Lakeside

I’ve never been to this park, but I drive by it on Sheridan all the time and wonder what it is like. It sounds like a unique little place of respite from the world.

I just finished Captain Horatio Hornblower: Beat to Quarters… and it was really good! I bought three original 1937 editions for under five dollars, and they don’t go for much more online. These should have had a slip-case, but I’ll take them anyway. I’ve been wanting the Easton Press editions of all eleven books, but as you can see from the screen shot below, they aren’t cheap!

There is something nice about reading a good old book from 1937, and these were in great shape although I wouldn’t subject them to much abuse. This series is reprinted mostly in paperback, so I don’t think I’m going to read the entire run until I get the Easton Press set. Until then, I have these three, and a volume that has three other books in one volume, so I have six to read in the meantime. Along with all of the other books I have going.

These volumes remind me of the original Hardy Boys books I read in second and third grade, which were published in 1927, because of the similar word count on each page, the size of the books, and the depths of the stories. The original Hardy Boys, before they were heavily edited/rewritten entirely and republished in the classic blue hardback covers, were stories with more depth and real adventure that they share with these Hornblower books.

The Hornblower mini-series from about twenty years ago is fantastic, as well, and that is what got me into these books, besides my interest in sailing battleships that goes back to kindergarten and through high school. I drew a LOT of them at school for more than a decade. Nothing better than ships with three decks of guns blowing each other up! As long as I’m not there, of course.

There is this terrible, awful Gina Davis / Renny Harlin movie called Cutthroat Island, of which the only redeeming thing it offers is a great ship battle at the end. Neat stuff.

Inside the Washington Monument

Gladiator | Hans Zimmer | The Bands of HM Royal Marines

Dogfight!

My favorite period of history to read about is World War I, so when I spotted this “Dogfight” game for three bucks at the thrift store today, I had to buy it, even though they tape their games shut. It is missing some minor pieces, but is totally playable. I now have a real reason to look at the games section on a regular basis, now… especially since this is one of four in a series of games, as I found out on a specialized “Dogfight” web site, and eBay.

Along with “Risk”, “Battleship”, “Stratego”, “Axis & Allies” and “All The King’s Men”, I’ve got a decent selection of games to play.

And before today, I thought I had all the cool board games, but there are a few more out there!

There’s always “Monopoly”, “Jenga”, and “Uno”, too. So much fun for next to no money!

My Paperbacks

I like all kinds of books, from a beat-up, small and faded paperback, to high-end leather-bound volumes. The best are the books that use premium materials, and paperbacks are the other side of that. About half of these, I rescued from a thrift store as they’d been sitting there for weeks. The busy chain-thrifts, I suspect they’ll toss what doesn’t sell. I do know they treat donated books really, really badly, so I never donate to the ARC.

Anyway. I just had these stacked up while I was moving some other books around and took a quick photo. I do have more small paperbacks, but this is the majority of them. Larger paperbacks are spread throughout my library and I replace them with hardbacks when the opportunity arises.

Getting it done, paperbacks are so nice to hold after covering them.

I haven’t done his to all of these books, but any one that I read, I have to give it that smooth, contact-paper feel. I learned how to do this from the librarians at Drake Junior High when I was in the seventh grade.