Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
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ABOUT BOOKS AND READING
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What are you reading these days? (Part ELEVEN (2015) ongoing thread for 2015
I'm with Eddie. I so often find a mistake and it spoils the book for me uaually; but sometimes the story is so good I forgive the author.
The book I'm listening to right now is putting my teeth on edge with more factual errors, this time with the work a woman is doing refurbishing some old items, but I agree with Nina. I've read other books by these authors & their stories are generally good enough to overcome a few minor ones. It's really only major ones that ruin books for me. I don't expect authors to research everything, although that does make a good case for plenty of beta & ARC readers with diverse skill sets. We're living longer & have more opportunities. Many of us have more than one career now not to mention hobbies. It's a real problem for authors as they face readers with such extensive & broad knowledge sets.I read something that said our knowledge was doubling every 5 years now. I'm not sure how that's figured, but the idea isn't new. Asimov & Dickson covered it pretty well in their series: Foundation & Dorsai, respectively. I think both might have made a point that library science, the ability to retain, catalog, find, & cross reference knowledge, is one of the most important sciences now.
Finding & versioning existing data is one of the toughest things we deal with on our network. It's over 20 years old, deals with every aspect of complicated sound systems from design to shipping. People come & go, but their replacements need historical information. It can be very tough finding it.
Interesting observations, Jim. I find it troublesome to find glaring mistakes concerning, in the newspapers, where i live and have lived most of my life and shouldn't editors double check before an article or essay goes to print? Sometimes I call and complain but usually to no avail. It wasn't that way when our paper was locally owned.
Jim wrote: "... Finding & versioning existing data is one of the toughest things we deal with on our network. It's over 20 years old, deals with every aspect of complicated sound systems from design to shipping. People come & go, but their replacements need historical information. It can be very tough finding it."It's mind-boggling just to THINK about it! And what if the Internet crashed! Maybe I shouldn't have gotten rid of our old encyclopedias!
Maybe that is why I was so impressed with David McCullough's "Wright Brothers," as there was excellent writing and no mistakes I cculd discern. Some important authors I can't say the same for...there I go ending with a preposition...
Nina wrote: "... I can't say the same for...there I go ending with a preposition... "That business about not ending with a preposition is such a trouble-maker. If we couldn't end some sentences with prepositions, our language would seem stilted. See example below:
"...I can't say the same for".
WOULD BE:
"... for which I can't same the same."
Thanks Joy, you made me feel better today.
Joy, I'm not sure if they even print encyclopedias any more. Most quit 10 or 15 years ago & Britannica finally quit just a few years back. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com...
As the above points out, there's just too much information that changes too fast for bound books to keep up. I remember the old annual update volumes, but they'd have to come daily & still be twice the size, I think. It's so much easier to do on wikis.
Definition of a wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
And then there is the problem of interconnectedness. I believe the rule is: The more complex a system, the more connections & dependencies within it. Half the space of each article would be taken up citing other articles. Again, wikis to the rescue. Multiple wikis cover a broad range of general topics. Hyperlinks within each specific topic can instantly link, even update from, other wikis & sites on the Internet.
Jim, thanks for the link about the Wiki application. To me it's a small miracle! (Or should I say an ENORMOUS miracle!)
It really is an enormous miracle. I remember days of searching through card catalogs to find book indexes to search through to find text to skim through to possibly find a nugget of information. If the card catalog was in order, the book was in, & had a decent index. Now I can google for most anything, although attention has to be paid to reliability, especially circular references. Still, I've read a couple of articles that say Wikipedia is as reliable overall as the old encyclopedias & dictionaries used to be.And there is a lot more info out there, really esoteric stuff. For instance, I spent several hours this morning dealing with a specific type of hard drive formatting & finally got it to work by reading up on the specifications & how it presented in various operating systems. After several tries with different utilities, I finally got the firmware to the correct version for it to set it with a utility. Not even the manufacturer knew how to do it properly, but there were enough clues to figure it out, so I don't have to spend a lot of money buying new drives.
Sad, but I confess to using Google rather than looking anything up in the encyclpedias.
I have t agree that more often than not, animation is pure fun.
On the question of whether or not encyclopedias are still published in print editions, The World Book Encyclopedia definitely is. The 2015 edition is currently for sale on Amazon.
I usually go to Wikipedia when searching for information. They don't beat around the bush. The first sentence usually tells me what I want to know!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Werner, it's interesting that The World Book Encyclopedia is still publishing. Thanks for that info.
Jim wrote: "... I remember days of searching through card catalogs to find ... a nugget of information. ..."PS-Jim, nowadays those card catalogs seem more ancient than the horse and buggy! :)
Nina wrote: "Sad, but I confess to using Google rather than looking anything up in the encyclpedias."I don't think it's sad, just different. It's certainly faster & easier, although it holds its own dangers. I've gone back to search for things that I know I've read & found the information missing. Specifically, I was looking for an article about the cost of publishing books back when ebooks were just taking off, but it was gone. I'm not sure if that was a search engine issue (I tried several) or the base material had been deleted. I suspect it was the latter, although I think it was changed. I'm a bit paranoid on the subject of censorship & editing the past. It goes on a lot more on the Internet than most people would believe or think & is one of the worst sins. I've seen too many lies spread by judicious editing & deleting.
So, I still have a lot of reference books & save many articles as PDFs now. I print the page to a PDF files using a free utility called CutePDF or copy & paste it into a Word document. It's a tough balance on what to keep or rely on being able find later. Keeping it means I'm relying on my filing skills which are awful. I rarely seem to think about the same thing the same way twice. Luckily, I can search within most documents if I really get stuck.
Yes, Jim, the search engines are part of the miracle. Even "cut & paste" is a miracle to me. LOL
As it should be to anyone who keeps a notebook with hours worth of notes in it, Joy. The ability to instantly copy pictures is one of the miracles of the age.I think the ability to find, order, & get books is one of the finer things, too. I remember trying to finish series for over a decade, but now I can generally get all the books in moments.
I've had a copy of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s The Green Progression on my shelf for years, but never got around to reading it. I don't know why, but I'm glad I finally corrected that. It's the only novel of his that isn't SF or fantasy that I'm aware of. It's not full of action, but is a mystery-espionage novel that gave me a fantastic look at Washington DC & the incredibly complex issues surrounding EPA regulations. I gave it 5 stars here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "I've had a copy of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s The Green Progression on my shelf for years, but never got around to reading it. I don't know why, but I'm glad I finally cor..."Serious stuff! Kind of scary too.
I just finished a novel with main character a mole/spy for both China and the US. "A Map of Betrayal." by Ha Jin. You might like it Jim.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! We are celebrating with a daughter and her husband by going to a Jumpin' Catfish restaurant. Among other offerings there is Navy bean soup and hush puppies. Yumm.
Happy Father's Day to all the dads!
A Map of Betrayal has mixed reviews. I might get it if I can find it in audio format. I just splurged & ordered myself several short story books.Have fun at the restaurant. No kids here, although all sent me a nice message. I talked to all of them yesterday, anyway. My DIL had to have another emergency DNC after losing a baby, so the weekend is shot for them & my daughter who is very close to them. I got the bills done & part of the lawn mowed. Filled everything up with gas & diesel. Had a good nap & need to go out & finish up the lawn. I might ride later, but the flies are pretty bad now. Lots of green-heads out. They're like a big deer fly, every bit as fast, but bite twice as hard.
Jim, sorry about your DIL. That's too bad.We have black flies here. I remember that someone told me that black flies are usually bothersome here from Mother's Day to Father's Day. They're supposed to be less annoying after Father's Day. Really a bother when trying to do yard work. They bite and leave welts.
Jim wrote: "A Map of Betrayal has mixed reviews. I might get it if I can find it in audio format. I just splurged & ordered myself several short story books.I think the audio of this book would be a good one/perhaps better than reading it. Black flies sound even worse than our 97 degree temps today.Have fun at the restaurant. No ..."
I'm currently reading Charles & Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair by Gyles Brandreth. They are trying to "sell" Camilla to the public. :)The first part of the book is filled with gossip about their ancestors. I'm not interested in who slept with whom back in the 1700s and 1800s. All those fancy titles of English nobility make my eyes glaze over. They are all strangers to me. I don't care a whit about them. Maybe the rest of the book will be more interesting since it will deal with persons I'm familiar with.
It's interesting to read the statistics of how the Brits feel about all this. It's also interesting to read how the media has treated the issues.
IMO, now matter how nice a person Camilla turns out to be, many of us can never forget the pain which Diana went through, pain which was caused by Camilla's relationship with Prince Charles.
Of course, the kids, William and Harry, are caught in the middle. They have to go along with what has happened, just as the Queen must go along at this point. The future awaits...
I don't often give YA nonfiction books 5 stars, but Blizzard: The Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy deserves it. Very well done & well read. The perfect amount of information on the Blizzard of 1888 that hit the north east US.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Jim wrote: "I don't often give YA nonfiction books 5 stars, but Blizzard: The Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy deserves it. Very well done & well read. The perfect amou..."Jim, I hope we never see a blizzard that that one! I worry about things like that, especially with the unknown effects of global warming.
I mentioned not long ago reading, "The Queen Mother," and I don't know the author right now as I've loaned the book to a friend but reading it does not endear me to Camilla nor Charles. If it is indeed true he had not one, but two mistresses. Poor Diana, she didn't stand a chance. My opinion.
Nina wrote: "I mentioned not long ago reading, "The Queen Mother," and I don't know the author right now as I've loaned the book to a friend but reading it does not endear me to Camilla nor Charles. If it is in..."Nina, was this the book: The Queen Mother: The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Who Became Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by Lady Colin Campbell.
I agree... Diana didn't stand a chance! So true!
Joy, you've seen bigger blizzards in 1993(?) & a couple of years ago. There were worse ones in this country in 1836 & several other times & areas during that century. While it was bad, it was the state of our society at the time that exacerbated the situation: No litter laws, horse drawn equipment, above ground trains, bad tenements & labor laws. That's one of the things I liked so much about the book. Murphy made good points about them all. He kept it simple, but any thinking person can see similar weaknesses in our society & our personal situations today. It's a good reminder that we might think we're at the top of the world, but the weather still kicks our butts on a regular basis & that we need to plan for it. Generally, we do, although in the late 90's, KY's snow removal hadn't had to react to much snow in years. When a storm dropped a couple of feet of snow, they couldn't even find half the plows. Corruption & laziness crippled much of the state, at least according to a friend of mine.
Yes, we had a long power outage years ago. Can't recall the date. Frightening. We live on the edge...
I remember no snow removal equipment in the thirties when we had bad storms. However, we had cars mostly then. And most lived in the city and could use public transportion. I guess the farmers used horses and a plow.
I wonder when snowblowers came into general use.
PS-About snowblowers, Wiki says: "...it is Arthur Sicard (1876–1946) who is generally credited as the inventor of the first practical snow blower. In 1925 Sicard completed his first prototype, based on a concept he described in 1894. He founded Sicard Industries in Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec and by 1927 his vehicles were in use removing snow from the roadways of the town of Outremont, now a borough of Montreal." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_bl...
One of the fascinating things I read about in the book, "The Wright Brothers," was how many other things were being invented around that same time; telephone, electricity, steam engines etc. What the young people with their cell phones or I-Pads take for granted. One of my younger friends couldn't imagine us not always having two cars. I told her we didn't even have a car until we had two children; much let two. However, we did live and work in the city.
I read something interesting about mass transportation the other day. It said that many cities had mass transportation in the 30's & 40's, so car sales stagnated. GM & several other companies like Firestone bought up a lot them & ruined them so they'd be able to sell cars. Sounds like a conspiracy theory until I read that GM was fined for doing just that. I'm still not sure they did as much as the article said & meant to look into it more, but got sidetracked.
We didn't have a phone in the 1940s. It was a thrill when we finally got one. I think we needed an operator to put a call through, but I'm not sure.As for ruining a business, I heard that Rockefeller fixed a bridge on the Erie Canal so that boats couldn't go under it. That helped the railroad industry.
Joy, interesting data. Can you believe anyone that carries their phone day and night like an appendege could imagine no phone? We actually did live to this age without one of those they seem to not live without.
Yes, Nina. Today everyone wants to stay "connected". Seems strange to me.
I wonder how this connectedness will play out. Most people have embraced it to the point that many have lost any sense of propriety & continuity. They'll be doing one task, feel their phone buzz that a text, email, or call has come in & whip it out. It's rude when speaking to people or eating dinner, but the habit seems so ingrained that they do it while driving or doing other tasks that really require 2 hands & concentration.Work, home, & play times are rarely distinguishable any more. I know people who get in trouble because they're not keeping up properly with their work emails while on vacation. That's ridiculous unless you're the owner of a company.
All good points, Jim. I wonder what the psychiatrists have to say about all of this.PS-I often notice those things when I'm in stores or in the food markets. I also often see people with those "things" attached to their ears.
Nina wrote: "Joy, Did you ever try reading, "Elizabeth Street" by Laurie Fabiano? And do you know anything about the book, "Everything I Never Told You?" It is our book selection this month for my book group.
I don't think anyone can really say how damaging yet, Joy. It's too soon to really tell. Some articles say that kids growing up with it are thinking differently but are able to function well. Others disagree.
I'd heard that Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz was very similar to the Herriot books. Not really. Very good for the first half of the book, crashed in the second, but I still gave it 4 stars. Well read, pretty much a perfect audio book. Here's my review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I am currently reading, "The Perfect Son," and I am forcing myself to put it down as I must go water my flowers, fix supper and feed birds; but it is not easy. The author is Barbara Claypole White. Wish me luck.
Jim wrote: "I'd heard that Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz was very similar to the Herriot books. Not really. Very good for the first half of the book, crashed i..."As I commented, I liked reading your review but not anxious to read this man's life on the farm. I think the Herriot books are more to my liking. Maybe because I so admire the author.
I missed the latest GR notifications. Will try too get back to reply to the latest posts soon.
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Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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I'm reading The Peter Lawford Story: Life with the Kennedys, Monroe, and the Rat Pack by Patricia Seaton Lawford. Lots of gossip. :)
I'm also reading another book by Gene Wilder. This time it's Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance. The description says it's "romantic, dramatic fiction set during World War II". I hope I enjoy it as much as I did his other books. Something tells me I will. As far as I'm concerned, Gene Wilder can do no wrong! :)
PS-To use Werner's expression, these are "light, quick reads." :)