2020 Reading List

 

May, 2020

YTD:  88 Books and 831 Hours  

Goal for the year: 100 books and 1500 hours

These Old Shades -- Re-read

They Found Him Dead -- Re-read

To the Hilt -- Re-read

The Toll-Gate -- Re-read

Trial Run -- Re-read

Twice Shy -- Re-read

The Unfinished Clue -- Re-read

The Unknown Ajax -- Re-read

Cat Among the Pigeons -- NEW30

Venetia -- Re-read

Whip Hand -- Re-read

10 Lb. Penalty --  Re-Read

April Lady -- Re-read 

Murder at Melrose Court -- NEW31

The Voyage of the Beagle -- NEW32 HISTORY3

Arabella -- Re-read

Banker -- Re-read

Equal Rites -- Re-read

Bath Tangle -- Re-read

A Passage to India -- NEW33

Tarzan of the Apes -- Re-read

Death on the Nile -- Re-read

MTD: Count 22 and Hours 196

A Bit of Whining

Blogger invited me to and I did for about  12 hours until I reverted to the old interface because it is much easier to for me to read. 

Audible also just changed its interface for My Library and I don't like it for the same reasons. I can't read it easily. The print is too big and does not put enough information in my field of vision.  It doesn't contain all the information that I want at my finger tips. It has too many icons and not enough text-- and a lot of time wasted flying over icons to see what they mean.

Webpage designers have no idea what older users need or what challenges they face. 

New does not always mean better and pretty to look at does not always mean useful or easy to use.  

Tarzan of the Apes

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Tarzan was written over a hundred years ago (1912) -- and it shows. It was written as pulp fiction, a magazine serial. But still, it is a classic-- especially if you consider that the brand kept the author in clover for the next four decades. Tarzan books sold -- and so did the movies and the TV show. Can't tell you how many Tarzan movies we watched on the TV when we got home from school -- back in the days when we had three channels to choose from and at 4pm, it was movie time . Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller was my favorite. But, I digress.

I had to keep reminding myself that to read this book, I must suspend disbelief -- and keep it suspended. I'm not good at that and here I am reading a book that starts with an unbelievable premise and just goes from there. But, 100 years later and people are still reading it and literary critics are still studying it and talking about.

Rating: 3 and half stars

"The curse of sterility is on the land."

It is time to give a progress report on my read of The Voyage of the Beagle.

I am now about a third of the way through it. We have made it to Patagonia and I am really enjoying the adventure. Darwin is a keen-eyed observer who seems to be taking his wild adventure in stride. Of course, this is not a word for word sharing of his diary but a version edited by Darwin for publication--thus it is choppy in places and there are gaps. Sometimes I think I would like to be reading the unedited diaries and in other moments I am sure that 25 hours of this will be sufficient.

I would love to include a quote or two but alas, that is so hard to do when the words evaporate just as quickly as they are spoken. I was lucky to grab the quote in title. One thing I would like to quote is Darwin's description of the geology the escarpments of Patagonia. I'd quote it side by side with a Terry Pratchett comment on a similar local geology. Darwin's description was sober and scientific. Not Pratchett's: banded with so many colors of rock it looked as though some hungry god had made the all-time-record club sandwich.

Another deficiency in the audio format is the lack of visuals. There is no map and there are no illustrations. Thank goodness for Google!! I was able to find a maps. This is my favorite so far.

Darwin spends a lot of time in South America (4 years of the 5 year journey) and it is very helpful to be able to see the coming and goings plotted out on a map.He gives dates along the way but I have trouble remembering them from chapter to chapter, so I have no feeling for the passing of time as the tale progresses.

 

 

 

But it persisted, arriving in her mind like the unexpected limbo dancer under the lavatory door of Life.

 

Pratchett, Equal Rites

Preparing for the BL-pocalypse: Audiobook Edition

Desperately seeking a truly audiobook-friendly cataloging site...

                    

Catch-22: When importing from a database, LT and GR only care about the ISBN. No ISBN, no import. BUT, Audible does not provide ASINs, let alone ISBN, in any of its product description and, with a few rare exceptions, Amazon provides only  ASINs.

I spent the last week whipping my BL datebase into shape. I exported it to a spreadsheet. I added all of the titles I was unable to add in the first place because the titles were not in the BL catalog. I corrected all of the titles that has been added as hard copies when I could not find the digital edition. I scanned for duplicates, removed all library loans and even removed all commas. My DB is now as ready as it is going to be (except for some missing indexing numbers for titles that I own but are no longer on the market). I have now spent all of the time I am going to spend on cleaning and repairing; from here on out, it will be new additions only. And I do feel a buying spree coming on!

My not quite pristine DB contains 1085 records, of which  990 are Audible audiobooks. When I fed my database -- indexing numbers only, since that is all the import applets on the websites look at -- to the websites to import,  Goodreads was able to add 124 titles to my library and LibraryThing, 138 titles. That is not an acceptable success rate. Ninety percent of my DB was left on the cutting room floor.

Audible does a pretty job of organizing a bookshelf for members but it has its problems -- and yes, I said pretty, pleasing to the eye but not necessarily usable. No list view. No ability to navigate to a specific page in the list. No ability to export. No ability to keep track of multiple reads, etc., etc.



For me the quest is over. The thought of adding 1000 titles manually, one title at a time, to any new database when I already have that information neatly arranged in a DB that the websites won't accept is the deciding factor. Until a website comes along that recognizes ASINs and will import 99% of what I own, I will keep my own catalog on a spreadsheet on my hard-drive. It is already up and running with over a thousand entries already in place.  It won't be as pretty but it won't be as frustrating or as time consuming as trying to make my round peg fit into the square hole.

Preparing for the BL-pocalypse: Moving the Data

Two things to understand before you start the process...

Moving a large database from  place to place is a daunting task unless most of the process can be automated. If you have a thousand or even half that number of titles to move, you want the process to automatically populate the new space without having to retype most of the information being moved. I hate re-inventing the wheel, so let me share what I have learned over the past few days. 

FIRST THING. At least on GoodReads and LibraryThing, you need to have an ISBN for each title in order to successfully import that title into your new home; ASINs don't count.  I have not looked into any other websites, because I don't know where to look--but I am happy for suggestions.

GoodReads says:

File Import Tips

All columns in our sample file are supported, but only ISBN is required.

In other words, if all you want to do is populate the library and are not trying to also move tags, comments, reviews, etc. then all you have to send them is a list of ISBNs --which is what I did.

LibraryThing says:

Universal Import does not read any data from your file other than valid ISBNs, if they're included. If you have books without ISBNs, this will not add them. If you have keyed reviews or tags into your desktop program, this will not add them.

In other words, it doesn't matter what else is in the DB, the import applet is only going to look at records that contain an ISBN and then it will populate each title in your library with information about the ISBN from another catalog. You will still have to add book by book any tags, comments, etc. See the FAQ for more precise information: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Adding_and_importing_books

Bottom-line: Just how much work is it going to take to make sure that you have an ISBN for every title in your library?

SECOND THING. If you plan on sending your entire database, beware of commas!!!   Why? Because commas are used to separate the data in the columns. However, not a really problem if you can use "Find and Replace" to change ,  to ",".

Preparing for the BL-pocalypse, Continued

Finding a new home for my bookshelves. 

Will it be LibraryThing or my hard-drive? Well, there is a lot to do before I can cross that bridge.

The database itself needs work, lots of work, before I can do anything else and in the process of doing it, I have learned a lot. My reading library is all audiobooks from Audible -- once I buy them, they are mine to keep -- with some "eyes to paper/screen" titles thrown in every now and then.  If I could simply export the information from my Audible account, this conversation would be over.  So, bring on the violins.

Steps to fixing the DB:

1.  Working from my Audible Library, make sure that every title I own is on the database and that the editions are correct. Mark books that are no longer available on Audible and books that are not audio editions (because this is not strictly a catalog of my audio library). This took four days. (About two minutes per title means about 34 hours; four 8-hours days).

2.  Proofread the database, record by record, make sure that each record contains title, author, narrator and ASIN. Double check ISBNs. Remove any loaned titles.

3.  Last step, sort the DB by title and look for duplicates

Part of what it taking so long is that Audible does not provide ASIN or ISBNs for any title.Thank goodness for a desktop browser with tabs! Each title gets looked up on Amazon and information is cut and pasted into the DB (which is really just a big spreadsheet at this point). Amazon gives ASINs 99% of the time, not ISBNs. This is a really BIG problem when it comes to importing a DB into a cataloging website; if the website doesn't recognize ASINs and you can't get easily get ISBNs for all of the titles you want to import, you are going to have a tough time using the website. BL and GR do not recognize ASINs --and I don't have the wherewithal or the patience to hunt down ISBNs for every title in my DB. 

Having already decided that I did not want use GR as my home base, I tried importing the unedited DB into GR just for kicks. I made a CSV file of just the ISBN and ASIN numbers and imported it into GR. It does not need more than the ID numbers to then populate a bookshelf. It can then fill in the rest of the standard data from its own DB and then adds whatever other information from the imported CSV that it can figure out what to do with. I sent a file with something like 900 titles. It was a failure. GR could only recognize 100 titles, of which half were duplicates to books I had already added. It only added titles for which an ISBN was supplied.

BOTTOM-LINE:  Whichever catalog website I end up on is going to have to be accept ASINs. 

BL Lock-down Buddy Read: Cat Among the Pigeons

A most unusual woman

I really have no idea why the last line of the book stuck with me. Maybe it was the irony of it in a book that was full of unusual women. Or was it simply the fact that it was uttered by a man who seems to stereotype all women as money-grubbing airheads incapable of taking care of themselves. And doesn't it just frost you that he assumes that she is going to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous?

Does anyone else feel like Poirot was brought in at the end of the book for the author's convenience. Less to write when Poirot just sits down and tells us everything and because Poirot sells books. 

That said, it was an enjoyable read and a good choice for a lock-down buddy read. It really doesn't require much thinking, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Okay! What's next?

Preparing for the BL-pocalypse

It has been a busy week in my bookish world since Moonlight Reader announced that the BL domain had not yet been renewed. We go through this dance every four years and it galvanizes many of us to take action. Moreover, it has given me something quiet to keep me busy while DH sits beside me at his desk cranking out phone call after phone to fellow advisors and clients.

For my part, it meant exporting my DB to a spread sheet -- again, because who knows where I put the last one. This go round, it also meant a day spent cutting and pasting, post by post, everything from my blog that I wanted to keep -- mostly reviews of books -- and even though I am not a prolific or even wordy reviewer, eight years of posts still took a long, long time to get through. Don't take this as a complaint; it is not. I can't complain. I'm the one who changed her mind in a fit of ego and decided that I wanted to keep all my pearls of wisdom rather than let them fizzle into the ether.

Next on the to-do list was making sure that I was properly connected to the hive on Good Reads. I checked in as requested. Then I decided just how visible I wanted to be in that place, opting finally to at least follow everyone who had taken the time to check in and maybe eventually, everyone who is a member. I just need to keep checking back to see who else has check in. In the meantime, the GR flood of nonsense is uninviting as a way of communicating with people and I most likely will not visit GR on a regular basis except to the Booklikes Outpost.

The next step in preparing for BL-pocalypse was to get my Blogspot blog running again and and populate it with relevant 2020 posts from BL. I spent more time making it look nice than I did with populating it with old posts. Now I just have to remember to keep adding posts to it -- like this one but not necessarily things Filched from Facebook or other images that I might share here. Just note that commenting has been turned off; I would rather converse on Booklikes. Also, my blog is not searchable on Google; maybe if BL tanks and it becomes my main method of communication with the hive.

Finally, I figured out how to subscribe to your blogs using Thunderbird, which is my e-mail client. It was dirt easy to do. Thunderbird has a RSS reader built into it and it is a smart one, at that. It was easy to go to the "Check In" thread on GR and collect any links that were posted there. Where the link was the correct link for a feed, I could click on a button and it could find the needed URL. I then copied the URL and tried the add process again. Now I don't have to go hopping from blog to blog; everything I want to keep up is delivered to my doorstep.

Still, long live Booklikes and the people who make it what it is.

April,2020 Reading List

April, 2020

 

 

YTD:  66 Books and 635 Hours  

Goal for the year: 100 books and 1500 hours

 

 

White Nights -- NEW26

Blue Screen --Re-read

The Meaning of Everything -- Re-read

The Rainbow and the Rose -- Re-read

The Reluctant Widow -- Re-read

Rat Race -- Re-read

Reflex -- Re-read

Landfall -- Re-read

Second Wind -- Re-read

The Trustee From the Toolroom -- Re-read

Risk -- Re-read

Dead Heat -- Re-read

Scales of Justice -- NEW27

The Deep Blue Good-By -- Re-read

The Hot Rock -- Re-read

Artemis Fowl -- Re-read

So Disdained -- Re-read

Apollo 8 -- NEW28

Regency Buck -- Re-read

Splendid Solution -- Re-read

Round the Bend -- Re-read

True Grit -- Re-read 

A Quiet Life in the Country -- NEW29

The Ruined City -- Re-read

Shattered -- Re-read

Sprig Muslin -- Re-read

Sylvester -- Re-read

The Talisman Ring -- Re-read

 

MTD: Count 28 and Hours 233

 

 

(least favorites of the month)

Lock-down Buddy Read: True Grit

Written by Charles Portis. Read by Donna Tartt





I'm a couple of days behind on the buddy read but when I saw all your comments, I knew that I just had to revisit the story -- and maybe even the movie, if I can find the John Wayne version on Netflix or Amazon.

This is one of the few books where I have seen the movie and read the book and am not complaining about the adaptation. Maybe because it was 40 years between seeing the movie and then reading the novel.

I don't tend to be a "deep" reader. Either I like a book or I don't and when I don't, I can't always tell you why -- nor am bothered by the fact that I can't necessarily justify my dislike. Which made it very strange that I kept asking myself if old Mattie Ross was a reliable narrator. Was her memory of events reliable? Is this really the way it happened? Or has the trauma of the events along with 25 years or more since the events have taken place scrambled her memory of what took place -- and keeping in mind that what we now understand about trauma and memory. I am still trying to decide.


I did enjoy the choice of narrator. Authors don't normally make good narrators but, wow, this author is an exception to the rule. Listening to Ms. Tartt, who was born and bred in Mississippi, do deep south is like listening to Matt Damon do Boston-Southie -- pitch-perfect and totally at home with the accent even though it is not their normal speaking voice.

Originally published on 1:58 am 22 April 2020 Booklikes

March, 2020 Reading List

YTD: Count  38 and 393 Hours  

Goal for the year: 100 books and 1500 hours

March, 2020

 

1. The Masqueraders --Re-read
2. Have You Eaten Grandma -- NEW15
3. Nerve -- Re-read
4. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman -- NEW16
5. The Tangled Tree --NEW17
6. Ten Drugs -- NEW18
7. The Nonesuch -- Re-read
8. Odds Against --  Re-read
9. An Old Captivity -- Re-read
10. Pastoral -- Re-read
11. Proof -- Re-read
12. The Quiet Gentleman -- Re-read
13. Beezer -- NEW19
14. Head On -- NEW20
15. The Little House on the Prairie -- NEW21
16. The Murmur of Bees -- NEW22
17. Playing with Fire -- NEW23
18. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold -- NEW24
19. Turn Right at Machu Picchu -- NEW25

 

 

MTD: Count 19 and Hours 176 

 

Have You Eaten Grandma?

My son-in-law picked this one for me. Good choice!  Even though I disagreed with some of his pronouncements and reason for disliking certain usages, I enjoyed this romp through English grammar, punctuation and usage. At least, he understands that language is ever evolving and that grammarians can't change that process.

BTW, Mr. Brandreth, your rant about REGULAR COFFEE really did not go far enough. Even when you ask for a "regular coffee" in the US, what you get depends on where you are asking. In some places, it is regular coffee vs decaf. In other places, it is a question of size. And, in Boston, you are asking for coffee with cream and sugar.

In a meeting once, a secretary was taking coffee orders from the guests around the table. Hubby asked for black. The boss said, "I'll make it easy for you, I'll take regular." Hubby looked at him straight faced and asked, "How is that easier? Do they have to take the cream and sugar out of mine?"

February, 2020 Reading List

YTD: Count 19 and  Hours 216:49

Goal for the year: 100 books and 1500 hours

 

February, 2020

 

1. Great Expectations --NEW8
2. Great Courses: The Vikings --NEW9  HISTORY1
3. Hell Is Empty -- NEW10
4. How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England -- NEW11  HISTORY2
5. Junkyard Dog -- NEW12
6. Quichotte -- NEW13
7. Raven Black -- NEW14
8. Songbird -- Re-read
9. Landfall -- Re-read
10. Lonely Road -- Re-read
11. Longshot -- Re-read

MTD: Count 11 and Hours  134

Thanks, Mike

Thank you, Mike Finn. I am going to give it a try. I don't usually read the AO titles with multiple narrators. I learned early on that the embellishment of music and multiple actors tends to drive me crazy. I am not the Sesame generation and I like things slow and simple, no sensory overload. Still, Mike has not steered me wrong yet, so I just added this one to my library.

Update:  I stayed up past my bedtime last night. I could not turn it off. Not only was the story engaging but the multiple narrators was well-done and there was no superfluous music marking the chapters or guiding my emotions. I loved the Tom Hanks and Wil Wheaton sound alike narrators.

Thank you again, Mike Finn.

Originally published 9:54 am 29 January 2020 on Booklikes

January, 2020 Reading List

YTD: Count 8 and Hours 60

Goal for the year: 100 books and 1500 hours

January, 2020

1. The Early Cases of Hercule Poirot -- NEW7
2. Dead Lions -- NEW6
3. Interview With The Robot --NEW5
4. In the Wet -- re-read
5. The Canterbury Tales -- NEW1
6. The Sittaford Mystery -- NEW2
7. Any Other Name -- NEW3
8. The Second-Worst Restaurant in France -- NEW4

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, Cuckolds, Drunkards, Liars, Thieves, and Braggarts

How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England

 Written by  Ruth Goodman. Read by Jennifer Dixon

Loved it. What a delightful romp. This book has it all: unacceptable language obscene, blasphemous and slanderous, telling gestures, social climbing, bad table manners, how to walk in period dress, cross-dressing, body parts and noises, STDs. Scholarly with cites from contemporary sources yet comfortably informal in the telling. A must for readers/writers of historical novels of the period.

Originally published 9:46 pm 13 February 2020 on Booklikes 

Sacred Treasure, the Cairo Genizah: The Amazing Discoveries of Forgotten Jewish History in an Egyptian Synagogue Attic

Written and narrated by Rabbi Mark Glickman

I've known about the Cairo Genizah for so many years that I can't even remember where I first heard about it. But my knowledge was slim. I knew that it was discovered by Solomon Schechter. I knew it was one of the most important discoveries of old Jewish documents in the modern age but I had never heard an in-depth account of the discovery itself or of the details of its contents and its significance. In fact, I am amazed that it has taken a hundred years for such a book to be written. Thank you Rabbi Glickman for undertaking the task and for choosing to write for the mass market rather than a scholarly tome.

So, who should read this book--well certainly not anyone who thinks that they are getting an Indiana Jones adventure or a Dan Brown thriller. This is a history book. It deals in fact, some of which is rather down to earth and just plain scholarly. It is also a labor of love--and Rabbi Glickman's warmth and enthusiasm turn a story that could be deadly boring into a fascinating glimpse into the world of academic scholarship, ancient texts and the effort to find them, preserve and study them.

Originally published 7:00 pm 31 January 2012 on Booklikes.com