Sunday Morning Book Thread - 04-09-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

HAPPY EASTER!

"The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
Matthew 28:5-7
Posted by: Marcus T at April 09, 2023 08:22 AM (8Voqu)

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. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, hunt down some Easter eggs, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

The pic above is from the Vatican Apostolic Archives, formerly known as the Vatican Secret Archives. They changed the name because "secret" implied that the Vatican was trying to hide something, when in reality it's just a private collection of documents disseminated by the Holy See. It's open to scholars, both religious and secular, though you do have to provide scholarly credentials and gain approval before conducting research. Mostly because these documents are very, very old, going back to the 12th century or so. Naturally, they don't want casual readers damaging the precious documents.

IMPACTFUL BOOKS

Today's topic comes courtesy of JM in Fla/Ill:

Can you recommend books with an *impact* on your life? I want to quit Amazon Audible subscription, but have eight credits to use. I'd like to use them for lasting books rather than, say, the latest Jack Reacher.
Suggestions? Thanks
Posted by: JM in Fla/Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate at April 02, 2023 09:29 AM (i0e4P)

Since today is Easter Sunday, one impactful book would be the Holy Bible. It's arguably the most impactful book ever written.

In my own life, I can quantify books as "impactful" if they have had lasting meaning for me over the years because of what I've taken away from the stories to improve my own life. Many of the most impactful stories come from my adolescence and early adult years, when I was still trying to figure out who I am. In some ways, the books I read during that time shaped my character as much as my own parents and family life did. This includes truly excellent heroic fantasy, such as Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (through Book 6), as well as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

I was in my mid-to-late 20s when 9/11 happened, so that sparked another phase of reading "impactful" books while I struggled to make sense of what occurred that day. I read quite a few of Robert Spencer's books on Islam, as well as Raymond Ibrahim and Walid Phares.

What books have been impactful in your life? Were they impactful due to circumstances or because you were at a certain stage in your life?

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IT PAYS TO INCREASE YOUR FICTIONAL GEOGRAPHY

Little Penwick, RI -- This fictional small town is the setting for Moron Author James Y. Bartlett's Swamp Yankee mystery stories. It's the smallest town in the smallest state. What I enjoyed about this town was how true to life it seemed. Small towns tend to have a lot of common features, such as the fact that everybody knows everyone and there's usually one or two families that cause a bit of trouble. They are also great for small-scale conflicts, where personalities clash as the characters strive towards competing goals. You can also set them just about anywhere. Another feature I enjoyed about Little Penwick was the challenge of trying to pinpoint it's location based on references to local landmarks that exist in the real world.

Yuggoth -- This is H.P. Lovecraft's fictional name for a real place--the dwarf planet Pluto. At the time he wrote his stories, Pluto had only been recently discovered (1930), so it was mostly a mystery to scientists and astronomers. That's no doubt why it captured Lovecraft's imagination. Mars and Venus had already been played out extensively in science fiction, so Pluto was the next great unknown. In Lovecraft's setting, Yuggoth is a hostile location, inhabited by Great Old Ones and a race of fungoid, crustacean-like creatures known as Mi-Go. These creatures like to experiment on humans by extracting human brains and putting them in "brain cylinders." This is just one example of an author taking an existing location and putting his unique stamp on it. Patrick Chiles does something similar with Escape Orbit where his main character travels to another object in the far reaches of the outer solar system. It's a gravitational body that is suspected to exist in real life but has not yet been confirmed or sighted yet. Turns out to be very strange indeed...

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MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Currently reading The End of the World is Just the Beginning, Peter Zeihan, a work of geopolitical nonfiction analysis predicting the imminent collapse of...well, basically, everything: demographics, global trade, stability, peace, you name it.
Oddly satisfying in a sort of, "Well, that pretty much sums it up and I thought so," kind of way.
Posted by: MarkW at April 02, 2023 09:12 AM (rrEnw)

Comment: As has been pointed out numerous times in the comments at AoSHQ, we do seem to be at a significant inflection point in history. Or the future, depending on how you look at it. Technology continues to grow and improve in leaps and bounds. But people continue to disappoint. Tyranny and death are right around the corner for so many, many people in the world. Maybe even us. The forces of Evil seem to have a free hand in the world these days. However, it's always darkest just before the dawn. Hope abides.

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This week, I read The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I thought I was re-reading it--I was certain I had read it when I was a child, but I remembered absolutely nothing of it.
I was also thinking it had been written by Julie Andrews Edwards, so I got to searching. It turns out, the book I was remembering as The Secret Garden (which is a great children's book, by the way) was actually Mandy, by Julie Andrews Edwards.
I suspect JAE borrowed the concept from The Secret Garden, as Mandy is about an orphan girl who finds a secret cottage in the woods, and makes it her own special place.
Now I have to re-read Mandy.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 02, 2023 09:17 AM (OX9vb)

Comment: The Secret Garden has always struck me as one of those books from childhood that everyone fondly remembers. I may have to go and read it myself, just to see what the hype is all about. Fortunately, it's available for free and Project Gutenberg. There are also a number of adaptations for both movies and television, so its popularity has endured across the ages, making it a timeless classic.

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I finished The Other Side of Silence by Philip Kerr. It's 1956 and Bernie Gunter, ex-Berlin detective, is working under an assumed name as a concierge at the Grand Hotel on the French Riviera. He is hired by W. Somerset Maughn to deal with a blackmailer. When the blackmailer turns out to be someone Bernie dealt with during his time on the Eastern Front in Konigsberg, he tells this backstory to Maughn.
A tape made by Russian spy Guy Burgess brings British intelligence into the plot, and Bernie is framed as a Stasi agent. How he gets out of it is quite the tale.
Kerr always writes a good detective story and always sprinkles it with real people and events. In his Author's Notes at the end of the book he writes a paragraph or two about these events or what happened to these people in latter life. Reading this series, one can enjoy a good story as well as learn tidbits of history.
Posted by: Zoltan at April 02, 2023 09:23 AM (sDFJU)

Comment: I often enjoy stories that include real people, even if the story itself would be classified as "science fiction" or "fantasy" or, in this case, "mystery." Authors who do their research get to show off what they've learned and create interesting scenarios for real characters. Maybe events didn't play out in real life quite like they did in the story...or did they?

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Yesterday I finished C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, the first volume of his "Space" trilogy. It's definitely "hard" sci-fi, in a lot of ways better than Star Trek in accepting time/space limitations, dealing with differential gravity, etc.
That being said, it felt very allegorical, which maybe Lewis was aware of because the post script says the next volume will be different.
I should note that I've borrowed all three books from my local library, which speaks well of them. Given ongoing budget constraints and the confiscatory taxes I pay to support the thing, I shall make more use of it in the future.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 02, 2023 09:34 AM (llXky)

Comment: This really is an exceptional series of books, written by a master storyteller. The last book in particular, That Hideous Strength is deeply chilling, particularly given the dark times in which we are now living. But, since this is C.S. Lewis we are talking about, the last book is also quite hopeful. Highly recommended!

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (715 Moron-recommended books so far!)

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

Escape Orbit by Patrick Chiles -- The sequel to Frozen Orbit, Jack Templeton takes a journey even deeper into the outer reaches of the solar system to explore a primordial mystery.

Time's Tapestry Book 2 - Conqueror by Stephen Baxter -- An alternate history of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in A.D. 1066, guided by a mysterious prophecy.

Time's Tapestry Book 3 - Navigator by Stephen Baxter -- An alternate history of Columbus, guided by yet another mysterious prophecy.

Phase Space by Stephen Baxter -- A collection of short stories that tie into Baxter's Manifold series.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Forgotten Realms - The Harpers Book 6 - Crypt of the Shadowking by Mark Anthony -- Caledan Caldorien must save his beloved city from the evil Zhentarim and unravel the mystery behind his shadow-shaping magic.

A Science Fiction Argosy edited by Damon Knight -- I'm almost done with this anthology. I just have one novella by Theodore Sturgeon to go...

Escape Orbit by Patrick Chiles -- Amazon was a day late in delivering this, but I won't hold it against them (this time!). Jack Templeton continues his solo exploration of the outer solar system, discovering a gravitational anomaly where "Planet Nine" is supposed to be. Meanwhile, climate change advocates are moving forward with their plan to block out the sun "to save the planet." Idiots.

The Ghost Dance Judgement by R.S. Belcher -- The weird west as you've never seen it before...

Gloriana: Or the Unfufill'd Queen Being a Romance by Michael Moorcock -- Just started it this morning. Seems to be a love letter to Mervyn Peake, as Moorcock emulates Peake's style and dedicates the book to him.

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding the 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 discussion topics 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 - 04-02-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

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1 no reading this week

Posted by: rhennigantx at April 09, 2023 08:59 AM (BRHaw)

2 Tolle Lege!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at April 09, 2023 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

3 hiya

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 09:00 AM (T4tVD)

4 Tolle Lege
Should be finishing Patrick O'Brian The Yellow Admiral today

Posted by: Skip at April 09, 2023 09:00 AM (xhxe8)

5 BOING!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 09, 2023 09:01 AM (iWOgL)

6 One of the best parts of Sunday mornings, the Book Thread.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 09:01 AM (Angsy)

7 Good morning, me fellow book nerds! Happy Easter!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:02 AM (Dc2NZ)

8 Good morning and happy Easter to my fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at April 09, 2023 09:03 AM (7EjX1)

9 On the audible I would add:

1. 1984
2. Brave New World
3. F451

Between the 3 you may just have better insights into todays happenings.

Posted by: rhennigantx at April 09, 2023 09:04 AM (BRHaw)

10 Happy Easter to all!

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:05 AM (Om/di)

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

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 09:05 AM (T4tVD)

12 The first two-thirds of "Icerigger" cruises along like the ice rafts in the book, but after the triumph over the barbarian raiders (this is no spoiler -- you thought the heroes would lose?), the story hits bumpy patches, and then the reel runs out. It reminds me of old TV shows with individual episodes instead of story arcs. And a few loose ends remain. Primary among these: Somebody was trying to kill the king! Is that to be forgotten?

So the rest of the trilogy needs to be read, but I'll be in no rush to get it.

As for the Deadman Omnibus -- a great character, but if only the stories had been worthy of the art!

Sort of related to books, I see that the Missouri House zeroed out the budget for state libraries over their refusal to pull the porno books out of the kids' section. I applaud the move, but I'm worried about the fate of the MOBIUS inter-library lending system, which I use often. MOBIUS has supplied a lot of books I would otherwise have to do without, including these last two.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:05 AM (Om/di)

13 Gloriana: Or the Unfufill'd Queen Being a Romance by Michael Moorcock -- Just started it this morning. Seems to be a love letter to Mervyn Peake, as Moorcock emulates Peake's style and dedicates the book to him.
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I remember this book. It's an odd one. Not Gormenghast weird, which is a whole new level.

I would heartily recommend Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, but only as a duology. The last book was a bit off its nut, as was Peake himself by that time.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

14 I continued reading the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. I read Prussian Blue, the twelfth book in the series. It's 1956 and Bernie is on the run in France from the Stasi. He's trying to make it to Germany where he can obtain a new identity and blend back in with the general population. In his down moments, he reflects back to a case in 1939 when he helped Martin Bormann solve an assassination at the Berchtesgaden. The case must be solved within a week, before Hitler arrives to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. The pressure is on Bernie both in the present and the past.

Posted by: Zoltan at April 09, 2023 09:09 AM (sDFJU)

15 I've started re-reading all the Leslie Charteris "The Saint" books of which I was an avid reader in my teens and had all the paperbacks. They are very dated now.

Posted by: Ciampino - Rescue Cats are Streaming! https://www.twitch.tv/fayettepurrcy01 at April 09, 2023 09:10 AM (qfLjt)

16 I'm working on Tacitus' Annals at the moment. Then I am going to re-read Epictetus' Discourses and Aurelius' Meditations.

I think those, especially the last two, will be useful mental preparation for the coming shitstorm.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at April 09, 2023 09:10 AM (oINRc)

17 "I am straddling them, trying to wedge them apart. Good God: a New York-New Orleans Democrat Jew fighting it out with a Birmingham Italian Confederate Republican. "Cut it out, goddam it!" I yell at them, straddling both, "You're going to have a stroke!""

--- Dr. Tom More trying to keep the peace, in Walker Percy's "The Thanatos Syndrome", much like a COB on any political thread

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:10 AM (Dc2NZ)

18 Just came back from my first ever sunrise service. It was only a mile away, so I didn't have an excuse not to go. Had a good breakfast, too, and Lent is over so I can eat chocolate again, so yay.

Posted by: Dr. T at April 09, 2023 09:10 AM (tp+tP)

19 To quibble, the Mi-Go travel the void on wings of magnetic force, and extract brains from humans and put them in metal cylinders because the human body cannot survive the passage in space between planets.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:12 AM (xhaym)

20 16 I'm working on Tacitus' Annals at the moment. Then I am going to re-read Epictetus' Discourses and Aurelius' Meditations.

I think those, especially the last two, will be useful mental preparation for the coming shitstorm.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at April 09, 2023 09:10 AM (oINRc)
----

Like Admiral Stockdale's saying, as he's about to crash over Vietnam, that he's about to understand Epictetus for real.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:13 AM (Dc2NZ)

21 Little Penwick sounds like the New England version of my Luna City, Texas series - a small town, with a cast of characters, and all the insanity that only small towns can get away with. There are also the town troublemakers and the established families and institutions. My daughter and I had a lot of fun ourselves, skulling out the town, the residents of it and the various plots that they got involved in.
https://tinyurl.com/mrp7cpvd

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 09, 2023 09:13 AM (xnmPy)

22 Good Sunday morning, horde!

Welcome back to those who took time off for Lent; good on ya, and nice to see you back.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 09:13 AM (OX9vb)

23 Some wisdom from actor, Tim Allen:

Tim Allen @ofctimallen · 18h
Leaks, whistleblowers, crybabies. Everything in a gummie. Adults becoming children, children expected to process adults themes. Lost sheep. No coherent sustained moral compass.

And that's just yesterday.

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at April 09, 2023 09:14 AM (Vwz3I)

24 Thanks to whoever recommended Walker Percy's "The Thanatos Syndrome" many moons ago. I read a lot of genre fiction so it's a pleasure to read a real honest-to-god novel. I'm about halfway in.

After an unfortunate break in his career (caused by drink and a short stint in jail), Dr. Tom More goes back to his Louisiana parish to resume his psychiatry practice. He starts to notice changes in personality and a lack of inhibitions. Somebody is putting additives in the water "for the betterment of citizens and society", and it's perfectly harmless, folks! Like fluoride!

But the charm of the story is Tom's meandering musings on his friends, family, and Louisiana.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:15 AM (Dc2NZ)

25 Happy Easter, readers!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at April 09, 2023 09:16 AM (yu8eA)

26 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:15 AM (Dc2NZ)

I read "Thanatos" several years ago. It was an interesting book, though I found it a hard slog at times, perhaps because it subverts so many stereotypes of American society.

Fair warning: it gets a little creepy toward the end.

Posted by: Dr. T at April 09, 2023 09:17 AM (tp+tP)

27 Happy Easter!

Maybe this is not the kind of "impactful" you're looking for, but Gavin de Beker's "The Gift of Fear" really changed my thinking on personal safety.

Posted by: Lizzy at April 09, 2023 09:17 AM (EdLEa)

28 Like Admiral Stockdale's saying, as he's about to crash over Vietnam, that he's about to understand Epictetus for real.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:13 AM (Dc2NZ

His essay "Courage Under Fire: Testing Epictetus's Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behavior" was assigned to me in 11th grade, and first introduced me to Epictetus and the Stoics.

That was a life-changing English assignment, back before 100% of American public education was toxic garbage.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at April 09, 2023 09:20 AM (oINRc)

29 >>On the audible I would add:

1. 1984
2. Brave New World
3. F451

Between the 3 you may just have better insights into todays happenings.

Atlas Shrugged. It can be a slog at some points, but man, did Ayn Rand understand how Commies think.

Posted by: Lizzy at April 09, 2023 09:20 AM (EdLEa)

30 One particularly impactful book I remember was Ann Landers Talks To Teenagers About Sex. My mother left it atop a pile of clean laundry on the stairs leading up to my bedroom. I never really read it, just flipped through looking for pictures.

I already had a copy of From Aviary to Apiary that a friend had given me, so I knew all about the birds and the bees.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 09:21 AM (ykeLU)

31 Yay Easter Book Thread! My time will be brief as the family is going to the 11 o'clock Mass today (normally I got the vigil on Saturday or the 8 a.m.)

I'm about halfway through the next book in Lewis' "Space" trilogy, which is indeed very different.

Other reading included a download of the Synod of Jerusalem from 1672. This is one of those books scanned to Google or Hathi Trust or whatnot, published in 1899 or thereabouts.

It discusses the remarkable situation that arose when the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople (Cyril Lucaris) decided he wanted to embrace Calvinism - and take the Church with him! He penned a document asserting the truth of Calvinism that was published in Switzerland in 1631, and touched off quite the controversy.

His reign was a turbulent one, and he was deposed four times, always managing to come back, until his enemies convinced the Sultan to have a Janissary strangle him with a bowstring. He was anathematized twice, and the 1672 Synod was the third attack on him, though it mostly focused on attacking Calvinism (that's why an alternate title of their findings is called "Against The Calvinists."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:22 AM (llXky)

32 This weekend's reading is "The Railroading Handbook" compiled by Jeff Wilson.

I don't know why I want to know everything about trains right now. More appropriate when I was ten y.o. but beats the smut and propaganda being pushed today.

I think I'm burned out for now on the Peter Zeihan, Jim Rikards and other similar books, and need a rest on the FUD.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at April 09, 2023 09:23 AM (YXHzG)

33 Have been enjoying "The Grey Man" series by JL Curtis. Read the first two, definitely getting more.

Also read: "Scattered, Smothered and Spellbound: The Battle of Waffle Haus 814" by Kelly Grayson, "The LawDog Files: Revised and Expanded" by LawDog, "Gray War: A Pallas Group Solutions Thriller" by Peter Nealan.

Currently reading "Tower of Silence" by Larry Correia, the fourth book in the "Saga of the Forgotten Warrior" series. You may know this as the "Son of the Black Sword" series.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at April 09, 2023 09:23 AM (nRMeC)

34 Based on the recommendation of a now-forgotten moron I read The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hämäläinen. It's not on a subject I would normally spend much time on, but it was a real eye opener into the development of a new Indian culture after the introduction of the horse. The Comanches were not originally a big power, nor even Plains Indians, but the horse allowed them to adopt a pastoral, nomadic lifestyle built around harvesting bison and selling horses to the Man. There was a complex interaction between the rising Comanche Empire, the declining Mexican / Spanish empire, and the new big dog, the Americans. There were lots of interesting tidbits, but one I found particularly interesting was that the Comanche, being nomadic, didn't farm, and so because they only harvested meat, had a real problem with protein poisoning. They had to deal with other, more agriculturally-based tribes, in order to secure carbohydrates. Unfortunately, this led to a reliance on raiding other peoples, (read pillaging) and slavery for a labor source.

All in all, it was a very interesting look at a vanished world and how its inhabitants coped with the same problems we all do.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:24 AM (eOEVl)

35 My Zoom book club finished Haldemans Forever War. I was shocked that it seemed like a beat for beat rewrite of Starship Troopers with time dilation added in.

So I reread Starship Troopers. And that was a different book than I had remembered! It wasn't nearly as much like FW as I thought. I must have read FW in the past and brain transplanted it as my memory of ST.

I've never had that happen before.

Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 09:24 AM (pwExq)

36 Reading report:
Listened to 3hour and 45 min podcast by James Lindsay on the Queer Gnostic Cult. I figure that counts as a nonfiction book; it certainly felt like one. It's really eye opening for me. It is quite academic in tone btw. I recommend it.
Immediately followed that by starting on The Return of the Gods by Jonathan Cahn, which I am in the middle of. It's written at layman level, but it's also paradigm -shifting.
I feel the two work's reinforce each other and may begin to answer the modern question we are all faced with:
Where the hell are we and why are we in this basket?

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at April 09, 2023 09:24 AM (1ZFKZ)

37 (cont)

I did a blog post on it last week, so if you click on my nic and scroll down you can read more about it.

I have to say that the anathemas are thunderous, some of the best condemnations I've ever read. I actually printed a couple of pages because they're so hard-core.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:24 AM (llXky)

38 "Can you recommend books with an *impact* on your life?"

African Genesis, by Robert Ardrey. Early evolution of humanity.

Posted by: davidt at April 09, 2023 09:25 AM (SYTee)

39 I finished reading A March Upcountry but David Webber and John Ringo, Roger McClintock is the youngest, callow, and unconsidered heir to the Empire of Man, and en route to a backwater planet as a representative for his mother, the Empress, his ship is sabotaged and forced to land on a barely contacted, where he and his body guard have to travel half way around the land in ferocious jungles, filled with voracious predators, contending with eight foot, four armed natives, and catastrophically failing equipment, avoiding capture by units of a neighboring star empire at war with the Empire of Man, with the limiting factor that the local ecology lacks essential nutrients that will kill the entire group, eventually, through deficiency diseases.

Great book, the trilogy turned into a four book series,

I think the name for a trilogy that keeps expanding in unexpected plot directions in volumes beyond three might be best called a "teratology"

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:26 AM (xhaym)

40 My daughter and I had a lot of fun ourselves, skulling out the town, the residents of it and the various plots that they got involved in.
https://tinyurl.com/mrp7cpvd

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 09, 2023 09:13 AM (xnmPy)

The link goes to something I can't access. I was wondering if you make a map of your town to help you keep things straight.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 09:26 AM (Angsy)

41 Let's not bicker and argue over who crucified who. This is a happy occasion!

Posted by: Count de Monet at April 09, 2023 09:27 AM (4I/2K)

42 [They] were the ones who said, “We’re going to be out by Christmas.” And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, “We’re going to be out by Easter.” And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.

This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end–-which you can never afford to lose–-with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

---- Adm. JB Stockdale

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at April 09, 2023 09:27 AM (oINRc)

43 Hey Perfessor- Here's a suggestion for a future book thread topic. Subtitles. The Use and Abuse thereof. When does a subtitle add to a reader's interest in reading a book and when does it detract?

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 09:28 AM (ykeLU)

44 Fiction report: read The Night Country by Melissa Albert
If you like Holly Black you'll like Albert

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at April 09, 2023 09:28 AM (1ZFKZ)

45 Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:06 AM (Dc2NZ)

I had forgotten about Moorcock.
I tried his Elric books back in the 80's but could never get through any of them. I don't remember what it was that turned me off but I intend to find out as now 40 years later my tastes have switched and books I loved I can't even and ones I hated I love.

Didn't read much this week but spent a lot of time trying to organize and rebind an inherited tome of the History of Jackson Michigan from inception up to 1881. 3 inches thick with a paragraph on every resident there. Civil War rosters etc.
When I got it it was in a box in about 80 pieces.

Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 09:28 AM (Cp+Ud)

46 Weak Geek, is this Alan Dean Foster's Icerigger, or is it the one by Moorcock?

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:29 AM (xhaym)

47 With Easter approaching this week I 'organized' (note the single quotes) my reading around renewal and new beginnings. That included some of the Sabbath Poems by Wendell Berry, essays and poems by Malcolm Guite, the Spring story from Brambly Hedge, the opening sections of "Wind in the Willows", Luci Shaw poetry, the intro parts and the final chapters of LOTR. All dealing with appreciation of life and continuity.

It made for some very pleasurable reading and thought.

Posted by: JTB at April 09, 2023 09:29 AM (7EjX1)

48 I really liked Art Arfons, Gabeleck, and Breedlove.

Loved the Green Monster, the story of Arfons. I also like d the Wizard of Oz.

PS Breedlove died this week.

https://tinyurl.com/3kptwaj6

Posted by: rhennigantx at April 09, 2023 09:29 AM (BRHaw)

49 well because forever wars is largely about societal evolution, on these long expedition, star ship troopers is more about a stagnant society, although the follow up films suggests that even a space born empire is exempt from the impact of a continuous war,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 09:30 AM (PXvVL)

50 @46 --

Alan D. Foster.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:30 AM (Om/di)

51 Sara Hoyt recommended this book a year ago, and I just saw her repeat the recommendation on Insty. The book starts with a great premise, gets a little tedious (I was seriously considering stopping reading it at one point), then gets better and better until it hits a superbly emotionally-satisfying resolution.

Cloud-Castles, by Dave Freer

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeper at April 09, 2023 09:31 AM (PiwSw)

52 46 Weak Geek, is this Alan Dean Foster's Icerigger, or is it the one by Moorcock?
Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:29 AM (xhaym)

He said more cock....

Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 09:32 AM (pwExq)

53 Didn't read much this week but spent a lot of time trying to organize and rebind an inherited tome of the History of Jackson Michigan from inception up to 1881. 3 inches thick with a paragraph on every resident there. Civil War rosters etc.
When I got it it was in a box in about 80 pieces.

Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 09:28 AM (Cp+Ud)
---
Before reassembly, scan it. There are probably very few of those left.

There was lots of that sort of thing going on in the late 1800s, and they could often draw upon first-person interviews. Some years ago while doing genealogical research, I found a history of a county in Ohio that had a detail account of one of my ancestor's exploits and gruesome death at the hands of Indians in 1782. Back then, you might have people who had spoken with Revolutionary War veterans or had access to their letters and papers.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:33 AM (llXky)

54 Try "The Lost Universe" by Gene Weltfish. It's about the Pawnee and an interesting view of their life. They did raise crops and traveled after buffalo.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 09, 2023 09:34 AM (u7leW)

55 Life-changing books? There are two. Lord of the Rings and Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy. Both were transformative at crucial points in my life.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:34 AM (llXky)

56 I am reading That Was Then, This Is Now, by Michael Z Williamson, the follow up book to A Long Time From Now

The Cogni show up from the future and ask the US Government to loan them the soldiers that last were accidentally displaced into the interglacial period prior to the Older Dryas to rescue another group of US soldiers that had been lost in time during the same event.
This second group had not fared as well as the first.

I am stuck half way through , and I remember that I got stuck half way through the first one too. I will get back to it, but I am now re-reading Anyone Can Do Anything by Betty McDonald, which is a memoir of trying to survive the Great Depression in Seattle with her family by the woman who wrote The Egg and I

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:34 AM (xhaym)

57 Here's a book you could buy.

Discover Hidden Bible Sexual Freedom: Not Taught in Bible Colleges nor Church by inkaboutit4u inkaboutit4u

The rationale is "The Bible is full of sexual freedom for all people for all times. The only reason you do not see this sexual freedom in the New Testament is because the pagan Roman Empire outlawed polygamy in fear that the Hebrew Jews and Christians would overpopulate and overpower them."

https://amzn.to/3UoGKwM

-
Yeah, boy, those Romans were known for their sexual repression.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 09:35 AM (FVME7)

58 Thank goodness the 24 hr onslaught of rain finally stopped. Just in time for the Easter egg hunt. Happy Easter to all.

Posted by: sidney at April 09, 2023 09:35 AM (hGlnS)

59 Orange Ent @40 - sorry, I can't post the full link, I guess the TinyURL is the problem. But yes, I did have to work out maps of Luna City, and another of the area around, to keep it all straight. Each of the compendium volumes has those maps, and the cast list in the first pages. Just go to Amazon and look for Celia D. Hayes and the Luna City series.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 09, 2023 09:36 AM (xnmPy)

60 Great book, the trilogy turned into a four book series,

I think the name for a trilogy that keeps expanding in unexpected plot directions in volumes beyond three might be best called a "teratology"

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:26 AM (xhaym)
---
Originally, I set out to write the "Man of Destiny trilogy," but my test readers said it needed a fourth book and, upon reflection, I agreed.

I now call it the "Man of Destiny series".

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:36 AM (llXky)

61 Before reassembly, scan it. There are probably very few of those left.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:33 AM (llXky)

I sit here stunned I hadn't considered that.
Thank you and will do.

Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 09:37 AM (Cp+Ud)

62 category error, abounds,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 09:37 AM (PXvVL)

63 Impactful books- People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck
I read it either in my late teens or early twenties. I don't know if it would hold up if I read it now, though.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at April 09, 2023 09:37 AM (1ZFKZ)

64

Every single civilization every single century since recorded history thought that they were at a 'significant inflection point.'

Every. Single. One.

It's always the End of Times. It's always The Apocalypse.

Read some fucking history and get a goddamn clue.

The end of times always turns out to be a bad case of constipation and gas pains; a massive dump, clogged toilet of civilization, and gradual rebuilding inevitably results in the next Great Shining City on the Hill, until it too plugs up and eventually gets Roto-Rootered down the drain...

You know, 'Bad Luck'...

Posted by: Bob Guy at April 09, 2023 09:38 AM (oajh5)

65 Love the 'librarian' glasses on the scolding ostrich. Reminds me of a certain biddy who haunted our local library.

And the 'these pants' are adorable. We have an honorary niece who just turned 25. She would have loved running around in that outfit when she was two or three years old,

Posted by: JTB at April 09, 2023 09:39 AM (7EjX1)

66 Listened to 3hour and 45 min podcast by James Lindsay on the Queer Gnostic Cult.
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at April 09, 2023 09:24 AM (1ZFKZ)

I don't usually listen to podcasts, because of time constraints and tinnitus (I like silence), but the subject sounds interesting, so I searched amazon to see if there are books on the subject.

The results I got for "queer gnostic cult" are disheartening, to say the least. Now I need to find out how to clear my amazon search so that demonic mess doesn't keep popping up.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 09:39 AM (OX9vb)

67 "The only reason you do not see this sexual freedom in the New Testament is because the pagan Roman Empire outlawed polygamy in fear that the Hebrew Jews and Christians would overpopulate and overpower them."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 09:35 AM (FVME7)
---
Ah, part of the "the true teachings were edited but through the power of my Ouija board I can reconstruct it thusly" genre. I find that stuff fascinating in a quirky, stupid way.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:39 AM (llXky)

68 Speaking of self-help books, "Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book" by Walker Percy is really quite excellent.

Spoiler: We cannot really help ourselves. That is why we need God.

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at April 09, 2023 09:41 AM (5u1+1)

69 This past week a King James Bible came into my life. Turns out it has a connection to my house going back to the early 1900s.

Posted by: Eromero at April 09, 2023 09:41 AM (MF3yS)

70 It's always the End of Times. It's always The Apocalypse.

Read some f***ing history and get a g***amn clue.

You seem nice.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:42 AM (eOEVl)

71 Reading Savage Continent by Kreith Lowe . It was recommended here a few weeks ago . Very good and more than a little bit like today's USA. The introduction starts off with Imagine a land and continues no borders, no factories roads and bridges destroyed etc. Sounds like today

Posted by: Smell the Glove at April 09, 2023 09:42 AM (pgsH3)

72 My Dad never gave me the birds and bees talk. Instead, he simply, wordlessly handed me a hardcover book, Guide Book For The Young Man About Town. The Way to More Popularity and Personality for Modern Young Men.

By Norton Hughes Jonathan, copyright 1948 revised edition, with an original copyright of 1938.

Info on how to be a proper gentleman, how much to tip the train's porter for handling your baggage, how to throw "swell brawls", i.e. parties, and a chapter entitled The Gay Young College Man were all fascinating reading for this budding young Count in the mid-'70s.

I gave this book to my beloved son. We laughed.

Posted by: Count de Monet at April 09, 2023 09:42 AM (4I/2K)

73 In the summer of 1963 I was 16 just before my senior year in high school. I never like reading up until the day I discovered Ian Fleming's James Bond series in my local library. I was hooked on books from then on.

Posted by: Zekesmom at April 09, 2023 09:42 AM (Ri1F1)

74 Happy Easter to all at AoSHQ.
He is Risen, He is risen indeed. Headed out to church.

Posted by: TecumsehTea-not a resident troll at April 09, 2023 09:42 AM (BjGT6)

75 Great book, the trilogy turned into a four book series,

I think the name for a trilogy that keeps expanding in unexpected plot directions in volumes beyond three might be best called a "teratology"

Posted by: Kindltot

********

Were you going for 'tetralogy'? Or did you mean that the three book set had mutated into a series. Teratology is the study of things (teratogens) that cause genetic mutations, whereas tetralogy is a tetrad, a set of four.

Interestingly enough, Tetralogy of Fallot is actually a single malformation that leads to the four secondary abnormalities that Fallot described.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 09:43 AM (ykeLU)

76 Ah, part of the "the true teachings were edited but through the power of my Ouija board I can reconstruct it thusly" genre. I find that stuff fascinating in a quirky, stupid way.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:39 AM (llXky)

Yep. Just people looking for a justification for their wants, as always.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 09:44 AM (Zzbjj)

77 @64 --

This brings to mind the poem "Ozymandias":

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!

Carved upon the ruins of a statue.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:44 AM (Om/di)

78
The results I got for "queer gnostic cult" are disheartening, to say the least. Now I need to find out how to clear my amazon search so that demonic mess doesn't keep popping up.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 09:39 AM

I suggest doing searches for 'baby formula' 'diapers' 'breastfeeding' etc just to throw the bastids off track. I have to do that sometimes when the ads for Medicare, hearing aides, diabetic socks, and orthopedic shoes become too annoying.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at April 09, 2023 09:44 AM (enJYY)

79 well Jesus spoke on this in Matthew 24, which is why all these who tell us for sure this is the time, are all wet, no it could be,
which is the larger part of this lesson,

the story of the bible is in part about the rise and fall of kingdom, assyria, persia, babylon, due to corruption and immorality, and similar indicia

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 09:45 AM (PXvVL)

80 corruption and immorality, and similar indicia

Would be an excellent name for a Jesuit rock band.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:46 AM (eOEVl)

81 OrangeEnt: After some URL decoding and digging, and verifying authorship via comments in the reviews, I think I have what Sgt. Mom was trying to link to (I was getting blocked by uBlock Origin's pluging in Firefox too.)

Try this: https://is.gd/rJfmib

Sgt. Mom, please correct me if this isn't the right thing...

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at April 09, 2023 09:46 AM (nRMeC)

82 Every single civilization every single century since recorded history thought that they were at a 'significant inflection point.'

-------

And with few exceptions, all of those civilizations are dead and buried. At some point in their histories, the people saying that were right. It *was* the end of times for them.

And this is our time.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at April 09, 2023 09:47 AM (oINRc)

83 "Thanatos" is the sequel to the excellent "Love in the Ruins."

Posted by: Chatterbox Mouse at April 09, 2023 09:48 AM (5u1+1)

84 Dash My Lacewigs, for one, I find the droning of a podcast drowns out my tinnitus, but . . .

You can find James Lindsay's podast under the ND Tab on his website

https://newdiscourses.com/author/jameslindsay/

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:48 AM (xhaym)

85 And with few exceptions, all of those civilizations are dead and buried. At some point in their histories, the people saying that were right. It *was* the end of times for them.

Right?

Posted by: The Comanche at April 09, 2023 09:48 AM (eOEVl)

86 Deep Fake by Ward Larsen -- Sarah Ridgeway's husband Bryce, a decorated combat veteran and junior congressman, stops a terrorist attack at a fundraiser, and the video of his daring intervention becomes an internet sensation. He's young, well-spoken, and telegenic, and suddenly his name is bandied about for a much higher office. But Sarah has niggling suspicions that something is just off about the man she's known and loved for years.

Good "airport fiction". You know what I mean.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:49 AM (Dc2NZ)

87 actually under the ND Podcast tab at new discourses

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:49 AM (xhaym)

88 You seem nice.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:42 AM (eOEVl)
---
The thing is, the world has ended, many times. The civilization I was born into no longer exists.

For many things it is the end times, which should remind us that all of this is transitory. I'm increasingly strident in pointing out to my kids that all of us are going to be dead a lot longer than we will be alive and it makes sense to do a little bit of preparation for that while we still can.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:49 AM (llXky)

89 Would be an excellent name for a Jesuit rock band.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:46 AM (eOEVl)
---
Not gay enough for the Jesuits.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:50 AM (llXky)

90 It's always the End of Times.

********

"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."

That quote always stuck with me, though I can't remember who in the dickens wrote it...

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 09:50 AM (ykeLU)

91 Book that had an impact on me was Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. I got a copy of the original memographed pages at Powell's in Portland. Carla printed the book herself and mailed it out in sections. Any question you might have about livestock or country living was answered in the book, interspersed with thoughts about her life. I wore my copy out and bought the new printed version to find out how it ended.

I talked to my husband about it and he was able to find me a used, pristine copy of the memographed version, which I have now. If the burning times come, it's a book you'll want to have.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 09, 2023 09:50 AM (u7leW)

92 The thing is, the world has ended, many times. The civilization I was born into no longer exists.

For many things it is the end times, which should remind us that all of this is transitory. I'm increasingly strident in pointing out to my kids that all of us are going to be dead a lot longer than we will be alive and it makes sense to do a little bit of preparation for that while we still can.

Agree. It also helps to be polite while we're here. It doesn't cost much, and we lose a lot of stress and unpleasantness in our lives.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:51 AM (eOEVl)

93 Muldoon, it is a play on words, intentionally wrong. Some trilogies seem to just mutate and grow

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:51 AM (xhaym)

94 Books that have been influential for me. Wow! Where to start?
- LOTR and The Hobbit (of course)
- Treasure Island with Wyeth illustrations, my first 'adult' book read on my own at about 7 years old that let me see the power of novels
- In The House of Tom Bombadil
- Most of the nonfiction of CS Lewis
- Tennyson poetry
- Shakespeare plays and sonnets

These are just a few off the top of my head. It would take days to come up with a comprehensive list.

Posted by: JTB at April 09, 2023 09:52 AM (7EjX1)

95 Just finished "A Conspiracy of Tall Men" by Noah Hawley, and am now into Cuck Hogan's "Gang Land." Highly recommend both.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at April 09, 2023 09:52 AM (KiBMU)

96 The results I got for "queer gnostic cult" are disheartening, to say the least. Now I need to find out how to clear my amazon search so that demonic mess doesn't keep popping up.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 09:39 AM (OX9vb)

It's too late. We have you now. Bwaahaa!

Posted by: The Algorithym at April 09, 2023 09:52 AM (Angsy)

97 Every single civilization every single century since recorded history thought that they were at a 'significant inflection point.'

-
When I was a kid, I thought we were at a significant inflection point brought about by the coming of the Holy Four: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Enlightenment had been achieved. Harmony and understanding. Sympathy and trust abounding. No more falsehoods or derisions. Golden living dreams of visions. Mystic crystal revelation. And the mind's true liberation.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 09:52 AM (FVME7)

98 Not gay enough for the Jesuits.

Heh.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 09:52 AM (eOEVl)

99 researchers think for instance that the 10 plagues and perhaps the parting of the red sea, was the result of the santorini erruption, which in turn inspired atlantis,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 09:53 AM (PXvVL)

100 87 actually under the ND Podcast tab at new discourses
Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 09:49 AM (xhaym)

Thanks--I'll save it for when I drive the hour and back to Mom's house. I'd like to listen to podcasts when I'm working, but I don't multi-task well, and I make errors in my work. Can only listen to instrumental music when I'm working.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 09:53 AM (OX9vb)

101 As in Matthew 24, the world ends with much weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Posted by: Count de Monet at April 09, 2023 09:53 AM (4I/2K)

102 Yep. Just people looking for a justification for their wants, as always.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 09:44 AM (Zzbjj)
---
It's more than that, its a demand that others participate against their will. I do find it amusing that given the amount of "Christian" churches that are all in on the gay thing, there are such strident demands that the remaining ones comply. Look at the renegade German bishops - if they want to be gay, they can cross the street and go the Evangelical Church. It's right there, guys!

I think deep down they know what they are doing is wrong and they figure that if they can silence everyone, maybe those voices will go away. Well, that and the thrill of humiliating their enemies.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:54 AM (llXky)

103 And with few exceptions, all of those civilizations are dead and buried. At some point in their histories, the people saying that were right. It *was* the end of times for them.
And this is our time.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice

Exactly! But it's never as quick or imminent as the soothsayers / MSM/Doom cultist constantly decry. Eventually, out of our ashes will come some other civilization, who will grow, thrive, step on a rake, face plant into a pile of steaming dog shit, and become the compost pile for a further, new civilization. Wash, rinse, repeat.

In the meantime, there is damn good money to be made crying chicken little...

Posted by: Bob Guy at April 09, 2023 09:54 AM (oajh5)

104 Reminds me of that epitaph in "The Silver Chair":

"Though under the earth and throneless now I be,
Yet, while I lived, all Earth was under me."

It also makes me wonder about long gone cultures in Narnia that only get a passing mention. Unless it means Father Time.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 09:54 AM (Dc2NZ)

105 When I was a kid, I thought we were at a significant inflection point brought about by the coming of the Holy Four: John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Enlightenment had been achieved. Harmony and understanding. Sympathy and trust abounding. No more falsehoods or derisions. Golden living dreams of visions. Mystic crystal revelation. And the mind's true liberation.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 09:52 AM (FVME7)

Could it be . . . Aquarius?

Posted by: Church Lady at April 09, 2023 09:55 AM (4I/2K)

106 @97 --

Back when the moon was in the seventh house.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:55 AM (Om/di)

107 "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."

That quote always stuck with me, though I can't remember who in the dickens wrote it...
Posted by: Muldoon

I think it was the Harry Formerly Known As Prince about growing up in the palace.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 09:55 AM (FVME7)

108 considering gnossos means knowledge, but largely the gnostics were about unknowledge, or false belief, they were kept at bay for most of the last two millienia, but they emerged in the 20th century, in the aftermath of the catastrophic wars that sundered europe,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 09:56 AM (PXvVL)

109 I'll have to check out that Swamp Yankee mystery series. Rhode Island is my home state even if I've been gone for almost 50 years. Wonder if I can recognize any of the real places mentioned.

Posted by: JTB at April 09, 2023 09:56 AM (7EjX1)

110 One of the most influential books (2 volumes) I've read was Oswald Spenglers "Decline of the West" originally published in 1912. He fell out of favor because some said he was Fascist- he wasn't, but he did correctly predict their rise. He quite accurately predicted the course of the 20th century, although being European he didn't see that it was Americ that was going to win the great conflict he saw coming.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 09:56 AM (r46W7)

111 I found a translation of The Divine Comedy by Longfellow, on Gutenberg. May just be part of it but looks like a good way to sample it.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 09, 2023 09:57 AM (u7leW)

112 , it is a play on words, intentionally wrong. Some trilogies seem to just mutate and grow
Posted by: Kindltot

*******

Nice. I thought that was what you were going for. It's just that through my career tetralogy of Fallot was a diagnosis that I saw fairly often, so I am very familiar with the word, and my eye caught the spelling you used and it registered as a typo.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 09:57 AM (ykeLU)

113 are they truly Christian, most assuredly not, they are preaching heresy, joel osteen is preaching blanc mange,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 09:58 AM (PXvVL)

114 Grumpy and Recalcitrant @81 - yes, close enough! There are eleven books in the series, and three compendium volumes - eventually to be four.
We're considering wrapping up the series at 12 volumes, for a variety of reasons, chief among them that two of the real-life people who inspired characters have passed away. The main tentpole character is about to marry his girlfriend, and that always takes the wind out of a lot of plot ... and in real time, we're coming up to having to write about the covidiocy, and I just don't want to deal with that plot-killer.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at April 09, 2023 10:00 AM (xnmPy)

115 Spangler laid out a progression for every great civilization (I think he rated us as the 7th so far) - they develop a great culture , then develop a great, motivating religion, which leads to unity of purpose and prosperity, which brings about a great civilization. That civilization then builds a great military and gains a great empire. That is the upswing.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:01 AM (r46W7)

116 *reads Song of Solomon*

*arches eyebrow*

Posted by: Count de Monet at April 09, 2023 10:02 AM (4I/2K)

117 A.H.Lloyd, the world changes all the time and we don't notice it until we do.
The world is always ending and we are always remaking it.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:03 AM (xhaym)

118 The huge nerds at JPL did manage to memorialize Lovecraft by naming a feature on Pluto "Cthulhu Macula." Though the IAU hasn't officially approved that yet, and I bet there are some woke jackoffs with weird hair and pronoun trouble who will try to block it because HPL is "problematic."

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 10:03 AM (QZxDR)

119 I started The Web and the Rock, by Thomas Wolfe. It was published after he died and there are conflicting opinions about the editing. Perkins did not seem to object so neither will I and, as usual, I like the full character studies and Wolfe's examination of family connections and history.

Also still reading Fr Ripperger's Dominion. To be honest, some of the theological sections are more than I expected and I just don't have the background to process them. I like the sections about creating a psychological background that will more readily except evil and lead to bad choices.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:03 AM (Zzbjj)

120 One of the most influential books (2 volumes) I've read was Oswald Spenglers "Decline of the West" originally published in 1912. He fell out of favor because some said he was Fascist- he wasn't, but he did correctly predict their rise.

I"ll bet a significant fraction of those who call him fascist are confusing him with Oswald Mosely.

Posted by: Archimedes at April 09, 2023 10:03 AM (eOEVl)

121 The past two weeks I read Neil Gaimans' American Gods. The premise being that the gods of mythology are slowly dying for lack of worshipers. It was an odd, but enjoyable read.

I also re-read Ray Bradburys' Something Wicked This Way Comes. In most horror stories people are oblivious to the evil around them, but in SWTWC it seems that most of the town folk felt something was wrong.

I also read Alex Ericksons' Death by Coffee. Meh. Don't bother.

Posted by: Ilene Wright at April 09, 2023 10:04 AM (VD8D9)

122 As in Matthew 24, the world ends with much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Posted by: Count de Monet

Paging NGU.....

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 10:05 AM (T4tVD)

123 Storm Watch (a Joe Pickett novel) -- I can't think of a more consistently good series. This latest centers on cryptocurrency, FBI investigation (read: instigation) of so-called insurrectionist groups, and politicians beholden to nefarious powers.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 10:05 AM (Dc2NZ)

124 A.H.Lloyd, the world changes all the time and we don't notice it until we do.
The world is always ending and we are always remaking it.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:03 AM (xhaym)
---
Today I'm reminded of a homily that pointed out that Easter never changes, but we do and that's why each Easter is different. The same is true for the entire liturgical year - we experienced it all before, but never at our current age, with current problems, etc.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:05 AM (llXky)

125 Can only listen to instrumental music when I'm working.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 09:53 AM (OX9vb)

It was a good time when my work let me put Pandora on my work computer!

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:06 AM (xhaym)

126 I continue my tradition of reading multiple books at a time. Including Tricky Business by Dave Barry and Effective Modern C++ by Scott Meyers.

I recently finished the original "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. That did not end the way that I expected.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at April 09, 2023 10:06 AM (iZEhM)

127 it is a play on words, intentionally wrong. Some trilogies seem to just mutate and grow
Posted by: Kindltot

And become Fourogies and Fiveogies....

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 10:07 AM (T4tVD)

128 The downside of civilization is that they all eventually fall into a stage of despotic and authoritian Empire. This occurs after a period of civil wars where the last forms of democratic or republican rule ate extinguished. It is this form of empire that finally leads to the general collapse of civilization, due to the dead weight of its own corruption.

After that, there is a barbaric dark age lasting for centuries, until a New culture and civilization can be born to start the cycle all over again.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:07 AM (r46W7)

129 In case you were wondering, the Over/Under for this week's first mention of Tolkien/LOTR was set at "comment #2". If you bet the "under" you can collect your winnings at the cashier's window.

Hint: Always bet the 'under'.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:07 AM (ykeLU)

130 Then we get to sexogies -- yea mon!

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 10:08 AM (Om/di)

131 I continue my tradition of reading multiple books at a time. Including Tricky Business by Dave Barry and Effective Modern C++ by Scott Meyers.

I recently finished the original "Mistborn" trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. That did not end the way that I expected.
Posted by: Cybersmythe

If you see Dave Barry, tell him I said to write MORE novels !

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 10:08 AM (T4tVD)

132 48 I really liked Art Arfons, Gabeleck, and Breedlove.

Loved the Green Monster, the story of Arfons. I also like d the Wizard of Oz.

PS Breedlove died this week.

https://tinyurl.com/3kptwaj6
Posted by: rhennigantx at April 09, 2023 09:29 AM (BRHaw)

I live about a 5 min drive from Art's shop. Drive by there a couple times a week.

Posted by: Iron Mike Golf A2E6, Easy 6 Titanium Enhanced at April 09, 2023 10:09 AM (8C7+r)

133 The past two weeks I read Neil Gaimans' American Gods. The premise being that the gods of mythology are slowly dying for lack of worshipers.

Posted by: Ilene Wright at April 09, 2023 10:04 AM (VD8D9)

I know the feeling. That Kirk ruined everything!

Posted by: Apollo at April 09, 2023 10:09 AM (Angsy)

134 Also still reading Fr Ripperger's Dominion. To be honest, some of the theological sections are more than I expected and I just don't have the background to process them. I like the sections about creating a psychological background that will more readily except evil and lead to bad choices.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:03 AM (Zzbjj)
---
I've found the Lord of Spirits podcast to be hugely helpful in deepening my understanding of the Bible and theology. One of the things I like best about it is that you can download it and play it back at your leisure. I like to listen to it while I drive.

They follow the Orthodox/Catholic practice of diving into the Old Testament in detail to start each discussion, which you may find helpful.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:09 AM (llXky)

135 PS Breedlove died this week.

So he's dead, Jim ?

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 10:10 AM (T4tVD)

136 In case you were wondering, the Over/Under for this week's first mention of Tolkien/LOTR was set at "comment #2". If you bet the "under" you can collect your winnings at the cashier's window.

Hint: Always bet the 'under'.
Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:07 AM (ykeLU)
---
Strictly speaking, I mentioned it in the original post. However, you are correct that Comment #2 has the first mention in the comments...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:10 AM (BpYfr)

137 I know the feeling. That Kirk ruined everything!
Posted by: Apollo at April 09, 2023 10:09 AM (Angsy)
---
It is possible to make a comeback...

Posted by: OM at April 09, 2023 10:11 AM (BpYfr)

138 I found a translation of The Divine Comedy by Longfellow, on Gutenberg. May just be part of it but looks like a good way to sample it.
Posted by: Notsothoreau

An impactful book for me was All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren which I view as a contemporary Divine Comedy. Well, 1946 is almost contemporary.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:11 AM (FVME7)

139 true, but Jesus lesson is about being vigilent for such a time, of course over the span of time the Christians were persecuted, then became the basis for a regime, and in this last cycle, are being persecuted again,

the Jews were persecuted (that's a constant) then they set up a state in Israel, and now there is a new exodus from Europe, re Jeremiah 12

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 10:11 AM (PXvVL)

140 In case you were wondering, the Over/Under for this week's first mention of Tolkien/LOTR was set at "comment #2". If you bet the "under" you can collect your winnings at the cashier's window.

Hint: Always bet the 'under'.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:07 AM (ykeLU)
---
Waugh is trickier. We've had threads were he just sneaks in at the end, but he always makes it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:11 AM (llXky)

141 I think deep down they know what they are doing is wrong and they figure that if they can silence everyone, maybe those voices will go away. Well, that and the thrill of humiliating their enemies.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 09:54 AM (llXky)

Maybe they suspect that but the idea of "hate the sin, but love the sinner" seems to be lost. The idea that there are some "hidden" scriptures that say "do what you want", seems too convenient and too harmful.

One of the things I like most in Ripperger's book, because of course I do, is the idea that there is a distinct difference between bad behavior (including the philosophy behind it) and mental illness, and that attributing evil to illness is incorrect. People do a lot of that these days.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:12 AM (Zzbjj)

142 it is a play on words, intentionally wrong. Some trilogies seem to just mutate and grow
Posted by: Kindltot
---
"Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (BpYfr)

143 Strictly speaking, I mentioned it in the original post.

*******

Yours was the one I meant. I didn't even realize @2 mentioned it, I was just picking a ridiculously low cutoff for the over/under. I guess that's what I get for being a perennial smart ass.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (ykeLU)

144 Jeremiah 12, but especially Ezekiel 37.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (r46W7)

145 "Mere Christianity" was maybe the second most influential book in my life, because it led me directly to the first most influential.
On the flip side, a little booklet entitled "Principles of Personal Defense" by Col. Jeff Cooper convinced little Pablo that keeping one's head on a swivel at all times is a good idea. It's probably why I have what some people would call a paranoiac's level of situational awareness.

Posted by: PabloD at April 09, 2023 10:15 AM (ffPN2)

146 The past two weeks I read Neil Gaimans' American Gods. The premise being that the gods of mythology are slowly dying for lack of worshipers. It was an odd, but enjoyable read.

Posted by: Ilene Wright at April 09, 2023 10:04 AM (VD8D9)
---
If you use the spiritual warfare lens, they're actually demons and still around. Right now the Enemy is making a big play. The signs are everywhere.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:15 AM (llXky)

147 You guys talking trilogies?

Posted by: Karen Black at April 09, 2023 10:15 AM (4I/2K)

148 Impactful books.

In college in the late 90s I took a "Religion and Science" course. Everyone thought it was going to be religion VS. science, and while some of the reading definitely had Darwin and Dawkins, that wasn't really the point.

It was a hard course, TONS of reading and writing and explaining, but one of the best dang courses outside of my majors that I took. I sold most of my textbooks back to the bookstore after every semester, but I kept most of rhe books for this class.

One of the books on the syllabus that I still recommend to people is "Quarks, Chaos, and Christianity" by John Polkinghorne. It's not super long, but written very well.

Posted by: reason at April 09, 2023 10:15 AM (0mN7F)

149 "Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (BpYfr)
---
See also, Dune, interminable abuse of.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:15 AM (llXky)

150 I...am...KIROK!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at April 09, 2023 10:16 AM (Dc2NZ)

151 Waugh is trickier. We've had threads were he just sneaks in at the end, but he always makes it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:11 AM (llXky)

He's probably in more, but people think it's just Charlie Brown's teacher.

waugh waugh, waugh waugh waugh....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 10:16 AM (Angsy)

152 Robert A. Heinlein.

All of it, but especially his "juveniles."

The first book I remember being excited about reading was "Red Planet", but my two all-time favorites are "Starship Troopers" and "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress." After that, most impactful was Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings."

After getting hooked on science fiction, I would go to the library and haul down any book published by Avalon, because there would be a list of their books on the back cover, and I'd seek them out to borrow. Some of them were duds, but a lot of them were pretty darn good.

Good times!

Posted by: tankascribe at April 09, 2023 10:16 AM (J7dli)

153 The downside of civilization is that they all eventually fall into a stage of despotic and authoritian Empire. This occurs after a period of civil wars where the last forms of democratic or republican rule ate extinguished. It is this form of empire that finally leads to the general collapse of civilization, due to the dead weight of its own corruption.

-
That's the basic theme of I, Claudius and its sequel, Claudius the God. Claudius wants to restore the republic but finds that it's impossible, becomes embittered, and eventually welcomes death at his wife's hands.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:17 AM (FVME7)

154 "Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (BpYfr)

That's just crazy talk.

Posted by: Brian Herbert at April 09, 2023 10:18 AM (PiwSw)

155 How long before all Christian and Jewish holidays are disappeared? Universities are at the tip of this spear, already calling terms like "Christmas tree," in that passive-aggressive way they go about their programs, "problematic."

Posted by: Mr Gaga at April 09, 2023 10:18 AM (KiBMU)

156 The downside of civilization is that they all eventually fall into a stage of despotic and authoritian Empire. This occurs after a period of civil wars where the last forms of democratic or republican rule ate extinguished. It is this form of empire that finally leads to the general collapse of civilization, due to the dead weight of its own corruption.

After that, there is a barbaric dark age lasting for centuries, until a New culture and civilization can be born to start the cycle all over again.
Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:07 AM (r46W7)

This is the business cycle model of Empire, then?

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:18 AM (xhaym)

157 "Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.

*******

Then it becomes a sesquipidilogy.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:18 AM (ykeLU)

158 well the Dune universe is rather vast, i mean it covers thousands of years, the rise and fall of a great empire,
that the herbert spawn and kevin anderson handled it poorly
well thats a given,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 10:18 AM (PXvVL)

159 Alcoholics Anonymous
It saved my life.

Posted by: Cuttingtom at April 09, 2023 10:19 AM (GHfIe)

160 One of the things I like most in Ripperger's book, because of course I do, is the idea that there is a distinct difference between bad behavior (including the philosophy behind it) and mental illness, and that attributing evil to illness is incorrect. People do a lot of that these days.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:12 AM (Zzbjj)
---
There's also a sense that temptation can't be resisted and we shouldn't try. The whole point of the German bishops and heretics like James Martin is that sexual desire should be accommodated rather than controlled. People who feel homosexual attraction simply can't be expected to not act upon it. Well if that's the case, what about married men? If they're really turned on by a woman they meet, is adultery now okay? It's bizarre.

Or demonic. Let's go with that.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:20 AM (llXky)

161 "hate the sin, but love the sinner"

-
Yeahhhhhh!

Posted by: New Episcopalian Progressive Priest at April 09, 2023 10:21 AM (FVME7)

162 My admittedly odd choice for an influential book in my life is Lilith by George Macdonald because it was the first step toward restored faith.

Posted by: That Northern skulker at April 09, 2023 10:21 AM (eGTCV)

163 "Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.

*******

Then it becomes a sesquipidilogy.
Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:18 AM (ykeLU)

+1 The things one learns every week on this erudite book thread.

Posted by: Count de Monet at April 09, 2023 10:21 AM (4I/2K)

164 The most impactful non biblical book I have read is probably Atlas Shrugged. It changed the trajectory of my life. I always opposed socialism, even as a youth, but that book showed how it could be introduced here like a virus.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:22 AM (88Syn)

165 "Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (BpYfr)

And at some point the author has to keep making more exciting books and winds up splitting the Earth in half or something similar

I think Pratchett had the best approach to it, keep the universe and keep putting new characters up as the central character.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:22 AM (xhaym)

166 --pardon one last plugola for this--

David ben Abner reporting for Jerusalem Networks:
"There's PANDEMONIUM in Jerusalem this morning! Rumors are flying that Jesus of Nazareth is ALIVE!"

The Jerusalem Report
(7-page cartoon webwork from 2013)
http://bit.ly/ride-into-jeru
___
Click nic for a sample panel of the comic. (Two brothers based on painting by Gari Melcher
https://bit.ly/melcher-2-brothers )

Posted by: mindful webworker - He broke bread with us! at April 09, 2023 10:23 AM (Rh79N)

167 I am going to make a statement contrary to what most of you are saying. There is no single book or books that have impacted my life. It is reading that has impacted my life. I read everything. As far back as I can remember, there were always books, magazines, newspapers, cereal,boxes. If it had writing on it , I read it. I had to get written permission to take adult books out of the library because kids books were too short. Think I was 7. I read very fast so I consumed books. I am envious of those of you who remember stuff. It's unusual if I remember the name of the main character when I finish a book. I can tell you the story but the unimportant stuff just drifts away.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (Y+l9t)

168 I guess that's what I get for being a perennial smart ass.
Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (ykeLU)

Better than being a perenial dumb ass.
*slinks away*

And Mr. A.H. Lloyd, I checked on my Jackson County book and it's already scanned into the internet archive. Which is a cool discovery as now I don't have to thumb through delicate copy anymore.
I'm doing some research on the River Rasin massacre right now so thank you for that.

Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (JqiVl)

169 How long before all Christian and Jewish holidays are disappeared?

-
And what's the deal with "Easter Monday" that shows up on my phone's calendar as a holiday?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (FVME7)

170 well james martin knows nothing about christianity, but this was the world in the time of judges wasn't it,
'do what that though wilt' isn't that the commandment of the wiccans, which are fine in this day and age,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (PXvVL)

171 Alcoholics Anonymous
It saved my life.
Posted by: Cuttingtom at April 09, 2023 10:19 AM (GHfIe)

True dat!

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 10:25 AM (BdMk6)

172 Or demonic. Let's go with that.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:20 AM (llXky)

Yeah. So it's very nice to read someone who sees that sort of teaching as totally wrong. The word "heresy" is underused.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:26 AM (Zzbjj)

173 Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (BpYfr)

And at some point the author has to keep making more exciting books and winds up splitting the Earth in half or something similar

I think Pratchett had the best approach to it, keep the universe and keep putting new characters up as the central character.
Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:22 AM (xhaym)
---
This is a good point. Popular authors often find workarounds that let them continue writing in their worlds, either by making standalone novels using the same characters (like Pratchett does) or by making series after series (like Raymond E. Feist and Terry Brooks) set in the same world, which allows them to expand their worldbuilding and maintain reader interest.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:26 AM (BpYfr)

174 It's unusual if I remember the name of the main character when I finish a book. I can tell you the story but the unimportant stuff just drifts away.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (Y+l9t)

I'm similar--if it's a really good book, I'll remember for a while, but it does fade. I like Goodreads because I can keep track of what I read, and then, later, when I think "what was that book?" I can go find it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 10:26 AM (OX9vb)

175 And what's the deal with "Easter Monday" that shows up on my phone's calendar as a holiday?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (FVME7)
---
It's a British/Canuckistan holiday.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:27 AM (llXky)

176 And Mr. A.H. Lloyd, I checked on my Jackson County book and it's already scanned into the internet archive. Which is a cool discovery as now I don't have to thumb through delicate copy anymore.
I'm doing some research on the River Rasin massacre right now so thank you for that.
Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (JqiVl)

What Jackson County book?

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:28 AM (Zzbjj)

177 Speaking of LOTR, I'm currently reading Return of the King. I haven't had a lot of reading time lately, so it's taking me a while to get through it. Which isn't necessarily bad, as it gives me time to think about the characters and what they're going through until I pick it up again.

Posted by: DIY Daddio at April 09, 2023 10:29 AM (64aAI)

178 Freshman year engineering school, a long long time ago, Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" was a required book. Begins with a poor Christian family singing hymns, speaking the faith on a street corner, ends with an execution.

I've never forgotten it.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at April 09, 2023 10:30 AM (KiBMU)

179 I think that my brain substituted Forever War into my memory banks for Starship Troopers because of that execrable movie. The coed showers scene was not from ST but more like FW.

So I blame boobs,basically.

Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 10:31 AM (pwExq)

180 Yeah. So it's very nice to read someone who sees that sort of teaching as totally wrong. The word "heresy" is underused.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:26 AM (Zzbjj)
---
The fact that senior clergy - cardinals and archbishops - are now saying that gay impulses can't and should be controlled gives a lot of insight to how the abuse scandal was able to go on and spread.

The good news - which your author discussed on one of the videos you linked - is that the younger priests want none of this nonsense.

On that optimistic note, I'm off to Mass. Happy Easter! (or Passover. The neighbors had quite the gathering, which was nice to see.)

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at April 09, 2023 10:32 AM (llXky)

181 I did my graduate work at Assumption College and a religion course was required. I don't remember anything about the course except I was the only Jew in the class. The funniest part was whenever an Old Testament question came up, everyone would turn around and look at me for an answer. Even though I went to Hebrew school and Sunday school and even taught Sunday school at one point, trying to remember details was just beyond me.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:33 AM (Y+l9t)

182 I think that my brain substituted Forever War into my memory banks for Starship Troopers because of that execrable movie. The coed showers scene was not from ST but more like FW.

So I blame boobs,basically.
Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 10:31 AM (pwExq)

I think the movie Starship Troopers may have had some Forever War in it

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:33 AM (xhaym)

183 The funniest part was whenever an Old Testament question came up, everyone would turn around and look at me for an answer.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:33 AM (Y+l9t)

Heh. Humans...we just can't help ourselves.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at April 09, 2023 10:34 AM (OX9vb)

184 For the record, I have bought and given away a few dozen copies of Atlas Shrugged. People are more likely to read a book you put into their hands.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:35 AM (4Caz0)

185 I don't know how true this is but it is on point.

ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ@4Mischief
Joe Rogan on Douglass Murray’s theory that every civilization that’s on the brink of collapse becomes obsessed with gender

https://bit.ly/3Mw8eis

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:35 AM (FVME7)

186 I think the movie Starship Troopers may have had some Forever War in it
Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 10:33 AM (xhaym)

Yes, that was my point. Some FW got infused with the movie and that ruined my memory of ST. Weirdest Mandela effect ever.

Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 10:36 AM (pwExq)

187 Impactful books: I was fascinated by Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” in college and wrote my senior essay on it, in a school where we did essays instead of exams, St. John’s College. The book showed how we all carry the possibility of evil within us, and how civilization may be transitory, an important lesson for today.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at April 09, 2023 10:36 AM (CyJhQ)

188 The downside of civilization is that they all eventually fall into a stage of despotic and authoritian Empire. ...
...After that, there is a barbaric dark age lasting for centuries, until a New culture and civilization can be born to start the cycle all over again.
Posted by: Tom Servo

*******

I'm sure someone much smarter than me and long before I was born has tried to draw parallels between the arc of a civilization and the arc of an individual's life. Sort of a sociopolitical version of the "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" concept.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:37 AM (ykeLU)

189 Most impact? Heinlein. The Puppet Masters, when I was 12 or 13. For my $$$ still the best invasion-from-space story ever, and after reading that one, I read almost nothing but sf for pleasure for a decade. So, yeah, that had some impact good and bad -- found a lot of terrific reading, but also was very late getting to other books that I should have gotten to sooner.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 10:37 AM (a/4+U)

190 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:24 AM (Y+l9t)

Same. Can't think of any one book.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 10:37 AM (Angsy)

191 Shower scene?

At one point IIRC Earth expected everyone to be homosexual. Yeah that would be awkward though it get would Sam Brinton to read it.

The Taurans were a Trojan horse for a world government.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 09, 2023 10:39 AM (DsBY7)

192 ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ@4Mischief
Joe Rogan on Douglass Murray’s theory that every civilization that’s on the brink of collapse becomes obsessed with gender

https://bit.ly/3Mw8eis
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:35 AM (FVME7)

the observation is correct, but it's a symptom, not a cause. The cause is a deliberate war on God himself, and on the reality of what He created. It is the ultimate hubris; mankind thinking they can re-create the world, and those in it, to their own liking and by their own power. Those who aspire to do so are compelled to show contempt for all that has come before.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:40 AM (r46W7)

193 Impactful books?

Little Fuzzy and Godstalk.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (DsBY7)

194 Good morning Hordemates be a blessed Easter to you all.
Just finished a clever book on time travel by Magahee.
Just starting Patton's War As I Knew It. So far, so good.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (anj39)

195 Impactful Books...

Baseball biographies as youth (to many to list)
Bill James sabermetrics paperbacks in the 80s
Shelby Foote Civil War Series
William Shirer Rise & Fall 3rd Reich / Nightmare Years
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Gulag Archipelago
Robert Caro - LBJ series
Dee Brown - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
Raymond Carver - Take you pick

Posted by: Lost in Space at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (LCgpa)

196 Hello, all; late to the book thread I am (breakfast of pancakes and eggs, courtesy of Miss Linda, who is a fine cook). I think I've read The Science Fiction Argosy edited by Knight; what other stories besides the Sturgeon novella are in it?

My writing group members flaked on me this week, so I didn't get any feedback on the story I plan to submit to the Baen Adventure Fantasy contest this month. We will probably meet on 4/20, and the deadline is not until 4/30, so I have time. Other writers have critiqued the story in the past, so I'm not too worried that it would require a major rewrite.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (omVj0)

197 After bo finish The Yellow Admiral next on the list is Nelson by David Walder. And maybe will get the last 100 Days in the Aubrey Maturin series next trip to used book store

Posted by: Skip at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (xhxe8)

198 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:33 AM (Y+l9t)

My kids reliably inform me that their Hebrew school training was weak in terms of Torah and "OT", but rich on the topics of holidays and politics.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (Zzbjj)

199 Finally got a copy of Neuromancer yesterday from the library. I have become fascinated by William Gibson. After reading 3 of his books, I went looking for a reference from one of the books that I'd forgotten(as I mentioned earlier) and Stumbled across a fascinating article about him and how he began writing about cyberspace and in fact coined the term when he knew nothing about computers.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:42 AM (Y+l9t)

200 Biden Invites Expelled Tennessee Dems to White House

-
Bless his heart.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:42 AM (FVME7)

201 yes but forever wars went further, the film was beverly hills reich which was far from what heinlein would have wanted,

also salem witch trials, not an entirely crazy notion in light of king phillips war, since bewitched, well there was a film with veronica lake, a quarter centiry earlier, they have been mainstreaming witches, aaron spelling has much to atone for,

Posted by: no 6 at April 09, 2023 10:42 AM (PXvVL)

202 Good luck Wolfus.

Posted by: Anna Puma at April 09, 2023 10:43 AM (DsBY7)

203 Impactful Books...

"Visual Explanations" - Edward Tufte

Posted by: Tonypete at April 09, 2023 10:43 AM (qoGsy)

204 Bless his heart.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

After fried Chicken (or BBQ) that phrase is the South's greatest gift to the USA.

Posted by: Lost in Space at April 09, 2023 10:43 AM (LCgpa)

205 A new study from researchers at Dartmouth College claims that “hundreds more” home runs will be hit by major leaguers by the end of the 21st century due to global warming.

The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society study, titled “Global warming, home runs, and the future of America’s pastime,” also notes that Earth’s higher temperature is responsible for more than 500 MLB four-baggers since 2010.

What is I call BULLSHIT Alex?

Posted by: rhennigantx at April 09, 2023 10:44 AM (BRHaw)

206 One book that had a major impact on me at age 8 was The Ghost of Mystery Rancho, a young people's novel about Roy Rogers. Roy, a Texas Ranger, battles a murderous bandit and smuggler who wears a skeleton costume and skull mask -- both to frighten, and to conceal his real identity. Not even his minions know who he really is. I've read it again as an adult, and while it has plot holes you could ride Trigger through, it has a strong narrative drive, never flags, and conceals the ID of the criminal, the least likely person, until the penultimate chapter. It started me on a love of the classical mystery that continues to this day.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:45 AM (omVj0)

207 the observation is correct, but it's a symptom, not a cause. The cause is a deliberate war on God himself, and on the reality of what He created. It is the ultimate hubris; mankind thinking they can re-create the world, and those in it, to their own liking and by their own power. Those who aspire to do so are compelled to show contempt for all that has come before.
Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:40 AM (r46W7)

It all boils down to a simple but mostly forgotten statement in the Bible: The wages of sin is death.

That can be from the individual through whole civilizations and eras.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 10:45 AM (BdMk6)

208 Secret Pentagon Docs Emerge on Minecraft Forum

-
I didn't even know that Biden played.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:46 AM (FVME7)

209 A new study from researchers at Dartmouth College claims that “hundreds more” home runs will be hit by major leaguers by the end of the 21st century due to global warming.

The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society study, titled “Global warming, home runs, and the future of America’s pastime,” also notes that Earth’s higher temperature is responsible for more than 500 MLB four-baggers since 2010.

What is I call BULLSHIT Alex?
Posted by: rhennigantx

I would have gone with Donald Trump.

Posted by: Lost in Space at April 09, 2023 10:46 AM (LCgpa)

210 Good luck Wolfus.
Posted by: Anna Puma at April 09, 2023

***
Thanks, Anna! I have two short stories out to the Writers of the Future contest, the Scientology people who have given me two Honorable mentions in the last year, so I'm hopeful for one of them.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:46 AM (omVj0)

211 31 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
-------
There's a great book out there titled, "The Journey from Texts to Translations" by Wegner that I'm reading now. Very enlightening... it explains how the Bible that we use came to be in its present form.

The author, Paul Wegner, introduces the Bible and its arrangement, describes how the various books were collected into a single canon, examines how the Bible was passed from one generation to the next, explores how and why early versions were produced and lastly discusses the myriad of English translations and how they came about.

Posted by: NALNAMSAM - not as lean, not as mean, still a Marine at April 09, 2023 10:48 AM (hlwRJ)

212 My writing group members flaked on me this week, so I didn't get any feedback on the story I plan to submit to the Baen Adventure Fantasy contest this month. We will probably meet on 4/20, and the deadline is not until 4/30, so I have time. Other writers have critiqued the story in the past, so I'm not too worried that it would require a major rewrite.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (omVj0)

We know you can do it. BTW, will send you an e-mail.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 10:48 AM (Angsy)

213 What Jackson County book?
Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:28 AM (Zzbjj)

Hope this link isn't to long.
This book. I have a badly unbound version I'm trying to restore.
https: //openlibrary.org/books/OL14012884M/
History_of_Jackson_County_Michigan.

My family is all over in it.
GRR
Link is "annoying" so I broke it up.

Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 10:48 AM (JqiVl)

214 Impactful books? The one I just finished, "Masters of the Air" by Donald Miller. As a matter of fact, so impactful that I'm having trouble settling down to a new book. Nothing seems as good and therefore worthy of my time. I wonder if there is a word or phrase for that feeling.

Posted by: Tuna at April 09, 2023 10:49 AM (gLRfa)

215 Any of you know anything good or bad about the publisher called Black Rose Writing? I see mixed reviews on the 'Net. The new member of our group published his mystery novel through them. After looking at the first few pages of an SF novel he's fiddling with, I'm not impressed by his skills or his copy editing (yet he says in his bio that he's been a copy editor!). Maybe his stuff improves with a real editor. Or maybe SF is not his true metier.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:49 AM (omVj0)

216 Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:40 AM (r46W7)

Essentially the thinking that you can be like God and are no longer subject to his tiresome realities. What the Ripperger book attributes to Luciferianism.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:49 AM (Zzbjj)

217 I am going to make a statement contrary to what most of you are saying. There is no single book or books that have impacted my life. It is reading that has impacted my life. I read everything. As far back as I can remember, there were always books, magazines, newspapers, cereal,boxes. If it had writing on it , I read it. I had to get written permission to take adult books out of the library because kids books were too short. Think I was 7. I read very fast so I consumed books. I am envious of those of you who remember stuff. It's unusual if I remember the name of the main character when I finish a book. I can tell you the story but the unimportant stuff just drifts away.

This is me. I'll bet you even read the encyclopedias cover to cover.

Posted by: Ilene Wright at April 09, 2023 10:49 AM (VD8D9)

218 Link is "annoying" so I broke it up.
Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 10:48 AM (JqiVl)

Thanks.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 10:50 AM (Zzbjj)

219 Ilene, I was much like you. If there was nothing else to read, I read the back cover of the cereal box and the ingredients of the Nabisco vanilla wafers.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:50 AM (omVj0)

220 What books have been impactful in your life? Were they impactful due to circumstances or because you were at a certain stage in your life?

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.

Posted by: Wethal at April 09, 2023 10:50 AM (NufIr)

221 Life Expectancy Sees Major Decline in New York

-
I think it's 15 minutes after you step out of the door.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:51 AM (FVME7)

222 This is me. I'll bet you even read the encyclopedias cover to cover.
Posted by: Ilene Wright

Was that wrong? If I had known that was wrong. . . .

Posted by: Tonypete at April 09, 2023 10:51 AM (qoGsy)

223 Hmmmm....impactful books?
A lot actually but the first book to make an impact on me as I entered my teen years and started thinking as an adult was "I Cannot Forgive" by Rudolf Vbra. My first introduction to the Holocaust. It changed how I viewed everything from then on.

Posted by: Diogenes at April 09, 2023 10:51 AM (anj39)

224 The SF Argosy has a ton of terrific stuff in it -- 2 novels (The Demolished Man, and More Than Human) and lots of terrific short stories as well.

When looking for sf anthology contents, or a list of works by particular writers, the place to go is isfdb.org -- bookmark that puppy, because it comes in handy. Searchable by author & title.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 10:51 AM (a/4+U)

225 "Listened to 3hour and 45 min podcast by James Lindsay on the Queer Gnostic Cult. -- Where the hell are we and why are we in this basket?" Posted by: vmom stabby

I've listened to part of that (someone here linked it the other day) ... yeah, I think it explains this cult is evangelistic, they know they are entrapping children in a powerful way. Sex with kids is part of the hook.

here is the link.

https://tinyurl.com/y9dwrece

Posted by: illiniwek at April 09, 2023 10:51 AM (Cus5s)

226 CN, my grandfather founded the first synagogue in Hartford , Ct and brought a Rabbi over from Israel. It was an Orthodox synagogue and I was the only girl in a class of 12 boys. Politics was not discussed. When I went to enroll my boys in a reform congregation as I married a catholic, they gave me the handbook which laid out their position on abortion etc, I decided not to join. The boys ended up doing their own study of Jewish history and consider themselves Jewish. My younger son even did the birthright trip.
Even though we are technically secular Jews, I think we take our heritage more seriously than a lot of religious Jews.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 10:51 AM (Y+l9t)

227 Another game changer for me was the discovery of Ellery Queen through the omnibus volume The New York Murders. It contains 3 novels, one from 1948 or '49 (their pioneering serial killer novel), one from the mid-'50s, and one of the dazzling puzzlers from the 1930s. I was blown away at age 13, and gobbled up everything else the library had by EQ. Still love their work to this day.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:52 AM (omVj0)

228 I have read all of Gibson except Agency, his latest. The review on Amazon scared me off.

swa has convinced me to read it.

Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 10:52 AM (pwExq)

229 Hello, all; late to the book thread I am (breakfast of pancakes and eggs, courtesy of Miss Linda, who is a fine cook). I think I've read The Science Fiction Argosy edited by Knight; what other stories besides the Sturgeon novella are in it?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:41 AM (omVj0)
---
Quite a few classic stories such as:

"A Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith
"Becalmed in Hell" by Larry Niven
"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester"
"Day Million" by Frederick Pohl
"Judgment Day" by L. Sprague de Camp

And many more...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:52 AM (BpYfr)

230 Wolfus, How about some stories about two kittens that can do calculus in their heads, can time travel, like line dancing, and have a human sidekick named Wolfus.

Posted by: Lost in Space at April 09, 2023 10:53 AM (LCgpa)

231 Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi is a fantastic place to visit!

Posted by: William Faulkner at April 09, 2023 10:53 AM (mMC7/)

232 Hey, Black Lives Matter!

California Bill Would Create Missing Persons Alert for Only Black Women and Children

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:53 AM (FVME7)

233 I'm almost finished reading O'Brian's _The Nutmeg of Consolation_, one of his Aubrey/Maturn novels. I'd never been able to get hold of this one before -- the library didn't have it and for some reason I didn't see it in bookstores until I scored this copy at a used bookshop.

Nice story, and it wraps up the cliffhanger ending of _Thirteen-Gun Salute_, which is one of my favorites.

It does have a fun in-joke, in which the Navy men are disparaging the idea of a sloop capturing a frigate, which a friend of Maturin has put in a novel. But of course Thomas Cochrane did just that -- and so did his fictional avatar Jack Aubrey in the first of the series. But the Navy men insist that a vessel commanded by a post-captain is rated as a "ship" rather than a "sloop," so a sloop has never defeated a frigate. I suspect O'Brian was getting tired of answering letters about this.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 10:54 AM (QZxDR)

234 Quite a few classic stories such as:

"A Game of Rat and Dragon" by Cordwainer Smith
"Becalmed in Hell" by Larry Niven
"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester"
"Day Million" by Frederick Pohl
"Judgment Day" by L. Sprague de Camp

And many more...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023

***
I've read most of those, though I don't recall the de Camp story. "GAme of RAt and Dragon" is one of the great SF stories. Someday I would like to edit an anthology, Science Fiction Stories to Remember. It would include that one.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:55 AM (omVj0)

235 Nothing seems as good and therefore worthy of my time. I wonder if there is a word or phrase for that feeling.
Posted by: Tuna at April 09, 2023 10:49 AM (gLRfa)

Henri knows exactly what you are feeling:

https://tinyurl.com/564v989w

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 10:55 AM (r46W7)

236 Smaller Mac.

McDonalds Cuts Hundreds of Corporate Jobs in Restructuring

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at April 09, 2023 10:56 AM (FVME7)

237 Any of you know anything good or bad about the publisher called Black Rose Writing? I see mixed reviews on the 'Net. The new member of our group published his mystery novel through them. After looking at the first few pages of an SF novel he's fiddling with, I'm not impressed by his skills or his copy editing (yet he says in his bio that he's been a copy editor!). Maybe his stuff improves with a real editor. Or maybe SF is not his true metier.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 10:49 AM (omVj0)

Sounds like me! But wait, I've never heard of Black Rose Writing. Might need to look them up.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 10:56 AM (Angsy)

238 While Heinlein's Puppet Masters was the big impact title that sticks in my memory and set my direction for a long time, I was another read-everything kid. Cereal boxes, ketchup bottle labels, a set of supermarket encyclopedias, and on and on -- I'd read everything I could lay my grubby mitts on.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 10:56 AM (a/4+U)

239 Speaking of impactful books, using a heavy book to smack the back of the wrist is a well known folk remedy for ganglion cysts. Traditionally The Holy Bible was used, but any substantial book can be used. There are numerous youTube videos. Just look for "ganglion cyst smack with book".

Personally I would recommend needle aspiration.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (ykeLU)

240 This is me. I'll bet you even read the encyclopedias cover to cover.
Posted by: Ilene Wright

My parents bought the world book encyclopedia when I was eight. I read it.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (lXZKI)

241 240 This is me. I'll bet you even read the encyclopedias cover to cover.
Posted by: Ilene Wright

My parents bought the world book encyclopedia when I was eight. I read it.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (lXZKI)

About right. I didn't read cover to cover, I would just pick one up and open at random.

Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 11:01 AM (pwExq)

242 "Speaking of impactful books, using a heavy book to smack the back of the wrist is a well known folk remedy for ganglion cysts. Traditionally The Holy Bible was used, but any substantial book can be used. There are numerous youTube videos. Just look for "ganglion cyst smack with book". "

What's the code for that procedure doctor?

Posted by: Tuna at April 09, 2023 11:02 AM (gLRfa)

243 When I went to enroll my boys in a reform congregation as I married a catholic, they gave me the handbook which laid out their position on abortion etc, I decided not to join.

Jewish Unitarians.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at April 09, 2023 11:02 AM (2tUFv)

244 Happy Easter to all y'all western Morons, and a blessed Palm Sunday and Holy Week to my eastern peeps!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at April 09, 2023 11:02 AM (fqQwD)

245 I've posted about this book before. But Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds was the most powerful experience I've ever had reading a book. I can't recommend it enough. It will make you happy.

It's a Taoist Detective novel. I know it sounds absurd and twee and new agey but it's not. And it is an effortless read.

I did not cry a single time. But I have heard others have. I wouldn't know myself.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:03 AM (1ais2)

246 This is me. I'll bet you even read the encyclopedias cover to cover.
Posted by: Ilene Wright

My parents bought the world book encyclopedia when I was eight. I read it.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (lXZKI)

About right. I didn't read cover to cover, I would just pick one up and open at random.
Posted by: blaster

My Grandfather had every Popular Mechanics from the late 40s until the mid 60s. I am pretty sure I read everyone.

Posted by: Lost in Space at April 09, 2023 11:03 AM (LCgpa)

247 Impactful book: Forever Amber. My six-years-older sister hid it in her tampons. I was in third grade. Naturally I found it.

Posted by: Wenda at April 09, 2023 11:03 AM (Tzk4s)

248 My parents bought the world book encyclopedia when I was eight. I read it.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (lXZKI)

About right. I didn't read cover to cover, I would just pick one up and open at random.
Posted by: blaster at April 09, 2023 11:01 AM

I used to do that with the dictionary. I was a strange kid.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at April 09, 2023 11:04 AM (fqQwD)

249 The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
Posted by: Wethal at April 09, 2023 10:50 AM (NufIr)

This one and A Grief Observed.

Posted by: CN at April 09, 2023 11:04 AM (Zzbjj)

250 For those inclined, "In Concert: A Vivaldi Easter Concert" is airing on EWTN now.

Posted by: olddog in mo at April 09, 2023 11:04 AM (ju2Fy)

251 My parents bought the world book encyclopedia when I was eight. I read it.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (lXZKI)

So you probably know everything there is to know about aardvarks.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 11:04 AM (BdMk6)

252 Impactful books?

For me, I think T.A. Heppenheimer's _Colonies in Space_ had a huge influence on me -- a wonderful corrective to the doom-and-gloom of the 1970s. Another was Heinlein's _Moon is a Harsh Mistress_.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 11:05 AM (QZxDR)

253 Impactful books:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (There were three thousand six hundred fifty-three days like that in his stretch, from the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.)

Journal of the Plague Year (I mention it chiefly because it is excellent Lenten reading)

The Little Prince (It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.)

The Sorrows of Satan (There was a vibration of compassionate kindness in his voice which at once moved me to an acute sense of self-pity, the worst enervator of moral force that exists. I sighed heavily. “Truly I have suffered”—I said—“More than most men!”

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at April 09, 2023 11:06 AM (jrY13)

254 My parents bought the world book encyclopedia when I was eight. I read it.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 10:57 AM (lXZKI)

Mine did too and so did I.
Unfortunately this was 1960.
Whatever happened to that Kennedy guy?

Posted by: Diogenes at April 09, 2023 11:06 AM (anj39)

255 I aced my Philosophy 101 final exam by studying from my parents' "Encyclopedia Americana"

Posted by: Tuna at April 09, 2023 11:06 AM (gLRfa)

256 "Jewish Unitarians."
Jewnitarians? Maybe that's an apt descriptor for a significant percentage of Americans Jews...

Posted by: PabloD at April 09, 2023 11:06 AM (ffPN2)

257 My family had the Brittannica Junior Encyclopedia, and I used to read that one. I can still remember how it smelled.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 11:07 AM (QZxDR)

258 It's interesting....think a lot of this is how we ended up here. Not just the book thread but Horde members. One would have to do a lot of reading to discover Ace, don't you think?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:07 AM (Y+l9t)

259 242 "Speaking of impactful books, using a heavy book to smack the back of the wrist is a well known folk remedy for ganglion cysts. Traditionally The Holy Bible was used, but any substantial book can be used. There are numerous youTube videos. Just look for "ganglion cyst smack with book". "

I trained my wrists and hands a lot back in the day and developed one of those. My dad was an Ortho Surgeon and I showed him and was like what do I do about this. And he just said well we're gonna whack it with a dictionary. And we did. Gruesome business surgery. Gruesome.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:07 AM (1ais2)

260 Speaking of Waugh....

whom I think of as the greatest writer of the 20th Century.

I believe that Robertson Davies is fully his equal, as a prose smith and writer. Though, Robertson Davies is a very different writer with different concerns and topics. While Waugh's character tend to be from England's upper class, Davies is a Canuck and his characters can be from more humble origins but tend to somehow work in the arts, theater, or politics.

Waugh tends to write black comedies and becomes more concerned with the spiritual and religious as he got older. Davies tends to write drama dies or outright comedies of a more swinging, jovial nature. He's more of a humanist and I suppose, an epicurean.

And speaking of trilogies, Davies tends to write in trilogies.

His first, The Deptford Trilogy (The Fifth Business, The Manticore, The World of Wonders) concerns how the simple act of throwing a snowball by one of the main characters sets off a concatenation of coincidence that affects his entire life and those around him.

An excellent read. Check it out.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:09 AM (mm6iK)

261 Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi is a fantastic place to visit!
Posted by: William Faulkner at April 09, 2023

***
Just don't try to pronounce it.

Posted by: Ernie Hemingway at April 09, 2023 11:10 AM (omVj0)

262 Wolfus, How about some stories about two kittens that can do calculus in their heads, can time travel, like line dancing, and have a human sidekick named Wolfus.
Posted by: Lost in Space at April 09, 2023

***
I dunno. That line dancing might be a little too out there.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:11 AM (omVj0)

263 As for the Deadman Omnibus -- a great character, but if only the stories had been worthy of the art!

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:05 AM (Om/di)

Speaking of Deadman, this last week, the Real BBC Youtube show (Bagging, Boarding, and Chatting) had Kelley Jones as a guest. He apparently took over the Deadman book after Neal Adams left. Have you read any of his stuff?

Though I've seen the character here and there, I don't think I've ever read a Deadman book. My DC interest is...limited.

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 09, 2023 11:11 AM (Lhaco)

264 I trained my wrists and hands a lot back in the day and developed one of those. My dad was an Ortho Surgeon and I showed him and was like what do I do about this. And he just said well we're gonna whack it with a dictionary. And we did. Gruesome business surgery. Gruesome.
Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:07 AM (1ais2)

Many times the old ways are the best ways.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 11:12 AM (BdMk6)

265 Thanks for last week's recommendation of "Ice Limit." I passed it along to husband since it sounded like his kind of book. It definitely was. He devoured that book and is onto the next volume in the series.

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at April 09, 2023 11:12 AM (fTtFy)

266
And speaking of trilogies, Davies tends to write in trilogies.

His first, The Deptford Trilogy (The Fifth Business, The Manticore, The World of Wonders) concerns how the simple act of throwing a snowball by one of the main characters sets off a concatenation of coincidence that affects his entire life and those around him.

An excellent read. Check it out.
Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023

***
He's the Canadian Somerset Maugham!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:13 AM (omVj0)

267 One would have to do a lot of reading to discover Ace, don't you think?
Posted by: Sharon

There is certainly a difference between us and those who live in a world of 140 characters or less, or whatever the twit length is. I originally got here via a link from some blog that drove me away for not being a willing foot soldier of the neocon army.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (pddrt)

268 Speaking of Robertson Davies-

Anthony Burgess his book about the best 99 Novels of the 20th Century, includes the novel

"The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies,

which the believes just beats out "The Deptford Trilogy" as being the better read.

He also believes that RD is worthy of and should win the Nobel Prize for Literature. That didn't happen.

"TRA" is a sort of Rabelesian comedy with serious concerns. A fun read too.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (mm6iK)

269 Thanks to the recommendation for the book 'Fiat Money Inflation In France', I don't remember who mentioned it. It's amazing stuff and I'm ashamed to admit I had NO idea that had ever happened. No clue. I'd never heard or read anything about it at all.
I'll call it a 'must-read'.
Next up is a trip to the Salvation Army paperback shelves: there is another int'l flight coming up and I usually buy some 'airport fiction' from a thrift store to get through at least part of the flight.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (43xH1)

270 "Jewish Unitarians."

We belonged to the local Unitarian church.

It was the '60's, and the local branch of the Black Panther Party wanted to set up a revolutionary school in the church.

My stepfather was a lawyer, and on the church board, and all the other rich white people on the board thought that this was dreamiest idea ever.

My stepfather asked: "Uh - shouldn't we check with the church's insurance agent before approving this?"

This, of course, immediately got him denounced as racist, racist, racist, and we left the church.

Unitarians have been crazy for a long time.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (2tUFv)

271 "TRA" is a sort of Rabelesian comedy with serious concerns. A fun read too.
Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023

***
I'll have a look for that one!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:16 AM (omVj0)

272 Read a lot of Conan the Barbarian comics this week. Re-read Omnibus 7 in preparation for the first reading of Omnibus 8. Both written by Jim Owsley (now known as Christopher Priest). He doesn't have a perfect grasp of the Hyberborian age, but he is better than some of the previous writers, and he does make a good effort a making a story into a continuing sword-and-sorcery epic. Oh, and Omnibus 8 is the first collection to not have John Buscema as the main artist since Omnibus 1. It's a change that takes a little getting used to....

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 09, 2023 11:16 AM (Lhaco)

273 I have something to complain about. It is weird because my reaction is so strong but I don't know why. I even admit their is something there, but I hate it. There's something horrible about it. Almost mind killing.

Anyway, it is "tropes". I just get all clenched up when people talk about "tropes". I mean, yeah, I get it. It's a real thing. But who cares? Idk. It is like they just dissected a beautiful animal and were like see this is a snow leopard.

I am not an analyzer. I'm intuitive I've been told. Usually by professors who were frustrated with my inability to say how I knew something.

Idk it is like ppl who think and perceive tropes seem to think they've uncovered some failure in an author or creator. And also, ended the discussion.

I know dude there is nothing new under the sun. Congrats.

You mean this author didn't take the time to come up with some brand new outside the box unique thing? Wow so lazy.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:17 AM (1ais2)

274 I never heard of this wrist problem. Is this a guy thing?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:17 AM (Y+l9t)

275 I trained my wrists and hands a lot back in the day and developed one of those. My dad was an Ortho Surgeon and I showed him and was like what do I do about this. And he just said well we're gonna whack it with a dictionary. And we did. Gruesome business surgery. Gruesome.
Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:07 AM (1ais2)

Many times the old ways are the best ways.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 11:12 AM (BdMk6)
---
Since when did "slap a hot iron to it" go out of style?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 11:17 AM (BpYfr)

276 Robertson Davies is soooooo good. Sooo good.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:18 AM (1ais2)

277 Thanks to the recommendation for the book 'Fiat Money Inflation In France', I don't remember who mentioned it.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (43xH1)

That's silly. Fiat's an Italian car, they don't use those in France!

Posted by: Blonde From ONT at April 09, 2023 11:18 AM (Angsy)

278 Thanks for last week's recommendation of "Ice Limit." I passed it along to husband since it sounded like his kind of book. It definitely was. He devoured that book and is onto the next volume in the series.
Posted by: Art Rondelet

It really is a book you don't want to put down. There are about 20 books in the Inspector Pendergast series by the same authors which are equally well written, but generally are murder mysteries.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:18 AM (6J4y/)

279 274 I never heard of this wrist problem. Is this a guy thing?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:17 AM (Y+l9t)

Nah. Diff ways it can manifest. That was just how I got mines.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:19 AM (1ais2)

280 Happy Easter!

It was the book thread that first introduced me to the Lord of Spirits podcast a while back and I've listened to every episode at least once. I'm not sure it's changed my perspective as much as it's confirmed a lot of what I've felt on a intuitive level, if that makes sense. It's also provided a ton of education and background, much of which carries over to my own RC faith. Thank you for recommending it - it has been life changing.

There have been lots of books that have influenced my life. I think the Little House books I read as a young girl may have had the biggest impact in showing how a "normal" family interacted, and how hard people worked. And maybe I'm more than a little odd, but it (and other books about frontier life) influenced my views on the importance of women and the work they did - ideally the roles of men and women complimented each other.

Also, I went through a phase where I devoured self-help books to the point my daughters would make fun of me. I, too, found People of the Lie influential, as well as Women and Risk, by Nicky Marone (about learned helplessness), Understanding the Borderline Mother by Christin Lawson.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at April 09, 2023 11:20 AM (ob77J)

281 You mean this author didn't take the time to come up with some brand new outside the box unique thing? Wow so lazy.
Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023

***
I refuse to read the TV Tropes website for much the same reason. Creating something entertaining is tough enough without having a little devil on your shoulder whispering, "But Buffy the Vampire Slayer did that in Season Two!" Remember the poem about how the centipede gets bothered by another animal asking, "Which leg comes after which?" "This bothered him to such a pitch that he lay distracted in a ditch, considering how to run."

I don't need that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:20 AM (omVj0)

282 He's the Canadian Somerset Maugham!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:13 AM (omVj0)

I guess I don't know what that means.

What do you mean?

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:21 AM (mm6iK)

283 Thanks to the recommendation for the book 'Fiat Money Inflation In France', I don't remember who mentioned it.

Highly recommend "When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany" by Adam Fergusson.

When Joe Biden tosses trillions of dollars down a rathole, this is the end point.

Posted by: The ARC of History! at April 09, 2023 11:22 AM (2tUFv)

284 I originally got here via a link from some blog that drove me away for not being a willing foot soldier of the neocon army.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (pddrt)

I got here trying to name my video poker blog Ace of Spades.
Back in like 2006 or so I think.
Been here every day at least once since.

Posted by: Reforger at April 09, 2023 11:22 AM (JqiVl)

285 I refuse to read the TV Tropes website for much the same reason. Creating something entertaining is tough enough without having a little devil on your shoulder whispering, "But Buffy the Vampire Slayer did that in Season Two!" Remember the poem about how the centipede gets bothered by another animal asking, "Which leg comes after which?" "This bothered him to such a pitch that he lay distracted in a ditch, considering how to run."

I don't need that.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:20 AM (omVj0)

It's like they've missed the entire point of everything. Of life. Of all of it. Makes me so frustrated.

Maybe like idk there is something important about these things you see?

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:23 AM (1ais2)

286 He's the Canadian Somerset Maugham!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:13 AM (omVj0)

I guess I don't know what that means.

What do you mean?

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023

***
Oh, it's a positive thing, NF. I like Maugham at his best, and even at his weaker moments. Davies seems to tell stories in much the same way, and about the same kinds of people (not always upper-class people), though his stuff is set in Canada instead of Britain or the British Empire. And Davies also had theatre experience, as did Maugham as a playwright. Both knew how to make a story dramatic without going into melodrama.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (omVj0)

287 When Joe Biden tosses trillions of dollars down a rathole, this is the end point.

We haven't heard much from the Modern Monetary Theorists lately.

I wonder why that is?

Posted by: The ARC of History! at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (2tUFv)

288 Thanks to the recommendation for the book 'Fiat Money Inflation In France', I don't remember who mentioned it.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (43xH1)

That's silly. Fiat's an Italian car, they don't use those in France!
Posted by: Blonde From ONT at April 09, 2023 11:18 AM (Angsy)
Heh

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (Y+l9t)

289 Lucky Jim is a funny book too. Kinda like Davies vibe.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (1ais2)

290 The Bible is probably the most impactful on most lives. But much of literature (from a Western perspective?) is (perhaps) about understanding the themes of the Bible, or expounding on them.

And books like a concordance or interlinear help in understanding the more original context, helping to reduce leftist and/or pagan dogma (wrong teaching that Paul fought against).

Authors like C.S. Lewis help enlighten us as well, and history of early Greek Roman civilization are also useful to give us insight into the proper context of the events of the first century church.

So that "Queer Gnostic Cult" intends to destroy all that culture, and rewrite history, or just burn it all down.

Posted by: illiniwek at April 09, 2023 11:25 AM (Cus5s)

291 Anyway, it is "tropes". I just get all clenched up when people talk about "tropes". I mean, yeah, I get it. It's a real thing. But who cares? Idk. It is like they just dissected a beautiful animal and were like see this is a snow leopard.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:17 AM (1ais2)

you tropes in here and that's what you have to say to us?

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 11:26 AM (r46W7)

292 I never heard of this wrist problem. Is this a guy thing?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:17 AM (Y+l9t)

It's guys that work a lot with bait.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 11:27 AM (BdMk6)

293 I kinda like Maugham, but haven't read Davies -- guess I'll have to find him a place in The Amazing Colossal To-Be-Read Pile...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 11:27 AM (a/4+U)

294 He's the Canadian Somerset Maugham!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:13 AM (omVj0)

I guess I don't know what that means.

What do you mean?

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023

***
Oh, it's a positive thing, NF. I like Maugham at his best, and even at his weaker moments. Davies seems to tell stories in much the same way, and about the same kinds of people (not always upper-class people), though his stuff is set in Canada instead of Britain or the British Empire. And Davies also had theatre experience, as did Maugham as a playwright. Both knew how to make a story dramatic without going into melodrama.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (omVj0)

Ah. I didn't mean to imply anything or get into a fight, Wolfus.

I just didn't get the comparison. Not an SM fan.

Thanks for the explanation.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:29 AM (mm6iK)

295 287 When Joe Biden tosses trillions of dollars down a rathole, this is the end point.

We haven't heard much from the Modern Monetary Theorists lately.

I wonder why that is?
Posted by: The ARC of History! at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (2tUFv)

Ahem. I am a MMT guy. But hard hard right wing. SAY MY NAME lol

MMT is a description of how things work. It is simply undeniable to me. The policy desires of Finance captured and pretend they are req by MMT but they aren't. A Salazar could use MMT.

Mosler is brilliant in his first book. And J D Alt wrote the equally good Diagrams and Dollars. Both very short and worth the read. Esp J D Alt's book. It is like 3 dollars too.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:29 AM (1ais2)

296 I'm sure someone much smarter than me and long before I was born has tried to draw parallels between the arc of a civilization and the arc of an individual's life. Sort of a sociopolitical version of the "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" concept.
Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:37 AM (ykeLU)

hence my comment about Austrian business cycles. I think maybe Schumpeter might be relevant as well, or at least a hope

Speaking of puns, were you aware that in English, Orthography recapitulates Philology?

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 11:29 AM (xhaym)

297 It's like they've missed the entire point of everything. Of life. Of all of it. Makes me so frustrated.

Maybe like idk there is something important about these things you see?

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:23 AM (1ais2)

So, it's sort of like the George Utley of internet sites?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (Angsy)

298 My favorite thing has always been to read a book and then have a discussion about it. It's why I pretty much had an English minor in college and could have also had a history one. Read and discuss. Why I found a home here. What is better than reading something and instantaneously have the ability to discuss with others. Smart, erudite, well read others. Perfect.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (Y+l9t)

299 This week, I acquired The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto. De Soto is in one of the premier think tanks of the world, and spent years using hundreds of associates and grad students to compile data on worldwide capital accumulation. His question is, why is capitalism so successful in certain countries, yet a failure in others? His thesis is that in the successful countries, property rights exist, along with title to the lands, which allows for capitalisation to proceed. In a majority of third world countries, the vast majority of people have no title to the land they live on, which prevents them from mortgages and loans to develop their businesses. I think he is onto something, and in a world where the influencers want nobody to own anything, it points to a dismal future.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (2YxH9)

300 "Fiat Money Inflation In France"

the kindle version is free at Amazon, (and other places probably)

Posted by: illiniwek at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (Cus5s)

301 I am working my way through the new book from Peter Nealen, "the Dragon and the Skull", very good to this point, but I am still early in the reading.

Posted by: Grog at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (esAC9)

302 I’m reading James Bartlett’s “Swamp Yankee” books. Two down, and really enjoying them. “Little Penwick” is clearly inspired by the real township of Little Compton, RI.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at April 09, 2023 11:31 AM (d9Cw3)

303 Ngl sometimes I do a little tropesing around all fancy like. In private. Or for money.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:31 AM (1ais2)

304 I like apricot preserves and butter on my tropes.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lookin' for me wooden leg at April 09, 2023 11:32 AM (T/Lqj)

305

The Tin Drum
Gunter Grass

All memorable characters,
set in wartime urgency.
Fantastic scenes.

Posted by: zigzag at April 09, 2023 11:33 AM (kLHxK)

306 Lucky Jim is a funny book too. Kinda like Davies vibe.
Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:24 AM (1ais2)

Yes, love "Lucky Jim".

Kingsley Amis is another one of my all-time favorite authors. I don't think he ever wrote a bad novel, though some are better than others.

Anthony Burgess was a fan of KA and mentions both "Lucky Jim" and "The Anti-Death League" as two of the greatest novels of the 20th Century.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:33 AM (mm6iK)

307 Trilogy Creep" is a pretty common phenomenon, especially when a publisher views a series as a cash cow.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at April 09, 2023 10:13 AM (BpYfr)

Back when complaining about George RR Martin was a big thing, someone shared his original pitch (to the publisher) for A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, and it was originally supposed to be......a trilogy. I don't think 'creep' is the proper descriptor to what happened to that series.

Posted by: Castle Guy at April 09, 2023 11:33 AM (Lhaco)

308
It's like they've missed the entire point of everything. Of life. Of all of it. Makes me so frustrated.

Can't miss what doesn't exist.

Posted by: Tasty tasty nihilism at April 09, 2023 11:33 AM (V6LRK)

309 His thesis is that in the successful countries, property rights exist, along with title to the lands, which allows for capitalisation to proceed.

Yep - if the local warlord (or "government") can simply grab your wealth if you become successful, you're not going to devote a lot of effort to becoming successful (other than becoming a warlord, of course).

Posted by: The ARC of History! at April 09, 2023 11:34 AM (2tUFv)

310 Read and discuss. Why I found a home here. What is better than reading something and instantaneously have the ability to discuss with others. Smart, erudite, well read others. Perfect.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (Y+l9t)

Thanks for leaving me out!
(insert sad face here)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 11:34 AM (Angsy)

311 296 I'm sure someone much smarter than me and long before I was born has tried to draw parallels between the arc of a civilization and the arc of an individual's life. Sort of a sociopolitical version of the "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" concept.
Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 10:37 AM (ykeLU)

Oswald Spengler. And Goethe before him. Morphology. Plant growth. Interesting stuff. V interesting.

I think it is more wrong than right. But it is fun to read those guys just absolutely go off on their riffs.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:34 AM (1ais2)

312 Can't miss what doesn't exist.
Posted by: Tasty tasty nihilism at April 09, 2023 11:33 AM (V6LRK)

*clenches fists*

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:36 AM (1ais2)

313 Ah. I didn't mean to imply anything or get into a fight, Wolfus.

I just didn't get the comparison. Not an SM fan.

Thanks for the explanation.
Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023

***
No worries, NF. I thought maybe you *were* a Maugham fan, and that you thought I was sniping at him. If you don't care for him, you might not like Davies.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:36 AM (omVj0)

314 "Jewish Unitarians."
Jewnitarians? Maybe that's an apt descriptor for a significant percentage of Americans Jews...
Posted by: PabloD at April 09, 2023 11:06 AM (ffPN2)
-

Keep it simple, people: JINOs.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at April 09, 2023 11:37 AM (iWOgL)

315 Can't recall just how I stumbled over the Book Thread or AoSHQ in general. Followed someone's link, probably, but don't recall where the link was or why I might have clicked on it.

I can remember the pharmacy and the location of the rack where I found Heinlein's Puppet Masters, where in the Chicago Lawn library I turned up Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, where I snagged my first book by Harlan Ellison, but I can't remember how I ran across this blog.

Nice to be here though.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 11:40 AM (a/4+U)

316 No worries, NF. I thought maybe you *were* a Maugham fan, and that you thought I was sniping at him. If you don't care for him, you might not like Davies.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:36 AM (omVj0)

No, I'm a big fan of Davies and have read almost everything he wrote. Superb writer and story-teller.

Maugham just does nothing for me. I gave him a couple of tries and that was enough.

That's why I didn't get the comparison. For me, they're nothing alike.

As always...YMMV.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:41 AM (mm6iK)

317 I really don't understand a lot of economics and never read any of the books you all are discussing. What I do understand is that the policies the government is currently proposing in terms of energy cannot possibly succeed because the resources required to make it happen do not exist and mechanism to create the infrastructure do not exist and trying to do this has destroyed our monetary system because the money necessary to make this make believe thing occur has been manufactured out of thin air.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:42 AM (Y+l9t)

318 And Western civilization as we know it requires cheap energy.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:43 AM (Y+l9t)

319 I found Ace when the DandD political candidates thing hit. Got emailed the link by a friend. Then I read the slices like a hammer thing.

There was also a really funny site called IraqWarWasWrong (?).

Obv I now think completely diff about Iraq etc and the Bushes and neocons and neolibs. But whatever...

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:43 AM (1ais2)

320 Next up is a trip to the Salvation Army paperback shelves: there is another int'l flight coming up and I usually buy some 'airport fiction' from a thrift store to get through at least part of the flight.
Posted by: LenNeal at April 09, 2023 11:15 AM (43xH1)

Murray Rothbard wrote, A History of Money and Banking in the United States - The colonial era to world war II

If you liked Dickson-Whites book, weighing in at 490 pages not including index. The section on the Massachusetts colony starting fiat vouchers is fascinating, and the action of the free banks pre Civil War is amazing.
Of course the section after 1880's is like reading an Anne Rule true crime book, you know nothing good is going to happen.

You could conceivably treat ganglion cysts with it, so win-win!

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 11:44 AM (xhaym)

321 And Western civilization as we know it requires cheap energy.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:43 AM (Y+l9t)

They know it doesn't work either, they're doing it on purpose to destroy.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 11:44 AM (Angsy)

322 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:42 AM (Y+l9t)

Check out "Free to Choose" by Milton Friedman.

It's written for the layman. And it's almost as if it was written specifically to explain this time we're going through.

Or, Friedman made a series of his book, "Free to Choose' for PBS once upon a time.

I believe it's still on youtube and is a superb watch.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:46 AM (mm6iK)

323 I really don't understand a lot of economics and never read any of the books you all are discussing. What I do understand is that the policies the government is currently proposing in terms of energy cannot possibly succeed because the resources required to make it happen do not exist and mechanism to create the infrastructure do not exist and trying to do this has destroyed our monetary system because the money necessary to make this make believe thing occur has been manufactured out of thin air.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:42 AM (Y+l9t)

It can all be put thusly: We fucked up. We trusted the government.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 11:46 AM (BdMk6)

324 317 I really don't understand a lot of economics and never read any of the books you all are discussing. What I do understand is that the policies the government is currently proposing in terms of energy cannot possibly succeed because the resources required to make it happen do not exist and mechanism to create the infrastructure do not exist and trying to do this has destroyed our monetary system because the money necessary to make this make believe thing occur has been manufactured out of thin air.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:42 AM (Y+l9t)

Ypu seem to understand a lot. Your problem seems to be that you rightly refuse to conflate Finance with Economy.

The economy is making things and moving them and selling them. And the stuff that requires.

Finance is a whole other kettle of fish.

Ppl today just mix them up and think they are the same or the whole thing is just Finance.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:46 AM (1ais2)

325 I am generally suspicious of any predictive or cyclical theories of history. The big missing element is a mechanism. We know -- at least to some level -- what makes a plant grow and die, or what causes the seasons. But theories of history don't.

There's also a huge selection bias at work. I recall being downright pissed off that Toynbee tried to lump Persian/Mesopotamian civilization in with Islam as one continuous civilization, so that it would make his model come out right -- but then could also speculate that Scandinavia and the American South could have become distinct civilizations. Sorry, Arnold, make up your mind. If Virginia and New York are different civilizations, then you can't say Ottoman Turkey and Seleucid Persia are the same.

That kind of cherry-picking also infests Strauss and Howe. I simply don't believe that someone growing up in 1840 has much in common with someone growing up in 1950 -- or at least that any commonalities aren't outweighed by the differences.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 11:46 AM (QZxDR)

326 In a majority of third world countries, the vast majority of people have no title to the land they live on, which prevents them from mortgages and loans to develop their businesses. I think he is onto something, and in a world where the influencers want nobody to own anything, it points to a dismal future.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:30 AM (2YxH9)

This is why Ireland never progressed or advanced when under English rule. The vast majority of the land was owned by absentee English lords, which meant that there was no incentive for any of the locals to improve or develop their land - any benefit derived would go to the absentee landlord, not to them. That, not to mention the famine, is why so many Irish emigrated to the US.

Ireland before independence was a good example of a system that claimed to be capitalistic, but in fact was simply a new style of feudalism.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 11:48 AM (r46W7)

327 What is better than reading something and instantaneously have the ability to discuss with others. Smart, erudite, well read others. Perfect.

Posted by: Sharon

Yes, I have a few friends with whom I can discuss things with in person at this level, with references to a wide variety of books and theories, but in this post each week, there is a large group of people of my own kidney, with whom I can discuss economics, science fiction, and literature seamlessly.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:49 AM (tJkbl)

328 ""When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany" by Adam Fergusson. -- When Joe Biden tosses trillions of dollars down a rathole, this is the end point."

it is worse than a rathole, it is thrown to a den of vipers. Our wealth (and the country itself) is being extracted into the hands of the oligarchs. The trillions out of thin air went mostly to the richest, directly of indirectly. The commoners pay via inflation.

The power of individuals like Soros or Zuckerberg is being used to destroy the very foundations of this country, such as rule of law and liberty.

Posted by: illiniwek at April 09, 2023 11:51 AM (Cus5s)

329 Ireland before independence was a good example of a system that claimed to be capitalistic, but in fact was simply a new style of feudalism.
Posted by: Tom Servo at April 09, 2023 11:48 AM (r46W7)

Yeah. I agree. I just think "capitalism" and "feudalism" are over-defined terms. But that is right what you say.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:51 AM (1ais2)

330 a large group of people of my own kidney,

*******

An odd new form of kinship.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 11:52 AM (ykeLU)

331 a large group of people of my own kidney,

*******

An odd new form of kinship.
Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 11:52 AM (ykeLU)

I prefer the spleen, but whatever.

Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at April 09, 2023 11:53 AM (BdMk6)

332 a large group of people of my own kidney,

*******

An odd new form of kinship.
Posted by: Muldoon

I wonder if they ever get pissed ?

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 11:54 AM (T4tVD)

333 Thesokorus, I think that is exactly what I said. The policy makes demands on the economy, the making and providing of things , that the financial system cannot afford to finance because the cost benefit does not exist because the items cannot actually be produced so are a bad risk financially so the government makes up a mechanism which should not exist which causes the financial system to collapse. This is how that bank in California failed because it invested in ESG start ups which wee bound to fail.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:54 AM (Y+l9t)

334 Government distorts the market, causing failures, and then cites those failures to justify greater distortions.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 11:55 AM (QZxDR)

335 large group of people of my own kidney,

*******

An odd new form of kinship.
Posted by: Muldoon

You can tell I read a lot of British literature. Careful, or you will be sent to Coventry.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 11:56 AM (CSaNR)

336 What, no love for the pancreas?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 11:56 AM (a/4+U)

337 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:42 AM (Y+l9t)

Pick up a Thomas Sowell book on economics. He writes in plain English!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at April 09, 2023 11:56 AM (mMC7/)

338 a large group of people of my own kidney,

*******

An odd new form of kinship.
Posted by: Muldoon

I wonder if they ever get pissed ?
Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 11:54 AM (T4tVD)

A strange organ-ization!

Posted by: naturalfake at April 09, 2023 11:57 AM (mm6iK)

339 Given that this is the book thread I guess most of us like appendixes.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 11:57 AM (QZxDR)

340 I think we've all heard the phrase 'a man after my own heart'.

Posted by: Muldoon at April 09, 2023 11:57 AM (ykeLU)

341 This is what is so unique about the DMV MGC. Sure, we shoot, but then head to dinner where discussions range from books, politics, military history. It is like a mini MoMe every other Sunday.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:57 AM (Y+l9t)

342 Books I remember, and that impacted me, as a young one, include 'Northwest Passage" by Kenneth Roberts. It probably influenced my desire to be an Infantry soldier.

I recall many sweaty nights (no air conditioning) during the summer reading Howard Pease's tramp freighter books. Probably influenced my decision to never go to sea.

Then there is "Payton Place". If you were a young man, around my age then, you know what I mean.

Posted by: Javems at April 09, 2023 11:57 AM (7BGrI)

343 Time to head off to finish my chores, all. Have a good Easter Sunday!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:57 AM (omVj0)

344 332 a large group of people of my own kidney,

all my peeps are in a renal colony

Posted by: REDACTED at April 09, 2023 11:58 AM (us2H3)

345 This is how that bank in California failed because it invested in ESG start ups which wee bound to fail.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Wee bound.

A new kidney has entered the chat.

Posted by: JT at April 09, 2023 11:58 AM (T4tVD)

346 " In a majority of third world countries, the vast majority of people have no title to the land they live on"

a friend has a house on the coast in Senegal, where he spends part of the year. He can't get clear title to the land though.

Posted by: illiniwek at April 09, 2023 11:59 AM (Cus5s)

347 Eons since I looked it over, but if memory serves Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson wasn't bad either. Also in plain English.

If you've got Amazon Prime, Friedman's series Free to Choose is free to view on prime video.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 11:59 AM (a/4+U)

348 I am nothing but a simple servant of Jesus Christ, but it was nice to see that quote from the greatest book ever written.

Happy Easter PS, and all.

Posted by: Marcus T at April 09, 2023 11:59 AM (8Voqu)

349 ART NOOD

Posted by: Skip at April 09, 2023 12:00 PM (xhxe8)

350 I guess it's that sad time again, the end of the book thread. Now what to do for another week?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at April 09, 2023 12:01 PM (Angsy)

351 What, no love for the pancreas?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 11:56 AM (a/4+U)

Oh, yeah. Sure, pancreas. You got it rough.

Real rough.

Try getting exiled from your own fucking home!!!

Stupid useful organs.

Posted by: Appendix at April 09, 2023 12:01 PM (mm6iK)

352 The first books I remember reading were "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". I was about 7 or 8. I am always reading, a lot of online stuff, like this blog as well as books.

Posted by: lin-duh at April 09, 2023 12:02 PM (UUBmN)

353 333 Thesokorus, I think that is exactly what I said. The policy makes demands on the economy, the making and providing of things , that the financial system cannot afford to finance because the cost benefit does not exist because the items cannot actually be produced so are a bad risk financially so the government makes up a mechanism which should not exist which causes the financial system to collapse. This is how that bank in California failed because it invested in ESG start ups which wee bound to fail.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:54 AM (Y+l9t)

Yeah. I hope you didn't think I was criticizing you. I agree.

SVB is mechanically simple. But someone somewhere decided to take it out. And it wasn't just ESG. SVB kinda got sandbagged by the Fed raising rates. Kinda.

It looks mostly like a hit job by foreign actors. CHN? ISR?

But in the larger sense I completely agree that the Financial System overlaying the Economy is a bad Rube Goldberg Machine making things worse.

Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 12:03 PM (1ais2)

354 My introduction to what money can do or not was hyperinflation in Ex-Yugo. I really think you can't comprehend the social chaos unless you live it, it's... indescribable.
Paid out at 08:00, worthless by noon.
Even now people try to explain and can't it's like some natural disaster that's not really explainable.

Posted by: LenNeal at April 09, 2023 12:04 PM (43xH1)

355 Two very dangerous things in process right now:

First is the drive to remove ownership from people. The smart city plan involves mass migration into countries in order to minimize political consolidation against the elites, and the subsequent 'you will own nothing' minset. This eliminates the engine of capitalism and will cause economic contraction on a huge scale.

The second is net zero. The planet cannot support half of its current population without petroleum, so you know what that plan entails already.

The combination of these two is promised to make everyone on the planet far worse off, and more than half of them dead.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at April 09, 2023 12:04 PM (Hr7ZK)

356 I'm also suspicious of teleological/eschatological theories of history -- both Biblical and Marxist. I don't think history is a cycle, and I don't think it has a vector (other than time, obviously).

There was nothing inevitable about Western Civilization, or the United States, or any of our individual lives. It's all very contingent -- and that's why it's so important not to screw things up. No "historical forces" or "inevitable cycles" are going to restore things.

Bad things can happen. To a great extent, all the historical "cycles" can be modeled more simply as "for a while, no really bad things happened, then they did." I'm enough of an optimist to think we can avert or deal with the bad things, if we have the resources and unity and leadership to do so. Which is why I genuinely hate the people who want to destroy resources, divide the unity, and corrupt the leadership.

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 12:04 PM (QZxDR)

357 Appendix, I get what you're saying, but you gotta consider that maybe you shouldn't be trying to burn the house down -- what else can the owner do but kick you out?

Sympathies, but, well...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 12:05 PM (a/4+U)

358 My favorite use for hyperinflation notes is an exchange place I use in Central Serbia, where they used them to paper the office walls, as the notes were far cheaper than actual wallpaper!

Posted by: LenNeal at April 09, 2023 12:07 PM (43xH1)

359 Well, back to the real world for a while.

Thanks for the thread, Perfesser, and a good Easter to all here.

Have fun, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at April 09, 2023 12:09 PM (a/4+U)

360 Yes, a happy Easter to everyone. I'm looking forward to the food thread to see what everyone's cooking today!

Posted by: Trimegistus at April 09, 2023 12:14 PM (QZxDR)

361 Bad things can happen. To a great extent, all the historical "cycles" can be modeled more simply as "for a while, no really bad things happened, then they did." I'm enough of an optimist to think we can avert or deal with the bad things, if we have the resources and unity and leadership to do so. Which is why I genuinely hate the people who want to destroy resources, divide the unity, and corrupt the leadership.
++++
This is what is so weird about where we currently find ourselves. Nothing bad happened. In fact things were downright wonderful. Low inflation, high employment, booming stock market. Then this administration came in and ruined everything. As you said: destroyed resources, divide the unity and corrupt leadership. Changed slightly because the corrupt leadership was already in place.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 12:20 PM (Y+l9t)

362 Just picked up a Osprey type booklet The Road to Austerlitz campaign of 1805 by R.G.Burton for less than $2, couldn't pass the price up

Posted by: Skip at April 09, 2023 12:21 PM (xhxe8)

363 I read a lot of William Gibson back in the ‘80s so I associate him w/ that era, when computer technology was relatively new. Maybe I’ll wander back to him. Nowadays I really like Neal Stephenson, who writes in the same techno punk vein.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at April 09, 2023 12:23 PM (CyJhQ)

364 MMT is a description of how things work. It is simply undeniable to me. The policy desires of Finance captured and pretend they are req by MMT but they aren't. A Salazar could use MMT.
Posted by: Thesokorus at April 09, 2023 11:29 AM (1ais2)

MMT posits that money comes from a central bank printed on demand, moderated by government destruction of money and wealth, and that is not completely true, as I understand it. With just a central bank printing money at whim, it creates a hyperinflationary situation very quickly which arguably hasn't happened until recently from Biden's demands.

There is a newer analysis of money and how it is created called, The Fiat Standard by Saifedean Ammous.
Dr Ammous is an Austrian economist, but this approach to explaining money creation is new. It also discusses the effect inflation has on society.

You don't have to read his giant tome, he has written a lot of articles on it

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 12:32 PM (xhaym)

365 Sharon, a good primer on economics shorn of all the charts and microtheories is Ecomomics in One Lesson by Henry Hazllitt.

Economics is actually the study of how people make decisions while faced with their needs and wants, according to their understanding.
The financial and banking side is what the universities teach, and even then generally only as tools on how to manage the economy to get people to do what you want them to do.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 12:45 PM (xhaym)

366 I just checked out what was going on in the real world and decided to take a walk.
Have a good day all and thanks for the discussions. ❤️💃

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 12:45 PM (Y+l9t)

367 Thesokorus, I think that is exactly what I said. The policy makes demands on the economy, the making and providing of things , that the financial system cannot afford to finance because the cost benefit does not exist because the items cannot actually be produced so are a bad risk financially so the government makes up a mechanism which should not exist which causes the financial system to collapse. This is how that bank in California failed because it invested in ESG start ups which wee bound to fail.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 11:54 AM (Y+l9t)

And you have explained Austrian Business Cycles. I would buy you a drink.

The thing you didn't include is, "if you promise your seed corn you can't grow enough of to to many people, you can't get a crop growing next year, and most of the the people depending on getting your seed corn for next year can't plant either"

Posted by: Kindltot at April 09, 2023 12:50 PM (xhaym)

368 Last week Perf had a blurb regarding the latest book by James Cambias. I've read a couple of his books; A Darkling Sea and The Godel Operation. Both are enjoyable reads. Lets get this part past us - Cambias is not Woke.

Darkling is about a team of interstellar scientists observing a underwater alien lifeform on an ice capped planet - think Europa with hot vents on the seafloor.

Godel plays on old tropes - A pitfighter with a heart of gold and his trusty majordomo-type pal. Kinda Jeeves goes spacefaring. War, chase scenes, formidable AI personas and romance. Okay, not much romance. And gaslighting.

Posted by: 13times at April 09, 2023 12:57 PM (rU8+6)

369 Okay. One last comment.
Exactly. I did not have to read a single book on economics to reach these conclusions. In fact, I have always been terrible at any kind of math. Yet, I managed a career writing grant proposals, another career involving real estate transactions and managed to comfortably retire on my investments. Tell me why I should read books on economics? (Just being a smartass) 😉

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at April 09, 2023 12:58 PM (Y+l9t)

370 I refuse to read the TV Tropes website for much the same reason. Creating something entertaining is tough enough without having a little devil on your shoulder whispering, "But Buffy the Vampire Slayer did that in Season Two!"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at April 09, 2023 11:20 AM

I find TV Tropes to be an entertaining stroll down memory lane. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at April 09, 2023 12:59 PM (iZEhM)

371 Also reading more Rex Stout books and a public domain book America's Siberian Adventure 1919 by General Graves - free from fadedpage. Written in 1928? and reissued 1941. His dispassionate recollections serve him and history well.

Posted by: 13times at April 09, 2023 01:08 PM (rU8+6)

372 >>Joe Rogan on Douglass Murray’s theory that every civilization that’s on the brink of collapse becomes obsessed with gender

https://bit.ly/3Mw8eis

FWIW, Camille Paglia said the same thing. Might be a chicken and egg thing, since she said once you blur gender roles the civilization will collapse (i.e. society depends on each gender performing its designed roles vs chaos).

Posted by: Lizzy at April 09, 2023 01:16 PM (EdLEa)

373 Bill Slim: Field Marshall, Viscount, magazine writers?

Before he was the best allied general of WW 2, Bill Slim wrote magazine articles between the wars to supplement his meagre military pay. Those articles have been edited and republished recently-for the time being only in ebook editions available through Amazon. The first of the newly-published books, "The General Wondered Why…," contains 17 stories about the Indian Army. The second, "The English Colonel," has 11 stories about India without much mention of the Army, and the third, "A Close Shave," has 17 stories which the editor, Robert Lyman of The War Room website, says have no Indian or military dimension albeit the subtitle of all three books is "Tales of the British Army and Empire."

Anyway, all three are available as kindle books through Amazon, and are relatively cheap at about $4 per. I'm part way through the first book, and Slim's writing style in its humor and simplicity reminds me a bit of George McDonald Fraser in "Quartered Safe Out Here," (or maybe John Masters in his memoirs) which is somewhat fitting as Slim is mentioned most favorably in Fraser's autobiography.
cont....

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 09, 2023 01:28 PM (cYrkj)

374 Bill Slim cont...

In the event you hesitate to buy a pig in a poke, as you should because you never know what's in the bag until you open it, 2 of the stories are available on Lyman's website. The first one I read, "Providing ‘Aid to the Civil Power' in Colonial India," is very interesting, and can be found here:

https://robertlyman.substack [dot] com/p/providing-aid-to-the-civil-power

If nothing else, Slim's articles give a bit of insight into the thinking and culture of the British colonial military and the Indian Army in the early 20th century.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 09, 2023 01:32 PM (cYrkj)

375 @263 --

Castle Guy (if you're still here):

There never was a Deadman series. The character began as a feature in the anthology series Strange Adventures. SA was canceled before the Deadman story was over, and they wrapped up the story in one issue of a different book.

Deadman has since bopped around the DC Universe, molded to fit the writer's story. I remember a Swamp Thing issue in which he guided Swampy around the afterlife.

Kelley Jones was probably crawling when Adams drew Deadman. I don't care for Jones' art, but his style could work for Deadman.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 02:30 PM (Om/di)

376 "362 Just picked up a Osprey type booklet The Road to Austerlitz campaign of 1805 by R.G.Burton for less than $2, couldn't pass the price up
Posted by: Skip"

Skip: If that's the Burton I think it is, Reginald George Burton, he was an officer in the Indian Army in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries (wounded at Gallipoli). and at least some of his books-"The First and Second Sikh Wars" for example-were prepared for the General Staff and were published by the Government in India. With that said, Burton's books were generally good potted histories and some at least, "The Maratha and Pindari War" for example, have great maps and the sort of detailed appendixes you don't find in modern publications. For reasons I'm not sure I understand, some of Burton's books and others by British contemporaries about the Raj are being reprinted in very cheap editions by Indian presses. The quality of printing varies from uneven to bad, but they are cheap and interesting. I think Leonaur Press may be reprinting some of his stuff. His First and Second Sikh Wars was reprinted about 15 years back by Westholme Publishing.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 09, 2023 02:47 PM (cYrkj)

377 Pope John 20th, thanks for the tip about collections by William Slim now being available on Kindle!

"The first one I read, "Providing ‘Aid to the Civil Power' in Colonial India," is very interesting,..."

George MacDonald Fraser addresses this question in one of his "McAuslan" stories "Captain Errol" (in the collection "The Sheikh and the Dustbin"). He describes a young Lt. and his platoon set to hold a bridge that is one of the connections between the Old City and the new town built by the Italian colonizers in Libya (now occupied by the British). There is rioting in the native quarter but where they are everything is quiet. Until a mob appears heading for the bridge. What is he to do?

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at April 09, 2023 03:10 PM (2SWLc)

378 JFMacM, as I recall Fraser, or Dand, later sees a photo of "Errol" amongst a bunch of Brit ex-pats soldiering in Africa (maybe with Mad Mike Hoare?)-as B.A. Barcus would say, he was still on the jazz.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 09, 2023 03:57 PM (cYrkj)

379 In Mein Kamf Hitler stated he believed he was doing God's work.

Posted by: Paul at April 09, 2023 04:00 PM (/iKPb)

380 He is risen! Hallelujah! A blessed Easter to the entire hoarde. Even the trolls!!

Posted by: LASue at April 09, 2023 05:23 PM (Ed8Zd)

381 re 378, there always seem to be a certain number of men who after a war seek not to go home but to find another war.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at April 09, 2023 05:33 PM (2SWLc)

382 Oddly enough, Mad Mike gave up chartered accountancy to become a mercenary, while Ben Grierson gave up a career as a music teacher to become a professional soldier.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at April 09, 2023 06:24 PM (cYrkj)

383 John F., John XX --

Has either of you read "The Dogs of War"? Frederick Forsyth. Mercenary op in western Africa. I think you'd enjoy it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at April 09, 2023 09:36 PM (Om/di)

384 Empire of the Summer Moon
LeMay By Warren Kozak

Wars need to be fought to be won. Otherwise, don't bother fighting.

Posted by: jimmymcnulty at April 09, 2023 10:40 PM (BJgzI)

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