Himmel!

Book One, Chapter One - In the Casino at Boulogne

(Yes, you read that right - it's divided up into three books!)

Our nameless narrator is having dinner in Boulogne with his friend Bobbie Harrington, Harrington's aunt and uncle, the Boussets, and the Boussets' mysterious friend Lefevre.

The nameless narrator and Bobbie (it takes half the chapter before we can confirm that they are both male) have one more night in Boulogne before they head off in their yacht, so the five decide to have a night at the casino.

If you would like to go to Boulogne to visit a casino, you should read up on Northern France in a spiffy guidebook.



At the casino, Nameless Narrator and Mrs. Bousset are content to people watch while Bobbie and Lefevre gamble. It turns out that Lefevre is an excellent gambler, which is nice because he was a rather dull dinner guest. A pair of Germans are watching Fefevre intently. Suddenly a crazed "artist, student or anarchist, or perhaps a compound of the three" wanders in and draws a gun. In the ensuing chaos, Lefevre disappears. The crazed "artist, student or anarchist, or perhaps a compound of the three" is backed against a corner as the narrator, Bobbie and the two Germans try to advance on him. Suddenly and inexplicably, the crazed "artist, student or anarchist, or perhaps a compound of the three" is dead.

And we're off - a quick little chapter, but a nice hook at the end. While the book is not dated, my research indicates that it was published in 1924 - I have a feeling that there's going to be some politics that I have to read up on. I am also a little curious about nameless narrator and his pal Bobbie - they seem to be having quite a life gallivanting about on their yacht.

Next: "Lassie Ahoy!"

I'm in the mood for some waffles! You can make waffles with a waffle maker!

A new adventure

Two problems have come up to cause me to start a new project, one that I hope I can finish faster than the others that I have been dealing with.

1. Frequent readers will have noticed that I occasionally provide links to Amazon.com. I have done this not out of a sense of necessity but of "oh what the hell." Because of this, many of the things that I could have linked to have not been -- going to Amazon to work up the code is just a bit too much of a bother for me to have gotten into the habit. (By the way, Amazon has really been pushing me to put up links so that I can entice you to purchase a Kindle. Not gonna happen.) This hasn't been too much of an issue for me as I set the thing up because I was inclined to link to listings on Amazon anyway, so why not make a few bucks (or pounds) off it. A new service that Amazon has is a link that offers recommendations based on what Amazon feels the readers of my site will want to read. At first I thought that this meant that they analyzed the site text for content and offered suggestions that way, but it turns out that what they do is analyze based on what people who go to Amazon from my site actually buy. Some friends in Academia have used my code on their webpage related to a textbook they wrote. Because of this, the algorithms in the bowels of Amazon's processors believe that you, gentle reader, are interested in little other than books about thermodynamics. Which means that if I put up these links, I will all of a sudden have a bunch of ads for books on thermodynamics. Which is funny, but not very helpful.
   
2. One of the things that I am doing is sitting down to read the source material for all of the Hitchcock films - When I said I was starting, I mentioned that I did not have the source of his first film (The Pleasure Garden by Oliver Sandys), after a bit of time it turned up on e-Bay. I bookmarked the link to the item, and waited a few days to bid. In that time, the person putting the book up withdrew the item from bidding, but my bookmark resolved into a different auction from the same fellow. Not realising that I was bidding on the wrong book, I put my high bid in, and went on about my day. Result: I spend $62 on something called "Peril Island" by someone named Percy James Brebner.

I have a solution, but first perhaps you would be interested in purchasing a copy of the new Robert Plant/Alison Krauss CD as a holiday gift for a loved one.



So here's my solution.

I will do a close reading of Peril Freaking Island and include Amazon links in the posts. My goal is to earn back the $62 and break even. This should also show that Amazon that I'm about more than just thermodynamics.