Sunday Morning Book Thread - 1-19-2025 ["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 (it's OK--we can rebuild!). 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...(save them for tomorrow!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, prepare for President Donald J. Trump's second inauguration tomorrow, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

I'm always amazed how far people will go in order to deliver books to readers. This guy uses a camel to transport his portable library to outlying regions of Mongolia, where books are few and far between. I'm sure he's a hero to all the folks there. I bet his route is also quite dangerous. People WANT books. People NEED books. I salute those who go the extra mile (or thousand miles) to bring reading materials to locations that lack them.

WHAT YOU READ *MATTERS*

There's no question in my mind that what I've read in my life has shaped my beliefs and my character. Granted, a lot of what I've read may not have been soothing for the soul (much of it has been quite disturbing). But quite a bit of it *has* helped me grow and develop in positive ways throughout my life. Fiction or nonfiction, both offer paths to wisdom, though one may provide more practical solutions than the other.

Looking through all of the books that you have recommended over the years demonstrates the incredible breadth and depth of knowledge and wisdom possessed by the Moron Horde. We truly are an amazing, unique community of readers.

THE ECONOMICS OF USED BOOK STORES

I love used book stores. Of course, I love book stores in general, but there's just something cozy and friendly about used book stores. Unfortunately, I don't have any in my town any more. The economics of used books these days simply don't seem to support a used book store in my community of 20K residents. We did have a rather neat corner used book store several years ago, but it just couldn't stay in business.

Books are rather unique in that the knowledge they contain is priceless, but the books themselves lose most of their value as soon as you crack the spine. You can buy a used book on investing for a few dollars, apply the techniques you learn, and come out the other side a multimillionaire. But you can only sell the book that made you rich for a fraction of what you earned as a result of applying that knowledge. College textbooks are notoriously expensive to buy first hand, but they lose a lot of value and are far cheaper to buy on the secondhand market, assuming your instructor is OK with you using an older version of the book.

I suspect the collective library of the Moron Horde contains enough knowledge to rebuild a civilization from scratch. We could go back to the Stone Age, but using that knowledge we could progress to 19th century technology within a relatively short period of time--decades perhaps. That's how valuable those books really are.

R.I.P. JERRY BOYD, AUTHOR OF Bob and Nikki SERIES

Moron "Idaho Spudboy" asked me to post the following:

I just found out that Jerry Boyd, the prolific author of the Bob and Nikki series of Bob's Saucer Repair novels, unexpectedly passed in December. When I say prolific, I mean it. He cranked out 52 (fifty-two!) Bob and Nikki novels, plus started another series with three more novels, in less than six years. His space opera novels were lighthearted, with the good guys winning and the bad guys getting their just desserts.

He was a great example of "indie" publishing. If he had tried the traditional publishing route, we would have seen maybe five novels from him, in the unlikely event that he could have gotten past the current rainbow-haired gatekeepers.

If you wonder how he could have produced 52 novels, his protagonists were constantly bumping into new alien civilizations, which included the 'Roos, the Monkeys, and of course, the Squirrel Empire. His final novel ended on the cliffhanger of the heroes rushing off to rescue the planet of the Trash Pandas from a rogue asteroid.

All his books are available on Amazon Kindle. I'd greatly appreciate it if you could give him a mention on Sunday. Thank you.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I finished Watership Down this week. It is a great book. I loved how Adams' necessarily anthropomorphic rabbits are just humanized enough to tell the story while still being believable rabbits. That finished, I started Escape from Shadow Physics that was moron recommended. So far so good. The author is still rehashing early controversies about the nature of light and heat and hasn't gotten into why modern physics is 'shadowy' or what is the possible way out.

Posted by: who knew at January 12, 2025 09:33 AM (+ViXu)

Comment: Quantum mechanics is weird. Anyone who pretends to fully understand it is lying to you. That being said, our understanding of the universe continues to grow by leaps and bounds as we solve increasingly complex problems. Quantum mechanics is often at the heart of such problems. Will we ever unlock the mysteries of true quantum teleportation, as shown in Star Trek? Will we master quantum computing? What the are the true limits of quantum mechanics? What more is left for us to discover? Will we survive as a species long enough to evolve past our present state?

Ursula Le Guin wrote an interesting novel called The Dispossessed that includes a prequel interleaved within the book. Alternating chapters tell two halves of the story, with one branch going forward in time from the beginning and the other going from the middle. At the end of the book, the two end and you get a different perspective of the ending of the early branch seeing what happens in the later branch. It's something like Back to the Future II where you see scenes from the first movie interspersed in the story, and you know how they turn out while still trying to follow the second movie. It's a challenging read, but worth the effort.

Posted by: MichiCanuck at January 12, 2025 09:38 AM (BvH8P)

Comment: This is one of those stories that everyone who knows a little bit about science fiction has probably heard of, even if they haven't read it. It's one of the classics of the genre. I found it interesting that this deals with rival political systems between two planets within the Tau Ceti solar systems, a mere 12 lightyears from Earth. Frank Herbert's Pandora Sequence *also* takes place within the Tau Ceti system and *also* features conflicting political ideologies.

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.

Destination: Void by Frank Herbert

I mentioned this last week. Now that I've finished it, I can say that it's a pretty dense novel in some ways. The characters spend a lot of time attempting to understand the true nature of consciousness because they've been led to believe that their only hope of surviving their current predicament is to create a true artificial intelligence. In order to do that they first need to unravel the mysteries surrounding consciousness. They also speak hilarious technobabble as they work on "advanced" computer systems derived from 1960s computer technology. Lots of gates, switches, dials, and analog circuits. I wonder if Herbert's lack of notable computer technology in the Dune universe helps sell it as a far-distant, technologically advanced society. "Mentats" (i.e., cerebrally enhanced humans) replace "thinking machines." I can easily see Destination: Void and the rest of the Pandora Sequence as taking place within the same timeline as Dune. They even have clones created within "axolotl" tanks, just like the Bene Tleilax from Dune.

The Magic of Recluce by L. E. Modesitt

Like Raymond E. Feist's Faerie Tale, I first read this as a much younger man. Unlike Faerie Tale, The Magic of Recluce has NOT improved over time with age and experience. I read the first 200 pages (about 40%) of the book and then put it down. Nothing interesting happened within those 200 pages. It's about a young man who is sent on a quest because he doesn't fit in with the Recluce society, based on order. Lerris finds Recluce *boring* so he's sent out to explore the world until he either finds his place within Recluce society or accepts permanent exile. In the meantime, he has to contend with chaos mages who seek to corrupt him. All well and good, but Lerris spends most of the first 200 pages either whining about why no one will give him a straight answer about the conflict between order and chaos or he's haggling with merchants for goods and services in excruciating detail. It's not a gripping read. I'll give Modesitt credit for his rather unusual storytelling style, though, as the full series takes place over many centuries and each book in the series bounces back and forth between key moments in history. The Magic of Recluce takes place towards the end of the timeline, even thought it was written first.

The Banned and the Banished Book 5 - Wit'ch Star by James Clemens

In contrast to The Magic of Recluce, A LOT happens in Wit'ch Star in the first 200 pages. In fact, more happens in the first 100 pages. Much more exciting and interesting. Of course, this is the final book in the epic saga. The heroes are gathering their forces to wage war on both the volcanic island Black Hall, lair of the Dark Lord, and the Wyvern Gate, which may eventually suck all the magick from the Land to further the Dark Lord's desire of conquest. We also see A LOT of betrayals as various characters attempt to exploit the situation for their own benefit, causing a great deal of grief and mischief along the way. Not all characters are willing traitors, though, as they've been infected by creatures created by the Dark Lord's foul magic that give him control over their actions.

This is a textbook fantasy series, following most of the standard fantasy tropes. But it's different enough that I've been enjoying it. I can also see Terry Brooks' influence on the story. In the introduction to the first book, Clemens notes that Brooks gave Clemens feedback at a writing workshop and it's evident that Clemens is imitating Brooks' style in some ways.

Rhetoric by Aristotle

Although I don't have any specific New Year's Resolutions about reading, that doesn't mean I can't form reading goals. One goal this year is to make it through Aristotle's Rhetoric. I began reading an online version earlier this week and have enjoyed the challenge. I've ordered a paper copy from Amazon so that I can begin making notes. I hope to teach a class again in Fall 2025 and this will really help me grow and develop as an instructor of rhetoric in composition if I have a better understanding of the source material. It's crystal clear that the course coordinator has been using Artistotle's Rhetoric as one of the sources for the course materials I've been using. I want to go deeper into that topic myself.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 1-12-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. Now with 25% more ethos, pathos, and logos, but 10% less kairos.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

| Access Comments