In my opinion Hunger Games has only a somewhat novel idea ('gladiators in the present day') but the prose is pretty mediocre, and the sequels absolutely torpedo the author's credibility as a good writer.
I thought it was a good book as a youngster but even then panned the second and third books. However, I do understand that a lot of people like novel ideas and it's certainly very far from the worst YA novel when taken as a standalone.
Adding another AMEN. Ya'll would love this mom-and-pop book store run out of an old converted house nearby. They have first editions, out-of-print, signed first editions, and mountains of just plain books. You walk in, and it smells like heaven: old paper and coffee. One room is nothing but periodicals individually encased in plastic. Several years ago, I found an original Life Magazine from the week my inlaws got married back in the 40s. They LOVED it. Everyone I take there falls in love with it. (TJH, I know you just lurk here and rarely comment, but you can confirm, lol)
Before I was 11, I had read Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood and a hole smear of other books by him. I liked the high seas adventures. Scaramouche never got me. I read Christopher Wren's Beau Geste, Beau Sabeur but never found Beau Idea'l. etc.... those were the good days. If you reas Scarmouche get the First edition. The Opening Sentence is WAY MORE involved then what was in the Third edition.
Captain Blood and a hole smear
For some reason all I can think of when reading this is Megan Kelly's (warranted) rant about trans "women" going to gynos
Years ago, I went in looking for a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank for one of my kids, and a young intern told me they didn't sell journals. Ran into Mrs. Becker at the grocery store, and she got a big laugh out of that while rolling her eyes & probably regretting the day she helped out a friend's kid.
Many old books ARE good, but there are plenty of solid, righteous, truthful, and interesting NEW books as well.
Also, there are (WERE, in many cases . . . many didn't stay in print for long) plenty of BAD old books . . . just as today. A bigger percentage of bad ones today, I expect, but I generally avoid them (Amazon Kindle's Free Sample feature is helpful in that regard).
Examples of worthy new-ish books that many here might enjoy:
. . . each hemisphere attends to the world in a different way -- and the ways are consistent.
. . . consciously altering our habitual mode of attention to one based on a more integrated, empathic, relational and embodied sense of relationship can have dramatic, perhaps even revolutionary, consequences.
Given such extraordinary evidence for a very special environmental fitness for human biology and even for the path we took from the stone age to the twenty-first century, a reader might well question why, if the evidence is so abundant, does the mainstream in biology "look the other way." The reason for this blind spot among evolutionary biologists may be that, as Henderson stressed over a century ago, biologists since Darwin have focused almost entirely on the fitness (or adaptations) of organisms to the environment, and not on the prior environmental fitness that enables the actualization of the adaptations.
Whoever cannot hit the nail on the head should please, not hit it at all.
~ Nietzsche
That's a bit extreme (the full aphorism starts with something like "There are horrible thinkers who muddle a subject and make it more difficult for all who come after" -- but I can't find it just now). Still, fits with the problem of faulty premises. Memes, like other forms of communication, work better when they're as accurate as possible.
Here's the quote as translated by someone other than Walter Kaufmann (who is by far the most artistic and poetic translator of N I'm aware of): https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/friedrich_nietzsche_395397 -- annoyingly, there's no suggestion of which book, chapter, or section the aphorism might be from.
My grandmother lived 94 years, and her mind was as sharp as a tack until the end. She didn't have more than a high school education, but she read books every day of her life. Even after she started to go blind, she was able to use digital books and audio books to keep up the habit until the last few weeks of her life when she was too ill.
Reading keeps your mind active, engaged, and always learning, no matter how old you get. Watching TV and clicking on endless links and videos are, for your brain, like sugar and soda for your teeth.
WrathOfGnon has tons of epic memes, i saved them all to an external harddrive , I have been saving all of my memes to the hard drive ever since Facebook banned me a couple years ago when the commie clowns took over. i lost so many good memes. Around 5000. But thats ok, i rebuilt my empire snd learned from my mistakes, now its all backed up.👑
Check out the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. That series is my all time favorite besides LOTR. The first book is called The Eye of the World. There are some similarities to what's going on in the world today with good versus evil and those that walk in the Light vs. Darkfriends. It's really long though, 14 volumes and they are thick!
So True. I have to get some William Blake but my book case is full of Spenser, Donne, Keats, Dante, Melville, Milton, Virgil, Frost, Hemingway... all their poetry and stories take me to the next level and have always helped inform my art.
Everybody sure has their own preference, of course. Reading older books can be challenging given the changes in the use of language.
That said, I would recommend to read older books with the disclaimer of keeping the time-frame in mind and to focus on non-fiction.
Archive.org, Project-Gutenberg etc have tremendous amounts of books of yesteryears that you can dive into.
One such book is written by Frances Gardiner Davenport: European Treaties bearing upon the United States of America and its dependencies.
And it would not hurt to start with great writers surrounding the establishment of the US. This conveys clear ideas on the declaration of the will in relation to the way things were set up, clearly different from the current narratives.
There is a slew of books you can read without the need to be tired by minutiae or technical analyses. Think book like: Law of Nations, Free sea, Road to serfdom, etc.
The reason this is important has to do with the way the world has developed.
Perhaps we can have a sticky here on GAW with a recommended reading list c.q. bibliography?
Me too. I recently read Irving's Columbus written in 1834. When I got to the back, my dad has inscribed it with the date he finished it. I did the same thing,
I have an entire book case with books from the 19th century.
In my opinion Hunger Games has only a somewhat novel idea ('gladiators in the present day') but the prose is pretty mediocre, and the sequels absolutely torpedo the author's credibility as a good writer.
I thought it was a good book as a youngster but even then panned the second and third books. However, I do understand that a lot of people like novel ideas and it's certainly very far from the worst YA novel when taken as a standalone.
Adding another AMEN. Ya'll would love this mom-and-pop book store run out of an old converted house nearby. They have first editions, out-of-print, signed first editions, and mountains of just plain books. You walk in, and it smells like heaven: old paper and coffee. One room is nothing but periodicals individually encased in plastic. Several years ago, I found an original Life Magazine from the week my inlaws got married back in the 40s. They LOVED it. Everyone I take there falls in love with it. (TJH, I know you just lurk here and rarely comment, but you can confirm, lol)
Before I was 11, I had read Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood and a hole smear of other books by him. I liked the high seas adventures. Scaramouche never got me. I read Christopher Wren's Beau Geste, Beau Sabeur but never found Beau Idea'l. etc.... those were the good days. If you reas Scarmouche get the First edition. The Opening Sentence is WAY MORE involved then what was in the Third edition.
This is how you can search their database and get things shipped: http://www.texasbooks.net/catalog/ Mr. Becker told me once that they had a HUGE warehouse. This is the place on TripAdvisor where you can get an idea of what the whole place looks like: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g56003-d9748258-Reviews-Becker_s_Books-Houston_Texas.html
Years ago, I went in looking for a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank for one of my kids, and a young intern told me they didn't sell journals. Ran into Mrs. Becker at the grocery store, and she got a big laugh out of that while rolling her eyes & probably regretting the day she helped out a friend's kid.
So MANY anon family here are from Texas! 🤗
We should get together for monthly Happy Hour!!
Wheeee! Can wait until this is over and we can have a GAW Class Reunion!
I vote for Mar-a-Lago!
u/#q1957
If you knew the American publishing industry as I do, you'd understand why this is so.
Many old books ARE good, but there are plenty of solid, righteous, truthful, and interesting NEW books as well.
Also, there are (WERE, in many cases . . . many didn't stay in print for long) plenty of BAD old books . . . just as today. A bigger percentage of bad ones today, I expect, but I generally avoid them (Amazon Kindle's Free Sample feature is helpful in that regard).
Examples of worthy new-ish books that many here might enjoy:
Ways of Attending: How our Divided Brain Constructs the World by Iain McGilchrist. Sample quotes:
The Miracle of Man: The Fine Tuning of Nature for Human Existence by Michael Denton
Yes, faulty premises weaken or ruin anything.
~ Nietzsche
That's a bit extreme (the full aphorism starts with something like "There are horrible thinkers who muddle a subject and make it more difficult for all who come after" -- but I can't find it just now). Still, fits with the problem of faulty premises. Memes, like other forms of communication, work better when they're as accurate as possible.
Here's the quote as translated by someone other than Walter Kaufmann (who is by far the most artistic and poetic translator of N I'm aware of): https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/friedrich_nietzsche_395397 -- annoyingly, there's no suggestion of which book, chapter, or section the aphorism might be from.
My grandmother lived 94 years, and her mind was as sharp as a tack until the end. She didn't have more than a high school education, but she read books every day of her life. Even after she started to go blind, she was able to use digital books and audio books to keep up the habit until the last few weeks of her life when she was too ill.
Reading keeps your mind active, engaged, and always learning, no matter how old you get. Watching TV and clicking on endless links and videos are, for your brain, like sugar and soda for your teeth.
WrathOfGnon has tons of epic memes, i saved them all to an external harddrive , I have been saving all of my memes to the hard drive ever since Facebook banned me a couple years ago when the commie clowns took over. i lost so many good memes. Around 5000. But thats ok, i rebuilt my empire snd learned from my mistakes, now its all backed up.👑
He isn't making as many as he use to. I think I still have his site but I don't see any new ones.
He probably was hit with a social media tactical nuke but i have a feeling he will be back for the 2nd meme war
This is why I still have my dad's set of encyclopedia Britannica from 1963.
When history and knowledge are censored I'll still have those😃😃😃😃
Check out the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. That series is my all time favorite besides LOTR. The first book is called The Eye of the World. There are some similarities to what's going on in the world today with good versus evil and those that walk in the Light vs. Darkfriends. It's really long though, 14 volumes and they are thick!
So True. I have to get some William Blake but my book case is full of Spenser, Donne, Keats, Dante, Melville, Milton, Virgil, Frost, Hemingway... all their poetry and stories take me to the next level and have always helped inform my art.
Lol! Talk about a shot across the nose.
Everybody sure has their own preference, of course. Reading older books can be challenging given the changes in the use of language.
That said, I would recommend to read older books with the disclaimer of keeping the time-frame in mind and to focus on non-fiction.
Archive.org, Project-Gutenberg etc have tremendous amounts of books of yesteryears that you can dive into.
One such book is written by Frances Gardiner Davenport: European Treaties bearing upon the United States of America and its dependencies.
And it would not hurt to start with great writers surrounding the establishment of the US. This conveys clear ideas on the declaration of the will in relation to the way things were set up, clearly different from the current narratives.
There is a slew of books you can read without the need to be tired by minutiae or technical analyses. Think book like: Law of Nations, Free sea, Road to serfdom, etc.
The reason this is important has to do with the way the world has developed.
Perhaps we can have a sticky here on GAW with a recommended reading list c.q. bibliography?
Me too. I recently read Irving's Columbus written in 1834. When I got to the back, my dad has inscribed it with the date he finished it. I did the same thing,
I have an entire book case with books from the 19th century.
Fahrenheit 451. Why do you think Amazon calls it E Book "Kindle?"