Worth Mentioning

[kytdunne]

I just couldn't figure if this fit in any of the other categories, so I started a new thread. If someone knows of a better location, by all means... hang the "I've moved" sign.

Anyway...

Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas.

The first 7 or 8 pages caught me up entirely. Loved the way the main character (written first person) leapfrogs his narrative.

A few things stood out to me while reading. A couple were odd, such as a reference to crows and their orange beaks. Orange? Another was a reference to rusting metal structures in the California desert. Perhaps it's the difference in which desert, but there are areas where planes are in storage because rust isn't an issue.

I also note things such as how an author describes something, a turn of phrase, etc. Here's one that amused. The character briefly sees himself as he was moments earlier:

Big-browed physicists tell us that two objects cannot under any circumstances occupy the same place at the same time. They warn that any effort to put two objects in the same place at the same time will have catastrophic consequences.

When you think about it, a lot of fundamental physics is the solemn statement of the absurdly obvious. Any drunk who has tried to put his car where a lamppost stands is a self-educated physicist.

All in all, an entertaining read with an intriguing main character.

Kyt

[greenbeing]

I'm reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. It's by Christopher Moore. Irreverent, yes, and I apologize profusely to anyone offended by the topic, but entertaining none-the-less.

[greenbeing]

Well, I'm not sure where this belongs, and since I didn't want to start a topic of "bizarre book things" I figured I'd put it here, as it seems to be "worth mentioning."

Major library book sale yesterday. This is why I have literally probably 1000 books in my house that I haven't read, because I can pick up great reads for under $1. So I'm now the proud owner of two distinctly different copies of one book. It's called Bright Midnight by Reed (forget his first name, something like Theolopholus...). Because everyone here's been comparing BJ to other books and movies and tv shows about blind people, I noticed this book with a tiny guide dog on the cover, as I was pawing through the beautiful old hardbacks. Then I noticed a second copy of it, so I sat there and flipped through to see which was in better shape.

The bizarre thing is, they're not the same! The first thing I noticed was that the newer one is missing a page, or more. That got me to checking out to see how much was missing, as the older edition seemed to be complete. What I noticed was the last page of the newer edition, before it cuts off mid-sentence, is completely different than the last few pages of the older one! Different conversation, completely different tone. So bizarre!

So I ended up buying both, I think I got one of them for a quarter because the one with the dog on the front made it look like a kid's book, so I could compare the rest of the text and see if the author completely rewrote it, or if he just tried to rewrite the ending in subsequent volumes...

Has anyone else read this book? I'm v. curious to find out where the newer one was going to end, and which is the more widely read ending. I've never seen a book, other than a translation, that is different from other copies, and even translations have the same scenes, just different word choices.

Strangeness!

--GB

[anna]

"Bright Midnight" sounded so familiar, I looked it up. I don't think I've read it, but this is what the blurb said:

Bright Midnight
by Trumbull Reed
The story of Sam and his seeing eye dog Samson. Philadelphia : Westminster Press, 1941. Followed by Courage Has Eyes (1955)

Is there any chance that the later edition ends with a selection from the sequel?

[greenbeing]

anna said:

Is there any chance that the later edition ends with a selection from the sequel?

That's what I thought at first, that perhaps he wrote a sequel and it was a completely different book, but on comparing the texts, the original ending isn't there. I compared side by side most of the last chapter after I got home and wasn't being trod upon by manic book buyers, and it's the same last chapter, until about two pages before the end of the older edition. Same chapter title, most of the same paragraphs, and then suddenly, in the middle of one of the paragraphs where the girl is talking... It started the same, but the quote of what she said was half different. And then the next paragraph just went loopy, on some other tangent without any warning.

The older edition ended with a sort of sappy, now we can get married and look to the future, ending.

The newer one got to the point where they were talking about marriage, then skewed off into a bout of self-pity, why would you ever marry a blind man.

I should have brought them to work with me today. Maybe I'll go fetch them over lunch...

--GB

Hmm, maybe the author hadn't planned a sequel originally, and so changed the ending later to accommodate that???

Only 15 libraries in the world are listed as having the second edition of Bright Midnight.

[inuvik]

greenbeing said:

Only 15 libraries in the world are listed as having the second edition of Bright Midnight.

And my library doesn't have either edition. Sounds like a good book! I might have to interlibrary loan it.

How did you find out the fact that's quoted?

I have heard of books changing from one publication to the next, but usually it's marked with a new edition note or something. Maybe you have got your hands on something valuable!

These things are so much easier for bibliophiles to track with newer books thanks Cataloging in Publication data.

Anna, you found more info than the Library of Congress catalog record! Where did you find the sequel info? Wonderful searching!

[anna]

inuvik said:

Anna, you found more info than the Library of Congress catalog record! Where did you find the sequel info? Wonderful searching!

I had to backtrack to see what I had done. I searched "Bright Midnight" on ABEBooks (if it's ever been published, someone is trying to sell it on ABE), then - after I had the correct spelling of the author's name - I searched him. The information popped up on the site of a club for people who raise puppies to be guide dogs. What did we ever do without all of this obscure information at our fingertips? The laundry, probably.

[greenbeing]

inuvik said:

greenbeing said:

Only 15 libraries in the world are listed as having the second edition of Bright Midnight.

And my library doesn't have either edition. Sounds like a good book! I might have to interlibrary loan it.

How did you find out the fact that's quoted?

I have heard of books changing from one publication to the next, but usually it's marked with a new edition note or something. Maybe you have got your hands on something valuable!

I, too, did a google search first. I put in Bright Midnight and Trumbull Reed, I think, or maybe just his last name, and the first site that pops up is a very interesting site where some lady has listed what looks like every book every written about guide dogs. It has both Bright Midnight and Courage Has Eyes listed.

I work in a library, so I have access to this nifty database called WorldCat. It searches every library's holdings and lets you know who has a certain book. I'm not sure just how many libraries are hooked up to it, like probably not the small towns in the middle of nowhere, or provincial libraries in the South of France... But of the ones listed, University libs and public libs, there were only 15 that had that one. 13 had the other edition. And 16 had the sequel.

You're in Canada, right, Inuvik? Courage Has Eyes is listed at the Law Library in York U in ON. But Bright Midnight isn't listed at all in Canada. I don't know if you can ILL (interlibrary loan) from another country or not... And there's a good chance that not every library is listed with WorldCat, so the book might be floating around some little public library, or even a local elementary school.

--GB

[inuvik]

Thank you so much GB and Anna! It's always good to pick up new tips for searching.

GB, I am familiar with the national catalogs (LOC for US and Amicus for Canada), but hadn't heard of WorldCat. I found it though--too bad it doesn't appear to be free--subscription needed right?

Again, thanks so much. I definitely would want to read Bright Midnight before the sequel though.

I have been trying to remember all the blind books I have read--so many over so many years! I'll have to keep racking my brain.

[greenbeing]

inuvik said:

GB, I am familiar with the national catalogs (LOC for US and Amicus for Canada), but hadn't heard of WorldCat. I found it though--too bad it doesn't appear to be free--subscription needed right?

Yup, my University has a subscription to WorldCat. I think my other library uses mostly some search system through OCLC. But I just use my password from here over there anyway, as I really like WorldCat.

Anyway, I just noticed, as I brought Bright Midnight with me tonight--it might actually be signed by the author! I don't know how to authenticate something like that, especially with such an obscure person, but there's a panel on the inside cover that says, "Accompanied by the best wishes of the author." And then it's signed with an old fountain pen.

The book itself is not in mint condition, and the previous owner wrote her name and address in there, back before we had proper five-digit zip codes in the US!

All in all, pretty nifty, especially since I think I got it for a quarter

--GB

[inuvik]

Maybe you should get the book appraised! They know how to authenticate the value of books. The not mint condition and other writing will lower the value, but the author's signature may be able to be authenticated.

Is this the rare edition or the more common one?

Wow, maybe we need a bibliophile/Library Science (ha!) thread. (Just kidding everyone--don't do it!)

[greenbeing]

inuvik said:

Is this the rare edition or the more common one?

This is the 1941 book, the older one. I don't know which one is more rare.

I read about a hundred pages before work today--it goes quickly. Takes place in San Francisco at Berkley. Kinda cheesy, kinda cute, kinda funny. You just have to laugh when a girl starts thinking how "swell" a boy is, the grand conversation where two girls are discussing whether or not it's okay to kiss a boy, and when Sam, the blind guy, says to a new friend as the new friend is guiding him, "Well, you're a substantial fellow, aren't you?"

I keep reading it with a British accent. Not sure if the author perhaps wrote it that way, or if I've been reading too many British books this week. And watching Goblet of Fire last night.

I feel bad that blind people, and probably most handicapped people, back in the late thirties and early forties were seen as completely helpless, couldn't find jobs, weren't qualified. And Sam, the main character, pretty much perpetuates that idea because he thinks he is pretty helpless, even refusing at the beginning to eat in the presence of other people. This ties in greatly with that other thread, can't remember where it went, of how handicapped people are seen by society. We're a sight better than we were during the 40s, but we still have a long way to go!

I can just picture a rehab instuctor bashing Sam upside the head if this book took place in the present, and telling him to get on with his life and stop wallowing in self-pity. We'll see how his character changes by the end of the book. Almost two hundred pages left!

--GB

[anna]

You said too much about it, so now I have to read it. I just ordered it from ABE. For comparison: $10, first edition (1941), no dust jacket, no author signature, name of former owner inside.

[greenbeing]

anna said:

You said too much about it, so now I have to read it. I just ordered it from ABE. For comparison: $10, first edition (1941), no dust jacket, no author signature, name of former owner inside.

Oops, Anna! Terrible, terrible apologies! Not my intention, to force people to read ;D Mine doesn't have a dust jacket, either. It's bright yellow with a little brown guy and a dog in the bottom right corner.

I've finally met Hal, the guide dog. One of my favorite lines so far is about a girl kissing Hal. It's a great couple paragraphs.

I'm about halfway through. I'll have to compare it to the second edition when I'm done, though I'll have to see about ordering the very last page through ILL. I'm only missing one page, and probably only a couple lines, so that's kind of frustrating. But I must see about that alternate ending!

--GB

[greenbeing]

Oop, new favorite line! Apologies to Anna, but shouldn't spoil any plot or anything for you.

"I'll be bum-fuzzled!"

I'll have to try to use that in casual conversation now.

--GB