Sunday Morning Book Thread - 01-07-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! This is the first Sunday Morning Book Thread of 2024! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (They came to kick ass and eat Scooby Snacks...and they're all out of Scooby Snacks!). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(rock polishing kit not included!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

This picture is from the Admont Abbey library, located in a small, picturesque town in the middle of rural Austria. The abbey is supposedly the largest in the world, featuring not only a library containing 70,000 volumes (out of 200,000 in the abbey's archives), but also a number of small museums. The library is open to the public. Incidentally, I find it interesting that the website where I found this picture features 7 coolest libraries in the world, 6 of which are found in Europe. Hmmm...

ANALYTICAL READING

Reading nonfiction tends to require a very different set of reading skills than reading fiction, especially if one is reading nonfiction with particular purpose in mind, such as researching a topic. "Analytical reading" is much more methodical, detailed, and focused than simply reading for pleasure. You can certainly engage with "analytical reading" of fiction, though, as any graduate student in English literature can tell you. As with any activity, it's up to you to determine your purpose in engaging in that activity. Here are the key points from the video below:

• Make it your own -- Engage with the author by annotating the book with all of your notes and questions that you have with the text. The downside to this is that when you mark up the book, you really are making it your own because another reader will not be able to make sense of your notes and annotations. When I was in college, I often purchased "used" books for my literature courses, but those often came with another person's notes. I didn't much care for that, even though the "used" copy was a lot cheaper. Instead, if you have the means, buy a clean copy of the book and then mark it up with your own notes. You may have trouble getting rid of it later, however.
• Inspect the book -- When you read a nonfiction book, the author is often laying an argument formed from their own propositions. It's your job as the reader to identify those propositions and determine if the author's arguments hold any substance. I did this in my class this semester by introducing my students to the concept of a syllogism, a logical argument formed from a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Any analytical reading will require you to identify the premises of the author and determine their logical soundness and validity.
• Summarize each chapter -- An important component of deep learning is reflection. One way to accomplish this is to summarize a chapter's main ideas in your own words. Can you explain the concept to someone else so that they can understand it? If so, then you probably understand the concept at some level of proficiency. If you are struggling, you may need to find more resources that will help you understand the author's ideas. Writing these notes out by hand actually reinforces neural pathways in your brain that lead to deeper learning.
• Archive what you've learned -- After you have read each chapter thoroughly, you will want to find a way to archive what you've learned for later use, if needed. For instance, if you were reading several books on WWII history (like so many of you do), then how do you ensure that you have ready access to the information you've learned *without* having to carry around the complete works of John C. McManus? (Yes, you can have them on a Kindle or other eReader, but you still want a means of accessing the main points quickly and easily.) It can be helpful to digitize all of your notes. There are plenty of apps that can help you keep track of your notes and citations, especially if you are researching material for your own writing.

STORING BOOKS HORIZONTALLY

Anyone who has collected books over a long period of time will no doubt have acquired books in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Then we have the problem of deciding how we want to display our books so that we can show our intellectual prowess to any guests that visit our household. I think in most cases, people will want to store them vertically, as they are easier to access that way. However, oversized books don't always fit neatly on our shelves, which are often optimized for certain sizes of books. Some folks will choose to display all of their books horizontally instead. I've seen that in at least one used bookstore, where large numbers of books were stacked on the shelves horizontally. In my own library, I have quite a few books that I've had to separate out from the majority because they simply will not fit on my shelves like the rest of the books. For instance, I have quite a few Time/Life books about mythology that do not fit on my main shelves, but must be displayed horizontally. The library in which I work (but do not work for) has an entire section of shelving outside my officed dedicated to "oversize" books. Those are displayed vertically in normal fashion, but the shelf spacing only allows for so many rows of books compared to their normal stacks.

What is YOUR preference for displaying your books?

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

But the crown jewel is the kookoo-bananas Antarctica and the Secret Space Program: From WWII to the Current Space Race by David Hatcher Childress. How I ran across this gem in my traipsing through the library website is a mystery; these oddities seem to find me.

The Thule Society; James Forrestal's suspicious death; Operation Highjump and the Battle of Antarctica; secret moon bases; aliens; Antarctic Nazis! It's like a greatest hits with all my favorite suppressed histories. I SO want all this to be true.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at December 31, 2023 09:12 AM (+RQPJ)

Comment: This sounds like it was written by a genuine fruitcake. David Hatcher Childress was involved in the Ancient Aliens series on The History Channel. Great fodder for storytelling, though. Who *doesn't* want to hear about the Nazi's secret moon base? (How did they get there? How are they being resupplied? What are their plans for conquering Earth from there? How have they remained undetected for generations?)

It is said that some men live the lives of ten men, but in the case of Sir Richard Francis Burton, this may be an understatement. The Devil Drives by Fawn Brodie, professor of history at UCLA, is an excellent biography of this amazing man. Burton spoke over two dozen languages, translated the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra into English, and was one of the few white men to sneak into Mecca, by dying his skin and using his linguistic skills and ethnic knowledge. He was a renowned expert on Africa, helped find the source of the Nile, and carried a spear scar on his left cheek from a tribal battle. In addition, he was a botanist, ethnologist, poet, geologist, and soldier. This book covers the vast expanse of this man's turbulent yet driven life. There are several books on aspects of his career, but this one gives the grand overview of an astounding life. Brodie did a diligent job of research, especially considering that Burton's widow burned as many of his papers as she could after his death, thus depriving history of even more details of his life.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at December 31, 2023 09:12 AM (ikvBW)

Comment: The Riverworld series I read recently by Philip José Farmer used Sir Richard Francis Burton as one of the main characters. Farmer highlighted a number of Burton's exploits in fleshing out his own version of this amazing man. He was a deeply flawed man, but still quite remarkable in all of his accomplishments and achievements. One of the world's great Renaissance men.

I read Anthony Horowitz's novel, The Word is Murder, this past week in which the author himself is a character. Hawthorne, a former police inspector wants Horowitz to write a book with him about a case he is investigating: A woman who was the driver in a hit and run accident has been murdered on the same day she planned and paid for her funeral. The detective is secretive and brilliant. The author is reluctant, but as the case moves on, becomes more caught up in the twists and complications.

I have already requested the sequel from inter-library loan, which is a pretty good recommendation from me.

Posted by: huerfano at December 31, 2023 09:45 AM (Q4KYm)

Comment: The Author Avatar trope in literature is more common than you might think. It also has a very long pedigree, going back to at least the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, where he is one of the pilgrims and relates a couple of stories during their journey. Going back to the Riverworld series, a prominent character is Peter Jairus Frigate, who is a writer of science fiction (like Farmer) and shares many of the same details as Farmer's own biography. Stephen King is particularly famous (or infamous) for inserting some version of himself into his stories.

Oh, and I have The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective in dead tree form heading my way.

Harlan Ellison was a colossal asshole but Holy shit he could write. I've not read anything by him in decades, but my memory of his writing is such that I really need to catch up with him again.

Posted by: Sharkman at December 31, 2023 10:48 AM (/RHNq)

Comment: I thought I had a copy of this book on my shelves. I was wrong. Instead, I have The Essential Ellison: A 50 Year Retrospective Revised and Expanded. It was published a mere 14 years after the 35-year retrospective, so I guess math is not the publisher's strong suit. It is a definitive look at one of the most prolific and creative writing talents of the twentieth century. Yeah, he was a colossal asshole. He'll gladly own up to that by his own admission. But he also had a lot of faithful lifelong friendships with other amazing writing talents and influenced generations of writers after him. He was a man who loved writing, a man who dedicated his life to storytelling in all its varied forms, and someone who always dared to challenge the status quo. The Essential Ellison is required reading for anyone who wants to know and understand who he really was under his irascible public persona.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Malazan Book of the Fallen 1 - Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erickson

Somehow I managed to finish this in about two days, though it's only 490 pages or so in the trade paperback edition. I wrapped it up sometime in the afternoon of New Year's Day. As I understand it, this series evolved from role-playing game sessions between Steven Erickson and his college roommate, Ian C. Esslemont. They used a modified GURPS ruleset for their sessions. Many of the characters and events that take place in Malazan are directly from those role-playing game sessions. The first book follows the adventures of several different characters that are accomplishing goals at odds with one another. Whiskeyjack and his team of sappers infiltrate the last free city on the continent, trying to set up a scenario where they can undermine the defenses and soften it up for the Imperial Malazan armies, which are marching towards the city. In the meantime, Adjunct Lorn, right-hand of the Empress of the Malazan Empire is attempting to raise an elder god that will weaken and perhaps even destroy a key player defending the city. It's a very difficult novel to summarize, because there is SO MUCH GOING ON. Lots of characters and scenes, but they all flow together quite well and result in a pretty decent climax and resolution at the end. There are lots of morally gray characters, but they do tend to value loyalty to their friends and believe they are acting in accordance with a set of moral values. Whiskeyjack's team are a bit put out because they feel that the Empress they serve has betrayed them and is now seeking their deaths (this is true for complicated reasons). Throughout all of this, the gods--especially the twin gods of luck--are starting to intervene in mortal affairs, stirring up all sorts of trouble for the main characters.

(NOTE: I went looking for a GURPS sourcebook for Malazan, since the stories came out of role-playing sessions using that system. Surprisingly, there isn't one. I wonder why. There are plenty of GURPS sourcebooks for other settings, such as Discworld and the New Son.)

Malazan Book of the Fallen 2 - Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erickson

Deadhouse Gates picks up shortly after the events in Gardens of the Moon. Now we follow very different groups of adventurers as they struggle to survive in the crapsack world of the Malazan Empire. A desert priestess starts an uprising among the Seven Cities, but pays a heavy price for her insurrection, even as the occupying Malazan forces are driven from the Seven Cities via the natives' rebellion. The Malazan books are a masterclass in world creation, as Erickson (and his co-creator Ian C. Esslemont) develop the societies and cultures of the Malazan Empire. Not all of them are fully human. Erickson is an archaeologist and anthropologist, so it's not that surprising that he'd play around with society and culture in his books. Much of the second book is just about characters who are struggling for day-to-day survival against the hostile elements of the world--whether they are natural, supernatural, or anthropocentric. I'm enjoying the series as it's well-written and engaging. The scenes tend to be fairly short and there are a lot of jumps between perspectives as the characters are shifted around, but it's not too hard to keep track of what is going on if you are willing to put in a bit of effort to pay attention. You really cannot gloss over too much of the story or you will miss key details that will be important later on. The Malazan books deserve to be *savored*, not just read.

(NOTE: My copy of Deadhouse Gates has a rather unfortunate misprint right in the middle of the book. 24 pages were misaligned during the binding/cutting of the book, so those 24 have the first couple of lines of each page cutoff while there is excess whitespace at the bottom of each page. *sigh*)

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