Sunday Morning Book Thread - 3-9-2025 ["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, set your clocks back an hour (you heard me), and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Moron mindful webworker sent this to me, though he was unclear of whether it was a picture of HIS bathroom reading material or someone else's. Still, gotta admit there's a fair amount of material there. Full disclosure: Contrary to what you might suspect, I do NOT have a bookshelf in either of my two bathrooms. In fact, those are the only rooms in the house that are lacking books. However, there are two full bookshelves within arms length of the door into either bathroom. Draw your own conclusions from that.

MARCH MYSTERY MADNESS

I wanted to expand my reading a bit for March, so I decided that I was going to read mysteries this month instead of my usual fantasy and science fiction fare. In fact, before I became an avid devotee of fantasy and science fiction, I primarily read mystery and suspense stories. I grew up reading The Hardy Boys and The Three Investigators when I was just a young squirrel leaping through the treetops. I also read quite a few of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents... series of books. I didn't gravitate towards science fiction/fantasy until I was twelve or so. Before that, it was mostly mystery stories.

When it comes to crime stories, crimes generally consist of the following three elements, each of which is present in some fashion in a good mystery story:

MEANS - Does the criminal have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to carry out the crime? If there are multiple suspects, or multiple means of accomplishing the feat, which suspect is most likely to have the combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities for achieving their goal?

MOTIVE - Which of the suspects in a crime has the greatest motive for committing the crime? Again, if multiple suspects are in play, do they have competing motives? And if so, which motive can be eliminated to reveal the actual criminal?

OPPORTUNITY - Of those who have both the skills and the motive for committing the crime, who among them had the greatest opportunity to commit the crime? When exquisite timing is called for, who was in the right place at the right time to commit murder/steal the jewels/etc.?

To the list above, I would also add the following, as Agatha Christie mentions in several of her Hercule Poirot stories:

TEMPERAMENT - Even if someone has all of the requisite skills, greatest motive, and the prime opportunity, do they have the true desire to commit their crime? Can they find it deep within their heart to murder someone in cold blood and then act as if nothing has happened to throw coppers off their scent? It takes a stone-cold killer to murder someone, a true psychopath. Consider the narrators in Edgar Allan Poe's classic stories, "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." In one instance, the narrator casually walls up his victim in a cellar for some perceived slight. Then proceeds to think nothing more of the incident. In the latter story, while the narrator initially gets away with his crime, even inviting the police in to investigate the scene of the crime, eventually his guilty conscience gets the better of him and he confesses his foul deed while standing over the hidden remains of his victim.

Returning to detective stories has been a refreshing break from my usual fare, so I suspect I shall continue to read mysteries throughout March. I have some great books lined up...

++++++++++

(Now that I've read Agatha Christie, I understand why this is funny.)

++++++++++

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY -- REAL-LIFE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

Fun trivia - the father of Alexander Dumas, who was the real life Napoleonic War hero whose life Alexander idealized in all of his works, was half black. You can see Alexander's heritage clearly if you look up a picture of him.
Posted by: Tom Servo at March 02, 2025 09:14 AM (SSRw1)

I know a few of you have read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. The video above popped into my YouTube feed recently (probably been scanning the comments of AoSHQ...). It's a great look at the inspiration for one of the greatest novels of all time. It's also a reminder that life is often stranger than fiction and that great authors draw upon historical inspiration for epic stories.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I also read Military Life under Napoleon: The Memoirs of Captain Elzear Blaze translated by John Elting. Published in 1995, this was the first unabridged English translation with a little Appendix about Capt. Blaze's military record. Blaze wrote with a rather chatty, stream-of-consciousness style. He covered many subjects such as life on the march, in camp, battle and rationing. Some of the stories go a bit long.
Capt. Blaze was rather perplexed with the Spanish. He didn't grasp why they would stay defeated. Not being particularly devout himself, he didn't understand that Catholic Spain saw fighting the atheistic French as a Crusade. He admits that beautiful paintings were stolen from Spanish churches, and Jerome Napoleon's government was trying to close monasteries, etc. Col. Elting provides numerous footnotes to enhance the modern reader's understanding of Capt. Blaze's references to early 19th C. Frech life. (I didn't like Elting's snarky footnote that the Spanish monks and priests became guerrillas because they didn't want to work).
Rating = 4.0/5.0. If you want a company-grade officer's view of life in the Grand Armee, this is a book for you.
Posted by: Retired Buckeye Cop is now an engineer at March 02, 2025 09:24 AM (pJWtt)

Comment: I don't have much to say about this book, as Retired Buckeye Cop seems to have captured the essence of the story. Military life at the time was undoubtedly unpleasant and difficult, like it's always been throughout history.

+++++

In between the comics and old pulp stories, I've been re-reading a little bit of non-fiction: The Great Divide by Peter Watson. It's an exploration of the cultural differences between the old world cultures and the new world cultures. I'm still in the early part of the book, where he's discussing the current (2010) scholarship regarding how/when people first came to the new world. Lots of speculation and broad timescales here.
And some fun analysis of comparative creation stories! Lots of flood stories, the world coming forth out of the water... One interesting thing that was mentioned was that light occurring before the sun happens in origin stories even beyond the Biblical one. Watson wants to tie that to memories of something like the Toba volcano eruption, which may have put enough dust into the atmosphere to actually block out the sun.
Anyways, the book has lots of fun speculation, which usually sets me off daydreaming, trying to incorporate some of the proposed-deep-history into some fantasy epic I'll never actually write. A post-cataclysmic world, where the remnants of humanity live in eternal dusk, where dragons can swoop out of the haze without warning...
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 02, 2025 09:41 AM (Lhaco)

Comment: The rise and fall of civilizations across the globe is fascinating. Why do some cultures thrive and advance and others do not? Why did the Chinese and European cultures achieve tremendous technological success compared to cultures in Africa? It's also interesting to note the commonalities among cultures, particularly when it comes to origin stories. Many ancient cultures have legends and myths of a Great Flood occurring thousands of years ago. Numerous authors have used these ancient cultures for inspiration for both fantasy and science fiction stories...

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

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock - Part of the extended Eternal Champion series. It's a vast, complicated world out there...

Easter: The Rest of the Story by Rick Renner - The sequel to his earlier Christmas - The Rest of the Story (2022).

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.

Hercule Poirot's Casebook by Agatha Christie

One of the oddest aspects of reading these stories is the sense that I've read them before. Most likely, I've seen adaptations of these stories in some fashion or another on television. Each of the stories could easily be turned into an episode of a detective series--and most of them probably have been at some time in the past 40 years or so. They seem very cliche, but these are actually the stories that *began* the cliche. I've enjoyed them quite a bit. Agatha Christie is well aware that she's drawing inspiration from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and frequently puts in affection digs at Holmes. Poirot is quite different from Holmes, being a man who is fond of order and stability in his life, though he takes a very similar approach to solving crimes, relying on his own intellect to solve the mystery at hand. Good stuff.

The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

I found this book on a community library shelf in the English department where I work. I was surprised to discover that I've already read quite a few stories as I've studied Poe in a number of my English courses in high school and college. This particular edition contains Poe's only full-length novel, Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, a story of a man who goes to sea to find adventure and discovers far more than he bargained for.

When it comes to writing style, there's a very distinct contrast between Christie and Poe. Christie's style is crisp and fast-paced. Lots of dialog between characters as elements of the mystery are revealed to the reader throughout Poirot's investigation. By contrast, Poe's style is much slower and more ponderous. He uses lengthy exposition to establish the mood of the story, taking several paragraphs to describe something as simple as a dark and stormy sea.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 3-2-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. DOGE will investigate Daylight Savings Time to find out what happened to all those missing hours.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 John Van Stry has a new three part serial called "Misplaced" that takes place in his Wolfhounds universe.

Part 1 was released on March 5. Parts 2 and 3 come out on March 12, and March 19 respectively. This type of release schedule is in the tradition of the pulp fiction magazines. I also suspect that this kind of rapid release schedule is partially to counter the Rothfuss/Martin effect where readers won't read the first book until the sequels are finished being published (a very self defeating strategy, almost guaranteeing poor sales of the first book and thus sequels that never get written because the revenue doesn't justify the time spent.)

I've ordered part 1 this morning, as well as pre-ordering parts 2 and 3. These are available via Amazon, and he's done this in association with Raconteur Press.

If you like John's writings, please do the same and show support for this author.

I'll try to do a write-up on parts 1 and 2 for next week's Book thread.

Also, John's sequel to "Summer's End", "Sometime in the Fall" is out, and is available directly via Baen Books, or through Amazon. (It may be available via other channels too, but I'm not sure.)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at March 09, 2025 09:00 AM (O7YUW)

2 Read the Maltese Falcon last week. I'll send a review later, Perfessor.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:00 AM (0eaVi)

3 First!

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:00 AM (78a2H)

4 Yay Books

Posted by: rhennigantx at March 09, 2025 09:00 AM (gbOdA)

5 Tolle Lege
Reading First Russian Revolution the Decembrest Revolt of 1825 by Susanna Rabow-Edling
Ebook 400pgs

Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025 09:00 AM (fwDg9)

6 Morning, Book Folken on this first day of cursed DST!

Perfessor, the pic up top: At first I thought that was a huge banana on the top shelf Second look said "giant cob of corn." Finally I realized it was a towel.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:01 AM (omVj0)

7 Perfessor, the pic up top: At first I thought that was a huge banana on the top shelf Second look said "giant cob of corn." Finally I realized it was a towel.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:01 AM (omVj0)
---
Sounds like you need an extra hour of sleep...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:02 AM (BpYfr)

8 And swear my last Russian history book for awhile

Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025 09:02 AM (fwDg9)

9 Interesting reading there. The Urethra Book in the toilet? Oh, it doesn't say urethra. I can understand Gray's Anatomy and Materia Medica, but novels? Why would you want to stay in the toilet long enough to read a novel??

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:02 AM (0eaVi)

10 Oh, all right, not first.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:04 AM (78a2H)

11 Thanks to the many mentions here, I finally read Watership Down. It deserves to be called a classic.

Posted by: Zoltan at March 09, 2025 09:04 AM (N7rdn)

12 I'm finishing Oakley Hall's The Bad Lands from 1978. It's rather as if Steinbeck had written a Western. There are passages with certain viewpoint characters that read much as Steinbeck would have done them, though not with the same level of skill. It's no Shane or "Sergeant Houck" by Schaefer, and nothing like Leonard's Hombre, but an epic battle between cattlemen in Montana with examination of character.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:05 AM (omVj0)

13 I didn't get the chance to look at the Dumas video, but I do recall reading that one of the elder Dumas's party tricks while on campaign with Napoleon was to ride his horse under a low-hanging branch, grab hold, then lift himself and his horse off the ground.

Don't know if it's true, but he must have had a physique that made people think that was at least plausible.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:05 AM (78a2H)

14 Here comes the warm kitty. ...

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:06 AM (p/isN)

15 Why would you want to stay in the toilet long enough to read a novel??
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:02 AM (0eaVi)
---
If you've ever had to prep for a colonoscopy, you know why.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:06 AM (BpYfr)

16 The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
---
Poe was stationed for a time at Fort Monroe, which guarded the Chesapeake. It's now under the National Park service, but even when an Army post, it had a museum and one of the exhibits was about Poe. Standing within those massive casements, you can get a good idea of where he got his claustrophobic ideas about being bricked into a dungeon or locked within a vault. Note that the mausoleum of the Ushers had a copper floor, *like a powder magazine*.

You write what you know.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:06 AM (ZOv7s)

17 Thanks to the many mentions here, I finally read Watership Down. It deserves to be called a classic.
Posted by: Zoltan at March 09, 2025

***
Indeed it does.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:06 AM (omVj0)

18 Thanks to the many mentions here, I finally read Watership Down. It deserves to be called a classic.
Posted by: Zoltan at March 09, 2025 09:04 AM (N7rdn)
---
As a recent inductee into that select group myself, let me just say, "Welcome to the club!"

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:07 AM (BpYfr)

19 Good Sunday morning, horde!

I have started multiple books this week on kindle unlimited, and dropped them in short order. Not finding the thing that will scratch the itch this week.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 09:09 AM (OX9vb)

20 Never read Watership Down, are there sea battles and submarines in that?

Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025 09:09 AM (fwDg9)

21 Not a lot of reading this week, at least, not for entertainment. Alas.

Which brings up a question: what's your longest book drought? What's the longest you've gone without reading a book?

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:09 AM (78a2H)

22 The count was referrenced in shawshack redemption which inspired the prison break in my novel

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at March 09, 2025 09:10 AM (dJR17)

23 If you've ever had to prep for a colonoscopy, you know why.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:06 AM (BpYfr)

Nope. And no intention to either. Though, I probably should, I guess.

I wonder, if you get one done, they tattoo a tear next to your eye?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:10 AM (0eaVi)

24 Morning, Perfessor.

Howdy, Horde.

Reading this week was mainly the new collection of short horror stories by Kealan Patrick Burke; it's called Nerve Endings, and there's some nice ones in there.

Also snagged The Harry O Viewing Companion, by Steve Aldous and Gary Gillies. If you're a fan of the series, it's worth grabbing, but it's pricey. Publisher is McFarland and I believe they aim mostly at the academic and large public library market. The paperback will set you back $50; being cheap, I went for the ebook at a mere $30.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:11 AM (q3u5l)

25 Morning everyone, Thank Perfessor! Dash this confounded Daylight Wasted Malarkey. I am up, having mocha, watching cricket, and dealing with the too-spicy chili I made last night.

Reading-wise, I am still slowly working my way through Sowell's Basic Economics, and enjoying it immensely.

Cheers everyone.

Posted by: goatexchange at March 09, 2025 09:12 AM (hyS0X)

26 If NASA ever launches an instrument to observe black holes, would that be a Space Colonoscope?

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:12 AM (78a2H)

27 Still working through Bulfinch's Mythology, still marveling at how downright nasty the Greek gods are, both to mortals and each other.

Someone slights the gods and they don't just zap them with a thunderbolt, but rather kill their entire family, leaving the guilty party for last in order to inflict maximum suffering. No regard for the innocent, no mercy (except on a whim), a very twisted sense of justice to be sure. I can see why the challenges of Christianity and Manicheanism caused a major rethink in pagan thought.

At my wife's suggestion, I'm branching out into some other ancient cultures as well. No real idea for a plot as yet, but I'm enjoying the background research. I think the story will emerge and tell itself once I dig deep enough into it. I've got 41,000 words "in reserve," which is nice.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:13 AM (ZOv7s)

28 That's a lot of books for a bathroom.

Posted by: dantesed at March 09, 2025 09:14 AM (Oy/m2)

29 Still slogging my way through Brandon Sanderson's Wind and Truth. I found the first 400 pages a bit difficult to digest but it seems to be getting better.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at March 09, 2025 09:14 AM (mH6SG)

30 Nope. And no intention to either. Though, I probably should, I guess.

I wonder, if you get one done, they tattoo a tear next to your eye?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:10 AM (0eaVi)
---
My first is two weeks away. I'm told the procedure is painless and restful, it's the crapping yourself inside out that people find irritating.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:15 AM (ZOv7s)

31 Nope. And no intention to either. Though, I probably should, I guess.

I wonder, if you get one done, they tattoo a tear next to your eye?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:10 AM (0eaVi)

The discomfort of colonoscopy >>>>>>>>>> colon cancer

Seriously.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 09, 2025 09:15 AM (PiwSw)

32 Also snagged The Harry O Viewing Companion, by Steve Aldous and Gary Gillies. If you're a fan of the series, it's worth grabbing, but it's pricey. Publisher is McFarland and I believe they aim mostly at the academic and large public library market. The paperback will set you back $50; being cheap, I went for the ebook at a mere $30.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:11 AM (q3u5l)

It only lasted a couple of seasons How old is the book? Can't be too much of a fan base left to justify a tome of that price, especially with only 45 episodes. I don't think I've ever heard of it being in syndication for years.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:16 AM (0eaVi)

33 Modern science has made it possible for smart technology to create biological factories for building nanoparticles. But, do these experiments really control the processes? Michael Crichton's novel Prey shows just how a runaway experiment might occur.

Jack Foreman is a stay at home dad, since his whistleblowing led to losing his software job. His wife Julia, however, is a high level executive at a biotech firm. She has been acting strangely lately, and people around her are experiencing bizarre medical symptoms. When things start getting out of hand, her firm asks Jack to come in and help. What he finds is that a predator software he wrote has been used in the creation of nano robots for military purposes, but the robots are evolving on their own, out of the control of the program.

The novel explores the hazardous nature of creating autonomous organisms that can manufacture themselves. The theme is similar to the Frankenstein story, where the creator cannot control the creation. The novel was written in 2002, yet still seems relevant today, with the same moral and ethical issues regarding experiments in creating viruses and organisms.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 09:16 AM (sDg1U)

34 Orange Ent,

No, they don't tattoo a tear next to your eye. At least, they didn't as of a few weeks ago. But the prep is annoying (though not quite in the I-can-get-a-whole-novel-read league), and whatever sedative they used on me this time made me pretty well useless from injection until late afternoon. YMMV.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:17 AM (q3u5l)

35 Wow, top pic,

Expanding your mind and sphincter at the same time.

Posted by: pawn, RIP Vic at March 09, 2025 09:17 AM (QB+5g)

36 I zipped through the latest -- and likely final -- TPB of Marvel's "Agents of Atlas" series of miniseries.

The Agents of Atlas is a team formed of Atlas Comics heroes from the 1950s. (Atlas later became Marvel.) The first five were an FBI agent, a soldier of fortune who was transformed into a gorilla, an Earth boy who grew up on the technologically advanced planet Uranus, a sentient killer robot, and the love goddess Venus, who could bend men to her will through her seductive singing.

The initial AoA miniseries, published in the early 2000s, sold well enough to become an ongoing series, but that didn't sell well enough to continue. Marvel kept it around, publishing an AoA miniseries every so often.

I liked the series from the start, with its clever writing by Jeff Parker, whom I consider one of the best comics writers of this century. Sadly, this final story, "Return of the Three-Dimensional Man," was just a bit too convoluted to be satisfying.

Still, you can't beat a gorilla that's swinging a machine gun.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:19 AM (p/isN)

37 I visited a bunch of bookstores yesterday and was struck by how busy they were. Sure, it was Saturday, but this is March -- hardly peak gift-buying season, nor back-to-school buying, and the weather is getting nicer so it seems unlikely they were all buying books to curl up with next to the fire on long winter nights.

I hope it's a good sign.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:19 AM (78a2H)

38 Which brings up a question: what's your longest book drought? What's the longest you've gone without reading a book?

I read every day, whenever possible. For me, it's an escape of sorts.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at March 09, 2025 09:19 AM (mH6SG)

39 As I sidequest, I've been reading Osprey books about the Wars of the Roses, and I find it absolutely amazing that the locations of the battlefield is still in dispute. You'd think you'd remember this stuff, but I guess there are so many of them, it's just something one shrugs off.

The book on Bosworth Field was interesting because it has a forward noting that it was originally published in 1999, but the discovery of Richard III's grave required some revisions.

That he was under a parking lots says a lot about how Europeans regard history.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:19 AM (ZOv7s)

40 Also on my library pile is A Moveable Feast by Hemingway -- apparently more of a memoir of Paris in the '20s than a novel, which I had not realized. I also have an Anne Tyler, and for some strange reason, A Generation of Swine by Hunter S. Thompson.

Last week I finished The Black Spectacles (aka The Problem of the Green Capsule) by John Dickson Carr. It's not an impossible crime, but a baffling one: Three witnesses to a staged event by the victim-to-be actually watch the murder committed. The events were filmed as they happened (this is 1938, remember). But none of the witnesses agree on what they saw. And the murderer was masked. Intriguing stuff, fairly clued.

Perfessor, I recommend Carr to you, along with Ellery Queen and Rex Stout, if you haven't tried them yet.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:19 AM (omVj0)

41 No, they don't tattoo a tear next to your eye. At least, they didn't as of a few weeks ago. But the prep is annoying (though not quite in the I-can-get-a-whole-novel-read league), and whatever sedative they used on me this time made me pretty well useless from injection until late afternoon. YMMV.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:17 AM (q3u5l)

Well, the tear is a prison joke. I hear that a lot of inmates get free colon checks while in stir....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:21 AM (0eaVi)

42 I have always liked Poe's stories. He was able to set a scene quickly, but effectively. He also essentially created the crime fighting super sleuth in The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 09:22 AM (sDg1U)

43 It only lasted a couple of seasons How old is the book? Can't be too much of a fan base left to justify a tome of that price, especially with only 45 episodes. I don't think I've ever heard of it being in syndication for years.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025

***
MeTV is showing Harry O back to back with The Fugitive early Monday mornings, 3 am my time.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:22 AM (omVj0)

44 Orange Ent re: Harry O

The Kindle edition just came out; don't know if the paperback's out yet -- pub date was supposed to be March 13 if memory serves. The series did only run two seasons, but it still has its fans. I don't have cable, so can't say for sure, but thought I heard that MeTV (?) had picked it up not too long ago. The DVDs may still be available. Don't know about YouTube, but the whole series can be found on the Internet Archive.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:23 AM (q3u5l)

45 I have always liked Poe's stories. He was able to set a scene quickly, but effectively. He also essentially created the crime fighting super sleuth in The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025

***
Poe pretty much covered all the major elements of the detective story as we know it: the physical ("Rue Morgue"), the psychological ("The Purloined Letter"), and the mental ("The Mystery of Marie Roget").

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:25 AM (omVj0)

46 ...the Rothfuss/Martin effect where readers won't read the first book until the sequels are finished being published (a very self defeating strategy, almost guaranteeing poor sales of the first book and thus sequels that never get written because the revenue doesn't justify the time spent.)

The solution is for authors to write books that tell compelling and complete stories and not ones that may as well have "Part 1" in the title.

Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 09:26 AM (/y8xj)

47 Good morning fellow Book Threadists whatever time it is. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 09:26 AM (yTvNw)

48 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:22 AM (omVj0)

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:23 AM (q3u5l)

Thanks. I have access to MeTV, but don't watch much anymore. Too much time on certain web sites, you know, plus taking care of the house.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:26 AM (0eaVi)

49 I do find myself wondering why some shows have fans at all. So much of TV in the pre-VCR era was written to be ephemera: broadcast it once and forget it forever. Did anyone at Quinn Martin Productions think, "I want to write a Barnaby Jones episoide that will resonate with viewers half a century from now"?

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:27 AM (78a2H)

50 The solution is for authors to write books that tell compelling and complete stories and not ones that may as well have "Part 1" in the title.
Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 09:26 AM (/y8xj)
---
You'd also think that mainstream publishers might do searches to find highly-rated indy authors with an established catalog. It would be found money.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:28 AM (ZOv7s)

51 The book on Bosworth Field was interesting because it has a forward noting that it was originally published in 1999, but the discovery of Richard III's grave required some revisions.

That he was under a parking lots says a lot about how Europeans regard history.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd

I read The King Under the Car Park, which was a fascinating story. They found Richard III at literally the first place they dug.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 09:28 AM (sDg1U)

52 Good morning Horde. Thanks Perfessor. Only non-fiction reading this week about technology governance and regulation, so nothing as sporty as Poe or sci-fi.

Posted by: TRex at March 09, 2025 09:29 AM (IQ6Gq)

53 @49 --

Broadcast twice. Don't forget the summer reruns.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:30 AM (p/isN)

54 I do find myself wondering why some shows have fans at all. So much of TV in the pre-VCR era was written to be ephemera: broadcast it once and forget it forever. Did anyone at Quinn Martin Productions think, "I want to write a Barnaby Jones episoide that will resonate with viewers half a century from now"?
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:27 AM (78a2H)
---
The baseline fit and finish of a show was much higher then than it is now. Yes, it was formulaic, but good acting went a long way. They are also cultural time capsules.

That being said, most are forgettable, but the ones that endured were the result of the passion people brought to the project, often with the knowledge that this may be their one shot at making it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:31 AM (ZOv7s)

55 Registering my complaint that AOS post times conform to the utterly arbitrary government-imposed clock manipulations instead of keeping to standard time schedule as the sun and pets would have it.

Going back to bed for an hour!

😁

Good morning anyway.

Posted by: mindful webworker's cell at March 09, 2025 09:31 AM (+QBnl)

56 I do find myself wondering why some shows have fans at all. So much of TV in the pre-VCR era was written to be ephemera: broadcast it once and forget it forever. Did anyone at Quinn Martin Productions think, "I want to write a Barnaby Jones episoide that will resonate with viewers half a century from now"?

Posted by: Trimegistus

I haven't watched current television shows in years; I stopped because they were so bad. Many shows from the years before VCRs had some stellar writing for ephemera. The shows I watch now are on DVD and are almost all from pre-2000.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 09:32 AM (sDg1U)

57 Broadcast twice. Don't forget the summer reruns.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:30 AM (p/isN)
---
If a show got a real following, it went into syndication, the ultimate dream. Years of residuals. Few, if any, of the Horde watched The Addams Family or I Love Lucy on its original run. Bob Crane was dead before I ever saw an episode of Hogan's Heroes.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:32 AM (ZOv7s)

58 The fourth book on my library pile is Inside Peyton Place: The LIfe of Grace Metalious. I've read PP, and while its writing is sometimes clumsy, the characters and their travails were usually interesting. I'm always curious about the lives of writers, the elements and influences in their lives that came out in their work. I think it's a good idea to read writers' biographies. It can teach you to use your own experiences, whether straight or modified, to good effect in your own stuff.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:33 AM (omVj0)

59 Oh, I'll add this:

Jeff Parker has gained notice as the writer of DC's various "Batman '66" miniseries, featuring the characters as they were portrayed in the live-action TV show interacting with other Sixties TV touchstones, including "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:33 AM (p/isN)

60 colonoscopy prep is kind of pesky, but doable, if approached realistically (never get too far away from toilet,) but I found the 'scopy itself kind of entertaining; my surgeon had the monitor placed so I could watch, and whatever they gave me was an excellent hazy buzz that made me kind of chatty ...

what am I reading?
right now, Bujolds Paladin of Souls, an early entry in the World of Five Gods series, but I will be done before lunchtime and then it's Schlichter's latest, Fifty Shades of Liberal which seems to be a modern woke rom-com of sorts. Knowing Schlichter's talent for barbed satire I have high hopes.

otay, gotta run

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at March 09, 2025 09:33 AM (RP0h0)

61 Going back to bed for an hour!

Sounds like a plan. I'm considering doing the same.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at March 09, 2025 09:33 AM (mH6SG)

62 I do find myself wondering why some shows have fans at all. So much of TV in the pre-VCR era was written to be ephemera: broadcast it once and forget it forever. Did anyone at Quinn Martin Productions think, "I want to write a Barnaby Jones episoide that will resonate with viewers half a century from now"?
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:27 AM (78a2H)

Jed Clampett was in it. People like Jed Clampett.

I think it's because of what we watched in our youth with recognizable characters keeps being brought up comparing yesterday with today. We prefer yesterday.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:35 AM (0eaVi)

63 Summer re-runs? Later, maybe, but not for some of the earlier stuff. The Fugitive, for instance, ran 4 seasons of 30 episodes each. If memory serves, Alfred Hitchcock Presents had something like 36 or 39 episodes for a couple of its early seasons. In them days, if you missed one, you couldn't count on seeing it at all. The one time I missed Star Trek during its first season turned out to be an episode that wasn't broadcast again until the series went into syndication.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:35 AM (q3u5l)

64 27 Still working through Bulfinch's Mythology, still marveling at how downright nasty the Greek gods are, both to mortals and each other.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:13 AM (ZOv7s)

I just downloaded that to the kindle. I have never read up on the Greek (nor Roman, nor Viking, etc) mythology. Bullfinch is available on kindle unlimited, so I'll give it a try. Something outside of my usual zone kickstarts the interest sometimes.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 09:35 AM (OX9vb)

65 I finished several nonfiction books this last week. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings‘s Cross Creek. Her The Yearling is one of two books (along with Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot) that for whatever reason were too affecting to want to read again. This was an amazing account of life in very rural Florida in the twenties and possibly early thirties. Almost as much a food book as a bio.

The Artist and the Eternal City by Loyd Grossman. Uses Bernini and Pope Alexander VII to talk about whatever he feels like among the buildings of Rome. A very old-school travelogue meandering on about related topics, from the obvious (Alexander’s predecessor Urban VIII) to the far less obvious (why are there obelisks in Holy Rome?).

Finally, Little Fish: My January 6th Story by Jolene Eicher. Modern Kafka. “I always thought I was an open book, until my book was opened against my will.”

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 09, 2025 09:36 AM (EXyHK)

66 You'd also think that mainstream publishers might do searches to find highly-rated indy authors with an established catalog. It would be found money.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:28 AM (ZOv7s)

We've researched you, Mr. Lloyd. You're not our kind of author. We want gay and lame. You, sir, are not gay and lame. Therefore, we don't want you.

Posted by: Mainstream Publishers at March 09, 2025 09:37 AM (0eaVi)

67 The baseline fit and finish of a show was much higher then than it is now. Yes, it was formulaic, but good acting went a long way. They are also cultural time capsules.

That being said, most are forgettable, but the ones that endured were the result of the passion people brought to the project, often with the knowledge that this may be their one shot at making it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025

***
Trek and U.N.C.L.E. being classic examples of the creators' passion coming across to the viewers. Many of their fans were at the most impressionable age, 11 to about 15, and the shows hooked them. But these two series, and some others which have endured, still hold up today.

I've discovered how good Have Gun -- Will Travel, Route 66, The Fugitive, and The Rifleman are, and I was really too young to remember individual episodes when they were new.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:38 AM (omVj0)

68 I just downloaded that to the kindle. I have never read up on the Greek (nor Roman, nor Viking, etc) mythology. Bullfinch is available on kindle unlimited, so I'll give it a try. Something outside of my usual zone kickstarts the interest sometimes.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 09:35 AM (OX9vb)
---
It is a very enjoyable read. I do find the editor's notes a bit annoying, since he's very much of the "all religion in bunk" mentality, whereas Bulfinch was a Christian, so he takes the line that the pagans were echoing the True Faith, albeit imperfectly.

He usually closes an entry with poetic references, often from Milton. I suppose I should read Milton again. He was one of those required reads that I did not enjoy, but I guess people like him.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:38 AM (ZOv7s)

69 Is that Howard Zinn's A People's History Of The United States on the right ?

Posted by: jsg at March 09, 2025 09:39 AM (UJ+K5)

70 Finished a couple of books this week. Our own Ace-Endorsed Author's Three Weeks with the Coasties, a quick fun read and Umberto Eco's Travels in Hyper Reality neither quick nor fun but extremely interesting essays about the world at the end of the last century with some eerily prescient diagnosis of society, and With the Third Wisconsin Badgers, one of the best eye-witness accounts of the Civil War I've run across.

Posted by: who knew at March 09, 2025 09:40 AM (+ViXu)

71 We've researched you, Mr. Lloyd. You're not our kind of author. We want gay and lame. You, sir, are not gay and lame. Therefore, we don't want you.
Posted by: Mainstream Publishers at March 09, 2025 09:37 AM (0eaVi)
---
LOL. It would be funny if it happened, because I'm sure they'd say something like: "We see you have lots of books with sequel potential. Would you consider writing them?"

"No."

*Flashes $50 in singles* "How about now?"

"Okay."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:40 AM (ZOv7s)

72 The latest Malcolm Guite YT video was about Tennyson's poem "Ulysses", one of my favorites. Then it occurred to me out of nowhere that there are many similarities between Odysseus and Bilbo the Hobbit. I started making notes about this with the idea of writing a short essay on what I thought was an original and interesting topic. All the while thinking "Well, ain't I the clever one!". Then I checked the idea online and discovered many others had had the same thought over the years. So much for an untapped idea. At least I came up with it on my own and did have fun listing the points of comparison.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 09:40 AM (yTvNw)

73 I am listening the novelization of the first part of the webcomic Girl Genius. Not as good as Pratchett but of the vein. Steampunk and ersatz Universal monsters. The female narrator does the male voices well enough and has good foreign accents.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at March 09, 2025 09:41 AM (lhenN)

74 I've discovered how good Have Gun -- Will Travel, Route 66, The Fugitive, and The Rifleman are, and I was really too young to remember individual episodes when they were new.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:38 AM (omVj0)
---
The lack of decent current art is less of an issue when you think about how much stuff is already out there waiting for you to discover.

My father has a massive library, and now that my stepmother has been placed in the home for the bewildered and confused, I'll be seeing him more often and trying to reorganize his place. My book budget going forward should arguably be zero, but our interests don't always overlap. I bet he has everything Nabokov ever wrote, though.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:44 AM (ZOv7s)

75 Count of Monte Cristo > Monte Cristo sandwich

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 09, 2025 09:44 AM (a3Q+t)

76 When it comes to writing style, there's a very distinct contrast between Christie and Poe. Christie's style is crisp and fast-paced. Lots of dialog between characters as elements of the mystery are revealed to the reader throughout Poirot's investigation. By contrast, Poe's style is much slower and more ponderous. He uses lengthy exposition to establish the mood of the story, taking several paragraphs to describe something as simple as a dark and stormy sea.

-

There is a definite change in writing styles between the two, and also a hundred years between them, which may explain a lot of that. I feel that certain authors, through their skill or notoriety, made a permanent change in writing styles that changed the landscape for other authors.

I can see how Poe changed the landscape, which then produced Arthur Conan Doyle, and I can see how Eric Ambler changed mysteries from the 1930s private detective story to Ian Fleming's spy novels.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 09:45 AM (sDg1U)

77 I don't have a "wee library" in my bathroom now, but I've written about the dual-sided shelves in the bathroom in my childhood home. Joke books, Peanuts and Mad compilations, science, history, a set of encyclopedias....it was an education in small increments.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 09:45 AM (kpS4V)

78
Just saw this, there was a shooting at the WH last night:
https://tinyurl.com/28amqa79

The Secret Service shot a gunman outside the White House around midnight.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at March 09, 2025 09:45 AM (w6EFb)

79 Perfessor,
If your mystery reading doesn't include Nero Wolfe stories you are missing out.

My grandparents subscribed to Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazine. Those stories were the follow up after I outgrew the Hardy Boys books. Some of my first 'adult' reading matter.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 09:46 AM (yTvNw)

80 Just saw this, there was a shooting at the WH last night:
https://tinyurl.com/28amqa79

The Secret Service shot a gunman outside the White House around midnight.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at March 09, 2025 09:45 AM (w6EFb)
---
Hang on to that for later. This is the Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:47 AM (BpYfr)

81 You'd also think that mainstream publishers might do searches to find highly-rated indy authors with an established catalog. It would be found money.

It's a topic deserving more time than I can give it while frying bacon and baking biscuits but at the root, I basically blame publishers, not readers. Tolkien's* publisher broke his one book into three for perfectly reasonable, uh, reasons and every publisher saw the success and took the wrong lesson. "Oooh, trilogies! We can milk the sh*t outta this."

Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 09:47 AM (/y8xj)

82 Good morning!

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 09:47 AM (XArC2)

83 82 Good morning!
Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 09:47 AM (XArC2)

Was it sweet? It needs to be sweet.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 09, 2025 09:48 AM (PiwSw)

84 There is a definite change in writing styles between the two, and also a hundred years between them, which may explain a lot of that. I feel that certain authors, through their skill or notoriety, made a permanent change in writing styles that changed the landscape for other authors.

I can see how Poe changed the landscape, which then produced Arthur Conan Doyle, and I can see how Eric Ambler changed mysteries from the 1930s private detective story to Ian Fleming's spy novels.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 09:45 AM (sDg1U)
---
While reading Poe, I can see how he would have influenced H.P. Lovecraft quite a bit. There's a fair similarity in they way they both capture the mood of the setting and explore the boundaries of sanity in their protagonists.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:48 AM (BpYfr)

85 For any Simenon fans out there --

Penguin UK had done new translations of all the Maigret books and some of his stand-alones. After the Maigrets were done, they seemed to wind down on the new translations, with a lot of terrific stuff left out. But in November, one of his best, The Cat, will finally be reissued; don't know yet if it's a new translation or a reprint of the earlier one.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:48 AM (q3u5l)

86 LOL. It would be funny if it happened, because I'm sure they'd say something like: "We see you have lots of books with sequel potential. Would you consider writing them?"

"No."

*Flashes $50 in singles* "How about now?"

"Okay."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:40 AM (ZOv7s)

I've heard that authors should start out with a book that has sequel potential. Not having the first book say "book one of twelve of the..." on the cover. Make it something that can have further stories, but don't start it that way. I see too many books on Amazon that do that. Why write sequels if no one buys your first book? Get the sales first, then write book number two.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:49 AM (0eaVi)

87 It's a topic deserving more time than I can give it while frying bacon and baking biscuits but at the root, I basically blame publishers, not readers. Tolkien's* publisher broke his one book into three for perfectly reasonable, uh, reasons and every publisher saw the success and took the wrong lesson. "Oooh, trilogies! We can milk the sh*t outta this."
Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 09:47 AM (/y8xj)
---
One reason would be that they were set up to do pocket paperbacks, not doorstoppers. Also, you spread the risk. I don't think they meant to make it seem like a series.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:49 AM (ZOv7s)

88 Forgot to add my footnote.

* (checks to see if I made Muldoon's over/under)

Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 09:49 AM (/y8xj)

89 Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings‘s Cross Creek. Her The Yearling is one of two books (along with Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot) that for whatever reason were too affecting to want to read again. This was an amazing account of life in very rural Florida in the twenties and possibly early thirties. Almost as much a food book as a bio. . . .

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 09, 2025

***
My maternal grandparents moved from western Canada to rural Florida in about 1929, and my mother grew up there.
I'll have to look for the Rawlings account.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 09:49 AM (omVj0)

90 I am listening the novelization of the first part of the webcomic Girl Genius. Not as good as Pratchett but of the vein.

Much of Foglio’s appeal lies in his art, especially his exaggerated women. How does the novelization handle that?

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 09, 2025 09:50 AM (EXyHK)

91 The Secret Service shot a gunman outside the White House around midnight.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at March 09, 2025 09:45 AM

Attempted suicide by cop.

There are a lot of sad people in this world.

Posted by: Grump928(C) Sunday is Vic's Birthday at March 09, 2025 09:52 AM (jc0TO)

92 I've heard that authors should start out with a book that has sequel potential. Not having the first book say "book one of twelve of the..." on the cover. Make it something that can have further stories, but don't start it that way. I see too many books on Amazon that do that. Why write sequels if no one buys your first book? Get the sales first, then write book number two.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 09:49 AM (0eaVi)
---
The big divide is between recreational writers and people doing it for a living. I have the time to sit back and write a four-volume book simply because I want to. It scratched a creative itch.

Authors who need the check think differently, and I'd say just about all of them are fine with striking a vein that produces steady income, even if the work itself isn't that interesting to them. I think the Perfesser has mentioned a fantasy author who would be happy to retire a character, but it sells and so the publishers want more, which he gives them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:52 AM (ZOv7s)

93 Reading a couple books already in my collection/TBR pile, as opposed to checking out more stuff from the library, which is apparently an option? Who knew?

"The Revolutionary War" by Bart McDowell, and
"Beer In America: the Early Years -- 1587-1840" by Gregg Smith.

The Revolutionary War book was written in the 60's for the National Geographic Society and is profusely illustrated, which is how I like history books (see also MAPS).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 09:52 AM (kpS4V)

94 "Was it sweet? It needs to be sweet."

Sweet, sour, bitter, umami; don't try it. I miss it something awful now.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 09:53 AM (XArC2)

95 Hang on to that for later. This is the Sunday Morning Book Thread.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 09, 2025 09:47 AM

Oops. My apologies.

Posted by: Grump928(C) Sunday is Vic's Birthday at March 09, 2025 09:54 AM (jc0TO)

96 The Lord of the Rings was originally one tome? That would have been a thick book!

Which could be another reason for breaking stories into multiple volumes: practicality. Thick books are difficult to handle.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:55 AM (p/isN)

97 I read Tom Cotton's Seven Things You Can't Say About China this week. The sad and scary part is that there is nothing that is not pretty well known in this book, but when you put it all together like this it is absolutely clear that the Chinese plan to become the world's only super-power. We can submit, or be destroyed. The wheels have been in motion for a long time, and are accelerating.

They say understanding you have a problem is the first step. The next step is to take action. This book helps on the first part, but I'm afraid that there are enough complicit and compromised in our corporate, political, and military leadership that we are incapable of that second step.

Posted by: Candidus at March 09, 2025 09:55 AM (wJj/H)

98 The internet had ruined by book reading. I used to read at least one book a week. Now I can download a movie every night or watch a bunch of attention-span destroying YouTubes in the time I used to read.

Posted by: Grump928(C) Happy birthday vic at March 09, 2025 09:57 AM (jc0TO)

99 We highly recommend "The God of the Woods." A well-written whodunnit with great three-dimensional characters.

Posted by: M. Gaga at March 09, 2025 09:57 AM (XDJq2)

100 If memory serves, Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes but the fans and publishers weren't having any of that. Been eons since I read it, but the end of Fleming's From Russia with Love could be read as killing off Bond.

Like David Janssen said once when talking about doing a popular series. It's like dancing with an 800-pound gorilla; you don't stop when you want to stop, you stop when the gorilla wants to stop.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 09:58 AM (q3u5l)

101 I got a notice last month that my library card was being revoked for non-use.

I think that says it all.

Posted by: Grump928(C) Happy birthday vic at March 09, 2025 09:58 AM (jc0TO)

102 Over time written prose has come to sound more and more like speech. Not sure why -- in fact it's almost a paradox because until around 1800 or so it was assumed that most printed works would be read aloud to a group of listeners.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 09:59 AM (78a2H)

103 I've been reading Malcolm Guite's "The Word in the Wilderness". It's a collection of poems for Lent and Easter, each has his assessment on how the poem is appropriate for the season. It uses poems from himself, Donne, George Herbert, Seamus Heaney and others and is arranged like a devotional. It is delightful reading, containing his usual insight. As is often the case with Guite, he leads me down many rabbit holes as I get reacquainted with classic poets like Donne and discover the poetry of Heaney. I only knew Heaney from his excellent translation of Beowulf, so this is new for me.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 09:59 AM (yTvNw)

104 Reread some Brian Daley, The Doomfarers of Coramonde. Good fun.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 09, 2025 09:59 AM (u82oZ)

105 @90 --

The first "Girl Genius" novel adds background details that never appeared in the comic, particularly the revelation that Dr. Dim created Krosp.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:59 AM (p/isN)

106 I'll take a good book over a movie or any other visual media every time. Yeah, I'm old school.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at March 09, 2025 10:01 AM (mH6SG)

107 >> Oops. My apologies.

Mine as well.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at March 09, 2025 10:01 AM (w6EFb)

108 The book in the toilet at the moment is Jesus Huerta de Soto's Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles, all 800+ pages of discussion on banking, money creation, and proposals for banking reform.

It is there so I can get into it, and as usual it will come out to be part of my scheduled reading

Huerta de Soto is an incredibly clear writer, and he has a very competent translator for this book.

Posted by: Kindltot at March 09, 2025 10:01 AM (D7oie)

109 Read John Ringo's Tiger by the Tail (With Ryan Sear). This is the latest in a series called Paladin of Shadows. Per Wiki:contemporary-era techno-thrillers, much like Tom Clancy's works but with less politics and a closer-to-the-ground level and action focus.

Trash. Utter trash. The plot reminds me of Doc Savage pulp stories. The hero can do no wrong, and is untouchable and very deadly. His team is highly competent, and always hit their target.

Well, much more sex than Doc Savage, and our heroes are wonderful, when they are not sadistic.

Not recommended.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 09, 2025 10:03 AM (u82oZ)

110 Good Morning all.
Range day today. Yay!
I read the 30th book in Robert B Parker's Spenser detective series. He is hired to investigate a murder which took place in 1974, 28 years before the current story year during a bank robbery by a "revolutionary " group in Boston. I was living in MA in 1974 and a lot of the story rang true.
Parker's genius is that he can write a complete engrossing story in around 300 pages. Which is why I have book 31 on reserve.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 09, 2025 10:03 AM (t/2Uw)

111 The Lord of the Rings was originally one tome? That would have been a thick book!

Which could be another reason for breaking stories into multiple volumes: practicality. Thick books are difficult to handle.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:55 AM (p/isN)
---
Tolkien (and his heir) constantly pointed out that it is NOT a trilogy, but a single book divided into three volumes for convenience. Tolkien did not like the titles given to the volumes, either.

One volume versions are now quite common, and they are very inconvenient for bedtime reading. Years ago we decided to read it as a family (five people) and we have so many copies that none of the "fancy" editions had to be put to use. I think we have seven in total.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:04 AM (ZOv7s)

112 The big divide is between recreational writers and people doing it for a living. I have the time to sit back and write a four-volume book simply because I want to. It scratched a creative itch.

Authors who need the check think differently, and I'd say just about all of them are fine with striking a vein that produces steady income, even if the work itself isn't that interesting to them. I think the Perfesser has mentioned a fantasy author who would be happy to retire a character, but it sells and so the publishers want more, which he gives them.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:52 AM (ZOv7s)

Understandable, I guess. I don't need a check, so I would classify myself as a recreational writer. I'm trying it to see if I can. Sure, I'd like money from it, but so far no one's been interesting in paying me. Most of the long form stuff I've done and asked for reads gets it's ok, but... or eh, it's not that good. I expect no money for the work, so I think at some point I'll probably put everything in one folder on the computer and press delete.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:04 AM (0eaVi)

113 @100 --

Milton Caniff wrote that if the strip is successful, the character then owns the creator.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 10:04 AM (p/isN)

114 If memory serves, Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes but the fans and publishers weren't having any of that. Been eons since I read it, but the end of Fleming's From Russia with Love could be read as killing off Bond.

Like David Janssen said once when talking about doing a popular series. It's like dancing with an 800-pound gorilla; you don't stop when you want to stop, you stop when the gorilla wants to stop.

Posted by: Just Some Guy

Yes, Doyle stopped writing Holmes stories for about five years, after killing him in The Final Problem. The pubic outcry never ceased. Doyle finally named a price he thought the publishers would refuse to pay, but they did, so he wrote The Empty House, and dozens more. I think he wrote more Holmes stories after the break than before.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 10:05 AM (sDg1U)

115 106 I'll take a good book over a movie or any other visual media every time. Yeah, I'm old school.
Posted by: Notorious BFD

Me, too, most of the time. Since Mr. Dmlw! always has tv on, a quiet place to read is hard to find in the winter months. Come on, warm weather! My porch is waiting!

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 10:06 AM (OX9vb)

116 100 If memory serves, Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes but the fans and publishers weren't having any of that. Been eons since I read it, but the end of Fleming's From Russia with Love could be read as killing off Bond.

Like David Janssen said once when talking about doing a popular series. It's like dancing with an 800-pound gorilla; you don't stop when you want to stop, you stop when the gorilla wants to stop.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025

***
I think Fleming did indeed have killing off Bond in mind when he wound up FRWL that way. The first four in the series had not sold all that well, and Fleming was discouraged. It doesn't show in the writing; FRWL is probably the best-written of the books. It wasn't the Kennedy endorsement lifting sales that revived Ian's interest, as that came later. Possibly the first feelers about turning Bond into a film or even a series charged him back up. In fact I think he'd written a story treatment for a film, and when that project fell through he used it for Doctor No.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 10:07 AM (omVj0)

117 I've heard that authors should start out with a book that has sequel potential.

That sounds right to me (as a reader/buyer, not as an author or publisher). Create good characters in an interesting world but have them do something. Don't make the world-building be the main reason for the book.

To return to an earlier thought, my reason for commenting in the first place is that the comment about "self-defeating strategy" sounds awfully close to blaming the dog for not liking the dog food.

Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 10:08 AM (/y8xj)

118 Yes, Doyle stopped writing Holmes stories for about five years, after killing him in The Final Problem. The pubic outcry never ceased. Doyle finally named a price he thought the publishers would refuse to pay, but they did, so he wrote The Empty House, and dozens more. I think he wrote more Holmes stories after the break than before.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025

***
He also, I think, wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles, a novel set in the period *before* "The Final Problem," and it appeared in the interim.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 10:09 AM (omVj0)

119 Something I can read in the presence of the yammering tv is the box full of women's magazines from 1973 and 1974 that I found in Mom's basement. They don't require any kind of concentration.

Remember the Literary Guild book club? Like Columbia House, but for books? I'm starting to examine those ads to see what people were reading then, and adding some to my library and kindle list, for a change of pace.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 10:09 AM (OX9vb)

120 Milton Caniff wrote that if the strip is successful, the character then owns the creator.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 10:04 AM (p/isN)
---
Calvin and Hobbes comes to mind. Watterson dreamed of being a great cartoonist, a rival to Schulz, and he achieved his dream. Then it owned him, and he quit.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:09 AM (ZOv7s)

121 Also not recommender is Chris Beard's The hunt for the dawn monkey: unearthing the origins of monkeys, apes, and humans.

He has some very interesting observations on the subject. He gives a good overview, accurate to 2004. He posits new theories based on fossil evidence, stating that Asia can be an origin point for man.

However, he seems to have an axe to grind with other workers in the field.

20 years of more DNA evidence and analysis seems to have overturned his theories. Still a murky field of science, despite massive effort. IMHO.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 09, 2025 10:10 AM (u82oZ)

122 Since Milton Caniff has been brought up, I will say his Steve Canyon comics were the best. I started comics as a little kid reading Peanuts and Family Circle, moved up to BC, the first adventure strip I read was The Phantom and the last one I started was Steve Canyon and it was the best. The comic strip collections I own are a couple of years worth of early Canyons.

Posted by: who knew at March 09, 2025 10:10 AM (+ViXu)

123 I get the impression that Doyle never bothered to re-read his older Holmes stories, either. In the later ones there are all kinds of continuity errors: Professor James Moriarty has a brother named James Moriarty, Watson's war wound moves around from leg to arm and back again, and Holmes's weirdly limited knowledge of anything other than crime turns into near-omniscience. He also recycled a couple of plots ("Three Garridebs" and "Red-Headed League").

That said, some of the later stories include some of the best mysteries as mysteries Doyle wrote.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:13 AM (78a2H)

124 The Revolutionary War book was written in the 60's for the National Geographic Society and is profusely illustrated, which is how I like history books (see also MAPS).
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 09:52 AM (kpS4V)

Back when they could be trusted to do it right.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:13 AM (0eaVi)

125 Which could be another reason for breaking stories into multiple volumes: practicality. Thick books are difficult to handle.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:55 AM (p/isN)

I read Shogun. Now that was a thick book, even in paperback.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:14 AM (0eaVi)

126 To return to an earlier thought, my reason for commenting in the first place is that the comment about "self-defeating strategy" sounds awfully close to blaming the dog for not liking the dog food.
Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 10:08 AM (/y8xj)
---
Our society is in uncharted territory when it comes to creativity. It is now possible to be highly educated, socially connected and yet have absolutely no practical knowledge of the world. Even the most pampered Bourbon aristocrat still knew how to ride a horse and hold a sword.

That's simply not the case today, and it shows. The other day some youtuber remarked that Star Wars and Star Trek are now completely sealed off from anything else. They are self-referential, with all of the elements coming from other elements.

This is in direct contrast with the original versions which worked because they referred to *other things* and packaged them in a new and interesting way. But if you don't know other things, you can't write about them.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:14 AM (ZOv7s)

127 Got chores. Thank you, "Perfessor" Squirrel.

May your hat bring you unbounded success with half the human race.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 09, 2025 10:14 AM (u82oZ)

128 Old paperbacks have ads for other books in the back pages. Stuff that no one is likely to have heard of. It's amazing just how busy printing presses have been in this past century.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 10:15 AM (p/isN)

129 I read Shogun. Now that was a thick book, even in paperback.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:14 AM (0eaVi)
---
English publication capability in 1955 =/= American publication capability in 1975.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:15 AM (ZOv7s)

130 Re: over-thick books. The old Guinness Book of World Records got so thick in mass-market paperback format that it was self-destructive. In order to open the book enough to read something printed on an inner column, you were pretty much guaranteed to crack the spine.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:16 AM (78a2H)

131 Only 2 Tolkien mentions?..You guys are slipping.

Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 10:16 AM (Yj6Os)

132 Salty,

Time for a reread of "Oh No, John Ringo, No!"

https://tinyurl.com/2s4zhj8n

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 10:17 AM (kpS4V)

133 I just bought Leanne Morgan' s audiobook, What In the World. I just discovered her and find her hilarious and as a plus, not every other word is foul. I'll listen to it this week and let you know how it is.

Posted by: lin-duh at March 09, 2025 10:17 AM (VCgbV)

134 I read Shogun. Now that was a thick book, even in paperback.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:14 AM (0eaVi)

Book recommendation from The Simpsons:

https://youtu.be/q1-UiUoVL60

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 09, 2025 10:19 AM (PiwSw)

135 Haven't paid much attention to book clubs in who-knows-how-long. Is the Literary Guild still going?

Back in the day, I had memberships in the Lit Guild, the Mystery Guild, the Science Fiction Book Club, and the Conservative Book Club. I think the SF Book Club just shut down some time last year. Don't know about the others. Found some nice stuff from all of them, but just couldn't keep up or find shelf space for all of it. But getting those announcements was always fun -- like a visit from your pusher offering you a cut-rate high.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 10:19 AM (q3u5l)

136 Back when they could be trusted to do it right.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:13 AM (0eaVi)
---
I saw an article last week noting that the "poster child" for National Geographic's boost of tranny kids is a wreck. Well, yeah, that was pretty obvious. Chemically castrate someone, leave them no hope of normal development, but hey, you got good feelz, so it's all good.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:20 AM (ZOv7s)

137 I read Shogun. Now that was a thick book, even in paperback.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

I think it was beaten by Atlas Shrugged.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 10:20 AM (sDg1U)

138 All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

Thank you for validating my rant.

You are a giver. Your Mom did a good job with you.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 09, 2025 10:21 AM (u82oZ)

139 Old paperbacks have ads for other books in the back pages. Stuff that no one is likely to have heard of. It's amazing just how busy printing presses have been in this past century.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025

***
Yes! The back page of several of my Bond paperbacks from the early Sixties tout "Other Signet Thrillers You May Enjoy," and only a couple of the authors are familiar to me. John Le Carre's first novel, Call for the Dead is listed in one, and there are several by Henry Kane, whose Peter Chambers tough private-eye series was pretty popular then.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 10:21 AM (omVj0)

140 Dang! Look at the time!

Posted by: Eromero at March 09, 2025 10:22 AM (DXbAa)

141 I think it was beaten by Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 10:20 AM (sDg1U)
---
Another book I never finished.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:22 AM (ZOv7s)

142 I think someone needs some Metamucil.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 10:22 AM (VofaG)

143 Old paperbacks have ads for other books in the back pages. Stuff that no one is likely to have heard of. It's amazing just how busy printing presses have been in this past century.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 10:15 AM (p/isN)
---
The Bantam war books had a list of their other offerings. I've got most of them checked off!

One of my LotR editions had an ad for the Sword of Sha-na-na in the back of it. Never interested me.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:24 AM (ZOv7s)

144 You are a giver. Your Mom did a good job with you.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at March 09, 2025 10:21 AM (u82oZ)
----

It's not her fault! She tried her best! Yet here I am at the HQ.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 10:24 AM (kpS4V)

145 @122 --

Grandma would save The Kansas City Star's Sunday comics for me. That's how I read "Steve Canyon" for years.

Now I have all of the strip through 1970 in collections. The last publisher, IDW, had been putting them out in hardback, but it's broke now.

I snapped up each volume as it came out. Then Caniff did a hypnotism story -- and I haven't touched the remaining volumes.

Oh, I will, but I have so much more lined up. And the lineup keeps changing.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 10:24 AM (p/isN)

146 Only 2 Tolkien mentions?..You guys are slipping.
Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 10:16 AM (Yj6Os)
---
Tolkien is an over/under, not an "if."

Time was, a book thread wasn't official without Evelyn Waugh getting a mention.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:25 AM (ZOv7s)

147 Thanks for the dandy Book Thread, Perfessor!

Sun is just now peeking over the cliffs. It's like having jet lag without having the fun of a trip...

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at March 09, 2025 10:26 AM (rxCpr)

148 My phone told me to get up, so I’m sitting in my usual Sunday School seat, drinking coffee and having a snausage biskit.

Posted by: Eromero at March 09, 2025 10:26 AM (DXbAa)

149 I continue to check new audiobook availability from the library & 3 recent gems:

Realm of Ice & Snow- Buddy Levy, about early airship exploration and struggle to reach the North Pole.

Soldier's Truth about Ernie Pyle (& WW 2 journalism)

Sea People by Christina Thompson. Not the expected area at first glance, but the sub title does make it very clear- the Puzzle of Polynesia. Even though I'd previously read of James Cook & Magellan, learned some new things. Main focus is of course about the Polynesians with main focus on seafaring.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at March 09, 2025 10:27 AM (L1omb)

150 Only 2 Tolkien mentions?..You guys are slipping.
Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 10:16 AM (Yj6Os)

Well, apparently he hated America and Americans because we overtook his precious empire, so that's a good reason to ignore him. For me, anyway. Was never interested in any of his work.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:27 AM (0eaVi)

151 I read a hard cover book this week and have to say I did sleep better than after reading on my Kindle. But it was a normal size book. I could not read the Sanderson book at all except on the Kindle. The print was just too damn small and the book too heavy to hold at an angle to read it.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 09, 2025 10:28 AM (t/2Uw)

152 One of my LotR editions had an ad for the Sword of Sha-na-na in the back of it. Never interested me.

Did it get a job?

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 10:28 AM (p/isN)

153 I saw an article last week noting that the "poster child" for National Geographic's boost of tranny kids is a wreck. Well, yeah, that was pretty obvious. Chemically castrate someone, leave them no hope of normal development, but hey, you got good feelz, so it's all good.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 10:20 AM (ZOv7s)

During exercise time I've found Nat G sharks program to watch. I keep expecting climate change to be the cause of all problems for the sharks, but amazingly, not always....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:31 AM (0eaVi)

154 Old paperbacks have ads for other books in the back pages. Stuff that no one is likely to have heard of. It's amazing just how busy printing presses have been in this past century.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025

Looking through the book reviews in my issues of "Whispers", a horror magazine from the 70s, there are so many compilations and zines that I've never heard of. I'd love to try to track some of those down.

Posted by: Josephistan at March 09, 2025 10:31 AM (bHGBC)

155 I think it was beaten by Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at March 09, 2025 10:20 AM (sDg1U)

Never read her either. No interest.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:32 AM (0eaVi)

156 I think the writing on some earlier TV shows was far superior to today. The early Star Trek episodes, especially the first season, and Man From UNCLE often used quotes from the Bible and classic literature to underscore the episode's impact and it was assumed that at least some of the audience would get that. The best was Have Gun, Will Travel which is one reason I have the entire series on DVD, aside from some superb acting.

I notice that writing, generally, on TV shows done in black and white was often better than later ones in color. Man From UNCLE, Wild Wild West, even the first seasons of Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea come to mind. It''s as though they had to use good writing because they couldn't dazzle viewers with color.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 10:32 AM (yTvNw)

157
Just as long as Grey's Anatomy isn't a "spank the monkey" book,

I'm okay with the bathroom bookshelf.

Posted by: naturalfake at March 09, 2025 10:32 AM (iJfKG)

158 Finished "Phantoms" by Dean Koontz. What a gripping and interesting tale! Koontz claims in an afterword that he's glad he wrote the book yet he's not glad because it pigeon-holed him as a "horror" author, which he does not like. The tale begins as the heroine discovers that everyone in her small town of 500 has either died instantly or disappeared. Including the pets and surrounding wild animals. She's a doctor and cannot determine cause of death on the bodies that remain. The doctor is able to summon help from various quarters and eventually the mystery is solved. I won't give it away because it is really a good story. Koontz has a vivid imagination, and some of his descriptions are overly wordy, but I find I like that. Recommended.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at March 09, 2025 10:33 AM (rxCpr)

159 >>I'm okay with the bathroom bookshelf.

So are we.

Posted by: Hemorrhoids at March 09, 2025 10:34 AM (Y1sOo)

160 It's probably a bit much to say Tolkein "hated" Americans. I suspect that was in the same sense that Red Sox fans "hate" New Yorkers, or Swedes "hate" Danes and vice versa.

I expect a lot of things about America bugged him -- the combination of ultra-secularism and Protestantism (which in those days included a hefty dose of anti-Catholicism), the absence and thus implicit rejection of "traditional" customs and folkways, and -- the thing that makes pretty much _every_ other country "hate" us -- America's _success_.

But he had a lot of correspondents and friends in America and certainly his later years were _considerably_ more comfortable and prosperous thanks to his vast number of American readers.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:35 AM (78a2H)

161 Anyone read books by Simon Scarrow?

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 10:35 AM (VofaG)

162 Read a few comics this past week. Most notably "Savage Sword of Conan" #4. It's a 60-some page black-and-white anthology comic that features Conan the Barbarian, as well as other characters created by Robert E Howard. Issue 4 really hammered home that second point; it included 6 stories of 6 different characters. A Conan story (obviously), a story about a newly-created girl who once teamed-up with Conan, Solomon Kane, Conrad and Kirowan (a pair of 20's/30s era archeologists whom I've neverread about before), Dark Agnes, and Francis Xavier Gordan, aka El Borak.

Each story is by a different artists, but all of them have a similar style. Except for the guy who drew Dark Agnes, who draws in a slightly-animie-ish style! He doesn't go full Sailor Moon, but it's still noticeably different, and just a little bit off-putting. She really does look like she belongs in a whole different book...

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 10:35 AM (Lhaco)

163 159 >>I'm okay with the bathroom bookshelf.

So are we.
Posted by: Hemorrhoids at March 09, 2025 10:34 AM (Y1sOo)

#Metoo

Posted by: E. coli at March 09, 2025 10:36 AM (PiwSw)

164 The print was just too damn small and the book too heavy to hold at an angle to read it.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 09, 2025 10:28 AM (t/2Uw)

I, too, prefer to read paper books at bedtime to avoid the sleep-disturbing electronic versions. But it is hard to keep them propped up when I'm lying down. The kindle, I can prop on a small pillow on my belly and not have to hold pages open.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 10:37 AM (OX9vb)

165 Another comic I read last week (as part of an omnibus collection) was "Wolverine" #40, published back in 1991. In this issue, the bad guy decides to ram our hero with a jet plane. That's a bit over the top, but it is a super-hero comic, so I guess it makes sense. The catch? wolverine was standing at the top of the World Trade Center at the time........This comic had a plane miss the Twin Towers by like 3 feet!

Some stories just read differently in retrospect...

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 10:39 AM (Lhaco)

166 Those ads bound into paperbacks in the 60s were what got me into the Science Fiction Book Club. That 3-books-for-a-buck offer was just too much for my 13-year-old sf junkie self to resist.

The other books you may enjoy usually steered me to good stuff too.

And then there were the lists, front or back, of other books by the author. Many of which I'd missed due to mass market racks turning over every few weeks. Then I'd go crazy scrounging for them.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 10:40 AM (q3u5l)

167 But he had a lot of correspondents and friends in America and certainly his later years were _considerably_ more comfortable and prosperous thanks to his vast number of American readers.
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:35 AM (78a2H)

Well, the hate was claimed by a YTer, but I think envy is probably a better descriptor. I noticed he didn't like the covers given to the American editions and how the hippies misconstrued the books.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:40 AM (0eaVi)

168 Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 10:32 AM (yTvNw)

Look at how many Star Trek episode titles are from Billy Shakes.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:41 AM (0eaVi)

169 Tolkien should have loved America because of his own station in life and the class divisions he experienced .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 10:42 AM (VofaG)

170 I find the Kindle easier to read at night if I put it in dark mode -- white print on black background. Easier on the eyes in a dark room. YMMV.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 10:42 AM (q3u5l)

171 Can't blame him for not liking the 1960s Ballantine covers. Those were just bizarre.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:42 AM (78a2H)

172 It's funny how certain things overlap. The last time I underwent the exquisite torture of a Colonoscopy, and the equally exquisite torture of the Prep, I spent much of the time in my own bathroom. In this bathroom was a small bookshelf that stood on the top of the toilet tank (mainly because in the 30 years we lived in the place, some craftsman never bothered to screw in the supports that would have held it to the wall...) and held a number of Old Friends. There were also a few items of interest that I would peruse from time to time. One that was added just before The Torture was George Buck's "Life and Times of Richard III" published just after Elizabeth I had assumed room temperature. Buck's Grandfather was one of Richard's Knights, and fought at Bosworth, and apparently Buck the Younger learned quite a few things that went against the prevailing narrative and were not safe to talk about until the last Tudor was safely planted. The prose and typeset of 1603 is difficult but not impossible to decipher, and the concentration necessary did take my mind off the Prep Process...

So, the squaring of the circle is now complete!

Posted by: Brewingfrog at March 09, 2025 10:42 AM (wyRlo)

173 My next door neighbor sent me a crazy text last night at 8:30 asking if I had seen the moon moving at warp speed across the sky. We are in southeast Tennessee and I'm sure she is on drugs. Unless other people had sightings of some strange object....

Posted by: Beverly at March 09, 2025 10:44 AM (Epeb0)

174 I think the writing on some earlier TV shows was far superior to today. The early Star Trek episodes, especially the first season, and Man From UNCLE often used quotes from the Bible and classic literature to underscore the episode's impact and it was assumed that at least some of the audience would get that. The best was Have Gun, Will Travel which is one reason I have the entire series on DVD, aside from some superb acting. . . .

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025

***
And the writers had all, mostly, grown up before television. They'd have gone to movies, but they'd have *had* to read -- either in school, or for entertainment, most likely both.

They did stuff in life before TV writing, too. Gene Roddenberry was, I think, in the Air Force, and then was an LA cop for some years. Alan Caillou, who wrote several memorable U.N.C.L.E. episodes, had been in intelligence work himself, and had been a soldier and professional hunter.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 10:44 AM (omVj0)

175 You'd also think that mainstream publishers might do searches to find highly-rated indy authors with an established catalog. It would be found money.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:28 AM (ZOv7s)

I have a nagging suspicion that the classic model of editor is not looking for authors who appeal to the largest audience who wants to put up money for a book, but want authors who will appeal to people the editors approve of.

Posted by: Kindltot at March 09, 2025 10:45 AM (D7oie)

176 The Lord of the Rings was originally one tome? That would have been a thick book!

Which could be another reason for breaking stories into multiple volumes: practicality. Thick books are difficult to handle.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:55 AM (p/isN)

Amazon would agree with you.

If you use their printing service, they won't print over a certain number of pages, so you're required to split the book up.

That's why "Wearing the Cat" is broken into two volumes, but it's all one novel.

JRR Tolkein's plaintive complaint that LOTR is one soul split into three bodies, so to speak, rings true for me.

Posted by: naturalfake at March 09, 2025 10:45 AM (iJfKG)

177 I loved the Sunday comics pages (ooh, color!) as a kid. Peanuts and The Family Circus were funny but the adventure strips were my favorites. The Phantom, Prince Valiant, Steve Canyon, even Dick Tracy with some of the weird villains and characters were exciting and just advanced enough to make me keep a dictionary handy. The artwork in Prince Valiant was superb and reminds me of some NC Wyeth illustrations.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 10:45 AM (yTvNw)

178 Last comics I'll talk about today, I continued slogging through my Luge Cage Omnibus, reading several issues in the 20's. Weak Geek had read these issues a few months ago, and he didn't like them. (Well, he read some Luke Cage comics, and I think it was this batch...) He was right. They weren't as good as what had come before.

But there was one bright spot. Issue 27 had a guest writer, and a guest artist. The artist was a very young George Perez who....would eventually become one of the best artists around. I could spend a whole comment singing his praises. Anyways, this issue showed me something new about him; he was a pro-wrestling fan. This issue featured a wrestler go on a roid-rage-esque rampage, and use some pro-wrestling moves against our hero. And some of the moves, a hip-toss and an arm-bar, were drawn so accurately that they could have been photos from an actual match! I was genuinely impressed the effort...

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 10:47 AM (Lhaco)

179 until recently I never knew the Left hated Rudyard Kipling. I guess its because he was part of the upper class British mindset which was imperialist and a bit racist by today's standards. He also had his issues with America.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 10:49 AM (VofaG)

180 And those listings of other books by the author?

First book I bought by Harlan Ellison was the Pyramid paperback of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. This was 1967. Bunch of his books were listed in the front. Among them were two marked as forthcoming: Demon with a Glass Hand, and Dial 9 to Get Out. Later Ellison paperbacks in the 70s showed Shatterday, Rif, and another I can't recall now as forthcoming. Of these only Shatterday ever happened, in 1980. Demon got a nice comic adaptation, though. You learned to be a little patient if you were following Ellison's stuff.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 10:49 AM (q3u5l)

181 I loved the Sunday comics pages (ooh, color!) as a kid. Peanuts and The Family Circus were funny but the adventure strips were my favorites. The Phantom, Prince Valiant, Steve Canyon, even Dick Tracy with some of the weird villains and characters were exciting and just advanced enough to make me keep a dictionary handy. The artwork in Prince Valiant was superb and reminds me of some NC Wyeth illustrations.
Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 10:45 AM (yTvNw)
=====

Doonesbury ruined my political development.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at March 09, 2025 10:52 AM (RIvkX)

182 JTB & Wolfus,

I've thought for a long time that a lot of the problems with current movies and television is that the older writers grew up with more book-reading than movie-viewing. The newer crop grew up with more TV and movies than books. And it shows.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 10:53 AM (q3u5l)

183 OrangeEnt, do you ever listen to Larry Correia's podcast, The Writers' Dojo? He mentions series at times, since he writes them.

Posted by: Kindltot at March 09, 2025 10:54 AM (D7oie)

184 "...and certainly his later years were _considerably_ more comfortable and prosperous thanks to his vast number of American readers."
Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:35 AM (78a2H)
----

He bitched about being in a higher tax bracket.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 10:55 AM (kpS4V)

185 Current movies are made by people who want to make films. Older movies were made by people who wanted to tell stories.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at March 09, 2025 10:56 AM (CHHv1)

186 I was Archie's comic book kid up to about 8 0r 9 years old. Richie Rich too.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 10:57 AM (VofaG)

187 Thanks for another fine book thread, Perf and Hordelings!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at March 09, 2025 10:57 AM (kpS4V)

188 American editions and how the hippies misconstrued the books.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 10:40 AM (0eaVi)

Sort of like Ayn Rand.

At least do The Fountainhead or Anthem.
I can totally see why Atlas Shrugged can be offputting but in order to form an opinion on Ayn you must read her. You can't take anyone elses.
But saying "no interest" to one of the most consequential authors of the 20th century... Come on, she helped bring Reagan out of the dem party. Why do you think the left hates her as much as they do?

Posted by: Reforger at March 09, 2025 10:59 AM (xcIvR)

189 I read a little farther in Peter Watson's "The Great Divide" this week. (Hey, look, last weeks comment about the book made the main post!) In this week's reading he went over 'Venus Statues,' little carved figurines of ladies with big boobs, big bellies, and big.....um, well, you can guess. The figurines have never been found extensively across the old world, but never in the new world. And really, even in the old world, it's all been in Eurasia, in the areas in and near the steppes.

Some people have taken the Venus Statues to indicate a religion centered on 'the great goddess,' but Watson advances a different interpretation; the figurines are just a paleolithic version of "What to Expect When You're Expecting;" a visual aid to help remind girls of what pregnancy will entail. The book supposes that tribes of wandering hunters wouldn't have associated sex with pregnancy. It supposes this connection wouldn't have been made until animals were domesticated, and people could have observed a gestation period that was much less than 9 months.

It seems like a stretch, but....(continued)

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 10:59 AM (Lhaco)

190 When I'm cutting a fresh dukie, I always return to Mark Twain to give me a sense of perspective.

Posted by: Rev Wishbone at March 09, 2025 11:00 AM (fY84s)

191 I loved Sunday comics, but only followed maybe half of them.

Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025 11:00 AM (fwDg9)

192 Decided to catch up with one of my favorite authors, Keith Laumer, this week.

Currently reading through "Bolo: The Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade," which is, of course, about sentient tanks of the future. Such great stories.

Once I'm done with those stories, it's on to Laumer's "Retief" tales, all of which are Sci Fi gold. Space Diplomacy on the 25th century.

Posted by: Sharkman at March 09, 2025 11:00 AM (/RHNq)

193 It's probably a bit much to say Tolkein "hated" Americans. I suspect that was in the same sense that Red Sox fans "hate" New Yorkers, or Swedes "hate" Danes and vice versa.

Posted by: Trimegistus at March 09, 2025 10:35 AM (78a2H)
---
Did he ever visit? Hard to hate a place you've never seen.

He did like Appalachia, and imagined hobbits dwelling quite happily there.

But if we are honest, America is everything Tolkien disliked - rootless, industrial, commercial, forgetful.

To get an English view of post-war America, Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One (which was made into a terrible movie, thereby vindicating him) is a good place to start.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:01 AM (ZOv7s)

194 OrangeEnt, do you ever listen to Larry Correia's podcast, The Writers' Dojo? He mentions series at times, since he writes them.
Posted by: Kindltot at March 09, 2025 10:54 AM (D7oie)

No, unfortunately. I can't stand listening to something. I prefer to read. Stacy McCain's CoB, Wombat, will post links to some of his stuff and I'll read snippets of it, along with other writer's substacks he posts.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:03 AM (0eaVi)

195 Mysteries I have read through the years: started our as a child with Encyclopedia Brown stories purchased at Scholastic book fairs, and Ellery Queen magazines borrowed from a neighbor. Moved on to Nancy Drew, then to Agatha Christie's writings, particularly her Hercule Poirot adventures as well as Tommy & Tuppence Beresford. As an adult. I read all of Ellis Peters' (real name Edith Pargeter) series on Brother Cadfael, the 12th century British monk sleuth, and there were about 20 books. Also liked GK Chesterton's Father Brown books. My favorite adaptations were Derek Jacobi as Cadfael and David Suchet as Poirot.

Posted by: MammaB at March 09, 2025 11:03 AM (lq50W)

196 My first is two weeks away. I'm told the procedure is painless and restful, it's the crapping yourself inside out that people find irritating.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:15 AM (ZOv7s)

As an old veteran, let me suggest:
Light diet the few days before.
Chill the prep solution, and you can take it a little more slowly than they suggest if it makes you queasy.
If your septic system allows- wipes instead of toilet paper.
You might feel chilly- take a sweater or sweatshirt in with you.
Something to read- a real book, not your phone.

And you might get to see the inside of your squeaky clean colon, if they give you photos...

Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025 11:04 AM (f+FmA)

197 At least do The Fountainhead or Anthem.
I can totally see why Atlas Shrugged can be offputting but in order to form an opinion on Ayn you must read her. You can't take anyone elses.
But saying "no interest" to one of the most consequential authors of the 20th century... Come on, she helped bring Reagan out of the dem party. Why do you think the left hates her as much as they do?
Posted by: Reforger at March 09, 2025 10:59 AM (xcIvR)
---
Well, I did read her. Slogged through the book for a while, but life is too short to read something you hate. And I came to hate that book.

Terrible writing style, and the whole point could have been summed up (and has been summed up) in long essay, not some self-insert novel badly in need of an editor.

She was of a particular time, but is mostly irrelevant today, outside a few quotes about collectivism.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:06 AM (ZOv7s)

198 Morning Hordemates,
I've been bouncing between mysteries, apocalyptic, syfy, and re-reads of WEB Griffin. And, I'm getting bored. I really need Spring to get here.

Posted by: Diogenes at March 09, 2025 11:06 AM (W/lyH)

199 (continued discussion of Venus Statues)

It seems odd to think that people wouldn't connect sex with pregnancy, but apparently there were some tribes who hadn't made the connection until near-historical times. And as for needing a little statue to act as a visual aid for pregnancy...In a fully-nomadic tribe, you may not have a village grandma to dispense advice....Grandma can be taken care of in a village, but if she has to walk for miles upon miles with the rest of the tribe....I doubt the elderly would last as long as they could in settled societies. So maybe a visual-aid-statuette really was the best way to train the next generation...

It still seems like they are making a lot of suppositions that are hard to substantiate, but the same could be said for all of what we think we know about paleolithic society.

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:06 AM (Lhaco)

200 RTO in DC but might get RIF'd. What should I do?

I have to RTO full time in DC in a few weeks. I've been living in Philly since its a lot more affordable and I telework and only had to go in once every pay period. Doing that commute (2 hrs each way) was alright once every 2 weeks but every day...I don't think I can do it.

My landlord won't let me sublet my apartment and I can't afford to break the lease. I'm only GS-7 and I definitely can't afford to live on my own in DC like I can in Philly. AND I might get taken out in the RIF in the coming months since I only have a little less than 2 years of service. What should I do? Any ideas?

(RTO = return to office, RIF = reduction in force)
Boo-fucking-hoo.

Posted by: Intercepted r/fednews Transmissions at March 09, 2025 11:07 AM (ufFY8)

201 And you might get to see the inside of your squeaky clean colon, if they give you photos...
Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025 11:04 AM (f+FmA)
---
Yeah, I think that's SOP. My wife had one not long ago.

I'm doing it the new way, without the solution, just some sportsdrink (NOT RED!) and laxatives. Supposedly the better way to go. I'll find out soon enough.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:07 AM (ZOv7s)

202 A.H.

Follow sal's advice. And don't plan on doing anything else for the rest of the day when the procedure's done. I've had 4 of these suckers now. Prep's the worst of it, but haven't had one where I wasn't pretty sleepy for a good chunk of the day.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:07 AM (q3u5l)

203 At Bleeping Computer: "The ubiquitous ESP32 microchip made by Chinese manufacturer Espressif and used by over 1 billion units as of 2023 contains undocumented commands that could be leveraged for attacks."

This is Fine.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:08 AM (XArC2)

204 I've also noticed some YT videos about Tolkien 'hating' America. I doubt it and there is nothing in his correspondence to indicate that. He had problems with some American printings of his books and disliked the Hippies misunderstanding of the books and their meaning because they took the enchantment and morality out of the writing. Conversely, I suspect he was gratified when Americans, lacking an ancient British background, understood his efforts and appreciated what he was doing.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 11:08 AM (yTvNw)

205 Some of the mystery/crime stories I've enjoyed most are the "Anonymous Rex" tales by Eric Garcia, which are about a private dick who also happens to be a velociraptor in disguise, and Tim Cockey's "Hitchcock Sewell novels:

"The Hearse You Came In On"

"The Hearse Case Scenario"

"Hearse of a Different Color"

"Murder in the Hearse Degree" and

"Backstabber"

Cockey also wrote a couple of police procedurals under the name of Richard Hawke: "Cold Day In Hell" and "Speak of the Devil".

Very good writer.

Posted by: Sharkman at March 09, 2025 11:09 AM (/RHNq)

206 79 Perfessor,
If your mystery reading doesn't include Nero Wolfe stories you are missing out.
Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 09:46 AM (yTvNw)

Just re-read "Fer de Lance", the very first one. In a way, it's a masterpiece of world building- all the elements are there from the get-go. They only get tweaked over the next forty years, with history (there are WWII books) and technology.

Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025 11:09 AM (f+FmA)

207 Youtube has audio books online, like the "Get Sleepy stories," with readers with a soothing voice.

I listened to Pride and Prejudice last night until the phone's battery went flat. Childhood pleasure, being read to.

Posted by: Beverly at March 09, 2025 11:09 AM (Epeb0)

208 Reading Harry Turtledove story called Fallout.
Alternate history where the world is at war, trading nukes. Apparently the second book in a series. Many different characters in many different places, from refugee camps in WA to bomber pilots in Russia to tank crews in Europe.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at March 09, 2025 11:10 AM (ufFY8)

209 Bathroom bookshelf has a concrete block wall. Maybe its a basement man cave shitter.

Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at March 09, 2025 11:11 AM (VwHCD)

210 It still seems like they are making a lot of suppositions that are hard to substantiate, but the same could be said for all of what we think we know about paleolithic society.
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:06 AM (Lhaco)
---
Yeah, this is a bit of a stretch. I've seen it elsewhere (it was part of the Jean M. Auel Cavebear books), but it makes no sense.

No one living in nature can be ignorant of the fact that sex causes babies. No one. It's ludicrous to even suppose it. Animals go into the rut, babies come out. If you are making statues, you are raising animals, and you know how that works.

This is just academics trying to push their Edenic belief that there was once an age when sex was free and open and no one even knew what it was for, just pleasure!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:11 AM (ZOv7s)

211 20 Never read Watership Down, are there sea battles and submarines in that?
Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025 09:09 AM (fwDg9)

Yeah, if that book didn't feature a rabbit on the cover, you'd be quite surprised at the story within. Heck, even the rabbit on the cover is deceiving! One does not expect an all-out bunny war in anything!

....Except for that 'Apocalypse Meow" manga I read that one time, about little bunny-American-soldiers going into the jungles to fight Vietnamese-cats. But, well, that was manga, and it's expected to be weird....

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:11 AM (Lhaco)

212 At least do The Fountainhead or Anthem.

Posted by: Reforger at March 09, 2025 10:59 AM (xcIvR)

I could probably read the shortest of her works. I think the offputtingness (I coined a word!) has more to do with my cursory reading of objectivism. "... the proper moral purpose of one's life is the pursuit of one's own happiness...." That is incorrect, from my upbringing, anyway. Probably leads to athiesm, and I don't hold with that. Of course, I could be wrong, but I'm just too old and tired to deal with it now.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:12 AM (0eaVi)

213 Perfessor,
If your mystery reading doesn't include Nero Wolfe stories you are missing out.
Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025
*
Just re-read "Fer de Lance", the very first one. In a way, it's a masterpiece of world building- all the elements are there from the get-go. They only get tweaked over the next forty years, with history (there are WWII books) and technology.
Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025

***
The slight differences are that Wolfe talks less in later books, and Archie learns not to say things like "He don't know." But neither character ages during the decades of the series. The world proceeds as we know it, but Wolfe & Archie remain the same age.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 11:14 AM (omVj0)

214 Finished Stirling's Black Chamber and started Schlichter's Indian Country . The first was interrupted by an out-of-town wedding (beautiful couple & venue) and the second is a quick read.

Posted by: Nazdar at March 09, 2025 11:14 AM (NcvvS)

215 181 ... "Doonesbury ruined my political development."

Look at the earliest Doonesbury comics, especially the ones centered around the school. They weren't especially political, just observant of people and situations. They were often hilarious, sometimes poignant. When Trudeau made everything political, the strip went to hell. It became hateful and nasty, not funny or even clever.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 11:14 AM (yTvNw)

216 27 Someone slights the gods and they don't just zap them with a thunderbolt, but rather kill their entire family, leaving the guilty party for last in order to inflict maximum suffering. No regard for the innocent, no mercy (except on a whim), a very twisted sense of justice to be sure. I can see why the challenges of Christianity and Manicheanism caused a major rethink in pagan thought.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 09:13 AM (ZOv7s)

The morality of the New Testament is very different than what had come before. And it's so engrained in modern thought that it's hard to imagine anything outside of it. Which may be a real challenge for the modern and near-future world...

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:15 AM (Lhaco)

217 Never read Rand's novels, but looked through some of her essays and if memory serves you can probably get a lot of her main points in a book called The Virtue of Selfishness; think it should still be fairly easy to find.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:16 AM (q3u5l)

218 179 until recently I never knew the Left hated Rudyard Kipling. I guess its because he was part of the upper class British mindset which was imperialist and a bit racist by today's standards. He also had his issues with America.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith

That is not the problem that today's left has with Kipling. They despise what he writes about because it negates their flatworld ideas of no heroes, no villains, no honor, no respect, no sin, no duty and so on. It is the values of the British aristocracy that the left hates because they want to replace that aristocracy with one based on hierarchies based on color, race, and sexuality, and hivemind where no right to individuality exists.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:16 AM (ctrM5)

219 I'm doing it the new way, without the solution, just some sportsdrink (NOT RED!) and laxatives. Supposedly the better way to go. I'll find out soon enough.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:07 AM (ZOv7s)

I was allowed Fleet's in Gatorade for one- best experience ever, if there is such a thing. Would be nice if that was the new protocol.
And that's enough about that.

Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025 11:16 AM (f+FmA)

220 Have to run some errands. I'll pick up the thread later.
Thanks for another fun book thread, Perfessor.

Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 11:17 AM (yTvNw)

221 "a book called The Virtue of Selfishness; think it should still be fairly easy to find."

Indeed it is:
archive.org/details/TheVirtueOfSelfishness_201803

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:18 AM (XArC2)

222 Still, you can't beat a gorilla that's swinging a machine gun.
Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 09:19 AM (p/isN)

Heh. A motto that comic books have long taken to heart...

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:18 AM (Lhaco)

223 The slight differences are that Wolfe talks less in later books, and Archie learns not to say things like "He don't know." But neither character ages during the decades of the series. The world proceeds as we know it, but Wolfe & Archie remain the same age.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025

***
I might also mention that Stout's Wolfe-world is a slightly different universe from ours. He makes up brand names like "Marley" for a brand of gun and "Heron" and "Wethersill" for car brands (though in one story Wolfe has Archie driving a Cadillac instead of a Heron). I guess a lot of authors made up brand names, though. It took Ian Fleming with his unabashed use of Rolex, Bentley, Beretta, and other names to change that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 11:18 AM (omVj0)

224 The morality of the New Testament is very different than what had come before. And it's so engrained in modern thought that it's hard to imagine anything outside of it. Which may be a real challenge for the modern and near-future world...
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:15 AM (Lhaco)
---
What got me going on this is the idea (discussed in "The Lord of Spirits" podcast) that all religions are describing the same thing from different perspectives. The Bible is the correct version, and it is not contradicted anywhere, just told incorrectly.

None of the other gods are all-powerful. They are actually very limited. This is consistent with them being the fallen angels, who nevertheless call themselves gods. For many years, I puzzled at how the Old Testament kept stressing God was God, a True God, etc. That was because the Jews were surrounded by pagans whose gods did perform miraculous feats, and who also offered sexual license rather than the laws of Moses.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:19 AM (ZOv7s)

225 "Still, you can't beat a gorilla that's swinging a machine gun."

The Three Stooges proved that you can survive a gorilla machine gun attack by sheltering behind your ass.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:20 AM (XArC2)

226 167
'I noticed he didn't like the covers given to the American editions and how the hippies misconstrued the books.'

If Tolkien didn't like hippies I can't help but like him now.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at March 09, 2025 11:20 AM (3wi/L)

227 Current movies are made by people who want to make films. Older movies were made by people who wanted to tell stories.

Reminds me of the scene from "White Christmas" where Danny Kaye mocks people who want to "do choreography" instead of dance.

Posted by: Oddbob at March 09, 2025 11:22 AM (/y8xj)

228 Never read Watership Down, are there sea battles and submarines in that?
Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025

***
Skip, Watership Down is an epic adventure, a thriller if you will, with one of the great villains and a band of the finest heroes in literature. Don't let the fact they are English wild rabbits deter you from that. It starts a little slowly, I'll admit. But once you get to the exploration of rabbit abnormal psychology, I think you'll be hooked.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 11:22 AM (omVj0)

229 The morality of the New Testament is very different than what had come before. And it's so engrained in modern thought that it's hard to imagine anything outside of it. Which may be a real challenge for the modern and near-future world...
Posted by: Castle Guy
=======
I think that is a mistake to read the New Testament as a discontinuity with the Old. If you want an example, Jesus himself said he was not on earth to abolish the existing law but rather to complete it. Peter and Paul have some interesting things to say about combining the law of the Old Testament with that of the New later as well.

Mosaic laws (laws of Moses) is a complicated subject but it is one based on a lack of an authoritative leader whose word is law (like the Pharaohs, Hammurabi, Draco, etc.) but a law from revelation directly from the Lord. One could argue that it is the creation of 'natural law' governing society combined with religious requirements masked as laws necessary to remove barriers between man and the Lord.

Other legal systems of the time around Israel were focused more on the authority of the person issuing the law and thus a new ruler meant a new set of laws. Rule of man rather than law

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:23 AM (ctrM5)

230 "Current movies are made by people who want to make films. Older movies were made by people who wanted to tell stories."

99% of movies are made by people who want to make money. And that's OK.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:23 AM (XArC2)

231 I'm doing it the new way, without the solution, just some sportsdrink (NOT RED!) and laxatives. Supposedly the better way to go. I'll find out soon enough.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:07 AM (ZOv7s)

That's how I did it. They suggested I pick my favorite flavor, because you'll be drinking a lot of it. In retrospect, I would say pick a flavor that you like ok, but not your favorite, because you may never want to sample anything in that flavor ever again.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at March 09, 2025 11:25 AM (OX9vb)

232 I read Tom Cotton's Seven Things You Can't Say About China this week. The sad and scary part is that there is nothing that is not pretty well known in this book, but when you put it all together like this it is absolutely clear that the Chinese plan to become the world's only super-power.
Posted by: Candidus at March 09, 2025 09:55 AM (wJj/H)
---
If you haven't already, check out Walls of Men, my military history of China.

While China seems to be moving from strength to strength, that's in large part because we gave up competing. That is now changing. China has some deeply-embedded vulnerabilities that are not easily solved. The collapsed birth rate is one, but so is the fact that in all of recorded history, there has never been a reliable way to transfer power. For a while, the Chi-coms had a system of two terms per president, but Xi threw that out the window and has been conducting regular purges, which means his succession will be difficult, possibly violent.

China's military is divided into four geographic commands to prevent a coup, and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a new national police was created because Army units refused orders to attack students.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:25 AM (ZOv7s)

233 "Current movies are made by people who want to make films. Older movies were made by people who wanted to tell stories."

99% of movies are made by people who want to make money. And that's OK.
Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025

***
They do. But older producers knew the way to make the money was to tell stories people wanted to see -- romances, exciting Westerns and spy stories, rags-to-riches stories during the Depression, wartime heroism during WWII, etc.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 11:26 AM (omVj0)

234 Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:16 AM (ctrM5)

Agree with what you wrote but in the Left's own words they call him a racist, imperialist, colonist and right wing war monger. Most of it arises from his White Man's Burden poem.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 11:26 AM (VofaG)

235 It is the values of the British aristocracy that the left hates because they want to replace that aristocracy with one based on hierarchies based on color, race, and sexuality, and hivemind where no right to individuality exists.
Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:16 AM (ctrM5)

I have often mentioned English author Angela Thirkell here. She was Kipling's cousin, and her novels of country life are based on the above. She wrote through the 30s, 40s and 5Os- by the end of the series she knew that the old order was on it's way out. Several of the books deal with aristocracy being unable to keep up their estates, but still trying to do the best for "their people".
One of her most interesting characters is a self-made industrialist, who marries into the county and comes to the aid of several of the families with business propositions that allow them to at least live in their ancestral homes.
She hated modernism and can be scathing about things like metal kitchen cabinets, plastic, and movies (her descriptions of what's playing at the Odeon are hilarious).

Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025 11:27 AM (f+FmA)

236 99% of movies are made by people who want to make money. And that's OK.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:23 AM (XArC2)

I'm a lumberjack, and that's ok.

Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 11:28 AM (Yj6Os)

237 (cont) Any time a state has to divide its security services, they have problems. Note also that for all its martial airs, China still uses conscription to recruit its forces, though the actual numbers are a state secret. I think it's close to 2/3 are conscripts.

Think of that for a minute. The total end state of Chinese and American military forces (and paramilitaries) is roughly the same, yet even while mired in unpopular wars, the US could meet its recruiting needs with volunteers, while China - with 4x our population and being at peace - has to use conscription.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:28 AM (ZOv7s)

238 It is the values of the British aristocracy that the left hates because they want to replace that aristocracy with one based on hierarchies based on color, race, and sexuality, and hivemind where no right to individuality exists.
Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:16 AM (ctrM5)

I just wonder if the color, race, and sexuality isn't just used as a point of division. They really don't care about elevating anyone who fits that description, they just want power and will use any cudgel to get it.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:28 AM (0eaVi)

239 Got some chores to do, I'm afraid. Thanks to the Perfessor and all of you for yet another fascinating Book Thread?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 11:29 AM (omVj0)

240 They do. But older producers knew the way to make the money was to tell stories people wanted to see -- romances, exciting Westerns and spy stories, rags-to-riches stories during the Depression, wartime heroism during WWII, etc.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 09, 2025 11:26 AM (omVj0)
---
How much of Woke Hollywood was getting subsidies from USAID?

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:29 AM (ZOv7s)

241 DOGE will investigate Daylight Savings Time to find out what happened to all those missing hours.

Hurry up, DOGE. Spit spot!

Posted by: mrp at March 09, 2025 11:31 AM (rj6Yv)

242 What got me going on this is the idea (discussed in "The Lord of Spirits" podcast) that all religions are describing the same thing from different perspectives. The Bible is the correct version, and it is not contradicted anywhere, just told incorrectly.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
=======
Stan would actually be the anti-deity through his agents directing man into channelling their religious impulses into evil and sin.

Elijah through a direct demonstration along with Moses pretty much put paid to the idea of the efficacy of a Baal or a Golden Calf when the Lord decided to demonstrate what a True God is.

I think mythological systems are more that humans seem to have a genetic need for religion (some much less than others) which implies that the Lord built that into creation. So men promptly created 'gods' in their own image and inhabited the world with a variety of sprites, imps, and other creatures to explain reality that they saw.

If you take Genesis seriously, there was always though a true religion beginning with Adam and Eve, it was later generations that fell away to sin, destruction, impurity, and evil.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:32 AM (ctrM5)

243 speaking of Kipling poems, every boy should be read If....by his father.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 11:33 AM (VofaG)

244 Thanks, as always, Perfesser.
Back to my Lenten no-commenting rule...

Posted by: sal at March 09, 2025 11:33 AM (f+FmA)

245 Sea People by Christina Thompson. Not the expected area at first glance, but the sub title does make it very clear- the Puzzle of Polynesia. Even though I'd previously read of James Cook & Magellan, learned some new things. Main focus is of course about the Polynesians with main focus on seafaring.
Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at March 09, 2025 10:27 AM (L1omb)

Heh. Context really does matter. In everything I read 'The Sea People' refers to the sea-born raider who wrecked multiple empires at the end of the bronze age. (1177 bc) I never would have even thought about applying the name to Polynesians, regardless of how well it applies...

And if you want to embrace conspiracy-theory style of history, the bronze age Sea People were the Greek refugees, lashing out after the Trojan War wrecked their society....

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:34 AM (Lhaco)

246 I just wonder if the color, race, and sexuality isn't just used as a point of division. They really don't care about elevating anyone who fits that description, they just want power and will use any cudgel to get it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt

That is pretty much most of the history of the world. The original aristocracy seized that power in Britain by bloody deeds and coercive power so that none may challenge them. Had not Christianity existed to leaven despotism and the anarchy of many aristos, Euroland would have a history more like Central Asia, Africa, the Americas, or other places where might made right.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:34 AM (ctrM5)

247 The co-founder of Wikipedia had a Road to Damascus experience. I truly love those stories .

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 11:34 AM (VofaG)

248 I finished John Dickson Carr's He Who Whispers and, like many a good mystery, the ending left me I did not see that coming.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 09, 2025 11:35 AM (L/fGl)

249 Other legal systems of the time around Israel were focused more on the authority of the person issuing the law and thus a new ruler meant a new set of laws. Rule of man rather than law
Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:23 AM (ctrM5)
---
Catholic teaching is that there is no discontinuity between the testaments, and liturgical practice is to combine a reading from the Old Testament and then match it with an New Testament reading and a Gospel passage.

And you are correct - the Bible set a permanent, universal morality that was no dependent on pure power for its enforcement. The Greeks and Babylonians were much more authoritarian in that sense, and the gods were of course proud and fickle.

Yet there was still a hierarchy and natural law is in evidence, though unevenly enforced. It's also interesting to notice how similar religious practice is across cultures. Setting out food (or some similar sacrifice) for the dead is pretty much global.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:36 AM (ZOv7s)

250 And Kipling's "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" should be required reading every year in middle school and high school. Revisiting it in college wouldn't hurt either.

"If" used to be in a lot of the grade school and high school textbooks, but it was years and years later before I stumbled over "Copybook Headings."

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:36 AM (q3u5l)

251 They called themselves "The Sea Persons." The only reason for their raids was to get folks to stop calling them "The Sea Peoples." Didn't work.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:37 AM (XArC2)

252 243 speaking of Kipling poems, every boy should be read If....by his father.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith
=======
I would add "Recessional" by Kipling coupled with "Horatius" by Macaulay.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:37 AM (ctrM5)

253 If you take Genesis seriously, there was always though a true religion beginning with Adam and Eve, it was later generations that fell away to sin, destruction, impurity, and evil.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:32 AM (ctrM5)
---
I have 1 Enoch bookmarked and will be cross-referencing it when I finish with Bulfinch.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:38 AM (ZOv7s)

254 China's military is divided into four geographic commands to prevent a coup, and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, a new national police was created because Army units refused orders to attack students.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:25 AM (ZOv7s)

And the more Christian it becomes - although, I don't expect it to ever become a Christian nation - the less likely they'll start a world war of domination. Besides, the Three Gorges dam and shoddy manufacturing is probably more of a threat to them than we are.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:38 AM (0eaVi)

255 "Current movies are made by people who want to make films. Older movies were made by people who wanted to tell stories."
--------------
99% of movies are made by people who want to make money. And that's OK.
Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:23 AM (XArC2)

Are they?

When your biggest current movie cost somewhere around $800 in total costs (to produce and promote), and will make less than half of that, and the next one will cost closer to a billion, and is expected to earn even less... what is that?

Now I wonder if this whole thing is some other form of a money laundering scheme. They can't be THAT bad at making money... can they?

Posted by: BurtTC at March 09, 2025 11:39 AM (Pfem1)

256 255 Good point!

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:40 AM (XArC2)

257 And the more Christian it becomes - although, I don't expect it to ever become a Christian nation - the less likely they'll start a world war of domination. Besides, the Three Gorges dam and shoddy manufacturing is probably more of a threat to them than we are.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:38 AM (0eaVi)
---
Yes, the dirty secret is that the mainland could unify with Taiwan tomorrow in perfect peace if they just dropped Mao.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:40 AM (ZOv7s)

258 177 I loved the Sunday comics pages (ooh, color!) as a kid. Peanuts and The Family Circus were funny but the adventure strips were my favorites. The Phantom, Prince Valiant, Steve Canyon, even Dick Tracy with some of the weird villains and characters were exciting and just advanced enough to make me keep a dictionary handy. The artwork in Prince Valiant was superb and reminds me of some NC Wyeth illustrations.
Posted by: JTB at March 09, 2025 10:45 AM (yTvNw)

In one sense I grew up in a golden age of newspaper comics. Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot, Liberty Meadows....But on the other hand, I missed out on most of the adventure strips. I think my paper ran the daily Spider-Man strip while that lasted, but other than that it was just Prince Valiant and maybe Terry and the Pirates....

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:41 AM (Lhaco)

259 The Bible is the correct version, and it is not contradicted anywhere, just told incorrectly.

-
Did anybody see the interview of Lori Vallow Daybell on Dateline Friday night. Pure evil batshit crazy. She may have thought that was a good idea but it sure didn't help her.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 09, 2025 11:41 AM (L/fGl)

260 Yet there was still a hierarchy and natural law is in evidence, though unevenly enforced. It's also interesting to notice how similar religious practice is across cultures. Setting out food (or some similar sacrifice) for the dead is pretty much global.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
=========
Actually slowly working on a project based on ancient and modern comparative law when I feel up to it. Came from a deep study of state and federal debates on Bills of Right.

Used to teach legal history and comparative law including a smattering of communist, Islamic, and Chinese law along with those of ancient society. The whole Civil versus Common law systems as well which required explaining Mosaic and Canon law, and its after effects on the English system of laws.

The English separation of Chancery and Common law courts is an example of trying to mesh systems that in theory had very different histories of development.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:42 AM (ctrM5)

261 The co-founder of Wikipedia had a Road to Damascus experience. I truly love those stories .
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 11:34 AM (VofaG)
---
I noticed an unusual amount of public figures wearing ashes this past Wednesday. Don't remember ever seeing that before.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:43 AM (ZOv7s)

262 "If" used to be in a lot of the grade school and high school textbooks, but it was years and years later before I stumbled over "Copybook Headings."
Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:36 AM (q3u5l)

yes. I just think its much more powerful if a Father reads it to his son as I think it was intended to be. If sons took If to heart there would be less of what Kipling wrote in Gods of Copybook Headings 9 years later. WW! definitely had the intellectuals re-examining life.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 11:43 AM (VofaG)

263 At WaPo: "Science needs more shrimp on treadmills"

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:44 AM (XArC2)

264 Did anybody see the interview of Lori Vallow Daybell on Dateline Friday night. Pure evil batshit crazy. She may have thought that was a good idea but it sure didn't help her.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 09, 2025 11:41 AM (L/fGl)

I started watching, but she's so delusional/arrogant I couldn't take much.

Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 11:44 AM (Yj6Os)

265 If I remember correctly, crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky is examines the temperment attribute

Posted by: Gman at March 09, 2025 11:45 AM (DFJYi)

266 Back again, rested, refreshed, and less grumpy.

Top pic caption: Always nice to have some light reading at hand while sitting on the throne.

In truth, humidity and bacteria disrecommend keeping one's treasured tomes in the bathroom.

Maybe a copy of the current Farmer's Almanac.

Posted by: mindful webworker - it was staged at March 09, 2025 11:46 AM (+QBnl)

267 I started watching, but she's so delusional/arrogant I couldn't take much.
Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 11:44 AM (Yj6Os)
---
I saw Delusional/Arrogant open for the Verve Pipe at Pine Knob in 97.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:47 AM (ZOv7s)

268 256 255 Good point!
Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:40 AM (XArC2)

I'm trying to remember the last time Disney had a hit. Was the Deadpool/Wolverine thing theirs? I guess that was a hit.

Seems like otherwise their films have been loss after loss after loss.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 09, 2025 11:47 AM (vmr7r)

269 I noticed an unusual amount of public figures wearing ashes this past Wednesday. Don't remember ever seeing that before.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:43 AM (ZOv7s)

True, but Boston's Wu had them too. Argh, unintended rhyme. So, since it appears Wu doesn't do what she should do, it's a sign of hypocrisy?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:48 AM (0eaVi)

270 I have 1 Enoch bookmarked and will be cross-referencing it when I finish with Bulfinch.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
=======
I wonder if perhaps what you are seeing in Bulfinch's accounts of myths is not so much false gods but human impulses inbuilt by the Lord that express kindness, mercy, justice, etc. and distance from the Lord brought about by demonic confusion, sin, etc. Strikes me that anything that distances oneself from the Lord (Cain is a perfect example of this via his sinful killing of his brother), means that your own Creator inbuilt capacity for moral judgement gets warped because the feedback from the Lord is missing. Essentially, the correction mechanism to evil thoughts and deeds aided by the perverted desires of Stan to corrupt and destroy Creation is blocked when one is distant from a personal relationship with the Trinity.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:48 AM (ctrM5)

271 Made the mistake of googling Lori Vallow Daybell, of whom I had not heard.

Throw away the key.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:49 AM (q3u5l)

272 Seems like otherwise their films have been loss after loss after loss.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 09, 2025 11:47 AM (vmr7r)
---
They are removing wokeness from their animated movies, which are making money again. A cartoon show got a last-minute change where they pulled out the tranny kid and inserted a Christian one.

I'm told it's the first explicitly Christian Disney character in 30 years.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:49 AM (ZOv7s)

273 269 I noticed an unusual amount of public figures wearing ashes this past Wednesday. Don't remember ever seeing that before.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
======
In troubled times, people seek the Lord of all that is true and good. Sign of Jonah.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:49 AM (ctrM5)

274 268 Wikipedia sez: "Inside Out 2 (2024) grossed $653 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.046 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.699 billion." AFIAK, that could have at least broke even.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:49 AM (XArC2)

275 For that matter, Daybell seems like a good choice for a Cask of Amontillado treatment.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:50 AM (q3u5l)

276 Wikipedia sez: "Inside Out 2 (2024) grossed $653 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.046 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.699 billion." AFIAK, that could have at least broke even.
Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:49 AM (XArC2)

Almost, but not quite. Sorry, until we see a profit, no bonuses or extra cash to you.

Posted by: Disney Studios at March 09, 2025 11:51 AM (0eaVi)

277 276 Reading further, I see Inside Out 2 had "a budget of $200 million."

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:52 AM (XArC2)

278 I wonder if perhaps what you are seeing in Bulfinch's accounts of myths is not so much false gods but human impulses inbuilt by the Lord that express kindness, mercy, justice, etc. and distance from the Lord brought about by demonic confusion, sin, etc. Strikes me that anything that distances oneself from the Lord (Cain is a perfect example of this via his sinful killing of his brother), means that your own Creator inbuilt capacity for moral judgement gets warped because the feedback from the Lord is missing. Essentially, the correction mechanism to evil thoughts and deeds aided by the perverted desires of Stan to corrupt and destroy Creation is blocked when one is distant from a personal relationship with the Trinity.
Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:48 AM (ctrM5)
---
All of that is true, but my point is that the pagan gods were real, not imagined, not human usurpations, but the fallen angels accepting worship in their own right, which is forbidden.

The *degree* to which they have fallen is interesting. Zeus is arguably worst, but all are to some degree cruel and fickle, because having broken the first law, they find it difficult to keep the other ones.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:53 AM (ZOv7s)

279 No one living in nature can be ignorant of the fact that sex causes babies. No one. It's ludicrous to even suppose it. Animals go into the rut, babies come out. If you are making statues, you are raising animals, and you know how that works.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:11 AM (ZOv7s)

One correction: I maybe should have used the word 'figures' (or figurines') instead of 'statues.' The relics in question were small, and could be carried around in pouches or on a necklace. (one that was mentioned in particular had a circlet instead of a head, likely so it could be strung with a chord.) And they pre-dated the domestication of animals, and stopped appearing around when animals were domesticated.

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:53 AM (Lhaco)

280 I have often mentioned English author Angela Thirkell here. She was Kipling's cousin, and her novels of country life are based on the above. She wrote through the 30s, 40s and 5Os- by the end of the series she knew that the old order was on it's way out. Several of the books deal with aristocracy being unable to keep up their estates, but still trying to do the best for "their people".
=======
Noblisse Oblige was inculcated in Britain's aristocracy as a formal requirement so as to be deserving to rule. You can thank the Catholic Church for inculcating that via the now awfully secular University System and that of the private schools. Anglicanism simply coasted on the foundation that Catholicism laid in Britain and WWI pretty much fatally wounded their ideals by killing off perhaps the best of the aristocracy and destroying the Victorian certainties that the aristocracy relied upon to have the commoners accede to their society being ruled by them.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:54 AM (ctrM5)

281 True, but Boston's Wu had them too. Argh, unintended rhyme. So, since it appears Wu doesn't do what she should do, it's a sign of hypocrisy?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at March 09, 2025 11:48 AM (0eaVi)
---
She's as Catholic as the pope, sadly.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:54 AM (ZOv7s)

282 Bolt is my favorite Disney animated movie. The ending is fantastic for me as an adult.

John 15:13

There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friend.

Posted by: Sebastian Melmoith at March 09, 2025 11:54 AM (VofaG)

283 One (or possibly two) of my favorite comics was Alley Oop. On Sunday he was doing caveman back in the old days but weekdays he was time traveling and fighting aliens and stuff.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 09, 2025 11:54 AM (L/fGl)

284 On that happy note, time to do Important Things around Chez Some Guy. Maybe I'll set the clocks ahead (though a poster last night said she got rid of the alarm clock rather than setting and resetting with every DST switch, which seems like a great idea to me).

Might even do some reading.

Thanks for the thread, Perfessor.

Have a good one, gang.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at March 09, 2025 11:55 AM (q3u5l)

285 If you take a book into the bathroom at a bookstore you must purchase the book.

Posted by: George Costanza at March 09, 2025 11:55 AM (0nHVk)

286 274 268 Wikipedia sez: "Inside Out 2 (2024) grossed $653 million in the United States and Canada, and $1.046 billion in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.699 billion." AFIAK, that could have at least broke even.
Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:49 AM (XArC2)

So it seems their cartoons keep the lights on. For now.

Other than Captain Black America and Snow Brown though, I'm not sure what other live action films they have coming. Nothing that is generating buzz.

Their theme parks are bleeding money too. As are their television ventures. I just don't know how you can be this bad at making money, which leads me to that possible conclusion: that this is about something else.

Posted by: BurtTC at March 09, 2025 11:57 AM (Pfem1)

287 My bathroom library doubles as an E. coli incubator.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 11:57 AM (XArC2)

288 Perfesser: Good to see some variety in your "What I've Been Reading" list. Except that, since I have no interest in Star Wars, I could save time ignoring those paragraphs in the last (checks back) five book threads!

Posted by: mindful webworker - Oh, be wan, canoli. at March 09, 2025 11:58 AM (+QBnl)

289 And they pre-dated the domestication of animals, and stopped appearing around when animals were domesticated.
Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 11:53 AM (Lhaco)
---
Hunter-gatherers need to know the birth and mating cycles or they will starve. Last fall while walking through a nearby woodlot, my wife and I almost literally stumbled on a buck banging a doe. In the spring, there will be a fawn.

And this is in suburbia. In a purely natural environment, you see all sorts of animal sex, and you know that afterwards, babies are born and eggs are laid in nests. You have to know that. Again, if you look at the literature, there was a movement in the 50s and 60s that imagined that stone age hunters allowed women to hump everything within site because sex was just a thing, and paternity was unknown.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:59 AM (ZOv7s)

290 All of that is true, but my point is that the pagan gods were real, not imagined, not human usurpations, but the fallen angels accepting worship in their own right, which is forbidden.

The *degree* to which they have fallen is interesting. Zeus is arguably worst, but all are to some degree cruel and fickle, because having broken the first law, they find it difficult to keep the other ones.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
========
I can see where your viewpoint comes from but I deny the premise. Demons aka fallen ones have no moral other than to deceive, corrupt, and destroy Creation based on the revolt against the Lord. Personally, I believe that people have an inbuilt system of right and wrong from the Creator but are easily misled into circle of deception, lies, and sin that distances ourselves from the Lord. That means human capacities have no feedback loop to their inbuilt faculties which causes an opening to evil actions, deeds, etc. But, there is always the duality of good and evil capacity in humans which is where the fickleness and sometimes justice is inserted in these myths. That is the Lord's gift of redemption comes into play.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:59 AM (ctrM5)

291 One (or possibly two) of my favorite comics was Alley Oop.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 09, 2025 11:54 AM (L/fGl)

Dude had some forearms....bigger than Popeye's.

Posted by: BignJames at March 09, 2025 12:00 PM (Yj6Os)

292 "Their theme parks are bleeding money too."

I just don't get why people go to theme parks. Of all the wonderful and edifying places to visit in the USA, choosing a theme park is a tragic and costly failure of imagination.

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 12:00 PM (XArC2)

293 Thanks again, Perfesser!

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 12:00 PM (ZOv7s)

294 Looks like the saddest part of Sunday morning again. The end of the Book Thread. Thanks, Perfessor.

Posted by: Disney Studios at March 09, 2025 12:00 PM (0eaVi)

295 WE HAZ A NOOD

Posted by: Skip i at March 09, 2025 12:01 PM (fwDg9)

296 I can see where your viewpoint comes from but I deny the premise. Demons aka fallen ones have no moral other than to deceive, corrupt, and destroy Creation based on the revolt against the Lord.
---
Setting themselves up as rival gods is an effect means to this end. Check out how well it worked with Israel.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 12:01 PM (ZOv7s)

297 nood

Posted by: gp Bet His Bippy (And Lost) at March 09, 2025 12:01 PM (XArC2)

298 I started watching, but she's so delusional/arrogant I couldn't take much.
Posted by: BignJames

Well, if Jesus told you that you were his favorite, you might be arrogant, too.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Soldier of the Persistence at March 09, 2025 12:02 PM (L/fGl)

299 268 I'm trying to remember the last time Disney had a hit. Was the Deadpool/Wolverine thing theirs? I guess that was a hit.

Seems like otherwise their films have been loss after loss after loss.
Posted by: BurtTC at March 09, 2025 11:47 AM (vmr7r)

Technically, yes, that was Disney. But in spirit...It succeeded because its characters came from the Fox X-Men movies. And the creative team behind it was Ryan Reynolds and the other Deadpool people, and not Kevin Feige and the rest of the people creating the other MCU movies. So, the general consensus (among the people I listen to) is the Deadpool and Wolverine is an anomaly that will not affect anything at Disney/Mavel.

Posted by: Castle Guy at March 09, 2025 12:04 PM (Lhaco)

300 True, but Boston's Wu had them too. Argh, unintended rhyme. So, since it appears Wu doesn't do what she should do, it's a sign of hypocrisy?
Posted by: OrangeEnt
-----
Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue.

Sort of a half glass full, half empty. Wu obviously still has some connection to Christianity but in her official acts has warped and demeaned those very values. But, grace and redemption is always possible for even the fallen away believer. It is much more difficult to correct someone who knowingly rejects the good and adopts evil as their standard for behavior (someone like Aleister Crowley, the Not Sees hierarchy, Stalin, etc.).

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 12:05 PM (ctrM5)

301 Late and afternood, but I recently read Ayn Rand’s Anthem, and it’s well worth reading. It is very short, and very beautiful. It’s a dystopian novel (people are sorted at the beginning of adulthood, etc.) but told from one person’s perspective, leaving out all of the author commentary or even long drawn-out inner monologues that most dystopian novels provide.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 09, 2025 12:06 PM (EXyHK)

302 Setting themselves up as rival gods is an effect means to this end. Check out how well it worked with Israel.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
=======
Except I see every direct example in the Bible of the false confronting the true followers of the Lord that the false don't show up. Deception implanted into the minds of those distant from the Lord for various reasons would be my explanation for that.

One such example from Archaeology in Israel was a temple found in a 'high' place that did not fit (2nd Temple period I believe) the command that only one temple in Jerusalem was allowed. Upon further examination of that 'temple', it appears to be consistent with the reign of Ahaz and its incense burners had residue of cannibis and frankincense in them. The temple appears to have been purposefully buried and its standing stone toppled which would fit with Hezekiah's restoration of faith in Israel.

Perhaps I am simply misunderstanding your point but I think it is more humans being deceived and misguided by Stan than a 'faith' per se. The flashes of justice, mercy, etc. in those myths reflect the Lord's imbuing of right and wrong in his human creations aka natural law.

Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 12:14 PM (ctrM5)

303 Many books seem to be written with fingers crossed to become a Reese Witherspoon recommendation and/ or to be made into a movie.
I'd rather have a Pendergast - impossible to cast, impossible to capture.

Posted by: Marybel Smiles at March 09, 2025 12:14 PM (U7ln1)

304 Mosaic laws (laws of Moses) [ . . . ]
Other legal systems of the time around Israel were focused more on the authority of the person issuing the law and thus a new ruler meant a new set of laws. Rule of man rather than law
Posted by: whig at March 09, 2025 11:23 AM (ctrM5)

Whig, Donald Redford in one of his books about Israel, Egypt and Canaan made the comment that there is a unique concept in Old Testament laws about the compact between God and His people that mirrors what is known about Hittite contract law. I don't have enough background to do more than just read it, does anyone other than Redford say that?

Posted by: Kindltot at March 09, 2025 12:16 PM (D7oie)

305 Ace Endorsed Author A. H. Lloyd: While I don't doubt that the Chinese use conscription because they have to, I suspect it's also fits right in with the communist system. The entire nation is conscripted into building the new society. (I know the ChiComs have eased up on this a little but it is usually the first tool in the toolbox that they reach for)

Posted by: who knew at March 09, 2025 12:24 PM (+ViXu)

306 We highly recommend "The God of the Woods." A well-written whodunnit with great three-dimensional characters.
Posted by: M. Gaga at March 09, 2025 09:57 AM (XDJq2)

Thank you the review- I have this as my travel book this week.

Also thanks to the horde who recommended An Instance of the Fingerpost. It’s a slow read but enjoying it very much.

Posted by: Paisley at March 09, 2025 12:39 PM (M1WkM)

307 Late to the thread today. I will read through it and save my comments for next week.
God bless you book nerds.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deporte at March 09, 2025 01:16 PM (/ncst)

308 " and for some strange reason, A Generation of Swine by Hunter S. Thompson."

The Good Doctor is always an amusing read, no matter what you may think of his politics or consumption of weird chemicals.

Posted by: The Osprey at March 09, 2025 01:41 PM (+2I7p)

309 To get an English view of post-war America, Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One (which was made into a terrible movie, thereby vindicating him) is a good place to start.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at March 09, 2025 11:01 AM (ZOv7s)

Haven't read the book...I saw the movie version when I was a teenager and thought it was hilarious, but then I like any comedy with Jonathan Winters in it. Which reminds me "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" deserves a rewatching.

"Ve are, of course, Norveegans."

Posted by: The Osprey at March 09, 2025 02:03 PM (+2I7p)

310 Our local newspaper had "Alley Oop," dailies and Sundays (the strips told different stories). As a kid, I liked the time travel stuff but didn't care as much gor the land of Moo -- except for King Guzzle (the loudest curser in print) and Oop's pal Foozy, who always spoke in rhyme. Then the time travel stuff got too weird.

I read a while back that the Moo stories were a parody of suburban life. Now I want to read those.

Posted by: Weak Geek at March 09, 2025 02:07 PM (p/isN)

Processing 0.05, elapsed 0.0597 seconds.
15 queries taking 0.0147 seconds, 319 records returned.
Page size 226 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.8 beta.