Be Excellent To Each Other

To Kill a Mockingbird: Why was it an Important Thing to Scout, warranting several pages, that Atticus shoots the rabid dog? It is learnt from this that Atticus has a reputation from the war of being a good marksman, but it isn't referenced again in the book.

The whole book is about Scout growing up and seeing the world through more mature eyes. From memory the author uses the dog as a turning point for Scout's view of her father's determination to do the right thing. Atticus is not a civil rights activist, or even a particularly nice man in attitude to the Black community, but he damn sure won't see an innocent man hanged in his town.

Or something like that.

Thank you.

De nada

I really should read this at some point.

Just finished How to Rig an Election by Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas.

Each chapter looks at a different way to get to the result you want, from gerrymandering the boundaries to stuffing ballots to being helpful to major powers in other ways, and is filled with modern examples from across the world. The most interesting point of the book, and the question it tries to explain, is why autocrats go to such lengths to do this, and why they tend to last longer than those who don't.

Unlike most other comparative studies, it doesn't bombard you with statistics preferring to use qualitative data derived from the authors' own field work, and is not a dry read. I'm just slightly scared that these techniques are on the increase across the world.

You know something, I've never read Frankenstein.

I bought it the other day and aim to rectify this as soon as I can.

Spooky! I pulled a copy off the shelf in the library today for the same reasons, thought about it, then went for a Walter Scott novel instead.

I did see a play of it this year though.

DUH!!! It's not Frankenstein! It's Frankenstein's book.

currently reading frans de waal's chimpanzee books,chimpanzee politics . and the great áre we smart enough to know how smart animals are', as well as darwin in the city by Menno.... about how animals adapt to city life..

I seem to be reading 'Be Here Now' by Ram Dass again. And the Dalai Lama's Guide to Happiness, intermittently.

I'm reading the last book in the Demon Cycle series. It's a long'un, but it's really good.

I'm currently reading 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race' and it's eye-opening.

I'm reading Brandon Sanderson - Oathbringer. Book 3 of his Stormlight series. It's good.

I’ve not read it, but I’ve heard it’s very good.

Would definitely recommend. You can borrow it when I'm done if you like.

Thank you.

I might get that.

I am reading about King Charles 2nd and his time on the lam and it is fucking great. He is brilliantly twattish about it all.

currently reading this fascinating book on how evolution is driven by urbanization
https://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Comes-Tow ... 1250127823
(by a dutchman who has lived in england for major parts of his life)

since it is called Darwin comets town, at least mimi should read it.. full with lovely animal stories too

You could just yarr it if you have a Kindle (other e-readers are available).

I tend not to yarr stuff although borrowing ends up with the same revenue, I admit.

All not yarring it does in this case is inconvenience both you and Jem

I don’t know. It was a lovely gesture and I’ll probably see Jem soon anyway so she won’t have to go out of her way to deliver it. The only inconvenience is that I have to wait.

Wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of local institution where you could obtain books for free, on the provisio you brought them back?

You cannot get earl gray in those institutions there though

Waterstones?

Yarr it and then send the author a dollar on paypal. Everyone is better off!

The bookshelf in the office? I can look, but I don't think it'll be on there.

I don't even know what yarr is.

Pirate. Yarr!

Oh I seeeeeeeee. (Doh)

I don't do that

Well no. You have the book.

I meant in general, obviously

I assume that's because GazChap does it?

Well, no. It's because I decided many years ago that as a creator of "stuff" that I expect people to pay for, it would be hypocritical for me to deprive other creators by not paying for it. So yeah, I choose not to pirate stuff.

However, it would be a lie to say I don't occasionally indirectly benefit from other people's pirating, so I don't judge. You do you etc etc

Just finished Jack Straw's "The English Job". The former foreign secretary discusses the history of relations between Britian and Iran over the centuries, with a lot of discussion about the colonial period, the Cold War era, and the present day. There's some really interesting discussions about Iranian culture and politics too. Iran's somewhere I hear about often on the news but never with any context, and I finished this book feeling that I'd learnt a lot.

Spoiler: We were dicks.

I read The Sparrow.

You can read it too if you like the idea of traveling to another planet and then thinking about the ramifications for a long, long time.

To my knowledge, it comes before 'boo' and 'sucks,' as any fule kno and is akchooly spelled 'Yah."