Monday, August 24, 2020

Whine + books

Let's get the whine over with.  Ending that sentence with a preposition was not classy.  Let's over with the whine get.   There, that's better.   I always feel so much better after I craft a beautifully constructed sintince.  Don't you?

Whine:  I love writing paragraphs and attempting to connect two thoughts.  Having so few daily, blog readers make me think I could write the same paragraphs on a small Big Chief tablet with as much satisfaction.  Sure, in an effort to attract more readers, I could make the blog better reading.  I could.  

What happens after I am gone and the website goes unpaid?  Simple.  Delete.  No memory of my ramblings exist.  What is the answer?  Perhaps if I did scribble inside a Big Chief tablet, it might remain hidden for 75 years to be discovered by my great great great grandchildren who would publish the tablet - declaring me another Michener or Sir Conan Doyle or even that little girl who hid in an attic writing her diary during the Nazi occupation.  They could make a musical about my Big Chief.

2nd solution:  I could print all additions and keep them in a loose leaf notebook.  Then (of course using acid free paper) they would survive until 2120   to be marveled at by brain dead liberals.

3rd solution:  I'll get all down, unloved, and quit writing again.  Saves ink.

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Today's Non-Whine subject is books.   I have been trying to read books for about two years and a half now.  At first I began with Louis L'Amour leatherette books, The Sackets Series.  This is a series going back to 16-1700 in England tracing their arrival in America.  Eventually, the Sackets go west (young man).  I would guess I own about 30 to 40 Louis L'Amour books about various subjects, mostly the old west.  Easy reading.  Mindless to some degree.  L'Amour was prolific.  There are so many book reviewers out there who recite in glorious tones about books they have read - I'm not one of those. 

During last Christmas' grabbag gift giving time, daughter Christine had put in a Robert Jordan book about the Wheels of Time.  Nobody wanted it.  I volunteered trading a piece of slimy candy, or perhaps it was a greasy pencil, to a Grandgirl for the Book.   I worked my way through its myriad reams of paper.  Somewhere in the 1st third of the book, I became aware that Robert Jordan had written this as Book One of the series.  Each year, he would publish the next in the series.  Before he finished the entire series, he died.  Another young man took up the task of finishing.  More books followed until the bad guy was cremated and our hero rode away in the sunset  - this is merely a phrase - not a spoiler alert - what happens in the very last book is for you to read and suffer.  I'm not tellin'.

Fourteen books are in the series thanks to the help of young Brandon Sanderson.  I'd betcha, he could have stretched this material to another 4 or 5 books.  These are big books, 600-800 pages in length.  If you like that kind of sword play, horses, and mysterious happenings, this could be a series for you.  I own all 14 books plus a prequel written - as you might guess - in the time before Book One.  There is not enough shelf space in my computer room for all these books plus Louis L'Amour.  What to do?

I struggle to find more stuff to read.  I am tiring of the Louis L'Amour style.  I started a book named The Mustangs by J Frank Dobie.  It was not for me.   My wife gave me my first Stephen King book, The Outsider.   While it was a fun read and worth the time, frankly, I don't like that type of eerie happenings.  If you have no answer, you cue the strange music - turn down the lights - let a worm loose and - He's Back!!  

I did finish off two James Michener books:  Mexico, a book of history and bullfights,  and Recessional, a book about nursing homes and dying.  Recessional had some highs and lows.  Then came Zeke and Ned by Larry McMurtry, the author of Lonesome Dove.  It's a story of 2 Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma before becoming a State.  The list goes on.  I hate paying big bucks for books - Hate it.  

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I started this whole BLUGGY to tell you Civil War Buffs, and I know you are out there, our local Jr College, Navarro College in Corsicana has a museum.  This museum has a collection of letters written by people during the Civil war; there are 4 volumes.   Each volume basically takes care of one year / part of the war.

This may look a bit like an advertisement. Civil War Buffs will love these paperback books which are 11 x 8.5 x 1 inch.  Each letter in the book is typewritten.  Someone else has already struggle with the war- torn handwriting.  Vol. 1 is 265 pages long PLUS an appendix of names and descriptions     and    an Index of names from the letters.   It is well-document and notated.  I believe you will love the 4 books.  I have.

The War * Day by Day   from the collection of the Pearce Museum, Navarro College Foundation. 75110

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with that I close.  Tomorrow:   another snake on my back porch...one of the downers of living beside a lake.

Luv ya,   Mtz

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