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Reread “Child’s Christmas in Wales” yesterday. My favorite line: “Auntie Hannah laced her tea with rum because it was only once a year.” I own two copies of “A Christmas Carol”: a facsimile of the first edition that was released sometime in the mid-70s, and the one you showed in the video, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. A woman I know used to work at Holiday House, which published the book, and she gave me a copy, signed by the artist, for Christmas the year it was released. A year or two later she gave me a copy of “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” illustrated by the same artist and also published by Holiday House.

I tried to make a Curtis Yarvin joke

Hahaha I remember all the (male) wannabe intellectuals in high school/university droning on and on about this book. “You simply cannot appreciate the genius insight of…” was the sort of BS tossed around at a co-ed party. My God, I’m thankful now that I wasn’t the insightful sort of reader. This book sounds absolutely dreadful.

All summer in a Day! Thank you!! For years I’ve been trying to remember the title and author. I told the story to my kids when they were young, but could never remember info so they could look for it themselves. They’re adults now, but I know at least one of them is still interested.

These books sound interesting. Thanks for the review.

The book sounds interesting, but I have to admit that when I first saw the thumbnail - is that what it’s called? - I thought you were going to be displaying your own rare books and special collections (like that boxed set of LOTR I occasionally spy on the shelf behind you). I have a few rare books and first editions myself, and I’m getting to an age when I’ll have to start deciding where they’ll go after I myself go.

My favorite book All About the Stars. *All About the Stars* is an engaging and educational introduction to the field of astronomy, offering both scientific insights and a sense of wonder about the stars and the universe. It is a perfect starting point for young readers interested in space and the cosmos. In addition to providing scientific knowledge, the book offers practical tips on how to observe the stars. It includes star charts and advice on the best times and places to view different constellations, encouraging readers to get outside and explore the night sky for themselves.

I had joked that the end of prairie home companion had cost the dnc millions of retired white American votes in the 2024 elections.

A felony to put Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving? When I was growing up (‘50s and ‘60s), it was at least a misdemeanor to put them up before mid-December! And the old European custom was to decorate on Christmas Eve and keep the decorations up until Epiphany (Jan. 6, the “twelfth day of Christmas”), not toss them aside on 12/26. P.S. I’ve read two or three by Umberto Eco but never heard of the one you mentioned here. Please 🙏 do a video on it when you finish it.

You are gonna love Thunderstruck. My favorite Larson book.

That's it?

Have always thought of Baxter as the author of Science 'Faction.'

Something tells me the producers of the tv show ‘Lost’ had also read this

I have the same 3-in-1 book and approached it in the same order as you. I have similar feelings about Dorsai! I enjoyed Necromancer, but it was a little hard to get into. I never picked up Tactics

This book was terrible. Anna is used by every man in her life. She NEVER tells Trudy who her dad is. And Trudy herself is ungrateful, thoroughly unlikeable and when she begs the old guy lover to not leave I wanted to vomit.

Good shit my brother!

I like to joke that regardless of my name, I am not Irish or Italian, and have no Catholic background.

Must have read the book at least ten times, starting in 7th or 8th grade (not too long after it was printed). Took a bit for me to appreciate the Sirius's black-hole drive as a metaphor, where the propellant mass (Duncan) is caught in the event horizon of the black hole (the cloning process) therefore stretching time into eternity (the family line would not progress, only be duplicated). The "plot twist" at the end is not only reconciliation, but Duncan's escape from the event horizon. Another thing that interests me about ImpEarth (and in fact most "hard science" fiction of the time) is how it extrapolates nearly all the sciences except communication. Clarke describes a global information and communication net which sounded amazing in 1976 but which was left in the dust by reality around 2000. Does Duncan's MINISEC remind you of a rough draft of the cat-meme-viewing device on which you're probably reading this? For that matter, Diaspar in "The City and the Stars" misses being the Matrix by _that_ much. ImpEarth Clarke's best? Probably not. Is it as good as I remember, now that I've read it a couple times as an almost-old guy? Not really. One of my favorites for a lot of reasons, some of them personal? (It and the original Battlestar Galactica helped me get through a brain-sucking seventh grade year) -- Yes.

Haha! An Earth girls Are Easy reference! Golden!! Much appreciation of your viddy from NZ m8

I was big on authors like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Robert Silverberg (at least Silverberg's earlier work), but Arthur C. Clarke has never been too impressive to me, at least what I've read of him. I was pretty disappointed by Childhood's End. I recently tried The City and the Stars, and it has a lot of wasted potential, and only a little bit of an interesting plot in parts. Maybe I've just not read his better books, I don't know.

It is a slice of life style story showing us a look at a potential future, getting rather a lot right, even if, as you say, these things came about sooner than Clarke anticipated. Not sure where your 'Federation' bit comes from, since there still is only the solar system and it is still essentially Earth and a few colonies elsewhere in the solar system. My favorite of Clarke's novels, actually.

Even Shakespeare produced a clinker every now and then. TS Eliot called “Titus Andronicus” the stupidest, most ridiculous play ever written. Enjoy your time off, but don’t stay away too long. I really enjoy your videos.

Small suggestion: Don't pause the audio when showing book covers. Just keep talking.

I've been slogging through KSR's Ministry for the Future. A tour de force of writing/research, but a failure as a novel. More of a textbook.

Have you read Fforde's Shades of Grey? My fave book of recent reads, tho not new (2012ish). (not fantasy really)

IMO he's gone quite downhill :-( Seems to be just calling them in. Contract fulfillment?

I had forgotten about this book. Time for a re-read.

Thanks for the recommendation. I have seen this book around for ages and shall pick it up.

When you suggested a few weeks ago that you might be visiting the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, I hoped you would enjoy it as much as I did. Glad you did! The other books in the series are equally worth the time. I was saddened a few years ago when Ruiz Zafón died of colon cancer at the relatively young age of 55. (It stuns me that I’ve arrived at an age when 55 is “relatively young,” but hey, what’s the alternative?)

I follow the John Connolly Charlie Parker series. It has an element of the hellfire and brimstone. The last horror book I read was Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian.

I wish people would recognize Robert Bloch as someone who wrote more than just Psycho.

Yes! Finally someone mentions Ambrose Bierce. His "Devil's Dictionary" is indeed outstanding. I was introduced to his work by listening to a recording of John Carradine reading his short story, "An Imperfect Conflagration ". Some other heavy hitters on your list. I might add Shirley Jackson, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, and of course Anne Rice

That was a fun list and I will be checking out E. Massie. For my recommendations, I suggest W. H. Hodgson whose novel, "the House On The Borderland' once read is no forgotten. He wrote two other novels that are incredibly creepy and a host of short stories. We are undergoing a splendid revival of small publishing companies reprinting stories from the early part of the 19th Century to not so famous writers of horror from the pulps. One such is Armchair Fiction, which is publishing lovely trade paperbacks, with the original interior illustration, highlighting writers not so well known from the great pulp, 'Weird Tales'. I have two of them and ma slowly going through them.

Bradbury is one of my favorites! Looking forward to discovering some of the other authors on the list. 😊

I've never heard of Elizabeth Massie, but I just ordered It, Watching and can't wait to dig into it - thanks for the recommendations! Definitely love me some Bradbury as well!

For the love of God people need to stop with every horror list stuffed with Stephen King.

Ever read anything by Oliver Onions? (And yes, that was his real name, though he had it legally changed when the woman he loved refused to marry him unless he do so. For some reason, she couldn’t see going through life being called Mrs. Onions. Women!) I have a hefty anthology of his ghost stories, which, like most 700-or-so-page anthologies, has its good and not-so-good stories, but one, a novella called “The Beckoning Fair One,” is well worth a rainy Saturday afternoon in October or November.

10:30 That "Last Three Ships" etching is great. Bring back the illustrated header!

Boone's Farm?!? 😂😂

Not the Boone’s Farm!!!!😂

If you like books about books, try “The New Life” by Orhan Pamuk (Nobel Prize winner, 2006) and/or the tetralogy “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. (Don’t you love sentences with “and/or” in them?)

I liked Presumed Innocent back in the day but this batch you just reviewed sound way too boinky. I think I'll pass. Love the closing comments! Were he still living, wouldn't Clancy have had a field day with the events currently going on!

Your comparison of Turow to Grisham is apt. Filet mignon vs hamburger. I can't think of anyone who writes better legal thrillers/ courtroom dramas.

If you got to page 100 of “Finnegans Wake,” you did a lot better than I. I think I made it to page 35. I once heard a recording - if I’m not mistaken, read by James Joyce himself - of a passage from the novel, and what struck me as odd was that read aloud, it made perfect sense.

Can't go wrong with John Boorman's Excalibur from 1980 though! 😃

If they make a tv series Reverent Sparrow would probably be portrayed as a celibate homosexual.

There is a show called “outlander”. Some woman is transported into Scotland during the colonial period. She falls in love with a Scottish guy. After some problems in Europe they eventually end up in the Americas. There is more sex and violence. And time travel.

Even the United States postal service?

I was expecting a photo of Troy Donahue and Sandra Dee after the expression “a summer place.” (Remember? 🎶Daaah da-dah da-daaah.) Oh well, can’t have everything! Enjoyed the review nonetheless.

Love your sense of humor. I'll have to check some of these out. Hope you cover the rest of the decades?