Posted: 2018/11/01 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Fiction | Tags: audio book, books, childrens book, Confessional, Dorothy Dunnett, e-books, fantasy, Fiction, historical, homosexuality, humor, insane moments, Isabel Miller, lesbian, Leslie Silko, lists, Martha Beck, Michael Malone, Morocco, motherhood, native american, new york, NonFiction, Philip Pullman, reading, real estate, series, Steven Millhauser, Tahir Shah |
What do you do when the most inappropriate sentiment unexpectedly comes out of someone’s mouth? A confession that should never have left the lips of the confessor? Instead of thinking of the actions I should take I chose to take none. I do nothing. Distance makes it easy to ignore and deny. When I can’t avoid I read. Here are the books started for November:
Fiction:
- Foolscap, or, the Stages of Love by Michael Malone – Malone was born in the month of November; reading in his honor.
- Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko – in honor of November being Native American Heritage month.
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman – November is National Writing month. Choosing fantasy for this round.
- Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller – Routsong’s birth month was in November. Reading in her honor.
- Martin Dressler by Steven Millhauser – reading in honor of Millhauser’s birth place, New York City.
Nonfiction:
- Expecting Adam: a True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic by Martha Beck – in honor of my mother’s birth month.
- The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah – in honor of Morocco’s independence was gained in November.
Series continuation:
- Scales of Gold by Dorothy Dunnett – to continue the series started in honor of Dunnett’s birth month in August.
Fun: nothing decided yet.
Early Review: I have been chosen to receive an early review but I will refrain from naming it in case it doesn’t arrive.
Posted: 2014/11/06 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Complaining, Confessional | Tags: books, challenge, insane moments, numbers, reading |
As you may or may not know and as you may or may not care, I miscounted the books left to go in my Book Lust Challenge. I had previously decided I was going to embrace the new number and move on. Obviously, I didn’t embrace and I haven’t moved on. I am still trying to figure out how I miscounted. But. But! But, in that figuring out, I think I’m beginning to get answers. Go figure.
The root of the problem lies in what was indexed. Across all three Book Lusts the editors were not consistent with what information should be included. In Book Lust any book mentioned in the introduction was not included in the index. Full titles were not listed. A lot of the poetry and short stories were missed. In all, there were over 140 mistakes in the index of Book Lust. Now, let’s look at More Book Lust. 18 titles didn’t make it into the index and most of those were either poetry or short stories. Full titles were included (unlike Book Lust). In Book Lust To Go instead of missing information there was an overabundance of information. For starters, take the titles Le Marriage and Le Divorce. These two titles are indexed twice – once under L for Le and once under M and D for Marriage and Divorce, respectively. Two titles, four entries in the index. Duh. Another issue – only in Book Lust To Go is the series title indexed along with the individual books within the series. Example: Kristen Lavransdatter is the name of the series and it is composed of The Cross, The Wife, and The Wreath. Three books, four entries in the index. Interestingly enough, Kristen Lavransdatter is also indexed in More Book Lust but only by the series title. There is no mention of The Cross, The Wife or The Wreath. Surprise! Bottom line, I don’t really know how many individual titles I have to read. Meh.
So, as you can see (clear as mud) I am trying to sort out the titles. This is going to take some time. I’ll try not to go crazy.
Posted: 2014/09/23 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Confessional | Tags: books, Confessional, insane moments, lists, Nancy Pearl, reading |
The numbers are in! Thanks to a severe omission of several chapters from Book Lust To Go I had to add 89 additional titles to the Challenge list, bringing my total number of books left to read to 4,809. While I am irritated by this new number, 4809 is a much better number than what I had been originally anticipating. I guessed 4,840. In order to remain positive, I will try not to fixate on the fact I thought I had 4,726 to go. I will put THAT number out of my head. I will. So. Moving forward, what this means is I will be even stricter about the “fun” stuff I read on the side. I will become pickier about the “outside” books. If you weren’t recommended by Pearl, forget about it. Wait. I’m a liar. I will still review Early Reviews for LibraryThing. I am loyal to the Thing. But being stricter with the rules also means I will give up on Challenge books more easily. Does it pain me to say that? No, strangely enough, in a way I’m relieved. It pained me more to struggle through a book I had no real interest in reading in the first place. Like that history of the atomic bomb…I found myself really reading only the even pages and skipping the odd. I would do that with any book I was particularly bored with. Hey – it worked. I got the gist of the plot and didn’t feel like I missed all that much. But, from here on out, if I don’t like a book within 25 pages I’m moving on. I don’t want Kisa reading to me on my death bed just so I can finish this challenge. So, on the plus side of these new “rules”, by not wasting a ton of time with the boring books, this means I will get to the books I am really looking forward to reading that much faster.
As penance for screwing up my numbers I am going to start a countdown on my blog. “I have read X number of books to date.”
Another confession – I honestly don’t believe Pearl read every book she recommended, either.
Posted: 2014/09/17 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: Complaining, Confessional | Tags: books, Confessional, insane moments, librarything, lists, reading |
I’m not sure how to say this so I’m just going to come right out and say it. I fukced up. Somehow, in some way, I screwed up my Challenge list. I don’t even know how I figured out something had gone horribly awry. All I know is this- dozens of books from Book Lust To Go didn’t make it onto my lists, and believe me, there are a few. I am the queen of lists. I have a double no, triple no, quadruple no, quintuple-check system for keeping my books in order. Behold:
- First there is the excel spreadsheet called “Twist List.” It has every single title from all three Lust books. This spreadsheet is alphabetically tabbed and each title is color coded for which Book Lust it came from (white for Book Lust, light green for More Book Lust, light turquoise for Book Lust To Go, dark green for both Book Lust and another Lust book, brown for More Book Lust and another Lust book, dark turquoise for Book Lust To Go and another Lust book, and purple for when I finish the title).
- Then, there is a spreadsheet called “Lust To Go List.” It’s the same alphabetically tabbed list as Twist only it’s not color coded and when I finish a book it simply gets deleted from the list. It’s literally a list what I have left to read.
- The third spreadsheet is called “Schedule Calendar” and it is all the titles from all three Lust books organized by the month I plan to read them in. Each month gets its own tab: Jan, Feb, Mar and so on.
- The fourth and penultimate check system is the “Chapter List.” Each Lust book has its own spreadsheet broken out by chapter. Think of it this way: it’s the index of Book Lust et al in excel spreadsheets. Example: Once I finish a book in the chapter “Montana: the Big Sky Country” (Book Lust p 156), for example, I color code the title. At a glance I cen see I read three titles and there are ten more left to read.
- The fifth and final check is not a spreadsheet. It’s actually my LibraryThing account. Every book I have to read is in my “catalog” and tagged “accomplished” when I have read it.
I know, I know. It’s complicated. But, it works. So. Back to my dilemma. Somehow I realized that whole chapters of Book Lust To Go didn’t make it onto the first two lists. I’m not sure how that happened. It kills me to say my comprehensive reading list is not so comprehensive. How to fix this mess? Right now I am systematically (read=painfully) going through Book Lust To Go‘s index and checking the titles against Twist and Lust To Go. I’m up to ‘M’ and I’m adding titles where necessary (and that’s the part that REALLY kills me). Sometimes I only need to add a title to Twist and not To Go. Not sure what happened there, but whatever. Occasionally, I have been checking LibraryThing to see if I included the missing title in my catalog. Nine times out of ten the title is there, so I’m not going to worry too much about that. The lists I haven’t checked (yet) are the Schedule Calendar and the Chapter list. I’ll cross those bridges later. For now, I have enough titles mapped out that I won’t miss the missing…if that makes sense. Watch – I’ll probably end up reading nothing but books on Hong Kong at the bitter end because that’s one of the chapters I completely missed. Oh well.
Posted: 2012/12/14 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: charity, Confessional | Tags: books, charity, Confessional, dilemma, Early Review, insane moments, librarything, reading |
I have a decidedly dumb dilemma. Books. Too many of them. Well, more accurately I have too many uncorrected proofs. Nearly 70 different titles. In the beginning…we’re talking 2006..I was asked to join LibraryThing’s Early Review program. Here’s how it works: ever month LT posts a list of new books to be published and you request one to be reviewed before publication. I have been honored to “win” nearly 70 early publications and I have reviewed them all. Well, let me clarify. I have faithfully reviewed every title I have received. I’m still waiting for two…
In the beginning it was a pride thing. I was so thrilled to be asked to join this program that I saved every single book I was asked to review. I wanted to keep an entire collection of “librarythings” to mark the accomplishment. But now they are taking over! Ironically, the two favorites I wanted to keep I loaned away and never saw again (The Translator and Losing Clementine). But, back to the books I can’t keep. I argue with myself and moi about what to do all the time.
Here’s how it goes:
Me: We donate them to a charity?
Myself: It’s uncorrected proof. No one wants to read an unfinished product.
Me: We could donate them to a library?
Moi: You wrote tags, notes and stuff all through them. You underlined and dog eared pages. (Shame on you, librarian!)
Me: We could give them to friends?
Myself: And how would you decide who gets what? Think of that Orgasmic Pregnancy one! Who would get that?
Me: We could offer them up free to anyone interested near and far? FaceBook? They would just pay my shipping costs?
Myself: And what if people don’t send you $$ to mail them? You are trying to renovate your kitchen, remember?
Me: We could throw them out?
Moi: You would hate yourself and chase after the recycling truck to bring them back.
Me: We could just keep them?
Myself: Out of the question. You don’t hold onto books unless you love them. You are running out of room with things you don’t love.
Me: I do hate clutter.
Moi: See?
So. What to do? Maybe when the weather gets warmer I’ll set up an alfresco book store with a big ole “Free” sign and see what happens. It could be a study in sociology. Do people like uncorrected proofs? Would they mind my in-page musings? Do people like free no matter what? And who will take that Orgasmic Pregnancy book?
Posted: 2012/12/04 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: audio book, Confessional, E-Books, Early Review, Fiction, Graphic Novel, NonFiction, Poetry | Tags: anniversary, books, Confessional, insane moments, reading |
This is the list for Year Seven of the Book Lust Challenge. I’ll update it at the end of each month, just to keep myself honest.
- Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
- Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
- Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
- Ariel by Sylvia Plath
- At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
- Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter- Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
- Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
- Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
- Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
Breakfast with Scot by Michael DrowningBrush with Death by Elizabeth Duncan- Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
- Burning the Days by James Salter
Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes- Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
- Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
- Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert- Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
- Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
- Deafening by Frances Itani
- Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
- Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
- Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
- Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
- Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear- Fanny by Edmund White
- Final Solution by Michael Chabon
- Fixer by Joe Sacco
- Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
- Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
- Galton Case by Ross MacDonald ~ reading right now
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
- Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
- Going Wild by Robert Winkler
- Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris EwanGood Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan- Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
- Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
- Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
- Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
- House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
- House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
- Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
- Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
- Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
- Lives of the Painters (
vol 2, 3 & 4) by Giorgio Vasari
- Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
- No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
- Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
- Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
- Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
- Panther Soup by John Grimlette
- Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
- Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
- Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
- Rosalind Franklin by Brenda Maddox
- Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff- Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
- Southpaw by Mark Harris
- Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova ~ reading right now
- Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
- Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
- Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin- What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
- Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer
- Widow for One Year by John Irving
- Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
- Working Poor by David Shipler
Posted: 2012/10/30 | Author: gr4c5 | Filed under: audio book, Confessional, Early Review, Fiction, Life, NonFiction | Tags: books, Fiction, insane moments, lists, NonFiction, reading, resolutions |
November marks the seventh anniversary of the crazy idea I would read everything indexed in Book Lust by Nancy Pearl. Subsequently that idea mushroomed into reading everything indexed in More Book Lust and most recently, Book Lust To Go as well. Let’s do a little math, shall we? In six years I have read 583 books. That is approximately 97 books a year. If I continue at that rate I will finish the Lust Challenge when I am 93 years old, give or take a year or two…..
I had this conversation with someone a few days ago and without warning the thought that I might not finish this challenge depressed me. Not because of my own mortality but because of all the interesting books I will miss. I had a horrible thought – what if I spent a considerable time slogging through something I found only mildly interesting while I missed out on something completely riveting? What a not nice thought. I shared this ugly-ugly and my companion stridently changed the subject. What if you were to consider November a “new” year and you list out the books you are planning to read? This, of course, would not include LibraryThing and the Early Review program. It would not include the “strays” (as I’ve taken to calling them). Those are the books picked up for no other reason than a good suggestion or an intriguing cover. Accountability. I like it. It gives me structure. So, without further ado, here is the conservative list for Year Seven 11/2012 – 11/2013 in alphabetical order, of course:
- Abide By Me by Elizabeth Strout
- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
- Among the Missing by Dan Chaon
- Apollo: the epic journey to the moon by David West Reynolds
- Arctic Grail by Pierre Berton (I started this last year)
- Ariel by Sylvia Plath
- At Home in the Heart of Appalachia by John O’Brien
- Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner
- Before the Knife by Carolyn Slaughter
- Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengist
- Beyond the Bogota by Gary Leech
- Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck
- Breakfast with Scot by Michael Drowning
- Burma Chronicles by Guy Delise
- Burning the Days by James Salter
- Camus, a Romance by Elizabeth Hawes
- Cardboard Crown by Martin Boyd
- Cat Who Ate Danish Modern by Lillian Jackson Braun
- Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford
- Churchill, a life by Martin Gilbert
- Conspiracy and Other Stories by Jaan Kross
- Deafening by Frances Itani
- Death in Verona by Roy Harley Lewis
- Diamond Classics by Mike Shannon
- Dining with Al-Qaeda by Hugh Pope
- Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
- Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope
- Edward Lear in Albania by Edward Lear
- Fanny by Edmund White
- Final Solution by Michael Chabon
- Fixer by Joe Sacco
- Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
- Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Gerald Martin
- Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
- Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem
- Going Wild by Robert Winkler
- Golden Spruce by John Vaillant
- Good Thief’s Guide to Paris by Chris Ewan
- Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas by Chris Ewan
- Good-bye Chunk Rice by Craig Thompson
- Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels
- Guardians by Geoffrey Kabaservice
- Hole in the Earth by Robert Bausch
- House of Morgan by Ron Chernow
- House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferre
- Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer
- Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
- Light Infantry Ball by Hamilton Basso
- Lives of the Painters (vol 2, 3 & 4) by Giorgio Vasari
- Mortality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
- No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
- Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
- Ocean of Words by Ha Jin
- Old Friends by Tracy Kidder
- Panther Soup by John Grimlette
- Points Unknown edited by David Roberts
- Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
- Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell
- Rosalind Franklin by Brenda Maddox
- Rose Cafe by John Hanson Mitchell
- Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
- Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
- Southpaw by Mark Harris
- Tattered Cloak by Nina Berberova
- Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
- Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
- Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- Time, Love, Memory by Jonathan Weiner
- Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
- Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
- What you Owe Me by Bebe Moore Campbell
- Widow for One Year by John Irving
- Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
- Working Poor by David Shipler
I’ll update this list May 1st, at the halfway mark. I haven’t spelled out which books I will listen to on CD. This also doesn’t reflect when I’ll read them either. All I know is that I will continue to read whenever and wherever I can. Standing in line at the grocery store, trapped in the backseat of a moving vehicle, before bed, in the bath, while my kisa watches hours of football, with a glass of wine, during storms, by candlelight and sunlight, on vacation, while I’m sick, or waiting for the pasta water to boil. I will skip the books that bore me to tears. I will start books early and finish them late. This is my new year’s resolution.
