What Are You Reading?

[Ceir]

I'm on a massive Star Trek (TOS) binge-fest at the moment. There's a local second-hand bookstore at which I made a HUGE haul several months ago. Went back today as it's my birthday and ... went to the usual corner and ... NO STAR TREK BOOKS.


I finally asked a staff member (or possibly a volunteer; this place operates on both) who led me to the new area and there I struck gold. I'd set a maximum of $50 and my bill came to $47 and change.

I did cheat a bit, though ... I left about half a dozen books behind, promising to pick them up by the end of the month (when my pensions come in) at the latest. I've done this before with them so there was no problem.

I live in a truly tiny apartment and have no idea where I'm going to put these books but ... that is irrelevant.

Stopped for a coffee on the way home and got started on "The Vulcan Academy Murders" by Jean Lorrah.

Nice score! (And the answer is to rebuild your furniture out of books.)

[Pixilated]

I'm rereading Dracula for about the 4th or 5th time.

I've got a paperback copy of that which is so old it's being held together by a rubber band!

I got started on classics like Dracula, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and others thanks to an extremely cheesy 1960s gothic soap opera titled "Dark Shadows" -- and a critique of that same show by the TV Guide critic Cleveland Amory. It was scathing but also so hilarious that even though I was a rabid fan of the show, I couldn't take offence ... because it was all also very accurate. His critique included the fact that the show was shamelessly ripping off classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and others ... and I remember thinking "Hey, maybe I should read some of those."

I wish somebody would put either all or at least a hefty selection of his TV Guide articles together into a book. I know I'd buy it, and I suspect a lot of other people would too, if only for the nostalgia of reading about shows from years gone by.

[Pixilated]

I'm on a massive Star Trek (TOS) binge-fest at the moment. There's a local second-hand bookstore at which I made a HUGE haul several months ago. Went back today as it's my birthday and ... went to the usual corner and ... NO STAR TREK BOOKS.


I finally asked a staff member (or possibly a volunteer; this place operates on both) who led me to the new area and there I struck gold. I'd set a maximum of $50 and my bill came to $47 and change.

I did cheat a bit, though ... I left about half a dozen books behind, promising to pick them up by the end of the month (when my pensions come in) at the latest. I've done this before with them so there was no problem.

I live in a truly tiny apartment and have no idea where I'm going to put these books but ... that is irrelevant.

Stopped for a coffee on the way home and got started on "The Vulcan Academy Murders" by Jean Lorrah.

[smfrazier]

I'm rereading Dracula for about the 4th or 5th time.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have started reading "New Cthulhu The Recent Weird" by Paula Guran. It is a collection of 21st century short stories set in the Lovecraftian mythos.

[Ceir]

'bout halfway through Leviathan Wakes, the first Expanse book. Liking it so far, definitely got some hardness to the sci-fi. Is the TV series any good as an adaptation?

[Ceir]

Just finished Star Trek: Strange New Worlds IV - no relation to the current TV series, a short story contest anthology that got several volumes over the early 00s. I know it goes up to at least #6.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I am now reading The Indian Tomb by Thea von Harbou, the same woman that wrote the movie (and book) Metropolis. It was written in 1918 and translated to English in 2016. Three movies (1921, 1938, 1959) were made based on the book, all in German.

[dalesys]

... Michael Crichton's ...

I've read 5-6 Crichton's... not really my oeuvre, but rollicking good yarns...

Wow-somever, every one has had major mal-statements of facts, as if neither he nor anyone in his entourage bothers checking anything.

Two, I think from Congo: (A) A C-130 Hercules is the largest aircraft in the world. (B) A tree with a 25 foot circumference is the largest in the world. Exsqueeze me, but I don't care to have my disbelief suspenders yanked that hard for nonsense trivia having no necessity for the story.

[Ceir]

Just finished Platinum Pohl, an anthology of Frederik Pohl's short stories. Some classic stuff, even if it is prone to the whole "Dystopian-ish Future written 50 years ago is head-tiltingly on the nose" thing going on. Then again, allegories for racism/sexism/classism/etc. don't exactly spoil with age.

And just picked up Michael Crichton's Pirate Latitudes, for a bit of historical fiction.

[Nunavut Pants]

Greek pervect!

I don't remember Aahz ever saying anything about sheep??

Wait ... I know that game: Settlers of Crete.

You got it!!

[Ironclad Alibi]

I'm thinking about doing a version of the Ajax and Achilles pot, but with a board of hexes, a pawn, a couple of house tokens, and a couple of dice. And a "speech balloon" from Achilles that says "I will trade wood for sheep" (but in Greek). "Θα ανταλλάξω ξύλα με πρόβατα"

Wait ... I know that game: Settlers of Crete.

[dalesys]

... And a "speech balloon" from Achilles that says "I will trade wood for sheep" (but in Greek). "Θα ανταλλάξω ξύλα με πρόβατα"

Greek pervect!

[Nunavut Pants]

Working my way through "Master of Attic Black Figure Painting: The Art and Legacy of Exekias". He was a potter and painter of pottery in ancient Greece. My late mother and I both enjoyed his work--she was an ancient art historian. Apparently when I was about five, I stopped her in the middle of a run through the Vatican with "Look, mommy--Exekias!" And it was the famous pot with Ajax and Achilles playing chess.

The book is kind of dense, as it's something of an academic text; it has analyses of most or all of the works we have that are attributed to him.

He may be the only ancient Greek potter whose name we actually know (most are labeled with the location where most of their work is found) because some of his pots are signed, or rather, labeled with "I was made by Exekias".

I'm thinking about doing a version of the Ajax and Achilles pot, but with a board of hexes, a pawn, a couple of house tokens, and a couple of dice. And a "speech balloon" from Achilles that says "I will trade wood for sheep" (but in Greek). "Θα ανταλλάξω ξύλα με πρόβατα"

[Ironclad Alibi]

I finished reading Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton.

I am now reading After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations by Eric H. Cline. It is the sequel to 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.