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Post by toshtego on May 11, 2023 15:27:31 GMT -5
Lieutenant Hornblower by C.S. Forester. Read it before years ago but still a good story. I should have been a sailor. That series is always enjoyable. |
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Post by Darin on May 11, 2023 15:48:29 GMT -5
Just about finished with The Ultimate Cigar Book: 4th Edition by Richard Carleton Hacker. What did you learn which was not known previously? Just about finished with The Ultimate Cigar Book: 4th Edition by Richard Carleton Hacker. What did you learn which was not known previously? He includes a lot of information on blenders and brands ... who started the company, who were the blenders, where did these people eventually branch off to, etc. There's a fair amount of insider commentary as he has definitely traveled extensively and met many of the prominent cigar company "honchos". |
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Post by toshtego on May 11, 2023 19:40:55 GMT -5
Good cigars are out of my price range. I used to be quite the cigar aficionado. The last ones I settled on were "Paul Garmirian's. My all time most enjoyable were Cubans purchased in London. Romeo y Julieta Churchills. Superb.
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Post by username on May 11, 2023 19:43:54 GMT -5
I feel the satire in these comics still applies today almost 100 years later.  |
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Post by urbino on May 13, 2023 19:13:32 GMT -5
Having finished The Guns of August, I’m now reading the “prequel”: The Proud Tower.
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Post by toshtego on May 14, 2023 9:58:21 GMT -5
Having finished The Guns of August, I’m now reading the “prequel”: The Proud Tower. I am not familiar with The Proud Tower and will look for it. I read all of Tuchman's other books. Thanks for the tip. |
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Post by trailboss on May 14, 2023 13:30:46 GMT -5
I feel the satire in these comics still applies today almost 100 years later. Sounds like an interesting fellow, I have never heard of him. |
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Post by urbino on May 14, 2023 15:24:52 GMT -5
Having finished The Guns of August, I’m now reading the “prequel”: The Proud Tower. I am not familiar with The Proud Tower and will look for it. I read all of Tuchman's other books. Thanks for the tip. Very different subject matter, but it has her characteristic wit. |
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Post by Plainsman on May 14, 2023 19:52:30 GMT -5
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Post by toshtego on May 14, 2023 19:56:42 GMT -5
I am not familiar with The Proud Tower and will look for it. I read all of Tuchman's other books. Thanks for the tip. Very different subject matter, but it has her characteristic wit. Ordered a second hand copy for $2. The shipping is $4. From what I read, this is a series of essays published in magazines in the mid 1960s. Should be interesting. |
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Post by Plainsman on May 14, 2023 20:44:41 GMT -5
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Post by urbino on May 14, 2023 21:50:47 GMT -5
Very different subject matter, but it has her characteristic wit. Ordered a second hand copy for $2. The shipping is $4. From what I read, this is a series of essays published in magazines in the mid 1960s. Should be interesting. Interesting. That wasn't in the description I read. |
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Post by Ronv69 on May 14, 2023 22:28:49 GMT -5
Beautiful. There are experiences in life that transcend, when you feel your soul expand outside the body. I've had a couple, fortunately. I feel bad for the many who never feel it. |
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Post by Plainsman on May 15, 2023 7:00:01 GMT -5
It’s a set-up, of course. Who cares? It was wonderful.
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Post by toshtego on May 15, 2023 7:55:56 GMT -5
Ordered a second hand copy for $2. The shipping is $4. From what I read, this is a series of essays published in magazines in the mid 1960s. Should be interesting. Interesting. That wasn't in the description I read. |
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Post by jeffd on May 15, 2023 11:23:00 GMT -5
I would venture to say about 90% of the people who are aware of the Milton book and the Dante book either do not know which is which at all, or can't keep them straight. I bet you are right. Perhaps a greater % of pipe smokers know the difference, we are bookish lot. Likely because with a pipe in the mouth I have less to say .  |
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Post by jeffd on May 15, 2023 11:34:08 GMT -5
What I find absolutely nuts is that I don't know anyone else, at all, who reads. You folks here where we have this common thread and share what we're reading, but in real life, nobody reads but my mom and my grandfather. My mom has literally read thousands and thousands of books so maybe I get it from her and my upbringing. Of course some people DO read around here in my city. I run into them at bookstores but generally don't have friends who even read books. I know what you mean. And, what drives me even more insane is that when I do meet someone who is reported by friends to be "an avid reader, like you, you guys should get together" more often than not we don't have a single book in common. The diversity of readers is so wide that, really, when someone is says they are a reader, you don't have any idea about them. Classics? Classic science fiction, contemporary fiction, spirituality, home remedies, carpentry, building a small house, the history of flowers, WWII, contemporary politics... just so many things to be into; no two folks randomly chosen at a book convention are likely to read the same stuff. For me, actually, the book maybe has to be the connection. We meet the author's mind, the author's characters and story, whatever. I think I read to #1 escape and #2 not be alone or at least be with someone of my choosing. |
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Post by Ronv69 on May 15, 2023 11:40:43 GMT -5
You're right. I have read thousands of books in all of the above categories and I doubt that we have less than 10 in common. Like they say, "So many books, so little time". I've been reading Twice Told Tales but it puts me to sleep. Needing to take break and read something else. I have more books on the shelves than I will ever get to. A lot of the reason I don't read as much as I did as a youngster is that I have a wife who I find very entertaining.
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Post by Ronv69 on May 17, 2023 14:28:56 GMT -5
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafta. Strange is only the beginning.
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Mrs. Zarnicky
Junior Member
Posts: 396
First Name: Anichka
Favorite Tobacco: (Country Squire) Hunting Creek, Black Arrow. (Sutliff) Vanilla Custard
Location:
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Post by Mrs. Zarnicky on May 17, 2023 16:25:16 GMT -5
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Post by turbocat on May 17, 2023 17:26:13 GMT -5
I hadn’t heard that in a long, long time!  |
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Post by Ronv69 on May 17, 2023 22:43:19 GMT -5
I LOVED Jimmy Durante as a kid, and I still do. |
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Post by Ronv69 on May 17, 2023 22:46:31 GMT -5
I finished the Franz Kafka book "Metamorphosis" and I was curious about what the sages had to say about it. Hundreds of sages with hundreds of opinions. Then I looked up the author to see what else there was. I found a bottomless rabbit hole that I chose not to dive into.
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Post by Ronv69 on May 17, 2023 22:47:18 GMT -5
I hadn’t heard that in a long, long time! Amen. However, I found something better, sitting and talking to my wife. |
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Post by jeffd on May 18, 2023 11:06:26 GMT -5
I finished the Franz Kafka book "Metamorphosis" and I was curious about what the sages had to say about it. Hundreds of sages with hundreds of opinions. Then I looked up the author to see what else there was. I found a bottomless rabbit hole that I chose not to dive into. While I understand completely, I myself dived (dove? doved?)into that rabbit hole and avidly consumed everything I could find. In my own case there was this resonance between the Kafka's ridiculousness and some of my own personal experience. So, obviously, it is an individual thing. I would never say anyone should read anything, because I think nobody should read what they don't like. But as an obsessive less than 100% balanced reader, please permit me to encourage you to read one more story. It is, I think, much more accessible than the famous Metamorphosis; it is, yea, equally strange, or even a little ridiculous when you put the book down, but it captures something, well a few things maybe, that run deep in many people's firmware. In mine for sure. Its a short story, so if you have a moment and care to indulge, it won't take long to finish it. A couple of pipe fulls if smoked slowly. If you happen to be the type of person that resonates with it, well you will be compelled to finish it. I promise you this: You will be no better off for having read it. No worse certainly, except for the wasted time. And is any time really wasted if you get in a couple of pipefulls? (If you are like me it is time stolen from watching Tom Selleck youtubes). The story: A Hunger Artist. Available here: www.kafka-online.info/a-hunger-artist.htmlRespectfully submitted, Your Briarpatch Comrade-In-Briar |
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Post by Ronv69 on May 18, 2023 15:17:03 GMT -5
I finished the Franz Kafka book "Metamorphosis" and I was curious about what the sages had to say about it. Hundreds of sages with hundreds of opinions. Then I looked up the author to see what else there was. I found a bottomless rabbit hole that I chose not to dive into. While I understand completely, I myself dived (dove? doved?)into that rabbit hole and avidly consumed everything I could find. In my own case there was this resonance between the Kafka's ridiculousness and some of my own personal experience. So, obviously, it is an individual thing. I would never say anyone should read anything, because I think nobody should read what they don't like. But as an obsessive less than 100% balanced reader, please permit me to encourage you to read one more story. It is, I think, much more accessible than the famous Metamorphosis; it is, yea, equally strange, or even a little ridiculous when you put the book down, but it captures something, well a few things maybe, that run deep in many people's firmware. In mine for sure. Its a short story, so if you have a moment and care to indulge, it won't take long to finish it. A couple of pipe fulls if smoked slowly. If you happen to be the type of person that resonates with it, well you will be compelled to finish it. I promise you this: You will be no better off for having read it. No worse certainly, except for the wasted time. And is any time really wasted if you get in a couple of pipefulls? (If you are like me it is time stolen from watching Tom Selleck youtubes). The story: A Hunger Artist. Available here: www.kafka-online.info/a-hunger-artist.htmlRespectfully submitted, Your Briarpatch Comrade-In-Briar OK, you twisted my arm. 😁 That's his last story, right? |
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Post by jeffd on May 18, 2023 15:29:56 GMT -5
That's his last story, right? Yes last one. I promise. Unless you ask me for more, of course. |
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Post by Ronv69 on May 18, 2023 15:34:15 GMT -5
That's his last story, right? Yes last one. I promise. Unless you ask me for more, of course. I mean the last one that he wrote. Other than the 90% that he destroyed. If his publisher had followed his wishes, thousands of people would have had to find something else to write their dissertations on. |
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Post by jeffd on May 19, 2023 15:23:11 GMT -5
I did not know it was his last one. I am not sure what that means because there is some controversy as to whether all his stories have been found.
Never let dissertations and over-educated university types get in the way of just plain good stories. The stories weren't written for the zipper heads, they were written for folks like us, who just like to read. Heck, Kafka was writing just to do it, he didn't even want to publish his stories.
I used to travel on Greyhound busses a lot. I would take a book with me (no cell phones in those days) and I would keep the book wrapped in newspaper or better yet a comic book (batman), so that nobody could see what I was reading and try and engage me in some show off conversation about the political correctness of Victorian literature.
Stuff gets analyzed to death. Academics can take the fun out of anything. Apologies to academics, but you know what I mean.
It is just like smoking pipe. Do you want a dissertation on the history of latakia or do you want a nice pipefull to help you not say something you will regret to the idiots someone invited to your house.
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Post by SailorBen on May 20, 2023 13:31:20 GMT -5
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson has replaced Twenty Thousand Leagues for bedtime reading with the kids. When I read it in my youth I didn't realize it was historical fiction and many of the character were real people. Makes it even cooler.
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