Bring back the books!

[+ Axiom2001]

We still have wonderful libraries in Monterey County California and other parts of this state of mine. Guess the demise of libraries depends on where one resides.

I still prefer holding a book or a magazine or newspaper in hand instead of reading print from a techno device. When an article of interest appears on the net that

interests me, I print it out and read instead of attempting to read it on the screen!

 

...wish you the best in your continued interest in reading books.

[Rod Hagen]

I've just finished an exhaustive and fascinating biography of W. Somerset Maugham,

 

Was it the Ted Morgan Biography? An amazing book about a not so nice, but definitely interesting, writer.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Maugham-Biography-Ted-Morgan/dp/0671505815

 

If you enjoyed reading about Maugham, I HIGHLY recommend Anthony Burgess fictional Earthly Powers. It's one of my 5 favorite books and it's an imagining of Maugham's life if Maugham's brother wanted to be the pope. It's remarkable. REfuckingMarkable.

https://www.amazon.com/Earthly-Powers-Anthony-Burgess/dp/0671414909/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467050540&sr=1-1&keywords=earthly+powers

 

And now back to libraries: they're awesome!

[+ Truereview]

Yes! Back to libraries! @hunterlee, since it sounds like you are making your way thru Europe, check out Prague. This city has the incomparable Stahov library in its monastery. I believe it is on úvoz street and I hope it is still open to the public. The library has handprinted books with stacks that reach the super ornate ceiling. Watch out for the little old ladies whose sole job is to keep your hands out of the reach of the treasures found there. Here is an Internet snapshot to give you a sense of what to expect:

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/68/89/77/688977124222eb1356f7fc88550d4ddd.jpg

 

Edit- upon thinking this further, id love to hear if @liubit has some updates on this place?

[+ FreshFluff]

I visited the DMZ with my mother when we were visiting relatives in Seoul. It was an interesting but adrenaline surging experience after the speech the Sgt gave us. However i did spend the majority of my childhood preteen life at Okinawa.

 

Is that the "They can take you hostage if you're on the wrong side of the table" speech?

[actor61]

Was it the Ted Morgan Biography? An amazing book about a not so nice, but definitely interesting, writer.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Maugham-Biography-Ted-Morgan/dp/0671505815

 

If you enjoyed reading about Maugham, I HIGHLY recommend Anthony Burgess fictional Earthly Powers. It's one of my 5 favorite books and it's an imagining of Maugham's life if Maugham's brother wanted to be the pope. It's remarkable. REfuckingMarkable.

https://www.amazon.com/Earthly-Powers-Anthony-Burgess/dp/0671414909/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467050540&sr=1-1&keywords=earthly+powers

 

And now back to libraries: they're awesome!

No, it wasn't the Ted Morgan biography but since I've returned the one I read to the library, I can't remember the author's name. I'll try to find it for you. I love Anthony Burgess, so I will act on your recommendation for Earthly Powers. I loved his book on Shakespeare. Have you read any of (first name escapes me) Mann's biographies; he's the gay writer who specializes in bios of actresses. His novels are pure shit but his biographies are wonderful. I just finished his book on Elizabeth Taylor and his insights into her career were really interesting. His bio on Katharine Hepburn was so-so. He's convinced she was gay and slants the entire book to prove it; he also contends that Spencer Tracy was closeted. I didn't really care, so the book didn't captivate me as much as his others have but it's still a very good account of early Hollywood. His book on Streisand's career leading up to the Broadway opening of "Funny Girl" is a must read if you like theatre. I'm not a Streisand fan but I loved this book because it took me through the entire process of starting a career, establishing a career, and then rocketing a career brilliantly and the detailed description of how the stage version of "Funny Girl" was put together hypnotized me. But I'm an actor, so that's not a big surprise!

 

I live in Chicago now (moved here 2 years ago from Los Angeles), and spend my summers on North Shore Beach by Lake Michigan swimming and reading. Since I walk to the beach and back from my place (about 15 minutes each way), I don't like to carry heavy books with me, so I read "junk" over the summer. I've just started "Dead Wake" by Eric Larson and can't keep my nose out of it. Fascinating. Stephen King's "Misery" is next on my beach list; I bought the paperback at the airport last winter. I've never read a Stephen King book, and everyone says this is one of his better works. I also have John Lahr's biography of Tennessee Williams in paperback; I'll read anything by John Lahr. His biographies are remarkable, and his theatre criticism is among the best in the world.

 

By the way, Mr. Hagen, I had an appointment to see you a few months before I left L.A. that I had to cancel because of illness, and then I ran out of time and couldn't reschedule. I'm really sorry it didn't happen because we could have discussed books - among other things!

[MikeBiDude]

To go completely off topic - from libraries to long gone TV series, I'm wondering how many people saw a Twighlight Zone episode entitled "To serve Man" ... ?

 

Maybe somebody could bring it back online by citing literary equivalents?

"It's a cookbook!"

[gallahadesquire]

Rumor had it that the River Forest, Illinois public library had, for some time, the world's largest collection of cookbooks.

[sincitymix]

Is that the "They can take you hostage if you're on the wrong side of the table" speech?

yuppers

[+ WilliamM]

Elaine Stritch recounts about her experience with Coward when she did Sail Away.

 

I saw the 100th birthday tribute to Noel Coward in Dec. 1999 at Carnegie Hall. All I remember is Stritch stealing the evening with "Why Do The Wrong People Travel?" and Elaine saying that Noel thought he would be forgotten; he must be so happy tonight somewhere nice ( or words to that affect).

 

I did see "Sail Away" in its Boston tryout.

 

We disagree on William Mann's book on Hepburn and Tracy. Even if it was mostly untrue, it held my attention more that most of his other books.

[+ Gar1eth]

My happiest childhood memory is my weekly trip to the local library with my mother. She is a voracious reader in 3 languages, I in 2. Even now, when I enter a library, my heart thumps a little faster and I feel tranquil and happy. My neighborhood branch is about a 10 minute walk from my apartment building, and I go every week to return a bag of books and to check out a bag of books. The whole process fills me with happiness even on my worst days, and then there's the pleasure of reading the bag of books I've brought home. I've just finished an exhaustive and fascinating biography of W. Somerset Maugham, and am now starting "1606, The Year of Lear" by David Shapiro. It's a rainy Sunday, I'm home from Mass drinking my second cup of coffee, and I'm going to dive into Shakespeare's London for the afternoon before meeting friends for dinner after the Pride Parade downtown, which I am not attending - too old to enjoy it anymore. But I'm certainly there in spirit.

 

I may have posted this story on here before - I can't recall - but in the early 1960s when I was about 10 years old I became fascinated with the French Revolution, especially the stories of people mounting the scaffold steps to the guillotine with courage and resignation, including the King and Queen. The violence, romance, ideas and history really attracted me. On a trip to the library with my mom, I found a huge book about the Revolution with engravings and drawings that I drooled over. I didn't have my own library card at the time, so I handed it to mother to check out on hers. When we arrived at the desk, she checked it out with the librarian, handed it to me and I said, "Thanks mom!" to which the librarian said, "That book is entirely inappropriate for that child. He'll never understand a word. I'll put it back on the shelf." My mother in her perfect but European accented English replied, "You'll do no such thing. He wants to read about queens' heads falling into a basket and who are you to stop him?" Later, when I knew about such things, I thought that was a remark that would have done Noel Coward proud!

 

All I can offer is that soon after we moved to the city I grew up in (it was the summer before 1st grade), my Mom took me to get a library card. The children's cards were pink. Several months later after school started the class took a field trip on a bus to the library to get library cards. I felt so cool because I already had one.

 

Gman

[BabyBoomer]

Does anyone remember the Bookmobile?

 

~ Boomer ~

[+ WilliamM]

I was introduced to Noël Coward by a charming and gifted client of mine when I was in college. My favorite Coward quote is " I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me."

 

Richard Halliday, Mary Martin's husband, would satisfy Coward's description perfectly.

 

Halliday and Coward did not get along when Martin starred in Coward's "Pacific 1860." The musical only played in London, and closed quickly

 

After "Pacific 1860," Martin and Coward did a 90-minute live TV special, "Together with Music," which I remember from the late 1950s.

[AdamSmith]

For Coward fans (count me in), The Letters of Noël Coward is a delight.

[+ WilliamM]

For Coward fans (count me in), The Letters of Noël Coward is a delight.

 

Thanks, Adam.

 

Also, I want to correct something I wrote above. I saw Elaine Stritch in "Sail Away" in a small theater in Carnegie Hall in 1999. I was living near Boston during the "Sail Away" tryout many years ago, but did not see the musical in Boston.