T.K. Wade -- Author

Monday, October 10, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: If on a winter's night a traveler [Book Review]

It is either a Monday or a Wednesday... or perhaps some other day. The day itself has gotten away from you, but it means little. Nothing else matters but for one thing, and that is to sit down in front of your computer and access the renowned blog of author T.K. Wade. A new blog has been posted, and you have decided to dedicate yourself to its reading. After pouring yourself a cup of hot chocolate, which is your preferred choice of beverage while reading the author's blogs, you make a few clicks and the new edition of Fairy Tale Spotlight is splashed across your screen.

As is very common in the famous blogs of T.K. Wade, he has decided to post a review of a book. Although this is usually a very exciting thing for you, you immediately notice an unfortunate problem. You are well aware that T.K. Wade never makes typographical errors, but it seems he has, for some reason or another, forgotten to capitalize the book's title in the heading of the blog. Only the first word was capitalized, but nothing else. You consider leaving a comment about the mistake in the section below the article, but perhaps that might be rude. It seems polite to simply continue reading and see what this book is all about.

As usual, T.K. Wade opens in his usual way. He prints out the name of the book with its author and publication date. In this case, the author seems to be an Italian man by the name of Italo Calvino and its publication year is stated to be 1979. But sadly, he has also failed to type out the title with proper capitalization, leading you to believe he was merely copy and pasting it with the error occurring in every single instance. He does this every single time, in fact, as you skim through the blog. "If on a winter's night a traveler" over and over again, just like that. You consider not reading the thing at all. Perhaps he just needs a week or so to regain his former literary acumen.

But upon reading a small portion of the review, you cannot help but continue on. One of the strange things about this particular blog is that it is written in an odd second person, constantly telling the reader of the blog what he is doing and why. It is a pretty strange experience for you. It is nothing like the blogs he has written formerly, although it seems to be T.K. Wade's manner of explaining this book, you suppose.

Much of the description of the book is rather strange to you. You aren't sure what you are reading, so you read every paragraph several times over just to make sure you aren't losing your mind. It seems as if T.K. Wade is suggesting that this book is a collection of unfinished novels, but then it might not be. Or else it is about a man who is reading unfinished novels. Or else it's you who is doing it. Or T.K. Wade? It isn't exactly clear. Halfway through the blog, you decide you need a break.

The day seems to be sunny enough for a walk. There are few instances of annoying flying insects. You leave your computer on and go out. As you pass down the sidewalk next to the street, you cannot get the first portion of the blog out of your mind. The more you think about it, the more infuriating it gets. It's really nothing like the blogs he has written in the past. It almost feels like a betrayal of a kind.

By the time you get to the turning point of your walk, you have already decided not to read the rest of it. You seriously wonder what T.K. Wade could say that will make the review any better. And the very idea he could simply dictate who you are and what you do with your life seems a pretentious thing to attempt. Perhaps you will not read any more of his blogs after today. If he is so intent on changing his style, then punish him! Show him you won't put up with such foolishness.

Halfway home, however, your better sense takes control. It might not be as bad as it seems. T.K. Wade is probably just being silly. He's having fun. Why aren't you having fun too? You decide that you want to have fun. And maybe finishing his new blog is the way to get there, although you are somewhat doubtful. Really, why didn't he capitalize properly? You're suppose to capitalize a title. Almost every word of it. Really. It's such a stupid mistake to make.

Returning to your home, the computer screen is still on and showing the blog. You check to see if the remainder of the hot chocolate is still warm, but it isn't. You decide to refresh it first before you sit back down at the computer.

The blog continues to assume things about you, as if it is deciding your own life and what you are going to do. For the time being, you let it... if only to see if the book gets a recommendation. T.K. Wade always does that. He always puts a recommendation or a lack of one at the end of his blog. Sometimes it's worth reading to the end to, just at least, see if he recommends the book. In many ways, this is the actual point of his blogs. The rest is just fluff that leads up to the climax where he does or does not recommend it. So you read on, not caring too much about the content of the book but really wanting to know if it is a book worth reading.

You think about that a lot. You wonder if a book is worth reading. Sometimes it isn't so much about what a book is about but if its worth reading. Although the concept seems subjective in nature, there is always the idle thought wafting about that there are good things out there that are worthwhile. How will you know unless you either find them or someone points them out? It is the nature of the obscure. We always wonder what exists but have no idea how to find the things we really want, and often times we cannot even be terribly sure of what we want until we stumble across it.

T.K. Wade never really recommended anything you wanted, but his blog had given you ideas and concepts of what you might want... although you could never be sure until you tried it. You might dislike anything he recommends outright. This fear is probably why you never really bothered reading anything he recommended, even though you sometimes wanted to. It's the fear that time will be wasted. Wasted time... The inevitable conclusion that comes with death. A failure that you don't want to think about, yet this blog seems to bring it up belligerently. That's it! You skip to the end!

Aggravatingly, T.K. Wade waffles on the idea of if he should recommend it or not. He can't decide! If he can't decide, how can you decide anything? Annoyed and tired, you down your hot chocolate and move on with your life. Maybe you will comment about it later, but for now, there's just too much ire. You need to relax. Maybe read a book. What book? Any book? Let's pick a book.

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This blog was written on August 24, 2022.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ

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Wednesday, October 5, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Psalm 151 [Review]

"Psalm 151" is an extra chapter from the book of "Psalms" found within the "Apocrypha." It was written by David.

I reviewed "Psalms" a long while back when I was going through all the books in the "Holy Bible." It had exactly 150 chapters and just stopped. Apparently this extra one gets omitted because it's considered extraneous or something. Like there was something to do with going over the number or it being extra. I didn't really understand it entirely, but apparently there are a few Bibles that do include this one. I'm not sure why all of them don't have it. Is it really because they want to stop at an even 150? If that's the case, they are being very silly.

Whatever the situation may be, "Psalms 151" is one of the sweetest ones in the bunch. It's very short, lasting only seven verses. It's David talking about the strangeness of being chosen by God, when he thought himself to be lesser than his brothers.

He mentions that his brothers are taller than him and more handsome. David also was in charge of the sheep, which was another humble aspect of him. He was the little guy!

Despite his brothers being seemingly greater than him, David mentions that the Lord still did not take pleasure in them. And yep! That's true. God does consistently favor the small and the humble among us. It's just a bit cute seeing David muse about this. I really liked it.

I really do recommend "Psalm 151." I know this sounds kind of a strange thing to say about a Bible chapter, but this is actually pretty cute. David was the simple and small person in the world that God loved, and it's amusing to see him wondering about it in astonishment. I'm glad this exists.

This blog was written on August 21, 2022.

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Monday, October 3, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Jasher [Book Review]

Oh, thank goodness I finally finished this!

"Jasher" is a book found within the "Apocrypha." I don't know who the author is. I looked into it and some names were mentioned, but there seems to be a whole lot of disagreements on it. I stopped caring real fast.

"Jasher," like "Jubilees," is another spin on "Genesis," although this particular book extends from "Genesis" to "Joshua." And it's long. It's really long! Every single possible thing that you could ever expand on happens in this book. It was infuriatingly long. It was unnecessarily long. Half the time I felt like banging my head on my desk from how frustrated I got with this book.

And it isn't just how long it is; it's also just an overwritten and unbelievable book. Things happen in it that just did not happen. There is an actual scene towards the end where a man named Og picks up a seven-mile-wide rock with the intention to throw it on top of the entire people of Israel. No. That did not happen. That is absurd writing, you fool. You should never have written that. All credibility is gone now.

It wasn't just that. There was the story of Jacob and his sons which read something like a Marvel action movie. All the sons of Jacob had super powers. Like over the top ones. It would actually make a good action movie. Some of the battles remind me specifically of the movie "300." It's all garbage though.

There are some glaring inconsistencies as well. They made both Enoch and Moses a king. Enoch was king of the world and Moses was king of the land of Cush. These two things never happened. It's garbage.

One big issue that seriously marred the credibility of this book is the outright plagiarized of other books of the Bible. "Jasher" out rightly steals stories from "Job," the Gospels, and "Daniel," simply changing the characters involved but keeping the same surrounding narrative. The plagiarization of "Job" was probably the worse. A lot of that was taken word-for-word from "Job," but it was actually the story of Abraham and Isaac. Just.... shameless. I couldn't believe it was actually that bad.

Despite all of my complaints, there is a silver lining. There are two chapters that are extremely good and absolutely smacks of truth and sincerity. Chapter 18 and 19 are wonderful. They tell the story of why Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked, like in the specifics. It's not what you'd think! It was not anything like I had been told in my upbringing. The reason I believe these chapters is because it's almost exactly what I see in the world today.

There is nothing over the top or silly in these two chapters. They just about mismatch themselves with the rest of the book. Everything is played down to a more reasonable and realistic level. And when you read them, you'll understand why the cities had to be destroyed... and why we may be coming close to their level today. Once again, it's not what you may think. It's probably not what people told you. But it's bad. It's really bad.

I want to make myself really clear in this last paragraph: I do not recommend you read "Jasher." It's the trashiest piece of apocryphal scripture I have ever read. It comes across as more of a tall tale than anything to be taken seriously. And maybe you like tall tales, at which point you might like it. But as Biblical research, it's garbage. That said, I do recommend Jasher 18-19. I wholeheartedly encourage that you read it. I'll even do you a little service and give you a link to both chapters. People need to know why Sodom was destroyed. Read those two chapters, and then take a good long look at the world around you. Maybe you'll see how close were are to something terrible.

Jasher 18 and Jasher 19.

This blog was written on August 20, 2022.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Reading Without Interpretation

It is absolutely infuriating talking to people about the Bible. With almost anyone, the subject of interpretation ultimately comes up. It's one of the most aggravating things that I have to deal with when talking about my read-through. My statement is this: I did not do any interpretations of anything in the Bible when I read it. I merely read it.

The problem is that there are many people out there who do not think that the Bible can be read without certain parts needing an interpretation. Some even think the whole book needs to be interpreted. "By who?" I should ask. Some sort of Biblical scholar I don't even know? Me? Should I do it? Have I done it? People seem to think I must have, for, to read the Bible, one cannot do it without interpretation.

When I reviewed each book of the Bible, I never commented on anything I didn't understand. I also never assumed I knew more than it did. If the book was plain in saying something, as it often was, I simply took note of it. If it was not clear, I moved on.

What a lot of people take for granted is that the Bible is, more often than not, extremely and even redundantly clear in the way that it speaks. It just boldly states things and then moves on. All I had to do was just read it. That was it. Yes, there were parts that were confusing, but I didn't linger in those parts. Also there are some legitimately stupid parts of the Bible that don't have any real spiritual meaning.

"Song of Solomon" is a worthless, meaningless book filled with gushing poetry from one human to another. People had to use interpretation in order to get to "It's about man's loving relationship with God." That's malarkey. If you actually just read it, it has nothing to do with that.

Yet through all this, I still seem to be getting accused of doing an interpretation. The official line is that anyone who reads the Bible is doing an interpretation. They are doing their own, because anybody can have their own interpretation. This means the things I learned from the book are perfectly useless since they are only valid to me personally. In that case, why even bother writing a blog review of any of the books? All you have to say is that you interpreted it differently. But the thing is... I didn't do an interpretation of anything.

Let's look at an example unrelated to the Bible. Here is a statement:

"Jason traveled across the desert."

Without interpretation, this sentence tells me that someone named Jason, likely a man, circumvented a desert from one end to the other. He went from Point A all the way to Point B. It doesn't tell me anything else.

If I were to use interpretation, I would get a lot of extraneous things. I might say that the journey must have taken a long time, even many years. I could say what sort of conveyance he used, such as a donkey or a camel. I could talk about the struggles of crossing the dessert, how water was limited and such. I could talk about how crossing the desert was God's way of testing him. Lessons could be gleamed from this short sentence about the struggles we all have to face. These are all interpretations. These are the things I did not do when I read the Bible.

The only thing I can get from the statement I gave you here is that someone went from one place to the other. Most times, that's all the Bible is doing. It's just telling you things. It explains what people saw. It tells you what God said in certain places. It just says things.

Yes, there are confusing mysterious things in the Bible that probably needs interpretation of some kind, but I didn't do that either. I ignored those spots, although I still somewhat remember them. I just felt that, if I didn't understand something, it wasn't my responsibility to dictate what it was all about. And to be fair, those places in the Bible are actually in the minority compared to the parts that are easy to understand. Most of the Bible is pretty bold-faced and simple in it's narrative. It is so simple in fact that the idea of interpreting any of it likely means you are turning it into something that it isn't.

So even though it likely does not matter, let me just say it one more time just too officially get this on the record: I did absolutely no interpretations when I read the Bible. I just read it and found it predominantly easy to understand from beginning to end.

And "Song of Solomon" still doesn't belong in it!

This blog was written on August 19, 2022.

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Monday, September 26, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Raggedy Ann & Andy: An Adaptation [Book Review]

"Raggedy Ann & Andy: An Adaptation" is a book written by Kathleen N. Daly. It was published in 1977. The book was an adaptation of the animated motion picture "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure." The illustrations in the book are actual screenshots from the movie and actually work really well in the book. Usually when adaptation books do this, it's just terrible.

This book is much more appropriate for a fairy tale blog. It is a living toy story where the toys come to life outside the view of the child who owns them. There are a lot of books in the Raggedy Ann series, but this one is far more interesting and entirely appropriate for both children and adults, boys and girls. A lot of what the toys encounter on their adventure outside of the house is very trippy in the extreme while still being meaningful.

The world inside this little girl's room is quite normal, but everything outside of it is bizarre and dreamlike. Not a bad thing! It forces you to question what is really going on. Is this real, or is this apart of some external imagination? Either way, the dolls don't question it at all. They simply deal with each and every thing, one after another. And really, who cares?! It ends up being a great adventure!

Some parts of the story are scary. There is a creature called "The Greedy," that is a sloppy creature made of candy. Although he seems to have everything, he won't be satisfied until he has a sweetheart. Unfortunately, that's what Raggedy Ann has as a heart, so he intends to cut out her heart and eat it. Very scary! I like the severity though, even for a children's book.

I don't want to spoil everything about this book, but I do want to warn you about something I found out after finishing it. The blurb on the back of the book completely spoils the entire book, 100%. It eloquently goes over every single thing that happens in the entire story to the point where you don't really have to read it. My friend told me it was probably indented to inform the parents, so that they could decide whether or not the book was appropriate for their child. Fair enough.

I don't think the book is really all that inappropriate though. Even for boys, the story kind of works because of Raggedy Andy. He is not a girly doll, but a tough guy who wants to fight, despite being a raggedy doll. He adds a much needed masculine aspect to the story.

The book I got was in good condition. It said it originally sold for $2.95 back in 1977. I got it for a little over $5.00. That means that this book is not, in any way, considered a collectable. So paying for it won't be a problem. Finding it though may be a challenge. I feel like I kind of got lucky.

Either way, I do recommend the book "Raggedy Ann & Andy: An Adaptation" in and of itself. The movie is better, and you should see it, but the book was fun to read outside of the movie. They are both really good, and I am glad that they exist in this world. Slight warning about the movie though: it's only available on YouTube. Do yourself a service and give it a watch.

This blog was written on August 18, 2022.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Black Cat [Short Story Review]

"The Black Cat" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in 1843. It is, for all intense and purposes, a alternative take on "The Tell-Tale Heart" but with some characters and motives switched around... and the inclusion of a cat.

It's okay. It's not the best thing I've read from this author, but I could not resist the urge to write about it because of my friend Chris. Every Halloween, Chris makes these little picture movies about a black cat named Vincent. Although heavily leaning into comedy, there are actually some very serious topics that are dealt with in them.

In these little movies, Vincent is an evil cat who is manipulating the humans around him. In the case of "The Black Cat," the main feline of the book, named Pluto, could have just as easily been Vincent. For one, the human's evil actions seemed to come out of nowhere. The whole thing sounds like manipulation from an outside source, namely the black cat.

I know this is kind of a silly thing to say, but I actually wouldn't mind seeing a "Vincent interpretation" of this particular story of Poe in one of those movies. I think they would work together. But maybe that's too much to ask for.

I still recommend "The Black Cat" if anything for its brevity. Just keep in mind that it is not quite as good as some of his other works. And maybe someday, I'll see the Vincent version. It would be a major improvement.

This blog was written on August 7, 2022.

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Monday, September 19, 2022

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow [Book Review]

Many, many years ago while I worked in retail, there was a mysterious, smiling man that would come in as a customer. His name was and probably still is Walter. This guy was kind of creepy at first, and it was probably due to the smiling and his sort of weird way he stared at me. There was also these strange pauses that he would make before he would respond to me. The man looked like he was in his own world, but there was a special attention being paid to me... and I was never sure why.

Over the course of perhaps a month or so, he would occasionally walk into the store to buy something or other, but mostly to visit me and just have a little chat. He talked about a lot of fascinating subjects, usually having to do with far off places. He fiddled around with the idea of living in my town, but he never really seemed like he could settle anywhere. Walter was a man of the wanderlust.

After learning that I wrote and read books, he brought in one particular book that he wanted me to read. He gave it a good review himself, and he seemed like he really wanted me to read it. He was more than happy to part with this beloved book with the hopes that I would eventually get around to it. I was a tad nervous about this. I almost never read recommended books from people because I have my own queue of books I want to tackle. But I accepted it. I don't know why really. Walter just... has this lovely way about him. He's charming. He's ridiculously charming, and so I took it... and didn't read it for literal years.

Soon after, Walter drifted out of my life. I moved on to a new job. I always wondered if I'd see him again, but the man just poofed out of existence like a fairy. I'll never forget him. As brief as our time together was, he reminded me that there was more to life than just jobs and survival. There is a beauty to life that people often forsake, which brings me to that book.

"The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow" is a long, non-fiction novel written by Alexander James Mackinnon. It was published in 2002. Its subtitle is listed as "A Mirror Odyssey from North Wales to the Black Sea."

The "Mirror" listed there refers to a Mirror Dinghy, which is a type of small sailing vessel. The whole book is about one man's very long journey on a tiny boat for no other reason but to do it. Perhaps it was a little foolhardy, but he just wanted to do it, and so he did.

The voyage lasted just under a year, and he had to pass through over 200 locks which are these special man-maid structures that allow boats to travel up river. It's kind of a pain though. It's a big deal in the book and something he had to suffer through quite often.

The thing that makes the book amazing though is that this author is just such a nice guy. He's friendly, jolly, and his happiness seems to rub off on random strangers. So many times in the story does random people go out of their way to give him a bed and a dinner. It happened all over the place, even in countries where he did not know the language. Yes, there were some bad people too, but they were in the minority.

The thing that really just blows my mind about the whole thing is just how wonderful this man was. He would happily sing a song as the wind guided him down the water. He often describes the nature that he sees, and would even occasionally just spend some time laying out in a field here and there until the dew settled on him overnight... along with the slugs. (He didn't like the slugs.)

Another thing that really made me happy was that, for the most part, he read most of the same books I did, and he constantly made references to them as the voyage went on. I always knew what he was getting at. It was also nice to see a lot of casual references to Christianity without really being preachy about it. His constant sense of humor was like a fresh breeze, and I really wish I could have met him in person to talk about his adventure.

I don't normally like non-fiction, but this is a non-fiction that reads like fiction. You have this eccentric, pith helmet, wearing man just striking out into an adventure and seeing some of the most amazing fairy tale-like things. It's really just great. I can't recommend this book enough. It's honestly made me want to go sailing myself.

Before I end this blog, I do want to say a few things. The last bunch of blogs entitled "My Reading Habits" were painstakingly written in AJ Mackinnon's humorous style. It was just a little exercise I wanted to give myself before I finished his book. I'm pretty happy with them.

And lastly, I also want to give a profound thanks to Walter for gifting me this book. I think it is only fair I do the same to someone else to keep the "tradition" going. Thank you, Walter. I hope you are having a good life wherever you might be. I'll be praying for you.

This blog was written on August 5, 2022.

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