What are you reading

[Hyena]

Dan Davies: In plain sight - the life and lies of Jimmy Savile. I heard the Last Podcast guys used it and it was just a little over five quid for the phone on Amazon, which is nothing for recently published true crime books.

At almost 600 pages, it's very comprehensive but also an easy read. It's crazy how he managed to get away with it all his life, and how he worked the entire establishment from papers to royalty in order to cover up his offending. Goes into detail on a lot of things the press and Netflix didn't. The sheer size of the case is staggering, as you probably already know.

Will pick that up.

Recently read the sensationalist Shaun Atwood book on Savile, was quite good for a laugh.

I met Savile once. Got a photo with him

Read that one too. It was... different to the Davies book, let's say.

[Cantleman]

Will move it up the tbr pile in that case so I compare them better....

[Kayandah]

Murderland
A book that supposedly links serial killers with lead poisoning but for most of the book this amounts to little more than rick/gary/ted grew up near a smokestack. Its only in the last chapter the author explores the clinical evidence to support this whereas I would have preferred a more thorough analysis.

I also read In Plain Sight based on the recommendations in this thread, that was probably the be all and end all of Savile books.

[Dingdop]

Omoo - Herman Melville

On chapter 35? Roughly halfway through, I really want to DNF it, but ever since reading Moby Dick, I have felt the need to read everything he did. Not as good as Typee yet, which was entertaining and at times deep and radical for its time, but he has landed himself in a prison among the local tribe of the island he is on, so it may yet get good. It just feels like a drag so far, besides the chapters about Rope-Yarn and Dr. Long Ghost, of course. Once I finish his works, I am going to read "Herman Melville - A Biography" 1 & 2, by Hershel Parker (RIP).

Mostly posting to rant about his new biography series by John Byrant, "Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life," not about the content, but about the price. A review said it is obvious they are print-on-demand volumes, and they are charging nearly $400 retail for volumes 1 & 2 of a planned trilogy. Any ideas or insights into the business or academia about why that would be a good idea?

P.S, today is Melville's birthday; everybody say happy birthday!

[Vrenndel]

Finished reading Fever House by Keith Rosson. Dark, brutal, feverish indeed, without any filters or compromises. Really enjoyed this one. Fans of the Bourbon Kid books, step forward: this one's for you.

[Atrophist]

Mostly posting to rant about his new biography series by John Byrant, "Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life," not about the content, but about the price. A review said it is obvious they are print-on-demand volumes, and they are charging nearly $400 retail for volumes 1 & 2 of a planned trilogy. Any ideas or insights into the business or academia about why that would be a good idea?

I looked this up quickly, and it seems the first two volumes are well over a thousand pages in total. The author will have spent years, if not decades, working on it. I know next to nothing about Melville, but this seems like it's meant to be the definitive biography for him. Even dusty academics shuffling around campuses in tweed jackets and corduroy pants need to eat.

If there still are universities and students who know how to read, and have attention spans longer than a minute 50 years from now, they'll be able to pick this up (and I do mean the very same book, these very pricey editions are made to last) and it'll still be relevant.

Finally add to that the fact that this will not sell millions, or even tens of thousands. English literature departments in universities around the world will order one copy each. How many absolute Melville fanatics are there, who'll order one for themselves? A few hundred maybe, a thousand?

Comparable publications in science, law, finance etc. will be even more expensive, due to the amount of peer review and legal complications.

[SIEGSIEGSIEG]

Mostly posting to rant about his new biography series by John Byrant, "Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life," not about the content, but about the price. A review said it is obvious they are print-on-demand volumes, and they are charging nearly $400 retail for volumes 1 & 2 of a planned trilogy. Any ideas or insights into the business or academia about why that would be a good idea?

I looked this up quickly, and it seems the first two volumes are well over a thousand pages in total. The author will have spent years, if not decades, working on it. I know next to nothing about Melville, but this seems like it's meant to be the definitive biography for him. Even dusty academics shuffling around campuses in tweed jackets and corduroy pants need to eat.

If there still are universities and students who know how to read, and have attention spans longer than a minute 50 years from now, they'll be able to pick this up (and I do mean the very same book, these very pricey editions are made to last) and it'll still be relevant.

Finally add to that the fact that this will not sell millions, or even tens of thousands. English literature departments in universities around the world will order one copy each. How many absolute Melville fanatics are there, who'll order one for themselves? A few hundred maybe, a thousand?

Comparable publications in science, law, finance etc. will be even more expensive, due to the amount of peer review and legal complications.

Nah. It's just the academic gatekeepers like Elsevier and Wiley milking the money. The libraries will order the book almost regardless of the price, so they abuse it.

I know you mean well, but you are defending these megacorporations (not the actual author and his income) which attack for example Sci-hub and paywall scientific knowledge under ridiculous amounts of money. Lots of controversies. You know peer review is done for free, right? Nobody is getting paid in normal circumstances for peer review. So if you are saying that it's the reason for those prices, well, the publisher is getting the money. Not those doing the work... Also that book author's food is not financed by the book. And in addition it's an Amazon POD book, while the quality is pretty good on those, it's not a special edition or anything like that.

So yeah, you are meant to see the steep price and go to your local library and ask them to get it instead. Which is the sensible answer, but also why they seem to be able to abuse it.

[Atrophist]

Sure, I get that. And I'll admit that I've been (happily) out of the loop regarding anything academic for well over a decade. Nevertheless, I don't really see how it would be possible to produce a work like this and have it be particularly cheap.

[Nolan]

Mostly posting to rant about his new biography series by John Byrant, "Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life," not about the content, but about the price. A review said it is obvious they are print-on-demand volumes, and they are charging nearly $400 retail for volumes 1 & 2 of a planned trilogy. Any ideas or insights into the business or academia about why that would be a good idea?

I looked this up quickly, and it seems the first two volumes are well over a thousand pages in total. The author will have spent years, if not decades, working on it. I know next to nothing about Melville, but this seems like it's meant to be the definitive biography for him. Even dusty academics shuffling around campuses in tweed jackets and corduroy pants need to eat.

If there still are universities and students who know how to read, and have attention spans longer than a minute 50 years from now, they'll be able to pick this up (and I do mean the very same book, these very pricey editions are made to last) and it'll still be relevant.

Finally add to that the fact that this will not sell millions, or even tens of thousands. English literature departments in universities around the world will order one copy each. How many absolute Melville fanatics are there, who'll order one for themselves? A few hundred maybe, a thousand?

Comparable publications in science, law, finance etc. will be even more expensive, due to the amount of peer review and legal complications.

Nah. It's just the academic gatekeepers like Elsevier and Wiley milking the money. The libraries will order the book almost regardless of the price, so they abuse it.

I know you mean well, but you are defending these megacorporations (not the actual author and his income) which attack for example Sci-hub and paywall scientific knowledge under ridiculous amounts of money. Lots of controversies. You know peer review is done for free, right? Nobody is getting paid in normal circumstances for peer review. So if you are saying that it's the reason for those prices, well, the publisher is getting the money. Not those doing the work... Also that book author's food is not financed by the book. And in addition it's an Amazon POD book, while the quality is pretty good on those, it's not a special edition or anything like that.

So yeah, you are meant to see the steep price and go to your local library and ask them to get it instead. Which is the sensible answer, but also why they seem to be able to abuse it.

Not about the Melville book, but if you find paywalled academic articles you want to read, e mailing the authors directly will get you a PDF of the article. They want people to read their work.

But everything you say is correct and partially why I left academia at ABD and never looked back.

[NedOik]

Just finished two books from Prav Publishing. First 'Mamleev's America' - a collection of Yuri Mamleev's short stories written in ye olde Yankee state of Amerikkka and a "roman-à-clef" 'Wanderings' about his years there in exile first published after his death. Reading this reminded me of the dark ages when I was infatuated by a certain female... by chance I went to a party that was opposite her house and saw her preparing a salad in the kitchen which 'broke the spell' - if you see what I mean. How can such a being like that be doing something as "normal" as prepare a salad? Same here - the majority of 'Wanderings' is Mamleev preparing the salad in terms of looking for a job, doing the shopping, talking to his wife, going to university parties etc. I don't know what I was expecting - but not this. Re the short stories - I have both his books published in English - 'Sky Above Hell' & 'The Sublimes' and they are next to astonishing - even tho I've been told the translations are not great - but the short stories in this collection just don't have the blowtorch in your face appeal of those. However I will give this a second reading as maybe its working on a much more subtle level than a bowl of salad.

The other is 'Julius Evola: An Adventurous Life' by Andrea Scarabelli. Now this is a very different kettle of barking dogs. I read a lot of biographies in my previous life as a political science student and now rarely delve into any, as have been traumatized by the word 'footnotes'... however like Alec Guinness with the Star Wars script I had to go on reading to find out what happened next with this one. There are a lot of citations and barrels of Italian names, organisations and places that mean nothing to me, but the author does a great balancing act of keeping the story flowing (and what a story it is - this is one heavy duty dude who knew some of the key figures in 20th century history) whilst injecting the results of what must have been very rigorous and detailed research. Evola's writings are presented in the context of the time they were written with detailed contemporary reactions - which is very cool. i.e. you find out what people back then thought about what he was writing (Italian - German press - Military etc) at the time he wrote it - and its not all post facto analysis. The book is weighted very much towards pre and during WW2 years and the lengthy section on his affiliation with Dada is fascinating. If you have even a passing interest in Evola I would recommend this one.

[NedOik]

Gabriele D'Annunzio: Defiant Archangel by John Woodhouse (1998)

This one I picked up in a tiny rural Scottish bookshop when loitering over there and read on holiday. I had read some of his books, like The Flame, and dug them as they were so OTT. Have a penchant for "decedent" writers, but didn't know much about his life beyond what Wikipedia serves up. This is one of those "if someone made it up, you still wouldn't believe it" life stories. In a way, he reminds me of Aleister Crowley. You just think he must have been operating in a different dimension of time to pack that much into his life: write countless novels, plays and operas / seduce countless women / invade and rule a city / take part in several wars / have a raging coke addiction / be an elected politician / invent Italian fascism - all while being constantly broke and hustling to make ends meet for large periods of his life, through spending money he did not have and behaving like - what the English would term - a total "cad"; getting what he wants and not caring what wreckage he leaves behind: ex-wives, children, starving dogs etc. Reading it really makes you put your own life in perspective. I'm a busy guy who does not like to sit still, but I seem a lifeless blob compared to this dude! I believe this was the first biography written of him in English, and it's very well researched and written, detail-packed, bordering on hostile to anyone with a short attention span. The only flaw for me is that it spends two-thirds of the book covering the years up to the First World War, then gets briefer over the remaining periods of his life (he died in 1938). There is very little about post-Fiume, the city-state he set up in 1919. This is the period where his tastes got more and more debauched and outrageous, and Mussolini rose to power. Seek and engulf your mind in cold flames.