Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[Arran]

Libraries are amazing.

I remember getting my first library ticket when I was about 10. I couldn't believe I could just take home any book I wanted.

I was mesmerized by the breadth of pure knowledge just sitting on those shelves. Small-town me just drank it up. I spent entire summers in there. Couldn't get enough. I was lost.

No popups. No ads. No clickbait. Utter bliss!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I remember getting my first library ticket when I was about 10. I couldn't believe I could just take home any book I wanted.

I was mesmerized by the breadth of pure knowledge just sitting on those shelves. Small-town me just drank it up. I spent entire summers in there. Couldn't get enough. I was lost.

No popups. No ads. No clickbait. Utter bliss!

As a child, I was so entranced - and mesmerised - by my library, that I requested access to the adult library for access to the history and science sections (biographies of Lincoln, stuff about the American Civil War, among others, for, the attractions of the history section in the childrens' section had been long outgrown by then) which was granted (parents signing stuff) to my delight.

I remember - in my early teens - requesting Machiavelli (The Prince) and being amazed that they were prepared to order it for me, and were so polite and helpful and friendly about it.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

A further mention for the Port Moresby Public Library. They also had a service where, if you lived elsewhere in Papua (the bottom half of Papua New Guinea), they would pack up a box of books you hadn't read before and ship them (literally, on a cargo ship) to you, and six weeks later you returned them and got another box of books.
This was remote lending decades before the Internet.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

A further mention for the Port Moresby Public Library. They also had a service where, if you lived elsewhere in Papua (the bottom half of Papua New Guinea), they would pack up a box of books you hadn't read before and ship them (literally, on a cargo ship) to you, and six weeks later you returned them and got another box of books.
This was remote lending decades before the Internet.

Brilliant; I love everything about libraries, their respect for knowledge, their love of learning, their cultivation of scholarship, the riches of their resources, and, above all, their passion for ensuring that everyone has access to this. Wonderful.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

And the other thing about libraries, @Clix Pix, is that - irrespective of whether I was a child, a nerdy bespectacled adolescent, a student, a university teacher - or now, somewhat later in life - no matter what material I requested from the library, there was simply interest, encouragement, enthusiasm and engagement.

This has not always been the case in bookshops, when - yes, it was infrequent, but it did happen, and not just once or twice - moreover, it was something that occurred only when the shop/store assistant was male, and I was toting heavy (literally and figuratively) quantities of serious tomes about history and politics or socio-economic stuff and would be met with a surprised comment about my selected reading material.

"Heavy reading, huh?" commented the dude manning the till, with a surprised smirk, not long - a couple of years - after the Fall of the Wall, as I hauled some serious stuff on Russia, the USSR, and Central & Eastern Europe to the till. "Not really," I replied, (I hadn't picked up immediately on his condescension and incomprehension, for I was too focussed on balancing my books and extracting my wallet to pay for them, however, my male companion was furious, quivering with mute outrage on my behalf, "they'd never say that to a guy!" he burst out afterwards), "I'm teaching this stuff," (which was true, teaching it at an ancient and venerable university a few hundred metres/yards from that very bookshop), a response which silenced the dude, who stared at me.

 

[Clix Pix]

Librarians are very considerate of their clientele and whether someone is checking out a lot of material on a particular subject or a lot of material on various subjects, the (unspoken, but well understood) rule is: no commentary on the choices! Once in a while a patron may offer a comment of his or her own, and then of course it's fine for the librarian to respond, but again it is always done in a very neutral, non-critical, non-judgemental way. Whatever the patron is checking out is really none of the library staff's business.

Sure, it's fine for the librarian to say to a mother checking out a bunch of books for her toddler, "oh, you'll have fun reading those with him [or her]!" but never would a librarian at the circulation desk comment on someone's choices of "heavy reading" -- the staff member would simply check out the material and smile at the patron and let them go about their own business.

The same rule applies when someone is asking for assistance in researching a particular topic: the librarian is responsible for providing the resources and guiding the patron, but limits are set. If someone is asking for a list of, say, internal medicine doctors, and the librarian is providing that list, the librarian does NOT say, "oh, Dr Jones is arrogant, you don't want to go to him, but you might like Dr Smith; I go to Dr Smith and just LOVE that medical office!"

Again, if the patron is exploring what may feel to them to be a very sensitive topic but about which they really need and want information, the librarian's responsibility is to provide accurate, reliable and thorough information and that's the extent of it -- no personal commentary and opinions should be interjected into the interaction.

Unfortunately, yes, in commercial bookstores employees are not always well trained (and often don't have just common sense and courtesy or respect for the customer's privacy) in how to simply ring up the customer's purchases and not make comments which, even though maybe well-meant, could well fall flat for any number of reasons with the customer. They're thoroughly trained on how to handle the money and credit cards at the registers, though....

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Librarians are very considerate of their clientele and whether someone is checking out a lot of material on a particular subject or a lot of material on various subjects, the (unspoken, but well understood) rule is: no commentary on the choices! Once in a while a patron may offer a comment of his or her own, and then of course it's fine for the librarian to respond, but again it is always done in a very neutral, non-critical, non-judgemental way. Whatever the patron is checking out is really none of the library staff's business.

Sure, it's fine for the librarian to say to a mother checking out a bunch of books for her toddler, "oh, you'll have fun reading those with him [or her]!" but never would a librarian at the circulation desk comment on someone's choices of "heavy reading" -- the staff member would simply check out the material and smile at the patron and let them go about their own business.

The same rule applies when someone is asking for assistance in researching a particular topic: the librarian is responsible for providing the resources and guiding the patron, but limits are set. If someone is asking for a list of, say, internal medicine doctors, and the librarian is providing that list, the librarian does NOT say, "oh, Dr Jones is arrogant, you don't want to go to him, but you might like Dr Smith; I go to Dr Smith and just LOVE that medical office!"

Again, if the patron is exploring what may feel to them to be a very sensitive topic but about which they really need and want information, the librarian's responsibility is to provide accurate, reliable and thorough information and that's the extent of it -- no personal commentary and opinions should be interjected into the interaction.

Unfortunately, yes, in commercial bookstores employees are not always well trained (and often don't have just common sense and courtesy or respect for the customer's privacy) in how to simply ring up the customer's purchases and not make comments which, even though maybe well-meant, could well fall flat for any number of reasons with the customer. They're thoroughly trained on how to handle the money and credit cards at the registers, though....

Yes, any conversations I have had in the library have almost always - almost invariably - been initiated by me:

"I'm looking forward to reading this"; "This got great reviews"; , or, when returning a book, "this was excellent", "this was fascinating", or,"I've read other stuff by him/her, and I really like his/her stuff, and this is really interesting" - which invariably give rise to an enthusiastic and informed rejoinder, and sometimes then, a genuinely enthusiastic and interesting conversation.

Sometimes, if the librarians have initiated a conversation, - when checking out a book that had been held for me - it has been confined to a remark on the lines of "oh, I'm looking forward to reading that myself," which, of course, would give rise to a conversation/dialogue on the topic (and/or author) of that book.

 

[yaxomoxay]

And the other thing about libraries, @Clix Pix, is that - irrespective of whether I was a child, a nerdy bespectacled adolescent, a student, a university teacher - or now, somewhat later in life - no matter what material I requested from the library, there was simply interest, encouragement, enthusiasm and engagement.

This has not always been the case in bookshops, when - yes, it was infrequent, but it did happen, and not just once or twice - moreover, it was something that occurred only when the shop/store assistant was male, and I was toting heavy (literally and figuratively) quantities of serious tomes about history and politics or socio-economic stuff and would be met with a surprised comment about my selected reading material.

"Heavy reading, huh?" commented the dude manning the till, with a surprised smirk, not long - a couple of years - after the Fall of the Wall, as I hauled some serious stuff on Russia, the USSR, and Central & Eastern Europe to the till. "Not really," I replied, (I hadn't picked up immediately on his condescension and incomprehension, for I was too focussed on balancing my books and extracting my wallet to pay for them, however, my male companion was furious, quivering with mute outrage on my behalf, "they'd never say that to a guy!" he burst out afterwards), "I'm teaching this stuff," (which was true, teaching it at an ancient and venerable university a few hundred metres/yards from that very bookshop), a response which silenced the dude, who stared at me.

Curious. I had the opposite experience in my teens. The libraries I went to looked at me suspiciously or even questioned me whenever I ordered some titles. In one case I wasn’t even handed Fulcanelli’s book on the mysteries of cathedrals, which I then got from another branch of the library system.

To the contrary, I can credit one bookstore for instilling the love of books in me. 30 or so years have passed and I still remember the names of the 3 owners. When they closed down, one of them gifted me a book which he had signed with a nice dedication; I have the book with me even if I am now living on the other side of the pond. They often gifted me books, and they took the time to teach me how to read classics using an open mind and not a “school chore”’ mind. More than that, they took their time to tell me to read - critically - anything. As awful or great that it might be: read. As favorable or as opposite to my ideas: read. Then reason about it. Then, read more. It’s thanks to them (and “Alone in The Dark”) that I discovered HP Lovecraft when he wasn’t as trendy as today (certainly not in Italy), which opened for me a whole world of pulp and mysterious literature I love and I have been reading since then when I don’t want to read more serious stuff.

 

[Rafterman]

 

[Scepticalscribe]

A few books by Allan Mallinson, from his "Matthew Hervey" series.

 

[rhett7660]

I am hooked on this series...

Warhammer Horus Heresy Book 3 - Galaxy in Flames

 

[yaxomoxay]

Kiss Me, Deadly (1952) by Mickey Spillane.

A classic Mickey Spillane tale of an intriguing Mike Hammer adventure.

A dark night, while driving back home, Mike Hammer rescues a naked woman that apparently escaped from an asylum. Not many miles later, a group of men captures them, kill the lady and try to kill Hammer too. This is a story of mafia, FBI, international crime, murder and much more. Great adventure, hard boiled mystery book.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I’m currently reading The Honor of the Queen on my Kindle.

 

[yaxomoxay]

The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett

Masterpiece. No need to say anything else about this influential book that spawned an influential movie.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett

Masterpiece. No need to say anything else about this influential book that spawned an influential movie.

View attachment 2197435

Wow.

Now, this is a very rare case where I have seen the movie (a classic, superb re plot, cinematography, astonishing acting, superlative cast, terrific script, everything, a genuine legend) but have never read the book.

It is much more usual for me to have read the book, and to have been bitterly disappointed by a movie that derived from the book (especially if I had loved the book).

How does it compare with the movie?

I take it that you recommend this......unreservedly.

Is it as much a masterpiece as the movie is?

 

[yaxomoxay]

Wow.

Now, this is a very rare case where I have seen the movie (a classic, superb re plot, cinematography, astonishing acting, superlative cast, terrific script, everything, a genuine legend) but have never read the book.

It is much more usual for me to have read the book, and to have been bitterly disappointed by a movie that derived from the book.

How does it compare with the movie?

I take it that you recommend this......unreservedly.

Is it as much a masterpiece as the movie is?

Obviously I do recommend the book.

However, I’ll be honest that your enjoyment of it truly depends on your liking of hard-boiled mystery novels and noirs in general.

In its own genre, it basically created a whole subset of literature and style which then radically influenced the world of cinema (an honor very few novels can claim) in a way we still feel.

The book is short, about 170 pages so it might be well worth a try; I am sure your public library has a copy.

Stylistically, The Maltese Falcon is much less action-prone than a Mickey Spillane novel and I would argue that the plot is less sophisticated than a Raymond Chandler Novel, but if you take it as a whole I can’t think of another book like it.

On a side note: I was holding my 1950 paperback copy in my hands, and I started thinking how many people read the novel using that very copy. I can imagine someone buying it at a newsstand for a few cents just to read it during a long trip on a train. Then, the book was in someone’s else’s hands when Kennedy was shot, when Nixon resigned, when the Challenger exploded, and now it’s in my hands in 2023. Maybe nothing like that happened and the copy was just in a crate but, for some reason I can’t explain, while reading this novel I felt the urge to romanticize the actual object I was holding.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Obviously I do recommend the book.

However, I’ll be honest that your enjoyment of it truly depends on your liking of hard-boiled mystery novels and noirs in general.

In its own genre, it basically created a whole subset of literature and style which then radically influenced the world of cinema (an honor very few novels can claim) in a way we still feel.

The book is short, about 170 pages so it might be well worth a try; I am sure your public library has a copy.

Stylistically, The Maltese Falcon is much less action-prone than a Mickey Spillane novel and I would argue that the plot is less sophisticated than a Raymond Chandler Novel, but if you take it as a whole I can’t think of another book like it.

On a side note: I was holding my 1950 paperback copy in my hands, and I started thinking how many people read the novel using that very copy. I can imagine someone buying it at a newsstand for a few cents just to read it during a long trip on a train. Then, the book was in someone’s else’s hands when Kennedy was shot, when Nixon resigned, when the Challenger exploded, and now it’s in my hands in 2023. Maybe nothing like that happened and the copy was just in a crate but, for some reason I can’t explain, while reading this novel I felt the urge to romanticize the actual object I was holding.

Oh, gosh, yes.

Wonderful post.

I do understand that feeling, when holding a book that has lived, been read, and has the battered appearance that tells us that it has been through many hands and has been read with close attention.

My father went to the States in the mid 50s on a lengthy holiday (paid for by his extended family - he had relatives in Boston, and I think that they were hoping to persuade him to emigrate there) and returned with an elegant watch for my mother - at that time, the US made wonderful mid-range watches, watches that were attractive, solid, and utterly reliable timepieces and were also affordable - she wore it for years, and a paperback copy - you know those books with the yellow edged pages - of East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, which had been published not that long before his trip.

Decades later, while I was a postgrad, I found this battered book, in my father's room, and, rapt, I read it - I couldn't put it down, I devoured this avidly, for this was a timeless classic, a superlative work, Steinbeck's best by far - yet, this was yet another case where the book was far better than the (well regarded) movie of the same name (influenced by the book, but, in truth, covering only the final third of it, and thereby missing much of the point of the book, to my mind) which was subsequently made.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Oh, gosh, yes.

Wonderful post.

I do understand that feeling, when holding a book that has lived, been read, and has the battered appearance that tells it has been through many hands and has been read with close attention.

My father went to the States in the mid 50s on a lengthy holiday (paid for by his extended family - he had relatives in Boston, and I think that they were hoping to persuade him to emigrate there) and returned with an elegant watch for my mother - at that time, the US made wonderful mid-range watches, watches that were attractive, solid, and utterly reliable timepieces and were also affordable - she wore it for years, and a paperback copy - you know those books with the yellow edged pages - of East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, which had been published not that long before his trip.

Decades later, while I was a postgrad, I found this battered book, in my father's room, and, rapt, I read it - I couldn't put it down, I devoured this avidly, for this was a timeless classic, a superlative work, Steinbeck's best by far - yet, this was yet another case where the book was far better than the (well regarded) movie of the same name (influenced by the book, but, in truth, covering only the final third of it, and thereby missing much of the point of the book, to my mind) which was subsequently made.

What a wonderful story! I am sure you keep those objects very dear.

The truth is that objects, regardless of their monetary or global historical value, talk to us. I am afraid that it’s something that we’re losing in this eternal push for “everything” digital. I do think there will be a moment in which people will crave for real, tangible stuff. As a matter of fact, just last week my wife brought a Polaroid camera to her school and shot several pics of the elementary school children to do a “end of school year project” that will be gifted to the parents. She said that all the kids - including those from other rooms - were mesmerized, and kept asking for pictures, wanted to try the camera etc. I asked for her opinion on why the kids were so interested since iPhones already shoot instant pictures, and she replied without hesitation that they loved that “it was a unique, tangible object that they could feel with all their senses and they loved seeing the picture slowly appearing which gave importance to the single shot.” Honestly, I was mindblown.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

What a wonderful story! I am sure you keep those objects very dear.

The truth is that objects, regardless of their monetary or global historical value, talk to us. I am afraid that it’s something that we’re losing in this eternal push for “everything” digital. I do think there will be a moment in which people will crave for real, tangible stuff. As a matter of fact, just last week my wife brought a Polaroid camera to her school and shot several pics of the elementary school children to do a “end of school year project” that will be gifted to the parents. She said that all the kids - including those from other rooms - were mesmerized, and kept asking for pictures, wanted to try the camera etc. I asked for her opinion on why the kids were so interested since iPhones already shoot instant pictures, and she replied without hesitation that they loved that “it was a unique, tangible object that they could feel with all their senses and they loved seeing the picture slowly appearing which gave importance to the single shot.” Honestly, I was mindblown.

Fascinating story.

"Feel with all of their senses"; wow.

What a terrific idea your wife had; wonderful.

We are at risk of losing that; whatever about its many (and undoubted) advantages, the virtural world, the online space, does rob us of the ability of being able to navigate the world via our senses, or denies us the enjoyment of experiencing the world through our senses.

Well, re my dad's trip - I suspect that - they were dating at the time, and that watch was a constant all through my childhood and beyond and was treasured by my mother - they may have (briefly, ever so briefly) contemplated emigrating to the US.

The US made some terrific watches mid century, for, they were considered to have been reasonably close to Swiss watches re horological standards, but at a fraction of the price.

East of Eden was a pretty controversial book when it was published, and I suspect that - at the time - my father preferred not to announce that it had returned with him in his luggage. We both agreed that it was brilliant.

Actually, he was excellent at selecting gifts, and always put a lot of thought and care and time into choosing them, and, while he loved to receive gifts, I think he took a far greater pleasure in giving them.

However, they both had decent jobs and, whatever about my father (who retained a fascination with the US for the rest of his life, - he loved jazz, - one other legacy of that trip was his decision to take out a subscription to TIME magazine, - this was when they published lengthy, informed, intelligent, interesting articles, rather than plastering the publication with a great many images - something he continued to do until the early 1990s), my mother had little interest in the US, far preferring Europe for travel, cuisine and history and matters relating to cultural identity.

 

[pachyderm]

The Maltese Falcon (1930) by Dashiell Hammett

Masterpiece. No need to say anything else about this influential book that spawned an influential movie.

View attachment 2197435

If you could post the isbn that would be great!

I'd love to have a copy with that cover !

 

[Scepticalscribe]

If you could post the isbn that would be great!

I'd love to have a copy with that cover !

It looks like the sort of book, lurid cover and all - that one would - or could - find by rummaging and rooting around in those glorious baskets that you used to find outside of second hand (used) book stores, whiling away many an afternoon, especially the rainy afternoons.

 

[yaxomoxay]

If you could post the isbn that would be great!

I'd love to have a copy with that cover !

It’s not my personal copy - which has a different cover - but that one is the first very first edition which goes for $300. You can hope to find the facsimile printed by Otto Penzler for $100 or so.

Edit: Actually I just checked. The 1st edition with original dust jacket etc could go for $10,000.

 

[yaxomoxay]

It looks like the sort of book, lurid cover and all - that one would - or could - find by rummaging and rooting around in those glorious baskets that you used to find outside of second hand (used) book stores, whiling away many an afternoon, especially the rainy afternoons.

Agreed. With the mysterious, eerie phenomenon in which “all books $3” and yet $150 are actually spent.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Agreed. With the mysterious, eerie phenomenon in which “all books $3” and yet $150 are actually spent.

Exactly!

Economists often refer to stuff such as "elasticity" and this is exactly the sort of thing that I had thought that they meant.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Re books and their history.

I went with my wife to visit her family village on an island at the southern end of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea (look it up on Google Earth).

While there I read the book "South Pacific" by Michener, about US Service people based on and around Guadalcanal during WWII. Some of those people flew bombers up the "Slot", the gap between the Solomon Islands (where JFK had his patrol boat), past Cape St George and onto Rabaul for bombing missions.

While the book was fictional, like "Catch 22", most of the stories were based on real events.

It was affecting, reading that book, and thinking "That happened here".

That book is still here, somewhere in my library.

On a side note, some of the young men took me up to see a Japanese bunker at the very southern tip of Cape St George, where they had an observation post looking out for those bombers coming up from Guadalcanal and then radioing across warning to Rabaul. The Americans bombed that hill flat trying to destroy the bunker, unsuccessfully. The trees grew back, and today are all the same age and same height. There is no undergrowth or saplings, it's silent, no birds or animal life, like a silent cathedral, a memorial.