The Bibilical Motif Monday, Jun 22 2009 

1 loveofbooks 6:23 am

An Interesting Claim

A fascinating claim has been brought to my attention. Since this claim has a great deal of bearing on many aspects of literature I thought it would be perfect material for writing about on my blog. As a disclaimer, I would like to point out that this claim clearly stems form certain religious roots. I am of course not responsible for this and am currently purposely avoiding these religious issues (although I may address them at some later date…).

Biblical Roots

The first part of this claim is that many great literary creations are actually based on a collection of motifs that constantly repeat themselves. This is patently true and people who study literature call these repeating motifs by various names. The second part of this claim is that all the great and successful motifs stem form the Bible. This part is debatable since I can think of a great deal of motifs that I can’t see directly how they stem from our Holy Bible. The third part of this claim is the most religious and thus most debatable (although not on this blog – this is the stuff that should be discussed in some religious blog!). The third part states that the reason for this is that the Bible reflects the sum of all true patterns of tale and that anything that is at all successful must stem from this mighty source of truth.

Examples

There are several examples that illustrate this claim. This is thanks to the fact that the Bible is replete with drama, action, bloody scenes, incredible self sacrifices, powerful expressions of evil and hatred, pure devotion and several instances of the triumph of good against evil. These are of course all vital components of many a successful tale. Certainly the tales of heroes and their downfalls as they appear in the Bible can be seen in many other literary works as well…

 

Choose Your Own Adventure Books Sunday, Jun 14 2009 

1 loveofbooks 6:44 am

Choose Your Own Adventure

In the 1970s the Choose Your Own Adventure Books began to find a great deal of popularity. The invention of a second person story with multiple possible endings is attributed to Edward Packard who published the first such book titled “Sugarcane Island”. Later, several more books were published and there are now over 250 million copies in circulation. I have found that there are several different ways of reading such books and they represent different kinds of readers. I won’t tell you how read them though – that is private and privileged information!

Honest Reading

The most obvious and straight forward method for this sort of book is to read through it as it was intended. Each choice is made and the result is “lived with”. When the conclusion is reached, the reader must choose if he wants to read the book again and make a different choice or not. Often there are very few really good endings and if a reader happens on one of these he probably won’t find much interest in reading the whole story over again. Of course, dying several unlucky times might be just as strong a deterrent – nobody likes an unhappy ending (especially one that ends with “you breath your last…”).

Sticking Fingers

One particularly amusing way of reading through such book can often be spotted because the reader is constantly sticking his fingers as bookmarks, paging through and then paging back. The reader is basically “exploring” the book very cautiously and thus trying to avoid nasty endings that might come up. This way the reader also gains a broader view of the many options in the story and this lets him choose more educated choices while reading.

Of Note

Of note is one particular adventure titled Inside UFO 54-40. This particular adventure story has a paradise like ending that cannot be reached. The only way to find this ending is to randomly read the entries. Normally this is not a good way to read such books but in this case the readers are actually congratulated on their success.

 

The Merck Manual Monday, Jun 1 2009 

1 loveofbooks 7:17 am

Possessing a Medical Book

Many people enjoy having at home, in their possession a medical book of some sort. This book helps supplement the knowledge provided by the general practitioner whenever such is needed. Of course, such a book is no longer a necessity with the dissemination of the Internet. Thanks to concise online information provided by reliable sources it is possible to learn about practically any medical subject to any depth desired without possessing such a book at all. Nonetheless, researching a subject on the Internet, particularly a medical one, requires certain basic knowledge in order to assist the researcher to sift through the information and locate the accurate and relevant stuff. A good source for such information is a good medical book. Therefore many people still own such a volume and it is still recommended.

The Merck Manual

Perhaps the most famous of such medical manuals that serves the laymen is the Merck Manual of Medicine. The Merck Manual is generally a well updated manual with accurate descriptions and explanations for most disease conditions. Many people used to have one of these manuals at home and even a highly outdated edition can provide a wealth of relevant information. In fact, even medical professionals occasionally make use of the Merck Manual because of its simplicity and conciseness. Of course, today, a fully search-able Manual is available online and a lot of people simply subscribe to the online version rather than purchase the bound volume.

Personal Experiences with Merck

My personal experiences with the Merck Manual are somewhat mixed. On the one hand it is considered excellent bibliographical material and certainly provides a wealth of information, on the other hand, a great deal of information seems to be lacking and at least 50% of the time I have been unable to locate the precise information that I needed. Finally, there has always seemed to be a tendency for the Merck Manual to sound somewhat morbid. I have not purchased the latest edition (yet) but I have heard that the tendency continues.