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Friday Vocabulary

1. Telfordize — to pave a road using Telford principles

The sudden squalls inundated the terrain and flooded the newly constructed roads, damaging them after each reconstruction until the captain decided to Telfordize the roadways, raising them above the surrounding ground with large stones creating a foundation which helped quickly drain the road surface after the torrential rains.

 

2. cruor (also cruror) — clotted blood; [obsolete] red colored matter within blood

The sickly salty stench of the rear chamber sickened us and I dared not guess what fiendish rituals had taken place at the wooden block in the center, covered with a vile melange of feathers, cruor, bones, and dung.

 

3. antinomian — of or related to one who believes in no moral law because only God’s grace determines our salvation

Though accused in the 1670s of antinomian tendencies, his compeers all agreed that Sir Henry was a good man and an upright jurist.

 

4. bourne — boundary, limit; goal

The setting sun approached its bourne in the horizon.

 

5. dole — distribution, portion or goods or money (esp. for charity)

One wonders how she supports her kind dole, so meager seems her own household.

 

6. triphibious — able to move on land or water and in air

The triphibious craft had proven an ungainly boat in even the smallest waves, so we were both surprised by its quick response once Captain Chicken took us into the skies.

 

7. yen shee (also yen she) — opium pipe bowl ashes and residue

Sucking at his pipe filled only with yen shee, the porter turned his mournful gaze to the gathering storm behind us and looked at our strange party once more, saying only “I guess it’ll be another of those ‘Incredible Journey’ things, is it?” as he unbarred the gate.

 

8. hierogamic — of or related to rituals promoting fertile crops by representing deific sexual congress

Berringer’s contended that hiergamic rites took place atop the mound, but this idea was belied by Harlan’s discovery of a cache of bones suggesting human sacrifice instead.

 

9. jankers — [British military slang] punishment detail with pointless tasks, inspections, and confinement to barracks

I first got jankers at my very first inspection, for not telling Rogers (who was standing next to me) that he had a hair on his uniform.

 

10. prosthaphaeresis — use of trigonometric formulae to compute products of large multiplicands as well as other functions

Before logarithms ruled the day, some mathematicians swore by prosthaphaeresis as the best tool for quick calculation.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. dawamesc (also Dawamesk) — greenish edible paste or marmalade consisting of hashish mixed with butter, sugar or honey, pistachios, cinnamon and other spices, musk, nutmeg, pine nuts, orange juice

Perhaps the Algerian dawamesc was the first introduction into Europe of cannabis edibles, being served in 1844 at the Club des Hashischins in Paris.

 

2. leather gun — early light cannon of the 1640s & 1650s, where toughened leather wrappings were placed around the more portable smaller barrel in an attempt to give it stability

Gustavus Adolphus hoped that his leather guns would give him an edge over his opponents, but the experiment proved a failure as the guns usually could not fire even a dozen shells before bursting.

 

3. Krishnacore — musical subgenre mixing hardcore punk with Krishna Consciousness

Naturally straight edge musicians are most often associated with the rise of Krishnacore, but Poly Styrene’s became a follower of the Hare Krishna movement as early as 1983.

 

4. swizz — [British informal] to be disappointed, to be cheated

So I finally pushed through the crowd and found my seat, and of course—swizzed again!—it was directly behind a I-beam pillar supporting the upper deck.

 

5. smellfungus — [archaic] one who finds faults, grumbler

It’s all well and good to sigh and say that she’s just an inveterate smellfungus but that does nothing to make her lengthy visits less interminable nor less intolerable.

 

6. picaresque — of or related to rogues and their adventures; of Spanish satire dating from 16th Century depicting such rogues and such adventure

George Plimpton famously identified Pynchon’s first novel V. as a picaresque story of heroes living outside of normal society, and indeed almost all of the notoriously reclusive author’s works might be so described.

 

7. biandry — the state of having two husbands at the same time

Since she was not technically a bigamist, there was some question whether she could be charged at all, or whether biandry was even a crime in this state.

 

8. churl — boor; [archaic] freeman of lowest status under feudalism; [archaic] peasant

I had expected Bronson to be upset, but I didn’t think he’d be such a churl as to barricade the gates to the farm.

 

9. rubato — [music] expressive phrasing of music by use of non-strict tempo, often by slight speeding up of tempo followed by slowing to the original beat

In “Kind Of Blue” Paul Chamber’s bass keeps a strict tempo which allows the other musicians to employ rubato in their solos, which tension gives the piece part of its power.

 

10. triblet — conical tapering shaft used for adjusting size of metal objects such as rings

If you don’t know your ring size I can just pop your gold band on my marked triblet and we can find out right quick.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(English idiom)

round Robin Hood’s barn — by a circuitous route, in a roundabout manner

So I thought, why ask my lawyer to talk to his lawyer to inquire about the best means of determining et cetera and so forth, when instead of such shilly-shallying and going round Robin Hood’s barn I could just pick up the phone and directly ask the man himself?

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. verisimilar — appearing true or real

At first I thought myself deceived by a demonic phantasm, some tool of the dark forces assuming a verisimilar likeness to my favorite actor playing his most famous role, but then I realized it was just a cosplayer.

 

2. thrang — [Scots, N. England] busy, occupied with work

On the shore the maids were thrang sewing at the nets.

 

3. pinna — [biology] visible outer parts of ear in most mammals; wing, fin, or similar structure in animals

While he wore his big slouch hat he seemed almost unscathed by the fire, but once Jerome removed it the scars on his skull spoke of his misadventure and his pinnae were almost entirely missing, burned away during the rescue mission his ex-wife once told me.

 

4. anoxic — lacking oxygen

She had that effect, could transform a lively party into an anoxic wasteland of discomfort and antipathy, her very presence making everyone else decide that they would be better off anywhere but here.

 

5. aplanatic — (of a lens) free of spherical and comatic aberration

These fancy binoculars were supposed to be high-tech aplanatic masterpieces of German engineering, but of course just turned out to be some Siamese knock-offs with spherical lenses.

 

6. schlub — oaf, boor, clumsy or unattractive person

Don’t let that poor schlub ruin your party; he’s just jealous of your success.

 

7. deadworks — [nautical] those parts of a laden ship above the waterline

The Dutch frigate employed the guns in her towering poop deck to rain deadly fire on the pirate ship, almost completely destroying her deadworks and all the crew who had not immediately abandoned ship.

 

8. brontide — sound of distant thunder

Debate still continues as to the possible seismic origin of brontides in some earthquake-prone regions such as Haiti.

 

9. demarche — diplomatic or political maneuver; official notice of a country’s position vis-à-vis some situation

Jennison was quite proud of the ambiguous language in the latest demarche he had written for the ambassador, and was sure that it would feature prominently in that eminent person’s eventual memoirs.

 

10. keystone — to project an image improperly so that the projecting plane is not aligned with the receiving surface and thus causing distortion

Once Billie pointed out that the decrepit theater’s cameras were off-kilter and were keystoning the movie, I could see nothing but strange trapezoids instead of the noir buildings of the city, as if Dr. Caligari had cast a spell upon 1940s Los Angeles.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Latin)

pro tanto — only to a given extent

The court ruled the claims were limited pro tanto by the damages asserted in the original filing.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. finca — large estate in Spain or Hispano-America

The Labor Law of 1894 established the right of any worker in Guatemala to seek employment outside his finca on days when the owner was not using his labor.

 

2. trichiliocosm — [Buddhism] third order world of thousands of thousands of worlds, conception of universe of universes, higher power universe of billions of universes

Whatever construction one makes of the Buddhist idea of chiliocosm and trichiliocosm, the one thing that we can be sure of is that it is really, really big. But these billion worlds are also simply one.

 

3. gun-founder (also gun founder) — manufacturer of cannon and other armaments

The most sought after gun-founders were from the Low Countries, until England’s development of reliable cast iron cannon changed the industry forever.

 

4. indefectible — perfect; resisting decay, permanent

I supposed that my reception of God’s grace on that dark night on the ramparts was indefectible, so I was taken aback by my obvious backsliding and I redoubled my prayers … but in vain.

 

5. dixie — [British military] large cooking pot

But the upshot of this little fracas wasn’t too bad, as our punishment was getting water for the kitchen, which meant three trips with two dixies each to the well on the farm over the hill—though we cursed under their weight on the way back.

 

6. ebullition — boiling; temperamental outburst

We were used, by this time, to Nessie’s little ebullitions whenever the weather turned gray, and so we ignored her fretful monologue and instead tried to remain focused on our cards.

 

7. dandiprat — [obsolete] hateworthy person or person of no consequence

Do not be swayed by this mob of dandiprats who wouldn’t know real culture if it took them across its knee.

 

8. cocksparrer (from cock-sparrow) — cocky youngster

He won’t be humbled for long, that one; he’s a real cocksparrer for getting into trouble time and time again.

 

9. Pliofilm — plastic wrapping material used instead of cellulose-based substances

The medallion is in Near Mint condition, still wrapped in its original Pliofilm packaging.

 

10. inamorata — female lover

Bradford resolved to end it all until, while penning a farewell poem to his unknowing inamorata, he was stumped in finding a rhyme for ‘Letitia’, and his frustration kept him alive through the night until he found himself facing yet another dawn.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Australian informal)

come the raw prawn — to try to trick or pretend

“I saw it with my own eyes, so don’t come the raw prawn with me and try to convince me otherwise.”

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. dapperling — dwarf or child, esp. one neatly dressed; mushroom of the Agaricaceae family

Face to face finally with my tormentor, I found him to be a smartly turned out dapperling with the missing monocle suspended like a mayoral chain beneath his chic imperial beard, and confess I did not know whether to bow or to pat him upon the head.

 

2. smoker — [informal] casual get-together for men at which cigars or other tobacco products are smoked

It was one of those smokers at which ribald songs would be sung by the former military men after the brandy, and which always devolve further into the mournful singing of nostalgic drivel about home and mother.

 

3. orlop — [nautical] fourth or lowest deck of a sailing ship

The gunpowder and lanterns were each stored at opposite ends of the orlop, for obvious reasons.

 

4. snaffle — large ringed horse bit

Damon and Alex began to argue about the relative advantages and disadvantages of curb bits versus snaffles in horse training, and I tried to look interested in spite of my yawning apathy.

 

5. tenon — projecting part formed by cutting wood away

But closer examination revealed that the classic mortise and tenon construction was clever fakery, with modern glues used instead in all the joins.

 

6. dropsical — affected by swelling

These hypertrophied fringes will cause and often sustain dropsical knee joints, and with their removal relief will come to the patient.

 

7. tonga — [India] light two-wheeled horse cart used for passenger transportation

Rickshaws are used in the city proper, but the smart set make their homes in the hills, and so tongas are de rigeur for attendees at the most popular parties.

 

8. porphyry — reddish or purple-red crystal-containing rock

His sarcophagus was entirely of porphyry, befitting his imperial status.

 

9. gollop — [UK colloquial] to gulp down, to greedily eat

Not to be outdone, the tiny homunculus golloped the entire roast and twelve potatoes, pausing only to drink two flagons of ale.

 

10. perennity — quality of long duration, state of lasting throughout the year, everlastingness

There was an awakening, yes, an awareness of that golden warmth surrounding and infusing all life, but many more months yea years of meditation were needful before that consciousness became a perennity in my daily life.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Edwardian women’s hairstyling)

hair rat — shaped pillow of loose hair (often collected from brushing) used as base for elevating women’s hairstyles

The victim was identified by comparing a hair rat found near the scene with those in the boudoir of the suspect’s missing wife.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. crocodile — line of walking persons, esp. when composed of children

Like some strange Pied Piper I led the crocodile through the rubble and broken walls, hoping the older children would encourage the younger and prevent those toddlers from falling aside before we had reached some semblance of safety.

 

2. gramercy — [archaic] expression of thanks

“Gramercy, sire!” he said, going to his knees. “That you should bestow such grace upon one as mean as I, who am not fit to carry your linen.”

 

3. cruet — small container of condiment or seasoning for use at table; small container for Eucharistic wine

Not like some publicans, he was never ungenerous with his cruets of mustard or vinegar, and he always gave full measure in his tankards.

 

4. proprioceptive — of or related to the sensing of body parts and their relative position one from the other

The fog began to lift from my mind, though I was still having some proprioceptive difficulties from whatever drug my wine had been doped with, and my right shoulder seemed to be missing while my left foot somehow became detached and floated up towards the ceiling whenever I turned my head sharply.

 

5. rogation — profound prayer

The church began observance of Rogation Days in the 5th Century, but we moderns eschew the very idea of rogation, which recognizes our subservience before God’s power to provide everything we need to live our daily lives.

 

6. dysthymia — long-term low-grade depression

Alan realized quite well that he suffered continually from dysthymia, with occasional severe episodes usually centering upon his birthday, but he felt that the medication he’d been offered was like getting rid of a fly in the house with a bazooka.

 

7. instanter — immediately, right away

The sheriff is therefore directed to seize instanter all properties, chattels, and appurtenances of the defendant, saving only the attire he now wears and the sum of £20.

 

8. motivic — [music] of or related to a motif, used as a motif

These descending fifths serve as a motivic connection to the closing theme of the act, which is reprised by the horns as the finale begins.

 

9. griffonage — terrible handwriting, illegible scrawl

I am including a typed fair copy of my griffonage because, although I do believe that personal letters should be handwritten, I also wish you to be able to read the words I write.

 

10. soilure — act of soiling; staining, dirtiness

Though I feared at first to track mud into his rooms, one look at the soilure filling his apartment convinced me that I could hardly add to the mess within.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(tools)

head race pliers — pliers with curved notched grip, designed for loosening or tightening lock rings on a bicycle’s headset

That bearing was just rolling in its slot as I tried to remove the pulley, and I wished I had some head race pliers to hold it while I turned the pulley, but I ended up having to use the sawzall instead.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. ogee — [architecture] double curve with S-shaped cross-section

Looking like a bubble or onion atop the larger main chamber of the still, the ogee before the neck allows the distillate to cool and condense, dropping some of the heavier products back into the pot and creating a purer, more satisfying, product.

 

2. Hierosolymite — Jerusalemite

The commission studied the situation of the Hierosolymite poor, with especial interest in reducing the number of those dependent upon alms for their daily bread.

 

3. propaedeutic (also propedeutic or propadeutic) — introductory, preparative

Some students, of course, will be cognizant of the material covered in this first propaedeutic year, but most will find some new things, and all will benefit from the opportunity for review.

 

4. subnivean — occurring beneath a layer of snow, subnival

The fox will search for the meagre signs of subnivean tunnels to these nests, in order to catch these birds unawares.

 

5. apodosis — [rhetoric] consequent in a conditional sentence

By using ‘Inshallah’ in this way, he transforms every promise into an apodosis which becomes very doubtful indeed, implying that if and only if the Deity forcibly lifts and transports him to your dinner party will he attend.

 

6. viviparous — [biology] born alive, as opposed to hatching from an egg or germinating from a seed

Audubon was nearing the end of his life as he completed his studies of the viviparous fauna, and his son is believed to have finished several of the pieces.

 

7. refoulement — [law] forced repatriation or relocation of refugees to a country inimical to them

The UNHCR stated quite clearly that refugees should not be subject to refoulement, but, like many principles founded on merely human rights, this was found to be unprofitable and so had to be abandoned.

 

8. battels — [UK slang] small allowance of money for schoolboys; expense money for students; bills from colleges to students for miscellaneous expenses

Since the death of Queen Victoria (though obviously not post hoc ergo propter hoc), expenses previously paid to local tradesmen are now found in the college battels submitted at end of term, with ever increasing sums.

 

9. gallivant — to wander about purely for pleasure, to gad

Having the day free and with Mr. Simmons’s approval I gallivanted into town for a little fun, but somehow having permission took away all my enjoyment, and I ended up heading to the library to bone up on biological hierarchies.

 

10. roundelay — poem or song with repeated phrase, round; circle dance

Though I do love a fine minstrel’s roundelay, a bad one makes me regret music were ever invented.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(rhetoric, not logic, with ‘fallacy’ = falsehood)

pathetic fallacy — literary conceit wherein human attributes are accorded to inanimate things

Kenneth Burke famously investigated the ambiguity in literature between motion and action, finding this tension at the heart of the concept of pathetic fallacy.

 

Friday Vocabulary

1. pasquinade — lampoon, satire

The plywood boards over the old store windows were covered with rude (and crude) pasquinades of The Leader’s dalliance with the Princess of Earl, which some soul had tried to counter rudely (and crudely) by smearing the word ‘NO!’ over the broadsheets in black house paint.

 

2. circumjacent — surrounding, in the area around

The combine had acquired ownership or control over all the circumjacent land, and only this disgusting pig farm stood in the way of their plans for a new real estate park.

 

3. incomer — person moving into a tight-knit community from outside that group or location

Somehow this incomer to the insular ambient punk scene in Maryland has managed to forge deep bonds rather quickly with some of the godfathers and doyennes of this peculiar subculture.

 

4. preceptor — teacher

Of such fortuity are fortunes made, and it was rare chance indeed that allowed our dear Jane to have had both the Junkyard Boss Man and Senator Ellsworth as childhood preceptors.

 

5. cautelous — cautious; treacherous and artful, insidious

By such cautelous wiles had Sir Robert inveigled the lady to place the gem among the jewelry of the duchess.

 

6. epidiascope — projector capable of casting images of both transparent and opaque objects

Bethany had acquired an old epidiascope that had once formed part of a traveling lecture act, hoping it would help her drawing studies.

 

7. guipure — heavy plaited or barred lace

She was working on a truly remarkable guipure d’art which seemed to represent some fantastic flowering plant, though nothing of the sort was ever seen by any botanist outside of an opium den.

 

8. astride — with legs on either side

Josie rode astride in Jodhpurs just as the menfolk, and I confess a moment of disappointment for this evidence (as I thought then) of failed femininity.

 

9. battue — hunting by driving game towards hunters by beaters

Mr. Kinsley seemed to be having no little trouble with the chase, so I resolved upon a battue for the morrow, as I wanted the city lawyer in a good mood before I broached my proposal.

 

10. missioner — missionary

With such a large number of villages to care for, one missioner can hardly be expected to do the same work of moral regeneration as your thrice-blessed parson.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(UK idiom, from going up wooden stairs to bed)

climb the wooden hill to Bedfordshire (also up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire) — to go to bed, to sleep

He had been shot at four times, stabbed once, had forded a freezing stream carrying that piglet upon his shoulders, broken into two houses and that blasted post office, and all Harry wanted to do was climb the wooden hill to Bedfordshire, but he knew he couldn’t do that until he’d taken care of this crusty pensioner, one way or another.

 

Book List: 1500 Books

In fulfillment of a promise I made you a little while back, allow me to present the last 100 books I read in my silly, silly little book tracking project, wherein I’ve been cataloguing all my books since the summer of 2013, and have been recording each book I complete since July of 2015. This is all my wife’s fault, as she gave me a barcode scanner and database software back in 2013, and now I’ve become kind of a nut about this stuff. Oh, don’t get me wrong: I still love to read. A lot. But of course there’s a difference when you start tracking anything. (And no, this has nothing to do with Schrödinger—Cut that out!) Indeed, it is only this week that I’ve admitted to myself that I have to let go of some of my books without reading them. Heretofore, I’d thought that if I entered them in my database well I had to read them before I could get rid of them. However, I’ve realized that I have to let some of these things go … whether I love them or not. Also for any of y’all reading about my own self-imposed stupid rules for the first time (and likely I’d have given up reading this page by now, so … moving on), I should note that I count as a ‘Book Read’ only those non-comics (& graphic novels, and that ilk) I complete. Thus the first book of this ‘century’ of books, Book #1401, is pictured here. Though I do keep track of the comic books as well, as we shall see.

Also I like to highlight some of the better reads in each tranche of ‘Books Read’ in this book listing. (Generally 10 at a time, plus any comics I read during that set.) And boy oh boy was Book #1402 a winner! I read this seemingly throwaway novel about Abercrombie Fox, forced to endure service in the English navy at His Majesty’s pleasure, while looking out for the real prize: Mr. Fox. I jumped in out of order because … well, look at it! Obviously a tossed off book for a quick buck. But no! Because behind the pen name of Adam Hardy lies the actual pen (or, more likely, typewriter) of one of my favorite writers of action, Kenneth Bulmer. He is in fine form here, combining his love of military tactics with a great eye for plotting and dialogue and action. Now I have to find the first book in the series so I can give it the attention it deserves.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1401 2/28/25 Stephen Mitchell Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Religion & Spirituality
1402 2/28/25 Adam Hardy [Kenneth Bulmer] Fox: Treasure Map Fiction
1403 2/28/25 Michael Bonner, ed. Uncut Magazine March 2024 Music
2/28/25 Mike Baron Badger #25 Comics
2/28/25 Mike Baron Badger #26 Comics
1404 3/1/25 Ron Goulart Too Sweet To Die Mystery
3/1/25 Mike Baron Badger #27 Comics
1405 3/1/25 Agatha Christie Appointment With Death Mystery
3/2/25 Subba Rao Raman: The Matchless Wit Comics
3/2/25 Yagya Sharma Rana Pratap: The Heroic Struggle of a Rajput King Against the Might of an Empire Comics
Subba Rao Rani Abbakka: The Queen of Ullal Who Stood Up to the Might of the Portuguese Comics
1406 3/3/25 Margery Allingham No Love Lost Mystery
1407 3/4/25 Ken Smith Junk English Reference
1408 3/4/25 Will Self, intro. Revelation (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
1409 3/4/25 Michael Barson Better Dead Than Red: Nostalgic Look at Russiaphobia Red-Baiting, and Other Commie Madness History
3/4/25 Russ Cochran, ed. Two-Fisted Tales #20 Comics
1410 3/5/25 Fay Weldon, intro. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles

 

Russ Cochran saved so much of our cultural heritage by making available reprints of the old EC comic books in many different guises and under so many different publishers. Often imitated but never bettered, the original pre-code comic books from genius William Gaines might be known only through a handful of pages and panels in historical works on the comic publishing trade were it not for Mr. Cochran’s monomaniacal pursuit of promulgating these classic comics to new readers. (It certainly wasn’t the cash.) So we’ll let this reprint of Tales From The Crypt stand in for all those wonderful reissues of those old EC Comics. After all, who are we kidding? It was the horror comics that made that publisher’s reputation. So reputed, in fact, that the reaction, led by Herr Wertham, destroyed all those great books, leaving behind only MAD magazine to keep the American kids salivating for great art and societal insight each month. The particular issue pictured here reprints a 1952 issue, full of great stories—especially that cover tale!—from start to finish.

In 1998 the folks at Canongate Books had the bright idea of publishing individual books of The Holy Bible as individual volumes, calling these the Pocket Canons. Each volume was to be (and was) introduced by some literary light or like that, and the text was the good ol’ King James Version (still under crown copyright in the United Kingdom). The theory was that this was the way these books were originally read, as each book would have been a single scroll passed from one literate hand to another, to be read in contemplative reflection. This gospel, that of John (no relation to The Revelator), proves the worth of this ideal. The introduction by Blake Morrison is both useful and moving, and (re-)reading the words of John in this format gave them a very different impact. I also learned (or realized for the first time) that Judas was Jesus’ bagman.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1411 3/5/25 Constantine Cavarnos Byzantine Thought and Art History
3/5/25 Russ Cochran, ed. Tales From The Crypt #18 Comics
1412 3/6/25 Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö The Fire Engine That Disappeared Mystery & Thrillers
3/6/25 Russ Cochran, ed. Tales From The Crypt #14 Comics
1413 3/6/25 André Gide The Immoralist Fiction
1414 3/7/25 John Mortimer Rumpole and the Golden Thread Mystery & Thrillers
1415 3/7/25 Katherine Fischer Drew The Burgundian Code: Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad, Additional Enactments History
1416 3/8/25 Blake Morrison, intro. The Gospel According to John (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
3/8/25 Russ Cochran, ed. Tales From The Crypt #13 Comics
1417 3/8/25 Robert Barnard Death of an Old Goat Mystery & Thrillers
1418 3/9/25 Royal Armouries Staff Torture and Punishment History
1419 3/10/25 Lawrence A. Yates Power Pack: U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-1966 (Leavenworth Papers No. 15) Militaria
1420 3/10/25 J.S. Richardson & Marguerite Wood Edinburgh Castle Militaria

 

I’ve talked before about the pithy sayings and stories of the so-called ‘Desert Fathers’ (Book #1041 in my list of books read #s 1001–1100), the strange cenobites and hermits who left the world behind (this would be the Roman world) in 3rd Century Roman Egypt. These recluses sought a deeper Christian faith by renouncing possessions and spending their days and nights in contemplation and solitude. The Waddell book referenced above gives a nice bit of background, but it is primarily concerned as is this book by Thomas Merton, The Wisdom Of The Desert, with the spiritual insights of this small but influential group of men (and a few women!) which had such influence upon the path taken by the Christian church. Merton is a good person to retell these stories and sayings, coming as he does from a modern contemplative monastic life. And he offers beautiful little versions of these gnomic utterances and tales of love, and more love.

Since we’re already doing the ‘Christian Thang’, I may as well give honorable mention to this little throwaway pamphlet from 1932, The Catholic Mind, which reprinted essays of interest to good Catholics, mostly about social issues. I of course picked this up because of the Chesterton essay, but both of the articles are surprisingly good. That of G. K. Chesterton, unsurprisingly, is just a bit precious. However, his comments on smoking and the nanny state are both prescient and laughable. Interesting to read these tracts written while Father Coughlin was just beginning to promulgate his Radio League to more and more listeners. Also interesting to comtemplate the fact that thousands of Americans were expected to read with attention and enjoyment these fairly erudite (or at least they’d seem so in our AI-darkened Age) essays.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1421 3/10/25 Thomas Merton The Wisdom of the Desert: Sayings from the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century Religion & Spirituality
1422 3/10/25 Lewis Watt & G. K. Chesterton The Catholic Mind, Vol. XXX, No. 6 – “Economic Principles and Social Practice” & “A Sermon” Religion & Spirituality
1423 3/10/25 Claude Lévi-Strauss Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture Anthropology
1424 3/11/25 Godfrey Holloway The Empress Of Victoria Travel
1425 3/11/25 Anthony de Mello The Song of the Bird Religion & Spirituality
1426 3/12/25 Hilda Lawrence Blood Upon The Snow Mystery & Thrillers
1427 3/12/25 Richard Holloway, intro. The Gospel According to Luke (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
1428 3/12/25 Rius & Friends Mao for Beginners History
1429 3/12/25 Sylvia Angus Dead to Rites Mystery & Thrillers
1430 3/13/25 Georges Simenon; Geoffrey Sainsbury, trans. Maigret’s War of Nerves [La Tête d’un homme] Mystery & Thrillers

 

It’s the second book in the series, but One Corpse Too Many is really where my love for Ellis Peters’s Brother Cadfael begins. This is the book where we first meet Hugh Beringar, who will play the foil in so many future adventures with our favorite crime-solving Benedictine monk. All of the things we love, well, that I love, about Cadfael are here: his human and humane insight, his knowledge of plants and love, his own legalisms and duty-shaving in pursuit of what he sees as higher ideals. Plus in this one we get some crazy fun hiding this and that from not-yet-sheriff Beringar. Of course, some of the unrolling of the mystery is barely plausible, and coincidences will as ever come to the aid of Cadfael, but then again, why wouldn’t he find favor from on high in pursuit of both the truth and the Truth?

Since I talked to you about Ignatius Donnelly’s Atlantis book in my last Book List (Book #1371), I may as well mention another book harping on the same theme, though it’s as terrible as the Donnelly book was great. And the Donnelly book was very great, if wrong-headed. (Hey, plate tectonics was proposed over a decade after his demise, and was laughed at as much as Brother Ignatius’s theories, possibly mores.) But this piece of trash, The Second Atlantis by Robert Moore Williams, is worth reading solely for the awfulness of its prose. You wonder if Mr. Williams had ever experienced an earthquake, but that takes second place to the crazy techno-boosterism which perhaps Steinbeck could have pulled off, but … well, why would he want to? The story itself is piffle, the sort of ‘human drama’ which the movie Earthquake did so much better (and it was a terrible movie), but somehow manages to become worse as it slides into a “To Infinity … and Beyond!” claptrap ending that manages to disappoint our already extremely low expectations. At least it’s short.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1431 3/13/25 Margery Allingham The Allingham Case-Book Mystery & Thrillers
1432 3/14/25 Erle Stanley Gardner The Case Of The Horrified Heirs Mystery & Thrillers
1433 3/14/25 Hyman Shapiro Scotland in the days of James VI History
1434 3/15/25 Ellis Peters The Rose Rent Mystery & Thrillers
3/15/25 Mala Singh Rani of Jhansi: One of the Bravest Leaders of the 1857 War of Independence Comics
1435 3/15/25 Ellis Peters A Morbid Taste for Bones Mystery & Thrillers
1436 3/16/25 Nick Cave, intro. The Gospel According to Mark (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
3/17/25 Satyavrata Ghosh & Luis M. Fernandes Rash Behari Bose: Story of a Revolutionary Comics
1437 3/18/25 Ellis Peters One Corpse Too Many Mystery & Thrillers
3/18/25 A. Saraswati Ravana Humbled: Three Tales About the Lord of Lanka Comics
1438 3/18/25 Robert Moore Williams The Second Atlantis [Ace F-335] SF & Fantasy
1439 3/19/25 Frances & Richard Lockridge Murder Comes First Mystery & Thrillers
1440 3/20/25 Jack Vance The Pnume SF & Fantasy
3/20/25 Kamala Chandrakant Sati and Shiva Comics

 

This book, J. J. Pollitt’s Art and Experience in Classical Greece, was one of my textbooks from a survey course I took in freshman year at college, and I see highlighting through the first two-thirds of the tome. The highlighting itself has aged, and in places one cannot be sure if the yellow marker’s marks are present or not. I, too, have aged, but haven’t yet reached the level of ‘classic’, which is the subject of Pollitt’s work. The book repays well its reading, clearly delineating the Archaic, Ancient, Classical, and post-Classical movements in the art (primarily statuary, natch, but with pottery as well and just a soupçon of surviving painting) of that small rocky world which gets much of the blame for Western Civilization. The author provides much insight in this slim (220 pages) volume, especially for one as ignorant of art as I. Pollitt maps the changes in artistic display to the substantial changes in the Greek polity (or polities) during the crucial years of the rise and fall of the Athenian dream.

Almost a hundred books after I read the classic Dr. Mabuse, I found myself reading Thea von Harbou’s novelization of the movie she wrote that you all know so well, Metropolis. However the movie is, the book is even moreso. The words are whack—crazy in some way that seems defined by 1920s Germany, hard to explain and not all that comprehensible even on its own terms, but it’s genius. There is even more matter in the book than the film, and I would give a lot to see a modern movie of the Von Harbou novel. (It would likely just get a Marvel/Michael Bay treatment, however, and that would be a tragedy.)

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1441 3/24/25 J. J. Pollitt Art and Experience in Classical Greece Art
1442 3/25/25 Thea von Harbou Metropolis Fiction
1443 3/25/25 David Goodis The Wounded and the Slain Mystery & Thrillers
1444 3/26/25 Kenzaburo Oë A Personal Matter Fiction
1445 3/28/25 Francis L. Wellman The Art Of Cross-Examination Law
1446 3/28/25 John Kenneth Galbraith How To Control The Military Politics & Social Sciences
1447 3/29/25 Youngman Carter Mr. Campion’s Quarry Mystery & Thrillers
1448 4/1/25 Penelope Hunting Royal Westminster: History of Westminster Through Its Royal Connections History
1449 4/1/25 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Secrecy: The American Experience Politics & Social Sciences
1450 4/2/25 Joshua L. Golding Rationality and Religious Theism Religion & Spirituality

 

Perhaps this particular exemplar of 1940s noir has a few thin spots at the end, but Leigh Brackett’s novel No Good From A Corpse crackles with fantastic dialogue and its brilliant depiction of a seedy, seamy World War II Los Angeles. This tale of detective Ed Clive and his search for a beauty’s killer is worthy of reading on its own terms, so I won’t mention all the other panoply of interest around this book, and I recommend you read the story before the introduction (my edition had Anthony Boucher’s informative essay) or anything online. You won’t. I didn’t, and I still liked the story very much.

Yet another blast from the past, a re-reading of a book beloved in what passes for my youth … and yet another disappointment. Oh, don’t get me wrong, A Child’s Garden Of Grass (which is strangely subtitled The Official Handbook For Marijuana Users, but I guess officialdom was more loosey-goosey back in the day) is still an interesting document of its time, and we should remember and honor those who got a twenty-year sentence for a couple of seeds found on the floor of their car. But authors Jack S. Margolis and Richard Clorfene turned out to be not as funny as I remember them, which is weird when you consider that the marijuana of their time was sooooo very much less potent than the brain splatter they sell nowadays. (Their first instruction after you buy a lid? Remove all the seeds and stems, especially those seeds! Ah, good times!) Of course, the fact that I remember it being funnier may say something which we shan’t look into too closely. There are a few good bits, true, but it’s mainly of historical interest.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1451 4/3/25 Bob Woodward The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate’s Deep Throat History
1452 4/3/25 Timothy Harris Wild at Heart: Discovering The Secret of a Man’s Soul Christian & Bibles
1453 4/4/25 John Weber, ed. Kyd for Hire Mystery & Thrillers
1454 4/4/25 Leigh Brackett No Good From A Corpse Mystery & Thrillers
1455 4/5/25 Harvey Cox The Feast of Fools: A Theological Essay On Festivity And Fantasy Religion & Spirituality
1456 4/5/25 Jack S. Margolis & Richard Clorfene A Child’s Garden of Grass: The Official Handbook For Marijuana Users Drugs
1457 4/7/25 Michael Bonner, ed. Uncut Magazine April 2024 Music
1458 4/9/25 Lewis E. Birdseye Vastation Fiction
1459 4/9/25 Charles G. Finney The Circus of Dr. Lao Fiction
1460 4/10/25 Honoré de Balzac The Girl With The Golden Eyes Fiction

 

I knew Georges Simenon as the wildly prolific and possibly profligate author of the Maigret series, which to be honest has been an on-again off-again reading pleasure—the books seem to me to be all about mood, and I’m moody enough already. But The Premier was a revelation, a deft portrait of an aging politico in decline that leaves no doubt about Simenon’s vast powers. I believe my comment after finishing this slim volume (All of his books are slim volumes.) was “Wow. Just wow.” In these 159 pages of dense prose, we live the thoughts, the overwhelming, powerful, lucid dreaming of a political animal at the end of his long run. The novel is amazingly well-written (translated by Daphne Woodward in this edition), and gives no little insight into French politics of a certain age. (The book came out in 1958, the year that saw the collapse of the 4th Republic and DeGaulle’s creation of the current, 5th, French Republic.)

And I guess since I finally got around to reading Naked Lunch I should say something about that. I guess. I guess my main take is that William S. Burrough’s arguably most famous book has brilliance indeed, but only in spurts. (Heh heh.) There is a lot of good stuff here, and don’t get me wrong I liked it, but some parts of the book are merely indulgent, kinda like some of Ginsberg’s poetry. Likely, however, I’m just not the right audience for the work, being a very boring bourgeois fearful middle class ecch who wouldn’t know Art if it hit him in the face. That said, it was also humorous to read Ginsberg’s oh so erudite interpretation of the homosexual elements in this book. Indeed, I’m not sure I recognized the book discussed in the trial extracts printed at the front with the ‘novel’ as printed in these pages.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1461 4/10/25 Ellis Peters Monk’s Hood Mystery & Thrillers
1462 4/11/25 Georges Simenon The Premier Fiction
1463 4/12/25 H. John Poole Militant Tricks: Battlefield Ruses of the Islamic Insurgent Militaria
1464 4/13/25 Ellery Queen The Chinese Orange Mystery Mystery & Thrillers
1465 4/14/25 John D. MacDonald The Damned Mystery & Thrillers
1466 4/15/25 A. N. Wilson, intro. The Gospel According to Matthew (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
1467 4/16/25 Colin Dexter The Daughters of Cain Mystery & Thrillers
1468 4/17/25 A. S. Byatt, intro. The Song of Solomon (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
1469 4/17/25 William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch Fiction
1470 4/18/25 Caleb Carr The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians History

 

This appears to be my first Graham Greene novel, … or at least the first I’ve read since commencing this silly book tracking project. And The Ministry Of Fear is a fine book, even if it has a fatal flaw. Of course, I don’t meant harmatia in the classic sense; I mean the fact that the book is wonderful as long as you don’t think too hard about the premise. Like many British novels of this ilk—I just read The Great Impersonation yesterday—it only seems silly if you think about it too long. And that ending disturbs me a little—though it may have been necessary in terms of the characters and like that. But this is an excellent revisioning of the Buchan-like thrillers that kicked off the genre, and the main conceit of the murderer’s narrative is brilliant.

Geisha In Rivalry was one of those surprises that confirms me in my decision to try almost anything once. Thinking of it now, it reminds me of my world-weary doubts before reading the books of Jon Hassler. Certainly, reading this hundred year old novel (it was published originally in 1910) about a Tokyo lifestyle that was almost gone even when this realistic fiction was written isn’t exactly something I’d expect to enjoy, or even condone. But Kafu Nagai penned a simply brilliant novel of the Japanese demimonde at the beginning of the 20th Century, deftly capturing the intricate and involved lives of these men and women—and capturing my interest as well. Truly a masterwork, and full of revelation.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1471 4/19/25 M. Wiesenthal The Belle Époque Of The Orient-Express History
1472 4/19/25 Helen MacInnes I And My True Love Mystery & Thrillers
1473 4/20/25 Doris Lessing, intro. Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
1474 4/21/25 L. A. Mayer Saracenic Heraldry Reference
1475 4/22/25 Tanith Lee Sung in Shadow SF & Fantasy
1476 4/23/25 Graham Greene The Ministry Of Fear Mystery & Thrillers
1477 4/24/25 Kafu Nagai Geisha in Rivalry Fiction
1478 4/25/25 P. G. Wodehouse Psmith in the City Fiction
1479 4/26/25 Norman Daniels Operation S-L Mystery & Thrillers
1480 4/27/25 William W. Johnstone War of the Mountain Man Western

 

If you crave mindless action have I got a book for you! Even if Martin Wulff, the titular ‘Lone Wolf’ of The Lone Wolf #5: Havana Hit, spends most of this novel in his own head brooding on his upcoming death which can’t come soon enough unless maybe just maybe he can claw his way to the bastards who murdered his … well, there’s a whole host of people murdered by ‘The Network’ (as the criminal gang pushing smack on the street will be called here) who were near and dear to Mr. Wulff. Anyway, the plot is ludicrous, from the opening hijacking to the titular Havana to the strange and laughable and unrecognizable communist Cuba of Mike Barry’s imagination. The author (actually the workmanlike Barry Malzberg, just trying to make a living here) seems to hate commies almost (almost!) as much as he hates the crooks that would peddle drugs to kids on the street. Anyway, it’s mindless fun of the best type, an object lesson in headlong rush pacing to get to a writer’s needed word count.

I’ve spoken to you about John Le Carré before, but I cannot help it, I have to underscore again just how incredible this author is at what he does. In Smiley’s People he shows once again that he is simply the best at what he does—perhaps he’s the only one who can do it. How he manages to craft such interesting tension out of what are basically a set of extended—usually very extended—interviews is a marvel to me. Possibly only the Kevin Costner movie No Way Out can come close to his ‘thing’. This book is as good as The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, which was perfect.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
1481 4/29/25 Julian Symons The Broken Penny Mystery & Thrillers
1482 5/9/25 J. R. Jones, ed. Liberty Secured?: Britain Before and After 1688 History
1483 5/10/25 Michael Bonner, ed. Uncut Magazine May 2024 Music
1484 5/11/25 Charles Johnson, intro. Proverbs (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
1485 5/12/25 Ross Macdonald The Barbarous Coast Mystery & Thrillers
1486 5/13/25 Bruce Sterling Holy Fire SF & Fantasy
1487 5/14/25 Robert Wilder Fruit Of The Poppy Mystery & Thrillers
1488 5/15/25 Robert Bloch Lori Horror
1489 5/16/25 Mike Barry [Barry Malzberg] The Lone Wolf #5: Havana Hit Mystery & Thrillers
1490 5/18/25 John Le Carré Smiley’s People Mystery & Thrillers

 

I just talked about Philip K. Dick in my last 100 books, but here I go again. (And I’ve talked about him before, the last time I read his best book … well, one of the three.) This time I was revisiting The 3 Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch, which I admit I didn’t even remember very well, which I suppose made the story even more arresting. As I enter deeper unto my oldening age, I found the re-reading very affecting. PKD’s flaws as a writer are here his strengths, his dissociative and fractured plotting shown as real insights by the damaged minds that inhabit his universe. He does dumb down (literally) a loved woman in the tale, but … ah, well, what do we expect for nothing?

I can hardly speak to half of this book of Pablo Neruda’s book of revolutionary erotic poetry, The Captain’s Verses (Los versos del Capitan), because I cannot read Spanish. But I still loved its rhythm and force, and the English versions (here in translations from Donald D. Walsh) were beautiful and seemed fairly literal—but what would I know? Neruda’s words are more powerful than any I might have, and the other poetry book in this tranche of ten books finishing off this last set of 100 books was also great. Penguin Modern Poets 9: Levertov Rexroth Williams has a great sampling from three of the best poets of the mid-20th Century (as I suppose you could argue each volume in the series does), and I also learned that William Carlos Williams is even better than Bukowski at writing about the boozers and sluts of the drunken world. Good stuff.

 

# Read Author Title Genre
5/19/25 Dolat H. Doongaji & A.K. Lavangia Shakuntala: An Adaptation of Kalidasa’s Famous Sanskrit Play Comics
1491 5/19/25 Louis de Bernières, intro. The Book of Job (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles
5/20/25 Kamala Chandrakant Shiva Parvati Comics
5/20/25 B.R. Bhagwat Shivaji: The Story of the Founder of the Maratha Empire Comics
1492 5/21/25 Georges Simenon The Third Simenon Omnibus: Maigret Has Doubts / Maigret & The Minister / The Old Man Dies Mystery & Thrillers
5/22/25 Kamala Chandrakant; Pradip Bhattacharya & Meera Ugra; Shyamala Mahadevan The Sons of Shiva: Ganesha, Karttikeya, Ayyappan Comics
1493 5/23/25 Tanith Lee Anackire SF & Fantasy
1494 5/25/25 Philip K. Dick The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch SF & Fantasy
5/25/25 Mike Baron Badger #28 Comics
5/25/25 Mike Baron Badger #29 Comics
1495 5/26/25 Alistair MacLean Seawitch Mystery & Thrillers
5/28/25 Mike Baron Badger #30 Comics
1496 5/28/25 Erle Stanley Gardner The Case of the Haunted Husband / The Case of the Careless Kitten Mystery & Thrillers
1497 5/29/25 Margaret L. Wiley The Subtle Knot: Creative Scepticism in Seventeenth-Century England Philosophy
1498 5/30/25 Pablo Neruda The Captain’s Verses (Los versos del Capitan) Poetry
1499 5/30/25 Denise Levertov, Kenneth Rexroth, & William Carlos Williams Penguin Modern Poets 9: Levertov Rexroth Williams Poetry
1500 5/30/25 David Grossman, intro. The Second Book of Moses, Called Exodus (The Pocket Canons Bible Series) Christian & Bibles

 

And now I’m finally caught up with my book list, having lost a whole century during my last pell-mell reading spree. Even better, I have a little while left before the next set will be due, as I’m only a third of the way through the next set of one hundred. I hope all your books are great ones!

 
 
 

The lists of previously read books may be found by following the links:

Friday Vocabulary

1. ragout — highly seasoned meat dish

I despise mutton in all its forms, and no amount of spices will make this ragout palatable to me.

 

2. connubial — of or related to wedlock or the state of marriage

If it was not in the eyes of law and society exactly connubial it was at least bliss itself, bliss indeed, and I shall never regret those weeks of joy and rapture before the inevitable fall and ruin of all our plans.

 

3. hull down — [nautical] of a ship seen so near the horizon that its hull is invisible and only its masts and superstructure may be discerned

The Pride of Jericho had the wind and soon she stretched her lead and by nightfall was hull down and seemed likely to escape our longed-for vengeance.

 

4. hebdomally — weekly, occurring every seven days

Her nephew visited hebdomally our strange little ‘Place For Mom’ with its tiny common room and our monk-like cells, but he came always on Wednesdays instead of the usual Saturday or Sunday, so I had named him (to myself, of course) Hump Day Herbert.

 

5. oroide — gold-colored alloy of tin or zinc with copper

Like a naive prospector fooled by pyrite, Skinny had taken her oroide jewelry for the real McCoy, and when the pawn broker told him the whole haul had not a bit of gold in it, Skinny realized he done the foul deed for nothing.

 

6. yashmak — veil worn by Muslim women when in public

Behind her yashmak I pretended to myself I could make out a pair of dark and sultry eyes, but in truth I could only guess where her mouth was by a fold in the cloth I took to be created by her chin.

 

7. whyfor — [informal] for what reason

“If he really wanted to know about those night visitors, whyfor didn’t he just come to me and ask, like a real neighbor?”

 

8. turps — [Australian slang] alcoholic drink; turpentine

The boys were having a big night out on the turps and none of them was a reliable witness when the police arrived in the morning.

 

9. mantuamaker — dressmaker

Females who found it difficult to become apprentice tailors were more readily apprenticed to mantuamakers, whose positions were seen as subservient to full tailors.

 

10. hygeian — sanitary; healthy

The aqueducts brought to the city clean mountain water to the hygeian fountains and basins which were free for all the citizens to use.

 

Bonus Vocabulary

(Latin)

in statu nascendi — not yet fully formed, nascent

But the feudal system at this time was in statu nascendi and could not wholly usurp the old tribal ties, and so Charlemagne was forced to send a Breton to rule over Armorica.