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

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

(view spoiler)[Well, I was wrong.
The ending kind of reminded me of one of my favorite books as a kid, My Side of the Mountain, where in the end he winds up having to go back to a society he wants no part of.

BTW, My Side of the Mountain could be a good wilderness or children's book read. (hide spoiler)]

Rosemarie wrote: "This is a survival book, nominally science fiction.
It's interesting to see how the different characters work together- or don't work together.
I enjoyed it, but not as much as some of the other books we've read this year."
I see your point but I like a survival story too so I'm really enjoying it.

I'm halfway through and my theory:
(view spoiler)[They ARE still on earth. The time travel thing finally worked, accidentally.
They're probably a few hndred thousand years into the future for the constellations to have changed and who knows how the moon broke up. (hide spoiler)]

Some great quotes in here:
"I think you are a romantic. Now this is a very romantic age, so there is no room for romantics in it, it calls for practical men."

"Life, all life has the twin drives to survive and to reproduce. intelligence is an aimless byproduct except as it serves these basic drives."

"Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal."

And the one I want to use all the time --"were you born that stupid? Or did you have ti study?"

Yes, I finished it and it was great. The author makes the comparison between werewolves and how savage humans can be. It probably would have been better if I knew anything about French history.

Yeah, reading several wolf books could get confusing. I've read a couple of books by Robert McCammon and loved them. I've heard everything he writes is great.

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it somewhat. I'll read it soon.

The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore

294 pages

Group Total 258,558

I'm halfway through and really enjoying it.

I just started this. It's from 1933, more modern than I thought.

Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick

298 pages

Group Total: 255,035

The Library of Babel really fascinated me. Somebody calculated that to contain every combination this thing would have to be light years across.

The final exam for Dr. Matson's Advanced Survival class was meant to be just that: only a test. But something has gone terribly wrong...and now Rod Walker and his fellow students are stranded somewhere unknown in the universe, beyond contact with Earth, at the other end of a tunnel in the sky. Stripped of all comforts, hoping for a passage home that may never appear, the castaways must band together or perish. For Rod and his fellow survivors, this is one test where failure is not an option....

The ending was pretty cool and of course very PKD.

Karin wrote: "I started reading Yeats, but am not sure if I can continue. I'm not into poetry about fairies and Druids--it's too bad I didn't find this when I was twelve or thirteen!"
Well I'm basically twelve. Sounds like some poetry I might like.

I'm about a third of the way through and not really sure what to think about this. Typical PKD weirdness.

Dr. Bloodmoney is a post-nuclear-holocaust masterpiece filled with a host of Dick's most memorable characters: Hoppy Harrington, a deformed mutant with telekinetic powers; Walt Dangerfield, a selfless disc jockey stranded in a satellite circling the globe; Dr. Bluthgeld, the megalomaniac physicist largely responsible for the decimated state of the world; and Stuart McConchie and Bonny Keller, two unremarkable people bent on the survival of goodness in a world devastated by evil. Epic and alluring, this brilliant novel is a mesmerizing depiction of Dick's undying hope in humanity.

n a work that strives to do for werewolves what Stoker's Dracula did for vampires, Endore's werewolf, an outcast named Bertrand Caillet, travels round seeking to calm the beast within. An episodic tale, the story wanders through 19th Century France and into hotspots like the Franco-Prussian war. Stunning in its sexual frankness and eerie, fog-enshrouded visions, this novel was decidedly influential for the generations of horror and science fiction authors who came after.

I finished Season 2. Trying to do it all this month was too ambitious.

Episodes where earthlike planets evolve exactly like earth to the point of having an American constitution with the exact same words are a ridiculous but unavoidable part of classic Star Trek.
But reading The Omega Glory I saw that it was probably inspired by The Red Hawk, with white Americans living like Native Americans and preserving an ancient U.S. flag.

Rosemarie wrote: "I've just finished reading a free on-line copy. It was such a fun read!
One of my favourite characters is Mr. Kiku.
And Lummie, of course."
Yeah, I immediately pictured Morgan Freeman.

Well I finished Season 1. Hope I can get it all done this month.
I've always liked The Devil in the Dark.

I just read my favorite episode A Taste of Armageddon with my favorite quote: "Death, destruction, disease, horror, that's what war is all about. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided. You've made it neat and painless. So neat and painless you've had no reason to stop."

Pam wrote: "I watched the 1970s mini-series and remember liking it."
From what I've heard that one was all from Blackthorne's point of view. The book has a lot of the Japanese character's POVs as well.

Maybe I'll read more of the Asian saga someday.