L. H. Sparey. The Amateur Lathe (5th edition, 1972)

     L. H. Sparey. The Amateur Lathe (5th edition, 1972) I did not read this book, but I did dip into it, enough to know that there might be a time when I may want to refer to it for advice. The author covers every aspect of using the lathe, with remarks on other machine tools where appropriate. Vertical drills and milling machines can be considered lathes set on end, so it is true to say that the lathe is the universal machine tool.
     Sparey gives a very brief history of this tool, enough to whet one’s appetite for more. I can’t judge the quality of the book’s contents. It went into five edition between 1948 and 1972, with this copy being the 5th impression of 1980, which suggests that there was a large demand for it. The plain and clear writing, and the layout of illustrations close to the relevant text, make this a model of a technical book. *** (2007)

Chuck Shepherd et al. Beyond News of the Weird (1991)

     Chuck Shepherd et al. Beyond News of the Weird (1991) Chuck Shepherd for several years ran a newsletter gathering strange news. I have a nearly complete collection. The criterion for inclusion was publication in an actual newspaper, with as much detail as possible. He asked people to send him clippings; I did this for a while, and my reward was this book and my name listed as a contributor to his efforts. The newsletter morphed into a syndicated column and a web site. His collections show that reality is weirder than urban legends. I read this one over two days. It’s definitely a potato chip book.
     Samples: In Jasper, Texas, a panty bandit was arrested after 11 months of stealing panties; many of the victims were too embarrassed to report the thefts. (p.11) The owner of the Whispers nightclub in Columbia, Missouri, sent letters to fraternities touting his bar as a place to meet “drunk, horny women”. (p.64) Three teenagers in East Wenatchee, Washington, dug up a corpse because they wanted to take photos of themselves with it. (p.73) In June 1990, about 7,000 King penguins stampeded near McQuarrie, Tasmania, and died in the crush. (p.114) Eight inmates broke out of jail in Nashville, Tennessee, and found themselves in the women’s cell block. They stopped to have sex with their fellow prisoners, and were apprehended by the guards, of course. (p.166)
     As you can see, these events would make good starting points for fictions, if they weren’t so unlikely. Good book. ***
     Update 20200508: News of the Weird still exists. Find it here.

Louis A. Safian 2,000 Insults for All Occasions (1965)

     Louis A. Safian 2,000 Insults for All Occasions (1965) Just what the title says. A handful are bizarre enough to raise a smile, most are more less lame. Demonstration that “witty insult” is generally an oxymoron. Taste in humour has changed since the 60s; actually many of the more obnoxious one-liners show a 50s sensibility, or even earlier.

W. J Burley. Wycliffe and the House of Fear (1995)

     W. J Burley. Wycliffe and the House of Fear (1995) An ancient and dysfunctional Catholic family’s house supplies the setting. Five years after the current scion’s first wife dies in a boating accident, the second wife appears to have committed suicide. Wycliffe, on convalescent holiday in the neighbourhood, is near enough the end of his leave that he’s assigned the crime. A typical Burley meditation on crime and criminals, moody, atmospheric, psychologically perceptive. Family history and misplaced pride causes the tangle of stupidity that triggers the crime; the perpetrator is clearly insane. I’d like to see more of Wycliffe’s marriage. Burley’s books are better in the setup than in the resolution, but are always interesting reading. **½

Eric L. Johnson The Iron Horse Comes to the Klondike (2012)

     Eric L. Johnson The Iron Horse Comes to the Klondike (2012) A labour of love, about as complete a history of the Klondike’s railways as we likely to get. It’s an expanded an updated version of Mining Railways of the Klondike (1994), including field research and new photos by friends of the author.
     Almost as soon as the gold rush brought people to Dawson City, coal mines were developed for heating and power generation. Narrow gauge railways and river boats transported the stuff. It was poor coal, but it served the purpose. It’s unclear just how much money was made and lost on these lines, but the few available figures indicate that the promoters must have made a fair coin on their commissions. There’s enough photographic evidence that one could build a credible model based on one of these lines, and a few drawings based on the extant bits and pieces rotting in the bush. Porter supplied most of the motive power.
     Much of the history is gathered from newspaper stories. The tone throughout these stories is boosterish and optimistic. The photos are well enough reproduced that one can tell that many of the older originals were I think mostly afterthoughts made when a photographer happened to be handy and had an unexposed plate or two left.
One of those wonderful books that gets written and compiled only because someone was willing to devote far too much time and energy in the project. ****

Jack Ludwig. Confusions (1965)

Jack Ludwig. Confusions (1965) Stories about universities in the 60s trigger nostalgia. Some, like this one, catch the spirit of the times so well that one forgives their self-indulgence. The narrator, a Jewish boy from deepest Brooklyn, after earning a graduate degree and teaching assistant position at Harvard, ends up at a California liberal arts college that prides itself on both scholarship and laid-back teaching. The jockeying for status within the English Department is nicely drawn. A Grand Old Man of impeccable Southern ancestry lords it over the merely educated Mid-westerners, but the narrator’s wife, a Radcliffe grad, trumps his social status. A (respectable) hippy-type turns out to have even higher social status. And so on.
     The satire is sharp, several of the characters remind me of professors I have known, and the plot, such as it is, exposes the venality of a college administration that places possible donor dollars over safety, when the narrator discovers that one of his students is schizoid with a history of violence, and will no doubt go beyond silly practical jokes to real doing real damage.
     Reading the book briefly took me back to the time when I was a grad student, not footloose and fancy free, but still in that state when attention to the serious business of committing to a career seemed something that could be put off for a little while longer. Encyclopaedia Britannica indicates that the book got mixed reviews. I’m not surprised. It’s uneven, more a series of anecdotes than a structured novel, the narrator too often is a whinger, plot points are tossed out and left behind, and so on. But all the same, the book works. It’s a satire, and satires are by definition  mash-ups. Fun to read. Not an excellent book, but a very good one. Out of print, but worth the search for a 2nd hand copy.***

Alfred Bester. Star Light, Star Bright (1978)

    Alfred Bester. Star Light, Star Bright (1978) Anthology of Bester’s best, volume 2. Bester is a clever writer. He likes to take on new challenges, in theme, genre, motif, plot, and so on. The result is usually entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking, but never moving. I didn’t reread a number of stories that I’d read before; the ones that were new to me passed the time pleasantly enough.
     The plots are what I call gimmick twists. For example, the title story is about a kid whose talent is wishing. He doesn’t realise this, of course, but the results are spectacular. His friend wants to use his telescope in the rain, so the kid wishes he had a telescope that would see through the rain and clouds. It does. This and other gadgets  attract the attention of the government, who want to use him as some kind of weapon. He wishes these and other people who bother him would just go away and leave him alone. So they end up on a road forever going away. *½ to **½