The OFFICIAL Stewart's book thread: SPOILER

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Well, one thing we Nutters do not lack is enthusiasm. But then, you've likely already figured that out.

The one thing that comes immediately to mind (and this may have already been mentioned in the thread) is this: the jerk that flamed Stewart for the initial Disaster Gig post wrote for Reuters, not the AP.

I'll find the page number when I get a minute.

[Copeland Assistant]

Oh my mistress, thank you.
No that error had not been mentioned previously.

Finally found the Reuters story (never had time to read it during the craziness of the beginning of the tour). [Dean Goodman's not much of a writer, it's almost plagiarism, all he did was re-quote Stewart's blog w/little of his own words or actual reporting.]

I will add that to the corrections list.

Please keep 'em comin'!
M

[luddite lady]

Well, how cool is this? I do believe this is the first time someone has actually asked me to quibble. Be careful what you wish for.
Since I'm not really quite as neurotic as I seem, I did not write notes in the margins or assail the book with a red pen. So, I'm unable to give you any concrete examples of comma abuse. I do seem to remember commas being omitted in some compound sentences. My understanding is that they are required when independent clauses are joined by conjunctions like and or but. I do have a copy of my book about. I'll glance through and see if I'm lucky enough to come across anything.
And congratulations on the second printing! Just today I came across STH being rather prominently displayed in a bookstore in a suburban super-mall. That's the type of retail therapy I enjoy.

[luddite lady]

So, I just reread the book's afterword as I remember shaking my pendantic little head a few times when I initially read this chapter. I found a few quibble-worthy bits. (Sounds like a dog food)

Page 310 (US edition, if that makes a difference): The sentence starting with "My Pygmy friend..." lacks a comma before the "and" which joins the clause about Barack Obama. Without it, the shaman appears to be arousing the US President along with "his little pack of humans". I think Stewart has already got himself into enough presidential difficulties in the past.

If you are going to be a stickler about this rule of commas used in compound sentences, there are a few more omissions in this chapter even though the absence of the comma does not lead to any confusion in these cases.
Page 309, second sentence...I think a comma should join the two questions.
Page 309, halfway through the second paragraph..."We can feel it COMMA and we are evolved to like it when this happens."

Throughout the chapter, Stewart (or perhaps it was you Melissa) was quite free and easy with the commas when demarking a subordinant clause that began a sentence or was otherwise out of its natural order. Bless you for that. However, after setting that precedent, it's best to stick to it. The one time it was missing in such a case was on page 309 just before the "We can feel it..." sentence.
You'd be following the precedent and giving the sentence a little more punch with the inclusion of a comma thusly, "When we stomp or hoot together, we unite."

Once I start using words like thusly, it's time for me to get some sleep and let visions of semi-colons dance through my head. I hope I've been of some help.

[ltwoman]

Wow! LL-- that was prettyh impressive! I think we have a second DM on our team! That was as much fun to read as the original thread (almost).

[ltwoman]

I am on disc 3 of the audio book and I think it's even better than the book! With Stewart's reading it and inflections and nuances of tone... the background music that was selected... it is GREAT. Then I find myself thinking "I don't remember this in the book" (now I'll have to check to be sure). It was only 3 months ago, but it seems like the first time I've heard some of anecdotes. It's indeed unabridged.

This is only my second audio book (the first being a short story by Stephen King). Not being a cell-phone-and-drive kinda gal, it's a challenge and I have to rewind periodically. No tickets or traffic stops yet, and I don't think I've run any red lights or gone (too far) over the speed limit.

Luddite Lady, I don't think I will ever post again without wondering about my grammer and puncuation, placement of commas and semi-colons, etc. Please go easy on this failed English major (I switched to psychology instead).

[dufmanno]

You know, I considered getting the audio book and now I think I need to. The only other one I own is David Sedaris and his hilarious reading style made my inner voice pale in comparison.
Don't feel bad about the grammar and punctuation. I was once told by someone that they were giving me an intervention to stop my misuse of the semi colon and the dreaded dangling modifier.
I had to actually go to the dictionary to look that one up.

[sockii]

The audio book version is really awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't gotten it yet! These stories really shine when you can have Stewart telling them to you directly - with musical cues and everything

[luddite lady]

As I hang my head in shame, I admit that I still haven't bought the audio book. I planned to buy it as a Christmas present to myself, but I never got around to it. Ukrainian New Year is just around the corner though. In this case, that's a plenty good enough celebration to whip out the credit card and order the book.

Fear not, ltwoman. I only got obsessive with the punctuation because I was asked to quibble. I don't normally let a misplaced comma traumatize me. Besides, I can't spell wurth beens. The punctuation stuff is just me trying to overcompensate.

[plutonic]

Very late to this party.
I finally read the book this week. Stayed up a few hours later than I should have.
My experience with the book was kind of like Sockii's with the audio:

I will say that the audio version DOES make a couple points in the writing seem especially choppy and abrupt in how they end and transition (or DON'T transition well), one chapter to the next. Endings to the chapters are sometimes not very strong and feel very abrupt, like, "wait, that's the end? What happened next?" There's a reason writers are often encouraged to read their work aloud to check the flow of the writing, and I could see it might've been handy here in a few places before going to print...

I agree with this completely. But I'm one of those slow readers who relished the sounds of the words in my head as I read them, so I guess maybe that's like listening to the audio, though I don't think I quite got his voice right in my head. So I'm definitely going to have to get the Audiobook.

My experience is: Stewart is completely ADD, and the book is representative of this.

Strangely, this made me appreciate Stingo:
Stingo's songs do shape the non stop drum solo that is Stewart at the kit.
It works great.

I found myself wanting a little of that help in organization and storytelling: an editor to give the Maestro's thunderous bombast some shape.

And I really didn't dwell on the shower scenes, but hey, that I leave that to others.



dc

[plutonic]

Oops Double Post.

CHA!

dc

[Johnny O]

As a poor unfortunate soul who has not yet acquired the means to purchase the God of Thunder's book...
Does he discuss the aborted recording session of the Police doing a re-do of Truth Hits? If so, what says he???

p.s. I do plan on purchasing the book asap.

[ltwoman]

As a poor unfortunate soul who has not yet acquired the means to purchase the God of Thunder's book...
Does he discuss the aborted recording session of the Police doing a re-do of Truth Hits? If so, what says he???

p.s. I do plan on purchasing the book asap.

No. But somewhere here there's a link to an article about that. If I can't find it perhaps someone else will no where it is. I printed it out and it was pretty interesting.

[BongoBoy]

Now I will go get the audio book. Sounds great.

You Nutters are powerfully impressive the way you can deconstruct prose like that.


"ever feel like the world is a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown shoes" - George Gobel on Johnny Carson 1970's.


You guys are smart.

PS. anyone else get the feeling that the Flag chapter was Stewarts way of saying "Yikes!"?. I couldn't help but feel we scared him a little. Hope not.

BB.

[ltwoman]

My experience is: Stewart is completely ADD, and the book is representative of this.

Strange that one of the checklists we use in my office is the Copeland Symptom Checklist For Attention Deficit Disorders (Edna D. Copeland,Ph.D., 1987).