The Library

[Frybabe]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

*Suggestion Box for Future Discussions
*SeniorLearn's Archives 

Speaking of translations, I ran across an author writes under the name of "Stant Litore". Well, I said to myself, that has to be a pseudonym. The author is very fond of ancient languages. His name I recognized as Latin. If  I have it correct, it means something like "they stand (stand still, stand firm,rest) on the shore". His specialty seems to be Zombies. Not my kind of reading material. http://stantlitore.com/

[PatH]

His biography in Fantastic Fiction looks as phony as his name.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/stant-litore/

Not my kind of book either.

[Dana]

Ginny--another translator!  I've never read him....

Pat--that translation didn't take long, the Greek words sort of make their own poetry, even in literal translation, most difficult is figuring out what the verbs are because they completely change their form depending on tense/voice etc.  When one has figured that out, the beauty just falls into place I think.  I often think my totally literal translations sound like a kind of poetry...but that's not me, it's Homer....who cannot have been blind all his life , just look at that tiny description of the wave against the bow.....for example.....what a genius....and all the lines always perfectly scan, too....its fun to see how he adds words and spells words differently sometimes to make that happen

...."and when early born rosy fingered Eos appeared".....that is completely literal but quite poetic too.......

[MaryPage]

I have played a little game with myself, all of my long lifetime, which perhaps some of you play at, too.  Whenever two or more things are laid before me, I stop to choose which I prefer before going on to other things.
And so it came about that Dana tempted me with those lovely translations, and I picked the literal as my favorite.  This was not done, mind you, from the expertise of a translator or expert on the subject of Homer.  Not for a nanosecond.  It was strictly a total ignoramous layperson's choice of which seems the more beautiful.  Most beautiful?  To my ear.  Lovely to find in reading on that so many of you agree with me!
Steph, I love Camilla Lackberg, too, but for me it was especially in reading the most excellent and beautiful translations of Steig Larsson and of Jo Nesbo that put me to wondering how beyond wonderful their writing must be in the original Swedish, since it is so terrific in English and pulls one so deeply into the narrative.

[Steph]

I must confess that I have enough problems in English, so no translations for me.

[pedln]

Watch out -- there may be subliminal messages in that next novel on your TBR list.  I don'tknow if this is marketing at its highest or lowest.

ebook mingles

[PatH]

Lowest, in my opinion.

[Frybabe]

Didn't Folgers do an ad serial that was popular a few years back? I wonder if that is where they got the idea. I suppose a writer could find it a fun exercise to try to incorporate a product into a novel plot as often as possible/credible. This may appeal to new authors looking for a quick way to make money and gain readership. I wonder how the contract would read. Who gets the royalties, who owns the copywrite? My nose smells something now quite pleasant.

[Steph]

Some time ago I read a long article on this subliminal stuff.. Still baffles me. but then a good deal of this does. Product placement just makes me ignore. Some of the chic lit is full of name clothing, shoes.. Just too too twee.

[jane]

I know that product placement has been a big deal in the movie industry...from what shoes, handbags, suits the characters wear to the tabloids/gossip rags where one sees  the supposedly "candid" so-called celebrity shots of Kim Kardashian and others of that "circle" wearing Jimmy Choos and carrying a $30,000 handbag and on and on until you want to gag.  Seeing the number of young women who now are wearing the single braid à la whatever character in the movie ”Frozen," I guess it must work.  

I read a book recently in which the character referred to the designer Donna Karan,  but it was spelled "Donna Karen."  I guess spell checker isn't fashion aware!  

[mabel1015j]

J.D. Robb, aka Nora Roberts, writes Pepsi into all the Eve Dallas books, but i haven't minded since Pepsi is my favorite soda. Although i don't often drink one any more, i can "taste" one every time she gets a "tube" out of the machine, and feel how refreshing it is. 

I have no idea if Roberts gets any reimbursement for doing that.

Jean

[jane]

Frybabe...I think it might have been "Taster's Choice" coffee...but I know my neighbor remembers it well.  Right now one of the insurance companies seems to be doing one.  Unfortunately for the PR of that company, I don't remember the name of the insurance company.   

Jean...I don't mind the product names, either.  I understand that wanting to show someone is expensively dressed and so the author says character is wearing an Armani suit or Louboutin shoes or a Birkin bag.  I know they mean
really, really expensive (at least from my point of view. None of that makes me rush out and buy those items.
At the same time, however, I think there are a number of young women who are so inclined.  It's the only way I can fathom why they appear in public in some of the "outfits" I know cost a bundle but they look, to me,  like street people.  I've also asked if they've taken the mirrors out of dressing rooms in some of those stores, for the young women surely didn't see themselves before plunking down $175 + for the jeans that make them look like they have chicken legs. {Yep, just my opinion. }

I'm anxious for the election tomorrow and the endless telephone calls and survey calls to end...and the back to back to back TV ads for this and that candidate. 

jane

[mabel1015j]

  . LOL

Oh, i so agree Jane, i'm frequently saying, "Did she look in the mirror before she left the house!?! " i can remember for years when Jane Fonda would appear on a red carpet, obviously having had HER hairdresser do her coif as opposed to the hairdresser for her movies or tv shows. I guess they were trying to be "artsy", IMO they were just a hot mess. She always looks good on screen, but when she was responsible for her coif, whew!

Speaking of expensive purses, did you hear Kerry Washington - Scandal - say they have a "Scandal line" of clothes? That is really smart, if i was a young professional woman and still wearing business clothes, I'D BUY THEM, in a minute! I love "Olivia's" clothes. I think i heard her say that they are selling them in Kohl's which is also smart.

Jea

[Steph]

My husbands favorite line of all time.. " Does the person not have a mirror??". So I still look occasionally and hear the much loved voice rumbling in my ear.

[maryz]

I’ve just finished reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. It’s an amazing look at end of life issues, questions and discussions.  None of us wants to think about death, but - let’s face it - nobody gets out of this life alive. And whether or not we really think about it, we all have some thoughts about how we’d like to exit.

Gawande writes that the medical profession is focused on keeping the Grim Reaper at bay, and rarely gets into a discussion on how to deal with the inevitable. He posits three questions that we, our doctors, and our families should consider as we‘re nearing that point. I think they’re worth repeating and thinking about.

 1. What are your biggest fears and concerns?
 2. What goals are most important to you?
 3. What trade-offs are you willing to make and which ones are you not?

 These are definitely things to think about - before our time comes.

[Jonathan]

'something to think about' Thanks, MaryZ, for posting a real challenge. Thanks to the medical profession many of us are getting ten, twenty, thirty more years of life than would have been the case just a generation or two ago. And lots of research is being done to improve the quality of those extra years. But inevitably we reach the end of life...and the question is how do we take our leave of it...how do we exit?

It made a great impression on me when I was younger, and it has stayed in my memory like a clear light. Those lines in Shakespeare describing the death of the Thane of Cawdor, condemned for an act of treason:

Malcolm reports to King Duncan: 'I have spoke with one that saw him die...nothing in his life became him like the leaving it; he died as one that had been studied in his death to throw away the dearest thing he ow'd as 't were a careless trifle.'

Can life ever be a trifling matter?

[Frybabe]

Being the curious person that I am, I decided to see if I could find out who owns or runs the ManyBooks site. There doesn't appear to be any such info on their website, so I did a Google search. All I could come up with was info from the WHOIS site. http://whois.domaintools.com/manybooks.net

Many Books is registered with GoDaddy, with a private registration through Domains by Proxy. Bob Parsons, who founded GoDaddy owns Domains by Proxy. Domains by Proxy is an outfit that offers clients a private domain where clients can remain anonymous. According to Wikipedia, close to 10million clients use this service. And here I had expected to find it was affiliated with Project Gutenberg from which they get most of their e-books, guess not.

ManyBooks has recently added more advertising and a column with the Twitter, Facebook, etc. icons. It is a little annoying because of the way I cruise through the site and it seems to slow me down a little. 

[Frybabe]

Comment on previous post.

I suppose it is really not uncommon for a company to post a website and want to keep their information private. The number of such clients on GoDaddy startled me. I wonder what the total is over all web hosting companies like GoDaddy. It must be tremendous.

[Steph]

End of life issues.. This is one of those things that has always intrigued me.. I know that my Mother was not afraid of pain or death, but feared dying alone, so I was careful to reassured her in the hospital, that I was there always. Her last day, when her breathing changed and I knew the end was near, I held her hand very tight and told her over and over I was there and she could leave when she was ready and last that afternoon with one last sigh, she did.. I was glad that I was with her.
Another friend who had been a very giddy human,lived to flirt.. never wanted a child to tie her down and did love to collect admirers.. She had lupus and her lungs turned to wood,, very slowly. She was incredibly brave.. gave away her cats, looked life in the eye and held her head high. My husband and I saw her the last week of her life and she was so very calm,, I was so impressed. I will hope for the strength to be that calm and brave.
So I have decided to sit down and write instructions.. Maybe that will help me and a doctor someday.

[MaryPage]

I have never seen anyone depart this life with as much grace and acceptance as did my last husband, and so I am quite determined to make every attempt to copy his example.  Hospice was an enormous help, and I am most humbly grateful to those people.  In actual fact, though, I must say that in my mind and body I downright embrace the finality of it all these days;  quite a change from my younger days when Death seemed too ghastly to contemplate.  All of my beloved family, including my brother, are gone.  There is no one left to share memories with.  The heavy weight I feel within me for all those people:  parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins, friends and parents & grandparents of friends, neighbors, schoolmates, teachers, fellow workers and bosses:  every atom of them destroyed and the world as they observed it being utterly changed, is something I feel every minute of my days as though it were a tangible heap of real matter.  Yep, there has been a real sea change regarding Death, and this old lady is ready for it;  indeed, UP for it, as they say!

[ursamajor]

Two years ago a heart surgeon told me I could not live more than 18 months without open heart surgery, which I refused.  Obviously he was wrong, but that experience made me think a lot about getting the ending right.  I had a stent placed in my heart, but was told that would do nothing for the two bad heart valves.  One thing I did was write a letter to each of my five children, to be delivered when the end came.  The letters will keep until the time comes.  Anothe thing I did was give great attention to the fact I wanted no life prolonging treatment at the end.

I feel pretty good for somebody who should have been dead six months ago!

Incidentally, I have ordered the Being Mortal book

[maryz]

And we're glad you're still with us, ursa!!

[Steph]

Yes, I want the Being Mortal book and will order it..

[Jonathan]

I like the part about 'crotchety, 83-year-old Harry Truman (not HST) refusing to evacuate his home at the foot of Mount Saint Helens in 1980. Everything he valued in life was in or around that home, and he refused to abandon it in exchange for saftey - and died when the volcano finally erupted.' (Globe and Mail, Nov 7, 2014)

The subject matter of this book is very much in the news these days. The day you posted, maryz, about Being Mortal, my newspaper carried an article under the headline, End-of-life patients aren't being heard. On the Health page. Then the next day, on the Books page, was a short review of Gawande's Being Mortal. It seems doctors are very much aware of the problems created by life-support  systems. A quick look at the book has convinced me that it's more about living and aging, than it is about dying. Well-written.

I can't imagine old Harry ever being happy away from his mountain. Then again, mountains have alway been a great help and life for me, but that's another story. I'm 85. I don't need a doctor. I've heard dying is a moment of total, felt, well-being.

[PatH]

MaryZ, you have just made a blip in the sales of Being Mortal.  Too bad you can't get a commission.

Jonathan, I totally understand Harry (non-president) Truman's decision.  It wouldn't be mine, but I can easily imagine myself making that decision in some circumstances.  None of us here has to worry about getting crotchety.  If they do, I'll tease them unmercifully.

[BarbStAubrey]

Wow this one was like a volcano to watch - Professor Lawrence Lessig as he brilliantly explains how money has destroyed our elections. It's only a six-minute trip entitled, All it Took Was A Laptop and Markers to silence the Crowd and What He Said Made them Furious . Enjoy the journey.

http://www.upworthy.com/all-it-took-was-a-laptop-and-markers-to-silence-the-crowd-and-what-he-said-made-them-furious

Taken from his book Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It - by Lawrence Lessig

P.S. eyes still mending - so far few bumps but enough for me to stay off the computer as much as I can for qwhile.

[Frybabe]

Interesting website, Barb. Thanks for sharing.

[Steph]

Very bumpy weekend.. Please if anyone has any experience in Asburgers, bullying and suicide attempts, get in touch with me. I need to begin to understand why a 13 year old would try.. and why the school punishes him for lashing back, but not the bullies for the name calling.

[MaryPage]

Steph, one of my daughters is married to an Aspergers.  He is extremely bright and high functioning, but still a freak when it comes to relating to people.  We cherish him, but otherwise, I don't know what to tell you.
I have watched one grow up.  A cousin of 3 of my daughters, on their father's side, has one who graduates from college this coming June.  I have known him since birth.  The experience of watching and participating in an Aspergers growing up is TOTALLY different from watching other children.  They do, indeed, live in a world of their own, but rather desperately want to be "just like all the other kids."
This boy was put, at tremendous annual cost, in a private school for just such children.  Some people think it best to mainstream these children, but I say no.  In a learning atmosphere just for them, their special brilliancys can be encouraged, and the teachers know to let them go as far as they can.  They befriend one another, as best they are able, and actually "feel" they have friends.  By the time they go off to college, most "normal" college kids have formed some epathy and the actual Aspergers is better able to cope with the meanness.
It seems, sigh, that there lurks within the human being a visceral dislike of "other" kinds of people.  There is a strong urge to rid the world of all disabled in any way, shape or form; and most especially those whose brains are wired differently.
Our boy had one meltdown in his 2nd semester, and the campus police actually put him in jail overnight!  Wow, did the administration come down on them!  Now they have to attend a course about autistics.  Other than that, he has excelled in this well known liberal arts college, and we have high hopes for his future;  probably in a lab finding cures for our diseases.  Hmm.  Also for the diseases of his tormentors!

You see, one of the blessings to the human species is this small percentage of Aspergers.  They not only have huge IQs, but they can focus on problem solving like no one else!

[Frybabe]

Well, I guess I had my chuckle for the morning.

During my morning cruise through the free e-book sites, I ran across a French language book, the title of which lsounded interesting. When I looked up the author, Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail to see if any had been translated to English, I found this comment on Wikipedia:

Ponson du Terrail wrote in a hurry and rarely checked what he had written, rushing to meet deadlines. He is well known for some eccentric sentences :

    "Her hands were as cold as those of a snake" (fr :Elle avait les mains aussi froides que celles d'un serpent)
    "With one hand, he raised the dagger, and with the other he said.." (D'une main il leva son poignard, et de l'autre il lui dit...")

Firstly, snakes are not cold feeling; they feel warm to the touch, muscular, and BTW, their scales feel smooth rather than rough. The second quote speaks for itself. It also reminded me of the crappy writing and editing that many an otherwise decent story suffers these days, especially with e-books.

[PatH]

Besides, snakes don't have hands.   You're right; their skin feels sort of like dry silk.

[Steph]

Thanks MaryPage. I thinkI have now convinced his parents to see about schools ( private), but they want a day school and that might be tough. He has so many good qualities, but this changing of classes starting last year has thrown him. He loved one classroom.. one teacher .. etc and he is still rebelling about the changes. He also is a beautiful looking child and a very young 13 ( not unusual in asburgers). so the newest hate has to do with called him gay  ( and that is a nice word compared to the ones they are using). This is the boys,, the girls on the other hand call every night to talk to him and he is bewildered by that. I just want to wrap him up and hide him away from the meanness. You are right.. Boys at a certain age cannot seem to stand difference.

[ginny]

Children can be so cruel.  I am sorry to see that. It's a wonder any of us escaped unscathed and I'm not sure we all  did.

Frybabe, what perfect Worst Lines, he should have entered the Bulwyr Lytton contest for Worst First Lines, he'd have won in a heartbeat with his mixed metaphors.  Seriously, he'd have won hands down.

Pun intended. hahahahaa

[MaryPage]

Pat, my immediate thought came in your very words:  "Besides, snakes don't have hands!"

[PatH]

I can't remember enough about this example of unfortunate wording to track down who said it, or about whom, but a historical figure is described as having "...one foot planted firmly in the Middle Ages, while with the other he saluted the rising sun of the Renaissance."  Quite a picture.

[Frybabe]

 

[BarbStAubrey]

Aw but we do get the intent - I am thinking that perfection may not be the way to get more published - I remember years back when even I as a Kid we would see the discrepancies in the movies - we did not know a film was made in pieces and in one scene she wore a hat and another she didn't or the dog on the street behind the action was a different dog or he was smoking and then he wasn't - and so I think authors have mixed metaphors or strange sentences because they did not write the piece all in one - to get it out quickly there is not as much re-write demanded because the story line is what they are giving the public.

[Jonathan]

This is hilarious. Snakes have hands. Quotes have voices. Can someone tell me what that other hand said. Have you never felt the chill in shaking the hand of a snake? Was it Caesar who bestrode the world with his two feet? Pat's historian does even better with his legs planted in different eras. There's a new language in here, somehow.

[marjifay]

I am amazed that you people know what a snake's body and scales feel like!  I've never wanted to get near enough to a snake to find out.

Marj

[marjifay]

I guess no one has read my post the other day in the Political Issues section regarding an article in Salon Magazine that I found interesting.  I thought it might stir up some comments, but perhaps not. 

It was entitled:
"You don’t protect my freedom: Our childish insistence on calling soldiers heroes deadens real democracy"
 
It's been 70 years since we fought a war about freedom. Forced troop worship and compulsory patriotism must end

by Davie Masciotra

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/09/you_dont_protect_my_freedom_our_childish_insistence_on_calling_soldiers_heroes_deadens_real_democracy/?source=newsletter

Marj