Sunday Morning Book Thread - 10-29-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: JR)

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 (ht: fd). 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, unless 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, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

TXMOME FOLLOWUP

Another TXMOME is behind us and I can truthfully say that it was just as awesome as ever! A profound thank you to Ben Had for organizing the event. Thank you to RancherBob and CowHorseQueen for hosting the event. Thank you to Weasel for creating an incredible shooting experience for everyone on both the pistol range and the rifle range. Thank you to Pete Bog for his efforts in cooking all of the amazing food. Thanks to every other Moron (and 'ette, of course!) who contributed to this event in some small way, even if it's just making sure the coolers are stocked with ice. This event would not be possible without the collective efforts of so many people!

PIC NOTE

Today's pic straddles the uncanny valley, as I cannot tell if it is a photo or a painting. According to the Moron lurker JR who sent this to me, it's from a Facebook site about Creepy Abandoned Places. I don't do Facebook, so I can't view too much of the website. I'll bet the exterior of this building is just as creepy and disturbing. I'm sure an enterprising Moron could write a short story about this library...

ALBERTA OIL PEON'S STORY

A strange book appeared at the TXMOME last weekend, accompanied by the following letter of provenance:

Legend
(only slightly embellished from the true facts)

As a young Peon, my life was full of adventure. 1974 found me on the good ship Mumtaz B. Ali, diving in a hard hat suit on the infamous Drowned Library of Miskatonic University, in an undisclosed location. I was searching for the long-lost recipe for Sweet and Sour Squid, and maybe the odd Necronomicon or two.
So, there I was, 120 feet beneath the sea, in the flooded stacks, searching the shelves with a burning magnesium flare for light, and stuffing the odd book in my goodie bag., when I felt my air supply constricted! I looked behind me, and beheld an Eldritch Horror with one of its countless tentacles tightly entwined around my air hose. There was but one thing I could do. Dropping the torch, I reached into my belt pouch, and withdrew a bottle of seafood sauce, and thrust it at the loathsome apparition. It recoiled in terror, and relaxed its grip on my airline. A quick tug by me on the hoist rope, and my crew quickly winched me to safety. All I had to show for my ordeal was this ancient book of marine mysteries, which I now offer to the Horde as proof of my adventures. Or not, as the case may be.
My regards tot eh Horde, and to the Hosts of the Texas MoMee. Which I were here.
Alberta Oil Peon

NOTE: Upon further investigation of this rather bedraggled tome, it appears to be a lost copy of this book.

BOOK SWAPPING ACTIVITY

One of the great things about meeting Morons in meatspace at a MoMe is the conversations you will have with them that you do not ever get to do in cyberspace. As a result of one of those conversations, Cybersmythe sent me the following, describing a "book swapping" activity he and his friends engage in down in Houston. Sounds like fun. I'm very tempted to organize something along these lines for the next TXMOME. Stay tuned for updates...

In an age of $15 paperbacks it can be tough to find new authors to read. Of course, you can always harvest suggestions from the Book Thread, but what if you like a genre or authors that other Morons haven't stumbled across, or at least won't admit to in public?
Well, down here in Houston, we have these meetings called "Science Fiction Book Swaps." It's a book group where everybody reads whatever books they have and then every month or so we sit around a circle and do an impromptu review of what we've read. Then, we loan the books we've read to anyone who wants to read it themselves. Of course, forgetful attendees are a problem and someone has to be the first to buy a copy of something, but it can be an effective way to get the word out about an author you've discovered that you really like or find new authors while you're waiting for the latest from your favorite writer.
As I've said, we mostly do science fiction and fantasy with the occasional mystery or horror novel thrown in, but there's no reason you couldn't do this with any kind of book. In our established community, we aren't sticklers for topicality and anyone can pretty much talk about anything they think the rest of the community might be interested in.
To get started, find a couple of like-minded individuals and a place to meet, in Houston we mostly meet at restaurants, and just start doing it. And, if you're in Houston and you want to find out more about where and when these book swaps happen, you can write to me at "cybersmythe at proton dot me" or on the Moron groups.io group and I'll be happy to help you.
Cybersmythe

++++++++++

++++++++++

BOOKS BY MORONS

We've got some excellent offerings for you today...

I have just released Doors: An Onteora County Romance, as an eBook on Amazon. Here's the blurb:
Paul Larsen's B&B in Ogunquit, Maine is running him off his feet. Desperate for someone to share the load, he hires pretty, appealing Carol Holm as his assistant manager. Carol is desperate to be gone from Onteora County, New York, where she's made some highly placed enemies. As time passes she becomes Paul's lover, and later his wife.
But things are changing in Ogunquit, and not for the better. Some of Maine's denizens are becoming more dangerous than the bears, the moose, and the enemies from whom Carol fled. The most threatening of them wear badges. Though it alarms Carol, Paul elects to face them down. The consequences are life-altering for them both.
Doors is $2.99 as a Kindle eBook. A paperback, priced at $9.99, will be available shortly.
Francis W. Porretto

Comment: Francis W. Porretto has written a number of books, in several different genres. He posts excerpts from time to time on his blog, Liberty's Torch. They are always thought-provoking, as he uses them to emphasize important points in his commentary. Good stuff.

+++++

Hi, Perfessor! I thought I'd bug you again for another Book by a Moron I'd ask you to mention.
This is a mystery called Dwindle, Peak and Pine:
Rick Drail and his widowed father, Craig, own a small cabin camp in the town of Hunker Lake. Things are normally very quiet for them after Halloween ... but then, people aren't normally murdered in Hunker Lake, and never in one of their cabins. Sue Milkins is the most beautiful woman Rick has ever seen in person, the kind of woman that can set a small town like Hunker Lake on fire. Where has she come from? What has brought her to this small town, past the end of the season? And why would anyone want to kill her? When Sue is found murdered one morning, Rick's life spirals into chaos. The police suspect everyone of the crime, even Rick's father. Rick suddenly sees everyone around him, including their other paying guests, even his closest friends, as potential murderers. As police tighten their focus on Craig, Rick tries to find information to save him--but maybe his father does have some secrets of his own.
Thanks! I don't usually comment on your weekly review, but I always look forward to reading it.

Comment: Sounds intriguing! Relates somewhat to last week's post where I discussed betrayal in literature. Who murdered the poor woman? Was it someone she trusted? Sounds like Rick's trust circle rapidly shrinks as even his closest friend--or even his own father--may have done the dirty deed...

+++++

Hi, Perfesser!
It's "moviegique"! My first book ("Silk Unspun") is coming out on
November 7th. I'm offering a free Advance Reader copy with the only
stipulation that readers leave a review. (A certain number of reviews
right off the bat makes me eligible for certain promotional deals from
Amazon.)
I'm a bit behind so I'll also send a free hardcopy out to anyone who
does this (and wants a free copy), even autographed (if desired!).
Interested parties should contact me at i@dsblake.com, or they can drop
their emails in the book thread (I'm often asleep when it's running)
with their preferred electronic format (PDF, EPUB, MOBI).
Thanks!

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Here is a very strong recommendation. Get The Reader's Encyclopedia by William Rose Benet.
It's a compendium of literature and the Arts and major figures in science and major historical events and really just about everything you should have learned in a classical liberal arts education in one handy volume. Be sure to buy a copy that was published before 1982 because later versions have of course been scrubbed by the lefties.
Posted by: Beverly at October 22, 2023 09:10 AM (MjTM2)

Comment: Beverly is correct in her assessment. When I searched for this item on Amazon, I found hits for updated versions of the book, but it's clear that the editors do have a "woke" agenda in mind.

+++++

Every once in a while, I like to include an "anti-recommendation."

In less pleasant reading, I was obligated to read Richard Schwartz's No Bad Parts. I've been forced to read at least a half-dozen of these pop-psych/self-help books and I cordially loathe them, but I give Schwartz credit: none of the other ones combined his level of arrogance and ignorance.
In the first 14 pages the man declares that he has more wisdom than the Church Fathers and Buddha himself. Such modesty! He has an entire chapter on how he's solved all the problems of the world (nice of him to share) and if you cut out his constant need to pat himself on the back, there's 15 actual pages of useful information.
What really sets this guy apart, though, is how *wrong* he is about all this little tangents. He lectures on the doctrinal failures of Christianity while getting them completely wrong.

About the only good thing I say of this book is that it isn't mine, otherwise it would already have been expended as a target and burned.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 22, 2023 09:21 AM (llXky)

Comment: From what I can tell from the negative reviews on Amazon, the author includes his politics from the very beginning of the book and doesn't let go. There may or may not be validity to the author's claims, but his biases interfere with the reader's attempt to glean anything useful, unless you are a fellow political traveler.

+++++

I read Stephen Baxter's Proxima, a hard SF story about a forced colonization of one of the planets of Proxima Centauri in order to claim it as territory before a rival entity gets there.
There are plot threads aboundin', including scheming AIs, inscrutable Chinee, an energy source that has revolutionized space travel, and alien space/time portals that whisk one between systems.
I've noticed that "hard" SF has great ideas but wafer-thin characterization. I still enjoyed it, and now I'm reading the second half of this duo logo, Ultima, in which we find that that hatches aren't just space/time portals but also doors to alternate timelines. In one, the Roman Empire never collapsed and now we have Rooooomans In Spaaaaaaace!
Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 22, 2023 09:45 AM (vnfYO)

Comment: I'm a huge fan of Stephen Baxter's works. Not because he has great characterization in his novels (he doesn't). No, I love his books because he pushes the boundaries of known science to the very limits of the imagination and beyond. He likes to create unusual settings and then determine how humans might survive in such a setting. He's also fascinated by the Fermi Paradox, which is an attempt to explain why we appear to be alone in such a vast universe. I'm seldom disappointed by any of his stories.

+++++

I have been reading Defenders of the West by Raymond Ibrahim - it is a brief history about eight men that defended the west from the Muslim onslaught. The deprivations these men endured would make a navy seal seem weak. (no offense to any seals)
Posted by: Lurking in Garland at October 22, 2023 12:13 PM (vmpFt)

Comment: I have Ibrahim's The Sword and the Scimitar, which is the precursor to this book, but I have not read it yet. The West has been at war with Islam since its inception. It's truly a miracle that the conquest of Europe by Muslim hordes has not happened until now, though Germany is apparently attempting to reverse its pro-Muslim immigration policies. We'll have to wait and see if they can manage to expel the invaders this time.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

+-----+-----+-----+-----+

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Nora Kelly Book 4 - Dead Mountain by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child - Archaeologist Nora Kelly and her colleague from the FBI, junior agent Corrie Swann, become involved in the mystery of how nine hikers disappeard 15 years ago under suspicious circumstances. Lots of betrayals!

Phase Space by Stephen Baxter - A collection of short stories that take place within Baxter's Manifold series of books. Lots of weirdness with space, time, and other realities...

The Cinder Spires Book 1 - The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher - The author of The Dresden Files and Codex Alera takes us to a new world where mighty warships sail through the skies between ancient spires inhabited by humans, while even more ancient evils stir on the ground beneath them. Book 2 is coming out in a couple of weeks.

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 - 10-22-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Hay

Posted by: Ciampino - about that ice at October 29, 2023 08:59 AM (qfLjt)

2 Hooray! Book Thread.

Boo! I have to go somewhere now.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 09:00 AM (Angsy)

3 hiya

Posted by: JT at October 29, 2023 09:00 AM (T4tVD)

4 Tolle Lege
Saying if don't finish Tolkien's Silmarillion this week I never will.

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:01 AM (WHNi6)

5 no reading this week

Posted by: China at October 29, 2023 09:01 AM (lwOKI)

6 I nooded and reminded them to put pants on.

Posted by: Ciampino - about that paper pulp at October 29, 2023 09:01 AM (qfLjt)

7 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great, and spooky, week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:01 AM (7EjX1)

8 Thanks Perf, now for the content.

Posted by: 13times at October 29, 2023 09:03 AM (dVLvp)

9 off sox

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 29, 2023 09:04 AM (lwOKI)

10 Ogunquit?

I'm having flashbacks to The Stand...

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at October 29, 2023 09:04 AM (8sMut)

11 I hope that top photo is a painting. I hate to think of all those books and shelves mouldering in the heat and humidity.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:04 AM (7EjX1)

12 Good Sunday morning, horde. Sunday morning.

I love the book swap thing, Cybersmythe. Too bad I don't have any real-life friends who live nearby, or I'd organize such a thing.

AOP, love your story. Intriguing!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:06 AM (OX9vb)

13 Tolkien's seeming madness to make up names IMO is dragging this book. Also confused in beginning if the characters in book are Demi-gods, Elves or what being able to create life, stop the sun and other extraordinary feats.
But seems to calmed down now.

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:06 AM (WHNi6)

14 Greetings from Lawrence, Kan., which is likely still rocking over my Jayhawks' takedown of the Sooners yesterday. Besides shivering hard at the game, I hit the city's used-book stores. Between Dallas and Lawrence, I've added a lot to my holdings -- but I'm not reading any of them yet.

(continued)

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 29, 2023 09:07 AM (zPKGi)

15 Doing Bible study research, found Encyclopedia Judaica free on archive.org. All 17500 pages of it:
https://tinyurl.com/45ms4efn

Got a copy of Aland's History of Christianity from AbeBooks. It's not footnoted, so it's hard to assess many of his assertions.

Posted by: gp In The Center Of A Stool Boom at October 29, 2023 09:07 AM (MvF+J)

16 Pic brings to mind one of the best scenes in the 1960 film of THE TIME MACHINE -- Rod Taylor looking at the Eloi's books, handling them and seeing them crumble to dust.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 09:08 AM (a/4+U)

17 My guess is picture is a painting, well done if so

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:08 AM (WHNi6)

18 It's truly a miracle that the conquest of Europe by Muslim hordes has not happened until now, though Germany is apparently attempting to reverse its pro-Muslim immigration policies. We'll have to wait and see if they can manage to expel the invaders this time.

I hope Mutti Merkel is happy with the damage she has wrought in Germany, and Europe in general.

I've read the Sword and the Scimitar, and it's a good history, although not good for your blood pressure. Ibrahim has a SERIOUS har...bone to pick with Islam. However, he's one of the few who's willing to tell the real story. At the very least, it's a welcome counterpoint to the incessant propaganda we get from the media.

Posted by: Archimedes at October 29, 2023 09:08 AM (I/Qkd)

19 (part II)

Instead, I opened "Ace in the Hole," the sixth book in the "Wild Cards" shared-universe series, which began in the late 1980s.

The premise of the series: Shortly after WWII, aliens intent on invading Earth release a virus that kills 90 percent of those it infects. Of the rest, many suffer body deformations, and a tiny few develop superpowers. These lucky ones are known as aces, and the other survivors are jokers. They maintain the attitudes they had before they were infected.

(continued)

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 29, 2023 09:08 AM (zPKGi)

20 (part III)

"Ace in the Hole" takes place at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, where a leading candidate, a U.S. senator, is secretly a killer ace. He can control people through a separate personality he's dubbed Puppetman. He struggles to keep it contained.

Meanwhile, another ace -- who can kill with his gaze -- is hired to assassinate the senator, a reporter who believes the senator killed her sister in childhood (he did) is out to bring him down, and another candidate (not Dukakis) publicly vows to exterminate all aces and jokers. And those are just some of the plots.

(continued)

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 29, 2023 09:10 AM (zPKGi)

21 Hello Perf and fellow book fiends.

I see T. Kingfisher won the Hugo for "Nettle and Bone". Well, I like her works, especially "The Twisted Ones", so good, although "Nettle" isn't exactly mind-blowing. At least it isn't just ticking a box for the most diverse alphabits name.

Does anybody look to awards listings anymore? I sure don't. Well, maybe that libertarian SF one.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:10 AM (4KAXk)

22 Good morning. I've not been posting to the book thread recently for various reasons. However, because I fear the wrath of Sharon, due to making a reference or dozen to a book I'm reading, while chatting with her at the MoMe, I decided to de-lurk and say something about "The Running Grave" the latest installment in the Cormoran Strike series.

So, here goes: The agency gets a case, they investigate and havoc follows.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:11 AM (z5vMw)

23 (part IV -- the finale)

How did one writer handle all this? Well, one writer didn't. The story blended the work of five writers, under the editorship of George R.R. Martin. Previous books in the series were collections of separate stories.

According to Wikipedia, the series is still continuing, with nearly 30 books, plus separate short stories and comics adaptations. I've never seen any in this century, so I wonder about its market share.

Posted by: Weak Geek at October 29, 2023 09:11 AM (zPKGi)

24 Picture reminds me of Library of Congress in Logan's Run

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:12 AM (WHNi6)

25 Do Authors cry...?

===
John Irving to white courtesy phone please. He slaughters his characters with abandon.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 29, 2023 09:13 AM (RIvkX)

26
I am reading, for a second time, david Brin's "The Uplift War", the third and final volume of his first Uplift Trilogy ("Sundiver" and "Startide Rising" were the first two books in this one). As my copies of these all are paperbacks, they will be donated to Stockings for Soldiers when I finish reading this one.

I first encountered this trilogy through "Startide Rising" and it remains the favorite of mine. There just was something so satisfying about the Earthlings' ship bluffing its way past all the other races' battle fleets and then firing off an insulting raspberry to them as it skedaddled away that made its ending very satisfying. In "The Uplift War", Earthlings are being bad boys and girls yet again, but this story plods along where SR's flitted about and with great fun.

I have heard that Brin wrote a second Uplift trilogy, but I doubt that I will acquire and read it.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 29, 2023 09:14 AM (wuzzs)

27 I like the idea of a book swap at the next MoMee, Perf. You can don your pimp hat and display the fine wares.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:14 AM (4KAXk)

28 Blake most concise book review ever read

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:14 AM (WHNi6)

29 I think the picture at top is a CGI "painting". I have to think that. The prospect of all those books rotting in the rain is too horrible to contemplate.

Posted by: Archimedes at October 29, 2023 09:15 AM (I/Qkd)

30 I sure hope ace gets his due vigorish on all of these recommendations.

There is nothing worse than a knee-high tall ewok with an aluminum bat seasoned on the skulls of hobos.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at October 29, 2023 09:15 AM (PbTeh)

31 Good morning all!!

I am reading Tom Bower's book "Revenge" about Harry and Sparkle Markle. What a train wreck Harry was BEFORE that succubus appeared. The RF hid or excused his transgressions for so long that he developed an entitled attitude and Sparkle egged him on every chance she got.

Posted by: jmel at October 29, 2023 09:15 AM (bVhJi)

32 I used to check out the awards listings, winners and nominees, to steer me to goodies I might have missed. Since the late 80s and early 90s, not so much. Looked at the list Pixy linked to for the Hugos and could only marvel at how out of touch I've gotten -- I could count on my fingers (and only one hand needed for this) the names I've heard of. The strange part is that it doesn't bother me to ignore so much of the current work in the genre I grew up on.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 09:15 AM (a/4+U)

33 Still reading Stephen Baxter's "Ultima", book two in his Hatch duology. Some unknown alien mischief makers have seeded these space/time portals to other timelines, which leads to some fun alternate history extrapolations: What if Rome didn't fall? What if the Incans became a spacefaring empire? The Scandi-Britannic union is nominally Christian, but their ass-kicking warrior Jesus has more than a hint of Thor; He wields a hammer.

I'm along for the ride, but Baxter doesn't seem to let his cultures evolve much over millennia, only the tech, thus Roman legions in steampunk spaceships. Eh, I'm not complaining.

The JonBar Hinge:

https://tinyurl.com/2p8cnuzy

Counterfactual history:

https://tinyurl.com/uvcx8ktm

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:16 AM (4KAXk)

34
But seems to calmed down now.
Posted by: Skip

You are aware, of course, that all those who sailed into the West were enrolled in Valinor's Perpetual Pickleball Tournament?

There's many a player there who regrets making that voyage, I can tell you.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 29, 2023 09:18 AM (wuzzs)

35 Tolkien's seeming madness to make up names IMO is dragging this book. Also confused in beginning if the characters in book are Demi-gods, Elves or what being able to create life, stop the sun and other extraordinary feats.
But seems to calmed down now.

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:06 AM (WHNi6)
---
The Silmarillion, I presume? Keep in mind that Christopher published what were essentially a series of notes and short stories, using a deft editorial hand and discussions with his late father to choose between conflicting versions (of which there were many). The Fall of Gondolin (published as a standalone book) saw very little revision even though it is one of the oldest works from Middle Earth. If you chance to get that book, it's description of combat is intense - and has almost a steampunk feel to it. The walls of the city are attacked by what can only be described as dragon-tanks, and multiple balrogs meet their doom at the hands of the Broken Anvil clan, who are the most badass unit in all of his writing, yet feel very real - like a squad who has been told the line is breached, go fill it and die. And they do.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 09:18 AM (llXky)

36 11 I hope that top photo is a painting. I hate to think of all those books and shelves mouldering in the heat and humidity.
Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:04 AM (7EjX1)

On the other hand, should we find ourselves in an apocalyptic dystopia, wandering the world in search of food and other things for survival, it would be a joy to find such a thing. I'd make camp and stay a while.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:19 AM (OX9vb)

37 AOP needs a literary agent.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 29, 2023 09:19 AM (RIvkX)

38 24 Picture reminds me of Library of Congress in Logan's Run
Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 09:12 AM (WHNi6)

me too

Posted by: rhennigantx at October 29, 2023 09:20 AM (lwOKI)

39 The challenge of The Silmarillion is therefore that it is uneven and the scale shifts from gods moving through epochs to individuals living day to day.

So yeah, you get to watch the sun and moon be formed, mountains are reared up, but then elves get into a family dispute and exchange mean words.

The battles are epic though. Hurin Thalion is a serious badass.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 09:20 AM (llXky)

40 The Pants Guy owns a weedwhacker like Pence owns an electorate.

Posted by: JT at October 29, 2023 09:20 AM (T4tVD)

41 Pic up top made me think of "Earth Abides." Ish wants to preserve the nearby library, but eventually he realizes that his descendants will need to build their own civilization from the ground up and not recreate the one that is irretrievably lost. He abandons trying to make them literate and instead teaches them how to make a bow and arrows.

Posted by: PabloD at October 29, 2023 09:20 AM (2SXTY)

42 On the other hand, should we find ourselves in an apocalyptic dystopia, wandering the world in search of food and other things for survival, it would be a joy to find such a thing. I'd make camp and stay a while.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:19 AM (OX9vb)
-----------------------

Careful with the glasses, though!

Posted by: Burgess Meredith at October 29, 2023 09:20 AM (z5vMw)

43 On the other hand, should we find ourselves in an apocalyptic dystopia, wandering the world in search of food and other things for survival, it would be a joy to find such a thing. I'd make camp and stay a while.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:19 AM (OX9vb)
----

You can burn Dan Brown books to stay warm.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:21 AM (4KAXk)

44 I hope Mutti Merkel is happy with the damage she has wrought in Germany, and Europe in general.

It didn't start with her. But, she didn't help matters.

They need to do some serious soul searching, to include the reformation of their generous nanny state, which led to the decline of the birthrate ("Who needs a family when the State will baby me from cradle to grave?") and led to the State encouraging mass immigration.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (8sMut)

45 Top picture: Logan's Run, or the 1960 Time Machine.

Posted by: Tom Servo at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (k3aLv)

46 You can burn Dan Brown books to stay warm.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:21 AM (4KAXk)
---------------

Yes, but where does it stop?

Posted by: Ray Bradbury at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (z5vMw)

47 The strange part is that it doesn't bother me to ignore so much of the current work in the genre I grew up on.

Me neither, and that applies to TV and comics, too. I've yet to flip through a current comic whose art appeals to me. And as for TV ...

I overhear the shows my wife watches, and that's enough to drive me out of the room. I'm happy with my DVDs of classic shows.

Posted by: Weak Geek needs to stop posting and start packing at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (zPKGi)

48 I was travelling this week, and horror of horrors, forgot my current book. I had to make an emergency book stop and picked up Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Everyone has seen a movie or play version of this, but getting into the original text is interesting. The story involves Poirot vacationing on an Egyptian cruise, while a rich, recently married, nasty young woman is killed. Of course, there are several viable suspects on board, and each must be investigated. The original work has the benefit of knowing Poirot's thoughts instead of having to read them on an actor's face. It is a good story, and easy to see why it has been adapted so often.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:23 AM (ZdOio)

49 On the Kindle I read the Evolution Trilogy, the third trilogy in the Not Alone series by Craig A. Falconer. This first contact series has a great cast of characters and plenty of thrills as humanity tries to survive contact with hostile aliens. Falconer uses a hierarchy of three alien species, each one more dangerous than the last, and each controlling the previous species. The series ends in a satisfactory, believable way.

Posted by: Zoltan at October 29, 2023 09:23 AM (7EvEN)

50 I'm reading "JFK and the Unspeakable", that a couple of folks here have commented on. I like its granular detail, but I noticed one of Douglass' other books was called "The Nonviolent Coming of God", and as an evangelical Christian I want to tell him "Dude, it's going to be violent." Plus, from what I have read about the CIA I don't think they were competent enough to pull off an event of the magnitude of the Kennedy assassination and get away with it. I read a few books about the assassination before I was 29 and concluded that it was all Oswald, but must admit that the current Deep State has given me cause to be open to other possibilities.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 09:24 AM (hsWtj)

51
"My name is Uffi Mutti Kerannen"

-- an introduction spoken by a younger brother of a classmate when I was in fourth grade (his family was Finnish)

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 29, 2023 09:24 AM (wuzzs)

52 The Book of Signs - Dr. David Jeremiah.
It's time.

Posted by: Marybel Smiles at October 29, 2023 09:24 AM (b2Tnl)

53 Flying out on Friday. Damn, I need something to read. Time to rummage my pipeline.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at October 29, 2023 09:25 AM (8sMut)

54 I overhear the shows my wife watches, and that's enough to drive me out of the room. I'm happy with my DVDs of classic shows.

Posted by: Weak Geek needs to stop posting and start packing at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (zPKGi)
---
I don't want to pollute this august and noble thread with movies, but Friday night my wife and I watched Renfield and what stood out was the awful dialog. No one actually talks like that. It's stupid people trying to sound smart and witty and failing.

I notice it everywhere - painfully awkward oversharing or disgressions that simply do not occur in real life. And it's pervasive, as if USC Film School includes it in their intro to writing course or something.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

55 Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:23 AM (ZdOio)

I can't remember if the movie version from the early 70's had Peter Ustinov or Albert Finney.

Posted by: dantesed at October 29, 2023 09:26 AM (88xKn)

56 Yes, but where does it stop?
Posted by: Ray Bradbury at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (z5vMw)

Aren't you the dude that wrote Celsius 233?

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at October 29, 2023 09:26 AM (8sMut)

57 I read a few books about the assassination before I was 29 and concluded that it was all Oswald, but must admit that the current Deep State has given me cause to be open to other possibilities.
Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 09:24 AM

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

Oswald could very easily have been an asset the CIA lost control of. Oswald could also be another of the FBI's "known wolves" they let slip away.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:27 AM (z5vMw)

58 You can burn Dan Brown books to stay warm.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:21 AM (4KAXk)

*snort

First on the pile!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:27 AM (OX9vb)

59 I'm reminded of a thread some weeks ago where we talked about dialog vs conversation and there's clearly a belief that one should include lots of pointless conversation to "flesh out" the characters, but it's just a distraction and shows how vacuous and unexperienced in life the writers are.

I'm re-reading LotR right now, and the dialog is very much to the point. Gandalf is wonderfully written, truly the iconic wise man who can be compassionate but has a short fuse. His metaphors and put downs are brilliant. ("He has a mind like a lumber room - thing wanted always buried."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 09:29 AM (llXky)

60
I avoid this no longer. The time has come to assemble my materials and tools for conducting demonstrations of the lapidary and fine metal smithing arts for our lapidary society's gem and mineral show next weekend.

Wish me luck, as the missus and I differ on where different wire working tool types should be stored when not in use and matters may get "lively", as they say.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 29, 2023 09:30 AM (wuzzs)

61 Thanks Perfessor for the always great Book Thread and all the comments that add to it.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at October 29, 2023 09:30 AM (6vqEw)

62
Oswald could very easily have been an asset the CIA lost control of. Oswald could also be another of the FBI's "known wolves" they let slip away.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:27 AM (z5vMw)
---
There was no magic bullet. A second shot was fired from the front and went through the windshield. A researcher dug this out recently, going to the auto plant where the new windshield (with fake interior damage) was installed. Like all good, mindless bureaucracies, they kept the paperwork so they could bill Uncle Sam.

That greatly helped the coverup, because there was (fake) physical evidence.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 09:32 AM (llXky)

63 I think I read that Devil's Triangle book very many years ago back in the days when I read anything. These are the days when I will read nearly anything. I've become almost discerning in my old age.

Posted by: huerfano at October 29, 2023 09:32 AM (Q4KYm)

64 I'm happy with my DVDs of classic shows.
Posted by: Weak Geek

That's all I watch as well, other than documentaries.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:32 AM (ZdOio)

65 16 Pic brings to mind one of the best scenes in the 1960 film of THE TIME MACHINE -- Rod Taylor looking at the Eloi's books, handling them and seeing them crumble to dust.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 09:08 AM (a/4+U)
----
Really well done movie. My younger daughter was small at the time we watched as a family and she called the bad guys The Doorlocks.

Posted by: Ciampino - about those bookends at October 29, 2023 09:33 AM (qfLjt)

66 Mornin Book Worms.
Got nothing read this week. Busy trying to... Hell, I don't know what I was doing. I think I was busy. I believe I was doing things. I could be wrong but nevertheless another Sunday has crept up on me.

I did read through a printed version of a powerpoint on some new standard at work. It left so little of an impression on me that I don't even remember it's name. Seems the people who wrote it have a problem with single digit numbers.

"Five things to consider..."
Then there are four listed.. I just can't.
Having lived through ISO and TQM and every other grifter written bullshit telling me how I should do my job I simply won't.
I've had enough of it. ISO 14001 was the final straw.

Posted by: Reforger at October 29, 2023 09:34 AM (91Nxr)

67 I'm not an adult who cares about Halloween. It's a fun time for kids to extort candy from their neighbors. But I take advantage of the season to read some classic horror stories. So out come copies of Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Lord Dunsany. In place of action they are masters of establishing an atmosphere of increasing fear and realization that forces of evil and power beyond mankind's ability to fully understand or prevail. It's the quality of the writing and the pacing makes them work so well for me. I imagine hearing the stories told around a dying camp fire as the chill of night comes on and the dark woods close in.

I put Poe in a different category because his horror is often internal to the narrator as loss, guilt at his horrific act, and realization of what he did drive him to madness.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:36 AM (7EjX1)

68 I've had enough of it. ISO 14001 was the final straw.
Posted by: Reforger at October 29, 2023 09:34 AM (91Nxr)
--------------

I've long been of the opinion the ISO standards were a means for the EU to keep American products out of the common market.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:37 AM (z5vMw)

69 I can't remember if the movie version from the early 70's had Peter Ustinov or Albert Finney.
Posted by: dantesed

The movie I remember was Ustinov.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:37 AM (ZdOio)

70 I'm nearly done my day-by-day reading of A Night in the Lonesome October. Each chapter's a day in October so I've just got two to go. Fun book. It would be a good story to read aloud to a kid who likes monster movies and is almost ready to give up being read to.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 09:38 AM (78a2H)

71 This may be the best indicator of my encroaching senility -- most of the newer stuff (newer being the last 15 or 20 years) just doesn't sound like fun to me. Not only haven't read it, but don't want to. If Robert Silverberg or Lawrence Block put out a new novel, I'm there -- but these are writers I've followed since the 60s and 70s. It's like looking at a map of the world, and deciding, nope, ain't gonna visit any more of these places.

Same applies in my case to movies and music too. Just how old am I? Popular music started sliding downhill when the original Association stopped recording. Television started sliding when David Janssen died. Damn, I'm old.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 09:39 AM (a/4+U)

72 ISO is institutional autism.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at October 29, 2023 09:39 AM (RIvkX)

73 I love the book swap thing, Cybersmythe. Too bad I don't have any real-life friends who live nearby, or I'd organize such a thing.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:06 AM

I didn't invent it. I'm just letting you guys know about it.

If you don't know anybody local, I'd suggest doing some kind of on-line equivalent, but that's kind of what the Book Thread is, so we're already there.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 29, 2023 09:40 AM (iZEhM)

74
Do authors cry when they kill the best character, or do they smile, laugh and have a cup of tea with Satan?

The story I have in my mind the two main characters meet, fall in love, make a radical discovery together, and then she dies, and then he dies. But it still has a happy ending.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at October 29, 2023 09:40 AM (enJYY)

75 I have been reading Père Goriot by Balzac. If one can get past the overly long introduction (which is interesting, but too long), the novel is funny, incisive, and moves at a nice brisk pace.
Going by a superficial impression, Balzac's novels are mostly about castigating social evils and about how good, but naive and weak-willed characters suffer at the hands of the strong and find the evil and pettiness in their hearts. Nobody is truly innocent in his novels or, if they are, they truly suffer for it. Balzac looks into the hearts of men and finds that the only ones who are good are those who have not been tested yet.
This social analysis is less depressing in Père Goriot than in his other novels. This novel is an actual pleasure to read.

Posted by: PG at October 29, 2023 09:40 AM (afPT4)

76 63 I think I read that Devil's Triangle book very many years ago back in the days when I read anything.
Posted by: huerfano at October 29, 2023 09:32 AM (Q4KYm)

Pretty sure I did, too. That was the era of things like Chariots of the Gods, Future Shock, and The Book of Lists, which I remember specifically because it was the first time I had heard of the phenomena of human spontaneous combustion. It was a big book, but that's what I remember from it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:40 AM (OX9vb)

77
Seems the people who wrote it have a problem with single digit numbers.

"Five things to consider..."
Then there are four listed.. I just can't.

My best calculus instructor in college could render a perfect circle on the chalkboard without using a compass. What I liked best about him, however, was when the problem at hand involved points on the number line.

"How many points are there here on the line between 3 and 4?" he'd ask, for example.

"Lots ...", he'd answer himself, to our amusement.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at October 29, 2023 09:41 AM (wuzzs)

78 "Lots ...", he'd answer himself, to our amusement.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM)

Good morning good people.

From the Bible (any version) - was Lot's wife considered a 'Salt of the Earth' type woman?

Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:43 AM (SAX5G)

79 Proxima Centauri's the nearest star.
The celestial bodies that follow are:
Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri|Toli, Barnard's Star, Wolf 359, Lalande 21185,
Sirius A, Sirius B, Luyten 726-8|BL Ceti, Luyten 726-8|UV Ceti, Ross 154, Ross 248,
Epsilon Eridani, Lacaille 9352|Lac 9352, Ross 128, EZ Aquarii A, EZ Aquarii B, EZ Aquarii C, Procyon A...
Those are the List of nearest stars|stars that are nearest to me,
Tra-la-la and fiddle-dee-dee!

Posted by: Dr Sheldon Cooper at October 29, 2023 09:43 AM (krqg6)

80 by the way, whoever mentioned the Tyrus Rechs series, thanks.

Funny thing though, I waited and waited to see if there would be further installments. Nothing came up until, quite by accident, I found the next two in the series.

Funny how some books seem to be suppressed in this day and age.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:43 AM (z5vMw)

81 I read a few books about the assassination before I was 29 and concluded that it was all Oswald, but must admit that the current Deep State has given me cause to be open to other possibilities.
Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 09:24 AM (hsWtj)

For a while I was doing some research for a book around the Kennedy assassination, I, too, came away convinced it was Oswald alone.

The best(and most convincing) book on the topic was "Case Closed".

That's a good one to check out if you've never read it.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 29, 2023 09:44 AM (QzZeQ)

82 Funny how some books seem to be suppressed in this day and age.
Posted by: blake

They'll come a time when folks can't figure out how to turn a page.

We're damn near there.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:45 AM (SAX5G)

83 As far as authors killing off characters, I read somewhere that Dumas wept and was despondent for days after he killed off Porthos in the final Musketeer book.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:45 AM (7EjX1)

84 Same applies in my case to movies and music too. Just how old am I? Popular music started sliding downhill when the original Association stopped recording. Television started sliding when David Janssen died. Damn, I'm old.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 09:39 AM (a/4+U)
---
Modern music is objectively terrible. I've noticed even the student radio dips into the classic "alternative" rock of my youth. My kids frequently mine my playlist and their friends consider them geniuses for "discovering" all this awesome music.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 09:45 AM (llXky)

85 >>>Yes, but where does it stop?
Posted by: Ray Bradbury at October 29, 2023 09:22 AM (z5vMw)

Aren't you the dude that wrote Celsius 233?

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33

>Thankfully, Catch-22 was a more reasonable triage of war than that silly thing about burning books and such.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at October 29, 2023 09:45 AM (PbTeh)

86 Do authors cry when they kill the best character, or do they smile, laugh and have a cup of tea with Satan?

The story I have in my mind the two main characters meet, fall in love, make a radical discovery together, and then she dies, and then he dies. But it still has a happy ending.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at October 29, 2023 09:40 AM (enJYY)
-----------------

Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes because he got tired of writing the character, if I remember correctly. Unfortunately for him, he had to find a way to resurrect Holmes because that's what his public wanted.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:46 AM (z5vMw)

87 I've also been reading _A Gun For Sale_, by Graham Greene. It's one of his thrillers, written in 1936. My feelings about it are mixed.

The story is about an assassin named Raven who is hired to kill a Czech government minister in order to provoke a European war (1936, remember?). The people who hired him try to stiff him by paying in stolen banknotes, so that he'll be sent to jail. He figures this out and has to track down the people who hired him while evading the police.

It's well-executed, because it's by Graham Greene, but there were a number of factors fighting against me enjoying it.

First, Raven himself is immensely unappealing. He's slightly deformed, massively embittered because of it, and so is almost incapable of forming relationships with other people (except one). That includes the reader, unfortunately.

Second, Greene depicts a world of unrelieved corruption and cynicism. The people trying to start the war (not really a spoiler here) are Sinister Tycoons who want to profit from military spending. Sigh. (to be continued)

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 09:46 AM (78a2H)

88 Ciampino -- Yep, the 1960 Time Machine was really well done. And one of the nicest things in it (and an appropriate bit for the book thread) is at the end: Taylor's gone back to 802,701 and apparently has taken only 3 books with him to start rebuilding a civilization; Alan Young's question -- "What 3 books would you have taken?

Delightful.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 09:48 AM (a/4+U)

89 As far as authors killing off characters, I read somewhere that Dumas wept and was despondent for days after he killed off Porthos in the final Musketeer book.
Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:45 AM (7EjX1)
---
I do wonder about authors' attachment to their own characters. I suppose it can be rough spending *years* writing about the adventures of a character only to kill him or her off in the final book, even if it leads to the most satisfying conclusion.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 29, 2023 09:49 AM (BpYfr)

90 Alan Young's question -- "What 3 books would you have taken?

Delightful.
Posted by: Just Some Guy

The Bible
The Foxfire Series
And The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:49 AM (SAX5G)

91 (cont'd) The "Merchants of Death" conspiracy theory was barely plausible in 1920, but in the 1930s it makes no damned sense at all. People were expecting the next war to be apocalyptic, with gas attacks on cities, etc. No rational business owner, however Sinister, would risk the literal end of civilization just to bump up the share price. Making a fortune is kind of useless when there's nothing to buy with it.

Anyway, if you like Graham Greene and a very gritty (yet curiously innocent) 1930s thriller, A Gun For Sale might be good. Otherwise, I can't recommend it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 09:49 AM (78a2H)

92 I've long been of the opinion the ISO standards were a means for the EU to keep American products out of the common market.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:37 AM (z5vMw)

Yep. We're not supposed to do business with anyone not 14001. Which is almost everyone. I have to pay over double for parts I could have made in any machine shop in the area. Then shipping....

Someone should write a book on how to tell those useless "experts" how to fuck off.

Last inspection the dude actually asked me which way liquid would flow on the shop floor... I was stumped by that one.
My answer... I have a gallon of distilled water right here, let's find out.

Posted by: Reforger at October 29, 2023 09:51 AM (v4c60)

93 No rational business owner, however Sinister, would risk the literal end of civilization just to bump up the share price. Making a fortune is kind of useless when there's nothing to buy with it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 09:49 AM (78a2H)
----
Hmmm. So what's the WEF's endgame then? They want to reduce the world to rubble with them at the top of the heap, but their fortunes will also be reduced to ruin.....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 29, 2023 09:51 AM (BpYfr)

94 Modern music is objectively terrible. I've noticed even the student radio dips into the classic "alternative" rock of my youth. My kids frequently mine my playlist and their friends consider them geniuses for "discovering" all this awesome music.

I was at a 60s-80s Halloween party last night, and the (wealthy) hosts had hired a professional singer. She was very good, and covered a lot of music from the 60s, but she brought down the house with Janis' Cry Baby. I think she probably was better than the original, even though stylistically, she hewed very close to Janis' version.

Take THAT, Nickleback!

Posted by: Archimedes at October 29, 2023 09:52 AM (I/Qkd)

95 The Bible
The Foxfire Series
And The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:49 AM (SAX5G)

Those are excellent choices, and what else would you really need?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:52 AM (OX9vb)

96 I passed through Ogunquit, ME this summer. Pretty place, but every other building had an LGBT flag out front. Pass.

Posted by: Dr. T at October 29, 2023 09:52 AM (m9hmt)

97 Hmmm. So what's the WEF's endgame then? They want to reduce the world to rubble with them at the top of the heap, but their fortunes will also be reduced to ruin.....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed Jack is King may be in play here.

Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:53 AM (SAX5G)

98 Not to be hobbled by consistency, in addition to all the classic horror stories I read Tolkien's "Mr. Bliss". It's a story he wrote and illustrated for his small children. Very much in the vein of his Father Christmas Letters. It is Tolkien showing his imaginative and most playful side. Makes me wish I had a child on my lap to read it to.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:53 AM (7EjX1)

99 I had an itch for my Balzac once, but a splash of alcohol was the cure for what was ailing.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at October 29, 2023 09:53 AM (PbTeh)

100 it could have been a small team like in the third bullet, maybe one guy who ventured into the frame like delillo,

now the Soviets had the experience of the Okrana killing the most competent figures like Stolypin, leaving the Czar with the worst advisors possible,

Posted by: no 6 at October 29, 2023 09:54 AM (PXvVL)

101 No, the WEF idiots think their dumb ideas will work.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 09:54 AM (78a2H)

102 Tim Pool made an interesting observation this week. Modern culture stopped when the internet and social media took off. Classic music, movies, clothing styles and even books are almost all from years starting with 19. Think of the really good, original things. Have any come out in the past 20 years? People now just try to one up each other on instagram or pretend they are something they are not using Photoshop.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:54 AM (ZdOio)

103 Hmmm. So what's the WEF's endgame then? They want to reduce the world to rubble with them at the top of the heap, but their fortunes will also be reduced to ruin.....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 29, 2023 09:51 AM (BpYfr)
--------------

They expect to run things with 500 million slaves.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:54 AM (z5vMw)

104 I will say that classical music has embraced beauty again, after a decades-long love affair with atonality. For a while there, only film and tv scores seemed to want to appeal to the masses. The composer Ludovico Einaudi is my new favorite.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 09:55 AM (4KAXk)

105 The composer Ludovico Einaudi is my new favorite.

He's awesome. You have good taste.

Posted by: Archimedes at October 29, 2023 09:56 AM (I/Qkd)

106 I was travelling this week, and horror of horrors, forgot my current book. I had to make an emergency book stop and picked up Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Everyone has seen a movie or play version of this, but getting into the original text is interesting. The story involves Poirot vacationing on an Egyptian cruise, while a rich, recently married, nasty young woman is killed. Of course, there are several viable suspects on board, and each must be investigated. The original work has the benefit of knowing Poirot's thoughts instead of having to read them on an actor's face. It is a good story, and easy to see why it has been adapted so often.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 09:23 AM (ZdOio)

The recent Branagh adaptation (and I generally like Branagh) isn't fit to carry the original text's false mustache.

Posted by: Dr. T at October 29, 2023 09:57 AM (m9hmt)

107 Time to travel, spending the day with my mama. Have a wonderful day, horde.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at October 29, 2023 09:58 AM (OX9vb)

108 Good morning fellow reading enthusiasts.

Funny thing about the Texas MoMe. Yes, there is plenty of shooting but there is lots of eclectic, interesting witty conversation. I especially enjoyed sitting next to Perfessor Squirrel during my range breaks. Always seemed to be a group wanting to chat around him.
Perfessor, you make light of what you do here, but what you do is greatly appreciated.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 09:59 AM (t/2Uw)

109 Good morning horde. No reading of the book variety of this week here. Lots of interweb rabbit holes, but that's a different thread. Thanks always to the Perfessor and horde commenters.

Posted by: TRex at October 29, 2023 10:00 AM (IQ6Gq)

110 Graham was a cynic, in many ways, was he working in the Foreign Office at the time, you see that the West Wing noted one of his rants, which seemed sophisticated because cursing god, well reasons, considering who else they were employing in the Foreign Office, eg philby maybe he had a right to be,

Posted by: no 6 at October 29, 2023 10:01 AM (PXvVL)

111 78
From the Bible (any version) - was Lot's wife considered a 'Salt of the Earth' type woman?

Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:43 AM (SAX5G)
----
I maintain that she was a salted by some spirit.

Posted by: Ciampino - about those brine shrimp at October 29, 2023 10:01 AM (qfLjt)

112 MoMe book swap sounds interesting

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 10:01 AM (WHNi6)

113 That top image must be AI. It looks really cool, but on close inspection it’s weird and inane. Scale makes no sense. I really do enjoy AI rendered art for its surrealism.

Posted by: 13times at October 29, 2023 10:02 AM (TSRGP)

114 The Book Thread Rocks! Thanks Perfessor! In my current chapter of life, audiobooks work well, for me. I*ve checked Dune off of my list of *Books I Need To Read*. I enjoyed the levels of intrigue and the world the words created in my brain. I found myself looking forward to any daily windows of opportunity that allowed me to return to Arrakis.

Posted by: SuperMayorSuperRonNirenberg-Manly Yes; But Ultra-Buff Too! at October 29, 2023 10:03 AM (ZlyPM)

115 Walking my way again through

"The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov.

As always, an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

Last birthday, the kiddos got together and bought me the nice Folio Society printing. (with acid-proof paper).
So, just physically(font, paper feel, etc), it's a delight to read.

BONUS! Though not a hugely popular book, I suspect it's one that will find its way into the huge bonfire of the Great Digital Book Burring that Our Betters and the Left are eager to ignite. So, I gots muh unchangeable physical copeh.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 29, 2023 10:03 AM (QzZeQ)

116 Test

Posted by: Skip at October 29, 2023 10:03 AM (fwDg9)

117 Because I forgot to mention it, due to innate geekiness, it was great to meet you in person, Perfessor.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 10:05 AM (z5vMw)

118 And speaking of writers from back in the day:

If you've been waiting for ebooks of Roger Zelazny's short fiction, NESFA Press has released all six volumes of their merely gorgeous set. You can get the whole set from Smashwords or from NESFA's own site. Don't know if B&N, Kobo, etc have them up yet. Amazon has 5 of the 6, and I'm betting that their bots are holding up the last volume, The Road to Amber, because somebody self-pubbed something by that title nearly a decade ago. Go figure.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 10:06 AM (a/4+U)

119 To whoever it was that recommended Robert Parker's book "Appaloosa", thank you. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Need to get a copy of "Resolution" now

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 10:06 AM (JrYM1)

120 My son recommended a Sci Fi book this week that I had never heard of called The Three Body Problem by a Chinese author. When I went looking for it on my library's website, turns out it is a pretty popular book series.
Anybody here read it?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:07 AM (t/2Uw)

121 Hmmm. So what's the WEF's endgame then? They want to reduce the world to rubble with them at the top of the heap, but their fortunes will also be reduced to ruin.....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 29, 2023 09:51 AM (BpYfr)
--------------

They expect to run things with 500 million slaves.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 09:54 AM (z5vMw)

I think they've tipped their hand with their secure and isolated "woven cities" and the emphasis on AI and robotics.

They aren't thinking so much about slaves.

Posted by: naturalfake at October 29, 2023 10:07 AM (QzZeQ)

122 Yesterday the Grandkids wanted to use my welding helmet to "look at the eclipse" like they did twoo weeks ago. The wife spent half the day trying to get a 3 and 7 year old to understand astronomy.

I wish I would have been there.

Posted by: Reforger at October 29, 2023 10:08 AM (v4c60)

123 Because I forgot to mention it, due to innate geekiness, it was great to meet you in person, Perfessor.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 10:05 AM (z5vMw)
---
Same here! I really enjoy meeting the Moron Horde in person. It makes the comments seem more "alive" somehow when I can picture the real commenters...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 29, 2023 10:08 AM (BpYfr)

124 Naturalfake, my high school European Lit class had that novel on the list. I opted forBulgakov's "The Heart of a Dog", but our teacher loved "Margarita". Maybe I'll take it for a spin.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 10:09 AM (4KAXk)

125 Good morning all....and thanks Perfessor for the thread. No book reading this week. Took advantage of the lovely weather to do all the yard work that will be done until spring...and decorate the outside with fall/Halloween lights and things. And concluded just in time, as we have light rain this morning.

Posted by: Grateful at October 29, 2023 10:09 AM (IQ6Gq)

126 81 I read some of "Case Closed" and have it on my list to read the whole thing some day. I found its description of Oswald's psychopathy compelling.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 10:11 AM (hsWtj)

127 Three Body Problem won a Hugo.

As for this year, Nettle &Bones is the least worst I guess. Scalzi had an entrant. Then there were Legends and Latte along with The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.

Posted by: Anna Puma at October 29, 2023 10:12 AM (Vvzjo)

128 The "Merchants of Death" conspiracy theory was barely plausible in 1920, but in the 1930s it makes no damned sense at all. People were expecting the next war to be apocalyptic, with gas attacks on cities, etc. No rational business owner, however Sinister, would risk the literal end of civilization just to bump up the share price. Making a fortune is kind of useless when there's nothing to buy with it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 09:49 AM (78a2H)
---
It's no crazier than having a board member for Raytheon serve as the US Secretary of Defense.

The arms industry was untouched by WW I. Being on the winning side of a sequel would have been very good for business. In 1936, the world was mired in depression and heavy industry was hard hit. Getting contracts for rearmament would have been a godsend for them.

And yes, a lot of people wanted a general war in 1936. Republican Spain hoped to drag the rest of Europe into their civil war because they realized it was the only way they could win. Besides, one doesn't need an actual war, just raising the tension enough to kick off an arms race.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:13 AM (llXky)

129 Naturalfake, my high school European Lit class had that novel on the list. I opted forBulgakov's "The Heart of a Dog", but our teacher loved "Margarita". Maybe I'll take it for a spin.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 10:09 AM (4KAXk)

If you enjoyed "Heart of a Dog", I think you'll enjoy "TM&M".

I loved "Heart of a Dog" as well.

Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov for the win!

Posted by: naturalfake at October 29, 2023 10:14 AM (QzZeQ)

130 Haffner Press has lots of SF and pulp collections:

http://www.haffnerpress.com/

I have one of theJack Williamson editions.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 10:14 AM (4KAXk)

131 I was the one who recommended Appaloosa. Just finished Brimstone, the third book in the series and it was terrific. They really should have made all three books into movies.
However, there is a problem. The fourth book was not written by Parker. I got a copy from the library and only a few pages in, can already tell it is a different writer. There is just something missing. Not sure Im going to keep reading.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:14 AM (t/2Uw)

132 following up, bugayev, sic, who was stolypins assassin was known to the Okhrana, why they didn't stop him, solzhenitsyn in Autumm 2016 faults them largely for the success of the Revolution,

Posted by: no 6 at October 29, 2023 10:14 AM (PXvVL)

133 Interesting question about killing your characters. The last couple of years of my husband's illness, I couldn't. Could not. I knew it, too. So I wrote up until the point something bad had to happen and put the ms aside and started another story. I have ten such. My goal for the Nanorimo (spellling?) is to finish a couple of them. I think I have enough distance now.

Posted by: Wenda at October 29, 2023 10:16 AM (Tji/p)

134 The Merchants of Death argument has renewed relevance, because when the US won the Cold War, all of the government arsenals were closed down and sold off, finishing a trend started in the 1960s. What that meant was only private enterprise would supply our arms, and that in turn became the natural end point of a military career. Prior to that, a retired officer could work at Springfield or Rock Island, collect civil service pay and keep out of the way.

We went from having the capacity to surge production to boutique armaments that cost $1 million per shot, or (like the LCS) have zero usefulness.

It also kept the military-industrial complex in check because taxes went into...nothing. No executives depended on it for their bottom line, and it had to compete against the welfare state for funding.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:17 AM (llXky)

135 It makes the comments seem more "alive" somehow when I can picture the real commenters...
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at October 29, 2023 10:08 AM (BpYfr)

Trying to develope an image for each frequent nic is fun.
Someday I'll do a MoMe and find out just how right I am.
I suspect all the ettes are stuning and gracefull and all the dudes are like me, broken and beaten.

Posted by: Reforger at October 29, 2023 10:18 AM (v4c60)

136 Also audiobook *read* Breitbart*s John Nolte*s first novel, Borrowed Time. I have been a fan of Nolte since helped Andrew B. birth the Big Hollywood site. Nolte ably introduces us to, and fleshes out lots of interesting characters. He mixes elements of the supernatural, dystopia, human kindness, and unchecked evil into his story. The characters are very *human*, for lack of a better word description. It was a very good read.

Currently reading John Steakley*s book Vampire$, and finding it be a good ripping hoot!

Posted by: SuperMayorSuperRonNirenberg-Manly Yes; But Ultra-Buff Too! at October 29, 2023 10:19 AM (ZlyPM)

137 Scalzi's "The Kaiju Preservation Society" was shite. Strenuously diverse cast of characters who all spoke with the same voice and sense of humor (Scalzi's). Feh.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 10:19 AM (4KAXk)

138 Yeah, it was just this time last sunday, literally to the minute, that I set off from the MoMe on the ride from hell back to the cursed earth. The week went fast though.

Meeting AOP was a blast, especially for a fellow gear head. At one point we were sitting under the car port, and they just finished with the some shrimp dinner..thing.. where they poured a huge cauldron of shrimp, and corn on the cob, and a ton of other things into a huge pile on a table like some viking feast. I turned to AOP and made a circular hand motion, like "spin it up", and asked AOP what he thought about it all, meaning the MoMe. Without delay he mentions something about recycling the shrimp shells by throwing them back in the ocean so something else can move into the shell and be caught again, and then something about nature's cellophane.

yup, the gears just never stop spinning... a true believer. lol

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 29, 2023 10:19 AM (VwHCD)

139 Interesting question about killing your characters. The last couple of years of my husband's illness, I couldn't. Could not. I knew it, too. So I wrote up until the point something bad had to happen and put the ms aside and started another story. I have ten such. My goal for the Nanorimo (spellling?) is to finish a couple of them. I think I have enough distance now.

Posted by: Wenda at October 29, 2023 10:16 AM (Tji/p)
---
Generally, I have the plot in mind when I start writing so who lives and dies is clear (to me, at least) at the outset. Sometimes the story takes a life of its own and people die who were not "supposed to" or are spared. Jermah Macro in the Man of Destiny series was supposed to be killed but he "grew in the telling" and became too useful to bump off.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:20 AM (llXky)

140 Just a follow-on note about the Reader's Encyclopedia. It really is a one-volume reference library for the educated lady or gentleman, with all the treasures of Western Civilization mentioned in its pages. Our cultural patrimony, if you will.

If you get one that was published before 1982 it is not at all woke. I would try eBay or similar.

Another great thing to have around the house is an OLD copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Be sure to get a pre-woke version from about 30 years ago because it will have all of the Duke of Wellington's quippy remarks. That man was a wit!

We all need physical libraries, folks. We are living in the era of digital Fahrenheit 451.

Posted by: Beverly at October 29, 2023 10:22 AM (Epeb0)

141 Via my work and some other channels, I know some people who aren't WEF leaders but are definitely in the "willing tools" category. To a man (and a woman) they are true believers, and I think the bigwigs are, too. They believe in a future where all cities look like glorified college towns, with solar power and bicycles, linked by silent supersonic trains which can somehow span oceans. They believe that a world of half a billion people will somehow be richer than one with twenty times that number -- and they believe that the reduction can be accomplished without coercion and bloodshed.

They are utterly ignorant and provincial, with absolutely identical ideas and opinions. They consider themselves "scientific" but know nothing of any real science. They are word-shufflers who think they are creative.

And at some level they know they are not the enlightened geniuses they pretend to be. The brittleness of their attitudes and the venom they deploy against disagreement show their insecurity.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 10:22 AM (78a2H)

142 well, time to walk the pooch, then get ready for church.

Later!

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing(z5vMw) at October 29, 2023 10:22 AM (z5vMw)

143 Scalzi's "The Kaiju Preservation Society" was shite. Strenuously diverse cast of characters who all spoke with the same voice and sense of humor (Scalzi's). Feh.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 29, 2023 10:19 AM (4KAXk)
---
That's why I mean about Renfield. Everyone is the same character, just played by a diverse cast. Same voices, turns of phrases, no sense of a life independent of the story. Even the background seemed labored and trite, like they pulled a pre-generated character out of the back of a White Wolf RPG.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:22 AM (llXky)

144 And yes, a lot of people wanted a general war in 1936. Republican Spain hoped to drag the rest of Europe into their civil war because they realized it was the only way they could win.

Another example, maybe the first, of leftists corrupting language. We know they weren't "republicans" at all, but nasty commies.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 10:23 AM (Angsy)

145 Hey Blake. Thanks for no spoilers. Getting tired of waiting for my copy so might have to actually spend money.
Glad I got to meet you in person. Guns and books!

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:24 AM (t/2Uw)

146 sock_rat_omnibus:

lately, for me anyway, recent Hugo winner = back on shelf.

still working my way through Joe Abercrombie for grim humor.

Elie Weisel, Night, never again. wonder what he would think, today

Lonesome October, yes! I always forget!

Oswald was a lousy shot, and the Carcano wasn't even sighted in.

Ludovico Einaudi, huh? I'll have to give him a try, thanks!

Posted by: sock_rat_eez - these lying bastardi e stronzi have been lying for decades at October 29, 2023 10:25 AM (+vFC3)

147 HP Lovecraft is the stuff of nightmares, so I helpfully introduced my adult nephew to "At the Mountains of Madness."

Yes, I am bad. In my defense, he was 24 years old at the time. And he loved it.

Posted by: Beverly at October 29, 2023 10:25 AM (Epeb0)

148 Stephen Baxter wrote the Long Earth series with Terry Pratchett. It is a sort of Paratime universe filled with winners, losers, an recognized human AI who claims to be reincarnated, and hominids who learned to travel between universes instead of learning to think

Posted by: Kindltot at October 29, 2023 10:26 AM (xhaym)

149 I recommend Scott Pratt's "An Innocent Client," set in a rural county in NE TN. Joe Dillard is a defense attorney, hired by the woman owner of a strip club to defend one of her girls charged with murdering a preacher who had a wild night at the club.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at October 29, 2023 10:27 AM (4ZE6o)

150 They are utterly ignorant and provincial, with absolutely identical ideas and opinions. They consider themselves "scientific" but know nothing of any real science. They are word-shufflers who think they are creative.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 10:22 AM (78a2H)
---
In a different age, they would have been just as conformist, but they would have conformed to world based on God's law and hands-on work.

A big part of the problem is that two generations have grown up without fear of bad consequences, and now they think they can destroy people online without reprisal.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:27 AM (llXky)

151 My son recommended a Sci Fi book this week that I had never heard of called The Three Body Problem by a Chinese author. When I went looking for it on my library's website, turns out it is a pretty popular book series.
Anybody here read it?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:07 AM

As Anna Puma says, it won the Hugo. I found it incredibly depressing. I was not encouraged to pursue the other two books.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 29, 2023 10:27 AM (iZEhM)

152 A.H. Lloyd, my stories all start in dreams. Very specific scenes, names, even. In one a basketball player with a drug problem, Ram Mallaby, crossed paths at a rehab center with Katerina Van der Lynn, a piano prodigy who killed her father.

Then I wake up and say, Thanks a bunch, but I'm the one who has to write up to the dream and away from it. Sometimes I avoid the charaacters for years, but they always win in the end.

Posted by: Wenda at October 29, 2023 10:28 AM (Tji/p)

153 Another example, maybe the first, of leftists corrupting language. We know they weren't "republicans" at all, but nasty commies.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 10:23 AM (Angsy)
---
Not really. Spain was (nominally) a Republic, so it's a useful descriptor. The distortion was when everyone to the right of Joe Stalin became a "fascist."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:29 AM (llXky)

154 What do you suggest for preserving our books before Western Civ slides off the cliff into a Dark Age?

Posted by: JM in Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate at October 29, 2023 10:30 AM (XizFB)

155 Greetings! Based on a mention on a Book thread I started Two Years Before the Mast.
A ripping good read.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at October 29, 2023 10:30 AM (MeG8a)

156 As Anna Puma says, it won the Hugo. I found it incredibly depressing. I was not encouraged to pursue the other two books.

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 29, 2023 10:27 AM (iZEhM)
---
I think the Three Body Problem is probably like all the other trendy books that everyone bought but never read. A Brief History of Time, for example.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:31 AM (llXky)

157 Not exactly killing off characters, but I've read that Dorothy L. Sayers stopped writing the Lord Peter Wimsey series because she was falling slightly in love with the character.

Posted by: grammie winger - I don't belong here at October 29, 2023 10:31 AM (45fpk)

158 Concerning killing Marquee characters: It always hurts me. I've decided to interpret that as a sign that I've imagined the character affectionately. (NB: That doesn't guarantee that I've portrayed him well, but I can hope.) When the necessity arises, I do it...and suffer the extremes of remorse for days thereafter.

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at October 29, 2023 10:33 AM (Nmmyc)

159 A.H. Lloyd, my stories all start in dreams. Very specific scenes, names, even. In one a basketball player with a drug problem, Ram Mallaby, crossed paths at a rehab center with Katerina Van der Lynn, a piano prodigy who killed her father.

Then I wake up and say, Thanks a bunch, but I'm the one who has to write up to the dream and away from it. Sometimes I avoid the charaacters for years, but they always win in the end.

Posted by: Wenda at October 29, 2023 10:28 AM (Tji/p)
---
Interesting! I don't think I've ever dreamed about my writing like that. I mean, I've had my research get stuck in there, but that's different.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:33 AM (llXky)

160 they just finished with the some shrimp dinner..thing.. where they poured a huge cauldron of shrimp, and corn on the cob, and a ton of other things into a huge pile on a table like some viking feast

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 29, 2023 10:19 AM (VwHCD)

=====

That, my friend, is called a shrimp boil. One of things I miss most about living in Texas.

Posted by: Jordan61 at October 29, 2023 10:33 AM (0mWPK)

161 Do authors cry when they kill the best character, or do they smile, laugh and have a cup of tea with Satan?
*
The story I have in my mind the two main characters meet, fall in love, make a radical discovery together, and then she dies, and then he dies. But it still has a happy ending.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at October 29, 2023

***
When I killed off a major character in my second fantasy novel, I stole from the best -- his last speeches, while still in character, leaned heavily on the final scene of Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 10:34 AM (omVj0)

162 Thanks Sharon(Willow's Apprentice) I didn't realize there were three in the series.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 10:34 AM (JrYM1)

163 For me the best parts of Three Body Problem were the flashbacks to the Cultural Revolution and the depictions of contemporary China. I found the aliens and their scheme unconvincing.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 10:34 AM (78a2H)

164 Generally, I have the plot in mind when I start writing so who lives and dies is clear (to me, at least) at the outset. Sometimes the story takes a life of its own and people die who were not "supposed to" or are spared. Jermah Macro in the Man of Destiny series was supposed to be killed but he "grew in the telling" and became too useful to bump off.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:20 AM (llXky)

That's how I start. I generally SoP, instead of outlining, and I find what I started, doesn't turn out as I planned. Current work, "The Signal," has decided it doesn't want to be the story I planned. It's now "Star Searcher Hope," and goes in a completely different direction.

It's available on "A Literary Horde."
(sorry, shameless plug for writer's group)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 10:35 AM (Angsy)

165 I am about to read American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson.

Always liked him and his sense of humor.

Ordered it on Amazon from a seller that offered Free shipping.

It took ELEVEN days to get here.

I guess it came from China by rowboat.

Posted by: JT at October 29, 2023 10:35 AM (T4tVD)

166 We all need physical libraries, folks. We are living in the era of digital Fahrenheit 451.
Posted by: Beverly

Exactly. I have been collecting books for years, and grabbing books that may be subjected to bans along the way. My last house, my current house, and my next house all have or will have a library. When I put my last house on the market, the realtor suggested I box up the library and advertise the room as a den. Funnily enough, the first showing was to a family that bought the place due to the library.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at October 29, 2023 10:35 AM (ZdOio)

167 Thanks again for The Book Thread, Perfessor !

Posted by: JT at October 29, 2023 10:36 AM (T4tVD)

168 On topic:

They told me a mask was enough to get into the supermarket.
They lied, everybody else was also wearing pants.

Posted by: Ciampino - about those pants at October 29, 2023 10:37 AM (qfLjt)

169 I think the Three Body Problem is probably like all the other trendy books that everyone bought but never read. A Brief History of Time, for example.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:31 AM

When you get a membership to Worldcon, you get what's called the "Hugo Packet" which usually includes all the works nominated for the Hugo. Lately, it's been electronic and I have a friend who, um, slides it to me under the table. Or offers to, anyway. The last couple of years I've declined. So, I didn't exactly buy my copy. Neither did I buy a copy of A Brief History of Time because my lovely and talented ex-spouse did, but I did in fact read it.

What was my point again?

Posted by: Cybersmythe at October 29, 2023 10:37 AM (iZEhM)

170 Not really. Spain was (nominally) a Republic, so it's a useful descriptor.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 10:29 AM (llXky)

Sort of like us, then....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 10:38 AM (Angsy)

171 Currently in the middle of The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut. A novel centered around a semi-fictional John von Neumann. It has tons of positive book industry reviews, which is lately a counter correlation on expectations.

So far it's holding my interest, and I'd say very well written. The issue is with lots of fictional content there are bound to be areas where the characters deviate greatly from the real person.

Feynman feels right, but I'm pretty sure some early parts related to him are pure fiction. I've not read a full length bio on von Neumann, so have a nagging feeling as I'm 'learning' about him from this book.

Since it is a novel, I do expect it'll be diverging from history increasingly towards the end.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at October 29, 2023 10:38 AM (G7gvJ)

172 That, my friend, is called a shrimp boil. One of things I miss most about living in Texas.

Posted by: Jordan61 at October 29, 2023 10:33 AM (0mWPK)

Is there any place in the country you haven't lived?? lol

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 29, 2023 10:39 AM (VwHCD)

173 I put Poe in a different category because his horror is often internal to the narrator as loss, guilt at his horrific act, and realization of what he did drive him to madness.
Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 09:36 AM (7EjX1)

I got a Scholastic edition of Poe's short stories when I was in grade school, and it impressed me. I still think that Berenice is a gem of story that covers so many of his usual themes, from catalepsy, being buried alive and disassociative mental illness. It is also written like a shaggy dog story with a payoff at the end.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 29, 2023 10:39 AM (xhaym)

174 >>> 97 Hmmm. So what's the WEF's endgame then? They want to reduce the world to rubble with them at the top of the heap, but their fortunes will also be reduced to ruin.....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed Jack is King may be in play here.
Posted by: Tonypete at October 29, 2023 09:53 AM (SAX5G)

We'll have more than YOU!

Posted by: WEF at October 29, 2023 10:39 AM (llON8)

175 One of my daughters gifted me the new Cormoran Strike book, it is a very hefty tome. The week is supposed to be quite cool and rainy so I welcome the opportunity for some extended reading sessions.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at October 29, 2023 10:40 AM (Sgq8y)

176 154 What do you suggest for preserving our books before Western Civ slides off the cliff into a Dark Age?
Posted by: JM in Ill -- Behold the Manchurian Candidate at October 29, 2023 10:30 AM (XizFB)

I've been doing this for years. I crawl second hand stores for technical books. Buy every one I come across and add it to my library. I have 12 book shelves that you could learn to do almost anything from. Much of it unknown to most, even those that work in the industries. I like the older books, 1850's to 1940's. Trade union books and pamphlets from tech schools. Any old High School (pre 70's) textbook I find I get. It's chaos but someday someone will thank the Heavens I saved this stuff..
Actually I hope that doesn't happen. Fixing stuff is easier than building stuff from the ground up.

Posted by: Reforger at October 29, 2023 10:41 AM (fRCJ2)

177 141 Trimegistus

These are the people to fear, for lack of a better word. They will do anything to prove they are the smart, worthy ones, and they are deluded into thinking that they will be elevated when the New Order takes place, because they are the True Believers, see, and they will do anything to prove that and earn their reward.
These people creep me out.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 10:42 AM (JrYM1)

178 These are the people to fear, for lack of a better word. They will do anything to prove they are the smart, worthy ones, and they are deluded into thinking that they will be elevated when the New Order takes place, because they are the True Believers, see, and they will do anything to prove that and earn their reward.
These people creep me out.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 10:42 AM (JrYM1)

In the Babylon 5 world they'll end up running a cult and living in brown sector.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 29, 2023 10:46 AM (VwHCD)

179 Is there any place in the country you haven't lived?? lol
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 29, 2023 10:39 AM (VwHCD)

=====

Ha! I've only lived in 6 states: CA, OR, WA, TX, NY, and CT. All coastal states mostly thanks to the Coast Guard.

On topic, still working my way through Agatha Christie. I started with all the Poirots, then moved on to the Marples, now reading everything else. I'm on The Pale Horse currently.

Posted by: Jordan61 at October 29, 2023 10:46 AM (0mWPK)

180 Killing off Characters: I will never read another book by George RR Martin. I am sorry I ever read last book 1.
Falling in Love with a character: I fell in love with the Will Trent character in Karin Salughter's book and have not been disappointed in the 10 books since that first one.
Cormorant Strike comes close. Guess I just like totally masculin but flawed here's who still get the girl.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:48 AM (t/2Uw)

181 Heroes

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:48 AM (t/2Uw)

182 I started Beowulf this week. Grendel is dead but theirs still mom and the dragon to deal with. It's in a kindle collection of six sagas. I've read Njal's saga and the Vinland sagas and liked them so looking forward to all six. I also started Get Shorty (I loved the movie and so far the book is even better). It's my first book by Elmore Leonard.

Posted by: who knew at October 29, 2023 10:49 AM (4I7VG)

183 I liked the Three Body Problem. It's old school hard science fiction incorporating current leading edge physics.

It's been mentioned here before & I know my view is minority of most who've read it. Style is definitely 'different' from typical story & of course it's a translation.

I read some short stories by the author after reading Three Body Problem, some I liked, others not as much.

Chinese viewpoint is very different

than your typical sci

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at October 29, 2023 10:50 AM (G7gvJ)

184 Jordan, Prime has a movie of The Pale Horse. It was a while ago that I watched it but it was excellent.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:50 AM (t/2Uw)

185 granddaughter is reading The Island, by Gary Paulson. She wants me to read it so we can discuss it. I'm about a quarter of the way in and bored. Navel gazing by a 15 yo boy. I'm going to try to finish it but I don't really want to.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 10:50 AM (JrYM1)

186 It turns out we started an unofficial, and unexpected, book swap program. Our nieces, nephew and their spouses enjoy classic books such as Sherlock Holmes, Greek and Roman history and philosophy, Victorian era fiction: Kipling, Haggard, Melville and others, and many more. We sent gifts and extra copies to them (especially Tolkien and Lewis) and they have started swapping them when they visit each other.

I'm delighted they have such appreciative, diverse reading interests of books which enhance their lives. They also reach out to us with questions or asking for suggestions about books. For such young people, early to mid-thirties, I find this encouraging.

BTW, they have seen my copies of the country's founding documents and early history. They have started making their own collections of these in good, hardcover editions because they are concerned that these things will be changed or unavailable because of the leftists and other perversions.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 10:51 AM (7EjX1)

187 I also started Get Shorty (I loved the movie and so far the book is even better). It's my first book by Elmore Leonard.
Posted by: who knew at October 29, 2023 10:49 AM (4I7VG)

Had no idea that Leonard wrote the book. the movie is fun. I'll have to search for that one.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Keith's Son at October 29, 2023 10:53 AM (T/Lqj)

188 Just checked and Pale Horse was a two episode miniseries from the BBC. Think it's still on Prime.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:53 AM (t/2Uw)

189 Jordan, Prime has a movie of The Pale Horse. It was a while ago that I watched it but it was excellent.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 10:50 AM (t/2Uw)

=====

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll have to check it out. I've been leery since they ruined Ordeal By Innocence.

Posted by: Jordan61 at October 29, 2023 10:56 AM (0mWPK)

190 One of my daughters gifted me the new Cormoran Strike book . . .
Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz

I've watched the first episode of the BBC series and it's pretty good.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 10:58 AM (FVME7)

191 Who Knew: If that's your first Elmore Leonard, you have lots of great reading ahead!

Posted by: Wenda at October 29, 2023 10:58 AM (Tji/p)

192 A comment on modern music. There is actually a lot of good new music out there, especially in alt-country and americana. Absolutely none of it makes it on to commercial radio where the music is in fact objectively awful. Luckily, I live in Appleton where the annual Mile of Music festival brings in 100s of new bands playing original music every year.

Posted by: who knew at October 29, 2023 10:59 AM (4I7VG)

193 The Justified TV series is based on an Elmore Leonard book, Fire in the Hole. The casting was just perfect. In fact a lot of movies are based on Elmore Leonard books.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 11:02 AM (t/2Uw)

194 Good morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 29, 2023 11:02 AM (u82oZ)

195 I'm deep into one of Joe R. Lansdale's Hap & Leonard adventure/crime stories, Honky Tonk Samurai. No, there appear to be no actual Japanese warriors in it, but I would not put it past Lansdale to ring one in some time. The Hap & Leonard series is one I discovered by pure chance -- just browsing the library shelves. That's why the idea of a library where you fill out a slip and they bring you the book you want is not a library to me. That's the way you do things in a restaurant, people.

Last week I re-read John Dickson Carr's two most famous novels, The Three Coffins and The Burning Court. Even though I remembered the solution to the impossible crime and the murder itself, I was enthralled by TC. With Court I had remembered how the impossible bit was worked, but not who the killer was. Though the solution to the former leads directly to the latter, as it should.

If you have never read BC, you should enjoy it -- but beware. The novel is notorious in Carr's work, and within mystery stories in general, for bending the genre (not the gender!) in a certain way. I think it works. You'll see.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:05 AM (omVj0)

196 Oh, wow, I overslept and missed most of the thread. the change of weather really did a number on me...

Anyways, this past week I made an immature and probably irresponsible purchase of yet another a comic-book hardcover collection. But, it was almost half-price, and......I'm enjoying it way more than I should...

Posted by: Castle Guy at October 29, 2023 11:06 AM (Lhaco)

197 I finally (finally!) finished the Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection. Happy I read it but I'm ready move on.

Thanks to whomever recommended Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I was a bit unsure if I would like it but the beginning drew me in. What could've been a really silly story is pulled together so well, you just sort of go with it: A Woolworth's clerk, who is also an aspiring writer, is given Abraham Lincoln's secret diary in which he wrote of his realization that certain people he loved were killed by vampires, his vampire hunting exploits, and his later realization of that vampires in the South were taking advantage of slavery. It was a fun read.

Current reading is a bit all over the place. I'm in the middle of Junk Love, also due to a book thread recommendation. It's not my usual type of reading but I can't put it down. I'm also working on Brant Pitre's Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary and Eric Sammons Holiness for Everyone: The Practical Spirituality of St Josemaria Escriva.

Thank you Perfessor and thank you all for making this such a special place.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at October 29, 2023 11:07 AM (ob77J)

198 I also started Get Shorty (I loved the movie and so far the book is even better). It's my first book by Elmore Leonard.
Posted by: who knew at October 29, 2023

***
Fifty-Two Pickup and Mr. Majestyk are both excellent. I don't know if you like Westerns, but his Hombre and several others are great.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:07 AM (omVj0)

199 Salty, how are you?
So happy I got to hug you in person! ❤️

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 11:09 AM (t/2Uw)

200 In the guilty pleasures department, I read Kurt schlichter's novel Indian Country yesterday. I have to say he was too optimistic about the shtf scenario in the United States. For one thing, he has Google joining the free states for financial reasons. But as far as on the ground gorilla resistance is concerned it was a ripping good read.

Posted by: Beverly at October 29, 2023 11:09 AM (Epeb0)

201 "...was Lot's wife considered a 'Salt of the Earth' type woman?"

Sometimes I speculate...so, in turning around to look back at Sodom, was she was hit by a wind gust, or shock wave filled with fine debris clogging her airway; unconscious, layers of blowing particles then stiffened up her clothes and limbs that turned her into a pillar of salt.

Or she became a scorched, erect corpse, layered with salted dirt and water blasted out by an explosive event such as a volcano, meteor, or an asteroid.

Or a UFO. Our government prefers that one, since it gives them justification to tax us further to provide for our safety. And their retirements.

Posted by: Ju at October 29, 2023 11:11 AM (aTmM/)

202 I am not a big fan of ebooks, especially when they completely replace physical books. They are, by nature, removed from ownership and control of the contents. But they do have their benefits. One benefit is they can offer inexpensive access to classic literature which can be a gateway to owning the physical books that interest you.

I've found the Delphi editions of ebooks to be good. For two bucks or so you can get complete works of many authors from Homer to Kipling which include background information about the works and authors, often include original illustrations and have very few typos. They make a good starting point before committing serious money for hardcover editions.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 11:11 AM (7EjX1)

203 I saw Larry McMurty discuss Lonesome Dove. SPOILER ALERT! The way he discussed the death of Newt's death before Call could /would acknowledge him was as if Newt died against McMurtry's will. As if he had a life, and death, if his own.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:11 AM (FVME7)

204 Been quarantined this week due to some witchdoctor's protocol.

Read comfort books only.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. The first book to have a secret identity for the hero. As a youth I read it for the derring-do and the narrow escapes. I read it this time marveling at the marriage.

The Peshawar Lancers is an alternate history, steampunk, post-apocalyptic fiction adventure novel by S.M. Sterling. Hits a lot of sweet spots for me. IMHO, the best alternate history out there. A ripping good yarn.

The British rule of India is well shown, and how India was at the heart of the British Army. Goes well with books by Masters, Kipling, and Byron Farwell.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 29, 2023 11:12 AM (u82oZ)

205 I hope you are soon completely recovered, Salty.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 11:16 AM (JrYM1)

206 Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Your hugs would heal the lame, and make lonely men smile in contentment.

Still smiling from the MoMeet, but have had some challenges. My wife fell, again, and would not work with me to get up. She wanted young, fit men to get her up. I finally called 911. She is OK physically. She shuts down any discussion of this, so future planning is a bit obscure. Most likely, she will continue to fall until her head is involved.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 29, 2023 11:18 AM (u82oZ)

207 "Scientific" explanations of Biblical miracles are a mug's game.

I recall seeing some meteorologist speculating that under certain freak weather conditions the Sea of Galilee might freeze enough to explain the miracle of Christ walking on the water. Of course somehow the Apostles were managing to row a boat through ice solid enough to support a man without noticing anything amiss . . .

Give it up. It's a miracle. You either believe it happened or you don't.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 11:19 AM (78a2H)

208 I saw Larry McMurty discuss Lonesome Dove. SPOILER ALERT! The way he discussed the death of Newt's death before Call could /would acknowledge him was as if Newt died against McMurtry's will. As if he had a life, and death, if his own.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:11 AM (FVME7)
---
That's why people have a problem with GRR Martin - the deaths of characters felt arbitrary, and many of his plot twists had GOTCHA stamped on them.

To both author and reader, a character death should feel organic, maybe surprising but never random or pointless. Even if it *is* random or futile, that should be clear.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 11:20 AM (llXky)

209 KatieFloyd - I'll forward your nice words about Junk Love to the author (Mrs. PabloD). If you would consider leaving a review on Amazon once you're done, she'd be very grateful.

Posted by: PabloD at October 29, 2023 11:20 AM (2SXTY)

210 TecumsehTea

Got some ringing in my ears, so I can not hear female voices, and can't smell.

Even this shall pass away. That is the title of a poem my Dad made me memorize by Theodore Tilton.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 29, 2023 11:21 AM (u82oZ)

211 "Scientific" explanations of Biblical miracles are a mug's game.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 29, 2023 11:19 AM (78a2H)
---
Liberal Protestantism (very popular in Germany in the 19th Century) was nonsense on stilts. A lot of our moral corrosion started there as academics tried to find the "true" version of events.

The reaction - treating everything in the Bible as a literal truth - has also been harmful because it distorts the language and meaning.

I think today we have an unusually large crop of people who - without any self-awareness - think it's perfectly reasonable to assume that they are smarter than the cumulative work of hundreds of years of scholarship.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 11:24 AM (llXky)

212 Just walked out to the beach with my cup of coffee.

The Olympic Mountains are dusted with white and glowing in the early morning sun. And the full moon is just about to set over them. It's 38, seas are calm. The air smells crisp and salty.

Have a lovely day!

Posted by: nurse ratched at October 29, 2023 11:24 AM (4wq+Z)

213 Generally, I have the plot in mind when I start writing so who lives and dies is clear (to me, at least) at the outset.

-
Based on Mrs. Wrecks' crazy aunt recommendation, we watched Harry Wild (don't bother; it's complete garbage). Harry, who is a chick, is a retiring English lit professor who now has enough time to write the great English novel. She begins by typing a provisional title the "CHAPTER ONE" and continues. Apparently, she's just going to type it straight through. Saves time if you skip rewrites, outlines etc.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:25 AM (FVME7)

214 210 Even this shall pass away. That is the title of a poem my Dad made me memorize by Theodore Tilton.

Not familiar so looked it up.
So true. Ecclesiastes sums this up the same: everything here in this world is temporary. But we who are counted among the redeemed are eternal. Hard to wrap our heads around.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 11:27 AM (JrYM1)

215 To both author and reader, a character death should feel organic, maybe surprising but never random or pointless. Even if it *is* random or futile, that should be clear.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023

***
Whenever I've killed off a major character, he or she was always making a heroic sacrifice. Those who get killed as collateral damage, i.e., heroic allies who get killed by the antagonist, are usually minor roles. To do that to a major character without very good reason seems somehow unfair to the reader. Of course you also want to keep the death a surprise.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:27 AM (omVj0)

216 FVME7)
---
That's why people have a problem with GRR Martin - the deaths of characters felt arbitrary, and many of his plot twists had GOTCHA stamped on them.

To both author and reader, a character death should feel organic, maybe surprising but never random or pointless. Even if it *is* random or futile, that should be clear.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

Yes, and at some point you have to get to the point of the story and not keep rambling on and on with no particular end in sight.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 11:28 AM (t/2Uw)

217 I read and enjoyed Three-Body Problem but it was more from an "expanding horizons" perspective than a relaxing romp. For one thing I was amazed the Chicom government let it be published because it is NOT complimentary at all about the Cultural Revolution. They even did a movie of it not too long ago.

One of the characters goes pretty much sociopathic because of all the horrors inflicted on her and you can see why. As a scientist I love the title

(the three-body problem is a real thing in gravitics. Basically you can't solve the orbital equations completely with three or more masses, you can only approximate if one is much smaller than the rest.) The structure of the story is different than Western ones too, but I took it as a learning experience to understand where my assumptions were as a writer.

I didn't go for the subsequent books, though. That was more punishment than I wanted to suffer...

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 29, 2023 11:29 AM (BbSpR)

218 I am not a big fan of ebooks, especially when they completely replace physical books. They are, by nature, removed from ownership and control of the contents. But they do have their benefits. One benefit is they can offer inexpensive access to classic literature which can be a gateway to owning the physical books that interest you.

Posted by: JTB at October 29, 2023 11:11 AM (7EjX1)

I'm basically letting my Kindle rot. I'm just not going to let Big Tech own my reading material. Same reason I still buy cds.

Whole generations are being trained to do everything on their phones or other electronic devices, and eventually, the oligarchs WILL cancel ownership. Of everything.

I'm hoping I'm dead before we get there, but hell, it could happen next week.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 29, 2023 11:29 AM (QBaJw)

219 "Scientific" explanations of Biblical miracles are a mug's game.

Posted by: Trimegistus

Back in the "60s, I read a funny story in Playboy (I only read the stories) in which James Bond, using such explanations, parts the Red Sea and performs other such acts normally unavailable to mortal man.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:30 AM (FVME7)

220 I've been a big fan of ebooks for some time. Found the Delphis to be hit or miss on the typos -- some done very nicely, but some with really off-putting typos.

Replaced a lot of print with ebooks. Over the last few years, though, I've run particular favorites through software to remove the DRM and stored them on disk -- those files won't be altered. And there are a number of books I've kept in print as well. It's possible to get pdfs scanned from earlier printings for a number of books depending on where you look for 'em, and those won't change either. Of course, when electricity is a thing of the past I'll have a few problems...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 11:30 AM (a/4+U)

221 Thanks for shout-out, perfesser!

Posted by: moviegique at October 29, 2023 11:31 AM (asXVI)

222 years ago I read a series of books, historical fiction, about WWII written by a husband and wife, Christian authors. The next series they wrote was about the new Jewish State. Does anybody here know who I am talking about? They had an interesting last name that was not pronounced at all like it was spelled.
I thought my grandkids would enjoy them, now that they are teens.

Posted by: TecumsehTea at October 29, 2023 11:32 AM (JrYM1)

223
Yes, and at some point you have to get to the point of the story and not keep rambling on and on with no particular end in sight.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023

***
Martin, perhaps due to advancing age, has let himself off the leash. I much enjoyed his 1980s Fevre Dream, a tight little vampire thriller set before the Civil War. ONe reviewer said it was as if Mark Twain and Stephen King had collaborated, and that's true. His vampires are fairly original -- they cannot turn people into one of them; they are simply a separate race who have preyed on humanity for its entire history, and have given rise to most of the legends about bloodsuckers and other ghostly things. His hero Marsh is called "the ugliest man on the river," so there's no handsome hero. It's quite good.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:33 AM (omVj0)

224 Whenever I've killed off a major character, he or she was always making a heroic sacrifice. Those who get killed as collateral damage, i.e., heroic allies who get killed by the antagonist, are usually minor roles. To do that to a major character without very good reason seems somehow unfair to the reader. Of course you also want to keep the death a surprise.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:27 AM (omVj0)

I don't write books, so when I kill off a major character, there are other considerations I have to take.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 29, 2023 11:35 AM (QBaJw)

225 yup, the gears just never stop spinning... a true believer. lol
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at October 29, 2023 10:19 AM (VwHCD)

LOL. I greatly enjoyed meeting you, too. That meal was awesome!

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 29, 2023 11:35 AM (Lwumy)

226 Have a great day, everyone.

We live in a time of marvels. Not just talking KU-OU football here.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 29, 2023 11:36 AM (u82oZ)

227 Salty, I have been meaning to text this week to see how you are feeling. May you continue to improve.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at October 29, 2023 11:37 AM (Sgq8y)

228 Been eons since I read Martin, but as I recall Fevre Dream was a good read. And I kinda liked The Armageddon Rag. Some of his short fiction was nice too, "Sandkings" in particular.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 11:37 AM (a/4+U)

229 Back in the "60s, I read a funny story in Playboy (I only read the stories) in which James Bond, using such explanations, parts the Red Sea and performs other such acts normally unavailable to mortal man.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:30 AM (FVME7)

Nowadays, if Jesus had Doordash, he'd never run out of wine or loaves or fishes.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 29, 2023 11:38 AM (QBaJw)

230 Posted by: Sabrina Chase at October 29, 2023 11:29 AM (BbSpR)

Psst, Sabrina. Wolfus has a question you might be able to answer in the "Ask A Writer" post on ALH.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 11:39 AM (Angsy)

231 Moviegique, what is your book about? My email in my nic.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 11:41 AM (t/2Uw)

232 "Give it up. It's a miracle. You either believe it happened or you don't."

I do believe it happened. Maybe a supernatural event, or G-d merely telling nature to act out in the manner that destroyed Sodom. He operates in the seen and unseen realm as He pleases.

Jesus commanded the sea, "Peace, be still." The enemy of our souls also called the wind to collapse a building, that killed all Job's children. A "cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night." A "burning bush."

I don't think G-d stays up at night worrying I've upset mankind out of believing in His Providence.

Posted by: Ju at October 29, 2023 11:42 AM (aTmM/)

233 Been eons since I read Martin, but as I recall Fevre Dream was a good read. And I kinda liked The Armageddon Rag. Some of his short fiction was nice too, "Sandkings" in particular.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 11:37 AM (a/4+U)

For those who haven't started, I wouldn't recommend it, but the first 3 (or 4?) books of the GoT series are terrific.

I don't really agree with those who claim they're too long, or whatever other complaints they may have, too many characters and all that.

It's a complex world, and he did his damnedest to keep it real within that world. He just ran out of steam, and the last book he wrote in these is a terrible mess.

I don't care what he says now, I don't think he'll ever complete the series.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 29, 2023 11:42 AM (QBaJw)

234 Random thought of the day. I'm sitting in a Cracker Barrel waiting (and waiting, and...) for my breakfast and started wondering which of the implements on the wall could be removed and used as melee weapons if needed.

Posted by: Oddbob at October 29, 2023 11:46 AM (hOMZj)

235 Hi, Sharon!

Executive summary: Young Earth man joins a disreputable "exopreneur"--people or companies who go into space and try to negotiate trade deals with alien races--and has his first mission dealing with spider creatures.

It goes...poorly, and as he tries to fix it, things get worse and worse, as he fails to grasp the completely alien morality and thought process of the creatures.

(The inspiration behind it is r/K reproduction. We assume advanced societies will have nice K-style reproductions like us, where offspring are invested in highly. What would happen if they had r-style reproduction, with lots and lots of offspring.)

The series continues with different types of bugs. Book 2 is about advanced bees and ants, e.g.

Posted by: moviegique at October 29, 2023 11:49 AM (asXVI)

236 Checking the news sites this fine Sunday morning:

Not sure which images are of Acapulco, which are Gaza, and which are Mike Pence's campaign.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 29, 2023 11:51 AM (QBaJw)

237 I will say that classical music has embraced beauty again, after a decades-long love affair with atonality. For a while there, only film and tv scores seemed to want to appeal to the masses. The composer Ludovico Einaudi is my new favorite.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

I've been on a Dmitri Shostakovich kick lately. He was such a versatile composer who sometimes wrote beautiful, lyrical music and sometimes atonal, jarring music.

Stalin appeared for the premiere of his Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which is more of s jarring style, and did not appear to enjoy it. (Shostakovich blamed the conductor who, he claimed, used the wrong tempo.) Shostakovich went home and packed a bag expecting to be gulaged but, for whatever reason, Stalin spared him although the work was condemned.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:52 AM (FVME7)

238 I do believe it happened. Maybe a supernatural event, or G-d merely telling nature to act out in the manner that destroyed Sodom. He operates in the seen and unseen realm as He pleases.

Posted by: Ju at October 29, 2023 11:42 AM (aTmM/)
---
The greatest miracle is one of conversion. Healing the sick or even raising the dead pales before the wonder of salvation.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 11:53 AM (llXky)

239 Random thought of the day. I'm sitting in a Cracker Barrel waiting (and waiting, and...) for my breakfast and started wondering which of the implements on the wall could be removed and used as melee weapons if needed.

Posted by: Oddbob
-------
Close quarters? Go with the sickle.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 29, 2023 11:54 AM (XeU6L)

240 Atonality can work, but I do think most of the late 20th century stuff has already been consigned to the junk heap.

Posted by: moviegique at October 29, 2023 11:54 AM (asXVI)

241 Salty

So sorry to hear of the struggles you describe.

Hang in there. Prayers up, right now.

Posted by: mnw at October 29, 2023 11:55 AM (NLIak)

242 A good book to revisit is World War IV ( the long struggle against Islam fascism) by Norman Podhoretz. I haven’t done it yet but look forward to seeing if he was prescient 16 years later.

Also a good fiction book for these times that takes place in the future is The Profession by Steven Pressfield.

Posted by: Drive by at October 29, 2023 11:55 AM (MNhXM)

243 (Shostakovich blamed the conductor who, he claimed, used the wrong tempo.) Shostakovich went home and packed a bag expecting to be gulaged but, for whatever reason, Stalin spared him although the work was condemned.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 11:52 AM (FVME7)

Where was it I saw recently, someone talking about Honkey Talk Women, how the tempo starts out at whatever, 100 BPM or something like that, and by the end its up to 108.

If the song is good, you don't even realize it, unless you have some kind of measuring device. If it's shite, beat ain't really got nothin' to to with it.

Posted by: BurtTC at October 29, 2023 11:56 AM (QBaJw)

244 Perusing the unread classics on the shelf, this week I pulled out 'Rob Roy'. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get around to it. The first several pages are quite interesting, as Scott sort of ruminates over the writing of a book.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 29, 2023 11:58 AM (XeU6L)

245 Miss Linda is coming over this evening and plans to attempt photo ops with the cats in costume. (Brrrr --!) She has a tiger outfit, I guess you'd call it a onesie, that she wants to slip on each cat briefly and snap some photos. I am not sanguine. With the exception of the late super-smart black cat Marie-Antoinette, who was perfectly fine with a costume on her body, my cats universally regard this as cruel and unusual punishment.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:59 AM (omVj0)

246 Perusing the unread classics on the shelf, this week I pulled out 'Rob Roy'. I have no idea why it has taken me so long to get around to it. The first several pages are quite interesting, as Scott sort of ruminates over the writing of a book.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 29, 2023 11:58 AM (XeU6L)

One of my favorite movies if for nothing else, the last sword fight scene.

Posted by: Drive by at October 29, 2023 11:59 AM (MNhXM)

247 Pimpfessor, I told you at the MoMe that I was good at reading books and forgetting the Title and Author. You were telling me about Stephen Baxter. Turns out I read Proxima and Ultima. Loved everything but the ending. Spoiler alert: the second book ends.

Keep up the amazing thread and weekly dose of chika chika wowow library porn.

Posted by: Ooohm at October 29, 2023 12:00 PM (C7Yya)

248 I am not sanguine. With the exception of the late super-smart black cat Marie-Antoinette, who was perfectly fine with a costume on her body, my cats universally regard this as cruel and unusual punishment.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at October 29, 2023 11:59 AM (omVj0)

If you ain't sanguine now, you will be after dealing with cats who don't want to be put in a costume. Rowr!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 12:01 PM (Angsy)

249 Well, it's that time. Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 12:02 PM (llXky)

250 I read a few books about the assassination before I was 29 and concluded that it was all Oswald, but must admit that the current Deep State has given me cause to be open to other possibilities.
Posted by: Norrin Radd

I should write a book entitled The Dirty Little Commie Rat Bastard Did It.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 12:03 PM (FVME7)

251 Sorta kinda real life is starting to intrude.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at October 29, 2023 12:03 PM (a/4+U)

252 I should write a book entitled The Dirty Little Commie Rat Bastard Did It.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at October 29, 2023 12:03 PM (FVME7)
---
When Oswald failed to score a killing shot, that's when the "insurance" shooter fired.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at October 29, 2023 12:05 PM (llXky)

253 Well, the saddest part of Sunday morning again. The end of the Book Thread. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 12:05 PM (Angsy)

254 Anonosaurus Wrecks: Me, too! and also Prokofiev.

Posted by: who knew at October 29, 2023 12:06 PM (4I7VG)

255 Shostakovich was also good friends with Marshal Tukhachevsky & used to perform for guests at Tukachevsky's home.

When T was arrested, so were most others in his "circle," which was the preferred term at the show trials.

That was perhaps the major reason Shostakovich packed up & slept in the hall next to the elevator.

Stalin himself apparently decided that S was too famous to arrest, & that he might some day be of use for propaganda purposes.

Posted by: mnw at October 29, 2023 12:09 PM (NLIak)

256 When Oswald failed to score a killing shot, that's when the "insurance" shooter fired.
---

You could almost feel bad for Serhan Serhan who didn't land a single hit on RFK.

Posted by: moviegique at October 29, 2023 12:09 PM (asXVI)

257 If you ain't sanguine now, you will be after dealing with cats who don't want to be put in a costume. Rowr!

"That about covers all the possibilities."
-- Cap'n Mal

Posted by: Oddbob at October 29, 2023 12:09 PM (+BiWY)

258 As for killing off characters - yes, it's sometimes a bit of a wrench doing that, although mostly their deaths were called for at the very beginning. I have sometimes wept a bit, when writing the scene ... and in one case, when a major character was murdered halfway through one of my historicals, my Alpha readers said they cried buckets and why couldn't I reprieve him? Alas, I couldn't - much of the rest of the plot was based on his family working through the aftermath...
There was one doomed character though, whose death scene I really didn't want to write (TB, lots of coughing and blood...), and I came up with a plot twist at the last minute which had him die off-stage as it were ... and set up a plot twist for two subsequent books...

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at October 29, 2023 12:14 PM (xnmPy)

259 Personally, I believe that "Case Closed" by Gerald Posner definitively establishes that Oswald committed the murder & acted alone.

Posted by: mnw at October 29, 2023 12:15 PM (NLIak)

260 Late note. There is a 4th book in Parker's Western series, Blue Eyed Devil. It is fantastic. It is the fifth book that was not written by Parker.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at October 29, 2023 12:17 PM (t/2Uw)

261 180 I read the 1st book of "Game of Thrones"', then started watching the TV series, and the Red Wedding completely put me off the whole enterprise. It just seemed gratuitously cruel to me.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 12:18 PM (hsWtj)

262 259 I need to read that I think.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 12:19 PM (hsWtj)

263 I can comment more since my church canceled due to only 6 inches of snow here in Denver. There was nothing on their website or Facebook so I went anyway. They're fairly legalistic so they must have some secret avenue of communication for the adepts, like the Knights Templar or something.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 12:21 PM (hsWtj)

264 I can comment more since my church canceled due to only 6 inches of snow here in Denver. There was nothing on their website or Facebook so I went anyway. They're fairly legalistic so they must have some secret avenue of communication for the adepts, like the Knights Templar or something.

Posted by: Norrin Radd at October 29, 2023 12:21 PM (hsWtj)

No email?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at October 29, 2023 12:29 PM (Angsy)

265 Apparently John Van Stry continues in his tradition of being unable to write just one series at a time. (Both the man and his muse love working overtime.) :-)

In addition to his first book in his new Wolfhounds series (Stand Alone), he also has just released "Serendipity", the first book in his new Ghost Warrior series.

Of particular interest is that Coyote appears early in the book and if you've read John's "Days of Future Past" series, you'll know that heralds all kinds of interesting developments taking place.

ASIN on this latest book is B0CLFK6W4M and it's 295 pages long. I've just started it and it's enjoyable so far. I'll have more on it next week once I've had a chance to finish it.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at October 29, 2023 12:32 PM (qPw5n)

266 My opinion tightens up on the definition of "miracle," as being something that never can be explained, no how, no way, by what is universally understood (i.e. nature); but yeah, maybe salvation is actually miraculous, rather than being simply a fact.

I think it's miraculous that Christ actually allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross, when He stated that He didn't have to go through with it. He could have called in legions of angels from Father G-d to destroy His enemies and let Him go free. "I AM" caused the arresting troops to fall backwards onto the ground. He also restored the soldier's ear. But He still went with them to Pilate's kangaroo court.

Jesus made it quite clear what we had to do to obtain His gift of eternal life, (purchased by His atoning death on the cross) so when we obey His instructions, it *follows that we then* have salvation, and at His discretion, have healing, and (some) actually returning from physical death.

Posted by: Ju at October 29, 2023 12:44 PM (pTsZn)

267 They told me a mask was enough to get into the supermarket.
They lied, everybody else was also wearing pants.
******************************
Best comment of the day! Thanks for the laugh

Posted by: Grateful at October 29, 2023 12:53 PM (IQ6Gq)

268 My theory is there were multiple Kill Teams in Dallas that day, mostly uncoordinated. Oswald just happened to get off the first shots.
This explains why there were reports of mysterious strangers running about after the shooting. The unexpected shooting and police response upset their planned exfiltration routes.
JFK had annoyed a lot of people, he wasn't getting out of Dallas that day.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at October 29, 2023 01:15 PM (H2qjM)

269 Nood.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at October 29, 2023 01:16 PM (H2qjM)

270 Pic is prolly the Harvard library, 20th century works.

Posted by: look whats not at October 29, 2023 01:57 PM (nakGR)

271 Te opening pic reminds of the scene in Logan’s Run where Logan and Jessica find the Old Man living in the ruins of the Capitol. I believe there are books scattered all about—the Library of Congress maybe?

The film was my first introduction to T.S. Eliot’s poems about cats.

Posted by: March Hare at October 29, 2023 03:13 PM (WOU9P)

272 I predicted the mission creep of the TxMoMe would eventually include a book swap.
Still waiting to hear about the team roping.

Posted by: waepnedmann at October 29, 2023 03:21 PM (PlfbK)

273 222 years ago I read a series of books, historical fiction, about WWII written by a husband and wife, Christian authors. The next series they wrote was about the new Jewish State. Does anybody here know who I am talking about? They had an interesting last name that was not pronounced at all like it was spelled.
I thought my grandkids would enjoy them, now that they are teens.

Brock and Bodie Thoene?

Posted by: Marybel Smiles at October 29, 2023 04:09 PM (b2Tnl)

274 I'm also re-reading the first "Cinder Spires" book (2015) so I'm not completely lost when the sequel comes out soon. There's a novella available too.

Posted by: MartynWW at October 29, 2023 04:49 PM (sHP7b)

275 krasnoarm.ru

Posted by: krasnoarm.ru at October 29, 2023 06:48 PM (NV7+3)

276 Rew: Silmarillion and many other books -- I never understood the complaint that there were too many made up names. WTF? Let's see, how many different cultures, how many different languages? Over how long a period? That'd be like complaining a book set in Africa among black Africans has "too many strange, hard-to-remember names". WTF? Like substituting Bob or Mark or Rebecca makes more sense?

Posted by: Larry at October 30, 2023 04:33 AM (kgx5R)

Processing 0.04, elapsed 0.0496 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0164 seconds, 285 records returned.
Page size 198 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.