At 2027 this evening, 21 Feb 2022, I concluded an initial read of Glenda of Oz, fourteenth and last of L. Frank Baum's Oz series. As with previous Oz titles, my e-book edition includes illustrations from the original printing, in this case by John R. Neill. (The series was later re-illustrated with more "up-to-date" images. I've seen samples of these. They're good, but I prefer the originals.) Here, Ozma and Dorothy, on their own, leave the Emerald City to stop an impending war between two remote, isolated groups of Oz peoples, get in over their heads, and are eventually rescued by Glenda and assorted series-standbys as well as a few new additions.

The book's intro states that while all previous Oz entries are fantasies, Glenda crosses the line into Science-Fiction. I don't see it. Yeah, some mechanical apparatus are present, but they are controlled by magical means. As to the series as a whole, I enjoy and recommend it. All fourteen books combined are no longer than many a standalone single novel, and in e-book format can be had for a song, possibly free. I recommend getting an edition with the original artwork. It adds the fun to see how Baum envisioned his various creations.

I'm still in the midst of a reading slump, which is why I chose to read Glenda rather than continue the Buster Keaton bio began not that many days ago. I'll either return to it now, or another of the several books I'm partway through. Or something else all together.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Feb 22 2022, 04:13 AM

I'm nearing the end of The Expanse books and I don't want it to end. Almost done Tiamat's Wrath, leaving only Leviathan Falls left.


Amazing series.

At 1327 this afternoon, 23 Feb 2022, I concluded an initial read of L. Frank Baum's shortish fairy tale, Queen Zixi of Ix. Published by the company whose Oz editions I own, it includes original artwork by Frederick Richardson. A Fairy Queen has her maidens construct a magic cloak, which grants whoever dons it one wish, with a few restrictions tacked on, then set adrift in the moral world. It has a slight tie-in with the Oz series in that one of its characters attends a function in the Emerald City near the end of an early Oz book. It's a nice little tale, perfect to sandwich between more meaty material or while away a few hours during a reading slump.

At 2115 yesterday evening, 28 Feb 2022, I concluded an initial read of The Little White Bird, by J.M. Barrie; first of seven titles, their one commonality a relationship with Peter Pan, combined in one e-book as The Adventures of Peter Pan. I'm at a loss to describe it. I can say for certain that it is not a children's book. It is, on the whole, a tale narrated by a middle-age upper-class man of leisure, chronicling his often odd relationships with a small cast of (mostly) lower-class characters. The narrator at first comes off as prudish and petty. While he never wholly outgrows those traits, much is revealed to be bluster and 'humbug'. When all is said and done, I deem him kindly and eccentric. (He does his best to hide his kindness from the world.)

His interactions with children play a large role in the tale. It is during them that we get the chapters introducing Peter Pan to the world. It's a rather different Peter Pan from that depicted in Disney's adaptation. For one thing, Peter is seven months old in the book. For another, he lives with fairies (and other mythical creatures) in a large 'garden' in London. His chapters are only a small portion of the White Bird. Those chapters were later extracted and published on their own as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Those who read The Little White Bird need not bother with Kensington. I plan to skip it during my reading of the Adventures.

As to the white bird, this refers to the narrator's premise that little white birds are children awaiting birth. (There's more to it than this, but I'll not spoil things.)

I like the book. It is well written with an intriguing story-line. It can be hard to follow at times, but in a good way. As a work of literature, it easily outclasses the various Baum Oz books. Those are, of course, much easier reads, and enjoyable in their own right.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 1 2022, 02:48 PM

At 0338 this morning I concluded an initial read of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy. Unlike Little White Bird, this is more in line with what folks are likely to expect from a Peter Pan novel. It's not a sanitized as Disney's treatment, a plus for me. I enjoyed it, but easily prefer White Bird. An oddity. PP&W seemed a short read. Yet it took roughly as long to read as did White Bird, which I consider a full-length novel, roughly five days. This sort of thing is harder to keep straight on the Kindle than it is with conventional printed books. Or so it seems to me.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 5 2022, 02:53 PM

I finished reading The Expanse series last night, sans the novellas. If you enjoy sci-fi, the series is a must. Permanently cemented at the top of my favorites list.

Potential good news:
It looks as if my 10th Gen Paperwhite again functions properly, after several days of non use. My issue? Following a recent software update it was not able to open any of the several Kindle e-books I attempted to read. Project Gutenberg titles, transferred from my PC, continued to open without issue. I attempted several reasonably simple 'fixes' found on Amazon's Kindle forum. (I'm not the only one with this issue.) None worked. Then while ago, again visiting Kindle Forums, I noticed a new thread on this same topic. Its sole reply contains the fix. An easier fix by far than others found on the forum. So far as I can tell, all's well again save one casualty: The Project Gutenberg book I'm reading lost its bookmark during the fix. I spent more time than I cared to finding where I am.

The not so good news:
I'm in the thralls of a lengthy reading slump. I've completed on one title this month, and am nowhere near finishing any of the several books I've been pecking at.

For what it's worth, I recently purchased a collection of the complete short-stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, ultra cheap (as an e-book) on Amazon. Whether sale or normal price I know not.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Apr 18 2022, 01:14 AM

I've read a few Ursula Le Guin books. Left hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series come to mind.

At 0435 this morning I concluded an initial read of Dana Stevens' recently published Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. An enjoyable read, despite occasionally covering topics only nebulously related to the submit matter. For instance, Stevens devotes much space to Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization Keaton, while alcoholic, had no connection with whatsoever. While the beginnings of AA are interesting in their own right, imo they deserve little more than passing mention here. Those pages might have been better spent discussing those of Keaton's early shorts and features that the author chooses to give short shrift. But again, it's a worthwhile read for anyone interested in the subject matter.

At 1946 yesterday evening, 12 Apr 2022, I concluded an initial read of Stephen Fry's Mythos: book 1, which covers the origin of the Greek gods, demigods, lesser immortals and so on, and eventfully mortal man. The stories or told with wit and humor, while remaining faithful to the overall gist of the sort material. The book does not include everything it might have, but doesn't short-sheet what it chooses to include. The series continues with two further books devoted to ancient Greek myths; Age of Heroes and Troy. A fourth book is in the works.

At 1909 this evening I concluded an initial read of Edward Marston's The Railway Detective, first in a long series of like-themed books. I've no idea how this compares with other Detective/Crime/Mystery novels, as it's a genre that doesn't normally tempt me. As you might suspect, what drew me to this particular title is its British Steam-era Railway connection. That's something I can sink my teeth into (though I rarely wear them while reading).

What shocks me is discovering, after-the-fact, that the book was not, as I had assumed, first published long ago, but is instead relatively recent, with a 2004 publication date!

A solid, enjoyable read, but not read-of-the-year material.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Apr 18 2022, 01:40 AM

At 1955 this evening, I concluded Edward Marston's The Excursion Train, book two in his The Railway Detective series. Railways/trains play a less front-and-center role in this entry, a minus for me. Too, early on I felt that its mainstay protagonists were possibly becoming a bit typecast. However, as the story progressed this ceased to be a concern. Though the crime/detective genre is not one I am drawn to, I find this book, like its predecessor, a solid, entertaining read.

I've not yet decided what to tackle next. Possibly The Secret Life of Groceries, which sounded so intriguing to me when a BookTuber I sometimes watch discussed it that I purchased it for my Kindle on-the-fly as the episode continued to play in the background. Will I like it? We shall see. This sort of thing is right up my alley, though it's an alley I seldom venture down (in literature).

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Apr 29 2022, 02:28 AM

Catastrophe averted!

Decided to retire early and read more in The Railway Detective, book 3. Got comfy on the sofa. Fired up the Paperwhite. Rather, I pressed the POWER button. Nothing happened. Sleep-mode advert remained on screen, that was it.

My first thought was that maybe I'd allowed the Kindle's charge to dwindle too low during my last cession. Plugged it into my wall-charger adaptor. Pressed POWER. Eureka! The power light turned green. For about two seconds, then changed to orange. Sleep-mode advert remained on screen. Nothing else happened.

I left it plugged into the wall adaptor some time, then hit POWER. Same result as before.

Disconnected the adaptor. Fired up the PC. Visited Amazon to check the Paperwhite's warranty. I'm good, time wise, but might or might not be covered depending on the issue and cause.

Decided to do a little investigating online before contacting Amazon. Found an article on "simple" fixes to try when a Paperwhite won't turn on.

Tried fix one. Voilà, it rebooted itself to full functionality. Well, I assume it did. The battery was indeed low. It's now charging via a PC USB port.

The problem, according to the article, a frozen screen. The fix, press and hold POWER 40 seconds, release, press and hold another 3-5 seconds. That's the fix used a while back when the Paperwhite, following a software update, would no longer open Kindle e-books. (It continued to open Project Gutenberg e-books without issue.)

At 2047 yesterday evening, I concluded an initial read of The Railway Viaduct, book three of Edward Marston's The Railway Detective series. As before, a solid, entertaining read, but not something I'm going to insist everyone run out and buy.

Since rebooting the Paperwhite in an attempt to fix the SNAFU related in my previous post, it has operated without issue. What's more, a recent tendency to deplete the battery's charge at an abnormally fast rate has been corrected.

Amongst yesterday's YouTube recommendations, I spied a video book-related video I'd seen a couple of months ago that you guys might find interesting:

(video) I, Libertine by Frederick R. Ewing (video)

Addendum:
At 1950 this evening, I concluded in initial read of Ursula K. Le Guin's Lavinia, a novel inspired by the last some books of Virgil's Aeneid, chronicling much of the life of one of the that work's insignificant characters, the women Aeneas takes as wife soon after he and his fellow Trojan refugees arrive in what is now Italy. A well written, solid read. I think my favorite part might be the portentous 'shade' Lavinia meets several times at around the 21-22% mark, just prior to the Trojan arrival. That was really well told, it seems to me.

A pointless aside (that has nothing to do with the above):
With paper/print material, my practice is to consider multiple novels/stories housed within a single cover as one 'book', and don't consider that book completed until having read everything it contains. Thus The Bounty Trilogy, comprised of three novel-length stories, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn's Island, always appears in my yearly read logs as one entry: The Bounty Trilogy.

With my switch to e-books, I automatically adopted the opposite approach. Thus, each Frank L. Baum Oz book appears in my log as a separate entry, though they are part of a single-purchase omnibus edition.

On the other hand, an e-book containing numerous short-stories will almost certainly continue to appear in the log as one entry.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: May 13 2022, 11:56 PM

Visited Project Gutenberg for the first time since downloading a few books there right after receiving my Paperwhite last September.

Settled on five titles, one of which, I suspect, I ought not mention. The remaining four are:

1) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. I read either this or Tom Sawyer during my long-ago school days over half a century ago. I remember next to nothing of that prior reading, other than that the protagonist at one point travels a river (the Mississippi?) by raft, possibly in the company of a runaway slave.

2) Emma by Jane Austen. This will be my first Austen encounter. Whether Emma is the best Austen introduction remains to be seen.

3) Grimm's Fairy Tales. I'm somewhat familiar with a few of these, but not the source material.

4) The Communist Manifesto by Engels and Marx. Despite being a fan of the Marx Brothers, I somehow never got around to reading this.

Since rebooting the Kindle a while back, it has gone from depleting its battery in only a day of average reading to lasting a super long time between charges. Yesterday was its first recharge since the reboot. I didn't need to. It still had 34% power remaining. But . . . I had to connect it to the PC to transfer those Project Gutenberg downloads. Once plugged in, I might as well let it recharge itself.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: May 13 2022, 09:23 PM

Mike Duncan of the Revolutions podcast gives a really basic rundown of Marxism in the Russian Revolution series. Let me go look... episode 10.3- The Three Pillars of Marxism is the one. It really gives a good breakdown of how the capitalistic system works, especially concerning how it exploits labor.

An interesting podcast. My mind clouded a couple of times while listening, but that's how I am these elder days. Your comment concerning the capitalist system and its exploitation of labor was apt, my having recently finished watching the YouTube video, Money Killed Art. Here's How We Take it Back.

Started reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn yesterday. In Twain's forward, he mentions that it is a followup to Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that the earlier book isn't required to enjoy Finn. While that's all well and good, I visited Project Gutenberg again and downloaded Sawyer. I'll start with that. Having read a bit of both now, I'm still not sure which I read all those decades ago, but still lean toward it being Finn.

While at Project Gutenberg, I DL'd two other titled, Les Misérables and The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. The small bit I read of Les Misérables earlier today is super interesting, but boy is it HUGE.

At 0329 this morning, I concluded a possibly initial read of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a (free) Project Gutenberg e-book. I'm still not sure if this is the book I read during my long ago school days. I had foreknowledge Tom and his whitewashing of the picket fence, but this might be something well ingrained in the American Mythos when I was a lad, known even by those who had not read the book. I remembered the character Injun Jim, not in any great detail, but knew he is/was a 'bad guy'. I sorta / kinda remembered caves. None of this convinces me. My decrepit mind still says it was Huckleberry Finn I read back in the day. We shall see, as it's what begin reading later today.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: May 21 2022, 12:59 PM

At 0430 this morning, I concluded an initial read of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As with Tom Sawyer before it, nothing during the read leads me to suspect that it was Finn I read back in the dark ages. Which begs the question: What did I read those many decades ago? Who knows? That's the best answer I can come up with. Be that as it may, I'm glad to have read it, hard-going as it was at times.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jun 3 2022, 01:24 AM