Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” ―
Early in my writing career, I tried reading The Elements of Style but I honestly cannot remember a thing about it. Maybe that tells you everything you need to know about that book.—Joe Farace
In the United States, National Grammar Day is observed on March 4th. Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, created National Grammar Day in 2008 to encourage the use of correct grammar in verbal and written communications.
According to the Global Language Monitor, the estimated number of words in the English language is 1,066,345.8 as I write this. There may be some controversy over that figure, but it’s safe to say it’s more than a million.
Some people might think grammar is a set of rules for language, but it’s really a system for understanding language. Understanding the system and the structure also helps us understand each other better and learn new languages.
Ways to observe #NationalGrammarDay
- Read a new blog, book, magazine or newspaper. You might learn a new phrase or word. See Thursday’s post for “pâtissier.”
- Learn a new word from another language. Not all languages have the same grammar rules. Some even have words that don’t exist in other languages.
- Spend time with someone who speaks your first language as a second language. You might learn something new about syntax, tense or spelling. And what might be a grammar error in one language is perfectly fine in another.
Books I’m Reading
Greg Bear was my favorite modern-day science fiction author. He passed away last year and I’m still sad about it. His brilliant work covered themes such galactic conflict in books like 1987’s Forge of God, that was the most chilling sci-book book I’ve ever read. Its sequel—Bear or his publishers loved sequels— Anvil of Stars while perhaps less dazzling is as thrilling as a sequel can be. In books like Darwin’s Radio and Darwin’s Children, he tackled accelerated evolution. with thought provoking results. (Another book, Almost Adam by tackles a similar topic with an evolutionary Lost World spin that, for me, produced a spine tingling effect.) Bear’s most recent work was the 2021 novel The Unfinished Land. In total, Greg Bear wrote more than 50 books.
I was introduced to Greg Bear by my friend, the late Ernie Mau who gave me a copy of Bear’s 1988 book EON. If you want took into reading and experiencing the brilliance of Greg Bear, I suggest that you start there too.
I just finished reading Dinosaur Summer, a novel by Greg Bear that was published in 1998. It is sort of a sequel to Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel The Lost World. This book, set in 1947, portrays a world that had learned to live with dinosaurs, unlike Jurassic Park Dominion. (Please watch my YouTube video on that movie and the other five in that film series.) It seems the public had became bored with dinos in zoos and circuses and the story revolves around the last dinosaur circus taking its dinos, in reverse King Kong fashion, back to The Lost World.
The story might be considered a YA title—I don’t think it is—because the protagonist is a 15-year old boy, whose National Geographic photographer father takes him along on the trip so he can experience “an adventure.” And he, and all of the circus people, certainly do. Guest appearances in the group going back to Venezuela include Ray Harryhausen and Willis O’Brien. If their inclusion piques your interest, you’re going to love this book.
I originally bought this book in 1999 from The Science Fiction Book Club, which I am pleased to find still exists! This is the second time I’ve re-read Dinosaur Summer. Oscar Wile once said, “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” And to answer a question you might have: My count of “books read in 2023” stands at nine and my policy is that I don’t count books that I re-read. Right now, I am looking at picking up a copy of Bear’s The Unfinished Land and Doyle’s, not Crichton’s, The Lost World and those will count.
Here’s a mini- book review of Felonious Monk by William Kotzwinkle from Barry Staver, an avid member of Joe’s Book Club: “Tommy Martini (aka Felonious Monk) is a great read. One tough dude and a horn dog like no other.”
Books to Review: If you would like to send me any books to review or any other stuff that could be used for these posts and my YouTube videos, please Contact me directly for shipping address and related information.