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READERSVOICE.COM gives a few samples from out of print books. This issue focusses on Robert Orben, who was a gag writer who died in February, at the age of 95. Born in 1927, Robert Orben grew up in the Bronx. He started publishing books of gags at the age of 18, in 1946. He sold […]
Here are a few samples from Robert Orben’s 1950s gag books. These are old style nightclub one liners but they have the classic one liner structure. They kind of bury the lead. They start with some introduction or misdirection, then surprise you with some crazy remark or point they’re making. Sometimes they leave it to […]
Some more gags from the joke books of Robert Orben. They show the classic setup and punchline structure of nightclub one liners. They are worth studying to see how they use an introduction or misdirection, followed by a punchline or surprising point. The Ad-Libber’s Handbook, 1962-69. Doubleday and Company, Garden City, New York: I spent […]
READERSVOICE.COM aims to find old and out of print books that are still worth reading. This issue highlights Land of Contrasts, a 1976 memoir by Edith McFarlane, about her life along Cooper Creek in far Southwest Queensland. Ms McFarlane writes that at the age of 22, in 1925, she caught the train from Adelaide to […]
The author of Land of Contrasts, Edith McFarlane, writes about a corroboree she witnessed near Durham Downs in the 1920s… Ms McFarlane writes: There was a large native camp less than two miles from the Durham homestead, where quite a number of natives lived in their bark humpies…During the time I lived at Durham there […]
the 1922 disappearance of a man named Kennedy on Tanbar Station… Ms McFarlane writes: Evidence pointed to foul play and suspicion fell on one particular person who had been known to threaten Kennedy. The trial was held locally but the absence of the body prevented conviction. Many years later the accused, when he was working […]
READERSVOICE.COM aims to give a few samples from old or out of print books. Sometimes these books are forgotten, or not as well known as they once were, but they’re well worth reading. Maybe ten years ago, I bought a secondhand paperback for fifty cents, published by Fontana Books in 1967. It was called The […]
Here is some of one chapter of Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis: Against Maligning Tongues. . The Voice of the Lord: My son, you must not take it badly if some people have a low opinion of you, and say things that are not very pleasant to hear. You should have an even […]
Here are some more samples from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. A Devotional, or spiritual book from the 15th Century… This from On the gladness of a good conscience: The glory of a good man is the witness of a good conscience. Have a good conscience, and you will always have gladness; […]
READERSVOICE.COM aims to give a few samples from out of print books. Some of these are well worth finding and are at least as good as a lot of books out there today, fiction and non-fiction. One of the best things about the biography The Shadow by Vince Kelly, published 1954, is that it gives […]