Sunday Morning Book Thread - 07-14-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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. 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...

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?

[NOTE: I know it's tempting to talk about the assassination attempt on Trump. We'll be talking about it for days, if not months. But let's put that aside for a couple of hours and immerse ourselves in the world of books. Or at least observe the 100 Comment Rule. CBD will be along at Noon, ET, with a relevant political thread, -- PS]

HARD TRUTHS FOR WRITERS

For those who are not inclined to watch the video above, here are the main 5 points:

1. Writing is mostly boring - This is very true, regardless of what you are writing. Although writing can be collaborative, the main writing process where you dump your story down onto the page is going to take a lot of solitary time where you are doing nothing more than writing, writing, and writing. If you want to turn writing books into a career, you have to be willing to spend several hours a day at the computer writing.
2. You will never reach your potential - As the YouTuber above points out, this is true for nearly every human endeavor. Unless you are willing to go all out and work, work and work some more at perfecting just ONE skill, you will never reach the maximum human potential. Think of the sacrifices Olympic-class athletes have to make to compete at the highest levels.
3. Many of your ideas won't work - Writers abandon ideas all the time because they don't work in the story they are trying to tell. That's OK. Perhaps the ideas that don't work in one story are better suited for a different story. Writing is a creative process. That means exploring ideas to see which ones will best match your creative vision. No one will ever see those abandoned ideas unless you share them with others.
4. Your ideas don't matter - As the YouTuber above points out, a bad idea executed well is better than a great idea executed poorly. Most story ideas are just variations on the same ideas, but the memorable ones are those where the writer introduces a new twist, thus creating moments of surprise and wonder in the reader. How many locked-room mysteries are there? How many romances where the main character has to sort through feelings for one or more love interests? How many epic quests can the Hero's Journey take us on? These ideas are timeless and fascinating, because we always want to find a new spin on them based on how well the writer is able to execute their version of that idea.
5. Your novel is never finished - At some point, you will have to walk away from your story. Once it's been submitted for publication, it may be out of your hands entirely. It's up to the editors and proofreaders to clean up any lingering errors or mistakes. Though they can still creep in and then you have to live with those from now on.

MAKING A MEDIEVAL BOOK - Complete Process from Start to Finish

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Reminded by comments last week, I recommend A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell. This is a foundational work to understand the dichotomy in our political and social discourse. Many of you have read this seminal work; for those who have not, it truly is required reading in order to understand how so many issues have two sides that can rarely even properly debate. The constrained vision, the one that conservatives relate to, so brilliantly argued by Adam Smith, believes that humans are imperfect and selfish, and their self interest drives them to improve themselves and indirectly benefits their fellow man. The unconstrained vision, exemplified by Rousseau, believes man is perfectible, and can not only be molded to perfection, but that it is a moral imperative to do so and this end justifies any means. To an unconstrained mind, when a mob surrounds a courthouse to threaten a judge or jury to return a ruling they want, this is not damaging to the legal system, it is forcing the system to do the "right" thing. To a constrained mind, the ends never justify the means. For one to truly understand the driving force behind these divisions, this book is a vital resource.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at July 07, 2024 09:09 AM (zctuX)

Comment: To anyone who has been paying attention these last few years, it's very clear that the American people are divided into two main camps. We have already seen a very clear difference between Trump's America and Biden's America. The voters will pick one or the other in November (with a little assist from the Dem cheat machine, of course).

I'm just about finished reading Dracula, apparently for the first time. It's one of those books that is so ingrained in our culture that it felt like I'd already read it until I started rereading it. Pretty much nothing like the movies, although the old Bella Lugosi version comes closest.

It's brilliant. It's a real team book, and told in I think the phrase is epistolary form via diaries, doctors' notes, news clippings circling into the true horror of what is happening to these women.

The hard part is that so much of it has since become standard. I'm pretty sure we know a lot more going in than readers of its era, because it was so deservedly successful.

It is hard to believe that the same author wrote Lair of the White Worm.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at July 07, 2024 09:47 AM (EXyHK)

Comment: Even if you've never read Dracula, you are probably already familiar with the story as it has been retold and reimagined by both Hollywood and writers over the past several decades. Dean Koontz' Frankenstein series even alludes to it with one of the characters named Jonathan Harker, who was the main viewpoint character in the novel. I think my favorite adaptation so far is Kim Newman's Anno Dracula, which blends Dracula with the Jack the Ripper story. In this version, Dracula has taken over England and infected many of the people with his disease. Other vampires have also emerged from the shadows to take their place in open society. Meanwhile, a vicious killer stalks the streets of London, butchering and dismembering newly-turned vampires...

I'm reading the first in Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden magic/PI series, Storm Front. A lot of fun so far. The cover illustration of Harry in his duster (and with a tall straight black fedora) makes me think of Hugh Jackman in the role. Since the first of the X-Men movies with Jackman as Wolverine didn't appear until 2000, the year this book came out, I don't know if Butcher could have had HJ in mind when he wrote the novel in the late '90s. But I might not be surprised.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at July 07, 2024 09:06 AM (omVj0)

Comment: I love the Dresden Files series. The first two are a bit rough, as Butcher is still trying to figure out his character and set up the world in which Harry lives. Butcher starts to hit his stride with Book 3, Grave Peril, which introduces the character of Michael Carpenter, Harry's best friend and moral compass. Michael is a "Knight of the Cross" and has been blessed to carry the sword Excalibur. Although Michael doesn't show up in every story, Michael is the rock around which Harry centers his entire world. It's a fun urban fantasy series. I'm looking forward to the final books...whenever Butcher gets around to them...

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

WHAT I'VE ACQUIRED THIS PAST WEEK:

I recently read Dean Koontz's Frankenstein series. Well, it turns out that there are two book in addition to the original three volumes in the series. Victor Frankenstein was crazy prepared...

• Dean Koontz's Frankenstein 4 - Lost Souls
• Dean Koontz's Frankenstein 5 - The Dead Town

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.

The Harpers Book 13 - Silver Shadows by Elaine Cunningham

The half-elf assassin and Harper agent Arilyn Moonblade is tasked with finding peace between the wild forest elves of Tethyr and the humans who are encroaching on their territory. From the beginning, it's clear that the conflict between them is being orchestrated by a third party. Is it the Knights of the Shield? The Zhentarim? What is the end goal here? The elves are overmatched by the human cunning and ferocity (and numbers), but they don't want to abandon their forest for the sanctuary offered by Evermeet, the elven homeland.

Salvation by Peter F. Hamilton

Hamilton takes the Rule of Cool and just runs with it for his science fiction novels. The big "cool idea" in Salvation is that humanity has mastered the art of quantum spatial entanglement and uses it for instant teleportation anywhere they can set up a portal. They still have to haul a portal across the galaxy via slower-than-light drives, but they can "cheat" by harnessing the power of the suns to drop a portal into a sun and siphon fuel (i.e., hydrogen/helium) directly into the reaction chambers of starships. This means they don't need to carry any fuel onboard and never, ever have to stop for gas. It also means they can accelerate ships to a sizable fraction of the speed of light. Hamilton gives a fairly detailed chronology of "future history" at the end of the book. His world building is top notch and that's why I've enjoyed his novels.

For the actual story, it involves a pilgrimage of sorts as a team of crack investigators heads out on an alien world to find and examine an alien artifact. Along the way, we find out the backstories of each of the characters. This is all interspliced with future events, when mankind has been reduced to a small enclave, and this remnant of humanity must now rediscover the lost arts of war and reconquer the galaxy. The structure is very reminiscent of Dan Simmons' Hyperion but I can't tell if it an intentional homage or not.

Sandman Slim Book 4- Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey

Sandman Slim, a.k.a James Stark, is trapped in Hell once again. This time, he's the guy in charge, since Lucifer decided to go on vacation in Heaven and left all his power and authority with Stark. Now Stark has to find his way back out of Hell and to the L.A. he knows and loves to stop a serial killer that might be his alter ego.

The Sandman Slim series is mostly ludicrous black comedy and usually entertaining fun. Kadrey does seem to have a thing for Donald Trump though--and not in a positive was--as Trump is often mentioned by name. This book was written in 2012, long before Trump became a political figure.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 07-07-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Prayers for President Donald Trump, his family, and the family of the poor unfortunate victim who was killed.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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