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Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:41:42 -0500
From: Evelyn Leeper <[email protected]>
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Last change:
20 Dec 2005

This FAQ is in digest format.

Questions include:
1) Where can I find book X by author Y?
1A) What are the (good) bookstores in city X?
2) What is BOOKS IN PRINT?
2A.) Is "Books in Print" available on the Internet?
3) What is the answer to the Lewis Carroll riddle, "Why is a
raven like a writing desk?"
4) What Sherlock Holmes novels (stories) are there besides the
ones by Arthur Conan Doyle?
5) What is Project Gutenberg? How can I access various electronic
information databases?
6) Who wrote the horror story "The Monkey's Paw"?
7) Where can I find books on audio tape?
8) What English-language authors learned English as a second
language?
9) What books or plays have been written about scientists?
10) Is there really an S. Morgenstern, listed as the author of THE
PRINCESS BRIDE and THE SILENT GONDOLIERS? And what is the
reunion scene?
11) Does anyone have a list of female mystery writers?
12) What is the difference between the male and female editions of
DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS by Milorad Pavic?
13) What is the short story by Jorge Luis Borges in which a Chinese
taxonomy is discussed?
14) Where do ISBNs come from?
15) What are the "Penguin 60s"? Does anyone have a full list?
16) What is KIRKUS REVIEWS?
17) Who wrote THE WONDERFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET?
18) Which is the best translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY?

[There are also several other FAQs posted separately: bookstore lists
for various cities, Arthurian lists, Holmesian lists, catalog lists,
and probably lots more. --Evelyn Leeper]

There is a rec.arts.books home page <A
HREF=http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/rab.html>http://www.
interleaves.org/~rteeter/rab.html</A>
with links to all known home pages of r.a.b. regulars. If you consider
yourself a r.a.b. regular and you're not on the r.a.b. page, let Robert
Teeter ([email protected]) know. Also on the r.a.b. page are links to
archives of the FAQs and to other pages where you can find more book
and literature links.

Frequently Asked Questions List
(Quarterly Posting to rec.arts.books)

First of all, a few suggestions:

DISCUSSIONS: If you want a discussion on a particular topic, start one
by posting something yourself. Asking "Why isn't anyone talking about
books here" is not likely to get you much (useful) response. Asking
"Why isn't anyone talking about the latest book by I. B. A. Writer"
is slightly better, but posting your opinions and asking for comments
would probably be more successful yet.

However, some topics come up so frequently that people are sick of
them. So here's a re-cap of them (much thanks to Mark Taranto
[[email protected]]):

Q. What do you think of Thomas Pynchon?
A1. Love him.
A2. Hate him.
A3. Who? <TM SubGenius>
A4. His books are too long.

Q. Can you get me the phone number for <insert publishing company
or bookstore name> in <insert city>?
A. Yes, I probably could, because I know how to use the phone,
how to use phonebooks, and how to call information.

Q. I have a paper due on <insert book title>, what can you tell
me?
A. I can tell you that if you have some ideas about the book,
many r.a.b.ble will be happy to discuss them with you, but if
you are fishing for ideas, you will probably get a response
like:

Read the book,
look up criticism,
and think for yourself.

Q. Who/What is/are your/the favorite/best:
Author? A. E.M. Forster
Book? A. HOWARDS END
Poets? A. Yeats, Eliot, Auden
Living Poets? A. Cope, Kumin
Movie from book? A. A ROOM WITH A VIEW
Trilogy? A. Davies' Deptford Trilogy
S. F.? A. Bobby Bonds

Q. Is Kingsley Amis Funny?
A. Yes.

Q. What do you think of the books in the Canon?
A1. Love 'em.
A2. Hate 'em.
A3. Not enough women/blacks/non-western/Latin American/
non-(dead-European-white-dudes) on the list.
A4. Not enough Romance novels on the list.

Q. How do you kill bugs in a book?
A1. Grab the book by the spine, shake out all of the bugs onto a
flat surface, smash bugs with book.
A2. Put book into a microwave, zap.
A3. Invite Meg Worley over for dinner, hand her a book.

Q. How many books do you own?
A1. I go to the library. <TM Meg Worley>
A2. Less than 100.
A3. 100-300.
A4. 300-500.
A5. 500-1000.
A6. 1000-3000.
A7. Enough so that Meg Worley borrows my books.

Q. What is the best bookstore?
A. Powell's <TM William Sburgfort Smith --
and anyone else who has been there>

Q. What do you think of Barnes & Noble verses Borders?
A. Borders has better cappuccino.

[Note: My *public library* is adding a coffee bar!]

Q. What do you think of censorship.
A1. It sucks.
A2. Oddly, nearly everyone agrees on the issue of censorship, yet
it seems to be *the* hot topic on the net.

SPOILER WARNINGS: Many people feel that much of the enjoyment of a
book is ruined if they know certain things about it, especially when
those things are surprise endings or mysteries. On the other hand,
they also want to know whether or not a book is worth reading, or they
may be following a particular thread of conversation where such
information may be revealed. The solution to this is to put the words
SPOILER in your header, or in the text of your posting. You can also
put a ctl-L character in the *first* column, though this only works if
your readers are using rn. Some people think that spoiler warnings are
not necessary. We don't understand why, and do not want to discuss
it. Use your best judgment.

REVIEWS: Many people seem to be interested in reading book reviews.
Unfortunately, not nearly as many people are interested in writing
them. If you do review a book, please try to say more than, "THE
RETURN OF AHAB THE SAILOR was a great book!" Unless you are a
well-known net.personality, this sort of comment tells the reader
little about whether s/he would like the book. Reviews may also be
found in alt.book.reviews and rec.arts.sf.reviews. Which brings us
to...

SCIENCE FICTION: Some people think science fiction should be kept in
the sf hierarchy. Other people think that "books" includes "science
fiction books." This is one of those issues that will never be
resolved, so arguing about it is a waste of time and bandwidth.
If you object to reading about science fiction in this newsgroup,
put the string "/rec.arts.sf/hj" in your KILL file.

But for those interested in science fiction, there are archives of
interest currently stored on SFLOVERS.RUTGERS.EDU (165.230.224.130)
under the directory /pub/sf-lovers. The archives are currently
available to anyone with FTP access to this machine. (These are
SF-LOVERS archives.)

Text files of interest to readers include:
alternate-histories.txt
amber-timeline.txt
gender-swapping.list
hugos.txt (awards)
nebulas.txt (awards)
prometheus.txt (awards)
transformation-stories.txt

Also in the archives: the author lists provided and maintained by John
Wenn are available. The list for each author is contained in its own
file with the filenames being in the form: Lastname.Firstname, e.g.
Niven.Larry (please remember, unix filenames are case sensitive).
Many of the authorlists have recently been updated.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Where can I find book X by author Y?

The United States's most complete bookstore is the combination of
BOOKS IN PRINT and the U. S. Post Office. BIP will tell you the
price and the publisher's address. Send them a check for the price
and they will be happy to send you the book. We do it all the time.
Some publishers grudgingly send a note with the book saying "Next time
please include N% for postage and handling," or even a bill for the
additional amount. You can always call and ask first. At least once
they sent a check with the book because if ordered direct, they gave a
discount. We rarely order through a bookstore because it is so much
easier to order the book and have it sent to us directly. (This is
probably not true for mass-market paperbacks where the handling
charges would be more than the book!)

In addition, Cindy Tittle Moore ([email protected]) maintains a list
of book catalogues and book clubs which is posted to rec.arts.books
and news.answers every thirty-five days. Copies of this list may be
obtained by anonymous ftp to rtfm.mit.edu under
/pub/usenet/news.answers/books/catalogues. Or, send email to
[email protected] with
"send usenet/news.answers/books/catalogues" in the body of the message.

If, on the other hand, you just want to borrow the book, ask your
library about inter-library loans--chances are good they can find it
for you in a library they have reciprocal agreements with even if they
don't have it themselves.

------------------------------

1A) What are the (good) bookstores in city X?

Check out the following listings of bookstores.

http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-e.htm Eastern Canada
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-o.htm Ontario
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-w.htm Western Canada
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-ne.htm New England
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-wmass.htm Western
Massachusetts
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bost.htm Boston
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-capco.htm Cape Cod
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-nyc-m.htm New York City (NYC)
(Manhattan)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-ny.htm New York (other
than Manhattan)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-east.htm Eastern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-dc.htm Washington DC
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-chi.htm Chicago
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-midwe.htm Midwestern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-south.htm Southern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-cent.htm Central US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-west.htm Western US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-sw.htm Southwestern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-la.htm Los Angeles
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-diego.htm San Diego & Hawai`i
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bay-s.htm San Francisco Area
(San Francisco &
north)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bay-b.htm San Francisco Area
(Berkeley and
East Bay)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-bay-p.htm San Francisco Area
(Peninsula and
south)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-nw.htm Northwestern US
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-e.htm Eastern Canada
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/na-can-w.htm Western Canada and
Alaska
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-nire.htm UK (Northern Ireland)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-scot.htm UK (Scotland)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-engl.htm UK (England)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/uk-wales.htm UK (Wales)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-fr.htm France
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-de.htm Germany
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-benl.htm Benelux
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/eu-nord.htm Nordic countries
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/europe.htm Europe (various)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/asia.htm Asia
(excluding Japan)
http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper/papan.htm Japan
http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/books/shops/index.html Australia

------------------------------

2) What is BOOKS IN PRINT?

Just about every public library and every bookstore in the country has,
for public use, a multi-volume reference work called "Books in Print."
It is just about what the title claims it is. It is a listing by
title, by author, and by subject of every book currently listed by
publishers as being currently in print in the United States. (There
are versions for other countries as well; in Britain it's WHITAKER'S.)
It tells you the list price and the publisher. It also has a volume of
out-of-print books and a separate volume that lists the mailing
addresses of the publishers. The local B. Dalton keeps it at the
information desk. Almost bookstore or public library will have a set
that they would be happy to have you look at.

Also, "Books in Print" is available as file number 470 in Bowker's
Online Databases on DIALOG. Bowker can be reached at 800-323-3288 and
DIALOG at 800-334-2564.

There is also a similar database on Compuserve.

There is a similar reference set called "Paperback Books in Print."
I am not sure what it would list that would not be listed in its
bigger cousin, but that reference might also be of interest. In
Britain, there is "British Books in Print." At this time, there is no
public site that provides "Books in Print" on-line.

(For used books, there is BOOKMAN'S, the used book trade magazine.
Lots of books are advertised there that haven't been in print for
decades. You may be able to find the annual bound copy of BOOKMAN'S
PRICE INDEX (the used book dealer's pricing bible) in your local
library. There's no guarantee that the book you want will still be
for sale if you go that way, but it is a good way to plan your budget.)

One way of getting out-of-print titles is to get in touch with
University Microfilms, Inc. (or other such companies). They'll print a
copy of a book from microfilm, generally within 3 weeks of your order.
They take care of the copyright issues & royalty payments, and you get
the book (although the printing quality is what you'd expect for a
photoreprint from microfilm). They're a standard resource for
librarians.

A 106-page book was recently quoted as US$30.00, with a US$6.00
surcharge for cloth binding. (The default is paperbound). And of
course,not all books are available for reprinting--they've obviously
specialized in academic books.

University Microfilms, Inc.
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI
48106
313-761-4700
800-521-0600
800-343-5299 (works in Canada)

------------------------------

2A.) Is "Books in Print" available on the Internet?

The American "Books in Print" is not available for free searching
on the Internet. "Books in Print", a compendium of basic information
about currently available books from U.S. publishers (excluding Bibles,
government documents, and some small-press titles), is available in
both electronic and paper format. Its publisher, R. R. Bowker, makes a
lot of money from its database. Bowker isn't about to give that
information away for free (IMO).

Bookpages used to have "British Books In Print" up, but when it
was acquired by amazon.com, that went away.

If by this question one means "Can I use "Books in Print" for
free?" or "Can I search "Books in Print" via the Internet?" the answer
to both of those questions is yes.

How to use "Books in Print" for free: Go to almost any bookstore,
public library, or academic library and use it there. Or, you can
probably call your nearest library and get information over the
telephone, as long as you don't overdo it--for example, asking for
every edition of every work by Mark Twain.

How to use "Books in Print" on the Internet: It's available for a
fee from online vendors such as Dialog and from commercial online
services like Compuserve (the command is "Go Books" for the British as
well as the U.S. "Books in Print"; the charge is $2 a search). In both
cases, you will need an account and password, and you will be charged
by the minute or the search. Using Dialog requires knowing the basics
of online searching and Dialog commands. (In the U.S., call
1-800-3-DIALOG; on the Internet telnet to dialog.com.) "Books in Print"
is also available on CD-ROM from R. R. Bowker. It's expensive and
only for the heavy-duty user.

Other big databases : Large library catalogs are excellent sources
for bibliographic data if you want to find out who wrote a certain
book, verify a title when you only have some of the words in the title,
or get a list of books on a certain subject. What they won't tell you
is whether a book is in print and how much it costs. A on-line
collection of these can be found at telnet site pac.carl.org.

Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/catalog/
telnet locis.loc.gov
gopher locis.loc.gov
select Library of Congress online
systems
(Note the Library of Congress' online catalog is not complete
for titles published before 1968.)

Other library catalogs http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
gopher yaleinfo.yale.edu 7700
select Library Catalogs World-wide

Book vendors are another source for book information. Several
vendors make available large catalogs on the Internet. These will tell
you whether a book is currently available and what it costs. See the
FAQ on online bookstores regularly posted to rec.arts.books.

[Provided by Robert Teeter ([email protected]).]

------------------------------

3) What is the answer to the Lewis Carroll riddle, "Why is a raven
like a writing desk?"

According to Martin Gardner, Carroll had no answer in mind which he
first wrote this. However, Carroll did gave a solution himself, in an
1896 edition of "Alice": "Because it can produce very few notes, tho
they are very flat; and it is nevar [sic] put with the wrong end in
front." Gardner has recently added another: "Because there is a 'b'
in 'both.'"

In a brief preface that Carroll wrote for an 1896 edition
of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, he said he had no answer in mind
when he gave this riddle. Many answers have since been
suggested, including one by Carroll himself, some of which
you will find in my AA note. In 1989 England's Lewis
Carroll Society announced a contest for new answers, to be
published eventually in the society's newsletter,
"Bandersnatch."

Aldous Huxley, writing on "Ravens and Writing Desks"
(Vanity Fair, September 1928), supplies two nonsense
answers: because there's a 'b' in both, and because there's
an 'n' in neither. James Michie sent a similar answer:
because each begins with 'e'. Huxley defends the view that
such metaphysical questions as: Does God exist? Do we have
free will? Why is there suffering? are as meaningless as
the Mad Hatter's question -- "nonsensical riddles,
questions not about reality but about words."

"Both have quills dipped in ink" was suggested by reader
David B. Jodrey, Jr. Cyril Pearson, in his undated
TWENTIETH CENTURY STANDARD PUZZLE BOOK, suggests, "Because
it slopes with a flap."

Denis Crutch ("Jabberwocky," Winter 1976) reported an
astonishing discovery. In the 1896 edition of ALICE,
Carroll wrote a new preface in which he gave what he
considered the best answer to the riddle: "Because it can
produce a few notes, tho they are *very* flat; and it is
nevar put with the wrong end in front." Note the spelling
of "never" as "nevar." Carroll clearly intended to spell
"raven" backwards. The word was corrected to "never" in
all later printings, perhaps by an editor who fancied he
had caught a printer's error. Because Carroll died soon
after this "correction" destroyed the ingenuity of his
answer, the original spelling was never restored. Whether
Carroll was aware of the damage done to his clever answer
is not known.

Another answer is that Poe wrote on both.

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes also suggested the variant that both have inky
quills.

In chapter 39 of THE SHINING, Stephen King says,
"The higher the fewer, of course! Have another cup of tea!"

The latest answer is from Martin Graham ([email protected]):

In a LEWIS CARROLL--FRAGMENTS OF A LOOKING-GLASS by Jean Gattengno and
in the first biography on Carroll by his nephew Stuart Dodgson
Collingwood, THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LEWIS CARROLL, we learn of a few
facts regarding Carroll's (Dodgson's) intrest in the occult. We learn
that "Mr. Dodgson took a great interest in occult phenomena, and was
for time an enthusiastic member of the 'Psychical Society.'" Also we
learn that Carroll had a specific interest in automatic writing. We
also learn when consulting any good dictionary of Symbols that Ravens
are believed to be messengers between the land of living and the land
of the dead. Automatic writing is also used to communicate with the
dead. Thus, though the answer to the riddle taking these factors into
account is not especially humorous, it seems that the correct answer to
this riddle should be.... A raven is like a writing desk because one
might communicate with the dead through either.

------------------------------

4) What Sherlock Holmes novels (stories) are there besides the ones by
Arthur Conan Doyle?

See accompanying posting of non-canonical Sherlock Holmes works. The
list includes all known works using Sherlock Holmes as a character,
though the individual stories by Conan Doyle are not listed, just
the book titles. It includes hundreds of non-Doyle works (many of
which are out of print). (This list was compiled by me over a period
of years from suggestions from many people.)

------------------------------

5) What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is planned as a storage- and clearing-house
for making books available very cheaply, by freely providing them
in standard electronic formats (usually ASCII). This can only be done
for books where the copyrights have expired, or when authors have
permitted free redistribution, so that effectively much of the work
has focused on classic literature.

A sample of famous works or authors would include:

Lewis Carroll: ALICE IN WONDERLAND; THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
Dante: THE DIVINE COMEDY (in several translations and the original
Italian)
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay: FEDERALIST PAPERS
Charles & Mary Lamb: TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
Dr. David Livingstone: MISSIONARY TRAVELS AND RESEARCHES IN SOUTH
AFRICA
Plutarch: LIVES
Shakespeare: Works
Robert Louis Stevenson: A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES
Mark Twain: TOM SAWYER; HUCKLEBERRY FINN; and others

But just as important is the ability of an electronic medium
to cheaply convey information that is less known, or regional,
but still worthwhile, such as:

Lady Gordon: LETTERS FROM THE CAPE
Henry Lawson: JOE WILSON AND HIS MATES (Australian Lit)
Joseph Munk: ARIZONA SKETCHES
"Banjo" Paterson: THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER; and others (Australian
Lit)
W. D. James / W. G. Simms / M. C. Weems: 3 biographies of FRANCIS
MARION

Project Gutenberg has produced over 2,000 etexts, and is releasing 32
new etexts per month, hoping to double production each year until
10,000 etexts are finished in 2001. These vary from classic fiction
to nonfiction to large numerical calculations like the square root of
2 to 10**n decimal places). Releases are announced on
bit.listserv.gutnberg. Project Gutenberg is available by anonymous
FTP from uiarchive.uiuc.edu in directory pub/etext/gutenberg, and
mirror sites.

One of the best places to find electronic texts (etexts) is:

The Online Book Page:
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/index.html

where over 10,000 online texts are catalogued by author and title,
in a searchable database, with some subject listings as well.
It is by far the best and most comprehensive site for etexts
presently on the net.

[Provided by Alan Light ([email protected]).]

Another similar directory is held at info.umd.edu, in directories
under inforM/EdRes/ReadingRoom/Fiction. Found there are books by
14 authors including Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, and F. Scott
Fitzgerald. They also have the Bible, Book of Mormon and Koran in
ASCII format. Also available from info.umd.edu is a collection of
economics time series data from the Federal government, as well as
daily and long-term weather forecasts.

(I am told info.umd.edu allows you to telnet in and use an intelligent
front end to browse the files on line, and transfer them back using
ftp, tftp, or kermit? Simply telnet info.umd.edu, and login as "info",
then follow the instructions on the screen.)

cwdynm.cwru.edu has the Bible, the Book of Mormon (and other Mormon
texts), and the Koran available via anonymous FTP.

obi.std.com also has a lot of texts; check ~ftp/obi/ls-lR for a list.

The Eden Etext Archive is at http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/etext/ or via
FTP at ftp.cs.rmit.edu.au:/pub/etext/.

And someone else says, "Probably the best available Bible depository
and concordance type program that I've seen on the net is the Online
Bible, available in the doc/bible subdirectory on
wuarchive.wustl.edu. This is freeware and includes several different
English translations of the Bible as well as Greek and Hebrew texts,
concordances, etc. I spoke to one of the developers yesterday, and a
major upgrade is coming (in August, I believe). There are also plans
for foreign language Bible editions in the works."

There is also a huge archive available from Oxford, but most of the
texts here require a physical letter of request be sent to England --
still cheap, but anyway -- if you want the address/catalog, send a
'help' message to [email protected].

And if you're looking for general electronic information, try telneting
to consultant.micro.umn.edu and logging in as 'gopher'. It is
menu-driven and you can access the library catalogs of many
universities, as well as lots of other neat stuff.

Other sources for etexts include the Online Book Initiative at
obi.std.com (available through Gopher or FTP), and the Internet Wiretap
Gopher server at wiretap.spies.com.

Users of the World Wide Web can find pointers to these and other
collections at http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html and
there is also a page of pointers at
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/books.html which partly overlaps the
page above. It's less "official," but does have some pointers the
other page doesn't have.

There is also the Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the World-Wide
Web, at http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/alex-index.html, indexes over
1800 books and shorter texts by author and title, incorporating texts
from Project Gutenberg, Wiretap, the On-line Book Initiative, the Eris
system at Virginia Tech, the English Server at Carnegie Mellon
University, Project Bartlesby, CCAT, the on-line portion of the Oxford
Text Archive, and many others.

[Thanks to John Ockerbloom ([email protected]) for updating this
info.]

------------------------------

6) Who wrote the horror story "The Monkey's Paw"?

William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943), an English writer of sketches of
seafaring and rural life, mostly comic. He wrote a few other horror
stories, notably "The Toll-House." For more information see E. F.
Bleiler's THE GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION, Kent State Univ., 1983.

------------------------------

7) Where can I find books on audio tape?

Duane Morse suggests several sources (much of this is *very* old):

Books on Tape
P.O. Box 7900
Newport Beach, CA 92658
http://www.booksontape.com/
To order: 1-800-626-3333
Comment: very large selection of unabridged books on tape. Rentals
available for just about everything in the catalog. Good readers.

HighBridge Audio
33 S. Sixth St., CC-2205
Minneapolis, MN 55402
http:www.highbridgeaudio.com
Comment: Has public radio programs and literary fiction and
nonfiction.

Recorded Books
270 Skipjack Rd.
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
1-800-638-1304
FAX: 1-301-535-5499
http://www.recordbooks.com
Comment: unabridged books on tape. Rentals available for just about
everything in the catalog. Not nearly as large a selection as Books on
Tape, but rentals are cheaper. Generally outstanding readers. Can be
ordered via their web site.

Audio Editions
P.O. Box 6930
Auburn, CA 95604
To order: 1-800-231-4261
Comment: primarily abridged books on tape, but some poetry and plays;
readers usually professional actors or acting companies.

The Olivia and Hill Press
905 Olivia Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
313-663-0235
Foreign language tapes, primarily French, German, and Spanish, but some
Russian, including stuff for kids.

Reddings Audiobook Superstores
2302 N. Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale, Arizona 85257
800-REDDING
Comment: Produces nothing of its own, but rents and sells what they
have purchased from Recorded Books, Books on Tape, and others.

Dercum Press
P. O. Box 1425
West Chester, PA 19380
Comment: Has some unabridged short stories on cassette under the label
"Active Books," notably some SF collections. Readers are average.

Blackstone Audio Books
P.O. Box 969
Ashland, Oregon 97520
1-800-729-2665
http://www.blackstoneaudio.com
Comment: lots of unabridged classics on tape. Narration is done in a
different style (less transparent) than some other companies.

Dove Audio
301 N Canon Drive
Suite 207
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

Audio Book Contractors
P.O. Box 40115
Washington D.C. 20016-0115
+1-202-363-3429

Some libraries have audio tapes available for loan as well.

The United States federal government also has a (free) program to
provide tapes to people who are blind or who cannot physically
manipulate a book. Contact the reference librarian in your public
library for information.

And now there are on-line sources, including such general (book)stores
as http://www.audible.com and amazon.com. You can also rent from such
specialized dealers such as http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com and
http://www.audiobook2.com. And lastly, there are companies
specializing in other fields (religion, self-help, etc.), but they are
too numerous for me to list here.

------------------------------

8) What English-language authors learned English as a second language?

AUTHOR FIRST LANGUAGE
Achebe, Chinua Ibo*
Arlen, Michael (Dikran Kouyoumjian) Armenian?
Asimov, Isaac Yiddish*
Bellow, Saul Yiddish, French?
Brodsky, Joseph Russian
Bronowski, Jacob Polish
Broumas, Olga Greek
Budrys, Algis Lithuanian
Codrescu, Andrei Romanian
Conrad, Joseph Polish
Cousteau, Jacques French+
Dinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen) Danish
Heym, Stefan (Helmut Flieg) German
Ishiguro, Kazuo Japanese*
Kakuzo, Okakura Japanese
Kerouac, Jack French
Kingston, Maxine Hong Cantonese
Koestler, Arthur Hungarian
Kosinski, Jerzy Polish
Lewis, Saunders Welsh
Limonov, Eddie Russian
Lin Yu-tang Chinese (Mandarin?)
Lowe, Adolph German
Lundwall, Sam Swedish
Malinowski, Bronislaw Polish
Milosz, Czeslaw Polish
Mukherjee, Bharati Bangla
Nabokov, Vladimir Russian*
Narayan, R. K. Tamil
Nin, Anais French
Rand, Ayn Russian
Sabatini, Rafael Italian
Seth, Vikram Hindi
Skvorecky, Josef Czech
Smirnov, Yakov Russian
Soyinka, Wole Yoruba
Stoppard, Tom Czech*
Traven, B. German?
Tutuola, Amos Yoruba from Abeokuta (Nigeria)
van Gulik, Robert Dutch
Vincinzey, Stephen Hungarian
Wertenbaker, Timberlake French
Zukofsky, Louis Yiddish

* Learned English as a child.
+ First book was in English

B. Traven is a pseudonym for someone of uncertain national origin, who
went to great lengths to obfuscate his past. German was probably his
first language, despite his disclaimers that it was English. (More
detail: His works were mostly originally published in German, and
usually translated into English by someone else, but the US edition of
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE was edited for word order from
B. Traven's own translation. (And we know he was faking the bad word
order, since his letters and diaries are in proper order.) He did
sometimes publish in English first a few times, and that part of a
pre-publication English manuscript for THE DEATH SHIP (originally
published in German) is known.)

Other possible candidates include Timothy Mo, who grew up in Hong Kong
and was later educated in England. There are numerous Indian and
Anglo-Indian writers, like Vikram Seth (Hindi/Punhabi/Hindustani),
R. K. Narayan (Tamil/Kannada), Raja Rao (Kannada), Bharati Mukerji
(Bengali), Gita Mehta (?), Anita Desai (?), Markandaya (?), Tagore
(Bengali), and Salman Rushdie (Hindi/Urdu), for whom English may very
well be their second language. Some of the modern Soviet expatriates
write in English now (see Smirnov, above). Also Guneli Gun (Turkish),
Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah (?), Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Kikuyu),
Dambudzo Marechera (Shona), many other African writers, Waguih Ghali
(Arabic), Walter Abish (German), Apirana Taylor (Maaori), Albert Wendt
(Samoan). Other possibilities include a number of Chinese and East
Asian authors. Also possibly Mavis Gallant, who spoke French as a child
in Montreal. Jan Willem van de Wetering wrote in Dutch and then
translated his books into English.

Banumir Wongar had been listed as an Arnhem Land aborigine, but it
turns out he was actually Sreten Bozic, a Serbian immigrant who
identified with the aborigines he worked with.

How about switches to other languages? French has Samuel Beckett
(first language English), Camara Laye (Dahomey), Julien Green
(English), Leopold Senghor (Senegalese?), Leon Troyat (Lev Tarassov,
a.k.a. Lev Tarossian) (Russian? Armenian?), and Elie Wiesel (Magyar
and Yiddish). Russian has Fazil Iskander (Abkhaz) and Chingiz
Aitmatov (a Central Asian Turkish dialect). Leonora Carrington wrote
several short stories in French or Spanish, before their translation
into English. Was Paul Celan's first language was Hungarian?

Milan Kundera's first language was Czech, but he now writes in French.

Then there are bilingual-from-birth writers, such as Liám
Ó Flaithearta
Flann Ó Brien (real name Brian O'Nolan or Ó
Nualláin), and Sean Ó
Faoileán. Many authors have also written novels in Esperanto.

------------------------------

9) What books or plays have been written about scientists?

(Given that science fiction would expand this list beyond the disk
limits of most systems, this question is restricted to non-SF only.)

Plays or theatrical performances:
Albee, Edward: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (biologist)
Bentley, Eric: THE RECANTATION OF GALILEI GALILEO--SCENES TAKEN FROM
HISTORY PERHAPS
Brecht, Bertolt: GALILEO
Bronowski, Jacob: THE FACE OF VIOLENCE
Darion, Joe and Ezra Laderman: THE TRIALS OF GALILEO (opera)
Duerenmatt,Friedrich: THE PHYSICISTS (physicists in an insane asylum)
Eisenberg, Mike: HACKERS (computer scientists)
Emanuel, Gabriel: EINSTEIN: A PLAY IN TWO ACTS
Esst, Garrison: UNCERTAINITY (Einstein and Heisenberg)
Heimel, Cynthia: A GIRL'S GUIDE TO CHAOS
Ibsen, Henrik: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (although main character is a
doctor)
Johnson, Terry: INSIGNIFICANCE (Einstein and Marilyn Monroe)
Kaiser, Georg, THE GAS TRILOGY
Kingsley, Sidney: MEN IN WHITE (1930s Pulitzer-prize winning play about
a young/old doctor)
Kipphardt, Heinar: IN THE MATTER OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
Leonard, Jim: GRAY'S ANATOMY (about a MD who has to deal with
contaminated water that kills off a town)
MacLeish, Archibald: HERAKLES (a play in verse about the power of
scientists--that of a god--and the meagerness of their
imagination)
Mighton, John: SCIENTIFIC AMERICANS (physicist and computer scientist)
Rice, Elmer: THE ADDING MACHINE
Schenkar, Joan: FULFILLING KOCH'S POSTULATES (microbiology)
Shadwell, Thomas: THE VIRTUOSO (late 1600s parody of the Royal Society)
Socolow, Elizabeth: LAUGHING AT GRAVITY: CONVERSATIONS WITH ISAAC
NEWTON (poetry)
Stavis, Barrie: LAMP AT MIDNIGHT (1940s, about Galileo)
Stoppard, Tom: HAPGOOD (physicist)
Stoppard, Tom: ? (about Stephen Hawking)
Whitemore, Hugh: BREAKING THE CODE (about Alan Turing)
Williams, William Carlos: various short stories about doctors
Wilson, Robert: EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH
Wilson, Robert: THE LIFE OF SIGMUND FREUD (?)
?: PARTICULAR MEN (about J. Robert Oppenheimer)
?, PICK UP AX (engineers and engineering managers)

Novels:
Asimov, Isaac: A WHIFF OF DEATH
Banville, John: DOCTOR COPERNICUS, KEPLER
(Banville's novel THE NEWTON LETTER, is not directly about
Newton.)
Baring, Maurice: CAT'S CRADLE
Borges, Jorge Luis: short story in LABYRINTHS about Averroes
Boyd, William: BRAZZAVILLE BEACH (mathematician and social biologists)
Brod, Max: THE REDEMPTION OF TYCHO BRAHE (astronomers Brahe and Kepler)
Chekhov, Anton: (many stories with doctors)
DeLillo, Don: RATNER'S STAR
Djerrasi, Carl: CANTOR'S DILEMMA
Levi, Primo: (several semi-autobiographical books)
Lewis, Sinclair: ARROWSMITH
McCormmach, Russel: NIGHT THOUGHTS OF A CLASSICAL PHYSICIST
(professor of physics)
Powers, Richard: THE GOLD BUG VARIATIONS
Pynchon, Thomas: GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
Pynchon, Thomas: V.
Rand, Ayn: ATLAS SHRUGGED (physicists)
Rosenthal, Erik: THE CALCULUS OF MURDER
Rosenthal, Erik: ADVANCED CALCULUS OF MURDER
Shute, Nevil: NO HIGHWAY (structural engineering)
Smith, Kaye Nolte: MINDSPELL (genetic engineering)
Snow, C. P.: THE NEW MEN (building the British atom bomb)
Snow, C. P.: THE SEARCH
Stone, Irving: THE ORIGIN (a biographical novel of Charles Darwin)
Trollope, Anthony: THE CLAVERINGS (engineers)
Thomas, Walter Keith and Warren U. Ober: A MIND FOR EVER VOYAGING:
WORDSWORTH AT WORK PORTRAYING NEWTON AND SCIENCE
Wibberly, Leonard: THE MOUSE THAT ROARED
Yourcenar, Marguerite: THE BLACK WORK

Short stories:
Chappell, Fred: "Ladies from Lapland" (about Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis)
Chappell, Fred: "Linnaeus Forgets"
Chappell, Fred: "The Snow That Is Nothing in the Triangle"
(about Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach)

------------------------------

10) Is there really an S. Morgenstern, listed as the author of THE
PRINCESS BRIDE and THE SILENT GONDOLIERS? And what is the reunion
scene?

No, it's really William Goldman. When you write for the reunion
scene, this is what you get (or what Mary Margaret Schuck,
[email protected], got anyway):

=======
Dear Reader,

Thank you for sending in, and no, this is not the reunion scene,
because of a certain roadblock named Kermit Shog.

As soon as bound books were ready, I got a call from my lawyer,
Charley -- (you may not remember, but Charley's the one I called from
California to go down in the blizzard and buy _The Princess Bride_
from the used-book dealer). Anyway, he usually begins with Talmudic
humor, wisdom jokes, only this time he just says, "Bill, I think you
better get down here," and before I'm even allowed a 'why?' he adds,
"Right away if you can."

Panicked, I zoom down, wondering who could have died, did I flunk my
tax audit, what? His secretary lets me into his office, and Charley
says, "This is Mr. Shog, Bill."

And there he is, sitting in the corner, hands on his briefcase, looking
exactly like an oily version of Peter Lorre. I really expected him to
say, "Give me the Falcon, you must, or I'll be forced to keeeeel you."
"Mr. Shog is a lawyer," Charley goes on. And this next was said
underlined: "_He_ _represents_ _the_ _Morgenstern_ _estate_."

Who knew? Who could have dreamed such a thing existed, an estate of a
man at least a million years dead that no one ever heard of over here
anyway? "Perhaps you will give me the Falcon now," Mr. Shog said.
That's not true. What he said was, "Perhaps you will like a few words
with your client alone now," and Charley nodded and out he went, and
once he was gone I said, "Charley, my God, I never figured --" and he
said, "Did Harcourt?"* and I said, "Not that they ever mentioned" and
he said, "Ooch," the grunting sound lawyers make when they know
they've backed a loser. "What does he want?" I said. "A meeting
with Mr. Jovanovich," Charley answered.

*_The Princess Bride_ was first published in hardcover in 1973 by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Now, William Jovanovich is a pretty busy fella, but it's amazing when
you're confronted with a potential multibillion-dollar lawsuit how
fast you can wedge in a meeting. We trooped over.

All the Harcourt Brass was there, I'm there, Charley; Mr. Shog, who
would sweat in an igloo he's so swarthy, is streaming. Harcourt's
lawyer started things: "We're terribly terribly sorry, Mr. Shog. It's
an unforgivable oversight, and please accept our sincerest
apologies." Mr. Shog said, "That's a beginning, since all you did
was defame and ridicule the greatest modern master of Florinese prose
who also happened to be for many years a friend of my family." Then
the business head of Harcourt said, "All right, how much do you want?"

Biiig mistake. "_Money_?" Mr. Shog cried. "You think this is petty
blackmail that brings us together? _Resurrection_ is the issue, sir.
Morgenstern must be undefiled. You will publish the original
version." And now a look at me. "In the _unabridged_ form."

I said, "I'm done with it, I swear. True, there's just the reunion
scene business we printed up, but there's not liable to be a rush on
that, so it's all past as far as I'm concerned." But Mr. Shog wasn't
done with me: "_You_, who _dared_ to _defame_ a _master's_ characters
are now going to put your_ words in their mouths? Nossir. No, I
say." "It's just a little thing," I tried; "a couple pages only."

Then Mr. Jovanovich started talking softly. "Bill, I think we might
skip sending out the reunion scene just now, don't you think?" I made
a nod. Then he turned to Mr. Shog. "We'll print the unabridged.
You're a man who's interested in immortality for his client, and there
aren't as many of you around in publishing as there used to be.
You're a gentleman, sir." "Thank you," from Mr. Shog; "I like to
think I am, at least on occasion." For the first time, he smiled. We
all smiled. Very buddy-buddy now. Then, an addendum from Mr. Shog:
"Oh. Yes. Your first printing of the unabridged will be 100,000 copies."

****

So far, there are thirteen lawsuits, only eleven involving me directly.
Charley promises nothing will come to court and that eventually
Harcourt will publish the unabridged. But legal maneuvering takes
time. The copyright on Morgenstern runs out in early '78, and all of
you who wrote in are having your names put alphabetically on
computer, so whichever happens first, the settlement or the year,
you'll get your copy.

The last I was told, Kermit Shog was willing to come down on his first
printing provided Harcourt agreed to publish the sequel to _The
Princess Bride_, which hasn't been translated into English yet, much
less published here. The title of the sequel is: _Buttercup's Baby:
S. Morgenstern's Glorious Examination of Courage Matched Against the
Death of the Heart_.

I'd never heard of it, naturally, but there's a Ph.D. candidate in
Florinese Lit up at Columbia who's going through it now. I'm kind of
interested in what he has to say.

(signed) William Goldman

P.S.

I'm really sorry about this, but you know the story that ends,
"disregard previous wire, letter follows?" Well, you've got to
disregard the business about the Morgenstern copyright running out in
'78. That was a definite boo-boo but Mr. Shog, being Florinese, has
trouble, naturally, with our numbering system. The copyright runs out
in _'87_, not '78.

Worse, he died. Mr. Shog I mean. (Don't ask how could you tell. It
was easy. One morning he just stopped sweating, so there it was.)
What makes it worse is that the whole affair is now in the hands of
his kid, named -- wait for it -- Mandrake Shog. Mandrake moves with
all the verve and speed of a lizard flaked out on a river bank.

The only good thing that's happened in this whole mess is I finally
got a shot at reading _Buttercup's Baby_. Up at Columbia they feel
it's definitely superior to _The Princess Bride_ in satirical
content. Personally, I don't have the emotional attachment to it, but
it's a helluva story, no question.

Give it a look-see when you have the chance.
-- August, 1978

P.P.S.

This is getting humiliating. Have you been reading in the papers
about the trade problems America is having with Japan? Wll, maddening
as this may be, since it reflects on the reunion scene, we're also
having problems with Florin which, it turns out, is our leading
supplier of Cadminium which, it also turns out, NASA is panting for.

So all Florinese-American litigation, which includes the thirteen
lawsuits, has been officially put on hold.

What this means is that the reunion scene, for now, is caught between
our need for Cadminium and diplomatic relations between the two
countries.

But at least the movie got made. Mandrake Shog was shown it, and
word reached me he even smiled once or twice. Hope springs eternal.

-- May, 1987

=======

------------------------------

11) Does anyone have a list of female mystery writers?

Adamson, Lydia
Aird, Catherine
Albert, Susan Wittig
Allingham, Margery
Ames, Delano
Babson, Margery
Barr, Nevada
Baxter, Alida
Brand, Cristianna
Braun, Lilian Jackson
Brown, Rita Mae
Butler, Gwendoline
Cannell, Dorothy
Carlson, P.M.
Cau[l]dwell, Sarah
Cheyne, Angela
Christie, Agatha (a.k.a. Mary Westmacott)
Churchill, Jill
Clarke, Anna
Cody, Liza
Cooper, Susan Rogers
Craig, Alisa (a.k.a. Charlotte MacLeod)
Crane, Hamilton
Cross, Amanda
Dale, Celia
Daly, Elizabeth
Davidson, Diane Mott
Davis, Dorothy Salisbury
Davis, Leslie
De La Torre, Lillian
Dominic, R. B. (see Emma Lathen)
Douglas, Carolyn
Duke, Madelaine
Dunlap, Susan
Dunnett, Dorothy
Elkins, Charlotte
Elrod, P. N.
Emmuska, Baroness Orczy
Evanovich, Janet
Ferrars, E. X.
Ferrars, Elizabeth
Fleming, Joan
Frankel, Valerie
Fraser, Anthea
Fraser, Antonia
Fremlin, Celia
George, Elizabeth
Gilman, Dorothy
Gordon, Alison
Gosling, Paula
Grafton, Sue
Grimes, Martha
Hambly, Barbara
Hampton, Sue
Hardwick, Mollie
Harrington, Joyce
Hart, Anne (apparently there are multiple mystery authors named Anne Hart)
Hart, Carolyn
Hess, Joan
Heyer, Georgette
Hitchman, Janet
Hogarth, Grace
Holland, Isabelle
Holt, Hazel
Hornsby, Wendy
Hughes, Dorothy
Jackson Braun, Lilian
James, P. D.
King, Laurie R.
Kijewski, Karen
Kittredge, Mary
LaPierre, Janet
Lang[s]ton, Jane
Lathen, Emma (pseudonym for Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Hennisart)
Laurence, Janet
MacLeod, Charlotte (a.k.a Alisa Craig)
Mann, Jessica
Maron, Margaret
Marsh, Ngaio
Matera, Lia
McCrumb, Sharyn
McMullen, Mary
Meek, M.D.R.
Meredith, D. L.
Michaels, Barbara (see Elizabeth Peters)
Mitchell, Gladys
Moody, Susan
Morice, Anne
Moyes, Patricia
Muller, Marcia
O'Connel (the Mallory series)
O'Marie, Sister Carol Anne
Orczy, Baroness Emmuska
Olliphant, B. J. (A. J. Orde and Sherri Tepper)
Orde, A. J. (Sheri Tepper)
Papazoglou, Orania
Paretsky, Sara
Paul, Barbara
Perry, Anne
Peters, Elizabeth (a.k.a. Barbara Michaels) (Barbara Mertz; a now-retired
archaeologist specializing in Egypt. Peters is the name
she uses for stories dealing with Egyptology somehow, and
Michaels for the rest.)
Peters, Ellis (Edith Pargeter)
Pickard, Nancy
Pirkis, Catherine Louisa
Radley, Sheila
Raskin, Ellen
Rendell, Ruth
Rinehart, Mary Roberts
Roberts, Gillian
Rowe, Jennifer
Sayers, Dorothy
Sayles, Medora
Scoppetone, Sandra
Shankman, Sarah
Shannon, Dell
Simpson, Dorothy
Singer, Shelley
Smith, Barbara Burnett
Smith, Joan
Smith, Julie
Stacey, Susannah
Tey, Josephine
Truman, Margaret
Weber, Thomasina
Wells, Tobias
Wentworth, Patricia
White, Ethel Lina
Wilhelm, Kate
Wilson, Barbara
Wright, L. R.
Yorke, Margaret
Zaremba, Eve

(from [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and
others)

Marilyn Wallace has five or so "Sisters_in_Crime" anthologies for
folks who are looking for even more mystery authors who are women.

Cindy Steinhoff ([email protected]) writes:
"One of the questions included in the FAQ asks for a list of mysteries
written by women. The list is very complete. Thought that you might
want to add an additional resource to that question. Just published
this spring was a guide to mystery fiction by women, called BY A
WOMAN'S HAND: A GUIDE TO MYSTERY FICTION BY WOMEN, by Jean Swanson and
Dean James. The publisher is Berkeley, ISBN is 0-425-14143-8, cost is
about $10.00 in paperback. The book includes only female mystery
writers currently writing. It is not intended to be a complete
bibliography of all works by the authors listed, just a guide to
provide basic info about the author, name a few of her books (such as
the first title in a series), and give some suggestions for other
writer who are similar."

Carol Wayne ([email protected]) writes:
"While at the Library Ltd. in St. Louis, I ran across a pocket guide to
Detecting women 2, a reader's guide and checklist for mystery series
written by women, which noted that a full-sized edition was available.
I now have both and find it wonderful reading. Lists authors, titles,
characters, pseudonyms, etc."

------------------------------

12) What is the difference between the male and female editions of
DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS by Milorad Pavic?

Page 293

FEMALE:

And he gave me a few of the Xeroxed sheets of paper lying on the table
in front of him. As he passed them to me, his thumb brushed mine and
I trembled from the touch. I had the sensation that our past and our
future were in our fingers and that they had touched. And so, when I
began to read the proffered pages, I at one moment lost the train of
thought in text and drowned it in my own feelings. In these seconds
of absence and self-oblivion, centuries passed with every read but
uncomprehended and unabsorbed line, and when, after a few moments, I
came to and re-established contact with the text, I knew that the
reader who returns from the open seas of his feelings is no longer the
same reader who embarked on that sea only a short while ago. I gained
and learned more by not reading than by reading those pages, and when
I asked Dr. Muawja where he had got them he said something that
astonished me even more.

MALE:

And he gave me a few of the Xeroxed sheets of paper lying on the table
in front of him. I could have pulled the trigger then and there.
There wouldn't be a better moment. There was only one lone witness
present in the garden -- and he was a child. But that's not what
happened. I reached out and took those exciting sheets of paper,
which I enclose in this letter. Taking them instead of firing my gun,
I looked at those Saracen fingers with their nails like hazelnuts and
I thought of the tree Halevi mentions in his book on the Khazars.
I thought of how each and every one of us is just such a tree the
taller we grow toward the sky, through the wind and rain toward God,
the deeper we must sink our roots through the mud and subterranean
waters toward hell. With these thoughts in my mind, I read the pages
given me by the green-eyed Saracen. They shattered me, and in
disbelief I asked Dr. Muawja where he had got them.

------------------------------

13) What is the short story by Jorge Luis Borges in which a Chinese
taxonomy is discussed?

"The Analytical Language of John Wilkins," in OTHER INQUISITIONS
(University of Texas Press, 1964). It is not, repeat NOT, "Tlon,
Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." I re-read that with a specific eye toward
looking for this reference and it isn't there. Nor does it appear to
be in any other story in LABYRINTHS.

------------------------------

14) Where do ISBNs come from?

Each country has an issuing agency that assigns numbers to publishers,
then the publishers assign numbers to each title. In the US, it's the
R. R. Bowker Co., publishers of "Books in Print" [see question #2].
Look at the beginning of the first volume for details. I'm not sure
who does it in Canada; check "Canadian Books in Print."

Here's how it works:

First digit:
0 or 1 for English-speaking countries; other numbers
elsewhere.

Second part [varying length]:
The number assigned to the publisher. Bigger
publishers have smaller numbers and vice versa.

Third part [varying length]:
The number for the individual book and edition.
(The paperback will have a different ISBN from the
hardback of the same title, for example.)

Tenth digit:
0-9 or X. This is a check digit (we just had a long,
boring thread about how this is formed from a
mathematical formula). The point is that it allows
a computer to alert you if you made a typo.

Thanks to Robert Teeter ([email protected]) for this.

------------------------------

15) What are the "Penguin 60s"? Does anyone have a full list?

Briefly, they are a set of 60 small books in celebration of Penguin's
60th anniversary. In Britain they are priced at 60p, but the United
States one are 95 cents each. A full description and list of the
titles available in in United States can be found at
http://www.penguin.com/usa/news/sixty/penguin60.html. The set
available in Britain is different.

------------------------------

16) What is KIRKUS REVIEWS?

KIRKUS REVIEWS is a review mostly read by librarians and booksellers.
It's sort of a tip sheet as well as a review, since it reviews books
quite a while before publication. I've never seen it on sale anywhere,
so if you want to have a look at it, ask your friendly librarian or
bookseller. (It's looseleaf, so it is hard to display.)

Thanks to Robert Teeter ([email protected]) for this.

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17) Who wrote THE WONDERFUL FLIGHT TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET?

Eleanor Cameron wrote it. There were four sequels: THE
STOWAWAY TO THE MUSHROOM PLANET, A MYSTERY FOR MR. BASS,
MR. BASS'S PLANETOID, and TIME AND MR. BASS.

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18) Which is the best translation of Dante's DIVINE COMEDY?

There is no consensus. Robert Pinsky seems to get the strongest
rcommendations so far as I can tell. The two best known are Dorothy L.
Sayers and John Ciardi. People seem to disagree on whether either
preserved the terza rima, with more consensus that Sayers did, but her
translation is quirky, and the "Paradiso" was finished by Barbara
Reynolds after Sayers's death. Ciardi is more readable, but less
credited with preserving structure.

Others recommend Charles Singleton for a prose translation, or Allen
Mandelbaum for verse.

Other translations recommended by people included Peter Dale, Robert
Durling (accurate and scholarly), and Mark Musa.

http://members.aol.com/vdbshop/d_ed.htm is a "virtual bookshop" which
lists all these with short descriptions.
http://members.aol.com/lieberk/welc_old.html has more Dante links.

[Random note: The first time I saw it was in a *Spanish* translation
that my father had. I couldn't follow much, but it had these *great*
illustrations.... I was quite crushed later when I got out of college
and wanted the book for the Dore illustrations to discover that he had
donated all his Spanish-language books to the university library.]

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(Contributions for addition to this FAQL gratefully appreciated.
Suggestions for things *I* should write to add to this FAQL are not so
gratefully appreciated.)

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--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Be braver. You cannot cross a chasm in two small jumps.