Reviews and Comments

Above all what I learned most from this book is that Donald Trump has always been a peice of trash.

The United States Football League started with a fervent idea. Americans love their football so give them more of it in the spring. When Dixon defined it he was able to get support by showing desire from fans, and the key to making it a success was marketing well while keeping costs, particularly salaries, low.

After the first week end had amazing TV ratings and attendance the rest of the owners decided they knew better than Dixon. By the end of the year everyone had gone way over the spending goals and way under TV ratings, with the only team to have made a profit was the only one that followed the plan.

By the next year they wanted to expand, and the future president of the United States deciy he wanted in on the deal and immediately took to trying reshape the league in his own image.

Long story short a lots of egos, no one able to keep their mouth shut not to mention a desire to believe all good rumors and ignore all bad rumors, they followed Trump's lead off the end of the world. They sued the NFL on anti-trust wforfs & won, for which the court awarded them $1 in damages.

I was somewhat disappointed in 20,000 leagues. It was much more hard science fiction and not so much action adventure. Nothing particularly against hard sci-fi its just not so much my preference. I'm also disappointed not in Verne by any means, but in the public libraries that keep putting these very much adult oriented books in the children's section because they are "classics" which I guess is their way of saying kids should read the classics.

This might be two classic audiobooks in a row that I think the movie was better. Like Black Beauty, the Disney version of 20,0000 Leagues was a childhood favorite of mine. Though I've probably only seen this one a dozen times. In the film it always felt like a surprise around every corner, while in the book it was a scientific discovery. While that's certainly a kind of surprise, it's not giant monster attack.

I am sure at its time it was a amazing, but in the 21st century nothing to write home about.

I liked the Sword of Damocles. This is the first book of Thorne I have read. While the plot may not have been the best of the Star Trek: Titan series, I may have been the best written. If I had read it years ago, I probably would have hated it, as the story is not linear. For example, the first chapter is the Epilogue. I was upset originally because I thought the author/editor was an idiot, it was only several chapters later that I realized that the "epilogue" took place well after Chapter 1 (though not actually after chapter 16). Similarly, it ended with a prologue. Quite a bit of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. I felt like I finally am starting to get a hold of who all these new characters are, mostly by Thorne writing most of the story from their perspective, with Riker and Troi being mostly background characters. I particularly fell in love with Commander Jaza, and I kept hoping for something more from him, but alas...

I never understood why it was titled Sword of Damocles.

Submitted Interlibrary loan request so I'll have it for my trip

Submitted Interlibrary loan request so I'll have it for my trip.

Most movies based on books are not as good as the book. This is why I usually recommend watching the movie first so that you can enjoy both of them. I have no idea how many times I have seen the 1978 animated film released by the Australian wing of Hanna-Barbara. It was a childhood favorite and I have grown to share it with my own kids, who were less than impressed. Perhaps it was just the shear number of times that ingrained its version such that listening to the original tale seemed lacking. I kept waiting for parts of the story that never actually came up, whether they were completely made up for the movie (if you can even call a 48 minutes VHS tape a movie) or were combinations of a number of the stories from the book into one separate story, to the point that I don't think I actually gave the proper chance to enjoy the expanded narrative this audio-book needed. Also what the book usually called the "check reign" the movie called the "bearing reign."

My own weird history aside the book is good. A 19th century story of "the autobiography of a horse" the story of one of England's finest ponies told from his colt-hood to the end of his life, nearly 15 years over the course of 5 audio discs. Each chapter was a more-or-less stand alone story, which would make it great for a few weeks of bed time stories, probably for kids age seven and up.

Black Beauty is famous for being a tale of animal welfare that inspired English kids to seek out better treatment of their parents' horses. It also was a story promoting teatoling and care of the working-class, particularly England's horse-drawn cab drivers.

All in all I recommend it, but maybe read the book first this time. 🤷‍♀️

Well, I couldn't find my copy of The Ford-Wyoming Drive-In so let us pull this off the shelf and dig into what's wrong with me instead.