Karlstar reads more in 2021

Happy New Year, time for a new thread

January reading plans
Grant by Ron Chernow (con't from 2020)
Unfettered: Tales by Masters of Modern Fantasy edited by Shawn Speakman
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell
The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks

February reading plans
The Catcher in the Rye bby J.D. Salinger (20th century classic read for 1Q)
The Legion of Flame by Anthony Ryan
The Valley of Shadows by John Ringo
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
The Simarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien
Caliban's Hour by Tad Williams

March reading plans
Petty: A biography by Warren Zanes
Vallista by Steven Brust
Salvation Lost by Peter F. Hamilton (not started yet)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks
Space Team by Barry J. Hutchinson
Homeland by R. A. Salvatore (re-re-read)

I use a 1 to 10 rating system because I started rating books on the internet long before LT and because I like the additional granularity. Here's my rating scale explained. Checking my LT books, the 8 ratings stop right around book 500, so I'm consistent there, but I only have about 70 books rated 9 stars or higher, so either I'm being too tough or there just aren't that many 9 or 10 star books. I would guess my most common rating is 6, I like most of what I read.

1 - So bad, I couldn't finish it. DO NOT READ!!!
2 - Could have finished, but didn't. Do not read. This one means I made a conscious choice not to finish, usually about halfway through the book. Something is seriously wrong here.
3 - Finished it, but had to force myself. Not recommended, if you're a complete-ist and read it, you'll regret it.
4 - Finished it, but really didn't like it. Not recommended unless you have to read everything.
5 - Decent book, recommended if you have spare time and need something to read.
6 - Good book, I enjoyed it, and would recommend it.
7 - Good book, recommended for everyone. I may have read it more than once, and would consider buying the hardcover edition.
8 - Great book, I would put it in the Top 500 of all time. Read more than once, I probably have the hardcover.
9 - Great book, top 100 all time. Read more than once, if I don't have the hardcover edition, I want one!
10 - All-time great book, top 50 material. Read more than twice, I probably have more than one copy/edition.

My ratings also include the Slogging Through the Mud (STTM) rating/index. This goes back to one of Elizabeth Moon's Paksenarrion books where she spends WAY too much time actually describing how the army spent days slogging through the mud. If there is a lot of travel in the book and too much time describing the traveling, the STTM rating will be high.

Starred! I like your scale, by the way.

>3 Marissa_Doyle: Thanks! I started using it when I was submitting ratings to the 'Internet Top 100 SciFi/Fantasy Books of all time' list, which only lasted a couple of years.

Happy New Year!

Just pulling up a seat to watch the action. Let the games begin.

Happy New Year!

>1 Karlstar: I hope you have a wonderful 2021, and I look forward to following your thread for another year!

Happy New Year

Happy new year to you! I hope it is a good one in every way.

I always value your STTM ratings!

>10 Sakerfalcon: >9 Peace2: >8 YouKneeK: >7 majkia: >6 pgmcc: >5 Narilka: Thanks everyone!

The great reorganization has begun! I found what I hope is the last box of books in the basement and I got a pair of bookends for Christmas, so I'm starting on re-organizing the whole collection. 2 bookshelves done, 12 to go. I did a halfway decent job of putting things where I thought they'd go, but the random 'where is that one book by that one author' quest is taking too much time.

>12 Karlstar: Best of luck with it (says me who is looking forward to my own Great Reorganisation in a couple of weeks).

>1 Karlstar: Happy New Year! I do hope your 2021 is full of great books and the things that bring you joy. (Is that redundant?)

>13 haydninvienna: Good luck to you too.

Happy new year!

>14 clamairy: Thanks, same to you! Not redundant at all. Maybe next year, do we need a single thread for New Year's wishes?

>16 libraryperilous: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

>17 Karlstar: My argument against that would be that the 'happy new thread' greetings give people a chance to check-in and star the new journal threads. (Not everyone is able to continue from their previous year's thread.)

Happy New Year!

>18 reading_fox: >20 NorthernStar: Thank you, same to you!

Happy New Year!

Hi! Happy New Year!

I like your rating system, especially the STTM designation.

>17 Karlstar: And a Happy New Year to you too.

(I just work off the GD "most recent posts" list, so it takes a while to catch up with everyone.)

>23 Storeetllr: Thanks! I like making up the STTM ratings, it gives me another way to think about the book.

>24 -pilgrim-: Thank you.

My sister and nephews gave me a gift certificate to Old Editions Bookshop & Gallery, in North Tonawanda, NY. The place is fantastic! If you're ever in the area of Niagara Falls or Buffalo, NY, it is worth stopping by. This picture is a tiny part of one room, looking into another, there's 2 more rooms, plus the 'special editions' room I didn't even get into!

>26 Karlstar: Oh, how wonderful! How close is this shop to your home? Will you be able to visit regularly?

>26 Karlstar: Nice. That looks like a place I could pass a few hours in and not notice the time.

>27 clamairy: About 30 minutes, so I'll be headed back soon! I also still have money left on my gift certificate to spend. There were some very pricey signed first editions that were out of my price range though.

>26 Karlstar: What a beautiful store! I can't wait until bookshops are allowed to open here again ...

>29 Karlstar: Did you say First Editions? Save, save, save!

>26 Karlstar: That's a lovely bookstore layout and color scheme!

Happy new year and best wishes on your organizing project!

>31 BookstoogeLT: Anywhere from $50 to $500! Very pricey!

>33 Jim53: Thanks Jim! It got sidetracked by football and the visit to the bookstore and now work, but it isn't over.

Grant is done, moving on to Unfettered: Tales by Masters of Fantasy. I know I'm asking for trouble reading another short story collection, but I couldn't resist.

Also reading The Curse of Chalion for the group read.

Done with The Curse of Chalion, back to Knights of Dark Renown.

I'm behind on reviews, so here's one.

Grant by Ron Chernow
STTM: 1 - there's lots of mud in the Civil War, but we don't slog through it
Rating: 9 out of 10

Yes, an elusive 9! I really enjoyed this book. It dealt equally and fairly with all parts of Grant's life, from his childhood through death. It covered his early, difficult army years, his struggles with his family and inlaws, the Civil War years, presidency and post-presidency, which were unfortunately short. The book was not, at 1097 pages it was even longer than Washington: A Life.

I thought Chernow made a special effort to dispel the notion that Grant was a drunkard. Did he drink to excess sometimes? Definitely, but so do many people. He appeared to be a very infrequent binge drinker who binged when it would cause neither family, army or government any harm, in between he drank little or nothing.

Obviously this covered a lot of the Civil War, without going into too specific detail. I actually would have preferred a little more, but there was enough. As a general, Grant was a master, eventually coordinating nearly the entire Union Army effort on all fronts. As a businessman and President, Grant suffered from an inability to believe that anyone that was close to him could be less honest and trustworthy than he himself. This lead him to be swindled and cheated over and over. As President he gave jobs to people he thought could be trusted, but could not. He was strongly for civil service reform and civil rights, but his inability to identify good people was a hindrance.

Chernow brought to life all of these qualities and difficulties in good detail and in a very readable style. I thought it was even easier to read than the book on Washington.

I thought the History channel TV show was very good, but they focused on the Civil War time and gave very little attention to the pre- and post-war periods and glossed over his mistakes with his Cabinet.

Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmell
STTM: 3 - a couple of short journeys
Rating: 6 out of 10

This book, contrary to the series info here in LT, is not part of the Drenai series. It is a stand-alone novel not set in the world of the Drenai books. That being said, it has many of the same elements. A few Merlin-ish wizards with great talents, accessing 'the Colors'; a group of mystical, heroic knights and other heroes, including those of the common variety. The magic system is very simple, magic permeates everything and everything thing corresponds to a color. Red is fire/violence, green is life, black is earth, etc. Sounds a lot like the Brent Weeks system, but this one is very, very simple and there are very few wizards.

Long ago, the Knights of the Gabala, a great force for justice for all, went off to fight a great evil in 'hell' and never returned. Now the kingdom, formerly good, is gradually turning evil and violent as Red becomes ascendant. Bandits and peasant heroes band together with renegade nobles to form a new knighthood to fight the king. Standard fantasy fare, very typical for Gemmell.

I thought some of the names, taken straight from Celtic mythology, were a bit jarring, otherwise this was a fun read. Nothing unusual or unexpected, just good sword vs. sword fantasy, for the most part. Gemmell is always about the combat.

The book reorganization is proceeding in fits and starts. I am in the L - K range now. Unfortunately I had about 100% of the shelf space filled, then found another box of unpacked books. Looks like it is time to find a spot for another bookcase, but that's going to be tough to find space.

To explain my organization. I do sort my books, roughly, by genre and then by author.

The categories:
General Fiction
History
Gardening, Cooking and Reference
Scifi/Fantasy
Gaming related fantasy
Cookbooks - the frequently used ones have their own 2 shelf bookcase in the dining room, a very nice one we picked up at Pier1.

Like most people, in any given bookcase, paperbacks are the top 2 - 3 shelves, hardcovers (most SFBC sized) at the bottom.

What I'm still trying to figure out is how to distribute them across rooms. The gaming related fantasy is going in the basement in my gaming room, though I need another shelf to fit them all. This category is a bit loosely defined. R.A.Salvatore Forgotten Realms novels obviously fit here, as do other books written for D&D worlds, but what about some of Salvatore's other fantasy? Same with Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance books, they go with the gaming books, but what about their other novels? For now I think they are all staying together.

There's also 2 short shelves in the living room (built in bookcases with fixed shelves) where I think I'm putting as much of the general fiction as will fit and some history. They are short, so almost no hardcovers can go there. I think, unfortunately, that's going to mean that most of the history will end up in my home office. I'm also putting the mythology books there, which really doesn't fit, but what can I do? Some of the 'epic' fantasy collections, like Wheel of Time, are actually up on top of these shelves.

The vast majority of the collection is Scifi/fantasy, so that's all going in the library, but I suspect it is going to overflow to the 2 shelves up in the bedroom.

There's also the problem of the gardening and reference books, some of which are very large, they may have to have a shelf of their own mixed in with the SF/Fantasy, since there's where that bookcase sits. A little messy, but I'm not sure I can do it any other way.

While I thought I was working on L-K, I really hadn't found all the B-G books, so I'm still messing around with C-H.

>41 Karlstar: My categories are more subdivided by that - so history has a classical section, an Asia section, a Slavic section and so on, and within those sections they are sorted by region and then time period.

Alphabetisation only really starts to come in with fiction, and that is only after sub-genre.

Which all sounds rather more organised than it is. My rooms are not sorted by theme but by era of acquisition.

>42 -pilgrim-: I could start sorting the history, but haven't yet and since I think I'm the only one that cares, I probably won't.

After Knights of Dark Renown I moved on to Unfettered: Tales by Masters of Fantasy. Just from the premise, that he published this to help pay for his cancer treatment was reason enough for me to buy it for the Kindle (it was only 2.99) plus the list of authors is tremendous. Like all short story collections, it was a bit hit and miss.

There are a lot of famous names in this short story collection, with stories from some famous fantasy series. The full list is below and it is quite a list! From a name standpoint alone, this is a great, top of the list short story collection.

I thought the quality overall was good, with a couple of issues. With two 'Did not finish' (DNF) stories which should have been 'did not read', the quality is actually fairly decent.

In order, here are my thoughts on the stories.
"Imaginary Friends" by Terry Brooks - a very nice story that is the inspiration for the Knight of the Word series, with different characters, but Pick and Daniel appear. Good.

"How Old Holly Came to Be" by Patrick Rothfuss - a story from the perspective of a holly tree. Ok, but strange. I mean, really, how much nuance can you get from a tree that's not even an Ent?

"The Old Scale Game" by Tad Williams - not the editor's fault, but I've read this story 2 or 3 times before, it is available in ebook edition as a standalone, is offered free as a Kindle book, etc. I think I enjoyed it the first time.

"Game of Chance" by Carrie Vaughn - ok. A couple of days later and I don't remember a thing.

"The Martyr of the Roses" by Jacqueline Carey - well written, unique style, good story. I didn't need to be familiar with her world to enjoy it.

"Mudboy" by Peter V. Brett - nice to see a story about Briar, but this really seemed like a repeat origin story. Just ok.

"The Sound of Broken Absolutes" by Peter Orullian. The music references went way over my head, but this was still fascinating. Good.

"The Coach With the Big Teeth" by R. A. Salvatore. Weird, but one for everyone who didn't excel at Little League (American baseball league for youngsters) Ok.

"Keeper of Memory" by Todd Lockwood - good, especially if you've read any of the novels, if you haven't it may not make a bit of sense.

"Heaven in a Wild Flower" by Blake Charlton - I get the premise, just really strange. Ok.

"Dogs" by Daniel Abraham - you may be offended if you are a dog lover.

"The Chapel Perilous" by Kevin Hearne. Atticus does Atticus things way back in the past. Kind of short and lacking.

"Select Mode" by Mark Lawrence - from his Prince of Thorns books, set before that novel. 12 year old killer kid, not my favorite.

"All the Girls Love Michael Stein" by David Anthony Durham - a cat story, so much better than "Dogs". Good.

"Strange Rain" by Jennifer Bosworth - DNF, quit reading after 2 pages.

"Nocturne" by Robert V.S. Redick - another music theme, I kind of wish I hadn't read to the end.

"Unbowed" by Eldon Thompson - a dark origin story from his novels. Good, now I want to read his novels.

"In Favour with Their Stars" by Naomi Novik - Temeraire in space! Good.

"River of Souls" by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson - yes, actual Wheel of Time content! This was cut from A Memory of Light and I can see why. Short and kind of lacking, but a Wheel of Time story is good.

"The Jester" by Michael J. Sullivan - Hadrian and Royce go dungeon delving. Good.

"The Duel" by Lev Grossman - short and to the point, but I'm not sure what the point was? Ok.

"Walker and the Shade of Allanon" by Terry Brooks. Walker and Allanon, how can you go wrong? But... this read like a scene from one of the Shannara books I'd already read and learned absolutely nothing new. Kind of disappointing.

"The Unfettered Knight" by Shawn Speakman - DNF, wish I hadn't started it, actually offensive. I was excited because it is about vampire hunters and I love those, then it got offensive and I had to stop.

Finished The Consuming Fire, review to come, now on to The Blinding Knife.

Almost done with The Blinding Knife, which is quite good, not sure what's up next.

As usual at the start of the year, I'm trying to decide on some classic reading. With the exception of scifi and fantasy, my reading of 20th century 'classics' is woefully lacking, I think. Any suggestions? I keep wavering between things I know I had to read at some point in school, like The Catcher in the Rye or authors I've read very little of, like William Faulkner.

I also need to pick up some new history reads, but I usually stumble on those on my own.

>46 Karlstar: Ughh, "modern" classics. I am not a fan of them at all. Good luck choosing some ;-)

Glad to hear the Blinding Knife is going well. If you liked it along with the Black Prism, the whole series is a go then. Got any plans for when you'll read the rest of the books? or will it be more of a "when I feel like it" kind of thing?

>46 Karlstar: I've been trying to catch up on 'classics' also, mainly so that I will understand when I encounter a reference to them. Most of the ones I tried were from school assignments or from other people's lists of classics.

Some were flawed but not unenjoyable, like Robinson Crusoe, The Mill On The Floss, Crime And Punishment, Wuthering Heights.

Pearl Buck's The Good Earth was wonderful. All Quiet On The Western Front is a favorite.

I wish I had discovered Daphne duMaurier sooner - The House On The Strand was really cool, also The Scapegoat.

Some were awful, like Faulkner's As I Lay Dying
I did enjoy Steinbeck and Vonnegut, and Oscar Wilde is a delight.
I didn't like Hemingway. Hated War and Peace too.

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood might be considered a classic? It is often referred to, so made its way to my tag list. Same with One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. I'm not sure if most people consider S.E. Hintons books to be 'classics' but we did read them in school and they stood up surprisingly well to a recent re-read.

>48 Darth-Heather: I totally agree about The Good Earth and All Quiet on the Western Front. Both are such powerful stories.

The Scapegoat was my first du Maurier and I loved it. Have you watched either of the movie adaptations?

>48 Darth-Heather: I loved The Scapegoat. I was hooked in the first few paragraphs. It described the main character's route from Blois in the Loire Valley to Cherbourg (or it may have been Caen), a route I know well. What fascinated me was how in the story it took three days for the journey. I feel we have been going slow if it takes us seven hours with today's motorways.

I have yet to read The House on the Strand but I have read many more of her books and loved them all.

I enjoyed In Cold Blood but never thought of it as a classic. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest would definitely make the classic list.

>46 Karlstar: I’m glad you’re still enjoying the Lightbringer series!

My non-SF&F 20th century reading is pretty lacking too, probably more than yours! I’ve fit a few in over recent years, but haven’t read the vast majority of what people have mentioned in reply to your post.

Here are some of the 20th century non-SF&F books I’ve read in recent years and my star ratings in case it helps at all with ideas:

• The Great Gatsby (1925) – 3.5 stars
  
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) - 4 stars
  
• Of Mice and Men (1937) - 4.5 stars
  
• The Glass Menagerie (1945) – 3 stars
  
• Flowers for Algernon (1966) – 4 stars

Personally, I think you should head back about 550 years earlier to 1390 and read The Canterbury Tales. Most absorbing book ever. Really! (Ouch, it hurts to get struck by lightning!)

>47 BookstoogeLT: I got the next book for Christmas, so I'll be reading that one soon. Just finished The Blinding Knife, so I'll likely skip to something else then come back to the next one.

>48 Darth-Heather: Thanks for the suggestions! My feeling is about the same, I hear about the authors or the books and know nothing about them, my 'read everything' phase skipped over most of the classics as they were hard to find in the library. I've only read 2 books you mentioned.

>51 YouKneeK: Ok, you made me laugh with that Canterbury Tales recommendation. I did read your summary of them. No thanks!

I've recently read 3 of the 5 on your list, but the other two Of Mice and Men and The Glass Menagerie are exactly the sort of thing I was considering.

>53 Karlstar: Haha, to be fair, some people really did like it. And I read it at a difficult time, so it’s possible I wouldn’t have hated it so much if I’d read it at another time. I think though, among the people I’m aware of who enjoyed it, they are all far more scholarly people than I am, with more classics under their belts and a better appreciation for the format and themes and historical context and such than what I have.

Of the two you mention, I would definitely recommend Of Mice and Men over the other. I think it was my favorite of the classics I’ve tried over the past few years. They’re both fast and easy reads, though.

>46 Karlstar:
Given that I share BookstoogeLT's about 20th century American (and British) classics, how about some Russian options (all of which I would recommend):

Doctor Zhivago

The Master and Margarita

Kolyma Tales

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Or, for post-Soviet era:

Death and the Penguin (Ukraine)

For British:

Lord of the Flies

Rebecca

The Power and the Glory

For American:

To Kill A Mockingbird

I am sorry if you have read any of these; I didn't check through your library first. But all of the above I would recommend extremely highly.

If it helps, the Slavic 20th century classics that I hope to fit in this year are:
And Quiet Flows the Don
Life and Fate
The White Guard

(You said 20th century, I thought, so I have only given examples from that period.)

>55 -pilgrim-: I think I have to work my way through a few more American classics before I attempt the Russian options, though The Master and Margarita has been sitting on my shelf for years. I thought the reaction here in GD was a bit mixed for that one?

>56 Karlstar: I think that it matters a lot to get the translation that is right for you. Like many writers in the Soviet era, Bulgakov is trying not to get arrested. So he uses word-play and inference a lot. Things, scenes and so on, have double meanings, one that is politically dangerous, and one innocuous. There is an overt attack on Christianity, and a theological subtext.

It is difficult for a translator to hold the double inferences. So the "right" translation depends on your knowledge of politics, social structure on Stalin's Moscow, and Russian idiom. If you are reasonably good on that, a very literal translation with work best; but if not, you either need one with a lot of footnotes, or you will be getting a version where the translator has decided which meaning to choose - and the result will be dependent on not just the translator's language skill level, but their political views.

I tried it twice and did not get the point, then found the right translation (i.e. right for me) and found it brilliant.

Examples: Someone has a dream where a there is a room in which a lot of people are sitting on the floor. The question is raised, within the dream, as to why they are there, and what they need to do, in order to leave. It is treated by the characters as just "a weird dream". But "to sit down" is Russian slang for going to prison. So it is really a discussion as to what you can be arrested for, and what mental attitude you do need to get out. So either you need to recognise the slang, have a translator that tells you what "sitting down" means to a Russian, or you are left with either an overtly political discussion or weird nonsense (when you need it to be both). However fates of some of the characters are prefigured in that dream...

Another scene: the poet disappears for months, and then returns with the buttons missing from his coat. He never explains what he was doing, and no one ever asks him. Without help from the translator, that would be a WTH moment. Unless you remember that the NKVD's routine was to remove buttons as well as belts and laces, when holding you for questioning. (So everyone knows where he has been, and no one needs to do something as dangerous as asking about it.) But Bulgakov has never said that the security police have arrested, and interrogated, an innocent man - which would imply this that they actually make mistakes! - all he said was that the poet was now without buttons...

Overtly it attacks Christianity; there are flashbacks to conversations between Pontius Pilate and a man called Yeshua. But the Devil here functions in accordance to traditional Christian teaching (not Hollywood's); he tempts, but he can do you no harm unless you commit a sin. He tests, and torments those who fail. But in 1930s Moscow, that gives him plenty of scope...

Which translation do you have?

I find a lot of British and American "classics" tend to be navel-gazing by writers, for writers. Russian classic writers generally have "something to say", but don't forget that they have a wider audience than their peers.

I have recommended one Graham Greene, which is excellent. (But others of his works I have found impossible.) And his theme is often "Catholic guilt", by which I mean not the religion, but the mindset that can be induced by being raised in it. To a reader unfamiliar with this, Greene can be similarly confusing (and without a helpful translator!)

What American "classics" do you admire?

>56 Karlstar: yeah, I had a bad experience with Bulgakov and it is obvious (due to >57 -pilgrim-:'s post) that it was the completely wrong translation for me. The version I read had zero cultural explanations so I was just adrift and floundering.

>58 BookstoogeLT: For Bookstooge: MAJOR SPOILER territory: Margarita is sexually uninhibited, and practices witchcraft to rescue her lover. She is a cliché of an "immoral woman". But the Devil does not go after her. Bulgakov's point is that the ordinary "good Soviet citizens" of Moscow, who profit on the black market, inform on one another for gain, distort the truth, particularly religious truth, for political advantage and so on - these are the real evil-doers, and the Devil punishes them. Whereas Margarita only really wants to love and look after her poet.
As for the Master himself, the poet who can see the truth? Well, it is obvious that Moscow is no place that he can exist in...

>59 -pilgrim-: See, having that kind of explanation would have made my read very different. However, it would have also killed any chance of reading the novel as a novel. It would have turned into a research read of flipping back and forth from text to explanation. So either way, Bulgakov was not for me :-/

>57 -pilgrim-: Thanks for the explanation! My SFBC edition says 'Translated by Michael Glenny'. I'm willing to give it a shot if you think that's a good translation. As for your other question, that's harder to answer. On one end of the spectrum, I tried some Mark Twain short stories last year and just found them too dry and the humor too old-fashioned (or subtle?) for me. On the other end, To Kill a Mockingbird was fantastic. From Youkneek's list Flowers for Algernon is an all time favorite of mine. So my answer would be, more like that!

However, fate or the cosmos or whatever has provided a short term answer. I walked into a Barnes and Noble for only the 2nd time in a year and right at the entrance, on the 'buy one, get one free' table, was A Catcher in the Rye. So, I bought it, I had to! I will, however, be re-visting everyone's suggestions for later in the year.

On another note, the scifi and fantasy section at the store was as disappointing as always. Too small, too poorly organized, too poorly curated. I don't know why I expect anything different, but you'd think for a store that size, they could do a better job.

>61 Karlstar: I enjoyed the translation by Michael Karpelson in the Wordsworth Classics edition. It has quite a good reputation, but you might find it a little short on explanation. (In the two examples I gave, it explained the latter, but for a lot of the dream I was using my own (imperfect) knowledge of Russian idiom.

I have been having a look at some comparisons of the translators, since I don't remember having tried anything by Glenny before. He seems to have a good understanding. The negative point may be that he translates into British, rather than American, English.

The other possible negative point is that being an early translation, his first attempt was based on the censored Soviet edition. He later updated his translation to cover the full text - but check which one you have got. The test seems to be the dream sequence that I mentioned - you need Chapter 15 to be the full "Nikanor Ivanovich's Dream", not the much shorter "Nikanor Ivanovich" - this being the point where the censorship was heaviest.

On the other hand, the fact that this is a relatively early translation improves your chances of being given adequate explanations.

I remember discussing this with Busifer and pgmcc a while back - modern translation theory believes that "explanations are disruptive", and therefore unfamiliar items should be simply replaced by their nearest equivalent in the could culture of the target language. (So a Troika (a sleigh drawn by 3 horses harnessed abreast) should be replaced by a "hansom cab", and so on.) Not only is this completely insulting to a readership, who the translator is treating as "too stupid to have heard of, or to understand an explanation", but it really, really does not work if the cultures are significantly different. But its existence means that early translators are better, because they are trying to portray a place as it is/was, rather than pretend that it is the same as the nearest American equivalent.

Which is a long-winded way of saying: "Sounds probably Ok - give it a shot".

BTW Michael Glenny was the father of Misha Glenny, the journalist.

>61 Karlstar: I loved a lot of Twain, such as The Prince and the Pauper, or A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (even if some of his political views grate).

But I am with you completely on To Kill A Mockingbird.

I have never felt the slightest interest in Catcher in the Rye, so I look forward to hearing what you make of it.

>63 -pilgrim-: I've always been a fan of A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court, though I haven't read it in a while. It is also on the list of books I haven't yet added to the catalog here in LT, now that I'm almost done with the resorting, I have to get to all of the books that aren't yet added.

>64 Karlstar: Until this year, I had only added to LT, the books that I had actually read, or acquired, since joining LT.

I have been getting irritated at how the automatic recommendations keep focussing on things I have already read, so this month I started also adding books that I read in the past, for which I think the copies are probably permanently lost. But the fact that I cannot access the majority of my book collection, because of the travel restrictions, means that the majority of what I actually own, both read and unread, is not yet listed here, still!

>65 -pilgrim-: I've found the automatic recommendations near worthless, they are too focused on books I've recently added, which would normally make some sense, but I've been adding books I read long ago recently. My current recommendations are full of Clive Cussler books.

>66 Karlstar: I understand the principle of "we will recommend on basis of books you hated, in case you like this book on the same subject better", but in practice of I once hit on drivel by a prolific author, my recommendations list gets jammed with everything else they ever wrote!

The recommendations on " books I read 4 decades ago" is currently working out quite well for me, though.

Points for book sorting! I found my old copy of Ben Hur and A Connecticut Yankee At King Arthur's Court and added them here. That should do interesting things to my recommendations.

>68 Karlstar: Have you ever read The Robe? The film is pretty awful, but it does not bear much resemblance to the book, which I actually thought rather good.

>69 -pilgrim-: No, but that sounds very interesting.

>70 Karlstar: It's a good mix of historical adventure story and moral dilemmas.

>67 -pilgrim-:, >68 Karlstar: The automatic recommendations algorithm is wonky. About a third of the recommendations in my list right now are Louis L'amour westerns. Can't say I've added any westerns to my catalog or wish list in who knows how long so no idea what caused those to trigger.

>72 Narilka: My impression is that what that means is that someone who has read a lot of books in common with you has just entered a lot of Louis L'amour Westerns.

>72 Narilka: Who do you know that likes westerns?? Not saying I don't, but my westerns phase was a long time ago. My recommendations are still mostly Clancy and Cussler, despite what I've added lately that is nothing like that.

>74 Karlstar: No idea. Sharing a similar library doesn't mean I know them :) Unless someone here in the pub has added a bunch of westerns to their library recently.

>62 -pilgrim-: I learned about Troika in primary school. We had a teacher one year who was into music and theatrics. He spent all year teaching us to sing songs he liked, perform plays, and listen to educational radio programmes for schools. One of the radio programmes did quite a bit of work on the music piece, Troika. I have always liked that music and the picture of the Troika, with its passengers wrapped up in furs, rushing through the snow has stayed with me to this day.

>76 pgmcc: You mean like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL-R4spJ3SY?

I saw above you've been reading the Lightbringer series. I've just started the final book of the series. They are all equally good, IMO.

>77 haydninvienna: Not quite. They are not wearing fur coats.

I believe I have that version on CD somewhere. When I first fell in love with Troika it was the 1960s so electronic and electric guitar versions were few and far between.

>78 majkia: Was the Lightbringer series your intro to Weeks or had you read the Night Angel trilogy already?

>78 majkia: I saw that in your thread, glad to see the rest of the books hold up.

Here's a little something to get you ready for Catcher in the Rye:
https://lithub.com/the-100-best-one-star-reviews-of-the-catcher-in-the-rye/

>74 Karlstar: I think Fuzzi is a big western fan.

>82 Jim53: Thanks? So maybe this one falls into the category of classic that no longer deserves the name, I'll find out. I did think it was funny that the very first review, instead of 'desert' he wrote 'dessert'. Kind of lowers the impact of the review.

I finished The Catcher in the Rye and I now know why that is the title. Still not sure it deserves to be a classic, but it was worth reading. I'll review it when I get through my review backlog.

>78 majkia: The 3rd book in the Lightbringer series is going to be after the Ringo book, which I've had for about a year but keep misplacing.

>84 Karlstar: Agreed. I read it in my mid 20s, so 35 years after it was published. I guess I could understand why it was popular in the 60s, but not why it retained much popularity after that.

>84 Karlstar: I was very disappointed by The Catcher in the Rye. I first heard of it when a Priest at school read a bit about it to my class saying it was a very important book for people coming into adolescence. That, of course, piqued all our interests. He read a scene set in a car in which someone in the front seat of was peeping into the back to see what the couple in the back seat were getting up to. When I eventually got to read the book I was so disappointed to find out that that scene, and the peeping into the back seat, was as wild as it got. Such a hullabaloo about nothing. Definitely a boring book dressed in a classic's clothing.

Perhaps its popularity/fame is explained by Mel Gibson's character in the film, Conspiracy Theory. In that film it was claimed that The Catcher in the Rye was the most popular book to be used by spies as a key for encrypting their messages. Perhaps this book has been kept in circulation by the intelligence agencies of the world because they need to have it to communicate. I can see no other use for this books existence.

>87 pgmcc: Harsh! But perhaps not unnecessarily so...

>87 pgmcc:, well, you should know. About the encryption part, anyway.

That movie is the only good thing about the book as far as I know. I love that movie to the point of obsession.

>84 Karlstar: I really enjoyed The Catcher in the Rye when I read it as a teen; it was a novel experience to have an unreliable narrator.

My high school Lit teacher was very into assigning books he thought were going to connect with his teen students; we read The Chocolate War, Rumble Fish and The Outsiders, Lord of the Flies, To Kill A Mockingbird, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, I Am The Cheese, A Separate Peace, and Flowers For Algernon although that last one I found out later was an edited version - I read the full version a couple of years ago and was surprised at some of the additional scenes.

>88 clamairy: LOL!

>89 MrsLee: I think I would be of one mind with you.

>90 Darth-Heather: We may have been looking for different things in the book at the time.

>87 pgmcc: Your teacher was right, it is an important book for that age group, as much now as it was in years past. It may not interest everyone in that age group, but I would hope that it would at least reach some. There's likely other books that are newer that can achieve the same purpose though.

>92 Karlstar: Would you say that it works for boys and girls of that age group?

>93 -pilgrim-: I just had a conversation with my daughter about this book, when I brought up that I wanted to read a 20th century classic, she wondered if The Catcher in the Rye was recommended and then admitted she discovered recently she had my copy. She thought it was very appropriate. As I mentioned in >92 Karlstar:, there may be newer books that would serve the purpose better, though she couldn't recall any either.

On to some reviews.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi
STTM: 1 - no long term journeys
Rating: 7 out of 10

I enjoyed this one much more than the first book. That's partly because I thought the first book was missing some very elemental information that was filled in by The Consuming Fire. Is that good writing or poor? I'm not sure. I did think this one was much more complete, even though it is not the end of the series.

The Interdependency is a human Space Empire sometime in the future. There's no FTL, but there is The Flow, effectively a wormhole network (without wormholes) that links the worlds of the Interdependency. The term Interdependency says it all, none of the worlds have the environment or production capability to exist on their own. Now the Flow is starting to break down, routes between worlds are either changing or disappearing.

The relatively new Emperox Greyland II (Cordelia) is taking this seriously and trying to plan for the future, but she is being opposed by all of the Noble houses that either want the status quo, or want to be on top of the chaos that's coming. More political maneuvering than anything else in this book. We do learn a little bit about worlds outside of the Interdependency in this one, including Earth. I also thought it was amusing that Scalzi described how the early founders of the empire came up with the term Emperox.

I think his ideas are clever and his characters are interesting. I'm not sure that an interstellar empire would ever be founded on a network of co-dependent worlds, but if we ever do get humans to the Moon or Mars, that's exactly what we'll have, in miniature, so maybe he's on to something.

I'll definitely read the next book.

The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks
STTM: 2 - no long journeys in this one
Rating: 6 out of 10

This one picks up immediately after The Black Prism. This is still fairly standard epic fantasy swords and sorcery, or maybe that should be guns and sorcery, since there are black powder weapons. However, magic always wins in the powder vs. magic battle, so guns are just for those with no magic talent.

It is difficult to discuss this book in anything but really general terms without spoilers, as it is book 2, so here goes:

This book spends a significant amount of time following Gavin's son, Kip, as he trains for the Blackguard and learns his powers. A lot of time is also spent with Gavin as he continues to try to locate a new menace, color banes, which are basically deity-level creatures dedicated to a single color, as blue and green get out of balance, now that he can't balance them. There's a little bit of Chromeria politics also, but not much, most of that comes out with Kip. The least amount of time is spent with Liv in this book, though it is clear she's going to have a large role, eventually.

I enjoyed this, it is fast moving and interesting. It reminds me a lot of Sanderson's books, but the characters don't have quite as much depth.

>96 Karlstar: It took me a while to realize that both Gavin and Kip are about equal in terms of how much page time they get. It continues this way for the whole series. I have to admit, I was hoping for one or the other (well, really, Kip. I enjoyed him more :-) )

>97 BookstoogeLT: I have to agree, especially now, that, you know, Gavin is a little less interesting.

Another from the review backlog.

Legion of Flame by Anthony Ryan
STTM: 5 - not a jungle trip this time, but the South pole this time
Rating: 5 out of 10

This book is the 2nd in the Draconis Memoria series. This is standard epic fantasy, with a strong guns and magic combination.
Dragon's blood, or 'product', is magic fuel for the Blood Blessed, those that can turn the blood into magic. Red for fire, green for health and physical strength and speed, black for telekinesis, blue for telepathy. Seems a lot like the Brent Weeks system, but much more limited. The tech level is mostly late 1800's, except that someone keeps coming up with much more 20th century leaps of technology.

After the events of book 1, this one picks up with some of the same characters. Claydon Torcreek is the one who is questing off to the south polar regions, searching for a legend to help solve their problem. Lizanne Lethridge, now commonly called Miss Blood, is the Ironship Protectorate 'secret agent', now off on a top secret mission to save her nation. There's also a third character from the previous books, Sirus, who unlike the other two is not a blood blessed and is currently on the other side, so we get an opposing POV too.

While this got a little draggy in spots, it was good. After the previous book took us on a whole 'Heart of Darkness' type jungle quest, this one features a long expedition to the South pole. Reading both this and the Brent Weeks Lightbringer series back to back, may have depressed my rating for this a bit. Maybe too much of the same thing.

I finished Howl's Moving Castle, which was as good as folks suggested, and The Valley of Shadows. Not sure what's next.

>100 Karlstar: I recommend you read a 5star book ;-)

>101 BookstoogeLT: While deciding but after starting Eifelheim, I noticed I had downloaded The Silmarillion on my Kindle, so that's what is next!

>102 Karlstar: Eifelheim should have stayed a short story. It was WAY overblown as a full novel :-(
Good luck with Silmarillion. I seem to remember you like it a lot more than me :-)

>101 BookstoogeLT:, >102 Karlstar: And, perversely, you are both tempting me with Eifelheim.

(It should be clear by now that I LOVE The Silmarillion, but I am going to need something light after my current read.)

>104 -pilgrim-: More power to you!

>102 Karlstar: I struggled with The Silmarillion and did not finish it. I found it a bit turgid and did not take to it at all. I know some people here loved it. Variety is what makes the world interesting and if some people did not love The Silmarillion I would have no excuse to make this post. :-) Thank you, >104 -pilgrim-:.

I tried it shortly after having finished The Lord of the Rings so I was probably looking for more adventure rather than background mythology and history.

>105 BookstoogeLT: Hear! Hear!

>106 pgmcc: I recently watched a short video on youtube about the origins of Tom Bombadil and while it didn't really cover any new material, I found the brief summary of the first 2 sections of The Silmarillion quite interesting.

>104 -pilgrim-: I like what I've read previously from Michael Flynn. So far in Eilfelheim something strange is happening in 14th century Germany. I guess we'll see where it goes.

Ah, the Simarillion. I have only made it through once. I might try listening to it and see if that helps. I thought the elves were admirable and noble in The Lord of the Rings and in the Silmarillion they are mostly petty, bloodthirsty and basically horrible to reach other. But the mythology of ME is wonderfull. Enjoy your reread!

>104 -pilgrim-: I have both Eifelheim and The Wreck of the River of Stars high on my TBR.

I really need to read The Silmarillion to see in which camp I fall.

Edited: formatting

>104 -pilgrim-: I have only read a couple of Michael Flynn novels so far. I enjoyed them both but Eifelheim was more to my liking than In the Country of the Blind. The overall premise of Eifelheim was pretty cool but I have to say that I enjoyed the historical setting far more than the contemporary one. That sentiment was also true for The Doomsday Book, although 'enjoy' would be the wrong word for the Willis story!

>108 clamairy: I guess part of my motivation for re-reading The Silmarillion was the upcoming Amazon series. I'd like to brush up on the Second Age material.

>111 Karlstar: Excellent idea! I believe I shall use one of my Audible credits and do likewise.

>112 clamairy: I'm up to chapter 16, which sounds like a lot, but the chapters are short. Did you get an audiobook version?

>113 Karlstar: I did, but I want to complete my current Audible book first, so I won't be starting for at least a week. I believe I now own four copies (counting one digital print, and one digital audio), including the hardcover my parents gave me for Christmas in 1977.

>114 clamairy: Nice! I have made a note to myself that I need a good hardcover edition. I'll pause my reading here for a bit and go back to Eifelheim and some history books I have available.

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
STTM: 0 - the journey is all stationary
Rating: 8 out of 10

I see by checking some of the 970 (!) reviews here on LT that people either hate this book or love it. Some put it in the category of books that should no longer be considered a classic or mandatory school reading.

I'm in the category of thinking this should still be read. Not sure I loved it, so to speak, but I did really appreciate it. I enjoyed reading the book and did not want to stop reading it.

This is the story of a long weekend in the life of Holden Caulfield. It was written in the late 1940's and takes place in that same time period, just after WWII, which has little influence on the events of the book. Holden is 16 and a student at an all-boys prep school, apparently his 3rd in recent years. While we don't exactly get confirmation of this, his family seems to be fairly well off.

From the start, it is clear that Holden is broken, self-destructive and not functional. He alternately thinks everyone, including himself, is a phony and terrible, or thinks they are great. On the verge of failing out of yet another prep school, he decides to go off for a weekend in NYC and be even more self-destructive.

Holden is not a pleasant character, to put it in modern terms, he is in such a bad place that he cannot relate to people despite desperately wanting to engage with them. This includes girls, adults who might be mentors and everyone he meets, with one exception, his sister.

This is a book about a young man who desperately needs help, written at a time when I'm not sure people would admit that was actually something. Considering that is still a problem today, the book is still relevant. There's newer books that say the same thing, but I'm not sure they could say it better.

>116 Karlstar: I am all in favor of letting self-destructive people destroy themselves if they refuse to try to change in any shape, way or form.
The problem is that those people are never happy self-destructing by themselves but are selfish enough to want to take down anyone with them that they can.

But this is why I'll probably never read this book. I'd get so infuriated that I'd hurt my kindle or something :-D

>117 BookstoogeLT: I avoided spoilers so I didn't mention why he is self-destructive, but there's a reason. He's not that way just because he's that kind of person.

>118 Karlstar: Do you think starting a dedicated (and pinned) Silmarillion discussion thread is a good idea? If you want to keep it all in here that's fine, but it might be harder for random members to find it. I know -pilgrim- will be weighing in. (Or at least I hope she will.) Others as well.

>119 clamairy: I have multiple copies of the Silmarillion but can't currently get to any of them. Otherwise I would have been tempted into a reread by Karlstar's comments.

>119 clamairy: I'm up for it, if we get a couple more folks interested!

>121 Karlstar: I'm up for it!

I have owned a copy of The Silmarillion since it was first published, and have never read it. Shame on me. I might actually join a group read if ican actually find the book.

I really enjoyed The Silmarillion and have re-read it multiple times, but can't say the same for most of the following titles. Would be interested in following a thread. Of course, I said that about the Bujold...

>122 libraryperilous:, >123 haydninvienna: & >124 Marissa_Doyle: Yay! We are so overdue for this, IMHO.

>125 clamairy: Sounds great, will you start the thread?

Yes, I'll do it today.

I found my copy, which I bought on 15 September 1977, according to the date I wrote on the front end paper. Perhaps not a world record for time on TBR, but far too long.

>66 Karlstar: - you can turn recommendations off or on by collection (somewhere). I have one collection I use exclusively for recommendations, and have all the others turned off. When I add a book it goes in there, along with My Library etc. Then next time I'm looking at the recs (not that often) if I see it's generating a load of tosh, I can remove it from my recommendations collection, and get less bad options.

It's not always books I dislike, ie Pratchett is great but I've no wish to see the host of derivative works that pop up when you just own most of discworld.

>128 haydninvienna: Great! We'll try to avoid spoilers for you.

>129 reading_fox: I'll look into that, thank you.

Eifelheim is coming along, I'm enjoying it.

>130 Karlstar: I’m not worried about spoilers.

>130 Karlstar: & >132 haydninvienna: I asked people to use spoiler tags if they were unsure, but I honestly don't remember what would be in there that I would consider spoiler-ish. Mostly I remember the elves spending an eternity slaughtering each other over minutia.

There isn't much that can be called spoilers for folks that have read LOTR and The Hobbit.

Done with Eifelheim, I enjoyed it. Not sure what is next.

This showed up in my web recommendations today:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-protect-your-library-with-medieval-boo...

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
STTM: 1 - a couple of walks, otherwise the castle does the moving
Rating: 8 out of 10

The one word review for this one is easy - delightful. At the very beginning of the book, the Hatter family loses their father and the family hat shop is taken over by their stepmother, Fanny. Oh no, an evil stepmother story, right? The three Hatter sisters, Sophie, Lettie and their youngest half-sister, Martha have their fates in Fanny's hands. Fanny sends two of the girls off to be apprentices - Lettie to the baker and Martha to a witch of good reputation. Sophie gets to stay home and work in the hat shop, which is kind of what she wanted anyway.

The book takes place in the land of Ingary, partially in the town of Market Chipping, partially in other towns, as the moving castle can access multiple places at once. Almost immediately, Sophie encounters the Witch of the Waste and then soon after, Howl and the moving castle, along with his apprentice and fire demon, Calcifer. Howl is a gadabout ladies man, but there's likely more to him than that!

The action mainly centers on Sophie and as you would expect from the title, the moving castle. This was very well done, pleasant to read and did not feel very YA. It is a little simplistic, but not too much and people are not always what they seem, in a good way.

>137 Karlstar: Glad this didn't disappoint. I love it and man, "delightful" IS the right word :-D

>137 Karlstar: I enjoyed Howl, although I actually prefer the film (the subtitled version, not the dubbed one). I then read a Christopher Chant book and can see why she's such a beloved author.

>137 Karlstar: Howl is one of my favourite books! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

>137 Karlstar: that's one of those books I've heard about but never gotten to. I think you've given me the requisite motivation. I was envisioning the Waste Witch riding shotgun in the truck that picks up our trash and recycling.

>141 Jim53: It is a quick read and well worth it. Multiple folks here have recommended it, so I finally gave in and put it on my list.

>140 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad you folks recommended it so highly. I'm tempted to watch the movie now too.

So this is what the backyard looks like this week! The picture was taken from out of one of our 2nd floor windows.

>143 Karlstar: My daughter sent me a similar picture from her new place in Cincinnati.

>143 Karlstar: Pretty!

>143 Karlstar: Oooh, all that clean, unbroken, irresistible snow! It looks like you live in a pretty area, with and without snow. I like what I can see of the gazebo close to your house.

>144 pgmcc: It has been consistently chilly in Feb and has snowed a little almost every day. We don't have a ton of snow, but it adds up.

>145 Sakerfalcon: >146 YouKneeK: I agree, I talked my wife (aka Silversi here on GD) into taking a picture out that window. It is a nice area, we have a very nice yard, it is basically 1.5 lots as it is on a corner and includes about 1/8th of an extra lot in the back, for some reason. This is the house we bought last May.

>80 BookstoogeLT: I'd read the Night Angel first book or so when I picked up Lightbringer and read the first book. Then I had to backtrack, finish Night Angel series then re read all Lightbringer series. I'm highly disorganized! I can't keep track of all my series! Whinnnnnneeee.

>148 majkia: Hahahaha! That got a good laugh out of me :-D
The main reason I had asked was because I was curious if having read one or the other first influenced how you felt about the next. For me, I went into Lightbringer expecting Night Angel 2.0 and instead got something very different. Took me until the 2nd book to really settle down and enjoy it for what it was.

>137 Karlstar: I read this one a few years ago and enjoyed it quite a bit. It had a slightly different feel than the animated film version that my daughter made me watch multiple times. The book worked much better for me, but that is almost always the case.

>143 Karlstar: Do you have much melting going on? It's finally warming up here a bit.

>149 BookstoogeLT: Yeah, the series are very different! I enjoyed them both, altho I think the imaginative magical system in the LIghtbringer series let me enjoy a different aspect from Night Angel series.

>150 clamairy: It has still been consistently cold, until today when it got to 53! Back to the 20s and a new dusting of snow tomorrow. So, some decent melting today, most of the roof is melted off but not the yard.

>149 BookstoogeLT: >152 Karlstar: Maybe I read the Night Angel series too long ago, but I think it is very different from the Lightbringer series.

Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
STTM: 0 - there's mud, but very, very little travel
Rating: 7 out of 10

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It starts out with two scientists, one a physicist and one a historian, discussing their respective work. They are a couple living together, she's the physicist, he's the historian. She's trying to come up with a new theory of space-time, he is trying to puzzle out why there's a missing village in Germany. My knowledge of the subject is almost non-existent, so I do not know if there is actually a theory that says that settlements grow up around key locations in a pattern that is never violated. Apparently there's a location in southern Germany that absolutely should have inhabitants, but there's nothing, except references to a village in the 14th century called Eifelheim. Dun, dun, dun!

The rest of the book switches back and forth between the two scientists, tangentially helping each other with their research and the story of the village in 1348. In addition to the Black Death, there's a reason why the village is abandoned and the site shunned, but you'll have to read it to find out the details.

Like >110 ScoLgo: I enjoyed the parts of the book set in the 14th century more than the modern setting. The couple is a bit strange and they have a strange relationship, but Flynn ties the historical and current storylines together well.

>153 Karlstar: That sounds like R A Lafferty’s short story “What’s the Name of That Town?”, where a group of unusual scientists are trying to find out about a city from the lack of evidence about it.

There’s a geographical concept called “central place theory”, which kind of sounds similar to the theory you mention, but really is more like it turned inside out.

>154 haydninvienna: And, of course, there is the Bielefeld theory... ;-)

>155 -pilgrim-: Bielefeld Theory? Qu'est ce que c'est?

>156 hfglen: The Bielefeld Theory is a joke conspiracy theory, which says that the very real city of Bielefeld doesn’t exist—all the references to it are evidence of a vast conspiracy. I’ve just agreed with Mrs H that we have to go there.

>157 haydninvienna: I believe I have actually been there, when very young.

...w hich of course tells you that I am really one of THEM. ;-)

>157 haydninvienna: Ta muchly. Google Earth does have a big blank somewhat south-by-east of the city. I wonder how much of that part of the world inspired Terry Pratchett's Uberwald? I note a marker in Bielefeld that could do for Don'tgonearthe Castle.

>159 hfglen: I suspect that might be the BAOR base.

>160 -pilgrim-: You may well be right.

>155 -pilgrim-: >157 haydninvienna: Who knew that was a thing! I guess the similar theory here in the USA is that North Dakota doesn't exist.

Finished Caliban's Hour and The Silmarillion, working on Petty: The Biography.

Question for you book lovers - what, if anything, do you use as a source to estimate the monetary value of a book? I know I can look up a book on abebooks.com or biblio.com and see what prices sellers are asking, but that varies wildly.

>164 Karlstar: For me, I use the cheapest price on amazon and then whether I am willing to pay even that.

>164 Karlstar: eBay is another site that can be used for price comparison.

>164 Karlstar: Ebay, using the "recently sold" filter.

>165 BookstoogeLT: >166 ScoLgo: >167 Narilka: What if you are selling and trying to determine the right asking price? Mostly, I am just curious about how people/sellers price books.

For example, I recently sold a book to a bookseller, then I was curious and checked abebooks.com and discovered there are zero booksellers on ABE in New York state selling that book.

>168 Karlstar: Until a couple of weeks ago I was using eBay to sell some of my books. They recently removed PayPal as a way of receiving payments, (you can still use them to make payments), and the new system is terrible so I removed all my listings and am currently researching other ways to sell books online. I'm leaning toward Amazon Marketplace because they only charge listing fees if the item sells; Abe Books and Biblio both charge a monthly fee. I'm sure that's fine for booksellers that move a ton of units every month but I'm only trying to clear a bit of space on my shelves so $40/month in fees is a non-starter.

At any rate, the quickest way to find the right book on any platform is to search by ISBN. From there, you can quickly narrow the results to match your book's condition to find a range of current (and relevant) asking prices.

Hope this is helpful.

>169 ScoLgo: It is, thank you. Mostly what I'm hearing from you and the others is that there is no one source or listing of book values, so it is determined by a little market research.

>168 Karlstar: A bit of research. Anyway... Let's say you have a 1st edition signed Way of Kings you want to sell. What I do is head to ebay. Type in "Way of Kings" in the search. In the left column under "Show Only" click "Sold Items". This will give you all the sold items by date starting with most recent (today) on down for I think it's 2 or 3 months. I like sold items because it's what someone actually sold the item for, not just a listing that might be sitting for who knows how long.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=way+of+kings&_sacat=0&amp...

A signed first edition first printing sold for $350 today. A non-signed first edition first printing with a torn dust jacket sold yesterday for $108. A non-signed first edition first in near pristine condition sold on the 2nd for $250. I think I need to start looking for these in used book stores ;)

From there you can then compare to what's for sale on Amazon and ABE to see if what is listed vs what really sold has a similar price or not. Could you list yours for $500? Sure. Will it ever sell? Maybe. One for $350 definitely did though.

>169 ScoLgo: Yep. Pretty much... ;)

>171 Narilka: Great tips! The only other thing I'd suggest is to search by ISBN instead of title. Doing so will help narrow the initial results to the same edition and binding.

>171 Narilka: Thanks, that is good advice. So you are saying my first edition first printing Way of Kings is worth more than I paid for it. Nice! Strangely, every one I found on ABE is signed and very pricey! Guess I should get mine signed someday.

Caliban's Hour by Tad Williams
STTM: 0 - this is all a one night story kind of tale
Rating: 5 out of 10

This one is difficult for me to review. The entire story is the life of Caliban, from Shakespeare's The Tempest, told by Caliban. I have run into the characters of Caliban and Sycorax before, in Dan Simmons Ilium-Olympos duology, but that's science fiction set in the far future. In this one, Caliban is telling his own story, apparently expanding a lot on what is in The Tempest.

Not being familiar at all with The Tempest, I didn't have any notions about the character. The story is certainly interesting, but a bit contrived. I thought this was interesting, short and enjoyable, but I kept feeling like 'why?', through the whole thing. The ending is a bit of a twist.

I finally finished Petty the Biography, which took too long, it was not a very engaging read. Now on to Vallista, as it has been way too long since I caught up on Vlad Taltos.

After that, it will either be Salvation Lost or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While reorganizing my books I confirmed that my old copy of Hitchhiker's has gone and hitched a ride off to somewhere else in the galaxy, so I picked up a new one.

>175 Karlstar: There is an omnibus edition of THGTTG with the sub title of, "A Trilogy in Five Parts". I found a copy of this for £3 many moons ago. We still used £ so it was before 2002. In fact, I was on a work trip and it was for a company I stopped working for in 1998. Why do I mention this?

Well, I never got to read THGTTG and was intending to read this pristine, dustjacketed, hardback edition. My youngest son, now approaching his 24th birthday, read it in his teens. Dust cover shredded and lost. Spine worn and barely hanging together. :-( I still intend reading it, but I may have to do some remedial repairs before hand. Duct tape may be employed.

My copy is not gone, but is walking wounded.

>176 pgmcc: I hope it can be saved. I know I've read Hitchhiker's and the sequel, and I think the third book. I don't think I owned book 2 or book 3, but I don't know where I borrowed them.

>176 pgmcc: Clear packaging tape is a much better option than duct tape, if you're in a pinch. If you can wait a few days order some of this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006IF5R/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_HH62M678N5ZZK3Q6C07...

>178 clamairy: Thank you for the tip.

>179 pgmcc: It was more like a heavily weighted suggestion. There might be enforcers involved.

>180 clamairy: You are scaring me now. Let them know I have ordered the “book” tape and am considering ordering some book binding glue.

>178 clamairy: Book tape looks like a great thing and it is clear. On the other hand, I duct taped the spine of one of my gaming manuals about... a bazillion years ago and it is still holding together just fine. That was a hardcover though.

The old book binding tape that we used when I started working in libraries looked a lot like duct tape, but it came in lots of colours and widths so you could match the book (generally hardcover) you were repairing.

I bought some book repair tape, an book binding tape, as well as book glue, years ago when I ran our church library. I have never regretted it. Just put a cookbook back together the other day and one can hardly tell that it's spine was broken and pages falling out. It is worth getting the right stuff.

>184 MrsLee: I think you have just hit me with a BGB, Book Glue Bullet. You are such a good shot.

Lol!

I'm way overdue for some reviews.

Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes
STTM: 3 - there's enough about tours that it starts to get a little sloggy
Rating: 6 out of 10 if you are a Tom Petty fan, probably a 4 if you aren't.

This was written in 2015, before Petty's death. The author was formerly a rock musician himself and is now a college professor, so he has the necessary experience.

The book actually starts with Tom's grandparents moving to Florida, then on to his time living with his family in Gainesville, Florida until he was about 18. The Pettys were from the poor part of town, there isn't a lot of description but the family was never well off. Tom was born in 1950, the first of two boys.

The book then goes into limited detail about his childhood (kind of rough), schooling and his attempts to form a band in the mid-60's. Eventually he and the core of his friends would form Mudcrutch and head to Oklahoma, where they got a record deal. That lasted a couple of years with very limited success, then the core of that band became Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, by now in LA. They hit it big in 1976, then like all bands hit the road and made an album approximately every year after that. Unfortunately the record contract they'd signed as Mudcrutch still applied and was a bad one, Petty had to declare bankruptcy to get out of it.

Along the way he married his sweetheart from Gainesville and had 2 children, but basically between making albums and touring, was rarely home. The band continued to have success though they had to change a couple of members.

I liked the book, but I thought it was a bit lacking in personal information. Apparently, like most people or maybe more so, Tom Petty didn't like talking about himself or his family business, so the book is mostly about the process of making albums and touring, with few personal details. Not that there aren't any, it just isn't the majority or a large portion of the book. There are so many people involved in the process, producers, managers, engineers, techs, more managers, record execs that at times it became just a progression of new faces over and over. The author tended to go over each new significant person's history, so at times the book gets to the 70's, then back to the sixties because there's a new person, then does that over again.

I liked it, but I'm a Tom Petty fan. Seems like other people like it, based on the high ratio of reviews here on LT.

Vallista by Steven Brust
STTM: 0 - takes place in one location
Rating: 7 out of 10

I haven't read a new Vlad Taltos book by Steven Brust in a long time and it was way overdue. This is the 15th Vlad book, though after the first few they are loosely connected. You certainly should be familiar with the series before reading this one. Vlad is a human sorceror/witch/assassin, stuck in a very old Elven (Dragaeren) civilization that we're just starting to learn about in a very meta way.

My first reaction on starting reading was that I'd missed Vlad and was really happy to be inside his head again. We spend a lot of time in Vlad's head, especially since he has a lot of telepathic conversations with his jhereg (mini-dragon) familiar, Loiosh. At first I was struck by how much of the book is spent listening to Vlad, but eventually there got to be a balance of story and internal monologue.

Soon after the book starts, Vlad encounters a young Dragaeren, Devera, who he has some ties to from the past. Devera needs his help for something she can't really explain, and off we go.

I always enjoy these books, this one a little more than the last couple.

>188 Karlstar: I really need to catch up with this series. I read the first three years ago and really enjoyed them.

>189 Sakerfalcon: Like many long series, some books aren't as strong as the others, but I still enjoy them. Have you read any of the related novels?

No I haven't. I already own some unread Vlad Taltos books so I'm going to try and read those first before going off down related rabbit holes! My TBR pile is bad enough as it is! I would be interested in how the other books relate to the main series though.

>192 Karlstar: The Khaavren Romances (starting with the Phoenix Guards) books go back in the past quite a ways. If you've encountered Khaavren in the Vlad books, you'll relate, if not, maybe hold off. They are unusually long for Brust books, too.

>192 Karlstar: These look like fantasy Three musketeers from what I've seen, and I didn't realise they related to the Vlad books! I'll read more of Vlad and see how I feel about wanting to explore further. Thanks!

I finished Space Team, which was quite funny. Back to The Broken Eye.

>194 Karlstar: Glad you enjoyed Space Team :)

>195 Narilka: Thanks, I did. I took a space bullet with that one.

I really want to start the re-read of the Salvatore Homeland/Sojour/Exile trilogy, but my paperback copy is 30 years old and signed and I really don't want to put it through another reading. I just ordered the omnibus hardcover version from ABE, I'll wait for that to arrive.

>197 Karlstar: Not going for the ebook copy? ;-)

>198 BookstoogeLT: So far all of my Salvatore books are hardcopy. I also still have a little room on my shelves!