What Are You Reading

[Empirestatecap]

Just started reading Uncle Toms Cabin. On chapter 2.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The National Recovery Administration Code of Fair Competition for the Motion Picture Industry, as Approved on November 27, 1933. A fascinating bit of New Deal memorabilia which among other regulations states that the industry-wide minimum wage for a motion picture theatre manager should be *more* than the industry-wide minimum wage for a bit actor. In yer face, Hollywood.

 

[Harp]

Democracy 101; Mark Twain's Farewell Address, Lewis Lapham, Harper's Magazine April 2011

Mark Twain on the Damned Human Race; edited by Janet Smith

Not the cornpone cracker barrel Twain but the more acerbic and introspective Twentieth Century wit.

 

[Fading Fast]

About 100 pages to go in "To Kill a Mockingbird," and it is making an even bigger impression on me now than it did when I first read it 30+ years ago (and it made quite an impression then). Beyond the powerful message - which is what stayed with me all these years - the writing is beautiful and the way she builds out everyone's personality and all the interpersonal complexity through the eyes of 8 year out Scout is genius.

And with the perspective of all these years - it is easy to see why it is taught (hopefully, it still is - is it?) in many high schools - it lends itself to discussion of both complex moral issues and advanced writing techniques.

 

[Empirestatecap]

Reading Barbane Castle by Joan Aiken. Very good book. Mike

 

[Dennis Young]

Gee whiz Miss Lizzie, what the heck? I couldn't even pronounce that. Lol!

I'm reading Charlie Chan: The Chinese Parrot (1926) by Earl der Biggers. I love the Charlie Chan series of films and this is the first book of the series I've read. So far its very good!

 

[Dennis Young]

I've been looking for The High Window and The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler and finally found both today in an omnibus edition at a thrift store. So it's The High Window for me right now...that man could write.

I recently discovered that Chandler joined the Canadian Army in World War One. I've obtained a copy of his service record...not as dramatic as his books! Served with the 7th Battalion until, like many, he must have realized life in the air force was, at least, a lot cleaner. Transferred to the RAF in 1918 and ended the war while still training as a cadet.

Lady in the Lake is excellent...a classic!

 

[pawineguy]

From Here to Eternity

Another one that I've been meaning to read for decades and finally got around to...

 

[Fading Fast]

From Here to Eternity

Another one that I've been meaning to read for decades and finally got around to...

When you are done, love to hear your review of it and, if you seen it, how it compares to the movie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Recently unearthed my favorite children's book, "The Bear That Wasn't," by Frank Tashlin. I'll be giving it as a birthday present to a 27-year-old friend who can benefit from its wonderfully profound message: never let anyone convince you you're not a bear.

 

[pawineguy]

When you are done, love to hear your review of it and, if you seen it, how it compares to the movie.

I am looking forward to doing that, my plan is to re-watch the movie after I finish the book. I am reading the restored version, which was released in 2011 with material originally censored by the publisher being added back.

 

[Fading Fast]

Recently unearthed my favorite children's book, "The Bear That Wasn't," by Frank Tashlin. I'll be giving it as a birthday present to a 27-year-old friend who can benefit from its wonderfully profound message: never let anyone convince you you're not a bear.

Not familiar with that one - but just put an order into ABE for a copy. Have you ever read "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" by William Kotzwinkle? It is my favorite anthropomorphize bear book - and went through my family with great success as we all read it and still talk about it to this day (fifteen or so years later). Also, one year for her birthday, I bought my girlfriend a first edition "Edith and Mr. Bear" by Dare Wright - her favorite childhood book. Bears in literature are quite popular in my family.

 

[J.W.]

Paul Auster - New York Trilogy
Jack Kerouac - Lonesome Traveler

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law vs. The Mob
by Dennis N. Griffith

 

[DNO]

Lady in the Lake is excellent...a classic!

Absolutely. Everything Chandler wrote was excellent! Wish he wrote more. I enjoyed The Long Goodbye most. Now, I'll have to wait awhile to let my slipshod memory fade and then read them all again.

 

[DNO]

Just finished 'The Franklin conspiracy' by J. B. Latta. Pseudo-history at its worst...but highly entertaining. Love authors who twist themselves into knots trying to create mystery and conspiracy. This one was almost as amusing as von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods, but he only hints at hostile giants and strange radiation sources. I would have thought there's enough mystery with the Franklin expedition without trying to fabricate some more!

 

[Harp]

From Here to Eternity

Another one that I've been meaning to read for decades and finally got around to...

When you are done, love to hear your review of it and, if you seen it, how it compares to the movie.

I am looking forward to doing that, my plan is to re-watch the movie after I finish the book. I am reading the restored version, which was released in 2011 with material originally censored by the publisher being added back.

I did not get around to reading James Jones' epic From Here To Eternity until I was twenty-three or so and in college,
where it was assigned as an elective for a lit class with a term paper tag added. As I was an ex-soldier and had been on Oahu
at Schofield Barracks, I thought it would be a cinch; however, the novel itself and the story behind it proved more interesting.

Jones had busted sergeant at Ft Campbell, Kentucky after being wounded on Guadalcanal earlier in the war,
and was issued a bad conduct discharge in 1944 upon his release from the camp stockade. Returning to Illinois to write
his novel which he dedicated to the US Army and citing title off a Kipling yarn, Jones included a preface remark about the
stockade chapters, a personal imprimatur. Apparently, Jones had witnessed stockade cadre commit a murder. And that got
in the book, and the subsequent motion picture film version included a death scene; albeit somewhat differently drawn.

Jones cited Emerson also: If the whole of history lies in one man, it is all to be explained through individual circumstance.

 

[hatguy1]

"Howard Carter; the Route to Tutenkamen," by T. G. H. James. (Carter was an artist-Egyptologist who discovered King Tit's tomb).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dennis Young]

Absolutely. Everything Chandler wrote was excellent! Wish he wrote more.

Yeah, alcoholism will do that.

 

[DNO]

Really lucky find at a thrift store: George Witton's Scapegoats of the Empire. It's the only first hand account of the Bushveldt Carabineers in the Boer War. Not being particularly flattering to the empire, it was suppressed when first published in 1907. Witton was one of the defendants, along with Handcock and Morant, in the trial that was dramatized in the film, Breaker Morant. Interesting reading so far.