September? Holy cow, bookies, my bad! I didn't know it had been that long since my last entry. How did you survive without me?...don't answer that!
Today's will be short. I had no idea that in 2011 we lost both Anne McCaffrey and Brian Jacques. I never met Ms. McCaffrey, but I didn't correspond with her in Ireland briefly, and she sent me a few signed bookplates. Very nice. As for Mr. Jacques, him I met. He was at the old Davis-Kidd one day and there must have been 400 people at the signing. You could only get two books signed per person, so I cheated and brought my two kids. They weren't happy, but our house wasn't a democracy so they were there. Mr. Jacques had the best voice I have ever heard, deep, slightly raspy, very English, but not in a stuffy, upper-class sort of way, in a pleasant every-day accent that would have made the phone book sound good.
I'm gonna miss them both.
Showing posts with label Obituary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obituary. Show all posts
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Sunday, February 14, 2010
So long Dick Francis & William Tenn
Hi bookies, it's a cold, gray day again in West Tennessee and that seems fitting.
***We say goodbye to Dick Francis, aged 89. Master of the horse-thriller, so to speak, with a risque sense to him. I remember when his wife died he didn't think he could go on writing, but he did. As a writer, to go right on writing right up until the last words are written, well, that's about as good as it gets.
RIP Dick Francis
***Not satisfied with just taking Francis, the Grim Reaper also came for William Tenn, noted SFF writer, also aged 89. Tenn's real name was Phillip Klass. He stopped writing SFF nearly 40 years ago but his short work was so iconic that in 2004 he was named a Grandmaster of the genre.
Farewell William Tenn
***We say goodbye to Dick Francis, aged 89. Master of the horse-thriller, so to speak, with a risque sense to him. I remember when his wife died he didn't think he could go on writing, but he did. As a writer, to go right on writing right up until the last words are written, well, that's about as good as it gets.
RIP Dick Francis
***Not satisfied with just taking Francis, the Grim Reaper also came for William Tenn, noted SFF writer, also aged 89. Tenn's real name was Phillip Klass. He stopped writing SFF nearly 40 years ago but his short work was so iconic that in 2004 he was named a Grandmaster of the genre.
Farewell William Tenn
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
R.I.P. Stuart Kaminsky
Sadly, crime writer Stuart Kaminsky has died. I hate it when authors I like and have met pass away, even moreso than the sadness I feel at every author's death. Kaminsky was immensely popular with his core fans and deserved to be much better known than he was. I met him at EyeCon in St. Louis in 1999, thanks to Robert J. Randisi, who worked like a dog to pull off the best convention of any sort I have ever attended.
Stuart Kaminsky
Stuart Kaminsky
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Mid July and it's not hot
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
The highs in Memphis this weekend will be in the mid 80's. That's right, about 10 degrees below normal for July. This great weather is scary.
***Ted Kennedy's auto-biography, co-written with the co-author of Flags of Our Fathers Rom Powers, has been slated for a companion deluxe edition to accompany the trade edition. True Compass will have a 1,000 copy print run bound in leather and selling for $1k a pop. That's one way to quickly get back 1/8th of the reported $8 million advance. The special edition will be 'electronically signed', which sounds to me like a euphemism for an auto-pen signature, the sort of autograph that is worthless to collectors. Michael Crichton did this with the deluxe edition of The Lost World, but his only sold for about $35.
So, forgive me for being cynical, but this sounds like one of those books that political cronies and wealthy friends will buy and stick on a shelf as an obligation, a rather back-handed way to funnel money to the publisher to thank them for funneling money Teddy's way. And if I sounds irritated, it's because I am. How many worthy authors are out there trying to sell exciting and important books to cash-strapped publishers who insist on pumping out mega-numbers of this sort of twaddle? Does they actually expect to sell anything approaching half of the 1.5 million initial print run from this book? Good grief, I'll be surprised if they sell even a third of them. Meanwhile we will continue to read how the economy is killing book sales. Maybe if publisher's paid more attention to selling good books and less to selling bloated and self-serving political monuments their bottom line might look a little better.
Of course, no matter how bad this book might turn out to be, no matter how self-serving Teddy's cathartic ramblings are, they cannot possibly wind up being the worst book published this summer.
Not with the sequel to The Da Vinci Code coming.
Kennedy's book
*** We aren't that far from the 2009 Southern Festival of Books, which takes place in Nashville the second weekend of October. I have held off commenting because it would be nice to put up a link to this year's lineup of authors, which is scheduled to be published on July 1. It never is, of course, it's usually around the 10th, so that's why I haven't said anything before this. But come on, people, today is the 15th and the Festival is less than three months away! If someone from out of town wants to attend, but is waiting to see the lineup first (in other words, me), do you have to wait until almost the last second to give us a heads up? If I do attend there are lots of details to get set up and you are making this very difficult.
Having said that, the Festival is a bunch of fun, there are always too many authors to possibly meet them all and the biggest danger is overspending on books. In other words, if you're reading this blog then it's the kind of event that would set your hair on fire.
*** I realize that we are all used to idiotic ideas coming out of Washington, but it appears that stupidity no longer knows any restraint, as some moronic Democrat think tank proposes giving every student in America that hell-spawned device known as a Kindle. That's right, spending tax money on one of the nastiest inventions of the last hundred years, as we all wallow in a recession. This is further proof that if you want to write a novel more outrageous than reality, the bar is set very high. The good news is that it seems unlikely to happen, but for people just to consider this shows how far we have fallen as a civilization.
One of the worst ideas in the history of Man
*** I see where George Carlin's biography is due for release in November. Carlin was an American original and I can only imagine the stories he had to tell, which it appears he put down in Last Words.
George Carlin has his final say
*** I note with sadness that the founder of SFF's seminal magazine on the industry, Locus, the innovative editor Charles N. Brown, died July 12. Behind me as I write this are boxes filled with decades worth of Locus issues, if you wanted to work in the SFF field, or keep up with it or just read some great reviews and interviews, that was/is your magazine of choice.
RIP Charles N. Brown
The highs in Memphis this weekend will be in the mid 80's. That's right, about 10 degrees below normal for July. This great weather is scary.
***Ted Kennedy's auto-biography, co-written with the co-author of Flags of Our Fathers Rom Powers, has been slated for a companion deluxe edition to accompany the trade edition. True Compass will have a 1,000 copy print run bound in leather and selling for $1k a pop. That's one way to quickly get back 1/8th of the reported $8 million advance. The special edition will be 'electronically signed', which sounds to me like a euphemism for an auto-pen signature, the sort of autograph that is worthless to collectors. Michael Crichton did this with the deluxe edition of The Lost World, but his only sold for about $35.
So, forgive me for being cynical, but this sounds like one of those books that political cronies and wealthy friends will buy and stick on a shelf as an obligation, a rather back-handed way to funnel money to the publisher to thank them for funneling money Teddy's way. And if I sounds irritated, it's because I am. How many worthy authors are out there trying to sell exciting and important books to cash-strapped publishers who insist on pumping out mega-numbers of this sort of twaddle? Does they actually expect to sell anything approaching half of the 1.5 million initial print run from this book? Good grief, I'll be surprised if they sell even a third of them. Meanwhile we will continue to read how the economy is killing book sales. Maybe if publisher's paid more attention to selling good books and less to selling bloated and self-serving political monuments their bottom line might look a little better.
Of course, no matter how bad this book might turn out to be, no matter how self-serving Teddy's cathartic ramblings are, they cannot possibly wind up being the worst book published this summer.
Not with the sequel to The Da Vinci Code coming.
Kennedy's book
*** We aren't that far from the 2009 Southern Festival of Books, which takes place in Nashville the second weekend of October. I have held off commenting because it would be nice to put up a link to this year's lineup of authors, which is scheduled to be published on July 1. It never is, of course, it's usually around the 10th, so that's why I haven't said anything before this. But come on, people, today is the 15th and the Festival is less than three months away! If someone from out of town wants to attend, but is waiting to see the lineup first (in other words, me), do you have to wait until almost the last second to give us a heads up? If I do attend there are lots of details to get set up and you are making this very difficult.
Having said that, the Festival is a bunch of fun, there are always too many authors to possibly meet them all and the biggest danger is overspending on books. In other words, if you're reading this blog then it's the kind of event that would set your hair on fire.
*** I realize that we are all used to idiotic ideas coming out of Washington, but it appears that stupidity no longer knows any restraint, as some moronic Democrat think tank proposes giving every student in America that hell-spawned device known as a Kindle. That's right, spending tax money on one of the nastiest inventions of the last hundred years, as we all wallow in a recession. This is further proof that if you want to write a novel more outrageous than reality, the bar is set very high. The good news is that it seems unlikely to happen, but for people just to consider this shows how far we have fallen as a civilization.
One of the worst ideas in the history of Man
*** I see where George Carlin's biography is due for release in November. Carlin was an American original and I can only imagine the stories he had to tell, which it appears he put down in Last Words.
George Carlin has his final say
*** I note with sadness that the founder of SFF's seminal magazine on the industry, Locus, the innovative editor Charles N. Brown, died July 12. Behind me as I write this are boxes filled with decades worth of Locus issues, if you wanted to work in the SFF field, or keep up with it or just read some great reviews and interviews, that was/is your magazine of choice.
RIP Charles N. Brown
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
July 1st already?
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
The 4th of July is coming up soon, I hope you all have something delectable to read. How else would you celebrate American Independence than by reading whatever you want?
For those following the 2009 European Adventure Tour, the next segment is coming shortly.
*** Western writer Don Coldsmith has died. I am not familiar with his work, but in reading his obituary it was obvious that here was yet another writer I wish that I had time to read. His Spanish Bit books are about the Plains Indians in the time when the Spanish have just introduced the horse and how it changed their lives. No doubt I would love them. They sound like a great gift for someone who loves westerns and history.
The Passing of Don Coldsmith
*** The horrors of the Nazi camp system seem to encompass every aspect of human existence, including prostitution. In a new book to re released in Germany in July, The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps, Schonigh Verlag, author Robert Sommer has collected the most comprehensive data yet made available on the women who survived the camps by serving as prostitutes for both the soldiers and the inmates. He also explores the issue of whether or not these women were 'volunteers', a claim which has made it easier to overlook this crime.
One more horror in the long list of Nazi horrors
*** And, as if to prove that new books on World War II may be expected on an almost daily basis, there is a new one on FDR's efforts to help Britain during 1941, when she fought on alone against Germany after the Fall of France. To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London 1941 by Thomas Parrish, documents the efforts of FDR's two point men, Harry Hopkins and Averill Harriman, to simultaneously encourage England and rouse the USA to the dangers of Germany.
Since I haven't read this book the one caveat that I might have is if the author plays up the danger of a German attack on mainland America. If he does, then I lose interest, because that simply was not going to happen. However, I will assume that a recognized author such as Parrish will not make such a silly mistake.
FDR's fight to help England in 1941
The 4th of July is coming up soon, I hope you all have something delectable to read. How else would you celebrate American Independence than by reading whatever you want?
For those following the 2009 European Adventure Tour, the next segment is coming shortly.
*** Western writer Don Coldsmith has died. I am not familiar with his work, but in reading his obituary it was obvious that here was yet another writer I wish that I had time to read. His Spanish Bit books are about the Plains Indians in the time when the Spanish have just introduced the horse and how it changed their lives. No doubt I would love them. They sound like a great gift for someone who loves westerns and history.
The Passing of Don Coldsmith
*** The horrors of the Nazi camp system seem to encompass every aspect of human existence, including prostitution. In a new book to re released in Germany in July, The Concentration Camp Bordello: Sexual Forced Labor in National Socialistic Concentration Camps, Schonigh Verlag, author Robert Sommer has collected the most comprehensive data yet made available on the women who survived the camps by serving as prostitutes for both the soldiers and the inmates. He also explores the issue of whether or not these women were 'volunteers', a claim which has made it easier to overlook this crime.
One more horror in the long list of Nazi horrors
*** And, as if to prove that new books on World War II may be expected on an almost daily basis, there is a new one on FDR's efforts to help Britain during 1941, when she fought on alone against Germany after the Fall of France. To Keep the British Isles Afloat: FDR's Men in Churchill's London 1941 by Thomas Parrish, documents the efforts of FDR's two point men, Harry Hopkins and Averill Harriman, to simultaneously encourage England and rouse the USA to the dangers of Germany.
Since I haven't read this book the one caveat that I might have is if the author plays up the danger of a German attack on mainland America. If he does, then I lose interest, because that simply was not going to happen. However, I will assume that a recognized author such as Parrish will not make such a silly mistake.
FDR's fight to help England in 1941
Friday, May 1, 2009
Making headway
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
First, the ongoing drain on my time and energy may be coming to an end. Let's hope so. At the least I'm making headway. If anyone ever asks you to be executor for an estate, think twice before you say yes. I had no idea how much time, effort and willpower it took.
*** The new issue of iloveamysterynewsletter is posted. I have a couple of reviews in it, and now a link back to this blog. also, I'm changing the descriptive header at the top to something a bit less accurate and a bit spiffier. Given the choice between content and spiffiness, I'll pick spiffiness every time.
*** The Nebula Awards were given out last weekend. For those who don't know, the Nebulas are awarded to Science Fiction writers based on the votes of fans, kind of like the People's Choice Awards, as opposed to the Hugos, which are more like the Oscars. M.Scott Edelman is a longtime SF writer/editor and here's a link to his blog from that weekend: Edelman does the Nebulas. Some great photos there, as well.
*** Sadly, it should be noted that Thomas Deitz has died. Dietz was young, 57, a well known SFF writer and by all accounts a good guy. I'm sorry I never had the chance to meet him.
Thomas Deitz
*** I find this next item fascinating. Why do people are publications spend so much time, effort and space on negative book reviews? If the book is wretched, why waste your breathe going on about it? It's a really good question.
For example, the second worst book I've ever read is The Da Vinci Code. Complete and utter rubbish, not only because of its idiotic 'research', I can stretch willing suspension of disbelief pretty far, after all, but moreso because of the hideously poor writing involved. Dan Brown has never met a cliche he can't use at least a dozen times, and the book buying public seems to crave more of this. So why do people like me feel the need to go on and on about it? I think the article makes some good points about that very thing.
Why bother bashing books?
*** Here's a book I want to read about an event I didn't know happened. Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo. It seems that after he left office, Truman and wife Bess, and nobody else, went on a 2500 mile road trip across America. Imagine such a thing! You're hanging out eating breakfast at a diner, dead tired after getting off work in the bicycle factory, and in walks the former POTUS and his wife to grab supper. Incredible. And yet, apparently, quite true. This may be one of those 'I've got to look this book up' books.
Harry and Bess go for a drive
First, the ongoing drain on my time and energy may be coming to an end. Let's hope so. At the least I'm making headway. If anyone ever asks you to be executor for an estate, think twice before you say yes. I had no idea how much time, effort and willpower it took.
*** The new issue of iloveamysterynewsletter is posted. I have a couple of reviews in it, and now a link back to this blog. also, I'm changing the descriptive header at the top to something a bit less accurate and a bit spiffier. Given the choice between content and spiffiness, I'll pick spiffiness every time.
*** The Nebula Awards were given out last weekend. For those who don't know, the Nebulas are awarded to Science Fiction writers based on the votes of fans, kind of like the People's Choice Awards, as opposed to the Hugos, which are more like the Oscars. M.Scott Edelman is a longtime SF writer/editor and here's a link to his blog from that weekend: Edelman does the Nebulas. Some great photos there, as well.
*** Sadly, it should be noted that Thomas Deitz has died. Dietz was young, 57, a well known SFF writer and by all accounts a good guy. I'm sorry I never had the chance to meet him.
Thomas Deitz
*** I find this next item fascinating. Why do people are publications spend so much time, effort and space on negative book reviews? If the book is wretched, why waste your breathe going on about it? It's a really good question.
For example, the second worst book I've ever read is The Da Vinci Code. Complete and utter rubbish, not only because of its idiotic 'research', I can stretch willing suspension of disbelief pretty far, after all, but moreso because of the hideously poor writing involved. Dan Brown has never met a cliche he can't use at least a dozen times, and the book buying public seems to crave more of this. So why do people like me feel the need to go on and on about it? I think the article makes some good points about that very thing.
Why bother bashing books?
*** Here's a book I want to read about an event I didn't know happened. Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo. It seems that after he left office, Truman and wife Bess, and nobody else, went on a 2500 mile road trip across America. Imagine such a thing! You're hanging out eating breakfast at a diner, dead tired after getting off work in the bicycle factory, and in walks the former POTUS and his wife to grab supper. Incredible. And yet, apparently, quite true. This may be one of those 'I've got to look this book up' books.
Harry and Bess go for a drive
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Good news, new news and bad news
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
The 'life comes at you' stuff that has eaten up my time in the last few months has been at it again, so my apologies for not having a blog up lately. This could continue for a while yet, but I hope not. Anyway, let's get to today's news and comment.
*** Ah, leave it to the French to make something good out of something very bad. In this case, the very bad part was surrendering to the Germans during World War II. Sure, the downside was pretty drastic, having German soldiers getting big discounts and the best tables in all of the swankiest restaurants, putting up with those drab Gestapo men standing on street corners giving you the creeps. No fun. But the upside! Ah, the upside. If you were a madam in a bordello, or even just a common streetwalker, those were the best of times.
At least, that's the claim in a new book that has France all a-twitter. (No, not Twitter, a-twitter.) 1940-1945, Erotic Years by Patrick Buisson is a history of the French sex business during the German occupation. According to many of those Buisson interviewed for his book those years were an absolutely howling good time, business was booming for brothels and the Germans were just fun-loving teutons far from home who only wanted to have fun.
Quite predictably, the French aren't wild about this book, portraying as it does a harsh reality many would like to forget, namely, that not only did the French Army gets its butt kicked badly but the French people weren't all that upset about it. C'est la vie!
When the Germans came it was party time for the French!
*** I'm a big movie buff, especially good war movies, and double especially war movies about World Wars 1 and 2. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of good WW2 movies, but far fewer about WW1. I mean, once you've shown the horror of living in a mud-filled trench for months at a time, with machine guns ready to slice you in half and the occasional artillery barrage that might obliterate all traces you were ever there, there just isn't all that much left to portray. Except for the very small number of movies about the war in the air. And one of the best of those was The Blue Max. George Peppard was great, of course, but the whole thing was well done.
Did you know that it was based on a book? It was. And that book's author has, sadly, just passed away. Jack Hunter was 87 and lived in one of the great cities of America, St. Augustine, FL.
Blue Max author has written his last chapter
*** I have to admit that reading stories about great book collections being auctioned is something that I always find fascinating. I don't really know why. Maybe it's just the chance to see what other people collect, to wonder where they found this or that rarity. Anyway, he's a short piece about a major collection going under the hammer down under.
New Zealand collection auctioned
*** When Burt Reynolds posed for Playgirl magazine there was quite an uproar. How could a man possibly be a pin-up? Women didn't want or need that sort of thing, did they? It was considered bad form and, to a male eye, with good reason. But Burt wasn't the first, oh no, not by a long shot. No doubt some ancient Roman had his likeness carved into a wall somewhere for the admiration of the girls. But even if Trajan wasn't a pin-up in his day, we know someone who was: Hermann Goering.
That's right, the Reichsmarshall himself, was once a glamour boy for women of the Reich to swoon over. Hitler's Number Two was considered an ideal of German manhood, at least, he was before he gained so much weight that he looked like a bipedal walrus. And, largely forgotten today, Goering really was a hero of the First World War. He was an ace, a very good pilot and the last commander of the famed Richthofen Flying Circus. Goebbel's propaganda machine had some actual grist for its mill with Goering, which must have surely irritated the club-footed little doctor no end, since the two men could not stand each other.
I do take exception with one piece of the article, however. National Socialism wasn't so much a fascist regime as it was a hodge-podge of whatever kept the economy from collapsing at the moment.
Thank God he wasn't wearing panty hose
*** Just when you thought Ebay could not do anything more stupid than they already have, along comes John Donahoe to prove you wrong. The doofus who ruined the company last year is now saying it may take another 3 or 4 years to completely destroy it. Not in so many words, mind you, but from the beginning nothing this man has said has come through, none of his changes have proved beneficial, the stock price is less than half of what it was...one can only wonder what he's got on the board of directors that allows him to keep his job.
Ebay's Donahoe says more stupid things to go along with all of the other stupid things he's said
*** Here's something you don't see every day: Holocaust victims being pursued as terrorists. Jews in Lithuania who escaped captivity when the Nazis marched in, who then went on to fight a partisan war against the Nazis and their countrymen who helped the Nazis, are now being investigated for those actions.
In truth, Lithuania had no good choice. In 1940 they ceased to exist as a nation when the Soviet Union overran them without a fight. Stalin wasted no time in rounding up and executing thousands of Lithuanians who might oppose his rule, so is it any wonder that when the Germans came through on their anti-Bolshevik march the Lithuanians supported them as liberators?
That's not to make excuses, merely to point out that things aren't always as cut and dried as they seem. Anyway, this relates to books because much of the evidence against one of these so-called criminals is his memoir, The Partisan. The claim is made that members of a partisan band executed Lithuanians who aided the Germans. Seems pretty thin to me, but then again, I'm not a Lithuanian prosecutor.
Be careful what you put in your autobiography
*** For lovers of fine literature, fans of compelling thrillers and researchers of obscure history, this week brought the worst possible news: Dan Brown has written a sequel to The Da Vinci Code. That's right, as if writing the 2nd worst book of all time wasn't bad enough, now this hack has to slaughter a whole new generation of trees to publish more worthless nonsense. The only question for me is, after using every cliche known to the English language in his previous book, what will he do for an encore? Use the same ones again? Find cliches from other languages?
Fortunately, I won't read this tripe and won't care. May God have mercy on those who will.
The 'life comes at you' stuff that has eaten up my time in the last few months has been at it again, so my apologies for not having a blog up lately. This could continue for a while yet, but I hope not. Anyway, let's get to today's news and comment.
*** Ah, leave it to the French to make something good out of something very bad. In this case, the very bad part was surrendering to the Germans during World War II. Sure, the downside was pretty drastic, having German soldiers getting big discounts and the best tables in all of the swankiest restaurants, putting up with those drab Gestapo men standing on street corners giving you the creeps. No fun. But the upside! Ah, the upside. If you were a madam in a bordello, or even just a common streetwalker, those were the best of times.
At least, that's the claim in a new book that has France all a-twitter. (No, not Twitter, a-twitter.) 1940-1945, Erotic Years by Patrick Buisson is a history of the French sex business during the German occupation. According to many of those Buisson interviewed for his book those years were an absolutely howling good time, business was booming for brothels and the Germans were just fun-loving teutons far from home who only wanted to have fun.
Quite predictably, the French aren't wild about this book, portraying as it does a harsh reality many would like to forget, namely, that not only did the French Army gets its butt kicked badly but the French people weren't all that upset about it. C'est la vie!
When the Germans came it was party time for the French!
*** I'm a big movie buff, especially good war movies, and double especially war movies about World Wars 1 and 2. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of good WW2 movies, but far fewer about WW1. I mean, once you've shown the horror of living in a mud-filled trench for months at a time, with machine guns ready to slice you in half and the occasional artillery barrage that might obliterate all traces you were ever there, there just isn't all that much left to portray. Except for the very small number of movies about the war in the air. And one of the best of those was The Blue Max. George Peppard was great, of course, but the whole thing was well done.
Did you know that it was based on a book? It was. And that book's author has, sadly, just passed away. Jack Hunter was 87 and lived in one of the great cities of America, St. Augustine, FL.
Blue Max author has written his last chapter
*** I have to admit that reading stories about great book collections being auctioned is something that I always find fascinating. I don't really know why. Maybe it's just the chance to see what other people collect, to wonder where they found this or that rarity. Anyway, he's a short piece about a major collection going under the hammer down under.
New Zealand collection auctioned
*** When Burt Reynolds posed for Playgirl magazine there was quite an uproar. How could a man possibly be a pin-up? Women didn't want or need that sort of thing, did they? It was considered bad form and, to a male eye, with good reason. But Burt wasn't the first, oh no, not by a long shot. No doubt some ancient Roman had his likeness carved into a wall somewhere for the admiration of the girls. But even if Trajan wasn't a pin-up in his day, we know someone who was: Hermann Goering.
That's right, the Reichsmarshall himself, was once a glamour boy for women of the Reich to swoon over. Hitler's Number Two was considered an ideal of German manhood, at least, he was before he gained so much weight that he looked like a bipedal walrus. And, largely forgotten today, Goering really was a hero of the First World War. He was an ace, a very good pilot and the last commander of the famed Richthofen Flying Circus. Goebbel's propaganda machine had some actual grist for its mill with Goering, which must have surely irritated the club-footed little doctor no end, since the two men could not stand each other.
I do take exception with one piece of the article, however. National Socialism wasn't so much a fascist regime as it was a hodge-podge of whatever kept the economy from collapsing at the moment.
Thank God he wasn't wearing panty hose
*** Just when you thought Ebay could not do anything more stupid than they already have, along comes John Donahoe to prove you wrong. The doofus who ruined the company last year is now saying it may take another 3 or 4 years to completely destroy it. Not in so many words, mind you, but from the beginning nothing this man has said has come through, none of his changes have proved beneficial, the stock price is less than half of what it was...one can only wonder what he's got on the board of directors that allows him to keep his job.
Ebay's Donahoe says more stupid things to go along with all of the other stupid things he's said
*** Here's something you don't see every day: Holocaust victims being pursued as terrorists. Jews in Lithuania who escaped captivity when the Nazis marched in, who then went on to fight a partisan war against the Nazis and their countrymen who helped the Nazis, are now being investigated for those actions.
In truth, Lithuania had no good choice. In 1940 they ceased to exist as a nation when the Soviet Union overran them without a fight. Stalin wasted no time in rounding up and executing thousands of Lithuanians who might oppose his rule, so is it any wonder that when the Germans came through on their anti-Bolshevik march the Lithuanians supported them as liberators?
That's not to make excuses, merely to point out that things aren't always as cut and dried as they seem. Anyway, this relates to books because much of the evidence against one of these so-called criminals is his memoir, The Partisan. The claim is made that members of a partisan band executed Lithuanians who aided the Germans. Seems pretty thin to me, but then again, I'm not a Lithuanian prosecutor.
Be careful what you put in your autobiography
*** For lovers of fine literature, fans of compelling thrillers and researchers of obscure history, this week brought the worst possible news: Dan Brown has written a sequel to The Da Vinci Code. That's right, as if writing the 2nd worst book of all time wasn't bad enough, now this hack has to slaughter a whole new generation of trees to publish more worthless nonsense. The only question for me is, after using every cliche known to the English language in his previous book, what will he do for an encore? Use the same ones again? Find cliches from other languages?
Fortunately, I won't read this tripe and won't care. May God have mercy on those who will.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Spring had sprung, but not anymore
Good day bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
Winter has made a brief comeback in West Tennessee, with cold temps and wetness galore. Here's hoping sanity (and warmth) prevail soon.
*** This just in: one Congressman has brains enough to try and amend the idiocy of the law banning children's books because of their lead content. Please let your Congressperson know if you agree that Congress should at least attempt to show some brains once in a while and amend this law. If you feel strongly, though, you should not email them; most will ignore it. One bookseller thought his Rep., Barney Frank, would be appalled by this, but it seems they discovered he is all in for this nonsense. Such representatives need to know if their constituents want this law amended to show at least a modicum of common sense.
One Congressman, at least, gets it
And a further explanation
*** Sadly, John Hope Franklin has died at age 94. For those who don't know, Franklin was a famed black historian who more or less was the Civil Rights Movement. I met him at the Southern Festival of Books here in Memphis in 2006, when the mayor did not bother to even notice that he was in town, and his indifference helped Memphis lose the festival back to Nashville. Franklin was frail but kindly, signed anything anyone put in front of him, including my posters. A good man, I'm sorry he's gone.
*** Being an Anthony Bourdain fan I found this short interview entertaining, if a bit tame. It's like he's become the Lou Reed of Food TV, edgy but not over the edge, whereas he used to be Iggy Pop. But they are both great in their own way, as so is Bourdain.
Or maybe I have fond memories of the early internet days, when he was a regular poster on the Old AOL 'Hardboiled' board, during the time when Gone Bamboo was fresh on the stands. Those were certainly good times for your friendly neighborhood bookseller.
Tony Bourdain lays it out
Winter has made a brief comeback in West Tennessee, with cold temps and wetness galore. Here's hoping sanity (and warmth) prevail soon.
*** This just in: one Congressman has brains enough to try and amend the idiocy of the law banning children's books because of their lead content. Please let your Congressperson know if you agree that Congress should at least attempt to show some brains once in a while and amend this law. If you feel strongly, though, you should not email them; most will ignore it. One bookseller thought his Rep., Barney Frank, would be appalled by this, but it seems they discovered he is all in for this nonsense. Such representatives need to know if their constituents want this law amended to show at least a modicum of common sense.
One Congressman, at least, gets it
And a further explanation
*** Sadly, John Hope Franklin has died at age 94. For those who don't know, Franklin was a famed black historian who more or less was the Civil Rights Movement. I met him at the Southern Festival of Books here in Memphis in 2006, when the mayor did not bother to even notice that he was in town, and his indifference helped Memphis lose the festival back to Nashville. Franklin was frail but kindly, signed anything anyone put in front of him, including my posters. A good man, I'm sorry he's gone.
*** Being an Anthony Bourdain fan I found this short interview entertaining, if a bit tame. It's like he's become the Lou Reed of Food TV, edgy but not over the edge, whereas he used to be Iggy Pop. But they are both great in their own way, as so is Bourdain.
Or maybe I have fond memories of the early internet days, when he was a regular poster on the Old AOL 'Hardboiled' board, during the time when Gone Bamboo was fresh on the stands. Those were certainly good times for your friendly neighborhood bookseller.
Tony Bourdain lays it out
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Sundays morsels
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
*** Crime writer Barbara Parker died yesterday, aged 62. I never had the pleasure of meeting her, but from everything other writers have said about her, that's my loss. I'm always sad when I learn of such events, I know she was beloved by writers that I knew and respect and they are feeling the loss today. What a shame. 62 is too damned young. The obit was written by Oline Cogdill, well known crime reviewer, who probably knew her as well as any newspaper columnist.
Barbara Parker RIP
*** Ha! I love a good Top Ten list, and this one's better than most. What are the Top Ten books people lie about reading? What a great idea. What's weird is that I actually have read 3 of the books on the list. I've read Orwell's 1984 (and I'm living it right now), Hawkings' A Brief History of Time (technically, I listened to this on unabridged audio, but I think that counts) and The Bible. I have also more or less read War and Peace, although I'm not 100% sure I've read it completely through.
Top Ten books you probably haven't read, but say you have
*** I note with regret that I once more missed the Dublin Book Festival this weekend. Great city with some great bookstores.
*** Let's file this under the category of: Building Inspectors Are A Good Idea. The Historical Archive of Cologne, Germany, collapsed last Tuesday, burying 1,000 years of priceless historical documents under tons of rubble, probably killing two people and leaving archivists wondering if anything can be salvaged.
So how does a building like this just collapse without notice? Or, were there warnings that were ignored? Does Germany have building inspectors? Considering how over-regulated Europe is these days one assumes that Germany has lots and lots of building inspectors. It boggles, it really does.
So much for the history
*** Crime writer Barbara Parker died yesterday, aged 62. I never had the pleasure of meeting her, but from everything other writers have said about her, that's my loss. I'm always sad when I learn of such events, I know she was beloved by writers that I knew and respect and they are feeling the loss today. What a shame. 62 is too damned young. The obit was written by Oline Cogdill, well known crime reviewer, who probably knew her as well as any newspaper columnist.
Barbara Parker RIP
*** Ha! I love a good Top Ten list, and this one's better than most. What are the Top Ten books people lie about reading? What a great idea. What's weird is that I actually have read 3 of the books on the list. I've read Orwell's 1984 (and I'm living it right now), Hawkings' A Brief History of Time (technically, I listened to this on unabridged audio, but I think that counts) and The Bible. I have also more or less read War and Peace, although I'm not 100% sure I've read it completely through.
Top Ten books you probably haven't read, but say you have
*** I note with regret that I once more missed the Dublin Book Festival this weekend. Great city with some great bookstores.
*** Let's file this under the category of: Building Inspectors Are A Good Idea. The Historical Archive of Cologne, Germany, collapsed last Tuesday, burying 1,000 years of priceless historical documents under tons of rubble, probably killing two people and leaving archivists wondering if anything can be salvaged.
So how does a building like this just collapse without notice? Or, were there warnings that were ignored? Does Germany have building inspectors? Considering how over-regulated Europe is these days one assumes that Germany has lots and lots of building inspectors. It boggles, it really does.
So much for the history
Sunday, March 1, 2009
So long, Mr. Harvey
Good morning bookies. Stand by for news.
By now you have no doubt learned that we lost Paul Harvey yesterday at age 90. It's hard to describe the vacuum that your friendly neighborhood bookseller feels because of this. Growing up in the days before talk radio was prevalent, Paul Harvey was the one radio newsman I can remember from my youth. He was a calming influence and I knew that as long as he was around, everything would turn out alright. Even to this day I have his web site bookmarked and listen to his daily newscasts whenever I have the time. 'The Rest of the Story' was and is one of my favorite programs. Damn, I'm going to miss him.
The photo above is looking out my office window. About midnight last night you would have thought we were in Alaska, the snow was pouring down, wind blowing, about as close to a blizzard as West Tennessee is ever likely to come. But, in typical West Tennessee fashion, it will all be gone quickly. This weekend it's supposed to hit the 70's. Let's hope it stays there.
*** One of the more forgotten chapters in World War II is the contribution made by women, specifically, nurses. World War II Front Line Nurse by Mildred Radawiec MacGregor seeks to rectify that a bit, giving the experience of one such lady from Michigan.
World War II Front Line Nurse
*** Boy, talk about a book that's right up my alley. The Lost City of Z by David Grann seems like something I would love to read, even without a visit to the author's website. However, given that the site is ultra-nifty, this might just be one that BBG has to go out and find for himself. Dark, foreboding jungle, a lost expedition for a city of gold, mysterious diaries...Indiana Jones at his best and truest.
DavidGrann.com
*** Finally, your friendly neighborhood bookseller attended a book signing last week given by David Kidd Books and featuring t.Jefferson Parker. I had never seen Parker before and he seemed like quite a nice guy. He spoke for about 30 minutes about how and why he writes, his day begins at 6:30 am and ends at 5 pm, Monday-Friday, no holidays. Like many authors he chose not to read from the book he was touring to support, The Renegades, and personally I prefer it this way. I mean, if you're going to read the book anyway, then why do you need the author to read it to you? But that leaves the author needing material for the obligatory talk, so I understand also why they do sometimes choose to read. Anyway, Parker didn't have anything particularly revealing to say, but I liked his explanation of why he chose to write The Renegades. The plot centers around the shipping of money from the north, aka The United States, south to Mexico. He liked this idea because normally books about the drug trade are about smuggling drugs into the US, not smuggling the money they are sold for out of the country. Nice idea. I don't usually read his stuff but I might make an exception.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Big losses and a Big Loss
Good Friday, bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
Five days without a blog? I know, it's inexcusable, I'm sorry, I really am. Life comes at you fast and all that. My inbox has been clogged with irate emails wondering what's going on, I can only plead busy-ness.
*** By now, everyone knows that Philip Jose Farmer died Wednesday, aged 91. I never met him, but like so many others I will miss him. Who can read To Your Scattered Bodies Go and not be immediately captivated with Riverworld? He was one of the last of the all-time greats, a contemporary of and one of the very few who compared to Heinlein, Asimov, Zelazny or van Vogt. He cannot be replaced and the world is a sadder place for me, knowing he is no longer in it. On the other hand, he is probably roaming Riverworld even as I write this.
Philip Jose Farmer, RIP
*** Harlan Coben is finally getting some attention from the movies and TV. It seems TNT is interested in a series idea of his, and filmmakers are negotiating the rights to a remake of Tell No One, which made good money as a French made film.
Those who know me, know that the Myron and Win series was one of my favorites. Great interplay, lots of fun, an author who didn't take himself too seriously. Those same people also remember that I casually commented on a message board that I didn't care for his latest book and suddenly, who shows up to bash me for daring criticize his work? That's right, the author himself. This mega-millionaire writer (he had just signed an $8 million deal) is so thin-skinned that he had to pop up and fight back against one guy who had loved all of his previous work, but didn't care for the new one. How dare I not love him! Who did I think that I was?
Anyway, from that point forward I realized he was one of those people who seemed like a great guy, but was not who he seemed to be. I am glad he's having success, I hope he has more in the future, but Coben is in that small list of crime writers, with Patricia Cornwell, who are so disagreeable that if they never sold another book I would be glad for the trees whose lives were saved.
Coben finally breaking into films and TV
*** Going into Harry Potter withdrawal? Apparently some people are. Bidding for a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is already way over previous auction records. And in the category of 'you never something new every day', I was not aware that softcover books got this kind of auction action.
Harry Potter bringing in the big bucks, again
*** A quick ebay update. The stock is tanking again, as I write this it stands at $10.76. When I started following this story last year, it was trading at $34. 2/3 of its value is gone, much worse than the stock market as a whole for a company that should be gaining business as people try to sell anything they can to make ends meet.
Anybody want to hire John Donohoe to perform disruptive innovation on their company? I've said for months that future students of business will study ebay to find out what NOT to do, but even I had under-estimated just how incompetent this guy could be.
Is ebay approaching the point of no return?
Five days without a blog? I know, it's inexcusable, I'm sorry, I really am. Life comes at you fast and all that. My inbox has been clogged with irate emails wondering what's going on, I can only plead busy-ness.
*** By now, everyone knows that Philip Jose Farmer died Wednesday, aged 91. I never met him, but like so many others I will miss him. Who can read To Your Scattered Bodies Go and not be immediately captivated with Riverworld? He was one of the last of the all-time greats, a contemporary of and one of the very few who compared to Heinlein, Asimov, Zelazny or van Vogt. He cannot be replaced and the world is a sadder place for me, knowing he is no longer in it. On the other hand, he is probably roaming Riverworld even as I write this.
Philip Jose Farmer, RIP
*** Harlan Coben is finally getting some attention from the movies and TV. It seems TNT is interested in a series idea of his, and filmmakers are negotiating the rights to a remake of Tell No One, which made good money as a French made film.
Those who know me, know that the Myron and Win series was one of my favorites. Great interplay, lots of fun, an author who didn't take himself too seriously. Those same people also remember that I casually commented on a message board that I didn't care for his latest book and suddenly, who shows up to bash me for daring criticize his work? That's right, the author himself. This mega-millionaire writer (he had just signed an $8 million deal) is so thin-skinned that he had to pop up and fight back against one guy who had loved all of his previous work, but didn't care for the new one. How dare I not love him! Who did I think that I was?
Anyway, from that point forward I realized he was one of those people who seemed like a great guy, but was not who he seemed to be. I am glad he's having success, I hope he has more in the future, but Coben is in that small list of crime writers, with Patricia Cornwell, who are so disagreeable that if they never sold another book I would be glad for the trees whose lives were saved.
Coben finally breaking into films and TV
*** Going into Harry Potter withdrawal? Apparently some people are. Bidding for a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is already way over previous auction records. And in the category of 'you never something new every day', I was not aware that softcover books got this kind of auction action.
Harry Potter bringing in the big bucks, again
*** A quick ebay update. The stock is tanking again, as I write this it stands at $10.76. When I started following this story last year, it was trading at $34. 2/3 of its value is gone, much worse than the stock market as a whole for a company that should be gaining business as people try to sell anything they can to make ends meet.
Anybody want to hire John Donohoe to perform disruptive innovation on their company? I've said for months that future students of business will study ebay to find out what NOT to do, but even I had under-estimated just how incompetent this guy could be.
Is ebay approaching the point of no return?
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Too much government, not enough common sense
Good morning bookies. Stand by for news and comment.
I have said repeatedly that this blog is apolitical, with the one exception being when politics intrudes on the book industry. So there will be some political commentary today, since the government has done that very thing. You have been warned.
*** And so it returns, with a vengeance, the lunacy of the government has now spread to the writers of parenting blogs. I don't usually link to blogs, but this one is linked to the AOL news page and so has influence. And I'm glad. At least one blogger in the non-book field has picked up on the incredible stupidity of this law. We have bureaucrats blaming our collectible kid books for lead poisoning and child endangerment and probably the UFO coverup conspiracies, but at least some people see the law for the idiocy that it is. I would assume that, if you're reading this blog, you didn't die from your old kid's books, you didn't get lead poisoning from reading them, but you were spared the political correctness that has diluted and largely destroyed the content of new kids' books. Since those don't tow the PC line, they must go. It's hard not to see that as the government's real intent, because it's stated intent is so asinine.
Have we really degenerated so far as a society that we are now destroying books because of some wretched overreaction to the fact that we buy too many children's toys from the Chinese, who don't care what's it their products as long as someone will buy them? Because that's what prompted this particular piece of bad legislation, the discovery that the Chinese make crappy products and that we buy them. But instead of urging people to actually buy American products, and requiring the Chinese to actually make good ones, we responded by destroying whole industries at a time when our economy is tanking because the bureaucrats don't know how to do anything else. Why not burn the books instead of throwing them into a landfill, where the horrible lead can leech into the groundwater? Because, heck, there's even a precedent for burning books. If it's good enough for the Nazis, shouldn't it be good enough for us?
But instead of punishing the dolts who write these ridiculous laws, we respond by voting more of them into office and giving them more control over our lives. You get the government you deserve, unfortunately. And now they are criminalizing books. It won't be long before they criminalize the content of those books.
At least one blogger sees through the government lunacy
*** I note with sadness the death of Irish writer Christopher Nolan at age 43. In 1988 he won the Whitbread Award for his novel Under the Eye of the Clock. A most notable achievement, to be certain, but even more so because Nolan was born with cerebral palsy due to a lack of oxygen during birth. He wrote by having a pointer attached to his head. The level of difficulty involved in daily living wiht such an affliction is beyond anything I can imagine, to produce novels under such circumstances is incredible, but to produce award-winning novels is surely a sign of genius.
I have said repeatedly that this blog is apolitical, with the one exception being when politics intrudes on the book industry. So there will be some political commentary today, since the government has done that very thing. You have been warned.
*** And so it returns, with a vengeance, the lunacy of the government has now spread to the writers of parenting blogs. I don't usually link to blogs, but this one is linked to the AOL news page and so has influence. And I'm glad. At least one blogger in the non-book field has picked up on the incredible stupidity of this law. We have bureaucrats blaming our collectible kid books for lead poisoning and child endangerment and probably the UFO coverup conspiracies, but at least some people see the law for the idiocy that it is. I would assume that, if you're reading this blog, you didn't die from your old kid's books, you didn't get lead poisoning from reading them, but you were spared the political correctness that has diluted and largely destroyed the content of new kids' books. Since those don't tow the PC line, they must go. It's hard not to see that as the government's real intent, because it's stated intent is so asinine.
Have we really degenerated so far as a society that we are now destroying books because of some wretched overreaction to the fact that we buy too many children's toys from the Chinese, who don't care what's it their products as long as someone will buy them? Because that's what prompted this particular piece of bad legislation, the discovery that the Chinese make crappy products and that we buy them. But instead of urging people to actually buy American products, and requiring the Chinese to actually make good ones, we responded by destroying whole industries at a time when our economy is tanking because the bureaucrats don't know how to do anything else. Why not burn the books instead of throwing them into a landfill, where the horrible lead can leech into the groundwater? Because, heck, there's even a precedent for burning books. If it's good enough for the Nazis, shouldn't it be good enough for us?
But instead of punishing the dolts who write these ridiculous laws, we respond by voting more of them into office and giving them more control over our lives. You get the government you deserve, unfortunately. And now they are criminalizing books. It won't be long before they criminalize the content of those books.
At least one blogger sees through the government lunacy
*** I note with sadness the death of Irish writer Christopher Nolan at age 43. In 1988 he won the Whitbread Award for his novel Under the Eye of the Clock. A most notable achievement, to be certain, but even more so because Nolan was born with cerebral palsy due to a lack of oxygen during birth. He wrote by having a pointer attached to his head. The level of difficulty involved in daily living wiht such an affliction is beyond anything I can imagine, to produce novels under such circumstances is incredible, but to produce award-winning novels is surely a sign of genius.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Gaiman, Lee, Updike, Brady and the Z Plan
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
There's white stuff on the ground here in Memphis. It's disgusting, let me tell you. I prefer it when that big yellow thing is up in the sky and you can wear shorts and t-shirts without shivering. People ask me if I don't enjoy the change of seasons and the short answer is: no.
*** Neil Gaiman has made a career of creeping out adults and has now set his sights on our kids, writing horror stories for the innocent and unsuspecting. And he must be good at it, or bad, depending on your point of view, because his latest work, The Graveyard Book, has won the Newberry Medal. Talk about prestigious! In case you don't know, winning the Newberry is a pretty big deal, about like winning the lottery, because it virtually guarantees that your book will remain in print in one form or another for years to come.
Gaiman spooks out the kiddies
*** The first of today's obligatory World War II reviews is rather interesting to me, concerning, as it does, a ship that was never finished. As all of you know I'm a real naval enthusiast, always have been. The earliest books that I remember reading were histories of the US Navy in World War II, I have an extensive collection of lead warships, I have read histories of both of Japan's biggest battleships, Yamato and Musashi, as well as their sister ship that was converted to an aircraft carrier, Shinano, I'm a Titanic buff...well, anyway, I like ships. I was mildly surprised, however, to learn that someone is obsessed with and has written a new history about the Graf Zeppelin, the one and only carrier that Nazi Germany launched during its brief history.
Conceived as part of Germany's overall naval buildup, known as the Z-Plan, Graf Zeppelin wasn't meant to be a fighting force in itself, such as the American task forces that roamed the Pacific. It wasn't a particularly impressive ship, despite the breathless hyperbole of the linked article. Although as long as most full-sized carriers, it's air complement gave it the striking power of a light carrier. The planes would have been modified Stukas, with torpedo bombers and fighters designed for use on a ship. ME-109's would not have worked due to their weird landing gear. None of these planes was overly advanced, none carried a big enough payload to really due the damage needed by a lone carrier. Now, had she ever been on the high seas in tandem with, say, either Bismarck or Tirpitz, or convoy raiding on the Murmansk run, then okay, there was a use providing air cover for other ships, scouting duties and maybe chasing away some cruisers or getting a hit or two on a battleship and forcing them back to port. And this was her intended role.
But a monster, she was not. In a carrier-versus-carrier battle Graf Zeppelin would have been kicked around pretty well. So I would like to read the book Without Wings: The Story of Hitler's Aircraft Carrier by Stephen Burke, I'm curious what his conclusions might be, as well as any interesting tidbits he's dug up about Graf Zeppelin's brief history. I might get this one.
Graf Zeppelin and one hyperbolic journalist
*** And next we have yet another new World War II history book article written by yet another breathless journalist who insists on making his subject bigger and more important than is necessary. Dolloping on the hyperbole we are told that a new history of the US 99th Division 'explodes the myth!' of this or that aspect of the war, where the only person who might have believed such a myth in the first place is the writer of the article. I mean, let's face it, does Once Upon a Time in War: The 99th Division in World War II by Robert Humphrey really explode any myths that World War II was glorious, glamorous or easy? Come on. Hollywood told this story as early as 1949, with an all-star cast. Anybody seen 'Battleground' with Van Johnson lately? What about 'Band of Brothers', that ring any bells?
What this book appears to be is actually something I might read, an oral history of the 99th Division from the standpoint of the GIs who did the fighting. That's an interesting and important story. It doesn't need to be hyped with exclamation points of hack phrases like 'explodes the myth.' Any World War II buff knows that the greatest weakness of the US Army in World War II was in its officer corps. Some senior commanders were top-notch, Patton comes to mind, some weren't bad, Bradley and Eisenhower are good examples, and some were grossly incompetent. (Mark Clark, anyone?) What was worse was the leadership void just below that level, and particularly in the supply services. The article indicates that the men suffered from poor logistics; given the corruption in the ETO that's certainly possible.
Anyway, this book looks like my sort of book and I might read it. Despite the article.
The 99th Division in World War II
*** Hoaxes. Let's face it, we all enjoy reading about a good hoax. And while the linked article might not be the Top 10 Hoaxes of all time (are you telling me the Romans or Egyptians didn't have hoaxers too, but history has forgotten them?), they are 10 fascinating examples of gullibility. And since several of them are books it is relevant to this blog. Neat how I make up the rules as I go, isn't it?
Hoaxes
*** John Updike died yesterday. You probably already knew that. I count myself fortunate for having been able to see him a few years ago on the campus at the University of Memphis. He spoke for an hour or so, this was right after the release of Terrorist, and I was first in line for the book-signing afterward. (I don't know how long he was there, but the line was several hundred people in length.) He was quite funny and polished during the talk. I'm told he was paid $50k for showing up, which seems like quite a bit until you consider that he either A) needed the money or B) couldn't turn down such a massive payday. Whichever is the case, I had a great time and I'm saddened that he's gone.
John Updike dead at 76
*** Also gone is novelist/editor James Brady, aged 80. I have never read any of his work but those I trust tell me he was quite good. He seems to have been known mostly as a 'gossip pioneer', what that is. I thought gossip had been around a lot longer than that.
RIP James Brady
*** Gack! Stan Lee is getting sued for $750 million. Double gack! That's a chunk o' change. It seems shareholders in his company are wondering why he, and not they, got the payout from the many mega-hit movies based on Marvel comic characters Lee created. Beats me why not. I do know that when this much money starts floating around, lawsuits are inevitable.
I hope Stan Lee has a good lawyer. 'Nuff said
There's white stuff on the ground here in Memphis. It's disgusting, let me tell you. I prefer it when that big yellow thing is up in the sky and you can wear shorts and t-shirts without shivering. People ask me if I don't enjoy the change of seasons and the short answer is: no.
*** Neil Gaiman has made a career of creeping out adults and has now set his sights on our kids, writing horror stories for the innocent and unsuspecting. And he must be good at it, or bad, depending on your point of view, because his latest work, The Graveyard Book, has won the Newberry Medal. Talk about prestigious! In case you don't know, winning the Newberry is a pretty big deal, about like winning the lottery, because it virtually guarantees that your book will remain in print in one form or another for years to come.
Gaiman spooks out the kiddies
*** The first of today's obligatory World War II reviews is rather interesting to me, concerning, as it does, a ship that was never finished. As all of you know I'm a real naval enthusiast, always have been. The earliest books that I remember reading were histories of the US Navy in World War II, I have an extensive collection of lead warships, I have read histories of both of Japan's biggest battleships, Yamato and Musashi, as well as their sister ship that was converted to an aircraft carrier, Shinano, I'm a Titanic buff...well, anyway, I like ships. I was mildly surprised, however, to learn that someone is obsessed with and has written a new history about the Graf Zeppelin, the one and only carrier that Nazi Germany launched during its brief history.
Conceived as part of Germany's overall naval buildup, known as the Z-Plan, Graf Zeppelin wasn't meant to be a fighting force in itself, such as the American task forces that roamed the Pacific. It wasn't a particularly impressive ship, despite the breathless hyperbole of the linked article. Although as long as most full-sized carriers, it's air complement gave it the striking power of a light carrier. The planes would have been modified Stukas, with torpedo bombers and fighters designed for use on a ship. ME-109's would not have worked due to their weird landing gear. None of these planes was overly advanced, none carried a big enough payload to really due the damage needed by a lone carrier. Now, had she ever been on the high seas in tandem with, say, either Bismarck or Tirpitz, or convoy raiding on the Murmansk run, then okay, there was a use providing air cover for other ships, scouting duties and maybe chasing away some cruisers or getting a hit or two on a battleship and forcing them back to port. And this was her intended role.
But a monster, she was not. In a carrier-versus-carrier battle Graf Zeppelin would have been kicked around pretty well. So I would like to read the book Without Wings: The Story of Hitler's Aircraft Carrier by Stephen Burke, I'm curious what his conclusions might be, as well as any interesting tidbits he's dug up about Graf Zeppelin's brief history. I might get this one.
Graf Zeppelin and one hyperbolic journalist
*** And next we have yet another new World War II history book article written by yet another breathless journalist who insists on making his subject bigger and more important than is necessary. Dolloping on the hyperbole we are told that a new history of the US 99th Division 'explodes the myth!' of this or that aspect of the war, where the only person who might have believed such a myth in the first place is the writer of the article. I mean, let's face it, does Once Upon a Time in War: The 99th Division in World War II by Robert Humphrey really explode any myths that World War II was glorious, glamorous or easy? Come on. Hollywood told this story as early as 1949, with an all-star cast. Anybody seen 'Battleground' with Van Johnson lately? What about 'Band of Brothers', that ring any bells?
What this book appears to be is actually something I might read, an oral history of the 99th Division from the standpoint of the GIs who did the fighting. That's an interesting and important story. It doesn't need to be hyped with exclamation points of hack phrases like 'explodes the myth.' Any World War II buff knows that the greatest weakness of the US Army in World War II was in its officer corps. Some senior commanders were top-notch, Patton comes to mind, some weren't bad, Bradley and Eisenhower are good examples, and some were grossly incompetent. (Mark Clark, anyone?) What was worse was the leadership void just below that level, and particularly in the supply services. The article indicates that the men suffered from poor logistics; given the corruption in the ETO that's certainly possible.
Anyway, this book looks like my sort of book and I might read it. Despite the article.
The 99th Division in World War II
*** Hoaxes. Let's face it, we all enjoy reading about a good hoax. And while the linked article might not be the Top 10 Hoaxes of all time (are you telling me the Romans or Egyptians didn't have hoaxers too, but history has forgotten them?), they are 10 fascinating examples of gullibility. And since several of them are books it is relevant to this blog. Neat how I make up the rules as I go, isn't it?
Hoaxes
*** John Updike died yesterday. You probably already knew that. I count myself fortunate for having been able to see him a few years ago on the campus at the University of Memphis. He spoke for an hour or so, this was right after the release of Terrorist, and I was first in line for the book-signing afterward. (I don't know how long he was there, but the line was several hundred people in length.) He was quite funny and polished during the talk. I'm told he was paid $50k for showing up, which seems like quite a bit until you consider that he either A) needed the money or B) couldn't turn down such a massive payday. Whichever is the case, I had a great time and I'm saddened that he's gone.
John Updike dead at 76
*** Also gone is novelist/editor James Brady, aged 80. I have never read any of his work but those I trust tell me he was quite good. He seems to have been known mostly as a 'gossip pioneer', what that is. I thought gossip had been around a lot longer than that.
RIP James Brady
*** Gack! Stan Lee is getting sued for $750 million. Double gack! That's a chunk o' change. It seems shareholders in his company are wondering why he, and not they, got the payout from the many mega-hit movies based on Marvel comic characters Lee created. Beats me why not. I do know that when this much money starts floating around, lawsuits are inevitable.
I hope Stan Lee has a good lawyer. 'Nuff said
Friday, January 16, 2009
This, that, the other and more
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
When I said I might miss a few blogs this week, I didn't think it would mean the whole week. Sorry about that. I was in Arlington, VA., for the funeral of my uncle, a most solemn and moving experience. It's hard to express how you feel when you realize that someone you thought of as merely 'uncle so and so', a nice man who was there your whole life wearing his cherished but heavily worn jacket, his baggy pants, paying you to wrap his Christmas gifts when you were a kid, growing his own vegetables and pickling them for Christmas gifts, that seemingly ordinary man who was your uncle earned through his career the honor that brought 40-50 men and women of the United States Army to venture out into the January cold for his funeral, people he had never met but who honored him as one of their own. There was a band, an honor guard, a horse-drawn caisson, the riderless horse with the boots backward in the stirrups. There was the shooting guard firing its salute, and an honest-to-goodness bugler to blow Taps. He was buried less than 200 yards from his oldest brother, both in the shadow of the Pentagon. From five brothers born to a middle class family, two are buried at Arlington.
I guess I always knew my uncle was special, just not special in this particular way.
Now I'm back, so let's get to blogging.
*** Okay, someone has my ideal life. Or one of my ideal lives, anyway. Running a bookstore on the high seas. Yep. If we can have a ship that is a floating condo complex, why not one that is a giant bookstore? This is one of the neatest things I've ever seen, I wonder if it could navigate the Mississippi River up to Memphis? I have to assume that the books are all new, unless the public brings in their used books to sell (trade?) while the ship is in port, which would really be kind of neat. The link is to an older story about the ship, there are newer stories but this one had the best pictures.
Floating bookstore
*** During the 60's and 70's there was a flurry of activity surrounding Japanese soldiers who were left behind and forgotten on various islands scattered around the Pacific during World War II, men who didn't know the war had ended and were still fighting (or, mostly hiding from) US forces. I have read the autobiography of one such man, Onoda, who was trapped on a small Phillippine Island until 1974 but who was accused of cowardice on his return to Japan. (The Japanese of the pre-war period weren't big on forgiveness) Now here's the story of another such man who, for some inexplicable reason, lived a similar story but was NOT thought of as a coward on his return to Japan. I think to know the reason one was thought a coward and the other was not, you would need to be Japanese.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/KA17Dh01.html
*** I know, you're going into withdrawal. It's been more than a week without a story bashing ebay. Well, this is a Bonanzle story, not an ebay, exactly. Of course, without ebay's momentous choke job last year there would not BE a Bonanzle, not one growing so fast as the 2009 version, anyway, so the following story from CNN shows just how far the little-site-that-could has come. More than 20,000 members now and you can only think it will grow exponentially from his point.
*** Bonanzle gaining steam and members
*** The demise of the independent bookstore is rather an old story by now, but there is still room to mourn when a good one goes under. I never shopped at Cody's, but it seems like the sort of store that I would have liked. Our local independent small-chain seller, Davis-Kidd books, is terrific, the personnel irreplaceable, but one can only hope they are in this for the long run. Losing them would hurt very badly, so I understand the sense of loss for Cody's loyal customers.
A good one bites the dust
*** There was a time when I took historian David Irving seriously. As did many other people, I might add. He was British, he was a historian, he sounded good and had the right credentials. His opinions were a bit different than most, but so what? Mine are too. Of course, this was before he wound up in jail in Austria for denying the Holocaust. (As an American this seems bizarre, that someone could be thrown in jail for espousing a political view, even one as awful as this. But if I am ever in Austria again, and I hope that I am, you can be sure I won't be denying the Holocaust or Sieg Heil-ing down Kartnerstrasse, even if I were so inclined, which I'm not. I mean, how stupid can you be?)
Anyway, Irving lost pretty much all credibility when he went about saying the Holocaust wasn't real and didn't happen, but this has lead to a most interesting turn: Irving, it seems, was chosen by Hitler himself to be his biographer. Not that the two ever met, of course. Irving spent part of his childhood dodging bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe and was still a child when Hitler ate the end of a Walther. But, no matter. Hitler somehow knew Irving would come along one day and appointed him the task of writing his 'true' biography. How could he know such a thing? don't think about it, you'll get a headache. Instead, read the attached article, it's fascinating and eerie and you'll hope you're never sitting next to Irving on a long plane flight.
David Irving is even stranger than you thought
*** I note that Patrick McGoohan died Tuesday in L.A. 'The Prisoner' was one of those fleeting moments of remembered greatness in one's youth, so transitorily wonderful that you never forget it. During one of my two years at UT Knoxville there was a marathon of 'The Prisoner's' one and only season that I sat through until my backside ached. The series was one of those that was so uniquely English that it could never have been made anywhere else, and efforts to try would have failed miserably.
A legend has passed.
*** Not merely one legend, however. I see where sir John Mortimer has died and this is truly a loss that I will feel. For those who haven't discovered Rumpole of the Bailey, I feel sorry for you. Second only to PG Wodehouse in my estimation of the great 20th century British humorists, Mortimer could seemingly will laughs from even the most dour reader. 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' is something all husbands can relate to and none would admit to doing so. Sigh...
No more Rumpole
When I said I might miss a few blogs this week, I didn't think it would mean the whole week. Sorry about that. I was in Arlington, VA., for the funeral of my uncle, a most solemn and moving experience. It's hard to express how you feel when you realize that someone you thought of as merely 'uncle so and so', a nice man who was there your whole life wearing his cherished but heavily worn jacket, his baggy pants, paying you to wrap his Christmas gifts when you were a kid, growing his own vegetables and pickling them for Christmas gifts, that seemingly ordinary man who was your uncle earned through his career the honor that brought 40-50 men and women of the United States Army to venture out into the January cold for his funeral, people he had never met but who honored him as one of their own. There was a band, an honor guard, a horse-drawn caisson, the riderless horse with the boots backward in the stirrups. There was the shooting guard firing its salute, and an honest-to-goodness bugler to blow Taps. He was buried less than 200 yards from his oldest brother, both in the shadow of the Pentagon. From five brothers born to a middle class family, two are buried at Arlington.
I guess I always knew my uncle was special, just not special in this particular way.
Now I'm back, so let's get to blogging.
*** Okay, someone has my ideal life. Or one of my ideal lives, anyway. Running a bookstore on the high seas. Yep. If we can have a ship that is a floating condo complex, why not one that is a giant bookstore? This is one of the neatest things I've ever seen, I wonder if it could navigate the Mississippi River up to Memphis? I have to assume that the books are all new, unless the public brings in their used books to sell (trade?) while the ship is in port, which would really be kind of neat. The link is to an older story about the ship, there are newer stories but this one had the best pictures.
Floating bookstore
*** During the 60's and 70's there was a flurry of activity surrounding Japanese soldiers who were left behind and forgotten on various islands scattered around the Pacific during World War II, men who didn't know the war had ended and were still fighting (or, mostly hiding from) US forces. I have read the autobiography of one such man, Onoda, who was trapped on a small Phillippine Island until 1974 but who was accused of cowardice on his return to Japan. (The Japanese of the pre-war period weren't big on forgiveness) Now here's the story of another such man who, for some inexplicable reason, lived a similar story but was NOT thought of as a coward on his return to Japan. I think to know the reason one was thought a coward and the other was not, you would need to be Japanese.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/KA17Dh01.html
*** I know, you're going into withdrawal. It's been more than a week without a story bashing ebay. Well, this is a Bonanzle story, not an ebay, exactly. Of course, without ebay's momentous choke job last year there would not BE a Bonanzle, not one growing so fast as the 2009 version, anyway, so the following story from CNN shows just how far the little-site-that-could has come. More than 20,000 members now and you can only think it will grow exponentially from his point.
*** Bonanzle gaining steam and members
*** The demise of the independent bookstore is rather an old story by now, but there is still room to mourn when a good one goes under. I never shopped at Cody's, but it seems like the sort of store that I would have liked. Our local independent small-chain seller, Davis-Kidd books, is terrific, the personnel irreplaceable, but one can only hope they are in this for the long run. Losing them would hurt very badly, so I understand the sense of loss for Cody's loyal customers.
A good one bites the dust
*** There was a time when I took historian David Irving seriously. As did many other people, I might add. He was British, he was a historian, he sounded good and had the right credentials. His opinions were a bit different than most, but so what? Mine are too. Of course, this was before he wound up in jail in Austria for denying the Holocaust. (As an American this seems bizarre, that someone could be thrown in jail for espousing a political view, even one as awful as this. But if I am ever in Austria again, and I hope that I am, you can be sure I won't be denying the Holocaust or Sieg Heil-ing down Kartnerstrasse, even if I were so inclined, which I'm not. I mean, how stupid can you be?)
Anyway, Irving lost pretty much all credibility when he went about saying the Holocaust wasn't real and didn't happen, but this has lead to a most interesting turn: Irving, it seems, was chosen by Hitler himself to be his biographer. Not that the two ever met, of course. Irving spent part of his childhood dodging bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe and was still a child when Hitler ate the end of a Walther. But, no matter. Hitler somehow knew Irving would come along one day and appointed him the task of writing his 'true' biography. How could he know such a thing? don't think about it, you'll get a headache. Instead, read the attached article, it's fascinating and eerie and you'll hope you're never sitting next to Irving on a long plane flight.
David Irving is even stranger than you thought
*** I note that Patrick McGoohan died Tuesday in L.A. 'The Prisoner' was one of those fleeting moments of remembered greatness in one's youth, so transitorily wonderful that you never forget it. During one of my two years at UT Knoxville there was a marathon of 'The Prisoner's' one and only season that I sat through until my backside ached. The series was one of those that was so uniquely English that it could never have been made anywhere else, and efforts to try would have failed miserably.
A legend has passed.
*** Not merely one legend, however. I see where sir John Mortimer has died and this is truly a loss that I will feel. For those who haven't discovered Rumpole of the Bailey, I feel sorry for you. Second only to PG Wodehouse in my estimation of the great 20th century British humorists, Mortimer could seemingly will laughs from even the most dour reader. 'She Who Must Be Obeyed' is something all husbands can relate to and none would admit to doing so. Sigh...
No more Rumpole
Friday, January 2, 2009
RIP Donald Westlake
No! Donald Westlake has died of a heart attack, aged 75. This really, really stinks. Westlake was one of the best, if not THE best. I just reviewed Dirty Money (under the Richard Stark alias) for ILAM and that won't be out for months. Awful news. I never had the pleasure of meeting him but I will miss him all the same. What a dreadful way to start 2009.
Donald Westlake is gone
Donald Westlake is gone
Thursday, January 1, 2009
A New Year already?
Happy New Year's, bookies! Once your bleary eyes get focused, stand by for news and comment.
First, I want to thank all of you who have read this bit of doggerel throughout this blog's first year. I have asked before that if you wish to see anything in particular, just let me know and I'll do what I can to make it so.
I've never written a daily blog before so it's been a pretty steep learning curve. I usually start in the morning during my second cup of coffee, when the neural synapses are beginning to fire but before they tire. It's fun, it's keeping me up to date with my industry and it's allowing me to maybe do a little educating, too. But without loyal readers it's nothing but narcissism, so to each and every one of you, thanks.
*** Ebay's year in review is given a pretty good treatment by e-commerce, touching on the low-lights of a dying company. No need for me to say more, read as you wish.
The Year Ebay became terminally ill
*** By and large your friendly neighborhood bookseller does not highlight articles about mega-booksellers, dealing in millions of books that are usually badly described or outright deceptive. However, this particular article seemed interesting, because while I'm not personally familiar with the seller, a lot of other sellers are. He seems to illustrate both the best and worst of booksellers, a 'book person' who has now warehoused his operations, uses automated pricing that is almost never correct, hires people who don't know books and pretty much fits perfectly with sellers who cater to people who don't care about the books they receive as long as they are cheap. But for buyers who DO care that what they are getting is what they thought they were getting, he seems to be in that classification known as 'mega-seller', those who employ people who don't know or care about books, they only know how to stuff things into the mailbox.
Or, put another way, we are we and they are them.
A perfect example
*** Paul Hoffman has died, aged 96. If you never heard of him, click the link and read a little. He was a fascinating man, most known for this travel books, although by the time he wrote them he had already lived a full life.
Paul Hoffman
*** For someone like me, what could be better than a book about books? Of course, it's a collecting sub-genre all its own, one I have, thankfully, not yet set my mind to collecting, but who wouldn't like to spend a few hours studying one of the great book collections in the world via a book of photographs?
The Princeton University website puts it this way: "A new book, "Biblio" by photographer Natasha D'Schommer, offers a rare close-up look at many of the exceptional books and manuscripts that belong to the Scheide Library, one of the most significant private book collections in the United States, which is housed in Princeton's Firestone Library. "
See, while I hate cold weather with a passion, good lighting, a roaring fire and a book such as this makes winter almost bearable.
A rare delight
*** I have met a knight. I didn't know it at the time, and neither did he, but it's true nonetheless. Terry Pratchett is on the list to be knighted and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I guess everyone knows he is battling early onset Alzheimer's, doing so in a very public way, but this will no doubt bring even more publicity to his battle and the need to do everything possible to find at least an effective treatment.
It won't hurt Discworld sales, either, and with a series as brilliant and innovative as this, well, that's all to the good. I know I've told the story before, but for those who missed it, Sir Terry was Guest of Honor at Midsouthcon a few years back and I attended to get some books signed. I waited in line for almost 3 hours, but before he got to me he had to attend a panel. I was told to return that night to get my allotment (2 books per person) signed. I did and he did. He looked exhausted. It wasn't much after this that he was given his diagnosis. I got lucky.
The First Knight (that I've met)
First, I want to thank all of you who have read this bit of doggerel throughout this blog's first year. I have asked before that if you wish to see anything in particular, just let me know and I'll do what I can to make it so.
I've never written a daily blog before so it's been a pretty steep learning curve. I usually start in the morning during my second cup of coffee, when the neural synapses are beginning to fire but before they tire. It's fun, it's keeping me up to date with my industry and it's allowing me to maybe do a little educating, too. But without loyal readers it's nothing but narcissism, so to each and every one of you, thanks.
*** Ebay's year in review is given a pretty good treatment by e-commerce, touching on the low-lights of a dying company. No need for me to say more, read as you wish.
The Year Ebay became terminally ill
*** By and large your friendly neighborhood bookseller does not highlight articles about mega-booksellers, dealing in millions of books that are usually badly described or outright deceptive. However, this particular article seemed interesting, because while I'm not personally familiar with the seller, a lot of other sellers are. He seems to illustrate both the best and worst of booksellers, a 'book person' who has now warehoused his operations, uses automated pricing that is almost never correct, hires people who don't know books and pretty much fits perfectly with sellers who cater to people who don't care about the books they receive as long as they are cheap. But for buyers who DO care that what they are getting is what they thought they were getting, he seems to be in that classification known as 'mega-seller', those who employ people who don't know or care about books, they only know how to stuff things into the mailbox.
Or, put another way, we are we and they are them.
A perfect example
*** Paul Hoffman has died, aged 96. If you never heard of him, click the link and read a little. He was a fascinating man, most known for this travel books, although by the time he wrote them he had already lived a full life.
Paul Hoffman
*** For someone like me, what could be better than a book about books? Of course, it's a collecting sub-genre all its own, one I have, thankfully, not yet set my mind to collecting, but who wouldn't like to spend a few hours studying one of the great book collections in the world via a book of photographs?
The Princeton University website puts it this way: "A new book, "Biblio" by photographer Natasha D'Schommer, offers a rare close-up look at many of the exceptional books and manuscripts that belong to the Scheide Library, one of the most significant private book collections in the United States, which is housed in Princeton's Firestone Library. "
See, while I hate cold weather with a passion, good lighting, a roaring fire and a book such as this makes winter almost bearable.
A rare delight
*** I have met a knight. I didn't know it at the time, and neither did he, but it's true nonetheless. Terry Pratchett is on the list to be knighted and it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I guess everyone knows he is battling early onset Alzheimer's, doing so in a very public way, but this will no doubt bring even more publicity to his battle and the need to do everything possible to find at least an effective treatment.
It won't hurt Discworld sales, either, and with a series as brilliant and innovative as this, well, that's all to the good. I know I've told the story before, but for those who missed it, Sir Terry was Guest of Honor at Midsouthcon a few years back and I attended to get some books signed. I waited in line for almost 3 hours, but before he got to me he had to attend a panel. I was told to return that night to get my allotment (2 books per person) signed. I did and he did. He looked exhausted. It wasn't much after this that he was given his diagnosis. I got lucky.
The First Knight (that I've met)
Monday, December 22, 2008
Patton and models
*** A former OSS agent claims in a new book that there was an assassination plot that lead to the death of General George S. Patton. Patton, as you know, was killed in a car wreck before 1945 was over. While stationed in Europe with the army of occupation he had been making noises about the dangers of the Soviet Union, and felt that a war with the USSR was inevitable and we might as well get on with it while the military forces were in place.
In Target Patton author Robert Wilcox makes his case, based on the diaries of an OSS assassin. Most of you know that your friendly neighborhood bookseller leads a double life, with his alter-ego being that of writer. And yes, he has been paid for his work on World War II, a modest bit, but still. So BBG has at least some street cred when it comes to matters of WW2. And he thinks this whole this is entirely possible.
The actions of the US leadership in World War II, both civilian and military, were, at times, scandalous. Taken overall American generalship, that is, high ranking American military leaders, could be considered as mediocre. For every George Patton there was a Mark Clark, or Dwight Eisenhower. The best thing that can be said for the American leadership was that Sir Bernard Law Montgomery was not one of them.
Anyway, I will read this book. It comes on the heel's of the recent spate of post-war books I've read, including the massively influential The Wages of Destruction and my current read, After the Reich. It also ties in with the book I am currently researching. Here's a couple of links for you to decide for yourself.
Target Patton
http://www.robertkwilcox.com/
*** This isn't book related, it's mopey nostalgia. Sorry. When I was a kid, not long ago, I built model airplanes. Like, all the time. Every day I would ride my bike to the store (back when that wasn't considered a suicidal tendency) for a new model and/or paint, come home, build it, then whoosh it around. I hung them from the ceiling, I cut out the box tops and wall-papered my bedroom with them. Great stuff.
So when I saw this article about German models outselling British ones in the UK, it brought back pleasant memories and I wanted to share them. By the way, I get why the kids are buying more German models. The Luftwaffe might have lost, but their planes just looked cooler.
You mean people still build model airplanes?
*** Julius Fast has died. He won the very first Edgar Award in 1946 for first novel Watchful at Night, wrote several other mysteries and then branched out into pop psychology. He was 89.
In Target Patton author Robert Wilcox makes his case, based on the diaries of an OSS assassin. Most of you know that your friendly neighborhood bookseller leads a double life, with his alter-ego being that of writer. And yes, he has been paid for his work on World War II, a modest bit, but still. So BBG has at least some street cred when it comes to matters of WW2. And he thinks this whole this is entirely possible.
The actions of the US leadership in World War II, both civilian and military, were, at times, scandalous. Taken overall American generalship, that is, high ranking American military leaders, could be considered as mediocre. For every George Patton there was a Mark Clark, or Dwight Eisenhower. The best thing that can be said for the American leadership was that Sir Bernard Law Montgomery was not one of them.
Anyway, I will read this book. It comes on the heel's of the recent spate of post-war books I've read, including the massively influential The Wages of Destruction and my current read, After the Reich. It also ties in with the book I am currently researching. Here's a couple of links for you to decide for yourself.
Target Patton
http://www.robertkwilcox.com/
*** This isn't book related, it's mopey nostalgia. Sorry. When I was a kid, not long ago, I built model airplanes. Like, all the time. Every day I would ride my bike to the store (back when that wasn't considered a suicidal tendency) for a new model and/or paint, come home, build it, then whoosh it around. I hung them from the ceiling, I cut out the box tops and wall-papered my bedroom with them. Great stuff.
So when I saw this article about German models outselling British ones in the UK, it brought back pleasant memories and I wanted to share them. By the way, I get why the kids are buying more German models. The Luftwaffe might have lost, but their planes just looked cooler.
You mean people still build model airplanes?
*** Julius Fast has died. He won the very first Edgar Award in 1946 for first novel Watchful at Night, wrote several other mysteries and then branched out into pop psychology. He was 89.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Bye Forrie
Good morning bookies! It's Saturday! Stand by for news and comment.
*** As I sat here downing my first cup of coffee and listening to the radio, willing the neurons to begin firing, I heard on the news of the passing of Forrest J. Ackerman. For those who don't know, Ackerman was one of the earlier founders of modern SFF, is credited with having coined the term 'Sci-Fi', discovered and became literary agent for Ray Bradbury, agented Isaac Asimov and others, wrote a few stories, lots of essays and articles and, in general, was a jack-of-all-trades for an industry that mainstream publishers felt was nonsense and not worth their trouble.
I met Ackerman once, at DragonCon 1998, and remember him as a very kind, gentle-seeming man. One morning during the con, BBG and his posse were having breakfast at the hotel restaurant and at the next table, drinking coffee and chatting, were Bradbury, Ackerman and Harlan Ellison. It was amazing to consider the talent assembled at that one small table. It's a great example of what makes attending conventions so much fun. I'll miss knowing Ackerman is around, not so much that he directly made my life better, just because I felt better knowing men such as he were in the world.
So long to an old friend I didn't know
*** Ebay has no sense of irony. They are doing absolutely everything they can to crush the small sellers on their site, while simultaneously their lobbyists are in front of Congress whining about big box retailers trying to crush the small sellers. Have they no shame? Well, aside from that being a rhetorical question, the answer is no, they don't.
Ebay has become just another big corporation. Now, you're friendly neighborhood bookseller is not someone who automatically dislikes big corps. After all, who works at big corps? People do, although the theory that some corporate upper management types might be either part or completely machine-driven does seem to hold water in some cases. I knew this guy once when I worked in the corporate world who...wait, wrong topic. Sorry. Where was I? Oh, Ebay. Right.
Ebay began life as the ultimate egalitarian website. Level the playing field, let the little guy make a buck, fight back against the corporate bullies, all that good stuff. Except now Ebay has become what they were created to fight. Do John Donahoe and team see the irony? They must, surely. Nobody could be blind or stupid enough not to understand. So if we give them enough credit to understand the irony of the situation, then we also have to conclude that they don't care.
Ebay's whining again
*** Tomorrow is the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This isn't about a book, but the topic is one that BBG happens to be pretty familiar with, having read almost everything he can find about the attack. So with the anniversary once more rolling around we are seeing the same tired old conspiracies dragged out that FDR knew the Japanese were going to attack and allowed it to happen so the USA would be forced into WW2. The following article makes the case fairly succinctly for the 'FDR knew' school of thought.
FDR knew the Japanese were coming, and other bedtime stories
What is never pointed out by such conspiracy theories is this: a Japanese surprise attack on WW2 was a declaration of war, period. There was no reason to allow the fleet to be destroyed, it would have served our purposes just as well for the Japanese to have found the naval base on alert and the air filled with US fighters. Only the silliest of the lot give FDR the prescience to know that battleships were obsolete and to allow them to be destroyed because they had such low value.
If this topic interest you or someone you know, you can pick up Gordon Prange's trilogy on Pearl Harbor fairly cheaply. At Dawn We Slept, December 7, 1941 and Pearl Harbor, the Verdict of History. Granted, it's aging a bit, and here and there a fact or detail may have been overruled by later research, but I haven't read anything that is comprehensively better, or better written.
*** As I sat here downing my first cup of coffee and listening to the radio, willing the neurons to begin firing, I heard on the news of the passing of Forrest J. Ackerman. For those who don't know, Ackerman was one of the earlier founders of modern SFF, is credited with having coined the term 'Sci-Fi', discovered and became literary agent for Ray Bradbury, agented Isaac Asimov and others, wrote a few stories, lots of essays and articles and, in general, was a jack-of-all-trades for an industry that mainstream publishers felt was nonsense and not worth their trouble.
I met Ackerman once, at DragonCon 1998, and remember him as a very kind, gentle-seeming man. One morning during the con, BBG and his posse were having breakfast at the hotel restaurant and at the next table, drinking coffee and chatting, were Bradbury, Ackerman and Harlan Ellison. It was amazing to consider the talent assembled at that one small table. It's a great example of what makes attending conventions so much fun. I'll miss knowing Ackerman is around, not so much that he directly made my life better, just because I felt better knowing men such as he were in the world.
So long to an old friend I didn't know
*** Ebay has no sense of irony. They are doing absolutely everything they can to crush the small sellers on their site, while simultaneously their lobbyists are in front of Congress whining about big box retailers trying to crush the small sellers. Have they no shame? Well, aside from that being a rhetorical question, the answer is no, they don't.
Ebay has become just another big corporation. Now, you're friendly neighborhood bookseller is not someone who automatically dislikes big corps. After all, who works at big corps? People do, although the theory that some corporate upper management types might be either part or completely machine-driven does seem to hold water in some cases. I knew this guy once when I worked in the corporate world who...wait, wrong topic. Sorry. Where was I? Oh, Ebay. Right.
Ebay began life as the ultimate egalitarian website. Level the playing field, let the little guy make a buck, fight back against the corporate bullies, all that good stuff. Except now Ebay has become what they were created to fight. Do John Donahoe and team see the irony? They must, surely. Nobody could be blind or stupid enough not to understand. So if we give them enough credit to understand the irony of the situation, then we also have to conclude that they don't care.
Ebay's whining again
*** Tomorrow is the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This isn't about a book, but the topic is one that BBG happens to be pretty familiar with, having read almost everything he can find about the attack. So with the anniversary once more rolling around we are seeing the same tired old conspiracies dragged out that FDR knew the Japanese were going to attack and allowed it to happen so the USA would be forced into WW2. The following article makes the case fairly succinctly for the 'FDR knew' school of thought.
FDR knew the Japanese were coming, and other bedtime stories
What is never pointed out by such conspiracy theories is this: a Japanese surprise attack on WW2 was a declaration of war, period. There was no reason to allow the fleet to be destroyed, it would have served our purposes just as well for the Japanese to have found the naval base on alert and the air filled with US fighters. Only the silliest of the lot give FDR the prescience to know that battleships were obsolete and to allow them to be destroyed because they had such low value.
If this topic interest you or someone you know, you can pick up Gordon Prange's trilogy on Pearl Harbor fairly cheaply. At Dawn We Slept, December 7, 1941 and Pearl Harbor, the Verdict of History. Granted, it's aging a bit, and here and there a fact or detail may have been overruled by later research, but I haven't read anything that is comprehensively better, or better written.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Friday (what an inspired blog title, huh?)
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
*** There appears to be an interesting change in online sales this season. It's too early to go into detail, I'll wait until January and look by to see if I'm correct. But, if I am, then there is a sea change at work here and it bodes ill for the Ebays of the world, who believe they can bully the marketplace into doing as they wish instead of giving the market what it wants. Anyway, the sampling is still too small to be conclusive.
*** Dorothy Sterling has died, aged 95. Her 1954 book Freedom Train was an early inspiration as the Civil Tights movement was gaining steam.
*** There is a major re-organization underway at Random House. Now, this isn't necessarily a normal topic for this blog, but the linked article is a pretty interesting behind-the-scenes look at the people who select and publish the books that are a normal concern here-abouts, so it seemed appropriate.
Watching Random morph
*** In another life I could easily have been quite happy as a bookbinder. No kidding. I've never done it, of course, I doubt many people have these days, but I suspect I would have been good at it. As a kid I built model airplanes and did quite well, I was a fine painter and could see myself working with signatures and goatskin and parchment.
Anyway, in a world that is overwhelmed with awards and best-of lists, one of the few that impress me are the awards given out by the Bookbinder's Guild of New York. These are the people are publishers who still give a damn.
A craft not yet lost
*** A follow-up article to the blog entry about the world's most expensive new book. The $126,000 table sized book (literally) of Michelangelo's work has gone on display in, where else?, New York. With my luck I would own a copy and one of my dogs would chew the corners.
This book or a house, which would you choose?
*** There appears to be an interesting change in online sales this season. It's too early to go into detail, I'll wait until January and look by to see if I'm correct. But, if I am, then there is a sea change at work here and it bodes ill for the Ebays of the world, who believe they can bully the marketplace into doing as they wish instead of giving the market what it wants. Anyway, the sampling is still too small to be conclusive.
*** Dorothy Sterling has died, aged 95. Her 1954 book Freedom Train was an early inspiration as the Civil Tights movement was gaining steam.
*** There is a major re-organization underway at Random House. Now, this isn't necessarily a normal topic for this blog, but the linked article is a pretty interesting behind-the-scenes look at the people who select and publish the books that are a normal concern here-abouts, so it seemed appropriate.
Watching Random morph
*** In another life I could easily have been quite happy as a bookbinder. No kidding. I've never done it, of course, I doubt many people have these days, but I suspect I would have been good at it. As a kid I built model airplanes and did quite well, I was a fine painter and could see myself working with signatures and goatskin and parchment.
Anyway, in a world that is overwhelmed with awards and best-of lists, one of the few that impress me are the awards given out by the Bookbinder's Guild of New York. These are the people are publishers who still give a damn.
A craft not yet lost
*** A follow-up article to the blog entry about the world's most expensive new book. The $126,000 table sized book (literally) of Michelangelo's work has gone on display in, where else?, New York. With my luck I would own a copy and one of my dogs would chew the corners.
This book or a house, which would you choose?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Alice, Ebay and old books
Good morning bookies! It's Tuesday, stand by for news and comment.
Note to my loyal readers: sorry about no blog yesterday, I hadn't realized the level of addiction for some of you. I'll try to do better in the future.
*** Ebay continues to crumble and the word is spreading. Sure, you see local news stories about selling stuff on Ebay in this down economy, just as I saw one yesterday. But, weirdly, it was almost like the news-bot knew it was an obligatory story, that they didn't believe it and didn't expect us to, either.
In the bigger world there continue to be more and more media picking up on the hard facts of Ebay's continuing collapse, as evidenced by the linked story. If you want the stats, here they are. Wow, even I hadn't realized how bad this was becoming.
John Donahoe's vision of perfection is a site with zero traffic
*** Antiquarian books are fascinating. The effort necessary to print a book in the centuries before the modern era was so great that it's a wonder so many were, in fact, printed. When you visit one of the great libraries of the world, such as Trinity College in Dublin or Melk Abbey in Austria, the experience is so overwhelming that you cannot really comprehend what you are seeing. Thousands upon thousands of carefully crafted books from centuries long past, each with its own unique history, with notes in the marginalia and the endpapers from users long gone, so many detective stories waiting to be investigated. It's too much for one brief visit, as on a tour.
So when your friendly neighborhood bookseller runs across a story like the one linked below he is naturally drawn to it. One such book is a different matter, one story to be discovered and admired is something the mind can decipher. And I'm so thankful there are still places in the world that value this knowledge and are willing to protect it for the future.
The Breviarium Ratisponense was printed in Strasbourg, Germany, in 1482. 10 years before Columbus was exploring. This book existed before anyone in Europe knew that American existed. Amazing.
Canadians acquire a very old and rare religious tome
*** Today's World War II book review (it does seem like there's a new book daily, doesn't it?) concerns Kristillnacht, the Night of Broken Crystal in November, 1938, when the Nazis really turned up the meter on their 'Persecute-the-Jews' machine. Destroying buildings, burning books, killing and incarcerating people, this highly-orchestrated 'spur-of-the-moment' supposed national outrage at the murder of a low-ranking diplomat in Paris by a Jewish teenager turned out to be a fiasco for the Nazis, at least in the PR department. Aside from the enormous material losses to a country that was for from rich to begin with, the nationwide pogrom made it clear to even the most sympathetic Nazi apologists that these guys were out of control.
The Shards of Kristillnacht by Mitchell Bard is a re-examination of that seminal moment in time when the Western World finally began to wake to the dangers of the Nazis.
Kristallnacht under the microscope
*** Playwright William Gibson has died aged 94, reports AP. He is best known for The Miracle Worker, which in turn is best known for the film adaptation that projected Patty Duke into stardom.
*** Now that his parents are both gone, Christopher Buckley is taking his chance to cash in before their memories fade. He wrote Losing Mom and Pop and, frankly, warns that the book isn't going to be all that pretty. Indeed, the early word makes it sounds like a bashing of his parents, which will no doubt sell a lot of books to people like Gore Vidal, who can't get enough of bashing William F. Buckley and humanity in general.
Christopher worked at his father's magazine, National Review, wrote essentially conservative books and articles and generally sounded like his father's son, until his father passed away. Then, overnight, he made it known that none of that was really him, that is was all a facade. He had never really believed any of that stuff, he was just making dad happy. Sure gives him credibility in my book.
Christopher Buckley trades his parents memory for cold, hard cash
Note: re-reading this it sounds pretty harsh, so maybe I'm being unfair. If so, well, mea culpa.
*** Amazon has completed their acquisition of ABEbooks. For this one I don't need a link: as an ABE seller of more than 10 years I view the companies assertion that 'nothing will change' as both a skeptic, and one who hopes it isn't true. Because the truth is that ABE is a mess and has been for a long time. Sellers have no idea what is coming next, the fees are outrageously high and there is absolutely no consistency, no vision. Will Amazon change this? I don't see why they would, unless it's to increase fees even more. Will any good come of this? Probably not. But in the end it is doubtful that it matters, ABE just isn't the force that it once was.
*** J.K. Rowling's latest book, The Tales of Beetle the Bard, hits stores Thursday and I could not be more glad. It's not that I'm a Harry Potter-ite: I haven't read the books and don't intend to do so, although I enjoy the movies. But anything that keeps people reading, especially young people, is fine by me, especially when it is also educational. Take the title of her latest, for example. The word 'bard' is probably unknown to most younger people, and while the lyric quality sounds nice in the title, there is no doubt that readers will want to know exactly what a 'bard' is. Good stuff, I hope she sells a billion copies, even better that the proceeds to to charity.
*** Lastly, in the books-I-would-love-to-own category, The Folio Society, in conjunction with The British Library, is issuing two new versions of the original Alice's Adventures Underground by Lewis Carroll. Either would be nice, but the leather Folio Society version is delightful.
Want to buy me something?
Note to my loyal readers: sorry about no blog yesterday, I hadn't realized the level of addiction for some of you. I'll try to do better in the future.
*** Ebay continues to crumble and the word is spreading. Sure, you see local news stories about selling stuff on Ebay in this down economy, just as I saw one yesterday. But, weirdly, it was almost like the news-bot knew it was an obligatory story, that they didn't believe it and didn't expect us to, either.
In the bigger world there continue to be more and more media picking up on the hard facts of Ebay's continuing collapse, as evidenced by the linked story. If you want the stats, here they are. Wow, even I hadn't realized how bad this was becoming.
John Donahoe's vision of perfection is a site with zero traffic
*** Antiquarian books are fascinating. The effort necessary to print a book in the centuries before the modern era was so great that it's a wonder so many were, in fact, printed. When you visit one of the great libraries of the world, such as Trinity College in Dublin or Melk Abbey in Austria, the experience is so overwhelming that you cannot really comprehend what you are seeing. Thousands upon thousands of carefully crafted books from centuries long past, each with its own unique history, with notes in the marginalia and the endpapers from users long gone, so many detective stories waiting to be investigated. It's too much for one brief visit, as on a tour.
So when your friendly neighborhood bookseller runs across a story like the one linked below he is naturally drawn to it. One such book is a different matter, one story to be discovered and admired is something the mind can decipher. And I'm so thankful there are still places in the world that value this knowledge and are willing to protect it for the future.
The Breviarium Ratisponense was printed in Strasbourg, Germany, in 1482. 10 years before Columbus was exploring. This book existed before anyone in Europe knew that American existed. Amazing.
Canadians acquire a very old and rare religious tome
*** Today's World War II book review (it does seem like there's a new book daily, doesn't it?) concerns Kristillnacht, the Night of Broken Crystal in November, 1938, when the Nazis really turned up the meter on their 'Persecute-the-Jews' machine. Destroying buildings, burning books, killing and incarcerating people, this highly-orchestrated 'spur-of-the-moment' supposed national outrage at the murder of a low-ranking diplomat in Paris by a Jewish teenager turned out to be a fiasco for the Nazis, at least in the PR department. Aside from the enormous material losses to a country that was for from rich to begin with, the nationwide pogrom made it clear to even the most sympathetic Nazi apologists that these guys were out of control.
The Shards of Kristillnacht by Mitchell Bard is a re-examination of that seminal moment in time when the Western World finally began to wake to the dangers of the Nazis.
Kristallnacht under the microscope
*** Playwright William Gibson has died aged 94, reports AP. He is best known for The Miracle Worker, which in turn is best known for the film adaptation that projected Patty Duke into stardom.
*** Now that his parents are both gone, Christopher Buckley is taking his chance to cash in before their memories fade. He wrote Losing Mom and Pop and, frankly, warns that the book isn't going to be all that pretty. Indeed, the early word makes it sounds like a bashing of his parents, which will no doubt sell a lot of books to people like Gore Vidal, who can't get enough of bashing William F. Buckley and humanity in general.
Christopher worked at his father's magazine, National Review, wrote essentially conservative books and articles and generally sounded like his father's son, until his father passed away. Then, overnight, he made it known that none of that was really him, that is was all a facade. He had never really believed any of that stuff, he was just making dad happy. Sure gives him credibility in my book.
Christopher Buckley trades his parents memory for cold, hard cash
Note: re-reading this it sounds pretty harsh, so maybe I'm being unfair. If so, well, mea culpa.
*** Amazon has completed their acquisition of ABEbooks. For this one I don't need a link: as an ABE seller of more than 10 years I view the companies assertion that 'nothing will change' as both a skeptic, and one who hopes it isn't true. Because the truth is that ABE is a mess and has been for a long time. Sellers have no idea what is coming next, the fees are outrageously high and there is absolutely no consistency, no vision. Will Amazon change this? I don't see why they would, unless it's to increase fees even more. Will any good come of this? Probably not. But in the end it is doubtful that it matters, ABE just isn't the force that it once was.
*** J.K. Rowling's latest book, The Tales of Beetle the Bard, hits stores Thursday and I could not be more glad. It's not that I'm a Harry Potter-ite: I haven't read the books and don't intend to do so, although I enjoy the movies. But anything that keeps people reading, especially young people, is fine by me, especially when it is also educational. Take the title of her latest, for example. The word 'bard' is probably unknown to most younger people, and while the lyric quality sounds nice in the title, there is no doubt that readers will want to know exactly what a 'bard' is. Good stuff, I hope she sells a billion copies, even better that the proceeds to to charity.
*** Lastly, in the books-I-would-love-to-own category, The Folio Society, in conjunction with The British Library, is issuing two new versions of the original Alice's Adventures Underground by Lewis Carroll. Either would be nice, but the leather Folio Society version is delightful.
Want to buy me something?
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