Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-28-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, get ready for the County Fair next weekend, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

I found today's pic as the header image on this article: The Strange Affliction of 'Library Anxiety' and What Librarians Do to Help

I'm not a librarian, but I do work in a library at a university. I wonder if the librarians upstairs have ever encountered library anxiety among students...I know I will be teaching freshman in a few weeks and I do want them to become comfortable with using the library resources available to them on campus. They will need them to do serious research in their engineering fields. Large universities may have multiple libraries for different disciplines, making it even more confusing for students to find what they need.

7 SIGNS YOUR CHARACTER IS A MARY SUE

"Mary Sues" are among the most reviled characters in literature, though they keep cropping up again and again. I suspect they mostly occur in fan-fiction where the author wants to insert themselves into a story but doesn't quite know how to make it believable. The term "Mary Sue" comes from a character in a Star Trek fan-fiction story where she's an impossibly talented, charismatic, awesome young woman that everyone loves aboard the starship Enterprise. She uses her improbably skills and abilities to save the ship when the main Power Trio fails. It was written as a parody, but it was based on material that the author kept seeing in other Star Trek fan fiction at the time.

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(HT: Both pookysgirl and CBD sent me this pic shamelessly stolen from Powerline's Week in Pictures. Hordemind is real--and it's spectacular!)

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ORIGINS OF CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

Why do we have chapters in books? For some reason, this question crossed my mind recently. Fortunately, we live in an age where almost any question can be answered by typing it into a search engine. It didn't take long to find an article that gave me at least a partial answer.

It turns out chapters in books have a very long, distinguished history. Even the earliest authors liked to break up their writings into sections.

For nonfiction books, chapters--along with sections and subsections--help the reader to navigate the text to find *exactly* the right information they need. For instance, the Horde-authored book The Deplorable Gourmet breaks down the contents into different categories of recipes, such as desserts, breads, sides, main courses, etc. Each of those chapters is further sub-divided into smaller subsections, such as cakes, pies, cookies & brownies, ice cream, and other in the "Desserts" chapter. Because of this organization, it's really easy to find a particular type of recipe when planning a meal.

In fiction, chapters can serve an organizational purpose, but they also serve to break up the narrative into manageable "chunks" for the reader. They also signal that the POV character may be changing, or there will be a significant change of scene for the main POV. Or an important transition in the plot is occurring. It can be a bit jarring when reading a novel that doesn't have chapters because we are so conditioned to expect them. For instance, Richard Kadrey does not use chapters in his Sandman Slim series, though he does have section breaks. Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are also lacking chapters for the most part, though there are a few that do have chapters, such as Going Postal, which introduces a new main character to the series.

Chapters can be long or short, depending on the author. Dean Koontz tends to have fairly short chapters in his books, as he likes to have rapidly shifting points of view in the story so that the reader can see the story play out from the POV of the heroes and villains simultaneously. The longest chapter that I ever encountered is found in Robert Jordan's A Memory of Light, the last book in the Wheel of Time series. "The Last Battle" is fully 190 pages long in the hardcover edition, probably longer in the paperback editions. This makes sense, though, as it's the culmination of the events of the first thirteen books in the series. And while it's a long chapter, the extraordinary pacing makes it feel much shorter. Once you reach that chapter, you just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

Personally, I love chapters in books because of how I read. I tend to read in spurts, so a few chapters here, a few chapters there. Chapters are great break points for me and I can close the book and walk a way for a bit before coming back to the book and continuing the story.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

As Paris looked forward to hosting the 1889 world's fair, her citizens were horrified at the ungainly metal structure slowly materializing near the Champs Elyeeses. Eiffel's Tower by Jill Jonnes captures an event that marks the birth of the modern world. Gustave Eiffel, the man who designed and built the structure that supported the statue of liberty, was building a monument for the fair, but it insulted the sensibilities of Parisians. It was designed as a temporary structure, but with the advent of radio, it was the world's best antenna, and so it stayed, and eventually became a beloved landmark. The fair itself was the coming out party for modern technology and history as entertainment, with Edison introducing the phonograph, and Buffalo Bill bringing the American west to Europe. Jonnes captures the era of the fair quite well, describing the spectacle, as well as the engineering and aesthetic challenge that Eiffel's tower had to overcome. If you enjoyed Devil in the White City, you will like this one as well.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 21, 2024 09:13 AM (7+jIt)

Comment: There's no question that the Eiffel Tower is THE icon that represents Paris today, regardless of what Parisians think of it. Though smaller versions of it have been erected elsewhere, such as in Paris, Texas. I had the opportunity to walk around the Eiffel Tower when I was just a wee squirrel. It's BIG. It's also a fascinating engineering marvel, a giant erector set.

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This week I read The Ocean and the Stars, by the magnificent Mark Helprin, who is easily my favorite fiction writer. You may know him from A Soldier of the Great War, Winter's Tale, and Memoir from Antproof Case, amongst other excellent novels.
It is the story of a small Patrol Coastal ship, the USS Athena, and its Captain, who is an old school Naval officer with integrity and bravery who does the right thing, always, and ends up suffering greatly for it.
To say that Helprin writes beautifully is a colossal understatement. I felt true joy reading this novel, just enjoying the prose, though it is a tough, sometime bloody story.
First paragraph:
"Snow falling upon water makes a sound so close to silence that no heart exists it cannot calm. It fell across the Chesapeake and in the harbors and inlets and far out to sea, surrendering to the waters with the slightest exhalation and a muffled hiss. Though few are there to see it, in winter this happens often."
Just wonderful. Highly recommend.
Posted by: Sharkman at July 21, 2024 09:28 AM (/RHNq)

Comment: Great prose never goes out of style. That's one reason why the classics *become* classics--terrific prose. The Captain sounds like a man of honor who is serious about adhering to his own particular code, regardless of what others may think. I love stories with these types of characters because they often find themselves faced with moral dilemmas that put their personal code to the test. How they respond marks them as a hero to be admired and respected, worthy of being a leader.

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When I was 15, I read Red Storm Rising, and to this day I consider that the best novel I have ever read, bar none. No, it is not objectively better than the world's great literature, but that one book to me showed me what a great novel could be. So it blew open the doors of fiction for me and I began reading novels left right and center to the detriment of grades. My HS grades were atrocious but I read, all the time. Just nothing that was required for school. Yes, to open the book, Tom Clancy tips his hat to Larry Bond. Not exact, but he states that his name does not appear on the cover but it is his book as much as it is mine.
Oh, and Larry Bond's Red Phoenix and Vortex are awesome reads as well.
Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 21, 2024 10:51 AM (8sMut)

Comment: I think all of us have a book in our past that serves as the doorway to great literature, even if that book may not be itself considered "great." Much of literature appreciation is going to be subjective and what one reader absolutely LOVES, another reader is going to LOATHE. I read a number of epic fantasy stories when I was that age and I consider them to be among my top-tier picks for best fantasy literature ever written, though your mileage may vary. We all bring our own biases and prejudices into our reading experiences.

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.

The Forgotten Realms - The Harpers Book 14 - Stormlight by Ed Greenwood

Ed Greenwood is the creator of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons. He's written several novels in the series, exploring the lives and histories of some of the non-player characters he's created for that setting. This one deals with Storm Silverhand, one of the legendary Seven Sisters who are among the Chosen of Mystra, goddess of magic. Storm is tasked with investigating a series of bizarre mysteries in a remote fortress in the kingdom of Cormyr, which isn't too keen on having her there. In the process, the story goes from a police procedural into a full-on cosmic horror story as the entity behind the murders goes on a killing spree that threatens the entire kingdom. Here we get to see just *why* most people are terrified of the power wielded by a Chosen of Mystra, as Storm engages in an epic spell-slinging battle against a foe that may be beyond her abilities. I'm not a huge fan of Greenwood's writing style, but I admit I was not bored at all. It's action-packed, fast-paced, and engaging fluff.

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 4 - Lost Souls by Dean Koontz

At the end of the third book in the series, Victor Frankenstein is defeated and all members of the New Race he created were destroyed. Unfortunately, he planned for this contingency and unleashed Victor Immaculate, a clone of his original self that seeks to improve upon Victor's original plan. At it's core, this book is Frankenstein meets The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The heroes of the first three books are now called back into action to stop Victor 2.0 before he can finalize his insane plan. They travel to a small Montana town to find out it's been taken over by the New Race along with a group of otherworldly horrors... As is typical of Koontz, there is at least one dog and also a mentally disabled man who struggles to do the right thing. It's also pretty clear that this is a story that was cut into two pieces so it could be published as two different books.

The Forgotten Realms - The Harpers Book 15 - Finder's Bane by Kate Novak & Jeff Grubb

Novak & Grubb wrote Azure Bonds, a novelization of the classic computer game Curse of the Azure Bonds. One of the characters in that story, Finder Wyvernspur, ascended to godhead and now one of his priests must go on a quest to save the god before he can be destroyed by Bane reborn, the re-incarnated god of strife and tyranny. Unlike Stormlight, which featured a very high-level protagonist who was a one-woman army of mass destruction, this story features low-level characters off on their first grand adventure. Naturally, they encounter a host of problems, such as being kidnapped and nearly sacrificed to Iyachtu Xvim, Bane's godson (in the literal sense). Along the way, they meet up with a bird-winged woman who is also a Spelljammer, and they end up in Sigil, City of Doors. This story is a bit unusual in that it features at least three different Dungeons and Dragons campaign settings: Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer, and Planescape (my personal favorite just for its *weirdness*).

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein Book 5 - The Dead Town by Dean Koontz

This is it--the final battle for humanity takes place in a small town in semi-rural Montana. One side, we have small bands of heroes who must struggle to survive against a horde of strange monsters that threaten to consume them. On the other side, a New New Race of beings created by Victor Immaculate (or Victor 2.0) whose plans for humanity are far, far darker than mere eradication.

I don't know what Koontz's politics are nowadays as it's possible that Trump broke him just like Trump broke Stephen King. However, back in 2011, Koontz was clearly not a Leftist. The plot for the villains is the most extremist Leftist position imaginable. He also seems quite sympathetic towards the lifestyle of an average semi-rural Montanan.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 07-14-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Principle Skinner has his eye on you, so watch it!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 08:59 AM (fwDg9)

2 Wolfus Aurelius:

Not sure if you saw my answer to your question/comment in last week's book thread. Yours was #123, my answer to you and Quarter Twenty was #438.

Okay, I need to get out the door. Have a great book thread everyone!

Posted by: Grumpy and Reccalcitrant at July 28, 2024 08:59 AM (O7YUW)

3 Yup.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 28, 2024 09:00 AM (zdLoL)

4 Besides dutifully called em
Reading well into a biography of Lenin by Dimitri Volkogonov

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 09:00 AM (fwDg9)

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

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:00 AM (zudum)

6 I no read this week.

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 28, 2024 09:01 AM (gbOdA)

7 Read "I Am Spock," as a follow up to IANS. A lot of repeated material in it, but it was still fun to read. There is new information given about old points, and some new material concerning the third season, and what he went through before the series was cancelled. We can see the back house shenanigans and underhanded dealings from the studio. One incident in particular seemed to rile him. Apparently, he found out years later that Paramount hadn't paid him for use of his image for five years, as they were contractually obligated to do. He saw a billboard in London with his caricature selling beer. That led to a lawsuit from Nimoy, which ended up being settled because of.... Star Wars.

Even though a ST movie was in the planning stage prior to its release, the success of SW put it into high gear. So, I guess I have a movie - a series of movies - that I've never seen and have no interest in watching, to thank for the revival of Star Trek, although, for the OS stuff. I've seen a couple of the NG movies, but stopped after Kirk was killed off. Most likely, I believe, because the PTB don't like Shatner.

con't.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 09:02 AM (0eaVi)

8 con't.

Nimoy repeats stories about how he kept getting offers for work that wanted Spock, not him. He covers the third season of ST that he didn't speak of in the previous book. The only thing was that a lot of his stories were covered in other ST books such as The Making of Star Trek, and Star Trek Lives, so it wasn't new or earth shattering at the time this book was published.

He did delve deeper into other projects he had after the show ended, and the work he did between the movies. He definitely had a full life and career, which he does attribute to Star Trek and Mr. Spock. He did end with a story he told in the first book, but, that's a minor quibble. Recommended if you like Trek, or want to see what an actor's life was like.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 09:02 AM (0eaVi)

9 Oh, wanted to start saying where from
E-book about 550 pgs of text, 732 total with bibliography

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

10 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I love how you worked in the plug for The Deplorable Gourmet, Perf.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 09:03 AM (OX9vb)

11 A spoiler: "The Spy in the Ointment" by Donald Westlake centers on a plot to destroy the U.N. Building with a truck bomb. I'm all in favor of getting rid of the U.N., but not by explosives. The bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City is still too close to me, in terms of both time and distance. Westlake was still alive at the time of the Murrah blast; I wonder about his reaction.

This book has cemented a new resolve in me to read as many Westlake books as possible -- and not just those with Dortmunder and Parker. He's already well-represented in my TBR lists, but there are more.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 28, 2024 09:04 AM (p/isN)

12 I am reading Gambling With Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis by Martin J. Sherwin, who co-wrote the Oppenheimer book American Prometheus

Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Kruschev, Castro- everybody's there

Posted by: Don Black at July 28, 2024 09:05 AM (/7KEl)

13 ...I began reading novels left right and center to the detriment of grades. My HS grades were atrocious but I read, all the time. Just nothing that was required for school.

Why does this sound familiar to me...?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 28, 2024 09:05 AM (FnneF)

14 I re-read Only The Dead by Jack Carr. Carr always delivers a good thriller and this is no exception. I decided to re-read this while on the library's wait list for Carr's new book in The Terminal List series, Red Sky Mourning.

Posted by: Glenn Mackett at July 28, 2024 09:05 AM (pmNv2)

15 Wolfus --

If you haven't turned up a copy of Charles Beaumont's THE INTRUDER, I just might be able to do something for you there. You can cobble my email together from my nic.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 09:05 AM (q3u5l)

16 Good morning again morons and thanks perfesser

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 09:06 AM (JvZF+)

17 Re Westlake

THE AX and THE HOOK are not to be missed.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 09:06 AM (q3u5l)

18 Kaylee the Calico Kitty Cat (the cutest little cat of them all) says, "Hello!" and wishes she could read so that she could make meaningful contributions to the Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at July 28, 2024 09:08 AM (BpYfr)

19 Posted by: Weak Geek at July 28, 2024 09:04 AM (p/isN)
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How about knocking it over into the East river?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 09:09 AM (JvZF+)

20 >>>I think all of us have a book in our past that serves as the doorway to great literature, even if that book may not be itself considered "great."

I had two like that: "Huckleberry Finn" and "Around the World in 80 Days." Haven't read either one in years, but can still quote large portions of them from memory.

Posted by: Dr. T at July 28, 2024 09:09 AM (jGGMD)

21 This is continuing from past reads of Russian Revolution, Gulag Archipelago, Devil and Karl Marx, Koba the Dread ( biography of Stalin) The Moscow Show Trials of the 30
( hope didn't forget any)

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 09:09 AM (fwDg9)

22 I've watched quite a few Abbie Emmons vids. Seems she knows what she's doing.

I sort of get irritated at the twenty-something girls who post "how to write" videos, who barely look like they're out of high school. How can a kid show an old man like me to write effectively? Even if they are published, how do you know they're not just published because of check box syndrome?

Don't get me wrong, people like Abbie Emmons has good material. There are a couple of others I watch as well. Can't think of their names right now, and I'm off somewhere in a minute.

Perf, how about a section on "who gives good writing advice online?"

Anyway, back later.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 09:10 AM (0eaVi)

23 The first stories that really jumped out at me were probably from Edgar Allen Poe. So much import in so few words.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:11 AM (+Cixn)

24 I do think saying what form the book is important to some who might be interested

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 09:11 AM (fwDg9)

25 @17 --

The used-book store that I patronize has about eight hardback copies of "The Ax." And the blurb I read about "The Hook" sounds intriguing.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 28, 2024 09:12 AM (p/isN)

26 so I finished two books of note this week, both recommended.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (AOtD, Neil Postman) and The Mysterious Mr Quin (MMQ, Agatha Christie). AOtD is a rumination from 1985 on the way television is altering (destroying?) our culture by changing our reliance on words to a dependence on images. Not dissimilar to the origin of the printing press, which changed from a transitory oral to a more permanent written version. Obviously, there's more to it than that.

It's been a while since I read any Agatha Christie, but I got started down a rabbit hole on harlequins. Apparently the Harlinquinade used to be a major trope in drama, but was dying out in the early 1900's. MMQ is a series of short stories, much more substantial than I remembered AG's Marple or Poirot stories. FWIW, the harlquin theme also shows up in Dorothy Sayer's Murder Must Advertise.

Posted by: yara at July 28, 2024 09:13 AM (TPDHd)

27 I think T.H. White was my gateway into "literature" as opposed to just reading whatever I could get my hands on. When I think of some of the "middle reader" books I was getting out of the school library at the same time that I was starting to tackle _The Once and Future King_, it almost makes me shudder.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 09:14 AM (78a2H)

28 Beginning in 2012, foreign born people, primarily from islamic countries, became the majority in London. Surprising only the elite policymakers, as this occurred, assaults began to skyrocket, and the trajectory of the UK began to change. In The Strange Death of Europe, Douglas Murray recounts and analyzes the flawed policies that are traumatizing Europe, and offers a glimpse into the future of the United States as well.

For decades, European leaders have pushed immigration for their countries, often with the thinnest of excuses. An aging population must be supplemented, economic growth will result, or that immigres will assimilate no matter which culture they come from. Murray gives all of these the lie, proving that unfettered third world immigration always increases crime, increases the welfare rolls, and undermines the culture. He provides example after example in each country of the exploitation of both immigrants and the native population. In fact, if the goal of European leaders was the destruction of western civilization, they could hardly choose a better method. In this book Murray gives a highly documented series of proofs that this policy destroys a country.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:14 AM (+Cixn)

29 @19 --

That's what the truck bomb is supposed to do. Seems that an expressway goes underneath the building.

Channeling the late Dick Martin: "I did not know that!"

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 28, 2024 09:15 AM (p/isN)

30 Reading "Sea People" about the Polynesians. Several islands were discovered and then they liked those islands so much, they quit navigating. Hawaii and Aowawawawawa (New Zealand, sometimes the author insists on using the Polynesian name, which I cannot always remember in full). The Maori in the latter switched to making vast shore hugging galleys.
Europe' s role was interesting. We found the Solomons and the Marquesas in the 1500s and... forgot them. Just as well in the Marquesas case; the author likens the Spanish behavior to "Aguirre The Wrath Of God". These got re-found in the 1700s.
Amazingly Hawaii was not found by Europe until Cook in the 1700s.

Posted by: Boulder Terlit Hobo at July 28, 2024 09:16 AM (Q+LSV)

31 That 1979 first Star Trek movie was a crime and my buddies beat the hell put of me for making them see it. $5 wasted!

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 09:16 AM (JvZF+)

32 I re-read Larry Correia's Tower of Silence recently, since the next book in the series is due this November. It was originally supposed to be a *trilogy* but his editor thought otherwise, and the upcoming book 5 is only the first half of the conclusion. Correia made a comment much earlier in the process about 'that's why she (the editor) gets paid to do that'.

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 28, 2024 09:18 AM (FnneF)

33 This past week I've mostly been reading travel books and cookbooks. I'm thinking of going to southeastern Asia so I'm looking for a good guide. Seems like all the big guide series (Lonely Planet, Frommers, etc.) are basically identical and (to my mind) overly superficial. Anybody know of a good writer who spent time in that part of the world?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 09:18 AM (78a2H)

34 I have started three or four separate books this week, and kept interested in none of them.

This House of Brede by Rumer Godden--boring me to tears. There may be another time when I want a soothing, quiet read that I might pick up again and enjoy it.

The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham...eh, I might finish it. I was on the porch swing reading and nearly fell asleep.

As The Ash Fell by A J Powers. Just not sure if I'm interested in this yet.

So, I downloaded an 87th Precinct (Eighty Million Eyes) and finished that in less than 24 hours.

Not sure where I want to go this week.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 09:21 AM (OX9vb)

35 That was weird. My nick changed to my real name in post 14.

Posted by: Zoltan at July 28, 2024 09:21 AM (pmNv2)

36 @31 --

Concur.

My college roommate and I saw it and were thoroughly bored. Went back to our room and saw the TOS episode "Court Martial." Much more entertaining.

And I hate the red uniforms.

Posted by: Weak Geek at July 28, 2024 09:21 AM (p/isN)

37 Got to Star Trek in under 10 comments this morning. ST is taking over Tolkein in comment saturation.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 09:23 AM (OX9vb)

38 But if it weren't for Mary Sue characters none of the chubby white pony tailed DEI girls would have been inspired to join the Secret Service and become girlbosses. And learn how to holster a sidearm.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 28, 2024 09:23 AM (dg+HA)

39 That was weird. My nick changed to my real name in post 14.
Posted by: Zoltan at July 28, 2024 09:21 AM (pmNv2)
===

We know.

Posted by: Bob from NSA at July 28, 2024 09:24 AM (JvZF+)

40 My gateway book into great literature was 'Treasure Island" which I read in second grade. Fortunately, it was an edition with the NC Wyeth illustrations. (His painting of Blind Pew still scares me a bit.) Even though I needed a dictionary for some of the words the power of the writing kept me at it. It was a huge leap up from the classroom level reading we had. (Too simple and boring.) It was the book that made me want to read ahead of my grade level. That continues.

Side benefit: Treasure Island established my love of maps and nautical charts. (Don't get me started on the maps in LOTR. It was like water offered to a parched mouth.)

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:24 AM (zudum)

41 Bookzzzz

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 28, 2024 09:24 AM (3sOEP)

42 Got to Star Trek in under 10 comments this morning. ST is taking over Tolkein in comment saturation.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 09:23 AM (OX9vb)
====
Fascinating.

Posted by: Mr. Spock at July 28, 2024 09:25 AM (JvZF+)

43 I've sung the praises before of "Over My Dead Body: the Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955" by Lee Server. Worth checking out for the lurid covers and hilarious titles, but the accompanying history of the cheap paperback is terrific.

This is how I envision our Horde writers going about the tedious business of producing great literature:

"...Hitt had a grinding regimen, twelve-hour days in front of an aged Remington Royal perched on the kitchen table, surrounded by iced coffee, noisy children, and Winston cigarettes, pausing only for supper or to watch wrestling or Sergeant Bilko on the television... Occasionally he would have to leave home to research a new background, such as the nudist colony he visited for the Beacon book Nudist Camp ("They Worshipped Nature in the Raw"."

Wolfus? Perf? Is this your method?

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 09:25 AM (kpS4V)

44 One of my favorite anecdotes is that Robert E. Howard wrote under a pseudonym for Spicy Adventures and suggested to his pen pal H.P. Lovecraft that he take a crack at writing his own "sex adventures" for a little pocket money. The thought of that weird, puritanical recluse writing hot sexy pulp fodder is horrifyingly hilarious. He didn't take Howard's suggestion, alas/thank Dagon.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 09:25 AM (kpS4V)

45 >>> 44 One of my favorite anecdotes is that Robert E. Howard wrote under a pseudonym for Spicy Adventures and suggested to his pen pal H.P. Lovecraft that he take a crack at writing his own "sex adventures" for a little pocket money. The thought of that weird, puritanical recluse writing hot sexy pulp fodder is horrifyingly hilarious. He didn't take Howard's suggestion, alas/thank Dagon.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 09:25 AM (kpS4V)

*pouts*

Posted by: Kurt Eichenwald at July 28, 2024 09:26 AM (FnneF)

46 Murray gives all of these the lie, proving that unfettered third world immigration always increases crime, increases the welfare rolls, and undermines the culture. ...if the goal of European leaders was the destruction of western civilization, they could hardly choose a better method.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:14 AM (+Cixn)

When I read dystopian future novels set in the USA, I always wonder about the rest of the world, and what happened there. I think this is it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 09:27 AM (OX9vb)

47 Those pants! No good. Just bad and ugly. Yeesh!

G'morn, alla ya bookies.

Posted by: mindful webworker - here at last at July 28, 2024 09:28 AM (0H07d)

48 Reading "Escape from Shadow Physics," by Adam Forrest Kay, which was recommended here a couple weeks ago.

It's an attempt to use experiments in hydrodynamic quantum analogues (HQA - tiny drops of oil bouncing on vibrating oil baths) to solve the wave-particle duality problem with light, and the ridiculous Copenhagen Interpetration in Quantum Mechanics (which says if nobody is looking at an object, that object doesn't physically exist).

I'm only 15% into the book, and I appreciate that the author is smart and trying a new approach to what seems to be intractable problems, but I can't help but think that what needs to happen is that physics needs to go back and rethink every major assumption that's been "settled" in both Classical and Quantum Physics for the last 100 years. Physics is broken, as is almost every scientific discipline. More fa easy theories aren't going to fix anything.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 09:28 AM (/RHNq)

49 This is continuing from past reads of Russian Revolution, Gulag Archipelago, Devil and Karl Marx, Koba the Dread ( biography of Stalin) The Moscow Show Trials of the 30
( hope didn't forget any)
Posted by: Skip

You will want to read Harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest. This is the definitive work on collectivism and the Holomodor.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:29 AM (VkSYl)

50 Helena, I love the Ashok series

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at July 28, 2024 09:29 AM (3sOEP)

51
I finished two books of note this week, both recommended.
Amusing Ourselves to Death (AOtD, Neil Postman) and The Mysterious Mr Quin (MMQ, Agatha Christie). AOtD is a rumination from 1985 on the way television is altering (destroying?) our culture by changing our reliance on words to a dependence on images. Not dissimilar to the origin of the printing press, which changed from a transitory oral to a more permanent written version. Obviously, there's more to it than that.

Stuart McMillen’s webcomic does a marvelous job of adapting (and updating!) Neil Postman’s famous book-length essay, Amusing Ourselves to Death, which argues that Aldous Huxley’s vision of the future in Brave New World was ultimately more accurate than the one proposed by George Orwell in 1984.

https://tinyurl.com/53b4vpxn

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at July 28, 2024 09:32 AM (63Dwl)

52 Some Moron mentioned HHhH by Laurent Binet and I bought it. It rather fits in with this week's theme as well in that this 329 page novel has 257 chapters or a little less than 1.3 pages per chapter. Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is similar in having very short chapters. As for the book itself, it's interesting enough to keep me reading but it's a little French for my taste. That is, there are innumerable digressions about the author's love life, the difficulty of writing historical fiction etc. etc.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 28, 2024 09:33 AM (L/fGl)

53 Bene reading some Fred Hoyle. He is the UK astronomer who was cheated of a Noble Prize for his ground-breaking work on nucleogenesis. probably because he was deemed an idiot for his Steady State theory of the universe,

Hoyle's Of men and Galaxies was a collection of three talks he gave in the late 50's and early 60s at a lecture series at the University of Washington. He discusses the further of science, of man, and the two cultures theory of C.P. Snow.
Insightful and prescient.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:36 AM (u82oZ)

54 I guess my other "gateway drugs" were the Sherlock Holmes stories and C.S. Lewis. I came late to Tolkein, chiefly because one of my friends in high school was an utter LotR fanboy and I was suffering from pre-emptive Elf fatigue.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 09:37 AM (78a2H)

55 Good morning, bookish horde! I am almost done with the Divine Comedy. Enjoyed The Inferno (which I first read in college) but I admit, getting through Paradise is rather a slog.
When Vance was announced as Trump's VP pick, I ordered "Hillbilly Elegy," a book I had been meaning to read for a while. Haven't started it yet, but I'm struck by all the rave reviews listed in the beginning of the book - pages and pages of praise from reviewers at the NYT, Vogue, Boston Globe, AP, etc...people who undoubtedly hate Vance's guts now.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at July 28, 2024 09:38 AM (HabA/)

56 I re-read Lewis' "Abolition of Man" partly for the philosophy behind it and partly for his exquisite insults to the 'modernists' who have the same dull qualities as a chunk of wood and aren't as useful. Lewis' "trousered apes" and "unredeemable urban blockheads" is so descriptive and accurate and deserved. His phrase "the slumber of cold vulgarity" is at the same level. As always, I realized that Abolition of Man is as applicable today as when it was created in the mid-1940s. Maybe more so.

This, of course, led me to "The Second Coming" by Yeats.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:38 AM (zudum)

57 AOtD is a rumination from 1985 on the way television is altering (destroying?) our culture by changing our reliance on words to a dependence on images.
-----
Stuart McMillen’s webcomic does a marvelous job of adapting (and updating!) Neil Postman’s famous book-length essay, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 28, 2024 09:41 AM (/y8xj)

58 Mary Sue has nothing on Kamala.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 28, 2024 09:41 AM (L/fGl)

59 I hunger

Posted by: The Barrel at July 28, 2024 09:42 AM (JvZF+)

60 Close tags in the nic FTW!

Posted by: Oddbob at July 28, 2024 09:42 AM (/y8xj)

61 B

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at July 28, 2024 09:42 AM (FnneF)

62 Morning, Book Folken! Back from the grocery, and I need to read the comments. But I'm proud to say that while I've occasionally modeled a character, usually minor and due to be offed by the villain, in my stories, on myself, I have *never* done a Mary Sue or or whatever the male version is. ("Martin" something?)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 09:43 AM (omVj0)

63 Get in mah belly!!

Posted by: The Barrel at July 28, 2024 09:43 AM (JvZF+)

64 Students shouldn't escape k-12 without knowing how to read a catalog card (physical or computerized), without knowing that most US libraries use one of two basic classification systems and some of the broad categories in each. Know those things and you're halfway to being able to find your way around in a library.

Also needed: a bit of simple confidence. People came up with these systems to make it easier for you to find stuff, so chances are you too can understand and use them -- hold that thought.

Ex-librarian here.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 09:43 AM (q3u5l)

65 My book this week was C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. It's a short book, an allegory of people "choosing" heaven or hell. My takeaway is that most folks don't understand what it means to be a Christian, or how salvation works - they look on it as a cultural group to join or be born into.

What struck me about it is the arguments and protests against "Christianity" by some of the characters is exactly the same as the arguments and protests we hear today. Nothing has changed in their rebuttals in 78 years (from the writing of this book in 1946. But it's the same argument from the first sin.) Highly recommend!

Posted by: Moki at July 28, 2024 09:44 AM (wLjpr)

66 My next book is Fred Hoyle's best SF story, The BlacK Cloud. It is full of insider astronomer knowledge postulating a cloud from deep space that is heading directly for the Sun. He also skewers politicians and the press. Mankind is in for a long slog, with survival uncertain.
A crackling story, that entertains and informs.

Last, Element 79 is a collection of short stories. They are good, but one in particular stands out. The deal with the Devil for a retired scientist facing death in 6 months, and what happens. Good ending.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:44 AM (u82oZ)

67 My wife and I have a sweet tradition that started when our 2 girls were younger, and we took monster car trips to amazing places: We read aloud to each other*. She's been riding with me on my interstate travels for work, and we just finished "River of Doubt", about Theo. Roosevelt's somewhat doomed descent of a unmapped river in Brazil. I *highly* recommend.
We are now reading "Shadow Divers", about deep-wreck divers. It's a fantastic account about the discovery of a German U-boat off of NJ, in 1992(ish). The author gets WAY into these guys backstory, and it's reads like the old New Yorker articles used to. Also, recommended.
*Fair Lady Robin does most of the reading; I do the driving.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 28, 2024 09:44 AM (lPeS+)

68 I've noticed more and more books (usually those aimed at Young Adults or at least younger adults) including a trigger warning before the story so that the delicate hothouse flowers won't wilt at the language, violence, problematic words, etc. Of course some authors do it facetiously as a way to highlight all the good stuff you're about to experience.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 09:44 AM (kpS4V)

69 I know several Mary Sues who think everyone else is a bit player in the drama that is her own life.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (JvZF+)

70 55 .... Donna,

I just got "Hillbilly Elegy" this week and have read the first couple of chapters. Vance is an excellent writer. While this isn't the kind of book I often read these days the quality of the writing and curiosity about the VP candidate will keep me at it.

Apparently, Amazon was caught off guard by the sudden demand for the book. Instead of overnight delivery they were saying a week or more. That time is reduced at the moment. And the local library has a several month waiting list to check it out.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (zudum)

71 {{{Moki}}}

Hope your clan is thriving, with peace and quietude as needed, and excitement occasionally.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (u82oZ)

72 Good Morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:46 AM (u82oZ)

73 Love the top photo. That's almost enough shelving for my accumulation.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:47 AM (zudum)

74 I finished off The Death of Shadow Physics this week by Adam Forrest Kay. Usually when I'm reading a popular, complicated science text, I have a fiction book running in parallel. Not with Shadow Physics. Even if you aren't totally fascinated by the ontological problems with quantum mechanics, the vignettes on the development of science are fabulous.

For example, did you know Niels Bohr was a shameless bully who often 'won' scientific debates by sheer relentlessness?

The book is so awesome I've been inspired to work through David Bohm's Physical Review papers ,'A Suggested Interpretation of Quantum Theory in Terms of "Hidden Variables"' I and II.

Posted by: Candidus at July 28, 2024 09:47 AM (ogVp/)

75 I agree with you, Catch Thirty-Thr33, about Red Storm Rising. I read it as a young lad and absolutely devoured it. Easily Clancy's best novel, even better than The Hunt for Red October.

I re-read Red Storm Rising about 4 years ago and it really holds up.

Also agree with you on Bond's Red Phoenix and Vortex. The geopolitical situation presented in all three of these novels is long gone, but they are so well-written that it doesn't matter. You are swallowed up by the stories and the characters' predicaments really resonate.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 09:47 AM (/RHNq)

76 I was reading on library anxiety. What is the opposite of that? That is what I have. Librarians telling me "You've been here 5 hours, go home!"

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:47 AM (Lm5cp)

77 yes a real version of thrush would be behind this, skyfall suggests that is one of spectre's side projects,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 09:49 AM (PXvVL)

78 Moki

For all the resources the world has poured into Education, a substantial percentage of Mankind is totally resistant to new idea, examination of false beliefs, and any type of pragmatism on results obtained.

There are many to blame, but they all want power over others, and not helping others.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:49 AM (u82oZ)

79 Love the top photo. That's almost enough shelving for my accumulation.
Posted by: JTB

Yes, I need to calculate the linear footage of floor to ceiling bookshelves I need in my next hour to have my library in one room.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:50 AM (AHUMM)

80 House

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 09:51 AM (AHUMM)

81 "This House of Brede by Rumer Godden--boring me to tears. There may be another time when I want a soothing, quiet read that I might pick up again and enjoy it."

Same thing happened with me. Shame because I wanted so much to like it.

A book I did enjoy was "The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg." Berg was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, a brilliant student and linguist who managed to stay in the majors until he was almost 40, although he couldn't hit worth a damn. When he wasn't bouncing from team to team, he was earning a law degree and traveling the world. I imagine he was a very high functioning autistic - he did not seem to have any need for human affection or company. He had many friends but nobody, including his family, really knew anything about him.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at July 28, 2024 09:51 AM (HabA/)

82 Those pants would be fine if I wanted Clint Eastwood's face on my crotch. But I don't.

Posted by: fd at July 28, 2024 09:52 AM (vFG9F)

83 >>>I don't know what Koontz's politics are nowadays as it's possible that Trump broke him just like Trump broke Stephen King.

King was always a leftist. But, as with many leftists, Trump drove him insane.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at July 28, 2024 09:53 AM (klJTj)

84 I've been reading something so boring you probably don't even want to hear about it.

Posted by: fd at July 28, 2024 09:53 AM (vFG9F)

85 yes a real version of thrush would be behind this, skyfall suggests that is one of spectre's side projects,
Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024

***
SPECTRE? Ha. Those Johnny-Come-Latelies!

Posted by: Thrush Supreme Council at July 28, 2024 09:53 AM (omVj0)

86 71 {{{Moki}}}

Hope your clan is thriving, with peace and quietude as needed, and excitement occasionally.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (u82oZ)

{{{NaCly}}}
How are you??? We are hobbling along!!! Hope you and the lovely Mrs. NaCly are well and healed and thriving!!!

And both your and JTB's comments are spot on. Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose!!!

Posted by: Moki at July 28, 2024 09:53 AM (wLjpr)

87 didn't get into red storm rising as much, as october or present danger or patriot games,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 09:54 AM (PXvVL)

88 Yay book thread!

Spotty reading this week as I was fighting off an ear infection (hard to concentrate) and the distant rumble of a new school year is making me concentrate on what summer I have left.

I made some inroads into Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and while I know the movie is based on the book, they are so close that it seems like a novelization. I enjoy Chandler's prose and it's nice light reading.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (llXky)

89 Boulder Terlit Hobo

Now, there's a name from days of yore.

How are you doing, BTH, if this is really you?

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (/RHNq)

90 I believe I mentioned that last week's book was a history of Renaissance-era Venice, especially focusing on its wars with Genoa. Those two Italian cities fought a war of annihilation against each other off and on for centuries. They both produced some of Italy's greatest naval heroes. (The Italian naval ensign is the flag of Italy with the coats of arms of Genoa, Venice, Pisa, and Amalfi.)

And yet . . . somehow modern Italians manage to acknowledge, and even celebrate, the conflicts of their ancestors. There's no pressure to decide whether Venice or Genoa were the "good guys." (Spoiler alert: neither.) Nobody from Venice demands that statues of Andrea Doria be removed because it gives them the sads from inherited trauma.

Why can't we do the same?

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (78a2H)

91 Apparently, Amazon was caught off guard by the sudden demand for the book. Instead of overnight delivery they were saying a week or more. That time is reduced at the moment. And the local library has a several month waiting list to check it out.
Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (zudum)

I ordered the book as soon as he was announced as VP because I figured it would be in short supply soon. It took only a few days for delivery.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (HabA/)

92 Good morning, Horde. I started reading "The Coast Watchers" by Patrick Lindsay. It's about the men on Japanese-occupied islands in the Pacific during WW2 who relayed information via radio back to Australia regarding enemy movements. I'm about 20% through, so the war is just getting started and the Japanese are kicking ass and taking names while the Allies are scrambling to catch up. One interesting point for me: the radio sets, and all the supporting equipment, weighed up to 300 lbs, and they had teams of natives to haul it all around (and they had to move frequently). Today, with a shoebox of equipment and a solar panel, you could set up a comparable station.

Posted by: PabloD at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (yhCZc)

93 My Mother got us kids interested in books early on...

Hardy Boys Mysteries
Grims Fairy Tales
O' Henry Stories
Call of the Wild
Fu Man Chu
Sherlock Holmes
Tarzan
Treasure Island......on and on and on...

Every Birthday and Christmas we would receive books as gifts.....

Posted by: Some guy in Wisconsin at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (d9lcI)

94 Sharkman

Hope our favorite Supply Officer is doing well.

Hunt For Red October was informed deeply by Captain Chatham, a skilled submariner who was in PMS 423, the NAVSEASYSOM Office of Theater Nuclear Weapons. Years later I was assigned to that office and was given his desk, in a smaller room. I was on the protection side of that office, not the make them glow side. Did EMP testing at sea, which was a great job.

Larry Bond is a good writer. Red Storm Rising was great, but the Apple II game of it, North Atlantic 86, was much more interactive. My ship was in the game, and my real goal was to win without having the Soviets sink my ship.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:56 AM (u82oZ)

95 The TV series of U.N.C.L.E. featured an Innocent character in each episode, usually an attractive woman, though not always (I remember Kurt Russell guesting at age 12, and Jack Weston as a kind of Guys and Dolls gambler). In my own fan-fiction for that, I've had Richard Kimble guest star, and Bud Baxter and Fran Kubelik from The Apartment. Never a character based on me, and certainly never one more competent than the agents at everything.

In my one Girl from U.N.C.L.E.{/I] story, April Dancer herself is kind of an Innocent -- I tell the story of how she first has to kill someone on assignment.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 09:57 AM (omVj0)

97 Weak Geek @11, re Westlake, please allow me to recommend his novel "Kawaha" (it is the Swahili word for coffee). It is a caper story but in this case the caper is stealing a whole train load of coffee out Idi Amin's Uganda. A great cast of characters and an unflinching look at the horrors of life under the rule of Idi Amin.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at July 28, 2024 09:57 AM (jjfDF)

98 Mark Helprin is indeed a wonderful writer!

He published a short story in Commentary Magazine in 2004 that is one of my favorites.

"Perfection: A Story" is simply marvelous. The intersection of NY Hasidic life, the Holocaust...and Yankees baseball!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 28, 2024 09:57 AM (d9fT1)

99 Speaking as a retired public librarian and current volunteer community librarian/administrator, I would say that "library anxiety," as a specific phenomenon, doesn't really exist. Most of the anxiety I observed in my career at an urban public library fell into 2 categories:
1) Recent arrivals of questionable immigration status afraid that the public library was yet another law-enforcement apparatus; and
2) Students in mortal terror of Making A Mistake in the presence of any adult authority figure.
Quite frankly, most of the anxiety at our institution was felt by the staff, as saying the wrong thing to the wrong person could get you canned overnight.

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (wwf+q)

100 Am browsing through Julie Phillips' JAMES TIPTREE JR: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF ALICE B. SHELDON.

Trying to psych myself up for an assault on Simenon's 75 Maigret novels...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (q3u5l)

101 100

Posted by: rhennigantx at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (gbOdA)

102 Once again, I am trying to read Canterbury Tales in middle English. I've tried in the past but always got frustrated and/or distracted by work. Now it's time for another attempt. I've never been satisfied with the modern versions even if they are accurate. Middle English is close enough to follow with some effort and I don't want to lose the power of the original. It would be like a 'modern' version of Shakespeare.

Two keys: I'm reading it aloud (softly) which helps. The old spelling can be confusing but the words often sound tha same as modern English. I'm taking it in smaller pieces, a page or two, instead of an entire Tale. That slows me down and allows for more appreciation of the writing.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (zudum)

103 Suggested future book thread topic: Books on the edge of some great change, like a war.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings naturally comes to mind, and one of the most evocative elements is that its starts in a peaceful calm world that is steadily coming apart. Tolkien handles this masterfully, having lived through the runup to both world wars. People try to muddle through, make plans like normal, but there comes a revelation that things will not be as they were. One of my (many favorite lines): "Many hopes will wither in this bitter spring."

Herman Wouk's The Winds of War likewise captures the tension of late summer 1939 and the weird way that war crept through Europe, bit by bit, nation by nation. We Americans seem to think that either Sept. 1, 1939 or Dec. 7, 1941 are the big dates, but it actually started in fits and starts. Yes, Poland, Germany, England and France were at war in 1939, but Italy and the Balkans were at peace. The Soviets attacked Finland, in the winter, but that war never linked to the other one. (Con't)

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (llXky)

104 thats what I hinting at,

now the latest court gentry, has ballooned to 822 pages, a little self indulgent it's about an ai coordinated assassination campaign against the leading experts, that starts in the UK and the US, the heroes Court and his Russian born paramour, are hiding out in Guatemala,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (PXvVL)

105 You will want to read Harvest of Sorrow by Robert Conquest. This is the definitive work on collectivism and the Holomodor.

Posted by: Thomas Paine

That is a tremendously important book. Robert Conquest was a truth-teller in an age that didn't want to hear anything negative about the USSR.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 09:59 AM (/RHNq)

106 I will have you yet, wolfus!

Posted by: The Barrel at July 28, 2024 10:00 AM (JvZF+)

107 Moki

Living the dream! School preps start in a week, then really ramp up in two weeks. Classes start the 14th of August.

My wife has recovered from her fall that broke 4 ribs and the dishwasher. We have a new dishwasher, but I am still a custodial husband. That will not change.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 10:00 AM (u82oZ)

108 I'm guessing that westlake is the sort who found use in the palace on turtle bay

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:00 AM (PXvVL)

109 "The TV series of U.N.C.L.E. featured an Innocent character in each episode, usually an attractive woman"

The A-Team maximized that strategy to good effect.

Posted by: fd at July 28, 2024 10:00 AM (vFG9F)

110 95 The TV series of U.N.C.L.E. featured an Innocent character in each episode, usually an attractive woman, though not always (I remember Kurt Russell guesting at age 12, and Jack Weston as a kind of Guys and Dolls gambler). In my own fan-fiction for that, I've had Richard Kimble guest star, and Bud Baxter and Fran Kubelik from The Apartment. Never a character based on me, and certainly never one more competent than the agents at everything.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 09:57 AM
****
Where can I find and read your UNCLE crossover fan-fiction? I love and collect (and once upon a time, wrote) crossover fan-fiction!

Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 28, 2024 10:01 AM (wwf+q)

111 Ex-librarian here.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 09:43 AM (q3u5l)

So is Mr. S. His shelves are things of beauty and joys forever. We can find whatever we want instantly.

Posted by: sal at July 28, 2024 10:02 AM (4lnL8)

112 This week I finished Brazen, the best so far of Loren D. Estleman's modern Hollywood stories about Valentino (no relation to the famous movie star), a "film detective." He's a film archivist at UCLA, and his search for valuable lost film properties often leads into crime and murder. This one involves a serial killer, and the mystery turns on what pattern his crimes follow.

Currently I'm in a later one, Vamp, which involves a possibility of finding two reels of Theda Bara's lost film Cleopatra (MPPPP take note, if you haven't read this one). It's more complex in some ways, but I'm enjoying LDE's style and comic dialogue.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:03 AM (omVj0)

113 theres an annotated version of the big sleep, complete with illustration edited by jonathan latham, admittedly the scene with dorothy malone is almost a one off, it delves into some of the darker elements that howard hawks, didn't dare touch because of the hayes code,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:03 AM (PXvVL)

114 103
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
_________

Darkness at Noon definitely belongs on that list.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 28, 2024 10:04 AM (Dm8we)

115 Just Some Guy

Alice B. Sheldon had a distinctive voice in SF. I got the impression she hated men in general.

Her books were the closest to horror stories in SF I was willing to read. I do not like horror stories. Her stories are quite memorable.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 10:04 AM (u82oZ)

116 While Wouk is evocative, he's also a bigot, and all Germans are bullies with room-temperature IQs who are hypnotized by Beethoven or something. On, and tiny genitals. Really, Herman?

Volume I of Winston Churchill's The Second World War is a non-fiction example, and it's gripping reading even if you know what's going on. The failed opportunities, grim sense that Germany is building an insurmountable lead in military strength are things that bear close examination.

I will also point out that all the people who scream "MUNICH! CHAMBERLAIN! APPEASEMENT!" need to read this because it is very specific. Sometimes aggression has to be tolerated because fighting everywhere and always "on principle" (which increasingly means globalist oligarchs) is untenable and immoral. What set Munich apart was that the Western Allies had the edge in military strength, the possibility of Soviet aid and therefore the means to stop Hitler. Post-war documents show that the Wehrmacht could not assault the Czechs while holding off any kind of French pressure. This is vastly different than fighting to maintain the integrity of Stalin's internal borders. (con't)

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:04 AM (llXky)

117 My week started with such promise, but ended with such disappointment...

I received three packages of crowd-funded comics over the week. Some I ordered a few months ago, some a few years ago. On of the packages was "Ghost of the Badlands," a western comic by the youtuber known as Razorfist. Another was of some translated western comics from Italy, (So, almost the bandes dessinee that Razorfist champions of his channel.) These, together with the sword and sorcery comics I bought from Amazon a few weeks back, gave me quite the pile of non-superhero comics to read. And that made me happy, because I like having some variety in my reading list.

But then I cracked open one of the books, and I became less happy. Full review in the next post...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:04 AM (Lhaco)

118 81 "This House of Brede by Rumer Godden--boring me to tears. There may be another time when I want a soothing, quiet read that I might pick up again and enjoy it."

Same thing happened with me. Shame because I wanted so much to like it.
Posted by: Donna&&&&&&V at July 28, 2024 09:51 AM (HabA/)

A favorite book- one that set me on the road to the Church- but I've long ago learned that not everything is for everyone.

Posted by: sal at July 28, 2024 10:07 AM (4lnL8)

119 Oh wanted to mention on Steve Ambrose book Band of Brothers there is a now quite a few video series from War & Truth lots of corrections of the book. The video series is saying there are lots of incorrect incidents and virtual character assassinations in it.
I have never read the book. And by now never will read it.

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 10:07 AM (fwDg9)

120 I've recently read two of Michael Connelly's more recent novels: Desert Star and Resurrection Walk.

Both feature Harry Bosch and the latter is also a Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer).

Still waiting for The Waiting (heh), which is supposed to be published this year.

Connelly has come to be one of my favorite authors. His Harry Bosch series worked well on TV, but of course, it's even better in the books.

Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at July 28, 2024 10:08 AM (klJTj)

121 "Library Anxiety"? Is it just trendy to collect mental illnesses like other kids collected Pokémon cards?

Posted by: NR Pax at July 28, 2024 10:08 AM (+9EIf)

122 I just finished Oddments, by Marko Kloos. It's a collection of his short stories, some previously unpublished, several taking place in his "Frontlines" universe. Each story is prefaced with an essay describing how he came up with the story, which is always fun to read. Recommended, especially if you liked his "Frontlines" series.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 28, 2024 10:08 AM (PiwSw)

123 Bruce Catton's The Coming Fury is a detailed look at the year before the Civil War kicked off, and demolishes many of the happy myths that slavery was a side issue. It destroyed the Democracy, which if it could have been unified, would easily have won the 1860 election.

In terms of fiction, Gone with the Wind is popular in part because Scarlett doesn't care about politics and tries to ignore them, but that doesn't matter once the armies gather. Yes, drama, but it really brings home the total transformation the US went through and how fast it all happened. It must really have seemed like an instant to those who lived through it.

I think we are in a similar place, unsure if this is a passing crisis that will be forgotten or a hinge point where we'll tell younger folks things that will seem fantastic to them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:08 AM (llXky)

124 Hey, NaCly Dog, I'm staying frosty, thanks for your well-wish. I hope you are also doing well.

Interesting info you have imparted. The only video games I've ever gotten into are Redneck Rampage and the first Myst, so sadly I never tried the Red Storm Rising game. My loss, I am sure. Sounds fun.

I remember reading or hearing that after Red October was published, the Navy freaked out and brought Clancy in for a debrief to determine if he'd had access to classified sources. That's pretty cool for an insurance salesman. I'm sure today the NIS and FBI would have just set him up with an unannounced interview and then jailed him on a pretext.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 10:08 AM (/RHNq)

125 Where can I find and read your UNCLE crossover fan-fiction? I love and collect (and once upon a time, wrote) crossover fan-fiction!
Posted by: werewife, princess of Delray Beach at July 28, 2024

***
It's in the MFU Fan Fiction Archive, started some years ago by a big fan. It's still there. For some reason the Search button did not work, so I went to the author archive:

https://tinyurl.com/298p8c2p

Scroll down or search for "Benzadmiral." My four are together, the "Austen East," "Deadly Playground," "Guadelupe," and "Night Watch" affairs. I think you will have a great time. These are real magazine-type stories, with action and humor. They'd have made good episodes of the show.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:09 AM (omVj0)

126 this was back when I was on a chandler kick, about a dozen years back when I read all about marlowe,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:10 AM (PXvVL)

127 JSG, I'll drop you a line later. Thanks!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:10 AM (omVj0)

128 Talking about Cold War books, has anyone ever read August 1984. I think it is more of the technical aspects of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe but man was it gripping. Written by a retired American general, IIRC.

Highly recommend.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 10:11 AM (2fIO4)

129 All three books on my current cycle were recommended by folks on the Book Thread: Hyperion by Dan Simmons, Radical Son by David Horowitz and The Source by James Michener, and I’m enjoying them all, so thank you. I find Horowitz quite relatable though I was never a leftist. He writes about how disappointed he was that his parents wouldn’t let him have Foto Electric Football when he was a kid because they were Communists. I had to laugh because that was one of my favorite Christmas presents. You put the offense and defense play cards on the screen and pulled the tray back and a light bulb inside showed the ball carrier’s path through the defense. Totally made antiquated by Madden NFL etc. I wanted to tell Horowitz the novelty wore off after a while because the plays became predictable, sort of like modern leftism.

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at July 28, 2024 10:11 AM (hsWtj)

130 Good morning all.
Bit late this morning.
I read Hillbilly Elegy this week. It took all week because there are some parts that strike too close too home.
This has to be one of the most brutally honest books about the inner workings of a family I have ever read. Yet it is delivered in a conversational style like you are sitting the room with Vance while he pours out his heart and soul.
I was impressed with his bio before I read the book but how he becomes the man he is at this point is fascinating.
It is an autobiography and a scholarly treatise on the ills of the society he grew up in, yet he is able to expand what he learned navigating the world outside his Appalachian upbringing and applying it to today's deteriorating moral life.
It is a unique book. What I came away with is that he is genuine. His viewpoints formed before he entered politics.
I look forward to his Presidency.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 10:11 AM (t/2Uw)

131 Darkness at Noon definitely belongs on that list.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 28, 2024 10:04 AM (Dm8we)
---
Absolutely worth reading for its own sake as well. Like so many of my literary discoveries, I found it on my father's bookshelf one day and wondered what was behind that cool title. A cool book!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:11 AM (llXky)

132 That 1979 first Star Trek movie was a crime and my buddies beat the hell put of me for making them see it. $5 wasted!
Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 09:16 AM (JvZF+)

Back.

It seemed like "The Cage" to me. Too cerebral, not enough action. But, it was good enough to get "Khan" the green light. Then, off to the races.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:11 AM (0eaVi)

133 "Kawaha" (it is the Swahili word for coffee). It is a caper story but in this case the caper is stealing a whole train load of coffee out Idi Amin's Uganda. A great cast of characters and an unflinching look at the horrors of life under the rule of Idi Amin.
Posted by: John F. MacMichael at July 28, 2024 09:57 AM (jjfDF)

That looks good. Also, hard to find. Library doesn't have it, no Kindle version. Darn. Looks like I can get it from Thriftbooks, so into the cart it goes.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 10:12 AM (OX9vb)

134 ...We can find whatever we want instantly.
Posted by: sal at July 28, 2024 10:02 AM (4lnL

"Disorder is the condition of the mind's fertility."
--Paul Valéry

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 28, 2024 10:12 AM (PiwSw)

135 Western comics . . . the Roy Rogers young adult novel from the late Forties or early Fifties, Ghost of Mystery Rancho, would make a fine graphic novel.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:13 AM (omVj0)

136 "Library Anxiety"? Is it just trendy to collect mental illnesses like other kids collected Pokémon cards?
Posted by: NR Pax at July 28, 2024 10:08 AM (+9EIf)
---
Yes, everyone's a victim, and I'm sure you're aware that ludicrous percentages of upper-class kids now claim multiple "disabilities" that require special treatment.

it's the new fainting couch.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:13 AM (llXky)

137 [Helprin's] "Perfection: A Story" is simply marvelous. The intersection of NY Hasidic life, the Holocaust...and Yankees baseball!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

Thank you for this recommendation, CBD. I will immediately go find that story.

Eric Metaxas has interviewed Helprin several times, and they are always a treat. Here is the latest:

https://tinyurl.com/Metaxas-Helprin-recent

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 10:13 AM (/RHNq)

138 more info, the title of the book is

The Third World War: August 1985

written by Sir John Hackett and other general and NATO advisers.

Of course I would probably consider them all Deep State tools now.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 10:14 AM (2fIO4)

139 Regarding chapters --

Until television, a person reading aloud to others was a normal entertainment. Chapters gave the reader some control over the length of the session. A book was an expensive treat, and for some groups, someone who could read was a luxury.

Posted by: mustbequantum at July 28, 2024 10:14 AM (AYNL4)

140 Herman Wouk's The Winds of War likewise captures the tension of late summer 1939 and the weird way that war crept through Europe, bit by bit, nation by nation.

-
Like the late summer of 2024.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 28, 2024 10:14 AM (L/fGl)

141 Oh wanted to mention on Steve Ambrose book Band of Brothers there is a now quite a few video series from War & Truth lots of corrections of the book. The video series is saying there are lots of incorrect incidents and virtual character assassinations in it.
I have never read the book. And by now never will read it.
Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 10:07 AM (fwDg9)
---
I've read it and it was a grade-school level effort. Not even close to the hype and a pale shadow of the work of Cornelius Ryan or Paul Brickhill. Would not recommend, even if it was all true.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:15 AM (llXky)

142 This past week I've mostly been reading travel books and cookbooks. I'm thinking of going to southeastern Asia so I'm looking for a good guide. Seems like all the big guide series (Lonely Planet, Frommers, etc.) are basically identical and (to my mind) overly superficial. Anybody know of a good writer who spent time in that part of the world?
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 09:18 AM (78a2H)

Depends on where you plan to go. Do you have any Asian friends, or friends of friends who might have advice for you? Do you want the tourist spots, or off the path? Ask a native who's spent a long time there. Better than relying on a writer who could be biased, or worse, has never been there.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:15 AM (0eaVi)

143 yes looking at things with the forward view, not using the time machine,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:15 AM (PXvVL)

144 I finished the last of C.J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series of Tudor mysteries.
When this arrived, I was startled at the size- it's like Gone With the Wind.
As it turns out, the mystery is mostly a device to place Shardlake and company in a particular spot and time in the reign of Edward VI.
So, it's a riveting account of attempted social change that turns violent.

A good series in all. I recommend it for historical mystery readers.

Posted by: sal at July 28, 2024 10:16 AM (4lnL8)

145 Boulder Terlit Hobo

Top o ta mornin to ya, guv'nor.

I totally agree that Project Gutenberg is a wonder.

I got some 100 year old works that took a month for ILL to reach me, like Whispers from the Fleet by RADM Cradock, RN. Nautical education for Midshipman in the 1890s. Some of the nicknames for the food served were still being used when I was in the Service.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 10:16 AM (u82oZ)

146 Aw, Perfessor, God bless you for using TDG as an example for anything, lol. The full description is "Horde-authored but edited by two Morons flying by the seat of their pants."

Posted by: bluebell at July 28, 2024 10:16 AM (bS+DD)

147 This week I read "Tex: Patagonia," ad Italian-produced graphic novel starring a cowboy named (surprisingly enough) Tex. In this volume, the titular hero leaves his home in the American southwest and heads to Argentina, where he helps an old acquaintance lead a retaliatory raid against a violent tribe of natives in the Pampas region. This makes the setting really neat: the Argentinian frontier is like something halfway between the Civil War and WWI: a line of wooden forts ringed and connected by trenches. It's very different from the usual Western setup.

Anyways, our hero leads some scouts to infiltrate the enemy camp and rescue some captive women (or should we say sex slaves?) while the main enemy army is distracted. At this point I was loving the book. But then the turn happened: elements of the Argentinian army mistrusted and killed a 'friendly' tribe of natives. 'Friendly' in that they weren't raiding Argentina. But they weren't all that angry with the tribe that was...In disgust, our 'hero' switches sides and helps the natives as they make a fighting retreat into Chile. I'll have to re-read this, but I think that included helping the initial slave-taking tribe...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (Lhaco)

148 Our library copy of the latest Longmire book, "First Frost" finally came in. Mrs. JTB is enjoying it so far. Considering that Walt is getting older, this is a throwback to an early part of his life.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (zudum)

149 Here is Helprin's "Perfection: A Story," from Commentary, as mentioned by our esteemed CBD:

https://tinyurl.com/Helprin-Perfection-A-Story

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (/RHNq)

150 And all my reading of the Russian Revolution and afterwards is God save us if the American Cultural Marxists ever find a Lenin, Stalin or Trotsky to lead their Revolution

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (fwDg9)

151 written by Sir John Hackett and other general and NATO advisers.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 10:14 AM (2fIO4)
----
An important difference: Hackett was at Arnhem. The experience of total war was very much alive in the senior leaders of the day, and many of the serving officers were kids during the war and also remembered Korea.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (llXky)

152 My father was 82d Airborne in WWII -- he thought highly of Cornelius Ryan's work, but didn't think much of Ambrose (which I didn't learn until after I'd given him a couple as gifts, naturally).

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 10:18 AM (q3u5l)

153 Time for a walk under cloud cover.

May you all have a wonderful week in books and life.

Remember, there will be plenty of stories about now in the future; we are living in incredible time.

Thrive!

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 10:18 AM (u82oZ)

154 If you read in bed like I do, long chapters keep you awake.

Posted by: Eromero at July 28, 2024 10:18 AM (DXbAa)

155 Has anyone here read Adam Christopher's spider war series (sci-fi; two books so far, The Burning Dark, and The Machine Awakes). I ask to see if anyone knows what the story is with the release date of the third one (The Dead Planets), which was supposed to be out late last year and just kind of disappeared. I can't seem to find any reliable information about what happened to it.

Posted by: Worth a Shot at July 28, 2024 10:18 AM (K+3RJ)

156 Darkness at Noon definitely belongs on that list.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba

I read that in high school lo these many years ago. My strongest recollection is when one prisoner describes his sexual experiences to another and describes his lover as having breast that would fill wine glasses.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 28, 2024 10:19 AM (L/fGl)

157 Also needed: a bit of simple confidence. People came up with these systems to make it easier for you to find stuff, so chances are you too can understand and use them -- hold that thought.

Ex-librarian here.

Posted by: Just Some Guy
---
I was terrified of my university library my first 2 years as an undergrad. I had haunted my small local public library since the age of 5 and was well versed in the card catalog. My university had been an early adopter of online catalogs, and that was intimidating along with the enormity of the building itself.

I don't remember asking librarians for help, although I must have at some point. I do remember getting some advice from professors. Once I got the hang of it, I spent many hours on the 1st floor among the history materials.

And then I became a librarian and spent a lot of my career as a cataloger, trying to make things easier to find. And occasionally giving impromptu lectures on classification to unsuspecting students who were unfortunate enough to ask me for help finding a book as I was walking through the stacks on my way to the bathroom. These students may now suffer from library anxiety...

Posted by: screaming in digital at July 28, 2024 10:19 AM (iZbyp)

158 An important difference: Hackett was at Arnhem. The experience of total war was very much alive in the senior leaders of the day, and many of the serving officers were kids during the war and also remembered Korea.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (llXky)

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

I agree there is probably a different perspective to be had about those guys.

Anyway, it's a pretty good book.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 10:20 AM (2fIO4)

159 Got to Star Trek in under 10 comments this morning. ST is taking over Tolkein in comment saturation.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 09:23 AM (OX9vb)

Well, it was a book review. I'd been looking for those books for years, and finally found them on Internet Archive.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:20 AM (0eaVi)

160 136 Yes, everyone's a victim, and I'm sure you're aware that ludicrous percentages of upper-class kids now claim multiple "disabilities" that require special treatment.

it's the new fainting couch.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:13 AM (llXky)

OK, I did read the article and this was apparently identified back in 86. But I stand by my remark. I think a lot of kids need a summer where they are dropped off in the woods and taught how to survive.

Posted by: NR Pax at July 28, 2024 10:21 AM (+9EIf)

161 NaCly Dog @115, "Alice B. Sheldon had a distinctive voice in SF. I got the impression she hated men in general." There is something to that but I think it would be more accurate to say she loathed people in general.

One story about her I found amusing tells how when she was gaining a name as a SF writer (and was still known only as "James Tiptree") she joined a writers group for female SF authors (Ursula K. LeGuin was one of the members). The members were corresponding about the difficulties of writing SF as women. Then some members of the group attacked Tiptree and demanded that "he" leave the group because as a man he could not possibly understand their struggle. "Tiptree" did so. Rather embarrassing when it came out a few years later that "Tiptree" was actually a woman.

Posted by: John F. MacMichael at July 28, 2024 10:22 AM (jjfDF)

162 the british and french governments didn't know that a confrontation at munich would not lead to another disaster like what we saw as ypres or the somme,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:22 AM (PXvVL)

163 Like the late summer of 2024.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at July 28, 2024 10:14 AM (L/fGl)
---
Or the summer of 1914. Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August is also a very good read.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:23 AM (llXky)

164 Apparently, Amazon was caught off guard by the sudden demand for the book. Instead of overnight delivery they were saying a week or more. That time is reduced at the moment. And the local library has a several month waiting list to check it out.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (zudum)

(Nelson Muntz laugh) Ha Ha!

Posted by: Kindle and Nook at July 28, 2024 10:23 AM (Yt4b4)

165 Galaxy Quest had a great spoof on how Nimoy and the other actors were typecast after Star Trek. “By Grefthar’s hammer, what a savings.”

Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at July 28, 2024 10:23 AM (hsWtj)

166 (Continued from 147, some final thoughts on "Tex: Patagonia)

It seems that some authors are pathologically unable to write anything that doesn't have a 'we have met the enemy and he is us' theme. The theme isn't inherently wrong, but it's been overused to the point where I instantly loose interest in any book that goes for it. And by the same token, those authors seem really eager to excuse or ignore any moral failings (or outright atrocities) of the side that isn't 'us.'

So, yeah, I started out loving "Tex: Patagonia," but hated the last third. Pretty much just skimmed the ending with disinterested disgust. But at least I can expect better from Razorfist's comic.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:23 AM (Lhaco)

167 148 Our library copy of the latest Longmire book, "First Frost" finally came in. Mrs. JTB is enjoying it so far. Considering that Walt is getting older, this is a throwback to an early part of his life.
Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (zudum)

I read this a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. Very strange story. I kind of like how the author goes back and makes up Longmire's history in some of his later books.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at July 28, 2024 10:23 AM (OX9vb)

168 In William Goldman's novel THE COLOR OF LIGHT, one of the early chapters includes a sequence re: the protagonist's campus job as a library assistant; like a lot of Goldman's work, it's a delightful read.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 10:23 AM (q3u5l)

169 yes I read that hackett book years later,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:24 AM (PXvVL)

170 I’m on book 2 of the Richard Swan series (empire of the wollf). The first book is The Justice of Kings.
It’s a period during the start of the downfall of an empire and we follow on of the justices who spend their time on the road hearing trials and dispensing sentences(by their taskman). He has a clerk (female) with him who is learning the trade. Very interesting and one pull of a thread leads to other things. He had a fellow Justice speak to him in dire tones of what is befalling the capital city. She sounded a bit crazy but was in fact correct. It very much reminded me of the current times we are in. Book 2 is the lathe Tyranny of Faith.

Posted by: Paisley at July 28, 2024 10:24 AM (TJh+t)

171 146 ... "Aw, Perfessor, God bless you for using TDG as an example for anything, lol. The full description is "Horde-authored but edited by two Morons flying by the seat of their pants."

Good morning, bluebell,

A suggestion for the group. The Deplorable Gourmet makes a great gift for folks who like to cook. We've given several to friends and they have all commented on how varied and useful the recipes are. We do have to explain about some of the references and humor.

BTW, we can't find two of the recipes we submitted. They are here somewhere but who knows where. It helped that we could get them back from the TDG.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 10:25 AM (zudum)

172 I loved the Gorgas Library at the University of Alabama. Plenty of spots to sit down in the stacks to read, nice large common study areas and the front with its granite steps overlooked the Quad.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 10:26 AM (2fIO4)

173 as having breast that would fill wine glasses.
============================
I don't know if this was a literally take (Fitzgerald?), but the aesthetic of the 1920's dictated that the ideal female breast would perfectly fill a Champaign glass, presumably the classic, bowl type, NOT the flute.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 28, 2024 10:26 AM (lPeS+)

174 The Third World War: August 1985

written by Sir John Hackett and other general and NATO advisers.

Of course I would probably consider them all Deep State tools now.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken

That's a great book.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 10:26 AM (/RHNq)

175 For the four long form writings I've completed, I try to chapter when something big is about to happen, or a scene change, or the focus moves to another character. I try not to let them get too long, just in case a reader may not have time to complete a long one.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:27 AM (0eaVi)

176 ...and that's not a very big glass.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 28, 2024 10:27 AM (lPeS+)

177 And all my reading of the Russian Revolution and afterwards is God save us if the American Cultural Marxists ever find a Lenin, Stalin or Trotsky to lead their Revolution
Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 10:17 AM (fwDg9)
---
The closer analogue is Spain, which is a large part of why I was moved to write about it in 2020.

Russia was very primitive, primarily agrarian with a tiny middle class. The Orthodox Church was an arm of the Tsar, and could only offer feeble resistance to the revolutionaries.

In Spain, Catholics formed the core of opposition to the socialists, and when clergy were being killed and churches burned, the bishops declared a crusade - and the people responded. No equivalent in Soviet Russia to the Navarrese Requetes, fanatical point of the Nationalist spear.

Actual joke from the war:
"What is the most dangerous animal on earth?"
"A Requete who just came out of confession."

There's a book for those who are interested...

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:28 AM (llXky)

178 But I'm proud to say that while I've occasionally modeled a character, usually minor and due to be offed by the villain, in my stories, on myself, I have *never* done a Mary Sue or or whatever the male version is. ("Martin" something?)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 09:43 AM (omVj0)

Landau?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:28 AM (0eaVi)

179 I should add that there are sources outside my shamlessly self-promoting books.

Stanley G. Payne has several books on revolutions (which include Spain, naturally) and highlights the differences between revolutions in Russia, Finland, Hungary, the Baltics and Spain. During the 1920s and 1930s, there were "free companies" of counterrevolutionaries who drifted into whatever countries the Reds were attacking. A bunch of them were Finns. Fascinating stuff.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:30 AM (llXky)

180 Galaxy Quest is a fantastic movie. A good hearted parody that is also an homage.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 10:30 AM (o+Kuz)

181 I've noticed more and more books (usually those aimed at Young Adults or at least younger adults) including a trigger warning before the story so that the delicate hothouse flowers won't wilt at the language, violence, problematic words, etc. Of course some authors do it facetiously as a way to highlight all the good stuff you're about to experience.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 09:44 AM (kpS4V)

Heck with that. Print the scenes in Latin, that always used to work in the old times. Then, they'll want to read it for sure.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:31 AM (0eaVi)

182 n William Goldman's novel THE COLOR OF LIGHT, one of the early chapters includes a sequence re: the protagonist's campus job as a library assistant; like a lot of Goldman's work, it's a delightful read.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024

***
Pretty much every writer, if he lives long enough, writes at least one story about a writer. It's been a while, but I think that is Goldman's.

Goldman (also a well-known screenplay writer) had one neat trick. His is the "One Line That Changes Everything." In the film Butch Cassidy, we think we are about to witness Sundance raping Etta at gunpoint . . . and then she says as he puts his arms around her, "Just once, I wish you'd be on time!"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:32 AM (omVj0)

183 @53: yes, thank you. A major theme of AOtD is that Brave New World (Huxley) was more likely to be true than 1984/Animal Farm (Orwell)

Posted by: yara at July 28, 2024 10:32 AM (TPDHd)

184 {{{Moki}}}

Hope your clan is thriving, with peace and quietude as needed, and excitement occasionally.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 09:45 AM (u82oZ)

Second that. Hope your recovery is going well, and you have plenty of reading material to keep you occupied!

koff, koff

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:32 AM (0eaVi)

185 I don't know if this was a literally take (Fitzgerald?), but the aesthetic of the 1920's dictated that the ideal female breast would perfectly fill a Champaign glass, presumably the classic, bowl type, NOT the flute.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 28, 2024 10:26 AM (lPeS+)
---
Yeah, it's a elitist way to express decadent sensuality.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:32 AM (llXky)

186 I have *never* done a Mary Sue or or whatever the male version is. ("Martin" something?)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024
*
Landau?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024

***
Ha! Now I remember it: It was "Marty Stu."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:33 AM (omVj0)

187 Darkness at Noon definitely belongs on that list.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba

I read that in high school lo these many years ago. My strongest recollection is when one prisoner describes his sexual experiences to another and describes his lover as having breast that would fill wine glasses.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
________

At base, at least for me, it's about the existence of the soul, the "grammatical fiction" in the book. (That was what the party used in place of "I" since the individual was nothing. Only the party mattered.)

Koestler certainly wasn't religious in any traditional sense, but even in his suicide note he spoke of "some timid hopes for a depersonalized after life."

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 28, 2024 10:33 AM (Dm8we)

188 hackett had reasonable concerns the Soviets had 50 divisions or so, on the Eastern Front

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:34 AM (PXvVL)

189 134 ...We can find whatever we want instantly.
Posted by: sal at July 28, 2024 10:02 AM (4lnL

"Disorder is the condition of the mind's fertility."
--Paul Valéry
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 28, 2024 10:12 AM (PiwS

Oh, you want the sewing room, then.

Posted by: sal at July 28, 2024 10:36 AM (4lnL8)

190 Ahhh, "Man on Fire" just started on AMC.

Must watch!! See you all next week.

Posted by: Sharkman at July 28, 2024 10:37 AM (/RHNq)

191 they could have broken through the fulda gap easy, and made it how far west,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:37 AM (PXvVL)

192 One of the leads in Goldman's earlier novel BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER is a writer too, an arrogant creep and a failure as well. A long book that doesn't feel anywhere near as long as it is -- a terrific read.

One of Goldman's neatest sneakiest tricks was in MARATHON MAN -- the shocker in which he brings together the alternating stories of super-spy Scylla and Babe the grad student. Impossible to do in the film, but man, did it ever work on the page. MM is for my money one of the finest thrillers of the 70s.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 10:39 AM (q3u5l)

193 180 Galaxy Quest is a fantastic movie. A good hearted parody that is also an homage.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 28, 2024 10:30 AM (o+Kuz)

There was a documentary about the making of the movie called "Never Surrender", which was fascinating. I can't seem to find it on Amazon now, but if you find it, it's wll worth watching. One of the things that was discussed was that Tim Allen wasn't anywhere near the studio's first choice to play the lead actor.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at July 28, 2024 10:39 AM (PiwSw)

194 Hackett's book was I think a very good prediction of likely scenario in Europe.

The idea of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique teaming up to invade South Africa was stupid.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 10:39 AM (JvZF+)

195 To the Perfessor'ss comments about why we have chapters: I find the biggest purpose of chapter breaks is to signal when a reader can take a break. Because many books are too long to be read in a single sitting.. But a chapter should be read in one sitting. Regardless of scene breaks or changes of perspective within the chapter, a chapter is meant to flow together. But a chapter's end is an official (and deliberate) break in that flow.

This is something I've noticed that is missing from graphic novels that were written as graphic novels, as opposed to monthly comics that were later collected together. With a comic, the end of each issue was a definitive chapter break. But without those built-in breaks, it can be hard to find a stopping point. Especially when the creators put the last line of one scene in a caption on the establishing shot of the next scene (a common comic trope to tie scenes together). On quite a few on these GN's, I feel like I'm awkwardly stopping in the middle of the story regardless of where I choose to take a break...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:39 AM (Lhaco)

196 I recall when I read quinnell's novelization, there was a faithful adaptation with scott Glenn as Cressy in the 80s, set in Italy, which was grimmer than the ending in the Denzel film

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:40 AM (PXvVL)

197 Heh. The embedded video has been showing up on my youtube feed as well. Haven't watched it yet...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:40 AM (Lhaco)

198 191 they could have broken through the fulda gap easy, and made it how far west,
Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:37 AM (PXvVL)

We would have stopped them.
And died in the process.

Posted by: Lone gun C15 2/14FA at July 28, 2024 10:42 AM (xcIvR)

199 the ideal female breast would perfectly fill a Champaign glass

Nah I was in Champaign a few weeks ago, and that idea is neither Urbane nor Normal.

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 28, 2024 10:43 AM (zdLoL)

200 Marty Sue aka Wesley Crusher

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 28, 2024 10:44 AM (McCVY)

201 "The TV series of U.N.C.L.E. featured an Innocent character in each episode, usually an attractive woman"

The A-Team maximized that strategy to good effect.
Posted by: fd at July 28, 2024 10:00 AM (vFG9F)

Edward Woodward's The Equalizer maximized that strategy to poor effect.

I loved it in the beginning, but it turned into a woman is menaced by her boyfriend, husband, ex, and had to be eliminated. So, I stopped watching.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 10:44 AM (0eaVi)

202 and joe pesci, checks notes at the middlemen, this was after the era of the Brigatte Rossi had passed,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:44 AM (PXvVL)

203 The used-book store that I patronize has about eight hardback copies of "The Ax." And the blurb I read about "The Hook" sounds intriguing.
Posted by: Weak Geek at July 28, 2024 09:12 AM (p/isN)

The title "The Ax" made me think of "Hatchet" and I went over to Amazon to see what the book is about.....Nothing like "Hatchet." It won't be added to my reading list...

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:45 AM (Lhaco)

204 I have *never* done a Mary Sue or or whatever the male version is. ("Martin" something?)
--

I've heard Larry Stu or Gary Stu.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 10:47 AM (kpS4V)

205 Because I usually read late at night, I like that my ebooks tell me how many minutes til the end of the chapter so I have a stopping point.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 10:47 AM (t/2Uw)

206 When Hillbilly Elegy came out, the Left loved it. They were trying to figure out those icky flyover voters without having to meet any. Vance doesn't see the folks he was raised with as victims. He calls them out for their bad choices. And he really explains how hard it is to move up economically. You have to leave friends and family behind. I've not seen the movie but I noticed that many people have talked it about it since the convention.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 28, 2024 10:48 AM (xjTDL)

207 I remember Hackett et al's book The Third World War. It was not really a novel -- more of a nonfiction book with some vignettes.

To me the most implausible part was the ending: Russians drop a nuke on Birmingham UK, allies respond against Minsk . . . and then the Russian government gets overthrown. I kind of thought the "and then everyone fires everything they've got" step got handwaved away.

Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 10:48 AM (78a2H)

208 Breasts and wineglasses.
Even the book thread (especially the book thread?) is not immune.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at July 28, 2024 10:49 AM (dg+HA)

209 31 That 1979 first Star Trek movie was a crime and my buddies beat the hell put of me for making them see it. $5 wasted!
Posted by: San Franpsycho at July 28, 2024 09:16 AM (JvZF+)

Even among Treckies, The Motion Picture is divisive. It's not at all uncommon for people to recommend skipping the first movie and jumping straight to The Wrath of Khan. I heartily second that recommendation.

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 10:49 AM (Lhaco)

210 After reading a couple of books about Theo. Roosevelt, there are some pretty interesting similarities between him and Trump:
Both were member's of a wealthy, iconic NYC family.
Both lost older brother's, and heirs apparent to the family fortune and reputation, to the same affliction: alcoholism.
Both were despised by their party
Both were "force of personality" candidates, NOT political animals.
Both were victims of assasination attempts, and injured at speaking events. Roosevelt gave his speech with 2 bullet holes in it*, and blood on his shirt. We all just saw what happened to Trump.
*The speech saved his life, doubled over in his breast pocket.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at July 28, 2024 10:49 AM (lPeS+)

211 I've sung the praises before of "Over My Dead Body: the Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955" by Lee Server. Worth checking out for the lurid covers and hilarious titles, but the accompanying history of the cheap paperback is terrific.

———-

I think I just found my next book! This sounds fun. I did put pants on to join, but was told they are a least favorite (sweats) due to bagginess. So good morning to you too!

Posted by: Piper at July 28, 2024 10:50 AM (p4NUW)

212 yes the villain of the week, that mccall dispatched every weak, michael sloan who was the exec producer did a modern update, of the same character who was not as interesting,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:50 AM (PXvVL)

213 One of my favorite anecdotes is that Robert E. Howard wrote under a pseudonym for Spicy Adventures and suggested to his pen pal H.P. Lovecraft that he take a crack at writing his own "sex adventures" for a little pocket money. The thought of that weird, puritanical recluse writing hot sexy pulp fodder is horrifyingly hilarious. He didn't take Howard's suggestion, alas/thank Dagon.
Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 09:25 AM (kpS4V)

Dang!

We missed out on reading:

"At the Bordello of Madness"

and

"The Cooter Out of Space"

Fate is a cruel mistress.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 28, 2024 10:51 AM (eDfFs)

214 Jerry Boyd just released #49 in his "Bob and Nikki" AKA Bob's Saucer Repair series. Space Opera, and that's a good thing.
I am awed at how he can crank out one of these a month. I assume he is the sole author, with a team of production folks doing the editing and proofreading. If Jerry is actually multiple authors collaborating, they hide it well.
The plot: Bob and the Fleet discover that, while moving planets for fun is easy, doing it for profit is hard.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 28, 2024 10:51 AM (Yt4b4)

215 Hillbilly Elegy currently number 1 on Amazon's best seller list.
This is very good news for the election.
As someone mentioned earlier, when the book was first published all the usual suspects raved about it. Now that he is a Republican.....

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 10:52 AM (t/2Uw)

216 ST:TMP

Could trim 20 minutes of SPFX and no one would notice because Wise could not make it as fascinating as Kubrick did in 2001.

Posted by: Anna Puma at July 28, 2024 10:52 AM (McCVY)

217 yes it wasn't till harve bennett, got hold of the series, that it really got rolling, yes they wanted a continuation script to nomad, it was very trippy and nonsensical, when I saw it on an airplane without headphones,

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 10:55 AM (PXvVL)

218 One of the leads in Goldman's earlier novel BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER is a writer too, an arrogant creep and a failure as well. A long book that doesn't feel anywhere near as long as it is -- a terrific read.

One of Goldman's neatest sneakiest tricks was in MARATHON MAN -- the shocker in which he brings together the alternating stories of super-spy Scylla and Babe the grad student. Impossible to do in the film, but man, did it ever work on the page. MM is for my money one of the finest thrillers of the 70s.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024

***
Oh, that's right -- "Aaron Fire," as the guy in BaGT called himself. Creepy.

Marathon Man has no less than two examples of the "One Line That Changes Everything." You're right, the first was not possible to do in the film, but it did have the second one.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:55 AM (omVj0)

219 What I loved at the convention was Vance introducing his mom. She's been sober 11 years. She stood there, people standing and applauding her, turned and said " That's my boy!" Pretty amazing story for both of them.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at July 28, 2024 10:55 AM (xjTDL)

220
Eh, I liked, but didn't love the first Star Trek movie.

It basically had two weaknesses:

1)The plot got in the way of the movie. (It happens)

2) For some reason, they wanted to convince you it was "real" like the first "Superman" movie. ("You'll believe a man can fly!")

So, the director made masturbatory love to the "Enterprise" visually and it slowed/weighed the movie down.

Posted by: naturalfake at July 28, 2024 10:55 AM (eDfFs)

221 Let's see, post 100 but no open thread. Need to finesse this...

I am eading a very interesting speculative work on current politics. It is sourced from people who accurately predicted coups that have occurred in the very recent past.

The current chapter makes predictions on who will be selected as a vice presidential nominee. It strongly asserts that former astronauts will no longer be considered. Instead the governor of Pennsylvania or Minnesota will be selected.

An amusing aside is that a character, a former President himself, is strongly in favor of the gentleman from Minnesota.

Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 10:57 AM (5p7BC)

222 Had the misfortune to see ST:TMP in the theater when it first came out, with a couple of clowns several rows away who kept urging Kirk and Spock to engage in what has been called (forget by whom) non-Euclidean sex.

Wrath of Khan was much better, and if said two clowns caught that movie it wasn't in the showing I attended.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 10:58 AM (q3u5l)

223 Mary Sue characters exist in two circumstances. The most common is a self-insert by the author, but more recently it's a political statement that women are absolute perfection just as they are and the greatest struggle they face is an internal one to accept their awesomeness.

Their "flaw" is that they aren't arrogant enough.

I've never written anyone close to a Mary Sue. I have "self-inserted" before - Three Weeks with the Coasties: A Tale of Disaster and also an Oil Spill is a semi-autobiographical account of my time at the Deepwater Horizon Response in 2010.

TSgt. Eric March is not at all a Mary Sue, just a guy trying to get by who suffers from comically bad luck and above-normal military ineptitude. His great moment of victory is triple-dipping on the chow line for his friends the day before he flies home.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 10:59 AM (llXky)

224 yes they wanted to capture the enormity of v'ger

Posted by: no 6 at July 28, 2024 11:00 AM (PXvVL)

225 The German publisher of Hillbilly Elegy is refusing to print more copies.

Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 11:00 AM (5p7BC)

226 Some of my chapters are longish, in my mysteries, for example. But in a fantasy novel I completed a few years ago, the lengths varied -- often, I see now, because I did a significant scene change, or changed the POV character.

Do any of you fictioneers like chapter titles? For my lighthearted mysteries, I used a technique that David McDaniel did in his U.N.C.L.E. paperbacks, quoting a line of dialogue as the chapter title. A couple of mine are "Is That a Boy Dog?" and "I'll Have His Kidneys For Hood Ornaments." The technique is so old, it's new again.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:00 AM (omVj0)

227 Could trim 20 minutes of SPFX and no one would notice because Wise could not make it as fascinating as Kubrick did in 2001.
Posted by: Anna Puma at July 28, 2024 10:52 AM (McCVY)
---
Watch it at 1.5x and it's pretty good. Moves right along. Zip to 2x for the extended F/X shots.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:01 AM (llXky)

228 At a "Sit Long And Prosper" Star Trek movie marathon I attended ages ago, we stayed for the opening theme and Klingon battle theme, then left for lunch and returned for "Wrath O' Khan".

https://tinyurl.com/2sdw24k6

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 11:02 AM (kpS4V)

229 In one of the ST movies, you see a Voyager probe drifting through deep space when, suddenly, a Klingon ship uses it for target practice. I wonder if that was someone's "apology" for ST:TMP.

Posted by: PabloD at July 28, 2024 11:02 AM (yhCZc)

230 The German publisher of Hillbilly Elegy is refusing to print more copies.
Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 11:00 AM (5p7BC)
---
Does Germany have laws regarding fiduciary responsibilities? This business of companies blowing through huge loads of investor money because the CEO is a Yard Sign Calvinist seems due for some backlash.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:03 AM (llXky)

231 102
Two keys: I'm reading it aloud (softly) which helps. The old spelling can be confusing but the words often sound tha same as modern English. I'm taking it in smaller pieces, a page or two, instead of an entire Tale. That slows me down and allows for more appreciation of the writing.
Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (zudum)

A sword and sorcery story I recently read tried to artificially create an 'middle english'-esque dialect. It looks like gibberish on the page, but with if you stop actively thinking and just read it aloud (or assume it was being said like a toddler or someone kinda drunk), it made sense.

"Wayne do ye want off me?"
"Spake me where Vangol hydineng es." (Vangol being a proper noun)
"Ik non knowe annthig. U scout ik am."

Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 11:03 AM (Lhaco)

232 This week's Kindle read was "Random Synapses: Book 1 of Short Attention Span Theatre" by Kelly Grayson. It is a collection of his short stories, including "Cecil the Combat Wombat" and "Battle of Waffle Haus 814."
Ever wonder how genetically modified marsupials would perform in an Austrailian bush war?
Ever suspect that the occupants in the booth next to yours might actually be a warband of orcs, and not just a bunch of noisy drunks?

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 28, 2024 11:04 AM (Yt4b4)

233 "Wayne do ye want off me?"
"Spake me where Vangol hydineng es." (Vangol being a proper noun)
"Ik non knowe annthig. U scout ik am."
Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024

***
Readable!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:04 AM (omVj0)

234 Fate is a cruel mistress.
Posted by: naturalfake at July 28, 2024 10:51 AM (eDfFs)
---
The Dunwich Orgy
The Nooke That Came to Sarnath

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:05 AM (llXky)

235 Posted by: Castle Guy at July 28, 2024 11:03 AM (Lhaco)

If you're going to confuse the reader with language,

you'd better have written:

"A Clockwork Orange'

or

"Riddley Walker".

Posted by: naturalfake at July 28, 2024 11:06 AM (eDfFs)

236
Female: Mary Sue

Male: Larry Stu

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at July 28, 2024 11:07 AM (1Nxff)

237 With the exception of II, I prefer TMP to all the other Star Trek movies. I get why it aggravates, but I like the story quite a bit. I do think it could have used a rewrite to trim it down.

Posted by: II, I, IV, V, III, IV at July 28, 2024 11:07 AM (K+3RJ)

238 Just saw three stories that surging demand causing reprint of the book.
A spokesperson for HarperCollins told The Associated Press that more than 650,000 copies have been sold since Trump’s announcement on July 15. The total includes physical books, audio books and e-books.

“We are printing hundreds of thousands of copies to fill the demand at our retail partners,” the publisher announced Thursday.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 11:07 AM (t/2Uw)

239 Publisher is Harper Collins

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 11:07 AM (t/2Uw)

240 "Perfessor" Squirrel

Thank you for another in a series of great book thread.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at July 28, 2024 11:09 AM (u82oZ)

241 Publisher is Harper Collins
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 11:07 AM (t/2Uw)

So the German publisher's snit really only affects would-be German readers of the book, then?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 28, 2024 11:09 AM (fmXlM)

242 With the exception of II, I prefer TMP to all the other Star Trek movies. I get why it aggravates, but I like the story quite a bit. I do think it could have used a rewrite to trim it down.
Posted by: II, I, IV, V, III, IV at July 28, 2024 11:07 AM (K+3RJ)

IIRC, the actors in TMP complained that they were shooting three different scripts at the same time, with the script pages color-coded so they would know which movie they were acting in at any given moment.

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 28, 2024 11:11 AM (Yt4b4)

243 Samuel Johnson on known unknowns:

In our passage through the boundless ocean of disquisition, we often take fogs for land, and, after having long toiled to approach them, find, instead of repose and harbours, new storms of objection, and fluctuations of uncertainty.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 28, 2024 11:14 AM (Dm8we)

244 AOP, I have no idea. Every article I saw said a massive reprint was going on. Find it hard to believe that thee is no way to get the book in Germany.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 11:14 AM (t/2Uw)

245 So the German publisher's snit really only affects would-be German readers of the book, then?

Correct. I think only german translation

Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 11:15 AM (5p7BC)

246 Ha! Now I remember it: It was "Marty Stu."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 10:33 AM (omVj0)

Abbie Emmons gives the term in that vid Perfessor posted.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:15 AM (0eaVi)

247 Sharon - the German publisher has exclusive rights to it in Germany. There will be no reprints there.

Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 11:16 AM (5p7BC)

248 I always loved ST:TM. - of course I was one of the fanboys who had spent a decade watching reruns, dreaming of Kirk’s return. (Nothing before had ever come back from the dead like that). Some complained about the long lingering shots of the new Enterprise in space dock, but that was exactly what we had been dreaming of for years, and to see it then was to see our dreams come true.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 28, 2024 11:17 AM (X4/Jm)

249 So the German publisher's snit really only affects would-be German readers of the book, then?

Correct. I think only german translation
Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 11:15 AM (5p7BC)

Can you say "Streisand Effect"? Hah.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 28, 2024 11:17 AM (fmXlM)

250 Jonathan Turley has a post today about the German publisher refusing to print German translation of Hillbilly Elegy.

https://is.gd/bxdhpy

Posted by: olddog in mo at July 28, 2024 11:18 AM (LyNt9)

251 the German publisher's snit really only affects would-be German readers of the book, then?

Correct. I think only german translation
Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 11:15 AM (5p7BC)

Can you say "Streisand Effect"? Hah.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon

Haha. I agree. Also imagine there are library copies available as it was a prize winning book which had nothing to do with current politics. Someone will manage to exploit this.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 11:20 AM (t/2Uw)

252 Correct. I think only german translation
Posted by: Dave in Fla

Hinterwäldler-Elegie

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at July 28, 2024 11:20 AM (Dm8we)

253 Long, long wait for "Hillbilly Elegy" at my library. Good,

Posted by: All Hail Eris at July 28, 2024 11:21 AM (kpS4V)

254 Story writing idea/prompt: Story with a Mary Sue (MS), who does Mary Sue things with a sidekick (SK).

The twist - the MS isn't a real thing, but a psychic projection/creation of said sidekick. And the story then devolves into the other characters trying to survive / overcome situations that come up now that SK sees the them as enemies, and SK isn't a mentally-stable person as it stands.

Posted by: Another Anon at July 28, 2024 11:21 AM (QNMaY)

255 Sharon - the German publisher has exclusive rights to it in Germany. There will be no reprints there.
Posted by: Dave in Fla

The exact opposite of the treatment of Leftist book deals.

Interesting, no?

Posted by: Tonypete at July 28, 2024 11:23 AM (6WCwE)

256 Three quarters of the way through The Scarlett Letter. It is deservedly a classic but I can't imagine a standard issue high school kid getting anything out of it but bored. That is probably a sign of the decline of standards in modern America. But since I'm not a standard issue high school kid, and haven't been for over 50 years, I'm really liking it.

Posted by: who knew at July 28, 2024 11:23 AM (+ViXu)

257 So the German publisher's snit really only affects would-be German readers of the book, then?

So they're passing up the chance for the stale "better in the original German" joke?

Posted by: Oddbob at July 28, 2024 11:23 AM (/y8xj)

258 When I first requested the book, I was 3rd in line. Couple of days ago I tried to get back in line in case I didn't finish and the list was over 90 waiting. Luckily I finished but thinking about buying a copy just because three is so much quotable stuff in the book that applies to what is going on today.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at July 28, 2024 11:23 AM (t/2Uw)

259 So, the director made masturbatory love to the "Enterprise" visually and it slowed/weighed the movie down.
Posted by: naturalfake at July 28, 2024 10:55 AM (eDfFs)

Nimoy said the same thing in "I Am Spock." The first scene was a long shot of the Enterprise. The second was a long shot of the Enterprise. The third shot was a long gaze at the Enterprise....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:25 AM (0eaVi)

260 My sainted mother, who is a life-long FDR Democrat, had a copy of "Hillbilly Elegy" on her coffee table. I wonder what happened to it?

Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at July 28, 2024 11:25 AM (Yt4b4)

261 Sharon - the German publisher has exclusive rights to it in Germany. There will be no reprints there.
Posted by: Dave in Fla

The exact opposite of the treatment of Leftist book deals.

Interesting, no?
Posted by: Tonypete at July 28, 2024 11:23 AM (6WCwE)

Seems to me that in accepting a contract to become sole publisher/distributor of a book in one's country, there is an implied duty to actually publish/distribute said book. German pub is probably in breach of contract.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at July 28, 2024 11:26 AM (fmXlM)

262 I always loved ST:TM. - of course I was one of the fanboys who had spent a decade watching reruns, dreaming of Kirk’s return. (Nothing before had ever come back from the dead like that). Some complained about the long lingering shots of the new Enterprise in space dock, but that was exactly what we had been dreaming of for years, and to see it then was to see our dreams come true.

Posted by: Tom Servo at July 28, 2024 11:17 AM (X4/Jm)

Yup. Seeing the new enterprise in space dock was great.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at July 28, 2024 11:26 AM (VwHCD)

263 Let's see, post 100 but no open thread. Need to finesse this...

I am (r)eading....

An amusing aside is that a character, a former President himself, is strongly in favor of the gentleman from Minnesota.
Posted by: Dave in Fla at July 28, 2024 10:57 AM (5p7BC)

No need to finesse. You read it, so it counts.

I heard the former pres wants the bald former astronut from Az.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:28 AM (0eaVi)

264 Yup. Seeing the new enterprise in space dock was great.

For the first 60 seconds or so.

Posted by: Oddbob at July 28, 2024 11:28 AM (/y8xj)

265 Another publisher has picked up the license for German reprint of Hillbilly Elegy, per speigel.de

the publisher YES Publishing has now announced that it will be releasing a new edition of the "Hillbilly Elegy" on August 15 - the license has therefore quickly changed hands. "We bought the book from the agency in America at very short notice when we found out that Ullstein had not renewed the rights," says Oliver Kuhn, co-founder of the publishing house. Given the current demand for the English edition, he assumes that the German translation will also be an immediate bestseller.

Posted by: olddog in mo at July 28, 2024 11:29 AM (LyNt9)

266 Yup. Seeing the new enterprise in space dock was great.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at July 28, 2024

***
We got the same flyby scene, or the same kind, in Khan, but much sharper and shorter.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:30 AM (omVj0)

267 Had the misfortune to see ST:TMP in the theater when it first came out, with a couple of clowns several rows away who kept urging Kirk and Spock to engage in what has been called (forget by whom) non-Euclidean sex.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 10:58 AM (q3u5l)

I'll bet they wrote fan fiction about it. The stories were probably fabulous!*

*A lot of the early period fanfic was sexfic for whatever character the writer was obsessed with.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:31 AM (0eaVi)

268 Finished re-reading "Red Phoenix Rising" a couple of days ago. It's aged a bit, but okay.

Posted by: mrp at July 28, 2024 11:33 AM (rj6Yv)

269 They were pretty proud of that model.

Posted by: Reforger at July 28, 2024 11:34 AM (xcIvR)

270 Do any of you fictioneers like chapter titles? For my lighthearted mysteries, I used a technique that David McDaniel did in his U.N.C.L.E. paperbacks, quoting a line of dialogue as the chapter title. A couple of mine are "Is That a Boy Dog?" and "I'll Have His Kidneys For Hood Ornaments." The technique is so old, it's new again.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:00 AM (omVj0)

Wolfus, I did chapter subtitles in my western novel/character study. All the other long form work just has CHAPTER ONE, TWO, etc.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:34 AM (0eaVi)

271 For my beach reading this week once again picking up 'The Great Bridge' by David McCallough. I tried reading it last year but it really dragged for me.

Not sure if it's me or David. . . .

Posted by: Tonypete at July 28, 2024 11:34 AM (6WCwE)

272 Black Bird Oracle — fifth book in the All Souls world. Much better than _Time’s Convert_ but still prefer the original trilogy. It seemed to me that Harkness had to rather radically alter some characterization to get BBO tied into the earlier books.

Posted by: Fafnir at July 28, 2024 11:35 AM (Zmree)

273
UNSIMULATD SEX

Posted by: Braenyard at July 28, 2024 11:35 AM (YMXsV)

274 116
“ Sometimes aggression has to be tolerated because fighting everywhere and always "on principle‘

I always felt that France gaining Italy as an enemy tipped the Battle of France from winnable to precarious for France. They had to cover both the German and Italian fronts. France might have had enough confidence in 1938 to stand up to Germany. Of course, Italy turned out to be weaker than they were on paper. But France didn’t know that in advance.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 28, 2024 11:35 AM (3wi/L)

275 “ For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”

Philippians 3:18-19

Posted by: Marcus T at July 28, 2024 11:36 AM (npuv0)

276 267 --

Kinda doubt these guys would have written fan fiction of any kind about anything. From the sound of 'em and the vocabularies, it seemed like they'd have had trouble signing their names. But maybe that's just me being judgmental.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 11:36 AM (q3u5l)

277 I was very surprised that my local Library system has 90 licenses for audio version of "Hillbilly Elegy". I'll work it into the queue.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at July 28, 2024 11:37 AM (L1omb)

278 The Nooke That Came to Sarnath
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:05 AM (llXky)

You have any pix of that Nooke? Want to buy some?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:37 AM (0eaVi)

279 Excellent verse Marcus T .

Posted by: Tonypete at July 28, 2024 11:37 AM (6WCwE)

280 Hinterwäldler-Elegie

"Shatterhand."

the German translation will also be an immediate bestseller. Once you factor in a little time to carve all those wood blocks...

Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at July 28, 2024 11:39 AM (zdLoL)

281 Watching 'I asked an Apollo engineer' from yesterday's Hobby Thread.
Right now we have four (4) Apollo second stage boosters in orbit around the sun.

Posted by: Braenyard at July 28, 2024 11:39 AM (YMXsV)

282 You have any pix of that Nooke? Want to buy some?
Posted by: OrangeEnt

A rental deal may be a better option for many.

Posted by: Tonypete at July 28, 2024 11:39 AM (6WCwE)

283 Hillbilly Elegy is $2.99 for Kindle on Amazon today.

Posted by: spypeach at July 28, 2024 11:40 AM (UuB/1)

284 270 Do any of you fictioneers like chapter titles?

I do indeed. I've been using it in my latest work.

Posted by: NR Pax at July 28, 2024 11:40 AM (+9EIf)

285 the German translation will also be an immediate bestseller. Once you factor in a little time to carve all those wood blocks...
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver

Hey Guttenberg, get cracking!!

Posted by: Tonypete at July 28, 2024 11:40 AM (6WCwE)

286 I always felt that France gaining Italy as an enemy tipped the Battle of France from winnable to precarious for France. They had to cover both the German and Italian fronts. France might have had enough confidence in 1938 to stand up to Germany. Of course, Italy turned out to be weaker than they were on paper. But France didn’t know that in advance.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 28, 2024 11:35 AM (3wi/L)
---
Churchill argued (correctly, I think) that perfect moral outcomes are not always possible in statecraft. The British could have either given Italy a free hand in Africa (Ethiopia) or take a hard line against it, close the Med and court a military confrontation over an African state.

Of course, they took a third option, of pissing off Italy AND selling out Ethiopia. Neat work, that.

Prior to that, Italy was part of the Stresa Front against Hitler, and guarantor of an independent Austria. The lesson of Munich wasn't "Pick fights all the time on moral issues" it was: choose your fights carefully, and gather your allies when it counts.

Exactly which Slavic villages belong to which Slavic country is not a vital American strategic interest.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:41 AM (llXky)

287 I've ordered two copies of the All Will Burn: At All Costs anthology with my story "Ant Farm." One is to keep, and the other is to read and study the other stories. Raconteur Press has another of their ongoing calls for submissions. This one is "Wyrd West." I figure if I read the other stories in the anthology, it may give me some idea of what the editors are looking for. I have a couple of "weird West" tales to submit. Need to see which comes closest to their story ideal.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:42 AM (omVj0)

288 Well, off to the so-called real (not that I believe that one for a second) world for a while.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 11:44 AM (q3u5l)

289 I remember Hackett et al's book The Third World War. It was not really a novel -- more of a nonfiction book with some vignettes.

To me the most implausible part was the ending: Russians drop a nuke on Birmingham UK, allies respond against Minsk . . . and then the Russian government gets overthrown. I kind of thought the "and then everyone fires everything they've got" step got handwaved away.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 10:48 AM (78a2H)

I read it and should have a copy somewhere, but wasn't it published before the Reagan Defense Buildup?

Yeah, the city tit for tat thing was ... puzzling. There's was also the neo-con manifesto "The Next War" which offers a series of scenarios within a date range of 1998-2007, non of which transpired.

Posted by: mrp at July 28, 2024 11:46 AM (rj6Yv)

290 "We bought the book from the agency in America at very short notice when we found out that Ullstein had not renewed the rights," says Oliver Kuhn, co-founder of the publishing house. Given the current demand for the English edition, he assumes that the German translation will also be an immediate bestseller.
Posted by: olddog in mo at July 28, 2024 11:29 AM (LyNt9)

Sad trombone for the original publisher who didn't want to profit by it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:46 AM (0eaVi)

291 Yeah, getting to be time to do some chores, I guess. Grand thread as usual, Perfessor!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:46 AM (omVj0)

292 290 Sad trombone for the original publisher who didn't want to profit by it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:46 AM (0eaVi)

The logic is "We are saying morally pure and not taking money publishing things from lying liars who lie!"

Posted by: NR Pax at July 28, 2024 11:47 AM (+9EIf)

293 Exactly which Slavic villages belong to which Slavic country is not a vital American strategic interest.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
---------------------

Following old maps circa 1100 to the beginning of the 20th century they seem to be the same people with the Kings or rulers claiming/taking/making different political boundaries.

Posted by: Braenyard at July 28, 2024 11:48 AM (YMXsV)

294 Yeah, the city tit for tat thing was ... puzzling. There's was also the neo-con manifesto "The Next War" which offers a series of scenarios within a date range of 1998-2007, non of which transpired.
Posted by: mrp at July 28, 2024 11:46 AM (rj6Yv)
---
Brits want to seem strategically relevant, and therefore having a British city targeted gives them ink. But why Birmingham? If I'm going to risk a nuclear conflagration, I'd go for a Continental supply hub, like Antwerp, or the POMCUS sites.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:49 AM (llXky)

295 Kinda doubt these guys would have written fan fiction of any kind about anything. From the sound of 'em and the vocabularies, it seemed like they'd have had trouble signing their names. But maybe that's just me being judgmental.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at July 28, 2024 11:36 AM (q3u5l)

Star Trek appealed to well educated people. Wonder why such seeming dullards would have watched it?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:49 AM (0eaVi)

296 Following old maps circa 1100 to the beginning of the 20th century they seem to be the same people with the Kings or rulers claiming/taking/making different political boundaries.
Posted by: Braenyard at July 28, 2024 11:48 AM (YMXsV)
---
Eastern Europe's borders are written in pencil, except when they're in dry-erase markers.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:50 AM (llXky)

297 It's interesting how one author will lead you to another, like some kind of chain reaction. I first heard about P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh in William F. Buckley, Jr's columns. Waugh's diaries and travel books led me to several other authors whom I wound up reading with great pleasure (e.g., Saki, Nancy Mitford, etc.). Vladimir Voinovich directed me to Mikhail Bulgakov. And on and on.

Posted by: Paco at July 28, 2024 11:51 AM (njExo)

298 Star Trek appealed to well educated people. Wonder why such seeming dullards would have watched it?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:49 AM (0eaVi)
---
No, it appealed to alienated people on the fringe of society. High-brow people ruthlessly mocked it, because while it's more erudite than some sci-fi, it's still shot through with TV tropes. Remember, in the 1960s, you had intellectuals boasting that they didn't have a television.

The mainstreaming of Star Trek had the unexpected consequence of also mainstreaming slash fiction and treating sexual perversion as a "new frontier" to be explored.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:53 AM (llXky)

299 Getting to be that time. Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:54 AM (llXky)

300 It's interesting how one author will lead you to another, like some kind of chain reaction. I first heard about P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh in William F. Buckley, Jr's columns. Waugh's diaries and travel books led me to several other authors whom I wound up reading with great pleasure (e.g., Saki, Nancy Mitford, etc.). Vladimir Voinovich directed me to Mikhail Bulgakov. And on and on.
Posted by: Paco at July 28, 2024

***
For me, mention of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories in James Bond brought me to Stout, and reading about the detective genre brought me to Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr. Then, reading about who was inspiration for whom, I came to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Stephen King's recommendation led me to Anne Rivers Siddons and The House Next Door and her other, non-supernatural works. And so on.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:54 AM (omVj0)

301 I've ordered two copies of the All Will Burn: At All Costs anthology with my story "Ant Farm." One is to keep, and the other is to read and study the other stories. Raconteur Press has another of their ongoing calls for submissions. This one is "Wyrd West." I figure if I read the other stories in the anthology, it may give me some idea of what the editors are looking for. I have a couple of "weird West" tales to submit. Need to see which comes closest to their story ideal.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:42 AM (omVj0)

I was thinking of submitting "The Waystation Incident" for that, but it's a bit short. I might ask Cedar Sanderson if it's too short. I don't think there's much I could add to get to five thousand words.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 11:54 AM (0eaVi)

302
"The Guns of August" left me the feeling that Tuchman's central thesis was that the train schedules made WW1 inevitable.

The book had a very cold war perspective to it.

Posted by: Auspex at July 28, 2024 11:55 AM (j4U/Z)

303 243 - Samuel Johnson on known unknowns:

In our passage through the boundless ocean of disquisition, we often take fogs for land, and, after having long toiled to approach them, find, instead of repose and harbours, new storms of objection, and fluctuations of uncertainty. - Biff Pocoroba

Samuel Johnson: one of my favorites.

Posted by: Paco at July 28, 2024 11:55 AM (njExo)

304 Sharkman:

Here is a link to the story...

https://is.gd/7fkLLf

Cheers!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 28, 2024 11:56 AM (d9fT1)

305 I was thinking of submitting "The Waystation Incident" for that, but it's a bit short. I might ask Cedar Sanderson if it's too short. I don't think there's much I could add to get to five thousand words.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024

***
Mine was a hair under 5K, but they didn't seem to mind. You should ask.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:56 AM (omVj0)

306 I have a couple of "weird West" tales to submit. Need to see which comes closest to their story ideal.

Are you limited to one submission?

Posted by: Oddbob at July 28, 2024 11:57 AM (/y8xj)

307 Robert Silverberg's themed anthologies of SF in the '70s led me to try other works by the various authors he featured. Then, reading in biographies about those authors, I found ones who had been a major influence on them, and so on.

I need to try more of Silverberg himself, anyway.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:58 AM (omVj0)

308 Churchill argued (correctly, I think) that perfect moral outcomes are not always possible in statecraft.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:41 AM (llXky)

"If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."

-- Winston Churchill

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at July 28, 2024 11:58 AM (d9fT1)

309 The mainstreaming of Star Trek had the unexpected consequence of also mainstreaming slash fiction and treating sexual perversion as a "new frontier" to be explored.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
--------------------------------------

That's how Hollywood insinuated perversion into society.

from another commenter:

Tarantino explains Top Gun (It's subversion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxzwfZ2Wa94

Posted by: Braenyard at July 28, 2024 11:58 AM (YMXsV)

310 I have a couple of "weird West" tales to submit. Need to see which comes closest to their story ideal.
*
Are you limited to one submission?
Posted by: Oddbob at July 28, 2024

***
Not sure. I can ask.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 28, 2024 11:59 AM (omVj0)

311 Lots of chaos in my house this week, so I fell back on reading an old favorite: Josephine Tey. To my dismay, I was disappointed in both Miss Pym Disposes and The Man in the Queue. I read them to shreds in the past--I have to store them in freezer bags. But I found Miss Pym too cute and the descriptions went on and on. And on. And The Man in the Queue had a clanking clue that the supposedly brilliant detective ignored for a good half of the book. Le sigh.

Posted by: Wenda at July 28, 2024 11:59 AM (ryt6Q)

312 The mainstreaming of Star Trek had the unexpected consequence of also mainstreaming slash fiction and treating sexual perversion as a "new frontier" to be explored.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 11:53 AM (llXky)

I'm sure there was some of that, but from the writing of the time, it wasn't Neandertals who watched it, but better educated people.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 12:00 PM (0eaVi)

313 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

314 WE HAZ A NOOD
Posted by: Skip at July 28, 2024 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

Drat! The end of the Book Thread. Thanks, Perfessor!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 12:03 PM (0eaVi)

315 me this week:

"The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906," Matthew Davenport

Exciting; scholarly.

I learned that much of SF in 1906 had been reclaimed from SF Bay, similar to the Dutch polders. This meant that the foundation for these areas was mud & loose debris, topped with a thin concrete veneer.

Also, post-Gold Rush structures were still largely constructed of wood. Prior to the great earthquake, SF had regularly experienced devastating fires for 50-60 years.

Posted by: mnw at July 28, 2024 12:05 PM (NLIak)

316 252
‘ Hinterwäldler-Elegie’

BergsWilli-Elegie?

Posted by: Dr. Claw at July 28, 2024 12:14 PM (3wi/L)

317 Morning professor.
Book shelves arrayed like the picture annoy me. So dude is always standing where I want to look.
Sigh.

Posted by: Diogenes at July 28, 2024 12:17 PM (W/lyH)

318 Morning professor.
Book shelves arrayed like the picture annoy me. So dude is always standing where I want to look.
Sigh.
Posted by: Diogenes at July 28, 2024 12:17 PM (W/lyH)

(Looks up, puts away broom)

Oh, you're still here?

(Tosses keys to Diogenes and leaves)

Posted by: OrangeEnt at July 28, 2024 12:26 PM (0eaVi)

319 297 ... "It's interesting how one author will lead you to another, like some kind of chain reaction."

Oh yeah! These are the rabbit holes and their many branches I mention so often. There I am, innocently reading a passage from CS Lewis or a history of the 18th century American frontier. Suddenly a rabbit hole appears before my feet leading to an associated poem or story or 18th century recipe, etc. The labyrinth of Knossos was a straight path by comparison.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 12:26 PM (zudum)

320 Perfessor,
Thanks for another great book thread. It is one of the highlights of my week.

Posted by: JTB at July 28, 2024 12:27 PM (zudum)

321 To me the most implausible part was the ending: Russians drop a nuke on Birmingham UK, allies respond against Minsk . . . and then the Russian government gets overthrown. I kind of thought the "and then everyone fires everything they've got" step got handwaved away.
Posted by: Trimegistus at July 28, 2024 10:48 AM (78a2H)

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

I wonder if this book had any impact on Soviet thinking? Certainly it would've been a high on the list reading requirement for Soviet military personnel, KGB, etc.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 12:29 PM (2fIO4)

322 Stop writing headlines like this.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 28, 2024 01:36 PM (8sMut)

323 116 While Wouk is evocative, he's also a bigot, and all Germans are bullies with room-temperature IQs who are hypnotized by Beethoven or something. On, and tiny genitals. Really, Herman?

Wow, an Orthodox Jew having a problem with how the Germans conducted themselves during WWII and portraying the horrors of the Holocaust??? Really, A.H.? This is somehow shocking to you? You want someone like him to portray the Germans in a sympathetic light? How?

Anyways, I consider Wouk’s historical fictions the best ones I have read. Because 1) he lived it and can bring his experience to the story and 2) he was smart enough to know he didn’t know everything that went on in WWII and there was a lot of behind the scenes items to get smart on. His research paralleled the research I needed to conduct for my master’s thesis.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 28, 2024 02:03 PM (8sMut)

324 138 more info, the title of the book is

The Third World War: August 1985

written by Sir John Hackett and other general and NATO advisers.

Of course I would probably consider them all Deep State tools now.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at July 28, 2024 10:14 AM (2fIO4)

Not one logistician were among those NATO advisors. I liked it, but as an LRO, I had questions. Lots of them.

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at July 28, 2024 02:17 PM (8sMut)

325 I started reading short stories before novels, simply due to their availability when I was a kid. My folks weren't readers, even though we had a bunch of different books; they were handed down from older cousins who didn't want them anymore. Inside were some of the great authors, and I loved the scifi and fantasy the most. As I got older, I looked for novels by these same authors and got mixed results. As much as I enjoyed the underlying themes of Foundation, I was underwhelmed by Asimov's writing style, finishing the series and having a similar experience with the Robot novels. I struck gold with Phillip Dick, and he's probably my favorite writer; his style and perspective struck me differently than the others, so I started looking for similar writers. As much as I enjoyed Tolkien, too many writers since have either stolen the basic plots and elements, or just can't make it interesting enough for my tastes; magic solves too many problems. Piers Anthony's Spell For Chameleon is brilliant, and I've tried a bunch of his other work, but none were as impressive (I wasted a lot of time on the Magic of Xanth series). I will read almost anything, but no guarantee I will enjoy it.

Posted by: ragnarokpaperscissors at July 28, 2024 02:35 PM (sBGiW)

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