Sunday Morning Book Thread - 01-07-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! This is the first Sunday Morning Book Thread of 2024! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (They came to kick ass and eat Scooby Snacks...and they're all out of Scooby Snacks!). 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...(rock polishing kit not included!)

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

This picture is from the Admont Abbey library, located in a small, picturesque town in the middle of rural Austria. The abbey is supposedly the largest in the world, featuring not only a library containing 70,000 volumes (out of 200,000 in the abbey's archives), but also a number of small museums. The library is open to the public. Incidentally, I find it interesting that the website where I found this picture features 7 coolest libraries in the world, 6 of which are found in Europe. Hmmm...

ANALYTICAL READING

Reading nonfiction tends to require a very different set of reading skills than reading fiction, especially if one is reading nonfiction with particular purpose in mind, such as researching a topic. "Analytical reading" is much more methodical, detailed, and focused than simply reading for pleasure. You can certainly engage with "analytical reading" of fiction, though, as any graduate student in English literature can tell you. As with any activity, it's up to you to determine your purpose in engaging in that activity. Here are the key points from the video below:

Make it your own -- Engage with the author by annotating the book with all of your notes and questions that you have with the text. The downside to this is that when you mark up the book, you really are making it your own because another reader will not be able to make sense of your notes and annotations. When I was in college, I often purchased "used" books for my literature courses, but those often came with another person's notes. I didn't much care for that, even though the "used" copy was a lot cheaper. Instead, if you have the means, buy a clean copy of the book and then mark it up with your own notes. You may have trouble getting rid of it later, however.

Inspect the book -- When you read a nonfiction book, the author is often laying an argument formed from their own propositions. It's your job as the reader to identify those propositions and determine if the author's arguments hold any substance. I did this in my class this semester by introducing my students to the concept of a syllogism, a logical argument formed from a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Any analytical reading will require you to identify the premises of the author and determine their logical soundness and validity.

Summarize each chapter -- An important component of deep learning is reflection. One way to accomplish this is to summarize a chapter's main ideas in your own words. Can you explain the concept to someone else so that they can understand it? If so, then you probably understand the concept at some level of proficiency. If you are struggling, you may need to find more resources that will help you understand the author's ideas. Writing these notes out by hand actually reinforces neural pathways in your brain that lead to deeper learning.

Archive what you've learned -- After you have read each chapter thoroughly, you will want to find a way to archive what you've learned for later use, if needed. For instance, if you were reading several books on WWII history (like so many of you do), then how do you ensure that you have ready access to the information you've learned *without* having to carry around the complete works of John C. McManus? (Yes, you can have them on a Kindle or other eReader, but you still want a means of accessing the main points quickly and easily.) It can be helpful to digitize all of your notes. There are plenty of apps that can help you keep track of your notes and citations, especially if you are researching material for your own writing.

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STORING BOOKS HORIZONTALLY

Anyone who has collected books over a long period of time will no doubt have acquired books in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Then we have the problem of deciding how we want to display our books so that we can show our intellectual prowess to any guests that visit our household. I think in most cases, people will want to store them vertically, as they are easier to access that way. However, oversized books don't always fit neatly on our shelves, which are often optimized for certain sizes of books. Some folks will choose to display all of their books horizontally instead. I've seen that in at least one used bookstore, where large numbers of books were stacked on the shelves horizontally. In my own library, I have quite a few books that I've had to separate out from the majority because they simply will not fit on my shelves like the rest of the books. For instance, I have quite a few Time/Life books about mythology that do not fit on my main shelves, but must be displayed horizontally. The library in which I work (but do not work for) has an entire section of shelving outside my officed dedicated to "oversize" books. Those are displayed vertically in normal fashion, but the shelf spacing only allows for so many rows of books compared to their normal stacks.

What is YOUR preference for displaying your books?

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

But the crown jewel is the kookoo-bananas Antarctica and the Secret Space Program: From WWII to the Current Space Race by David Hatcher Childress. How I ran across this gem in my traipsing through the library website is a mystery; these oddities seem to find me.
The Thule Society; James Forrestal's suspicious death; Operation Highjump and the Battle of Antarctica; secret moon bases; aliens; Antarctic Nazis! It's like a greatest hits with all my favorite suppressed histories. I SO want all this to be true.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at December 31, 2023 09:12 AM (+RQPJ)

Comment: This sounds like it was written by a genuine fruitcake. David Hatcher Childress was involved in the Ancient Aliens series on The History Channel. Great fodder for storytelling, though. Who *doesn't* want to hear about the Nazi's secret moon base? (How did they get there? How are they being resupplied? What are their plans for conquering Earth from there? How have they remained undetected for generations?)

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It is said that some men live the lives of ten men, but in the case of Sir Richard Francis Burton, this may be an understatement. The Devil Drives by Fawn Brodie, professor of history at UCLA, is an excellent biography of this amazing man. Burton spoke over two dozen languages, translated the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra into English, and was one of the few white men to sneak into Mecca, by dying his skin and using his linguistic skills and ethnic knowledge. He was a renowned expert on Africa, helped find the source of the Nile, and carried a spear scar on his left cheek from a tribal battle. In addition, he was a botanist, ethnologist, poet, geologist, and soldier. This book covers the vast expanse of this man's turbulent yet driven life. There are several books on aspects of his career, but this one gives the grand overview of an astounding life. Brodie did a diligent job of research, especially considering that Burton's widow burned as many of his papers as she could after his death, thus depriving history of even more details of his life.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at December 31, 2023 09:12 AM (ikvBW)

Comment: The Riverworld series I read recently by Philip José Farmer used Sir Richard Francis Burton as one of the main characters. Farmer highlighted a number of Burton's exploits in fleshing out his own version of this amazing man. He was a deeply flawed man, but still quite remarkable in all of his accomplishments and achievements. One of the world's great Renaissance men.

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I read Anthony Horowitz's novel, The Word is Murder, this past week in which the author himself is a character. Hawthorne, a former police inspector wants Horowitz to write a book with him about a case he is investigating: A woman who was the driver in a hit and run accident has been murdered on the same day she planned and paid for her funeral. The detective is secretive and brilliant. The author is reluctant, but as the case moves on, becomes more caught up in the twists and complications.
I have already requested the sequel from inter-library loan, which is a pretty good recommendation from me.
Posted by: huerfano at December 31, 2023 09:45 AM (Q4KYm)

Comment: The Author Avatar trope in literature is more common than you might think. It also has a very long pedigree, going back to at least the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, where he is one of the pilgrims and relates a couple of stories during their journey. Going back to the Riverworld series, a prominent character is Peter Jairus Frigate, who is a writer of science fiction (like Farmer) and shares many of the same details as Farmer's own biography. Stephen King is particularly famous (or infamous) for inserting some version of himself into his stories.

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Oh, and I have The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective in dead tree form heading my way.
Harlan Ellison was a colossal asshole but Holy shit he could write. I've not read anything by him in decades, but my memory of his writing is such that I really need to catch up with him again.
Posted by: Sharkman at December 31, 2023 10:48 AM (/RHNq)

Comment: I thought I had a copy of this book on my shelves. I was wrong. Instead, I have The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective Revised and Expanded. It was published a mere 14 years after the 35-year retrospective, so I guess math is not the publisher's strong suit. It is a definitive look at one of the most prolific and creative writing talents of the twentieth century. Yeah, he was a colossal asshole. He'll gladly own up to that by his own admission. But he also had a lot of faithful lifelong friendships with other amazing writing talents and influenced generations of writers after him. He was a man who loved writing, a man who dedicated his life to storytelling in all its varied forms, and someone who always dared to challenge the status quo. The Essential Ellison is required reading for anyone who wants to know and understand who he really was under his irascible public persona.

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

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WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Malazan Book of the Fallen 1 - Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erickson

Somehow I managed to finish this in about two days, though it's only 490 pages or so in the trade paperback edition. I wrapped it up sometime in the afternoon of New Year's Day. As I understand it, this series evolved from role-playing game sessions between Steven Erickson and his college roommate, Ian C. Esslemont. They used a modified GURPS ruleset for their sessions. Many of the characters and events that take place in Malazan are directly from those role-playing game sessions. The first book follows the adventures of several different characters that are accomplishing goals at odds with one another. Whiskeyjack and his team of sappers infiltrate the last free city on the continent, trying to set up a scenario where they can undermine the defenses and soften it up for the Imperial Malazan armies, which are marching towards the city. In the meantime, Adjunct Lorn, right-hand of the Empress of the Malazan Empire is attempting to raise an elder god that will weaken and perhaps even destroy a key player defending the city. It's a very difficult novel to summarize, because there is SO MUCH GOING ON. Lots of characters and scenes, but they all flow together quite well and result in a pretty decent climax and resolution at the end. There are lots of morally gray characters, but they do tend to value loyalty to their friends and believe they are acting in accordance with a set of moral values. Whiskeyjack's team are a bit put out because they feel that the Empress they serve has betrayed them and is now seeking their deaths (this is true for complicated reasons). Throughout all of this, the gods--especially the twin gods of luck--are starting to intervene in mortal affairs, stirring up all sorts of trouble for the main characters.

(NOTE: I went looking for a GURPS sourcebook for Malazan, since the stories came out of role-playing sessions using that system. Surprisingly, there isn't one. I wonder why. There are plenty of GURPS sourcebooks for other settings, such as Discworld and the New Son.)

Malazan Book of the Fallen 2 - Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erickson

Deadhouse Gates picks up shortly after the events in Gardens of the Moon. Now we follow very different groups of adventurers as they struggle to survive in the crapsack world of the Malazan Empire. A desert priestess starts an uprising among the Seven Cities, but pays a heavy price for her insurrection, even as the occupying Malazan forces are driven from the Seven Cities via the natives' rebellion. The Malazan books are a masterclass in world creation, as Erickson (and his co-creator Ian C. Esslemont) develop the societies and cultures of the Malazan Empire. Not all of them are fully human. Erickson is an archaeologist and anthropologist, so it's not that surprising that he'd play around with society and culture in his books. Much of the second book is just about characters who are struggling for day-to-day survival against the hostile elements of the world--whether they are natural, supernatural, or anthropocentric. I'm enjoying the series as it's well-written and engaging. The scenes tend to be fairly short and there are a lot of jumps between perspectives as the characters are shifted around, but it's not too hard to keep track of what is going on if you are willing to put in a bit of effort to pay attention. You really cannot gloss over too much of the story or you will miss key details that will be important later on. The Malazan books deserve to be *savored*, not just read.

(NOTE: My copy of Deadhouse Gates has a rather unfortunate misprint right in the middle of the book. 24 pages were misaligned during the binding/cutting of the book, so those 24 have the first couple of lines of each page cutoff while there is excess whitespace at the bottom of each page. *sigh*)

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 12-31-23 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Thousands of Malazan refugees have been displaced as a result of climate change (yes, to some extent this is true) and constant warfare, but mostly constant warfare.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 all the traffic

Posted by: I'm not driving, I'm traveling. Sir this is not bball. at January 07, 2024 08:59 AM (qfLjt)

2 BOING! Toll booth.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at January 07, 2024 08:59 AM (PODEE)

3 Read a bit of Sarah Hoyt's "Darkship Thieves," wrote a bit. But nowhere near 10K words like our hero, Allie of the Moronette Must Read.

I'm so ashamed.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 08:59 AM (Angsy)

4 hiya

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 09:00 AM (T4tVD)

5 Tolle Lege
Reading Liberation of Germany 1813 by Alexander Mikaberidze'
2nd part of a journal by a Russian Artillery officer

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 09:01 AM (fwDg9)

6 I dunno, I think those pants look fantastic! I'll take four.

Posted by: Ben Grimm at January 07, 2024 09:01 AM (Angsy)

7 Ive started John Scalzi's "Old Man's War".

Posted by: Ciampino - the scale of these puns... at January 07, 2024 09:02 AM (qfLjt)

8 I did not read this week.

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 09:02 AM (lwOKI)

9 I paid $16 for the Lord of the Rings book (trilogy). I am beginning to regret that.

Posted by: vic at January 07, 2024 09:02 AM (A5THL)

10 Hiya Skip !

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 09:03 AM (T4tVD)

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

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 09:04 AM (T4tVD)

12 Fiction is for people who can't handle reality.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 07, 2024 09:04 AM (RIvkX)

13 The only difference between fiction and comic books are the pictures.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 07, 2024 09:05 AM (RIvkX)

14 "only 490 pages"

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)

15 With "Put a Lid on It," I realized that, as much as I love caper stories, it's the buildup to the crime that brings the fun. Once the locks are opened, the real theft is dull.

Now I've begun "The Rhinemann Exchange" by Robert Ludlum. I had vowed to read this last year. Oh, well.

The description on the inside jacket leaf: The U.S. and Nazi Germany each has something that the other wants for their war efforts. They cut a trade deal, under tight security. God forbid their allies find out.

I'm barely into the book, but it looks as if it's going to have a lot of buildup. Will the exchange itself be humdrum? Stay tuned.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)

16 This is why I watch Real Housewives of Miami.

Totally real.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 07, 2024 09:08 AM (RIvkX)

17 Why do you regret it, Vic?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 09:08 AM (+RQPJ)

18 "only 490 pages"
Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)
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It's the shortest one in the series. It's taken me all week to finish with Book 2...(still not done yet)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 09:08 AM (BpYfr)

19 With limited shelf space and an appetite for comics trade collections, I have to place some books sideways on top of others.

I would much rather put the books vertically, but my wife insists on using shelf space for items other than books.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:11 AM (p/isN)

20 Instead of finishing Bleak House, have sidetracked myself with a bunch of Bradbury stories. Before going back to Dickens, will probably revisit a few of Harlan Ellison's stories. For those interested, there's a 'greatest hits' volume of Harlan's work coming in March. Dangerous Visions will be reissued in March, and Again Dangerous Visions will be reissued in June or July; the long-awaited Last Dangerous Visions should follow in September according to J.M. Straczynski (sp?), the estate executor.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:11 AM (a/4+U)

21 Mornin' Horde. I unpacked a few boxes of books yesterday, does that count?

Also trying a 'read the Bible in a year' plan again for 2024. I chose a chronological plan. A few chapters of Genesis, then you're thrown right into Job. Guaranteed to knock out what may be left of your New Year's optimism (being an Eeyore, I had none anyway).

Posted by: screaming in digital at January 07, 2024 09:11 AM (CL9FV)

22 17 Why do you regret it, Vic?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 09:08 AM (+RQPJ)

This is one of those rare occasions where the movie is better than the book. The book gets boring after a while.

Posted by: vic at January 07, 2024 09:11 AM (A5THL)

23 I'm a longtime lurker, but when I saw that you were going to read the Malazan series I knew I would comment. I started re-reading it back in November and I am on Book 5 Midnight Tides which is approximately 700 pages, Kindle numbers. I am looking forward to your reaction.

Posted by: EyeofSauron at January 07, 2024 09:13 AM (u0bih)

24 Still pecking my way through "Antarctica and the Secret Space Program" by David Hatcher Childress. I'm learning a lot! Did not know that in 1958 during Operation Argus, the US detonated three nuclear weapons near Antarctica, some say to destroy Nazi facilities there(!). Predictably, the Wiki article doesn't mention anything about secret Nazi bases. Way to suppress the truth by omission!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Argus

Per an article in Nexus Magazine, Operation Tabarin was supposedly launched by the British at the end of WWII to destroy a u-boat base there. There was a huge underground chamber at the end of a long tunnel that housed submarines and "strange aircraft" (let's just call them flying saucers, because why the hell not?). The British SAS encountered yeti-like humanoids that ate human flesh.

I should add that Childress merely conveys the "facts" others have reported, and note that we seem to live in an increasingly koo-koo bananas world.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 09:14 AM (+RQPJ)

25 Good Sunday morning, horde!

This week, I read books 3 and 4 of the 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain (The Pusher, and The Con Man). I am in love with these. They are quick reads from a better era, with great characters and stories. And they are free on kindle unlimited. I can start one in the evening and be done by the time I absolutely have to go to sleep.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 09:14 AM (OX9vb)

26 15
Now I've begun "The Rhinemann Exchange" by Robert Ludlum. I had vowed to read this last year. Oh, well.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)
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I read that a long while ago and I seem to remember what was needing exchange but I don't remember what I thought of the story's quality.

Posted by: Ciampino - Another try at January 07, 2024 09:14 AM (qfLjt)

27 Booken morgen horden!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at January 07, 2024 09:15 AM (mTuD/)

28 My recommendation for this week is The Flight by Dan Hampton. Hampton is a decorated fighter pilot turned writer, and who better to grasp the audacity that led Charles Lindbergh to fly a small plane solo across the Atlantic in 1927? The Spirit of St Louis was built to his specifications, held 500 gallons of fuel, and had a single window in the door; it had no forward visibility other than a periscope. Think of the single mindedness that it took to borrow money, have this plane built, and attempt a solo crossing of the Atlantic only 20 odd years after the Wright Brothers first flight. Hampton uses the pilot's memoirs, contemporary accounts, and his own experience to put the reader into the cockpit to get a feel for this groundbreaking journey. In an age when Elon Musk's rockets are being launched weekly, it is hard to imagine the enormity of what Lindbergh dared and accomplished. Lindbergh had no radio, and only the crudest charts to guide him from the US to Ireland and on to France. His overweight plane barely cleared the trees at takeoff. The exhaustion, fog, ice, and fuel consumption made this a harrowing journey, and Hampton captures this experience in a very compelling manner.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 09:15 AM (biNg8)

29 The trick to getting a free copy of LOTR trilogy is to let everyone you come across know that you want to read it but haven't found time to get a copy and before you know it some old hippie will give you their paperback version with crib notes since they have about a dozen copies. Be prepared for long winded conversations on Gandalf, Frodo, Sauron and The One Ring.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 07, 2024 09:15 AM (R/m4+)

30 Abby. Abby somebody.

Posted by: Marty Feldman at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (NBVIP)

31 I'm reading the climax of Deadhouse Gates right now and it's eerily reminiscent of John Wick 4 as a wounded assassin must make his way to a specific location in a city while being pursued by other assassins of his organization that all want his head.

Naturally, Kalam goes all John Wick on his pursuers...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (BpYfr)

32 And re: The Essential Ellison -- think I might have mentioned this last week, but I've slept since then, so just in case...

If you're diving into Harlan's work, do not miss his novella 'All the Lies That Are My Life.' It's one of his best stories (well, IMHO anyway), and it's not included in The Essential Ellison probably for reasons of space. You'll find it in his collection Shatterday.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (a/4+U)

33 Greetings, O Book Thread!
The latest installment in my Red Wolf series has just been published at all the usual online bookstores! Red Wolf: Scout (part 1) is the first serialization of Book 2 in the series. More shenanigans in a parallel Earth!

An unexpected hazard of going from a world of modern technology to a primitive, alternate Asia: explaining the concept of “swimsuit” to people who can’t swim. Nic must train a truly effective special forces team, and protect the only safe haven she’s found. The people of Shanmen fortress have accepted her— even if some still think she is a wolf demon in her spare time—but Feng Guo, the general in command, has a powerful enemy determined to wipe them out.

Nic must save the fortress and the people within from sabotage, single spies, and entire squads of soldiers in a world wracked by rebellion. She only has her wits and what she had on her when she was shunted to this timeline. What can she do with a cell phone, a tourist guide, and a very slightly used geology degree? Wreak havok, and let slip the Red Wolf of war!

Universal link to all the store options: https://books2read.com/u/boXg7Z

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (KCc/j)

34 In another thread there was a question of what poem(s) to memorize. Discussion went nowhere. My vote was for "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. It's chilling and all-around cool as f***. One line is particularly resonant today:

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at January 07, 2024 09:17 AM (5YmYl)

35 I'm a longtime lurker, but when I saw that you were going to read the Malazan series I knew I would comment. I started re-reading it back in November and I am on Book 5 Midnight Tides which is approximately 700 pages, Kindle numbers. I am looking forward to your reaction.
Posted by: EyeofSauron at January 07, 2024 09:13 AM (u0bih)
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I plan on doing a feature-length review when I'm done with the series!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 09:17 AM (BpYfr)

36 I prefer vertically stacked books, but have informally adopted a mixed system in my library, necessitated by too many books. I fill up a shelf with vertically stacked books, then start laying them horizontally on top of the others, until I eventually fill up the shelves completely and have to do SOMETHING. That usually involves demoting books to lesser bookshelves throughout the house.

I'm considering joining Hoarders Anonymous.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:17 AM (CsUN+)

37 I shouldn't be up yet.
one nice thing Alexander Mikaberize does is give location names in the old German and new name often in Polish so I can look them up on Google maps

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 09:18 AM (fwDg9)

38 What is this "book"???

Posted by: lin-duh at January 07, 2024 09:19 AM (QBwwm)

39 I thought the Spirit of St. Louis had an open cockpit.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:20 AM (p/isN)

40 What is YOUR preference for displaying your books?

When I moved into my house, I identified spaces where bookshelves could go, and measured the books that would go in them. Taller spaces for taller books on the bottom, smaller spaces for mass market paperbacks on the top.

Contrary to the running joke, custom bookcases are relatively easy to make. And I enjoyed the process of staining and lacquering them.

It does involve math, however.

For a handful of books that need public display, I bought some simple brass-colored stands that sit on the top of the bookcases, allowing the books to show face out.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at January 07, 2024 09:20 AM (EXyHK)

41 Storing books horizontally actually helps keep the binding stable, as long as the nooks are the same size

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at January 07, 2024 09:20 AM (mTuD/)

42 The Spirit of St Louis was built to his specifications, held 500 gallons of fuel, and had a single window in the door; it had no forward visibility other than a periscope.

Why did he use a periscope and not just a windshield? As long as the latter was complete, I don't imagine it would have affected the drag much compared to a solid wall.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:20 AM (CsUN+)

43 Reading Walls of Men. Still. Another book that send me into my library all "wait, I have a book on that somewhere.." I seem to have bought a lot of books on China over the years tthat I never even broke the spine on. Probably from a 2 or 3 years dive into Ghengis Kahn and the Golden Hoarde a long while ago.

Which leads me to what I will be doing today because there is 6 inchs of snow on the ground.
Attempting to put my bookshelves into some semblance of order.

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 09:21 AM (p4/l6)

44 Didn't Ellison write the screenplay for The City on the Edge of Forever, the Star Trek episode with Joan Collins.

He knows, Jim. He knows

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 07, 2024 09:21 AM (Gse2f)

45 I had shelves designed with a section specifically for some of my oversized books (oversized for whom?! Sizist!). I later unpacked an atlas that was too big for the tallest shelf, so I suppose in future I'll need to get a plinth.

I love saying "plinththththth".

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 09:21 AM (+RQPJ)

46 Anybody read the latest Reacher, "The Secret?"

Posted by: Mr Gaga at January 07, 2024 09:22 AM (KiBMU)

47 29 The trick to getting a free copy of LOTR trilogy is to let everyone you come across know that you want to read it but haven't found time to get a copy and before you know it some old hippie will give you their paperback version with crib notes since they have about a dozen copies. Be prepared for long winded conversations on Gandalf, Frodo, Sauron and The One Ring.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 07, 2024 09:15 AM (R/m4+)

I had a hard-back copy of the book years ago I made the mistake of loaning it to someone who never brought it back..I no longer loan ANY of my books to other people.

Posted by: vic at January 07, 2024 09:22 AM (A5THL)

48 I'll need to get a plinth.

I love saying "plinththththth".

It does have an attractive woodiness.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:23 AM (CsUN+)

49 Posted by: Sabrina Chase at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (KCc/j)

Sabrina's "The Scent of Metal" is worth a read, if the Book Thread denizens like SF.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 09:23 AM (Angsy)

50 Never did much memorization of poetry -- don't know why -- but if I was supreme dictator, everyone would have to read Kipling's 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings' at least once a year. It would be read and discussed every semester in all schools starting in, say, 5th grade and going through every PhD program. Just to make sure it sinks in.

A few more cool poems? James Dickey's 'Pursuit from Under,' Dana Gioia's 'Summer Storm' and 'Unsaid,' Auden's 'Musee de Beaux Arts.'

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:23 AM (a/4+U)

51
"Dangerous Visions", edited by Harlan Ellison, was published when I was in junior high school ('66 to '6

. It was in the school libary, but you had to be in eighth grade to check it out.

Frankly, I do not recall much that was in it except for one story in which women with gigantic breasts were raised in barns and milked twice daily like cows. I do not recall what was the story's point or who was the author. Whether this was the inspiration for the Juggs periodicals was not known, but that premise was not far fetched.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:24 AM (xG4kz)

52 Wawro’s F&P war is about to kick off.

Posted by: Jamaica at January 07, 2024 09:25 AM (Eeb9P)

53 "hard to imagine the enormity of what Lindbergh..."

"Enormity" is one of those misused words that the dictionaries have thrown their hands up over and surrendered. I refuse. I will be the Hiroo Onada of "enormity", prowling the postwar Philippines jungles of lexical correctness and screaming, "It means GREAT EVIL!"

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at January 07, 2024 09:25 AM (5YmYl)

54 I love saying "plinththththth".

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:23 AM (CsUN+)
-

/scrubs screen with rubbing alcohol

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at January 07, 2024 09:25 AM (PODEE)

55 Yep, Ellison wrote 'City on the Edge of Forever' for Star Trek. A couple of nifty Outer Limits episodes as well ('Soldier' and 'Demon with a Glass Hand').

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:26 AM (a/4+U)

56 This week, I read books 3 and 4 of the 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain (The Pusher, and The Con Man). I am in love with these. They are quick reads from a better era, with great characters and stories. And they are free on kindle unlimited. I can start one in the evening and be done by the time I absolutely have to go to sleep.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024

***
Morning, all,

McBain/Evan Hunter (and he had his birth name, which I've forgotten) did not write the first police procedurals, not even the first American ones. But he was the first, I think, to make the entire squad of policemen and detectives the central focus of the entire series. I've read that he was originally going to make NYC, the actual one, the locale. But then he realized the amount of research he would have to do. He thought creating his own city would be easier and more fun.

I wonder if anyone has ever done a book about the entire series, how the characters changed, the neighborhoods within his city, etc.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:27 AM (omVj0)

57 Our modem has become completely unreliable in its death throes. We have a new one coming tomorrow but don't expect to be online much, if at all, today.

Reading the first book of the Wingfeather series for youngsters and it is looking better and better. (Thanks to Tecumsa Tea on the hobby thread for her info about the author.) It got me wondering: do people here regard the Chronicles of Narnia as childrens' book? Although there are elements that would appeal to, or scare, young kids, there are many layers that would only ne noticed by adults. I put The Hobbit and maybe Treasure Island in the same category. Just idle thoughts.

Posted by: JTB at January 07, 2024 09:28 AM (cz/sd)

58 7 Ive started John Scalzi's "Old Man's War".

I really enjoyed that series.
Great premise; Old people would make the best soldiers.
You just gotta get them into bodies that can fight.
Scalzi goes deep into the tech on this one.

Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:28 AM (QBwMV)

59 You would think there'd be a stampede to be one of the milkers, but I'll bet the job would soon become humdrum.

And then somebody would introduce technology into the picture.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:28 AM (p/isN)

60 Yep, Ellison wrote 'City on the Edge of Forever' for Star Trek. A couple of nifty Outer Limits episodes as well ('Soldier' and 'Demon with a Glass Hand').
Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:26 AM (a/4+U)

But, not exactly as he wrote it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 09:28 AM (Angsy)

61 Krebs --
If memory serves, that story was in Again DV and not the first DV anthology. Believe it was 'In the Barn' by Piers Anthony. If I were industrious, I'd look it up, but it's Sunday and I need more coffee and I'm just about too lazy even to get up to get the caffeine. So...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:29 AM (a/4+U)

62 The Spirit of St Louis was built to his specifications, held 500 gallons of fuel, and had a single window in the door; it had no forward visibility other than a periscope.

Why did he use a periscope and not just a windshield? As long as the latter was complete, I don't imagine it would have affected the drag much compared to a solid wall.
Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024

***
I think because he had another fuel tank installed forward of the cockpit. That detail, if I'm not misremembering, might be in the film with James Stewart, too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:29 AM (omVj0)

63 ""Enormity" is one of those misused words "

Tell me about it

Posted by: "gay" at January 07, 2024 09:29 AM (Gse2f)

64
For those who like giving books...

The Folio Society now has their Annual(Semiannual?) Sale going on right now where certain volumes are 50% off.

The Folio Society is one of those reprinters who's editions are printed in beautiful, very well bound, acid-free paper to last for the ages(more or less).

They're normally very overpriced but right now some of the volumes are within reasonable reach of the Average Joe/Josephine. And if you're a superman of one of the books that are still overpriced, well, maybe that puts THAT ONE BOOK in range for you.

Check them out.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 09:30 AM (nFnyb)

65 Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary...

Posted by: Lenore at January 07, 2024 09:30 AM (NBVIP)

66 "Why did he use a periscope and not just a windshield? As long as the latter was complete, I don't imagine it would have affected the drag much compared to a solid wall."

He had fuel crammed everywhere, including the nose.

I heard that he trimmed the edges off of his paper maps to save weight. Don't know if that's true, but too cool to debunk. ;-)

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at January 07, 2024 09:30 AM (5YmYl)

67
I am reading the second half of James Clavell's "Noble House", more out of duty than excitement for it.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:30 AM (xG4kz)

68 I have some Ikea units where if I space the shelves equally -- cuz I'm OCD that way -- the two fixed shelves have just a bit more space than the others. Enough for most but not quite all of the oversized books. But since I group books by subject or author, having the oversized ones split off from their group also ticks my OCD.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 09:31 AM (sNc8Y)

69 Yep, Ellison wrote 'City on the Edge of Forever' for Star Trek. A couple of nifty Outer Limits episodes as well ('Soldier' and 'Demon with a Glass Hand').
Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024

***
He wrote at least one episode of Burke's Law with Gene Barry, featuring characters modeled on some of the oddball people in LA at that time (ca. 1963) who were fascinated with magic and vampires.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:31 AM (omVj0)

70 Don't use "utilize."

Posted by: Just use "use" at January 07, 2024 09:32 AM (NBVIP)

71 Re: Horizontal storage of books.
I'm currently reading Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, a beautifully illustrated ook by a prominent palaeographer, a fine word that, that covers 12 medieval manuscripts.
Among other things, I've learned that the manuscripts were often stored horizontally, to keep the pages flat. Some were stored in boxes at with springs, applying pressure to the manuscript.

Posted by: Ameryx at January 07, 2024 09:32 AM (q9OK+)

72 Speaking of Ikea and books, they make a great basic bookshelf that's easy to put together

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 07, 2024 09:32 AM (Gse2f)

73 Book report: finished my reread/listen of Dresden Files Peace Talks & Battle Grpund, finished Cinder Spires The Olympian Affair.
Just started the Akata Witch by Nsibidi Scripts.

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at January 07, 2024 09:32 AM (mTuD/)

74 I read Jerusalem Interlude by Bodie Thoene. This is the fourth book in her Zion Covenant series. The story shifts from Elisa to her friend Leah Feldstein and her husband Shimon who have made a harrowing escape from occupied Austria and have finally reached the Promised Land in the British Mandate of Palestine. One learns what life was like there at that time. A second thread is the story of a Jewish boy, Eli, who falls in love with an Arab girl, Victoria. They marry, but the story ends tragicallly.

Posted by: Zoltan at January 07, 2024 09:33 AM (DE9AH)

75 Having just finished an addictive re-read of LotR, I'm now perusing G.K. Chesterton's life of St. Francis of Assisi. Chesterton's a fun writer, and it started off briskly (as expected), but he's now inflicting a series of punishing blows on opponents I haven't read, which isn't as fun.

In other news, I purchased my first no-kidding actual Kindle-only book: The Type 38 Arisaka (Revised Edition) by Francis C. Allan & co.

Talk about a deep dive! I loaded it onto my phone, which is weird to get used to, but its digital only, and when you really need detailed info on Type 38s, your options are few. Somewhat repetitive, but c'mon, it's not exactly literature.

An invaluable companion to the aspiring Arisaka collector (which I wasn't planning on being, but here we are).

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 09:33 AM (llXky)

76 So bought the Kindle a few months back, and have been doing a LOT of reading. Mostly stuff I read before and might or might not be buried in a box in the garage.

This week it is Eddings "Belgariad" Started last Monday and about through book 4.

Thinking about taking the book boxes over to the USO on the base nearby.

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at January 07, 2024 09:33 AM (e/Osv)

77 OrangeEnt --
True. Definitely not as Harlan wrote it.

I believe I'm one of the few people who likes both the aired version and Harlan's original script. Go figure.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:34 AM (a/4+U)

78 Ellison wrote "City on the Edge of Forever", gave it to Shatner to read, Shatner loved it, then the final script ended up different. Ellison realized later that Shatner was counting his lines and lobbied the producers for more.

Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at January 07, 2024 09:34 AM (5YmYl)

79 My flight back from Vienna to Dulles was billed as a 10 hour flight. Thinking it was a mistake due to the time change, imagine my shock to find out it is actually a 9 1/2 hour marathon. About an hour into the flight, I started d.S. Blake's Silk Unspun. I didn't get up from my seat for 7 hours and finished 20 minutes outside of DC.
I had originally put it off because of Spiders, Bugs. I had started Children of Time and when it introduced spiders, sent the book back to the library.
But Silk Unspun is terrific. Blake makes his characters relatable and his descriptions make them live. From the opening fight scene which introduces the main character, you have a feel for the world he is creating.
Highly recommended for all Sci Fi fans.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 07, 2024 09:35 AM (t/2Uw)

80 I recently discovered Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s books and essays and am just now getting started working my way through his catalogue.

Mises Institute offers a number of his works for free.

Posted by: 13times at January 07, 2024 09:35 AM (VqDvL)

81 I think because he had another fuel tank installed forward of the cockpit. That detail, if I'm not misremembering, might be in the film with James Stewart, too.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:29 AM (omVj0)
---
Many of the later fuel systems we take for granted obviously had not been invented yet. Forward visibility was only necessary to take off and land. It's not like he had to worry about mid-air collisions with another aircraft.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 09:35 AM (llXky)

82 58 7 Ive started John Scalzi's "Old Man's War".

I really enjoyed that series.
Great premise; Old people would make the best soldiers.
You just gotta get them into bodies that can fight.
Scalzi goes deep into the tech on this one.
Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:28 AM (QBwMV)

There is a reason that kids fight wars. Most old people are to smart to blindly follow stupid orders.

"DROP AND GIVE ME 20"
"fuck you. How about I stand here and watch you do 20?"

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 09:36 AM (p4/l6)

83 Finished Racism Revenge and Ruin, it's all Obama
It's a look into everything he did to bring this country under Marxism. One takeaway though not much more than a a page is Barky at Columbia was a graduate very possibly attended hardly a class and did no work for it in classrooms.
It also shows how Barky and minions formed a Coup d'etat against President Trump and continues to have major influence in the Sundowner administration.

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 09:36 AM (fwDg9)

84 Some day, but not soon, I should write a sequel to The Curious Disappearance of Seamus Muldoon and call it The Turbulent Reappearance of Seamus Muldoon. A lot of water has passed under a lot of bridges in fifteen years. The original sheriff on the case has died, as has his successor. An Undersheriff went to jail for running an illegal hunting guide scam, and later died of COVID. Seamus' young mail order bride died of liver cancer. The newspaper man who told the story in The Denver Post's Cold Cases blog back in the day died recently. The case lay dormant for years. And then in 2023, a string of seeming coincidences occurred...(to be continued)

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 09:36 AM (991eG)

85 Speaking of Ikea and books, they make a great basic bookshelf that's easy to put together

Ikea, like Glocks and minivans, get a lot of sh*t from the status-conscious. What they all share is that they're affordable, functional, and unexciting.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 09:37 AM (sNc8Y)

86 72 Speaking of Ikea and books, they make a great basic bookshelf that's easy to put together
Posted by: Ignoramus at January 07, 2024 09:32 AM (Gse2f)

Relatively cheap too. Think we have almost 20 of them in the house now. Remember to secure them to the wall though.
-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at January 07, 2024 09:37 AM (e/Osv)

87 I'm more than halfway through a Western by Richard Wheeler, Dark Passage: A Barnaby Skye Novel. This is set in the Yellowstone River country in the 1830s. Skye, an English sailor who jumped ship in America and worked his way west, is married (whatever that might mean) to a lovely Crow Indian, Many Quills Woman, whom he calls Victoria. He's trying to make a living trapping for one of the major fur trade companies out there.

Victoria, only twenty, has her head turned by another white man who lives with the Crows, and tosses Skye aside. But then she is captured and made a slave by her people's enemies, the Blackfeet. And Skye is determined to rescue her.

Good stuff so far!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:37 AM (omVj0)

88 A second thread is the story of a Jewish boy, Eli, who falls in love with an Arab girl, Victoria. They marry, but the story ends tragicallly.
Posted by: Zoltan at January 07, 2024 09:33 AM (DE9AH)
-

The marriage was a PITA for them both?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at January 07, 2024 09:37 AM (PODEE)

89 The late Prof. John Bremner has an entry for "enormity" in "Words on Words."

I'll paraphrase: "Enormity" connotes outrageousness, "enormousness" connotes large physical size.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:38 AM (p/isN)

90 While reading an essay by Malcolm Guite about how the Romantics, especially Coleridge, influenced George MacDonald and on to Lewis and Tolkien (obligatory mention). That led down a rabbit hole to Coleridge's Biographia Literaria about his life and how he came to write the kind of poetry he did. Interesting in general but what caught my attention was his sense of humor. Some of his humor is self-deprecating and some is gently scathing towards those who don't agree his tastes. Adds an element of fun to the reading.

It reminds me a bit of Tolkien in the LOTR preface talking about critics who haven't read the book but publicly dislike the story. A subtle dig at those people, their taste, and qualifications.

Posted by: JTB at January 07, 2024 09:38 AM (cz/sd)

91 Ooh, it's snowing outside. Good reading weather.*

*all weather is good reading weather

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 09:38 AM (+RQPJ)

92 My favorite bit of poetry we made the little hobbits memorize while we were homeschooling was a single stanza from Kipling's Norman and Saxon:

"The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, 'This isn't fair dealing,' my son, leave the Saxon alone."

I would have eventually had them work up to memorizing the whole thing, but life took other directions.

Posted by: She Hobbit at January 07, 2024 09:39 AM (ftFVW)

93 Finished Racism Revenge and Ruin, it's all Obama
It's a look into everything he did to bring this country under Marxism.
Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 09:36 AM (fwDg9)
-

This will wind up being a trilogy.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at January 07, 2024 09:39 AM (PODEE)

94 I am also reading Shift by Hugh Howey. This is the sequel to Wool, a dystopian novel about an entire self-sufficient society living in an underground silo, where the only people who go outside are the condemned.

Shift tells the story of how the silo came to be, and what happened to the world that drove everyone into the silo.

Semi-spoiler alert: it was the Democrats.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 09:39 AM (OX9vb)

95 Over sized books you don't read? Make shelves out of them.
Bookshelves l

Or put them under your vertical books on saggy shelves.

Posted by: fd at January 07, 2024 09:39 AM (vFG9F)

96 Took one look at today's photo and now I have an earworm of Vivaldi's "Spring" concerto twirling in my head.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at January 07, 2024 09:39 AM (SPNTN)

97 I've read the Secret. Like all the ones written by both Andrew and Lee Child, I found it disappointing. But read it anyways.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 07, 2024 09:40 AM (t/2Uw)

98 Why did he use a periscope and not just a windshield? As long as the latter was complete, I don't imagine it would have affected the drag much compared to a solid wall.
Posted by: Archimedes

He had an extra 80 gallon fuel tank installed in front of the cockpit. He figured he would not use a windscreen for 99 percent of the journey. Single minded.

He had a 200 gallon main tank, the 80 gallon tank, and another 150 or so in the wings. The plane had only one purpose: to cross the ocean non-stop.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 09:40 AM (biNg8)

99 Ellison wrote "City on the Edge of Forever", gave it to Shatner to read, Shatner loved it, then the final script ended up different. Ellison realized later that Shatner was counting his lines and lobbied the producers for more.
Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at January 07, 2024

***
To be fair -- as I understand it -- Ellison had things in his script that did not fit the Trek format, such as having ship's crew dealing drugs in some fashion, and Kirk abandoning the Enterprise for Edith. Be aware that I've only heard these stories and have not read the actual script. Are these points accurate?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:41 AM (omVj0)

100 100?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at January 07, 2024 09:41 AM (PODEE)

101 67
I am reading the second half of James Clavell's "Noble House", more out of duty than excitement for it.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:30 AM (xG4kz)

I thought that was a good book Not as good as Shogun but good. Once again the movie was better than the book.

Posted by: vic at January 07, 2024 09:41 AM (A5THL)

102 Frankly, I do not recall much that was in it except for one story…

Same story I remembered from it. But yeah, while it was an interesting collection, not only were most of the stories not particularly “dangerous”, his rants in front of each story would range from praising himself for having the courage to publish this unpublishable piece, to having the cunning to pull this very-in-demand-piece from under the noses of other publishers.

Fascinating guy. Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at January 07, 2024 09:42 AM (EXyHK)

103 >>Who *doesn't* want to hear about the Nazi's secret moon base?

LOL, already a couple of crazypants Finish B movies based on this premise - Iron Sky and Iron Sky: The Coming Race. Udo Kier plays the head Nazi, IIRC

Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 09:44 AM (izj35)

104
One takeaway though not much more than a a page is Barky at Columbia was a graduate very possibly attended hardly a class and did no work for it in classrooms.

He is the quintessential affirmative action fraud, "all hat and no cattle", as some would put it.

I defy anyone to find a sensible reason for the word salad-like "relationships" the "professor" was diagramming in this overused picture of him "at work".

https://static01.nyt.com/images/
2008/07/29/us/30law_600,0.jpg

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:45 AM (xG4kz)

105 I suppose in future I'll need to get a plinth.
Posted by: All Hail Eris

********

Eris hums a Disney tune: "Thum dayyyy, my plinth will come!"

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 09:46 AM (991eG)

106 51
"Dangerous Visions", edited by Harlan Ellison, was published when I was in junior high school ('66 to '6. It was in the school libary, but you had to be in eighth grade to check it out....
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:24 AM (xG4kz)

I remember "DV" as being pretty good in that it published some pretty good stories that would have been deemed "just too much" at the time and otherwise gone unpublished. Though there was some dross that had gone unpublished cuz...dross.

"Again DV" was less good, which gives me less hope that "Last DV" will be a glorious sendoff.(50 or so years to publish!!!!) But, eh, I'll probably still buy it.

Weirdly, the story I remember best from "DV" was "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Philip Jose Farmer which was a very long elaborate shaggy dog story solely written to spotlight the pun "Winagain's Fake" at the end. Pissed me off it did.

Well-written dross but dross nonetheless.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 09:47 AM (nFnyb)

107 Where the huntress was the butt of the joke

She brings the nazis from the moon

So i read michael caines first deadly game it wasnt terrible some touch of seymour and daighton

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at January 07, 2024 09:47 AM (PXvVL)

108 Wolfus --

Yep, there was a crew member dealing. And in Harlan's original Kirk couldn't bring himself to sacrifice Edith Keeler; Spock had to do it. Would have loved to see the original filmed, but, hey, television.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:47 AM (a/4+U)

109 I'm not a bit surprised to find out that penguins are Nazis.

Posted by: fd at January 07, 2024 09:48 AM (vFG9F)

110 Fascinating guy. Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow.

I think that's profound but I confess that I actually have no idea what it means.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 09:48 AM (sNc8Y)

111 He plays a former working class sas turned met policemen looking for a uranium parcel

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at January 07, 2024 09:49 AM (PXvVL)

112 >>Shift tells the story of how the silo came to be, and what happened to the world that drove everyone into the silo.Semi-spoiler alert: it was the Democrats.

Heh, yeah, I was amazed by that - I guess because he originally self-published he didn't have to blame Bush, which was so popular at that time in literature/movies/tv.

I liked the first two books, I could not complete the third. I may try again, though. . .

Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 09:49 AM (izj35)

113 Books are placed vertically in my bookcases. I separate the paperbacks from the hardcovers.

Posted by: dantesed at January 07, 2024 09:49 AM (88xKn)

114 Who *doesn't* want to hear about the Nazi's secret moon base?

LOL, already a couple of crazypants Finish B movies based on this premise - Iron Sky and Iron Sky: The Coming Race. Udo Kier plays the head Nazi, IIRC
Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 09:44 AM (izj35)

Unfortunately, "Iron Sky" was less about a Nazi Moon base and more about how Sarah Palin was an idiot.

It has not aged well( (even a week after it's release it hadn't aged well).

A waste of a great storytelling opportunity.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 09:49 AM (nFnyb)

115 ...d.S. Blake's Silk Unspun. ...
Highly recommended for all Sci Fi fans.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 07, 2024 09:35 AM (t/2Uw)

Ditto that. I am not even a Sci Fi fan, and I enjoyed it very much. It's a small thing, but it's endearing to me when the spiders address Jake Ambler as "Jay Kambler."

The author has emailed the second book to me--I think I will read it, but I have a lot of other things in front of it right now.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 09:50 AM (OX9vb)

116 My favorite poem is Ozymandias.

If you want some fun, read the story of how Shelley wrote it in a friendly competition with Horace Smith, and you can read Smith's versiob and see how Shelley blew him out of the water.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 09:50 AM (biNg8)

117 9 I paid $16 for the Lord of the Rings book (trilogy). I am beginning to regret that.
Posted by: vic at January 07, 2024 09:02 AM (A5THL)

Well, it's got some slow meandering bits but it gets really exciting in book 2, imo

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at January 07, 2024 09:50 AM (mTuD/)

118 As for memorized poetry, I was pleased to find out that "Humpty Dumpty's Recitation" from Through the Looking-Glass somehow stayed in memory without much trying. I sometimes use it to entertain bored children in public places to keep them quiet.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at January 07, 2024 09:50 AM (SPNTN)

119 One takeaway though not much more than a a page is Barky at Columbia was a graduate very possibly attended hardly a class and did no work for it in classrooms.

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 09:36 AM (fwDg9)
---
Some years ago there was a big scandal involving UNC's basketball team and how players got no-show grades. A lot of folks were expecting sanctions, vacated titles, etc. but in the end the NCAA waved it off - to widespread outrage.

While it's true that a lot of money rides on the success of their "blue blood" basketball team, that's not why the NCAA took a dive. The actual reason (which you can find if you read between the lines on the investigation) was that *all* black students were getting no-show grades. It was school policy to boost diversity. If the NCAA had started digging into it, the whole diversity culture would have been exposed. So they buried it.

This is why people like "Dr." Gay have to cheat to get their grad degrees.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 09:50 AM (llXky)

120 I think that's profound but I confess that I actually have no idea what it means.

I will allow it to remain profound through the simple expedient of not explaining it.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at January 07, 2024 09:51 AM (EXyHK)

121 Coming across a russian oligarch a dodgy british art dealer

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at January 07, 2024 09:51 AM (PXvVL)

122 I built many of the bookshelves in my house, so I was able to customize them to fit the inventory.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 09:52 AM (biNg8)

123 I finished moron Blake's second book, Foul Brood. Where our protagonist, Jake must get the local sapient insect analogs, bees and giant ant to "just get along"?
I also read " I shall wear midnight" book four of the Discworld's Tiffany Aching series by the late Terry Pratchett. Terry was one of the funniest writers I've ever read.
Also, I've started "Tress of the Emerald Isles" by Brandon Sanderson. Brandon seems to be channeling Terry Pratchett in this one. It's undoubtedly the shortest book in his Cosmere series at 365 pages.
No, really, it reads like Pratchett. I stayed up until 2am reading it, it's that good.

Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:52 AM (QBwMV)

124 Unfortunately, "Iron Sky" was less about a Nazi Moon base and more about how Sarah Palin was an idiot.

It has not aged well( (even a week after it's release it hadn't aged well).

A waste of a great storytelling opportunity.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 09:49 AM (nFnyb)
---
I've been tempted to watch it but something about it always seemed off. I notice Hollywood can come up with good premises and trailers that look like the film will be a laugh riot, but utterly fail in execution. "Renfield" comes to mind.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 09:52 AM (llXky)

125 If you want some fun, read the story of how Shelley wrote it in a friendly competition with Horace Smith

Mark Steyn did a great piece on Ozymandias. I think you have to be a member to view/hear it.

His short pieces on poetry are amazing; I’ve taken to putting them into my on-the-road rotation of music.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at January 07, 2024 09:52 AM (EXyHK)

126 That's just about enough of that.

Posted by: Anita Hoargarth 31.3 at January 07, 2024 09:53 AM (anVPp)

127 I spent the week on the flip-side of reading: writing. I've committed to an on-line course for 2024, weekly video prompts to help keep one on track. The first week was immensely helpful.
During the last couple of years of my husband's illness I kept getting up at four and writing till he woke, but I found I couldn't get my characters in enough trouble! I'd have to quit and start something else. So I have half a dozen half-stories.
This course got my adrenalin going. I now have a production schedule, which so far I've kept to. Okay, only 6 days, but better than I've been doing.

Posted by: Wenda at January 07, 2024 09:53 AM (ApuU/)

128
Yep, there was a crew member dealing. And in Harlan's original Kirk couldn't bring himself to sacrifice Edith Keeler; Spock had to do it. Would have loved to see the original filmed, but, hey, television.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024

***
James Blish said that when he adapted the script for the second batch of short stories, he asked Harlan's permission to use some elements from the non-filmed version. The final scene in the Blish adaptation, no doubt drawn from the alternate script, is much better than even the powerful aired version.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:54 AM (omVj0)

129 Books are placed vertically in my bookcases. I separate the paperbacks from the hardcovers.

Well, of course you do. We aren't animals.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:55 AM (CsUN+)

130 I will allow it to remain profound through the simple expedient of not explaining it.

Fair enough. Will you write my epitaph? I would like to imagine people standing around my headstone nodding and mummering "Yes..." while silently thinking to themselves "WTAF?"

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 09:55 AM (sNc8Y)

131 Fascinating guy. Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow.

I think that's profound but I confess that I actually have no idea what it means.
Posted by: Oddbob

*********

Fruit flies like an old banana...

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 09:55 AM (991eG)

132 Fair enough. Will you write my epitaph? I would like to imagine people standing around my headstone nodding and mummering "Yes..." while silently thinking to themselves "WTAF?"

Here lies Archimedes
Devoted husband
Loving father
Sandworm

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:56 AM (CsUN+)

133 I heard that he trimmed the edges off of his paper maps to save weight. Don't know if that's true, but too cool to debunk. ;-)
Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto

Reading on the Pacific war, Lindbergh made an appearance. Because of his anti-war activities, he was refused a commission, but he went as an advisor, and taught US pilots how to maximize their range by leaning their fuel mixture radically. I believe his methods got them about ten percent farther on a tank, which matters a lot in the Pacific theater

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 09:56 AM (biNg8)

134 Fair enough. Will you write my epitaph? I would like to imagine people standing around my headstone nodding and mummering "Yes..." while silently thinking to themselves "WTAF?"
*
Here lies Archimedes
Devoted husband
Loving father
Sandworm
Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024

***
THIS MUST BE A MISTAKE

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (omVj0)

135 I'm not a Ripperologist but I listen to a lot of podcasts about the White Chapel murders. Something that puzzles me is that 135 years and hundreds of books later people are still writing books about Jack and the murders.
What's left to write about. Every possible suspect has been covered and every angle discussed.
I don't know what's left.

Posted by: Northernlurker at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (AN/rm)

136 119: While it's true that a lot of money rides on the success of their "blue blood" basketball team, that's not why the NCAA took a dive. The actual reason (which you can find if you read between the lines on the investigation) was that *all* black students were getting no-show grades. It was school policy to boost diversity. If the NCAA had started digging into it, the whole diversity culture would have been exposed. So they buried it.

How could someone get a full ride scholarship to a top tier school and not avail themselves of an education?

Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (QBwMV)

137 A waste of a great storytelling opportunity.

Yes. I remember there was one part where it was revealed, without any leadup, that the United States had secretly built a maneuverable military spaceship capable of going to the moon on a whim, disguised it as a satellite. The best part of the movie was when it turned out no nation had really given up on the dream of space flight. I about jumped out of my seat when I saw that ragtag satellite fleet take on Nazi warships in outer space. It was too cool to even care that it was blatant deus ex machina.

There was a decent Downfall parody parody, too. But overall, the whole thing was a mess, an Axis apologetic. Sure, there were evil Nazis on the moon. But we were just as bad, and had no right to defend ourselves because we invaded them by landing on the moon in the first (second?) place.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at January 07, 2024 09:58 AM (EXyHK)

138 He had an extra 80 gallon fuel tank installed in front of the cockpit. He figured he would not use a windscreen for 99 percent of the journey. Single minded.

He had a 200 gallon main tank, the 80 gallon tank, and another 150 or so in the wings. The plane had only one purpose: to cross the ocean non-stop.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 09:40 AM (biNg

That's a lot of fuel tanks. Lindbergh had to constantly monitor and time his fuel consumption for each tank in order to maintain trim for his flight, and for, especially, his landing..

Posted by: mrp at January 07, 2024 09:58 AM (rj6Yv)

139 Thanks to whoever recommended the Pendergast series. I am more than halfway through and enjoy that and both husband and I love the Nora Kelly series.
Besides that we have the Longmire series & statutes Tony Hillerman series again. We have listened to a couple of the Dresden Files books and love that the actor who was Spike in. Buffy reads them- helps long drives go quickly.
Add to that some local (Utah parks) geology books and that’s what we are up to. Swear some of these climate alarmists should visit and look at the millions of years it took for changes.
Happy Sunday all!

Posted by: Paisley13 at January 07, 2024 09:58 AM (ny1NG)

140
Shift tells the story of how the silo came to be, and what happened to the world that drove everyone into the silo.

There was a science fiction book published around the 70s in which the world had entered another Ice Age, cities had gone underground (under ice, actually), and contact with other cities was forbidden. Scientists in one of the cities had determined that the ice age was ending and had contacted scientists in another city to share the findings. They were discovered and exiled to the ice surface. How it ended eludes me at the moment.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:59 AM (xG4kz)

141 How could someone get a full ride scholarship to a top tier school and not avail themselves of an education?

Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (QBwMV)
---
Because they weren't there to learn anything, they were there to party for a while, then get cushy gov't job based on their degree.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 10:00 AM (llXky)

142

John Scalzi is a vile slurper of male reproductive anatomy and should be killed and eaten by Giant Rats of Sumatra...

Posted by: Spiny Norman at January 07, 2024 10:01 AM (XyA/r)

143 31 I'm reading the climax of Deadhouse Gates right now and it's eerily reminiscent of John Wick 4 as a wounded assassin must make his way to a specific location in a city while being pursued by other assassins of his organization that all want his head.

Naturally, Kalam goes all John Wick on his pursuers...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (BpYfr)
----
The plot is a little like The Bourne series?
Author?
Who is John Wick, an author or a character?

Posted by: Ciampino - Another try again at January 07, 2024 10:01 AM (qfLjt)

144 in 2023 Mexico’s hyper-leftist government kept Castro, Inc. on life support, and did so more intensely than any of its other Sugar Daddies. The cost of this largesse to Mexico is unknown. All we know is that 5.4 million barrels of oil were shipped, but no information is available on how much Castro, Inc. has paid

Fuck Mexico
Fuck foreign aid

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:01 AM (lwOKI)

145 >>Unfortunately, "Iron Sky" was less about a Nazi Moon base and more about how Sarah Palin was an idiot.

Yup. Watched it early one morning when battling insomnia. But Udo Kier on a T-rex!

Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 10:01 AM (izj35)

146 How could someone get a full ride scholarship to a top tier school and not avail themselves of an education?
Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (QBwMV)

Now do any degree ending in STUDIES

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:02 AM (lwOKI)

147 Mexico sent us fidel on the granma like the germans did lenin on a train

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at January 07, 2024 10:03 AM (PXvVL)

148 Over 200 FBIers in J6.

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:03 AM (lwOKI)

149 There was a science fiction book published around the 70s in which the world had entered another Ice Age, cities had gone underground (under ice, actually), and contact with other cities was forbidden. Scientists in one of the cities had determined that the ice age was ending and had contacted scientists in another city to share the findings. They were discovered and exiled to the ice surface. How it ended eludes me at the moment.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024

***
That sounds a tiny bit like John Christopher's The Long Winter, about how a new Ice Age affected Britain and the northern lands around the world. But I don't recall underground cities in that one. London and other high-latitude places were abandoned to the ice, and the tropical places around the world were horrifically crowded with refugees.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:04 AM (omVj0)

150 Thanks for the Book Thread, Perfessor!

I will now go up top and peruse the excellent content.

And to think, I had overlooked the Book Thread for years, thinking it was too scholarly. Better late than never! This is a great source of literary knowledge and most excellent recommendations. Thank you for the knowledge!

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at January 07, 2024 10:04 AM (a8Rgt)

151 Well, of course you do. We aren't animals.
Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:55 AM (CsUN+)

*shifty eyes travel to chaotic bookshelves...

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 10:04 AM (OX9vb)

152 The plot is a little like The Bourne series?
Author?
Who is John Wick, an author or a character?
Posted by: Ciampino - Another try again at January 07, 2024 10:01 AM (qfLjt)
---
It's not even remotely like the Bourne series. Just this one section. John Wick is a movie series where an assassin played by Keanu Reaves gets targeted by his former associates and has to kill most of them for his own survival.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 10:04 AM (BpYfr)

153 Picked up my reading this week. I'm about halfway through "A Deadly Education" by Naomi Novik. Imagine a wizarding school that actively tries to kill you before you "graduate". It's Hogwarts on some very nasty steroids.

Posted by: Tuna at January 07, 2024 10:04 AM (oaGWv)

154 141 How could someone get a full ride scholarship to a top tier school and not avail themselves of an education?

Weed.

Posted by: The Choom Gang at January 07, 2024 10:05 AM (NBVIP)

155 Wolfus --

Blish's ending for his adaptation of 'City' for Star Trek 2 did draw on Harlan's epilog.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 10:05 AM (a/4+U)

156 There was a decent Downfall parody parody, too. But overall, the whole thing was a mess, an Axis apologetic. Sure, there were evil Nazis on the moon. But we were just as bad, and had no right to defend ourselves because we invaded them by landing on the moon in the first (second?) place.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at January 07, 2024 09:58 AM (EXyHK)
---
The reason why the "post apocalyptic" genre hold so little appeal for me is that we already know what it looks like: Germany and Japan in 1945. The actual "Downfall" is seriously depressing (well, German cinema, duh).

Given the choice between fiction and the real thing, I generally choose the latter.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 10:06 AM (llXky)

157 Every possible suspect has been covered and every angle discussed.

Donald Trump is elected President and gains access to the time machine at Area 51...

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 10:06 AM (sNc8Y)

158 @Liz_Cheney
·
Follow
Which part of the Civil War “could have been negotiated”? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union? Question for members of the GOP—the party of Lincoln—who have endorsed Donald Trump: How can you possibly defend this?

Look at 1850 compromise.

13th Amend originally sustained slavery.

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:07 AM (lwOKI)

159 >>How could someone get a full ride scholarship to a top tier school and not avail themselves of an education?

IT'S FUNNY BECEAUSE HE'S ALWAYS BEEN THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM!

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Mr. Obama told Patrick Gaspard, his political director, at the start of the 2008 campaign, according to The New Yorker. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISBERGER at January 07, 2024 10:08 AM (izj35)

160 Blish's ending for his adaptation of 'City' for Star Trek 2 did draw on Harlan's epilog.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024

***
Quoted from memory:

"No woman was ever loved as much, Jim. Because no other woman was almost offered the universe for love."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:08 AM (omVj0)

161
Muldoon,
A loving father,
A consummate professional

Walk into a bar...

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 10:09 AM (991eG)

162 >>@Liz_Cheney
·
Follow
Which part of the Civil War “could have been negotiated”? The slavery part?

So I guess this is how they are "BLM-ing" the 2024 election -- making it all about slavery and the civil war.
Yeah, that question to Nikki Haley was sooooo planted.

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISBERGER at January 07, 2024 10:10 AM (izj35)

163 Just finished Deadhouse Gates.

Only 8,463 pages to go in the Malazan Books of the Fallen

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 10:10 AM (BpYfr)

164 Asylum seekers and immigrants from Morocco and Horn of Africa costs the Dutch state €475,000-€625,000 per immigrant.

Coming to a small North American Republic near you.

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:11 AM (lwOKI)

165 *shifty eyes travel to chaotic bookshelves...
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 10:04 AM (OX9vb)

*Declares myself sub-animal. Looks down in shame.

I have tools on some of my bookshelves.

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 10:11 AM (p4/l6)

166 Suggested comic epitaphs:

Excuse My Dust or
This Is On Me
(both Dorothy Parker, I think)

I Told You I Was Sick

On the Whole, I'd Rather Be In Cleveland
(W.C. Fields?)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:12 AM (omVj0)

167 Dang, I'm getting old. Cindy Morgan, aka Lacey Underalls, has passed away.

http://tinyurl.com/2rfdjfen

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 10:12 AM (CsUN+)

168 “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Mr. Obama told Patrick Gaspard, his political director, at the start of the 2008 campaign, according to The New Yorker. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m going to think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

In a sane world, this statement alone should have been enough to guarantee that Barack Obama would never be allowed access to any position of power. To my knowledge, this was never disavowed by Obama or any of his campaign staff.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 10:12 AM (a/4+U)

169 Posted by: BEN ROETHLISBERGER at January 07, 2024 10:08 AM (izj35)

BEN

does seem to get the jokes

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:12 AM (lwOKI)

170 166 Suggested comic epitaphs:

Excuse My Dust or
This Is On Me
(both Dorothy Parker, I think)

I Told You I Was Sick

On the Whole, I'd Rather Be In Cleveland
(W.C. Fields?)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:12 AM (omVj0)

I m feeling much better

Hold My Beer

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 07, 2024 10:13 AM (lwOKI)

171 Here's another question for the Horde: Dust jackets; yea or nay?

I tend to keep my dust jackets, because books that come with them tend to be very plain (or even un-labeled) without them. But, I take off the dust jacket whenever I actually read a book, because the jacket tends to slide around in my grip, and get bent/crumpled if it doesn't remain perfectly aligned with the real cover. This means that at any given time I have a pile of empty dust jackets cluttering one of my shelves....

Posted by: Castle Guy at January 07, 2024 10:13 AM (Lhaco)

172 Donald Trump is elected President and gains access to the time machine at Area 51...
Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 10:06 AM (sNc8Y)

His uncle gave it to him. It's why he's orange and Barron is Trump from a different timeline.

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 10:14 AM (p4/l6)

173 Sounds like Cheney and her fellow democrats know who is abandoning their party

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 10:14 AM (biNg8)

174 In a sane world, this statement alone should have been enough to guarantee that Barack Obama would never be allowed access to any position of power. To my knowledge, this was never disavowed by Obama or any of his campaign staff.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024

***
In a sane world, BHO would never have gotten into Harvard, let alone out of it with any degree. He'd be at best a third-rate ambulance chaser, advertising his storefront practice ("Before you accept a quick check, check with me!") on late-night TV.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:14 AM (omVj0)

175 Wayne Allen Root who was a classmate at Columbia with the exact major and minor as Barky doesn't remember him at all, and says other classmates don't either.
So it's not they are hiding any records as much there isn't any records. Wouldn't doubt his Harvard experience is any difference as he didn't write anything either there it seems.

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 10:15 AM (fwDg9)

176 I have tools on some of my bookshelves.
Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 10:11 AM (p4/l6)

I have a hand cranked grist miss that I use to grind coffee, and three wheat mills of varying manufacture and use.

and the upper shelves of the built-in have objects d'arte and various stabby things on them.

Posted by: Kindltot at January 07, 2024 10:15 AM (D7oie)

177 Just back.

I believe I'm one of the few people who likes both the aired version and Harlan's original script. Go figure.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 09:34 AM (a/4+U)

Any place to find it? I've always heard about it, but haven't read it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 10:15 AM (Angsy)

178 So I guess this is how they are "BLM-ing" the 2024 election -- making it all about slavery and the civil war.

Roger Kimball has an excellent column on the Biden campaign's hysterical attempts to gin up fear about J6 and a Trump coup. The short version is that it isn't working, or rather it's working in the opposite way of that intended. The Bidenites sound so ridiculous that people are mocking them. I hope they keep going with this through the campaign.

http://tinyurl.com/3h4rsxm2

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 10:15 AM (CsUN+)

179 >>Unfortunately, "Iron Sky" was less about a Nazi Moon base and more about how Sarah Palin was an idiot.

Yup. Watched it early one morning when battling insomnia. But Udo Kier on a T-rex!
Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 10:01 AM (izj35)

My read on the Palin character in "Iron Sky" was a bit different. Above all, she was ruthless and unscrupulous in maintaining her power and control. One could say, "Rooseveltian", but not an idiot. And a winner. Since the movie was directed and written by Finns, it had to end with global nuclear war, because that's what Finns dream about when the subject is the United States of America.

Posted by: mrp at January 07, 2024 10:16 AM (rj6Yv)

180
So I guess this is how they are "BLM-ing" the 2024 election -- making it all about slavery and the civil war.
Yeah, that question to Nikki Haley was sooooo planted.

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISBERGER at January 07, 2024 10:10 AM

I believe Liz is referring to extemporaneous comments Trump made yesterday in Iowa.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at January 07, 2024 10:16 AM (3qE2b)

181 Suggested comic epitaphs:

Excuse My Dust or
This Is On Me
(both Dorothy Parker, I think)

I Told You I Was Sick

On the Whole, I'd Rather Be In Cleveland
(W.C. Fields?)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:12 AM (omVj0)

I m feeling much better

Hold My Beer

But I don't want to go on the cart...

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 10:17 AM (CsUN+)

182 Regarding that guilty pleasure, it says a lot about me that the first thing I did was search that cover for the artist's signature. Ooooh, it was drawn by Jim Lee. Nice! And I'll just bet that the writers (obscured by the library's sticker) are Kieth Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis. With that art team (granted, I'm sure Lee only drew the cover) there's even odds that the story within will actually be interesting.

Posted by: Castle Guy at January 07, 2024 10:17 AM (Lhaco)

183 Happy New Year to all. Thank you Perfessor for another excellent Book Thread and thanks to you all for your insights and recommendations.

Last week’s read was Frederick Key’s McMann and Duck. I have to confess that I only bought it because it was recommended here and because it was on sale. The whole idea of a duck as a partner seemed kind of silly but it reminded me of something my father would have liked so I decided to go with it. Somehow it works well and I really liked it. My dad was a WWII vet, (never served overseas due to very bad eyesight) and this story seemed to capture a certain something that I can’t quite put into words about the outlook and attitudes of that generation. As I read it, it almost felt like he was here with me. I would definitely read a sequel and I purchased Key’s Dwindle Peak and Pine with my fingers crossed that it will be as good.

Now working on the last of Josephine Tey's Inspector Grant series, The Daughter of Time. All in all, I've enjoyed the series so far. This one feels a little different as the Inspector is confined to bed due to an injury. I'll just have to see how it goes.

Posted by: KatieFloyd at January 07, 2024 10:17 AM (QARkY)

184 I believe Liz is referring to extemporaneous comments Trump made yesterday in Iowa.
Posted by: Divide by Zero at January 07, 2024 10:16 AM (3qE2b)

If the meme "Human trafficking is slavery" gets big, there will be a lot of review of a lot of rumors

Posted by: Kindltot at January 07, 2024 10:18 AM (D7oie)

185 Final words?

"Pull grenade, throw pin. Got it."

Posted by: PabloD at January 07, 2024 10:20 AM (LrM6w)

186 Here's another question for the Horde: Dust jackets; yea or nay?

One should always keep the dust jacket. It serves a purpose.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 10:20 AM (biNg8)

187 @166 --

Philadelphia, not Cleveland.

Fields hated Philadelphia, the city of his birth.

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 10:20 AM (p/isN)

188
I suppose Liz is upset that Trump was thinking out loud (per usual) about whether the Civil War really had to occur if the correct negotiator (hint, hint) had been in office at the time.

Which might have offended her desire to go to war anywhere, anytime, over anything.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at January 07, 2024 10:21 AM (3qE2b)

189 Here's another question for the Horde: Dust jackets; yea or nay?

One should always keep the dust jacket. It serves a purpose.

If I buy a new book, I remove the dust jacket while reading it, then replace it after I'm done. I don't like unnecessarily frayed dust jackets.

With used books (most of mine), you take what you get.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 10:21 AM (CsUN+)

190 The short version is that it isn't working, or rather it's working in the opposite way of that intended.

(OT for the book thread. Sorry Perfessor.)

I read that. My problem with that statement is that I don't think we can really know how something (a speech, a news event, etc.) affects "them" because "they" simply don't think about things the same way we do. Otherwise, we wouldn't be where we are to begin with. So, I'm hopeful but not optimistic.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 10:22 AM (sNc8Y)

191 Harlan's original for City was published in book form with Harlan's account of the production and alteration of the script. Believe White Wolf did it first, and it was picked up when Open Road Media did almost all of Harlan's books in print and ebook. The script alone appeared in Roger Elwood's anthology Six Science Fiction Plays.

None of these are in print right now, but you should be able to find 'em used without much trouble. The estate will probably arrange reissue of this and other Ellison books later, but I haven't heard anything about a schedule for that yet beyond the DV anthologies.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 10:24 AM (a/4+U)

192
I think Trump took a pot shot at Liz yesterday, now that I recall. He mentioned how badly she got shellacked. Hell hath no fury like a woman that savagely scorned by the electorate.

She's just returning fire.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at January 07, 2024 10:25 AM (3qE2b)

193 Last week’s read was Frederick Key’s McMann and Duck. I have to confess that I only bought it because it was recommended here and because it was on sale.
Posted by: KatieFloyd

Thank you for the review. I've had the Amazon tab open since last week but haven't clicked the button yet.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 10:26 AM (sNc8Y)

194
I finished "Roadside Picnic" on Monday last week.

A great SF novel, which I highly recommend. It won't seem as starkly original as when it first came out, because lots of lesser authors have stolen from it, but still a great read. Read it. Now!

As a capper, I rewatched the movie by Andrei Tartakovsky, which was inspired by "Roadside Picnic", "Stalker" (1979). 45 years later...I still think it blows.

And not because the special effects footage was destroyed in a fire, and AT didn't have the money to reshoot, so he reworked the film into a long late night college bullshit session with pretty pictures. AT is your guy if you're a pretty pictures movie admirer.

AT more or less misunderstands the story and the main character at a fundamental level. I won't say more cuz spoilers. But, if you read then watch, you'll see. One thing I do like, is that he shows one person gaining their innermost desire, which is strictly shown cinematically without dialog or explanation. However, that's an occurrence that's after the original novel and strictly an AT creation.

TL/DR: Read "Roadside Picnic", Skip "Stalker".

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 10:27 AM (nFnyb)

195 @182 --

Castle Guy, did you lose the first graf of this post?

Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 10:28 AM (p/isN)

196 This bookshelf thing is an issue..

Defeating this will be epic. Something struck me with "I have tools on my book shelves".
I also have books on my tool boxes. If I were to...
This first involves getting the camping stuff out from in front of the tool boxes... only place to put that is.. in front of the book shelves..

Okay.. this is going to be harder than I thought.
Move the drum set inside the house. Free up the corner space. Dodge bullets as I make my escape. Put camping stuff in corner...

I give up.

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 10:28 AM (MqEmj)

197 Didn't do as much reading this week as I would have liked. Still working on O'Brian's _Treason's Harbor_, which is a fun Aubrey/Maturin yarn. Very heavy on the espionage side, with some romantic farce and another naval expedition against the Turks.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 07, 2024 10:28 AM (78a2H)

198
I remove a dust jacket while reading its book and restore it to the book when I am finished reading it.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 10:29 AM (xG4kz)

199 >>The trick to getting a free copy of LOTR trilogy is to let everyone you come across know that you want to read it but haven't found time to get a copy and before you know it some old hippie will give you their paperback version with crib notes since they have about a dozen copies. Be prepared for long winded conversations on Gandalf, Frodo, Sauron and The One Ring.

Heh. Now I want to test that out.

I have found that carrying a copy of a Liane Moriarty book is a fabulous conversation starter. Other women will either tell you what a great book it is, or ask you if it's good because they haven't gotten to that one yet.

Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 10:29 AM (izj35)

200
Oh, geez. I should have given proper attribution to the "Hell hath no fury" quote. I paraphrased Harvard President Claudine Gay.

My apologies.

Posted by: Divide by Zero at January 07, 2024 10:31 AM (3qE2b)

201 I have always tried to save dust jackets, removing them while reading and putting back after yet wouldn't say most books still have them.

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 10:32 AM (fwDg9)

202 Now working on the last of Josephine Tey's Inspector Grant series, The Daughter of Time. All in all, I've enjoyed the series so far. This one feels a little different as the Inspector is confined to bed due to an injury. I'll just have to see how it goes.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at January 07, 2024

***
Katie, I won't give anything away, except to say that Tey was a master at making things clear. You know how, when you're reading a history, and someone gets made a duke or a lord and thus his name changes? If you miss the part where he gets the title, suddenly you're going, "Who is this Lord Burghley guy?" Tey avoids that. And she keeps the family relationships of the Plantagenets and the Tudors clear without including a family tree in the book. Amazing.

The final one in the Grant series, and her last published novel, was The Singing Sands. If you haven't read that one, you have a treat in store.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:32 AM (omVj0)

203 Well, off to Mass! Thanks for the thread once again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at January 07, 2024 10:33 AM (llXky)

204 Is this correct. Of course slavery was the cause of our Civil War, but the proximate cause was the question of its expansion to the west, which is where Lincoln initially wanted to draw the line. But why was the South so adamant on expansion?

Idea: Because without killer diseases like yellow fever, the black slave population in the US was increasing. For Simon Legree, black babies were a cash crop that needed a market.

Posted by: Ignoramus at January 07, 2024 10:33 AM (Gse2f)

205 I'm not a Ripperologist but I listen to a lot of podcasts about the White Chapel murders. Something that puzzles me is that 135 years and hundreds of books later people are still writing books about Jack and the murders.
What's left to write about. Every possible suspect has been covered and every angle discussed.
I don't know what's left.
Posted by: Northernlurker at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (AN/rm)

I've dabbled in my fascination with serial killers, and the Ripper murders never really struck me as all that interesting, precisely because it's unsolvable at this point. Even though people keep writing books as if they have.

There are lots of books I could recommend, regarding serial killers, but would probably start with Bill James' "The Man From the Train." Or even his "Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence."

The "Train" book covers a series of murders in early 20th century, that no one else seems to connect, but sure appear to have been one killer. And he names his suspect, in the end! You don't have to go to jolly England to find interesting serial killers. We have plenty of our own.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:36 AM (QBaJw)

206 I've just started listening to Out of the Silent Planet, book one of the Ransom Trilogy.

Posted by: Northernlurker at January 07, 2024 10:36 AM (AN/rm)

207
Hmmm... I thought it was Shakespeare, too
"Hell has no fury"

A proverb that means a woman will make someone suffer if they reject her. The saying is based on a line from the 1697 play The Mourning Bride by William Congreve and has a hypercorrection of "hath" to "has". The saying is often falsely attributed to Shakespeare or the King James Bible

Posted by: Divide by Zero at January 07, 2024 10:36 AM (3qE2b)

208 I'm reading Daughter of Time this week. Just started it, and already she makes some interesting observations about how history can be overwritten.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 10:36 AM (biNg8)

209 When I was single and both my names began with a W, my ideal epitaph was

Here lies W. W.
who will nevermore
trouble you, trouble you

Now that I'm older than dirt I want

Damn!
Just when I was getting the hang of it

Posted by: Wenda at January 07, 2024 10:37 AM (ApuU/)

210 I have found that carrying a copy of a Liane Moriarty book is a fabulous conversation starter. Other women will either tell you what a great book it is, or ask you if it's good because they haven't gotten to that one yet.
Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 10:29 AM (izj35)

Haha, I'll bite. Never heard of Liane Moriarty. Which do you recommend?

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 10:38 AM (OX9vb)

211 Huh?

Weird.

looks like someone tried to make a "Roadside Picnic" TV series in 2016. But, didn't get past the pilot.

Also, looks like they took the idea from "Stalker" so probably blew.

Had the same main guy from "LOST", so they were probably hoping to get in on that kind of action.

Now, they I think about it. LOST could well have been inspired(poorly) by "Roadside Picnic" or "Stalker".

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 10:39 AM (nFnyb)

212 If the meme "Human trafficking is slavery" gets big, there will be a lot of review of a lot of rumors
Posted by: Kindltot at January 07, 2024 10:18 AM (D7oie)

A lot of this is hard to pin down, but there's really no obvious reason why the warmongers hate Trump as much as they do. I can almost see why Democrats do, but the shitholes of the R party don't really have a reason... unless they do.

At this point, I think sex perversions are as good a guess as any. Whether Liz is a sex pervert or not, I wouldn't know, but I'd bet at this point, her dad almost certainly is.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:42 AM (QBaJw)

213 I buy most my books second hand so I get messed up jackets a lot. I use 3m clear tape to fix the edges which basically leads to sort of "binding" the jacket.
I lay it under books flat face up with an edge exposed fix it up as best I can and use about 1 3/8 inch of tape on the face. Get it down smooth and fold the rest over on the back. Do all four sides like that and do the spine are with each and about 2 inches folded over.

My work recently bought a case of the Uline equivalent tape that we can't use nor return. I'm going to try it, see how it works and may just buy the whole case. Way cheaper than the 3m stuff.

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 10:43 AM (v4c60)

214 There are lots of books I could recommend, regarding serial killers, but would probably start with Bill James' "The Man From the Train." Or even his "Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence."

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:36 AM (QBaJw)

The Man From the Train is really fascinating. The thing is, the murders happened early in the 20th century, when local crime was truly local crime. There was no internet to highlight these similar murders and spread hysteria about them far and wide, and no one ever connected them.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 10:43 AM (OX9vb)

215 Idea: Because without killer diseases like yellow fever, the black slave population in the US was increasing. For Simon Legree, black babies were a cash crop that needed a market.
Posted by: Ignoramus at January 07, 2024 10:33 AM (Gse2f)

Any chance for negotiation between the states on the issue of slavery was torn from the hands of legislators (state and federal) with the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. That was the ball game, because the Free States would, under no condition, accept those terms on their own soil.

Posted by: mrp at January 07, 2024 10:44 AM (rj6Yv)

216 Regarding Jack the Ripper stories: In '65, a film called A Study in Terror featured Sherlock Holmes on the trail of the Ripper. I've never seen it. But when the paperback novelization of the film came out, it was a surprise. The Ellery Queen cousins were given the job, and they created a framing story with Ellery Queen, their long-time American counterpart to Holmes. In it, Ellery discovers a long-lost novel-length manuscript by Dr. Watson about Holmes vs. the Ripper. And the "manuscript" sections novelize the film script (done by a ghost writer). Kind of a new take on Holmes and the Ripper.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:44 AM (omVj0)

217 The Man From the Train is really fascinating. The thing is, the murders happened early in the 20th century, when local crime was truly local crime. There was no internet to highlight these similar murders and spread hysteria about them far and wide, and no one ever connected them.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 10:43 AM (OX9vb)

Yep, and it's interesting (though probably less so for the victims) that there appeared to have been more than one axe murder serial killer active at the time! The other ones got more press, because they happened... I think in Nawlins, and maybe Florida(?), whereas our killer focused more of his time and effort in rural middle America.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:46 AM (QBaJw)

218 I told Liz to keep her fat piehole shut!

Our family still has slaves slaving away across the planet right now as I type this. Soon, I will have everyone working at Arby's for minimum wage and a shift meal.

Hahahaha!

Posted by: Dick Cheney, Mastermind On Viagra at January 07, 2024 10:47 AM (R/m4+)

219 Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 10:24 AM (a/4+U)

Thanks, I'll look. Maybe see if a library has it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 10:48 AM (Angsy)

220 195 @182 --

Castle Guy, did you lose the first graf of this post?
Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 10:28 AM (p/isN)

Nope, I was just commenting on my own reaction to the posted cover.

I haven't read that particular comic. But I have read a bit of Giffen and DeMattais's JLI. In fact, the first omnibus of that run (to replace some individual 6/7-issue hardcovers) was one of the last purchases I made last year.

Posted by: Castle Guy at January 07, 2024 10:49 AM (Lhaco)

221 Yep, and it's interesting (though probably less so for the victims) that there appeared to have been more than one axe murder serial killer active at the time! The other ones got more press, because they happened... I think in Nawlins, and maybe Florida(?), whereas our killer focused more of his time and effort in rural middle America.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024

***
Yes, there was a series of axe murders in NO in 1918-1919. Some of the series took place on the West Bank of the river. In the days before there was even one bridge across the Mississippi there, it must have been a challenge for the murderer, "The Axeman," to get around.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:52 AM (omVj0)

222 Some Moron recommended McMann and Duck, Private Investigators by Frederick Key. It's a remarkably good book considering it is about a low rent detective agency consisting of a disabled WWII veteran and a talking duck. It achieves the distinction of solving a mystery that the reader didn't even realize was a mystery because it is hidden in plain sight.

I like to listen to setting appropriate music as I read and as this is set in rural Texas in the early '50s, I chose Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewsboys. I liked them well enough that I looked him up and discovered that he had written a number of mysteries. I have begun the first, Greenwich Killing Time, and am enjoying it. (It is set in the early '80s so I'm listening to Steely Dan.). It is an extremely politically incorrect comedy mystery that, no doubt, was intended to shock back then but is positively radio active today. For example, one of Kinky's cocktails is the Bloody Wetback made with, among other things, Cuervo Gold and tomato juice. (Back in the day, Kinky was awarded Chauvinist Pig of the Year by some rad fem organization based in large part on his song Get Your Biscuits In the Oven and Your Buns In Bed.)

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 10:52 AM (FVME7)

223 Oh, and the "Axeman" case has never been solved.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:53 AM (omVj0)

224 An epithet for my tombstone:

Here below lies Seamus Muldoon
A bigamist fellow from Saskatoon
He died, we all fear
In the spring of the year
When April met both May and June

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 10:53 AM (991eG)

225 If the meme "Human trafficking is slavery" gets big, there will be a lot of review of a lot of rumors
Posted by: Kindltot at January 07, 2024 10:18 AM (D7oie)

A lot of this is hard to pin down, but there's really no obvious reason why the warmongers hate Trump as much as they do. I can almost see why Democrats do, but the shitholes of the R party don't really have a reason... unless they do.

At this point, I think sex perversions are as good a guess as any. Whether Liz is a sex pervert or not, I wouldn't know, but I'd bet at this point, her dad almost certainly is.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:42 AM (QBaJw)

A bit off-topic, but..

Saw "Nefarious" streaming last night on Prime for "free".

Surprisingly good movie and a real punch in the nose for those enamored by Progtard politics. Politics aren't really mentioned at all. The debate between characters focuses on the personal and moral and religious.

The story if you don't know is about a psychiatrist sent to evaluate the sanity a prisoner about to be executed who claims he is a demon. The prisoner tells the psychiatrist that he will have murdered three times before the day is over.

(con't)

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 10:54 AM (nFnyb)

226 @206 Any mystic Christian novel that ends with a buck naked guy ordering a pint in a pub is pretty much Ace's with me.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 07, 2024 10:54 AM (FCs/J)

227
Well, I'm a member in good standing of the International Dickens Society, and this year's selection is Dombey and Son. So that's what I'm reading, and some of it is brilliant, and some of it is treacly garbage. I just can't get over how good and how bad Dickens can be. Anyway, for the next meeting, I'm bringing Bourbon balls. Drink, eat, and talk about Dickens! No onesie-wearing snowflakes in our group, but we do have an autistic 20-something guy who wears zoot suits.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 10:54 AM (lCaJd)

228 And speaking of Bill James, I just checked his website to see what's what, because "Train" is the last book he wrote (2017).

He says he's closing down his website, that his health is fine, but that he's closing it down to... focus more time on writing books!

Get to it then, Bill. And frankly, I'd be ok if you strayed away from baseball, and took on other projects, like your two crime books.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:54 AM (QBaJw)

229 If I'm remembering correctly, Liane Moriarty wrote a great novel about a cultish leader of a retreat who used unorthodox methods (LSD!) to get her couples to break down their inhibitions and talk. You thought you knew the character types at the outset but they really ended up surprising you.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 10:55 AM (+RQPJ)

230 >>Haha, I'll bite. Never heard of Liane Moriarty. Which do you recommend?

Any of them, I'd guess.
They've made tv miniseries out of "Nine Perfect Strangers" and "Big Littles Lies" so those ones are popular, but I haven't read 'em yet. I have enjoyed "The Last Anniversary," "What Alice Forgot," and "Truly Madly, Guilty."

Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024 10:55 AM (izj35)

231 (Back in the day, Kinky was awarded Chauvinist Pig of the Year by some rad fem organization based in large part on his song Get Your Biscuits In the Oven and Your Buns In Bed.)

A few election cycles back, he ran for TX governor with the best campaign slogan ever: "Why the hell not?" He still lost.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 10:56 AM (sNc8Y)

232 No onesie-wearing snowflakes in our group, but we do have an autistic 20-something guy who wears zoot suits.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 10:54 AM (lCaJd)
--

Just imagine what some of us are wearing in this august book thread!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 10:56 AM (+RQPJ)

233 Santa brought Mrs D the book "Bake" by Paul Hollywood of the British Baking Show.
I've been scanning it and I can see a lot of flour getting tossed around the kitchen soon.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 07, 2024 10:57 AM (W/lyH)

234 (con't)

Anyway...the p[risoner makes the claim that there are 40 million human slaves worldwide,

Furthermore, that half of those 40 million slaves are sex slaves.

which I found shocking, but have no idea if that's true or not. Anyone have the figures on that?

In any event, check out "Nefarious". It's like "My Dinner With Andre" only without dinner and with a horrifying serial killer.

Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (nFnyb)

235 For those reading Tey's "Daughter of Time"-a truly excellent book- you might want to look for the British film, "The Lost King". It's about the search for Richard III 's place of burial. Very entertaining.

Posted by: Tuna at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (oaGWv)

236 They've made tv miniseries out of "Nine Perfect Strangers" and "Big Littles Lies" so those ones are popular, but I haven't read 'em yet. I have enjoyed "The Last Anniversary," "What Alice Forgot," and "Truly Madly, Guilty."
Posted by: Lizzy at January 07, 2024

***
I think I've read Strangers. The HBO miniseries of BLL I watched because of Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley being in it -- and I got a solid surprise in the plotting (no spoilers).

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (omVj0)

237
Yes, there was a series of axe murders in NO in 1918-1919. Some of the series took place on the West Bank of the river. In the days before there was even one bridge across the Mississippi there, it must have been a challenge for the murderer, "The Axeman," to get around.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming

It is puzzling that no one thought to check hotel logs around Lake Itasca, Minnesota for signs of the murderer. After all, that journey was hardly a day trip in length.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (xG4kz)

238 In another thread there was a question of what poem(s) to memorize. Discussion went nowhere.
Posted by: Taro Tsujimoto at January 07, 2024 09:17 AM (5YmYl)

Wish I'd been there. I used to do this a lot as a young mom, to keep the brain busy. Tape a copy of something on the kitchen window and learn it while washing dishes.

"A poem should be palpable and mute, as a globed fruit.
Dumb, as old medallions to the thumb..."

Nice furniture for the mind.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (fDjFn)

239 Yes, there was a series of axe murders in NO in 1918-1919. Some of the series took place on the West Bank of the river. In the days before there was even one bridge across the Mississippi there, it must have been a challenge for the murderer, "The Axeman," to get around.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 10:52 AM (omVj0)

Yes, and James mentions those killings, mostly to demonstrate how clearly they were not part of the "Train" series of murders. As some other more modern writers have tried to lump the Nawlins murders with the others, he makes it quite clear how different they were.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (QBaJw)

240 Furthermore, that half of those 40 million slaves are sex slaves.

which I found shocking, but have no idea if that's true or not. Anyone have the figures on that?

In any event, check out "Nefarious". It's like "My Dinner With Andre" only without dinner and with a horrifying serial killer.
Posted by: naturalfake at January 07, 2024 10:58 AM (nFnyb)

Crowder, who ALWAYS tells people to check his references, which I don't, has made similar claims, based on what I accept as reliable data.

The claim is: There has never been more slavery on the planet than there is now... it's just generally not white people doing the enslaving.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:00 AM (QBaJw)

241 I have read two mystery novels, Monk's Hood and The Leper of Saint Giles by the late Ellis Peters. they are part of the Brother Cadfael series, wherein the 12th century Crusader-turned-Benedictine herbalist discovers who did it. Monk's Hood gets Cadfael involved when a pain reliever using the titular herb is used as an ingested poison. The widow of the murdered man is Cadfael's old flame before he took the Cross and life separated them. Drama ensues! For the second one, an inherited marriage is interrupted when the baron bridegroom is strangled on the morning of his wedding. The murder seems an open and closed case, but Cadfael isn't convinced since the circumstances don't add up. M. Peters did her homework, as the 12th century comes alive while reminding us that the human condition is eternal.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (W+kMI)

242
Just imagine what some of us are wearing in this august book thread!
Posted by: All Hail Eris

============

Haha, you made me look down. Wow, I hope no one I know comes to the door right now.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (lCaJd)

243 @140 Robert Silverberg's "Time of The Great Freeze"?

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (FCs/J)

244 227
Well, I'm a member in good standing of the International Dickens Society, and this year's selection is Dombey and Son. So that's what I'm reading, and some of it is brilliant, and some of it is treacly garbage. I just can't get over how good and how bad Dickens can be. Anyway, for the next meeting, I'm bringing Bourbon balls. Drink, eat, and talk about Dickens! No onesie-wearing snowflakes in our group, but we do have an autistic 20-something guy who wears zoot suits.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 10:54 AM (lCaJd)

I read Dombey and Son in high school, and my 16 year old self loved it. I remember it dragging in bits and being engrossing in others, but I just assumed that's how books are!

Posted by: Moki at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (wLjpr)

245 42 The Spirit of St Louis was built to his specifications, held 500 gallons of fuel, and had a single window in the door; it had no forward visibility other than a periscope.

Why did he use a periscope and not just a windshield? As long as the latter was complete, I don't imagine it would have affected the drag much compared to a solid wall.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 07, 2024 09:20 AM (CsUN+)
----
Weight. No plastic then so glass, which is heavy.

Posted by: Ciampino - Another try again? at January 07, 2024 11:02 AM (qfLjt)

246 Hiya Moki !

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 11:03 AM (T4tVD)

247
@140 Robert Silverberg's "Time of The Great Freeze"?
Posted by: Way, Way Downriver

That is the book! I had Silverberg kind of slotted as the author, but no title to go with it.

Thanks!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 11:03 AM (xG4kz)

248 On other readers' notes:
Bought a used copy of Larsson's "In the Garden of the Beasts", In which the notes can be summed up as "TRUMP!!" and lots of anarchy symbols.
It did detract from the reading pleasure.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:04 AM (fDjFn)

249 Just imagine what some of us are wearing in this august book thread!

********

Or not!

(take that either way you prefer)

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 11:05 AM (991eG)

250 Vic @9,
I have tried on now.four different occasions to read LOTR.
Nope.
No way.
It just doesn't make sense.
$16 would buy a Big Mac...and maybe a small fries.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 07, 2024 11:05 AM (W/lyH)

251 It's been nice chatting alone amongst y'all.

Endeavor to persevere!

Posted by: Muldoon at January 07, 2024 11:06 AM (991eG)

252 If you are a bit of a showoff and you want to recite a poem aloud, The Bells by Poe is just the poem for you. It's like Dr. Seuss for grownups.

Posted by: huerfano at January 07, 2024 11:08 AM (Q4KYm)

253 Later Muldoon !

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 11:08 AM (T4tVD)

254 250 Vic @9,
I have tried on now.four different occasions to read LOTR.
Nope.
No way.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 07, 2024 11:05 AM (W/lyH)

Took me fifty years, with about 7 or 8 starts. So it's off the List.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:09 AM (fDjFn)

255 I'm not a Ripperologist but I listen to a lot of podcasts about the White Chapel murders. Something that puzzles me is that 135 years and hundreds of books later people are still writing books about Jack and the murders.
What's left to write about. Every possible suspect has been covered and every angle discussed.
I don't know what's left.
Posted by: Northernlurker

I think Abraham Lincoln faked his death and went on to become Jack the Ripper.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 11:10 AM (FVME7)

256 they are part of the Brother Cadfael series, wherein the 12th century Crusader-turned-Benedictine herbalist discovers who did it.

I read a few of those several years ago. As much as I like Derek Jacoby, the PBS dramatizations were very, very pale reflections of the books.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 11:10 AM (sNc8Y)

257 199 >>The trick to getting a free copy of LOTR trilogy is to let everyone you come across know that you want to read it but haven't found time to get a copy and before you know it some old hippie will give you their paperback version with crib notes since they have about a dozen copies. Be prepared for long winded conversations on Gandalf, Frodo, Sauron and The One Ring.

Heh. Now I want to test that out.
----------
Great, now I've become an old hippie Tolkien fan, and me not even retirement age yet.

I was smiling at Vic getting his version for $16, which made me smile because my parents got me the trilogy sequentially, in the first Ballantine U.S. printing, as I read through them. They must have paid $10 total including tax for them. Still have them too, although they are much worn.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:10 AM (W+kMI)

258 Just imagine what some of us are wearing in this august book thread!
Posted by: All Hail Eris

============

Haha, you made me look down. Wow, I hope no one I know comes to the door right now.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (lCaJd)
***

Turn the fan on!

Posted by: Diogenes at January 07, 2024 11:11 AM (W/lyH)

259 I have tried on now.four different occasions to read LOTR.
Nope.
No way.
It just doesn't make sense.
$16 would buy a Big Mac...and maybe a small fries.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 07, 2024 11:05 AM (W/lyH)

Loved the story, hated the reading part with the heat of 1000 suns. Every step the little bastards took would take 3 pages to describe every frigging molecule of their existence.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at January 07, 2024 11:12 AM (VwHCD)

260 I haven't read LOTR since I was 11 or 12, but I remember really enjoying it.

I'm not a fiction reader anymore, though. So I might not like it as much as an adult.

*shrugs*

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 07, 2024 11:12 AM (0FoWg)

261 Since this year is shaping up into who knows what, I'm mentally assembling a list of Escape Fiction.

I'm also reading those Classics I've never gotten around to, and avoiding modern popular fiction.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:13 AM (fDjFn)

262 31 I'm reading the climax of Deadhouse Gates right now .......

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 07, 2024 09:16 AM (BpYfr)
----
Author?

Posted by: Ciampino - Another try again & again at January 07, 2024 11:14 AM (qfLjt)

263 256 they are part of the Brother Cadfael series, wherein the 12th century Crusader-turned-Benedictine herbalist discovers who did it.

I read a few of those several years ago. As much as I like Derek Jacoby, the PBS dramatizations were very, very pale reflections of the books.
======
The BBC did its best with what it was given, as always. But the books will always win for giving the full experience of immersion in Shropshire, with the vibrant life of Shrewsbury, the routine and cloister politics of the Abbey, and the relationship of the Norman-ruled English and the stilll resentful Welsh.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:14 AM (W+kMI)

264 I think Abraham Lincoln faked his death and went on to become Jack the Ripper.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 11:10 AM (FVME7)

I don't expect to find an answer in this lifetime, but I am genuinely curious how many and who amongst the rich and powerful faked their own deaths.

It shows up in books/movies, but how many times, in real life?

As I have stated several times before, my #1 candidate right now is Jeff Epstein.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:14 AM (QBaJw)

265 Hey, I was FIRST and beat Sponge!!!

Posted by: Ciampino - What do you know at January 07, 2024 11:16 AM (qfLjt)

266 Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (W+kMI)

Yes, the Cadfael series is one of the best. The BBC did an excellent adaptation, with Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. It's available on Amazon.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:16 AM (fDjFn)

267 I finally finished LOTR in Somalia. I was really, really bored and had finished all the Zane Grey and Mack Bolin novels.

Posted by: Reforger at January 07, 2024 11:16 AM (v4c60)

268 I'm not a fiction reader anymore, though. So I might not like it as much as an adult.

*shrugs*
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 07, 2024 11:12 AM (0FoWg)

In the limited time I have to read, it seems a "waste" to spend it on fiction. Or, if I'm going to take in fiction, I can get the gist of a story in a movie or (limited) teevee series.

Last night I watched "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane," which is based on a book. It's an interesting little film, starring a very young Jody Foster, and Martin Sheen. Well worth watching... but a book about it? Forget it.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:17 AM (QBaJw)

269 I think the old maxim about living in interesting times affects literature, too. With the last 125 years or so being what they've been... how can a fiction writer top that?

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 07, 2024 11:17 AM (0FoWg)

270 Sabrina Chase: I didn't buy your new one but added The Bureau of Substandard Annual Report to my Kindle.

Didn't read much this week. A couple of chapters of The Name of the Rose and I got to within a hundred pages of the end in Small Town Talk (the one about the Woodstock NY music scene)

Posted by: who knew at January 07, 2024 11:17 AM (4I7VG)

271 LAUNCHES
SpaceX - Falcon 9 - Starlink Group 6-35
Launch time: Window opens on
Sunday, January 7th: 4 p.m. EST (2100 UTC)
https://shorturl.at/jmPU9

SpaceX - Falcon 9 - Starlink Group 7-10
Launch time: Approx. January 7th/8th:
9 p.m. to 1:27 a.m. PST (12:00-4:27 a.m. EST)
https://shorturl.at/fryJV

ULA - Vulcan Centaur VC25 - Cert-1 -
SLC-41 - Cape Canaveral SFS
Launch time: January 8th: 2:18 a.m. EST
https://t.ly/_C_nv

Posted by: Ciampino - This is a reminder at January 07, 2024 11:17 AM (qfLjt)

272 Every step the little bastards took would take 3 pages to describe every frigging molecule of their existence.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at January 07, 2024 11:12 AM (VwHCD)

"And we're walking... and walking...and walking..."

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:18 AM (fDjFn)

273 I love saying "plinththththth".

There's a nice one in Banff. Used to belong to Scott ffolliott.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 07, 2024 11:18 AM (FCs/J)

274
I read Dombey and Son in high school, and my 16 year old self loved it. I remember it dragging in bits and being engrossing in others, but I just assumed that's how books are!

Posted by: Moki

===========

I haven't read it before, so don't spoil me, but I'm getting to a real good part, where tables are turning and a villain's plot is slowly coming to fruition. Some of Dickens's villains go away disappointed but unpunished, kind of an interesting treatment.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:19 AM (lCaJd)

275
I don't expect to find an answer in this lifetime, but I am genuinely curious how many and who amongst the rich and powerful faked their own deaths.

It shows up in books/movies, but how many times, in real life?

As I have stated several times before, my #1 candidate right now is Jeff Epstein.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024

***
In the days before an ID being required just to breathe, and before forensic science (e.g., fingerprints, dental records, and blood typing) became a thing, faking your own death and assuming a new identity might not have been all that difficult.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 11:20 AM (omVj0)

276 I read Dombey and Son in high school, and my 16 year old self loved it. I remember it dragging in bits and being engrossing in others, but I just assumed that's how books are!

Posted by: Moki at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (wLjpr)

You haven't read any of my books, then. I hear they aren't very good.......

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 11:20 AM (Angsy)

277 Greetings! I once read a book titled How to Disappear and Never be Found. Some of the processes were dated I think the book came out in the 1970s. It was a paperback of about 200 pages or so. I read it in an afternoon, but I have no idea why. It had some cool concepts in it, like how to change your gait, which is like a fingerprint. Of course the usual stuff about changing your appearance, leaving your own blood at a crime scene, etc.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 11:20 AM (MeG8a)

278 With the last 125 years or so being what they've been... how can a fiction writer top that?

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 07, 2024 11:17 AM (0FoWg)

"A Tale Of Two Cities."

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 07, 2024 11:20 AM (gSZYf)

279 Finished Winged Victory; The Army Air Forces in World War II by Geoffrey Perret.

Very good book pitched at my level. Summarizes the entire war's effort well, from hard-driving leaders, the equipment used, and the logistical effort needed for all the power to be used.

This is a warts and all book, and there were plenty of stories where, not even in hindsight, the Air Force made mistakes.

A big takeaway was the real reason the US won the bombing campaign verses Germany was not the precision bombing before the Oil Campaign and the Transportation Campaign of 1945, but the fighters. Once the P-47s and then the P-51s were given sufficient range, the attrition of the German Air Force was more than they could withstand. The bombers were the bait to get the Luftwaffe to fly.

Lots of insights in this book. Similar in style to his book There is a War to Be Won on the US Army in WWII, which is in my library.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:21 AM (u82oZ)

280 Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (W+kMI)

Yes, the Cadfael series is one of the best. The BBC did an excellent adaptation, with Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. It's available on Amazon.
Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:16 AM (fDjFn)

That is an excellent series and now I’m looking up the books. I had no idea there were so many Cadfael books.

Posted by: Rufus T. Firefly at January 07, 2024 11:21 AM (hEv4o)

281 Good Morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:21 AM (u82oZ)

282
In the limited time I have to read, it seems a "waste" to spend it on fiction. Or, if I'm going to take in fiction, I can get the gist of a story in a movie or (limited) teevee series.

Posted by: BurtTC

============

Oprah discovered that when she was looking for contemporary fiction for her Book Club and gave up. She changed to picking time-proven classics.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:22 AM (lCaJd)

283 Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:21 AM (u82oZ)

Good morning, NaCly! Mission accepted!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at January 07, 2024 11:22 AM (OX9vb)

284 I can't stand to buy a book with someone else's notes. Or underlining, either. I lose track of the text because I'm distracted by wondering "Why did they underline that?" and "How could you not understand that part?" or "What the hell is that note supposed to mean?"

My copy of Mattingly's _The Armada_ had lots of dumb annotations and underlinings in pencil, so I finally went in with a big pink eraser to clean it up.

Posted by: Trimegistus at January 07, 2024 11:22 AM (78a2H)

285 "A Tale Of Two Cities."
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

Oh.

Cities

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 11:22 AM (T4tVD)

286 I have three editions of LOTR in four versions. The first is the Ballantine paperbacks, which were the Official Authorized Version, with preface to that effect by the Professor. Those have the Tolkien watercolor scenery covers, very nice! I have a reprint of a later edition with the Darrel K Sweet covers, which is my "loaner" copy. I have the anniversary edition c. 1999, with cover and interior plates by Alan Lee. I have the original 3-volume boxed set, although the pasteboard box is long gone. Some years later CPT Charles gifted me with the 3-in-1 omnibus version of that edition, which can be used to bash intruding goblins if the Oxford English Dictionary isn't on hand.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:23 AM (W+kMI)

287 Vertical. Put little strips of cardboard under the pages to save the binding.

Finished Hans G. Schantz' 'Hidden Truths' books, found them to be excellent, and urge him to get cracking on the next one. Stat.

Perfesser, you may wish to look up M.A.R. Barker and his Tekumel books. He did some world building along the same lines of what you are describing back a few decades ago. He wasn't a terribly good writer, though. The books are a slog...

Posted by: Brewingfrog at January 07, 2024 11:23 AM (aJmA5)

288 I was up late reading that Perret book, but one sentence in that book begged to be expanded. Evidently Arnold was not a good team player, and hated the demands from the US Navy and the head of the US Army, Marshall. Explains a lot.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:24 AM (u82oZ)

289 Last night I watched "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane," which is based on a book. It's an interesting little film, starring a very young Jody Foster, and Martin Sheen. Well worth watching... but a book about it? Forget it.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:17 AM

The book, in my opinion, was much, much better. I hated what Hollywood did to it.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at January 07, 2024 11:24 AM (2y1EH)

290 If you are a bit of a showoff and you want to recite a poem aloud, The Bells by Poe is just the poem for you. It's like Dr. Seuss for grownups.

A year or more ago, someone mentioned "The Bells" and I commented about an NPR production that included a dramatic reading by Rene Auberjonois and two others. It isn't on Youtube but I found this article with some info about it.

https://renefiles.com/facts-biography/reviews/stage/poe/

Unfortunately, the link it mentions isn't there. If anyone with better Google-fu than I can find it, please post it.

Posted by: Oddbob at January 07, 2024 11:25 AM (sNc8Y)

291
Oprah discovered that when she was looking for contemporary fiction for her Book Club and gave up. She changed to picking time-proven classics.
Posted by: Blonde Morticia

============

Well, I just looked at her 2023 and 2024 picks, and it looks like she's changed back. Her nonfiction picks are predictably dreary and woke. Becoming, by Michelle Obama. Thanks, I'll watch Frasier reruns.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:25 AM (lCaJd)

292 I am genuinely curious how many and who amongst the rich and powerful faked their own deaths.

-
There is some fairly good evidence that Czar Alexander I faked his own death in order to surrender the throne and live as a monk.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 11:26 AM (FVME7)

293 Reading the version of Darkness at Noon that came out a few years ago after Koestler's original was supposedly discovered.

Prefer the old version, but there's not that much difference.

I'm fascinated by what he was trying to convey with the "grammatical fiction" since I thought he was an atheist.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at January 07, 2024 11:26 AM (Dm8we)

294 Brewingfrog

I remember Tekumel as a role-playing game in competition with D&D. IT was a bit far out for most players.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:26 AM (u82oZ)

295
"And we're walking... and walking...and walking..."
Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum

It helps to hum "Marching to Pretoria" as you read those parts.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 11:26 AM (xG4kz)

296 266 Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:01 AM (W+kMI)

Yes, the Cadfael series is one of the best. The BBC did an excellent adaptation, with Derek Jacobi as Cadfael. It's available on Amazon.
====
I might be able to afford it on Amazon. Barnes & Noble prices import videos to be unaffordable to hoi palloi.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:27 AM (W+kMI)

297 "It means GREAT EVIL!"
Meh. Read more about Lindbergh.

His wife was the kinky one, though. He may have been into National Socialism, a little; I suspect he was just honey-trapped.

She liked Mussolini, a lot. Thought he was the Wave of The Future. Enough of this democracy and Little Guy stuff -- and, she was from a "diplomatic background," as well.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 07, 2024 11:27 AM (FCs/J)

298 Read Tolkien in high school, when I was devouring all the f&sf I could lay my grubby adolescent mitts on, and devouring much of it too fast. I remember almost none of it, which is the case with a big chunk of my reading from them days except for a few writers like Heinlein, Bradbury, and Sturgeon.

Wish I still had the copies, though -- they were the Ace Books editions, done before Ballantine got the rights to do the authorized edition here -- wonder if they'd be worth any $$$ now.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 11:28 AM (a/4+U)

299 Time to sort through my tottering tower of TBRs.

Have an excellent day, ultramaroons!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 11:29 AM (+RQPJ)

300
If you are a bit of a showoff and you want to recite a poem aloud, The Bells by Poe is just the poem for you. It's like Dr. Seuss for grownups.

============

Precisely! The Dr. Seuss similarity has been noted by others.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:30 AM (lCaJd)

301 I have always wanted to read Walkabout, the premise at least starting is different than the movie.

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 11:30 AM (fwDg9)

302 In the days before an ID being required just to breathe, and before forensic science (e.g., fingerprints, dental records, and blood typing) became a thing, faking your own death and assuming a new identity might not have been all that difficult.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 11:20 AM (omVj0)

And going back to the serial killers question, given how few females were violent serial killers (there are plenty of poisoners, including medical personnel), Belle Gunness stands out in many ways. She was a large woman, who could kill adult men violently. And did.

And... SHE FAKED HER OWN DEATH!! Got away with it too, dying peacefully many years after she'd killed her family and burned down the house.

Belle is way more interesting than The Ripper... or Aileen Wuornos, for that matter.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:31 AM (QBaJw)

303 Have an excellent day, ultramaroons!
Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 11:29 AM (+RQPJ)

Backatcha Eris !

Posted by: JT at January 07, 2024 11:31 AM (T4tVD)

304 294 Brewingfrog

I remember Tekumel as a role-playing game in competition with D&D. IT was a bit far out for most players.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:26 AM (u82oZ)
----

I remember seeing ads for Empire of the Petal Throne in Dragon and it looked Elricish and freaky.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at January 07, 2024 11:32 AM (+RQPJ)

305 The book, in my opinion, was much, much better. I hated what Hollywood did to it.
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at January 07, 2024 11:24 AM (2y1EH)

I will have to take your word for it.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:32 AM (QBaJw)

306 @290 The folk music setting of The Bells bells bells bells bells bells bells, by Phil Ochs of THE Ohio State University, is searchable on YT. Best damn thing he ever wrote, and his brother in law was a hell of a guitar player.

We usually dip one toe into Poe-try, after we like him as a horror or detective author. He's writing poetry in a different world from ours, and mos def in a really different world of his own, but once you're floating out there with him, he is the damnedest technical poet you'll find in English. All sorts of syllable counts and rhyme schemes adapted from Greek that nobody else ever used. What a pest, you might say.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at January 07, 2024 11:34 AM (FCs/J)

307 I am currently reading, but have not finished, The First Fast Draw by Louis Lamour. (Finishing his lengthy catalog is on my bucket list.) It's a different one, since Lamour has set aside his usual Southwest environs for SE Texas in the time of Reconstruction. The MC is an ex-Confederate guerilla and drifter who comes home to find a carpetbagger moving in on the family farm which has been neglected since his father's death several years earlier. Naturally he doesn't like this, and events are set in motion towards the "first fast draw". This was written after Lamour's decision to put some actual history in his stories, and it shows. Bill Longley shows up in a supporting role.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:34 AM (W+kMI)

308 There is some fairly good evidence that Czar Alexander I faked his own death in order to surrender the throne and live as a monk.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 11:26 AM (FVME7)

I'm sure I've read that somewhere.

Now, if anyone these days claims any members of Nicholas' family survived, that the killers let Anastasia or any of the others get away, they're just wrong. None of them survived.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:35 AM (QBaJw)

309 I would speculate that a lot of these people who are illegally entering the US are engaged in becoming a new identity. Indeed the litter seen on the other side of what used to be the border includes discarded passports and other forms of ID.
They are starting over with new names, date of birth, etc. And the US taxpayer is helping them every step of the way.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 11:36 AM (MeG8a)

310 Thought I read somewhere that The Day of the Jackal included something close to a course in establishing a fake identity. Haven't read the book, so I can't say.

You'd think it's a lot harder now, but given the number of people wandering around and getting work without any real verification of their identities, maybe not. Richard Kimble may not be shafted after all...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 11:36 AM (a/4+U)

311 AW don't think ever read that about Alexander I, usually after my interest yet starting to get into the Decembrists history so may come across that sometime.

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 11:37 AM (fwDg9)

312 298 Read Tolkien in high school, when I was devouring all the f&sf I could lay my grubby adolescent mitts on, and devouring much of it too fast. I remember almost none of it, which is the case with a big chunk of my reading from them days except for a few writers like Heinlein, Bradbury, and Sturgeon.

Wish I still had the copies, though -- they were the Ace Books editions, done before Ballantine got the rights to do the authorized edition here -- wonder if they'd be worth any $$$ now.
========
That's the version with the surreal covers, which tells the reader damn-all about the story. That and the one paperback edition o The Hobbit[ where the cover features two ostriches in front of a solitary mountain. I had a chance to buy the whole Ace set used some time ago and passed on it. D'oh!! Would like to have it just to own it.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:39 AM (W+kMI)

313 BurtTC

The Soviets got away with a lot of killing.
Wish we taught about the real nature of Communism, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (u82oZ)

314 Well, suppose I should go face what we laughingly call the real world.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (a/4+U)

315 It helps to hum "Marching to Pretoria" as you read those parts.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM)

With Peruvian marching powder.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (FVME7)

316 I often listen to a podcast called Most Notorious. The host interviews the authors of true crime books. For instance he's interviewed two have written books with dramatically different perspectives on The Black Dahlia murder.

Posted by: Northernlurker at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (AN/rm)

317 A brief summary of the aforementioned book How to Disappear...
Have a nice car, abandon it somewhere so it looks like you've been car jacked. Toss some of your own blood around.
Abandon all financial assets, credit cards, etc. You are now a cash only person.
Change your appearance. Grow hair if your were bald, shave your beard if you had one. Put a stone in a shoe to change your gait.
Get a cash only job. Maybe crew on a freighter.
Never contact anyone from your past life.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 11:41 AM (MeG8a)

318 Now I've begun "The Rhinemann Exchange" by Robert Ludlum. I had vowed to read this last year. Oh, well.

The description on the inside jacket leaf: The U.S. and Nazi Germany each has something that the other wants for their war efforts. They cut a trade deal, under tight security. God forbid their allies find out.

I'm barely into the book, but it looks as if it's going to have a lot of buildup. Will the exchange itself be humdrum? Stay tuned.
Posted by: Weak Geek at January 07, 2024 09:06 AM (p/isN)

I remember reading that, many years ago. And I have totally forgotten everything but the title. It must have made a great impression on me!

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 07, 2024 11:42 AM (tkR6S)

319 Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 07, 2024 09:24 AM (xG4kz)

It was called The Barn by Piers Anthony. I very much wish I'd never read it, and that was over 30 years ago. The worst bit is the narrator musing at the end about how
'Sure, they used humans as literal cattle, but they never went to war with each other, so waa it *really* right to judge them?'

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 07, 2024 11:42 AM (nC+QA)

320 The Soviets got away with a lot of killing.
Wish we taught about the real nature of Communism, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (u82oZ)

It's terrifying to realize, the people who are brainwashing the youngsters now, presumably know about the mass murders, and somehow teach the "principles" of marxism without ever talking about that side of it.

I do believe a loss now in this area of our political and cultural war, will result in killings, the likes of which the world has never seen before.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:42 AM (QBaJw)

321 307 I am currently reading, but have not finished, The First Fast Draw by Louis Lamour. (Finishing his lengthy catalog is on my bucket list.)
Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:34 AM (W+kMI)

His memoirs are worth reading. He had a very interesting life which he chronicled in "The Education of a Wandering Man", if you haven't seen it.
Mr S is a huge Lamor fan and brought that home.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 07, 2024 11:43 AM (fDjFn)

322 Ellis Peters also wrote a series of mysteries set in (her) current day. I like Cadfael, though I think Jacobi was poor casting, but I think the other series is better.

She also wrote under Edith Pargeter. Not sure of the spelling. One novel had a title something like The Murder of Margita. Not a modern setting.

Posted by: Wenda at January 07, 2024 11:43 AM (ApuU/)

323 Or put them under your vertical books on saggy shelves.
Posted by: fd at January 07, 2024 09:39 AM (vFG9F)

That's what I do. Even sturdy upper shelves need extra support sometimes.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 07, 2024 11:44 AM (nC+QA)

324 Never contact anyone from your past life.
Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 11:41 AM (MeG8a)

Or, you could be like my ex, and just get some other dumb schmuck to take you in.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 11:44 AM (QBaJw)

325 OT - if you haven't seen it find Tucker's interview with Clay Higgins from yesterday, it is worth your time

Posted by: DanMan at January 07, 2024 11:45 AM (8uzBS)

326 310 Thought I read somewhere that The Day of the Jackal included something close to a course in establishing a fake identity. Haven't read the book, so I can't say.

You'd think it's a lot harder now, but given the number of people wandering around and getting work without any real verification of their identities, maybe not. Richard Kimble may not be shafted after all...
====
The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, and The Dogs of War discuss forgery of ID and assuming different identities a great deal. Good spy/covert thriller fiction takes some time to survey those sorts of things, because Official Identification is the real shibboleth of post-WW II First World. Functionaries rarely question it, so a convincing false ID & an identity to support it is important!

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:46 AM (W+kMI)

327 BurtTC

Head on a swivel, have a plan, and OPSEC on that plan.

Time for chores.

Have a great day, everyone. May your reading illuminate and entertain.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:47 AM (u82oZ)

328 Forsyth was a stringer for Mi 6when he worked af reuters

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at January 07, 2024 11:50 AM (PXvVL)

329 Then there is the little matter of getting new ID. The old "steal a social security number from a dead person" ruse may still work, I've no idea. I've wandered thru open air urban scenes where people could sell phony IDs of all kinds. Hell, CA will issue you one that says NOT VERIFIED right on it making them a major counterfeiter.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 11:51 AM (MeG8a)

330 Or, you could be like my ex, and just get some other dumb schmuck to take you in.
Posted by: BurtTC
______________

Now she's someone else's problem, and I'm finally free
From all the daily heartache and night time misery
Troubles, they're all over, she's just a memory
Someone else's problem, that's all she is to me

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at January 07, 2024 11:51 AM (Dm8we)

331 Wish we taught about the real nature of Communism, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (u82oZ)

There is some great literature that does an admirable job of it.

Yet I doubt Solzhenitsyn is read in a single American high school.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 07, 2024 11:51 AM (gSZYf)

332 Thought I read somewhere that The Day of the Jackal included something close to a course in establishing a fake identity. Haven't read the book, so I can't say. . . .

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024

***
I reread it for the first time in decades during the Sniffle Scare. The Jackal uses the time-honored method of finding a male child who died at a very young age in a rural area, writing for its birth certificate, then using that to apply for new identification. (Remember, this is set during DeGaulle's time as French president, around 1960.) He has other identities set up too, as I recall, some by using illegal channels most of us would not know about.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 11:52 AM (omVj0)

333 Incidentally, I find it interesting that the website where I found this picture features 7 coolest libraries in the world, 6 of which are found in Europe. Hmmm...

How long before the muzzies trash them? Nothing more sad than a CLOSED sign on a library.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 07, 2024 11:53 AM (W/lyH)

334 321 307
His memoirs are worth reading. He had a very interesting life which he chronicled in "The Education of a Wandering Man", if you haven't seen it.
Mr S is a huge Lamor fan and brought that home.
====
Mr S is undoubtedly a reader of quality work. I don't own Education of a Wandering Man, but I got it out of a library once. The writer lived his work, and he did any number of exciting things before deciding that writing was a better way of making a living. Lamour's brief boxing career had a true impact on him though, since any one of his stories takes a pause when a fistfight occurs. But that makes them just as important as the gunfights, since the display of skill rules all in most things that happen in his stories.

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 11:53 AM (W+kMI)

335 Then there is the little matter of getting new ID. The old "steal a social security number from a dead person" ruse may still work, I've no idea.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 11:51 AM

That's why you should report deaths to SSA, Tell them the person is deceased, that should cancel the number. They don't get re-issued from what I've read.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 11:54 AM (Angsy)

336 On point.

Police have finally nabbed this "master of disguise" after a four-year manhunt
A fugitive felon who was dubbed the "master of disguise" by the FBI for having more than a dozen aliases has been arrested in California following a four-year manhunt.
Tyler Adams, 51, was nabbed in Newport Beach, Calif., and is now scheduled to be extradited to Hawaii, where he escaped state custody in 2019.
. . . .
He had also already served a seven-year stretch in California "for using his mother and father's identities to run up more than $3 million in debt." So he knows his way around fraud.

http://tinyurl.com/mryxza5u

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 07, 2024 11:55 AM (FVME7)

337 There is some great literature that does an admirable job of it.
Yet I doubt Solzhenitsyn is read in a single American high school.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 07, 2024 11:51 AM (gSZYf)

Yup....after the USSR was dissolved, it should have been mandatory in High Skool to learn why and the horrors of communism. The course should have been named "The Failure And Horrors Of Communism, Or How I Learned To Love The Bomb".

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 07, 2024 11:57 AM (R/m4+)

338
Yup....after the USSR was dissolved, it should have been mandatory in High Skool to learn why and the horrors of communism. The course should have been named "The Failure And Horrors Of Communism, Or How I Learned To Love The Bomb".

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 07, 2024

***
Will Hieronymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 11:59 AM (omVj0)

339 Wolfus- I read Tey's The Singing Sands a few weeks ago. It was a great story that kept me guessing a long time. I especially like the way she writes her characters. They all have their faults, some large, some small. She describes them so perfectly and they seem like people we now in real life. For example, there was one whom she described as whatever he did, even if it was something good, was always "a little bit off."

Now that I'm finishing the series, I'll have to look up her other works. I recall reading Bratt Farrar back in the 80's after the PBS Mystery program featured it but I see there are more. Sigh... So many books, so little (free) time...

Posted by: KatieFloyd at January 07, 2024 11:59 AM (QARkY)

340
Read Tolkien in high school, when I was devouring all the f&sf I could lay my grubby adolescent mitts on, and devouring much of it too fast. I remember almost none of it, which is the case with a big chunk of my reading from them days

=============

I think a lot of high schoolers read that way, and it's probably how it's supposed to be. You just gobble books like mad in your youthful energy and unconsciously develop a palate for plot and above all, prose. By the time you settle down to reading attentively and analytically, you know a little more of what you're doing.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at January 07, 2024 11:59 AM (lCaJd)

341 Time to handle some chores, nap a bit, and then tackle a few more chores in the afternoon. Later, all! Perfessor, thanks for another great Book Thread!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 12:00 PM (omVj0)

342 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at January 07, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

343 All Hail Eris:
Just imagine what some of us are wearing in this august book thread!

Pants! We are all wearing pants!

Posted by: who knew at January 07, 2024 12:01 PM (4I7VG)

344 Wolfus- I read Tey's The Singing Sands a few weeks ago. It was a great story that kept me guessing a long time. I especially like the way she writes her characters. They all have their faults, some large, some small. She describes them so perfectly and they seem like people we now in real life. For example, there was one whom she described as whatever he did, even if it was something good, was always "a little bit off."

Now that I'm finishing the series, I'll have to look up her other works. I recall reading Bratt Farrar back in the 80's after the PBS Mystery program featured it but I see there are more. Sigh... So many books, so little (free) time...
Posted by: KatieFloyd at January 07, 2024

***
Sands is one of the best "low-key" mysteries ever written. Character is important throughout, and her people are indeed memorable, even down to Old Yoghurt the train conductor.

Yes; Brat Farrar is grand, and her The Franchise Affair and Miss Pym Disposes are terrific. None of them have Grant in them, but you don't miss him. She only wrote nine novels, I think. There should have been more.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 07, 2024 12:03 PM (omVj0)

345 Yep, saddest part of Sunday morning again. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 07, 2024 12:04 PM (Angsy)

346 320Posted by: NaCly Dog at January 07, 2024 11:40 AM (u82oZ)
It's terrifying to realize, the people who are brainwashing the youngsters now, presumably know about the mass murders, and somehow teach the "principles" of Marxism without ever talking about that side of it.
====
I have stood amazed at the brazenness of the Leftards in denying history, especially since the end of the Cold War which forced them to pay lip service to it. But I really shouldn't be, since allowing them to say "Killing Fields didn't happen" and "Holodomr didn't happen" must lead to "Holocaust didn't happen" and possibly "Trail of Tears didn't happen". "We have always been at war with Eastasia."

Posted by: exdem13 at January 07, 2024 12:05 PM (W+kMI)

347 Horizontally is best. Storing books vertically is structurally hard on the bindings. Do I store them horizontally? No. Like the Perfessor, I only do so when their physical format demands it.

Quite obviously, the nature of book shelves almost demands side-by-side stoage organization. Moreover, although not universally true, titles are generally printed left-to-right across the spine, and reading those titles on stacked books becomes a chore.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 07, 2024 12:06 PM (XeU6L)

348 I'm not a bit surprised to find out that penguins are Nazis.
Posted by: fd at January 07, 2024 09:48 AM (vFG9F)

Although they are very poor at goose-stepping.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 07, 2024 12:11 PM (tkR6S)

349 Solzhenitsyn is tough to read. You read about his transition from loyal comrade to an imprisoned nobody. He believed in the system and it tried to destroy him. I'm struggling reading him right now.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 07, 2024 12:14 PM (MeG8a)

350 How could someone get a full ride scholarship to a top tier school and not avail themselves of an education?
Posted by: p0indexterous at January 07, 2024 09:57 AM (QBwMV)

If the school will give you the credentials without the necessity of working for them, why not?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 07, 2024 12:17 PM (tkR6S)

351 Posted by: BurtTC at January 07, 2024 10:46 AM (QBaJw)

Interesting. I just finished my Kindle compilation of Arsene Lupin stories and the last novella included an episode featuring a *female* French axe murderer.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 07, 2024 12:26 PM (nC+QA)

352 Weight. No plastic then so glass, which is heavy.
Posted by: Ciampino - Another try again? at January 07, 2024 11:02 AM (qfLjt)

Oh, they had celluloid, alright, and I expect it could be made in clear panes. Fire hazard, of course, but then so is 500 gallons of avgas.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 07, 2024 12:38 PM (tkR6S)

353 Polliwog--

Did you like the Arsene Lupin stories? I've seen a couple of movies based on them and have enjoyed those so I'm wondering if the stories are as good (or better as is often the case).

Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at January 07, 2024 12:51 PM (FEVMW)

354 Posted by: Art Rondelet of Malmsey at January 07, 2024 12:51 PM (FEVMW)

I usually listened to them while going to sleep, but then "re-wound" the bits I'd missed after going to sleep. That means I'm probably not the best judge as to over all quality. They definitely varied a lot, and (as is the problem with compilations) continuity issues are more obvious than when a series is spread out more.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at January 07, 2024 01:09 PM (nC+QA)

355 I received the last of my book orders from last year, but first started reading Dean Koontz's The Taking which I bought for 53 cents at a charity shop. The blurb sounds like that Julia Roberts flick currently streaming somewhere.

My goal is to read 52 books this year.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at January 07, 2024 01:45 PM (jnWAu)

356 I used to work in a bookstore, so although we didn't display books horizontally, the "look" of the shelf was important. When we had 4 or more of a certain book, it was supposed to be displayed faced out, which is a nice visual thing that breaks up the shelf *and* has the advantage of when people are looking for something popular, the book we have multiple copies of is usually the one that it is. At home, I have some books stacked horizontally - some of it is the look, and some of it is to save space, especially with mass market paperbacks. If I have a stack of old Stephen King books on the shelf stacked horizontally, that's a less of the shelf that gets devoted to him. If I have a series, it's easy to stack horizontally and see them all there, but you only get the advantage if they stack taller than the height of the books.

Posted by: Katja at January 07, 2024 02:13 PM (GDvjU)

357 This was a very good piece (on a very good book blog) about culling a library. The author is someone who works with books professionally, so he's bringing a lot into his house all the time. The article is very good, but a commenter suggested building a "Little Free Library" outside for books that one doesn't necessarily want to keep.

http://tinyurl.com/y6bu2myv

Posted by: Katja at January 07, 2024 02:17 PM (GDvjU)

358 can't stand to buy a book with someone else's notes. Or underlining, either.
Posted by: Trimegistus

I'm the same. I buy a lot of used books, because older books are generally much better, but I won't buy one with notes or underlining.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 02:37 PM (+YXoM)

359 NaCl Dog and Eris, I really ought to go and check things before writing. A quick perusal of the Wikipedia says that M.A.R. Barker was a Professor of Indo-Languages, and in his spare time hung around with some Insurance salesman nut named Gygax. One thing led to another...

I merely remembered the books an old College pal had, 'Man of Gold' and 'Flamesong.' Though this fellow was an extensive gamer, even he considered the 'Empire of the Petal Throne' system and mythology too complex to fiddle around with. IIRC, he had the boxed game set, but it is now lost to time.

Posted by: Brewingfrog at January 07, 2024 02:55 PM (aJmA5)

360 An idea for future book thread: books that need to be read, like those that used to be required in high school (Atlas Shrugged, Farenheit 451, 1984), and/or books you buy spares of in order to give to others so they will read them.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 07, 2024 03:09 PM (+YXoM)

361 99 That’s correct. Ellison wrote a book containing his original script where he spends a lot of time attacking Roddenberry, which is typical Ellison. I liked both versions. The screen version was the best Star Trek episode ever but Ellison’s was even better, though it did go outside what was acceptable for the show.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at January 07, 2024 03:58 PM (hsWtj)

362 Greetings - late to the thread. What do you do with old text books? There seems to be no market, and I'm loathe to just trash them.

P.S. Blonde Morticia please provide more detail on your current wardrobe! ;-)

Posted by: Late Sleeper at January 07, 2024 04:23 PM (q5zhN)

363 357 - Katja, I'm getting a 404 Not Found error on that tinyurl for the post on culling a library. Got a full url on that one? Or the name of the blog/writer?

Thanks.

Along that same line, Joseph Epstein's 'Books Won't Furnish a Room,' about his attempt to trim his personal library, is fun too.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 04:37 PM (a/4+U)

364 357 -- Never mind. TinyURL was just having a brainfreeze.

Thanks.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at January 07, 2024 05:12 PM (a/4+U)

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