Random books from danielx's library

The Black-Capped Chickadee: Behavioral Ecology and Natural History by Susan M. Smith

The Blank Slate: the Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth

No Island of Sanity: Paula Jones v. Bill Clinton: The Supreme Court on Trial by Vincent Bugliosi

African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity by Christopher Stringer

Truman by David McCullough

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Friends: Biomusicologist, brendajanefrank, darwinsbulldog, Indigo-silk, joyceBl, LaurenNoshoes, NCSE, terenceb, The_Butterfly_Girl, TommyB

Interesting libraries: Angelic55blonde, angrystarlyt, anna_in_pdx, Biomusicologist, Bookmarque, brendajanefrank, bwogilvie, CharlesDarwin, cinesnail88, cshalizi, cwzimmer, darwinsbulldog, davesmind, DonSiano, EdKupfer, evolve17, folkfan, GeekGoddess, girlunderglass, hogervo, Indigo-silk, Indigo-silk, KoobieKitten, ksbioteacher, LamSon, LaurenNoshoes, lisa211, mfd101, obsessedwithbooks, psiloiordinary, redcloud111, rjohara, srott, Terpsichoreus, Terpsichoreus, The_Butterfly_Girl, yapete

LibraryThing authors: Alan Furst (afurst), Carl Zimmer (cwzimmer), Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (jeffreymasson), Andrew Brown (seatrout)

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danielx's reviews

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Member: danielx

CollectionsRead (1,796), Currently reading (21), Not finished (136), Not read (23), Signed (33), All collections (1,959)

Reviews122 reviews

TagsFiction (895), History (257), Children's fiction (183), (182), Biography (180), Evolution (176), History of science (149), Humor (123), US history (122), US politics (118) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

GroupsNone

Favorite authorsPeter J. Bowler, E. Janet Browne, Vincent Bulgiosi, James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Noam Chomsky, Joseph Conrad, Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Jared Diamond, Charles Dickens, Rebecca Goldstein, Stephen Jay Gould, Bill Griffith, Ernst Haeckel, Dashiell Hammett, Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Green Ingersoll, Ian Kershaw, Paul Krugman, Gary Larson, Sinclair Lewis, W. Somerset Maugham, Ernst Mayr, Ian McEwan, Marge Piercy, Matt Ridley, John Steinbeck, Trevanian, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, H. G. Wells, Edward O. Wilson, Tom Wolfe, Carl Zimmer (Shared favorites)

About meBipedal primate with the physiology of a large tropical mammal; species origins, Africa; interests, varied.

About my libraryMy online listings are a virtual library of books that I've actually read, most of which reside in my home library. A minority are books I've not finished, plus signed books that I want to keep track of). Outside of fiction (and I love the classics!), my areas of special interest include evolutionary biology and the history of science. However, I also like to read world history, politics, and biography; and at various times, have been drawn towards books on hominid evolution, philosophy, "race", and history of England, among others.

I love this site for many reasons. One is that listing books allows me to keep records and notes on what I've read, and to arrange books by multiple categories -- something not possible (try as one might) in the two dimensional space provided by real bookshelves. Another is that I can relive the experiences that the book provided; viewed chronologically, they provide a sort of diary of the mind. And yet another, that I can record my own reaction in written reviews (which I used to write for my own private enjoyment). And of course, I can read other readers' opinions, and receive recommendations on new books to try.

I try to rate books within their genres (since to do otherwise would be to compare everything to William Shakespeare and Charles Darwin!). For most of my listed books, dates indicate date of publication of the original work, and not necessarily that of the illustrated volume cover. I list dates of publication because I'm much more interested in the contents and their historical context than the particular reprinted edition -- except when it comes to the collectibles (such as signed works and books on evolution).

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway

Real namedanielx

Locationnew england

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/danielx (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/danielx (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (262), Awards (231), Characters (3826), Places (793)

Member sinceOct 12, 2007

Currently readingGod Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens
The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts by Israel Finkelstein
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction by Julian Baggini
Hidden Histories of Science by Robert B. Silvers
Darwinism Comes to America by Ronald L. Numbers
show all (21)

Most recent activity

danielx rated:
The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 6) by Lemony Snicket

danielx rated:
Man's Place in Nature by Thomas H. Huxley

danielx rated, added:
Twelve Red Herrings by Jeffrey Archer

danielx rated, added:
A Quiver Full of Arrows by Jeffrey Archer

danielx rated, added:
A Twist in the Tale by Jeffrey Archer

danielx rated, added:
The Far Side ® by Gary Larson

Dear Daniel,
If you wish to remove the offensive pricing in the review column, you have my blessing. As you are so interested in what we are doing, you might have noticed, we stopped doing it as soon as we were notified it bothered people. I am trying to single handedly run a library for over 750 school children that I build from scratch and I don't have time to go through over 10,000 books, and individually change the reviews that bother you.

However, if you have some shortcut to fix this, please please please feel free to do this. I (and the children) would appreciate it greatly. It is rather depressing to work so hard to do something good for your community and this site continues to send ugly comments to us.

posted by hse at 12:20 am (EST) on Sep 5, 2009

thanks so much Daniel! I'm a bit busy with exams right now but I'll go back to reviewing books as soon as I'm done.

posted by girlunderglass at 2:14 pm (EST) on Jun 28, 2009

Hi Dan,

I really enjoyed your review on 'The Man Who Found Time'. It is definitely on my list of books to read (soon). I love Edinburgh and have visited one of the museums (I think it was the National Museum of Scotland)where a number of Hutton's geological samples and notebooks were on display. Hutton is a relatively unsung hero and deserves greater appreciation.

Best wishes

Ruth

posted by Indigo-silk at 6:19 am (EST) on Jun 28, 2009

Hey thanks for the compliment. I do try to make reviews non-boring. Lots of them I keep as private comments because I do on about the plot sometimes, but it depends. Glad you liked them. : )

posted by Bookmarque at 7:07 am (EST) on Jun 15, 2009

Hi. I'm a random person randomly commenting on random people's pages. Hope you don't mind. :)

posted by rubixcube101 at 8:54 pm (EST) on Jun 11, 2009

Hey Daniel, thanks for putting me in your interesting libraries.

posted by EdKupfer at 4:14 pm (EST) on Mar 27, 2009

Hi Daniel,
I haven't yet got to Down House but it is definitely on my list of places that I need to go. No doubt when I do get there I too shall be peering st the great man's shelves to see what there is. I remember reading a comment that Darwin made about feeling guilty about the books that he hadn't got around to reading - I know that feeling.

Cheers Ruth (Indigo-silk)

posted by Indigo-silk at 12:17 pm (EST) on Feb 22, 2009

Hi Danielx

Thanks for comment about EL Withers- they are pretty good books- I leant House on the Beach to a friend who found it enthralling but said it was a pity the girl survived!!!

There is v little info on the web about Mr or Ms Withers and I would like to find out more!

Richard

posted by wrichard at 9:29 am (EST) on Feb 18, 2009

Not that particular cover. The books we had included that story. My recollection is that we had a compilation of three books, and each book had several short stories in it.

posted by TommyB at 10:01 am (EST) on Feb 10, 2009

hihihihiihihhihihihihihihihihihiihihihi what up im so board and i hate to read

posted by bobbjack123 at 1:57 pm (EST) on Feb 5, 2009

Way to go, Dan! You've climbed over 1800!!! So what if it took the Poky Little Puppy to get there. BTY, I just added that Little Golden Book to my library. It's all good. :)

posted by brendajanefrank at 10:02 pm (EST) on Jan 7, 2009

Thanks for the comments. It does look like we do share the same interests in our libraries.

posted by LamSon at 8:03 pm (EST) on Jan 2, 2009

Hi Dan,

Maugham is one of my favorites. The Razor's Edge is very good. It's in a slightly different style than Of Human Bondage - being so much shorter, it kind of lends itself to it.

I was first introduced to Maugham via his short story, Rain, which I did in a play adaptation. I've been hooked ever since. The Painted Veil is one of my favorites.

posted by cinesnail88 at 12:37 pm (EST) on Aug 29, 2008

Haha, yes, of course! Thanks so much for catching that!

posted by cinesnail88 at 2:28 pm (EST) on Aug 27, 2008

Hi Dan,
Don't feel bad. I didn't get an Early Reviewer book either of the last 2 months. Guess I'll just hang in there and try for what looks interesting. You HAVE to get one some time.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 4:07 pm (EST) on Aug 5, 2008

You wrote: "Did you know that your library ranks in numbers of books as # 2078, out of the 405 thousand libraries here?" That is really amazing! LibraryThing is now a routine with me. I read or listen to a book; I log it into the catalog. If I want an assessment of a book, I search LibraryThing. How did I manage without it!

posted by brendajanefrank at 6:23 am (EST) on May 7, 2008

Hi Dan,
Did you get an Early Reviewer Book, I hope? I am REALLY excited because I got the newest Faye Kellerman book. She is a big time favorite author of mine. Also, Tom got one of the National Geographic books that I secretly signed him up for. At first he was grumpy when he heard that I signed him up, but he was very happy about it when he saw the book that he snagged. :)

Brenda

posted by brendajanefrank at 10:34 am (EST) on Apr 12, 2008

Hi Dan,
Did you read Toby Tyler? How about The Enormous Egg? I just added them.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 9:32 pm (EST) on Mar 2, 2008

Sadly, I can claim to have read only the two children's books. They were amnoung our kids' favorites. I probably read None Dare Call it Treason during my conservative period, but I am reluctant to admit it now. I think I have the Darwin book around somewhere -- it certainly looks familiar -- but I can't swear to having read it. I will look for it and see if it rings a bell. I have a vague recollection of a book about Mitchell, but I couldn't find one that looked familiar on Amazon.

I just finished Decision at Philadelphia. It made me realize how little I knew about the period between the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution -- or the struggles that went on about it. All my political science courses except one were about other places than here. Very interesting to see how big an issue the states rights issue was at the beginning of the country's history. Patrick Henry, among others, was a big proponent of the idea that the states could join or leave the union as they saw fit. He, among others, was fearful of the power a national government could have and the possibility that the power could be abused.

posted by TommyB at 10:50 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2008

I added the Babar books I could remember having read. There were lots of them, evidently.

posted by TommyB at 11:17 pm (EST) on Jan 20, 2008

Zipper is certainly not the most popular book in Librarything. But it is true that we take mostly for granted a very ingenious little piece of work.

posted by TommyB at 11:12 pm (EST) on Jan 20, 2008

Do you remember any of these? Tom Swift and His... Flying Lab (#1) ...Rocket Ship (#2) ... Jetmarine (#3)? Flying lab is perhaps familiar as is Rocket Ship. I know we had a couple of them around. I still remember the covers -- a sort of light/brigh blue, with a yellow banner at the bottom of the spine with writing on it -- perhaps stating the number in the series?

posted by TommyB at 10:37 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2008

It's perhaps understandable that we are "weighted" so close since I have perused your library for books and you have perused mine, and we have read a lot of the same books. I am struck by the strong themes in your reading. I would guess that Darwin, Oswald, Hitler/Fascism and a few other categories would cover a good third of your books.

You are not weighted as high on my library list as I am on yours. BrendaJaneFrank is first and BumpersMom is second, I think. She may drop down, however, as I add more of the serious books. (I think it would be hard for BrendaJane to drop down, however; she has too commanding a lead.)

posted by TommyB at 10:29 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2008

I certainly read King Solomon's Ring. Don't remember the Overloaded Ark. Thanks for the reminder.

posted by TommyB at 10:50 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2008

Re books to list: I read several of the Swift Jr. books, and nearly all the Hardy Boys. I even read one or two of the Swift Sr. books. I son't admit to reading Nancy Drew. I read severasl of the Bobbsey Twins; I looked at one a few years ago. They are about the most insipid books I have ever read. It is amazing how long the author could drag out a completely inconsequential event.

I haven't been too eager to put on all the childrens' books I read -- I read them buy the dozens. I tried to put some particularly memorable or symbolic books on the list, however. I probably should add some Swift Jr. books.

I can't remember Corbett. Did we have any of his books growing up?

posted by TommyB at 10:48 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2008

I finally finished Burr, and despite my earlier concerns I decided that I liked his version of history well enough that I don't care if it is valid. (I did read Vidal's comment at the end that Vidal liked Jefferson better than Burr and liked Jackson less.) More than anything the book reminded me that people we now consider icons were far more controversial in their day. Burr's take on the struggle between the president and the Supreme Court was very interesting. And evidently, based on Vidal's retelling (which probably can't be too far from the truth) we had the first assertions of Executive Privilege.

posted by TommyB at 10:44 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2008

Re the Heinlein: I read The Unpleasant Progfession, but none of the others rings a bell. I wonder whether I forgot them or wheth3r the first one was also included in another anthology.

posted by TommyB at 10:40 pm (EST) on Jan 10, 2008

You're right. No competition. However, for a couple of hours, it was a competition to get to 1000 -- even if you weren't aware of it. But even if you don't get 2000, I'll bet you get to 1400 or so.

I find that listing the books gives a greater sense or ownership -- plus it is satisfying to review and remember the books after they are on the list.

I also find that now that I have done this for a month, books simply pop up in my memory while I am doing other things; then I make a note (mental or otherwise) and list them when I get a chance. It's an interesting process.

I haven't begun to list all the books on philosophy and political science from college other than two of Lenin's writings that I added this morning). Are you listing that sort of books (other than purely textbooks)?

posted by TommyB at 9:53 am (EST) on Dec 24, 2007

I worked hard to get to 1000 before you. Your profile showed 993. So I just added my 1001st book, and found that you actually had 1004.... I'll beat you to 2000 though.

posted by TommyB at 4:09 pm (EST) on Dec 22, 2007

I'd enjoy getting it sometime. But let me see if Brenda can get it from our library electronically. Can't imagine how I let a Tom Hanks movie get by me. I really want to see Charlie's War, which was just released.

posted by TommyB at 2:58 pm (EST) on Dec 22, 2007

Brenda listens to books on tape all the time. She has a little device onto which she downloads them and listens while she works in the garden or drives. Our county library has audio books that you can "borrow" over the internet. Very convenient. I occasionaly hear snippets of her books when we are in the car. I had not remembered that Bonfire was a movie.

posted by TommyB at 2:26 pm (EST) on Dec 22, 2007

My list includes only books that I have read. After finishing with adding books from Brendajanefrank's library, I have begun looking over our shelves to see what ones she didn't list because she hadn't read them; there are a lot. I also was appalled to find how disorganized the books are. Imagine -- a Dorothy Gillman paperback right between two volumes of Thousand and One Nights! (the Burton translation). Almost sacreligious. This will give me something to do after Christmas.

posted by TommyB at 11:25 am (EST) on Dec 22, 2007

My guess is that you also are pretty much in synch with Brendajanefrank, since I have started with her list. I didn't really want to make my list public until I could get it in shape, and add all the seriously-minded books I've read to offset the mystery stuff. I am up to the Ms, now, wiith BrendaJane's list, then will have to add all the ones I remember that she didn't remember or read.

posted by TommyB at 9:09 pm (EST) on Dec 9, 2007

Hi Dan,
Check this discussion re 1/2 stars. http://www.librarything.com/talktopic.ph... Guess things are still in flux. Don't give up on 1/2 stars yet.

I added books this afternoon and the site seemed sort of glitchy. Guess there are still some bugs to work out.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 9:19 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2007

Dear Dan,
It is really fun to read reviews and share libraries. I remember books I have missed by seeing your library and TommyB's. Also, I am beginning to find lots of books that I have not read and would like to.

Are you going to add more of your nonfiction to your library? That would interest people who like to see what books a specialist in a field reads. I am not particularly a specialist, but I am adding my horticulture books, with brief reviews for the benefit of others.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 12:40 pm (EST) on Dec 2, 2007

Hi Dan,
If you look at your tagcloud you can easily see needed edits. For instance, Newbury Award and Newbery Award are 2 different tags.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 1:45 pm (EST) on Dec 1, 2007

Hi Dan,
Maybe you should take a look at Darwin's Radio, by Greg Bear. I just added it to my library.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 1:15 pm (EST) on Dec 1, 2007

Hi Dan,
Yeah, I did get out of control yesterday. But, I made up for it today - I took 2 books off! I had listed 2 books that I hadn't actually read, so I had to read them. One was by Faye Kellerman, a story about Shakespeare being a sleuth and trying to find out who killed his actor buddy. After struggling to get through it, I just quit and removed it from the Library. It felt so good, like getting out of jail. Same with Tristan Jones, The Incredible Voyage. I just didn't like the way it was written.

Do you remember reading any Raggedy Ann & Andy stories? I tried to find the version given to me by your Mom to read to Mike and Lauren, but I couldn't figure out the right edition. I wanted to review it.

None of us will ever forget the time I read Raggedy Ann & Andy for the bedtime story. The children were young, about 3 and 6. We were all in bed together and I began the first story. After a page or 2 I was laughing hysterically! The text was totally inane, just vapid. Then, I just couldn't get through a sentence without losing control. Of course, my buddies loved this and wholeheartedly participated in the hysteria. The story was lots of fun, but didn't do what a bedtime story was supposed to do. (I never shared this with your Mom, of course.)

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 9:15 pm (EST) on Nov 29, 2007

Hi DanX,
Glad to see that you've expanded your vision of your Library to include early years. There are lots of children's books out there, but there are not a lot of timeless, excellent children's books. I think it is fun to reexperience the books that we enjoyed as children, and, for me, the books I enjoyed sharing with my children. TommyB waxes eloquent about some of the books he loved while growing up.
It also gives our libraries completeness in a sense of our reading history.

The LibraryThing can serve many purposes. I started a small, free library just for books that I haven't read and intend to read. Those books keep popping up and the LibraryThing helps me keep track of them.

This website is sooo useful. I just keep backing up my Library by downloading to my hard drive because I worry about the Betaness of it and I fear losing it. The LibraryThing easily becomes an addition or obsession, or is it the reading that is the obsession? You know it's bad when the site is down for a short period and you experience withdrawal, or when you don't have time to read because you are so busy cataloging books!

Although I find it relaxing to enter ISBN numbers, I look forward to the day when I am "caught up" and can just enter new books. Hope I'm getting close; it's scary to discover just how many books we have in our basement, bedrooms, kitchen and familyroom. Our daughter uses our house as the public library, borrowing and returning huge bags of books. Does anyone ever have enough bookshelves?

posted by brendajanefrank at 7:11 am (EST) on Nov 28, 2007

Hi DanX,
Re your median date of books catalogued, does this mean that you did most of your reading in your early years? Could it mean that you relate more to the past than the contemporary? Could it mean that the good stuff happened a long time ago?

I think that the statistics give us insight into our reading habits. Actually, I think that a peek at a person's bookshelves is very telling and much more interesting than a look at someone's medicine cabinet :)

I do think that a lot of the good stuff was written long ago. However, when I began reading the first chapter of Harry Potter, I immediately felt that I was reading a classic, as good as Baum or Lewis Carroll. It was good to know that contemporary writers can match the old classics.

posted by brendajanefrank at 6:53 am (EST) on Nov 28, 2007

Hi DannyX,
This was a tricky proposition. First I put the question to the Site Talk discussion group: How can I copy an entire library to another user's account? They had no answer and suggested that I write to Tim and Abbey, which I did. The bottom line is use import and export of a library saved to the hard drive.

The results were close and usable, but not perfect. The CSV file worked better than the tab delimited file. Most books were imported but some seemed to be missed. Many covers made the transfer but not all. Tags and ratings are not imported. Caution: do not look at the catalogue while importing. If you do, books are duplicated, tripled or quadrupled.

Note: In power edit mode under misc. you can find and delete duplicate isbn's from your library.

Good Luck,

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 5:13 pm (EST) on Nov 23, 2007

Hey DanX,

To save your library to your hard drive you click on the "tools" tab above. You will see "export import" in the right column. Then, you can Export as CSV or Export as tab-delimited text.

posted by brendajanefrank at 1:11 pm (EST) on Nov 18, 2007

Oops, I was wrong. You didn't list the germs, plague book. I know that you, like Tom, read a lot of nonfiction. Listing those would be of interest to people like me, who scan libraries looking for good new books to read and wish to elevate our intellectual lives beyond Grisham and Evanovich. :)

posted by brendajanefrank at 7:37 am (EST) on Nov 12, 2007

You HAVE to have read more than 500 fiction books. When did you begin listing? I saw that you have a Hardy Boys, so I guess that you're including childhood. Tom says that you all went to the public library on a regular basis and each checked out an enormous number of books, maybe 20. Then you read all your books and traded with the sibs. That's a whole lot of books.

Do you remember all the books that you read? I'm finding books on our shelves that I read ages ago that I really don't remember much. Also, sometimes seeing other books by a listed author reminds me of unlisted books that I have read. For instance, just after law school I went through an Irving Stone period.

I worked on refining my listings, making tags consistent. The tag cloud is very helpful for that. You could also review. I'm finding the LibraryThing reviews often to be more useful than Amazon reviews.

Are you limiting your library to fiction? I'm including reference and nonfiction. You do have the germs, plague book, so I guess you have some nonfiction.

BTW, I adopted your original publication date method.

Do you regularly export your library to your hard drive? I do. Guess I feel a bit insure and fear losing all this work.

Yeah, what a deal! All this fun for $25.

posted by brendajanefrank at 7:32 am (EST) on Nov 12, 2007

Hi Danielx,
It's interesting to use the date of original publication in the catalog. However, as a collector I thought that you would need the actual date of publication of your book, just like the correct dustjacket. So, there are 3 important dates: date of original publication, date of edition owned, and date read.

My library is becoming more refined with time. At first, I was just happy to have a record of the book read. Then, I realized the value and importance of the tags, so I am working on complete, accurate and consistent tagging.

Now, I realize that many of the books entered are the wrong editions! For instance, I did not read the 2005 version of Little Women, Alcott. So, to improve the catalog I should find the correct edition and change the current entries.

But, I am not a book collector (except for a few first editions of the Oz series). The focus for me is not particularly accuracy of the edition, but simply the entry of the title and description in the form of tags. I really want a record of books read, sort of like a travel journal.

The reference books are an exception, since they aren't "stories." For reference, I want a record of the value and importance of the work. Hopefully, I can use the libraries of others to find useful nonfiction works, and they can use mine. I think that the exchange and dialogue potential of the LibraryThing is a wonderful bonus to the cataloging.

BTW, do you export your Library? I try to routinely save the file, just in case ...

Brenda

posted by brendajanefrank at 11:10 am (EST) on Nov 1, 2007

Hello Danielx,

Yes, it was indeed Philip Jose Farmer who wrote VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL, riffing on Vonnegut's hapless SF fictional author Kilgore Trout. This was Farmer's idea to do, as he wanted to expand on his fictional characters in the Wold-Newton universe. Explaining what THAT is would take more time than I have before dinner.

Frankly, I have NEVER seen V.O.T.H.S. attributed to Harlan - and Harlan would certainly have never made such a claim. I have a room full of obscure material by and about Harlan and have never seen these two things mentioned in the same paragraph. Having said that - SF is a small incestuous place and there are connections.

Harlan helped package and blurbed one of Vonnegut's earliest collections. Harlan also published Vonnegut's story THE BIG SPACE FUCK in the anthology AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS. Harlan has known both Vonnegut and Farmer since the 1950's. Harlan published RIDERS OF THE PURPLE WAGE in the original DANGEROUS VISIONS anthology. I'll have more to say about that...perhaps, someday.

The Kilgore Trout character may have been partially based on the life of Theodore Sturgeon, thus Trout/Sturgeon. But I have heard from other editors that Kilgore is based on one or two other authors who had lives of even more quiet desperation. Sturgeon also knew Harlan since the 1950's and lived with Harlan for some time in the 1970's. There are other Sturgeon/Ellison connections. So, there you go.

I do know that Vonnegut got really tired of explaining this and wished he had never let Farmer proceed. But it's too late now.

Regards - Barney Dannelke

posted by Dannelke at 5:54 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007

Danx:

I can't remember how I first knew it, but after reading your comment I checked it on Wikipedia, and (if you can believe Wikipedia), it is in fact Farmer. Where and how did you hear it was Ellison?

LT member Dannelke is an expert on Harlan Ellison. You might see if he can shed any light on the subject.

Oakes

posted by oakesspalding at 3:48 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2007

Yeah, I love seeing stats. I use it to check for duplicate entries. I also like to check my obscurity rating (: Stats also to check on tags. I'm trying to get tags on all my books and make the tags consistent.

At first I didn't understand tags, so I entered lots of books without them. Tags can be very useful. It's also fun to do searches based on tags. The LibraryThing is really a great tool for people like us.

posted by brendajanefrank at 9:15 am (EST) on Oct 26, 2007

I figured that it must be pretty warped because Stephen King wrote the intro to the book. Not that I'm into warped books, but I don't mind taking a look.

BJ

posted by brendajanefrank at 6:59 pm (EST) on Oct 25, 2007

Hi Danielx,
Based on your recent additions, I just ordered from Amazon Stalking the Nightmare, by Harlan Ellison. He's new to me but sounds interesting.

posted by brendajanefrank at 10:37 pm (EST) on Oct 24, 2007

Guess there isn't much that doesn't interest us!

posted by brendajanefrank at 7:21 pm (EST) on Oct 16, 2007

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