books

Book Discussion: Waco by Jeff Guinn

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It’s been thirty years since the disastrous events near Waco, Texas. In the nineties I read and reviewed five books related to them; I’ll link to them at the end of this review. Jeff Guinn’s Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage is a new addition to the literature.

The first third of the book, except for a short introductory chapter, is about the history of the Branch Davidians before the ATF raid. Much of what it covers predates Vernon Wayne Howell’s taking leadership and assuming the name David Koresh. This is an important area for anyone studying the matter in detail, but I was more interested in information about the ATF raid, the subsequent siege, and the final assault on the buildings. Getting through the material about the Adventists and the earlier leaders of the group was an effort for me.
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Penguin Random House announces unbowdlerized Dahl books

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Penguin Random House, which holds the publishing rights to Roald Dahl’s books, had replaced Dahl’s texts with bowdlerized versions. They wanted to “make the books suitable for modern readers,” who evidently have reverted to the Victorian era. They discovered, though, that a lot of people today aren’t “modern readers” and can stand to read what an author actually wrote. As a result, Random Penguin has announced it will issue editions with the original text along with the sanitized versions.Stack of Roald Dahl books. Source: Wikimedia

Perhaps I should mention I’m not a fan of Dahl as a person. His reaction to Khomeini’s murder contract on Salman Rushdie was “This kind of sensationalism does indeed get an indifferent book on the top of the best-seller list — but to my mind it is a cheap way of doing so.” He characterized himself as antisemitic and said, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity.” The portrayal of the Oompa Loompas is creepy, no matter how movie makers dress it up. For that matter, the punishments inflicted on the “bad” children in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are rather horrible. They didn’t do anything that bad!
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Smashwords end of year sale: 50% off my books

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Starting today, December 15, and until New Year’s Day, Smashwords is running a sitewide end-of-year sale on participating books. This includes all three of my books on Smashwords, which are available at 50% off. While you’re there, look for other titles that might interest you. Here are the links for my books:

A quick note on Bookwyrm

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With the explosion of Mastodon use, some people may have come across Bookwyrm, a federated network that uses ActivityPub protocols. It’s supposed to be something like a decentralized alternative to Goodreads. I was excited about it at first, but fortunately was quickly warned about its license. It’s unsuitable for me, for independent writers, and for advocates of freedom. I thought about whether I should even mention it, but decided I should post a brief warning.

The problem is write at the top: “This is anti-capitalist software, released for free use by individuals and organizations that do not operate by capitalist principles.” Software licenses that restrict who can use the software and for what purpose are almost always a bad idea, even when the restriction isn’t inherently bad, as it is in this case. Open-source code which only some people are allowed to use isn’t open-source.

Most obviously, it implicitly excludes publishing houses and self-employed authors. Organizations that aren’t employee-owned are explicitly excluded. That’s worse than senseless. Depending on how you read it, it could also exclude people who live by capitalist principles, such as giving value for value and rejecting governmental control over what can be published. ????
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