Sunday Morning Book Thread - 5-11-2025 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: J.J. Sefton)

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...(HT: Weasel)

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?

We once again had to bid a final farewell to one of our own this week, as Jim Sunk New Dawn from Galveston, Texas passed away. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting him at the TXMOMEs a few years ago.

Jim took his disease and imminent death like the man he presented on this blog. Nothing exaggerated about who he was. Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at May 06, 2025 09:00 PM (VofaG)

Jim SND was a good man. He will be missed.

PIC NOTE

J.J. Sefton recenly linked to this article about the Sassoon Codex, the world's oldest Hebrew Bible:

Dr. Orit Shaham Gover, Chief Curator of the exhibition, said, "Displaying this 1,100-year-old manuscript is a defining moment. It's not just a priceless cultural artifact but a living witness to the extraordinary journey of Jewish tradition. In these tense days, its presence here resonates even more deeply."

THE DOORSTOPPER READING EXPERIENCE

Those of you who have been following my reading habits for the past few years know that I am no stranger to reading "doorstoppers," i.e., books that have the characteristic of being exceptionally long--though usually not boring!

Why do I continue to engage in this behavior? I dunno. I guess I just like to read long stories with lots of characters and events. Short novels are fine, but I can blaze through them in a day or so, depending on the story. I can whip through a 200-page novel--or even a 300-pager--within just a few hours, so those experiences don't seem to last. With a doorstopper, however, I feel like I can savor the story much more, because I have to take my time to get through every chapter and every plot twist. A 1000-page novel can last me up to a week or so, depending on how I approach reading it and how well the author engages my attention.

I will note that "doorstopper fatigue" is a real thing. It usually hits me around 80% into a long novel, and I have to persevere to get through that point, but usually the conclusion of the novel is worth the effort.

Some doorstoppers have taken me multiple attempts, but when I succeeded on the second attempt, I felt rewarded for my efforts because the ending was spectacular. This was the case with Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings. I read around 800-900 pages on my first attempt, but then got distracted and never finished it. I picked it up again later (after I had read the shorter Sanderson novels in the Mistborn series) and finished it and the ending blew my mind. It was pure awesome.

I had a similar experience when reading The Deadhouse Gates, the second book in The Malazan Books of the Fallen by Steven Erickson. My first attempt only took me halfway through the book, as it quickly became confusing. However, last year, I decided to take on the Malazan challenge and read the whole series. My second attempt at The Deadhouse Gates was much better, as I dedicated myself to understanding the events of the story. From then on, the rest of the books in the series posed no great challenge in completing them. In fact, Memories of Ice (book 3) was even MORE awesome than Deadhouse Gates. The middle of that book was so intense, I couldn't put it down. Although the climax was good, it didn't hold a candle to the middle section.

Note that doorstoppers are not limited to fantasy and science fiction, though they are fairly common in those genres due to a certain book about rings and hobbits. However, doorstoppers can show up in any genre. Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is a 4000+ novel divided up into multiple volumes. Fellow Frenchman Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is a svelte 1400 pages in comparison. Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo only clocks in at 1200+ pages. What is it with the French and doorstoppers?

What are some of YOUR favorite doorstoppers? Have you been intimidated from reading doorstoppers?

ON THREE WAYS OF WRITING FOR CHILDREN

Recently, I was thumbing through my copy of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia (omnibus edition), and I noticed that my copy had included a short essay from C.S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children." Naturally, this piqued my curiosity and I am a fan of Lewis' writing in general, so I read through the essay.

His premise is that there are at least three different ways of writing children's stories, two of which are generally good, and one which is decidedly bad. The bad way is to try and provide the "public" (here, children) with a story that they claim to want. Though how one gathers evidence of such desire can be difficult, except by tracking the books that parents buy for their children. In other words, you are forcing yourself to market your books in a specific way for a very specific audience, but these may not be stories that will endure over time because they don't really address the universal human condition as much as we might like.

A better way--and the one that was practiced by author such as Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame (and a certain Oxford professor)--is to write for a very *unique* audience, i.e., one's own children or specific children known to the author. This means you are telling a story to a captive audience and from there you hope that it will have mass appeal as other children who may chare characteristics with your designated audience of one (or a few) also enjoy the story.

Lewis' way is the third way, where he writes children's stories because that's the best form for what he has to say. The medium and the message are one. Lewis writes fantasy/fairy tales for children as that's the medium that appeals to him when writing for children. Other authors, such as E. Nesbit, write from a child's point of view because it's the best way to express the story. Adults, having been children at one time and remembering what it was like, can appreciate the stories from that perspective.

One of the more important points in Lewis' essay is that children's literature can be an important tool in helping children deal with their fears. Not phobias, as those require more specialized treatment, but the normal fears of childhood. They can read stories about heroes and villains, good and evil, right and wrong, and then use those stories to inspire them to make choices that will serve them well in adulthood when they must confront real-life problems.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

I've been reading What's Mine's Mine by George MacDonald. It's a straight novel instead of one of his fantasy stories. But the writing quality remains just as high and effective. The man seems incapable of poor writing. It is encouraging that so much of his work is being produced in good quality physical books. There must be a demand and people willing to shell out money for works that are worth preserving.

Posted by: JTB at May 04, 2025 09:33 AM (yTvNw)

Comment: Classics are classics for a reason. Even though you can find tons of free books through digital resources like Project Gutenberg, people like to pay for the physical copies because they enjoy the tactile sensation of the book in their hand. Apparently this was C.S. Lewis' favorite George MacDonald novel. I just now ordered The Collected Fantasy of George MacDonald because I thought it would be a worthy addition to my library.

A really interesting and fun book is Paul Collins' Banvard's Folly, a collection of essays about people whose obsessions ruined their lives. There are chapters about John Cleves Symmes, who tried to get Congress to fund an expedition to find the Arctic hole and one on Cyrus Teed, who believed not only that the world was hollow, but that we live on the inside.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 04, 2025 09:40 AM (Dg2sF)

Comment: Considering the stupid and silly projects Congress is constantly funding, searching for a hole to the center of the earth at the Arctic and Antarctic regions is pretty mild. Still, feeding peoples' obsessions rarely leads to a good outcome (see Jurassic Park below).

UBIK by Philip K Dick

A great SF novel that's a bit hard to summarize. Basically, it concerns a guy working in an anti-paranormal powers agency against a for hire paranormal agency. A bomb kills "someone", maybe. But, who is dead? There's a process called half-life where the dead can be accessed for a limited time but is failing on both sides of life/death. Perhaps the ubiquitous commercial product UBIK holds the answer.

Frankly, PKD had to be one hell of a great writer to produce stories this well-written and complex while all spun-up on methamphetamines and pixie dust and finishing his novels within 3 or so weeks while locked in a hotel room.

One downside, to reading older SF is that the "future" imagined in these books is so off-kilter to what we know of say the 1990's. But, eh...SF.

If this book sounds like it will appeal to you, it will.

Give it a whirl.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 04, 2025 11:06 AM (iJfKG)

Comment: I'll second naturalfake's recommendation. I read this not that long ago and when I got to the end, I wondered, "What the heck did I just read?" It's a crazy story that blurs the line between living and dying. The epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter advertising Ubik are pretty entertaining to read by themselves. It's a floor wax! It's an essential part of this nutritious breakfast! It supplies firm, relaxing support to your bosom all day long! (Use Ubik only as directed. Do not taunt Ubik.)

MORE MORON RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE FOUND HERE: AoSHQ - Book Thread Recommendations

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.

Commonwealth Saga Book 2 - Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton

I finally finished the second half of this doorstopper series. The heroes devise a million-to-one chance to prevent the Starflyer from returning to its home star, though the Starflyer is one crafty SOB. It's a miracle that the plan worked at all, as the Starflyer had infiltrated the Guardians at the highest levels. Meanwhile, the mad genius Ozzie devises his own plan to prevent his partner Nigel from launching a genocidal strike against the Prime. Though in actuality, Ozzie's plan is just as genocidal, but just takes much, much longer. He wants to lock the Prime away in their star system until their sun burns out.

It's pretty clear that Hamilton has been influenced by lots of different science fiction traditions. In particular, I can see elements of anime/manga in the way he depicts his battles. Massive, seizure-inducing light shows as each side lauches devastating weapons at each other with little to no effect due to forcefields, leading to ever-escalating arms races as each side tries to outmurder the other. Pretty cool, though not for the bystanders who are reduced to ash along the way...

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

I decided to read this in honor of Jim SND as this is one of two books he recommended on the Sunday Morning Book Thread last year (the other one was Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears).

I've read several other Michael Crichton books by now, and I have watched the movie a few times, so I knew what to expect (more or less). The first half of the book tracks with the movie pretty well, but the second half diverges quite a bit in the details, though the overall plot structure is mostly the same, I think. It's been a while since I've watched the movie.

The major theme that runs through most of Michael Crichton's books (at least, those I've read) is HUBRIS. And boy, howdy, the characters in this book are chock full of it. Most of the characters who are full of overweening pride get their just desserts in this story. Even Ian Malcolm, the chaos mathematician who is basically proved *right* much of the time doesn't understand fully what's going on at the park, though he's pretty good at modeling it. John Hammond, Jurassic Park's visionary creator, is an arrogant fool who denies reality throughout the entire book.

My biggest disappointment with this book--even though it is a good story--is that there is a character called Muldoon, but nary a limerick to be found in the whole book. Thus, I give you the following:

A T-Rex with jaws that could chomp, Roamed the earth with a thunderous stomp. His teeth were quite grand, But his arms? Not so planned, He'd hug if he could, but--oh, romp!

--Courtesy of Grok

Isle of Destiny by Kenneth C. Flint

ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, [singing] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king! DENNIS: Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony. ARTHUR: Be quiet! DENNIS: Well you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you! ARTHUR: Shut up! DENNIS: I mean, if I went around sayin' I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

--Monty Python and the Holy Grail

What does the above quote have to do with Isle of Destiny? Well, apparently, in ancient Ireland a prophecy says that the new High King will be a young man who shows up naked at the gates of Tara carrying nothing more than a sling. Naturally, he's challenged by one of the lesser kings for his right to rule all of Ireland. After a short David-and-Goliath style beatdown, the young man is given his chance to rule Ireland, though it will not be easy.

I've usually enjoyed Flint's books about ancient Irish mythology. He really seems to capture the spirit of those heroes of antiquity. Must be my Celtic blood.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 5-4-2025 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

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

RIP, Jim Sunk New Dawn from Galveston, TX

Disclaimer: No Morons were physically harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. The best way to ask for beer is to sing out Ubik.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

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