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Downward to the Earth by Robert Silverberg
I had forgotten to post my book jot for a book a read in May…here it is: I finished reading Downward to the Earth (1970) by Robert Silverberg. It’s a novel set on a distant planet and feels like Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Burmese Days and Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, and…
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OTR
After a hiatus of probably a couple of years, I have been listening to old time radio shows again. I was trying to figure out something to listen to when I need to spend time in bed. That’s pretty much a daily thing because of the physical condition I’m dealing with. Sometimes I listen to…
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Turok!
Things are looking pretty grim for Turok and Andar in this old Gold Key issue I picked up a while ago. I just love the Gold Key painted covers! I haven’t read it yet, but the cover intrigues me…it looks as if Turok and Andar are actually holding on to the feet of the “flyers”,…
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From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
(This book jot is from June of 2021) I finished reading From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) by E.L. Konigsburg a few days ago. It’s a children’s novel I remember seeing around when I was a kid but had never read. It was an enjoyable book with some good humor and…
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Fingertips
I love the softness of weathered cottonwoods and spring grass. A walk through this area was solace for my soul.
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Mozart and Salieri by Alexander Pushkin
I also read a short play by Alexander Pushkin called Mozart and Salieri (1832), translated by A. F. B. Clark. Despite being a very, very short play it has been influential, and was an inspiration for the play Amadeus (by Peter Schaffer), which in turn was adapted for film. The play has only two speaking…
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8 Babies and 4 Bugs
Several months ago I came across a very memorable postcard. I finally got it scanned and added to the postcard page. It’s interesting enough that I thought I would make a post about it here. It’s an old card, with one cent postage domestic and two cents foreign. I don’t know what in the world…
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The Trojan Women by Seneca
I finished reading The Trojan Women by Seneca (translated by E. F. Watling), a tragedy written in the first century AD. This might be my favorite of Seneca’s plays thus far. It tells the fate of Polyxena and Astyanax after the fall of Troy at the hands of the conquering Greeks. This is a familiar…
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Eugénie Grandet by Balzac
I just finished reading Eugénie Grandet; by Honoré de Balzac, a short novel published in 1833 and translated by Marion Ayton Crawford. This is only the second novel I’ve read by Balzac, and I wasn’t feeling deeply enmeshed in the story at first. Thankfully, I stuck with it and ended up loving the book. By…
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Art and Fiction
I love these old paperback collections of Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian barbarian. Frazetta’s paintings are to Conan in my mind as Larry Elmore’s paintings are to the Dragonlance characters. Artwork seems particularly important to fantasy and science fiction books, perhaps because the worlds within these works are often meant to be substantially different than the…