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What Are You Reading

Messages
13,458
Location
Orange County, CA
The Exploration of Mars (signed and inscribed by Willy Ley, 24 June 1956)
by Willy Ley & Wernher von Braun
illustrated by Chesley Bonestell
(New York: Viking, 1956)

With beautiful color illustrations by sci-fi illustrator Chesley Bonestell, The Exploration of Mars is Ley and von Braun's outline of how they envisioned a landing on Mars which they proposed to be carried out with flying wing landing craft that would be assembled in space.


Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties
by Bruce Henstell
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1984)
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,699
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Rereading Fred Allen's unfinished autobiography, "Much Ado About Me." Quite possibly the best book about vaudeville ever written -- funny, evocative, and fascinating. I've read it dozens of times over the years, and it never gets old.
 

Corto

A-List Customer
Messages
343
Location
USA
I'm reading "Caxton" which is book three in Edward Cline's "Sparrowhawk" series. It's kind of a Libertarian/Ayn Randian revisionist "action" series set before and during the American Revolution. I'm not a Libertarian by any means (nor do I subscribe to Ayn Rand's philosophy of "rational self interest"), but it's an interesting series.
 
Messages
12,734
Location
Northern California
Finished Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "Lucifer's Hammer". It had been 30 or so years since I last read it and it is still as entertaining as I remembered it to be. Now I face the dilemma of whether to first read Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's "The Abominable Man" or Ross MacDonald's "The Blue Hammer" Oh the troubles one faces while on Thanksgiving Break!
 
Messages
12,734
Location
Northern California
During the next couple of months, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard will be releasing a number of Ross MacDonald's novels in print and Kindle format. Vintage Crime will also be releasing Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's Martin Beck series on Kindle throughout the next year. If you are a fan of Dashiell Hammett and/or Raymond Chandler, I would suggest taking a gander at Ross MacDonald; he is thoroughly entertaining!
 

JockBushveld

New in Town
Messages
5
Location
WalterMittyVille
For my first post here I thought this might be appropriate (I hope it's not too long).

I just started re-reading Jock of the Bushveld (arguably the best book ever written about a dog), written by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick and copiously illustrated by E. Caldwell. My "new" edition was published in 1931 by Longmans, Green and Co., London.

I'm told it belonged to Kip Gowans, UK Film Director married to American actress Lee Remick, and came from her estate on Cape Cod. When it arrived from the online bookseller, I was surprised to see what a really nice edition it was (my previous version was a modern reprint without many of the illustrations). This book, complete with original leather binding, was published as a "prize edition." A prize edition, in 1930's England, was a book used in schools as a prize for academic achievement. This is confirmed by the inscription on the inside front cover, which states that it was given as a "form prize" to J. W. Millard in 1933. This personal history piqued my interest and I set out to discover a bit more about the history of the book.

I surmised that the crest on the cover (which included a motto and a shield with three Bs and a torch inside it) was the crest of the school giving the prize. I then tracked down the motto on the crest, “Vitai Lampada Tradunt,” which is taken from the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius' De Rerum Natura. The motto directly translates as "They Hand on the Torch of Life." Interestingly, the motto is shared with the Sydney Church of England Grammar School in North Sydney, Australia (Errol Flynn attended this school until he was expelled for, among other things, having an affair with either the nurse or laundress - the stories vary). Putting the motto, three BBBs and the crest all together, I was led to the Bridlington School, which is situated in the seaside holiday resort of Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. I still haven't discovered anything about the original prize winner, but I'll keep looking.
 

Yeps

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,456
Location
Philly
Black Mischief -- Evelyn Waugh
or possibly Brideshead Revisited. I will decide tomorrow which one I will stick with for now.
 

The Good

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,361
Location
California, USA
I'm currently reading Dr. No, by Ian Fleming. It's a James Bond novel, but I recently found out that it's not exactly the first, as the film was... I'll have to check out Casino Royale.
 

Miss Golightly

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,312
Location
Dublin, Ireland
I can hear Audrey sing Moon River. :eusa_clap
And see George Peppard looking at her; hopelessly in love....:)
And the whole thing ended just the way it was suppose to.... :D:cheers1:

Best romantic ending to a movie - ever!

The movie itself is flawed in many ways and bears very little resemblance to the actual novella, but it's magic (Audrey, New York, the style, the romance) more than makes up for it.

BATending.jpg
 

LordBest

Practically Family
Messages
692
Location
Australia
Just finished the latest Phryne Fisher novel, Dead Man's Chest, and started re-reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
 

Marla

A-List Customer
Messages
421
Location
USA
I'm reading Evelyn Waugh as well, Vile Bodies here. I watched the documentary on the Bright Young Things (link posted in a thread of the same name in Golden Era) the other day and it intrigued me, so now I'm reading the book.
 

Wally_Hood

One Too Many
Messages
1,772
Location
Screwy, bally hooey Hollywood
Today I start my Christmas reading with Peter Spier's Christmas!, the picture book with no dialogue about the preparation leading up to Christmas, the Eve and Day themselves, and the cleaning up. If you haven't seen it, it's a lot of fun. After that, it's Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter, by Edward Streeter from 1956. Streeter also wrote Father of the Bride and Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. If there's time, A Christmas Carol. Amongst books, music, and films, it's total immersion for Christmas...
 

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