From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Getting Mooned?
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 19:02:02 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Strong, Lee" <strongl at sddc.army.mil>
To: "WSFAList (E-mail)" <WSFAList at keithlynch.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 12:22 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Getting Mooned?

> Ted White asked why I would read more than one Gardner F. Fox novel.
> Mike Walsh speculated that I have a high tolerance for pain.  Well, Mike
is
> probably right.  A more nuanced explanation is that I bought all the
Foxes
> at one time several years ago -- the cover price on Kyrik and the Lost
Queen
> is $1.25 -- and am only now getting around to reading them.  Since the
> financial cost is already sunk, I am extracting such intellectual benefit
as
> I can before consigning them to the second hand book store where Ted once
> humped boxes.  In particular, I am hoping to write a fantasy novel or two
> myself and am studying what not to do.  On a more positive note, Mr.
Fox's
> latest shows some signs of improvement:  the number of moons have been
> consistent for the first 50 pages and Kyrik is eating a better balanced
> diet.  It's still pretty dreadful stuff but it does show that there's
hope
> for us all.

Since you'd already bought them, I can understand your wanting to extract
what value you can from them.

I am currently reluctantly wading through an awful WW2 thriller called CODE
OF ARMS almost solely because the coauthor of the book is Lawrence Block,
and I am a sufficient fan of Block's that I will read anything with his
name on it.   I'm more than three-quarters through the bloated thing and
I've yet to read a single sentence I can wholeheartedly attribute to Block.

Consequently I have welcomed every reading digression, which has thus far
included two issues of THE STEREOPHILE, single issues of THE ABSOLUTE
SOUND, THE AUDIO CRITIC, CAR & DRIVER, THE INNER EAR REPORT, THE
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, AIR & SPACE, and perhaps one or two others I've
overlooked, plus of course the Washington POST on a daily basis.

I learned from this reading experience that the reviewers of high end audio
equipment have their heads up their nether orifaces (they talk about
"breaking in" not only electronic equipment -- for *a week* or longer --
but audio cables as well) and have entirely too much money and too little
sense (one reviewer on a $999.00 SACD player -- which is "low end" for
these snobs:  "My audio cables cost more than this player.").   I also
learned a lot about the similarities and differences between DVD-A and SACD
(being hyped as the next thing beyond CD so everyone will replace their
music libraries again).  And, very separately, I learned about the new
European diesels -- their pros and cons.

But each day I read a chapter or so of CODE OF ARMS, just so I can finish
the damned thing and move on to another, almost certainly better, book.

--Ted White