"She'd brought War And Peace along, thinking that on this expedition she'd finally get around to it; but she never had, and after a day like today, she wasn't about to start. How about the Travis McGee novels she'd been saving, carried here fro her last furlough? No, McDonald cut too near the bone."
"In a nice condo [a girl] was paying for, he spent a month sleeping, drinking beer, strolling in the surf, staring at the Atlantic for hours, and reading War And Peace. He'd been an English major and was bothered by the great books he had never read."
-John Grisham, Camino Island (London, 2018), CHAPTER TWO, 1, p. 42.
The same character:
"John D. McDonald is a favorite of mine, especially his Travis McGee series, and a few years ago I was able to buy two of his original manuscripts from another collector.'"
-Grisham, op. cit., CHAPTER SIX, 13, p. 216.
"'I've got my book.' He held it up. 'War And Peace. 'Been trying to plough through it for years.'"
-Ian Fleming, From Russia, With Love (London, 1964), PART TWO, CHAPTER 25, pp. 186-187.
Unfortunately, Fleming's character, Donovan Grant, Chief Executioner of SMERSH, does not go on to mention McDonald. Grant's copy of War And Peace is a disguised gun, of course.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have read some huge books, such as DON QUIXOTE and MOBY DICK, and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, but I never got around to WAR AND PEACE. Alas, I never read any of John D. McDonald's books.
I've also read some of Solzhenitsyn's equally big novels: AUGUST 1914, NOVEMBER 1916, THE FIRST CIRCLE, CANCER WARD, etc.
Poul Anderson was also a big fan of Leslie Charteris' "The Saint" stories. Charteris is one of those unread by me authors I want to look up.
Ad astra! Sean
I'd have expected Wanda to have an infinite supply of literature and other entertainment on the Patrol's equivalent of a computer drive.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
A lot of the space on Wanda's computer was probably taken up by professional and technical books and references.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: not a problem, given the Patrol’s access to far-uptime computer technology.
In "Time Patrol," in a typical room at the Academy:
"...screens which could draw on a huge library of recorded sight and sound for entertainment." (TIME PATROL, p. 8)
They also have adjustable furniture (which was invented by the Time Traveler!) and all this is described as what "...you would have expected by, say, A.D. 2000..."
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Logically, you are both right and I was wrong.
Ad astra! Sean
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