There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.
Memorable Quotes
Like a bitch in heat, I seem to attract a coterie of policemen and sanitation officials. The world will someday get me on some ludicrous pretext; I simply await the day they drag me to some airconditioned dungeon and leave me there beneath the fluorescent lights and sound-proofed ceiling to pay the price of scorning all that they hold dear within their little latex hearts.
TEotWaWKI Diary » Book Review: Cell by Stephen King
Like Mr. Drinkmore, I was disappointed in this book. You're better off reading The Stand, which sets an impossibly high bar for TEotWaWKI stories.
Submitted by Bill on 20 Oct 2010
TEotWaWKI Diary » Book Review: The American Plague
Why is it that plagues in American history get short shrift in school? Sure, we learn about the black death, but I recall very little about the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918 even though more Americans died in that event than any other cataclysm to strike this nation. And now I read of Yellow Fever. A third of Memphis got sick in 1878 and a third of them died. You'd think that this would sere upon our national memory, but I didn't hear of it until I picked up this book. What's with the national amnesia on these types of events?
I have written a review as Bill Drinkmore, since this truly is a TEotWaWKI situation. I have to admit, though, that I feel a twinge of, well, maybe not exactly guilt, but a slight sense that some may think I'm making light of a very serious topic. I do not believe I am. Though the premise of Mr. Drinkmore is absurd (let me state for the record, I do not believe that zombies are real), the concept of survival in a world that doesn't give a crap about you, one way or another, is not. Mr. Drinkmore allows me to write on this subject without coming off as alarmist or a crackpot.
Or so I think.
Submitted by Bill on 05 Sep 2010
A Book Unread: False Memory by Dean Koontz
Among the many manifestations of my obsessive compulsive disorder is that I must finish every book I start. Not doing so causes much angst, keeps me awake at night, forces me back to reading it. This can be a good thing. I'd've never finished The Lord of the Rings without this compulsion, and now that I have, I revisit it regularly. This happens often enough that I don't begrudge the occasional volume without redeeming value.
Memorable Quotes
Shakespeare is like mashed potatoes, you can never get enough of him.
From Angela's Ashes
TEotWaWKI Diary » Book Review: The Long Emergency
Read this man's fiction (I reviewed his World Made by Hand as Mr. Drinkmore), but avoid his non-fiction. This is an angry man. His rants get in the way of his arguments.
Submitted by Bill on 14 Jun 2010
TEotWaWKI Diary » Book Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz
This book surprised me. My expectations were low having read other end-of-the-world novels written in the same era (Earth Abides, which I reviewed previously, being the worst culprit). Another oddity, this book seemed to well portray the life of a monk. Highly recommended.
Submitted by Bill on 27 May 2010
TEotWaWKI Diary » Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I was surprised at how much I liked this book. Makes me want to go back and re-read the original. I agree 100% with Mr. Drinkmore, zombie fiction should be more about the story than the zombies.
Submitted by Bill on 24 Apr 2010
Memorable Quotes
He viewed his own mentality as grotesque but useful, like a chair made of antlers.
A Voyage Long and Strange
- Author
- Tony Horwitz
- Publisher
- Henry Holt and Company
- Edition
- First Edition - 2008 - hardcover - 455
I love the kind of book where the author does a deep dive on a subject as well as writes a travelogue of the relevant sites. Mr Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic was my first encounter with this hybrid genre. The best writers are able to weave the two threads into a single story that leads to both a better understanding of the subject and a deeper insight into the people still living it. Mr. Horwitz does this well.
In this book, the author seeks to color in the period between Columbus's discover of the New World and the landing at Plymouth. His attempts to follow in the footsteps of, perhaps, lesser know explorers take us to the Dominican Republic, Arizona and the American south west, Florida and the south and on up the Atlantic Seaboard. The two themes I grooved most on where the dichotomy of history vs. myth and racial identity. I'll cover the former in greater detail over in my Open Salon blog when I get the time. As for the latter, I was struck most by the Charles Shepherd quote on page 316 of my copy:
I like to think these people are my ancestors.
He said this while looking through a volume of sketches of Indians in North Carolina published in 1590. When you go far enough back, does it really matter who you ancestors are? What does it mean to be European, Indian or African? I've always been leery of DNA tests to determine this, but blood has to matter some, doesn't it? Upbringing should mean more, and this is where ancestors do come into play, their influence diminishing with each successive generations, but still there, except what about the person removed from his culture and brought up among others? And it can't really be what ever you want it to be. I do not believe I can rightly claim to be Irish despite the fact that 50% of my genes come from the Emerald Isle and I still qualify for citizenship. I know nothing of the contemporary Irish context. This is a personal issue for me given my kids whose mother hails from Korea and I appreciate how Mr. Horwitz delved into it.
One issue I will strongly disagree with him on is when, at the end of the book, he wonders about folks whose myths are not founded in truth. He states:
But it was harmless fiction, why spoil the fun with facts?
Perpetuating lies is never harmless. It leads people to a position of just wanting something to be true makes it so. Where does it stop? Astrology is just harmless fun until, when you're sick, it leads to chase ineffectual cures. I could make the argument that the harmless fun of belief in Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving and the Fountain of Youth has lead us to the Texas State Board of Education's new textbook standards.
Ah, but this won't stop me from reading Mr. Horwitz's books. I'll next track down Blue Latitudes.