Glibbooks 12 – Re-reading

by | Apr 23, 2023 | Canada, Health Care, IFLA, Markets, Politics, Social Media, Welcome to the Party | 179 comments

Big puzzle this week, so big the online version may be a little hard to read, on my browser (Chrome) the grid is tiny,  I can zoom in but then I have to scroll around between clues and the grid. I hope that this doesn’t hamper your solving experience. Anyway books – I’ve noticed in the WAWR entries and comments that a lot of you re-read novels and series and such. I have never been much of a re-reader, there is always a new book to get to and the few times I have re-read a book I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first time through, perhaps it the knowing what’s going to happen. I guess you could compare it to re-watching TV shows or movies, and while I used to do that the older I get the less I seem inclined to, although I’m watching far less over all so maybe that’s part of it. Anyhow, are you a re-reader, if so what’s the motivation? Work this massive glibcrostic and let us know in the comments…Entertainment purposes only, no gambling please.

Music to solve Glibcrostics to

Online Version

Solution

Correction: Ignore “same” in clue P

Reminder: The last Sunday of each month is “What Are We Reading” Day so if you want to participate get your reports in to HeyBuddyStopDoingThat@protonmail.com by the second to last Sunday.

About The Author

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole can beat any of you chumps at Earthshaker! the greatest pinball machine of all time.

179 Comments

  1. dbleagle

    I am re-reading “Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1929-1941” since it seemed appropriate for the era of biden. (Some day we’ll find out who’s pulling his strings and rename it.) I just finished several hundred pages on “The Terror” (1937-1938) and could not deal with the evil on page after page for about 30 minutes at a stretch. Imagine the book “The Bloodlands” and crank it up by a power of 10. Well written, but ohhhhh so depressing. Not just by what happened but what didn’t happen.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I couldn’t get past the opening chapter of Bloodlands. I’ll pass on the Terror for now.

  2. Shirley Knott

    I’m definitely a re-reader. If I like a book, it will get re-read. If I love a book, it will get re-read many times. If a book is interesting, I’ll probably re-read it even if I didn’t like it, but didn’t hate it, on the first read. Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire is a good example of the 3rd category. Horrible people doing horrible things, to each other and to vast swathes of others, but something about it caught my interest. It’s now a series I’m quite fond of.
    What re-read? Because I enjoy reading books I consider good, and there aren’t enough of them. So, re-reads are dependable pleasure. Or maybe it’s a safe escape from a dreary and increasingly unpleasant life
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • Shirley Knott

      Should be ‘Why re-read’ not ‘What re-read.’ My proofreading sucks.

      • Fourscore

        Read and move on. I try to pass on the books to those friends that may have an interest in the same thing (subject). The early American political books go to my bee partner, the Western American history go to a friend with an Indian (feather) wife. She probably reads them too. A couple days ago my son send me a Hank Williams bio, I’ll have to figure out who would want that when I get finished.I never re-read, too many new avenues to drive on.

    • Grumbletarian

      Same here. If I really like a book or series, I’ll re-read it plenty of times. But I’ll also re-watch movies I liked. Certain series of novels are in an almost perpetual rotation to me.

      • Shirley Knott

        Yeah. I’m not a big movie watcher, but I re-watch in much the same way, and for much the same reasons, as I re-read books.

  3. DEG

    Re-reading? Depends. There are books I enjoy that I re-read, like Tolkien’s works.

  4. dbleagle

    I have re-read the Aubrey-Maturin series several times. Though I skip the volumes with little in the way of sea tales now.

    I’ll re-read dense history and science volumes as well. Lighter “popular” history and science will get one reading at best. If I discover egregious errors I will sideline them.

  5. Animal

    I re-read The Art of War a while ago (because reasons) and now I’m making my way through Mahan’s The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783. Turgid but there’s a method to my madness.

    • Spudalicious

      That brought a tear to my eye.

  6. Tundra

    I re-read brain candy when I need to decompress from the more intense stuff.

    Larry Correia’s stuff is good escapism. Ian Rankin, too

  7. Gender Traitor

    As a child, I reread my favorite books/series to the point where I suspect I missed many others I would have enjoyed at the time. For instance, I reread the Little House books and those of Louisa May Alcott so often I somehow overlooked the Anne of Green Gables series until I was an adult. Even knowing that, there are certain books I feel the need to reread every so often. When I find myself in an extended slump, I have found that another trip through The Phantom Tollbooth (which I first read as a school assignment when I was a high school senior) can snap me out of it.

    • Gender Traitor

      P.S. FINALLY muddled my way through the acrostic. Jeeminy criminy!

    • limey

      I watched the 1934 movie Anne of Green Gables. I’m not sure I have anything much to say about it.

      • limey

        Actually I suppose I do. It was charming.

      • limey

        Perhaps it resonates with Japanese culture in some significant way.

        /limey states the obvious

      • Gustave Lytton

        Navigating a strictly regimented society stuck on an island? Yeah, that fits.

      • limey

        *several islands

  8. Q Continuum

    I’m re-reading 1Q84 right now. I like re-reading, I get more out of it the second time.

    • Shirley Knott

      Yes

    • R C Dean

      Is that the first 25% of 1984? Kinda odd, but sure, why not.

      • R.J.

        Well played sir.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Interesting. I only got half-way through, and set it aside. I will have to pick it up again.

      • slumbrew

        Huh. It’s a short book. Well worth finishing.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        1Q84, or 1984?

        The Orwell is short, the Murakami is longer.

      • slumbrew

        Ah, silly me – I legit thought that Q had made a typo with 1984.

      • Q Continuum

        1Q84 is like 1000 pages.

      • Lackadaisical

        I am a philistine and read it as an audio book. Weird story, not even sure what happened.

  9. Pat

    I don’t re-read all that often, although I understand why one would. I’ve usually got a backlog as it is though. When I’m reading non-fiction I usually pull some quotations and mark notable passages, so sometimes I’ll go back and reference those. I rarely re-read fiction for the reason you mentioned: the punchline is blown. Although I re-watch the same TV shows all the time. But then I mostly re-watch comedies, and I don’t really read comedy.

    • Spudalicious

      Now I’m curious as to what happens.

  10. Gustave Lytton

    My favorite rereads are East of Eden, Great Expectations, and Job: A Comedy of Justice. I haven’t reread any in the past several years though.

    • Sensei

      Maybe my 4th go around on this.

      https://www.tofugu.com/reviews/japanese-the-manga-way/

      If you search pdfs can be found, but I bought it as I’m happy to support the effort. It will give you grammar, construction and context for everyday conversational Japanese that doesn’t exist in textbooks.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      East of Edan is a wonderful book, and is what got me into reading the classics.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        jesus. Eden, not Edan.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I have reread the beginning of GE many times (assigned it twice in school). “Pip, sir!” And his grim sister inadvertently working pins into the bread and butter.

    • Spudalicious

      West of Eden by Harry Harrison.

  11. R C Dean

    Back in the pre-internet/bookstore-only days, I would re-read simply because I didn’t have anything new to read. Now, it is vanishingly rare, because I have a backlog of books waiting on my Kindle.

    • R.J.

      Amazing how many free books are out there. Digital books made a big difference for people who read.

      • Pat

        Amazing how many free books are out there.

        If you can believe it, there are actually filthy moral degenerates who pirate digital books and share them for free – even books that are still under copyright protection! They fly by night using names like “libgen” and register their websites in foreign hellholes with no respect for intellectual property using obscure TLDs like the Serbian ccTLD. The last thing in the entire world you want to do is visit one of those shady kind of websites.

      • R.J.

        I would NEVER do such a thing.

      • R C Dean

        I actually don’t, and wouldn’t. If I’m going to read something, it has value to me, and I should be willing to pay for it.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      Interesting. I haunted used bookstores as soon as I found such a thing existed, as I could find older titles by an author easier.

      That and thrift stores are still a favorite.

  12. Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

    I am not much of a re-reader, though you wouldn’t think that do in part to the sheer number of books I have. Mostly, if I read something for entertainment, it won’t hold my interest on a re-read. If I read something that had a profound effect on my life or thinking, then I will probably pick it up again, as I find they resonate differently as I age. Books such as Blood Meridian, or Heart of Darkness definitely fall into this category. I will also put a book down, sometimes for months or years even, but I will need to pick it up were I left off, as I hate trying to play catchup. Non-fiction is definitely a no-go for a second pass, but philosophy is a good candidate for it.

    The one exception to this seems to be James Ellroy, as I have found he moved from the first category to the second over years.

    Right now I am reading a Simenon mystery, which, while there are a bunch of, they seem to be holding my interest. I just finished a Big Conrad binge, so I needed something a little lighter. Not sure what comes after that, probably something heavy, maybe some intense SF, though I am not finding much of that lately.

  13. rhywun

    Have a deep dive into the world of gender mania.

    I can’t imagine raising a child in this environment. I was aware that the madness run pretty deep in school and in social media but it sounds like it’s even worse than I could have thought.

    • R.J.

      I am raising a child in this crap. I can tell you, most kids make fun of this shit. The brainwashing does not work.

      • Ted S.

        It seems the brainwashing has worked in a bunch of other areas, however.

      • DEG

        You’re also in Texas.

    • limey

      Imagine how many kids have now been sterilized.

    • Pat

      Several years ago when the transmania was really hitting the mainstream in earnest, I was talking to my mom about the topic and, in my unblemished record of being completely and totally fucking wrong about everything, I told her “They can try as much as they want, but kids understand basic categories intuitively – they can look down and plainly see there’s a difference between the sexes. And then they’re going to hit puberty and 90% of them are going to respond to the basic biological imperative the same way humanity always has.” She told me “This is different. They’re getting the kids so young through the school system that they’ll be able to confuse and indoctrinate them, and by the time they reach puberty it’ll be too late.” Well mom, You were right.

      It boggles my mind that I’m such a bitter, miserable, cynical prick and still so often end up looking like Pollyanna herself. Evidently I lack the imagination of the social planners.

      “This won’t last more than a couple of months before people are rioting in the streets. Just wait until they’re out of work and can’t pay their bills.” – Pat, professional retard, spring 2020.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        A huge chunk if it is girls trying to avoid puberty and its ramifications.

      • rhywun

        🎶👍

      • creech

        Pat, your 90 percent isn’t wrong. In talking to a student teacher today, she said there’s only two or three “trans” in the school population of 1000+. Media coverage of this mental health illness implies it is ubiquitous.

      • Chafed

        I’m willing to bet there is a wide variation by region. Wealthy, progressive coastal enclaves likely have a higher rate than elsewhere. But social contagion is just a myth.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        I have a friend in Silicon Alley, and it is pervasive there.

      • Chafed

        I’m saddened but unsurprised. In the next 10-20 years the stories of those grown children will be legion.

      • Fourscore

        Fortunately they won’t be reproducing if they are actually trans

      • Chafed

        Even if they aren’t, there is a decent chance the puberty blockers will sterilize them.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I see the visible tattoos and body mutilation piercings so no illusion that biological urges will win over social trends.

    • Mojeaux

      “children” and “innermost desires” should never be used in the same sentence.

      Children’s innermost desires can be boiled down to, “I want that.”

      • Chafed

        Spot on.

      • DEG

        Children’s innermost desires can be boiled down to, “I want that.”

        Same for many adults.

  14. R.J.

    Hype, heads’ up. I didn’t clear 100 comments this last Thursday and now STEVE SMITH showed up. I just went in the tornado shelter. He’’s an ass, he’s eating all my food. I only have two bottles of vodka in here. I will do my best to make sure you break 100 comments by morning.

    • Sean

      Only two bottles? Sad!

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Yeah, how long will you be down there?

        Many straight vodka shots in The Prince and the Showgirl, with Olivier and Marilyn. I don’t know how people drink liquor neat.

      • R.J.

        That asshole typed up my next post, on my pc, with his dick. No telling how long I am stuck here. Doomed.

      • Ted S.

        If I kept my vodka in the fridge or freezer, I’d probably drink it straight, not even on the rocks.

        I don’t know how people drink liquor in the form of White Claw.

      • limey

        Grapefruit White Claw is not unpleasant.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Oh, they have that over there? I haven’t been to your island in far too long.

      • limey

        Naw. I don’t think so. A cursory glance suggests there are three flavouuurs available in the UK and sadly (?) that isn’t one of them.

      • Gender Traitor

        The extra U’s make it that much more flavouuurfuuul! 😛

      • limey

        Mmm. Grapefruuuit.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Yes! I also like the collection of Phillip K Dick short stories.

    • Ownbestenemy

      In expected news…

      “That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous,”

      Re: manifesto of the kid killer.

      • R C Dean

        What a steaming pile of pretext.

  15. R.J.

    Dear TPTB:
    I got Tall Thin Spaniard to apply under the moniker The Spaniard. Pleas consider his request. He is earnest about being a Libertarian, and will not be scared off like Bethannica.

    • Sean

      “and will not be scared off like Bethannica.”

      Is that a dare?

      • Tundra

        Sounds like a dare.

    • Spudalicious

      Passed on.

      • R.J.

        Thanks.

      • Spudalicious

        As you can tell by the current crop of miscreants, our only standard is no spam.

    • Not Adahn

      No good, I’ve known too many Spaniards.

  16. Michael Malaise

    Clue update: The Rockwell/Kendrick flick is from 2015. Anna Kendrick’s first role was in 2003.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Yeah, I was wondering about that. Maybe in 1994 she was a tooth in the school play.

      • Chafed

        😂

    • The Hyperbole

      Thanks for the correction, I’m not sure how I screwed that up.

  17. Chafed

    I have read and reread William Gibson’s early work i.e. Burning Chrome, Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. I remember when cyberpunk was a new genre and he was at the heart of it. I love the aesthetic. His early work is so rich in detail, even knowing the story, I enjoy revisiting it.

    • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

      Neuromancer changed my life, and influenced the direction of my career for the next decade or so. It’s also been quite prescient in some ways, which is disturbing, but I suspect part of it is the “Star Trek Effect” — y’know, nerds see ST with all its gadgets, become engineers en masse, start creating devices that eventually become stuff like handheld lasers, digital media players, smartphones, etc. Too many people probably said of Neuromancer, “Wow, what a cool dystopia! Let’s try to make it happen, cap’n.”

      They may have succeeded all too well.

      • Chafed

        It’s hard to know what’s cause and effect but I hear you. It’s his biological stuff that’s particularly eerie. Way too much of it has come to pass or is in view.

    • slumbrew

      Same.

      • Chafed

        🤜

  18. kinnath

    I read A Childhood’s End multiple times. I can’t recall any other book that I have re-read. But I expect there are a couple of others.

    • rhywun

      I have re-read many, many favorites. Too many to list.

      I am pretty good at “forgetting” details + I wait a good time between re-reads so it always feels a little fresh.

  19. Ownbestenemy

    Not rereading but watching Con Man with Alan Tudyk…how did I miss this?

    • Sean

      Good stuff. 💟 Alison Haislip.

    • hayeksplosives

      I too had never heard of it. Thanks for sharing! And each episode is so short, it’s begging to be binge watched.

  20. Pine_Tree

    Definite re-reader. Think I’ve said it before, but I start Cryptonomicon at the beach every year and finish in a few months. Often re-do old mysteries (Doyle, Christie, Sayers).

  21. robc

    I am a rereader. But not 1984. Not because I didnt like it, I loved it. But I know how it ends and I cant start.

    • Tundra

      I was just chatting with a friend about The Mandibles. Probably the best dystopian novel I’ve ever read. And I will never touch it again.

      • rhywun

        Interesting – never heard of it.

      • slumbrew

        Reading the overview, that sounds way too plausible.

      • Tundra

        Exactly right.

      • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

        God, I have a family member (by marriage) who is doing that, counting on someone to die and get the money. But it seems that it didn’t work out that way, and their sister inherited everything.

        Makes you wonder if people already knew that about them, how venal they are.

  22. Ownbestenemy

    Kings on fire 3-0 against Oilers. Getting Fiala back will added much needed firepower up front.

    • slumbrew

      Well, that escalated quickly.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah it did….lol.

      • Ownbestenemy

        3rd OT game of series

      • slumbrew

        I just can’t stay up for this one. Good luck.

  23. robc

    I purged most of my books when I left SC. One I kept was The Book of the Dun Cow. I havent reread it since getting to CO, but I saved it to read to my daughter. Or for her to read.

    And if you havent read it, what the fuck is wrong with you?

    • R.J.

      I could give you a list of what’s wrong with me. Sadly I am still trapped in the tornado shelter.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Better to be stuck 12′ under than carried by six.

        /platitudes

    • robc

      Btw, I know its obscure. It is fantasy christian allegory but not as on the nose as Narnia.

      Its a kids book ( upper el or middle school – I think I first read it in 7th grade) but like good kid lit, works well for adults too. And there are parts where the room gets awful dusty.

  24. Brochettaward

    I read Firsts.

  25. R C Dean

    A book I have been saving for a reread for, oof, a couple of decades is Little, Big by John Crowley. I remember it as an almost magical book when I read it the first time, probably in my early 20s.

    I also realized that I don’t keep physica; books unless I think they are at least candidates for re-reading. I have almost everything by David Gemmell, and as I think about it, I have reread a number of them, and plan/hope to again. Just a brilliant story-teller.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      That is a great book! Most of his stuff is good, but check out Love and Sleep by him. Highly recomended.

  26. Mojeaux

    Hollywood seems to have declared that two women can’t be friends unless they become lovers also. It’s just a cliché now and so very tiresome.

    • kinnath

      When Sherry met Sally

    • Chafed

      Vivid did a series based on that premise. They are some of my favorite movies. Don’t judge me!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Mrs OBE has observed this too. Also think tiresome.

    • Zwak , who will swing for the crime, in double time!

      yeah, I remember when every “prestige” tv show had the female lead have a gay relationship. cheap way to write, imnsho.

      • Gustave Lytton

        I always knew there was something going on with Cagney & Lacey!

    • rhywun

      As a survivor of trying to turn a few friends into lovers and it doesn’t work that way, yeah – that’s ridiculous.

  27. Gustave Lytton

    How the fuck is Louis Gossett Jr turning 87 next month?

    • limey

      He is tethered to a singularity on the continuum along which he hurtles toward the inevitable.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      There’s only one way to not turn 87.

  28. hayeksplosives

    Hey, late night Glibs.

    Our hyperactive sun sent us a coronal mass ejection earlier today, causing a number of geomagnetic storms, including 2 category G4 “severe” ones, one of which happened 45 minutes ago.

    The resultant auroras are being seen as far south as New Mexico, Missouri, etc. France and Germany saw them from the earlier storm (while it was daylight

    https://spaceweathergallery2.com/index.php?title=aurora

    If you have a clear night, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to catch the Northern lights this far south!!

    • UnCivilServant

      Aww.

      It’s been raining here, so no lights for me (even if I’d been awake)

    • Tres Cool

      You know who else had a “mass ejection” ?

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      Thanks for the heads up!

    • Sean

      🌄☕😀

    • Grosspatzer

      Sharper images of increasingly dull brains. It won’t do us much good, but the historians of the future will have a field day.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      There’s going to be an explosion of new research using this. All of the previous brain studies are basically obsolete now.

    • Not Adahn

      Tall mugs!

  29. Shirley Knott

    Mornin’ all

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Shirley, U, Stinky, Sean, NA, and limey!

      It’s only 37 degrees American in SW OH right now, dagnabit! It’s the last week of April, fer cryin’ out loud! 😒 At least it’s cloudy, which usually means no frost on my windshield.

      • UnCivilServant

        I closed up the windows and turned on the heat.

      • Gender Traitor

        It was too chilly to go out to Tranquility Base Saturday morning or Sunday morning. So far, the forecast for next weekend doesn’t look much better. 😥

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I live in the south and my breath’s still condensing in the morning. For the love of god, please bring on the heat.

      • Tres Cool

        My windshield was clear when I left work- yours should be too.
        Jugsy’s company car seemed frost free.

      • Gender Traitor

        Thanks! 👍🏼 Now all I have to worry about is the traffic on 75.

      • Grosspatzer

        A balmy 40 here. I’m tired of complaining abiut the cold;I can’t wait for summer so I can whine about the heat. Variety is the spice of life.

      • Rat on a train

        Spotsyltucky is going back to normal April weather after a warm spell. Everything’s gone green.

      • limey

        Morning, GT of Glib Gables. And a warm good morning (afternoon to Pie if he’s around) to everyone else 🌅

      • Gender Traitor

        👩‍🦰

      • DEG

        I’ve had the heat on the last few days.

      • Shirley Knott

        34 here in mid-Michigan. Freeze warning last night and again tonight. They mean it when they say Memorial Day is the earliest ‘safe’ outdoor planting date for tomatoes, etc,
        Cynic that I am, I’m assuming this will turn into a blistering hot summer 🙁

    • Grosspatzer

      Mornin’ to all you lovely reprobates!

      Paid a visit to Mrs. Patzer’s 92 yo aunt Saturday. She’s going to outlive all of us. My 89 yo uncle, not so much. During the visit got a text from my cousin in FL. Uncle took a hard turn for the worse last week, not expected to make it through the week. He was the nearest thing I had to a father in my dysfunctional childhood, I am going to miss him.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’m so sorry, ‘patzie. I think I kinda understand a little of how you feel – I was closer to my maternal grandfather than I was to my father. I hope your uncle is as comfortable as possible. ::hugs ‘patzie::

      • Grosspatzer

        Thanks, GT. I’m hoping my cousins can put the drama on hold when the time comes, but I’m not optimistic.

      • DEG

        Sorry Grosspatzer.

    • rhywun

      “Verification used to mean a person was like an actor or a journalist or something and now it means they’re a white nationalist with 30 followers or they’re hawking crypto or something,” said Collin

      OK, then.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        They’re just pissed that the barista that serves them at the coffee shop, or the guy who trims their yard god forbid, can have a blue check now too. It’s elitism writ large which I wouldn’t normally give a damn about if these weren’t the same people who wail the loudest when someone else is doing it.

    • Scruffyy Nerfherder

      God forbid they should pay for the service they use to promote themselves.

      • Rat on a train

        But they are providing all the quality content, don’t you know?

    • Tres Cool

      “To be clear, as Max Collins of the hit 90s rock band Eve 6 puts it, Block the Blue is not “just a petty retaliation” against Musk.”

      Now, when I think “influential”, I think of anyone from Eve 6.

      • Not Adahn

        I’m through with them.

      • rhywun

        Maybe these commies can form their own platform where the right people get to be in charge again.

  30. Tres Cool

    suh’ fam
    whats goody

    I’m off tonight so….TALL CANS!

  31. DEG

    Mornin’ all.

    • R.J.

      Morning. Another week in corporate paradise!