The Book I Read to Pieces: Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov

 Well...I only paid a buck fifty for it, and it was 33 years old, so it's not exactly a surprise that this book disintegrated as I read it. But it's still a bit of a shame, isn't it? On the other hand, I am certain I'll never read this book again, so I guess I'm not really out anything.

Because?

Well, mostly because I am moving on, moving on--but not because it's getting phony. Because I have a lot of books left to read, and not that many years left to read them in. But to tell you the truth...this book was more than a bit of a disappointment for me. I am loathe to spoil anything, but I must just say this: The final chapters of this book actually undermine the entire Foundation series. They also link it up to another Asimov series, so that's nice, but really...why would Asimov blow up the series that is considered by many (most?) science fiction readers to be his finest achievement? (1966 Best All-Time Series Hugo Award: Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.) 

Well. Let's just say that it made the "final" book in The Foundation Series (quotation marks courtesy of the fact that later on Asimov wrote two prequels and three other guys wrote another trilogy that fit in between those Asimov prequels and Foundation, so it's final in some senses, but not in others) more than a bit of a letdown. Unfortunately, if you want to read the series, you really have to read this book, as skipping it would just leave everything set up in Foundation's Edge dangling from that edge. So basically you're screwed either way, but maybe knowing that there's going to be some bad shit at the end will help to soften the blow and allow you to enjoy it more than I did?

This is my dream.

As for me...I'm still going to read Foundation's Friends, which is a collection of stories and essays written as a paean to Asimov's great series. I'll admit that I'm not expecting much, but hey, who knows... maybe I'll be surprised. 

The Book I'm Reading to Joe: Apache Devil by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I had been reading Edgar Rice Burroughs books for 9 1/2 years when I pulled Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder off of my bookshelf and commenced to tear through it (even though it was more than a few yards away from good). And for some reason, this set me off on an ERB jag, and even though Joe and I had not yet finished the Carson of Venus Pentalogy, I finished off all of the other ERB books we hadn't yet read (about 40) on my own...and even read the last Carson of Venus story (The Wizard of Venus) ahead of reading it with Joe. (And had no problem re-reading it venisoon after. I really liked that series.) 

Of all the ERB books that I've read, though, the two Apache novels--The War Chief and Apache Devil--stand out as truly excellent. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I think they qualify as Must Read books. So I was more than happy to re-read The War Chief with Joe, and my admiration for the book only increased as we read. It took us almost two months...which is a little more that it usually takes us, so it might be a bit longer than the usual Burroughs book. But it is worth it. The sensitivity Burroughs shows for the plight of the Native Americans...and the understanding he displays of their culture...are not just impressive, they're astounding for an American White Man of 1927.   And ERB had honed his sarcastic tone to a razor's edge by this time, so there were many slashes at the pride White European culture had for its "superior status."

When I'd gone on my ERB binge, I got quite a few of the novels via Kindle packages which were cheap...and rife with typographical errors. (Some of them had over a hundred errors. And yes, I did count, as a matter of fact.) And Joe and I had read some ERBs via Kindle previously...the hard to acquire Tarzan Twins novels, for instance...but it hadn't been as enjoyable for either of us as reading an actual book, so when we neared the end of The War Chief 1, I decided to buy a paper copy of Apache Devil, which I had read in the The Edgar Rice Burroughs Western MEGAPACK ®. And Better World Books (one of my two favorite online bookstores 2) was happy to supply me with the copy pictured above...a lovely former library copy which had been published in 1978 (so not a first edition, obviously)...for a mere $6.49 + tax.

Former library books tend to be a bit haggard, and they have lots of annoying stamps and stickers and all of that, but sometimes, if they're of a certain age, they have one thing which more than makes up for those defects: a Due Date Slips...or, if you're REALLY lucky, a Pocket and a Checkout Card. In this case, there was a pocket, but no card, but there were two Slips.

And this made me very happy, because, as you can see, this book had been checked out more than a few times. So there were some folks in Nevada who appreciated this largely forgotten Burroughs book, at least. And the book wasn't in great shape, so it's possible that it was pulled out of circulation because of its condition rather than because nobody wanted it anymore. Evidence of this:

Yep. There's still an Apache Devil out there in Reno. (Alas, the same thing can't be said of Louisville, which has no Apache Devils at all.)

So...we're off you know. And here's just one of those scathing wit phrases from ERB for you...which, hopefully, will make you want more:

"...how can one expect overworked Christian congressman to neglect their electorate in the interests of benighted savages who have no votes?" (page 36)

1  I'm excited to add that the copy I read to Joe was 93 years old...and a First Edition (though not in good enough shape to be worth The Big Bucks.) And in case you were wondering, here are the "FIRST EDITION IDENTIFIERS," courtesy of http://erbfirsts.com/Other-html/o11.asp: "A.C. McClurg & Co. published the first edition of this book on Sep. 15, 1927. They did not reprint this title so any book with their name on the spine is a first edition. The only illustration is to the title page. The artist of the illustration is unknown. The illustration on the dust jacket is identical to the magazine cover art which was done by Paul Stahr. A total of 6,000 copies were printed."

2  The second being Thrift Books. Both it and Better World Books have great selections, low prices, free or low-cost shipping, and don't fuck people over the way Amazon does. I saw an interview with the Better World Books guy who said that he has to list his books with Amazon, since they control so much of the market, but that his share of a sale is $1 there, whereas it would be $4 on his own site. And the kicker here is that Better World isn't just a cute name--they actually do lots of things to try to make the world better via literacy programs. So I choose them. (I don't know much about Thrift Books, but Wikipedia says that they do partner with libraries to acquire unsorted books, and share the profits from selling those books with said libraries.) 

A Delightful Coincidence.

I like to watch Food Factory. I don't know why. There's just something about seeing how things are put together that really appeals to me. 1  And seeing how food things are put together is even more entrancing. So...yes, Food Factory. 

I don't watch it on a regular basis, but not for lack of interest. I am just not capable of remembering when things are on...or even what channel, for that matter. So it's always a matter of coming upon it unexpectedly whilst scrolling around. 

Which I did yesterday. And they were doing a block of episodes, so I just kept hanging in there. One of the episodes included a segment on the making of Turkish Delight. 2

Public Domain

I'm sorry to say that I've never partaken of this Delight of Turkey (the original name of the snack once it had been hijacked from The Ottomans), and, in fact, that I only knew of it from references in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. Which, by the way, my daughter and son had just started reading with their Zoom book club, and I remembered them talking about Turkish Delight for a few moments. 

But that's not the Delightful Coincidence. 

This is. The next day, Joe and I sat down to watch the latest episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (a most excellent show, by the way, and highly, highly recommended), and one of the bad guys, Baron Zemo, not only referred to Turkish Delight, but used it to bribe some kids into giving him some information.

So there you have it. Another weird coincidence...maybe two or three...which are of absolutely no use whatsoever, other than to make me go, "Whaaa---?"

1  And not just food, so I also like How It's Made. But I haven't seen that one for a very long time. Is it still on?

2  And yes, before the episode was over, I was online checking out prices and availability. (Turns out you can get several different varieties from Walmart, but it's kind of pricey by my poor man standards.)

The Book I Read: Five Decembers by James Kestrel

I received my copy of the forthcoming HARD CASE👑🔫CRIME book Five Decembers, which is slated for release this October 19th,  on 3/30/21. At 9:07 am. Never mind how, I don't want you getting jealous. Let's just say that I have friends in hard places. And despite the fact that I have a lot on my reading plate, I knocked back this 400+ page novel in 7 days...and I found it pretty compelling stuff.

For one thing, it's not your typical hard boiled crime book. Not that there's anything wrong with that. (In fact, far from it as far as I'm concerned.) Across the course of three Parts, we move from a pretty straightforward detective story to a historical fiction narrative to a love story which turns back into a detective novel. And it works. It adds depth and dimension to the story, which also allows the characters to solidify and attain that precious third dimension that is often not found in genre fiction.

As for the historical aspect, we're talking about a span of time from December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1945 (hence five Decembers), so of course we're talking about World War II. Well...it just so happens that I've been pretty immersed in the World War II era of late. It started with my reading of Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad, continued through his Life and Fate, and then went straight into the 6 volume The Second World War by Winston Churchill, the 4th volume of which I'm about to finish. Because of those readings, my movie watching also took a hard right into World War II era territory, so I gobbled up part of the Russian series based on Life and Fate, Enemy at the Gates, Dunkirk, The Man Who Never Was, Shadow in the Cloud, Pearl Harbor, Good Times Wonderful Times, Greyhound, In Harm's Way, and Midway. 

So when I begin to read Five Decembers, I had to wonder if I wouldn't be besieged by historical errors that I might not otherwise have noticed. I suppose that doesn't matter a whole lot in the larger picture of appreciating a work of fiction, but I have to confess that it does matter quite a bit to me. When I encounter errors of fact, typos and grammatical errors, etc., it throws me out of the fictional dream at 62 mph, and as it goes on it becomes harder and harder to stand up, dust myself off, and jump aboard the now stalled car. In fact, there are times when I just have to give up on a book because of these things. But that didn't happen once in Five Decembers. I can only conclude that this so-called James Kestrel (it's a pseudonym) researched the shit out of this book. Unless s/he's 96 years old and lived through it...and kept copious notes.

All of which is to say that the story-telling is solid.

There were a few things that did throw me off for a minute or two, though. I mention them only because if they throw you off, I am hoping that they don't throw you out of the novel, because then you'd miss a good thing.

First, a minor thing. There were a few words and phrases which stopped me cold. One, there's a character whose last name is Beamer. Let me just say that there are a lot of names that don't make me think about a BMW, and I wish "James Kestrel" had chosen one of them. Also, there are several occurrences of this: "Beamer hung back and let McGrady badge her." I'm sure (given the above) that this term is historically accurate, but it still disrupted the narrative for me. I had to stop, think about it, wonder why that choice, and then get back on board. The same goes for references to a "reefer"--of which there are several. Maybe it's just my age, but a reefer is not slang for a refrigerator, it's slang for a marijuana cigarette. So I had to go through that a few times.

Second, a much bigger thing. I'm going to avoid spoilers here, but at around the 2/3rds point of the book, there are two coincidences which went beyond what I'm willing to accept as reasonable. Both had to do with characters who appear in certain plot-convenient places. And the thing is that neither of those coincidences were necessary to the plot of the story. I'm glad to say that neither of these made me want to stop reading the novel...but they both made me put it down and shake my head a little bit. If you find yourself in my shoes, I'd encourage you to get back to it. The payoff is worth it. 

I usually find that if I like a book a lot, there are lines which I want to keep hold of. Here are a few from Five Decembers:

"McGrady had one of those faces. Everything squared off and somehow unfinished, as though his sculptor had snapped a chisel on unexpectedly hard stone." 

Now that's a description, isn't it?

Also, I wasn't really sure what to think of McGrady until this: "McGrady saw two pairs of shoes outside the door. He leaned against the porch rail, and took off his shoe."

Keep in mind that this is an American fellow we're talking about here. And in the 1940s. 

"Everything that mattered was already past." 

Oh. That one really hurt. Been there. 

Okay, don't want to spoil anything, so enough of the quotes. 

And just one more thing...reference sex scenes. "James Kestrel" is one of the most discreet writers EVer when it comes to sex scenes. For one thing, there are only two. And I admired that. So many times lead male characters are depicted as lotharios...or, even worse, as irresistible to women. I very much liked the fact that we had a lead character who didn't want to (and didn't) have sex with a dozen women. Also, when these scenes did occur, we got enough detail to know what was happening, but not so much that it felt prurient.

All in all...hats off to James Kestrel. I hope that her/his identity is revealed at some point, as I would certainly like to read more from this writer.

-40-

Ted Cruz: In For a Brew Sin

 So...The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) put up this Tweet:

And, you know, that's just kind of childish, so of course it only took me a few seconds to decide to participate. 

And it only took a few more seconds to decide on my version of Ted's Background:

And of course I entitled it, "His Master's Voice."

Even with the photoshopping, it didn't take much effort. A lot less effort than any blogpost I've ever done. And fifteen minutes later...

Let's just be generous to my ego and say that many of my posts don't reach 318 hits in fifteen weeks, much less fifteen minutes.

Hmmmmm.

P.S. Twenty minutes later:

P.P.S. And after 1 hour and 40 minutes:

And you know what? I only have 5 blog posts with more than 1,392 hits. In 14 1/2 years of blogging. And the "newest" of those five posts is 5 1/2 years old. As in considerably more than two hours old. Also, in the time it's taken me to look up the few facts in the three lines above, this Tweet has gotten another 100 views...which means that in another couple of minutes it will probably move up to more hits than all but 4 of my blog posts. And...yep. There it goes. This is kind of depressing. And kind of exciting, too. But enough is enough. Oh, Twitter, I bow to your power...but I am still much fonder of Blogger.

Bulletin, bulletin, bulletin. This is a bulletin, bulletin, bulletin.... Because I just had to add that 12 hours later, that silly little Tweet passed another of my blogposts in number of views, so that now there are only 3 posts with more views that that Tweet. As an added pinch of salt, this blogpost, which I put up fifteen minutes after that Tweet, has only managed to garner 7 views in almost the same time (12 hours - 15 minutes, that is). 

 

ADDENDUM: It's been about a month, so I thought I'd check in to see if the hits had kept coming. And?

Due to the nature of Twitter, I'd guess that that was about it, but I'll try to remember to check back every little once in awhile. Just to see.