HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lew@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (lewis.h.mammel..jr)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 22:41:30 GMT
Summary: gotta scream and shout it

In article <8OCT199214401544@zeus.tamu.edu>, spb0457@zeus.tamu.edu (SubGenius) writes:

> The book that comes to mind whenever the topic of "Famous or Well-Known 'Good'
> Books that I Thought Were Trash" comes up is Herbert's _Dune_.  In a word,
> "Ick."  In two words, "Ick, ick."  Made it throught the first novel, picked
> up the second, read about fifty pages and said to myself, "This sucks.  Why
> am I doing this to myself?" then proceeded to thrown the icky little paperback
> across the room and then picked up some random translation of _Gargantua_ to
> ease my perturbation.


ictus \'ik-tus\ n [L, fr. ictus pp. of ICERE to strike; akin to Gk
AICHME lance]: the recurring stress or beat in a rhythmic or metrical
series of sounds.


"Sometimes I think they're doing it on purpose"


Lew Mammel, Jr.
From: bh419@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ted B Samsel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Summary of Suggested American Indian novels
Date: 14 Oct 1992 10:52:35 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


I cna't recall the author's name but try RABBIT BOSS......
about Central Californiatribes....
-- 
Ted....
From: jsc@athena.mit.edu (Jin S. Choi)
Subject: Book on time management?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Distribution: rec
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 07:19:09 GMT

Didn't know the appropriate place to ask this, r.a.b. seems as likely as
any.  Anyways, can anyone recommend a good book on time management? I
mean, are there any established classics on the subject? I'm referring
to personal time management here, not in the corporate sense.

E-mail replies would be cool if possible, as I'm not sure how much time
I can afford to spend reading news :-)

Thanks,
-Jin
--
Jin Choi
jsc@athena.mit.edu
From: fehr@ms.uky.edu (Jeff Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Dashiell Hammett
Keywords: Red Harvest, mild spoiler
Date: 15 Oct 92 14:29:34 GMT
Organization: Austerlitz, Gershovitz, and Carmichael

Douglas Harper writes:
>Mike Godwin writes:
>>
>>Under the circumstances, and given the name of the victim, it seems
>>likely that "lousy fish-eater" is an anti-Catholic slur.
>
>I'm afraid I don't see the likelihood.  My understanding is that the
>Finns are predominantly Lutheran, not Catholic.
>

My memory of the fishy slur on Catholics was that we were fishbacks...
but that was long ago and in another suburb. Although anti-Catholic
sentiments still existed when I was a kid, the actual epithets
always have had for me the same sense of exotic lunacy that police
bulletins about drug slang possessed. Of course, the caveat stands
that such dimming of anti-Catholicism is partial to this country.
The number of people who never were bored by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
who were offensed by Sinead O'Connor's stunt on SNL is pretty 
amazing. "Let's hear it for the Pope!"
-- 
Jeff Davis <davis@keats.ca.uky.edu>
Nobody knows, from sea to shining sea, why we are having all this trouble
with our republic.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: lgs57@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: food
Keywords: OK, then, books on food
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 20:24:27 GMT


I would like to suggest Why We Eat What We Eat.  This book focuses on how
eating habits across the world changed as a result of Columbus' voyage.  I
found the sections on Mexican, Philipino, and French cooking especially
interesting.  I use the trivia from this book to bore my friends at lunch all
the time.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: le01167@portal.lasc.lockheed.com (Ron Nadel)
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. - Rye Canyon
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 92 17:22:18 GMT

In article <92305@netnews.upenn.edu>, crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes...

>Also, I'd put the entire book "As I Lay Dying" in this category.  I didn't
>enjoy it, but I knew it was good, even great.  It's not that I found it
>boring or difficult to get through at all; I was riveted.  But that is
>_not_ an enjoyable book.

So, on what level is it enjoyable?  If you didn't enjoy it, was it great
on some intellectual level?  If so, can we judge a work great solely on
intellectual content.  Would we judge a work great solely on it's
"emotional" content, if it was devoid of intellectual content?

Ron
From: maverick@fir.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: A nice book to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there
Date: 9 Oct 1992 21:12:35 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: fir.cs.berkeley.edu

In article <92398@netnews.upenn.edu>, crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
|> 
|> What books would
|> you rather hear discussed than have to read yourself?  This one tops my
|> list.  I've really enjoyed the discussions I've both listened to and
|> participated in about it, but the book itself is mighty slow going.  

Louis Zukofsky, "A".  Actually, some parts are interesting to read (is
it "A"-11 with the bizarrely rewritten Cavalcanti?), if resistant to my
low-grade analytical tools, but generally it's more fun for me to read
what a Hugh Kenner or Guy Davenport can dig out of there than to dig
myself.

	Vance
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: More Notes from the Decline
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 18:30:13 GMT

Mike Godwin writes:

>In article <1992Oct7.165438.28710@athena.mit.edu> kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan) writes:
>>
>>	Very cute Mr. Maddox; however, are you merely extending Mr.
>>Morris's comment from Republicans don't read to an assertion that they
>>do but they only read piffle and twaddle? Let's see 48,886,097
>>Americans identified themselves as Republican enough to vote for Bush
>>in 1988. Do you think that among this group no one reads, or that they
>>only read piffle and twaddle?
>
>Well, we can say this much: since they voted for Bush, they clearly
>have a high piffle-and-twaddle tolerance. We may surmise how they
>acquired it.

	Spoken like a true son of the enlightenment Mr. Godwin. If
those poor benighted Republicans would only read the *right* books,
they would perceive that Bush/Quayle is a fountain of piffle and
twaddle and vote the rascals out. Have I got that right? In this way
we can move from the bald assertion that Republicans don't read to the
qualified assertion that Republicans (monolithic voting bloc that they
are) have a *tolerance* for piffle and twaddle which we may *surmise*
they acquired from either a) not reading or b) reading the wrong
stuff. If it's a) I repeat my scornful reactions; if it's b) I refer
you to a contemplation of your .sig.


Inquiringly,

Keith Morgan
--
Keith Morgan		 |I've always had a secret desire to harangue
kamorgan@athena.mit.edu  |a crowd of people for 10 hours in the
		         |sweltering heat. It's the origin of my
		         |fascination with public language.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: chucks@uars2.acd.ucar.edu (Chuck Smythe)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Organization: Ntl Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Chemistry
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 17:49:19 GMT

In article <9712@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley) writes:
 >In article <1992Oct7.174258.3636@raven.alaska.edu>, ejo@kaja.gi.alaska.edu (Eric J. Olson) writes:
 > 
 >> I couldn't get through _Wuthering Heights_ either, but the one that
 >> really killed me was Kuhn's "landmark" book in science, _On the Nature
 >> of Scientific Revolutions_ or some such.  I was supposed to read it
 >> for a class; I couldn't even get through the first chapter without
 >> skipping paragraphs randomly.  He just drones on and on, repeating
 >> himself for page after page without making much of a point.
  
 >Oh no, don't tell me that!  *The Structure of Scientific Revolutions* is
 >next at bat in my philosophy of science class.  Here I've spent the last
 >month flirting with Hempel and having stare-downs with Popper, only to
 >be beaned brainless by Kuhn, if I'm to believe you.  Woe is me!
 
Fear not.  The book is short, and no more ponderous than average academic
boilerplate.  If you have any interest in, or familiarity with, the history
of science, you should enjoy it; Kuhn makes some interesting points.  (BTW,
he was interviewed by _Scientific American_ a few months back.  You may
liven the read by looking at this first.  He sometimes regrets writing the
damn thing.)

It was first recommended to me by a dropout historian, with a smug snigger.
I read it, thought it interesting, and couldn't figure out why this historian
thought it would shake me up.  I learned from the _Scientific American_
article that a lot of Liberal Artists suppose the book demonstrates that 
there is no Reality to be explicated by scientists; that science is merely
an arbitrary social construct like any other.  I got no such message from it,
and it turns out Kuhn intended no such message.  Let us know what you think;
it ought to be good for an entertaining thread.

			Chuck Smythe
From: Joseph.J.Marcheso.Jr.@dartmouth.edu (Joseph J. Marcheso Jr.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Help with Milton's Paradise Lost
Date: 15 Oct 92 04:00:09 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
X-Posted-From: InterNews1.0a5@newshost.dartmouth.edu


Hi, I just wanted to know if anyone has a ny opinions of Paradise Lost
that I could ponder since we're reading it. Any criticism? Any good
points, Things you like, dislike? Well I hope you do because I'm eager
to set myself straight. Hear from you later!


Joe
From: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Limpopo?
Date: 8 Oct 92 21:40:40 GMT
Reply-To: nall@sun8.scri.fsu.edu (John Nall)
Organization: SCRI, Florida State University

In article <1992Oct8.144340.6078@medtron.medtronic.com> mj7633@ireland.medtronic.com (Mark Jacoby) writes:

>Could someone tell me where this is from?
>
>"The great, fgreasy, grey, green Limpopo"



Well, if memory serves me right (which it seldom does) it is
from "The Elephant Child" or something like that.  Kipling, probably.

>
>thanx,
>
>mark


--
John W. Nall              | Supercomputer Computations Research Institute
nall@mailer.scri.fsu.edu  | Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
   "America was largely populated by early ethnic cleansing movements
            in Europe, with England leading the way."
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: entpph@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Subject: Re: lit quiz
Reply-To: entpph@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 01:13:23 GMT

Some of the duos mentioned, Rowan and Martin, Martin and Lewis,
Abbott and Costello, are modelled after two stock characters
in Yiddish Comedy, Schlmiel and Schlmazel (I'm only guessing
at the spelling)--the clumsy klutz and his victim.  Laurel
and Hardy were perhaps the clearest example this century.  The
Wiley Coyote character combines both characters into one.


Erik Timmerman

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: boebert@sctc.com (Earl Boebert)
Subject: UK Book Search Firms Requested
Organization: SCTC
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 00:48:48 GMT

Could some kind soul with access to the appropriate advertisments
please email me the addresses of individuals or firms in the UK who
perform searches for out of print books?  References or experiences
with the firms appreciated but not required.

Thanks,

Earl (boebert@sctc.com)

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: escr@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (elizabeth)
Subject: Re: Books in the time of love
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 15:53:30 GMT

lucyc@suite.sw.oz.au (Lucy Chubb) writes:
>From article <91407@netnews.upenn.edu>, by crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford):
>> Here's a related topic:
>> 
>> My sweetie (nice term, that) and I are reading through "The Chronicles of
>> Narnia" together.  What books have you all read with your sweet patooty? 
>> What books read well with another person?  What effect, if any, did doing
>> this have on the relationship?  

My husband and I like reading children's books to each other as well. ONe
of our favorites was Margaret Mahy's _The Blood and Thunder Adventure on
Hurricaine Peak_. I really LOVE margaret Mahy, she's one of the best children's
books authors I've ever read... We also liked Dr Seuss, _THe Best Christmas
Pagent Ever_ and of course, a whole bunch of fairy tales (my husband likes
to read me fairy tales and then screw around with the story, sometimes he
gets to the middle before I realize it and then I make him start over :))
Elizabeth Ruby

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: lgs57@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 20:21:18 GMT

With every page of the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, I found myself
slowing down and down.  I did finally finish the book but it took me about 3
hours.  (Typically I would have read a book that length in about an hour.)
From: rachel@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us (Rachel M. Kadel)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: RE:Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 11 Oct 92 00:17:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: phsbbs.FoegsB2w164w
Organization: Princeton High School, Princeton, New Jersey

My nominee:  _The Scarlet Letter_ by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  I finished it 
this morning because I have a test on it on Monday.  Otherwise, I would 
have quit in disgust about 3/4 of the way through.  (I tend to put up 
with a lot from books.)  By the way, I doubt that this is one of those 
books that I might like when I grow up and know better, because what 
annoys me most about it is its judgemental tone.
This is not a nominee for "a nice book to visit, but I wouldn't want to 
live there."  I'm not looking forward to spending weeks discussing this 
book.  It _does_ have nice, long sentences though. :-)  (Not that I mind 
the occasional convoluted syntax.)
                                         Rachel M. Kadel

There's an infinite number of monkeys at the door wanting to show us the 
script to Hamlet they've worked out...The school won't even LISTEN to me 
, much less let me speak for it...rachel@phsbbs.princeton.nj.us
From: mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
Date: 13 Oct 92 03:37:43 GMT
Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS

In article <1992Oct13.011512.29462@bohra.cpg.oz.au>, jane@bohra.cpg.oz.au (Jane Lean) writes:
> Now, anyone want to fight about Anne Tyler's "Dinner At the Homesick
> Restaurant", which I neither enjoyed, nor credit with being "great". ?

Well, if they do, just give me a jingle and I'll help smite them down.

meg
 

-- 

 Meg Worley 				Internet:  mworley@mathcs.emory.edu
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up.
Date: 15 Oct 92 20:22:02 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <1992Oct14.180759.13616@pbhyc.PacBell.COM>, djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes) writes:
# 		Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and another 
# 								inferior
# 		Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
# 		Everywhere is war
# 			-- Haile Selassie via Bob Marley
# 
# 		FIGHT THE REAL ENEMY
# 			-- Sinnead O'Connor
# 
# Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, Net.Roach

And yet, by tearing up a picture of the Pope, she seems to be
implying that the Catholic Church "holds one race superior and
another inferior."  Yet they are an institution clearly hostile
to such an idea.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
Lesson learned from Gov. Wilson's signing of AB 2601: if you don't get 
your way, have a riot.  Next time, Gov. Wilson will cower appropriately.
From: lnh@soliton.physics.arizona.edu (sometimes a Wombat)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Not exaclty a repentance....
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:12:46 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Society for the Appreciation of Janni Lee Simner


Well, Pope *IS* easy to enjoy.  Tho' why Dryden was slipped into the _18th_
century I don't know.  Maybe it has to do with the same sort of
accounting that called Jane Austen pre-1800 that many English
departments seem to use.

	the bemused by it all Mr. E-----
--

LNH@physics.arizona.edu     \   One like a wombat prowled obtuse
GEnie: L.HAMMER2             \  and furry  -- Christina Rossetti
From: rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu (Roger Squires)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 9 Oct 92 11:08:56 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1avukvINN5bp@agate.berkeley.edu> maverick@fir.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick) writes:
>
>I know, according to my own ideology, I shouldn't be able to
>supply an example, but I will anyway.  My own current winner of
>the My-God-What-Have-I-Done-At-The-Bookstore award is Hermann
>Broch's _Death of Virgil_.  Do I contradict myself?  Very well,
>then....
>

	Haven't seen this one, but I enjoyed _The Spell_ quite
	a bit in my Fascism class awhile back.

>	Vance

Roger Squires
rsquires@cyclops.eece.unm.edu
From: wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
Date: 10 Oct 1992 08:04:14 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: madvax.maths.uwa.oz.au

James P. H. Puller writes:


>maverick@fir.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick) writes:

>>People do say things like "I didn't enjoy it, but I know it was
>>good"; I regard this as an example of the willing submission to
>>authority which made Fascism possible.


>By contrast, W. H. Auden writes:

>    As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot
>    distinguish between taste and judgement, so long, that is, as the
>    only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like;
>    this I don't like.
>        For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see
>    this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like
>    it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it,
>    I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see
>    that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and
>    I don't like it.
>                              (_A Certain World_, p.290-1)



By contrast, the weally weally aduwt weader doesn't give a damn about
verdicts. 

But James P. H. Puller's a Yank, so we can't blame him.


>                                              -- jf
					       -- jw


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker)
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 04:40:20 GMT


_Herzog_.  But it is supposed to be good for you, so I will
probably try to pick it up again one of these years.  (Is it
just me, or do all of Bellow's books seem the same?)

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Subject: Piffle
Reply-To: djdaneh@PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 17:40:25 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.063639.9209@netcom.com> tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox) writes:
>>I thought Professor McCarthy was only interested in
>>splitting hairs.
>
>	Hares, actually.
>
>	He's a rabbit conservative.

Well, that tells us (at last!) what McCarthy is a professor _of_ -- physics,
specializing in the laws of conservation of animal properties.

Perhaps Professor McCarthy would be so kind as to enlighten me as to a problem
which has puzzled me for many years (and returns some ob. books content to this
thread, though only by broot force):

In Hugh Lofting's epic tales of Doctor Dolittle, as you doubtless recall, there
was an odd ungulate, the "Pushme-Pullyu," which was bilaterally symmetrical 
across not one but _two_ vertical planes.  Leaving aside the questions of 
excretion (perhaps the beast converted its food direct to energy, thus needing
very little of it indeed), I've always been puzzled about the question of
Pushme-Pullyu _reproduction_.

My presumption, all along, has been that the P-P reproduced by some sort of
binary fission, most likely along the transverse plane.  This explanation is
satisfactory except for one thing --

If the Pushme-Pullyu ever underwent reproduction during its time in Dolittle's
entourage, what was the effect of this on Pollyana?

In other words, Professor McCarthy, during fission, is parrotty conserved?


		Houston, Houston, do you read? I'd mortgage half my soul
		If I could see it one more time - Apollo, Ground Control
		The Devil take the men who killed the dream that died too soon
		For all my dreams are haunted by a fire on the Moon.
			-- Visual Purple

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, Net.Roach
My opinions do NOT represent Pacific Bell,
Professional Development, or anyone else.
But I'm willing to share.
From: jseaver@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Jason John Seaver)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: female mystery writers
Date: 14 Oct 1992 22:16:08 GMT
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

In article <1992Oct14.154803.20306@slate.mines.colorado.edu> cschamau@slate.mines.colorado.edu (Connie Schamaun) writes:
>I have found Ngaio Marsh to be pretty good, but I'm not sure
>whether to class them as mystery or detective stories. She is
>a New Zealander and her novels seem to all take place there.

	That's weird, all the books I've read by her seem to take place in
England with few exceptions (Photo Finish?); however, I've only read a small
fraction of her Roderick Alleyn mysteries.

						-Jay
From: ziauddin@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu (Tasneem Ziauddin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:21:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.BvrKB7.57n
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

tdlg9831@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Tracey Dianne Layng) writes:

>I have two books I could not pick up again. One is _Wuthering Heights_ (I
>really detest that book.  The other was _The Dwarf_ by Par Lagerkvist.

>Tracey
>UIUC

I agree with you somewhat on _Wuthering Heights_.  I enjoyed it the first
three times I read it.  Then suddenly I just could not read it through
another time.  Even though I feel it is well-written and the
characterizations are wonderful, I just could not work up the energy to read
through Catherine's self-destructive behavior and Heathcliff's revenge one
more time--it's just too painful.
From: Crawford_Kilian@mindlink.bc.ca (Crawford Kilian)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Not exaclty a repentance....
Date: 7 Oct 92 05:09:48 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

Hello again, Terrance! Good to hear you're enjoying the 17th-18th century
guys. Proof, if proof were needed, that you don't have be Mexican to like
enchiladas...

At the risk of launching another loose canon, any comments on Shelby Steele's
book The Content of Our Character? It's a collection of his essays on being
black in America...I'm almost finished with it, and find it applies painfully
well to Canada as well--to the predicament of our native Indians and other
minorities. But I can well imagine that Steele bothers a lot of people.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books