What Are You Reading

[Benzadmiral]

I definitely need to read a Hammett now to be fair to him as it's been several years, but my memory is that his descriptions and "mood" setting are very studied and, as a reader, they don't feel organic to me / they feel too obvious. With Chandler, I just get lost in the story.

Hammett's short stories about the Continental Op are quick, concentrated portions of hardboiled soup, and are often quite good. The longer things like Red Harvest and The Glass Key, well, I've read them and remember little about them. The Maltese Falcon is familiar to all of us from the John Huston movie with Bogart, since so much of its dialogue is used in the script, but reading it takes a little getting used to. (The entire story is told in 3rd person -- we are never shown anyone's thoughts, not even those of Sam Spade. Emotional effects are conveyed by physical movements of the characters.) And The Thin Man seems better as a film. It's not much like the lively funny romp that William Powell and Myrna Loy made it into.

But there probably would have been no Chandler as we know him without Hammett.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Promised an update when finished, so will do so: Mary Astor liked sex and booze and indulged in both a lot - probably nothing special about that in the 1930s (or anytime in history when both were readily available), but that the fun sex stuff (not quite fully) came out was.

Also she made one horrible choice of a husband after another and had the only decent relationship she seemed to have with a man destroyed by the events around the purple diary. And in one lesson learned that would have seemed self evident - don't keep a diary of your sex capades if you are a star in the '30s when it can ruin your and anyone's career mentioned.

But in one of those things that are explained but not really, her career survived a scandal that would have destroyed many careers up until the early '90s, let alone the '30s - who knows why really, life and public opprobrium are inconsistent.

The book is okay at best, has some fun Hollywood / Golden Era and Mary Astor stuff (I like her more now) and moves by so fast - because it is so short - you can't regret reading it. Parting shot: it would have been better if 10% shorter if the 10% cut was the author's autobiographical points interspersed with Mary's - no one cares about him and it was moral preening anyway.

She morphed into a good author of at least one novel, The Incredible Charlie Carewe, a lively and chilling portrait of a classic sociopath. No murders in the book, or so I remember -- the novel is hard to find. But I recall that it was extremely well done.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Am currently reading (almost finished) “Magicians of the Gods” by Graham Hancock. I have to say, it is certainly different from anything I’ve ever read before. Almost in a category by itself. On the one hand, I guess you could classify it as alternative archaeology or alternative history. On the other hand, it reads a bit like a true-life Indiana Jones story, with the author dashing off to remote archaeological digs all over the world in search of evidence to corroborate his theories. Mr Graham is certainly very erudite. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if his central theory ended up being correct: that a lost civilization existed long before the earliest civilizations that are currently recognized. Beyond that however, his ideas get a little long on “what if?” and short on solid evidence. Still, it is a fun read if taken with a grain or two of salt. It has kept my attention and I’ve certainly learned a few things that I have been able to verify through the magic of the internet. (Thankfully, “ancient aliens” are not involved.)

 

[Tiki Tom]

She morphed into a good author of at least one novel, The Incredible Charlie Carewe, a lively and chilling portrait of a classic sociopath. No murders in the book, or so I remember -- the novel is hard to find. But I recall that it was extremely well done.

Holy cow. Had never heard of her before, so I Googled "Mary Astor" and got a few sizzling excerpts from her diary. People are people, I guess. Mostly I'm amazed at my sheltered up-bringing!

 

[Fading Fast]

Holy cow. Had never heard of her before, so I Googled "Mary Astor" and got a few sizzling excerpts from her diary. People are people, I guess. Mostly I'm amazed at my sheltered up-bringing!

Mary Astor, Hedy Lamarr, Jean Harlow and many others (probably most) of that period had, as Bob Seger would put it, "the fire down below."

Humans haven't and aren't going to change - many of them like drinking and sex and if those things are available in some way, they're going to indulge.

Sometimes I'm turned off by overindulgence especially when someone's overindulgence ruins their and the people around them lives. But Mary had a brutal upbringing (I'd have shot her parents if I could have), bad early marriages (first husband was gay and wouldn't touch her) and, hence, no lodestar of normalcy to help guide her. That booze and casual sex was part of her life - good for her, she needed it, IMHO, to deal with all that was thrown her way.

As mentioned, it turns me off to see people throw their talents and lives away on excess, but Mary did not really do that and, heck, I'd have been drinking and grabbing "love" where I could if I had had her reality or I'd have put a gun to my head. I came away liking her more.

And it probably helps that, while you could say a lot about my upbringing, sheltered it wasn't: life, all of life, all of its seediness - none of that was hidden from me as a kid. If they thought about it at all - I'm not sure they did - my parents' view was learn now what life is about as you'll have to learn soon enough.

 

[Fading Fast]

Just started "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towels. So far, the premise is that, in 1922, a Russian Prince, a member of the former aristocracy, has been sentenced to house arrest in 1922 by the Bolsheviks which, since he was living in the Metropol Hotel, means he can never leave the hotel.

The theme seems to be the conflicts that arise by smashing together these two ideologies and outlooks - the Prince represents an old-world idea of character, fairness and decency that is real but out of step with the Soviet idea of character, fairness and decency. Right now, I'm only a short way in, but both are uncomfortably dancing around each other trying to find a way to coexist. All of this is used as a way to highlight the bigger issues taking place in the Soviet Union as it tries to steady itself and establish communism after the revolution of 1917.

The enjoyment, so far, comes from the watching the Prince navigate the tricky politics of all this while maintaining his standards of what being a gentleman means in a world that has no use for his standards. I'll report back when done.

Has anyone else read this one - it's gotten some pretty good press and was on the NYT list over the summer? One of our neighbors - a book publisher - says it's doing really well, especially with a lot of informal book clubs.

 

[belfastboy]

Rereading "Billy Budd", my fave author Herman Melville

 

[Hurricane Jack]

"Death on Mars: The Discovery of a Planetary Nuclear Massacre" by John E. Brandenburg PhD, plasma physicist & Senior Propulsion Scientist for Orbital Technologies Corp.

This is a follow up to his book, "Life and Death on Mars: The New Mars Synthesis"

Levels of thorium xenon & uranium in the atmosphere & soil of Mars, an indicator of a nuclear explosion are greater than they are where atomic weapons have been tested & used on planet Earth. A confirmation of this fact was published in the May 31, 2013 issue of Science Magazine. These books contain documented data not reported by the media & therefore not commonly known by the public.

 

[Harp]

Tocqueville's English correspondence, S.J.D. Green; The New Criterion/November 2016

 

[Fading Fast]

Tocqueville's English correspondence, S.J.D. Green; The New Criterion/November 2016

It's almost like he's cornered the market on "readable," erudite, historical insights on American Democracy. You can't swing a dead cat in a modern political conversation without hitting Tocqueville pretty soon.

It's funny how it's turned out that way. And I am not saying anything against it - I've read "Democracy in America" more than once.

 

[greatestescaper]

Hammett's short stories about the Continental Op are quick, concentrated portions of hardboiled soup, and are often quite good. The longer things like Red Harvest and The Glass Key, well, I've read them and remember little about them. The Maltese Falcon is familiar to all of us from the John Huston movie with Bogart, since so much of its dialogue is used in the script, but reading it takes a little getting used to. (The entire story is told in 3rd person -- we are never shown anyone's thoughts, not even those of Sam Spade. Emotional effects are conveyed by physical movements of the characters.) And The Thin Man seems better as a film. It's not much like the lively funny romp that William Powell and Myrna Loy made it into.

But there probably would have been no Chandler as we know him without Hammett.

I've not yet read Chandler nor have I seen the film version of The Thin Man and it took me two or three attempts to start The Thin Man before I read it all the way through. Ultimately I enjoyed it, but those first two or three times I'd start it, and about five or ten pages in found myself putting the book back on the shelf. Of course I really enjoyed The Maltese Falcon as well, but all of these discussions of Hammett and Chandler remind me of my interest in reading westerns. I was reared on Louis L'amour pulp westerns and it was not until college that a friend shared with me a copy of Elmer Kelton's The Good Old Boys. Since then I've gone on to read more of Kelton's work, and while I still enjoy L'amour, Kelton was quite the wordsmith and really had a way of capturing life in the American West. That said I would add that L'amour had a fantastic way of painting a fight scene that was full of detail, yet not overly cumbersome, and really read with the pacing of the action which I will always respect.

 

[greatestescaper]

In terms of my own reading I've been very distracted lately and so am still working my way through The War of the Worlds, but also having found myself reading quite a bit of poetry. That is something of a surprise for myself because I've not often enjoyed reading poetry. Perhaps that had more to do with the education agenda, which I've always found to be a little soul crushing. Anyhow, a favorite poem of mine, which has resurfaced recently and become something I've shared with several people is Edgar Allan Poe's Eldorado.

 

[Harp]

but also having found myself reading quite a bit of poetry.... which I've always found to be a little soul crushing

For a bit of crushed soul Emily Dickinson's The Consciousness that is aware simply smashes iambs and hexameters.
Poe is quite the romantic, and his epic The Raven inflicts Poetry's immortal wound .

 

[greatestescaper]

For a bit of crushed soul Emily Dickinson's The Consciousness that is aware simply smashes iambs and hexameters.
Poe is quite the romantic, and his epic The Raven inflicts Poetry's immortal wound .

I meant that the educational system was soul crushing. I've discovered that revisiting some works, and especially if you can find and connect with others who also are passionate about the work can be most rewarding.

 

[DesertDan]

Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography

 

[Fading Fast]

For a bit of crushed soul Emily Dickinson's The Consciousness that is aware simply smashes iambs and hexameters....

That demure looking lady could bring the soul crushing hard - one of my favorites of her's is "A Great Hope Fell."

 

[Fading Fast]

Just started "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towels. So far, the premise is that, in 1922, a Russian Prince, a member of the former aristocracy, has been sentenced to house arrest in 1922 by the Bolsheviks which, since he was living in the Metropol Hotel, means he can never leave the hotel.

The theme seems to be the conflicts that arise by smashing together these two ideologies and outlooks - the Prince represents an old-world idea of character, fairness and decency that is real but out of step with the Soviet idea of character, fairness and decency. Right now, I'm only a short way in, but both are uncomfortably dancing around each other trying to find a way to coexist. All of this is used as a way to highlight the bigger issues taking place in the Soviet Union as it tries to steady itself and establish communism after the revolution of 1917.

The enjoyment, so far, comes from the watching the Prince navigate the tricky politics of all this while maintaining his standards of what being a gentleman means in a world that has no use for his standards. I'll report back when done.

Has anyone else read this one - it's gotten some pretty good press and was on the NYT list over the summer? One of our neighbors - a book publisher - says it's doing really well, especially with a lot of informal book clubs.

Finished it yesterday. An outstanding book. To add to the above, the book is more a character / life study than a plot-driven story. The joy comes from watching this former Czarist Russian aristocrat - a man of values, integrity, standards, honesty, kindness and decency - do, as he says one always has to, become master of his circumstances by adjusting what he can and mentally adjusting himself where he must.

As his life as a prisoner plays out in the hotel, life, itself, comes to him in many ways - former and new friends stop by, domestic and international politics weave in and out, life's periodic moments of poignancy, sadness, triumph and boredom all occur again an again. But driving it all is the former Count's value system - how a gentleman of the old school applies a code of honor from a bygone world to the absurdity of his house arrest in a brutish totalitarian state.

The story itself if wonderful and touching, but I don't want to give anything away - so I'll just close by saying the author has a gift for choosing the perfect small detail, snippet of conversation or moment of heightened tension to create a robust, rounded and engaging world of fully developed characters that, through their day-to-day living, show life's regular challenges and the extraordinary ones faced living in the USSR.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I just finished The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon, a new book just published this year.

Alas, I was disappointed. While it did a fine job of laying out the history of Batman, primarily in comics, but also with info on movies/TV/etc., and the growth of nerd culture through important moments/movements (like the hardcore comics fans who raged in response to the campy 1966 Batman TV series), it didn't provide very much useful commentary on what it all means. That is, it was weak on analysis and deeper reflection. And since I already knew nearly everything contained in its historical summary, it didn't thrill me as I expected... Apart from having an excellent little explanation of why Batman: The Animated Series was and remains the greatest adaptation of the character outside comics. YES!

 

[MisterCairo]

I meant that the educational system was soul crushing. I've discovered that revisiting some works, and especially if you can find and connect with others who also are passionate about the work can be most rewarding.

While I generally enjoyed school, and love to read, there is something, a certain je ne sais quoi, about having, that is, being forced, to read something, and then "analyse" it to death.

Many things I read in high school and thought "meh" I've since come to love, reading it for what it is, and not what's it's "meant" to be.

If you want to know what it really means, go to the source, not the "prof":

 

[LizzieMaine]

I just finished The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon, a new book just published this year.

Alas, I was disappointed. While it did a fine job of laying out the history of Batman, primarily in comics, but also with info on movies/TV/etc., and the growth of nerd culture through important moments/movements (like the hardcore comics fans who raged in response to the campy 1966 Batman TV series), it didn't provide very much useful commentary on what it all means. That is, it was weak on analysis and deeper reflection...

"I recommend Batman especially, for he tends to transcend the abysmal society in which he's found himself. His morality is rather rigid, also. I rather respect Batman." -- Ignatius J. Reilly