Constant Reader discussion
Salon
>
The 'Change One Letter' Game
date
newest »


"Silence of the Limbs"
Psychopathic killer arm
"About a Buoy"
Nick Hornby writes a seafaring classic
"Girlfirend in a Comma"
Tale of a teeny-weeny girlfriend
"A Thousand Splendid Buns"
Khaled cooks up trouble at the patisserie
"The Whining"
King tells us how a writer moans to his wife
"Where Eagles Darn"
Macleans classic wartime sewing epic
"The Beagle has Landed"
Jack Higgins little known Darwin biography
"Semen Pillars of Wisdom"
T E Lawrences messy/sordid story
That's all for now....

"The Partly Cloudy bat Riot"
a tale of Transylvania.
"Angels and Lemons"
The Illuminati try to sell a Ford Pinto to the Pope.
"Coop!"
Evelyn Waugh's searing expose of the poultry industry.

Textbook of sexually Transmitted Diseases.
A Bride Too Far
A serial polygamist's luck finally runs out.
CEO Wulf
The monster in the corner office.
National Vervet
Plucky monkey achieves success as a jockey.
Hotel Du Lam
In a startling change from the norm, one of Anita Brookner's mousy anemic heroines sets up a 'safe house' for escaped criminals.
Hotel Du Lay
In a startling change from the norm, one of Anita Brookner's mousy anemic heroines opens a whorehouse.
A Star Balled Henry
Puddenbrooks
Poor dietary habits lead to a family's gradual decline.

The Tipping Pint
Tipping Pints are "the levels at which the momentum for drunkenness becomes unstoppable." Gladwell defines a tipping pint as a medical term, "the moment of intoxication, the threshold, the boiling point." Gladwell describes the "three rules of drunkenness": The Law of the Few, The Stickiness Factor, and The Power of Context, developing these and other concepts through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes that are geared to explain and describe the enormous and "mysterious" physiological changes that mark alcoholism.
The Plow Against America
Philip Roth departs from his usual autobiographical themes, delving into the past in this ingenuous work he asks what if the British prevented the ideas & inventions of Industrial Revolution from spreading to the new world, enabling them to crush the newly formed country and once again subject it to British Rule.
The Goad
Taking inspiration form the range wars of the late 1800s, Cormac McCarthy’s newest novel depicts the ruthlessness with which gunman, hired by wealthy ranchers, hunt and kill supposed rustlers, precipitating a war that culminates in a lengthy shootout that is only ended by the bloody intervention of the U.S. Calvary.
Blondness
A city is hit by a strange phenomenon. One by one the citizens’ hair turns blond, rendering them incapable of intelligent political discourse. As they abandon their jobs and civic responsibilities for the beach and malls, chaos reigns. The disintegration of society is halted by one natural blonde (Elle Woods?), who inspires the citizens to use their new-found fashion sense as a force for good.
Omnibore's Dilemma
The modern American "meet-market" and prevalence of matchmaking websites has thrown us into a bewildering online landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those potential mates might reject us. At the same time we're realizing that our small talk choices also have profound implications for the health of our social life. The Omnibore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of dating in America.
The Things They Curried
They curried rats, bugs, malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, and if they didn’t make it home alive, they curried each other….

Liz
P.S.
American Pestoral
The Lathering
Go Lead (cheated by changing a letter & adding a space)
Then Ewe Came to the End
The Blind Old (possible cheat: replaced a letter with a space)
The Wind-Up Bard Chronicle

"Waiter for Elephants" : Would you like peanuts with that?
"How Proust can Change your Wife" : She'll just be lounging around the house, reading and guzzling madeleines.
"Vile Bowies" : rockstar nanny's tell-all memoirs.
"Baked Lunch" : chef's special at the Burroughs diner, together with
"Rabbit Bun"
"Schindler's Lisp" : Speech therapy during the Third Reich.
"One Good Turd" : Kate Atkinson's constipated detective tries to work things out. A classic in the scatological detective genre.
"The Jungle Boor" : Kipling's take on Kurtz.
"The Hogs of Babel" : Sinister experiments teach pigs to talk (don't miss the sequel, 1984, where they take over the farm).
"The Arias of my Expertise" : John Hodgman's guide to Opera.
"Ripley's Lame" : A murderous con artist meets with an accident.
"Consider the lob. Stir" : In this sequel to "Infinite jest", our tennis prodigy enrols in the Culinary Academy.
"Empire Fails" : Richard Russo takes a look back at the Bush presidency.
waiting on Godot - don't leave your waiters waiting. anger management for waiters.

After spending years learning to paint using his left foot, a paraplegic artist faces yet another setback after a horrendous gardening mishap.
And the Bank Played On.
Citigroup is bailed out yet again!
Sunder the Greenwood Tree
The loggers' manifesto.
Return of the Dative
The grammarians' manifesto.
The lion, the witch, and the ward-probe.
Things have gotten a little strange in the Cleaver household.
The trail.
Kafka and Bill Bryson hike the Appalachian trail. Hilarity ensues.
Kafka on the whore.
Kafka and Murakami visit a brothel. Hilarity ensues.
http://www.satori.lv/uploads/image/ka...
In the petal colony.
Kafka visits Haight-Ashbury; turns on, tunes in, drops out. Hilarity ensues.
Sons and plovers.
The gamekeeper's story.

The permanent damage done by a hapless fisherman.
MacBath:
Mcdonald's new solution to spilled catsup.


The Habbitt A bunch of nuns who enter a spelling bee and come away with the Lard of the Wing booby prize

Deplorably daring demons do dastardly dames during dormant damnation. Demigods drone dutifully of decent demeanor.
Breaking Down
Edward can't handle being beautiful anymore.
Animal Firm
Who needs a farm when you can legally get it? We do divorce cases, property settlement, and write up wills.
Son of a Watch
If there was the hourglass, then the watch, it only makes sense that something should come next. The cellphone does alot more than tell the time, but just look who his father is.
Lord of the Fries
Obesity strikes the stranded survivors of a devastating plane crash.
The Arabian Mights
If the UN spent less time conjecturing exactly how to handle the Middle East, they might actually do something.
Night Club
First Rule: You don't talk about the Night Club.
Second Rule: You don't talk about the Night Club.
Third Rule: Only one girl a night.
Sherlock Homes
It's elementary my dear Creditor.
A Window for One Year
The true fate of Cinderella's missing glass slipper.

Gone With the Wine A fictional account of the depradation wreaked on the suffering South by the vengeful looters and sots of Sherman's army.
The Inheritance of Less Poignant chronicle of disappointed heirs during the Great Recession.
The Mall on the Floss Hardy's indignant rebuke to developers whose monstrosities destroy the beauty of the English countryside.
Wolf Halt Hilary Mantel's brilliant recreation of another era, told from the perspective of the penultimate wolf, highlights a little-known consequence of the deforestation of England in the High Middle Ages.

Aslan realizes he isn't going to live forever.
The Norse and His Boy
A tryst between Thor and a young muse. Who knew Viking's had a sensitive side? It's called how to cleanly decapitate a Saxon.
White Boise
A study of racism in Idaho.
A Thousand Splendid Sons
A expose of polygamy in America.

Gone With the Wine A fictional account of the depradation wreaked on the suffering South by the vengeful looters and sots of Sherman's army.
..."
Bleak Horse! Ha!

Young Mary Yellan chose to honor her mother's dying request to run a tattoo parlor with her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss.
The Island of the Color Blond
Oliver Sachs describes the strange Dutch island of Terschelling in the 18th century, where the genetic anomaly occurred of a whole population with the same hair color!
The Tile Machine
H.G. Wells describes his nifty invention to redecorate the bathroom.
Eleanor Rugby
A lonely woman's story to be part of a sports team.
the Year of the Floor
Dystopic novel about a catastrophe that touches the very foundation of our existence.
Shite Teeth (edit: sorry for the profanity)
Zadie Smith's first novel describes the lives of two north London families in search for decent dental care within the NHS.
the Bland Assassin
About a very mild killer indeed!

Ooh, if only I could earn a living that way. LOL!

Chinua Achebe introduces this year's edition of the SI swimsuit issue
Let Us Now Braise Famous Men
Desperate times call for desperate measures in this photo documentary of the Depression-era South
The Gnus of Navarone
A special fighting unit of even-toed ungulates battle cyber-crime by developing a new operating system.
Gaudy Knight
Tales from the gay round table
Miss Smilla's Sense of Snot
Crime-fighting otorhinolaryngologist tracks down the infamous Arctic Ripper
Jake Eyre
The mad lady in the attic isn't the only dark secret in this update of a classic
Lout of Africa
The Idi Amin story
St Lucy's Home for Girls Braised by Wolves
A new restaurant opens in the French Quarter.
The Souse at Pooh Corner
Winnie is serving up these amazing hunnytinis!
The Soils of Poynton
Henry James's magnificent treatise on the excretory habits of the aristocracy
Black Lamb and Gay Falcon
Rebecca West infiltrates the Manhattan disco scene with the two eponymous club kids as her guides.
Geats, Shoots, and Leaves
Finally! Lynne Truss gives Beowulf a grammatical cleanup.

Below are the ones (posted by David) which made me laugh out loud.
(I've copied and pasted them below. They're worth repeating.):
Hotel Du Lay:
In a startling change from the norm, one of Anita Brookner's mousy anemic heroines opens a whorehouse.
Hotel Du Lam:
In a startling change from the norm, one of Anita Brookner's mousy anemic heroines sets up a 'safe house' for escaped criminals.
All the Pretty Houses:
Cormac MacCarthy's verbal tribute to the real estate industry.
Mein Krampf:
A certain failed Austrian artist drones on about his bodily ailments.
The Right Stiff:
Tom Wolfe explores the growing phenomenon of space burial.
Lady Windermere's Fat:
Mr Wilde draws attention to the dramatic increase in obesity in Victorian England.
The Brothels Karamazov:
Heidi Fleiss meets Dostoevski.
Thongs Fall Apart:
Chinua Achebe introduces this year's edition of the SI swimsuit issue
Thanks for the chuckles, David!

The Man Who Mistook His Wine for a Hat
Case histories of severe laundry stains.
The Boot Thief
A young girl in Nazi Germany learns to wear shoes...
Wholes
Sequel in which the holes at Camp Green Lake get filled in again.
One Fist: Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Dr Seuss' unusual memoirs of fishing by hand.
The Mod Delusion
How a generation came to think scooters were cool
O, Robot
A tale of positronic love
The Handmaid's Talc
A woman's life in a world in which bathroom products are forbidden
The Old Man and the Tea
Epic tale of struggle as one man alone fights to get his teabag out.
Books mentioned in this topic
Murder on the Orient Express (other topics)Romeo and Juliet (other topics)
The Big Sleep (other topics)
Obviously, Poirot's "explanation" of the murder was just part of a government coverup.
Blau Bert's Parrot
While rummaging around in Sigmund's files, Barnes and Cleese come across another case study of parrot obsession, that of the mysterious "Blue Bert". Freud's handwriting being notoriously illegible, in some instances the patient's name is rendered as "Blau Bart", in others as "Blau Bert", leading to speculation that Freud's patient was actually the infamous Bluebeard. The semiotic correspondence between the defunct parrot, trapped in its cage, and the trapped, dead concubines of the monstrous Bluebeard is examined through the prism of pomo feminazi deconstructionism in the mistressful exegesis of Barnhard, Paglia, Wolf, and Pelosi Hot Sluts, Dead Parrots, and the Crimson Tide : We don't need no stinkin' badges!
A dissenting voice is provided by DeSelby in his controversial article in The Nation "The bitchez be trippin': that's no parrot, that's a ferret!"