Ersatz TLS discussion

I fell for that too Mach; I only got two jelly tots. Not even red and black ones.

Iowerth wrote: "Will there be a thread for each week to replicate TLS? "

Yes. Moderator Justine/Interwar will put the first one up on November 2nd.

Machenbach wrote: "Is there anything in particular to fear from unknown friend requests? Or is it mainly information overload?"

Greetings Honorable Mr MachenBach, you should know - I requested your assistance in transferring my $15M :-) (text was from an authentic scam btw, I cannot pretend to have the imagination).

The answer is: I don't know. I guess it depends on how much you've protected the sharing of information (for instance, I don't want my email address to be shared, although even that one is a generic one created for this kind of purpose), and maybe indeed depends on what is overtly your gender, etc. If you remember somebody on TLS (who's here as well) also had a very nasty experience in a similar setting with a stalker and got understandably very shaken by it.

Not all of us have a good boy to feel more secure!

Hi everyone ... I used to occasionally post on TLS under the name Carlily, I haven't posted for ages but read the thread every week and take so many wonderful recommendations. Sad and a little angry to see it go, but thank you for setting this up and I will try and be a little more active here. Though I think the interface is going to take a while to master

Ersatz TLS
112 Members

Never thought we had so many hiding in shadows.

Machenbach wrote: "Somebody with experience of GoodReads groups is gonna have to talk us through the usual drill, I think. Do most groups have one very long discussion line (seems a bit unwieldy)? Or do members open ..."

The reviews one does of individual books, separate from the group site, are emailed to 'friends' and (I think) 'followers' only. I review books as I finish them, and you'll receive these, but you are free of course to delete without reading. Similarly if you review books in that way, I'll receive your write-up. I think that's the main function of being a 'friend' or 'follower'. The former can also send messages to each other individually.

Otherwise, I don't myself perceive any danger in accepting a 'friend'. This isn't as much of a wild west as Facebook. I've been on GR for a few years and have never experienced anything sinister.

Gladarvor wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "Is there anything in particular to fear from unknown friend requests? Or is it mainly information overload?"

Greetings Honorable Mr MachenBach, you should know - I requested you..."

See message 115.

Justine wrote: "I've been on GR for a few years and have never experienced anything sinister."

I think this can happen though, from what Alwynne said, and another person from both TLS/ersatz TLS, and just my experience in life in general (I'm not talking about Enduring Love kind of level, but something very uncomfortable still).

It seems to me that actual comments on books are getting a little lost amidst the general conversation. I'm going to open a discussion for Book Reviews, Recommendations & Otherwise. I've also just opened a Suggestions thread, which may or may not overlap with the Moderators thread,

Justine wrote: "The reviews one does of individual books, separate from the group site, are emailed to 'friends' and (I think) 'followers' only...."

Even those emails can be suppressed - go to your profile, click on the 'Emails' tab, and you'll see a bazillion places to turn on/off emails.

Gladarvor wrote: "Justine wrote: "I've been on GR for a few years and have never experienced anything sinister."

I think this can happen though, from what Alwynne said, and another person from both TLS/ersatz TLS, ..."

I've been here for 10 years, have been a member in a number of Groups, and I've seen nothing sinister, or even uncomfortable.

Justine wrote: "It seems to me that actual comments on books are getting a little lost amidst the general conversation. I'm going to open a discussion for Book Reviews, Recommendations & Otherwise. I've also just ..."

That's cool Justine, but let's hold off a little longer before setting up too many discussions. I'm planning to set up some folders to group discussions and keep things a little tidier, but I need help from the moderator's group to do so. More later.

thanks LL and Justine for all your work so far, the old TLS seems rather dead in comparison

Lljones wrote: "Justine wrote: "It seems to me that actual comments on books are getting a little lost amidst the general conversation. I'm going to open a discussion for Book Reviews, Recommendations & Otherwise...."

Okay - worry not! I'll stop at that. :-)

I should note for newcomers that when referring to a book or author, Goodreads allows you an easy way to link to the GR entry for that book or author. You can click on the “add book/author” link and search for the entry you want to reference. If you're patient enough to scroll through “other editions”, you can usually link to a specific edition of the book. For instance, I can point to the movie tie-in version of Housekeeping that I read, or even include a picture:

I see you've made some very good use of that functionality in your 50 Paperbacks... review, Bill. An impressive effort!

I haven’t found this years’s Halloween reading to be as rewarding as usual.
I wanted to read some Le Fanu and chose Green Tea, which was pretty much what I expected. The novella I read contains a second story also, Mr Justice Harbottle, which was more atmospheric, a dodgy judge getting his comeuppance.
And Dagon by Fred Chappell, which is a sort of southern gothic horror with a Lovecraft influence, with a Cthulhu theme. The most interesting thing about it is that it has two endings, apparently as Chappell himself couldn’t decide which one to use. It’s intriguing, certainly original, but has as many places in which it doesn’t work, as those in which it does.

I’ll repeat from my post earlier this week though, Mannin’s Lucifer And The Child stands out, and is well worth reading.

I strayed from the ghouls to read An Orphan World by Giuseppe Caputo translated by Sophie Hughes and Juana Adcock.
Sandwiched between the Colombian beaches and the wealthier suburbs, a young man and his father trawl the beaches looking for anything to bolster an unsteady income, and the rundown shack in which they live. Despite all, they continue to see the best in their world, even though the father's impulsive schemes for cash fall flat. The son, I’d guess about 16 years old, explores his sexuality in the gay bars and night clubs, their lives portrayed by Caputo as lovable rogues. One night a horrific incident of homphobic violence shatters the camaraderie of the neighbourhood, and results in empowering the pair and their little group of friends into a show of solidarity through music and sex.
There is a dreamlike quality to Caputo's writing, which softens the grittiness, not always to the benefit of the novel. Its a strange book that makes its point in a coarse and brutal way, with plenty of graphic descriptions of sex that verge towards the pornographic.

I’ve entered over 3000 books into Goodreads and have found maybe 2 or 3 that were not already in the database (GR does allow you to create new entries – modifying existing ones, which I’ve also accomplished through requests, requires the help of a “librarian”). In general I’ve found it fairly rare to encounter a book that doesn’t have at least a few reviews from other users, especially in fiction.

Alan wrote: "I see you've made some very good use of that functionality in your 50 Paperbacks... review, Bill. An impressive effort!"

I use the "link to book" feature pretty frequently in my reviews, but in reading Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America, I found a certain nostalgic rush in seeing the various cover reproductions (in black and white, alas!) the author includes and I wanted to try to create a similar effect in my review. I tried to show the original paperback cover in every case that I could, but, as some of those books had 100s of editions, it proved too wearying to do that for every one using the "add book" feature,

For those interested, I just updated my review to include the original paperback covers of
and
.
It's a little easier to find specific editions when using the "Other Editions" option on the main entry for the book.

PaleFires wrote: "Personally, I think we should all storm Poem of the Week, (and expect to receive no upticks ever) but Ms Rumens might beg the fucktards in charge to rub her out like Sam."

Oh, that's an idea. We could raid any book article that is open for comments. They'd probably close shop, but we could move onto another, and another. Until they've closed for comments every single book-related article. Hmmm, maybe not such an idea after all!

Machenbach wrote: 'though my favourite paperback is Junkie Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict by William S. Burroughs which was bound tête-bêche with Narcotic Agent in an amusing reflection of 50s counterculture vs establishment

That edition is pictured in Davis' book and mentioned in a note:

Among the growing ranks of collectors of old or "vintage" paperbacks, Ace's edition of Junkie is a valued treasure.

Just started THE REFUGE by KENNETH MACKENZIE(1954), an australian novel set in Sydney, the opening pages are fascinating in scene setting:

a bleak may night, high tide in the harbour and crime reporter Lloyd Fitzherbert is nervously wondering "have they found the body?...a dead woman, a dead woman in the harbour..."

Bill wrote: "For those interested, I just updated my review to include the original paperback covers of
and
.
It's a little easier to find specific edi..."

i am making sure i find the correct covers too, not mangled cheapo e-books that goodreads seems to offer me as cover art

We missed a trick here by not calling the group The Forest - or even the Guardian Forest (which sounds like a Supernatural novel title)

Machenbach wrote: "Bill wrote: "Machenbach wrote: 'though my favourite paperback is Junkie Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict by William S. Burroughs which was bound tête-bêche with Narcotic Agent in an amusing..."

Regardless of which edition I’ve read I just look through the options and choose what I think is the best cover.
I can hear the tut-tutting already..

FranHunny wrote: "We missed a trick here by not calling the group The Forest - or even the Guardian Forest (which sounds like a Supernatural novel title)"

I'm maybe too recent to fully appreciate the forest appellation but I prefer Ersatz TLS as more "what it says on the tin".

Kayaki wrote: "You could explore the area up the hill, across the main road. Just to the south of the village is the Buddhist temple and the cemetery."

Thanks a mil Kayaki. Apparently there are a few Buddhist temples in your Kayakimashi neighbourhood! I've picked the Sotoshu Jizo one, as there is a winding road going up the hill past it and that seemed to correspond. Amazing view of the sea in the middle of the lavishly green slopes, I absolutely love the area!

Machenbach wrote: "how does one manually add a book to the database?"

I don't see it, but was it published under some other name at any point?

To add a book, search for the title, then on the 'Search' results page, you'll see, top right, teeny-tiny font, a link for "Manually add a book..."

Lljones wrote: "To add a book, search for the title, then on the 'Search' results page, you'll see, top right, teeny-tiny font, a link for "Manually add a book...""

Thanks, Lisa. I know that I have added a title in the past (Everything But A Husband , less highbrow than Mach’s), but did not remember how I went about it.

As long as I’ve started this post, I will mention that for those committed to using GR as a cataloging service, it may be worth joining the Goodreads Librarians Group. In this group you can post requests to change the bibliographic information in GR – I generally use it to submit requests to add book cover images to entries for editions where I have a copy of the book, but GR does not show a cover image. I suppose it would also serve to add a book to the database if one does not want to do so oneself. It generally helps when making a request to include the ISBN number of the edition you’re referring to (available where applicable on most existing GR entries).

I am posting this notification I just received from Kindle for you all to enjoy: "An author you bought from, George Eliot just added The Mill on the Floss for you to read for free.
I do love a knowledgable bookseller....

Dag Solstad's Professor Andersen's Night.

If you dislike your books full of repetition and endless navel-gazing, this admittedly short but dense book won't be for you. I didn't think it would be for me either but something about the pathetic image of Professor Andersen curtain twitching on Christmas Eve and the days that followed intrigued me enough to stick with it.

Professor Andersen is the very definition of a mid-life crisis, much though he tries to reassure himself in the early going that nothing in his ordered life cannot be remedied by slipping into one of his expensive Italian suits and treating himself to a nice meal out or indeed at home, chased with coffee and cognac by the fire and a petit-four of self-congratulation as he surveys his wall to wall bookshelves.

The action commences promisingly with Professor Andersen (I'll accord him his full title as he does himself throughout the book) looking out his window on Christmas Eve, Holy Night, and witnessing a murder in an apartment opposite his own building. The ensuing action centres around his moral angst about whether to report the crime and, subsequently, why he feels unable to. There are endless soul-searching paragraphs, well more intellect than soul really, and sentences that feel exactly that.

Professor Andersen is a professor of literature and the book is peppered with digressions on the value of literature itself, its meaning to the current generation and whether it is going out of fashion as people search for new meaning. Professor Andersen (is this annoying you yet ... if so, don't read the book) is an Ibsen expert and muses on the relevance of Ibsen only a century on, and on what moves students to make meaning of his writings. The professor seems to have a genuine interest in contemporary Norwegian poets and, amusingly, wonders why his career-mindedness made him pursue Ibsen as his specialty. Anyone who has ever spent years researching and writing a thesis on a subject of another's choosing will identify with some of his philosophising on these matters. There is an amusing scene where Professor Andersen compares a Norwegian poet's translation of Shakespeare to spot its shortcomings, which I'm sure gave Solstad's translator here, Agnes Scott Langeland, pause for a wry smile if not some rye bread and aquavit.

One of my favourite scenes in the book (the occasion of my aforementioned two laughs) is of a dinner party at a childhood friend's house where a group of Professor Andersen's university peers (with the exception of an air stewardness whom one has married and who commands the greatest attention - much to Professor Andersen's chagrin - for having a daughter who hosts a preposterous game show) debate their "radical" politics and deviant penchants for boats, second houses and Italian suits. Btw that's a short sentence compared to what is typical in the book, which may actually only be about 15 sentences long. Anyway, Solstad sends up this class brilliantly and manages to convey the malaise some, Professor Andersen at least, feel in spite of their achievements and social milieu.

Here's the sentence, one of the shorter ones, that occasioned one of my laughs:

Per Ekeberg, for instance, owned a fast and extremely elegant car, and he explained this was due to him being possessed by a 'speed demon', which he never managed to banish, and Bernt Halvorsen had a large sailing boat lying at his fairly unpretentious holiday cottage in the county of Vestfold, and he apologised for this by saying that the wind and sailing held an almost abnormal attraction for him, which was connected to his childhood in a little town in Vestfold, the same one, by the way, that Professor Andersen had grown up in, without having to acquire a sailing boat when he was a grown man.

All of the scenes I liked best centred around dinner parties or meals of some sort and Professor Andersen's slightly awkward interaction with other people, the murderer included. The murder storyline is actually only a hook, it seems to me, to hang a broader discussion on of what it is to be human and what motivates us to do as we do (and, yes, today is Sunday).

Professor Andersen is neither likeable nor dislikeable; he's a slightly pathetic manifestation of the complexities within all of us. Solstad captures the mental wrangling and loneliness well and I'd recommend this book for that alone, and for the subtle but definite humour that permeates it. A bit like herring though, it won't be for everyone but, like herring, will leave an aftertaste.

Next up, a sharp change in direction, Cold Comfort Farm. Well... it was to be but I see Justine hated it... I think I'll persevere.

Greenfairy wrote: I do love a knowledgable bookseller......."

HaHa!

Machenbach wrote: "Reen wrote: "Dag Solstad's Professor Andersen's Night.

If you dislike your books full of repetition and endless navel-gazing, this admittedly short but dense book won't be for you. I didn't think ..."

That certainly was a definitive wetting of the baby's head.

I haven't been to Norway but I did balk a bit at the price of wine in restaurants in Copenhagen - where one might expect to pay about 30 for a house wine here, it was more like 50 (in euro equivalent) there. And let's face it, who wants the house wine? I mean it made one think twice (for about ten seconds) about that second bottle of wine. Now I'm writing this, I'm wondering if it was Copenhagen or somewhere else. No matter, it didn't stop us and I absolutely loved the place.

Reen wrote: "And let's face it, who wants the house wine?"

They have a house wine in Copenhagen?? Wait, forget about Copenhagen, they have a house wine in Dublin??!!

I should travel abroad more often...

Reen wrote: "Dag Solstad's Professor Andersen's Night.

If you dislike your books full of repetition and endless navel-gazing, this admittedly short but dense book won't be for you. I didn't think it would be f..."

Professor Andersen sounds very much to my taste. As for Cold Comfort Farm, I am very much in the minority. Everyone else seems to find it hilarious and a great joy to read, though I can't for the life of me understand why.

Greenfairy wrote: "I am posting this notification I just received from Kindle for you all to enjoy: "An author you bought from, George Eliot just added The Mill on the Floss for you to read for free.
I do love a kno..."

Have you written to George to thank him?

Justine wrote: "Reen wrote: "Dag Solstad's Professor Andersen's Night.

If you dislike your books full of repetition and endless navel-gazing, this admittedly short but dense book won't be for you. I didn't think ..."

I think it possibly is whether people identify as academics or not, as to whether you enjoy it. I think it was Lyn Truss who wrote, many years ago, a short biography of Stella, for one of the well known literature reviews. She recounts Stellas moment of awakening where she recounts the story of huge domestic argument taking place in the family flat in north London, where her father was kicking off and blaming everyone in the family for the disruption. She recounts that her mother was in tears and everyone was walking on eggshells in case they added to the trauma. Stella was outside the room and saw her father walk out, in a histrionic OTT demonstration of how everyone else was to blame for his own unhappyness. But what Stella caught, which no one else could see in the living room, was that he had a huge grin on his face... and was actually enjoying himself...

From that perspective Cold Comfort Farm is a humorous way of exploring the power-plays that people often enact, for often spurious reasons, and how some people can fall victim to that, and it is a very positive book, in a way, as with a the help of an outsiders point of view, and actions, its possible to counter the status quo, and find something else to distract the 'power-player' with. In Aunt Ada's case... eventually a sea cruise from what I can remember...

Gladarvor wrote: "Kayaki wrote: "You could explore the area up the hill, across the main road. Just to the south of the village is the Buddhist temple and the cemetery."

Thanks a mil Kayaki. Apparently there are a ..."

That's the one ! Can't believe you found a way into the inner sanctum of our village otera. If you go to the top of the windy bit of road you will come to a road going off to the right (it leads to the graveyard - it's a dead end). On the left is a big tree which Totsuko's father planted decades ago and in front is a big tin shed. That's where our house is.

But what about where you live ?