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The one that stands as stark evidence of why some authors should never, ever return to their earlier works. Especially not if they have experienced "epiphanies" in their lives since writing them!

     Sometimes, I wonder if it's the "cash cow" thing that brings 'em back.  Especially for those authors who live to see their work become a best seller.  It's one thing that probably makes me a relieved that JRR Tolkein never got to see what they did to his Lord of the Rings trilogy, as he had passed while still not completing the Silmarillion stories that were based upon its background.  Nothing he could've done would've topped the epic which he created, so late in life.

     For my part, I'm currently wrapping up Sir Winston Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples.  After that, I've got my eye on more recent history, and his memoirs on the events during World War II may be my next target (I may pick them up at a local farmers' market, where an old hardcover copy is on display).

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Curiously enough, in a book about forgeries, I seem to be detecting a much lighter style to the writing this time. I have found his books eminently readable, from the first, but there is an almost rooty-tooty quality to this one* that has me waiting for the chapter in which he reveals someone else wrote the book, as a demonstration of some of the concepts he's discussing!

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* In one chapter he mentions that "Peter" was not actually the name of Jesus' disciple, just a "nickname" that JC gave him, like calling him "Rocky"!