HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Douglas Kwitney's _Endless Enemies_ (was Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia)
Date: 7 Oct 92 23:33:09 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <AeoNMYi00WBK01qI0K@andrew.cmu.edu>, lc1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Lori Cole) writes:
> The author of _Endless Enemies_ is Jonathan Kwitney.
> 
> Lori Cole

Well, no WONDER it looked so odd when I typed Douglas.
-- 
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: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Only Connect
Date: 14 Oct 92 04:31:14 GMT


wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (John Wojdylo) writes:
 
> Mark Taranto writes:
 
>> wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (John Wojdylo) writes:
 
>>> Does "being connected" in the sense of Forster entail one has to be as
>>> scatterbrained as Margaret?
 
>>> Stupid bitch.
 
>> Margaret scatterbrained?  I don't think so.  Perhaps John could point
>> out some passages which make him believe that she is scatterbrained.
 
> Kate was broadminded enough to recognize immediately that I meant Helen,
> not Margaret.
 
> Why weren't you? The scent of blood lead you astray ? Or is it that
> familiarity (with a novel, with anything) narrows your mind?
 
Kate works with politicians, and therefore has experience at understanding
what people mean when they say something else.  I, on the other hand, usually
assume that people mean what they say.
 
Certainly I agree that Helen could be construed as being scatterbrained, but
as Margaret is the major character, the one who sees life whole, the one who
is able to connect, I don't see how John's question makes any sense when
applied to Helen.
 
However, I will answer his question.  No, "being connected" in the sense
of Forster does not entail that one has to be as scatterbrained as Helen.
Anyone who understood the book would realize that.
 
Mark
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: John Gardner (both)
Date: 15 Oct 92 15:19:37 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: lgs57@cas.org

In article <1992Oct14.202338.14472@cas.org>, lgs57@cas writes:
>I think Ian Fleming is definitely a better writer than John Gardner.
>I've read about five of John Gardner's James Bond and about three of
>Ian Fleming's.  John Gardner is only good if one is desperate to read
>a 'James Bond story'.  I do think his books would make fine movies
>however.

I've read all of the Fleming Bonds, and all but the latest of the Gardner
Bonds, but you've caught the essense of the difference.  Gardner's are
filled with scenes, plots, and gadgets that fit the Bond films perfectly,
and always end on a formulaic "keep the audience happy" note.  Fleming kept
it sharp and simple, and was not afraid of bitter endings.
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: Thursday, 8 Oct 1992 11:11:22 CDT
From: Cole Kendall <U48073@uicvm.uic.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
 <1992Oct8.004432.15349@raven.alaska.edu>
 <1992Oct8.044020.22418@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>

In article <1992Oct8.044020.22418@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>,
baker@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Andrew Baker) says:
>
>_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?)
>
I too found Herzog impossible to get through.  I will add
_Recognitions_ by Gaddis, which I tried partly because his
daughter was a year ahead of me in college so I felt some
modest connection, but he lost me within a hundred pages.

This thread is starting to remind me of the game played by
the English professors in that satire of "Great Classics I
Admit Never Having Read" (or enjoyed).

Cole Kendall

PS  Now that I think of it, I never read the book in which
the game was described, and don't remember the title.
From: Shirley_Gillard_Schneckloth@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Looking for Sean Anthony Murry
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 10:45:04 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: usa


I'm looking for Sean Anthony Murry. . . you posted that you were looking
for a writing group. I tried to e-mail you but the letter came back.

Please contact me for further information.

sgs

Shirley_Gillard_Schneckloth@cup.portal.com
From: kassover@rumsey.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Baseball (was: Re: Attractiveness (was: Re: She's baaaaack)
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:28:13 GMT
Organization: nope.


Sombody wrote:
>>
>>But, Heather, what you have to understand is that books are merely frivolous
>>pleasures while baseball is important stuff.
>

To which somebody else replied:
>Of course, that goes without saying.  Just look at how much of baseball is
>beer advertising.


I would not be surprised in the least to find out that Mr.
Doubleday had more than a casual connection with brewers and
other refreshment oriented industrialists.
-- 
David Kassover             "Proper technique helps protect you against
uupsi!khazad!kassover	          sharp weapons and dull judges."
kassover@aule-tek.com                   F. Collins
kassover@ra.crd.ge.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: BL.JYC@forsythe.stanford.edu (Jon Corelis)
Subject: Re: Books in the time of love
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 15:29:10 GMT

In article <9210080407.AA13065@cfdev1.shearson.com>,
mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:

>
>I'm surprised at how many people have stated that they & their spouses
>read children's books to each other.  Is romance dead?
>

   If you don't think that lovers reading children's books to each other
can be hot, check out the last scene of the original film version of Red
Dust.  Wow!!
Xref: sparky rec.arts.books:18135 soc.culture.iranian:8822
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 17:35:21 EDT
From: Kayvon Z. Sadeghi <KSADEGH@auvm.american.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,soc.culture.iranian
Subject: Re: REWARD OF $US100 TO END FATWAH ON RUSHDIE

In article <1b6hbeINNl89@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>, wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL)
says:
>
>I HEREBY PLEDGE $US 100 IN FAVOUR OF ANY PARTY SUCCESSFUL IN
>BRINGING ABOUT THE END OF THE FATWAH IMPOSED BY THE LATE SPIRITUAL
>LEADER OF IRAN, THE AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI, ON THE BRITISH WRITER SALMAN
>RUSHDIE.
>
>THE PROCEEDS ARE WAIVED IN THE CASE OF:
>
>(A) THE EVENT OF THE DEATH OF SALMAN RUSHDIE ON OR BEFORE THE DATE ONE
>YEAR AFTER THE LIFTING OF THE FATWAH;
>
>(B) THE SUCCESSFUL PARTY BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAINTAINING OF,
>OR CONNECTED WITH IN ANY OTHER WAY, THE FATWAH AS OF THIS DAY, OCTOBER 9,
>1992;
>
>(C) ABSENCE OF PROOF SUBSTANTIATING THE PARTY'S CLAIMS.
>
>
>
>THE PARTY MAY RESORT TO WHICHEVER MEANS ARE NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE THE AIM.
>
>
>
>Signed,
>John Wojdylo
>Melbourne, Australia
>October 9, 1992


bache khar mikonee, or what?

k1
From: mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Limpopo?
Date: 11 Oct 92 21:04:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: cfdev1.9210112104.AA29330


In response to my good natured (at least I hope that is how it was taken)
chiding of Professors Muir and McCarthy about fever trees, they replied
with the following:
 
Francis:
 
        Mark, dear Mark. If words meant no more than their assigned
        dictionary meaning then there would be little point in reading
        beyond the *Airline Guide* and *Yellow Pages*, or, in your case,
        the ticker tape. McCarthy was picking up on a literary illusion
        and I seriouly doubt whether Kipling meant the Scrub Acacia.
 
I mistook John's question "What is a fever tree?" to be what it appeared.
As for ticker tapes -- I wonder if they still exist.  I believe that they
have been replaced by computer feeds.
 
I like the idea of a literary illusion.  It would seem to be something that
could take on many forms:
 
        1. The vision one constructs from reading a scene or passage.
 
        2. A passage that really looks like what it describes (e.g.,
           one of those poems that describes a fish or a tale, and also
           looks like one).
 
        3. A passage that might look like one thing, but really be another.
           An example might be an elaborate pun, such as Joyce's
           "O'Neil saw Queen Molly's Pants" -- which is a pun for
           "Honi soit qui mal y pense."  The latter phrase is the
           motto of the Order of the Garter, and means "Shame be to he who
           thinks evil of it."
 
John:

        Mark, I was hoping for something more than the OED would consider
        proper to supply - Something beginning, "Ah yes, fever trees.  There
        we were camped among the fever trees, eating the last of our pack
        elephant's hind legs, the crocodile having dined off him starting with
        the trunk, when out of the bush came ..."

Yes, this would indeed be lovely.  Forgive my impudence.
 
 
Mark
From: wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Only Connect
Date: 13 Oct 1992 11:13:18 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: madvax.maths.uwa.oz.au

Mark Taranto writes:


>wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (John Wojdylo) writes:
> 
>> Does "being connected" in the sense of Forster entail one has to be as
>> scatterbrained as Margaret?
> 
>> Stupid bitch.

>Margaret scatterbrained?  I don't think so.  Perhaps John could point
>out some passages which make him believe that she is scatterbrained.
> 
>Perhaps John is mistaking a mind which does not think like his for a mind
>that does not think.  Let's look at a few examples:

	[long characterization of 'Margaret' deleted]

Kate was broadminded enough to recognize immediately that I meant Helen,
not Margaret.  

Why weren't you? The scent of blood lead you astray ? Or is it that familiarity
(with a novel, with anything) narrows your mind?


jw
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Enforced Shakespeare?
Date: 7 Oct 92 23:37:08 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <9210061546.AA16703@cfdev1.shearson.com>, mtaranto@shearson.com (Mark Taranto) writes:
> cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
# # When the professor returned the first papers done, he made a point
# # of reminding everyone, "We don't turn in papers all upper case."
# # There were three papers turned in that way in a class of about
# # 50 students.
#  
# Clayton consistently tells us stories about how other students look
# like fools.  I wondered if this is because there were SO MANY foolish
# students at Sonoma State, or if it is because Clayton needs to feel
# better about himself by consistently putting others down.
#  
# Now we get the truth.  94% of the students aren't having any problems
# doing things right.  Maybe Sonoma State isn't so bad, after all.
#  
# Clayton strikes me as the kind of person who, when asked if the
# proverbial glass is half full or half empty will reply "Look at
# all the flouride."
#  
# Mark

Tell me, do you honestly not find something profoundly disturbing
that three students out of 50 managed to advance to an upper division
class in a university, without knowing that an assignment should be
turned in with a mixture of upper and lower case letters?

If some small number of students started showing up in classes
with no awareness that it is considered inappropriate to take a
leak in the middle of the lecture hall, in the middle of the
lecture, would you gush, "Wow!  At least 94% of the students
know better!"


-- 
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: burgin@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Robert Burgin)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: 1992 Nobel Prize
Date: 8 Oct 92 15:28:22 GMT
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service

In article <1992Oct8.132210.28999@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> spg@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Stephen P. Guthrie) writes:
>Just announced: winner of 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature is
> 
>      Derek Walcott, from the Caribbean island nation of St.Lucia
>
>My question: who the heck is this? I've never heard of him before?
>Is he a poet? novelist? Are his books in print? I don't recall ever
>seeing any?
>
	As Calvin Trillin said when the award went to Claude
	Simon, "Susan Sontag had better have heard of this
	guy or there'll be trouble."

	Walcott is a Caribbean poet and dramatist.
	Farrar, Straus & Giroux have published the
	following:

		The Arkansas Testament
		Collected Poems 1948-1984
		The Fortunate Traveller
		Midsummer
		Omeros
		Remembrance & Pantomime
		The Joker of Seville & O Babylon!
		The Star-Apple Kingdom
		Three Plays

	--rb
From: sb51@prism.gatech.EDU (Susan Bovair)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Once I put this book down, I could not pick it up again.
Date: 8 Oct 92 20:25:10 GMT
Organization: Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology

In article <92118@netnews.upenn.edu> crawford@ben.dev.upenn.edu (Lauren L. Crawford) writes:
>Oh yeah, how could I have forgotten "A Confederacy of Dunces"?  Flatulence
>and yellowed sheets.  I bought a copy during all the hullabaloo
>surrounding the book when it first came out and tried to get through it. 
>Couldn't.  Tried again.  Still couldn't.  
>
>Years later, while stuck in a backwater in Asia, I did actually read the
>thing.  It was between that and watching lizard fights by candlelight.  In
>the end, I wished I'd just watched the lizards.
>
So far I haven't been in a backwater boring enough to get me through
that book.  Three attempts.

Currently, Michael Swanwick's "Stations of the Tide" is sitting half
open, as it has been for months.  I know it won a Nebula, but
I simply can't bring myself to finish it (plus I can't disturb the
spider who has built her web over it).

Susan


-- 
Susan Bovair
School of Psychology,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
From: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: James Bond
Keywords: James, Bond, Fleming, Charteris, Saint, spy
Date: 8 Oct 92 19:33:08 GMT
Reply-To: weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener)
Organization: The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology
In-reply-to: saint@cats.ucsc.edu (Daniel Ira Bodenheimer)

Have you never heard of "copyright"?
-- 
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba@sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)
From: c60b-2hz@web-2f.berkeley.edu (Nathaniel Meyers)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Attractiveness (was: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia)
Date: 11 Oct 1992 05:53:23 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: web-2f.berkeley.edu

In article <10OCT92.00125661@vax.clarku.edu> hhenderson@vax.clarku.edu writes:
>
>
>Ah yes, the Jockey people behaved so shamefully when they hired Jim
>Palmer to pose in his underwear. 
 
Yes, they did.  I'm glad to see you admit it.

Yes, I'm aware you were being sarcastic but for sarcasm to be legitimate
one's hypothesis (in your case, that advertising's standard operation is
acceptable, and that the advertising industry has an ounce of integrity)
is universal.  Yours is laughable.
>
>Be careful getting down off the soapbox.
>

Thanks for your concern but I think I'll just stay here a little longer if
you don't mind.

>Heather
>HHENDERSON@vax.clarku.edu

-Nathaniel
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.misc,rec.railroad
From: leveret@warren.demon.co.uk (Nick Leverton)
ReplyTo: leveret@warren.demon.co.uk
Subject: Re: Whats the title/Author of this story
Distribution: world
X-Mailer: cppnews $Revision: 1.18 $
Organization: Indexed; Access: Random.
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 03:51:18 +0000

In article <JOHN.92Oct7124625@sekrit.WPI.EDU> john@sekrit.WPI.EDU (John Stoffel) writes:

[short cascade of books removed :-)]

Yet another couple of SF books with a little railway content are from
Michael Coney's "Song of Earth" series: "The Celestial Steam Locomotive"
and "Cat Karina".

The Song of Earth ranges from the dim past to the far obscured future,
when through a combination of evolution and genetic engineering Mankind
has split into many different species. "The Celestial Steam Locomotive",
whilst a captivating book, is really only peripherally about railways:
the Locomotive is more of a metaphor in the book, but the passage
describing the building of the Locomotive makes it quite clear that
Coney is a rail fan himself :-)

However "Cat Karina" revolves around a railway: due to technology taboos
it's made of wood and propelled by the wind, but a railway it is none
the less. Still, you ought to read TCSL first in order to understand the
Universe of the Song of Earth.

No ISBN's I'm afraid, because these and most of my books are still in
boxes piled high in the garage following our house move a year ago ...

Nick Leverton
-- 
"Politician! Where's your credibility ?
Little did we know you were only into money and publicity"  -  Hugh Masekela.
From: wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (John Wojdylo)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: She's baaaaack.....Camille Paglia
Date: 8 Oct 1992 08:07:10 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: madvax.maths.uwa.oz.au

starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr) writes:

>In article <1ak4ugINN41n@uniwa.uwa.edu.au> wojdylo@maths.uwa.oz.au (INFIDEL) writes:
>}Tim Starr writes:
>}
>}
>}>But this is only pertinent to those who accept the justness of banning job
>}>discrimination.  I don't.  If I had to choose between Elle Macpherson and
>}>someone else (possibly male) who could, for example, type as well, I'd hire
>}>Ms. Macpherson, you'd better believe it!  I should be so lucky...
>}
>}What would you do?   Watch her tits bobble up and down all day as she types? 
>}And how would you accomodate her training schedule that keeps her body
>}in shape --- or would ask her to give up modelling ?

[...]

>As for your other questions, I don't know.  I was giving an example to make
>a point, which you appear to have missed entirely: ...

No, YOU'VE missed the point: you are an oaf.
From: trb@cbnews.cb.att.com (tom.balent)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: John Gardner (both)
Date: 15 Oct 92 21:37:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: cbnews.1992Oct15.213748.4874
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T

In article <1992Oct14.181305.10625@brtph560.bnr.ca> Paul Schroeder writes:
 
  (speaks of the American writer John Gardner):

>Accordingly, I would appreciate any opinions/recommendations on the writer and
>his work.
>

In my humble opinion I feel that his Grendel is one of the best books ever
written (but then what do I know).  I was so impressed by it that I have
set myself the task of collecting all of his works in first edition.  So
far I have 24 of his books (including Grendel, and including six that were
signed by Mr. Gardner).  He not only wrote fiction, but he also wrote 
poetry, short stories, children's books, one epic poem, some operas, literary
criticism, a translation of the Gilgamesh legend, and he taught and wrote
on old English poetry and literature.

Of his works, as I said, Grendel is my favorite, but others I liked a lot
are: Nickel Mountain, October Light, The Wreckage of Agathon, and the one
you read - Freddy's Book.

I have not tackled his scholarly works yet (although I have three of them).

My recomendation is - if nothing else, read Grendel.


here is a quote from that book:

    I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of
    causal, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears.
    I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist.  All the
    rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, 
    blindly - as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back.  I create
    the whole universe, blink by blink.


tom balent
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: WANTED: "The Profit" by Kehlog Albran
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 17:37:05 GMT

Barbara Hlavin writes:

	Harish Devarajan writes:

		Hi all.  I'm looking for the book mentioned above 
		("The Profit" by Kehlog "Arguments with furniture 
		are rarely productive" Albran).  Was recommended 
		to me by a friend, but he doesn't have a copy, and
		(surprise) neither does MIT, where I happen to be.  
		Does anybody have a copy I can buy ?  Or know where 
		I can find one, in the Boston area ?

	The book you're looking for is called THE PROPHET.  It was written 
	by Kahlil Gibran.  (Kehlog Albran sounds like the name of a popular 
	breakfast cereal.) 

Ol' Bar Bra is having us on, right? A little "insider" stuff she picked up
from MacDogsnot at Berzerkly? 

							Fido
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: djdaneh@pbhyc.PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Subject: Re: Arthur Rimbaud, is that you?????
Reply-To: djdaneh@PacBell.COM (Dan'l DanehyOakes)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 18:10:24 GMT

Brennan J. Murphy writes:

>Has anybody seen Arthur Rimbuad lately?  I need to find him because I am
>doing a report of sorts on his sordid self.

As I recall, Sylvester Stallone did a series of movies based on his adventures.



		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
My opinions do NOT represent Pacific Bell,
Professional Development, or anyone else.
But I'm willing to share.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: twain@milton.u.washington.edu (Barbara Hlavin)
Subject: Re: Literature Students/Small World
Summary: "Republican" and "fool" not *necessarily* synonymous 
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 20:36:22 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.172051.16150@novell.com> janines@novell.com 
(Janine Schenone) writes:
>
>_Ulysses_
>I can see this is one of the best novels ever written, and if
>other people don't like it, they are disadvantaged fools (or Republicans):

Come, come: enough of this libel about Republican reading habits.  Both 
of my esteemed parents were Republicans, and while my father --at least 
by the time I knew him, when he was in his sixties-- read little more 
than U.S. News & World Report, my mother Read Everything.  (Of course I 
must note that her lifelong devotion to the Republicans ended abruptly 
in 1979 as even she couldn't stomach Ronald Reagan.) 

She read Joyce and Kafka and Balzac and Proust, she claimed to be the 
only person extant on the North American continent to have actually 
waded through both _Jean Christophe_ and _The Wandering Jew_, she was 
a fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald's from the time he published his first 
few stories in The Saturday Evening Post (which accounts for my possession 
of a first edition of _The Great Gatsby_, although to tell the truth I'd 
rather have her than the book).  She read poetry constantly and forced 
me from tothood to memorize reams of the stuff.  Why, mention Coleridge 
in my presence and just try and stop me from reciting "Kubla Khan" at you... 

After her death I found a dozen small notebooks in which she had written 
the titles and authors of all the library books she'd read in the last 
ten or so years of her life.  (She often visited the library several times 
a week and kept track of them so that she knew which batch to return 
when.)  There must have been more than 5,000 titles.

When I announced to her one day that I believed I was a Democrat, she 
didn't flinch.  In fact, she didn't even look up from her book.  "You 
would be," she murmured.  "You've always been a naughty girl."  And went 
on reading. 

--Barbara