books of buddy don: that thar library thang

mayhap ye dun notissd a bunch of books over to the left of this here blog. i gut them a'goin by joinin a lil site name of librarything.com. i bin thankin bout trine to make a list of all the books i red, witch i know tiz a slew of em but not how big a slew. so i started addin books to that site n showin em on my left navbar. ye orta try it!

btw, ye kin see n even buy ye a copy of shoot the devil frum amazon by goin here. them amung ye thats red it could go thar n rite a revue, mayhap the furstn ever writ innywhar!

i wuz even able to add it to my vershun of librarything on a counta ye kin have it search amazon. how thangs has changed in my lil life!

readin of buddy don: books bout japan

fer the past year or so i bin readin a slew of books on japan, manely them that starts with the tokugawa period, tho i am innerested in the times befor that. heres a list of sum i thank ye mite wonta read yer ownself:

• The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B. Jansen: thisn is long n full of deetail but tiz hepful in gittin ye orientated to how the cultchur thar changed frum feudal to modurn in such a short time.


• The Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World. 1852-1912 by Donald Keene: thisn cuvers the life of the man named fer the restorayshun of the emperor to power in japan. i wonted to read it on a counta the emperor meiji writ moren 100,000 waka (also called tanka these days), but thay wuz heaps more to larn. twuz a truly remarkabull period of histry that saw japan modurneyes itself in a lil over a generayshun.


• Across the Nightingale Floor, Brilliance of the Moon, n Grass for His Pillow by Lian Hearn, together called Tales of the Otori, a trillgy of books bout a place based on feudal japan, witch it gives ye the spirit of the times n teaches a lot bout how stratificayshun of folks into groups lack samurai, farmers, merchants, n eta. ye git a grate feel fer the way folks lived n the constunt battles that wuz fought befor the unificayshun of the shogunate under tokugawa ieyasu followin the battle of sekigahara that wuz follerd by 250 years of peace in japan ere the cuntry wuz 'opened' by the westurn powers.


• Rashomon and 17 Other Stories by Ryunsoku Akutagawa: a fantastick (in ever sense of the wurd) set of tales writ by a grate early 20th centry author. one of the early teckneeks he uses is to take ole historicull tales n give em a lil twist, witch that hepped all tuther readin i dun fit rite in n hepped me git a lot outta thisn.


• goodbye tsugumi by banana yoshimoto: after readin all them other books bout makin japan modurn, i wuz innerested in a book set in modurn japan, witch thisn wuz a grate lil tale. caint say it give me whut i wonted, but tiz a fine piece of ritin by inny standurd ye mite use fer pickin books.


• Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Basho: verr short lil book but one ye kin read time after time n still git more frum it. corse ye caint translate poetry n keep everthang in it, speshly pomes that allude to so minny japanese classicks i aint never had no chants to read, speshly when i caint neethur speak nor read no japanese, but tiz a grate lil book to keep near ye n read when ye git the chants.


• Hiroshima by John Hersey: bein as i cum frum the hills of east tennessee whar they carved out oak ridge fer the manhattan projeck, i have all ways felt a lil twinge of doubt bout droppin them bombs, witch i wunder whuther i wood even be here otherwise on a counta daddy wuz in the pacifick n sined up fer the durayshun. but thisn is a chillin look at whut ye git after a atomick bomb has landed on a city of folks a'goin bout thar lives in a time of war. i should warn ye that this is a wurk of ackshull jurnalism, witch we aint seen a hole lot of that in the past few years. ye mite could be a lil shocked by it.


• Shogun by James Clavell: it tuck me a while to find a copy of thisn, witch ye mite could thank thayd be copies all over the place. i finely found a copy in a used bookstore over in brooklyn fer $2. i reckun thays a good chants minny folks readin this have alreddy either red shogun or at lease seen the miniseries. tiz a great read n gives ye a lot to ponder bout the japanese way of livin on the eve of the battle of sekigahara.


• ifn ye had jes red shogun, ye couldnt pick up no better book to foller it with than Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. thisn picks up with the mane careackter, miyamoto musashi, a'lyin amung the injured at the battle of sekigahara. i aint finished it yet, but tiz a great read so fer. the innerduckshun to the book calls it the japanese Gone with the Wind. i am still too ignernt to say whuther thats true or not, but i kin say ye caint hardly find a better read than musashi, speshly ifn ye lacked shogun.

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pinions of buddy don: more bout folks readin books

ye mite could say it dun hit a nerve whenever steven jobs claimd thay wudnt no future fer amazons kindle on a counta he dint thank nobidy red all that much. corse that wuz ded rong, witch i figger everbidy knew as much. so twuz a nice sprize to see an articull in the new york times name of book lust writ by a feller name of timothy egan on the verr subjeck, witch i reckon ye half to pay to read it.

mane thang that articull dun fer me is to reemind yall bout sum good books i red lately:

• that thar trilogy name of his dark materials by philip pullman. tiz a trilogy, witch that eethur means ye gut to read three books or that ye git to read three books, all accordin to whuther ye lack them books (i shore did).


• the road by cormac mccarthy, witch hes a author i lack sumtimes n caint hardly stand in otherns. this book is grim fer shore, but tiz so well imagind n deescribed that ye feel as ifn ye wuz in the verr hell he shows ye ... till tiz over.


• best of the bunch, a thousand splendid suns by khaled hosseini, who hes the guy that writ the kite runner (a nuther grate read fer yall). i enjoyed bof of them books, but i found the bettern to be a thousand splendid suns.


• finely, i jes finishd a verr enlitenin book name of understanding islam, an introduction to the muslim world, writ by a feller name of thomas w. lippman. thang bout this book is it reeminds ye jes how lil we really know bout the worlds fastest growin relijun. i had tuck a class on islam in collidge, but twuz still grate to brush up on the topick. warnin: ifn ye read this book, ye mite not have much payshunts fer folks spoutin out thar ignorunt pinions bout islam, witch tiz the die-reck deecendent frum judaism n christianity, witch muslims revere abraham, moses, noah, jesus n mohammed.

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pinions of buddy don: john scalzi n a new way of gittin books out thar

tiz verr hard to git yer books to readers ifn ye use the ole fashun way, witch thats to git sum big publishin cumpny to publish n market n distribute it.

lucky fer everbidy that lacks to read n fer them that lacks to rite books n git em red, thays new ways of doon thangs. tiz much simpler these daze jes to git a manuscip reddy n have it dun. i will be sayin lots more on this topick, soon i hope.

meanwhile, thays other ways of gittin yer book notissd, speshly once ye git ye a follerin, lack john scalzi has dun alreddy dun. here hes splain his awkshun to sell the bound vershun of the manuscip ere tiz gone thru its final copy editin, meanin warts n all. whoever wins the awkshun will git it sined n all, witch ye kin read all bout that by clickin on that thar lank (tip of the hat to meatbrain frum thinking meat).

point is, thays new ways of gittin a book red, n aint no better way of gittin it aroun than wurd of mouth. i dun red a cuple manuscips lately that i caint hardly wait till it kin be bought sum kinda way. twoodnt sprize me ifn them authors wuz offerin simlar kinda thangs to whut mr scalzi has offerd or mayhap to sine the final vershun, not the bound ms.

tiz my pinion that these changes is a'gone make it possibull fer us to read sum good books that woodnt ever git out of the authors drawer otherwise ... n as jed wood say, that dont make nuthin inny wurser.

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book reports of buddy don: Ringworld

i aint a'gone pertend this is a revue on a counta i aint gut time to try to eevaluwait how good the Ringworld Series by Larry Niven is. but i did wonta say ye orta give it a read. i aint hardly been able to putt em down ever since my friend (whose site name of thinking meat is one of my faverts) sug-jested it to me. i hope to have a lil time to talk more bout sci fi n sum of my other faverts, but at the moment, tiz out into the snow n cold fer me in hopes of gittin to grand centrull in time to buy sum of them new dollar coins, witch i give em out as part of the daily agenda. they aint sellin em till 8 AM, but ifn tiz in man hattan, ye half to git thar early ifn ye wonta have a half a chants to git innythang.

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book revue of buddy don: The Four Agreements

a lil while ago i red me a book name of The Four Agreements writ by a feller name of Don Miguel Ruiz. i aint gut too much to say bout it ceptn that tiz one of the best books i ever red fer makin a bidy feel better.

the four agreements is simple:

• be impeccabull with yer speech
• dont take thangs personull
• dont make no assumpshuns
• do yer best

i know that sound purty simple, but ifn ye read that book, read bout the importunts of yer word (in the beginning wuz the word n the word wuz with god n the word wuz god) n how tiz a sacred trust not to abuse it fer gossip or lyin or misleadin n such. tiz purty obveeus, but ifn ye try to foller along with that, not only in trine to keep frum misusin yer own speech but also trine not to be sucked into the misuse of speech others wonts to make, then ye git to feel better rite away.

but fer me, the secunt one is the best. mayhap that shows ye how i gut to hi a pinion of myself n whut others is thankin bout me, but ifn ye real eyes how most of whut other folks sez bout ye tells ye more bout them than it do bout you, ye git to feelin better.

i wont spoil the hole book for ye, but i stronly urge ye to give it a lil read. i know it has led to me feelin much better bout myself n my life everday since i red it.

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diss traskchuns of buddy don: grate book n other news

i caint seem to git my nose out frum a book name of the beatles by bob spitz that my step daughter give me. ifn ye lack the beatles or jes wonta know a lil more bout em, this is a grate book to read. ye larn lots of new thangs, lack how lennon n mccartneys grandparnts cum over to liverpool frum ireland durin the irish tater famine.

in other news, i almos wonted to say, 'et tu, george?' whenever i red the beginnin of a bit o'punditry writ by george f. will. in a articull name of No Checks, Many Imbalances, mr will sez thangs lack this:

Besides, terrorism is not the only new danger of this era. Another is the administration's argument that because the president is commander in chief, he is the "sole organ for the nation in foreign affairs." That non sequitur is refuted by the Constitution's plain language, which empowers Congress to ratify treaties, declare war, fund and regulate military forces, and make laws "necessary and proper" for the execution of all presidential powers . Those powers do not include deciding that a law -- FISA, for example -- is somehow exempted from the presidential duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

lack mos folks that kin read n understand plane english, tiz obveeus that mr bush dint foller ('broke') the law. he makes a purty good case usin lots of hi-falutin wurds. then, to make shore ye know whose side hes on, he ends thisaway:

Immediately after Sept. 11, the president rightly did what he thought the emergency required, and rightly thought that the 1978 law was inadequate to new threats posed by a new kind of enemy using new technologies of communication. Arguably he should have begun surveillance of domestic-to-domestic calls -- the kind the Sept. 11 terrorists made.

But 53 months later, Congress should make all necessary actions lawful by authorizing the president to take those actions, with suitable supervision. It should do so with language that does not stigmatize what he has been doing, but that implicitly refutes the doctrine that the authorization is superfluous.

i bolded the part that sticks in my craw: we know he broke the law, but were jes spozed to sit by n change it but never questchun whuther we spozed to make laws by havin the presdint disobey em n then after the fack, change the law? n do it without 'stigmatizin' the brakin of the law in the furst place?

that dont add up. it also ignores how if mr bush thanks he kin brake that law without no stigma, how minny otherns is he a'brakin without our knowin bout it?

readin of buddy don: isaac asimov

i gut a good friend that runs a website name of thinking meat, witch ye kin see i dun putt it on my list of favert blogs a while ago. hes one of the smartest folks i know n even tho we live in differnt places, we talk often a nuff to make friends. it heps that we wurk together, so to speak. so mos everday we have a chat sesshun a'gone.

sumtime back he tole me one of his favert authors wuz isaac asimov. i been a fan of scifi fer years, but fer sum reason, whenever i furst tride readin asimov back in my junyer hi skool daze, i dint find it my cup of tea, so to speak.

sos ye kin judge my luv of the books im fixin to list, ye should know i tuck that test at the lank on scifi above n heres how it turnt out:

in case yer curyas, i aint that purty nor that good by inny way ye could reckun it, but i do purty good on tests.

innywho, i finely deecided to dip my toe back into sum asimovian waters. i wuz partly moved by my friends good taste n brains, but whut really gut me goin wuz larnin that The Foundation Trilogy had beat out The Lord of the Rings for an award.

but whar do ye start ifn ye wonta git everthang that leads up to the novel name of Foundation? i started at I, Robot, witch thats a book of short stories. i wuznt all that impressd on a counta how it seemed lack the stories wuz logick games n the care acketers wuz not well drawn or deeveloped. but my friend sed fer me not to give up. lucky fer me, i dint!

heres the order ye orta use to read them books. i promiss, twood be one of the grate readin eggsperientses of yer life ifn ye go thru em all. i wish i could doot agin. when i git more time, i hope to rite a bit bout the flossofy asimov deevelops in them books. meanwhile, ye kin jes enjoy em!

1. I, Robot (1950)
2. The Caves of Steel (1954)
3. The Naked Sun (1956)
4. The Robots of Dawn (1983)
5. Robots and Empire (1985)
6. Pebble in the Sky (1950)
7. The Stars Like Dust (1951)
8. The Currents of Space (1952)
9. Prelude to Foundation (1988)
10. Forward the Foundation (1993)
11. Foundation (1951)
12. Foundation and Empire (1952)
13. Second Foundation (1953)
14. Foundation's Edge (1982)
15. Foundation and Earth (1986)

whut a ride! i hope ye git a chants to take it.