What detail of which book ruined it for you?

[Taylor514ce]

Oh! I've got one! A book called "The Rule of Four", which I thought I'd like much more than I did. In fact, it ended with a shrug, and a toss into the "take to the used paperback dealer Friday" box. The character "Tom" had an apparently magic jacket. He left it in the tunnels, then was wearing it again, then was regretting he lost it, then later loaning it to someone else...

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

5:am is after dawn during the month of August, surely not the dead of night, ZP?

since "dawn" = any time before W where "W" is a reasonable time to wake up, and 5 in the morning is so far from being a civilised waking hour it's comical (with a few rare exceptions always governed by the condition that you be "still" awake and not "already" awake), 5 am is therefore well before "dawn", in any month.

note that none of these "times" can be absolutely defined with a specific numerical / chronological value in the "everything is relative" slipstream of personal quasiperiodicity, however i can imagine no possible universe in which 5 o'clock could reasonably be considered a civilised hour for anything other than sleeping, with no plans to awake for several more hours.

[zelda_pinwheel]

i wish my jacket were magic. that must come in handy.

actually a magic umbrella might be more convenient.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

since "dawn" = any time before W where "W" is a reasonable time to wake up, and 5 in the morning is so far from being a civilised waking hour it's comical (with a few rare exceptions always governed by the condition that you be "still" awake and not "already" awake), 5 am is therefore well before "dawn", in any month.

note that none of these "times" can be absolutely defined with a specific numerical / chronological value in the "everything is relative" slipstream of personal quasiperiodicity, however i can imagine no possible universe in which 5 o'clock could reasonably be considered a civilised hour for anything other than sleeping, with no plans to awake for several more hours.

Gee, I wish you had run the world while I was in law school. The schedule at that point in my life was as follows:

5AM ... up
6AM ... at work, Los Angeles American Red Cross (head of Reagent Production ... not a big deal ... one "man" lab)
2:30PM ... off from work ... drive to school
3:00pm ... first classes start
10:00pm ... last class ends
11:00pm .. home

and then the whole process began again.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Gee, I wish you had run the world while I was in law school. The schedule at that point in my life was as follows:

5AM ... up
6AM ... at work, Los Angeles American Red Cross (head of Reagent Production ... not a big deal ... one "man" lab)
2:30PM ... off from work ... drive to school
3:00pm ... first classes start
10:00pm ... last class ends
11:00pm .. home

and then the whole process began again.

oh, i've had schedules like that at various times in my life as well. that's what makes me such an authority on the matter.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

Oh! I've got one! A book called "The Rule of Four", which I thought I'd like much more than I did. In fact, it ended with a shrug, and a toss into the "take to the used paperback dealer Friday" box.

Yuck! Don't remind me of that book! I ponied up for the hardcover, immediately hated it, then donated it to the library, then wrote a scathing review of it. It is so bad that Davinci Code looks smart in comparison.

[Over]

That sometimes happen when I read an old sci-fi book. Sometimes, its future is outdated.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by Over

Sometimes, its future is outdated.

I like the way you think/thought/thunk. Have you considered joining the campaign to elect Pshrynk as Prez in 2004? https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...647#post197647

Every vote counts, and some count for more than others!

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by Over

That sometimes happen when I read an old sci-fi book. Sometimes, its future is outdated.

Oh Yes!

Especially when reading some of the really old ones like Asimov's earlier short stories, or E.E. 'Doc' Smiths Lensmen or Skylark series.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Over

That sometimes happen when I read an old sci-fi book. Sometimes, its future is outdated.

A good example is Robert Heinlein's "Starman Jones". Intergalactic space travel is accomplished with the use of Log Tables and Analog Computers.


Not a personally read book but one my Grandmother told me about. It was a Romance Novel in which the Main Lady was romanced on a balcony as the full moon rose at midnight. All the while, wearing a banana flower in her hair.


However my most favorite inconsistency is the "Children's" cartoon character whose name is "Bar Sinister". The inconsistency is between the name and the fact that it is a cartoon for children.

[Taylor514ce]

I always pretend to myself that such books take place in an alternate universe where technological advancement proceeded along different lines. So sure, space travel with analog computers, why not? We're already suspending disbelief. Up the ante.

How's this for a nit-pick? Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nymh. During the conversation about plowing, the shrew asks Mrs. Frisby, "Remember in the spring of sixty-five? He plowed on the eleventh of March, and on a Sunday at that."

In 1965, March 11 fell on a Thursday, not a Sunday.

(not my own, I found that online)

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by slayda

A good example is Robert Heinlein's "Starman Jones". Intergalactic space travel is accomplished with the use of Log Tables and Analog Computers.


Not a personally read book but one my Grandmother told me about. It was a Romance Novel in which the Main Lady was romanced on a balcony as the full moon rose at midnight. All the while, wearing a banana flower in her hair.


However my most favorite inconsistency is the "Children's" cartoon character whose name is "Bar Sinister". The inconsistency is between the name and the fact that it is a cartoon for children.

Right ... since when does the full moon rise at midnight?? Should be damn near overhead by that time. Snork.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by slayda

A good example is Robert Heinlein's "Starman Jones". Intergalactic space travel is accomplished with the use of Log Tables and Analog Computers.


Not a personally read book but one my Grandmother told me about. It was a Romance Novel in which the Main Lady was romanced on a balcony as the full moon rose at midnight. All the while, wearing a banana flower in her hair.


However my most favorite inconsistency is the "Children's" cartoon character whose name is "Bar Sinister". The inconsistency is between the name and the fact that it is a cartoon for children.

Oh, because the bar sinister was for the illegitimate sons?? I can see that, although I don't think most children would be aware of that one, or rather, of the connotation.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

I always pretend to myself that such books take place in an alternate universe where technological advancement proceeded along different lines. So sure, space travel with analog computers, why not? We're already suspending disbelief. Up the ante.

How's this for a nit-pick? Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nymh. During the conversation about plowing, the shrew asks Mrs. Frisby, "Remember in the spring of sixty-five? He plowed on the eleventh of March, and on a Sunday at that."

In 1965, March 11 fell on a Thursday, not a Sunday.

(not my own, I found that online)

It's the kind of nit I love to pick ... although, I probably wouldn't notice that one myself. I only remember those dates and days of the week that were somehow of screaming importance to me ... and 3/11/65 wasn't one of those.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

It's the kind of nit I love to pick ... although, I probably wouldn't notice that one myself. I only remember those dates and days of the week that were somehow of screaming importance to me ... and 3/11/65 wasn't one of those.

pfff. i can rarely tell you *today's* day and date.