By The Usual Reckoning, The Worst Books

I Wouldn't Like To Be A Character In One Of My Books!

My Greatest Enemies Are Women And The Sea. These Things I Hate. Women Because They Are Weak And Stupid And Live In The Shadow Of Men And Are Nothing Compared To Them, And The Sea Because It Has Always Frustrated Me, Destroying What I Have Built, Washing Away What I Have Left, Wiping Clean The Marks I Have Made.

It Looks Perverted And Wasteful To Us, But Then One Thing That Empires Are Not About Is The Efficient Use Of Resources And The Spread Of Happiness; Both Are Typically Accomplished Despite The Economic Short-circuiting - Corruption And Favoritism, Mostly- Endemic To The System.

...and I Confess That, Like A Child, I Cry. Ah, Self-pity; I Think We Are At Our Most Honest And Sincere When We Feel Sorry For Ourselves.

I Just Took [my Cancer Diagnosis] As Bad Luck, Basically. It Did Strike Me Almost Immediately, My Atheist Sort Of Thing Kicked In And I Thought "ha, If I Was A God-botherer, I'd Be Thinking, Why Me God? What Have I Done To Deserve This?" And I Thought At Least I'm Free Of That, At Least I Can Simply Treat It As Bad Luck And Get On With It.