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Reading Thread 9/07/2025
click image for PDF
Comments
(Jump to bottom of comments)1
Tolle Lege
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 09:00 AM (+qU29)
2
A nice, clean book thread.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:00 AM (0eaVi)
3
Booken morgen horden!
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 09:01 AM (eZ5tL)
4
Books r dum
Posted by: pffft at September 07, 2025 09:01 AM (MxJlL)
5
First?
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025 09:02 AM (0MbK6)
6
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
-
No, but it would take a loooonnnng time.
-
No, but it would take a loooonnnng time.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 07, 2025 09:02 AM (0U5gm)
7
Still slowly plugging along in Rick Atkinson's The British are Coming
Just past that could have, should have would have invasion of Canada very soon after the war started.
Just past that could have, should have would have invasion of Canada very soon after the war started.
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 09:02 AM (+qU29)
8
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
--
Embarassed by my unread to read pile for sure
--
Embarassed by my unread to read pile for sure
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 09:02 AM (eZ5tL)
9
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
Online reading, or book reading? Look, I only clicked that link by accident, ok?
Online reading, or book reading? Look, I only clicked that link by accident, ok?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:03 AM (0eaVi)
10
Oh well. Top ten it is. Not much reading this week. Been getting the house ready to put on the market by the end of the year. Painting is fundamental.
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025 09:03 AM (0MbK6)
11
I only read some paragraphs here and there from pulp writers through RacPress. I should set aside time to read more, and get back to writing more. If only it wasn't the holiday season.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (0eaVi)
12
Good Sunday morning! I gave up on Don Quixote. I got about halfway through and realized I had zero interest in reading another page. Fortunately, I bought the Kindle edition so I don't feel too bad about the $2-3 I spent.
I started "The Rules of the Game," a study about the British Naval Command and the battle of Jutland. A breath of fresh air (and cordite, I expect).
I started "The Rules of the Game," a study about the British Naval Command and the battle of Jutland. A breath of fresh air (and cordite, I expect).
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (KXWAV)
13
Morning, Weasel.
Howdy, Horde.
Haven't read Tom Sawyer since I was in something like 7th or 8th grade; really should revisit, but don't know when I'll get to that.
Reluctant, embarrassed, or horrified? Maybe a bit embarrassed by the books that aren't in the list that should be. Otherwise, nah.
Howdy, Horde.
Haven't read Tom Sawyer since I was in something like 7th or 8th grade; really should revisit, but don't know when I'll get to that.
Reluctant, embarrassed, or horrified? Maybe a bit embarrassed by the books that aren't in the list that should be. Otherwise, nah.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (q3u5l)
14
Good morning morons and thanks weasel
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
====
No but Mrs. F. used to object to my reading 400 page Richard J. Evans Nazi histories on beach holidays.
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
====
No but Mrs. F. used to object to my reading 400 page Richard J. Evans Nazi histories on beach holidays.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (RIvkX)
15
I wouldn’t have any problems letting someone look through my book cases. Depending on their age, they could learn something.
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025 09:06 AM (0MbK6)
16
Special Bonus Topic For Today's Discussion
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
I guess I'm shameless, as I disclose all of my reading right here every week.
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
I guess I'm shameless, as I disclose all of my reading right here every week.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 09:06 AM (h7ZuX)
17
Tom Sawyer pic is kinda weird. Looks like they stuffed an ancient greek homo in primitive American fashion.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at September 07, 2025 09:07 AM (snZF9)
18
Not at all.
Much of what I read is right here.
Much of what I read is right here.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at September 07, 2025 09:07 AM (XQo4F)
19
Speaking of Tom Sawyer, last year's James by Percival Everett is a retelling of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer from the pov of the black slave Jim.
It's a bestseller but I have not read it. I am mildly curious but also wary.
It's a bestseller but I have not read it. I am mildly curious but also wary.
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 09:08 AM (DoBxX)
20
Let's put it this way: I once had some paperbacks that were sold in outlets that offered two-minute film clips for 25 cents. Then I got married.
I wouldn't have liked to have had that bandied about.
As for anything else, no. After all, I read comics, and they are still considered by some people to be for idiots.
I wouldn't have liked to have had that bandied about.
As for anything else, no. After all, I read comics, and they are still considered by some people to be for idiots.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:08 AM (/mYC4)
21
In a newly released exposé Weasel exposes the mainstream media's attempts to whitewash the real story behind The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:08 AM (/iMjX)
22
Most would be bored if saw my one tracks mind book collection, except for young boys.Its 99% military history or fiction
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (+qU29)
23
Currently reading "In Covid's Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us". I think the 2 authors are democratic libertarians but not off the cliff woke progressives. The book came out earlier this year but I think the authors missed a lot of conspiracies being confirmed. While I am only about a 3rd through the book, I don't think the authors have any idea of what's being confirmed and documented just now:
https://tinyurl.com/386wnarj
Lots of people need to be hanged and other given long sentences.
https://tinyurl.com/386wnarj
Lots of people need to be hanged and other given long sentences.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (KTCHq)
24
I'm back in the 1970s and "The Osterman Weekend," a Robert Ludlum thriller about a CIA officer's plan to destroy a mass blackmail scheme by Soviet agents. The title character is Bernie Osterman, who with his wife pays occasional visits to friends of theirs in a New Jersey suburb where the Ostermans used to live.
However, he's not the main character. That is John Tanner, a network news exec whom the CIA officer has recruited because the agency believes that Osterman and the other friends -- a hotshot lawyer and an investment counselor to made guys -- are key to the Soviet plot. (The Ostermans are screenwriters; the other wives' jobs, if any, aren't specified.) The Ostermans are coming for another visit, but in the five days before they arrive, the CIA is sowing hints to the couples that Tanner is a threat to them AND planting disinformation in Moscow that the threat is not Tanner but somebody else in the group. The weekend promises to get sporty.
However, he's not the main character. That is John Tanner, a network news exec whom the CIA officer has recruited because the agency believes that Osterman and the other friends -- a hotshot lawyer and an investment counselor to made guys -- are key to the Soviet plot. (The Ostermans are screenwriters; the other wives' jobs, if any, aren't specified.) The Ostermans are coming for another visit, but in the five days before they arrive, the CIA is sowing hints to the couples that Tanner is a threat to them AND planting disinformation in Moscow that the threat is not Tanner but somebody else in the group. The weekend promises to get sporty.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (p/isN)
25
Morning, book addicts! 'Tis the day most anticipated, the Day of the Reading/Book Thread!
I am deep into a 1935 novel called We, the Accused by Ernest Raymond. Very British, the novel tells the story (so far) of a professor at a "college" (actually what we would call a high school) sometime after WWI. He is married, unhappily, and having an affair, happily, with a young woman twenty years his junior. It's a murder tale, and so far the professor has administered some arsenic to his ailing wife and offed her. Part II opens with the story of an ambitious young man going up to London and becoming a police officer. No doubt he will play Javert to the professor's Jean Valjean. The novel is rather Dickens-like, but is not as heavily written by any means, and is so far very well done.
I am deep into a 1935 novel called We, the Accused by Ernest Raymond. Very British, the novel tells the story (so far) of a professor at a "college" (actually what we would call a high school) sometime after WWI. He is married, unhappily, and having an affair, happily, with a young woman twenty years his junior. It's a murder tale, and so far the professor has administered some arsenic to his ailing wife and offed her. Part II opens with the story of an ambitious young man going up to London and becoming a police officer. No doubt he will play Javert to the professor's Jean Valjean. The novel is rather Dickens-like, but is not as heavily written by any means, and is so far very well done.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (omVj0)
26
17 Tom Sawyer pic is kinda weird. Looks like they stuffed an ancient greek homo in primitive American fashion.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division
Yeah, definitely how I ever pictured Tom Sawyer. I imagine straight hair, unkempt, permanent mischievous look on his face. This little ponce ain't it.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division
Yeah, definitely how I ever pictured Tom Sawyer. I imagine straight hair, unkempt, permanent mischievous look on his face. This little ponce ain't it.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (h7ZuX)
27
My wife and I are both in the medical profession. It was a hoot when our son, who was five at the time, decided to show them one of our human anatomy books and explain the difference between a man and a woman. The look on my MIL’s face was priceless.
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025 09:11 AM (0MbK6)
28
Lots of people need to be hanged and other given long sentences.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (KTCHq)
No one will be hanged, or given long sentences.
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (KTCHq)
No one will be hanged, or given long sentences.
Posted by: Narrator at September 07, 2025 09:11 AM (0eaVi)
29
Reading again. " The Joy of Full Surrender" a devotional book by Jean- Pierre de Caussade. ( a French Jesuit priest 1675-1751)
(and in a related note the phone auto correct which clearly doesn't speak French came out with "Sausage" as his name. Generally I am irritated by autocorrects, but that one made me laugh.)
(and in a related note the phone auto correct which clearly doesn't speak French came out with "Sausage" as his name. Generally I am irritated by autocorrects, but that one made me laugh.)
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at September 07, 2025 09:12 AM (2GCMq)
30
I"m reading The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World, by A.J. Baime. It's a history of the Truman presidency in the 4 months following FDR's death.
I go back and forth on Truman, but at the moment, I think he was a good (not great) president, despite his early full endorsement of the New Deal and FDR. His style was far more suited to the rapid fire, earth-shaking decisions that needed to be made than was FDR's, who was virtually useless (I'm being generous) as the president in his 4th term.
It also got me to thinking about what HT would think of today's Democratic Party. I have no doubt he would very strongly disapprove.
I go back and forth on Truman, but at the moment, I think he was a good (not great) president, despite his early full endorsement of the New Deal and FDR. His style was far more suited to the rapid fire, earth-shaking decisions that needed to be made than was FDR's, who was virtually useless (I'm being generous) as the president in his 4th term.
It also got me to thinking about what HT would think of today's Democratic Party. I have no doubt he would very strongly disapprove.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:12 AM (Riz8t)
31
Thank you Weasel.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:12 AM (CjwnQ)
32
I've read 'The Adventures of Huck Finn'. I'm assuming it was published after Tom Sawyer.
Posted by: dantesed at September 07, 2025 09:12 AM (Oy/m2)
33
About a chapter and a half left to go in Nabokov's King Queen Knave. Then I guess The Defense, Pnin, & Pale Fire. Unless a squirrel runs by the window and I interrupt that for something else. Midway through KQK earlier this week, I stopped and looked at Brian Evenson's book on Raymond Carver for reasons that escape me now.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 09:13 AM (q3u5l)
34
Silly boy, I've never kippled!
Posted by: Becky Thatcher at September 07, 2025 09:13 AM (XQo4F)
35
Pretty sure read Tom Sawyer in school
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 09:13 AM (+qU29)
36
I once moved in with a (strictly Platonic) female friend for about 3 months when I needed a place to stay and she needed help with the mortgage. I set up a small bookcase which included, among other things, books on Christian ethics and Dave Grossman's "On Killing" and "On Combat." It didn't embarrass me, but it perplexed her for a bit.
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025 09:13 AM (XmMjN)
37
My reading and audible book list would bore most people. History, recent and ancient and in between are way less interesting to most people I know. At least the vibe I get when I talk about it for an hour with most people.
Posted by: PTSD giver at September 07, 2025 09:14 AM (7Yx3K)
38
I wouldn't be embarrassed or horrified to reveal any of the reading on my shelves. As RetSgtRN said, the shelf browser might learn something.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:14 AM (omVj0)
39
I have come to the conclusion that life is too short to read crap.
I try to stick with the classics, both new and old.
It's like Amazon Prime. Lots of crap and just a little bit of good stuff.
Nothing to be ashamed off.
I try to stick with the classics, both new and old.
It's like Amazon Prime. Lots of crap and just a little bit of good stuff.
Nothing to be ashamed off.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at September 07, 2025 09:14 AM (ZmEVT)
40
It takes a special writer to make the reader root for a hit man. In This Gun for Hire, Graham Greene tells the tale of Raven, an English hit man with a hare lip who has committed an assassination. Raven has a past of pain and humiliation, which has led him down this career path.
Raven meets up with Mr. Cholmondeley to receive his payment, but shortly thereafter discovers to his dismay that he has been paid in stolen currency. He begins to track his paymaster for revenge, and to determine who is at the top of the organizational chart. He trails Cholmondeley to Nottwich, where coincidentally, Anne Crowder, the girlfriend of inspector Mather is auditioning for a show. Mather is tracking the stolen notes and the supposed thief possessing them.
Raven kidnaps Anne at random to aid his escape. As he tries to avoid the police, Anne learns his story, and Raven learns that his victim was a diplomat whose death has made war more likely. His new goal is to get revenge on the cabal who defrauded him for the murder, while Anne is torn as to cooperating with Inspector Mather or Raven. This is another example of how Greene can force the reader to change their mind about characters.
Raven meets up with Mr. Cholmondeley to receive his payment, but shortly thereafter discovers to his dismay that he has been paid in stolen currency. He begins to track his paymaster for revenge, and to determine who is at the top of the organizational chart. He trails Cholmondeley to Nottwich, where coincidentally, Anne Crowder, the girlfriend of inspector Mather is auditioning for a show. Mather is tracking the stolen notes and the supposed thief possessing them.
Raven kidnaps Anne at random to aid his escape. As he tries to avoid the police, Anne learns his story, and Raven learns that his victim was a diplomat whose death has made war more likely. His new goal is to get revenge on the cabal who defrauded him for the murder, while Anne is torn as to cooperating with Inspector Mather or Raven. This is another example of how Greene can force the reader to change their mind about characters.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 07, 2025 09:15 AM (0U5gm)
41
@21
Oops. I over-exposed myself.
Oops. I over-exposed myself.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:15 AM (/iMjX)
42
Why read the book when you can read the Monarch Notes watch the movie:
https://youtu.be/xdrOzfMbZIA
https://youtu.be/xdrOzfMbZIA
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at September 07, 2025 09:16 AM (KTCHq)
43
It also got me to thinking about what HT would think of today's Democratic Party. I have no doubt he would very strongly disapprove.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:12 AM (Riz8t)
I think he'd be on board with everything they do. He would hate Trump. He was a very nasty partisan D.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:12 AM (Riz8t)
I think he'd be on board with everything they do. He would hate Trump. He was a very nasty partisan D.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:16 AM (0eaVi)
44
Raven meets up with Mr. Cholmondeley to receive his payment, but shortly thereafter discovers to his dismay that he has been paid in stolen currency. He begins to track his paymaster for revenge, and to determine who is at the top of the organizational chart.
Among life's many opportunities for poor choices, screwing over a hit man is near the top of the list.
Among life's many opportunities for poor choices, screwing over a hit man is near the top of the list.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:16 AM (Riz8t)
45
My first exposure to Tom Sawyer was seeing him played by Johnny Whittaker in the movie at Radio City Music Hall.
I had no idea what was going on, who those kids were, what was the whole fence painting thing about. It was all incomprehensible.
I had no idea what was going on, who those kids were, what was the whole fence painting thing about. It was all incomprehensible.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:17 AM (RIvkX)
46
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
Since I chose to use Goodreads to keep track of what I want to remember about the books I read, I hope not.
Then again, no one reads Goodreads so I’m probably safe!
Since I chose to use Goodreads to keep track of what I want to remember about the books I read, I hope not.
Then again, no one reads Goodreads so I’m probably safe!
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:17 AM (olroh)
47
No but Mrs. F. used to object to my reading 400 page Richard J. Evans Nazi histories on beach holidays.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (RIvkX)
I have those books. I read one at Disney World long long ago when it was fun and not perverted.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (RIvkX)
I have those books. I read one at Disney World long long ago when it was fun and not perverted.
Posted by: moki at September 07, 2025 09:18 AM (wLjpr)
48
“Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.”
Psalm 25:4-5
teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.”
Psalm 25:4-5
Posted by: Marcus T at September 07, 2025 09:18 AM (8oMIQ)
49
When I was doing the Book Thread I decided I’d share whatever I was reading, guilty pleasures and all. I read trashy fantasy novels. I’m not ashamed. It’s just light reading. I recently read a Shadowrun book. Not great but still fun.
Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 07, 2025 09:18 AM (JcH0w)
50
I'm not embarrassed by my hard-copy books; I keep the genre/embarrassing ones on Kindle lol
speaking of which still going thru the oeuvre of Nick Cutter (horror novelist) and finally hit a really really good one - The Deep.
spooky! definitely could make a very scary film if he got it optioned
after this I'm going to try reading all or most books by Lionel Shriver
speaking of which still going thru the oeuvre of Nick Cutter (horror novelist) and finally hit a really really good one - The Deep.
spooky! definitely could make a very scary film if he got it optioned
after this I'm going to try reading all or most books by Lionel Shriver
Posted by: Black Orchid at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (FHttA)
51
And no, I wouldn't be embarrassed about what's on my bookshelves, merely the dust and detritus accumulated on them!!
Posted by: moki at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (wLjpr)
52
Speaking of long sentences, how about that Charles Dickens, eh?
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (/iMjX)
53
I've been working on "Advise and Consent." It's work.
Posted by: Ordinary American at September 07, 2025 09:20 AM (h/ffs)
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:20 AM (Riz8t)
55
I'm not embarrassed by any of the titles on my bookshelf.
I AM a little embarrassed that I haven't read most of them.
I AM a little embarrassed that I haven't read most of them.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (/iMjX)
56
I'm currently waiting for Thriftbooks to deliver an older textbook on plane and spherical trigonometry. I hated math in high school and college, but now I have an interest in the more practical aspects of it. I say "practical" in that I can see how it's applied to solve real-world problems, even if I don't need to use it in my daily life.
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (XmMjN)
57
I had no idea what was going on, who those kids were, what was the whole fence painting thing about. It was all incomprehensible.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:17 AM (RIvkX)
Maybe if someone would write a song about him it would be clearer to you.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:17 AM (RIvkX)
Maybe if someone would write a song about him it would be clearer to you.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (0eaVi)
58
Speaking of long sentences, how about that Charles Dickens, eh?
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (/iMjX)
Yeah, no kidding.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (/iMjX)
Yeah, no kidding.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed at September 07, 2025 09:22 AM (Oy/m2)
59
>>>click image for PDF
Although, perversely, the pdf you get is without images.
But, if you follow Weasel's link to the Wiki page, you can then get the link to the Tom Sawyer page at Project Gutenberg where you can download the epub with all the original illustrations.
Or go here:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/74
Although, perversely, the pdf you get is without images.
But, if you follow Weasel's link to the Wiki page, you can then get the link to the Tom Sawyer page at Project Gutenberg where you can download the epub with all the original illustrations.
Or go here:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/74
Posted by: Anon Y. Mous at September 07, 2025 09:22 AM (p4nXC)
60
I think that Saint Paul was pretty good at long sentences.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at September 07, 2025 09:22 AM (ZmEVT)
61
About half way through Downfall, about the end of WWII in Japan.
It's good. Guy makes his points. And not quite at THE BOMB decision yet.
It's good. Guy makes his points. And not quite at THE BOMB decision yet.
Posted by: From about That Time at September 07, 2025 09:23 AM (n4GiU)
62
Nowadays, no, would not be embarrassed to share my read list/bookshelves. The embarrassing part is how behind I am, lol. My downfall is volunteering at a community used book store- always something that looks interesting and unexpected.
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:23 AM (6sqKx)
63
Good morning fellow Book/Reading Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.
And many thanks to Weasel for keeping the torch lit on Sunday mornings.
And many thanks to Weasel for keeping the torch lit on Sunday mornings.
Posted by: JTB at September 07, 2025 09:23 AM (yTvNw)
64
My favorite Twain book is Roughing it. I live in the final destination of that book so I don't even have to imagine the scenery. Some of the places he writes about are still standing in downtown Carson City and Virginia City. I only need move my imagination in time, not space.
I read about once every two years or so.
I read about once every two years or so.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:23 AM (CjwnQ)
65
I read From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury this week. There’s a cool link with Charles Addams who created the Addams Family cartoons. Bradbury and Addams were going to do a full collaboration but Addams died before it came to fruition.
Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 07, 2025 09:24 AM (JcH0w)
66
When I was doing the Book Thread I decided I’d share whatever I was reading, guilty pleasures and all. I read trashy fantasy novels. I’m not ashamed. It’s just light reading. I recently read a Shadowrun book. Not great but still fun.
Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 07, 2025 09:18 AM (JcH0w)
Some say that Romantasy is taking over and ruining the Fantasy genre.
Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 07, 2025 09:18 AM (JcH0w)
Some say that Romantasy is taking over and ruining the Fantasy genre.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
67
40 It takes a special writer to make the reader root for a hit man.
Posted by: Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 07, 2025 09:15 AM (0U5gm)
And yet, far, far too many people try. That, and assassins. I can't tell you how many fantasy books I put back on the shelf because the back-cover blurb tells me that the main character is an assassin.
Posted by: Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 07, 2025 09:15 AM (0U5gm)
And yet, far, far too many people try. That, and assassins. I can't tell you how many fantasy books I put back on the shelf because the back-cover blurb tells me that the main character is an assassin.
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (Lhaco)
68
58 Speaking of long sentences, how about that Charles Dickens, eh?
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (/iMjX)
Yeah, no kidding.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed at September 07, 2025 09:22 AM (Oy/m2)
Pikers.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:19 AM (/iMjX)
Yeah, no kidding.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed at September 07, 2025 09:22 AM (Oy/m2)
Pikers.
Posted by: James Joyce at September 07, 2025 09:26 AM (h/ffs)
69
I read Ready player One this week. Fun read, though definitely geared to Gen X, heh. I cannot believe what they did in the movie, which barely resembles the book.
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:26 AM (6sqKx)
70
Maybe if someone would write a song about him it would be clearer to you.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (0eaVi)
====
Yeah I have a firm "no disco" policy.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (0eaVi)
====
Yeah I have a firm "no disco" policy.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:26 AM (RIvkX)
71
About a chapter and a half left to go in Nabokov's King Queen Knave. Then I guess The Defense, Pnin, & Pale Fire.
Of those, I’ve read King Queen Knave (the butler did it) and Pnin. I found Pnin much the more compelling of the two.
I could’ve sworn I’d read Pale Fire, but have no record of it, or even of owning it.
I just picked up The Song of Igor’s Campaign at a library book sale last week, so that will be the first of his mostly-poetry books I’ll have read.
The Nabokov books that really stand out for me are Ada, Speak, Memory (his autobiography, sort of), and Lolita (which I appear to interpret differently than literally everyone else).
All of which does not alter the fact that Pnin was on the wrong train.
Of those, I’ve read King Queen Knave (the butler did it) and Pnin. I found Pnin much the more compelling of the two.
I could’ve sworn I’d read Pale Fire, but have no record of it, or even of owning it.
I just picked up The Song of Igor’s Campaign at a library book sale last week, so that will be the first of his mostly-poetry books I’ll have read.
The Nabokov books that really stand out for me are Ada, Speak, Memory (his autobiography, sort of), and Lolita (which I appear to interpret differently than literally everyone else).
All of which does not alter the fact that Pnin was on the wrong train.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:27 AM (olroh)
72
It takes a special writer to make the reader root for a hit man.
Posted by: Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 07, 2025
*
And yet, far, far too many people try. That, and assassins. I can't tell you how many fantasy books I put back on the shelf because the back-cover blurb tells me that the main character is an assassin.
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025
***
See Lawrence Block and his "Keller" series. Very well done.
Posted by: Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 07, 2025
*
And yet, far, far too many people try. That, and assassins. I can't tell you how many fantasy books I put back on the shelf because the back-cover blurb tells me that the main character is an assassin.
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025
***
See Lawrence Block and his "Keller" series. Very well done.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:27 AM (omVj0)
73
Movies of books should be required by law to issue a disclaimer and change their title.
Posted by: Ordinary American at September 07, 2025 09:27 AM (h/ffs)
74
Since I chose to use Goodreads to keep track of what I want to remember about the books I read, I hope not.
Then again, no one reads Goodreads so I’m probably safe!
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair
I do! Some years ago, we had an active AOSHQ group. But the book thread is a better way for us to all discuss our reading, and it fell to ruin.
I use Goodreads to track my reading, too. It's great to look up something I've forgotten the title or author of, but I know I read. For example, Finn: A Novel, by Jon Clinch. A T. S. spinoff, it's the story of Huck Finn's father--a depraved sociopath who beats his children and possibly murdered his wife, IIRC. Don't read it. It's disgusting trash and it will be years before you think you've had enough showers to wash off the stink of it.
Then again, no one reads Goodreads so I’m probably safe!
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair
I do! Some years ago, we had an active AOSHQ group. But the book thread is a better way for us to all discuss our reading, and it fell to ruin.
I use Goodreads to track my reading, too. It's great to look up something I've forgotten the title or author of, but I know I read. For example, Finn: A Novel, by Jon Clinch. A T. S. spinoff, it's the story of Huck Finn's father--a depraved sociopath who beats his children and possibly murdered his wife, IIRC. Don't read it. It's disgusting trash and it will be years before you think you've had enough showers to wash off the stink of it.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 09:28 AM (h7ZuX)
75
Some say that Romantasy is taking over and ruining the Fantasy genre.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
-___
I’d say there’s some truth to that. The majority of fantasy does seem to be geared towards young women now instead of young men.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
-___
I’d say there’s some truth to that. The majority of fantasy does seem to be geared towards young women now instead of young men.
Posted by: Perfessor Sqiurrel at September 07, 2025 09:28 AM (JcH0w)
76
Yeah, no kidding.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed
________
Recently saw the 2013 movie of As I Lay Dying. Pretty good, although I pictured Anse from the book as being much bigger than Tim Blake Nelson.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed
________
Recently saw the 2013 movie of As I Lay Dying. Pretty good, although I pictured Anse from the book as being much bigger than Tim Blake Nelson.
Posted by: Louis Nolan at September 07, 2025 09:28 AM (XvL8K)
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 09:29 AM (q3u5l)
78
I've been working on "Advise and Consent." It's work.
Worth it in my opinion; it’s a very masterful conversion of real historical figures to fictional ones. The people are real, and those who would be the villains in a lesser work still care about their country and do good not just in their own eyes but objectively. And it’s a great story to boot.
It is, however, very dense in the sense of having a lot packed into every paragraph.
Worth it in my opinion; it’s a very masterful conversion of real historical figures to fictional ones. The people are real, and those who would be the villains in a lesser work still care about their country and do good not just in their own eyes but objectively. And it’s a great story to boot.
It is, however, very dense in the sense of having a lot packed into every paragraph.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:29 AM (olroh)
79
Ah, I see from Muldoon’s post that I am in good company…
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:29 AM (6sqKx)
80
good morning Weasel, Horde
Posted by: callsign claymore at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CR061)
81
I'm currently waiting for Thriftbooks to deliver an older textbook on plane and spherical trigonometry. I hated math in high school and college, but now I have an interest in the more practical aspects of it. I say "practical" in that I can see how it's applied to solve real-world problems, even if I don't need to use it in my daily life.
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025
***
I hated most math classes too (I grew up before calculators could take over the grunt work or arithmetic), but tenth-grade geometry with its logic and necessity to figure out *how to attack* the problem was loads of fun.
Except the six weeks of trig. Math again, and I disliked that.
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025
***
I hated most math classes too (I grew up before calculators could take over the grunt work or arithmetic), but tenth-grade geometry with its logic and necessity to figure out *how to attack* the problem was loads of fun.
Except the six weeks of trig. Math again, and I disliked that.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (omVj0)
82
Yeah I have a firm "no disco" policy.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:26 AM (RIvkX)
Someday Disco will make a comeback.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:26 AM (RIvkX)
Someday Disco will make a comeback.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
83
And no, I wouldn't be embarrassed about what's on my bookshelves, merely the dust and detritus accumulated on them!!
This cuts me to the quick! It is in fact the only embarrassing thing about having a nice collection of books I’d love to pull down from the shelf often. It is very obvious that I don’t pull them down from the shelf often.
Time! See what’s become of me.
This cuts me to the quick! It is in fact the only embarrassing thing about having a nice collection of books I’d love to pull down from the shelf often. It is very obvious that I don’t pull them down from the shelf often.
Time! See what’s become of me.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:31 AM (olroh)
84
I hope no one got the impression that we were teaching our son about human anatomy at five years old. It wasn’t until he came into a room of adults with the anatomy books that we found out he had been looking at them on his own. He was quite intelligent beyond his age. He was doing simple reading at three. He entered college with enough credits to skip the first year. He is now a very successful businessman and entrepreneur. Everyone knows he got his smarts from his mother. He got his sense of humor from me.
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025 09:31 AM (gcMSc)
85
I always liked The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:31 AM (/iMjX)
86
@40 --
One Ludlum book ends with the main character transformed into an assassin who targets members of a widespread conspiracy. I'm rooting for him.
One Ludlum book ends with the main character transformed into an assassin who targets members of a widespread conspiracy. I'm rooting for him.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:31 AM (uvXsf)
87
I came across the story of Blanche Barrow, Clyde's sister-in-law and her time with Bonnie and Clyde. It looks interesting and I just ordered it.
Posted by: Ordinary American at September 07, 2025 09:32 AM (h/ffs)
88
Since the last thread, I think I've spent more time doing book-related stuff than actually reading. Specifically, over the holiday weekend on leaking into the week, I spent well over 6 hours putting together some cover art for some books I'm having printed. No, I didn't write any books. I'm not cool that way. I just commissioned a bindery to turn a couple stacks of comic books into some custom-bound hard-cover books. So they can be displayed on my shelf, instead of hidden away in a longbox. And so I can flip through the entire run at once, rather than having to unshelf/unbox the story one chapter at a time.
I started the process almost 4 months ago and they only just now sent me the required cover dimensions, (The bindery did warn me to 'expect delays' with projects started over the summer) so presumably the text blocks are all sewn together into text blocks, and just awaiting the cover. It's kind of exciting to think about the project actually being completed.
I started the process almost 4 months ago and they only just now sent me the required cover dimensions, (The bindery did warn me to 'expect delays' with projects started over the summer) so presumably the text blocks are all sewn together into text blocks, and just awaiting the cover. It's kind of exciting to think about the project actually being completed.
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:32 AM (Lhaco)
89
Yeah, no kidding.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed
________
Recently saw the 2013 movie of As I Lay Dying. Pretty good, although I pictured Anse from the book as being much bigger than Tim Blake Nelson.
Posted by: Louis Nolan at September 07, 2025
***
I glanced at a copy of Pylon, WF's 1920s novel about airplane stunt flying (I think) at a fictionalized NO Lakefront Airport. The first page was a slog, and I didn't see any dialog until about three pages in. Even though the concept interests me, I put it back on the shelf.
- William Faulkner
Posted by: dantesed
________
Recently saw the 2013 movie of As I Lay Dying. Pretty good, although I pictured Anse from the book as being much bigger than Tim Blake Nelson.
Posted by: Louis Nolan at September 07, 2025
***
I glanced at a copy of Pylon, WF's 1920s novel about airplane stunt flying (I think) at a fictionalized NO Lakefront Airport. The first page was a slog, and I didn't see any dialog until about three pages in. Even though the concept interests me, I put it back on the shelf.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:33 AM (omVj0)
90
Holcroft covenant which was made into a terrible frankenheimer film but most follow a similar plot atty (converse) diplomat (webb) army officer (fontaine)
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:33 AM (bXbFr)
91
I'm not embarrassed by any of the titles on my bookshelf.
I AM a little embarrassed that I haven't read most of them.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (/iMjX)
This, exactly this.
I AM a little embarrassed that I haven't read most of them.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:21 AM (/iMjX)
This, exactly this.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (POhG7)
92
Explaining my reading habits? Probably slightly embarrassing in most groups....too many comic books, and too many pulp stories, both new and old. But not mortified. And in the proper social group...well, we all talk about what we read on this thread, right?
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (Lhaco)
93
Someday Disco will make a comeback.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
Yeah, no Rush on that.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
Yeah, no Rush on that.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (0eaVi)
94
I hope no one got the impression that we were teaching our son about human anatomy at five years old. It wasn’t until he came into a room of adults with the anatomy books that we found out he had been looking at them on his own. He was quite intelligent beyond his age. . . .
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025
***
My mother did not want me reading her nursing textbooks when I was small. I glanced over them anyway, in secret, and regretted it. Pics, in unflattering B & W, of a patient with elephantiasis . . . "No thanks, Mom, I don't want any lunch."
Posted by: RetSgtRN at September 07, 2025
***
My mother did not want me reading her nursing textbooks when I was small. I glanced over them anyway, in secret, and regretted it. Pics, in unflattering B & W, of a patient with elephantiasis . . . "No thanks, Mom, I don't want any lunch."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (omVj0)
95
Yay book thread! I'm inching through Milton's Paradise Lost. It is slow going. I've been using it as a bedtime book, and it is very effective at putting me to sleep.
My father is a huge fan of Mark Twain and he used to read to read Twain's work to me at bed time. I'm a huge fan.
My father is a huge fan of Mark Twain and he used to read to read Twain's work to me at bed time. I'm a huge fan.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:35 AM (ZOv7s)
96
I would skip The Defense.
I loath Ada.
Pale Fire is my favorite.
Invitation To A Beheading is better than Pnin.
How else can one interpret Lolita?
I loath Ada.
Pale Fire is my favorite.
Invitation To A Beheading is better than Pnin.
How else can one interpret Lolita?
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:36 AM (+sNap)
97
Someday Disco will make a comeback.
I believe the mirror ball will rise again. Oh, but not the way we thought it would back then. I mean syncopation, coke, and gin—
I believe the mirror ball will rise again.
I believe the mirror ball will rise again. Oh, but not the way we thought it would back then. I mean syncopation, coke, and gin—
I believe the mirror ball will rise again.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:37 AM (olroh)
98
I saw an online essay a while back -- can't find the link -- suggesting that male readers haven't stopped reading. Rather, they've just abandoned print books from the major publishers, because all of them are by and for women. The writer of the essay claimed that men make up the majority of ebook buyers, especially indy and small-press books. I don't know how accurate the piece was, but it made me hope it was true.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:37 AM (78a2H)
99
Currently reading Liam Moriarty’s Apples Never Fall and a book about asking good questions by a former fbi interrogator. (Free kindle book that looked interesting - and it is!).
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (6sqKx)
100
Disco was a test we failed
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
101
I'm inching through Milton's Paradise Lost. It is slow going. I've been using it as a bedtime book, and it is very effective at putting me to sleep.
“I found him boring too. He's a little bit long winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible.
“I found him boring too. He's a little bit long winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible.
Posted by: Mrs. Milton at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (Riz8t)
102
Well, I was going to spend my day off last werk (Tuesday) updating Perfessor Squirrel's excellent Library of Moron Recommended Books, but I got distracted by reading Dennis E. Taylor's "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" (AKA "The BobIverse"), which led me to immediately read the rest of the series, consisting of:
For We Are Many
All These Worlds
Heaven's River
Not Till We Are Lost
Rich sci fi geek engineer agrees to have his head cryogenically preserved in case he dies, which he almost immediately does, wakes up 117 years later in a theocracy that uses his memories stored on a computer as the sentient AI controlling an interstellar probe which can replicate itself, build orbital factories and generally function independently.
I'm absolutely mesmerized by the tech and story development in this series so far. Highly, highly recommended. Book 5 (Not Till We Are Lost) was just published January of 2025, and author is working on Book 6. I can't wait.
Will try to start updating the library this week. Sorry for the delay.
For We Are Many
All These Worlds
Heaven's River
Not Till We Are Lost
Rich sci fi geek engineer agrees to have his head cryogenically preserved in case he dies, which he almost immediately does, wakes up 117 years later in a theocracy that uses his memories stored on a computer as the sentient AI controlling an interstellar probe which can replicate itself, build orbital factories and generally function independently.
I'm absolutely mesmerized by the tech and story development in this series so far. Highly, highly recommended. Book 5 (Not Till We Are Lost) was just published January of 2025, and author is working on Book 6. I can't wait.
Will try to start updating the library this week. Sorry for the delay.
Posted by: Sharkman at September 07, 2025 09:39 AM (/RHNq)
103
As for shameful reading, I think we are in an age where shame doesn't really exist in terms of reading. When books about "milking" minotaurs become best-sellers, shame is not a thing.
Probably the most 'shameful' thing I ever read was some girlie mag in a Humvee while I was slumming it with the surveyors. It was lavishly illustrated of course, but there was also quite a bit of writing between the images, and so I decided to check it out.
Surprisingly, it was very well written, witty and engaging. Some aspiring writer was taking this gig and running with it, and no doubt aware that no one was likely to read it, decided to have fun. The metaphors and euphemisms for the various acts in the photographs made me crack up, which caused the rest of the crew to wonder what was so funny about the pr0n.
In the event, that wasted, pointless drill weekend convinced me that I was not cut out for Army life.
Probably the most 'shameful' thing I ever read was some girlie mag in a Humvee while I was slumming it with the surveyors. It was lavishly illustrated of course, but there was also quite a bit of writing between the images, and so I decided to check it out.
Surprisingly, it was very well written, witty and engaging. Some aspiring writer was taking this gig and running with it, and no doubt aware that no one was likely to read it, decided to have fun. The metaphors and euphemisms for the various acts in the photographs made me crack up, which caused the rest of the crew to wonder what was so funny about the pr0n.
In the event, that wasted, pointless drill weekend convinced me that I was not cut out for Army life.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:39 AM (ZOv7s)
104
98 I saw an online essay a while back -- can't find the link -- suggesting that male readers haven't stopped reading. Rather, they've just abandoned print books from the major publishers, because all of them are by and for women. The writer of the essay claimed that men make up the majority of ebook buyers, especially indy and small-press books. I don't know how accurate the piece was, but it made me hope it was true.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
Yes. Not only are the hardcovers, most of them, at the bookstore by and about women and women's concerns, they cost $30, and the paperbacks are $15. That would slow my purchasing down right there.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
Yes. Not only are the hardcovers, most of them, at the bookstore by and about women and women's concerns, they cost $30, and the paperbacks are $15. That would slow my purchasing down right there.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:40 AM (omVj0)
105
Trimegistus, that sounds accurate.
Modern literature is very much geared toward women, and they’ve been colonizing sci-fi for years, ugh.
Modern literature is very much geared toward women, and they’ve been colonizing sci-fi for years, ugh.
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:40 AM (6sqKx)
106
Tom Sawyer is ok but if you want really dark read "What Is Man?".
Posted by: fd at September 07, 2025 09:40 AM (vFG9F)
107
Someday Disco will make a comeback.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
Yeah, no Rush on that.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (0eaVi)
====
My youtube algorithm feeds me a constant diet of disco because of the ont.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
Yeah, no Rush on that.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (0eaVi)
====
My youtube algorithm feeds me a constant diet of disco because of the ont.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:41 AM (RIvkX)
108
100 Disco was a test we failed
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:41 AM (CjwnQ)
109
I saw an online essay a while back -- can't find the link -- suggesting that male readers haven't stopped reading. Rather, they've just abandoned print books from the major publishers, because all of them are by and for women.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:37 AM (78a2H)
---
It's just anecdata, but my wife and I both buy a lot of books. She gets hers from Amazon, and they are all current, new releases.
I get mine from used book stores - either in person or through ebay.
Which is more visible to the book industry?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:37 AM (78a2H)
---
It's just anecdata, but my wife and I both buy a lot of books. She gets hers from Amazon, and they are all current, new releases.
I get mine from used book stores - either in person or through ebay.
Which is more visible to the book industry?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:42 AM (ZOv7s)
110
108 100 Disco was a test we failed
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
And forget about me getting down.
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
And forget about me getting down.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (Riz8t)
111
55 & 91 -
"I am a little embarrassed that I haven't read most of them."
In Harlan Ellison's "Paladin of the Lost Hour," he had the perfect answer to someone who looks at a bookcase and says, "Have you read all those books?" The response: "Hell, no. Who wants a library full of books you've already read?"
Hold that thought.
"I am a little embarrassed that I haven't read most of them."
In Harlan Ellison's "Paladin of the Lost Hour," he had the perfect answer to someone who looks at a bookcase and says, "Have you read all those books?" The response: "Hell, no. Who wants a library full of books you've already read?"
Hold that thought.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (q3u5l)
112
I spend a lot of time looking at the old books on eBay, especially dictionaries and hymnals.
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (FqNtp)
Posted by: The Bee Gees, Zombie Donna Summer, and KC at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (omVj0)
114
The other thing are the industrialized authors like James Patterson. At the used bookstore we marvel at how many new copies are donated - speculate they are gifts.
Same goes for the dime-a-dozen political biographies/tell alls that also arrive obviously unread. Like, who give AF what Trump’s cousin thinks about him or the latest msm-designated DC hero?
Same goes for the dime-a-dozen political biographies/tell alls that also arrive obviously unread. Like, who give AF what Trump’s cousin thinks about him or the latest msm-designated DC hero?
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (6sqKx)
115
24 I'm back in the 1970s and "The Osterman Weekend,"
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (p/isN)
I was in the 70's this week, too, with "Prelude to Terror" by Helen MacInnes. This is one of a half-dozen of her books I picked up at the thrift store, and the first I've read.
An art critic is hired by a wealthy guy to go to Vienna and purchase a painting at auction. The painting is being sold by a man who is trying to defect from Hungary, and he needs the money to help him get across and established in the free world.
It's good. Takes a while to figure out who are the bad guys working for the commies. Cold war fiction is just not like any other thing.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:10 AM (p/isN)
I was in the 70's this week, too, with "Prelude to Terror" by Helen MacInnes. This is one of a half-dozen of her books I picked up at the thrift store, and the first I've read.
An art critic is hired by a wealthy guy to go to Vienna and purchase a painting at auction. The painting is being sold by a man who is trying to defect from Hungary, and he needs the money to help him get across and established in the free world.
It's good. Takes a while to figure out who are the bad guys working for the commies. Cold war fiction is just not like any other thing.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 09:44 AM (h7ZuX)
116
I've mentioned how much I'm enjoying books by Henry Beston for his observations of nature and his lyrical prose. Just got another oh his books this week, "The St. Lawrence" about the river, especially he Quebec sections.
One phrase jumped out at me describing the various sections of the river where it turns into rapids: "shapes of violence and the INSTANCY OF CREATION". That image and its import is Shakespearean. It has the same weight for me as "the imagination bodies forth" from Midsummer Night's Dream. The power of the words and image stayed with me.
Obviously, I'm in a contemplative mood lately.
One phrase jumped out at me describing the various sections of the river where it turns into rapids: "shapes of violence and the INSTANCY OF CREATION". That image and its import is Shakespearean. It has the same weight for me as "the imagination bodies forth" from Midsummer Night's Dream. The power of the words and image stayed with me.
Obviously, I'm in a contemplative mood lately.
Posted by: JTB at September 07, 2025 09:44 AM (yTvNw)
117
Disco was a test we failed
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
---
In our house, Donna Summers' version of "MacArthur Park" is the ultimate travel sing-along.
My wife hates it, but everyone else belts it out with gusto.
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
---
In our house, Donna Summers' version of "MacArthur Park" is the ultimate travel sing-along.
My wife hates it, but everyone else belts it out with gusto.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:44 AM (ZOv7s)
118
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
--
All three!
Not to this crowd; you know I love everything from edifying classics to entertaining trash-ola. But to the normies? How would I explain it?
--
All three!
Not to this crowd; you know I love everything from edifying classics to entertaining trash-ola. But to the normies? How would I explain it?
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 09:45 AM (kpS4V)
119
I believe the mirror ball will rise again. Oh, but not the way we thought it would back then. I mean syncopation, coke, and gin—
I believe the mirror ball will rise again.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:37 AM (olroh)
====
My first concert was seeing Styx at the Nassau Coliseum in 1976 and they had a gigantic one hanging from the center of the ceiling. I remember that and so. much. weed. I was too young to smoke it but knew what it was.
I believe the mirror ball will rise again.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:37 AM (olroh)
====
My first concert was seeing Styx at the Nassau Coliseum in 1976 and they had a gigantic one hanging from the center of the ceiling. I remember that and so. much. weed. I was too young to smoke it but knew what it was.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 07, 2025 09:46 AM (RIvkX)
120
Read somewhere long ago how Disco wS foisted onto the country as something big long before it was, and everyone bought into it having to get something hot that wasn't.
Been many fads like that.
Been many fads like that.
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 09:47 AM (+qU29)
121
How else can one interpret Lolita?
My interpretation is this: Humbert is a predatory liar. Nothing he says can be trusted. Not about how seductive Lolita is, not about how Lolita’s mother died, not about their first encounter.
Going directly from the text, Lolita is far from the Hollywood vixen she’s been portrayed as. Lolita is 12 years old when Humbert meets her. This is not in any sense a romantic tale. And yet, Nabokov’s writing is so compelling that the movie versions both portray her as Humbert wants her to be portrayed, and the movies themselves are repeatedly miscategorized under romances in movie stores.
Nabokov had escaped two regimes notable for their untrustworthy media. He had seen how difficult it is to distrust authority when authority controls the media. Lolita is an opposite story: nearly everything is obviously false. Yet, because of its form, Humbert’s tale becomes not just believable, but canonical.
My interpretation is this: Humbert is a predatory liar. Nothing he says can be trusted. Not about how seductive Lolita is, not about how Lolita’s mother died, not about their first encounter.
Going directly from the text, Lolita is far from the Hollywood vixen she’s been portrayed as. Lolita is 12 years old when Humbert meets her. This is not in any sense a romantic tale. And yet, Nabokov’s writing is so compelling that the movie versions both portray her as Humbert wants her to be portrayed, and the movies themselves are repeatedly miscategorized under romances in movie stores.
Nabokov had escaped two regimes notable for their untrustworthy media. He had seen how difficult it is to distrust authority when authority controls the media. Lolita is an opposite story: nearly everything is obviously false. Yet, because of its form, Humbert’s tale becomes not just believable, but canonical.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 09:47 AM (olroh)
122
Back when I was an aspiring free-lance writer, I _dreamed_ of cracking the dirty-magazine market. Even the low-end ones paid ridiculously well* and the publishers basically didn't give a damn about the words filling the spaces without any pictures, so the editors could run whatever struck their fancy. Never quite managed to make a sale, though.
*Playboy, back in the 1990s, paid $5 a word for articles. That means every time your finger hit a key, you made a buck.
*Playboy, back in the 1990s, paid $5 a word for articles. That means every time your finger hit a key, you made a buck.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:47 AM (78a2H)
123
Weasel-san's Reading Thread Rulz:
1. Reading is FUNdamental.
2. Buy more books. Seriously!
3. Pants are currently optional, but watches over 43mm case diameter are verboten.
1. Reading is FUNdamental.
2. Buy more books. Seriously!
3. Pants are currently optional, but watches over 43mm case diameter are verboten.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at September 07, 2025 09:47 AM (0sNs1)
124
Eris --
Don't worry about explaining it to the normies. Chances are they wouldn't ask in the first place.
Don't worry about explaining it to the normies. Chances are they wouldn't ask in the first place.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 09:47 AM (q3u5l)
Posted by: Oddbob at September 07, 2025 09:48 AM (3nLb4)
126
Im half kidding there was some good disco music and some cringe
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:48 AM (bXbFr)
127
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:41 AM (CjwnQ)
---
My father loved disco. It became big right after the divorce, and it used a 4/4 beat which matched the ballroom dancing he learned when he was young (pre-rock n roll). He took lessons two times a week, lost weight, bought himself a Monte Carlo and some disco suits and had the time of his life, eventually settling down and marrying my stepmother.
Some years ago, they were decluttering and brought up a bunch of clothes, including a three-piece pinstripe suit.
"This," he said pointing to it, "is my lucky suit. I got lucky in it a lot." I donated it.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:41 AM (CjwnQ)
---
My father loved disco. It became big right after the divorce, and it used a 4/4 beat which matched the ballroom dancing he learned when he was young (pre-rock n roll). He took lessons two times a week, lost weight, bought himself a Monte Carlo and some disco suits and had the time of his life, eventually settling down and marrying my stepmother.
Some years ago, they were decluttering and brought up a bunch of clothes, including a three-piece pinstripe suit.
"This," he said pointing to it, "is my lucky suit. I got lucky in it a lot." I donated it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:48 AM (ZOv7s)
128
After recently re-reading the first Dragonlance book, I decided to OD on Dungeons and Dragons de. I re-watched the 'Record of Lodoss War' anime, and re-read the 'Warlands' comic book. Lodoss started as a couple of Japanese guys publishing a prose account of their D&D game (and it may have been key point in popularizing the game in Japan) then became its own legally distinct property when they lost or just couldn't get the rights to D&D. It's a classic (Deedlit is right up there with Legolas as the first character I think of when I hear 'elf'), but a little bit of-its-time, and of-its-medium (anime).
Warlands was a comic book that took aaaaaaaall it's visual cues from Lodoss. Almost to the point of being a rip-off. Back in the day, I loved the first issue, and it still holds up! An army of Vampires (and their dragon) make a surprise attack on a human castle. A young officer/knight manages to escape, along with a handful of random companions, and vows vengeance. Alas, the rest of the series doesn't live up to the hype. The knight is barely focused on after that issue, and story is more a sweeping overview of events than a story about any character I cared about...
Warlands was a comic book that took aaaaaaaall it's visual cues from Lodoss. Almost to the point of being a rip-off. Back in the day, I loved the first issue, and it still holds up! An army of Vampires (and their dragon) make a surprise attack on a human castle. A young officer/knight manages to escape, along with a handful of random companions, and vows vengeance. Alas, the rest of the series doesn't live up to the hype. The knight is barely focused on after that issue, and story is more a sweeping overview of events than a story about any character I cared about...
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:49 AM (Lhaco)
129
My shelves have a wide range, from literature (Steinbeck, a little Hemingway, etc.), to crime and classic detective, to SF and some fantasy, and a section with reference and non-fiction. That's aside from the small bookcase devoted to the 1980s Britannica.
Some people might consider some of my choices trash, but they are never going to see my bookshelves anyway.
Some people might consider some of my choices trash, but they are never going to see my bookshelves anyway.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:49 AM (omVj0)
130
Good morning and thank you, Weasel, for keeping things going. I just finished Evelyn Waugh's Helena. I'm glad that I read it even if I'm not sure I understood some of the imagery. I've never been one to appreciate imagery in literature. I may pick it up again at some point and see how it goes.
Posted by: KatieFloyd at September 07, 2025 09:50 AM (X59Dx)
131
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
===
"I read it for the articles !"
===
"I read it for the articles !"
Posted by: Guilty Pleasures at September 07, 2025 09:50 AM (g47mK)
132
93 Someday Disco will make a comeback.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
Yeah, no Rush on that.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (0eaVi)
Rush isn't disco! Why bring them into the conversation? Is it because we're talking about Tom Sawyer, today?
(Just assume I ended this post with a wink)
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:30 AM (CjwnQ)
Yeah, no Rush on that.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:34 AM (0eaVi)
Rush isn't disco! Why bring them into the conversation? Is it because we're talking about Tom Sawyer, today?
(Just assume I ended this post with a wink)
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:51 AM (Lhaco)
133
Good morning all
Haven't even had my coffee yet but I read a very interesting book this week, Frederick Forsyth's The Fox. It is a spy novel but I found it unique I some ways. It starts out with a Hack of Fort Meade, one of the most impenetrable places on the planet. Yet, nothing is done. No malware or info stolen. Why was it done? Who did it? The investigation leads to a cottage in England occupied by a regular British family. The story unfolds in the most astonishing way. Almost feels like a documentary using current events and thinly disguised current world leaders. Published in 2018 it describes some eerily current events and political insights that feel very real.
I found the style a bit dry, a thriller but not thrilling. But I read every page and the premise is brilliant.
Anybody else read him?
Haven't even had my coffee yet but I read a very interesting book this week, Frederick Forsyth's The Fox. It is a spy novel but I found it unique I some ways. It starts out with a Hack of Fort Meade, one of the most impenetrable places on the planet. Yet, nothing is done. No malware or info stolen. Why was it done? Who did it? The investigation leads to a cottage in England occupied by a regular British family. The story unfolds in the most astonishing way. Almost feels like a documentary using current events and thinly disguised current world leaders. Published in 2018 it describes some eerily current events and political insights that feel very real.
I found the style a bit dry, a thriller but not thrilling. But I read every page and the premise is brilliant.
Anybody else read him?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 09:51 AM (t/2Uw)
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 09:52 AM (jH5TK)
135
I would skip The Defense.
I loath Ada.
Pale Fire is my favorite.
Invitation To A Beheading is better than Pnin.
How else can one interpret Lolita?
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:36 AM (+sNap)
I haven't read all of Nabokov but -
Yeah, "Pale Fire" is my fave as well.
And "Invitation to a Beheading" is a great read.
He's always an interesting read, but Poor Ole Nabby's reputation since his death has pretty much shrunk down to "Lolita".
I think he would both be amused and disappointed by that.
I loath Ada.
Pale Fire is my favorite.
Invitation To A Beheading is better than Pnin.
How else can one interpret Lolita?
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:36 AM (+sNap)
I haven't read all of Nabokov but -
Yeah, "Pale Fire" is my fave as well.
And "Invitation to a Beheading" is a great read.
He's always an interesting read, but Poor Ole Nabby's reputation since his death has pretty much shrunk down to "Lolita".
I think he would both be amused and disappointed by that.
Posted by: naturalfake at September 07, 2025 09:52 AM (iJfKG)
136
Follow on from my comment 116 ...
The book about the St Lawrence river is a hardcover from 1942. It's over 80 years old but the binding is still tight, the pages haven't yellowed, the end papers are good, and the size of the type is a bit larger than typical these days, more comfortable to read. This isn't some special printing where you pay a premium. It was just a regular book. But the quality and care that went into it is apparent. There is a lesson to modern publishers in that but I don't expect them to care or understand.
In the meantime, I'll continue to treasure my older physical books.
The book about the St Lawrence river is a hardcover from 1942. It's over 80 years old but the binding is still tight, the pages haven't yellowed, the end papers are good, and the size of the type is a bit larger than typical these days, more comfortable to read. This isn't some special printing where you pay a premium. It was just a regular book. But the quality and care that went into it is apparent. There is a lesson to modern publishers in that but I don't expect them to care or understand.
In the meantime, I'll continue to treasure my older physical books.
Posted by: JTB at September 07, 2025 09:52 AM (yTvNw)
137
How else can one interpret Lolita?
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:36 AM (+sNap)
---
It's a series of head-fakes and ironic takes. You can read it as a semi-porny account of a lecherous dude, or as a send-up of the same. There are some key features, like a dog appearing whenever there is a plot twist, the running "Annabelle Lee" subtext and of course the clinical introduction that made people think it was somehow based on reality.
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:36 AM (+sNap)
---
It's a series of head-fakes and ironic takes. You can read it as a semi-porny account of a lecherous dude, or as a send-up of the same. There are some key features, like a dog appearing whenever there is a plot twist, the running "Annabelle Lee" subtext and of course the clinical introduction that made people think it was somehow based on reality.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (ZOv7s)
138
Finished American Apocalypse: The Second American Civil War by Kurt Schlichter. There's an AoSHQ shout-out in it:
"One morning, Ethan and I realized that we didn’t have any Lucky Charms, so we asked Mom why not. She said there wasn’t any and that we should eat the Kaboom cereal she had brought home. It tasted like chunks of colored cardboard with sugar spread on top."
Harsh, but fair.
"One morning, Ethan and I realized that we didn’t have any Lucky Charms, so we asked Mom why not. She said there wasn’t any and that we should eat the Kaboom cereal she had brought home. It tasted like chunks of colored cardboard with sugar spread on top."
Harsh, but fair.
Posted by: Duncanthrax at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (0sNs1)
139
Back when I was an aspiring free-lance writer, I _dreamed_ of cracking the dirty-magazine market. Even the low-end ones paid ridiculously well* and the publishers basically didn't give a damn about the words filling the spaces without any pictures, so the editors could run whatever struck their fancy. Never quite managed to make a sale, though.
*Playboy, back in the 1990s, paid $5 a word for articles. That means every time your finger hit a key, you made a buck.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
Some of Stephen King's earliest and finest short stories, including many in the Night Shift collection, appeared first in the men's magazines like Cavalier. The editors knew a good thing when they saw it.
Larry Niven sold at least one of his Svetz time-travel stories to Playboy, and the novelette "The Fly" first appeared there. Crichton's The Terminal Man was serialized (yes, in three parts!) there in '72.
*Playboy, back in the 1990s, paid $5 a word for articles. That means every time your finger hit a key, you made a buck.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
Some of Stephen King's earliest and finest short stories, including many in the Night Shift collection, appeared first in the men's magazines like Cavalier. The editors knew a good thing when they saw it.
Larry Niven sold at least one of his Svetz time-travel stories to Playboy, and the novelette "The Fly" first appeared there. Crichton's The Terminal Man was serialized (yes, in three parts!) there in '72.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (omVj0)
140
Wife and I are reading the OT Book of Ruth this week. So far I haven't gleaned much from it, but we've just barley started.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (/iMjX)
141
This week's Kindle read, which I'm not at all embarrassed about, was a Young Adult mystery novel.
"I've Got This!" by Frederick Key.
https://tinyurl.com/yp725bce
"Quentin Margolis seems like your average eighth-grader, but he’s got a knack for knowing exactly what to bring—whether it’s homework, gym clothes, or something as odd as a metal pipe or a flowery umbrella. This quirky ability always saves the day for someone, though it sometimes lands Quentin in a pickle."
This is a startling, and very enjoyable, change from the author who gave us the gritty noir of "McMann and Duck" and "McMann and Wife." It is set in the modern era of cell phones and the Internet, but with some illustrations that could have been done in the early 1960s. It has very limited violence and is quite suitable for younger readers, while engaging enough for older folks.
"I've Got This!" by Frederick Key.
https://tinyurl.com/yp725bce
"Quentin Margolis seems like your average eighth-grader, but he’s got a knack for knowing exactly what to bring—whether it’s homework, gym clothes, or something as odd as a metal pipe or a flowery umbrella. This quirky ability always saves the day for someone, though it sometimes lands Quentin in a pickle."
This is a startling, and very enjoyable, change from the author who gave us the gritty noir of "McMann and Duck" and "McMann and Wife." It is set in the modern era of cell phones and the Internet, but with some illustrations that could have been done in the early 1960s. It has very limited violence and is quite suitable for younger readers, while engaging enough for older folks.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 09:54 AM (SnC8S)
142
Embarassed by my unread to read pile for sure
==
Yes, hate that. I feel that covid imprisonment shifted things for me. Spend more time online, on passive absorption of news and whatnots instead of active reading. Very bad habit that is very difficult to break. Must have hit some pleasure center in the brain...
==
Yes, hate that. I feel that covid imprisonment shifted things for me. Spend more time online, on passive absorption of news and whatnots instead of active reading. Very bad habit that is very difficult to break. Must have hit some pleasure center in the brain...
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 09:54 AM (g47mK)
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at September 07, 2025 09:55 AM (XQo4F)
144
Anybody else read [Frederick Forsyth]?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
***
Only Day of the Jackal, and I think I've read The Odessa File.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
***
Only Day of the Jackal, and I think I've read The Odessa File.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:55 AM (omVj0)
145
I donated it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:48 AM (ZOv7s)
*snort.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:48 AM (ZOv7s)
*snort.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 09:56 AM (CjwnQ)
146
Now that my folks are gone, my sister and I have to clear their bookshelves. This leaves me torn between reading some of their books before trading them in at the secondhand book store or taking them to the store immediately.
For example, Mom had two biographies of Sam Walton, whom she greatly admired. She and Dad owned stock in Wal-Mart (as it was spelled then) and would attend shareholders' meetings.
Then there is "Fishbait," a tell-all by William "Fishbait" Miller, who spent two decades as "the congressional Doorkeeper," which apparently is an official title. It was published in 1977. It looks interesting, but as all the figures in it are probably dead, do I want to devote the time to it when so many books that I own have yet to be read?
For example, Mom had two biographies of Sam Walton, whom she greatly admired. She and Dad owned stock in Wal-Mart (as it was spelled then) and would attend shareholders' meetings.
Then there is "Fishbait," a tell-all by William "Fishbait" Miller, who spent two decades as "the congressional Doorkeeper," which apparently is an official title. It was published in 1977. It looks interesting, but as all the figures in it are probably dead, do I want to devote the time to it when so many books that I own have yet to be read?
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:57 AM (uvXsf)
147
Read Forsyth and Clancy in my Sr high-school days
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 09:57 AM (+qU29)
148
If I perish, I perish.
Posted by: Ruth at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (XQo4F)
149
I don't think I would be ashamed of anything on my shelves.
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
150
My shelves, physical and Kindle, are mostly fiction. There's a lot of sf, nearly all of it from the 40s - late 70s/early 80s, when I mostly bailed out on the genre. A bunch of John D. MacDonald, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, Ross MacDonald, Stanley Ellin, Gerald Kersh. Irwin Shaw, William Goldman, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Borges. Ramsey Campbell, Robert Aickman, Shirley Jackson, Dennis Etchison. Don Robertson (who really deserves a couple of Library of America volumes -- check out Mystical Union, Praise the Human Season, and Miss Margaret Ridpath & the Dismantling of the Universe some time). Maugham, Kipling, Chekhov, Dickens, Henry James. A bunch more, not nearly enough of it read all the way through.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 09:59 AM (q3u5l)
151
Some of Stephen King's earliest and finest short stories, including many in the Night Shift collection, appeared first in the men's magazines like Cavalier. The editors knew a good thing when they saw it.
Larry Niven sold at least one of his Svetz time-travel stories to Playboy, and the novelette "The Fly" first appeared there. Crichton's The Terminal Man was serialized (yes, in three parts!) there in '72.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (omVj0)
---
Hefner's goal was to legitimize porn and equate it with taste and distinction. The joke about the articles was half-true because of the interviews and short fiction.
But like so many things of that era, the center could not hold. People that it was stable, that the culture had found a new equilibrium, but it was moving the whole time, shifting from Christian moralism to secular hedonism, which is why attempts to reset the clock to 1997 or 1985 are doomed to fail.
Larry Niven sold at least one of his Svetz time-travel stories to Playboy, and the novelette "The Fly" first appeared there. Crichton's The Terminal Man was serialized (yes, in three parts!) there in '72.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (omVj0)
---
Hefner's goal was to legitimize porn and equate it with taste and distinction. The joke about the articles was half-true because of the interviews and short fiction.
But like so many things of that era, the center could not hold. People that it was stable, that the culture had found a new equilibrium, but it was moving the whole time, shifting from Christian moralism to secular hedonism, which is why attempts to reset the clock to 1997 or 1985 are doomed to fail.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 09:59 AM (ZOv7s)
152
And "Invitation to a Beheading" is a great read.
*********
Oh absolutely. I agree. Very well executed.
*********
Oh absolutely. I agree. Very well executed.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:59 AM (/iMjX)
153
Deception is theme of Nabokov. Pale Fire, Look at The Harlequins, Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Glory, Invitation To A Beheading all turn on authorial deception.
The deception at the heart of Invitation is why that book is important to me.
Yeah, HH's only honest moment is telling us that Lolita is alone and crying in the dark.
More broadly, we use art to romanticize evil, to deceive ourselves of what we are doing.
The deception at the heart of Invitation is why that book is important to me.
Yeah, HH's only honest moment is telling us that Lolita is alone and crying in the dark.
More broadly, we use art to romanticize evil, to deceive ourselves of what we are doing.
Posted by: Accomack at September 07, 2025 09:59 AM (Bbhox)
154
It was published in 1977. It looks interesting, but as all the figures in it are probably dead, do I want to devote the time to it when so many books that I own have yet to be read?
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:57 AM (uvXsf)
No. I'm still around.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:57 AM (uvXsf)
No. I'm still around.
Posted by: The big guy at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (CjwnQ)
155
JTB at September 07, 2025 09:52 AM (yTvNw)
I've a couple of old hardcover books like that. Good binding and easy to read because of the type font used in the printing.
Macmillan Company.
I've a couple of old hardcover books like that. Good binding and easy to read because of the type font used in the printing.
Macmillan Company.
Posted by: dantesed at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (Oy/m2)
156
Disco was a test we failed
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
And forget about me getting down.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (Riz8t)
True. But we're still stayin' alive.
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 09:38 AM (bXbFr)
We coundn't keep the Boogy Woogy on.
And forget about me getting down.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (Riz8t)
True. But we're still stayin' alive.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (g8Ew8)
157
114 The other thing are the industrialized authors like James Patterson. At the used bookstore we marvel at how many new copies are donated - speculate they are gifts.
Same goes for the dime-a-dozen political biographies/tell alls that also arrive obviously unread. Like, who give AF what Trump’s cousin thinks about him or the latest msm-designated DC hero?
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (6sqKx)
---
The library used book sale shelves are choked with these useless tree-killers. They should use them to build an Aggie-style pyre-amid out in front of the library one crisp starry night and host a bonfire party.
114 The other thing are the industrialized authors like James Patterson. At the used bookstore we marvel at how many new copies are donated - speculate they are gifts.
Same goes for the dime-a-dozen political biographies/tell alls that also arrive obviously unread. Like, who give AF what Trump’s cousin thinks about him or the latest msm-designated DC hero?
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 09:43 AM (6sqKx)
---
The library used book sale shelves are choked with these useless tree-killers. They should use them to build an Aggie-style pyre-amid out in front of the library one crisp starry night and host a bonfire party.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (kpS4V)
158
The office/library I'm sitting in has 17 floor-to-ceiling bookcases, about 70% full. I'm gradually re-reading the general fiction and fantasy & science fiction to cull some of it. The one odd-shaped bookcase has my TBR 'stack' - 8 15" shelves, 1 empty, 5 full, 2 almost full.
Current never-read that I'm reading is Rules for Radical Conservatives, re-read is Anvil of Stars, and just-for-fun re-read is The Last Centurion.
Current never-read that I'm reading is Rules for Radical Conservatives, re-read is Anvil of Stars, and just-for-fun re-read is The Last Centurion.
Posted by: Nazdar at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (NcvvS)
159
I finally got my hands on Douglas Murray's On Democracies and Death Cults . I will try to report back when I am done. So far so good, in a sense that a book about a death cult worst than Nazis can be good.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 10:01 AM (g47mK)
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 10:03 AM (g47mK)
161
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
Crude but tasteful.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
Crude but tasteful.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at September 07, 2025 10:03 AM (g8Ew8)
162
It has been a while since I read Clancy but I remember it as much more exciting than this Forsyth. I'm glad I read it though. It is a fascinating exposition of how some current events could have happened. A little frightening perhaps?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:03 AM (t/2Uw)
163
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
==
Very good , I think. The collection of coloring books is second to none !
==
Very good , I think. The collection of coloring books is second to none !
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 10:04 AM (g47mK)
164
It's good. Takes a while to figure out who are the bad guys working for the commies.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 09:44 AM (h7ZuX)
Our State Department?
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 09:44 AM (h7ZuX)
Our State Department?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:05 AM (0eaVi)
165
I get a good chunk of my books at used book sales, because I like musty history tomes and art books and paperback SF.
Some from Amazon.
Most books I check out from the library now.
Some from Amazon.
Most books I check out from the library now.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 10:05 AM (kpS4V)
166
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
----
Deranged, threat to society, possibly retarded.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
----
Deranged, threat to society, possibly retarded.
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 10:05 AM (jH5TK)
167
The library used book sale shelves are choked with these useless tree-killers. They should use them to build an Aggie-style pyre-amid out in front of the library one crisp starry night and host a bonfire party.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (kpS4V)
Optics.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 10:00 AM (kpS4V)
Optics.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 10:05 AM (CjwnQ)
168
Speaking of Tom Sawyer, last year's James by Percival Everett is a retelling of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer from the pov of the black slave Jim.
It's a bestseller but I have not read it. I am mildly curious but also wary.
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 09:08 AM (DoBxX)
I was curious about that one as well. A good idea if done correctly.
So, I found and read some excerpts and reviews.
It very much appears to be a woke, ahistorical, Black Mary Sue sort of thing. So, not for me. Too much eye-rolling would damage my perfect 20/20 vision.
But....YMMV. I'd recommend trying to find excerpts and see what you think.
It's a bestseller but I have not read it. I am mildly curious but also wary.
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 09:08 AM (DoBxX)
I was curious about that one as well. A good idea if done correctly.
So, I found and read some excerpts and reviews.
It very much appears to be a woke, ahistorical, Black Mary Sue sort of thing. So, not for me. Too much eye-rolling would damage my perfect 20/20 vision.
But....YMMV. I'd recommend trying to find excerpts and see what you think.
Posted by: naturalfake at September 07, 2025 10:05 AM (iJfKG)
169
Yes. Not only are the hardcovers, most of them, at the bookstore by and about women and women's concerns, they cost $30, and the paperbacks are $15. That would slow my purchasing down right there.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:40 AM (omVj0)
I'm not sure I can complain about hardcover prices, but yeah, $15 for a paperback novel still feels unreasonable. I may be out--of-date, but $6-8 feels like the proper paperback range. At least for the standard mass-market-paperback size. Although I have some used books in my collection with a cover price of less than $2.
As the lament goes; look at what they have taken from us...
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:40 AM (omVj0)
I'm not sure I can complain about hardcover prices, but yeah, $15 for a paperback novel still feels unreasonable. I may be out--of-date, but $6-8 feels like the proper paperback range. At least for the standard mass-market-paperback size. Although I have some used books in my collection with a cover price of less than $2.
As the lament goes; look at what they have taken from us...
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 10:05 AM (Lhaco)
170
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
---
It would be skewed towards what I like now, rather than what I read in the past. I have regularly purged the collection in a conscious effort to reduce clutter, but a few books have made it through, such as Tolkien, Churchill and various military and history books.
And I have reference/proof copies of my own books and most of their sources that I liked. So there's a Spanish Civil War shelf and Chinese military history shelf, both of which are comparatively recent.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
---
It would be skewed towards what I like now, rather than what I read in the past. I have regularly purged the collection in a conscious effort to reduce clutter, but a few books have made it through, such as Tolkien, Churchill and various military and history books.
And I have reference/proof copies of my own books and most of their sources that I liked. So there's a Spanish Civil War shelf and Chinese military history shelf, both of which are comparatively recent.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 10:06 AM (ZOv7s)
171
I've sung the praises of teh Brambly Hedge childrens book many times for the enjoyable writing and, above all, for the wonderful and creative illustrations. A new book came out last week, "A Visit to Brambly Hedge: An illustrated companion to the world of Brambly Hedge". It gives some background on the artist and the series, how she developed her detailed illustrations from preliminary sketches, and how things changed in development. (Turns out Jill Barklem, beyond her creative work for the stories, was an excellent artist with realistic drawings of her environment.)
Little kids probably wouldn't care about this background information. They just want to enjoy the books. But the older fans (raises hand) will appreciate it.
Little kids probably wouldn't care about this background information. They just want to enjoy the books. But the older fans (raises hand) will appreciate it.
Posted by: JTB at September 07, 2025 10:06 AM (yTvNw)
172
I think Nabokov's "Lolita" and Walker Percy's "The Last Gentleman" are the two finest, richest in terms of psychological penetration, and most elegantly written novels of modern times.
Posted by: Ordinary American at September 07, 2025 10:06 AM (h/ffs)
173
Family obligations call. I'll have to catch up on the rest of today's thread later. Have a great week, reading and otherwise!
Posted by: KatieFloyd at September 07, 2025 10:06 AM (EHIlB)
174
> 17 Tom Sawyer pic is kinda weird. Looks like they stuffed an ancient greek homo in primitive American fashion.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at September 07, 2025 09:07 AM (snZF9)
"Academic" art.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at September 07, 2025 09:07 AM (snZF9)
"Academic" art.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at September 07, 2025 10:07 AM (qpyNK)
175
Sharon, I have a bunch of Forsyth novels, but if you can find his short-story collection, No Comebacks, give it a read.
Posted by: Nazdar at September 07, 2025 10:07 AM (NcvvS)
176
7 Read Forsyth and Clancy in my Sr high-school days
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025
***
I was a devotee of their literary ancestor, Alistair Maclean. It's time I went back to reread his first novel, H.M.S. Ulysses. It's completely unlike his later work (except that it features plenty of action): a story of a WWII British cruiser on a Murmansk convoy.
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025
***
I was a devotee of their literary ancestor, Alistair Maclean. It's time I went back to reread his first novel, H.M.S. Ulysses. It's completely unlike his later work (except that it features plenty of action): a story of a WWII British cruiser on a Murmansk convoy.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:08 AM (omVj0)
177
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
___________________________________
How embarrassed should I be by 50-sump'm-year-old issues of 'Playboy' and all my Photoshop Magazine issues? Wait! There's also a really big book about Mauser rifles! And DaVinci! And then there's ...
___________________________________
How embarrassed should I be by 50-sump'm-year-old issues of 'Playboy' and all my Photoshop Magazine issues? Wait! There's also a really big book about Mauser rifles! And DaVinci! And then there's ...
Posted by: Dr_No at September 07, 2025 10:08 AM (ayRl+)
178
It looks interesting, but as all the figures in it are probably dead, do I want to devote the time to it when so many books that I own have yet to be read?
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:57 AM (uvXsf)
I'm kind of interested to read it myself. I've only lived in a time when literally every single politician is a criminal and moral pervert who should've been hanged a long time ago.
I think it would be nice to read about a time when Congress still had at least a few humans that the demons hadn't run out on a rail yet. Nostalgic.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 09:57 AM (uvXsf)
I'm kind of interested to read it myself. I've only lived in a time when literally every single politician is a criminal and moral pervert who should've been hanged a long time ago.
I think it would be nice to read about a time when Congress still had at least a few humans that the demons hadn't run out on a rail yet. Nostalgic.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 07, 2025 10:08 AM (BI5O2)
179
Eros, that has been a pet peeve of mine for years: all these schlock current events books are subsidized by we, the taxpayers, as our public libraries and school libraries are guaranteed to by so many copies. Nothing like seeing the same dang pop non-fiction by, say, Meghan McCain, sit prominently on the New Books display at the library, week after week, while being on the waitlist for the single copy of a new non- progressive history book. Grrrr!
How many of the Hillary and Chelsea Clinton kids books would sell without libraries and political organizations buying them in bulk?
How many of the Hillary and Chelsea Clinton kids books would sell without libraries and political organizations buying them in bulk?
Posted by: Lizzy at September 07, 2025 10:09 AM (6sqKx)
180
Some people might consider some of my choices trash, but they are never going to see my bookshelves anyway.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:49 AM (omVj0)
And those that do, never make it out alive.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 09:49 AM (omVj0)
And those that do, never make it out alive.
Posted by: The Killer Kittens at September 07, 2025 10:09 AM (0eaVi)
181
161 Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
I make sure not to keep any books around about the scary parts.
161 Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
I make sure not to keep any books around about the scary parts.
Posted by: Tom Servo at September 07, 2025 10:09 AM (BSY5a)
182
One of the books I've gone back to since my teen years is "The Collected Works of Mark Twain". So many great short stories along with his more well known works. One interesting bit is a sequence on the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County - first the original funny story, then a complaint that some French guy grousing that it is not funny, then Twain translating the story into French and back to English, completely mangled and unfunny. But funny in a slap-the-French kind of way.
Posted by: Candidus at September 07, 2025 10:10 AM (iVdYJ)
Posted by: Elizabeth Moran at September 07, 2025 10:10 AM (olroh)
184
Trimegistus --
Don't know how good a picture of my personality someone would get from my shelves. The contents of the Kindle and bookcases are as much aspirational as accomplishment these days.
Don't know how good a picture of my personality someone would get from my shelves. The contents of the Kindle and bookcases are as much aspirational as accomplishment these days.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 10:10 AM (q3u5l)
185
Need to do a few chores and give some thought to writing the Gun Thread. Back in a little bit. No fighting!
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 10:10 AM (jH5TK)
186
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
---
It would be skewed towards what I like now, rather than what I read in the past. . . .
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025
***
In my case it would be the reverse, except for the literary fiction I have. In my jr. high and high school days, even into college, I resisted reading the stuff most consider "literature." If you'd told me when I was sixteen that I would one day revere Steinbeck (aside from Grapes, that is) and at least some of Truman Capote, I'd have thought you mad.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
---
It would be skewed towards what I like now, rather than what I read in the past. . . .
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025
***
In my case it would be the reverse, except for the literary fiction I have. In my jr. high and high school days, even into college, I resisted reading the stuff most consider "literature." If you'd told me when I was sixteen that I would one day revere Steinbeck (aside from Grapes, that is) and at least some of Truman Capote, I'd have thought you mad.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:11 AM (omVj0)
187
Speaking of book sales, apparently the new version of D&D is a bust, and what kids really want are the older versions. A friend of mine is thinking of getting rid of a bunch of the stuff, mentioned it to a hobby shop owner who said it would fly off the shelves if he wanted to sell it there.
I go as far back as the red-blue book box sets and the second printings of AD&D. I sold all the 4th edition books because they were lame and gay.
I go as far back as the red-blue book box sets and the second printings of AD&D. I sold all the 4th edition books because they were lame and gay.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 10:11 AM (ZOv7s)
188
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Spotty at best. More of a model of who I would like to be.
Spotty at best. More of a model of who I would like to be.
Posted by: Oddbob at September 07, 2025 10:11 AM (3nLb4)
189
(Just assume I ended this post with a wink)
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:51 AM (Lhaco)
(finger on nose)
(ON nose)
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 09:51 AM (Lhaco)
(finger on nose)
(ON nose)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:11 AM (0eaVi)
190
Forsythe? Yes. "The Dogs of War." I love how he focuses on logistics. I listened to an audiobook of another FF novel whose title I don't remember. Again, lots of time spent on logistics -- this time on the setting up of a drug interdiction operation -- but with a horribly disappointing ending. And I have another FF from the '90s on the TBR list.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 10:11 AM (a+hTC)
191
Thank you , Weasel !
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 10:12 AM (g47mK)
192
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
A, because I would be misunderstood and be called AS.
A, because I would be misunderstood and be called AS.
Posted by: sTevo at September 07, 2025 10:12 AM (HNXEw)
193
Some say that Romantasy is taking over and ruining the Fantasy genre.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
Ugh
Romantasy
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
Ugh
Romantasy
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 10:12 AM (eZ5tL)
194
It is a spy novel but I found it unique I some ways. It starts out with a Hack of Fort Meade, one of the most impenetrable places on the planet. Yet, nothing is done. No malware or info stolen. Why was it done? Who did it? The investigation leads to a cottage in England occupied by a regular British family.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 09:51 AM (t/2Uw)
They came for the blancmange, didn't they?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 09:51 AM (t/2Uw)
They came for the blancmange, didn't they?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (0eaVi)
195
This week I'm still working my way through that Barsoom novel by Geary Gravel, an Alien novel, and "War of the Worlds.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (kpS4V)
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (a+hTC)
197
Just to elevate the tone here, my book this week is Novum Organon by Francis Bacon. It's basically his manifesto, telling everybody circa 1600 that they're doing science all wrong. Since they were, in fact, doing it all wrong, the book was massively influential. The generation who founded the Royal Society and kicked off the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions were all Bacon fanboys.
The edition I'm reading is a reprint (of course) and the editor does a bit of arguing with Bacon in the footnotes. Some of it's just autistic pedantry but I get the sense that the series editor -- it's part of a "great works of western civilization" series -- is a little pissed at how Bacon keeps slagging Aristotle. Trouble is, the things Bacon is slagging Aristotle about are absolutely true: the ancients DID put too much value on deductive reasoning and tidy theories, rather than empirical study.
The edition I'm reading is a reprint (of course) and the editor does a bit of arguing with Bacon in the footnotes. Some of it's just autistic pedantry but I get the sense that the series editor -- it's part of a "great works of western civilization" series -- is a little pissed at how Bacon keeps slagging Aristotle. Trouble is, the things Bacon is slagging Aristotle about are absolutely true: the ancients DID put too much value on deductive reasoning and tidy theories, rather than empirical study.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (78a2H)
198
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
Probably, I would appear to be a "No Policy" guy.
I read various genres, trash, comics, classics, literature, Greek, Roman plays, whatever interests me.
Though I tend toward comedy.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
Probably, I would appear to be a "No Policy" guy.
I read various genres, trash, comics, classics, literature, Greek, Roman plays, whatever interests me.
Though I tend toward comedy.
Posted by: naturalfake at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (iJfKG)
199
I go as far back as the red-blue book box sets and the second printings of AD&D. I sold all the 4th edition books because they were lame and gay.
I have Worlds and Monsters, which I think accompanied 4th edition. Beautiful book, but I would never want to game there.
Telling the history of the elves defines them in the reader’s mind and lets a player make an elf character more alive.
I have Worlds and Monsters, which I think accompanied 4th edition. Beautiful book, but I would never want to game there.
Telling the history of the elves defines them in the reader’s mind and lets a player make an elf character more alive.
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 10:15 AM (olroh)
200
Embarrassed? I read some Rousseau in college, then I recently read "Intellectuals" by Paul Johnson and realized what a horrible person Rousseau was. I've also read about 40 Doc Savage novels. Lester Dent > Rousseau.
Posted by: Norrin Radd, sojourner of the spaceways at September 07, 2025 10:15 AM (tRYqg)
201
Good morning!
Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:15 AM (u82oZ)
202
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
Look for the books about philosophy. If someone isn't interested in philosophy at all, you can't tell much about them from the books they read, aside from maybe if they read polemics a lot.
But the philosophical works will tell you much about them.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
Look for the books about philosophy. If someone isn't interested in philosophy at all, you can't tell much about them from the books they read, aside from maybe if they read polemics a lot.
But the philosophical works will tell you much about them.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 07, 2025 10:16 AM (BI5O2)
203
Going to bare my soul here.
I don't own books. I don't reread books. I don't read non fiction books. I read for entertainment. I read the Classics, Historical fiction, Fantasy genres from werewolves to vampires, mystery, sci fi, romance.
I mostly read new books by authors I've read before and recommendations here, from my son who is just as voracious a reader as I am. Bottom line, I am always reading a book. Sometimes two.
Don't know what that says about me.
I don't own books. I don't reread books. I don't read non fiction books. I read for entertainment. I read the Classics, Historical fiction, Fantasy genres from werewolves to vampires, mystery, sci fi, romance.
I mostly read new books by authors I've read before and recommendations here, from my son who is just as voracious a reader as I am. Bottom line, I am always reading a book. Sometimes two.
Don't know what that says about me.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:16 AM (t/2Uw)
204
Wife and I are reading the OT Book of Ruth this week. So far I haven't gleaned much from it, but we've just barley started.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (/iMjX)
Don't go all the way to the end.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 09:53 AM (/iMjX)
Don't go all the way to the end.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:16 AM (0eaVi)
205
Back in a little bit. No fighting!
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 10:10 AM (jH5TK)
-----
*blows spitwads and fires rubber bands*
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 10:10 AM (jH5TK)
-----
*blows spitwads and fires rubber bands*
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 10:17 AM (kpS4V)
206
> Among life's many opportunities for poor choices, screwing over a hit man is near the top of the list.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:16 AM (Riz8t)
One of the Batman movies has a bit something like "He's one of the richest, most powerful men in the world, who also spends his evenings as a vigilante beating criminals to death with his bare hands. And your idea is to blackmail this person?"
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 09:16 AM (Riz8t)
One of the Batman movies has a bit something like "He's one of the richest, most powerful men in the world, who also spends his evenings as a vigilante beating criminals to death with his bare hands. And your idea is to blackmail this person?"
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at September 07, 2025 10:17 AM (qpyNK)
207
>>And "Invitation to a Beheading" is a great read.
*********
Oh absolutely. I agree. Very well executed.
*golfclap*
*********
Oh absolutely. I agree. Very well executed.
*golfclap*
Posted by: Nazdar at September 07, 2025 10:18 AM (NcvvS)
208
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:16 AM (t/2Uw)
Thank you. I love hearing it.
Thank you. I love hearing it.
Posted by: Ordinary American at September 07, 2025 10:20 AM (h/ffs)
209
"I've Got This!" by Frederick Key.
https://tinyurl.com/yp725bce
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 09:54 AM (SnC8S)
From the fabled Raconteur Press. They're branching out into novels. Have been doing anthologies that our Wolfus has been featured in.
I doubt you'll ever see my stuff there. Their stuff's high quality work.
https://tinyurl.com/yp725bce
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 09:54 AM (SnC8S)
From the fabled Raconteur Press. They're branching out into novels. Have been doing anthologies that our Wolfus has been featured in.
I doubt you'll ever see my stuff there. Their stuff's high quality work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:20 AM (0eaVi)
210
12 ...
I started "The Rules of the Game," a study about the British Naval Command and the battle of Jutland. A breath of fresh air (and cordite, I expect).
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (KXWAV)
_______
Some years ago I went on at some length about that book in a book thread. Interesting but controversial.
I started "The Rules of the Game," a study about the British Naval Command and the battle of Jutland. A breath of fresh air (and cordite, I expect).
Posted by: PabloD at September 07, 2025 09:05 AM (KXWAV)
_______
Some years ago I went on at some length about that book in a book thread. Interesting but controversial.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 07, 2025 10:21 AM (s0JqF)
211
Trouble is, the things Bacon is slagging Aristotle about are absolutely true: the ancients DID put too much value on deductive reasoning and tidy theories, rather than empirical study.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
Yeah, but that was the fun part!
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
Yeah, but that was the fun part!
Posted by: Aristotle at September 07, 2025 10:21 AM (omVj0)
212
My bookshelves would show me to be an obsessive accumulator who is stuck in the past.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 10:21 AM (a+hTC)
213
I remember liking A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as a kid, but when I re-read it as an adult I found it pretty pedestrian and boring. I could picture it now as a Harry Potter novel.
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 10:22 AM (/iMjX)
214
Gluten morgen! We're having pancakes for breakfast!
Hahaha!
Geddit? Did you geddit?
Gluten morgen. Pancakes!
Geddit?
Hahaha...ha...
...ha?
...
Oh, fuck all y'all.
Gluten morgen! We're having pancakes for breakfast!
Hahaha!
Geddit? Did you geddit?
Gluten morgen. Pancakes!
Geddit?
Hahaha...ha...
...ha?
...
Oh, fuck all y'all.
Posted by: naturalfake at September 07, 2025 10:22 AM (iJfKG)
215
"Harry Potter and the Solar Eclipse"
Posted by: muldoon at September 07, 2025 10:22 AM (/iMjX)
216
"The Collected Works of Mark Twain"
I've got one of those. The stories with the lightning rod salesmen and burglar alarm salesmen are favorites.
I've got one of those. The stories with the lightning rod salesmen and burglar alarm salesmen are favorites.
Posted by: fd at September 07, 2025 10:23 AM (vFG9F)
217
"Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?"
None of the above. First, I don't give a hoot in hell for anyone's opinions about such things. (Obviously, I do enjoy discussing what I read.) Second, it would be entertaining to see them try to figure out 'what I'm up to' with so much diverse reading. (Bob for the NSA should take note.) Third, an attempted analysis of what my reading says about me could lead to complete confusion or dawning horror by the researcher.
None of the above. First, I don't give a hoot in hell for anyone's opinions about such things. (Obviously, I do enjoy discussing what I read.) Second, it would be entertaining to see them try to figure out 'what I'm up to' with so much diverse reading. (Bob for the NSA should take note.) Third, an attempted analysis of what my reading says about me could lead to complete confusion or dawning horror by the researcher.
Posted by: JTB at September 07, 2025 10:24 AM (yTvNw)
218
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
I don't know. I have a lot of classics through Reader's Digest books, plus a massive amount of non-fiction involving the ancient world, and reference works.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 09:58 AM (78a2H)
I don't know. I have a lot of classics through Reader's Digest books, plus a massive amount of non-fiction involving the ancient world, and reference works.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:24 AM (0eaVi)
219
Ruth is one of the great stories in the Bible. First, Ruth is probably in her early 20’s, and Boaz is on the upper side of middle aged; and Naomi is the first appearance of the stereotypical Jewish mother in law, the archetype for all that followed.
And they all do well together.
And they all do well together.
Posted by: Tom Servo at September 07, 2025 10:24 AM (BSY5a)
220
. . . [T]he ancients DID put too much value on deductive reasoning and tidy theories, rather than empirical study.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
On the other hand, Archimedes (who came along later, true) was very much a practical engineer. He needed to find out how much of a king's crown was really gold *without destroying the crown to find out*, and came up with a practical solution. And apparently his engines of war and other techniques to defend Syracuse from the Romans were pretty solid stuff too.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025
***
On the other hand, Archimedes (who came along later, true) was very much a practical engineer. He needed to find out how much of a king's crown was really gold *without destroying the crown to find out*, and came up with a practical solution. And apparently his engines of war and other techniques to defend Syracuse from the Romans were pretty solid stuff too.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:24 AM (omVj0)
221
Sharon at 203
Nothing wrong with that at all. If I could trust my local public library to have and keep more of what I wanted to read, I'd have fewer books on my own shelves. As it is, most of what I want to read, I have to already have on hand or purchase unless I want to wait for interlibrary loan.
Nothing wrong with that at all. If I could trust my local public library to have and keep more of what I wanted to read, I'd have fewer books on my own shelves. As it is, most of what I want to read, I have to already have on hand or purchase unless I want to wait for interlibrary loan.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 10:24 AM (q3u5l)
222
197 ...
The edition I'm reading is a reprint (of course) and the editor does a bit of arguing with Bacon in the footnotes. Some of it's just autistic pedantry but I get the sense that the series editor -- it's part of a "great works of western civilization" series -- is a little pissed at how Bacon keeps slagging Aristotle. Trouble is, the things Bacon is slagging Aristotle about are absolutely true: the ancients DID put too much value on deductive reasoning and tidy theories, rather than empirical study.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (78a2H)
_________
That they "put too much value on deductive reasoning" is based on interpretations which are themselves very controversial.
The edition I'm reading is a reprint (of course) and the editor does a bit of arguing with Bacon in the footnotes. Some of it's just autistic pedantry but I get the sense that the series editor -- it's part of a "great works of western civilization" series -- is a little pissed at how Bacon keeps slagging Aristotle. Trouble is, the things Bacon is slagging Aristotle about are absolutely true: the ancients DID put too much value on deductive reasoning and tidy theories, rather than empirical study.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (78a2H)
_________
That they "put too much value on deductive reasoning" is based on interpretations which are themselves very controversial.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 07, 2025 10:25 AM (s0JqF)
223
Stayed up late finishing The Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinson's final book in the The Liberation Trilogy. This is a good book.
It is a big, comprehensive, top down look at the fighting from Normandy to the end of the war in Northern Europe. I did learn a few new things. Books that I read and admired previously are well represented in the sources.
He is unsparing of US, UK, and French strategic mistakes, and the death and suffering caused by those poor decisions. The leaders of the Armies did not get along, but Eisenhower somehow made it work. Field Marshal Montgomery and the French were difficult subordinates.
He does highlight the factors that led to underperformance, like the supply problems, the Germans being better fighters, and lack of a replacement system for the infantry units.
It is a big, comprehensive, top down look at the fighting from Normandy to the end of the war in Northern Europe. I did learn a few new things. Books that I read and admired previously are well represented in the sources.
He is unsparing of US, UK, and French strategic mistakes, and the death and suffering caused by those poor decisions. The leaders of the Armies did not get along, but Eisenhower somehow made it work. Field Marshal Montgomery and the French were difficult subordinates.
He does highlight the factors that led to underperformance, like the supply problems, the Germans being better fighters, and lack of a replacement system for the infantry units.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:26 AM (u82oZ)
224
From the fabled Raconteur Press. They're branching out into novels. Have been doing anthologies that our Wolfus has been featured in.
I doubt you'll ever see my stuff there. Their stuff's high quality work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025
***
Never say "never," OE. I haven't submitted to them recently because I just can't seem to devise a story that fits any of their wide-ranging anthology themes. I have one for Black Cat Weekly, though; they accepted one Weird West in my series, then turned down the third. Maybe the second will click with them.
I doubt you'll ever see my stuff there. Their stuff's high quality work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025
***
Never say "never," OE. I haven't submitted to them recently because I just can't seem to devise a story that fits any of their wide-ranging anthology themes. I have one for Black Cat Weekly, though; they accepted one Weird West in my series, then turned down the third. Maybe the second will click with them.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:27 AM (omVj0)
225
Weak Geek,definitely read The Fox. There are multiple complicated ops in the book and it has a pretty satisfying ending.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:27 AM (t/2Uw)
226
Don't know what that says about me.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:16 AM (t/2Uw)
I have a lot of non-fiction that I intend to read, but then I am distracted by another detective or spy novel. Maybe when I retire I'll get to those.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:16 AM (t/2Uw)
I have a lot of non-fiction that I intend to read, but then I am distracted by another detective or spy novel. Maybe when I retire I'll get to those.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 10:28 AM (h7ZuX)
227
Not embarrassed or reluctant to share anything on my bookshelf. If anyone asks me about the computer books, baseball or science fiction, those are my husband's. My half is largely history, biography, foreign language and odd bits that I think might be useful in my own writing, such as "The Complete Foaling Manual."
Full disclosure: never cared for Mark Twain, except for "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," or Dickens, because the clutch-and-stagger gets old really fast. I prefer Trollope, whose people are more realistic, and he's also funnier.
My kids have put me on to Ciaphas Cain (the only Warhammer books I can read) and John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series, with the Roman detective Decius Cecilius Metellus. They're good company and fun to spend time with.
Full disclosure: never cared for Mark Twain, except for "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," or Dickens, because the clutch-and-stagger gets old really fast. I prefer Trollope, whose people are more realistic, and he's also funnier.
My kids have put me on to Ciaphas Cain (the only Warhammer books I can read) and John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series, with the Roman detective Decius Cecilius Metellus. They're good company and fun to spend time with.
Posted by: Annalucia at September 07, 2025 10:29 AM (4RPgu)
228
Dash, new Galbraith waiting at the library for me.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:30 AM (t/2Uw)
229
Still, the ancients' deductive reasoning was often pretty sound. I forget which Greek it was who calculated the circumference of the Earth to within one percent of the modern value. He did measure certain things -- the height of a shadow at noon at one latitude, the height of the same thing's shadow at another, and the distance between them, in order to come up with his figure. He didn't just sit in his Greek style of armchair at home and imagine it all.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:30 AM (omVj0)
230
Finished Last Waltz in Vienna and highly recommend it, started Reaper Leader, the life of Adm James Flatley. It's got it all, local interest (he's from my home town), WWII fighting aces, and unsullied hagiography. Flatley is a very interesting man, but the the author, Steve Ewing, is mediocre (in my opinion). Still and all, it's been interesting reading about the pre-war state of naval aviation. (I just got to Pearl Harbor, so the real shooting starts now.
Posted by: who knew at September 07, 2025 10:30 AM (+ViXu)
231
Well, whenever I see "reading is FUNdamental", it takes me back to grade school. We were encouraged to make posters to whip up excitement for our annual(?) book fair.
At the time, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme and Tom "Mongoose" McEwen were the big names in top fuel dragsters. I suppose my dad and/or brothers were into it because otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue.
So I painted a poster that had a dragster doing a burn out, with the caption "Peel Out Into Books". I probably had Mongoose on the car, because his name sounded better. Racing and peeling out had nothing to do with reading. It made no sense, but I said what the heck, sounds good to me! Come to think of it, that has been my strategy for most of my life ha!
At the time, Don "The Snake" Prudhomme and Tom "Mongoose" McEwen were the big names in top fuel dragsters. I suppose my dad and/or brothers were into it because otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue.
So I painted a poster that had a dragster doing a burn out, with the caption "Peel Out Into Books". I probably had Mongoose on the car, because his name sounded better. Racing and peeling out had nothing to do with reading. It made no sense, but I said what the heck, sounds good to me! Come to think of it, that has been my strategy for most of my life ha!
Posted by: haffhowershower at September 07, 2025 10:31 AM (144I4)
232
The leaders of the Armies did not get along, but Eisenhower somehow made it work. Field Marshal Montgomery and the French were difficult subordinates.
I don't think anyone mistook Ike for a battlefield genius, but he was outstanding at making and keeping the alliance together, which was his primary job. He was an excellent choice for that position. If Alan Brooke or Montgomery had held that position, it would have been disastrous. De Gaulle was simply impossible.
I don't think anyone mistook Ike for a battlefield genius, but he was outstanding at making and keeping the alliance together, which was his primary job. He was an excellent choice for that position. If Alan Brooke or Montgomery had held that position, it would have been disastrous. De Gaulle was simply impossible.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 10:32 AM (Riz8t)
233
Salty in Atchisons The British are Coming he also lists out needs of materials colonial armies needed. It's a staggering list of tons or food, feed, building materials and of course ammunition both black powder, lead and iron and what ot takes to.move tons.
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 10:32 AM (+qU29)
234
Eeyore
I will read Rules of the Game.
Sounds like the USN travails of today have an echo from the past. When the USN was toe to toe with the USSR, or fighting in Vietnam, there was a positive force to be better warriors.
But the corrosive efforts we now call DIE, and rampant corruption, are like termites eating the good structural wood.
I will read Rules of the Game.
Sounds like the USN travails of today have an echo from the past. When the USN was toe to toe with the USSR, or fighting in Vietnam, there was a positive force to be better warriors.
But the corrosive efforts we now call DIE, and rampant corruption, are like termites eating the good structural wood.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:32 AM (u82oZ)
235
Some say that Romantasy is taking over and ruining the Fantasy genre.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
Ugh
Romantasy
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 10:12 AM (eZ5tL)
The picture they illustrated it with was a young, presumably white, female looking longingly at the Minotaur who was embracing her....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 09:25 AM (0eaVi)
Ugh
Romantasy
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 10:12 AM (eZ5tL)
The picture they illustrated it with was a young, presumably white, female looking longingly at the Minotaur who was embracing her....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:33 AM (0eaVi)
236
I've always thought that an epic novel written about the Second Punic War, featuring both historical people like Hannibal and Archimedes, and fictional ones caught up in or fighting the war, would be a fascinating project.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:34 AM (omVj0)
237
Its surprising how few writers have tackled that subject
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:35 AM (bXbFr)
238
228 Dash, new Galbraith waiting at the library for me.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:30 AM (t/2Uw)
I was hoping that would coincide with my drive to Texas in October. But I think I'm too far down on the waiting list on libby. However! I just remembered that Spotify has audiobooks now, and it looks like it's on there. I haven't used Spotify for audiobooks yet, but it looks like you don't check it for a certain period of time like other library apps. I think I can just start listening to it whenever, same as I do music. Hope so.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:30 AM (t/2Uw)
I was hoping that would coincide with my drive to Texas in October. But I think I'm too far down on the waiting list on libby. However! I just remembered that Spotify has audiobooks now, and it looks like it's on there. I haven't used Spotify for audiobooks yet, but it looks like you don't check it for a certain period of time like other library apps. I think I can just start listening to it whenever, same as I do music. Hope so.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 10:37 AM (h7ZuX)
239
The generation who founded the Royal Society and kicked off the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions were all Bacon fanboys.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (78a2H)
Bacon fanboys are what keep the world sane. Imagine a soy world instead of bacon.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:14 AM (78a2H)
Bacon fanboys are what keep the world sane. Imagine a soy world instead of bacon.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:37 AM (0eaVi)
240
Archimedes
Absolutely agree. The one big thrust of concentrated power pushed by Brooke and Montgomery would have failed. Once over the Rhine, the US strategy led to rapid overrunning of Western Germany. And Eisenhower's decision to not go to Berlin was a very wise one.
The valor of men at the sharp end was sometimes not enough, but with excellent artillery support and enough ammo, we found a way to pulverize the German Army.
Absolutely agree. The one big thrust of concentrated power pushed by Brooke and Montgomery would have failed. Once over the Rhine, the US strategy led to rapid overrunning of Western Germany. And Eisenhower's decision to not go to Berlin was a very wise one.
The valor of men at the sharp end was sometimes not enough, but with excellent artillery support and enough ammo, we found a way to pulverize the German Army.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:38 AM (u82oZ)
241
Speaking of...did you know that crime novelist Robert Galbraith is "crime-writing pseudonym" of J.K. Rowling ? Apparently 8 novels so far. For those who like the genre.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 10:38 AM (g47mK)
242
Someone like iggulden for insrance or pressfield
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:38 AM (bXbFr)
243
Isydt
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:39 AM (bXbFr)
244
The last two galbraith were staggeringly long
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:39 AM (bXbFr)
245
The Spectator has a cover story about how rotten Trump is.
https://is.gd/SFPXyi
However, ICE sees it differently.
https://is.gd/RGEUug
https://is.gd/SFPXyi
However, ICE sees it differently.
https://is.gd/RGEUug
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 10:40 AM (L/fGl)
246
Skip
The French made a strategic decision to supply us, and it worked. Well, except for that debt issue leading to the Revolution.
The US forces in the Revolution were a hardened, starving remnant that beat the best Army in the World. Logistics was the key, as the British had to get all supplies for the UK.
The French made a strategic decision to supply us, and it worked. Well, except for that debt issue leading to the Revolution.
The US forces in the Revolution were a hardened, starving remnant that beat the best Army in the World. Logistics was the key, as the British had to get all supplies for the UK.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:40 AM (u82oZ)
247
Weekgeek,
Read Fish Bait book. It will tell you something about our older political culture compared to today. The difference is the sort of person elected to Congress today are from a narrow slice of humanity.
Read Fish Bait book. It will tell you something about our older political culture compared to today. The difference is the sort of person elected to Congress today are from a narrow slice of humanity.
Posted by: whig's phone at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (WDjG6)
248
The valor of men at the sharp end was sometimes not enough, but with excellent artillery support and enough ammo, we found a way to pulverize the German Army.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:38 AM (u82oZ)
The Proximity fuse was a game changer.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:38 AM (u82oZ)
The Proximity fuse was a game changer.
Posted by: Reforger at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (CjwnQ)
249
Speaking of...did you know that crime novelist Robert Galbraith is "crime-writing pseudonym" of J.K. Rowling ? Apparently 8 novels so far. For those who like the genre.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025
***
It's been mentioned here. She seems to be trying for the classic detective story style, but the one novel I read in the series was sort of long, and the clues were buried. They were there; I went back and checked for some of them; but they were kind of swamped by the narrative.
There is a puzzle for Harry to solve in each of the Potter novels, so I see that she is a big fan of the genre.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025
***
It's been mentioned here. She seems to be trying for the classic detective story style, but the one novel I read in the series was sort of long, and the clues were buried. They were there; I went back and checked for some of them; but they were kind of swamped by the narrative.
There is a puzzle for Harry to solve in each of the Potter novels, so I see that she is a big fan of the genre.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)
250
Regarding logistics, Brett Devereaux has a great line about "the tyranny of the wagon equation" in premodern armies. Much as rockets have to carry more fuel to carry more fuel to carry more fuel to lift more payload, so ancient and medieval armies needed wagons to carry the fodder for the wagons to carry the fodder for the wagons to carry the fodder for the wagons carrying supplies. This limited the range an army could go in hostile territory, and explains their affection for "foraging" (=stealing whatever they could). Every chicken confiscated from a local peasant is one that doesn't have to be hauled by wagon.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (78a2H)
251
I have stopped reading a lot of the fantasy, romance genre because like current movies for some reason they think I want to see a strong female lead instead of a hunky alpha male. Why they think heterosexual women want a lead character who can do it all without a man in her life is beyond me. I do want the female lead to be a strong capable woman who can hold her own but is still all woman. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Then an actual story written by someone who actually has a new idea.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:42 AM (t/2Uw)
252
A general observation about my reading lately. I want to read books and stories that are positive, sometimes simple and sometimes profound, always well written, and creative on all levels. It doesn't matter if it is a kids book, a recent novel or Romantic poetry.
Examples:
- The simple books and hugely effective illustrations by Luke Adam Hawker.
- Theo of Golden by Allen Levi which is turning out to be a delight on so many levels (more comments in the future).
- Henry Beston's observations of the natural world around him.
My taste for action/adventure seems to be in retreat for now.
No current events or politics, no big city stories, not even recent history. I would rather read Herodotus than bother with the lies about what happened last year by some trendy political matter.
Examples:
- The simple books and hugely effective illustrations by Luke Adam Hawker.
- Theo of Golden by Allen Levi which is turning out to be a delight on so many levels (more comments in the future).
- Henry Beston's observations of the natural world around him.
My taste for action/adventure seems to be in retreat for now.
No current events or politics, no big city stories, not even recent history. I would rather read Herodotus than bother with the lies about what happened last year by some trendy political matter.
Posted by: JTB at September 07, 2025 10:42 AM (yTvNw)
253
The picture they illustrated it with was a young, presumably white, female looking longingly at the Minotaur who was embracing her....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:33 AM (0eaVi)
Men have been laughing about that one on X - apparently it is a bestseller among women’s erotic books. “Morning Glory Milking Farm” - “Violet is a typical, down-on-her-luck millennial: mid-twenties, over-educated and drowning in debt, on the verge of moving into her parent's basement. When a lifeline appears in the form of a very unconventional job in neighboring Cambric Creek, she has no choice but to grab at it with both hands..”
Yes, she falls in love with a Minotaur.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:33 AM (0eaVi)
Men have been laughing about that one on X - apparently it is a bestseller among women’s erotic books. “Morning Glory Milking Farm” - “Violet is a typical, down-on-her-luck millennial: mid-twenties, over-educated and drowning in debt, on the verge of moving into her parent's basement. When a lifeline appears in the form of a very unconventional job in neighboring Cambric Creek, she has no choice but to grab at it with both hands..”
Yes, she falls in love with a Minotaur.
Posted by: Tom Servo at September 07, 2025 10:42 AM (BSY5a)
254
The picture they illustrated it with was a young, presumably white, female looking longingly at the Minotaur who was embracing her....
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:33 AM (0eaVi)
OMG. I have been resisting looking, because I don't want it to keep coming up every time I open amazon, but I could resist no longer. WTF is a hucow? I don't want to know!
But I LOL'd when I scrolled down looking at covers, and after about half a dozen of these books, the next item was a packet of powdered goat milk.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:33 AM (0eaVi)
OMG. I have been resisting looking, because I don't want it to keep coming up every time I open amazon, but I could resist no longer. WTF is a hucow? I don't want to know!
But I LOL'd when I scrolled down looking at covers, and after about half a dozen of these books, the next item was a packet of powdered goat milk.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 10:43 AM (h7ZuX)
255
Wolfus Aurelius
Historical context has faded as education in America fails. There would be a small target audience for that long ago story.
Historical context has faded as education in America fails. There would be a small target audience for that long ago story.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:43 AM (u82oZ)
256
Rule 34 eh
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:43 AM (bXbFr)
257
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
Why, no. Indeed, my reading choices should serve as a model to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.
Would you be reluctant, embarrassed or horrified if forced to disclose all of your reading?
Why, no. Indeed, my reading choices should serve as a model to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 10:43 AM (kkTda)
258
Why, no. Indeed, my reading choices should serve as a model to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh
How would one 'outwardly' ingest something, professor?
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh
How would one 'outwardly' ingest something, professor?
Posted by: weft cut-loop at September 07, 2025 10:45 AM (mlg/3)
259
I have stopped reading a lot of the fantasy, romance genre because like current movies for some reason they think I want to see a strong female lead instead of a hunky alpha male. Why they think heterosexual women want a lead character who can do it all without a man in her life is beyond me. I do want the female lead to be a strong capable woman who can hold her own but is still all woman. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Then an actual story written by someone who actually has a new idea.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
***
Movie producers, and I suppose novelists, used to know that women moviegoers/readers like a strong male lead and don't usually like films/stories with a weak one, however strong the female lead is. In films, The Terminator had a strong lead in both sexes, and it worked, whereas if Reese had been a wimp and had merely followed what Sarah told him to do, it would have failed.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
***
Movie producers, and I suppose novelists, used to know that women moviegoers/readers like a strong male lead and don't usually like films/stories with a weak one, however strong the female lead is. In films, The Terminator had a strong lead in both sexes, and it worked, whereas if Reese had been a wimp and had merely followed what Sarah told him to do, it would have failed.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:46 AM (omVj0)
260
How would one 'outwardly' ingest something, professor?
Posted by: weft cut-loop at September 07, 2025 10:45 AM (mlg/3)
----
Isn't that puking?
Posted by: weft cut-loop at September 07, 2025 10:45 AM (mlg/3)
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Isn't that puking?
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 10:46 AM (jH5TK)
261
Data transfer with electrodss
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:46 AM (bXbFr)
262
I've always thought that an epic novel written about the Second Punic War, featuring both historical people like Hannibal and Archimedes, and fictional ones caught up in or fighting the war, would be a fascinating project.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:34 AM (omVj0)
Its surprising how few writers have tackled that subject
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:35 AM (bXbFr)
If Bennett Cerf had done it, the novel would have been very Pun-ic.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:34 AM (omVj0)
Its surprising how few writers have tackled that subject
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 10:35 AM (bXbFr)
If Bennett Cerf had done it, the novel would have been very Pun-ic.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 10:46 AM (0eaVi)
263
Every chicken confiscated from a local peasant is one that doesn't have to be hauled by wagon.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (78a2H)
---
Two solutions emerged - naval support (which the British excelled at) and setting up depots in advance.
Logistics is something that few people understand these days, particularly among our leadership. Whatever your personal feelings, the notion that the US could supply significant combat forces literally on Russia's doorstep was always madness. Americans are really good at logistics, but there's no way to win with a supply situation so lopsided against you.
Posted by: Trimegistus at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (78a2H)
---
Two solutions emerged - naval support (which the British excelled at) and setting up depots in advance.
Logistics is something that few people understand these days, particularly among our leadership. Whatever your personal feelings, the notion that the US could supply significant combat forces literally on Russia's doorstep was always madness. Americans are really good at logistics, but there's no way to win with a supply situation so lopsided against you.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 10:46 AM (ZOv7s)
264
And with that, it's off to Mass! Thanks again, Weasel!
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 07, 2025 10:47 AM (ZOv7s)
265
Finished Vampire Hunter D until the last produced audiobook. Typically during the story I would start to wonder if the author was gay for vampires, and then at the climax be vindicated that "duh they're evil, and any kind of friendship between is doomed".
As politically correct authors stress to tell the audience how saintly they are, they ruin the story. And here the 180 is also correct, that the story is better when I wonder if the author is a depraved weirdo.
Savage Tales monthly has been a load of fun, with Redgrave Hawthorn being a new favorite character. He has a bit of Rooster Cogburn, which someone might not spot in a sword-and-sandals genre. I don't like the price, $5 for a two-hour episode but I have just put up with it.
As politically correct authors stress to tell the audience how saintly they are, they ruin the story. And here the 180 is also correct, that the story is better when I wonder if the author is a depraved weirdo.
Savage Tales monthly has been a load of fun, with Redgrave Hawthorn being a new favorite character. He has a bit of Rooster Cogburn, which someone might not spot in a sword-and-sandals genre. I don't like the price, $5 for a two-hour episode but I have just put up with it.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at September 07, 2025 10:47 AM (lhenN)
266
Red Sparrow is my favorite strong female book/movie.
Posted by: polynikes at September 07, 2025 10:47 AM (EYmYM)
267
Reforger
Sorta agree. Proximity fuses were first used over land in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The use of coordinating artillery batteries and Time on Target was well advanced and effective before that.
WWII showed the real American way of war: apply massive firepower to win.
Sorta agree. Proximity fuses were first used over land in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. The use of coordinating artillery batteries and Time on Target was well advanced and effective before that.
WWII showed the real American way of war: apply massive firepower to win.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:48 AM (u82oZ)
268
Historical context has faded as education in America fails. There would be a small target audience for that long ago story.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025
***
Thus my reason for not trying to write it, even aside from the massive research it would take. Still, look at Colleen McCullough's long novels about Republican Rome, the young Julius Caesar and Marius, etc. Though she had a following because of The Thorn Birds, I suppose.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025
***
Thus my reason for not trying to write it, even aside from the massive research it would take. Still, look at Colleen McCullough's long novels about Republican Rome, the young Julius Caesar and Marius, etc. Though she had a following because of The Thorn Birds, I suppose.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:48 AM (omVj0)
269
It's been mentioned here. She seems to be trying for the classic detective story style, but the one novel I read in the series was sort of long, and the clues were buried. They were there; I went back and checked for some of them; but they were kind of swamped by the narrative.
There is a puzzle for Harry to solve in each of the Potter novels, so I see that she is a big fan of the genre.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)
I did not know. Looks like her first one was over a decade ago, and according to a certain tony UK newspaper The Running Grave was a great success. Was that the one?
There is a puzzle for Harry to solve in each of the Potter novels, so I see that she is a big fan of the genre.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:41 AM (omVj0)
I did not know. Looks like her first one was over a decade ago, and according to a certain tony UK newspaper The Running Grave was a great success. Was that the one?
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 10:48 AM (g47mK)
270
Sharon, you will likevthe new Ilona Andrews book , The Inheritance.
Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at September 07, 2025 10:48 AM (XkKkf)
271
Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
After reading again about our poor unit cohesion and replacement practices for the infantry units in WWII, I wonder if we have really learned that lesson. The Germans excelled at pulling units together.
I know the Army used Wehrmacht practices on leave in the Iraq campaign. But do we have replacements for a deadlier campaign?
After reading again about our poor unit cohesion and replacement practices for the infantry units in WWII, I wonder if we have really learned that lesson. The Germans excelled at pulling units together.
I know the Army used Wehrmacht practices on leave in the Iraq campaign. But do we have replacements for a deadlier campaign?
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:51 AM (u82oZ)
272
I found the Galbraith books to be completely out of the box different from other detective novels. Strike actually runs a detective agency with multiple cases and employees. They do stakeouts, research, undercover work all while handling the quirks of each personality solving the mystery. It is exciting, engrossing set in modern London giving the setting more depth.
I loooved these books. Start with book 1.
I loooved these books. Start with book 1.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:51 AM (t/2Uw)
273
Just started "The Hallmarked Man" by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling), the latest C.B.Strike novel. It's a long one(901 pages on my Kindle). Strike and Robin have just started their investigation of the mutilation death of a silver shop employee and the theft of a fortune in Freemasonry silver. So far Strike's unspoken feelings for Robin weigh heavily on the storyline. As always, a fast paced start to the novel. I expect to learn a lot about Freemasonry from this one.
Posted by: Tuna at September 07, 2025 10:53 AM (lJ0H4)
274
I did not know. Looks like her first one was over a decade ago, and according to a certain tony UK newspaper The Running Grave was a great success. Was that the one?
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025
***
I'm not sure which one I read. The Cuckoo's Calling, the title of the first book, sounds familiar.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025
***
I'm not sure which one I read. The Cuckoo's Calling, the title of the first book, sounds familiar.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 10:53 AM (omVj0)
275
Vmom, I saw she had a new book. It is available on something called freereading but it doesn't download to Kindle. Might have to buy it. lol
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:54 AM (t/2Uw)
276
Anybody else read [Frederick Forsyth]?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
***
Only Day of the Jackal, and I think I've read The Odessa File. Posted by Wolfus Aurelius
Same here. I liked Day of the Jackal better than the Odessa File.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
***
Only Day of the Jackal, and I think I've read The Odessa File. Posted by Wolfus Aurelius
Same here. I liked Day of the Jackal better than the Odessa File.
Posted by: who knew at September 07, 2025 10:56 AM (+ViXu)
277
Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
You can't give away your war reserve ammo to a corrupt state, lack production for replacement of ammo stocks, and then expect anything but a few days of intense fighting to work.
The USS Gettysburg (CG-64) came very close to being hit recently. They barely managed to down the last missile from a Yemen attack. They were out of our best missile defense armament.
Good thing our nuclear warheads work. They keep the peace.
You can't give away your war reserve ammo to a corrupt state, lack production for replacement of ammo stocks, and then expect anything but a few days of intense fighting to work.
The USS Gettysburg (CG-64) came very close to being hit recently. They barely managed to down the last missile from a Yemen attack. They were out of our best missile defense armament.
Good thing our nuclear warheads work. They keep the peace.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:56 AM (u82oZ)
278
Cuckoo's Calling is book 1.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 10:57 AM (t/2Uw)
279
He is unsparing of US, UK, and French strategic mistakes, and the death and suffering caused by those poor decisions.
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In The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, he begins each section with a description of the world each philosopher was born into. In his section on Schopenauer, he describes the devastation wrought by the Napoleonic Wars all across Europe. The book was written in 1926 so he hadn't seen real devastation yet. But more of the same, a narcissist attempts to create utopia over the bodies of his victims.
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In The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, he begins each section with a description of the world each philosopher was born into. In his section on Schopenauer, he describes the devastation wrought by the Napoleonic Wars all across Europe. The book was written in 1926 so he hadn't seen real devastation yet. But more of the same, a narcissist attempts to create utopia over the bodies of his victims.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 10:57 AM (L/fGl)
280
Anybody else read [Frederick Forsyth]?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
The Day of the Jackal
The Dogs of War
The Fourth Protocol
The Devil's Alternative
Anybody else read [Frederick Forsyth]?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025
The Day of the Jackal
The Dogs of War
The Fourth Protocol
The Devil's Alternative
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 10:58 AM (kkTda)
281
Sharon(willow's apprentice)
The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth was an excellent thriller. I think of it as his best book.
The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth was an excellent thriller. I think of it as his best book.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:58 AM (u82oZ)
282
Dog food ain't gonna cook itself--I better go do it. Have a good day, horde!
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at September 07, 2025 10:58 AM (h7ZuX)
283
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus
I think my bookshelves would give a pretty good idea of who I am, and if you added in the music collection, you'd know almost all you need to know.
Posted by: Trimegistus
I think my bookshelves would give a pretty good idea of who I am, and if you added in the music collection, you'd know almost all you need to know.
Posted by: who knew at September 07, 2025 10:59 AM (+ViXu)
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 10:59 AM (u82oZ)
285
There is a TV series that is based on the Galbraith books but haven't it found it yet on my one access to TV stuff.
Cuckoo's Calling published in 2013.
Cuckoo's Calling published in 2013.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 11:00 AM (t/2Uw)
286
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus
No doubt they'd look, shudder and get out as soon as possible.
Here's a parallel question: how good a model of your personality would someone get by looking at the books you own?
Posted by: Trimegistus
No doubt they'd look, shudder and get out as soon as possible.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 11:00 AM (kkTda)
287
The one big thrust of concentrated power pushed by Brooke and Montgomery would have failed. Once over the Rhine, the US strategy led to rapid overrunning of Western Germany. And Eisenhower's decision to not go to Berlin was a very wise one.
And it wasn't just their flawed strategic approach; it was that both M and B thought anyone who wasn't them was a dolt. That's not a guy who can create and sustain teams.
And it wasn't just their flawed strategic approach; it was that both M and B thought anyone who wasn't them was a dolt. That's not a guy who can create and sustain teams.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 11:00 AM (Riz8t)
288
Trimegistus
I think my extensive library and music collection defines me. But not in every way. You have to add my posts on AoSHQ for that.
I think my extensive library and music collection defines me. But not in every way. You have to add my posts on AoSHQ for that.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:01 AM (u82oZ)
289
Good thing our nuclear warheads work. They keep the peace.
Technically, it’s people’s perception that they work that keeps the peace. Whether they work or not is irrelevant to keeping the peace (although not to restoring peace were nuclear war to break out).
Technically, it’s people’s perception that they work that keeps the peace. Whether they work or not is irrelevant to keeping the peace (although not to restoring peace were nuclear war to break out).
Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at September 07, 2025 11:02 AM (olroh)
290
Thanks for the list Hadrian and the recommendation Salty. I'm sure my library has them. May have read Day of the Jackal but might be thinking of the movie.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 11:02 AM (t/2Uw)
291
Speaking of strong female leads, I've been seeing advertisements for an all new season of The View. I had hoped that it would be simply not renewed but instead they're doubling down.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:02 AM (L/fGl)
292
Really, my books can be broken down into several major categories:
- American history
- Military history
- Biographies
- Histories of various countries (Britain, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Austria)
- Baseball
- Music
- Novels
Really, my books can be broken down into several major categories:
- American history
- Military history
- Biographies
- Histories of various countries (Britain, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Austria)
- Baseball
- Music
- Novels
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 11:03 AM (kkTda)
293
There is a TV series that is based on the Galbraith books but haven't it found it yet on my one access to TV stuff.
Cuckoo's Calling published in 2013.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)
I've watched through Amazon Prime. Not free but worth it. So far the series has coved the novels up to and including "The Ink Black Heart".
Cuckoo's Calling published in 2013.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)
I've watched through Amazon Prime. Not free but worth it. So far the series has coved the novels up to and including "The Ink Black Heart".
Posted by: Tuna at September 07, 2025 11:03 AM (lJ0H4)
294
A lot of the books I own, like the paperback Matt Helm and Travis McGee Gold Medal series, the Dell Alfred Hitchcock anthologies, the Signet editions of James Bond, and my Stephen King, Heinlein, and Niven tomes, are old by today's standards -- stuff I bought or was given decades ago. A lot of them don't even have barcodes on the back! Eek!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:03 AM (omVj0)
295
Archimedes
I like how the big threat to keep Montgomery in line was to replace him with Field Marshal Harold Alexander. The UK supreme command thought he was a blockhead.
I like how the big threat to keep Montgomery in line was to replace him with Field Marshal Harold Alexander. The UK supreme command thought he was a blockhead.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:04 AM (u82oZ)
296
Speaking of strong female leads, I've been seeing advertisements for an all new season of The View. I had hoped that it would be simply not renewed but instead they're doubling down.
The left is simply incapable of admitting error, because if they do, their entire lunatic worldview comes crashing down.
The left is simply incapable of admitting error, because if they do, their entire lunatic worldview comes crashing down.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 11:04 AM (Riz8t)
297
Savage Tales monthly has been a load of fun, with Redgrave Hawthorn being a new favorite character. He has a bit of Rooster Cogburn, which someone might not spot in a sword-and-sandals genre. I don't like the price, $5 for a two-hour episode but I have just put up with it.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at September 07, 2025 10:47 AM (lhenN)
Savage Tales? Or did you mean Savage Realms? I read the Savage Realms e-zine, although I'm maybe a year or so behind, and I think I read that they started releasing audiobook versions of their magazines. There are a few dud stories, which is to be expected in anthologies, but I enjoy the zine for the most part.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at September 07, 2025 10:47 AM (lhenN)
Savage Tales? Or did you mean Savage Realms? I read the Savage Realms e-zine, although I'm maybe a year or so behind, and I think I read that they started releasing audiobook versions of their magazines. There are a few dud stories, which is to be expected in anthologies, but I enjoy the zine for the most part.
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025 11:05 AM (Lhaco)
298
A modern day warrior, mean mean stride.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 07, 2025 11:05 AM (xcxpd)
299
"M and B thought anyone who wasn't them was a dolt. That's not a guy who can create and sustain teams."
I seem to recall a New Yorker piece re: someone looking for a gig with the Obama campaign in 2008. Obama told him something to the effect of "I know more policy than my policy advisors, I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters..." etc. Don't recall that coming up a lot during 2008, but I thought that all by itself that comment was reason enough to keep him far away from any position of power. But no, but no.
I seem to recall a New Yorker piece re: someone looking for a gig with the Obama campaign in 2008. Obama told him something to the effect of "I know more policy than my policy advisors, I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters..." etc. Don't recall that coming up a lot during 2008, but I thought that all by itself that comment was reason enough to keep him far away from any position of power. But no, but no.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 11:05 AM (q3u5l)
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:05 AM (u82oZ)
301
From “The Willows by Algernon Blackwood:
Blackwood 1907: “The psychology of places, for some imaginations at least, is very vivid; for the wanderer, especially, camps have their "note" either of welcome or rejection. At first it may not always be apparent, because the busy preparations of tent and cooking prevent, but with the first pause—after supper usually—it comes and announces itself. And the note of this willow camp now became unmistakably plain to me; we were interlopers, trespassers; we were not welcomed“
Blackwood 1907: “The psychology of places, for some imaginations at least, is very vivid; for the wanderer, especially, camps have their "note" either of welcome or rejection. At first it may not always be apparent, because the busy preparations of tent and cooking prevent, but with the first pause—after supper usually—it comes and announces itself. And the note of this willow camp now became unmistakably plain to me; we were interlopers, trespassers; we were not welcomed“
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:05 AM (6YO1+)
Posted by: Anna Puma at September 07, 2025 11:06 AM (Cs66U)
303
Savage Tales monthly has been a load of fun, with Redgrave Hawthorn being a new favorite character. He has a bit of Rooster Cogburn, which someone might not spot in a sword-and-sandals genre. I don't like the price, $5 for a two-hour episode but I have just put up with it.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at September 07, 2025
***
Rooster as a swordsman??? Fascinating.
Posted by: BourbonChicken at September 07, 2025
***
Rooster as a swordsman??? Fascinating.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:06 AM (omVj0)
304
From “Dersu Uzala” by VK Arsenyev:
VK Arsenyev 1907: “Sometimes it happens that mountain and forest have such a cheerful and attractive appearance that one would be glad to linger there forever. In others mountains seem surly and wild. It is a strange thing that such impressions are not purely personal and subjective, but were felt by all the men in the detachment. I tested this several times and was always convinced that it was so. That was the case here. In that spot there was an oppressive feeling in the air, something unhappy and painful, and the sensation of gloom and ill-omen was felt by us all.”
VK Arsenyev 1907: “Sometimes it happens that mountain and forest have such a cheerful and attractive appearance that one would be glad to linger there forever. In others mountains seem surly and wild. It is a strange thing that such impressions are not purely personal and subjective, but were felt by all the men in the detachment. I tested this several times and was always convinced that it was so. That was the case here. In that spot there was an oppressive feeling in the air, something unhappy and painful, and the sensation of gloom and ill-omen was felt by us all.”
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:06 AM (6YO1+)
305
And I'm not shy about what I read, so revelation wouldn't mean much to me. I'm still trying to finish Lloyd Lewis' Sherman: The Fighting Prophet. The dogs object to me reading around them, though.
Also working my way through Charles Dickens and really enjoying that.
Also working my way through Charles Dickens and really enjoying that.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at September 07, 2025 11:06 AM (xcxpd)
306
Tuna, I will look. I don't mind paying for stuff and after canceling Netflix, Prime my only option. When I saw a preview, it looked well cast?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 11:06 AM (t/2Uw)
307
Archimedes
You going to be in Corsicana? We could talk for hours, I bet.
I'm sure you're right, but no. I've got lots of things coming up this fall, so additional travel is not in the cards.
You going to be in Corsicana? We could talk for hours, I bet.
I'm sure you're right, but no. I've got lots of things coming up this fall, so additional travel is not in the cards.
Posted by: Archimedes at September 07, 2025 11:08 AM (Riz8t)
308
Anna Puma
The War Games film sure overestimated our SIOP.
But it did hit truth with the only way to win is to not play with nuclear weapons.
The War Games film sure overestimated our SIOP.
But it did hit truth with the only way to win is to not play with nuclear weapons.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:08 AM (u82oZ)
309
I like how the big threat to keep Montgomery in line was to replace him with Field Marshal Harold Alexander. The UK supreme command thought he was a blockhead.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:04 AM (u82oZ)
Deputy during Dunkirk: "Our situation is catastrophic!"
Alexander: "I don't understand big words."
The Americans loved Alex. I'm not sure that at the time the idea was bruited, after the Bulge was contained, the drive to the Rhine and into Germany wouldn't have gone off much better. By February, Eisenhower and Monty were scarcely talking.
I like how the big threat to keep Montgomery in line was to replace him with Field Marshal Harold Alexander. The UK supreme command thought he was a blockhead.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:04 AM (u82oZ)
Deputy during Dunkirk: "Our situation is catastrophic!"
Alexander: "I don't understand big words."
The Americans loved Alex. I'm not sure that at the time the idea was bruited, after the Bulge was contained, the drive to the Rhine and into Germany wouldn't have gone off much better. By February, Eisenhower and Monty were scarcely talking.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 11:09 AM (kkTda)
310
When I was a freshman in college, I bought a Sandra Boynton poster with her trademark monster sitting on a bookshelf eating a book, with the Francis Bacon quote "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
I still have the poster in my office.
I still have the poster in my office.
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at September 07, 2025 11:09 AM (PiwSw)
311
Just imagine if the British had kept up the skeer and pushed on after taking Joe's Bridge. How would that have affected the outcome at Arnhem?
Posted by: Anna Puma at September 07, 2025 11:11 AM (Cs66U)
312
Don't remember ever seeing that Boynton poster. Love it.
When the offspring were mere toddlers, and the grandkids too, they were all in for the Boyntons. Over and over again. If pressed, I can probably still recite 'But Not the Hippopotamus' from memory.
When the offspring were mere toddlers, and the grandkids too, they were all in for the Boyntons. Over and over again. If pressed, I can probably still recite 'But Not the Hippopotamus' from memory.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 11:13 AM (q3u5l)
313
Tuna, I will look. I don't mind paying for stuff and after canceling Netflix, Prime my only option. When I saw a preview, it looked well cast?
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)
It is especially the actress who plays Robin. Can't wait til they dramatize "The Running Grave". Will have to wait awhile though as "The Ink Black Heart" just ran on HBO in December.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)
It is especially the actress who plays Robin. Can't wait til they dramatize "The Running Grave". Will have to wait awhile though as "The Ink Black Heart" just ran on HBO in December.
Posted by: Tuna at September 07, 2025 11:15 AM (lJ0H4)
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:17 AM (6YO1+)
315
Slightly OT, but tomorrow is the fifty-ninth anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek. H & I is running six one-hour documentaries by one Rowan J. Coleman about the series tonight, starting at 5 Central. There might be some footage of bloopers, outtakes, or other things that we haven't seen before.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:18 AM (omVj0)
316
Priscilla Presley Lawsuit Update Accuses Her of Pushing Elvis to His Death: “Calculated Sociopath”
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She shoved him off the toilet?
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She shoved him off the toilet?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)
317
Slightly OT, but tomorrow is the fifty-ninth anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek. H & I is running six one-hour documentaries by one Rowan J. Coleman about the series tonight, starting at 5 Central. There might be some footage of bloopers, outtakes, or other things that we haven't seen before.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:18 AM (omVj0)
I've seen so many out takes that I think we've seen them all. Funny, Takei is showing up on YT talking about 60 years of ST already. I can imagine it's all going to be about Shatner. (insert eye roll here)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:18 AM (omVj0)
I've seen so many out takes that I think we've seen them all. Funny, Takei is showing up on YT talking about 60 years of ST already. I can imagine it's all going to be about Shatner. (insert eye roll here)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (0eaVi)
318
Also reading: The Years of War 1941-1945 by Vasily Grossman
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (6YO1+)
319
I've toyed with the idea of an alternate history novel. One where Patton was given all the gas and ammo he needed for a penetrating strike deep into Germany, which was then cut off, surrounded, and an entire American Army was captured and destroyed. It was so demoralizing that America settled for a negotiated peace with Germany. Something else would have to happen to stop Russia in its tracks.
It would probably be a treasure-hunt plot. "The Curse of Patton" would be a good title.
It would probably be a treasure-hunt plot. "The Curse of Patton" would be a good title.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (SnC8S)
320
Yes red sparrow was good in ways that didnt translate like local cuisine and her aura
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (bXbFr)
321
Priscilla Presley Lawsuit Update Accuses Her of Pushing Elvis to His Death: “Calculated Sociopath”
Elvis pushed Elvis to his death. Twarn't Priscilla, twarn't Colonel Parker.
Priscilla Presley Lawsuit Update Accuses Her of Pushing Elvis to His Death: “Calculated Sociopath”
Elvis pushed Elvis to his death. Twarn't Priscilla, twarn't Colonel Parker.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (kkTda)
322
Something else would have to happen to stop Russia in its tracks.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (SnC8S)
Once the allies determined the war was won, they should have cut back on supplies to the soviets. Let them and the Germans pound each other. Had they done that, the Cold War may have never happened. But, the commies in DC and Whitehall would have never let that happen.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (SnC8S)
Once the allies determined the war was won, they should have cut back on supplies to the soviets. Let them and the Germans pound each other. Had they done that, the Cold War may have never happened. But, the commies in DC and Whitehall would have never let that happen.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
323
Well, that's it! I'm not buying my lingerie at Victoria's Secret anymore!
2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Features Transgender Model
2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Features Transgender Model
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:24 AM (L/fGl)
324
I'm not sure I can complain about hardcover prices, but yeah, $15 for a paperback novel still feels unreasonable. I may be out--of-date, but $6-8 feels like the proper paperback range. At least for the standard mass-market-paperback size. Although I have some used books in my collection with a cover price of less than $2.
As the lament goes; look at what they have taken from us...
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025
***
Six to eight smackers still feels unreasonable to me. But I bought my first paperbacks as a boy when they were .50 to .60 new, and a $1.00 paperback was a big expenditure for me.
$1.50 to $2.00 seems more like it! But I'd be willing to go to $3.50-4.50 for an author I knew I liked.
As the lament goes; look at what they have taken from us...
Posted by: Castle Guy at September 07, 2025
***
Six to eight smackers still feels unreasonable to me. But I bought my first paperbacks as a boy when they were .50 to .60 new, and a $1.00 paperback was a big expenditure for me.
$1.50 to $2.00 seems more like it! But I'd be willing to go to $3.50-4.50 for an author I knew I liked.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:24 AM (omVj0)
325
Anna Puma
XXX Corps, the force to get to Arnhem, had flawed leadership and morale issues. The Irish Guards did not feel any urgency to get to Frost's paras holding one end of the Arnhem bridge.
Plus, they went up one road. The Dutch used an attack from Nijmegen to Arnhem as a senior officer test in their war college. The winners used different paths to get to Arnhem. Losers went up that one road.
The Dutch liaison officer told XXX Corps staff this, but was ignored.
XXX Corps, the force to get to Arnhem, had flawed leadership and morale issues. The Irish Guards did not feel any urgency to get to Frost's paras holding one end of the Arnhem bridge.
Plus, they went up one road. The Dutch used an attack from Nijmegen to Arnhem as a senior officer test in their war college. The winners used different paths to get to Arnhem. Losers went up that one road.
The Dutch liaison officer told XXX Corps staff this, but was ignored.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:24 AM (u82oZ)
326
Per "Bubb-ho-Tep" the real Elvis swapped places with an Elvis impersonator, who inconveniently died early.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:25 AM (SnC8S)
327
Speaking of strong female leads, I've been seeing advertisements for an all new season of The View. I had hoped that it would be simply not renewed but instead they're doubling down.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:02 AM (L/fGl)
There's no better show to gage where the left's mentality is at the present than The View. Most people watch it for the cringe and batshit insanity. Leave it on. It serves it's purpose.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:02 AM (L/fGl)
There's no better show to gage where the left's mentality is at the present than The View. Most people watch it for the cringe and batshit insanity. Leave it on. It serves it's purpose.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at September 07, 2025 11:26 AM (g8Ew8)
328
Per "Bubb-ho-Tep" the real Elvis swapped places with an Elvis impersonator, who inconveniently died early.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:25 AM (SnC8S)
The best E impersonator was Pete Wilcox.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:25 AM (SnC8S)
The best E impersonator was Pete Wilcox.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:26 AM (0eaVi)
329
Anthony blunt leaked the war plan to the germans in addition to the logistic issues
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 11:26 AM (bXbFr)
330
Also reading: The Years of War 1941-1945 by Vasily Grossman
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (6YO1+)
It's not a novel, it is a compilation of his articles, letters, etc. Correct ?
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:21 AM (6YO1+)
It's not a novel, it is a compilation of his articles, letters, etc. Correct ?
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:26 AM (g47mK)
331
I've seen so many out takes that I think we've seen them all. Funny, Takei is showing up on YT talking about 60 years of ST already. I can imagine it's all going to be about Shatner. (insert eye roll here)
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025
***
At my very first ST con, in the summer of '73 (as the ST phenomenon was just taking off), Roddenberry told us he had a special short film to open the program. It was the (in)famous blooper reel that David Gerrold had mentioned in one of his books on Trek. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, then or since.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025
***
At my very first ST con, in the summer of '73 (as the ST phenomenon was just taking off), Roddenberry told us he had a special short film to open the program. It was the (in)famous blooper reel that David Gerrold had mentioned in one of his books on Trek. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, then or since.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:28 AM (omVj0)
332
Well, that's it! I'm not buying my lingerie at Victoria's Secret anymore!
2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Features Transgender Model
==
Lesson not learned.
2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Features Transgender Model
==
Lesson not learned.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:28 AM (g47mK)
333
Alternative history
Monty: "I propose a bold thrust to capture the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem."
Ike: "You aren't going anywhere until you clear the Scheldt approaches and Antwerp opens."
Alternative history
Monty: "I propose a bold thrust to capture the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem."
Ike: "You aren't going anywhere until you clear the Scheldt approaches and Antwerp opens."
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at September 07, 2025 11:28 AM (kkTda)
334
Market garden was a disaster waiting to haplen
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 11:28 AM (bXbFr)
335
I've toyed with the idea of an alternate history novel.
-
I was thinking of a possible steampunk story. As Custer prepares to advance on the Little Big Horn, aliens crash land and Custer, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse have to join forces to defend the Earth.
-
I was thinking of a possible steampunk story. As Custer prepares to advance on the Little Big Horn, aliens crash land and Custer, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse have to join forces to defend the Earth.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:29 AM (L/fGl)
336
115
'The painting is being sold by a man who is trying to defect from Hungary, and he needs the money to help him get across and established in the free world.'
Plot twist. It's George Soros.
'The painting is being sold by a man who is trying to defect from Hungary, and he needs the money to help him get across and established in the free world.'
Plot twist. It's George Soros.
Posted by: Dr. Claw at September 07, 2025 11:29 AM (3wi/L)
337
Kind of like cowboys and indians?
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 11:29 AM (bXbFr)
338
Priscilla Presley Lawsuit Update Accuses Her of Pushing Elvis to His Death: “Calculated Sociopath”
-
She shoved him off the toilet?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)
Mid-turd, no less.
-
She shoved him off the toilet?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)
Mid-turd, no less.
Posted by: Dr. Pork Chops & Bacons at September 07, 2025 11:29 AM (g8Ew8)
339
Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler
Nay, good sir. You need Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon.
Nay, good sir. You need Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon.
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:31 AM (u82oZ)
340
At my very first ST con, in the summer of '73 (as the ST phenomenon was just taking off), Roddenberry told us he had a special short film to open the program. It was the (in)famous blooper reel that David Gerrold had mentioned in one of his books on Trek. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, then or since.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:28 AM (omVj0)
Nimoy got angry about it. Didn't want the flubs to be seen as he felt it denigrated his work.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:28 AM (omVj0)
Nimoy got angry about it. Didn't want the flubs to be seen as he felt it denigrated his work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:31 AM (0eaVi)
341
Yes how did he pay for lse
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at September 07, 2025 11:31 AM (bXbFr)
342
>>> 330
Yes. The People Immortal was serialized in Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
Other chapters are direct from villager and troop interviews.
It was all translated to English in 1946.
Yes. The People Immortal was serialized in Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
Other chapters are direct from villager and troop interviews.
It was all translated to English in 1946.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (6YO1+)
343
I was thinking of a possible steampunk story. As Custer prepares to advance on the Little Big Horn, aliens crash land and Custer, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse have to join forces to defend the Earth.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025
***
And once the aliens are defeated, SB and CH turn on Custer and wipe his cavalry out.
Custer: "Wait! Wait! The enemy of my enemy is my friend!"
Sitting Bull: "That's what you think, White Eyes."
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025
***
And once the aliens are defeated, SB and CH turn on Custer and wipe his cavalry out.
Custer: "Wait! Wait! The enemy of my enemy is my friend!"
Sitting Bull: "That's what you think, White Eyes."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (omVj0)
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (tKZgo)
345
Thanks for being here and hope to see you next Sunday!
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (tKZgo)
Thanks for the thread, Weasel.
Wish the wife would learn to drive. I hate missing the rest of the book thread.
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (tKZgo)
Thanks for the thread, Weasel.
Wish the wife would learn to drive. I hate missing the rest of the book thread.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:33 AM (0eaVi)
346
[shudder]
Separated at Birth?: Ejected Eagles Player Jalen Carter Bears Striking Resemblance to Stacy Abrams
https://is.gd/XyAzvA
Separated at Birth?: Ejected Eagles Player Jalen Carter Bears Striking Resemblance to Stacy Abrams
https://is.gd/XyAzvA
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (L/fGl)
347
Nimoy got angry about it. Didn't want the flubs to be seen as he felt it denigrated his work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025
***
I have never heard that.
Too much "behind the scenes" info has come out over the decades, tarnishing the images of our beloved adventure/spy/crime movies and TV. To find that John Wayne did not think much of Kim Darby's method acting, that James Doohan disliked Shatner, that Grace Lee Whitney was assaulted if not raped by an unnamed producer . . . it's all pretty demoralizing, and I wish I didn't know any of it.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025
***
I have never heard that.
Too much "behind the scenes" info has come out over the decades, tarnishing the images of our beloved adventure/spy/crime movies and TV. To find that John Wayne did not think much of Kim Darby's method acting, that James Doohan disliked Shatner, that Grace Lee Whitney was assaulted if not raped by an unnamed producer . . . it's all pretty demoralizing, and I wish I didn't know any of it.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (omVj0)
348
Something else would have to happen to stop Russia in its tracks.
Stalin suddenly dies. The Russian Marshals slam to a halt and use their armies to create their own kingdoms in eastern Europe, ala post-Alexander the Great. The USSR collapses 47 years earlier than it did in our timeline.
That wasn't so hard, was it?
Stalin suddenly dies. The Russian Marshals slam to a halt and use their armies to create their own kingdoms in eastern Europe, ala post-Alexander the Great. The USSR collapses 47 years earlier than it did in our timeline.
That wasn't so hard, was it?
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (QLZE2)
349
@ 338 Priscilla Presley Lawsuit Update Accuses Her of Pushing Elvis to His Death: “Calculated Sociopath”
-
She shoved him off the toilet?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)
Mid-turd, no less.
______________________________
So, in Chinese, Elbis would have been 'Hung Chow' ... ?
-
She shoved him off the toilet?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Dinosaur Wrangler at September 07, 2025 11:19 AM (L/fGl)
Mid-turd, no less.
______________________________
So, in Chinese, Elbis would have been 'Hung Chow' ... ?
Posted by: Dr_No at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (ayRl+)
350
Uh, there's thirty minutes remaining. Can we not closeout this thread early?
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (6YO1+)
351
I would like to imagine an alternative history, where Ayatollah's plane that took off from Paris in 1979, crashes and his body parts are strewed over some faraway landscape, the shah comes back with an army of Persian patriots and quashes the islamo-nazi rebellion in Tehran. And the world lives happily ever after. I am afraid we haven't seen the last chapter of the war on the west started in 1979. If I had to guess, we are somewhere in the middle of the saga.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
352
350 Uh, there's thirty minutes remaining. Can we not closeout this thread early?
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (6YO1+)
-----
Nothing has been closed. Just saying thank you.
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (6YO1+)
-----
Nothing has been closed. Just saying thank you.
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (idhMh)
353
I can remember seeing a few 35 cent paperbacks when I first started buying them. Most were 50 cents, with a number of Ace titles still going for 40 and 45. Heinlein was a favorite of mine, and when Glory Road first came out in paperback from Avon at 75 cents I stewed over the price for days. Bought it finally, of course.
These days I look at Kindle book prices and all I can think is that the publishers are using the ebook prices to help protect the print end of their business. But yeah, I still buy 'em. What's a junkie to do?
These days I look at Kindle book prices and all I can think is that the publishers are using the ebook prices to help protect the print end of their business. But yeah, I still buy 'em. What's a junkie to do?
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 11:39 AM (q3u5l)
Posted by: NaCly Dog at September 07, 2025 11:39 AM (u82oZ)
355
Nothing has been closed. Just saying thank you.
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (idhMh)
Okay. Some of us are west coast and if I can sleep in past 6am then I'm late for the book talk.
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (idhMh)
Okay. Some of us are west coast and if I can sleep in past 6am then I'm late for the book talk.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:40 AM (6YO1+)
356
Yes. The People Immortal was serialized in Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
Other chapters are direct from villager and troop interviews.
It was all translated to English in 1946.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (6YO1+)
Interestingly enough, Douglas Murray is a big fan of Grossman's Life and Fate . And rightfully so. That book is a masterpiece.
Other chapters are direct from villager and troop interviews.
It was all translated to English in 1946.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:32 AM (6YO1+)
Interestingly enough, Douglas Murray is a big fan of Grossman's Life and Fate . And rightfully so. That book is a masterpiece.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:41 AM (g47mK)
357
Have we had a Tolkien reference yet? A Matt Helm one?
The Reading thread can't end until then.
The Reading thread can't end until then.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:41 AM (QLZE2)
358
Uh, there's thirty minutes remaining. Can we not closeout this thread early?
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025
***
Back to books then. Earlier this week I finished Lee Child's Jack Reacher novel from 2015, Make Me. A third-person story, it opens with Reacher in the middle of wheat fields in Kansas or Oklahoma. During the course of the story he travels by plane with a former FBI agent (female) to LA and Chicago. But primarily it settles down to being a story about two intrepid people taking down a horrific crime conspiracy centered in the wheat field town of Mother's Rest. Child does keep coming up with intriguing evils for JR to fight, I will say that.
I picked up the second one, Tripwire, at the library this week and will get to it when I finish We, the Accused.
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025
***
Back to books then. Earlier this week I finished Lee Child's Jack Reacher novel from 2015, Make Me. A third-person story, it opens with Reacher in the middle of wheat fields in Kansas or Oklahoma. During the course of the story he travels by plane with a former FBI agent (female) to LA and Chicago. But primarily it settles down to being a story about two intrepid people taking down a horrific crime conspiracy centered in the wheat field town of Mother's Rest. Child does keep coming up with intriguing evils for JR to fight, I will say that.
I picked up the second one, Tripwire, at the library this week and will get to it when I finish We, the Accused.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:42 AM (omVj0)
359
Trimigestus (sp?):
It might be equally revealing to ask what we DON'T read. As I look over people's choices, it seems to me angst isn't very popular. We seem to like characters who do things, good or bad, rather than whimper about them.
Maybe for next week?
It might be equally revealing to ask what we DON'T read. As I look over people's choices, it seems to me angst isn't very popular. We seem to like characters who do things, good or bad, rather than whimper about them.
Maybe for next week?
Posted by: Wenda at September 07, 2025 11:42 AM (Qb8z2)
360
Have we had a Tolkien reference yet? A Matt Helm one?
The Reading thread can't end until then.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025
***
Me! Me! I mentioned Matt Helm!
The Reading thread can't end until then.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025
***
Me! Me! I mentioned Matt Helm!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:43 AM (omVj0)
361
Keep hearing good things about Vasily Grossman but haven't read him yet. I think New York Review Books Classics has done at least two or three by him in both trade paper and Kindle.
More for the Amazing Colossal To-Be-Read Pile...
More for the Amazing Colossal To-Be-Read Pile...
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 11:43 AM (q3u5l)
362
Weasel, thank you for a lively thread devoted to reading books.
❤️📖📕📚
❤️📖📕📚
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 11:43 AM (t/2Uw)
363
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at September 07, 2025 11:43 AM (t/2Uw)
----
You're welcome!
----
You're welcome!
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:44 AM (idhMh)
364
>>> 356
Agreed. I've read everything that's been translated. Grossman's "Armenian Sketchbook" is very good.
Check archive .org for The Years of War.
Agreed. I've read everything that's been translated. Grossman's "Armenian Sketchbook" is very good.
Check archive .org for The Years of War.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:46 AM (6YO1+)
365
Well, assorted chores are beckoning here at Casa Some Guy, so I suppose I'd better go do something in meatspace...
Weasel, thank ya kindly for the thread.
Have a good one, gang.
Weasel, thank ya kindly for the thread.
Have a good one, gang.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at September 07, 2025 11:46 AM (q3u5l)
366
Younger son will pose a question to any woman he is interested in: Other than Harry Potter and Twilight, what books have you read?
It's not an automatic disqualifier, but he is often disappointed. Some of the young ladies have other interests like gaming, or computer nerd stuff.
It's not an automatic disqualifier, but he is often disappointed. Some of the young ladies have other interests like gaming, or computer nerd stuff.
Posted by: Mikey Alpha Kilo, Nobody Reads My Posts at September 07, 2025 11:47 AM (0aYVJ)
367
Oh, and Miss Linda requested and brought me Robert B. Parker's late '70s non-Spenser and non-series novel, Wilderness, which I have never been able to find in even big libraries. Apparently our main city library had it in their basement in the "older books" section. I happened to stop at the main location some years ago, went down, and found a John Dickson Carr I'd never read. It was like a time-travel jaunt to my adolescence.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:47 AM (omVj0)
368
I'd like a Tolkien/Matt Helm mashup.
It was raining in Gondor. I trudged up the stone steps into a tower in Minas Tirith. Inside a darkened room, a wizard was waiting for me. He sat with his back to a bright window, so I couldn't clearly see his face. "Ericus," he said, "I have a job for you."
There. Go away now.
It was raining in Gondor. I trudged up the stone steps into a tower in Minas Tirith. Inside a darkened room, a wizard was waiting for me. He sat with his back to a bright window, so I couldn't clearly see his face. "Ericus," he said, "I have a job for you."
There. Go away now.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 11:48 AM (QLZE2)
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 11:49 AM (idhMh)
370
Tolkien meets Matt Helm:
(Orc is holding Eowyn as a shield) "Throw down your weapons, human, or I kill this maiden!"
Helm (aiming an arrow at the orc): "Go ahead. When she drops, you'll still be standing there."
(Orc is holding Eowyn as a shield) "Throw down your weapons, human, or I kill this maiden!"
Helm (aiming an arrow at the orc): "Go ahead. When she drops, you'll still be standing there."
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:49 AM (omVj0)
371
I would like to imagine an alternative history, where Ayatollah's plane that took off from Paris in 1979, crashes and his body parts are strewed over some faraway landscape, the shah comes back with an army of Persian patriots and quashes the islamo-nazi rebellion in Tehran. And the world lives happily ever after. I am afraid we haven't seen the last chapter of the war on the west started in 1979. If I had to guess, we are somewhere in the middle of the saga.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
Maybe, maybe not. Bad actors have been calling shots for a long time. Who knows what fresh hell they'll think up. You're right- we are in a fight to the finish with these l Iunatics.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
Maybe, maybe not. Bad actors have been calling shots for a long time. Who knows what fresh hell they'll think up. You're right- we are in a fight to the finish with these l Iunatics.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at September 07, 2025 11:50 AM (LjSYW)
372
It's about time I tackled some of the chores around here (vacuuming up Killer Kitten fur, for instance). Thanks to Weasel once again for a fascinating book thread!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:53 AM (omVj0)
373
Just Some Guy, can endorse Vasiliy Grossman in general, though I think I've only read two of his things, one being his WWII diary (forget the title). The more you know about the period and the USSR the better his stuff. His anecdotes from Stalingrad were very interesting. Of course he represents a whole swath of Soviet intellectuals who clearly had retained some civilized instincts and were - very naively - hoping that victory in the Great Patriotic War would lead to a turn away from totalitarianism and more freedom for the little guy who had won the war in uniform.
Posted by: rhomboid at September 07, 2025 11:54 AM (U/Byj)
374
Does anyone know of a significant writer (other than Twain) who is known primarily by their pen name? I expect that 'significant' will be the sticking point here.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 07, 2025 11:55 AM (XeU6L)
375
Grossman - Everything Flows and Life and Fate were smuggled out of Russia ~1980ish, but were written on the heels of Stalin's death.
The KGB "arrested" the manuscript of Life and Fate.
The KGB "arrested" the manuscript of Life and Fate.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:55 AM (6YO1+)
376
I would like to imagine an alternative history, where Ayatollah's plane that took off from Paris in 1979, crashes and his body parts are strewed over some faraway landscape, the shah comes back with an army of Persian patriots and quashes the islamo-nazi rebellion in Tehran. And the world lives happily ever after. I am afraid we haven't seen the last chapter of the war on the west started in 1979. If I had to guess, we are somewhere in the middle of the saga.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
His plane could have been removed from the sky if we had leaders whose dick wasn't a flap to cover their vag.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
His plane could have been removed from the sky if we had leaders whose dick wasn't a flap to cover their vag.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at September 07, 2025 11:56 AM (snZF9)
377
Wolfus, what's H & I?
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 11:56 AM (r2Uym)
378
Does anyone know of a significant writer (other than Twain) who is known primarily by their pen name? I expect that 'significant' will be the sticking point here.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 07, 2025
***
Ellery Queen (two cousins, though)
Saki (H.H. Munro)
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 07, 2025
***
Ellery Queen (two cousins, though)
Saki (H.H. Munro)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:56 AM (omVj0)
379
Wolfus, what's H & I?
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025
***
Heroes & Icons TV. It's broadcast, you don't need cable.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025
***
Heroes & Icons TV. It's broadcast, you don't need cable.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:57 AM (omVj0)
380
Finished The Four Myths by Reisler.
An interesting end of the world prophetic kind of story. Best part is how the author pulls together four different groups into the common ending. Made it worth while.
An interesting end of the world prophetic kind of story. Best part is how the author pulls together four different groups into the common ending. Made it worth while.
Posted by: Diogenes at September 07, 2025 11:57 AM (2WIwB)
381
Priscilla Presley's Fiendish Plot!
Step 1:
"Elvis, honey. Here, eat nothing from now on but Peanut Butter, Nanner, and Bacon Sandwiches along with narcotics so you're constipated as hell."
"Whatever you say, pretty mama."
Step 2:
"Priscy darling, I am all clogged up. Been that way for a month"
"Well, baby, you just go to the toilet and strain as hard and as long as you can. Be sure to hold your breath, sweety!
Step 3: Elvis gets heart attack on toilet and dies.
Step 4: *rubs hands together evilly*. BWAHAHAHAHA!
Step 1:
"Elvis, honey. Here, eat nothing from now on but Peanut Butter, Nanner, and Bacon Sandwiches along with narcotics so you're constipated as hell."
"Whatever you say, pretty mama."
Step 2:
"Priscy darling, I am all clogged up. Been that way for a month"
"Well, baby, you just go to the toilet and strain as hard and as long as you can. Be sure to hold your breath, sweety!
Step 3: Elvis gets heart attack on toilet and dies.
Step 4: *rubs hands together evilly*. BWAHAHAHAHA!
Posted by: The End at September 07, 2025 11:57 AM (iJfKG)
382
Heroes & Icons TV. It's broadcast, you don't need cable.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:57 AM (omVj0)
Great channel. Its on a lot here.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:57 AM (omVj0)
Great channel. Its on a lot here.
Posted by: Berserker-Dragonheads Division at September 07, 2025 11:58 AM (snZF9)
383
And I think "George Orwell" was not his birth name, either.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 11:58 AM (omVj0)
384
Once the allies determined the war was won, they should have cut back on supplies to the soviets. Let them and the Germans pound each other. Had they done that, the Cold War may have never happened. But, the commies in DC and Whitehall would have never let that happen.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
4,423 P-39s went to Russia.
4,423.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
4,423 P-39s went to Russia.
4,423.
Posted by: Lend Lease For Commies at September 07, 2025 11:59 AM (R/m4+)
385
And I'd have no problems letting anyone see my reading list. Hell, even I can't figure it out.
Posted by: Diogenes at September 07, 2025 12:00 PM (2WIwB)
386
Thanks Wolfie.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025 12:00 PM (r2Uym)
387
I would like to imagine an alternative history, where Ayatollah's plane that took off from Paris in 1979, crashes and his body parts are strewed over some faraway landscape, the shah comes back with an army of Persian patriots and quashes the islamo-nazi rebellion in Tehran. And the world lives happily ever after. I am afraid we haven't seen the last chapter of the war on the west started in 1979. If I had to guess, we are somewhere in the middle of the saga.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
The Iran-Iraq War still happens on schedule. The Persians win, but the people revolt over the casualties. The Ayatollah Scumbaga takes over, only now he has Saddam Hussien's captured nuclear program.
Your move.
Posted by: runner at September 07, 2025 11:37 AM (g47mK)
The Iran-Iraq War still happens on schedule. The Persians win, but the people revolt over the casualties. The Ayatollah Scumbaga takes over, only now he has Saddam Hussien's captured nuclear program.
Your move.
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 12:00 PM (QLZE2)
388
WE HAZ A NOOD
Posted by: Skip at September 07, 2025 12:01 PM (+qU29)
389
Nood!
Posted by: Idaho Spudboy at September 07, 2025 12:01 PM (QLZE2)
390
Thanks Wolfie.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025
***
They run a lot of good stuff, including Have Gun -- Will Travel weekday mornings at 7 Central. When they first appeared on my radar about nine years back, they were running The Man From U.N.C.L.E. -- but at three a.m., and not giving it any publicity.
Posted by: All Hail Eris,, coming to you live from the Roller Disco of Discord! at September 07, 2025
***
They run a lot of good stuff, including Have Gun -- Will Travel weekday mornings at 7 Central. When they first appeared on my radar about nine years back, they were running The Man From U.N.C.L.E. -- but at three a.m., and not giving it any publicity.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at September 07, 2025 12:02 PM (omVj0)
391
13times, A Writer at War is the book I was thinking of. Read it in English.
Posted by: rhomboid at September 07, 2025 12:03 PM (U/Byj)
392
374 Does anyone know of a significant writer (other than Twain) who is known primarily by their pen name? I expect that 'significant' will be the sticking point here.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 07, 2025 11:55 AM (XeU6L)
Nobody comes to mind.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at September 07, 2025 11:55 AM (XeU6L)
Nobody comes to mind.
Posted by: Eric Arthur Blair at September 07, 2025 12:04 PM (PiwSw)
393
Uh, there's thirty minutes remaining. Can we not closeout this thread early?
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (6YO1+)
Ok by me. I just got back and find a bunch of comments.
It might cut short another star trek conversation.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 11:36 AM (6YO1+)
Ok by me. I just got back and find a bunch of comments.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 12:05 PM (0eaVi)
394
229 that would be Eratosthenes
Posted by: MAxIE at September 07, 2025 12:06 PM (p0Y4o)
395
Anthony Beevor 's book is good.
"Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century" Is an excellent biography.
"Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century" Is an excellent biography.
Posted by: 13times at September 07, 2025 12:10 PM (6YO1+)
396
GLW's molester was TGBotG. She said later.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 12:11 PM (0eaVi)
397
A great poem about Tom Sawyer was written by a world renowned Canadian poet and percussionist, in collaboration with Pyle DuBois.
Posted by: Cow Demon at September 07, 2025 12:59 PM (dk5j5)
398
384 Once the allies determined the war was won, they should have cut back on supplies to the soviets. Let them and the Germans pound each other. Had they done that, the Cold War may have never happened. But, the commies in DC and Whitehall would have never let that happen.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
4,423 P-39s went to Russia.
4,423.
Posted by: Lend Lease For Commies at September 07, 2025 11:59 AM (R/m4+)
You can’t blame me for that as I was out of Moscow in mid-1943.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
4,423 P-39s went to Russia.
4,423.
Posted by: Lend Lease For Commies at September 07, 2025 11:59 AM (R/m4+)
You can’t blame me for that as I was out of Moscow in mid-1943.
Posted by: BGen Philip Faymonville at September 07, 2025 01:02 PM (dk5j5)
399
Once the allies determined the war was won, they should have cut back on supplies to the soviets. Let them and the Germans pound each other. Had they done that, the Cold War may have never happened. But, the commies in DC and Whitehall would have never let that happen.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
Wishful thinking. You conveniently leave out the fact that the Germans had no business kicking off WWII to begin with. Germany was going to pound the USSR with…what?
Posted by: OrangeEnt at September 07, 2025 11:23 AM (0eaVi)
Wishful thinking. You conveniently leave out the fact that the Germans had no business kicking off WWII to begin with. Germany was going to pound the USSR with…what?
Posted by: Cow Demon at September 07, 2025 01:07 PM (dk5j5)
400
I don't know if this correction was already made in the nearly 400 previous comments, but Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain published "Tom Sawyer" in 1876, not 1846. Clemens was only eleven years old in 1846.
Posted by: James Braden at September 07, 2025 01:42 PM (dKpV9)
401
Posted by: James Braden at September 07, 2025 01:42 PM (dKpV9)
-----
Oops! Thanks for the correction!
-----
Oops! Thanks for the correction!
Posted by: Weasel at September 07, 2025 02:41 PM (+OnsA)
Posted by: Weak Geek hates to add to a thread with an even number of comments at September 07, 2025 03:11 PM (p/isN)
403
@396 --
Why am I not surprised?
I wonder how much better the show could have been had its creator not been such a sleazebucket. Weinstein before Weinstein.
Why am I not surprised?
I wonder how much better the show could have been had its creator not been such a sleazebucket. Weinstein before Weinstein.
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 03:19 PM (p/isN)
404
"Does anyone know of a significant writer (other than Twain) who is known primarily by their pen name?"
Theodore Dalrymple
a.k.a. Dr. Anthony Daniels
Theodore Dalrymple
a.k.a. Dr. Anthony Daniels
Posted by: ju at September 07, 2025 04:05 PM (vgX6l)
405
Ted Geisel = Dr. Seuss
Posted by: Weak Geek at September 07, 2025 05:25 PM (LComF)
406
I hope you will check out my wife's new novel. "The Brooklyn Witch," which is best described as "Harry Potter meets the Sopranos."
It's the story of a witch who has to navigate the magical world and the streets of Brooklyn. The "Real Brooklyn," not the gentrified hell hole that it has become these days.
I hope you will give it a chance. Thanks.
It's the story of a witch who has to navigate the magical world and the streets of Brooklyn. The "Real Brooklyn," not the gentrified hell hole that it has become these days.
I hope you will give it a chance. Thanks.
Posted by: Jim DOLAN at September 07, 2025 07:31 PM (HkdlY)
407
"Does anyone know of a significant writer (other than Twain) who is known primarily by their pen name?"
'Known primarily by their pen name' excludes most of the pulp writers and others, like Donald Westlake (Richard Stark), JK Rowling, or Isaac Asimov (Paul French), who occasionally use or used pen names for one reason or another.
Significant writer can also be a bit of a problem as so many writers who were primarily known by their pseudonyms weren't necessarily all that significant to the public at large. So, depending on your def of significant and including some who are mentioned here from time to time, we could include Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), George Elliott (Mary Evans), and Ford Maddox Ford (Ford Hermann Hueffer). Including more popular and genre writers we have Max Brand & many others (Frederick Faust), Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger), Ed McBain (Evan Hunter), and C.S. Forester (Cecil Smith). Then there are some like Joseph Conrad (Jozef Korzeniowski) who formally changed their names before becoming writers.
'Known primarily by their pen name' excludes most of the pulp writers and others, like Donald Westlake (Richard Stark), JK Rowling, or Isaac Asimov (Paul French), who occasionally use or used pen names for one reason or another.
Significant writer can also be a bit of a problem as so many writers who were primarily known by their pseudonyms weren't necessarily all that significant to the public at large. So, depending on your def of significant and including some who are mentioned here from time to time, we could include Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson), George Elliott (Mary Evans), and Ford Maddox Ford (Ford Hermann Hueffer). Including more popular and genre writers we have Max Brand & many others (Frederick Faust), Cordwainer Smith (Paul Linebarger), Ed McBain (Evan Hunter), and C.S. Forester (Cecil Smith). Then there are some like Joseph Conrad (Jozef Korzeniowski) who formally changed their names before becoming writers.
Posted by: Pope John 20th at September 07, 2025 09:24 PM (yl1YV)
408
Oh, and I almost forgot--O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), who wrote some pretty good short stories, and gave us his "Robin Hood of the old west, the Cisco Kid."
Posted by: Pope John 20th at September 07, 2025 09:56 PM (yl1YV)
409
Oops, I just noticed that I inverted the order of the real names versus pseudonyms between the second and third paragraphs in post 407 above. That is I put the author's pseudonym inside the parentheses in the second paragraph, but I thereafter put the author's real name inside the parentheses in the third paragraph and in post 408. Sorry...
Posted by: Pope John 20th at September 07, 2025 10:05 PM (yl1YV)
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