1 Book'em, Dano.

2 Manny, put $25 on Jump Start to place for me

3 Assless chaps is redundant.

4 So many kinds of books! Garrett, thanks for saving me from my first first. Me, I gotta get bookin'.

5 Colors suck in that painting.

Thanks California!

6 Rationalizing sexual misbehavior= making the deviant the norm= breakdown of society.

Is society better or worse now that single motherhood is totally accepted?

And how about gay marriage? How is that going to improve society?

7

>>Assless chaps is redundant.

 

 

It's true.  This man has no ass.

8

Chaos is not merely a theory.  

 

 

 

Anyone who has seen my desk at work can attest to this.

9 Still reading Lives Of The Caesers.  Once that's finished I'm hoping to pick up something on the Napoleonic war as background for a writing project.  Any morons have a recommendation?  Also, I'll probably restart The 48 Laws of Power, by Robert Greene, and maybe flip through The Peloponnesian War, by Donald Kagan. 

10 Hi there. I have a soft spot for those kinds of pictures. I think I was affected by an exposure to Wassily Kandinsky at an impressionable age. In other news, reminding ettes and lurking ettes to check out the crafty discussion over at ravelry.com "'ettes of the moron horde" is the group. so far we have threads on knitting, sewing, quilting, writing, homeschooling, needlepoint, and gardening. moron's wives are welcome as well. please come join so I can stop posting these things.

11 That thing up thar, that ain't art. This hyar is art. (uhh... click nic). It's got a kitty! Imagine it on velvet!

12 I should finish Europe Central by William T Vollmann this week after spending a *lot* of time reading it (I'm a very slow reader who gets somewhat distracted by things like posting here).  For anybody who enjoyed Bloodlands this is a work of fiction which should appeal to them.  Also anybody interested in the life of Dmitri Shostakovich and what it's like to compose challenging music under Stalin and banging a lot of trim will find this fascinating.

13 Oregon Muse, there is another book on how modern thinking is destroying Western art.  The Rape of the Masters by Roger Kimball.  How to read race and gender politics into classic works.

14 Does the painting have an arrow on the back and the words "This End Up"?

15 Love that photo of the troops with the sign. Trouble is, I can't remember what they were responding to.

16 The painting totally makes more sense vertical than horizontal.

the lines flow vertically more than horizontally giving the observer the sense of expansion upwards and not sideways.

The painter obviously created this picture to present to the viewer his mental gestalt at the time of the painting which was quite stressful but that he still had hopes for the future and aspired upwards from the depths of his despair.

(pretty good Huh? I should be an art critic. What utter bullshit.)

17 Posted by: HH at April 14, 2013 11:28 AM (XXwdv)

It was a response to this: http://youtu.be/dRjUubkhmv4

18 Love that photo of the troops with the sign. Trouble is, I can't remember what they were responding to.
Posted by: HH at April 14, 2013 11:28 AM


John Kerry:  You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you donÂ’t, you get stuck in Iraq.

19

>> Trouble is, I can't remember what they were responding to.

 

John Kerry's assertion that when you don't go to college you end up 'bogged down in Iraq'.

20 15 Love that photo of the troops with the sign. Trouble is, I can't remember what they were responding to.

Posted by: HH at April 14, 2013 11:28 AM (XXwdv)

During the '04 election, Kerry made a comment at some college about staying in school and studying you'll be fine...if you don't you'll end up in Iraq.

21 I should have known I'd be the 3rd to answer that...

22 Posted by: HH at April 14, 2013 11:28 AM (XXwdv)

John Effing Kerry (a former viet name vet) made a comment about how those who couldn't get into college (due to lack of schooling or intelligence) were forced to go into the military.

Hence the misspelled words and the plea for help.

23 Theoretical physicists don't like to admit that all their post-Newtonian geewizardry is but another exercise in relatively rationalized misbehavior. Mainly because, after all that math-matickin', they're still not getting any, mostly. But I still bring it up whenever they start in to theorizing. I mean really, large hardons colliding, and all that...

The old hard-Newtonian answer to "there's energy and matter we can't account for" was "you're not looking hard enough." After Heisenberg and Kennard, the new answer became "you're looking too hard." I don't think they look that hard.

Of course, old Newton was something of a wizard himself, and, famously, died a virgin (later sources say "dyed a virgin," but that appears doubtful). Some days it's downright embarrassing to defend him. But one can always make a case that modern physics is little more than an attempt to get nerds laid. 

24 Ahhh, thanks gang!


Yeah, I had forgotten it. Even more funny with the spelling...

25 LOL!  You'll never forget why again, will you HH?

26 I finally finished The Lord of The Rings.  I actually got tired of it before I finished it and had to fight the urge to start skimming. Currently working on the sub-venue portion of the 1632 series that begins with The Galileo Affair.  I wanted to read the new one (Papal Stakes) but I like to read the first ones if I havenÂ’t in a while.  These are listed as “coauthored” by Eric Flint, Andrew Dennis, and Charles Gannon.  But like all coauthored books the new guy does all the writing and the series originator gets his name on the cover.  The first two in the series by Andrew Dennis were pretty good.  Just started Papal Stakes so donÂ’t know about it yet.

27 Bitter Clinger, that is what being a critic is all about.  Making up absurd stuff to either praise or denigrate the subject.  Look at Ebert.

But to actually create anything, they don't have the brainpower for that. So to compensate for that inferiority, they become critics.

28 Thanks to whoever recommended "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing about Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill fated attempt to cross Antarctica.  It is one of the best books I've read in a long time.  The fact that they all survived is astonishing considering the hardships they faced.  Those were some tough damn men. 

29 Vic its probably a good thing that Eric Flint is not really writing them since he is Baen's card carrying communist and union organizer.

30 Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at April 14, 2013 11:35 AM (rYImi)

That's me in a nutshell. I'm too effing lazy to work hard enough to be creative.

Creative bullshit; now THAT I can do.

31 OM; thanks for the explanation; the thread, the column, and everything.

32 Posted by: Tami at April 14, 2013 11:34 AM (X6akg)


Laughs...

No, I won't!

33 Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at April 14, 2013 11:36 AM (rYImi)


He's not that bad

34 I'm reading The Atlantis Gene, Book 1 of The Origin Mystery by A.G. Riddle. Available on Kindle here: http://tinyurl.com/d7wevfv Quoth the publisher: 70,000 years ago, the human race almost went extinct. We survived, but no one knows how. Until now. The countdown to the next stage of human evolution is about to begin, and humanity may not survive this time. THE ATLANTIS GENE is a thought-provoking techno-thriller about global genetic experiments, ancient conspiracies, and the mysteries of human evolution. Its complex characters and historical and scientific details will stay with you long after you finish. This sci-fi adventure is the first book in A.G. Riddle's Origin Mystery Series. My thoughts: I'm most of the way through and am very favorably impressed. I took the bait because I'm a fan of this kind of subject matter, and all thirteen (admittedly unreliable) reviews on Amazon were 5/5. The Atlantis Gene appears to be the first book by A.G. Riddle, just published in March of this year. According to an author bio I dug up, he was running Internet companies prior to pursuing his muse. If this book is any indicator of what's to come, he won't be returning to his prior job. The premise of the story is basically a Crichton-like genetics thriller, in which the crazy, mutagen releasing terrorists think they are acting for mankind's own good, as a drastic reduction of the human population, each equipped with a revised genetic expression protocol, is required to resist the as yet unrevealed mechinations of an ancinet alien race that intervened with prehistoric man at its statistical perigee by imparting a genetic advantage that changed homo sapiens from our brutish relatives into a thinking, tool using, behaviorally modern force of nature. Simply put, the story answers the question, "how did we go from six- or seven thousand humans on the verge of extinction to a six- or seven-billion member species that overwhelmingly dominates the planet in the evolutionary blink of an eye of just 70,000 years?" Going back in time to determine how we made the great leap forward. Great premise, great writing, and well-researched and creative evolutionary theories combine to make this book a fantastic first effort, and I'm glad I took the time to check it out. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

35 Just started Brain on Fire (one of those $2.99 kindle deals) pretty damn interesting read. Flowershop is next, thanks for the recommendation.

36 Blacksheep re:The Atlantis Gene.  2001: A Space Odyssey and Inherit the Moon.

Vic, I enjoy Eric's writing also because he does have an imagination.  Not sure if I could stand talking to him at a con if he clambered on his soapbox.

37

Colorado Alex  @ 9

 

Another good book about the Peloponnessian War is the fiction novel "The Tides of War"  by Steven Pressfield.  It brings the characters to life and brings that era to life.  It also makes it easier to understand the disaster the Athenians suffered duirng the invasion of  Syracuse.  The book is basically a biography of a soldier who was at the elbow of Alcibiades during much of the war.

38 The Rape of the Masters by Roger Kimball. How to read race and gender politics into classic works. Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at April 14, 2013 11:23 AM (rYImi) yes, I second this. excellent book

39 >>>Does the painting have an arrow on the back and the words "This End Up"?

Wouldn't that violate the expression of the theory in spirit?

40 "The Tides of War" by Steven Pressfield. It brings the characters to life and brings that era to life. It also makes it easier to understand the disaster the Athenians suffered duirng the invasion of Syracuse. The book is basically a biography of a soldier who was at the elbow of Alcibiades during much of the war. Posted by: Reader C.J. Burch writes more nonsense ...... at April 14, 2013 11:45 AM (Md8Uo) any writers or other creative types should check out Steven Pressfield's blog and get his books "The War of Art" and "Do the Work" invaluable.

41 Thanks to the moron that recommended "Dinner With Churchill" last week. I got it from the library and have been reading in small doses. It's an interesting angle on well-known figures.

42
any writers or other creative types should check out Steven Pressfield's blog and get his books "The War of Art" and "Do the Work"

invaluable.

Posted by: elizabethe at April 14, 2013 11:46 AM (qPCAa)

Didn't he also write The Gates of Fire?

43 Survived prom night on two hours of sleep but the kids are all alive and safely home. My house is wrecked from the after party but I'm reading The Disappearing Spoon and trying to stay awake.

44

 It also makes it easier to understand the disaster the Athenians suffered duirng the invasion of Syracuse.

 

It wasn't the Athenians, it was the Orunjmen.  Also, it's Sycacuse.

45 Started reading "Game of Thrones" and it's terrific. Can't put it down.

46 Simply put, the story answers the question, "how did we go from six- or seven thousand humans on the verge of extinction to a six- or seven-billion member species that overwhelmingly dominates the planet in the evolutionary blink of an eye of just 70,000 years?" Going back in time to determine how we made the great leap forward. Great premise, great writing, and well-researched and creative evolutionary theories combine to make this book a fantastic first effort, and I'm glad I took the time to check it out. I give it a 4.5 out of 5. Posted by: Blacksheep at April 14, 2013 11:39 AM (bS6uW) What leap forward? Those were modern humans. The population recovered after a cataclysm.

47

>>>Can't put it down.

 

Well, once you hit Book 3 get back to us.

48

Cap'n Hate  @ 12

 

I don't know if anybody could have 'enjoyed' "Bloodlands", although it is well written and can be engrossing.  I read it and it is fascinating.  But I read it in small doses, as it is also very depressing, tragic and sad.   People can be monstrous.

49 I will also put "Rape of the Masters" on the reading list. I just got a subscription to The New Criterion, which  Kimball edits, and if you think modern art and art criticism stinks (as I do) it's like coming home. They publish poetry -that rhymes.

50 Thanks to the Moron who recommended The Martian by Andy Weir. Excellent, excellent science fiction with lots of Moron-level funny. I see he has an audio version out now, which both scares and fascinates me.

And many thanks to the Morons and everyone they got drunk and persuaded to purchase The Scent of Metal, now in Amazon's top 10 Hot New Releases:Science Fiction/Adventure list!   (goes off to bounce giddily)

51

CJ,

 

Thanks, I'll check it out!

52

Just finished Radical Son by David Horowitz.  This fantasic personal odyessy from Marxist to conservative describes perfectly what is happening in today's culture and politics and how successful the left has been in achieving their goals set forth in the '60's.  This should be mandatory reading for all junior and senior high school kids.  I strongly recommend this book to all morons if you haven't read it yet.  Next on the list is Destructive Generation by Peter Collier and Horowitz. 

53 >>>Started reading "Game of Thrones" and it's terrific. Can't put it down I found the first 50 pages horribly tedious. Once you get up to speed on all the family names and back story, it becomes like crack cocaine, though. "Un put downable."

54 Thanks for the head up about Atlantis Gene, Blacksheep. Sounds just like my kind of story. saved for later in my amazon wish list.

55

>>They publish poetry -that rhymes.

 

 

You like poetry?  

56 Posted by: garrett at April 14, 2013 11:50 AM (ZcLG5)

And to really experience the author and the series, don't buy the next book for 5 years.

THEN tell us how you feel.

57 I had been thinking about Gulag Archipelago since the day it was featured in the "reading part" of the thread. I found a used copy on Ebay and it showed up yesterday. I got through the first 40 pages last night before I fell asleep. It has potential I think but it's a slow read. The writing in the book I got is so small I almost need a magnifier to read it.

58 I don't know if anybody could have 'enjoyed' "Bloodlands", although it is well written and can be engrossing. I read it and it is fascinating. But I read it in small doses, as it is also very depressing, tragic and sad. People can be monstrous.

Posted by: Reader C.J. Burch writes more nonsense ...... at April 14, 2013 11:51 AM (Md8Uo)

Absolutely it was horrifying, very well written in an engaging fashion and engrossing.  It was "enjoyable" for me in that nobody had attempted that approach before which, to me, was screaming for somebody to do it.  That region took it up the ass from both sides and it was high time that somebody told their story.  I couldn't put it down because of how appreciative I was that somebody did that.

59

Steven Pressfield wrote  "Gates of Fire",  "The Afghan Campaign"  (great story of Alexander's pacification of  what is now Afghanistan - and tragic), "The Art of War"  (more Alexander),  "Killing Rommel"  (novelization of the British Long Range Desert Group - a great short read), and "The Tides of War" - about Alcibiades and the Peloponesian War.

 

The history of the Peloponessian War is an apt lesson for America, in that in a matter of 30 years, Athens went from being wealthy and at the height of its powers to being defeated, occupied and having the Long Walls and the Piraeus destroyed.

60 Reading "The Sunne in Splendor" by Sharon Penman. It's an historical fiction about Richard III--basically retelling it without the Tudor spin. No hunchback, no madness (at least not on Richard's part), and the nephews in the Tower controversy is readdressed. Little bit of a bodice ripper but a good amount of history and warfare for balance. Thanks for the Flowershop recommendation. Adding it to my wishlist.

61 Vivi better you than me.  First book of Game of Thrones I was always putting down to find other things to do or worse read.

If you want heroic fantasy that is willing to follow unexplored paths then pick up Elizabeth Moon's works.  Her current series starts with Oath of Fealty, then Kings of the North, and Echoes of Betrayal. 

Authors write about a paladin or hero coming in to restore what is right and defeat what is bad.  And that is it. 

This new series goes and looks at how the paladin Paksenarrion's actions in the first trilogy have affected other people.  The pebble in water effect.  Very interesting and engaging.  Especially poor Arvid who is definitely no longer in his comfort zone.

62 Colorado Alex #9 Check out "Napoleon Bonaparte, an Intimate Biography" by Vincent Cronin. Wiki entry for the author will give you a good summation. I was expecting to read about an ogre, monster type of guy. Wrong. All the inbred royals of Europe were terrified of Nappy and were relentless in trying to get him.He was quite a reformer in many ways, and certainly a friend to the Jews of Europe, one of his first acts in conquered areas was abolishing ghettos and clothing codes. Interestingly , he followed treaty terms to the letter, but his enemies routinely broke their side of the agreements.

63 C'mon Oregon Muse, you can admit it. The real reason you turned the painting on it's side was to stretch the comment boxes thus turning this into a tiny print thread. I must admit, diabolical. Suggestion for the 9-11 yr old moron kids. Especially the boys I guess. "Bristle Face" by Zachary Ball. Kind of an Old Yellery book. Hopefully the gun thread won't be tiny print but... Later

64

Has anyone seen a small bag with some bones in it?

I can't seem to find mine.

65 "Matt is a pastor in the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) and his book The Essentials of the Christian Religion, is available on Kindle and also on dead tree edition. It's a basic introduction to the Christian faith which assumes no education in Christianity or religion in particular." Reformed Church? So he's coming from a Calvinist perspective?

66 What leap forward? Those were modern humans. The population recovered after a cataclysm. These were not behaviorally modern humans, which is basically the point. Given our greatly reduced numbers, the physical superiority of several other surviving evolutionary competitors (keep in mind there were four of five human-like species living at that time), and the fact that interbreeding definitely occurred across all of those species (as proven by the human genome project), there is no obvious reason why homo sapiens should have survived, as opposed to either dying out or being absorbed into, say, Neanderthal or one of our other competitors. The great leap forward (see Wiki or other more credible sources discussing human evolution) is an evolutionary theory that leaves geneticists and anthropologists basically shrugging and going, WTF? Glad it happened but how and why? YMMV of course, and I'm not trying to sell anyone anything, just giving my usual review of what I'm reading.

67 And many thanks to the Morons and everyone they got drunk and persuaded to purchase The Scent of Metal, now in Amazon's top 10 Hot New Releases:Science Fiction/Adventure list! (goes off to bounce giddily)

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at April 14, 2013 11:52 AM (wfSF5)

I must admit that I didn't like it as much as your other books, but it was still a good read. I really can't say why I didn't care as much for it, but for some reason the story didn't grip me as tightly as others (like the Seqoyia trilogy). Still, as long as you keep writing them I'll keep reading them!

Lately I've been digging through "The Wandering Engineer" series by Chris Hechtl, it needs a good proofreader but it's a good story. Four books so far (each is getting grammatically better than the last so he's at least working on the proofreading thing). I just got done with the three "Old Man's War" series from John Scalzi and have the fourth one in the lineup.

68
Thanks to the Moron who recommended The Martian by Andy Weir. Excellent, excellent science fiction with lots of Moron-level funny. I see he has an audio version out now, which both scares and fascinates me.

And many thanks to the Morons and everyone they got drunk and persuaded to purchase The Scent of Metal, now in Amazon's top 10 Hot New Releases:Science Fiction/Adventure list! (goes off to bounce giddily)

Since I'll be solo for the next two weeks, stuck in a hotel room in Alexandria VA, with nothing but 24/7 Bill Maher HBO sploogematter, (That's a German word...google it!), to occupy me, I'll look both of those up.

A big ol thanks for the tip! I'll need some good reading material.

69 50 And many thanks to the Morons and everyone they got drunk and persuaded to purchase The Scent of Metal, now in Amazon's top 10 Hot New Releases:Science Fiction/Adventure list!

-------

Congratulations!

70 I kind of like the painting.  From the artist:

Chaos Theory was created during a stressful time of my life when I was getting very little sleep. I worked on this painting over a period of several months, mostly during the early morning hours. Painting was the only thing that helped relax my mind. It served as a way to release all the chaos in my head onto the canvas. Painting turned out to be an effective form of mental therapy. Maybe all those people out there wasting their money on shrinks, with disappointing results, should take up painting instead

71 Posted by: Ragamuffin at April 14, 2013 11:57 AM (fzFF6)

Read her other books on the era. They are also well worth the read.

thanks for reminding me of her name.

72 I've just finished reading Max Hasting's "Winston's War: Churchill 1940-1945".

A very interesting read.  Hasting's critiques of the British Fleet Air Arm and the Army are notable.  The author's take on the Dodacanese debacle and Operation "UNTHINKABLE" are worth the price of the book alone.

73 Posted by: Davos Seaworth at April 14, 2013 12:00 PM (ZcLG5)

They're gone bitch and so's your luck.

74 Reformed Church? So he's coming from a Calvinist perspective?

Posted by: Ragamuffin at April 14, 2013 12:00 PM (fzFF6)

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

All the cool kids are Calvinists.

75 Working on "A Canticle For Leibowitz" right now.

76 Also, thanks to whoever recommended Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell, the story of an archer living in the time of Henry V. I mowed straight through and really enjoyed it.

77 Blacksheep.  If you want to talk about great leap forward and such in science fiction.  May I recommend James P. Hogan's first three Giant books?  Inherit the Moon, Gentle Giants of Ganymede, and Giant's Star.

Story starts with humans on the Moon finding a body in a space suit.  The body tests out to being over 50,000 years old.  The first book and the follow on books build upon the findings that Charlie was 100% Homo Sapiens but not of Earth.

78 Adding my recommendation for "The Martian", any book that has "I'm pretty much fucked" as it's opening line is sure to grab your attention. Great story.

79 "In looking at recent biographies of such major moderns as Freud, Kinsey, Keynes, Margaret Mead, Picasso, and others, there is a remarkable similarity between their lives and thought. After becoming involved in sexual license early on, they invariably chose an ideology or art form which subordinated reality to the exigencies of their sexual misbehavior." And a big steaming pile of BULLSHIT! If people do not push boundaries, especially creative types, everything becomes stagnant. This just sounds like more Pat Robertson whining about whatever the fuck senile Pat chooses to piss and moan about that week. Trying to maintain a sane middle ground is harder and harder every day. For some reason this day and age of confusion breeds assholes of both ilks. Neither has the common sense god gave goats but all consider their vapid thoughts and ruminations as the epitome of well reasoned thought. They should not be allowed to breed, and those who parrot or admire them should not be allowed to breed either. C.M. Kornbluth, once you remove the racism, had it correct when he wrote The Marching Morons. Stupid people breed faster than intelligent ones. And from my lofty vantage I see an ocean of stupid fucks.

80 Last week I said I was reading a novel by Louise Penny entitled "Bury Your Dead", a mystery set in the old city of Montreal, centering on the archaelogical hunt for Champlain's bones.  It was a little hard to get into the first couple of chapters, but I ended up quite enjoying it.  It is beautifully written, and has a gut-wrenching subplot of modern day terrorism.  I'm going to start the next book in the series today -  called A Trick of the Light.

81 As a side note, this Kindle app on the smart phone is either a boon for it's convenience or a curse for the same reason. I'm sure spending more on books lately, even though I am as a general rule getting more for my money.

82 61 What no one read The Mongoliad?

83 Diogenes, try H. Beam Piper's story Day of the Morons.

Union strikers and a nuclear power plant.  What could go wrong?
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18949/18949-h/18949-h.htm

84 I'm on yet another Nero Wolfe novel, Black Mountain. Very different than the others I've read. The sedentary New Yorker Wolfe is currently scrambling through the Balkans looking to avenge the murder of a buddy.

85 First Brookline...

Then Boston..... (could it be the real reason our mayor for life decided to not seek reelection?)

And now Cambridge!

http://tinyurl.com/cncg7w9

Succumbs to the turkey revolution. These American patriots are busy making the ghost of Ben Franklin proud gobbling back the birthplace of liberty!

86 I wish I liked science fiction but I hate it.  Really really hate it.

87

>>>What no one read The Mongoliad?

 

A couple people I know  did and they were not impressed.   That was enough for me.

88 I think you mean Inherit the Stars on the first one.


Those really grabbed way back when but when Hogan did a series treating Velikovsky's looney theories as reality, I realized that the Giants series was just drawn from the 'Chariots of the Gods?' nonsense that was popular at the time. It made it feel retroactively sullied.

89 Yes Blacksheep, Agincourt gives you the feel for that time and place.  Fly on the tent wall view almost.

90 74 Mama winger, Well, can I hang around even though I'm not but an uncool Wesleyan? Or is membership elected and predestined? In the words of John Wesley: In essentials, unity. In all else, Grace.

91 If people do not push boundaries, especially creative types, everything becomes stagnant. Posted by: diogenes at April 14, 2013 12:08 PM (G6kli) The limitation on boundary pushing is set by nature, not by men. Make your society non-functional, and you've pushed boundaries into another Tytler or Kyklos revolution.

92 Just a side note to all those early adopters of Kindle:

Amazon is like a effing drug dealer. Remember those days of buying books for .99 and giggling to yourself about how much you've saved over those turkeys buy dead tree books?

How's it feel now to be paying paperback book prices and you don't even own the book?

I hate to gloat and rub it in but anyone should have seen this coming. It's an old, old business model. And it's been around for a long long time because it works.

Glad I didn't spring for a proprietary piece of tech that doesn't even let me archive or pass on the "books" I've purchased. (can't say owned because you don't own them)

Now go ahead and flame me for speaking the truth. I can take it.

93 I wish I liked science fiction but I hate it. Really really hate it.

Posted by: mama winger at April 14, 2013 12:13 PM (P6QsQ)

It would be a boring world if everyone liked the same thing.

94 In the words of John Wesley: In essentials, unity. In all else, Grace.

Posted by: Ragamuffin at April 14, 2013 12:14 PM (fzFF6)

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

Absolutely.  Absolutely.

95 I wish I liked science fiction but I hate it. Really really hate it.

Posted by: mama winger at April 14, 2013 12:13 PM (P6QsQ)

Why? I'm genuinely curious as I've been an avid fan since I was 7.

96 Thanks for your two response above, Anna Puma. I've read the entire 2001 series (which was of course seminal but nonetheless nowhere near as well written as what I'm talking about here ... and I know, I know, that's like when people say "I couldn't finish LOTR because it seems so derivative," when in fact it came first and you want to just smack them), but I have not yet read Hogan. I'll be sure to take a look.

97

When you make "major moderns" Freud, Kinsey, Keynes, Mead, and Picasso, it does really highlight how much of modern thought is just bootstrapping on actual results from modern technology.    

How anyone could highlight our 'success' in psychology, economics, or anthropology as compared to, say, electronics or physics is a mystery to me.  My kid makes square people in crayon and printer paper. 

Keynes would be churning 6,000 RPM if he knew his writings were being used to debauch the currency.  Anyone can Bing "Keynes Lenin debauch currency".    Bernanke and Obama take the more pro-debauchery Leninist position.  Saving is for chumps and oppressors anyway. 

 

(Had spaces and paragraphs when I clicked "Post")

(& ampersand test    

98 Or Moby Dick, Lord Jim, Dracula, Frankenstein, any Rod Serling, Olaf Stapleton, Richard Matheson, Doc Savage, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The first twenty or so The Destroyer, The Executioner series, The freaking Death Merchant series, Anthologies of well just about anything but early science fiction, Vladimir Nabokov, Jersy Kosinski, Jack Kerouac, Alan Watts, The Illuminatus trilogy, Tom Robbins, Jean Genet, Jim Butcher, I could go on all day.

99 epobirs, yep Inherit the Stars.

With the first three books I never really saw it as Chariots of the Gods.  Especially in Giant's Star when Hunt and others unravel the Jevlenese scheme to keep Earth mired in non-productive thought patterns.  After Giant's Star I thought Hogan really went off the rails of casuality.

100 Glad I didn't spring for a proprietary piece of tech that doesn't even let me archive or pass on the "books" I've purchased. (can't say owned because you don't own them)

Now go ahead and flame me for speaking the truth. I can take it.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at April 14, 2013 12:15 PM (Kpn/z)

*shrug* all the books I've bought so far are archived on my device. I wouldn't be able to read them on my lunch break otherwise since the building I work in is shielded.

By the way, another book I've recently finished that I really liked a lot was "Terms of Enlistment" by Marko Kloos. You might know Marko as "Maj Brian Caudill, USMC (Ret)", he wrote an essay called "Why the Gun is Civilization" that often gets incorrectly attributed to the (probably fictional) Major.

101 How's it feel now to be paying paperback book prices and you don't even own the book?

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


I don't feel a thing.  I've only bought one book, for 2.99, on Kindle. I download free stuff.  The others I borrowfor free from my library system, or are sent to me from my kids.  Yes, they can loan their books  to me.  If I recall, the loan lasts 3 weeks.

102 Figures. Ya'll talking about "The Tides of War", I mentally pictured the cover, and then checked and sure enough  I have it sitting on a shelf and have never read it.

Crap! I'm beginning to think I'm the guy you loaned a book to and never got it back from...

103 Why? I'm genuinely curious as I've been an avid fan since I was 7.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at April 14, 2013 12:16 PM (Kpn/z)

-------

I dunno.  A gut reaction.   Kind of like clowns and the Easter Bunny.  Science Fiction makes me feel all creepy.

104 Simply put, the story answers the question, "how did we go from six- or seven thousand humans on the verge of extinction to a six- or seven-billion member species that overwhelmingly dominates the planet in the evolutionary blink of an eye of just 70,000 years?"
Have we met?

105 #92

Breaking the DRM on Kindle books is trivial. There are dozens of apps freely available to do it.

But I prefer EPUB files as it is an open standard supported by dozens of devices and countless apps on every capable platform. (EPUB is also far superior to the Amazon MOBI format. The new K8 is better but still behind EPUB and only supported on Amazon devices and apps.) EPUB isn't controlled by any one company and offers complete portability.

106 Posted by: opposable thumbs at April 14, 2013 12:24 PM (mGBy


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



I thought it was Johnny Mathis records.

107 Yes Blacksheep, Agincourt gives you the feel for that time and place. Fly on the tent wall view almost.

Have you tried Cornwell's "The Archer's Tale"? It's the first in a short series but works fine as a stand-alone, and I liked it as much as "Agincourt".

108 I may end up spending the day reading this non-fiction work by H. Beam Piper - A CATALOGUE of EARLY PENNSYLVANIA and other FIREARMS and EDGED WEAPONS at "RESTLESS OAKS" McELHATTAN, PA.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20442/20442-h/20442-h.htm

"The Pennsylvania woodsman was filled with the romance of slaughter, a heritage of mingled Continental origins, Huguenot, Spanish, Portuguese, Swiss, Waldensian, Levantine, with the strains of Ulster Scot, Alsatian, Palatine, Hollander and Moravian, cooling cross currents in his veins. No wonder that the women of this blended race were the most darkly beautiful in the world, and a group of the curious edged weapons they carried to destroy men who annoyed them might well be the subject of another separate collection."

109 I always miss this thread because it's active during the time I'm getting ready for church. Not complaining. Just want to say hi to the M&Ms, Happy Sunday and let you know I'll be reading this thread later. Remember, prayer changes things.

110 Hmmm... until I followed the link, I couldn't figure out why you'd even want to turn the Chaos Theory picture on its side. For some reason the image looks square to me on this page.

111 "The Violinist's Thumb" by Sam Kean is primarily about DNA but with a lot of other stuff thrown in.  Kean writes in a narrative conversational style which flows along like a face to face tale.  One comes away with an appreciation of how complicated the human body is.  Well worth your time.

112 Posted by: Blacksheep at April 14, 2013 12:01 PM (bS6uW) Yeah, but modern behavior is not evident until many thousands of years later. There is no need to speculate about the population recovery in that way. There was a super volcano eruption that coincides with the population drop. If that was the cause then our fellow members of the genus Homo were in trouble, too. In fact, by then we were matched only by the Neanderthals and they were mostly in Europe. The other ones were long gone. When a population gets severely reduced by a disaster two survival strategies take the lead. One, be like the raiders in the Mad Max movies, and two, do just the opposite. If you look at modern human behavior the battle may have started 70000 years ago and has yet to stop. There is no great evolutionary mystery to it. We survived and recovered. That's it.

113 There's a famous installation in Frank Lloyd Wright's Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ. a stained glass window that is, yes, installed upside down.

114 This 'great leap forward' (which carries a really creepy connotation when Chinese history is considered) doesn't strike me as much of a mystery. It comes down to geography and timing. Once the species became more widespread it was far less likely that a natural disaster could have the scale to threaten species survival.

A more useful question is how long modern humans had existed before the event that brought their number dangerously low? Had they already been actively spreading to new territory and just hadn't been around long enough to shrug off a regional catastrophic event? Or did a large portion of their number decide to seek a better neighborhood following the disaster?

As for the other species, we killed them and ate them. And/Or had the dominant genes when crossbreeding. And were generally more versatile and able to thrive in a wider range of environments.

It was long believed that Neanderthal anatomy meant they were very limited in their vocal range, and that modern humans gained a huge advantage with complex speech. The ability to convey complex ideas does wonders for battle plans.

115

9. "Once that's finished I'm hoping to pick up something on the Napoleonic war as background for a writing project."

 

The Sharpe's series.

116 Another species that went through an evolutionary winnowing were the cheetahs.  Genetically there is almost zero diversity   Traced to a crash about 10,000 years ago.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC46261/

117 A story to make you cry hot-linked in my sock.

118

I dunno. A gut reaction. Kind of like clowns and the Easter Bunny. Science Fiction makes me feel all creepy.

 

Well, there are some tomes in SciFi  that are a little on the disturbing side. I    was  exposed to it at a very young  age, second grade IIRC,  they had the Tom Corbett Space Cadet (which was cool, since I was attending a military school at the time,  go figure) and the Tom Swift series.  Shallow waters and all that.

 

If you want   a genteel  introduction to SF, I'd recommend Orson Scott Card's Ender  series. It's a rather   sweeping epic, just be   sure to start at the   beginning,  which was not what I did. I mistakenly started with the third book, and a friend who had the whole series   graciously allowed me to read his  in order.

119 I like the painting pictured above. Art that tries its best to match photography is boring to me. I prefer art that makes you puzzle over it and try to get it. YMMV

120 Well, of course they came out on top: they were cheetahs!

121 WW1's centenary is looming and no doubt there'll be a flood of books published on the subject. One I can recommend is astonishing, and a timely warning to us. "Dare Call it Reason", Richard M. Watt, has as its subject the French army's mutiny of 1917 after years of horrendous and pig-headed slaughter. The left, socialists and communists did everything they could to hinder France's war effort and bring in "a new age" of brotherhood and all that jive. Some top politicians and journalists were in the pay of Germany. And it's a great corrective to the ill-informed view of French soldiers' supposed cowardice. 750,000 casualties  in the last 3 months of 1914 alone, and even worse later on, bayonet charges into machine guns. Fighting commies at home and Germans at the front. The French soldier deserved better than he got by the traitors at home and history itself.

122 A story to make you cry hot-linked in my sock. Love the comment below the story: 'If you are being told to give up your guns because it will save one child but the Brotherhood is being given F16's and teargas then you might live in a country founded by geniuses and run by idiots'.

123 "A story to make you cry hot-linked in my sock."


And here I thought it was going to be "Flowers for Algernon".

I should know better...

124 Something has to be done about cheetah incest.

125 Err, Dare Call it Treason is the title of the book, sorry , I got it wrong with my aged sight.

126 If you want a genteel introduction to SF, I'd recommend Orson Scott Card's Ender series.

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


Thanks for the recommendation.  I might actually take a look at that. 

What I have a hard time with are things that are surreal.  There are lots of TV shows and movies and books that my kids steer me away from because they know I can't handle anything that has a  surreal quality to it.  It does things to my brain.

127 I thought cheetahs never prosper?

128

108 I may end up spending the day reading this non-fiction work by H. Beam Piper

 

Love love love "Space Vikings" by Piper. And one of his short story has a protagonist living in Williamsport, PA.

129 115 9. "Once that's finished I'm hoping to pick up something on the Napoleonic war as background for a writing project." The Sharpe's series. ___ Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik. All about the Napoleonic wars. She just added Dragons because everything is better with Dragons, kind of like everything is better with bacon. FUN

130 Mama Winger, perhaps Little Fuzzy might help.  Prospector on a frontier planet discovers this race of small furry bipedal creatures.  So he calls in a friend who is a scientist.  They both think the new species is intelligent.  Which is a bad thing since the company that has a monopoly on a 'uninhabited' planet would lose their charter.  So add in political corruption, gun duels, and legal wrangling over these little fuzzies.

This is NOT Sclazi's mangling but the original Piper version.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18137/18137-h/18137-h.htm

131 And here I thought it was going to be "Flowers for Algernon".
No, it was Little Women... the part where Beth gets stoned to death for showing some ankle at the State Fair.

132

It does things to my brain.

 

As it is designed  to do. Which is a subject for a  different thread.

 

My reading today will consist of digging  out my old Visual Basic books and trying to get back up to speed in the hopes of maybe  finding  some gainful employment in the near future.

133 Oh thanks Anna P.  FREE!  I like free.  That way I can try it and not feel guilty if it's not for me.

134

Posted by: Sabrina Chase at April 14, 2013 11:52 AM (wfSF5)

 

Congrats on the top then. I have admit that every time the heroine "bounded" somewhere or did the "happy dance" it reminded me of Alexthechick. Of course, I lol'd reading Sequoyah when the superior officer called the male lead 'Ron.

135 109 I always miss this thread because it's active during the time I'm getting ready for church.

------

I hear ya. My church alternates years between morning and afternoon meetings. This year, the book thread pops up during my God-bothering time; I generally have time to dash off one note before rushing off to church. Not feeling well this morning, so God will just have to bother himself this week.

136 mama winger, try the Known Space stuff by Larry Niven, and if you digest that we'll, move on to the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons. In the Hyperion series you can sense a hint of supernatural guidance behind the scifi. And if you are ready to go further, try Illium by Dan Simmons. It has Shakespeare, Greek gods, and brave robots, and much more.

137 eman - you are very kind to add to my "recommended" list.  I definitely think I will give some of these a try.  I would like to be able to expand my reading options, and I feel as if you guys are doing a great kindness in pre-screening these for me, as it were.  So thanks.

138 TANSTAAFL, Piper is one of my go to authors.  He cuts through the crud and tells a good story while browbeating all the feel good progressive cr*p.

"If you read it in Stanley-Browne, it's wrong." - Uller Uprising

139 Posted by: andycanuck at April 14, 2013 12:47 PM (mGBy


Aw man, you need to do *Spoiler Alert* next time you post something like that!

So if I'm gonna read 'Moby Dick', Ahab gets the whale, right?

140 "Degenerate Moderns" : should have a chapter on the bishop of Rome, as well, seeing as how he was the first of those calling themselves Christians to decide he was the sole arbiter of truth. The problem is that it goes FAR beyond just sex. Ironically, in limiting it to sex, the author makes the same mistake of those he examines: he is bending the truth to fit HIS desire. Only, his desire isn't sex, it's in vindicating his worldview from a Latin perspective. Whilst I would agree that Protestantism is a direct outgrowth of the growing egocentrism of the Western (non-Patristic) world, it wasn't just about sex. It was about the rise of the idea that man, and each unto himself, was the ultimate arbiter of Truth. Such an idea first exploded with the bishop of Rome. All the Reformation did was make each man a "pope" unto himself.

141 Mama Winger, Heinlien's juveniles are a good gateway, too.... I especially remember enjoying The Rolling Stones. My issue with traditional science fiction has always been that I find it hard to "lose" myself in it. It's usually just a hair too far-fetched and the spacey ones are not particularly interesting to me. Don't ask me why I thoroughly enjoy dragon/fantasy/Harry Potter/Last Mage Guardian/LOTR stuff so well, though. I mean, it's no less far-fetched, but I can thoroughly lose my self in it, and never grow tired of it!

142 I finished The Black Prism by Brent Weeks which was very long (over 800 pages) but excellent throughout. It's a fantasy where some people have the ability to produce magic from color which while pretty cool will slowly destroy them, and the land is ruled (mostly) by the Prism who controls all colors. It's got a lot of battles, political intrigue and surprises and is very well written. Looking forward to reading the sequel (which I hope is shorter). Currently reading The Scent of Metal by Sabrina Chase, pretty good so far. She seems to fall into the camp which believes Pluto isn't a planet.

143

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 14, 2013 01:13 PM (FlvC0)

 

Tammy! Tammytammytammy. We were so worried.

144 Polliwog the 'Ette, assault Hobbit at April 14, 2013 12:50 PM (wbeNt) I have admit that every time the heroine "bounded" somewhere or did the "happy dance" it reminded me of Alexthechick. Youse guys are a bad influence on me, what can I say? ;-)

145

Posted by: waelse1 at April 14, 2013 01:15 PM (k8Vk+)

 

I really liked that one too. Waiting for the price to come down or a special occadion before getting the next one. Weeks did a good job of creating an interesting, plausible world with a unique magic system. Those are the things that have gotten to be of primary importance to me in reading.

146 A while back, Ace recommended David Gemmell.  Great recommendation!

Picked up "Legend" and "Troy", both first books of two series.  Finished Legend and it's awesome. 

Thanks for the tip Ace!

147 How's it feel now to be paying paperback book prices and you don't even own the book? Like Mama Winger, 90% of what is in my bare-bones Kindle ( which was a gift from my aunt) was free...all the old classics, freebies I thought were worth checking out, deals Vic posts for us. It is priceless having hundreds of books in my purse at any time and travelling is so much less complicated! I'd say other 10% is divided between Moron authors who only publish in Kindle and backups for books I love to read over and over again, and like to have with me so I don't have to drag 'em around all the time. There are about 30 books I have electronic and hard copies of. I can see that number getting up to a hundred or so. I'll never, ever EVER give up real books, but I love the portability of my Kindle.

148 Polli, you are so sweet! I have just been completely captivated by my basement remodel and living in the country again. I am hardly ever inside. It's been so lovely here lately it sorta makes me wonder what's left over for Heaven!

149 57, Someone pointed out the Gulag Archipelago can be downloaded free from archive.org for e-book, where you can make the font size as large as you like.

150 OregonMuse, I read "Degenerate Moderns" years ago, so I'm going by memory here. I think in the case of Martin Luther the author would argue and document that Luther's desire to get his freak on preceded and provided an impetus (not the impetus)for his break from the Catholic Church. Given that marriage of priests was part of Luther's dealio, I'm not sure that's a huge revelation. Someone, diogenes?, from the comments above seems to confuse fucking turtles with writing or painting or composing music. The author would argue however that fucking turtles colored and perhaps drove the thinking behind the unscientific and often counterfactual theories of Freud and Kinsey, or the outright fraud of Mead. That Keynes' homosexuality may have colored his economic views, I would suspect is pretty inarguable. His "In the long run, we're all dead" quote is about as neat and concise an "FU Breeders" and "Apres Moi Le Deluge" to future generations as could be imagined. Strangely, like Communism, everywhere Keynes is tried, he fails. And who he fails, always, is the next generation. Yes, yes, like Communism, Keynes has never been properly applied, but somehow no matter when, no matter where, when he is applied the future generations take it in the shorts.

151

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at April 14, 2013 01:26 PM (FlvC0)

 

Wonderful! Sounds like you've recovered completely then, which is what PG and I were worried about.

152 I prefer art that makes you puzzle over it and try to get it.

YMMV

Posted by: eman at April 14, 2013 12:38 PM (71gyQ)

Whenever I see abstract art my first question is "what is the artist trying to communicate?"

153 I'm reading an historical novel taking place during Caesar's wars against the Gauls. It's called "Caesar's Tribune" by John Timbers. There's a slight sci-fi twist since the main character is a modern British soldier who was knocked out by an explosion in Bosnia, and comes around to find himself a Roman tribune in Illyricum ca. 53 BC. Very well written by a self-published British author. I am extremely ignorant about Julius Caesar and this is a good introduction. http://tinyurl.com/dyddznu

154 Wow Tammy, glad to see you are doing well.  Someting like a netbook or a ebook reader is nice for known quantities, like a treasured book from childhood that if you read one more time will completely fall apart.

Been spending time outside doing yardwork myself.  And watching the kittehs.  Until yesterday as I was doing both, found a tick crawling on my t-shirt.  Yikes!  Luckily still crawling and was able to toss him away.  Then run into house for a close inspection.  Luckily no other critters.

155 Hey,  diogenes,  how far do you have to push the boundaries before there ARE no boundaries?

Which is easier to produce - a sonnet in iambic pentameter or free-form verse?

You can insult traditionalists all you want,  but for MY measure I prefer art which has recognizable shapes and some degree of beauty.  This is also why I like poetry which rhymes,  music with a recognizable melody,  and novels which actually have a plot and a likeable hero.

Matters of taste do not indicate intelligence.  They are simply variations in what people choose to look at and spend money on.

And modern art fans should remember that insulting potential customers is not quite the way to win converts.

156 I don't particularly feel a need to own books anymore.

I used to have many shelves lined with books. I probably had more wood tied up in bookshelves than all of my other furniture combined. But that is when I lived in a succession of large houses, and when a reference work was either in hard copy or not available for immediate access. Also, there was a good bit of egoboost in having someone visit and ask in awe, "You've read all of those?"

Now I live in a much smaller place and spent a small fortune on renting a storage locker before biting the bullet and getting rid of most of my books. It was traumatic but once I got past it I found it didn't matter like it used to, especially with digital storage. As with my old video games, where a single DVD could hold all of the data that once required a cubic yard or more of cartridges, the text of every book I ever read or thought of reading fit on a single microSD card inserted in my Nook.

Ownership isn't an issue to me, either. How many thousand volumes had I borrowed from the library over the decades? If a library opened near me that offered rentals at a reasonable price and the authors got a piece of it, I'd be fine with it as it would be supported by the users and not the tax payers. Where other people are happy to spend a dollar to have a DVD overnight, I'd be happy to pay a quarter to have a novel for a week. The compensation to the author would be superior to what many earn now through major publishers, unless they generate full-price sales in the millions.

There is also the matter of what value the book has to me when I've finished reading it. There was a time when I'd read a good novel several times over a few years. I was much younger and novelty was far easier to find. Nowadays I find myself looking at the publication date to convince myself I didn't read this fifteen years ago, as so much I now encounter is merely rehashes of stuff done long ago.

Originality is hard to come by. Most of the books that grab me now don't manage with originality of ideas but rather quality of writing. The Skullduggery Pleasant series I mentioned last week could easily have been yet another 'magic users who secretly live among us' setting. What sets it apart is the author's talent for personalities and wicked humor. I look forward to the upcoming eighth in the series.

157 Kindle is a supplement to the books I buy,  not a replacement.

It is good for some things (travel,  for instance) and not so good for others.

I still buy regular books,  and still keep a lot.  I also have about  100 or so on my Kindle.

158 Finished "The Hawkline Monster" by Richard Brautigan. I suspect this was supposed to be the book that would break him mainstream because you can always find first edition copies el cheapo in used book stores. But, it was probably the book that broke his career. "The Hawkline Monster" is just a piece of crap. There's no other way to put it. He clearly had no theme, no ideas or even thinking behind "The Hawkline Monster". The book itself starts well enough, in fact, very well as Brautigan concisely defines his characters and their situation. But then....well...nothing, he flounders for the next 2/3rds of the book - constantly telling, not showing, reusing the same lame jokes over and over and over again, and my God, the whimsy- it's like being force-fed helium filled cotton candy. This book was his big chance to go mainstream and Brautigan really really really wants you to like it, but there is no there there to like. "the Hawkline Monster" is a book written without inspiration and it shows. It's such a bad book and a waste of time that I'd like to grind it to pulp, mix it with dog food, and leave it out for the coyotes to eat it up and crap it out all over the woods. Or something like that. Avoid.

159 #150

I think it doubtful that Martin Luther was especially intent on freedom from celibacy. (Which meant not marrying rather than not engaging in sex but as there was supposed to be no sex outside of marriage it kind of followed.) One of his big annoyances with Church was that the priesthood were such a randy bunch and the nunneries were no better with some of them little more than brothels.

William Manchester's 'A world Lit Only By Fire' goes into some depth on this. This was an era where Popes had been successively father, son, and grandson in living memory.

160
Now go ahead and flame me for speaking the truth. I can take it.

Your gloat seems a little premature. I haven't had a single problem with content on the Kindle, and I'm a bit mystified as to where this post of yours comes from. Has Amazon announced that they're revoking licenses, or something? Are they locking the handy little device to content only they deliver?

161

It is good for some things (travel, for instance) and not so good for others.

Pro Tip:  Place Kindle in ziploc baggie when reading in places where it might get wet....pool, beach, boat, bath, etc.

162 @159 Like I say, I read it years ago. But, Luther's impetus might not have been freedom from celibacy specifically so much as the ability to be seen as legitimately pursuing sex and marriage. Kind of like the gay marriage of the 16th century.

163 I haven't read the book, but I'm pretty sure they're referring to the fact that the Church never sold indulgences, and the lone main who was advertising the sale of indulgence was rebuked as soon as Martin Luther brought attention to it. The fact that he still insisted that this was going on after all the facts were made available to him is almost certainly why they categorize him as one who "conforms truth to desire." Since the Protestant movement was based on outrage over this imaginary sale of indulgences combined with the desire of royalty to no longer be beholden to the Church, you can understand why the Church would be a bit upset over this.

164 What are you talking about? Indulgences were a big business for the Church and are very well documented. Again, I would refer to the Manchester book on that section of history for an overview.

165

#92

I have an epub machine, but I have all of my books archived on my computer in a program called Calibre. I have all of the classics, free books I have downloaded, books from friends, some I have even bought, but I keep them on my computer. I keep about 25 on my reader and when I finish one I delete it off the reader and put it back in my computer.  I have about 1600 books in Calibre. Hubs is retiring next year and we will be RVing full time. We have no room for the thousands of books we have, so we are downloading them and will carry them in our computers.

166 I've been getting a few ebooks from Amazon (I read them on my iphone). They are mostly reference type books, not the kind of thing that I want to keep long term. I still buy real books and I doubt that I'll ever go all digital. I don't think I retain the information as well mentally, if it's in a digital format. I definitely don't retain things well if it's an audio book.

167 I think religious arguments are best left off this thread.  It seems to me that the truth of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation is colored by whichever side was writing the accounts.

The Catholic Church has some faults (some quite severe) in portions of their history, particularly when the Church exercised more temporal power than it does now.

Those on the Protestant side have their own faults,  some nearly as bad as the Catholics.

So I suggest looking at where we are now and trying to make common cause,  with the understanding that almost all Christians are under threat by secularism and particularly by this administration.

168 Reformed Church? So he's coming from a Calvinist perspective? Posted by: Ragamuffin at April 14, 2013 12:00 PM (fzFF6) Yes, I'm a Calvinist.

169 any writers or other creative types should check out Steven Pressfield's blog and get his books "The War of Art" and "Do the Work" invaluable. Posted by: elizabethe at April 14, 2013 11:46 AM (qPCAa) Pressfield's "Do the Work" is indeed excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

170

I am probably being a pain, but just in case anyone is trying to see Jupiter in daylight - I just got a naked-eye glimpse!  As I hope, as the moon got higher in the sky the air became clearer, and I was able to find Jupiter north north-west of the moon and about 6 moon-widths away.  Draw a line through the tips of the crescent and it is just about a moon-width to the right of that.

 

I used my 20X80 astro binos to find it several times, and then carefully dropped them from my eyes without moving my gaze, and bingo there it was!  I could not it in sight for more than 5 seconds or so, but it clearly was Jupiter and not a "floater" in my eye (plenty of those too).

 

In case you haven't heard of it here or elsewhere, for this kind of stuff you gotta get the "Stellarium" freeware planetarium software.  Absolutely gorgeous and if you spend some time with it every day you can learn an awful lot about how all that shit up there behaves!

171 I sure do appreciate whomever recommended "B-52 Remembrances," by Philip Rowe, it was my lunch reading last week. It's not a work anyone would call "polished" by any stretch of the imagination, and the need for a decent editor just screams from nearly every page, but it was a collection of quite interesting personal anecdotes from the author, who was an EWO in the early days of the BUFF (and Hustler) program. The .99 cent price didn't hurt, either. Kindle only, I believe, and recommended to those interested in mil-aviation.

172 I am not familiar with the Reformed Church USA. I do know about the Reformed Church in America or what used to be called the "Dutch Reformed Church". Is your church a more conservative split from them? Congratulations on your book; I like to read about theology.

173 Just dropping in to say -- I really enjoy your book thread, OregonMuse, and I'm glad to hear you have no plans to quit. Thank you for providing it.

174 While I'm here -- Hi, Tammy! Glad to see you and hear that you are enjoying lovely weather!

175 172 I am not familiar with the Reformed Church USA. I do know about the Reformed Church in America or what used to be called the "Dutch Reformed Church". Is your church a more conservative split from them? Congratulations on your book; I like to read about theology. Posted by: FenelonSpoke at April 14, 2013 05:38 PM (BVq/X) FenelonSpoke, We are from the old German Reformed Church. We've been in existence in this country since about 1710, and before then in Germany back to the Protestant Reformation. We are not part of the RCA or the Dutch Reformed, although we're similar to the more conservative branches of the Dutch church like the URCNA. We used to be much larger, but a large percentage of the denomination became liberal in the 19th century and merged with other churches to form the United Church of Christ. We are the remnant that did not follow the merger.

176 I have just finished reading some short biographies on some important Christian writers and thinkers. One was on the preacher/minister D. L. Moody and the book was by Kevin Belmonte. Moody was certainly a forceful character and a dynamic preacher of the gospel. The other one was on the American puritan poet Anne Bradstreet by D.B. Kellogg. I had not read much of Bradstreet's poetry; It made me want to read more.

177 Thanks very much for letting me know that, Matt.

178 "So I suggest looking at where we are now and trying to make common cause, with the understanding that almost all Christians are under threat by secularism and particularly by this administration." Amen, sister. We (all Christians who are not the ultra liberal ones) will face increased marginalization and social and economic push from this administration. It's not like it hasn;t happened before to Christians, We're just not used to it. For goodness sakes Christians are being slaughtered in Muslim countries. As Franklin said in another context. "We must all hang together or must assuredly we will hang separately" And we need to keep on eyes on the upward call of Jesus Christ. That's why I hate religious arguments on here.

179

All righty then - you're looking for moron authors? What about me? I check in several times a day, I comment, I've sent emails, I blog at a couple of different sites ... including one of the original milblogs.

And I've been an indy-pubbed author since 2004. 2004! That's practically the dawn of indy publishing.

I've just reissued my first book - which was a memoir about my wierd but happy and functional family - but all the rest of my books are historical fiction about the 19th century American frontier.

Some of them are even stocked in local historical museum shops, because I did my research!

Author page at http://tinyurl.com/ct835e8 

180

Since I have to tiny-URL the link - this is it. No, I don't have anything to do with the Santa Cruz News...

http://tinyurl.com/ct835e8

 

181 Oregon Muse, I read "Degenerate Moderns" quite a few years back. I think it's well worth reading. I wish it had been trimmed a bit better -- a good editor could have made the book more powerful by reducing it by about 33% -- but I loved it anyway because it articulated and made a strong case for a psychological truth that I had only intuited for many years and was happy to see supported with evidence, namely: GUILT is a prime driver of human behavior and history. I'm always amazed that more people don't see this. If Degenerate Moderns can wake up even a few people to this basic psychological fact, it will have done a worthy thing. I have found that oftentimes when people are doing things that seem to make no sense at all, what turns out to lie at the root of it is unresolved and even unacknowledged guilt. We're all born with a kind of moral radar. When we do things that are wrong, no matter how much society tells us they're OK (e.g., casual sex, abortion, cheating on your spouse), we cannot UN-know that they are in fact wrong. If we persist in trying to convince ourselves that wrong is right, and evil is good, and crappy behavior is actually virtuous behavior, it sets up huge internal conflicts. When we try to suppress our knowledge of those conflicts -- when we try to repress our own inborn conscience -- it screws us up mentally and emotionally and we get neurotic and weird as all get-out. The author of Degenerate Moderns goes into detail about several famous, influential people who were examples of this, but you can look around at the people in your own life and find plenty of them. The thing about the people the author uses as case studies, though, is that they were people who had HUMONGOUS influence on society, so we are all stuck with suffering the effects of their dysfunction. I remain convinced -- and see evidence daily -- that unresolved guilt is one of the most destructive forces there is. I've seen it wreck marriages and families and countless individuals. When it's a major force in the psyches of powerful leaders of countries, it can become outright cataclysmic.