Sunday Morning Book Thread - 11-12-2023 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. 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?

PIC NOTE

I went searching for "personal library" and found the pic above, which was linked to this article: For the Love of Books: 8 Perspectives on Building a Personal Library.

I feel a personal library is very much an expression of one's views and personality. I love examining the books in personal libraries to see if I can get a sense of the owner's perspectives on life, the universe, and everything.

DRAGON EX MACHINA

Earlier this week, I was reading a trashy Forgotten Realms novel (Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham). It's entertaining fantasy fluff to read while I waited for Jim Butcher's newest book (Cinder Spires 2 - The Olympian Affair) to land on my doorstop.

SPOILER: The conclusion of Cunningham's novel involves a literal "dragon ex machina" to swoop in and save the day for the heroes. It caught me by surprise so I had to read that passage a couple of times to be sure that I understood what was happening. Yep. The heroes are gearing up to battle the villain in a climactic showdown of magic, mayhem, and music. The dragon that was an important mid-book challenge then swoops in out of nowhere, snatches up the villain in its claws and carries her off to be devoured. After that, all the heroes have to do is clean up the magical mess she left behind, with relatively little difficulty. Definitely an anticlimactic ending to an otherwise entertaining story. Then the main character is rewarded for his efforts with a wildly disproportionate reward, gaining an enormous amount of power and prestige that seems a bit unwarranted.

Anyway, the "deus ex machina" (or "god from the machine") is a very old literary trope going all the way back to Greek and Roman theater, when an actor portraying one of the gods would literally be lowered onto the stage at the end of the play to resolve all of the conflicts with a wave of his hand. Nowadays, I think it's often seen as a fairly weak or contrived way for an author to conclude a book, as if the author is not quite sure how to end it, so comes up with a solution from out of nowhere. This can lead to a rather unsatisfying conclusion for the reader. We want a cool ending to a story, but it should make sense within the context of the story and should be properly be built up so that we feel satisfied by the ending. A deus ex machina solution can rob us of that.

What are some stories that disappointed you due to a deus ex machina? (Or dragon ex machina?)

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BOOKS BY MORONS

Hi Perfessor,
Just proud father here that asks you to please plug my daughter's new book, Foxfire.
Not a bad read actually. Northern lights, nefarious characters and an ancient evil?
Here's a copy of the cover.
I just downloaded a few of our recommendations. I'.m a voracious reader and a huge military science fiction fan.
Thanks
Don
In a remote Finnish resort, a group of potential investors gather to enjoy the Arctic beauty and the mesmeric Northern lights. But many of the guests aren't who they appear to be, and everyone is hiding something--from the gaudy Americans to the adventurous German and Australian couple to the quiet Yakuza and his former Geisha wife.
Owner Mattais and his skeptical daughter, Aino, have ignored family legends, dismissing the warnings of honoring their ancient forest as silly, old-fashioned traditions. But when the guests start to be picked off one by one, their blood soaked in the snow, the old tales don't seem so far-fetched anymore. A spectre haunts the forest and the survivors must decipher who--or what--is taking revenge.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I am reading a book by Rick Renner entitled, Christmas The Rest of the Story. It is the story about Jesus' actual surroundings when He came to earth. I am amazed at the detail that is available but almost never taught as we rely on a familiar narrative and comfortable stories. I would recommend for the coming season to give us a fresh view of the Greatest Story Ever Told.
Posted by: StewBurner at November 05, 2023 10:14 AM (Guh8+)

Comment: Based on StewBurner's recommendation, I went ahead and ordered myself a copy. Looking forward to reading it this holiday season!

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This week I read a fascinating book, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicolas A. Bashbanes. This was recommended here months ago. The first half of the book is devoted to the ancient libraries and collections with Alexandria being the foremost. There is a section on the history of early printing. The second half deals with collections amassed in the late 1800's through contemporary times.
While reading, I was reminded of the awe I felt about forty years ago when I toured the Huntington Library in San Marino, CA. Among the many treasures on display was a Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare folios, and a manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales from about 1410. Looking down over all was Gainsborough's Blue Boy. I think any book lover would love this book.
Posted by: Zoltan at November 05, 2023 10:15 AM (7EvEN)

Comment: I don't remember seeing this recommended on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, but I'm happy to include this recommendation now! Although I am unlikely to ever read the books that are carefully archived and catalogued in Europe's great libraries, I do have a sense of awe and wonderment whenever I see pictures of them. Even walking into a large library here in America is, for me, something special, as I can *feel* the weight of all that knowledge, just ripe for the picking. That's one of the reasons why I *love* working in a library building, even if I don't work directly for the library itself (that's just where my office is located).

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This week I read the third book in The Groundskeeper series by Cedar Sanderson. This is a series of three (so far) novellas, maybe 40-50 pages each or so, available on KU if you subscribe. They are pitched to the YA audience but I enjoyed them very much.
A young woman takes a job as groundskeeper at a cemetery instead of going to college. As this is an urban fantasy/light horror series, she soon finds many supernatural entities haunting the grounds. Each installment revolves around a mystery which requires investigation. The heroine, Chloe, is assisted by her boss; he is an older man with a mysterious background. (I love the wise mentor trope, so I greatly enjoy their scenes together.) I will note that the stories leave a few background issues unexplained, but this seems to be a running issue and I think it's because the heroine's POV limits what the reader is told. Recommended.
Posted by: Dr Alice at November 05, 2023 10:16 AM (oFuPp)

Comment: Sounds like a fun, engaging series that can keep one entertained for an hour or two (depending on reading speed.) Kind of reminds me of a less serious version of Dean Koontz' Odd Thomas (though that series is surprisingly light-hearted in places). Odd Thomas is a short-order cook by day, but solves quirky situations involving the dead at night. In the first book he hangs out with the ghost of Elvis Presley.

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I'm currently reading The Coming of the Horseclans, the first novel in a long series of heroic fantasy adventures in a post-Apocalyptic USA that has been transformed into the time of Alexander the Great's Successors. The central figure is a seemingly immortal man who can telepathically speak to animals, and is searching for anyone else who is like him, leaving legends in his wake.
Posted by: exdem13 at November 05, 2023 12:50 PM (W+kMI)

Comment: When I saw the cover of this book on Amazon, it just screamed out "1980s pulp fantasy." That's not necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy reading trashy fantasy novels the same way some folks like to read trashy mysteries or trashy romance novels. It's just a fun, engaging pastime.

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

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WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK

Christmas The Rest of the Story by Rick Renner -- Beautifully illustrated book with lots of fascinating details about what was happening in and around Israel during Jesus' birth, life, and death. I'm savoring it as I read through it...(thanks to StewBurner for the recommendation!)

The Cinder Spires Book 2 - The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher -- Captain Grimm is sent on a mission to Spire Olympia to seek allies to wage war against the Spire that nearly destroyed Spire Albion.

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

Proxima by Stephen Baxter - Humanity takes its first steps among the stars by colonizing an earthlike planet around our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (part of the Alpha Centauri trinary solar system).

Forgotten Realms Harpers Book 8 - Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham -- The history of the Realms is being changed by an ancient former Harper seeking vengeance against her fellow bards. Mostly, I just wanted to read something quick and trashy while waiting for other books to show up...

The Cinder Spires Book 2 - The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher -- Captain Grimm is sent on a mission to Spire Olympia to seek allies to wage war against the Spire that nearly destroyed Spire Albion.

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 - 11-05-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 shift gears

Posted by: Ciampino - Stay warm at November 12, 2023 08:59 AM (qfLjt)

2 Tolle Lege!

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 12, 2023 09:00 AM (PiwSw)

3 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at November 12, 2023 09:00 AM (fwDg9)

4 Didn't read anything but web pages last week.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 09:02 AM (Angsy)

5 Hi there book freaks!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:02 AM (80HNz)

6 1/2 way through Frederick Forsyth Dogs of War, no doubt read it in 1980s at some point and seen movie maybe a year ago but book as often is is more involved than movie

Posted by: Skip at November 12, 2023 09:03 AM (fwDg9)

7 I set aside "Ace in the Hole" because the library finally disgorged "A Night in the Lonesome October," which I ordered after it was mentioned in the Book Thread. My thanks to whoever brought it up. It was an enjoyable, quick read. And I even predicted one of the plot twists!

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:03 AM (p/isN)

8 Surprised at how much I enjoyed Ann Patchett's new novel "Tom Lake". Not because she isn't a great writer -- I also liked "The Dutch House" -- but because it's one of those slow, steady stories about small town people and the strange curveballs life can throw at you. It's not dazzling at first but it really builds up over the course of the telling. It reminds me a lot of another of my favorite tales, Leif Enger's "Virgil Wander", which is also about lives and loves lost and better outcomes that come after that loss.

"Tom Lake" takes place in the spring of 2020. Three daughters have returned to the family orchard in northern Michigan to help their parents pick cherries. To pass the time, they ask their mother to talk about her time as a young actress in a Hollywood movie and in summer stock at the Tom Lake theater. It's really a meditation on young passions versus more mature love.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:04 AM (80HNz)

9 WG, A Night in the Lonesome October sounds familiar. Roger Zelazny?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:05 AM (omVj0)

10 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:05 AM (7EjX1)

11 Morning Horde, I almost finished The Running Grave, it is quite a tome, kept me up quite late last night.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at November 12, 2023 09:06 AM (Sgq8y)

12 I inherited the personal library of the doctor who owned my house before me. Indian guy who had books on Christianity, American history and every environmental wacko book written by ralph nader.

Then I walk in the woods and it is full of 30 years of trash, because the stingy bastard wouldn't pay to dispose of anything. Old water heater? Throw it into the woods! Fountain spalling? To the woods!

Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy MAGA Extremist at November 12, 2023 09:06 AM (NYzgN)

13 I did, JTB. We're entering the Good Reading Weather zone.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:06 AM (80HNz)

14 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:07 AM (Zz0t1)

15 Love those built-in book cases. For a while during the long dark night of unemployment following the dot-com bust, I worked as a carpet cleaner. You would be shocked -- or at least I was -- at the number of upper middle class homes that had no books evident other than maybe the current pop fiction crap.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 09:08 AM (nfrXX)

16 What are some stories that disappointed you due to a deus ex machina? (Or dragon ex machina?)

I wouldn't say it disappointed me since it's my favorite book, but Moby Dick features the much less well known cetacea ex machina, i.e. the whale from the machine. One minute the ship is there, and there's lots of drama, and the next minute everyone is gone except for the Ishmael and Queequeg.

Posted by: Archimedes at November 12, 2023 09:08 AM (I/Qkd)

17 The guy wearing 'these pants' is either bragging (which I doubt) or is terminally gay. Doesn't matter which since he has a complete lack of taste, decorum, and embarrassment.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:08 AM (7EjX1)

18 I need roller skates to keep up with you, Sponge! Damn you're quick!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:08 AM (80HNz)

19 @9 --

Yes, Wolfus, Zelazny. First of his non-Amber books I've read. Won't be the last.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:08 AM (p/isN)

20 Anyway, the "deus ex machina" (or "god from the machine") is a very old literary trope going all the way back to Greek and Roman theater, when an actor portraying one of the gods would literally be lowered onto the stage at the end of the play to resolve all of the conflicts with a wave of his hand.

It seems Disney has taken this to extremes with STRONK WIMMENS in every story now.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:09 AM (Zz0t1)

21 I'm proceeding through John Scalzi's Starter Villain, a fun romp that straddles the SF/fantasy line. The narrator, a divorced substitute teacher in New England who lives with two cats, is suddenly catapulted into danger and high finance, and yes, sort-of villainy, by a bequest in his late uncle's will. HIs uncle was a member of the Convocation, a Thrush/SPECTRE type of group, but he meddled in their plans more than he participated. Now our narrator is in the crosshairs of the others. Typing sentient cats, talking dolphins, loads of fun so far.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:09 AM (omVj0)

22 Got a few chapters into "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck. Despite Wolfus' good description last week I was surprised. Instead of a single narrative Steinbeck uses short chapters of inner dialogue and painstaking description of the people and area to build an understanding of Cannery Row. I suspect the accumulation of these vignettes will add up to the story. It's different but I like the approach so far even though the overall place isn't jolly. I do appreciate the half cynical and half amusing tone he uses.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (7EjX1)

23 DRAGON EX MACHINA

*********

Knock knock

Who's there?

Interrupting Dragon

Interrupting Dragon whROARRRRRRR!

Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (991eG)

24 I wouldn't say it disappointed me since it's my favorite book, but Moby Dick features the much less well known cetacea ex machina, i.e. the whale from the machine. One minute the ship is there, and there's lots of drama, and the next minute everyone is gone except for the Ishmael and Queequeg.

Dang, I need more coffee. Queequeg is among the casualties.

Posted by: Archimedes at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (I/Qkd)

25 I'm currently reading The Coming of the Horseclans

I read that as Horseclams and immediately related it to fartclams.

Posted by: Ciampino - bookends should never meet at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (qfLjt)

26 Yes, Wolfus, Zelazny. First of his non-Amber books I've read. Won't be the last.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023

***
I don't know if it was a novel or a novelette, but his "Home Is the Hangman" is effective too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (omVj0)

27 No reading this week

Posted by: rhennigantx at November 12, 2023 09:11 AM (lwOKI)

28 If anyone is interested in a fun sci-fi romp with snarky and snappy dialog, I can recommend Bob's Saucer Repair. Warning, the series can become addictive.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 12, 2023 09:11 AM (PiwSw)

29 Then I walk in the woods and it is full of 30 years of trash, because the stingy bastard wouldn't pay to dispose of anything. Old water heater? Throw it into the woods! Fountain spalling? To the woods!
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy MAGA Extremist

He just wanted to feel at home.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at November 12, 2023 09:11 AM (OPFAz)

30 Good morning again dear morons and thanks perfessor.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at November 12, 2023 09:11 AM (RIvkX)

31 The pants selection makes me think wistfully of the website Regretsy and all the hideous hippie handcrafts (and unfortunate boyfriends pressed into service as models).

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:12 AM (80HNz)

32 Christmas The Rest of the Story by Rick Renner

Is that the same Rick Renner of former Fox Sports Southwest fame, he of the grandiose fake radio voice?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:12 AM (Zz0t1)

33 No cetacean puns -- cetaceans are not fish.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at November 12, 2023 09:12 AM (PiwSw)

34 An Inconvenient Dragon

A Dragon Too Far

Dragon's Progress

Moby Dragon

A Tale of Two Dragons

Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 09:13 AM (991eG)

35 I need roller skates to keep up with you, Sponge! Damn you're quick!
Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:08 AM (80HNz)

I just woke up...what, you kiddin me?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:13 AM (Zz0t1)

36 Reply to Shy Lurking Voter (SLV) from post 342 from last week's book thread:

You're most welcome, SLV! Glad you're enjoying the Portals of Infinity series by John Van Stry. It's definitely one of my favourites. :-)

May I also suggest the Children of Steel 5 book series? The author's suggested reading order is:

Children of Steel
Danger Money
Dialene
Lead, Follow, or Suffer the Consequences
Interregnum

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at November 12, 2023 09:13 AM (qPw5n)

37 And, having been made aware of the whole pants thing in the book thread this week, are shorts acceptible?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (Zz0t1)

38 1/2 way through Frederick Forsyth Dogs of War...

Posted by: Skip at November 12, 2023 09:03 AM (fwDg9)

Solid book! A bit naive, but still a good read.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (3Gtis)

39 Good news for fans of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: the "Paddy's Pub" cookbook is out! I was only a casual viewer but I love the sound of these: Rum Ham, Trash Bag Full of Chimichangas, and McPoyle's Milk Punch (Without Bath Salts).

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (80HNz)

40 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I've been reading Silk Unspun, by D.S. Blake. Spider sci-fi!

I'm about 75% through, and will have a review next week.

Put Foxfire on my list for next--I like reading the Moron and Moron-adjacent books. My TBR list is crushing me.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (OX9vb)

41 Not sure whether the ending of "A Night in the Lonesome October" qualifies as a deus ex machina. To say more risks spoilers.

How many thrillers could be said to use this trope? An ally of the protagonist happens to show up at a critical time. When is this coincidence and not a cheat?

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (p/isN)

42 Got a few chapters into "Cannery Row" by Steinbeck. Despite Wolfus' good description last week I was surprised. Instead of a single narrative Steinbeck uses short chapters of inner dialogue and painstaking description of the people and area to build an understanding of Cannery Row. I suspect the accumulation of these vignettes will add up to the story. It's different but I like the approach so far even though the overall place isn't jolly. I do appreciate the half cynical and half amusing tone he uses.
Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023

***
JTB, I thought I mentioned that CR is a series of vignettes. Its sequel, Sweet Thursday, is a real novel, a comedy/romance that follows Doc, Mack and the boys, and an apprentice whore named Suzy who is not really cut out for the life.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (omVj0)

43 I'm currently reading The Coming of the Horseclans, the first novel in a long series of heroic fantasy adventures in a post-Apocalyptic

Horseclams ?

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (T4tVD)

44 are shorts acceptible?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:14 AM (Zz0t1)

With your legs?

God no!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at November 12, 2023 09:15 AM (3Gtis)

45 My daughter saw Interrupting Dragons open for Imagine Dragons at Toyota Music Factory last year.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:15 AM (Zz0t1)

46 That’s a stylin’ pimp hat on that squirrel!

Posted by: UnkleSteve at November 12, 2023 09:15 AM (t9mSz)

47
With your legs?

God no!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at November 12, 2023 09:15 AM (3Gtis)

*sigh*

*sulks off*

*finds PJ pants*

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:15 AM (Zz0t1)

48 In the first book he hangs out with the ghost of Elvis Presley.

But.....he's not dead !

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (T4tVD)

49 Sent you an email, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (Angsy)

50 That’s a stylin’ pimp hat on that squirrel!
Posted by: UnkleSteve at November 12, 2023 09:15 AM (t9mSz)

He actually received a life-sized replica at the TxMoMe this year. I bet he's wearing it right now....

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (Zz0t1)

51 Tolkein's deus ex machin is the eagles, always saving Gandalf's bacon.

Posted by: Fred Sullivan at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (BPrnr)

52 Hiya

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (T4tVD)

53 Yes, Wolfus, Zelazny. First of his non-Amber books I've read. Won't be the last.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023

***
I don't know if it was a novel or a novelette, but his "Home Is the Hangman" is effective too.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (omVj0)
---
I really enjoyed Zelazny's "Changeling" and "Madwand" stories. I wish he had been able to write more stories in that world. I like them more than the Amber books.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (BpYfr)

54 If memory serves, I read A Gentle Madness when it first came out, and it was fun -- these days I tend to recall whether I enjoyed a book more than I remember much of the content, so when I revisit it on the kindle later this month, I'll get to have fun with it all over again. I think it included a section on people who stock their collections with library ripoffs.

Re the pic: not focused well enough to read many of the titles, but those shelves seem awfully crudely organized (if that's the word I want here) even by my loose standards.

Does anyone else find it annoying when a scene in a film takes place in a room with lots of built-in shelves and you can tell all the books are Reader's Digest condensed or a hodgepodge that had to have been bought by weight just to fill the space?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 09:17 AM (a/4+U)

55 I don't think that the pants guy owns a weedwhacker, if you catch my drift.

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 09:17 AM (T4tVD)

56 Not sure whether the ending of "A Night in the Lonesome October" qualifies as a deus ex machina. To say more risks spoilers.

How many thrillers could be said to use this trope? An ally of the protagonist happens to show up at a critical time. When is this coincidence and not a cheat?
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023

***
The crucial point is the "happens to show up." If you plant it earlier and don't simply spring it on the reader at the climax. Felix Leiter is important in the middle chapters of Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever -- so that when he shows up to rescue Bond and Tiffany in the Nevada desert after Bond's final battle with the Spang gangsters, it's not a DEM.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:17 AM (omVj0)

57 The Dragons of War

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:18 AM (p/isN)

58 13 ... "We're entering the Good Reading Weather zone."

Hi Alex the Chick,

Yep! We've had a few nights below freezing which is the marker I wait for. The winter forecast for our area is calling for colder and wetter weather than usual. From my reading point of view that is ideal. The winter pantry is already stocked and I've been assembling the pile of books I want to read in one area so they are easy to find.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:19 AM (7EjX1)

59 It's different but I like the approach so far even though the overall place isn't jolly. I do appreciate the half cynical and half amusing tone he uses.

If you end up enjoying it (it’s one of my favorites of his) you may also enjoy his Tortilla Flat, which is similar but as a retelling of the Knights of the Round Table. It’s in The Short Novels of John Steinbeck and probably other collections.

I didn’t remember the name, so I went to search for “Steinbeck” “Knights” and it turns out he did also did a more faithful modern retelling of the Knights of the Round Table.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:19 AM (EXyHK)

60 "I love examining the books in personal libraries to see if I can get a sense of the owner's perspectives on life, the universe, and everything."

My shelves say.
Cheap.
Disorganized.
Scatterbrained.

The stacks on the otherhand say
Wackjob conspiracy theroist.

Still doing my halfassed research into The Black Prince. Finding material on the timeframe I am trying to look into (1346-1354) seems to be somewhat rare. Might have something to do with the Black Death. I want to try and prove who the source of the garter was that spawned the Order of the Garter and nail down once and for all who spawned the man who became the first Austin.
Unfortunately there was this asshole.. Cromwell... burned the records, disolved and then used the Austin Friary to build his house in London.

Posted by: Reforger at November 12, 2023 09:19 AM (rz8gk)

61 The crucial point is the "happens to show up." If you plant it earlier and don't simply spring it on the reader at the climax. Felix Leiter is important in the middle chapters of Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever -- so that when he shows up to rescue Bond and Tiffany in the Nevada desert after Bond's final battle with the Spang gangsters, it's not a DEM.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:17 AM (omVj0)
----
That is indeed the key. If the author plants enough seeds ahead of time, the heroes can have their bacon saved out of the blue and it seems appropriate.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 12, 2023 09:20 AM (BpYfr)

62 Dragon Milk: The Life and Times of a Short-Legged Dairy Cow

(wait for it...)

Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 09:22 AM (991eG)

63 First of his non-Amber books I've read.

Amber! Sharp intake of breath.

Posted by: Spinster Babysitter at November 12, 2023 09:22 AM (Angsy)

64 Craig Ferguson's "American On Purpose" is hilarious and sobering. Talks about his childhood and adolescence in working class Glasgow, the 80's comedy and music scene (he was a drummer in a band with a future Dr. Who) and his descent into alcoholism. Nothing like waking up in a puddle of piss and vomit -- hopefully his own! Hard to tell on the morning after the night before. But it's also about his eventual success in the U.S. and his long struggle to achieve sobriety.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:23 AM (80HNz)

65 If you go looking for Night in the Lonesome October, watch the byline. There's Zelazny's but there's also a horror novel by the same title by Richard Laymon.

And if you dive into Zelazny, don't miss his novel Isle of the Dead, or the short story collections. NESFA Press has a six volume set of his complete short stories, hardcover and ebook, which is a terrific buy. For a good sampler, check out a nice selection of his early work called The Magic (ebook; don't know offhand if there's a print edition).

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 09:23 AM (a/4+U)

66 I didn’t remember the name, so I went to search for “Steinbeck” “Knights” and it turns out he did also did a more faithful modern retelling of the Knights of the Round Table.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023

***
I love his The Wayward Bus. It's that old classic setup, several very different people thrown together in a troublesome or desperate situation, and we see how they react. Imagine a John D. MacDonald novel like Murder in the Wind, but minus crime.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:23 AM (omVj0)

67 11 Morning Horde, I almost finished The Running Grave, it is quite a tome, kept me up quite late last night.
Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz

Good morning, DDS! I'm waiting for my place for this one on audio. I haven't read any of these myself--started the first one on audio, and I love the reader, so now I have to listen to all of them rather than read it myself. Can't switch gears.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 09:23 AM (OX9vb)

68 Finished JA Andrew's The Keeper Origins (all 3 volumes) and was struck by the love the Keepers have of books. The Stronghold (their Batcave) is the location of their library which is described towards the end of the Origins has a few floors underground (carefully waterproofed and low humidityed) and a few (six?) above ground. The Keeper Chronicles also has love of books floating through the stories. Origins spent a bit too much time cleaning up the loose threads, but still recommended.

Also read Key's Dwindle, Peak, and Pine (mentioned last week?). Good story, interesting characters, didn't see the ending coming. I found myself hoping there are more stories with Mr. West, Pete, and Rick.

Posted by: yara at November 12, 2023 09:24 AM (xr64u)

69 42 ... "JTB, I thought I mentioned that CR is a series of vignettes."

Hi Wolfus, You did mention it but I was still surprised by how short and detailed they are. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book and Sweet Thursday and comparing the different approaches. The vignettes style in CR reminds me a bit of Travels With Charley.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:24 AM (7EjX1)

70 I feel a personal library is very much an expression of one's views and personality.

When I finally bought a house, I set aside one room as the “study”, which is also the library. But every room is a mini-library at least. I built bookshelves custom for each room, and put books in them that I might want to read while relaxing in that room.

I also occasionally pick up bronze bookends at antique stores or garage sales, and turn flat space into tiny bookshelves.

Seeing books everywhere is comfort food.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:25 AM (EXyHK)

71 forsyth, was a stringer for MI-6 in that period when he was at reuters, the rebel leader was based on Moises Tsombe who was the reasonably honest one, so of course the company went with Mugabe and bob's your uncle,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 09:25 AM (PXvVL)

72 But.....he's not dead !

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (T4tVD)

However, he has left the building.

Posted by: BignJames at November 12, 2023 09:25 AM (AwYPR)

73 Tolkein's deus ex machin is the eagles, always saving Gandalf's bacon.

Posted by: Fred Sullivan at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (BPrnr)
---
The thing about the eagles is that they're known to be out there. The eagles pop up in The Hobbit as just another fantastic creature. Later on, we get a sense that they're working for the good guys, but also doing their own thing.

Symbolically, they're angels, and Tolkien spelled this out in The Silmarillion. Basically they are Manwe's thumb on the scale when things get dicey, which fits in well with the notion that things are "meant" to happen.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 09:26 AM (llXky)

74 I was taught in a Shakespeare class that the last line of the play was always spoken by the surviving person of highest rank, even if that's their only line. I think in Hamlet the last line is by the King of Sweden, for example. It was a convention, to assure the audience that the world was safe and would continue.

I wonder if the deus ex machina has a similar purpose: See? no matter how bad things look, you'll be saved.

Posted by: Wenda at November 12, 2023 09:26 AM (Tji/p)

75 @56 --

Wolfus, I was thinking of the Matt Helm adventure "The Devastators," which is probably Hamilton's most Bond-movie story. Helm is a captive when Vadya -- who was shot a few chapters earlier -- comes on the scene and attacks a guard, giving Helm an opening to turn the tables. DEM?

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:27 AM (p/isN)

76 My recommendation for this week is King Solomon's Mines, by H Rider Haggard. This is the original African adventure novel. Allan Quatermain, an African guide, is hired by a pair of British men to guide them through uncharted central Africa to the spot noted on an ancient map they have acquired. The party encounters deadly deserts, barely passable mountain ranges, and a tribe intent on their destruction before finally finding what they were searching for. Haggard had served in Africa during the Zulu war, and so he knew the terrain, the customs, and the legends of the setting of his book. The novel came about due to a wager between Haggard and his brother that he could not write a book as good as Treasure Island. He wrote it in a few weeks, then struggled to get anyone to publish it. Once in print, however, it became a best seller, and inspired a whole genre of lost world stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and others . The story is quite entertaining, and the twists and turns in each chapter present many cliffhanger moments.. This is a great read aloud book for story time with children.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 12, 2023 09:27 AM (GGupb)

77 When it comes to the "deus ex machina" the most annoying example I have come across is at the end of Roger Zelazny's "The Changing Land". There the hero, Dilvish the Damned, is facing off against the evil sorcerer Jelerak (who sent Dilvish to Hell centuries before). Then a literal god appears and scoops up Jelerak and carries him off. That's it. No final battle, no explanation of how Dilvish escaped from Hell or how he acquired to deadly magic he planned to use of Jelerak. A major disappointment.

That said I generally like Zelazny's work (though I found his Amber series a disappointment). Titles of his I enjoyed include "This Immortal", "Lord of Light" and a lot of his short stories.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 12, 2023 09:27 AM (XGFBC)

78 Steinbeck also wrote a short piece called "The Snake," published in a newspaper before he included it in his early novel The Long Valley. Creepy and suspenseful -- in fact it turns up in one of the Alfred Hitchcock anthologies, A Baker's Dozen of Suspense Stories. I'll just say that the snake of the title is *not* the creepiest character in the story.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:27 AM (omVj0)

79 Continuing on with Dante's Divine Comedy. Finished Inferno this week. Canto 34 really struck me so I'll re-read and ponder it at length.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 12, 2023 09:28 AM (e1mwr)

80 In my re-read of LotR, the Fellowship is about to receive gifts from Galadriel.

I'm continually impressed by the efficient writing, just enough description to paint a picture but vague enough for us to insert our own interpretation on it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 09:29 AM (llXky)

81 I didn’t remember the name, so I went to search for “Steinbeck” “Knights” and it turns out he did also did a more faithful modern retelling of the Knights of the Round Table.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:19 AM (EXyHK)

Please dont spam a lot with this story....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 09:29 AM (Angsy)

82 Haha, Eris, Regretsy was so great!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 09:30 AM (OX9vb)

83 the assasin in jackal is reputed to be a veteran of the Congo conflict, in Katanga, the Firm's influence is seen in Odessa Files where he chooses Rorschmann played by Maximilian Schell, to substitute for Alois Brunner, the Miller character played by Voight, is interestingly similar to that of the role for Skorzeny, who worked for Mossad out of obligation, while he trained the PLO on his off time,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 09:31 AM (PXvVL)

84 I forget thee name of thee book, but I read a spy novel where the final scene involved the hero disguising himself as a member of a Latin dance troupe to infiltrate the villain's lair.

Sort of a deus ex macarena...

Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 09:31 AM (991eG)

85 58 ... I referenced Alex the Chick when it should have been All Hail Eris. Ooops! Sorry about that.

(Goes to get more coffee.)

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:31 AM (7EjX1)

86 I love his The Wayward Bus.

That may have been the first of his books I read, in my parents’ library. I still have that copy—probably stole it from one of my mom’s yard sales. I need to re-read it.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:31 AM (EXyHK)

87 @54: JSG: Does anyone else find it annoying when a scene in a film takes place in a room with lots of built-in shelves and you can tell all the books are Reader's Digest condensed or a hodgepodge that had to have been bought by weight just to fill the space?
--------------------------
It's like wandering through a furniture store and seeing RDC books and a hodgepodge.
----------------------------
One time I was following my wife around a furniture section of a department store and found a book I'd read for a class and really liked. It took me half an hour to convince the store people to sell me the book. It was Silberman's Crisis in the Classroom. I wonder what happened to that book and what I'd think of it now.

Posted by: yara at November 12, 2023 09:32 AM (xr64u)

88 Wolfus, I was thinking of the Matt Helm adventure "The Devastators," which is probably Hamilton's most Bond-movie story. Helm is a captive when Vadya -- who was shot a few chapters earlier -- comes on the scene and attacks a guard, giving Helm an opening to turn the tables. DEM?
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023

***
I wouldn't think so. Her presence is established, and even if she's thought to be dead, that can come under the heading of "BIG Surprise!" If there were no mention of her at all, let alone an appearance on stage, and then she shows up to save Helm, then it's DEM.

In Burroughs' Tarzan story Tarzan and the City of Gold, we see a certain character trailing Tarzan at various points throughout the story, so that when he appears at the climax to aid Tarzan in a desperate battle, it not only makes sense, but we go, "Yesss!"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:33 AM (omVj0)

89 48 In the first book he hangs out with the ghost of Elvis Presley.

But.....he's not dead !
Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 09:16 AM (T4tVD)

Many years ago, a friend's relation was a medical examiner in Memphis. When the whole "Is Elvis Alive?" nonsense began, this fellow laughed heartily. "How do you know he's not dead?"
"His brain is in a jar on my desk."

Posted by: Brewingfrog at November 12, 2023 09:33 AM (aJmA5)

90 I was taught in a Shakespeare class that the last line of the play was always spoken by the surviving person of highest rank, even if that's their only line. I think in Hamlet the last line is by the King of Sweden, for example. It was a convention, to assure the audience that the world was safe and would continue.

I wonder if the deus ex machina has a similar purpose: See? no matter how bad things look, you'll be saved.

Posted by: Wenda at November 12, 2023 09:26 AM (Tji/p)

You notice it in Julius Caesar too. Although Antony and Octavian are supposed to be "equals," Octavian gets the last line because of what will happen in the future.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 09:34 AM (Angsy)

91 re Foxfire,

The villain is probably Hurttinen-hosuja

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 09:34 AM (du94W)

92 Just wait until I swoop in to save America with my magical womanpenis wand.

Aa-hooo. Werewahmen of Martha's Vineyard.

Aa-hoooOOOO!

Posted by: Big Mike at November 12, 2023 09:34 AM (0B4oL)

93 I love his The Wayward Bus.

That may have been the first of his books I read, in my parents’ library. I still have that copy—probably stole it from one of my mom’s yard sales. I need to re-read it.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023

***
The cover of my paperback special edition from the '80s has a black-and-white still of Joan Collins, who played the bus driver's alcoholic wife in the 1950s movie, looking not at all glamorous but about to have a breakdown in the diner. (Not a bad film, good casting, though it changes the ending somewhat.)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:36 AM (omVj0)

94 Good morning!

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

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 12, 2023 09:36 AM (u82oZ)

95 Wolfus Aurelius @88, are you sure that was "Tarzan and the City of Gold"? It sounds like "Tarzan the Terrible" to me. I could be wrong or ERB could have recycled a plot.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 12, 2023 09:36 AM (XGFBC)

96 Yara,

Yep. If I happen to be in a dept or furniture store (which is seldom these days, I'm glad to say), I look at the books too and usually it's RDC and hodgepodge. Never tried to buy one of the books, but occasionally made a note of something to find later.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 09:37 AM (a/4+U)

97 . I referenced Alex the Chick when it should have been All Hail Eris. Ooops! Sorry about that.

(Goes to get more coffee.)
Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:31 AM (7EjX1)

I was going to ask.......

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:37 AM (Zz0t1)

98 You would be shocked -- or at least I was -- at the number of upper middle class homes that had no books evident other than maybe the current pop fiction crap.
Posted by: Oddbob

Or no books at all, which is also depressingly common.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 12, 2023 09:37 AM (hd/FH)

99 Kaylee the Calico Kitty Cat (the cutest little cat of them all) says, "Hello!" and recommends Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires series because of how it portrays her kind....

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 12, 2023 09:38 AM (BpYfr)

100 This is a great read aloud book for story time with children.

Haggard is an incredibly varied writer. I’ve been picking up everything new I find from him, and it’s all so different. Cleopatra is one of the more surprising—a sort of secret history, Tim Powers-style.

Haggard and Rudyard Kipling kept up a correspondence, and Haggard kept all of Kipling’s letters. Morton Cohen wrote about them in Rudyard Kipling to Rider Haggard: The Record of a Friendship. It’s a fascinating look at two turn-of-the-century writers nine years apart in their careers.

The goose on the wing laughs at crocodiles, so goes their saying down in Alexandria; but when the goose is asleep on the water, it is the crocodiles who laugh.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:38 AM (EXyHK)

101 Jim Butcher's Cinder Spires series because of how it portrays her kind....
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 12, 2023 09:38 AM (BpYfr)

I read this as "cider spices."

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at November 12, 2023 09:39 AM (Zz0t1)

102 no 6, "The Dogs of War" is reputed to have been based on a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, the epitome of the postage stamp-sized African country. One of Thatcher's sons was allegedly involved.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (p/isN)

103 You would be shocked -- or at least I was -- at the number of upper middle class homes that had no books evident other than maybe the current pop fiction crap.
Posted by: Oddbob

Or no books at all, which is also depressingly common.
Posted by: Thomas Paine

My Dad was a HS teacher at the end of his working life. He made home visits early in the school year to each of his students' homes. Many times, he'd come home and lament there was no reading material at all at a particular place. Terribly sad.

Posted by: Tonypete at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (e1mwr)

104 For those of you who liked "I Am Pilgrim," Terry Hayes FINALLY published his second book, "The Year of the Locust." (I think the original publication date for "Locust" was 2014).

it is not a sequel to "Pilgrim," but looks like another great "lone special ops agent saves Western civilization."

It won't be issued in the US until February, 2024. But it is now available in the UK on Waterstones, Amazon.uk, Awesome Books, and Blackwells. And you could start looking on Abebooks for used copies from UK sellers.

Blackwells has free shipping to the US, and prices look good, for those of you who miss the Book Depository.

Posted by: Wethal at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (NufIr)

105 I’m about one third of the way through “Masters of the Air” by Donald L. Miller. It's about the Eighth Bomber Group during World War Two. It’s been tough going because I have to fight back tears every few pages when I think of the absolute bravery of these men and what this country has come to.
I don’t want to think that it has been all for nothing. No, I will not allow the scum running this country to destroy what so many have sacrificed to give us.
I think about my old man and my FIL as well as all my uncles who served in WW2.
This is still and always be the greatest country God has given man.

Posted by: RetSgtRN at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (DhOnb)

106 "His brain is in a jar on my desk."
Posted by: Brewingfrog at November 12, 2023 09:33 AM (aJmA5)

That proves nothing.

Posted by: Reforger at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (vukk5)

107 I hope nobody tries to analyze me from my book collections. They would either walk away in disbelief or call for backup shrinks.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (7EjX1)

108 Wolfus Aurelius @88, are you sure that was "Tarzan and the City of Gold"? It sounds like "Tarzan the Terrible" to me. I could be wrong or ERB could have recycled a plot.
Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 12, 2023

***
Maybe he did recycle it, but wasn't Terrible the one with a hidden valley full of dinosaurs and men with tails? ERB built a whole language for them, as I recall, and I found it fascinating. City of Gold, I think, features two cities, one of gold and one of ivory, and their continual war -- and the mad queen of the golden city, who becomes obsessed with Tarzan and wants him to rule alongside her.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:41 AM (omVj0)

109 Yesterday I stopped by the bookstore in the mall to pass the time while my daughter did some clothes shopping. So depressing.
The new books are all liberal copes to deal with a disintegrating world. Infantile self-help or Trump Trump Trump.

I wandered to the used section because most of the books I'm interested in are likely not in print, but obviously the store's customer base isn't into actual literature, just more of the same brain-dead nonsense still being cranked out.

I remember when going to a book store was cool and fun, an adventure. It all seems so tedious now.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 09:42 AM (llXky)

110 This week I read (most of) _The Seedling Stars_, a Gollancz "SF Collectors edition" of James Blish's "pantropy" stories pretending to be a novel. The bulk of the book is his novella "Surface Tension" with a couple of sorta-related short stories to explain to the reader about the idea of genetically engineering humans to live on non-Earthlike planets.

Pretty good stuff, especially when Blish sticks to nice crunchy hard-SF worldbuilding about what it would be like for microscopic humans living in shallow ponds on an alien world. When he ventures into social science things get less good. The tyrannical world government in the first story is -- no kidding -- the Port Authority. As in the NY Port Authority. A tyranny of unelected bureaucrats would be great, but that particular bureaucracy just seems snicker-worthy.

Blish knew his biology, but it's all pre-Crick and Watson biology, so instead of genetic engineering it's done by "selective breeding of germ cells" and tinkering during development which somehow gets inherited.

Still, a classic.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 09:42 AM (78a2H)

111 Yesterday I stopped by the bookstore in the mall to pass the time while my daughter did some clothes shopping. So depressing. . . .

I remember when going to a book store was cool and fun, an adventure. It all seems so tedious now.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023

***
You lost me at "bookstore in the mall." Such a thing still exists?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:43 AM (omVj0)

112 I remember when going to a book store was cool and fun, an adventure. It all seems so tedious now.

One of the joys of traveling by car is finding wonderful old bookstores along the way. While it’s disappearing, that kind of bookstore does still exist.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:44 AM (EXyHK)

113 Does anyone else find it annoying when a scene in a film takes place in a room with lots of built-in shelves and you can tell all the books are Reader's Digest condensed or a hodgepodge that had to have been bought by weight just to fill the space?

Don't know if it's a regular thing but I have seen Half Price books offer books for sale (that they apparently couldn't sell otherwise), sorted by size and color and sold by the linear foot.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 09:44 AM (nfrXX)

114 …books for sale (that they apparently couldn't sell otherwise), sorted by size and color and sold by the linear foot.

Wonder Books does the same thing.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:46 AM (EXyHK)

115 This week I read (most of) _The Seedling Stars_, a Gollancz "SF Collectors edition" of James Blish's "pantropy" stories pretending to be a novel. The bulk of the book is his novella "Surface Tension" with a couple of sorta-related short stories to explain to the reader about the idea of genetically engineering humans to live on non-Earthlike planets. . . .

Still, a classic.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023

***
"Surface Tension" is indeed. There's a good reason it popped up in that big Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection of stories that appeared before the fandom started giving out Hugos. Not only does it display fine imagination -- e.g., paramecia and rotifers interacting with microscopic humans! -- but the humans go on a mindbending adventure too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:46 AM (omVj0)

116 One of the earlier books in the Davis Sutherland detective series about a private detective formerly from Michigan's Lower Peninsula where the solution to the murder comes completely out of the blue with no pre-warning. The book was titled...

...Davis, Ex-Mackinaw

Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 09:47 AM (991eG)

117 His brain is in a jar on my desk."
Posted by: Brewingfrog at November 12, 2023 09:33 AM (aJmA5)

That proves nothing.
Posted by: Reforger at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (vukk5)

Exactly, look at our resident (apology for going OT)

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at November 12, 2023 09:47 AM (8fz/C)

118 76 ... "My recommendation for this week is King Solomon's Mines, by H Rider Haggard."

I love Rider Haggard stories. Can never decide which I like more: King Solomon's Mines, the other Quartermain books, or She. His writing is among the books I want in paper, preferably hardcover.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:47 AM (7EjX1)

119 I haven't been into a new bookstore in years; only used bookstores have a chance at containing anything that might interest me.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 12, 2023 09:48 AM (ehJ5Z)

120 Apple+ is giving us Masters of the Air as a series.

Not read the book but if it is 8th Air Force specific, then why the HELL are the Red Tails even in the trailer since they flew their missions from North Africa and later Italy?

Another book about the 8th is Hell's Angels:The True Story of the 303rd Bomb Group in World War II by Jay. A. Stout.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 09:48 AM (du94W)

121 I wandered to the used section because most of the books I'm interested in are likely not in print, but obviously the store's customer base isn't into actual literature, just more of the same brain-dead nonsense still being cranked out.

I remember when going to a book store was cool and fun, an adventure. It all seems so tedious now.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 09:42 AM (llXky)

Maybe sneak in a few copies of your books onto the shelves with your author info on it....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 09:48 AM (Angsy)

122 My gripe about current bookstores is the "supernatural romance" section. "Twilight" has spawned so many copycats that they're deemed worthy of their own label. Gack.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:49 AM (p/isN)

123 Read a lot of Christopher Anvil short stories for comfort.

To examine, again, the results of advanced technology, sound planning, logistics, morale of the fighting forces, strong production results, and operational excellence, reread To Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alistair Horne, and Brute Force by John Ellis.

I see a glimmer on how the US of A is turning into France of 1938. This is a result deliberately sought by those in the corridors of power. Their short sighted and self-absorbed stealing from the production and taxes of an entire country has leave America vulnerable.

This is short-sighted, because those in power now will be overturned, cast out, and their gene line exterminated. Plenty of exampls in Communist takeovers, including Rhodesia and South Africa, to show the future path.

One example: We spent billions on research to make 155 mm shells so deadly and accurate we did not need a lot to get the same effect as a fire-for-effect time-on-target concentration of shells. We reduced production, then gave away our war reserve shells. 5 years of increased production is needed to replace that ammo given away.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 12, 2023 09:50 AM (u82oZ)

124 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor Squirrel!

I'm still stuck on reading trashy novels for the time being and enjoy every minute! Those novels need to be at least well-written in order to derive maximum enjoyment. A good story well told is the backbone of a decent novel, in my opinion.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 12, 2023 09:50 AM (Zb5iS)

125 Before ebooks became as big a thing as they are now I worked for a small college and over the years had occasion to visit a few faculty/administration homes -- not a lot of books to be seen unless they were stashed in some other room. But few donations to the library from those sources either, so I assume...

These days you wouldn't see a ton of books around my place either. The eternally nifty Mrs Some Guy and I have moved to mostly ebook -- if we tried to keep physical copies of everything there wouldn't be room for the books, the cat, and us.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 09:51 AM (a/4+U)

126 i found I Pilgrim very engaging, Hayes does put a lot of research into the story, (he was a foreign correspondent in the time of watergate) before he turned to film production,

the opening scene and certain elements through out the plot are quite gruesome, (how the villain optains his sample of small pox) ymmv,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 09:52 AM (PXvVL)

127 Not read the book but if it is 8th Air Force specific, then why the HELL are the Red Tails even in the trailer since they flew their missions from North Africa and later Italy?

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 09:48 AM (du94W)

You know why....

Posted by: DEI at November 12, 2023 09:52 AM (Angsy)

128
I remember when going to a book store was cool and fun, an adventure. It all seems so tedious now.

I used to hit a mall book store at least once a month to buy a tech magazine or tech book. I've begun to throw out a lot of books from that era because what was high tech then has all but disappeared, but some I just can't part with. It would feel like an act of betrayal.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 09:53 AM (enJYY)

129 sigh...I miss my epic book cases.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 12, 2023 09:53 AM (VwHCD)

130 My book shelves say:

1) Obsessive

2) Hoarder

3) Stuck in the past

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 09:55 AM (p/isN)

131 Haggard is an incredibly varied writer. I’ve been picking up everything new I find from him, and it’s all so different. Cleopatra is one of the more surprising—a sort of secret history, Tim Powers-style.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair

The funny thing is that nobody wanted to print King Solomon's Mines, and when it finally was published, it sold so well that copies could not be produced fast enough to keep up with demand.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at November 12, 2023 09:55 AM (IUIB1)

132 yes the plot in dogs of war is similar, but it happened 40 years ago, the guinea plot was a subtext in Christopher Reich's lesser known work

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 09:56 AM (PXvVL)

133 My bookshelves would say "there must be 14 different people living here."

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 09:57 AM (OX9vb)

134 100 ... "Haggard and Rudyard Kipling kept up a correspondence, and Haggard kept all of Kipling’s letters. Morton Cohen wrote about them in Rudyard Kipling to Rider Haggard: The Record of a Friendship. It’s a fascinating look at two turn-of-the-century writers nine years apart in their careers."

Got a good used hardcover of that and loved it. I've had good luck with collections of letters by authors I enjoy. EB White, CS Lewis and Tolkien top the list. It can be interesting to read their words that weren't meant for the general public.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:57 AM (7EjX1)

135 sorry nearly 60 years ago, there was a small used book shop around here, but it closed down pretty quickly, there are some items at the thrift stores, but nowhere enough,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 09:58 AM (PXvVL)

136 Adrian Tchaikovsky (he of the "Children of Time" and "Final Architecture" series we have discussed here) has two new books coming out, the first coming out in 2024: "Service Model," about a murderous service bot, and the second a followup to the first, in 2026.

James SA Corey (a pseudonym), of "The Expanse" series that I really enjoyed, both books and TV series, has a new trilogy coming out soon. Sci Fi again, the first book is called "The Mercy of Gods", out in August of 2024.

Nick Cole and Jason Anspach, authors of the excellent 42 book, two "season" "Galaxy's Edge" military Sci Fi series, are teeing up a third season. Mr. Anspach told me in a tweet the other day that season 3 will be heavy on backstory our favorite characters, such as murderous gunnery bot, "Death, Destroyer of Worlds", and many others. Cannot wait!

Finally, on 11/14, Martha Wells' 7th installment in her MurderBot series comes out: "System Collapse".

Hmmm, there seems to be a theme here. Murderous artificial intelligences. AKA, Our Future.

Posted by: Sharkman at November 12, 2023 09:58 AM (/RHNq)

137 I wonder how much Elvis's pickled brain would sell for.

Could make a good detective novel. The brain appears on Ebay, the estate demands it's return, it disappears, only evidence of it's existence is the pic on the site and the coroner notes.
Is Elvis's brain in a jar? Who listed it? Where did it go?
Elvis impersonater/part time detective Wojack Smythe is hired to find out.

Posted by: Reforger at November 12, 2023 09:58 AM (1TD05)

138 A few months ago I picked up a book about Cossaks from Osprey Publishing. Finally got around to reading it. Unfortunately, it deals with the Cossaks of the 19th century. While I normally love info about military units of the Napoleonic Wars, I was really hoping for the book to cover the Cossaks of the 17th century, to give me more context (and illustrations!) of Hard Lamb's Cossak short stories. Oh well.

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 09:59 AM (Lhaco)

139 I'm planning on hitting up AbeBooks for copies of Robert Ruark's two "big" Africa novels, Something of Value and Uhuru. RR told the truth about Africa, Kenyans, and the Mau Mau Emergency, and for that he's been cast into the outer darkness. I'll be lucky if I can find a copy of either in my college's library.

He also told the truth about men and women in his last novel, The Honey Badger -- but I have a hardcover copy of that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 09:59 AM (omVj0)

140 Does anyone else find it annoying when a scene in a film takes place in a room with lots of built-in shelves and you can tell all the books are Reader's Digest condensed or a hodgepodge that had to have been bought by weight just to fill the space?

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 09:17 AM (a/4+U)

No. Up until very recently *my* books were RDC (on sale at the library for $1 when I was a teen) and a hodgepodge of mostly stuff from second hand books along with a few favorite authors. That being the case, I don't even notice when there are scenes like that.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 12, 2023 09:59 AM (nC+QA)

141 Someone, somewhere, is outraged about this.

Posted by: International Brotherhood of Hobos and Associated Hermits at November 12, 2023 10:00 AM (dzZCL)

142 I have a copy of "King Solomon's Mines," filched from Dad decades ago. I use it to keep other books from being lost behind the side edges of my bookshelves. Perhaps I should extract it.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 10:01 AM (p/isN)

143 Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 12, 2023 09:38 AM (BpYfr)

Apparently Butcher had never had a cat before writing Cinder Spires. Sometime in the middle of writing he acquired one though.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 12, 2023 10:02 AM (nC+QA)

144 Present!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 10:02 AM (vHIgi)

145 My gripe about current bookstores is the "supernatural romance" section. "Twilight" has spawned so many copycats that they're deemed worthy of their own label. Gack.

Remember when tech and the internet were cool and the "Computer" section at B&N spanned multiple rows? Now there's a 10 foot run three or four shelves tall that's mostly about Photoshop and iPhones.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 10:02 AM (nfrXX)

146 Been re reading the Dresden Files. On book 8 (?) now

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 10:03 AM (vHIgi)

147 Got a good used hardcover of that and loved it. I've had good luck with collections of letters by authors I enjoy. EB White, CS Lewis and Tolkien top the list. It can be interesting to read their words that weren't meant for the general public.
Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023

***
There's a collection of the letters between Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, the cousins who wrote the Ellery Queen mystery novels for so long. Dannay was the plotter and puzzle man, Lee (who had aspirations to be a literary author) was the characterization and prose man. As the years went by, Lee complained bitterly about Dannay's "unrealistic" puzzle plots.

Dannay came back with a perfect riposte: "Good fantasy can have more value than bad realism."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:03 AM (omVj0)

148 Yara

Department store books as furnishing accessories.

Hoo boy yeah I have actually managed to convince the staff to sell me one such book called The Universal Anthology De Luxe Edition. One thousand copies of this multi-volume set were printed. I stumbled across Vol. 2 from 1899 battered quite a bit and water damaged but still intact. I really dislike opening it because more of the pages will proceed to shed little bitty bits of themselves.

One of the articles in it is called "No Final Translation of Homer Possible" by Butcher and Lang. It takes passages from three common translations and discusses how the conventions of the time of each translation affected what was written into English as Homer's story of the Trojan War.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 10:04 AM (du94W)

149
My latest book purchases were 'The Runaway Bunny' and 'Go, Dog Go' for my nearly two year old grand niece. Gotta hook 'em on reading early. My wife sewed a bunny and dog stuffed animals to accompany the stories.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 10:05 AM (enJYY)

150 Dannay came back with a perfect riposte: "Good fantasy can have more value than bad realism."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:03 AM (omVj0)
---
AMEN!

As a lover of fantasy, I cannot agree more...

Of course, the opposite can also be true.

What matters is the quality of story, rather than the genre.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at November 12, 2023 10:06 AM (BpYfr)

151 137 Is Elvis's brain in a jar? Who listed it? Where did it go?
Elvis impersonater/part time detective Wojack Smythe is hired to find out.
Posted by: Reforger at November 12, 2023 09:58 AM (1TD05)

Would read.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 10:07 AM (OX9vb)

152 The local bookstore situation is looking up, for once. One local store just moved to bigger (and nicer) quarters, and their reopening drew an encouragingly big crowd. I grabbed a handful of used books there.

There's another new one in the next town over, a smaller arty used bookstore, though apparently run by someone who's spent a lifetime in the business.

Both are in depressed ex-industrial towns struggling to make themselves hip. Neither has what you would call an intellectual or cultural "scene" beyond a couple of bands.

If I had to bet money, I'd put it on the first one because it's bigger, the town is bigger, and it's more convenient to the interstate so out-of-towners can stop by. The main downside is that it's on a side street in what is otherwise a residential neighborhood. The second store is on the main drag of a town that's harder to get to, where the main industry is people selling Fentanyl to each other.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 10:07 AM (78a2H)

153 I have no idea what my shelves would say. I'm down to one large bookcase and a few boxes -- the rest went to libraries and second-hand shops. What's left on the shelf is, well, kind of a hodgepodge. The Library of America Isaac Bashevis Singer stories, Everyman Library's Montaigne, Maugham, Kipling, and Henry James stories, Modern Library's Chekhov, and then a bunch of Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Fritz Leiber, Ramsey Campbell, Borges, poetry by Dana Gioia, a bunch of Simenon's stuff, and all of Don Robertson's novels. There's tons more in the ebook library.

And I'm behind on all of it...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 10:07 AM (a/4+U)

154 So has anyone read this year's winner of the Hugo, Nettles & Bone?

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 10:07 AM (du94W)

155 Present!
Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 10:02 AM (vHIgi)

Why Thank You !

You shouldn't have !

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 10:08 AM (T4tVD)

156 Legally Sufficient, if a book holds your interest and keeps you turning the pages and has a decent plot, what makes it trashy?

Has there been an official discussion of "trashy" on this thread? What's the opposite? Literary? Because to me "literary" is about as damning as "worthy." Give me a fast read every time.

Posted by: Wenda at November 12, 2023 10:08 AM (Tji/p)

157 I finally finished reading The Complete Brambly Hedge. I picked up a copy back when the Horde started discussing it, and have been slowly plugging through its 9 stories. Because one must be in the proper mood to appreciate a children's story, lest you breeze over it in annoyance.... Anyways, great illustrations, even if only a couple of the stories left an impression.

To keep with the theme of illustrated mice, I was inspired to pick up a few Mouse Guard comics. I expect to have a much easier time staying engaged in those.

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 10:08 AM (Lhaco)

158 *pauses*

Cypher Spiders.

AI controlled bots roaming the Internets doing what? hmmm...

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 10:08 AM (du94W)

159 His brain is in a jar on my desk."
Posted by: Brewingfrog at November 12, 2023 09:33 AM (aJmA5)

I bet the Colonel sold it to him.

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 10:09 AM (T4tVD)

160 Been re reading the Dresden Files. On book 8 (?) now

I would be interested in how you think they hold up on a second reading. I re-read the first few (up through, I think Winter Knight) and I re-read the last two in prep for the latest two-book story. For me, they didn't hold up nearly as well as on the first reading.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 10:10 AM (nfrXX)

161 DRAGON EX MACHINA

*********

Knock knock

Who's there?

Interrupting Dragon

Interrupting Dragon whROARRRRRRR!
Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 09:10 AM (991eG)

I've been working all morning and man, my ass is dragon.

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 10:10 AM (T4tVD)

162 King Solomon's Mines is a classic. I made sure my kids read it. As a bonus, if you show a copy to a Critical Race Theory professor, they crumble to ash at the sight of it.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 10:11 AM (78a2H)

163 I hope nobody tries to analyze me from my book collections. They would either walk away in disbelief or call for backup shrinks.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 09:40 AM (7EjX1)

Yeah, guilty. Nowhere else on the planet would you find Einstein's Theory of Relativity next to Go Dog Go. lol

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at November 12, 2023 10:11 AM (VwHCD)

164 pulpy, with covers like the late Gerald de Villiers, only some of which have been translated into English,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 10:11 AM (PXvVL)

165 Polliwog the 'Ette

I think of Reader's Digest Condensed books as edited severely for popularity. Some are edited well, as some authors need more editing. George R. R. Martin, looking at you.

Reader's Digest printed excellent quality editions of great novels in their Worlds Best Reading series. I have quite a lot of those in my own library. These are unedited.

Link goes to the Wiki article on that series. https://tinyurl.com/mu99nrkk

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 12, 2023 10:11 AM (u82oZ)

166 139 ... " I'm planning on hitting up AbeBooks for copies of Robert Ruark's two "big" Africa novels, Something of Value and Uhuru."

I've read some of Ruark's Africa stories but should get them all, preferably in hardcover. (Plans another trip to the used book store.) But my favorites are his "The Old Man and the Boy" and "The old Man's Boy Grows Older".

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 10:12 AM (7EjX1)

167 I have a business trip coming up. For my travel reading, I got "The Psychology of Totalitarianism by a guy called Mattias Desmet, who at least seems to "get it" a little bit. Saw him talking about the book on an old interview with Tucker, referenced by some black dude on Twitter who was talking about the Rona Madness of late. Desmet wasn't a phony TV huckster wearing normalcy-bias colored glasses. And he didn't seem like a facile midwit, but actually smart. Weird. Seeing that on American TV is like going to a cocktail party, and finding the bartender is a giraffe.

Will report back on the book.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023 10:12 AM (0FoWg)

168 Have a blessed day, everyone.

Ad Astra Per Aspera

Posted by: NaCly Dog at November 12, 2023 10:13 AM (u82oZ)

169 Speaking of "realism" -- I was told once at my writing group that at least some of my stuff falls into the category of "magical realism." I'd heard the term, but am still not sure what that is when it's at home. Is it the kind of story set in our world, past or present, with all the usual "realistic" details you'd expect -- but one element is fantastical, and the author explores the effect of that on the humans in the story?

For instance, a man is taking a sleep aid, but one night when he takes just one instead of two pills, he finds himself in a world where some of the dead are still alive, including his mother. It's not a dream exactly, as other people in his/our world have made the same contact. Is that magical realism?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:14 AM (omVj0)

170 Dragon Ex Machina? "His Magesty's Dragon" by Naomi Novik. Few books have both fascinated and frustrated me as that book did... The climax of the book has the main-character dragon discover a new power and essentially wiping out the opposing army with it. I can't remember why the dragon didn't do that more during the series....

I read that book in two days, but was unsure if I wanted to actually continue the series after wards. Eventually I did, for a few books at least, but with a lot of trepidation.

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 10:14 AM (Lhaco)

171 That being the case, I don't even notice when there are scenes like that.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 12, 2023 09:59 AM (nC+QA)

*fistbump Good morning, Polliwog!
I think my mom subscribed to the RDC when I was a kid. We had tons of them, and I think I read most of them. We also had some kind of Reader's Digest children's series published by reading level. Those were good.

Otherwise, in the now time, my bookshelves are mostly disorganized, and reflect a wide range of the interests of two people.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 10:14 AM (OX9vb)

172 Craig Ferguson's "American On Purpose" is hilarious and sobering. Talks about his childhood and adolescence in working class Glasgow, the 80's comedy and music scene (he was a drummer in a band with a future Dr. Who) and his descent into alcoholism. Nothing like waking up in a puddle of piss and vomit -- hopefully his own! Hard to tell on the morning after the night before. But it's also about his eventual success in the U.S. and his long struggle to achieve sobriety.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 09:23 AM (80HNz)

I started to read that but got pulled away. I'll get back to it onr of these days.

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 10:15 AM (T4tVD)

173 Legally Sufficient, if a book holds your interest and keeps you turning the pages and has a decent plot, what makes it trashy?

Has there been an official discussion of "trashy" on this thread? What's the opposite? Literary? Because to me "literary" is about as damning as "worthy." Give me a fast read every time.
Posted by: Wenda at November 12, 2023

***
I'm beginning to believe that if there is some kind of action in the story, the lit-crit people would call it "trashy."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:16 AM (omVj0)

174 *waves to Eris*

If you want a fixer upper mansion to tide you over until the hidden lair on the volcanic island is built. Search for news on the Evergreen Crystal Palace that overlooks Table Rock Lake in Missouri. Only $80 million; roughly 25,000 sq ft, has a pool, helipad, 20 car underground garage, and individually themed bedrooms with names like Peacock, Chinatown, City Lights, and so on.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 10:16 AM (du94W)

175 Yes, there is still a bookstore, but it's now riddled with toys, games and a cafe. Big crowd yesterday for something, didn't care to find out.

My town is blessed with two outstanding used book stores (one has a cat). The owner is ancient, so not sure how long they will last. The big problem with them is parking downtown, but I try to make my way there from time to time when the university is on break.

Those of you who bought Walls of Men will recall an acknowledgment to the proprietor, who upon learning of my project, told me that it just so happened that a retired professor was liquidating his library, and so I came by weekly for about a month picking up obscure but very useful sources.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 10:16 AM (llXky)

176 Ya know what might be a fun game for the dead of winter? We send in pictures of our personal shelves, the Perfessor posts them without comment, and the rest of us try to guess whose it is.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 10:17 AM (nfrXX)

177 Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 10:14 AM (OX9vb)

Hiya! Hope you are keeping well.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 12, 2023 10:18 AM (nC+QA)

178 I thought "magical realism" meant fantasy by someone with a kinda spanish-y name.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 10:20 AM (78a2H)

179 12 I inherited the personal library of the doctor who owned my house before me. Indian guy who had books on Christianity, American history and every environmental wacko book written by ralph nader.

Then I walk in the woods and it is full of 30 years of trash, because the stingy bastard wouldn't pay to dispose of anything. Old water heater? Throw it into the woods! Fountain spalling? To the woods!
Posted by: Cat Ass Trophy MAGA Extremist

A guy who's super-interested in the environmental movement trashing the local environment? What a surprise.... Well, at least you got a decent library out of the deal, pending the appropriate purging.

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 10:21 AM (Lhaco)

180 Book review... sort of.

Eylon Levy @EylonALevy 5h
SHOCKING: @IDF discovered an Arabic copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in a child's bedroom, in a house that doubled up as a Hamas terror base, President @Isaac_Herzog reveals in an interview to the @BBC.

Hamas are Nazis.
We're the good guys.
We're fighting for our survival

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at November 12, 2023 10:21 AM (krqg6)

181 I am still on my cull and organize books project.
It is heartwrenching
Also annoying, as hubby has a bunch of acquired used books he'll never read that I have to sneak out. Like a book on skiing circa early 80s.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 10:22 AM (vHIgi)

182 I've enjoyed many of Anthony Horowitz' books so I looked him up on Wiki. Turns out that in addition to writing several books and series for grown ups, he has also written books for kids, the most well known of which is the Alex Rider series about a 14 year old secret agent. I bought the first in the series and gave it to my grandson. I hope he likes it and begins reading more.

https://tinyurl.com/5e99s23e

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023 10:22 AM (FVME7)

183 149 ... "My latest book purchases were 'The Runaway Bunny' and 'Go, Dog Go' for my nearly two year old grand niece."

If you have an Ollies store nearby, check out their children's book section. We have found a number of books as gifts for our great nephews at very low prices. We always get some there to donate for Toys For Tots as well.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 10:22 AM (7EjX1)

184 BTW, mein Kampf = my Jihad.

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at November 12, 2023 10:22 AM (krqg6)

185 I thought "magical realism" meant fantasy by someone with a kinda spanish-y name.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023

***
Jorge Luis Borges, I think? Maybe he was the first to come up with the term. Dunno if he's credited with inventing it.
Authors in Campbell's Unknown magazine in the Forties were doing that sort of thing a long time ago.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:23 AM (omVj0)

186 Every child needs a copy of Goodnight Gorilla.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 10:25 AM (78a2H)

187 Has there been an official discussion of "trashy" on this thread? What's the opposite? Literary? Because to me "literary" is about as damning as "worthy." Give me a fast read every time.

Posted by: Wenda at November 12, 2023 10:08 AM (Tji/p)
---
My conception of trash has always been romances with lurid sex scenes. It's not bad writing, it's also unseemly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 10:26 AM (llXky)

188 Alas, I have to punch out early this week. Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 10:26 AM (llXky)

189 I wonder which is displayed in more people's office,

A. Picasso sketches on a napkin

B. Splinters of the True Cross

C. Elvis' brain in a specimen jar

Posted by: Muldoon at November 12, 2023 10:27 AM (991eG)

190 My latest book purchases were 'The Runaway Bunny' and 'Go, Dog Go' for my nearly two year old grand niece. Gotta hook 'em on reading early. My wife sewed a bunny and dog stuffed animals to accompany the stories.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 10:05 AM (enJYY)

I started my grand-nephews out on "Goodnight Moon," "The Little Engine that Could," and "Corduroy the Bear."

All are available as board books.

Posted by: Wethal at November 12, 2023 10:27 AM (NufIr)

191 I don't know if he's a god or a dragon but I'm counting on Trump to swoop in at the last minute to save the country with smiting. Lots and lots of smiting.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023 10:27 AM (FVME7)

192 I'm sad that it's chilly today. For the first time in a long time, I have no obligations this afternoon, and would so love to sit on the porch reading.

Have to find somewhere inside away from tv noise instead.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at November 12, 2023 10:28 AM (OX9vb)

193 Okay, here's a good definition of magical realism by one Matthew Strecher, quoted in the Wiki article: ". . . what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe."

This could encompass the TV series Bewitched!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:29 AM (omVj0)

194 My definition of a trashy book is based on the novel _Lace_ from the 1980s. I had to spend several hours at a relative's house and _Lace_ was the only book there. It begins with several pages describing the heroine's breasts. At the time that was enough to keep my interest, but it's definitely trashy.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 10:29 AM (78a2H)

195
My house has book shelves in the master bedroom, book shelves in lower level great room, book shelves in daughter's bedroom, book shelves in my sons bedroom. All built in. The original owner had priorities for himself and his children.

He also had a 'Diary of Anne Frank' bookshelf/door that leads into a storage area. Hopefully, history doesn't repeat and it never needs to be used for a purpose like that.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 10:30 AM (enJYY)

196 It's not bad writing, it's also unseemly.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 10:26 AM (llXky)

You're damn right it's not bad writing. My new novel is a shocking and transgressive tale of forbidden love off the coast of Georgia, where the stern but sensual Captain Ahab finds that the only thing hotter than his hatred of white whales is his passion for black ones.

Get "Moby Dick II: Dick Harder" on presale today.

Posted by: S Abrams at November 12, 2023 10:31 AM (0FoWg)

197 My goodness, here I was thinking I jumped on the book thread early and it's already up to 177. Finished A Town Like Alice and thoroughly enjoyed it. Next on the TBR stack is more Dostoevysky (Notes from the Underground).

Posted by: who knew at November 12, 2023 10:31 AM (4I7VG)

198 My least favorite deus ex machina is the ending of My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The younger of two sisters was conceived only to be a bone marrow donor for her sister. Then the sickly sister needs a kidney, and the younger sister says no... and is promptly in a car accident which renders her brain-dead. It was my second and last foray into Picoult's work.

Dishonorable mention to the King of DEM, Phillip Pullman. He does it twice. A bottomless pit makes its debut just in time for the girl-protagonist's parents to drag the villain into it. Also, there's an assassin that's relentlessly stalking the protagonists. Instead of a confrontation between them, he's offed by a vengeful gay angel. It's like the author realized suddenly that a couple of kids can't take out a full-grown man and had to improvise with existing characters.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 12, 2023 10:32 AM (fxCK2)

199 I thought "magical realism" meant fantasy by someone with a kinda spanish-y name.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023

Yeah, also the magic is not the main plot point. Kinda part of setting and maybe B plot.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 10:32 AM (vHIgi)

200 My 3-year-old loves Eric Carley books with a strange intensity. She has several of them memorized.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023 10:32 AM (0FoWg)

201 Carle, dumb autocorrect.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023 10:33 AM (0FoWg)

202 Next on the TBR stack is more Dostoevysky (Notes from the Underground).
Posted by: who knew at November 12, 2023

***
I had to read that in college. Somehow I remember Woody Allen's parody better, "Notes from the Overfed." It begins:

"I am fat. I am disgustingly fat."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:33 AM (omVj0)

203 I'm planning on hitting up AbeBooks

===

thanks ! I forgot about those guys (used them for textbooks..)

Posted by: runner at November 12, 2023 10:36 AM (V13WU)

204 My conception of trash has always been romances with lurid sex scenes. It's not bad writing, it's also unseemly.
----------
Thou shalt commit adultery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Bible

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at November 12, 2023 10:37 AM (krqg6)

205 12 I inherited the personal library of the doctor who owned my house before me. Indian guy who had books on Christianity, American history and every environmental wacko book written by ralph nader.

**

Did you recently move?
Be careful with the old junk - best hire some beefy guys to deal with it.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 10:37 AM (vHIgi)

206
My 3-year-old loves Eric Carle books with a strange intensity. She has several of them memorized.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023

That's pretty impressive for a 3 year old. 'The Hungry Caterpillar' my wife introduced to 6 year olds in her first grade classroom.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 10:37 AM (enJYY)

207 I don't recall how it worked in the novel, but the film of No Country For Old Men left me dissatisfied. Here's Josh Brolin, doing everything he can to stay ahead of the remorseless killer played by Javier Bardem. We fully expect to see a final confrontation between them. Instead Brolin's character is killed off screen, and apparently not even by Bardem's killer, but by someone else. If that's not right, all I can say is that a film or novel should not be so confusing.

After following these two for nn pages or nn minutes of film, we deserve a confrontation. The good guy doesn't have to win -- but we need to see the payoff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:37 AM (omVj0)

208 Mister S. has a good-sized collection of Texana, with some Western and general American history thrown in.
For some reason, he is allergic to the War Between the States, although he's good on those battles that took place in TX.j

When computer SIL is here Thanksgiving, I'll get him to download a pic.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at November 12, 2023 10:38 AM (KB0Aa)

209 @157 --

The Mouse Guard comics were great. Their only problem was that they didn't fit in longboxes.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 10:38 AM (p/isN)

210 That's Foxfire, not to be confused with the novel (later made into a 1982 movie featuring Clint Eastwood), Firefox.

: o )

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at November 12, 2023 10:39 AM (8sMut)

211 Speaking of collections of letters from authors, on Tuesday "The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition" will be released. It's not cheap but contains a lot of material not included in the first version. I will be getting it and will give my copy of the original to a nephew and his wife. They are both Tolkien fans.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 10:39 AM (7EjX1)

212 They Saved Elvis' Brain!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023 10:41 AM (FVME7)

213 I'm planning on hitting up AbeBooks

===
Thanks ! I forgot about those guys (used them for textbooks..)
Posted by: runner at November 12, 2023

***
A few years ago on AbeBooks I picked up a paperback of Fear and Trembling, one of the few Hitchcock anthologies of the Forties and Fifties I had never read. This paperback was from 1963. It looked like it had just been plucked off the drugstore rack and mailed to me. And I think the seller's description said it was merely "good" quality.

Fear and Trembling, by the way, has some very good short stories in the supernatural/terror/horror vein.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:41 AM (omVj0)

214
That's pretty impressive for a 3 year old. 'The Hungry Caterpillar' my wife introduced to 6 year olds in her first grade classroom.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 10:37 AM (enJYY)

She doesn't speak well yet. She has a motor function disability that makes speech formation difficult, so read-aloud is really important for her development. Those books are a godsend, because she loves them and demands to be read them all the time. Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? she knows by heart. She's getting close on Caterpillar. But she can't say butterfly. "Buhfly, buhfly!" she says. Cute.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023 10:43 AM (0FoWg)

215 Ya know what might be a fun game for the dead of winter? We send in pictures of our personal shelves, the Perfessor posts them without comment, and the rest of us try to guess whose it is.
Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 10:17 AM

That's a great idea! What do you think, Profesor Squirrel?

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 12, 2023 10:45 AM (fxCK2)

216 C. Elvis' brain in a specimen jar
---------
That is Always On My Mind.

Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at November 12, 2023 10:46 AM (krqg6)

217 I don't recall how it worked in the novel, but the film of No Country For Old Men left me dissatisfied.

-
At that time I had been a prosecutor for many years and was burned out. I saw that movie, at least in part, to charge my batteries. Then the movie seemed to say, "Evil has won. Get used to it."

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023 10:46 AM (FVME7)

218
She's getting close on Caterpillar. But she can't say butterfly. "Buhfly, buhfly!" she says. Cute.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023 10:43 AM

My wife says that if she is memorizing books she is ready to read. I suppose that makes sense to me in a one to one correspondence kinda way, but I don't have the degrees she has.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at November 12, 2023 10:48 AM (enJYY)

219 I gotta go seize the day.

Thanks for The Book Thread Perfessor !

Posted by: JT at November 12, 2023 10:49 AM (T4tVD)

220 Be careful with the old junk -- best hire some beefy guys to deal with it.
------
That's what I said!

Posted by: Barack Hussein 'I can use it now' 0bama at November 12, 2023 10:49 AM (krqg6)

221 My recommendation this week is "African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals", by David Hackett Fischer, who is the author of the marvelous book "Albion's Seed". The book details the experience of black Americans from the time of the first arrivals in the early 17th century, to the Civil War. His thesis is that black Americans, rather than being the passive recipients of violence by whites, interacted with the broader American society, both as slaves and as free men, and made a real contribution to the fashioning of American culture and polity. It is a rebuke to the "woke" myth of wicked white perpetrators and passive black victims - a myth that is both historically false and condescending to blacks. The author also shows how the presence of enslaved people in America forced Americans to confront the full meaning of those words in the Declaration about all men being equal and having unalienable rights.
"African Founders" is an important book, deeply researched, well organized, and gracefully written with minimal jargon (and lots of maps). Highly recommended!

Posted by: Nemo at November 12, 2023 10:50 AM (S6ArX)

222 it was in keeping with coen bros, turn toward the absurd, but it punctuates the world that mccarthy describes in 1980, the counselorr was even worse,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 10:51 AM (PXvVL)

223 The movie No Place For Old Men. I wanted the psycho cartel assassin to get his his head blown off by some kid. I would have put the scene where killer sitting in a culvert pipe waiting for his ride and the kid shoots at a rabbit with a 12 ga double barrel, but psycho takes it right in the melon. Now that would have been satisfying.

Posted by: Eromero at November 12, 2023 10:52 AM (NxC5+)

224 I have an 800 page hardcover called "King Solomon's Mines and Other Adventure Classics." At some point I got about halfway through it before getting distracted and setting it aside. And since KSM was the final, 'main event' story, that means I never got to it. I should pick up that book again....after I finish the Cossak stories that I'm also finishing off after setting aside...

One more thing about King Solomon's Mines: I've watched multiple movie adaptations of it. Good, bad, big-budget, indy, accurate, and loosely-inspired-re-imaginings.....You have to respect a book that can spawn multiple adaptations.

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 10:52 AM (Lhaco)

225 I don't recall how it worked in the novel, but the film of No Country For Old Men left me dissatisfied.
-
At that time I had been a prosecutor for many years and was burned out. I saw that movie, at least in part, to charge my batteries. Then the movie seemed to say, "Evil has won. Get used to it."
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023

***
Exactly.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:53 AM (omVj0)

226 156 Legally Sufficient, if a book holds your interest and keeps you turning the pages and has a decent plot, what makes it trashy?

Has there been an official discussion of "trashy" on this thread? What's the opposite? Literary? Because to me "literary" is about as damning as "worthy." Give me a fast read every time.
Posted by: Wenda at November 12, 2023 10:08 AM (Tji/p)
* * * *
My definition of "trashy" in this instance is the so-called "romance" or "romance/suspense" novels. Fave authors so far are Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick and Sandra Brown. But I recently re-read Jane Eyre, which is considered "literary," and enjoyed it immensely. I also have a collection of Brad Thor and Vince Flynn novels that I re-read for pure enjoyment. For me, it's all about the story and how well it is written.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at November 12, 2023 10:54 AM (Zb5iS)

227 C. Elvis' brain in a specimen jar
---------
That is Always On My Mind.
Posted by: andycanuck (krqg6) at November 12, 2023

***
The jar is labeled Return to Sender.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 10:55 AM (omVj0)

228 Greetings! Before I run off I thought I would mention author Tony Horowitz. His books are both humorous and informative. 2 I have read are Confederates in the Attic, in which he spends a year with some Civil War re enactors, who value authenticity above all things, down to the buttons on their uniform and what they eat. His is a dry humor. The other book is A Voyage Long and Strange in which the author tags along with the crew of a sailing ship who is revisiting the voyages of Capt. Cook. Again, living with (faux) hardship in both books are the basis for the author's comedy.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at November 12, 2023 10:56 AM (MeG8a)

229 Comments about children's books reminds me. As I plan to organize my books (or try to), there will a section just for kids' books. If classics, I try to have good copies with the original illustrations. Newer ones, like the Brambly Hedge stories and similar, will be right along side.

Posted by: JTB at November 12, 2023 10:58 AM (7EjX1)

230 The discussion of the Blish reminded me of one of my favorite sci-fi shorts. All I remember is the plot, no clue who wrote it. But humans are trying to explore Jupiter by (throw in some sciency mumbo-jumbo) putting men's minds into new bodies adapted to the alien environment. But once released into the Jovian atmosphere, no one ever comes back and, of course, no one knows why. SO there's one last try where 'our hero' is sent down to figure it all out and report back. Down he goes and it turns out that live on Jupiter is so beautiful and his new body such a delight to use that he's never leaving. It's all just too cool to give up and go back to humanity.

Posted by: who knew at November 12, 2023 10:58 AM (4I7VG)

231 This past week, I read two Elder Scrolls books by Greg Keyes: The Infernal City and Lord of Souls. They were weird (as expected) but not bad for game tie-ins.

The first was full of typos and wrong word choices; e.g. "depended" instead of "suspended". It also spent a lot of time in kitchens with disgusting jerks.

However, I liked a few characters enough to follow them into the second book: the young lizard dude, the dark elf driven by vengeance, and a secret investigator trying to find the person behind the infernal city's "invitation" into the real world.

Spoiler: Naturally, all three were killed and only one survived to the end. Yes, you read that right. It's Elder Scrolls' universe.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at November 12, 2023 11:00 AM (fxCK2)

232 For a silly twist on the Elvis saga, check out the movie "Bubba-Ho-Tep" with Bruce Campbell. Evil mummy comes to life and attacks a nursing home, as one does. Protagonist is Elvis, who swapped identities with an Elvis impersonator so Elvis could live the care-free life of an Elvis impersonator. Better than it sounds.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:00 AM (QS/Jn)

233 But.....he's not dead !

Posted by: JT

I heard a great conspiracy theory the other day. JonBenet Ramsey is not dead. She is Katy Perry.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023 11:02 AM (FVME7)

234 The discussion of the Blish reminded me of one of my favorite sci-fi shorts. All I remember is the plot, no clue who wrote it. But humans are trying to explore Jupiter by (throw in some sciency mumbo-jumbo) putting men's minds into new bodies adapted to the alien environment. But once released into the Jovian atmosphere, no one ever comes back and, of course, no one knows why. SO there's one last try where 'our hero' is sent down to figure it all out and report back. Down he goes and it turns out that live on Jupiter is so beautiful and his new body such a delight to use that he's never leaving. It's all just too cool to give up and go back to humanity.
Posted by: who knew at November 12, 2023

***
That is one of the City collection of stories by Clifford D. Simak. It contains one of the great lines in all SF. The hero, the director of the project, who has his dog with him at the base, is the one sending them out. He tells his secretary to send out two more. "One of them will be a dog."

"Your own dog! You've been together so long --!"

"Exactly. He'd be disappointed if I left him behind."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:02 AM (omVj0)

235 Bubba Ho Tep is a truly demented delight. Bruce Campbell just killed it as Elvis in that flick. It's from a story by Joe Lansdale, who also gave us Hap & Leonard and a lot of terrific suspense and horror fiction.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 11:02 AM (a/4+U)

236 I don't recall how it worked in the novel, but the film of No Country For Old Men left me dissatisfied.

---
At that time I had been a prosecutor for many years and was burned out. I saw that movie, at least in part, to charge my batteries. Then the movie seemed to say, "Evil has won. Get used to it."
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at November 12, 2023 10:46 AM (FVME7)

I think the point of it was, evil exists, and it's going to continue to exist, regardless of what we do. Does that mean we give up? Not at all... but we've got to know our limitations. Harsh reality. Stand up to it when you can, but this ain't like in the movies where good wins.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 12, 2023 11:02 AM (QBaJw)

237 My conception of trash has always been romances with lurid sex scenes. It's not bad writing, it's also unseemly.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at November 12, 2023 10:26 AM (llXky)
----

Oooh, look at Mister Rigid Pinky and his huffy insistence on moral fiber and edification!

Alas the golden age of pulp has passed. Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins.

We don't even have Silver Age trash like in the works of Jacqueline Susan or Jackie Collins.

We're living in a trash desert.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 11:02 AM (80HNz)

238 The Mouse Guard comics were great. Their only problem was that they didn't fit in longboxes.
Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 10:38 AM (p/isN)

Yeah, the square-pages are a strange choice. But I'm buying the hardcover collected editions. And I have a whole shelf devoted to comic collections of non-standard size. Some European sized stuff, some indy/webcomic collections, and even the original Dinotopia illustrated books! They'll fit right in with that crowd. Probably right next to my Scurry books (a story of house-mice after a human-killing apocalypse) and Beyond the Western Deep (A Redwall wannabe) collections.

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 11:03 AM (Lhaco)

239 Who Knew

The story was by Poul Anderson. James Cameron caught flack because that seemingly is the core Avatard.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:04 AM (du94W)

240 Apparently, one of the scrolls found in Herculaneum has finally had one word deciphered from it.

https://tinyurl.com/5n6fhef9

It was found in a pile next to a strange headcovering with something sticking out from a band. Remains of a feather, I think. It was purple.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 11:04 AM (Angsy)

241 Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at November 12, 2023 10:32 AM (0FoWg)

Eric Carle is brilliant! We taught the kids in one of my classes how to recreate the Hungry Caterpillar, using Carle's painted tissue paper technique. The result was pretty good. I admit I focus more on his artwork, but the words he uses are intended to develop reading and comprehension.

He sold the rights to his catalog for an undisclosed sum. I would not be surprised if it was in the hundreds of millions.

Posted by: kallisto at November 12, 2023 11:05 AM (62GFH)

242 I've always felt the Elvis-in-a-nursing-home genre has been fully explored.

Posted by: Arrogant stuffy PBS host puffing on a pipe at November 12, 2023 11:05 AM (NBVIP)

243 Well, off to deal with the allegedly real world.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at November 12, 2023 11:06 AM (a/4+U)

244 Did the scroll advocate "Drink More Ovaltine" perhaps?

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:07 AM (du94W)

245 Who Knew

The story was by Poul Anderson. James Cameron caught flack because that seemingly is the core Avatard.
Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023

***

Anna, see my 234. Anderson may have done a similar story, but Simak published his ("Desertion," 1944) before Poul entered the field after WWII.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:08 AM (omVj0)

246 This is about us, isn't it?

Posted by: Bottle blonde harlots at November 12, 2023 11:09 AM (NBVIP)

247 I did a count, and no fewer than thirty of the books in my personal library were recommendations from this thread; two more this week.

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at November 12, 2023 11:09 AM (9yUzE)

248 Okay, Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" was the story similar to Simak's. I think it was included in one of the SF Hall of Fame volumes, the novellas.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:10 AM (omVj0)

249 Bubba Ho Tep is a truly demented delight. Bruce Campbell just killed it as Elvis in that flick.

It's a movie thread? OK, so based on some comments a few days ago, I binged the first season of "Reacher" on Amazon. For those who have read the books and seen the series, how close are they?

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 11:10 AM (nfrXX)

250 Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 09:59 AM

As a Napoleonic era buff earlier Cossacks seem to me even more rugged and less organized.As for information other than websites no idea of books on them.

Posted by: Skip at November 12, 2023 11:10 AM (fwDg9)

251 Alas the golden age of pulp has passed. Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins.

===

Eris is to prose what Muldoon is to limericks !

Posted by: runner at November 12, 2023 11:10 AM (V13WU)

252 Did the scroll advocate "Drink More Ovaltine" perhaps?

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:07 AM (du94W)

Eat At Josephus.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 11:11 AM (Angsy)

253 This is about us, isn't it?
Posted by: Bottle blonde harlots

That should be the name of a girl band. If it isn't already.

Posted by: Oddbob at November 12, 2023 11:12 AM (nfrXX)

254 If it is a movie thread I'll mention it was the Book Thread that clued me in to the 1983 miniseries of Herman Wouk's Winds of War, which I found to be an enjoyable 14 hours of my time.
Now I'm on to the 1988 series War and Remembrance which will be a mere 27 hours.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at November 12, 2023 11:15 AM (NBVIP)

255 An article on the problem with conventional prepping started with the following couplet.

"Oh give me a home where the flesh-eaters roam, and the jobs are not corporate and gay..."

https://www.anarchonomicon.com/p/the-problem-with-prepping

Posted by: Beverly at November 12, 2023 11:15 AM (Epeb0)

256 Wolfus

Just proves there is no truly original idea left, just variations on a theme. But it is the packaging that sells it all.

And current day science fiction/fantasy has some pretty horrible attire trying to tart up the shambling cadaver at the center.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:16 AM (du94W)

257 Apparently, one of the scrolls found in Herculaneum has finally had one word deciphered from it.
https://tinyurl.com/5n6fhef9

Scholars are hoping to get copies of the great lost works of antiquity from the scrolls. Instead they will get the Roman version of "Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins. "

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:16 AM (QS/Jn)

258 I went to the Second Hand bookstore and bought the weekday art thread book, Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces. 😀

Unfortunately Sister Wendy is like a lot of art appreciation ‘experts’. A bunch of BS why she thinks a piece of crap is actually a masterpiece.

Posted by: Drive by at November 12, 2023 11:16 AM (MNhXM)

259 No Country for Old Men:

I had the same complaints, (and similar ones about True Grit) but the arc of the story is Tommy Lee Jones realizing he might do best to not poke about certain things. The reason Mr Bad Haircut is inscrutable is because he is the devil, and you just aren't going to win against him.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:17 AM (ybIRR)

260 I think Bottle Blonde Harlots was the garage band name for the group that ultimately became known as The Bangles.

Posted by: Acktshually at November 12, 2023 11:17 AM (NBVIP)

261 Herculaneum?

They'll find a first edition of The Epicurean Cookbook.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:18 AM (du94W)

262 Scholars are hoping to get copies of the great lost works of antiquity from the scrolls. Instead they will get the Roman version of "Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins. "

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:16 AM (QS/Jn)

There are a few ancient fantasy stories, one about travel to the moon.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 11:19 AM (Angsy)

263 *But it is the packaging that sells it all.*

Don't we know it.

Posted by: Victoria's Secret at November 12, 2023 11:20 AM (NBVIP)

264 One of the joys of traveling by car is finding wonderful old bookstores along the way. While it’s disappearing, that kind of bookstore does still exist.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at November 12, 2023 09:44 AM (EXyHK)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I get that a lot at my store, located on a US hwy where it passes through a small town.

"I/we HAD to stop because I didn't even think there were bookstores anymore."

Posted by: My friends call me Pete at November 12, 2023 11:21 AM (pXRYM)

265 Purple (porphyus) is interesting. In those times it was often used as an oblique reference to the l Imperial Family, as in "born to the purple."

Posted by: Tom Servo at November 12, 2023 11:21 AM (S6gqv)

266 cholars are hoping to get copies of the great lost works of antiquity from the scrolls. Instead they will get the Roman version of "Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins. "

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023

***
I wouldn't be surprised. Roman theater was more about comic and sexual situations, people pelting each other with bladders, and clever slaves outwitting their owners than it was like Shakespeare. You hear about Greek tragedy, not Roman tragedy.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:22 AM (omVj0)

267 Stilgar: Thy blade may chip, or thy blade may not chip.
Call it.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:22 AM (ybIRR)

268 Film versions of King Solomon's Mines always pick young leading-man types to play Alan and the others. That's wrong. They're all older men. Not Wilfred Brimley old, but men starting to see their own mortality in the mirror. If you recall, the novel is supposedly a narrative written by Alan to his grown son -- and there's a pretty strong implication that the two of them are estranged and Quartermain regrets that. Sir Henry regrets how he treated his brother and is trying to atone by searching for him. Captain Good has completed his naval career and now realizes he has nothing to do.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 11:23 AM (78a2H)

269 OrangeEnt

Instead they'll find Aristophane's The Frogs II: The Frogs Hop Back

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:23 AM (du94W)

270 A Original movie I was looking forward to was Yesterday where a musician was hit by a bus right when the power went off around the world and when the power returned he woke up in a world where the Beatles never existed as well as Coke and other things.

He took his knowledge of Beatle songs to become a star. So far so good but then the movie writer made the guy feel guilty because because he became a star using Beatles songs he didn’t write.
Hated that take and ruined the entire movie for me.

Posted by: Drive by at November 12, 2023 11:24 AM (MNhXM)

271 The purple dye used for the Emperor's toga was created by crushing up all these tiny mollusks. So yeah only the uber rich could afford the color.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:25 AM (du94W)

272 No Country for Old Men:

I had the same complaints, (and similar ones about True Grit) but the arc of the story is Tommy Lee Jones realizing he might do best to not poke about certain things. The reason Mr Bad Haircut is inscrutable is because he is the devil, and you just aren't going to win against him.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023

***
True Grit hangs together well. Mattie Ross has her confrontation with Tom Chaney, the man she was hunting, and it's a savage confrontation. She would have died if not for Rooster Cogburn. She's plucky and tough, but not physically superior to the men around her and not all-knowing by any means.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:25 AM (omVj0)

273 Instead they'll find Aristophane's The Frogs II: The Frogs Hop Back

===

or a bill for amphorae of barley, honey, and wheat

Posted by: runner at November 12, 2023 11:26 AM (V13WU)

274 Another endorsement for "Bob's Saucer Repair" and the Bob and Nikki series by Jerry Boyd. An everyday guy comes home one night and finds a pretty girl has parked your broken flying saucer in his garage, and things take off from there.
Great literature it's not, but the books are just plain fun. I look forward to a new installment every month.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:27 AM (QS/Jn)

275 Yesterday has a truly fatal conceit.

The author created a world were those songs would still be popular. But what if the musician woke up in a world that did not cotton to those songs? I think that could have been a far more interesting read.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:27 AM (du94W)

276 Here in Israel, there are two main bookstores: Steimatzky's and Tzomet Sefarim, usually uninteresting in their selections. However, there are increasing numbers of books offered for free in many towns on shelves protected from the elements. Every week I find some treasure. This week it was The Desert a City, by Derwan Chitty. I first heard about this book when I edited a couple of papers about the important Byzantine-era Christian communities in Gaza (yes, that Gaza). Chitty gave a series of lectures about early Christian monasticism -- why it developed, and how it changed over time. At present there are only about 1000 Christians in Gaza. Need I point out that the Islamists either sell artefacts from the ancient sites, or simply destroy anything that remains from the "jahaliyya" --- the period before Islam. Thank goodness a lot of archaeological research of these early Christian communities took place before radical destructive Islam arose.

Posted by: Alifa Saadya at November 12, 2023 11:28 AM (0Rn4p)

277 Film versions of King Solomon's Mines always pick young leading-man types to play Alan and the others. That's wrong. They're all older men. Not Wilfred Brimley old, but men starting to see their own mortality in the mirror. . . .
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023

***
Didn't The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have Sean Connery as the long-retired Allan Quatermain?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:28 AM (omVj0)

278 Another endorsement for "Bob's Saucer Repair" and the Bob and Nikki series by Jerry Boyd. An everyday guy comes home one night and finds a pretty girl has parked your broken flying saucer in his garage, and things take off from there.
Great literature it's not, but the books are just plain fun. I look forward to a new installment every month.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023

***
That sounds like a blurb for an undiscovered Heinlein juvenile.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:29 AM (omVj0)

279 She's plucky and tough, but not physically superior to the men around her and not all-knowing by any means.

------
To her credit, she does have a big ass shootin' iron.

Posted by: The great equalizer at November 12, 2023 11:29 AM (NBVIP)

280 Didn't The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have Sean Connery as the long-retired Allan Quatermain?

Yes, and Sean was the only redeeming quality of that truly lackluster movie.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:30 AM (du94W)

281 OrangeEnt

Instead they'll find Aristophane's The Frogs II: The Frogs Hop Back

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:23 AM (du94W)

It's been said that the chorus was imitating fart sounds.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 11:30 AM (Angsy)

282 With all respect to Sir Paul McCartney, it wasn't the Beatles' material that made them stars, it was their performances. Compare and contrast the success of Wings with the Beatles.

Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 11:31 AM (78a2H)

283 That sounds like a blurb for an undiscovered Heinlein juvenile.

Or My Favorite Martian meets I Dream of Jeanie.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:31 AM (du94W)

284 Sincev we're towards the close here: what makes Bubba Hotep so great is that it pretends to be a cheesy monster/horror movie, but at the end you find it's really been about how society today doesn't care anything for the old, just wanting to discard them, and how it's more important to die with dignity than to die forgotten in a sick bed.
Were the two lead protagonists who they claimed to be, or were they just crazy? In terms of the films real message, it doesn't matter at all.

Posted by: Tom Servo at November 12, 2023 11:32 AM (S6gqv)

285 Yesterday has a truly fatal conceit.

The author created a world were those songs would still be popular. But what if the musician woke up in a world that did not cotton to those songs? I think that could have been a far more interesting read.
Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:27 AM (du94W)

Yeah it’s not a movie made for the garrets of the world.

Posted by: Drive by at November 12, 2023 11:32 AM (MNhXM)

286 An everyday guy comes home one night and finds a pretty girl has parked your broken flying saucer in his garage, and things take off from there.

Oops. I meant "her" flying saucer.

If she parked "your" saucer there, you'd have an entirely different set of problems.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:32 AM (QS/Jn)

287 Bud. Wise. Her.

Posted by: Super Bowl classics at November 12, 2023 11:33 AM (NBVIP)

288 With all respect to Sir Paul McCartney, it wasn't the Beatles' material that made them stars, it was their performances. Compare and contrast the success of Wings with the Beatles.
Posted by: Trimegistus at November 12, 2023 11:31 AM (78a2H)

Wings was very successful though understandably not as successful as the Beatles.

Posted by: Drive by at November 12, 2023 11:33 AM (MNhXM)

289 To her credit, she does have a big ass shootin' iron.
Posted by: The great equalizer at November 12, 2023

***
"By God, girl, that's a Colt's Dragoon! You're no bigger'n a corn nubbin!"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:35 AM (omVj0)

290 Bud. Light. Loafers.

Frogs 2023

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:35 AM (du94W)

291 well chamberlain was 50 when did it in 87, but much of the earlier version did feature younger actors

I still remember Sharon Stone's screeching through out,

Posted by: no 6 at November 12, 2023 11:37 AM (PXvVL)

292 Didn't The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have Sean Connery as the long-retired Allan Quatermain?
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:28 AM (omVj0)

I have no great desire to re-watch that movie (nor read the comics which is was based on) but I do have a soft spot for Connery-as-Quartermain. And the idea of him mentoring a 20-something Tom Sawyer. That's just a fun, pulpy, concept...

Posted by: Castle Guy at November 12, 2023 11:38 AM (Lhaco)

293 Mattie Ross =IS= a smart ass, as the stable owner will attest. She is not an insufferable girlboss for reasons that might fit into a 24-part seminar on screenwriting.

(The Mister Plinkett rule is that good writing is exhaustively hard to define but bad writing is impossible to define.)

The stable owner's line is still my favorite:
"I would not pay three hundred dollars for a win-ged pegasus."

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:38 AM (ybIRR)

294 290 Bud. Light. Loafers.

Frogs 2023
Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:35 AM
Limp, lispy, loud.

Posted by: Eromero at November 12, 2023 11:38 AM (NxC5+)

295 Richard Chamberlain has the misfortune of being compared to Tom Selleck and Harrison Ford, who both had a ton of effortless charisma. Also my gaydar, usually weak and silent, sounds like a flock of grackles.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:41 AM (ybIRR)

296 Mattie Ross =IS= a smart ass, as the stable owner will attest. She is not an insufferable girlboss for reasons that might fit into a 24-part seminar on screenwriting.

(The Mister Plinkett rule is that good writing is exhaustively hard to define but bad writing is impossible to define.)

The stable owner's line is still my favorite:
"I would not pay three hundred dollars for a win-ged pegasus."

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023

***
I agree, Mattie shows off her smart mouth on occasion. And the elder Mattie, as shown in the coda to the novel and in the recent film version, *is* pretty insufferable (telling one of the James boys, "Keep your seat, trash!"). Which is why I really prefer the final scene between Mattie and Rooster in the 1969 film. ("They didn't want to pay me the re-ward. I had to persuade 'em." "I can just imagine how you did that.")

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:43 AM (omVj0)

297 Herculaneum, So with AI & exponential growth will it be 10 years or 20 before we get a readable paragraph? I hope I'm being pessimistic.
Thanks for sharing this OrangeEnt

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at November 12, 2023 11:43 AM (G7gvJ)

298 (second attempt)

...usually weak and silent, roars like the Hans Zimmer Philharmonic.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:45 AM (ybIRR)

299 Or the AI Colossus decides all Yuman monkeys are a pox and nukes the place.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:45 AM (du94W)

300 Richard Chamberlain has the misfortune of being compared to Tom Selleck and Harrison Ford, who both had a ton of effortless charisma. Also my gaydar, usually weak and silent, sounds like a flock of grackles.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:41 AM (ybIRR)

I think he was hooking up with the guy who played his brother in The Lost City of Gold.

Posted by: Drive by at November 12, 2023 11:45 AM (MNhXM)

301 That sounds like a blurb for an undiscovered Heinlein juvenile.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:29 AM (omVj0)

And that's not a bad thing.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:45 AM (QS/Jn)

302 Regarding the question about the "Reacher" series: it's very well done and the actor does match the description of Reacher in the books. The first season is based on "Killing Floor" and the second season is based on "Hard Luck and Trouble." Characters are great. The relationship with Neagley is also portrayed well - the adaptors paid attention.

Regarding the "Bob's Saucer Repair" series: my personal reaction was meh. Writing is mediocre though the premise and characters are fun. I will read them if there's nothing else around, but that's it.

Posted by: Dr Alice at November 12, 2023 11:49 AM (oFuPp)

303 Morning hordemates!!
Lots of reading but I've misplaced my slip of paper that had everything written down so I'll just have to tell you next week.
My bad.

Posted by: Diogenes at November 12, 2023 11:49 AM (uSHSS)

304 Herculaneum, So with AI & exponential growth will it be 10 years or 20 before we get a readable paragraph? I hope I'm being pessimistic.
Thanks for sharing this OrangeEnt

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at November 12, 2023 11:43 AM (G7gvJ)

700k prize for getting a readable couple of paragraphs, so I would think it won't take that long, IHM.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 11:49 AM (Angsy)

305 Before we wind up today, this may make a good topic for a future Book Thread. I just learned the term for a novel where the text consists of several previously published short stories, pressed into a novel with bridging material and, if need be, editing to remove inconsistencies. It's called, get this, a "fix-up"! Nearly all the great SF people did that in the 1950s, Asimov with Foundation and I, Robot, Poul Anderson with Operation Chaos, Blish with Earthman, Come Home, etc. Other genres too.

So: What "fix-ups" have you read, which do you think worked and which didn't?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:49 AM (omVj0)

306 Herculaneum, So with AI & exponential growth will it be 10 years or 20 before we get a readable paragraph? I hope I'm being pessimistic.
Thanks for sharing this OrangeEnt
Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at November 12, 2023 11:43 AM (G7gvJ)

And the paragraph will read: "...the lithe slave boy approached me, bearing an amphora of scented oil. The sweet Fallarian wine had inflamed my senses, making me..."

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023 11:50 AM (QS/Jn)

307 That sounds like a blurb for an undiscovered Heinlein juvenile.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023
*
And that's not a bad thing.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023

***
No indeed! I was applauding, not tossing brickbats!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:50 AM (omVj0)

308 Yes, and Sean was the only redeeming quality of that truly lackluster movie.
Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:30 AM (du94W)

Sadly, his last movie.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at November 12, 2023 11:51 AM (8sMut)

309 No Country for Old Men:

I had the same complaints, (and similar ones about True Grit) but the arc of the story is Tommy Lee Jones realizing he might do best to not poke about certain things. The reason Mr Bad Haircut is inscrutable is because he is the devil, and you just aren't going to win against him.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:17 AM (ybIRR)

I think that's what I was trying to say, and you said it better.

I don't find it dissatisfying though, it strikes me as wholly realistic in the sense that, TLJ had every good reason to butt out! Now, maybe as a lawman he's not supposed to, but for pete's sake, at some point you just have to say enough's enough.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 12, 2023 11:52 AM (QBaJw)

310 cholars are hoping to get copies of the great lost works of antiquity from the scrolls. Instead they will get the Roman version of "Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins. "

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at November 12, 2023

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was both Hysterical, and Historical...

Posted by: Romeo13 at November 12, 2023 11:52 AM (xaFKb)

311 Regarding the "Bob's Saucer Repair" series: my personal reaction was meh. Writing is mediocre though the premise and characters are fun. I will read them if there's nothing else around, but that's it.

Posted by: Dr Alice at November 12, 2023 11:49 AM (oFuPp)

Uh... (hides updated Dee Arthur)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 11:53 AM (Angsy)

312 Operation Chaos was such a fun read. When Poul Anderson wrote the sequel Operation Luna I snapped it up in hardcover form.

Whereas I have read the first multiple times, the sequel I have read only once. Perhaps I should give it another go.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 11:54 AM (du94W)

313
I don't find it dissatisfying though, it strikes me as wholly realistic in the sense that, TLJ had every good reason to butt out! Now, maybe as a lawman he's not supposed to, but for pete's sake, at some point you just have to say enough's enough.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 12, 2023

***
The arc with Jones's sheriff declining to tackle Chigurh was fine, and what makes it a sort of revisionist modern Western. My problem was with Brolin's character not having any confrontation, winning or not, with Chigurh, and being killed off screen, yet. We needed to see it.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:54 AM (omVj0)

314 *gravelly voice*

Allan Quartermain

and the Valley of Curses

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 11:55 AM (ybIRR)

315 The arc with Jones's sheriff declining to tackle Chigurh was fine, and what makes it a sort of revisionist modern Western. My problem was with Brolin's character not having any confrontation, winning or not, with Chigurh, and being killed off screen, yet. We needed to see it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:54 AM (omVj0)

Wanted to see it, but it was a stark statement to make: This guy is really irrelevant.

As a viewer, it may be disappointing, but I admire their decision to be that cold about it.

Posted by: BurtTC at November 12, 2023 11:56 AM (QBaJw)

316 Wanted to see it, but it was a stark statement to make: This guy is really irrelevant.

As a viewer, it may be disappointing, but I admire their decision to be that cold about it.
Posted by: BurtTC at November 12, 2023

***
Maybe so. But Brolin's character was set up as if he were to be the protagonist; he didn't seem irrelevant for the firsthalf of the film; and switching him to that track so suddenly was annoying.

Maybe I just don't like the author, McCarthy. He never uses quotation marks, for instance, which gives me a claustrophobic feeling looking at his pages.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:59 AM (omVj0)

317 Butt TC, I wanted Chigurh dead, probably cause I'm kinda revengey.

Posted by: Eromero at November 12, 2023 12:00 PM (NxC5+)

318 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at November 12, 2023 12:00 PM (fwDg9)

319 I wanted Chigurh dead, probably cause I'm kinda revengey.

Posted by: Eromero at November 12, 2023 12:00 PM (NxC5+)

Me too.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at November 12, 2023 12:01 PM (3Gtis)

320 Burt, not Butt. Dayquil ftw.

Posted by: Eromero at November 12, 2023 12:02 PM (NxC5+)

321 After hearing a good Tolkein podcast, I realized that Melkor imagined that the world was a place for him to create ... whereas the rest of the Valar knew that they were to only interact with it, and creation was for Eru alone.

And this struggle against his vision used his strength against him, so that he would spend his power faster than the others. Sure the universe was winding down, but he was quite weak at the end of the Silmarillion.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 12:03 PM (ybIRR)

322 Forgot to mention - got a book for my bday last week - Lord of Spirits by Fr Andrew Damick. Lovely cover. Haven't read it yet.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at November 12, 2023 12:03 PM (vHIgi)

323 Maybe I just don't like the author, McCarthy. He never uses quotation marks, for instance, which gives me a claustrophobic feeling looking at his pages.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 11:59 AM (omVj0)

James Joyce was a pussy. And he's still drunk here, too.

Posted by: The late Cormac McCarthy at November 12, 2023 12:04 PM (QS/Jn)

324 I'm staying here, nood or not.

Part 2 of ?3? of the final book in Horus Heresy came out on audible, and I hope it is good. They seemed to stretch events over many chapters to delay the end (just like the characters) but I have faith in Dan Abnett.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at November 12, 2023 12:06 PM (ybIRR)

325 Maybe I just don't like the author, McCarthy. He never uses quotation marks, for instance, which gives me a claustrophobic feeling looking at his pages.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023
*
James Joyce was a pussy. And he's still drunk here, too.
Posted by: The late Cormac McCarthy at November 12, 2023

***
Yeah, Joyce used those European dashes to indicate the start of dialog; almost as claustrophobic.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at November 12, 2023 12:06 PM (omVj0)

326 >>> Apparently, one of the scrolls found in Herculaneum has finally had one word deciphered from it.
https://tinyurl.com/5n6fhef9

Scholars are hoping to get copies of the great lost works of antiquity from the scrolls. Instead they will get the Roman version of "Its throne was the spinning rack of cheap paperbacks featuring mirror-shaded mercs, bottle blond harlots, and BEMs stealing Earth wimmins. "
Posted by: Idaho Spudbo

You hope for great works,
You will settle for a good beer recipe,
You will get an inventory for animal fodder and the stable cleaning schedule.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at November 12, 2023 12:10 PM (cOq4q)

327 The saddest part of Sunday morning, the end of the Book Thread. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at November 12, 2023 12:10 PM (Angsy)

328 >>> I think Bottle Blonde Harlots was the garage band name for the group that ultimately became known as The Bangles.
Posted by: Acktshually

Better yet, it was
The Bangs
Ranks right up there with
Fuzzbox
for all girl band names.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at November 12, 2023 12:13 PM (cOq4q)

329 I love some old school SF:

"Under violet zenith and lemon-green horizons, the ancient planet lay weirdly and grimly desolate. Lonely wastes of ocher drift-sand, rippled with low crescent dunes. Cruel, jutting ridges of red volcanic rock, projecting from yellow sand like broken fangs. Solidarity boulders, carved by pitiless, wind driven sand into grotesque scarlet monsters." -- Jack Williamson, "The Legion of Space"

Posted by: All Hail Eris at November 12, 2023 12:56 PM (80HNz)

330 1). Those pants look like they were designed and made by Kamala Harris’s step-daughter. Totally impractical.

2). Read an interview of the recently convicted Sam Bankman-Fried where he states he has yet to find a book that is worth reading. Explains a lot about his arrogance.

Posted by: March Hare at November 12, 2023 01:29 PM (WOU9P)

331 About that "brain in the jar" thing, a long-time standing joke about it has been:
"If you can get past the bitter taste of the formaldehyde, it practically cries out for a bag of potato chips..."

Posted by: Brewingfrog at November 12, 2023 01:43 PM (aJmA5)

332 @271 Anna Puma "The purple dye used for the Emperor's toga was created by crushing up all these tiny mollusks. So yeah only the uber rich could afford the color."

There is a good historical novel about this: "Imperial Purple" by Gillian Bradshaw, 1988, set in the East Roman Empire. The heroine is a young woman named Demetria. She is a state slave and an expert weaver employed in an Imperial silk factory. The story opens with her having been summoned to see the director of the factory. This is bad. When this happened when she was a teenager it meant that the then director had decided to use his power by making a good looking slave girl sleep with him. However when she meets the current director she finds it is worse. Much worse. He has a special project for her: a new cloak for the Emperor. Made to the following measurements. But she knows the Emperor's measurements and this will not fit him. Therefore she is being used in a plot against the Emperor. How will she survive this?

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 12, 2023 02:02 PM (XGFBC)

333 @332 --

And another book gets added to the "someday" list.

Posted by: Weak Geek at November 12, 2023 02:10 PM (p/isN)

334 On the question of fix ups raised in #305, two titles that come to mind are: "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter J. Miller and "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny. At least episodes of both of these were originally published in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" as individual stories. I am not sure whether they were first conceived as separate stories and later fixed up into novels or whether the authors were trying to max out their income by having both magazine and book publications.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 12, 2023 02:11 PM (XGFBC)

335 Posted by: John F. MacMichael at November 12, 2023 02:02 PM (XGFBC)

I read that! Really enjoyed it, but couldn't remember what it was called. Hadn't realized it must have been nearly new when I read it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at November 12, 2023 02:11 PM (nC+QA)

336 The Israeli army is not identical to Israeli society
It lacks any Israeli Arabs. Also the numerous Harefi ultra orthodox do not have to serve. They of course are also anti Zionist believing the Messiah
Must arrive before the State of Israel will be founded
OB I think it should also be noted that profits from the biggest fossil fuel exporters pay the salary of Hamas militia.
They also pay for the golf tournaments played on Trump courses

Posted by: Paul at November 12, 2023 02:43 PM (clkeL)

337 Posted by: Paul at November 12, 2023 02:43 PM (clkeL)

Stupid remark. There are muslim arabs and Druze serving in the IDF.

Posted by: GOP sux at November 12, 2023 03:58 PM (Zzbjj)

338 The only thing worse than gargling with Sarin or sipping Civet scat coffee is a Paul posting.

Posted by: Anna Puma at November 12, 2023 04:29 PM (du94W)

339 For two months I have been slowly reading through and taking notes on The Priority of Christ: Toward a Postliberal Catholicism by Bishop Robert Barron. So far appears to be a significant work of American Catholic theology.

Posted by: Rick67 at November 12, 2023 07:00 PM (aG9PT)

340 Probably too late to the dance for this post to get any readers, but here goes...

"So: What 'fix-ups' have you read, which do you think worked and which didn't?"

Forties and early 50s SF has many examples; the SF magazine market was well-established and relatively easy to crack, but for most authors was limited to stories unless the writer was an established author who could sell a serialized novel (Doc Smith or Bob Heinlein for example). But novels were more prestigious and were a good source of more money, so there was an incentive to expand an already published story or story series into a novel.

Raymond Chandler famously cannibalized some of his non-Marlowe stories (I think the cannibalized stories were about Johnny Dalmas and other pre-Marlowe characters) for 'fix-up' Phillip Marlowe novels. The novel "Lady in the Lake," for example, used parts of the stories "Lady in the Lake" and "No Crime in the Mountains," for the main parts of the book, with shorter bits from other stories. I like both the stories and the novels so I think the novelization worked, albeit I think the novels have some minor issues that sometimes betray their origins as disparate stories.

Posted by: Pope John 20th at November 12, 2023 07:41 PM (cYrkj)

341 336: There are certainly Israeli Arabs serving in the IDF. The only difference is that non-Arab Israelis are drafted and Arab Israeli citizens are not; they choose to serve. There are Arab officers over Jewish soldiers. As to the haredim (ultra-Orthodox); only a few are truly Anti-Israel (e.g., the Neturei Karta, who are palsy with Iran). The Israeli army has thousands of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox troops, especially those from the Chabad movement. My daughter's cousin spent two years in yeshiva (higher level Torah institute) and is now serving in the paratroops (elite!). I would say the IDF absolutely reflects Israeli society as a whole.

Posted by: Alifa Saadya at November 13, 2023 02:29 AM (Sky4B)

342 I especially liked this week's items on building your own personal library as I bought a multi-generational home with my librarian daughter and husband. We chose it specifically because it had a home office that we could convert to our dream custom library. Financial demands to do other reno projects has forced us to put off the custom build, but I did find 15 all-wood 36"W x 65"H bookcases from an office clear out that fit our space perfectly so while we won't get the shelves up to our 11 ft ceilings or the library ladder, it will do quite nicely.

I love the Sunday Book Thread and have started recommending it to my friends and sending them blurbs and titles. I've also sent the link to Libib with readers' recommendations. I've done this with considerable personal bravery as I live in fear of being outed as an Ace of Spades HQ reader...

Posted by: Delilah at November 13, 2023 02:41 AM (9RaWo)

343 Thаnks designed for sharing such a pleasant thinking, pіeｃe of wrіting
is pleasant, thats why i have read it completely

Posted by: hopeful at November 14, 2023 01:28 AM (JUrBX)

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