Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
Not much time today, but a quick observation about a phenomena I have seen up close.
*** I list this link not because it has book associations, but because I've done much of what is discussed here. Munich, home to the Nazis, was the first stop on a group tour of Europe that included yours truly a few years ago. Reading about Marienplatz, Hofbrauhaus, etc., brought back fond memories of a great time. We did not, of course, take the Hitler tour, we took just a general tour, but you can't even do that in Munich without tripping over Nazi history.
To offset this we toured Dachau and visited the Museum of Modern Art. Hitler would absolutely have hated the latter. For example, one exhibit had a video camera that filmed visitors (you) walking up a flight of stairs, then displayed the images on a giant screen. A computer then turned those images into amorphous blobs floating around, kind of like a lava lamp. Odd, maybe a little entertaining, definitely not Adolf's cup of tea.
Nazis remain big business
Oh, and I did buy a book while in Germany, in German, no less, so that makes it book related.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
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, April 11, 2009
This and the other, no that
Good day, bookies! It's the weekend! Stand by for book news and comment.
*** Torpedo 8. If you're a WW2 buff, I need say no more, you know exactly what this was and what happened. However, if you're not a WW2 buff, a short explanation is in order. Torpedo 8 was the carrier torpedo plane squadron that was wiped out to the last plane, and almost to the last man, during the Battle of Midway in June, 1942. Ensign George Gay was the sole survivor. This would be a tragic story if their sacrifice had not lead directly to the staggering US victory at Midway.
Torpdeo planes needed to be close to the water to drop their torpedoes, otherwise they would malfunction. The TBD Devastators of Torpedo 98 were very slow and very underarmed. Sitting ducks for the Japanese Combat Air Patrol that swooped down like hungry raptors and slaughtered them. However, by doing that the Japanese abandoned defending the higher altitudes where, just as the last of Torpedo 8 was crashing into the sea, US dive bombers appeared. Unhindered by fighters they went on to sink 3 out of the 4 Japanese aircraft carriers, effectively ending the spread of the Japanese across the Pacific and handing the initiative over to the US.
A new book, A Dawn Like Thunder by Robert J Mrazek finally does justice to the sacrifice these men made. When the Japanese CAP was swarming around them, not one plane veered off from its attack run. They all stayed on course, died, and in so doing set up victory.
The Story of Torpedo 8
*** Smith College is hosting an exhibit that I would love to see, "From Weimar to War: Popular Propaganda in Germany 1928-1941". Mostly featuring 'cigarette albums', this shows the evolution of modern propaganda under watchful eye of the man who more or less invented it, Joseph Goebbels.
German Propganda
*** This one goes under the category of 'How stupid can you possibly be?' J.K. Rowling will no longer be the patron for the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland. Think about that a second. You are a charity, your highest profile patron is perhaps the world's most well known author, and you lose her patronage because of a management dispute? Seriously? Who are you going to get to replace her? These people are so dense, so stupid, that frankly I have to wonder if they don't serve in the US Congress, having written the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Indeed, they may be even more doltish than the brainless fools who wiped out the used children's books business, because we expect members of Congress to be idiots, but you would hope that managers of charities might exhibit at least the slightest bit of good sense.
JK Rowling and MS Society Scotland part ways
*** Finally, an emailer asked me if there was a new book coming out titled "John Calipari will burn in Hell." I have researched this extensively and, as of this writing, I can say that I have found no evidence that such a book is being published. Lots of evidence for the premise, but none for the book. Sorry to my correspondent, but look at it as your opportunity to write the book yourself.
*** Torpedo 8. If you're a WW2 buff, I need say no more, you know exactly what this was and what happened. However, if you're not a WW2 buff, a short explanation is in order. Torpedo 8 was the carrier torpedo plane squadron that was wiped out to the last plane, and almost to the last man, during the Battle of Midway in June, 1942. Ensign George Gay was the sole survivor. This would be a tragic story if their sacrifice had not lead directly to the staggering US victory at Midway.
Torpdeo planes needed to be close to the water to drop their torpedoes, otherwise they would malfunction. The TBD Devastators of Torpedo 98 were very slow and very underarmed. Sitting ducks for the Japanese Combat Air Patrol that swooped down like hungry raptors and slaughtered them. However, by doing that the Japanese abandoned defending the higher altitudes where, just as the last of Torpedo 8 was crashing into the sea, US dive bombers appeared. Unhindered by fighters they went on to sink 3 out of the 4 Japanese aircraft carriers, effectively ending the spread of the Japanese across the Pacific and handing the initiative over to the US.
A new book, A Dawn Like Thunder by Robert J Mrazek finally does justice to the sacrifice these men made. When the Japanese CAP was swarming around them, not one plane veered off from its attack run. They all stayed on course, died, and in so doing set up victory.
The Story of Torpedo 8
*** Smith College is hosting an exhibit that I would love to see, "From Weimar to War: Popular Propaganda in Germany 1928-1941". Mostly featuring 'cigarette albums', this shows the evolution of modern propaganda under watchful eye of the man who more or less invented it, Joseph Goebbels.
German Propganda
*** This one goes under the category of 'How stupid can you possibly be?' J.K. Rowling will no longer be the patron for the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland. Think about that a second. You are a charity, your highest profile patron is perhaps the world's most well known author, and you lose her patronage because of a management dispute? Seriously? Who are you going to get to replace her? These people are so dense, so stupid, that frankly I have to wonder if they don't serve in the US Congress, having written the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Indeed, they may be even more doltish than the brainless fools who wiped out the used children's books business, because we expect members of Congress to be idiots, but you would hope that managers of charities might exhibit at least the slightest bit of good sense.
JK Rowling and MS Society Scotland part ways
*** Finally, an emailer asked me if there was a new book coming out titled "John Calipari will burn in Hell." I have researched this extensively and, as of this writing, I can say that I have found no evidence that such a book is being published. Lots of evidence for the premise, but none for the book. Sorry to my correspondent, but look at it as your opportunity to write the book yourself.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Miss me?
Good day bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
So, did you miss me? Sorry, but now that the Memphis Tigers have hired a new coach I can get back to book blogging.
*** Michael Crichton may be dead, but reports are that he has new books coming out anyway. It seems he finished a rollicking historical tale of pirates in 17th century Jamaica that no one knew about. And finished means finished. Apparently he even edited it, so it's pretty much ready to go. Reports are for an initial print run of 1 million copies. The second book is a new thriller centered on technology. This one is only 1/3 finished and will need someone to do the last 2/3. No writer has been hired yet.
*** I'm not a video game guy, which is a good thing because if I were I would never get anything done at all. Those kinds of entertainments really appeal to me and I could spend all day every day playing games. But for those of you who love 'Halo', Tor Books is bringing out a trilogy based on the games, written by veteran Greg Bear.
Halo becomes a book trilogy
*** Schindler's List has been found. No, not the DVD of the movie you lost a few years ago and found under the couch, the real list, the one that inspired the movie. In Australia, of all places. How such historical documents travel around the world is often more interesting than the documents themselves. Australian writer Thomas Kenneally used the list to write his Booker Prize winning novel Schindler's Ark, from which Steven Spielberg developed his movie, and the list was found in a box of his manuscripts that had been donated to a library. Incredible, when you think about it. A list typed up in desperation during the final days of the war, by a man few at the time had ever heard of, is now safely ensconced in an Australian library as proof of what the man did for humanity.
Schindler really did have a list, and here it is
*** In my last blog entry (yes, yes, I know, you can't remember back that far. Everybody's a critic) I mentioned the passing of John Hope Franklin, a gracious gentleman who many considered the historian of the Civil Rights Movement. Here's a nice obituary of the man, much better than I could ever do.
John Hope Franklin
*** Finally, just because Hunter S. Thompson is dead doesn't mean he won't have his revenge on all of us. The Rum Diaries is being developed into a movie and the Doctor is being played by, who else?, Johnny Depp. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was really not the book to make into a movie, but this one might be. Profane weirdness is almost assured and that, of course, is a good thing.
Don't look now, but Hunter S. is coming back
So, did you miss me? Sorry, but now that the Memphis Tigers have hired a new coach I can get back to book blogging.
*** Michael Crichton may be dead, but reports are that he has new books coming out anyway. It seems he finished a rollicking historical tale of pirates in 17th century Jamaica that no one knew about. And finished means finished. Apparently he even edited it, so it's pretty much ready to go. Reports are for an initial print run of 1 million copies. The second book is a new thriller centered on technology. This one is only 1/3 finished and will need someone to do the last 2/3. No writer has been hired yet.
*** I'm not a video game guy, which is a good thing because if I were I would never get anything done at all. Those kinds of entertainments really appeal to me and I could spend all day every day playing games. But for those of you who love 'Halo', Tor Books is bringing out a trilogy based on the games, written by veteran Greg Bear.
Halo becomes a book trilogy
*** Schindler's List has been found. No, not the DVD of the movie you lost a few years ago and found under the couch, the real list, the one that inspired the movie. In Australia, of all places. How such historical documents travel around the world is often more interesting than the documents themselves. Australian writer Thomas Kenneally used the list to write his Booker Prize winning novel Schindler's Ark, from which Steven Spielberg developed his movie, and the list was found in a box of his manuscripts that had been donated to a library. Incredible, when you think about it. A list typed up in desperation during the final days of the war, by a man few at the time had ever heard of, is now safely ensconced in an Australian library as proof of what the man did for humanity.
Schindler really did have a list, and here it is
*** In my last blog entry (yes, yes, I know, you can't remember back that far. Everybody's a critic) I mentioned the passing of John Hope Franklin, a gracious gentleman who many considered the historian of the Civil Rights Movement. Here's a nice obituary of the man, much better than I could ever do.
John Hope Franklin
*** Finally, just because Hunter S. Thompson is dead doesn't mean he won't have his revenge on all of us. The Rum Diaries is being developed into a movie and the Doctor is being played by, who else?, Johnny Depp. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was really not the book to make into a movie, but this one might be. Profane weirdness is almost assured and that, of course, is a good thing.
Don't look now, but Hunter S. is coming back
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
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Not this year
Good day bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
This past weekend was MidSouthCon, the now fairly large annual SFF convention here in the Memphis area. I have attended almost every year that I can remember. But not this year.
It's not the economy, either. As many of you know, (actually, you should all know, since I've said it often enough) I have been selling off large chunks of my personal book collection for the past year. The reasons for this are partly political and reflect my views on what I expect to happen in the next few years, but largely because I was running out of space. You reach a point, I think, where too much stuff becomes a burden.
Anyway, this year I skipped MidSouthCon because there just wasn't anyone there I was anxious to meet enough to make a long drive during the NCAA tourney. Also, the last few years the line for signings of the more popular authors and illustrators have been so long that the convention placed a limit on the number of items you could get signed. I understand the need, of course, but it still leaves a sour taste when you spend (as I did) 9 hours on a sunny Saturday in March waiting for Terry Pratchett to sign your books, only to come away with one signature.
So, I didn't go. And, truth to tell, I'm feeling guilty. So today's blog is cathartic. I feel like such a bad person.
This past weekend was MidSouthCon, the now fairly large annual SFF convention here in the Memphis area. I have attended almost every year that I can remember. But not this year.
It's not the economy, either. As many of you know, (actually, you should all know, since I've said it often enough) I have been selling off large chunks of my personal book collection for the past year. The reasons for this are partly political and reflect my views on what I expect to happen in the next few years, but largely because I was running out of space. You reach a point, I think, where too much stuff becomes a burden.
Anyway, this year I skipped MidSouthCon because there just wasn't anyone there I was anxious to meet enough to make a long drive during the NCAA tourney. Also, the last few years the line for signings of the more popular authors and illustrators have been so long that the convention placed a limit on the number of items you could get signed. I understand the need, of course, but it still leaves a sour taste when you spend (as I did) 9 hours on a sunny Saturday in March waiting for Terry Pratchett to sign your books, only to come away with one signature.
So, I didn't go. And, truth to tell, I'm feeling guilty. So today's blog is cathartic. I feel like such a bad person.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Long time gone
Good day bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
First of all, I know it's been a while since the last entry. Apologies, but all of those pesky realities of life are still leeching away at my time. I'm dancing as fast as I can!
*** Government, again. We seem to be entering an era where governments of all kinds feel it their inherent duty to throw as many obstacles as possible into the life of those who make a living through ecommerce. First the lunacy of the ink-in-lead issue, which appears to have gone sadly un-protested by the sheeple, and now the state government of Kentucky. That's right, a new law in Kentucky may force those trying to sell a used microwave on Craigslist to buy some groceries to have an auctioneers' license.
We've seen this sort of thing before, by the way. Usually the bots in the legislature in question have the good sense not to knuckle under to the auctioneer lobby and vote for something that would likely get them booted out of office. But not always. The requisites for holding public office these days seems to be that you A) always vote to expand government power to encroach on people's lives, and B) be too stupid to know or care about how your actions affect your constituents. Of course, those in favor of this bill say it would have no effect on online activities. And, if you choose to believe them, that's your business. But given the track record of government actions on small business people, I wouldn't bet my livelihood on them being right, and that's exactly what you would be doing.
So, all you Kentucky Bonanzlers and Ebayers, got a spare thou for that auctioneer's license laying around?
Kentucky wants blood
*** Had I been around during WW2 and destined to fight, I think the most frightening job would have been as a merchant mariner. Swabbing the deck on a tramp freighter might not seem like something dangerous, boring, maybe, but not dangerous, but it was. Lurking out there were submarines waiting to sink you. Ships in the Pacific weren't in so much danger. Japanese official policy was for submarines to seek out US warships, not attack the US supply lines. Few allied ships were sunk by Japanese submarines.
German U-Boats, however, were a different story. If your ship went down in the Atlantic you might have a long wait until rescue. Even as part of a convoy, torpedoed ships could not be guarded, they had to be left behind at the mercy of the submarines. Sometimes, the U-Boat captain would give them food and coordinates, sometimes the sub would machine gun the survivors, but mostly they would just sail off and leave them to the mercy of the Atlantic.
A new book Merchant Mariners at War: An Oral History of World War II by George Billy, gives the men who manned these most vital ships a chance to tell their story.
All hail the Merchant Marine
*** Ebay. Seriously, I don't think I could make this up if I tried. After a year of John Donohoe's inane 'disuptive innovation', of screwing up anything and everything that was ever good about the site, of alienating and insulting every honest seller the site ever had, ebay has decided that it's future market is to be...the ebay of old. That's right, abandoning their quest to become an Amazon clone, ebay has decided that it needs to be ebay.
I'm not kidding.
A year ago their stock was around $34. Today, it's around $12, and flirted with $10 for a few days. It might do so again. And for this the moron heading the company is being paid millions and millions. Which just goes to show that it's not what you know, it's not who you know, it's not even whether you are competent or not. No. It goes to show that PT Barnum was right, there's a sucker born every minute, and some of them comprise the ebay board of directors who hired this clown.
ebay: everything bad is good again
*** There was a time when books were special. You just didn't see them every day, they were expensive objects of art, cherished and handed down as heirlooms. And some few of the most special eventually wind up in museums, where they may be enjoyed by any and all.
A grand home for a rare treasure
*** In the never ending pantheon of books concerning the Nazis and World War II comes yet another in the newest sub-genre, which I have dubbed 'German Angst.' Nuremberg was and is not one of Germany's biggest cities, but where the Nazis are concerned it may be the most recognizable. So how, after the war, did those Nurembergers deal with the sudden juxtaposition of their status, from favored city of the Nazis to outcast by the Allies? A new books seeks to explain that very question. Haunted City: Nuremberg and the Nazi Past by Neil Gregory Yale does a seemingly fine job of looking at how a people and a city dealt with a history that befriended and gave succor to evil.
Nuremberg and the Nazis
First of all, I know it's been a while since the last entry. Apologies, but all of those pesky realities of life are still leeching away at my time. I'm dancing as fast as I can!
*** Government, again. We seem to be entering an era where governments of all kinds feel it their inherent duty to throw as many obstacles as possible into the life of those who make a living through ecommerce. First the lunacy of the ink-in-lead issue, which appears to have gone sadly un-protested by the sheeple, and now the state government of Kentucky. That's right, a new law in Kentucky may force those trying to sell a used microwave on Craigslist to buy some groceries to have an auctioneers' license.
We've seen this sort of thing before, by the way. Usually the bots in the legislature in question have the good sense not to knuckle under to the auctioneer lobby and vote for something that would likely get them booted out of office. But not always. The requisites for holding public office these days seems to be that you A) always vote to expand government power to encroach on people's lives, and B) be too stupid to know or care about how your actions affect your constituents. Of course, those in favor of this bill say it would have no effect on online activities. And, if you choose to believe them, that's your business. But given the track record of government actions on small business people, I wouldn't bet my livelihood on them being right, and that's exactly what you would be doing.
So, all you Kentucky Bonanzlers and Ebayers, got a spare thou for that auctioneer's license laying around?
Kentucky wants blood
*** Had I been around during WW2 and destined to fight, I think the most frightening job would have been as a merchant mariner. Swabbing the deck on a tramp freighter might not seem like something dangerous, boring, maybe, but not dangerous, but it was. Lurking out there were submarines waiting to sink you. Ships in the Pacific weren't in so much danger. Japanese official policy was for submarines to seek out US warships, not attack the US supply lines. Few allied ships were sunk by Japanese submarines.
German U-Boats, however, were a different story. If your ship went down in the Atlantic you might have a long wait until rescue. Even as part of a convoy, torpedoed ships could not be guarded, they had to be left behind at the mercy of the submarines. Sometimes, the U-Boat captain would give them food and coordinates, sometimes the sub would machine gun the survivors, but mostly they would just sail off and leave them to the mercy of the Atlantic.
A new book Merchant Mariners at War: An Oral History of World War II by George Billy, gives the men who manned these most vital ships a chance to tell their story.
All hail the Merchant Marine
*** Ebay. Seriously, I don't think I could make this up if I tried. After a year of John Donohoe's inane 'disuptive innovation', of screwing up anything and everything that was ever good about the site, of alienating and insulting every honest seller the site ever had, ebay has decided that it's future market is to be...the ebay of old. That's right, abandoning their quest to become an Amazon clone, ebay has decided that it needs to be ebay.
I'm not kidding.
A year ago their stock was around $34. Today, it's around $12, and flirted with $10 for a few days. It might do so again. And for this the moron heading the company is being paid millions and millions. Which just goes to show that it's not what you know, it's not who you know, it's not even whether you are competent or not. No. It goes to show that PT Barnum was right, there's a sucker born every minute, and some of them comprise the ebay board of directors who hired this clown.
ebay: everything bad is good again
*** There was a time when books were special. You just didn't see them every day, they were expensive objects of art, cherished and handed down as heirlooms. And some few of the most special eventually wind up in museums, where they may be enjoyed by any and all.
A grand home for a rare treasure
*** In the never ending pantheon of books concerning the Nazis and World War II comes yet another in the newest sub-genre, which I have dubbed 'German Angst.' Nuremberg was and is not one of Germany's biggest cities, but where the Nazis are concerned it may be the most recognizable. So how, after the war, did those Nurembergers deal with the sudden juxtaposition of their status, from favored city of the Nazis to outcast by the Allies? A new books seeks to explain that very question. Haunted City: Nuremberg and the Nazi Past by Neil Gregory Yale does a seemingly fine job of looking at how a people and a city dealt with a history that befriended and gave succor to evil.
Nuremberg and the Nazis
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Short takes
Good morning bookies! Stand by for news and comment.
*** Birthdays today include Barbara Feldon who is 76. Who could forget Agent 99 from TV's 'Get Smart?' Writer Cal Hiaasen is 56. If you haven't read his first four books you are missing out on classic Florida crime caper books, they are fabulous. After that his work becomes bitter and spotty.
*** In 1938 Germany invaded and annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This event was a major pre-requisite for World War II. For those not aware, Austria was divided between those who wanted to remain an independent nation, a remnant of the once-great Austro-Hungarian Empire, and those who felt that Austria was and should be part of Germany. Hitler, being Austrian, had worked for years to subvert the Austrian government and incorporate his native land into the German Reich. This came to a head in 1938 when German troops marched into Austria. No one knew if the Austrian Army would fight or welcome the Germans. As it turned out, they welcomed them with open arms, which was smart since they would have lost a war anyway.
*** A shout-out thank you to Bobbi for the description of what John Donohoe has done to ebay. You probably know that he calls it disruptive innovation. The concept, which is such a scam that it's breath-taking, is to screw everything up, change things and see what works. Sort of a Calvin & Hobbes approach to business which Bobbi has dubbed 'deceptive innovation.' Ha! Well done.
*** Birthdays today include Barbara Feldon who is 76. Who could forget Agent 99 from TV's 'Get Smart?' Writer Cal Hiaasen is 56. If you haven't read his first four books you are missing out on classic Florida crime caper books, they are fabulous. After that his work becomes bitter and spotty.
*** In 1938 Germany invaded and annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This event was a major pre-requisite for World War II. For those not aware, Austria was divided between those who wanted to remain an independent nation, a remnant of the once-great Austro-Hungarian Empire, and those who felt that Austria was and should be part of Germany. Hitler, being Austrian, had worked for years to subvert the Austrian government and incorporate his native land into the German Reich. This came to a head in 1938 when German troops marched into Austria. No one knew if the Austrian Army would fight or welcome the Germans. As it turned out, they welcomed them with open arms, which was smart since they would have lost a war anyway.
*** A shout-out thank you to Bobbi for the description of what John Donohoe has done to ebay. You probably know that he calls it disruptive innovation. The concept, which is such a scam that it's breath-taking, is to screw everything up, change things and see what works. Sort of a Calvin & Hobbes approach to business which Bobbi has dubbed 'deceptive innovation.' Ha! Well done.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Rage Against the Machine
Good morning bookies. Your friendly neighborhood bookseller is irritated today.
See, he thought that, while the whole issue of destroying kids books because of some illusory and ridiculous worry about lead in their ink was a huge waste of time, he also thought that, eventually, common sense would win out, the books would be declared treasures instead of dangers and we could all go back to read our original copies of The Bobbsey Twins.
Foolish bookseller. This is the government we're talking about. Since when does common sense come into play with the government.
What we now have is completely codified nonsense. If you wish to read through the government legalese at this link, be my guest. http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr09/determination.pdf In essence, what it says is that the commission might like to grant exemptions to the idiocy of the CPSIA, but that the law is so worded that it cannot be done. Therefore, all of those delightful kiddie books you owned growning up are CONTRABAND. That's right, ditch 'em. No, wait, don't ditch them, then the evil lead that might be in their ink will leech into the ground water. Burn them instead, maybe pretend you're a Nazi. Wear black, hold a comb under your nose and pretend to be Hitler; the issue is identical, burning books because they may cause harm, one for their ideas, the other because someone wrote legislation and brought into play the Law of Unintended Consequences. So, burn away and have fun!
Hold on! Don't do that either. Then you're putting all of that lead into the air. So what are you supposed to do with them?
Who knows? The government doesn't solve your problems for you, it simply lets you know what is and what is not a problem, how you solve it is your business. Just make sure it's okay with them, even if they cannot tell you what is and isn't okay. But whatever you do, don't let a kid anywhere near those kid books. After all, if there could possibly be any lead in their ink, just imagine what sort of horrible message they might contain.
And just so you know, it appears that passing those beloved books on as heirlooms is also illegal.
Aren't bureaucrats cute? You do have to wonder, though, as all of those precious books are being destroyed, whether or not just a few of those who voted for this horror aren't silently delighted that such subversive drivel as Beatrix Potter is being obliterated. Smiling at the thought. Maybe with a black comb held under their nose.
See, he thought that, while the whole issue of destroying kids books because of some illusory and ridiculous worry about lead in their ink was a huge waste of time, he also thought that, eventually, common sense would win out, the books would be declared treasures instead of dangers and we could all go back to read our original copies of The Bobbsey Twins.
Foolish bookseller. This is the government we're talking about. Since when does common sense come into play with the government.
What we now have is completely codified nonsense. If you wish to read through the government legalese at this link, be my guest. http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/frnotices/fr09/determination.pdf In essence, what it says is that the commission might like to grant exemptions to the idiocy of the CPSIA, but that the law is so worded that it cannot be done. Therefore, all of those delightful kiddie books you owned growning up are CONTRABAND. That's right, ditch 'em. No, wait, don't ditch them, then the evil lead that might be in their ink will leech into the ground water. Burn them instead, maybe pretend you're a Nazi. Wear black, hold a comb under your nose and pretend to be Hitler; the issue is identical, burning books because they may cause harm, one for their ideas, the other because someone wrote legislation and brought into play the Law of Unintended Consequences. So, burn away and have fun!
Hold on! Don't do that either. Then you're putting all of that lead into the air. So what are you supposed to do with them?
Who knows? The government doesn't solve your problems for you, it simply lets you know what is and what is not a problem, how you solve it is your business. Just make sure it's okay with them, even if they cannot tell you what is and isn't okay. But whatever you do, don't let a kid anywhere near those kid books. After all, if there could possibly be any lead in their ink, just imagine what sort of horrible message they might contain.
And just so you know, it appears that passing those beloved books on as heirlooms is also illegal.
Aren't bureaucrats cute? You do have to wonder, though, as all of those precious books are being destroyed, whether or not just a few of those who voted for this horror aren't silently delighted that such subversive drivel as Beatrix Potter is being obliterated. Smiling at the thought. Maybe with a black comb held under their nose.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Short note for a Monday
Good Monday morning bookies!
This is more of a quick note than a blog entry. Yesterday this blog set a new record both for page views and visitors. Yea! And thanks. If you want to subscribe, I won't stop you. I'm not sure, but I think the number of subscribers bumps you up Google's blog list somehow. Anyway, this blog is where I post these days, mostly, excepting a certain sports forum, and it's nice to know that someone, somewhere, sees some value in something you wrote.
I used to post on a lot of different message boards and forums. Most of those have either dried up and blown away, or have changed somehow. My longest-time board I quit late last year when one of the participants knowingly posted a political message they knew would anger me. I had said repeatedly that if it happened again I was gone; it did, I am. Which is why I do not want this blog to be political, unless the government does something which directly affects the publishing industry, such as the latest idiocy with the kid's books. Nothing is more divisive than politics. Nothing. Not even religion.
This is more of a quick note than a blog entry. Yesterday this blog set a new record both for page views and visitors. Yea! And thanks. If you want to subscribe, I won't stop you. I'm not sure, but I think the number of subscribers bumps you up Google's blog list somehow. Anyway, this blog is where I post these days, mostly, excepting a certain sports forum, and it's nice to know that someone, somewhere, sees some value in something you wrote.
I used to post on a lot of different message boards and forums. Most of those have either dried up and blown away, or have changed somehow. My longest-time board I quit late last year when one of the participants knowingly posted a political message they knew would anger me. I had said repeatedly that if it happened again I was gone; it did, I am. Which is why I do not want this blog to be political, unless the government does something which directly affects the publishing industry, such as the latest idiocy with the kid's books. Nothing is more divisive than politics. Nothing. Not even religion.
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