New Project: Reading Every One of Our Books - Part 2

Part 1 of this project is here. You might want to read that first if you haven't already. 


I have decided to do this project one shelf at a time. I have our fiction books shelved alphabetically by author.  The first shelf is Adams, Douglas to Campbell, Robert.

I pushed forward the books I haven't read yet. All of the Adams, Douglas books stayed where they were. Some of the Auster, Paul books moved forward. All of the Austin, Jane books moved forward.


The Rules
I have also decided to concurrently read a non-fiction book.  These are shelved by category, not by author. I have not set any pattern to reading the non-fiction books.


As I mentioned I am reading the fiction one shelf at a time. I can jump around the shelf alternating authors and type of fiction but I have to finish the shelf before moving onto another. I have not decided if I have to keep going forward alphabetically or I can jump around.

These are the books I have read so far.


A Morning for Flamingos by James Lee Burke

One of the miscellaneous books moved forward was A Morning for Flamingos, by Burke, James Lee. A stamp on the inside cover shows it passed through The Book Swap in Horsham PA at some point; I expect it had another stop between The Book Swap and me, though I have no idea what that might have been. Not being familiar with Burke, James Lee, I doubt I bought purposefully. I suspect it was probably part of a 4 books for $5 or similar deal somewhere.

Judging the book by the cover, I think it's a mystery that takes place in Florida. After a few rather "heavy" books, this sounds like it might be a little bit lighter. After marking it as Currently Reading on goodbooks.com, I noticed it has been rated 4 out of 5 stars. I suspect it will prove to be a good pick.

James Lee Burke, still writing, has written many books set in New Orleans and other areas of Louisiana. My brother lived in NOLA for about 13 years and I got to visit him a couple of times. Like many people I fell hard for NOLA.

Flamingos is the fourth in the Dave Robicheaux series. Robicheaux (Ro-beh-show) is/was a New Orleans cop. Written and set in the late 1980s, this book takes place in a pre-Internet, pre-cellphone New Orleans and Louisiana Bayou (not Florida). It was a great read. I wished I had read the other three Robicheaux books first. Burke is still writing Robicheaux books. 


I enjoyed it greatly and then gave it to my brother. Dave was familiar with James Lee Burke, all of his books were reviewed in the New Orleans paper when they came out, but had yet to read one.




Hell by Robert Olen Butler
One of Maureen's books. I gave up on this one after about 30 pages in.

It's set in hell a few years in the future since some living people are there. There's a whole lot of set up (actually way too much) and a lot of imagination went into this one. And there is some very good comedy. This book would make a great live action TV series.

After reading some other reviews, I realized that I would find it a slog to get through this and reading fiction is supposed to be enjoyable.

As several seasons of 30 minute TV episodes, I would LOVE this. It would probably be one my favorite shows. But as a book, I found it laborious. 


Bogie by Joe Hyms
I got to talking about Humphrey Bogart with a Grey Lodge customer. He brought this book in for me to read. 


Lots of antidotes about Bogie. The writer was a friend but that doesn't get in the way. If you are curious about Bogart's life, this is worth a good skim. If you are really interested, it is probably worth a full read. I gave it a hard skim. 


People of the Book by Geraldine Brooke 
Another one of Maureen's books. 

Not a book I would have picked up if it wasn't already on bookshelf. I'm glad I picked it up. Very fascinating fictionalized account of the history of Jewish prayer book. Combines extremely well done research with an several very interesting personal stories set in various points in time. 


Taste of China by Deh-Ta Hsiung
A Chinese cookbook that I bought off the clearance shelf at Borders sometime in the 1990s. 


This is a great book. Many of the recipes are easy to make. Most of involve deep frying and the addition of sugar, so there aren't too many healthy recipes in there.


At the beginning there is a description with pictures of ingredients and cooking tools.

 I cooked many of the recipes. Maureen really liked Red and White Prawns. 


The Music of Chance by Paul Auster 
I have read all but two of the Paul Auster books on my shelf. This was another great one by Auster. I read this mostly in the garden just as the weather got nice.

Very well written and it hums along. I tore through this book surprisingly fast. Well it was a very pleasant weekend with very little work, but even so. This book is breezy but deep. The characters are well drawn.

The whole thing builds and builds then just.... ends. Ends with finality but few answers. On the whole a bit disappointing after such a great ride. 


At Death's Door by Robert Barnard
I liked this one a lot. It took me a while to read though. It was like eating a really rich dessert; small bits are best.

The characters were really well developed. It was very masterful how he did that.

I figured out the main mystery very quickly. Some clues were a little too obvious. But that didn't affect my enjoyment of this book at all. 

 The Bridge Over the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
One of those classic books that is easy to find cheaply due to its ubiquity. 

What a very strange book. Written in French by a Frenchman who seems very smitten with the English. It's about English POWs and English special forces in Thailand during WWII. Sufficiently suspenseful. I have yet to see the iconic movie. If I had, I suspect it would have ruined the book for me.

Little Creatures Everywhere by Mary Bringle 

Another book that I probably bought years ago because it was on a discount shelf somewhere. 

A very good read. The characters are well drawn and the mystery was interesting. I'm not sure that the mystery was solvable by the reader, but very enjoyable none the less. 


Street of No Return by David Goodis 
I have my Philadelphia books on a separate shelf downstairs. So I am trying to work some of them into the mix. I read this while we were in Toronto in about 24 hours. 

Another very typical Goodis work. Typical yet unique. Being a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, I find the settings of places now very changed, especially interesting. If you love Goodis, you'll love this one. 




The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri
A very enjoyable read. Luckily, I noticed the notes in the back before I got too far in. I wish I read the other books in the series first. None the less, it was a great read. Great characters and a great glimpse at life in Sicily


Pyscho by Robert Bloch 
What can I say? If you saw the movie, and who hasn't, you pretty much know what you are in for. That said it holds up and is a great read. It must have been amazing if you had read it before knowing about the movie.
 

New Project: Reading Every One of Our Books - Part 1

I have been collecting books since I was a teenager. I wanted a book lined library some day (I sort of have it). It just seemed so cool and so classy. This was well before the Web with just about anything you want to know being just a click away, making many printed books obsolescent.

Book Collector
If you wanted a book lined library, you needed books (obviously). So planning ahead, I started collecting books when I was young,.. young and really poor. I got a lot of great books from thrift stores, library sales, used book stores, and from the clearance racks of new book stores. 30some years of collecting books. Between my wife and I, we have 100s and 100s of books.

Not like Foreigner at All - No Urgency
The problem with collecting books is there is no urgency to read them. Most are bought cheaply which further removes any urgency since they didn't really cost anything. They are bought to be read someday.

With ebooks and mp3s, you no longer need to collect physical objects like books or CDs. I now have no desire for physical items. Kindle software on a tablet is fine with me. But I still have a lot of books from the old days.

Book Ex-Collector
With my transition to ex-collector, I have become a reader. Someday is now. I want to read all of our books and then probably get rid of them.

20 Year Old Resin Adirondak Chair

 

I was sitting outside enjoying my garden when I realized the resin Adirondack chair I was sitting on is 20 years old. I was hit with "wow this chair is really old". And then with "and I'm even older".

 

Outdoor furniture is an adult item that you buy when you are out your own with no intentions of moving back in with your parents. Many of us find it difficult to picture ourselves as real adults. It's strange to be old enough to own such an adult item for so long. I have been an adult for a long time. Weird. 

 

I bought these two chairs in 1990 or 1991. I got them at Carrefore, which is the Walmart of France. In the late 1980s, they attempted to colonize US retail, using the Philadelphia area as their entry point.

 

Carrefores are giant stores which supposed sell everything. Everything except for umbrellas for some reason. In effect Carrefore, was a super market with lousy selection, combined with a discount department store with lousy selection, all contained within a gigantic building. The employees wore roller skates to get around the store. Customers were forced to walk the whole thing. 

Carrefore gave up when the leases were up on the two stores. They are long gone from the USA, but I still have the chairs. 

 

I paid about $20 each in 1990 dollars for them. You can now buy resin Adirondack chairs for  $15 in 2012 dollars. Economics is a strange thing. Either way, I definitely got my money's worth.

I was really wowed with these chairs when I bought them. I placed them the back yard of my rowhouse in Frankford. Back in the early 90s, I even wrote a little song about my then contentment, which included owning resin Adirondack chairs. (I will have to find that). 

 

Eventually they moved to a small roof outside a window in my apartment above the Grey Lodge. That set-up looked really cool and urban, but in reality it was a pain to get out the kitchen window and onto the roof. Also black tar roofs are not very pleasant places.

Then they moved to house on Passmore Street, where for whatever reason I didn't sit outside much. Part of the reason was the chairs had become chalky. 

 

Finally these resin chairs have been here at ranch for the last 5 years, where they now get as much use as the ever did. 

While at Passmore Street, I bought two cheap wooden Adirondack chairs that were supposed to replace the plastic ones, as they were 1) chalky, 2) plastic. The wood chairs sat in the garage unassembled for several years. When I bought the ranch, I finally had the inclination to put the wood chairs together. I primed and painted the wood chairs to help them last. While I was painting the wood chairs,  I decided to put a coat of exterior paint on resin ones while I was at it. I thought if it didn't work,  I wasn't out much. I only painted the exposed sides, so it went very quickly. The effect of only painting the exposed sides worked out too; you don't notice. They take paint surprisingly well.

So there you have it, a lot more words than I would have thought possible for two $20 plastic chairs.

As to the wood chairs, they lasted two years after which they rotted out and had to get tossed.

Cozy Reading Knook, Net Cost: Zero

 

I greatly enjoy reading outside in the garden in my resin Adirondack chair. I was disappointed that I didn't have an equally cozy place to read indoors when the weather was cold and/or rainy.

 

 I have a reclining leather(ish) wing chair in my living room, which would be the ideal reading chair. But somehow the living room didn't feel like a cozy place to read. I thought it would probably take money to make a cozy place to read.

For the last 5 years, since we moved in, the chair has been perpendicular to the window bay, parallel with the two sofas. 

I turned the chair diagonal to the window bay, giving views of outside, also creating its own sort of space. It is now very cozy while also still being a potentially social part of the living room. 

Maureen and I now both find this a great place to read. 

Cost to turn the chair, zero. 

Win.

Reading Along

I finished my project to read all 79 novel length Agatha Christie books back in January. I still need to write about that. But not today.

After 2.3 years reading one author, I wanted to catch up on a some books by local authors who I have had the pleasure to meet.

First up was Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski . Duane's first novel, The Wheelman, is one of my favorite books. (I loaned it to someone, I forget who, who never gave it back :-(  If you have my copy, could you return it?). Duane is a really great writer. His prose is very concise, every word counts. He's also extremely funny and masterful story teller. Severance Package was too graphically bloody for my tastes in a few parts, but overall it was another great read.

Next up was Dope Thief by Dennis Tafoya. Dennis is one the authors who had a book selling/signing with us at the Grey Lodge. I ran into him after the very cool Retreat to Goodisville trek. I keep all my Philadelphia themed books in a separate bookcase. I try not read them all at once, leaving a few for new discoveries. Seeing Dennis reminded me I hadn't read either of his books, so I started off with his first. Dope Thief takes a few pages to set itself up, but then explodes into greatness. The farmhouse scene is really brilliant. I wound up enjoying it very much.

After reading two local books, I returned to our general fiction collection. Third up was The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. This is sort of a mystery narrated in the first person by an autistic English teenager. It does a great job of putting you into the mind of an autistic teenager. It is so well written that I found myself thinking like the narrator, which may not be the best thing. I loved it at the beginning but found it a bit boring and repetitive after the mystery was solved half way through. Well worth a read.

6 Days a Week

Six days a week, I get to start the day off from my home office, where I catch up on email, RSS feeds, and world, local and personal news online. I am usually up a little, sometimes a lot, before dawn.

I always keep the lights off and open the blinds. The computer screen and the street lights outside are the only illumination. As dawn breaks the room gets gradually brighter until it is full daylight.


Buses, cars, and pedestrians pass by outside, rushing to where they have to go. That's not me. Well that's me one day a week, but not today.

My day will have me out and about, doing things, working. This time right now is a nice bit of me time. Four days a week, usually just before I fix myself some breakfast, my wife comes in for a kiss before she heads off to work.

It's 6:22am. It's still dark, but that will change. It always does. It is about ninety minutes to a kiss. The kiss doesn't change.

Time to catch up on some news.

Brains!

Brains!... it's what's for dinner.

I went to Bells Market (link includes reviews from crazy people), a really great Russian super market here in Northeast Philadelphia, for their really great prepared salads and some produce. It's not too much of a detour when I'm driving home from Hop Angel.

Walking in, I noticed a big weekly special sign in the window advertising ground pork. The sign was quite effective in that I wound up buying ground pork, something that wasn't on my list. Score one for old school marketing. Take that Twitter!

It took me a few days to decide what to do the ground pork or maybe just to remember that I had it in the frig. I remembered that I liked making stuffed peppers, which usually use ground beef. This meant going to another closer by produce store to get some bell peppers.

I had some crazy wild rice that was in pantry for a couple of years, using that in place of white rice, which I don't keep in the house anyway. It cooked up black. That rice worked out really great in the peppers, adding a nice added texture to the meat stuffing. Next time I might try black beans instead of rice.

The nice thing about a popular dish like Stuffed Peppers is that there is no end of different recipes on line. I looked at quite a few, taking things I liked from each, such as cooking up onions with the ground meat.


I remembered how much I liked the cheese on top, but how it just putting it on top limited the amount of cheesy goodness for each pepper. I mixed a little cheese into the stuffing mixture. It was the right amount.

I paired it with some Brussels sprouts, that were cooked using a proven winning recipe. A very nice and hopefully healthy meal.