly name-checks herself).

"No, no," said Badger. "We want to learn 'em - learn' em!"

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at June 05, 2022 10:35 AM (8548M)

182 >>> Jack Cocchiarella
@JDCocchiarella
If you can give up Chick-fil-A for Pride Month, you can give it up for the rest of your life.
-
I had some yesterday and I have pride.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (FVME7)

I hope cfa is ground into the dust by the haters they completely cvcd themselves to.

No chance of that though. I've never seen a spot that didn't have lines wrapped around. I bet you could take any one location that has one and then build another on the other side of the road and they would still be jam-packed. It's a chicken sandwich people! Also in time, they will be the gayest most leftist place in the world. It's what the leftist owners want.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:39 AM (dJ3Nm)

183 Well, off to walk the doggeh and back to work. Have a great day.

Perfessor Squirrel, thanks for another great thread!

Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 10:41 AM (PAisM)

184 Have had Kindle Unlimited books expire, or at least read a number of them not on my carousel

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 10:41 AM (2JoB8)

185 Apparently so -- and I'm glad to hear from an unbiased source that they do quality stuff. The story I submitted is like a Heinlein juvenile with some inspiration (credited, sort of) from James Blish's Cities in Flight tales.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:33 AM (c6xtn)
---
I admit I haven't read my Writers of the Future anthologies in decades. But now I want to reread them again, because I do remember that there were some interesting stories. And fantastic artwork (including art from Will freakin' Eisner and Jack freakin' Kirby!).

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 10:42 AM (K5n5d)

186 Thanks Muldoon !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 10:46 AM (arJlL)

187 Infuriating thread about how the number of school shootings is exaggerated.

https://bit.ly/3PZkK9f

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:47 AM (FVME7)

188 I admit I haven't read my Writers of the Future anthologies in decades. But now I want to reread them again, because I do remember that there were some interesting stories. And fantastic artwork (including art from Will freakin' Eisner and Jack freakin' Kirby!).
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022

***
Well, the Scientology people have money and can bankroll an anthology properly, I guess.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:47 AM (c6xtn)

189 I was lucky to find the Lensman series young, probably about third grade. Loved those books and still enjoy them. They, and the Skylark books, were an interesting counterpoint to the Heinlein juveniles I was reading. And since this was during the early Mercury space program, they fit in well with the news stories all around us. (Astronauts and NASA not withstanding, I never developed a taste for Tang.)

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 10:48 AM (7EjX1)

190 The old kindles have directional-mechanical buttons and a recessed thumb joypad. The next series are dark and unlit. Then come the paperwhites. Those are all pocketbook size. Then come the tablet sizes.

I've three paperwhite kindles - two of those bought at rummage shops for ~$10. Calibre ebook manager with DRM remover ensures ownership rights - my ownership rights.

I've been to a lot of estate sales.. your children may not be as interested in your old musty books as you think they are. 50 cent books .....

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 10:48 AM (WvmgE)

191 To answer JT, a quick online search showed that U.S. flags can be cleaned if they touch the ground but should be destroyed if they become permanently stained.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 10:48 AM (y7DUB)

192 Hannibal is green with envy.
What a great day for your dad!
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion

Speaking of Hannibal, where's da Cannibal ?

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 10:48 AM (arJlL)

193 Nesbit had a hard life. Pretty desperate for love and used poorly by the people around her. I think she would have been happier with a good stable family but probably wouldn't have written as much.

She wrote about the loyalty and fidelity of a family that was almost always out of her grasp.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:48 AM (dJ3Nm)

194 Well, the Scientology people have money and can bankroll an anthology properly, I guess.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 10:47 AM (c6xtn)

Maybe they're just looking for something to add to their canon....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 10:51 AM (7bRMQ)

195 >>> I've three paperwhite kindles - two of those bought at rummage shops for ~$10. Calibre ebook manager with DRM remover ensures ownership rights - my ownership rights.
Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 10:48 AM (WvmgE)

I have pretty bad eyes and a kindle allows you to get a font that works better.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:51 AM (dJ3Nm)

196 To answer JT, a quick online search showed that U.S. flags can be cleaned if they touch the ground but should be destroyed if they become permanently stained.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt

Thank you !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 10:51 AM (arJlL)

197
Started on Judgement in Moscow by Vladimir Bukovsky. Looks to be a very interesting account of how the Bolsheviks funded all kinds of left-wing groups and "socialist" parties. Should put paid to the idea that the CPUSA was a bunch of socially-conscious liberals instead of the Moscow-led lickspittles they really were.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 10:55 AM (/U27+)

198 We didn't have any 'classic' children's books like Wind in the Willows or Winnie-the-Pooh when I was little. No idea why. But discovering them in my 60s, with original illustrations by preference, has been a delight.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 10:55 AM (7EjX1)

199 >>> To answer JT, a quick online search showed that U.S. flags can be cleaned if they touch the ground but should be destroyed if they become permanently stained.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt

Thank you !
Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 10:51 AM (arJlL)

If you live in a city where open burning is difficult the boy scouts and girl scouts would do this for you. At least that's how it was when I was in boy scouts an L ago.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:56 AM (dJ3Nm)

200 *wanders in*

Don't treat writing as art. You are a mercenary that only gets paid once the job is done.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2022 10:58 AM (ETX4h)

201 The ability to adjust font size on the Kindle is reason enough to use it -- I've seen plenty of print titles where the font size is what-were-they-thinking. And it's a lot easier to hold a Kindle PaperWhite or Oasis than something like a print edition of War and Peace, Montaigne's complete essays, or King's 11/22/63; a few minutes with one of those in print form and my hands are begging for mercy. Bezos can be a snake in some areas, but as far as I'm concerned he bought his way into heaven with the Kindle.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 10:58 AM (JzDjf)

202 For the writers here: Pen names, why or why not?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (7bRMQ)
=================
Not a writer but the historical reasons for pen names are still the best: Writers can explore themes and ideas without risking their everyday livelihoods, where those ideas might be not generally welcome (the Federalist Papers) or the bias of the times might not allow those themes to get a fair hearing (the Brontes or George Eliot), or writers might want to experiment in different genres and not have their works compared, or disappoint usual readers who want more of what they love and resent the departure/experiments (pulp writers of any generation, for example).

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 10:58 AM (KrdbI)

203 If you live in a city where open burning is difficult the boy scouts and girl scouts would do this for you. At least that's how it was when I was in boy scouts an L ago.
Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:56 AM (dJ3Nm)
---
One of my students last year is an Eagle Scout. For his service project, he worked with his local VFW to build a "flag retirement box." You could drop off a U.S. flag and the VFW would then dispose of it properly.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 10:59 AM (K5n5d)

204 Should put paid to the idea that the CPUSA was a bunch of socially-conscious liberals instead of the Moscow-led lickspittles they really were.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 10:55 AM (/U27+)
=====================
Didn't the exposure of the Comintern archives a few decades back already accomplish this?

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:00 AM (KrdbI)

205 Absolutely infuriating! Everybody who's anybody was queer! All based on the flimsiest of evidence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (FVME7)

"Flimsiest of evidence" = wishful thinking of perverts seeking to justify their perversions.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:03 AM (Xkrut)

206 As ever, thanks Muldoon for that snippet.

Rome was the first great/world-class city to be liberated/conquered by the Allies in the war.

Yet, the event never received the sort of attention one would think that would merit, at the time.

Something else happened the next day, over in France somewhere, that overshadowed it.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:03 AM (OTzUX)

207 Our local VFW takes in tired flags.

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 11:03 AM (arJlL)

208 And now that I'm a bit fired up. Collecting books is a fine hobby. Thinking one is saving a slice of humanity by shelving hundreds of books? Reread your copy of a Canticle for Lebowitz or Life and Death in Shanghai. Books get burned on the leading edge of revolutions. /preach.off

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 11:04 AM (WvmgE)

209 End o'the morning y'all.

Yeah Buddy.

I just bought and am reading a Michael McConnelly book in his Harry Bosch series. I guess it's the latest one published in 2021 or early 2022, because the main character, Renee Ballard, an LA detective, is always putting on her mask to talk to whomever. Harry Bosch is so far, a secondary character.

This is the fourth book in the Renee Ballard/Harry Bosch series. I got interested because we just finished watching the Bosch series on Netflix.

I need to find and read a couple of McConnelley's earlier books in the Harry Bosch series to get a better gist of his writing. I want to see if his writing is the same or if it has changed over the years. I guess I want to see if his style is formulaic or if he changes the way each book is written.

The reason why is, I've also been reading the Lee Childs Reacher series. Childs seems to have "farmed out" the writing of the Jack Reacher series. I see some other authors writing Reacher novels, almost like Childs has sold "franchises" to other writers to continue the series.

Do other writers do this?

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:04 AM (R5lpX)

210 Not a writer but the historical reasons for pen names are still the best: Writers can explore themes and ideas without risking their everyday livelihoods, where those ideas might be not generally welcome (the Federalist Papers) or the bias of the times might not allow those themes to get a fair hearing (the Brontes or George Eliot), or writers might want to experiment in different genres and not have their works compared, or disappoint usual readers who want more of what they love and resent the departure/experiments (pulp writers of any generation, for example).
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022

***
And the reason that held in Jane Austen's time, and is true again: when members of one sex dominate the publishing world, a writer of the opposite camp may have to use a pen name to get considered at all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:05 AM (c6xtn)

211 Our culture is poorer for the death of paper magazines publishing fiction, those pushing short stories especially.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:05 AM (KrdbI)

212 *wanders in*

Don't treat writing as art. You are a mercenary that only gets paid once the job is done.
Posted by: Anna Puma

!

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 11:06 AM (arJlL)

213 >>> Absolutely infuriating! Everybody who's anybody was queer! All based on the flimsiest of evidence.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 09:55 AM (FVME7)

"Flimsiest of evidence" = wishful thinking of perverts seeking to justify their perversions.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:03 AM (Xkrut)

I have a purple golf shirt.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:06 AM (dJ3Nm)

214 Damn, I once owned Foucault's Pendulum (even got it signed by Eco, who wrote my first name as "Dona" and probably wondered why Americans would name a girl "Lady.") Then it got permanently borrowed out before I read it. I forgot about that until just now. It burns me that I'll have to either go to the library or the used book store to get a copy when I had a signed first edition.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at June 05, 2022 11:06 AM (HabA/)

215 I see some other authors writing Reacher novels, almost like Childs has sold "franchises" to other writers to continue the series.

Do other writers do this?
Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:04 AM (R5lpX)
---
Oh yes! Many different franchises have had multiple authors, especially when the original author has passed on. I think James Patterson does this quite a bit. Tom Clancy is also still publishing books, I think, despite Author Existence Failure...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 11:07 AM (K5n5d)

216 Do young people still like looking through physical atlases? I loved the one that came with our World Book encyclopedia set, late 50s or early 1960s. That probably established my ongoing love of maps and charts.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 11:07 AM (7EjX1)

217 Hiya Donna of the Ampersands !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 11:08 AM (arJlL)

218 Don't treat writing as art. You are a mercenary that only gets paid once the job is done.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2022 10:58 AM (ETX4h)

I agree. Writing's a skill, that's why so few achieve fame and money. It's not easy to learn either. I still have trouble showing not telling.

Some writers complain about "hack" writers selling while their stuff gets rejected time and again. Hack writers know what to write and how to sell it, Artists don't.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:08 AM (7bRMQ)

219 Like Buck Throckmorton, I was fortunate to grow up in a home with ‘lots’ of books.
Everybody in our family became avid readers.

Presently re-reading one I struggled with while in high school. Much better read now.

It was on a list the first day of a literature class, each student to pick one - no repeats allowed,
I said I would take that one because we already had it at home. The teacher said “No one has that…” Well, we did.

“In the First Circle” by Solzhenitsyn

In all of the moves over the years the copy from home can’t be found any longer.
Got the kindle version for less than $2, then my wife found a real paper copy at half price books

Posted by: PMRich at June 05, 2022 11:08 AM (mrX66)

220 Perfessor did you get the vocabulary word I emailed?

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 11:09 AM (vrz2I)

221 Childs seems to have "farmed out" the writing of the Jack Reacher series. I see some other authors writing Reacher novels, almost like Childs has sold "franchises" to other writers to continue the series.

Do other writers do this?
Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022

***
That Patterson guy does it. Lately I have been seeing "James Patterson With So-and-So" bylines on books at Walmart -- so maybe his ghost writers are insisting on credit.

Robert B. Parker had at least 3 series and maybe 4 going. The Spenser series and his Western series that started with Appaloosa are both continuing. Maybe his stories about the small-town Mass. police chief are continuing too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:09 AM (c6xtn)

222 Opinions vary.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 05, 2022 11:09 AM (jYQlA)

223 >>> Some writers complain about "hack" writers selling while their stuff gets rejected time and again. Hack writers know what to write and how to sell it, Artists don't.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:08 AM (7bRMQ)

Wodehouse was definitely a mercenary writer. One I enjoy to no end.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:10 AM (dJ3Nm)

224 I am in the market for a new ereader. I have a Samsung tablet that the late dog stepped on and cracked the screen. I've been nursing it along but it's on its last pixel. I would consider a Kindle but I don't want to give money to Amazon, but the Kindle gets the best reviews. Is there any other dedicated ereader that is epub? Or do I get another Samsung. Both husband and I have Samsung tablets for daily tablet use and love them.

Posted by: Megthered at June 05, 2022 11:10 AM (AdxHD)

225 Good morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 05, 2022 11:11 AM (u82oZ)

226 "There will be days when you will feel utterly alone, unimportant and even worthless...."

Every time i begin to feel like a foolish, stupid useless old man I also think of the family, friends and lovers who accept and love me, warts and all, and celebrate their good taste.

Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:11 AM (4iHoC)

227 Perfessor did you get the vocabulary word I emailed?
Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 11:09 AM (vrz2I)
---
yes, I did. I just haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 11:12 AM (K5n5d)

228 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Posted by: NaCly Dog

BOO !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 11:12 AM (arJlL)

229 Every time i begin to feel like a foolish, stupid useless old man I check to see if I've been Willowed.

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (vrz2I)

230 Should put paid to the idea that the CPUSA was a bunch of socially-conscious liberals instead of the Moscow-led lickspittles they really were.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 10:55 AM (/U27+)
=====================
Didn't the exposure of the Comintern archives a few decades back already accomplish this?
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:00 AM (KrdbI)

The fact rejecting casuistry of commie denial is nearly infinite.

Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (y7DUB)

231 JTB, I picked up (in perfect/new condition) The Historical Atlas of World War II at a Japanese-chain used bookstore up in Orange County recently. $9. I'm guessing that's a bargain but haven't checked. Atlases are fantastic. Friend who was a small publisher for years explained to me why good maps are such a rarity in history books - $$$$. Very expensive compared to every other part of the project.

If Anna is still here, I'll note that right next to the atlas was, to my amazement, a new (obviously) copy of the recently released The Secret Horsepower Race, by Douglas Calum - a history of the fighter engine competition between Germany and the western Allies. At what looked to be full price.

Big door-stop of a book, richly illustrated with photos and diagrams, looked to be an avalanche of info. Aviation motorheads (if such a thing exists) will want to own that one. I was first to reserve it, pre-delivery, in my large public library system here, almost a year ago, still nada. Need to axe the library people what up.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (OTzUX)

232 Perfessor did you get the vocabulary word I emailed?
Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 11:09 AM (vrz2I)
---
yes, I did. I just haven't quite figured out what to do with it yet...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

Be nice !

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (arJlL)

233
"There will be days when you will feel utterly alone, unimportant and even worthless...."

__________

These are days ending in "y".

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (/U27+)

234 Yesterday I cracked open the kindle for the first time in over two weeks (the kindle is for outdoor reading, and the weather was crappy last weekend). I was reading The Keeper Chronicles: Book 3, but when I first sat down, I couldn't remember anything more than that. I could remember the main characters name, where they were in the story, who the side characters were, etc. Fortunately, it all came back after two pages, and I was completely immersed in the story again. It's funny how memory works, sometimes...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (Lhaco)

235 And the reason that held in Jane Austen's time, and is true again: when members of one sex dominate the publishing world, a writer of the opposite camp may have to use a pen name to get considered at all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:05 AM (c6xtn)

You're damn right!

Posted by: Guy Pretending to Be A Purple Haired Pierced and Tattooed Freak Lesbian at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (7bRMQ)

236 Oh yes! Many different franchises have had multiple authors, especially when the original author has passed on. I think James Patterson does this quite a bit. Tom Clancy is also still publishing books, I think, despite Author Existence Failure...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 11:07 AM (K5n5d) *

I knew that Tom Clancy books are continuing to be published by his son with other authors. You an tell because the writing is so different.

Also one of my favorite authors, Louis Lamour, was still being published by his son, Beau, but they were unpublished books and poems by Lamour, found after his death. No one is using his name to write new stuff to trade off of his legacy. Although I think his son did find a couple of unfinished manuscripts and finished them off from his Father's notes.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (R5lpX)

237 "Perfessor" Squirrel

Thank you for that sharing good grade pamphlet. That extends what Deplorable Jay Guiejver posted on one of his science posts.

This will go to a neighborhood teen who wants to be a marine biologist. He has a gift with animals, and we have had some light discussions on what works to excel. I will be mentoring him in the future.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (u82oZ)

238 Opinions vary.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at June 05, 2022 11:09 AM (jYQlA)

I heard that in Aimee Mann's voice.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (dJ3Nm)

239 Corwin has brought some of the jeweler's rouge back to Amber with him, and is using it to polish something (a sword, I think). Gets it too close to the candle, and KABOOM!

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at June 05, 2022 10:18 AM (bW8dp)

Curious. If you were polishing a sword with actual gunpowder, and got too close to the candle, you'd get a flash fire, and singed eyebrows, but no Kaboom! Gunpowder has to be confined for kaboom to happen.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (Q2uxR)

240 Have a great day, everyone.

May your books inform, uplift, and entertain you. Note the Oxford comma.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at June 05, 2022 11:15 AM (u82oZ)

241 I am in the market for a new ereader. I have a Samsung tablet that the late dog stepped on and cracked the screen.

I hope that's not why the dog is "late."

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:16 AM (7bRMQ)

242
Oh yes! Many different franchises have had multiple authors, especially when the original author has passed on.

_________

Victor Appleton II

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:16 AM (/U27+)

243 >>> Curious. If you were polishing a sword with actual gunpowder, and got too close to the candle, you'd get a flash fire, and singed eyebrows, but no Kaboom! Gunpowder has to be confined for kaboom to happen.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (Q2uxR)

Or when the gunpowder is in cereal form.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:17 AM (dJ3Nm)

244 My writing got better, and vastly easier to accomplish, once I stopped trying to work every sentence into cunning metaphors -- once I stopped trying to be fancy. If *good* similes and metaphors come easily to me, or even just sometimes, that's fine. But if I simply tell what happened, not only is it easier on me to get the words out, it's easier on the reader.

I've discovered this truth about writing. If you're having trouble putting something into words on the page, you're probably being too complicated. Simplify!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:17 AM (c6xtn)

245 Gunpowder has to be confined for kaboom to happen.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (Q2uxR)

I will just burn, very energetically.

Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:17 AM (4iHoC)

246 I had some yesterday and I have pride.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, That's AnonosaurX WrX, hater! at June 05, 2022 10:27 AM (FVME7)

I thought we were boycotting Chick-fil-A because the son of the founder went woke in a bad way? Nothing to do with teh buttsecks.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:17 AM (Q2uxR)

247 >>> I am in the market for a new ereader. I have a Samsung tablet that the late dog stepped on and cracked the screen.

I hope that's not why the dog is "late."
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:16 AM (7bRMQ)

Paper whites are good on the eyes. I ditch their software and just use calibre for everything.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:18 AM (dJ3Nm)

248 I'll give you a hint. President Fimbulfambi.

The Great Winter before Ragnarok is called the Fimblewinter.

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 11:18 AM (vrz2I)

249 I have a purple golf shirt.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:06 AM (dJ3Nm)

I've got a pink one...err...melon one.

Posted by: BignJames at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (AwYPR)

250 229 Every time i begin to feel like a foolish, stupid useless old man I check to see if I've been Willowed.

Posted by: fd at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (vrz2I)

And I usually have been.

Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (4iHoC)

251 The gymnastic flip-flops of the CPUSA (and other commie parties) between the first 6 years of Nazi power, and Molotov-Ribbentrop, and then finally Barbarossa, were sort of a heavy clue-bat to any who doubted that the commie parties were anything but an extension of Moscow's will (or, under the circumstances, literally one man's whim).

(to be con't due to pixy restrictions)

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (OTzUX)

252 There was a great little sarcastic song, sung to the melody of "My Darlin' Clementine", by disillusioned leftists following the flip-flop after Molotov-Ribbentrop.

Back in Moscow, in the Kremlin, in the fall of '39
Sat a Russian, and a Prussian, writing out the party line

Oh my darlin', oh my darlin', oh my darlin' party line,
First I lost you, now I've found you, how I love this life of mine

First a Nazi should be shot-sy, then they changed the party line
Now a Nazi's hotsi-totsi, Volga boat men sail the Rhine

(chorus)

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (OTzUX)

253 Also in time, they will be the gayest most leftist place in the world. It's what the leftist owners want.
Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 10:39 AM (dJ3Nm)

Concur. Plus their chicken is crap. People are just too lazy to cook at home so all they know is pickle juiced chicken.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at June 05, 2022 11:20 AM (R/m4+)

254 I knew that Tom Clancy books are continuing to be published by his son with other authors. You an tell because the writing is so different.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:14 AM (R5lpX)
---
In some cases, the original author becomes its own brand. Tom Clancy is a good example of this. Frank Herbert is another (his son Brian has continued to pump out "Dune" novels with co-author Kevin J. Anderson).

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 11:20 AM (K5n5d)

255 It would be nice if that fat fvck George R R R R Martin had some self-discipline with respect to writing, instead of hookers, blow, and Hollywood cocktail parties.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022 11:20 AM (EhABe)

256 249 I have a purple golf shirt.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:06 AM (dJ3Nm)

I've got a pink one...err...melon one.

Posted by: BignJames at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (AwYPR)

My favorite golf shirt for a long time was lavender. A buddy of mine bought it for me. He knew that I'm color blind.

Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:21 AM (4iHoC)

257 have a purple golf shirt.

Posted by: banana Dream at June 05, 2022 11:06 AM (dJ3Nm)

I've got a pink one...err...melon one.
Posted by: BignJames at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (AwYPR) *

I have two "pink" golf shirts, properly called Fuscha and Salmon. Different shades of pink, one kind of bright and the other more subdued.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:21 AM (R5lpX)

258 The fact rejecting casuistry of commie denial is nearly infinite.
Posted by: Captain Hate won't forget Michael Byrd Murdered Ashli Babbitt at June 05, 2022 11:13 AM (y7DUB)
====================
Evil people exist, and will forever take advantage of ignorant but well-meaning people. Machiavelli mentioned something about ignorance and evil, iirc....

Franklin presumably was referring to these problems in his toss-off reply to the questions of his fellow citizens, asking what sort of government we would have.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:21 AM (KrdbI)

259 Terrific thread/post Perfesser! Thank you!

Looking at the library book sale/giveaway, I'm thankful that I wasn't in the area. An addiction...no, wrong word...affinity for books is a burdensome thing. I think more and more these days about massively thinning my library, but it's like parting, it *is* parting with old friends. Not easy to do.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 11:22 AM (S4oWs)

260 44I keep an eye open for the paper versions of Howard's collections. I have a bunch but there are always more. The Delphi collection on Kindle is probably the best of the e-reader versions.
Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 09:22 AM (7EjX1)

I have the Ballantine/Del Rey paperback collection of all of Howard's fantasy works. Conan, Kull, Bran, Kand, even El Borak. They form a pretty complete collection of published work and scraps, with some occasional black and white illustrations to spice things up. I recommend them.

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 05, 2022 11:23 AM (Lhaco)

261 I've got a pink one...err...melon one.
Posted by: BignJames at June 05, 2022 11:19 AM (AwYPR) *

I have two "pink" golf shirts, properly called Fuscha and Salmon. Different shades of pink, one kind of bright and the other more subdued.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:21 AM (R5lpX)

They look great w/charcoal...gray.

Posted by: BignJames at June 05, 2022 11:23 AM (AwYPR)

262 I can attest that the little ones still love being read to and still love the classic stories. It's my favorite part of being a sub, reading to K4 and 5 kids. They really appreciate it if you can put on a good act too, with dramatic voices and expressions.

Although I've found that a few preoccupied with weighty matters. The other day I was reading a book about sea creatures to K4 kids and noticed the little guy in front of me had a puzzled look on his face. He raised his hand and I thought he had a question about sharks or coral reefs. He said "This morning my mom said to my dad 'I really need to shave my legs.' Why does my mom need to shave her legs and not my dad? My dad has lots more hair on his legs than my dad. (Cue chorus of voices: "My mom shaves her legs too!") I almost laughed, but did not want to be derailed into a discussion about body hair so I said he should ask his mom when he went home and resumed reading about sea lions. The aide was laughing in the back of the room and she told me later that he's the kid who always comes out with the completely in left field questions - there's always at least one.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at June 05, 2022 11:23 AM (HabA/)

263 Dumas reputedly hired writing staffs to take plot dictation and produce early drafts for him, I seem to remember. I bet industrial writing has been around for as long as there are books.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:23 AM (KrdbI)

264 No, that's not why he is "the late dog" but it did go through my head. I use calibre as a book management app on my main pc because we don't have paper books in the rv. I have about 3000 books on it and love it but they're all epub. I can strip the drm but aren't Kindle all in the azw format and can't be switched to epub?

Posted by: Megthered at June 05, 2022 11:23 AM (AdxHD)

265 It would be nice if that fat fvck George R R R R Martin had some self-discipline with respect to writing, instead of hookers, blow, and Hollywood cocktail parties.
Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022 11:20 AM (EhABe)
---
George R.R. Martin is one of the most overrated fantasy authors of all time. He's too lazy to finish his own epic fantasy series and basically shits all over the fans that made him famous. The authors that inspired him such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Tad Williams are far superior, if only because they know how to finish a series. (By his own admission, Williams has difficulty writing trilogies, however).

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 11:24 AM (K5n5d)

266 Hi, JT!

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at June 05, 2022 11:24 AM (HabA/)

267 I thought we were boycotting Chick-fil-A because the son of the founder went woke in a bad way? Nothing to do with teh buttsecks.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:17 AM (Q2uxR)

The lines for their stores age usually a block or so long down the street from the entrance. That's why I boycott them.

Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:24 AM (4iHoC)

268 It would be nice if that fat fvck George R R R R Martin had some self-discipline with respect to writing, instead of hookers, blow, and Hollywood cocktail parties.
Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022

***
Once upon a time, about 40 years ago anyway, he still did. Check out his Fevre Dream, a historical (1850s) vampire tale where the vampires are not romantic or erotic -- sort of a "Mark Twain meets Stephen King" story. Not long, but excellent.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:25 AM (c6xtn)

269 Not much for fiction, but I happened to order The Hunt for Red October in its original version - first fiction published by the US Naval Institute, to which I belonged at the time - even before it came out.

It was quite good - first really good fiction for Cold War/military geeks that I'd ever seen - so I passed it around the office (military-related), and everyone loved it. Forget how long it was, but it was amusing, much later (a year?) to see it in bookstores, and of course all the buzz about it. Only time I was way ahead of the curve on something like that.

Somehow I lost that original hardbound copy, in a move most likely.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:25 AM (OTzUX)

270 The only reason Chekhov wrote more than a hundred short stories was he needed to earn a living. Art is not always sacrificed for $$$moloch. Many of those stories are still celebrated. He was one in a billion. Pearl Buck wrote The Good Earth because it came to her as a formed thing clamoring to get out - many later books because she needed money.

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 11:26 AM (WvmgE)

271 I've discovered this truth about writing. If you're having trouble putting something into words on the page, you're probably being too complicated. Simplify!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:17 AM (c6xtn)

I think it's just that I'm not sure how to do it that doesn't sound stupid or not realistic for the way something would be done. I'm stuck on a scene in my novella, I've done what I'm trying to portray, but I can't seem to get it right. I've written two or three times what I want to do, but deleted every attempt and I'm back at zero.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:26 AM (7bRMQ)

272 45 Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonsdawn" recounts the history of the colonization of Pern by humans seeking a more agrarian life with minimal technology at the edge of the populated systems.

.....

This was a one-way trip with no means of evacuating the populace, so they have to cope as best they can. Through some sciffy handwaving, they breed the dragons from native "fire lizards" who incinerate the thread as it drifts down. If you enjoy the Pern series, this backstory explains how their advanced society evolved into one of almost feudal fortresses of the later tales.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at June 05, 2022 09:22 AM (Dc2NZ)

I read that book as a teen: back before the idea of a 'prequel' was sullied. It was interesting. All the place names of the original books were now characters (Bendon is the name I still remember. It also had some swearing and adult stuff that was a bit of a shock, when compared to Dragonsong....

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 05, 2022 11:26 AM (Lhaco)

273 118
Awesome! Thanks for buying it! And if it isn't any trouble, please do leave a review on Amazon. It really helps.
Posted by: Secret Squirrel, author of the military SCI FI series Outward Frontier on AMAZON at June 05, 2022 09:56 AM (PAisM)

Yep, I left reviews for both books.

Posted by: DIY Daddio at June 05, 2022 11:27 AM (RJscS)

274 Hi, JT!
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V

Posted by: JT at June 05, 2022 11:28 AM (arJlL)

275 The lines for their stores age usually a block or so long down the street from the entrance. That's why I boycott them.
Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:24 AM (4iHoC)

I ate at a Cfa once, before the woke kicked in. I was unimpressed. OK, but worth standing in line for. Popeye's is fine for chicken.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:28 AM (Q2uxR)

276 Current reading list hasn't changed much, as I haven't had time to read much. I've taken up again the Moron-recommended 'The Real Abraham Lincoln', and I'll add my own endorsement to that. Finished the Moron-recommended 'The New Dealers War', which was excellent. Those two topics have more in common than most might imagine.

Still working my way through P.D. James novels for bedtime reading. Current is a collection of short stories titled, 'The Mistletoe Murder'. I just happened on to that, unaware that she had written any short stories.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 11:29 AM (S4oWs)

277 Do other writers do this?

Sonerltimes l, not the writers, but the family or other literary heirs. Case offended in proof: tye many Conan stories written after Howard's death.

Posted by: Fox2! at June 05, 2022 11:30 AM (0rU8g)

278 Dumas reputedly hired writing staffs to take plot dictation and produce early drafts for him, I seem to remember. I bet industrial writing has been around for as long as there are books.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:23 AM (KrdbI)

You better believe it. That darn Tullius, he won't stop with the books and letters. My arms are ready to fall off!!

Posted by: Cicero's Book Writer at June 05, 2022 11:31 AM (7bRMQ)

279 I think CFA's downfall is entirely based on the jaw-dropping, histrionic, idiotic narcissism of the heir/owner, who fantasizes about "racism" being a big thing in today's society (narrator: it's not, in fact it only is a factor among this guy's imaginary oppressed victims). Which of course came out during the national self-degradation of 2020.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:32 AM (OTzUX)

280 I think it's just that I'm not sure how to do it that doesn't sound stupid or not realistic for the way something would be done. I'm stuck on a scene in my novella, I've done what I'm trying to portray, but I can't seem to get it right. I've written two or three times what I want to do, but deleted every attempt and I'm back at zero.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022

***
Exactly where I've been -- though less often now that I've found the "simpler usually works" philosophy. Try imagining yourself as a camera, recording what is in front of your lens. That'll help with the "showing, not telling" issue as well. A lot of The Godfather is like that -- showing us how Don Corleone and his family operate, not opining on it, but letting us make our judgment about the criminals they were.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:32 AM (c6xtn)

281 Regarding childhood books, I still have most of mine, and when my eye falls on one, I feel gratitude to my parents for having provided them. The odd thing (perhaps) is that I do not recall having been prompted or encouraged to read...they just fed me books, and I consumed them.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 11:33 AM (S4oWs)

282 "Did [Faulkner] have the same editor as Thomas Wolfe? Maxwell Perkins, I think?"

No, Perkins was at Scribners; Faulkner never published with them. His first two not very good novels were published by Boni and Liveright. His third was published by Harcourt, and his next five with Harrison Smith. Random House was his publisher for the remainder of his life.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 11:33 AM (NwNPz)

283 Popeye's is fine for chicken.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at June 05, 2022 11:28 AM (Q2uxR)

Popeye's is certainly the best of the chains. Their red beans and rice was, as I recall, the best in a town known for the dish.

Posted by: Javems at June 05, 2022 11:33 AM (4iHoC)

284 187 AW - look up how many supposed unarmed Black men are killed by police if you want to see drummed up accounts

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 11:34 AM (2JoB8)

285 No, Perkins was at Scribners; Faulkner never published with them. His first two not very good novels were published by Boni and Liveright. His third was published by Harcourt, and his next five with Harrison Smith. Random House was his publisher for the remainder of his life.
Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022

***
Ah! The name "Boni and Liveright" is familiar -- wasn't that Hemingway's first book publisher? And they may have been the ones who published Dorothy Parker's books of verses. I know I've seen their name in several of the DP biographies.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:35 AM (c6xtn)

286 Exactly where I've been -- though less often now that I've found the "simpler usually works" philosophy. Try imagining yourself as a camera, recording what is in front of your lens. That'll help with the "showing, not telling" issue as well. A lot of The Godfather is like that -- showing us how Don Corleone and his family operate, not opining on it, but letting us make our judgment about the criminals they were.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:32 AM (c6xtn)
---
This sounds like good advice. If you can somehow make it seem "cinematic" this can help you "show" instead of "tell." Clifford Simak wrote amazing western short stories because they feel like you are watching a Clint Eastwood movie in your head.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 11:36 AM (K5n5d)

287 Random memories from reading Pern books in my youth:

Knife duels are far more common among Dragonriders than in real life, or in other fantasy worlds.

I don't remember much of F'Lar and F'Nor's personalities, but part of me want to think of them as Ric Flair (F'Lair) and Arn Anderson (F'Nanderson). I hope I'm remembering those names right, or else that joke is going to fall flat....

There was one stand-alone Pern book about a world-wide Flu pandemic. I wonder how close that book was to what we just went through. (Other than the Pern-Flu being a whole lot deadlier than our recent flu)

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 05, 2022 11:36 AM (Lhaco)

288 Current reading list hasn't changed much, as I haven't had time to read much. I've taken up again the Moron-recommended 'The Real Abraham Lincoln', and I'll add my own endorsement to that....
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 11:29 AM (S4oWs)

So is the "real" Abraham Lincoln the flawed but sincere man who tried to keep a nation united, and to end a terrible institution, or is he the revisionist 21st century failure, because he couldn't prevent other flawed humans from taking federal power and abusing it.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 05, 2022 11:36 AM (NWBBy)

289 260 ... "I have the Ballantine/Del Rey paperback collection of all of Howard's fantasy works. Conan, Kull, Bran, Kand, even El Borak. They form a pretty complete collection of published work and scraps, with some occasional black and white illustrations to spice things up. I recommend them."

Yep! I have several of those. Skull Face, Pigeons From Hell (scary as shit), Wolfshead, and others. Those Ballantine/Del Rey paperbacks in the 1960s were a boon to a young guy's finances.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 11:37 AM (7EjX1)

290
Was the USNI version of Red October any different than the trade published version?

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:37 AM (/U27+)

291 The only reason Chekhov wrote more than a hundred short stories was he needed to earn a living. Art is not always sacrificed for $$$moloch. Many of those stories are still celebrated. He was one in a billion. Pearl Buck... many later books because she needed money.
Posted by: 13times
-------

Dickens also, I believe.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 11:37 AM (R6ndO)

292 This sounds like good advice. If you can somehow make it seem "cinematic" this can help you "show" instead of "tell." Clifford Simak wrote amazing western short stories because they feel like you are watching a Clint Eastwood movie in your head.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022

***
I did not know Simak wrote any Westerns. He was a newspaperman by profession, and I thought mostly wrote SF. His "Big Front Yard" is a classic example of doing a story right. Imagine a film version with Robert Duvall as the lead. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:38 AM (c6xtn)

293 Exactly where I've been -- though less often now that I've found the "simpler usually works" philosophy. Try imagining yourself as a camera, recording what is in front of your lens. That'll help with the "showing, not telling" issue as well. A lot of The Godfather is like that -- showing us how Don Corleone and his family operate, not opining on it, but letting us make our judgment about the criminals they were.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:32 AM (c6xtn)

I'll give it a try. I'm up to over 90 pages, so I might want to get it finished, then review it and see what I missed the first time. I've already some some clipping and rewriting, but I think I'm near the end.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:38 AM (7bRMQ)

294 Rarely eat at such places any more but Popeye's has always had good chicken and sides. Nothing wrong with CFA's food (actually their salads are more notable than their main items), and the staff is like a time-warp trip back to the 1950s (a good thing). Just a shame the heir to the company is such a vapid racist narcissistic idiot.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:38 AM (OTzUX)

295 I think I was 7 or 8 years old when my folks bought me a bunch of The Hardy Boys and Tom Swift books. That's when I got really interested in reading. Before that, if I asked a question about some topic or other, they'd tell me to look it up, either in the huge illustrated dictionary we had, or the set of encyclopedias. I was always reading.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:39 AM (R5lpX)

296 Was the USNI version of Red October any different than the trade published version?
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022

***
Maybe with less lecturing about naval technology, and more actual suspense? (Another good example of a film that is better than its source novel.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:39 AM (c6xtn)

297 Good morning Hordemates.
Some great tips here today. I look forward checking them out.

Posted by: Diogenes at June 05, 2022 11:39 AM (anj39)

298 Hadrian, good question and I have no idea.

Now if I had the *#^$_@!!! original USNI copy, I could check. Damn shame.

Posted by: rhomboid at June 05, 2022 11:40 AM (OTzUX)

299 Gun Control, amirite? That won't create a black market of gun smuggling on the border, right! JFC, idiots!!!

Posted by: Mean Tweets at June 05, 2022 11:40 AM (BOJAx)

300 I've continued my long sojourn through Joseph Ratzinger's (Pope Benedict XVI) book "Faith And Politics". A collection of selected writings and discussions, it is an astounding and pertinent survey of the current political maelstrom. The chapter titles include "The Good Friday Of History", "Truth, Values, And Power", "Jesus And Pilate", and many others. I did skip ahead to read the final section, a debate between then Cardinal Ratzinger (then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) and Paolo Flores d'Arcais, philosopher and editor of "MicroMega". The debate was titled "Does God Exist?"

"Faith And Politics" is essential reading for an insight into the conflict between moral reason and the violent forces of baseless relativism.

Posted by: mrp at June 05, 2022 11:41 AM (6eRlp)

301 Don't treat writing as art. You are a mercenary that only gets paid once the job is done.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2022 10:58 AM (ETX4h)

I agree. Writing's a skill, that's why so few achieve fame and money. It's not easy to learn either. I still have trouble showing not telling.

Some writers complain about "hack" writers selling while their stuff gets rejected time and again. Hack writers know what to write and how to sell it, Artists don't.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 11:08 AM (7bRMQ)
==============
Miles Teller made a limited series for Netflix called 'The Offer", based on Al Ruddy's recollection of making "The Godfather" films.

This was an early theme in the first episode (I only saw two episodes), where Puzo finally gave up on art house writing so he could pay his bills (especially his loan shark), and produced The Godfather.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:41 AM (KrdbI)

302
The only reason Chekhov wrote more than a hundred short stories was he needed to earn a living.

__________

Belloc said he had to stay prolific because his children were always crying out for champagne and jewels.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:42 AM (/U27+)

303 Everybody is experimenting on me.
Stop. Just stop. OK, stop.
Rases voice like that guy in Blazing Saddles.
Stop.

Posted by: humphreyrobot at June 05, 2022 11:43 AM (LSRb3)

304 "Faith And Politics" is essential reading for an insight into the conflict between moral reason and the violent forces of baseless relativism.
Posted by: mrp at June 05, 2022 11:41 AM (6eRlp)
================
I saw The Nihilists open for Pol Pot and the Executioners just last week!

Posted by: Anita Dunn at June 05, 2022 11:43 AM (KrdbI)

305 Steven Pressfield's The Profession also uses a lot of technical explanations but not as much as Clancy. Mainly because he's explaining future weapons . I need to read again as it was published in 2011 and really hit the nail in the head on how future conflicts will be fought.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 11:45 AM (hcR8z)

306 I bet I collected every Hardy Boys and Tom Swift book, as a kid.

Until my mom made me return them to the library, that is.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:45 AM (KrdbI)

307 I saw The Nihilists open for Pol Pot and the Executioners just last week!
Posted by: Anita Dunn at June 05, 2022 11:43 AM (KrdbI *

Wasn't there another band, Hitler's Wife and Stalin's Sons at the same venue?

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:46 AM (R5lpX)

308 MP4 - don't know if you're still here, but I just saw your post @111. (Took time away from the thread for today's crossword). I have long struggled with similar feelings. I just finished reading an oddly titled book (with rather obscure cover art) that was ultimately very enlightening for me. The Tao of Fully Feeling by Pete Walker has truly been a Godsend for me. Perhaps you may find it helpful.

Posted by: Matthew Kant Cipher at June 05, 2022 11:46 AM (kb51C)

309 Per a suggestion from last week's book thread, I have been reading C.S. Lewis' "The Abolition of man."

"We castrate and then bid the geldings be fruitful."

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 11:47 AM (lKAqb)

310 Why o why did I wait until the heat of the day to decide to work in the yard.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:48 AM (R5lpX)

311 If it weren't fur The Hardy Boys, English would be my 3rd language instead of 2nd.

Posted by: humphreyrobot at June 05, 2022 11:48 AM (LSRb3)

312 I bet I collected every Hardy Boys and Tom Swift book, as a kid.

Until my mom made me return them to the library, that is.
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:45 AM (KrdbI)

LOL.

I remember as a grade schooler a series of book called The Happy Hollister's. Does anybody remember those?

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022 11:48 AM (v3I4A)

313 That is what is happening to boys that have no father-figure and a crazy mother.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 11:49 AM (lKAqb)

314 Steven Pressfield has a number of books directed at would be writers which are highly rated.

My favorite one is titled: Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit - and What You Can Do About It

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 11:49 AM (hcR8z)

315 remember as a grade schooler a series of book called The Happy Hollister's. Does anybody remember those?
Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022 11:48 AM (v3I4A) *

No, but I remember The Bobbsey Twins and The Boxcar Kids.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:49 AM (R5lpX)

316 Don't treat writing as art. You are a mercenary that only gets paid once the job is done.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 05, 2022 10:58 AM (ETX4h)

George RRRRRRRR Martin called and said it's also possible to earn a living, not by writing, but by going around the nerd conventions and getting into twatter spats. Says they also feed you all the donuts you can eat at those conventions, so...

Posted by: BurtTC at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (NWBBy)

317 It's kind of funny how popular authors end up financing the lives of their family and friends.

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (WvmgE)

318 Everybody is experimenting on me.
Stop. Just stop. OK, stop.
Rases voice like that guy in Blazing Saddles.
Stop.

Posted by: humphreyrobot at June 05, 2022 11:43 AM (LSRb3)

Shut up, Stella!

Posted by: HF Mudd at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (7bRMQ)

319 Dickens was a dick.

Posted by: SFGoth at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (KAi1n)

320 I remember as a grade schooler a series of book called The Happy Hollister's. Does anybody remember those?
Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022

***
I do! They were well-crafted -- there were a bunch of kids in the family, so nearly every age range of reader from 6 to 12 would have someone to identify with. The only other thing I recall is that, with the subscription, they sent a little wooden book rack to put the books in. I still have it. It houses my complete collection of Ace Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (c6xtn)

321 Finished Missing You by Harlan Coben, a big messy story but lots of fun to read/listen to. Started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Thank you for the Book Thread Perfessor!

Posted by: SuperMayorSuperRonNirenberg-Baby Yoda*s Flying Car Seat Is No Match For Me at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (trzLP)

322 Censorship will hit kids books hard. Would any publisher print the story of Lee's horse Traveller these days? My kids loved this book.

https://tinyurl.com/2x9n2wmw

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (KrdbI)

323 I also remember that the Nancy Drew series was the "Hardy Boys" for girls.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (R5lpX)

324 Not a fan but Stephen King can churn out some books .

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (hcR8z)

325 Dickens was a dick.
Posted by: SFGoth at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (KAi1n)
===============
No question. Could write, though.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:52 AM (KrdbI)

326 It's kind of funny how popular authors end up financing the lives of their family and friends.

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (WvmgE)

Thanks, copyright protections!

Posted by: Greedy Family and Friends of Deceased Authors at June 05, 2022 11:53 AM (7bRMQ)

327 I never read the Tom Swifts, but I did read a lot of the Hardy Boys series. Then I discovered James Bond, the Alfred Hitchcock suspense anthologies, and Rex Stout and Ellery Queen. I left the "young adult" category of those days behind me earlier than most kids, I guess. Things like Narnia and Peter Rabbit and The Wind in the Willows I missed completely.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:53 AM (c6xtn)

328 Censorship will hit kids books hard. Would any publisher print the story of Lee's horse Traveller these days? My kids loved this book.

https://tinyurl.com/2x9n2wmw
Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (KrdbI)

Matt Walsh's children's book was pretty darned popular. Was even the #1 LGBTQRTYUIO book for a while there.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 05, 2022 11:53 AM (NWBBy)

329
Thanks, copyright protections!
Posted by: Greedy Family and Friends of Deceased Authors at June 05, 2022 11:53 AM (7bRMQ)

________

Oh, look! A missing chapter!

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:54 AM (/U27+)

330 Eons since I read Martin, but as I recall Fevre Dream was fun. Ditto The Armageddon Rag, Nightflyers, and a bunch of his short fiction. I've heard good things about his collaboration with Lisa Tuttle, Windhaven, but never got around to it. Have neither read nor watched any of the Game of Thrones stuff.

(If you like horror fiction, you may want to check out Lisa Tuttle's The Dead Hours of Night -- good stuff.)

Another good thread, Perfesser. Thank ya kindly.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 11:55 AM (JzDjf)

331 "I can totally relate to Buck's childhood bookshelves."

I still have mine with all the books except the Grover one with the monster at the end. My brother insisted on having it as it was his companion for over a year in the hospital when he was 4.

Posted by: Reforger at June 05, 2022 11:55 AM (jEhpr)

332 Posted by: Greedy Family and Friends of Deceased Authors at June 05, 2022 11:53 AM (7bRMQ)

________

Oh, look! A missing chapter!
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:54 AM (/U27+)

And revelations that beloved characters were gay the whole time!

Posted by: BurtTC at June 05, 2022 11:55 AM (NWBBy)

333 It's kind of funny how popular authors end up financing the lives of their family and friends.
Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (WvmgE)

Yeah, popular movie stars too.

Posted by: Johnny Depp at June 05, 2022 11:56 AM (v3I4A)

334 Not a fan but Stephen King can churn out some books .
Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022

***
He has. People laugh when I say this, but I think he is the Dickens of our times. Both were very prolific and very popular in their own day, and both liked to perform -- Dickens reading his own works on tour, and King directing at least one film and appearing in cameo roles in others. And I think King's best work will be read in the next generation and maybe beyond.

My idea that Neil Simon is the Shakespeare of our time is a little harder to defend, though. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:56 AM (c6xtn)

335 Oh, look! A missing chapter!
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 05, 2022 11:54 AM (/U27+
===================
Go for the gusto and publish the entire "unfinished new novel"

Posted by: Hemingway and Patrick O'Brian estates at June 05, 2022 11:56 AM (KrdbI)

336 Earliest I remember pouring through books as a young teenager was Louis L'Amour Westerns

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 11:57 AM (2JoB8)

337 "Then it got permanently borrowed out before I read it."

Weary experience has taught me never to lend out a book I want to keep.

When I really want a friend to read a book, I just give it to them.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 11:57 AM (NwNPz)

338 sent a little wooden book rack to put the books in. I still have it. It houses my complete collection of Ace Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:51 AM (c6xtn

I just looked them up. The one in my grade school library were the ones with the red covers - the originals, I think. I remember that they moved into a new house, and they discovered a secret door going to a secret room. I thought that was so cool, lol.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022 11:59 AM (v3I4A)

339 Party 1 rules ( not for public viewing )
Rule # 3859
Destroy any heros.

I think the reading public would love a spy thriller these days.

Posted by: humphreyrobot at June 05, 2022 11:59 AM (LSRb3)

340 I read and liked Stephen King's The Stand, his The Dark Tower series and The Dead Zone. Other than that, I didn't like any of his other books.

As an aside, when I was a lot younger, in my late twenties, early thirties, people would tell me I looked like King. It used to piss my wife off because she said I was a lot better looking than "that idiot", her words, not mine. My wife is from Maine and despised him.

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:59 AM (R5lpX)

341 "It's kind of funny how popular authors end up financing the lives of their family and friends."

While Ted Geisel was alive, he resisted the merchandising.

Once he passed into eternity, his widow wasted no time.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 12:00 PM (lKAqb)

342 Earliest I remember pouring through books as a young teenager was Louis L'Amour Westerns
Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022

***
My boyhood Westerns were the Whitman "Authorized Editions for Young Readers" -- original novels featuring Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Bret Maverick, Matt Dillon, Paladin, and others from TV and movies. I've recently purchased and read a number of them, and they were quite good. You never have the feeling you're being "written down to."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 12:00 PM (c6xtn)

343 I never read the Tom Swifts, but I did read a lot of the Hardy Boys series. Then I discovered James Bond, the Alfred Hitchcock suspense anthologies, and Rex Stout and Ellery Queen. I left the "young adult" category of those days behind me earlier than most kids, I guess. Things like Narnia and Peter Rabbit and The Wind in the Willows I missed completely.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:53 AM (c6xtn)

It's funny, I can't remember what early books I read. I did notice that third book in the top pic. I know we had that one, I remember the color and the old woman at the bottom left. I think I mostly ready encyclopedias. Just don't remember, but I do know I didn't read Tom Swift or Hardy Boys. Encyclopedia Brown and Henry Reed, yes. Maybe other classics too. Have very few, if any, old books from childhood around any more.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 12:00 PM (7bRMQ)

344 My favorite book as a kid is my favorite all time book.

Captains Courageous

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 12:00 PM (hcR8z)

345 So is the "real" Abraham Lincoln the flawed but sincere man who tried to keep a nation united, and to end a terrible institution, or is he the revisionist 21st century failure, because he couldn't prevent other flawed humans from taking federal power and abusing it.
Posted by: BurtTC
-------
I don't think that it be reduced to two such closely defined perspectives. But then, I believe you are asking about the author's perspective, rather than Lincoln, per se.

Elements of both, on the author's part, but he is neither kind nor respectful of Lincoln. That doesn't mean that he isn't honest and objective. To a large degree, the points that he makes are based on well-recorded historical facts. But, those facts have been largely overlooked and diminished in what is/was a near-deification of Lincoln.

The popular, and inculcated, perspective is that Lincoln was the Great Emancipator, when in point of fact Emancipation was simply a useful political ploy, which came at a great cost to the nation.
The same can be said of FDR's Unconditional Surrender policy.
In both cases, it was not, in my opinion, simply a case 'Feet of Clay', but rather the machinations of politically driven men.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 12:01 PM (ym/da)

346 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at June 05, 2022 12:01 PM (2JoB8)

347 I'm stuck on the story I started writing a year ago because the next segment (it's epistolary, but modern epistolary - instead of letters, it's emails, text exchanges, snippets from websites, pages from a character's OneNote notebook, etc.) needs to be a drawing, and I can't draw well enough. I guess the solution is to either describe the drawing so I can eventually commission someone to make it, or to go a different direction with that segment.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at June 05, 2022 12:01 PM (8548M)

348 I've never read any Stephen King stories, because he such an ass. Which (referring to SFGoth's comment on Dickens) might be some evidence he is the Dickens of our time.

Posted by: Huck Follywood, Break The Teachers Unions at June 05, 2022 12:02 PM (KrdbI)

349 I read and liked Stephen King's The Stand, his The Dark Tower series and The Dead Zone. Other than that, I didn't like any of his other books. . . .

Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022

***
Don't forget his "straight" novellas "The Body" and "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption." They became the films Stand By Me and, well, you know the other. It astonishes people who love those films when I tell them he wrote the originals. Not a creeply-crawly in the bunch -- just great storytelling.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 12:02 PM (c6xtn)

350 I tried to read "The Anatomy of Revolution" by Crane Brinton back in the day over the Summer before A.P. U.S. History. It was so hard to read. My vocabulary was shit.

I bought it a few years ago and absolutely loved it. Then I made the mistake of lending it out.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 12:03 PM (lKAqb)

351 Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at June 05, 2022 11:48 AM (v3I4A) *

No, but I remember The Bobbsey Twins and The Boxcar Kids.
Posted by: That Guy What Always Says Yeah Buddy TM at June 05, 2022 11:49 AM (R5lpX)

The Boxcar Children was the first instance I ever noticed of a writer farming out their stories, or of another author taking over a series. The first.....sixteen or so books followed a chronological timeline, and the characters aged from book to book. The older kids of the first books aged out of the series (got real jobs, I assume) while the younger kids aged up and took over the leading roles. Then a new author took over, and started adding books to the middle of the series. As a child that struck me as quite odd. Now its all too familiar...

Posted by: Castle Guy at June 05, 2022 12:03 PM (Lhaco)

352 My idea that Neil Simon is the Shakespeare of our time is a little harder to defend, though. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:56 AM (c6xtn)

Arthur Miller.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at June 05, 2022 12:04 PM (XIJ/X)

353 This is a champion among the daytime threads, isn't it? Only 350-some-odd comments, but it has run for 3 solid hours. Good work.

I need to shave and take a nap; chores to do this afternoon. Stay frosty, all.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 12:05 PM (c6xtn)

354 King's best work will be around for several generations, I think. When he's cookin' he creates sympathetic characters and tells a helluva story. And he's working in a genre with lots of staying power -- you may not find all of Dickens at the local library, but you'll always find A Christmas Carol (a nifty ghost story); Stevenson? -- maybe you can't find The Black Arrow or even Kidnapped, but you'll find Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

Neil Simon as Shakespeare, though? I dunno... not enough tragedies...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 12:06 PM (JzDjf)

355 the missing chapter thing is funny. GRR Martin could easily complete his book series by dying.

HEY GUYZ BOOK FINISHED!
posted by (publisher) 12:00pm

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 12:06 PM (WvmgE)

356 My idea that Neil Simon is the Shakespeare of our time is a little harder to defend, though. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:56 AM (c6xtn)
*
Arthur Miller.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at June 05, 2022

***
I'm not talking quality, but prolific output and popularity. Literary or dramatic quality is something else again!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 12:06 PM (c6xtn)

357 In my gap year (I didn't get into Stanford and I did not have a backup plan) I read a lot. All of the James Bond novels. All of the Horatio Hornblower stuff.

I was burned out at the end of H.S. I was a good student with a good GPA and SAT scores. The time off helping my Dad in his business was good.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 12:06 PM (lKAqb)

358 Neil Simon of "This Time Next Year?"

A weeping Alan Alda?

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 12:07 PM (lKAqb)

359 My idea that Neil Simon is the Shakespeare of our time is a little harder to defend, though. . . .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:56 AM (c6xtn)

Arthur Miller.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at June 05, 2022 12:04 PM (XIJ/X)

Tennessee Williams since Shakespeare was gay you know . /s

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 12:08 PM (hcR8z)

360 My gawd! I saw these words, 'word processor' and I slipped into a time warp back to the '80s.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at June 05, 2022 12:08 PM (BP3/z)

361 I don't think that it be reduced to two such closely defined perspectives. But then, I believe you are asking about the author's perspective, rather than Lincoln, per se.

Elements of both, on the author's part, but he is neither kind nor respectful of Lincoln. That doesn't mean that he isn't honest and objective. To a large degree, the points that he makes are based on well-recorded historical facts. But, those facts have been largely overlooked and diminished in what is/was a near-deification of Lincoln.

The popular, and inculcated, perspective is that Lincoln was the Great Emancipator, when in point of fact Emancipation was simply a useful political ploy, which came at a great cost to the nation.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 12:01 PM (ym/da)

Perhaps this is a discussion for another time. Since the thread is closed now. I think it would be fairly accurate to say the 21st century has not been kind to Lincoln, what with the left having decided he wasn't sufficiently Woke, and many of the smaller government advocates blaming him for what was done with federal power after he died.

Posted by: BurtTC at June 05, 2022 12:08 PM (NWBBy)

362 For my money, the great American tragedy is Robert Anderson's I Never Sang for My Father. YMMV.

And bests to all.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at June 05, 2022 12:10 PM (JzDjf)

363 Lincoln was demonized by the Press. That is evidence he was just the opposite.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 12:11 PM (hcR8z)

364 I bet somewhere is a list of pen names used by just before and during the American Revolution.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:11 PM (kf6Ak)

365 Was a good thread, thanks Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 12:11 PM (7bRMQ)

366 The fair weather book friends ran off with CBD's 'after the book thread' whore post.

GOOD DAY, SIR!

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 12:12 PM (WvmgE)

367 I am amusing myself by thinking up pen names for various genres:
Disturbing and surreal Psychological Thrillers by Luis San Diego

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:13 PM (kf6Ak)

368 I bet somewhere is a list of pen names used by just before and during the American Revolution.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:11 PM (kf6Ak)

I'm sure there is. In fact, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers posts here regularly!!!!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 12:13 PM (7bRMQ)

369 I did not know Simak wrote any Westerns. He was a newspaperman by profession, and I thought mostly wrote SF. His "Big Front Yard" is a classic example of doing a story right. Imagine a film version with Robert Duvall as the lead. . . .
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius at June 05, 2022 11:38 AM (c6xtn)
---
Each of his current short story collections (compiled by his friend and estate executor) contains at least one western. It wasn't his main interest, but he grew up in rural Wisconsin, so it's not terribly surprising he'd dabble in westerns. They are really, really good.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at June 05, 2022 12:14 PM (K5n5d)

370 366 The fair weather book friends ran off with CBD's 'after the book thread' whore post.

GOOD DAY, SIR!
Posted by: 13times

Good! Now we can talk freely about those barbarians. Did you see those pantaloons? *laughs derisively*

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:16 PM (kf6Ak)

371 OrangeEnt, how about pen names used during the Philippine revolution...

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:17 PM (kf6Ak)

372 Dickens was a dick.
Posted by: SFGoth at June 05, 2022 11:50 AM (KAi1n)
===============
No question. Could write, though.
Posted by: Huck Follywood
---------

I meant to send off this link to the Perfesser this week, but did not get around to it. Cartoon, Non Sequitur: https://tinyurl.com/33ub3kac

It's the sign on the desk that got me.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at June 05, 2022 12:18 PM (ENHSe)

373 Silence Dogwood is a great pen name.

Posted by: Anti doesn't matter at June 05, 2022 12:18 PM (hcR8z)

374 With regard to success in college, success there - as in any long-term project - is organization: Organize you day, your week, your semester, your degree.

Step #1 is deciding what you want to accomplish in college. If you don't know, don't go! Instead, work or enlist; and read and think and reflect, until you find your vocation.

Once in school, select your courses. Find out what each course requires, then make up a calendar with deadlines on it, and follow it. Break up big tasks into smaller tasks, each of which can be accomplished in a day or less. At the end of each day, write down what you have to do on the following day; then during the day, check them off as you do them: that gives a feeling of accomplishment, of progress, which is vital to one's mental well-being.

But take time to enjoy the classics on campus: theater, music, film. Those are a big part of of a well-rounded education.

Posted by: Nemo at June 05, 2022 12:19 PM (S6ArX)

375 Haven't studied that topic. You mean 1898 or later?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 12:19 PM (7bRMQ)

376 The Boxcar Children was the first instance I ever noticed of a writer farming out their stories, or of another author taking over a series. The first.....sixteen or so books followed a chronological timeline, and the characters aged from book to book. The older kids of the first books aged out of the series (got real jobs, I assume) while the younger kids aged up and took over the leading roles. Then a new author took over, and started adding books to the middle of the series. As a child that struck me as quite odd. Now its all too familiar...
Posted by: Castle Guy at June 05, 2022 12:03 PM (Lhaco)

That's why I think Rex Stout was wise to keep Nero Wolfe eternally 56 or 57 or so and Archie is always about 30 - it doesn't matter if the year is 1935, 1945 or 1955. The only era in the Nero Wolfe series that really feels off to me are the ones written in the late 60's and early '70's. Stout could pull off having the main characters never age in the 30's, 40's and '50's because social mores in NY didn't shift that much. Archie taking an heiress out for drinks and dancing at the Rainbow Room feels right; Archie confronting an angry feminist in the early 70's does not.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at June 05, 2022 12:21 PM (HabA/)

377 On Memorial Day I took my 8 year old girl to the Pima Air Museum in Tucson. In the 390th Museum on site they had a man named Walter Ram who was an early B-17 crewman who was shot down and captured and made it through the war (obviously). Daughter was impressed. We bought a signed copy of his book "Helno Gal" named after his bomber. The real flattener for me was that you can see his plane in the background of some of the flight scenes in the original Memphis Belle WW2 documentary. And there he was. Coming up on 100 years old.

Posted by: azjaeger at June 05, 2022 12:22 PM (3/XaG)

378 The XO and I want to move out of this huge storage bin we live in. ( We have everything his mother and aunt acquired over their very long lives, everything we acquired in fifty some years of marriage, a few things left from the kids, a few things left from the kids' friends {don't ask}, and half the bookstore.) So we try very hard not to buy physical books if we can help it. Library first, Kindle second, ABE in a real pinch. The Omaha library has a weekly sale of books, mostly donated, some unneeded stuff from their shelves, that I avoid like the plague. I have no doubt at all that I would come home with boxes of books that looked interesting.

Owning a bookstore gives you a different perspective on books. Early in my bookselling career, I learned that publishes printed books faster than I could read, so there was no sense in keeping a book after reading it. My customers had the fifty page rule: if after fifty pages, you still didn't like the book, then give up. For me, due to my first discovery, fifty pages became fifty paragraphs, became fifty words, became almost fifty letters. If you didn't catch my interest in your first sentence, forget it.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I wasn't particularly fond of the '70s the first time around at June 05, 2022 12:23 PM (sjtZ7)

379 vmom. They all rate so looow on the list of notable savages I'd not noticed their choice of clothing (pointedly but casually inspects cuticles).

Posted by: 13times at June 05, 2022 12:25 PM (WvmgE)

380 Except for the fact that Child seems to not want to write books anymore, I always thought it was a genius move to write the Reacher books out of order from the first. That way he avoided the usual pitfall of your action hero ending up being 70 years old while still being popular enough to sell books.

Posted by: azjaeger at June 05, 2022 12:26 PM (3/XaG)

381 "h! The name "Boni and Liveright" is familiar -- wasn't that Hemingway's first book publisher? And they may have been the ones who published Dorothy Parker's books of verses. I know I've seen their name in several of the DP biographies."

Yes, they published Hemingway's "In Our Time." After bankruptcy during the depression, they reorganized as Horace Liveright. That was when they were publishing Parker, who was a favorite of my mother's. I never saw the attraction. Just fir scurrilous fun, a staffer at the Algonquin, where she lived for some years, told me she used to let her dogs poop all over her suite.

Boni and Liveright also published Dreiser, e.e. cummings, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T.S. Eliot, Nathaniel West and...John Reed.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 12:26 PM (NwNPz)

382 OrangeEnt, nevermind, for some reason I had the impression it would be in your knowledgebase

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:29 PM (kf6Ak)

383 OrangeEnt, nevermind, for some reason I had the impression it would be in your knowledgebase

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at June 05, 2022 12:29 PM (kf6Ak)

No, I was just wondering about Horde authors using them, never looked into the usage of them in general.

I have a very weird, wide, shallow knowledge base from A to Z. Came from reading!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 12:32 PM (7bRMQ)

384 Is there any other dedicated ereader that is epub?
Posted by: Megthered at June 05, 2022 11:10 AM (AdxHD)
Kobo uses epub and I love my Ellipsa ereader.
Calibre can convert almost any format to any other format and supports almost every ereader ever made. The programmer originally wrote calibre to support his device that was no longer supported and has kept going with that mentality.

Posted by: gingeroni (central TX) at June 05, 2022 12:36 PM (X7FeU)

385 O'Neill > Miller

Posted by: CN at June 05, 2022 12:36 PM (ONvIw)

386 Nemo - 374 - Dammit! Now you tell me.

Posted by: Mike Hammer's squandered youth at June 05, 2022 12:39 PM (R6ndO)

387 I read Foucault's Pendulum not long after The Name of the Rose, Eco's much better known book. Its incredibly dense and has so many references and is so intricately intertwined a conspiracy that it I found it a difficult read.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 05, 2022 12:42 PM (KZzsI)

388 This week I read The Blue Nile, a historical book about the northern part of the Nile and its various historical epochs, finished The Season of the Hyena, an Egyptian mystery/historical book by PC Doherty, and finished The Mountain of Gold by JD Davies. For some reason this year I am tearing through books much more than usual.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 05, 2022 12:46 PM (KZzsI)

389 Gingeroni
Thanks for the rec. I've had another person recommend the Kobo and they raved about it. I'll check it out.

Posted by: Megthered at June 05, 2022 12:48 PM (AdxHD)

390 " Only 350-some-odd comments"

I takes a while to read them all, making the addition of new comments moderately paced.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 12:51 PM (NwNPz)

391 I takes a while to read them all, making the addition of new comments moderately paced.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 12:51 PM (NwNPz)

Well, new thread up, so posting slowed....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at June 05, 2022 12:52 PM (7bRMQ)

392 "Neil Simon of "This Time Next Year?"
A weeping Alan Alda?"

You mean "Same time, Next Year," by Bernard Slade.
Charles Grodin played the male lead on Broadway, opposite Ellen Burstyn. He was much better than Alda.

Posted by: Brett at June 05, 2022 12:57 PM (NwNPz)

393 Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey You can't just start there. You have to go back and start with the original Sandman Slim

Posted by: Stacy0311 at June 05, 2022 01:01 PM (SqpTW)

394 If you want children's books, I have suggestions: The Newbery Award winners. But only before 1965. The first wife got hold of all of them up to the then day (1990). Before 1965 they are so well written any adult can enjoy them. After they are, well, crap. And of course we know what happened to education about that time.

Posted by: Gordon Scott at June 05, 2022 01:03 PM (Qgkre)

395 I thought that was Neil Simon.

I always enjoyed "The Odd Couple."

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 01:03 PM (lKAqb)

396 I read a Newberry award winner about an Indian (dot, not feather) kid that saved up money (rupees) to buy a book.

I read it in 6th grade, 1966-1967

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at June 05, 2022 01:05 PM (lKAqb)

397 Speaking of books from when we were kids, we had a set of encyclopedias that my parents would get one book at a time at the supermarket. There was a different issue each week. It was all we could afford. I wish I could remember the name. To say they were lacking is an understatement. They were fine for elementary school but I walked to the public library if I had to do any type of research in high school.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at June 05, 2022 01:09 PM (NVtgT)

398 We had a couple of very old copies of those children's books, including Hans Christian Anderson. I don't recall reading them ever, though. Mostly I ran around and played outdoors as a boy.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 05, 2022 01:17 PM (KZzsI)

399 @216 --

JTB --

I love maps and atlases. Have since grade school. Right now, I own three.

Matt Helm, atlases, AoS -- I'd swear we were one mind in two heads.

Possibly.

How do you feel about comic books and blues music?

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 05, 2022 01:44 PM (Om/di)

400 In regard to writers "farming out" their series --

Don Newton (or his publisher) did that with the Executioner books soon after Mack Bolan became John Phoenix and went after terrorists instead of La Cosa Nostra.

It took me a while to realize that the "special thanks" line on the indicia page was a way to credit the real author.

By that time, I was fully immersed in comics, so I abandoned those books with no regrets.

Posted by: Weak Geek at June 05, 2022 01:51 PM (Om/di)

401 Re Mrs Peel @181, about reading the great classics for children as an adult: to my mind it is a mark of a great book for children that it can be reread as an adult with pleasure. Some examples are well known, of course, "The Hobbit", "The Wind in the Willows", the Narnia books (about which I strongly second your recommendation for proper reading order). Some other examples from my reading: the "Greene Knowe" books by L. M. Boston and "The Gammage Cup" by Kendall.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at June 05, 2022 02:26 PM (x8uSI)

402 Posted by: RetSgtRN at June 05, 2022 01:09 PM (NVtgT)

Funk and Wagnall's

Posted by: weirdflunky at June 05, 2022 02:55 PM (cknjq)

403 399 ... "How do you feel about comic books and blues music?"

Hi Week Geek,

Comic books ended for me when they went from 12 to 15 cents and 50 cents for the annuals. My collection did pay for a year of college. I like blues music but it was also fun to perform, rhythm guitar and bass vocals. After hearing Nina Simone doing "God Save the Child" and Ella Fitzgerald performing "Summertime", and Mel Torme (I was lucky to grow up with the Newport Jazz Festival), it wasn't possible not to be a fan. These days, Rhiannon Giddens (Wayfaring Stranger) fills the wishes.

Posted by: JTB at June 05, 2022 03:10 PM (7EjX1)

404 The day that comic books went from 10 cents to 12 cents was my first real experience with inflation. It was shocking. I think I was 8 or 9.

Posted by: Gordon Scott at June 05, 2022 03:56 PM (Qgkre)

405 Comment: The blurb for this book mentions numerous secret bunkers set up around D.C. High-level politicians are supposed to be evacuated to them in the event of an emergency. I can't help but wonder if they are set up like the Vaults in the Fallout franchise. Maybe each one is also a secret experiment on humans (paid for by Fauci's NIH, of course).

I think that's where they rape all the children (when not visiting Epstein Island.

Posted by: Bonnie Blue - no longer playing the game at June 05, 2022 05:53 PM (9qiMu)

406 I read the first two Matt Helm books recently and they were surprisingly smart and thoughtful, and well done. Matt is a very different kind of character, and I wish someone would do those books as films.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at June 05, 2022 11:08 PM (KZzsI)

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Posted by: ancestor at June 07, 2022 07:24 AM (VrWpA)

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