More Boox
After this, there's just one more stack waiting, so let's get it on, eh?
The Tough Coughs As He Ploughs The Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons By Dr. Seuss, ed by Richard Marschall (1987) - Really old stuiff from the 1920s and 30s, when he was just starting out and unsure of his way. For some reason I find much of the humor irritating, though from time to time the future Doctor shines through. The title piece appears on page 57: "Ough! Ough! Or Why I Believe In Simplified Spelling," where he (writing as a "Roumanian divinity student" new to America) showwers us with about every word containing the sound "ough" in all their various pronunciations. In the end he finds himself with three daughters named Xough, Yough and Zough. OK, now you try to say their names out loud. BTW the good Doctor's first name is Theophrastus. BTW2 It wasn't really dough, it just looked like it.
The Extraordinary Voyage of Pythias the Greek, by Barry Cunliffe (2002) - Before now, I'd heard of that fraternal order, the Knights of Pythias without quite knowing who or what a "pythias" was. Here I find that he was a Greek merchant from Massala (modern Marseilles) who for various reasons took a long trip across southern Gaul (France) to Burdigala (Bordeaux), up to Amorica (Brittany), around the British Islands, possibly a side trip to Iceland and around the North Sea before heading home to write of his experience arund 320 BC. His book seems to have pretty much disappeared, aside from quotes in various other people's books, many of them hostile to the idea that he actually made the trip, and even more so to the idea that any civilized person would take an intelligent interest in the ways and customs of those subhuman barbarians over there on the edge of the world. Oh swoon.
The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, by James Hannam (2011) - The title says it all, basically. A lot of what we "know" of the Middle Ages was based on some rather dishonest mudslinging by the Renaissance "progressives" who were trying to boost themselves by pretending that the work of their immediate predecessors were of less value than that of the classic Roman and Greek writers, and so on. As I noted in my brief review of that book on medieval warfare, they weren't morons back then.
Upgrading and Fixing a PC In Easy Steps, by Stuart Yarnold (2011) - I got this book mainly in order to try to catch up with the more recent developments in computer hardware, especially as I am seriously considering unloading that room full of old comp stuff that I am finally having to admit I wil;l never get around to doing anything with, and getting some more up-to-date junk instead. Does anyone need a Bernouli? I have a storage box full of drives, cartridges, SCSI cables and manuals. Why do I have this? Dunno, I just do, somehow.
The Search For The Etruscans, by James Wellard (1971) - One thing that made their neighbors the Romans froth at the mouth was that Etruscan woman were allowed to do all sorts of things that Roman women weren't allowed to, such as, say, drink wine and dine in mixed company, own property and even (GASP) have fun. They left a tremendous amount of archealogical relics behind, and the depressing part is that much of it was destroyed by peasant farmers who looted anything that could bring in a quick buck, and trampled everything else under their boots. I got about half way in when I started having trouble reading it - going from one page to another, I began to find the subject suddenly changing on me. Careful study showed that the printer had managed to mix the pages around so that page 78 was followed by page 113. I stopped at this point - but otherwise it's an interesting book.
Paris Sewers And Sewermen: Realities And Representations, by Donald Reid (1991) - Covers the history of the sewers of Paris from the middle ages to the present, as well as its appearance in French literature, and even in politics over the past couple of centuries.
The Peopling Of British North America: An Introduction, by Bernhard Bailyn (1986) - Starting before the Great Migration of the early 17th century, down to the Revolution, the author boils all the various reasons for emegrating to two things: the need for cheap labor (which we are today still having to deal with), and land speculation (something else to keep an eye on).
Luftwaffe Handbook, 1939-1945, by Alfred Price (1977) - This very thin book claims to be "an in-depth reference manual on the Luftwaffe at war," and it does make a game effort towards covering the important parts.
Floyd Clymer's Historical Scrapbook - Early Advertising Art, by Floyd Clymer (1955) - "Early advertising art at its best and worst: 500 historical, educational, comical ads of many famous & some defunct firms," according to the cover, and boy howdy aren't they just that. I chiefly know of Floyd as being mostly involved in automobiles and motorcycles, especially his ill-fated attempt to revive the Indian Motocycle.
The Road To Serfdom: Text and Documents, by F. A. Hayek (orig prtd 1944; definitive edn 2007) - Written during WWII, this is still relevent. In writing about the collectivist movements of his time (Nazis, Fascists, Communists), he could well be talking about today's collectivists, the Progressive Liberal movement in America, for example. "Trust me, I'm from the government and have your best interests at heart."
Uncle Wiggly & Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, by Howard R Garis (1952) - Some squirrels, rabbits and ducks were having a picnic when ...
Oh, what bad foxes they were! One of them stepped right in the butter and the other one knocked over the pitcher of milk with his left foot and upset the plate of bread with his right foot ...
"What do you foxes want here? cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Take your foot out of the butter instantly, do you hear me?"
"Yes, I hear you," answered the fox very impolitely, and just to be mean he put his other foot in the butter and jiggled himself up and down.
And then Jackie and Peetie, two young dogs, came along and rescued the picnicers from the two naughty foxes. Yay.
And on this thrilling note, I shall close for now.
The Tough Coughs As He Ploughs The Dough: Early Writings and Cartoons By Dr. Seuss, ed by Richard Marschall (1987) - Really old stuiff from the 1920s and 30s, when he was just starting out and unsure of his way. For some reason I find much of the humor irritating, though from time to time the future Doctor shines through. The title piece appears on page 57: "Ough! Ough! Or Why I Believe In Simplified Spelling," where he (writing as a "Roumanian divinity student" new to America) showwers us with about every word containing the sound "ough" in all their various pronunciations. In the end he finds himself with three daughters named Xough, Yough and Zough. OK, now you try to say their names out loud. BTW the good Doctor's first name is Theophrastus. BTW2 It wasn't really dough, it just looked like it.
The Extraordinary Voyage of Pythias the Greek, by Barry Cunliffe (2002) - Before now, I'd heard of that fraternal order, the Knights of Pythias without quite knowing who or what a "pythias" was. Here I find that he was a Greek merchant from Massala (modern Marseilles) who for various reasons took a long trip across southern Gaul (France) to Burdigala (Bordeaux), up to Amorica (Brittany), around the British Islands, possibly a side trip to Iceland and around the North Sea before heading home to write of his experience arund 320 BC. His book seems to have pretty much disappeared, aside from quotes in various other people's books, many of them hostile to the idea that he actually made the trip, and even more so to the idea that any civilized person would take an intelligent interest in the ways and customs of those subhuman barbarians over there on the edge of the world. Oh swoon.
The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, by James Hannam (2011) - The title says it all, basically. A lot of what we "know" of the Middle Ages was based on some rather dishonest mudslinging by the Renaissance "progressives" who were trying to boost themselves by pretending that the work of their immediate predecessors were of less value than that of the classic Roman and Greek writers, and so on. As I noted in my brief review of that book on medieval warfare, they weren't morons back then.
Upgrading and Fixing a PC In Easy Steps, by Stuart Yarnold (2011) - I got this book mainly in order to try to catch up with the more recent developments in computer hardware, especially as I am seriously considering unloading that room full of old comp stuff that I am finally having to admit I wil;l never get around to doing anything with, and getting some more up-to-date junk instead. Does anyone need a Bernouli? I have a storage box full of drives, cartridges, SCSI cables and manuals. Why do I have this? Dunno, I just do, somehow.
The Search For The Etruscans, by James Wellard (1971) - One thing that made their neighbors the Romans froth at the mouth was that Etruscan woman were allowed to do all sorts of things that Roman women weren't allowed to, such as, say, drink wine and dine in mixed company, own property and even (GASP) have fun. They left a tremendous amount of archealogical relics behind, and the depressing part is that much of it was destroyed by peasant farmers who looted anything that could bring in a quick buck, and trampled everything else under their boots. I got about half way in when I started having trouble reading it - going from one page to another, I began to find the subject suddenly changing on me. Careful study showed that the printer had managed to mix the pages around so that page 78 was followed by page 113. I stopped at this point - but otherwise it's an interesting book.
Paris Sewers And Sewermen: Realities And Representations, by Donald Reid (1991) - Covers the history of the sewers of Paris from the middle ages to the present, as well as its appearance in French literature, and even in politics over the past couple of centuries.
The Peopling Of British North America: An Introduction, by Bernhard Bailyn (1986) - Starting before the Great Migration of the early 17th century, down to the Revolution, the author boils all the various reasons for emegrating to two things: the need for cheap labor (which we are today still having to deal with), and land speculation (something else to keep an eye on).
Luftwaffe Handbook, 1939-1945, by Alfred Price (1977) - This very thin book claims to be "an in-depth reference manual on the Luftwaffe at war," and it does make a game effort towards covering the important parts.
Floyd Clymer's Historical Scrapbook - Early Advertising Art, by Floyd Clymer (1955) - "Early advertising art at its best and worst: 500 historical, educational, comical ads of many famous & some defunct firms," according to the cover, and boy howdy aren't they just that. I chiefly know of Floyd as being mostly involved in automobiles and motorcycles, especially his ill-fated attempt to revive the Indian Motocycle.
The Road To Serfdom: Text and Documents, by F. A. Hayek (orig prtd 1944; definitive edn 2007) - Written during WWII, this is still relevent. In writing about the collectivist movements of his time (Nazis, Fascists, Communists), he could well be talking about today's collectivists, the Progressive Liberal movement in America, for example. "Trust me, I'm from the government and have your best interests at heart."
Uncle Wiggly & Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, by Howard R Garis (1952) - Some squirrels, rabbits and ducks were having a picnic when ...
Oh, what bad foxes they were! One of them stepped right in the butter and the other one knocked over the pitcher of milk with his left foot and upset the plate of bread with his right foot ...
"What do you foxes want here? cried Grandfather Goosey-Gander. "Take your foot out of the butter instantly, do you hear me?"
"Yes, I hear you," answered the fox very impolitely, and just to be mean he put his other foot in the butter and jiggled himself up and down.
And then Jackie and Peetie, two young dogs, came along and rescued the picnicers from the two naughty foxes. Yay.
And on this thrilling note, I shall close for now.