Reading!

[Bel-Cam Jos]

It was just over 100 pages, so finishing it wasn't difficult, time-wise. But content and plot? Ugh. It was a Star Trek "parody," or so the cover stated, of the original TV one and ST:TNG; Star Wreck: The Generation Gap by Leah Rewolinski. I know enough about both series to "get" the "jokes," but really all it seemed to be was a "funny" new way to write their names (Star Freak = Star Fleet, Capt. James T. Smirk = Capt. James T. Kirk, Capt. Jean-Lucy Ricardo = Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, Wort = Work, et al). I bought it from a library book sale, and I may return it and tell them to keep the $.25 I paid (maybe it'll keep getting sold and get all USA libraries out of the red ).

[Bel-Cam Jos]

My annual Try to Read Thirty Books by Summer's End crusade has commenced! Another book by Loren Estleman, Gas City, to start things off. It's quite "real" and gritty, but his descriptive style is consistently quite good. It's about a fictional Midwestern city of crime and day-to-day living. I didn't realize it was an actual mystery until about halfway through, so I started to look back for clues. Very interesting turn of events towards the middle and end; a little more graphic than I expected from the dust jacket preview, but I always like his books, and especially his characterizations, even if the content is not always my cup of tea.

[TeeEye7]

My annual Try to Read Thirty Books by Summer's End crusade has commenced!

What is the theme/goal/genre/etc. for this year?

[Bel-Cam Jos]

You know, I think I'll revive the Mess With the Patriot Act one again. Meaning, I'll mix in any and all genres (horror, romance, sci-fi [that one'll be pretty tough to find], bio, autobio, young adult, historical fiction, local books, non-fiction, western, self-help, mystery, humor, religious, medical, art, travel, classics, et al), so that when they run my library card record, they'll have no idea.

Other themes from the past?
- one author for each of the 26 alphabet letters
- "secret" in the title
- uh, something else, I think...? (well, they say that, um, uh..., what is it that's first to go?)

[Bel-Cam Jos]

A very short parody by Jim Gerard, Who Moved My Secret?. It was based on the self-help Who Moved My Cheese? and The Secret, and more profane and crass than I thought it'd be, but it definitely captures the I-know-what-will-work-for-you nonsense of the two "original" books.

I picked up seven library books yesterday (the one above was the easiest to finish), and also realized I'd read a previous book before the summer began; The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter by David Cobert, where he attempts to give the historical basis of many of the names and places mentioned in the HP series. Most I already knew about, but I thought it'd be a good preview for the final film due out in a month or so.

[edit]Completed one more book today: a young adult (although it's quite serious and realistic in its tone) novel titled Time's Memory by Julius Lester. It's set in the times of the slave trade from Western Africa, but before the US Civil War, where the spirit of a god inhabits the bodies and spirits of people in America to stop the problem of spirits wandering aimlessly after they're killed. The simple style of a YA novel makes it easy to follow, but it handles a very serious topic well, even bringing it closer to the current age in the epilogue. Really liked this one.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

As of yesterday, there are three more books I read through to the end, some more interesting than others.

An anthology of "funny" contemporary writings edited by Ian Frazier ironically titled Humor Me, because I'd say that half of the submissions weren't humorous at all (not even in a "certain point of view" funny way). Didn't like this much at all, despite the few writings that were funny.

The novel version of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind "written" by Steven Spielberg; I'm not sure if it's the same as how George Dean Foster Lucas "wrote" the film adaptation of Star Wars. It was a nice return to the time of the late 70s. Plot: the story of a man saying and doing crazy things about what he sees (or thinks is real) going on around him, where few believe him, but in the end, is taken away by space beings.

And I chose a totally different book after that one above: Broke by Glenn Beck. Like Luke Skywalker in the Dark Empire comic, I thought I should learn about the Dark Side before trying to fight it or destroy it from within. Without getting this thread tossed into the Pit, here's what I'll say about this book: the amount of facts (about 40 pages of citations, some from actual legitimate sources, some statements never cited at all) is meant to give it legitimacy but when said to be factual and objective, the amount of negative and slanted adjectives and adverbs throughout take any of that away. Could've saved 300+ pages of trees by saying "I'll use name calling all over the place and say I don't like Progressives and their views, then say the government should stop its spending and reduce unnecessary programs." Imagine reading his show for hours and hours longer than it runs. Ugh.

Good things: I'm approaching 10 books and 2000 pages read so far this summer.

[OC47150]

<p> What is the time frame for those books?</p>

Roberts Ridge is '03. Roberts was a SEAL who fell out of a helicopter while on a mission. The book is about that incident and the resulting rescue mission.

Lone Survivor is in about the same time frame, '03 - '06.

The Cobra. Frederick Forsyth has an interesting take on how to handle the Colombian drug cartels.

The Secret of D-Day. I'm a sucker for any book on D-Day. This one, written in the 60s, dealt with the espionage aspect and focused on the last few months leading up to June 6.Some of the info was new, some of it wasn't, but still enjoyable. One chapter was a countdown to when the troops hit the beaches.

Coruscant Nights 3. I enjoyed this one more than the second in the series.

Rereading Republic Commando: Hard Contact. I read it too fast the first time, and am picking up on a lot of little things I missed the first time.

[JimJamBonds]

The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron De Steuben and the Making of the American Army. Long title, good book. As the title suggests its about the life of General Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben and his role in the American Revolution. Some new stuff some not so new stuff. Overall it was a good read.

[JimJamBonds]

Weird Fox Cities, this is a book about things that have taken place in a section of NE Wisconsin called the Fox Cities (the Fox is a good sized river that flows through the area). Some of the stories are more intersting then others, and some are fairly known. The word "weird" is a bit strong, perhaps the title: Stuff that happened in the Fox Cities" would be a better fit.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

From the "classics" and "humor" genres (you figure out which is which)...

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Weird, very dense and tough to read (both for written dialect and the stream-of-consciousness and flashbacks/flashforwards throughout), and only became somewhat clear in the last "chapter." It's always tough for me to read long-chaptered novels (this had 4, in a 300+ page book). I can't say I disliked it, but if I were a high school student assigned it, I'd complain a lot.

i know i am, but what are you?, a collection of personal essays and reflections by Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee. Quite hilarious at some parts, surprisingly serious more than I expected. I will likely see her differently when she's on TV, but that's not negative.