What Are You Reading the Week of 11 January 2014?

Clark Ashton Smith (13 January 1893 – 14 August 1961) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne. As a poet, Smith is grouped with the West Coast Romantics alongside Ambrose Bierce, Joaquin Miller, Sterling, Nora May French, and remembered as "The Last of the Great Romantics" and "The Bard of Auburn."

Smith was one of "the big three of Weird Tales, along with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft," where some readers objected to his morbidness and violation of pulp traditions. It has been said of him that "nobody since Poe has so loved a well-rotted corpse." He was a member of the Lovecraft circle, and Smith's literary friendship with H. P. Lovecraft lasted from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937. His work is marked chiefly by an extraordinarily wide and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.

He was born in Long Valley, California, of English and New England parentage. He spent most of his life in the small town of Auburn, California, living in a small cabin built by his parents, Fanny and Timeus Smith. His formal education was limited: he suffered from psychological disorders including a fear of crowds, and although admitted to high school after attending eight years of grammar school (Long Valley School, whence dates the earliest known photo of him), he never went to high school. His parents decided it was better for him to be educated at home.

However, he was an insatiable reader, and continued to teach himself after he left school. His education began with the reading of Robinson Crusoe (unabridged), Gulliver's Travels, the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Madame d'Aulnoy, The Arabian Nights and (at the age of 13) the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. He read an unabridged dictionary (the 13th edition of Webster's) through, word for word, studying not only the definitions of the words but also their derivations from ancient languages. Having an extraordinary eidetic memory, he seems to have retained most or all of it.

The other main course in Smith's self-education was to read the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica through at least twice. Smith later taught himself French and Spanish in order to translate verse out of those languages. Smith professed to hate the provinciality of the small town of Auburn but rarely left it until he married late in life.

His first literary efforts, at the age of 11, took the form of fairy tales and imitations of the Arabian Nights. Later, he wrote long adventure novels dealing with Oriental life. By age 14, he had already written a short adventure novel called The Black Diamonds which was lost for years until published in 2002. Another juvenile novel was written in his teenaged years—The Sword of Zagan (unpublished until 2004). Like The Black Diamonds, it uses a medieval, Arabian Nights-like setting, and the Arabian Nights, like the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and the works of Edgar Allan Poe, are known to have strongly influenced Smith's early writing, as did William Beckford's Vathek.

At age 17, he sold several tales to The Black Cat, a magazine which specialized in unusual tales. He also published some tales in the Overland Monthly in this brief foray into fiction which preceded his poetic career.

However, it was primarily poetry that motivated the young Smith and he confined his efforts to poetry for more than a decade. In his later youth, Smith made the acquaintance of the San Francisco poet George Sterling through a member of the local Auburn Monday Night Club, where he read several of his poems with considerable success. On a month-long visit to Sterling in Carmel, California, Smith was introduced by Sterling to the poetry of Baudelaire.

He became Sterling's protégé and Sterling helped him to publish his first volume of poems, The Star-Treader and Other Poems, at the age of 19. Smith received international acclaim for the collection which was also received very favorably by American critics. Smith was even described as "the Keats of the Pacific." Smith briefly moved among the circle that included Ambrose Bierce and Jack London, but his early fame soon faded away.

A little later, Smith's health broke down and for eight years his literary production was intermittent, though he produced his best poetry during this period. A small volume, Odes and Sonnets, was brought out in 1918. Smith came into contact with literary figures who would later form part of H.P. Lovecraft's circle of correspondents; Smith knew them far earlier than Lovecraft. These figures include poet Samuel Loveman and bookman George Kirk. It was Smith who in fact later introduced Donald Wandrei to Lovecraft. For this reason, it has been suggested that Lovecraft might as well be referred to as a member of a "Smith" circle as Smith was a member of a Lovecraft one.

In 1920 Smith composed a celebrated long poem in blank verse, The Hashish Eater, or The Apocalypse of Evil which was published in Ebony and Crystal (1922). This was followed by a fan letter from H. P. Lovecraft, which was the beginning of 15 years of friendship and correspondence. With studied playfulness, Smith and Lovecraft borrowed each other's coinages of place names and the names of strange gods for their stories, though so different is Smith's treatment of the Lovecraft theme that it has been dubbed the "Clark Ashton Smythos."

In 1925 Smith published Sandalwood. He wrote little fiction in this period with the exception of some imaginative vignettes or prose poems. Smith was poor for most of his life and often did hard manual jobs such as fruit picking and woodcutting in order to support himself and his parents. He was an able cook and made many kinds of wine. He also did well digging, typing and journalism, as well as contributing a column to The Auburn Journal and sometimes worked as its night editor.

At the beginning of the Depression in 1929, with his aged parents' health weakening, Smith resumed fiction writing and turned out more than a hundred short stories, nearly all of which can be classed as weird horror or science fiction. Like Lovecraft, he drew upon the nightmares that had plagued him during youthful spells of sickness.

He published at his own expense a volume containing six of his best stories, The Double Shadow and Other Fantasies, in an edition of 1000 copies printed by The Auburn Journal. The theme of much of his work is egotism and its supernatural punishment; his weird fiction is generally macabre in subject matter, gloatingly preoccupied with images of death, decay and abnormality.

Most of Smith's weird fiction falls into four series set variously in Hyperborea, Poseidonis, Averoigne and Zothique. Hyperborea, which is a lost continent of the Miocene period, and Poseidonis, which is a remnant of Atlantis, are much the same, with a magical culture characterized by bizarreness, cruelty, death and postmortem horrors. Averoigne is Smith's version of pre-modern France, comparable to James Branch Cabell's Poictesme. Zothique exists millions of years in the future. It is "the last continent of earth, when the sun is dim and tarnished." These tales have been compared to the Dying Earth sequence of Jack Vance.

In 1933, Smith began corresponding with Robert E. Howard, the Texan creator of Conan the Barbarian. From 1933 to 1936, Smith, Howard and Lovecraft were the leaders of the Weird Tales school of fiction and corresponded frequently, although they never met. The writer of oriental fantasies E. Hoffmann Price is the only man known to have met all three in the flesh.

Critic Steve Behrends has suggested that the frequent theme of "loss" in Smith's fiction (many of his characters attempt to recapture a long-vanished youth, early love, or picturesque past) may reflect Smith's own feeling the his career had suffered a "fall from grace":

Smith's late teens and early twenties had certainly been a heady period: he'd been taken under the wing of a personal, idol, the poet George Sterling, and his first book of poetry had brought him comparisons to Keats and Shelley. This notoriety must surely have raised his standing in his small hometown. And yet the depression found Smith without a job or viable occupation, unable to eke out a living as a poet, with girlfriends berating him for his lack of ambition. And while his turn to writing fiction did put bread on the table, he found it a very distasteful business at time—he had once said to Sterling that writing prose was "a hateful task, for a poet, and one which wouldn't be necessary in any true civilisation." In short, it may be that Smith experienced that variety of "let-down" or loss peculiar to the child prodigies.

In 1935, Smith's mother Fanny died. Smith spent the next two years nursing his father through his last illness. Timeus died in December 1937. Aged 44, Smith now virtually ceased writing fiction. He had been severely affected by several tragedies occurring in a short period of time: Robert E. Howard's death by suicide (1936), Lovecraft's death from cancer (1937), and the deaths of his parents, which left him exhausted. As a result, he withdrew from the scene, marking the end of Weird Tales' Golden Age. He began sculpting and resumed the writing of poetry. However, Smith was visited by many writers at his cabin, including Fritz Leiber, Rah Hoffman, Francis T. Laney, and others.

In 1942, three years after August Derleth founded Arkham House for the purpose of preserving the work of H.P. Lovecraft, Derleth published the first of several major collections of Smith's fiction, Out of Space and Time (1942). This was followed by Lost Worlds (1944). The books sold slowly, went out of print and became costly rarities. Derleth published five more volumes of Smith's prose and two of his verse, and at his death in 1971 had a large volume of Smith's poems in press.

In 1953, Smith suffered a coronary attack. Aged 61, he married Carol Jones Dorman on 10 November 1954. Dorman had much experience in Hollywood and radio public relations. After honeymooning at the Smith cabin, they moved to Pacific Grove, California, where he set up a household with their children. (Carol had been married before and had three children). For several years he alternated between the house on Indian Ridge and his wife's house in Pacific Grove. Having sold most of his father's tract, in 1957 the old house burned—the Smiths believed by arson, others said by accident.

Smith now reluctantly did gardening for other residents at Pacific Grove, and grew a goatee. He spent much time shopping and walking near the seafront but despite Derleth's badgering, resisted the writing of more fiction. In 1961, he suffered strokes. In August 1961, he quietly died in his sleep, aged 68. After Smith's death Carol remarried (becoming Carolyn Wakefield) and subsequently died of cancer.

The poet's ashes were buried beside, or beneath, a boulder to the immediate west of where his childhood home stood; some were also scattered in a stand of blue oaks near the boulder. There was no marker. In more recent times a plaque to his memory has been erected at the Placer County Library in Auburn.

My latest is up and running very well!! Missus by the wonderful Australian writer Ruth Park this is the first in the wonderful trilogy, Harp In The South and Poor Man's Orange.

Behind the Shattered Glass by Tasha Alexander
This is her 8th Lady Emily mystery novel

Finished Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie a couple days ago. I picked out a random book in my parents' basement entitled Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian. I had my doubts about the likelihood that I was gong to enjoy it. Some of her descriptions seemed rather unlikely to me and perhaps exaggerated, but I've gotten involved in the story now.

I am finishing up The Orenda this week and starting Red Rising.

I reading Queen Victoria a biography by Lytton Strachey. It is one that's been on my shelf for at least 5-6 years. I only just started, but have discovered it is written more like a narrative and it's very interesting, not so dry!

Look at that face. Clark Smith would have to be either a romantic poet or a serial killer. Reading that no one else so loved a "well rotted corpse" seems just about right.
I just now finished The Returned and have to say to anyone who loves the French series, don't bother. I went to see the movie Her today and there was an ad for American series based on it which will begin in March. I'm thinking it will be about as good as the book, meaning I'll probably skip it.
I also finished The Chaperone and loved it. All the talk of variations of morality and relationships was superbly done. Now on audio I'm about 1/3 of the way into The Promise of Stardust and all the controversy cannot be good for my mental health. It's about a woman who falls and damages her head so that she becomes brain dead. After surgery she is found to be 8 weeks pregnant and the book revolves around attempts by her husband to have her kept on life support until a healthy baby can be delivered vs attempts by his mother (the pregnant woman's health proxy) to have her removed from life support as her advance directive dictates. Sound familiar? Did the author have some kind of crystal ball into the Texas case?
Also on audio I'm listening to The Outcasts about prostitutes and lawmen in the old west. Pretty fine so far.
My E-book will be Pat Barker's Life Class. I can't wait. Then on paper I'll probably read Coffee With Jesus because it looks pretty funny.

Oops, I forgot, I'm also reading Pride and Prejudice for the tutored read and enjoying the sarcasm (Elizabeth's, not Mr. Bennet's , turns out he's a bit of a jerk).

I finished Extinction which is a monologue rant which goes on and on, only occasionally presenting an insight that caught my attention. He primarily rails against Austrian politics, the Catholic Church, his family, and then himself. He does reveal the machinations of his psychology and some philosophy.

Finished Micro a couple days ago. Summary: a few cool bits about bugs, but not enough to redeem the cardboard characters and cartoon plot. Started American Nations in my annual effort to read more about American history, and Regency Buck to expand my horizons.

About to finish Cataract City and have The Blind Assassin, What Becomes on the go.

Am halfway through The Stranger's Child which is getting increasingly slow as it progresses. I am anxious for some drama to happen, for secrets to unfold. Less than 200 pgs to go.

I finished Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian, unexpectedly liking it. "Enjoying" it would be the wrong word to describe a novel that thematizes child abuse, but actually, there were parts of it that I really enjoyed, such as the descriptions of the boy William taking up his pencil and losing himself in drawing. My "winter vacation" is almost over and I'm glad I finished this before I left as I didn't want to take it with me. Mom and I have been reading Agatha Christie: An Autobiography together, but I'll have to finish it on my own, as we still have a couple hundred pages to go.

Finished the wonderful YA Eleanor & Park and I'm about to begin The Aviator's Wife.

#7 Citizenjoyce: The Chaperone was one of my faves of last year. As a follow-up I read Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks; very interesting hearing Louise's real voice. Laura Moriarty captured her completely.

Last night I finished Sue Monk Kidd's very good The Invention of Wings. I'm still working on my November ER book, The Empire of Necessity, but am also going to start the YA novel Engines of the Broken world - not sure quite what to expect of that one.

(When I saw the photo of Clark Ashton Smith and before I read the biography, my first thought was WWI cannon fodder.)

I'm reading my Early Reviewer Innocence: A Novel by Dean Koontz. Only at the beginning but I like it so far.

Still working on The Cusanus Game and The Hollow Hills.

I'm rereading Conrad's Lord Jim for the first time in many years. Just a stunning book. The night time scene of Jim wandering among the pilgrims asleep on the deck of the Patna is one of the three most hauntingly beautiful passages I've ever read. The other two were Bayard Sartoris driving through the country side with a group of black musicians, serenading the locals and drinking moonshine from a radiator cap in William Faulkner's Sartoris, and the wedding scene from John Gardner's Nickel Mountain. All three were simple yet achingly beautiful.

My current read is The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd which is a wonderful read, so far.

NarratorLady, alas my library system doesn't have Lulu In Hollywood so I had to buy it because how could you not need to read it after The Chaperone? One of the books listed with it on Amazon was something about the worst people in Hollywood. I'm hoping to find out she made at least a few friends.
Eleanor and Park is waiting for me at the library. How will I ever be able to read all the books I want to?

I just read that Gillian Flynn is changing the ending of Gone Girl for the movie. What?

Eeeeew, I wish she wouldn't do that!

I think the studio wants a way to keep people from saying "been there, done that" and not going to the movie. This campaign sounds like a good way to do that.

My cynical 2¢

Oh BTW the movie is delayed six more weeks so this is also a way to keep us talking about it. 2 more cynical cents.

Sorry, Richard. I remember what you thought of the book. In your favor, I can only think any change in the ending would be to make the woman seem human which would make you like the movie even less than the book ( if possible).

still reading Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich

Actually Joyce, it's the ending I hated with an unruly passion! Her getting away with the rancid evil stuff she did because she has a baby made me spittin' mad. But I wouldn't see the movie anyway, at least not until it's on Netflix, because going to a theater to see a movie is reserved for Events. Wide-screen extravaganzas. F/X-laden sci fi sagas.

And even then....

I finished and REVIEWED Willa Cather's beautiful novel Death Comes for the Archbishop. I've come late to Cather, read my first two in the last couple of years, but I am a big fan. Her writing is just superb.

Now I'm reading Margaret MacMillan's new book The War that Ended Peace about the run-up to WWI. It's close to 700 pages so I'll be on it a while.

I also just finished Death Comes for the Archbishop, which was a lovely read.

This week I'm reading The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and then I promised myself that I would finally start Doc.

It turns out that Engines of the Broken World is for 6th - 8th graders, not YA as I had thought. I'm more than halfway through, and not impressed, even when I try to get into my 6th grade mind.

#18> Yep. Lord Jim is my favorite book, bar none. In fact, I just finished The Secret Agent, as part of my ongoing tradition of starting each year with a Conrad reread.

Today I started Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. Not the sort of book I normally read, but it was a gift from a couple of fellows, friends of friends of ours, who stayed with us for a couple of days last year as they rode their bicycles through Mendocino County, where my wife and I live. So I've decided to give it a go.

Oh Richard. I don't know how to do that great spoiler thing. I'll just say, of course the ending made you spittin' mad. That was the point. That was the best part of it, in my opinion.
Anyway, I just finished Coffee With Jesus and found it, no surprise to anyone but me, very Jesusey. The first cartoon I saw when I opened the book made me want to read it. There's a lovely, well groomed woman talking to a bearded, suited man holding a coffee cup. She says, "My brother-in-law has never been able to find his place within our family. The man is just soooo awkward, bless his heart." Jesus says, "Gladly, Ann. Consider his heart blessed." Ann, "No, Jesus, that's just what the women in my family say when we mean 'That man is a piece of work. What did you ever see in him.'" Jesus replies, "Too late. His heart is blessed and now he will outlive every last one of you."
Funny.
But, alas it revolves around believing in Jesus, there's even a Satan. It's a good book for christians, though, not so much for the rest of us.

This weekend now finds me with immersed in Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I'm about 100 pages in, and I am caught up in the world of Victorian England as recreated by Waters.

I just started The Sweetness at the Bottom of The Pie by Alan Bradley and it's charming so far

>31 Citizenjoyce: The Spoiler tag is easy-peasy lemon squeezy! {spoiler}TEXT{/spoiler} and replace the braces with these .

*grumble* Ain't gonna like it. Ain't.

>32 bookwoman247: I just loved Fingersmith. I hope you do too!

#28..coppers, I have read and enjoyed both of your latest books.

Reading Epitaph of a Small Winner, listening to Four To Score in my car, and listening to The Devil's Star at home. Enjoying all three!

Let me try: that's OK. It's a very unlike able book. And for a change, that's why I liked it

Wahoo!! Thanks, Richard.

I'm reading Bridge of Birds. It's whimsical and sly and tongue-in-cheek and well-researched. The author chose to write it as a pastiche. Since I like the style of classical Chinese epics, this is a bonus for me.

>10 qebo: @qebo, I enjoyed So Excellent a Fishe. It's a blend of folksy, Foxfire-type writing and scientific rigor. It's very cool that your mom worked for Archie Carr.

I loathe Georgette Heyer, but I keep trying. Good luck! (I disagree with the general consensus that she is an Austen read alike. And, if I want Jane, I'll read Jane.)

>7 Citizenjoyce: News from Texas re: women's agency always makes we want to throw things. Reading articles--and the comments on them--has been bad enough. I don't think I could make it through a book on a similar topic.

Edited: Ha, one of your profile photos is apropos here, @Citizenjoyce.

I recall liking Fingersmith a lot too! Kind of a soap-opera-y bit of fun. I remember racing through it!

I am disc 7 of 12 of the wonderful A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and want to give another thank you to whomever recommended this audio book! It is wonderful and I am easily swept away (no pun intended) into the pre- and post- world of Tsunami Japan, British Columbia and a bit of Sunnyvale, CA. I am not totally enamored with the characters of Ruth and particularly, glum Oliver, but that said, I "get" them and it is not so bad to ruin the wondrous effects of the story (and stories within that story), folklore, spirituality, ecology and the like. Ms. Ozeki sure has a WIDE range of knowledge and I LOVE that in an author and am thankful to learn.

I just finished eleanor and park. What a great book in every way. I'm so glad I accidentally found it.

I'm going to start on The Blackhouse by Peter May.

Finished The Stranger's Child early today, which I had to force myself to finish.

Just downloaded The Circle. Haven't read anything of Dave Eggers's since his debut which I loved.

>40 CarolynSchroeder:: It sounds like you might enjoy Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic. I'll give A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki a go, as well.

You people are not good for my budget. I just bought the audio version of A Tale for the Time Being. I've heard such good things about it, but you pushed me over the edge. I won't get to it right away, but expect to really like it.

"I stuck a tiny flag into the flesh and I was no longer me, but I had become a brave new ruler of a brand new beautiful world."

Italics in the original.

nearest book; page 52: 5th sentence

" He fingered a long squiggle on the surface of the wall."

>47 Rayaowen: That's surreal...this is an interesting meme.

nearest book: page 52; 5th sentence:

"Several trees along the path bore the bristly things she'd seen before, the fungus, if that's what it was, but the men seemed not to notice."

Interesting, Carolyn. That sentence sounds familiar to me. Must go cogitate on where I've read that.

Nearest book, page 52, 5th sentence not counting the partial sentence at the beginning of the page:

Two blasts ended the revolt.

I have to think that's a non-fiction read there....

>52 richardderus:
For the quote in #51? Yes, and an interesting one at that.

gaaaaah

I can't not ask! What book is it from?

The Empire of Necessity by Greg Grandin. I was lucky to get it as a November ER win.

Oh that book sounds intriguing.

It is more about slavery in general than it is about a single specific revolt, and I'm enjoying it, although "enjoy" is probably not the proper word for such an awful subject. I'm afraid I read non-fiction much more slowly than fiction, but I think I'm going to end up liking this one very much.

Nearest book, page 52, 5th sentence:
"This chapter contains no implementations."

Well aren't you lucky that I skipped the previous four sentences.

I'd have to say yes to that, Katherine.

>57 TooBusyReading: It sounds very promising indeed.

pg. 52, 5th sentence:

We went with them, Gentleman leading me to a second-class coach, then handing up my trunk to the man who was fixing the bags and boxes on the roof.

pg 52, 5th sentence (she writes long sentences)
At the Ministry of Rites the proclamation was copied on special paper and delivered to the provinces, where it was read out to the officials, level by level, down to the grass roots.

pg. 52, 5th sentence

The Duke's lands, as they stretched before us, were magnificent--endless gently rolling hills, stretching to the horizon, with the morning mist gradually lifting in the sun.

pg 52, 5th sentence

Millicent put down her metal poke of kebabe meat.

Finished the thriller book "The Dark Portal To Oblivion". At no point readers will feel that the storyline is unnecessary extended.

Pg 52, 5th sentence
Oh great, it's a long one and I'm writing on our tablet...

It is one that we apply to religion, but not to the process of evolution or the learning process of the human Life, and so we do not approach the need to learn and all of the learning experiences of our lives with regard for their purpose against the background of spiritual development.

Finished The Hollow Hills and started The Last Enchantment.

Page 52, sentence 5: "Ich han einem toren glich getan, / diu maere der ich laster han, / daz ich diu niht kan verdagen: / ichn woldes ouch e nie gesagen." My translation: "I have behaved like a fool, not able to keep silent about the tale of my shame: I should never have told it."

These sentences are like book-spine poetry! No telling what will come up next. I like this meme.

Reading the first in the Left Behind series, which is for my readers advisory work. I would not have chosen this book otherwise. It's mildly interesting, but I don't go for evangelical stuff. Also picked up the next book in my Stephen King chronological mission, which is Firestarter. Surprisingly, I haven't read this one before. Also rereading Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

And chiming in on the stalled Gone Girl discussion, I am doing excited Snoopy dances in my seat for that movie. I don't even mind that they're changing the ending, which I really liked. I also have an irrational, slightly worshipful love of Gillian Flynn, so I might be a little biased...

#68> You might also enjoy this thread, from the Book Talk group:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/130623

I am reading Fannie Flagg's The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion. Fried Green Tomatoes has always been my favorite of her novels but I really love this book. :)

I have just finished Missus by Ruth Park, it was a wonderful read, last night I recorded a movie "The Irishman" set in Australia in 1920s', it is the same era as this special novel, I am looking forward to viewing.

Next up is The Man From Primrose Lane, the cover says (You have never read anything like this before) !!

I'm starting Moloka'i by Alan Brennert, about a young Hawaiian girl being sent to the leper colony there. (Of course it's historical.)
I'm on about pg. 60, and am drawn into the story. At this point it's very compelling.

That means I've finished Fingersmith, which I loved!

Having finished Dark Fire, and not a moment too soon, I'm back to gnawing my way through another chapter of Camille Paglia's astonishing Sexual Personae before returning to something a bit lighter.

I just noticed post #46 and its sequels. All right, then. Nearest book, page 52, 5th sentence:

One might then expect a similar emphasis on the literary works in movement, but Eco instead shifts his interest from the combinatorics of signifiers to the combinatorics of signifieds and brings in the "open" poetics of Verlaine, Kafka, Brecht, and above all Joyce.

>70 rocketjk: How fun~ but no spoilers? Can't imagine being able to do that.

Heavens, Meredy, I hope that's a textbook for a literature course you're taking.

I didn't realize that book was still on top. (Everything on my desk, Moebius-like, is under something.) I thought I was going to pull out The Hero with a Thousand Faces, but instead it was a book of literary analysis that I partly understood while I was reading it. It enlarged my understanding even while making me feel stupid (much as the Paglia book is doing). Do you want the title?

>46 richardderus: You're going to be sorry you asked:

(B) The defendant is a small business that has employed 25 or fewer employees on average over the past three years, or for the years it has been in existence if less than three years, as evidenced by wage report forms filed with the Economic Development Department, and has average annual gross receipts of less than three million five hundred thousand dollars ($3,500,000) over the previous three years, or for the years it has been in existence if less than three years, as evidenced by federal or state income tax returns.

#13
Goodnight Mr. Tom is a wonderful book. I am so glad that people are still reading it.

<46 Fascinating. That question seems to be more indicative of the diverse individuality of those who visit this group than a more direct query might have been.

Am reading Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie just because my Dad brought it home for me from the Salvation Army. I didn't expect to like the Tommy and Tuppence books, but this one has me interested already by the second chapter.

I am finally getting around to reading Cutting for Stone. My real life book discussion group is reading if for our March book. about 120 pages in and so far it is a good book. I am also about 60 pages into the biography The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton. I am learning from this book. I had no idea who Mrs. Beeton was or why somebody would write a biography of her. I am listening to Saving Fish From Drowning and to my surprise I like this book. It didn't have that good of reviews when it came out, but I like it and I am learning lots about how not to be a tourist.

>80 benitastrnad: I wonder if people are still reading it; I had never heard of it before. Books just have a way of appearing and disappearing from my parents' basement bookshelves. I hadn't seen this one down there before.

5th sentence on page 52 of the nearest book at hand ...

"On the day of her brother's birth, while the castle beneath her, reaching in room below room, gallery below gallery, down, down to the very cellars, was alive with rumour, Fuschia, like Rottfcodd, in his Hall of the Bright Carvings was unaware of the excitement that filled it."

Bet nobody can guess what book that is from. :-)

>78 Meredy: Yes, please. I need to avoid it until I want to fall deeply asleep. :-)

>79 whymaggiemay: You are so right about being sorry, wow that's boring.

>81 Coffeehag: That's very true. Quite unusual results, along with the more-expected ones.

>84 benitastrnad: The Holy Bible. King James Version. But of course.

#85
Not correct. Shame on you Richard. Go to the back of the room. No treats for you.

85: Ok, here you go: Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature.

My review:
http://www.librarything.com/work/173577/reviews/99403868

I think you have to be in a certain kind of mood.

5th sentence on page 52---

"He also made desultory, equally unproductive, overtures to the Russians."

5th sentence on page 52---

"The sped through a wide road, with a fountain at one end, an abstract sculpture at the other."

>87 Meredy: In the concluding chapter, on page 179 of 183, we come at last to this:

"The ergodic work of art is one that in a material sense includes the rules for its own use, a work that has certain requirements built in that automatically distinguishes {sic} between successful and unsuccessful users." In other words, there are rules for extracting something like meaning (or sense, or experience, or something else for which the signs and forms stand, as we extract meat from a nut) from the composition (or work, or program), and part of the reader's (user's) task is to figure out what those rules are.

...*snore*

I am very impressed that you were able to winkle so much meaning and so many very cogent points from this book. I am not in the least smallest but tempted to follow you on the journey. I read House of Leaves over the course of two bad months and was so angry at it that I wanted to burn it and only refrained because I had a budgetary crisis that prevented me from paying the library for it.

Just had a wonderful conversation at my RL book club about Stoner. A truly great novel!

Pg 52, 5th sentence

"It's nothing to do with you."

After finishing Kushiel's Avatar two days ago, I was loathe to start anything new. My head was still with the story and the world Jacqueline Careh created. I decided to give something new a go last night, but nothing appealed to me. What can success something very impressive? Finally I chose Running in heels by Anna Maxted for something completely different. I read her debut Getting over it a couple of months ago, after having it wither on Mt. TBR for ages and I was pleasantly surprised. Let's see where it takes me.

67: Oh how often have I felt that way!

66: I loved those books, I hope you enjoyed them.

I finished The Good Muslim which I found surprisingly good. It's an engrossing and excellently portrayed story of the effects of war upon the individual, the variety of coping mechanisms and the disaster wrought by silence.

I'm reading Work with Me

Last night I finished up Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh

I'm still listening to The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith wonderfully narrated by Lisette Lecat

My new print book is Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I've also started my umpteenth re-read of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon all the publicity stuff coming out about the upcoming TV adaptaion has me wanting to re-read it. I try to have a chunkster going that I read parts of in between my other reading. I also have this one as an ebook which make it handy since it's on my phone for those times I have just a few minutes and no book or ereader in my hand.

Nearest book, Pg 52, 5th sentence

"A list of things taller than my wife would include the seat of her chair, most television sets, and her two-and-a-half-year-old son."

>98 Kiwi_Jim: I cannot resist! What book is that from? I think I need to read it.

>99 richardderus: I agree.

98, 99, 100: I'm curious too. It sounds like the wife is bedridden--?

Ok. But only if flights of fancy, based in magical realism, using strong morals with practical applications in the real world sounds like your thing.(Basically a modern fable.) It's small so I guess if it's not your thing you won't waste too much time on it.

The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman

A robber charges into a bank with a loaded gun, but instead of taking any money he steals an item of sentimental value from each person. Once he has made his escape, strange things start to happen to the victims.

A tattoo comes to life, a husband turns into a snowman, a baby starts to shit money. And Stacey Hinterland discovers that she's shrinking, a little every day, and there is seemingly nothing that she or her husband can do to reverse the process.

Doggone it, Jim, my library doesn't have The Tiny Wife so I had to order it because it looks too good to pass up.

Sounds very interesting indeed, Jim. Thanks!

No worries, you're welcome. It was actually a pleasant surprise for me when I read it as well. I'd never heard of Kaufman before.

Hi Jim,

I shall follow it up.

>102 Kiwi_Jim:: Jim, you've definitely put The Tiny Wife on my radar. I will keep an eye out for it

I don't know whether to thank you or curse you for adding to my wishlist/TBR. LOL!

My library doesn't have The Tiny Wife, but the book intrigues me, and my library does have the author's All My Friends are Superheroes, so I put that one in my TBR. Thanks!

Andrew Kaufman owes Jim a thank-you note at the least!

Just finished The Devil's Star, an excellent installment of the Harry Hole series.

Next up for listening at home is Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy.

Finished The Cusanus Game by Wolfgang Jeschke and started The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

I just finished Everlost by Neal Shusterman and read "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson today (the latter was not really my thing, but I was curious because one of my friends was in a play based on the book). I'm currently reading How to Read Novels Like a Professor and am contemplating what fiction to start next.

And in answer to page 52, sentence 5 I leave you with this:
"There are a significant number of novels in which the main character is a monster, usually figuratively but once in a while literally, but in any case some being who in any other sort of book would be the villain."

Last night I began The Outfit, the third book in the "Parker" series by Richard Stark (a.k.a. Donald E. Westlake).

Started Paper Towns by John Green. Who couldn't love a book that states in the Prologue: " Both my parents are therapists, which means that I am really goddamned well adjusted." Ha!

I finished and REVIEWED Cecily Hamilton's William: An Englishman.

I'm continuing on with The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 by Margaret MacMillan.

Hello everyone! :) I hope that everyone is having a great week - in reading, and otherwise. Anyway, I'm just dropping by to talk about the books I read this week. Starting off on Saturday, January 4th, I picked up Family Pictures by Sue Miller. At 500 pages, it took me an entire week to read this book - I finished reading it on Saturday, January 11th! :) I absolutely loved this book - it was just like observing the trials and tribulations of an average family, up close and personal.

By Sunday afternoon, January 12th, I started reading Burnt Mountain: A Novel by Anne Rivers Siddons. I had been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time, and while it was certainly very good in parts, it wasn't as good as I was expecting. I finished this book on Tuesday, January 14th, and although it may not have been Ms. Siddons' best book, in my opinion, it was still quite interesting.

I immediately started reading Shooting at Loons by Margaret Maron on Tuesday night, January 14th! I was expecting a very quick read, which it was, up to point. I finished reading the book early this morning - Thursday, January 16th! It was a quick read for me, although the plot was way more involved than I expected. There were so many characters in the story, I had trouble keeping all of them straight in my mind. :)

Currently, I'm reading Sweetgrass by Mary Alice Monroe. I just started it this afternoon, so I'm not that far into the story yet, but it looks like this could be a really good book. :)

I just finished the audio production of Remember Ben Clayton which I really enjoyed. It was read by one of my favourite narrators, George Guidall and was so well done.

I know we talked about Boston's great molasses flood before. I read about it in The Given Day, and other books have mentioned it. Today I found this picture and article:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/27366/bostons-great-molasses-flood-1919

SO WEIRD.

How about that for a memory...living through it must've given grandchild-amusing stories galore.

See any similarities with other recent escaped fluids?

Perhaps because it's 1.15, no...what?

West Virginia nasty stinking water.

OIC!

Well, that HAS to be down to the hour since I've been hollering my fool head off at my state reps about fracking in NY, using the WV case.

Keep on hollering, Richard. Somebody has to listen sometime.

Nearest book, Pg 52, 5th sentence:

"And after a fortnight, the chief of a caravan arriving from the East related that he had seen Nathan in the distant wilderness, wandering with a flock of gazelles."
:)

>125 konika11:: Love that, Konika! It sounds like it might be my kind of book. What's the title?

Richard, kudos to you for your concern about fracking and other environmental dangers. Please continue hollering about it!

It's Kahlil Gibran's *The Secrets of the Heart*... A hauntingly beautiful work till now.

It might be "slacktivism" to the able-bodied, but I spend a lot of online time hollering at people on Facebook and via email to government flunkies.

I can't help it. I think people matter more than companies, governments, or ideologies. I am also incapable of shutting up so as not to piss off people whose opinions I hold in low esteem.

New thread is up.

I holler a lot, too, and usually get a canned response that has little to do with what I've actually said. Fracking is going to have consequences far worse than the ones we are already seeing, and if enough people holler, well, it will be loud. As far as effectiveness, lobbyists and big corps have bought too many politicians.

(Uh-oh, I'm starting to rant. I'd better go now.)

Richard, no way co I consider that "slacktavism". People do matter more than companies governments or ideologies, and I, for one, thank you for reminding "government flunkies" and anyone else who needs to hear it.

>127 konika11:: Thansk, Konika. I will definitely have to delve into Gibran.

Nearest book, p. 52, 5th sentence

But this is a moment - Paris in the Third Republic - when two remote and alienated worlds have collided.