Book Nerd’s Comments (group member since Dec 20, 2018)

Book Nerd’s comments from the Never too Late to Read Classics group.

I've started reading a little.
I love that this is from a dog's point of view!
The first story City just screams 50s sci-fi. But one thing that's really interesting about it is that rather than humanity being crammed into a huge megacity it's about humans abandoning cities and all living on huge, isolated estates.

City by Clifford D. Simak is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl


181 pages

Total to date: 200,547

Welcome Tayjah and Joyce.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

180 pages

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

57 pages

The fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

82 pages

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

242 pages

Total to date: 193,255

Brian E wrote: "The Immaculate Conception is a celebration of Mary. It has nothing to do with Jesus being conceived by Mary without a sex act. It refers to Mary herself being born without original sin. It is assumed that Mary was still conceived through a sex act but the doctrine doesn't really address this and just refers to her sinless state."

That's interesting. Rachel was conceived without a sex act and without original sin so I guess she's both.

Sorry, I'm way behind on these threads.

I finished the book. I didn't love it but it was an interesting read. The short quick dialogue made me hear their words really deadpan for some reason if that makes any sense.
I know it's full of biblical allegory but the first part that was really familiar to me was when the pigs were all driven into the water. Then Culla was blamed for it though it wasn't his fault. Probably that's his punishment for impregnating his sister and then abandoning the baby.

Lesle wrote: "Rinthy so far is finding nothing but goodness. Culla on the otherhand?"
Yeah, that's interesting. Everybody's helping her while he just suffers. It's not actually said that she's a victim but maybe it's implied.

Lesle wrote: "Book Nerd Cormac is known for his Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his graphic depictions and his unique writing style, recognizable by a sparse use of punctuation!

He is well know for:
Blood Meridan
All the Pretty Horses
No Country for Old Men
The Road"
Those all look pretty interesting. I'll read The Road sometime.

John wrote: "I'll be reading this one - and I received a note yesterday that its ready to be collected from the library next week."
Great, Enjoy.

Brian E wrote: "Christ's other. But the Immaculate Conception means that Mary was born without sin not that she was born without a sex act. Nor does it reflect that she conceived Jesus without a sex act."
I don't understand what you mean. The story is that Jesus was conceived without a sex act. Mary wasn't.

Brian E wrote: "But Rachel being born without a sex act may mean that Miller intended her as a Christ-like figure. That view is enhanced by Abbot Z's baptizing her much as John the Baptist did to Christ. Rachel did seem to get more powerful after the baptism."
But Rachel stopped Abbot Z from baptizing her. Even Jesus was baptized so I'd say that Rachel was supposed to be born without original sin, that she's something more than human or maybe it means that original sin has finally been forgiven.

Okay, our REAL book for April is Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

A woman bears her brother's child, a boy. The brother leaves the baby in the woods and tells her he died of natural causes. Discovering her brother's lie, she sets forth alone to find her son. Brother and sister wander through a countryside being scourged by three terrifying strangers, toward an apocalyptic resolution.




I've heard of Cormac McCarthy but I don't know much about him.
I've started reading and I'm liking it so far.
The language isn't that difficult once you get into it but it might be hard if you're not American. The part that's much harder for me is that he doesn't use quotation marks for the dialogue.

It always sounded to me like "hump hump" as in he can't control his urges.

Mikiko wrote: "When I was younger I had only read a few of his children's books so this is a good opportunity to reread those and read the others for the first time.
I hope to eventually read the collection for ..."
Sounds great.
I read the beginning of The Magic Finger. It's super short and it seems really young even compared to his other kids books but I'll finish it when I get a chance.

No, it's nothing like the movie. It's about the idea of gremlins in World War II. More like the Bugs Bunny cartoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJrwO...

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.


338 pages

Total to Date: 73,515

It is really well written.

What did everybody think of Rachel at the end?

Nobody does.

Thanks. I was meaning to look those up.
There's a lot of Latin throughout the book.

Thanks. It appears several times.
Reading this I wish I understood Latin. You can get a little if you've studied a romance language but still plenty of things I don't understand.

Welcome Alena.

It's funny how each part ends with the buzzards.

Does anybody know what "AOL" means in this book?

I read Lolita a few years ago.
It wasn't even the pedophilia that bothered me that much. The guy was just messed up in the head. It's that he was such a creepy, manipulative piece of shit.