What are you reading?

I much disliked the Connecticut Yankee ending. And wasn't expecting it, because the musical version back in school had stayed so much lighter. But at least I couldn't call it a yawn. And I think I disliked it the way Twain wanted me to dislike it.

Have a friend who really disliked the end of 1984. Same sort of deal.

I suspect the author isn't too sad when I dislike something in a book, exactly the way he wanted me to...

 

hunchback was similar, and mutiny, but that was a true story

 

station eleven, i can't believe this was written in '14, not far off the mark. a bit creepy in places

 

Just picked up from the DOD Digital Library:

America, a Redemption Story, by Tim Scott
No Country for Old Men, by McCarthy (Cormac, NOT the next SOTH...)

 

Currently reading Night Watch - The Vet Suite, by Gillian Wigmore (BC author): 3 short novella compendium. Just finished the first, not what I’d expected, but a good read.

 

Being retired and out here in the desert I decided a few years ago to start fooling around with a little photography so I bought a DSLR package that has a lot more to it than I could ever probably use. It was, however, a great deal at the time. Up until now all I've been doing is shooting in automatic mode with the couple of zoom lenses that work in that mode. Now I'd like to start using the close-up and big telephoto lenses to start taking night shots and time-release pictures. So, the book I'm just starting is Nikon D3500 for Dummies by Julie Adair King.

 

Funny: I recall a quote by a large-format photographer (name escapes me, of course), making and then contact-printing 11"x14" negatives. He did a lot of desert scenes, driving his gear around in a station wagon. The quote, and I'm more'n likely paraphrasing:

"If it's more than a hundred yards from the car, it's not photogenic"



11"x14" contact prints are something to behold, with detail that rivals/exceeds the finest pro-sumer digital, and dynamic range way surpassing it.

 

homer's odyssey. 'greatest story ever written', i'll be the judge of that. after a hundred pages of yawn, i'm starting to form an opinion

 

Highly recommend!!
His mother's opener threatened me with tears.
His COS, Jennifer DeCasper's interview and rags to ragger contribution brought smiles and laughter.

To hear it in their own voices added immeasurably TO its authencity.
If he ever runs for President, I'll knock on doors for him!!

 

Going through my late Mom's papers, we found this letter to the editor:



Bob Wilson

 

just finished 'bob's mom's letter to the editor.' couldn't put it down

 

just finished 'mrs. palfrey at the claremont'

starting 'hitchhikers guide to the galaxy'

tried to read king arthur and much ado about nothing, but gave up in both cases

 

A real page turner.

 

I read “The Stand” by Stephen King. It was apparently a second version after publisher removed page-count limits. It was an imaginative tale based on Bad People Making Diseases Worse. How that could bring civilization to its knees. So, sorta topical. A conflagration of theology, mysticism, telepathy, and post-civilization crawling. Populated by many characters who could never quite do enough without help from their ink mates. OMFG it was long…

 

I read the shelf-bender version of that one myself.
It was typical of late 70's or early 80's King.

Like a child who builds a fantastically intricate sandcastle, and then flattens it with steam roller.

Still....
He's my 'guilty pleasure' genre and obviously a fantastically gifted writer.
I've only walked away from one of his books (It) and the last book of his I read in the blind was Billy Summers, which was relatively short and quite enjoyable.

I still occasionally get a 'Teddy Bear's Picnic' earworm from that book.

I bogged down reading Nate Silver's 'The Signal And The Noise" so I'm using O'Reilly's 'Killing The Killers'
Carlton's 'Scrap Iron Flotilla' and Darman's 'Becoming FDR' as palette cleansers.

 

Good read, done it twice.

You want long, try The Executioner's Song (Garry Gilmore life, trial and execution). Starts strong, continues thus, but the burgeoning cast of characters grows like Japanese Knotwood, and the author labouriously wraps up most every last one. Capote Mailer must have had an office of staff, keeping track of all the threads, maybe doing some ghostwriting...

Maybe that's part of the story, the ripples caused by a few stupid/brutal acts.

Another saga, but an easier read, and a real page turner: A Man In Full.

 

My library has it!
I'll let you know.

I also put Norman Mailer's book on hold.
Almost 1200 pages??
That one might take a while to get through.