Van Basten II Posted June 19, 2011 Report Posted June 19, 2011 Hiliarous, it has aged quite well as they are things that have changed little. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted June 20, 2011 Report Posted June 20, 2011 Hiliarous, it has aged quite well as they are things that have changed little. Not the stuff I would have thought would hold up, but yeah, it's great! Quote
jlhoots Posted June 21, 2011 Report Posted June 21, 2011 Paul Strand In Mexico Powerful book about an iconic photographer. Comes with a DVD of his film Redes. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted June 26, 2011 Report Posted June 26, 2011 Excellent book. But then, I've never been disappointed by Simak. Quote
Jazzmoose Posted June 26, 2011 Report Posted June 26, 2011 This combines the first three Lafayette O'Leary novels under one cover. Like most Laumer, nothing earthshaking, just fun to read. Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted June 26, 2011 Report Posted June 26, 2011 Only know about this bit of history in passing. Fascinating story. Quote
BillF Posted June 26, 2011 Report Posted June 26, 2011 Excellent book. But then, I've never been disappointed by Simak. Thought you would have read that one, Jazzmoose! So far, seems really good stuff. Got it from a list of greatest science fiction books. Quote
BruceH Posted June 26, 2011 Report Posted June 26, 2011 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. Not as good as it's reputation, of course, but better than I remembered. I'm sort of half-tempted to read the full, expanded version (from 1991), which is 60,000 words longer. However, I suspect the editors did Heinlein a huge favor. That's usually the case, but in this case, I think the expanded version is much better. I read it when it came out in '91, and thought the additions made the novel flow a lot better, and cleared up some dangling questions. I read the "expanded" (unedited) versions of "The Puppet Masters" and "Red Planet" and in both cases found some of the "extra" material intriguing, but overall preferred the shorter, edited versions. I've also heard that the shorter, originally published version of SIASL is now out of print and the only version you can now buy is the expanded one. If this is true, it strikes me as a little odd, to say the least. Nice cover. Never seen that particular edition. Quote
jazzbo Posted June 30, 2011 Report Posted June 30, 2011 (edited) I decided to re-read this one when I pulled it from the shelf and read this sentence from the Introduction: When you find you can go neither backward nor forward, when you discover that you are no longer able to stand, sit, or lie down, when your children have died of malnutrition and your aged parents haven been sent to the poorhouse or the gas chamber, when you realize that you can neither write nor not write, that you are convinced that all exits are blocked, either you take to believing in miracles or you should stand still like the hummingbird. Henry Miller is always an inspiration for me. Edited June 30, 2011 by jazzbo Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted July 1, 2011 Report Posted July 1, 2011 Just started: First 50 pages are fascinating. Quote
paul secor Posted July 2, 2011 Report Posted July 2, 2011 David Abbott's The Upright Piano Player Why do so many novels start very promisingly and end disappointingly? This one could have used a good editor. Quote
paul secor Posted July 4, 2011 Report Posted July 4, 2011 Just finished reading Donald M. Marquis' In Search of buddy Bolden. Quote
ejp626 Posted July 4, 2011 Report Posted July 4, 2011 Just wrapped up PKD's Radio Free Albemuth. It was a little wearying. I suspect I won't care much for Valis, which has many of the same pre-occupations but is considerably longer. I think I did order a copy a while back, however. I'm about halfway through Suketu Mehta's Maximum City, which is about Bombay/Mumbai. There is definitely some interesting material, though overwhelmingly depressing (sort of like a non-fictional Rohinton Mistry). I do think he needed a much tougher editor, however, as it seems really 40-50% longer than it should be. It would be a really effective 200-250 page portrait of the city. At 500+ pages it is just much too much. Quote
jazzbo Posted July 4, 2011 Report Posted July 4, 2011 Just wrapped up PKD's Radio Free Albemuth. It was a little wearying. I suspect I won't care much for Valis, which has many of the same pre-occupations but is considerably longer. I think I did order a copy a while back, however. VALIS, though similarly pre-occupied, is quite different. Dick misunderstood his agent's suggestions and rather than make a few revisions he completely reworked the material. I think VALIS is superior to Radio Free Albimuth. Quote
ejp626 Posted July 4, 2011 Report Posted July 4, 2011 Just wrapped up PKD's Radio Free Albemuth. It was a little wearying. I suspect I won't care much for Valis, which has many of the same pre-occupations but is considerably longer. I think I did order a copy a while back, however. VALIS, though similarly pre-occupied, is quite different. Dick misunderstood his agent's suggestions and rather than make a few revisions he completely reworked the material. I think VALIS is superior to Radio Free Albimuth. Ok, I'll keep that in mind. It turned out that I got the LoA volume which includes VALIS, A Maze of Death, The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. Quote
alankin Posted July 10, 2011 Report Posted July 10, 2011 Portrait: A Life of Thomas Eakins by William S. McFeely An interesting moderate sized biography. Enjoyable read. Quote
ghost of miles Posted July 11, 2011 Author Report Posted July 11, 2011 Ted Gioia's revised edition of THE HISTORY OF JAZZ. Quote
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