If Your Humble Blogger didn’t have much to say about the umpty-’leventh reread of Wild Horses two years ago, perhaps there isn’t much to say about the umpty-’elfth. Umptwelfth. Umpty-enth plus one. Of course, really, when you’ve read a book…
Sometimes I avoid writing about intellectual property, just because so much of what is said about it is nonsense, so nonsense from this Tohu Bohu would be surplus. Now and then, though, something is brought to my attention that just…
I’ve noted before that Monsieur the Viscount de Valmont has, really, only the one string to his bow, and that’s the sense that when a man falls in love with a beautiful woman, whatever he does, whatever lies he tells…
Your Blogger has had neither the time nor the energy nor, frankly, the inclination to blog overmuch of late. In part, this is because I am very bad at quick posts, so anytime I think I should post on something…
OK, Your Humble Blogger has said before that there will spoilers in these Book Reports, without putting special spoiler warnings up, but since this entire note will be about the One Key Plot Point in K.J. Parker’s Devices and Desires,…
Your Humble Blogger had, if you’ll recall, quite enjoyed Eats, Shoots and Leaves, so despite the nasty reviews, when Lynne Truss’s’s most recent showed up on the New Book Shelf, home it came. Reading it was not as enjoyable an…
Hard Times is a short Dickens novel. Which is not really a contradiction in terms, but it does indicate that there is going to be something missing, some essential Dickensian excess. There are some twenty or so memorable characters, which…
I always have trouble with Purim. With the holiday, I mean, not with the pur themselves. Speaking of which, is it unusual to have a plural noun as a holiday name? If I were speaking in Hebrew (which, thank the…
At the end of lLD, not to give the thing away, the Vicomte de Valmont dies in a swordfight. Aah. What could possibly be better than dying in a swordfight at the end of a play? The problem, really, is…
One thing about a comfort book is that it helps if there isn’t really much tension in it. Well, one type of comfort book, anyway, is the kind where the baddies are buffoons or otherwise nonintimidating. I wouldn’t call Dark…