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Friday, January 14, 2005

Reading List: Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle

Appleton, Victor. Tom Swift and His Motor-Cycle. Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, [1910] 1992. ISBN 1-55709-175-7.
This is where it all began--the first episode of the original Tom Swift series. Here we encounter Tom, his father Barton Swift, Mrs. Baggert, Ned Newton, Eradicate Sampson and his mule Boomerang, Wakefield "bless my hatband" Damon, Happy Harry, and the rest of the regulars for the first time. In this first outing, Appleton is still finding his voice: a good deal of the narration occurs as Tom's thinking or talking out loud, and there are way too many references to Tom as "our hero" for the cynical modern reader. But it's a rip-snorting, thoroughly enjoyable yarn, and the best point of departure to explore the world of Tom Swift and American boyhood in the golden years before the tragically misnamed Great War. I read the electronic edition of this novel published in the Tom Swift and His Pocket Library collection at this site on my PalmOS PDA. I've posted an updated electronic edition which corrects a few typographical and formatting errors I noted whilst reading the novel.

Posted at 23:56 Permalink

The Internet Slum: Is the Exodus Beginning?

When I published The Internet Slum in May 2004, I subtitled it, "Is Abandoning the Internet 'The Next Big Thing'?". A column in today's Los Angeles Times, "No More Internet for Them" indicates this trend is becoming visible to big media. Several home computer users, including a 50 year old early adopter, are described as pulling the plug on their Internet connections due to the frustration, disgust, and sense of violation I described in The Internet Slum. Spyware and adware may be "the last straw" for many fed-up users. The article closes with the early PC adopter and early abandoner of the Internet describing his now-disconnected PC, "It's great for anything you can do on your own. It seems to me an incredible typewriter--and that's it." And this is truly sad.

Posted at 13:34 Permalink