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To be honest it doesn't bother me. I've never actually gotten to the end of anything you've ever written.

Dunkirk, the London Blitz, that era, that war... it forged our family. Generations on, it is responsible for where we live, how we were born. What we feel.

As formative, I should imagine, as the American Civil War was to you and yours.  We are all born of history.

I didn't mean that the embarrassment I witnessed on the 08:40hrs Schiphol to Utrecht Centraal was of a sexual innuendo nature. This is Holland, after all. Everyone is nude, all of the time. What I was driving at is the intellectual embarrassment factor. There am I reading an old edition of 'The Wreck of the Golden Mary By Charles Dickens', (that I'd bought a long time ago at car boot sale and was bringing over to loan to a colleague), and she, the fifty-shades lady, sat opposite me, in the late shade of her fifty-or-so years, she seemed self-conscious when she noticed my book and 'hid' her own. I think it was the sight of the Dickens that did this. I've seen this before on commuter trains; 'Intellectual trumps.'  It is only played by travellers from the age forty years old upwards (The thirty-something and under of the species doesn't seem to be afflicted). The middle-aged person reading the latest John Grisham or Harlan Coben is open about it. The cover is freely displayed without self-consciousness; whereas the person of a certain age who is reading something like Harry Potter or Twilight will go to great lengths to hide that fact... especially if somebody whips out a 'top trump', a classic like a Dickens an Austin or a Hemingway.

For a period, a few years ago I commuted into central London every day upon the same train with other regulars. Within the daily carriage, a very well heeled, silver-haired guy who was quite obviously 'something in the City' would read the J. K. Rowling series.  The paperback was consciously hidden within the covers of a legal folder as if it were pornography.  His facial expressions revealed that he was very engaged within the read and enjoying it, which I found (strangely) hypnotically charming to observe. Anyway, I thought the book title hierarchy hang-up was a middle-aged British phenomenon until I witnessed it here in the Netherlands.

Book snobbery; my revised opinion is that I think it is a European thing, social repression, a legacy from the centuries of class structure. Social hierarchy based upon the feudal system that you probably don't suffer from in the USA.

I've not encountered a 'Nook' here in UK. Mind you, we don't have Barnes & Noble either, which is probably why.

Kindle's are very common though. I have to admit that my family bought me a Kindle a few years ago. Before I used it myself (other than as a book-end) I lent it to a colleague whom I haven't seen since and don't think I'll see again. I'm going to have to buy one on the quiet and pretend it is the original one. 'Thanks folks, I love it' is what I'll say as I wave it at them. I have it all planned.

Spotted a woman reading Geheimes Verlangen on the train yesterday. She spotted me spotting her and I grinned, she grimaced, flushed and tucked it into her 'perhaps bag' then looked out of the window for the rest of the journey. Was it like that for you between those covers? A mix of intrigue, shame, embarrassment and self consciousness?   

I love Catch-22, the irony, sardonic repose and general wiseguy-ness is totally in context and wonderful within John Yossarian's illogical world. It fits... akin to the likes of Bilko and Mash.

What happens? Give us the context. Are these scenarios based within a community of 'community' or a community of 'self' ?

That method was foolproof. It was a part of what built an interactive community back then. But that was different times, different people and this is a different site.

The new site seems more about 'self' than community. That's how it pans out, because that's what people want and you cant argue with that. Old friends and known associates aside, reviewing on tNBW has changed. Many reviewers employ subjectivity over objectivity and many writers will accept nothing other than gushing adoration about their writing when a true and honest edititing session would rip their delusion a new one. Many writers are not mature enough within the craft or don't have the personality that can accept honest objective critique and editorial advice.

These people are not ready for your time/effort and therefore I think that not replying to, or withholding a respone to a reveiw by a precious author is a wonderful mechanism. It quickly and painlessly eliminates those whom don't want your reviews, allowing you to concentrate upon those who do, without fuss or confrontation.

It also allows you to drop reviewers whose advice you don't solicit, respect or agree with.

In this time and place, I think the abstainence or non-reply to reviews feature is excellent.

There is no place for a foolproof mechanisim within a ship of fools.

It is a typical Philip Kerr quote. He has created a character 'Bernie Gunther' who is a Berlin cop in the 1930's and 40'. Bernie is a reluctant Nazi and as a detective he is drafted into the Gestapo within the rise and fall of Hitler's Reich. The novels are written in a first person hard (or semi-hard) boiled style. I'm mixed in my opinion. As I read, I kind of hear a 'hard-bitten and caustic Chicago private investigator' voice. I really like the 30's, 40's, 50's Germany subject matter and the POV of Gunther as a character but I wish the smart-ass, wiseguy metaphors and simile quips within the dialogue were toned down a bit because they seem out of context and begin to grate and sound cheesey, all of which distracts from the gravitas elsewhere.

Watched this....

50 Shades of Clay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB7iGzNJd6s

Do I now have the original movie/novel completely covered?

WHAT? You jest?

A quick Google search reveals some lines from the novel...

"His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel... or something."

"And from a very tiny, underused part of my brain – probably located at the base of my medulla oblongata near where my subconscious dwells – comes the thought: He's here to see you

"I feel the colour in my cheeks rising again. I must be the colour of The Communist Manifesto."

"I can almost hear his sphinx-like smile through the phone."

"My very small inner goddess sways in a gentle victorious samba."

"I eye Christian's toothbrush. It would be like having him in my mouth. Hmm..."

"My inner goddess is doing the merengue with some salsa moves."

"The orange juice tastes divine. It's thirst-quenching and refreshing."

And dozens and dozens more...

I can't go there.

I feel it is compelling case against the modern human condition that this tripe is an international best-seller of mega proportion.

Can you almost hear my gargoyle-like grimace through the Internet?

Freeform oration...

How did we go from this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDNCEp8Utjo

to Rap?

"The history of Jones County, Mississippi during the Civil War and the immediately following period."

Newton Knight was your very own Robin Hood. Only, Robin Hood is an olde English legend whilst Newt Knight is an ACW reality.

The movie is half decent too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EMkxEKKSQI

Rent it for your Mom. I owe her a reccomendation x