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Sunday Morning Book Thread: 12/03/2017

Ace has been rightly critical of the SJW mania that has swept the comics world. He linked to someone this week who pointed out that comics sales have tanked. if I recall correctly they are about 10% of what they were a generation or two ago.

I didn't grow up reading comics, mostly because my parents frowned upon them and my friends didn't read them. But as I think about it, I wonder if that isn't a conceit that we cannot afford? Maybe some kids who start out reading comics never graduate to other things, but at least it is reading.

I didn't like to read at all. I thought it was stupid, and was stuck in the lowest reading group in whatever grade that was (1st? 2nd?). So my father bribed me. Get into the next highest group and "I'll buy you a BB gun."

That worked. And why screw with a winning strategy? What about the highest group? Yup...I got a pellet pistol next! For all I know I would have gotten the spark for reading regardless, but the point is: whatever works to get kids to read is the correct strategy. But that kid in the photo doesn't want to read about how Jimmy has two mommies; he wants to read about monsters and aliens and shoot-em-ups and cowboys and tough guys and.....

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A Mind Is A Terrible Thing

You've seen my feeble efforts making verse
While some folks think it's better, some say worse.
I just climb right out of bed
With rhymes colliding in my head
I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse!

Our very own Muldoon is quite close to completing his limerick magnum opus...

Muldoon's Libary of Limericks, Vol. 1

It's not quite ready, but I have compiled a compelling and comprehensive compendium of just over 250 Muldoon limericks that should be ready for sale in about two weeks, just in time for last-minute Christmas gift-giving. It will be in paperback form only, because it is basically a bathroom book (in more ways than one)... Stay tuned for more.

****** I read Nelson DeMille's The Charm School a long time ago, and was tremendously impressed by the combination of quality of writing (damned good) and the cleverness of the story (great!). Since then I have read most of his books, and while the quality is sometimes not what I hoped, DeMille is always a good read. "John Corey," a long-running character who inhabits a bunch of his books, is a fun guy (and an asshole), and if he were real would be a Moron.

DeMille's work doesn't rise to the level of fine fiction, but for beach reading or simply as a diversion he is worth a look. That is not a criticism...some of my favorite books are unimportant in the grand scheme of literature, but I wouldn't give them up for anything. There is nothing quite like curling up with a fun book and getting lost for a few hours. Not everything must be edifying and important and blah blah blah.

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Leon Uris has written some interesting and topical stuff, one of which was made into a reasonably good movie that convinced legions of Americans that all Israeli men looked like a young Paul Newman.

Exodus is a pretty good book that hits home for me, because my mom was a teenager when Israel declared its independence, and experienced first-hand the British occupation and the War of Independence.

The history is reasonably accurate, and Uris is a good storyteller and a polished writer, so this is a book worth reading. And his other stuff is good too!

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S.E. Hinton has, according to someone in my house, written the best teen book EVER! 50 years ago. But that doesn't surprise me because I am about that far behind the times....
The Outsiders
Anyone know anything about it? It is well-reviewed, and is in the Amazon top 1,000 still, which I guess is impressive.
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