Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce; no relation.

I thought I  would  like  to  read the  book  that Hawkeye  Pierce  is named after. I  thought  this  book  was about Native Americans, Anglo-American  Colonists  and French  Canadian  Colonists. However, this is a Romance about two young women, who  never belonged in the wilds of colonial  America and their retirement age, military  commander  father. "Give me my children ," said Munro, hoarsely ; "trifle no longer with a father's agony, but restore me my babes." Is Fenimore  Cooper a pen name for Jane Austen?

Despite the fruity nature of a novel which I believed would be filled with adventure, I am thankful for the influence of Last of the Mohicans on writers whose work I do enjoy. It is likely that Last of the Mohicans was an influence on the writing of Edgar Rice Burrows, Robert Howard and Lin Carter. I'm almost certain that George R. R. Martin was influenced by Cooper by following the pattern of killing their main characters at the end of the book.

The Glory of Their Times

A friend of mine loaned me this book;




I read it in about two weeks. It is a compilation of interviews with Major League Baseball players who played professionally before the first World War. The book concludes with interviews from men who played before and during the first World War and the Depression. This was a time when the Giants and the Dodgers both played their home games in New York State and a team called the Braves played in Boston. Each chapter, an interview with an individual player,begins with a quote from another book or publication which is revelant to that player. The chapter on Fred Snodgrass begins;

"Often I have been asked to tell what I did to Fred Snodgrass after he dropped that fly ball in the World Series in 1912, eleven years ago. Well, I will tell you exactly what I did: I raised his salary $1,000." John J. McGraw, My Thirty Years in Baseball

John McGraw, Mr. MaGraw to his players, was the manager for the New York Giants. This book is a great window into another era, and to as many errors as well.

Paperback Friday: Gardner Fox

Gardner F. Fox; The Hunter out of Time
Copyright, 1965, Ace Books, Inc.
New York, N. Y.
This is actually a first edition of this paperback that I acquired through Paperback Swap dot com.



Kyrik: Warlock Warrior
A Leisure Book, April 1975
Published by Nordon Publications, Inc. New York, N. Y.
Copyright, 1975, Nordon Publications, Inc.


I have not read either one of these books yet but I am currently reading the trade paperback edition of DC Comics Crisis On Multiple Earths which was also scripted by Gardner Fox.

Paperback Friday: Jo Clayton & more

What’s the purpose of Paperback Friday? It’s a feature where I share with the readers of Fanatical Recycling the mass market Fantasy and Sci-Fi paperbacks which, literally, spill out of my bookshelves. My interests focus mainly on the more notorious Sci-Fi writers like Jack Vance, Brian Stableford, E. C. Tubb, Poul Anderson and Michael Moorcock. Of course, when shopping the various used book bins across America, I also pick up random mass market Fantasy novels. I feel that the cover art for these novels is worth preserving, as relics of these respective genres, this is the purpose of Paperback Friday.

Jo Clayton: Maeve
Copyright 1979 by Jo Clayton
First Printing: June 1979, Daw Books

Theodore Cogswell: The Third Eye
Copyright 1968; Theodore Cogswell
A Belmont Book – Sept. 1968
This is a collection of sixteen episodes published in various pulp ‘zines from 1952 to 1962.

Jarrod Comstock: These Lawless Worlds; #1 The Love Machine
Copyright 1984 by Jarrod Comstock
First Printing: April 1984, Pinnacle Books

I purchased all three of these at McKay Books in Knoxville, Tn. I’m currently reading These Lawless Worlds.

F.R.I. Year End Report

This first week of November seems as good a time as any for the 2010 Year End Report for Fanatical Recycling Inc.

1. The problem with T-shirt Tuesday is keeping track of the shirts that have already been featured. Hopefully, this problem will be resolved during the remaining days of the 2010 calendar year so that T-shirt Tues. can click along in 2011.

2. Paperback Friday should resume this Friday, NOv. 12th.

3. What I'm reading: I'm actually finishing The High King by Lloyd Alexander. I hardly ever read any series of books in order but I've read the last four books of this series since the beginning of Oct. I suppose I'll finish reading Janet Evanovich's How I Write next. The book is literally about how she writes, as it is mainly passages, as example, from her Stephanie Plum books. I have read none of Evanovich's novels but if syrupy romance is your thing, How I Write may be an effective learning tool for you. This stuffs not really my area of interest, I discovered this book while working at a book warehouse earlier this year.

4. Scott, one of our fellow OSR bloggers has mentioned a personal ban on buying books in 2011. This is a policy which I also need to adopt. Knox, Co. Tn. is blessed with the most amazing used book warehouse, Mckay Used Books. I'm always able to find great deals on old paperbacks there, usually at prices from $2.00 to less than $1.00. This has allowed me to purchase no less than five books each month. I have a bookshelf full of books and need to buy no more in 2011, with a few exceptions. I'll write of the exceptions as they occur.

5. What is Fanatical Recycling Inc? F.R.I. was created as a writing outlet for ideas and opinions which are not related to table top role playing games, related literature, ideas or new rpg material. F.R.I. has become a journal of my personal interests, beer, music, old paperbacks, Margaritas, travel, etc.

I had hoped to use F.R.I. to write about my opinions of modern culture. I can't say that I have political opinions; I can only say that I have a philosophy. I have learned that other people rarely listen to "philosophical" ideas which they do not already share and this has placed my philosophies into the deep recesses of my personal consciousness. Perhaps, throughout 2011, I will be able to record some of these opinions and philosophies through F.R.I.

6. Welcome to Zanazaz our second, visible, F.R.I. follower.

7. Lastly, this is my 95th blog post since I started blogging on Oct. 29, 2009. That's nearly two blog articles each week and it is a lot more writing than I was doing before I started the Polyhedral Dicebag blog.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover wrap-up

The Penguin Twentieth Century Classis edition of Lady Chatterley’s Lover is 302 pages long and I threw in the towel after 213 pages. I had heard enough of Lady Chatterley’s self centered complaining about her marriage. She admits that she no longer loves her husband Clifford. He was paralyzed during World War I and is confined to a wheelchair. His is a situation of potential misery but he makes the best of it and is truly happy with his intellectual pursuits. Connie Chatterley, on the other hand, is self serving and obsessed with fulfilling her sexual desires. After 213 pages I had read enough of Lawrence’s social theories and complaining about the plight of the labor classes. At that point in the book Connie had planned to take a holiday with her sister, I was tired of waiting for this trip while reading about Lady C’s dalliances with the groundskeeper.

I’m sure this was one of the first English novels concerning the topic of modern sexuality and it was certainly one of the first, on this topic, to become accepted as literature. Lawrence has also written Study of Thomas Hardy (1936) and I would like to offer that Lady Chatterley… is a reworking of Jude the Obscure with the addition of sex scenes. It’s the Twenty-first Century now and I don’t need D. H. Lawrence to explain human sexuality to me. If Philip Roth has learned anything from Lawrence it is to keep his stories short and to the point. If Lionel Fanthrope has learned anything from Lawrence it is to ramble on like an Irishman on holiday.

Lady Chatterley's Lover

I've had this copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover for at least ten years. It's an old copy of the book I salvaged from a home fire at a friend's house. I found the book recently while cleaning my library and thought; I should read it and send it off with the other paper for recycling. I've read half the book and I'm not too excited about reading the rest of the story.

Lawrence reminds me of James Joyce because he tells vivid stories of human struggle but who really wants to explore that much detail? Lawrence admired Thomas Hardy and Lady Chatterley's Lover is basically the same plot as Jude the Obscure but with sex scenes. Thus the novel lives up to the qualities of literature through analysis of the human weaknesses of class struggle, codependency, financial struggle, selfishness and sexuality.

I'm certain I'll finish reading this "fine" piece of literature during the coming week. D. H. Lawrence will earn a place on my personal see-saw of literary figures. I think he will sit on the end with James Joyce and help hold Herman Hesse aloft.