The Most of P.G. Wodehouse Not bad, but when you read a dozen of his stories in a row, you realize that he wrote the same three stories over and over.
Anna Christie/The Emperor Jones/The Hairy Ape A competent writer, but kinda racist.
JD DeLuzio > The BaronSeptember 22, 2024 at 12:51pm
That's funny-- I was just reading some Wodehouse earlier this summer. The Wooster and Jeeves stories are a non-comic-book/strip example of a sliding time scale. The cultural and historical references change over time, but Wooster and Jeeves remain roughly the same age, living in a world that feels strangely unchanged by these events.
Deadline Artists -- Scandals, Tragedies and Triumphs: More of America's Greatest Newspaper Columns - This is a pretty neat collection of newspaper columns that go back to the 1860s (assassination of Lincoln) through the 2010s (GSA and Secret service Scandals). I'm a little over halfway through, into the Tragedy section. Reading Jack Lonfon's San Francisco earthquake article. Quite a wide selection of articles. Other examples: exectution of the Mata Hari, the razing of a Belgian town by the Germans in WWI, voter registration in the South by black people, Bernard Goetz, the Galveston hurricane. I can't wait to get to the Triumph part.
Side note: I was flipping through it and did see an inscription in the back that looks like its from a teacher to a student.
Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports by Guy Lawsib. The true story of Marty Blazer who was a financial advisor to future NFL players (Ie college players), until he gets busted for stealing money from his clients to fund a movie. He then goes undercover for the US government to help uncover even more corruption in college sports from the basketball side of things. Very good so far. The term "hot dog money" comes from the very first college player he met, who asked for "hot dog money" to get some food.
A book I bailed on was The Green Millennium bu Fritz Leiber. It isn't a hard and fast rule, but I try to give a book a 100 pages to get me interested. This one failed at that, so I abandoned it. It is the story of kind of a loser Phil Lesh, who wakes up one day finally feeling good about himself and being happy. He then sees a green cat has entered his apartment, and is the cause of this well being. He then goes on a walk, loses the cat, and now a bunch of people are looking for it. This was my first non-"Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" story by Leiber, and I was really looking. Yet, I just could not get into this.
I'm reading the first Shadow story, "The Living Shadow," for free on some UK library site. I'm pretty sure I've read it before, and looking at the Steranko cover on Amazon confirms, because I'm pretty sure I bought the paperback because of that cover. This book introduces us to the Shadow organization through the eyes of its new recruit, Harry Vincent. I'm pretty sure Peter David told me never to trust anyone with two first names. Or was it Tony Isabella? But Harry's OK. He embraces his new job as secret agent with gusto.
Still, I was stunned when he mentioned he weighed 170 pounds. I guess that was normal for a grown man in the '30s. I haven't been 170 for quite a while, and I've always been on the slim side. But this was during the Depression, so I get it.
Also, everyone says "clew" instead of "clue," which makes me laugh.
JD DeLuzio > Captain ComicsSeptember 23, 2024 at 7:33pm
Reading the first Charlie Chan novel and a biography of Anna May Wong. Hoping to start reading an acquaintance's novel that I bought last spring, so that I can finish it before my sister's new book comes out in October.
I found the first three John Carter novels for $0.99 on Kindle and how could I say no? I'm almost through with the first, and it's good, breezy sci-fi, if you can accept the outmoded gender roles. (Dejah Thoris is quite the b@d@$$ in modern Dynamite comics, but she's a petite damsel in distress in ERB.) I'm sure I've read A Princess of Mars before, but I'm not sure about the next two, so that might be a revelation.
Jeff of Earth-J > Captain ComicsSeptember 28, 2024 at 5:17pm
Back in the '90s I acquired four "Mars" collections via Book of the Month Club as free selections, but I read only A Princess of Mars. It didn't really appeal to me for some reason, but I don't recall why. Perhaps I simply wasn't in the mood.
doc photo > Captain ComicsSeptember 29, 2024 at 9:47am
One of the more interesting aspects of the Mars series is how, after the initial trilogy, ERB brings supporting characters to the fore while John Carter and Dejah Thoris become supporting players. This helps keep the series fresh, avoiding the pitfalls of the later Tarzan novels that became repetitious.
Replies
The Most of P.G. Wodehouse Not bad, but when you read a dozen of his stories in a row, you realize that he wrote the same three stories over and over.
Anna Christie/The Emperor Jones/The Hairy Ape A competent writer, but kinda racist.
That's funny-- I was just reading some Wodehouse earlier this summer. The Wooster and Jeeves stories are a non-comic-book/strip example of a sliding time scale. The cultural and historical references change over time, but Wooster and Jeeves remain roughly the same age, living in a world that feels strangely unchanged by these events.
Deadline Artists -- Scandals, Tragedies and Triumphs: More of America's Greatest Newspaper Columns - This is a pretty neat collection of newspaper columns that go back to the 1860s (assassination of Lincoln) through the 2010s (GSA and Secret service Scandals). I'm a little over halfway through, into the Tragedy section. Reading Jack Lonfon's San Francisco earthquake article. Quite a wide selection of articles. Other examples: exectution of the Mata Hari, the razing of a Belgian town by the Germans in WWI, voter registration in the South by black people, Bernard Goetz, the Galveston hurricane. I can't wait to get to the Triumph part.
Side note: I was flipping through it and did see an inscription in the back that looks like its from a teacher to a student.
Hot Dog Money: Inside the Biggest Scandal in the History of College Sports by Guy Lawsib. The true story of Marty Blazer who was a financial advisor to future NFL players (Ie college players), until he gets busted for stealing money from his clients to fund a movie. He then goes undercover for the US government to help uncover even more corruption in college sports from the basketball side of things. Very good so far. The term "hot dog money" comes from the very first college player he met, who asked for "hot dog money" to get some food.
A book I bailed on was The Green Millennium bu Fritz Leiber. It isn't a hard and fast rule, but I try to give a book a 100 pages to get me interested. This one failed at that, so I abandoned it. It is the story of kind of a loser Phil Lesh, who wakes up one day finally feeling good about himself and being happy. He then sees a green cat has entered his apartment, and is the cause of this well being. He then goes on a walk, loses the cat, and now a bunch of people are looking for it. This was my first non-"Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" story by Leiber, and I was really looking. Yet, I just could not get into this.
I'm reading the first Shadow story, "The Living Shadow," for free on some UK library site. I'm pretty sure I've read it before, and looking at the Steranko cover on Amazon confirms, because I'm pretty sure I bought the paperback because of that cover. This book introduces us to the Shadow organization through the eyes of its new recruit, Harry Vincent. I'm pretty sure Peter David told me never to trust anyone with two first names. Or was it Tony Isabella? But Harry's OK. He embraces his new job as secret agent with gusto.
Still, I was stunned when he mentioned he weighed 170 pounds. I guess that was normal for a grown man in the '30s. I haven't been 170 for quite a while, and I've always been on the slim side. But this was during the Depression, so I get it.
Also, everyone says "clew" instead of "clue," which makes me laugh.
I can follow that thread.
Reading the first Charlie Chan novel and a biography of Anna May Wong. Hoping to start reading an acquaintance's novel that I bought last spring, so that I can finish it before my sister's new book comes out in October.
Currently the U.S. Mint is issuing a series called American Women on the reverse of quarters. The Anna May Wong quarter is in general circulation.
Anna May Wong Quarter | American Women Quarters | U.S. Mint (usmint...
I found the first three John Carter novels for $0.99 on Kindle and how could I say no? I'm almost through with the first, and it's good, breezy sci-fi, if you can accept the outmoded gender roles. (Dejah Thoris is quite the b@d@$$ in modern Dynamite comics, but she's a petite damsel in distress in ERB.) I'm sure I've read A Princess of Mars before, but I'm not sure about the next two, so that might be a revelation.
Back in the '90s I acquired four "Mars" collections via Book of the Month Club as free selections, but I read only A Princess of Mars. It didn't really appeal to me for some reason, but I don't recall why. Perhaps I simply wasn't in the mood.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Mars series is how, after the initial trilogy, ERB brings supporting characters to the fore while John Carter and Dejah Thoris become supporting players. This helps keep the series fresh, avoiding the pitfalls of the later Tarzan novels that became repetitious.
-
159
-
160
-
161
-
162
-
163
of 163 Next