Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-24-2022 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(ht: Tonypete)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (very handy reference guide for traveling in fantasyland). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material, even if it's nothing more than the federal regulations on regular, susbstantive interactions in online courses. As always, pants are required, especially if you are wearing these pants (needs more pepperoni!)...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, dice up some hashbrowns (scattered, smothered, and covered), and crack open a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Today's pic was provided by Tonypete:

Perfessor Squirrel,

As you requested - a pic of the little library I made for the neighborhood little kids. They think the path is through the deepest, impenetrable woods when, of course, it is simply between me and my neighbor's home. It's right outside my office so I can keep an eye on them if need be but they all are good kids. LOL

My wife painted the hex sign on the sides because, well, you never know.

Tonypete

Comment: This looks like a very relaxing spot. It's nice that you are providing a space for the neighborhood kids to enjoy their reading experience. Of course, it's probably not quite as much fun when it's 100+ degrees outside!

SELF-PUBLISHING

Since we have several Books by Morons this week, here are a couple of videos regarding self-publishing. It's easier than ever to publish your own books. But in order to become successful, it takes an awful lot of hard effort to not only write, edit, and publish your book, but to also market both you and your book to your audience. The quality is something of a mixed bag, but I can honestly say that Moron Authors do seem to be a cut above many other traditional published authors. Kudos to you!

NOTE: The YouTuber below is viewing self-publishing through a fantasy literature lens, but his points are applicable across genres.

(In memory of Dave in Texas, RIP)

BOOKS BY MORONS

We have several Books By Morons this week! (y'all are back from vacation!) Before we get to them, OrangeEnt sent me the following quote from J.D. Salinger:

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.

One of the amazing things about the Internet Age is that we *can* reach out and contact authors to let them know how much we appreciate their work. Furthermore, many authors are very happy to engage with their fans. When I took over the Sunday Morning Book Thread, I never imagined that I would have so many interactions with Moron Authors. It's one of the best parts of this gig. Thank you for sharing your stories with us!

Good Morning Perfessor. I've released my science fiction novel, Metrics, on Amazon, paperback and Kindle. It is an adaptation from the screenplay. My commenter nic is motionview. Thanks for any publicity, and if you get a chance to read it I hope you enjoy it. Bonus Kaboom homage.

Gene Alexander
https://individualwrites.com/

They were trying to free the human genome - they built a spam filter that destroyed the world.

Metrics is a science-fiction action adventure with plenty of violence and some comedy and a bit of absurdity. A group of young scientists are researching the 60% of human DNA with no known function, trying to open-source the human genome. Through a twist of software fate and some 3,000-year-old Sumerian Urn data, they accidentally modify a Wisdom-Of-Crowds spam filter into a villainous artificial intelligence, SpamKiller. The scientists encode the Urn data into their own junk DNA, unwittingly transforming themselves into super-athletes. They quest for redemption against the AI villain, which rules the world with an iron fist. SpamKiller creates a set of death games, the Metrics, to force-evolve replacements for the scientists, while maintaining a deadly obsession with fighting spam.

Comment: *sigh* It's all fun and games until Skynet (or SpamKiller in this instance) wakes up and decides to take over the world...When will humans learn that AI is a crapshoot? This does sound like a book right up my alley, so I think I will check it out!

I'm a regular reader of the Sunday Morning Book Thread.

My latest book is a non-fiction story of loss, perseverance, and acceptance entitled How to Run a Marathon in 13 Years.

It's in discounted pre-order on Amazon.

All the best,

John P. McCann

Comment: I'm going to break the rules a bit and do some math. Let's see, a marathon is 26 miles, so in order to run a marathon in 13 years, I only need to run 2 miles a year. That translates into just under 10 yards a day. I think I can manage that! In all seriousness, though, this sounds like an inspirational tale of a runner whose dreams were dashed via severe injury. Over time, he was able to persevere and overcome numerous challenges (including cancer, weight gain, and depression) to once again achieve his goals. This book will be released on September 9, but you can pre-order now on your Kindle for the low, low price of just $0.99!

Hey Perfessor,

Longtime lurker. I noticed that nobody submitted a book for your AoSHQ Sunday Book Thread this week and wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. I've written four books, and this is my latest. It's a sci fi detective noir story set in a dystopian corporatist future. It would be great if you could post it sometime but no hard feelings if you can't.

The Capella Codex: The Cyber-Locator Files

Best,

Vic

Comment: I absolutely LOVE the cover for this book! It just screams out pulp science fiction from the Golden Age. Like Gene Alexander's book above, this involves an AI going rogue with dire consequences for humanity.

More Books By Morons can be found HERE!

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I finished reading Pierre Berton's The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush. I obtained it in order to learn something about the event because every year scout troops conduct "gold rush" derbies (inter-patrol competitions) during winter camping trips. I learned a lot of new things.

By the time news of the discovery reached the outside world, pretty much all of the sites of the gold had been claimed by those already in Alaska or the Canadian North. All the rushees got was poorer, mostly, or dead.

Berton devoted several chapters to the different routes that folks took to the Yukon. The Dyea and Skagway entry ports are best known; those who took other routes arrived usually as the rush was ending. Beasts of burden were cruelly used and died by the score to the point where the elevations of trails increased over the winter months from their snow encased carcasses.

Berton covers much more, with many anecdotes (he grew up there). This is worth reading.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars at July 17, 2022 09:23 AM (ZvxPV)

Comment: When I took German one of the books we were assigned to read was about the California gold rush at Sutter's Mill. Gold rushes tend to bring out the worst in people as they try to strike it rich. I've heard it said that if you really want to get rich during a gold rush, sell picks, shovels, and other mining gear.

I am a fan of the Random Book feature on Project Gutenberg. Earlier this week, or maybe it was last week, it turned up The Caged Lion by Charlotte Yonge, a historical fiction novel about James II of Scotland. It was pretty entertaining, and the main thing that struck me was how complex the writing was. Most modern people accustomed to Twitter and Instagram would really struggle with this book.

Random Book also turned up a book called An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations, which I haven't read yet (too sick to really focus) but which promises to be timely.

Posted by: Mrs. Peel at July 17, 2022 09:31 AM (8548M)

Comment: This random book reading on Project Gutenberg sounds like an interesting idea. Here is how to get started: Simply go to https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=random and select one of the books that pops up. If none of them grab your interest, just refresh the page to get a new batch of random books. At the moment, my search results include El misterio de un hombre pequeñito: novela (Spanish), Around the World in Eighty Days, Child-Land: Picture-Pages for the Little Ones and Three Spacemen Left to Die!

Reading Improvement: Give them a copy of The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, ED Hersch.

Most non-readers, slow readers, infrequent readers lack the vocabulary both literal and contextual to make reading enjoyable and something requiring little struggle/effort. The only real way to build the vocabulary of words and ideas needed to make reading easy/fun...is to Read. Until someone does, their mental palette has too few colors to paint within their mind the tableau the page creates that makes it interesting. Many people only have the "little box" of crayons, and still struggle with coloring book outlines...enjoyable reading requires a much more varied/overlapping/tinted/shaded wash...think watercolor Impressionists rather than graphic plates. (fuck that abstract shit) Most people think in pictures, until words on a page can transmit scenes..they are all just Black/White.

Hersch created the Dictionary to overcome that...it makes for Bite Sized reading, that makes further reading easier, comprehensible, each bit of knowledge creates a hook that further knowledge can be hung upon.

Posted by: Birddog at July 17, 2022 10:08 AM (uAI4S)

Comment: A writing professor friend of mine always tells the students in his literature classes that the only way they can become good writers is to be good readers first. I told my students the very same thing. As I mentioned last week, reading takes patience and practice, like any skill. One of the better books I've read on teaching writing uses a lot of colorful imagery to convey the idea that you really are painting pictures in your readers' minds.

Hi, horde! I am reading William L. Shirer's The Collapse of the Third Republic about the fall of France in 1940. I knew the frogs had screwed up but I never knew the details. Mon dieu, what a shit show that was - generals whose mindset was stuck in 1918, who had no idea how to use tanks and planes, who didn't even have radio communications. It's a bit unfair to blame the average Pierre for the mess - what could he possibly do when the commanders were sitting in their various HQs far from the front with no idea of what was going on? The Germans were stunned by how easy the frogs made things for them.

Posted by: Donna&&&&&&&&V at July 17, 2022 10:40 AM (HabA/)

Comment: In light of recent events, you do have to wonder at how prepared the United State military is at meeting a truly imminent threat. Sure, our military technology is the envy of every other nation on the planet. But what good does all that hardware do if our men and women in uniform are woefully incapable of adopting a "warrior" mindset because they are not trained to destroy the enemy?

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (308 Moron-recommended books so far!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

• Civilization One: The World is Not as You Thought It Was by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler -- A British engineer makes a startling discovery about megalithic structures in Britain, leading the authors to research a fundamental unit of measurement that may have been used across the world to create fantastic structures and form a basis for units of time, distance, weight, and volume that we still use today.
• The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross -- A British bureaucrat working for a secret paranormal ministry uncovers a conspiracy involving his mostly dead boss.
• Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno -- This is the story of Emperor Palpatine's Sith Master, which is alluded to by Palpatine himself in Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith. One of many stories in the Star Wars universe that we didn't know we needed. It's OK, but not great.
• Azure Bonds by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb -- This is loosely based on the ancient computer role-playing game Curse of the Azure Bonds, which is based on Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1st Ed.). As adaptations go, it's pretty decent.
• Bloom by Wil McCarthy -- The Earth was destroyed by a genetic experiment gone haywire. The survivors now live deep within the moons of Jupiter because the entire inner solar system is uninhabitable. Dr. Fauci's whereabouts at the time of the genetic accident are unknown.
• The Doomsday Vault by Steven Harper - Victorian steampunk with zombies...

That's about all I have for this week. Thank you for all of your kind words regarding my Sunday Morning Book Thread. This is a very special place. You are very special people (in all the best ways!). The kindness, generosity, and wisdom of the Moron Horde knows no bounds. Let's keep reading!

If you have any suggestions for improvement, reading recommendations, or writing projects that you'd like to see on the Sunday Morning Book Thread, you can send them to perfessor dot squirrel at-sign gmail dot com. Your feedback is always appreciated! You can also take a virtual tour of OUR library at libib.com/u/perfessorsquirrel. Since I added sections for AoSHQ, I now consider it OUR library, rather than my own personal fiefdom...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 07-17-22 (hat tip: vmom stabby stabby stabamillion) (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

("Huggy" Squirrel is ready for the zombie / vampire / werewolf Apocalypse! -- Hey! This joke still works!)

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