I am re-reading this, so I can get to read the final book of the trilogy that I recently got:
And then I am waiting for the fourth book of the Stormlight archive, the Rhythm of War which will arrive “sometime” (bookdepository is great for its free shipping, but you need to be quite patient with the parcel’s arrival ), upon which I plan to read all the previous three books again, in order to refresh my memory, enjoy those awesome books and savor reading the final book without having to pause and wonder “eeehmmm who was THAT again?”
Great admiration for all of you who are reading Camus, Burke, Euripides, etc., but I am in the mood for something light right now.
So I started to reread Dodie Smith’s The hundred and one Dalmatians.
By the way, I love to reread books from my childhood. Always gives me that warm nostalgic feeling.
“omonimous?” Is that a typo? If not, I am stumped. I could not find it in Webster’s Unabridged, Random House Unabridged, the “Shorter” OED, Mencken, Partridge’s slang dictionary, Farmer and Henley, and several others.
I too love The Maltese Falcon movie, perhaps the best noir ever. Coincidentally, TCM is showing it tonight at 8.
My parents were good friends with Hammett’s nephew, Steve, who lived in Maryland when I was young. I vaguely recall that they went to his funeral. Sadly, he was an alcoholic like his uncle. When I was a pre-teen, probably after the first time I saw the movie, I asked my dad about the connection, but learned next to nothing. Apparently Steve didn’t like living in the shadow of his uncle, who was largely a recluse throughout he 1950s, and rarely spoke of him.
Just a very sad error (I meant homonym, in Italian it’s “omonimo”). Thanks for pointing it out, people don’t usually do it, but then I just keep repeating my errors. And sorry for the research!
The movie is awesome. I’m not sure, though, if I’d give it first place among noir movies (one of my favourite genres). It’s major contestant, in my opinion, is Pale Flower by Masahiro Shinoda (1964), a black-and-white noir where the plot is mostly sacrificed to the atmosphere (which isn’t bad at all). Another great one, still Japanese, is Branded to Kill by Seijun Suzuki (1967). This one’s a bit weird, but still a masterpiece.
Also, Branded to Kill is black-and-white as well, but Pale Flower deserves a special mention because its photography looks gorgeous (to me at least, but I’m no expert in the field).
Anyway, if you’re a noir lover and miss those two, I highly recommend them.
Always stunning to see that you have an interesting story for everything by the way. Much appreciated.
Just a very sad error (I meant homonym, in Italian it’s “omonimo”).
That’s not an error, it’s an Anglicised loanword :D
consententious would be a pretty nice Latinism, eh? The homonym itself would be a consententia, pluralising -s or -ae.
It comes from sententia, -ae (the meaning of a word).
I’m not sure Latin had an established word for homonym, homonym itself being entirely Greek in origin. If I were writing in Latin, I might introduce them together for maximum clarity:
“homonyma vel consententia” “the homonym or consententia”.
James S.A. Corey: “Cibola Burn”, 4th in the “Expanse” series. Can’t wait to finish it and then watch Season 4 of the TV series.
BTW I find that first watching the movies and then reading is not just confusing but actually very dissatisfying because the cinematization changed a few things from the books).
I find I look to Youtube for sources of information more these days which feels odd as I like reading.
Maybe there are fewer bookshops these days to visit so that has reduced my reading too? It is unfortunate as bookshops and 2nd hand bookshops especially are places to visit and spend a good few hours of semi-bliss.
I guess if I find a good book next I visit a 2nd hand bookshop I can post the title here.
Book stores are in massive decline in the U.S. I was shocked by the bankruptcy of Borders, which always seemed to me to be superior to Barnes and Noble. But B&N is said to have sustained itself with the sale of that tablet (the name of which escapes me at the moment). Meanwhile, half the used book stores within 30 miles of me have gone out of business in the last 5 years. Many in urban and suburban locations can no longer meet the cost of their lease, as land prices rise. My all-time favorite used book store took its business online about 15 years ago when the owner got over a million dollars for his site.
However, an important causal factor has been studiously ignored, I believe. That is, the general decline of reading in the U.S. The death of print is not merely the result of the rise of digital, because the truth is that digital newspapers and magazines have largely flopped, a circumstance that is accelerating by the rise of the online, independent citizen-journalist. One advantage of this is that new book prices have been remarkably stable for 20 or 30 years, and used book prices have actually declined quite a bit. A used book that once cost $12 for example, now costs about $8.
Yes, it is sad to see the decline of Americans reading in general. I live in a pretty small town, but when I was very young, around the age of five, my dad told me that there were something like 4 used bookstores in town. I remember one of them, which he actually worked at for a while, distinctly even though I was so young. Now there is only one, and I am surprised that it still standing because every time we have gone in there during the last 5+ years nothing seems to be much different (not a lot of “new” books or much of anything sold. There is only one other bookstore in town that sells brand new books, but it is mediocre at best.
I find it interesting that you feel that way, as I just recently had a conversation with a friend where we were both firmly of the opinion that both the book and the show are fantastic, and the changes from the former to the latter aren’t big enough to cause any loss of enjoyment regardless of which you do first, or even if you read and watch simultaneously.
There are definitely some divergences, but compared to a lot of adaptations, we mainly felt that the books just gave additional color and depth compared to the show.
Gosh, I hope I don’t come off sounding like a high-brow snob. I am an enthusiast for the books I love, but I don’t scorn the enthusiasms of others. I grew up when almost all of science fiction was considered trash by English teachers—so I have been on the receiving end of that kind of snobbery and never liked it. I regularly read light books. I’m fond of Hollywood memoirs, for example. In SF I am a huge fan of the Dumarest series by E.C. Tubb and of John Brunner’s Ace potboilers from the 50s and 60s. I was delighted to find and read a rare, early A. Bertram Chandler novel a few years ago, The Hamelin Plague, about mutated giant rats invading a harbor town—a cracking good thriller. I just finished a light book, Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey, about his walking trip through France’s Cevenne Mountains. That led me to read Tales of Languedoc an 1899 book by Samuel Jacques Brun, containing fairy tales and legends about that region that were preserved within his family. Tomorrow I will begin William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land, a book I have avoided my whole life because of the severe critiques of its archaic style. My best friend has been urging me for years to try it, saying the critiques are exaggerated, so try it I will.
Your appreciation is greatly appreciated. I think I naturally tend to relate discussions to my own experience. I have had an interesting life due to my odd hobbies and varied professional pursuits—as Alfred Bester said, it is all grist for the mill. I often think the saddest thing in the world is all the stories that are lost with each person’s death. Everyone has a story worth telling, but too many people don’t realize it, or are too inhibited to tell it. Witness, no one has contributed to the “Special Moments” thread that I created the other day in the hope of encouraging people to tell their story, whatever it may be.
When I was in high school I read his “The House on the Bordeland”, alongside with some Lovecraft tales, and both had a very strong impact on me. I read that Lovecraft appreciated Hodgson’s novel, which isn’t surprising since it talks about a travel through space and time, and beyond the limits of human perception.
Speaking for myself, I’m still thinking about it. I don’t have a story as beautiful as yours, and if I had I wouldn’t be as good in telling it. I don’t know if those who read your thread can relate to this feeling, but I didn’t want to break the spell with a lesser story.
I do have one, though, that I’m still considering, only it’s somewhat recent, so it still feels quite personal. Which just means, I still have to figure out whether it’s worth telling.
It was not my intention of labelling someone/anyone as a high brow snob or whatever. But every once in a while this thread gives me the creeps, as if it is a (probably subconscious) contest of presenting “very interesting, important and to be looked up against books that not much people know or have read (but I did)”.
Like bidding in a poker game:
I open with two Kafka’s and one Sartre.
Then I will raise you with the complete works of Plato.
Okay, books on the table.
(Ah, your are cheating, you didn’t finish the Sartre book. )
So true.
I think this is coming too close to my inner circle (what I am, the good things I have done and the bad ones too). And asking to share that with complete unknowns is scary, even when I hide myself behind an alias.
For me this was reason enough not to share in your Special Moments thread. Maybe others felt something like that too. Coming too soon too close to a person.
Pity you can’t do it really 100% anonymous.
One of the biggest bookstores in my country also closed down (it had been around since 1898), so it is not only a US phenomenon. I’d say there are three major factors from the consumer side:
a) People read less books because they moved to digital media, but digital media can sometimes be uninspiring, in terms of someone wanting to read on a tablet/e-reader so a lot of people moved to audiobooks, which I personally find appauling (excluding cases where someone is old and cannot read anymore and generally cannot see - then audiobooks are fantastic, for obvious reasons). Books are something that needs to be enjoyed/savoured even if it is a cheap 5 euro book you found at the airport. If you put it on audio while you work, you miss most of the experience. Anyway, I digress, as usual. b) Books are more expensive than audio/digital. Even though a lot of people spend an amazing amount of money on things they do not need, somehow the budget on books is getting squeezed between the other things that are getting piled as “needs”, as the years go by. So a lot of people save up on books thinking “it is the same thing in audio/digital” and spend money elsewhere. c) People have no longer the patience to read. We live in twitter era and now younger people (and older people - as they are constantly getting pushed to those mediums) consider a 6 line post a “wall of text”. You cannot expect them to read a book if they are feeling tired from all this information overload that they now only consume bite-sized texts. It is the equivalent of expecting Usain Bolt to win the Marathon and the 100meters dash.
Something that seems to be an american trend (which means that it will eventually trickle down to the rest of us and it is already happening, by the way) is the extreme streak of modern anti-intellectualism, where, of course, books are the Kryptonite of all those people, instead of their ally and a window to new knowledge and thoughts.
About a)
It’s a bit more to me as opposing digital media with paper.
There are much more on digital as media. We have phones and computers, and with them a lot of new activities who took the place of reading. Games, internet. More maybe. Life changed, see the people in a subway, everyone is watching his phone (compare to 20 years ago). I myself quit reading books (I was a reader) since many years, most of my reading time has been reinvested in gaming on PC.
The story you shared over there was wonderful, @Conrad_Melville. And, I do have some storie(s) I plan to share on that thread eventually, I have just been procrastinating it for a little while. I really do hope that some more people plan to share some stories, as that thread seems like a very fun idea.
