text:
Very Strange Coincidences
The central figure in one of the most bizarre crime capers ever to take place in Chicago—a tale of murder, fashionable men's luggage, and poetry—is named John Barr.
Not that John Barr!
Published by Dutton in 1934, The Riddle of the Traveling Skull is one of Windy City native Harry Stephen Keeler's most entertaining books, a joyride of cracked narration and out-of-left-field eurekas. John Barr is a generous, hermetic bachelor who is helping his friend Philodexter Maximus read submissions for P.M.'s latest venture, a can't-fail poetry mag called Verse—surely inspired by the Chicago-based Poetry, founded in 1912.
So when the real-life John Barr was named president of the Poetry Foundation in 2004, the Harry Stephen Keeler Society (of which I am a member) took note of the nominal and thematic convergence. A key text of Keelerdom seemed to have jumped off the page—and escaped into the real world! (One of HSK's most endearing/insane-making tics is his constant use of exclamation points! Not to mention—dashes!)
Clay Calthorpe, the narrator of this confection, works for a candy company. He's just returned from a trip to the Philippines, where he's procured a new flavor for his boss, Roger Pelton. On a streetcar in Chicago, en route to his boardinghouse, he accidentally takes a bag that looks similar to his own. Later he discovers its macabre contents: a cranium containing scraps of what turn out to be a poem—and an old bullet.
He soon finds himself a player in a whirlwind nightmare of busted safes and ancient grudges. Though the paranoia level runs high, Keeler pulls out all the stops to entertain and keep readers on their toes: numerous mistaken identities, a graveyard for circus freaks, brain surgery minutiae. For fans of his unique "webwork" style, it's catnip.
Clay is engaged to his boss's daughter, but his best friend is Barr, who created the exceptionally well-designed travel bag that Clay misplaced. One of the first things Barr asks Clay after the streetcar mix-up is to assess a poem titled "Poor Pickings," by Abigail Sprigge. "It's your kind of 'pome,'" Barr jokes. "Just the length you can stand. And just the amount of poetical depth you like!" Sprigge's ballad runs, in its entirety:
A burglar entered by mistakeClay, a stranger to all that is airy-fairy, booms with praise: "It's a damned good poem. Because it's got but four lines, and they're damned short! And it's further a good one, because it isn't all gooey with flowers, and springtime, and love. . . ." (Now that's what I call criticism!)
A poetess's room one day
And finding there was nothing else
To steal, he stole away.
Barr lays out businessman Philodexter's surefire circulation scheme, which is so zany—so Keeler—that it bears repeating in full:
[H]e's dividing the entire USA into a series of circular zones radiating out from Chicago. All copies of Verse will have to be returned by news-dealers complete. That is, not just covers, as with an ordinary magazine. They'll then have a new date-page tipped in—in place of the old one—and be shipped out again, to the next zone outermost. For instance, Clay, the returns from Zone 1 will be shipped out to Zone 2. The unsold copies of Zone 2 will be shipped out to Zone 3. Each set, of course, with a new date-page. So that, at one stage, there'll be five different editions of Verse on sale in the USA—all with the same date line.
Got that?
As the mystery surrounding the traveling skull—a literal head-trip—thickens, a sonnet by the very same Miss Sprigge (vividly entitled "If His Love Dies—So Mine!") turns out to play a key role, connecting Clay's weird cargo with a champion of Verse. "For every sun expires in the West, / And lo! a new moon shines above the sea," sighs the poetess.
Now the question you're all asking: Who was Abigail Sprigge? (The question you're not asking: And where can I read more of her stuff?) The novel's poems were written by none other than Keeler's wife, Hazel Goodwin Keeler. Though a staunch champion of his beloved's literary skills, Keeler never had any illusions about the quality of these verses. The reason: They were written to order after his publisher, Dutton, dinged the poems he originally included in the manuscript—poems he found in a magazine, bearing no byline.
One of the poems he at first included sounded vaguely familiar to someone at Dutton; when questioned, Keeler said it was Edna St. Vincent Millay's sonnet "Time Does Not Bring Relief." (The author of another, shorter poem in the original manuscript is the forgotten Ida McIntosh Zumstein.) Editor Merton S. Yewdale quite reasonably noted that "it would be unethical to print a poem by a living author and then credit it to a fictional character in a novel," but Keeler wasn't sympathetic. He needed to have that poem in the book, for "it would be rather silly—if the fragments of the lines . . . do not appear. The very plot and story depend on those fragmentary excerpts."
Keeler obtained what he thought were the necessary permissions for use of the Millay poem, but on February 5, 1934, Yewdale (again quite reasonably) brought up a fatal inconsistency: "To the astute reader . . . how could a fiction character write a poem that Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote?" (He also noted that "the other three poems are rubbish.")
Keeler tersely replied by telegram that he considered the book to have been rejected. Dutton tried to placate him. Keeler continued to pursue the permissions angle, hoping to convince Millay's publishers that it would be OK for him to credit her on the copyright page, though not in the text proper. As the immense correspondence wound on, Keeler agreed to have his wife write substitute poems to order; The Riddle of the Traveling Skull appeared later that year, sans Millay.
Except in England!
Paul Collins, who edited Skull for its republication two years ago under his Collins Library imprint at McSweeney's, discovered that Keeler's British publishers, Ward Lock, apparently didn't get the memo—and so the book's first U.K. edition has the Millay sonnet in all its anonymous glory.
Now I must reveal that this has all been an elaborate plot of mine—to get you to read Millay's "Time Does Not Bring Relief"—available in the Poetry Foundation's very own archive!
I wish to thank Richard Polt, founder of the Harry Stephen Keeler Society, for sending me a copy of the Keeler correspondence, which was made available by the E.P. Dutton archive at Syracuse University. I'm also grateful to Paul Collins for showing me the ultra-rare U.K. Millay copy. For more information about Keeler, visit the Society website; to order a copy of The Riddle of the Traveling Skull, go here. (Full disclosure: I'm an editor of The Believer, a magazine published by McSweeney's.)
Homepage image is a detail from the Ward Lock edition of Harry Stephen Keeler's The Magic Ear-Drums. Courtesy the Harry Stephen Keeler Society.
Ed Park is the author of the novel Personal Days (Random House, 2008) and a founding editor of The Believer. His work most recently appears in Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book (Da Capo). He blogs at The Dizzies.
Very Strange Coincidences
Ed Park is the author of the novel Personal Days (Random House, 2008) and a founding editor of The Believer. His work most recently appears in Bound to Last: 30 Writers on Their Most Cherished Book (Da Capo). He blogs at The Dizzies.
Other Information
Browse Poemsloading...


text:
|Patriots Look Poised For Another Super Bowl Run
|Bruins Trade For Drew Stafford
|Black and Gold Bruins Turn Yellow On Parade Day
|Inconsistency Will Continue For Bruins Unless A Change Is Made
One of the worst things about moving away is being away from the sports teams that you love. Fortunately, there are many options available. Here are a few ways to watch your favorite teams when you live out of market.
No matter what device you have, you can watch ESPN on the go with WatchESPN. This app is available in the app store for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Apple TV. It's also available via Google Play for Android based platforms and will work on your smartphones or Android-based tablets, including the Kindle Fire.
Finally, it's available to stream on Xbox Live, as long as you're a paying Xbox Live Gold subscriber. Thanks to the Internet, you'll no longer have to stress about missing your favorite team's games.
NHL Game Center is fairly expensive, but it's worth it. You can pay either $19 a month for eight months or one payment of $150. After paying, you'll be able to watch live broadcast, replays, highlights, and classic games. You'll be able to rewind, restart, and pause the game as well. You can watch games on smartphones, tablets, your computer, or even through your Playstation 3 console. Thanks to NHL Game Center, you'll be able to enjoy every Nashville Predators game over FiOS in Boston.
With MLB.tv, you'll be able to watch all of the season's games, and if you're outside of the United State or Canada, you'll be able to watch the Postseason games, too. MLB.tv is available on a wide range of devices, from the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 to almost all smart TV and Blu-Ray Internet enabled players. You can also watch the games on your computer. If you watch from a PC, Mac or Xbox 360, you'll be able to watch split screen games. You can also watch four games at once.
With Aereo, viewers can access basic network TV channels like ABC, Fox, NBC, and CBS. This means that they'll have access to almost every nationally broadcasted NFL game, plus a few MLB, NCAA and NBA games. Aereo also allows users to stream the major networks from a desktop PC, tablet, smartphone, AppleTV, and Roku. The only problem with this, though, is that access to the service is very limited — you can only access Aereo in New York, Boston, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Salt Lake City, and Atlanta — though Aereo plans to expand in the future.
If you're stuck at work and want to catch up on the games you missed, NFL Game Access is the perfect option. For $30 a season, you'll be able to get access to audio-only broadcasts of the league's games. Be warned — you can't watch or listen to live games at all, so this service is used strictly for catching up.
This program allows you to watch games after they've aired in full HD. There are multiple content packages to choose from. You can get a seven-day pass to watch recent content for $9.99. You can follow a specific team for $29.99. Full game replays will run you $39.99. Full game replays, including playoffs and the Super Bowl, runs $69.99.
Available only for DirecTV subscribers, NFL Sunday Ticket is the primary method of streaming NFL games. If that isn't an option, they have an online-only service that can be streamed for about $225. If you use a device like Chromecast, you can stream the game from a desktop computer or laptop to your TV. You can also watch two games at once. If you want to watch a local game, though, you're out of luck – if something is in your market, you won't be able to view it with Sunday Ticket.
No matter where you are, you can stay up-to-date with the latest basketball games in real-time. NBA League Pass will run about $180, and you'll be able to watch all the games from your computer, tablet, smartphone or Internet-ready HDTV. Local market blackouts are common, so if you're wanting to watch a local team, you'll have to switch to cable.
Moving away doesn't have to mean that you stop following the games anymore. Thanks to the Internet, there are now more ways than ever to catch up with your favorite team. Choose the content package that appeals most to you, order some food, and enjoy the game!
Author Bio:
Annie Davis is a freelance writer from Tampa, FL who enjoys writing about sports, cooking, and traveling.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Effective: Summer 2016
|4.5 Unit(s)
|Prerequisites: Prerequisite: Honors Institute participant.
|Advisory: Advisory: Not open to students with credit in ART 2C.
|Grade Type: Letter Grade, the student may select Pass/No Pass
|Not Repeatable.
|FHGE: Humanities Transferable: CSU/UC
|4 hours lecture, 1.5 hours laboratory. (66 hours total per quarter)
|Student Learning Outcomes -
|Description -
|History of Western Art from ca. l600 to the 20th century. An introductory survey examining images, objects, and architecture produced from the late Renaissance to Modernism. Illustrated lectures and readings. The honors sections expand the primary sources for the student. In addition to the textbook, students have a reading list of sources. Lectures are more interactive and the student is expected to participate in group discussions. Exams are more exacting with an emphasis on the student being able to comfortably assimilate political, social, and economic factors into their analysis.
|Course Objectives -
|The student will be able to:
|Special Facilities and/or Equipment -
|Course Content (Body of knowledge) -
|The following content is delivered via lecture (Lec) in the scheduled class sessions unless otherwise stated.
|Methods of Evaluation -
All assessment for the honors courses involves a greater emphasis on accessing and discussing primary source material. The research paper is also more exacting; students must provide a more extensive bibliography than for the regular series (2A,2B,2C) and the list of acceptable subjects is expanded. In addition, lectures and discussions move beyond the material covered by the text with the students required to read reserved texts in the library to broaden their grasp of the subject matter.
|Representative Text(s) -
|Kleiner, Mamiya, and Tansey. Gardner's History of Art. Vol. I & II 14th ed. New York; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2011.
Text is also available online at cengagebrain.com
|Disciplines -
|Method of Instruction -
|Lab Content -
|Types and/or Examples of Required Reading, Writing and Outside of Class Assignments -


text:
"It's a disappointment but not unexpected by the market or any one else,"
Miles White
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."
Martin Luther King Jr.
"There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love."
"Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words."
Calvin & Hobbes
"The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment."
William Arthur Ward
"Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation."
Eric Hoffer
"Most of us women like men, you know; it's just that we find them a constant disappointment"
Clare Short
Quotes Daddy offers a number of tools for developers and bloggers to integrate quotes into their site including customizable widgets, embeddable quotes and API.
Over 1,000,000 famous quotes and user quotes that you can save to your favorites, share with friends and add to your site, blog or social network.


text:
This is the official Lemon Mobiles Duo 335 User Guide in English provided from the manufacturer. If you are looking for detailed technical specifications, please see our Specs page.
The Lemon Mobiles Duo 335 is a dual SIM candybar phone with a 2.2-inch screen, 1.3-megapixel camera, microSD card slot, FM radio, Bluetooth and flashlight.


text:
Do you think there will ever be a decade when Calvin Klein isn't setting the gold standard for most sex drive inducing ad campaign ever? God, I hope not. With their latest promotional film for CK One, featuring an almost-naked Petra Collins, Dev Hynes, Soko, and just about every other free-lovin' tumblr baby you've ever imagined spending a lazy Sunday summer afternoon entwined under the clean white sheets with, Calvin Klein is hanging on tight(ie whitie) to first place provocateur.
Shot by the legendary Mario Sorrenti, the fragrance spot stays true to CK's iconic undie-roots, while capitalizing on the infamous Instagram generation's narcissistic commitment to thy selfie. With a dedicated tumblr page and an equally me-centric hashtag of #Ckmeforme, the voyeuristic ad campaign blurs all the lines between public and private and straight and gay and what is traditional advertising these days anyway?
Though I think at one point this would have been shocking, or deemed 'risqué' and 'inappropriate' by some aging marketing executive, in summer of 2014 I really just feel enticed and turned on by the laid-back, un-retouched, raw and intimate quality of it. Like you just want to climb in bed and have a sexy slumber party with all your partially nude 'It' girls and friends. I'm all desensitized to Petra Collins' tits and like "NBD threesomes." Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but….
What are your thoughts?
About Jane Helpern
Writer & Over-sharer. @janeohelp firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Several lawmakers are beginning to raise questions concerning the activities of the Coalition To Salute America's Heroes Foundation regarding the manner in which money is spent. Retired Army Gen. Thomas Franks was paid $100,000 -out of donations made to assist wounded veterans– for allowing his name to be used in a fundraising appeal. Rep. Henry Waxman said Franks has now disassociated himsellf from the Coalition and asked that his name no longer be used in connection with solicitations. Roger Chapin, president of Help Hospitalized Veterans Inc. who is associated with the Coalition insists there was nothing illegal about the endorsement. Chapin has acknowledged the organization has used inflated numbers in describing how his organizations help wounded veterans. The organizations raised $168,000,000 in donations from 2004-2006 and spent $125,000,000 infundraising and administrative costs. About 20% went to aid veterans. Chapin and his wife received $1.5 million in salary from 2004-2006.
We can assume this percentage of money actually going to the intended object of the fundraising is most probably normal. It is unusual that money sent as a result of a fundraising appeal winds up with most going to the intended recipients. The beauty of fundraising is that so many people wind up making money. It would be nice if 90% of this money actually went to wounded veterans, but such thinking obviously reflects my own naive perspective on life.
Oh, since General Franks is disassociating his name from the charity, will he be returning the $100,000?


text:
Sorry this item is no longer available to view on this site.
RT @CLSGmusic: Good luck to everyone taking an @ABRSM exam at @CLSGgirls today!
Follow us
RT @CLSGmission: The Sponsored Walk was a fabulous event last Friday- now lets raise some money! Donate now... https://t.co/i5KmSPlB6W @CLS...
RT @CityLondonBoys: A few more highlights from the @CityLondonBoys and @CLSGgirls Sponsored Walk 2017 https://t.co/wrNscOz35B
@CityLondonBoys Lovely photos @CityLondonBoys - thank you. What a great day! #sponsoredwalk


text:
Sinkhole Opens Up Near Tampa
Published July 21st, 2014
Loading Video...
SPRING HILL, Fla. -- A sinkhole opened up this weekend near Tampa, forcing one family out of their home.
The 120-foot wide and 30-foot deep sinkhole opened Saturday afternoon in Spring Hill.
Police evacuated four homes but later allowed residents to return to three of them.
Engineers were called out to assess the damage and the sinkhole may later be filled with sand and cement.
Officials say there have been nearly 300 sinkholes in Florida since 2010.
Related Stories
- Sinkhole Opens Up in Pine Hills
- Possible Sinkhole Being Investigated Near Tampa
- Small Plane Crashes in Tampa
- Tampa Bay Quadruplets Come Home for Christmas
- Tampa School District's Special Needs Policies Under Review After Student Death
- Accused Would-Be-Terrorist Pleads Not Guilty in Tampa
- Sinkhole In The Villages Filled
- One Year Since Sinkhole Accident
- Another Possible Sinkhole, Residents Forced to Evacuate
- Sinkhole Filled


text:
|Topic Review (Newest First)
The boat will balance VERY well and shouldn't require any "heavy lifting" with the tiller. Most times, the boat will balance using the centerboard leaving you with a neutral helm. She will have a tendency to develope strong weather helm if over canvased. The reefing schedule taken from the Tartan 34 Classics Association website:
First reef in the main at 17 knots.
Bring in 1/4 jib at 25 knots.
Second reef in the main at 35 knots.
Hope this helps.
thanks for the info. The boat I am looking at has the tiller and the short traveler just forward. I like the location but agree that it reduces the ability to adust the loction of the main sheet. I really like the ability to clear the cockpit completely when at anchor/dock. Good for entertaining or relaxing. The owner says that it sails well with the tiller as long as you stay trimmed and don't overpress with sail.
There are a lot of the T34's that have tillers. I'm not sure that the tiller to wheel is 50/50, but it is really a matter of choice. With the storage space under the cockpit sole and ease of access, many owners have converted easily from tiller to wheel and from wheel back to tiller.
My boat has a wheel which I really like. (after changing up to a larger size) I do think the tiller would provide a better cockpit layout than what you get with the wheel, especially if you want to single hand the boat. The wheel being placed forward in the cockpit does get in the way somewhat. The helmsman can easily reach the genoa winches however my boat has been converted to midboom sheeting that makes it very hard to trim the main from the helm. When racing we place the genoa trimmer behind the helmsman and the main trimmer in front. If we race with just two of us aboard, it gets very difficult climbing back and forth around the wheel.
The original mainsheet configuration had the sheet lead to a SHORT traveler that spanned the space between the cockpit seats right in front of the helm. In this configuration it would be easy for the helmsman to also trim the main, but really limits use of the traveler.
T-34 Tiller
Have any of the T-34 fans out there got a tiller on their boat? I am looking at a T-34C that has a tiller (which I have not seen on this boat before), and I am curious about the handling characteristics of a boat this size with the tiller. My Bristol 29 had a tiller, and I loved it.
|Posting Rules
You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On


text:
Book Talk: Mixed marriage and a real-life love story
By Tony Tharakan
NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - Snooping around as a teenager, Tishani Doshi came across a bunch of love letters written by her Welsh mother to her Indian father and thought it would make a good novel.
"The Pleasure Seekers," just launched in India, was several years in the making for the 30-something Doshi, a debut novel for the poet, dancer and journalist who has also co-authored a biography of Sri Lanka bowler Muttiah Muralitharan.
The novel tells the story of the Patel-Joneses, of the Indian Babo who falls in love with the Welsh Sian and how they navigate their way through the uncharted territory of a "hybrid" Indian family in the latter half of the 20th century.
Doshi, who worked in London before moving to India in 2001, spoke to Reuters about "The Pleasure Seekers" and why her parents' cross-cultural marriage was perfect for her first novel:
Q: How much of "The Pleasure Seekers" is autobiographical?
A: "I think to be fair there's a lot of real elements in the book, a lot of the characters began with an idea of a real person. Particularly the main love story of Babo and Sian, that was very loosely based on younger selves of my parents. But sometimes reality can bog you down and I was not interested in writing a memoir or biography and the fictional part is really exciting because you can take real things and make them into even better things. So yeah, it's hard to say what's real and what's not because after spending a lot of time with it, that line blurs and it almost needs to blur if it is going to be fiction."
Q: As a teenager you discovered your mother's love letters to your father. Did that inspire the novel?
A: "This story of my parents, I always thought it was full of all the requirements of a good novel because it had the drama, it had the love story, it had the conflict. Actually, I think when I was growing up, I wasn't really aware of all the backdrop of that because everything was presented very hunky-dory, like it's all natural. When I discovered these letters, I guess I was snooping around when I shouldn't have been. I realized I caught the undertone of the fact there were a lot of hardships and sacrifices and conflict on both sides because it was this cross-cultural marriage and because they both came from fairly conservative families." Continued...


text:
At a Jan. 30 community forum on the future of the Sonoma Developmental Center, a few themes consistently surfaced in the conversation with residents, families and workers at the board-and-care facility for the developmentally disabled. The Sonoma center has come under fire after an investigation by California Watch revealed abuse of patients and inept investigations by the Office of Protective Services, the state-run police force that operates at the center.
Our staff gathered more than 50 questions and many pages of notes from the event, which was sponsored by California Watch and the Sonoma Index-Tribune, and we wanted to share them here in an effort to keep the conversation going.
One of the issues addressed most frequently was how taxpayer money is spent within the Sonoma center and the state Department of Developmental Services at large. Some of the key questions asked by attendees: Is the money being spent properly? Are patients getting enough care? Are staffing levels adequate? One participant had this to offer:
"The SDC property is overkill for a population of 500 patients. Instead of waiting years (for the relocation of existing patients) why can't they relocate to a smaller, more modern and efficient facility?"
The idea of consolidating California's developmental centers was popular among attendees. One participant suggested opening the center to an older population, which could potentially solve two issues at once – the care of the state's severely disabled and the elderly.
"SDC needs to open up to seniors instead of overfilling rest homes. The elderly would receive much better care."
Concerns about the administrative structure of the center were voiced as well. Attendees cited low transparency with the center's data gathering and decision-making, making it difficult to hold officials accountable. A significant concern of Sonoma center staff members and families of patients was the lack of a "Plan B" – what happens if (or when) the Sonoma Developmental Center closes:
"We need to change the internal structure of how to do business – we need a Plan B. SDC operates as a place for those who don't make it in the community. If that's not there, where do people go if court-ordered?"
"I work with clients with severe aggression, property destruction, etc. Several have been in jail before. Where will they go without (developmental centers)?"
"Does the issue of OPS investigations (or lack) create a reason to close SDC? Are these two conversations related?"
With all those points in mind, now's your chance to weigh in. What's your ideal future for the Sonoma Developmental Center? What can be done to achieve that future, and what are the potential roadblocks? Share your thoughts in the comments or feel free to send me an email at email@example.com.


text:
I use this for my USB Holux
Using -D >2 should keep gpsdold running in that terminal allowing you to see problems if any.Code:gpsdold -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -D 3 -s 19200 -K
I just purchased a Holux Sirf Star III GR-213U USB GPS device and followed all the instructions from here but nothing. I even used the gspdold from netstumbler but even that makes the device always read 0's in kismet and still nothing. Even configured kismet to use the gps lock as it states this fixes the constant 0's problem still nothing.
The device installs and links it to /dev/tts/USB0
The gpsd wesbite says this device is fully compatible with the daemon.
Any ideas?
I use this for my USB Holux
Using -D >2 should keep gpsdold running in that terminal allowing you to see problems if any.Code:gpsdold -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -D 3 -s 19200 -K
What happens when you use netcat to connect to the port gpsd is running on? After connecting, hit enter.
Some people have had better luck with the newest version available at
Have you read the gpsd manual page?
I use the Sirf Star USB GPS that came with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2007. It works fine.
If you used the newer version of gpsd, and then tried to use gpsdold, you may need to boot into Windows, use the Sirf Star utility program that came with the GPS, and make sure to reset all the defaults. The buggy gpsd changes some settings that will cause the GPS problems without resetting it.
Thanks everyone. I'm very happy that someone in here is using the holux it as well. I'm installing right now on my windows box to verify the device works (just got it off ebay) and to reset the settings.
I did update the gpsd to the latest version 2.3.4. I'll post back here with my results.
Here are the golden statements:
killall gpsd
mknod /dev/ttyUSB0 c 188 0
gpsd -n /dev/ttyUSB0
This tapped right into the software and the system started spitting out the firmware info, etc.
Now I did take your advice prez and I reset the device prior to this in windows and I added the checkmarks from their ULTRA CRAPPY gpsviewer software.
I did boot up kismet right after and it works. TO KNOW IT WORKS you should see writing above the status window near the bottom that says something like this:
Lat 23.345 Lon -56.345 Alt 345.56 Spd 1.1744m/h Hed 42.619 Fix 3D.
If its not working you'll either see all 0's OR the FIX column will say no signal. As far as the 0's go there is an option within the kismet.conf file to enable gps lock. Set that to true instead of false then retry it again.
A WORD OF ADVICE: When testing it from kismet run it from the command line not the shortcut in the kde menu. Reason being it will quickly shutdown and close the terminal windows it starts up in. There is vital information in there regarding your gps.
I'll post back a few maps and the programs I have used.
Just when your about to throw the box + device your configuring out the window, it all comes together. LOL I've been in that situation way too many times.
I was having a problem with gpsd working in Backtrack 2 final and found out is was an old version.
gpsd -V said it was gpsd version 2.33 and I think you need version 2.34.
I had to create an lzm file and add it to the BT/modules/ so it would be installed on the liveCD version. I tried to attach the lzm file that I created to the post but the system wouldn't let me. You can try creating a lzm of gpsd 2.34 by downloading gpsd 2.34 and following the instructions in the link.
I guess I don't post enough. I can't post the URL either because I haven't posted 15 posts yet. Try googling for "backtrack lzm" that is how I found the instructions.
Hope this helps!


text:
Furnace Filter Options
We have a Frigidaire G6RC120C-20 furnace. It has an electric air cleaner that is separate from the furnace (looks archaic!) After cleaning it once, we realized how unrealistic it is to keep it. (It doesn't fit in our tub, and I'm not spending time outside in the winder scrubbing it!)
Unfortunately, the filter is now stuck in the mechanism so we can't just start using a retrofit disposable.
What are our other options? Should there be a spot in the furnace itself that we can just start using a disposable filter? If so, do we need to have the electric air cleaner actually removed?
One other question - how would you recommend I find someone who can replace some of our duct work? I'm having the hardest time. Thanks!
Yank a little harder on those elements,they need to come out of there.
Then just find a big cartridge filter to replace it with :)
|All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:32 AM.
vBulletin Security provided by vBSecurity v2.2.2 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2017 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2017 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.


text:
PER AQUUM Desert Palm
Desert Palm in Dubai is a unique retreat blending a modern chic feel with character and charm. This boutique offering is intimate and feels exceptionally luscious and green, almost like a tempting oasis standing between Dubai and the Arabian desert.
Best for: Riding, Short Break, Honeymoon, Family


text:
The Sound of Music
The hills are alive with the sound of music / With songs they have sung for a thousand years
I took my mother to see The Sound of Music in 1965. She had not been to the cinema since the silent movies and Rudolph Valentino. A born-again Christian, my mother considered the movies and film stars somewhat sinful. She never preached, was always tolerant and dispensed a quiet counsel. I watched her face throughout the movie. She was completely enthralled; the tears, the joy and finally, the sigh of relief. When we came out of the theatre, my mother was smiling and humming the music. "Did you think that was sinful?" I asked her. "No, I found it uplifting and spiritual," was all she said. In the years to come, I often heard her singing, in her beautiful voice, songs from the film. She never did go to another movie.
Carol Patterson
Snapshot: A real family holiday in Crete
My mum and dad separated in 1970 when I was a toddler, my sister was four and my mum was recovering from cancer. Life in provincial Britain in the early 70s was very difficult for single parents such as Mum. For a long while, she carried with her an acute sense of our not being a "proper" family because we didn't have a father as head of the household. This feeling turned out to be rather infectious. Consequently, I felt awkward when we attempted "proper", family-type things, such as a family holiday. I wish now I'd helped Mum to enjoy these occasional holidays that she so deserved, rather than moping around.
But Crete was very different. It was where we spent our first foreign holiday, staying in the then tranquil resort of Agios Nikolaos. This photo of Mum and me aged 13, on the balcony of our apartment, was taken by my sister using the must-have camera equipment of the day, a Kodak Ektra.
It was a glorious holiday: we spent every day at the beach in the intense heat; we shopped at the market for our lunch: juicy tomatoes the size of Mum's fist, cheese and flat, floury bread rolls. Warm evenings were spent in a particular taverna, where "our" waiter looked after us. The three of us felt relaxed and really happy.
This photo captures that mood. Mum looks radiant. I am posing slightly self-consciously for the camera, head tossed back, but clearly loving the moment. Such was the impression it made on me, on returning home I bought a Penguin Greek phrase book, determined to master the language of my new favourite country, but I don't think I got beyond the alphabet.
As my sister and I grew up and left home, Mum travelled more widely - sometimes with a friend, sometimes alone - but always confident and outgoing, until cancer crept up on her again. Since her death in 2001, I have often reflected on Mum's resilience and her determination to bring me and my sister up in the best way she could. But this photo reminds me of another side of her that I sometimes forget, her love and her joie de vivre.
Nicola Gooch
We love to eat: M'lady noodles
Any combination of vegetables (peppers, courgettes, aubergine, onion, squash etc)
1 carton of passata
Spaghetti or noodles
Garlic, dried herbs and olive oil
Cheese for sprinkling
Take two boys aged four and two, an introduction to the messy delights of spaghetti, an obsession with old Thunderbirds videos and mix with parental concern to get "secret" vegetables into any meal in any way, and you have M'lady noodles.
With more than a passing nod to Jamie Oliver and his school dinners programme, we found that roasting vegetables, adding tomatoes and blending them, rendered them invisible to the small child's eye. Mix in with spaghetti or noodles and you've got a meal with a bit of nutrition still there.
After one such mealtime our youngest was watching a riveting Thunderbirds episode, where Lady Penelope and Parker were undercover in a hotel, eating a meal and posing as innocent guests. Spotting their meal of spaghetti bolognese, he turned excitedly to us and shouted "M'Lady noodles!", delighted that his funny jerky heroes also ate what he did .
Prepare and chop your vegetables; roast for 40 minutes with garlic, dried herbs and olive oil, then blend or liquidise. Add the passata. Boil your spaghetti or noodles, combine the two then sprinkle with cheese.
Jo Moores
· We'd love to hear your stories. We will pay £75 for every Letter to... Playlist, Perfect Day, Snapshot or We Love to Eat we publish. Write to Family Life, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3ER or email: family@ theguardian.com. Please include your address and phone number.


text:
Counseling Resources
Mental Health Screening
The following assessments are offered free of charge to all CWC students:
Begin your assessment now...
Once you have completed an assessment and received your results, it is strongly recommended that you make an appointment to meet with a counselor to discuss your results.
Student Health 101
Take a look at this month's online college health newsletter to which CWC now subscribes.
You can also look at old issues of Student Health 101, by clicking here.
Also check out the Student Health 101 Flu Virus update newsletter, for information on the H1N1 Flu Virus and how to prevent the spread of the virus!
Suicide Prevention & General Mental and Physical Health
As a part of Wyoming's Youth Suicide Prevention campaign, check out the revamped website with the goal to get young adults to talk about topics like depression, mental illness and suicide.
The site, What A Difference a Friend Makes, is for people living with mental illness—and their friends. You'll find tools to help in the recovery process, and you can also learn about the different kinds of mental illnesses, read real-life stories about support and recovery, and interact with the video to see how friends can make all the difference.
The site, HealthLine, is a great resource that can provide information on a variety of mental and physical;health-related disorders and issues.
Go Ask Alice!
Columbia University's Health Question and Answer Internet Service
Disability Assistance
The Counseling and Career Services staff work closely with the Disability Services staff to provide assistance for students with identified disabilities to transition from high school to college. Take a look at Going to College for some ideas or contact the Disability Services Coordinator at (307)855-2011, or 800-735-8418, ext 2011.
Stop Smoking Assistance
Please stop by the Counseling and Career Services Center to pick up useful information, quit assistance packets, or to ask questions.


text:
The data can also be reformatted as requested by the customer. Available formats for use with customer specific equivalent circuit models include:
STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd. is a leading service provider of advanced semiconductor packaging design, assembly, test and distribution solutions.
A trusted partner and supplier to leading semiconductor companies worldwide, STATS ChipPAC provides fully integrated,
multi-site, end-to-end packaging and testing solutions that bring products to the market faster.
© 2017 STATS ChipPAC Pte. Ltd.


text:
Jump ship or go down with it?
Awful Lit.
Join LibraryThing to post.
There seem to be two types of readers. Those who "jump ship" if the book isn't working for them. And those who will "go down with the ship" by reading it even if they don't like a second of it.
I happen to be in the latter category. I just can't abandon a book even when I know it's for my own good.
I don't think one approach is better than the other, I just wonder what motivates a person to be in one category or the other.
For me, I feel like it's good to stick with what you start and I feel guilty for criticizing a book if I haven't actually read the whole thing. I also feel like I might be surprised in the end. Like the ending might reveal a depth about the book that I would have missed if I had given up on it.
I don't think either approach is 'better', either. You do what works for you, I do what works for me, etc.
Personally, I have no problem criticizing a book I haven't finished. The beginning is part of the book, after all, and an important aspect of a book is if it captures your attention when you first start it. But if I didn't get a reasonable way into it, I tend to say "I just couldn't get into it" or "I couldn't finish it" or something, instead of "I didn't like it".
If a book can't hold my attention for the first few pages, or is a serious struggle halfway through, then it's not worth my time to keep reading and maybe see if the end might perhaps make it possibly worth all the effort. I have better things to do than take that gamble. Like clean the bathroom or something.
I'm a jumper. Life is too short to read bad books.
I'm unintentionally a jumper. I try to get through to the end, but I simply stop reading it. I intend to, but I never seem to pick it up again. Then later, I'll pick it up and start over with the intention of finishing, but usually the same thing happens. So I guess I'm a jumper.
I gave up on "Anna Karenina" halfway through. There were just too many characters whose names I could no longer remember. Years ago I got through 99% of "Five Smooth Stones," and just couldn't finish it. I've never been sorry. I still wonder why I spent so much time on a book that simply annoyed me. For the most part, I'll slog through because most of the books I'm reading today are called "classics" and I know they often require work and persistance. This is not to say they are work. But the writing style, language, and wordiness are so different from today's writing, that it takes a different mindset to read many of them. Still, I've yet to be sorry that I finished even the soppy "Old Curiosity Shop".
I used to read books to the bitter end....no matter how much I detested them. A few years ago I made the choice that if I couldn't stand a book after reading 100-150 pages then I wouldn't read further.
I have the same motto as one poster above. Life is too short to read bad books. I think that there are just too many good books out there just waiting to be read that time shouldn't be wasted on ones that I get no enjoyment out of.
I am so a jumper. I have tons of books just waiting to be read that to slog through a bad book is just plain illogical.
I was reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter and after 73 pages, I just jumped ship. Even though there was a lot of stuff going on, I just didn't reap any benefit from it. Books should either teach you something or help you escape from the every day. That book did neither.
>4 zimbeline:, zimbeline - I think I am like you - unintentionally a jumper. I have exactly the same process with books I can't get into. I feel bad about not finishing books, but some books just kill me and I have so much to read that I think "why bother?"
If I'm still reading the same book after a week, I give it up. Like Roxpie, I have a lot more books waiting in the aisles. If it doesn't click, it's a waste of my time.
Any book that I ever slogged through (which is few), I was always disappointed that I finished it. Once bitten . . .
I do my best to finish any book I start, but I try to take care in picking what I read. So far I have done fairly well and there have only been a handful of books I've rather not bothered with. Or maybe I'm not real picky and bad writing doesn't bother me, who knows?
I try to stick with it . . . depends what my motivation is though. If I'm reading something for my book club, I try harder. If I'm reading for a course that I'm enrolled in, I don't have a choice.
But life is too short to read books that don't click with you. Especially if you're reading for pleasure, and the book isn't giving you any. I try to give everything 100 pages. But sometimes I don't make it that far.
I go down with the ship. It's not so much that I feel I can't criticize a book without finishing it (though I can understand that), I feel that I can't fully hate an awful book until I've experienced all its awfulness. Obviously all of you jumpers won't understand that, but I find it somewhat fun to get that real visceral dislike going on, and really be able to rant about it.
This doesn't really apply to books I just find boring though. If I'm simply bored, it will be too hard to stick with it. This is more things I actively dislike because they make me angry in some way.
I actually just jumped ship on another book today, Red Azalea. I was halfway done and just couldn't slog through it. The worst part is it was a book that someone lent me, a book that someone thought I would like.
I generally give up when I realize I'm "forcing" myself to continue (The Golden Bowl for example).
I'm a heavy library user, so the books that I actually pay for are ones I'm fairly certain I'll like at time of purchase. That having been said, I am forcing myself through an audible.com download of Land of Lincoln by Andrew Ferguson; I paid for it, and I'm stubborn. Not that it's "bad" exactly, but after nearly 4 hours I wish I were more than halfway through (it's 9 hours).
The only book I distinctly remember jumping ship on was The Great Gatsby, mostly because it was taking me forever, and I figured that if such a short book was taking me this long, something had to be seriously. I don't mean the language was difficult or anything like that, but just that well, I could get up the motivation to keep reading.
#8 fannyprice, I agree. So many books, so little time. It does seem pointless to waste time on a book that we can't get into. I might have to just admit to giving up from now and resist feeling the urge to attempt to finish some of these horrors.
Roxpie86, I agree with you about The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I was supposed to read it for my book club. I'm usually pretty dutiful about getting through the books we pick, but that one I couldn't do. It felt like the script for a made-for-TV movie.
I am more an avoider. On my bookstore excursions, I like to settle down in a corner with a big pile of books, and try them out. I will try to read the first 50 pages of each book. If it doesn't hold my interest for the first 50 pages, I am done with it.
The pile that passes the 50-page test then has to be whittled down to fit the available budget. I keep a list of the ones I didn't buy, and will include them in the evaluation stack next time around. The second time I read pages 51-100, to give the book a second chance.
This process usually (but not always) prevents me from bringing home any real stinkers, so I almost never have to abandon a book once I get it home.
I'm a jumper. Unless I absolutely have to finish it because I'm writing a review, I won't bother slog through a book I hate. Why should I? I'm not in school; no one's going to quiz me on it.
I'm seeing that I'm in the minority here. I guess the reason I stick with a book even if it's not working for me is that I think of all the wasted time of starting books, getting 50 to 100 pages into it and then leaving it. I guess I feel I'll get more out of it if I finish it than not.
On the other hand, I try REALLY hard to pick books that I won't hate. I try never to read anything brand new, for example. I want to give it time to be out there and hear how it's generally received. But of course that doesn't always work.
Really, I guess either way you go there is time you could consider wasted.
There is one book I gave up on though. I love Annie Dillard and have read several of her books, but there was one about death that I couldn't finish. I can't even remember the title because I've blocked it out.
I remember reading long passages about dust and how we're all being covered in it slowly and how we'll all be part of the dust covering everything and everyone soon...everytime I picked it up I would get really depressed, so halfway through I gave up. I guess we all have our limits.
#3 - I whole heartedly agree. I'll give most a fair shot, but if it doesn't hook me after a certain point, i'm seeking greener pastures. Way too many on my TBR list to keep reading bad books.
I definitely fall into the "sinker" (I'm guessing that's the opposite of a jumper) category. I've been that way ever since high school where I won bragging rights among my friends for being the only one who managed to finish the entire Dune series. (I guess that experience taught me that sometimes you have to endure a lot of set up to get to the interesting part of a book.)
Admittedly, I think I've yet to read a book whose conclusion managed to redeem an otherwise weak work. Koontz' The Key to Midnight came close, as the last 75 pages deliver the fast-paced thriller that the preceeding 300+ pages refused to be. (Though that still means slogging through 300+ pages of dull exposition, tin-eared characterization, and dull plotting to get to a pretty generic thriller.)
I have stopped reading a book one or two chapters in, but that's generally because I decide that it's not the right time or I'm not in the right mood. Those are cases where I intend to pick the book up again at some future date.
I once picked up The Name of the Rose I found for a couple bucks at a used bookstore. I read the introduction and realized that I was not in the mood for anything as dense as Eco, so I set it aside for a couple months.
By the time I realized The Poisonwood Bible sucked, I was three-quarters of the way through it. No point in not finishing by that time. I think I tend to press on.
I guess sometimes I just get distracted, though, and quasi-jump ship. It's been a good six years since I even touched Le morte d'Arthur, but I still consider myself a third of the way through. Someday I'll finish it, right? But when there are so many things to be read... I think some books (cough, Bleak House, cough, Anna Karenina) should just be retired to bathroom reading, where you pick it up now and then and read a chapter, but don't really care about finishing. That way you still get through them but it doesn't really matter if you're reading slowly, because they're basically there to distract you while you take a dump.
I read halfway through (or less) The Poisonwood Bible, flipped ahead and read enough to know I would continue to despise it, so I stopped. I was reading it for a book club, but even that was not enough to get me to read that. The characters were so hateful I couldn't care about them.
I was surprised at how much I hated that book, because I love some of her other books.
Vile characters -- people I really hate -- are one of the reasons I will drop a book and never pick it up again.
Politics are another -- I was reading some mystery, and right in the middle of it was a gratuitous insult of a politician I admire, and so I gave up on that author. I am not going to spend money on an author who shows such a bias against everything I believe in, even if it is not much reflected in her books.
I am definitely a jumper. If I don't enjoy a book, why should I read it? I read for my own pleasure and enlightenment, and what other people think I should or must read doesn't affect me. (Although there are books I think I should read, and those I try to get through...but that's only once in a while.)
This message has been deleted by its author.
(Glitch in the computer/internet made me post the same comment twice...)
#23 -- CarlosMcRey -- I am with you on the mood thing. When life is too crazy or stressful the last thing I need is to add stress by reading a dense or unpleasant book. There are times that I want popcorn -- light fluffy reading -- and times I want to dig into a seven course meal -- those dense, wordy, difficult, unpleasant (as in violence or sadness or whatever), those books that make you think.
#27- randomarbitrary - I have to admit that's one reason I'm a big fan of short story collections. Though I seem to have grown so fond of short stories that I have less patience with novels.
To all: An additional thought about sinking with the ship: I just finished Chuck P's Choke which I felt tempted to bail on many times. Despite a multitude of flaws, it turned out to be the most heartfelt of Palahniuk's books I've read to date. I don't regret reading it, although I would warn anyone who asked about its shortcomings.
Truth is some authors can produce flawed though interesting works, and I'm always curious to see where an author will take me. I don't think I'd bother with Koontz again, because he didn't really have anything interesting to say even when the story got moving.
Take Life of Pi. You have to read the last ten pages to really get the entire point of the book - it was an amazing experience and that book is really a living book - not a passive dead book. However, a lot of people stop short of this book and think its boring or there is no point - sometimes you have to get to the ending to see the meaning and the point.
I also try to read books with characters I don't like or points of view I don't have - I find that it enriches me and I become more empathetic. It pays to understand where someone is coming from for me, but then my profession is a therapist so I am always trying to understand people and other views.
#28 & 29 -- that makes sense, the whole idea that there is a payoff or redemption or explanation in the last pages that make the book worth reading.
And maybe someday I will get back to those books I just could not be bothered with -- not the Poisonwood Bible though, nothing could redeem that book in my eyes.
For me it depends as well on how dense or unreadable I find it. If it is a quick read, I am more likely to finish it anyway, but if it's a dead slow slog, I just do not want to do it. There are enough things I have to do -- I cannot see adding to that list by reading something I am hating.
As for the characters I don't like -- The Poisonwood Bible I believe is the one I mentioned with characters I hate. I read lots of stuff with viewpoints that are different from mine, and characters I don't like, but a woman who lets her husband make all the decisions -- even when those decisions are potentially lethal to family members -- I can't stand that. I come from a long line of very independent women who insist on thinking for themselves, so I just don't have the patience for reading about weak subservient women.
#29 - That is absolutely how I feel.
When I think about this topic it's interesting to me that some people think they are wasting their time if they stick with a book they don't like.
If you abandon 10 books halfway through dismissing them as a waste of your time or you complete 5 books and find that you ended up really only like one book, what's a bigger waste of time?
In fact it's just a different way of approaching the same thing. You still, theoretically, spend the same amount of time reading whether you abandon a book or not.
For me, I just don't want to leave a whole pile of books in my lifetime that I didn't finish. I feel like that is a waste--but that's just me--I know others have disagreed. On a whole, I'm just fascinated with peoples' thoughts about this subject.
I whole heartedly agree with the "don't waste time" view -- dump the book if you're not getting or it's not grabbing you, especially if it's just plain crappy.
But sometimes it's hard to tell until it's too late, and ya just gotta finish it to see how it all works out; I'm in that now with Queen Loana and her Mysterious Flame... is it really 700 pages of a guy rummaging through his attic?
Crap... shoulda trusted my instincts and quit this one a long time ago. Yes, it is 700 pgs of rereading books from his childhood, and only apprx 100 of those pages were interesting.
35demee007 First Message
I'm a jumper, although sometimes I'll skim quickly until the end to see what happens. Or just read the last one or two chapters.
I can count the number of books I jumped on one hand. I generally end up kicking myself for finishing, but I always secretly hope something amazing will happen to save the story for me. It rarely happens, but I guess I'm just an optomist at heart.
I've just been very naughty and dumped Death on the Nile
I got about a third of the way through when the murder is committed, guessed who it was, skipped to the end to discover I was right. I've never found Agatha Christie so laboured before, but this was my first Poirot book so perhaps that's it.
The last book I hated (Dictionary of the Khazars), I read the whole damn thing, mainly out of sheer refusal to be defeated.
Now that LibraryThing has shown me how many potentially interesting yet unread books I have in the house, not to mention the ones I haven't got yet, I realize how much enjoyment I probably missed by doing that. From now on, I'm going to jump ship, and then get on board the next ship so fast that the sharks won't have time to nibble my toes.
If I find myself avoiding reading because the book at the top of the pile will make it an unpleasant experience, I take that book off the pile. Otherwise, I tend to stick with it.
1: Exactly! I will finish books I hate, just so I feel justified in how very much I hate them. Like The Lovely Bones. Hated pretty much every single agonizing second, but finished it, so I would have lots of things to use in my critique.
Then what do you do with the offending tomes? I recently dusted/reorganized the bookshelf and found myself putting back on the shelf books I didn't like and didn't finish! Although, despite despising it, I kept the Flaming Mysterious Queen Lonana simply because of its cool looking cover...
I guess I meant the Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana... whatever.
It sucked.
I'll go down with the ship every time. Unless that is, I somehow fail to notice I've fallen off the ship until it's too late.
For example, I had to read Crime and Punishment for a class and though I loved it, I've never read the last 75 pages. I know what happened because we discussed it in class and I didn't really have a chance to go back and finish it because we were on to the next book. It secretly pains me that I haven't read those 75 pages, but I never seem to go back to it either.
I really don't have a good rationalization as to why I stick with books I'm not fully enjoying. It's part the hope of redemption and part the belief that once I've started a book I might as well finish it, for fear that I'll always wonder if the second half could have mightily redeemed it.
But really, it's just something I do. I finish books. I don't know why. I just do.
I think part of it is, as avid readers, we know the amazing amount of effort that is put into writing any book, so matter how lousy it is we always want to support the author, as well as hope for the redemption of a well done ending....
I understand your point, sinkers, but I figure I only have a limited time to read, and any time I spend on a "bad" book (think: Raise the Titanic!, the last book I forced myself to read so I could say how horrid it was) is time I'm not reading a book I'd like. I give 'em 100 pages or so, and then either take 'em back or skim through to the end.
I have converted from a sinker to a jumper. Through my scholastic career up until college, I read every book that was assigned, and man were they AWFUL! This past year alone I've probably stopped reading 8-10 books when I was 66-75% completed with them because I just couldn't be bothered. Right now I'm 200 pages from the end of Anna Karenina and I don't know if I'll be able to make it. In fact the only reason I have persisited this far is that 1) it's one of those books that should be read, just so you can participate in our culture, and 2) if I stop, I know I will never pick it up again. As for The Life of Pi that others have mentioned, I was THIS CLOSE to not finishing it, because it got so boring. When I got to the end I wasn't even sure that the ending made all that tedium worth it.
I read a book called the Double by Jose Saramago (the touchstone is eluding me) that was so tedious for the first 90% of it that I almost stopped reading it, but that last 10% made it all worthwhile.
Most of the book consists of this dumpy old guy with depression looking for videos that feature an bit actor whose name he doesn't know, so he watches movie after movie after movie and makes lists of the names of the actors. Gahhh! Just check IMDB!!
Out of all the books I've read in my life, I have jumped from 2 books that I recall and both I could not get past the first chapter. There was entirely too much work involved in reading them. They were: House of Seven gables and The Hobbit.
Other than that, I like to go down with the ship. I just feel incomplete if I don't finish it.
I used to go down with the ship. I chose to believe that if I didn't think it was a good book that something was wrong with me, that I wasn't smart enough to "get" it. Ha!
Now I have a 100-page rule: if I am not hooked and desperate to return to the book when I get home from work, I am jumping ship.
There might need to be another category for those of us that KNOW it's a good book but we have to try and try again. Jonathan Strange and Dr. Norrell is something I have started 3 times. Weeks later I come back to it, and have to backtrack a few chapters to jump back. The story fascinates me and I find it well-written....it's just been a slog for me. I even bought it on CD thinking that would help, but fell asleep. Something must be wrong with me.......
Usually I'm a "go down with the ship" kind of person. I keep hoping that the book is going to get better. With me, it's an optimist kind of thing, but, like klarsenmd, usually, it doesn't get better and I kick myself for wasting time.
I like the rule (I think it's Nancy Perl's) where you subtract your age from 100. That's how many pages the author has to "grab" you. As you age, you have less time to waste with bad books.
One book, though, that I just couldn't get through, is A Fine Balance. 624 pages is just too much time to spend with starving, desperate people, who, no matter what you do, you can't help them.
Wow, so that means the book needs to give me some powerful hook before 64 pages for me. Hmmmm....I think I'm just OCD about finishing what I start. I'm also one who likes to make sure every last drop in the soap bottle is used, the last square on the toilet paper roll is used, etc etc. I know I'm OCD about wasting things. Maybe that's it!
I saw a plug for this group in another group, so I had to join up.
I read through the lists of books that have been given up on and heaved a sigh of relief. Our city picked The Life of Pi for its "One City, One Book" program and I couldn't make it through the first few chapters. I should have know I'd hate it-it was compared to The Old Man and the Sea so many times. As a librarian, I constantly look back to that experiance to remind myself that book recommendations have to be made very carefully.
As a rule, I give a (fiction) book 3 chapters to interest me. This has allowed me to continue on with many books I would have otherwise abandoned, like The Golden Compass and The Hobbit-in fact, it's because of The Hobbit that I made this rule. Nonfiction gets the introduction and first chapter to prove itself. I am much more forgiving of boring presentation in nonfiction, but grammatical errors , poor citation, and annoying footnotes make me jump ship quickly. Fiction just has to grab me-Choke actually did grab me fairly quickly. House of Leaves, on the other hand, was promptly returned to the library after the third chapter was finished. I have the benefit of constant close proximity to a library, too, which means I can cycle through books frequently and I don't have to see a pile of abandoned books as evidence of my failings-or the author's failings.
I get my fill of boring required reading at work. I need to know the literature students are researching for their classes (university reference librarian) so I can effectively search. Even if I don't have to read a boring book, I do have to read dozens of boring scholarly papers ABOUT those books. Then I get to read all those oh-so-entertaining journals for my liaison groups, to recommend to professors, and to keep up with the profession. That seriously shortens my tolerance for boring works.
52joehutcheon First Message
I've only ever given up on two fiction books. One was Auto da Fe by Elias Canetti, the other was The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. I've given up on many non-fiction books, particularly those of a scientific nature which have been insufficiently dumbed-down for my understanding.
I'm with BookMarque,
Life is way too short for inferior lit.
I guess that makes me a jumper...
I am a jumper.
There are simply too many good books out there to waste time reading something I don't enjoy. I even bail on bookclub books.
The only exception, and I almost always know it when I put a book down, is that sometimes it is just not the right time to read something. Wrong mood, wrong genre, not enough time to devote serious thought or energy, whatever. There are several books I have like that right now - that I've started, even read a hundred pages of or so, and put down - including Baltimore: Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, 20th Century Ghosts, Why Buildings Fall Down, Why Buildings Stand Up, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. There are others, too.
It's fun to wander up and down my shelves (or, now, browse my library on librarything!) and find something whose turn it is to read and get through it triumphantly, happily, without stress.
lansum..I encourage you to finish a fine balance..I think your missing the point... the point I came away from the book was undying friendship...the lengths that people will go to for each other..I think we all could be more like the chacters in the book..( not poor..caring and helpful):-)
I have to admit this thread has made me reconsider my position as a "sinker." Perhaps life is too short to spend time on bad books. However, my big frustration isn't really boring beginnings, since I think sometimes a good story takes a while to wind up. Part of this may be some legacy of reading all six Dune books in high school; the "wind-up" period seemed to get longer with every sequel, but it only seemed to increase my determination to keep reading until the "good stuff" started.
However, I may make a new rule to drop books if they insult my intelligence in the first hundred pages or so. I suspect this would have disqualified some of the more egregious examples that stick with me.
I am pretty much a sinker. I can't stand not knowing what happened at the end so I persist to find out. I guess that is one of the reasons I always hated that show "Unsolved Mysteries" - I couldn't stand that there was no resolution to the story and would spend all week just thinking about what could have happened to the person.
Howerver, there is one book which I jumped ship - The Lovely Bones. I think I read about 67 pages of it before my husband made me put it down and then give it away. I didn't particular like it and didn't even like her writing style much but because of the subject matter I was sobbing while reading it and really didn't think that my emotional reaction was going to improve so I jumped. I have no regrets and no plans to ever pick that book up again.
I, too, try not to pick books which I think I will hate though and sometimes won't start one because I don't think that I am in the right frame of mind for it at the time.
I find everyone's reasons for whether they are a jumper or a sinker interesting and can see both points of view but I think that I will probably remain a sinker for life.
As a general rule, I tend to go down with the ship...doggedly pursuing the end of the book with the obsessive intensity of Ahab after the white whale...
...which metaphor I've really no right to use, considering I jumped (whaling) ship with Moby Dick. Of course, it was required reading (for a class I ended up dropping). And I actually loved the beginning. I remember thinking, Why do so many people think it's boring? This is some seriously funny stuff! ...until they got on the boat.
The last book I abandoned was Eragon. While it was painful to say, "I give up," it was even more painful to keep reading.
I, too, am a jumper. I have never finished Pollyanna, Portnoy's Complaint, or Lolita. I have, however, finished War and Peace, The Silmarillion, and Ella Minnow Pea. I was once reading a horror/murder mystery where in the first chapter the killer put a kitten in a blender. I quit reading that one. I slogged through Ragtime, but hated the writing style.
I read for pleasure, so if it becomes a chore, even if it's an author "who must be read" I don't feel like I have to finish it if I'm not enjoying it. I borrow my books from the library, so there's no cost involved, so no guilt.
I guess I'm both. I give a book 5 chapters &/or 100 pages before I decide to jump. But I read Inheritance of Loss to the bitter end despite wanting badly to stop. I finished it so that I could tell the person who recommended it how much I despised that book. This my synopsis, everyone was miserable and then their dog is stolen. The end.
#58 - joker, I'm a bit disheartened to hear Moby Dick loses steam once they get on the boat. I decided to read it this year as part of a challenge to myself to take on longer/more difficult works. I was half-expecting a pretty dull book, but have found it to be really fun so far. I like the narrator's sense of humor, and have even enjoyed the odd ominous touches. Well, I guess I can consider myself warned.
When I was in junior high, a friend loaned me Jump Off the Cliff Notes which had a series of parodies of Cliff Notes entries on various novels. The main thing I remember about the Moby Dick entry was the way the writer played up the issue of homosexuality. (I don't remember it exactly, but I vaguely recall a conversation between Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne where Hawthorne says how much he likes a novel about a whole boatload of stout men in pursuit of a large white, um, Dick.) Anyway, these early chapters and the nature of Ishmael and Queequeg's meeting brought that back to mind.
#58 - That's exactly how I felt about Moby Dick too. I enjoyed it up to the point where they got on the ship as well. Then it was like a different guy started writing the book! I've always wondered about the change in the narrative, but I've never heard anyone else mention it before.
In the end, I never jump ship. So I stayed to the bitter, bitter end. Call me Ahab.
Okay, okay, you got me going-I'm gonna go read Moby Dick again. It's been years and years, and the lesson I learned the last time I finished it (6 attempts, 3 finishes) is to read it in very small doses. I have the California Press edition with the Barry Moser woodcuts, and that helps a lot. Wish me luck!
Small doses is a good technique if you really, really want to read a hard book. I read Malory's Morte D'Arthur in 30-minute chunks on the train, and War and Peace in snatches while trying to finish a thesis.
I forget where I read this, but I was once told that if you were under 50 years old, you should stick with a book for at least the first 50 pages to see if it holds your attention. For every year older than 50, subtract one page from the requirement - someone 60 years old can read through 40 pages before jumping ship, etc. I guess the thought is that you should give a book a chance before you junk it, but those who are older do not have as much time to determine whether they like the book or not!
I usually use more than a 50-page requirement, I stick books out until I can no longer stand them (especially if I bought them already). I had readWaking Raphael for about 90 pages until I had to get rid of it.
When it comes to nonfiction I have to be in the mood to read that genre and/or subject; I couldn't get through the first chapter of Founding Brothers so I put it away to read again when I had more interest in American history.
#65: I forget where I read this, but I was once told that if you were under 50 years old, you should stick with a book for at least the first 50 pages to see if it holds your attention. For every year older than 50, subtract one page from the requirement - someone 60 years old can read through 40 pages before jumping ship, etc. I guess the thought is that you should give a book a chance before you junk it, but those who are older do not have as much time to determine whether they like the book or not!
I heard it from Nancy Pearl, uber-librarian. I'm not sure if it's her invention or if she borrowed it. I tend to follow it, although if I have motivation (such as a book club meeting), I'll give a book 100 pages or so.
#65: "I forget where I read this, but I was once told that if you were under 50 years old, you should stick with a book for at least the first 50 pages to see if it holds your attention."
Hmm. I like the idea of a page limit but 50 seems too short. I ended up really liking The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, for example, but it took closer to 100 pages to really get interesting. Which is silly, in my opinion, since that boring beginning could probably have been edited down, but the rest of the book was still worth it.
Not that it matters much, since I'm a stick-it-out-to-the-bitter-end kind of person. I never really believe that I've given up on a book- I've just set it aside for a more fortuitous time, which may end up being 10 years down the road. But I always intend to come back.
I have used the 50 page rule for many years, but I had never heard that this idea had official imprimatur from anyone. I think I started after wading through a couple of books by Michener. Seems like he always felt compelled to start with the trilobites, and spend the first 100 pages on pre-history! I kept expecting the pace to pick up after the dinosaurs, but I felt like I had really wasted my time, when there are so many wonderful books out there that I could be reading instead. I eventually decided that my interest in a book (not best seller sales figures) should be the determining factor.
I rarely use the public library, so I buy all of the books I am going to read. And I acquire books at a much faster rate than I can actually read them, so they have to be pretty good if I have to wait for retirement to have the time to read them. (Especially considering that the recent stock market results have probably pushed that happy date back by a year or two.)
I will take a chance on inexpensive books (used, closeouts, etc.) after a quick browse. If I am really interested in the subject, but a book is off to a slow start, I might give it several sessions in the bookstore before I make a decision on buying it.
I am also a jumper, but I used to be a sinker. Once I got married and a child my time became much more precious. So now I have the "life is too short to read bad books" attitude.
I usually give books 50 to 100 pages and if it still feels like a chore I give up. Most books I can tell right away if I'm going to like or not just from the first chapter.
Some surpise me, I didn't like Time Traveler's Wife at first, but it ended up being one of my all time favorites.
I have so many books on my "to be read" list that I don't bat and eye about jumping now. When I was younger it would have been almost impossible for me to "give up" though.
For the most part I stick with it to the bitter end. I just finished Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral, had to force myself, though.
The only book I can honestly say I've jumped and given up going back is Youngs' biography of Eleanor Roosevelt: a Personal and Public Life. Nothing about the woman inspired me to care about the contents of the book. Not even the fact it was part of a college course could force me to finish it. Try as I might, I just couldn't gag it down.
Every other started-and-yet-to-be-finished book I still intend to finish... someday... Machiavelli's The Prince is slow going because I'm studying it. A Wrinkle in Time may be a jumper, because it's another no-matter-how-hard-I-try-I-just-can't-seem-to-care book.
I'm beginning to feel that way about Tom Jones. I'm 170 pages into that 18th century monster. I'll stick with it though.
I go down with the ship. I can't help but assume a book will get better, even though experience has shown me that's rarely the case. Books I find tedious might take me up to a month to finish though, since I need to be in a certain kind of brave mood to face it.
I have only recently allowed myself to quit a book. After trudging through Quiet Girl for way too long, I ended up really pissed off at the ending. I finally just told myself that if I really don't like it, just stop. That said, I know I have wanted to quit books that ended up being very good and very rewarding. Two that come to mind are Tree of Smoke and Half of a Yellow Sun. I really had to work in the beginning of both of those, but it was so worth it.
#35 and #44 -- Is there any difference between deliberate skimming and unconscious skimming? There have been a few times when someone will ask me how I can read so fast and I realize that I'm flipping pages and looking for key words/phrases or character names rather than actually reading every page.
#74 TallyDi: skimming and gleaning the facts vs. reading the book is like reading about a blurb about an event vs. actually being a part of the event. In the one, you know what went on, you have the facts, but you have no feeling or sense of it. With the second, you have the info and facts, but you also have the experiences and understanding of what happened.
Per my earlier post, I was glad I stuck with Tom Jones. Not too sure about this one, though. Sure, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the Pulitzer and I'm sure it was well deserved. Sure, nature writers love it. Sure, it's lyrical. But I'm about to beat my head with a stick to try to mask this droning, boring, tedious, throbbing pain. I'm the king of sinkers.
I've always been a slogger - through to the bitter end, and only just recently decided it was not a reflection of me (i.e. "my failure") to not finish a crappy book. Part of what allowed me to have this breakthrough is that I've recently started to work at a school where part of the 4th grade reading curriculum is called "when it's OK to abandon a book". I believe that this teacher is a genius!
This message has been deleted by its author.
This message has been deleted by its author.
This message has been deleted by its author.
This message has been deleted by its author.
This message has been deleted by its author.
I'm a jumper, but I rarely need to do so. I simply refuse to read books I feel peer-pressured into reading because I know my taste. I absolutely have no regrets about dropping The Secret Life of Bees after a few chapters. As a librarian I felt I read enough for readers' advisory purposes, but I just couldn't get past the feelilng like I was reading a book designed to be a best seller. Call me a snob but I just couldn't do it.
I do have a friend who abandoned The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing...WITH ONLY ONE PAGE LEFT TO READ! I still can't believe that.
This message has been deleted by its author.
This happened to me last year while reading Native Tongue. Sadly, it has also happened to me on entire series of books. However, I end up finishing them, wanting to know what happens.
I then found out Native Tongue has sequels. Thankfully, my desire to read them is zero.
I tend to jump with a life vest...
If I hate a book, I'll put it down and eventually, when the time is right I'll pick it up and try again. I just did this with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight. It's not a hard book to read and now I absolutely love it and am trying to figure out what the heck my problem was when I first tried reading it...
I did the same with the first Harry Potter book. I can't imagine having completely abandoned Harry Potter!
Currently I have Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke on hiatus. I just can't deal with a loooong book at the moment. I just finished three (or so long ones and need some short, instant gratification books before I go back, plus I have an ER on the way.)
Overall, I go down with the ship. The question is just....at what point?
Interesting thread.
When I first began reading classics, I abandoned Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I went back to them later, really enjoyed them, and they are now two of my favorites.
I HATED The Shipping News, White Tiger and The Unconsoled, but finished them all, complaining every step of the way. The Shipping News won a Pulitzer, White Tiger won the Man Booker and The Unconsoled was by one of my favorite authors, I kept telling myself.
Some things I finished because I really needed to read them for work (White Tiger, One for the Money, Books: a Memoir). While I will put in more effort for work books, these seem to make up most of my reading these days. One for the Money was SO bad, I had to stop after two chapters and read something worthwhile. I did go back to it, however. The payoff for Wuthering Heights and Tess were absolutely worth it, but White Tiger and One for the Money were absolute torture.
But, as I get older, I'm *much* less likely to waste time on something I really hate. If I'm literally throwing a book across the room, something is terribly, terribly wrong. Life is just too short.
>87 fig2:
fig2, there seems to be a lot of Wuthering Heights bashing throughout several LT Group posts, but I couldn't agree with you more. I've never studied the context, but I've always thought that it must have been really innovative in its day.
White Tiger wasn't a real pleasant story, but I kinda liked it. 'Reminded me of Crime and Punishment meets Vendor of Sweets.
I'm a jumper. I also usually give about 50 pages for the book to convince me, though might jump off later too.
I have read some books where last pages have done a lot for the total enjoyment, but even for those the beginning should be readable (The Sound of Waves did become a good book on its last page, but before that I could still keep on reading, and first time I read The Satanic Verses at some point I completely lost the plot but kept on reading because I liked the language so much).
And I too often give another try to the book which I have abandoned, because sometimes it is just a matter of me not being ready or in a wrong mood or something.
But sometimes even highly praised books just don't work.
Word of warning: Umberto Eco is known to write really dense beginnings at least for some of his books, they start moving much better when you have got through the introductions with historical minutia.
I'm a jumper, but I always hold out the possibility of sailing the ship again. I choose my books carefully, and there's always something in them that I want to experience – the writing, an idea, the plot, a character, etc. So if I dislike something I'm reading, I tell myself I'm in the wrong mood and decide to go back to it later. I've enjoyed many books that I initially abandoned. I think sometimes you just pick the wrong time to read them.
On the other hand, there are books that I wanted to abandon early on but didn't, because they were recommended by friends or colleagues. In these cases they were books I don't normally read, and it turned out that my instincts were right. Still, I never regret reading anything, no matter how much I dislike it. Every book has something to offer, even if it's just the chance to say "well, I tried it out."
I have jumped ship on quite a few books at university though…
I couldn't help but go down with the ship until I started maintaining a catalog here. Now that I have a collection just for this (called tl;dr), I can delude myself into thinking that I may actually ever go back to the ones I abandoned. I don't think I even care if I ever do--I just can't tolerate the possibility I might someday want to read one but forget what it was.
(Related to this is the reason why I have somewhere north of 600 books in my "to read but unowned" collection...)
I'm usually a sinker. I hope that a bad book will redeem itself, or even if I hate the story the writing will be too beautiful to pass up.
I did jump out of two books in recent memory: Killing Time by Caleb Carr (awful - nothing like his Alienist novels), and Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (I read the first two to three chapters and was rolling my eyes and complaining so much that I decided then and there to stop reading it.)
I came to this thread because I just finished forcing myself to finish Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral and wanted to see what others had said about. That pretty much says it, doesn't it--I'm mostly a finisher. I have abandoned library books that I just didn't care for. With books I own, however, I tend to set them aside thinking I will eventually finish them. For example, just from where I am sitting, I can see at least four books with bookmarks still in them even though I haven't opened any of those books in a year or more. Guess I'm with books as I am with people--I always hope we'll reconnect eventually.
I'm neither - I just leave the book, still meaning to finish it...
My 'only got half way through' pile is much bigger than my 'to be read' pile.
I'm a sinker. Even if I have to work hard to read a book (which rarely happens) a combination of optimism, stubbornness, and curiosity makes me stick with it. I have found that comes in handy with a new sci-fi or fantasy series... i am learning new characters AND a new world, and it usually takes a while to get into it. By the end of the book I'm usually begging for more, and the second time I read it (or when I read the sequel) it is much more enjoyable. The "sinker" mentality can also be a liability... The Anita Blake series went down the tubes at least five books ago, but I still feel the need to read them so I can check up on my favorite characters. I'm always left wishing I could have those hours of my life back, and I don't *BUY* them anymore, but I still have to read them at least once.
The only book I have ever "jumped" was David Copperfield. I tried countless times and can't get through more than 30 pages.
There are too many good books out there to spend time reading something I am not enjoying.
Before I abandon a book I will read the last few pages and decide if I want to know how the conclusion was reached. If I decide that it is worth reading the middle bit then I battle on but otherwise I wild release it in the hope that it will find a more appreciative owner.
(For those not in the know: Wild Release = bookcrossing.com)
Ways to deal with a book you don't like:
I happen to love To the Lighthouse, but this still made me chuckle.
It really depends on the book for me. If it's a tried and true classic I go down with it; I don't just pick up any ole book on a whim, so I have not jumped ship on more than a few books anyway, or I come back and finish them later. There's too many books on the shelves not worth reading so I chose my books carefully for both fiction and non.
In high school and before, I had a lot of spare time, so I NEVER jumped ship. I would see that sucker go down and not regret it simply because I got a sense of accomplishment from finishing the dang thing. But now, I guess I am a jumper. Sometimes. I don't have a system and I generally like to finish books. But if it's not for class and I just can't get into the characters or plot or anything, then I toss it away. But generally, when I'm browsing for stuff, I read the first couple of pages to see if I like the writing style and either pick up or dump at leisure.
I frequently remark about my K2-sized TBR pile. Now I'm starting to accumulate a respectable, little "TBF" (to be finished) pile. I intend to complete reading all titles, in both piles. Deep down, I still am very careful with selections, thanks to lots of LT research.
Reading time is so valuable. I can't wait until retirement - at like age 95...
Both. I set myself a deadline of about 60 pages. If I don't give it up before that, then I stick it through. I'm in one of those situations right now. Eugh.
Update: You know what? Screw this. You guys are right, there is WAY too much to read to spend time on crap like that. I'm jumping ship. I guess I felt that not finishing a book showed a lack of "disciprine", but too bad.
I compare reading a book to another essential activity: eating.
If I'm eating something, and it tastes really bad, I don't force myself to finish it. Same with books.
I think it's awesome that this thread is still going about 5 years later. I'm still a "sinker" and I can really relate to #95 who said the motivation is "a combination of optimism, stubbornness, and curiosity."
I am still buying the occasional dreadful e-book but so far they have all been pretty cheap. I know why ...
But I am getting some good recommendations from LT which is limiting the disasters. And I have learnt to avoid anything published by Smashwords.
# 102, that's a great comparison. If a little taste of something is "off" (or if you see a bit of mold), doesn't the whole container go into the garbage? That's precisely the reaction I had on the day when I took The DaVinci Code off the shelf at the library and read a paragraph or two. I already knew the plot was ridiculous, but the writing was just so bad! I had a similar experience with Nick Drake's attempts at fiction set in ancient Egypt. His plots are utterly ridiculous and reveal a complete lack of research. His latest bilge features an atheist policeman who moonlights as a security guard because the budget's been cut; opium cartels (!!!) in Eighteenth Dynasty Thebes (complete with beheaded victims); evil military dictator; and so on blah blah blah. I did read Nefertiti: the Book of the Dead to the end, mainly so I could find out whether Mr. Drake was going to extricate himself from his own plot. Although I have only glanced at the next two volumes, it's clear that they're just as bad, if not worse. Please don't tell me that I've got to read them before I pass judgement! (What's wrong with publishers these days?)
Some of the worst ones are self-published but with e-books I never read anything published by Smashwords.
Even so, publishers have to cater for all tastes; look at the market in the Bodice Ripper genre. It would need a special sort of mind to appreciate and publish those books. Barbara Cartland?
Dan Brown wrote The da Vinci Code with an eye on Hollywood, I suspect and some of his other books are worse. But on the plus side - he made an enormous amount of money from the book and that is something that few authors ever manage to do.
(102) Sounds sensible.
If a book doesn't "grab" me, I put it down, period. I can't say how many pages I give it, but it needs to get good, soon, or I toss it.
Life's too short and there are too many good books waiting to be read, to waste time on junk.
Depends on the book. I went down with the ship for twilight because I had to know what the big deal was. I jumped ship on unholy ghosts because I didn't want to mare Stacia Kane.
I tend to go down with the ship. I'm usually rewarded I find. Like with The Historian; the first hundred pages or so were so over-detailed with little relevance to the plot. I found myself reading it at night to help me get to sleep. I finally finished it off and found it was pretty decent. It was a wonderful thought, poorly executed in my opinion.
Perhaps that's why I stick with them; I like the thought behind it and I can use it to influence my own imagination.
Just stumbled on this forum after doing a search on the title Life of Pi. Hmmm...
Anyway, I usually go down with the ship out of pure stubborness. However, I am much more careful on pre-screening my choices. I usually wait until I'm really chomping at the bit to pick it up.
Funny seeing Anna Karenina mentioned multiple times. It was one of the two books I couldn't finish. The other book? Number of the Beast. One of my favorite authors, too. Heinlein went off the deep end on that one.
I'm surprised that so many get to 50 or 60 pages before jumping. 10 is enough. I usually jump ship when I become aware that the author is writing in some weird tense or, worse, changing tenses. Wolf Hall is a good example - in my world it's unreadable. And by a strange coincidence the same is true of The Tenderness of Wolves.
I think ten pages is far too few to get a good feel for a book. I started reading Harry Potter when I was about twelve and my mother literally had to force me through the first three chapters. I found it tedious, annoying and cliche. Once I got past the initial "set-up" however, I became hooked.
Ten pages is way too few for me too. I've read many a book that didn't work for me in the first ten pages, but kept on and it clicked, and I loved the book. Often this happens with books that are more sophisticated and unusual . . . it takes some time to figure out what the author is doing. These books can be highly rewarding if given a little effort. But I guess if you're reading straight genre--mystery, horror, romance, etc., then ten pages might be plenty.
I know you can get a "feel" for the book and author in the first few pages, but sometimes you do have to give a book more of a chance.
Look at The Fellowship of the Ring. I tell some first time readers that the first 100 pages is an endurance test. Yes, it's slow and not very exciting, but it's supposed to be that way. Wait till you get to Bree (which might make a good catch-phrase: "Don't like the book? Wait till you get to Bree!).
Definitely a jumper here. If what I'm currently reading doesn't attract, I jump onto the next victim in the TBR pile.
I often keep a bookmark in the abandoned book, so-that I can go back and continue from the same point if I change my mind. Quite a few books (esp. non-fiction) eventually get finished this way. Others don't - sometimes I note a bookmark in something I abandoned years ago, and if I still don't expect to get back to it, or feel I recall so little that it'd make more sense to begin from the beginning if I were to try again, I remove it.
That's a great idea! Thank you for that.
It's not a black-and-white thing for me. I've dropped out of maybe a dozen books, but mostly when I was young. For the most part I go down with the ship! Generally I read things that are critically acclaimed, and even when I'm not enjoying it I decide I'll finish it, then read up on it and try to figure out what the message was and how I didn't get it. This happened to me last year with Midnight's Children. I decided in the end that I still didn't like it, lol, but at least I understood what the point was and had to admit the novel conveyed it well.
I used to go down with the ship. It's only when I have gotten older, and realized time is precious, that I will now abandon the ship by page 100 if I can't abide the book.
I'm in the "life's to short" category and will put down an book if things are going south (but I often keep said book for another try unless it's really awful - sometimes I'm just not feeling it at the time or my attention has shifted).
I've attributed this to the ease in which I now can procure new material. When I was younger and had to have someone drive me to a bookstore or library, I stuck with books more. Now with the internet (as well as access to more used book stores and a vast stockpile of my own) I can have a replacement in no time.
I found this thread while slogging through The History of Tom Jones A Foundling. I was wondering if I should have given up on this book but after reading this thread I've decided to stick to my sinker ways. The reading time I most regret is what I spent on nice, pleasant, safe reads of books that I knew I wouldn't hate and never thought for a second I should quit. So with the help of LT in my choices, I think I will keep finishing what I start and hope I make more good choices than bad. I just don't think I'd be experiencing a wider range of books if I didn't see them through.
Group: Awful Lit.
630 members
3,514 messages
This topic is not marked as primarily about any work, author or other topic.


text:
Maryland 83, No. 2 Duke 74: Dez Wells scored a career-high 30 points, making all 10 of his free-throw attempts, as the Terrapins beat the second-seeded Blue Devils in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament at Greensboro, N.C.
Wells made 9-of-13 from the field for seventh-seeded Maryland (22-11), which will play North Carolina in the semifinals on Saturday. Nick Faust, Alex Len, Seth Allen and Jake Layman each added 10 points for the Terrapins, who shot 23-of-25 from the foul line to beat Duke for the second time this season.
Mason Plumlee led the way with 19 points for Duke (27-5), which came in leading the league in 3-point shooting but made only 4-of-25 from behind the arc. Rasheed Sulaimon scored 16 points and Seth Curry had 15 for the Blue Devils, who had won their previous 11 games in the quarterfinals after receiving a bye.
Wells poured in 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting as Maryland jumped to a quick 10-point advantage and settled for a 34-26 advantage at intermission. The Terrapins held Duke to 1-of-10 from 3-point range and 33.3 percent overall.
Maryland quickly pushed the lead to 11 in the second half before Curry scored six points during an 11-2 run to bring Duke back. The Blue Devils could not tie or take the lead, however, and Faust's 3-pointer with 9:13 remaining ignited an 11-2 run that gave Maryland a 65-52 lead and Duke never got closer than five.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Wells, who also had six rebounds and three assists Friday, has 51 points in two ACC tournament games. … Sulaimon had 17 points in his previous four games for Duke, which dropped to 18-1 with Ryan Kelly in the lineup. Kelly had eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. … Maryland, 4-4 since beating Duke on Feb. 16, also snapped the Blue Devils' 17-game winning streak against seventh seeds in the ACC tournament.


text:
(WRCB-TV) -- Severe Weather Awareness Week for the state of Tennessee begins today and runs through Friday, February 21. The primary season for severe storms and tornadoes in the South is March through May, so now is a good time to learn and/or review preparedness and safety tips. Each day covers a different topic.
For more details visit http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ohx/?n=swaw2014
And you can download the WRCB weather app for the latest on current conditions and your forecast.
A truck crashed into a large power pole, knocking down power lines and temporarily closing the road.
900 Whitehall Road
Chattanooga, TN 37405
(423) 267-5412
WRCB Jobs EEO | FCC Public Files