Hiya Bookies! I'm sad today. Long-term readers will note that my blog no longer has the link to my Bonanza booth. Back in 2008, a small startup site called Bonanzle grew quickly into an alternative to ebay, because ebay declared war on their sellers. It was a great time, I enjoyed the site, but then school and other duties came along and I lost track of what was going on there. Today I went back.
And found out that Bonanza has become ebay. Just like the ebay-gestapo that threatens you if you even breathe wrong, so Bonanza has become. I asked a question on the forum and was told I violated posting policies. Once upon a time that would not have happened, my question would have been answered and a discussion would have ensued. But no more. Now, Bonanza has become just another crappy site with few sales, telling me that to be successful I need to 'upgrade' my membership, which means give them money.
So as of today, Bonanza officially sucks, and I am officially sad.
June 13, 2011- Okay, I've cooled off now and maybe I was a little hasty. Bonanza doesn't actually suck. In fact, it's pretty good. Just different from the halcyon early days, and it's me who needs to adjust. So, to all of the above ranting, I say...never mind.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Stars My Destination
Hiya bookies, the tale of Kona the monster shepherd is coming, but first I thought you'd enjoy a look at another unusual SFF book. Or books, as the case may be. This time, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. Bester is probably known most famously for The Demolished Man, but if that is true then this is his second best-known work.
In 1979, Byron Preiss and Howard Chaykin teamed up to present a special edition of Bester's classic work, that was supposed to be the first of two. Sadly, the second was never finished. The hardback in this three-part set was signed by both Preiss and Chaykin, as well as Bester, and was limited to 300
0 copies. The one shown here is #1290. There was a softback version as well, but the small portfolio of three extra drawings is not usually seen anymore. They were easily lost, or perhaps framed (or thumb-tacked) on walls for decorations. At any rate the publisher was Baronet and the whole grouping came in a rather cheap cardboard slipca
se.
In 1979, Byron Preiss and Howard Chaykin teamed up to present a special edition of Bester's classic work, that was supposed to be the first of two. Sadly, the second was never finished. The hardback in this three-part set was signed by both Preiss and Chaykin, as well as Bester, and was limited to 300
0 copies. The one shown here is #1290. There was a softback version as well, but the small portfolio of three extra drawings is not usually seen anymore. They were easily lost, or perhaps framed (or thumb-tacked) on walls for decorations. At any rate the publisher was Baronet and the whole grouping came in a rather cheap cardboard slipca
se.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Let's get going again
Hiya bookies, long time and all that. So, school is over, I'm just waiting for my grades. Life is getting back to normal, which is to say chaotic and sleep deprived. It's been one hell of a weird winter, that's for sure.
*** Book news- Nevada Barr was hammered for lying in court during her divorce proceedings. Link below, but let me say this about her: I've been to one Barr book signing, at Davis Kidd in Memphis many years ago. The book signing area is right in the middle of the store, and I remember it was crowded that night. And the passage she selected had the F word in about every other sentence. Little kids were walking by and looking and their parents were hurrying them along, probably out of the store.
The F word doesn't bother me, but bleating it in a crowded store catering to parents and kids was really uncouth. I still remember thinking how arrogant she must be to use that kind of language in that king of setting. The story below, therefore, does not surprise me.
Nevada Barr hammered for lying in court
*** Did I tell you we have 4 dogs now? 3 of whom are puppies? See, it's like this: in late 2009 into 2010 we lost 2 of our 3 beloved dogs, first Missy, our German Shepherd, and then Keisha, a mixed breed rescue. Both were 12+. We were left with Daffney, our 5 year old mixed breed therapy dog. So in Sept., as Keisha was in her last weeks, I was on my way to a book sale when I got a call from Mrs. Billthebookguy, telling me this little girl she and my daughter had been following at the Memphis Animal Shelter was within hours of checking out for good. She had been picked up as a stray who had, at some point, broken her left front leg. It did not heal right and was at a weird angle and they thought nobody would adopt her. So I veered to the shelter and swept her up. She was covered in fleas, had sarcoptic mange and kennel cough, and was very under-weight.
Well, now she is over
a year old, has gained about 20 pounds and is named Sadie, perhaps the sweetest dog we've ever had. And we're pretty sure she is part Pharaoh Hound, as she looks almost exactly like one. And while her leg is at a funny angle, it doesn't bother her at all. This photo was taken a few months after we got her.
So then we had two dogs, Daffney and Sadie, and they got along great. On December 11, however, the wife and daughter headed to the Olive Branch shelter to rescue a little girl who was scheduled to be put down. She was about 6 months old and had been at the shelter for two-three months, just a puppy who had never known anything but a cage. So she came home and we named her Gracie. She is our fireball. Good grief does this dog have energy. Sweet as she can be, but can't sit still.
This picture was taken early this year, soon after we got her. She's at about 45 lbs now and we figure she's right at 11 months old. After exploring doggie downers I found a formula using valerian root that seems to help when she is really wound up. She and Sadie fight constantly, but in a good way. The wife calls them the twins.
And so we were back to 3 dogs, and done.
Err...well, no. Not exactly. We did not take into account Christmas presents. In the next blog we will follow this saga with the story of Kona the German Shepherd.
*** Book news- Nevada Barr was hammered for lying in court during her divorce proceedings. Link below, but let me say this about her: I've been to one Barr book signing, at Davis Kidd in Memphis many years ago. The book signing area is right in the middle of the store, and I remember it was crowded that night. And the passage she selected had the F word in about every other sentence. Little kids were walking by and looking and their parents were hurrying them along, probably out of the store.
The F word doesn't bother me, but bleating it in a crowded store catering to parents and kids was really uncouth. I still remember thinking how arrogant she must be to use that kind of language in that king of setting. The story below, therefore, does not surprise me.
Nevada Barr hammered for lying in court
*** Did I tell you we have 4 dogs now? 3 of whom are puppies? See, it's like this: in late 2009 into 2010 we lost 2 of our 3 beloved dogs, first Missy, our German Shepherd, and then Keisha, a mixed breed rescue. Both were 12+. We were left with Daffney, our 5 year old mixed breed therapy dog. So in Sept., as Keisha was in her last weeks, I was on my way to a book sale when I got a call from Mrs. Billthebookguy, telling me this little girl she and my daughter had been following at the Memphis Animal Shelter was within hours of checking out for good. She had been picked up as a stray who had, at some point, broken her left front leg. It did not heal right and was at a weird angle and they thought nobody would adopt her. So I veered to the shelter and swept her up. She was covered in fleas, had sarcoptic mange and kennel cough, and was very under-weight.
Well, now she is over
a year old, has gained about 20 pounds and is named Sadie, perhaps the sweetest dog we've ever had. And we're pretty sure she is part Pharaoh Hound, as she looks almost exactly like one. And while her leg is at a funny angle, it doesn't bother her at all. This photo was taken a few months after we got her.So then we had two dogs, Daffney and Sadie, and they got along great. On December 11, however, the wife and daughter headed to the Olive Branch shelter to rescue a little girl who was scheduled to be put down. She was about 6 months old and had been at the shelter for two-three months, just a puppy who had never known anything but a cage. So she came home and we named her Gracie. She is our fireball. Good grief does this dog have energy. Sweet as she can be, but can't sit still.
This picture was taken early this year, soon after we got her. She's at about 45 lbs now and we figure she's right at 11 months old. After exploring doggie downers I found a formula using valerian root that seems to help when she is really wound up. She and Sadie fight constantly, but in a good way. The wife calls them the twins.And so we were back to 3 dogs, and done.
Err...well, no. Not exactly. We did not take into account Christmas presents. In the next blog we will follow this saga with the story of Kona the German Shepherd.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Yeah, yeah, I know...
Hi Bookies. I know, I promised to keep this blog updated. Look, all I can tell you is that life has been pretty crazy. Aside from having three new puppies since last fall, one of about one year old, one not yet nine months, and the other less than four months, aside from all that barking and yapping and pooping and chewing up shoes, school has not been the piece of cake I was expecting.
In short, I've been busy.
However, I link to you an interview with the world-famous Mr. Pickwick, Guy Weller, of The World Book Market. It seemed important enough to take time out from hiding in the closet as tornadoes whip through the area yet again. Hope you enjoy it. And if you're a bookdealer, I hope you join.
The Great and Powerful Pickwick of Oz
In short, I've been busy.
However, I link to you an interview with the world-famous Mr. Pickwick, Guy Weller, of The World Book Market. It seemed important enough to take time out from hiding in the closet as tornadoes whip through the area yet again. Hope you enjoy it. And if you're a bookdealer, I hope you join.
The Great and Powerful Pickwick of Oz
Friday, August 20, 2010
Good grief
A bonus entry, bookies. How absent-minded can your favorite bookseller be? Pretty danged absent-minded.
So, I get in my neat little new-to-me car to go get some medicine for one of our dogs, she's very sick and this might make her more comfortable. I was trying to think of all the stuff I had to do today, put the key in the ignition and...and...and nothing. It was the wrong key.
Yes, it was stuck. I tried everything, it wouldn't come out. After waiting for the locksmith, he got it out in about three seconds using pliers and a screw driver. Whew! I had visions of tow charges and hundreds of dollars in repairs. I got lucky.
So, I get in my neat little new-to-me car to go get some medicine for one of our dogs, she's very sick and this might make her more comfortable. I was trying to think of all the stuff I had to do today, put the key in the ignition and...and...and nothing. It was the wrong key.
Yes, it was stuck. I tried everything, it wouldn't come out. After waiting for the locksmith, he got it out in about three seconds using pliers and a screw driver. Whew! I had visions of tow charges and hundreds of dollars in repairs. I got lucky.
Back to books
Good morning, bookies. School starts in a week but in the meantime I thought it would be a good idea to actually have a blog entry about a book. This one is a military book, but I proise to get around the stuff like mysteries and SF and the like soon.
Today's book is a good choice for anyone interested in aviation, whether it's you, a hubby, a dad or granddad. It concerns a little known German super-weapon from World War II. Not some exotic project that looks cool but was never built,this place actually flew and fought in decent numbers, it was simply too late to have much effect on things. And no, it's not the ME-262, the world's first jet fighter.
Instead, it's the TA-152, the revolutionary upgrade of the Focke-Wulf 190. I haven't read it but the review makes it seem like one that I would love, and I might yet find a moment to read it. Let's hope so.
The remarkable TA-152
Today's book is a good choice for anyone interested in aviation, whether it's you, a hubby, a dad or granddad. It concerns a little known German super-weapon from World War II. Not some exotic project that looks cool but was never built,this place actually flew and fought in decent numbers, it was simply too late to have much effect on things. And no, it's not the ME-262, the world's first jet fighter.
Instead, it's the TA-152, the revolutionary upgrade of the Focke-Wulf 190. I haven't read it but the review makes it seem like one that I would love, and I might yet find a moment to read it. Let's hope so.
The remarkable TA-152
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Automotive reincarnation
Hiya bookies! Tomorrow became Day-After-Tomorrow, I know. Lots of running round yesterday, meeting with teachers, renewing library books (I didn't tell you that story, either. Jeez, so much excitement I can't keep track of it all), trying to set up this nifty new computer (see, yet another great story untold!), and on and on. But let's focus on the Focus.
As we last left our intrepid hero, me, my car was totaled and dead, smelling moldy after a week in the hot summer sun as dirty rainwater dried out inside. My mechanic kept telling me it was hopeless, that you would never know when some rusted out circuit would fail and I finally, reluctantly, had to believe him. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend. Not only that, I was down to our family's emergency car. The insurance company paid, and then I discovered that the payment wouldn't come close to buying me a comparable car. Figures, right?
In 1990 we bought a new (well, a low-mileage demo car) Volvo 740, which every member of the household has driven at one time or another as their primary car. Both my kids learned to drive in that car. It's pretty beat up now, the seats are split out, the dashboard and door panels cracked, the trunk jammed shut...we have often been encouraged to get rid of it. The question is: why? It's the perfect emergency car, and after 20 years it qualifies as an antique. So that was my choice, drive the Volvo. Except the A/C didn't work. Fortunately, two shots of freon and the air was so cold I used it to hang meat.
No, not really, but I probably could have. Nice and frosty, the way I like it when the heat index in Memphis tops 120, which it did for like three weeks straight this year. That old Volvo remains one of the most stable cars ever built and if they really wanted to sell a lot of new ones, they would take that old car, duplicate it as much as possible and call it something brand new. Which, given its quality, it probably would be.
Anyway, I had wheels, but the Volvo doesn't have a CD player, just cassette. I don't listen to radio when driving, I listen to audiobooks, but mine are all on CD now and I was really depressed. Indeed, on that fateful day when my Focus was drowned I had begun listening to the Teaching Company production of History of Ancient Rome, a series of 48 college lectures by Professor Garrett Fagan. (By the way, if you aren't familiar with The Teaching Company, you may want to check them out. They have lecture courses on every conceivable subject. And if Ann in Nashville is still reading this blog, I am reliably informed that your library system carries many, if not most, of them).
Not having a CD player, however, I listened to ESPN sports radio and realized just how utterly dreadful those hosts really are. I'm a sports guy, too, but come on! I'm glad most of the people on ESPN radio work there, because I can't imagine what else they could do for a living. And for one brief afternoon I listened to local sports-talk radio. Amazingly bad. Intelligence-insultingly bad. Stunningly wretched, even. It wasn't fun.
Then, about two weeks ago on the Memphis Tigers message board, an ad popped up from one of the long-time posters. He was selling a car. What kind of car? I kid you not, a 2001 ZX3 Ford Focus. Blue, no less. I PMed him immediately and he agreed to meet me at my mechanic's place one afternoon. The car was virtually identical to my dead one. The hood was wrinkled from an accident, it didn't have power-door locks and had 88,000 miles vs. my old one's 27,000, but it was cheap and my mechanic gave it a thumbs up. I wrote the check. I did have to put some money into it, but I expected to. I may even have to put a little more, who knows? But the happy ending is that I am once again driving a nifty little 2001 Ford Focus hatchback, and at a fraction of the cost that I might have had to pay to get something I liked.
One small footnote that shows how foolish manufacturers can be. Ford no longer makes a Focus hatchback. If they did, I would have gone out and bought a brand-new one, even though car notes are anathema to me. I loved the car. But in their infinite wisdom, the big-wigs at Ford discontinued the Focus 2 door hatchback and replace it with the Fiesta hatchback.
Sorry, Ford, no sale on that one.
And so, your friendly neighborhood bookseller is once again wheeled up and ready to ferret out the best books for his bookies to buy. Thanks to you all for sticking with me!
As we last left our intrepid hero, me, my car was totaled and dead, smelling moldy after a week in the hot summer sun as dirty rainwater dried out inside. My mechanic kept telling me it was hopeless, that you would never know when some rusted out circuit would fail and I finally, reluctantly, had to believe him. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend. Not only that, I was down to our family's emergency car. The insurance company paid, and then I discovered that the payment wouldn't come close to buying me a comparable car. Figures, right?
In 1990 we bought a new (well, a low-mileage demo car) Volvo 740, which every member of the household has driven at one time or another as their primary car. Both my kids learned to drive in that car. It's pretty beat up now, the seats are split out, the dashboard and door panels cracked, the trunk jammed shut...we have often been encouraged to get rid of it. The question is: why? It's the perfect emergency car, and after 20 years it qualifies as an antique. So that was my choice, drive the Volvo. Except the A/C didn't work. Fortunately, two shots of freon and the air was so cold I used it to hang meat.
No, not really, but I probably could have. Nice and frosty, the way I like it when the heat index in Memphis tops 120, which it did for like three weeks straight this year. That old Volvo remains one of the most stable cars ever built and if they really wanted to sell a lot of new ones, they would take that old car, duplicate it as much as possible and call it something brand new. Which, given its quality, it probably would be.
Anyway, I had wheels, but the Volvo doesn't have a CD player, just cassette. I don't listen to radio when driving, I listen to audiobooks, but mine are all on CD now and I was really depressed. Indeed, on that fateful day when my Focus was drowned I had begun listening to the Teaching Company production of History of Ancient Rome, a series of 48 college lectures by Professor Garrett Fagan. (By the way, if you aren't familiar with The Teaching Company, you may want to check them out. They have lecture courses on every conceivable subject. And if Ann in Nashville is still reading this blog, I am reliably informed that your library system carries many, if not most, of them).
Not having a CD player, however, I listened to ESPN sports radio and realized just how utterly dreadful those hosts really are. I'm a sports guy, too, but come on! I'm glad most of the people on ESPN radio work there, because I can't imagine what else they could do for a living. And for one brief afternoon I listened to local sports-talk radio. Amazingly bad. Intelligence-insultingly bad. Stunningly wretched, even. It wasn't fun.
Then, about two weeks ago on the Memphis Tigers message board, an ad popped up from one of the long-time posters. He was selling a car. What kind of car? I kid you not, a 2001 ZX3 Ford Focus. Blue, no less. I PMed him immediately and he agreed to meet me at my mechanic's place one afternoon. The car was virtually identical to my dead one. The hood was wrinkled from an accident, it didn't have power-door locks and had 88,000 miles vs. my old one's 27,000, but it was cheap and my mechanic gave it a thumbs up. I wrote the check. I did have to put some money into it, but I expected to. I may even have to put a little more, who knows? But the happy ending is that I am once again driving a nifty little 2001 Ford Focus hatchback, and at a fraction of the cost that I might have had to pay to get something I liked.
One small footnote that shows how foolish manufacturers can be. Ford no longer makes a Focus hatchback. If they did, I would have gone out and bought a brand-new one, even though car notes are anathema to me. I loved the car. But in their infinite wisdom, the big-wigs at Ford discontinued the Focus 2 door hatchback and replace it with the Fiesta hatchback.
Sorry, Ford, no sale on that one.
And so, your friendly neighborhood bookseller is once again wheeled up and ready to ferret out the best books for his bookies to buy. Thanks to you all for sticking with me!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
What I did this summer
Yes, bookies, I'm seriously going to try and keep this thing going at a regular pace, regardless of how many other distractions come down the pike. But I've gotta issue a whining warning, because, sadly, I'm gonna whine for a minute.
Finishing with the tale of summer school, neither teacher added the optional '+' to my grades. Not that it really matters from a GPA standpoint, it doesn't, but it looks better on a transcript and believe me, my transcript needs to look as much better as is possible. Not only that, a '-' after your letter grade does adversely affect your GPA. Which really stinks. And the whining involves just such a designation, that little minus sign after what should have been a plain old A.
In most courses an 'A' grade is 90-100 percentage. A 91, for instance, is an A. In my communications class I received a 93. By itself that really angered me, it should have been at least a 95 but he didn't like my last speech. Or, rather, he didn't like that I took a subject that he assigned me, and assumed I would take a negative stance on, turned it around with a positive stance and was applauded by the class. And I did not get the grade for that speech that I deserved. Having given more than 1000 presentations and speeches in my life, it was my job for five years!, I know when I'm on and when I'm not. And that day, I was on.
Oh well, it's really a minor thing but you hate getting cheated on something you think you've earned. Whining warning is now cancelled.
Did I tell you about my car? I don't think so, but if I did pretend that I didn't. So, back in May, the 24th to be exact, I'm at that very COMM class and on my way home. I had just cracked open a new Audiobook CD. A college lecture course, actually, The History of Ancient Rome on 24 CDs from The Teaching Company. As you know, I'm a real Roman history buff and was pretty pumped to listen to this on the way home.
Early afternoon, hot, the air wet with coming rain. Three miles from home the clouds started dumping water, harder and faster than I had ever seen in my life. Ever. Hail the size of golf balls. Waves building on the street. Surrounded by traffic with water a foot deep on the road I was trapped. Then, before I knew it, my car was floating and water was pouring in the doors. A warm sunny day had become like a Bible lesson with me as Noah and my car the ark. Except my car wasn't waterproof.
Long story short, my nifty little 2001 Ford Focus ZX-3 with 27,000 actual miles was dead. Totaled. I begged my trusted mechanic to lie to me, to tell me he could bring it back to life, but to no avail. The insurance paid a reasonable amount but I didn't care. My car was dead.
Tomorrow, the exciting conclusion!
Finishing with the tale of summer school, neither teacher added the optional '+' to my grades. Not that it really matters from a GPA standpoint, it doesn't, but it looks better on a transcript and believe me, my transcript needs to look as much better as is possible. Not only that, a '-' after your letter grade does adversely affect your GPA. Which really stinks. And the whining involves just such a designation, that little minus sign after what should have been a plain old A.
In most courses an 'A' grade is 90-100 percentage. A 91, for instance, is an A. In my communications class I received a 93. By itself that really angered me, it should have been at least a 95 but he didn't like my last speech. Or, rather, he didn't like that I took a subject that he assigned me, and assumed I would take a negative stance on, turned it around with a positive stance and was applauded by the class. And I did not get the grade for that speech that I deserved. Having given more than 1000 presentations and speeches in my life, it was my job for five years!, I know when I'm on and when I'm not. And that day, I was on.
Oh well, it's really a minor thing but you hate getting cheated on something you think you've earned. Whining warning is now cancelled.
Did I tell you about my car? I don't think so, but if I did pretend that I didn't. So, back in May, the 24th to be exact, I'm at that very COMM class and on my way home. I had just cracked open a new Audiobook CD. A college lecture course, actually, The History of Ancient Rome on 24 CDs from The Teaching Company. As you know, I'm a real Roman history buff and was pretty pumped to listen to this on the way home.
Early afternoon, hot, the air wet with coming rain. Three miles from home the clouds started dumping water, harder and faster than I had ever seen in my life. Ever. Hail the size of golf balls. Waves building on the street. Surrounded by traffic with water a foot deep on the road I was trapped. Then, before I knew it, my car was floating and water was pouring in the doors. A warm sunny day had become like a Bible lesson with me as Noah and my car the ark. Except my car wasn't waterproof.
Long story short, my nifty little 2001 Ford Focus ZX-3 with 27,000 actual miles was dead. Totaled. I begged my trusted mechanic to lie to me, to tell me he could bring it back to life, but to no avail. The insurance paid a reasonable amount but I didn't care. My car was dead.
Tomorrow, the exciting conclusion!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
It's been a while...
Hi bookies! Yes, I know, it's been quite a while since I posted here. And to those thousands who have written wondering if I'm okay...well, okay, to the one misguided woman who thought I was channeling her long-lost cat, the answer is that I'm fine, but this has been one hectic summer.
Aside from all sorts of non-bookie stuff, you know, like lawn maintenance and family and the like, I have been in school. Yes, back to college. One course required me to actually show up every morning, sit in a classroom and takes notes and stuff. With people half my age (or less). Fun times. It was during pre-summer, which meant 4 hours per day in a classroom for three weeks, then homework at night. Gross. I received an A- which royally peeved me. No way it should have been less than an A+, except the teacher was a dolt.
But that was must warmup for taking two, count 'em, two, online courses during summer session. The total number of pages read for both courses combined topped 3,700! In just over 2 months. That's 9 books, 7 of them textbooks, not counting videos we had to watch, three written essays or more per week, two mid-terms each with two essays questions, a book review and a comparative book review. Holy cow! I did it, I'm not sure how, but for people who have to physically get up and go to work each day and then try to work such classes into their schedule, I have no idea who they do it. I really don't.
Grades? Out of 2,000 possible points, 1,000 for each class, I received 2,002, and maybe a few more. Enough to pass, I guess. Hopefully the teachers will add the optional '+' to the letter grade.
And school starts again in two weeks. Two more courses, God knows how many more pages to read...but I'll try to do a better job updating this one. Thanks to you all, and go enjoy the rest of summer.
Aside from all sorts of non-bookie stuff, you know, like lawn maintenance and family and the like, I have been in school. Yes, back to college. One course required me to actually show up every morning, sit in a classroom and takes notes and stuff. With people half my age (or less). Fun times. It was during pre-summer, which meant 4 hours per day in a classroom for three weeks, then homework at night. Gross. I received an A- which royally peeved me. No way it should have been less than an A+, except the teacher was a dolt.
But that was must warmup for taking two, count 'em, two, online courses during summer session. The total number of pages read for both courses combined topped 3,700! In just over 2 months. That's 9 books, 7 of them textbooks, not counting videos we had to watch, three written essays or more per week, two mid-terms each with two essays questions, a book review and a comparative book review. Holy cow! I did it, I'm not sure how, but for people who have to physically get up and go to work each day and then try to work such classes into their schedule, I have no idea who they do it. I really don't.
Grades? Out of 2,000 possible points, 1,000 for each class, I received 2,002, and maybe a few more. Enough to pass, I guess. Hopefully the teachers will add the optional '+' to the letter grade.
And school starts again in two weeks. Two more courses, God knows how many more pages to read...but I'll try to do a better job updating this one. Thanks to you all, and go enjoy the rest of summer.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
It's about time
Hiya bookies! Sorry for the gaps in this blog, it's about time to get it going again. Lots of things happening while I'm living the Billthebookguy life and some of them take me away from stuff I'd rather be doing. Like this blog.
Today I'm including a link to a review of a new biography of Erich von Manstein, German Field Marshal, whom I consider perhaps the greatest of all German generals. I know a lot of you aren't World War Two buffs, but maybe you know someone who is. So that's below.
I also want to mention the World Book Market, however. That's one of the changes I spoke of. My website is actually up and running in a prototype way, complete with typo on the home page, and it's tied to the World Book Market. I'm taking down the ad for Biblio shortly and will be using the link directly to my website. Cool how that works, huh? Hopefully you'll be seeing your friendly neighborhood bookseller cropping up all over the place. Tell Chelsea Handler you want to see me as a guest on her show.
Now, the review.
New biography of Erich von Manstein
However at Kursk he disagreed with Hitler over the battle plan, preferring a “backhand” blow, drawing off the enemy in a feint and then smashing them in the flank, to the “forehand” stroke of an attack from existing positions.
Melvin grapples with the Manstein myth and gets the measure of the man.
“He was as bold tactically as Patton or Rommel but always kept the bigger operational picture foremost in his mind,” he says.
Manstein was put on trial for war crimes by a British military court in 1949. Assorted British generals and peers subscribed to pay for his defence with even Churchill donating £25 to the cause.
Out of 17 charges Manstein was convicted of nine. His 18-year sentence was reduced to 12 years but he was released early because Nato’s need for German rearmament during the Cold War required a veteran military figurehead.
Manstein helped plan the new German army and his ideas for battalion formation “became standardised within the German and British Armies by the Seventies”.
While keen to award Manstein recognition for his brilliance, however, Melvin does not let him off the hook.
The British court gave Manstein the benefit of the doubt over the gravest charges he faced but Melvin believes he was disingenuous in asserting that he had no knowledge of extermination operations by Himmler’s security police against suspected partisans, gypsies, commissars and Jews within the area of his command.
Manstein was a devout Christian who never joined the Nazi Party but he was too busy with his dazzling manoeuvres to let his conscience be troubled by the crimes of others in his backyard.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £30
Buy this and other titles at our bookshop, UK postage free: www.expressbookshop.co.uk
Today I'm including a link to a review of a new biography of Erich von Manstein, German Field Marshal, whom I consider perhaps the greatest of all German generals. I know a lot of you aren't World War Two buffs, but maybe you know someone who is. So that's below.
I also want to mention the World Book Market, however. That's one of the changes I spoke of. My website is actually up and running in a prototype way, complete with typo on the home page, and it's tied to the World Book Market. I'm taking down the ad for Biblio shortly and will be using the link directly to my website. Cool how that works, huh? Hopefully you'll be seeing your friendly neighborhood bookseller cropping up all over the place. Tell Chelsea Handler you want to see me as a guest on her show.
Now, the review.
New biography of Erich von Manstein
MANSTEIN: HITLER’S GREATEST GENERAL: MUNGO MELVIN
Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General: Mungo Melvin
Friday May 14,2010
By Christopher Silvester
ERICH von Manstein is less famous to us than Rommel because no British troops ever faced an army under his command but his German contemporaries and Soviet rivals regarded him as the most brilliant of Hitler’s generals.
Promoted to the rank of field marshal at the age of 54 after his Eleventh Army won the little known and bitterly contested Crimea campaign in the summer of 1942, he was to play a crucial role in the war in the East until Hitler dismissed him as an army group commander 21 months later.
As Mungo Melvin, himself a former general, observes in this crisp, compelling book, the first full-scale biography of Manstein in English: “No other general served Hitler so well whilst disputing his military decisions so consistently.”
From a typical Prussian aristocratic military background Manstein was Gerd von Rundstedt’s chief of staff in the Polish campaign and was the architect of the Sichelschnitt (sickle-cut) plan for the defeat of Allied forces in Flanders and France, culminating in the encirclement of our troops at Dunkirk.
When it came to Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Manstein saw the strategic priority as the defeat of the Red Army, whereas Hitler thought in terms of political and economic objectives such as Leningrad, the Donets Basin industrial region of the Ukraine and the oilfields of the Caucasus.
Unlike Hitler, Manstein favoured, in his own words, “the conception of a subtle fencer who knows how to make an occasional step backwards in order to lunge for the decisive thrust”.
Following the disaster of Stalingrad Manstein conducted a masterly counter-offensive based on this principle, comprising two sequential battles.
However at Kursk he disagreed with Hitler over the battle plan, preferring a “backhand” blow, drawing off the enemy in a feint and then smashing them in the flank, to the “forehand” stroke of an attack from existing positions.
Melvin grapples with the Manstein myth and gets the measure of the man.
“He was as bold tactically as Patton or Rommel but always kept the bigger operational picture foremost in his mind,” he says.
Manstein was put on trial for war crimes by a British military court in 1949. Assorted British generals and peers subscribed to pay for his defence with even Churchill donating £25 to the cause.
Out of 17 charges Manstein was convicted of nine. His 18-year sentence was reduced to 12 years but he was released early because Nato’s need for German rearmament during the Cold War required a veteran military figurehead.
Manstein helped plan the new German army and his ideas for battalion formation “became standardised within the German and British Armies by the Seventies”.
While keen to award Manstein recognition for his brilliance, however, Melvin does not let him off the hook.
The British court gave Manstein the benefit of the doubt over the gravest charges he faced but Melvin believes he was disingenuous in asserting that he had no knowledge of extermination operations by Himmler’s security police against suspected partisans, gypsies, commissars and Jews within the area of his command.
Manstein was a devout Christian who never joined the Nazi Party but he was too busy with his dazzling manoeuvres to let his conscience be troubled by the crimes of others in his backyard.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £30
Buy this and other titles at our bookshop, UK postage free: www.expressbookshop.co.uk
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