feed the worm ~ books, books, books

no new glasses yet, but staying off the computer for the most part these last couple of days has helped a lot (and it's hardly been like i was away~! not to mention i've had a chance to read a lot lately ~ )

and the stuff i want to post is backlogging, so i'll start by updating for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 17. : The Dragon and the George by gordon r. dickson.

i said i would read more books out of my usual scope and here’s exactly an example of why i shouldn’t be allowed to choose these odd ducks from the 50¢ pile at half-price books. this fantasy novel was written in the 50s and is so dated it was practically unreadable. were it not for the sixth-grade vocabulary, i don’t think i would have bothered to make any effort. truly bad on endless levels and contains every possible fantasy illogic, cliché, and pitfall imaginable. yuck.



caveat emptor!
yes, i bought this one for the cover
(a painting by boris vallejo)

no. 18. : The Man Without a Country by edward everett hale

interesting piece of patriotic propaganda about a man who, in a careless fit, renounces his country, is court-martialed, and sentence to live his life offshore, never to hear of his country spoken again (and his subsequent bizarre and sad life). this book, i have no doubt, was the inspiration for the movie script The Legend of 1900 which i trashed reviewed some time back. the book is endlessly more interesting, though short and rather preachy. it’s also a rather unsubtle backhand to the southern states for their rebellion. the title character dies in 1863 after serving fifty years of this bizarre punishment, but oddly enough, the fact of the war going on is scarcely mentioned and never made known to the character in question, who is a kentuckian. curious little book.

no. 19. : Detailed Minutiae of Solider Life by carlton mcCarthy

excellent contemporary (published 1882) first-person account of a soldier’s day to day in the army of northern virginia. mcCarthy was an artilleryman, which is very helpful for my research purposes (seeing as i need exactly this sort of thing to figure out what to do with my Berkley Battery), but he talks about the whole regiment and all the particulars from marching to foraging to making winter camp. overall the book has given me tons of ideas for little snippets and scenes. it’s also answered a lot of questions i had left over from reading worsham’s account. i’ll prolly read this one twice. really glad i found it!

while at half-price i also picked up a pile of booth tarkington books (they were practically throwing them away). i’m looking forward to reading more of his stuff.

currently on the plate: jerzy kosinski’s The Painted Bird. prolly another case of bad judgment on my part, but jack dann, author of that hideous piece of drek The Silent waxed on and on about it in his afterward, so i felt like i had to see whether the inspiration for such a horrid book is itself also horrid. masochistic, i know.

when i finish this one, i’ll be caught up for the challenge, which is pretty amazing because i was four books behind as of last week.

: D

being off the computer also means i've been painting a lot (or at least fiddle-farking with the paints and brushes). maybe later i'll share some ventures.

for now my time is up ~ time to take a few hours rest!