this board "should change its name to I Loved Graduate School."

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what the hell does that even mean, exactly?

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 03:07 (twenty years ago)

and it would require me to stop posting for any number of reasons.

― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 04:33 (twenty years ago)

It should change its name to I Love Reading, but, you know, those Berkshire militants.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 09:38 (twenty years ago)

I think that comment was a little unfair, but in any case it should be taken with grain of salt as it was probably made with a stalk of herb.

People should remember what happened when an actual academic tried to invade the board.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Oops. Here is his first post to that thread.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 13:38 (twenty years ago)

Nah, don't bother with the whole thing. You could just as easily start with the later post.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 13:40 (twenty years ago)

I hate books
It's got too many wrote

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 14:20 (twenty years ago)

aCADMEICS! yEEURGH!

Oh, I had my caps lock on.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

HI DERE,
WAHT IS IT READ?

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 14:48 (twenty years ago)

I hate the library
One day I went

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 15:12 (twenty years ago)

nah I wasn't stoned when I posted that but yeah it was intemperate so please accept my apology. as I tried to elaborate in a subsequent post some of the erudition on display here triggers my own insecurities, perhaps on some semi-counscious level I'd like to be more formally educated/less of an obnoxious autodidact. peace.

carry on.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 16:04 (twenty years ago)

Ah, but maybe you've never seen this?

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 16:13 (twenty years ago)

We Loved Graduate School So Much

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 17:40 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of obnoxious autodidacts

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 17:41 (twenty years ago)

Oh noes! I messed up the cut-and-paste, sorry! I meant to link to this

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 17:43 (twenty years ago)

(Chris, maybe you could fix that link, or delete it after you've had a laugh? Or not)

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 17:46 (twenty years ago)

I guess what I'm really trying to say, Mark, is that here at ILB we like autodidacts.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 17:53 (twenty years ago)

especially ones that write cool books!:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306813904/qid=1140631062/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0599176-8683967?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 17:59 (twenty years ago)

(blushes) thank you!

ironically late last year the journal Technology and Culture from Johns Hopkins ripped me a new asshole for, well, you guessed it.

Mark Coleman's "story of machine-made music and those who made it possible" (p. xxiv) merits review here because its subject is technology and culture. It also bears notice because of the prospect that students will draw on it, and because their instructors should be forewarned. This could have been a fine synthesis. That it is not is a reflection of the subject's complexity, the author's background, and the paucity of academic sources that he has used. Coleman is a record reviewer who blends some scholarship with insider histories, specialist publications, and recent business journalism...

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 19:07 (twenty years ago)

I can't wait for grad school!

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Thursday, 23 February 2006 21:52 (twenty years ago)

I've been waiting for about 25 years and I haven't even begun to get impatient.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 23 February 2006 22:25 (twenty years ago)

Someday I will finish undergrad. In fact, I start in April.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

Ha! I refrained from pointing that out earlier in the thread.

Someday I will finish grad school. Oh no I won't.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 23 February 2006 23:50 (twenty years ago)

i ought to be two months from finishing undergrad but i am not ):

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:18 (twenty years ago)

Make it last! These are the best twelve years of your life!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:32 (twenty years ago)

The only reason I graduated from college is because they accepted me as a junior due to art school credits, ha ha. If I'd had to go for four straight years, forget it!
I didn't even go to high school for four years—I quit as soon as I turned 16, worked for a year, then went to a weird hippie school where all I did was run a donut stand and draw, and then art school (didn't graduate from that, natch), etc. Got a GED along the way. Got pregnant the fall after graduating from college.
So my formal education's quite spotty.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:37 (twenty years ago)

Where did the original quote come from?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:38 (twenty years ago)

noise board.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:40 (twenty years ago)

& my extra year is working out okay but an extra eight would make me lose all hope

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:42 (twenty years ago)

I thought they banned words from that board.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 00:46 (twenty years ago)

Asking where that "best __years" quote came from is like, dooming us to hours of Google. Sure a gazillion eminent quote-generators have uttered variants.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 24 February 2006 01:48 (twenty years ago)

Oh, no, I mean the "I Loved Graduate School" comment.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 05:02 (twenty years ago)

i love the noize board and the ilb. i wish i had more time for either.

i wish i had time for graduate school for that matter, but at the moment i think that's still a year off.

but so anyway...carry on.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 24 February 2006 08:54 (twenty years ago)

What is Grad School? Is it in the same building as Undergrad School?

Or is it a plain/ plane of alternative reality?

And are we allowed to wave our degrees around in this thread?

― SRH (Skrik), Friday, 24 February 2006 10:14 (twenty years ago)

I keep thinking of that gag in The World According to Garp- the movie, not the book- about "gradual school."

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 24 February 2006 10:31 (twenty years ago)

Take it to ILF, beeyotch.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

Can't you just use your mod powers to move the post?

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 24 February 2006 15:33 (twenty years ago)

Maybe they'll make a Graduate School pill, to save us all the work.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 24 February 2006 16:07 (twenty years ago)

I could use my mod powers to translate the entire board into Esperanto if I wanted to.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 16:18 (twenty years ago)

Chris, have you ever watched the movie Incubus?

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 24 February 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

Sometimes I wish I was in grad school.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 24 February 2006 16:48 (twenty years ago)

nah I wasn't stoned when I posted that but it was intemperate

not to mention SOPHOMORIC

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Friday, 24 February 2006 16:51 (twenty years ago)

You needed to vent, so you went to the place to vent. It's cool, lovebug.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Friday, 24 February 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Is Incubus the Shatner Esperanto movie? I haven't watched it anyways.

Even when I'm in school, I tend towards being an autodidact.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:07 (twenty years ago)

No, coleman, I think you hit on something that a lot of people have thoughts about, in one way or another and I'm glad you brought it up! I have thought the same! I'm always trying to find a balance among these impulses on ILB:

1. Feeling dim and unedumacated because apparently an English Lit degree hasn't qualified me to take part in any of the discussions on ILB. Although I"ve been told that my school was very un-jargony and if I had gone anywhere else I would have had different kinds of conversations and maybe be more used to it, still -- should I have studied/read all these things on my own time? Does that mean I'm not really much of a scholar or v intelligent, if I was never motivated enough to seek out the ideas that are common currency around here? You can see this is going nowhere good, so to head it off at the pass...

2. I try to put #1 out of my mind and focus on what I can offer in my specialties because how much seeking out is one person supposed to do in a whole world of information?? Ask me about children's books, instead. And everyone's experience is equally valid etc etc so I try to post if I feel strongly enough, regardless of whether someone will very shortly invalidate my point, using lots of big words in the process.

3. Try to perform #2 without getting a complex about it and taking on a stubborn, rebellious cast. You can see I am only occasionally successful in that aim.

I dunno, I wish ILB was more exciteable. I've said before that I like to sponge information off people, esp people who I LIKE to begin with, because then I get their color commentary and little asides and a more textured picture than if I just went to a reference book for answers. But...something is missing here.

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:21 (twenty years ago)

"textured picture"??? What am I doing, reading in BRAILLE?

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:23 (twenty years ago)

Och, Laurel, 'tis nae s' hayrd as a' that! Just write your thoughts in words that say what you think. Do this and you'll have content nailed - style, too.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:38 (twenty years ago)

The problem is not writing, Aim. The problem is not having a knowledge base to refer to or contribute from, and then getting an inferiority complex about not being knowledgeable. Which, see #3.

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:42 (twenty years ago)

If you haven't got a ha'penny, then god bless you.

― Aimless (Aimless), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:45 (twenty years ago)

See, I know that song, both the "goose is getting fat" version and the Peter, Paul & Mary "A Soalin'" version. I know the whole damn thing and I can sing it in parts. But is there room in my brane for lit theory or post-modernism or anything people actually CARE ABOUT? A resounding no.

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 24 February 2006 17:50 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 15 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I agree that it would be nice if people at least said if the books they were reading were good or not. I use ILB as a place to scrounge for book recommendations, and if all I'm getting is lists, it's not useful to me.

Okay, here's a recommendation: I just finished T. C. Boyle's Water Music, his first novel. Fucking fantastic—like Dickens and Kipling had a baby and took lots of acid during the pregnancy. I loved World's End, too, all the riffing on the Dutch settlers of the Hudson. I like it when he's fantastical and wacky. Drop City was okay but I didn't love it the way I love those two. He's been pulling his picaresque punches lately.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 24 February 2006 23:28 (twenty years ago)

READ IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Friday, 24 February 2006 23:31 (twenty years ago)

we had an ILB book club! it didn't last long though :( but, hey, it gave me an excuse to read Flaubert. actually, we read Flabuert's Parrot and then a Sentimental Education.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 24 February 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

That's the other thing, reading a book is more of a committment than listening to an album. Or, at least, so people think.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 25 February 2006 00:21 (twenty years ago)

yeah, plus people end up feeling guilty if they don't read it and then they run and hide and never post again.

so, chris, since we are just talking here, i asked you if you wanted to do categories for threads a long time ago, do we need them? do you want to ask someone else if they want to do them and give them the power to do so? does it matter at this late date? i, quite obviously, never did it and nobody ever complained. i don't really feel like doing it now. plus, i don't feel like coming up with tongue & cheek categories. it might make it easier for people to search for threads. author category. fiction, non-fiction, etc. maybe it doesn't matter.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 25 February 2006 00:58 (twenty years ago)

If anyone else has an opinion, please pipe up.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 25 February 2006 00:59 (twenty years ago)

I have never found categories to be useful at all when looking for threads over in ILE.

On the other hand, I do enjoy categorizing things.

I have no opinion one way or the other.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 25 February 2006 01:02 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i just use the search function. i never look at the categories on the new questions pages. well, i'll leave it out there on the table if someone feels strongly either way.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 25 February 2006 01:08 (twenty years ago)

i'd not mind categorising things, although i imagine i would do it in a fairly dull manner

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 25 February 2006 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Oh come on, you're all DYING to. You should go for it. I have no interest in categorisation myself, but if it doesn't make it harder to find things, then that's okay.

Beth, I am taking your recommendation on board. What I usually do is try to remember the names of the books that are highly recommended and wait for them to come into my shop. I am like a tarantula. Of books.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Saturday, 25 February 2006 10:28 (twenty years ago)

In keeping with our pretentious reputation we should make our categories like the bizarre list found in a certain Chinese encyclopedia of Borges.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 25 February 2006 12:03 (twenty years ago)

I think Dewey Decimal would be fine. Or Library of Congress if you hate life.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 25 February 2006 15:58 (twenty years ago)

Initial posts can be categorized with some broad degree of accuracy, but thread drift makes any initial categorization less and less apt as answers accumulate.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 25 February 2006 17:56 (twenty years ago)

I'd only support categories if they were in Chinese Encyclopedia form.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 25 February 2006 19:17 (twenty years ago)

it doesn't really need many: Authors, Works, Very Specific Questions (i.e. : is J Alfred Prufrock Insecure?), perennial threads like the what are you reading? & poetry threads, Book Club, Book ID and homework requests. i kind of think the eight million categories on ILM aren't of that much use, really

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 25 February 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

but they're more interesting.

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 25 February 2006 20:13 (twenty years ago)

tom, you now have magical categorising abilities on ILB. have at it if you like. or not. um, there is no hurry.

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 25 February 2006 20:24 (twenty years ago)

I can see two categories: 1) Homework Help; 2) Other

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:26 (twenty years ago)

I would like to say: it is intimidating for me to post here. My background is math and engineering, and I recognize I do not read critically (as I have no academic yardstick in place) and therefore feel I don't have much to contribute. I do, however, love books and love to read and I appreciate having access through this medium to the comments of others. So I do hope you all will carry on with it.

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 25 February 2006 21:36 (twenty years ago)

"I do, however, love books and love to read"

the only credentials needed to post!

― scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 25 February 2006 22:12 (twenty years ago)

I suspect the math and engineering degrees make you better equipped to discuss books than most English majors, cough cough.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 25 February 2006 22:49 (twenty years ago)

whoa, watch it with "degrees", 'cause those are non-existent on my resumé - I do engineering work, but I am officially a technician.

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 25 February 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)

Oops. Well my point still holds.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 25 February 2006 23:21 (twenty years ago)

I should say, half the reason why I wish ppl would talk about theory/litcrit more is because I don't read that much, so I don't have much to say about specific books.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 27 February 2006 03:36 (twenty years ago)

A good point upthread about the sheer volume of books and the difficulty in finding common ground. I would reiterate Scott's point, no-one should feel intimidated about posting. The only credentials needed are a love of reading / books.

One final point, I think there is much misunderstanding and points taken the wrong way on threads because, simply, most people on here have never met one another and you can't anticipate their emotional reaction.

I take loads from these boards, although my own contribution is slighter than it used to be.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Monday, 27 February 2006 10:01 (twenty years ago)

Mikey's point is well made. Having met some of the people on the board, I can confirm that they are nothing to be afraid of.

Unless, you know, you're a master criminal.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:07 (twenty years ago)

OK, if we're going to have categories, can they have consistent punctuation? ;-)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 27 February 2006 15:47 (twenty years ago)

i think i will make sure they all have full stops once i have a set i like. but if it bugs you a great deal in the meantime, feel free to do that yourself. d:

― tom west (thomp), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 01:57 (twenty years ago)

I was going to, and then realized I had no idea how.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:36 (twenty years ago)

Usually that doesn't stop me, but this time it did.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:36 (twenty years ago)

cool beans, tom! the categories look cool. thanks!

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 04:42 (twenty years ago)

I wuz sceptical but the categories do indeed look good.

― Redd Scharlach (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 04:52 (twenty years ago)

Nice job! Did you happen to notice a children's literature thread during your toils, by the way?

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 05:58 (twenty years ago)

Everyone talks about children's literature but nobody starts a thread about it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 06:10 (twenty years ago)

them's fighting words.

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 12:29 (twenty years ago)

Honestly I don't even know where to start w/ kids' lit. Someone ask a specific question, I am like the magic 8 ball of that stuff...but (and this is the same reason I hate Scrabble) the field is too broad without a clew.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:50 (twenty years ago)

There was a kids' lit thread - someone asked for suggestions for their 8-ish daughter. Mrs. Pigglewiggle and her pirate husband came up.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 14:57 (twenty years ago)

I posted a TOME on that thread, Jaq!

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:03 (twenty years ago)

oh, i did mean to say "them's fighting words" and then start one. oops.

also thanx scott, ken, mary

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 15:09 (twenty years ago)

Hey Laurel, here's a kid's lit question!
My husband can't remember the author or title of a young-reader historical novel he read as a kid. It's probably out of print, because I've spent hour googling, to no avail. It was about a boy who survived the 1565 slaughter of the French Huguenots in Florida at the hands of the Spanish under Pedro Menendez de Aviles. The boy witnessed the slaughter from his hiding place in a riverbank, and was later taken in by the local Timucuans.
Donald would be so thrilled ot have that book in his hands once more, but I've struck out. I'm thinking that I should just write the historical society down there. Maybe some little old lady will know the book.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Beth, I have no idea and have never heard of such a thing! I just googled and amazoned to no effect, though -- and amazon does have a lot of OOP titles re Florida Huguenots but all seem to be non-fict scholarly things. Give a shout if you find the title, woud you?

Also, I'm pretty sure there's a thread somewhere for finding un- and misremembered books.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:38 (twenty years ago)

There's a place on Abebooks for looking for lost and barely remembered books too. I think it's called Book Sleuth but I could be wrong.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 17:53 (twenty years ago)

I wonder if it's The Scarlet Cockerel?

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 19:05 (twenty years ago)

You could also try usenet for book identification - try http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.books.childrens

― Ray (Ray), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 19:09 (twenty years ago)

Motherfucker, that was pubbed by my employer! And I love the cover and interior color plates, that whole school of illustration is delightful. I wonder how far back our library archive goes....

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 19:09 (twenty years ago)

Maybe it is, though the Scarlet Cockerel seems to be about the adventures of TWO French characters. I just emailed the link to Donald (who is in his office 40 feet away from me, we are pathetic). We'll see if it rings any bells!
And we'll try booksleuth. Thank you everyone!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 20:04 (twenty years ago)

I bid on that Scarlet Cockerel on Amazon, but lost :( There was an ex-library copy of the same edition on Amazon though (for a lot less than I bid). I do love the illustrations.

― Jaq (Jaq), Friday, 3 March 2006 17:12 (twenty years ago)

Jaq, I thought you were trying to get rid of books! Oh well. We do the same thing—have huge purges only to replenish. I won't say replenish the bookshelves—that's a laugh. Would that we had bookshelves enough for the books. Luckily we have lots of other surfaces, like chairs, dining room table, staircase, floor.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 4 March 2006 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Ha! Well, yeah, but I'm sending you 5, and this is such a wee tiny one...

Actually, it's looking like we will be moving come the fall (hello again Seattle!), so we really do need to pare down. Box o' Pratchett is shipping your way today!

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 4 March 2006 14:44 (twenty years ago)

Oh boy!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Saturday, 4 March 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

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