What Are We Reading for March 2021

by | Mar 26, 2021 | Books, Fiction, Fun, Literature, Pastimes, Reviews | 142 comments

mexican sharpshooter

I um…read nothing.

OMWC

I will confess that I have a soft spot in my heart for cranks- especially cranks who lead interesting lives. Some years ago, in a used bookstore, I picked up a copy of Alfred O’Rahilly’s “Electromagnetic Theory: A Critical Examination of Fundamentals,” thinking it might be a useful adjunct to the text I was using at the time, the infamous Jackson. It was only a dollar, and just riffling through it, I saw lots of familiar equations. Life got the better of me, though, and this sat on my bookshelf (and moved from city to city with me) for over 40 years. For whatever reason, I was inspired to pick it up this month and give it a read. And just a few pages in, I realized, “Holy shit, this guy is a crank!” And a very smart crank, which are the only ones worth reading. After each set of derivations, O’Rahilly penned a screed, usually attacking Maxwell/Heaviside’s theory of fields, the concepts of displacement current, and most of all, Einstein’s special relativity. He was clearly an admirer of Ernst Mach and Pierre Duhem (who was a fierce critic of atomic theory), and a strong booster of Ritz’s ballistic theory of electromagnetism (which was a correct but clumsy system that reduces to the simple elegance of Maxwell-Heaviside). And the writing is wonderfully creative invective.

Reading up on who this guy was only increased my fascination- besides being a mathematically sophisticated crank, he was a member of the Irish parliament, a member of Sinn Fein, a trade union activist, a religious scholar, and a biographer. Oh, and his science crankery extended to evolution, which he strongly believed did not apply to humans.

Fabulously interesting guy, fabulously interesting book. And there’s free versions of it online.

 

SP

This month I’ve not really been sleeping, and so have read much brain-candy in the middle of the night. The Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries, by “Charles Todd” to be precise. This series begins just post-World War I with a Scotland Yard Inspector recently returned from the war and back on the job after supposedly recovering from horribly traumatic events. I’m enjoying them.

There are 23 books in the series (so far). I’m only on book 6, so I’ll be interested to watch the development of the protagonist as he moves into the future.

 

SugarFree

Went into a reading overdrive this month, maybe just the time of year or something.

The Stand (1978) by Stephen King
I had promised myself that I would re-read The Stand during the pandemic, for the lulz and to get the story fresh in my mind before watching the new TV adaptation. Despite my love for early King, I never really liked The Stand all that much, too Manichean and mystical for me. I think the last time I read it was when the restored edition came out in 1990, which I didn’t like at all. What had been cut out was no great loss and the updating to make the entire novel be set in 1990 instead of 1978 made no sense whatsoever. In fact, the 1978 edition had more material he could have taken out. I imagine there are some Jefferson Bible edits running around out there that might be fun to read but the web is a scary place and the less time I spend on fanfiction boards the better.

I re-watched the 1994 TV miniseries. I found it less objectionable than when it was on originally. I still contend Molly Ringwald makes a terrible Frannie and Parker Lewis doesn’t have the acting chops for Harold Lauder. I plan to watch the new version once I tamp down my revulsion at the thought of Whoopi Goldberg playing Mother Abigail.

Live Girls (1987), Night Life (2005), Ravenous (2008), Bestial (2009) by Ray Garton
I had heard horror fans raving about Garton for a while. I started with his most well-loved and early novel, Live Girls. It is a great blend of sleazy 80s Time Square and vampires, who work as booth girls, draining just enough blood from a glory hole to keep going but not kill. The sequel, Night Life, is fairly unnecessary. Ravenous and Bestial are a good twist on werewolves as they take over a small Northern California town, spreading as a STD via wolfman rape. All four of the novels are firmly in the splatterpunk sub-genre, so they are super-gory and have lots of sex and violence and sexual violence. Very cinematic works. I’m surprised he hasn’t been the basis for a bunch of delightfully sleazy movies.

Flowers In The Attic (1980) by V. C Andrews
Another re-read, the last time being at some point in 10th grade probably. It’s a much better-written book than one might think. It just carries you along with clear lucid prose about horrible things. Your tolerance for incest, double-incest, and murder doughnuts will be tested.

Tulip

I’ve been reading Roland Ennos’s The Age of Wood. He makes the case that wood, not stone, bronze or iron is the most important material in the rise of civilization. He also suggests that our ability to use wood is part of what made us human. At times I think he goes too far and gets ahead of evidence, but this was a fascinating read.

Spudalicious

I’m currently reading Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker, h/t Warty. It’s a book full of anecdotes that starts at the end of WWI and goes through WWII. The general theme is that Hitler was a monster, but it was assholes all the way down. As for the Jews, the global response to Hitler seemed to be early on, “Yeah, we all know the Jews suck, but that doesn’t mean you have to slaughter them”. I feel guilty enjoying this very well written book.

 

The Bearded Hobbit

My tear through 50’s-60’s pulp science fiction has been slowed down this last month.  I am looking to dive into the Lensmen series by “Doc” Smith but I can’t find the first book of the series in my collection so I’m reluctant to start in the middle.
Finished Cryptomonicon and I’m still trying to decide if I loved it or hated it.  Either way I think I’m going to go through it again.
In the meantime I have been going through the ebooks that I have on file.  I read The Fountainhead for about the fourth or fifth time and had a surprisingly hard time finishing it. Just wrapped-up HST’s Hells Angels, interesting but very dated here 50 years later. I found many parallels between the biker outcasts and the non-conformists of today.
Still working through Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires, now on the fourth, In Search of the Castaways.  20,000 Leagues is next.
After a recent discussion here at the Glibs I’m thinking of re-visiting America’s Second Crusade.  Tough read but insightful look at the run-up to WW2.
Trying to figure out what is next.  I brought my collection of The Foundation books with me but I’m having a hard time getting interested.  Maybe I’ll dive into the James Bond series instead.
WebDom
Getting my submission in here late. For some reason I thought this was going up at 1900.
Anyway, I’m reading Subliminal by Leonard Mlodinow. Leonard is a physicist, but this book is about how your unconscious mind is actually in charge. He brings up a lot of studies about the subconscious and how it works. I’m only three chapters in, but it’s a very compelling book so far, and certainly thought provoking.

About The Author

Glib Staff

Glib Staff

142 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    What am I reading? I… um… Nothing right now.

    What I I listening to? I started a couple of different audiobooks that I stopped for various reasons, mostly stress related.

    What am I writing? “Silver Lotus”, the story of the first real mission of the first member of a knightly order made up of literal bastards – cross-caste bastards in a society where caste and order are paramount. But for some reason their patron goddess has decided to curse bless gift these bastards with rather frightful flying beasties since dubbed ‘Dread Alicorns’. Their society at large despises the members of the Order of the Silver Lotus for what they are, but the King sees their potential and is trying to foster it. It’s the only thing I’ve been able to get words on the page for of late.

    • UnCivilServant

      To spoil the reveal, here’s the introduction of the Dread Alicorn:

      Valdek made a dismissive wave. Isak stood from his seat and motioned towards the door. I led him outside. “There are some horses on the island for training,” I said, “But they dislike being near the beasts, so we have two stables.” I walked to a building islated at the northern end of the fortress. Nestled up against the wall, it clashed with the rest of the architecture. Its walls and roof were shingled in wood. A strong iron bolt held the large doors closed. Opening the doors, I revealed an interior corridor wider than the aisle of a stable. Rather than the half-walls of a horse house, here, there were slats running all the way to the ceiling. Three thicker beams linked the vertical posts framing each stall. Through the gaps in the slats, black, vaguely horse-shaped forms could be seen, though the movement of their wings broke up the profiles quickly.

      A massive form threw itself against the gates of the first stall, straining the bolt and hinges. Large white tusks gripped a span of slats, a long, pink tongue slithering between them, dripping drool on the wood. Two forelimbs ending in four-clawed toes rested on the middle beam. The gate rattled again as the beast pulled on it.

      “Down,” I said.

      The beast released the wooden slats and lowered to the floor. It loosed a trilling growl.

      “Calm. Quiet.” I unbolted the wicket and stepped inside. The beast was horse-sized, and shared a general profile with equines. The first obvious difference were the black-pinioned wings. Then the twisted white horn protruding from the bony plate on the forehead. This would draw the eye to the jaws. Where a horse had a small mouth at the front of the snout, the Dread Alicorn had a grin like a crocodile. Interlaced, pointed teeth ran the length of its jaws, with no cheeks to cover them. Elongated canine tusks framed the soft part of the nose, which was truely equine in appearance. The eyes were flame red on sclera resembling molten gold. The mane was made of stiff bristles, and its long, whip-like tail ended in a fan of sharp quills.

      “Dear gods,” Isak whispered.

      • Gender Traitor

        Looking forward to reading more!

      • UnCivilServant

        From where you left off, all I’ve got written is:

        “Gentlemen, I would like a few words with Anton in private,” the king said. I glanced up in confusion as the others filed out of the room.

  2. PieInTheSky

    I am reading Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War. it is rather interesting but a bit to long on the speeches

    • Damaged Plastic, it hurts,

      Try VDH, A war like no other, great companion reading

      • PieInTheSky

        Victor Davis Hanson does not seem like the sort of author you read if you want to get invited to the best cocktail parties

      • Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

        It’s not like you have to bring him as a date.

    • Seguin

      Great book though, especially the run up to the war. Reminds me a lot of how things are now, and how things really work when the rubber meets the road. The Melian dialogue is one of the few passages II actually remember out of the things I read.

  3. Damaged Plastic, it hurts,

    I got a Bible, still need to read it again….

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      I’m working through a “Book of Matthew in 6 months” plan right now. I’m on day 112. Not my favorite study plan ever, but at least it isn’t a self-help pamphlet pretending to be a study guide like most of the other ones.

      • Drake

        Haven’t looked at that one lately. It seemed like every paragraph stared with an OT prophesy and ended with how Jesus fulfilled it. Felt like it was written specifically for doubting First Century Jews.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Not a regular studier, but I’ve found just opening it up and reading a verse or four and then ask myself what does it mean has been fruitful. I’ve also found that many familiar passages have unexpected meaning as an adult.

    • Pine_Tree

      (unsolicited advice) – do John + Acts + Romans first, about twice through. Then maybe I John a couple of times.

      And then look up a “reading plan”, but be warned that a lot of them will feel over-aggressive if you’re not used to it. I use a modified version of Sproul’s calendar, but it’s so modified that I couldn’t explain it easily.

  4. Sean

    Nothing. Still nothing.

    Oddly though, I did order this earlier this month.

    So, i guess I’m planning on starting to read stuff again.

    • PieInTheSky

      seems dated now that no nuclear war came

    • DEG

      “A Canticle for Liebowitz” is good.

  5. Cy Esquire

    Watching? Too much anime.

    Reading? Notta.

    Listening to? Mostly just the radio, which has been really frustrating lately. Has anyone near a radio mic always been completely out of touch and retarded?

    Working on? Rental house. Boat. Taxiing kids around. Toddler clogged pipes. Organizing the garage. Wiring in a new booster pump for a well water system. Not losing my shit every 5 minutes.

    • Cy Esquire

      Dreaming about? A warm beach, a fishing pole and a cooler full of beer.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      I’m not a big Adam Carolla listener but he is doing March Madness Madness at the moment. He is given two things he hates and then rants about each. The others on the podcast then vote for which rant showed more hatred and then the bracket keeps going.

      It’s an enjoyable listen for a libertarian.

    • Ted S.

      Why are you clogging your pipes with toddlers?

  6. Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

    Currently reading Darkness at Noon.

    Just finished Hate, Inc. by Taibbi. Some of it was good. Some of it I disagreed with, which is to be expected since he’s a lefty. Some of it was pretty hypocritical. He highlights the name calling in the media which is used to stir up hate, but then calls Republicans syphilitic monsters. OK, maybe he didn’t use that exact insult.

    Before that it was Campusland, which I think someone here recommended. It was pretty entertaining.

  7. KromulentKristen

    Not much of anything lately, but I will be reading lots of RV guides and how-tos over the next few months!! ?

    • Nephilium

      Sounds like your meeting went well.

      Congrats!

    • DEG

      Excellent

    • Mojeaux

      w00t!!!

    • KromulentKristen

      South Dakota here I come, close to where I started from…

      • Tundra

        Congrats, Kristen! I am really happy for you!

      • Tulip

        Congratulations! Tell us all about it tonight!

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        “Exxxxxcellent, Smithers!”

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Yay!

    • Gender Traitor

      That’s great! Who’s the Glibbroad whose family does so much camping/RVing? Haven’t seen her for a while, but she might have some helpful hints.

      • Gender Traitor

        Lemon Grenade??

    • TARDis

      Have fun and good luck!

  8. Q Continuum

    Any spare time I have that could be used for reading is currently spent napping or taking care of basic hygiene. q-ette eats up the rest.

    • DEG

      How is your family doing?

      • Q Continuum

        q-ette is colicky but otherwise healthy. Mrs. Q is only 3 pounds off her prepreg weight but still has a very banged up undercarriage. It’s going to take a while for her to get 100% better. In-laws currently visiting which is nice for the help.

      • DEG

        This like things are going well.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        still has a very banged up undercarriage.

        Humblebrag?

  9. DEG

    Finished:

    “Oglaf Book Three”
    “COVID-19: The Great Reset” (I will write up an article with my thoughts on it)

    Currently reading:

    “Retief to the Rescue” by Keith Laumer

  10. The Hyperbole

    David Goodis Night Squad *** ex-cop hires on as a gangsters heavy, then gets his badge back and has to play both sides. Dames, Thugs, Booze, A big pile of cash. Solid Noir.

    David Goodis Nightfall**** innocent guy get caught up on a bank hiest/murder and is on the run from both the crooks and the law. Solider Noir

    RA Lafferty The R.A. Lafferty Fantastic MEGAPACK® Only read the first 4 or 5, pretty run-of-the-mill 40’s Sci-fi Short stories.

    Cornell Woolrich Black Alibi***½ A panther escapes during a publicity stunt and starts killing young women. Or is it really the panther?

    • Ted S.

      David Goodis Nightfall****

      The Aldo Ray movie is well worth a watch

  11. trshmnstr the terrible

    Finished up The Tyranny of Metrics, which should be standard fare for anybody in middle management.

    Started in on Fatemarked by David Estes. I’ve never been a big fantasy reader, but I had a bit of a wild hair. I like the way this one straddles the YA and adult styles.

    Also knocked out a bit of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Art-Prayer-Orthodox-Anthology/dp/0571191657&quot; title="The Art of Prayer” target=”_blank”>The Art of Prayer

    Its basically an organized and cleaned up copy of an Orthodox monk’s notes on prayer. It’s hard to pick up and read straight through because it’s mostly excerpts from other writings strung together in a somewhat connected way.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I know some people I’d like to hit with that Tyranny of Metrics book.

  12. robc

    If you decide you love Cryptonomicon (or really, really hate it), then read The Baroque Cycle, which is a prequel trilogy. Shaftoes and Waterhouses abound. And lots of other references to Crypotonomicon even though it is set in late 17th and early 18th century. Half-cocked Jack Shaftoe is one of the great characters in all of literature.

    • robc

      For example, did you notice the obscure detail in Cryptonomicon about the samurai swords in the trunk of the Shaftoe brothers’ car? Yeah, that gets explained. Well, you discover how another set of Shaftoe brothers come to own samurai swords. And you just have to assume they are family heirlooms.

      • robc

        And I think the ones in Cryptonomicon were cousins, but that doesn’t change anything.

    • Pine_Tree

      Tried and couldn’t.

      Cryptonomicon is my #1 favorite for several reasons, but at every turn The Baroque Cycle felt tiresome to me.

      I’ve heard there were those interesting connections like you mention below, and wanted to like it so I could know them, but it never worked out.

      Maybe I’ll try again one day.

  13. DEG

    Despite my love for early King, I never really liked The Stand all that much, too Manichean and mystical for me. I think the last time I read it was when the restored edition came out in 1990, which I didn’t like at all. What had been cut out was no great loss and the updating to make the entire novel be set in 1990 instead of 1978 made no sense whatsoever.

    Oh good. I’m not the only one that didn’t like “The Stand.”

    I have not read the original cut version of “The Stand”. I’ve only read the uncut version.

    I read an essay King wrote about censorship. I read the essay before I read “The Stand”. In the essay, King bitched about his editor cutting out parts. He included a few examples of those parts. When I read the uncut version, it was plain as day that his editor was right.

    I tamp down my revulsion at the thought of Whoopi Goldberg playing Mother Abigail.

    I don’t think I could do that.

    • Nephilium

      Yeah, King really needs an editor.

      /looks at the Dark Tower series

      I didn’t mind the Stand, at least until the deus ex machina ending.

      • DEG

        There were a few parts of the Dark Tower series I liked.

        I didn’t like that King went back and re-wrote some parts of the earlier books. Of course… he made them worse.

    • kinnath

      I liked The Stand. I only read the original cut. I refused to pick up the later version.

      I stopped reading King when he would no longer let anyone edit his work.

      He tells great stories, but he desperately needs someone to keep him from going bonkers.

      • DEG

        Maybe if I had read the original cut I would have a different opinion.

        I agree King needs an editor.

    • SugarFree

      Oh, c’mon, Stephen. The Stand wasn’t censored. It had to be cut because the printers at his publisher were literally incapable of binding a book longer than 800 pages.

  14. Rebel Scum

    There goes 2A.

    President Joe Biden nominated Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s wife to a key position in his administration on Friday, a blatant political appeal by the White House to keep the senator’s swing power on the side of Democratic legislation in a divided upper chamber.

    If confirmed, former president of the West Virginia Board of Education Gayle Conelly Manchin will act as co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, an agency that seeks to grow relationships and economic expansion between the federal government and 13 states in the Appalachian region. The area, as defined by Congress, includes the nominee’s home state of West Virginia, where she previously served as the state’s first lady while her husband was governor for five years and as president of the West Virginia Office of Education and the Arts.

    • The Other Kevin

      They’re not shy about doing all the other corruption out in the open, why not add quid pro quo to the mix?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        The kind of things a group does when they think they’re beyond scrutiny.

  15. Mojeaux

    Reading nothing. Watching The Expanse while stitching.

    • TARDis

      I’m slowly watching The Expanse by myself, because the wife is not interested. We are watching Stargate SG-1 though. We never watched it when it came out. Also, this is pretty good for light entertainment.

      As for reading, I can’t make myself sit still long enough. Do Glib Posts count as reading?

      I can’t even make myself play video games on my PC. WTF is wrong with me?

  16. Animal

    I’ve mostly been reading road maps and weather maps for the route between Aurora, Colorado and Willow, Alaska. We leave early tomorrow morning. 3,208 miles door to door. If all goes well we should get there Wednesday.

    Cross your fingers, one and all.

    • The Other Kevin

      I’m excited for you. A trip like that is part of the fun. Hopefully you can check in once in a while.

    • DEG

      Enjoy the trip!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Good luck and enjoy it!

    • KromulentKristen

      Safe travels!

    • Hank

      Best wishes.

    • Tundra

      Safe travels, Animal.

      Did you sell the Aurora property yet?

      • Animal

        Not yet. That’s the next thing. Hopefully the Denver area real estate market will stay insane a little longer.

    • Gender Traitor

      Happy trails! 😀

  17. Surly Knott

    Books read this month:
    Peter F. Hamilton’s Salvation series (Salvation, Salvation Lost, The Saints of Salvation). Re-read the first 2 books and then the recently released final volume. He has stated there will be a follow-on book or series, which I eagerly await. As with too many trilogies, the second book was the weakest, but overall, a very good “space opera.” Recommended

    The first 2 books of Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings). Grim but well done. It’s “low fantasy,” minimal magic.

    Re-read William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) and enjoyed them. There’s a lot that missed the realities of technological growth & development, and ‘the matrix’, the visual representation of the net is as silly as it ever was, but it’s entertaining.

    • The Hyperbole

      Thanks for the reminder I read the Abercrombie books a while back and enjoyed them, I meant to look for other of his stuff and never did.

  18. Tundra

    Finished Enough Already by Scott Horton. Absolutely excellent book. Required reading for anyone who hates the state and especially the warfare state.

    Too much serious stuff lately, so I re-read Hitchhiker’s Guide, Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Good Omens.

    Currently reading The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler. It’s one of his John Rain novels about a group of international assassins. Good, mindless escapism.

  19. CatchTheCarp

    Not doing much reading, I put together a new stereo system in my basement and have been spending free time listening to it now that I have the speakers dialed in. Currently listening to The Beatles in Mono boxset chronologically. Just finished Rubber Soul which has both the mono and ’65 stereo tracks. Overall I prefer the mono versions. Next up – Revolver.

  20. hayeksplosives

    “Enough Already!: zTime to End the War on Terrorism” by Scott Horton

    And

    “Green Fraud” by Marc Moreno. Explores climate change hoax agenda, the Green New Deal, and the parallels to the “Covid pandemic” that currently grips the western world.

  21. Hank

    Andy Ngo, Unmasked – if I can stand to go all the way through.

    • Rebel Scum

      Unmasked? He reports on the masked people…

      • Hank

        That’s the joke.

  22. The Hyperbole

    Sad book Nerd news – RIP Larry McMurty

    • Tundra

      Bummer. Great man.

      I’ve got a copy of Lonesome Dove around here somewhere. May need to take that with me on vacation.

    • Unreconstructed

      I’m a bigger fan of his son, though that’s a musical thing. Definitely not for his politics.

      • EvilSheldon

        Choctaw Bingo is one of the all-time great modern country songs.

      • Unreconstructed

        Agreed – though it’s best consumed live, with two hotties dancing on the speaker stacks at the Continental Club.

  23. The Hyperbole

    Sad book Nerd news – RIP Larry McMurtry

    • Timeloose

      Hype,

      I just realized you have John Cusack on your avatar’s t-shirt. Nice.

  24. Mojeaux

    Flowers in the Attic is a 13-yo girl rite of passage.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nothing like a little trauma to spur the teenage angst.

    • kinnath

      I actually tried reading that once. I had no idea what it was. It was just always on an endcap or in a tower display at B&N. So, I picked up a copy.

      I didn’t get very far into it.

    • Timeloose

      I read it as a kid because I though it was going to be a horror story. It was in the pile of books my mom was reading and the only one without a dude with flowing long hair riding a horse.

      Plus the paper back had a creepy as hell cover with a haunted face peeking through a cutout window.

      It wasn’t the type of horror I was expecting.

    • Gender Traitor

      Somehow I think I missed that one. I did read a teen girls’ novel with hometown significance called Promises in the Attic about Dayton’s 1913 flood and, IIRC, the campaign afterward to raise money for the area’s extensive flood protection system, including five big-ass dams.

  25. Rebel Scum

    How about we just have meritocracy in the federal courts?

    Explosive exchange:

    @tedlieu yells at Peter Kirsanow when he mentions that one of the foremost examples of anti-Asian discrimination right now is at Harvard. This was during a hearing about the need for diversity on the federal courts.

  26. Hank

    Look at what he’s making us do!

    “”Hutchinson is ignoring the ugly history of states that have dared to pass anti-transgender legislation in years past, and by doing so he is exposing Arkansas to economic harm, expensive taxpayer-funded legal battles, and a tarnished reputation.””

    https://www.ebar.com/news/news/303356

  27. Hank

    Look at what he’s making us do!

    “Hutchinson is ignoring the ugly history of states that have dared to pass anti-transgender legislation in years past, and by doing so he is exposing Arkansas to economic harm, expensive taxpayer-funded legal battles, and a tarnished reputation.”

    https://www.ebar.com/news/news/303356

  28. Rebel Scum

    But is he wrong?

    The pilot, whom Southwest has not publicly identified by name, can be heard in the recording beginning to complain about San Francisco residents amid directions from air traffic controllers on weather and runway conditions.

    “F— this place, goddamn liberal f—s,” he said, before he was interrupted by an air traffic professional.

    He later continues his rant, saying, “F—ing weirdos, probably driving around in f—ing Hyundais, f—ing roads and shit that go slow as f—.”

    “You don’t have balls unless you’re f—ing rolling coal, man, goddamn it,” he added.

    • Unreconstructed

      Oh, man, I hope my buddy wasn’t flying that plane…

    • DEG

      I have a Hyundai. Though I am weird. And I don’t drive slow. And I don’t live in the Bay Area. I guess I’m safe.

    • Chipwooder

      I don’t get the Hyundai bit

      • Tundra

        I figured he meant Prius and just fucked up.

      • Sean

        Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

  29. Semi-Spartan Dad

    I’m on book #16 maybe of the Foreigner series by CJ Cherryh. I thought the series stalled a bit in the middle but picks back up well. 4 or 5 more books to go.

    Also just ordered The Gulag Archipelago this morning. The wife is halfway through reading 1984 and asked for that next. I need to read it too.

    • DEG

      CJ Cherryh has some good stuff, though I don’t think I’ve read anything in the Foreigner series.

      I have “The Gulag Archipelago” in my massive unread book mess/pile/queue.

      • Surly Knott

        I can echo a recommendation for the Foreigner series. There are some memorable characters, good plots, good conflict situations.

      • Ted S.

        I can echo a recommendation for the Foreigner series.

        It’s been waiting for a girl like you.

    • Lady Z

      Gulag Volume One has been on my library audiobooks hold list for at least three months, and it was finally released to me this morning. I’m going to attempt it but it may not be the best material for the morning commute.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    I’ve mostly been reading road maps and weather maps for the route between Aurora, Colorado and Willow, Alaska. We leave early tomorrow morning. 3,208 miles door to door. If all goes well we should get there Wednesday.

    Good luck. Hope there’s not too much mud.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    RIP Larry McMurtry

    The only McMurtry book I liked was All My Friends are Going to be Strangers. i think it was his first.

    • The Hyperbole

      Horseman, pass by was his first. Made into the movie Hud. I only know that because I read his obit, I’m a fan but not that big of a fan.

  32. Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

    Just started in on Jean-Francois Revel’s The Totalitarian Temptation, first published in the late 1970s. A later book of his, The Flight From Truth, landed on my bookshelf in the early 90s, about the same time I was getting a practical, on-the-ground lesson courtesy of my local newspaper about the difference between reporting news and crafting narrative. I was a minion for the Feds, creating certain classes of statistics for consumption by others, when a reporter for said newspaper wanted info on “the ever-increasing unemployment in the oilfield sector” and the “decreasing number of wells being drilled,” etc. My reply to him was that, contrary to what he wanted, stats for both these things were looking up, way up. His reply?
    “That’s not the story I want to write at all.”
    His double-page spread was published a week later, and contained massive amounts of misinformation, cherry-picked stats and straight-out lies, bolstered of course by a heart-tugging story of some d00d who’d been a rig-pig but couldn’t get a job now to save his life or his family from the awful effects of unemployment. This episode could’ve been a centrepiece example of the kind of problem Revel was trying to tackle and understand head-on.

    I have considered the legacy media to be the real-world equivalent of Mos Eisley spaceport ever since.

    So I have high hopes for The Totalitarian Temptation. It hasn’t disappointed me so far. Naturally, Revel’s analysis is dated because he was writing The Totalitarian Temptation from a late-70s viewpoint, but it holds up remarkably well, and he’s a much better thinker than many more modern “public intellectuals.”

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Horseman, pass by was his first. Made into the movie Hud.

    That makes sense. Strangers was about hitting the big time and leaving people behind.

    I read it a long time ago.

    • Gender Traitor

      Probably because no one will pay good money for it. Or bad money, for that matter.

    • Timeloose

      The Just Born and Paas companies have only one week a year to peddle their wares. They need to do everything they can to get noticed as it is their and Jesus’s black Friday.

      The revenue from Mike & Ikes and Hot Tamales aren’t going to keep the lights on.

      • Sean

        Peanut chews. The big money is in peanut chews.

      • Timeloose

        Nothing like shitty tasting candy your grandparents ate because there was little else. See Mary Janes and Bit O Honey.

      • pistoffnick

        “…Bit O Honey.”

        BEEP

        wrong answer

      • Sean

        Tootsie Rolls.

      • Rebel Scum

        I liked those. And Rollos. Don’t eat them anymore.

      • Surly Knott

        The Tootsie Roll:
        Crime de Cacao and Orange Juice

      • Timeloose

        I do still like Necco Wafers if they still make them.

      • B.P.

        Necco wafers. Mmmm…. Little chips of colored slate.

      • B.P.

        Also, those rows of little sugar dots on strips of paper, where you end up consuming more paper than sugar.

      • Timeloose

        Acid for kids

      • B.P.

        Starter kit.

  34. Seguin

    Rereading The Hobbit. But this time in Italian, so actually I’m reading Lo Hobbit. I’ve hit a plateau with trying to learn the language, so I’m trying out different methods instead of just snorting pure Duolingo every lunch.

    When I’m bored of that though, I’m reading Frank Herbert’s lesser known books. I have a volume of four, and right now I’m on the Dosadi Experiment.

      • Seguin

        Thanks!

      • SP

        I’m on a 1302 day streak with Duolingo. I started to learn Italian in college (unsuccessfully) about half a century ago, and was encouraged by HM to start learning a language again. When I said, “I apparently can’t learn a language,” he replied, “Nonsense! You’ve already learned one!”

  35. Timeloose

    I’ve got Vagabonds by Hao JinFang in my credenza waiting for me to read it. It was a Christmas gift from my wonderful MIL. It’s a SciFi political book about Earth vs the Mars colony. I’ve never read a SciFi book translated from Chinese before, so it will be interesting.

    • slumbrew

      In the genre of “SciFi translated from Chinese”, I do not understand the hype around The Three-Body Problem.

      I can only assume half of the hype was state-sponsored “China strong!” propaganda.

  36. Shpip

    I watched a documentary on the cause of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire and the current restoration efforts, and was inspired to pick up Notre Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals by Ken Follett (yes, the guy who writes the spy thrillers).

    Short book, easy read. I’m learning quite a bit.

    • slumbrew

      I assume he got into cathedrals as part of “Pillars Of The Earth”

  37. Swiss Servator

    “but the web is a scary place and the less time I spend on fanfiction boards the better.”

    Wait…the web/fanfic boards scare SUGARFREE?!

    • Unreconstructed

      That is a rather frightening thought, ain’t it?

  38. Sean

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/25/us/nyc-police-reform-nypd/index.html

    The New York City Council passed a series of reforms for the New York Police Department on Thursday, including ending qualified immunity for officers, which protected them against civil lawsuits.
    The city is the first in the nation to end qualified immunity according to Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

    • Lady Z

      Good news, but these people really don’t get it

      By creating a new local civil right through legislation, New York City residents will be protected against unreasonable search and seizure and excessive force

      • slumbrew

        Until the State passed those laws, we had no protection from unreasonable search and seizure, nor excessive force. All hail, the State!

      • Unreconstructed

        Don’t get it, or want to push the (wrong) idea?